Feyisa Lilesa wins 2017 United Airlines New York City Half Marathon
The roughly 13 mile-long race will start on East Drive in Central Park near 72nd Street at 7:30 a.m., with runners trekking through Times Square, the West Side Highway and Battery Park before crossing the finish
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Documentary: Tedros Adhanom incompetency, politics, & immorality Parts 1, 2, 3
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Dangote Cement Faces Disruptions in Ethiopia Over Jobs Plan
by Nizar Manek, Paul Wallace, and Solape Renner
The new plant in Ethiopia. Photo: Ethioinfodesk
Ethiopian regional officials are demanding that foreign cement producers including Dangote Cement Plc hand control of some parts of their businesses to groups of unemployed youths.
The Nigerian company, controlled by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and others such as Saudi billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi’s Derba MIDROC Cement Plc, should allow the youth to run their pumice mines, according to a draft contract drawn up by Oromia state’s East Shewa Zone administration this month. Pumice is an additive used in cement manufacturing and its extraction is overseen by local bureaucrats, rather than Ethiopia’s central government.
“The youth have to get the advantage from the resource, and side-by-side the companies must get advantage from this resource,” Yohan Tesso, head of East Shewa’s urban employment creation and food security office, said by phone. “It’s a win-win.”
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s administration is trying to reduce youth unemployment five months after it declared a state of emergency to deal with violent protests by Oromo communities over alleged land dispossession, political marginalization and repression by the state. Dangote Cement was among several businesses attacked during the unrest, which caused foreign investment to slump.
Oromia has 1.2 million unemployed youth, according to the Addis Ababa-based Walta Information Center news service, which cited a local youth affairs office. The state is targeting the creation of 950,000 new jobs for young people, it said.
Ethnic Unrest Threatens to Derail Ethiopia’s Boom: QuickTake Q&A
The local administration “recently” halted Dangote and Derba’s operations amid discussions about the proposals, the Addis Ababa-based newspaper The Reporter said on March 11, citing Derba’s chief executive officer and chairman of the Ethiopia Cement Producers’ Association, Haile Assegidie. He said proposals to give control of pumice to youth cooperatives came without warning, according to the paper. Calls to Haile’s mobile phone on March 16 didn’t connect.
The disruptions haven’t forced Dangote to stop output, CEO Onne van der Weijde said in an interview. The company’s plant in Mugher, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of Addis Ababa, has the capacity to produce 2.5 million metric tons a year of cement, according to Dangote’s website.
The Nigerian company is discussing the proposal with Oromo officials and may be willing to sign a contract “as long as that doesn’t involve higher costs and lower quality and the quantity can still be delivered,” he said. “They shouldn’t force us to do it and then charge a high fee for getting something that we were doing ourselves before.”
Prices being discussed are from 20-30 birr ($0.89-$1.33) per metric ton of pumice, Van der Weijde said. The contract refers to 20 birr.
‘No Right’
Teweld Abay, a director of mineral marketing in Ethiopia’s federal mines ministry, said that while he was aware of East Shewa’s plans, the local administration hadn’t communicated them to the ministry.
“We don’t believe they have a right to ask these cement companies to sign this contract,” Teweld said by phone. “But if these companies sign this contract, then it’s their responsibility.”
The Reporter quoted Industry Minister Alemu Sime as saying his ministry had reached “a general consensus on the importance of the youth job-creation initiative with the cement factories.” Factories raised a “valid” concern that there could be an interruption in the supply of raw materials, he was cited as saying.
Abdisa Jaleta, planning and monitoring officer at the East Shewa urban employment creation and food security office, confirmed an English translation of the contract obtained by Bloomberg is authentic. It identified the pumice supplier as Youth Micro Enterprises Plc.
Nigeria’s Dangote Cement expands to Ethiopia with $500 million plant
This entry was posted on June 4, 2015 by Positive Nigeria in Business
MUGHER, Oromiya, Ethiopia | Nigeria’s Dangote Group on Thursday opened a $500 million cement plant in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies where a construction boom has fuelled a shortage of cement.
The Mugher Plant under construction. Photo: Skyscrapercity
Dangote Cement, owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, is seeking to expand its interests and develop cement plants across Africa to reach annual production of 62 million tonnes by 2017, up from 42 million last year.
We are going to double this plant – Aliko Dangote
The new plant is in the western Ethiopian district of Mugher at a site some 85 kilometres from the capital Addis Ababa, which is surrounded by green pastures but is quickly becoming one of the country’s main industrial hubs.
The plant will initially produce 2.5 million tonnes a year in a country whose population of 90 million only consumes around 70 kilogrammes of cement per capita annually and the company said it plans to further expand its output.
Nigeria’s annual per capita consumption is 127 kilogrammes.
Aliko Dangote – Richest African
“We are going to double this plant,” Aliko Dangote said in a speech, adding a reliable power supply was one of the attractions that lured the investment to Ethiopia.
The Horn of Africa country’s economy is expected to grow by 10.5 percent in 2015/16, fuelled by its rising service and agriculture sectors, as well as the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams.
But Addis Ababa’s development push has fuelled shortages and manufacturers have been unable to meet demand.
Cement producers in the country can produce more than 12 million tonnes each year, but industry analysts say demand in Ethiopia will rise to 17 million tonnes by next year.
Dangote Cement has got foot prints across Nigeria, Cameroun, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Liberia, Senegal, Kenya and South Africa, with import/packing facilities in Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Aliko Dangote is ranked as the richest African by Forbes with a net worth of 21.6 billion US dollars.
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“#Women’s Inferno in #Ethiopia”, hosted by MEP Liliana Rodrigues
European Parliament, Brussels
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in collaboration with the People’s Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) and MEP Liliana Rodrigues (S&D), will be holding a conference entitled ‘Women’s Inferno in Ethiopia’ at the European Parliament in Brussels.
The primary aim of the conference is to raise awareness about the deteriorating condition of human rights in Ethiopia. This focus comprises the human rights abuses faced by marginalised ethnic groups, and more specifically, the rife sexual and gender-based violence that disproportionately affects women in these communities. To this end, the conference will centre on the plight of women from Ogaden and Oromo, but also from Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, and Sidama.
Two years have passed since UNPO’s conference entitled ‘Minority Women’s Rights: an Ethiopian Inferno?’, and now the organisation seeks to bring these issues back to the table with a particular spotlight on sexual violence. Bringing together a variety of internal and peripheral perspectives, this conference will converge around broad issues, such as the state of human rights in Ethiopia, and around more detailed concerns regarding institutionalised rape and other forms of gender-based violence.
The conference programme will soon be available. For further information, please contact Julie Duval (j.duval@unpo.org).
Selected comments from UNPO facebook:
Denboba Natie · 48:49 Thanks for becoming voices for voicelessly brutalised peoples of Ethiopia
Oromoo Dammaqe · 55:03 Thank you UNPO WELL DONE !
Denboba Natie · 58:14 We’re actively working to engage EU members to show practical support instead of lip services.
Denboba Natie · 1:02:00 Mamaya in a modern world this is a diplomatic campaign…armed struggle will its own wing. Therefore, UNPO is groups of dedicated MEPs. Therefore I advise you to see it in this light
Abbagiddi Guye · 2:09:49 Bekele Gerba & other political prisoners are on hunger strike protesting prison conditions. Consequently prison officials have prevented them from meeting with their lawyers and family.
Mamaya Umar · 1:02:21 I dont even know how this people call government of ethiopia…if you cause genocide you cant be gov..anymore but terrorist…just cus they hav gov license that doesnt make them less terrorist
Utubaa Lammii · 11:16 Good job Dr. Shugut Galeta representative of OLF Diplomatic affair in behave of Oromo.
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Oromo: Our cause is just but demands perseverance and more of it from us!
By Abbaa Ormaa
If we really want FREEDOM, we have to be not only the summer and sunshine soldiers, but also the winter soldiers. In fact we need more of winter SOLDIERS!
The Oromo people have been subjected to mass atrocities and slavery in the hands of Abyssinian and subsequent modern day Ethiopian warlords from the North of Oromia for a little over a century. Once the Abyssinian warlords reached Oromo country, they called the Oromo names, degraded their culture, degraded their language, and humiliated them in their own home. They called their annexation “integration” to mask its true name, COLONIZATION. Abyssinians brought corrosive anti-democratic culture with them and corrupted few Oromos here and there. The Oromo people are here today only because of Oromo values rooted in the time tested Gadaa, the oldest democratic institution. It worth mentioning that Abyssinians adopted the name “Ethiopia” as official name around 1920 to mud the water and confuse the willing by creating the false narrative of make–believe history of 3000 years.
To this day, the Oromo people and Oromia are under occupation, this time by the minority Tigray-elites. The minority Tigray-led regime is using terrorism and fake development as cover to continue their mass atrocities against the Oromo people. Following the heroic and historic uprising, the qeerro/qarree-led Oromo protest movement in Oromia, that rocked the regime from its foundation, the Tigray elites trained and enlisted the Somali Liyu police to mass murder Oromos and terrorize Oromo villages.
Unfortunately, in the face of all these, the diaspora Oromo has become emotionally reactive. We react to bad news with vigor and urgency while the story is fresh. Every time the regime commits heinous crimes against the Oromo people, we protest, decry, and then go back to business as usual while our adversaries plan for their next target. A good example is what happened following the Ireecha-massacre of 2016, one would have thought ok this should be it. But unfortunately, it came and passed as if nothing happened leaving thousands dead, tens of thousands jailed. Our outrage did not last. Mourning and protesting is a necessary thing but not going to change the behavior of a genocidal regime. Killing and intimidations are their weapons.
Helping our fellow mourners, prisoners, and exiles is a norm for a society but not sufficient to address the root causes of the endless killings and injustices. As we continue to help victims of Tigray-elites atrocities, we should also be asking the question FOR HOW LONG WE MOURN OUR DEADS, IMPRISONED, EXILED, AND PUSHED ASIDE IN OUR OWN HOME? Eventually one has to give way. The Tigray-elites made it clear that the choice is binary, either we submit to them or wiped out altogether, or we take back our country and free our people. I am afraid that the way we are, we are not up to the challenge unless we figure it before it is too late.
If we don’t grow up as people, get our acts together and figure out how to end these nonstop mass atrocities against our people, we will soon be referred as the people who once lived in the horn of Africa.
