(OPride) –
The failed talks between ONLF and the Ethiopian government might cost the head of the regional administration of the Somali region his job, government and rebel sources said. The sources note that President Abdi Eley's demise is now imminent......... According to one delegate who asked not to be named, a government representative from the regional administration brought to the venue videos that allegedly contradicted the official rhetoric. One of the key information in the video pertains to the execution of the late Dr. Mohamad Dolal, ONLF's former spokesperson and head of Foreign Affairs, who was killed in a mysterious circumstance in 2009 shortly before entering the Ogaden to lead the armed resistance against Ethiopia after living in exile for over two decades.
The Ethiopian government charged Dolal’s death on the main ONLF faction led by Admiral Mohamad Osman Omar, from which Dolal's splinter group had broken away. The intention was to create enmity between Dola's clan and the rebel organization. The video showed that Dolal was executed by Ethiopian security forces three days after being taken captive with a battle wound.
Another video contained incontrovertible evidence that the clip used by Ethiopia’s kangaroo court to convict the two Swedish journalists were staged by the regional authorities as a propaganda tool, the source told OPride. The Swedes who served 4 of the 11 years sentence were pardoned last month on the eve of Ethiopian New Year. Since then, the two reporters have disclosed appalling prison conditions and offered testimonies that corroborate information contained in the footage in the aforementioned videos.
The fallout from the disclosure of the inner workings of the regional administration has made the president of the Somali regional government Abdi Eley precarious. Eley's tenure is marked by increased efforts to ruthlessly weed out ONLF sympathizers. Having carried out the dirty work, the president is reportedly being asked to fall on his sword as a scapegoat for the debacle. Turmoil is not new to the Somali regional administration. Since 1994 the region had 11 presidents.
The peace talks were hardly expected to produce a breakthrough. Ethiopia’s ruling party, in power since 1991, is known to break agreements as soon as they are signed. In its more than four decades history, it has not resolved any conflict through dialogue with a rival group. Total liquidation of opponents has been its preferred tactic.
Given its history of dogged determination to maintain its independence, the ONLF is unlikely to allow itself to become a satellite to the ruling party.
Many had hoped with the passing of the long-serving Prime Minister Zenawi, the government would steer a course away from authoritarianism and embrace the reform agenda of opening the political space. However, little has changed since and unlikely to do so.
Without broader commitment to political reforms, it is implausible for the Ethiopian ruling party to allow multi-party democracy to flourish in the volatile region of Ogaden while maintaining a tight hold on the rest of the country. Even if an agreement is reached, it would be reminiscent of the 1952 Ethiopia-Eritrea agreement.
In 1952, when Italy left, in a UN resolution, Emperor Hailesilassie agreed to cede civil freedoms and autonomy to Eritrea. This ran hollow while the rest of the country was in the throes of feudalism. Eritreans did not see none of the promised liberties. Nor did the autonomy last long. Eritrea was quickly turned into Ethiopia's fourteenth province before the ink on the signature dried--stoking thirty years of bloody conflict that culminated in Eritrea's independence in 1993.
