Oromo TV: Welcoming Olympian #Feyisalilesa

Oromo TV: Welcoming Olympian #Feyisalilesa and a message of Unity for the Oromo community

Dear Colleagues,

I can understand your amazement at seeing some “Somalis” burning OLF and Ethiopian flags. However, what you need to know is that the woyane regime has been working very hard to create enmity between all nations in Ethiopia. And now that all peoples have waken up and are foiling thier divisitive tactics, they are so deperate they are resorting to every availble trick, so that they can re-instate walls among all peoiples in Ethiopia.

ONLF has been warning about this for the last few months. Unfortunately media outlets from different groups have ignored our messages and never published in their media outlets. each is busy to listen only to itslef why Ogaden media has been repoting every occurance in all parts of Ethiopia.

We have issued two press releases regarding Woyane tactics, but noone paid attention or redistributed our press releases:

1. The Vicious Ethiopian Regime is Instigating Civil Wars between Somalis, Oromos and Amharas:
   http://onlf.org/?p=866
2. The Failing Regime in Ethiopia Exhorts Ogaden Somalis to pay for their debacle. ONLF Press Releases. See:
   http://www.ogadennet.com/?p=63793
   ONLF  foreign Secretary made an oral intervention at the UN human Rights Council and no a single website mentioned it. See
3. Non-violent Radical Party Transnational Transparty -Oral Intervention Regarding Ethiopian Government Human Rights Violations UNHRC
   http://www.ogadennet.com/?p=64336

Having said that, the Woyane Kilil in Ogaden headed by the stooge, recently posted on its website orders to Somalis from the Ogaden calling them to demonistrate or face consequeincies back home. 99% of Ogaden communities ignored the threats. However few die-hard stooges and some stupids from Djibouti and Parts of Somalia took to the streets and commit this abomination. The Ogaden Somali community took the case with the USA FBI and are awaiting response. We have the website article with threats and telephone calls of the organisers and we will not let that rest until threy are dealt with. Since then the Regime deleted the webpage, however we have recorded it and it can be found at wayback machine. They think they can hide their acts:

( http://cakaaranews.com/index.php/wararka-separator/wararka-degaanka/6026-ogaysiis-jaaliyada-north-america.html )

What is even more worrying  is that the wayane has now started deploying thousands of  Liyu Polis vagabounds to Oromaia and Aamahra and other parts in order to create havouk and more enbmity among the peoples in Ethiopia. They used this tactic against Somalis for the last ten years bring militia from other rtegions to kill thousands of Somalis and now they are repeating this vile practice. However we will keep exposing it and fighting it to the best of our ability.

In General, ONLF believes that due to our  differences, the Woynae is still surviving. unless  all accept our differences and agree to work on a minimum program, the Woyane will continue to use and abuse our peoples.

Therefore we all need to wake up, come together without hidden agenda instaed of  trying to outsmart each other and vie for a non existent power, while we are all outdone by Woyane and his petty stooges.

ONLF Press Team,

Message conveyed from Abdirahman Mahdi

Email sent out by Dereje Bacha, Ph.D, Sunday 9/25/2016 12:46 PM

Hi All,

I personally need more clarification about the burning of Ethiopian flag and Oromo Liberation Front flag which is posted in the Zehabesha website.
http://www.zehabesha.com/video-somalis-in-minnesota-burning-ethiopian-and-olf-flag/

Is this drama orchestrated by TPLF agents or Others?. It should be clear for the public. This is against the ongoing protest and regime change struggle across regions of Ethiopia. With no doubt, unless we handle this issue quickly and seriously, it is counterproductive and hurt people struggle. Regime agents will take advantage of this window to further divide us. After twenty five years of divisions, nations and nationalities are supporting each other in different ways.  

In recent meeting in Washington D.C., as it is a common issue for all nations and nationalities of Ethiopia,  I suggested all  interested non Oromo to join the upcoming demonstration in Washington D.C. It is a rally to influence the state department to stop all round supports for the regime. There were mixed reactions on what I proposed. The incumbent grand rally organizing committee chair (from Washington D.C.)  endorsed it and agreed to announce it to all (Oromos and non Oromos) to join the rally.  But, my idea could be reversed [probably by other people working with him] after the meeting.   

This is one potential/plausible/ reason that will end up with burning the flags. Burning both Ethiopian flag and Oromo Liberation Front flag are void. It should be denounced by all including Somalis.   From my understanding, excluding other ethnic group from the demonstration is counter productive  ( if this is the reason and if there is any exclusion is going on). I believe that it is against the aim of the protest.   We are opening window for regime agents to further exploit it.  But, if there is any other issue that led to the chaos, briefing and open discussion with all (Somalis, Oromos (in particular, demonstration organizing committee and/or other Oromo groups), and other Ethiopians] are vital.  

