Tens of thousands of ethnic Somali civilians living in eastern Ethiopia's SomaliRegional State are experiencing serious abuses and a looming humanitarian crisis in the context of a little-known conflict between the Ethiopian government and an Ethiopian Somali rebel movement. The situation is critical. Since the mid-2007 thousands of people have fled, seeking refuge in neighboring Somalia and Kenya from widespread Ethiopian military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These atrocities are bordering on genocide, a crime against humanity defined in the Genocide Convention originating with Raphael Lemkin, who was intrigued by the Armenian genocide as a student and horrified by the Nazi holocaust against the Jews and others.
Lemkin's ideals for a world free of genocide, as expressed in the rallying cry � ���"never again� �� �, would not be realized because of the nature of the nation-state. Nation-states almost exclusively pursue their own interests and are indifferent to the damage and suffering that arise out of exploiting a people or nation. History is littered with victims of atrocities that have been committed in the name of amelioration, security, humanitarianism, development and defense.
Today, the salient examples are Iraq and Afghanistan. But if you look over the barricades of public discourse and media coverage, you will discover that the same countries are quietly perpetrating a myriad of atrocities elsewhere as in Ethiopia.
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