Oromo nationals in Berlin march in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street movement in Germany

November 24, 2011

On November 12, 2011,the Oromo nationals in Berlin, Germany, staged demonstration of protest against Meles Zenawi’s sell of or lease of lands in Oromia to the domestic and transnational corporations, to local and international land speculators for profit, and to the rich individuals and foreign governments. The land speculators buy-up the lands and sell them for profits to another speculators. They are daily flooding Oromia to buy Oromo lands. At the same time, this march is also to show solidarity with Occupy Wall Street Movement in Germany. Read more…

US official warns Ethiopia not to invade Somalia, but it’s too late

The State Department’s top Africa policymaker on Tuesday warned Ethiopia not to invade Somalia, but the warning came too late, with Somalis claiming that Ethiopian troops were already rolling through their villages in trucks.

The statement from Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, was a sign that Washington is growing increasingly wary of a month-old offensive against the Islamist militant group al-Shabab that was launched by Kenya and now appears to include Ethiopia.

“We firmly believe that the best way to deal with al-Shabab and the way to restore stability is working with AMISOM militarily, using them as a vehicle to advance security,” Carson said in response to a question during a conference call with reporters. AMISOM is the acronym for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, which is manned mostly by troops from Uganda and Burundi.

“I would remind the caller that Ethiopia went into Somalia some four and a half years ago and stayed for approximately two and a half to three years. That effort was not universally successful and led in fact to the rise of Shabab after they pulled out,” Carson said.

Carson’s remarks also could be viewed as a rebuke of Kenya, another U.S. ally in East Africa. Kenyan troops invaded Somalia last month, ostensibly after kidnappings along its border with Somalia. According to U.S. diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks, Carson was very critical in 2010 of a Kenyan plan to use proxy Somali militias to go on an offensive against al-Shabab and create space for a regional administration in southern Somalia.

U.S. officials say Kenya did not consult them before launching its recent incursion.

Now, Somalis say, Ethiopia has joined the fray.

Abdi Wehliye, 43, who lives in Gurieel town in central Somalia’s Galgudud region, says that fellow townsmen saw Ethiopian troops rolling up on Saturday evening. He saw them Sunday morning 5 kilometers outside town, where he says they have pitched camp. On Sunday, Ethiopian commanders, escorted by a small number of troops, came into the town to meet with local elders and officials, he said.

Somalis are notoriously xenophobic when it comes to outside interference in their own affairs, and Somalis view Ethiopia as a historical arch nemesis. That sentiment was used by al-Shabab during Ethiopia’s 2006-2008 occupation to rally support for its insurgency.

The U.S. is all too aware of that history, having backed Ethiopia’s military adventure in 2006. The U.S. itself pulled troops out of Somalia in the early 1990s after they became the targets of regular Somali attacks.

Wehliye said, however, that while people don’t like Ethiopians, their dismay has been tempered by their anger at al-Shabab for its brutal and ultimately disastrous administrative tactics, which many blame for the devastating famine that is expected to leave hundreds of thousands dead this year in central and southern Somalia. Al-Shabab banned most Western aid and recruits barely teenage boys to fight.

“I thought some people would jump and start carrying guns against Ethiopia but it seems they are not yet sure what they want,” Wehliye said in a phone interview. “Many Somalis hate al Shabab for what they have done to them and their families.”

Ethiopian troops have also entered central Somalia’s Hiraan region, said a resident of Beledweyne town who asked to be identified only as Hussein for security reasons. He said that al-Shabab had treated Somalis like “slaves in our own country” and that he welcomed the Ethiopians, who he said had arrived near Beledweyne in five trucks in recent days.

“I support anyone who helps us fight al-Shabab. We want to get our freedom back. Al-Shabab are the ones who brought this entire problem on us. They are the reason so many countries want to invade Somalia,” he said.

Not everyone reached by phone seemed keen on an Ethiopian presence, however, a fact that U.S. officials are certain to seize on to discourage a prolonged presence inside Somalia. The Ethiopian government has categorically denied that its troops have entered Somalia.

Waeys Ahmed, who is also from Gurieel, said he would be happy to see al-Shabab “wiped out.”

“But with Ethiopia and Kenya coming to fight al-Shabab, I don’t think it’s good for the interest of Somalis. They have their own agendas,” he said. “This is taking us back to where we were in 2007, when al-Shabab enjoyed more support from the population.”

The Somali government, which from its limited control in Mogadishu can do little about the arrival of foreign troops, has struggled to find the right tone in responding to the incursions.

