By Alemayehu Kumsa, Ph.D

Ebbisan waggaa digdama harra uttuu innii mana issa siree isaara rafuu, loltuun mootummaa kolonefata Habasha, warra gartuu haarra Tigrai’in gegefamuun rasaassa itti roobsani lubuu isa muchumaati kutan. Biyya akaakile isaati, diini daanga Oromiyya ceete dhufte dhiiga Oromoo hammaa haraati iddoo hundaati dangalaasa jirti.

Akkuma Oromoon hunduu beeku, kan diini kun ajjesu moo beeka, sooresa, artistoota, oladeema/ oladeemtu, kan ta’ani kunis aggaamsaa sanyii duguugu -targeted genocide jedhama. Imaammati gartuu Tigrai (TPLF) saba Oromoo doofaa, iyeesa taasisani achumaan akkuma namichii Waaqayyoo jibe sun Malas Zenawi wa’ee Oromo “saba lakkofsi issa bayyee xiqeesun salphadha” jedhe kakate, oladeemtota Oromo fixaa jiru. Kan TPLF hin beekin garu, akkuma Oromoo ajjecha deemtu, Oromoon tokko ta’ee kibba hamma kabaati dhi’aa hamma ba’aati kuno diina olachisa jira.

Alaaban ABO jaal Elemo Qilxuufa bara 1973 qabatanii diina offira buqisanii Oromiyya Republika taate dhaabuf bosona (Tullu Carcar) seenan kuno dachee Oromiyya hunda irrati Oromoon qabatee “Abban Biyyaa Oromoo dha” “hormii nun bulchitu” Biyya keenya walaba taate nutu bulcha jedhee alaaba isa qabatee yeroo diini saba harqa duwa haqa isaaf falmatu, isaa harka diinati ajjefame, awaalate Alaaba ABO awaala irra dhaaba jira.

Mirgga mulqammaan deebisanii gonfachuuf Haatif ilmi hiriira ba’aani, gaafa loltu’un diina rasaasa itti roobiste mucaase ajjeftu, haati Oromticha sanaa “gumaan ilma kiyya bilisuma Oromiyya hata’u” jettee Oromiyyaati kutanoo ishe dhaamte.

Ebbisan , “siifan lolaa Oromoo narra hingortu?

Jettee kan atti akka gaafiti saba keeti dhi’eesinan diini si nyaate, garuu arra waamichi kee qeerro sibooda dhalataniin kan gegeefamu sabi kee deebisa jira.

Jaali kee, Usmaayyoo Musa waggaa sadeet (1995-2003) mana hidha diina keesati dararammaa ture eega ba’ee, saba durati gaffa as ba’uu sii (Ebbisa Adunya fi Dhugumaa Ayyana) yaadachudhan walisa isa jalqabe.  Kan Usmaayyoo gaafas walise keesa:

Garbummaa manna du’a filane

Saniif finchillee dagala seenne

Seenadhaaf duuna lubbu hinqusannee

Usmaayyoo Musa, darara mana hidha diina keesati irra gayeen lubbun isa dargagummaati qurxame.  Lubuun artistota Oromoo kunif kan isaan fakatan darbuun, hiri’ota isaanif dhalota isaan booda dhufe ibidda sammuu itti naqe.

Isaan booda artistoti dhibaan laqahaman sagallee isaani kan fagoo nama hawatu, ergaan saani ani Oromoo mittii?  maalifan walaabummaa kootif hin lolu? jedhee kan samuu  qirqidu, xiiqii qabachiisu,  tokko ta’ee akkan diina biyyaa isa qabate irraati mormuu kan godhee keesa isa tokko. Artistooni Oromoo wallaansoo walaabummaa Oromiyyaa ta’aa jiruuf aarssaa isaan baasa turan/jiraan seena saba issani keesati bo’oo olaana qaba.

Jaalan: Elemo, Ebbisa, Usmaayyoo fi kan walaabuma Oromoofi kuftanii, sabi keesan akka damaqee waanjjo kolonii ofirra darbatee, biyya bilisa taate (sovereign state) ijaarachuf tarkaanfi xumura irra ga’aa jira. Yoo isin lubuun jiraatani saba keesan arguu baatan ille hojjin keesan Oromoo karaa walabummaati luucessera.  Qeeransi Oromoo diina isa Oromiyyaa irra ari’a jira, akkuma Mulluu Baqqaalaa wallifte.

Jaalan, maqaan keesan bara barran seena Oromoo keesa hajiraatu.

Qabsa’aan hindu’aa qabsoon Oromiyya Walaabuman xumurama.

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Abbaa Urjii tiin  

Qabsoon bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa, arra sadarkaa if duuba hin-deebinee fii abdachiisaa geeysee jirti. Dhuma bara 2015 irraa kaasee hamma yoonaatti, lammiin Bahaa-Dhihaa fii Kaabaa-Kibbaan mirga isaanii tiif anaannata bira dabranii xiqqaa fii guddaan dhiiraa fii dhalaan wareegamaa, caphaa, dhiigaa jiran. Wayyaaneen, warra waraana Dargiirraa boojitee fii abbootii garaa kanneen ummata Oromiyaarratti muuddeen irreen aangorra jiraachuuf ijibaanni godhaa jirtu guyyuma-guyyaan bu’ura dhabaa jira.

Qabsoo bilisummaa tan arra xiqqaa fii guddaa lammii Oromiyaa Bahaa-Dhihaa fii Kaabaa-Kibbaan, “bilisummaa ykn du’a!” jachisiisaa, Wayyaanee dhaabaa-dhaabbata waakkachaa jirtu bu’ureesuuratti qabsaawaan qoonni isaa hundaa ol tahe Elemoo Qilxuu ti.

Elemo, arra, gaafa ummanni Hiddii Lolaa keessaa “Burraayyuun teenya”! ja’an, warri Gincii “dhiiga nama keenyaa kan Aaw-Wadaayitti dhangala’e ni baafanna!” ja’an, haala kanaa fiis, xiqqaa guddaan – dhalaa dhiiraan, diina ibidda itti harutti, harka duwwaa deeman, odoo hin taane, gaafa haalli kanaan faallaa, gaafa ummanni Oromoo ifii fii waliis wallaalanii dukkana keessa turan “akki kuni isaaniin hin malle” jachuun, jiruu sadoo tan keeysa ture dhiisee, maatii isaa biyya alagaa keessatti gatee, qaanqee qabsoo hidhannoo bilisummaa qabsiisuuf nama Adanirraa biyya seene.

Maqaan warri Elemoof moggaasan Hassani. Akka aadaa hawaasa Baha Oromiyaatti maqaan buruja ykn haala dhalataa ykn dhalattuu laaluun moggaafama. Maqaan afaan Arabaa kan haala san hordofuun Elemoof moggaafame, hiikkaa sadii qaba. Isaaniis, Bareedaa, Gaarii ykn Tolaa fii, Nama rakkataa ykn dhimma kabajamaa tahe gargaaru kan ja’u. Namni akkuma dhalateen haalli armaa olii irraa calaqqise kuni, Abraahim Umarii fii Aashaa Aammad irraa Baha Oromiyaa, Godinaa Bareentumaa Konyaa Gaara Mul’ataa, Aanaa Qarsaa, Ganda Galaan kan Raaree Bululoo keessatti arkamutti, toora bara 1936 keessa dhalate.

Elemo akka barnoota Amantii Islaamaa kan ganda itti dhalatetti barsiifamu xumureen, dabalataaf odoo daddeemuu, toora bara 1956-aa magaalaa Diree Dhawaa seene. Akka achi dhaqeen, jaalalti magaalaa Dirree Dhawaa qoma seentee, darasummaa mana bahee fiin adda baaftee, if keessatti qubsuma murteeffachiifte. Jireenyaaf, dukkaana nama Haaji Umeerii ja’amu, kan meeshaa adda addaa alarraa fidee jimlaa fii takkeen gurgurutti mindaawe.

Elemo, faxinummaa waa barachuu biratti naamusaa fii amanamummaan yaroo gabaabduu keessatti onnee Haajii seene. Akka magaalaa baree, hawaasaa fii amala biyyaa tiin wal fudhateen, eega hujii isaa raawwate booda, galgala-galgala, uffata adda-addaa, kopheelee fii faaya dubartii, Haajirraa fuudhee dukkaannan irra daddeemee jimlatti gurguruun mataa isaa tiif waa jalaa buufachuu jalqabe. Abbootiin dukkaannanii, kanneen Elemo irra daddeemee meeshaa itti gurguru, akka wal-baraa dhufaniin, akkuma Haajitti, haalaa fii amala isaa jaalatanii, daldala isaanii tiin barbaadutti seenan. Haalli kuni, Elemoof, hammaa fii miyoota gurguru baayyiseef. Heddominni gurguraa bu’aa jalaa arkatu fijaa dukkaana keeysa oolee horu caal’chisaa dhufe. Hoggaa kana, yaroo dukkaana keessa hojjatu xiqqeeysaa tan daldala ifii isaarratti bobbahuu dheereeysaa deeme.

Gama biraa tiin, Elemo, gaafa magaalaa Dirree Dhawaa qubaterraa kaasee, daldala malees, karaa raadiyoo fii gaazeexoota afaan Arabaa tiin haala siyaasaa adunyaa, keessaa huu, kan sossooha bilisummaa kan yaroo sanitti biyyoota Afrikaa fii Laatiin Ameerikaa keessatti gaggeeffamaa jiru, akkaan hordofuu jalqabe. Haalli kuni, yaroo hiriyoota waliin wal-arkuu fii barcaaf taa’u, akka nama qamahutti, muka jimaa if dura qaqqabaa, hunda caalaa waanuma qabsoo bilisummaa qofa haasawuu isa jaalchiise. Hoggaa hiriyoonni oduu dubartoota tiin wal booharsan, haala rifeensaa, tafaa fii guntutaan bareedina dubartii madaalan, Elemo, seenaa Jamiilaa Buuheerd, qabsooytuu biyya Algeeriyaa tan yaroo sanitti oduun isii raadiyoo fii gaazexaalee adunyaa dhunfate odeeysuun, bareedinaa fii dhiira gammachiisuun alattiis, dubartoonni, qabsoo bilisummaa tii fiis qooda guddaa gumaachuu akka dandayan haasawaa ture.

Bayyanoota akkanaa tan qaburraa ka’uun, bara 1962 keessa yaroo kaa’imman Oromoo naannoo Dirree Dhawaatti sossooha aadaa tiin hawaasa dammaysuuf gurmaawuu jalqaban, sossoohinsi afaanii fii aadaa eenyummaa beeysisuu qofatti kan hin dhaabbanne tahuu warra jalqabaan hubatan keeysaa tokko Elemo tahe. Haala kanaa fiis, hoogganota kaa’immanii, keessaa huu Abuubakar Muussaa waliin, qunnamtii addaa horuun hawwisoolee Afran Qalloo diinaggee fii yaadaan tin’isaa ture.

Elemo baadiyyaarraa magaala Dirree Dhawaatti godaanee qabeenyaan if dandayaa dhufullee, amaloota badoo magaalaan guddoon qabduun in hawadamne. Jimaa fii sijaaraan namoota daadda isaa biratti faaya tureeniinillee isa fudhachuu hin dandeenye. Toliinsa haalaa fii amalaa biratti, hojjataa haraaraa fii araadarraa qulqullaawe tahuun, Elemo, hawaasa guddaa bira kutee, Haaji Umeerii malees, naaduraa sooreeyyii magaalaa kanneen meeshaa jimlatti irraa bituu, warra akka Hassan Foorsaa fii Saalim Abuubakar Ba-Mihdaar jala naqe. Hundinuu, daldala isaanii bira taranii, shamarraan isaanii tiin warra kajeelu tahan. Haaluma kanaan, warri Baa-Mahdar, daldala isaanii kan Adan jiruuf isa qaadhimatanii, Dirree Dhawaa irraa akka gamas sossoohu amansiisan. Akkasiin, walakkaa bara 1963, karaa Adan sossoohe.

Akka Adan dhaqee biyya bareeniis, warra achi geeysaniif hojjachaa, akkuma Dirree Dhawaatti, seedata dhunfaa cinatti ooffachuu jalqabuun, daldaloota biyya sanii tii fii kanneen biyyaa dhufanitti miyoota barbaadamoo gurgurutti seene. Haala kanaan, daldalli isaa yaroo gabaabduu keessatti toleefii mindooma namaa jalaa if baase. Akka qabeenyi walitti kuufameefiin, achumaa bitee achitti gurguruu mannaa, Taaywaan, iddoo warri inni irraa bitu meeshaa irraa fidanitti sossoohuu jalqabe. Adanirraa Taaywaanitti bobbahuun, yaroo gabaabduu keessatti, Elemo, sooreeysa beekkamaa, akkuma hiikkaa maqaa isaatti, nama if bira dabree rakkataa gargaaru godhe.

Yaroo Elemo Adan seene, biiyti bulchinsa Ingiliz jala turte. Elemo akka bubbulee biyya bareen, dargaggoota biyyaa kanneen dhaaba maqaa Adda Bilisummaa Ummataa, الجبهة القوميّة ykn National Liberation Front (NLF) ja’amuun gabroomsaa ifirraa kaasuuf qabsaawaa jiraniin wal fudhatee, yaadaa fii diinaggeen gargaarutti seene. Sadaasa 30, bara 1967, gaafa sossohinsi riphee loltummaa dhaaba armaa olii, gabrummaa Ingiliz buqqisee, biyya Bulchiinsa Ummata Yaman Dhidhimaa (People’s Republic of South Yemen) gonfachiise, akkuma warra biraatti, Elemo deeggaraa galmaawaa tahuun isaa ifatti beekkame.  Deeggaraa NLF tahuun, Elemo, Falasxiinota bilisummaa biyya isaanii tiif qabsaawan walii niis jaala godhe. Kaayoo qabsoo isaanii galiin gayuuf, walakkaa bara 1964, gaafa dhaaba PLO gurmeeyfatan irraa kaasee, gama waajjira isaanii kan Adaniin, diinaggeen gargaaruun, hariiroo jaallummaa waliin uummate. Isaan malees, Elemo, qabsaawota Adda Bilisummaa Eertiraa (ELF) kanneen yaroo san Adan keeysatti cimoo  turan waliiniis qunnamtii walitti dhaabbatte qabaachuun wal’aansoo isaanii hordofaa ture.

Gama biraa tiin, Yaroon Elemo Adan itti dhaqe, yaroo sossoohinsi qabsoo bilisummaa fii yaanni sirna siyaasaa wajji qabeenyaa kan maqaa Soshalizimiin beekkame hawaasa adunyaa itti dhunfatte. Yaroo sanitti, hawaassan adunyaa hedduu keeysatti, qabsaawonni haala armaa olii kanaan gabroomfataa alagaa malees cunqurfamaa fii saaminsa Abbootii Lafaa jalaa bahuuf wal’aansoo cimtuu godhaa turani. Akka yaadaa tiin sirni wajji qabeenyaa faallaa daldalaa fii sooroma dhunfaa ti. Haalli kuni, silaa, nama akka Elemoo kan qabeenyii amma walitti kuufamaafii jiru, kan makiinaan haarayni, reefu baate, mooraa keessa jaajjitu, kan harkisu hin turre. Garuu, Elemo, nama dantaa mataa isaa caalaa kan ummata bal’aaf irra hadooduu fii yaadu waan taheef, sirna kana qaamaa fii qalbiin fudhate. Kaayoo sirna kanaa fiixa baasuu fiis, akka Yaman Dhidhimaa bulchiinsa Ingilizii jalaa walaba taateen, dhaaba NLF jalatti, goblaa Markisizim keessatti galmaawee, kitaabban Shuu’ii dubbisuun dhorame. Seenaaleen qabsaawota akka Chee Guveeraa fii Ho Chi Miin niis sammuu fudhatanii yaroo hunda afanii bu’uu didan.

Elemo qabeenyaan sooromuu fii mootummaa biyyaa waliin hariiroo jaallummaa qabaachuun, ilmaan Oromoo kanneen haala adda-addaa tiin biyyaa bahanii achi seenan akkaan gargaare. Elemo, warra baqa dhufaniif dahoo tahe. Nyaataa fii dhugaatiin gargaaruu bira taree, hamma qubatanitti, mana isaa bira taree, kophatti iddoo galan horii isaa tiin kireeyseef. San malees, warra daldalaaf achi dhufan, kani duubbee isaanii hin-beeyne, miya isaa liqitti kennuuf jalqabe. Haalli isaa kuni, Elemo, rakkoo keessa galche. Walakkaa bara 1968-ii, namicha tokko kan miya irraa fuudhee achumaan biyyatti hafe irraa maallaqa isaa barbaada Finfinnee dhaqe. Namichi, miya liqiin irraa fuudheef horii isaa erguuf mannaa, Elemo hidhaaf qaadhime. Mootummaa Hayle Sillaasee tan warra dura dhaabbatu akka boombiitti ifirraa eegaa jirtutti, “Elemoo warra biyya alaa keessatti mootummaa dura dhaabbatan waliin nama jiru,” badii jattuun akka qabamee hidhamu godhe. Gama biraa tiin, namichi, durumaanuu tahe ja’amee, mootummaa Xoophiyaa irraa nama itti ergame ja’ama.

Dimshaashatti, gaaroominni, Elemo, goda itti hin qophaawin keessa naqe. Namichi bu’aa akka irraa arkatuuf miya liqiin kenneef, “Adan dhufuu ani hin dandayuu, sumaa tu narra wayyaa, ati as koottu. Noolii baaftu horii keetirratti ida’een siif kenna. Achumaanuu biyyaa fii haala daldala Finfinnee tiis laalta,” yaada ja’uun sobee, Shaggar fidee, illima qopheeyseef keessa naqe.

Qaruuteen mootummaa Hayle Sillaasee, Elemoo keeysaa waan beeku baasuuf, akkuma mana hidhaa ol naqataniin, uleen irra gattaa’an. Harkaa fii miila hidhanii, eessaa tu irra laalataan, akka nama uuda bishingaa tumuutti qaama mara cafaqan. Akkasitti, waan dhagayuu fedhan afaanii baasuu dadhabnaan, dumucoo carqii afaanitti takashanii, akka siilchoo waadanitti sibiila furdaa keessa loosaa tuman. Akka foon suguyyaatti, mataa isaa gadi rarraasanii fannisuun, hamma coraan irraa solloqee foon diimaan mul’atutti, faana keessa tuman. Afaan cancalanii tumuu fii akka foon suguyyaatti fannisanii garafuun, wahuu afaanii baasuu dadhabnaan, warri zaalla-gaaffii, “kuni nama humaa takkallee keeysa hin jirre,” murtii jatturra gayan.

Tumiinsarraa kan ka’e, faanti madooytee, Elemo ejjechuu dadhabee, mana fincaanii dhaquuf gargaarsa barbaade. Mana isaa oowwaa fii jiruu isaa mi’ooytuu keessaa, malaan yaamamee kana mudachuun haalaan garaa gube. Horii isaa barbaadaaf, mana hidhaa kan miila isaa tiin dhufee if naqe keeysaa bahuuf, horii biraa dhangalaasutti seene. Mootummaa gunaan aadaa isii taate jalaa maallaqaan if baasuuf, kan arke hundatte harka hiixaachuu jalqabe. Akkasiin maa-na-uumtetti, hidhaa ji’a jahaa booda, walabummaa horii isaa tiin bitatee, mana hidhaa keessaa bahee, Adanitti deebi’e.

Hidhaan mootummaa Habashaa Elemo haalaan jijjiirte. Eega Adanitti deebi’e, sammuun isaa waan dalagaa dhiiftee, gadadoo balleessaa takka malee biyya haadhaa fii abbaa isaa keessatti mudate, halkanii fii guyyaa, yaaduu irraa hara fudhachuu didde. Saba irraa dhalate, kan biyya isaa keessatti mirga tokkollee qabaachaa hinjirreef, humaa godhaa jiraachuu dhaba isaa tiif gaddi weerare. Haalli kuni, isa dhunfatee, fedhii dalagachuu keessatti laamsheesee, karaa fii haala qabsoo bilisummaa ummata Oromoo irraa qooda itti fudhatu qofa akka yaadu goodhe. Yaada isaa kana hujiirra oolchuuf, odoo iyyaafataa fii qorannoo godhuu, Kaa’imman Oromoo kanneen qabsoo bilisummaa jalqabuuf fedhii qaban biyyaa baqatanii Soomaaliyaa keessa jiraachuu dhagaye. Dhageeytii faana-dhawee akka mirkaneeyfateen, qunnamuuf karaa Maqdishoo barare. Achitti, Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa tii fii sab-boonota biroo kanneen wal’aansoo qabsoo bilisummaatiif qophii tahaniin walitti dhufe.

Elemo, Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa tii fii sab-boonota biroo kanneen fedhii qabsoo bilisummaa akka isaa qaban arkuun haalaan gammachiise. Nama qabsoo akka isaanii tiif murate, kan mootummaa Adan waliin jaallummaa qabu, kan qabsaawota Falaxiinii fii kanneen biroo waliiniis hariiroo qabuun walitti dhufuun, Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa faa keessattiis gammachuu daangaa hin qabne uumte. Hawwii qabsoo bilisummaa tan mootummaan Soomaalee keessatti ukkaamsitetti hafuurri deebi’eef. Marii godhaniin, akkaataa yaada isaanii if dura itti tarkaanfachiisanirratti mala tarrifatanii, Elemo hujii adda fudhatan fiixa baasuuf Adanitti deebi’e.

Ji’a sadii booda, haala sab-boononni soomaalee keessaa itti bahanii fii Adanitti leenjii tooftaa lolaa itti baratan qopheeysee, horii nooliif barbaachisu waliin sab-boonotatti deebi’e. Gabaasaa Elemorraa arkamtetti irkachuun, ji’a Abraashaa/Muddee 12, bara 1969, magaalaa Maqdishoo keessatti teeysuma dhooysatti gaggeeysaniin, qabsoo hidhannoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa jalqabuuf murteeyfatan. Ji’uma tana keesa, warra tooftaa lolaa barachuu irratti ramadaman, qaruutee Soomaalee jalaa mimmiliysaa, tokkoo-lamaan, dooniin bahara ceesisanii Adan naqan.

Elemoo fii sab-boononni Soomaalee irraa Adan dhufan, kanneen Yamanii fii biyyoota adda-addaa irraa itti dabalaman waliin, tooftaa lolaa barachuuf, moora leenjii Falasxiinotaa tan Adanitti arkamtu seenan. Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa, tooftaa lolaa biratti tan riphee loltummaa fii hoogganummaa akka baratuuf gama mooraa leenjii waraanaa tan Falsxiinoonni Suuriyaa keessaa qaban dhaqe. Akka barnoota barbaachisu fixateen, Adooleeysa 23, bara 1970, Adanitti deebi’e. Miyni waraanaa kan arkamee akka naannoo san dhufeen, warra leenjii barnoota lolaa fixatan keessaa qabsaawonni soddomii jaha, karaa Soomaaliyaa tiin Oromiyaa seenanii qabsoo hidhanoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa jalqabuuf, Onkololeessa 17, bara 1970, hoogganummaa Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa tiin, dooniin, Bahara Diimmaarra, Adanirraa karaa Soomaaliyaa sossoohan.

Qabsaawonni 36-n, seenaa qabsoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa keessatti Qeeyroo Ganamaatti beekkaman, gaafa biyyatti deebi’uuf murteeffatan, “hujii fii hariiroo biyyoota alaa keessatti jalqabamte isa caalaa kan fiixa baasu hin jiru,” murtii jattuun, Elemo odoo diduu, akka Adanitti hafu godhan. Qabsaawoni qabsoo hidhannoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa jalqabuuf, leenjii lolaa fudhatanii karaa biyyaa sossoohan, Soomaalee keessaan biyyatti hulluuquuf tattaaanni godhan milkooma dhabe.

Bahara Hindii, kan bitaa-mirgaa fii, gadii fii oliin isaa, kan irra daddeebi’u afanfaajjeessu, guyyaa aduu, halkan urjii hordofaa irra deemanii lafa garaa gayuun rakkisa. Haala kanaan, amniti doonii tan kiiloo-meetira dhibba lamaa fii shantamii olii, qabsaawota Qeeyroo Ganamaa, iddoo tilmaammatan irraa maysitee, halkan dukkana, malkaa Bulloo-har ja’amtu, tan Zeeylaa fii Barbaraa jidduu jirtu geeysite. Achitti, ganama, isaanii hirriibaa hin ka’in, waraana Soomaalee tiin marfamanii, eega dhukaasa walitti banan booda, malaan harka isaanii seenanii, mana hidhaa Man-Dheeraa ja’amutti darbaman.

Qabsaawonni Qeeyroo Ganamaa hidhamuun, Itti Gaafatama Dhimma Alaa tan duraan itti kennamterratti, dirqama waliigalaa, qonyee Elemoorratti dabalte. Elemo, ulfina dirqamaa tan haalli mudeen odoo hin baaragin, yaada qabsaawota Qeeyroo Ganamaa bakkaan gayuuf, hifaata malee warraaqutti seene. Dhimma kanaaf, dooginyoota (Bakka bu’oota) waajjiroota mootummoota Arabaa tii fii biyyoota qabsoo bilisummaa gargaaran waliin hariiroo uumuuf Iraaq, Kuweet, Ordon, Libnaan, Suuriyaa fii Misra keessa daddeeme.

Tattaafanni Elemoo, maqaa fii seenaa Oromoo gurra mootummoota hedduu naqe. Haaluma kanaaf, yaada “Laalcha Sadaffaa Adunyaa” ja’u babal’isuuf, walgayii bara 1973, ji’a Eblaa keessa, Koloneel Gadaafiin Liibiyaa keessatti qopheesserratti, akka qabsaawota bilisa baaftuu Oromootti afeerraan godhamteefii, jilaa waliin, Tirippoolii dhaqe. Teeysuma bakka bu’oonni dhaabota qabsoo bilisummaa biyyota Afrikaa, Aasiyaa, Oroppaa fii Ameerikaa Dhidhimaa irratti arkaman tanarratti, Elemoo fii jilli waliin dhaqan, qabsaawota achitti arkaman, seenaa Oromoo tii fii kaayoo qabsoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa tiin wal-barsiisan.

Elemo, haala armaa olii tiin, Oromoo fii dhibdee isii lammii fii mootummoota biyyoota alaa beeysisaa, karaa kaaniin, karoora Qeeyroo Ganamaa bakkaan gayuurratti qophii barbaachiftu-rratti bobbahe. Haala kanaa fiis, akka karaa ittiin biyya seenamu qoratanii fii caasaa saniif barbaachiftu diriirsaniif, qabsaawota dhimma kanaaf muratan, karaa adda-addaa tiin biyya naqe. Akka qophiin haala kanaaf barbaachiftu xumuramteen, fuula karaa biyyaa deebise. Dhimma kanaaf, Sadaasa 04, bara 1973, sab-boonota leenjii waraanaa fudhatan waliin, mana isaatti teeysuma qopheeyse. Qabsoo hidhannoo bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa jalqabuurratti marii godhaniin, warra kaayicha hujiirra oolchuu fedhan waliin biyya seenuu murteeyfatan.

Yaroo sanitti, Elemo, qabeenya gayaa malees, haadha warraa, Aammuun Umar, tan bareedina daawwatamee hin quufamneen faayamtee fii ilma isaa kan maqaa Kallachaa, Abdukariim, moggaaseef fii intala isaa Hanaan, tan reefu dhalatte, qabaachuu ture. Horii fii matii biratti, hoogganoota biyya Adan waliin jaallummaa qabuun, biyya san keessatti, jiruu nagayaa, sadoo fii qananiin jiraachuu isaaf salpha ture. Saniin alattiis, achuma jiraatee, maqaa qabsoo Oromoo tiin yaroo-yaroon biyyoota alagaa keessa daddeemuun jiruu isaa itti fufuu ni dandaya ture. Garuu, fedhiin bilisummaa tan onnee keeysaa belbeltu, sadoo fii qananii gatee, maatii isaa Rabbitti dhiisee, qabsoo hidhannoo jalqabuuf, karaa daggala Oromiyaa akka sossoohu goote. Akkasiin, qabsaawota waliin biyya seenuu murteeyfatan waliin, miya waraanaa hamma dooniin deemuun dandeeysu fe’anii, Arfaasa 06, bara 1973, Adanirraa ka’anii, qilleensaa fii dambalii hamilee cabsuu barbaaddu keessa hulluuqanii malkaa Asabitti tarkaanfatan. Achirraa, lafa ummata Affar keessa loohaanii hawaasa isaaniitti fullahan.

Elemo faan, odoo biyya hin seenin duratti, qabsoon bilisummaa ummata Oromiyaa, jalqabumaan, Oromoota nannoo adda-addaa akka haammattuu fii hooggana isii keessattiis martinuu akka if arkan godhuun barbaachisaa tahuu hubachuun, hoogganummaa isii falmachuurraa if qusatan. Yaada kana bu’ureeffachuun, akka biyya seenaniin, sab-boonota magaalaa Finfinnee keeysa jiran qunnaman. Arfaasaa 27, bara 1973, Finfinnee keeysatti sab-boonotaa garii waliin teeysuma godhaniin, yaada isaanii kana gayaniinii, hamma qabsaawonni naannoo adda-addaarraa keessatti heddommaatanuu isaan Wiirtuu Gola Qindoominaa (Central Coordinting Body) akka tahan murteeysan. Sanumaa waliin, bara lama keeysatti, Dirreen Qabsoo tan jabaatte keessatti, Walgayii Idilee tan hooggana if keeysaa filtu qophooysuurratti waliigalan.

San booda, Eleemoo fii Qabsaawonni, miya waraanaa kan fidatan iddo adda-addaatti dhooyfatanii, haalaa fii naannoo qubsumaa qorachuu irratti bobbahan. Qormaata yaroo xiqqoo boodaan, Gaara Gubbaa Qorichaa hundee godhatanii, Daloo ifii olitti laalaa, gadiin Galamso daawwachaa, Shaggariin, “kiiloo meetira dhibba lama qofa sirraa jirraa, nuu obsi,” ja’chuun, hidhannoo isaanii tan waraanni mootummaa hin qabneen hawaasa keessa daddeemaa dammaqiinsaa fii hamilee ummataa kakaasutti seenan. Gandi keessa bobbahan, kan itti aanuuf haala isaanii odoo hasaasuu, oduun isaanii yaroo takkatti lammii walgeeyse. Dhaadannoon isaanii tan, “ummanni keenya biyya isaanii keessatti, mirga abbaa biyyummaa mulqamanii, gabrummaan jiraachuun raawwachu qaba!” tan jattu, hawaasa Oromoo bira tartee, tan diinee seente. Nafxanyoonni naannoo Gubbaa Qorichaa dhunfatanii ummata keenya-rratti roorrisaa jiran yaroo tana dhagayan gurra isaanii amanuu dadhaban.

