Ethiopians return home to a bleak future

More than 150,000 Ethiopians have been deported from Saudi Arabia in recent months.

Ahmed woke up in a Riyadh hospital with his kidney removed

March 1, 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Aljazeera) - Ahmed, 20 years old, weakly sits down in a chair under the hot sun, dazed, as young men and women jostle in the yard around him. He has just been deported from Saudi Arabia after a month-long imprisonment, like the others at this crowded migrant transit center in Ethiopia’s capital.

But Ahmed’s ordeal is unique. He bears fresh scars across his knees, down his upper arms, and across his stomach. With a medical investigation by an Ethiopian doctor still ongoing, preliminary resultsshow so far that Ahmed is missing his left kidney.

His short-term memory fails him. Ahmed, who comes from Ethiopia’s central Amhara region, does remember paying a couple hundred dollars to human smugglers for the dangerous, illegal passage to Djibouti, across the sea to Yemen, and north to Saudi Arabia. 

He worked for a year and a half as a carpenter in Riyadh, living with other Ethiopian migrants and sending home meagre wages to his impoverished family.

Three months ago Ahmed recalls waking up in a Riyadh hospital room with jagged wounds crisscrossing his body, but with no recollection about how he got them, or how he got there. Promptly transferred to an overcrowded Riyadh prison because of his illegal immigration status, Ahmed was finally deported home by plane a few weeks ago. He is waiting to hear the doctor’s final prognosis before he returns to his village, a sickly version of his former self.

‘Coming back empty-handed’

“It’s not just the return, it’s also the effect of what happens after,” explained Sara Hamo, a protection officer with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in Addis Ababa, about the thousands of deportees. ”They are coming back empty-handed. They used to supply money and now they are a burden on the families they used to provide for. So the return is just the beginning.”

While accounts like Ahmed’s missing kidney are rare, many Ethiopians at the migrant transit centre talked about torture in ad-hoc detention centres run by traffickers, most often for ransom, as well as beatings, sex abuse, gruelling work hours and wages withheld by Saudi employers.

Bereket Feleke, a health ministry official, said respiratory tract infections were the most common ailment returnees suffer, which they get from being held for weeks in overcrowded and filthy detention centres before deportation.

Ethiopian women and girls, often recruited by employment agencies as domestic workers, fly to Saudi Arabia and are legally bound to their employers, who withhold their passports. If the workers break their contract – willingly or forced - their status becomes illegal. A similar system of employee “sponsorship”, known askafala, exists across many of the Gulf states. But many more Ethiopian migrants in Saudi Arabia are smuggled in, further increasing their vulnerability for exploitation.

Travel ban

Because of widespread abuse, the Ethiopian government has issued a temporary travel ban on domestic workers while it works on a protection law. Critics say this could encourage more illegal migration.

Last November, the kingdom’s authorities enforced strict labour laws governing foreign workers after a seven-month reprieve, spurred partly by the potential security threat of thousands of unemployed Saudi youth. And Saudi Arabian vigilante groups in Riyadh, armed with clubs and machetes, brutally attacked Ethiopian migrants in November, prompting tens of thousands of the workers to turn themselves in to the kingdom’s authorities out of fear.

When I asked for payment, and permission to call my family, the man of the house said: ‘You have no family, so why do you need money?’ He tied my hands behind my back, put cloth in my mouth and beat me. He then kicked me out of the house.

Abigail, Ethiopian orphan

Unskilled labourers from neighbouring Yemen, the Horn of Africa and southeast Asia have been particularly hard-hit by the deportations, which the Saudi Arabian interior ministry claims have reached around a quarter of a million. Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher with Human Rights Watch, suspects the number is much higher. ”I think workers from different nationalities are taking a wait-and-see approach to what is happening in Saudi Arabia,” Coogle said. “They will want to see if this is a labour crackdown that is sustained, or if it is just to scare them, and will end up being business as usual.”

IOM in Addis Ababa estimates that nearly 160,000 Ethiopians have been detained and deported from Saudi Arabia because of their irregular status. The peak was in November, when 9,000 deportees arrived on planes to the Ethiopian capital every day. These days, the numbers have dwindled to around 300 a day.

At nearly 92 million, Ethiopia has Africa’s second-largest population after Nigeria, and a rapidly growing economy. Agriculture is the country’s leading economic sector, but drought, poor cultivation practices, land-grabs and mass displacement of rural populations have garnered headlines recently. The youth unemployment rate is high. Many choose to seek work abroad and send remittances home.

‘They have been targeted’

Abigail is a 15-year-old orphan from an Amhara village who quit school when she was in the second grade. Her seven-month trip to Saudi Arabia was arduous. Her uncle paid an agency to find her work in the kingdom, and send money home. With her passport withheld, she cleaned and took care of the children in the household she was assigned to, as well as their relatives’ homes.

“When I asked for payment, and permission to call my family, the man of the house said: ‘You have no family, so why do you need money?’” she recalled. “He tied my hands behind my back, put cloth in my mouth and beat me. He then kicked me out of the house.”

The police arrested Abigail. Without her passport and valid working papers, she was imprisoned and deported. ”There is an anger within the Ethiopian population,” said Temesgen Deressa, a guest scholar with the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institute. ”They have been targeted - killed, or tortured and dehumanised.”

“In terms of the whole economy, the remittances might not be significant, but the returnees’ families are going to be hard-hit,” he said. “There is a high level of poverty in Ethiopia, and I don’t think the Ethiopian government has the capacity for rehabilitation. Basically, the returnees will have a very hard time.”

Source: Aljazeera

The battle to keep racism alive!

The case of racist Getachew Haile

Rundassa Asheetee | February 28, 2014

Getachew Haile

There is no doubt that all ethnic groups of empire Ethiopia are victims of the political catastrophe that the Abyssinian kings and clergy men have created.

Thought such catastrophe can and should be left behind as history, the Abyssinians who interpret this catastrophe as a Nobel work based on their narrow perspective have opened unhealthy conversations between them and their victims. Interestingly, this situation allowed the minority Tigre tribe to rule the country for 23 years with iron fist and the tribe is  going to stay in power as long as past continues to occupy, disturb and divide the people of empire Ethiopia, particularly the Oromo and the Amhara.

One way of finding meaningful and accurate reason that contributed to these misunderstandings is the poisonous opinions that old dying racist men like Getachew Haile and his parent’s slaves such as the Larebos are spewing against the Oromo people.  As far I can see, Amhara’s dying black Hitlers such as Haile and the like are so angry and restless by the victory that the Oromo people scored and spiting out the filth of hatred in which they were born and raised with.