If we are true to our aspiration, we must do the hard work of organizing and pulling together our limited resources to confront this regime and other foes. We must figure out a way to marshal our minds, hearts, and resources to get rid of this oppressive regime and the conditions that made it possible for crooks and thugs to control the levers of power and abuse us all together. Until we do that, we will be in the same predicament year after year crying and mourning.
If we are to change the fate of our people, we must evaluate and reevaluate our weaknesses as people first and for most. Our political and civic organizations are reflections of us, the people. The weaker we are, the weaker they are. In searching for this unity, let us insist on accountability from our political and civic organizations. Whenever we give money to groups and organizations in the name of Oromo, let us make sure that the money we give is used to unite us not to divide us. We must make sure that our support that is not used to feed oversized egos of individuals turning them into a cult than a rational leader.
I am pleased to have learned that the much anticipated Global Gumii Oromia (GGO) is finally to be materialized. GGO’s ambition to bring all Oromos around a table “to critically understand and confront our ideological, leadership and organizational shortcomings and to develop central organizing ideas and strategic plans at the grassroots level for our national movement” is a noble goal and the people behind it deserve our appreciations. This is a great start. But it is up to each and every Oromo to play our part in materializing our people’s aspiration for equality, justice, and freedom by encouraging and becoming stake holders in Oromo organizations that stand for our common vision and that understands the roll of the diaspora is a supportive role. The ultimate deciders are the people on the ground in Oromia.
GGO is a work in progress and it takes all of us to create this forum where we sit together around a table and do what our forefathers did, address our differences, strengthen our unity, mend fences, and defend our country, protect our elders, women, and children. I wish GGO success and I will be there to do my part! Our cause is just, too big, and too important to be left to few.
Yes, there are lots of chaffs in the name of Oromo running around but it is up to us, the Oromo people, to separate the wheat from the chaffs and huddle around the wheat to take on the tyrants.
http://www.globalgumioromia.com/registration/
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Letter on Ethiopia to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs / Vice-President of the European Commission Mogherini
Source: Human Rights Watch
Federica Mogherini
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs /
Vice-President of the European Commission
Rue de la Loi, Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Brussels, March 23, 2017
Dear High Representative Mogherini,
Armed security officials watch as protesters stage a protest against government during the Irreechaa cultural festival in Bishoftu, Ethiopia on October 02, 2016. © 2016 Getty Images
Human Rights Watch wishes to express our deep disappointment over the one-sided statement issued by your office during your official visit to Ethiopia last week. In the public statement of March 17, 2017, you focus only on the important European Union partnerships with Ethiopia on humanitarian assistance, migration, refugees, and economic growth, and reiterate your support for the dialogue with the political opposition currently underway.
In our view the statement was a missed opportunity to state publicly and unequivocally that Ethiopia’s repressive response to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly – illustrated by the government’s brutal crackdown on protests– is not conducive to Ethiopia’s long-term stability or the EU’s ability to partner with Ethiopia on areas of mutual interest.
As you are aware, Ethiopia’s widespread human rights violations against its citizens means that Ethiopia is a country producing refugees and asylum seekers seeking safety.
Since November 2015 state security forces have killed hundreds and arrested tens of thousands of protesters, plunging Ethiopia into a human rights crisis. A state of emergency, called in October 2016, prescribes sweeping restrictions that go far beyond what is permissible under international law, eliminating what little space there was for the peaceful expression of critical views. The government has detained over 20,000 in “rehabilitation camps” since the state of emergency was declared, according to official figures. Widespread and long-standing restrictions on media and civil society groups continue to be enforced. Opposition leaders remain in detention on politically motivated charges, including Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) leader Dr. Merera Gudina, who was arrested following his attendance at a briefing on November 9 in Brussels organized by an MEP. Just three weeks before your visit, he was charged with “outrages against the constitution” and faces up to life in imprisonment.
Harassment through criminal charges, arbitrary detention of political opposition members and supporters, restrictions on financing, and registration problems have decimated opposition parties since the 2010 election. Actual or perceived members of opposition parties have difficulty accessing the benefits of development and humanitarian assistance, including that provided by the EU and its member states. This partisan system ensures that Ethiopians in rural or drought-vulnerable areas of the country are dependent on the government, bolstered by EU support, for their livelihoods, food aid, employment, and health care. This further constricts the space for political expression, dialogue and further undermines the effectiveness of opposition parties. From the government’s perspective, the strategy has been successful — the ruling party and its affiliates won 100 percent of the seats in federal parliament in 2015 despite strong anti-government sentiments in many parts of the country as the protests would later illustrate.
Dismantling opposition parties, imprisoning critical opposition voices, and then inviting whomever remains to engage in a dialogue is not the “right direction,” as your statement said. Nor is having such a dialogue in the shadow of a state of emergency with wide-ranging restrictions on free expression rights. Moderate, yet still critical opposition voices, including Dr. Merera, should be part of any credible dialogue with the opposition, and this should have been stressed privately and publicly to the prime minister as critical for any meaningful dialogue. Your expression of support for political dialogue without acknowledging the systematic destruction of legally registered opposition parties and the suppression of basic human rights is not constructive to the EU’s partnership with Ethiopia.
Discussing economic partnerships during the state of emergency that followed 18 months of brutality partly triggered by the government’s abusive economic development approach illustrates our concern with your recent statement. The Ethiopian government has ignored the rights of those displaced by investment projects, failing to properly consult and compensate them. It begs the question: what polices or safeguards is the EU insisting are in place to ensure that economic development occurs with professed EU commitments to human rights respected?
In this light, the EU-Ethiopia Business Forum should be postponed until the abusive provisions of the state of emergency are lifted. Moreover, the government should make progress on implementing reforms that are crucial for a rights-respecting business environment, such as the repeal or substantial amendment of the Charities and Societies Proclamation.
The contrast between recent statements by the European parliament and the European Union could not be more stark. Parliament has consistently issued strong statements about the government’s brutal crackdown, including a resolution adopted in January 2016 that stated “respect for human rights and the rule of law are crucial to the EU’s policies to promote development in Ethiopia.” The resolution also stressed that the “EU should measure its financial support according to the country’s human rights record and the degree to which the Ethiopian Government promotes reforms towards democratization.” Parliamentary subcommittee hearings on Ethiopia followed in October. European Parliament actions signaled to the Ethiopian government and its people that there are repercussions for brutality against their own citizens – brutality that undermines European priorities in the Horn of Africa.
In contrast, the EU’s tepid approach, epitomized by your recent statement merely sends the message to the Ethiopian government that its repression and brutality carries no consequences or public condemnation from its most trusted friends, donors, and partners.
As all recognize, Ethiopia is an important partner of the EU in the areas of migration, development and economic growth. But these partnerships are dependent on long-term stability in Ethiopia and, thus, should be dependent on respect for basic human rights.
A further downward spiral in the human rights situation in this country of 100 million people could lead to dramatically increased humanitarian needs and out-migration from Ethiopia, all of which would contravene European and Ethiopian interests. This is where the EU’s focus should be.
We strongly urge you to use future meetings with Ethiopia’s leadership to publicly and unequivocally call for the release of key opposition leaders such as Dr. Merera and Bekele Gerba, the lifting of abusive provisions of the state of emergency, an international investigation into the crackdown on government protests, and the repeal of longstanding restrictions on media and civil society. And as stated in the European parliament resolution, it would be beneficial to clarify what progress on human rights you expect from Ethiopia to maintain ongoing EU support. The European Union’s interests in Ethiopia are best served by taking a principled stance on the importance of human rights protections.
Kind regards,
Lotte Leicht
EU Director
Human Rights Watch
CC:
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Reminder to all Oromo Affiliated Media Outlets
By Falmataa Sabaa (PhD)
While I was listening to RSWO Bitooteessa 23, 2017 (see below) reports of the annexation of Chinaksen, it blew my mind and I wanted to remind the Media Outlets focused to Oromo issue and other sympathizers of the nation of Oromia. Oromos are glad to have you all the media outlets reporting our cause to the Oromo nation and the globe.
It is clear that Oromos are struggling with colonizers of Oromia. The inevitable victory of Oromos could be around the corner or might take a while. It is highly desirable, therefore, that we have clear, detailed and non-controversial documents on the evil deeds of the alien taking place now and then in Oromia. Yoo dandeenye ammumma iyyu ishee buqifna, yoo dadhabne seenaa barsisaa ijollee keenya itti gudifina. Kanaafuu ragaa haqaa fuula addunyaatti dhiyesinee biyya abbaa keenyaa ittiin falmamachuuf ragaan keenya biffa hin shakisifneen kawachuu qabna. Senaanis galmesuuf ragnan haqaa fi gahaa ta’e barbaadamadha. Kun boree dha! We need to never forget prophetic words of our forefathers who stated the inevitable departure of the colonial hegemony, though.
Therefore, especially with issues related to scrambling of Oromia and Oromo genocide by the colonial power in Oromia, your efforts need to exponentially increase not to miss any. Because, it is becoming clearer than ever that the rulers of the Ethiopian empire, guided by their evil spirits and moving in the dark, could further intensify murdering of our people using any means available to them.
Hence, to unhide their hidden crime, Oromo affiliated media outlets should effectively plan so that you could maximize your share to reverse the burden on the Oromo and Oromia. The least your interview should contain: name and address of interviewee (respondent) and interviewer (which can be kept confidentially), subject of the interview (the question) and response of the respondent without further synthesis, the effects and time of the occurrence. Exhaustively generate responses and document the original data unprocessed. It is preferable to have video compared to only audio. Whenever possible it is important to document in multi-faceted access: hard copy, electronic copy (hard disk, external disk) and pictorial etc. You may use the generated information for your immediate purpose but never change the row data (response) intended for documentation so that its future credibility will not be compromised. Remember that habesha are now in tie for the fabricated lie because they fail to predict future verification.
Sabakoo Jabaadhu!
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Opening remark of Dr. Shigut Geleta, Oromo Liberation Front, on a conference entitled ‘Women’s Inferno in Ethiopia’ held at European Parliament on 22 March 2017
Excellency Ms. Liliana Rodrigues (S&D), MEP and chairperson,
Your excellences Members of the European Parliament, Dear participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thanks the office of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the office of her Excellency Mrs. Liliana Rodrigues (S&D), MEP for Organizing this Conference.
