Thursday, December 28, 2006

Somali troops 'enter Mogadishu'

Somali troops 'enter Mogadishu'
Somali government soldiers on their truck in Bur Haqaba
The speed of the government's advance has surprised observers
Government troops in Somalia have entered areas of Mogadishu, hours after Islamist forces abandoned the capital city, Somalia's prime minister says.

"We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said. "We are co-ordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu."

The transitional government's forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, reached the city's outskirts earlier on Thursday.

It is not clear whether the Ethiopians will remain outside Mogadishu.

Eyewitnesses say Somali troops were cheered by crowds, but some residents condemned the Ethiopian presence.

As the Union of Islamic Courts withdrew its fighters, Somalia's clan militias began reasserting their presence - raising fears of a return to the clan warfare which racked the city for years before the Islamists brought a measure of security.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, in the city, says clan militiamen seized key buildings - like the airport and old presidential palace.

Residents in the north of the city have reported cars and mobile phones being stolen. Rising insecurity has forced most businesses to stop trading, our correspondent says.

Prime Minister Gedi is in the township of Afgoye, 20km (12 miles) west of Mogadishu, where he was to meet elders from the capital.

HAVE YOUR SAY
What the Ethiopian government doesn't understand is that it is making a continual enemy to Ethiopians at large
Tsegaye Girma, Addis Ababa

Transitional government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari told the BBC that the majority of the forces poised to retake Mogadishu were Somali, not Ethiopian.

He added: "I would like to assure all the Somali people that we cannot accommodate any warlord who wants to destabilise the country.

"The government is committed to restore law and order and to implement institutions. We want to restore peace, law and order."

Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: "We will act on the basis of the advice of the transitional government and in consultation with the elders of Mogadishu but at the moment we are not in Mogadishu, we are just outside.

He added: "Our mission in Somalia is very very limited... we are not there to reconstruct Somalia economically, politically or otherwise. We are there to remove the threat of the Islamic Courts militia on Somalia and Ethiopia."

Defiant

Islamic fighters have fled towards the port city of Kismayo, their last remaining stronghold, 300 miles (500km) to the south.

Somali woman at Mogadishu market
In parts of Mogadishu, life seemed to be going on as normal

A senior UIC official Omar Idris said the retreat was "not the end".

He told the BBC: "We know what happened in Iraq... I think this is very, very early to say that the Islamic Court forces were defeated."

Meanwhile, a UIC delegation has been in Nairobi, meeting Kenyan officials and Western diplomats.

At the weekend Ethiopia began a major offensive to support the weak government against the UIC - which previously held much of central and southern Somalia.

The conflict has killed hundreds of people. The head of the International Red Cross Somalia delegation said it was "extremely concerned about civilians caught up in the fighting".

The African Union has called for Ethiopian forces to leave Somalia.

However the UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Hardline elements

The UIC has its roots in the north of Mogadishu.

Courts administering Islamic law restored order in a city bedevilled by anarchy since the overthrow of former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The UIC assumed control of the whole capital in June, driving warlords out and rapidly extending their influence to much of southern Somalia - with the exception of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional Somali government.

That body, set up in 2004 after talks between Somali factions, has been unable to meet in the capital because of opposition first from warlords, then from the UIC.

Almost all Somalis are Muslim and after years of lawlessness, many were happy to have some kind of law and order under the UIC.

But some are wary of the hardline elements among the UIC and do not want to be cut off from the rest of the world.

The UIC have staged public executions and floggings of people they have found guilty of crimes such as murder and selling drugs.

UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is accused by both Ethiopia and the US of having links to al-Qaeda - charges he denies.


African Union: Ethiopia should withdraw from Somali

By Cihan News Agency, Addis Ababa
Thursday, December 28, 2006
zaman.com


The African Union released a call for an immediate pull-out on the part of Ethiopian forces from Somali.

Former support from the African Union for Ethiopia in its efforts to enter Somali, a country stricken by violence of over the last week between the provisional government and the Union of Islamic Courts, is now replaced with a call from the same organization for Ethiopian forces to withdraw immediately.

A meeting of the Arab League Wednesday also called for the immediate removal of all foreign forces from Somali.


Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Ethiopian, Somali troops regain Jowhar


Transitional Federal Government soldiers patrol in the streets of Burhakaba in Somalia, Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006. Islamic fighters were in a tactical retreat Tuesday, a senior Islamic leader said, as government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turnaround in the battle for control of Somalia. Somalia's internationally backed government called on the Council of Islamic Courts to surrender and promised them amnesty if they lay down their weapons and stop opposing the government, spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the government. (AP Photo)
Ethiopian, Somali troops regain Jowhar
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Attacking at dawn, Ethiopian and Somali government troops on Wednesday drove Islamic fighters out of the last major town on the road to Mogadishu, the Islamist-held capital.

Former warlord Mohammed Dheere, who controlled the town of Jowhar before it was captured by the Council of Islamic Courts in June, led the Somali government troops, said resident Abshir Ali Gabre.

"We will attack Mogadishu tomorrow, from two directions," Dheere told the crowd, although his statement appeared to overstep his authority. Dheere does not speak for the government or the Ethiopians.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari confirmed the capture of Jowhar and said his troops were heading toward Balad, an agricultural village about 18 miles from Mogadishu. Smaller than Jowhar, it is the last town before the capital.

Thousands of Ethiopian and Somali government troops were seen in tanks heading toward Balad, said Nadifo Ali Tifow, a resident in Qalimow, a village 25 miles from Balad.

Fighting could still be heard at a military camp south of Jowhar and in the village of Lego. An Islamic official said his troops were simply entering a new phase in their battle.

"Our snakes of defense were let loose, now they are ready to bite the enemy everywhere in Somalia," said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley. He did not elaborate, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war including suicide bombings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.

Hundreds of people had fled Jowhar, anticipating major fighting, but others seemed resigned to it after suffering from drought and flooding over the last two years.

"We do not know where to escape, we are already suffering from floods, hunger and disease," Abdale Haji Ali said from Jowhar. "We are awaiting death."

Ethiopia sent fighter jets streaking deep into militia-held areas Sunday to help Somalia's U.N.-recognized government push back the Islamic militias. Ethiopia bombed the country's two main airports and helped government forces capture several villages.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday that Ethiopian forces may soon wrap up their offensive against the Islamic militias that until recent days controlled most of the southern part of the country.

Zenawi said he aims to severely damage the courts' military capabilities and allow both sides to return to peace talks on an even footing. He has said he would not send his troops into Mogadishu, which the Islamic movement has held since June.

A State Department spokesman in Washington signaled support Tuesday for Ethiopian military operations against Somalia, noting that Ethiopia has had "genuine security concerns" stemming from the rise of Islamist forces in its eastern neighbor.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the African Union Commission has called a meeting Wednesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, of the 53-nation AU, the Arab League, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a seven-nation East African group, to try to end the fighting and resume dialogue between Somalia's warring parties.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday took no immediate action on a draft presidential statement circulated by Qatar calling for a cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign forces, specifying Ethiopian troops.

The United States and several other nations objected to singling out Ethiopia and the call for a truce, saying talks and a political agreement are needed for stability before foreign forces can leave. The council agreed to continue discussions Wednesday.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, pushing the country into anarchy.

Two years ago, the United Nations helped set up a central government for the arid, impoverished Horn of Africa nation. But until the past week, it had little influence outside of its seat in the city of Baidoa, about 140 northwest of Mogadishu.

The country was largely under the control of warlords until this past summer, when the Islamic militia movement pushed them aside.

One critical issue is whether the central government can win the support of Somalis. Many resent Ethiopia's intervention because the countries have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years.

Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the region. Islamic courts leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.

Any effort by the Somali government or Ethiopia to take the capital risks a disaster similar to the U.S. intervention in Somalia in 1992.

That U.N.-sponsored mission ended in 1993, after Somali militiamen shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. Eighteen American servicemen were killed in the crash and vicious street fighting that preceded and followed, made famous in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."

___

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul, Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Chris Tomlinson in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

Ethiopian troops move on Somalia's capital

Government troops move on Mogadishu
Ethiopian troops supporting the forces of Somalia's transitional government are advancing towards the capital, Mogadishu, as the United Nations Security Council calls an emergency meeting on the conflict.
Full Article : aljazeera.net


The Horn of Africa teeters on the cusp of all-out war
Neighbours arethreatening to turn Somalia into a battleground for their old scores
"Analysts agreed it would not be an easy fight against Ethiopia's powerful army, and the UIC's [The Union of Islamic Courts] reported allies – Eritrea and Yemen – may be tempted to join the southern militia. Already, they have covertly supplied arms and training to the UIC, according to a UN report obtained by Associated Press.