Mulaatuu Tamany tuni natti hin taatu je’e. Mulaatuun, nafxanyaa, lafa guddoo mootummaan ummatarraa fuutee badhaafterratti abbaa lafaa tahee, hawaasarratti roorrisaa ture. Lafa fardaan irra gulufee, fudhatee, irratti qanani’aa jiru, irreen tiiyfachuuf hamma funyaanitti hidhatee, bakka deemu mara ash’karoota hidhannoo qabaniin nama dabaalamaa deemu. Ilmi Temeny akkuma afaan isaatti, onnee horee, Caamsaa 01, bara 1974, guyyaa Isniinaa, jalee waliin, midhaan isaa fidachuuf, Har-diimi-tti ganame.

Qabsaawonni hammi tokko isaanii iddoo itti bobbahan irraa gala deeman, harroota gooroo jala dhunfatan halaalaa arkanii, itti achi deeman. Dargaan Mulaatuu kanneen alaa isa eegan, warra hidhannoon itti achi deemaa jiru agarraan, dhukaasa banan. Namicha dura Dimitfoor dhukaase, Qeeyroon Kilaashiin adda keessa dhooynaan, warri hafan harka samitti ol qabanii Mulaatuu dargaa malee hambisan. Qabsaawonni midhaan boolla torba, kan nafxanyichi harroota shantamiin fe’achuuf deemu, geejjibaa waliin manguddoo biyyaa harka kaayanii, Mulaatuu Waaqatti galchan.

Oduun haala Mulaatuu mudatee, Galamso qaxxaamurtee, Finfinnee baatee gurra mootummaa Habashaa seente. Hayle Sillaasee fii dooginyoonni isaa shororkaa biraa keessa jiraatanillee, tana gurraan dhagayuun taan daran yaachisee, hatattamaan humna daddaffii tan Faxnoo Daraashiitti beekamtu naannoo sanitti ergan. Faxnoon, nafxanyoota naannoo sanii waliin tahuun, manneen irra daddeemanii manguddoota, sheekkotii, daldaloota, barattootaa fii kaa’imman Galamsoo fii naannoo sanii kanaa-sanii malee, hidhatti guuran. Dargaggoonni, nafxanyoota akka saree maraattee Oromoota hidhuuf ganda keessa o’orihan jalaa jalaa miliquu dandayan, qabsaawota biratti jalaa baqatan. Guyyaa sanirraa kaasee, irreen qabsaawotaa cimaa dhufte. Ummanni keessa jiran gadaameysaa tahaniifii caasaan isaanii guddachaa, marsaan bal’achaa deemte. Gama kaaniin, wal’aansoon naannoo sanitti finiintee, lolli walitti dhaabbate. Nafxanyoonni baadiyyoota Gubbaa Qorichaa keessa jiran darsa guurratanii magaalatti godaanuu jalqaban. Baadiyyaan nagaya arkatte. Abbootiin biyyaa xixa nafxanyootaa irraa hara baafatan.

Odoo haalli akkanatti deemaa jiru, Waxabajii 28, bara 1974, Dargiin jaaramtee aangoo biyyaa Hayle Sillaaseerraa fudhatte. Akka barcuma tottolfatteen, rakkoolee biyyaa kanneen muddamsiisaa jiran caalaa, kan naannoo Gubbaa Qorichaatti nafxanyoota mudachaa jiruuf durummaa kennitee, miseensoota isii keeysaa, Koloneel Zallaqaa Bayyanaa naannoo sanitti ergite. Zallaqaan, nafxanyoota baaraga duuti Mulaatuu itti fidde keessaa baasuuf, irbuu seeneef. Ummata Galamsoo dirree magaalaa-tti walitti qabate. Loltootaan marsee, walakkaa dhaabbatee, “isin ummanni Galamsoo fii naannoo isii, shiftoota isin keessa daddeeman fiduu ykn dhabamuu keessaa tokko filadhaa,” jachuun doorsise. San booda, murna waraanaa kan Shaalaqaa Kaasaahun Alamaayyoo tiin hoogganamu, Galamsoo fii Gubbaa Qorichaa jidduu, Gooroo Khinteerii ja’amturra qubachiise.

Akeekni guddaan waraana achi qubachiisuu, ummata naannoo sanii anfariirsuun, qabsaawota isaan keessa jiranitti quba laachisiisuu fi. Ummataa fii qabsaawota duuydaa-garaa godhuufi. Jarri galii tana fiixa baasuuf, hidhannoo guutuun hawaasa keessa bobbahanii galuu jalqaban. Yaroo qarmaammee isaanii-rraa bahanii deebi’an mara, ummata zaalla-gaaffiin rakkuu, doorsisuu fii sodaachisuu hujii godhatan. San isaan hanqatee, gaafa kaan nama tokko galaafatan.

Guyyaa Faxnoon lubbuu nama Oromoo galaafatan, qabsaawonni Amaarota baadiyyaa keessa jiranitti dhaqanii hulaa dhadhawanii, qabsoon manaa bahaniif, tan hiyyeessa Amaaraa, kanneen hawaasa Oromoo keessa nagayaan jiraatan miidhuu akka in tahin mirkaneessaniif. Gochi Faxnoo isaanii fii Oromoota jiddutti garaa-garummaa uumuuf waan karoorfame tahuu beeysisuun, dhaamsaa waliin jaratti ergan. Dhaamsa Faxnoof barreessan irrattiis, akeeka deemaniif ifa baasaniif. Wal’aansoon itti jiran tan gabrummaa Habashaa ifirraa buqqisuu fii, tan abbaa biyyummaa ummata Oromoo mirkaneeysuu tahuu adeessaniif. Sanumarratti dabalanii, ummata nagaayaan jiraatan irratti ajjeechaa hojjatamu akka balaaleeffatan hubachiisan. Akkasumaa waliin, kana booda, yo nama Oromoo tokko ajjeesan, dhiiga gama kaanirraa dhangalauuf warri itti gaafatamu isaan taachaa beeysisan.

Shaalaqaan, yaroo Amaarota qabsaawonni itti erganiin wal-qunnamee, dhaamsa irraa dhagaye, tooftaan isaa jalaa fashaluu hubate. Yo ajjeechaa ummata Oromoo itti fufe, lubbuu Amaarotaa tan galaafatamuuf jiraattuuf itti gaafatamuu isaa arke. Haalli qabsaawotaa kuni hatattaamaan ugguramuu baannan, caalaa hammaachuun isa yaachisee, tarkaanfii isaan dhabamsiisuu tiif waraana isaa qopheessee, Birraa 05, bara 1974, guyyaa Kamisaa, subiin, Gooroo Khinteerii irraa gama raaree Xirrootti sossoose.

Qaruuteen qabsaawotaa sossooha waraana Kaasaahun arkanillee, akkuma aadaa isaaniitti, bobbahanii deebi’anitti waan fudhataniif, hordofuuf itti hin-rakkanne. Kaasaahuniis faana arraantanaa dhooyfachuuf, guyyoota hedduu kan humaa hin balleessin nagayaan, waraana isaa diiramaan bobbaasee deebisaa ture. Arra garuu, midhaan boqqolloo kan hojjaa namaa liqimsuun if dahaa, bakka duri-rra miila dheereeffate.

Waraanni diinaa shokomsaa malee mayra boqqoolloo keessa deemanillee, ilaaloo Qeeyroo jalaa dhokochuu hin-dandeenye. Sayliin Qeeyroo, warri akka hireetti naannoo san turan, akka odeessa arkataniin waraana Faxnoo afaan bahanii, isaanii quba hinqabne dhukaasa bakka takkaa tiin baareeysan. Waraanni diinaa dhokochuuf goda seenan dhaban. Shaalaqaan, zarraafii isaa tiif odoo yaroo hin arkatin, dachii fii samiin itti garagaggalan. Lolli akkaa fii bakka inni hin barbaadinitti itti jalqabamee, xiyyitii fii boombiin karaa hundaan itti xiixan.

Dhukaasni jalqabamnaan, Qeeyroon naannoo jiranirraa karaa sagaleen qawwee itti dhagayamtutti orihan. Waraana diina kan duruu afanfaajjawaa jiru, olii-gadiin, bitaa-mirgaan, itti dhukaasanii lafaan dhawutti seenan. Kaasaahunii fii waraanni isaa, ibidda qaban, ija cufatanii karaa arkan haru malee waan godhan wallaalan. Ummanni naannoo sanii yaroo qawween qabsaawotaa diinaa akka kubbaatti ol kaaftee lafatti gadi deebiftu, halaalaa mil’atanii dinqifachutti seenan.

Lolli ganama jalqabe, dafee raawwachuu dhiisee, lakkumaan, aduu waliin oowwutti seene. Ibiddi gooroo gubbaa itti roobu, baayyina waraana diinaa xiqqeeysaa dhufe. Haalli akka mooraa itti baheef tahuu dhabnaan, ajajaan waraana diinaa, kanneen mooratti hafan dhufanii akka gargaaraniif dirmachuu lallabate. Tanaa-tana jiddu mudaamuddii ol, bakka miilaa fii garaan Elemoo walitti jaajju, xiyyitiin diinaa takka dhuftee seente. Elemo dhawamuu isaa kan hubate yaroo humniti diinaa akkaa-gara dhabdee, dhukaasni gama isaanii tiin itti ol roobu qabbanaawe.

Waraanni mooratti hafan akka iyyannaa dhagayniin, dirmachuuf orihaa dhufanii waaheloota du’aa fii madaawuu irraa hafanitti hafuura lubbuu deebisanii, waliin, qabsaawotatti dhukaasuu jalqaban. Yoona, Elemo, qabsaawonni tokko-tokkoon suuta lola keessaa mimmiliqaa akka lubbuu boruuf baasan ajaje. Haala miliquu isaaniif aanjeeysuuf, ansoolaa deemmatuun irraa fiinxa dhoosee bakka dhiiyni irraa yaa’aa jirutti maree, dhagaa guddaa dahoo godhatee, waraana diinaatti dhukaasa banuuf  jilbiiffate. Qabasaawonni haala isaa kana arkan amrii isaa dura dhaabbachuun, biraa deemuu didan. Elemo garuu, isa caalaa kan arraaf lubbuu baafachuu qabu isaan taachaa itti hime. San malees, “manaa kaniin baheef qabsoo bilisummaa ummata kiyyaa fi. Haala kanaan du’uu caalaa wanni na gammachiisaa hin jiru. Qaanqee qabatte tana akka hin dhaamne godhuun dirqama isinirra jiru. Kanaaf, na dhiisaa deemaa. Ani hamma lubbuun na keeysa jirtu diina isinirraa hiin ittisa.” Jechuun bakka riphiserraa diinatti dhukaasuu jalqabe.

Waraanni Kaasaahuun, gama isaanii tiin, iddoo dhukaasni irraa itti as dhawamutti, xiyyitii malees madaafaa haraa, karaa maraan dooyatti ol yaa’an. Elemo bakka jilbiiffaterraa waaraana diinaa kanneen itti ol yaa’an hamma dandayu odoo lafaan dhawuu, sagaleen kilaash isaa callifte. Waraanni diinaa bakka irraa itti dhukaafamaa ture hoggaa gayan, ibiddi itti roobaa ture qaama adda bittinneessee, haabee nama itti dhukaasaa turee dhaban. Yaroo dilli kuni tahu, dachiin Xirroo maaltu na mudate jette. Samiin naannoo sanii waan jalatti deemaa jiru laaluu jibbite duumeeysa hagooggatte. Aduun kana hunda daawwachaa ooltee, Asrii, lubbuu Elemoo Qilxuu, jeeyna qabsoo bilisummaa Oromiyaa keessatti gita hin qabne, umrii soddomii saddeetitti fudhattee, Gaara Bubbee tiin gadi qaarte.

Oromiyaan ni bilisoomti!

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Bahar Ali Yousuf is a 27-year-old journalist from Ethiopia who had to flee the country last month to avoid being imprisoned by the government.

Yousuf gave an exclusive interview to Al Bawaba about his plight, which provides a glimpse into the Ethiopian government’s ongoing crackdown on the ethnic Oromo.

With a population of at least 35 million, the Oromo are the largest tribe in Ethiopia. They’ve suffered discrimination at the hands of the ruling (minority) Tigray tribe for decades.

The Ethiopian government, which is dominated by the minority Tigray, is a key ally of many Western countries in the “War on Terror.”

Yousuf is from an Oromo Muslim family in the eastern city Harar. He began working as a radio and TV journalist in 2013, covering Ethiopian politics and the Oromo protests that began in November 2015 when the government attempted to appropriate Oromo farmland to expand Addis Ababa, the country’s capital.

The government responded to mostly-peaceful demonstrations by beating and arresting people and opening fire on the crowds. Since November, Ethiopian soldiers have killed 500 demonstrators, Human Rights Watch says.

The government has also cracked down on journalists who publish things that go against the party line.

Last year, Yousuf was imprisoned for three months for his coverage of the ongoing Oromo demonstrations.

“As a journalist, I did my professional job, which is reporting,” he told Al Bawaba. “But the government doesn’t like journalists. They want to hide what’s going on in our country. That is why they arrested me. Because I exposed that youth were being imprisoned and killed.”

Yousuf said he was tortured while he was in prison.

Though he was released after three months’ detention, Yousuf said the government tried to arrest him again, which led him to flee the country for neighboring Kenya.

Yousuf said goodbye to his family and took a series of buses with what little money he had to travel from Harar hundreds of miles south to the Kenyan border.

At the border, Yousuf was forced to spend the night in a hotel room while waiting for the crossing to open the next morning. He said the Ethiopian intelligence services were looking for him and others in area hotels, and he had to flee his room and sleep in the street to avoid getting caught.

The next day he crossed in to Kenya, and rode more buses to get from the border to Nairobi. He arrived in Nairobi on Aug. 16, and is now trying to win asylum from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Yousuf was a reporter in Ethiopia who covered the government’s violent repression of the ethnic Oromo. (courtesy: Bahar Ali Yousuf)

Yousuf said part of the reason the Ethiopian government doesn’t like him is that his father was a supporter of the Oromo Liberation Front, a political party that the Ethiopian government declared a terrorist organization in 2011. Yousuf said his father was imprisoned and killed by government agents in the early 1990s, when Yousuf was only three-years-old.

In August, civil unrest in Ethiopia intensified, as a second ethnic group, the Amhara, joined the demonstrations. Over the course of three days in early August, Ethiopian soldiers killed an estimated 97 people during protests in half a dozen cities around the country.

“Hospitals have been filled by dead and wounded victims,” one witness told Reuters.

The US, which gives millions of dollars in aid to the Ethiopian government every year in exchange for military cooperation in the volatile Horn of Africa, has refused to condemn the government’s massacres, saying only that it was “deeply concerned” with the violence.

Other Western nations, who also use Ethiopia as a military and security partner, have been similarly tight-lipped.

It seems obvious that the inaction of Western powers is perceived by the Ethiopian government as carte blanche to continue beating, arresting and slaughtering its own citizens.

“Still now the Ethiopian government are killing the Oromo people and taking their land and resources,” Yousuf said.

-By Hunter Stuart

Follow me on Twitter @hoont

Email me at hunter@corp.albawaba.com

The post Oromo journalist describes harrowing flight from Ethiopia appeared first on .

By Edao Dawano

(OPride) — On the morning of Sept. 3, eyewitnesses in Addis Ababa reported a flurry of gun shots at Qilinto prison, a remand center on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital. That was followed by the expansive compound catching fire, which has reportedly destroyed a large part of the maximum security jail often used as a holding place for political prisoners awaiting trial.

Authorities confirmed 23 deaths but activists say the casualty figure could be as high as 60. The Qilito prison houses up to 3,000 inmates, including prominent Oromo opposition leaders Bekele Gerba, the deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and his colleagues.

The loss of life in such a gruesome way is heartbreaking. And the Ethiopian government’s handling of the tragedy is simply revolting–to say the least. Nearly a week after the incident, the whereabouts and status of the detainees remains unknown. After shuttling between several federal prisons hoping to locate their loved ones, on Wednesday distraught mothers staged an  impromptu protest demanding to either be given the body of their dead relatives or be given access to them. To add insult to their injury, some were themselves detained.

Most of the prisoners at Qilinto were locked up on trumped up charges in connection with the 10-month old Oromo protests. I have no doubt that they longed to be free and be reunited with their families. They dreamed and hoped to see injustice lifted from their people. Yet, at least for dozens of those detainees, both their hopes and lives were destroyed by a suspicious fire in a dark jail cell where they’re physically powerless to escape or defend themselves.

I sat thousands of miles away from Qilinto, absorbing the news and trying to imagine what it’s like for the families to be kept in the dark about the fate of their loved ones. Bontu Bekele Gerba is a brave and courageous young woman. In her media appearances, she speaks with so much composure exuding an unnatural strength. I used to envy Bontu that she gets to at least visit the prisons and see and speak to her father. Hers is no enviable position at all but I somehow found myself relating with her situation this week.

My father Bekele Dawano, a fierce advocate of Oromo rights, among the legion of Oromo freedom fighters, disappeared 25 years ago when I was a mere child. I grew up my entire life not knowing whether my beloved father is dead or alive. The blackout of the news of Qilinto and the government’s refusal to inform the families left me paralyzed and filled me with agony. It brought back years of pent up anger and pain.

For years, I thought blessed and lucky were those that knew where their loved ones were–for they could at least go and visit them in prison. Even those whose relatives or family members were killed, could mourn, have some kind of closure and move on with life, as they say. But not having any closure about my father, whose fate and whereabouts remain a mystery a quarter a century later, is akin to living with an unrelenting and insidious pain.

If I had known my father is in Qilinto, like everyone of the families of the prisoners held there whose fate remains unknown, I would have ran wild  to the site to seek information about his status. I would have been arrested demanding to see my father’s corpse or a proof that he’s alive. But I’m not lucky enough.

I share the agony of awaiting for dreadful bad news that Bontu and the families of the rest of the prisoners might be living through. Not knowing the fate and wellbeing of someone you love kills–piece by piece. Over the years, I found the psychological torment harder than anything else, there are plenty, I had to cope with. Distance does not shield me from feeling their pain as I grew up nursing it having been robbed my father when I needed him the most.

After 25 long years of uncertainty and searching, I still nurture a faint hope that my father could be in any of Ethiopia’s many jails. So, when a prison is torched, as the case these days, my hope shrinks a bit. I feel as if my father and his fellow prisoners of conscience are smoldering there unattended. I feel suffocated seeing the smoke billowing into the sky. I fear and worry that the Ethiopian government, which snatched my father and robbed me of a normal childhood, may have now burned him alive. I try to assess the moral culpability of those in power and try to imagine the sheer inhumanity of the prison guards shooting down inmates attempting to put out a raging fire. Nevertheless, I find myself drowned in deep thoughts and overcome by a feeling of powerlessness.

It’s late at night, alone in my bed, twisting and turning, I try to write and then stop. I fight back tears and ponder over the possibility of my father being at Qilinto. I wouldn’t have known. He could be one of those shot or burned alive while fighting to douse the inferno with his bare hands. I ponder, since he disappeared more than two decades ago, even if he’s incinerated at Qilinto, he could be rendered unrecognizable or be left there to suffer and slowly meet his death. Having processed all this, I sort of wake up from my hallucinatory state of mind and wish that I would be lucky enough to claim his body and end the decades of sorrow and pain. It is this sort of hope against hope that’s been my secret to ease the burden of memory, as well as profound and chronic agony.

I know I am not alone. There are other families who have similarly been kept in the dark for years. I sometimes wonder how they cope with the sorrow.

My hope and reasons

I spent most of my formative years drifting in thought in search of my lost father and trying to understand what life in prison is like. Having used to them and finding them to be largely uninformed, the rumors that keep flooding me don’t any longer offer much of a hope. Some say my father was killed long time ago. Others claim he’s tortured and he died due to illness and lack of medical care. My father is a man of principle and unshakable political conviction. I was once told that his captors admired his courage and bravery as to not kill him. And instead he’s being held at one of the remote hidden prisons along with other prominent prisoners such as Nadhi Gamada, Yosef Bati, Lamessa Boru and many others who disappeared from the public eye in the last two decades and a half. On a good day, this gives me a sliver of hope–however fleeting.

Sometimes I wish I had the opportunity Bontu Bekele Gerba and other children of Oromo political prisoners had: to visit their fathers in prison. I would have done the same if I had known wherever he was imprisoned. In fact, disregard the visitation, a knowledge that my father is alive would have been enough to calm and steady my yearning and tattered soul. Not knowing that kills. I want to comfort Bontu and others who are being subjected to unspeakable ordeals like this week’s but often I don’t even know how to express my own reality. Sometimes I feel no emotion at all as if my heart has become laminated in pain and everlasting grief.

Through exile and years of uncertainty and high flying rumors about my father’s whereabouts, either he is long dead or still alive, I have chosen to keep him alive — and that slim hope gives me a respite from the chronic pain.

This lived experience, as dismal as it is, gives me a unique understanding of the Oromo struggle for freedom and our progress, as well as shortcomings. My father would be so proud to witness the Qubee generation taking the mantle and defiantly pushing the struggle forward. He would be delighted to know that the Oromo are on the cusp of realizing their long-held aspirations for freedom, justice and equality. It is also why I remain hopeful. My father’s and his likes’ sacrifices were not in vain. The progress we’ve made as a society was borne on the back of a great cost of lives, torture and imprisonments of many. Every kid believes their dad is a giant. But for me this is not just a childish fantasy, my father and those who sacrificed and are sacrificing so that the tens of millions of Oromo suffering from repression, discrimination, and marginalization will someday live normal lives are Giants in our tortured history.

This is what I want to share with Bontu and all the families of disappeared or dead prisoners at Qilinto or elsewhere. In the midst of all the trauma and anguish, we should not lose sight of the fact that because of our sacrifices — i.e., families of the victims of the Ethiopian state’s gross injustices — the struggle for freedom will triumph and the yoke of oppression will soon be lifted from the necks of our people. The sacrifices of these political prisoners will serve as a torchlight and an inspiration to current and future generations to uproot injustice in all its forms.

In due times, all lives lost in the fight for the advancement of Oromo rights will be revived–at least in our collective consciousness. They will return for my children, yet to be born, and their children as their collective heroes and heroines to emulate. That is why we must and shall remain committed to sustaining our national struggle and bringing it to its logical conclusion: an end to tyranny and injustice in all its forms. Only by doing so can we keep those brave heroes as well as heroines and their memories alive and celebrate their noble sacrifices.

Aluta continua! Praise and glory to all the brave souls that came before us.

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Tesfalem Waldyes & Kalkidan Yibeltal

(Addis standard) — On June 28 2016, hundreds of people in Jido Kombolocha, a small town located in East Shoa Zone of the Oromia regional state 207 km south east of Addis Abeba, were heading towards the local Farmers’ Cooperatives Union office. Even though it was Tuesday, the air was full of a market day ambiance – market days for the farmers in the surrounding rural Kebeles are usually on Monday and Thursday. Many of the farmers used carts pulled by donkeys, while others used their horses.  A few, on the other hand, preferred to walk. At their destination, a crowd of people had already gathered, flooding the Union’s compound that accommodated tin-roofed houses.

The local administration uses the compound, which harbors sacks of grains and cereals piled on three separate spots, as a relief food distribution center. Residents that came from the surrounding rural Kebeles were lining up to collect food aid that was being distributed. The sacks, which the farmers were loading on their carts or sitting on, visibly display the national flag and a statement that reads: “Gift from the Government of Ethiopia.”

Milling wheat, white pea beans, cereals and edible oil were the main items given to the rural residents of Adami Tulu/ Jido/Kombolocha Woreda on that day. But the distribution targeted only three of the 43 rural Kebeles in the Woreda. Home to some 172,000 people, the Woreda is designated as one of the hot spot areas of the recent El-Nino induced drought that affected more than 10.2 million people all over the country.

For inhabitants of the area, drought related rain shortages are not uncommon. Living in an area prone to water scarcity, the local farmers chiefly depend on the main rainy season, spanning from June to September, for the cultivation of their produces. Thus, whenever a rainy season botches, thousands are immediately relegated to the status of food aid recipients.

Nonetheless, the reality of the past two years was nothing like they had seen thus far.

“On previous occurrences only four to five Kebeles were affected. The number of food aid beneficiaries [normally] fall between five to ten thousand,” Abiti Kemele, Head of the Woreda’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau, told Addis Standard. “Now all the 43 rural kebeles are affected. The number of beneficiaries is huge. Almost 70 to 80 per cent of the population is [living] on food aid.”

What makes the recent drought especially worse is that it affected not only farmers considered to be vulnerable to external shocks but also those who are included in the much publicized (and admired) social security system, otherwise known as the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). It is a program that was designed (and is being implemented) to respond to not only  chronic food insecurity problems but also short term environmental shocks, and help millions of people under its umbrella become sustainably self-reliant.

Targeting highly climate-vulnerable population, PSNP is a double-pronged program that aspires to provide social protection to the chronically food insecure and shield the poorest of the poor in the rural areas from environmental shocks, while simultaneously reducing the risk of disaster by building up the capacity for resilience.

The program, which began in 2005, often receives applauds, both from the federal government, which is in charge of running it, and its Western development partners, which are helping to finance  it; both parties maintain the narrative that PSNP is a package that bridges the response gap between emergency relief and long-term development aid.

However, more than a decade after it first came into being and a year into its fourth phase, which extends to 2020, PSNP appears to have fallen short on some of its significant promises and aspirations.  (Read our economic commentary here).

Decent proposal, modest effects

Plans for the PSNP, commonly known as “Safety Net,” were first laid in 2003, but the actual  implementation was launched only two years later when the government started providing food or cash transfers to food insecure households – households that had been on food aid assistance for at least three previous years. Aimed at preventing asset depletion in household level and creating productive assets at the community level, the PSNP, according to official documents, incorporates intensive public work activities to improve resilience, risk financing facility to help poor households to better cope with transitory shocks, and assisting the most vulnerable community members to obtain the full benefits of consumption smoothing and asset protection.

At the onset of its implementation, only four regions; Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNP) were included. But in the decade since its birth, it grew and now covers eight regions.

Theoretically PSNP is a program designed to engage its beneficiaries in labor intensive public works, 60 per cent of which are in soil and water conservation. In order to fill the food gap often experienced during a lean period – the time between harvest and planting when households tend to run out of food – cash is paid for up to five days of work a month per household member. This cash-for-work project goes for six months a year, until recipient households accumulate an asset and income level that enables them meet their food needs for 12 months, and until they are able to withstand modest shocks at which time they ‘graduate’ from the program.

In the ‘direct support’ component of the program, on the other hand, groups that cannot contribute labor to public works are offered unconditional cash or food of equivalent value to that received by labor contributing households. Pregnant and lactating mothers, the elderly, persons with disabilities and the chronically ill are some of the beneficiaries of direct support.

However, a 2011 PSNP impact evaluation study found out that households receiving Direct Support had considerably lower average income and asset values, and owned and cultivated less land than households participating in the Public Works component.

And a study conducted by Guush Berhane et al. of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Can Social Protection Work in Africa? The Impact of Ethiopia’s Social Protection Program, found out, “[a]gainst the formidable background of rising food prices and widespread drought, participation in the Public Works component of the PSNP has modest effects.”

To its credit, the program reduced the length of the last hungry season by 1.29 months a year among households that received transfers for 5 consecutive years compared to eligible households that received almost nothing. Meanwhile five years of participation raises livestock holdings by 0.38 tropical livestock units as compared to receipt of payments for just one year.

During the 2011 Horn of Africa food crisis, the PSNP response had cost an estimated US$53 per beneficiary compared to US$169 per beneficiary targeted through the usual traditional humanitarian response system, according to a report published by the UK’s House of Commons International Development Committee.

In its fourth phase now, the PSNP targets to reach 10 million food insecure Ethiopians by 2017. According to the blueprint document for Phase Four, which commenced in September 2014, the program is expected to cover a total of 411 Woredas by the third year, showing an increase of 92 Woredas compared to PSNP phase three.

Perpetual state of poverty

Adami Tulu/ Jido/ KombolochaWoreda is one of the 262 food insecure Woredas when PSNP was launched in 2005. But the Woreda remained in the beneficiary list for the last 11 years. The household of Ahmed Haji Kedir, 55, is one of the registered 23,000 beneficiaries of the program.

Ahmed mainly relies on the Safety Net to feed his eight children, himself and his wife. He receives 730 Birr per month on behalf of five of his eight children. His other three children, his wife and himself are excluded from the program. Ahmed complained that the amount his household receives is not enough to buy food for the family, let alone cover other expenses. “A quintal of maize now costs 700 Birr,” Ahmed told Addis Standard. “We are left with 30 Birr after we bought maize. It is only enough to buy some Kale (cabbage).”

Like the 8,000 inhabitants in his village, Dambe Adansho Kebele, Ahmed is severely affected by the failure of rain in the last two years. For six months of a year, he and his family survived through the Safety Net’s support but for the remaining months, his family totally depends on his daily labor work.

Despite being a recipient of the Safety Net program since its inception, Ahmed is not able to recover his plot of land which he sold years back to sustain his family. He is also not able to build an asset during his 11 years stay in the program. “I don’t have land,” Ahmed said, “I am not able to get out of poverty.”

Ahmed Haji relies on the Saftey Net to feed his family of ten

It’s the struggling beneficiaries like Ahmed that trigger a question of the effectiveness of the PSNP. A document by the World Bank states that the program is embedded in the Ethiopian government’s strategy and policy of food security and eradication of extreme poverty. The Bank, which is one of the 11 co-financers of the PSNP, considers the program as a direct contributor to the “two pillars of the organization’s new global strategy of reducing absolute poverty and promoting shared prosperity.”

However, what Addis Standard observed on the ground is in line with what critics of the program point out. On his research, Food Security and Safety Nets: Assessment and Challenges, Desalegn Rahmato of Forum for Social Studies, argues that although the program had a “positive impact on many beneficiaries, the gains made so far have not been adequate enough to ensure robust food security for most households.”

Others indicate at the ever ballooning cost of the program as yet another gauge to question whether or not the program has met its target of reducing poverty amongst millions of its beneficiaries. Several indicators show that the financing of the project is registering a significant increase with every phase rather than declining.

For the first phase of PSNP, 2005 to 2006, donors have contributed US$70 million. That amount almost tripled to US$200 million for the second phase that ran from 2007 to 2009. The five year long third phase, which started in 2010 and ended in 2015, consumed US$2.3 billion. When it reached to the current phase the figure has sky rocketed to US$3.6 billion.

