AU peacekeepers killed in Somalia
The convoy was on patrol in the north of MogadishuFour African Union soldiers have been killed after a roadside bomb struck their convoy while on patrol at the north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
AU spokesman Paddy Ankunda said five other soldiers were injured in the explosion targeted at the peacekeepers.
The attack is the deadliest on the peacekeepers since 1,600 Uganda soldiers deployed to the city in March.
A proposed force of 8,000 AU soldiers is due to take over security duties from the Ethiopian army.
Ethiopia's troops have been in Mogadishu since December at the invitation of Somalia's transitional government fighting Islamist insurgents and clan militiamen.
The attack comes only a day after Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf held talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in Kampala over the mission.
"We lost four and five were wounded. It was a roadside bomb and its intention was to hit the peacekeepers," Mr Ankunda told Reuters news agency.
He told the BBC that the wounded would be evacuated to Uganda for treatment.
The interim President's spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mohamud blamed the attack on Al-Qaeda elements still residing in Mogadishu and said they were hunting for them.
Cinema attack
Earlier, four people were killed in the Gedo region, south of the capital, Mogadishu, when an unknown man threw an explosive at a cinema hall.
Baardheere Police chief Mohammed Yare said 20 others were seriously injured during the attack which took place while they were watching an Indian film.
"We do not know who is responsible for the attack but are investigating," Mr Yare told the Associated Press news agency.
On Monday, a similar blast occurred at a different cinema hall but there were no casualties during the incident.
Health officials in Gedo are battling to treat the victims of the attack and lack resources.
"Most have serious wounds and we are trying to help though we do not have enough medicine," Dr Bashir Ali of Shifo Hospital where most of the casualties were taken said. During the six-month rule in Mogadishu and southern parts of Somalia, the Union of Islamic Courts banned cinemas, television viewing and music.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Warning
On Tuesday, the US and the AU warned Ethiopia not to withdraw its troops from Somalia before peacekeepers are deployed to replace them.
AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare said it would be a "catastrophe" if Ethiopia pulled out too soon.
US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said it would probably be several months before the full peacekeeping force arrived.
Ethiopia's prime minister says he wants to withdraw all his troops, after they helped oust the Union of Islamic Courts.
Somalia has been without an effective national government for 16 years, controlled by rival militias and awash with guns.
Releases
Two foreign aid workers kidnapped last week in northern Somalia have been released.
Reports from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland say the pair - one Kenyan and one British - were being flown to Nairobi after their kidnappers handed them over to local elders.
Both men are employees of the London-based charity, Care International.
Its director in Somalia, David Gilmour, said they were relieved that the issue was resolved with nobody being harmed.
One of the kidnappers told Reuters news agency by satellite telephone that they had released the aid workers following successful negotiations with the Puntland authorities; but he did not elaborate.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Ethiopia: ONLF Army takes over Qalafe City
Reports from our Ogaden Online reporter in the Godey province confirm the capture of Qalafe city by Ogaden National Liberation Army, ONLA, around 9:30 AM on Monday May 14th.
Reports add that the Ethiopian military personnel and its associated militias in and around the city of Qalafe did not mount any resistance having seen and received in advance a reconnaissance report indicating the strength of the ONLA. Eyewitnesses confirm that the Ethiopian military abandoned its garrisons immediately after the first ONLA fighters enteredthe city.
Eyewitnesses indicate that the victorious ONLA convened a gathering for all the city dwellers in order to explain the long-term objectives of ONLF and the successes of the struggle against the colonial Ethiopian forces in Ogaden. Qalafe residents were observed congratulating each other and ONLA for having defeated the Ethiopian military.
In a related news, it is reported that a high ranking military officer and a strategic military advisor to the head of the Ethiopian autocracy has acknowledged the futility of the current plans to wage an expansive military campaign against the entrenched ONLA throughout Ogaden.
This high-ranking military officer used the Ethiopian military defeat at Cobole as an example as to why it will be next to impossible to overcome the strength, high morale, and the ever-increasing number of ONLA throughout Ogaden. He added that every military defeat at the hands of ONLA increases the number of Ethiopians defecting to ONLF or asking for a safe passage to a third country.
Other reports from many parts of Ogaden indicate the continuation and the increase of missions to kill, maim, rape, and loot public property carried out by the Ethiopian military and its associated militias in many parts of Ogaden.
Source: Ogaden Online News
Reports add that the Ethiopian military personnel and its associated militias in and around the city of Qalafe did not mount any resistance having seen and received in advance a reconnaissance report indicating the strength of the ONLA. Eyewitnesses confirm that the Ethiopian military abandoned its garrisons immediately after the first ONLA fighters enteredthe city.
Eyewitnesses indicate that the victorious ONLA convened a gathering for all the city dwellers in order to explain the long-term objectives of ONLF and the successes of the struggle against the colonial Ethiopian forces in Ogaden. Qalafe residents were observed congratulating each other and ONLA for having defeated the Ethiopian military.
In a related news, it is reported that a high ranking military officer and a strategic military advisor to the head of the Ethiopian autocracy has acknowledged the futility of the current plans to wage an expansive military campaign against the entrenched ONLA throughout Ogaden.
This high-ranking military officer used the Ethiopian military defeat at Cobole as an example as to why it will be next to impossible to overcome the strength, high morale, and the ever-increasing number of ONLA throughout Ogaden. He added that every military defeat at the hands of ONLA increases the number of Ethiopians defecting to ONLF or asking for a safe passage to a third country.
Other reports from many parts of Ogaden indicate the continuation and the increase of missions to kill, maim, rape, and loot public property carried out by the Ethiopian military and its associated militias in many parts of Ogaden.
Source: Ogaden Online News
The lethal myth of Abyssinia: the ‘Ethiopia’ Hold Up
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
May 15, 2007
The various oppressed peoples of the most inhuman African tyranny, namely Abyssinia, have their own viewpoint over the atrocious metamorphoses of the hideous rule of the Amhara and Tigray minorities; the overwhelming majority of the tyrannized Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidamas and Afars, without being historians, can describe in the most accurate and yet colourful way the numerous, successive, failed efforts of transformation of the relic bogus-institution “Ethiopia”; as a matter of fact, the only fate this hideous tyranny deserves is not transformation but annihilation. And whether colonial criminals in Paris and London like it or not, this will come before too long.
I am glad to present here another illuminating text by the great Oromo intellectual Rundassa Eshete, whose trajectory from Africa to Russia and then to the States is a proof of his identity as Citizen of the World. In the first part of his article, Mr. Eshete focuses on earlier tyrannical Abyssinian regimes’ propaganda. The second part concerns the present regime’s propaganda of historical falsehood. I believe we can all take a lesson of Humanism, going through a text that exposes perfectly well the Oromo viewpoint on the polarization between the reality of the Oppressed and the myth of the Tyrants.
The Abyssinian Myth and Reality
By Rundassa Eshete
The Amhara and the Tigre share a 3000-year old myth geared to link themselves to king Solomon of Israel. We, the Oromians, and the rest of 93 ethnic group of southern Ethiopia have no quarrel with this myth because this Abyssinians’ myth may have some fact in it when it comes to the origin of these two tribes, namely the Tigre and Amhara.
How ever, we the people of south Ethiopia strongly resent what these two groups have done to us during the last 129 years. That is why we condemn and refuse to take pride in the history of heinous crimes, wanton violations of individual human rights, and national dignities of the last century.
Amhara / Tigre expansion to the South took place in the late 19th century under the leadership of Emperor Menelik II whose underlying ambition was to loot as much as possible wealth from Biyya-Oromo (homeland) and the land of other nationalities through continuous expansion of his borders until he was stopped because of the threat of European Colonial Powers stationed in Somalia . After he crossed into the heart of the land of the Somalis, he was forced to negotiate the current Ethiopian borders with the British, the Italians and the French who controlled divided Somalia at those days. It is to be reminded that the UN recognized Ethiopia ’s current territory during Haile Selasie’s imperial rule.
The negotiations between the European colonial trio and Menelik ended with an agreement, and according to its terms Menelik would promote and help expand Euro-centric religious ideology, which he did by killing 5 million Oromos, men and women, in 1896. In return, European Colonials would fund his task of murdering those whom they called “Gallas”, which meant ‘savages who do not accept the light of Jesus Christ’. This agreement did help Menelik tremendously as he received European recognition under the coverage of the myth of the 3,000-year old, great Ethiopia, a myth that had absolutely no relevance. Besides, it would be wise to wonder why no other nation in Ethiopia believes in this myth except the Abyssinian Amhara and Tigre whose stakes hinge thereon. Simply put it, the history of Amhara / Tigre dominance over the peoples of the south then dates only as far back as the beginning of the Menelik Empire.
Nevertheless, the myth that has been established by Menelik just 120 years ago not only helped the perpetrators (the Tigre /Amhara tribes) and their descendants to propagate their supposedly glorious past, but it also enabled them to convince the Westerners that they would be a worthy and close ally; finally they obtained Western approval to accomplish their objective of enslaving native Africans, like the majority of the Oromians, an act they perpetrated without shame, remorse or regret.
For example, the Clinton administration was in the process of sending military aid to three African countries that collaborated to help overthrow the militant Islamic regime in Sudan, which was regarded by Washington as a key sponsor of international terrorism at those days.
Nearly US $20 m in surplus U.S. military equipment was sent to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda and these three countries were also ordered to help Christian Southern Sudan by preparing a joint offensive to topple the Khartoum government.
During that time, Secretary of State Warren Christopher made a visit to Ethiopia and CIA Director John M. Deutch also made a 3-day visit to Ethiopia, a country they referred to as a "frontline state" that finally received in fact US $106 m in total U.S. assistance during that fiscal year regardless of the ceaseless murders committed against thousands of Oromo youth by the Tigre tribal administration that the Westerners had put in power in 1991.
Here we know that the Westerners never ever shied from telling the truth about their “national interest” for what they go to war or spend billions of dollars financing people like Mobutu of Zair and Mubarak of Egypt; the same happens with the Abyssinian dictator ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi, simply in this case the assistance and support from the US government to the Tigre tribe is a continuation of the colonial trust established in the 19th century following the myth introduced by Menelik in 1800s. As a consequence, America and Britain name the modern descendent of the mythical Abyssinian as “the new African breed” just because he works to fulfill the myth the Westerners appreciate so much. As a result, the present Abyssinian Tigre minority government led by Meles Zenawi sought to restore close security ties with Washington in order to become the cornerstone for U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa region.
Of course, the Tigre tribe minority has learned how to produce reality show whereby the present ‘images’ from Eastern Oromia that reveal massive killings of Amharas that they blame on the Oromo Liberation Front! How comical that nobody wondered how Tigre-led TPLF teams could possibly shoot the movie in front of OLF fighters who would have killed that team first! It would be relevant of farce to think that the OLF called the TPLF team inviting them to planned massacres of Amharas, as they shamefully pretend.
Quite interestingly, the Tigre administration produced another forgery whereby a Tigre security officer acting as a fanatic Sudanese Muslim played the theater of attempting to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in June 1995. This theatrical affair and forged movie did hit its intended goal, namely to earn TPLF US praise for its loyalty to America, while at the same time hardening U.S. relationship with Sudan for its supposed involvement in the attempted murder of Mubarak. Furthermore, the forged movie helped the Tigre tribe government to force Sudan to shut down OLF office and radio station in Sudan and to stop assisting it. At the same time, it placed ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi on a regionally influential position from where he could control Oromian refugees and assassinate men like Jatani Ali in Kenya, Muli’s Abbaa Gadaa in Somalia, plus thousands in Djibouti. He even succeeded to have many Oromians arrested in Yemen and deported from there back to Abyssinia.
‘Melesovic’ Zenawi, via this reality show that was produced at a fair cost, strengthened his reign in Ethiopia, and more recently he took further his "tactical" and "cosmetic" steps, enjoying economic benefit as long as the term “terrorism” remains associated with Islam.
Since Mr. Bush came to power in America, ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi’s relationship appeared to represent a subtle distinction, as US administration officials conceded that Abyssinia got new military aid; it was with that help that Zenawi invaded Somalia and may be he is trying to provoke also a war with Sudan by using the Darfur incidence.
Eritrean President Isayas Afeworki has also received some assistance from the U.S. and even said "We are no longer prepared to play Tom and Jerry games with Khartoum. The stability of the region depends on the regime's defeat. There is no more room for diplomacy and no compromise".
U.S. officials estimate that more than 3,000 Sudanese rebels are marshaling in Eritrea for a joint offensive that is expected to concentrate on cutting the vital road running from Khartoum to Port Sudan .
