For too long, Somalis in Ethiopia have been doomed to have faced some of the worst human rights abuses under all types of rulers, the most recent starting with Emperor Hail Selassie, followed by the he former Dergi dictator, Mengistu Hiale Mariam, and now under Meles Zenawi.   

Haile Selassie razed entire communities in the districts of Jigjiga and Babile, Aisha, Daguhbuur, Gashamo and in the plains of Qorahay in the tumultuous years of 1963 through 1967.  Equally devastating were the mayhem and wanton killings of thousands of innocent civilians under the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in and around the 1977-78 Ethio-Somali conflict.  Now, under Meles Zenawi, horrendous massacres against Somalis in the region, particularly against the Ogaden clan, have been documented, some of them digitally archived, by western journalists, human right groups and Non-Government Organizations (NGO). 

To curtail any exposure of the crimes by the Ethiopian government against the Somalis in its eastern region, the government of Meles Zenawi is in the processing of promulgating a new law to restrict human rights groups' activities in that country. “A new bill proposed by the government of Addis Ababa could limit human rights activities of foreign organizations in Ethiopia, as well as local organizations that receive more than ten percent of foreign funding. These organizations would not be allowed to carry out work on gender issues, children's rights and the rights of disabled people, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report published September 11.” (Jennifer Henrichsen, Human Rights Tribune.)

Despite the government's desperate measures to manage its genocide in progress, “the 2008 images and reports (http://shr.aaas.org/) released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAASA) put the Meles regime right where a case for human rights violation, possibly genocidal, charges can forcefully be made. 

Besides Meles Zenawi, culprits in this crime include the regional administration's highest office and its so-called current president, Abdulahi Hassan Lugbuur, who was a man of modest means until his recent change of fortune as a result of quickly-amassed wealth through corruption.  Some of the specific charges labeled against Mr. Hassan include his authorization of policies that had deliberately starved innocent civilians, who are accused of siding with the ever-growing, momentum-gathering Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).  As a result of direct orders discharged by Mr. Hassan, Western journalists have many a time leveled serious accusations of human rights violations against the Somali regional administrator, who so far conducted business as soviet apparatchik-like with impunity.  (Mr. Hassan is on is removed from his post as the boss of the ruling party, and if past history of the region is a lesson, could be on his way to jail.)   

One wonders, therefore, why the West in general, and Amnesty International in particular, chose to maintain a long and nonchalant silence in the face of what appears to be, in the words of a knowledgeable commentator, “another Darfur in the making?”  

The currently active and ostensibly organized “collective” punishment, including mass death by starvation in the Somali region of Ethiopia, often carried out by the Ethiopian army, and especially targeted against the largest clan, the Ogaden clan, can not be called but a genocidal act in its infancy.  Compiling documentations and reporting back to the United Nations about the magnitude of this plight and the logistics of the crime is indeed within the broader mandate of Amnesty International, whose stated vision is to afford:  

“Every person in the world the chance to enjoy all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.  In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights.  Amnesty International seeks to expose human rights abuses accurately, quickly and persistently”  

As someone whose father has fallen to this human rights abuses labyrinth in the Somali region of Ethiopia, and myself a former refugee, who greatly appreciated all that I received from the UNHCR office in Mogadihsu in 1980, I can't help but feel Amnesty International's let down of my community, whose sufferings are second to none.  Amnesty International in this particular case did not live up to its purported creed.  Alas, how long does it take Amnesty International decision makers to read and assess readily available first-hand accounts by unbiased Western journalists before they take up the plight of the Somalis in Ethiopia and expose it to the rest of the world?   

In my sleepless nights, I often keep wondering why the silence?  Is it because the crime is black against black?  Is the silence there because the crime is committed by Christian Ethiopians against Muslim Somalis? Or, is it because the crime is perpetrated by a regime that is friendly with the West against Somalis who have completely fallen out of the West's radar?  Besides my merely torturous speculations and desperate attempts to find answers to why Amnesty International is uncharacteristically silent to my community's  plight, the organization owes us some explanation and an exhaustive report on this matter sooner than later.   

One is forced to nurture a sneaking suspicion that Amnesty International exactly knows both the magnitude of the crimes against humanity in this region and why the West as well as Amnesty International itself remained silent on the issue.  One thing is certain though:  Amnesty International has access to a wealth of reports by Western Journalists and NGOs who had offered great and valuable lead stories to start rudimentary work on documentation and possibly begin to prepare a draft report. Hallow! Where is Amnesty International and what happened to its lofty mission?   Do we have all to be Kosovo's and Georgia's multitude to get our stories heard in a timely manner?  

In the mean time, both Meles Zenawi, a friend of the Bush administration, and his gulags in the region, particularly Mr. Hassan, must be kept under the radar of Africa's evolving Nuremberg-type trials.  Perhaps, one day in the near future, may be if this coming November affords us a new administration in Washington that is more sympathetic to human rights, it is not improbable to hope men like Meles Zenawi and Mr. Hassan could be indicted. 

Faisal Roble

fabroble@aol.com>

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