As the budget keeps on growing, so does the number of beneficiaries, which was 5.2 million at the program launch in 2005. It quickly climbed to 7.2 million just after a year. On the second and third phases, the numbers have increased to 7.6 million and 8.3 million, respectively. The current phase, PSNP Four, which is being implemented for a period of five and a half years as of September 2014, targets to benefit as high as 10 million people.

As of September 2016, an urban safety net program will also start operating in Addis Abeba, the government said a few weeks ago. The program is expected to assist more than 260 000 beneficiaries, of whom 60 000 will be recipients of Direct Support for the coming ten years and will consume some 36.7 billion ETB (US$ 1.5 billion) according to the government .

This alarming increase in both the number of beneficiaries and the money to fund the program by itself sharply contradicts the initial plans for the program. It was declared that as households achieve food security and ‘graduate’ from the program, the number of beneficiaries will decrease over time.

However, even the few people who are ’graduating’ from the program, keep on falling back into poverty as food price hikes and rain failure fuel food insecurity in rural Ethiopia. Accordingly, impact evaluations indicate that there is a strong preference among beneficiaries for payment in food than in cash due to uncertainty about food prices, lack of food availability on the market, deliberate price inflation by traders when cash transfers are made, and the imbalance between the value of the food basket and current cash payments.

A success story dotted with holes

Despite several acclaims the program receives for enrolling millions of food insecure Ethiopians, one of the major holes in PSNP has been the absolute lack of practical measurement to decide whether or not it is successfully helping those enrolled in the program.

According to a document released by the World Bank, since 2005, 2.8 million people have graduated from the program. Graduation from the Food Security Program in Ethiopia, a study published in March 2014 by the Bank maintains that graduation has become central criteria to the government’s assessment on whether or not the program is succeeding in meeting its objective of reducing chronic food insecurity in the country.

However, effective measurement to decide those who are considered ready to graduate from the program is dotted with several irregularities ranging from absence of strong institutional capacity to measure, to the government’s unbridled interest and absolute control of measuring the results. Critics also point at the fact that even if there is a significant decrease  in asset depletion and an increase in asset building in general, both trends tend to freeze only after a short period.

“In theory, all chronically food insecure households in Ethiopia should be registered on the PSNP, and those with labor capacity should exit from the program when they have achieved a level of food security,” WB’s study on graduation explains. “In this sense, a crude indicator of the success of the PSNP could therefore be measured by the total number of households registered on the program, which is expected to fall every year.”

The problem is even those ‘graduated’ beneficiaries, supposedly resilient to shocks, often show a high tendency to relapse to the level of food insecure after a single or two failed rainy season.  Addis Standard witnessed several previous participants of the program from Dambe Adansho Kebele lined up to receive food aid at Jido town on June 28. Gelas Abate, 46, is one of them.

Gelas Abate complains that he “was forced to graduate” from the program before he stood firm on his feet

A farmer and a father of ten, Gelas was enrolled in the PSNP during its introduction in 2005. He stayed in the program for nine years. He claims that he was “forced to graduate” from the program before he stood firm on his feet. Although his life has improved “a little bit” while he was staying in the program, he has now relapsed and is, once again, seeking for support to sustain his family. “I bought chickens and goats on the money from the Safety Net,” Gelas told Addis Standard “[but] when I exited from the program I sold them all.”

After the program, Gelas mainly depends on the rental fee from his small plot of land but that meager income is never enough. So when the government started food aid distribution in his locality in January 2016, his family was registered as food aid recipients. But only four out of the 12 members of his family were qualified to receive aid, and Gelas is not happy about it. His family now receives 60 kg of wheat and 1.5 liter of edible oil per month but that, Gelas argues, is not enough for a family of 12.

Gelas is not the only former beneficiary of the PSNP who speak of a “forced graduation.” Those who were receiving “direct support” from the program, or households who, in the program’s lexicon, are “considerably older, had fewer members, and had fewer able-bodied workers,” were also made to ‘graduate’. The selection committee in Kebelelevels often verifies the direct support beneficiaries as measured by their ownership of “livestock and landholdings.”

Asena Berisso, an elderly in his seventies, matched the requirements when he became enrolled in the program. But he was one of the 41 elderly people who were allegedly forced to ‘graduate’ from the program in 2014. A father of ten and visibly weak to farm his small plot of land, he rented it out to other farmers. Like Gelas, he has now fallen back into food insecurity when the recent drought struck his village.

“Old people are forced to exit from the program to fulfill the quota set by higher authorities,” a fellow villager of Gelas and Asena said. “The confused chairmen of the Kebele included the old and weak people [as graduates] in order to fulfill the quota.”

The head of the Kebele concedes. Temo Gemechu, Chairman of Dambe Adansho Kebele, told Addis Standard that he included “some old people” and other beneficiaries to meet the 60 person quota graduation requirement he had received from the Woreda authorities. Though the Safety Net has a “Graduation Guidance Note”, he used simple criteria to include the beneficiaries on the graduation list.

Temo’s Kebele began graduating the beneficiaries since 2007. According to him, the Kebele first uses ownership of any livestock, including sheep and goats, as a graduation criterion. Later on even having chicken started to be considered as an asset.    Research papers indicate that in other parts of the country annual cash crop production, land size and land quality are used as a graduation criteria.  “A household is considered ready to ‘graduate’ from the PSNP when it has achieved ‘food sufficiency’,” Graduation from the Food Security Program in Ethiopia states. “Though conceptually clear, this definition raises several questions at an operational level, including how to assess whether a household is ‘food sufficient’ over a 12-month period, and how to assess whether the household is resilient against modest shocks.”

The Dambe Adansho PSNP beneficiaries, who believed they graduated from the program prematurely, went to appeal their cases in the city of Zeway, 47km from their village. In 2014 representatives of 170 such beneficiaries have delivered a letter of appeal to the Woreda officials based in Zeway. But they did not get any response as of yet.

Another study published in May, 2013, Ethiopia’s PSNP: Integrating Disaster and Climate Risk Management, maintains that as the program uses existing government systems and staff at all levels, rather than creating separate structures, for management and implementation, capacity constraints at the regional and local levels have affected its operation while communication between departments was weak.

But contrary to the criticisms by various experts and beneficiaries, some researchers continue lauding the PSNP in Ethiopia as an exemplary social security scheme and recommend other countries in Africa to replicate it. The government too often promotes the program as the flagship component of its larger food security strategy and boosts its success on several occasions. On the donors side the program is considered as a “pivotal shift from annual emergency food aid appeals to a planned approach to food security and predictable drought risk management” and achieves its goals. “PSNP has contributed significantly to improved food security in Ethiopia over the past years, consistently meeting its development objectives,” a World Bank document claimed.

But the one thing both its critics and its advocates agree on is that the program has created the infrastructure for a vast logistical arrangements that has helped Ethiopia handle the recent drought better than what would have otherwise been the case.   This is despite the fact that the same drought has killed hundreds of livestock, including those belonging to the beneficiaries of the program.

Ethiopia, a country dependent on rain-fed agriculture and prone to the smallest change in climate pattern, will remain vulnerable to both “chronic” and “transitory” food insecurity in the coming near future. Even donor organizations, which often claim the success of the PSNP, do not hesitate to admit that “food insecurity, malnutrition and vulnerability will remain high” in Ethiopia.

In September 2014 the World Bank document estimated that 29 per cent of Ethiopians live under absolute poverty while 44 per cent of them suffer from chronic malnutrition. It further stated that an estimated 43 percent (46 per cent of the rural population) are vulnerable to absolute poverty. Analyzing such numbers and trends, experts argue that the PSNP will inevitably linger for foreseeable future. “The food security program as a whole is heavily dependent on the donors and all the indications are that it will remain so for many decades to come,” Desalegn Rahmato predicts in his study.

“Food security will be achieved without a robust safety net program, and there is therefore a need for an expanded and better managed PSNP that is well integrated with agricultural, health and other services provided to communities by government and non-government agencies,” Desalegn’s sober reflection added.

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Famine, Genocide and Media Control in Ethiopia 

Habtamu Dugo
hab.dugo@gmail.com
Visiting Professor of Communications,
University of the District of Columbia

Joanne Eisen, DDS
joannedeisen@cs.com
Senior Fellow, Criminology and Genocide,
Independence Institute, Denver

Source: Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.9, no.10, December 2016

Abstract

In Ethiopia, we show how the ruling elites have long understood the reality that their donor nations have abhorred the horrific violence that is common in their country. Our analysis of media attention shows rapid shifts in government policy in response to global publicity and the global public understanding of massive death, especially of children and civilians. The pattern of government response to media attention by sudden changes in policy, the pattern of intimidating journalists and the policy of destroying infrastructure needed for communications may be evidence of ongoing genocide. This information may be helpful to those who seek markers for the presence of genocidal activity and who wish to halt the progress of genocide without armed intervention by using the shaming effect of global publicity.

Key words: famine, media control, genocide, genocide prevention, genocide denial, Oromo, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa

Background to Defining Genocide by Attrition

In order to maintain power in Ethiopia, the ruling elite need to maintain the flow of cash and weapons. But, in order to keep their foreign donors happy, they deny genocidal acts against their targeted peoples, and they need to create a believable cover-up to explain the presence of mass deaths. The Abyssinian rulers had no choice but to be satisfied with the slower genocide of hunger and deprivation that could be more easily denied as being deliberate. In order to perpetrate genocide that was mostly funded by foreign aid, the government needed to destroy information flow.

We observe that in Ethiopia constant famines are blamed on climate or drought, but other factors, including destructive government policies, are conveniently avoided. Yet, Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze unequivocally stated, “The points of overriding importance are: that there is no real evidence to doubt that all famines in the modern world are preventable by human action; that many countries—even some very poor ones—mange to consistently prevent them; that when people die of starvation there is almost invariably some massive social failure (whether or not a natural phenomenon had an initiating role in the causal process); and that the responsibilities for that failure deserve explicit attention and analysis, not evasion.”1 Ideally, one should expect that chronic hunger and multiple episodes of mass deaths should no longer exist. One should especially expect that sophisticated, educated people working at the international level would know that fact. Yet, even today, Ethiopian rulers create and ruthlessly carry out policies including forced deportations known to be causing mass starvation and death among some of its ethnic groups, and have not been blamed by foreign observers and donors.

Finding ‘Intent to Destroy’ in the Patterns of Policy and Denial

The United Nations Genocide Convention (UNGC) is the defining global law that relates to genocide. The protected groups are defined as “national, ethnical, racial or religious” and so would include the Oromo, the Ogadeni, and other conquered nations of the South of the country. The act, or ‘actus reus’, committed might include outright killing, but also might include, according to UNGC IIc “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, which would tend to lead to a slow type of genocide. The act could also refer to a negative act, for example, the perpetrators might ignore the problem and not call for aid while people in the target populations are dying. Ethiopian ruling elites have always denied knowledge of famine episodes, and even as they were committing acts destructive to the lives of their peoples, they continued to deny knowledge and culpability.

The first task in defining genocide is to recognize that a major defining boundary set by the writers and signers of the UNGC is the term “intent”. The prosecutor must prove destructive acts against certain defined groups, but those acts must be committed with ‘dolus specialis’, “intent to destroy” a particular protected group, in whole or in part.2 If intent to destroy a group cannot be determined, there may be crimes against humanity, but there is no genocide.

However, intent can be inferred. Genocide scholar Jerry Fowler wrote, “Inferring intent from conduct in the absence of direct evidence is widely accepted.”3 In this paper, we show that the special “intent” of the minority Abyssinian rulers to destroy Oromo, Ogadeni and peoples of the south can be inferred from the way government responds to media attention to hunger in order to mitigate negative responses of donor governments and reduce global embarrassment.

Government action taken with knowledge of media attention before, during and between the famine episodes should show that, in Ethiopia, there is government understanding of wrongdoing that needs to be hidden. The conduct required to change direction quickly demonstrates the centralized organization required to do so.

In addition, the mass deaths from famine and forcible deportations that cause destruction and death result from organized repetitive acts from which one also could successfully infer “intent” and so also satisfy the requirements of Article 2. These famines and forced deportations are repeated down the decades, as is ever-stronger media control. What appears to be failed policy to outsiders is actually successful policy to the elite leaders for whom deadly outcomes without negative repercussions to them is the desired goal. In other words, the desired policy outcome is the secret mass death of the conquered population.

These tactics include denial of hunger and distortion of the facts to outsiders, refusal to ask for aid and refusal to accept aid (depending upon whatever tactic might work best at the moment) , removing food stores from the affected area, repeating food production policies that have failed , preventing victims from pursuing proven coping mechanisms, physically isolating the area, denying minimal medical care, mass deportations and targeting the specific subject people who have been chosen to lose their right to food among other tactics.

Haile Selassie Government and Famine (1892-1975)

Emperor Haile Selassie was the son of Ras Makonnen, who was Governor of Harar Province and cousin and advisor on foreign affairs to Emperor Menelik II. Haile Selassie was mentored by Menelik II during his teens after his father died of cancer. Both Ras Makonnen and the Emperor were cognizant of the benefits and dangers of media attention and certainly must have transferred that understanding to the young boy.

Read Full Report in PDF

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Violence Against Free Media and Knowledge Dissemination in Ethiopia: An Analysis of the Mechanisms of Restrictions on Information Flow

By Habtamu Dugo
hab.dugo@gmail.com
Visiting Professor of Communications,
University of the District of Columbia

Abstract

This article examines multiple mechanisms the Ethiopian state has been using to implement information blackout throughout the country in order to distort, misrepresent, hide and deny massive human rights infractions perpetrated by the military against citizens demanding self-government, basic rights and justice across Oromia state and Ethiopia. The data for this research were obtained through multiple research approaches, which included reviewing three relevant Ethiopian laws that justify information blackout; reviewing reports by human rights organizations; reviewing news stories on the topic in multiple languages; and reviewing audio-visual materials containing press releases from Ethiopian authorities. The study finds that the Ethiopian government has used a mixture of mechanisms to restrict the free flow of information by: introducing a slew of draconian proclamations, resorting to suppressing and removing communications applications and hardware and engaging in robust local and global misinformation and denial campaigns in times of unprecedented domestic political upheavals.

Key words: press freedom, freedom of speech, media control, social media control, information blackout, state-led violence, Oromo, Ethiopia, East Africa, Horn of Africa.

Introduction

In the summer of 2014 Ethiopian government police, security forces and commando units shot live ammunitions into crowds of peaceful protesters killing at least 100 (OP, 2014). The protesters were opposed to a city planning scheme known as the Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan (IDMP). By the time this plan was released, Addis Ababa’s expansion had already displaced 150, 000 families of Oromo farmers and was set to displace millions more across Oromia (Legesse, 2014).

Demonstrators demanded that the IDMP be halted immediately and the Oromo people’s constitutional right to self-rule be respected. The Ethiopian government did not respond to the popular demands. Instead, authorities promised massive violence against civilians in an attempt to continue the implementation of the draconian plan (Biyyaa, 2014), characterized by the Oromo as “master killer.”

In a compressive study released in 2014, Amnesty International (2014) reported that between 2011 and 2015, “at least 5000 Oromos have been arrested based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.” The popular understanding of the IDRP among the Oromo is that it will continue to uproot millions of Oromo farmers from their land and lead to the eventual splitting of Oromia into two halves—the east and the west. This will separate the Oromo people who share the same language, identity and a regional state from each other. Even families would be separated as they have been in North and South Korea.

None of the perpetrators of the April and May 2014 massacres were brought to justice nor was there an independent investigation into the mass killings by government security. Instead,some government officials such as Abay Tsehaye, the former Minister of Federal Affairs, threatened to take more actions against anyone who is opposed to the plan (OMN, 2014).

Oromia-wide protests against the IDMP recurred in mid-November 2015 in small town west of the capital city “when the government transferred the ownership of a school playground and a stadium to private investors, in addition to clearing the Chilimo natural forest to also make way for investors,” (AI, 2015). In just over a few weeks, the protests spread to all parts of Oromia, involving people from all walks of life. The government responded with lethal force which resulted in the death of more than 200 people, including children, women and the elderly (HRLHA, 2015). Thousands of Oromos were wholesale labeled as “terrorists”, giving a blank check to government officials and commanders of the security forces to act with impunity. Hundreds were killed, thousands maimed and several thousand imprisoned. The government placed a ban on domestic and international human rights organizations, media, journalists, bloggers and citizen journalists to cover up the use of lethal force to suppress the protests and the staggering number of casualties.

Human Rights Watch noted the government’s tight chokehold on information as follows: “Ethiopia’s pervasive restrictions on independent civil society and media mean that very little information is coming from affected areas although social media are filled with photos and videos of the protests,” (HRW, 2016). This has left the global community in the dark about the real magnitude of the crimes security forces have committed. This paper analyzes the different facets of the Ethiopian government’s restrictions on information flow focusing on actions taken during the Oromo protests of 2015-16.

I contend that the government’s endeavors to create an information blackout was designed to avoid responsibility for the mass killings, maiming, detentions, rape and other crimes that the federal police, the Agazi Special Forces, and other state security units have committed against unarmed Oromo civilians. The study also reveals that the government has used a number of ‘legal’ and coercive strategies and tactics to exercise monopolistic control over information.

Disinformation

One of the ways in which the government uses to conceal its atrocities is the state-controlled media and crackdown on alternative media. With near monopoly on media outlets in the country, top government officials appear on state-controlled television (formerly ETV) and make statements that cannot stand to simply scrutiny. On December 15, 2015, for instance, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn threatened to take “merciless actions” against Oromo protestors whom he labeled “terrorists,” “anti-peace forces” and “destabilizing “forces”. He indicated that the government’s Anti-Terror Task Force will take swift measures to restore order. While the security forces have indeed carried out the orders, the purpose of the threats was to cow people into submission. In other words, the media is used to carry out disinformation battles that parallel the real actions.

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 Look who is talking! TPLF is worried about “territorial integrity” of Ethiopia. Wow!

By Bayisa Wak-Woya

Abstract

Following the events at the IOLA organized London Conference on National Consensus, where an individual participant of the event made a “damaging” statement about the emergence of “free Oromia” on that ashes of a “dismantled Ethiopia”, TPLF, and the tiny elite Amhara diaspora, made effective use of the freely provided “ammunition”, to convince their respective constituencies that Ethiopia’s territorial integrity is really in danger. While the statement quoted by the TPLF was authentic, the event was presented by TPLF and the elite Amhara diaspora as if the Oromos gathered in London to discuss how to disintegrate Ethiopia which was not the case. This “out of context” individual statement and the way it was construed by TPLF, compounded by the series of statements made by the tiny Amhara diaspora elite that have always been vocal and destructive, gave me the incentive to write this piece with the objective of clarifying not necessarily about the London Conference itself but the actual position of Oromos regarding territorial integrity of Ethiopia. The writing is not based on scientific research or empirical studies but on my personal experiences and judgments regarding the TPLF rule of the past 25 years.

“ከመስታወት የተሰራ ቤት ዉስጥ የሚኖር ሰዉ ድንጋይ ለመወርወር የመጀመርያዉ መሆን የለበትም”
I
Background:

1. Following the London “Oromo Conference for National Consensus” which was organized by the International Oromo Lawyers Association – IOLA, from 22 – 23 October 2016, with the objective of bringing the numerous Oromo political organizations together, TPLF media outlets were seen airing extracts from a statement made by one participant to the Conference, in which the individual was caught “red-handed” declaring in public, inter alia, that “Free Oromia shall be built only if Ethiopia is dismantled”. TPLF[2], reopened the closed internet and social media outlets which were blocked following the declaration of state of emergency, to “reveal” to the Ethiopian people the “hidden agenda” of the OLF, i.e. the alleged “dismemberment” of Ethiopia. As some commentators said, TPLF got the “right ammunition” to discredit the agenda of the Oromo people’s uprising in general and that of the OLF in particular. Very surprising!

2. I am equally surprised by the outcry of the usual crowd of that tiny minority but vocal Amhara elite in the diaspora who, for generations, could not get out of that hallucination about secession of Oromia from Ethiopia. They echoed TPLF, without leaving a room for doubts, immediately bent on convincing fellow Ethiopians that the Oromos are indeed working to dismantle Ethiopia. Unlike with TPLF, which is relatively a new comer to modern Ethiopia’s body politics in general and debates on national question in particular, the Oromos have been dealing with this tiny minority of Amhara elites in the diaspora for more nearly half a century. But no matter how my fellow Oromos, both as individuals and as political organizations tried to explain the root causes of our dissatisfaction with the current and previous Abyssinian ruling systems in Ethiopia and the true nature of our demands, this fundamentalist and destructive group never made an attempt to understand our concerns. They are either mentally unable to comprehend the contents of our demands or have some hidden agenda like TPLF, to discredit the genuine, right-based claims of the Oromo people. Not for purposes of convincing these stubborn and conscious sleepers but for the benefit of other genuine Ethiopians, I would like to reiterate our century old demand, it being the freedom to determine our own fate. A very simple agenda to understand – an agenda that is not against the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. But there must be a will in the first place to understand it!

3. One quick question that may cross our mind though, is, why on earth TPLF and the die-hard Amhara elite in the diaspora made a big deal out of this individual statement at the conference which lasted less than one minute but did not want to quote from the numerous other issues participants of the Conference dealt with over two long days? And why both TPLF and the die-hard Amhara elite did not focus on or quote from what the Oromo people have been saying in public during the past twelve months of popular uprising? There must be something serious going on which must have scared TPLF to death. From the outset, I can say that, both TPLF and the die-hard Amhara elites were looking for a black cat in a dark room, not realizing that the cat was not there in the first place. ከብት ባልዋለበት ኩበት ለቀማ ማለት ነዉ!

II
Why Now?

4. The answer is very simple: for one, it was crystal clear that the Oromos wanted the TPLF rule to end and be replaced by a democratic government so that the right of self-determination is fully implemented. And this, of course, is not what TPLF wanted to hear or see. Another reason is, I believe, the fact that different nations and nationalities of Ethiopia are taking serious steps towards forming coalitions of opposition. In my view, it is this combination of factors that has scared TPLF. Hence, it is very natural that it should react irrationally, resorting to all possible tools to keep the different Ethiopian nations and nationalities apart, i.e. divide and rule. It is the true nature of all minority repressive rulers in general, and for TPLF in particular, that they seek to hang on to power and continue exploiting human and material resources only for as long as they keep everyone apart. Otherwise, the Oromos never had an agenda to dismantle Ethiopia, and Ethiopia is not a pile of sand that can be dismantled simply because one individual made such a blunt statement. In any case, no one, even the ones who do not want to see Ethiopia intact, have the right to dismantle her without the consent of her more than one hundred million citizens.

5. The socio-political situation in Ethiopia in general and the one in Oromia and Amhara regions in particular is becoming an issue of concern not only for Ethiopians but also for the international community. That being the case, different Ethiopian political organizations which previously were created along ethnic lines, and therefore were not on good terms with each other, decided lately, to form coalitions and act in unison to remove TPLF from power and to facilitate the process of creation of democratic Ethiopia. The process is at its nascent stage, and hence may take a while to mature and become effective, but the very fact that these formerly presumed adversaries (especially the Oromos and the Amharas) decided to come closer together, must have scared TPLF to death. The panic is understandable. Any repressive regime representing the interests of a tiny ethnic minority, would have behaved the same way. TPLF knows perfectly well that it cannot maintain the status quo unless it keeps the Oromos and Amharas apart. It is for that very reason that such a blunt and un-necessary statement by an individual participant of a Conference was chosen as ammunition to be used by TPLF as a proof to the people of Ethiopia that its regime is a guarantor of Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. It is also one way of “reminding” the Amharas about “the hidden agenda” of the Oromos.

6. TPLF, from day one, were engaged in constantly reminding the elders and inculcating in the minds of the Oromo youth that the primary enemy of the Oromo nation is the neftegnas e. the Amharas, while posing as their “liberator” and “protector” of the Oromo nation from those “evil neftegnas”. To keep on reminding the Oromos about the past brutality of the Amhara system, they built monuments in Oromia region although the number of Oromos actually killed fighting the TPLF regime (both while they were in the bush and later on as a ruling regime) are by far more than the number of all Oromos killed during the successive Abyssinian ruling systems in the history of modern Ethiopia. Bad luck for TPLF, that these previously adversarial ethnic groups slowly started understanding that it is, in fact, the primary enemy to both.

7. It is because of this legacy pre-dating the London conference, which now emerged as an issue of common concern both for TPLF and this vocal die-hard Amhara elites in the diaspora, that I wanted to use this golden opportunity to smash both of them in one go. ሁለት ወፎችን በአንድ ድንጋይ – as the saying goes! In doing so, I would like to underline that, I have nothing against the Amhara or Tigray people, and, as a matter of fact, against any people, because the issue we are dwelling upon is not the headache of the ordinary citizens of Ethiopia but of the so called literate group of our society. Otherwise, and as we speak, the Amhara people in Gonder and Gojam are saying it loud and clear during demonstrations, demanding the release of Beqele Gerba and other Oromo political prisoners and shouting that the blood of Oromo that is split by TPLF killing machine is their blood and that they take any offences committed against the Oromos as an offences against them as well. My profound belief is very simple: የመንግስት እንጂ የህዝብ ጥሩ ወይም መጥፎ የለም:: And as far as Oromos are concerned, the TPLF regime is one of the worst systems ever to reign over modern Ethiopia.

8. Unfortunately, every time the Oromos, both at home and abroad raised issues surrounding their rights, as a nation, to self-determination, there has always been panic among the others, especially the Amhara elites in the diaspora. For some reasons unknown to me, this legitimate aspiration by the Oromos for self-determination has been construed as an attempt to secede from Ethiopia, in other words, interpreted as an attempt to dismantle Ethiopia. That is very unfortunate. The rights of nations to self-determination as a group right which is accorded to all nations and nationalities, including Tigray and Amhara people, has little or nothing to do with “የአገር ማፈራረስ” theory of TPLF. Self-determination, is an internationally recognized human rights norm. At the end of the day, in any case, the final word as to whether the Oromo people would prefer to remain within Ethiopia (as Oromo Ethiopians) or chose to have their own independent state of Oromia, lies with the Oromo people and not with the self-appointed Political organizations or lone wolf individuals making statements about her future. And the Oromo nation so far has not been given that opportunity for its demand to be heard let alone the chance to make an informed decision on how it would exercise its fundamental right to self-determination.

III
The Conference itself:

9. To begin with, and contrary to TPLF’s distorted information, the London Conference was organized not by the OLF or another Oromo political organization, but by International Oromo Lawyers Association, (IOLA)[3], an independent think-tank, and non-political and non-denominational professional association of Oromo lawyers from around the world. This London Conference was just another undertaking by IOLA, except that this time, its objective was about the ongoing Oromo mass uprising and the lack of a unified approach by the Oromo political organizations to deliver leadership.

10. This is the Conference which TPLF “used” as a pretext to confuse the Ethiopian people as if it was organized by OLF and as if the objective was to discuss the dismantling Ethiopia. It used a statement made by an individual representing one of the seven political organizations present at the Conference (and for the record – not the OLF representative) where he was heard saying, inter alia, that “Oromia shall be built on the grave of a dismembered and dismantled Ethiopia”. The statement, although followed by applause from some of the participants, (I think that was the objective of the statement in the first place), surprised most of the participants. I believe the whole objective of making such a populist statement, was to gain some points and support through a mere applause from the much agitated and frustrated audience. The political organization which this individual represented at the Conference was the first among the Oromo political organizations to form alliance with ግንቦት-7/ አርበኞች, which de facto and de jure implies that his political organization was in coalition with a multi-national organization which is working to maintain the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. I was in that conference hall myself, when the statement was made, but like everyone else in the room, I did not find it necessary to react immediately because, it was the individual’s fundamental right to express his opinion about Ethiopia. Had he said, that “Oromia shall be built on the grave of Ethiopians” I am quite sure that most of us would have condemned him to death because it amounts to a hate speech which should not be entertained no matter when and where. So, making a statement about Ethiopia is different from making similar statement about Ethiopians. Above all, the individual has no mandate from the Oromo people, subsequently, he was only representing his party, if at all, and NOT the Oromo people. In any case, a personal comment of one Oromo individual should not be attributed to the cause of the Oromo people – period!

IV
My take on TPLF

11. Let me now address TPLF: Few years back, I wrote against attempts then being pursued by Ethiopian political organizations who were advocating to form alliances along ethnic lines to fight you – TPLF. I honestly believed that you were genuine in your dreams to eliminate that century’s old oppressive feudal system and to contribute to the efforts of other ethnic groups to create a democratic Ethiopia where all nations would be treated as equals. At that time, I refused to join that choir of Ethiopian nationalist groups, thinking that you were too new to the power seat and that you would definitely continue working hard to remove that ugly ruling system once you solidified your government in Finfinnee. Little did I know that you were actually not what I thought you would be. Now I realize that I was too naïve. But, be it! Luchshe pozna chem nikogda goes the Russian saying. (Better late than never). Now I understand you very well to the extent that I am not only capable of reading what you say or write but I can also read between the lines and locate where your evil and hidden thoughts are packed.

12. With time passing, I began realizing that you are just like any other ethnic minority ruler known to human history (for example, the white minority in South Africa, Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi, or the Sunni minority in Iraq or Bahrain). As you know, these minority entities not only enjoyed the absolute grasp on power but also a total monopoly over the national economy. One thing which differs these national minority rulers from the traditionally known occupying forces is that they did/do not have another “motherland” to which they would have taken what they had looted from the occupied land or that could serve as a fallback position to run to when they lost control over nationals of the occupied land. No matter what, when they lose political power (as it happened in South Africa), these national minority rulers remain in the country they ruled and face the consequences of not only their failed policies but also of all the crimes they had committed during their rule. An occupying force, to the contrary, loots the occupied country’s resources, to benefit the “motherland” and runs back to the “motherland” as and when it loses control over the ruled population of the occupied land (country).

13. That being the case, and for some time now, I was not quite sure where to place you – as an occupying force (ወራሪ ሃይል）which is ruling Ethiopia against the will of its citizens, exploiting her resources to benefit a motherland (ታላቋ ትግራይ) while working hard against the territorial integrity of Ethiopia, OR, just as one of these historically known minority rulers which is bent to rule Ethiopia with an iron fist, grossly violating the rights of the citizens. Now, two decades later, with full confidence, at least with 99% conviction, I can say it loud and clear that you are indeed an occupying force. I reserved for myself a 1% probability as benefit of the doubt, and will use that portion at the end of this writing.