I am honored for having an opportunity to give remarks on the present oppression and gross human rights violations committed by Ethiopian government on all peoples in Ethiopia on behalf of Peoples Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD). PAFD is a democratic alliance that was established in October 2015 to unite the efforts of five major organizations that represent the aspirations of more than 67% of the nations in Ethiopia. The Alliance intends to transform the current Empire of Ethiopia into free, democratic communities of nations who coexist peacefully, in freely chosen systems of governance.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As it is unwaveringly confirmed from the electoral result of 2015 national election in which EPRDF claimed it won the 100% seat, nowadays, there is no distinction between legislative, judiciary and Executive body in Ethiopia; as well between party and state. All of them are interwoven in one, that is, EPRDF led by Tigray people liberation front. Thus, it is that the democratic processes in the country are hindered by EPRDF for it has decided to indefinitely clinch to power. Despite being a state that is party to most United Nations human rights treaties and having specific provisions for democratic and fundamental human rights in its Constitution, the human rights situation in Ethiopia is still horrendous. At present evidences from reports of credible right groups show multitude of human rights violations in Ethiopia, particularly in Oromia, Ogden, Gambelia, Banishing Gomez, Sideman and Amhara regional states, stressing these violations amount to crimes against humanity and the issue of accountability needed to be addressed.
All these human rights violations are ironically underpinned by the geostrategic importance the Horn of Africa linked to the interest of war on terror, proximity to the middle East and international effort on control of piracy. Ethiopia is geopolitically situated to determine the stability of the Horn of Africa. However, the EPDRF that rules by force will neither bring peace to Ethiopia nor to the Horn of Africa, for as long as the best majority of other nations and nationalities of Ethiopia are excluded from national politics. It is paradoxical that international donors like the European Union (EU) continue patronaging humanitarian and development aid into Ethiopia for its perceived stability role in the Horn of Africa, while the country is marred by volatilities of conflicts instigated by EPRDF regime
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since the peaceful protests began in mid-November 2015, Oromia is ruled under martial law. The regime established command posts in every village in Oromia and control the movements of people. To make the matter worst, on 9th November 2016, the government declared the State of Emergency. The declared state of emergency was merely to justify the crimes that were already taking place. The regime armed forces forcefully enter individual houses and terrorize children, loot private property, beat, and kill individual at their own home and gang rape as a deliberate military strategy. All peaceful demonstrations were reacted by EPRDF with live bullets and lethal forces on protesting crowd at several places (see June 15, 2016 HRW Report). On Sept. 3, 2016, the Kilinto prison was set on fire and political prisoners were shot under the pretext that they had tried to escape. On Oct. 2, 2016, the regime used hand guns and helicopter gunships at large cultural ceremony (Irrecha) and murdered several people. It is reported that since November 2015, over 2,500 Oromos have been killed. The killing includes unharmful and vulnerable people including children from age 1 to elderly aged 80 and pregnant women All these amount to crimes against humanity that violate several UN Conventions and treaties that Ethiopia is a party to.
The crimes have been committed directly or indirectly by the command of TPLF/ EPRDF officials, military commanders, and members of the security forces. Not only killings but also since November 2015, over 50, 000 Oromos were arrested and detained in different detention camps, without conviction or rare trails and several forced disappearances were recorded. These includes political leaders, journalists, artists and Oromos from all levels of society. Instead of searching for long lasting peace, the regime downplayed the issue to bad governance and reshuffled its cabinets and party appointees.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The fight against the international terrorism is the highest priority for all peace-loving people. It is our believe that the international terrorism is a threat to world peace and against harmoniously living together of the world-population, and therefore with all methods must be inspected. However, dictatorial regimes like the TPLF/EPRDF, that put its own agenda by labelling all its political oppositions as terrorists and use its restrictive self-made Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (adopted in 2009) to justify arrests of journalists, members of the political opposition leaders and innocent civilians must be fought itself. The government of Ethiopia is using highly armed “Somali Liyu police” for attacking Oromos living adjacent to Somali regional state causing thousands of deaths and “Boko Haram” type of kidnapping women. These all are aimed to move the turbulence from center to the periphery and use divide and rule policy.
Considering the current gross human rights violations under the unjustified state of emergency of Ethiopian regime, it is not enough to only issue statements and resolutions, but to make meaningful actions are needed to stop the crimes against humanity on innocent civilians. The international community and legislative bodies are required to use all their possible influences on the Ethiopian government and facilitate the release of all political prisoners, and to take practical action to promote fundamental democratic changes in Ethiopia.
The EU has bilateral and multi-lateral agreements with Ethiopia. Most of these agreements enshrined human rights protection, good governance, and democratic freedom. However, the EU has failed to force Ethiopia to abide by these agreements. Though major political change comes from the genuine struggle of peoples in Ethiopia, it is our belief that EU policy change on Ethiopia can significantly change the political situation of Ethiopia for good. No action from the international community immediately implies approval of the regime’s violent measures against defenseless civilians. In 2010, Human Rights Watch reported billions of euros for development aid are being diverted by the Ethiopian government to conduct political oppression. We would also like to mention that financial and diplomatic assistance from Western countries have been crucial in maintaining the dictatorial Ethiopian regime and its genocidal act. Regrettably, this trend has continued even under the present alarming situation of political turmoil and at a time the regime failed distributing humanitarian aid to Ogadeni where people are daily dying of malnutrition and cholera. As AI said A preventable disaster like the massive landslide recently happened at rubbish dump at Qoshi, near the capital Addis Ababa that costed hundreds of human lives clearly indicates the government’s irresponsibility on Human and Environmental safety.
Hence, the PAFD strongly appeals and calls all Ethiopia’s political democratic forces to continue their struggle for democratic change in unison and appeals to the EU Parliament and member states to play their role, by refraining from supplying aid to Ethiopia since it failed to respect the conditions that it has to uphold.
Thank you for your attention
Brussels, 22 March, 2017
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Macha Tulama Association Appeal to Oromo Diaspora
March 25, 2017
To: Oromo in Diaspora
Dear brothers and sisters,
We are sending you our appeal letter to bring to your attention the critical condition under which the Oromo people are suffering currently and to earnestly request for your generous financial help once again. We believe that you are fully aware of the continuous genocidal war that the Ethiopian regime is systematically perpetuating against the Oromo people. Since the Oromo protest of 2014, thousands Oromo have been killed; thousands of them have been crippled, blinded and disfigured; and thousands of them have been imprisoned and tortured. Under the current state of emergency, just after the Irreechaa massacre more than fifty thousand Oromo have been thrown into jails. Despite all these challenging problems and sufferings, our people are bravely struggling to restore our national pride and to liberate our country. By their blood and suffering, our people have restored our unity and humanity that suffered for more than a century. Thanks to your generous donations, MTA has been providing modest help to our people during such turbulent times.
Sadly, the plight of our people is never alleviated; it is rather worsened currently. Once again the Ethiopian regime has resorted to its old tactic of inciting ethnic conflict between the Oromo and its neighboring peoples in order to divert attention from the Oromo protest that has rocked the whole empire. The other main purpose of the regime is to weaken and destroy Oromo nationhood and Oromummaa. To carry out its evil missions, the Ethiopian regime is using “Liyu Hayil,” a force under the control of federal authority. Currently, in Eastern, South-East, South and south-west parts of Oromia, and Dambi Dollo, Oromo are in daily wars. Villages after villages are raided on a daily basis. Thousands are uprooted from their houses; thousands are killed or injured and in need of food, clothes and medicine. By the order of the so-called federal government, Oromo economic resources, particularly animals, are looted.
We believe that you can make a significant positive impact at this critical time. Our people have hope in us that we will respond to their sufferings because we are more fortunate to live in a peaceful country. We all owe to our people and to stand with them at this historical juncture. Therefore, we appeal to you for your donations. At the same time, we deeply express our heart-felt thanks for your previous support for Oromo victims of Ethiopian state violence through the Macha Tulama Association, USA.
You can send your donations to: Macha Tulama emergency fund account
Routing Number: 052001633,
Account number: 446037323547
Swift code: BOFAUS3N
You can donate through: https://www.gofundme.com/MTArelief
You can also donate through PayPal on the MTA website. We would like to let you know that every dollar of your donation will be dedicated to the humanitarian crisis in Oromia. Once again, we thank you deeply and appreciate your contributions to the recovery of the recent Victims of “Liyu Hayl” that are injured, crippled, sick and hungry Oromo in Hararghe, Bale, Borana, Guji, and Dambi Dollo.
With best regards,
Asafa Jalata
Asafa Jalata Ph.D.
President, Macha-Tulama Association,
Washington, DC
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“ Knowledge for the World ”
By Feyera Sobokssa, Torture survivor
Feyera Sobokssa
A professor from Johns Hopkins University once came to the Catholic University of America (CUA) to participate on a human rights training that was sponsored by both the CUA, the U.N. and the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) – International. I tried by best to explain to her about Revolutionary Democracy and the torture techniques that are being used by the minority regime of the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF). I have shown her photographs and the bruises that were all over the a survivor’s thighs and arms as a result of severe torture.
The TPLF security forces were warning him not to show those bruises to anybody, even to his own wife, but he defied their warnings and managed to show it to both his wife, his friends,relatives while it was fresh. He also managed to show the photographs to as many people as possible including that professor. He couldn’t have managed to convince the professor from Johns Hopkins University if he didn’t retain those photographs while the bruises were fresh. The professor was finally convinced and said, “I thought I knew the world.” Is it not really fair to ask that the university whose slogan is “Knowledge for the World” doesn’t even know what was going on in Ethiopia?
We kept on talking to the American people and we managed to create awareness about the persecution of the Oromo people and other marginalized nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire. The Washington Post published the following: “History has not been kind to the Oromo people, whose complaints of subjugation date back to the last quarter of the 19th century, when they were colonized by the armies of Ethiopian Emperor Menilik II, said John Herbeson, an African Studies lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s school of Advanced International Studies.” ~ Emily Wax, The Washington Post, April 1, 2012.
Before the publication of this article, Herbeson talked to activists at TASSC – International. I was there when he officially talked his grave concerns about the Oromo people and other marginalized people in Ethiopia..
