Page 93 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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of Ethiopian colonialism and the necessity of liberation through traditional and mod-
ern music, poems, and speeches. The OLF expressed its commitment to guarantee
Oromos the right to develop their culture, language, and education; to create Oromo
national power; to guarantee Oromia the right to build its own army to defend its na-
tional interests; and to enable Oromos to achieve their right to national self-determi-
214
Through their representatives the Oromo
nation under Oromian national assembly.
population demanded that five Oromo organizations, including the OPDO, join the
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independent Oromo national movement.
However, it took almost a decade for the
independent Oromo organizations OLF, IFLO, UOPLF, OLC (Oromiya Liberation
Council, OPLF (Oromo People’s Liberation Front), and OPLO (Oromo People’s Lib-
eration Organization I & II) to form the United Liberation Forces of Oromiya.The
blossoming of Oromo nationalism within short time, the re-emergence of Oromo
unity, the operation of the OLF in particular “above the ground for the first time,” its
popularity among Oromos, and its fierce competition with the TPLF/EPRDF for po-
216
litical power annoyed the Meles regime.
The TPLF/EPRDF regime feared that Oromo nationalism would explode like a
social volcano and would destroy it.Therefore, it began to practice state terrorism to
suppress the independent Oromo national movement and replace it wherever possi-
ble with EPRDF’s own OPDO. Opposing the violations of Oromo national and in-
dividual rights, various representatives of the Oromo charged that the TPLF/EPRDF
forces looted the economic resources of the Oromo nation; divided Oromia and gave
parts of it to the regions of other peoples; organized minority ethnonational groups
against Oromos; involved itself in the internal affairs of Oromia through its army and
surrogate organization, the OPDO; conducted a series of wars of aggression against
Oromos; and violated the Transitional Charter by intimidating, killing, imprisoning,
and torturing Oromos for supporting the OLF. 217 When the Meles regime realized
that it was highly unlikely that the Oromo majority would democratically put the
TPLF/EPRDF in state power, it opted for the continuation of Ethiopian colonial
domination under its leadership. It attacked Oromos, the OLF, and other independent
Oromo organizations such as IFLO and UOPLF, militarily.The regime’s attempt to
consolidate a Tigrayan version of Ethiopian colonialism increased the popularity of
the OLF and facilitated the further development of Oromo nationalism.
These problems—the blockage of regional elections in June 1992, and the decla-
ration of war on the encamped OLF army—forced the OLF to withdraw from the
election process.The regime then intensified its war of aggression against the Oromo
people, the Oromo Liberation Army and other Oromo organizations, and ordered
OLF leaders to leave the country.To discourage the populace, the regime intensified
its state terrorism and the practice of ethnic cleansing 218 with little opposition from
the world, particularly the United States. Since 1992, the Meles regime has murdered
thousands of Oromos and created several concentration camps, such those as at Hurso
(Hararghe), Didhesa (Wallaga), and Bilate (Sidamo), where pregnant women, children,
elders, and sick Oromos have perished. 219 The hopes for Oromian national self-deter-
mination and democracy that emerged with the demise of the military regime in 1991
were dashed in the 1992 elections, when the EPRDF, dominated by TPLF (with the
Oromo out of the way), consolidated a minority Tigrayan-based authoritarian gov-
ernment. Originally in order to obtain political legitimacy, the TPLF-led regime had
invited different fronts, the largest and most prominent of which was the OLF, and
other political organizations and established a transitional government.The EPRDF