Instead of inducing the Ethiopian government to allow food aid to reach the needy and open up corridors of trade, the UN seems to accept Ethiopia's demand that food supplies are managed at its own terms, disregarding international norms in conflict zones.

The UN did not give the Sudanese government the same privilege in Darfur. Ethiopia's has forfeited its dubious claim of sovereignty over the Ogaden by committing acts tantamount to genocide against the Ogaden Somalis in violation of international Humanitarian law enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva convention. Taking advantage of the lack of adequate resolve against its intransigence Ethiopia has set up mechanisms to manipulate international aid to further its objectives. Now the Ethiopian government is hording the food in military camps and surreptitiously trying to buy loyalty. In Addition Ethiopia is using food aid to recruit local and other militias on the Somali border.

To complicate the matter further the Aid Agencies are allowing Ethiopia to compromise their neutrality in the conflict by accepting Ethiopia's condition that the Ethiopian army escort Food convoys. This army is the one that is actively committing crimes again humanity in the Ogaden. In this regard, the Aid agencies are fulfilling two objectives for the Ethiopian regime. First, they are providing cover to allow the troops free movement under the UN flag. Secondly, as Ogaden National Liberation Army will not spare Ethiopian troops regardless of what guise they take, knowing this Ethiopia is setting the Aid agencies as a de facto enemy of ONLF and the Ogaden People. Thirdly, by associating publicly with the criminal army, the Aid lose its credibility in the eyes of the Ogaden people, thus becoming a colluding partner in the Crimes committed by the Ethiopian army, and provides an aura of respectability to them. ONLF understands the need for security and is ready to explore the modalities of such a security with all relevant parties.

Earlier this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has stated, "The humanitarian situation in the region has been compounded by poor rains and the decreasing availability of pasture and water, while food prices are being pushed up by restrictions on the cross-border movement of goods." However, what is not on this report is that thousands of Ethiopian Troops are blocking every water hole in the rural areas. These are the most affected rural areas in the region that the Ethiopian army had denied the people access to Aid or trade. The regime's troops had increased their inhumane activities and are preventing the people to their traditional water wells and access to food aid at height of the dry season, which even without Ethiopian siege would have been hard. Ethiopia is doing all in order to suppress the peoples resistance against tyranny and violation of their Human Rights, dignity and right to decent living like other people all over the world.

Although the UN is intention in the Ogaden is genuine, still it is averting its eyes from the real cause of the calamity- an Ethiopian government engineered famine in the Ogaden. By attributing the cause of crisis to natural causes as poor rainy season or lack of military escort, the UN is indirectly masking the crimes of the Ethiopian regime and contributing to the further suffering of the Ogaden Somali people.

Gauging the current developments of events in the Ogaden and the diffident approach of the international community towards the intransigence of Meles regime, the Ogaden will become another graveyard and millions of women and children may perish in the coming months. The current situation in the Ogaden parallels the attempts by the Regime of Mengistu to quell the rebellion of the Tigray and Eritrean people and the resultant famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the mid eighties. Unless the international community exerts adequate pressure on the Ethiopian, government compelling it to stop it pogrom and embarks on a comprehensive program to find a viable solution to conflict.

ONLF

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