AT THE FRONTIER

[ABSAME']

AT THE FRONTIER

M. ADOW



Focus On Africa

The Ethiopian government is concerned that SomaliaÂ’s Islamists could try to capture the disputed Ogaden region. Mohammed Adow went there to gauge the mood

"Drought, war and darkness" are the three words 56-year-old Mohammed Ali Hassan, a resident of Degeh Bur town, uses to summarise the situation in the Somali region of Ethiopia. Mohammed, like many other pastoral nomads who live there, is exhausted by the cycles of famine, drought, war and underdevelopment that have characterised the region as long as he can remember.

"We want a change to this,” he says. “We would like a life we can predict, without conflict, so we can give our children what has existed only in our dreams – peace and tranquility."

But change in the Somali region of Ethiopia, known as Ogaden by most people of Somali origin, may be some time coming. For the region is once again at the centre of international tension.

Its recent history is clouded by conflict. Ceded to Ethiopia by the British in 1954, the region has twice since been fought over by Ethiopia and Somalia, which – under the government of Siad Barre – claimed Ogaden was part of Greater Somalia.
For the past 20 years, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has waged a rebellion, fighting for independence from Ethiopia.

This year, there has been heightened military activity. Tens of thousands of Ethiopian troops have been sent in to fight the rebels, but also to secure the border and counter what is perceived as a threat by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia.
Having backed the formation of the transitional government in Somalia, with its close ally Abdullahi Yusuf as president, Ethiopia has been alarmed by the rise of the Islamic courts and their militia.

One of the UICÂ’s top leaders, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has made it clear that the two countries have unfinished business.
"The land taken by Ethiopia cannot be forgotten because it is attached to our blood and nationalists," he said back in July, referring to troops and civilians who died during the 1977/78 war.

"Ethiopia mistreats the Somalis under their administration. The land was given to them by colonialists and we will seek justice to resolve the crisis that is dividing the two countries."

Sheikh Aweys added, however, that he was ready to negotiate with Ethiopia on the status of the contested Ogaden region.

The last thing Ethiopia wants is trouble along its long border with Somalia. Still nervous about internal dissent following last yearÂ’s post-election violence, it is wary about unrest being stoked up among its ethnic Somalis.

Ethiopia is alleged to have responded by sending troops to protect the Somali interim government in Baidoa and issued warnings of dire consequences for the Islamists if they attacked the town.

Reports that Eritrea, EthiopiaÂ’s enemy to the north, had been arming the Islamist militia, has led analysts to warn in turn that instability in Somalia could lead to a wider, regional conflict.

All this is no comfort to the people who live in the Somali region of Ethiopia, one of the least developed corners of the earth. They often joke that “if Adam returns he will definitely recognise our land”.

My flight was to Jijiga, the regional capital. But it had rained the previous night and the plane could not risk landing on the dilapidated airstrip that had turned into a pool of water.

So having been diverted to Dire Dawa, we made the journey by road. Dire Dawa is the last main city in eastern Ethiopia before the empty, flat wilderness of the Ogaden desert. It feels like a frontier town, as you leave behind the gentle farming highlands of ‘Christian Ethiopia’, and enter the flat, dry, hot plains of the Muslim, Somali region.

In between Dire Dawa and Jijiga is the ancient and walled city of Harar. It is here that the tarmacked road ends and the rough, 100-kilometre-long track that links Jijiga to the highlands begins. This point is referred to as “out of civilisation” or “into civilisation” depending on the direction one is traveling.

Jijiga itself is a jumble of villages with a few pompous administrative buildings; shabby hotels and bars; a busy market and a military station – all stuck together by countless mud houses with corrugated-iron roofs.

Many people who fled the hinterland and the battlefields have sought refuge here. Military jeeps share the streets with squeaky horse-drawn carts that act as taxis. Nomads can be seen driving their herds of camels through the streets of the low-built town.
The Somali border is two hours away by car. Smuggling flourishes – rice, sugar, utensils, furniture, electronic goods and even industrial machinery. The military posts, that check every vehicle moving in the direction of Somalia, do nothing to change the fact.
Roads throughout EthiopiaÂ’s Somali region are in a deplorable condition, forcing vehicles to traverse the bush. During the rainy season entire districts and provinces can be cut off from one another for weeks, leaving people stranded.

