UN staff sentenced for seven years in Ethiopia+ What is ONLF ?
Posted by Ogadentoday-Chief Editor on June 22 2012 06:12:14
Friday (Ogadentoday Press) - Ethiopia court announced that it has jailed for seven years and eight months a UN Security Staff over Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia on Friday. Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan, an Ethiopian, was found guilty of contacting ONLF officials, “earlier this week over alleged links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an outlawed secessionist rebel group. Judge Mulugeta Kidane said delivering the sentence; Mr Abdirahman has been passing information to a terrorist organization. In Ogaden Region ONLF is seen as active and strong rebel fighting for Independence of Ogaden Region.
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UN staff sentenced for seven years in Ethiopia+ What is ONLF ?
June 22 2012.
Friday (Ogadentoday Press) - Ethiopia court announced that it has jailed for seven years and eight months a UN Security Staff over Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia on Friday.
Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan, an Ethiopian, was found guilty of contacting ONLF officials, “earlier this week over alleged links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an outlawed secessionist rebel group.
Judge Mulugeta Kidane said delivering the sentence; Mr Abdirahman has been passing information to a terrorist organization. In Ogaden Region ONLF is seen as active and strong rebel fighting for Independence of Ogaden Region.
Hassan, the head of UN security in Ethiopia's troubled Ogaden region, was arrested last July after he helped to negotiate the release of two UN World Food Programme hostages.
The court has sentenced also, Mr Sherif Badio, whom the charge sheet lists as a senior member of the ONLF. Badio was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for “serving as a leader or a decision maker.
There is no UN officials comment on Friday charge.
Ethiopia implemented anti-terrorism legislation, which rights groups have criticised for being silencing the opposition groups and Media in Ethiopia.
The court sentenced two Swedish journalists in December to 11 years in prison after an Ethiopian court found them guilty of supporting the ONLF in the Ogaden, a region that borders Somalia.
Should the United States worry about the ONLF?
According to US position of ONLF, Council on Foreign Relations, the ONLF is not on any of the U.S. State Department terrorist lists, and as it stands now it does not pose a threat to the United States. However, Ethiopia is Washington’s closest ally in the region, and should the United States ever decide to intervene in the conflict on behalf of Ethiopia, or any other country that wants to drill for oil there, it could face violent opposition. Additionally, there have been rumors of ties between the ONLF and al-Qaeda, which would involve the United States in an entirely different manner. ONLF supporters deny any link with al-Qaeda and criticize religiously motivated violence.
What does the ONLF want?
The ONLF is a nationalist movement that seeks self-determination for ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden region. This is in contrast to other national movements in the Horn of Africa, which have sought to create a “Greater Somalia” in which all areas populated by Somalis are unified into one country. The ONLF also claims that the Ethiopian government has committed human rights abuses in the Ogaden, including interfering with relief work and international aid intended for the area, and that it wants retribution. Ethiopian officials have repeatedly denied such charges and allege the ONLF is responsible for the abuses.
What has the ONLF done?
The ONLF has instigated ambushes and guerrilla-style raids against Ethiopian troops since its inception, and has kidnapped foreign workers presumed to be agents or supporters of Ethiopia’s government. It has launched attacks on Ethiopian military convoys, and it has been accused of bombings in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. A particularly fierce dispute has long simmered between the central government and ONLF over the presence of energy companies in the region; the ONLF insists it will not allow the exploration of oil and gas in the area until the region gains independence, and threatens foreign companies that try. Tensions over the issue reached a new high on April 24, 2007, when ONLF gunmen killed at least seventy-four people, including sixty-five Ethiopians and nine Chinese oil workers, and kidnapped seven, on an oil field in Abole, a remote region of Ethiopia populated by ethnic Somalis. China has attempted to increase its investments in Africa in an effort to secure future energy supplies. The ONLF took responsibility for the attack on its website and claimed that the violence had not been without warning.
Ogadentoday Press.