Declaration of Unity of the OLF

June 28, 2014 (Oromo Liberation Front) — It is with great pleasure that we announce to our people and the supporters of our struggle for freedom the good news that, based on the accord they made in Kampala, Uganda, in November 2012, the two organizations of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) known as OLF Shanee Gumii (”OLF National Council”) and OLF Qaama Ce’umsaa (”OLF Transitional Authority”) have resolved our differences and agreed to combine our two leaderships, unify our members, merge our organizational structures and inaugurate a reunified OLF. Although OLF has encountered many obstacles during the last forty years, there was no time when it has stopped the struggle that it was established to lead. No one can deny the fact that the national struggle led by the OLF has scored many victories and made many significant achievements that have taken the Oromo people a long way toward the national goal of independence. Among these great achievements is the level of political awareness of our people.

At the same time, we witness that the Oromo people are being targeted for extinction more than any time before. Oppression has reached intolerable levels making our people to rise up in defiance of tyranny, protesting peacefully in all corners of Oromia. But, as witnessed in the killings of students and others in many places in Oromia, the TPLF regime is responding violently to their lawful demands. Defying enemy atrocities, imprisonment, and torture the young Oromo generation are making it known to the world that they will not tolerate humiliation and oppression anymore and that they will make the necessary sacrifices to liberate their people and homeland from alien oppressors. The OLF extends its condolences to families who lost their beloved sons daughters and expresses its admiration for the courage and bravery they have shown by the young Oromo generation to defend their people’s legitimate rights. As the vanguard of the Oromo struggle for freedom, we re-iterate our determination to continue the struggle until our people become masters of their destiny.

The re-unification of the two organizations of the OLF is a great step that will strengthen the Oromo struggle for freedom. United under one leadership, we are resolute to realize the principal objective of our struggle, namely the liberation of our people and the independence of our homeland Oromia. There is no question about the popularity of the goal of OLF-led liberation struggle among the Oromo people. Therefore, it is with determination that we pledge to make the necessary sacrifices, withstand the challenges ahead and carry through the Oromo national struggle to the ultimate goal of independence.

We are well aware that there are Oromo nationals who are organized separately under other names to advance our people’s legitimate rights. We will do all we can to coordinate our efforts with them to achieve the common goal. The OLF leadership states its decision and commitment to continue to work and conclude the ongoing talks with other forces committed to the same goal. Hence we call on all Oromo organizations that uphold our people’s right to self-determination and independence to join us in carrying out this sacred mission.

We also take this opportunity to express our solidarity with the oppressed nations, nationalities and peoples who are struggling for justice against the same tyrannical regime, and call upon them to join us in the common struggle for basic human and democratic rights.

The TPLF-led regime’s violence against the Oromo people is abetted by military, political and economic assistance from external powers. The OLF appeals again to governments, both in the West and East to strike a balance between their national interests and their international obligation of protecting human rights and stop giving economic, military and political support to a brutal regime that is evicting our people and others from their land and killing innocent civilian who are peacefully demanding their legitimate rights.

Victory to the Oromo People!

Oromo Liberation Front

June 28, 2014

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What “the government of Ethiopia doesn’t want the world to know”

#FreeOromoStudents Social Media Campaign to begin this weekend by the International Oromo Youth Association

Kulani Jalata

On April 25, 2014, a reported 47 peacefully protesting students were gunned down by federal security forces in Ambo, Oromia region, Ethiopia.

“The government of Ethiopia doesn’t want the world to know about what has been happening with the [Oromo] student protests, that federal forces have used violence against the students, that there have been mass arrests of students, that there are allegations of beatings and brutality. The government doesn’t have any incentive to have outside forces to do an investigation. So there are certain barriers to spreading the word.”

These are the words of Amy Bergquist, a human rights attorney at Advocates for Justice, in a newly produced documentary by the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA). During April and May of this year, Oromo[1]university studentsacross Oromia, Ethiopia, organized peaceful demonstrations against the “Integrated Development Master Plan”, a government plan to expand the capital into the state of Oromia. The capital city’s municipal expansion into Oromia would invariably result in mass evictions and the displacement of millions of poor farmers. When students decided to peacefully protest the expansion plan, they were met with bullets, as reported by BBC (video), Al Jazeera, and the Guardian. Leslie Lefkow, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Africa director stated, “Ethiopia’s heavy handed reaction to the Oromo protests is the latest example of the government’s ruthless response to any criticism of its policies. UN member countries should tell Ethiopia that responding with excessive force against protesters is unacceptable and needs to stop.” On May 6, 2014, Ethiopia was summarily grilled at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review regarding its human rights violations against Oromo student protestors.

