APRIL 29/2001
Another cycle of political turmoil is underway in Ethiopia. Public demonstrations begun by Addis Ababa University students for calling attention to unresolved grievances were then expanded to other universities, colleges and high schools. Within days these actions developed into a full-blown riot that overwhelmed the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. As the situation went out of control, the Ethiopian regime resorted to its usual response: unwarranted force. It should come as no surprise to observers of Ethiopia that despite announcing itself as a democracy, the regime has never selected to approach any problem within the empire through democratic means.
It is the position of Gumii Bilisummaa Oromiyaa that the government’s choice to resort to violence to suppress the popular unrest is an indication of the true nature of the regime. The government of Meles Zenawi in no way functions as a democracy. It operates as a dictatorship in which the government police and security forces use excessive force because they have no other mechanisms in place to make a democracy work. The constitution of the country, full of democratic language, serves as a useful facade to make an impression on the outside world, but that document does not determine how issues are decided in this empire. In the past week, the unleashing of force by the Zenawi regime resulted in the deaths of forty-two students. Two hundred fifty students and civilians were brutally wounded and twenty three hundred students were detained at Sandafa police college 25 miles out of Addis Ababa. Today these students are being forced to sign an incriminating document in order to be readmitted to school.
There has been a particularly brutal attempt to single out Oromo students as this recent melee intensified. Earlier, in the month of December special security forces of the government entered into the dormitories of Oromo students of Addis Ababa University, brutally wounded 50 and arrested 115 Oromo students. In addition to the events taking place in the capital, an Oromo student from Mekele (Tigray)University named Tarrafaa Simee was murdered in cold blood by government agents in Tigray after he participated in a demonstration in support of the University students. His body was recovered at the bank of a river there. Oromiyaa Liberation Council condemns the barbaric, inhuman and ultimately racist actions taken against Oromo students in particular. In general we call attention to and decry the attacks on all students at Addis Ababa University, as well as those attacks upon those studying at colleges and high schools throughout the country.
We call upon governments, international human rights agencies and humanitarian organizations to reflect upon the use made of the funds given by them to Ethiopia. We appeal to these parties to withhold funds from this regime until they have fully investigated the issues that we raise here and to make the reports of their findings publicly available. Many governments and private enterprises that support Ethiopia in many significant ways are unaware of the situation of the Oromo and other conquered peoples and need to investigate the evidence and causes of these fresh atrocities committed against students and innocent civilians by the current Ethiopian government.
Ethiopia continues to experience the same kind of upheaval and violent conflict that has plagued its history since the empire was formed as a result of conquest. The course of events unfolding in Ethiopia is further evidence that Ethiopia, though it claims to have changed, has never resolved or overcome its violent colonial past. The crises of today clearly manifest the outdating of an empire that was put together by brutal force and survived on legendary ethos akin to a fairy tale of 3000-years of common history among the peoples now in its borders. It is a myth that the peoples of that empire shared any significant history prior to the conquest of peoples whose lands surround Abyssinia. The group in power, like those before it, is devoid of a minimal understanding or respect for the culture, traditions, language or the rights of peoples residing in and around Ethiopia. Apparently, successive Ethiopian regimes, Ethiopian opposition parties, scholars and intellectuals have some differences on how the Ethiopian state should be managed, but all are identical in failing to address the core problem of the empire: that the country maintains a colonial relationship between Abyssinia and the colonized peoples trapped within Ethiopia’s boundaries. For all Abyssinian parties, the culture, language, history and national identity of the conquered peoples are not recognized, let alone valued or developed. One way or the other, all Ethiopian regimes are fanatically devoted to developing Ethiopian (Amhara –Tigray) culture, language and identity through the process of eradicating the cultural heritage and national identity of the conquered peoples.
The “ Ethiopian unity ” they are preaching refers only to unity of Ethiopia around a core of Abyssinian identity, language and heritage at the expense of the colonized nations. That approach is why all changes of regime in Ethiopia have failed miserably in resolving the chronic problems plaguing the empire since its formation. The crisis recently created in the TPLF (the dominant party in EPRDF), between the Siye and Meles group is a fresh example of how Ethiopians proceed – each assuming different form but holding the same objective – trying to replace each other by force. Both groups may have some petty differences, but their main struggle is over who can better serve the interest of Tigray/Ethiopia by exploiting the resources of the colonized people. For the Oromo, a choice between Siye and Meles group is not a real choice. Both groups within the TPLF are tyrants and both are against the interest of Oromo. The difference is a difference of style.
