The lash green forests of Oromiyaa as we all know them are gone. The few small factories built by previous colonial governments are standing empty; Tigray's gaunt survivors of Mengistu's Red Terror are drowning themselves in current orgiastic expenditure of killing Oromo youths. and pitilessly slaughtering the old and the frail.
Hand picked Oromo farmers desperately till outlying fields hoping to raise a subsistence crop; More Oromo youths are in prison cells and refugee camps than in schools; Elite Oromos are forced to abandon their established social and economic positions to be replaced by illiterate Tigray nationals; The streets of Finfinee are dotted with prostitutes and beggars and stench from the puddles of urine; Oromo mothers are giving birth in prison cells and refugee camps; dying babies, starving children with bloated stomachs and crippled Oromo nationals litter the fields of Oromo villages; The waters of Hawas River is reeked with Oromo blood and pollutants from colonial settlers. This is Oromo's grim and harsh reality in colonial Ethiopia today. There were times in Oromo nation's history when the situation had been on the border of catastrophe. But, since the days of Mussolini's fascism and Menelik's scramble for colonies in East Africa, the Oromo people have never witnessed anything comparable to the brutalities faced under the current Ethiopian regime. Oromos are living under the tyranny of EFRDF paying heavy toll every moment for the barest right of existence. The enormity and the extent of madness are stunning.
From the plateau of Wallo in the North to the grasslands of Borana in the south; from the mountains of Macca in the west to the foothills of Harar in the east, untold tragedy has engulfed the entire Oromo nation. If this is allowed to continue with their current dedication to kill off the Oromo nation, the beautiful land escape that once puzzled the imagination of the world and the unyieldingly determined Oromo people who for centuries preserved their sensitivity and their soul amid brutality, humiliation and violence will soon be the things of the past.
After reading the previous paragraphs, one may be tempted to ask oneself two important underlining questions. Why and how are the Abyssinians doing what they are alleged to be committing against the Oromo people?. The answers are as shown below.
Why?; the reasons are simple and obvious. A legitimate government must command the general consent of its citizens to its rule Otherwise, it must govern by coercion. All previous Abysinian governments in Oromiyaa were alien implants with no legitimacy. They were governments born out of violence and so is the present government of EPRDF. The experiences of lines of their predecessors seemed to have taught the Tigray led colonial government, that despite committing the horror of almost incomprehensible proportions and a tremendous display of force to bring the Oromo liberation struggle to what they called a conclusion, sheer military strength did not and will never bring the Oromo people to their knees. They realized that Oromo liberation movements will soon emerge out of the groves and endure the consequences of their challenge to the point of death and further turmoil is bound to explode in the colony where the survival of the settlers and that of their metropolitan center largely depend.
How?; The Tigray government is pedantically methodic in their job. During previous Abysinian governments, the Tigray minority in the Abysinian colony of Oromia found themselves becoming progressively poorer in relation to the members of their Abysinian counterparts. The Abysinian region of Tigray was not on their own leaders' list of most favored nations. In other words. the Tigray region was less developed than Gondor; another Abysinian region and the Tigray elite were not given equal share in the exploitation of the Oromo people. Therefore, the EFRDF is now seeking to reverse the trend by implementing racist policies aimed at curtailing the rights of all the members of various nationalities who are not supporting their political gamble in Oromiya in general and that of the Oromo nation in particular. They are translating their military successes into greater economic prosperity for the Tigray nationals and Tigray region. Thus, as soon as they assumed the control of the colonial Ethiopian government in 1991, their first move was to suppress all Oromo organizations and individuals opposed to their policies in Oromiya, and enforce their diabolically unpopular policies of economic, social and political domination. They did this both overtly and covertly.
First, EPRDF government sponsored internal colonization projects were introduced immediately. Such projects accounted for a landslide of Tigray nationals descending upon Oromiya. Contrary to the open migration policy of the Tigray nationals into Oromiya, Oromos were dislodged from their lands and jobs, and forced to migrate to the neighboring counties and refugee camps to escape political, military, religious, social and economic oppression. Abysinian governments have always considered that being an Oromo as evil and a crime. The EPRDF leaders are not different. Because one is born an Oromo he / she is forced to become a piece of decision: a part of the Oromo freedom movement. In the eyes of the TPLF/EPRDF, a non-committed Oromo is the same as a committed freedom fighter. All able-bodied Oromos became political dissidents and more often than not, find themselves in prison cells, psychiatric wards, exile or summarily executed.
