Statement to Condemn the Irresponsible Misrepresentation of the OLF

Source: Oromoliberationfront.info

Date: 30 May 2011 No. 055/OLF/11


Statement to Condemn the Irresponsible Misrepresentation of the OLF

Over recent weeks, the two wings of the Asmara Group have released “OLF Manifesto – A Secret Manual of OLF Leadership” and series of other documents in the name of the OLF. In these documents they reiterate that they no more believe in the liberation of the Oromo people from the century old brutal and dehumanizing Ethiopian colonialism.

In “OLF Manifesto – A Secret Manual of OLF Leadership” they declare the political objective of struggling for power sharing within the Ethiopian political system, which directly contradicts the values and mission of the OLF and the aspiration of the Oromo people. The objective of the OLF is the restoration of freedom which the Oromo people are denied in Ethiopia and not power sharing with its ruling elite. The officials of the Asmara Group shamelessly speak Amharic and waive at us the Ethiopian flag and grovel to their Abyssinian supporters, all in the name of the OLF.
Their Manifesto is not new to us. This ideological shift from the fundamental object of the OLF by the Asmara Group was the cause that parted us company with them a decade ago. Now, they have come out with it, having kept it under the closet hidden from the Oromo public for a very long time.

Our message to those true Oromo nationalists still working with these two wings is that as Oromos you have no excuse to continue to inadvertently contribute to the crime that is being committed against your people. We extend our patriotic call to you to do the honorable thing and take a stand against the deceivers and come over and join us. As most of you might know we have challenged the leaders of both wings of the Asmara Group to return to the original objective of the OLF, so that we can reenergize our organization around its original objective of liberation of Oromia, but they have chosen to cross over the line and join anti-Oromo political groups instead.

Some of the so called leaders of the two wings of the Asmara Group have no noticeable track record in the long history of the Oromo struggle. In fact, some of these people have been working for the tyrannical and dictatorial Ethiopian regimes, the Derg as well as the Wayyane regime, and are suspected to have committed crime against the Oromo people. Their crimes have not been fully investigated and resolved. Their misrepresentation of the OLF and the Oromo struggle for freedom is causing immense damage to the Oromo people’s just cause. These characters instead of showing remorse and regrets for the crimes they had committed against the Oromo people when they were at the service of the Ethiopian regimes they are trying once again to destroy its organisation, the OLF and its objective.

Having repeatedly demonstrated their clear departure from the path of the liberation struggle, the so called leaders of the two wings of the Asmara Group and their associates have no moral or legitimate authority to represent the OLF in any capacity. In fact, we advise them to form a separate political party that suits their desire.

We urge the Oromo people to stand vigilant and safeguard the struggle at this critical juncture in our history. The Oromo people must not fall for the deception of some dishonest groups labeling themselves OLF. It is advisable to make sure the authenticity of documents and groups before being misled into a trap that is being laid down by confidence men attempting to discredit the OLF.

Our mission remains to continue with the struggle to bring about the realization of Oromo national self-determination and formation of independent republic of Oromia.

Oromia shall be free!

OLF National Executive Committee

Oromiya voices against conquest, collaboration, neutrality, and silence. Part 2

By Leenjiso Horo
---------continuation of the previous posting------- (http://oromooswiss.blogspot.com/2011/02/oromiya-voices-against-conquest.html)
  
 
2.1   A brief note on collaboration with enemy
 
If one wants to understand what is meant by a collaboration with enemy, here is a lesson worth learning.  The lesson brings to light the evidences of nationals who undertook an active and willful collaboration with the enemy of their people. The lesson shows experiences of those societies; the societies whose a segment of their nationals collaborated with the enemy.  Here to understand this, one needs to have in mind that collaborating with the enemy is  a political crime against one's people; and so  it is a betrayal.  It is important to carefully observe as to what had happened to those societies because of some of their nationals collaboration with their enemy.
 
 History bears witness that making alliance with the enemy of one's own people and fighting on the behalf of that enemy against one's own people is not uncommon.  Such an alliance is known throughout history as collaboration with the enemy.  The word collaboration generally understood to mean cooperation with enemy forces against one's country and people.  It means complicity with occupying power in arresting, torturing,  murdering, and persecuting of one's fellow countrymen and women.  And it also means complicity with occupying forces in pillaging, looting , economic exploitation, and a participation in, and support for a puppet government.  All in all, it means a betrayal of one's people. 
 
