The
Oromo People in Search of Just Peace
Foreign
Relations Committee
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
May 1999
1.
Introduction
1.1.
This brief is issued to:
-
introduce the Oromo people and their land, Oromia,
to members of the international community interested
in just peace and lasting stability in the Horn
of Africa;
-
reveal how external intervention promoted colonial
conquest of the Oromo and other oppressed peoples
of southern Ethiopia by the Abyssinians under
the leadership of emperor Menelik towards the
end of the 19th century;
-
expose how the subjugation is perpetuated under
different forms by successive Ethiopian regimes
including the regime of the Tigrean People's Liberation
Front (TPLF) which, after grabbing power in 1991
from an Amhara ruling clique through external
patronage, is now maintained in power by the same
external forces to serve them as an instrument
of their geopolitical interest in the region;
-
indicate the prospect for achieving just peace
and prosperity for the Oromo and other peoples
caught within the ailing empire state.
1.2.
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) fully realizes the
present day global reality that the international community
do have legitimate concern and interest in the peace
and stability of the Horn of Africa as in any other
parts of the world. The chronic famine and vicious cycle
of political conflicts that ravage the peoples of Ethiopia
do have international ramifications. The current Ethio-Eritrean
war, the frequent incursions by the Ethiopian army into
Kenya and Somalia, the conflict between Ethiopia and
Sudan, and similar regional problems cannot be solved
without probing into the underlying causes of the problems
to understand the real issues. This brief highlights
background information for those genuinely interested
to understand the genesis of the political conflict
in Ethiopia and to help seek a just solution.
2.
Geo-cultural Setting
2.1.
The Horn of Africa, which comprises primarily the countries
of Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and the Sudan, is the
ancestral home of the Cushitic people. The region has
been the primal home of homo sapien and an early
outpost of human civilization. The Horn covers variegated
climatic zones from arid through semi-arid and wetland,
from shrubs through savannah woodland and lush forest.
The region exhumes variety and diversity of flora and
fauna. The rainfall is variable and seasonal. There
are parts of the region that are threatened by desertification
due to natural or induced environmental degradation.
The arid and semi-arid zones where rainfall is too low
and/or unreliable are drought-prone.
2.2.
The Oromo constitute the largest Cushitic group in all
of Africa. Their population is estimated at some 30
million, a good half of the total population of the
Ethiopian state. Despite policies persistently followed
by successive autocratic governments of Ethiopia in
the past to change the demographic composition of regions
through resettlement schemes and forced assimilation,
each national group has maintained a distinct cultural
identity of its own with its own language and its own
separate and well-defined territory throughout the millennia
(see Map of Oromia next page). This will probably be
maintained for the foreseeable future given the fact
that some 88.7 percent of the population of the country
still remains rural, with the 11.3 percent mostly first
generation urban population spread out over some 656
towns.
2.3.
The Oromo people have a distinct culture and language
of their own. They are a fiercely egalitarian people
that have lived under a remarkable and complex indigenous
democratic system known as Gada--in which political,
military and other leaders including legal experts are
elected for non-renewable eight-year term from among
males who excel during five eight-year long grades of
continuous training. That the Oromo culture and the
symbols of egalitarian Gada democratic government and
other institutions have continuously endured the last
105 years of continuous open and clandestine war by
foreign forces is a remarkable testimony to the endurance
of the Oromo cultural identity and democratic heritage.
The Oromo people are followers of three major religions:
Islam, Christian, and indigenous Oromo religion. Because
of their democratic heritage, there is no religious
extremism or intolerance among the people.
2.4.
The second cultural group in Ethiopia, the Habasha (Abyssinians)
consisting of the Amhara (approximately 16%) and the
Tigray (less than 5%), although they are not from Cushitic
Origin, have somewhat successfully developed an "Ethiopian"
mythology that portrays the Cushite Oromo as latecomers
into the land of their own origin. They refer to the
Oromo by the pejorative Amhara term "Galla"
(heathen/uncultured) and also completely distort Oromo
history and culture. Contrary to accounts fabricated
by this group and echoed by their hired pens, the evidence
is quite strong that virtually all of the historical
credits amassed generically upon "Ethiopians"
were all references to the ancient Cushites. The birth
of the human race (4.4 million years ago), the fashioning
of the first pebble tools (70,000 years ago), the discovery
and domestication of wild animals (8000 years ago),
in fact, the very nomenclature of "Ethiopia"
itself translated into "Cush" in Hebraic and
Egyptian annals, were all ancient Cushitic heritage.
