Page 101 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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attempted to include the OLF in the terrorist camp, thus denying legitimacy for the
Oromo national struggle for self-determination and democracy, and has endorsed the
Tigrayan ethnocratic regime. Ignoring the national struggle of Oromos and the mas-
sive violations of their human rights, former Secretary of State Madeleine K.Albright
claimed in 1997 that under the leadership of Prime Minister Meles,“Ethiopia is again
earning the world’s admiration, this time for its strides in reforming, rebuilding, and
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re-uniting at home and its leadership for peace and unity across Africa.”
Michael Sealy observes, “Africa’s many dictatorships despite their characteristic
gross economic mismanagement and severe abuses of human rights have been able to
endure for so long because they have been actively supported by external agents, the
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most notable and hypocritical of which is the United States of America.” Ethiopia
is an example of such a dictatorial regime. Despite the West’s acceptance of the
Tigrayan-led Ethiopian regime as democratic, convincing arguments have been made
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that the regime is ethnocratic, colonial, and terrorist. The Meles regime has racial-
ized the Ethiopian colonial state more than have successive Amhara-led governments.
Two layers of colonial administration in Oromia run this ethnocratic state.The first
layer consists of Tigrayan colonial officials, military commanders, and cadres who have
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absolute power over Oromos. Operating above the rule of law, these officials, com-
manders, cadres, policemen, and soldiers have the power to imprison, torture, murder,
mutilate, rape, and confiscate property in an attempt to suppress or destroy Oromo na-
tionalism. 27 Marginalized Oromo intermediaries are also used by the Tigrayan-led
regime to violently suppress Oromo nationalists. 28
The second layer of colonial administration is occupied by members of the Oromo
People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO). This organization was created by the
TPLF from Oromo prisoners of war,Oromo-speaking colonial settlers in Oromia,and
marginalized Oromo intermediaries who abandoned the collective interests of the
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Oromo people. The officials of the OPDO appear to be Oromo representatives who
have power to plan and implement policies on development and political affairs. In re-
ality, the actual power is in the hands of a core of Tigrayan officials and cadres from
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local to central administration. As Theodore Vestal asserts,“The tightly organized and
firmly disciplined EPRDF cadres infiltrated and eventually manipulated many of the
institutions and mass organizations of public and collective life, such as trade unions,
peasant commissions, professional bodies, grassroots action committees, workers’
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grievance committees, and local government.” Members of the OPDO are the foot
soldiers of the TPLF/EPRDF in Oromia; they facilitate the transfer of resources from
Oromos to Tigrayan elites and from Oromia to Tigray through suppressing Oromo
nationalism and killing or imprisoning Oromo nationalists. 32 If any member of the
OPDO raises any question in relations to Oromos, he or she is suspected as sympa-
thetic to Oromo nationalism. Suspicion may lead to removal from position, demotion,
imprisonment and torture, or death. 33
Those Oromo individuals who continue to serve the interests of Tigrayans and are
engaged in the Ethiopian colonial project of suppressing or destroying Oromos do so
because they have been shifted from their Oromo identity and marginalized.The mar-
ginality that has been imposed on these Oromos by Ethiopian colonialism reflects the
quality of psychic acculturation that ties the self-image and self-worth of these indi-
viduals to the dehumanizing worldview imposed on Oromos by Ethiopian racist cul-
ture. 34 Because of their psychic enslavement, such Oromos support the Ethiopian
colonial project rather than assisting the Oromo struggle for freedom and democracy.