Off-target (When missile strikes at alleged terrorists go awry, U.S. policy takes a hit)

When missile strikes at alleged terrorists go awry, U.S. policy takes a hit.

By Jennifer Daskal and Leslie Lefkow
March 28, 2008

It was 3:25 a.m. on March 3 in Dobley, Somalia, when the missile hit, scattering shrapnel in a wide arc and piercing the thin wooden walls of Mohamed Nuuriye Salaad's house. Shrapnel sliced into Salaad's eldest daughter, 15-year-old Amina, tearing open the skin between her ear and mouth. Amina didn't receive medical care for days, not until she could be smuggled across the Kenyan border.

Five others who were wounded tended to their injuries on their own.

The two Tomahawk missiles launched toward Dobley were the fourth U.S. airstrike aimed at individuals with Al Qaeda links in Somalia since January 2007. U.S. government officials claim that the latest strikes targeted Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspected of involvement in the 2002 bombings of a Kenyan resort and the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. The strike also might have been targeting Hassan Turki, a Somali leader of the Islamist group Itihaad al Islamiya, which is on U.S. and U.N. lists of terrorist groups.

Four days after the missile strike, however, Turki appeared to speak in one of Dobley's mosques after morning prayers. He used the attack for his own purposes, condemning the gaalo (unbelievers) and warning that any white people in the area, including aid workers, would be viewed as spies. Earlier that week, hundreds of Dobley residents reportedly joined an impromptu protest, marching through the streets and shouting anti-American slogans.

The Bush administration justifies such missile strikes by claiming that the United States is engaged in a global war against Al Qaeda and that it is legally entitled to annihilate any alleged Al Qaeda member just about anywhere in the world. To be fair, the administration insists that it will not, as a matter of policy, shoot alleged terrorists on the streets of London -- or in any other region where a functioning government is willing and able to arrest, detain or otherwise take action against those deemed to be terrorists. But southern Somalia is a fairly lawless place, and absent a dangerous ground mission, missiles are arguably one of the only ways that the U.S. can strike at Al Qaeda suspects there.

But at what cost? Whether the missiles were aimed at Nabhan or Turki, they hit civilians instead. This pattern echoes U.S. strikes in Somalia in January 2007 that killed and injured an unknown number of civilians as the stated target scampered off unharmed. Even if the attacks could be legally justified under the laws of war -- which is by no means clear -- the high-profile civilian casualties inevitably turn ordinary Somalis against the United States, thereby bolstering support for militant groups. Meanwhile, the human rights and humanitarian crisis that terrorists feed off -- and that U.S. policies exacerbate -- is largely ignored.

Fifteen months ago, the Bush administration supported a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the ruling Islamist authority from Mogadishu and installed a weak but internationally backed transitional government. The intervention triggered a predictable insurgency by both Islamist militants and ordinary Somalis, who view Ethiopia as a historic foe.

Ethiopian and Somali troops together are fighting against a coalition of insurgents demanding Ethiopian withdrawal. The escalating conflict has killed thousands of Somali civilians and forced up to 700,000 people -- 60% of the residents of Mogadishu -- to flee the city. Insurgents, Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces have each committed serious crimes -- mutilating captured soldiers, bombarding residential blocks and hospitals, and systematically looting homes, respectively.

The result? An unsurprising growth in anti-Western and anti-American sentiment among Somalis who never supported radical Islamist movements before. Fifteen months after the Ethiopian invasion, insurgents are gaining strength in Mogadishu and other areas of the country, capitalizing on the anger and resentment caused by these atrocities. Credible reports indicate that Islamist recruitment of Somali youth is growing, a backlash that will complicate U.S. counter-terrorism goals long into the future.

Eliminating a few alleged terrorists will not solve these deeper problems. An effective counter-terrorism policy must address the underlying human rights and humanitarian tragedies that are fueling the crisis.

This will mean ending Ethiopia's blank check to commit abuses, conditioning support for Somalia's transitional government on evidence that it is no longer attacking civilians, supporting an independent commission of inquiry to document the abuse and meeting the humanitarian needs of thousands of internally displaced people -- all steps the United States should support when the U.N. Security Council meets next week to discuss the worsening crisis in Somalia.

Acknowledging and properly responding to the human rights crisis will do more to create a stable Somalia -- and reduce terrorism -- than a few high-profile, high-cost and low-success targeted killings.

Jennifer Daskal is senior counter-terrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch. Leslie Lefkow is senior researcher on the Horn of Africa for Human Rights Watch.

Addooyyee – Oromo sorority

Addooyyee – Oromo sorority
(Adopted partly from Prof. Muhammed S. Megalommatis's article "Oromo Sorority, Christian Fraternity, and the Homosexualization of History" on Buzzle.com )

Similarly deprived of any same-sex loving relationship is the case of the Oromo sorority (Addooyyee) that was reported to me analytically by the Oromo intellectual Asafa Dibaba.

In Addooyyee, two Oromo Virgins take a vow of lifelong Sisterhood or Sorority. They swear in the name of Ateetee, Atis, the Oromo female goddess of Fecundity. They both pierce their palm sitting by the River and mix the blood with Milk, water and dew of their Tear drop. They dip a long grass in the mix and one smears on the forehead of her Friend of a Common Factor. They say words of promises not to betray in the faces of adversities etc. Here are the words:

yaa dhallaadduu
Addooyyee laliftuu kanaa
hoo'u callee Addooyyee kanaa...

jaalallii keenya akka jabaatu
hiriyyoommi keenyas akka jabaatu
akka luubbuu dheeratu

hoo'u aanan Atee-Loon uni--
afaan kee xobbee kanatti
dhallaadduu loosha waliin

hoo'u dhadhaa Atee-Loon
gubbee kichaa kanarratti

harka irraan nyaadhe

harka koorraa nyaatte

irbuu Addooyyee waliin seenne

Ateeteen walitti nu haa hiitu

nu foon tokko
nu dhiiga tokko

foon kee foon kooti

Ateeteen nama afaan tokkoo,

Ateen nama garaa tokkoo
nu haa gootu. Nu waliin Addooyyee dha

hamtuu nurraa haa qabu

nagaa ta'i

Ateeteen si haa tiksitu
si hinfudhatin

Waaqni si haa tiksu
si hinfudhatin
Waaqni si haa tiksu
hamtuun si hinmudatin....

(in Anaan'yaa, in the poem Aanaaf' Saafoo, pp62-63)

The promises are literally to mean: may Ateetee protect you from all evils, may Waaqa Providence protect you, may you succeed in all your endeavours, may Ateetee help us to keep our promises and to remain men of our words, your flesh is my flesh, your blood is my blood, we are One and only One at Life and Death, your pain is my pain, your success is my success, go in Peace, in Peace etc.

The promises is kept unconditionally to remain sisters-in-vow lifelong.

That is Addooyyee Durbee Oromoo, i.e. Addooyyee of the Oromo Virgins.

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Published: 3/24/2008

Is America terrorizing Somalia?

Is America terrorizing Somalia?
By Nicole C. Lee
Guest Columnist
Updated Mar 27, 2008

This bombing of innocent civilians in Dhoobley, Somalia is the latest in a disastrous two-year campaign of U.S. intervention in Somalia, which has further destabilized that country, the region, and resulted in the death and displacement of large numbers of the Somali population.

On a quiet Monday morning, when all the U.S. was focused on the run up to the primaries in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont, the Bush administration, as part of the Global War on Terror, carried out air strikes in a small town in southern Somalia.

Despite the fact that, as one U.S. military official maintains, the U.S. military “used precision missiles to strike a known terrorist target” on a possible fugitive from the al-Qaeda terrorist network, reports from the local community leaders bear witness that three women and three children were killed, as well as 20 civilians injured.

This bombing of innocent civilians in Dhoobley, Somalia is the latest in a disastrous two-year campaign of U.S. intervention in Somalia, which has further destabilized that country, the region, and resulted in the death and displacement of large numbers of the Somali population.