Educational opportunities are also extremely limited. Informal estimates suggest that roughly 15 per cent of youth attend school, the majority of them in urban areas or settled rural communities. Islamic Koranic schools are more numerous than secular schools, with most children attending a Koranic school before they attend secular school, if they do so at all.

A dearth of skilled manpower, inadequate infrastructure and acute shortage of communication facilities constitute formidable constraints to developing the region. This dismal situation could largely be attributed to neglect by previous regimes and the conflicts that engulfed the region.

"We would very much like to be Ethiopians, but is not that easy. We have been fighting for secession for close to fifty years now, and I think it will take another 50 years of armed struggle for us to get recognition or to be accepted as Ethiopians," Ali Hassan Ali told me.

The weak regional administration has done very little to help the situation. The regional government has endured substantial political turmoil; and has struggled at times to gain legitimacy or implement any effective policies.

Given the absence of effective modern administration outside the main urban centres, nomadic groups in the remote pastoral areas rely upon traditional systems of governance in which elders regulate affairs.

At midday in Jijiga, the temperature can rise to over 40°C. To while away the afternoons, many people in the region – mostly men – have taken to the practice of chewing khat, the leafy narcotic brought from the highlands. A visitor would be surprised by the sudden commotion on the dusty and at times muddy streets as a cacophony of car horns, screeching brakes and shouting herald the marvelous news that the khat has arrived.
In the afternoons, Jijiga becomes a ghost town, abandoned to the camels and cats. Locals are firmly ensconced behind closed doors in the sacred confines of the Mabraz, the khat den.

Here a minimum of five hours is spent reclining on cushions, smoking cigarettes and sipping tea while grazing on the leaves. Later, after the drug takes its effect, lively debates and heated discussions break out, and the Mabraz becomes, perhaps, the region's real parliament.
From their conversations, it is clear that most Ethiopian Somalis feel culturally and socially closer to their kin in Somalia and northern Kenya than they do to the Ethiopian highlanders. On the economic side, trade with and through Somalia is many times greater than trade with the rest of Ethiopia, even given the difficulties of doing business with a failed state such as Somalia. The Somali shilling is the main currency in some areas in the region.

Many Ethiopian Somalis do not trust the government soldiers, who are mainly from northern Ethiopia, with no familiarity with the territory or culture, sent to the region.
Human rights groups say they receive frequent reports of extra-judicial executions and torture from the Somali region, but because access to it is severely restricted by the military, these reports have been impossible to confirm. EthiopiaÂ’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi denies his soldiers have killed innocent civilians, but accuses the ONLF rebels of killing Somali-speaking people for supporting the government.

Ethiopian Somalis are traditionally nomadic pastoralists, and have been so for centuries. Life and survival revolves around livestock, with people constantly moving about in the interests of their livestock. But as a result of increasingly frequent drought and chronic overgrazing, the region is facing serious environmental degradation.

The barren land is littered with remnants of past conflict, including dilapidated military equipment and rusted weaponry, such as tanks, armed personnel carriers and disused fighter jets. The people have indeed plenty to remind them of the wars Ethiopia and Somalia fought over the ownership of their region.


Mohamed Mohammed Adow
the BBC East Africa deputy editor
Nairobi

[DANGIRL]

I like what Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is doing,but sometime this guy thinks ahead of the pack which worries me. What this guy needs to realise is that Ogadenia will never be part of somalia. To tell you the truth it was never was part of somalia.


Meles thinks that he can abuse and misuse the rights of Ogadens and get away with it .As I write this reply, Ogadens every where, from Ifo to Dhagexley refugee camps in Kenya to Alaska, US,Japan,North Koren,Iran are out on streets to show their anger to the blood thirsty beast known as Meles Zenawi and his Ethiopian occupation forces.Ogaden people are dedicated more than ever to get back their human dignity and never let the Ethiopian occupation forces continue abusing their rights nor that those freaks he put in power.

