An Open Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Saturday, 15 January 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Clinton, Assistant Secretary Carson

Over the past 15 years the Ogaden region of Ethiopia has witnessed an accelerated brutal conflict between the Ethiopian regime and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), The political instability and the humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia has recently evolved in to a full-blown genocide. The Ethiopian government has adopted a policy to systematically depopulate the region. The Males Zanawi regime has fundamentally undermined the political and social stability of the entire Horn of Africa.

The Ethiopian government has done everything in its power to conceal the suffering and massive human rights abuses currently taking place in the Ogaden. The government has isolated the entire Ogaden and has placed an economic and humanitarian blockade, since 2007 it has evicted humanitarian and human rights organizations, such as, Doctors Without Border (MSF), The Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many other non-governmental organizations. Consequently, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia is among the most inaccessible regions in the world, all international media outlets have been banned from getting any information from the region, media organizations such as, The New York Times, Aljazeera, The Guardian and many others have all attempted to get access, but were denied numerous times by the Ethiopian government.

The dire humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden has been generally ignored by the international community, and the escalating and growing conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), has left millions of people dead, displaced and starving in the region. Recently, over the last two months, it has come to our attention that the Ethiopian government has adopted a policy of mass relocating hundreds of thousands of Ogadeni people into government established camps, hundreds of thousands of people have been systematically rounded up in zones that include: Godey, Dagaxbuur, Qorahey, Fiq, Wardeer, and Jigjiga . This is an essential indication of how catastrophic the situation is in the Ogaden and the acceleration of government repression. The United States government has been among the most advocate against the crisis in Darfur and Southern Sudan, however has been silent in the genocide occurring in Ogaden.

The Ethiopian government is among the world’s largest recipients of foreign aid; according the Human Rights Watch the Ethiopian government uses this aid to systematically fund the oppression and marginalization of political opposition groups and the Ogadeni people from the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.  The U.S government has a fundamental role to end the crisis in the Ogaden. As a concern American citizen I strongly urge the United State to immediately halt all financial assistance to the Ethiopian regime, send an international fact-finding mission to the region, and pressure the Ethiopian government to declare a ceasefire and start multilateral negations with the Ogaden National Libaration Front.

The fundamental beliefs of American ideology is freedom, liberty, equality, and democracy; the injustice and oppression occurring in the Ogaden region is one we all should be concerned about. The lives of millions of people are at stake, and the lack of the international community’s commitment to human rights has had a tremendous impact on the lives of millions of people around the globe. The plight of the Ogadeni people have been ignored by the international community and the dire circumstances are deteriorating rapidly, the United States government must act swiftly to stop the human rights violations in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.