OMN TAMSAASA KALLATII || Ragaa bahiinsa mana marii Amerika kutaa 2ffaa

Tamsaasa kallattii Ragaa Bahiinsa Mana Maree Bakka Bu’oota Ameerikaatti-OMN

The post OMN TAMSAASA KALLATII: Ragaa bahiinsa mana marii Amerika kutaa 2ffaa appeared first on .

Follow @HouseForeign
Subcommittee Hearing: Democracy Under Threat in Ethiopia
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Chairman

03.09.2017 2:00pm 2172 Rayburn
Fore more Democracy Under Threat in Ethiopia

The post Subcommittee Hearing: Democracy Under Threat in Ethiopia (EventID=105673) appeared first on .

Ancient Ethiopian community upholds Gadaa traditions and leadership

Let’s turn to our special series on the Borana community in southern Ethiopia. Under a system of governance known as Gadaa, representatives from five royal lineages prepare for leadership. Each cycle lasts for eight years. At the start of a new era eligible candidates are judged on physical fitness, wisdom and cultural knowledge. The election process which is done at night and in secret has given the Borana community a new leader. CGTN’s Coletta Wanjohi shines a light on the newly elected leaders who seeks to defend the communities’ ancient tradition.

The post Ancient Ethiopian community upholds Gadaa traditions and leadership appeared first on .

WMS students lend hands to Oromo Awareness Project

By Martina Baca

Worthington, Minnesota (Daily Globe) — Worthington Middle School (WMS) students came together Friday afternoon to make bracelets as a way to support the Oromo Awareness Project.

The post WMS students lend hands to Oromo Awareness Project appeared first on .

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

The post Gender Power Relationship In The Discourse Of Jaarsummaa, A Traditional Dispute Mediation Among Arsi Oromo Of Ethiopia appeared first on .

Dr. Merera Gudina was put in jail upon his return home from a meeting with Rio’s Olympic silver medal winner, athlete Feyisa Lilesa, and Dr. Birhanu Nega of Ginbot 7 in Brussels in December 2016.

Dr. Mararaa Guddinaa Mirga Wabii Argachuun Gara Mana Isaanii Galan Jedha Oduun Abbaa Qabsoo Dhugaa Baga Nuuf Baatan Kan fuul duraas Rabbituu Beeka ! Via Afaan Oromoo fi Jechoota Dinqisiiso Afaan Oromoo

The post Finfinne: Dr. Merera Gudina was released on Bail appeared first on .

Ambo never cry again!

By Rundassa Asheetee Hundee

The Tigreans killed your beloved son again,
To drain your energy, to drive you insane…
To see you cry, to witness your pain!

But they can only hold you back,
Because you’re unstoppable,
Killing the sprit of heroism,
Never.. never …possible!

Every time they killed you,
You’ve risen again and again,
Driving the mad racist Tigrean insane!
Every drop of your blood,
Had already turned into a storm,
You’ve risen above every death…
You’ve risen above every mourn!

So, Ambo never cry again,
Because this is your final vow!
Know you will no longer suffer,
Count a step to freedom….
Starting from now.

You’ve seen death and sadness,
That can’t be bridged with your tears…,
And you’ve known that there’ll be a fight,
Hidden or right at your sight,
You knew the road to freedom,
Requires blood and wisdom.

So, never cry Ambo again,
Because crying while fighting is a sin,
Instead, let the ocean of tears begin!
Singing that we will never be ruled again,
By the coward racist killer Tigrean!

This is the Ethiopia we can’t forget! – By Rundassa Asheetee Hunde

Hailu Kifle, Lawyer, murdered by the TPLF Command Post. Guilty for Being an Oromo

March 11, 2017 – Hailu Kifle, a lawyer, was brutally murdered by the TPLF regime in Ambo. Residents in and around Ambo put his body to rest today.

While TPLF continue killing the brightest of Oromo youth and professionals, its puppet party in Oromia (the OPDO) rants deafening and nauseating propaganda about developing the Oromo with economy. What they saying appears to be, look: we are killing you to develop you economically.

The post Ambo never cry again! appeared first on .

‘It’s life and death’: how the growth of Addis Ababa has sparked racial tensions

Addis Ababa had a plan – to expand, and lead newly prosperous Ethiopia into a brave new century. But after protests led to a violent and harrowing state crackdown, what happens next could reverberate across Africa.

Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

(The Guardian) — Drive out of Addis Ababa’s new central business district, with its five-star hotels, banks and gleaming office blocks. Head south, along the traffic-choked avenues lined with new apartment blocks, cafes, cheap hotels and, in the neighbourhood where the European Union has its offices, several excellent restaurants. Go past a vast new church, the cement skeletons of several dozen unfinished housing developments, under a new highway and swing left round the vast construction site from which the new terminal for the Ethiopian capital’s main international airport is rising.

Here, the tarmac gives way to cobbles and grit and the city loosens its hold. Goats crop a parched field beside corrugated iron and breezeblock sheds, home to a shifting population of labourers and their families. Children in spotless uniforms neatly avoid fetid open drains as they walk home from school. Long-horned cattle wander. Beyond the airport, the road splits into a series of gravel tracks that quickly become dusty paths across fields, which take you to the village of Weregenu.

There is nothing remotely exceptional about Weregenu. It is just another cluster of flimsy homes like many others around, and within, Addis Ababa. Nor is there much exceptional about the series of demolitions here over recent months. As the Ethiopian capital expands, it needs housing, rubbish dumps, space for factories. All land is theoretically owned by the government, merely leased by tenants, and when the government says go, you have to go. So Weregenu’s thousand or so inhabitants know they are living on borrowed time. All have been warned that the bulldozers will come back.

“The police came with officials a few weeks ago. We had a day’s warning,” says Haile, a 19-year-old former resident. “Old people, children, pregnant women … It didn’t matter who you were or where you came from, your house was smashed to bits.”

Colourful buildings line the Bole Road, Addis Ababa, where the population is expected to boom to about 35 million. Photograph: Alamy

“No one told us why they wanted the land, except it is needed for development. We’ve been living there for years and years. I grew up there. Now we have to find somewhere else, or pay rent – and we can’t afford it.”

All over the developing world, there are people with similar stories. By 2050, according to the UN, over half of Africa’s population will live in cities, a much lower proportion than elsewhere in the world but twice as high as now. Ethiopia is one of the countries where urbanisation is moving fastest, and like elsewhere the process is placing massive strain on established political, economic and social systems. One result, as elsewhere, is violence.

The unrest in Ethiopia started in late 2015 with a small demonstration at a town where locals suspected officials of planning to build on a popular football pitch and a forest reserve. They rapidly intensified, prompting a brutal reaction from security forces. This prompted more protests and, inevitably, more brutality. By early autumn last year, several hundred people were dead and the unrest had become a full-blown political crisis.

Accounts of the violence are harrowing. Security forces have shot into crowds of unarmed schoolchildren, students and farmers. Footage of such incidents shows teenagers bleeding on the ground just metres from officials. Police have gone from house to house hunting suspected protesters, combed universities for activists who are then beaten with rifle butts or worse, and picked up any politicians suspected of dissent. Many detainees simply disappear. There is evidence of extra-judicial executions, while prisoners describe being kept for weeks in solitary confinement in dark cells, subjected to successive interrogations and beatings.

“I had no idea if it was day or night,” one prisoner, a musician held for weeks in prison in Addis Ababa last year, remembers. “I was interrogated for about two weeks, and punched or slapped. Then they tied my wrists together and hung me up by my arms from a hook. They hit my hands with sticks, breaking the bones. I passed out.”

Protesters run from tear gas launched by security personnel during the Irecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

When he regained consciousness, the 31-year-old was treated for his injuries and then held for a further two months in a “big hall, deep underground” where more than 100 detainees lived on water and bread, using a bucket for a toilet. He later fled overseas, where he spoke to the Guardian.

Many of the protesters were young, so a high proportion of those killed or injured were teenagers. Security forces targeted those who provided assistance or shelter to suspected activists, too. Parents, friends and schoolmates were detained to pressure fugitive children to turn themselves in. Two teenage athletes who defected while in South Africa for a competition last summer described how friends and relatives had subsequently been roughed up and detained. “They have been rounding them up,” one said.

The protests continued throughout last year at a rate of more than one a day. Some factories were burned, a few vehicles torched and occasional stones thrown. The government described the protesters as “armed gangs”. The numbers of dead or injured demonstrators mounted.

The final act came in October at Bishoftu, a city 35km from Addis Ababa, during a vast religious festival. When some among the crowd of hundreds of thousands began to raise slogans against the government, security forces moved in, firing tear gas and, some witnesses claim, live ammunition. In the stampede that followed, at least 100 died, according to western officials who watch Ethiopia. Activists claim the number was many times higher. The news prompted a new wave of protests. A state of emergency was declared, followed by mass arrests.

Ethiopia had long been held up as one of Africa’s star economic performers and an island of stability in an anarchic region. Though recent months have been calmer, the fallout from the unrest of the last two years may still dramatically change the history of one of the continent’s most important countries – and possibly the future of hundreds of millions of people across the entire continent. The questions posed by the crisis here are vital ones. Does the accelerating expansion of cities – from Algiers to Dar es Salaam, from Cairo to Kinshasa – inevitably mean violence? Will urban development heal existing tensions between communities in fragile nations or aggravate them? Could it be economic success, rather than failure, that brings revolution?

‘We are marginalised in everything’

Gataa, an activist, is slim, small, bespectacled and in his mid-40s. He is inconspicuous, sitting and sipping water in northern Addis Ababa while he talks softly of protest, death, detention and violence.

Gataa (not his real name) is an Oromo, the largest single ethnic group within Ethiopia, comprising 35-40% of the population. The Oromo have played the principal role in the recent unrest, suffered the most significant casualties and been arrested in the greatest number.

The Oromo people have suffered the most at the hands of recent violence and unrest. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

The primary grievance outlined by Gataa is that the Oromo have been oppressed for centuries by other ethnic groups in Ethiopia, first the Amhara, which comprise somewhere between 25-30% of the population, and, more recently, the Tigrayans, only 6%. Many Oromo, and others, say the current government is dominated by the Tigrayans, at least behind the scenes, who are also viewed as benefiting disproportionately from recent economic growth. Both charges are contested by officials and nuanced at least by many analysts and historians. But there is no doubt that there is a powerful Oromo identity and a strong sense of grievance.

“We are marginalised in everything,” says Gataa. “All the best jobs, the contracts, the power is with the others. It has always been this way.”

In 2014, municipal authorities in the capital had published a new strategic document outlining the future development of the city. In most places, this would be a mundane exercise attracting little attention. But for Gataa, and millions of others, “the Addis Ababa integrated zone master plan” was far from innocuous. Ethiopia is split into nine regions, each one for a different ethnicity, and two cities that run themselves. Addis Ababa is one of these, and is effectively an enclave within Oromia, the state of the Oromos. The state resembles a belt of territory straddling the country with Addis as the buckle. The “integrated zone” covered in the plan included a 1.1m hectare strip of land around the city, outside the current municipal boundaries. A glance at a map shows how the expansion of the Addis Ababa it described would have neatly bisected Oromia.

“It is a land grab, an eviction, a new invasion,” says Gataa. “This is Oromo land. Already we have been pushed to the outskirts of the city. Now they push us further so they can build and develop and construct. The farmers have to go. They get jobs on the construction sites on the land where they lived. There is no question of compensation, or any benefit. So what do you expect? Land is everything for the Oromo. It is our culture and identity. It is a matter of life and death.”

A street in Addis Ababa during the 1970s. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

If discontent and resentment at the government cuts across all ethnic groups, the Oromo had a powerful narrative to frame their grievances – and to mobilise.

“This was a rallying cry,” says Gataa. Half a dozen activists in the influential Oromo diaspora – from the US to South Africa – echoed his words.

The masterplan of 2014 did not prompt immediate protests however. Officials say this is evidence that unrest was manufactured from overseas, a charge Oromo activists inside and outside Ethiopia deny. Either way, the protests rapidly left the original issue of the masterplan far behind, almost everyone interviewed for this article said. Many recent demonstrations have been in the Amhara region, where there are few Oromo, but similar frustrations.

“The masterplan was a trigger but not the cause,” says Gataa. “It seems calm now but under the surface much is happening. We are gathering our forces now. People are talking, meeting, organising. Now no one – not even the young people – is interested in [economic] growth. Once you have lost faith in the government, everything is dark for you.

“Am I afraid? Yes, but when those in the front line fall, others will take their place.”

That Addis Ababa is in dire need of planning is not in doubt. It was founded in 1886, by the emperor Menelik II, who is widely seen as the architect of modern Ethiopia and whose statue now towers over a busy roundabout in the capital’s scruffy, lively neighbourhood of Arada. In the 1930s, just before Italy’s short-lived occupation of Ethiopia, the British writer Evelyn Waugh described the city as being “in a rudimentary state of construction” with “half-finished buildings at every corner”. Just over 30 years later, the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinsk told his readers of “the wooden scaffoldings scattered” about a city that resembled “a large village of a few hundred thousand, situated on hills amid eucalyptus groves”. The hills are still there, as is the wooden scaffolding, which is more practical in the heat and sun than its steel counterpart. The trees are gone.

“This certainly raises some major challenges, as it would for any city,” says a UN official who has worked on urban issues in the city. Some forecast a population of 35 million by the end of the century. So one would imagine that any effort to put in place a strategic plan to manage that expansion would have been welcomed.

Addis Ababa is growing rapidly. Today there are between 3.4m and 5 million people living in the city. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

‘A climate of fear’

Aster lost her house in the demolitions of Werengenu village. She is now living, along with her HIV positive mother and her teenage daughter, on the floor of a neighbour’s two-roomed home.

“What do you think we feel? I had a legal lease to this land,” she says, standing in the rubble of her home. “I built my house here long ago. I have friends, neighbours, relatives here. It’s a community. Where do I go know? These officials, they do not care about ordinary people. The government just work for themselves.”

When anyone is prepared to talk, and has checked over their shoulder to see who is listening, this a common charge in Addis Ababa, and partially explains the violence prompted by the 2014 planning document.

Meles Zenawi, who ruled Ethiopia from 1991 until his death in 2012, frequently said he did not believe democracy and development were linked. He pursued a political and economic model that was closer that of China the west. Along with Paul Kagame’s Rwanda, Ethiopia is often cited as the example of how a repressive and centralised government can solve economic challenges in Africa as well as, if not better than, more open but messier democratic systems. Critics argue that such development, if real, is unsustainable in the long run.