So, mythical Abyssinia is not only a Jewish state via its forged myth but also a Western government and a genuine conduit for the expansion of Western ethnocentric views and ideologies that they dream to shape the entire world with. With the initial US $15 m in military aid for the three countries, involving US $7.3 m earmarked for Ethiopia and US $3.85 m each for Eritrea and Uganda, invading Somalia and enslaving the Oromians is a simple task, and eventually more money may be needed for Tigre administration of Abyssinia to implement the long term plan of building numerous , vast prisons throughout Oromia.
For other nations, history is may signify a real re-birth, but in Abyssinia, the Tigre tribes repeat the history of their forefather Menelik, who promised to build a strong Christian Empire by withstanding Muslim incursion and expansion. To prove this assessment of mine, one must look at the demographic details of Abyssinia and evaluate otherwise hidden realities. For example, the Muslims constitute more than 50% of the total population but the country has always been, and is still being identified as a …. ‘Christian island’. As it was historically customary for conquerors, the empire subjected the mostly Muslim southern nations therefore turning them to a booty for plunder and pillage with no legal, moral or ethical limitations. Their arrogance, or to put it better their political ignorance, shows in that - to heal the lethal wounds caused by their system - they suggest no acceptable platform other than their ‘hollow’ democracy and federation, namely a form of federation whereby a small tiny tribe rules over majority which is constituted by the Oromians and the other southern and eastern nations of Abyssiniia; so democratic is the system they suggest that they have planned to indulge themselves to murdering whomever they want and whenever it pleases them.
Just like Menelik and Haile Selassie, the Tigre-led government of Abyssinia, typically personified by Melesovic Zenawi, prescribes an ethnic federation like the present system ruled by Tigre and Oromian individuals; however, this kind of federation cannot be the result of an imposed from above, imperial, unity. True federation can only be established following a democratic consensus whereby independently and democratically taken decisions within each different nation of the federation are proportionally represented in the Federal Assembly, and subsequently within the government.
However, like a reality movie producer, the Tigreans will never accept such a system, as long as they are the beneficiaries of the present system; it is thus logically expected that their dishonesty will continue until they are forced out of Finfinnee.
The Amharas’ myths
As far as the Amhara tribe is concerned, one must admit that they must have learned something from the jailing of their leaders; by now they know how it feels to be oppressed, even in cases you are allowed to establish political parties and to speak freely. In other words, prideful Amharas now know that they are subjected to the same Tigre manipulations like all other nations and that they must be ready to accept equality with the other nations of Abyssinia, Consequently, they must understand that they have to stop crying for their dying empire and start contributing to the abolition of Abyssinia’s imperial structures once forever. The imprisoned Amhara leaders should rather start thinking about a form of unity that could eventually be possible within a new Abyssinia whereby nations should be first asked in a referendum whether they want to belong or not.
During the past seventeen (17) years, we have witnessed the fact that the Tigreans exhibited a certain degree of preparedness to revenge their old leader Yohanes, who was killed in a border clash with the Sudanese before facing Menelik of Amhara region. This is the reason they see themselves as the lone leaders of Ethiopia. We also know that Amharas feel that ruling the south is their affair and that the Oromians ‘belong’ to them because Menelik settled them in Oromia as soldiers, in areas he conquered; however, the truth is that the land of Oromia still belongs to the Oromians, even if one third of Oromia was given as lot to his Amhara soldiers, one third to the Coptic Church of Abyssinia, and only the rest was left to the indigenous people. During the implementation of this project, the Southern peoples not only lost the third of land that was originally granted to them by decree, but also their human dignity and pride as they became serfs in service on the land of the Amhara soldiers and the Abyssinian church.
For several years, they could not leave the land unless evicted, they could not sent their children to school without the permission of their masters, the Amhara solders, and they could not own or carry weapons other than farm implements. Continuous campaigns of dehumanization were carried out through popular songs and sayings to make Oromos accept that they were inferior beings to the Amharas, uncivilized and cowards.
It was inhumanly hard on the Oromo as they formed the majority of the people of the Ethiopian Empire. The people tilled the land for the soldiers, and later for their descendants for most of the days in a week and, in addition, they were required by law to hand over three-fourths of the produce of their own fields. This same Menelik is portrayed by Amhara ideologies as the Architect of the Modernization of Ethiopia. It may be so, but what is true for the conquerors is not necessarily true for the conquered.
The successors of Menelik, conscious through wars and contemporary contacts, semi-modernized their governance to challenge the serfdom, and to free the peasant system, thus requiring the peasant to pay out only three-fourths of his produce to his landlord. As a preoccupation the successor group consistently tried to develop the ideology of Amharism and impose it on the southern peoples.
The purpose of all these superficial changes is to retain the unity of Ethiopia ; the country of their forced creation. The content of the ideology is simple. It was geared to
1.re-‘create’ the greatness of Abyssinia by diffusing the myth of 3,000 years of history,
2.establish the legitimacy of Amhara superiority in terms of rule,
3.develop the Amharic language to replace all other languages,
4.embrace the Coptic Abyssinian belief as the preferable sect of the Christian Religionm without openly combating other sects,
5.openly discourage the spread of Islam and Waqefata without persecuting it,
6.allow and encourage widespread intermarriages, and
7.exonerate and compensate willing conformists through partial access to the system - without revealing their secrets.
The ruling group consisted of members of the ‘Imperial Court’ and those belonging to their services, the nobility, the conqueror soldiers and their descendants, and the bureaucracy that was mostly Amhara. The non-Amhara elite members were those who succumbed to opportunism and underwent the process of self-denial, becoming tehrefore more Amhara than the Amhara themselves…
The average Amhara people were neither conscious nor a direct material beneficiary of the system though they were not as exploited as the people of the South, enjoying the benefit of moral superiority. Of course, the system automatically embraced and helped to access even an illiterate Amhara who could venture to migrate to the South.
Educated Southerners were compromised by the offer of relatively good salaries and detached placement to cities other than the areas of their nationality mainly in the North. The group maintained very loose connections to the cultural roots of the Amhara. Most of the decision makers were descendants of the conquering soldiers of the South. As they were busy protecting their interests in the South through the application of their hollow Amharization policy, they neglected the development of their base - the Amhara region - altogether. Members of other nationalities who were employed to serve the system were both alien to, and alienated from, the system. All operated outside and were subject to no societal norms, value pressures and censures. As a result, the system in no time degenerated, becoming corrupt, filthy, and decayed, and the rulers proved to be the most irresponsible group of people.
The Amhara ideology had nothing else to offer except a new language and religion that should be attractive enough to compensate apostates for lost identity. The people of the South silently rejected it overwhelmingly. The Amhara people also offered very limited response, if at all, during their time of need as there was very little feeling of belonging, mutual trust, or confidence among them. Thus, the system gradually collapsed. The rescue attempt through the instruments of what Markakis calls "Garisson Socialism" could not salvage the situation. About two decades of military socialist dictatorship only heightened the hatred for the Empire, and the resolve of the Southern peoples to disengage from the relationship.
The Amhara made last minute dives to save the situation. They tried two thronged uncompromising approaches - the civilian throng and the military throng.
The civilian throng consisted of the EPRP, MEISON, EDU League, etc. The military stood by itself, supported by some groups of the civilian throng. None of them faced the problems squarely. They were not willing to blame themselves. They tried to blame the national alienation and subjugation as due to struggle of classes, and sought to prescribe external socialist/communist solutions. The people of the different nationalities did not accept their proposals. The people were all thrown into abject poverty, beggary, dislocation and the consequential losses of human dignity.
The Amhara created an illusory ‘Ethiopia’, an old empire in the modern world; they formulated an incoherent and non-attractive ideology in a desperate rush to transform the people of different nationalities, and make out of it a new ‘Ethiopian’ entity, assuming that they would thus turn an empire into a national state!
Throughout the World History, empires never changed into national states. Quite contrarily, they all collapsed and disintegrated without exception. The same occurred with the Amhara imperial elite group; it failed to create an Amhara national state. However, they blindly argued that there are no more nationalities in their ‘Ethiopian’ fabrication! They even dared deny the Amhara national identity itself, just to oppose the Oromians’ liberation struggle.
NOTE: The Oromo flag is a matter of great African symbolism.
May 15, 2007
The various oppressed peoples of the most inhuman African tyranny, namely Abyssinia, have their own viewpoint over the atrocious metamorphoses of the hideous rule of the Amhara and Tigray minorities; the overwhelming majority of the tyrannized Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidamas and Afars, without being historians, can describe in the most accurate and yet colourful way the numerous, successive, failed efforts of transformation of the relic bogus-institution “Ethiopia”; as a matter of fact, the only fate this hideous tyranny deserves is not transformation but annihilation. And whether colonial criminals in Paris and London like it or not, this will come before too long.
I am glad to present here another illuminating text by the great Oromo intellectual Rundassa Eshete, whose trajectory from Africa to Russia and then to the States is a proof of his identity as Citizen of the World. In the first part of his article, Mr. Eshete focuses on earlier tyrannical Abyssinian regimes’ propaganda. The second part concerns the present regime’s propaganda of historical falsehood. I believe we can all take a lesson of Humanism, going through a text that exposes perfectly well the Oromo viewpoint on the polarization between the reality of the Oppressed and the myth of the Tyrants.
The Abyssinian Myth and Reality
By Rundassa Eshete
The Amhara and the Tigre share a 3000-year old myth geared to link themselves to king Solomon of Israel. We, the Oromians, and the rest of 93 ethnic group of southern Ethiopia have no quarrel with this myth because this Abyssinians’ myth may have some fact in it when it comes to the origin of these two tribes, namely the Tigre and Amhara.
How ever, we the people of south Ethiopia strongly resent what these two groups have done to us during the last 129 years. That is why we condemn and refuse to take pride in the history of heinous crimes, wanton violations of individual human rights, and national dignities of the last century.
Amhara / Tigre expansion to the South took place in the late 19th century under the leadership of Emperor Menelik II whose underlying ambition was to loot as much as possible wealth from Biyya-Oromo (homeland) and the land of other nationalities through continuous expansion of his borders until he was stopped because of the threat of European Colonial Powers stationed in Somalia . After he crossed into the heart of the land of the Somalis, he was forced to negotiate the current Ethiopian borders with the British, the Italians and the French who controlled divided Somalia at those days. It is to be reminded that the UN recognized Ethiopia ’s current territory during Haile Selasie’s imperial rule.
The negotiations between the European colonial trio and Menelik ended with an agreement, and according to its terms Menelik would promote and help expand Euro-centric religious ideology, which he did by killing 5 million Oromos, men and women, in 1896. In return, European Colonials would fund his task of murdering those whom they called “Gallas”, which meant ‘savages who do not accept the light of Jesus Christ’. This agreement did help Menelik tremendously as he received European recognition under the coverage of the myth of the 3,000-year old, great Ethiopia, a myth that had absolutely no relevance. Besides, it would be wise to wonder why no other nation in Ethiopia believes in this myth except the Abyssinian Amhara and Tigre whose stakes hinge thereon. Simply put it, the history of Amhara / Tigre dominance over the peoples of the south then dates only as far back as the beginning of the Menelik Empire.
Nevertheless, the myth that has been established by Menelik just 120 years ago not only helped the perpetrators (the Tigre /Amhara tribes) and their descendants to propagate their supposedly glorious past, but it also enabled them to convince the Westerners that they would be a worthy and close ally; finally they obtained Western approval to accomplish their objective of enslaving native Africans, like the majority of the Oromians, an act they perpetrated without shame, remorse or regret.
For example, the Clinton administration was in the process of sending military aid to three African countries that collaborated to help overthrow the militant Islamic regime in Sudan, which was regarded by Washington as a key sponsor of international terrorism at those days.
Nearly US $20 m in surplus U.S. military equipment was sent to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda and these three countries were also ordered to help Christian Southern Sudan by preparing a joint offensive to topple the Khartoum government.
During that time, Secretary of State Warren Christopher made a visit to Ethiopia and CIA Director John M. Deutch also made a 3-day visit to Ethiopia, a country they referred to as a "frontline state" that finally received in fact US $106 m in total U.S. assistance during that fiscal year regardless of the ceaseless murders committed against thousands of Oromo youth by the Tigre tribal administration that the Westerners had put in power in 1991.
