Two upcoming events: One will be Sunday September 18th, 2011 4pm at the Refugee & Immigrant Assistance Center (RIAC) and the other will be at Wellesley College (MA) at 7pm-9pm.

The Sunday event all speakers will speak in SOMALI language, while the Monday event will be all ENGLISH language.

Look at Posters/Flyers below for more information.

Links you could find the protest websites.

http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/1290-national-and-international-protest-against-tax-dollars-indirectly-funding-genocide-in-the-ogaden-a-the-illegal-humanitarian-blockade-in-ogaden-.html

http://afrobeatradio.net/2011/08/31/protest-funding-of-genocide-humanitarian-blockade-in-ethiopia/

http://afrobeatradio.net/2011/08/31/protest-funding-of-genocide-humanitarian-blockade-in-ethiopia/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLznKnI55Q8

List of Protest Locations:

1) Fargo, North Dakota, US:

US Federal Building
657 2nd Avenue North, Room 306
Fargo, ND 58102

Location Contact: Mohammed Amin Mohummed
Email: kahin87m@yahoo.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?address=657+2nd+Ave+N&city=Fargo&state=ND&zipcode=58102

2) Los Angeles, California, US:

US Federal Building
11000 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1000
Los Angeles, CA 90024-3602

Location Contact: Sarah McGovern
Email: sarahannmcgovern@gmail.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Wilshire+Federal+Building&address=11000+Wilshire+Blvd&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&zipcode=90024

3) San Diego, California, US:

U.S. Federal Building
880 Front Street
San Diego, CA 92101

Location Contact: Abdiaziz Ali Abshir
Email: abdiasiisali@yahoo.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=5-UujfaDl8

4) State Capitol’s for Minnesotans: Minnesota State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Saint Paul, MN 55155

Location Contact; Idil Dualeh
Email:Idhaweya@gmail.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Wilshire+Federal+Building&address=11000+Wilshire+Blvd&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&zipcode=90024

5) State Capitol’s for: Colorado State Capitol
200 East Colfax, Denver, CO 80203
Location Contact ; Ahmed Isse
Email: Graen3@gmail.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Wilshire+Federal+Building&address=11000+Wilshire+Blvd&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&zipcode=90024

6)Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla St.
Dallas, TX. 75201
Sahra Mohamed

7) Stockholm, Sweden

Embassy of Ethiopia
Löjtnantsgatan 17, 5th floor 115 50
Stockholm, Sweden

Location Contact: Per Andreas Lundstrom
Email: bjorkhammar@gmail.com

Map & Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=6-JdxN2ZS7

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Official Protest Petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/us-and-european-governments-stop-using-our-taxes-to-fund-genocide-in-ogaden

Related Petitions:

http://www.petitiononline.com/scbts/petition.html

http://www.change.org/petitions/free-ogaden-in-2011

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38019.html

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38018.html

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-ethnic-cleansing-ogaden-people-ethiopia.html

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Related News & Resources:

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Drought-Victims-In-Ethiopia-In-Urgent-Need-Of-Aid-128017223.html

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/04/analysis-europes-taxpayers-fund-abuses-of-human-rights-and-democracy/

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/04/revealed-britain-and-eu-increase-aid-to-ethiopia-despite-serious-human-rights-abuses/

http://sfbayview.com/2011/western-funded-genocide-ethiopia-and-the-ogaden/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9556288.stm

http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/1211.html

http://ethiopiantimes.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/protesters-say-us-aid-helping-to-fund-genocide-in-ethiopia/

http://www.ethiomedia.com/andnen/2560.html

http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/999.html

http://saveogaden.org/tag/genocide-2/

http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/1180.html

http://www.ethiopianreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28463

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Resolve-Ogaden-Coalition/128324000543254

http://www.facebook.com/notes/mohammed-amin-mohummed/ethiopia-using-aid-as-weapon-of-oppression/10150353359006833

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/04/voices-of-the-tortured/

A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression.

Posing as tourists the team of journalists travelled to the southern region of Ethiopia.