Somalia has been mired in civil war since 1988. In 1991, U.S. backed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans that united to form the United Somalia Congress. Shortly after the ousting of Barre, the United Somalia Congress fell apart and Somalia was plunged into a civil war that has resulted in the death of 400,000 people and displaced another 1.5 million.

U.S. formal engagement began in 1992, under the administration of George H. W. Bush, with the airlifting of 48,000 tons of food and medical supplies to remote areas in Somalia over a six month period.

By 1993, the Clinton administration had shifted U.S. policy from delivering food supplies to nation-building. This nation-building policy was a failure that ended disastrously in the first Battle of Mogadishu, where 19 U.S. soldiers were killed and another 79 were injured.

For the next 14 years, the U.S. government’s engagement with Somalia shifted to quiet diplomacy and covert intelligence gathering until the beginning of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror.

As part of the Global War on Terror, the U.S. government quietly poured weapons and military advisors into Ethiopia in the hopes that Ethiopia would become involved in Somalia’s civil war and help to overturn the fundamentalist Islamic government, the Islamic Courts Union. The Bush administration maintained that the Islamic Courts Union was supported by al-Qaeda.

In July 2006, a few thousand heavily armed and U.S. trained Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia and opened a new front in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. This intervention by Ethiopia is considered by many to be illegal and immoral, as well as highly controversial in Ethiopia where the Meles government has become increasingly repressive.

And while the Ethiopian government had reasons of its own for intervening in Somalia’s civil war, there can be no doubt that Ethiopia’s actions were largely done on behalf of the United States.

The U.S. government has never publicly taken responsibility for its role in further destabilizing Somalia and the Horn of Africa region, which also includes Eritrea and Djibouti.
The Bush administration has admitted that the U.S. and Ethiopian militaries have “a close working relationship,” which includes intelligence sharing, arms aid and training that gives the Ethiopians “the capacity to defend their borders and intercept terrorists and weapons of mass destruction.”

By January 2007, within six months of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, the United States began to conduct air strikes in southern Somalia against suspected al- Qaeda targets and members of the Islamic government as part of the Global War on Terror. Those January 2007 air strikes, similar to the March 3 bombing, were confirmed by U.S. officials as a failure. Now, almost one year later the Bush administration is reengaging in this failed tactic.

The early March attack is proof that the Global War on Terror and the increased U.S. military presence on the African continent has created a theatre of war that moves beyond traditional battlefields, and into the living rooms of the innocent.

For the 80,000 Somalis and Somali-Americans living in Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Atlanta, the question remains: Why does their government and the U.S. government continue to act in ways that terrorize families in Somalia under the guise of fighting terror? That is a question that we, as American citizens, have to also ask.

Nicole C. Lee is the executive director of TransAfrica Forum. This commentary was distributed by NNPA.

www.finalcall.com

Should the US consider Ethiopia an ally despite its poor human rights record?

The United States needs to remain allied with a strong Ethiopia, nearly as much as Ethiopia needs continued support from the U.S.

Ethiopia is at the heart of Africa's Horn. A mountain fortress-nation, today, as so often in the past, it is surrounded by chaos. To the north is Eritrea, Ethiopia's break-away province, now an independent (but probably untenable) state. To the west, war-wracked Sudan. To the south, Kenya, which just exploded into ethnic violence following presidential elections. And on the eastern border is Ethiopia's long-time foe, the failed state of Somalia. The United States has provided support and aid to Ethiopia ever since the communist dictatorship of General Mengistu fell in 1991, but should the U.S. continue to ally itself with a country that has been accused of violating the human rights of some of its citizens? I believe that we should, and that we must.

To properly evaluate the question, though, it's important to weigh the gravity of the human rights violations, the strategic relevance of Ethiopia to the U.S., and the relationship between the two countries.

The Ethiopian government has been accused of harassing, arresting, and torturing members and sympathizers of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a Somali separatist group, as well as restive members of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, in the south. Historically, these separatist movements arise from the foreign policy strategy of Emperor Menelik II, who ruled Ethiopia in the late nineteenth century. As colonial powers swallowed up surrounding areas and began to eye the Ethiopian highlands greedily, the Emperor went on the offensive. He conquered and annexed the lowland areas to the south and east of the heartland, incorporating them into his empire, and thus creating a buffer zone between Ethiopia proper and the encroaching British and Italian colonists. Problem solved- Ethiopia was the only part of Africa that was never truly colonized by Europeans.

The solution to Menelik's problem, though, has created a host of new problems for his successors. The newly-annexed areas were home to primarily Muslim and animist tribes of nomadic pastoralists, members of the Somali, Oromo, Sidama, and other peoples ethnically and linguistically unrelated to the Orthodox Christian Amhara and Tigrayan rulers. Now, more than 100 years after their incorporation into the Ethiopian Empire, the Oromo and Somali still want out. In today's climate, the so-called "Global War on Terror" gives the Ethiopian government a perfect excuse to label separatist movements such as the ONLF and the Oromo Liberation Front "terrorist groups," and to crack down on them hard.

Journalists and rights groups such as Human Rights Watch International report atrocities in the Somali regions such as the burning of up to a dozen villages, destruction of precious food stores, public executions and the arrest, beating and murder of dissidents and even innocent bystanders. The ethnic Somali ONLF rebels, in turn, boast of having killed hundreds of government troops in June of 2007, according to a July 4th Voice of America report by journalist Nick Wadhams. The rebels also attacked a Chinese oil exploration facility in the Ogaden, killing 74 people (including 9 Chinese nationals) in April of 2007. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi responded to that attack by vowing to wipe out the ONLF.

Complicating the picture is Ethiopia's December 2006 invasion of Somalia proper, where Ethiopian forces ousted the radical Union of Islamic Courts then in control of Mogadishu, and reinstalled the Somali Transitional Federal Government, which had fled the capital. Ethiopia's decision to go into Somalia was prompted in part by Somali warlords who attempted to foment a rebellion by their cousins in the Ogaden province; many seek to unify all Somalis into a "Greater Somalia," to the discomfort of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. The U.S. tacitly supported the invasion, while privately cautioning the Ethiopian government about entering the morass that is Somalia. (America was badly burned in its attempt to intervene there between 1992 and 1994; for details, see the film "Blackhawk Down.")

Why does the United States care about Ethiopia and the Horn, anyway? First, a poor and destabilized East Africa could be a perfect breeding ground for radical terror groups like al-Qaeda; in fact, the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania show that this has already happened to some extent. Ethiopia is the only stable country in the entire region; surely the U.S. has an interest in promoting it. Ethiopia also has the largest and best-trained military in the area. In addition, the Horn of Africa is only about 18 miles from Yemen, across the Red Sea on the Arabian Peninsula. It's a classic bottleneck, and it leads to the strategically key Suez Canal. If hostile forces took control of both the Yemeni and Djiboutian sides of the Bab al Mandeb Strait, international trade and military transport would be severely disrupted. Djibouti's status as a free and prosperous mini-nation depends almost entirely on income earned by serving as a port for now land-locked Ethiopia. Finally, as mentioned above, Ethiopia is currently supporting the internationally legitimized Somali provisional government the only force standing between Somalia and a descent back into complete anarchy.

What kind of relationship do the U.S. and Ethiopia have, and how would it change if America withdrew its support? The U.S. provided $1.5 million in military aid to Ethiopia for fiscal 2007-2008. A sudden withdrawal would decimate the material and training budget of the Horn of Africa's top fighting force; the stability of the whole region would be jeopardized. The U.S. also donates millions in humanitarian aid to Ethiopia each year, including $45 million in 2006 to the Ogaden region alone. Thus, if the U.S. suddenly halted these payments, both the government and the majority of Ethiopia's people would be embittered by what would be perceived as a betrayal by the country's top ally. What effect would a U.S. withdrawal have on Ethiopia's policies and behavior toward its separatist groups? Would a sudden cessation of America's aid and alliance make life any better for the Somali and Oromo? In all likelihood, no. The Ethiopian government might launch an all-out assault on the separatists before military readiness had deteriorated to the point that it would be infeasible. Outright civil war would benefit nobody, as neighboring Sudan demonstrates.