Here we know that the Westerners never ever shied from telling the truth about their “national interest” for what they go to war or spend billions of dollars financing people like Mobutu of Zair and Mubarak of Egypt; the same happens with the Abyssinian dictator ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi, simply in this case the assistance and support from the US government to the Tigre tribe is a continuation of the colonial trust established in the 19th century following the myth introduced by Menelik in 1800s. As a consequence, America and Britain name the modern descendent of the mythical Abyssinian as “the new African breed” just because he works to fulfill the myth the Westerners appreciate so much. As a result, the present Abyssinian Tigre minority government led by Meles Zenawi sought to restore close security ties with Washington in order to become the cornerstone for U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa region.
Of course, the Tigre tribe minority has learned how to produce reality show whereby the present ‘images’ from Eastern Oromia that reveal massive killings of Amharas that they blame on the Oromo Liberation Front! How comical that nobody wondered how Tigre-led TPLF teams could possibly shoot the movie in front of OLF fighters who would have killed that team first! It would be relevant of farce to think that the OLF called the TPLF team inviting them to planned massacres of Amharas, as they shamefully pretend.
Quite interestingly, the Tigre administration produced another forgery whereby a Tigre security officer acting as a fanatic Sudanese Muslim played the theater of attempting to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in June 1995. This theatrical affair and forged movie did hit its intended goal, namely to earn TPLF US praise for its loyalty to America, while at the same time hardening U.S. relationship with Sudan for its supposed involvement in the attempted murder of Mubarak. Furthermore, the forged movie helped the Tigre tribe government to force Sudan to shut down OLF office and radio station in Sudan and to stop assisting it. At the same time, it placed ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi on a regionally influential position from where he could control Oromian refugees and assassinate men like Jatani Ali in Kenya, Muli’s Abbaa Gadaa in Somalia, plus thousands in Djibouti. He even succeeded to have many Oromians arrested in Yemen and deported from there back to Abyssinia.
‘Melesovic’ Zenawi, via this reality show that was produced at a fair cost, strengthened his reign in Ethiopia, and more recently he took further his "tactical" and "cosmetic" steps, enjoying economic benefit as long as the term “terrorism” remains associated with Islam.
Since Mr. Bush came to power in America, ‘Melesovic’ Zenawi’s relationship appeared to represent a subtle distinction, as US administration officials conceded that Abyssinia got new military aid; it was with that help that Zenawi invaded Somalia and may be he is trying to provoke also a war with Sudan by using the Darfur incidence.
Eritrean President Isayas Afeworki has also received some assistance from the U.S. and even said "We are no longer prepared to play Tom and Jerry games with Khartoum. The stability of the region depends on the regime's defeat. There is no more room for diplomacy and no compromise".
U.S. officials estimate that more than 3,000 Sudanese rebels are marshaling in Eritrea for a joint offensive that is expected to concentrate on cutting the vital road running from Khartoum to Port Sudan .
So, mythical Abyssinia is not only a Jewish state via its forged myth but also a Western government and a genuine conduit for the expansion of Western ethnocentric views and ideologies that they dream to shape the entire world with. With the initial US $15 m in military aid for the three countries, involving US $7.3 m earmarked for Ethiopia and US $3.85 m each for Eritrea and Uganda, invading Somalia and enslaving the Oromians is a simple task, and eventually more money may be needed for Tigre administration of Abyssinia to implement the long term plan of building numerous , vast prisons throughout Oromia.
For other nations, history is may signify a real re-birth, but in Abyssinia, the Tigre tribes repeat the history of their forefather Menelik, who promised to build a strong Christian Empire by withstanding Muslim incursion and expansion. To prove this assessment of mine, one must look at the demographic details of Abyssinia and evaluate otherwise hidden realities. For example, the Muslims constitute more than 50% of the total population but the country has always been, and is still being identified as a …. ‘Christian island’. As it was historically customary for conquerors, the empire subjected the mostly Muslim southern nations therefore turning them to a booty for plunder and pillage with no legal, moral or ethical limitations. Their arrogance, or to put it better their political ignorance, shows in that - to heal the lethal wounds caused by their system - they suggest no acceptable platform other than their ‘hollow’ democracy and federation, namely a form of federation whereby a small tiny tribe rules over majority which is constituted by the Oromians and the other southern and eastern nations of Abyssiniia; so democratic is the system they suggest that they have planned to indulge themselves to murdering whomever they want and whenever it pleases them.
Just like Menelik and Haile Selassie, the Tigre-led government of Abyssinia, typically personified by Melesovic Zenawi, prescribes an ethnic federation like the present system ruled by Tigre and Oromian individuals; however, this kind of federation cannot be the result of an imposed from above, imperial, unity. True federation can only be established following a democratic consensus whereby independently and democratically taken decisions within each different nation of the federation are proportionally represented in the Federal Assembly, and subsequently within the government.
However, like a reality movie producer, the Tigreans will never accept such a system, as long as they are the beneficiaries of the present system; it is thus logically expected that their dishonesty will continue until they are forced out of Finfinnee.
The Amharas’ myths
As far as the Amhara tribe is concerned, one must admit that they must have learned something from the jailing of their leaders; by now they know how it feels to be oppressed, even in cases you are allowed to establish political parties and to speak freely. In other words, prideful Amharas now know that they are subjected to the same Tigre manipulations like all other nations and that they must be ready to accept equality with the other nations of Abyssinia, Consequently, they must understand that they have to stop crying for their dying empire and start contributing to the abolition of Abyssinia’s imperial structures once forever. The imprisoned Amhara leaders should rather start thinking about a form of unity that could eventually be possible within a new Abyssinia whereby nations should be first asked in a referendum whether they want to belong or not.
During the past seventeen (17) years, we have witnessed the fact that the Tigreans exhibited a certain degree of preparedness to revenge their old leader Yohanes, who was killed in a border clash with the Sudanese before facing Menelik of Amhara region. This is the reason they see themselves as the lone leaders of Ethiopia. We also know that Amharas feel that ruling the south is their affair and that the Oromians ‘belong’ to them because Menelik settled them in Oromia as soldiers, in areas he conquered; however, the truth is that the land of Oromia still belongs to the Oromians, even if one third of Oromia was given as lot to his Amhara soldiers, one third to the Coptic Church of Abyssinia, and only the rest was left to the indigenous people. During the implementation of this project, the Southern peoples not only lost the third of land that was originally granted to them by decree, but also their human dignity and pride as they became serfs in service on the land of the Amhara soldiers and the Abyssinian church.
For several years, they could not leave the land unless evicted, they could not sent their children to school without the permission of their masters, the Amhara solders, and they could not own or carry weapons other than farm implements. Continuous campaigns of dehumanization were carried out through popular songs and sayings to make Oromos accept that they were inferior beings to the Amharas, uncivilized and cowards.
It was inhumanly hard on the Oromo as they formed the majority of the people of the Ethiopian Empire. The people tilled the land for the soldiers, and later for their descendants for most of the days in a week and, in addition, they were required by law to hand over three-fourths of the produce of their own fields. This same Menelik is portrayed by Amhara ideologies as the Architect of the Modernization of Ethiopia. It may be so, but what is true for the conquerors is not necessarily true for the conquered.
The successors of Menelik, conscious through wars and contemporary contacts, semi-modernized their governance to challenge the serfdom, and to free the peasant system, thus requiring the peasant to pay out only three-fourths of his produce to his landlord. As a preoccupation the successor group consistently tried to develop the ideology of Amharism and impose it on the southern peoples.
The purpose of all these superficial changes is to retain the unity of Ethiopia ; the country of their forced creation. The content of the ideology is simple. It was geared to
1.re-‘create’ the greatness of Abyssinia by diffusing the myth of 3,000 years of history,
2.establish the legitimacy of Amhara superiority in terms of rule,
3.develop the Amharic language to replace all other languages,
4.embrace the Coptic Abyssinian belief as the preferable sect of the Christian Religionm without openly combating other sects,
5.openly discourage the spread of Islam and Waqefata without persecuting it,
6.allow and encourage widespread intermarriages, and
7.exonerate and compensate willing conformists through partial access to the system - without revealing their secrets.
The ruling group consisted of members of the ‘Imperial Court’ and those belonging to their services, the nobility, the conqueror soldiers and their descendants, and the bureaucracy that was mostly Amhara. The non-Amhara elite members were those who succumbed to opportunism and underwent the process of self-denial, becoming tehrefore more Amhara than the Amhara themselves…
The average Amhara people were neither conscious nor a direct material beneficiary of the system though they were not as exploited as the people of the South, enjoying the benefit of moral superiority. Of course, the system automatically embraced and helped to access even an illiterate Amhara who could venture to migrate to the South.
Educated Southerners were compromised by the offer of relatively good salaries and detached placement to cities other than the areas of their nationality mainly in the North. The group maintained very loose connections to the cultural roots of the Amhara. Most of the decision makers were descendants of the conquering soldiers of the South. As they were busy protecting their interests in the South through the application of their hollow Amharization policy, they neglected the development of their base - the Amhara region - altogether. Members of other nationalities who were employed to serve the system were both alien to, and alienated from, the system. All operated outside and were subject to no societal norms, value pressures and censures. As a result, the system in no time degenerated, becoming corrupt, filthy, and decayed, and the rulers proved to be the most irresponsible group of people.
The Amhara ideology had nothing else to offer except a new language and religion that should be attractive enough to compensate apostates for lost identity. The people of the South silently rejected it overwhelmingly. The Amhara people also offered very limited response, if at all, during their time of need as there was very little feeling of belonging, mutual trust, or confidence among them. Thus, the system gradually collapsed. The rescue attempt through the instruments of what Markakis calls "Garisson Socialism" could not salvage the situation. About two decades of military socialist dictatorship only heightened the hatred for the Empire, and the resolve of the Southern peoples to disengage from the relationship.
The Amhara made last minute dives to save the situation. They tried two thronged uncompromising approaches - the civilian throng and the military throng.
The civilian throng consisted of the EPRP, MEISON, EDU League, etc. The military stood by itself, supported by some groups of the civilian throng. None of them faced the problems squarely. They were not willing to blame themselves. They tried to blame the national alienation and subjugation as due to struggle of classes, and sought to prescribe external socialist/communist solutions. The people of the different nationalities did not accept their proposals. The people were all thrown into abject poverty, beggary, dislocation and the consequential losses of human dignity.
The Amhara created an illusory ‘Ethiopia’, an old empire in the modern world; they formulated an incoherent and non-attractive ideology in a desperate rush to transform the people of different nationalities, and make out of it a new ‘Ethiopian’ entity, assuming that they would thus turn an empire into a national state!
Throughout the World History, empires never changed into national states. Quite contrarily, they all collapsed and disintegrated without exception. The same occurred with the Amhara imperial elite group; it failed to create an Amhara national state. However, they blindly argued that there are no more nationalities in their ‘Ethiopian’ fabrication! They even dared deny the Amhara national identity itself, just to oppose the Oromians’ liberation struggle.
NOTE: The Oromo flag is a matter of great African symbolism.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Somalia: Top Islamist leader denies contacts with US
Aweys Osman YusufMogadishu 15, May.07 ( Sh.M.Network) The leader of the routed Union of Islamic Courts Executive council, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said he has no relations with United States government.
The leader of the routed Union of Islamic Courts Executive council Sheikh Sharif,
He was reacting to remarks made by US assistant secretary of State for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, who spoke two days earlier about Sheik Sharif’s relations with US in an interview by VOA’s Somali service.
Frazer pointed out in her interview that Sheik Ahmed faked his being a moderate Islamist and was provided with whatever he wanted after he was seized by Kenyan authorities.
Speaking with Al-jazeera’s Arabic TV, Ahmed indicated that he only asked Yemeni government to convince Kenya to open its border for him as he was trying to enter Kenya while fleeing Somalia fighting between Islamists and Ethiopian forces backing the transitional government.
‘I have met US envoy to Kenya (Michael Ranneberger) to convince him to speak with the Ethiopian government over pulling its troops out of Somalia,” he said, denying that he made any other contacts or deals with the American government.
He said it was pointless that Frazer’s remarks showed that the US gave him a cell phone which he contacted with his relatives back home after the Islamic Courts lost to the battle with the government troops and allied Ethiopian forces. “It’s ridiculous that a top US official should speak like that. I had money a mobile phone which I could contact with my people in Somalia,” he said.
He said he was only assisted by Kenya. “The Kenyan government made no impediments on my getting in touch with Somalia and it paid for anything I demanded,” he said.
Ahmed who is in Asmara, Eritrean capital, was still opposing the interim government and the Ethiopian troops present in the country.
The leader of the routed Union of Islamic Courts Executive council Sheikh Sharif,
He was reacting to remarks made by US assistant secretary of State for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, who spoke two days earlier about Sheik Sharif’s relations with US in an interview by VOA’s Somali service.