Eritrea and the predominantly Christian Ethiopia fought a three-decade war of independence and since Eritrea became a country in 1993, the two have skirmished regularly across their border.

Many have warned that Somalia – which hasn't had a centralized government during the 15 years since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 – could become the battleground for neighbours looking to settle old scores."
Full Article : thestar.com


Analysis: U.S. may feed conflict in Somalia, experts say
America is seen as backing Ethiopian intervention, leading to calls for 'jihad.'
NAIROBI, Kenya -- As fighting has intensified between Somali Islamists and an Ethiopian intervention force, Western diplomats and experts warned that U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa -- intended to curb Islamic radicalism -- may not only be fueling this newest conflict, but also may be making it easier for al-Qaida to gain a foothold in the strategic region.
Full Article : sacbee.com


Somalia: All-Out War "Catastrophic" for Southern Region - Famine Watchdog
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has warned of potentially "catastrophic" effects of all-out war in Somalia. In an emergency alert issued on Friday as the conflict began to escalate, the analysis service highlighted the food security threat to southern Somalia, where 1.1 million people are already facing a humanitarian crisis while half a million are seriously affected by floods.
Full Article : allafrica.com


Analysis: Somalia's powerbrokers
Somalia has been without a recognised central government since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991.

Recent attempts to establish a new authority, based in the capital Mogadishu, have had mixed results. And much power still lies with armed factions and warlords who are notorious for switching allegiance.
Full Article : news.bbc.co.uk


Ethiopia-Eritrea Proxy War in Somalia Risks Broader Regional Conflict, Warns New Council Report
December 14, 2006
Council on Foreign Relations

Conflict in the Horn of Africa is escalating rapidly as power struggles within Somalia are exacerbated by military support that both Ethiopia and Eritrea give to the opposing parties there. Ethiopia backs the weak interim government; Eritrea sponsors the Islamic militants fighting to overthrow it. Because the United States has accused Somalia of harboring al-Qaeda suspects, "the Ethiopian-Eritrean proxy conflict increases the opportunities for terrorist infiltration of the Horn and East Africa and for ignition of a larger regional conflict," warns a new Council Special Report.
Full Article : cfr.org

Friday, December 22, 2006

Ethiopian tanks roll in Somali battle's fourth day


By Hassan Yare

BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Ethiopian tanks rolled to the battle front on Friday as Somali Islamists and pro-government troops pounded each other with artillery and rockets in a fourth day of clashes starting to take the shape of a war.

Witnesses near the fighting on two fronts to the southwest and southeast of the government's encircled stronghold, Baidoa, said they heard the rumble of armor before dawn.

If the tanks engage in the battle it would raise the stakes in what is already the most sustained combat so far in a fight many fear could mushroom across the Horn of Africa.

The Western-backed but largely ineffective government and the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) say they have killed hundreds of each other's troops in four days of fighting across the desolate, brushy flatlands around Baidoa.

Those figures could not be independently verified.

"I was awakened this morning by heavy sounds of tanks. I woke up and saw seven Ethiopian tanks heading toward Daynunay," Baidoa resident Abdullahi Ali told Reuters.

Farmer Mohamed Adan said he saw the tanks moving outside Baidoa: "There were nearly 20. I understand some have been sent toward Daynunay while others have gone toward Idaale."

Daynunay is the government's forward military base about 20 km (12 miles) to the southeast and Addis Ababa has said it has military trainers -- but not combat troops -- there.

The other front, Idaale, is 70 km (44 miles) southwest of Baidoa, the only town the government controls.

DEADLINE PASSED

The battle began late on Tuesday, as an SICC deadline for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia or face a holy war passed.

The SICC has taken control of most of southern Somalia by dint of its military might and imposition of strict sharia law.

Washington and its top counter-terrorism partner in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, say the SICC is led by an al Qaeda cell, which the military-religious movement denies.

The SICC says it has the popular support the government sorely lacks and has brought peace to a nation demolished by anarchy since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's 1991 ouster.

Most of the latest combat has taken place in uninhabited areas on the front across which the two rivals, vying to install the first effective central rule in Somalia in nearly 16 years, have sat tensely for two months.

Witnesses have said Ethiopian soldiers are taking part in the battles, and have reported that an Ethiopian military helicopter was flying over Baidoa on Wednesday.

A government security source told Reuters the Ethiopians have 20 T-55 tanks and four attack helicopters in Baidoa.

It was not possible to confirm if the tanks were involved in the fighting. The Ethiopian government had no immediate comment.

Experts and diplomats say Eritrea is backing the SICC with weapons and up to 2,000 troops to frustrate its archenemy Ethiopia, but Asmara denies that. Experts say Ethiopia has between 15,000-20,000 troops in Somalia, which it denies.

(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi and Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Somalia: Ethiopian Troops Enter Ballanballe as Another Number of Ethiopians Leave Hiran

Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu

Fresh Ethiopian troops along with number armored vehicles have occupied Ballanballe in Galgaudu province, central Somalia.

Witnesses said they saw 18 battlewagons and a large number of Ethiopian troops coming to Ballanballe to fortify Ethiopian troops that were already in the district.

The entry of Ethiopian troops in the country came a day after an Islamic Court dubbed Imamu Shafici was set up in Galgadud provincial district of Abudwaq. Abdirisak Mohammed Warsme Fiqi, the consultative leader of Imamu Shafici Islamic Court in Abudwaq, called on the people to be ready for a jihad war with Ethiopia and Ethiopian troops in the region.

Witnesses also said the new arrived Ethiopian troops were patrolling in and around Ballanballe, searching cars.

Ethiopian military maneuver was also reported in the Ethiopian Somali administered region of Ogaden.

Last week Islamic Courts headquartered in the Somali capital Mogadishu gave the Ethiopian troops seven days to withdraw its troops from Somalia or that it would face an Islamic jihad war. An ultimatum will last Tuesday (tomorrow).

Ethiopian troops that were inside Hiran province, central Somali, have reportedly gone back to Ethiopian border on Monday. The troops were accompanied by militias loyal to former defeated warlords Mohammed Dhaere who controlled Jawhar town, 90 km (55 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu and Dabageed who controlled Hiran province.

The Ethiopian military movement came as hours are left for Islamic Courts to decide whether they would launch a holy war on the Ethiopian troops in the country.

Diplomats fear that if a war broke out in Somalia, it would turn into a regional war. United Nations urges Somalia's vying parties to go to the negotiating table in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to reconcile over their differences.

Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.



Islamist spokesman says they won't attack Ethiopian forces

On the eve of the deadline the Islamic group had set for Ethiopian troops to withdraw or face attack, the movement appeared to change tack.

A spokesman for Somalia's Islamic movement said Monday it would not attack Ethiopian forces supporting the government, and was open to new peace talks.

On the eve of the deadline the Islamic group had set for Ethiopian troops to withdraw or face attack, the movement appeared to change tack.

However, long term prospects for peace still look dim even as both sides come under mounting pressure from the UN and the European Union to pull back from war.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel is expected to travel Wednesday for talks in Baidoa, seat of the internationally recognized Somali administration, and the capital, Mogadishu, where the Islamic movement is based.

The Islamic movement's latest comments by spokesman Abdirahim Mudey contrast sharply with threats of a holy war made last week by senior leaders. The group, known as The Council of Islamic Courts, is made up of leaders who range from moderate to hard-line, with the influence any given faction wields changing often.

The seven day deadline "did not mean that we will attack the Ethiopians, but it was a chance for Ethiopians to start negotiations with us,'' Mudey said Monday.

About Oromo refugees in Yemen


Abdulhamid Ahmed roobaa@aol.com



I am writing to express my concern regarding Oromo Refugees who are suffering in Yemeni Jails.
As you are aware, the Yemeni nation has been very supportive of Oromo refugees for the last 20 years. More importantly, the two nations have so many things in common: culture, intermarriage and trade.
I happen to be a close friend of the former publisher of this newspaper Dr Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, may Allah bless his soul. Similarly, most Oromos have families and friends in Yemen. I would expect the larger expatriate Yemeni community who lived in Oromia and other parts of Ethiopia would voice their concern to the Yemeni authorities about Oromo refugees in Yemen.
I would also request the current publisher of the most respected newspaper in Yemen, “The Yemen Times” to voice their protest about the mistreatment of Oromo refugees.
Thank you for being the voice of the voiceless.