On Tuesday, Somalia government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said that while Kenya is welcome because it entered into an agreement with his government, Ethiopia is not.

“We are a sovereign country, so foreign troops cannot enter without bilateral agreement or a legal mandate,” Osman said.

But he also said he was taking the Ethiopian denials at face value, despite what Somali residents say.

“There are no Ethiopian troops on our soil,” he said.

Source: mcclatchydc.com

Ibsa Walhubannoo THBO fii ABO

Sadaasa 11, 2011

Adda Bilisummaa Oromo (ABO/OLF) fi Tokkummaa Humnoota Bilisummaa Oromo (THBO/ULFO)

Nuti dhabboleen lamaan ABO fii THBOn kan seenaa of danda’aa mata-mataa ofii qabnu, haallan keessa daddabarree har’a geenyees moyxannoo gurguddoon kan irraa horataman akka tahan bekkamaa dha. Seenaa qabsoo isaa keessatti haallan har’a irra gahaa jiran ka durii irraa ayinaa fi hammeenyaan fofokkatoo fi hamoo akka tahan Ummatni Oromoo gadda guddaattiin ilaalu. Ibsa Guutuu

ETHIOPIA-KENYA: Who rules the range?

Photo: Andrew Heavens/Flickr

For pastoral communities, the rangeland is perceived as a single, communally-owned economic resource (file photo)

LONDON, 24 October 2011 (IRIN)- The border land between Kenya and Ethiopia is a vast, open plain under a big sky. Hard red earth shows through the thin grass of the sun-baked landscape, an expanse of thorny scrub, flat-topped thorn-trees and tall red anthills. There are no fences or other visible boundaries, and few people, just occasional groups of cattle or goats with their herders. To the untutored eye it can look like empty land, where wandering nomads graze their animals at random.

But there is nothing random about it. This unpromising landscape can provide a good living for livestock if it is carefully managed, and the herds are kept on the move across the seasons so they make the optimum use of each area of pasture and each water source. Over the years, the herders have built up a great body of expertise about how best to manage the area's resources.

And the land is also definitely not "empty" in the sense that it belongs to no one - the people of the area are quite clear about whose land is whose, in terms not of individuals, but of different communities.

Sara Pavanello, who has just completed a three-year study of how natural resources are managed in the area, says: "The pastoralists I spoke to very often used collective terms, saying for example, 'Our resources, we decide, we manage…' For pastoral communities, the rangeland as a whole is perceived as one single economic resource that’s communally owned, even if this tract of rangeland has been divided by the international border. At the same time different ethnic groups own, or exercise control over specific territory and the natural resources found within it." ...read more

Recollection of Some Facts of Oromo Struggle

Gubirmans.com

‎"The way national liberation movements and multinational organizations view the Mallas regime are different. The multinational organizations want Minilik’s throne on which he is sitting by any means possible. His recognition of the existence of nations and nationalities, other than theirs, was also considered as betrayal of heritages of the scramble for Africa. National liberation organizations had no interest in the throne, but ask him to take it out of Oromiyaa. They take to be recognized as a people, not as gift of a Nafxanyaa, but natural law. They demand from him the secession of occupation. He has to pack and leave Oromiyaa for Oromiyaans. This, they believe, could materialize peacefully unless the colonizer insists on violence." By Ibsaa Guutama

“Independent State of Oromia, a Bargaining Chip” – Dima Noggo Sarbo

www.oromoaffairs.blogspot.com

In an interview he gave to ESAT (Amhara Satellite TV program) lasting about 90 minutes, Dima Nego gave a lengthy account of the Oromo struggle, the OLF, his involvement in the front and in the transitional government of 1991 in which he served as the minister of information and his opinion on the way forward.

Much of what he told the Habshaa TV station was narration of what has been in the public domain for a long time except for a few pieces he dropped in the course of the interview. Two such information that stood out for many of us were Dima’s claim to first chairmanship of the OLF and his assertions about the “true” intentions of the founders of the organization when they included the realization of independent state of Oromia in their political program.

Does Dima truly understand the implications of what he said?