In the end, the U.S. has much more to lose from abandoning its alliance with Ethiopia than from maintaining friendly relations. It has been pointed out that the U.S.'s human rights record is rather besmirched at present, too: Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, warrantless wire-tapping at home, and the suspension of habeus corpus rights leave us living in a flimsy glass house, indeed. Who are we to cast stones? If you still aren't convinced, consider this final point: Whose advice are you more likely to take, your best friend's, or that of a former friend who betrayed you? The U.S. can more easily exert whatever moral authority it has left if it continues its close relationship with the government of Ethiopia.

Learn more about this author, Kallie Szczepanski.

www.helium.com

Resolutions of the OLF’s 3rd National Council Meeting

Resolutions of the OLF’s 3^rd National Council Meeting

The National Council of Oromo Liberation Front has successfully completed its regular meeting that was held from October 16 to 21, 2008. During its meeting the National Council extensively deliberated, among others, on important issues relevant to the Organization, the Oromo people, the Ethiopian Government and the Horn of Africa and passed the below resolutions.

In its three decades long history, the Oromo Liberation Front has passed through ups and downs and it is continuing to rally the Oromo people in its struggle. The fundamental political objectives of the OLF, the realization of the Oromo People’s inalienable rights to self-determination, are intact. These fundamental objectives of the OLF are supported by millions of Oromos. In order to soon realize the fundamental objectives of the OLF, the Council has directed its Executive Committee to organize and conduct multifaceted struggle.

To thwart the Oromo people’s support for the OLF, the TPLF regime/the Ethiopian Government has engaged in unparalleled suppression of the Oromo people. The heinous atrocities the TPLF regime is perpetrating on the Oromo people is intensifying. Even the Oromo refugees who fled the country due to persecution and fear of persecution by the regime are not safe from the inhuman and cruel atrocities that TPLF regimes unleashed on the Oromo people. The recent mass killing/massacre of the Oromo refugees in Bosasso, Somalia, perpetrated by the TPLF regime’s forces is another evidence of the inhuman and cruel atrocities that the TPLF regime is perpetrating on the Oromo people inside and outside the country. The National Council of the Oromo Liberation Front again vigorously condemns the TPLF regime’s cruel and inhuman action taken against the Oromo refugees in Bosasso.

The National Council noted and appreciated the Oromo people’s support for the OLF that is unabated in spite of the TPLF regime’s arbitrary arrests, wanton and extra-judicial killings, dispossessions and other appalling human rights violations. The National Council again calls upon the Oromo people to continue its defiance of the tyranny of the TPLF regime, to foil the regime’s divide and rule tactics/ schemes and to double its just struggle until its legitimate aspirations for liberation, human rights and democracy are achieved.

There is no form of suppression and atrocity that the minority based TPLF regime did not and will not commit to perpetrate its tyrannical rule. The atrocities that the TPLF regime is committing against the people are evidence that substantiates the TPLF regimes unwillingness to peacefully and democratically address the peoples’ political questions for liberation and democracy. As a result, the TPLF regime, in contravention of its own constitution, international laws and norms, is escalating the suppression of and atrocities against the peoples of the country. It is also continuing its interference in the internal affairs of the neighboring countries. The TPLF regime is an anti-peace and anti-stability force in the Horn of Africa. The Council, therefore, reminds and warns that the TPLF regime that it shall be responsible for the consequences of the tensions and worrisome situation that is prevailing the Horn of Africa.

It is to be recalled that the TPLF regime has repeatedly pledged to the peoples of the country and the international community that it is committed to bring democracy, peace and development to Ethiopia. Nevertheless, the hitherto process and records of the TPLF regime show that the regime conducts sham and rigged periodic elections for the sake of “legitimizing” its tyrannical rule. The truth the regimes’ records show beyond doubt is the TPLF regime lacks the political will and capacity to organize free and fair elections and to accept the verdict of the people. We, therefore, call up on all political forces that are struggling for liberation and democracy to pull our forces and resources together and remove from power the anti-people, anti-democracy and anti-peace regime of the TPLF and pave the way for liberation, democracy, peace and development.

The gross human rights violations it has engaged in, the economic exploitation and dispossession of the people it has embarked up on, its sinister acts of divide and rule and the acts pitting and inciting people of the country against one another and the wanton interference in the internal affairs, the aggression and occupation of neighboring countries unmistakably demonstrate that the TPLF regime is an anti-peace force that is destabilizing the Horn of Africa. In a total disregard to the TPLF tyrannical regimes’ glaring bad human rights records and shameful and irresponsible behavior, the Western Countries’ continued their economic, political, diplomatic and military support to the regime. The Western Countries’ support to the TPLF regime is not only saddening; it also contravenes their publicly known policies and stated declarations. Therefore, the OLF National Council calls up on Western Countries to review and reconsider their policies towards the tyrannical TPLF regime and stand with the OLF and other forces of liberation, democracy, justice, peace and progress.

Victory to the Oromo People!

National Council of the OLF

March 21, 2008

Murtii fi Kutannoolee Walgahii GS ABO 3ffaa

Murtii fi Kutannoolee Walgahii GS ABO 3ffaa

Gumiin Sabaa ABO walgahii isaa dhaabbataa 3ffaa Bitootessa 16 – 21, 2008tti gaggeeffatee milkiin xumuratee jira. Walgahiin dhimmoota ulfaatoo dhaabaa, ummata Oromoo, haala mootummaa Itophiyaa fi godinaa irratti bal’inan marihatee murtii armaan gadii kana dabarfatee jira.

Dhaabni ABO bu’aa bahii hedduu keessa bahee, itti fufiinsaan qabsoo bilisummaa Ummata Oromoo kurnoota sadiif ummata Oromoo hiriirsee qabsoo kan godhaa jiruu dha. Akeekni hundee ABO irratti dhaabbate qabsoo godhaa jiru amma illee kan bakkaa jiruu fi ummata miliyoonaan fudhatama kan qabuu dha. Walgahiin akeeka kana bakkaan gahuuf sochii karaa hundaa akka godhamu ajaje.

Mootummaan Wayyaanee ummata Oromoo fi ABO adda baasuuf hammeenya hiriyaa hin qabne biyya keessaa fi alatti irrati dalagaa jira. Baqataa Oromoo irratti osoo hin hafiin tarkaanfii diinummaa fudhataa jira. Ajjeechaan jumulaa dhiheenya kana baqattoota Oromoo Bosaasoo irratti raawwatames kanuma mirkaneessa. Addi Bilisummaa Oromoo gaochaa gara jabinaa kana irra deebi’ee jabinaan balaaleffata.

Ummatni Oromoo hidhaa, ajjeechaa fi saaminsa irratti raawwatuuf osoo hin jilbeefatin dhaabaa isaa ABO tiif mararfannoo fi deggersa qabu jabeessaa deemuu isaa GS ni dinqisiifata. Ummatni Oromoo illee gochaa hammenyaa mootummaan Wayyaanee irratti raawwatuuf osoo hamilee of hin cabsinii fi hin jilbeeffatin hawwii bilisummaa isaa bakkaan gahuuf shiiroota diinaa gurmuu isaa diiguuf xaxu xiyyeeffannaa kennuufiin fashalsiisee qabsoo isaa dacha dachaan akka finiinsu waamicha keenya irra deebinee haaromsina.

Mootummaan murna bicuu Wayyaanee aangoo irra turuu fi olaantummaa isaa raggaasuuf jecha gosa cunqursaa fi hammenyaa inni hin raawwatin hin jiru. Kun kan agarsiisu mootummaan kun karaa nagaa fi dimokraatawaa taheen gaaffi siyaasaa ummatootaa hiikuuf fedhii tokko illee akka hin qabne mirkaneessa. Kanaaf jecha ummattoota biyyichaa fi mootummoota olla seeraa fi sirna addunyaa cabsuun farra nagaa fi tasgabbii godina Gaanfa Afriikaa tahee jira. Haala hedduu yaachisaa tahe kana keessatti balaa dhufu hundaf kan itti gaafatamu mootummaa Wayyaanee akka tahe hubachiifna.