Ethiopian soliders shop in Baidoa Somalia


Ethiopian advisors shop in Baidoa, Somalia, in a Friday Dec. 15, 2006 photo. Both the transitional government and Ethiopia insist the troops, in camouflaged uniforms but without insignia, are military advisers, not a fighting force. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


Special Section: Somalia


Somali government troops guard detain an Oromo Ethiopian separatist fighter loyal to Somalia's Islamic Court Union, in Baidoa, Somalia, Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006. The man is suspected of spying and planning suicide bombings, said General Mohamed Warsame, the head of national intelligence for the Somali transitional government. Somalia's prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Tuesday that war is inevitable with the country's Islamic militants, saying thousands of them have surrounded Baidoa,the only town his government controls. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Somali peace 'no longer possible'

Somali peace 'no longer possible'
Somali government troops
The government is getting military help from Ethiopia
The president of the weak transitional government has ruled out further peace talks with the Islamist militia controlling most of southern Somalia.

With fears of war rising, Abdullahi Yusuf accused the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) of close al-Qaeda links.

"We are no longer under the illusion that peace is possible with the UIC," he told reporters at his Baidoa base.

The UIC denies links to al-Qaeda and vowed to attack Ethiopian troops if they have not left Somalia by Tuesday.

Senior Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said his movement would not target the interim Somalia government - just Ethiopian troops.

"Our country has been invaded by Ethiopia ... we should have thrown them out a long time ago."

Ethiopia denies it has soldiers in Somalia, but admits to having hundreds of military trainers in the country supporting the government.

President Yusuf accused the UIC of being the ones to close the door to peace talks.

"They are the ones who are waging the war. I don't see peace and I don't think they want peace.

"If there was something to offer them I would, but I am sure they have no intention for peace and therefore I have nothing to offer them."

Military build-up

Earlier, US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said radical forces had sidelined more moderate forces in the UIC, who were receiving funding from Eritrea, Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Islamist fighter
The Islamists have been receiving assistance from Eritrea

She warned against a military solution and said the way ahead should be through talks between the two sides.

But a UIC spokesman said the US was trying to derail the stability it had brought to much of Somalia this year.

Earlier on Friday, Islamic leaders Mogadishu distributed sermons about holy war to be read at the city's mosques during prayers.

Arab League-mediated talks were scheduled to take place next week in Khartoum, but now look unlikely.

The UIC has taken control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, since June.

The government only controls the territory around the town of Baidoa.

Last week, the UN Security Council approved plans to send peacekeepers to protect the government in Baidoa and amend an arms embargo, despite strong opposition from the UIC.

Correspondents say, however, that a military build-up on both sides makes it less likely that any peacekeepers will be deployed.

Both sides said this week that they have been sending troops to Tiyeglow, on the main road from the Ethiopia border to Baidoa, following clashes south-west of Baidoa.


Oromo: Freedom for the Oromos and Great Perspectives for the Horn of Africa area

Can Eastern African peoples finally find a short way to Democracy, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authentic Identity? What could ensue from the establishment of post-colonial, liberal, democratic administrations in all that large part of Africa that stretches in the south of Egypt and in the north of South Africa? Freedom for the Oromos and Great Perspectives for the Horn of Africa area

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Can Eastern African peoples finally find a short way to Democracy, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authentic Identity? What could ensue from the establishment of post-colonial, liberal, democratic administrations in all that large part of Africa that stretches in the south of Egypt and in the north of South Africa?

An independent Oromo state named 'Ethiopia'

When seceding from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, the independent Oromos will be determined to call their new, free, country ‘Ethiopia’. The Abyssinians will not have the possibility to call their area ‘Ethiopia’ too! They will be free to call their area ‘Abyssinia’, ‘Amhara’, ‘Axum’ or anything else.

One should expect a real earthquake, following the independence of the Oromos. The tectonic mega-event will cause a chain of secessions from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, and we have to expect that tyrannized Sidamas, Ogadenis, the rest of the south, as well as the Afars will have their own countries. As far as the present ruling ethnic groups of bogus-Ethiopia (Amharas and Tigrays) are concerned, we may assume that there will possibly be two different states, one centralized around Axum and Mekele, and another extended around Gondar. The former represents the realm of the Tigray and the latter that of the Amhara. It may look like an ultra-split, but this is the only viable and at the same time reasonable and rationalistic solution.

It is necessary that all the various peoples of the area enjoy their full freedom and independence first, that they better study and delve into their past second. Achieving a significant degree of self-conscience is determinant for any people allover the world. Self-knowledge is essential, and yet so many peoples of the Horn of Africa area have been prevented from this privilege, since this situation of ignorance and confusion was the main target of the colonial powers. Following these early steps, free democratic life, freedom of movement, thought, expression and cult, the establishment of a civic society, the various countries that will emerge from the collapse of colonial structures such as Sudan, 'Ethiopia', Somalia, etc will have the possibility to consider their chances of uniting economically and politically.

Europe should be taken as an example in this regard! Because they separated first (with the collapse of the Communist regimes), the Czech Republic and Slovakia were able to meet again and become one country along with many others this time, within Europe. Modern European History proves that free consultation, free deliberations, free negotiations of free, independent, democratic peoples, citizens and leaders is the only way to a possible multicultural Europe.

Fighting for freedom of expression, and freedom of vote, facing the brutal methods the Amhara/Tigray tyrannical regime attempts to employ against the oppressed masses of Oromos, Sidamas, Afars, Ogadenis and others, this is the task of the day for the various political organizations and parties of the Oromos. Today, the Oromos' first concern is to envisage the perspective of disentangling from the Amhara racist and tyrannical regime. For tomorrow the concern will be to prove that the Oromos can arrange their affairs far better when alone, free, and independent, and finally, at a later stage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Finfinne (not Addis Ababa anymore) will consider options towards greater Eastern African designs.

Envisioning a role for the forthcoming independent Biyya Oromo state

Ultimately, the Oromos can become the regional Eastern African superpower and shape the future of the Horn of Africa region. Actually, any country, small or large, new or old, can become a regional locomotive for the development and the progress. If we see things beyond the unavoidable splitting of both, Sudan and Abyssinia, we realize that there are still large countries in the Horn of Africa area, having larger population than what a newly independent Oromo country is supposed to represent. Tanzania is already home to 37 million people, whereas Kenya has a population of 32 million people, big countries.

But what are their GDP, their per capita GDP, and their fixed line, mobile line, Internet penetration? It is obvious that for any country there are many other parameters to take into consideration: education, number of students, universities, foreign direct investment, balance of payments, exports/imports, economy growth, industry growth and so on. A country never becomes a leader just because of representing a large, or the largest, population. If this were the case, we would all be ruled by China and India! But these two countries are not as important as the US, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia! France led the anti-US front before the Iraq war, not China! On the international scene, Italy is more important than India! Last year, when its interests were threatened in Sudan, China did not dare to veto! So, when it comes to parameters like the aforementioned, what matters is the shrewd and sharp thought, the anticipation of things to come, the conceptually rich mind, the in-depth knowledge of the facts and the issues, and consequently the introduction of highly advanced plans and viable projects of great perspective.

Until now, all the countries of the Eastern Africa have plunged into the marshes of underdevelopment for various reasons. It is to be hoped that a new force, a new state, with a youthful approach to politics, will introduce a wide range of new concepts and ideas, forcing therefore the rest to follow and catch up with.

The Oromo liberation leaders argue namely ‘that the Oromos should not repeat the practice we have seen in Abyssinian politics’. This is very positive a perspective; the prevailing Abyssinian practices of ethnic oppression must soon cease to be the recourse of ignorant dictators.

Envisioning the Biyya (country) Oromo as a regional superpower, in terms of a locomotive of development, of a multipartite, multicultural, multi-religious and multiethnic way for common progress and peace, is today a great task for Oromo intellectuals and expatriates.

How this will be achieved? Certainly the way will be through education, culture and political mobilization. The formation of a young class of specialists and technocrats able to run a modern country, not an archaic dysfunctional replica of today’s Abyssinia, the preservation and the cultivation of the Oromo culture and the study of the Kushitic – Oromo past, always interconnected with modern, fresh approaches to and concepts of the Humanities, and the general political mobilization that will enhance the sensitivity in terms of the African solidarity, against the only African colonial regime – that of the Abyssinian tyrants – and against the Western democratic involvement, these are the aspects of the triptych of the Oromo liberation and ultimate independence.