Prophecy Fulfilled
I read an article that quoted Thomas Jefferson when I was under persecution by the TPLF Fascist regime. I took note of it and quoted it repeatedly on most of the articles I have written. My dream came true and we managed to launch an independent media, MWMF, for the Oromo and other marginalized people in the Horn of Africa. We were connected first at the Addis Ababa.University and we will move on and continue building the networks until real change comes true through our protracted struggle
FROM PLENTY TO POVERTY: ‘Garaacha Uffachuu?’ in Oromo Culture
Finally, I would like to emphasize that we must create and strengthen the advocacy department under MWMF. We should not assume that people of the world know what their governments are doing in collaboration with African dictators. We must talk to influential people, civil society institutions, faith institutions, the academia and human rights organizations.
Advocacy Closes the Gap
There are honest people who think their donations would reach the needy. Faith workers may not get the complete picture unless they are informed by people who have been the victims like the Oromos and the Somalis in the Horn of Africa. That is the major reason why we must work hard to create and strengthen advocacy in major cities of the world.
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An open letter to Mr. Louis Michel
European Parliament
Rue Wiertz 60
BUR ASP 09G206
1047 Bruxelles
louis.michel@europarl.europa.eu
London, March 27, 2017.
Dear Mr. Louis Michel,
We, the Ogaden European Diaspora Association are writing you over your unconditional support of the brutal and minority leading group of Ethiopia. Besides the huge amount of aid money from the EU and other Western donors, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest country of the world. This is due to lack of good governance, democracy and basic human, social, economic and cultural rights.
Only 5% of Ethiopians, mostly from Tigrean ruling party get the benefit of 95% of aid given to this country. Since the EPRDF is on the power, poverty and marginalization of the majority nations have increased. Today, most of the Southern communities (Ogaden Somalis, Oromo, Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz and Sidamo) are subjected to an earth scorching policy, war, exploitation of their resources, rape, displacement and denial of aid from any independent organization.
The case of Somali region is particularly alarming. In 2007, the late Ethiopian Prime Minister declared in a press conference in Addis-Ababa, that his army has launched a military and political campaign to contain the activity of the Ogaden National Liberation Front. Since then the civilians in this region experience killing, rape, destruction, forcibly eviction and closure of their region from the rest of the world.
Dear Mr. Louis Michel,
You grew up with, freedom, equal rights and personal liberty which does not exist in Ethiopia, how can you justify defending with beak and angle a merciless regime. A regime who since the last twenty-five years didn’t hear the will of his people and headed the country to an imminent explosion. A country, where any opposition party is allowed. Freedom of expression and assembly, free journalists, human rights organizations are also banned.
While the international organizations, civilians from the marginalized regions, human rights defenders as well as the political parties from Ethiopia are constantly asking for a legitimate change, besides that, you are eye witness and well aware of the suffering of the people, you are among the few who work for minority led regime and prevent any constructive change for this country.
Change is coming in Ethiopia, it’s a question of time. We would like to see you on the side of the voiceless humiliated, dehumanized civilians in Ogaden, Oromo, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Sidamo. We ask you kindly to use all your possible to press Ethiopia to open the Somali region in order people affected by the famine, and cholera be helped by the international NGO’s, as well as unfettered access to all these regions to investigate the human rights and humanitarian abuses committed by the Ethiopian army and their allied militia.
We thank you for your attention.
Ogaden European Diaspora Association
communauteogaden@net2000.ch
The post Ogaden European Diaspora Association’s Open Letter to Mr. Louis Michel appeared first on .
Adwa and Abyssinia’s Participation in the Scramble for Africa: Has that Relevance to the Ongoing Oromo protests?
Mekuria Bulcha, PhD, Professor
Whenever an Oromo scholar or politician mentions Menelik or his conquest of Oromia, the scathing criticism that meets him or her is that history is irrelevant for the current crisis. They are often advised to stop looking backwards and to focus on the future. Meanwhile, the irony is that in the lead up to and weeks after the 121st anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, many Ethiopian scholars and politicians have been engaged in intense debate about this event. In fact, I am all for a debate about Ethiopian history; however, I was surprised when I read an article written by Teshome Borago entitled “Adwa: When Oromos fought Italy as Abyssinians” published on the Ethiomedia webpage on March 3, 2017. Borago wrote the article to commemorate the anniversary of Ethiopia’s victory over Italian forces at Adwa in 1896. By and large, he talks about the victory of Adwa as an example of unity among the peoples of Ethiopia and calls on the peoples of Ethiopia to keep up that spirit of unity. But, the problem is that he did not stop there; he used the Oromo contribution to the victory at Adwa obliquely as a pretext to question the validity of Oromo grievances voiced by the ongoing protests. He laments the “new generation” Oromos’ failure to appreciate their forefathers’ contributions to the Adwa victory, and for not respecting the spirit of Adwa which was Ethiopian unity. He refers to their protests as an effort made in defense of “tribalism”. My criticism is that, using the victory of Adwa as a point of departure, Borago distorts not only Oromo and Ethiopian history, but also misrepresents the motives of the ongoing Oromo protests. Borago is not the only writer who has been labelling the Oromo struggle for freedom as a manifestation of “tribalism”, or to criticize Oromo views about Menelik and the creation of the Ethiopian state. There are dozens of commentators who, like him, have been distorting Oromo history and demonizing Oromo politics and scholarship. Haile Larebo has been one of the most vocal representatives of this group.
The views which are expressed in both Borago’s article and Larebo’s story about the Battle of Adwa, which was broadcast on March 22, 2017 on Aronios Radio are the points of departure for this article. The purpose of the article is to critically assess the meanings of the Battle of Adwa for the Oromo and other non-Abyssinian peoples who were conquered and forcibly incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire by Menelik. The following questions will guide my discussion: (a) what were the conditions under which the Oromo and the other non-Abyssinian peoples participated in the Battle of Adwa? (b) What “benefits” did they derive from the victory at Adwa? (c) In what ways was the Battle of Adwa a turning point in Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa? (d) What was the relationship between the peoples of the south including the Oromo and the Abyssinian state before and after Adwa?
Menelik’s army at Adwa: freemen, gabbars, captives and slaves
As Wendy James has aptly pointed out, “without the contributions of Ethiopia’s southern peoples, whose sweat and blood go unrecorded in Ethiopianist annals, the Battle of Adwa in 1896 might not have been won and Menelik II might not have gone on to build his empire.”[1] Obviously, one of those peoples were the Oromo. I am not denying Oromo contribution to the Ethiopian victory over the Italians at Adwa. My critique concerns the representation of the conditions under which their contribution occurred. I argue that Oromo human and material resources were not “contributed” voluntarily as Borago and Larebo want us to believe. By and large, they were robbed. To start, as Harold Marcus has stated, “Menelik had exploited the south and the south-west to purchase weapons.” He was “indirectly Ethiopia’s greatest slave entrepreneur and received the bulk of the proceeds” from the slave trade. Marcus wrote that being a Christian Menelik was not directly involved in the trade, but “Many slaves were however supplied by him.”[2] The “human merchandize” used in that trade were Oromos and others who were captured his conquest of the south. Pankhurst has also stated that “the supply of slaves was…swollen by large numbers of prisoners captured during Menelik’s southern campaigns.”[3] The evidence is extensive to present in this short article, but it is important to not here that Menelik covered in part the cost of the firearms used at Adwa with revenue from the export of human merchandize.
What is also equally important to understand is that the fighters who marched north carrying those firearms were not all freemen, but also a motley of captives, gabbars and slaves, including thousands of women. Most of them were Oromo, Walaita, Kambata and Gurage and were from territories which were conquered a decade or a few years prior to the Battle of Adwa. They were used not only as fighters, but also providers of the services that made the fighting possible. They were bearers of firearms and supplies; they cooked for the fighters and looked after the horses and mules used by the fighters. In this connection, a remarkable story emerges if we look closely at the case of Walaita which was conquered in 1894 just two years before the Battle. It is also interesting to note that Borago who writes that “several kingdoms volunteered and mobilized from every region in Ethiopia to fight at the Battle of Adwa” claims Walaita ethnicity. According to archival evidence collected by the historian Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, one of the aims of the expedition against Walaita was slave raiding. She noted that it was carried out in order to replenish depleted manpower because of the severe famine of 1889-92, to pay outstanding debts to arms dealers, and to finance the impending war against the Italians.[4] Describing the battle the French business agent Gaston Vanderheym who accompanied Menelik on his campaign against the Walaita, expressed the “crushing effects” of newly acquired guns on the southern conquests as “some kind of infernal hunting were human beings rather than animals served as game” and “where no distinction was made between fighters and civilians.”[5] Prouty notes that according Menelik’s own chronicler, 118,987 Walaita were killed and 18,000 were enslaved. The King of Walaita Tona was wounded and captured and his kingdom was destroyed.[6] Martial de Salviac wrote that the captives were made to march in a single line in front of Menelik who “chose the most robust and had a cross marked on their hands with a sharp object.”[7] In fact, Menelik not only enslaved thousands of Walaita, he also drove 36,000 head of looted cattle all the way to Shawa. Two years later, the captives were used to transport food, weapons, ammunition from Shawa to Adwa in 1896.
The united country called Ethiopia, which according to Larebo and Borago existed centuries before Adwa, is a myth. The fact is that when he turned north to meet the Italians at Adwa, Menelik was in the midst of the conquest of the south. The entire Macha region – the Gibe and Leeqa states – was annexed only in 1886. Arsi was conquered in 1886 and Hararge in 1887. As indicated above, Walaita was conquered in 1894. The sores inflicted by the atrocities committed against the Oromo at Anole and Calanqoo in 1886 and 1887 by the conquering Abyssinian forces were still bleeding. Even Wallo’s conquest in the north was completed in 1878 after years of fierce battles between Menelik (then King of Shawa) and Emperor Yohannes IV on one side and the Wallo Oromo on the other. What is most remarkable is Larebo’s assertion that the Ethiopian people were united from corner to corner at the time of Adwa. In his interview on Radio Atronos, he posits that there was not a single village in Ethiopia which did not send fighters to Adwa. The absurdity of this proposition is that the Gujii and Borana Oromo and more than 80 percent of what is today the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SSNP), Gambella, Benishangul, Ogaden were outside the reach of Menelik’s empire. Needless to stress that Larebo’s assertions are not true because the country not only lacked unity, but, geographically, Ethiopia as we know it today did not exist at that point.
