The Escalation of war of Ethnic Cleansing on the Oromo People
Press release (ULFO)
The current ruling party of Ethiopia has intensified yet again its
war of ethnic cleaning on the Oromo people. Lately, it has targeted
Oromo communities in Eastern Hararge. The communities directly affected
in the recent campaign include those who
live in the districts of Anniyyaa, Jaarsoo, and Mi’eesoo.
This latest incident of ethnic cleansing that is being perpetrated
against the Oromos in Eastern Hararge zone is a continuation of a grand
design of the TPLF-led regime of Ethiopia to undercut the demographic
weight
of the Oromo and the territorial expanse of Oromiya. This design, one
which its leaders in many occasions in such a blatant bravado have
spoken about, is framed to fulfill its long-term political and economic
objectives.
The obvious political objective of the TPLF-led regime of Ethiopia is
primarily the containment of the Oromo political life. The regime with a
minority constituent base is always unnerved of the Oromo population
size with its potential political weight. To overcome this fear and
sense of insecurity, it has been determined to maintain its political
hegemony and keep Oromiya under its occupation by all what it takes.
The impact of such a determination of the TPLF on the Oromo people is enormous. During the
last
22 years, the TPLF has perpetrated what amounts to genocidal wars on
the Oromo people. At various times it has targeted various Oromo
communities. It has launched hidden wars and inflicted upon them a
colossal loss in lives and properties. While most of such wars have
directly involved the TPLF army, some have been conducted by its
proxies. The proxies that the TPLF has so far involved in the war
against the Oromo people are primarily ethnic groups sharing common
boundaries with Oromiya and national minorities residing within Oromiya
itself.
With the intent of ethnic cleansing, the TPLF has directly launched a
silent war on the Oromo people over the years. However, such a war
meant to extinct a community of people has often been masked under the
heading of “human rights violation”. In effect, what the TPLF has been
and is still carrying out on the Oromo nation should be taken as a
designed action of ethnic cleansing. Its actions that clearly attest to
this fact are many. For instance, the early 1990s Nazi type
concentration camps that the TPLF set up in Dhedheessa, Zuwaay, and
Hursoo are cases in point that speak volume of its intension. It had
thrown tens of thousands of Oromos to these notorious camps. Tortured,
starved, and exposed to communicable diseases and malaria, according to
many accounts, not very many of them have survived the cold-blooded
atrocity of the TPLF led regime. Also, hidden from the outside world,
many penitentiaries, prisons, and unknown underground cells, and forced
labour camps across the empire are presently filled with Oromo youth
whose fate would likely be the same as their encamped kin of the 1990s.
In no less degree, other actions of the TPLF have violated the very
existence of Oromo communities during its rule. Man-made famines it help
created resulted in starvation that took heavy tolls in life in many
parts
of Oromiya and most notably in Boran, Hararge, and lush zones of Arsi
that the international media once referred to it as ‘green famines’. Its
barbaric act of environmental terrorism has equally brought about
destruction of ecosystems and exacted an inordinate number of human
lives and loss of habitats for rare flora and fauna. Suffice to mention
here two notorious cases that illustrate the TPLF’s acts of brutality on
the environmental resources of Oromiya: The blazing and decimation of
the forests in Bale and most recently in Iluu Abbaa Boora. The immediate
impact of this act on the present generation of the affected
communities is enormous. Furthermore, looking at this heinous crime of
the TPLF from a larger scope, it is conceivable that such a destruction
of ecosystems would have far-reaching implications on generations to
come. It would undoubtedly check the population growth of the
communities, a desired result that the TPLF leaders are hoping to
secure.