Of course, one must expect a great European interest, but one must rely on one’s own forces, effort, and commitment. Contrarily, more can be expected from America, a country of definite anti-colonial principles, beliefs, ideas and policies. The archaic structure of the Abyssinian state must not be permitted to exist anymore; it consists in such a flagrant rejection of the concept of the Human Progress towards Humanism and Democracy that it should not be allowed to develop its Christian Monophysitic religious extremism anymore.

More and more people in the correct positions in America understand that religious fanaticism is a problem, whether it comes from Saudi Arabia or from Abyssinia. It is always criminal whether Ossama bin Laden mobilizes ignorant people to kill Westerners or Abyssinian Debteras drum up ignorant, starving people to attack Christian Catholic or Protestant monks in Abyssinia. Obscurantism runs high, and thousands of valuable Gueze manuscripts – totally incomprehensible to the quasi-illiterate Monophysitic monks of Abyssinia – are out of reach for any serious Western scholar because of the Amhara Debteras’ fear that the Western scholars will unveil negative points of the Axumite/Gondar medieval rulers!

No one in America wants a Monophysitic – heretic – Christian Khomeini-like rule from Gondar or Axum in order to propagate theories of a forthcoming fight between his ‘Jesus’ and a supposed Anti-Christ. The radicalization of the Muslims in Abyssinia – as a result of the Christian – Muslim confrontation – could trigger negative developments throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Pondering on Axes of Oromo Foreign Policy

Examining the issue first through a historical perspective, we come to notice that the Kushites always expressed an interest for the Middle East and the Mediterranean World. Egypt had a lot of interests in the Aegean, in Cyprus and in Palestine. Ethiopian Meroe was in continuous contact with the Roman world, a statue’s head of Octavian Augustus was found at Meroe itself (present day Bagrawiyah in Sudan), embassies were constantly exchanged, stylistic architectural influences seem apparent either in the imperial baths at Meroe or at the so-called ‘Roman kiosk’ temple of Naqa, just to mention a few indications, and then in the Atlas North-Eastern African region, Khammitic Berbers intermingled with Carthaginians.

Later on, the authorities of the Kushitic Christian state of Makkuria, the central of the three Christian Sudanese kingdoms, had certainly strong contacts with the Greek Patriarchate at Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, since Makkuria introduced both Greek language as holy, religious language, and Makkurian language (a later form of Meroitic), written in Greek characters, as administrative language. All this testifies to great exposure to and exchange with the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.

In our times, all the geo-political and geo-strategic interest of an independent Oromo state must be directed towards the Horn of Africa area. This interest must be common everywhere in the area of the aforementioned countries. For every local tribe, people and state, the interest must be extended up to the 'new' 'borders' of this vast union (as sizeable as Brazil, around 8.2 million km2). Major projects should be commonly undertaken at the level of construction, communications, industrial development, education, tourism, services and so on. So the general interest should focus on this regional development. By lowering up to annihilating taxes among the member states, one would create an initial tendency that could be accentuated by big projects in construction and education. The area must act as a center of radiation, and this is not going to happen by means of reference to other areas, be they the Middle East, India or Europe.

An independent Oromo state should express a great part of concern and effort to bring down the nefarious and ominous ideology of Pan-Arabism that brought about the tyrannical imposition of Arabic language throughout the so-called Arabic speaking countries, a policy that results from the 2-century long colonial brainwash campaign named ‘Arab nationalism’. As a good example of local obscurantism, one can refer to the fact that in all the Arabic speaking countries, the realm of the so-called ‘Arab world’, fewer books are annually translated from all the languages of the world into Arabic than in Greece from all the languages into Greek. And yet, tiny 10 million people Greece is a very mediocre European country! Comparison with Turkey would also be disastrously prejudicial to the so-called ‘Arabs’!

A large Horn of Africa Union

There should not be a friction among Africano-centrists and Middleasterno-centrists! Countries emanating from the splitting of the two tyrannical, colonial states, Sudan and Abyssinia, plus all the other countries of the Horn of Africa Union, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, as well as Yemen, Oman, Mozambique, and Madagascar, are – and must feel they are – an entirely different area, a vast middle zone between Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East and the rest of the world. This will bring them closer to each other, and closer to success.

There is a great logic behind this multilingual, multicultural, multiethnic and multi-religious Union. It is not just the historical stamp left by Yemen that had first colonized - for a long period - the Eastern Coast of Africa, from the Horn area itself down to Dar es Salam in present day Tanzania during the Antiquity.

A correct understanding of the dynamics of the global world we are currently living in leads anyone to realize that only big state-units are going to survive and play a significant role in the future. A 60 or 80 million people country is not important anymore; I do not refer to Turkey and to Pakistan, but to France and Germany! It is not without reason that it was suggested that, if Europe does not advance according to the interests of the Franco-German axis, the two countries should abandon the Union, implementing a full fusion. For underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Indonesia, 130 or 220 million people do not create a real market that could guarantee growth and development. If this is the situation, geographic location matters a lot!

‘Accumulating’ 160 million people in a small corner of India, and ‘unfolding’ them around a vast strategic area are two different situations. On the other hand, 220 million people scattered on a multitude of islands, like the Indonesian Archipelago, cannot be easily interconnected, and then communications become either slow or expensive!

The geographic location matters not only in itself but in its relationship with other landmasses and/or countries. Indonesia is the natural passage from Australia to China. This does not imply a great system of communication, since Australia may be rich but is a small 20 million people country. In addition, Indonesia is to be found at the edge of dense navigation channel, namely the Malacca Straits. On the other side of Sumatra Island, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand complete a picture. Perhaps there too, a Union between Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the French Indochina countries, plus Philippines and Burma could be envisaged, but the disparities are of colossal dimensions. It is not sure at all that the leading regional financial tiger Singapore and the economically developed and advanced Malaysia and Thailand would be willing to create a commercial, economic, cultural and – even more so – political Union with poor and backward countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Myanmar that are exposed to various religious radicalisms and extremisms (Islamic, Christian and/or Buddhist).

The geographic location of the Horn of Africa countries is very privileged indeed. From Egypt to South Africa, and from the borders of Central Africa and Congo to Oman and the Straits of Ormuz, a vast landmass and an immense sea space control a great part of the global communications and network connections. All the communications of Europe, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean worlds with Eastern Africa, India, South-East Asia, and China, and vice-versa pass from here. All the communications between the South African countries with the Middle East and Eastern Europe and vice versa also pass through there. The area is by nature the open window of the entire African continent to India. It can become the exclusive passageway between India and Europe. Furthermore, this geomorphic unit is the gateway of China to Africa that is not only a target market but the best place for the future need of China to outsource in a way to dominate the global industrial scenery. This is something we have not yet seen! Outsourcing has become a concern or a practice for America, Europe and Japan. The overheated economy of China will soon face the need for outsourcing. The Horn of Africa area is the best place for industries targeting Africa, Middle East, Europe and Russia. Odessa and Novorossiysk, for instance, are closer to Port Sudan than to Shanghai!

The combination of the geomorphic particularities, the linguistic variety, the cultural propinquity, and the common stagnant socio-economic situation, as well as the mutual desire for progress and development, change, freedom and democracy, plus the bulk of 250 million people, consist in the ingredients of a success story that the various invited peoples must express their worst self to make it impossible to come! That is why Oman and Yemen should join their African counterparts, after quitting the abominable and hilarious Arab League, an organization that attempts to impose a bogus-historical dogma, that is the existence of supposedly ‘Arab’ peoples in its state-members.

Oromo: Kofi Annan’s last job: call fallacious ‘Addis Ababa’ Finfinne, capital of Oromo Ethiopia!

Kofi Annan, before quitting his position, must say the rest of the world that the real name of Addis Ababa is Finfinne, and it is this name that in today’s worst African hell – fake Ethiopia the majority of the people, Oromos, Sidamas and Ogadenis, still use. Few people in America and allover the world know that the Amhara etymology Addis Ababa is a fake name, imposed by the Abyssinian colonial invaders of the Biyya Oromo (land). The Amhara name, meaning ‘New Flower’, was coined to give the false impression that the city was newly founded. Nothing is more fallacious than this version. African as he is, Kofi Annan, before quitting his position, must say the rest of the world that the real name of Addis Ababa is Finfinne, and it is this name that in today’s worst African hell – fake Ethiopia the majority of the people, Oromos, Sidamas and Ogadenis, still use. Acting like this. Kofi Annan will obtain atonement for his silence for so many long years of Amhara – Tigray racist rule over the 70% of the oppressed peoples of Abyssinia.