2.5.
The third and fourth groups, respectively known as Omotic
and Nilotic, are indigenous inhabitants of the Horn
of Africa just like the Cushites.
3.
The Geopolitical Significance of the Region
3.1.
Due to its strategic locale in relation to the Red Sea,
via the Suez Canal, from the Mediterranean Sea to the
Indian Ocean, at a geo-cultural juncture between Europe,
Africa and Asia, the Horn of Africa has always been
embroiled, by accident or design, in some world-historic
religious, political and military events, since the
times of Pax Romana down through the millennia to the
era of the superpowers. Even today, in the Post-Cold-War
era, the Horn remains important in security considerations
of the Middle East and the increasingly competitive
global economy. The Horn controls a passage for the
bulk of Middle East oil-- a strategic material crucial
for the demands of Europe and the far east. The region
is also the source of the Blue Nile-- a lifeline for
Sudan and Egypt. The population of the region is significantly
large to serve as a source of cheap labor for investors
and as consumers of industrial products.
3.2.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1868 increased the
geopolitical significance of the region. During the
"scramble for Africa", the major colonial
masters--Great Britain, France and Italy-- unwilling
to relinquish exclusive control of this strategically
significant region to any one power among them, decided
to share it. Italy colonized Eritrea in 1889 and
Southern Somaliland in 1892. The British colonized Northern
Somaliland in 1885, and France took Djibouti in 1884.
Sudan was conquered and made an Anglo-Egyptian "condominium"
in 1898. Once the peoples of the Horn were brought under
domination by external forces, they were subjected to
a cruel policy of divide-and-rule that incited feuds
and hostilities among peoples of the region.
4.
Colonial Origin of the Ethiopian Empire State
4.1.
The modern Ethiopian empire state was created by the
conquest of emperor Menelik II of the Shewa Amhara dynasty
(1889-1913). Menelik was the only successful black African
partner in the "scramble for Africa" designed
by the European powers in the Berlin Conference of 1884-5.
The three major colonial powers competed to use Menelik
as a client to widen their spheres into the richer and
historically impenetrable prize of the hinterland of
northeast Africa. Menelik, aware of the inter-imperial
rivalry, feigned special friendship with each one to
acquire such massive modern European weaponry that by
the mid 1 880's he had transformed his army into one
of the largest and strongest in the region, so much
so that by 1889, he felt confident enough to send out
a circular to the Great Powers asking for his own booty
of the Horn far beyond his Amhara enclave to include
the Oromo, Somali, Afar, Sidama, Omotic, Nilotic and
Southern areas, spreading well beyond the confines of
modern Ethiopia. (See map next page)
4.2.
At no time before the conquest by Menelik was the present
day Ethiopia a single country. What existed were independent
polities--kingdoms in Abyssinia to the north, various
confederacies in Oromia and others under the Gada system,
the southern kingdoms of Walayita, Kaficho, and Yem,
and various communal systems in the Nilotic and Omotic
regions. The official Ethiopian history that, echoed
by some less critical scholars, presents Menelik's era
as "the unification of Ethiopia" is a fabrication,
pure and simple. As in the rest of colonial Africa,
the Oromo and other southern peoples were subjugated,
their peace, their cultural identities and human dignity
deprived.
4.3.
The conquest of the south took Menelik forty years.
(See map, Menelik's Conquests). In the case of the Oromo,
five entire gada-grades mounted unrelenting resistance.
The critical role played by the European armament and
technical assistance in the subjugation of the Oromo
was recorded by Earl Lytton, a British diplomat then
in Ethiopia, who wrote in his book The Stolen Desert-Firms:
"Without
massive European help, the Galla (Oromo) would not
have been conquered at all. Menelik seems to have
operated with French technicians, French map makers,
French advice on the management of a standing army,
and more French advice as to holding captured province
with permanent garrisons of conscripted colonial troops.
The French also armed his troops with firearms and
did much else to organize his campaigns. The Galla
(Oromo) were thus conquered by Abyssinians for the
first time in recorded history."
Millions
of Oromos were exterminated by carnage of war, millions
were taken away and sold into slavery, and hundreds
of thousands perished by war-induced famine. By the
end of it all, half of the Oromo population--estimated
at about 10 million during the late 19th century--was
exterminated. It was a genocide.