While it is true there have been “barriers” as Bergquist notes to documenting the protests and the Ethiopian government’s violent response because of the absence of free media in Ethiopia, diaspora Oromo communities organized worldwide protests in May and created a website to raise awareness about the Oromo student protests. Now, the International Oromo Youth Association is embarking on a social media campaign, starting this weekend, to continue advocating for the rights of the Oromo students that were not only gunned down and killed, but that were also imprisoned and are currently languishing in Ethiopian prisons known for torturing prisoners of conscience and their inhumane living conditions (BBC, U.S. Dept of State). Below is IOYA’s documentary on the Oromo protests, including eyewitness accounts from Peace Corps volunteers Jennifer Klein and Josh Cook. Jennifer and Josh had been working in Ambo on a health project when the protests began in Ambo and security forces responded: “Every few minutes, we were hearing gun shots. Sometimes we would hear what sounded like an explosion followed by a round of 30 or 40 gunshots. Sometimes there were gunshots within a block or two of our house…the gunshots were so close that it frightened both of us a lot.” Not only did Josh and Jennifer bear witness to the massacring of students that day as well as the loading up of buses and trucks of protesting students by police officers to be shipped to prisons, but they also witnessed Ethiopian police officers follow two of their neighbors into their home while the protests were taking place across town and shoot them to death. “That’s when Jen and I were very frightened,” Josh said. “We couldn’t believe that the police would enter somebody’s private home and shoot them in their home. It was awful.”

The Ethiopian government’s response to the Oromo student protestsis only the surface of the Ethiopian government’s repressive and violent approach to governance and politics. In 2005, unarmed Oromo students protesting against fraudulent election results were also met with violence and live ammunition, political imprisonment, and torture, and for years, Human Rights Watch has been reporting the government’s use of surveillance, arbitrary detention, and torture to severely restrict freedom of expression, association, and assembly.In the documentary, Josh notes that people in Ethiopia today are “not allowed to say anything” in critique of the government, otherwise risking imprisonment. “People have absolutely no voice at all.”

View Short Documentary Here 

Amane Badhasso, the current president of IOYA, says that the purpose of the IOYA campaign on the Oromo student protests is to raise global awareness and to ask for the immediate release of thousands of Oromo students currently being held in detention and very likely being tortured for simply protesting against the Integrated Development Master Plan. “We want to show the world that a government’s disregard for basic human and constitutional rights is unacceptable,” she says.

[1] The Oromo are the largest ethnonational group in Ethiopia, constituting almost 40% of the population.

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Egypt and Ethiopia agree that tripartite dam committee will resume its work

The Egyptian foreign minister along with his Ethiopian counterpart stressed that Ethiopia will understand the importance of the Nile River to Egypt and that Egypt will understand the Ethiopian need for development

Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi talks to Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn as they arrive to attend the 23rd African Union Summit (AUS) in Malabo June 26, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Egypt and Ethiopia will form a joint committee in the upcoming three months to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries, the foreign ministers of both countries announced in a joint statement on Friday.

The statement came after Egypt`s new president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, met with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, after the African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea's capital Malabo.

According to the statement, the Ethiopian government is committed to avoid any potential damage that could result from the Grand Renaissance dam currently being built on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.

Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, along with his Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom, stressed in the statement that Ethiopia will understand the importance of the Nile to Egypt; and that Egypt will understand the Ethiopian plans and need for development.  

The two ministers cited seven main points that El-Sisi and Desalegn discussed during the meeting, including respecting the dialogue and cooperation between the two countries, and the establishment of regional projects for the development of financial resources to meet the growing demand for water and to deal with water shortages.  

The Egyptian government is committed to constructive communication with Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian dam has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government since May last year, when images of the dam's construction stirred public anxiety about its possible effects on Egypt's share of the Nile's water.

However, Ethiopian officials insisted the dam would not harm Egypt.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan formed a tripartite technical committee to study the possible effects of the dam.

But the committee's discussions were halted last December when Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir announced his support for the dam during a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Resuming the work of the tripartite technical committee and respecting international legal principles were also among the points on which both sides had reached common ground.

Egypt has demanded that Ethiopia submit the dam's construction plans for assessment by international experts.

Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Alamayo Tegno said his country was already committed to the recommendations of an international committee of experts.

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