Ethiopian officials deny the accusation of authoritarianism. They point out that President Obama described Ethiopia’s government as “democratically elected” on a state visit in 2015, and that the country holds regular elections. Both are true. However Obama qualified his praise and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has won every major poll for more than 20 years and currently occupies every seat in the 537-strong parliament. Diplomats in Addis Ababa describe “a climate of fear” and point out that “almost all opposition politicians are in prison or abroad”. Ethiopia is ranked 140th out of 180 countries by press freedom campaigners. Bloggers are a particular target, with many held under anti-terrorism laws.

Emperor Haile Selassie, who was deposed in a military coup after 58 years in power. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex/Shutterstock

But the authoritarian development model depends on a sufficient number of citizens accepting reduced freedoms in return for a slice of the growing wealth that an efficient, competent and impartial administration delivers. A minority can be repressed, but you can’t fool everyone all the time. And increasingly in Ethiopia, despite the massive growth over recent decades, the government is seen as inefficient, corrupt and unresponsive.

The combination would be a devastating one for governments anywhere. In Ethiopia, it threatens the fundamentals on which the state has been based for decades.

“People will pay a bribe, reluctantly, if that’s what it takes to get services,” says one analyst in Addis Ababa. “They don’t like it but they will do it. But when they have to pay a bribe and still get treated badly, then that’s when they get angry.”

Then there is the inequality. According to the World Bank, the GDP of Ethiopia is $62bn, almost eight times more than in 2001. Tens of millions have been lifted out of poverty, primary school enrolment is approaching 100%, and if there are still millions who depend on aid to eat and an annual threat of hunger in many rural areas, it is almost impossible to envisage the appalling famines of 30 years ago recurring.

But the new wealth generated over recent decades is not being evenly distributed. In 2014 Ethiopia topped a list of African countries creating the most millionaires. “Sales are good, especially of imported champagne,” says the manager of a fine wine shop in an upscale neighbourhood in the south of Addis Ababa. Next door, a dozen luxury cars fill a dealer’s yard. The best-selling vehicle is the Toyota Prado, a vast SUV which costs $200,000. The owner says he sells between five and seven each week. At the same time, poverty levels, even in the capital, remain between 25-30%.

Poverty levels remain between 25-30% in the capital. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Once there was nothing here – and people argued then,” says one leading businessman over a $10 sandwich in the Sheraton hotel. “So imagine what it is like now there is a great big pie, and everyone wants a slice.”

Three further elements are fuelling discontent across Ethiopia, the businessman said: the very large number of graduates in the country, a consequence of the vast expansion of the education system since 1991; social media, which has raised expectations among young people in the country to “stratospheric levels”; and ethnicity.

Officials know the problems that face the EPRDF as it completes 25 years in power. The Addis Ababa integrated development plan has been withdrawn, with any new planning based on the city remaining within its current administrative limits. There are frequent official statements expressing concern about corruption. The media – which is largely owned or controlled by the state – is full of stories reporting the huge social programmes, the aid effectively spent, the effort to build a million new homes in Addis Ababa, the billion-dollar coffee crop, and the vast new dams. Some criticism is also tolerated, though only where it poses no threat to the ruling party – in English-language academic journals published by thinktanks closely linked to the ruling party, for example, or English-language news websites with small readership.

At the same time, anyone or anything that is considered a threat is targeted by the full force of the state.

“Ethiopia is facing political, social and economic challenges. The new generation want to be informed and are not patient,” admits Negeri Lencho, the newly appointed minister of communications.

Lencho described last year’s state of emergency as justified and temporary, pointing out that Turkey and France have introduced similar measures in the last 18 months.

Negeri Lencho, the newly appointed minister of communications who said journalists were in jail because they were ‘unprofessional’. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“When the government faces a group of people who are killing and destroying property, when there is no law and order, then that government has to do something,” he says. “But it is not a big deal. It is gradually coming to a usual situation.”

As for the crackdown on the media, this too is not the fault of the government. The problem, according to Lencho, is that Ethiopian journalists are not “professional” and that is partly why so many of them end up in jail.

“Ethiopia has its own system of government based on a system where media and journalists should give priority to the needs of the people,” the minister says. “The role of Ethiopian journalists comes from the real and actual needs of the Ethiopian people today. Those in prison have not respected fundamental journalistic ethics.”.

Such views are anathema to activists such as Gataa. Like many others, he calls for international intervention, or at least more vocal criticism of Ethiopia from other governments. So too do human rights campaigners overseas.

Yet, as analysts agree, this is unlikely as long as the US sees Ethiopia as a key regional ally. Diplomats in Addis Ababa talk of how advancing human rights will help stability in security in east Africa but the truth is that countering the increasing influence of China in Ethiopia, and fears over rising Islamic militancy in the region, make any significant pressure unlikely. The EU now see Ethiopia as a key actor in the struggle to slow migrant flows across the Mediterranean. There is little appetite in the chancelleries of Europe or Washington to risk chaos in a country of nearly 100 million in such a sensitive part of the world for the sake of a few thousand incarcerated activists and commentators.

“We want to heal Ethiopian democracy and make it vibrant,” Lencho says. Few major powers are likely to challenge the statement in the near future.

Elevated views of Churchill Avenue and Addis Ababa. Photograph: Grant Rooney/Alamy

Revolution or evolution?

Analysts in Addis Ababa agree only on two things: they do not want to be quoted by name for fear of attracting the attention of the security services, and that it is very difficult to predict what happens next in Ethiopia.

Some believe the government has won. They say that the promise of reforms, a cabinet reshuffle, the withdrawal of the masterplan, a degree of “protest fatigue”, the repression and the ongoing economic growth together mean that no further unrest can be expected until the next elections, scheduled for 2020 at the earliest. Analysts point out that the political leadership retains the loyalty of the powerful intelligence services, army and federal police and even if there are many malcontents, there are also millions of people, ranging from petty officials and police officers to major business owners, who see their future welfare as dependent on the continued rule of the EPRDF. They point out that recent festival of Epiphany, which some thought might be a flashpoint for further protests in this predominantly Christian and devout country, went off without a problem and say that Ethiopia is not as fragile as some believe.

If these analysts are right, Ethiopia’s course over the coming years will encourage supporters of an authoritarian model of development across Africa and beyond.

Others, however, take an opposite view. They say the unrest has challenged the basic premises that underpin the legitimacy of the government in the country. If Ethiopians can no longer look forward to a steady evolution towards political pluralism and ethnic inclusion, coupled with a degree of material improvement, then the fundamental contract between the government and the population will break down. In this case, if there is no significant reform and particularly if there is no outlet for resentment through protest, an open media, unions or opposition parties, then the centre cannot hold for very long. As they doubt whether there exists leadership and intellectual capacity to execute the necessary changes, massive and disruptive change is inevitable. This view will encourage those who believe democracy is a prerequisite of sustainable development – though all but the most dogmatic will be concerned over the trauma such change implies.

The most likely scenario, as so often is the case, is that some kind of middle way will be found. All over Africa there is tension and friction, sometimes violence, along fracture lines that have little to do with formal frontiers between states. The “Africa rising” narrative does not fit this messy reality – but nor does its pessimistic opposite. Addis Ababa, like Ethiopia as a whole, has always charted its own path, confounding predictions and confusing pundits. This is unlikely to change now. There will doubtlessly be further waves of unrest, and detentions, repression and deaths. There will be some minor concessions from the authorities. Economic growth may slow. But it does not feel like the revolution is just around the corner.

On a Sunday, the priests’ chanting sounds out across Addis Ababa at 6am over crackling loudspeakers and the faithful file into the churches. Children join less edifying activities: street football, for the most part. By mid-morning the tourists, who never really went away despite the travel warnings (now mostly lifted), are queuing inside the national museum for a glance at the remains of Lucy, one of the earliest hominids, and middle-class families are taking selfies in its garden. Work crews in straw sun hats sweep the steps of the obelisk in Yekatit 12 square, which commemorates those who died resisting Italy’s occupation from 1936-1941.

Through the afternoon, on Churchill Street, boys sell mangoes, cheap watches, cigarettes and gums to a continuous rush of old men in crumpled suits, young women in tight dresses and older women in traditional white shawls. The packed minibuses that serve as taxis jostle and manoeuvre, watched by bored police officers.

As dusk turns to night, the fashionable lounge venues in the developed downtown neighbourhood of Bole fill with “re-pats”, who have returned from London, New York or Dubai, and there’s not a free table in the bars and restaurants of Arada, where men cluster around grilled meat and couples share bottles of beer, shouting to be heard over the music. By early evening, these bars’ multi-coloured strings of bulbs are the only ones shining in the gathering gloom. By midnight the music stops, the lights are turned off, and the remaining revellers make their way home.

The post ‘It’s life and death’: how the growth of Addis Ababa has sparked racial tensions appeared first on .

Macha Tulama Association Appeal to Oromo in Diaspora

Dear Oromo in Diaspora,
As you all know, the Oromo people have been facing genocide from the Ethiopian regime’s militia, police, security agents, and government officials in general and the Agazi in particular. Consequently, more than one thousand Oromo have been killed; hundreds of them have been crippled, blinded and disfigured; and thousands of them have been imprisoned and tortured. In fact, we do not know the actual numbers of Oromo victims because the regime does not want the world to know the numbers. Under the current state of emergency, just after the irreechaa massacre more than eleven thousand Oromos have been thrown in to jails according to the Ethiopian regime’s own account. Despite all these challenging problems and sufferings, our people are bravely struggling to restore our pride, nationhood, sovereignty, and country. By their blood and suffering, our people have restored our unity and humanity that suffered for more than a century.

The reality is that our people are living in war zones without places to retreat to receive help; without agencies that can provide them shelter, food, medicine and other necessary materials; and without governments that can support them. Global powers have continued to provide material and financial resources to the terrorist regime while giving lip service to our terrorized people. The Tigrayan state elites and their Oromo servants, who are only committed to gain something at the cost of the destruction of their people, are looting Oromo resources and preventing Oromo from supporting one another in Oromia and beyond.  The Oromo problems are increasing from day to day and from month to month because the Oromo are determined to liberate themselves and the Ethiopian fascist regime is also committed to keep them under the yoke of colonialism.

So it is time for the Oromo in the diaspora to ask themselves how they can continue to support their people who are sacrificing their precious lives to liberate their nation, Oromia. This is the period of darkness and tragedy for our people. At the same time, the Oromo history is entering a new phase. The entire Oromo in the diaspora must make a continuous contribution. Our main contribution in the diaspora must be financial one in order to help our people who are crippled, blinded and disfigured; the children of the deceased; and those who are suffering in the jungle without food, clothes, and medicine.

The leadership of the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association, USA, expresses its heartfelt thanks for the contributions you have already made until now to support your people. Hundreds Oromo victims of Ethiopian brutal force have already received your support. The support that MTA has received on behalf of Oromo victims is insignificant in relation to the size of the victims and cannot support most of them. In addition, the size of Oromo victims is increasing in thousands. We wish to tell you the names of those who the association has helped on your behalf, but we cannot do know because of their safety. We have their names, addresses, telephones and regions where they live. In the near future, when the time allows you will know the names of the people you helped.

Brothers and sisters, we appeal to you to continue to contribute money to support Oromo victims of Ethiopian state violence. The money you contributed is depleted, and Oromo victims of violence have nobody except you.

You can contribute by going to Macha Tulama website: machatulama.org and use the PayPal method

Or use: gofundme.com/MTAfund

Transfer money to Macha  Tulama emergency Fund account:

Bank of America
3413 Kennethworth Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20781

Routing number: 052001633
Account number: 446037323547
Wire: 026009593
Swift code: BOFAUS3N

Thank you very much for your understanding and responding to our national call and appeal.

The post Macha Tulama Association Appeal to Oromo in Diaspora appeared first on .

Rubbish landslide destroyed 49 homes inside the site and killed at least 82 

Scuffles break out in Ethiopia as bereaved families accuse rescue workers of delays after rubbish collapse kills scores.

(Aljazeera) — Bereaved families scuffled with rescue workers on Tuesday at a dump in the Ethiopian capital where the collapse of a mountain of rubbish killed at least 82 people on Saturday.

Relatives pushed and shoved emergency workers, angrily accusing them of delays and saying dozens of people were still missing after the disaster at the Reppi dump.

“Nobody is helping us. We are doing all the digging ourselves. It is shameful,” Kaleab Tsegaye, a relative of one victim, told the Reuters news agency.

Ethiopia on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning that will be observed from tomorrow.

The collapse late on Saturday destroyed 49 makeshift homes inside the landfill site on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, city spokesman Amare Mekonen said.

Over the past few days, a few rescuers have used bulldozers to move piles of rubbish as hundreds of people have gathered at the scene, weeping and praying. Some dug through the rubbish with their hands.

“My babies, my babies, my little daughter,” cried one man wandering through the dump in the Ethiopian capital on Monday, tears streaming down his face. Neighbours said he had lost his wife and four children.

On one side of the hill, volunteers sobbed as they pulled out three corpses, including a child found on top of its mother.

Hundreds of people live on the 50-year-old Reppi dump, the capital’s only landfill site, scavenging for food and items they can sell such as recyclable metal.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse.

“We expect the number of victims to increase because the landslide covered a relatively large area,” Dagmawit Moges, head of the city’s communications bureau, said.

The disaster late on Saturday destroyed 49 makeshift homes inside the landfill site on the outskirts of Addis Ababa [Reuters]

About 150 people were at the site when the landslide happened, resident Assefa Teklemahimanot told The Associated Press news agency.

Addis Ababa Mayor Diriba Kuma said 37 people had been rescued and were receiving medical treatment.

“In the long run, we will conduct a resettling programme to relocate people who live in and around the landfill,” he said.

“My house was right inside there,” said a shaken Tebeju Asres, pointing to where one of the excavators was digging in deep, black mud. “My mother and three of my sisters were there when the landslide happened. Now, I don’t know the fate of all of them.”

Residents blast government

The resumption of dumping at the site in recent months most likely caused the landslide, Assefa said.

Dumping had stopped in recent years, but it resumed after farmers in a nearby region, where a new landfill complex was being built, blocked dumping in their area.

Smaller landslides have occurred at the Koshe landfill in the past two years, Assefa said.

Some volunteers had also expressed anger at the city administration on Monday as media arrived at the scene. As well as the two excavators, only three ambulance workers were at the site. Scuffles broke out between them and residents as journalists approached.

“Stop pretending for the cameras!” one local said. “They haven’t provided us with anything. Not even gloves. When it gets dark, we are using our mobile phones [for light].”

“We have warned the authorities for more than 10 years as the rubbish piled up. There has not been any response. It is criminal negligence,” said Taye Woldeamanuel, a 48-year-old whose sister narrowly survived the landslide.

About 500 waste-pickers are believed to work at the landfill every day, sorting through waste from the capital’s estimated four million residents. City officials say close to 300,000 tonnes of waste are collected each year from the capital, most of it dumped at the landfill.