This is the irony of history. If we glance back at history, we observe collaborators within a nation fighting their own people on the behest of their people's enemy.  Hence collaborators are defined as those who collaborate with or work for the enemy against their own people.  For instance, during the Second World War Nazi regime of Germany had the policy of liquidation of Jews population.  On the basis of these policy men, women, and children of the Jewish and of Jewish blood were ganged into gas chamber.  And with cruelty they were gassed to death.  Six million Jewish and Germany of Jewish blood were perished.  While such heinous crime was committed on the population, a small segment of Diaspora Jews were doing business with Nazi Germany.  Not only this, at the same time according to historian Bryan Mark Rigg, there were Jewish soldiers in the Nazi Army which included decorated veterans , high-ranking officers, Field Marshals, Admirals, Generals, Lt Generals and major Generals.  "Germans of Jewish blood knowing the Nazi regime for what it was", Rigg noted in hi book, Hitler's Jewish Soldiers; 2002, “served Hitler as uniformed members of his armed forces." The Jewish historian Rabbi Joseph Telushkin summed up in the book Jewish Literacy, 2008; that "Throughout Europe the Nazis appointed groups of Jewish leaders known as Jewish Councils in the countries they conquered to serve as liaisons to the Jewish communities.... Unfortunately, instead of helping the Jews they [Jewish councils] often ended up facilitating the Nazis' work."  The Nazis work being the systematic murder of Jewish people.   Here what this means is that Nazi used the Jewish nationals against their own people.  The Councils had informers and police.  The informers "helped the Gestapo locate Jews in hiding."  And that the "hunting down", "rounding up", and “shipping to the death of the Jewish" were "carried out by the Jewish police."  [1]
 
Sadly enough, The Nazi did not even spare the families of those Jewish soldiers in the German army.  Captain Erich Rose, a Jewish soldier in the Nazi army whose family was murdered regretted for working for Nazi.  He was reported by Rigg to have "expressed his desire to die.  'I'm torn apart.  I've nothing to live for.  My family has all been murdered.... I'm a schwein [pig]....  The Nazi murdered my family, and at the same time, I fight for them.'" 
 
Primo Levi, a Nazi survivor, in his book The Drowned and the Saved; trans. Raymond Rosenthal in 1988, wrote:
 
The Judenrate or Jewish Councils were Nazi-established executive Committees throughout occupied Europe at once fully responsible for the implementation of Nazi directives and in charge of the administration, labor, finances, cultural and health services, food supply, and policy of Jewish community.  These councils were set up to force the Jews to do the work of the Nazi and to keep the Jews at odds with one another....
 
Hannah Arendt also wrote about the complicity of Jewish councils in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, 1994;“Wherever Jews lived, there were recognized Jewish leaders, and this leadership, almost without exception, cooperated in one way or another for one reason or another, with Nazi..."
 
In another historical and political context during the American civil war, the African-Americans in the south fought for the Confederate States of America, those states that did not recognized their fundamental human rights.  As historian Charles Kelly Barrow wrote, in a book entitled, Forgotten Confederates, 1995; that African-American fought for Confederate States, "Although Confederate state constitution guaranteed the preservation of slavery as a social and economic institution."  Furthermore Barrow stated, "They [Blacks] all knew that the Northern army was fighting for their freedom, and that the Southern army was fighting to keep them in slavery" and yet the blacks in the south fought for the Southern Confederates army.  Here try to understand,  the role of OPDO  in the TPLF's colonial regime.  It is and has been fighting the OLF on the behalf of and for the colonial army to keep Oromiya within Ethiopian empire, while the OLF is fighting for the independence of Oromiya.  Again in the World War I and II, the African-Americans fought for the US government that at a time did not recognize the basic rights of the black Americans.
 
In Korea, during World War II, a segment of Korean nationals fought for Japan, their colonizer, in its quest for the conquest of Asia.  In that war the Koreans served Japanese as soldiers, as workers, and as "comfort women", despite the fact, as  historian Robert B. Edgerton,  noted in  his book Warriors of the Rising Sun, 1997;  " Many Japanese had never considered Koreans to be fully human."  These Koreans not only fought in Asia, but also suppressed the Korean resistance movement against Japanese occupation and annexation of their country.  They supported the annexation of Korea by Japan.  They helped Japanese to exploit Korean resources. Historian, Robert T. Oliver, asserted in his book A History of the Korean People in the Modern Times, 1993;  "Between 1939 and 1945, some 800, 000 Korean youths were drafted into Japan's imperial armed forces" to fight in Asia to conquer the weaker nation in Asia on the behalf of Japanese imperial power.  Again, Japanese-Americans fought for American in the WW II despite the fact that Japanese American population were put in concentration and that the Americans called the Japanese race as a "yellow monkeys", "yellow apes".
 
