Don't glamorize insurgents
Re "Ethiopia's
war on its own," Opinion, Feb. 25
Ronan Farrow sends a misleading
message about Ethiopia's effort to battle international terrorism and local
insurgents. The article failed to study the geopolitical intricacies of the Horn
of Africa and the emergence of terrorism as a weapon of proxy war by a rogue
regime in the region.
He quoted a single person in Kenya claiming
Ethiopian security forces were responsible for human rights abuses, but the
"separatist rebels" had merely carried out a few attacks. To set the record
straight, as recently as last April, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, or
ONLF, with the military and financial support of the Al Itahid Al Islamia and
Union of Islamic Lords, massacred 74 Ethiopian and Chinese oil exploration
workers inside the Somali region of Ethiopia. The separatist ONLF, in
collaboration with the Al Shebeb jihadist operation, has murdered dozens of
local government officials and clan leaders and targeted civilians by planting
mines on roads.
The Ethiopian government acted responsibly to bring the
perpetrators to justice. Peace and stability are now largely reestablished,
enabling the free flow of humanitarian assistance to the Ogaden
region.
The best way to check international terrorism is neither by
hiding one's head in the sand nor by glamorizing insurgents and misrepresenting
them as liberators.
Ambassador Taye
Atske
Selassie
Consul General of
Ethiopia, Los
Angeles