Frazer pointed out in her interview that Sheik Ahmed faked his being a moderate Islamist and was provided with whatever he wanted after he was seized by Kenyan authorities.
Speaking with Al-jazeera’s Arabic TV, Ahmed indicated that he only asked Yemeni government to convince Kenya to open its border for him as he was trying to enter Kenya while fleeing Somalia fighting between Islamists and Ethiopian forces backing the transitional government.
‘I have met US envoy to Kenya (Michael Ranneberger) to convince him to speak with the Ethiopian government over pulling its troops out of Somalia,” he said, denying that he made any other contacts or deals with the American government.
He said it was pointless that Frazer’s remarks showed that the US gave him a cell phone which he contacted with his relatives back home after the Islamic Courts lost to the battle with the government troops and allied Ethiopian forces. “It’s ridiculous that a top US official should speak like that. I had money a mobile phone which I could contact with my people in Somalia,” he said.
He said he was only assisted by Kenya. “The Kenyan government made no impediments on my getting in touch with Somalia and it paid for anything I demanded,” he said.
Ahmed who is in Asmara, Eritrean capital, was still opposing the interim government and the Ethiopian troops present in the country.
UN official wants inquiry into Somali 'war crimes'
By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
Published: 15 May 2007
A senior United Nations official has called for an investigation into allegations of war crimes in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, following weeks of fighting that has left more than 1,600 people dead and caused hundreds of thousands to flee.
Sir John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, who visited Mogadishu on Saturday, said there was "clearly a need" for an investigation by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.
Ethiopian tanks and helicopters bombarded Mogadishu residential districts during weeks of fighting in March and April as Somalia's Ethiopian-backed interim government attempted to pacify an insurgency. Civilians were caught in the crossfire of what the Red Cross described as the worst fighting in the capital for 15 years.
Human rights groups and regional analysts have accused the government and the Ethiopian forces of committing war crimes. Sir John said Somalia's interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and interim Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, had agreed there should be an investigation. "They accepted it very clearly," he said.
Jose Diaz, a spokesman for Ms Arbour, confirmed that the UN was ready to send a team of human rights investigators to Mogadishu. "It is good to hear that this is the government's position. It needs urgent attention," he said.
Up to 400,000 people have fled the capital since the insurgency began at the end of January. A further 300,000 are believed to be displaced within the city. The fighting has made it difficult for aid agencies to reach those in need and the majority of those who fled Mogadishu are still without any humanitarian assistance.
Some Somali businessmen have sought to take advantage of the situation. In some areas, the price of water has risen by 2,000 per cent, while in others a "shade tax" has been introduced, charging women and children to sit under a tree.
According to the Food Security Analysis Unit, prices for food, rent and transport have risen by between 30 and 70 per cent in the past four weeks.
Sir John warned that, with the rainy season imminent, the humanitarian situation could get much worse. "It is easy to imagine the worst-case scenario when 300,000 people are still out there without shelter," he said. "There is already a lot of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera and that could get much worse"
The Horn of Africa experienced its worst flood season in a decade last year. Any repeat this year would be terrible, he said.
Sir John is the most senior UN official to visit Mogadishu since 1993 but the trip did not go to plan. Three bombs went off on Saturday and a fourth was diffused. "It began to look as if a message was being sent," he said. Planned visits to a hospital plus a tour of the city were cancelled.
He had also hoped to stay the night in Mogadishu before visiting Jowhar, a town 55 miles to the north, where many of the residents have fled. But security concerns led to the trip's cancellation.
The attacks on Saturday underlined the fragility of the security situation. Few analysts believe the insurgency has ended and many see the fighting as an inter-clan conflict between the Darod-led government and the Hawiye, which dominates Mogadishu. A national reconciliation conference, which international observers hoped would bring moderate leaders from the former Union of Islamic Courts into the government, has been postponed twice.
Ethiopian troops are still in Somalia. Analysts say that the Somali government is still so fragile that if Ethiopia were to withdraw its troops the government could collapse.
Published: 15 May 2007
A senior United Nations official has called for an investigation into allegations of war crimes in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, following weeks of fighting that has left more than 1,600 people dead and caused hundreds of thousands to flee.
Sir John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, who visited Mogadishu on Saturday, said there was "clearly a need" for an investigation by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.
Ethiopian tanks and helicopters bombarded Mogadishu residential districts during weeks of fighting in March and April as Somalia's Ethiopian-backed interim government attempted to pacify an insurgency. Civilians were caught in the crossfire of what the Red Cross described as the worst fighting in the capital for 15 years.
Human rights groups and regional analysts have accused the government and the Ethiopian forces of committing war crimes. Sir John said Somalia's interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and interim Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, had agreed there should be an investigation. "They accepted it very clearly," he said.
Jose Diaz, a spokesman for Ms Arbour, confirmed that the UN was ready to send a team of human rights investigators to Mogadishu. "It is good to hear that this is the government's position. It needs urgent attention," he said.
Up to 400,000 people have fled the capital since the insurgency began at the end of January. A further 300,000 are believed to be displaced within the city. The fighting has made it difficult for aid agencies to reach those in need and the majority of those who fled Mogadishu are still without any humanitarian assistance.
Some Somali businessmen have sought to take advantage of the situation. In some areas, the price of water has risen by 2,000 per cent, while in others a "shade tax" has been introduced, charging women and children to sit under a tree.
According to the Food Security Analysis Unit, prices for food, rent and transport have risen by between 30 and 70 per cent in the past four weeks.
Sir John warned that, with the rainy season imminent, the humanitarian situation could get much worse. "It is easy to imagine the worst-case scenario when 300,000 people are still out there without shelter," he said. "There is already a lot of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera and that could get much worse"
The Horn of Africa experienced its worst flood season in a decade last year. Any repeat this year would be terrible, he said.
Sir John is the most senior UN official to visit Mogadishu since 1993 but the trip did not go to plan. Three bombs went off on Saturday and a fourth was diffused. "It began to look as if a message was being sent," he said. Planned visits to a hospital plus a tour of the city were cancelled.
He had also hoped to stay the night in Mogadishu before visiting Jowhar, a town 55 miles to the north, where many of the residents have fled. But security concerns led to the trip's cancellation.
The attacks on Saturday underlined the fragility of the security situation. Few analysts believe the insurgency has ended and many see the fighting as an inter-clan conflict between the Darod-led government and the Hawiye, which dominates Mogadishu. A national reconciliation conference, which international observers hoped would bring moderate leaders from the former Union of Islamic Courts into the government, has been postponed twice.
Ethiopian troops are still in Somalia. Analysts say that the Somali government is still so fragile that if Ethiopia were to withdraw its troops the government could collapse.
Ayisha Alii – the 3rd Millennium’s Most Illustrious Heroine
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
May 14, 2007
Every one needs some heroes and heroines as source of inspiration in their lives. Every society has models of behaviour, attitude, and success. Every people has prototypes adored and revered, persons who because of their lifestyle and endeavours conceptualize what their societies seek and believe. And every epic poet used various types of heroes and heroines to better reveal concepts, principles, and ideals.
Utter the three letters of the name of Job, and you get the epitome of Persistence. Pronounce the name of Gilgamesh, and you have the embodiment of vain bravery. Remember Ut Napishtim, the Assyrian Babylonian Noah, and you personnify Wisdom.
Not unwisely, many consider our societies as the most anti-heroic realms in the History of the Mankind. I rather disagree with this approach. I would rather put it otherwise:
The present anti-heroic societies of materialistic endeavours, consumerism, shopaholism and spiritual – moral collapse have the heroes and heroines who best reflect the pillars of these societies; those they deserve. Simply, these bogus-heroes are so common that they cannot be taken seriosuly as such. These societies have lost their sight, and cannot afford to see their reflection in the mirror.
Totalitarian as they are, although masqueraded as democratic, these societies know that there are many healthy elements among their citizens who cannot accept the bogus-heroes of besotting consumption as real proper heroes. These elements are properly estrangled and their voice can only be heard in marginal blogs, newspapers, and portals.
On the other hand, with misinformation running high, the establishment of the aforementioned societies does its ingenious best to let people unaware about ‘marginal’ peoples in Africa and other continents. They are depicted as ‘backward’ and unworthy of reference because they live in underdeveloped countries. Yet, there one can encounter massive populations who stick to Humanism, Ideals, Spiritual Exercises, Great Values and Moral Virtues. Heroes exist, and heroines exist, there, suffice it that you wake up, go and meet them - there!
Anna Nicole Smith or Ayishaa Alii?
As long as the Western Mass Media focus daily on Anna Nicole Smith and her death, I systematically avoid all related texts, news and articles. Their heroin is Anna Nicole Smith, who died before some months. She cannot be mine.
Mine is another Heroin; she also died before some months. Not in a hotel, but in horrible, faraway, mountainous place. She was murdered by the gangsters of the tyrannical regime of Abyssinia that is still permitted to exist on this planet. She was 14.
The Parallel Lives of the two departed women would necessitate a modern Plutarch to write an essay about; as most of you know the first, I want to dedicate this article of mine to Ayisha Alii, and republish here integrally the information about her brief life and tragic death, as honorably featured in several Oromo portals and blogs the owners of which I have to deeply thank for offering me the First Example of Heroin in the 3rd Millennium.
This is one more reason for the entire world to thank the ancient, great and noble African Nation of the Oromos, and help them in their Struggle for Freedom and Independence.
http://oromoaffairs.blogspot.com/
Gaara Suffii: The Killing Mountain – Lest We Forget!
As described to me by a compatriot born and raised there, Gaara [Mount] Suufii is located about two hours walk on foot from Mi’essoo, to the North-East of Asaboot, in Eastern Oromia. The Oromo have a poem (walaloo/geerara) for Gaara Suufii which goes like this:
Asaboot koran malee
Suufii naannawan malee
Odaa jigaa hin arganii
Yoo lola bu’an malee
Dhiiraan walqaban malee
Garaa jagnaa hin arganii
By all accounts, it is there, on Gaara Suufii, that the TPLF regime murdered twenty Oromos early this year. It looks like TPLF is determined to turn every inch of Oromo territory in to killing fields. Oromos, young and old, women, children and the elderly, are murdered every where; in schools, on the streets, in their homes, in detention camps and now on mountains.
The heart wrenching account of the Gaara Suufii gruesome and politically motivated murders of Oromo political prisoners was brought to us by the VOA Afaan Oromo program on Wednesday Feb. 21, 2007. The victims range from a fourteen years old teenager, Ayishaa Alii, to a seventy year old elderly farmer Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree.
The ordeal of two ladies interviewed on that VOA program is truly heart wrenching to any one who values human life.
Aadde Kadijjaa Usuman is the wife of the late Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree from Mi’essoo. She and her late husband have nine children - eight girls and one boy whom she just stopped breastfeeding. Here is her account of how her husband was murdered as told to VOA during an interview (translation mine; “My husband, Ahmed Mohammed Kuree, is a farmer. Farming is all he knew. The tax man took him away to “China Camp” after telling him that he had to go pay his taxes. He was told he was going to pay his taxes. They kept him there for one night only. The next morning, they took him to Gaara Suufii. After they took him to Gaara Suufii, we searched for him for three weeks to no avail. After three weeks and having heard a rumor, we went to Gara Suufii. After two days of searching, we found his prayer beads, his cloth and a single piece of his bone which the hyenas left behind after devouring the rest of his body and we took those items home. What is more, after we got home, they [our persecutors] condemned us for going to Gaara Suufii and for mourning. For fear of repercussions, we have not offered the customary prayer for the dead for my husband by reading from the Qur’an. Justice has not been served. That is where we are today!”
Adde Kadijjaa was asked how she found out that her husband was taken to Gaara Suufii.
She said: “A meeting was called which some of our people attended. Our people enquired about my husband at the meeting. At that point they said to his sister [my sister-in-law]: “Your brother has died. Go home and give up the search for your brother.” She [my sister-in-law] went home in tears. The next morning, a Kebele meeting was convened in the city. When my husband’s siblings went to that meeting and asked why he was killed, they [our persecutors] said “Since when does the government kill citizens? Come, we will show you where he is.” With that, they took them to the camp [China Camp]. Once at the camp, they were unable to produce my husband. Instead, they arrested my sister-in-law.”
Ayishaa Alii was a fourteen years old, barely a teenager. According to her mother, Aadde Shamsii Ahmed Muusaa of Mi’eessoo, a divorced mother of six, Ayishaa attended school in Asaboot up to grade four. She was forced to discontinue her schooling to help her mother raise her younger brothers. Aadde Shamsii described the events leading up to her daughter’s murder to VOA as follows.