City officials had warned that the site was running out of room and in recent years had been trying to turn the rubbish into a source of clean energy with a $120m investment.

The Koshe waste-to-energy facility, which has been under construction since 2013, is expected to generate 50 megawatts of electricity upon completion.

Rescue workers watch as excavators dig into a pile of rubbish in search of missing people following a landslide when a mound of rubbish collapsed on an informal settlement at the Koshe garbage dump in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, March 13, 2017. Reuters/Tiksa Negeri [Reuters]

Source: News agencies

The post Rubbish landslide destroyed 49 homes inside the site and killed at least 82 appeared first on .

Yaa Oromoo, qawwee qawween yoo ofirraa hin deebisin, akka malee garboomuu, hiyyoomuu, gadadoomuufi godaanuuf qophaa’i. Tole?
This is in Ethiopia a place where civil society has been killed by mafia and tribal ‘Ethiopia government’. #DireDawaEthiopia.

The post Dire Dawa: life ammunition on innocent people by TPLF regime appeared first on .

Re: Extremism and the Struggle for Unity and Democracy, Short Commentary

Picture From mereja

Short article wrote by Prof. Work Abera (posted below) caught my attention and I decided to respond to the sneaky nature of the article from Oromo perspectives. As for me, the article is nothing new but hold the usual opinion of extremist habesha’s who often targets the just struggle of Oromo and their hero organization OLF. Obviously, Oromos and other nations of the south have already defined their cause that they were occupied by habesha forces since 1882 (about) and were incorporated to Ethiopian empire under habesha emperors. Disgracing the novel works of liberationist organizations claiming to represent their subjugated people, for instance – OLF, ONLF and SNLF seem stated purpose of the article. I prefer not to list ALF in tier of the liberation front’s from the oppressed southern nations for I am not sure if the liberation front (ALF) quoted by Prof. Work falls to this category and shares similar goal. As well, ALF, beyond mention, didn’t as such fall under the blame of the writer as others did.

The author introduces confusion by alternatively using moderate nationalism with moderate ethnic nationalism, the latter being very specific. Thereby the author established ground for his definition, one among others is, as follows. He writes “Moderate nationalism, by contrast, recognizes that the fundamental problems of poverty, illiteracy, and disease are universal problems that all Ethiopians face and searches for a common solution.” Such frame might lead one to expect that Prof. Work was concerned with moderate nationalism (not moderate ethnic nationalism) who may have interest of such global issues but not necessarily that of Ethiopian empire. I don’t see why immediate interest as to why Ethiopia based moderate nationalism (mayn’t be ethnic) is willing to be most concerned to such global issues where the three thousand year long habesha induced chromic poverty is already in the empire’s territory.

Also, the author confuses the inherent nature of federal arrangement (unity) with national arrangement (unity). It is impossible to melt down nations and unite them as one does for chemical elements. Even for one specific feature, say language, nations can’t be merged. Practical reminder is that failed attempt in the TPLF’s Ethiopian empire to create new language for a number of southern nationalities. However, if the concern is about federal unity, the only prior criteria it might require before the arrangement is true recognition of self and of others as nation or nationality. It would hardly be possible to envisage multi-ethnic party where the people are centered for their own recognition. As for me, I need pure line party and leader to trust to represent me. I can’t be mislead and regret by consenting party or person who claims an imaginary ethnicity (nationality, if you will) as it is often the case of mixed pan-Ethipianists. By far I am most concerned with my inborn nationality but not as such with my religion which I already changed from Tewahido to Evangelical.

Prof. Work calls unnamed Oromo brothers and appreciates the commencement he didn’t detail. To my knowledge, if not redressed, there are no Oromo brothers of others dedicated for the Oromo cause. Prof. Work defines EPLF, TPLF and OLF as extremists. His opinion is welcomed, especially if he has credible evidence to say that. But let me ask where he localized his perceptive other organization (s)? He puts at the middle or the other extreme? Simply put, in order to define such fronts to one extreme there must be other (s) on the other extreme. So the next question should be formulated as to identify which extreme is progressive occupy and which extreme was left for the backward. Also, are the so called moderates possibly sharing average of all the phenomena raised by those falling in both extremes? Noteworthy is that one shouldn’t assume the so called moderate as neutral (with zero effect).

Prof. Worku suggests way to bridging the gulf between the elites of the various ethnic groups, particularly between the Amharas and the Oromos. He proposes “accepting past injustices and agreeing on a mutually acceptable set of objectives to chart the future; looking in the back mirror to move forward. To deny Ethiopia’s imperfect historical past is to sabotage the common struggle for a united, democratic, and prosperous Ethiopia. Therefore, non-Oromos, especially the Amharas, have a moral duty to accept the historical wrongs committed against the Oromo people and the other ethnic groups.” He, then turn around and states “At the same time, some of our Oromo brothers and sisters who may have been mislead by separatist rhetoric, should accept the indisputable historical fact that Ethiopia is the nation that their ancestors built. It would be foolish to destroy their own home, as some extremist Oromo groups have vowed.” In doing so Prof. Work hope to divide Oromo, underestimates our level of thinking and attempts to shade the truth of the inequitable colonial murders and continued genocide by profiling it to as simply as what undemocratic inborn government might do. Further, he solicits Oromos to think as if Oromo ancestors willfully attracted habesha government to come and rule them their native land Oromia, though undemocratic. Isn’t it funny idea readers?

One can derive instant conclusion that the motto of the paper by Prof. Work intended not to justify the harmonious co-existences on nations in Ethiopian empire under negotiated Ethiopia. He mixes likely policy of ethnic state with federal level policy. It must be clear that no confusion should be introduced by indistinct statement. If the concern is to talk about the federation, no such anticipated problems of Prof. Work be the case on the ground. Why ethnic party worries about cross ethnic nation election issue? Within state, ethnic party’s interest to stay in power might not necessitate involvement of other ethnic state but how democratic the party would be for its citizen is what would be a matter of concern seems. The competition among parties across states might be a worry of federal level parties which can be established on non ethnic bases. Non ethnic federal level party can also address some concerns related to those citizens who define themselves as alien to any specific ethnic line. Federal arrangement gives immense opportunity to such alien to govern at federal level and free citizenship at the federation of their choice or across all.

Therefore, the question is why self respect and common dignity is intentionally dismissed by habesha writers or their captive allies? Apart from theoretical discussion, there are also concrete examples of federal arrangement in our today’s world. Why Prof. Worku isn’t willing to consider the successful federal basis of even the country he seems to live in (Canada). I think we Oromos shouldn’t prove as Prof. Work named as “foolish” by overlooking contingency plan embedded in the overall aim of his article.  Are such category of people communicating to us their rogue interest hibernated at some other extreme and try to shade progressive ideas by leveling extremism defined on their misery scale of evaluation?

For the Oromo’s what seem plausible is, contrary to the general aim of the article in present discussion, holding national interest is primary objective and federal interest is conditional goal. Of course, I do suggest that a national party who is self respected, cooperative, dedicated for mutual existence and respecting inborn right and benefit of every other nation in the empire is most welcome to ally with Oromo nation for prosperous co-existence. That was what we hoped when we endorsed TPLF’s constitution backed by Eritreans before it fails to prove same. I believe future is ours!

Extremism and the Struggle for Unity and Democracy

By Worku Aberra

March 12, 2017

Source: EthioMedia

Extremist ethnic nationalism has harmed the struggle for peace, justice, equality, and democracy in Ethiopia. The reason is that extremism fosters conflict, undermines unity, and engenders authoritarianism.

For the purposes of this commentary we can distinguish between two types of ethnic nationalisms that we find in Ethiopia today: extremist and moderate. Extremist ethnic nationalism can be defined as the exclusively ethnic perception, interpretation, and formulation of Ethiopia’s problems and their resolutions. Moderate nationalism, by contrast, recognizes that the fundamental problems of poverty, illiteracy, and disease are universal problems that all Ethiopians face and searches for a common solution.  Moderate nationalism is collaborative; extremist nationalism, adversarial.  Moderates want respect for their culture, language, and history, within a united Ethiopia. Extremists insist independence is the only way to achieve respect. Moderates emphasize the similarities between the various cultures; extremists exaggerate the differences. Moderates pursue equality; extremists covet domination.

Moderates are willing to forgive past injustices. Extremists bear a grudge against an entire ethnic group and use past wrongs as weapons to serve a separatist goal. Moderate nationalism rejoices over Ethiopia’s shared culture, history, and destiny; extremism denigrates them. Moderates realize that a nation is not built by dwelling on the darkest past of its history, but rather by focussing on the brightest aspects of its future. Extremists are determined to destroy Ethiopia.

If politics is war by other means as Clausewitz once said, then extremist ethnic politics is ethnic war by other means. How so? The ultimate goal of any political party, ethnic or non-ethnic, is to come to power through democratic elections or undemocratic schemes. Either way, the path to power is paved with all kinds of clashes, the clash of ideas, personalities, and interests. When political parties are organized on the basis of ethnicity, as opposed to ideology, the clashes take on ethnic dimensions. Whenever ethnic politics is used as a means of achieving power or as a device for promoting separation, it incites ethnic conflict.

Extremist ethnic nationalism is intrinsically anti-democratic. In Ethiopia, the current political system was crafted by three extremist groups in 1991, the EPLF, TPLF, and OLF. The motivation behind establishing ethnic federalism and promoting ethnic-based political parties was precisely to create favourable conditions—political conflict, servitude, fragmentation—for authoritarianism to thrive. The political system was cleverly designed to preclude democratic governance. Even the ethnic parties created by ethnic federalism, moderate or extremist, cannot run for an office, regionally or federally, outside their ethnic homeland.

This means, ethnic parties know well advance that they have no chance of forming a national government on their own through a democratic election. If they want to come to power, they must invent undemocratic means, a bogus election, a hollow coalition, a coup d’état, or an armed insurrection.  The anti-democratic route to power inspires resistance from the excluded ethnic parties. The result is divisiveness, instability, and possibly secessionism, as the three “founding fathers” had intended.

Because extremism is an exclusionary ideology, it is intrinsically segregationist or separatist. No ethnic political party, moderate or extremist, claims to fight for the wellbeing of other ethnic groups. The name says it all: the TPLF, OLF, ONLF, ALF, and others. When an extremist party is in power, it spawns the conditions amenable for other extremists to espouse secessionism. The exclusionary political program of an ethnic party forces it at best to ignore, at worst, to suppress the collective rights of other ethnic groups. Having captured the government through undemocratic means and lacking popular support, the ethnic party in power must rule with an iron fist.

To stay in power, such a government will also favour members of its own ethnic group in the distribution of resources and services. The authoritarian rule and the inequity in the distribution of resources spur the oppressed to struggle for their rights, but their legitimate struggle for equality and democracy can easily be hijacked by power-hungry separatist politicians. Of course, who champions secessionism hinges on who is in power currently. Among extremists, the advocacy for secessionism is a function of political power. Those in power today, may claim to steadfastly defend national unity, but if they lose power tomorrow, they have the organizational capabilities, the ideological inspiration,  and the constitutional guarantee to demand a separate ethnic republic. Extremist ethnic parties are always separatists.

Today, secessionism is so widely accepted within the Ethiopian polity that even some Amharas, historically one of the staunchest supporters of national unity, have succumbed to it. Predictably, separatist Oromos have welcomed them. When separatists dance together, national unity gets crumpled.

As argued earlier, the combination of ethnic political parties and ethnic federalism breeds authoritarianism. This tendency is re-enforced by the ideology of extremist nationalism, collectivism. Extremist nationalists exploit ethnicity to serve their political purposes, but make no ethnic distinction when suppressing human rights.  In ethnic nationalism, the “interests” of the nation supersedes individual rights. Oppression directed against members of one’s own ethnic group is justified by appealing to the sacrifices that individuals must make for the good of the ethnic nation. That is why, in its extreme form, ethnic nationalism morphs into fascism.  This means, today’s intolerant ethnicist agitators could become tomorrow’s ruthless dictators.

The conclusion is clear: ethnic political parties are organically incapable of solving Ethiopia’s problems. Multi-ethnic democratic political parties formed on the basis of ideology are best suited to create the conditions for peace, security, and stability; to eschew ethnic conflicts, to enhance national unity, and to establish a democratic order in Ethiopia. One hopes that such parties will have the ideological clarity, the political vision, and the popular support to address Ethiopia’s problems, including the vexing, seemingly intractable, and unresolved problem of the national question.

The endeavour to form a coalition among some ethnic parties is a step in the right direction towards eventually creating a multi-ethnic party, for the attempt to solve the national question through the creation of ethnic parties and ethnic federalism has failed miserably. That experiment has led to a dead end; it may well be heading towards a deadly end. To avoid the impending crisis, Ethiopia merits a democratic alternative solution.

How can Ethiopians unite to forestall the ominous threats of extremist nationalism?  We must create a movement that recognizes past ethnic injustices, exposes the false assertions of the ethnic fundamentalists, and accepts a set of common objectives. Such a movement, as exemplified by the activities of our Oromo brothers and sisters in the social media, is already underway. It is a most welcome development.

When calling for unity across all ethnic groups against extremism, we should begin by acknowledging past injustices. In the past, there was class oppression of all Ethiopians, but there was also national oppression of the non-Amhara ethnic groups, as well as religious discrimination. This a historical fact. No, we should not blame one ethnic group.  No, we should not dwell on it. Nor should we tolerate the falsification, exaggeration, or fabrication of history by extremists.  Indeed, falsehood, no matter where it comes from, must be exposed. Ethnic hatred must be challenged, while ethnic injustices, past and present, must be acknowledged.

There is a lesson to be learnt from ordinary Ethiopians of all ethnic groups. Despite the various attempts by extremists to inflame ethnic conflict over the last 25 years, the Ethiopian people have rejected the politics of ethnic animosity, divisiveness, discord, and violence.   Instead, they have embraced the politics of ethnic reconciliation, consensus, and harmony. Unfortunately, extremism flourishes among some members of the elite, particularly in the diaspora.

One way of bridging the gulf between the elites of the various ethnic groups, particularly between the Amharas and the Oromos, is accepting past injustices and agreeing on a mutually acceptable set of objectives to chart the future; looking in the back mirror to move forward. To deny Ethiopia’s imperfect historical past is to sabotage the common struggle for a united, democratic, and prosperous Ethiopia.

Therefore, non-Oromos, especially the Amharas, have a moral duty to accept the historical wrongs committed against the Oromo people and the other ethnic groups. At the same time, some of our Oromo brothers and sisters who may have been mislead by separatist rhetoric, should accept the indisputable historical fact that Ethiopia is the nation that their ancestors built. It would be foolish to destroy their own home, as some extremist Oromo groups have vowed. Acknowledging past injustices, celebrating our common history, and envisioning our mutual destiny are imperative for building the new Ethiopia, an Ethiopia where all ethnic groups are treated equally.