We will offer therefore space to an excellent Oromo academic and renowned scholar, Prof. Mekuria Bulcha, currently resident in Sweden, to describe the bleakest pages of African History: the rise of the royalist obscurantist Amhara power in Finfinne. This excellent article was first published in an American Oromo website: http://www.voicefinfinne.org/English/History/MB.html

"Greater Addis Ababa" in the Making: Stop them or Keep Quiet and Perish

By Prof. Dr. Mekuria Bulcha

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

My intention with this paper is not to write the history of Addis Ababa or Finfinnee but to comment the appeal made by the Macha Tulama Association to the international community to stop the Ethiopian government's plan to uproot Oromos from Finfinnee. The three episodes I have described below, is not only the story of Finfinnee but a piece of Oromo history. For Oromo uprooting to end the we have to stop lamenting about what "their enemies did to us" and start to fight back harder than ever before. Not to fight back resolutely when attacked invites the enemy to keep attacking their victims with increasing impunity and contempt. This is what is happening in Finfinnee today. And appeals to the international community is not going to protect us from those who are not tired dispossessing and humiliating us. It will only add to our humiliation. It is said that self-preservation is nature's first law. This has been translated also as "the survival of the fittest". I mean we should make real sacrifices to stop this outrageous violation of our human rights or keep quiet and disappear as a people.

Fredrick Douglas, the famous anti-slavery African American said in a speech he delivered in 1857 that "those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Fredrick Douglas's words have a lot of relevance for our situation; and is applicable to our present concern. Most of us are talking about freedom all the time but are doing practically nothing to make it a reality. We are "men who want crops without plowing the ground."

Episode I: Finfinnee or Finfinni in 1843

As many of us know, the Amharic speaking community of Menz started to expand from its mountain nests in the early eighteenth century to become the kingdom of Shawa at the time of Sahle Selassie who ruled it from 1813 to 1847. In 1843, Sahle Sellasie went on one of the predatory raids he used to conduct twice or three times against the Abichu, Galan, Sululta etc Oromo bordering on kingdom of Shawa. Major W. C. Harris who was sent on a diplomatic mission to Shawa leading a British delegation and followed Sahle Sellasie on many of his raiding expeditions against the Oromo during the 18 months he stayed in the country and reported what he witnessed as follows in his three volumes long book The Highlands of Aethiopia (1844). The following is an extract from Vol. II, Chapter XXIII. What Harris says in the following quotations was also corroborated by L. Krapf and Isenberg in their reports about the visit they made to Shawa during the same period.

The Raiding and Looting Expedition

"Hundreds of cattle grazed in tempting herds over the flowery meads [meadows]. Unconscious of danger, the unarmed husbandman [herdsman] pursued his peaceful occupation in the field; his wife and children carolled blithely over their ordinary household avocations; and the ascending sun shone bright on smiling valleys, which, long before his going down, were left tenanted [occupied] only by the wolf and the vulture."

"Preceded by the holy ark of St. Michael, ... the King ... led the van, closely attended by the father confessor, with whom having briefly conferred, he turned towards the expectant army, and pronounced the ominous words which were the well-known signal for carrying fire and sword through the land - "May the God who is the God of my forefathers, strengthen and absolve!"

"Rolling on like the waves of the mighty waves of the ocean, down poured the Amhara host among the rich glades and rural hamlets, at the heels of the flying inhabitants - tramping under foot the fields of the ripening corn, in parts half reaped, and sweeping before them the vast herds cattle which grazed untended in every direction. When far beyond the range of vision, their destructive progress was still marked by the red flames that burst forth in turn from the thatched roofs of each village; and the havoc committed many miles to the right by the division of Abagaz Maretch, who was advancing parallel to the main body, and had been reinforced by the detachment under Ayto Shishigo, became equally manifest in numerous columns of white smoke, towering upwards to the azure firmament [sky] in rapid succession."

[THEY DESCEND ON FINFINNE] "...the eye of the despot [Sahle Sellasie] gleamed bright with inward satisfaction, whilst watching through a telescope [one of the gifts from the British delegation] the progress of the flanking detachments, as they poured impetuously down the steep side of the mountain, and swept across the level plain ... A rapid detour thence to the westward in an hour disclosed the beautifully secluded valley of Finfinni, which, in addition to ... high cultivation, and snug hamlets, boasted a large share of natural beauty. Meadows of the richest green turf, sparkling clear rivulets leaping down in sequestered cascades, with shady groves of the most magnificent juniper lining the slopes, and waving their moss-grown branches above cheerful groups of circular wigwams, surrounded by implements of agriculture, proclaimed a district which had long escaped the hand of wrath. This had been selected as the spot for the royal plunder and spoliation, and the troops, animated by the presence of the monarch, now performed their bloody work with a sharp and unsparing knife-firing village after village until the air was dark with their smoke mingled with the dust raised by the impetuous rush of man and horse."

"The luckless inhabitants, taken quite by surprise, had barely time to abandon their property, and fly [flee]for their lives to the fastness of Entotto ... The spear of the warrior searched every bush for the hunted foe. Women and girls were torn from their hiding to be hurried into helpless captivity [to be used or sold as slaves]. Old men and young were indiscriminately slain and mutilated among the fields and groves; flocks and herds were driven off in triumph, and house after house was sacked and consigned to the flames. ... Whole groups and families were surrounded and speared within the walled courted yards, which were stewed with the bodies of the slain. [Those] who betook themselves to the open plain were pursued and hunted down like wild beasts; children of three and four years of age, who had been placed in the trees [by their parents] with the hope that they might escape observation, were included in the inexorable massacre, and pitilessly shot among the branches. In the course of two hours the division left the desolated valley laden with spoil, and carrying with them numbers of wailing females and mutilated orphan children [this was what happened also to Balcha Safo when he was captured by Menelik], together with the barbarous trophies that had been stripped from the mangled bodies of their murdered victims."

"The hoarse scream of the vulture as she wheeled in funeral circles over this appalling scene of carnage and devastation, mingled with the crackling of falling roofs and rafters from the consuming [burning] houses, alone disturbed the grave-like silence of the dreary and devoted spot, so lately resounding to the fiendish shouts and war whoops of the excited warriors, and to the unpitied groans of their helpless captives. ..., gloomy columns of smoke rising thick and dense to the darkened heavens, for miles in every direction, proclaimed that this recently so flourishing and beautiful location had in a few brief hours been utterly ruined, pillaged, and despoiled, as far as the means of ruthless and savage man could effect its destruction."

After looting and destroying Finfinnee the Amhara forces march to Yakka (today part of Finfinnee) to take its inhabitants by surprise. Harris writes, "... the Abyssinian system of warfare consists in surprise, murder, and butchery, not in battle or fair conflict. The King continued to advance rapidly ..." [Since the Oromo defeated him many times Sahle Sellasie did not want to engage them in open battle]. Harris continues and says,

"Emerging from the forests which extended two miles beyond the Finfinni defile, the scattered forces began to rendezvous around the state umbrellas, now unfurled, to which they were directed by the incessant beating of kettle-drums. Whilst the work of destruction still continued to rage on all sides, herd after herd of lowing beeves [cattle) pouring towards the royal standard, and each new foraging [raiding]party brought with it fresh groups of captive women and girls, and the barbarous tokens of their prowess [dismembered men's organs]. ... The slaughter had been immense. Every desolated court-yard was crowded with the bodies of the slain - childhood and decrepit age fared alike; murderers, unconscious of the disgrace attaching to unmanly deeds, unblushingly heralded their shame, and detailing their deeds of cruelty, basked in the smiles of their savage and approving monarch ... "

"After a brief halt, the march was resumed through the country of the Ekka Galla, which was clean swept with the besom [broom] of destruction. ... During the fourteen hours passed in the saddle, above fifty miles of country had been passed over; and the weary forces finally halted in Ekka valley .... Horses and mules were now turned loose among the standing beans, and several thousand head of cattle tired to death with the distance they had been driven from their ... pastures, were, with infinite difficulty collected in a hollow ... and the King ... took his position for the night. ..."