 Similarly, the Oromo fought for, died for, and served the Ethiopian colonial rulers and their empire under the derogatory, the dehumanizing, disparaging and insulting name  "Galla" for over a century as African-Americans fought and served the U.S government under the derogatory name "niger" or "Negro" imposed upon them.   Throughout occupation, Oromo nationals rendered services to Abyssinian rulers, to their empire; despite this they used to refer to Oromo people as "maxifoo Galla", meaning the bad Galla.  The Abyssinian ruling class and its cohorts had been despising the Oromo in  such statements as: "yeGalla xirunnati kamootee bichaa nawu.”  In English, this literally means the only good Gaallas (Oromo) are the only dead ones.  Throughout occupation  to date, the Abyssinians have never trusted the Oromo. Even those Oromo nationals who had been licking and those who are still licking the Abyssinian feet with their tongue and those who served and still serving the Abyssinia empire with the utmost loyalty were not and are not trusted.  Hence for years, the Abyssinians had been expressing their mistrust of Oromo in this term, "Gaallan maaman kamootee bichaa nawu." Laterally it means the only trusted Gallas [Oromos] are the only dead ones.  As long as an Oromo is alive, the  Abyssinians do not trust him or her.  This is not without a reason.  The Abyssinians know that they occupied the Oromo country.  Oromiya is their colony and Oromo people are their colonial subject.  And that the Oromos always resist occupation.  For this resistance, they hate Oromo. It is for this resistance, the Abyssinians do not trust Oromo.  For years, those Oromo nationals who did not resist occupation were called "xiruu Gaallas".  Meaning is good Gaallas.  In reality, the Abyssinians do not even trust their own "xiruu Gaallaas".  For instance, if you call for Ethiopian unity, for Ethiopian democratization, and for alliance with them, they call you "xiruu Gaalla" meaning good Galla.  Hence to be called "xiruu Gaalla", today there are many Oromo nationals serving the Abyssinian new rulers and others are still salivating to join and serve them. Despite this, the Abyssinians never trust them, the native Oromo collaborators.
 
In the log view of history, we see all occupiers depend on internal collaborators to occupy a country.  And to maintain their occupation, again they depend on the collaborators. That is, collaborators are used against their country and people.  Without internal collaborators, the occupiers cannot sustain their occupation.  Hence, Abyssinia occupied Oromiya with the collaboration of Oromo collaborators and still sustaining the life of occupation with such collaborators. 
 
It is commonplace to say that Europeans colonized most of the world population.  It is also commonplace to talk about an Asiatic country that colonized other Asiatic countries.  That is, the Japan colonization of Korea, Manchuria, and China.   But what is not commonplace is that the world does not talk of the colonization of an African country by an African country. That is the Abyssinian colonization of Oromiya, Sidama, and etc. As mentioned above, throughout history all colonial governments in order to maintain peace and order had used native nationals.  And so since Oromiya's occupation, Abyssinia has been using native Oromo nationals in order to maintain peace, stability and order in the empire.   All colonizers organized specialized armies and police forces from the colonial people to fight their own colonized people. 
 
 
 
------------------To be continued------------------------------


 

Oromiya voices against conquest, collaboration, neutrality, and silence

By Leenjiso Horo

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful determined citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

1. General Introductory Remarks

This paper is written for those Oromo nationals, for those nationals who do not know about the Oromo struggle, its purpose, and its problems, for those nationals who do not want to know about it: the indifferent spectators; for those nationals who know little about it, and for those nationals who know everything about it, but choose to seek personal self-interest at the compromise of Oromo national struggle. And it is also written for the Oromo generation yet unborn, the generation that may ask questions to known and understand about us, the generations before it. Again as a reminder, it is also for those nationals who have been carrying the burden
of Oromo national liberation struggle. All in all, this paper is about the conquest of Oromiya, the Oromo struggle, the problems, and the change sought.

Every struggle is for a change, a change for social, political or otherwise. A struggle against colonial occupation is a struggle for a political change, a change from status of colonial subject to status of free and independent people. This paper highlights the essence of the Oromo struggle for independence along with the crime of conquest and occupation of Oromiya. As well as the dangers of collaboration, neutrality, and silence and the betrayal and propaganda of the revisionist Oromo nationals. It also draws some lessons from the collaborators shown up in other societies and compares that experience with the past and the present political situations in Oromiya. In the process, the paper fosters the spirit of Oromoness: truth, unity and exposes lies and deceptions in the struggle. All in all, this article is written with George Santayana's immortal warning in mind: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to relieve it.

History is full of changes. Changes in many directions: social, political, science, medicine, art, music and et cetera. Change is the law of nature; so everything changes; nothing stays constant for all times. That is why the change from colonialism to independence is inevitable. And every change, political or otherwise, begins in Margaret Mead's words with “a small group of thoughtful, determined citizens." It is such a group that “can change the world" and "it is the only thing that ever has", she observed. Indeed, it is such a highly motivated, thoughtful,
conscious, and visionary group that can truly galvanize the whole population to bring about the sought change. The logic of this implies that the engine of change is the people, the organized people. That is the conscious and organized force. To this effect, the first basic Marxist-Leninist doctrine states that "uniting the broad masses is a decisive guarantee for the victory of the
revolution."