Worku Aberra (PhD) is a professor economics at Dawson College, Quebec, Montreal, Canada.

The post Re: Extremism and the Struggle for Unity and Democracy, Short Commentary appeared first on .

Tadesse Birru (circa 1920 – March 19, 1975) was a Colonel General of the Ethiopian Imperial Army and an Oromo nationalist. Initially a strong proponent of Ethiopian unity, Tadesse eventually became an activist for the empowerment of the Oromo people in the 1960s. His advocacy turned into repeated attempts to overthrow the government through a coup and later through a military rebellion. He was eventually captured and executed by the Derg regime. He is considered to be the father of modern Oromo nationalism

The post OROMO: General Tadesse Biru, a father of Oromo Nationalism. by Samirawit Girma appeared first on .

History: Alkaline to neutralize conflicts or an element to catalyze them?

by: Bayisa Wak-Woya
Geneva, 20^th February, 2017

[The Culprit, ESAT Video Interview is posted, herewith, at the end]

PART – I 

From the outset:

1. The recent ESAT interview with Dr. Larebo encouraged me to write this note, something which I was thinking of doing for some years now. Although I am disappointed with both the form and content of the interview, I found it a blessing in disguise because it provided me with the muse I needed to gather my thoughts to write this piece regarding the use or misuse of history. In bracket though, I would like to express my deepest dissatisfaction that, a) the interviewer seems to have an ulterior motive – because he was feeding the interviewee with leading questions, which is very unprofessional; and, b) the issues discussed were not relevant to the prevailing situation in Ethiopia in general and that of the ongoing rapprochement between the Oromo and Amhara people in particular. To sum up, and in my view, the interview did not have any added value whatsoever. As for Dr. Larebo’s statement about Oromos, I can only say that he is either an educated illiterate or an arrogant individual who is harboring quite a dose of grudge against the Oromo people for reasons not known to me yet.

2. Just a short note for Dr. Larebo and others who may share his views about the Oromos: If Oromos call themselves as Oromos, then they are Oromos. Period! If you tell me that your name is ላሬቦ, I should be either ignorant, arrogant or a moron to insist that your name is actually not ላሬቦ but ሌቦ. So, my dear learned Dr. Larebo, you fall into one of these three categories of people, and hence, it does not worth spending my time on this. Stay where you are and continue believing in what you believe. But one thing for sure, don’t expect me to respond if you call me “Galla” because you are not addressing me but some other non-existing ghost. I also don’t expect you to respond if I address you as ሌቦ because it is not your name. Just for the record though: Judging from your academic credentials and the exposures you are enjoying in the Western world, it is very difficult to categorize you as an ignorant or a moron, because it seems to me that you are deliberately using the derogatory word “ጋላ” or “እረኛ” as if for example, you could not find an Amharic version of “pastoralist” – which I am more than happy to enlighten you – it is “አርብቶ አደር”. For your information, “እረኛ” is “shepherd”. Oromos were አርብቶ አደር and not እረኛ.  I would have loved to apply in this case one of my favorite Oromo proverbs – “ሳልጶ ሶቆላቴ ሶቆሉ ጋርጋሩ” but then again I feel like, it is waste of my time because you are what people call in Amharic አውቆ የተኛውን ቢቀሰቅሱት አይሰማም! I rather leave you to stay where you belong – in the world of arrogance!

3. As a young boy, growing up in a remote village in Western Wollega, and out of sheer ignorance and lack of exposure, I used to use very derogatory terms every time I addressed seasonal workers from Gojam, who were staying in our compound during coffee harvesting seasons. But from the day I learned that the term I was using was a derogatory one, I stopped using it, and forever. I learned it the hard way, but be it! I was young, ignorant, and naïve, a boy without any exposure to the external world outside of my village. Now whenever I retroactively remember these episodes, I do feel embarrassed for using these derogatory terms, although the fact that I was using them out of ignorance, solaces me very well!

4. In another similar episode, and until I went to Alaba Qulito during ዕድገት በህብረት ዘመቻ I did not know that ጉዴላ and ወላሞ were derogatory names but when my fellow ዘማቾች from Hosaena and Wolayita Sodo High schools told me that it was derogatory and these two nations actually call themselves as ሃዲያ and ወላይታ, respectively, I immediately deleted from my memories the derogatory words and replaced them with the real names of these people as they told me they were. As simple as that. It is doable of course, if only there is a good will. My basic principle since then remains – who am I to call you differently when you are telling me that your name is said and written this or that way? It is your name and I have to respect it. There is no need for me to dig deep in graves of history and undertake forensic studies to prove that your name is different from what you are telling me unless of course, I have ulterior motives.

5. A nation may decide to be called by any name it may wish so, including a derogatory one, provided that it is the choice of the people and that they don’t consider it derogatory. Take for example, how proud we are to call ourselves Ethiopians or habesha. Wherever we are, especially in diaspora, we are so proud to be called as such and we are rather kind of offended if people mistake us for other nation or call us differently. We are too proud to be Ethiopian or habesha. It has become a norm now to even wear T-shirts and cowboy capes with logos like “ኩሩ ሀበሻ“,”ኩሩ ኢትዮጵያዊ” to demonstrate to the world who we are. But if one looks at the origin and meaning of these two words, they are derogatory, in real sense. Ethiopia, as the Greeks used to call people south of Mediterranean, the Cushitic, means burned face, dark face, which in modern language is Negro or Nigger. And Habesha, is an Arabic word which literally means mixed race, otherwise in Amharic “ክልስ” or “ዲቃላ”. In other words, we are proud to call ourselves “ኩሩ ዲቃላ” and “ኩሩ ኒጌር”. So be it, as long as we like to be called as such. It is nonsensical if others call us otherwise.

My disappointment about the interview:

6. At this particular junctions of history of our nation, we are witnessing an unprecedented level of violation of the human rights of Ethiopians by the TPLF regime which led to the uprising of the Oromo people, later followed by similar uprisings of the Amhara, Konso, and Benishanghul and Gambella people. The government declared state of emergency following which tens of thousands of civilians from all the areas where the uprising took place, detained, tortured and in some places killed. In general, the situation in the country has gone from bad to worse with no sign of light at the end of the tunnel, at least at this stage.

7. The affected nations of Ethiopia, especially the two most populace ones i.e. the Oromo and Amhara, fully understanding that their separate resistance may not yield the desired result, decided to forge certain form of understanding which would possibly lead to form a coalition to remove the TPLF-led regime and replace it with a democratic government of all Ethiopians. Amhara demonstrators in Gojam and Gonder made it clear to the TPLF regime that they consider any attack on the Oromo as an attack on Amhara people. Whether it was in Wolqait Tsegede or Gonder, Bahir Dar or Wogera, the Amhara demonstrators were seen carrying banners with pictures of Bekele Gerba and other Oromo political prisoners demanding their immediate release. Numerous Amhara elders travelled from Gonder and Gojam all the way to Bishoftu to participate in the annual Oromo Thanksgiving celebration (ኢሬቻ) – an event which the Orthodox Church until very recently, used to label as un-Godly. The Oromos reciprocated by declaring that they have nothing against the millions of Amharas living in Oromia, as long as they are not against the freedom of the Oromo people, and announced all over Oromia that no one should attempt on their lives and their property. To-date, and despite the fact that the uprising at times was very intense and involved massive killings and disappearances, not a single Amhara person was hurt in the entire Oromia region. This is what I call, the height of mutual understanding between nations that for very long time used to perceive each other as arch enemies. So, if this is the prevailing picture in Ethiopia as we speak, which I believe, both the interviewer and interviewee are fully aware of, why on earth then one dedicates the full hour air-time of the organization on a traditionally controversial theme of “history of nations” which has no relevance whatsoever to the prevailing situation in Ethiopia?

8. One last comment on a subject related to the interview: there is something which constantly puzzles me and now rekindled after watching this ESAT interview. It has always been the Oromo history which is under scrutiny as if everyone else is indigenous and the Oromos were late comers i.e. immigrants. Every Ethiopian media outlet considers it part of its objective to entertain politicians or so called experts in Ethiopian history to analyze Oromo history past and present which always ends with some sort of condemnation of the Oromos claim that they were oppressed by the Amhara ruling system. By design or coincidence, similar scrutiny has never been brought up for discussion, for example, about the history of the Abyssinians, past and present.

9. Regarding this never-ending “dispute” as to who is indigenous to Ethiopia, I am always puzzled by one “historical fact”, as written in the Bible and corroborated by historians very often. The name Ethiopia (burned face) a Greek word, is given to the black people who lived south of the Mediterranean Sea. It is also a fact that the territory south of Mediterranean is what is mentioned dozens of times in Bible as Ethiopia is, land of the Cushitic people. And Oromos are from that Cushitic tribe which is never contested. On the other hand, the Abyssinians are proud of their ancestry that they are from the Semitic tribe and that their languages (Geez, Tigrinya and Amharic) are all adopted from the original Sabean (ሳባውያን) language which of course is Semitic. So if these two historic facts are never contested by both groups, i.e. the Oromos are proud of being from the Cushitic tribe and the Amharas are equally proud of being from Semitic tribe, and the Cushitic tribes lived south of Mediterranean, in the Biblical Ethiopia whereas the Abyssinians naturally lived in what is today known as the Middle East and Gulf areas, then why is the controversy as to who is indigenous to Ethiopia. Isn’t that self-evident?

PART – II: History

10. That all being said, let me now proceed to the main theme of my piece – history: a theme which Dr. Larebo extensively dwelled upon although, at times it was difficult, at least for me, to distinguish whether it was a bed-time story or real documentary. I will try to briefly analyze, what history is all about, who writes them, when does history starts to be historical fact, and are they relevant to the prevailing situation in Ethiopia and so on.

11. I love history as a subject, to learn how people lived and interacted in the past, why they went to war against each other, how they made peace and developed their respective nations, how societies’ evils were treated by a community, how nations survived mother nature’s adverse behaviors etc. Apart from that, ancient history of nations, at least in my view, do not provide useful tools to solve contemporary socio-political problems, where individualism reigns, and war is no more a means to achieve certain goals (for example, defeating the enemy and bring peace) but rather, has become a goal by itself.

12. History is a very wide subject, corruptible and difficult to study because and unlike scientific subjects, which can be proven empirically, it is written and recorded by human beings who in turn, are guided by their instincts and personal judgments. In other words, what is presented to us as “historical facts” is the combination of subjective and objective judgment of the writers. One and the same event can be interpreted and recorded differently by different historians depending on the state of mind of the writers, among others, at the time of writing. Dr. Larebo and Dr. Lapiso, despite the fact that they both grew-up in one አውራጃ and may have even attended the same high school and thought Ethiopian history by the same teacher, ended up holding different views about history of the Oromos.

13. For politicians, the beginning or cut-off-date of history is a never defined one. They consider it dynamic and to be invoked “as necessary”. The goal post (of an event) is moving very often depending on who possesses the ball at a given time because every player (I am talking about politicians here) fixes the exact location of the goal post depending on what it wants to achieve using “history” at that particular moment in human history. In the case of Ethiopia, the Abyssinians and the Oromos for whatever reasons, have different start date of their respective history within the context of Ethiopia.

15. History, especially written during or following wars or conflicts, which is the case in Ethiopia, normally do have two specific characters:
    1. It cannot objective and neutral. The chroniclers were always attached to the rulers and their task was to document all what they see or heard from the side of the ruler. If they wrote about the other side, it is only the negative effect or impact of what is coming from the other side. This is very natural. If you are an Amhara chronicler following Menelik during his expedition to the South, and observing the loss of lives and pains inflicted upon the fighters from “your side” it is very natural that you portray the behavior of the “enemy” i.e. the other side, as barbaric. And the same is true for those who were witnessing the event from the “other side”. Hence if አባ ባህረ, after returning to his tranquility writes that the Oromos were brutal and barbaric it is very natural to expect from the Oromo war leader, to tell the Oromos his version of the cruelty of the Abyssinians;
    2. It is about the victors. Today, the world knows history of WW II from the victor’s side. Every year when we celebrate Victory Day, you hear these never-ending narrations about the gruesome, sadistic and mass killings of civilians by the soldiers of fascist Germany but you never read anything negative about the behavior of the soldiers of the victors as if they were angels. Had it been Hitler who won the war, it would have been Stalin and Churchill who would have been at Nurnberg. History of WW II would have been written like – the “barbaric” Soviet dictator, Stalin and “authoritarian” Churchill attacked the “peace-loving people of Germany”, and of course, “the German people defended their motherland and won a decisive victory”. That is naturally the way Abyssinian war chroniclers recorded “history”. When Tewdros gathered and burned hundreds of priests, his chronicler would have written in such beautiful poetic words that the perished priests were nothing better than parasites of the society. Not difficult to guess what such chroniclers wrote at the end of a war with Worqitu – the Oromo queen of Wollo, or other Oromo chiefs.

16. That is why, for Oromos, the story which is passed from generation to the generation that, Menelik was barbaric, he cut hands of men and breasts of women is as authentic as it can get, and there is no way you can convince an Oromo that the Anole and Chelenqo massacres did not take place. Judging from the way the Amhara ruling system oppressed, discriminated and exploited the Oromos up until the fall of the emperor, serves as circumstantial piece of evidence corroborating that cruelty. But, today, as modern thinkers, we can deduct four different scenarios from these two separate accounts: a) አባ ባህረ was right and aba Gadaa was wrong, b) አባ ባህረ was wrong and aba Gadaa was right, c) both of them were wrong, and, d) both of them were right. Naturally the sides chose what suits them best to prove that the other side was crueler.

17. Why are stories about war especially those written during conflicts are far from being authentic? Experts in conflict and war studies conclude that parties to any conflict, while preparing themselves to go to war, must make sure that, two most important things are well taken care of ahead of the beginning of the actual war:
    1. Truth must be killed, i.e. tell your people a distorted version of facts to justify your action for going to war. You cannot go to war unless you convince your people that the enemy is bent for example, to destroy your people or humanity at large. If possible, produce proofs like that little can Collin Powel brandished at the UN Security Counicl to convince States that Sadaam Hussein was actually not only amassing weapons of mass destruction but was ready to use them against the interests of the USA.
    2. The enemy should be demonized: Because you should not be seen as fighting a good guy, you have to at least try to convince your people that your enemy is not a human being but a devil. In the case of Ethiopia, and as seen from chroniclers of Tewdros, he was pleading to the Almighty to give him the strength to go and exterminate the pagans, non-believers, otherwise, the Gallas as he identified them. And of course, the Oromos, were pleading to the same ዋቃዮ ጉዳ, to be on their side in their fight against the “Abyssinian mass killer”, who they were portraying as barbaric and brutal not only towards adult fighters but also towards their children and female population. And it is incumbent on the chroniclers, in our case, the አባ ባህሬዎች, to convert all these “facts” into written document and save it for future generation that their “beloved” rulers fought against evil people and only in self-defense or defending a common good.