This current corrupt regime could not survive without the extensive financial, structural and moral support it gets from the international agencies and governments. Oromiyaa Liberation Council once again wants to remind all international donors, especially the World Bank, that the money it pumps to the Meles Zenawi regime is empowering a tyrant, boosting the regime’s morale and encouraging it to continue its brutality in extensive acts of war, daily repression of critics, human rights violations and corruption. We urge the Bank to reassess its relation with the ruthless regime of Meles Zenawi. These recent events merely show the true face of a government that has seriously misled the international community. We suggest that the World Bank and other international groups look for a new direction if they really want to help the people in that empire.
Today, the same Ethiopian empire that boasts of its so-called shared history of peoples into antiquity has been engulfed with mushrooming social ills, poverty and disease. Gross violation of human rights and rampant political corruption is the only face to which the Oromo people have been exposed. The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which claimed more than hundred thirty thousand lives and put Ethiopia into deeper economic and political crisis is still demanding a lasting solution. Recently 6.2 million people have come into a serious food shortage according to UNHCR reports. Contagious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria are ravaging the populations within the country, especially in Oromiyaa and other colonized nations where health care is intentionally neglected or withheld by the government as a means of weakening regions where there has been political opposition. Civil unrest is cropping up in every part of the empire and the high-handed regime of Meles Zenawi has no solution paradigm to work from. Meles’s men are running around searching for solutions. Extra-judicial arrest, torture and killing are the daily methods the government is employing to control people who protest in desperation. In short, the regime is on the verge of its own end. The question is who can finish off this unworkable system and replace it with a fundamentally different and workable one?
Without the independence of Oromiya and other colonized nations, and without their full participation in creating some other political design for the Horn region, there is no an end to the crisis. In fact, the Oromo and other colonized peoples must take the leading role in removing the repressive system that now exists. Historically, Oromos have played a major role in removing several Ethiopian leaders from state power, yet they have thus far failed to bring a fundamental change that serves Oromo interest. Time and again, Oromo interests have been undermined by Abyssinian parties. This has occurred largely because the institutions of the Ethiopian state were designed to serve Abyssinian interests at the expense of the interest and well-being of the colonized people. Obviously. disfranchised forces have not efficiently promoted Oromo interest at any level as yet..
Before entering into treaty with non-Oromo forces, the primary task Oromos need to accomplish in order to assert their right as a nation is to solidify their forces for the united purpose of liberation. Thus, our task at hand is not winning the battle to depose Meles Zenawi from power, but effectively to organize ourselves for the ultimate and larger war of getting rid of the colonial system. Such an undertaking will definitely include the removal of Meles’s regime from power. Therefore, Oromiyaa Liberation Council calls on Oromo political organizations, Oromo civic associations, and all Oromo nationalists, scholars and intellectuals to work diligently on bringing together Oromo human and material resources in order to swiftly achieve our objective of liberation by means of united action.
By promising to uphold the rule of law and democracy, the government of Meles Zenawi came to power by winning the help of international agencies and governments, especially the USA. In this process, not only did the Oromo think that democracy would flourish in Ethiopia but they also assumed that they would benefit from the arrangement because they collaborated with EPRDF to bring about the necessary democratic change. But today, under the ruthless regime of Meles Zenawi, more Oromos are in prison cells than during the past. More Oromo artists, businessmen, scholars, civic leaders and elders have disappeared or been forced into exile than during the repressive Derg years. The living standard and overall condition of the Oromo is deteriorating from day to day. The regime’s policies reveal that it is intent upon removing Oromos from their land in one way or another.
Thus, Oromiyaa Liberation Council calls on all Oromos who collaborate with the current Ethiopian regime to assess the disgraceful condition that is imposed on the Oromo people, to reject the dictatorial rule of EPRDF and to join the just struggle of the Oromo for freedom from their continuing misery. We congratulate those Oromos who deserted the camp of EPRDF and have joined the struggle for liberation of Oromia.
Unity is Strength!
Oromia Shall Be Free!
GBO