The interest of this paper is with a political change, a political struggle for a change. This is what the Oromo struggle is all about. In the recorded history, no political change had ever been made easily, smoothly, painlessly, peacefully, and without inconvenience. So, political change had never happened easily in the past; it will never happen now, and will not happen in the future. The reason is plain and simple to understand. Here is why. As Newton's Law of Force reminds us, "for every action there is equal and opposite reaction." That is, for every force, there
is opposite force acting against it. It goes without saying then for every revolution, there is counterrevolution. And for every national liberation struggle, there is counter national liberation struggle. Hence capitulationists, opportunists, and revisionists are opponents of national liberation struggle; they resist, counter, and hinder national liberation struggle. And hence they are opponent of liberation. Since colonial occupation, the Oromo struggle has been facing such
opponents. The origin of the opponents are and have been both from within and from
without. While the colonial regime and its foreign sponsors are the external opponents of the Oromo national struggle, its local Oromo alliances are the internal one.

2. The conquest and occupation

Empires by their very nature and characteristics were and still are both in opposition to, in contradiction and in conflict with freedom, independence, and sovereignty of nations. Empires were formed through bloody and brutal conquest of sovereign and independent nations and nationalities. Ethiopia, for example, is such an empire. This empire, the Ethiopian empire, was formed through bloody conquest of nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa, Oromiya included. In the conquest of Oromiya, Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia created hell on earth for Oromo. He massacred Oromo men, women, and children. In that war of conquest, many Oromo had been shot and many had been literally butchered with knives and axes and their
bodies were disfigured. Their fingers, arms, legs, and heads were separated lying around everywhere in a heap. Pregnant women with their unborn were slaughtered. The living women's breasts were hacked off with knives. And the living men's eyes were gouged out; their limbs were emasculated and mutilated. Today, the piles of mutilated and disfigured skeletons of his Oromo victims stand as a living witness at Aannolee and Calanqo. Moreover, villages across Oromiya were razed to the ground. It was in this way, the Abyssinian ruler, Emperor Menelik II, formed Ethiopia. And so, Ethiopia is an empire. Hence the Ethiopian empire, as all empires before it, was created by force and ever since has been controlled and administered by brute use
of force. With this, the successive empire rulers undermined the political, social, legal, and moral structures of the societies that were conquered and fall under them.

Moreover, with occupation the Oromo people were deprived of their national sovereignty. And ever since they have been denied of their right to self determination as a distinct people; Oromiya and its people were torn apart. The Oromo people lost their rights to their country and land. The entire Oromiya was divided into administrative regions as into Provinces (Teqilay Gizats), Provinces into counties (Awuraajas), and Counties into districts (woredas) of empire of
Ethiopia. Abyssinian legal system was imposed on the conquered nations. In Oromiya, system of "ballabbat" or landowning class was created and erected to destroy the Gada system, its institutions, its laws, and the leadership of the Oromo people. As a result, the Oromo have become a nation without state, without institutions, and has been without leadership ever since. In their place, the colonial administration created local chieftains (balabbats or qoroo) as a leadership for every tribe on the basis of tribal setting for the purpose of tax collection and to discourage resisting the occupation. They were created to enforce laws and order of the empire
in their areas. Indeed, they were integral part of security apparatus of the empire. Hence since occupation, Oromiya has been under the successive administration of colonial bureaucrats along with their native Oromo collaborators. This has left Oromo generations with no point of institutional memory and reference to fight for. For the Oromo generation of today, our history has became events of the past, distant past and blurred. Particularly for Abyssinianized Oromo nationals, it has no attraction. But our history is not a muted history, but living history. The problems the Oromo political organizations have been facing today arouse from this. As consequence, most nationals could not pass immediate local appeal and so unable to politically connect themselves to the nation, the history, the country and its struggle. Individuals with Abyssinians political outlook, political attitude and appeal have been at the organizational hierarchy of Oromo political organizations. As a result, there has been and is a continued struggle within leadership and within members of the organizations between the nationalists and the bureaucratized and politically Abyssinianized Oromo Abyssinian lackeys. The consequence of this is the fragmentation of nationals and stagnation of national struggle.

