Is the Humanitarian Crisis or the Mini-Darfur Situation Meles Created in Ogaden an Example of the Democracy?
Ogaden, the Ethiopian Somali Region, is the vast desert region in south eastern Ethiopia, suffering from low-intensity war going on between the government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels since the former expelled the latter from the transitional government. However, Ogaden caught the international media attention after the surprise attack of the rebel group on the Chinese-run oil field massacring 74 Ethiopian and Chinese workers in April 2007; thereafter, the government unleashed a harsh retaliatory offence indiscriminately against the rebel and civilian population that shocked the international community. The New York Times exposed the brutality of the Ethiopian army, “In village after village, people said they had been brutalized by government troops. They described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will. It is the same military that the American government