Sincerely

Dereje Bacha, Ph.D

Annandale, Virginia

By Drake Lansman

Hirut Guangul, of Ethiopia, crosses the finish line to take first place in women’s group of the full marathon portion of the Quad Cities Marathon Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, at the finish line near John Deere Pavilion in Moline.

MOLINE, ILLINOIS (qconline) — As Hirut Guangul, of Ethiopia, crossed the Quad Cities Marathon finish line as the first woman overall for the fourth consecutive year, she crossed her arms above her head in an “X”.

Guanhul became the first QCM four-time champion, but the moment became larger than just her athletic achievement on Sunday morning.

“I like this race,” said Guanhul. “Four-time champion. I’m very, very happy.”

After the race, the 24-year-old said the “X” is a way of protesting the human rights abuses that are taking place in Ethiopia. Guanhul’s simple action is a brave and powerful one that bypasses any language barrier.

Hundreds of peaceful Ethiopian protesters have been killed or arrested by the Ethiopian military this year. Protesters have demanded equality for the country’s Oromo people, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group that has felt marginalized by the government as it pushes them off their land before selling it.

Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lilesa held up an “X” with his arms as he won silver in the marathon at the Rio Olympics. The gesture has been used as a symbol of strength and peaceful resistance.

Lilesa says he likely will not be able to return home after making the gesture of solidarity. The Oromos also have used the “X” as a sign of their protest.

“The Ethiopian government is killing my people, so I stand with all protests anywhere, as Oromo is my tribe,” Lilesa said at an Olympic press conference. “My relatives are in prison, and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed.”

Guangul joined the brave movement as she won the women’s marathon with a time of 2:44.25.

She won her first QC Marathon in 2012, when she set the women’s open course record of 2:35.07. Guangul’s 2016 win earned her $3,000 in prize money.

Guangul says she enjoys the Quad Cities Marathon, and is happy to be back at the race.

Kenyan Bizuwork Getahun Kasaye (2:56.01, $1,500) placed second and Ethiopia’s Meseret Ali Basa (3:03.09, $1,000) was third.

Jenna Fiorillo (3:16.03, $750) of West Cester, Pa., placed fourth as the top American finisher.

(Addis Standard) — When news of a 100% victory by the ruling EPRDF came out shortly after the May 2015 general elections, everyone scorned the result; it was too stupid to be true. After all, democratic elections in a multinational state home to a near 100 million odd, which Ethiopia is one, were not supposed to be like this. So, the world was right to scorn the results because nowhere in it would similar experiences go down history books unchallenged.  

Alas, the ruling party in Ethiopia was not only intoxicated by the victory to see what was in the offing, but it was so sure to get away with it, as it did get away with many lapses of political orders in the last quarter a century.

The reason why the world – not the government in Ethiopia – looked at the results of that fateful election with a sheer horror is because the latter is the author, director and main character of the tragic political drama which eventually dragged Ethiopia to the verge of crisis, yet again. And that election was the straw that broke the Camel’s back.  From north to south and left and right Ethiopians are on the streets screaming their ultimate rejection of a government which claimed to have won a 100% of their votes.

Damage from within and outside

There is damage to be sustained when a rebel-turned-government spoils its political capital to become a bullying dictatorship. In all measures, that is what happened in Ethiopia since the advent of May 1991. A federated state tutored by party manifesto; alternative political parties decimated from inside out with their leading members often jailed, harassed and in some cases killed or simply made to disappear from the face of earth; independent media and civil society organizations persecuted in equal terms as terrorists; and academic institutions and religious establishments coerced to dance to the music of the ruling party. Regrettably, that is Ethiopia as we know it since it was declared the ‘democratic republic of Ethiopia,’ although some would discount the first 10 years as a semi-successful democratic experiment.

The result is that military violence has now become the new language in which the government is using to talk back to the people of Ethiopia.  Judging by the look of events it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Ethiopians are betrayed by their own government which has no misgivings to turn into the military to answer their questions and control their dissenting voices.

But there is also damage to be sustained from outside when western allies of a dictatorship sugarcoat their terms of reference to declare a dictatorship “democratic” and continue to engage with it business as usual. (See story here).

Such blunders by the west are driven by several factors. Leaving aside the cliché, this magazine posits two of the often neglected factors.

The first is the burning ambition by Ethiopia’s western allies to showcase how the aid business turned a once poster child of famine into a successful budding state with a seemingly soaring economy. Calls by rights organizations, and most importantly, the people of Ethiopia for the west to use constructive diplomatic leverages to tame the government often fell on deaf ears. Ethiopia’s western allies repeatedly opted to hold their nose about the smelly human rights record and the government’s unbridled control of both the political and civic spaces in Ethiopia. But at the same time they continued pumping taxpayers’ money in the name of aid and lavish a repressive state with undeserved international legitimacy.

The second is the concept of not wanting to face the task of opening the Pandora’s Box during what’s often a constitutionally limited term in office practiced by most western governments. President Barak Obama is leaving office and he was under no illusion that speaking truth to the world that Ethiopia was going down the nasty way was going to do him more harm than good.