During the night, "Loud whoops and yells, arising from every quarter of the wide valley, mingled with the incessant lowing kine [cattle], the bleating of sheep, the thrill neighing of the war-steed, and the occasional wailing of some captive maid, subjected to the brutality of her unfeeling possessor [raping her of course]. Groups of grim warriors, their hands imbrued in the innocent blood of infancy, and their stern features lighted by the fitful flame, chuckling over the barbarous spoils they had won, vaunted their inhuman exploits, as they feasted greedily on raw and reeking carcasses [raw meat]. Spears and bucklers gleamed brightly around hundreds of bale-fires, composed of rafters stripped from the surrounding houses; and the whole distant landscape, red from the lurid glare reflected by scores of crackling [burning] hamlets" [groups of extended family homes].

[Note: Just try to contrast the voice coming from Oromo degradation and destruction and Amhara victory and joy: the sounds made by thousands of agitated Oromo livestock, the screams of female captives being raped, most of them young virgin girls, the burning of Oromo homes and countryside, mingled with the boastful fukara and qararto of the Amhara forces. This happened not only in Finfinne and commited only by Sahle Sellasie but in thousands of places for many years after him in Oromoland]. Harris notes here that Sahle Sellasie who became king 40 years ago had already carried out 84 similar raids against his Oromo neighbours in every direction.

[THE RAIDING IS OVER AND SAHLE SELLASIE LEAVES FOR SHAWA.]

[Note: On this occasion Sahle Selassie released the captured Oromo women and children because the Harris and Dr Johann Krapf, the German missionary who was in Shawa at that time, begged him to free them. However it did take Sahle to go back on his words and plunder and kill the Oromo of Ekka (today's Yekka) and Finfinne again]

[Unexpected second raiding attack on Finfinne after a short time]

Harris wrote down the following:

"The survivors of Ekka an Finfinni tribes, believing the fatal storm to be expended [passed], had already returned with the residue of their flocks and herds, and were actively engaged in restoring their dilapidated [destroyed] habitations, when the Amhara hordes again burst over their valley, slew six hundred souls, and captured all the remaining cattle, thus completing the chastisement of these .. clans who, notwithstanding the generous restoration of their enslaved families, had failed to make submission."

Episode II: Amhara Occupation of Finfinnee in the mid 1880s

Sahle Selassie died in 1847, four few years after the above events took place, and was followed by his son Haile Melekot. H. Melekot continued with the predatory raids against the Oromo; but did not live long. He died in 1885. Ten years later, his son, Menelik, became the king of Shawa. Sahle Sellasie could repeatedly raid but not able to occupy or stay on Oromo territory. Though armed with firearms, his forces were not capable to defend themselves against the famous Oromo cavalry. But Menelik was able to do what Sahle Sellasie couldn't. He was not only able to raid the Oromo but also occupy Oromo territory permanently. He was assisted by the modern weapons he could amass in exchange for booties he collected in his numerous raids against the Oromo (see Mekuria Bulcha. The Making of the Oromo Diaspora, Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis, 2002 for details).

As he started expansion into Oromo territory, Menelik first built his capital on the Entotto ranges overlooking the Finfinee the magnificent plains and valleys in 1881. Entotto was chosen as a strategic site defensible against the surrounding Oromo who were not yet subjugated. By mid 1880s the subjugation of the Oromo in this area was completed (with the active participation of traitors such as Gobana) and Menelik was able to descended from Entotto and build his capital on the undulating plains of Finfinnee. Tens of thousands of Oromos were uprooted as Menelik granted their land to the nobility and their soldiers and as the city expanded over the years. Many of the uprooted moved south and some went west. The loss of Finfinne was documented in an Oromo poem "No More Standing on Entotto" by an anonymous author just after occupation. Here are some of the lines:

No more standing on Entoto
to look down on the gren pastures below; ...
No more gathering on Daalatti
were the Gullallee Gada used to meet; ....
No more taking young calves
to graze on our ancestors, grounds ...
The year the enemy came
and our cattle were taken;
Since Meshesha* came
our land and freedom are lost.

(note: Meshesha was one of Menelik's lieutenants)

The poem laments the destruction of the social institution (Gada), the economic production and the natural environment of Finfinnee by the occupiers. The conquerors want also to change the identity of the place: they "Christened" it Addis Ababa and built a city using Oromo sweat and blood. And from Addis Ababa, the rest of Oromoland and the Empire was controlled, oppressed and exploited for about 100 years.

Episode III: The EPRDF Enters

In 1991 it became the turn of the Tigrean elites, who come from Maqale and Adwa, located between 800 and 1000 km away in the North, to decide whether the Oromo should live or not live in Finfinnee. The Tigrean regime has already uprooted Oromo intellectuals from Finfinnee and has succeeded in silencing Oromo voice in the city and country. They have imprisoned and/or sent into exile Oromo journalists, writers and artists; they have closed down Oromo newspapers and cultural clubs. They terrorise Oromo businessmen and destroy their businesses. Thus the ethnic cleansing which the Macha Tulama Association fears will happen along with the planned removal of Oromo public institution from Finfinnee is already underway. The Oromo should understand that this process which the Meles regime has set in motion has strong Amhara support and is going to have far-reaching consequences on the Oromo. The uprooting of the Oromo will not be limited to Finfinne. Addis Ababa is going to expand towards Bishfotu in the South, Sabata and beyond in Southwest, Sandafa and Shano in Northeast and Holota and even to Ambo in the West. The scenario is that the regime will work actively to discourage Oromo presence in the region. Eventually it will call the region "Greater Addis Ababa" and declare it a federal, Amharic-speaking territory. The Oromo will be restricted to the rural backyards where they will easily be controlled. I am not telling you a fiction; this is an ongoing process. But it is not too late to stop it.

How and Who is Going to Stop it?

We Oromos should make it absolutely clear to those who will drive us out homeland that they are engaged in a dangerous enterprise that can backfire. They should know that the Oromo have nothing against those who respect their human rights and will live with them in peace, but will not accept uprooting and humiliation anymore. This cannot be done by paper work or appeals to the international community alone. The Oromo should engage in a real struggle to attract international sympathy. Here real struggle means concrete action on the spot.

What is concrete action? My answer is organised demonstration; organised protest. In Finfinne! Not in Washington, London or Melbourne, at least before this happens in Finfinnee itself. It is futile and even ridiculous to make appeals abroad until and unless such a demonstration takes place in Finfinnee. The population of Finfinnee is estimated at two and half million of which 18 to 20 percent are Oromos. This means there are between 400,000 and 500,000 Oromos in the city who can carry out such a protest. It will be ridiculous if such a large population will bow to humiliation by the EPRDF. The leaders of Macha Tulama Association should think seriously about this. They have a historical responsibility in the absence of other genuine Oromo organisations in the city at this moment. Furthermore, there are several million Oromos physically not far away from Finfinnee who could be recruited for demonstration. Inhabitants of other Oromo cities and towns can stage demonstrations in solidarity with those in Finfinnee. The other oppressed peoples of the south should be approached for their co-operation. We in the diaspora must give our support without reservation. Not only words but material support.

We Oromos should stop being terrorised into submission. Every available means should be used to stop the EPRDF plan to evacuate Oromo institutions from Finfinne. As Fredrick Douglas said, "the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." It is time for us to learn from the anti-apartheid struggle, the Intifada of the Palestinian children, and the Civil Rights Movement of the African Americans. I will repeat Fredrick Douglas's words once again: we should use both words and blows' to get rid of the injustice being committed against them. Concerning Finfinnee our demands should include the following:
1. Change the name of the area and city back to its Oromo original. Drop the colonial name. Finfinnee shall remain an Oromo capital.
2. Build parks and monuments in commemoration of the thousands of men, women and children who were massacred or taken prisoners and enslaved by Sahle Sellasie and Menelik.
3. Build Oromo institutions and revive the Oromo language and culture. It is ridiculous that about half a million Oromos living in the city are not able to use their language as they wish. It was with Addis Ababa as a centre that the Amhara rulers suppressed and tried to destroy our heritage. Our heritage will flourish in and radiate from Finfinnee.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Ethiopian premier says Somali Islamist continuing provocations

Dec 14, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the ultimatum issued recently by the fundamentalist leadership of the Union of Islamic Court, UIC, to launch a major attack against Ethiopia shows how it further intensified its continuing provocative acts as it did in the past.

"They [the UIC] have committed aggression against Ethiopia for months now so we do not see any new thing here which requires any new response," Meles told reporters who asked about the threat from the UIC to attack in one week.