18. Once the war started, it is up to the chronicler to sit on the hill nearby and document what he is observing. Obviously, what he observes is not buckets of flowers coming from the “enemy” side but barrage of spears, stones, poisoned arrows with devastating effects on this side. Of course the chronicler is not in a positon to document the damages the weapons from “this side” inflicts upon the “other side”. In any case, it has already been concluded that there are no human beings on the other side but evil people who deserve to be exterminated, as it was established before to the war started.

19. To illustrate how “authentic” are the so called “historical documents”, let me inject one of real-life story in which I happened to be among the main characters. It is related to the war in Yugoslavia in 1992 – 1995. Right at the beginning of the war, I was appointed as a United Nations official and was sent to Croatia – a newly emerged state after secession from Yugoslavia. To be as close as possible to the epicenter of the conflict, Bosnia Hercegovina, I was stationed in Southern part of Croatia from where me and my Croatian colleagues could easily cross the border and get as much as possible closer to the confrontation line to “observe” the violations of humanitarian law in general and human rights of civilians. Friends of mine were stationed in Belgrade from where they too make daily cross border missions to “their side” of Bosnia. At the end of every month, we were summoned by our overall boss in Zagreb “the closest safe place” and were asked to report on our findings from the Confrontation zones of both sides. Similar to the chroniclers of Abyssinian kings and war lords, we present our chronicles “ዜና መዋዕል” as we recorded them during the month. We reported all what we saw from our respective “sides” of the confrontation line. Of course, in addition to what we observed and recorded at the frontline, we also enriched our reports with “facts” which we usually gather from those soldiers who were returning home for rest and recuperation as well as from the civilian victims who most of the time were the direct target. As we were reporting our respective “authentic” ዜና መዋዕል, we realized that the reports coming from the “other side” is not really tallying with what is presented from “this side”.

20. For me, what I saw and recorded was a true account of the impact of Serbian artillery on civilians’ on “this side”. My report was enriched with authentic first-hand accounts of the women and children who were showing me their wounds and telling me the ordeals they had to go through. I had no reason to doubt the authenticity of their accounts because I saw them bleeding, maimed, tortured and suffering from trauma of being raped. So my report was very accurate. For me, I could not imagine that the person on “other side” behind that artillery and tank was a real human being but a barbaric creature if not the devil itself, to be cruel enough to inflict such a pain on fellow human beings, especially on non-combatants, i.e. the women, children and the elderly. My friend Steve (based in Belgrade), was also producing similar chilling report demonizing the “other side” i.e. the Croats, those who are from my side. Steve being a native English speaker his presentation has always been well-articulated and damn convincing. In short, both of us left no room for doubts in our respective reports, which of course, were communicated to the overall UN boss for possible action that may include sanctions against one or both sides. The problem for our immediate boss was, which report to present to the UN High Commissioner. We both stood by our respective “authentic” reports and tried to convince him that he should be on the side of the “victim”, which was difficult for him to choose. He was smart enough and decided that we change our locations every month – I went to Belgrade and report from there on the impacts of Croats artillery and Steve had to be based in Croatia and report on the impact of Serbian artillery on “this side”. We soon realized that both sides were equally evil and that there are actually no Angeles during wars. We learned our lesson, and of course our boss managed to submit a very balanced report fairly and equally demonizing both sides making it easier for the international community to take appropriate action.

21. Now think about it – If we, foreigners, who happened to be at the war zone because of pure professional reasons having neither any particular interest in the war nor special attachment to or sympathy with the Serbs or Croats or Bosnians, and yet we produce reports which are favoring one-side and demonizing “the other”, imagine the “authenticity” of the so called “historical facts” of chroniclers of Ethiopian kings and war lords who without doubt, a) were already biased against the other side even before the war began; and, b) did not have the possibility of assessing the situation on the “other side. I am certain that our respective reports on the war in Yugoslavia are archived at least in the UN library, either in Geneva or New York, hence those who are interested to know the true story about the war in Yugoslavia can make reference to them. Imagine two young students of history, one of Croat and the other Serbian decent, writing their thesis on the Balkan War of 1992 – 1995, going to the library and making references to our respective reports. You can guess their conclusions. Knowing the attitude of these two nations towards each other, I can say with certainty that their conclusion will be that “the other side” was a murderer, rapist and violators of all possible human rights and humanitarian laws.

22. What I am trying to say with the above real-time story is that, it is very dangerous to take the so –called “historical facts” written or oral, at their face values and use them as tools to settle outstanding scores. Now let us try to analyze the impact of these written and unwritten “history” in the context of Ethiopia.

23. Unlike people of the South, whose past history is mainly passed from generation to generation as a verbal story, hence rarely recorded, my fellow Abyssinians do enjoy the luxury of available written documents (ዜና መዋዕል፡ ክብረ ነገሥት: ራዕየ ማርያም: ፍትሓ ነገሥት) authored by their chroniclers, clergies as well as foreigner who visited Abyssinia. Anyone conducting research on “ancient Ethiopia” and the creation of modern Ethiopia could fetch these books in libraries and make reference to them. And it is these findings from the documents by the researchers that are used to prove to the “doubters” for example, about the “brutality” of the Southern people as a “recorded fact”. To convince the wider public about these assertions, my fellow Abyssinians, especially the elites, went extra mile to use not only the recorded chronicles – secular “facts” – but they even involve St. Mary, by quoting from what she allegedly saw in her revelation “ራዕየ ማርያም” that even God was against the “Gallas” entry to heaven, even though we all know that these supplementary-to-Bible booklets including ራዕየ ማርያም were written and reproduced by no other than ቀኛዝማች ተስፋ ገብረሥላሴ ዘብሄረ ቡልጋ. Unfortunately, similar “written facts” could not be produced about the Southern people, hence whatever we learn at Ethiopian schools and universities as “history 101” is history of the Abyssinians, which enjoys the luxury of “written facts”.

24. Menelik, the man at the centre of all the arguments when it comes to the emergence of modern Ethiopia, is perceived by different nations differently. For Abyssinians, there seem to be across-the-board agreement that he was a hero who founded modern Ethiopia and kept it together, the first black leader of a nation that declared victory over white European state (Italy), thus remain a symbol for black peoples’ pride and so on. Teddy Afro in his song “ጥቁር ሰው” said it all. But, for Oromos, who lost the battle of expansion against him, but played a key role in the battle of Adwa, he was a butcherer, barbaric, a killer and in short, not a normal human being but a mythological sphinx. His brutality, the way he killed and maimed the men, how he cut breasts of women, how he burned or buried people alive etc had been told by Oromo elders and passed from generation to generations and is inculcated in the minds of every Oromo person today – young and the old alike! That perception, no one can ever erase it from the minds of Oromos. A re-mix of Teddy’s “ጥቁር ሰው” was sung by a famous Oromo singer, Shukri Jamal, who maintained the melody but changed the lyrics to “Menelik nuuf diina – ምኒልክ ጠላታችን ነው” or that of Qamar Yusuf “Menelik bineensa – ምኒልክ አውሬ ነው” is self/explanatory. The hatred of the Oromo people towards Menelik has reached its peak as we speak. Residents of Finfinnee are witness to the non-stop demands of the Oromo people to remove Menelik’s monument from አራዳ ጊዮርጊስ and to replace it with Anole and Chelenqo monuments.

25. The issue is not about being right or wrong but about how human beings can perceive one and the same issue differently. It is not about tarnishing the Amharas for what they did to the Oromos who resisted them during the expansion to the South. The Oromos, hadn’t they lost the war during their own expansion to the North, and, had they succeeded in subjugating the Abyssinians, they would have done more or less the same with the exception that, they might have applied one of the key Gadaa practices “አማቺሳ” i.e. peaceful assimilation of the conquered population instead of humiliating them. Again, this may also be hypothetical for you but for me, that is what is passed over to me as part of history of the Oromos.

26. To illustrate how much the Oromo people, especially in areas where the expedition to the South met with stiff resistance, and subsequently brutal, local residents consider Menelik as an enemy (ዲና), let me inject one real-life event, a close friend from Arsi once told me. An Oromo man in Asala was accused of an offense and appeared in court. The judge, trying to fix the identity (bio-data) of the accused, started asking him:
    Judge:              How old are you?
    The accused:                Your honor, I don’t know. I am illiterate.
    Judge:                          thinking of a relatively recent event to help establishing approximate age of the accused), asked, how old were you when the “enemy” invaded our country?
    The accused:                Your honor, that was too long ago. Even my father was not born then.
    Judge:                          Are you telling me that your father was not born when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia?
    The accused:                Oh! I thought your honor was asking me about Menelik!

27. Now let me continue with the second part of my cautious approach to “history” – namely, how politically motivated historians portray the “others” and try to deny their role in nation’s politics and history. The chroniclers of Amhara ruling system applied all possible tools to ensure that Oromos and their role in Ethiopian history is overshadowed and minimized to the extent possible. The names of hundreds of Oromo heroes, were intentionally omitted from the list of those who took part in the battles of Adwa or Maichew although they not only excelled but actually commanded the Ethiopian army one after another. The objective was simple: to make it look like that Oromos were never part of history of modern or ancient Ethiopia. Exceptions were made in cases where the Oromo heroes adopted Abyssinian first names, and even then, the second names, which were in Afaan Oromos were never mentioned. Most Ethiopians, for example, do not know that ደጃዝማች ባልቻ (ሳፎ), ፊታውራሪ ገበየሁ (ጉርሙ), ፊታውራሪ ሀብተጊዮርጊስ (ዲናግዴ) ደጃዝማች ገብረማርያም (ጋሪ) ራስ መኮንን (ጉዲሳ)[1] etc were indeed Oromo heroes. And the names of those Oromo heroes where both their first and second names were in Afaan Oromo, for example, that of አቢቹ, the teenage Oromo hero or ፊታውራሪ ኦልቃባ ኦላና፣ ፊታውራሪ ማርጋ ጉታማ or ኮ/ል አብዲሳ አጋ and thousands others, were never mentioned in Ethiopian history but luckily in the books of some foreign war correspondents. The same was true for example, about the nation’s spiritual leader who died as hero and patriot, አቡነ ጴጥሮስ (መገርሳ በዳሳ,)[2]. Imagine how the Ethiopian mainstream i.e. the Abyssinians would have reacted had they known that it was መገርሳ በዳሳ, an Oromo, who was at the head of the Orthodox Church hierarchy and not someone form Abyssinia. I am certain that there would have been an uproar if not a revolution to remove him.

PART – III: How shall we proceed?

(From the outset, I would like to clarify to the readers that I use the word “you” in the following part of my writing as a dialogue is between me and you, me as an Oromo victim and you, as member of the diaspora based elite minority die-hard Amhara group, who for decades remain bothered with the demand of the Oromos for freedom. I limited our discussion at the level of the diaspora because the issue is less of a problem in Ethiopia. As we speak, the Oromos and Amharas are leading their respective uprisings against the TPLF regime complimenting each other. There is no hatred among people of the two nations, and if it exists in its miniature form, it is because the diaspora based die-hard nostalgic elite infected some of the youth in Ethiopia). 

28. In my view, I hope you agree with me too, I don’t see any point in digging deep to find the tribal genealogy of Ethiopia’s people. What is the objective? Assume you found a proof through this forensic studies that some of today’s Ethiopia’s nations are “new comers” and “others” were indigenous, or, some oppressed the others and even established facts that one group was brutal towards “the other” – then what? Are we going to accord more rights to those who are found to be “indigenous” and deprive these rights to those believed to come later? Are we going to bring to a court of justice the children and grandchildren of those groups found to have inflicted pain to “the others” during the expansion to the North or South?

29. For me, and for millions of Oromos of my age, what we ourselves experienced as an individual Oromo or as a nation, is more valuable than any other piece of “written history” you could produce to proof to us that the Amhara ruling system was not oppressive. I don’t have to conduct research or dig in archives of history to proof my assertions because I am it, I lived it and I experienced it! I witnessed my relatives becoming ገባር after losing their entitlement to their ancestral lands to the Amhara አገር አቅኚ ፣ አርበኛ፡ or አገረ ገዢ. I still remember my father, standing in court room, helplessly looking around for interpreters, which were never there and stirring up in the ceilings as if he was appealing to the Almighty for his voice to be heard in his mother tongue. I remember quite a number of cases where my friends, who were at least as good as other students, failed to join the university simply because their grade in Amharic was not at the required level. The never changing tragedy though, is that, every time I try to tell this real life story to my non-Oromo friends, I face enormous resistance and disagreement. The moment I start telling them how difficult it was for us Oromos to compete with the Amharas at school, how we Oromos had to walk extra miles to be able to get at least average grades in Amharic so that we could be able to join the university, how our parents were discriminated at courts, police stations, how they were deprived of the rights to land ownership etc, I find stiff resistance and outright njet by my non-Oromo interlocutors.

30. To advance our discussion, let us agree to remve History from the equation at least when we talk about the prevailing and worrying situation in Ethiopia because it is not becoming handy at all. History seem not to produce the medicament we need to clear the clouds of suspicion amongst Ethiopian nations and nationalities. To the contrary, it is causing more damage to the effort of the open-minded elites’ effort to bring people closer. I am not implying that we should forget history, not at all. We should always remember history, not for revenge, but to learn lessons from it so that we build up on the good part of it while enlightening ourselves and our children not to repeat the mistakes and the wrongs made then. I want my children for example, to always remember what the Arabs did to human beings by introducing slave trade, what the migrant white Europeans did to native Americans, how King Leopold of Belgium exterminated nearly 10 million Congolese people, how Menelik killed and maimed hundreds if not thousands of Oromo people who resisted his expansion to the South, how Graziani killed thousands of residents of Finfinnee the night his entourage was attacked by patriots Abraham Deboch, Moges Asgedom, and Mekbib OIqaba – the mastermind and lead technician who prepared the explosives; how Mengistu waged a war of terror on Ethiopian civilians and wiped out a generation of the educated or how TPLF systematically killed hundreds of thousands of Oromo youth who were protesting against its policy.

31. Life continues and we should live a peaceful life. We should not pass on to our children “historical evidences” to “win an argument” about who has done more harm to the other or which nation sacrificed more for Ethiopia. We cannot undo what is said or done or what is written or passed to us as oral history by our forefathers. Let each side continue believing in the version we wanted to believe in but let us agree on what should be the common good today. After all we are not responsible for our forefathers’ action or omission because criminal act is not to be inherited.