The result is that there remains no discourse and platform where Ethiopia’s western allies can use to discipline a government they themselves enabled to grow out of control.

True, Ethiopia is a sovereign state whose independence should not be tampered with but there are international laws, for example, that Ethiopia itself is a signatory to. Sadly no western ally is daring to speak out loud when Ethiopian officials use and abuse these laws the same way they use and abuse local laws. The recent flagrant dismissal by the government in Ethiopia of the kind reminder by the UN Human Rights Commission of the need to allow access to UN monitors to investigate recent killings and rights abuses in Ethiopia is one classic example.

This means it should now be up to the ruling party to stop playing illusory for the sake of PR consumption by the west and propaganda for Ethiopians and start facing the inevitable. That means the ruling EPRDF should admit that the country is really on the verge of crisis and that it and only it is responsible for it.

The truth is that Ethiopians are revolting in the clearest of terms. One need not look beyond what has evolved in Oromia and Amhara regional states over the last ten months where simple, constitutional and even by the ruling party’s lexicon ‘legitimate’ requests by the people of Ethiopia was turned by the government into unimaginable horror.

For a government that deprived the people of Ethiopia any other means to either humble it or talk back to it, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It is harvesting what it sowed and the least it can do is admit that its way of being a government is not working. If this means dissolving itself, so be it!

The actor is the latest high-profile Ethiopian to flee the country

(BBC News) — Prominent Ethiopian actor Znah-Bzu Tsegaye has sought asylum in the US after leaving the country about two months ago, he told Voice of America.

The actor was in a weekly soap opera Sew Le Sew on state television.

He left because of “repeated harassment and for being Amhara” reports the opposition Zehabesha website.

Human Rights Watch says security forces killed at least 100 people at protests in the Amhara region in August but the government denies this.

• Africa Live: BBC news updates
• What is behind Ethiopia’s wave of protests?
• The Oromo protests and Ethiopian unity

In an interview with Voice of America’s Amharic service, the actor said the Ethiopian security forces had carried out “atrocious actions” and he had decided not to return home until the “regime is changed”.

“It is sad to respond with bullets to people’s demand for their rights,” he added.

At the root of the recent demonstrations in Amhara is a request by representatives from the Welkait Amhara Identity Committee that their land, which is currently administered by the Tigray regional state, be moved into the neighbouring Amhara region.

The Oromo people in Ethiopia have also been protesting against the government, saying they have been excluded politically and economically.

During the Rio Olympics, marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa crossed the line in second place with his arms above his head in solidarity with Oromo activists.

He said he wanted to seek asylum after the high-profile anti-government protest, and he is now in the US.

(Money Control) — Drug firm Kilitch Drugs India’s arm Kilitch Estro Biotech Plc has been alloted land in Ethiopia on 45 years lease by the Ethiopian Bureau of Rural Land and Environmental Protection for an undisclosed sum.

Drug firm Kilitch Drugs India ‘s arm Kilitch Estro Biotech Plc has been alloted land in Ethiopia on 45 years lease by the Ethiopian Bureau of Rural Land and Environmental Protection for an undisclosed sum. The land ad-measuring 4,317.5 sq meters in Oromia Special Zone in Ethiopia has been alloted to Kilitch Estro Biotech Plc, the company’s subsidiary, by Bureau of Rural Land and Environmental Protection, Kilitch Drugs India said in a filing to BSE today. The firm was selected amongst more than 80 companies who took part in the said process, it added. Shares of Kilitch Drugs India today closed 19.94 per cent up at Rs 40.60 ascrip on BSE.

JIJJIGA
Naanno soomale magaala jijjigaatti guyya arra sep.26/2016tti mootumman soomaale hawaasa magaalitti keeysafuu ummata oromoo fi Amaraa walgahii hatattamaa jachuun dirqamaan baasanii guyya boruu 27/2016 ganamarra jalqabee hiriira mormii haala qabsoo ummanni oromoo fi Amaraa taasisaa jiran akka mormaniif hirira kanarratti namnni hin arkamnne tarkaanfiin cimaan akka irratti fudhatamu akeekachiisan wanni boru magaala jijjigaatti godhamuuf yaadaman keeysa:
–barreyfamaa fi afaaninis qabsoon oromoo fi Amaarri taasisaa jiru balaaleyfachiisu fi abaaruu
—- Alaaba dhaabbile siyaasa motumma wayyanetiin wall’anso qabaa jiran ummanni harkasaatiin akka guban(alabaABO, ethiopiay durii, Alaba ONLF….) akka tahe hubatamera
— kanaafiis midiyale sobaa qindeyfatanii ittiin ololchuuf deemu
kuni osoo akkanaan jiruu hojjattonni mootummas akkuma jiraniin guyya boru ifiifi arkamanii tokkon tokkon hojjataa nama 20 qabatee hiriira shira wayyane kanarratti akka bobbaasa akeekachiisaniiru, tanaaf daddafiiti odefanno tana ummataan nuuf gahaati hawaasa naannosanii nuuf akeekachiisa. Via Beekan Gulummaa Irranaa

Masqalli bataskaanatti gubamuu kan jalqabe H/Goorgis/Qusee Diinagdeetiini! 1908 AL Abisiiniyaatti! Isaan dura masqalli bataskaanatti gubamu hin jiru!

