APRIL 9, 2002
The OLC held its semi-annual council meeting on April 6 and 7, 2002 in Washington, D.C. During the two-day meeting, the council members had a thorough deliberation on all agenda items that the OLC adopted for the meeting. The issues covered in the agenda range from organizational matters to the Oromo national liberation struggle and its impediments and to the present day international political order and its ramifications on the Oromo struggle for freedom. After exhaustive discussion on all issues, the council has adopted the following resolutions:
Cognizant of the fact that the Wayane regime emerged to the state power through violence; Considering all policies, pronouncements and programmes the Wayane has so far crafted and the violent means it has employed to implement them; and Realizing that the democratic governance it has pledged just to deceive the international community has remained a token empty promise, the nature of the Wayane regime of Ethiopia has become all too clear. For a mindful and objective observer who gauges its political merits, Wayane is a totalitarian and fascist group ruling Ethiopia and its flagrant violation of basic human rights is all too common and a rudimentary democratic right of its subject people is hardly respected.
The current student movement that is manifesting itself in the form of boycotting class and staging demonstrations all across Oromiyaa is addressing in various forms this very nature of the Wayane regime. Outraged by the Wayane reign of terror that besieged the political life of the Oromo people, economic exploitation and purposeful economic sabotage devised to impoverish their fellow compatriots, and infliction of social injustice upon the Oromo people, the Oromo students with determination took it to the streets to echo the outcry of their nation in the hope that international community would heed and better understand the true nature of Wayane.
The OLC praises the resolve of the Oromo students and commits itself to stand by them and publicize the issues and concerns they raise and the undue treatments they face in the hands of Wayne for just exercising their democratic rights. OLC calls upon the Oromo public to give full support that the students deserve.
The Oromo students have every right to voice the concern of their fellow compatriots. The OLC condemns every action of the Wayane aggressors directed to suppress the voice of the students, and demands that all the 101 students thrown into its concentration camps in Zewai be released unconditionally and those sentenced to death and to lifetime imprisonment in its kangaroo court be released immediately.
Convinced that the success of the Oromo national liberation struggle hinges on the united actions of all liberation forces of Oromiyaa;
Understanding that the contribution of every liberation force, no matter how small it might seem, towards enhancing the cause of national unity and the agenda of ULFO makes a significant dent in the Oromo national struggle;
Realizing that ULFO has been well received by all sectors of the Oromo society and has become the new focal point and rally ground from which launching an effective national liberation struggle has left no other alternative; and
Observing that the growing unease of the Wayane regime and its desperate political moves since the inception of ULFO is a clear testimony that ULFO is the ultimate ammunition for the debacle of Wayane;
The OLC therefore reaffirms its solid support to build ULFO to become a vibrant institution. It calls upon all Oromo forces to further close ranks, to bridge every political chasm that surfaces be it within each organization or among all the forces, to make full reassessment of the commitment they got into when initiating ULFO and direct their human and material resource towards fully taping into the political potential of ULFO. OLC, reminding the Oromo people that they are the stakeholders of ULFO, calls upon all sectors of the Oromo society to fully take part in nurturing and consolidating ULFO.
Cognizant of the fact that the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has substantially altered the current global political order and that the world community is viewing every movement with great vigilance;
Understanding that the Wayane led Ethiopian regime has geared up its usually political machination of blackmailing the genuine Oromo struggle for self-determination by dubbing it 'terrorist movement'; and
Observing that Wayane has used the international tragedy of the Semptember 11 as a wild political card and elevated itself on the world stage, and now claiming as the sole international partner in stamping out terrorism in the Horn region and aggressively suppressing all individuals, groups, and organizations with differing political persuasions;
The OLC calls upon the international community to closely learn the genuine aspiration of the Oromo liberation struggle and the motives the Wayane regime. Time and again the OLC has stated that the Oromo national struggle is part and parcel of the international movement geared to promoting respect for human rights and guaranting self-determination and creating and building democracies. Therefore, we call upon the international community to view our struggle as such. On the other hand, the OLC appeals to the world that the Wayane regime has to be held accountable for state terrorism it is perpetrating against the Oromo people.
Unity is Strength!
Oromia Shall Be Free!
GBO