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 Dahir Riyale, Prove Your Case or Set The Ogaden Captives Free. By Abdullahi Khalif-Gariile
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By harassing, arresting and detaining people simply because they happen to belong to certain ethnic group is wrong. We should oppose to it and feel it should never happen anywhere in the world. As we all know how wrong a collective guilt can be, we must stand up today and speak with one voice, Ogadenian voice, since Somalian voice has become ineffective in East-Africa now days, that collective punishment for whatever reason is wrong.
Since we oppose collective punishment, we need to mention over the sixty people detained in Hargeysa jail until Riyale and Iidors (Isaq) ethnic group felt the pleasure to release them. Their only crime was being members of the Ogaden ethnic group. Dahir Riyale and Iidors draw their satisfaction from this kind of thing because for whatever reason, Ogadens will keep silent while they are doing it.
For those who may be wondering why this Ogaden ethnic witch-hunting is taking place in Hargeysa, let us look at the very beginning when the rebel movement headed by SNM in late 1980s had as its primary targets, not just the government of Mr. Barre, but the Darod clan. The Darods were targeted mainly because Barre happened to be one of them. After 16 years, Ogadens were still targeted in Hargeysa because they are not organized community and their unity is weak. They don�t have strong connection within themselves where ever they are to defend their members or retaliate when being subjected by other Somali clans. Unlike any other Somali ethnic group, Ogadens are detained, killed and exchanged for cash and weapons to any willing government in East-Africa (for any reason) by other organized Somali ethic groups. This is not a hidden secrete. It is out there for all to see.
What we are seeing today with the arrest and detention of large number of Ogaden people in Hargeysa is the repeat of history of the wars between the Iidors and Ogadens being re-ignited by Dahir Riyale. Given this fact, are we supposed to be sitting silently and doing nothing? The answer is no. That's why I am writing this today to tell Dahir Riyale and Iidoor ethnic group that they are wrong for detaining our people, and keeping them incommunicado. This is a clear violation of any law in this world, if any is respected today�s world.
This is what I am telling Dahir Riyale, prove your case Mr. Riyale or set the captives free. Your jungle court has asked you to prove your case but you have ignored it because you have no case to prove. In the real sense of the word, you are guilty and this is why you are afraid to go to your jungle courts. As it is widely reported, there are over sixty Ogaden people in Hargeysa jail, mostly young men and women currently held incommunicado. I believe there may be many.
These people have been held far beyond any international law. So their detention is a clear violation of their human rights. And the violator in this case happens to be no other than the so-called president of Somaliland, Dahir Riyale. This man believes he could attract support within Iidors by humiliating Ogadens who happen to live in Hargeysa as civilians. This is why he will treat them any way he feels like because he also believes we will do nothing. He believes he can do anything and get away with because Ogadens are not united. If that is what he is thinking, he is lying to himself and to his Iidor friends. He will answer to his crimes against our people some days. Somalis are clans and each knows the other very well.
We must tell Riyale and Iidors in the strongest possible term that they are wrong for holding these young Ogaden men, wrong for holding these young Ogaden women and wrong for holding any Ogaden persons in their jails as hostages. We must not hesitate to tell Riyale and Iidors that they are wrong for illegally detaining our people. They are violating these people's human rights. Riyale has not considered the Somali tradition of treating the guests with respect. Similarly, his clan based government by her actions has violated Articles 6 and 7.1 b of the African Charter on Human and People�s Rights, the Geneva Convention and its optional protocols (all instruments of International Humanitarian Law which referred to Armed Conflict (if I assume their so-called �unlawful combatants� phrase under which these Ogaden people languished in jail without charge or trial to be true) as well as Articles 3, 8, 9 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As we see all these human rights abuses against people of Ogaden ethnic in Hargeysa, one may wonder where are the so-called Ogadenian politicians? If you have been following the developments surrounding this issue, you will see that most of them are being completely silent. They are too busy against one and other. They have reduced themselves to just �against one another.� The question I have for them is, how in the hell you want to be respected politician when you don't care about your people being illegally detained by Somali clans? I don�t get it, I just can�t get it, this is ridiculous. I have never heard Somali clan detaining other clan; this is total humiliation to any Ogaden in universe, it is the first in the history of Somalia. But it is completely indication that any clan that is not ready and well organized will face detention and humiliation by other clans who have their people united.
Most of the Ogaden politicians, including the president of the Ogaden region, none of them make the mistake of mentioning anything about these sixty persons in Hargeysa jail. What about the Ogaden websites in the Diaspora? The truth is they are all silent. We are seeing the true colors of the Ogadens of today. They are only interested in their personal interests but don't give a damn about the human rights abuses of those Ogadens being mistreated in Hargeysa Jail. So I am urging you to ask these politicians if you are members of their supports, I don�t care whether you are SPDP, ONLF, SPM or KANU, to tell you why they are silent about the illegal detention of their fellow Ogadens in Hargeysa. Also, I would like to know why all Ogaden websites (I don�t care which name they carry) are silent about this horrible act against their own people.
It�s time that we stand up as a people to the brutality against our Ogaden brothers and sisters in the Hargeysa jail and in anywhere in the world. Our silence when one group of our people is harassed or detained sends the wrong message to the Ogaden haters, like Riyale, that it is okay to oppress and abuse people of Ogaden ethnic.
Should we still be silent? With a single voice we must be able to tell any Ogaden hater that enough is enough.
May Allah unite us all!
Abdullahi Khalif-Gariile
[email protected] |
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