Kanaafuu Ammasqalli aadaa Oromooti ta’ullee aadaa Oromoo miti yoo jettellee aadaa Kuushidha malee aadaa Seem gonkumaa akka hin taane qorachuutu siif ibsa!

Kan biraan namoonni tokko tokko guyyaa Fannoo inni dhugaan itti argamedha jedhu fannoon kan argame guraandhala 16 garuu sinodosiitu as butemmoo jedha (Hiruuy Eermiyaas,Liqa Kaahinat KinfaGabri’eel) Abbaa Gorgoriiyos

Finfinnee
Wayyaaneen waan gootu wallaalteetti. Qajeelfama tokko fidanii kun sanada madaallii seektara barnootaa kan l waggaa 25ti. Isiniif dubbifnee isin immoo yaada irratti laattu jedhanii daqiiqaa 20f wal harkaa fuuehanii akkumasaatti dubbisanii fixan. Achiis guyyaa guutuu gaaffii gaafadhaa, gaaffii kam iyyuu kaasuu dandeessu jedhanii nu guggubaa jiru. Namni gaafa callisu takka barnoota lammummaaf amala gaarii kaasuu takka immoo faayidaa barsiisaan mootummaa irraa argatu kaasu takka immoo curriculum rakkoo qabu nutti himaa jedhu. Amma yeroo kanatti immoo waa’e qulqullina barnootaa kaasaniiru, gubatteetti. Akka kanatti guyyaa 10 dhiisiitii boruu deebitee waan dhuftu natti hin fakkaatu

#OromoProtests “kun mana basaasticha beekamaa DIBAABAA ROOBAA hojjata waajira nageenya aanaa libaan cuqqala kan kaleesa ganda daglagalaa jiddati qeerroo tumsisaa oole. Galgala qerroo ibiddan akkana goote.”

#OROMOPROTEST #AMHARAPROTESTS
Call for mass demonstration:
To all Oromo communities and individuals
We are pleased to announce that we will have an historical demonstration here in Manchester on Friday the 30th of September 2016.
Aim: To condemn the current brutal and inhuman killing, torture, abuse, and mass arrest of protesters in Oromia, Amhara regions, Konso, Gambela and ethnic cleansing in Benshangul by the TPLF-led EPRDF security forces as well as a purposeful instigation of conflicts among nations and nationalities in Ethiopia; and to ask the UK government and international community to exert pressure on the regime.
Location: Near BBC NW headquarter in Media City UK, M50 2BH, Salford, Greater Manchester.
Date and time: 30th of Sep, 2016 from 9am.
Organiser
Oromo Community, Amhara community, Ugadenia community. Everyone who believe in humanity should come and condemning the brutality of TPLF against all people in Ethiopia.

FILE – U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

(VOA News) — The United States is very concerned over the situation in Ethiopia, particularly the instability in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

The United States is very concerned over the situation in Ethiopia, particularly the instability in the Oromia and Amhara regions, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview. Speaking in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield called the response by the government to protests an “intense and somewhat harsh crackdown:”

“We have had discussions with the Ethiopian government encouraging that they have dialogue, and that they open the possibly for press freedom, civil society’s ability to function, and that many of the people who have been put in jail be released.”

In Oromia anti-government protests began in November 2015, and they have also occurred in the northern Amhara region.

Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield said the United States believes that the situation in the country could deteriorate and that the Ethiopian government is aware of that possibility as well.

“We’ve met with Prime Minister Hailemariam [Desalegn] in New York, and we have encouraged him to look at how the government is addressing this situation.”

“We think,” she said, “it could get worse if it’s not addressed – sooner rather than later.”

SBO Fulbaana 28,2016. Oduu, Haala Godina Kibba-bahaa irratti gaaffii fi deebii miseensa G/S ABO Jaal.Dachaas Roobaa waliin godhame kutaa xumuraa fi dhaggeeffatamuu kan qabu, akkasumas Irreecha 2016 Torontoo Kanadatti dhiheenya kabajame irratti gabaasa qindaa’ee fi SBO Sagantaa Afaan Amaaraa

Dear Editor,

(Addis Standard) — As a matter of historical coincidence, both Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) were established in 1948. Dr. Tedros Adhanom became the former’s first unqualified but politically appointed minister in history and he now wants to take over the later, in a similar and unjustifiable trajectory.