Gaafa Wayyaaneen mootummaaatti dhufe irraa jalqabee waadaa biyya sanaaf dimokraasii, nagaaa fi dagaagina fiduuf afaaniin seenee adeemsa isaa haga ammaa irraa kan mirkanaawe filmaatota fakkeessaa aangoo irra of tursuuf gaggeesse malee waltajjiis tahe itti baha filmaataa yoo kan dantaa isaa guutu tahe malee akka sagalee fi murtii ummataa hin kabajne shakkii tokko malee mul’isee jira. Kanaaf jecha, humnoota bilisummaa fi dimokraasiif qabsaawan hundi humnaa fi qabeenya isaanii walitti qiindeessanii mootummaa farra ummataa, dimokraasii fi nagaa kana dhabamsiisuuf akka waliin dhaabbannu waamicha goona.

Mootummaan Wayyaanee mirga ummattootaa dhiitaa, qabeenya ummataa saamaa, ummattoota wal waraansiisaa, naannoo gaanfa Afriikaa jeeqaa, boora’iinsa nagaa fi tasgabbiif sababa tahun isaa ifatti mul’ata. Kun akkasitti osoo jiruu mootummootin dhihaa gargaarsa dinagdee, siyaasaa, diplomasii fi waraanaa gochuu itti fufuun isaanii hedduu gaddisiisaa duwwaa osoo hin taane siyaasaa fi imaammata isaan hordofna jedhan faalleessa. Kanaaf ABO mootummootiin kun ejjennoo isaanii kana keessa deebi’anii akka ilaalan yaadachiifna.

Injifannoo Ummata Oromoof!!!

Gumii Sabaa ABO

Bitootessa 21, 2008

OLF and Oromos demand Western disapproval of the Abysso-Nazi Tyrant Zenawi

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

March 25, 2008

A while back, the regular meeting of the National Council of the Oromo Liberation Front was held, March 16 to 21; after the deliberations ended, several resolutions have been adopted, and a press release was issued on March 21.

The OLF leaders, as the main national Oromo force, denounced the tribal tyranny imposed on all the subjugated nations of Abyssinia by the Amhara and Tigray administration and the Tigray political party TPLF that served as vehicle for the Tigray rise in power.

Describing the only surviving colonial regime in Africa – which through all its political metamorphoses (monarchical, communist and pseudo-republican) contributed to the incarceration and tyranny of various other nations beyond the Oromos – as perpetrator of "heinous atrocities", the Oromo leaders successfully depicted the portentous and antihuman of the Abyssinian regime.

The OLF leaders called the Oromo nation, which makes up to 40% of Abyssinia´s population, to "continue its defiance of the tyranny of the TPLF regime". The call marks a staunch support for Oromo freedom and national liberation, as it comes in total opposition to marginalized cases of wilted Oromo renegades prone to set up an alliance with the Abyssinian criminals and launch a ludicrous alternative Abyssinian (named ´Ethiopian´) regime masterminded by the disreputable and illegitimate interlocutors of Ass. Secretary Jendayi Frazer.

Categorically denouncing the ´Ethiopian´ involvement in Somalia and the Anti-Eritrean animosity of the Zenawi regime, the OLF leaders held ´Ethiopia´ as the basic factor of destabilization of the Horn of Africa region. They called therefore upon the Western countries´ commitment to Human Rights, Democracy and Justice, demanding the immediate denunciation, containment and intimidation of the heinous, racist, and murderous Abyssinian regime.

The OLF press release heralds bright days for the Oromos and the other oppressed and massacred nations of ´Ethiopia´; we publish it here integrally as it consists in a further nail in the coffin of the racist, colonial and inhuman regime of ´Ethiopia´.

Resolutions of the OLF´s 3rd National Council Meeting

The National Council of Oromo Liberation Front has successfully completed its regular meeting that was held from March 16 to 21, 2008. During its meeting the National Council extensively deliberated, among others, on important issues relevant to the Organization, the Oromo people, the Ethiopian Government and the Horn of Africa and passed the below resolutions.

In its three decades long history, the Oromo Liberation Front has passed through ups and downs and it is continuing to rally the Oromo people in its struggle. The fundamental political objectives of the OLF, the realization of the Oromo People´s inalienable rights to self-determination, are intact. These fundamental objectives of the OLF are supported by millions of Oromos. In order to soon realize the fundamental objectives of the OLF, the Council has directed its Executive Committee to organize and conduct multifaceted struggle.

To thwart the Oromo people´s support for the OLF, the TPLF regime/the Ethiopian Government has engaged in unparalleled suppression of the Oromo people. The heinous atrocities the TPLF regime is perpetrating on the Oromo people is intensifying. Even the Oromo refugees who fled the country due to persecution and fear of persecution by the regime are not safe from the inhuman and cruel atrocities that TPLF regimes unleashed on the Oromo people. The recent mass killing/massacre of the Oromo refugees in Bosasso, Somalia, perpetrated by the TPLF regime´s forces is another evidence of the inhuman and cruel atrocities that the TPLF regime is perpetrating on the Oromo people inside and outside the country. The National Council of the Oromo Liberation Front again vigorously condemns the TPLF regime´s cruel and inhuman action taken against the Oromo refugees in Bosasso.

The National Council noted and appreciated the Oromo people´s support for the OLF that is unabated in spite of the TPLF regime´s arbitrary arrests, wanton and extra-judicial killings, dispossessions and other appalling human rights violations. The National Council again calls upon the Oromo people to continue its defiance of the tyranny of the TPLF regime, to foil the regime´s divide and rule tactics/ schemes and to double its just struggle until its legitimate aspirations for liberation, human rights and democracy are achieved.

There is no form of suppression and atrocity that the minority based TPLF regime did not and will not commit to perpetrate its tyrannical rule. The atrocities that the TPLF regime is committing against the people are evidence that substantiates the TPLF regimes unwillingness to peacefully and democratically address the peoples´ political questions for liberation and democracy. As a result, the TPLF regime, in contravention of its own constitution, international laws and norms, is escalating the suppression of and atrocities against the peoples of the country. It is also continuing its interference in the internal affairs of the neighbouring countries. The TPLF regime is an anti-peace and anti-stability force in the Horn of Africa. The Council, therefore, reminds and warns that the TPLF regime that it shall be responsible for the consequences of the tensions and worrisome situation that is prevailing the Horn of Africa.

It is to be recalled that the TPLF regime has repeatedly pledged to the peoples of the country and the international community that it is committed to bring democracy, peace and development to Ethiopia. Nevertheless, the hitherto process and records of the TPLF regime show that the regime conducts sham and rigged periodic elections for the sake of "legitimizing" its tyrannical rule. The truth the regimes´ records show beyond doubt is the TPLF regime lacks the political will and capacity to organize free and fair elections and to accept the verdict of the people. We, therefore, call up on all political forces that are struggling for liberation and democracy to pull our forces and resources together and remove from power the anti-people, anti-democracy and anti-peace regime of the TPLF and pave the way for liberation, democracy, peace and development.

The gross human rights violations it has engaged in, the economic exploitation and dispossession of the people it has embarked up on, its sinister acts of divide and rule and the acts pitting and inciting people of the country against one another and the wanton interference in the internal affairs, the aggression and occupation of neighbouring countries unmistakably demonstrate that the TPLF regime is an anti-peace force that is destabilizing the Horn of Africa. In a total disregard to the TPLF tyrannical regimes´ glaring bad human rights records and shameful and irresponsible behaviour, the Western Countries´ continued their economic, political, diplomatic and military support to the regime. The Western Countries´ support to the TPLF regime is not only saddening; it also contravenes their publicly known policies and stated declarations. Therefore, the OLF National Council calls up on Western Countries to review and reconsider their policies towards the tyrannical TPLF regime and stand with the OLF and other forces of liberation, democracy, justice, peace and progress.

Victory to the Oromo People!