4.4.
The Oromo and other peoples of the south who survived
the genocide were subjected by Menelik to the most dehumanizing
form of domination. Their land was confiscated and divided
among Minelek's war- lords, the clergy, and "colonial
troops" known as "naftenya". The warlords,
"naftenyas" and the clergy were entitled to
personal servitude of the subject people, and to collect
dues often to the tune of 75% of the produce of the
subjects who had absolutely no legal protection against
the conquerors.
4.5.
When Emperor Haile Selassie came to power, he tried
to consolidate and perpetuate Amhara domination with
Tigray as a junior partner. A highly repressive centralism
was engineered to design and carry out a policy of Amharization
under the mask of Ethiopianization. The subjugated peoples
of the South were inflicted cultural genocide. European
jurists were employed to draw up a legal system that
defined and protected the rights of the oppressors.
American legal experts assisted in formulating a highly
centralized system of government designed to effectively
exercise a repressive rule. Technical assistance poured
in to bolster the emperor's policy of social engineering;
strong military and security forces were built to suppress
resistance to national domination.
4.6.
Emperor Haile-Selassie's policy of repressive centralism
did not successfully weld a nation state. It fostered
more hatred, wrath and enmity. In the case of the Oromo
who were more brutalized, not one decade passed without
uprisings against their oppressors. Their effort was
repeatedly frustrated largely through decisive willed
or unwitting intervention by foreign powers.
4.7.
It is a historical fact that, despite unquestioning
military and economic support from the entire western
alliance, emperor Haile Selassie's attempt to perpetuate
Amhara domination under the guise of Ethiopianization
failed disastrously. The emperor was overthrown by his
own armed forces after some period of popular unrest.
4.8.
The successor regime, the Dergue, likewise failed despite
unprecedented full support from the Soviet Union and
the eastern bloc. The new regime tried to stave off
national liberation movements by introducing a radical
land reform program and promising to address the "national
question" through a Marxist-Leninist model. A program
of "national democratic revolution" was introduced
and the slogan of national self-determination was recognized.
The program promised, in principle, the rights of each
nation and nationality to develop its own language and
culture. However, political power remained concentrated
in the military clique that formed the Dergue. The clique
gradually transformed itself into a tightly-controlled,
repressive totalitarian party dominated by Amhara elites.
Any advocacy of national rights was labeled "narrow
nationalism" and thousands of reform-minded intellectuals
were eliminated as "bourgeois elements". As
an answer for the "national question", a heinous
scheme called "resettlement" was introduced
whereby over a million settlers were forcibly transferred
from the north to the south in an attempt to change
the demographic composition of the oppressed South.
Simultaneously, some tan million people of the rural
south were moved into "strategic hamlets"
under a policy of "villagization" with a double-pronged
objective of resource control and surveillance of emerging
liberation forces.
4.9.
The Dergue's effort to perpetuate national domination
using Marxism-Leninism as a cover was resisted by organized
national liberation movements that ultimately achieved
the fall of the regime. When the demise of the Soviet
Union cut off the external subsidies that maintained
the Dergue regime in power, the regime could not resist
the national liberation movements rallied against it.
The major organizations that led such movements were
the OLF, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF),
and the Tigrean People's Liberation Front (TPLF). These
forces at times coordinated their actions against their
common enemy.
5.
The Emergence of the OLF and the Transitional
Government of 1991
5.1.
The OLF was established in 1974 by Oromo nationalists
to lead the national liberation struggle of the Oromo
people against the Abyssinian colonial rule. The emergence
of the OLF was a culmination of a century old yearn
of the people to have a strong and unified national
organization to lead the struggle. The fundamental objective
of the Oromo liberation struggle led by the OLF is to
exercise the Oromo people's inalienable right to national
self-determination to terminate a century of oppression
and exploitation, and to form, where possible, a political
union with other peoples based on equality, respect
for mutual interests and the principle of voluntary
association. The OLF agenda--and it is not a hidden
agenda--is that, if the Oromo people cannot forge a
voluntary union with others based on equality, respect
for individual and collective rights, and promotion
of mutual interest, then the people shall exercise their
inalienable right to form their own independent state
to promote peace and prosperity.
5.2.