14. You may wonder, how I reached this conclusion. I did not conduct any scientific research or empirical studies. And there was no need for it. There are stories narrated to us by survivors of Italian occupiers[4], like that of my dear mother, who from time to time, used to tell us stories about our “የሰሜን ወንድሞቻችን” (using laureate Tsegaye’s words), how they used to come to her village, deep in Western Oromia, arrest the young ones, beat them and humiliate them in front of the family, looting whatever is available in the village – all this with impunity, defending the interest of their master – the occupying Italian force. Although illiterate and not in a position to keep diaries of events, my mom still harbors vivid memories of the events during that five years of Italian occupation, that, the perpetrators were not Oromos for sure (although non-whites) and that they were too brutal. She told me numerous stories from that time how she as a little girl witnessed all the abuses committed by these “non-Oromos” and said that she sees similarities to the actions of the current rulers – in her words Waa hin Yaadnee (ዋንያድኔ)– the Afaan Oromo pronunciation for Woyane and its surrogates, with those “non-Oromos” behavior during the Italian occupation. My mom’s story served only as a pretext for my conclusion. The rationale for my above conclusion actually emanated from my own experience with you both when you were in the bush and then after you occupied Finfinnee. I was supporting your cause when you were fighting the Derg and continued supporting you after you took power in Addis until you decided to sever ties with OLF in 1992. OLF, as you know, went the extra mile to give up its secessionist agenda and joined you and other Ethiopians to lay the foundations for the creation of a democratic Ethiopia. It is from that moment on that I decided to take some time and to compare your actions with that of the Italian occupiers and surprisingly found that the specific characteristics of Italian occupying force, squarely fits with how you are now ruling Ethiopia. The similarities, in my view, include but are not limited to the following:
    1. Designing specific laws for the occupied people that are not applicable to the occupiers, (occupiers are always above the law). Businessmen and entrepreneurs of the occupying force are exempted from tax payment, enjoy preferential treatment in business – imports and exports;
    2. Creation of special armed force (in your case, the አግአዚ) which is loyal only to the occupiers and given carte blanche to arrest, torture and kill the natives with impunity, dealing with any native resistance, overt or covert with brutality – most of the time with summary executions and mass killings;
    3. Formation of pseudo-organizations comprising of collaborators (volunteers – ባንዳዎች) or through coercion (the civil service) to use them as the mouth-piece of the occupying force and implementers of the rules and regulations imposed on the occupied territory and people;
    4. Identification of loop holes in the social strata of the people in the occupied territory and use them against each other (Rayas in Wollo were assisted by Italians to fight the Ethiopian army because they (the Rayas) were badly treated by the Abyssinian ruling system then), and (for TPLF) granting preferential treatment to some minority groups that were badly treated by the successive Abyssinian regimes, and use them against other ethnic groups which it perceived as enemies;
    5. Controlling not only the population but also the nation’s economy to benefit the motherland (Italy and Tigray, respectively). Italian occupiers moved all what they thought was valuable, including, monuments from Ethiopia to Italy. TPLF is doing exactly the same thing – moving all what is movable to Tigray including major military armaments, air and ground forces armory and command posts as well as major telecommunications and electronic infrastructure and raw material to run the industry in Tigray.
    6. Never investing on long-term projects in the occupied territory. If invested, the product is designed to feed in to the economy and benefit of the “motherland”. TPLF hardly built factories in Oromia whereas dozens were built in Tigray running with raw materials from the Occupied Oromia. It closed ALL airports in Oromia (except the one in Jimma which is vital for transporting resources to Tigray) while building more in Tigray. It forbids Oromo entrepreneurs from buying or selling coffee in Oromia, for example, or the Afar businessmen from being involved in salt production in Afar, giving all these rights to EFFORT[5].

15. The comparison can go on and on. But, Let me conclude the comparison here and continue with highlighting other recorded, concrete actions which made me believe that you are indeed an occupying force ruling Ethiopia not only to exploit her resources to achieve your goal of building grand Tigray but to also leave her as a destroyed nation (with possible civil war) after your departure.

16. Let me start with your leader, who led your “victorious army” south to Ethiopia proper, who, even after his demise continued ruling you and by derivation, Ethiopia. This man by the name, Meles Zenawi is not an Ethiopian to begin with. I stand to be corrected if you prove me wrong but as far as my so far inconclusive investigation is concerned, there was no public record neither in Church files nor in the archives of civic statistics where a child by a name Meles Zenawi was ever born in Adwa, and as a matter of fact in Ethiopia. A school record in Adwa and later on at Wingate secondary school or Addis Ababa University never show a record of a student by name Meles Zenawi. I heard stories from TPLF propaganda section stating that indeed, Meles Zenawi was a name de guerre (የሜዳ ስም) and that his real name was Legesse Zenawi. Let me give you the benefit of the doubt that indeed it was Legesse who changed his name to Meles for whatever reason. Meles, if we assume that he was indeed born Ethiopian but changed his name when in the bush, he could have benefited from the grace and generosity of the civil code his party put into effect and restored back his real name, Legesse. But that is not the case here. Of course, Meles never bothered to go through that legal procedure to officially change his name from Meles to Legesse, as prescribed by the national law, because of one of the following two reasons: he either concluded that the Ethiopian law does not apply to him (he is head of an occupying force) or he indeed was never an Ethiopian from birth. In any case, both assumptions only confirm my doubts that Meles and his TPLF led ruling party, are alien to Ethiopia.

17. Another very obvious fact that proves you are indeed an occupying force is that you are still in a liberating mode i.e. liberating Tigray from Ethiopia. After fully liberating Tigray in 1991, i.e. dismembering Ethiopia, which was why you were created in the first place, and on your way to occupy Ethiopia in the same year, you succeeded in creating surrogate entities allegedly representing all Ethiopian ethnic groups you baptized them with names ending with “Democratic Organizations – ዴድ” – (ኦህዴድ፣ ደህዴድ፣ ጉህዴድ፣ ሶህዴድ) and made them members of your Noah’s Arc (የኖህ መርከብ) – EPRDF. While you baptized the new family members of your so called “Front”, where de facto you are the only one owning it, you did not even bother to change your name from “Tigray Peoples Liberation Front – TPLF – ህወሃት” to “Tigray People’s Democratic Organization – ትህዴድ” but decided to maintain it even today, in 2016. It is understandable that you went to the bush to “liberate Tigray” from Ethiopia, but once you liberated Tigray from Ethiopia in 1991, the fact that you decided to advance South, to topple the government and occupy Ethiopia – the very country from which you wanted to secede in the first place; and, that you still consider yourself, after nearly three decades, a Liberation Front, qualifies you to be an occupying force.[6]

18. To fill the power vacuum in Addis and because of the pressure from the international community, you entered in to an agreement with OLF and other opposition groups (although many were excluded) to share power in the Transitional Government. OLF for one obvious reason that it believed in the creation of democratic Ethiopia where all outstanding national questions would be solved, left behind its secessionist agenda and joined you wholeheartedly to play a decisive role in drafting the national Charter. For reasons which are clearer to me now, you wanted OLF to be only a junior partner at best, and not an equal one at all. Hence when you realized that OLF, because of the undivided support it enjoyed from the Oromo people, was going to undermine you – representative of a tiny minority from the North, you used all possible behind the scene tactics and coercion to force the OLF out of the Transitional government. The objective was clear – as an occupying force, you did not want power sharing with an organization that was dedicated to contribute to the efforts of others to pave grounds for the emergence of democratic Ethiopian. You got rid of a rival Ethiopian political organization with its army comprising tens of thousands well trained fighters and declared the occupying TPLF fighters as the sole component of Ethiopian national army. You achieved your goal number one – occupying and ruling Ethiopia ALONE.

19. As an occupying force, you created courts and prosecutors as well as the nation’s prison system exactly the way occupying forces organize in countries they occupy. The Italian court and prison system and the way they used Ethiopian collaborators (mainly from among our Northern brothers) to torture and humiliate Ethiopians who were defending her territorial integrity from the occupying Italian fascists is the exact replica of how you and your collaborators are treating Ethiopians today. The way you are treating Bekele Gerba and other decent Oromo Ethiopians who are advocating for the creation of democratic Ethiopia on your grave is not different from how the Italians treated for example, the legendary Oromo patriot and spiritual leader of Ethiopian Christians, Abuna Petros, (born Magarsa Badhasa), who declared እንኳን ህዝቧ አፈሯ ራሱ ለወራሪ እንዳይገብር ገዝቻለሁ ያሉት፡፡ Your kangaroo courts, the way the prosecutors provide false accusation and line up false witnesses to testify against the wrongly charged Oromo activists and the manner in which the judges’ rule on non-existing and not-proven evidences simply to silence those who advocate for strong and democratic Ethiopia, is exactly what you copied from the court system practiced during the Italian occupation. The way your judges sentenced hundreds and thousands of peacefully demonstrating Oromo youth to life imprisonment or even to death based on falsified allegations of bombing of hotels or looting of factories or other fabricated accusations, is an exact reminder of how the Italian courts dealt with Ethiopians who were presumed or perceived to have helped those who were openly protesting against the Italian occupation in defense of Ethiopia’s territorial integrity.

20. You categorized every opposition group, national or multi-national movements (OLF, ONLF and Ginbot -7) as terrorists while declaring yourself, (TPLF) – also a “Liberation Front”, a ruling party. You produced two main justifications for the categorization of the above three Organizations as terrorists: a) they are waging war against territorial integrity of Ethiopia from their base in a foreign country; b) they are allegedly getting support from Issayas. These alleged “terrorist organizations” are known to have very few fighting forces in Asmara to the extent that they, at least in the near future, could not have posed any imminent threat to your rule. What is most surprising is that, TPLF, for “unknown” reasons, did NOT categorize the Tigray People Liberation Movement (TPDM) as a terrorist organization, although, similar to OLF and Ginbot 7, it is also based in Asmara, fighting against TPLF regime and supported by the same Issayas Afeworqi. TPDM, unlike OLF and Ginbot-7, has thousands of fighting forces i.e. “posing serious threat” to the TPLF regime. Hence, the categorization of certain opposition groups (in this case the OLF, ONLF and Ginbot-7) as terrorists is not actually based on facts of their objectives and activities, or the immediate threat they may pose on Ethiopia, but rather based on their ethnic roots. Of course, Tigray opposition fighters (TPDM) or the ruling party (TPLF), both representing Tigray, cannot be considered as terrorists, no matter what they do although both of them de facto and de jure, are fighting to dismantle Ethiopia.

21. The most surprising of all is that, these organizations that you are telling us are fighting to dismember Ethiopia (although their respective programs state the opposite) are actually repeating exactly what you were doing for seventeen years before you came to Finfinnee. You were, a) against the territorial integrity of Ethiopia (because you fought for the secession of Tigray from Ethiopia); and, b) you were supported by Issayas who, not only provided you with everything you needed to achieve your objective of dismembering Ethiopia but who also escorted you to Finfinnee and stayed with you for a few years until you became strong enough to “rule” the occupied Ethiopia. For the record, and unlike TPDM, the political programs/agenda of both ግንቦት – 7 እና ኦነግ does not include secession from Ethiopia.

22. I remember it as if it was yesterday, the year you, the first seven bandits went to Dedebit to start the so called “liberation of Tigray from Ethiopia”. To achieve that goal of dismemberment of Ethiopia, of course, you fought for seventeen years during which time you, not only damaged and destroyed Ethiopia’s infra-structure but also killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, mainly soldiers. As you know, most of these soldiers were ethnic Oromos, who, as members of the national army of Ethiopia, were defending territorial integrity of Ethiopia. You killed them for one and ONLY one reason – to liberate Tigray from Ethiopia i.e. dismembering Ethiopia. When you succeeded with your plan of liberating Tigray from Ethiopia, you realized that, Tigray as an independent entity could never become a viable state for a simple reason that it has neither the manpower nor the natural resource for basic survival, you decided to occupy Ethiopia, by then a nation which was very much weakened due to combined internal and external factors. Nothing could have stopped you from marching south to Addis Ababa and fill the power vacuum and plant yourself as an occupying force.

23. As a matter of fact, Ethiopia, constitutionally, ceased to be a unitary state from the day your parliament adopted the current Constitution in 1995. The rights of nations to self-determination was included in the Constitution not only as matter of principle but as a practical tool to be invoked and used by any nation or nationality as and when it desires to do so. Article 39 of the Constitution clearly stipulates the criteria and procedures to follow should one nation decide to leave Ethiopia. So dismantling Ethiopia, under the current Constitution, is not only constitutional but also legal as long as stipulated procedures are adhered to. I am for the rights of nations to self-determination and fully support that it is incorporated in the Constitution, reflecting Ethiopia’s commitment to the letters and sprits of Article 1 of the two UN Covenants of 1996, to which Ethiopia is a signatory. Although it is very clear that all Ethiopian nations and nationalities have the right to invoke Article 39, to-date Oromos have not been seen demanding this right. In my view, this is a proof that for Oromos, Ethiopia is their land built with their blood and bones, hence, they do not see it necessary to demand secession from Ethiopia. One should be a moron to demand dismemberment of its own body. So, your cry for territorial integrity of Ethiopia and accusation of the Oromos for fighting against it, while posing yourself as vanguard of that territorial unity is simply laughable. Of all the political originations in Ethiopia, you as TPLF, have neither the moral nor political authority to talk about territorial integrity of Ethiopia.

24. From day one of your assumption of power, you did not hide your intentions to let part of Ethiopia given to neighboring countries like the Sudan and Eritrea, and cut part of neighboring Ethiopian regions (which you ethnically engineered, by the way) and paste them to Tigray to achieve your long-term goal of creation of ታላቋ ትግራይ. You did not even dare to hide your intentions of weakening Ethiopia to benefit “ታላቋ ትግራይ”. Within few weeks of your assumption to power, Tigray grew from one of the tiniest regions in Ethiopia to becime a big one with its new connecting border-lines with the Sudan and acquiring more territory from Gonder and Wollo. Without an expressed consent and proper mandate from the Ethiopian people or endorsement even from the puppet parliament, you gave chunks of Ethiopian territory to neighboring countries and made Ethiopia one of the few landlocked countries in the world. Your founders and spiritual leaders like Meles and Sibhat Nega very proudly said it in public that Assab never belonged to Ethiopia and that any attempt by Ethiopians to reclaim it will be crushed by TPLF. Over my dead body, said Meles in at least three occasions! Assab is sold for the second time in modern Ethiopian history, and this time, by the leader of the Occupying force. Never in modern human history is such a political blunder observed – voluntarily waiving a nation’s right to have access to sea. You may be ignorant of history of nation-state formations, but States have always seen using ALL available means to ensure that their country is not land-locked, because lacking access to sea is tantamount to death by suffocation. Peter the great moved his capital city from Moscow to Petersburg, not only to keep the Swedes at bay but also to have an un-hindered access to the Northern Sea. In my view, your action to make Ethiopia a landlocked state can be explained only in two ways;
    1. you are politically immature, because you failed to understand the importance of having access to sea; or,
    2. you have a hidden agenda –weakening Ethiopia in exchange for something which might be beneficial for ታላቋ ትግራይ later on. Either way, thanks to your stupidity or smart hidden agenda, Ethiopia today became a landlocked country finding itself totally at the mercy of Djibouti and Arab adversaries. The damage on our national economy kept aside! Only an outsider i.e. an occupying force can do that to another State. At least this is not what is expected from you – someone who is trying to convince us that it is concerned about territorial integrity of Ethiopia.

25. One of the most effective tools used by you as an occupying force to maintain effective rule over the occupied territory and population, which you are now implementing, is the policy of divide and rule. We all know how in the past, when you orchestrated series of crimes – for example, killing of ethnic Amharas in Bedeno and Gura Farda and attributing that to OLF simply to proof to the Amharas that, Oromos are their enemies. A very similar tactic used by Italians to pose one against the other. It is a proven fact that there has never been part of Ethiopian history where Oromos killed the Amharas (save officially declared conflicts and wars that took place in the course of expansion) and vice versa. One should not dig archives to confirm my assertion about the past but suffice to observe how the Oromos have been protecting ethnic Amhara minorities in Oromia during the past twelve months of mass uprising. Not a single Amhara is affected during the year-long uprising although there are millions of ethnic Amharas living in Oromia region today.

26. It was obvious that you came to Addis with vengeance – to hurt all those who, in the course of defending Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, fought against you and your secessionist theory. As I said above, the Ethiopian army, majority of which were ethnic Oromos, did what they were supposed to do as members of the national defense force i.e. defending territorial integrity of Ethiopia. But for you, of course after seizing Finfinnee, keeping such a patriotic army in place would have been suicidal, so you had to disband them as a whole, something which had never been heard of in human history. It is very normal to remove senior officers and key figures in the army and police following regime changes but disbanding the entire national defense force and civilian police is a recipe which only you as an occupying army, brought to our nation. You know it very well that these Ethiopian forces you disbanded in 1991 were fighting against you for 17 years, not for any reason other than defending Ethiopian territorial integrity. The fact that, nearly one hundred thousand of them came to defend the territorial integrity of Ethiopia from the invading Eritrean army in 1998 is a living proof of this. As you perfectly know, and a crime for which history will never forgive you, out of the nearly hundred thousand of these former Ethiopian soldiers you recalled following the invasion, 75,000 of them, most of whom were ethnic Oromos, sacrificed their dear lives to defend the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. They did not hold grudges against you for what you have done to them in 1991. They marched to Badme, a God forsaken piece of barren land in “ታላቋ ትግራይ” which has neither natural resource nor any strategic value whatsoever, to defend the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. Looking back now, I am convinced that your agenda was different. You were not worried about territorial integrity of Ethiopia but of “ታላቋ ትግራይ”. It is an open secret that you sanctioned all Ethiopian soldiers and statesmen who, following the victory at Badme, suggested to use the opportunity and march to Assab to re-claim it, because of what we now believe, is your hidden agenda. For you, Badme was more important than Assab! Now, look at yourself – a liberation front, still maintaining a secessionist agenda, a liberation front which disbanded the Ethiopian national army that sacrificed its life for territorial integrity of Ethiopia – now telling us that the Oromos are plotting to dismember Ethiopia. What an audacity! ከጅብ ጅማት የተሰራ ክራር ቅኝቱ ልብላዉ ልብላዉ ብቻ ነዉ አሉ::

27. You are using pretexts to punish the native population like all other occupying forces known in human history. When the patriots Abraham Deboch and Moges Asgedom threw bombs at the senior officer of the occupying army in Finfinnee, the Italians used it as a pretext to kill, imprison and torture hundreds and thousands of residents of Finfinnee overnight. This is exactly what you are practicing in Ethiopia in general and in Oromia in particular since you occupied Ethiopia in 1991. You used and continue using pretexts or producing false allegations against those who defy your rule, to imprison, torture or kill. Because of their expressed discontent with your rule and demand their right to self-determination (which is absolutely legal and constitutional) and subsequent defiance against your puppet local rulers – the so called OPDO, you imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Oromos to the extent that they now make more than 75% of all prisoners in Ethiopia. No wonder Ato Siye, after being released from prison, testified that Oromiffa is the language predominantly spoken in Ethiopian prisons! You imprisoned, tortured and killed hundreds of leaders of various Oromo political organizations who advocated for Democratic Ethiopia simply because it is against your final agenda – dismembering Ethiopia. You killed tens of thousands Oromos who peacefully demonstrated against your rule and you never brought to justice the killers of these innocent citizens who only demanded respect for their fundamental human rights as stipulated in the Constitution. Of course, the laws you introduced in your capacity as an occupying force, applies only to the citizens of the occupied territory and NOT to the occupiers. Your prosecutors apply stipulations of the nation’s criminal / penal code to imprison Oromos who were expressing dissenting views, but when the Agazi kills hundreds of peacefully demonstrating Oromo students and the youth, you assign the Human Rights Commission to investigate and report to the parliament ALL the killings that is carried out by the killing squad. Of course, Ethiopian prosecutors have no jurisdiction over them.

28. Similar to what the Italian occupiers did, you spent time and energy and of course at the expense of other Ethiopian regions, to build in Meqele – capital city of the occupying force, colossal monuments for your ethnic kinsfolk secessionists, who fought and died for separation of Tigray from Ethiopia (dismemberment of Ethiopia). You did not, of course, for obvious reasons, build at least diminutive monuments for the few Tigray heroes who fought for Ethiopian territorial integrity against Italians. In your attempt to wipe out all memories of those who fought for Ethiopia’s territorial integrity during the five years of Italian occupation, you shamelessly renamed, for example, the Holeta military academy, named after an Oromo hero, General Mulugeta Buli who sacrificed his dear life while defending Ethiopia’s territorial integrity against Italian invaders, and renamed it the Hayelom Military academy. We all know that Hayelom fought and killed hundreds of Ethiopians, (mainly Oromo soldiers who constituted majority of Ethiopian army) who fought for territorial integrity of Ethiopia to achieve your goal of seceding Tigray from Ethiopia. He never, ever, fought for territorial integrity of Ethiopia. I wouldn’t have fallen into this trap and go to this level to talk about ethnicity at this age, and to join the choir of Ethiopians who were very doubtful of your sincerity from day one had I seen at least one major undertaking by you to recognize Oromos, and they are in thousands, who sacrificed their lives for Ethiopia. Naming just one street in Finfinnee in the honor of Abichu, the young Oromo warrior form Salale who made history at Adwa not only by destroying numerous Italian soldiers but also destroyed formations of numerous collaborator army from Tigray. Why not a monument for Abdissa Aaga or Abebe Bikila, Gebeyehu Gurmu or Gobana? The list is long but just to mention few.

29. So, where did you get the audacity to talk about defending Ethiopia’s territorial integrity? What moral authority do you have to talk about Ethiopia’s future? I fully understand if you are worried about territorial integrity of Tigray, but Ethiopia – NO way! With your name as “Tigray Liberation Front” and yet ruling Ethiopia, there is no way that the Ethiopian people can trust you no matter what you say or pretend to be. Especially the Oromos, whom you despise even at a time when they peacefully demanded their fundamental rights, who have all the reasons to consider you as an occupying foreign power which is depleting their resources to benefit your long liberated motherland – Grand Tigray. And you dare to use the statement of one individual Oromo at the London conference as a proof that you care about Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. ጅብ የማያውቍት አገር ሄዶ ቍርበት አንጥፉልኝ አለ አሉ:: Bad luck for you, we know not only who the ጅብ is, but also where it came from and for what purpose. So please, don’t expect us to provide you with the “ቍርበት”::

Brief note on Oromos and the territorial integrity of Ethiopia:

30. Before I come to the conclusion of my rather extended note, I want to drop just two paragraphs on Oromos and the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. I am not trying to bring new discoveries but rather to remind you, the conscious sleeper, that Oromos are indeed concerned about the territorial integrity of Ethiopian. In my view, any statement made by anyone, especially by you, regarding planned or possible “secession of Oromia from Ethiopia” is tantamount to an insult to the Oromo people. Oromos are THE root of Ethiopia and subsequently, it is the Oromo people who should be worried about the secession of the branches i.e. the Abyssinians and other minor nationalities from Ethiopia. Modern Ethiopia is built with blood and on the bones of Oromos who sacrificed their dear lives for her territorial integrity unlike the Abyssinians who had little or no role whatsoever in her creation. Modern Ethiopia, south of Abyssinia, was built only by Oromo warriors themselves – led by Gobana[7] and his exclusively Oromo battalion – during his expedition to the South. Gobana superbly combined military and diplomacy as necessary and succeeded in creating the state called Ethiopia. The Abyssinians came to the South “አገር ለማቅናት” ONLY after Gobana completed the state-formation mission. It is up to the Oromos and history to judge whether Gobana was right or not, but fact remains fact – Abyssinians did not have any role whatsoever in the creation of modern Ethiopia, south of Finfinnee. Hence, it is up to the others, especially the Abyssinians, to proof that they too are Ethiopians, equal to the Oromos, and not the other way round. Ethiopia is not a “given” for the Oromos. They earned it with immense sacrifices. Hence, for Oromos, like every “earned valuables”, territorial integrity of Ethiopia is the dearest of all!

31. I know the above statement may be irritating to some Abyssinians but so be it. In any case, that is our past history. What we are dealing with today is the negative outcome of that reality and perception combined. Let me go to the main point – is TPLF really worried about Ethiopia’s territorial integrity or it is trying to extend its rule using scare tactics so that other nations raise their voices and hands against the alleged plan of Oromos – to disintegrate Ethiopia? Above all, is TPLF really an Ethiopian entity or an occupying force which is created to extract Ethiopia’s wealth resources and influence which may culminate in dismantling Ethiopia? If the answer is the second one, yes, then what should be done by genuine Ethiopians, the Oromos and others, to remove this occupying force from power seat and jointly pave the way to create a democratic and all-inclusive Ethiopia – a comfortable home to all her people? The to-do list for the Ethiopians minus TPLF, I will come back to it next time, God willing, but now let me focus on what TPLF must-do if it’s claim to be Ethiopian holds some iota of truth.

VI
What, you (TPLF) MUST do

32. Let me use my 1% reserve of probability which I promised earlier to use it at the end of this writing, as part of my very faint doubt that you may NOT be an occupying force but a genuine native entity wishing to create a democratic Ethiopia. Let me try to convince myself that you were actually trying to create a democratic Ethiopia and were working hard to make Ethiopians happy, but some kind of devil got in to you to commit the political and economic crimes you have been bent on committing. Let me try to assume that, after all, you are just protecting Ethiopia from those who are trying to disintegrate her, in doing so you misunderstood their intention and legitimate demands for their freedom as though in posing threats to your absolute rule, and by derivation, this was against Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. I think this much credit is enough to “proof” that you are “genuine” in what you were doing for Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Right? Let me continue…

33. Let me assume that, as you were trying to make Ethiopia a prosperous State and bringing the living standards of Ethiopians to the level of those citizens of developing states like Malaysia and Singapore, you were having difficulties to achieve that sacred goal because of the incompetence and corruption by some wicked members of your government.[8] Let me also try to understand your theory that democracy is not that easy to be achieved overnight and that twenty-five years of your rule is indeed very short time to even finish laying its foundation. Of course, you are blaming us for not understanding that scientific and complicated reality which only you and your crony “PDOs” can understand. You also assert that Ethiopian people are ungrateful for what you have done for them, not only for the sacrifices you made while in the bush but also for your “dedication” to make Ethiopia a wealthy democratic nation, while in power for almost three decades now. These “ungrateful people” continue failing you even after you “taught” them how to “demand and fight for their rights” – which, according to you, they were not aware of previously. ለመብት መታገልን አስተማርቸው, you said it recently when commenting on uprising of the Oromo people! Thanks to you, the Ethiopian people, after your quarter-century-long dedicated and enlightened undertaking, now started putting into practice what you taught them – demanding their rights! And as a teacher, I am sure you are very proud of your success. That is how dedicated teachers feel when they see their students excel. But the tragedy of your effort is that, your students “learned” very well regarding how to implement what you “taught” them, but you, as a teacher, failed to catch up with them. You “taught” them how and when to demand their rights, but you seem not to know the basics of how to listen to their demands. Yeah, my dear, it appears that you are ruling a wrong nation who is not capable of synchronizing what they were taught with your thoughts and objectives! I am wondering if it is not the other way round though – actually people understood you and your objectives very well and actually it is you who do not understand them. In any case, and as long as this mutual misunderstanding prevails, there is no way you can continue ruling over this nation. It may also be tiring and frustrating for you to rule the people who cannot, or do not want to understand you, let alone love you. ህዝብን የማያዳምጥ መንግስት እና መንግስትን የማይሰማ ህዝብ – አሉ ዲን ዳንኤል ክብረት!

34. No matter what justifications you may wish to produce to convince the citizens and the international community that you are indeed Ethiopian and not an occupying force, the reality is that – from now on – neither can you administer the nation with ease nor will the people embrace you with love. You can only rule by force and against the will of the people. And that you cannot do forever, for the following reasons:
    1. When people rise against their unpopular rulers, nothing can stop them short of toppling them. So far, the Oromos are winning and the declaration of a state of emergency is a proof that you cannot rule the country unless you involve the military which, by definition, is created to defend Ethiopia from external aggressors and NOT to defend the government from “its own, beloved people”. As things are now, yes indeed you are strong because you have the army and the police on your side. And your death squad, the Agazi, is out there to silence every single dissenting soul. No one can dispute that. But believe me, there is always an end to a regime. Keep in mind that the quarter a million strong army did not save Mengistu from its demise when the Ethiopian people stood against him. Yes you are strong but remember – you are ruling a nation which do not love you at all. You are a stranger in an enemy territory and that makes you vulnerable to resist the ever increasing citizens’ dissent and uprising. No matter what you chose, you will never be the same again. You will die like any other socio-political system in human history. The question is when and not if.
    2. You stay at the helm of national political echelon simply because you managed not only to exploit the existing animosities between the elites of the two major ethnic groups in the country, predating you, but also by perpetuating them. You spend time and energy to inculcate in the minds of the youth of Oromia that the Amhara ruling system (which, as a system, has been defunct since 1975[9]) is still the enemy of the Oromo people. However, the Oromos and Amharas, save the few in the die-hard diaspora radical minority, are now having more or less the same understanding about your repressive regime, and they are getting closer than ever before to jointly work on the roadmap for the creation of a democratic Ethiopia after your demise.

35. Your demise is imminent. But my main worry is that you, as you go down the drain of history’s sewerage, like all dictators and occupying forces, you will leave behind such a mess, which, if not addressed timely and properly, may lead the nation into a civil war. Analysis from the countries which are suffering from civil war nowadays (Syria, Iraq and Somalia) reveals that there is no need for a nation’s diversity to mean that its citizens should be bent on destroying each other. And Ethiopia, with its more than 80 different nation and nationalities, dozens of religious denominations and variety of cultural backgrounds, is one of the most diverse nation in the world, hence extremely vulnerable to go down that road. Unfortunately, your actions, as I see it now, is leading the nation only towards that direction.

36. If my 1% benefit of the doubt that you really love Ethiopia and Ethiopians is correct, then, please think twice and see what is within your capacities to bring the desired peace and tranquility to the Ethiopian people. Even with this little portion of probability, I still prefer to think positive that you are not there to harm Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Even if the assumptions that you are an occupying force and that you have a fallback position (ታላቋ ትግራይ) prove to be true, I maintain a tiny dose of belief that you (TPLF) are better off in democratic Ethiopia than ruling that depleted part of our planet – called Tigray.

37. My dear friends (you, TPLF), history provided you with golden opportunities for a dignified exit first in 1992 (when you excluded OLF form the TG) and then in 2007 when you refused to share power with the opposition following the first ever “democratic” But, again, assuming that my 1% doubt is valid, you still have a chance to mend that broken link. Of course, there must be an expressed will from your side. You must show at least remotely, that you are indeed working for the betterment of Ethiopia and Ethiopians and that you are ready to prove that in practice. A small gesture on your part suffice to convince the Ethiopians in general and the Oromos in particular for example, by making public statements followed by actions, that you are taking concrete measures to ensure that Ethiopians are the owners of the country and that they have all the right to be administered by the representatives they freely chose.