National Council of the OLF

March 21, 2008

Personalizing State Power in Ethiopia (By Hadaro Arele)

Personalizing State Power in Ethiopia

By Hadaro Arele

18 March, 2008

Throughout the 1990s, the international donor community supported Ethiopia as a country that embarked on a democratic path almost after 2 decades of socialist military rule. The country’s achievement, so it was said, was both economic and political. Economically the ‘new government’ has taken some steps towards liberal and market oriented system. Politically, Zenawi fooled the world with his rhetoric and thus naively labelled progressive leader.

International community invested in the regime’s constitution-making process that led to its adoption in 1995. The constitution theoretically set up a number of democratic rights for its citizens. Defiant of the absence of separation of power between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, and omission of the duration of the term of office for the Prime Minster, the constitution has taken a reverse track. Ethiopia today is governed under a system of one-man rule engineered by Meles Zenawi, who has now been in power for the last 17 years by suppressing all forms of democratic voice.

The problem is getting worse by the legacy of international donors’ condone because the regime violates its constitution, bans free press, crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, and rigs national election. By pouring in a huge sum to pay for state spending on military apparatus and infrastructure, these donors has helped the regime to consolidate its power and suppresses the opposition. Moreover, the subsidies from donors allow the regime to direct more of its own revenue into expanding its huge patronage schemes, making Zenawi depend increasingly for his political survival on continued financial and diplomatic support from his foreign donors although his regime has continued dishonouring its promises.

Yet there is a ray of hope in this seemingly hopeless situation. The regime’s corruption, violence and vast patronage ate away economic resources. This undermined its ability to function properly in the long term because it destroyed the economic foundations of the regime’s political survival. To date the regime has been saved from this grim prospect by foreign aid donors. If the international donors pulled the plug, the regime could no longer be shielded from the consequence of its own mischief, and would have to bend to democratic pressure.

The regime has established all-round strategy to personalize its power at the expense of the Ethiopian people. The adoption of structural adjustment---liberalization, deregulation, devaluation, and privatization in the 1990s blatantly served the interest of the regime not of the people. It has created surrogate institutions that appeared to represent private sector, but in reality remained subservient to the regime. As Zenawi’s antidemocratic sentiment gathered momentum, the business class has mostly become a bystander and left the struggle for democracy aside. Such oblivious nature of private sector only leads to personalization of power. As a result, the regime has become the largest owner of industries and businesses as well as its biggest employer. Investment is consolidated in the hands of the regime so much so that the best way to get into business and be part of the looting is to deal with the regime itself. Virtually, the praised programs --- liberalization, privatization, devaluation and devolution are all remained on paper without practice. The reality is that public access to basic social services is significantly diminishing; unemployment is rising, inequality is being widened thus making the poor poorer, and the regime richer.

The educated middle class, instead of opposing the regime like other middle class citizens in other parts of the world, has chosen to flee the country, leaving Zenawi largely unopposed as he consolidated his personal rule. Other professionals who remained in the country are integrated into his patronage network. Some others are employed in NGOs, which is highly censored by the regime too.

Why has this been happening? The answer lies in the regime’s use of force and intimidation on the one hand and its manipulation of patronage on the other. Zenawi has always sought to use the army to build his personal political base. He employs violence sparingly and selectively – as a tacit instrument when the political process fails to yield before his requirements or the opposition appears to need whipping into submission. For instance, the regime waged hefty war with Eriteria from 1998 – 2000, which was responsible for about 70,000 lives and wastage of billions of dollars. The same massacres were extended into Oromia, Gambella, Sidama, and sovereign state--Somalia. Furthermore, Zenawi’s success in consolidating his power and stifling democracy emanates from his knack for integrating large chunks of the ‘political’ class into his vast patronage empire. Patronage, typically in the form of government contracts, tenders, and jobs, to bribe business communities, low skilled personnel and bilateral corporations at the expense of the nation.

In an effort to direct the attention of international donors, Zenawi’s government promised to hold a free and fair election with multiparty political competition in 2005. Nonetheless, many international election observers have proved that the opening of multiparty contest was just the icing on the cake. The government had long been engaged in practices both official and unofficial that rendered constitutional guarantees impotent. The election was rigged and manoeuvred by the incumbent party and its cronies, which revealed the true nature of the regime. The point of change was to strengthen the Prime Minister while enfeebling the institutions that might act as a check upon him. The government manoeuvred the election result by such fraudulent means as bribery, blackmail, naked intimidation, and use of excessive forces. With the skids thus greased, the re-election of constituencies filed for supposed irregularity glided through easily, opening the door for the ruling party to hammer aggressively the democratic voices. Election, in Ethiopia - as in most of Africa – are invariably marred by the executive, and the fact that no definite term is fixed in the constitution for the prime Minster’s term of office, the future of democracy looks bleak.

After his attempt to mislead the world community by holding the so-called free and fair election, the regime launched another weapon to divert the world leaders – ‘robust economic growth as proof that poverty is declining in the country because of good governance’. However, the statistics by which indicators of such economic growth derived were far from being credible. In addition to ignoring social and environmental degradation from the equation, the statistics failed to address the long-term problems.

To improve his chance for success, Zenawi also exploited local councils to build its oppressive organizational infrastructure, cajoled leaders from opposition parties to join its own gambling polity. The decentralization of the budget to a district level to a certain degree gave the local officials an economic reason to work for Zenawi although, armed coercion made them fearful of what would happen if they broke with Zenawi’s agenda of power usurpation.

In conclusion, the worst obstacle to democratic development in Ethiopia has been the personalization of state power. The military and economic aids from abroad were used to selectively suppress dissents. The money sluices through a massive patronage machine that Zenawi uses to recruit support, reward loyalty, and buy off actual and potential opponents. In his effort to personalize the state further, Zenawi has skilfully undermined formal institutions of governance, preferring as he does to use highly arbitrary and informal methods of recruiting and rewarding officials. Above all, the absence of clear separation between the branches of government allowed the emergence of a very strong and an out of control executive resulting in such tyrant one-man regime. The way out could be building institutions that democracy requires, reworking the constitution, and then encouraging mass-political participation and unfettered electoral competition. This demands however, backing and stand staunchly with determined political oppositions as they struggle to empower the people, who should be the sovereign authority in Ethiopia, not the elite that came to power by force and is staying on it against their will by force. When elections are held in an institutional wasteland like Ethiopia, say in 2010 political competition typically coalesces around and entrenches the ethnic and sectarian divisions created by Zenawi as usual. The implication is that, not only is the one- man rule legitimized, but also subsequent efforts to democratize the country will be more difficult and more violent than ever.

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The author, Hadaro Arele, can be reached at abaabiyya@yahoo.com

Ethiopian girl survives troop massacre

By EDMUND SANDERS

Los Angeles Times

NAIROBI, Kenya | The teenager awoke under a pile of corpses to a pricking sensation on her face. Ants were biting her eyelids and the inside of her mouth.

Photo: TPLF/EPRDF forces marching in Ogadenia (OromiaTimes collection)

The pain, however, brought relief to the 17-year-old. “I thought, I’m alive,’ ” Ridwan Hassan Sahid remembers. She felt blood oozing from rope burns around her neck and the weight of a body against her back. But fearing that the Ethiopian soldiers who had left her for dead in a roadside ditch would return, she quickly brushed away the ants, shut her eyes and slipped back into unconsciousness.

The assault and miraculous escape is one of the most chilling stories to emerge from an unfolding tragedy in eastern Ethiopia that largely has escaped the attention of a world transfixed by the humanitarian crisis in neighboring Sudan’s Darfur region.

Ever since exiting colonialists arbitrarily stuck a triangle-shaped wedge of land with 4 million ethnic Somalis inside Ethiopia’s border, violence and suffering has plagued the region. Now, many of them have been caught up in a war between the Ethiopian government and a separatist group known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands were displaced in the past year alone, although exact figures are unknown because the area is remote and Ethiopian officials restrict access to humanitarian groups and journalists.