32. While searching for a common ground for our discussion and possible agreement, and to help you out, so that you don’t unnecessarily bang your head against the wall and hurt yourself, for something you cannot change at all, let me share with you some facts which are now fait acompli and you can’t do much about it.
    1. Oromia is a reality and exists on the map and the world know her as such;
    2. Afaan Oromo with its Latin alphabet, qubee, is a reality and has been as such for the almost three decades and nothing on earth can change that;
    3. The Oromo people managed to overcome the century old divide-and-rule policy of the Amhara ruling system as well as the Jewish and Arab cultural imperialism and forged uncontested unity and understanding with each other without the slightest sign of division along region or religion.
    4. The self-consciousness of the Oromo people about its Oromoness, culture and language reached un-irreversible level to the extent that even the fascistic wrath of TPLF could not dent it.

33. In our lifetime, me and you have seen and observed some facts, which are difficult to disagree about, (less controversial), but there are others which, although we witnessed as they happen, we may maintain different views about their nature, hence more controversial. So, let me suggest that we first deal with the less controversial ones and remove them out of our way so that we have enough space to wrestle with the more controversial ones. Here we go!
    1. You agree with me – that ALL human beings are migrants – therefore, the concept “indigenous” is a relative term. Whether we believe in evolution in which case, we all come from one cell of a bacteria, wherever that bacteria existed at that particular time, or creation, in which case we all come from Iraq – the paradise Eden between the rivers of Euphrates and Tigres, where apparently Adam and Eve lived! So, let us agree that no human being is indigenous to Ethiopia. We all came from somewhere although we may have arrived at different times. And that is now irrelevant. Today, we are all equal shareholders in this country – Ethiopia, and whether we like it or not, we are doomed to live together. The choice is ours – we can change the nature of this forced marriage into a love based one where we all can live in peace and harmony OR create a hell for ourselves and the future generation. In my view, we have no choice other than finding a way to understand each other and to find solution for our disagreements. And we are capable of finding that solution, if only there is a will. So to proceed with the suggestion that we should stay engaged and for the engagement to be effective, we have to stop this culture of talking to the deaf.
    2. You agree with me that none of us from this generation lived during the Oromo expansion to the North or Amhara expansion to the South, hence we are totally relying on what we read or heard, to justify our arguments about Ethiopia’s nations’ politics. We all have the right to believe in these “historical facts” or discard them totally. In any case, and as said above, whatever happened, no one holds the current generation accountable for the crimes committed by our forefathers. The only thing expected from this generation, direct or indirect beneficiaries of the Amhara ruling system is to simply admit that the wrongs were committed. That is it!
    3. None of us had chosen to be born to the nations where we happen to be born. In short, we did not earn it. Therefore it is rather childish to brag about being from this or that ethnic group. Nothing irritates me more than listening to people making statements such as የጠራሁ የቦጂ ልጅ：የጠራሁ ጎንደሬ: ጥርት ያልኩ ተጉለቴ, as if we fought hard to be born as such. I am proud not because I am an Oromo but because of what I contribute to the efforts of the Oromo people in their quest for democracy and freedom. Once we are born in certain community, it is very natural that we develop special affection and love to that community, life-style, culture and tradition and feel offended if “outsiders” try to undermine these values or hurt the people we by default born to. That is human nature. Had I been born in Debre Tabor or Mekele, I would have felt differently. Otherwise, I am just one human being on this planet, sharing the same root with the rest of seven billion human beings. No one is more human being than the other, hence, no one should be proud of being born to this or that nation, which is a pure coincidence.
    4. You agree with me that none of us were born hundred years ago, hence, we could not have witnessed the respective atrocities and cruelties one nation applied on the other one. That being the case, then, we should agree on concrete events and facts that happened during, let us say, the past sixty to eighty years, because it is very likely that me and you have witnessed them. There are numerous such living proofs that we, unless we are not honest to ourselves, witnessed and saw them happening with our own naked eyes. We lived it and experienced it. Let us forget about “historical facts” and produce our own respective live stories which are “living facts” and see whether the claim of the Oromos, for example, that the Amhara ruling system was oppressive, is a legitimate one or not.
    5. TPLF, whether we like it or not, will fall, like and other regime in history. What we do not know is when and how. Although the timing is important, the “how” part is something that should worry us all about because minority regimes like TPLF hardly go down alone in to sewerage of history. They either take too many people with them as they drown and/or leave behind a messed up country. The way I see it and judging from my experience in other countries, I am very much worried that TPLF is leading us to a civil war. That is my worry, which I believe, is your worry too!

34. Some of the areas of your dissatisfaction, as I understand, are that, a) you are of the opinion that the nations and nationalities that comprise Ethiopia do live in peace and harmony because they have always been treated equal shareholders, b) you cannot entertain any nationalism other than Ethiopian nationalism, c) You are not happy with the Federal arrangement of Ethiopia, d) You hate that Oromos decided to use Latin alphabet, e) You declare that you are the uncontested vanguard of territorial integrity of Ethiopia

35. Let us closely look at each one of your above five (selected) areas of disagreement and see if you really have a point here:
    1. Today, we live in a country called Ethiopia, in which we all claim to have equal share although she is not built upon the good will and consensus among her more than eighty nations and nationalities. To use the standard formula here – it was a forced marriage, which means, it is not built on love. But today, a century later, for example, Oromo children born to this forced marriage are grown-ups, and very much aware that their mother was forced into this marriage against her will. Subsequently, they demand not only their mother’s right to be treated as equal partner and that her rights are fully protected. They assert that they will accept ONLY a marriage based on love for themselves too. They have learned a lesson from the previous marriage where the mother was treated not as an equal partner so they demand a relationship which respects equality between partners. But if their demand is not fulfilled, they stand ready to assist their mother to file a divorce. So, we have no choice but to sit down and discuss a better way forward to re-design this relationship to be a favorable one to both sides. The other choice is to leave it “as is”, and expect a messy divorce. I am from the school of thought that believes in discussion and engagement even if we end up agreeing to disagree. So let me assume that we agree to continue the discussion.
    2. You are against any form of nationalism except Ethiopian nationalism. For you, any other nationalism, for example, Oromo nationalism is an aberration and detrimental to the existence of Ethiopia as a unitary state. I say, you are wrong because, Ethiopia is a multi-national state composed of more than eighty nations, hence it is very natural to become an Oromo nationalist, Amhara nationalist or Sidama nationalist. And that does not contradict Ethiopian nationalism because a person can be an Oromo nationalist at the same time an Ethiopian nationalist. It irritates you for example, when the Oromos declare that they are first an Oromo and then Ethiopian, but that is the way it should be. The same way it does not surprise you when you identify yourself as Ethiopian-American, African- American, Irish-American, Greek – American etc, you have to get used to such declarations as Oromo-Ethiopians, Hadiya Ethiopians, and Amhara Ethiopians etc. That is the very normal and as a matter of fact, people identify themselves ONLY in that order. And if I have to go further, I identify myself as a human being, an Oromo and Ethiopian and only in that order. Keep in mind, me and you can be naturalized and become American or Canadian but we can never ever change that we are Oromos or Amharas. That is innate, therefore, never changes. We are born as such and will die as such!
    3. The Oromos, at least I can speak for myself, have been fighting for a new democratic Ethiopia which could be a reality only under Federal arrangement. When it seized power in 1991, TPLF did not have a choice but to implement a Federal arrangement and the insertion of Article 39 in the constitution was a prerequisite. To keep Ethiopia intact, it simply did not have a choice at that time. Here you are condemning TPLF for this type of state arrangement, which in your opinion, ruined the unitary nature of the State of Ethiopia. You further argue that federalism brought division along ethnic lines and subsequently put Ethiopia’s existence in danger. Me too, I condemn TPLF regarding Article 39, but not because of its insertion in the Constitution but for not properly implementing it and for reducing the letter and spirit of the Article into ethnic federalism, which only fulfills TPLF’s desire to divide and rule. But the principle itself, Federalism, is what we are fighting for and what future Ethiopia should look like. Above all, we see Article 39 as a guarantee for Ethiopia’s nations and nationalities to remain together in one state. Just consider it analogical to an article in a family law that stipulates the rights to divorce, which is not meant to encourage divorce but to give a guarantee for the partners to dissolve the union if they fail to accommodate each other. In other words, it is a union of the equals and the free.
    4. You are not happy with our decision to use Latin alphabet in qubee to develop our language and culture. This irritated you so much to the extent that even a sacred institution, the Orthodox Church got involved itself in joining the condemning crowd. As far as we Oromos are concerned we just did what we always wanted to do – to identify a suitable alphabet from the pool of the less than 20 world languages with their own scripts and adopt it to develop our language. Our action was very similar to the way you borrowed the Sabean alphabet and adopted it to suit your language – Amharic. And, we as a nation has full right to choose what is good for us because we are the only one who knows what is good for us. You did not ask for our consent or discussed with us when you borrowed the Sabena alphabet, and of course, it is not our business to comment either even if we were asked to. It is your language and only you know what is the most suitable for you. For almost a century, we tried to use your borrowed Sabean alphabets to develop afaan Oromo but we found it unfit, subsequent to which our enlightened intellectuals adopted qubee, which, after almost three decades now, we found it is the most suitable for us. And if one day, we find the Latin alphabet is less useful, and we find a better one, we can still borrow another alphabet of our choice without seeking anybody’s consent! In your view, the use of “foreign” alphabet is a show of disregard to Amharic and Ethiopia’s unity but we say, Amharic is yours’ and not ours, but Ethiopia belongs to us all. The fact that we use Latin alphabet has nothing to do with Ethiopian unity or otherwise, and as a matter of fact, the father of qubee, Haile Fida, died fighting for democratic Ethiopia and not for her dismemberment. Just fort your information: Switzerland has four official languages – all equal – and the nation’s unity is never threatened.Qubee, as a matter of fact, is greatly contributing to the unity among Ethiopians because the end-users, Oromos, for the first time in their modern history felt that they are equal. They don’t feel helpless anymore when appearing in courts or other public places because they can communicate their feelings and thoughts directly in their mother tongue. They can go to church and listen to the preacher, they can read and sing psalms and feel closer to God than they used to be when the church, especially the Orthodox Church was using Geez or Amharic languages as the only languages to be used at churches. You may not like it but the young and enlightened group of the Orthodoxy, ማህበረ ቅዱሳን have taken a bold initiative to translate ዉዳሴ ማርያም：ፍካረ የሱስ：ገድለ ጊዮርጊስ into afaan Oromo using qubee and for the first time, Oromo church goers are able to read these scripts in their own language. This is a great victory for the Orthodox Church, even though you are totally against it. Oromo history, art and literature is blossoming like never before and our students have no barrier whatsoever at schools or to join national universities. Again, this is all irreversible fact and suggesting otherwise is a non-starter. In my view, you are, and you should be proud of your language – Amharic, because it is yours and your identity, but I am only proud of mastering it. But afaan Oromo, is different – it is my language, my identity and I am proud of it, although I am not mastering it to the level I master your language – Amharic! Now, bring in your complaint and substantiate your argument that our use of qubee in Latin caused a damage to you, to the Amhara people or to Ethiopia.
    5. You declare yourself the vanguard of Ethiopian unity and a standard setter for other Ethiopian nations and nationalities behavior. But we say, NO, you are not a standard setter but just one of her children, with the right to equal share – no more no less. As far as the Oromos are concerned, we feel that we are actually the ones who should worry more about her unity because modern Ethiopia, south of Finfinnee is built solely by Oromos. The Abyssinians indeed have to be proud of building and keeping Abyssinia (Northern Ethiopia) together but when it comes to modern Ethiopia, especially south of Finfinnee, we Oromos are proud to declare to you and to the whole world that it is built on the bones and with the blood of our Oromo supreme military commanders and foot soldiers, as well as gallant and naturally talented diplomat regional kings and chiefs. Yes, it is true that your forefathers came to Oromia at a later stage to harvest the fruits which was sawn by these Oromos. Of course, your forefathers did not only consume someone else’s fruits but settled there to uproot the host population from their lands and made them ገባር. Heinous crime to say the least!

36. I hope, we covered the few areas of our common concern, some controversial, some not. Because “me” and “you” are unable to reach an agreement on these issues, let us agree to bring our case for judgment by a court whose decision will be binding. Please keep in mind: the objective is not to identify the culprit and to condemn, but to establish the root cause of our prevailing problem, which by itself, is fifty percent of the solution. (in real world, however, and as we speak, my fellow Oromos, in the absence of any other means to achieve their goals of freedom and equality of the Oromo people, are engaged in different forms of struggle – armed, peaceful and civil disobedience – against the current regime and left-overs from the previous system). But, I wanted to explore this avenue and see if me and you can agree not only on what had happened but also on what should be done in the future. I still hope there is a room for discussion.

37. Let me now bring my case where, in my view, there is an established fact that the Amhara ruling system violated my fundamental human rights and the rights of my people. I could bring dozens of cases where violations were observed, but let me present only three (3) this time. If need be, I can come back with more at later stage. Please remember, we agreed to present violations which we directly witnessed in our life time and NO reference to “historical facts” written or oral, because we failed to convince each other. As I am the one using this platform now, let me be the first to file my case, and you will bring your counter-argument next time, as a defendant. You are not obliged to bring one, if you don’t have, but you must be gentleman enough to acknowledge my facts so that we can close the case. If however, after analyzing my facts, you still find that they either never happened, or exaggerated or misrepresented, and you prove to me the contrary that Oromos oppressed and violated your rights and the rights of the Amhara people in the past fifty or sixty years, I promise to rest my case and forever. Please remember that, a) we are talking about the Amhara ruling system and NOT Amhara people; and b) we are talking about violations of human rights of Oromos by the Amhara ruling system. People are confusing living standards of individuals for example that there were poorer Amharas than some of the Oromos, which is absolutely true but that has nothing to do with equal enjoyment of fundamental human rights as an individual or a group.