The struggle of the Oromo people is not directed against
any people but the system of oppression. The protracted
armed resistance under the leadership of the OLF is
an act of self-defense exercised by the Oromo people
against successive Ethiopian governments, including
the current one, who forcibly deny their right of self-determination.
The armed resistance targets the government's coercive
machinery, not innocent civilians. The OLF has an unswerving
anti-terrorism stand and opposes terrorism as means
of struggle to achieve the right of the Oromo people.
The Organization considers terrorism as act of desperation.
Therefore, anti-terrorism remains a core policy of the
organization.
5.3.
The OLF recognizes, respects and fosters the rights
of minorities in Oromia to develop their culture, administer
their own affairs, and enjoy all other internationally
recognized rights.
5.4.
The empire state of Ethiopia was created by a strategy
of divide and conquer and maintained by divide and rule.
The OLF believes that solidarity and cooperation among
the oppressed peoples led by their respective political
forces is essential for realization of their common
objectives of liberation as well as for fostering fraternity
among peoples.
5.5.
At one stage, the TPLF proposed to the OLF to join a
united front under a "genuine" Marxist-Leninist
party to resolve the "national question".
When the OLF declined to commit the right of the Oromo
people to any regimentation under a totalitarian party,
the TPLF revealed its true intention by organizing a
surrogate party from Oromo-speaking Dergue soldiers
who were taken by the TPLF as prisoners of war. The
surrogate was dubbed the Oromo People's Democratic Organization
(OPDO) and the sole purpose of its creation is to serve
the TPLF as an instrument of domination of the Oromo
people. The OLF condemned the act as a serious violation
of the national integrity of the Oromo people. The TPLF
also formed a second group out of officer-prisoners
of war and named it the Ethiopian Democratic Officers'
Revolutionary Movement (EDORM)--dissolved in 1994. Likewise,
a group of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party
(EPRP) who surrendered in 1981 to the TPLF was organized
by the latter to form a surrogate Amhara organization
known as the Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement
(EPDM)--renamed in 1994 the Amhara national Democratic
Movement (ANDM).
5.6.
The whole exercise was to build a Tigrean hegemony.
This was clearly revealed when the TPLF brought together
its three surrogates and the four of them formed the
Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
in which the Amhara and the Oromo elements were effectively
marginalized among the leadership of the front. From
the manner of its creation as well as its composition,
it is evident that EPRDF is nothing but a surrogate
of the TPLF. Other surrogates were also subsequently
created and added to the EPRDF.
5.7.
Although the TPLF intention and grand stratagem to replace
Amhara domination by that of Tigreans under the mask
of a multi-national party was evident to those familiar
with the Ethiopian political landscape, the US government
supported the TPLF to march into the Ethiopian capital
in May 1991 and to form exclusively an interim administration.
In effect, the American government recognized the TPLF
as a force in charge of a democratization process in
Ethiopia.
5.8.
Once in exclusive control of the interim government,
the TPLF/EPRDF was effectively put in a position to
organize a conference to seek a mechanism for resolving
the political conflict in the empire state. When the
conference was called in July 1991, the TPLF/EPRDF unilaterally
dictated which political forces could attend the conference
and what the weight of their representation should be.
Significant political groups were excluded and the weight
of representation was heavily biased in favor of the
TPLF/EPRDF. With the sincere hope that the defects could
be rectified in due course, the OLF participated in
the conference and persevered to make it successful.
The conference approved the Transitional Charter of
1991.
5.9.
The July 1991 Charter was the first covenant ever signed
between the Ethiopian state and legitimate representatives
of the Oromo people. The charter, as stated in its preamble,
heralded an "end of an era of subjugation and oppression"
and the beginning of "a new chapter in Ethiopian
history in which freedom, equal rights and self-determination
of all peoples shall be the governing principles of
political, economic and social life . . . .." The
Oromo and other subjugated peoples embraced the charter
as an arrangement through which they could achieve their
aspiration to be free from political subjugation, economic
exploitation, and cultural oppression. The charter was,
of course, only a transitional arrangement during which
a constitutional system defining a form of state---
whether unitary, federal or confederal--- and vertical
and horizontal distributions of state power, institutional
guarantees against violations of human rights and fundamental
freedoms, recognition and promotion of political rights
and civil liberties, etc, were to be negotiated as terms
and conditions under which the Oromo people can give
their consent to form a political union as an expression
of their right to self- determination. It is only then
that the Ethiopian state can claim any legitimate authority
over Oromia and the Oromo people. Only then can the
original bondage created through conquest be transformed
into honorable mutually binding covenant.
