02/02/11 (B589) ALERTE ROUGE. Lettre ouverte (en Anglais) adressée à IOG par l’Association de la communauté Ogaden pour dénoncer les rafles des Ogaden commises par les Forces djiboutiennes avec le concours de la Police éthiopienne. (Nous avons déjà publié des informations à ce sujet)

January 30, 2011
Open letter to the President of Djibouti Mr. Ismail O. Guelleh

The Ogaden Community of Sweden would like to express our strong condemnation of a series of crackdowns and physical violence against Ogaden people in Djibouti who were subsequently handed over to the Ethiopian security forces.

Since the arrival of the new Ambassador of Ethiopia to Djibouti , you as a president of Djibouti – you personally gave order to the Djiboutian police accompanied by the Ethiopian security forces at night time , in a combat uniform, to swipe Ogaden civilians and refugees in Djibouti, including some of them who lived in the Jeberti Mosque (Darod Mosque) in section 5.

Since January 24, 2011, several hundreds of Ogaden people, including women, children and old men, are regularly snatched in the middle of night, hoarded into vans and driven in the direction of Ethiopia.

We are very disappointed that the Djiboutian Police, with the help of Ethiopian security forces, had raided a lot of Ogaden residents in Djibouti, including those in mosques. There refugees have being living for decades in Djibouti after they have fled from persecution in Ethiopia. But unfortunately, they’re not even safe in Djibouti as well.

The recent crackdown had resulted in the serious injuries of a lot of Ogaden people who were kept and tortured in Djibouti jails before they were handed over to the Ethiopians. Some of them were raped and shot on spot at the Ethiopian border and the rest no one knows of their whereabouts after they were handed to the Ethiopian secret service.

We would like to remind you, Mr. President, that your government as member state of the United Nations, is signatory to UN’s Declaration for Human Rights and other important Human Rights conventions; as such, your government is obliged to stop its brutality and repression of people from Ogaden.

We therefore strongly call on your government to ensure the fulfillment of our demands and to take immediate steps to stop these barbaric acts. Failure to do so, will force us, Ogaden communities in around the world, to react to the actions of your government by holding protest rallies around the world.

We urge you and your government to immediately release the illegally detained Ogaden civilians and stop further the raids against our people in your country.

We hope that our brotherly people in this great country of Djibouti realize your agenda is not for the advancement of their interests, but for the betterment of your politics.

With heartfelt and deep concern for Ogaden people.

Ogaden Community of Sweden
Ogaden Women´s Association of Sweden
Ogaden Youth & Student Union (OYSU) Sweden

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Address: P.0. Box 5111, 163 05 Spånga, Stockholm
Telephone: +46 (0)768573231. E-mail: ogadensf@hotmail.com