"We are trying to get this issue resolved peacefully.” He said, however, If it is not resolved peacefully it will be very unfortunate", he added.

A top official of Somalia’s Islamic militia vowed Tuesday 12 December to launch a "major attack" within a week unless troops from neighboring Ethiopia leave this chaotic Horn of Africa country.

"If the Ethiopians don’t withdraw from Somalia within seven days, we will launch a major attack," Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Islamic group, told a news conference in the capital, Mogadishu.

According to The Associated Press, a confidential U.N. report in October said up to 8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border backing the government. Ethiopia has acknowledged sending military advisers, but denies sending a fighting force.

“With regard to physical attacks, since last summer the Islamic courts have been training and equipping and smuggling armed elements – hundreds of them – into Ethiopia and they have clashed with security services in Ethiopia.” Said the Ethiopian premier.

Meles said that Somali Islamists had told Ethiopian official, during recent talks, “there are differences within the UIC movement”, he further said “sometimes they appear to be respectful and at others they are impervious to reason and logic. It is a frustrating round of contacts. We hope that future ones will be more productive.”

On his part, the chairman of the Somali Courts Executive Council, Sheikh Sharrif Sheikh Ahmed, stressed during a meeting with president of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih that they were ready for talks with Ethiopia if it pulled out its troops from Somalia in seven days.

Since June, the Council of Islamic Courts has seized Mogadishu and taken control of much of southern Somalia. The group’s strict interpretation of Islam has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, although many Somalis credit the council with bringing a semblance of order to a country that has seen little more than anarchy for more than a decade.

The political volatility in Somalia is the latest blow to a nation that is struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.

US condemns Somali war ultimatum

Story by REUTERS
Publication Date: 12/15/2006

NAIROBI, Thursday

The United States today condemned as "irresponsible" a threat by Somalia’s Islamist movement to attack Ethiopian troops backing the interim government unless they leave within days.

The defence chief for the Mogadishu-based Islamists gave the ultimatum on Tuesday. He said Ethiopia has more than 30,000 troops in Somalia to bolster the administration of President Abdullahi Yusuf in Baidoa, the only town under government control.

But Addis Ababa has scoffed at the war threat, saying it only has a few hundred trainers with the Somali Government, which is backed by the West in a 14th attempt since 1991 to restore central rule to the conflict-riven nation.

"The United States regrets the irresponsible 'ultimatum’ issued by the Islamic Courts," US Embassy spokeswoman Jennifer Barnes said from the Nairobi mission, which has responsibility for Kenya and Somalia.

"Given the existing heightened tensions in Somalia, this ultimatum further destabilises the situation and undermines international and regional efforts to encourage credible dialogue between Somali parties," she added.

Heightened fears

The Islamists’ deadline for Ethiopian withdrawal has heightened fears of all-out war in Somalia, where skirmishes have taken place between reconnaissance teams from government and Islamist troops near Baidoa.

The Islamists took Mogadishu in June. Their fighterseffectively flank the government on three sides, and rival soldiers are just a few kilometres apart.

Diplomats fear any fighting could quickly spill into a regional war given that Ethiopia openly supports the government while its arch-foe, Eritrea, is accused of sending arms and fighters to help the Somalia Islamic Courts Council.

Foreign nations are urging the Somali rivals to return to peace talks, which stalled in Khartoum last month.

However, a UN resolution endorsing an African peacekeeping mission -- which the government wants, but the Islamists have sworn to fight -- has made a quick resumption of talks unlikely.

Washington pushed for the UN motion despite European and analysts’ fears that instead of promoting peace, a foreign force might inflame the situation and draw jihadists to Somalia.

"You had the bizarre situation where only one country wanted this resolution, and everyone else disagreed, but it got through because of who that country is," said a Western diplomat.

Washington argues the arrival of a formal African peacekeeping force to protect the government would pave the way for an exit of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.

And the head of the African Union (AU) backed that view at a regional summit in Kenya, saying peacekeepers were needed to stop the "rot" in Somalia. "If we do not do this now, then we must prepare ourselves for the emergence of ethnic republics and religious republics in the coming years," he said.

In Aden, a senior leader of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council said today it would only hold talks with Ethiopia after it withdraws its troops. Islamists have threatened to attack Ethiopian troops unless they leave Somalia by Tuesday. "We are ready to speak to the Ethiopians if they leave Somalia. Otherwise we will fight them until we evict them from Somalia," Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said.

War looms in Horn of Africa


An Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) leaders warns that Ethiopian President Meles Zenaswi's Government's
alleged "survival" tacties could trigger war in the Horn of Africsa.

Dr. Fido T. Eba, who has base in Washington DC, say that Zenawi's government is taking advantage of
the US and the West's dislike and fear of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to seek sympathy and
support from them.

"Ethiopia is instigating war in Somalia in the protext of fighting terrorism," Eba, a spokesman of the group, said while
in Nairobi. He warned that this could lead to a conflict that is likely to spill into Kenya and other
neighbouring countries.

The ICU took advantage of the interim government's weakness to take over Somali's capital Mogashisu from
US-backed Somali warlords early this year. ICU has also taken several key port cities, including Kismayu.

Zenawi's government is illeged to have sent its troops into Somalia to aid Somalia's transitional intrem government
in Baidoa.

The US has been quoted saying ICU has links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups,
allegation that the ICU has refuted. The Oromo established the OLF in 1973 to lead what they call a
liberation struggle of the Oromo people against the Abssinian colonial rule.

OLF's main objective has been the separation or Partition of the Oromia region and population from the rest of Ethiopa.
But it has since modified its goals to including forming a political union with other nations on the basis of equality,
respect for mutual interests and the principle of voluntry associations.

Political observers fear that OLF and other rebal groups like the Ogaden National Front, Afar Liberation Fron and Sidama
Liberation Front could be dragged into the war Ethiopia's arch-rival, Eritrea.

If this happens there could be a possiblitiy of civil wars in Ethiopia where about 35 million Oromos feel oppressed by the
Zenawi Government, Somalia where the ICU has a stand-off with the interim Somalia givernment and even the Sudan
where the El-Bashir's Government is fighting rebel groups from almost every coner of the vast country.

Zenawi's is a minority government formed by the Tigrian People's Liberation Front. The Tigre account for 12 per cent of the
population, which is why, Eba claims, Zenawi fears a free and fair election as his party would be defeated and would be out of power.

There are 70 ethnic groups in Ethiopia, with Oromo accounting for 40 per cent of the population, the Amhara 25 per cent and,
the Gurage 3.3 per cent. Others include Ometo and Sidama who constitute 2.7 and 2.4 per cent respectively. Other ethnic
minorities include the Falasha, the Beja, the Agau, the Shankella, Afar, the Somali and Nilotic tribes.

There us a scenario where Ethiopia government will not only have to deal with the ICU but also with the OLF and other rebel
movements and with Eritrea. Sudan, with an Islamic government, would not come to the aid of Ethiopia. Already, Khartoum
has numerous problems of its own. It is unthinkable that Kenya would jump into the fray.

Both Sudan and the ICU are against the presence of a United Nations peace-keeping forces in the region, fearing theat a
pro-US force would not favour the Sudan's Islamic government and Islamic courts.

There is already an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur, which is ineffectrive, while the ICU is against tehh deployment of such
a force in Somalia government, which has been the creation of Igad, some of whose members are in the AU.

Eba, however, said that OLF us neither aiding nor is it being aided by ICU as far as weapons and other strategic
supplies are concerned. But there have been aiding the ICU.

The ICU recently declared a Jihad (holy war) against Ethiopia for allegedly sending its army into Somalia to aid the interim government
of President AbdIllahi Yusuf.

The OLF leader cited recent developments in Ethiopia to point out that things were not well. Ethiopia's Ministry of Defence expelled Air Force Major General
Almeshet Degfe and Army bosses Brigadire Generals Kumera Assefa and Asamenew Tsgie. No explanations were given.

Recently several senior officers defected to Eritrea or joined rebel groups like the OLF. In August this year, an Ethiopian army Officer of
Oromo descent, Brigadier General Kemal Geilchu, defected to Eritrea. He went with more than 100 Ethiopian troops under his command.
The army officer said he was unhappy with the tdreatment of Oromo people by the government of Ethiopia.

Eritrea is stillat war with Ethiopia over a border dispute after it got independent from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-years guerilla war
that ended in December 2000. Both countries signed a peace deal, which allowed an indepenedent commission to determine their border.