[Enemy_Of_Mad_Mullah]

[quote]Alaska, Japan,North Koren,Iran [/quote]

lets not ahead of ourselves now eh

[ABSAME']

Walahi Dangirl you are an activist. Aweys is an emerging leader. He get nearly all the leadership quality that can spur people out of barbarism=Qabiil.

To be recognized as another State, the country or your country must have a different history apart from Somalia. Greater Somalia policy was at first started by the father of Somali nationalism Sayid Mohammed that is why the term "Sayidist" , which the Iidoor always use to refer to Greater Somalia , originated from him. The dream died with him when his people turned against him and sided with the enemy. There are fifth columnist in every society who will give you up to the enemy.


Ur Cousin

Absame

[DANGIRL]

I believe the true freedom come from within our selves not from outsiders. No one can get freedom with narrow thinking. We have to plan our steps and actions before we take them.I dont believe in the greater somalia idea,for the fact being that we somalis will never come to agreement on anything.Its better that we lead our own destiny and somalia leads its own destiny.


We declare our right on this earth to be humen being ... ,to be respected as a human being , to be given the rights of human being in this society on this earth,in this day which we intended to bring into existance By Any Means Necessary. Malcolm X

ONLF

[wife]

I understand Dangirl that's your personal idea but last time I attended the onlf meeting in my city, they didnt talk about the future of Ogadenia as an independent state, majority of the people I spoke with favor to join Somalia..?

[DANGIRL]

Wife..Thats what the OG's in san diego think, they dont speak for the majority. I never liked those bastards to begin with. Dont believe those in san diego they're corrupt minded. Forget about them,how come you attend onlf meeting if you are not one of us?

You have to understand this is not my personal idea or believe the majority of us think like this. You should read or visit the onlf site or other sites that deals with ogadenia situations.We're fighting for a state of our own not to join a greater somalia.

[ABSAME']

Wife, where do you live?


Dangirl, I chose to not comment on your position

[wife]

Absame I live in a heavily populated Ogaadeen city!


Dangirl the onces in my city are open-minded and very understanding, I dont know about the cruel once in Minnisota that you attach yourself to but I sympathise with the ones in my great city, btw I know why you dont like them but I wont put your clan bussiness out in the open like that and oh yeah I use to attend for food and pretty girls like you ( ) when I was young but letely I have been going there for political reasons!

[DANGIRL]

loooooooooooooool@Wife...Lets face it you go there for the food and the ladies.I know some folks that live there,i'll asure them to watch out for your kinds!

Walaale ogaadens are open-minded and understandable people no matter what city they live in.Its just that sometime people piss us.If you were in my position you would feel the same way brother.

Absame i just finish watching a video that was filmed in Ogadenia.This video is the lastest ones to come out from the region.Throughtout the entire video i couldnt stop laughing wallahi.I have never seen tall ass niggars doing some karate shit. The suprise thing is there were well trained and armed to the teeth.But what caught me off guard was the sisters,my gosh they looked like they killed some tigrey before the filming started Latest news is that they are planning to seize that military base in Godey!

[ABSAME']

Where can I watch it sweety?

[DANGIRL]

Not bad, only members are allowed to view the video. Maybe in the future when we decide to make it public for others to view it. In the meantime,we have hidden it somewhere that no one can find it!

The motherland is beautiful!

[ABSAME']

Thanks for the secondary information though I would have loved to see it myself.

pm me the site, I might be a member.

[DANGIRL]

Actually the video was made by a freind of the family.Its not on the net or anything like that.When i said members only i meant that the video was made for my family and the ONLF members to see.Have you ever seen any video's that came out of the region yet? If you do,i'll know what i am talking about

Ciao

[Samatr]

[quote="DANGIRL"]
You have to understand this is not my personal idea or believe the majority of us think like this. You should read or visit the onlf site or other sites that deals with ogadenia situations.We're fighting for a state of our own not to join a greater somalia.[/quote]


"e fighting for a state of our own not to join a greater somalia"

Reminds of some people I know.