In contrast to Oromo and other nations historians and educated men and women, racist men such asGetachew Haile like to stress certain basic Amhara specifics, consistent with their clergy men’s behavioral pattern. For example, they view their non-logical argument about the greatness of their cruel and inferior monarchs as an asset, not as a liability to themselves and to nations and nationalities of empire Ethiopia. They are proud of king Minilik’s breast cutting practice in places such as Anole and Calanqo of Oromia and wish to practice this tradition again because they think that it is efficient civil service methodology. The reason behind such conviction is that they believe they are different from the rest and thus they’re superior because of the Orthodox religion that they’ve borrowed from Greece and because of the Amharic alphabet they copied from Hebrew.

As it happens, the rest of ethnic groups in empire Ethiopia are increasingly being angered by the Amhara dying racists failure to stop promoting deceptive history and become agents of change.

Nevertheless, their attempt to promote false history continues to drain the trust which the society have built over a period of century and half. As expected, the Amhara’s little hitler named Getachew Haile ridicules Oromians state system known as the Gadaa system as a mafia system because he and his likes are increasingly frustrated by the return of the Gadaa system and the Oromo culture in general. Worse, this uneducated Arab Diqaalaa speak against the Oromo nation in a manner the street girls and bar prostitutes speak.

Obviously, this is an expected role that the son of those girls can play. Ever since these sick racists came to power in empire Ethiopia, they have used hate and the ridiculing of those whom they fear the most to shape government policies. Ever since then, they have marginalized tens of millions from being a part of the economic development by dismissing any talk of honesty and decency.

Thanks to these sick little racist Diqaalaas, their cousin, the Tigreans are ruling the country now for 23 years justifying their intervention to stop the conflict these little Hitlers artificially produce.

To intentionally confuse the mass, these little Hitlers often use terms such as “We” and “Unity” to suggest that people are united, of course as long as one interprets term “Unity” similar to their interpretation of hatful historiography.

Interestingly, even little old Hitler Getachew Haile attempts to explain the history of the Oromo people in a manner his racist parents taught him. All this is done to hide the undeniable and terrible part of their own historical heritage of cruelty, cheating, immorality and hate of black people.

Nonetheless, even if these dying racists will not admit the fact that their chauvinist political views were and still are the focal point and a driving force for secessionist tendencies that links the Eritreans experiences and the current Oromo and Ogadenia demands to liberate their own free state, the day in which their grand children will suffer the consequence of their racist hatred is not too far.

Certainly, there are few Amhara historians who do not deny the fact that their monarch’s approach to nation building has been the factor that contributed to the separation of Eritrea and they know that it will be their attitude that will lead to the collapse of empire Ethiopia. In short, the Amhara racism is the reason for the rise of the Oromo and other nations and nationalities nationalist movement and secessionist tendencies. Yet, old racist Diqaalaas such as Getachew Haile intentionally overlook these danger because they think that denial will fix the danger that their ignorance and hateful hearts produced. They do this because they think it is humiliating to accept and defeat and that is racists rationale.

But, at the same time, the Oromo people have already looked back to the nineteenth century and identified that Abyssinians political structures and it’s processes, of course was the factor and hindered the development of liberal democracy and ultimately facilitated the rise of the Eritrean, the Tigre and the Oromo nationalism. Further, a wide range of foreign scholars contributed to this argument without necessarily using the term “Oromo Nationalism.”

Basically, the Amharas racists rigid behavior became the main factor that manifest the past, current and future problems by  making every system that has been tried so far to malfunction.

Convincingly, the Amharas had been the elites of empire Ethiopia, particularly, hateful men likeGetachew Haile and the like were considered as senior civil servants who retained much power and influence well into the 1970s.

When mass revolt took place in 1974, they tried to  stand in the way of the revolution; a case in point was Getachew Haile’s ill advice to Mangistu Hailemariam to deny his Walayita linage and call himself Dejazmach Kebede’s son. By manipulating ignorant Mangistu, Getachew Haile, Shimalis Mazengiya, Alemayehu and the like played detrimental role in the death of hundreds of thousands young and intellectuals though the military was blamed for all the killings.

Getachew Haile’s script in PDF

To be continued………

Rundassa Asheetee

Dhiha Oromiyaa Wallagga, Ona Limmuu Ebantuu fi Aanota Adda Adda Addaa Keessatti Gaaffiin Mirgaa Barattootaan Ka’e Daran Jabaachuun Beekame.

Gurandhala 26,2014 Naqamte

Saboontootni baratootni Oromoo manneen barnootaa sadarkaa 2ffaa Onotaa Wallagga Bahaa manneen barnoota akka: M/B Haroo Limmuu sadarkaa 2ffaa, M/B Leeqaa Dullachaa sadarkaa 2ffaa, M/b Ukkee sadarkaa 2ffaa, M/B Jimmaa Arjoo, M/B Kiramuu sadarkaa 2ffaa, jedhaman keessatti argaman gaaffii mirgaa qabna gaaffii keenya nurraa fuudhaa jechuun directors mannen barnoota kanneenitti dhiyeeffachuun hanga gaaffiin mirga fi mirgi uummata Oromoo kabajamutti nurraa hin fuudhamnetti barachuu hin dandeenyu, mirga hin qabnu, rakkoo keenyaa fi rakkoo uummata keenya hiriira bahuun ibsanna mirgi hiriira nagaa gochuu fi rakkoo ofii ibsachuu nuf haa eeyyamamu jechuun gaaffii FDG kaachiisan. saboontotni baraatootni Oromoo kun dhaadannoo Oromiyaa ni bilisoomti (Oromia shall bee free), ka’ii ummata Oromoo mirga kee falmadhu, qabeenyaa uummata Oromoo saamuun dhaabbachuu qaba, Oromoo ilaalcha siyaasaan qoqqodanii bituun ni dhaabbata, dhaaba keenya tokkicha ABO ni jaallanna, Ummatni
Oromoo abba biyyati, Ummatni Oromoo lafa isaa irratti of bulchuu qaba, yoo Mirgi Oromoo kabajame malee nagaa fi Misoomni guddinni itti fufinsa qabu dhufuu hin danda’u.