5.10.
As soon as the structure for a transitional government
was decided in the July Charter, the TPLF began positioning
itself for the sole rulership of Ethiopia through its
surrogate, the EPRDF. After ensuring control of the
legislative branch of the transitional government, the
TPLF aggressively allocated all key offices to itself,
including those of the president, the prime minister,
the defense minister, the foreign minister, the interior
minister, and key ambassadorial posts. When elections
to constitute a transitional self-administration approached,
the TPLF used its monopoly of coercive state power to
terrorize the Oromo and other peoples to submit to its
political will. The OLF, and other contending political
forces were harassed and intimidated. The election process
was manipulated. The situation was made too dangerous
for OLF members and supporters to function freely in
the country. The OLF with regret announced in June 1992
its decision not to participate in the sham election.
The confrontation immediately escalated and the OLF
was compelled to withdraw from the transitional government.
Subsequently, all political forces that refused subservient
roles under the TPLF/EPRDF regime were excluded from
the political process set in motion by the July charter
to seek a peaceful political solution for the fundamental
political problem of the empire state.
5.11.
Since June 1992, the OLF has been working towards a
peaceful resolution of the Oromo question. The OLF conducted
series of negotiations with the TPLF through international
intermediaries. Instead of genuine. and constructive
dialogue, the regime repeatedly resorted to intransigent
stance imposing preconditions and reneging on agreements.
5.12.
In 1993 the OLF tried, for the purpose of resuming a
peace dialogue, to cooperate with political groups that
are excluded by the TPLF regime from the political process.
The OLF participated in the Paris Conference of March
1993, sponsored by two French NGOS, to organize an all-inclusive
conference to seek a mechanism for putting the derailed
democratization process back on track. The TPLF not
only refused to participate in the conference but also
systematically obstructed the conference through arrests
and other means of harassment of those who went to attend
the conference held in Finfinne (Addis Ababa) in December
1993. A majority of those who ultimately participated
were remnants of old regimes who overlooked the genesis
of the political conflict and the monumental failure
of the past regimes to resolve the conflict. Contrary
to the whole purpose and spirit of the Paris Conference,
the Finfinne conference took decisions that were essentially
anti-peace and anti- democracy.
5.13.
In early 1994, when the former US President Carter undertook
a peace initiative, the OLF responded positively but
with caution:
"We
have unfortunate experience of long drawn-out, fruitless
negotiations with the TPLF . . .. Based on the experience,
our conclusion is that they are still not showing
sincerity . . ..
"We
will, however, not loose hope, and particularly with
a mediator of your stature, experience, and skills,
we are confident this time we may arrive at serious
and fruitful negotiations."
After
series of high level consultations, President Carter
informed the OLF in his letter of March 18, 1994 saying:
"My
letter of March 14th expressed my best proposal, based
on extensive discussions with all parties. I regret
to inform you that president Moles Zenawi has made
clear his unwillingness to meet with the opposition
groups on the basis of this proposal . . ..
"
I want to express my appreciation for the seriousness
with which [you] have conducted yourselves throughout
this exercise, and for the often difficult steps you
have taken to help us find the common ground that
could serve as the basis for direct negotiation."
5.14.
Another peace-talk was held in Washington, DC, in February
1995 under the auspices of the US Congressional Task
Force of Ethiopia. It also failed to proceed to serious
discussions of outstanding issues because the TPLF regime
imposed acceptance of its absolute control of state
power as a precondition for any peace talks. In the
most recent peace talks held in Germany in August 1997,
the regime agreed to negotiate with the OLF without
any preconditions, but later on broke the agreement
and slummed the door on peaceful settlement by declaring
OLF a terrorist organization and initiating politically
inspired prosecutions of innocent Oromos suspected supporting
OLF's political line.
5.15.
Evidently, there is no incentive for the TPLF regime
to seek peaceful settlement. It has exclusive control
of the state power. It has the military balance of power
in its favor. It has all round support from its international
patrons. After systematically excluding other political
forces, it drafted and passed its constitution of 1994
defining its political wishes to be obeyed by the people
like in the preceding regimes. One noticeable difference
is its recognition of the right of nations to self-determination
up to independence.
