December 22,
2013
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr.
President,
Mr. President,
Today, thousands
of Oromos from all walks of life suffer in Ethiopian prisons for no other
reason than being born Oromos and/or for their political beliefs in the Oromo deserving
freedom, justice and the right to determine their fate. In Ethiopia, “Torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners [are]
widespread, particularly during interrogation in pre-trial police detention.”[2] Many
Oromo political prisoners have died in Ethiopian prisons while we watch idly
from the “sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices
must be heard.”[3]
Tesfahun Chemeda
Gurmessa, an Engineer by profession and a UNHCR recognized Oromo refugee in
Kenya, arrested and handed over to his persecutors in Ethiopia in April 2007, charged
under the deeply flawed Ethiopian anti-terrorism law, sentenced to
life imprisonment, held in solitary confinement for over two years with no
access to medical treatment which resulted in his death on 24 August 2013 is an
example how Oromo political prisoners are treated in Ethiopia.
Bekele and Olbana were charged, again, under
the deeply flawed Ethiopian anti-terrorism
law and
convicted to long years of imprisonment.
"In
my life time, I have opposed injustice, discrimination, ethnic favoritism, and
oppression," Bekele told the court at his sentencing hearing. He went on
to say “I am honored to learn that my non-violent struggles and humble
sacrifices for the democratic and human rights of the Oromo people, to whom I
was born without a wish on my part but due to the will of the Almighty, have
been considered a crime and to be unjustly convicted." Bekele’s speech to
his persecutors parallels and should remind us of Nelson Mandela’s “I am
Prepared to Die” speech at his Rivonia trial in 1964.
Source: OLF web site.
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Sunday, December 22, 2013
Letter of Appeal to President Obama from NA Chapter of the OLF
President Barack Obama
The White House
I am writing to you on behalf of myself, Oromo-American and permanent
resident members and supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)[1]
in the USA Who are happy to call this great nation their home and enjoy the
democracy, justice and human rights it has to offer. Our members and supporters, the vast majority
of whom are voting United States citizens, are proud contributors to this
nation’s economic and social life.
As we mourn the passing away of, and celebrate the life and
accomplishments of, former president Nelson Mandela of South Africa - "The last great liberator of the 20th century” – we cannot
help but remember one of our own – General Tadesse Biru. Gen. Tadesse was
another fighter for liberation of his people, the Oromo people, who was
assassinated by the Ethiopian regime in 1975. He was, also, the man in charge
of training Mr. Mandela when the latter came to our land for military training
in 1962.
In your eulogy speech at Nelson Mandela's memorial on Tuesday, December
10, 2013, you said “Around the world today, men
and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and …” which struck
a chord with us because we are members of one such persecuted people – the
Oromo people – in our land of origin Oromia.
The Oromo
are the single largest group in Ethiopia comprising over 40% of the Ethiopian
population but economically dispossessed and politically disenfranchised by
successive Ethiopian regimes. Having been forcefully incorporated in to the
Ethiopian empire around the end of the 19th century, the Oromo have since
been struggling for their right to self-determination. In an effort to kill this
political belief in the Oromo people and to perpetuate their dispossession, successive
Ethiopian regimes have inflicted untold misery on the Oromo people in the form
of selling off their land to the highest bidder, extrajudicial killings,
torture, mass arrests, and disappearances. Such repressions, dispossessions and human rights
violations by the current Ethiopian government against the Oromo people are
escalating on a daily basis.
Mr. President,
The list of Oromos murdered
or imprisoned for their political beliefs
would be too long to provide in this letter but the cases of Tesfahun Chemeda,
Bekele Gerba and Olbala Lellisa should suffice to illustrate our points.
Bekele Gerba, deputy Chairman of the opposition Oromo
Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) and Olbana Lelisa of the Oromo People’s
Congress party (OPC) were both arrested on 27 August 2011 after meeting with
Amnesty International (AI) deligation.[4]
The AI delegation in Ethiopia was expelled soon after, leaving AI without
presence in that country to monitor and report on constant harassment by the
government against Oromos in general and opposition politicians in particular.
It was a
fight against such injustices perpetrated against his people that brought
Nelson Mandela for military training, albeit a short one, to the land of the
people to whom Bekele Gerba was born, the Oromo people. Gen. Tadesse Biru,
Tesfahun Chemeda Hunde and many others were cut down by successive Ethiopian
governments while carrying Mandela’s torch against injustice. Bekele Gerba,
Olbana Lelisa and thousands of others are languishing in Ethiopia’s prisons and
detention camps for raising Mandela’s torch for equality and due process.
Mr.
President,
On behalf of myself and members and supports of the
OLF in the USA, I call upon your administration to:
1.
Ensure
the United States government’s security ties with the Ethiopian regime will not
trump human and civil rights consideration for the peoples of the Ethiopian
empire and does not lead your administration to overlook abuses in that country;
2.
“Act
on behalf of justice”[5]
and put the necessary pressure on the Ethiopian government to release all
political prisoners of which the overwhelming majority are the Oromo;
3.
Utilize
its influences with the Ethiopian government to rescind its deeply flawed
anti-terrorism law which it has been using to sentence actual and perceived
political opponents to long years of imprisonment and to stifle “freedom of
expression, severely restricting the activities of the independent media.”[6]
4.
Put
the necessary safeguards in place to ensure that United States financial,
material and other aids paid for by United States tax payers are not used by
the Ethiopian government for repressing Oromo and other peoples in the empire.
Sincerely,
Abraahim Abbayyee
Abrahim
Abbayyee
Chairman,
North American Branch of the OLF
[1] The Oromo
Liberation Front (Oromo: Adda Bilisummaa
Oromoo or ABO), or OLF,
is an organization established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to promote
self-determination for the Oromo people against "Abyssinian [Ethiopian]
colonial rule".