“His name is Muhammad Boruu. He was armed. He arrived at 9:00 AM. He woke her up from where she was sleeping and ordered her to get on the motor-bike he came on. She [my daughter] had a wound on her behind which she told him about. He said to her “forget your wound. You are to be devoured by wild predator beasts” and ordered her to follow him. She followed him with only her skirt on her back. That was how he took my daughter away from me. Because he is [worked for] the government, we assumed he was taking her to a prison. I had always assumed she was detained and searched for her in detention camps for two weeks. After we heard the rumor about the old man [Obbo Ahmed Mohammed Kuree] I followed his family to Gaara Suufii [in search of my daughter]. There we found her skirt, sweater, under wears and her hair, braided and red [dyed in henna] as it was when she was taken away. That was all we found of my daughters remains.”
Speaking about others murdered with her daughter, Aadde Shamsii says:
“They [the government] continue to take individuals to this mountain and murder them. Besides my daughter’s, we have found many human remains. One example would be a henna dyed human hand. There are many people missing and whose loved ones are hoping that they are in detention. They continue to murder people.”
The stories told by Aadde Kadijjaa Usuman and Aadde Shamsii Ahmed Muusaa are corroborated by others.
Obbo Abdulhakim Mohammed of Mi’eessoo district, Ciroo town, tells of the continued harassment and killing of Oromos in Mi’esso area, again to VOA.
“Just in the last two months, December and this month, hundreds of Oromos from the towns in this district – from Culloo, Ciroo, Baddeessaa, Habroo and Mi’essoo - have been herded to a concentration camp known as “China Camp” located here in Mi’essoo. After detaining them there, they took over twenty of them to Gaara Suufii in the middle of the night and shot them there. Eight of them are from Mi’eessoo district. Five are from other districts. Their names are Ashaa [Kormee], Ahmed Kuree, 70 years old, from Mi’eessoo, Shanqoo a labourer, Kedir Aliyyuu, a grade 8 student from Mi’eessoo, Yasin Mohammed Waday from Mi’eessoo, Alii Goolee, Saidee Ammadee, Kokaa Adam from Mi’eessoo district Faayyoo area. Others are, Ammee Shenkor from Tuulloo district, Hernaa Town, Ahmed Aliyyi Turee from Doobbaa district, Ciroo town, Abrahim Badhaasoo from Qunnii district, Odaa Bultum area. This is what we know so far.”
An elderly man who was a political prisoner at “China camp” for two and a half months, but did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation by the TPLF regime, describes the deplorable human rights abuses in that area as follows.
“There is always torture in that place. People are beaten up there day and night. That place is very worrisome. We were imprisoned there by Abdallaa Idiris and his colleagues. Abddalaa Idris is the leader of the [government] Militia deployed to Western Hararge. Abrahim Kamiilaa is second in command. Aadam Dheeraa is the third person. Alamayyoo is the lead interrogator. These people arrest and torture individuals day and night. They take them away at night around midnight, 2 AM, 3 AM or 4 AM. Among those taken away, were Ashaa Kormee and Ahmed Kuree. They took them away at 4:00 AM in the morning. They never came back. We have heard that they have been killed. Their prayer beads, pictures and ID cards have been found, particularly that of Ahmed Kuree. Of the girls [killed], it is said that their skirts have been found. For these reasons, the situation in that area is grim. Others are being persecuted under the pretext of their siblings joining armed groups [to fight against the government]. For instance, from Asaboot area, siblings of Abrahim Walii, Ahmad Mahammad Walii and Haadha Ahmad are being persecuted under such pretext.”
Speaking about others detained at that location, the same elderly man says:
“People are brought there from every where: from Doobbaa, Galamsoo, Baddeessaa, Ciroo. They bring people there from as far away as Adaamaa and Dheeraa town in Arsii. There are many people detained there. Prisoners are not allowed to see each other or communicate with others. At times about 30 prisoners share a cell. There are many people there. We [some of us] survived a deplorable situation. In that detention camp, they beat prisoners at night. After chewing Khat, prison officers get into manic behaviors. and start torturing prisoners. They ask about the OLF army that prisoners are alleged to have been feeding. Women and the elderly are also subjected to the same treatment. IRC (International Red Cross) is not aware of the grave [human rights abuses] situation in that area. Neither are other human rights advocates. Relatives are not allowed to visit the prisoners.”
As you can see or hear, their stories are consistent and shows that impunity for human rights abuses remains the norm in Abyssinia. “Nama iyyeef ollaan dirmata” jedha Oromoon. Do international human rights advocates know about this massacre? Does the world know? Have we done our part to bring the plight of our compatriots to the attention of the world public?
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May 14, 2007
Every one needs some heroes and heroines as source of inspiration in their lives. Every society has models of behaviour, attitude, and success. Every people has prototypes adored and revered, persons who because of their lifestyle and endeavours conceptualize what their societies seek and believe. And every epic poet used various types of heroes and heroines to better reveal concepts, principles, and ideals.
Utter the three letters of the name of Job, and you get the epitome of Persistence. Pronounce the name of Gilgamesh, and you have the embodiment of vain bravery. Remember Ut Napishtim, the Assyrian Babylonian Noah, and you personnify Wisdom.
Not unwisely, many consider our societies as the most anti-heroic realms in the History of the Mankind. I rather disagree with this approach. I would rather put it otherwise:
The present anti-heroic societies of materialistic endeavours, consumerism, shopaholism and spiritual – moral collapse have the heroes and heroines who best reflect the pillars of these societies; those they deserve. Simply, these bogus-heroes are so common that they cannot be taken seriosuly as such. These societies have lost their sight, and cannot afford to see their reflection in the mirror.
Totalitarian as they are, although masqueraded as democratic, these societies know that there are many healthy elements among their citizens who cannot accept the bogus-heroes of besotting consumption as real proper heroes. These elements are properly estrangled and their voice can only be heard in marginal blogs, newspapers, and portals.
On the other hand, with misinformation running high, the establishment of the aforementioned societies does its ingenious best to let people unaware about ‘marginal’ peoples in Africa and other continents. They are depicted as ‘backward’ and unworthy of reference because they live in underdeveloped countries. Yet, there one can encounter massive populations who stick to Humanism, Ideals, Spiritual Exercises, Great Values and Moral Virtues. Heroes exist, and heroines exist, there, suffice it that you wake up, go and meet them - there!
Anna Nicole Smith or Ayishaa Alii?
As long as the Western Mass Media focus daily on Anna Nicole Smith and her death, I systematically avoid all related texts, news and articles. Their heroin is Anna Nicole Smith, who died before some months. She cannot be mine.
Mine is another Heroin; she also died before some months. Not in a hotel, but in horrible, faraway, mountainous place. She was murdered by the gangsters of the tyrannical regime of Abyssinia that is still permitted to exist on this planet. She was 14.
The Parallel Lives of the two departed women would necessitate a modern Plutarch to write an essay about; as most of you know the first, I want to dedicate this article of mine to Ayisha Alii, and republish here integrally the information about her brief life and tragic death, as honorably featured in several Oromo portals and blogs the owners of which I have to deeply thank for offering me the First Example of Heroin in the 3rd Millennium.
This is one more reason for the entire world to thank the ancient, great and noble African Nation of the Oromos, and help them in their Struggle for Freedom and Independence.
http://oromoaffairs.blogspot.com/
Gaara Suffii: The Killing Mountain – Lest We Forget!
As described to me by a compatriot born and raised there, Gaara [Mount] Suufii is located about two hours walk on foot from Mi’essoo, to the North-East of Asaboot, in Eastern Oromia. The Oromo have a poem (walaloo/geerara) for Gaara Suufii which goes like this:
Asaboot koran malee
Suufii naannawan malee
Odaa jigaa hin arganii
Yoo lola bu’an malee
Dhiiraan walqaban malee
Garaa jagnaa hin arganii
By all accounts, it is there, on Gaara Suufii, that the TPLF regime murdered twenty Oromos early this year. It looks like TPLF is determined to turn every inch of Oromo territory in to killing fields. Oromos, young and old, women, children and the elderly, are murdered every where; in schools, on the streets, in their homes, in detention camps and now on mountains.
The heart wrenching account of the Gaara Suufii gruesome and politically motivated murders of Oromo political prisoners was brought to us by the VOA Afaan Oromo program on Wednesday Feb. 21, 2007. The victims range from a fourteen years old teenager, Ayishaa Alii, to a seventy year old elderly farmer Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree.
The ordeal of two ladies interviewed on that VOA program is truly heart wrenching to any one who values human life.
Aadde Kadijjaa Usuman is the wife of the late Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree from Mi’essoo. She and her late husband have nine children - eight girls and one boy whom she just stopped breastfeeding. Here is her account of how her husband was murdered as told to VOA during an interview (translation mine; “My husband, Ahmed Mohammed Kuree, is a farmer. Farming is all he knew. The tax man took him away to “China Camp” after telling him that he had to go pay his taxes. He was told he was going to pay his taxes. They kept him there for one night only. The next morning, they took him to Gaara Suufii. After they took him to Gaara Suufii, we searched for him for three weeks to no avail. After three weeks and having heard a rumor, we went to Gara Suufii. After two days of searching, we found his prayer beads, his cloth and a single piece of his bone which the hyenas left behind after devouring the rest of his body and we took those items home. What is more, after we got home, they [our persecutors] condemned us for going to Gaara Suufii and for mourning. For fear of repercussions, we have not offered the customary prayer for the dead for my husband by reading from the Qur’an. Justice has not been served. That is where we are today!”
Adde Kadijjaa was asked how she found out that her husband was taken to Gaara Suufii.
She said: “A meeting was called which some of our people attended. Our people enquired about my husband at the meeting. At that point they said to his sister [my sister-in-law]: “Your brother has died. Go home and give up the search for your brother.” She [my sister-in-law] went home in tears. The next morning, a Kebele meeting was convened in the city. When my husband’s siblings went to that meeting and asked why he was killed, they [our persecutors] said “Since when does the government kill citizens? Come, we will show you where he is.” With that, they took them to the camp [China Camp]. Once at the camp, they were unable to produce my husband. Instead, they arrested my sister-in-law.”
Ayishaa Alii was a fourteen years old, barely a teenager. According to her mother, Aadde Shamsii Ahmed Muusaa of Mi’eessoo, a divorced mother of six, Ayishaa attended school in Asaboot up to grade four. She was forced to discontinue her schooling to help her mother raise her younger brothers. Aadde Shamsii described the events leading up to her daughter’s murder to VOA as follows.
“His name is Muhammad Boruu. He was armed. He arrived at 9:00 AM. He woke her up from where she was sleeping and ordered her to get on the motor-bike he came on. She [my daughter] had a wound on her behind which she told him about. He said to her “forget your wound. You are to be devoured by wild predator beasts” and ordered her to follow him. She followed him with only her skirt on her back. That was how he took my daughter away from me. Because he is [worked for] the government, we assumed he was taking her to a prison. I had always assumed she was detained and searched for her in detention camps for two weeks. After we heard the rumor about the old man [Obbo Ahmed Mohammed Kuree] I followed his family to Gaara Suufii [in search of my daughter]. There we found her skirt, sweater, under wears and her hair, braided and red [dyed in henna] as it was when she was taken away. That was all we found of my daughters remains.”
Speaking about others murdered with her daughter, Aadde Shamsii says:
“They [the government] continue to take individuals to this mountain and murder them. Besides my daughter’s, we have found many human remains. One example would be a henna dyed human hand. There are many people missing and whose loved ones are hoping that they are in detention. They continue to murder people.”
The stories told by Aadde Kadijjaa Usuman and Aadde Shamsii Ahmed Muusaa are corroborated by others.
Obbo Abdulhakim Mohammed of Mi’eessoo district, Ciroo town, tells of the continued harassment and killing of Oromos in Mi’esso area, again to VOA.
“Just in the last two months, December and this month, hundreds of Oromos from the towns in this district – from Culloo, Ciroo, Baddeessaa, Habroo and Mi’essoo - have been herded to a concentration camp known as “China Camp” located here in Mi’essoo. After detaining them there, they took over twenty of them to Gaara Suufii in the middle of the night and shot them there. Eight of them are from Mi’eessoo district. Five are from other districts. Their names are Ashaa [Kormee], Ahmed Kuree, 70 years old, from Mi’eessoo, Shanqoo a labourer, Kedir Aliyyuu, a grade 8 student from Mi’eessoo, Yasin Mohammed Waday from Mi’eessoo, Alii Goolee, Saidee Ammadee, Kokaa Adam from Mi’eessoo district Faayyoo area. Others are, Ammee Shenkor from Tuulloo district, Hernaa Town, Ahmed Aliyyi Turee from Doobbaa district, Ciroo town, Abrahim Badhaasoo from Qunnii district, Odaa Bultum area. This is what we know so far.”