38. Here are the tangible adversarial acts – Human Rights violations and crimes that are committed against me and the Oromos by the Amhara ruling system that I have witnessed:
    1. Land ownership: Oromos’ land were misappropriated and given to Amhara individuals, called አገር አቅኚ ፣ አርበኛ፡ or አገረ ገዢ who came to Oromia and forced the Oromos to become landless and turned to ገባር. The damage is immeasurable – psychological damage when you lose your own private property to someone simply because that someone is supported by the ruling system; the inability to support one’s own family because the means of production (land) is taken away; inability to send children to school because of lack of means etc. But there has never been a case, in my view, not even one, where an Oromo settler, went to the North and dispossessed an Amhara from his land and made him – ገባር. Imagine the magnitude of the damage it had on Oromos taking into consideration that, land was the only means of production in Agrarian Ethiopia in general and in Oromia in particular where more than 95% of the population were peasants, and of course landless as a result. Abyssinians, in the North, maintained their right to their ancestral land (ሲሶ) and were never uprooted and became ገባር.
    2. Freedom to use one’s own language: The Amhara ruling system introduced a law which forbids the use of Afaan Oromo in all public offices (courts and police, schools and hospitals etc). Because Amharic is declared as the only official language of the nation, illiterate Oromos were put in a very disadvantaged position compared to ethnic Amharas who had the luxury of using their mother tongue at all places. As students, we were penalized for speaking afaan Oromo in school compounds, despite the fact that our knowledge of Amharic was close to nil.All Ethiopian media outlets – audio-visual, or printed, were never allowed to use Afaan Oromo. No TV or radio programs were transmitted in Afaan Oromo until 1974, when Derg, for the first time in Ethiopian history allowed Ethiopian radio to transmit in afaan Oromo for 30 minutes in the evenings. Before that, as a school boy, I remember gluing ourselves to a daily half-an-hour afaan Oromo program transmission for Mogadishu radio. Imagine, as citizens of this country, the authorities deprived us the right to listen to national programs in our languages and forced us to listen to a neighboring country’s program. Imagine the opposite – the authorities allow ONLY afaan Oromo program in radio and TV programs and the Abyssinians are forced to listen to Amharic songs or daily news through radio Yemen or Qatar. How would you feel about it?
    3. Denial of equal access to academic institutions including universities: in theory ALL Ethiopians had access to universities provided that they fulfill the requirement, one of it being, good grade in Amharic. Oromos, regardless of how much they score in the other subjects, and with the exception of those who live in cities and towns, could not join the universities because, hardly any Oromo, especially those from rural areas, could secure good grade in Amharic language in the university entrance exam. As a result, quite a number of genius Oromo students were denied access to the university, de facto, denied equal share in the nation’s labor market at a higher level.Let me just give you one example, from my own experience: I was in grade eleven at one of the high schools in Finfinnee, sitting for a final exam in Amharic. The exam had two parts, one carried 70% and the second part, ድርሰት carried 30%. The first part was kind of a gamble, as it was multiple choice, fill in the blanks etc, so I was expecting to get a pass mark. The second part, the ድርሰት with a title “መጥኔ አዲስ አበባ” was where I hit the rock simply because I did not know what the damn word “መጥኔ” meant. Worried about losing 30% of the marks, which practically meant I wouldn’t get the pass mark, I pleaded to teacher ግዛው (we used to call him ባና) to at least tell me what “መጥኔ” was all about. He answered – “እሱንማ ተነገርሁህ አንተ ምኑን ጻፍከው”. I could not write a line, hence lost the 30% of the total grade and obviously failed the exam. The good thing was that I had good grades in all the other subjects which helped me to lift my overall average, hence passed to grade 12^th. But imagine, had it been “ሳፉኬ ፊንፊኔ” instead of “መጥኔ አዲስ አበባ”, I would have at least got a passing grade. That is how we were tortured, my dear, and imagine if this happens to you or your children. “መጥኔ” remains as the most hated word in my Amharic vocabulary!

39. Now my dear friend, the ball is in your court. Bring your cases where in the past sixty to eighty years, an Oromo ruling system violated your rights – you as a person or as a group. Like I did, just pick up randomly, a maximum of three adversarial facts that, either the Oromo nation imposed on you and the Amhara people OR the damages inflicted upon you and the Amhara nation because the Oromos demanded their freedom.

CONCLUSION

40. While waiting for you to submit your case, and just using this opportunity, I want to say the following: because you already anointed yourself as the vanguard and standard setter of Ethiopia’s unity and territorial integrity, you assume that you love this country more than the others do. But in my view, your love for Ethiopia and her territorial integrity is so suffocating and it may even lead to her death. Leave her alone, let her breath on her own. She is not in danger and her life is not under threat. Even if you, the Abyssinians and others decide to abandon her and opt to build your separate houses, her trusted children, the Oromos, will remain by her side, working hard to improve her design, look, and image. From the way I see it, you love Ethiopia as long as you are in a driving seat but the moment the validity of your driving license or your driving skills are put under question, you are threatening to leave her. It is your right to secede from us and create an Abyssinian Republic, but please stop claiming that you are the vanguard of Ethiopian unity. If, however, and for whatever reason you opt to secede, rest assured that we will never be on your way. መንገዱን ጨርቅ ያርግላችሁ ነው የምንለው:: It is your fundamental right to determine your destiny as a nation, although, life could be better for both of us if we jointly re-design Ethiopia and make her a democratic, all-inclusive republic.

41. So my dear friend, take it easy, sit back and breathe deep. Let us focus on identifying the common denominators where we can both agree to remove the clouds that is disturbing our views, and work together towards building a truly democratic all-inclusive Ethiopia, home to all of us, assuming that you are not planning to leave her. For that to happen, of course, we have to be honest and open-minded. We have no other choice. The nation is in danger and our people, both in Oromia and Amhara regions are sacrificing their dear lives for nothing other than demanding their freedom. But me and you, sitting in our respective comfortable corners, are bogged in splitting hairs as to who did what to whom and when, as if these have bearings on what is happening in Ethiopia now.

As I said above, even if we identify the “wrong-doer”, it won’t provide us with the tools we need to remove TPLF regime from power which is the nightmare for all of us. So, if you really love Ethiopia, not the land itself but the people who constitute her, you have to accept the fact that you are just as Ethiopian as anyone else – no more no less! Only that way we can act together but it should be NOW or never!

******

[1] He is the father of Emperor Haile Selassie.
[2] All names in brackets are the Oromo names which the chroniclers did not want to mention.

January 10, 2017

January 22, 2017

The post History: Alkaline to neutralize conflicts or an element to catalyze them? appeared first on .

HRLHA Statement on Human Rights Situation in Oromia at the 32nd Session of the UNHRC

Oral Statement
by
Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)
on
Human Rights Situation in Oromia Regional State
ETHIOPIA

At the 32^nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) 
February 27 – March, 2017

Geneva, Switzerland

Speaker: Mr. Bayisa WAK-WOYA

HRLHA Representative at the United Nations

14 March, 2017

 Mr. Chairman and members of the Council;

The Human Rights League of The Horn of Africa  once again is addressing this Council with its highest degree of concern over the never-ending gross violation of human rights of Ethiopians in general and that of the Oromos in particular by the government of Ethiopia.

Mr. Chairman,

Last year we expressed our deepest concern over the deliberate attack by police and paramilitary forces on peacefully demonstrating civilians resulting in arrests, disappearances, torture and at times summary executions of school children as young as seven years of age, the elderly as old as eighty years, and pregnant women. Following the mass protests in Oromia and Amhara regions, the government detained more than 50,000 civilians, during which time, according to the information available to us from those who were released, the detainees were subjected to police brutality and inhumane and degrading treatment including torture. Reliable sources also disclose that more than 1,000 civilians were summarily executed by security forces while peacefully demonstrating. To date, the government has not charged a single official for the unlawful killings of the civilians or for subjecting detainees to inhumane and degrading treatment contrary to the Ethiopian Constitution. To the contrary, hundreds of civilian protesters were charged with the killing or harming of the security officers.

Mr. Chairman,

Despite requests, pleas and expressions of deep concern by the international community, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the official letter of concern by three United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteurs as well as official communications from major Western governments, the European Union and reputable international human rights non-governmental organizations, the government of Ethiopia remains defiant, justifying its brutality by saying that it was acting as per stipulation of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation of (2009) and the 8^th October 2016 State of Emergency Declaration in which it not only described opposition parties as terrorists but also placed restrictions on all the non-derogable human rights of citizens.

Mr. Chairman;

As we speak, the Ethiopian government, notwithstanding the expressed concerns of the international community, has continued with its policy of detaining opposition party leaders and ordinary members, confiscating properties of prominent businessmen, detaining dozens of prominent journalists and bloggers, high school students and teachers, women, including many pregnant ones, for the alleged support they provided to opposition groups, which the government labeled as terrorists organizations. The government has continued with its plan to show preferential treatment for one ethnic group over another, which, according to IOM and UNHCR, has resulted in the involuntary displacement of hundreds of thousands of Oromo peasants in Oromia.

The situation in detention centers and prisons is described as one of the worst in the world. According to credible information available from former inmates and detainees, up to 30 inmates are crammed into a room of 25 sq. meter with no sanitation facility. Detainees are denied access to their respective legal counsels and family visits. Some are kept incommunicado and blindfolded for indefinite periods.

Although the national law prohibits the detention of citizens in any facility other than an official detention center, local militias and other formal and informal law enforcement entities continue using an unknown number of unofficial local detention centers like those in Didessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele and numerous military facilities. According to former inmates at these unofficial detention centers, no medical care is available and prisoners have only limited access to potable water. Many prisoners had serious health problems but they were not provided with even basic medical treatment.

Mr. Chairman;

The Human Rights League of The Horn of Africa would like to renew its request to the Council to:

1. remind the Ethiopian government of its international obligation under human rights treaties to which it is a party and to ensure the respect for human rights of citizens to freely exercise their freedom of expression, assembly, and to enjoy freedom from torture and degrading and inhumane treatment; and;
2. to request the Ethiopian government to grant unhindered access to Ethiopian prisons and makeshift detention centers by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to monitor the situation of detainees and those political prisoners who are sentenced to long-term imprisonments including life, for no other reason than demanding respect for their fundamental human rights.

A country which through its actions or omissions systematically violates its citizen’s fundamental rights including summary executions, and subjecting them to inhumane and degrading treatment should not be given a seat among those nations who value their citizens’ rights. And the international community, including this Council, is duty- bound to condemn such actions and omissions and to call upon the Ethiopian government to live up to the commitment it made when it became party to the respective Human Rights Conventions.

Thank you Mr. Chairman

The post HRLHA Statement on Human Rights Situation in Oromia at the 32nd Session of the UNHRC appeared first on .

Tigray fascist group: The new war front between Tigreans fascist group (TPLF) and the Oromo people, the case of Oromo-Somali border.

By Roba Jalata

I read two rogue published articles on two pro-Tigray fascism websites (Tigraionline and Aiga forum) in the past week regarding the war front between the Tigreans fascist group  i.e “Federal government” and Oromo people in multiple front of Oromo-Somali border. Mind you, I put the federal government in double quote because the Tigray fascist group call themselves a “Federal government”. I don’t want to give that legitimacy to the minority Tigreans fascist group that slaughter unarmed people in multiple fronts. That said, let mentioned about the two article. I don’t want to write a long article on this topic because this isn’t a scientific paper and don’t require research to discern the cause of war between the Tigreans fascist group and the Oromo people in Oromo-Somali border as Ismail Mohammed Abdi eluded to. You might ask, who is Ismail Mohammed Abdi? He is an author of one of the long article on the pro-Tigreans fascist group websites. The title said, “Shedding light on the recent violence in the border areas between Somali and Oromia regions of Ethiopia”. The title is misleading, it contains catchy phrase such as “Shedding light”.

To save your time, let me summarize the content of his article. He claimed, he went to the war front in Oromia-Somali border where the war has been going for the past couple of months, did his own investigation. He concluded, the cause of the war is Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO) i.e Oromia regional state. He said Oromia regional government sent heavily armed militia to wage a war on the Somali people. He argues, there has been unsolved border claim between the Somali and Oromia regional states. “Instead of resolving about 420 Kebeles in contention, Oromia regional state chose to wage a war on Somali regional state”. Laughable right! I don’t go to the detail of the article, you may read it if you want west your time. I decide not to provide the link to the rubbish article intentionally.   The purpose of this article is to show you who created this war and why? Who are fighting? Is it true the war is between Somali and Oromo people who lived together for centuries as the Tigray fascist group portrayed to tell us using the third party such as Ismail Mohammed Abdi?

Based on my assessment, the current war isn’t between the Somali and the Oromo people, it is the war between Tigreans fascist group and the Oromo people. Why? You might ask. We have published a classified document written by Tigreans fascist group a year ago before the current war has started that lay out the action plan to wage a current war against Oromo people. The original document was written in Tigrigna (the official language of Tigray fascist group) and someone translated into Amharic. To me this classified document was the concrete evidence, the blue print, the action plan which unequivocally discern the aggressor against the Oromo people, The Tigreans fascist group. It is nothing to do with the Somali people and the Oromo. You can find the original classified document and Amharic translation Here (https://www.robemedia.com/2016/08/12/top-secret-tigray-fascism-tplf-welkait-oromia/). The author of the classified document was Goitom Yemeane Gebreab, one of the key Tigreans fascist group clique. Now, let me point you to the paragraph in the classified document that lay down the action plan to wage a war against the Oromo people a year ago. I took a screen shot from the original classified document and inserted as image to save your time.

For our reader who don’t’ speak Amharic, I want translate the content of the paragraph as accurate as I can. It says, “… When we see the issue out of our region (Tigray region), from 1998-2008 there were a border issue between Somali region and Oromia region; southern region and Oromia region. Whether it right or wrong, in both cases the issue were presented to the ‘House of Federation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’ and the House of Federation decided to set a referendum and the citizen of these regions chose where they belong and the issue ware resolved. For example, For the border issue raised between Somali and Oromia regions covers the broader area between Maeso and Awash rivers to a Kenyan border that covers many Waradas and Kebales. Based on this, the two regions established a committee and campaigned till the referendum by investing Millions of dollars, thousands Kuntals of Wheats and rice; and oil mainly through a clan leaders, community leaders and prominent individuals. At the end the language speakers got Waradas and Kabeles based on the level of their gift, the level of their campaign, cunning and level of their agility. Because of the weakness of the Ogaden (Somali) army and the weakness of the Somali regional government, the Oromia regional state that had a better organization, money, wheat and rice got a better success. Right now, in many of the previously Somali Waradas and Kebeles, the people have been hissing. They say, we were deceived and joined Oromia region, now our kids are learning Afaan Oromo by force, we are ruled without our language. Unfortunately, we understand it was a done deal, unreturnable ask for forgiveness. For a thing described above not happens on us, we the Tegreans, what should have to do?” Long translation, right?