Indeed, the Ethiopian empire was defended by the blood and bones of Oromo fighters, but their blood was shed not for love of country as Larebo and others would have us believe. While the Abyssinians were defending their freedom, the Oromo had no freedom to defend against the Italians. They had lost it to the Abyssinians during the preceding decade. Their land was an Abyssinian colony. The “contribution” they were forced to make to the war effort saved the Abyssinians from European colonialism, but it did not help them to regain their own independence. There is no indication that they were beneficiaries of the victory over the Italians. In fact, as I will explain later, their contribution to the victory had reinforced colonial Abyssinian rule which Menelik had imposed on them a decade or two prior to the Battle of Adwa.
Ironically, like the naftanya elite, Borago and Larebo have few sympathetic words for the Oromo and the other conquered peoples of Ethiopia. It seems that they saw nothing wrong or immoral in the atrocities committed against them when they lay claim on Oromo loyalty to Menelik. They want the Oromo to see Menelik as their hero and an icon of their resistance against racism and colonialism. The Oromo admit that their forefathers had fought and defeated the Italian army together with Abyssinians. However, the war was not a joint undertaking, but an Abyssinian war with Italy. The Oromo were used as means to defend Abyssinia’s independence. Few believe Larebo’s repetitious story about Menelik being the defender of the black race against white colonizers. As the Oromo scholar Tsegaye Araarsa has expressed the matter, to call the empire built by Menelik the beacon of black freedom is a blatant “distortion of history intended to galvanize legitimacy for his rule.”[8] It is a deceitful attempt to cleanse the history of the atrocious conquest from the stains of blood with which it was smeared. Given the great harm his conquest had inflicted upon them, one must be contemptuous of the Oromo to expect them to honor Menelik as their hero. I know that there are Oromos who take pride in the valor which their forefathers had shown at Adwa, but I have also seen their pride giving way to bitterness as soon as they discover the “rewards” they had received for their heroic contributions to that victory. Several years ago one of the Oromo admirers of Menelik II sent me a note and a picture of the Oromo cavalry who fought at Adwa.
Portrait of Oromo cavalry at Adwa
My friend who is an ardent “pan-Ethiopianist” was exhilarated when he read about the valor of Oromo fighters at the battle of Adwa in a book he came across. In the note he mentioned Fitawrari Gebeyehu as one of the heroes who made the victory at Adwa possible. Gebeyehu died in action leading the troops under his command in the forefront of the battle. However, he felt offended when he reflected on the fact that Gebeyehu’s name is rarely mentioned and his ethnic identity obscured by Ethiopian historiographers. He lamented, “The sad thing however is that Gebeyehu’s father’s name, Gurmu, is never mentioned in the history books. One day we will all be free from this and that type of racism little or big and the real patriots will be celebrated by all Ethiopians.” Gurmu is not a “genuine” Abyssinian name. However, Gebeyehu was not the only Oromo who was denied his social identity in Ethiopian history in that manner. Many Oromos who contributed to the defense of Abyssinia’s or Ethiopia’s independence were treated in that way. Even the ethnic origin of Haile Selassie’s grandfather was concealed. The reason was that the Abyssinian ruling elite were reluctant to recognize Oromos as partners in the making of Abyssinian-cum-Ethiopian history. As Hassen Hussein and Mohammed Ademo have expressed Gebeyehu’s “disappearance from Ethiopian history parallels the erasure of his people’s contributions from the country’s official historiography.” As the two authors have stated, “This is the root of Oromo ambivalence toward Ethiopia: the Oromo are good enough to fight and die for Ethiopia, but not live in it with their full dignity and identity.”[9] This also underpins the lukewarm Oromo attitude toward the history of Adwa.
That the role of Oromo fighters was crucial for Menelik’s victory at Adwa is undeniable, but the victory did not help them as a people in any manner. It is remarkable that Borago and Larebo who come from conquered and marginalized peoples in the south, the Walaita and Hadiya respectively, could miss the cause of the unenthusiastic Oromo feeling toward Ethiopia and “Ethiopiawinnet”. Presenting Oromo forefathers as significant players in defense of the Abyssinian Empire does not change that reality or disprove the fact that the empire was a colonial creation and the Oromo are its colonial subjects. The point is, the Oromo did not fight at Adwa as ethnic Abyssinians or citizens of Abyssinia as Borago and other commentators try to suggest. They fought for their colonizers. They were not the first people to fight a war for their enemies. Colonized peoples had done that throughout history. For example, over 1,355,300 Africans fought for the British in WWII.[10] They did not become Englishmen because of their contributions to British victory in that war. They returned home and struggled for their independence. The Oromo have not been silent subjects because of the victory at the Battle of Adwa. Although their struggle has been sporadic, as reflected in the current uprising, the hope for independence is alive and strong.
Did the Abyssinians participate in the Scramble for Africa?
Teshome Borago is suggesting that a “united Ethiopia” was in place long before Adwa when he says “One has to wonder, how could [did] we win unless a multiethnic Ethiopian nation existed long before the so-called ‘Abyssinian colonization’? How can we defeat a European superpower without sharing a sense of common identity and destiny?” With these rhetorical questions he joins the numerous Habesha politicians and scholars who deny Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century. Concerning Abyssinia’s conquest and colonization of the Oromo and the other peoples in the south, the attitude of Habesha politicians’ and scholars’ is like that of climate change deniers. They ignore volumes of historical and scientific evidence that prove the reality of what they deny. However, to answer Borago’s questions, a multi-ethnic Abyssinian state and nation existed for sure long before the Scramble for Africa. Its main ethnic constituents were the Amhara and the Tigrayans with Agaw, Qimant, Falasha and Shinasha ethnicities. Its territorial base was, to a large extent, the current Amhara and Tigray Regional States and parts of highland Eritrea. One sees them as an Ethiopian nation since Abyssinia and Ethiopia often are interchangeably used. In contrast, the Ethiopian nation Borago has in mind did not exist before Adwa and is not a reality even today. The reality Borago will not acknowledge is that in the Horn of Africa, there were nations like the Oromo, the Sidama, the Walaita, the Afar, Somali and the Kaficho that existed parallel to and independent from Abyssinia. The victory at Adwa not only saved Abyssinia from European colonization, it also encouraged Menelik to continue, with renewed vigour, the colonization of the rest of the Oromo territory and the greater part of what is now south and southwest Ethiopia. I will present, below, a summary of evidence gleaned from the works of scholars on Abyssinia’s colonial exploits during the Scramble for African. I will use “imperial ambitions”, “ideology” and “possession of firearms” as guiding themes to identify the parity of Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa with that of the European imperialist powers of the day.
Imperial ambitions: The evidence for Abyssinian imperial ambitions is reflected in Menelik’s letter to European heads of state wherein he states “if Powers at a distance come forward to partition Africa between them … I do not intend to be an indifferent spectator.”[11] In the words of Gebru Tareke, impelled by “the appearance of European colonialist in the region”,[12] Menelik “embarked on a much larger scale of colonization in the 1880s” than what had been attempted previously. Bahiru Tafla wrote also that it was “European colonial acquisition in Africa [which] awakened imperialist interest in the minds of the Ethiopian rulers of the late nineteenth century.”[13] The influence of European imperialism on Menelik is articulated further by Elspeth Huxley who figuratively states that “the Abyssinians had caught a severe attack of the prevailing imperialist fever” and they “were the only Africans to join the scramble for Africa.”[14] In his Ethiopia: The Last Frontiers, John Markakis writes that Abyssinia “competed successfully in the imperialist partition of the region [Horn of Africa]. Not a victim but a participant in the ‘scramble’, Ethiopia doubled its territory and population in a burst of expansionist energy, and thereafter proudly styled itself the ‘Ethiopian Empire’. He notes that “the title [‘Empire’] is not a misnomer, since Ethiopia’s rulers governed their new possessions more or less the same way and for similar ends as other imperial powers were doing. The people who took the pride in calling themselves Ethiopians were known also as Abyssinians (Habesha).” He states that “Today’s ruling elite frown at the use of this name because it obstructs their effort to forge an inclusive Ethiopian national identity.”[15]Here, it is interesting to note that the Abyssinian use the term today, particularly in the diaspora, to differentiate themselves from other black peoples. When used as such, it has racial underpinnings as indicated by Hussein and Ademo in their article mentioned above.
Ideology: Asserting the colonial ideological factor in the creation of the Abyssinian empire, the conflict researcher Christian Scherrer notes that “European and Abyssinian colonialism occurred simultaneously, pursued similar interests, albeit from differing socio-economic bases, and this was reinforced by comparable colonial ideologies of the idea of empire and notion of ‘civilizing mission’ and the exploitation of the subjugated peoples.”[16] Writing on the ideological underpinnings of Menelik’s colonial conquests, Gebru Tareke, a historian from the north, has also stated that the Abyssinian ruling elite acted like the white colonial rulers in the rest of Africa. The language they used when describing their colonial subjects did not differ from the language the European colonialists were using. It was a language which was infused with stereotypes, prejudices and paternalism. He adds, “They [the Abyssinian elite] tried much like the European colonisers of their time, to justify the exploitability, and moral validity of occupation.” They “looked upon and treated the indigenous people as backward.”[17] One can add here that stereotypes and ethnic slurs about the Oromo, popular in Habesha discourse are the product of this colonial ideology.
Military technology: Obviously firearms were the other crucial elements in making the imperial colonial penetration of the African continent in the nineteenth century possible. Therefore, drawing parallels between the Abyssinian and European and Abyssinian colonial expansion during the Scramble, Margery Perham notes “The speed with which this great extension of the empire was made ….is explained by the …firearms which the emperor [Menelik] was obtaining from France and Italy. This same superiority was carrying the European powers at the same speed at the same time from the coast into the heart of Africa.”[18] The Swedish historian Norberg also says that “using the same military technology as the European powers”,[19] Menelik managed not only to conquer the neighbouring African territories, but was also able to garrison them with large forces called naftanya who controlled and lived on the conquered populations. As suggested by Richard Caulk, “the system of near serfdom imposed on wide areas of the south by the end of the nineteenth century could have not been maintained had the newcomers not been so differently armed.[20] A historian, Darkwah, notes that “Menelik succeeded in keeping the arms out of the reach of the [Oromo] enemy. He did this by imposing a strict control over the movement of firearms into his tributary territories and the lands beyond his frontiers.”[21]
Menelik was not a manufacturer of firearms, but was a keen importer of them. The bulk of firearms in his arsenal numbered around 25,000 in 1878. According to Luckman and Bekele, he was able to import over one million rifles, a quantity of Hotchkiss guns and artillery pieces between 1880 and 1900.[22] For that purpose, he used more than a dozen French and Italian commercial agents and suppliers of firearms. In addition, European states were also supplying him with modern weapons in an attempt to use him as a proxy in their colonial scheme in northeast Africa.[23] As I will explain below, the support Menelik received from European powers in his Scramble for colonies was not limited to firearms; military training and diplomacy were also included.