6.
Socio-economic Impact of Political Conflicts in Ethiopia
6.1.
A bird's-eye-view of the economic development indices
of Ethiopia stacks her with the group rated as the poorest
countries of the world. Ethiopia has a per capita income
of $120; the country has one of the highest illiteracy
rates in the world. In a country of about 58 million
people, there are, according to government report of
1994, only 8,120 primary schools; the total number of
junior and senior high schools was 1,378. Ethiopia,
with a land area of over one million square kilometers
and where 90% of the country's transport is by road,
has paved road network of about 4,100km. There are 9,200
km gravel roads. There is only one railway line running
781 km between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. The printed
media in Ethiopia is backward even by African standards,
and the rural population is outside the realm of the
printed media.
6.2.
The root-cause of Ethiopia's abject poverty lies in
political and economic mismanagement at home and interventions
by foreign powers that either maintain autocrats in
power or manipulate vulnerable points of the society
to promote their own national interests. Under the Amhara
domination the Oromo and other subjugated peoples were
subjected to the most exploitative land tenure system.
The government bureaucracy was most cynically corrupt
in the Oromo and other southern regions. Ethiopia could
not properly develop its human and material resources.
War, civil strife, wrong economic policy, etc., seriously
disrupted not only production, but also the distribution
of commodities. Food shortage and famine became the
common feature of the country.
6.3.
A brief glance at the human and natural resources affected
by the oppressive political order in Ethiopia reveals
the extent of the problem. Consider resources available
in Oromia alone. Oromia's population--about 50% of the
total for Ethiopia--is considered by successive minority
regimes a political liability to be contained through
manipulation of socioeconomic policies. Political considerations
hinder proper utilization of huge resources available
in Oromia. In Oromia there are sixteen major rivers
with a total length of about 4700 km and a total
of 366,907 sq. km. of catchment area. There are ten
inland lakes with a total area of about 2,000 sq. km.
Oromia's average annual rain fall is 1101 mm. Most of
the arable land of the entire region is in Oromia. Coffee,
which generates about 60% of Ethiopia's foreign exchange
earnings and about 10% of government revenue, grows
mainly in Oromia. Other major exportable agricultural
products such as hides and skins, pulses and oil-seeds
are also produced mainly in Oromia. Oromia can supply
most of agricultural products needed for the urban population,
people in the and areas, and drought-affected regions.
From the estimated 27.2 million cattle population, about
three quarter is found in Oromia. It is also estimated
that Oromia has the potential to provide hydroelectric
power to the Horn of Africa. In addition, potentially
rich geothermal power exists in the Great Rift Valley
section which passes through the heartland of Oromia.
Oromia has large reserve of gold, platinum, nickel,
tantalum, iron, marble, and other non-metallic and construction
minerals.
6.4.
When the Oromo people are subjected to the tyrannical
rule of their oppressors, and when the people are engaged
in resistance against the oppressor, there is, unfortunately,
no peace and security in Ethiopia to achieve sustainable
development. An oppressive minority regime is not willing
to design and implement a development policy that can
benefit the oppressed people. According to Professor
Bichaka Fayissa of Middle Tennessee State University,
"Since the conquest and colonization of the Oromo,
the Abyssinians have not cared to improve the welfare
of their colonial subjects by allowing them equal participation
in the economic and political processes of that country,
because to do so means helping competitors with the
net effect of reducing the stream of their benefits.
Such win-all or lose-all strategy may explain the underdevelopment
of Ethiopians in general and that of the Oromo in particular'.
6.5.
Regrettably, intervention by the international community
has failed to positively impact political and economic
development in Ethiopia. This may be illustrated by
interventions since the TPLF regime came to power in
1991. As soon as the TPLF came to power, the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were mobilized
to pump billions of dollars into the regime's coffer
for "economic stabilization" and "structural
adjustment". During the last three and half years
of its rule, the regime received about US$2.3 billions
of multilateral grants and loans from major Paris Club
countries coordinated by the IMF and the World Bank.
(See next page for OLF letter of protest to the international
financial institutions.) Taking US as an example, in
the fiscal year 1995 alone, the US government provided
about US$125 million in bilateral assistance to Ethiopia.