Adding to the above mix, the eviction of the Oromo people from its
ancestral lands had torn apart their social fabric and exposed them to
vagaries of environmental stress in which they could not cope to
survive. Internal displacement with all its devastating effect aside,
the eviction has also led to mass exodus of the Oromo people to unknown
foreign lands where the chance of survival for many has proved to be
exceedingly limited. Instigating and fueling conflicts, the TPLF has
caused enormous devastation on numerous communities. The inter-ethnic
conflicts between the Issa and Oromo in Hararge, the Somali and Oromo in
Boran, the Gumuz and Oromo in Walagaa, the Burjii and Oromo in Boran
and the Afaar and Oromo in Walloo; and the intra-ethnic conflicts
between Boran and Gujii and Garrii and Boran were the making of the
TPLF. These conflicts which took place at different times had exacted a
huge human and property loss from the impacted Oromo communities.
Despite relentlessly working at its silent ethnic cleansing grand
plan over the last two decades, the demographic weight of the Oromo
people has still remained unnerving for the TPLF led-regime. As a
result, it has continued with the campaign of ethnic cleansing against
the Oromo with more intensity and coordination. The present war against
Anniyya, Jarsoo, and Mi’eesoo in Hararge zone is part and parcel of its
escalated ethnic cleansing campaign. For this campaign, it has incited a
proxy war: A war that contingents of Somali force from Ogaden have been
deployed against the Oromo people. This force which is known as Liyu
polis (special police force) has been trained and armed by the regime.
The regime has provided the force with logistical support, finance, and
military operational advice. It is this force that is presently causing
havoc in Eastern Hararge.
This proxy war that has been declared on the Oromo people in Eastern
Hararge zone is taking a heavy toll on human life. Since the war began,
under the pretext of conflict over land clams between the adjoining
Somali and Oromo communities, hundreds of people have been killed, tens
of thousands have been evicted and displaced, properties of the
communities have been partly confiscated and the rest decimated. The
displaced people of Anniyaa who survived the recent mass killing are now
in dire need of shelter, food and medicine. Their way of life is
completely shattered, and with no one to appeal to the flagrant
violation of their human rights and the right to their ancestral land
they contemplate nothing but a bleak future. Undoubtedly, the long tem
consequences of this Somali led incursion backed by the TPLF on the
lives of the affected Oromo communities would be much more calamitous.
Ultimately, the TPLF led regime, as a mastermind of this proxy war,
is responsible for the crime against humanity that has been committed on
the Oromo people of Anniyaa, Jaarsoo, and Mi’eesoo. We condemn in the
strongest possible term the TPLF regime for the heinous crime it has
concocted and committed.
For the TPLF regime, pitting one ethnic group against another has
served as a political survival means for so long. It would continue
using this wild political card for as long as it is in power. Should all
ethnic groups who have lived in harmony side by side for millenniums
and shared a common political history fail to see its divide and conquer
policy and rise up in unison and challenge it, the policy will continue
serving its purpose. This would mean all oppressed ethnic groups will
remain prey of this parasitic regime.
Therefore, it is worthwhile for all ethnic groups to be vigilant of
every sinister move of the TPLF that can incite conflict amongst them.
It is also critically important to understand that the beneficiary of
such a conflict is only the TPLF. Peaceful co-existence fosters peace,
prosperity, and progress in human development for the community of
nations in the region. Such a co-existence can be restored and
maintained only if all resist the temptation of becoming an accomplice
of the TPLF for a short term gain.
With regards to the present encroachment of the Somali force in
Eastern Hararge, ULFO is extremely outraged by the callus act of this
force that is for all practical purposes a mercenary of the TPLF regime.
They do not in any shape or form represent the brotherly people of
Ogadenia who share a common history of colonial oppression and a common
interest with the people of Oromiya. Sooner or later the people of
Oromiya will pay the sacrifice necessary and regain its territorial
integrity. Peace will prevail in the region, not if, but when the sun
sets on the TPLF and it finds itself in political darkness.
The United Liberation of Oromiya(ULFO)
Oromiya shall be free!!!!
By Qeerransoo Biyyaa
Framing: What We Are Told Is Not What It Is
Tigire ruling elites often misleadingly frame genocidal
massacres against the Oromo people in various parts of Oromia as
“inter-communal violence, ethnic conflict, border conflict or water
conflict” in order to absolve themselves from responsibility and
possible future indictment in local and international courts.