First, it has to be established as to how such a man with all sorts of personal shortcomings, including but not limited to, professionalism, integrity, leadership quality and even humanity made atop Ethiopia’s political hierarchy. Dr. Tedros is the executive member of the TPLF, a party constituting the core of the lofty ruling coalition, EPRDF, which ruled Ethiopia for over quarter a century with an iron fist. TPLF elites hail from the minority Tigrean ethnicity in the north who played a significant role in ousting Ethiopia’s communist dictator, Derg, in 1991 only to appear yet as another version of it under the leadership of the late Meles Zenawi. By effectively annihilating the country’s capable political elites, the late Meles created an amorphous political buffer around himself where opportunist elites such as Dr. Tedros were to be welcomed. The promotion of Dr Tedros from a mere malaria desk expert at the regional health department of Tigray to the ministerial portfolio of Ethiopia in 2005 was part of this trajectory. Accordingly, the biologist-turned malaria entomologist became the first health minister with non-health background in the history of the Ethiopian state.

Following the death of his late mentor Meles Zenawi, the malaria expert even astonished the whole world by becoming, all of a sudden, the minister of foreign affairs in a country home to some of the most experienced career diplomats. In a nutshell, both his shortcomings in professional competence and the typically opportunist twists of the political pathway for his ascendancy to power proves the modes operandi of his party TPLF and how such people like him benefited from that.

It’s true that under his tenure as a minister of health, there were some progresses registered in the country’s health sector. But, the narrative that Ethiopia registered miracles, as even wrongly propagated by few western media, should be filtered so carefully. Ethiopia’s health sector is still categorized by the WHO itself among those “in critical crisis”. Nevertheless, because of the politically motivated decisions made by the regime to crackdown on international NGOs working on human rights (especially after the 2005 elections fallout) thereby channeling some huge international funds only into the health sector, there were progresses made during his tenure as a health minister. This is particularly true in the areas of health facilities expansion and the globally politicized care involving maternity and child health. But below, I outline examples of Dr. Tedros’ grim failures even in these allegedly modest gains.

Corruption: As huge international funds pumped by NGOs & philanthropists to strengthen Ethiopia’s health sector, mismanagement of funds and corruption were the hallmark of Dr. Tedros’ tenure as a minister of health between 2005-2012. This was brought to public attention as some media went on meticulously reporting it. Even the US government was obliged to cut funds for HIV/AIDS by 79% because of such financial mismanagement and corruption.

 Inequality in health: Ethiopia has been praised for its achievements in the areas of maternity and child health. While there could exist some elements of truth in this intentionally hyped story, taking it as such would amount to a gross distortion of the country’s reality. In fact, the progresses made were achieved only for the wealthier class in the health quintiles. According to the latest report by the “Count Down” project, a US-funded project established in 2005 with the aim of assisting countries to generate and utilize empirical evidences in order to track progress towards health-related MDGs – particularly in areas of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) – the disparity across wealth quintiles – between the poorest 20% and the richest 20% of the population – is extremely high in several indicators. For instance, the under-5 mortality rate, though declined overall, has actually increased among the poorest 20% of the population, from 130 in 2005 to 137 per 1,000 in 2011. Disparities in coverage also remain large across Ethiopia’s administrative regions, and between residents of urban and rural areas. According to this report, not only in remote regions like Afar and Somali, but also in the largest & central region of Oromia, from where 60% of Ethiopia’s GDP comes, a significant majority receive two or less out of eight essential RMNCH interventions; while in Addis Abeba & Dr. Tedros’ homeland of Tigray in the remote north, a vast majority of children receive at least six out of the eight.

Politicization of health: Dr. Tedros left the Ethiopian health sector very much politicized and crippled, which has to be yet depoliticized if it has to function properly. The more than 35,000 female health extension workers trained for six months and deployed across Ethiopia during his tenure, which many praise him for, are more of political cadres who are deployed in rural household families to serve the TPLF than helping health workers. This has been verified by their own internal memos and reports on various occasions.

In addition to these, under Dr. Tedros’ tenure, Ethiopia experienced outbreaks of many rudimentary diseases, like the cholera outbreak in 2006, 2008 and 2011 among others. Even though the Ethiopian law stipulates cholera to be a “mandatory notifiable disease”, Dr. Tedros left the legacy of keeping disease outbreaks “secrete”. Today that legacy remains as cholera ravages the whole country including the capital Addis Abeba.

Even worse, Dr. Tedros sits in EPRDF’s central committee responsible for the killings of peaceful protesters (of not only  the more than 200 killed during the aftermath of the May 2005 elections) but also for the more than 600 peaceful protesters killed in the ongoing nationwide protests, as per the Human Rights Watch’s latest report.

In my view, Dr. Tedros doesn’t deserve to represent the face of such a prestigious global organization as the WHO, which is much regarded as an utmost humane. Ethiopia has many talents and capable leaders both in the health sector and beyond to offer to the WHO if professional competence, integrity and leadership quality are to be considered. Dr. Tedros Adhanom is not one of them.