The total assistance of US$83,777,000 requested for
Ethiopia by the US government for the fiscal year 1998
was the highest in Sub-Sahara Africa. The TPLF regime
has used the Structural Adjustment Program as an instrument
to make public institutions, including the judiciary,
appendages of the ruling party. The privatization program
has been distorted by converting most of government
enterprises to indirect party ownership. The new enterprises
own by the party through third persons to hide the true
ownership include the Endowment Fund For the Rehabilitation
of Tigray (EFFORT), Tigray Development Agency (TDA),
Sur Construction SCo, Guna Trading House SCo, Dinsho,
Tiret etc. The party controls the market not only by
wielding state power but also as a major supplier of
goods and services. The creation of a free market economy
will remain an illusion in Ethiopia today where there
is no distinction between the state and the ruling party.
In short, the Bank's insensitivity to appeals to carefully
assess the negative impact of economic aid to the TPLF
regime has immensely contributed to the creation of
Tigrean oligarchy.
7.
Violations of Human Rights as Measure of Political Repression
7.1.
The Tigrean People's Liberation Front (TPLF), subsidized
by its external promoters, inflicts brutal repression
on the Oromo people. Reports by credible human rights
groups, including International Commission of Jurists,
Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch/Africa,
confirm that there is no rule of law in the country
and that extra-judicial killings, "disappearances",
illegal arrests, confiscation of property, detention
for a long period and torture of persons of Oromo origin
are pervasive.
7.2.
The targets of human rights abuse include both the aged
and those under age, pregnant women, popular figures
such as elders, entrepreneurs, and artists. On the next
page is a photo of bodies of Henok Yonatan Yishak and
Mesfin Gedefa who were detained in Nejo military camp
and then taken on April 4, 1995 and executed together
with 27 persons by the TPLF/EPRDF soldiers on April
28, 1995 in Babo Gambel village in Jarso district, West
Wollaga. The parents of Henok were denied the human
decency to be allowed to bury the remain of their son
which was thrown in a field. A pregnant woman, Ms. Kamaria
Haji Shabbu, was tortured while in detention and died
with her prematurely born baby; a very popular artist,
Ebbisa Adunya, and his friend were killed by a death
squad in a broad day light in their home near the US
embassy in the capital city. These are typical cases.
7.3.
The TPLF has unleashed acts of terror against the Oromo
middle class that Hizbawi Adara, the official newspaper
of the TPLF, calls in its Marxist jargon "petty
bourgeois narrow nationalists." Systematic violations
of human rights of persons of Oromo origin is part of
the regime's policy to destroy the Oromo people's social
fabrics in forcible denial of their right of self-determination.
Independent human rights observers have confirmed that
the Oromo people are subjected to atrocities of enormous
magnitude.
8.
Prospect For Peace
8.1.
The root-cause of political conflict in Ethiopia is
the state's forcible denial of the right of oppressed
peoples to self-determination. The OLF is committed
to the fundamental democratic principle that the Oromo
and other oppressed peoples are endowed with the right
to freely and without restrictions decide the form of
sovereignty they want, whether on their own or in a
union with others on the basis of freely expressed consent
of all concerned parties.
8.2.
To achieve just peace and stability in the region national
oppression and domination must be brought to an end.
To realize this objective and solve the political conflict
peacefully, the political will of concerned parties--and
ultimately that of respective peoples in Ethiopia--is
essential. The policy of evasion of the real issues
must cease.
8.3.
The conflict in Ethiopia definitely has international
dimensions; so must its solution. Because of the level
of socioeconomic formation prevailing in the region,
local conflicts are aggravated or sustained by outside
interventions in violation of international duties and
obligations. Acceptance of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the International Covenants as the
"international bills of rights" has established
the right of people to self-determination as a basic
right. Securing respect for this right is not any longer
an exclusive internal affair of a state. There is an
international obligation to respect and protect this
legitimate right, particularly since a close link exists
between ensuring basic human rights and the maintenance
of international peace and security. Under the prevailing
global reality the international community can impact--
and in fact does impact--the affairs of Ethiopia through:
-
promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms;
-
supporting the right of self-determination, including
decolonization and the right to democratic governance;
-
intervention
on grounds of humanitarian imperatives; bilateral
or multilateral exercise of economic leverage.
