Monday, November 22, 2010

Letters To Leaders: Stop The Genocide in Ogaden Region


All messages are published with permission of the sender. The general topic of this message is Foreign Affairs:


Subject:
Stop the Genocide in Ogaden region

To:
President Barack Obama
Rep. Earl Pomeroy
Sen. Kent Conrad
Sen. Byron Dorgan

November 20, 2010

The Honorable Barack Obama, Kent Conrad, Byron L. Dorgan, Earl Pomeroy
Dear: President Barack Obama, Senator Kent Conrad, Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Congress Earl Pomeroy
I appreciate your willingness to serve the public. As a concerned citizen, we are writing this letter to inform you of the human rights violations that are currently taking place in the desiccated Ogaden region of Ethiopia. We are asking you to take immediate action to protect these incapacitated individuals from the Ethiopian government and bring reconciliation to this region. The racial extermination of the Ethiopian military against the people of the Ogaden has been ongoing since September 23, 1948, when the Ogaden region was transferred to Ethiopia. The Ogaden region is sparsely inhabited with Somali nomads, who are deprived of both personal and political freedom.

It is critical to note that very few people have limited knowledge of this genocide. Genocide is defined as the killing of members in a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, imposing measures intended to prevent birth, or forcibly transferring children of that group to another group. This is exactly what is taking place in Ogaden, according to the Genocide Convention signed and put into effect by the U.N December 9. 1948. Anyone committing genocide, whether constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials, or private individuals will be punished. The Ethiopian government have violated all these which is crime and us seven year old I was witness and no word could be describe but terrifying, frightening, scary plus whenever I remember I just cry because of what I saw at the age is still getting worse.

According to the Human Rights Watch Report titled Collective Punishment, 2008, "the Ethiopian government has severely restricted humanitarian agencies from operating in the conflict affected areas of the Somali region." In addition to these restrictions of international relief agencies, the mainstream media are prevented from reporting these undocumented tragedies in this region. Consequently, these restrictions have prevented the world from becoming acquainted with this atrocious genocide. In one report of the Human Rights Watch, it states "tens of thousands of ethnic Somali civilians living in eastern Ethiopia's Somali regional states are experiencing serious abuses and a looming humanitarian crisis." Nonetheless, while the Human Rights Watch and our State Department continue to chronicle substantial reports of this genocide, the world continues to be oblivious to this horrendous plight.

We acknowledge that there have been previous attempts by the US Senate to urge State Deportment and the White House to initiate a broad independent investigation by the conduct of the Ethiopian military forces in the Ogaden but so far no action has taken place. As our Leaders, we urge you to take part in this great effort to help bring this plight of Ogaden to the world's attention and imposing sanction on the Ethiopian regime. This is time you could save life of millions of lives yet the best thing human could do is saving life but you all get opportunity to save millions of Ogaden lives. Please assist the100000 people who is from this region via a letter to the White House about the need for a political resolution.

"In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves." John F. Kennedy

fargo , ND

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