An elderly man who was a political prisoner at “China camp” for two and a half months, but did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation by the TPLF regime, describes the deplorable human rights abuses in that area as follows.
“There is always torture in that place. People are beaten up there day and night. That place is very worrisome. We were imprisoned there by Abdallaa Idiris and his colleagues. Abddalaa Idris is the leader of the [government] Militia deployed to Western Hararge. Abrahim Kamiilaa is second in command. Aadam Dheeraa is the third person. Alamayyoo is the lead interrogator. These people arrest and torture individuals day and night. They take them away at night around midnight, 2 AM, 3 AM or 4 AM. Among those taken away, were Ashaa Kormee and Ahmed Kuree. They took them away at 4:00 AM in the morning. They never came back. We have heard that they have been killed. Their prayer beads, pictures and ID cards have been found, particularly that of Ahmed Kuree. Of the girls [killed], it is said that their skirts have been found. For these reasons, the situation in that area is grim. Others are being persecuted under the pretext of their siblings joining armed groups [to fight against the government]. For instance, from Asaboot area, siblings of Abrahim Walii, Ahmad Mahammad Walii and Haadha Ahmad are being persecuted under such pretext.”
Speaking about others detained at that location, the same elderly man says:
“People are brought there from every where: from Doobbaa, Galamsoo, Baddeessaa, Ciroo. They bring people there from as far away as Adaamaa and Dheeraa town in Arsii. There are many people detained there. Prisoners are not allowed to see each other or communicate with others. At times about 30 prisoners share a cell. There are many people there. We [some of us] survived a deplorable situation. In that detention camp, they beat prisoners at night. After chewing Khat, prison officers get into manic behaviors. and start torturing prisoners. They ask about the OLF army that prisoners are alleged to have been feeding. Women and the elderly are also subjected to the same treatment. IRC (International Red Cross) is not aware of the grave [human rights abuses] situation in that area. Neither are other human rights advocates. Relatives are not allowed to visit the prisoners.”
As you can see or hear, their stories are consistent and shows that impunity for human rights abuses remains the norm in Abyssinia. “Nama iyyeef ollaan dirmata” jedha Oromoon. Do international human rights advocates know about this massacre? Does the world know? Have we done our part to bring the plight of our compatriots to the attention of the world public?
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
Somali deputy & defense minister sacked
| |
 The Somali Prime Minister has sacked his deputy and the defense minister, both critics of the interim government and its Ethiopian backers. In a statement released by Ali Mohammad Gedi's office Saturday, the premier has dismissed Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohammad Aidid and Defense Minister Barre Aden Shire Hirale without elaborating any reasons. "The minister of housing and public works and Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohammad Aidid and the defense minister Barre Aden Shire Hirale have been sacked by the prime minister and the president has approved this," it said. Aidid, a former warlord, railed against his sacking from the Eritrean capital Asmara, where he relocated last month. He has repeatedly called for withdrawal of the occupying Ethiopian troops from Somalia. "It is a completely illegal procedure. Reshuffles or changes have to be approved by parliament but Gedi has not done that," Aidid stressed. He added "Gedi is taking Somalia in the wrong direction and we need to stop and return to the correct route." Aidid then went on to say "There is no government in Somalia, only a military operation run by Ethiopia that is destroying the lives and property of all those in the capital."  Somali expatriate forces backed by Ethiopian troops, ousted the Islamists from control of Somalia in December and ended a relatively calm six months period.The government backed Ethiopian forces are still struggling to store order in the chaos hit country, which was also bombed by US war planes in January with the claim of targeting al-Qaeda terrorists. The bombings led to many civilian casualties. MF/KB |
Saturday, May 12, 2007
President Afewerki says no political opposition in Eritrea
May 11, 2007 (DUBAI) — Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki denied the existence of opposition forces in the country. He further said that all foreign plans to create a political opposition were foiled.
Isayas Afewerki
President Afewerki, in an interview with Al-Arabiya satellite TV, said that the Eritrean people are united and they know where their interests lie. He described the opposition as a puppet of foreign forces trying to destabilise the country.
On the political pluralism, he said that Eritrea is a small and young country, adding that the real democracy requires the participation of the citizens in the decision making process through certain means.
“There is a conflict between the way we understand democracy and pluralism and the way others understand them. We cannot depend on foreign ideas that are not in our interest." Eritrean President said.
In this long interview, he also spoke about Ethiopia and the US which are defined as hostile forces to Eritrea. He also repeated his call for a Somali solution to the current crisis in Somali.
Below the interview with the Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki aired on Thursday May 10, 2007 by Al-Arabiya satellite TV.
US RELATIONS
Asked about Eritrea’s relations with the United States, Afewerki says the main reason for the "lukewarm" relations between Eritrea and the United States is the latter’s "objection" to the implementation of the Eritrean-Ethiopian border agreement reached in 2002. Asked why the United States would object to the implementation of the agreement reached with Ethiopia, he says the United States has its own strategy in Africa. Responding to another question, he denies that the United States has asked for military bases in Eritrea.
BORDER DISPUTE WITH ETHIOPIA
On whether war is now inevitable between Eritrea and Ethiopia, he says: "On the contrary, why should war break out between Eritrea and Ethiopia if the border issue has been legally resolved? There is a UN resolution and a court decision on this issue. Agreements were also signed. How can any side justify the war? We in Eritrea see no reason for the eruption of war between Eritrea and Ethiopia."
Asked what the Ethiopians want from Eritrea, Afewerki says: "Nothing, there is a weak government which does not represent the majority of people in Ethiopia. This government represents no more than 5 per cent of the Ethiopian society. It came to power under certain circumstances. It does not include basic parties of the Ethiopian society." He adds: "This government believes that depending on a big power will enable it to rule. Even the regional problems raised every now and then are caused by this government’s belief that it can export its problems to other countries by depending on a big power."
Upon being told that the UN secretary general has recently said the United Nations may abandon its efforts to resolve the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict in November and asked what he expects afterward, especially since "the two sides are massing troops on the border and are involved in a media campaign," Afewerki says: "On the contrary, Ban Ki-moon cannot abandon this legal commitment." He adds that the agreement signed in Algiers binds all, indicating that he "cannot believe that Ban Ki-moon said such a thing." Responding to another question, Afewerki asks "why is all this procrastination by the Security Council and the United Nations in fulfilling their commitment to implement the agreement and the court decision which was binding and final?"
SOMALIA
The interviewer then tells him that US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer accused Eritrea of trying to destabilize Somalia, and asked why Eritrea supports the Somali Islamic Courts. Responding, Afewerki says: "Who forced hundreds of thousands of Somalis to seek refuge in Eritrea? A UN report issued a few days ago said the situation in Somalia is the worst disaster in the African continent." He adds: "Before the courts pulled out of Mogadishu, the United Nations issued reports saying Mogadishu enjoyed stability unparalleled in the history of Somalia over the past 15 years. How can we justify the current situation in Somalia and how can one point a finger of accusation at Eritrea?"
Responding to another question on Eritrea’s "support" for the Islamic Courts, Afewerki says: "We do not side with one party against another in Somalia. Our policy has always called for leaving the Somalis alone to solve their problems. The exaggerated reports on tribal problems in Somalia are baseless. The reason behind the problem in Somalia is foreign interference as proven by recent events. The Somalis should be left alone. There are claims that Eritrea supports the courts and not the other parties. We are certainly with the Somali people whose choices should be respected. Somali problems cannot be solved by supporting one party against another. If the Somalis are left alone, they will certainly solve their problems, but what we see is interference and invasion."
With regard to Eritrea’s "support" for the Somali opposition parties, Afewerki says: "The courts are part of the political forces in Somalia although they do not represent all in Somalia." He adds: "All Somali political forces, including the courts, the transitional government, and other forces, should be given a chance to solve their problem."
Asked if political pluralism is needed so that the situation in Somalia can be stabilized, Afewerki says: "In view of the current circumstances and past experience, it is too early to have political pluralism in Somalia." He adds that the country should be rebuilt but this requires the participation of all Somali entities in this effort.
SUDAN
On his recent visit to Sudan and the reason behind "the restoration of warm relations" between the two countries, Afewerki says: "Our relations with Sudan are strategic and cannot be imposed or changed by the political circumstances or events. Our relations are historical and date back to the era of struggle. Relations after independence were good, but due to some political and ideological reasons these relations stumbled but later returned to normal. These relations are now growing and taking the form of strong bilateral relations and joint work to find solutions to even the problems of the region."
Asked if Eritrea is strengthening its relations with Sudan to win its support if a US-backed Ethiopian military action is taken against Eritrea, Afewerki says: "These are baseless speculations and analyses. We do not need Sudan or any other country to defend us. History proves this. We do not need alliances or axes to defend our interests." Responding to another question on this subject, he says: "We can defend our interests without counting on a big power, a neighbouring country, an ally, or an axis. If we have to defend our national interests, we will certainly do so without having to strike alliances with others outside Eritrea."
OPPOSITION
The interviewer then asks him the following question: "The Ethiopians are now sheltering the Eritrean opposition and you have relations with the Ethiopian opposition. Has each side started to use the opposition card to defeat the other side?" Responding, Afewerki says: "The one who does not put his house in order from within cannot depend on an outside side to solve his problems. We do not speak for the Ethiopian opposition. As I said, the Ethiopian government does not represent anyone as proven by the recent elections in Ethiopia. The majority of the Ethiopian people are not represented in this government. Therefore, the opposition is automatically there and there is no need to manipulate it from outside." He adds: "We view this as an internal Ethiopian affair and any political position we adopt will be based on the situation on the ground there."
When told that there is Ethiopian-US coordination and Washington "seems to have started to court Eritrean opposition figures," Afewerki says there is no Eritrean opposition, adding that attempts were made "to create a political opposition force in Eritrea, but all attempts failed and all foreign plans were foiled because the Eritrean people are united and they know where their interests lie." He adds that the Eritrean people suffered bitterly from foreign interference in the past but there is currently no such interference by the United States or other countries.
POLITICAL PLURALISM
On whether Eritrea will allow political pluralism in the country, Afewerki says: "Eritrea is a small and young country. Let us see how successful such an experience is in old countries and governments applying it. We believe that this pattern will split societies in an ethnic and sectarian manner in order to weaken these countries under the cover of democracy. Real democracy means participation by the majority of citizens in any country or society through certain means and under certain conditions according to stages." He then says: "We do not need to go to a kindergarten and begin to learn politics and be students of Blair or Bush in matters related to democracy. We know politics and know how to build a society and a nation through the participation of most citizens. There is a conflict between the way we understand democracy and pluralism and the way others understand them. We cannot depend on foreign ideas that are not in our interest."
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Asked if presidential elections will be held in Eritrea, Afewerki says: "The political process in Eritrea is moving in the right direction and it does not need foreign interferences. Past interferences led to obstacles as noted in eight years of foreign interference which obstructed the political process in Eritrea. That was a temporary obstruction. The more these obstacles are removed, the faster the political process will move in the right direction without foreign interference and without the adoption of the methods used by this or that side."
HUMAN RIGHTS
When told that human rights organizations accuse the Eritrean government of imprisoning a number of ministers, and asked about the fate of these ministers, Afewerki says: "This is the outcome of foreign interference. We wanted to be left alone. If certain countries come to buy the conscience of people and use it in serving their purposes, we in Eritrea will certainly defend the interests and accomplishments of our people. The steps taken were purely security ones." Asked if they will be tried, he says: "We are not talking about a Guantanamo; we have our methods and options in dealing with our internal affairs and our security and in defending our national interests. These interests require us to deal with circumstances and developments and with the concerned persons in accordance with the local laws and norms."
RELATIONS WITH ARAB COUNTRIES
On Eritrea’s relations with the Arab countries, Afewerki says: "Our relations with all Arab countries are good and realistic. They are based on our strategic understanding of geography, politics, events, and developments. We cannot have other options. We will not join axes or adopt political positions that do not concern us." He adds that Eritrea’s relations with the Arab countries "are moving in the right direction."