38. You have to open your eyes. Not only Ethiopians, but the entire international community, especially the democratic ones, are distancing themselves from you. Stop this old-fashioned rhetoric that the Oromo and Amhara uprisings were directed by foreigners and ጸረ-ሰላም ሃይሎች from abroad. This is a home-grown expression of people’s dissatisfaction with your rule. With this outdated rhetoric, you are only fooling yourselves. Your acts of violence against citizens is known world-wide and condemned widely. You may be confused with the relative silence of major western countries but that is simply because you still maintain a tiny leverage in the so called “war on terror”. That is not a long term political strategy but time-bound. Your involvement in Somalia was one of the not-so-strong leverages you had and that is now an expired item with little value. The fact that those who paid for your intervention in the first place did not say a word when you moved the army out of Somalia to defend your government from Ethiopian people (as if the uprising Ethiopians are posing more threat to Ethiopian territorial integrity than what al Shabab would do), shows that you lost your leverage. On the other hand, with the help of the international community including the United Nations and European Union, your human rights record are exposed, making it impossible for you to continue pretending as if nothing is happening. Because of these prevailing facts, for most democratic states, it is becoming an embarrassing to even sit with your delegations in the same conference hall where human rights are discussed. (You know what I am referring to: the increasing number of States, who are walking out of Conference halls when your officials take the podium and the embarrassment your official delegations face while on official visits to Western capitals).

39. If you indeed, after liberating Tigray from Ethiopia, i.e. dismembering Ethiopia, you marched South to Ethiopia proper to build a new democratic Ethiopia where all the nations that constitute her, live in peace and harmony in a prosperous democratic Ethiopia, (again, I am using my 1% benefit of the doubt at my disposal) then here are my friendly, non-exhaustive list of advice for you to consider to convince the Ethiopian people that you are indeed NOT an occupying force:
    1. You have to recognize the year-long Oromo popular uprising as a genuine manifestation of the people that they are not accepting your rule as it is. You know it very well that the uprising was not the work of foreigners but the last resort of the very people you were boasting of voting for you, expressing their dissatisfaction with your socio-economic and political arrangement;
    2. Stop the killings, the torture and the mass arrest of Oromo people who have risen against you. Accept the fact that protesting against you and demonstrating peacefully on the streets of Oromia is their constitutional right and that you are duty bound to listen to them. That is the core of what is known as the social contract. But don’t complain if they resort to other violent means when they are frustrated by your actions or omissions. It is a normal human reaction to show resistance when violation occurs. You don’t expect a woman to stay calm and be raped but to show resistance to the extent possible regardless of the physical strength of the rapist. This is a normal human reaction and you should accept that. The only way to avoid violence and further conflict is to listen to those who are complaining.
    3. You MUST release ALL political prisoners without any pre-condition. Political prisoners are not criminals but individuals who maintain dissenting views, which is absolutely legal and constitutes part of human rights. Don’t fool yourself by declaring that they violated norms stipulated in the anti-terrorist law or terms of the recently declared State of Emergency both of which are introduced by you and to protect you from the Ethiopian people, NOT the Ethiopian people from foreign aggression or terrorists.
    4. Bring those who killed innocent Oromo demonstrators to the court of justice, including top government officials who ordered the killings. Homicide is homicide regardless of the motives. No matter who the killer is and for what purpose, no one has the right to deprive a human being off the right to life. The nation has ONLY one penal code applicable to ALL Ethiopians. NO matter who the killer is and for what purpose, the law should be equally applicable to all citizens. There is no reason why you are above the law and why your authorized killers are not accountable for the crimes they have committed against Ethiopians. Stop the nonsense of involving the Ombudsman “to investigate and report to the Parliament” The Ombudsman is NOT mandated to investigate homicide. Instead, the prosecutors should investigate and charge those who committed the crimes of killing citizens even if that includes the Prime Minister or the Minister of Interior, the ones who are presumed to have given the orders to kill.
    5. Open the media for the public – the real owners, because they pay tax, part of which is used to run the written, audio and visual media. Media should be independently owned by the people and NOT the government. If you want to have a media as the mouth piece of the ruling party/government, then you can have your own media outlet funded by members of the ruling party. That is the way it works in democratic countries. It is illogical to deny the very people, taxpayers, who you say “voted for you” access to the media and then accuse them of reading or listening to foreign media – the only option they have to make sense of what is going on around them. You are simply suffocating the nation and you should realize that the pressure cooker is going to explode sooner or later. And as and when it explodes, you know, it is going to burn everyone around especially those who are sitting very close to the pressure cooker i.e. you and your surrogates. That, I believe, is not what you want to happen, if you truly wish Ethiopia and Ethiopians a success.
    6. Stop displacement of the Oromo people from their ancestral lands and making them rootless. You are committing crime of the century by uprooting native Oromos from their land and selling it to the so-called “foreign investors”. For Oromos, nothing is more valuable than the land which is considered a God given resource that is not for sale but use. You can’t imagine the wounds you are inflicting on the Oromos whose land you are selling to foreigners (or so called domestic investors) and then displace them to an unknown location and uncertain future. These are the seeds you were sowing and that is exactly what you are now harvesting in form of mass uprising. Uprooted, disposed and humiliated people have nothing to lose but fighting you peacefully while being ready to sacrifice their lives, which is already taken away from them the day you took away from them their ancestral lands.
    7. Start negotiation with the opposition (multi-national, and national) and plan for a Transitional Government. This is another chance history is providing you with for a dignified exit. Don’t lose the opportunity! You may even have a chance to negotiate for Constitutional immunity, i.e. not to be held responsible for political crimes you have committed while in power (although, there will be NO immunity for those who committed crimes against humanity). If you fail to do so, you are simply adding fuel to the fire and the so-far peacefully demonstrating people may become militant and remove you from power seat with disgrace. Wake-up! You are no more the government which had been ruling the country with relative ease as it used to be in the past two decades. People are expressing their dissatisfaction from all corners and the fact that you declared the state of emergency is a sign that the civilian police is no more in a position to maintain law and order. The fact that you have to bring in the army, which by definition, is an institution to defend Ethiopia from foreign aggressors and NOT the government from Ethiopians, is a clear indication that you are in deep problem. You still have another life-line left though, for a dignified exit. Please consider it!
    8. You MUST lift the State of Emergency. Ethiopia is NOT under any threat whatsoever, but your government is. Stop using the pretext that those who you are accusing of “destabilizing the nation” from abroad are terrorists and anti-Ethiopian. They are citizens who are dissatisfied with the policy of your regime, similar to what you did in late 70’s when you went to the bush being dissatisfied with the government of Ethiopia. And don’t try to cover yourself under the disguise of “defending the Constitution” because, overthrowing a government unconstitutionally, is not new to Ethiopia. You remember very well, that is exactly how you came to power – unconstitutionally! You have no moral authority whatsoever to complain that people are trying to seize power unconstitutionally i.e. with the help of guns because you yourself came to power exactly the same way – using guns to unconstitutionally topple the government, regardless of whether it was a democratic or authoritarian. So it is not only laughable but painful to listen when you are trying to convince us to show respect for Constitution and constitutional way of seizing power because these are acts aliens to you and as a matter of fact, to Ethiopian history. Don’t even try to convince us that the bullets coming out of your guns were “humanitarian” and spread gospel of peace and democracy, whereas the same bullets coming out of the guns of OLF, ONLF or Ginbot -7, only spread terrorism. Guns are all the same – they kill human beings and that is the ONLY purpose of guns regardless of who is pulling the trigger! In short, although not preferred, removing governments unconstitutionally with the help of guns is not alien to our nation and you are its latest beneficiary.
    9. I know you will perish, like any other regime known in history. No doubt about that. But I am afraid that you go down in history taking large numbers of people with you. History has recorded so many cases, and I witnessed many of them during the past thirty years of my professional career, where repressive minority regimes like you, when forced to leave, resorted to extreme violence and destroyed not only the infrastructure of the nation but also the lives of people. Please don’t take us down the Syria Avenue. I am not paranoid but I do have reasons to worry about it. You are more powerful and armed than any other institution in the country and with the combination of your arrogance and ignorance, (ዕብሪት እና ድንቊርና ተደምሮ) I am afraid you are capable of hurting people as you go down the drain. Please don’t do that!
    10. You are very much aware that NO one wants your regime to continue ruling, except for the tiny portion of your ethnic kinsfolk, the few but powerful thieves who amassed public wealth, supported by your strong military apparatchiks. I fully understand if they don’t want you to leave the power seat because you are the sole protector of their stolen property and prestige. They want you to stay in power because, they know it very well, that with your departure from power their political and economic domination will also come to end and for good.

VII
Conclusion

40. As a conclusion, I would like to say the following: please stop being worried about Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. She has millions of genuine children, like the Oromos, who as usual, are ready to die for her territorial integrity. As for you, and judging from what you are doing now, I am very doubtful that you will be there for her. If at all, you are actually the main cause of her disintegration. Your actions suggest nothing other than that! You were created in 1977 with sole objective of dismantling Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. The worst part is, today as we speak, you are not even pretending or making an attempt or giving remote promises to change the political agenda of TPLF, which is nothing other than seceding Tigray form Ethiopia. So, unless you officially change the agenda of your Liberation Front – from seceding Tigray form Ethiopia to building democratic Ethiopia -, and your name from TPLF to something similar to the names of your puppet PDOs, there is no way on earth we Ethiopians can trust you and accept you as an Ethiopian entity.

As for the Oromos, I want to conclude with two points:

41. As clearly demonstrated during the past one year uprising, Oromos are NOT demanding secession of Oromia from Ethiopia but rather removal of TPLF from power seat and its replacement by democratic forces comprising of representatives of ALL peoples of Ethiopia. So, if you change your political agenda as suggested above, you are most welcome to become member of the democratic club. But please remember – the Tigray people, have equal share in a democratic Ethiopia with or without you. As a matter of fact, in 1977 when you went to the bush, they never gave you a mandate to represent them or to fight for the secession of Tigray form Ethiopia. That was the sole decision of the few individuals (founders of TPLF) although once you seized power, you may have managed, to “convince” them to follow you. Otherwise, the people of Tigray, one of the friendliest nation in Ethiopia, and core of Abyssinia, deserve someone better than you. A very unlucky nation to be “represented” by you!

42. Because of the fact that you killed so many Oromos, peaceful demonstrators, students, farmers, youth, the elderly, pregnant women and little girls under age of ten, you are at gumma relationship with us – the Oromos. That means, even if you pay compensations for each and every Oromo life lost as a result of your criminal acts, (although Oromos prefer to pay “gumma” and not to receive compensations) our tradition does not allow us to be seen with you at the same dining table or under one ኦዳ That will NEVER happen! As per the tradition, we should attach a short metal chain on your left wrist and send you to exile for life – to another village where no one knows you. Because of that un-removable chain on your wrist, every person that you encounter for the rest of your life will immediately recognize that you killed someone innocent. There are, however, exceptions to the rules depending on the circumstances under which you committed the crimes and your show of remorse for what you have done. You may be allowed to remain in the community, but always carrying the chain on your left wrist so that others learn the lessons from your evil past. In any case, there will never, I repeat, never, be a friendly relationship between you – TPLF and the Oromo nation. This however does not apply to Tigray people, who, like all other peoples of Ethiopia deserve a better government after your demise.

43. Above all, keep in mind – your demise is imminent although we don’t know when that happens. The choice regarding how to die is yours – you can “die” peacefully and with dignity or “get killed” brutally and violently. በመሞት እና መገደል መካከል ትልቅ ልዩነት አለ: I personally want to see you dying peacefully so that I can come and be part of the mourning crowd to place the last nail on the coffin and spread soil on your coffin as they send it down to the bottom of the grave to make sure that you never come back again.

Ethiopia shall be free from Tyranny!
Democrtic Ethiopia shall rise from the ashes of TPLF-run secessionist regime!
*******
[1] The author is a former Senior Official of the United Nations. Currently, he is the Executive Director of Global Refugee and Migration Council – GRMC, based in Geneva.
[2] In this writing I prefer to use TPLF instead of EPRDF for a simple reason that is TPLF which is de facto ruling Ethiopia and the remaining members of the “Front” are just entourage. Further, I will use the word “You” instead of TPLF, as an entity that is ruling Ethiopia although an effective and known leading figure of the Front is missing.
[3] IOLA was established in 2014 in the USA and since then, it organized couple of seminars and workshops where different Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian experts from home and abroad took part and discussed current political situations in Ethiopia in general and that of serious concern to Oromos in particular.
[4] Although Italians were colonizers , in this writing, I decided to use the term “occupiers” just for the sake of convenience and to make it easier for the audience to compare them with TPLF, knowing that the latter is not developed enough to be considered as a colonizing nation.
[5] A TPLF Company with its base in Tigray. EFFORT, although holding unquestioned monopoly over almost ALL imports and exports (especially of raw materials) to and from the occupied Ethiopia in general and Oromia in particular in a very similar fashion with what the British or French occupiers did in the countries they colonized, does not fall under Ethiopia’s jurisdiction, hence, is free from being auditing or scrutiny by any Ethiopian institution.
[6] I can understand why the OLF and ONLF still call themselves “Liberations Fronts” (because they haven’t “liberated” their respective lands from Ethiopia) but it is absurd to see you continue considering yourself as a “Liberation Front” after achieving your objective -liberating Tigray, which you achieved in 1991.
[7] Gobana may be considered a hero or an enemy of the Oromo people depending on who you talk to. That is very normal in history of state formation and what is a hero for one, is a terrorist/butcher/opportunist for the others. Jelavic is considered a hero by Croats and a butcher of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Serbs.
[8] I am referring to your own statement that bad governance is the root cause of the recent and ongoing uprisings in Oromia and Amhara regions.
[9] Land, as the major means of production which the Amhara ruling system used to oppress the Oromos had been taken away from them with the Land Proclamation in 1975. The 17 years of Derg’s regime, literally dissolved the Amhara ruling system for good.

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Holistic approach is the essential part of healing the patient

By Dr. Baaroo Keno Deressa

In medical terminology holistic is a form of healing that considers the whole person body, mind, spirit, and emotions in the quest for optimal health and wellness.A holistic view means that we are interested in engaging and developing the whole person. You can think of this as different levels, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It’s the concept that the human being is multi-dimensional. We have conscious and unconscious aspects, rational and irrational aspects. We are a body mind. not just intellect, but emotion, instinct, intuition, as well. We support people in using all of their ‘multiple intelligence’ that means insight, rationality, logic, emotion, hunches, gut feel, creativity, a sense of harmony and rhythm.

Why did i choose this topic?

To determine the prognosis of the patient. The prognosis is a prediction of the course, duration and outcome of a disease based on the pathogenesis of the disease and the presence of risk factors for the disease. It is established after the diagnosis is made and before the treatment plan is established.

Oromo people and his vanguard organization OLF are preaching peace, love, respect, tolerance and unity with dignity for more than a century. as people and for more than 40 years as an organization. Currently thousands of so called intellectual analysts and activists of Ethiopian empire (worst colonizers) and disoriented Oromo Ethiopianist try to teach Oromo people and his vanguard organization OLF about peace, love, respect, tolerance and unity.

In order to get the real fact behind this contradictory ideas it is better to look at the hollistic status of the patient. Today i am not going to discuss about the real patient under professional supervision, but I would like to look and investigate about the chronical patient under wrong physician:

Patient: The system of Ethiopian Empire

Healer: the leader of the sick system

Hollistic approach: total absence of holiness, decency, empathy and entireness among the healer

Our vision (Oromo people) of the holistic leader means somebody who acknowledges and honours their own complexity, who recognises that we all co-create our world, and who takes responsibility for their own part in this process.

The system of the Ethiopian empire is based on arrogancy,hate, discrimination, corruption and ignorance. The system is guided and guarded by limited groups of people filled with all distructive coctail of parameters.So the base of the system is like a man who built his house on ground without a foundation which could not resist slight wind and torrent.

The healers, the so called leaders are totally unqualified, irrational and unproffesional to lead their own life let alone lead entire nations. They are also intellectually incapable to take the proper anamneses in order to plan the wright diagnostic algorithm to determine the correct diagnosis and to provide the suitable therapy. The total pakkage of the healer (leader) leads the patiënt (system) to critical illness. The typical characterstics of those leaders are magnifying their brutality, ignorance and unprofesionalism through their own media by preaching about broad progress under their rule towards economy, life of individuals, free speech, tolerance, equality, democracy, unity and love. All those lies and cowardness comes from their illness (system).

All Ethiopianst (colonizer root) have right to think in their sick manner, because they are infected with therapy resistent chronical disease which makes them depressive and prevent them to be rational, logical and decent.

What happen to so called Oromo-Ethiopianst intellectuals. Shamelessly and brutally comes to the Oromo media’s and Oromo social net work to preach about their unprofessional healer (leader) of their patiënt (system). They try to teach Oromo people and his vanguard organization OLF about democracy, tolerance, love, unity and equality. Come on dear human being (i am not dare to call you dear Oromo man or women) because you don’t know about your people history, about your people grievences, about your people sufferings and about your people struggle and demand. My advice to you, please  go back to school, college or university to learn about your peoples history instead of spreading wrong message about your boss distructive policies which raised you with rest over.

Our struggle and our demands are to build a democratic republic of Oromia among with free nations of Ethiopian empire (Sidama, Benishangul, Ogadenia,  Amhara, Tigray…). To achieve these goals; millions of Oromo’s are already sacrificed and millions of us are line up to be sacrificed for our great goal (every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle). After liberating all nations from chronical chain of sick system and unprofessional healers try to create a hollistic approach based on the will of all free nations is paramount to bring lasting peace, tolerance, love, prosperity, equality and true democracy.

Dear Oromo people, brothers en sisters, what is the remedie to enhance our goal:

• Invest in knowledge and human power, yes we have full of human power, but to eradicate this metastatic disease (defeat this ignorant and brutal enemy) we need a novel concept. That is the system similar to phenomenon of multivalency “mixed sites inhibitor”. To summarize: creation of the system which empower the dedicated peoples, groups, organization and demonize the opportunistic individuals, traitors and collaborators are the core element in order to eradicate the colonizatin.
• Put your peoples interest first instead of using your peoples cause for your own compensation or disappointment and failurity in your individual life. To be critical in the daily activity of one organization or groups you don’t need to form an empty organization to disoriented your own peoples unless serving our enemy. What you need is better plan, best strategy, stronger organization with better achievment than the older one and well eqquiped structure with knowledge. In this way our peoples are respecting you, support you and protect you while our enemy count his day to enter the hell.
• We have to redefine our commitment by saying: Even if i died in the service of my nation Oromo, i would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood and my brothers blood will contribute to the growth of our nation and make it strong and dynamic. Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

MLK: Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

This short analysis illustrates that Ethiopian empire is a decaying colonialists that destroyed a historical way of life and system of rule in their quest to bring the Oromo people and other nations under their control by force (war). The racial arrogance and disrespectful behaviour of the Ethiopian elites towards the Oromos and other opressed nations , greatly injured their sentiments. So this empire is born and lived by war, guided by corrupted system, ruled by obtuse leaders and total absence of vision for the democratic system of rule. All those parameters indicates that Ethiopian empire have high-grade metastatic cancers that have a diverse and complex microenvironment with worse prognosis

Dear my peoples i will remind you to support our vanguard organization OLF and our brothers and sisters in the bush of Oromia (WBO) and in the middel of our colonizers (Qeerroo) to bring down our enemy by all means necessary.

Victory to the Oromo people!

Dr. B. K. DERESSA, Medical degree in internal medicine, specialized in Gastro-Hepatology diseases. University Hospital of Brussels-Belgium

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This is our third and final piece regarding the Oromo Leadership Convention (OLC) that was held in Atlanta, GA, November 11-13, 2016. Our first article was written prior to the commencement of the OLC under the title “Questioning the Motives of the Atlanta Leadership Convention” and it addressed fundamental questions regarding the identity of the organizers and their motives, choice of meeting venue, and selection of participants. The second article was produced on the last day of the convention based on information that leaked out from the tightly controlled convention halls. Titled “The Atlanta Leadership Convention: A blessing in Disguise?” the second article exposed the hidden agenda of the organizers based on events that took place at the convention. In the current piece, we will attempt to present a comprehensive assessment of the OLC based on facts that we gathered from those who participated in the convention and other sources.

As we predicated in our second article, the organizers issued a press release declaring that the OLC “was successfully concluded after passing groundbreaking resolutions that affirm the unity of all Oromos.” We wish this phrase that was on the first paragraph of their press release was true. On the contrary, as we demonstrate below in details, the OLC threatened the unity of the Oromo people that was created by blood and bones of our people in Oromia. That is why it became necessary for us to present the facts to the Oromo people. In doing so, we hope that our informed people will sort out the facts from the fiction and seal the fissures created by the OLC and individuals with sinister motives. We fear that, if not sealed properly, unwanted elements can sneak into these fissures and attempt to crack it wide open.

We would like to make it clear that having different political views and opinions is natural for any society, and it is no exception for the Oromo. As such, we are not advocating for the kind of unity that results in all of us thinking alike and rallying behind a single organization. On the contrary, we believe that “group thinking” and blindly following a single party (or a single leader) is dangerous and limits progress in our struggle. What we are against instead is the political treachery that certain groups appear to be undertaking to hijack the gains that the Oromo people have made in their struggle over the years and divert its course for their own political ambitions. That, we will fight wholeheartedly.
In the next few paragraphs, we will discuss the genesis of the OLC, procedures that the organizers used for inviting convention participants, formats in which the meetings were conducted, the documents that were discussed at the convention, and the resort style meeting venue. We will then make our own recommendations for a way forward.

Genesis of the OLC.

As discussed in our first article, the idea of having a convention was initiated by a different group whose intention was to have a truly pan-Oromo conference. As discussions about the convention progressed, however, a group who organized the Atlanta convention saw an opportunity to use such a forum for their personal fame and political ambitions. It is in public records that a dozen Oromo nationalists and activists who started discussions about organizing an all-inclusive Oromo conference with the Atlanta OLC organizers quit and publicly opposed to it. We believe they quit because they understood the motives of the OLC organizers.

In the courses of our investigation, we have established solid links between some members of the OLC organizing group and current and former officials of the Ethiopian government. Here, we would like to make it crystal clear that we are not accusing everyone involved in organizing the OLC of association with the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia. It has been established, however, that a few of their members have irrefutable links to EPRDF thugs and have made several sponsored trips to Ethiopia over the years. Several pictures and videos that confirm these allegations have surfaced and are available on social media for anyone interested to see. It is, therefore, our legitimate right to question the motives of such groups.

Selection of participants.

Participants of the convention were selectively invited by the organizers. Although the names of the organizers were publicized later towards the conclusion of the convention, there was no word on how and who assigned them to conduct this monumental task. Assignment of the Organizing Committee is the start of the long journey but it has serious procedural flaws right from the start. We believe the organizers should have been appointed by some sort of council/board of representatives of Oromo civic and religious communities, professional organization and representatives of the various political forces. It is not difficult to create such a council in the diaspora as we have different communities already organized and operating. The organizers in turn should have exercised the utmost transparency in the way they choose participants.

Given that the convention intended to generate a working document to guide the Oromo national struggle, not to design political agenda for specific political group, the pool of participants should have been as broad as possible to adequately represent the entire diaspora Oromo. Anything short of that can leave holes for enemies to poke into and can be a source of misunderstanding among friends and comrades. Handpicking, or selectively inviting, participants could lead to personal preference, taste, motive and judgement. Thus, instead of representing the views and diverse positions of the society, the audience becomes collection of people with similar mindset and moral orientation. We believe this is a serious bias that can distort the outcome of any discussion. Not all views and perspectives have been given opportunity to be reflected upon. Outcomes of such discussions can lead to wrong projection of ideas that can potentially stir up controversies and that is what we have been witnessing at the Atlanta Leadership Convention and thereafter.
Meeting Format – Formation of the break-out group.

Although participants occasionally came together in one hall for some general directions, the bulk of discussions on the main agenda were conducted during the breakout sessions. For this, the participants were divided into a number of separate groups at random and each group moved to separate meeting rooms. In our opinion, this was done intentionally to make sure that the organizers get what they wanted. This format of meetings is not new and has been used extensively by various organizations to brainstorm ideas. If the purpose of the OLC was to brainstorm on ideas for the creation of the “Oromo freedom charter”, this would have been a non-issue. The purpose of the meeting was, however, to discuss on a prepared document and such a format should not have been used.

The format that the Organizers used is known as the Delphi technique and its purpose was to manipulate the participants to agree to a pre-determined ideas presented in the document. On the surface, it appears a democratic process as unsuspecting participants feel that they openly and democratically expressed their ideas. What most participants do not realize, however, is that the organizers have implanted their own agents as facilitators and participants in these groups. In fact, some of the implanted agents are trained to raise ideas in opposition to the ideas on the written documents so that the process is considered to be democratic. Ultimately, however, it is the facilitators that determine what to include and not to include in the final result of the group discussions. Even after each groups’ ideas are summarized, with all their shortcomings, it is up to the organizers to accept or reject the different ideas raised by various groups.

There are fundamental questions that we would like to ask the many innocent and patriotic Oromo participants of the Atlanta convention. How do you know what ideas were raised in the room next to yours? Did the facilitators really capture everything that was discussed in their group in such a short period of time? Better yet, how do you even know if your ideas and concerns have been included in the final document? If it is not included, how do you ask, or whom do you ask, why your concerns were not addressed? To answer this last question, you probably are not going to ask anyone because you will assume that your idea was excluded because it was in the minority. That is the fallacy of using such a format and these are the reasons why it should never have been used. The OLC organizers, however, knew exactly what they wanted and used the Delphi technique to achieve it.

Here is a statement that we received from one of the convention participants in its entirety. “The different groups were completely separated from each other to make sure that one group doesn’t interfere with that of the others. Facilitators or discussion leaders were assigned by organizers and so were the discussion topics, a prearranged top-down assignment. The discussion cannot be regarded as open and free as facilitators occasionally imposed their views. This technique is normally used for gathering constellation data but in that case participants need to be equally informed about the subject matter (issue under discussion) to facilitate full and informed participation. Also, the very short time allocated for discussion did not allow the supposedly communicative interaction amongst the groups that is used in this technique was absent. Lack of participation has undoubtedly affected the conduct of the discussion and may thus have undermined the expected consensus.”
This testimony from the participant fits perfectly well with the Delphi technique that we discussed in the preceding paragraph.
Discussion on the main topics.

Information that we received indicates that all participants were presented with a document entitled “Irbuu Oromoo: Chaartara Bilisummaa, Haqaa, fi Nagaa Oromoo”. According to comments given by participants during the discussion, this document resembles a constitution or charter of some kind, although its objective was not clearly provided or not mentioned properly in the introduction section or as preamble. There were several issues in the document that attracted the attention of the participants. Some of the key points are as follows:

• On the right to self-determination up to secession – The most audacious opinion forwarded by participants is on the section of the document that seems to undo the gains that the Oromo people have achieved thus far through their long and bitter struggle, i.e., the right to self-determination up to secession. On page 3, the document not only pledges allegiance to maintaining the unity of Ethiopia as it is but also downplays the universally accepted right of people to self-determination including secession. The motto of the Oromo people’s struggle both in the past and at present is to gain their inalienable right to self-determination up to secession and become masters of their destiny. This topic has been one of the contentious issues we had to face in the past that garnered conflict and social divide among freedom fighters and the Oromo society. Watering down this issue at the very time when our people have moved in unison to reclaim these rights is not only complete betrayal of our cause but also an insult to our brave men and women who have paid the ultimate price on our behalf.

One participant reported that “from the heated discussion at the Atlanta convention, it was clear that the facilitators were completely disconnected from the participants and no consensus was reached on this issue.” Our opinion regarding this issue is that it is the Oromo people who can decide how they want to live and the Atlanta convention organizers have no business or authority to decide it for them. The fact that they downplayed the universal rights of the Oromo people to self-determination up to secession, however, tells us what they stand for and what their motives are.

• On the issue of “Afaanii fi Haqa Afaanii” – Another blatant assault on achievements of the Oromo struggle came in this document on Oromo language. The document explicitly states that the administration and working language of all cities in Oromia will be determined by the will and power of the residents of these cities. This statement has similar negative effect with the now infamous Addis Ababa Master Plan and the impact it can have on Oromo identity, culture, natural resources, property right, history, and wellbeing is enormous. This document simply proposes to the Oromo people to give up every bit of right they have been fighting for and surrender. The 100 plus years of colonial rule has robbed Oromo people of their right to self-rule and the use of their language at all levels. The demography of Oromo cities and towns and the humiliation the Oromo people continue to suffer in their own cities are vivid testimonies to this. This document seems to declare that the Oromo people belong to rural areas and have no business in the cities. If we follow the logic that this document proposes and hold referendum on official language and administration of Oromo cities, it is clear what the outcome will be. The document not only promotes and endorses tyranny against the Oromo people but also takes away the few rights that they achieved through their blood. Of course, true nationalists will never allow this to happen.

• On “Raggaasisa Tokkummaa Oromootifii Hawwii Egeree Sabaa Oromoo”- This topic discusses the concepts and beliefs of the Oromo society regarding some major social issues such as Gadaa administration, supremacy of the law, equality, the peace keeping role, conflict resolution, security, safety, and wellbeing of the Oromo society. These are traditional values of the Oromo people that still exist in the minds of the Oromo people. While the issues are well laid out, the document does not provide the tools or powers used to keep and enforce them. There are no comments given about the role of institutions such as the judiciary system, policing power, peace keeping forces, and institutions of public safety while the document attempted to perform as a legal document.

• On the issue of financial support – According to sources within the meeting halls, another controversial topic discussed during the meeting was the issue related to providing financial support to the family of the victims of TPLF genocide. To express solidarity with everyone affected by the ongoing struggle would be a blessed undertaking. Based on presentations by various Oromo intellectuals and experts in the recent past, support for our people affected by the brutal regime can be provided in two ways, people based support and issue based support. People based support that seem to be the focus of the discussion at the convention and it is about providing financial support directly to the victims and survivors of the victims. If there is enough resources and reliable avenue to channel the support, this can solve many problems the victims face. Given the number of people affected and the blatant and illegal intrusion into peoples’ lives that the TPLF government undertakes, however, providing financial support to everyone affected will be overwhelmingly difficult. Moreover, this struggle is at its early stages and the number of victims will surely increase by days and hours as the struggle intensifies, making it impossible to meet all the needs through people based support.

On the other hand, issue based support may not address the immediate needs of the affected individuals and their families but it is the wisest and most effective way of using the meager resources to advance our cause. Such support promotes solutions to causal problems such as providing public awareness, empowering the national movement, providing budgetary support to wage armed struggle, and for soliciting diplomatic support from regional and international communities. We strongly believe that the OLC organizing committee is either intentionally manipulating patriotic Oromo diaspora for their own gains or is totally misguided in presenting this document for discussion. Their proposed action will treat the symptom but does not cure the disease.