Survivors such as Sahid offer the only glimpse into the unfolding tragedy. Now living in a secret location, the petite young woman shared her story recently.

Now 18, Sahid at times seems to be an average teenager, picking absent-mindedly at her henna-stained fingernails and blushing when strangers express interest in her. But behind her soft brown eyes is a weariness that belies her age, and a necklace of scar tissue rings her throat where the rope cut into her skin.

She recounts her ordeal without emotion. Only occasionally does her veneer crack long enough for a tear to roll down her check, which she self-consciously laughs off and wipes away.

“I wonder sometimes,” she says, “what kind of life I can have now.”

She grew up in the village of Qorile with eight siblings. The family, like most everyone else in the area, were semi-nomadic cattle and sheep herders.

Ever since she can remember, Ethiopian authorities were seen as the enemy.

“We feel as if we are living under occupation,” she says. “We grew up afraid of them.”

The Ogaden conflict dates to the 1940s, when after World War II European nations lost or began to relinquish their colonies in the Horn of Africa. After some years under British administration, Ogaden and surrounding areas were placed under Ethiopian control, but the decision was never accepted by the ethnic Somalis living there, spurring two wars between Ethiopia and Somalia and spawning a string of rebel movements seeking autonomy or unification with Somalia.

Ethiopian officials accuse the Ogaden rebels of using terrorist tactics. In April 2007, the rebels killed more than 70 people at a Chinese-run exploration facility in the region.

The attack prompted what aid groups and witnesses call a heavy-handed response by the Ethiopian government. Troops are accused of burning down villages believed to be sheltering rebels, forcibly recruiting young men into government militias, raping women and imposing a commercial blockade that sent local food prices and malnutrition rates soaring.

“They used mass indiscriminate measures to collectively punish the entire population,” Human

Ethiopian officials deny any widespread human-rights abuses and blame rebels for the violence. “They are working with internationally known terrorists,” said Zemedkun Tekle, spokesman for Ethiopia’s Information Ministry.

Sahid says her family tried to stay out of the fray: “We are not political people.”

But she found herself caught in the middle in July, when several hundred Ethiopian troops surrounded her village. Her father was away tending animals in the fields, and her mother was shopping in a nearby town. Sahid was washing her face when soldiers kicked in the door that morning.

“You are guerrillas,” they shouted as the ransacked the house, stealing food and supplies, Sahid remembers. She escaped out a back door and huddled with other frightened villagers. Soon soldiers gathered them all at a water well and began reading names from a list of “spies” and rebel sympathizers.

“Nobody knew who would be selected, but you knew if your name was called, you would be killed,” says Fathi Abdulla, 22, a cousin from the same village. Sahid froze when she heard her name called. She and 10 others were taken to the town’s school, which became a makeshift prison for interrogation and torture. “They took us one by one,” Sahid says.

Soldiers accused Sahid of bringing supplies to rebels. They tied her hands and legs together behind her back. “They kicked me and stepped on my back,” she says. “I told them that in my whole life, the only person I’ve ever helped was my mother.”

The next morning, Sahid and the other prisoners were marched for hours to another village. “They beat us like animals when we couldn’t keep up,” she says. “Mentally, I was already dead. I was just waiting to die.”

Arriving at the village, Sahid says she watched as soldiers looted the town and burned down all the huts. That night, none of the prisoners slept, fearing what the next day would bring.

At daybreak, without explanation, soldiers began executing them, Sahid says. Two were hanged from trees. Two others were choked with metal rods and rope.

Sahid was the last attacked. She remembers hearing the others scream and beg for mercy but couldn’t move or make a sound herself. “At that point, I was like a tree. I had no feeling. I was like a statue.”

Two soldiers ordered her into to the ditch, but she refused. Finally one pounced, strangling Sahid with a metal rod used to clean guns. They struggled for a minute, but she did not lose consciousness and the soldier gave up.

Next, two exasperated soldiers grabbed the girl and tied a rope around her neck. They pulled in different directions until she collapsed into the ditch.

The next thing Sahid remembers were the ants. Blood streamed from her nose and neck. Her legs were trapped under a man’s naked body. She says she closed her eyes again, uncertain whether she would live or die.

Back in her village, friends and family formed a search party, following the soldiers’ footprints to find Sahid and the others. They expected to recover nothing more than bodies.

After several hours of walking, a group of nomads told them about a nearby field with some bodies. Remarkably, they said a young girl was still alive. “We rushed to the place,” Abdulla says. The scene was grisly. Two men hung from nooses in a tree. Other victims lay naked, with belts and ropes still around their necks.

Sahid was in the ditch, under two other bodies. “As we came closer, she opened her eyes and looked at us! We were so shocked.”

They moved her under a tree but feared the girl soon would die. They buried the other bodies and awaited help. Eventually camels were brought and friends began a weeks-long journey to secretly move Sahid out of the country.

She remembers little of the escape or her recovery. She still can’t use her right hand because of nerve damage from the beatings.

With an uncertain future, Sahid spends most days indoors. Venturing outside sometimes brings panic attacks. She says the quiet moments are the hardest to bear. “Whenever I sit for even a minute, I draw my mind back to those events. And I start to cry.”

www.kansascity.com

Rights Watch researcher Leslie Lefkow said.

Ethiopia faces food crisis as drought worsens

By ARGAW ASHINE, NATION Correspondent

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

Many parts of eastern and southern Ethiopia are experiencing severe drought after the rains failed last year

One of the worst hit regions is Borana, some 650 kilometres south of Addis Ababa in Oromia state, which neighbours Kenya.

“Six people have died in Dire and Moyale districts. We are now struggling to deliver food and medical supplies,” the Borana region’s administrator, Abdulkadir Abdi, told journalists visiting the area. Three children and two adults have died in Liben and Guji districts in the region’s east and north respectively.

Hospital sources confirmed that the deaths were related to hunger and lack of clean water.

Chala Wordofa, the head of Oromia’s Disaster Prevention and Control office, acknowledged that parts of the region have had a long dry season, but added that the authorities are keenly monitoring the situation.

“At the moment there is no immediate threat, but things could get out of control if sufficient quantities of food and water are not delivered on time,” he said.

However, speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zenawi downplayed the situation in Borana, saying it was simply due to “failure of the mid-year (meher) rains and will not affect our speedy economic growth”.

Mr Zenawi dismissed the reports of human and livestock deaths during his briefing to parliament on national economic issues, but opposition MPs said the situation was critical and called for urgent government action.

According to a report by humanitarian agencies, about 8 million people in Ethiopia require food aid, 1 million of them urgently.

Ironically, Ethiopia is facing a food crisis when crop production has risen by 45 per cent in the past five years.

UN and international agencies working on the ground refused to quoted by the media unless the information was confirmed by Ethiopian government officials.

“We know how the situation is worsening but the Ethiopian government is sensitive to a single press statement,” a senior UN official in Addis Ababa said.

However, a UN assessment report indicates that 29 schools have been forced to close and more than 4,000 children have dropped out of school in Borana district due to severe climatic conditions and migration by the local pastoral community.
According to aid agencies, the drought could affect the government’s ambitious plan to increase school enrollment to 80 per cent in the area as part of the national development programme.

Thousands of animals have died since the beginning of this year, and livestock deaths have reached alarming levels.

NationMedia.com

Second UNHRC Monitor Relates Human Rights Concerns

UNPO

2008-03-19

As the first week of the UNHRC nears its close, the sessions have so far featured considerable lobbying by UNPO’s Mapuche, Oromo, and Sindh members.

The sessions have also see concern raised over disappearances in the Philippines and Russia while Angola came in for sustained criticism over prison conditions. Contentious debate also surfaced over calls for yet another special session of the HRC to be called on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Steps were also taken by UNPO, in support of other non-governmental organizations, to call for an independent investigation into the disturbances that had occurred and which are still going on in Tibet. For more information on the appeal, please follow this link:

Appeal for an Investigation into State Crimes In Tibet

To download the second edition of the UNPO Monitor, please click on the link to the PDF file below.