For at least two decades, genocidal massacres against Oromo have been
framed that way in order to cover-up the deliberate effort by TPLF
elites to either reduce Oromo by attrition to a minority population or
to destroy them fully so that Tigireans can take over Oromia and its
resources. That is their long-term plan.
Aslii Oromo, an exiled Oromo political prisoner and torture survivor,
cited the late Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zanawi ( from Tigray) who
said,
“We [TPLF or Tigrean elites] will reduce the number of Oromos from 40 million to 4000 without the knowledge of the world.” Yet,
many, including some well-meaning Oromos, have hesitated calling
widespread massacres against Oromo a “genocide”, and comfortably stayed
on the human rights violations side of a much protracted problem.
Ethnic Tigire elites declared their intent of destroying the Oromo partially or fully and have acted on their declarations. Where
they did not declare these intents, they can be inferred from the
actions of singling out and massacring and displacing Oromo en masse or
selling their lands to land grabbers by the millions of hectares. Even
an airhead would understand that no one group will massacre other
groups just out of love or to do them some favor by killing them off of
their land. Calling massacres against Oromo “genocide” has been avoided
mainly because some people make false strategic calculations and
believe that it is enough for the Oromo to claim human rights abuses
instead of claiming genocide too. Human rights violations are
indicators. There are some who see the talk of genocide as an inflation
or overstatement. But, connecting evidence on the ground can show us
that massacres in Oromia are indeed conspicuous acts of genocide.
Let’s just go beyond routine condemnation press releases, which echo
the official framing of such massacres as “border conflicts or ethnic
clashes etc”, and come to grips with the reality–genocide. The methods
are multi-pronged: direct massacre, displacement, landgrab, spread of
lethal infectious diseases, starving, withholding services, destroying
crops to just list a few. In the process, it becomes important to see
these massacres as part of an ongoign genocide,
“the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic,racial, religious, or national group”
With absolute military, economic and diplomatic powers, Tigirean
elites have ever been emboldened to destroy the Oromo nationality and
its material, cultural and intellectual properties. They are accountable
to no one–not to their laws, not to international law and not to moral
principles. TPLF elites’ arrogance is becoming limitless, soaring. While
they engage in genocidal activities in Oromia, the international
community has afforded them the complete silence they so want. However,
the human and material destruction caused by Tigire elites in Oromia is
no short of the Syrian crisis or Darfur, but Western cameras are not
focused on Ethiopia as its has been considered a regional
counter-terrorism linchpin even now when Somalia is on the path of
stability and reconstruction.
Reductionists may say, “oh yea, ethnic clashes have been going on
between Oromo and others for decades, so what is the big deal about what
is happening now?”
As stressed earlier, these are not just ethnic clashes between
equally armed or unarmed groups trying to settle
their differences violently. To understand what is going on, we have to
make the links between the different events of massacres in Oromia.
Briefly comparing the recent genocide hotspots in eastern Oromia,
southern Oromia and western Oromia will offer a much needed deep
perspective.
Patterns of Genocide
1. The Case of Massacre and Displacement in Eastern Oromia
The mass atrocities against Oromo in Eastern Oromia (Qumbi county)
started in 2011 when TPLF elites provided advice to armed bands of
Ogaden militants to lay claim to six districts that traditionally
belonged to Oromia region. Land claims are TPLF incentives to another
group to get the group to indirectly commit genocide on their behalf.