Kanatti dabalees mirgi dimookiraasii nuf kabajamuu qaba. hidhamtootni siyaasaa Oromoo fi kaanis hundi gadhiifamuu qabu, Oromiyaan mootummaa mataa ishee malee waggoota 23 dabarsitee jirti amman booda mootummaa mataa keenyaa hundeeffachuuf ni qabsoofna, dhaadannoolee jedhan uummata keessa fi baratootni walii isaniif rabsuun diddaa Wayyaaneef qaban argisiisuun jaalala ABOf qaban mul’isa jiru.

Haaluma walfakkatuun Onoota kanneen keessatii fi Onotaa guutummaa godina wallaaggaa bahaa cufa keessatti barruun warraaqsa FDG bittinneefamuun dhaaba lukkee wayyaaneetti yaadddoo dhalchee halkanii guyyaa wardiyyaa dhaabbachaa jiraachuun gabaafamera.

Maatii fi uumanni Oromoo jiraattota naannoo ta’an gaaffii barattootaa hordofuun ykn cinaa dhaabbachuun gaaffiin keenya fi gaaffiin baratoota keenyaa yeroo garaagaratti dhiyeessa turre deebii argachuu qaba, jechuun guraandhala gaafa 25/2014 Onotaa akka Limmuu Galiilaa, Haroo Limmuu, Sassiggaa fi kiramuu keessatti uummanni hanga gaaffiin keenya deebii argatutti mootummaa wayyaaneef gibra hin kaffallu, walga’ii wayyaneen gootu hin hirmannu, ajaja gama kamiin iyyuu lukkee wayyaanee irraa darbu hin fudhannu, wayyaanee irratti fincillee mirga keenya ni kabachiifanna jechuun uummanni murtee waliifdabarsee jira.
Ergamtootni Wayyaanee haala sochii diddaa FDG uumamaa jirutti rifachuun humna poolisaa kora bittinneessaa jedhamuu Onoota hundaa irra qubsiisuu fi uummata ittin sodachiisuf halkanii guyyaa uummata keessa baattee fiiga jirachuun gabaafamera.

Kana malees barruuleen FDG Godina Wallagaa dhihaa magaalawwaan akka Mandii, Ginbii, Danbii Doolloo fi Gullisotti bittinneffamuun lukkele Wayyanee wareersaa jirachuutu gabaafame jira. uummannis waamicha dhaabni kallacha qabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo ABO irraa bifa garaagaran godhamaa jirutti gammachuu gudda qabachuu isa FDG mul’ifachuuf qophii xummuraa jiraachuu isaa gabaasa nu qaqqabe irra hubanne jirra.

Sababaa Qorannoo Jedhuun Qondaaloti Wayyaaneen Jiraattota Magaalaa Sulultaa Guyyaa 5f Walgayii Gaggeessaa Jiru!!

Gabaasaa Qeerroo Guraandhala 25 godina addaa Finfinnee Sulultaa irraa addeessuun mootummaan wayyaanee yeroo ammaa ABO qofa osoo hin taanee sodaan isaa miseensotuma isaayyuu shakkuudhaan sodaa keessa galee jira,seelii ABO fi seelii keenya adda baafachuu qabna jedhani labsii labsaa jiru magaalaa kana irratti,kaleessa;guraandhala 24 irraa kaasanii miseensota OPDO kan taam hunda walitti qabuudhaan wal gayii ariifachiisaa qaama nu hordofuu fi nun hordofne adda baasuudha jedha mootummaan jedhuun hanga guyyaa 5niitti walgayiin wayyaanee magaalaa Sulultaa irratti dhimma kanaaf adeemsifachaa jirti. Wal gayii kana irratti namoota hirmaatan addatti ammo miseensa ABOti jedhuun shakkaa ture mootummaan wayyaanee tikoota isaatiin gara qorannaa federaalatti akka fuudhataman taee jira,isaan keessa kan maqaan nama lamaa nu gahee jiru:

1. B/saa Tamasgeen Hirkoo
2. B/saa Guddataa Takkaaliny Oliiqaa

Kan jedhaman kun barattoota siyaasa barsiisa,maatii barattootaa waamuudhaan sabboonummaa akka baratan,aadaa fi seenaa oromoo barattootni keessan hubachuu qabu kan jedhu maatii isaa gorsaa barattoota maatiin isaanii deggeraa mootummaa tae ammoo ilaalcha gaarii hin qabaniifi,walii galatti sammuu barattoota siyaasaan jijjiiranii jiru jedhuun yakka kanaan gara qorannootti dhiyaatanii jiru,keessi isaa bifa hidhaatiin tikoota wayyaaneetiin qabamanii gara federaalaatti akka geeffaman gabaasaan Qeerroo addeessa. Itti fufee mareenii fi qorannoon Wayyaanee magaalaa Sulultaa irratti gaggeeffama kan jiru guyyoota 5f seemii isaanii adda baafachuuf ajandaa godhatanii kaanii jru bakka biroo irratti kan itti fufu akka tae odeeffannaan ibsa. Diddaan Itti fufa!

Governing by Circumvention

By Firehiwot Guluma Tezera | February 26, 204

Their first move upon assuming power was to declare that Ethiopia, would henceforth, be a Federal Democratic Republic consisting of ‘nations and nationalities’. These nations and nationalities will have equal rights. Each of them shall have its own flag, language, borders, and parliament. Those that are unhappy with the union have the right to secede.

According to Article 39, in section 3 of this constitution which deals with the rights of nations and nationalities: “Every nationality in Ethiopia shall have the full right to administer itself .This right shall include the right to establish government institutions within the territory it inhabits and the right to fair representation in the federal and state governments.”

The TPLF further undertook to end the highlander domination of Ethiopian politics in the past and promised that every Ethiopian will enjoy his/her share in the economic and political sphere of the country. Many rejoiced when they heard these from the TPLF – which was, itself, a highlander guerrilla party founded on secessionist platform – and wholeheartedly welcomed it.

But it was not to be so. The Oromo’s were the first to discover this treachery when their political organization (OLF) withdrew in response to unfair election practices held on June 21,1992, the leaders either arrested, killed or made to flee the country, when they tried to get their rights using the legally allowed provisions in the TPLF drafted constitution. Also other political organization that disagreed with TPLF was led to slaughter house and chopped down. The provision of constitution which guaranteed freedom of thought, speech, association and other fundamental human right, took a holiday.