Needless to say, when Abyssinia colonized Oromiya, it made every attempt, until recent years, to Abyssinianize its conquest. Hence the conquest of Oromiya meant that the Oromo language no longer the primary language for Oromo people. Even though, the Oromos could not be prevented from speaking it, but as a subject of Abyssinia, it was Amharic that was to be Oromo's primary tongue. In Oromiya, the Abyssinian language was made the language of the courtroom, schools, bureaucracy, media and etc. If you do not speak Amharic, you cannot be hired at any level in the empire. Oromo language was presented as unintelligible language, as "birds" language. The objective was to discourage the Oromo children from speaking it. The
Abyssinian cultures, meaning the Amhara and Tigrean cultures were imposed upon the colonized nations and nationalities. That is, the colonized people had to sing Abyssinian song. They had to listen to Abyssinian music, dance the Abyssinians way of dancing, and greet each other in Abyssinian language, either in Amharic or Tigrean language. All in all, the conquest was Abyssinianized.

Furthermore, the successive Abyssinian rulers tried to obliterate the Oromo past and their history. They distorted the Oromo history. In that, Oromo were presented as a people without history. The Oromo children, instead of studying, learning, and knowing their own Oromo history had been told and forced to study, to learn and to know the Amhara and Tigrean history, their heroes and heroines. Again instead of having pride, in being Oromo, the Oromo youths had been told and forced to take pride in being Ethiopian. These are the tragedies that are still haunting the Oromo national’s to-date. Today, the recalcitrant intellectuals, the profiteers, and
those who pursue narrow individual interests are the hangers-on on Abyssinian culture, on its identity and attitude. It is these recalcitrant groups that are bombarding the Oromo youths with the political propaganda of democratization of Ethiopian empire. It is only with the restoration of Oromo independence, this tragedy of occupation, the Ethiopian colonialism, one of the cruelest crimes of the last quarter of the nineteenth-century, will have to be rectified. It can only
be rectified with the independence of Oromiya.

----------------------To be continued--------------------------------

The OLF Congratulates the People of Southern Sudan for Choosing Independence

The decisive verdict of the people of southern Sudan, voting for independence of their country, is inspiration to the Oromo people. The birth of a new southern Sudan is a huge positive step forward for the Horn of Africa and the rest of the world.

As we congratulate Southern Sudan, we would like to call upon some Oromo political organisations deluded in their belief that national independence is impossible in the era of globalisation to wake up and join us in pushing our just cause for liberation of Oromia to its rightful conclusion in victory.
Read more from the source: http://www.oromoliberationfront.info/index.html

Which Model for the Oromo Struggle: The Recent Arab Uprising, the Former Eastern Block or the South Sudanese?

Source: OromoAffairs.blogspot.com
By Samuel Guutuu

It feels like 1989 in the Arab world. The end of the cold war in 1989 ushered in the revolt in Eastern Europe and finally the fall of the Berlin wall.

2011 ushered in the Arab revolt. The general public led by the middle class in the Arab world seems to have become angry at the lack of progress that has held them back despite their oil wealth. The pervasive corruption that has limited opportunities for the millions who cannot find work has enraged the Arab world from Tunisia to Egypt, to Jordan, to Yemen and the list goes on. Political turmoil is creeping around Arab streets one after another. Is the game over for despotic Arab leaders? Only time will tell.

The driver and the inspiration for the overthrow of communist regimes in 1989, and now Arab leaders, is a call for democracy, freedom, economic opportunity and representative government.

However, there is one notable difference between the uprisings in the former eastern block and the Arab world today. The revolt in the former was not only for, and did not only result in creation of, democracies but also liberation and independence of many nations under alien domination. The notable difference here lays in the fact that we know of no nation seeking liberation from alien domination or independent state in the Arab sphere at least at this time.
On the other hand, the people of South Sudan fought war of liberation for independent state for the past 55 years which finally came to a successful conclusion. They have just announced an overwhelming vote for independence. A new nation is being born on the other side of the western borders of Oromia. The OLF has been conducting a similar war of independence for the past 40 years. The Oromo are struggling against Abyssinian colonial rule akin to the South Sudanese war against Arab rule imposed on them.

It is interesting to read suggestions by some quarters that something like the Arab revolution should be attempted in Ethiopia. While it is natural to wish and try to emulate a successful endeavour, to be led by wish alone is a recipe for failure and even disaster. The importance of taking in to account the similarities and differences in subjective and objective conditions of these societies cannot be over emphasized.

The similarities are obvious for the careful observer: a dictatorial regime, sky high inflation, lack of freedom etc … These similarities have been discussed to death by those who wish for the same upheaval in Ethiopia as, say, in Tunisia. However, there are important differences to be considered here which all opposition groups and commentators can ignore only to the detriment of the peoples of the empire.
The main differences between Tunisia/Egypt (North Africa) and Ethiopia are many folds.

The first is, unlike in the Tunisia/Egypt case, there is an obvious lack of a sizable middle class to lead an urban based street protest to challenge the dictator in Ethiopia. Tunisia’s “per capita income is almost double that of Morocco and Egypt. It's higher than Algeria's, …” Ben Ali ran a police state where the people simply "shut up and consumed" for years which in the process created a sizable middle class. No such middle class exists in the Ethiopian empire to lead and sustain such a resistance.

