ONLF, Lugbuur and Meles

ONLF, Lugbuur and Meles

Commentary by Abdelkarim A Hassan Source wardheernews.com
The news coming from the Somali region of Ethiopia is not encouraging, Ethiopia is currently facing crisis and political instability similar to the one faced by Somalia in the late eighties and early nineties. The challenges and pandemonium in the Somali region has caused dearly on its civilians who are caught between warring factions, ruthless Ethiopian army and the tribally based ONLF guerillas. The picture is grim and dire. The region has not had rain fall in three years causing a severe drought that has caused so much devastation for the 5 million people who live in the area. The Ethiopian government along with the local Somali Region administration is starving the people by politicizing the food aid delivery; coercing them to hand over all able-bodied men to the army in order to receive food. Recent reports coming out of the region state that people are dying from hunger, while the Ethiopian army employ the tactics of using food as weapon to advance it’s brutal goals. These independent reports indicate that innocent civilians died of starvation while others are forced to eat poisonous plants causing their end. Some dwellings are burned down all together by the Ethiopian army, showing no mercy. Glen Anders who is in charge of the US aid in Ethiopia said that the US government is providing $ 450 m worth of food aid, which is not reaching its targeted people. The US reports says that the food deliveries is absolutely dismal, a disaster in the making and lacks transparency.
Abdillahi Lugbuur
There are several reasons that can be attributed to the lack of stability and development of the Somali region of Ethiopia. Chief among them are a) the incompetency of the local politicians who are in charge of the region and their lack of interest to put forth comprehensive plans to develop the region. b) Ethiopia’s central government policies of oppression which is an extension of the past Ethiopia colonial rule towards Somalis. c) The clan based guerrilla war carried out by none other than the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) that is waging an ill advised war targeting innocent civilians, bringing mayhem and havoke to the people in the region. More over the rift that the ONLF is creating among the various Somali clans in the region is weakening any inclusive struggle that the various clans may have had.Though the Somali region has never seen a true leader who has worked for the interest of the people, the current administration headed by Abdillahi Hassan Lugbuur, Daud Mohamed Ali, the enigmatic and master of conspiracies and Deputy Chairman of the ruling regional party and the notorious Abdi Mohamoud Omer (Abdi iley) the head of the Security and Justice Bureau of the region have proven to be the worse administration in the history of the Somali region. The likes of Mr. Lugbuur, Daud, Abdi Iley and their ilk’s were made room when the Tigrey regime targeted and sidelined the seasoned technocrats who took part in the struggle against the successive Ethiopian regimes to liberate the Somali inhabited region of Ethiopia, just because they held positions or worked in Somalia. This policy was nothing more than bringing an incompetent new generation of puppets for Males’s regime.Mr. Lugbuur has become synonymous with the Region being in utopian, he denies the grim reality of the region with a conniving smiley and corrupted face telling the world fabricated lies that are far from the realities on the ground while innocent civilians are being incarcerated and exterminated. He repeats the same simple lines (“wax waliba way fiican yihiin, dadku waxay u baahan yihiin biyo iyo cuno ”) that everything is well and going as planned by his Tigreyan masters. He seems to think that he can advance his childish ambitions through accolades heaped on the ailing dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi. Mr. Lugbuur and Iley have proved to be closer to the ruling Tigrey ethnic regime than their own people. Mr. Lugbuurs’s administration has recently issued a decree to force all state employees to work on Friday which is the Muslim observed holiday. There are even other reports stating that Mr.Lugbuur and his administration are changing the symbol of Somalisim on the state flag by removing the five pointed star. Mr. Lugbuur and Abdi Iley are competing for winning the hearts and minds of the Tigrey regime. But if we learned anything from history, no matter how much they oppress their people to please and gain the support of their bosses at the end of the day, they will end up in Meles’s jail just like their predecessors as the saying goes “what goes around comes around!”
Abdelkarim A HassanEmail: Abdelh1@hotmail.com