Who does the planning of the genocide–TPLF elites–are more important
than the agents on the ground hired to do the depraved job
of massacring and looting. This violence has been intensifying over the
last six months.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa describes the massacre and the displacement in the following terms:
….this government-backed violence that has been going on in the
name of border dispute around the Anniya, Jarso and Miyesso districts
between the Oromia and Ogaden regional states has already resulted in
the death and/or disappearance of 37 Oromo nationals and the
displacement of about 20,000 others. Around 700 different types of
cattle and other valuable possessions are also reported to have been
looted. The reports indicate that the violence has been backed by two
types of armed forces (the Federal Liyou/Special Police and the Ogaden
Militia) from the Ogadenis side, while on the side of the Oromos, even
those who demonstrated the intentions of defending themselves in the
same manner were disarmed, dispossessed and detained.
Another radio report
estimates the number of internally displaced Oromos at 150,000 people.
The displaced people continue to die through starvation and diseases.
Who are the attackers and how and why were they organized? Who
supplies them? What types of weapons were they using? The above quote
does provide answers to those questions. It is well known that the
Federal Liyu/Special Police is a heavily armed group that carried out
the killings and the displacements on behalf of the Tigrean elites who
master-minded the creation of this
Janjaweed-like group with
UK tenders.
Just like the Sudanese government organized, armed and used
Janjaweed militias to overrun villages in Darfur, the Ethiopian
government has organized and supplied Liyu Police and has had them
overrun several villages, towns and counties in eastern Hararghe,
Oromia. In contrast, the Oromo were disarmed and discouraged from
carrying out any acts of self-defense, according to the report quoted
above. The Oromo have absorbed everything passively. When a group of
government-backed heavily armed military group attacks villages, of
course, the primary responsibility falls on the government who created
it and mobilized it to commit mass atrocities. If the government did not
plan this genocide, why were it watching it for six months until it
gets to this?
The main reason TPLF uses groups such as
Liyu Police from
the neighboring Ogaden region or any other region is because it wants
to acquit itself from being held accountable and brought to justice in a
local or international court at some point in the future. It is also
easier for TPLF elites to frame such massacres “border disputes” for the
same purpose of absolving themselves, but they won’t be quite as
absolved as they think since evidence shows they have planned, funded
and and executed these attacks. This is a pure case of a heavily armed
group overrunning Oromo civilians in towns and villages. It is not a war
between two armed groups. It is a massacre perpetrated by a state-run
militia group. Locally, everyone knows this despite the misleading
frames being tossed around.
2. The Case of Massacre and Displacement in Borana, Moyale
BBC reported
in July 2012 that scores of unarmed Oromos were massacred and over
20,000 were displaced by the same force from the neighboring Ogaden
region. Like the Eastern Hararge massacre, the Moyale massacre was a
result of cross- border raid into Oromia from the neighboring Somali
region. This group was also heavily armed with military convoys, trucks,
AK47s, machine guns, and other kinds of heavy weapons that only a
group armed by the Ethiopian government can afford to have. Tigrean
leaders have provided Oromo lands as incentives upon a successful
completion of massacre in this area as well. The Oromo got displaced and
the land was occupied by the armed settlers from a neighboring region.
The attackers fulfilled their short-term goals of sharing the spoils of
genocide, while their TPLF elites master-minding this massacre have
made progress toward their goal of destroying the Oromo nation. TPLF
elites do not care because the violence against Oromo does not affect
their co-ethnics in Tigray region who are far removed from the actions.
We are talking about the distance between Mekele and Moyale here (951
miles or 1530kms). Tigreans are sheltered from the kind of genocidal
violence their elites unleash on Oromos everyday.
3. The Case of Massacre and Displacement in Eastern Wallega
The massacre in eastern Wallega (western Oromia) began in 2008 and
went on for over 5 years. This also shares the features of the two other
massacres and massive displacements. The only difference is the
difference of another neighboring group from Benishangul Gumuz that
Ethiopia trained and supplied to do the same job of perpetrating
genocidal violence on behalf of Tigire elites. These elites are capable
of extremely evil schemes that no rational person can contemplate. The
same applies here—they don’t care because the violence doesn’t affect
their Tigrean co-ethnics who live removed far from the actions–we are
talking about a distance between Nekemete and Mekele (675.5 miles
or 1087km).
