RESOLUTIONS: COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES MEETING OF THE OLC

Held on March 15 and 16, 2003

 

 

A. On the political, economic, and social condition of the Oromo people

 

Saddened by the fact that an estimated 8 million Oromos are facing famine today mainly because:

 

·         the political, economic, and social policies devised and implemented by the Wayane government of Ethiopia over the last 12 years have been instrumental to compound and escalate crisis such as this;

 

·         Wayane has exposed the rural populace to unprecedented level of poverty. Thorough political repression, harassment, torture, and imprisonment of peasants under different pretext by its notorious cadres, it has incapacitated the productivity of the rural community. Through unbridled exploitation of farmers by way of levying heavy taxation, controlling price of agricultural products, selling agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides at prohibitive price, it has killed the incentive of farmers. Through siphoning off resource from farmers and redirecting it to build its repressive state machinery and to finance its war against our people, it has created a rural population with hardly any saving that could have mitigated the plight of the population under the present famine. By embezzling the international development aids garnered in the name of the peoples of Ethiopia and enriching its cadres and partly earmarking some for the development of its own home region of Tigrai, it has condemned the peasants of Oromiyaa to a grinding poverty;

 

Deeply concerned that the AIDS pandemic is inflicting heavy loss of lives and the effort to curb the spread of this disease particularly in rural communities in Oromiyaa is non-existent;

 

Realizing that the Wayane political machination bent on completely denying the Oromo people any political space is becoming all too obvious when seen against oppressive policies it is implementing in great haste and intensity, the most salient and recent ones include the fact that:

 

·         it is no longer politically accommodating even its own proxy ‘Oromo Party’ - OPDO – and it is progressively intimidating or purging from the party individual members who appear to have Oromo oriented political tendencies;

 

·         it has embarked on recruiting Oromo speaking Naftanyas to the party (OPDO) more overtly than it used to in order to ‘dilute’ the party in such a way that it musters enough voices that fully endorse its agenda of weakening even the seemingly Oromiyaa Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) and ultimately scraping it from the so called federal arrangement;

 

·         Oromos holding political offices are systematically forced to leave their positions and flee from their country;

 

·         the alliance of Abyssinians (Tigre and Amhara) is ever more jellying to a degree that allow them to work on their shared vision of Ethiopia, apparently Ethiopia that the great majority of non-Abyssinians remain subservient and far removed from determining their political destiny;

 

·        the crackdown on Oromo civil organizations and media is at all time high to completely mute the Oromo political voice;

 

 

Aware of the fact that the TPLF is evicting residents from the immediate environs of Finifine and making room for its own corporations and also widely engaging in lucrative business of leasing land confiscated from the rightful owners (Oromos) through sheer force;

 

Fully cognizant that Wayane has reintroduced the resettlement program that the two preceding Ethiopian regimes had frantically attempted to implement but miserably failed, and it is now engaged in grand scale operation to resettle ‘people from drought prone areas’ in Oromiyaa and other southern regions for the same political motive as its predecessors, that is to:

 

·         disposes land from the rightful owners, indigenous Oromos, and to make room for Abyssinian settlers who are armed and serve as security agents of the government in areas where it is most experiencing stiff resistance against its occupation;

 

·         alter the demographic weight of the Oromo through ‘forced social integration’ (or social engineering) in the long run;

 

Understanding fully well that Wayane has a sinister agenda of undercutting the use of Qubee and the progress of Afaan Oromo as an official working language across Oromiyaa, and what is attesting to this fact is that:

 

• it has recently slated many towns in Oromiyaa under its so called federal jurisdiction on the basis, obviously fudging statistics, that under 30% of residents of the towns are Oromos and by extension, in accordance with its ‘constitution’, declared that Amharic be the language of instruction in all schools in such towns – a political back pedalling on the part of the Wayane that signals to its Amhara counterparts that Ethiopia of pre-1991 is in the remaking;

 

• it has been all along sabotaging the success of schools in Oromiyaa by imposing budgetary constraint and political pressure that hamper the development of well trained teachers and production of appropriate textbooks that schools desperately need;

 

We condemn the Wayane led regime of Ethiopia for all pain and suffering that it inflicts on the Oromo nation.

 

We warn the Wayane that creating roadblocks for famine victims not to receive assistance and exposing the most susceptible segment of the Oromo population to AIDS is an act of genocide and as such it should not delude itself that it won’t be noticed by the international community.

 

We remind the Wayane that Qubee Afaan Oromo is a linguistic treasure that the Oromo nation has fought for and gained through enormous sacrifices, and this nation is poised to maintain and develop its own language through out Oromiyaa, and so as far as Oromos are concerned the recent language policy piece is not a surprise as it is one among the grand schemes of colonial entrenchment of the Abyssinians that is now led by Wayane.

 

B. On the current state of the Oromo national liberation struggle

 

Realizing that the Oromo people are ever more united and resilient despite the divide and conquer policy and unprecedented level of oppression they experience in the hands of the totalitarian and fascist regime of Ethiopia;

 

Concerned that, given the ever worsening predicament of the Oromo nation under the tyrant rulers of Ethiopia, the Oromo political forces have done very little to close ranks and provide effective leadership in mobilizing and organizing the Oromo people ever more to end their growing pain and suffering;

 

Believing that the unity of purpose the Oromo political forces forged and the consummation of the United Liberation Forces of Oromiyaa (ULFO) is a landmark (success) in the history of the struggle of the Oromo people and failure by the stakeholders to harness the political potential of ULFO would have far reaching implications on the unity of our people and the liberation struggle;

 

Convinced, following intensive, thorough, and long deliberation on the current state of the Oromo national struggle vis-à-vis ULFO, that revitalizing ULFO would re-energize the liberation struggle and improve its course and this is quite possible through active participation of every member organization;

 

We call upon all member organizations of ULFO to reflect on their individual and collective commitments to the cause of our national liberation struggle and act in unison and embark immediately on the business of the nation – the eventual liberation of Oromiyaa.

 

We urge all parties involved to act dutifully and play a constructive role in the service of the Oromo national cause.

 

We plead to all Oromos at home and in the Diaspora to cease being politically indifferent and succumb to total resignation from Oromo affairs, and to get more organized and actively and constructively involved in Oromo centred organizations (community, academic, political etc.) that help to liberate our nation from the carnage and pillage it faces in the hands of the most brutal and naked aggressor –Wayane.