Report in PDF

UNPO Monitor 2008 (No.2).pdf

OSA Mid-Year Conference to be held on 22 March

Toward Understanding and Interpreting the Oromo Concept of Peace

A Workshop Organized by The Oromo Studies Association

22 March 2008

Blackburn Auditorium

Howard University

Schedule

8:30 - 9:00: Registration

9:00 - 9:30

Opening Remarks: Abebe Adugna, World Bank; President-elect, Oromo Studies Association

9:30 - 11:00

Roundtable 1: Oromo Peace: Philosophical Foundations

Chair: Ezekiel Gebissa, Kettering University

Peace and Conflict in the Horn of Africa

Lahra Smith, Georgetown University

Oromo Philosophy

Charles Verharen, Howard University

The Oromo Concept of Forgiveness and Justice

Charles Schaefer, Valparaiso University

Coffee Break: 11:00 – 11:30

Discussion: 11:30 – 12: 30

2: 00 – 3: 30 Lunch Break

Roundtable 2 Oromo Peace: Moral and Practical Dimensions

Chair: Abebe Adugna, World Bank

The Concept of Peace in the Oromo Gadaa System

Tenna Dewo, Addis Ababa University

The Role of Women in Peacemaking among the Oromo

Bonnie Holcomb, The George Washington University

Traditional Mechanisms of Reconciliation among the Oromo

Lube Birru, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Coffee Break: 3:30 – 4:00

Discussion: 4: 00 – 5:30

Source: Oromo Studies Association

Korri xiqqaan ABO Kutaa USA Injjifannoo Guddaan Xumuramee

Korri xiqqaan ABO Kutaa USA Injjifannoo Guddaan Xumuramee

Korri xiqqa kutaa ABO USA kan bara 2008 Bitoottessa 15 – 16 magaala Denver, Colorado keessatti godhamee milikiin xumuramee. Miseensotni 80 ol tayan konyaa 13 irraa korricha irratti argamuun gammachuun qoodha fudhatan.

Korri kun dura ta’aa konyaa Denver J/ Mohammed Adamin simanna gaari erga godhamee booda qabsaawa fi maangudhicha beekama haajii Qaasim Xahiroo korrichi akka milkiin xumuramuu ebbisaani. Dura ta’aan Kutaa ABO USA Dr. Nuuro Dadaafoo kayyoo korricha ibsaan akka kora sirnaan banaan Jaal Diimaa Nagawoo Bu’uursaa ABO fi hoogganna gadaa darbee affeeraan. Jaal Diimaa Nagayoo korichi kun kora milki akka ta’uu haawanii korri xiqqaan kutaa USA sirnaan banamee. Kora guyya lamaaf adamsifamee irratti gabaasa hujii kan ji’aa jahaa, haala qabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo fi barnoota adda addaattu gageefamee turee.

Gabaasa hujii ji’a jahaan barbee kutaa USA keessaattii karaa hunddaan: Jarmayaa fi Siyaasaa, dinagdee, beeksisaa fi diploomasiin hojjatamee balinnan irratti mari’aatmee turee. Haallii qabsoon Oromoo irra jirullee miseensii balinnaan irratti mari’aatee qabsoo fixaan baasuf waan irra eggamuu godhuuf murteefatee. J/ Diimaa Nagawoo qaxxamuraa qabsoo Oromoo balinnaan erga ibsanii booda miseensotni qabsoo Oromoo fixaan baasuf waan isaan irraa eggamuu hundaa akka godhuu qaban jabbeessaani dhaamani jiruu. Kora kana irratti Jaal Abdataa Sabaa Miseensi gumii Sabaa gadaa darbee argamuun yaada jajaboo fi ijjaroo ta’aan gummaachan.

Barnoota miseensota fi dhaaba ABO kan jajjabeesuu qoondaalota kutaa ABO USA J/ Ibrahim Mummee (Itti gaafatama beeksisa fi Aada) fi J/ Mohammed Qaabato (Itti gaafatama Jaarmaya fi Siyaasa) tiin kan dhiyaatee miseensota haalan akka gammachisee hubatamee jiraa.

Galgala Bitooteessa 15 bakka Hawaasinni Denver dhibba heddutti lakkayamuu argameetti haalii qabsoon bilisumma Oromoo keessa jirtuu J/ Nuuroo Daadafoo dura ta’aa Kutaa USA ibsa erga keennan booda J/ Diimaa Nagawo qooda Oromootni biyya alaa qabsoo keessatti maal akka tayee barnoota badhaa keennan. Gaafi fi deebii ummata irra dhiyaatee marii badhaan gohamee.

Walgayii hawaasa kan gammachisee keessa tokkon diraama dargagoo Denveriin dhiyaatee dha. Diraaman dargagoon dhiyaatee kun qooda oromoonnii biyya ambaa jiraan mataa isaanii beekumsaan foyyeessaa (kara barumsaatiin) qabsoo sabaa isaanitiif godhuu qaban sirritti xiyyeefatuudan ummata walgahii irratti argameef dhaamsa cimaa fi barnoota guddaa kan dabarsee turee.

Qabsoo Bilisummaa Oromoo fixaan baasuf werreegaminni miseensaa fi ummata irra eggamuu murteessaa waan ta’eef jecha konyaaleen kora irratti argamanii fi ummanni Oromoo magaala Denver, Colorado sochii qabsoo bilisummaatiif $64,000 ol gummachaani jiru. Gummata booda Artistoonni Oromoo beekamoon Artist Mohammed Sheeka fi Artist Tujii Muddee ummata sirritti boharsaan. Korri xiqqaan Kutaa ABO USA ka guyyaa lamaaf godhamee murtiilee fi ijjaannoo jajjaboo dabarsuun milki’iin xumuramee.

Injjifanno Ummata Oromoof!

Kora Xiqqaa ABO Kutaa USA

Bitootessa 15-16, 2008

Denver, Colorado

Terminated Yugoslavia – Exploding ‘Ethiopia’

In an earlier article entitled ‘Ogaden – the African Kosovo ready for Independence’, we made a parallel between the recently proclaimed as independent Balkan state and the long persecuted Ogaden, the Western part of Somalia that was illegally transferred (by the departing British colonials) to the barbaric and murderous Amhara pseudo-king Haile Selassie of Abyssinia.

In fact, the parallel between Kosova and Ogaden imposes a complete change of the US African policy and an American U-turn in favour of Somalia, Ogaden, Eritrea, and the numerous tyrannized nations of Abyssinia, fallaciously re-baptized as ‘Ethiopia’.

Yugoslavia and 'Ethiopia': two countries of colonial nature

The analogy between Kosova 1998 and Ogaden 2008 was actually heralded by the resemblance between Yugoslavia and Ethiopia. A closer study of the two colonial relics reveals the greatest parallel that can be drawn between Europe and Africa: Yugoslavia and 'Ethiopia'.

Yugoslavia was established through wars (Balkan wars, WW I), and shameful treaties that disregarded the will and the aspirations of numerous nations that unwillingly became slaves of the disproportionately and unjustly expanded tiny Serbian kingdom.

One must have a clear understanding of the historical developments that between 1912 and 1919 transformed the daily life of numerous Balkan nations into a nightmare within the huge tyranny that a few years later was renamed as "Kingdom of Yugoslavia". Certainly, there were expansionist dreams of the nationalist and chauvinist Serbs, who harbored the criminal idea of the re-establishment of their medieval kingdom, which was just an ephemeral development in the History of the Balkans.

Anglo-French colonial interests behind the criminal Serb and Abyssinian tyrants

However, the main force that contributed to these abnormal developments in the Balkans was the colonial interest of France and England, which was prejudicial to the existence of the Ottoman Empire and Austria – Hungary. The two countries had to be unjustly and undeservedly decomposed so that territories inhabited by Slovenes, Croats, Hungarians, Romanians and Bosnians (belonging to Austria – Hungary) and populated by Albanians and Macedonians (belonging to the Ottoman Empire), and Montenegrins become parts of the crazily inflated kingdom of Serbia.