Both countries have stationed thou-sands of troops on each side of the 1000km border, which a 25km buffer zone separating the two
armies being patrolled by UN peacekeepers.

OLF claims that the Ethiopian government is trying to influence Kenya and other Western nations in a bid to isolate it. The Ethiopian
government has once tried to convice the US to put the OLF on the list of terrorist organisations, Eba says.

OLF itself is putting pressure on the Ethiopian to exercise "the right of self determination". "Wewabt ti be able to decide on
how we live our social, political and economic lives. We want our basic demicratic rights, " Eba said.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Ethiopia: Reflections on the Anuak Genocide

By Apee Ojulu *

Dec 13, 2006 — Early in this century, at a university in the U.S, a professor asked all students to introduce themselves to the class. Among students, there were an Anuak seated in one of the first few rows and a Highlander Ethiopian seated in the last row. When introduction reached the Anuak, he introduced himself as an Ethiopian and Ethiopian Highlander introduced herself as an Ethiopian. Instead of letting other students behind her introduce themselves, she added that the Anuak was from Gambella and she was from Ethiopia despite the fact Gambella is a part of Ethiopia in international map.

In disputing the Anuak citizenship status as not Ethiopian, she repeated the usually claims Anuak people and other Gambellans face when travel in other parts of Ethiopia. When Gambella people traveled in other parts of Ethiopia, many ruling Highlander Ethiopian elite label Gambellans as others, foreigners and potentially obstacle to the economic development and this perception played a largest role in the December 13, 2003 massacre against Anuak people.

The purpose of this essay on the third anniversary of the December 13 Anuak Genocide is to discuss its root causes and its aftermath. In discussing the root causes of the December 13 Anuak genocide it is intended neither to gather ammunition against Highlanders nor to fall to the same trap that they are less than human beings in arguing. My aim rather is to understand what is driving ruling Highlanders’ policies toward Gambellans. To understand it not excuse, just as to forgive is not to forget, but without understanding the principles driving the ruling Highlanders perceptions, no way to develop a new relationship that’s based on mutual understanding among respective communities. Yes, telling the truth hurt feelings but ignoring the truth to gain popularity is the most injurious thing one can do to those who fall victims like Anuak people.

The ruling Ethiopian Highlander elites see Gambella state in two faces. Gebrhab Barnabas, the Federal Minister for states affairs under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told the U.S. based Journalist Doug McGill during a meeting in Addis Ababa that Gambella, if developed properly, could feed the entire country of Ethiopia. But he has hardly any praise for inhabitants of the region. Barnabas labeled people calling for fair administration of justice in the region as scams in the front of McGill. Ethiopian Highlanders elite praise the state rich in resources, land, tree, gold, and oil, but not the inhabitants.

A Gambellan in psychic of the ruling Higlander Ethiopians is an object there nothing more than dealing with at such. The people of Gambella their presence are questioned. In his paper on the December 13, 2003, Dereje Fayssia writes that “the Anywaa are said to have migrated to their present-day settlements since the 18th century.” Many Ethiopians over the debate on issue of genocide have argued using this historical perspective that Anuak people in running to Sudan for their safety have returned to their rightful land. This claim really is totally fault view of the history of Anuak and other Gambellans. Anuaks inhabited Gambella for centuries and true historians have confirmed this view. Even if Gambellans started arriving in 1800s, which they are not, they would still be the owners of the Gambella. Ethiopia extended its control only in 1900s when, by this dating, most Gambellans were already settled in the land. Gambella became part of Ethiopia in 1956 as a result of 1902 Rod Agreement and the demarcation Agreement of 1956.

In major cities such Jimma, Addis Ababa Ethiopian highlanders see Gambellans as “Lomn.” Lomn is an Amharic word equivalent to the word Negro use against blacks in the United States. It is means literally Gambellans are slaves. Other names given to Gambellans are Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sudanese or Kenyans. By labeling Gambellans these names as slaves or as foreigners in their own country, Gambellans are seen potentially as others who are not citizens. Some Gambellans frustrated by being called Lomn or outright slave, often preferred to be called Nigerians or Kenyan in the belief by being given these foreign names they are bit better than being called slaves.

But the extent of erasing the footprints of Gambellans in the land extended far more to their local landmarks that have historical significance. One important example is the renaming of Openo River. In Gambella, there are four major rivers: namely Akobo River, Gilo River, Alworo River, and Openo River. Openo River is the biggest and Alworo River the smallest. With arrival of Ethiopia in the region, Ethiopians renamed Openo River as Baro River. By renaming the river Baro River, Ethiopians disconnected Gambellans to their river and gives the legitimacy to their claims over the river.

The debate over the issue of oil exploration in Jor, Gambella other challenges that have made depicting Gambellans as foreigners important. Oil fields were discovered in the northern part of Gambella in the last half of last century by some foreign oil companies. For some logistic and other reasons, the previous communist regime did not started exploring oil after it was discoursed then. In the recent years, the present regime in Addis Ababa has made exploring as one of its top priorities. But instead of working with regional citizens to develop it for the benefit of the regional development and share with the federal government, the government made missteps that put it on a collusion course with Gambellans. The government announced to take oil from Gambella and refinery it in Jimma. This immediate caused Gambellans to reject the government attempt to explore the oil. Instead of working with Gambellans, some in the government have labeled Gambellans as foreigners who are preventing oil exploration.

Many Ethiopian Highlanders defended the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in reaction to the news of the initial killing of over 425 Anuak people innocent civilians by accusing Anuaks as were the ones who have started the killings after the initial reporting. Dereje Feyssia’s paper is important here because his view represent the pluralist view of Ethiopian Highlanders. In his paper he claims that “what happened on December 13, 2003 was a violent expression of the highlanders’ pent up grievances. It was preceded by a series of indiscriminate killings of the highlanders by army Anywaa groups.”

But in claiming that Anuaks were the ones behind the killings of United Nations’ personnel, Feyissa did not have evident to back him up then his long beliefs about Anuaks that they are others, foreigners and obstacle to the state future. There was no any investigation undertaken by the government to investigate the incident thoroughly and determine the people behind the killings. The government knew had there been an investigation into the killing, the investigation could have up with the true killers. Outside Gambella town where the killing occurred there were three different armed group. The Oromo Liberation Front and remnants of the previous communist regime under Thaut actively operated in the areas with known attacks against the government. No one waits for investigation to find out the killers. Anuak people were hastily selected as the killers, criminals and troublemakers because of their beliefs that all Gambellans are others, foreigners and potentially obstacle to the state future.

Even opposition supporters and their leaders in Washington and in many cities who first came to the Anuaks’ defend held the same views that Anuaks are foreigners and potentially obstacle to their country’s economic development. These opposition leaders and supporters wanted Anuaks to condemn the regime alone. As Chombe, one of the opposition supporters wrote: “Never accuse the Ethiopian people for the crime TPLF regime committed.” It is true that the killing of Anuak people on December 13, 2003 was an operation under the leadership of the Meles regime.

But that operation was not an operation Meles regime took alone without the help and participation of other highlanders. There were many civilian highlanders allied to the regime who assisted the Ethiopian troops by going door to door with them and knocked doors of the victim Anuak people slain them in front of their families with machetes.

* The writer is a citizen of the greater East Africa area and is the Editor of www.gambelatoday.com, a website which is devoted to publishing news and commentaries on issues concerning Sudan Gambella state and Ethiopia. He can be reached at api@gambelatoday.com

Oromo: OLF Urges Ireland to Press for Democratic Change in Ethiopia

Dec 10, 2006 (DUBLIN) — The Ethiopian opposition OLF urged Ireland to put pressure on the Ethiopian government in order to hold a conference with the participation of the opposition forces, stressing that dialogue is the sole way to end the current crisis in the country.

In a speech before the Irish Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, the OLF Representative in Europe, Dr. Shigut Geleta, hailed the recent criticism of the violations of human rights and the deficit of freedom and democracy in Ethiopia by the Irish government.

He further said the western countries are able to push for the respect of the Human rights and democracy in Ethiopia “because the regime survives with western money”.

He expressed the wish of the Ethiopian opposition coalition AFD for the held of an all-inclusive conference, “but the government rejects such dialogue” he added.

He further accused the government of declaring war on Somalia to divert the attention form the deteriorated internal situation. He said such move could lead to regional instability.

“The crisis will get worse unless the regime heeds the call for dialogue. However, for this to happen, Europe and the US have to stop handling the ruling party and the Prime Minister with a kid’s glove.” He said.