Oromia Support Group describes eastern Wallega massacre in the following way:
….the slaughter of defenceless Oromo by Benishangul
Gumuz militia in the Didessa and Hanger valleys, Eastern Wallega, from
17-19 May.Well-trained and armed by the government with AK47s and
heavier machine guns, Gumuz militias attacked unarmed Oromo villagers
as they slept, slaughtering men, women, children and babies, cutting
throats, dismembering bodies and casting body parts aside – limbs,
breasts and genitals.
Overall Picture of Genocide in Oromia
The cases above, among others, show us how the ruling Tigrean
elites are aggressively hiring, training and supplying Oromo neighbors
to perpetrate genocide on their behalf foolishly thinking that that
would absolve them from responsibility. The arrogance of Tigrean power
in Ethiopia is growing by the day. It’s an unrestrained power of a
hate-intoxicated minority elites who would stop at nothing short of
wiping out Oromos slowly as their leaders have claimed or implied in the
past. The misrepresentation of these massacres and displacements
targeting the Oromo are promoted by both TPLF elites as well as the
international media that relies on Tigirean sources for their news
reporting and opinions.
Since Ethiopia prohibits journalists and the press direct access to
these sites of genocide, the act is often wrongly labelled inter-ethnic
clashes over borders, pasture and water. They did not or could not see
what it really was. Looking at the nature of the state-backed heavily
armed militia groups makes the cases rise above ordinary clashes between
civilians of equal power.
The Desire for the World to Know
An elderly survivor from east Oromia said:
“…As I speak to you now, my eyes are filled with tears, we
don’t have any mobile phones, we don’t have a single camera in the
village to take pictures of our people who have fallen and let the world
know… Those of you in exile must know that our people are being hunted
like wild animals, but nobody knows about this outside.”
The elderly survivor was very smart to observe that
recording/filming events of massacres can help publicize the ongoing
genocide against the Oromo people. The lack of cameras and inexpensive
mobile phones also reflects badly on Oromo leaders who have failed to
listen and continue to only issue dry press releases from the
convenience of their desktop computers using word processors. If we
can’t get cameras in and get pictures and videos of many state-backed
massacres out of Oromia, at the minimum, what is the point of the Oromo
national struggle?
Soon,
TPLF started imprisoning and executing outstanding Oromo nationalists.
It uprooted machines and facilities from Oromia and transported them to
Tigray, including factory for military equipments like bullet factory
in West Shawa. Even basic public properties were looted and transported
to Tigray. Schools were emptied, electric power plants were vacated and
the facilities transported over 1000 miles(1500Km) to Tigray. Until
Tigray is developed let the others bleed became the policy and slogan
of TPLF and Tigreans. The euphoria of liberation fast changed to doom of
further occupation in Oromo camp. The fate of Oromo became continuation
of subjugation. Oromo nationalists were amassed to the ever expanding
prison cells. Pretrial detention, disappearances, kidnapping, rap,
torture, murder,and executions became the every day life of Oromos once
Prisoners
were hanged upside down for several hours, their finger and toe nails
were removed, their head were dry shaved, heavy objects were hung on
male genital organs and women were inhumanly treated and gang raped.
Oromo
towns that count hundreds of years since establishment are without
basic facilities. There is no road, no electric supply, no industries,
no any sort of developments. 
Towns
that had airstrips more than three ,four decades ago and were
frequented by domestic flights , now do not even have regular
monthly flights.
Even
Oromia natural forests could not escape the reality in which Oromia
finds itself. They are burned down with the wild animals or mowed down
and logged due in part to deny OLA a cover and to explore the natural
resources lying under them. The Bale mountain forest burning, and the
Ilu Abbabora forest burning are prototypes of this crimes perpetrated by
Tigrean government. 
Tigrean
‘engineers’ have deployed hundreds of bulldozers in several places in
Oromia to loot the resources while Oromo engineers are on death rows in
Ethiopian prisons or are forced into exile.