We are just waiting on the crop, if we have one meal a day we will survive until the harvest, beyond that there is no hope for us Villager in southern Ethiopia

There they found villages where whole communities are starving, having allegedly been denied basic food, seed and fertiliser for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The investigation has also gathered evidence of mass detentions, the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian government forces.

Yet Western donors including Britain – which is the third largest donor to Ethiopia – stand accused of turning a blind eye by continuing to provide aid money despite being warned about the abuses.

The aid in question is long-term development aid, not the emergency aid provided in response to the current drought in Ethiopia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa.

Government response

Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, the Deputy Head of Ethiopia’s UK Mission, has rejected the allegations saying that the Newsnight/Bureau report “lacked objectivity, even-handedness”.

“The sole source of the story was opponents of Ethiopia who have been rejected by the electorate, and time and again it has been shown that their allegations are unfounded”.

Our reporters visited one village in southern Ethiopia with a population of about 1,700 adults.

Despite being surrounded by other communities which are well fed and prosperous, this village, which cannot be named for fear of reprisals, is starving. We were told that in the two weeks prior to our team’s arrival five adults and 10 children had died.

Lying on the floor, too exhausted to stand, and flanked by her three-year-old son whose stomach is bloated by malnutrition, one woman described how her family had not eaten for four days.

“We are living day to day on the grace of God,” she said.

Another three-year-old boy lay in his grandmother’s lap, listless and barely moving as he stared into space.

“We are just waiting on the crop, if we have one meal a day we will survive until the harvest, beyond that there is no hope for us,” the grandmother said.

‘Abandoned’

In another village 30 km (19 miles) away it was a similar story.

Almost all of the aid goes through the government channels… in terms of relief food supply and some of the safety net provisions, they simply don’t get to the needy of an equitably basis Professor Beyene Petros, opposition politician

There our team met Yenee, a widow who along with her seven children is surviving by begging, eating leaves and scavenging scraps from the bins in the nearest town.

“The situation is desperate,” she said. “We have been abandoned… It is a matter of chance if we live or die.”

The two villages sit just 15km (9 miles) either side of a major town, surrounded by other communities where the populations are well fed and healthy. They are in desperate need, but no-one is helping.

According to local opposition members they are being punished for failing to vote for the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which Mr Meles leads.

Further north a group of farmers alienated by Mr Meles’ government met the BBC/Bureau team at a secret location on the edge of a remote village.

One farmer described how he had been ostracised for failing to support EPRDF: “Because of our political views we face great intimidation. We are denied the right to fertiliser and seeds because of political ideology,” he said.

‘Buying support’

The Ethiopian federal and regional governments control the distribution of aid in Ethiopia.

Professor Beyene Petros, the current vice-chairman of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Forum, an alliance of eight opposition parties known as Medrek, told our reporters that aid is not distributed according to need, but according to support for the EPRDF:

“Almost all of the aid goes through the government channels… in terms of relief food supply and some of the safety net provisions, they simply don’t get to the needy of an equitably basis.

“There is a great deal of political differentiation. People who support the ruling party, the EPRDF, and our members are treated differently. The motivation is buying support, that is how they recruit support, holding the population hostage,” he said.

Mr Beyene said that the international community, including the British government, is well aware of the problem and that he has personally presented them with evidence:

“The position of the donor communities is dismissive… they always want to dismiss it as an isolated incident when we present them with some proof. And we challenge them to go down and check it out for themselves, but they don’t do it.”

Accountability

The UK International Development Minister Stephen O’Brien issued a statement in response to the allegations raised by the investigation, saying:

“We take all allegations of human rights abuses extremely seriously and raise them immediately with the relevant authorities including the Ethiopian Government, with whom we have a candid relationship. Where there is evidence, we take firm and decisive action.

They raped me in a room, one of them was standing on my mouth, and one tied my hand, they were taking turns, I fainted during this Ethiopian woman from the Ogaden

“The British aid programme helps the people of Ethiopia, 30 million of whom live in extreme poverty. We demand full accountability and maximum impact on the ground for support from the British taxpayer.”

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Newsnight also gathered evidence of a crackdown and human rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Somali region, the area bordering Somalia and Kenya, also know as the Ogaden region.