The second is that Ethiopia is an empire, albeit backward and lethal in its subjugation of not only action but thought. As all empires before it, in order to perpetuate its existence, Ethiopia keeps a tight leash on the use of the rudimentary communications infrastructure in the country. Access to communications media such as cell phones, Facebook, Twitter.and other social networking media that have been used in Tunisia/Egypt is concentrated in the hands of the regime’s supporters besides being monitored and tightly controlled not only during a time of turmoil but at all times.

Thirdly, Ethiopia has no national army to speak of in the first place but an ethnic (Tigrean) army whose loyalty lies with its ethnic base and whose neutrality in an event of a popular upheaval cannot be counted on. This assertion is based not on assumptions but on experiences gained during past popular uprisings in the empire under the current regime.
If the Amhara, the group that considers itself to be archetypal Ethiopian, in addition to Tigray, manages to gather their effort in organizing urban revolt akin to their attempt in the 2005, the striking difference between the Egyptian security forces and the Tigray dominated Ethiopian security forces will become obvious to those who suggest a Tunisian style revolt will succeed in the Ethiopian empire. The former is a national force and the latter is a security force of a nation called Tigray currently colonizing the rest. The Egyptian military is a national army and ordinary residents of Cairo can mount the tanks and talk to their own boys in uniform. Try that to the Agazi force and you will see the difference. It is not that the Agazi are naturally different but they are from Tigray and do not even speak your language. Their national interest which they are given order to protect is not similar to, say, the Oromo national interest or anyone else’s for that matter.

Unlike in the Arab countries, it would be difficult to organize the peoples alongside economic class in the Ethiopian empire. While monopolizing the economy, income disparities, lack of opportunities, and lack of freedom of various sorts are part of the grievance against the regime in Ethiopia they by no means affect all nations and nationalities in that empire equally. While the people whose ethnic brethren are in power (Tigreans) have been benefiting from the status quo, other peoples bore the brunt of the regime’s attack. To maintain the status quo, it is likely that the Tigray people, who currently have the state on their side, will side with the regime thereby changing a popular upheaval against the regime to a conflict between peoples. For a serious analyst of today’s Ethiopia and TPLF psychology, such a scenario is not only possible but inevitability.

For nations like the Oromo who are not only under colony but under the rule of a despot like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, the comparison between the uprisings in Tunisia/Egypt and Ethiopia is tempting but wrong. Arab societies are not in revolt against a system imposed on them from outside while the opposite is true for colonized nations like the Oromo in the Ethiopian context. The Arab revolt is a popular uprising to change the system within one nation/state in their respective nations for they consider themselves citizens of the same state. That is not the case for the peoples, nations and nationalities languishing in the Ethiopian empire also dubbed “prison of nations.”

The matter of whether the Oromo should be inspired by the South Sudan success, the Arab revolution or the Eastern European model needs to be answered.

The fact remains that the Ethiopian state is neither Federal, nor Democratic nor a Republic. It is a dying empire. Given the above concerns and the Oromo long term experience with the past two major Ethiopian revolutions both OLF and the Oromo people should model their struggle on the proven method that guarantees freedom and human emancipation from the ugliest system of slavery. The Oromo are well advised to follow the example of South Sudan for their struggle closely mirrors and calls for similar outcome as that of the South Sudanese. Just in case the Ethiopians (Amahara and Tigray) rose against their rulers, the Oromo should use that opportunity to organize and bolster their chance for liberation and independent Oromia just like others did in the former Yugoslavia and the USSR.

From Tunisia to Where?

By Ibsaa Guutama
The abuse of power has led a Tunisian citizen, Bouazizi to burn himself. The despair that led to that citizen’s demise was in the feelings of majority Tunisians. They all rose against the dictator Ben Ali before they were forced to burn themselves like their compatriot. The Middle Eastern countries that have the same problem learned from Tunisia how to sacrifice for their rights. They rose in unison to tell their rulers enough was enough. Whether they achieved their goal now or not, they have shown the world that the sovereign is the people, not the gun wielder. It is not foreign interest, but the national need. These uprisings may be sabotaged for the moment, but the struggle can never be stopped.


Popular uprisings are like epidemic they pass from country to country. The panacea is respect for peoples and individual rights, the rule of law and democratic governance. Where these lack, people learn lessons from those that have dared to challenge the abusers. The possibility of decease being transmitted immediately or after a break is very high. Patience usually wears out though the level of tolerance may vary. This we have learned from world movements of the 60s.