[3] Taken from
President Obama’s speech at
Nelson Mandela's memorial on Tuesday, December 10, 2013
[5] Taken from
President Obama’s speech at Nelson
Mandela's memorial on Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Effort to Unify QC-OLF and Shanee-OLF Dead, Say Insiders
By Gurraacho Silgaa
Since the OLF split into Transitional
Authority (QC) and Shanee Gumii (SG) in 2001, the concept of reconciliation has
emerged as a central theme of political discourse within the Oromo community in
the diaspora. Reconciliation has been promoted as a way of re-directing Oromo resources
and energy that is being wasted on in-fighting and toward challenging and
eventually defeating Ethiopian colonialism.
The hope was, and remains to be, that the splintered organization – the
OLF that is – will again become one, united in its purpose, in its structure, in
its function and in its processes, made stronger and thereby play the midwifery
role expected from it in the re-birth of an independent and democratic Oromo state.
An encouraging sign in
that direction emerged last year after over a decade of demand by the wider
Oromo populace, during which the OLF performed more self-replication and
internal bickering than it did anything else. I am talking about a “Memorandum of Understanding and
Agreements” between the OLF
Transitional Authority (QC) and the OLF Shanee Gumii (SG) issued on November
20, 2012. At the time many commentators questioned whether that “understanding” was destined to join on the
Internet the various previous “understandings” reached among the different Oromo
organizations but came to naught or it would be a “real deal” worth the limited
accolade it received from the Oromo Diaspora.
I hoped, and
prayed, that it would be the later for the sake of our people and for this much
loved organization for which the Oromo people’s respect has been eroding for
the last twenty years.
Months after
a global tour by the two factions to introduce their agreement and garner
public support for it, and despite the eagerness of the Oromo public to learn the
fate of their agreement, no news or progress report has been forthcoming. Thirteen
(13) months after the hastily put together and announced “memorandum of
Understanding,” time has proved that this one is no different from the “memorandums
of understandings” among Oromo political oganizations that preceded it. Just
like many before it, the QC-Shanee “understanding” remained on the Internet
without amounting to anything on the ground.
The lofty
assertions and promises made in their “memorandum of understanding” such as “we
have resolved our differences”, “we are determined to revitalize the national
struggle for liberation”, and their “agreement” to reunite their forces and combine
their resources remained just that: a series of lofty pronouncements devoid of any
substance.
Reliable
sources inform this writter that the QC-Shanee “memorandum of understanding” is
now dead and buried over who should become the Chairman (Hayyuu Duree) of the
newly merged OLF. The details are sketchy at this time but both sides claimed chairmanship
of the organization and refused to compromise. They are currently engaged in recriminations
blaming the other side of causing the unification effort to flounder and
eventually fail.
Those close
to the unification effort say they are not surprised at all by such turn of
events. They say such an outcome was a foregone conclusion right from the very beginning
for two reasons.
The first is
the fact that both sides excluded their very members from discussions and
decisions on such an important matter which had the potential of merging the
long separated factions. All during the talks, members on both sides knew what
was going on just as much as the general public - which is to say almost
nothing. As a result, members had no opportunity to push their leaders to
compromise when necessary or to help device new strategies to bring the talks
to a successful conclusion or at least question their leaders’ decisions. As
one member of the QC group put it in afaan Oromoo, the attitude of the leaders
on both sides is “Kan wal lolus hooggana, kan araaramus hooggana, miseensi maal
keessaa qabaa? Yoo loli jedhan loluu malee! Yoo dhiisi jedhan dhiisuu malee!”
The second reason, according to those on the inside, is the insatiable
appetite by both sets of leaders for power and the want to hold on to power for
as long as possible. Based on the constitution of the OLF, say those on the
inside, both sets of leaders have over stayed their mandate by over five (5)
years. In an organization which takes
democracy seriously, these leaders would be considered illegitimate leaders. The
national congress of both factions, required by the constitution to be convened
and elect new leaders every four years is overdue by five years. Some say it is
no surprise that such leaders with no deeply held conviction and upholding of
democracy (free, fair and periodic elections) and democratic norms resist
giving up power for the higher good of the Oromo struggle thereby causing the
unification effort to fail. These are the same leaders who despite remaining in power for many
years failed to advance the struggle in the last two decades and noting more
should be expected from them.
In the humble opinion of this writer, unification and strengthening of the OLF is of a paramount importance to the Oromo struggle for liberation. However, the unification of these factions would be meaningless unless the underlying purpose is the advancement of the Oromo struggle and achievement of the Oromo people’s aspiration. Having the survival and staying in power of the current leaders as the overriding primary point of negotiations will not serve the interest of the Oromo people nor of their struggle but the narrow interests of those leaders.
Under these leaders, the OLF has been jumping from crisis to crisis for
the last two decades and nothing to show in the way of achievements. In fact, I
would argue it went backward over the same time period. It is a miracle that it
has survived this long with nothing more to show than its accomplishments from
over twenty years ago. Today, it is not an exaggeration to say that the OLF is
surviving only in name and in the hearts of the masses.
If the OLF is to survive and thrive, it needs to be a well-functioning
organization - what it definitely is not at the present time. To become such an
organization, it needs to look for dynamic leadership in the younger generation
of Oromos not encumbered by any personal issues among the current leaders. Such
new and younger leadership has a better chance of unifying the OLF factions, of
re-making the organization and of building capabilities and processes consistent
with the OLF mission: the advancement of the struggle and eventual achievement
of Oromo people’s aspiration for an independent Oromia and a free Oromo people.
Oromia shall be free!
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