Ethnic Somali rebels from the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Ethiopian government forces have been fighting for control of Ogaden since the 1970s.

The media and most aid agencies are banned from the region.

Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries of the world, is currently suffering from horrific drought.

Many of those fleeing the ensuing humanitarian crisis have headed to Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.

It is the largest refugee camp in the world, and the vast majority of the 400,000 people there are from Somalia, but among them are an increasing number of Ethiopians from the Ogaden.

‘Revenge killings’

Abdifatah Arab Olad, an Ogaden community leader, told our reporters that up to 100 refugees are arriving every month with tales of killings and the burning of villages by government troops.

“Whenever fighting has taken place between the rebels and the army, for each army member that is killed, the military go to the nearest town and they start killing people,” he said. “For each army member killed it equals to 10 civilians losses.”

In the corner of a makeshift shack in the camp, an old woman who had arrived from Ogaden three weeks earlier described being arrested along with 100 others in her village.

She said they were taken to a jail where they were locked up in a shipping container, and picked out on a nightly basis to be tortured:

“They beat me then started to rape me; I screamed and fought with them… I tried to bite them… they tied me this way,” she said, gesturing to her legs.

“They raped me in a room, one of them was standing on my mouth, and one tied my hand, they were taking turns, I fainted during this… I can’t say how many, but they were many in the army,” she said.

‘Assaulted when pregnant’

Other women in the camp also said they had been arrested and accused of being members of the OLNF.

They included one who said that she was eight months pregnant when she was detained and raped by eight soldiers:

“They were beating me while I was being raped, I was bleeding,” she said, describing how one soldier stamped on her stomach and beat her with the stock of his rifle:

“I fell unconscious when I saw my baby… a man jumping on your stomach, you can imagine what happened to the child, very big kicks blows with the back of a gun. As a consequence of that the child died.”

We cannot substantiate these individual allegations. But other credible sources have reported similar stories of the widespread use of rape by Ethiopian security forces against women in the Ogaden.

Speaking on Newsnight, Ethiopia’s Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane said that the claims of rape and torture were a “rehash” of old allegations that the Ethiopian government had answered time and again.

“The Ethiopian government is governed by the rule of law, and human rights and democratic rights are enshrined in the Ethiopian constitution,” he said.

Source: BBC News (Link)

Separately, a U.S.-based science group said satellite images confirm reports that villages have been destroyed in the country’s Ogaden region.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said America’s relationship with Ethiopia means an alliance with a country repeatedly accused of violating human and political rights. In recent years, Ethiopia has become a U.S. partner in the fight against al-Qaida, which has been trying to sink roots in the Horn of Africa.

“The United States is being willfully blind,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “Because Ethiopia is viewed as a key ally in the counterterrorism efforts, they are perhaps prepared to look the other way at abuses committed by Ethiopian soldiers.”

In a 130-page report, Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian troops have beaten and strangled civilians, staged public executions and burned villages during a year-old campaign against rebels in the Ogaden, an arid stretch of land on the border with Somalia. The group said the allegations were based on more than 100 eyewitness accounts.

The country in the Horn of Africa is an ally in President Bush’s fight against terrorism.

U.S. says it’s not ignoring war crimes reports
A State Department spokesman on Thursday dismissed claims that the U.S. is minimizing or even ignoring war crimes by the Ethiopians. Gonzalo Gallegos said officials “strongly reject” Human Rights Watch’s allegations.

The report said that since early 2007, when Ogaden rebels attacked a Chinese oil site, “the Ethiopian military’s killings, torture and rape of civilians have driven thousands of people from the region, while trade restriction and limited relief aid are exacerbating the humanitarian situation.”

Gallegos said the U.S. has received reports from international nongovernmental organizations and other aid groups of serious abuses and harsh intimidation tactics by Ethiopian government soldiers and fighters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

For the past year, he said, U.S. and nongovernmental personnel have investigated, but it has been impossible to identify who carried out the atrocities.

The U.S. ambassador “has persistently raised concerns over human rights abuses with the highest level of the Ethiopian government, as have senior U.S. government visitors” to the country, Gallegos said.