Europeans in the making of the Ethiopian empire
The other dimension of the history of Abyssinia’s conquest of the south, which is bypassed silently by Ethiopian historiographers and is denied incessantly by Habesha politicians, is the involvement of European fortune seekers and mercenaries in the making of Menelik’s Empire. There is no research on how many Europeans were in his service but, whatever their number might have been, the role they played in his conquest of the south must have been significant. Darkwah notes that “in 1877 a Frenchman named Pottier was employed in training a group of Shewan youths in European military techniques. Another Frenchman, Pino, was a regular officer in the army which was commanded by Ras Gobana. Swiss engineers, Alfred Ilg and Zemmerman were employed on, among other things, building bridges across the Awash and other rivers to facilitate movement.”[24]According to Chris Prouty, Colonel Artamonov together with other Europeans was attached to the forces commanded by Ras Tasamma Nadew in Ilu Abbabor. He adds that even Count Nicholas Leontiev, a colonel in the Russian army, was a commander of a force which was sent to conquer the southwest in the 1890s. Another Russian officer, Baron Chedeuvre was Leontiev’s second-in-command during the expedition. Several French and Russian medical officers were also attached to the Abyssinian forces, particularly those which were led by Menelik and European commanders. The Russian Cossack Captain Alexander Bulatovich wrote that with him, there were Lieutenants Davydov, Kokhovskiy and Arnoldi along with a command of Cossacks who had finished their term of service” and who were received in audience by Menelik and took leave from him and return to Russia in June 1898.[25]
Several advisors helped Menelik in different fields to build his Empire. The Swiss engineer, Alfred Ilg had served him in a variety of capacities including diplomatic contacts for 27 years. The Italians made not only material but also diplomatic contributions that enabled Menelik to compete effectively in the scramble for colonies. The idea and the contents of the circular letter which Menelik sent to European heads of state in 1891 delineating his territorial claims came, for example, from the Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi himself. Menelik was advised to send the letter to European heads of state because the European powers were about to meet in Paris and establish the boundaries of their colonies in Africa. The territories which were defined in the letter the Italians drafted for Menelik to claim extended “as far as Khartoum and to Lake Nyanza beyond the land of the Galla [Oromo].” [26]The territories were those which the Italians were planning to claim for themselves through Menelik as their proxy. However, the European support in firearms and diplomacy given to Menelik was a double-edged sword. It helped him to conquer the Oromo and amass resources to defeat the Italians at Adwa. That said, the conclusion we can draw is that Abyssinia’s participation in the Scramble for Africa is crystal clear. As the historian Haggai Erlich succinctly stated, “While rebuffing imperialism successfully in the north, Ethiopia managed to practice it in the south.”[27] It was also based on what is outlined above that Bonnie Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa have eloquently described the Abyssinian conquest of the south as manifestation of “dependent colonialism” and its outcome the “invention of Ethiopia”.[28] By that they meant the direct and indirect meshing of Abyssinian and European interests in the making of the Abyssinian-cum-Ethiopian Empire. Thus, notwithstanding the inconclusive arguments being orchestrated by denialists, the historical facts lead to the unescapable conclusion that Abyssinia was an active participant in the Scramble for Africa.
Where colonialism did not have race or color
Based on what I have described above, it is logical to construe that colonialism had no specific color or nationality in the Horn of Africa – its color was white and black and its nationality English, French, Italian or Abyssinian. The difference is in the degree of brutality used against the colonized peoples and the severity of exploitation exercised in the colonies. The intensity of demonizing Oromo scholars, activists and politicians who write and speak about the colonization of Oromia and the cacophony of denials expressed in the flora of written and oral commentaries will not change this historical truth.
That a black African force had defeated a white European army at Adwa in 1896 is beyond doubt. But, the representation of Adwa as an anti-colonial war and an African victory over colonialism is an atrocious lie. Indeed, Adwa was a turning point in the Scramble for colonies in the Horn of Africa; Menelik relinquished the role he was playing as an Italian proxy at the battle of Adwa, retained for himself the territories he had hitherto conquered using the firearms he had acquired partly from the Italians, with the understanding that they would be partners in the ownership of the territories he was conquering. He became a member of the colonialist club in his own right. In short, as colonialism lost its color at Adwa, military might became the decisive factor in the share of the African cake. The European mass media of the time reported that fact. The Spectator of 27 February 1897, for example, reflected the British view of the matter stating that, although Menelik, his queen, and his generals care little for human life, “this native dynasty of dark men,” nominally Christian is “orderly enough to be received into intercourse with Europe.” The European colonial powers recognized ‘the dynasty of dark men’, as their junior partner in the scramble for colonies. Soon after Adwa, both Britain and France negotiated and signed agreements that delineated the colonial borders with Abyssinia.
The whole story about the battle of Adwa is not written yet. Its bright side has been illuminated time and again. But it has ugly sides are deliberately concealed from proper scrutiny or distorted by self-appointed “gurus” of Ethiopian history with Professor Haile Larebo as their outstanding representative. In the following paragraphs, I will describe briefly some of the non-glamorous sides of the victory at Adwa, namely, the ‘recruitment’ of colonial subjects for the war efforts, their treatment in the aftermath of Adwa, and the atrocious treatment of black (Eritrean) prisoners of war.
The circumstances, under which the peoples of the south, such as the Oromo, who were conquered in the 1880s, and the Walaita, who were conquered by Menelik two years before the battle of Adwa, were made to march north and participate in the battle, remains uninvestigated. Did they march north to fight against Italian colonialism voluntarily? What had happened to them after the war? These questions are never raised or answered in the story. Were they rewarded for their contributions in the victory over the Italians? I will not delve into details, but the answer is a definitive ‘No’! They were, as indicated in the case of the Walaita, captives who were forced to march north and became cannon-fodder. The reward for those who had survived the war and returned home must have varied depending on their status. The probability for those who were slaves to remain as such was almost hundred percent. The probability that some were sold by their masters to cover expenses on their southward journey after the war or afterwards was significant. Thus, the Oromo, the Sidama and Walaita, who participated in the battle of Adwa, did not win any victory over colonialism for themselves. They helped a black colonialist to defeat a white colonialist in a war over colonies. They did not defend themselves or their peoples against the colonialists. They fought for their enemy and strengthened the grip of black imperialism on themselves by defeating its white Italian antagonist. It was after Adwa that Menelik imposed the notorious gabbar system on the conquered south. Slavery and the slave trade became even more rampant thereafter with the conquest of the rest of the south and southwest which became hunting grounds for captives and ivory.[29] Ironically, it was the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 which brought the outrageous institution and evil trade in human beings to an end. To suggest that it was a “united Ethiopia” that fought the Battle of Adwa or Ethiopia was united because of the victory achieved at Adwa is a charade.
In the interview he gave on March 22, 2017 to Radio Atronos, Larebo calls Menelik the most democratic emperor in world history and that Ethiopia was blessed to have had him as their ruler. However, this “most democratic” emperor had no mercy for black prisoners of war. In his book From Menelik to Haile Selassie II, (was used a history text book in grades four through seven in the 1960s in Ethiopia) the historian Tekle Tsadiq Mekuriya notes that “Menelik released the Italian and Arab [presumably Libyan] prisoners of war and gave them food and drinks, but he ordered with the approval of the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abuna Matewos, the mutilation of Eritreans caught fighting on the Italian side.”[30]According to another source, “The Italians taken prisoner were treated well but Ethiopian [Eritrean] troops (around 800) who had fought for the Italians were mutilated with their right hands and left feet being cut off.”[31] Where is the saint-like character Professor Larebo ascribes to Menelik? The cruelty with which the Eritreans were treated was similar to the crime committed against thousands of Oromo men and women whose arms and breasts were hacked off by the order of Menelik’s paternal uncle Ras Darge ten years earlier at Anole, in Arsi. The difference was that the Eritreans were Italian colonial soldiers while the Oromo were unarmed men and women who were invited to a meeting, which appeared to be for peacemaking, by Ras Darge many months after the Battle of Azule in September 1886. In that battle with the invading Abyssinian forces the Arsi Oromo lost some 12,000 warriors and were defeated.
(To be continued)
[1]James, W. “Preface” in Donham, D. & James, W. (eds.), The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia: Essays in History and Social Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. xiv.
[2] Marcus, H. The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844-1913. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1975: 140, 73
[3] Pankhurs, R. Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University press, 1968: 102.
[4] Berhane-Selassie, T. “Menelik II: Conquest and Consolidation of Southern Provinces”, B.A. Thesis, History Department, Addis Ababa University, 1969.
[5] Cited in Prouty, C. Empress Taytu and Menelik II: Ethiopia 1883-1910, Trenton, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1996
[6] Prouty, C. ibid. p. 115
[7] De Salviac, M. An Ancient People in the State of Menelik: the Oromo, Great African Nation. Translated into English by Ayalew Kanno. 1901/2006: 354-355
[8] Araarsa, Tsegaye, Facebook post on March 1, 2016
[9] Hussein, H. & Mohammed Ademo, M. “Ethiopia’s Original Sin”, World Policy Journal, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, World Policy Institute, Fall 2016
[10] Plaut, M. “The Africans who fought in WWII, BBC November 9, 2009.
[11] Marcus, H. ibid.
[12] Tareke, Gebru. Ethiopia: Power and Protest. Lawrenceville, N.J: The Red Sea Press, 1996:40
[13] Bairu Tafla, in Asmé, 1905 [1987: 405, fn. 584]
[14] Huxley, E. White Man’s Country: Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya, 1967: 38-9
[15]Markakis, M. Ethiopia: The Last Frontiers, James Currey, New York, 2011, pp. 3-4.