Again in 2005, when the regime organized elections thinking it will win, surprisingly the opposition had outperformed the EPRDF coalition and won the election. But the regime did not honor its word, and as was expected, rigged the election and declared itself winner of the vote.  The people took to the streets and protested against the election swindle. The regime, again as was expected, but not so harshly, resorted to brute force by gunning down the peaceful protestors right in center of the metropolitan city of Addis Ababa in the full view of the whole world. The regime declared the protestors as anarchists, thugs, violent mobs, and arsonists, criminals who were instructed by their party bosses to cause chaos and illegally topple the government. Subsequently, the leaders of the opposition were rounded up, charged with trumped up accusations and thrown into jails.

After the crackdown of the opposition many Ethiopians realized they could not unseat the TPLF democratically and started agitating for an armed struggle, created groups such as the Ginbot 7 and others.

The regime devised a subterfuge campaign to divide the ruled along ethnic lines in order to dominate and exploit them. When they were fighting the OLF they sold a vile propaganda to other ethnic groups, specifically to amharas, and said that Oromo are racist and narrow minded people, if OLF come to power, they will expand waqefata religion. Many listened to this nonsense as it echoed historically held perceptions about Oromo in Ethiopia.

Already the regime had panicked had even started sending, through backdoor channels, emissaries to representatives of the parties concerned. The message of the TPLF emissaries is again the same old tired clichés. To the Oromo, they say:  the Amhara will not allow you to break away from Ethiopia; they’re only using you and they’re unwilling to forfeit their ‘Ethiopia Andinet’ concept, and so on. The same old game. It seems the TPLF has run out of ideas and is still regurgitating the only thing it knows best: the ethnic and clan cards.

However all things circumvention will eventually run aground and be exposed.  It is time to say in union:  Enough, to the TPLF and its rule of circumvention!

Big Tent: Ethiopia’s Authoritarian Balancing Act

February 19, 2014 (World Politics Review) — When Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s leader of more than 20 years, died in August 2012, many anticipated significant and potentially destabilizing change. Past political transitions in Addis Ababa had been violent and settled at the barrel of the gun, so the precedents were worrisome. Meles’ eulogies emphasized his individual brilliance and his personal role in bringing development to the modern Ethiopian state. What would happen with the strongman gone? Could the strong and effective authoritarian developmental party-state engineered under Meles’ leadership sustain itself without him?

Instead of instability, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) quickly moved Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn into the leadership spot without public drama or fuss. Meles’ Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) remains the party’s guiding policy document, and key initiatives such as the Grand Renaissance Dam are moving forward steadily. Ethiopia was never a one-man dictatorship, but was characterized by a strong authoritarian ruling party with deep links among the security forces, regional administrations, mass organizations and party-affiliated enterprises. The EPRDF is key to understanding Ethiopia’s stability and the regime’s ability to remain in control of a diverse country of some 90 million, divided into a complex set of ethnic groups, in a poor region that suffers terrible levels of conflict. 

The EPRDF is ubiquitous in Ethiopia. It dominates the country through a network of political, military, economic and social organizations where the lines between party and state, party and military, party and business, and party and nongovernmental organization are blurred. Since 1991, the EPRDF has controlled all levels of government from the federal to the regional, including all levels of judicial, legislative and executive authority, and it is difficult to separate the EPRDF as a party from the EPRDF as the government. Patronage has been a key part of the party’s strength, and state resources such as development programs, access to higher education and civil service jobs have been used to reward supporters and punish opposition. The EPRDF controls a vast set of businesses through its party-based holding company, the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT). The party also controls newspapers, radio stations and mass organizations such its Youth League, Women’s League and Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions. Most importantly, the ruling party that began as an armed movement retains tight control over the military and security services. The EPRDF is more than just a political party, and its ability to embed itself in a network of state, private business, mass organization and party institutions makes it formidable. This network of linked centers of power is key to Ethiopia’s extraordinary authoritarian stability.

Ethno-nationalism and the Historical Legacies of Armed Struggle

The EPRDF has its origins in the protracted civil war in which liberation fronts mobilized around ethnic identities fought and, in 1991, ultimately defeated Mengistu Haile Mariam and his brutal military regime. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led the insurgency and came to power with high levels of solidarity and cohesion, considerable experience in administering liberated zones in the north and the legitimacy that came from winning the war. In the final years of the war, the TPLF formed the EPRDF coalition to bring in armed wings from outside of the Tigray homeland, notably the Amhara and Oromo. The Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and later the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM) joined the EPRDF. The exigencies of turning into a ruling party required that the northern-based EPRDF find ways to incorporate the many diverse and traditionally marginalized groups in the south while simultaneously retaining its hierarchical structure of top-down control.

In one of its first acts after seizing power, the EPRDF restructured the Ethiopian state into a federation of nine ethnically defined regions and two chartered cities. The ethnically defined wings of the coalition ruled their respective ethnically defined regions. In other words, the Oromo wing ruled the Oromo region, the Amhara wing the Amhara region and so forth. The victorious rebel movement de-emphasized Ethiopian nationalism and argued that the state could only survive if group rights were made the central organizing principle. Rather than emphasizing national unity, the EPRDF boldly—some say recklessly—chose to construct a political system that reflected the aspirations of many in both the northern Tigrayan heartland and the historically marginalized south. The impact of this new dispensation has been profound; it transformed the old social hierarchy that historically favored northern highland groups such as the Orthodox Amhara and Tigrayans while marginalizing the Oromo and other largely Islamic groups in the southern lowlands.

While ethno-federalism and group rights provide the basic constitutional framework of the EPRDF-constructed state, most policy planning and financial resources remain highly centralized. The party retains the top-down, democratic centralism that is part of its legacy from its days as a victorious insurgent group. Addis Ababa provides yearly subsidies to each regional government, thereby creating dependence on central patrons. As a result, programs and expenditures are determined by central rather than local priorities.

However, while the regional states rely upon the center for legitimacy, security and resources, they also control substantial bureaucracies and budgets and have a degree of political autonomy. It is not the EPRDF as a national coalition but rather constituent ethnic parties that control the regional institutions and resources. Rather than merely implementing the wishes of the center, the regional states also possess significant political infrastructure and are the day-to-day face of the state for most rural Ethiopians. Ethno-federalism and democratic centralism have created a system with an inherent tension between autonomy and hierarchy.

The Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) illustrates the potential for regional states to develop institutional autonomy and direct links to the population. The Amhara wing of the EPRDF, the ANDM, controls every elected office in the state. ANRS is the second-largest regional state in Ethiopia, with a population of 17 million. It has its own constitution, its own elected council, regional bureaus of transport, health and education, its own system of courts and prisons, and so forth. There are long lines of farmers waiting to make their cases to regional court officials to adjudicate land disputes, indicating that authority to decide issues fundamental to everyday life is located in the regional state. The Administration and Security Bureau has built a 100,000-member local militia in the rural areas—“almost a regional army,” according to one ANRS official. Residents of the region are linked to the Amhara state, as distinct from the central Ethiopian state, in numerous ways. They carry ANRS ID cards and driver’s licenses, pay ANRS taxes, listen to Amhara radio and watch Amhara TV, support Amhara sports teams against rivals from Oromo or Tigray and identify with the ANRS flag that flies over regional government buildings.

The EPRDF has thus dominated Ethiopian politics since the transition in 1991 through a system that is structured around two tendencies that are in tension consistent with its heritage as a successful insurgency. It is a vanguard party, highly centralized and hierarchical, with policy decisions and resources concentrated at the top and with loyal administrators at the grassroots level. At the same time, however, the EPRDF is a coalition of disparate constituent parties with significantly different legacies and abilities to mobilize. It is a highly effective authoritarian regime, but the tensions between centralization and autonomy create the potential for deep fissures.

The Developmental State

The policy focus of the EPRDF has been on building a developmental state on the Chinese model and promoting the reduction of poverty and movement toward the U.N. Millennium Development Goals through state-led investments. The economy grew by more than 10 percent annually over the past decade, and rapid growth has been key to Ethiopia’s stability. The results are clear, from new housing complexes along the beltway that goes around Addis Ababa to new regional universities in dozens of smaller cities and a significant investment in rural healthcare. Trade and investments from China, India and Turkey are on the rise.

Despite this impressive growth, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita annual income of $410. Furthermore, Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of population growth, making economic expansion critical. Yet, though Ethiopia’s economic growth remains higher than the African average, it has slowed in recent years. Plans for significant exports of electricity will be important in coming years, but the massive hydroelectric projects currently underway are controversial with environmentalists and neighboring states. The World Bank has also raised concerns that Ethiopia’s boom has relied too heavily upon public investment and that sustained growth will require a significant increase in private investment.

Ethiopia is currently in the middle of its five-year (2010-2015) Growth and Transformation Plan. This plan is extraordinarily ambitious and has been compared to China’s Great Leap Forward. According to the GTP, Ethiopia aims to double the size of its economy in five years and vastly expand its road, railroad and other infrastructure in order to meet all Millennium Development Goals. Ethiopia’s authoritarian stability over the past decade has relied upon an unprecedented level of economic expansion. A regime that faced a stagnant economy and an inability to deliver on the GTP’s lofty promises might face a crisis of confidence and instability.

Electoral Authoritarianism

The EPRDF is a strong authoritarian regime that has used the institutions of constitutionalism, rule of law and democracy to retain its control. The regime defines itself as a revolutionary democracy, not a liberal democracy, and insists that this form of governance is more appropriate for Ethiopia’s level of development. It positions itself as the sole legitimate party that represents the interests of the peasants, making it the natural vanguard of the largely rural country. Ethiopia has held a series of elections since 1991, but with the notable exception of the national election in 2005, none have been contested. A combination of EPRDF use of state resources and repression on one hand, and boycotts by the opposition on the other, left the overwhelming majority of Ethiopian voters without meaningful choice. While these elections have not been competitive, they have played fundamental roles in the consolidation of the ruling party’s power. Elections have been instrumental in the marginalization of key opposition parties, and high turnout suggests the party’s ability to mobilize the population.

The 2005 election, in contrast, provided most Ethiopian voters with a meaningful choice, providing a window into quite diverse political opinions that are otherwise difficult to gauge under conditions of single-party authoritarian rule. According to official results, the combined opposition increased its number of seats in parliament from 12 to 172, representing 31 percent of the total seats. This startling shift represented the potential for an important advance in democratization. Some key members of the opposition, however, refused to accept the results and claimed that massive fraud had denied them outright victory. Demonstrations in October 2005 were brutally put down by the Ethiopian military, leaving nearly 200 dead. The regime arrested many top opposition leaders, as well as an estimated 30,000 students and other presumed opposition supporters. The election period had begun with considerable excitement that peaceful change was possible but ended with the closing of political space and the criminalization of dissent.

The EPRDF responded to this challenge by demonstrating its extraordinary strength in using the levers of state power and its considerable organizational capacities to dominate all aspects of political life. In combination, the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation and the Charities and Societies Proclamation of 2009—known as the CSO law—largely eliminated what were already weak newspapers and fledgling civil society institutions. The anti-terrorism law has been used to arrest many independent journalists and to make public discussion of key public policy issues dangerous. The CSO law restricts the ability of organizations working on human rights, democratization and conflict resolution to obtain more than 10 percent of their funds from foreign sources, leading to the collapse of virtually every nongovernmental organization working in these sectors.

The ruling party also flexed its muscle by engaging in a massive recruitment drive that expanded membership nationwide from 760,000 in 2005 to 6.5 million by 2013. As a result of these moves, the EPRDF set the stage for elections in 2010 that it would win by more than 90 percent of the votes, a return to patterns seen in 1995 and 2000. The polls resulted in the EPRDF and affiliated parties winning 545 of 547 seats, or 99.6 percent, in the parliament. Even more remarkable is that, in local elections in 2013, as a result of a boycott by the opposition, only a single opposition candidate won one of the more than 3.5 million seats.

These overwhelming victories are an indication that the authoritarian regime used elections to demonstrate its domination rather than its ability to win a contested election. As the 2005 election results suggest, the top leadership of the ruling party risks its hold on office if it allows for electoral competition. But the astonishing margins of victory in 2010 and 2013 create credibility problems for the EPRDF in North American and European capitals, where diplomats are often heard to say, “Couldn’t they have just won by 60 or 75 percent?” But the point of these elections under authoritarian rule is not to obtain a working majority or to win international approval, but to dominate domestic politics completely and thereby deter any leader from within or without the ruling party from thinking he or she could challenge this extraordinarily effective party. The 99 percent victories send an important domestic message of strength and power, even as they strain credibility abroad.