At the same time, Gallegos said, the U.S. military aid program has continued, with $700 million given last year.

“U.S. government military assistance to Ethiopia is designed to transform the military into an apolitical professional defense force that can secure its borders and protects human rights,” he said.

Ethiopia denies allegations
Bereket Simon, special adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, denied all allegations in the report.

“It’s the same old fabrication,” he said.

But satellite images confirm reports that the Ethiopian military has burned towns and villages in Ogaden, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported on Thursday.

Eight sites in the rocky, arid region, which borders Somalia, have clear signs of burning and other destruction, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program said.

AAAS

In this image of the town of Wardheer, Ethiopia, from Dec. 30, 2007, yellow dots indicate structures removed since a previous image from February 2006. Red dots indicate new structures added in that same period.

The commercially available images corroborate the report by Human Rights Watch, which also relies on eyewitness accounts of attacks on tens of thousands of ethnic-Somali Muslims living in the area, the AAAS said.

“The Ethiopian authorities frequently dismiss human rights reports, saying that the witnesses we interviewed are liars and rebel supporters,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“But it will be much more difficult for them to dismiss the evidence presented in the satellite images, as images like that don’t lie,” he said.

Ethiopia, a key regional ally of the United States, launched its latest offensive after the Ogaden National Liberation Front attacked a Chinese-run oil field in the region in April 2007, killing more than 70 people.

Lars Bromley, project director for the Science and Human Rights Program at AAAS, said his team analyzed several before and after satellite images of villages identified by Human Right Watch as possible locations of human rights violations.

They found eight, mostly in villages and small towns in the Wardheer, Dhagabur and Qorrahey Zones, that appeared to have been burned or destroyed recently.

Reports difficult to corroborate
For example, in the town of Labigah, 40 structures identified in a September 2005 image were gone in images taken in February 2008. In the Human

Rights Watch report an eyewitness said the Ethiopian army “went into every village and set it on fire.”

Such reports are nearly impossible to corroborate because the region “may well be the most isolated place on earth, save perhaps the densest parts of the Congolese or Amazon rain forests,” Bromley said.

Excellency:

Click Here to Listen to the Interview on Podcast: GenocideWatch.Org President on the Ogaden Region (http://www.kfgo.com/uploads/abdi_karim_02112011.mp3)
* To download this podcast as a mp3, you can right click and click ‘Save Target As’ or ‘Save Link As’

To read more about GenocideWatch.Org you can visit their website (www.GenocideWatch.org)

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SaveOgaden.Org

Ogaden Human Rights Group would like to inform the public and all defenders of human Rights about the former head of the Janjaweed-like militia called Lyuu Police (of Ethiopia) and the current head of the Somali Regional (Ogaden) in Ethiopia will be coming to United States of America (DC and Minnesota).

The sole purpose of his visit is:

(1) To intimidate his former victims who fled Ogaden and now reside in the U.S.

(2) To gather intelligence on Ogaden people who live in the U.S. for not supporting his criminal administration back home-Ogaden. After collecting this intelligence on the diaspora, he intends to use against their families and relatives back home by arresting, killing, raping, maiming etc.

The Ogaden community in the U.S. has being in contact with the U.S. government to prevent the visit of this criminal guy by refusing him a visa.

We are asking all people to call these two phone numbers below and ask them to refuse Abdi Mohamed Omar of Ogaden Regional State to not enter U.S. since he is coming to intimidate and collect intelligence on the community so he can use against their families and relatives back home.

U.S. State Department in DC:

Ethiopian Desk +1-202-647-6473 ask for Joe

Head of East Africa +1-202-647-5242

Talking point: Abdi Mohamed Omar of Somali Regional State(Ogaden) of Ethiopia should not be giving a visa due his criminal-human rights abuses records in the Ogaden region.

Please also forward this to your friends and all other human rights defenders!

Sincerely,

OGADEN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

Abdi Mohamed Omar | Human Rights Violator and Co-Collaborator with Prime Minister of Ethiopia of the injustice in the Ogaden