Girma Gutema

PhD Candidate, University of Oslo

Norway

(Ogaden News Agency) — The Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA) is continuing its offensive against Ethiopian regime army and its associated militia. This offensive has intensified since the regimes army’s massacres of innocent civilians in other parts of Ethiopia as they had done previously in ogaden since 2007. Since November 2015, ONLA has been waylaying and putting pressure on the killing forces of the regime.

Latest news from the Ogaden reports that there has been clashes between Ogaden National Liberation Army and the Ethiopian regime’s army in the Qorahay and Shabelle regions of the Ogaden. The ONLA has killed 13 Soldiers and wounded 19 others.

On the 21/09/2016 in Xamaro (Nogob), ONLF attacked the regime’s army convoy heading towards Oromo areas killing 3 soldiers and injured another 4.

On the 23/09/2016, in Goomar (Qorahay), ONLF waylaid a convoy killing 6 soldiers and injuring 8 others.

On the 23/09/2016 heavy fighting took place in Shiniile (Shabelle), and the ONLF killed 4 soldiers and injured another 7.

Latest reports from the Ogaden say that similar attacks by ONLF freedom fighters, which usually occur when Ethiopian regime’s soldiers venture into rural localities and villages to massacre civilians, are continuing.

#OromoProtests #HARD_WARNNING Oromiyaa keessatti ilmaan Oromoo Ibiddaa rasaasa Wayyaaneetiin dhumaa utuu jiranii, Dhiigni, Ilmaan Oromoo lafarraa lola’aa utuu jiruu namootni dhalootaan Oromoo hin ta’iniifi Oromoon Jala adeemtuun wayyaanee lakkoofsan 15 hin caallee alaabaa OPDO jaalattanis utuu hin jaalatiinis dirqamtani bulchiinsa magaalaa#Laga_Xaafoo_Daadhiitti baatani Adeemaa jiraniif Isiniif Dhumateera maqaan keessanii fi bakkeen isin jiraattaan guutummatti harka #Qeerroogalee jira, uummatni Oromoos atattamaan warraa dhiigaa Oromootti baasuu barbaadu of keessaa baasuuf qophiidha!!
Injifannoon Galuun Baranuma!! Via Seenessaa Qeerroo

#QeerrooMagaalaaNaqamteef!

1. Qeerroon Sababa adda addaan bakka gargaraa irraa dhuftani magalaa naqamtee keessaa jirtan attatamaan kallattii bakka jireenyaa akka jijjiratan.
2. Lakkofsa Bilbilaa akka cuftan ykn jijjiratan
3. Hiriyyota keessaan duran amantanii waliin jirata turtan waliin illee amma haallii jiru qulqulla’itti akka hin sochoneefi walitti dhufeenya akka dhabdan
4. Qeerroon magalaa naqamtee keessa jirattan rakkoo sii mudachu maluuf ofitti amanamummaa kan hin qabne fi rakkoo kana damdammachuu kan hin dandeenye yoo ta’e yeroof magalicha akka gadlakkisu
5. Hogganaa fi namootni sochii qeerroo irrati sochii godha turtani jirtan tarkanfiin diinaa riifachisu kun attataman akka itti fufu. Via Dammaksaa Gadaa Jabeessaa

Erigaa arifachiisa
Mee namoon Godina Baalee maagala Dalloo mannaa kessaati hiriira guddicha 06/08/2016 irrattii haadha ykn Ayyoo goota
1.Oromiyaa kessaa woraani haa bayu!
2.Kan hidhame haa hikkamu!
3.Kan nama ajjeese Seeraf haa dhiyaatu !
4.Oromiyaan ofiin ofi haa bulchitu!
5.Rasaasan hin bullu jechuun dhaadannoo seera qabessaa fi seena qabeesa dhiyeesite haala isheen kessaa jirtu beekitan fi qunnamitii qabidan hatatamaan inbox naaf godhaa!!!

Via Jawar Mohammed
Beware of TPLF’s minority card

Recently you might have noticed that TPLF is propagating ‘Somalis’ protesting against OLF, G7 etc. Its important to know that these are members of the TPLF’s puppet party in Somali region ( its like OPDO and ANDM members rallying in support of the regime). In fact many of the thugs are not from Somali regional state but from Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland and even Kenya. Back home the psychopathic president of the region has forced residents of Jigjiga to stage a rally. Why all this? First it shows the regime have given up on its puppet parties in Oromia and Amhara regions. Pro-regime rallies planned in Oromia and Amhara were either cancelled due to fear of turning into protest or no one showed up.

