Spirited voices of protest rang out in downtown Minneapolis
Sunday as an Ethiopian government leader prepared to address thousands
of local supporters about the economic transformation of his country’s
Somali region.
Attendees
making their way into Minneapolis Marriott City Center to listen to Abdi
Mohamed Omar were greeted with boisterous shouts of “Shame on you” from
about 150 people who stood across S. 7th Street toting signs alleging
rape and genocide in their native country.
Police stood guard outside the hotel. Attendees were required to have tickets to enter.
Inside,
Abdullahi Nur, 34, of Minneapolis, who helped organize the speech, said
of the protesters’ claims of rape and murder: “It is not there.” But, he
added, “the government will protect themselves against rebels.”
Several
protesters waved the flag of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which
is fighting for independence in the Somali region of Ethiopia — known
as the Ogaden.
The divide within the country is long-standing.
In a 2008
report, Peter Heinlein, then a journalist with Voice of America, wrote
of visiting journalists finding “a traumatized population caught
between rebels staging hit-and-run attacks and government troops
conducting a brutal counterinsurgency campaign.”
Both sides
accused each of other of serious human rights abuses, he wrote. Omar, at
the time, was security chief of Ethiopia’s Somali region, according to
the Voice of America account. He now serves as the region’s president.
Sunday’s protest was organized by the Ogaden American Community Association of USA, based in St. Anthony.
Hibaq
Dualeh, 27, of Minneapolis, the group’s political organizer, estimated
that half of the protesters were victimized by Omar and his policies. By
speaking out against him in the United States, she added, they risked
having family members in Ethiopia jailed.
“The people escaped genocide,” Dualeh said, and through Omar’s presence in Minnesota, “he is victimizing them all over again.”
Ahmed
Mohamed, 53, of Minneapolis, a board member with the group, said: “He
came here to terrorize people here. To intimidate. Harass.”
Across the
street, standing outside the hotel, Ismail Buri, 35, of Minneapolis, an
organizer of the event, described the allegations as “he say, she say”
propaganda. He credits Omar for development in the region. Schools have
been built, Buri said, and an airport, too.
The bottom line for Omar supporters, Buri said, “is we took peace. We don’t want to fight no more.”
As Buri spoke, the protest was in its fourth hour, and the voices from across S. 7th Street still were loud and angry.
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