Simply put, Dima is asserting that our fallen heroes, the likes of Elemo Qilxuu, Gen. Taddasaa Biruu, Magarsaa Barii, Muhe Abdo, Baaroo Tumsaa, Mullis Abbaa Gadaa and more lied to those selfless Oromo youth they put in harm’s way. Besides lying to all, these true sons of the Oromo people who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives never intended to bring about a liberated and decolonized Oromia into existence; never did they intend to dismantle the Ethiopian empire and the colonial administration. Dima would have us, and his Amhara audience, believe that the ones alive today, the likes of Jaarra Abba Gadaa, Dhugaasaa Bakakkoo, Galaasaa Dilboo, Ibsaa Guutamaa and more continue to lie to us even after 40 years. Our artisits, the likes of Ebbisa Addunyaa and Usumayyoo Muusaa paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives for a cause they were cheated into joining. The hundreds of thousands of our brethren who heeded the call of the OLF and joined the front, those who have fallen in the battle fields of Oromia to enemy fire, those who were murdered by consecutive Abyssinian governments, those who endured detention and torture for tens of years were all deceived. There is no other way of understanding Dima’s responses. ...READ MORE

How an Oromoo slave became a South African teacher

Sandra Rowoldt ShellUniversity of Cape TownBBC

Bisho Jarsa, trained as a domestic servant, went on to become a teacher

When Neville Alexander used to visit his maternal grandmother Bisho Jarsa as a boy, he never suspected the extraordinary story of how she had come from Ethiopia to the South African city of Port Elizabeth.

Bisho was one of a group of Ethiopian slaves freed by a British warship in 1888 off the coast of Yemen, then taken round the African coast and placed in the care of missionaries in South Africa.

"We were overawed in her presence and by the way she would mumble to herself in this language none of us understood," recalls Mr Alexander, now 74.

This was Ethiopia's Oromo language, Bisho's mother tongue, which she reverted to as she grew older.

...READ MORE

If you know these people - the freed slaves who decided to return home in 1909 - please use the form below to let us know:

• Aguchello Chabani
• Agude Bulcha
• Amanu Figgo
• Baki Malaka
• Berille Boko Grant
• Dinkitu Boensa
• Fayesse Gemo
• Fayissa Umbe
• Galgal Dikko
• Galgalli Shangalla
• Gamaches Garba
• Gutama Tarafo
• Hawe Sukute
• Liban Bultum
• Nagaro Chali
• Nuro Chabse
• Rufo Gangilla
• Tolassa Wayessa

Ethiopia 'using aid as weapon of oppression'

BBC

Watch Angus Stickler's full report and Ethiopian and UK responses A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression. Posing as tourists the team of journalists travelled to the southern region of Ethiopia. We are just waiting on the crop, if we have one meal a day we will survive until the harvest, beyond that there is no hope for us Villager in southern Ethiopia There they found villages where whole communities are starving, having allegedly been denied basic food, seed and fertiliser for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The investigation has also gathered evidence of mass detentions, the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian government forces. Yet Western donors including Britain - which is the third largest donor to Ethiopia - stand accused of turning a blind eye by continuing to provide aid money despite being warned about the abuses. The aid in question is long-term development aid, not the emergency aid provided in response to the current drought in Ethiopia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa. Government response Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, the Deputy Head of Ethiopia's UK Mission, has rejected the allegations saying that the Newsnight/Bureau report "lacked objectivity, even-handedness". The team found villagers eating leaves in order to survive "The sole source of the story was opponents of Ethiopia who have been rejected by the electorate, and time and again it has been shown that their allegations are unfounded". Our reporters visited one village in southern Ethiopia with a population of about 1,700 adults. Despite being surrounded by other communities which are well fed and prosperous, this village, which cannot be named for fear of reprisals, is starving. We were told that in the two weeks prior to our team's arrival five adults and 10 children had died. Lying on the floor, too exhausted to stand, and flanked by her three-year-old son whose stomach is bloated by malnutrition, one woman described how her family had not eaten for four days. "We are living day to day on the grace of God," she said.

Another three-year-old boy lay in his grandmother's lap, listless and barely moving as he stared into space.

"We are just waiting on the crop, if we have one meal a day we will survive until the harvest, beyond that there is no hope for us," the grandmother said.

'Abandoned'

In another village 30 km (19 miles) away it was a similar story.

Almost all of the aid goes through the government channels... in terms of relief food supply and some of the safety net provisions, they simply don't get to the needy of an equitably basis Professor Beyene Petros, opposition politician

There our team met Yenee, a widow who along with her seven children is surviving by begging, eating leaves and scavenging scraps from the bins in the nearest town.

"The situation is desperate," she said. "We have been abandoned... It is a matter of chance if we live or die."

