Ethiopian army said “forcefully relocating” natives in southeast

The ONLF or Ogaden National Liberation Front, has been fighting the government forces for ages and now, in their territory, the Chinese company, PetroTrans, is conducting what is said to be illegal oil exploration.

The report continues telling that the Ethiopian army is rounding up all adults and detaining them in few designated villages around the road between Jijiga and Degeh Bur, leaving behind their children and livestock unattended at the mercy of wild beasts. Furthermore, the Ethiopian army is separating the women and taking them to military camps for sexual abuse. Some of the villages used as concentration camps are Obole, Higlalay, Magalo-cad, Bilcil-bur, Gosolalay and Ararso.

Civilians who escaped from this massive campaign are highly distressed and hiding in nearby towns. They are recounting horrendous stories about the fate of the young children left behind. The liberation army found the remains of young children and livestock eaten by hyenas.

Here follows a letter (abridged) addressed to the US president earlier in the year that tells of the dire situation:

April 24, 2011
To: President Barack Obama, The White House
Subject: The attack on the Oromo and other people of Ethiopia
Dear President Obama,

I am writing this letter on behalf of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) to bring to your attention the widespread imprisonment and indiscriminate shootings of Oromo students, men and women of different ages, religious backgrounds, and professions by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) led Ethiopian government – motivated by fear and hate against the Oromo people. Members of OSA request your administration to use your enormous influence with the government of Ethiopia to stop the imprisonments and killings of innocent Oromo and other people of Ethiopia.

The colonization of Oromia led to the dispossession of its people from Oromo land, the denial of the Oromo language legal status, denial of the Oromo people leadership, and using young Oromo men as minesweepers.

This conditioned the Oromo people to live in extreme poverty, illiteracy and exposed them to easily preventable diseases. The Oromo people constitute the single largest national group in the Ethiopian Empire and the Greater Horn of Africa. The size of the Oromo population and the geographical location of their country, Oromia, make the Oromia regional state in the heart of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Empire mainly depends on the human and natural resources of Oromia. However, the Oromo people are one of the most impoverished and terrorized indigenous African people. The Zenawi regime fears the Oromo numerical voting power. In fear of free and fair election, the regime has been systematically destroying all independent Oromo organizations and closed down their newspapers and magazines. Even the Macha and Tulama Association, a civic association, which was established in 1963 was banned, its leaders detained, and it’s property confiscated.

Currently the Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zenawi is worried that the people’s revolution that forced the Tunisian and Egyptian dictatorial regimes to depart from power is coming to Ethiopia. Driven by fear, the Zenawi security forces in a single event shot and wounded over one hundred Oromo students in Tepi-Mizan University and are massively imprisoning Oromo men and women throughout the Ethiopian empire. Among those who were shot, several of them have life-threatening wounds. According to the Human Rights Leagues of the Horn (HRLHA, April 11, 2011), the students who are the victims of the rampage shooting did nothing illegal but simply asked the administration of the University to discipline the Mr. Zenawi`s agent and cadre who made blatant racist remarks against the Oromo people. Since 2004, no less than 10,000 Oromo students and teachers have been detained, several hundred students suspended or expelled from their university studies in that country and many students have been extra-judicially executed.

Impune the regime to act irresponsibly. Historically the Abyssinian monks and other religious leaders categorized the Oromo people with the ‘devil’. The Oromo people were dehumanized and Abyssinian oral and written stories clearly tell us this. Indeed, until recently the use of the Oromo language was prohibited in churches and mosques. Racist attitudes toward the Oromo people are deeply rooted.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is the country that receives the largest financial aid from the Western world and enjoys diplomatic and military support. Those security forces involved in the rampage shooting and mass arrest are trained by the Western military, security and police forces and their salary is paid from the financial aid given to the Ethiopian government. This makes the Western countries (USA, Germany, Britain, France, Italia, Japan, Canada and Russia) who trained Zenawi`s police and security forces and provided aid to pay their salary as complaisant to the rampage shootings and imprisonments.

In the light of what has been stated above, which is but the tip of an iceberg, I request you to take the following practical measures, which will reduce human misery and promote democracy in Ethiopia:

Advise the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to respects its own constitution, and stop its extra-judicial killings, rampage shootings and arbitrary arrests of innocent people and prolonged detention without trial.

We request you to suspend all U.S. economic assistance to the Ethiopian government, other than relief materials to save lives, until such a time that the government of Meles Zenawi shows its commitment to the rule of law.

Exert pressure on the Zenawi regime to bring individuals who have committed the killings and woundings to justice.

Advise Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to bring to speedy trial or unconditional release of hundreds of Oromo students who have been detained without due process of law.

Advise the government of Meles Zenawi to allow all Oromo students to continue with their education freely, legally and peacefully without fear of harassment, detention and loss of life.

As the President of the most powerful country in the world, you have an extraordinary opportunity to alleviate the incredible human sufferings of the Oromo and other people in Ethiopia. OSA members thank you for your interest in the peace, stability and wellbeing of the Oromo and other people in the Horn of Africa.

Sincerely Begna Dugassa., PhD OSA President
Oromo Studies Association (OSA)