[16] Scherrer, C. “Analysis and Background to the refugee Crisis: The Unsolved Oromo Question”, in Scherrer, C. & Bulcha, M. War Against the Oromo and Mass Exodus FromEthiopia: Voices of Oromo Refugees in Kenya and the Sudan, 2002, p. 27
[17]Tareke, Gebru, ibid. p. 71
[18] Perham, M. (1969). The Government of Ethiopia, London: Faber and Faber, 1969: 294
[19] Norberg, V. H. “Swedes as a Pawn in Haile Selassie’s Foreign Policy: 1924-1952”, in Modern Ethiopia, Tubiana, J. (ed.), Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 1980:328
[20] Caulk. R. “Firearms and Princely Power in Ethiopia in the Nineteenth Century”, Journal of African History, XIII (4)
[21] Darkwah, R.H.K. Shewa, Menelik and the Ethiopian Empire 1813-1889, London: Heinemann. 1975: 207.
[22] Luckman, R. & Bekele, D. “Foreign Powers and Militarism in the Horn of Africa”, Review of African Economy”, No. 30, 1984.
[23] Pankhurst, R. Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935. Addis Ababa, 1968: 21.
[24] Darkwah, R.H.K. ibid. pp. 58-9.
[25] Bulatovich A. Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes: A Country in Transition, 1896-1898, translated and edited by Richard Seltzer, Lawrenceville, N.J: The Red Sea Press. Two volumes combined in the English translation, 1900/2000: 162
[26] Marcus, H. ibid. p.124
[27] Cited in Markakis, J. ibid. p. 3.
[28] Holcomb, B. & Ibssa, S. (1990). The Invention of Ethiopia: The Making of a Dependent Colonial State in Northeast Africa, Trenton, N.J.: The Red Sea Press.
[29] See Darley, H. 1926. Slaves and Ivory: A Record of Adventure and Exploration in the Unknown Sudan, and Among the Abyssinian Slave-Raiders, for a vivid description of slave raiding by the conquerors in these areas in the 1920s.
[30] Tekle-Tsadik Mekuriya, The History of Ethiopia: From Emperor Tewodros to Emperor Haile Selassie. In Amharic. Addis Ababa: Berhan ena Selam, Printing Press. 7th Edition, 1961 Eth. C (1968). p. 98.
[31] See Dugdale-Pointon, T. Battle of Adwa, 1-2 March 1896,
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_adwa.html, 19 February 2009. Accessed on 12 March 2017
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Adeola Fayehun
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Chinese built roads start breaking down before the construction is turned over to the maintenance
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The regime in Ethiopia, killing hundreds. Sweden must act. (Google translation)
Feyisa Lilesa crosses the finish line at the Olympics and crossing his arms in sign of democracy.
By Anders Österberg (S), Member of Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs
Sweden (Folkbladet) — Not all crises that become front-page news. In the shadow of war in Syria and the attempted coup in Turkey, the situation in Ethiopia developed the verge of civil war.
Foreign Ministry advises against Swedes from now to go to several places in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian parliament adopted in January 2016 a law that makes it illegal to work for human rights.
It is not only members of political organizations that can severely punished. Even members of the NGO faces up to fifteen years in prison. Membership may be enough to be sentenced to ten years in prison.
Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are prohibited.
Those who govern in Ethiopia have long used the tactic of “divide and rule”. The regime spreads hatred with thousands of people to flee. Minorities against each other.
Oromo against Ogadenians, Ogadenians against Amhara, Amhara against Oromo and so on. In Gambela region alone, 400 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. In Oromia region, one of the causes of the ongoing uprising is that the regime wanted to seize Oromo farmland. Many have been killed.
In the Amhara region, hundreds killed and thousands jailed in recent months. Ogadenians have been incited to war against Oromo and we do not know how many hundreds dead in recent weeks.
It may be that the government makes a deal with Ogadenians and Oromo to punish Amhara. If it becomes punitive expeditions against Amhara or any other ethnicity must highlight Sweden.
Olof Palme held a famous speech of Christmas 1972. He listed the atrocities in modern history such as: Guernica, Oradour, Babi Yar, Katyn, Lidice, Sharpeville, Treblinka. After the world they have fallen hard on those who carried the responsibility for the killings.
To the list of names added even an Ethiopian. The massacre in Ireecha, 2016, where hundreds of people were killed.
The guilty must be brought to justice. Sweden and the international community should require. Sweden is a small nation with a big heart. Therefore, we must tell the truth to our friends even when it hurts.
In Ethiopia, there is a progressive constitution that among other things, guarantees freedom of expression. However, there is a difference between Sweden and Ethiopia’s freedom of expression. In Sweden, you are free after you have spoken to you.
For the Ethiopian regime that we know takes note of this number, I would say the following: release Professor Merara Gudina leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress, after his visit to the European Parliament he was held. This political prisoner gets in this century represent all the other thousands and thousands imprisoned.
Show courage that you dare to follow your own constitution. If you are so popular as you say in the propaganda, to show it by meeting your people at the ballot box and not face them with tanks.
At the beginning of the article I wrote that not all deaths are headlines. The Ethiopian runner and silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa crossed his arms after his finish in the Olympics.
His crossing of the arms became front-page news. One arm of democracy and the other arm of human rights. Likewise doing right now millions of people worldwide. Let these arms raised and hopes not be in vain.
Anders Österberg (S)
Member of Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs
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Ethiopia sends 16 to prison for trying to create new state
By Associated Press
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (The Washington Post) — An Ethiopian court has sentenced 16 people to prison after finding them guilty of trying to create a separate state in the tense Oromia region.All 16 are members of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front. They received sentences of four to 13 years.
The Ethiopian Federal High Court said in its ruling Tuesday the members tried to carry out terrorist acts across the country and supported other group members in remote parts of Oromia.
The region has been a hotspot for anti-government protests that began in November 2015. The protests later spread across the country and demanded wider political freedoms and the release of political prisoners.
The protests led to the killings of hundreds of people and the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency that remains in effect.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Over 20,000 jailed under Ethiopia’s state decree released
Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia on October 2, 2016 (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri Photo)
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
ADDIS ABABA (Sudan Tribune) – Ethiopia has released most of the suspects who had been in custody under the state emergency decree, members of the decree’s inquiry board told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
The state decree inquiry board said a total of 20,659 citizens jailed since the imposition of the decree have so far been freed after receiving renewal training, including on the constitution, rule of law and color revolution, among others.
According to the board, 475 of the total detainees were freed on advice. The remaining nearly 5,000 suspects, however, will remain in custody to face justice.
A total of 26,130 suspects were arrested since Ethiopia declared the state emergency decree in October in response to the wide spread protests and unrest in Amhara and Oromiya regions.
The state emergency, the country’s first in quarter a century, was imposed to arrest violent anti-government protests and to restore what Addis Ababa says is a growing security situation in the two troubled regions.
The state emergency inquiry board which is mandated to inspect the code of conduct of the decree on Tuesday presented its report to the parliament over command post’s conduct towards set of emergency directives.
The command post was in charge of enforcing the state decree.
At the performance hearing today, the inquiry board head, Tadesse Hordofa, said command post’s activities in rights protection, investigation procedures and in timely release of jailed suspects were effective.
“Protection of women mainly those breast feeding as well as elderly suspects and extending immediate response to their cases were areas the command post showed strength,” Tadesse told lawmakers.
The inquiry board commended the command post for its involvement in mobilizing the public in rebuilding damaged private and public properties.
The report revealed public approval of the decree in restoring calm and stability and further acknowledged the demands of the public in extending duration of the state emergency which is due to end in few weeks period.
Established shortly after imposition of the state emergency, the seven-members inquiry board comprising four MPs and three legal experts from the federal high court is also responsible to monitor nothing inhuman act is being committed against citizens during the emergency period or if any it will report to the premier’s office or to council of ministers.
Since the decree was imposed more than five months ago, the Ethiopian government recently lifted many of the restrictions.
Days ago, Addis Ababa also lifted more restrictions for the second time. Accordingly the command post led under Ethiopia defense minister has lifted the command post’s power to arbitrary arrest people or search individuals’ houses.
Furthermore, curfews and other restrictions on media and social media activism have also been lifted.
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Statement by the Executive Committee of People’s Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
The Executive Committee of the People’s Alliance for Freedom and Democracy has conducted its second regular meeting from March 28-29, 2017. It is to be noted People’s Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) is the alliance of five political organizations- the Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella People’s Liberation Movement, Oromo Liberation Front, Ogaden National Liberation Front and Sidama National Liberation Front. The Executive committee heard the report on PAFD’s activities presented by the chairperson and briefing by PAFD Bureaus; in addition, each member organization briefed the EC about their individual activities. The EC, after hearing the report and the briefings, thoroughly discussed items of the agendas set for the meeting.
The EC reviewed PAFD’s strategy and evaluated the implementation of its action plan. The committee, after reviewing the strategy of PAFD and deliberating on overall activities of the alliance, arrived at the following decisions.
The executive committee confirmed that despite the existing internal and external challenges, the alliance has made significant progress in overall performance and has laid solid ground work inside and outside. Concrete results have been achieved over the last year especially in the fields of diplomacy and advocacy, political mobilization as well as in the armed resistance. The EC set new implementation targets and encouraged the Bureaus to meet their goals.
The executive committee has also deliberated on the current political situation in Ethiopia. The committee has thoroughly assessed the situation of the TPLF regime and the people’s intensified movement to remove the regime. The regime has practically proved incapable of handling the situation and unable to rule the country.
The peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy believes that the root cause of the current political problems in Ethiopia is that the TPLF led regime imposes undemocratic rule on the rest of the country’s population by depriving their fundamental freedoms and rights under a phony federalism where a single ethnic group is ultra-superior politically, economically and militarily. The current political and social movement by the oppressed peoples in Ethiopia is to break the century old undemocratic and unrepresentative state system.
Nowadays, the monopoly of power and the economy by the TPLF and their financial oligarchy have put the country under the total control of the regime where the ruling party and the state entirely merged. Despite the violent repression by TPLF against the peoples who peacefully demanded for their political rights, democracy, social justice and emancipation has reached a point of no return.