A Controlled Leadership Transition

Following the 2010 election and the collapse of organized political opposition, the EPRDF launched a process of controlled, internal party transition. A number of leaders from the original insurgent leadership retired, and a new generation of younger leaders was promoted. Leadership transition, however, is inherently a difficult process in which power and authority are in flux as different individuals and factions of parties rise and fall. In Ethiopia this is further complicated because each individual promotion or retirement reflects on the relative power of that individual’s ethnic party and ethnic region. Each of the ethnic parties believe it is “their turn” to benefit from national leadership and do not want to wait for the next transition, in perhaps another 20 years, to have their time at the top. ANDM and OPDO representatives reportedly ask quite pointed questions at closed EPRDF meetings about when their respective parties will receive a greater share of top positions. As a coalition of ethnically defined parties, any change in top EPRDF leadership will shift the distribution of power among the ethnic groups.

This need to maintain ethnic balance in top leadership positions was again seen in the ethnic and party affiliations of those who filled the key posts distributed after Meles’ death in 2012. Hailemariam, who moved from deputy prime minister to prime minister, is from the Wolayta ethnicity, a small and historically marginalized group in the south, and is an evangelical Christian. The symbolism of this is remarkable—the Ethiopian state that had been ruled by northern, Orthodox Christians for centuries now has a southern evangelical Christian head of state. In order to broaden the base of support for the new leadership, three new deputy prime ministers were named. The importance of balance within the EPRDF is apparent from the choices: While Hailemariam is from the SEPDM, Demeke Mekonnen is from the ANDM; Debretsion Gebremichael is from the TPLF; and Muktar Kedir is from the OPDO. In this moment of transition, all four ethnic constituent parties in the EPRDF coalition required a seat at the table. The authoritarian regime has maintained stability without resolving its tensions and leaves the field unresolved in the lead-up to elections in 2015.

The Political Opposition

The political parties that challenged the regime in 2005 have shattered and now play virtually no role in national politics. Repression and the application of anti-terrorism laws, as well as weak structures and leadership, limit the opposition’s ability to operate as political parties within Ethiopia. The Semayawi, or Blue, party aims to mobilize a new, younger generation of supporters, and has organized several small demonstrations, but there is little to indicate that it will challenge the EPRDF’s hold on power.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) remain engaged in protracted armed struggles, but the regime has readily managed these challenges. Oromo nationalist sentiments remain strong, particularly in the diaspora, but the OLF leadership is divided and ineffective, and its military is largely absent and hobbled by its relationships with Eritrea. The EPRDF regularly arrests Oromos and accuses them of links to the OLF and to terrorist plots. The ONLF has suffered from a brutally effective counterinsurgency campaign in the Somali-speaking Ogaden region. Promising talks between the ONLF and Ethiopia broke down in 2012, and in January 2014 the ONLF claimed that two of its top leaders had been kidnapped in Nairobi and taken incommunicado to Addis Ababa. As new potential energy resources are developed in the Ogaden region, Ethiopia will face new challenges in building sustainable stability there.

While the EPRDF has virtually closed political space, mobilization among Ethiopian Muslims provides an example of a new form of politics. Muslims, who represent approximately 40 percent of the population, historically have been marginalized in a country whose elites have been Christian. Demonstrations were organized in 2012 to protest government interference in Islamic affairs and leadership struggles within the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council. The movement’s leadership was arrested in July 2012, and the regime has suggested that the demonstrators are linked to Islamic extremists and external funding. Some reports suggest that the regime would like to reduce tensions with Muslims and would release the leadership if they requested pardons, but the leaders are unwilling to recognize the charges as legitimate.

These demonstrations have been extraordinarily disciplined and, in contrast to the violence and massive crackdown in 2005, the Muslim protesters have made it difficult for the security forces to credibly characterize them as “terrorists”—although the regime has tried. The movement frames its demands in the language of the Ethiopian constitution and underlines its indigenous origins and leadership. It is difficult to forecast how or whether the movement will have any direct role in any future transition, but its resilience suggests that nonpartisan social mobilization may have greater potential than formal electoral opposition parties.

Prospects for Transition

The powerfully effective networks that link the ruling EPRDF coalition and the state have sustained authoritarian stability in Ethiopia since 1991. This power is seen in the ruling party’s ability to mobilize millions in noncompetitive elections. The ruling coalition has benefited from a period of rapid economic growth and an opposition that was often divided and at times missed opportunities. The EPRDF has also put in place a set of laws that have greatly restricted the ability of civil society organizations and independent media to operate, further limiting any checks on its power.

The EPRDF’s strength, however, is simultaneously a source of brittleness. The lack of space for dissenting voices, for the development of alternative policies or for channeling discontent into constructive forms of political dialogue and competition has resulted in a population that has acquiesced to the formidable power of the incumbent. This acquiescence, however, could evaporate quickly if the regime seems to weaken or lose its access to patronage. Acceptance of the ruling party is also enforced through highly effective mechanisms of repression against the opposition. If the regime stumbles, then the veneer of support may fall away, quickly leaving a vacuum that will encourage a violent scramble to gain the upper hand in the transition. Authoritarian regimes without significant constituencies are not stable in the long run. Longevity should not be mistaken for resilience.

Terrence Lyons is associate professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and co-director of the Center for Global Studies, George Mason University.

Source: World Politics Review

Stop Clearing Oromo from their Land in the name of boosting economic development .

Who will stand for the Oromo’s living on the outskirts of Finfinnee?

By Sabbontoota Oromoo, Oromia | February 11, 2014

A.  Background

It is to be recalled that Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) was founded as the present capital city the so called Ethiopian in 1886 by a man called Minilik II. During this time, the area was inhabited by the Oromo people and the area was almost covered with natural forest.  Initially the Shawa government made it seat at Ankober. Hence, before the founding of Finfinee as a political and economic capital of the king, all the areas within the present Finfinnee and the surround areas was free like any other Oromia lands. However, after 1886 the Semitic people from the northern segments and others had taken the land and the Oromo people who were used to live in these areas were forced lost their land through time.

For example, according to Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia (2007) Out of the 2,738,248  100% total population living in Finfinnee,  the total number of the Oromo people living in the city was only 534,255 (19.51%). Since its founding as a capital, Finfinnee remained the capital city for the successive Ethiopian regimes (Menilik II, Lij Eyassu, Zawuditu, Hailesillasse I, Mengistu, Melles and HaileMariam). Through time, the number of inhabitants increased and urbanization expanded greatly. The deliberate and implicitly planned mission and decision  of the Semitic people to erase any sign of Oromo history from Finfinnee was started during the forcefully integration of Oromo people into Ethiopia as second-class citizens and the process has continued in the present government.