Meeting Venue.

The convention was held at a 4-star Atlanta Hilton Hotel and a total of nine conference rooms were used in addition to the large convention hall. Rumor has it that the organizing committee fully covered travel expenses of about 500 pre-selected individuals and the rest paid their own expenses. Even if we ignore this claim as unsubstantiated hearsay, the expenses involved in renting all these conference halls for three days and other miscellaneous expenses is sure to be significant. Using average rates for the Atlanta area, we estimated the total costs to be over $100,000.00 by conservative estimates. The question one must ask is, therefore, who paid for all these expenses? No organization, political or civic, ever came forward and disclosed that they paid for the convention and the organizing committee did not disclose their source of funding. We are, therefore, left with questions and speculations. Is it possible that this was funded by an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization with a set political agenda? If so, how can we accept the outcome of such a gathering as beneficial to the Oromo people? God forbid, what if there is a long arm of TPLF, or its surrogate the OPDO, involved in this? Given the links between some of the organizers and the Ethiopian government that we uncovered, it does not surprise us if they have a hand in it. The Oromo people have the right to know who sponsored the Atlanta Oromo Leadership Convention and organizers have a legal and moral obligation to disclose it. A convention of this magnitude does not just happen.

Conclusion and a way forward.

In our opinion, the Atlanta Oromo Leadership Convention was a failure because it promoted a top-down approach whereby a selected few, who believe they know the answer to their peoples’ problems, produced documents that was supposedly meant to be a guide for the future of the Oromo people. Such documents should have been developed by the people themselves and compiled by entities that the majority of the people elected to be their representatives. Parties who compiled the documents will then present it to the public for discussion and organize a convention. Convention participants, usually representatives of different interest groups, will discuss the document in the open, without being divided into small groups with implanted facilitators and agents. We understand this process requires much larger groundwork but the result will be less controversial and more productive.

We also feel that the OLC failed because it did not adhere to the prevailing social science concepts that promotes a notion of meritocratic society that should reward the best performers of its member whereby a member of a society is valued on his\her personal contributions rather than any other criterion. The Atlanta convention unfairly criticized those who are doing the real work on the ground in Oromia while it praised and celebrated the ex officio of TPLF’s regime such as Junedin Sado, who has an Oromo blood on his hand. One should ask, if people like Junedin are to be celebrated today because they apologized to the Oromo people for what they have done, can we just forget and forgive those TPLF and OPDO officials that are killing, raping, and torturing our people in Oromia today if they come out tomorrow and ask for forgiveness? Does that mean the death of our innocent children, mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers will be in vein? It was mind boggling to observe that the only video record that was made public from the tightly controlled convention halls was the one that was attacking a veteran Oromo organization, the OLF. The crocodile tear that followed the attack as a denouncement of the action by one of the organizers was, of course, childish.

While we were taken aback by the participation, and later first class treatment, of Junedin at the convention, a much bigger surprise came when we learned that people like Fikre Tolessa and other diehard Ethiopianists were also participants. This only strengthened our conviction that the OLC was not meant to affirm the unity of the Oromo people as claimed but to hijack the struggle and change its course. As concerned Oromo group, we do not have problems with the Ethiopian identity if the Oromo people choose it. What we have a problem with, however, is the behind the scenes maneuvering by this group with the objective of appointing themselves as leaders and deciding on the future of the Oromo people. It was also saddening to witness active supporters of the TPLF regime playing major roles as members of the organizing committee of the convention and this makes the whole game a fiasco meant to harm the Oromo struggle.

Now that the convention has come and gone, it is time for true Oromo nationalists in diaspora to reassess our situation and work together on a way forward. In our opinion, we learned quite a lot from the London conference and the Atlanta convention. Lessons learned from these meetings will serve us immensely as we chart our future course. More than anything, these conferences helped us identify the different groups in Oromo politics and what they stand for. The lines are not blurry anymore as we can see them clearly. Granted that every Oromo person is entitled to his (her) views on the future of Oromia, this is an opportune time to accept the existence of such differences and come together to free our people from centuries old subjugation and humiliation. Our focus needs to be on the enemy, not against each other. We do not need to be organized under the same political organization to be united. Our unity of purpose should be on defeating the real enemy. Instead of trying to create new leadership, support existing leaders of your choice and hold them accountable. The ultimate arbitrators of who will lead the Oromo people are the Oromo people themselves. That, however, can only happen after victory. Therefore, let us all make supporting our people achieve that victory our priority by providing the resources that they need. As one of our nationalist comrade, obbo Bekele Naga, once said, “There are no mountains that we cannot move” if we have a unity of purpose. We need to be aware, however, that there will always be selfish traitors and power mongers among us and it is our responsibility to guard our revolution from such individuals or groups.

Oromia Shall be Free!!
Concerned Oromo Group

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By Edao Dawano

(OPride) — On the morning of Sept. 3, eyewitnesses in Addis Ababa reported a flurry of gun shots at Qilinto prison, a remand center on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital. That was followed by the expansive compound catching fire, which has reportedly destroyed a large part of the maximum security jail often used as a holding place for political prisoners awaiting trial.

Authorities confirmed 23 deaths but activists say the casualty figure could be as high as 60. The Qilito prison houses up to 3,000 inmates, including prominent Oromo opposition leaders Bekele Gerba, the deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and his colleagues.

The loss of life in such a gruesome way is heartbreaking. And the Ethiopian government’s handling of the tragedy is simply revolting–to say the least. Nearly a week after the incident, the whereabouts and status of the detainees remains unknown. After shuttling between several federal prisons hoping to locate their loved ones, on Wednesday distraught mothers staged an  impromptu protest demanding to either be given the body of their dead relatives or be given access to them. To add insult to their injury, some were themselves detained.

Most of the prisoners at Qilinto were locked up on trumped up charges in connection with the 10-month old Oromo protests. I have no doubt that they longed to be free and be reunited with their families. They dreamed and hoped to see injustice lifted from their people. Yet, at least for dozens of those detainees, both their hopes and lives were destroyed by a suspicious fire in a dark jail cell where they’re physically powerless to escape or defend themselves.

I sat thousands of miles away from Qilinto, absorbing the news and trying to imagine what it’s like for the families to be kept in the dark about the fate of their loved ones. Bontu Bekele Gerba is a brave and courageous young woman. In her media appearances, she speaks with so much composure exuding an unnatural strength. I used to envy Bontu that she gets to at least visit the prisons and see and speak to her father. Hers is no enviable position at all but I somehow found myself relating with her situation this week.

My father Bekele Dawano, a fierce advocate of Oromo rights, among the legion of Oromo freedom fighters, disappeared 25 years ago when I was a mere child. I grew up my entire life not knowing whether my beloved father is dead or alive. The blackout of the news of Qilinto and the government’s refusal to inform the families left me paralyzed and filled me with agony. It brought back years of pent up anger and pain.

For years, I thought blessed and lucky were those that knew where their loved ones were–for they could at least go and visit them in prison. Even those whose relatives or family members were killed, could mourn, have some kind of closure and move on with life, as they say. But not having any closure about my father, whose fate and whereabouts remain a mystery a quarter a century later, is akin to living with an unrelenting and insidious pain.

If I had known my father is in Qilinto, like everyone of the families of the prisoners held there whose fate remains unknown, I would have ran wild  to the site to seek information about his status. I would have been arrested demanding to see my father’s corpse or a proof that he’s alive. But I’m not lucky enough.

I share the agony of awaiting for dreadful bad news that Bontu and the families of the rest of the prisoners might be living through. Not knowing the fate and wellbeing of someone you love kills–piece by piece. Over the years, I found the psychological torment harder than anything else, there are plenty, I had to cope with. Distance does not shield me from feeling their pain as I grew up nursing it having been robbed my father when I needed him the most.

After 25 long years of uncertainty and searching, I still nurture a faint hope that my father could be in any of Ethiopia’s many jails. So, when a prison is torched, as the case these days, my hope shrinks a bit. I feel as if my father and his fellow prisoners of conscience are smoldering there unattended. I feel suffocated seeing the smoke billowing into the sky. I fear and worry that the Ethiopian government, which snatched my father and robbed me of a normal childhood, may have now burned him alive. I try to assess the moral culpability of those in power and try to imagine the sheer inhumanity of the prison guards shooting down inmates attempting to put out a raging fire. Nevertheless, I find myself drowned in deep thoughts and overcome by a feeling of powerlessness.

It’s late at night, alone in my bed, twisting and turning, I try to write and then stop. I fight back tears and ponder over the possibility of my father being at Qilinto. I wouldn’t have known. He could be one of those shot or burned alive while fighting to douse the inferno with his bare hands. I ponder, since he disappeared more than two decades ago, even if he’s incinerated at Qilinto, he could be rendered unrecognizable or be left there to suffer and slowly meet his death. Having processed all this, I sort of wake up from my hallucinatory state of mind and wish that I would be lucky enough to claim his body and end the decades of sorrow and pain. It is this sort of hope against hope that’s been my secret to ease the burden of memory, as well as profound and chronic agony.

I know I am not alone. There are other families who have similarly been kept in the dark for years. I sometimes wonder how they cope with the sorrow.

My hope and reasons

I spent most of my formative years drifting in thought in search of my lost father and trying to understand what life in prison is like. Having used to them and finding them to be largely uninformed, the rumors that keep flooding me don’t any longer offer much of a hope. Some say my father was killed long time ago. Others claim he’s tortured and he died due to illness and lack of medical care. My father is a man of principle and unshakable political conviction. I was once told that his captors admired his courage and bravery as to not kill him. And instead he’s being held at one of the remote hidden prisons along with other prominent prisoners such as Nadhi Gamada, Yosef Bati, Lamessa Boru and many others who disappeared from the public eye in the last two decades and a half. On a good day, this gives me a sliver of hope–however fleeting.

Sometimes I wish I had the opportunity Bontu Bekele Gerba and other children of Oromo political prisoners had: to visit their fathers in prison. I would have done the same if I had known wherever he was imprisoned. In fact, disregard the visitation, a knowledge that my father is alive would have been enough to calm and steady my yearning and tattered soul. Not knowing that kills. I want to comfort Bontu and others who are being subjected to unspeakable ordeals like this week’s but often I don’t even know how to express my own reality. Sometimes I feel no emotion at all as if my heart has become laminated in pain and everlasting grief.

Through exile and years of uncertainty and high flying rumors about my father’s whereabouts, either he is long dead or still alive, I have chosen to keep him alive — and that slim hope gives me a respite from the chronic pain.

This lived experience, as dismal as it is, gives me a unique understanding of the Oromo struggle for freedom and our progress, as well as shortcomings. My father would be so proud to witness the Qubee generation taking the mantle and defiantly pushing the struggle forward. He would be delighted to know that the Oromo are on the cusp of realizing their long-held aspirations for freedom, justice and equality. It is also why I remain hopeful. My father’s and his likes’ sacrifices were not in vain. The progress we’ve made as a society was borne on the back of a great cost of lives, torture and imprisonments of many. Every kid believes their dad is a giant. But for me this is not just a childish fantasy, my father and those who sacrificed and are sacrificing so that the tens of millions of Oromo suffering from repression, discrimination, and marginalization will someday live normal lives are Giants in our tortured history.

This is what I want to share with Bontu and all the families of disappeared or dead prisoners at Qilinto or elsewhere. In the midst of all the trauma and anguish, we should not lose sight of the fact that because of our sacrifices — i.e., families of the victims of the Ethiopian state’s gross injustices — the struggle for freedom will triumph and the yoke of oppression will soon be lifted from the necks of our people. The sacrifices of these political prisoners will serve as a torchlight and an inspiration to current and future generations to uproot injustice in all its forms.

In due times, all lives lost in the fight for the advancement of Oromo rights will be revived–at least in our collective consciousness. They will return for my children, yet to be born, and their children as their collective heroes and heroines to emulate. That is why we must and shall remain committed to sustaining our national struggle and bringing it to its logical conclusion: an end to tyranny and injustice in all its forms. Only by doing so can we keep those brave heroes as well as heroines and their memories alive and celebrate their noble sacrifices.

Aluta continua! Praise and glory to all the brave souls that came before us.

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Free Media as the Social Determinants of Health: The case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia

By Begna Fufa Dugassa, Ph.D
Toronto Public Health, Toronto, Canada

Abstract

Background: For over a hundred thirty years, consecutive Ethiopian regimes have denied the Oromo people the right to develop their own free media. In this paper I explore how this denial has affected the development of public health conditions in Oromia.

Methods: Using the “upstream” public health metaphor as the framework of thinking, in this paper I explore how the denial of free media has hindered the development of better public health conditions.

Reclaiming Oromo Indigenous Organizational Structures and Fostering Supportive Environments for Health

Findings: Although media and public health are distinct social organizations, many of their functions overlap, with the former significantly supporting the development of the latter. Media informs, educates, entertains, molds opinion, advocates, provides a framework of thinking, connects people and ideas, and records events. The foundation of public health rests on the study of risks to population health and identifying health promotion as well as disease prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary) tools. Media facilitates knowledge construction and its dissemination. It supports the efforts societies make in establishing and maintaining the social conditions that will ensure the best public health outcomes possible.

Colonial Trauma, Community Resiliency and Community Health Development

Conclusions: Since media facilitates knowledge construction and knowledge dissemination, it can help produce knowledgeable and critical citizens who are equipped with problem-solving skills. Denying the Oromo people the right to develop their own free media is hindering them from having people with skills who are critically needed in transforming their society and developing better public health conditions.

Read full report The case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia

Contact address: began.dugassa@gmail.com

What Right do the Oromo people have to Finfinne?

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Why the Eerie Silence of The Peoples of Ethiopia As State Terrorism Mainly Rampages Oromia?     

‘Unite to Defend Your Rights, Or Else, You’ll Cease to Exist’

 by Denboba Natie, February 20, 2017

“Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere. We Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tied In A Single Garment Of Destiny. Whatever Affects One Directly, Affects All Indirectly.” Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 16 April 1963, USA

Entertaining Petty Differences is Equating to Ideological Fornication

I. The TPLF Never Quashes the Oromo Revolution.

The Oromo nation’s new waves of struggle against the ongoing oppression began in October 2015, is continuing unabated; despite the imposition of state of emergency by TPLF’s ruthless regime since October 2016. Several hundreds of Oromo civilians have been summarily executed on monthly basis ever since; and to date hundreds are getting slaughtered by TPLF’s terrorizing agents known as ‘Agi-azi’, in addition to Ogaden Sumali Liyu militia, the national army and security forces. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Oromo civilians are rounded up and taken to various torturing chambers all over the country; where the prisons of the country mainly entertain Oromo prisoners – to the extent where people assume that the language of all prisons in Ethiopia became Affan Oromo. The Oromo’s prominent opposition figures such as Baqala Garbaa and Professor Marara Gudina among hundreds of thousands of Oromo prisoners remain unlawfully incarcerated. Therefore, the Oromo’s current revolution is the outcome of over century old grievances resulted from deep-seated injustice imposed on the nation by successive Ethiopian rulers including the current TPLF’s ruthless regime.

Therefore, the aim of the Oromo nation’s new form of struggle is not about demanding the regime to answer their mysterious, unrealistic and alien quests. To the contrary, the Oromo nation unanimously rose to unconditionally demand its Waqaa, Allah, Magano, Yahweh, Egiziabher (God-given) unalienable rights to decent life, liberty, freedom of choice and self-determination, the pursuit of happiness and dignity; all denied to the nation by this regime for the last 26 years. The Oromo nation as the rest nations and peoples of Ethiopia is demanding ‘Nothing More, Nothing Less’.

Furthermore, the Oromo nation as the rest peoples of Ethiopian is demanding the current TPLF’s terrorist regime to stop the ongoing exploitation of their vast resources and economy, displacements of millions of Oromo peasants from their ancestral lands and livelihood (to vacate it for TPLF’s military commanders and its collaborators to trade with it under the pretext of elusive investment and fake development). The Oromo is demanding its denied rights to be unconditionally restored.

Sadly, the response of TPLF’s ruthless regime to date remain live bullet and mass incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Oromo civilians where inhumane treatments in various prisons is extreme. To make the situation worst, the current deployment of Ogaden Liyu militia (Agi’Azi within it) to massacre the Oromo people from East to South Ogaden neighboring areas is demonstrating the virulent nature of TPLF’s brutal regime to the Oromo nation in particular, to the rest peoples and nations of Ethiopia in general. Lessons the peoples of Ethiopia have learnt thus far are evident that this regime never respect its own constitution which vehemently denounces (at least on paper) its harrowing actions to unarmed civilians. Wholly disregarding its constitution, the regime remains responding all quests of the Oromo, Ogaden Sumali, Sidama, Amhara, Konso, Gambella, Benshangul and the rest peoples and nations of Ethiopia with live bullet and unprecedented level of brutality since it has assumed power in May 1991.

Sidama: 14th Year Approaching Without Sidama’s Loqqee Massacre Victims Receiving Justice.

II. The West and Their Hypocrisy

Overwhelmingly occupied with jungle mentality of over four decades, to date the TPLF’s architects resorted to responding to any peaceful quests of the subjects with brutality and cruelty of unheard proportion in Empire’s history. The military commanders of the TPLF, blatantly terrorize unarmed civilians in front of the oblivious Western diplomats whose mouths remain zipped when vested interests’ posse eerie silence. Whilst the said oblivious diplomats watching in front of their noses, the TPLF’s killing machines who are mainly trained and equipped with modern snipers by the USA, France, the UK and some other EU countries military and security personnel, summarily execute the unarmed Oromo, Ogadenia, Amhara, Gambella, Konso, Sidama and the rest peoples of various nations. Obliviously, regardless, they pore aid money to date. To have such confidence in executing unarmed civilians and mass arresting tens of thousands of civilians, the TPLF’s politicians often receive tacit agreement from their surreptitiously watching Western sponsors who always pay deaf ears and blind eyes to the suffering of the majority of stakeholders.

West’s politicians, particularly during the era of Tony Blair’s Premiership, when once TPLF’s late leader PM Meles Zenawi, was regarded as their darling; the West has tacitly given him outright authority to do whatever he wishes on his subjects as long he runs their agenda in the horn. This has been obliviously reinforced by the repeated visits of the USA’s, Germany’s and UK’s leaders and high level officials including last year’s visit of the USA’s former president, Barak Obama. Their Medias remain as oblivious as their politicians, whilst wasting their time talking about the ailing Robert Mugabe, instead.

Due to the above geopolitical interests of the West and concomitant silence in the face of unfolding executions, the TPLF ruthless regime became bold, callously, blunt, confident, unrepentant and stubbornly determined to assure the subservience of the majority to its barbaric rule. Particularly, with this end, it is the Oromo nation to be mainly focused upon, the Amhara standing the second in the queue. The ultimate reasons why the Tigrean regime is focusing on brutalizing the Oromo nation is twofold. The first is the Oromo’s economic importance for its plan of exponentially increasing the capacity of their domestic and international bank accounts. Those, TPLF’s military commanders, once who were penniless when they occupied Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), over quarter of a century ago, now become multimillionaires by looting, primarily the wealth of the Oromo nation as the region has got vast resources including immense minerals and abundant cash crops; as Oromia remains their primary cash cow. The second reason is the Oromo’s being major single entity in Ethiopia. Hence, unless the regime, divides and silences the Oromo nation and the second largest nation of Ethiopia, the Amhara, TPLF knows that its survival will be at stake. Cognizant of this, the regime leaves no stone unturned to humiliate and silence the Oromo nation primarily and the Amhara secondly.

A Year On Since the Oromo Resistance Began:- A Wake Up Call for All Peoples of Ethiopia

III. TPLF’s Erroneous Belief That the Smouldering Fire Has Been Extinguished.

It’s imperative that TPLF believes that, it has accomplished its tasks after the imposition of state of emergency. Gullible belief, as far as the situations in Oromia and Amhara regions are concerned. The fire is steadily Smouldering. The same is true in all regions. Moreover, TPLF particularly believes that its infamous quislings have silenced the 4^th and 5^th largest nations of the county, the Sidama and Ogaden Sumali. In the cases of both Sidama and Ogadenia, this is the case simply because it uses notorious cadres of the country known for their barbaric actions against their own people whilst implementing TPLF’s agenda in their respective regions although in Ogaden, the ONLF is fiercely fighting the enslaving regime. The hideous personalities include, the infamous ‘Shiferaw Shigute’ who has worked hard to humiliate the Sidama nation time and again whilst facilitating, and committed crimes against the Sidama people in addition to his major roles in displacing tens of thousands of Sidama peasants from their ancestral lands by leaving them destitute. Abdi Mohammed Omar of the Ogaden Sumali (regional puppet president), who is known for his viciousness and blood thirsty nature as his Sidama counterpart, is responsible for the death and incarceration of tens of thousands of Sumali civilians. This is the wicked puppet who is overseeing the official commanding aspect of Ogaden Liyu militia under the watchful eyes of TPLF’s generals, whilst implementing the current massacre of the Oromo civilians from east to south east. The two notorious cadres known for their both barbarism and moronic nature, are instrumental in dehumanizing their own peoples and beyond. Besides, the Smouldering fire in Oromia and beyond won’t be extinguished until it successfully achieves its objectives.

The Sidama Nation Had Enough of Silence!

IV. Is the Division of Oromo Diaspora Playing Against the Oromo’s Interests?

If a herd of buffalo remain united creating fence like defense, stands its grounds and doesn’t run away from its predators, none of them could be easily devoured. However, once a herd loses its ground, frightened, panicked and start to run away, natural separation occurs -thereby become an easy prey. We human beings are not different. If we are united and defy any oppression, no oppressor on planet will be able to enslave his/her subjects. Nowhere on planet, oppression has been successful unless the subjects are divided, manipulated and mentally defeated to allow themselves to be enslaved. This has been the case during the era of European colonization of Africa and the rest parts of the world; and it is the case as we speak all over the world. This has been the case in human history since mankind began a socially organized life. Yet, failing to assert such simple analogues, we fail time and again. We make the same mistakes repeatedly. This can be the case, when we are less aware of or our ego overrides the needs of our downtrodden groups of society for whom we may claim, are ready to sacrifice our lives, whilst quashing their dream as we continue bickering on little issues.

Finally, I dare to be bold (although I might be told it’s none of my business), on the fact that, the division and subdivision of Oromo Diaspora and opposition groups for minor issue is playing to the advantage of the TPLF’s ruthless regime. The division of the Oromo Diaspora is allowing to the regime to buy time. The Oromo players must stop, rethink and act quickly to save the situation before it gets out of control, thereby, elongate the suffering of the Oromo people those who are paying ultimate sacrifices with their precious lives day and night. If we remain as stubborn as we seem now, let all of us not forget that we’re committing inexcusable historical error. Humbly, I remotely believe that any Oromo wants this to be the case. Therefore, it’s now, the right time to act.

Incinerating Political Prisoners Never Resolve the Political Malice of Ethiopia

V. The Silence of The Sidama Nation Must Come to An End!

The relationship of Oromo and Sidama nations is much deeper than mere solidarity, one might entertain as a temporary show case only benefiting politico-diplomatic gesture. Both Kush brothers share deeper unity in several ways. Their view of the world around them and beyond, their perception of justice and equality as well as governance under egalitarian systems ‘Gadaa and Luwa’, their religious belief are of similar nature, not only they are of similar stock. The Sidama and the Oromo nation share numerous attributes- not exhaustively such as cultural and psychological as well as socio-economic. Their being are closely intertwined in such a manner that, sometimes becomes indistinguishable. If one studies the Arusi and Bale Oromo and traditional Sidama society, their stark similarities are unprecedented.

Moreover, Oromo and Sidama nations’ resistance movements predate the creation of the current barbaric incumbent, TPLF. Since Hailesilassie and prior to the latter, including during the Abyssinian king, Menelik II, Oromo and Sidama nation have shared both bad and good times together. They have been in quest for their liberty and freedom taken away from them together. Both nation are the victims of the current injustice. Whilst the Tigreans were part and parcels of the subjugating empire, the solidarity of the Sidama and Oromo has been there. Therefore, at this critical moment in the history of the Oromo nation, while its sons and daughters are gunned-down in broad day lights by Tigrean barbaric regime; to me as a principled Sidama man, the current uncustomary silence of the nation is extremely unsettling. Thus, I urge the Sidama nation to rise and walk shoulder to shoulder with its Oromo brothers and sisters. The propaganda of the regime conveyed and enforced through notorious ‘Shiferaw Shigute’ network, evidently, so far has confused the Sidama nation. Such deceitful propagandas should be critically considered and scrutinized to be eventually regurgitated. There is no excuse, for the current silence, thus I reiterate that, the Sidama must stand with its Oromo cousins and disallow its land from being used by the TPLF’s brutal regime, to incarcerate and torture Oromo brothers and sisters, old and young alike.

Civil Disobedience Can Be A Potent Weapon To Dismantle TPLF’s Abyssinian Empire

VI. The Unity of All Peoples of Ethiopia Is Paramount to Dismantle Brutal TPLF.

Having a meticulously planned objective; using violence, assassination, massacres, land confiscation and expropriation of the entire wealth of the country, for the last 26 years, the TPLF’s regime has demonstrated its virulence to all peoples of the country. Not only to the other peoples, it has also shown its hideous nature to its own people to achieve its objectives. A good example could be drawn from its barbaric action when it has masterminded the massacre in ‘Hawzen’ market place where hundreds of Tigray civilians have been mercilessly bombed by the fighter jet coordinated by TPLF. Its action was planned to blame on its predecessors to gain international sympathy. Therefore, the TPLF’s regime has time again shown its barbarism and viciousness to all peoples of the country. The solution, thus is needing a strategic unity, maintaining differences as they are, until we get rid of this ruthless regime. The current revolution started by gallant Oromo nation is serving as a vehicle to achieve such objectives, thus shouldn’t be aborted by the brutal crackdown on a peaceful and purpose-driven Oromo youth and the entire nation.

All peoples of Ethiopia need to synchronize their struggle, temporarily leaving their petty differences aside, until this bestial regime is brought down to its knees. We must, rethink our actions before we rush into entertaining petty differences whilst men and women, youth and old citizens are gunned-down in broad day light in all parts of the country. None of us can afford continuing in such heartless and soulless manner; if we genuinely aspire the emaciation of our nations and peoples from over a quarter of a century subjugation and brutality of unprecedented scale. The time is today. Let’s move with strategic togetherness before it’s too late.

Denboba Natie, (my opinion not of my political party or alliance), February 20, 2017

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Revelation of TPLF secret plan to destroy the great nation of Oromo through mutagenic process

By Dr. Baaroo Keno Deressa

Dr. Baaroo Keno Deressa

To encounter this disarrayed secrecy of our enemy as an Oromo people we have to redefine our commitment by saying: even if I died in the service of my nation Oromo, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood and my brothers and sisters blood will contribute to the growth of our nation and make it strong and dynamic. Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Oromo means peace, love, equality, democracy, justice, generosity and heroism and I am proud to be born from this holistic and blessed nations. My people the task in front of us is enormous in order to build our nations. Our tasks are not only defeating the current barbaric TPLF government. It is also about our future that faces our nations like I have mentioned in my previous article “Nation-building is the product of conscious statecraft, not happenstance.  Nation-building is always a work-in-progress; a dynamic process in constant need of nurturing and re-invention. Nation-building never stops and true nation-builder never rest because all nations are constantly facing up to new challenges. Nation-building is therefore about building the tangible and intangible threads that hold a political entity together and gives it a sense of purpose.”

The Oromo leaders and intellectuals always follow the path of truth, democratic road and humanity (the exact definition of their root called Oromo nations) in order to foster new era in the Ethiopian empire to bring eternal peace for all oppressed nations. Here are some evidences from countless examples (General Waaqoo Guutu.peace agreement with Emperor Hailesilasse, forming of transitional government by OLF, Mr. Bekele Gerba the vice chairman of OFC and prof. Merara Gudina the chairman of OFC preaching peace and tolerance, Mr. Leenco Lataa the former founder of the OLF and the current president of ODF accept all humiliation for the sake of peace and millions of innocent Oromo peoples still languishing in the prison camp demanding peace and democracy). Our enemies are loudly and clearly responding us by brutal actions massacring and detaining thousands of Oromo’s and showed us their allergic sign for peace, freedom and democracy. The actions taken by our leaders  and intellectuals  shows the powerfulness of the truth (Oromo nations) and commitment of Oromummaa for peace, freedom democracy, equality, respect of human right and rule of law. But Our colonizers are always choose to follow undemocratic way of governing, the path of destruction and hatred.

Our enemies are organized to disintgrate us, organized to wage war against us. organized to strengthen their colonial rule. But certain individuals are disoriented and frustrated by enemy propaganda and hide theirself under paltalk and face book to propagate enemy plan by insulting our dedicated leaders, our hero’s “WBO” , gallant qerroo movement and spread wrong information among our community to culture millions of opportunistic individuals and traitors. But late me clear: We Oromo people in general are rejecting all types of remote controlled offer of our enemy through his mutagenic so called leaders and traitors with sweat words and zero actions. We as a nation are struggling to become the master of our destiny and eradicating all types of oppression (political, economical, military,business and judiciary).

Here is my questions:

• Is it fair during those difficult time to waste our time talking about peace, ethiopiansim and analysing enemy offer ? or are you the enemy messenger with mutagenic code !!!!
• Is it fair to blackmail and unfairly criticizing those who are doing the real job on the ground in Oromia? Or are you the member of mutant traitors??
• Is it valuable for Oromo people to spread wrong information among our community to weaken our vanguard Organization OLF? Or are you the selfish and opportunistic individuals with mutagenic label??
• Is it fair to hurt and cheat the holistic, great and blessed Oromo nation to safeguard your private property, richness and personal ambition ? or are you born to be traitors??
• Is it fair at this essential time to praise the ex TPLF’s regime mutagenic servant and criticize the dedicated Oromo leaders (those individuals were/are sacrifices their entire life without any conflict of interest?) In my opinion everybody with Oromo blood on his hand will face proper punishment in front of his own people, until that day no individuals or organization has right to  apologized him or her. When Oromo people is paying humongous sacrifice with his life and blood for the great goal (liberating Oromo people and building Democratic republic of Oromia) apologizing collaborators, opportunistic individuals and traitors is equal to act of treason. De loyalty of those peoples and organization to the Oromummaa code of conduct is questionable!! Now TPLF is using these episode as a wonderful strategical gain (not tactical gain) and passed to the next step to eradicate great nations of Oromo through mutagenic process in order to expand his destructive polices to the higher grade with full force.