The EC has acknowledged that the TPLF led Ethiopian regime’s decision to declare a state of Emergency as a futile attempt to stop the march of the people for true democracy and freedom. The TPLF regime is trying to rule by instilling fear and terror which is no more tolerable and unacceptable to the peoples in Ethiopia. The oppressed peoples in Ethiopia will not be intimidated by the cowardly inhumane measures the regime is conducting in all parts of Ethiopia, where the popular masses had rebelled against its unjust rule and history is on the side of the oppressed peoples. Such desperate acts will only fuel the crisis and will make the whole situation even more acute.
PAFD believes in a democratic transition that addresses the demands of all nations and nationalities in Ethiopia by promoting a genuine and all-inclusive political order that respects the rights of all peoples. The PAFD executive committee meeting, after assessing and deliberating on the overall situations of other Ethiopian political oppositions’ activities operating inside the country and in the Diaspora, decided and determined to work on a road map acceptable to all the stakeholders that would lay the foundation for an effective platform for an alternative political order in Ethiopia. Such a political order shall be able to bring an end to the recurrent conflicts in Ethiopia.
The PAFD will continue to lead the resistance of peoples in Ethiopia against the heinous rule of the TPLF led regime and calls upon all democratic forces to unite in order to hasten the demise of the undemocratic regime.
The EC categorically condemns the systemic human rights violations that the Ethiopian regime is conducting in Ogaden, Oromia, Sidama, Omo, Konso, Afar, Gambella, Benishangul Amhara and other parts of Ethiopia.
The EC, also condemns the TPLF regime attempts to instigate civil wars among neighborly nations in Ethiopia in order to divert attention from its undemocratic rule and human rights violations. The EC calls for the peoples in the country to continue resisting the undemocratic regime in Ethiopia.
The EC believes that unless all stakeholders take effective measures to support a peaceful transition to a representative political order, Ethiopia will turn into another failed state with grave consequences for all concerned.
We again call on the International community to stop aiding this undemocratic and brutal regime and side with the Ethiopian peoples.
Justice and Freedom for the Oppressed Peoples in Ethiopia!
PAFD Executive Committee
March 29, 2017
Afaan Oromo Version
Amharic Version
English Version
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Never Mind the Deep Renewal, Never Mind the Economic Revolution; Just Pack Up and Leave, Woyane, for Ultimate Oromo Salvation
TPLF is on a Cliff edge, a United push will lead to its demise
As the inexorable march of the Oromo revolution continues, in all its ebbs and flows, the TPLF has opened new fronts on our southern and eastern flanks and is hatching similar plots in the west. The TPLF is training, arming and deploying the infamous marauding thugs of the Somali fringe, Liyu Police, with the express aim of killing Oromos, looting property and grabbing territory. We should not be surprised if the TPLF is trying to encircle us completely as it’s fighting a life and death battle for the continued control of Oromia.
Holding an entire nation under the muzzle of the gun, having killed thousands and thrown tens of thousands of our people in jails and concentration camps, the TPLF gangsters are now conducting their so-called xilq tehadiso (deep renewal), another product of the infinite evil genius of the TPLF, aimed at pacifying Oromia and eventually reasserting their authority, badly damaged by the Oromo revolution but by no means destroyed. The physical and social infrastructures that served to enrich the TPLF fat cats and their cronies were rightly targeted at the time of the protests because they were of little interest to Oromos. Although they were built with their labour and resources, Oromos have never been the true beneficiaries of their own wealth. So the relative lull following the revolutionary storms of the recent past, in TPLF’s view, has given them the opportunity to resurrect their Nazi- like administrative and security structures.
So as part of the renewal, top OPDO cadres were sent out into the community to preach the virtues of Oromo nationalism and the need for Oromo economic empowerment. In typical arrogance, Woyane reckon that they will continue to dupe us the gullible lot and buy themselves a little more time. The goal of the entire drive was to bring the Oromo movement under their influence by faking sympathy for the plight of our people. They have not succeeded in defeating the Oromo revolution from outside, by sheer force of arms, despite killing thousands and incarcerating tens of thousands more. They have to do it from within by winning hearts and minds wearing the garb of Oromo nationalism but they are failing in that effort as well.
The thrust of the TPLF campaign was on the need for Oromo economic self-sufficiency, of course as opposed to their political empowerment. It is not because it is lost on the TPLF that the ultimate goal of the Oromo revolution is regaining political power but because in the Habasha mentality politics is their exclusive preserve. It was therefore no innocent omission on the part of Megersa, so-called president of Oromia, as we know very well that his masters are bent on continuing their political domination of Oromia and the looting of her resources…indeed the entire country…by throwing little crumbs of power here and there to the likes of Megersa and acolytes of his ilk. Oromos do not need political power so long as they get bread, according to TPLF thinking.
We should have confidence in our people that no amount of smooth talking by the likes of Megersa will sway Qerroo from their sworn path of liberation. They may feel down at this moment but they are never out. A fight like ours cannot go in a straight trajectory but in lows and ebbs that will require immense human and material sacrifices
And to the dismay of the TPLF ideologues and architects of Oromo genocide like Abbay Tsehaye, the message of tehadiso has not gotten the desired reception within the Oromo youth; in fact all indications were that the turnouts to the indoctrination sessions were insignificant and those who attended were putting challenging questions to the OPDO. As a matter fact, the issue seems to have generated more excitement among some in our own diaspora activists than our people at home who I thought ended up wasting an inordinate amount of time in conversations over what this TPLF stunt to con Oromos really meant.
As part of the renewal project, the TPLF is said to be planning as well to launch an economic revolution in Oromia to empower us, another area that again turned out to be a source of much fascination for few of our activists in the diaspora. According to the Woyane economic revolution, they are prepared to show their boundless generosity to the Oromo people, and let us invest our resources on our own soil. We are told that certain strips of land will even be returned for this purpose and we are supposed to be deeply grateful for that. Not content with the billions they’ve already looted, Woyanes must surely be preparing the ground for more booty. Never mind the renewal, never mind the economic revolution; do Us a favor Woyane, just pack up and leave …hat Would be our greatest redemption
We are hearing at the same time now that the TPLF hierarchy is feeling even more generous as they plan to give away more land in Oromia towns, a region they clearly regard a no-man’s land, like Christmas candy, to anyone and everyone who wants a plot. This may not be astonishing but it certainly is outrageous to the extreme. If true, it should be the object of the third round of Oromo rage that would bring the terrorist reign of Woyane to a close.
The TPLF Want War and Oromos Will Give Them One: The Last Gasps of a Fascist State
But one thing we can see from this devious scheme, another product of the TPLF evil mind, is that Woyane can no longer see themselves…or rather given up… as a permanently dominant force in that country, having been shaken by the Oromo revolution. With this scheme, they are obviously trying to further undermine Oromia’s homogeneity. Besides, as they know their days are numbered, they want to do anything to create greater animosity between Oromos and other groups, pitting us against other nationalities, continuing in the same vein as the atrocities being committed against Oromos by the Somali death squad special police that the Woyane are sponsoring. To be sure the TPLF is hatching all schemes to broaden the coming struggle and depict it as Oromos versus all the rest. They will, if they can, try to mobilize all national groups in Ethiopia against Oromos for we are now perceived as the most potent threat to the eternal domination of the country by the TPLF.
But of course this Woyane machination is not new, although it is getting more and more aggravated by the day. Oromos have handled relations with other groups with better sophistication and magnanimity and they should continue in the same vein to foil all plots thrown their way.
Meanwhile, the Habasha fringe of the diaspora, ever the opportunistic chameleons, are trying to kick us while we are down, which is all in true character. It was most irritating that they are carrying out a propaganda campaign of besmirching the Oromo struggle and distorting our history. One tactic they are deploying is to unleash their lapdogs, the Larebos of this world, to go on their media talking nonsense about Oromos, in the tradition of several pseudo-historian Habashas of the debtera school of thought, clearly aimed at arresting our inexorable march toward freedom.
Larebo and his ilk are sought by the Habesha fringe for the only purpose of pushing their now archaic agenda of divide and conquer, of setting one oppressed people against the other. I gather Mr. Larebo is someone who likes to pose as a historian clearly bent on misrepresenting Oromo history with the vicious aim of derailing our struggle. But he has shown himself for the ignorant fraud he actually is when he raises the Ethiopian state to the level of the ontological, the very Ethiopia where, up until the mid-1970s, his people were dehumanized to the extent that they were not, for instance, eligible to act even as witnesses in a court of law…the very Ethiopia indeed where they were sold as slaves.
Oromos have a declared enemy in the TPLF, without having to contend with the irony of facing the likes of Larebo. In a twist of history, Oromos are being attacked by individuals like Mr. Larebo. These people are too unabashed or ignorant…or indeed both… to fail to recognize the historical crime committed against the South, Oromos included, by imperial Ethiopia founded by Menelik, the black partner in crime of European colonialist powers. Worshipping a conqueror who brutalized and butchered your own people must surely be a unique characteristic of a mentality hypnotized into servitude.
But the redeeming aspect is that we are fortunate to have for every Larebo thousands of compatriots from the South who are fighting every day the fascist remnants of Menelik’s crumbling imperial system along with their Oromo, indeed Amhara brothers and sisters. More and more are recognizing that the destiny of the oppressed South, and indeed the fate of democracy and justice for all in this prison of a nation, is inextricably linked to the destiny of the Oromo revolution. The Woyanne system has turned malignant and for the common good it needs to be severed and cast off.
It will remain a pipe dream for the citizens of Ethiopia of any ethnic extraction, with any pretense to the values of democracy and human dignity, to aspire to achieve those while Oromos remain in bondage. Every day that Oromos live in agony under TPLF fascists leaves in jeopardy the prospects for the unity of this nation and peace and stability of our sub-region at large.
And finally, I must add my voice to those who have been asking the two Oromo groups with similar declared objectives, namely the Oromo Leadership Conference and Global Gumi, to find common sense, put aside their petty differences (and their big egos), streamline their agenda, eliminate duplication and pool resources, all in the lofty interest of their people suffering under a fascist system every single day. Please come together and merge into one formidable organization. I, along, with other Oromos am hoping reason and the interest of our people will ultimately prevail over other minor differences.
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