One
or combinations of these mechanisms have been used by
the international community for intervention in Ethiopia,
Generally, actions of foreign powers are influenced
by calculations of what they consider their economic
and security interests. The OLF does not object to expedient
application of these mechanisms of intervention to promote
their foreign policy objectives. What violates their
duty under the international law is condoning violations
of human rights, supporting forcible denial of the right
of self- determination of the Oromo and other oppressed
peoples, complicity in actions causing man-made humanitarian
disasters--such as caused by the burning of villages
and forced resettlements-- and collusion with repressive
regimes to manipulate the political will of the people
for the purpose of negating the people's right of self-determination.
8.4.
Regrettably, there is a marked trend among international
players in Ethiopia to use the mechanisms of intervention
to negatively impact the cause of just and lasting peace
in the region. Appeals to the international community
by the OLF and other liberation forces to make international
assistance to the regime conditional on respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms of the peoples
is ignored. Logistic and technical supports are provided
to forcibly suppress resistance against the repressive
rule of the regime. As mentioned earlier, billions of
bilateral and multilateral economic assistance is coordinated
by international financial institutions to open up the
country for international investment to exploit the
natural resources of the oppressed peoples for the exclusive
benefit of the regime and its international partners.
8.5.
The OLF has in vain reminded the World Bank that the
bilateral and multilateral aid it coordinates for the
benefit of the TPLF regime does not and cannot serve
the cause of a lasting peace and sustainable development
in Ethiopia. To the contrary, it is contributing toward
aggravation of an unstable political climate that has
been suppressing the release of the productive energy
of the people. In our view, this has helped to maximize
the concentration of political and economic power in
a corrupt and repressive minority regime.
8.6.
The OLF fully appreciates that mutual benefits can be
achieved when foreign investors provide investment funds
and entrepreneurship in a country suffering from short
supply of these essential factors of development. We
are equally aware of the havoc dictators cause to safeguard
their narrow interest. The economic problems of the
Ethiopian empire state cannot be solved by denying or
ignoring the political demands of the Oromo and other
oppressed peoples of the empire.
8.7.
As demonstrated by the Ethio-Eritrean war, there is
also an international dimension to the intrastate conflict.
A dictatorial regime usually embarks upon external adventures
to divert attention from its internal problems. It uses
its absolute power over the control and allocation of
resources in a manner that provokes and sustains interstate
conflict. The underlying cause of the Ethio-Eritrean
border may well be an economic conflict of interest.
The economic interest of the oligarchic regime does
not necessarily coincide with that of the Oromo and
other oppressed peoples on whom the main burden of the
war falls.
9.
OLF Proposal
9.
1. The OLF is deeply concerned that the present
trend in Ethiopia is leading to more political strife,
economic disaster and humanitarian tragedy. To achieve
just peace and prosperity for the Oromo and other peoples
of Ethiopia, the OLF proposes and appeals to the international
community:
-
to support the right of self-determination of
the Oromo people;
-
to use their economic, political and diplomatic
clout for promotion of the cause of just peace
in Ethiopia;
-
to support a peace initiative under the auspices
of the UN to study and recommend mechanisms for
resolving the political conflict in Ethiopia;
-
to support the release of Oromo political prisoners;
-
to support UN special investigation of illegal
arrest, detention, politically motivated prosecutions,
"disappearances", and extra-judicial
killings of persons of Oromo origin;
-
to refrain from cooperating with the TPLF regime
to exploit Oromo natural resources;
-
to oppose forcible denial of the right of self-
determination and to support the immediate withdrawal
of the regime's armed forces from Oromia and other
regions of the oppressed peoples;
-
to provide the Oromo and other oppressed peoples
to develop their human resources and democratic
institutions;
-
to counsel policy makers to broaden their sources
of information before undertaking decisions directly
or indirectly affecting the cause of peace in
Ethiopia;
-
to support engaging the OLF and other political
representatives of the oppressed peoples in any
peace making process;
-
to investigate the regime's war crime whereby
Oromo youths and others are cynically led to perish
in battles without reasonable concern for their
lives.
9.2.
The OLF is ready to go an extra mile in search of peaceful
resolution of the political crisis in Ethiopia. The
OLF will contribute towards any meaningful peace effort,
as it did in the past, to reach at a comprehensive settlement
to achieve just peace for the Oromo and other peoples
caught in the political conflict of the Ethiopian empire
state.
This
material is distributed by the OLF
P.O. Box 73247
Washington, D.C. 20056
Tel: (202)462-5477
Fax: (202)332-7011
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