In order to answer all those question correctly let us start from defining the mutagenic process. Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is a molecule that contains the instructions an organism needs to develop, live and reproduce. These instructions are found inside every cell, and are passed down from parents to their children. DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar group and a nitrogen base. The four types of nitrogen bases are adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order of these bases is what determines DNA’s instructions, or genetic code. Similar to the way the order of letters in the alphabet can be used to form a word, the order of nitrogen bases in a DNA sequence forms genes, which in the language of the cell, tells cells how to make proteins.

An organism’s Deoxyribonucleic (DNA) affects how it looks, how it behaves, and its physiology. So a change in an organism’s DNA can cause changes in all aspects of its life. A wide range of experimental systems are available for the study of spontaneous or environmentally induced mutagenic processes. There are many different ways that DNA can be changed, resulting in different types of mutation. Here is a quick summary of a few of these(substitution, insertion and deletion)

1. Substitution: A substitution is a mutation that exchanges one base for another (i.e., a change in a single “chemical letter” such as switching an A to a G).

Such a substitution could:

• change a codon to one that encodes a different amino acid and cause a small change in the protein produced. For example, sickle cell anemia is caused by a substitution in the beta-hemoglobin gene, which alters a single amino acid in the protein produced.
• change a codon to one that encodes the same amino acid and causes no change in the protein produced. These are called silent mutations.
• change an amino-acid-coding codon to a single “stop” codon and cause an incomplete protein. This can have serious effects since the incomplete protein probably won’t function.

NB: TPLF used the First step of mutagenic proces for 25 years until now (Mr. Junedin time of TPLF services) unsuccessfully tried to get the right effect: Changing Oromummaa →to →abbagarummaa, gandummaa and gantummaa. At this crucial time when our peoples are hunted down by TPLF para commandos and militia’s like fox in their god given country, torture and massa murder is openly and widely going on, sitting with collaborators and praising TPLF rest over collectors is shame and un Oromummaa and absolutely contrary to sabonummaa. Our task of Oromummaa with sabonummaa is creating hero’s, cultivating briliant individuals to eradicate our enemy but not manufacturing selfishness, traitors and collaborators.

2. Insertion: Insertions are mutations in which extra base pairs are inserted into a new place in the DNA. That gives totally another information than the correct one.

Example:

Sabbonummaa→add the word dha and blu→sabdhablummaa→with out nation, with out pride and without belongingness (that is the core goal of our colonizers, they want to destroy us in order to build their society, their nation with pride and belongingness). That is the exact meaning of Mr. Lemma (Mutagenic servant). Look one tangible evidence: Tigray is for tigrians, Amahara is for Amaharas but Oromia is belong to everybody, that is why they took our farmers land and sell to everybody, that is why they took all our resources and enrich themselves. Enemies are enemy why Oromo’s are taking part in this dirty enemy game (i think the mutated gene force them to act like servant).

NB: After a minor succes in the First step of mutagenic proces through substitution type TPLF is now passed to the second step of mutagenic proces insertion type to destroy the great nation of Oromo. One of this example is recent speech of mutant servant Mr. Lemma (inserting the word dha and blu in the gantummaa code of OPDO) . This man spoke about sabonumma without understanding the definitions of sabonummaa. When we talk about sabonumma rejecting enemy, denying all collaborations, confronting death to defend the truth and ready for maximaal sacrifice to protect your people. But this man spoke within the same speech two cotradictory points. (sabonummaa (pride) and economical revolution(servant)). I am not surprised because i know that, that speech was deliberately designed by TPLF core of destruction master inorder to fulfill their strategical policy (destroying Oromo nation)  let us look at the fact of cotradictory points:

Mr. Lemma tell me is it possible to offer a very nice Music to a deaf person and demanding his commentar about that voice !!!! Mr. Lemma is it ethically and morally responsible to demand a critically ill patiënt to dance!!!! Mr. Lemma is it sane to ask a blind person to read  a note on the blackboard!!!! I listen all your speech and as an Oromo i am happy to hear from an Oromo leader such kind of nice words. At the same time your speech nauseated me too because you are fulfilling enemy desire. When millions of our people are langushing in the detention center, when mass murder is going on, when the icon of our struggle the Harar Oromo’s are slaughterd by mercenary liyyu police, when the oromo intellectuals, old, Young, women and children are hunted down like fox by TPLF para commando’s and when 50millions of Oromo people are in home arrest how came that you accept TPLF lies to mislead your own people. But as you know and as i get the evidence of TPLF destruction policy it is shame on you to mislead your people and preparing our great nation for more sophsticated and complicated situation. One day the history and the truth wil Judge you.

Second when we are unable to protect our children, our womens (the backbone of our society), our elderly from rapist TPLF para commando’s, from butcher TPLF polices, from merciless TPLF security agents tell me How we are going to make economical revolution!!!!At this moment there is no single protection mechanism for Oromo people. Yes according to your formula abbagarummaa, gantummaa and gabrummaa will protect you from your boss TPLF killing machine. Let me tell you again we Oromo people are a proud nation in our history, in our culture, in our actions and in our way of thinking. That is why we reject your underclass behavior, pupetism, opportunistic character and slavery.

Let me tell you Mr. Lemma and your boss TPLF core with master of destruction:

• Sabonumma means Oromummaa with dignified concept of identity but not mutagenic servant
• Sabonumma says no to the enemy, no to the colonization, no to the mass killer, no to the state terrorism, no to the murderer of women and children
• Sabonumma is against the enemy but not the friend of our killer
• Sabonumma says no economic development until we Oromo people become the master of our destination

3. Deletion:
   Deletions are mutations in which a section of DNA is lost, or deleted. That means the total message of the code is uninformative and dangerous (total frameshift).

YOU ARE NOT FAT
OUA REN OTF AT

Example:

Frameshift: Since protein-coding DNA is divided into codons three bases long, insertions and deletions can alter a gene so that its message is no longer correctly parsed. These changes are called frameshifts.

For example, consider the sentence, “YOU ARE NOT FAT.” Each word represents a codon. If we delete the first letter and parse the sentence in the same way, it doesn’t make sense. OUA REN OTF AT.

In frameshifts, a similar error occurs at the DNA level, causing the codons to be parsed incorrectly. This usually generates truncated proteins that are as useless as ” OUA REN OTF AT” is uninformative.

That is our enemy century long project to make Oromummaa uninformative.

Oromummaa with sabonummaa→to→gandummaa, abbagarummaa, gadhummaa, harummaa fi gabrummaa and tigrummaa.

Let me clarify in detail:

NB: Successive Ethiopian regimes have never displayed humanity or respect for Oromo’s and denied opportunities to build their social, economic, political, cultural and organizational infrastructures. In all spheres of life, discrimination, subjugation, repression and exploitation of all forms were applied. Everything possible was done to destroy Oromo identity – culture, language, custom, tradition, name and origin. In short the leaders of Ethiopian regimes maintained the general policy of genocide against the Oromo people. The current TPLF colonizer is worst than the previous one. This government publicly annonces to respect the rule of law but practically zero action (if you demand your right according to the law your answer will be death or imprisonment). This fascist TPLF government is using scientifical proces to destroy the great nation of Oromo people. Their goal is cultivating millions of opportunistic peoples with zero “sabonummaa” that they can abuse them.

To summarize the brutal colonial Ethiopian empire long term strategical policy as follows:

• The previous one started with:
  Changing our name (from Badhasa to Tesfaye, from Ebbisa to xibebu)
  Changing our  city (from adam to Naziret, from finfinne to Addis Abeba, from bishoftu to dabrezeit)
• Now their nephew TPLF is using Liyyu police as mercenary and scientifical approach (mutagenic proces) to accomplish the destruction of great nation. That is

Oromummaa with sabonummaa→to→ gandummaa, abbagarummaa, gadhummaa, harummaa fi gabrummaa and tigrummaa.

TPLF fascist uses actively two methods to accomplish his strategical destructive policy .1) Open destruction to make Oromo people landless and peace less through Liyyu police (merecenary) 2)Creating  diaspora mutagenic center. There are already 236 mutagenic individuals arrived in western country From 236 individuals 120 were sent to USA, 116 of them were sent to different European country. Their main goal is to create unrest among Oromo community by distributing false information through pal talk and face book, to blackmail OLF, to weaken the Oromo unity, to recruit opportunistic individuals in the name of business, to appreciate OPDO job and insult OLF leaders. If you need to recognize these people easily they have unique characteristics 1) they are speaking day and night about business 2) they are not ready to pay minimum sacrifices 3)they are talking about sabonummaa on day time and late in the evening they are dancing with our killer TPLF agents 4)they build house on the Oromo farmers land around Finfinnee in collaboration with our enemy.

Way forward:

We have to stop this active and silent genocide by all means necessary by acting now under one umbrella  as a son and daughter of Oromo nation

I am totally confident that we are going to eradicate our enemy combined with their mutagenic servant . We as an Oromo our task is not only eradicating our enemy  and building a democratic republic of Oromia. Our task is also to be a role model for our region, Africa and global world because of our quality as a nation with a collective parameters ( inventor of peace and love model, visionary and optimistic nation, unmatched heroism with immeasurable bravery during peace and war, full of talency with eagerness and the kindest nation on earth). Unfortunately this great nation with collective parameters are imprisoned in an empire by imbecilic elites. We as an Oromo nation we have to confront this enemy with all our ability and forces.

Here are my proposals:

• Every Oromo man and women have to ask yourself about your contribution against colonization. If you didn’t done yet now it is the proper time to contact your political organization , your religion center, your regional institution or your community leaders. If you fail to do that the history will judge you.
• We Oromo people reject TPLF controlled economic revolution without our full freedom. TPLF economic vision for Oromo’s is slavery and contain some substance with high risk of sudden death. An imbecilic colonial elites can not give us any type of lecture about economic revolution while they are stealing our resources.
• We need the true economic revolution and freedom. The world is moving toward the twin foundation of democracy, economic development, innovative science and technology. Technological revolution of informatics, telecommunications and transportations combined with the political and economical revolution of freedom is the best way that leads all nations toward peace and stability. But not the low class business of TPLF stealing the Oromo farmers land and selling to another Oromo
• As an Oromo it is time to put our vision differences aside and work hard to empower our WBO’s, Qeerroo movement and our vanguard organization OLF to speak loudly against the destructive policy of our enemy. The ability to make war is itself the product of a synergistic package of capabilities. More important, armed conflict is, after all, an instrumentality for attaining various ends; it is not an end in itself. As an Oromo we have no other option left except fighting back forcefully this brutal and barberic TPLF government.
• Put our nation interest first instead of making money by peoples blood. Enemy plan is to cultivate millions of opportunistic and traitors. As an Oromo we have to reject this type of underclass thinking and watch them (enemy and their collaborators) and expose them to deny safe heaven and avoid them from contaminating our community. Tell them even if you follow them (enemy) and do your best to make things beter or mediate you are not heard and you will be victim.
• Our intellectuals have to concentrate on dual activities (offensive and defensive plan).
  A) Defensive: TPLF designed to weaken our people in order to abuse them whenever they need. These weakening project of TPLF have multiple aspects (economically, agriculture, scientifical way of thinking, health care facilities, policy plan on the nations vision, ….etc). Here we have to create some safety net in collaborating with international organs in order to be voice for our nations.B) Offensive: Beside our WBO’s and Qeerroo movement heroic acts to eradicate our enemy we have to invent some kinds of therapy in order to enhance our victory. It is the home work for every Oromo intellectual to think about this remedy.
• In order to strengthen our unity and enhance our victory we have to liquidate the traitors and opportunistic individuals by promoting the organization or movement which fight the ultimately battle for our nations to bring kneel down our century long enemies.
• Put our own house in order, There are also a great many examples of ephemeral political systems in contemporary human societies. When the basketball game is over, the team-members will go home for the night. When the show is over, the actors will disperse. And when the collective response to a local disaster has achieved its immediate objectives, the ad hoc political system that arose to coordinate the efforts of various agencies (fire,police, repair services, housing, food distribution, volunteers, etc.) will be disbanded. Now i have a message to the Oromo political parties stop confusing our community, stop insulting the organization that doing his best in all aspects and ask yourself and your organization about your delivery since your birth. If you are existing only by name disperse or disband the group and start to empower your community to challenge our enemy with unity. If not the truth and the blood of our brothers and sisters will Judge you.

Victory to the Oromo people!

Dr. B. K. DERESSA, Medical degree in internal medicine, specialized in Gastro-Hepatology diseases. University Hospital of Brussels-Belgium

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Gender Power Relationship In The Discourse Of Jaarsummaa, A Traditional Dispute Mediation Among Arsi Oromo Of Ethiopia

Alemu Disassa Mulleta (PhD), Adama Science and Technology University

ABSTRACT:

Sirna Gadaa keessaatti Sadarkaa Raabaatti ittigaafatamni isaanii Aadaa, Seenaafi Seera barachuudha. Sadarkaa Raabaa keessaatti niitii fuudhuunifi qabeenya horachuun namarraa eegama.

This article reports the result of a critical analysis of gender power relationship in the discourse of Jaarsummaa, a traditional method of conflict resolution among Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia. To this end, twelve actual Jaarsummaa sessions were audio-recorded from three districts of West Arsi Zone of Oromia Region and ethnographic data were collected through observation, field notes, and interview. A socio-cultural approach to discourse analysis has been utilized to analyze both textual and contextual data. The findings show that husbands have absolute power over their wives and such power asymmetry has been legitimized by the mainstream discourses of the target society. To enforce their decisions, the elders use their rhetorical, moral and positional power. In spousal dispute mediations, the elders persuaded the wives to accept the final decisions using discourse strategies such as naturalizing the conflict and the subsequent reconciliation of the couples, ignoring and mitigating major concerns of the wives. Other economic and socio-cultural factors also coerced the wives to accept the decision. Educating and economically empowering women, giving awareness raising trainings for the elders on issues of gender rights, having female mediators as representatives have been suggested to refine the Jaarsummaa practice.

Background of the Study

In the culture of every human society, various traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution have been utilized before and after the introduction of modern legal systems (Macfarlane, 2007).One among these mechanisms is community elders’ mediation. Traditional community elders’ mediation is an informal method of conflict resolution whereby elders of a given community voluntarily or upon the request of disputants mediate parties in dispute (bid).

Among many societies in Africa, mediation and other traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution by community elders are still more preferred to litigation (Macfarlane, 2007; Ellickson, 1991). In traditional African society, elders are believed to have better knowledge of the norms and customs of their societies and a well established experience and skills in resolving disputes. As a result, they are usually acknowledged agents of peace (Deng, 2003).

The situation in Ethiopia is not an exception to what has been described above. As scholars like Kohlhagen (2005:10) confirm it, “in Ethiopia the art of mediation and conciliation have already been practiced for centuries.” In many regions of the country, especially those far from regional centers, these informal mechanisms of conflict resolution are more dominant than the formal system (Macfarlane, 2007).

Studies so far conducted in the area of traditional conflict resolution in Ethiopia revealed that there are well established traditional institutions of conflict resolution among several ethnic groups of the country (Alula and Getachew, 2008; Tarekegn and Hannan, 2008). The present study attempted to analyze the discourse of Jaarsummaa, a traditional community elders’ mediation among Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia. In the traditional Oromo society, almost all types of conflicts were and still are resolved through Jaarsummaa which is carried out by an institution called Jaarsa Biyyaa ‘community elders’ also called Jaarsa Araaraa ‘elders of reconciliation’.

Full research report PDF

Source: International Journal of Medical Science and Clinical Invention

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Adwa and Abyssinia’s Participation in the Scramble for Africa: Has that Relevance to the Ongoing Oromo protests?

Mekuria Bulcha, PhD, Professor

Whenever an Oromo scholar or politician mentions Menelik or his conquest of Oromia, the scathing criticism that meets him or her is that history is irrelevant for the current crisis.  They are often advised to stop looking backwards and to focus on the future.  Meanwhile, the irony is that in the lead up to and weeks after the 121^st anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, many Ethiopian scholars and politicians have been engaged in intense debate about this event. In fact, I am all for a debate about Ethiopian history; however, I was surprised when I read an article written by Teshome Borago entitled “Adwa: When Oromos fought Italy as Abyssinians” published on the Ethiomedia webpage on March 3, 2017. Borago wrote the article to commemorate the anniversary of Ethiopia’s victory over Italian forces at Adwa in 1896.  By and large, he talks about the victory of Adwa as an example of unity among the peoples of Ethiopia and calls on the peoples of Ethiopia to keep up that spirit of unity. But, the problem is that he did not stop there; he used the Oromo contribution to the victory at Adwa obliquely as a pretext to question the validity of Oromo grievances voiced by the ongoing protests. He laments the “new generation” Oromos’ failure to appreciate their forefathers’ contributions to the Adwa victory, and for not respecting the spirit of Adwa which was Ethiopian unity. He refers to their protests as an effort made in defense of “tribalism”. My criticism is that, using the victory of Adwa as a point of departure, Borago distorts not only Oromo and Ethiopian history, but also misrepresents the motives of the ongoing Oromo protests. Borago is not the only writer who has been labelling the Oromo struggle for freedom as a manifestation of “tribalism”, or to criticize Oromo views about Menelik and the creation of the Ethiopian state. There are dozens of commentators who, like him, have been distorting Oromo history and demonizing Oromo politics and scholarship. Haile Larebo has been one of the most vocal representatives of this group.

The views which are expressed in both Borago’s article and Larebo’s story about the Battle of Adwa, which was broadcast on March 22, 2017 on Aronios Radio are the points of departure for this article.  The purpose of the article is to critically assess the meanings of the Battle of Adwa for the Oromo and other non-Abyssinian peoples who were conquered and forcibly incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire by Menelik. The following questions will guide my discussion: (a) what were the conditions under which the Oromo and the other non-Abyssinian peoples participated in the Battle of Adwa? (b) What “benefits” did they derive from the victory at Adwa? (c) In what ways was the Battle of Adwa a turning point in Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa? (d) What was the relationship between the peoples of the south including the Oromo and the Abyssinian state before and after Adwa?

Menelik’s army at Adwa: freemen, gabbars, captives and slaves

As Wendy James has aptly pointed out, “without the contributions of Ethiopia’s southern peoples, whose sweat and blood go unrecorded in Ethiopianist annals, the Battle of Adwa in 1896 might not have been won and Menelik II might not have gone on to build his empire.”[1] Obviously, one of those peoples were the Oromo. I am not denying Oromo contribution to the Ethiopian victory over the Italians at Adwa. My critique concerns the representation of the conditions under which their contribution occurred. I argue that Oromo human and material resources were not “contributed” voluntarily as Borago and Larebo want us to believe. By and large, they were robbed. To start, as Harold Marcus has stated, “Menelik had exploited the south and the south-west to purchase weapons.” He was “indirectly Ethiopia’s greatest slave entrepreneur and received the bulk of the proceeds” from the slave trade. Marcus wrote that being a Christian Menelik was not directly involved in the trade, but “Many slaves were however supplied by him.”[2] The “human merchandize” used in that trade were Oromos and others who were captured his conquest of the south. Pankhurst has also stated that “the supply of slaves was…swollen by large numbers of prisoners captured during Menelik’s southern campaigns.”[3] The evidence is extensive to present in this short article, but it is important to not here that Menelik covered in part the cost of the firearms used at Adwa with revenue from the export of human merchandize.

What is also equally important to understand is that the fighters who marched north carrying those firearms were not all freemen, but also a motley of captives, gabbars and slaves, including thousands of women. Most of them were Oromo, Walaita, Kambata and Gurage and were from territories which were conquered a decade or a few years prior to the Battle of Adwa.  They were used not only as fighters, but also providers of the services that made the fighting possible. They were bearers of firearms and supplies; they cooked for the fighters and looked after the horses and mules used by the fighters.  In this connection, a remarkable story emerges if we look closely at the case of Walaita which was conquered in 1894 just two years before the Battle. It is also interesting to note that Borago who writes that “several kingdoms volunteered and mobilized from every region in Ethiopia to fight at the Battle of Adwa” claims Walaita ethnicity.  According to archival evidence collected by the historian Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, one of the aims of the expedition against Walaita was slave raiding. She noted that it was carried out in order to replenish depleted manpower because of the severe famine of 1889-92, to pay outstanding debts to arms dealers, and to finance the impending war against the Italians.[4] Describing the battle the French business agent Gaston Vanderheym who accompanied Menelik on his campaign against the Walaita, expressed the “crushing effects” of newly acquired guns on the southern conquests as “some kind of infernal hunting were human beings rather than animals served as game” and “where no distinction was made between fighters and civilians.”[5] Prouty notes that according Menelik’s own chronicler, 118,987 Walaita were killed and 18,000 were enslaved. The King of Walaita Tona was wounded and captured and his kingdom was destroyed.[6] Martial de Salviac wrote that the captives were made to march in a single line in front of Menelik who “chose the most robust and had a cross marked on their hands with a sharp object.”[7] In fact, Menelik not only enslaved thousands of Walaita, he also drove 36,000 head of looted cattle all the way to Shawa. Two years later, the captives were used to transport food, weapons, ammunition from Shawa to Adwa in 1896.

The united country called Ethiopia, which according to Larebo and Borago existed centuries before Adwa, is a myth. The fact is that when he turned north to meet the Italians at Adwa, Menelik was in the midst of the conquest of the south. The entire Macha region – the Gibe and Leeqa states – was annexed only in 1886. Arsi was conquered in 1886 and Hararge in 1887. As indicated above, Walaita was conquered in 1894. The sores inflicted by the atrocities committed against the Oromo at Anole and Calanqoo in 1886 and 1887 by the conquering Abyssinian forces were still bleeding. Even Wallo’s conquest in the north was completed in 1878 after years of fierce battles between Menelik (then King of Shawa) and Emperor Yohannes IV on one side and the Wallo Oromo on the other.  What is most remarkable is Larebo’s assertion that the Ethiopian people were united from corner to corner at the time of Adwa. In his interview on Radio Atronos, he posits that there was not a single village in Ethiopia which did not send fighters to Adwa. The absurdity of this proposition is that the Gujii and Borana Oromo and more than 80 percent of what is today the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SSNP), Gambella, Benishangul, Ogaden were outside the reach of Menelik’s empire. Needless to stress that Larebo’s assertions are not true because the country not only lacked unity, but, geographically, Ethiopia as we know it today did not exist at that point.

Indeed, the Ethiopian empire was defended by the blood and bones of Oromo fighters, but their blood was shed not for love of country as Larebo and others would have us believe. While the Abyssinians were defending their freedom, the Oromo had no freedom to defend against the Italians. They had lost it to the Abyssinians during the preceding decade.  Their land was an Abyssinian colony. The “contribution” they were forced to make to the war effort saved the Abyssinians from European colonialism, but it did not help them to regain their own independence. There is no indication that they were beneficiaries of the victory over the Italians. In fact, as I will explain later, their contribution to the victory had reinforced colonial Abyssinian rule which Menelik had imposed on them a decade or two prior to the Battle of Adwa.

Ironically, like the naftanya elite, Borago and Larebo have few sympathetic words for the Oromo and the other conquered peoples of Ethiopia. It seems that they saw nothing wrong or immoral in the atrocities committed against them when they lay claim on Oromo loyalty to Menelik. They want the Oromo to see Menelik as their hero and an icon of their resistance against racism and colonialism. The Oromo admit that their forefathers had fought and defeated the Italian army together with Abyssinians. However, the war was not a joint undertaking, but an Abyssinian war with Italy. The Oromo were used as means to defend Abyssinia’s independence.  Few believe Larebo’s repetitious story about Menelik being the defender of the black race against white colonizers. As the Oromo scholar Tsegaye Araarsa has expressed the matter, to call the empire built by Menelik the beacon of black freedom is a blatant “distortion of history intended to galvanize legitimacy for his rule.”[8] It is a deceitful attempt to cleanse the history of the atrocious conquest from the stains of blood with which it was smeared. Given the great harm his conquest had inflicted upon them, one must be contemptuous of the Oromo to expect them to honor Menelik as their hero.  I know that there are Oromos who take pride in the valor which their forefathers had shown at Adwa, but I have also seen their pride giving way to bitterness as soon as they discover the “rewards” they had received for their heroic contributions to that victory. Several years ago one of the Oromo admirers of Menelik II sent me a note and a picture of the Oromo cavalry who fought at Adwa.

Portrait of Oromo cavalry at Adwa

My friend who is an ardent “pan-Ethiopianist” was exhilarated when he read about the valor of Oromo fighters at the battle of Adwa in a book he came across. In the note he mentioned Fitawrari Gebeyehu as one of the heroes who made the victory at Adwa possible. Gebeyehu died in action leading the troops under his command in the forefront of the battle. However, he felt offended when he reflected on the fact that Gebeyehu’s name is rarely mentioned and his ethnic identity obscured by Ethiopian historiographers. He lamented, “The sad thing however is that Gebeyehu’s father’s name, Gurmu, is never mentioned in the history books. One day we will all be free from this and that type of racism little or big and the real patriots will be celebrated by all Ethiopians.” Gurmu is not a “genuine” Abyssinian name. However, Gebeyehu was not the only Oromo who was denied his social identity in Ethiopian history in that manner. Many Oromos who contributed to the defense of Abyssinia’s or Ethiopia’s independence were treated in that way. Even the ethnic origin of Haile Selassie’s grandfather was concealed. The reason was that the Abyssinian ruling elite were reluctant to recognize Oromos as partners in the making of Abyssinian-cum-Ethiopian history. As Hassen Hussein and Mohammed Ademo have expressed Gebeyehu’s “disappearance from Ethiopian history parallels the erasure of his people’s contributions from the country’s official historiography.” As the two authors have stated, “This is the root of Oromo ambivalence toward Ethiopia: the Oromo are good enough to fight and die for Ethiopia, but not live in it with their full dignity and identity.”[9] This also underpins the lukewarm Oromo attitude toward the history of Adwa.

That the role of Oromo fighters was crucial for Menelik’s victory at Adwa is undeniable, but the victory did not help them as a people in any manner. It is remarkable that Borago and Larebo who come from conquered and marginalized peoples in the south, the Walaita and Hadiya respectively, could miss the cause of the unenthusiastic Oromo feeling toward Ethiopia and “Ethiopiawinnet”. Presenting Oromo forefathers as significant players in defense of the Abyssinian Empire does not change that reality or disprove the fact that the empire was a colonial creation and the Oromo are its colonial subjects. The point is, the Oromo did not fight at Adwa as ethnic Abyssinians or citizens of Abyssinia as Borago and other commentators try to suggest. They fought for their colonizers. They were not the first people to fight a war for their enemies. Colonized peoples had done that throughout history. For example, over 1,355,300 Africans fought for the British in WWII.[10] They did not become Englishmen because of their contributions to British victory in that war.  They returned home and struggled for their independence. The Oromo have not been silent subjects because of the victory at the Battle of Adwa. Although their struggle has been sporadic, as reflected in the current uprising, the hope for independence is alive and strong.

Did the Abyssinians participate in the Scramble for Africa?

Teshome Borago is suggesting that a “united Ethiopia” was in place long before Adwa when he says “One has to wonder, how could [did] we win unless a multiethnic Ethiopian nation existed long before the so-called ‘Abyssinian colonization’? How can we defeat a European superpower without sharing a sense of common identity and destiny?” With these rhetorical questions he joins the numerous Habesha politicians and scholars who deny Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century. Concerning Abyssinia’s conquest and colonization of the Oromo and the other peoples in the south, the attitude of Habesha politicians’ and scholars’ is like that of climate change deniers. They ignore volumes of historical and scientific evidence that prove the reality of what they deny. However, to answer Borago’s questions, a multi-ethnic Abyssinian state and nation existed for sure long before the Scramble for Africa. Its main ethnic constituents were the Amhara and the Tigrayans with Agaw, Qimant, Falasha and Shinasha ethnicities. Its territorial base was, to a large extent, the current Amhara and Tigray Regional States and parts of highland Eritrea. One sees them as an Ethiopian nation since Abyssinia and Ethiopia often are interchangeably used.  In contrast, the Ethiopian nation Borago has in mind did not exist before Adwa and is not a reality even today. The reality Borago will not acknowledge is that in the Horn of Africa, there were nations like the Oromo, the Sidama, the Walaita, the Afar, Somali and the Kaficho that existed parallel to and independent from Abyssinia. The victory at Adwa not only saved Abyssinia from European colonization, it also encouraged Menelik to continue, with renewed vigour, the colonization of the rest of the Oromo territory and the greater part of what is now south and southwest Ethiopia. I will present, below, a summary of evidence gleaned from the works of scholars on Abyssinia’s colonial exploits during the Scramble for African. I will use “imperial ambitions”, “ideology” and “possession of firearms” as guiding themes to identify the parity of Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa with that of the European imperialist powers of the day.

Imperial ambitions: The evidence for Abyssinian imperial ambitions is reflected in Menelik’s letter to European heads of state wherein he states “if Powers at a distance come forward to partition Africa between them … I do not intend to be an indifferent spectator.”[11] In the words of Gebru Tareke, impelled by “the appearance of European colonialist in the region”,[12] Menelik “embarked on a much larger scale of colonization in the 1880s” than what had been attempted previously. Bahiru Tafla wrote also that it was “European colonial acquisition in Africa [which] awakened imperialist interest in the minds of the Ethiopian rulers of the late nineteenth century.”[13] The influence of European imperialism on Menelik is articulated further by Elspeth Huxley who figuratively states that “the Abyssinians had caught a severe attack of the prevailing imperialist fever” and they “were the only Africans to join the scramble for Africa.”[14] In his Ethiopia: The Last Frontiers, John Markakis writes that Abyssinia “competed successfully in the imperialist partition of the region [Horn of Africa]. Not a victim but a participant in the ‘scramble’, Ethiopia doubled its territory and population in a burst of expansionist energy, and thereafter proudly styled itself the ‘Ethiopian Empire’. He notes that “the title [‘Empire’] is not a misnomer, since Ethiopia’s rulers governed their new possessions more or less the same way and for similar ends as other imperial powers were doing. The people who took the pride in calling themselves Ethiopians were known also as Abyssinians (Habesha).” He states that “Today’s ruling elite frown at the use of this name because it obstructs their effort to forge an inclusive Ethiopian national identity.”[15]Here, it is interesting to note that the Abyssinian use the term today, particularly in the diaspora, to differentiate themselves from other black peoples. When used as such, it has racial underpinnings as indicated by Hussein and Ademo in their article mentioned above.

