ONLF STATEMENT ON AMERICAN ELECTIONS

5 November 2008

On behalf of the people of Ogaden, the Central Committee and Executive Council of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) wishes to express our profound congratulations to the people of the United States of America on the occasion of the election of President-Elect Barack Obama.

An Obama administration should have the political capital necessary to usher in a new era of global cooperation in confronting challenges to freedom, democracy and prosperity. An Obama administration will also be able to legitimately lead in holding friend and foe alike accountable for assaults on the aspirations of free peoples to choose their own destiny. Such leadership from the United States is sorely needed in Africa in general and the Horn of Africa in particular.

Today, the Horn of Africa finds itself engulfed in conflicts that could have been largely avoided had even handed diplomacy been the norm and not the exception. Poverty and famine continue to deepen and genocide in Ogaden continues unabated. The message to the people of the Horn has clearly been that freedom, human rights, justice, and even humanitarian concerns, take a back-seat to security interests. This approach has yielded no sustainable fruits.

It is therefore time to embrace a new politics where the freedom and self-determination of all peoples in the Horn is recognized as a foundation for sustainable peace,democracy and renewed prosperity.

As the Obama administration re-examines U.S. policy towards the Horn of Africa in general and the current Ethiopian regime in particular, the ONLF stands ready to be a partner in the pursuit of a just, comprehensive and lasting political solution to the Ogaden conflict and the realization of a peaceful, democratic, prosperous and stable Horn of Africa.

The aspirations of free peoples perseveres through seemingly insurmountable challenges precisely because the desire to live in freedom fuels the human spirit. It is why the people of Ogaden struggle despite the countless atrocities committed against them by successive Ethiopian regimes. It is why they yearn for freedom loving peoples to stand with them in that legitimate struggle.

It is, as President Elect Obama says, that 'audacity of hope', thepeople of Ogaden retain coupled with the clear understanding that while freedom is not and has never been free, it is and has always been, worth the sacrifice. For that sacrifice will lead to a day when an election, such as the one in the United States, can be held and every candidate can prove that in a free society, anything is possible.

Mohamed Omer Osman
Chairman
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)