Asked if he is ready to accept Saudi mediation between Eritrea and Ethiopia to solve "the conflict" between the two countries, Afewerki says: "There is no conflict between us and Ethiopia. There are falsehoods and exaggeration of this issue. I have earlier said that the border issue has been legally settled. Therefore, there is no problem at all between us and Ethiopia. What will mediation be for?"
Friday, May 11, 2007
PC, Ethiopian team in security meeting
By Moses Njagih
An Ethiopian Government delegation met their Kenyan counterpart to discuss security along the shared porous border, amid fears of renewed raids.
The meeting in Embu, came as the Red Cross claimed that the number of deaths during a raid in northern Kenya had risen to 11, but the police insisted they were 10.
Mr Ahmed Mohammed, the Red Cross disaster co-ordinator, who led his team in assisting the victims, told The Standard 11 people had been killed, and 27 families displaced.
In Embu, the Ethiopian delegation, consisting of four members of the country’s provincial administration, were holed up in a meeting at the Eastern Provincial headquarters for several hours to discuss ways of curbing insecurity.
Acting Eastern PC, Mr David Jakaiti, who hosted the Ethiopian delegation, termed the meeting normal, saying it was not prompted by the latest incident where raiders struck a manyatta in Loiyangalani division of Marsabit District.
"Our meeting was normal and it was not prompted by any crisis," said the PC.
The security meeting came barely three days after the raiders killed ten people in the Tuesday dawn, causing fears of fresh flare-ups.
Possibly fearing that the wave of raids might spill across the border, the Ethiopian Borana Zone administrator, an equivalent of a PC in Kenya, Mr Abdulkadil Abdi, led three of his colleagues to the meeting.
The Ethiopian administrator is in charge of 11 districts, which border Kenya along the volatile areas of Marsabit and Moyale districts, known for cross-border attacks.
But while conceding that insecurity was among the issues discussed, both teams said it was a crisis meeting.
They told The Standard they were deliberating on how security could be enhanced to promote development, in the largely underdeveloped region of both countries.
"This is not a crisis meeting as we were only discussing development and security along the border," said Jakaiti.
He added: "We were looking at how we can restore a conducive environment for development."
He said they agreed that communities from both countries would observe international laws on immigration, while crossing the border to avoid unnecessary friction.
He said they also deliberated on how the region could be opened to development, saying many conflicts were as a result of fighting for resources.
"The competition for resources, mainly stock, is what causes major conflicts and in the meeting we were looking at ways of opening up the region to development," he added.
The meeting agreed that the ongoing construction of the Isiolo-Merile-Marsabit-Isiolo road was a step forward in opening up the region.
Africa parliament says Ethiopia to fail in Somalia
By Bate Felix
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Ethiopia's efforts to stabilise Somalia are unlikely to succeed and African countries should live up to their promises to send peacekeepers there, a continental advisory body said on Thursday.
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) also said in a report that Ethiopian military support for Somali government forces against Islamist insurgents was "doomed to failure".
Backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes, Somali forces ousted rival Islamist leaders in January and are trying to secure the capital after a surge of bloody fighting.
Fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents has killed at least 1,300 people since February. Just days ago, it declared victory, but is still wary of guerrilla-style attacks.
The PAP only advises the African Union (AU) and has no decision-making powers.
But its conflict resolution committee's recommendation that Ethiopian troops should withdraw from Somalia drew strong criticism from Ethiopian delegates to a session in Johannesburg.
"There seems to be great variance with what the report said and what is happening on the ground," said Ahmed Hassen, an Ethiopian member of the parliament.
The interim Somali government, set up in 2004, is determined to restore central rule to the Horn of Africa country for the first time since warlords toppled dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
The PAP report suggested the transitional government and its Ethiopian allies were trying to use the issue of Islamic insurgents to gain U.S. backing.
"The Islamic Courts issue was always largely deployed by Ethiopian and the Transitional Federal Government as a way of winning U.S. approval," it said.
"This was the way in which Somalia's domestic power struggles could be internationalised".
PAP criticised the AU for not delivering on promises to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia. So far only Uganda has sent a 1,500-man contingency that began patrolling Mogadishu in recent days after a lull in fighting.
"At present, it is apparent to everyone that for all the labelling the current deployment is a Ugandan rather than an AU mission, and there is no sign of command or control being exercised from the AU," the report said.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Plotting ways to deal with the Stronger ONLF militaryPosted: 2007/05/10From: Mathaba  |
| Civilians become the sole target of the Ethiopian military and its associated militias at the first sign of military defeat at the hands of the ONLF fighters who are aided by superior morale coupled with an intimate knowledge of the Ogaden terrain... |
There have been ongoing discussions within the Ethiopian regime in the past couple of months on how best to deal with the ever-increasing military threat from ONLF. Our Addis Ababa correspondent adds that the sheer number of ONLF troops and superior military tactics employed by ONLF at Cobole, have startled the heads of the autocracy and added urgency to the need to find a quick solution to this brewing ‘problem’ in Ogaden for the autocracy. Initial reports from the secret meetings indicate that a motion will be brought in front of the puppet Ethiopian parliament tomorrow, May 10th. The motion is said to argue for the approval of draconian measures meant to punish the Ogaden civilians rather than target ONLF militarily. The motion is meant to rubberstamp some of the plots put forward by those present in the secret meetings. The organizers and high-level participants of the secret meetings, proposed three key areas where ‘ONLF’ can be dealt with severely. The first proposition is to start a killing campaign targeting ONLF members in Ogaden. The second proposition targets the civilians both those in the urban and rural areas. The idea is to force Ogaden nomads to report to certain areas where the Ethiopian military can guard them while expropriating all the wealth of the urban dwellers. The third proposition argues for the waging of an expansive military campaign against ONLF military with the extensive use of military bombers tasked to bomb especially watering wells throughout Ogaden. It is important to note that it is not the first time that the autocracy in Addis Ababa has come up with yet a ‘new’ plan to defeat ONLF in Ogaden. What has been observed in Ogaden is that these so called new plots always end up punishing the Ogaden civilians. Civilians become the sole target of the Ethiopian military and its associated militias at the first sign of military defeat at the hands of the ONLF fighters who are aided by superior morale coupled with an intimate knowledge of the Ogaden terrain. It was only April last year that the Ethiopian autocracy went on the offensive with the aim of uprooting ONLF from Ogaden. Instead of uprooting ONLF, the Ethiopian military and its associated militias ended up sustaining heavy casualties including the loss of over twenty five members of the highest military brass. Many of the dead brass were in a helicopter that was brought down in the town of Gabo Gabo. Political pundits and military experts in the horn predict that whatever plot the Ethiopian autocracy comes up with will end up punishing the Ogaden civilians the most. The prediction of the experts was concurred with by a source with first hand knowledge of the discussions that took place in these secret meetings. This source said that the target of the ‘new’ plot is the indiscriminate killing of civilians specially nomads and those in the rural areas. This source added that the head of the Ethiopian autocracy and the Ethiopian military brass despite public mutterings to the contrary have come to the realization that ONLF cannot be defeated militarily. Instead he said they intend to increase pressure on the Ogaden civilians in the hope that this might impact ONLF militarily. --Ogaden Online News: | ||
| http://www.ogaden.com/ |
Eritrea defends presence of troops in disputed area
| Story by REUTERS Publication Date: 2007/05/10 | ||||
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African Liberation Fronts and al Qaeda: a Most Disastrous Confusion
African Liberation Fronts and al Qaeda: a Most Disastrous Confusion
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, and Islamologist, Historian, Political Scientist, Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages. He refuted Greek nationalism, supported Martin Bernal’s Black Athena, and rejected the Greco-Romano-centric version of History. He pleaded for the European History by J. B. Duroselle, and defended the rights of the Turkish, Pomak, Macedonian, Vlachian, Arvanitic, Latin Catholic, and Jewish minorities of Greece, asking for the international recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Born Christian Orthodox, he adhered to Islam when 36, devoted to ideas of Muhyieldin Ibn al Arabi.
Greek citizen of Turkish origin, Prof. Megalommatis studied and/or worked in Turkey, Greece, France, England, Belgium, Germany, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Russia, and carried out research trips throughout the Middle East, Northeastern Africa and Central Asia. His career extended from Research & Education, Journalism, Publications, Photography, and Translation to Website Development, Human Rights Advocacy, Marketing, Sales & Brokerage. He traveled in more than 80 countries in 5 continents. He defends the Right of Aramaeans, Oromos, Berbers, and Beja to National Independence, demands international recognition for Somaliland, and denounces Islamic Terrorism.
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
May 8, 2007
We have repeatedly illuminated the dangers ensuing from the continuation of the existence of the bogus-Ethiopian Tyranny; Tigray dictator Meles Zenawi’s involvement in Somalia made the situation even more difficult, as it exposed numerous Liberation Fronts to the eventuality of a fruitful cooperation with the Islamic Courts of Justice, al Qaeda’s most notorious ally in Africa. This is no good news for the West, and the entire world…
This combination of struggles, of oppressed African nations for Independence, and of fanatic Islamists for World leadership, would bring forth the ultimate collapse of the West, helping Africa become a vast tinderbox from the Horn of Africa to the Atlas mountains. The effects would be cataclysmic if compared with the insignificant repercussions of 60 years of Palestinian ‘problem’ and the somewhat important consequences of the failed US-led invasion of Iraq.
The Western administrations have no other choice but to satisfy the need for Independence, Democracy, Self-determination, and Freedom of numerous African peoples, from the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Afars, and the Ogadenis of Abyssinia, to the Furs, the Nuers, the Dinkas, the Bejas, and the Nubians of Sudan, and from the Berbers of Kabylia to the Banaadiris of Somalia.
It has to be immediately assessed and ultimately understood that numerous decades of political oppression and economic dispossession of natural resources, and two centuries of cultural alienation and colonial education have created an explosive amalgamation of extreme despair and utmost deception; when you have nothing more to lose, you can cooperate – in order to get your national target materialized – with absolutely anyone.
This has not happened so far; the African Liberation movements displayed refrain and reserve of an unparalleled political maturity. The US administration must seize the opportunity as long as it stands. Perpetuating the despair and the deception or pushing African Liberation leaderships to the menacing embrace of al Qaeda can bring only disaster – to the West, not to Africans, as they have already attested disaster, it’s nothing new to most of them.
The Game is Over: you Cannot Save Tyrannical bogus-Ethiopia!
In this regard, it is of seminal importance for world diplomats and apprentice mass media representatives to refrain from making the confusion of the utmost catastrophe, namely the equation between the African Liberation fronts and the al Qaeda allies. In reality, the former are numerous and the latter are scarce.
Under terms of true judgment and accurate estimation of the African societies’ conditions, the former control vast oppressed masses and few guns, whereas the latter, being few, have already formed a vast arsenal that they intend to make available to the former within the context of an Anti-Western alliance.
The situation is at the brink of abyss, with irresponsible UN diplomats and corrupt media representatives having crossed the Rubicon only to weep tremendously on their fallacious assumptions.
We take as example a recent press release issued by the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) whereby the leading Oromo Liberation organization denounces categorically the unwise discourses of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia that shamelessly associates the OLF with the Islamic Courts Union.
The UN, the African Union, the US, China, the EU and other global players must realize as soon as possible the reality:
- You cannot save the collapsing, bogus-Ethiopian Tyranny; save at least Africa from the clutches of Islamic Terrorism!
UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and the Associated Press; they have it wrong!
In October 2006 the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia reported to the Security Council Committee on Somalia that that the OLF was fighting on the side of the Islamic Courts Union. At the time the OLF rejected this baseless Ethiopian propaganda that turned into UN news stating as a matter of policy the OLF does not interference in neighboring states internal affairs, and that Somalia is no exception. The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia simply copied Ethiopian propaganda without any legitimate substantiation and converted it to "news".
The occupying forces of Ethiopia in Somalia have captured thousands of Ethiopian refugees who lived in Somalia for years, killed many of them, and tortured even more to submission and admission of guilt. These individuals are then used through state owned Ethiopia mass media as evidence of OLF armed presence in Somalia. Because of the track record of the Ethiopian regime, this propaganda should not have been trusted. For example, in a letter dated March 22, 2007, the Human Rights Watch, in its letter to Kenyan Director of Political Affairs, Mr. Thomas Amolo, wrote the following:
"Human Rights Watch fears that many of the detainees will face mistreatment
and possibly torture or execution in Ethiopian custody. Human Rights Watch has previously documented that Ethiopian forces routinely engage in torture of criminal, political and military detainees, and in its recent human rights country report on Ethiopia, the US State Department noted that in Ethiopia “There were numerous credible reports that security officials often beat or mistreated detainees. Opposition political parties reported frequent and systematic abuse of their supporters by police and regional militias. . . . in detention centers police often physically abused detainees... Ethiopian security services may suspect some individuals of having connections to Ethiopian insurgency movements, in which case they may face torture or even summary execution if delivered into Ethiopian custody."
