Page 126 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Comparing the African American and Oromo Movements
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different liberation fronts, the most prominent of which was the OLF, and other po-
litical organizations and established a transitional government.The new regime per-
suaded these fronts and organizations that it would prepare a ground for the
formation of a multicultural federal democratic government of Ethiopia. However, in
less than a year, this regime had effectively expelled all coalition partners by using in-
timidation, terrorism, and war, and had established an ethnic-based party dictatorship
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without any opposition from the United States or other Western countries. The
United States, other Western countries, and the Organization of African Unity called
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the sham elections this regime used to legitimize its power satisfactory, fair, and free.
As we shall see below, the feat was accomplished through systematic intimidation and
outright terrorism.
States, such as the Ethiopian state, that fail to establish ideological hegemony and
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political order are unstable and insecure, and hence, they engage in terrorism. State
terrorism is the systematic policy of a government through which massive violence
is practiced to impose terror on a given population in order to change their behav-
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ior of political struggle or resistance. The Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government has
practiced state-sponsored violence against Oromos and others as an acceptable
means of establishing political stability and order. Since this regime mainly survives
on Oromo economic resources, it uses terrorist actions mainly against the Oromo
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people. The activities of this regime have proved to be terrorist as manifested in
its plans and actions, such as systematic assassinations of prominent Oromos, open
and hidden murders of thousands of Oromos, reinitiating of villagization and evic-
tion of Oromo farmers and herders, expansion of prisons in Oromia, forcing of
more than 45,000 Oromos into hidden and underground detention camps, and
looting of economic resources of Oromia to develop the Tigrayan region and en-
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rich Tigrayan elites and their collaborators. A video smuggled out of Ethiopia in
1997 shows horrifying mass graves in Easter Oromia (Hararghe). 62 Without any
doubt Oromos are exposed to systematic state terrorism so that their lands and nat-
ural and economic resources can be used by Tigrayan elites, their collaborators, and
transnational corporations. 63
History repeats itself in different forms and contexts.The Amhara elites systemati-
cally exterminated an independent Oromo leadership with the help of European
colonial powers.Later they used so-called socialism and the Soviet bloc to suppress the
Oromo national movement. Currently, state terrorism manifests itself in this empire in
yet a different form: its obvious manifestation is violence against its opponents, pri-
marily against Oromos. 64 Since 1992 several thousands of Oromos have been killed
or arrested on suspicion of being OLF supporters or sympathizers or for refusing pro-
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posed membership in the EPRDF via OPDO. Despite all these inhumane and crim-
inal activities, U.S. officials deny the existence of torture in Ethiopian prisons or
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camps. Another form of state terrorism is economic violence.The government has
confiscated the properties of some Oromos and others who have been imprisoned.
Those who were released from prisons paid a huge amount of “ransom money” col-
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lected by relatives for TPLF/EPRDF soldiers and agents. The Ethiopian government
attempts to destroy Oromo merchants and intellectuals by labeling them “narrow na-
tionalists” and “the enemy of the Ethiopian Revolution.” 68
Oromos are not even allowed to have a meaningful relief association in Ethiopia
and neighboring countries. Realizing that the Ethiopian government and interna-
tional organizations pay little attention to the welfare of Oromo society, a few Oromo