Ideology: Asserting the colonial ideological factor in the creation of the Abyssinian empire, the conflict researcher Christian Scherrer notes that “European and Abyssinian colonialism occurred simultaneously, pursued similar interests, albeit from differing socio-economic bases, and this was reinforced by comparable colonial ideologies of the idea of empire and notion of ‘civilizing mission’ and the exploitation of the subjugated peoples.”[16] Writing on the ideological underpinnings of Menelik’s colonial conquests, Gebru Tareke, a historian from the north, has also stated that the Abyssinian ruling elite acted like the white colonial rulers in the rest of Africa. The language they used when describing their colonial subjects did not differ from the language the European colonialists were using. It was a language which was infused with stereotypes, prejudices and paternalism. He adds, “They [the Abyssinian elite] tried much like the European colonisers of their time, to justify the exploitability, and moral validity of occupation.” They “looked upon and treated the indigenous people as backward.”[17] One can add here that stereotypes and ethnic slurs about the Oromo, popular in Habesha discourse are the product of this colonial ideology.

Military technology: Obviously firearms were the other crucial elements in making the imperial colonial penetration of the African continent in the nineteenth century possible. Therefore, drawing parallels between the Abyssinian and European and Abyssinian colonial expansion during the Scramble, Margery Perham notes “The speed with which this great extension of the empire was made ….is explained by the …firearms which the emperor [Menelik] was obtaining from France and Italy. This same superiority was carrying the European powers at the same speed at the same time from the coast into the heart of Africa.”[18] The Swedish historian Norberg also says that “using the same military technology as the European powers”,[19] Menelik managed not only to conquer the neighbouring African territories, but was also able to garrison them with large forces called naftanya who controlled and lived on the conquered populations. As suggested by Richard Caulk, “the system of near serfdom imposed on wide areas of the south by the end of the nineteenth century could have not been maintained had the newcomers not been so differently armed.[20] A historian, Darkwah, notes that “Menelik succeeded in keeping the arms out of the reach of the [Oromo] enemy. He did this by imposing a strict control over the movement of firearms into his tributary territories and the lands beyond his frontiers.”[21]

Menelik was not a manufacturer of firearms, but was a keen importer of them. The bulk of firearms in his arsenal numbered around 25,000 in 1878.  According to Luckman and Bekele, he was able to import over one million rifles, a quantity of Hotchkiss guns and artillery pieces between 1880 and 1900.[22] For that purpose, he used more than a dozen French and Italian commercial agents and suppliers of firearms. In addition, European states were also supplying him with modern weapons in an attempt to use him as a proxy in their colonial scheme in northeast Africa.[23] As I will explain below, the support Menelik received from European powers in his Scramble for colonies was not limited to firearms; military training and diplomacy were also included.

Europeans in the making of the Ethiopian empire

The other dimension of the history of Abyssinia’s conquest of the south, which is bypassed silently by Ethiopian historiographers and is denied incessantly by Habesha politicians, is the involvement of European fortune seekers and mercenaries in the making of Menelik’s Empire. There is no research on how many Europeans were in his service but, whatever their number might have been, the role they played in his conquest of the south must have been significant.  Darkwah notes that “in 1877 a Frenchman named Pottier was employed in training a group of Shewan youths in European military techniques. Another Frenchman, Pino, was a regular officer in the army which was commanded by Ras Gobana. Swiss engineers, Alfred Ilg and Zemmerman were employed on, among other things, building bridges across the Awash and other rivers to facilitate movement.”[24]According to Chris Prouty, Colonel Artamonov together with other Europeans was attached to the forces commanded by Ras Tasamma Nadew in Ilu Abbabor. He adds that even Count Nicholas Leontiev, a colonel in the Russian army, was a commander of a force which was sent to conquer the southwest in the 1890s. Another Russian officer, Baron Chedeuvre was Leontiev’s second-in-command during the expedition. Several French and Russian medical officers were also attached to the Abyssinian forces, particularly those which were led by Menelik and European commanders. The Russian Cossack Captain Alexander Bulatovich wrote that with him, there were Lieutenants Davydov, Kokhovskiy and Arnoldi along with a command of Cossacks who had finished their term of service” and who were received in audience by Menelik and took leave from him and return to Russia in June 1898.[25]

Several advisors helped Menelik in different fields to build his Empire. The Swiss engineer, Alfred Ilg had served him in a variety of capacities including diplomatic contacts for 27 years. The Italians made not only material but also diplomatic contributions that enabled Menelik to compete effectively in the scramble for colonies. The idea and the contents of the circular letter which Menelik sent to European heads of state in 1891 delineating his territorial claims came, for example, from the Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi himself. Menelik was advised to send the letter to European heads of state because the European powers were about to meet in Paris and establish the boundaries of their colonies in Africa. The territories which were defined in the letter the Italians drafted for Menelik to claim extended “as far as Khartoum and to Lake Nyanza beyond the land of the Galla [Oromo].” [26]The territories were those which the Italians were planning to claim for themselves through Menelik as their proxy. However, the European support in firearms and diplomacy given to Menelik was a double-edged sword. It helped him to conquer the Oromo and amass resources to defeat the Italians at Adwa. That said, the conclusion we can draw is that Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa is crystal clear. As the historian Haggai Erlich succinctly stated, “While rebuffing imperialism successfully in the north, Ethiopia managed to practice it in the south.”[27] It was also based on what is outlined above that Bonnie Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa have eloquently described the Abyssinian conquest of the south as manifestation of “dependent colonialism” and its outcome the “invention of Ethiopia”.[28] By that they meant the direct and indirect meshing of Abyssinian and European interests in the making of the Abyssinian-cum-Ethiopian Empire. Thus, notwithstanding the inconclusive arguments being orchestrated by denialists, the historical facts lead to the unescapable conclusion that Abyssinia was an active participant in the Scramble for Africa.

Where colonialism did not have race or color

Based on what I have described above, it is logical to construe that colonialism had no specific color or nationality in the Horn of Africa – its color was white and black and its nationality English, French, Italian or Abyssinian. The difference is in the degree of brutality used against the colonized peoples and the severity of exploitation exercised in the colonies. The intensity of demonizing Oromo scholars, activists and politicians who write and speak about the colonization of Oromia and the cacophony of denials expressed in the flora of written and oral commentaries will not change this historical truth.

That a black African force had defeated a white European army at Adwa in 1896 is beyond doubt. But, the representation of Adwa as an anti-colonial war and an African victory over colonialism is an atrocious lie. Indeed, Adwa was a turning point in the Scramble for colonies in the Horn of Africa; Menelik relinquished the role he was playing as an Italian proxy at the battle of Adwa, retained for himself the territories he had hitherto conquered using the firearms he had acquired partly from the Italians, with the understanding that they would be partners in the ownership of the territories he was conquering. He became a member of the colonialist club in his own right. In short, as colonialism lost its color at Adwa, military might became the decisive factor in the share of the African cake. The European mass media of the time reported that fact. The Spectator of 27 February 1897, for example, reflected the British view of the matter stating that, although Menelik, his queen, and his generals care little for human life, “this native dynasty of dark men,” nominally Christian is “orderly enough to be received into intercourse with Europe.” The European colonial powers recognized ‘the dynasty of dark men’, as their junior partner in the scramble for colonies. Soon after Adwa, both Britain and France negotiated and signed agreements that delineated the colonial borders with Abyssinia.

The whole story about the battle of Adwa is not written yet. Its bright side has been illuminated time and again. But it has ugly sides are deliberately concealed from proper scrutiny or distorted by self-appointed “gurus” of Ethiopian history with Professor Haile Larebo as their outstanding representative. In the following paragraphs, I will describe briefly some of the non-glamorous sides of the victory at Adwa, namely, the ‘recruitment’ of colonial subjects for the war efforts, their treatment in the aftermath of Adwa, and the atrocious treatment of black (Eritrean) prisoners of war.

The circumstances, under which the peoples of the south, such as the Oromo, who were conquered in the 1880s, and the Walaita, who were conquered by Menelik two years before the battle of Adwa, were made to march north and participate in the battle, remains uninvestigated. Did they march north to fight against Italian colonialism voluntarily? What had happened to them after the war? These questions are never raised or answered in the story. Were they rewarded for their contributions in the victory over the Italians? I will not delve into details, but the answer is a definitive ‘No’! They were, as indicated in the case of the Walaita, captives who were forced to march north and became cannon-fodder. The reward for those who had survived the war and returned home must have varied depending on their status. The probability for those who were slaves to remain as such was almost hundred percent. The probability that some were sold by their masters to cover expenses on their southward journey after the war or afterwards was significant. Thus, the Oromo, the Sidama and Walaita, who participated in the battle of Adwa, did not win any victory over colonialism for themselves. They helped a black colonialist to defeat a white colonialist in a war over colonies. They did not defend themselves or their peoples against the colonialists. They fought for their enemy and strengthened the grip of black imperialism on themselves by defeating its white Italian antagonist. It was after Adwa that Menelik imposed the notorious gabbar system on the conquered south. Slavery and the slave trade became even more rampant thereafter with the conquest of the rest of the south and southwest which became hunting grounds for captives and ivory.[29] Ironically, it was the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 which brought the outrageous institution and evil trade in human beings to an end. To suggest that it was a “united Ethiopia” that fought the Battle of Adwa or Ethiopia was united because of the victory achieved at Adwa is a charade.

In the interview he gave on March 22, 2017 to Radio Atronos, Larebo calls Menelik the most democratic emperor in world history and that Ethiopia was blessed to have had him as their ruler. However, this “most democratic” emperor had no mercy for black prisoners of war. In his book From Menelik to Haile Selassie II, (was used a history text book in grades four through seven in the 1960s in Ethiopia) the historian Tekle Tsadiq Mekuriya notes that “Menelik released the Italian and Arab [presumably Libyan] prisoners of war and gave them food and drinks, but he ordered with the approval of the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abuna Matewos, the mutilation of Eritreans caught fighting on the Italian side.”[30]According to another source, “The Italians taken prisoner were treated well but Ethiopian [Eritrean] troops (around 800) who had fought for the Italians were mutilated with their right hands and left feet being cut off.”[31] Where is the saint-like character Professor Larebo ascribes to Menelik? The cruelty with which the Eritreans were treated was similar to the crime committed against thousands of Oromo men and women whose arms and breasts were hacked off by the order of Menelik’s paternal uncle Ras Darge ten years earlier at Anole, in Arsi. The difference was that the Eritreans were Italian colonial soldiers while the Oromo were unarmed men and women who were invited to a meeting, which appeared to be for peacemaking, by Ras Darge many months after the Battle of Azule in September 1886. In that battle with the invading Abyssinian forces the Arsi Oromo lost some 12,000 warriors and were defeated.

(To be continued)

[1]James, W. “Preface” in Donham, D. & James, W. (eds.), The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia: Essays in History and Social Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. xiv.
[2] Marcus, H. The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844-1913. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1975: 140, 73
[3] Pankhurs, R.  Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University press, 1968: 102.
[4] Berhane-Selassie, T. “Menelik II: Conquest and Consolidation of Southern Provinces”, B.A. Thesis, History Department, Addis Ababa University, 1969.
[5] Cited in  Prouty, C. Empress Taytu and Menelik II: Ethiopia 1883-1910, Trenton, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1996
[6] Prouty, C. ibid. p. 115
[7] De Salviac, M. An Ancient People in the State of Menelik: the Oromo, Great African Nation. Translated into English by Ayalew Kanno. 1901/2006: 354-355
[8] Araarsa, Tsegaye, Facebook post on March 1, 2016
[9] Hussein, H. & Mohammed Ademo, M. “Ethiopia’s Original Sin”, World Policy Journal, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, World Policy Institute, Fall 2016
[10] Plaut, M. “The Africans who fought in WWII, BBC November 9, 2009.
[11] Marcus, H. ibid.
[12] Tareke, Gebru. Ethiopia: Power and Protest. Lawrenceville, N.J: The Red Sea Press, 1996:40
[13] Bairu Tafla, in Asmé, 1905 [1987: 405, fn. 584] [14] Huxley,  E. White Man’s Country: Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya, 1967: 38-9
[15]Markakis, M. Ethiopia: The Last Frontiers, James Currey, New York, 2011, pp. 3-4.
[16] Scherrer, C.  “Analysis and Background to the refugee Crisis: The Unsolved Oromo Question”, in Scherrer, C. & Bulcha, M. War Against the Oromo and Mass Exodus FromEthiopia: Voices of Oromo Refugees in Kenya and the Sudan, 2002, p. 27
[17]Tareke, Gebru, ibid. p. 71
[18] Perham, M. (1969). The Government of Ethiopia, London: Faber and Faber, 1969: 294
[19] Norberg, V. H. “Swedes as a Pawn in Haile Selassie’s Foreign Policy: 1924-1952”, in Modern Ethiopia, Tubiana, J. (ed.), Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 1980:328
[20] Caulk. R. “Firearms and Princely Power in Ethiopia in the Nineteenth Century”, Journal of African History, XIII (4)
[21] Darkwah, R.H.K. Shewa, Menelik and the Ethiopian Empire 1813-1889, London: Heinemann.  1975: 207.
[22] Luckman, R. & Bekele, D. “Foreign Powers and Militarism in the Horn of Africa”, Review of African Economy”, No. 30, 1984.
[23] Pankhurst, R.  Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935. Addis Ababa, 1968: 21.
[24] Darkwah, R.H.K. ibid. pp. 58-9.
[25] Bulatovich A. Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes: A Country in Transition, 1896-1898, translated and edited by Richard Seltzer, Lawrenceville, N.J: The Red Sea Press. Two volumes combined in the English translation, 1900/2000: 162
[26] Marcus, H. ibid. p.124
[27] Cited in Markakis, J. ibid. p. 3.
[28] Holcomb, B. & Ibssa, S. (1990). The Invention of Ethiopia: The Making of a Dependent Colonial State in Northeast Africa, Trenton, N.J.: The Red Sea Press.
[29] See Darley, H. 1926. Slaves and Ivory: A Record of Adventure and Exploration in the Unknown Sudan, and Among the Abyssinian Slave-Raiders, for a vivid description of slave raiding by the conquerors in these areas in the 1920s.
[30] Tekle-Tsadik Mekuriya, The History of Ethiopia: From Emperor Tewodros to Emperor Haile Selassie. In Amharic. Addis Ababa: Berhan ena Selam, Printing Press. 7^th Edition, 1961 Eth. C (1968). p. 98.
[31] See Dugdale-Pointon, T. Battle of Adwa, 1-2 March 1896,
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_adwa.html, 19 February 2009. Accessed on 12 March 2017

The post Adwa and Abyssinia’s Participation in the Scramble for Africa: Has that Relevance to the Ongoing Oromo protests? appeared first on .

By Denboba Natie | June 18, 2017

The unprecedented level of pain TPLF’s regime is inflicting on Sidama nation is transcending sane imagination. TPLF’s action against the Sidama nation defy belief simply because the nation whose economy is potentially capable of enriching the entire south is made beggar in its own soil. The degree of injustices to which the Sidama nation is subjected under this brutal regime is deeper, complex and multifaceted; only those who can see today’s Sidama situation beyond TPLF’s lies, deceits and rhetoric can understand. Unaddressed in time, the Sidama is at the verge of destruction. The society is left without representation at all levels; from Sidama Zone to pseudo-parliamentarians in Finfinnee (also known as Addis Ababa). Sidama is the only nation, even in Ethiopian standard, whose TPLF picked cadres utter no word from bottom to top whilst working against their own people. For the last 4 or 5 years, in particular, the Sidama intelligentsia, students, business community, peasants and wider society at large were effectively silenced by unprecedented level of military presence in Sidama land and 1 to 5 North Korean style spying apparatuses and surveillances, operating in Sidama. TPLF’s anti-Sidama mission is implemented through the nation’s worst enemy, Shiferaw Shigute (TPLF’s second-best advocate in the south of Ethiopia following the current puppet PM, Hailemairam Desalegn).

Therefore, as in Oromia, Ogadenia, Amhara, Konso, Gambella, Benshangul and the rest parts of Ethiopia (if not worst), an unprecedented level of anger and frustration is fermenting in Sidama land although it is unclear when it is likely to explode to full scale. The fire of change is smoldering, although it needs brave Sidama national leadership (within) who can set it on, so that it won’t be extinguished by barbaric TPLF without totally burning it, for the seeds of freedom, liberty and democracy to be able to germinate and yield fruits.

Since its inception, TPLF’s criminally stitched regime has been causing serious harm to the Sidama nation, although this hasn’t been an exclusive practice. For example, TPLF has been causing such deliberately masterminded harms to the Oromo, Ogadenia, Gambella, Konso, Amhara and the rest peoples of the country. These nations and peoples of Ethiopia including Sidama have been continually brainwashed with lies and deceits, thus allowed themselves to be silently enslaved for the last 26 years, whilst bickering with one another on minor issues. Besides, the move of various nations since October 2015’s Oromo resistance is encouraging, although such resistances need communality of purpose, unity, more focus, holistic and inclusive approach by accommodating differences, without agreeing until TPLF is removed from power.

In Sidama, in addition to the burden the entire nations and peoples of the country are sharing, the magnitude of harm TPLF has caused and is causing is multifaceted and different for various reasons. Despite the nation’s being the fourth or at least fifth largest nation of the country with the population size of about 6 million; TPLF denied Sidama of its constitutional rights to regional self-determination (although nominal) which has been granted to 20,000 populated ‘Adere’. Tigray is not larger than Sidama in the size of its population and is much far less with economic contribution in 1991. Hundreds of Sidama civilians have been massacred, and tens of thousands have been unlawfully incarcerated for demanding the said rights. Equivalent to tens of billions of worth dollars budget have been withheld and denied to the Sidama nation as the nation is denied the said rights for the last 26 years. TPLF pockets all sums of money during these periods. Doing so makes the nation the most victimized nation in Ethiopia, given the size of its population and economic contribution. To the contrary, TPLF’s companies expropriating its resources in Sidama became millionaire.

The continued denial of constitutionally guaranteed quest of the Sidama nation for a regional self-determination has got significant ramifications. The nation can’t exist as a national entity without being in position of formulating its own policies. Having regional autonomy although nominal, enables Sidama to manage its own resources by setting its own priorities, economic, education, agricultural, more essentially cultural and local development policies, although these are all controlled by TPLF. For example, the Oromo nation has been equally brutalized by TPLF, besides, it has managed to develop its cultural aspects in the past 26 years which is a precursor of social consciousness. I’m proud of the Oromo nation in this aspect. This is the opposite in Sidama. The Sidama’s cultural heritages are rapidly eroding at an alarming rate. The symbol, even nominal, of regional autonomy, for the nation would mean huge as doing so helps the nation to continue as a national entity, albeit subjugation. Today, the Sidama nation is at the brink of losing itself in the utopian sea of TPLF masterminded confusion. If someone goes to Hawassa, the Sidama capital, people hardly see the signature of the nation. If one goes to Mekele, Gonder, Bahirdar or elsewhere in the contrary, it’s easy to see the signature of the host nation. In Sidama, however, only its’ displaced beggars symbolize its national demise.

The Sidama nation is denied these fundamental rights by successive rulers, although TPLF is the worst in facilitating the demise of the nation, faster than any person can imagine. Needless mentioning, to ascertain this argument, it’s worth looking at the fake Sidama history book facilitated by TPLF and written under supervision of Sidama’s worst quisling, Shiferaw Shigute and his likes. This is the sign of national disgrace.

I argue that TPLF’s denial of Sidama’s constitutionally guaranteed rights has got serious ramifications to the nation’s survival as a national entity; if it’s left unaddressed. I further argue that, I can justify that, since TPLF assumed power in 1991, it has threatened the survival of Sidama as a national entity for the first time since the creation of Ethiopian state in new form in the late 1880s. This must be crystal clear to both friends and foes. Moreover, those who’re busying themselves to implement TPLF’s anti-Sidama policies in Sidama land must unambiguously know the level of damage they are causing to the survival of the nation. This is a historical error; inexcusable and unforgettable mistake inevitably costs the culprits dearly when the right time comes, sooner or later.

TPLF uses various methods to dehumanize the nation whilst expropriating its resources. By this regime more than all its predecessors, the Sidama is belittled, denigrated, massacred, continually silenced, displaced and made destitute. The nation is told and retold that it is incapable of managing its own affairs unless being dictated by invading TPLF and its handpicked messengers, such as aforementioned quisling. Sidama’s sons and daughters are kept at bay whilst their resources taken away in front of their eyes for the last 26 years. All Sidama environs surrounding Hawassa have been taken by TPLF’s business empire by leaving tens of thousands of Sidama peasants penniless destitute. As indicated above, if the generation is silenced, subjugated, impoverished and kept at bay, the survival of Sidama as a national entity will not only be compromised, but also seriously at the risk of destruction. This is a waking up call for the Sidama nation.
Moreover, TPLF’s denial of the Sidama nation of their constitutional rights to a nominal regional self-governance adversely affected not only Sidama, but also the wider 56 various southern nations and peoples of Ethiopia who were amalgamated into a pressure cooker known as southern Ethiopia nations and peoples regional state (SNNPR) to be collectively enslaved. These diverse nations and peoples were previously five regions in which the Sidama was one of. This pressure cooker has been created by late TPLF’s PM, Meles Zenawi in 1994/5, after totally merging the previously five distinct regions. Ever since, Sidama has been crippled in several ways without single person from Sidama Zone to federal level uttering single word on behalf of the nation.

The make the situation worst, the injustice imposed on Sidama nation became severe since May 24, 2002 Sidama massacre in Looqqe village (outskirt of Sidama capital Hawassa), where the regime’s army and security forces have summarily executed over 69 confirmed Sidama peaceful and unarmed civilian demonstrators who’re demanding TPLF to respect Sidama nation’s rights to regional self-determination.

In its heyday after assuming power in 1991 by toppling its authoritarian predecessor, Derg’s regime, TPLF appeared to be serious about defending the rights of historically subjugated nations of political south, including the Oromo. Besides, its subterfuge became clear when it systematically denied nations’ constitutionally guaranteed rights, few years after its’ grip on power. Unarmed civilians, in all parts of the country, become the subjects of ongoing brutalities of unprecedented scales including massacre, mass incarceration, torture and disappearances. Millions were obliged to flee country due to TPLF’s brutality and deliberately caused poverty.

In the actions only comparable with European’s Scramble for Africa, TPLF remain busying itself with expropriation of the resources of the entire country with varying degrees. It went beyond the expropriation of resources. For example, it has removed previously existing equipment from various hospitals such as Tikur Anbassa hospital during its first year in power. From Tikur Anbassa for instance, it has removed Swiss donated giant auto-sterilizer which has been used for an operation theater (to be taken to Mekele Hospitals), various army facilities, construction and transport public services from where it ransacked buses, lorries and automobiles, and tens of thousands of military vehicles to take all to Tigray, in addition to exclusively monopolizing the entire economy, military and politics of the country ever since.

Not only brutalizing the dissents and expropriating the resources of the country, but also, time and again it has shown its unpreparedness for a pluralist political system in a multi-ethnic and multi-national Ethiopia. TPLF continually ignored this workable politico-economic system, totally disregarding its own paper tiger ethnic based federalism advocating constitution. TPLF dictates its lifeless constitution which theoretically grants universally recognized rights to the stakeholders without recognizing it.
Cognizant of its ramification as the older colonial rulers of the world, as indicated above, whilst expropriating their wealth, TPLF worked hard and is tirelessly working to erode the national identity of the Sidama nation. It mercilessly murders those Sidama civilians who dare demanding their rights as it has been the case during Sidama Looqqe massacre of May 24, 2002. This is the case in Oromia, Ogadenia, Konso, Amhara, Gambella, Benshangul…and elsewhere in the country.
Ironically, the Sidama traitors are blinded of the truth. They hardly see the world outside the lenses TPLF has given them. They worship TPLF as their personal god and believe that TPLF is an omnipotent. They hardly breath single word even under their own roof, with erroneous belief that, TPLF knows everything they do 24/7. Therefore, puppet PM, Hailemariam Desalegn once publicly venerated late evil TPLF’s PM Meles Zenawi by praising him like God. They agree to the genocide the regime continually commits on the nations and peoples of Ethiopia with varying degrees. They agree to the displacements of the Sidama nation from their ancestral lands to vacate it for TPLF’s companies. The Sidama cadres are molded to believe that, it is absolute right for TPLF to do whatever barbarism, incarceration and tortures of unarmed civilians by security and army forces of TPLF; they think nothing otherwise.
Furthermore, in Sidama Zone even the cadres are handled differently because the Sidama is an epicenter of the battle for TPLF’s survival in the south of Ethiopia, simply because TPLF has got no mass base in the entire country apart from the south through two historical failures, namely Hailemariam Desalegn and Shiferaw Shigute in addition to Kassu Ilala and handful south Ethiopia quislings. TPLF use and throw when the surrogates do their job to replace them with other quislings under their tacit belief that ‘this is not good enough to brainwash Sidama’. The nation is heading towards ceasing its existence.

Finally, the Sidama nation as the rest peoples of Ethiopia including its cousin (Oromo) has been subjected to ongoing tragedy. Traditionally gallant, the nation has been denied of its dignity and self -pride by TPLF. The nation is humiliated time and again and groomed to loss its direction to become visionless. The nation is coerced by TPLF’s Sidama surrogates to think and believe that, TPLF has got godly power, thus the nation must shut up and follow their orders without questioning. Sidama quislings are stage-managing TPLF’s anti-Sidama policy in Sidama land with all possible means, including intimidating, massacring, silencing and impoverishing.

Sidama’s new generation is misguided, became hopeless thus obliged to scavenge over the leftover -instead of fighting for its legitimate rights whilst its wealth enriches, unrelated and about 1,100 km travelled TPLF’s bandits. The families of Sidama youth who have sent their children to universities by selling their precious assets are obliged to helplessly see their returnee graduate children sitting idle without aspiration, hope and dream. Sidama development activities supported by foreign aid have been dismantled by the order of TPLF’s late PM and the remaining few serve political purposes of the regime and its cadres. The Sidama land became a battle ground over which the rulers compete while its over 6 million legitimate owners silently scratching their bottoms with deprivation. The Sidama land became hell for its owners whilst TPLF entirely controls its abundant economy, political and related affairs.

For how long the Sidama remain silent? For how long the nation tolerates slavery? For how long the nation put up with its worst quislings who are stage-managing its suffering? For how long the nation remain belittled and deceived? For how long will, historically gallant Sidama nation remain subservient to the brutal TPLF’s rule? For how long its wealth enrich TPLF whilst its sons and daughter are lacking single meal a day? For how long the nation allow its lands to be freely confiscated by the TPLF’s apparatuses leaving Sidama peasants beggars in their own soil? Uncustomary Fear or Silence Sidama nation?

Dying defending own rights and land is privilege and much more dignified than dying under slavery in silence; whilst nation’s survival is at stake!

The Sidama Nation, Wake up! By Denboba Natie, June 18, 2017

The post Sidama: – TPLF Is Destroying Sidama To Erase Its National Identity for The First Time in Its History. appeared first on .

By Endris Negewo Hundissa | June 18, 2017

1. It is part of TPLF’s long term plan to Devastate Oromo as a nation and Oromia as a country. The late PM of TPLF, Meles said, “it is possible to reduce your population as well as your land”. To realize the target, TPLF have been killing us since they came to power, they have been making us desperate economically, they have changed our geographical demography, they distorted our culture and religions. However, they can’t devastate us fully, because our bondage is strong and our language culminates that bondage.

Language has significant impact and importance in nation building. It’s the tool of everything. You can’t rule a nation without language, you can’t preach without language, you can’t express yourself without language, you can’t use technology without language, you can’t buy and sell without language, you can’t command army without language.

TPLF is terrorized witnessing the development of Afaan Oromo and its role in alerting the vibrant Qubee Generation. The Generation meant to uproot a century old subjugation on its nation. It’s very fresh memory that the Qubee Generation shakes the power core of TPLF. Therefore, altering the order of Qubee is taken as the spontaneous revenge, using the state of emergency.

The international community has been supporting Ethiopians with brotherhood spirit. Billions of dollars have been poured into multiple projects in the country. However, significant part of the aids and loans was misused by TPLF. Recently, Millions of dollars were budgeted by USAID, for the project to enhance children’s reading capacity in their mother tongue. As usual, TPLF hijacked the project and used to deconstruct the order of Qubee, to blame on USAID.

2. It is the continuation of Deviating and Negating Oromo from their struggle for human rights and democracy. Since the Oromo protest erupted in 2015, TPLF used many business cards to destruct the Oromo from struggle for freedom. The attempt to divide Oromo in religious line and use terrorism, the blame on Egypt and Eritrea, the blame of OLF and Oromo activists, the criminalization and destruction of Oromo Federalist Congress, the accusation of nationalist OPDO members, the attempt to create inter-ethnic conflicts, politicizing of basic human right demands, the burning of prisons, the Irrecha massacre, the state of emergency, the proxy war of Liyu police. Deviation and Negation are political strategies by dictators, unable/unwilling to address legitimate public demands

3. The Oromo language is one of the fastest developing African languages. It becomes the language of work/office, education, research, technology and potential language of international medias like BBC. This is beyond the intention of TPLF, which is to appease Oromo and other oppressed Nations, by officiating their languages ceremonially. For TPLF, everything is politics, and politics is staying in power by eliminating others. Politics of mutual existence, tolerance, nation building, diversity, compromise inclusion is not found in Woyyane dictionary. For TPLF to rule for a century, others must be eliminated.

Therefore, whatever progress they noticed with Oromo, including the natural ones, they have to intervene and regulate. They thought that they gave us the language, and if it develops behind their imagination, they should intervene. Therefore, this is an attempt to pull back the development of Qubee and confuse the Qubee generation. TPLF has been rolling every possible rock to divide Oromo. They have tried ideologically, religiously and economically. However, the Oromo have been uniting more than divided, because of its culture, especially Afan Oromo.

4.Oromo from within and diaspora are working hard to fully translate Afan Oromo to many international languages to be used online and manually. Grand Afaan Oromo project is one of them. The project was done by committed diaspora Oromo from different parts of Oromia, to incorporate different dialects and words. Recently, few brave Oromo are translating Afan Oromo into Facebook language. Many people have been easily using the language on social medias to share information and learn from each other. Many books have been written by scholars and experts to enrich the language.

All these perspectives indicate, Afaan Oromoo should be used as second national language of Ethiopia. However, it is bitter for TPLF to swallow this truth. Therefore, they have to obstruct its foundation, i.e. the alphabetical order and confuse Oromo peasants, social media, transnational companies and international community.

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Dr. Baro Keno Deressa The colonial ruling system in Ethiopian empire brought misery to all nations ( Oromo, Ogaden, sidama, gambella, benishangul, innocent Amhara, innocent Tigre …..etc ). Ones and for all this chronical cancer (colonial rule) is going to...

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By J. Ebisa Like millions of Oromo and non-Oromo worldwide, I watched the recent Irreecha Oromo Thanksgiving festival where hundreds of Oromo, about 700 according to sources, were gunned down, provoked to run into deep ditches and suffocated or stamped...

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