After this document, the Tigreans fascist group spent in arming Somali region “Liyu” police and disarming the special police in Oromia region after declaring state of emergency. The Tigrean fascist clique Major General Abraha, Eastern command, is leading the current war between the Tigreans fascist group and the Oromo people. Literally, the Tigreans army are rapping, killing, and robbing the civilians in the Oromia regions in a multiple front. The so called “Federal government”, the Tigreans fascist group, has declared official war on us. As a country, we don’t have a national army. The army is the property of Tigreans, they are effectively using it to sustain their apartheid system. In short, the fight is between the Tigreans fascist group and the Oromo civilians. The Oromo civilians have no other alternative except to fight and die. Many lost their lives. Oromo knows this very well. We know who declared a war on our civilians, it is the Tigri fascist group and not the Somalis. That said, I am not preclude the Tigreans slaves and horses in the Somali region who are responsible in the current war against Oromo unarmed civilians. For example, Abdi Illey, that sadistic and murderous president of Somali region, is the horse and slave of General Abraha, Eastern command who has soaked his hands with the blood of Somalis and Oromo’s civilians.

I hope, I have answered who are fighting, and let me say a few things why the Tigray fascist group declared war on Oromo civilians on multiple fronts. The possible short scenario may be to weaken the Oromo people, because the Oromo people unanimously has rejected the Tigray apartheid system and has been demanding its own democratic right for the past two years aggressively. Does TPLF succeed in subjugating us? I doubt!!!!

Let me go back to the two-rubbish article published on the pro-Tigrean fascist website. Through these article, the Tigrean fascist group want to tell us the war is between Oromo and Somali people, they want to act as “Federal government” as an “arbitrator” using their slaves and horses such as Ismail Mohammed Abdi, a pseudo investigative writer.

Wait a minute, I haven’t told you about the second article. The second article was a reply to Ismail Mohammed Abdi written by Amen Tafari. The title was “Burning the Floor with Demon”. The article has no content worth mentioning, it is void. The purpose may be to attract attention to the jargon written by Tigrean fascist group horse and slave, Ismail Mohammed Abdi.

At the end, I thank you for reading this short article. I hope, I convinced you and presented the clandestine classified document that layout about the current war between the Tigrai fascist group and the Oromo civilians. The document is the blue print, the template, the plan, and the proposal for the current war. As individual of that nation, we have a responsibility to stand with the Oromo people, the civilians and support them in all we can to defend themselves from the Tigreans fascism aggression. Unavoidable choice, to defend themselves in all possible means!!!!

God bless the Oromo nation! The peaceful people!

The following exerpt was copied from http://tigraionline.com. Imagine how much the Tigreans are behind their organization, TPLF.

The Somali State Special Police Forces (Liyuu Police) Are Gallant

By By Abdirahman Alale

Tigrai Online, March 8, 2017

(Tigraionline) — The tears from Ethiopian Somali mother caused establishment of special Police forces (Liyuu Police) in Somali Regional State in 2007. This short piece of script is important to individuals who are not conscious the significance and value of the Liyuu Police forces to the region and the country as whole. The truth of this message will also be providing the comprehensible icon of the regional performance progress brought by the Somali Liyou police forces. Today, the old scenarios of police forces in 19the century of Africa and other developing countries and the present ones have enormous differences. The fact that, the old way of Africa and other developing countries using the police forces were only to fight against persons who are troubling the citizens or securities of the people at large mainly in the towns and villages but, the new situation of today’s police particularly Liyuu Police in Somali regional state of Ethiopia are backing and contributing a lot to the regional stability and development programs.

The major ideological advancements of the regional security issues and positive changes have taken place within the last eight years, when the regional state security cluster with help of the Federal Government established the solution of the horn of African (Liyuu Police) in 2007. The establishment of the Police brought numerous positive changes in various and wider aspects, some of them are stabilizing the security of the region and fighting against terrorists of ONLF (known as UBBO in local language) Al-itihad and Alshabab along with other security forces of the region such as local militia, community and the Federal Military Forces.

The special police forces accepted this great task and responsibility of securing the region confidently and to fight against terrorists insurgencies of UBBO and radicalisms elements. Within short period, they won from the enemy, weakened terrorist insurgency capabilities, destroyed their source of incomes channels and finally they put in rubbish basket. In fact, those tremendous victories and performance progress were not become possible without the help of the different Somali community.

The Somali liyuu police force are disciplined and well trained. Their hospitality is unique and amazing. The Police forces were not fighting only terrorists who were destabilizing the region but they took lion share of the regional development programs, projects and activities such as construction of Bikas to harvest rain water, construction of rural access roads, supporting vulnerable pastoralists by distributing water and food from their salary etc. They were fully aware the International Convention of Human Rights and rights of war captured prisoners. On the top of this, when the Special police were hunting anti peace elements and whenever they capture insurgencies in the battles, they were taking care of them and were taking injured terrorist insurgencies to the hospitals and handing over to concerned bodies to face justice.

The regional administration pardons many inmates every year including UBBO who are captured in the battle and was freed after they met the requirements for clemency. The government incarcerated to rehabilitate them and remove from their terrorist ideologies to developmental ideologies and persuaded captured anti peace element insurgencies to take part in the regional development. In addition, when they become free, many of them realized that they were in a wrong track when they look back the hospitality of the administration and liyuu police disciplines. On the above facts, they realized the truth. Due to this some of them requested to join Liyuu police to fight again UBBO insurgencies and radicalism groups who are operating the region while others requested to provide skill trainings from the regional government.

The Iconic Somali Liyuu police forces have not been operating not only within the Somali regional state but they took part in many fighting outside of the region. The best example was that when the International Terrorist Of Al Shabab (Al Qushaash In Local Language) crossed the region’s territory and killed innocent pastoralist civilians in Afdher zone. The special police annihilated Al shabab insurgencies in many other different areas in Somalia such as Hudur, Wajid, Garaswayne, Lagalaay, Buurcaqabo, and Ceelcadde. The international community including the Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Djibouti, USA and Britain acknowledged that Somali Regional Liyuu police are iconic and are solution of the region. As usual when Liyuu police captured Alshabab militias they handed over to the government of Somalia. This victory encouraged Somalia’s local militias and they began to fight Al-shabab and other terrorists in their local area.

Finally, people who don’t know the value and important of the Liyuu police forces to the region’s stability and development has to acknowledge their efforts because they put in place the region’s security and it was the first time when the regional administration started to fight against poverty, understand importance of education, health and other infrastructure human needs including construction of rural roads, bridges and implementation of so many uncountable projects. It is the first time when federal government and international community have acknowledged an excellence performance of the regional development.

Above all, the sustainable security and development that our people are enjoying is from the sacrifices made by the Somali regional Liyuu police. Many of them have lost their lives while others lost important part of their body and where many children lost their beloved fathers.

In conclusion, the regional prosperity, development, security and all successes are from the Ethiopian Somali Peoples Democratic Party, the community at large, the president Dr. Abdi Mohamoud Omar and his cabinet who made possible that people in the region can go outside from their home and back safely to their home without any fear.

Finally, the special police force captured the view remaining top leaders terrorist who were hiding in the region named (Dhabuuke) and killed what we call Shaydaan Deeq last year.  In a nut shell, we are proud of them (Liyuu Police ) they are busy in safeguarding the region at same time they are participating development activities and helping the vulnerable people in the region.

The post Tigray fascist group: The new war front between Tigreans fascist group (TPLF) and the Oromo people appeared first on .

UNPO Releases Report on Human Rights in Ethiopia

Photo courtesy of Andrew Heavens @Flickr

UNPO has released a report on human rights in Ethiopia, shedding light on the worrying situation of the Oromo and Ogadeni peoples. While international partners tend to hail Ethiopia as an African democratic role model and a beacon of stability and hope in an otherwise troubled region, the fundamental rights of the country’s unrepresented continue to be violated on a daily basis. With the support of major international donors such as the European Union, Addis Ababa increasingly prioritises strong economic growth, development and a high degree of enforced political stability at the expense of human rights and civil liberties.

Ethiopia’s economy has been growing steadily in recent years, boasting a small emerging middle class and receiving continuously-increasing foreign investment. The country is seen as a key ally by Western powers in the fight against terrorism and the regulation of international migration. Meanwhile, Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with a third of the population living in abject poverty and the country’s regime is also one of the African continent’s most authoritarian in character, cracking down mercilessly on those who voice dissent.

Those living in the Ogaden and Oromia regions are most vulnerable to the State-sponsored persecution. Protests in Oromia were violently repressed by the government since they started in April 2014, and continue to be. “Jail Ogaden” holds thousands of prisoners of conscience in overcrowding conditions and unhygienic facilities. Rape is systematically used as a weapon by the government and local polices such as the Liyu Police, combined with other forms of torture. And those are just a handful of examples.

As of March 2017, 300 people have died of hunger and cholera in the Ogaden region, because of the restrictions imposed by the Ethiopian government. Limitations on freedom of movement bars access to healthcare facilities and the trade embargo causes critical food shortages. UNPO calls on the international community to play its role in safeguarding human rights by putting an end to the financial flows fueling the Ethiopian State’s oppression and intimidation of the most vulnerable among its population.

To view and download the report, please click here.

The post UNPO Releases Report on Human Rights in Ethiopia appeared first on .

Release Scholar-Activist Bekele Gerba

March 16, 2017 – Scholars at Risk (SAR) is concerned over the arrest and ongoing incommunicado detention of Professor Bekele Gerba, a foreign language professor at Addis Ababa University and the deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), who is facing terrorism-related charges that apparently stem from his peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and association.

SAR understands that on December 23, 2015, Ethiopian federal security forces arrested Professor Gerba, a prominent Oromo rights activist, after entering and searching his home. His arrest occurred against a backdrop of protests and intensifying clashes between the Ethiopian government and supporters of the rights of the Oromo minority, over the government’s renewed implementation of its “Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan.” Sources suggest that Professor Gerba’s arrest was a reaction to the protests taking place across the Oromia region.

Upon his arrest, Professor Gerba’s family and witnesses were reportedly told that he would be taken to Maekalawi prison, where they could visit him in 24 hours. The day he was scheduled to appear in court, however, Professor Gerba allegedly disappeared and has since been held incommunicado. SAR understands that on April 22, 2016, an Ethiopian court brought terrorism-related charges against Professor Gerba and 21 others in connection with the protests. Prosecutors have since presented as evidence videos of a speech Professor Gerba gave at an August 2015 conference organized by the Oromo Studies Association and a December 2015 interview with a foreign-based, Ethiopian media outlet. SAR further understands that Professor Gerba has reported that he and his co-defendants have suffered ill-treatment during their detention.

SAR calls for emails, letters, and faxes respectfully urging the authorities to release and drop all charges against Professor Gerba; or, pending this, to ensure his well-being while in custody, including access to legal counsel and family, and to ensure that his case proceeds in a manner consistent with Ethiopia’s obligations under international law, in particular internationally recognized standards of due process, fair trial, and free expression.

The post Release Scholar-Activist Bekele Gerba appeared first on .

AN URGENT PLEA!

Jarso Gollisa Roba

Hello dear esteemed managerial staffs, Risk-taking and Committed Journalists and Thoughtful and Truthful Reporters of Global Media Outlets!

Today, I kindly call up on and humanely urge you, to search, research and report on the case of drought weakening and dismantling almost all parts of Eastern Africa. Literature and memories have it that, though the intensity and severity might differ, almost all countries in this part of the world is facing some amount of pressure from drastic factors of Climate Change. Particularly, these regions are suffering from A Very Rapid Desertification locally and irreversible Global Warming universally since the last three decades. It is very sad that, we have multitudes of witnesses and plentiful of testimonies also that the deep-rooted Poverty, ever growing and rampant Corruption and other pertinent problems of Good Governance make the issue under a multidimensional media’s spotlight. This is why, this area is literally dubbed ‘a hell on the face of the planet earth’.

Recently, I, personally, observed the case of Borana, Gabra, Garri, Guji, Gedio, Sidama, Western Arsi and Eastern Shawa communities in Central and Southern Ethiopia, Northern Kenya and South-Western Somalia. More or less, people of these areas lived up experiencing droughts in the past. In these vicinity all in pastoral, agro-pastoral and agricultural settings they saw the taste of desert somehow. I also, personally have seen it. Bitterly faced it. Kept living being affected by it. I admit that I have seen peoples’ livelihood shifted, villages abandoned, children drawn out of schools, old men engaged in hard and unsafe work, pregnant women traveling long journeys in search for a can of drinking water and lives perished in vain and lost in the perching wilderness- all because of severe drought. Nevertheless, unlike the drought we are accustomed to know, this year round it is different completely. There is no place unaffected. No loopholes to take refuge for the herds and shepherds.

For instance, in the case of Borana Zone there has been no rain for the two consecutive normal rainy seasons. No fodder and water for animal consumption in any part of this area let it be Liban, Dirre, Malbe, Golbo, Sakhu or Waso. Now as we speak, in Borana, the drought is so much severe than its former status that let alone livestocks, human lives are at stake and at unredeemable risk if we fail to react as soon as we can. FYI, a rumor is being aired that quite a number of people have been died of hunger in Sakhu (Marsabit) county, around Magado in Dirre Woreda, Chari in Elwaye Woreda and some are on their deathbed around remote parts of the province where trucks can not easily travel and distribute the life’s essentials like water and food. The case of Liban areas, that is the worst case scenario though we need more details to cover much on the matter later on.

Anyway, this challenge has persisted long enough (more than consecutive 8 months now) in this area to render all community members helpless and hopeless; whether they are/were rich or poor, young or old, men or women, educated or non-educated. In these all periods of drought, the urban elites and youth groups from these communities have tried their best in easying the matter. They tried their best. They have raised funds at different levels and tried to help the drought stricken community members. Their vigor and hope is now fading. Therefore, they are pleading with the Global Communities. They say in unison, “We appreciate all efforts done by our fellow humans to help our pastoral community, in standing by our side and restoring the livelihood of rural dwellers which is very worse in comparison to towns’. Not only in the past, but also we have seen many individuals and groups supporting the rural people along with us. However, the drought is still being more severe than any time before. Despite the willingness of many Voluntary Aid Organizations and Emergency Projects to share what they have there is a huge gap in provision. We all know that, the Humanitarian Aids Organizations aim to save the lives and give us supplementary and temporal handouts at least. Unfortunately, most of them could not manage to do that because of the lack of tangible information on the ground. Leaders tend to talk about Resilience and Sustainability than our immediate need right now. We want sustainability as any other nations in the world. But now, our urgent need is food, water and medicine for survival.” They also asserted, “The governments, various social groups and stakeholders shall not keep silent on us because we’re on the brink of death. Mass death!’

The post AN URGENT PLEA – After Fact Finding from Recent Visit to Oromia Reginal State appeared first on .

A key Note speech by Prof. Ezekiel Gebisa on a National Symposium organized by Wollega University,Gimbi Campus, Dec.26 & 27/2014

The post Prof. Ezekiel Gebisa on the success of Ethiopia’s economic transformation appeared first on .