Following an historic unity agreement reached on July 25, 2000 among all major independent Oromo fronts and organizations, by August, 2000 the Ethiopian government had already unleashed a new wave of arrests against the Oromo population. These arrests further expose a pattern of state-conducted terrorism which has become the primary means used by the current Ethiopian regime to communicate with and to control the Oromo people.
Since coming to power, Ethiopia’s ruling party, the EPRDF, has eliminated all independent Oromo political parties and associations from Ethiopia, completely silenced the Oromo press and other media in the country, and harassed, kidnaped, arrested and murdered influential Oromo journalists, popular musicians, business people, professionals, academics, lawyers, students, civic leaders and elders. Violence and intimidation have been the chief mechanisms used by the government to impose its will. Now that the Oromo forces have united, the Ethiopians have begun further rounds of arrests, targeting civic leaders who survived the earlier purges. On 16 August, an assault was carried out that included a well-known and highly-regarded Oromo physician, Dr. Mogga Firisa, who was accosted by a heavily-armed special security unit and taken by force into government custody from a clinic in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). This man served as the vice-president of the Macha-Tulama, an Oromo civic association. Mr. Abera Aguma is another victim of the past month’s wave of arrests. He is a hydro-geologist, former deputy commissioner of Ethiopian Water Resource Authority during the transitional period of Ethiopia and a private entrepreneur (with Dannu Consulting Service). The timing of these recent acts is notable for other reasons also. Events in Ethiopia heated up greatly in the year 2000, increasing the level of brutality against the Oromo – with the massive slaughter of Oromo in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war and fires lighted by Ethiopian arsonists raging across the face of Oromiya. Over one hundred thousand Oromo youth were forcibly recruited to fight on the front lines in Ethiopia’s conflict with Eritrea, a war they did not support. Tens of thousands senselessly died there, sent to face Eritrean fire by a government intent upon weakening Oromia by all means possible. When remaining youth fled to the forests during the height of deployment for the war with Eritrea to protest against the war and to fight for their own liberation, those forests were torched by fires – fires which suspiciously started on the same day in March, 2000 from eastern to western Oromiya. These forest fires burned out of control in Oromiya for weeks while the EPRDF r! egime watched unmoved and unresponsive.
Adding political insult to the deep injuries of war and fire, the government increased its efforts to dominate the Oromo in every way possible. It announced the elimination of the Oromo language alphabet, Qubee, and the shift of the capital of Oromiya from Finfinnee to Adaama. All of these events were resented and opposed in every corner of Oromiya. The Oromo people’s discontent reached a new height and so did their demand for a unified Oromo voice. In response to the widespread cry from the Oromo people, the independent Oromo organizations met and declared their commitment to coordinate their efforts and work together to free the Oromo from the misery and intolerable conditions under which they live in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government responded harshly to three developments at once, 1) to the Oromo people’s deepening dissatisfaction with their plight, 2) to a legal and officially-planned steps that had been taken to protest publicly against the offensive new policies in Oromiya, and 3) to the newfound unity among Oromo forces that was announced in July, 2000. The government attempted to abort any effective Oromo action by stepping up acts of state-sponsored kidnaping, house-to-house searches and arrest of many of the remaining prominent and outspoken Oromo nationalists. The highly visible arrest and detainment of Dr. Mogga Firisa, who was on the organizing committee of a planned protest against the change of Oromiya’s capital, Mr. Abera Aguma, a respected nationalist, and many others was a warning to all Oromo that no matter how peaceful, no matter how dedicated to social and private concerns, no person of Oromo nationality will be allowed influence or visibility in Ethiopia unle! ss he or she is controlled by the EPRDF. It is also understood as a warning against the statement of Oromo identity and nationalism.
The August brutalities against the Oromo are part of a calculated attempt by the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawe to remain in power despite the winds of change sweeping across the Horn of Africa. For many years the government of Ethiopia has assaulted the Oromo and other peoples within its borders, but lately it has become increasingly difficult for the Meles’s EPRDF party to cover up and explain away the extent of the violence. These recent actions expose the precarious position of individuals of Oromo nationality who live within the reach of this state. Oromos are being sent a message that they are considered a dispensable part of the Ethiopian state. The Oromo are subject to a logic of systematic genocide carried out by the state against them. Only individuals who choose to give up their identity as Oromo are welcome to live without harassment and to participate in the political, economic and social life of the country.
Since the occupation of Oromiyaa, successive Ethiopian regimes have oppressed, subjugated and dehumanized the Oromo people. But the degree of suffering to which the Oromo people are subjected at the hands of EPRDF surpasses the atrocities of previous dictatorships. As prominent Oromo professionals, businessmen, lawyers, journalists, students, elders and civic leaders are subjected to arrest, hideous acts of torture, and extra-judicial execution, the Oromo people are united in their aspiration to achieve freedom from the subjugation they experience at the hands of those who hold state power in Ethiopia.
What is being done to the Oromo people in the name of "democracy" and peace can no longer be hidden from the international public. We call upon international governments, parties and human rights organizations, and individuals to join us in demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners held in Ethiopia.
We urge all governments and international agencies to apply effective pressure to the Ethiopian government by curtailing financial assistance, and by withdrawing the moral and technical support they have continued to supply to the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawe despite the atrocities carried out by this state. Without such assistance this ruthless regime could have not survived. We of the Oromiya Liberation Council demand to know the whereabouts of all Oromo individuals who have been kidnaped and who have disappeared at the hands of this government. We call upon all Oromo forces to intensify the Oromo national liberation struggle by uniting their efforts to be free of the EPRDF-led government, which parades as a democracy, but whose record shows it to be nothing better than a ruthless dictatorship.
The Oromiya Liberation Council is committed to the liberation of the Oromo nation. We invite the
international community to assist us not only in staying the hand of those who try to cripple our nation
but also by helping us to build the capacity to protect ourselves and to manage our own affairs in a free
and democratic Oromiya.
Oromiyaa Shall be Free!