The two villages sit just 15km (9 miles) either side of a major town, surrounded by other communities where the populations are well fed and healthy. They are in desperate need, but no-one is helping.

According to local opposition members they are being punished for failing to vote for the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which Mr Meles leads.

Further north a group of farmers alienated by Mr Meles' government met the BBC/Bureau team at a secret location on the edge of a remote village.

One farmer described how he had been ostracised for failing to support EPRDF: "Because of our political views we face great intimidation. We are denied the right to fertiliser and seeds because of political ideology," he said.

'Buying support'

The Ethiopian federal and regional governments control the distribution of aid in Ethiopia.

Professor Beyene Petros, the current vice-chairman of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Forum, an alliance of eight opposition parties known as Medrek, told our reporters that aid is not distributed according to need, but according to support for the EPRDF:

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi took power in 1991

"Almost all of the aid goes through the government channels... in terms of relief food supply and some of the safety net provisions, they simply don't get to the needy of an equitably basis.

"There is a great deal of political differentiation. People who support the ruling party, the EPRDF, and our members are treated differently. The motivation is buying support, that is how they recruit support, holding the population hostage," he said.

Mr Beyene said that the international community, including the British government, is well aware of the problem and that he has personally presented them with evidence:

"The position of the donor communities is dismissive... they always want to dismiss it as an isolated incident when we present them with some proof. And we challenge them to go down and check it out for themselves, but they don't do it."

Accountability

The UK International Development Minister Stephen O'Brien issued a statement in response to the allegations raised by the investigation, saying:

"We take all allegations of human rights abuses extremely seriously and raise them immediately with the relevant authorities including the Ethiopian Government, with whom we have a candid relationship. Where there is evidence, we take firm and decisive action.

They raped me in a room, one of them was standing on my mouth, and one tied my hand, they were taking turns, I fainted during this Ethiopian woman from the Ogaden

"The British aid programme helps the people of Ethiopia, 30 million of whom live in extreme poverty. We demand full accountability and maximum impact on the ground for support from the British taxpayer."

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Newsnight also gathered evidence of a crackdown and human rights abuses in Ethiopia's Somali region, the area bordering Somalia and Kenya, also know as the Ogaden region.

Ethnic Somali rebels from the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Ethiopian government forces have been fighting for control of Ogaden since the 1970s.

The media and most aid agencies are banned from the region.

Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries of the world, is currently suffering from horrific drought.

Many of those fleeing the ensuing humanitarian crisis have headed to Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.

It is the largest refugee camp in the world, and the vast majority of the 400,000 people there are from Somalia, but among them are an increasing number of Ethiopians from the Ogaden.

'Revenge killings'

Abdifatah Arab Olad, an Ogaden community leader, told our reporters that up to 100 refugees are arriving every month with tales of killings and the burning of villages by government troops.

Ethiopians from the Ogaden are fleeing to Dadaab refugee camp

"Whenever fighting has taken place between the rebels and the army, for each army member that is killed, the military go to the nearest town and they start killing people," he said. "For each army member killed it equals to 10 civilians losses."

In the corner of a makeshift shack in the camp, an old woman who had arrived from Ogaden three weeks earlier described being arrested along with 100 others in her village.

She said they were taken to a jail where they were locked up in a shipping container, and picked out on a nightly basis to be tortured:

"They beat me then started to rape me; I screamed and fought with them... I tried to bite them... they tied me this way," she said, gesturing to her legs.

"They raped me in a room, one of them was standing on my mouth, and one tied my hand, they were taking turns, I fainted during this... I can't say how many, but they were many in the army," she said.

'Assaulted when pregnant'

Other women in the camp also said they had been arrested and accused of being members of the OLNF.

They included one who said that she was eight months pregnant when she was detained and raped by eight soldiers:

"They were beating me while I was being raped, I was bleeding," she said, describing how one soldier stamped on her stomach and beat her with the stock of his rifle:

"I fell unconscious when I saw my baby... a man jumping on your stomach, you can imagine what happened to the child, very big kicks blows with the back of a gun. As a consequence of that the child died."

We cannot substantiate these individual allegations. But other credible sources have reported similar stories of the widespread use of rape by Ethiopian security forces against women in the Ogaden.

Speaking on Newsnight, Ethiopia's Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane said that the claims of rape and torture were a "rehash" of old allegations that the Ethiopian government had answered time and again.

"The Ethiopian government is governed by the rule of law, and human rights and democratic rights are enshrined in the Ethiopian constitution," he said.