With their support of the anti-democratic, murderous, and inhuman developments, the colonial powers attempted also to disentangle Serbia from Russia, and to limit German interests in the Balkans, which they also achieved.

Similarly, Abyssinia was established through ceaseless wars undertaken by the barbaric Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians who proved to be an alien element in Africa, as they were never in good terms with any African nation, either Kushitic, Nilo-Saharan or Bantu. These wars lasted almost 100 years, and the illiterate, treacherous and cruel pseudo-kings of the tiny Abyssinian kingdom did not respect any early treaties they had signed; contrarily, they were very subservient to their lords, the British and the French colonials who mobilized the barbaric and isolated mountainous kings in order to contain the Italian expansion in Eastern Africa.

Abyssinia: the Anti-Christian country par excellence

In fact, the tiny Abyssinian monarchy was the weakling of the mountains and the monster of the monasteries. As a heretic and mostly idolatrous vulgarization of Christianity has been the local dogma, the behind-the-scenes-ruling heretic, pseudo-Christian monks (the notorious ‘debteras’) repeatedly gave orders and bore responsibility for the assassination of Catholic and protestant missionaries and priests who happened to cross their – definitely unholy – territory around Lake Tana.

The British colonials selected them as ally precisely because the Anti-Christian kingdom of Abyssinia could be a volunteer against Christian Italy and the Vatican. The last gift the British offered to their colonial subservient instruments, the Haile Selassie tyrannical administration, was Ogaden.

In the same way the Anglo-French colonials supported the Serbs at the detriment of the Slovenes, the Croats, the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Bosnians, the Albanians and the Macedonians (who were the main ethnic groups living in areas unjustly attributed to Serbia), the same criminal colonials helped make of the tiny, poor, miserable and Anti-Christian kingdom of Abyssinia an Eastern African colonial power at the prejudice of the Oromo Ethiopians, the Ogadeni Somalis, the Afars, the Sidamas, the Anuaks, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Agaws, the Kambatas, the Wolayitas and other mercilessly tyrannized African nations – that have nothing in common with the essentially un-African Abyssinians.

Colonial expansion in figures

In the same way the small Serbian kingdom’s surface was smaller than 40000 km2, but the colonial fabrication ‘Yugoslavia’ covered a sizeable territory of 248000 km2, the Abyssinian kingdom did not control an area larger than 80000 km2 in the first half of the 19th century, but after the Abyssinian colonial expansion (1955) its surface totaled more than 1.2 million m2.

Ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural oppression ran high in either cases; in Yugoslavia, Slovenes and Croats were Catholic, Bosnians and Albanians were Muslim, Macedonians were Orthodox but aspired to (until they achieved in 1968) autocephaly, and Montenegrins had a centuries long tradition of independence and particular localism.

The Hell of colonial Abyssinia (fake 'Ethiopia')

In the colonial Hell named 'kingdom of Abyssinia', Afars and Ogadeni Somalis were Muslims, whereas Oromos were either Muslims or followers of the traditional Oromo monotheistic and aniconic religion, Waqqefanna, and some of them accepted Christianity because of the efforts of various missionaries from the West. All the other nations, the Anuaks, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Sidamas, the Kambatas and the Wolayitas had their own religions, and some of them accepted Western Christianity through the work of various missionaries (as in the case of the Oromos).

In Abyssinia, there is an additional dimension; the religious oppression exercised within the context of the same nation, namely the discrimination extensively practiced against the Amhara and Tigray Muslims.

False names to cover the tyranny, the racism, and the hatred

Serbia has to be re-baptized as Yugoslavia in order to justify the Serbian political supremacy over all the non-Serb populations of that colonial state. Similarly, Abyssinia has been renamed as ‘Ethiopia’, as the barbaric pseudo-king Haile Selassie followed Anglo-French instructions that were geared for mainly two reasons, namely

1) to keep Sudan detached from its non-Arabic, Kushitic ("Ethiopian") historical background (part of the Pan-Arabic plan of the Anglo-French colonials), and

2) to justify the criminal rule of the Semitic Abyssinian minority over the Ethiopian Kushitic and Nilo-Saharan majority within the colonially expanded Abyssinia.

Both countries turned from heinous, anachronistic and perilous kingdoms to dictatorial communist establishments, and then to totalitarian, nationalistic, pseudo-republican realms of the utmost inhumanity and criminality.

The End of Yugoslavia

Europe and America could not long tolerate the propagandist of the Pan-Serbian Hatred, the merciless dictator Milosevic. Mostly through painful experience and traumatic wars, Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosova seceded and became independent. Happily enough, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Montenegro gained their independence without war. The incredible nightmare ‘Yugoslavia’ has almost been terminated by now. What is left is that the Muslims of Sanjak, and the Hungarians and the Romanians of Voivodina achieve their long demanded secession from Serbia, and engage themselves in democracy and socioeconomic progress.

Ogaden brings about the Death of fake 'Ethiopia'

As Yugoslavia is about to expire, fake ‘Ethiopia’ is about to explode. Ogaden will secede first, and merge with Somalia where the days of the racist Abyssinian thugs (fallaciously called as soldiers by the irresponsible Jendayi Frazer) are numbered.

The Afar Republic, and the Sidama - Southern Confederation

Then the Oromos, the Afars, and the Southerners will demand their freedom, independence and national dignity. An Afar Republic in the North would merge with Djibouti, whereas in the South and the West, the Sidamas, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Kambatas, the Wolayitas and the Anuaks could establish a loose confederation, and the focus separately on cultural – educational development and collectively on socio-economic progress.

The Oromo Republic of Ethiopia

An independent Oromo Republic would demand for all correct historical reasons the exclusive use of the national name of Ethiopia.

The Tigray Republic of Abyssinia

Then the tyrannical elites of the Amhara and Tigray will find no colonized lands and subjugated nations to exploit and will fight among themselves for their only true national name that they so much pretend to dislike now: Abyssinia.

It would also be an aberration, as the custodians of the Axumite Abyssinian Heritage are undisputedly the Tigrays.

Amhara and Serbs: losers will always be the Racists

Isolated between Gonder and Bahar Dar, the Amharas will soon find themselves in the certainly unpleasant position the Serbs find themselves today; simply they will be the only responsible for the curse that will be soon befallen upon them.

And they will not avoid it whatever support they may provisorily get from people of the sort of Jendayi Frazer who under normal democratic procedures in America will be unavoidably impeached.

The dismemberment of fake ‘Ethiopia’ could be much faster than the decomposition of Yugoslavia, so much rejected by all the oppressed nations the Abyssinians are.

Jendayi Frazer: unable to save tyrant Zenawi and the Neo-Nazi Party Kinijit

Explosions will be soon the daily rhythm in the country that ridiculously Ass. Secretary Jendayi Frazer dares describe as US ally. It would therefore be very significant to republish here at the end of this article the news earlier spread through Reuters.

The disintegration of Abyssinia will be the subject of several forthcoming articles, but the news about explosions will be more numerous; we will have the opportunity to analyze why the US must contribute immediately to the Death of ‘Ethiopia’; if the present administration does not act fast an ‘Afghanistan on the African plateau’ will soon be a reality.

Eight killed in Ethiopia blast blamed on Eritrea - police

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN425102.html

Addis Ababa (Reuters) - An explosion on a bus in northern Ethiopia killed eight people and wounded 27 on Thursday, a police official said, blaming the attack on agents from Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea.

A federal police commander, Demash Hailu, said the bus had been traveling between the towns of Humera and Shire in the north's Tigray region.

"Investigations have shown that the bomb was planted by Eritrean agents," Demash told Reuters, without giving further details.

Ethiopia has often accused Eritrea of being behind blasts on its territory.

Demash also said "many" young Eritreans, including soldiers had crossed into Ethiopia in recent days -- without giving more information.

The two Horn of Africa neighbors, which fought each other in a two-year war ending in 2000, are locked in a bitter impasse over their 1,000 km (620 mile) border.

Note
Picture: Meroe - the Pyramids of Ethiopia in today's Sudan: cradle of the Modern Oromos

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Published: 3/15/2008