The OLF is an Oromo secular political organization rooted inside Oromia, and has no military objectives in any other country than Oromia. It boasts diplomatic presence around the world, including the USA. The OLF abides by international laws and standards, and rejects targeting civilians and terror as a means of achieving its objectives.
In a more recent incident, the Associated Press has attempted to connect an
Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen named Sisaye Dinssa, recently convicted of currency smuggling as an "OLF financier". The said culprit is neither a member of the OLF; neither do we have any record of his financial support to the OLF. We regret that AP sensationalized such news item to the extent of labeling and defaming a legitimate political organization. The OLF channels all its business in North America, financial included, legally, through its bureau in Washington DC. We see no reason to resort to illegal smuggling or use of one.
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Note: in the picture we see that more than half of Abyssinia's territory belongs to the oppressed Oromos who fight for Independence and Democracy.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Rebel Somali leaders urge rebellion against Ethiopia
May 8, 2007
ASMARA -- Renegade Somali leaders Tuesday urged all Somalis to "rise together" against Ethiopian forces, accusing the Somali interim government of being a puppet of Addis Ababa and betraying the country.
Top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former parliament speaker Sheikh Sharif Hassan Aden, and Hussein Aidid, the country's deputy premier, said that Somalis should put aside internal quarrels to unite against Ethiopia.
"We call upon all Somali nationals everywhere to forgive and forget their past differences caused by 17 years of civil strife, and rise together against the Ethiopian occupation," they said in a statement released in Asmara.
We "demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Ethiopian invading forces from all Somali territory," it added.
Ethiopian forces have been battling Islamist fighters and clan militia since the beginning of the year when they backed Somali government soldiers to oust the Islamist movement from the capital and south and central Somalia.
The latest surge of deadly clashes abated at the end of last month.
The leaders dismissed the legitimacy of the interim government, claiming that it was guilty, along with Ethiopia, of war crimes including "genocide, maiming, raping, [and] systematic destruction of civilian dwellings."
They also repeated their desire for a broad-based reconciliation conference to forge a national unity government.
The Somali government is planning to hold a reconciliation conference June 16 - subject to availability of funds - but says that leaders of the Islamist Courts Union can only take part as representatives of their clans, not of their movement.
Somalia has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
Top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former parliament speaker Sheikh Sharif Hassan Aden, and Hussein Aidid, the country's deputy premier, said that Somalis should put aside internal quarrels to unite against Ethiopia.
"We call upon all Somali nationals everywhere to forgive and forget their past differences caused by 17 years of civil strife, and rise together against the Ethiopian occupation," they said in a statement released in Asmara.
We "demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Ethiopian invading forces from all Somali territory," it added.
Ethiopian forces have been battling Islamist fighters and clan militia since the beginning of the year when they backed Somali government soldiers to oust the Islamist movement from the capital and south and central Somalia.
The latest surge of deadly clashes abated at the end of last month.
The leaders dismissed the legitimacy of the interim government, claiming that it was guilty, along with Ethiopia, of war crimes including "genocide, maiming, raping, [and] systematic destruction of civilian dwellings."
They also repeated their desire for a broad-based reconciliation conference to forge a national unity government.
The Somali government is planning to hold a reconciliation conference June 16 - subject to availability of funds - but says that leaders of the Islamist Courts Union can only take part as representatives of their clans, not of their movement.
Somalia has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Fake Ethiopian Tyranny collapses: Oromo fronts unified
We give space here to the Memorandum of Understanding signed before 4 days between two leading Oromo organizations, FIDO and FIO. As we have recently interviewed Aman Kamsare, FIO's Vice Chairman, we believe that this great development perfectly corresponds to the promises and the discourses held by Mr. Kamsare. This is a Great Day for a Great Ancient African Nation that totals more than 30 million people.
Memorandum of Understanding among FIDO and FIO
Although Oromo people and nationalists have been engaged in a life and death struggle under different organizational labels, their ultimate goal remains the liberation of their land from the yoke of Abyssinian colonial system. Having different political groups/parties with competing ideas may be healthy for a nation, but a multitude of liberation organizations with no coordination and a centralizing strategic core has proved to be detraction.
It is undeniable fact that our enemies have capitalized upon this disunity between Oromo organizations. Abyssinian agents at the highest levels of leadership now have infiltrated some of Oromo organizations that were genuine at their inception. Most leaders of these organizations are openly hostile toward all genuine Oromo organizations and their efforts in regaining national independence. Their mission is to keep Oromo nationalists divided between competing groups in the hope of keeping our liberation movement weak and ineffective.
Oromo nationalists who have understood this conspiracy are flocking to genuine liberation organizations by the tens of thousands. As representatives of these organizations, we also recognize the lack of coordination among us as the main source of strength for our enemies. Therefore, in a clear and decisive departure with the past, the representatives of the following organizations:
1. Front for Independence and Democratic Oromia (FIDO)
2. Front for Independence of Oromia (FIO)
Deeply deliberated a strategic mechanism that enables the two sister organizations to forge unity and lead the broad masses of Oromia to victory.
After a positive discussion held by two liberation fronts of Oromia on April 28, 2007 in Oslo, Norway hereby resolved to continue further discussion that will eventually result in the intended goal of coming together as united front and also continue to hold a joint conference in the near future and take a confidence building measure that paves the way for real unity of purpose and action. On this discussion forum, these two fronts discussed on issues pertained to the national liberation struggle and about the means they can utilize to force the Ethiopian government troops leave Oromia and the right of the Oromo people to form independent GADAA republic of Oromia .
To realize this objective, the prospects ahead of us are bright. Therefore, we are certainly capable of achieving these aims. Hence, time is urging FIDO and FIO to come up with best strategy that enables them to wage the war of the independence of Oromia and that demands the taking of concrete steps.
1. Regenerate Oromo Nationalism and patriotism
The specific content of patriotism is determined by historical conditions. One best example of this is the Oromian patriotism that will eventually defeat the Abyssinian colonialism if the Oromian nationalists combine their patriotism with nationalism and fight together to defeat the aggressors and achieve national liberation. The victory of Oromia and the defeat of the invading Abyssinian colonialists led by a tyrant Meles Zenawi lies on the shoulders of FIO, FIDO, ULFO and other Oromo liberation organizations whose goal is to do the same.
2. FIDO and FIO Members should Set Examples in the National Struggle for Independence of Oromia
For the above reasons, FIO and FIDO members should show a high degree of initiative in the national struggle for independence, and show it concretely, that is, they should play an exemplary vanguard role in every sphere. National consciousness, national self-respect and national self-confidence are not sufficiently developed among the broad masses, the majority of the people are unorganized, Oromian military power is weak, the economy is backward and the political experience is limited and pessimism exists, and a lack of unity and solidarity is lacking.
Therefore, the members of FIO and FIDO and other genuine Oromo Organizations, including ULFO member organizations should assume the responsibility of uniting the Oromo nation in order to end the Abyssinian colonialism. Here, the exemplary vanguard role that FIDO and FIO including ULFO member organizations will play is vitally important. Fighting bravely, carrying out orders, observing discipline, doing political work and fostering internal unity and solidarity are few of the steps that need to be taken by these organizations and Oromian nationalists. Our friendly relationships, our cooperation and our firm stand to resist the Abyssinian occupation should uphold our united spirit that will strengthen our ability to carryout the day to day task that a liberation process may require. That is why every FIO and FIDO member must remain to be true to ones word and liberate oneself from arrogance and prejudice.
Our sincerity and positive sense of co-operation should become our motto to help us build good inter-organizational relations at national and global level.
FIO, FIDO and ULFO member organizations should work in harmony with all Oromo nationalists outside our organizations and endeavor to unite the entire Oromo nation to do away with disintegration and whatever manner undesirable. As for people who are politically backward, our members should not slight or despise them, but should be friendly to them, unite with them, convince them and encourage them to go forward. The attitude of FIO and FIDO nationalists towards any person who has made mistakes in his work should be one of persuasion in order to help him change and start afresh and not one of exclusion, unless he is incorrigible and proved Abyssinian agent.
FIDO and FIO members should set an example in being practical as well as far-sighted. For only by being practical can they fulfill the appointed tasks, and only far-sightedness can prevent them from losing their bearings in the march forward. FIO and FIDO members should therefore set an example in study; at all times they should learn from the masses as well as teach them. Only by learning from the people, from actual circumstances and from the friendly organizations and armies, and by knowing them well, can we be practical in our work and far-sighted as to the future. In a long war of independence and in adverse circumstances, the dynamic energy of the whole nation can be mobilized in the struggle to overcome difficulties, defeat the Abyssinian colonialism and build a new Oromia only if the Oromian independence forces and Oromian nationalists play an exemplary vanguard role to the best of their ability together with all the progressive elements among the friendly organizations and armies and among the masses.
3. Unite the Whole Oromian Nation and Combat Enemy Agents in its Midst
The best policy for overcoming difficulties, defeating the enemy and building new and free Oromia is to consolidate and expand Anti-Abyssinian colonialist ideology and build it at national level. However, there are already enemy agents playing a destructive role within, namely, capitulation, defeatists and pro-Abyssinian elements and the mouth piece of global conspiracy.
Genuine nationalists must always be on the look out for them, expose their criminal activities with factual evidence and warn the people not to be duped by them. FIDO and FIO members must sharpen their political vigilance towards these enemy agents. They must understand that the formation, expansion and consolidation of the national democratic united front for the independence of Oromia are inseparable from the exposure and weeding out enemy agents. FIO and FIDO firmly believe that it is entirely wrong to pay attention only to the one side and forget the other.
4. Expand; consolidate FIO, FIDO and ULFO member organizations Prevent Infiltration by Enemy Agents
To overcome the difficulties and to defeat the enemy and build new Oromia, FIO, FIDO and ULFO member organizations must become a national organization by opening their doors to all Oromians who are truly devoted to the cause of independence, who believe in the organizational principles, support pro free Oromia policies and are willing to observe organizational discipline and work hard. The Abyssinian colonialist secret services may ceaselessly try to disrupt our objective by smuggling undercover traitors but our determination must enable us to overcome these challenges.
5. Maintain Unity and the Independence of member Organizations of ULFO
To make ULFO functional and productive, every organization and group in the united front must preserve its ideological, political, and organizational independence.
In inter-organizational or group setting, we strictly adhere to the principle of the Gada principle that permits both the union of all liberation organizations and groups and the independent existence of each organization until the condition is ripe for equal, free and voluntary union or merger. At this stage to speak of unity alone is to abandon the Principle of Gadaa. The right of every organization to enter into the union or withdraw from the union must be unconditionally recognized and respected. Hence, the interest of the individuals or groups must be subordinated to the whole or collective interest and must not conflict with it. The policy of mutual help and mutual concessions, which we should advocate, is applicable not only to organizational relations but also to individual and national relations. Unity against Abyssinian colonialism requires an appropriate adjustment in individual and collective relations, a policy which does not leave individuals without self-esteem and material safeguards but also gives due consideration for the survival of the nation, thereby meeting the demands of solidarity against the enemy. It is wrong for the national liberation struggle to pay attention only to the one side and neglect the other.
6. A Call that demands our collective and Practical response
Beginning from year 2005, FIDO and FIO worked together and promoted awareness on the ideals of the liberation of Oromia by analyzing past, present and the future of Oromo struggle and finally concluded that,
1) FIDO and FIO must encourage the Oromians to re-join the Oromian liberation camp and contribute their knowledge and resources
2) Create a strategic alliance in order to end the Abyssinian colonial tyranny led by Tigray ruling elite in Oromia
3) Create and develop ULFO forum that will entertain discussions related to Oromian national strategy and political matters
4) Allow Oromian community organizations, representatives, individual nationalists, patriots, groups and independent organizations to join ULFO with the future goal of forming a formidable Oromian strategic leadership and National Assembly of Oromia.
5) Draft and adopt national strategic program that will serve all Oromians as a unifying platform.
6) Eradicate spontaneity, back biting, weakness, unnecessary bickering and factional politics.
7) Implement Oromian national ideology that plays a unifying role and build symbiotic relationship among all Oromian and by doing so, liberate Oromia from the yoke of Abyssinian colonialism and Meles Zenawi’s rug and thug regime.
Oromia shall be independent!
FIDO & FIO
April, 28 2007
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