Different people mostly from the northern part of the so called Ethiopia have come from the various ethnic groups come and settled in the capital owing to its supper suitable agro-climatic and exploit the natural within the outside today’s Finfinne from the near distance in the name of work and investment. Where did those Oromo farmers go when Finfinnee became the property of new invaders? Be in mind that the Oromo’s are pushed to the peripheral areas of the capital and the number of Oromo people inhabitants decreased from time to time, as the above data depicts.  The indigenous people of the land were pushed out one after the other and were replaced by the invaders from the north. What is happening to the Oromo people living on the outskirt of Finfinne today? It is simply the continuation of a process, which had resulted in a massive displacement of an indigenous Oromo people.

B. The New Master Plan of Fifinnee and Areas to be Incorporated

For the last 100 or so years the Master Plan of Finfinnee city was revised several times. The recent proposal of preparing new Master Plan for City administration that planned to incorporates all the towns and districts lying within the range of 1 hour commuting distance from the Finfinnee, justifies the blatant violation of the constitution and their voracious appetite  to systematically replacing resource and land deficient people to these fertile lands owned by the Oromo people. According to the proposed plan of established the “Integrated Regional Development Plan”, an additional 36 towns and 17 districts currently administered by the Oromia regional State will be merged with Finfinnee so that the right of the land use will be determined by the central mayor .

The new Master Plan was intended to incorporate Oromia’s land locating in 100kms around the Finfinnee city. According to Ethiopia Government preparation, the following 36 Towns and 17 Districts are included in the newly planned Master plan. (See the figure 1.)

• Some of the Towns are: Adama, Sodere, Mojo, Wenji Adama, Ejere,  Alem Tena, Koka, Adulala, Bushoftu, Dukem, Gelen, Akaki Beseka, Godino, Chefe Donsa, Sebeta , Sendafa, Milkewa, Wendoda, Sirti, Duber,Gorfo, Chancho, Mulo, Debra,Muger , Ulo, Adis Alem, Holota, Burayu,Debre Genet,  Illu Teji, Tefki, Sebeta, Boneya, Melka Kunture and etc.
• Some of the Districts areas are: Adama, Dodota, Bora, Lome, Liben chukala, Adea (around Bushoftu), Akaki, Gimbichu, Bereh(around Sebeta),  Aleltu, Jida,  Sulultu, Ejere, Welmera, Illu, Sebeta Hawas and etc.

Today, when the world is concerned about preserving ecology and wild life in their natural habitat, it is an Ethiopian Government that is clearing an indigenous Oromo people from their home Land in the name of inequitable Economic Development.  Hence, who should stand and speak for these innocent people and argue to preserve the right of the extremely vulnerable Oromo people living in the proposed territories and to preserve the indigenous Oromo people, culture, Languages and etc. Otherwise sooner than latter these great people will be marginalized and lost their identities.

Figure 1:  The newly Developed and proposed Master Plan of  the tomorrow’s Finfinne over the coming 25 years 

C. The Agenda behind the “Integrated Regional Development Plan (IRDP)”

An office called “Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia Integrated Development Plan” prepared an International and National Conference on June 2013 at Adama Town, Galma Abba Gadaa. The Objective of organizing the conference of the top ranking government cadres (mostly OPDO’s) was to work on the manifesting of the proposed  Integrated Regional Development Plan (IRDP) and prepare the cadre’s to work on the people.

On the Conference, it was stated that, the Purposes of the “IRDP” are:

• Instrumental to unleashing Regional Development Potentials
• Enables localities addressing their mutual development challenges
• Enables localities addressing their mutual development challenges
• Strengthens complementarities and interconnection of localities

These purposes can be the explicit or clear objectives of the plan. However, the plan have hidden or implicit agenda. Systematically bringing the land under their custody so that, it will sooner or later scramble among their impoverished people in their region. For example, the Finfinnee City Administration and Finfinnee Special Zone can address their mutual development challenges without being incorporated into one master plan. However, the Master plan is not prepared on mutual benefit as the plan is solely prepared by Finfinnee City Administration, despite the name of the office. Hence, though development is boldly emphasized, the main purpose seems to clear the Oromo farmers from their lands in the name of unfair Economic Development.

It was also stated that the Pillars of the Integrated Regional Development Plan are:

• Regional Infrastructure Networks
• Natural Resource and Environment Stewardship
• Cross – Boundary Investments/ e.g FDI)
• Joint Regional Projects

However, there seem hidden agenda behind these pillars. For example, in the name of cross-Boundary Investments, local Oromo farmers are going to lose their land for the so-called “investors” and under the pretext of promoting national economy through FDI initiatives In addition, if the plan is going to be realized natural and environmental degradation is inevitable.

In addition, the Basic Principles of the Integrated Regional Development Plan are:

•   Ensuring Mutual Benefits
•   A joint development Framework – not a substitute for local plans
•   An Integrated Regional Plan voluntarily accepted by participating partners
•   Differences resolved through negotiation and under in-win scenario

Nevertheless, the plan will not ensure a mutual benefit at it is largely intended to displace Oromo farmers from their land. In additions, the populations of the two areas are not homogenous. Hence, they have no common interest. Even though it is said the “IRDP’ will be voluntarily accepted by participating partners, the top cadres in Oromia themselves have strongly opposed the plan on the conference. Beside, the implicit objective of the plan is to remove/avoid the differences in language and culture there by to plant “Ethiopianism or Tigreans” on Oromo land. The plan is intended to say good bye to Oromo Culture and language. The other thing is that the differences between Oromo and others cannot be resolved as it is intended to eradicate Oromo identity, culture and language. As we know from history, Oromo’s never compromised on these issues. Hence, if the plan is to be implemented, peaceful co-existence may not be there.

D.  Problems that may come because of the Integrated Regional Development Plan

As different sources shown, many Oromo’s living in Special Zone has already lost their land in the name of foreign direct investment and land grasping. This is because of several fa3ctories are constructed in the special zone by taking the Lands from local Oromo farmers. It is not new to see Oromo labor workers or guards in their own land. Family members are highly displaced by this measure. Many went to street. Not only the displaced Oromos damaged by this. It is said chemical coming out of the factories are also hurting the health of the remaining Oromos. It is said that “In Central Oromia, thousands of people and their livestock died due to the industrial pollution directly released to rivers and lakes.”