But there is more sinister motive than just this. It is part of the minority card TPLF leaders are trying to play as they fight for survival. Two weeks ago Seyoum Mesfin and Abay Tsehaye gave interview where they repeatedly pulled the minority card. They have two objectives in doing so. First they want to mislead and gain sympathy of the liberal international community that their minority ethnic group (Tigreans) are facing genocide from alliance of the two largest ethnic groups Oromo and Amhara. They have been telling diplomats that it’s not just Tigreans facing existential threat but also other minorities. Second, they want to implement their long held plan of ‘minority coalition’ to withstand pressure from Amhara and Oromo forces. Since the days of their armed struggle, TPLF leaders believed that the best way to cope with being outnumbered is to forge alliance (under their domination) with other minorities. The controversial map that connects Tigray with Benishangul-Gumuz and all the way down to Gambela on the West, and Afar and Somali through the East is not some simple error or latest development. It has been on the works since 1980s. Although it failed due to economic competition with Tigrean businessmen, they have also tried to bring urban minorities to their side as well.

But is TPLF an ally of minorities in Ethiopia? Its records say NO!
– Its military carried out ethnic cleansing against Ethiopian Somalis as meticulously recorded by human rights organizations. Abdi Illey was their henchmen who was facilitating the massacre.
– It massacred the Agnuwak in Gambella region in 2003 and still continue to kill in the region.
– The Sidama were massacred at Loqe in 2002.
– Entire villages in Konso are being burned down as we speak.
– The Mursi are killed en mass and those captured alive are chained like animals as might have seen on pictures
– Silte and Gurage businessmen have been pushed out of the market and replaced by Tigreans.
– Afar land is all but taken over by Tigrean land grabbers.
– On and on and on……

Yet as it faces increasing resistance in Oromo and Amhara, TPLF will be aggressively using this ‘minority card’ in the up coming weeks and months. This will be done with action that will create rift between minority ethnic groups and Oromo/Amhara. We should henceforth expect the following:

– More rallies in diaspora and targeted regions in Ethiopia with participants holding slogans that offend Oromo/Amhara.
– Intensified campaign on media using languages that provoke debate and counter attack.
– Physical attack on Oromo/Amhara activists and institutions with the aim of provoking counter attack on Somalis.
– They will intensify instigating conflict on regional boarders. We are already hearing provocation on Benishangul-Amhara boarders, Somali -Oromia boarders.

If left unchallenged, these tactics could cause serious short and long term problem between various nations of the country. Therefore, the following steps should be taken to counter that:

– Oromos and Amharas shouldn’t fall for the provocative trap. Avoid debates and arguments against Somalis and others.
– Let activists, political leaders and organizations respond to debunk them.
– Beware that the regime’s agents will engage in nasty exchanges pretending to be Oromo, Amhara, Somali etc.
– Prominent activists, political leaders should be careful against attacks by hired thugs. Community and religious institutions should be protected. In case attacks occur, the situation must be wisely contained. No doubt the regime agents in Amhara and Oromo communities will try to instigate counter attack on Somali and others. Hence no matter the severity, the possible attack on Amhara/Oromo personalities, the response should never be communal; the individual who committed the crime should be singled out and brought to justice.

Such old and tired tactic of divide and rule cannot extend TPLF’s dictatorship.

(Oakland Institute) — As months of protest and civil unrest hurl Ethiopia into a severe political crisis, a new report from the Oakland Institute debunks the myth that the country is the new “African Lion.” Miracle or Mirage? Manufacturing Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia exposes how authoritarian development schemes have perpetuated cycles of poverty, food insecurity, and marginalized the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

A key government objective is to make Ethiopia one of the largest sugar producers in the world. Several sugar expansion plans are underway, including the colossal Kuraz Project in the Lower Omo Valley, which will include up to five sugar factories and 150,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations that rely on Gibe III Dam for irrigation. Studies show that Gibe III could reduce the Omo River flow by as much as 70 percent, threatening the livelihoods of 200,000 Ethiopians and 300,000 Kenyans who depend on the downstream water flow for herding, fishing, and flood-recession agriculture.

Miracle or Mirage? offers lessons from the deadly impact of sugar and cotton plantations in the Awash Valley in the Afar Region, established in the 1950s. The projects drastically reduced land and water availability for people and cattle, undermined food security, destroyed key drought coping mechanisms, and stirred up violent conflicts between different groups over the remaining resources. The establishment of plantations was a critical factor in the 1972-1973 famine, resulting in the deaths of nearly 200,000 Afar people. These findings raise serious questions about the government’s logic behind sugar expansion, with $11.2 billion to be invested by 2020, and much more for irrigation schemes and dams – Gibe III alone cost Ethiopia $1.8 billion.

Using quantitative evidence, the report also details how plantations established in the Awash Valley have been far less profitable than pastoralist livestock production, while carrying massive environmental costs including the depletion of vital water resources.

