Page 94 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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The Oromo National Movement
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had persuaded the others that it would prepare a ground for the formation of a multi-
national federal democratic government of Ethiopia. However, in less than a year, this
regime had expelled all coalition partners by using war and terrorism and established
an ethnic-based party dictatorship without any opposition from the United States and
220
other Western countries that support the regime.
The financial and grain assistance that the TPLF had received, mainly from the
United States, enabled this liberation front to mobilize hungry Tigrayan peasants in
the mid-1980s to become fighters. Unfortunately, using their fear of famine, of
poverty, of Oromo and of Islam, the Meles regime converted these former freedom
fighters into state terrorists in order to assassinate or murder, intimidate and control
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Oromos and others,and loot their economic resources.
Oromos are mainly targeted
by the TPLF/EPRDF regime because of their national struggle, numerical strength,
and economic resources.The Tigrayan colonial regime is still in power mainly because
of the financial and military assistance it receives from the United States and other in-
dustrialized countries.For example,Impact International notes that the U.S.government
“agreed in July 1996 to supply Ethiopia 50 fighter aircraft and a number of helicopter
gun ships.After signing the agreement, a Pentagon spokesman described Prime Min-
ister Meles Zenawi as ‘a trusted and important friend of America . . . the Ethiopian
leader was the only one in the region’ whom they could depend upon to counter the
menace of fundamentalism.” 222
The United States, other Western countries, and Israel use the discourse of Islamic
fundamentalism to support the Meles regime and to suppress the struggle of Oromos
for national self-determination and democracy. 223 Despite the fact that the U.S. gov-
ernment officially promotes a democratic discourse, it practically supports the subor-
dination of Oromos to Tigrayans on the pretext of suppressing the expansion of
Islamic fundamentalism and maintaining the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. 224 How-
ever, the majority of Oromos, regardless of religious affiliations—Christian, Muslim,
non-Christian, and non-Muslim Oromos—support independent nationalist organiza-
tions that lead the Oromo national movement in their struggle for national and de-
mocratic rights. Oromos are labeled “Islamic fundamentalists” and their liberation
fronts are labeled “bandits” or “terrorists” 225 without evidence or justification with the
result that the violation of Oromo rights generates no sympathy for them in the
world.As the Mengistu regime utilized a “socialist”discourse to ally itself with the So-
viet bloc and to consolidate its power, the Meles government uses a “democratic” dis-
course to make its authoritarian rule legitimate and acceptable, and also to continue
to get financial and military support from the West.“Although Meles and the EPRDF
leaders continued to speak in the language of freedom and democracy,” Theodore
Vestal argues, “their performance was [is] sharply condemned as authoritarian by
Ethiopian and foreign critics.” 226 Therefore, Christianity, socialism, and democracy
have been used in a political discourse by successive Habasha ruling classes to legiti-
mate Ethiopian state power without changing its authoritarianism and terrorism.
To hide the true nature of the TPLF/EPRDF regime, John Sorenson claims that the
regime adopted “democratic capitalism”and contends that it achieved “an overwhelming
victory” in national elections of 1995. 227 Similarly, scholars such as John Young, who ar-
dently supports the Meles regime,claim that the regime granted the right of national self-
determination to the colonized ethnonations. This implies that Tigrayans, Oromos,
Amharas,and others have equal rights and can politically,economically,and culturally de-
termine their destinies equally. 228 Sandra Fullerton Joireman sees the Meles regime as “a