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URGENT
HUMANITARIAN APPEAL
Ref.:OHRC/06/99
Date: 04th May 1999
On 03rd April 1999, Ogaden National Liberation Front guerrillas,
who captured Mr. Eric Courly, a French water engineer, who works
for the French humanitarian organisation, Action Against Hunger.
On April 7th 1999, in a press release, the Ogaden National Liberation
Front (ONLF) accused Mr. Eric of "involving in activities
incompatible with his duty as an aid-worker…"
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee's good offices were asked
to assure his immediate and unconditional release.
Therefore, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee requests the political
leadership of the ONLF and its military commanders in the field
to treat him humanely and drop all charges against him, and
asks his immediate and unconditional release on humanitarian
grounds as well.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee calls upon all humanitarian
organisations in the Ogaden to refrain from any activity, which
is not related to their work, and confine themselves only to
their humanitarian work in order to help the needy people in
the Ogaden.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee urges the ONLF and the Ethiopian
government to allow all humanitarian and relief organisations
to operate in the Ogaden without restrictions, regardless of
nationality or religion.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The ONLF has called since early 1992 for referendum on self-determination
and independence for the Ogaden.
Since, 20th April 1994, the Ogaden has been a virtually closed
military zone, where bloody battles are being fought between
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front forces and
combatants of the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Since its foundation, on 13 June 1995, the Ogaden Human Rights
Committee, has carried out extensive investigation of the human
rights situation throughout the Ogaden, and has documented gross
violations, including illegal imprisonments, mass arrests without
charges or trials, enforced disappearances, torture, rape, extrajudicial
killings, abduction, forced labour, hostage-taking, systematic
religious and racial persecution, dispossession and widespread
looting by the current EPRDF government in Ethiopia. (See Human
Rights violations in the Ogaden by Ethiopia, 1991 to 1996 ref:
OHRC/01/96, Deterioration of Human Rights Situation in the Ogaden
unabated ref: OHRC/07/96, Mass Killings, Torture and Disappearances
in the Ogaden ref: OHRC/08/96 and Ogaden: NO Rights, No Democracy
ref: OHRC/08/97, Ogaden: An Endless Human Tragedy and other
OHRC's reports).
Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC)
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