Nowadays, many elites with like minds from the Ethiopian empire are dreaming of the day when the Habashaa rises against Mallas, who is as dictator as Ben Ali or leaders of other countries that are following Tunisia’s example. The Diaspora is echoing these events wishing the epidemic of uprising to reach their country. These elites want to set fire at home from an arena where they will not directly burn by it. They are calling the people to follow North African example. The situation of their people is known to be worse than their North African brethren. But they are either waiting for Wayyaanee to fall entangled in its own mischief or their saviors come from overseas like their last emperor to rescue them. The Emperor’s model of transplanting rulers seems obsolete for the time. The discontent and expectation of uprising had been there before the explosion in Tunisia. Why the drumbeat now? They tried and failed to take by ballot box the power Mallas earned by sweat and blood. Insurrection will also face the same hurdle unless they are more prepared than before.

Years has passed since the Oromo had risen against the colonizer demanding for their rights. Popular insurrections are inevitable when both objective and subjective situations are congruent; not by inducing rebellion of the enslaved before the situation is ripe. Otherwise, it will be empowering the powerless adversary. The Oromo people had no worst situation as the present. They are being dislocated from their ancestral grounds; they are daily being harassed, poisoned, tortured, disappeared, imprisoned and killed. Their demand for the right to national self-determination is still being joked at. Oromiyaa still lags behind in organization. Nobody knows when the situation will explode. Therefore, to get self-reliantly prepared before it happens is imperative.

The OLF is a liberation front. Its goal is to dismantle the Empire state and form an independent republic of Oromiyaa. No equivocation on this issue will serve the purpose of peace and mutual understanding with Ethiopian organizations. The goal of the Ethiopian opposition is to overthrow Mallas and replace him as leaders of the empire. Their goal thus is irreconcilable with that of OLF unless they openly recognize Oromo’s stated rights. It will be irresponsible to call upon the people to rise against Mallas from a distance. The caller must be ready to shape the outcome and live with the people in order to share any backfire. As for alliance with Oromo, show better offer than the incumbent, then OLF will be all ears. Otherwise, the old lady has said long, long ago, “Maal haa baasuuf dhama raasuu?” (To produce what do they churn whey?).

Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty, equality and freedom for the living, and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our fore parents!

Ibsaa Guutama
February 2011
Ibsaa Guutama is a member of the generation that drew the first Political program of the OLF.

“Dhama raasuun maal haa baasuufii?”

Ibsaa Guutamatiin*

Roorroon mirgaa, nambiyyaa Tuunisiyaa Bouazizi akka of gubu tolche. Abdii kutannaan badiisa nambiyyaa sanaatti geese Tunisiyootaa wayyaba keessas ture. Utuu akkuma lammii saanii sanaa of gubuu irra hin ga’in abbaa hirree Been Aliitt fincilani. biyyooti Baha Gidduu rakkina walfakkaataa qaban mirgaf wareegamuun akka jiru Tunisiyaa irra arganii sosso’uu eegalan. Gaha jechuun gaha jechuu akka tahe beksisuuf tokkummaan mootummaa saaniiti ka’anii. Akeeka saanii fiixaan baasanis hin baasinis moo’ummaan kan ummataa malee kan abbaa qawwee akka hin taane addunyaati agarsiisaniiru. Dhimma halagaa osoo hin tahin olhaanaan fedha ummataa akka tahe muldhisan. Fincilli kun yeroof hankaaksamuu ni dandaha, qabsicha garuu hambisuun matumaa hin yaadamu.

Fincilli ummataa akka golfaa biyyaa biyyati darbaa jedhama. Qorichi saa ulfina mirga ummataa fi abba tokkee, seeraan bula fi bulcha demokratawe. Bakka sun hanqatett namooti kanneen roorisaa diduu uggan irra barnota argatu. Ammuma yk bubbulee dhibeen waliti dadarbuun hin oolu. Hammam akki danda’an adda adda hatahu malee obsi dhumuun waan hin oollee. Sochooti Addunyaa 60mootaa kan nu huubachiisanii darbani.

Si’ana gurguddoon empayera Itiyophiyaa yaadaan walfakii Mallasaa akka Alii fi hoogganoota itt fincilame biraa roorisaa ta’ett Habashaan yoom ka’u jedhanii abjootu. Kun caalaa alati qiliwissaa jira. Gurguddoon sun ofii suduudaan bakka hin gubanne jiraataa biyyaan akka Afrikaa kaabaa ka’i jedhu. Ummati saanii tarii obbolaa saanii Kaaba Afrikaa jiran irra hala hamaa keessa jiru taha. Garuu gartokkon Wayyaaneen dira’inuma seetiin of xaxxee kuftii yoo eegan gara biraan fayyisooti saanii akkuma nugusa saanii dhumaa deebi’anii nu baraaru jedhanii abdatu. Fakmishoon bulchoota habaqaluu kan yeroon itt darbe fakkaata. Balfii fi fincilli eegamuun, dhoowaa Tunisiyaa duras ture. Amma kan dibbee rukichiisuu fide maalii? Sanduqa irbaan ango Mallasaan dafqaa fi dhiigaan argate fudhachuu yaalanii dadhabani; ka’i ummataas yoo kan dur caalaa qophaawan tahe malee danqaraan sana gadii isa hin eegu.

