State Terrorism and Indiscriminate Arrest of the TPLF Regime Will not Stop the Just Struggle of the Oromo People.

Statement of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), October 3, 2009

Beginning from the very foundation of the Ethiopian Empire, its rulers have been doing every thing in their power to suppress the struggle of the subjugated people of the south such as Oromo, Sidama, Somali, Afar, Walayita, Hadiya,  to regain their God given right and to forcefully silence their opposition to  their brutal rule. During all successive Ethiopian regimes several Oromos and others have spent their lives in prison. Many who have been thrown to jail without any due process of law have been subjected to brutal torture and permanent illness. Many others have simply perished in prisons as a result of excessive beating and prolonged malnutrition. Several others have been shot dead, in broad daylight, by the armed personnel loyal to the regime with almost mo legal consequence to any of the perpetrators.

The current Tigray-Woyane regime, which considers the entire Oromo population as number one enemy from the very beginning, not only followed the same path of brutality on the Oromo and other subjugated peoples of the empire, but also elevated the intensity of committing heinous and barbaric crimes on innocent Oromo civilians and others to a new level of unimaginable magnitude. Every single year of about two decades of TPLF-led Ethiopian regime is characterized by widespread and indiscriminate arrest, brutal torture, assassinations and disappearances of men, women, children, youth, elderly people and the entire sector of the Oromo society at large. In some cases infants who have been detained with their parents perished in prison cells. Several Oromo students, who participated in peaceful demonstrations to peacefully oppose the policies of the regime on the Oromo people, have been killed in broad daylight.   

The magnitude of the atrocities committed by Tigrai - Wayyaanee authoritarian clique is difficult to quantify with any level of accuracy. The regime’s forces have killed several Oromos in front of their family members. Their so called “defense forces” have raped and killed several Oromo mothers while the whole family with the husbands,  whose hands are tied with a rope, are forced to watch. . Several Oromos, including mothers, children as young as 14 and elderly Oromos, as old as 80 years, were killed in prison cells. Others are taken out of prison, killed and thrown in the surrounding jungles for wild animals’ feed and their family members have suddenly found and collected the remains  of their beloved ones and buried them several weeks later.. An example to this is the murder of 20 Oromos, including a 14 year old, girl an 80-year-old man, in Eastern Oromia in 2006 at a place called “Gaara Suufi”.

The current Tigrai-Woyane minority regime followed a policy of hidden genocide on the Oromo people from its inception..  This is not limited to arresting, torturing, and killing of civilians. Due to the deliberate environmental destruction the regime is pursuing, the formerly fertile and rich Oromia is now transformed to a place of ecological disorder. The regime has alarmingly destroyed all forests buy deliberately setting fire on them in all parts of Oromia under the pretext of denying “hiding places for the OLF”. They have sold Oromian land by  forcefully evicting the indigenous Oromo population without any compensation. Oromian rivers, lakes, and wet lands have been polluted by the regime and some other international companies, that discharge toxic substances, leading to human tragedy and loss of human and animal lives and a severe ecological calamity. Some of the surrounding farmers are forced to leave their land looking for food and drinking water. Others who stayed have no choice but to drink the polluted water and perish.                

At this time, the international community is increasingly denouncing the regime for massive act of atrocities amounting to genocide, following an authoritarian form of governance, establishing a racist minority led and corrupt system of government. Many, including the director of “international genocide watch” are requesting to take the regime to international court. However, the regime is increasingly engaged in imprisoning and terrorizing Oromo nationals by fabricating false accusations such as financially supporting the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), directing and/or giving information to OLA or fighting their so called “defense forces” along side with the OLA, and so on. 

As an example, according to an inside document published by Horn of Africa Human Rights League  , several Oromos have been falsely charged from Eastern and Western Harargee including farmers, businessmen, students, civil servants, and from all sectors of the Oromo society, have been jailed in Dire Dhawaa city at a place known as “Shinnillee Prison”. The information  discloses that all of these prisoners are suffering from lack of food, medical treatment, lack of sanitation in the prison cells, and many have already lost their lives. Families can not visit  or collect bodies of those who lost their lives.  The latter are being buried by people who are loyal to the regime. 

Among those languishing in the prison, the names of some 73  who have been charged by the Dire Dhawaa prosecution officer and taken to the Dire Dhawaa region’s high court are as follows.

The names presented above are just an example of what is happening in the entire Oromia at large. The Woyanee –Tigray regime has been terrorizing Oromo nationals who refused to accept their tyrannical rule and those who are not willing to be deceived by the little  financial and material gain and benefit to serve the administration. The entire state apparatus of the TPLF led Ethiopian regime, meaning, the police, the local, regional and federal administration’s office, the army, the federal intelligence office, the persecutions office, and the judiciary is designed and established not to keep the peace, security, and stability of citizens, but to harass, terrorize, murder those who show any sign of refusal to the brutal rule of the regime. The campaign of arrest and harassment of Oromo nationals is now even more intensified in recent weeks and some out of thousands of political prisoners are taken the partial judiciary system whose judges and persecutors are hand picked by the regime, not according to their profession, but according to their loyalty to the system.

The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) strongly denounces such acts of state terrorism commited by the Tigrai led Ethiopian regime. The regime should know that such brutal and fascist actions will only make the Oromo people more determined to struggle for their rights. OLF believes Oromo nationals who are suffering in several hidden and known prisons will never get justice under the current regime. We appeal to all peace loving individuals and groups, all human rights organizations, governmental and non-governmental organization, to expose and speak on behalf of the Oromo prisoners and put the necessary pressure on the Ethiopian government in order for them to be released.

Victory to the Oromo People

OLF, September, 2009

 

I.U.Of!!