Taking the above as an experience, there also different reasons why the newly Master plan of Finfinneshould not be implemented on Oromo people. Some of the reasons are:

1. It will bring Extreme Poverty: It is inevitable that the local Oromo farmers lost their land in the name of investment and urbanization. This means that the Oromos are systematically cleaned from their own land, as they were cleaned from Finfinnee in earlier days. Hence, the local farmers lose their land which is part of their permanent asset. After the lose their land, the farmers will going to work for 300 birrr in the factory or serve as house servant or home guard, which is already started.  By doing so, the farmers face extreme poverty. In addition, the gap between rich and poor will very high. For example, one writer described the impact of “investment” saying:

“The current regime has sold out more than 3 million hectares of fertile land to the foreigner investors after forcefully displacing Oromo farmers from their ancestral land. The grabbing of land ended the indigenous people without shelter and foods. This displacement of the Oromo people accompanied by limitless human rights violations set the Oromo to be the vast number of immigrants in the Horn of Africa.”

2. Family displacement and disintegration: Members of a family will be displaced and disintegrated as a result of loosing their land. In addition, the workers of Finfinnee special zone will be displaced as they are working in Afan Oromo.

3. Abuse of constitutional rights: After long year of struggle and sacrifice of thousands of Life, Afan Oromo given constitution right to be used in administration, school and other sectors in Oromia region. This is one of the basic objectives that Oromos has been struggling. However, if the master plan is going to be implemented, working language of Finfinnee City, Amharic, is going to be used in the areas. By doing so, the local people will be forced to learn new language to use it for different purpose. The measure will take back Oromo to the “Atse” region. The Federal Constitution states “Every people, nation and nationality have the right to speak, to write and to develop their own language, as well as to express, to develop and to promote their culture and history.Article 39” will be clearly violated. The Oromo living in Finfinnee Special Zone will lose the rights that the FDRE constitution guarantees them.

4. Academic and psychological impacts on Oromo students: If the newly proposed master plan of Finfinnee City is going to be implemented, Oromo students living in the surrounding area will attend their education in Amharic, which is second language to the students. It is strongly argued that using the native languages of students as a medium of instruction is a decisive factor for effective learning However, this situation, failure to give a role to native languages and largely depending on second/foreign language instruction, brought various difficulties to students. The students are expected to entangle not only with learning the subject matters but also the language itself. It also creates difficulty to students in expressing themselves and as a result it limits their classroom participation as there is fear of making mistakes. In addition, it is a barrier to smooth classroom communication. It is also argued that use of a second/foreign language in education negatively affects the ability and the ease with which knowledge is acquired by students. It also affects the performance of students and creates difficulties in developing their cognitive skills. Moreover, giving low status to native languages of students in educational setting leads to marginalization of majority of the citizens from active engagement in the development arena. In general, the master plan will have negative impacts on Oromo students in various academic aspects.

5. Impact on Identity and Culture of Local Oromo People: The new plan will make Oromos to lose their identity and culture, like the previous regimes did. This is because people having different identity and culture are going to settle on Oromo land. The settlers will push out the Oromo identity and replace by their own.  The Oromo’s will have very limited opportunity to exercise their cultural value and linguistic form. The language and cultural development will be also hampered by the new plan.

6. Economic impact: If the master plan is going to be realized, the Finfinnee City Adminstration will control all economic aspects of the areas. The income that is collected from different factories  will be taken.  The Oromiya government will loose great income to  Finfinnee city administration.

7. Impact on Natural Resource and Environment: As the result of the plan, there will be overspread ground and surface water pollution. In addition, there will be severe deforestation and natural resource depletion.

8. Cutting Oromia into East and West Regions: The new Master Plan of Finfinne city will cut the current Oromia into two parts i.e. Eastern and Western. This is because the Central and great part of Oromia is proposed to be taken and incorporated into Finfinnee. Hence, the Central part that joins East and West will be taken. 

D. What Should be done to Save the Oromo People around Finfinnee

As shown above, the master plan is so disadvantage for Oromia. In general, if we see the plan, it will affect local Oromo people in various aspects.  However, the government who is supposed to represent the Oromo people is unable to see the danger. So we kindly ask the Oromos at home and Diaspora and other concerned bodies to forward ways and mechanisms to stop the intended plan. We ask the Oromo people and international communities, who will stand for the Oromo’s living around Finfinnee??

If we read an honest history of the present and past Governments of Ethiopia, we would conclude that the present Government is truly facing a difficult dilemma. At the dawn of the 21^st century, we can neither run away from ourselves nor hide our realities. We have to face our generation and the historical realities of our time. It is undeniable that today, people demand respect for their human and national rights. Above all, people will not rest until their identity and their sovereignty over what is theirs is ensured. These are the peoples’ most burning issues. They realize that they have to make utmost effort of their own. It is within the context of the above-mentioned framework that the Oromo people resolutely demand their rights and freedom. It is to those who want to deny the rights and freedoms of the people that we are most bitterly opposed. It is a crime to deny the national identity and sovereignty of a people no matter how sophisticated the tactics used to do so. It is equally wrong to see the national desire of a people from a selfish perspective. It is based on the above concepts and precepts that the Oromo people continue their unceasing and bitter struggle against being treated as second class citizens. We know that our struggle is just for it is motivated by our desire to preserve our dignity and identity as a people.

We, the sons and daughters of the Oromo people, strenuously oppose the implementation of new Master Plan for Finfinne administration because we fully understand the historical development of the desire of other people to displace the Oromo people in order to benefit the non-Oromo new comers and their lackeys in this country. This highly orchestrated conspiracy, the present Oromo generation shall not tolerate at any cost. It will steadfastly and resolutely resist the conspiracy.

We also request international communities to put pressure on FDRE/TPLF Government and Finfinnee City Administration to stop the proposed Master Plan, which directly or indirectly harm the Oromo people.

We call on the Federal Government of Ethiopia, House of Peoples’ Representatives, the Federation Council, the Oromia Council  to stop clearing Oromo people from their home Land in the name of inequitable Development and replacing others on their land.

Please generate comments as many as possible on what should be done about the plan.

May Waaq Gurraacha help us!

 From: Sabbontoota Oromoo, Oromia.

We are always Oromo First!!!!

Sabbontoota Oromo can be reached at    sabboontotaaoromo@yahoo.in 

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