HORN OF AFRICA PEACEBUILDING SYMPOSIUM: Sagal Dolal's Speach

HORN OF AFRICA PEACEBUILDING SYMPOSIUM

Saturday, May 7, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
WESTIN, Hotel and Resort
San Diego, California

Peace Promotion Meeting in San Diego California
Ms. Sagal Dolal’s speech at the symposium on peace in the Somali Region of Ethiopia was a masterpiece. Sagal is the daughter of the late Dr. Mohamed Sirad Dolal, Leader of ONLF. Ms. Sagal’s speech shaked the hall and touched the hearts and minds of all participants. It was worthwhile to mention that, some of the men and women who attended the meeting shed tears and felt hard to listen the young girl’s speech and left the meeting. Below is her historic speech.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Sagal Dolal and I am here today to talk to you about what we can do to create peace and stability in our country. I would first like to thank the chairman of the ONLF, Engineer Salahdin Abdirahman Maow for organizing this event. I would also like to thank USAID for their support in financing this meeting because without their help this meeting would not have been possible.

The Somali region in Ethiopia has been in a constant war for many decades. The people who live there are long behind the rest of the world in terms of infrastructure, education, agriculture and life-expectancy. This needs to stop now! We need to have peace in the region for anything to happen, so that it is safe to conduct the work that is so needed. The Frankfurt agreement has established peace with the Ethiopian government, however there are still people being killed. Therefore we need to act now! Since the drought it is difficult for the famers and villagers to live and because of the constant murders occurring, it is creating an atmosphere of fear. These people just want the basic human rights that we all take for granted. To be able to walk to the shops, send their kids to school and to look after their livelihood, without the fear of been murdered.
Peace in the region has been agreed by the ONLF and the Ethiopian government, but the people are still been killed and this has to change. How is this going to change? We need to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to control the situation and stop the people from killing one another. Things can only change if we as a collective want it to. I live in the UK and I do not face the problems that these people are facing every day. It is up to us to do what we can to give our support to these people and hopeful one day we get the kind of peace that we have so longed for. We are all here today to discuss the situation in the region and to find solutions to the problems that we face. We might not be able to solve all the problems but I believe that together we can at least find solutions to some of them.

The killing of countless men, women and children has to stop before there is no-one left in the area. Everyone has a responsibility to help and support these people so that they can survive. There are a group of people that have a completely different agenda to us and do not want the people to have any kind of stability and peace.

Furthermore, they have also been sabotaging the efforts of the peace talks by terrorizing the people.
If we do not help ourselves and each other no-one will help us to have peace, so we must be willing to do the work ourselves. If we each take on a little bit of the work load then it will be done and things will start to change. Writing articles about your hopes and dreams for the people, talk to the people in the region and asking them how they are and what the situation is, and campaign on behalf of the people so that we can get resources, such as schools, hospitals and food for them. We need to do more than talking and start doing something!

The women and children are suffering the most and we need to do something that will give these people some respite from their suffering. They have to deal with the problems, such as no access to food, water, housing, medicine, sanitation, childcare, education, and hospitals. And during all this they have no rest and this goes on every single, second, minute and day. If you had to deal with this type of struggle and stress would you want to live? No! They have given up all hope and are just awaiting their death. It is our responsibility to give them hope for the future of their children if not for them. We have been lucky enough to have been given refugee in many countries such as America, United Kingdom, German, Demark and Canada. Most of you were in the position of these people that are living in the region.

There is a lack of educated people living in the region, simply because they leave. It would be of benefit to us if some of these educated people went back and stated educating the people. There is a well know saying if you educate a woman you will educate a whole nation. I do not mean to be bias, but it is true! Our grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, husbands, wives and for some our own children were born there.

Now I ask you the question. Are we going to let all these people die and forget the place that we are all from? Let’s think for a second and imagine that we do absolutely nothing. What do you think will happen? These people are our family and we must help one another in our time of need. We all have problems at some stages in our lives and we all need support to deal with them. When my Father was murder there were many people that supported us in our time of need. Without their exceptional support I would not have been able to attend this meeting today. Therefore I understand more than ever the necessity of a support network. I am not here today to give you all a lecture or to make you feel guilty. But I am here to make you realize that there is something that you can do even if it is just picking up the phone and giving someone a call. You would be surprised at the amount of joy it would bring that person. It is possible to do one thing, just one thing today that would change someone’s life in the Somali region of Ethiopia. It is within the realm of possibility to do just one thing; anything which you think could change someone’s life for the better. For instance I am thirsty and you give me a drink of water, is that not a simplistic solution to my problem. We have become overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem that we do not look at its simplicity and find a solution accordingly. The region will not become what we want it to be over night it will take some time and we need to have patience so that we do not rush the process of peace. Like they say Rome was not built in a day.

The Ethiopian government must support the peace process and we must demand that the people are protected and provided for. It is our duty to promote our people and to make others aware of their problems, so that they can offer help. If we all write to our countries informing them of the situation, we might be able to get the pressure we need for Ethiopia to take action against these people that are murdering the Somali people who live in the region. Furthermore it will let the people know that they are not alone in their problems and that there are people that care about them.

Ten years from now the situation in the region will have either changed or not. It is up to us to do something about that future. It does not matter if what we do does not work, we at least know that approach did not work and we will try something else. But to do nothing will be tragic and heartbreaking. It will be sad to look back at our history and see that we had lost an opportunity. We need to learn from our history as well as from others. There is no point in passing the bucket and saying it’s not my problem, because one day it will be your problem. We all need to make the future of the region safe and stable, so that other generations can come home and learn about their history and not be afraid of being killed. Other nations have this, why cannot we? They live amongst each other and have their problems but it is not broadcasted everywhere, it is a domestic problem and it is solved like that.

I know that this might sound like wishful thinking but it is possible to not kill each other over the silliest thing. If we start something positive then others will continue it, when we are no longer around. Let’s leave something for the generation that is to come, let’s not leave them just problems that we did not even try to solve. My father worked for the ONLF for several years of his life, and I learnt a lot from him mostly the concept of doing something and not giving up at the first hurdle. Its ok to not achieve all the ambitions that we want for our country, our ancestors tried to protect our land for us and died trying to keep it intact so that we would one day have something to inherit. Let’s try to do the same if not better.

We are powerful human beings that have an enormous amount of capability. It has been proven many times over that we as human beings are the most intelligent group of species. We are capable of great things. Together we can come up with solutions to global problems, is that not amazing and exciting thing? I do not doubt that we will come up with a solution to the problems in the Somali region of Ethiopia. It might not be today or tomorrow or even in my lifetime. However someday someone will find the solution and I think that it will be so simple we will wonder why we did not think of it. So today it is about promoting peace! So let’s promote it. We are at the embryonic stages of peace and we need to nurture it so that it grows.
I thank you very much for your time.

Sagal Doolaal
sagaldolal@hotmail.co.uk