Oromoon koloneeffataa irra mirga saa falmachuutt erga ka’ee tureera. Yeroo wanti halle (haala waattahisaa fi yaattahisa) wal qixxaatu fincilli ummataa waan hin oolle; garuu osoo haalli hin bilchaatin kan garbooman ciniinfachiisuu yaaluun miti. Kana malee hamajaajii aangoo hin qabne aangessuu ta’a. Oromoon haala amma jiru caalaa hamaan itti hin dhufu. Araddaa akaakilee saanii irra buqqa’a jiru; guyyuu kurkurfamaa, hadhaan faalamaa, guraaramaa, dhabamaa, hidhamaa, fi ajjeefamaa jiraatu. Gaaffiin saanii mirga sabummaa ofii ofiin murteeffachuu ammallee itt ga’isamaa jira. Ammayyuu jaarmaan duubati harkifataa jiru. Haalichi yoom akka dhoowu hin beekamu. Kanaaf of danda’oo ta’anii eeggachuun dirqii dha.

ABOn adda bilisummaati. Kaayyoon saa finnaa empayeraa diigee republic Oromiyaa ijaaruu dha. Qabattee kana irratt dubbii wal jala dabarsuun dhimma nagaa fi qayabannoo dhaabota Itiyoopiyaa waliin qabaatamu hin gargaaru. Dhugaatu gargaaraa ulfinas nama kennisiisa. Akeeki mormitoota Itiyoophiyaa Mallasaa fonqolchanii akka hogganoota empayerichaatti bakka saa bu’uudha. Kanaaf akeeki saanii yoo mirga Oromoo dhihaatan beekaniif malee Kaayyoo ABO waliin faallaa dha.

Halaalaa Mallasaatt ka’aa jedhanii waamicha gochuun abbaawummaa dhabuu dha. Kan waamu itt baha ka’ichaa dhandhoonuuf qophee ta’uun nama gidduti argamee kan duubati dhuka’u yoo jiraate hirmachuun dha. Waa’ee tumsa Oromoo waliinii ilaalchisee bu’aa wayyaa kan aangoo irra jiru caalaa agarsiifnaa jennaan ABOn gurra qeensuu hin dhiisu.. Sana malee akka jaartittiin jette “Dhama raasuun maal haa baasuufii?”

Ulfinaa fi surraan gootota kufaniif; walabummaa, walqixxummaa fi bilisummaan kan hafaniif; nagaa fi araarri Ayyaana abboolii fi ayyoliif haa ta’u!

* Ibsaa Guutama
Guraandhala 2011
Ibsaa Guutama miseensa dhaloota saganta ABO isa jalqabaa baasan keessaa tokkoo.

Obama: US to recognize Southern Sudan

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the United States intends to formally recognize Southern Sudan as a sovereign, independent state in July.

Obama made the announcement Monday in a statement congratulating the people of Southern Sudan for "a successful and inspiring" referendum.

Election officials said Monday that more than 98 percent of ballots in the Jan. 9 vote were for independence. That means South Sudan will become the world's newest country in July.

Obama said that after decades of conflict the image of millions of southern Sudanese voters deciding their own future was an inspiration to the world. He also said it's another step forward in Africa's long journey toward justice and democracy.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The United States said Monday it is reviewing its designation of Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism after the African nation accepted the outcome of an independence referendum by South Sudan.

Election officials said Monday that more than 98 percent of ballots in the Jan. 9 vote were in favor of independence, meaning South Sudan will become the world's newest country in July.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commended the Sudan government for accepting the outcome.

She said in a statement that the designation will be lifted if Sudan does not support terrorism for the preceding six months and provides assurance it will not do so in future. It must also fully implement a 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war between the north and south that killed more than 2 million people.

"We look forward to working with southern leaders as they undertake the tremendous amount of work to prepare for independence in July and ensure the creation of two viable states living alongside each other in peace," Clinton said.

The mainly Christian south and mainly Muslim north must still negotiate citizenship rights, oil rights and border demarcation. Virtually all of southern Sudan's budget comes from oil revenue, and the north wants to maintain fuel supplies from the south.

Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes in the western Sudan region of Darfur, on Monday backed the vote results and said he wanted to be the first to congratulate the south on its new state.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news conference in Washington that the government of Sudan has made clear that it wants normal relations with the United States.

He said the U.S. was willing to lift the terror designation if Sudan met the requirements of U.S. law.

Sudan has been on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism since 1993.