The EPRDF policy towards Oromos who, despite of all the hardships and dangers choose to remain behind in Oromiyaa is two sided. First, they find themselves barred from any but the most menial jobs. Then, to ease the growing tensions in the Oromo society from turning inward and destroying the colonial government, they directed their anger, hatred, obsession for action violence and revenge towards the so called out side enemies. Instead of blaming its leadership for the difficulties they caused onto the Oromo people, they blame outsiders such as Eritrea and Oromo freedom movements. Hence, The TPLF started wars with bordering countries and escalate tensions to be able to keep the oromo energy from concentrating on their independence. The Oromos are forced to enlist or conscripted into the Tigray army to fight and die in the trenches of Eritrea and in the Tigrian backyards. Consequently enormous Oromo lives are lost allowing the Tigray led colonial endeavor a breathing space to regroup and expand. Thereby, physically getting rid off the future leaders of the Oromo society and the possible hottest or the hotheads who might have soon emerge as agitators of Oromo freedom movements.
The stories of Tigray barbarism in Oromia is mainly associated to the evolving forms of economic exploitation. In terms of control of resources, employment and the like, their plan is for Oromiyaa to serve as a virtual colony of Tigray. With this interest, the TPLF regarded Oromiyaa merely as the provider of raw materials and cannon fodder in their perpetual wars and consumer markets for Tigray manufactured goods. The TPLF / EPRDF policy insulates the Oromo from developing its industries and general wealth and become an economic satellite. They do this by practicing policies of deliberate neglect and discouraging local initiatives and local industries. Simple and basic items are often prohibited to local manufacturers, thereby halting economic development within Oromiya. In addition, they physically move the already existing small-scale industries in Oromiya to Tigray leaving Oromiyaa in destitute.
The numerous wars the Tigrians are currently fighting has given the TPLF all the rights to transfer and officially move raw materials, factories, equipment and financial resources to Tigray without opposition. The greatest part of the Oromos tax money is already being transferred to develop Tigray. Further more, the TPLF voraciously consumes enormous amounts of resources from Oromiyaa to hasten the development of Tigray into an industrial capital. Essential infrastructure for development in Oromiyaa is being ignored and those in Tigray are appearing with lightening rapidity. Roads and railway networks in Oromiyaa are left to rot without basic maintenance. The existing mining industries such as gold and cash crops such as coffee in Oromiyaa are exploited for their hard currencies without due regard to the environment. Trees are being cut and animals slaughtered as if there is no tomorrow. The lash green Rift Valley area that once captured the eyes of the world has been turned into a desert.
Tens and thousands of Oromo nationals are thrown into jails without frail. Mass executions, ethnic cleansings of the Oromo people, kangaroo courts, ostracism and psychiatric incarcerations of Oromo nationals are rampant in various regions of Oromiyaa. The disaster looming over Oromiyaa will have no precedence in the history of the Oromo people.
The Abysinians have labored earnestly, sincerely and consciously to deface and annihilate the Oromo. The destruction of Oromiyaa and that of the soul and the mind of the Oromo people is more terrifying than the physical violence which they experience everyday of their lives. The discrimination, the insult and the humiliation of the Oromo race should make an Oromo sick with shame. Therefore, the waiting for “Moses” to lead us out of slavery must end here and now. The concern with monthly resolutions, sing-songs, petty quarrels among us must stop and concentrate against the enemy of the Oromo people.
We invite all Oromo youth to join those Oromos who are proclaiming resistance and freedom by saying hell with the Abyssinian law and its new constitution. This is a matter of the rights of living human beings to freedom. When the law denies these rights, then the law is wrong and it must be changed, if not by moral protest then by force. There is no course of action that isn't justified in the defense of freedom, justice and human dignity. Any Oromo who has not got the rights to be an Oromo openly, no matter how free he / she thinks, while Oromiyaa is being destroyed and Oromo children being raped is not free at all.
Oromiyaa must be free!!