For Press Release Click Here PDF
For Full Report Click Here PDF

James M. Roberts

(The Daily Signal) — The Heritage Foundation has taken its message of economic freedom to Africa. Today’s stop is Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia—source of the Blue Nile river and one of the oldest countries in the world that traces its history back to Biblical times 1,000 years before Christ. Remember the Queen of Sheba, in the time of King Solomon? She was from Axum, in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is also the second most populous country in Africa, with 95 million people.

The Heritage Foundation’s 2016 Index of Economic Freedom reports that economic expansion has averaged about 10 percent over the past five years, facilitated by improved infrastructure and more effective mining and farming techniques. Unfortunately, that economic growth has not been enjoyed evenly by all of the roughly 80 ethnic groups in the country.

As the BBC reports, Ethiopia has had civil unrest for the last year “in the Oromia region which has been unprecedented in its longevity and geographical spread.” The Oromo people account for one-third of Ethiopia’s population. As the BBC notes, however, the issues go far deeper than ethnicity: “frustrations over land ownership, corruption, political, and economic marginalization.”

That is consistent with the findings in the Heritage index, which reports that the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and its allies in the Tigray ethnic group claimed all 547 seats in the May 2015 parliamentary elections. Today, little remains of democracy in Ethiopia after the passage of laws that repress political opposition, tighten control of civil society, and suppress independent media.

The mastermind behind the rise of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front was the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a staunch ally of the United States in the war on terror but also an authoritarian African strongman who rose to power in the early 1990s and ruled until his early death in 2012 at the age of 57.

As The Huffington Post reported, Meles was a highly skilled political tactician who could weave together coalitions among the many Ethiopian factions. His successors have not been so skilled, or so creative, and have asserted the one-party rule of Ethiopia’s ascendant political party more brutishly in the years since Meles’ death. They also have suffered from the global decline of commodity prices.

In his early years in power, Meles advanced economic growth by dismantling the Soviet-style, five-year plans that had been put in place by the brutal military Derg government that had ruled since the mid-1970s, when it overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie.

Later, Meles was hailed for the strong economic growth his statist, “neoliberal” economic policies generated during the boom years for commodity prices.

As the index reports, economic growth beginning in the Meles years reduced the percentage of the population living in poverty by 33 percent, but per capita income remains among the world’s lowest, and many young people leave to seek opportunity elsewhere. The economy is based largely on agriculture—85 percent of workers are on millions of small and inefficient farms that are vulnerable to droughts.

Unfortunately, as faithful readers of the index know all too well, such neoliberal industrial policies—whereby the government picks winners and losers and subsidizes favored sectors—do not form a sustainable model for the long term. And, increasingly, the long term is now here for the current Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front leadership—who are increasingly dividing the economic pie mostly among their own Tigray brethren.

To turn things around, Ethiopia must return to the more inclusive governance structures that Meles pioneered and share political power. But it must also abandon the Meles neoliberal model, and address the deficiencies noted by the Index of Economic Freedom, especially with regard to stronger rule of law, more transparency in the investment regime, and more competition in the banking sector.

Ethiopia remains a fascinating country, as it was in biblical times, with numerous attractions for tourism that could be developed with better infrastructure and greater political stability. Ethiopians deserve a better government than the one they currently have.

James M. Roberts is the Research Fellow in Freedom and Growth at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for International Trade and Economics. Roberts’ primary responsibility is to produce the Index of Economic Freedom, an influential annual analysis of the economic climate of countries throughout the world.

The Daily Signal is the multimedia news outlet of The Heritage Foundation. Our mailing address is 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002-4999. You can reach us by phone at 202-546-4400.

#OromoProtests-Dhaamsa Bushooftuu irraa nu gahe: “Qeerroo Oromoo amma Wayyaaneen muddama guddaa keessa jirti. Murtiin Wayyaanee tokko qofaa dha. Kunis nama Oromoo keessaa jaba fi qaroo ta’e ajjeesuun bara bittaa dheereffachuu dha. Akka argaa jirutti, Qeerroon Oromoo waanti gochuu qabu ni jira.
1. Hoggana isaa jabaa fi murteessaa jabeessee eeggachuu fi daheessuu qaba.
2. Humnoota Wayyaaneef hirkoo ta’an adda baasuun tarkaanfii keessa deebii hin qabne fudhachuu qaban.
3. Waan maxxansan mara of eeggannaan maxxansuu qaban.
4. Iccitii fi naamusa qabsoo jabaa aadeffachuu qaban.
5. Bakka barbaachisetti, leenjii siyaasaa, ijaarsaa, tikaa, fi waraanaa argachuun hin badu. Jabaadhaa, diini hedduu raafamaa fi rom’aa jirti.
Keessoo fi teessoo keessan jabeeffadhaa!!” Via Dejene Gutema

#OromoProtests-Arsii Lixaa Alambaadaa keessatti yeroo ammaa kana hiriira mormii guddatu jira. Ummatis, mormii kana irratti, “Nuuf hin taane Wayyaanee, qarriffaa kee buqqifna tokko taanee,” jechaa jiru.
Qeerroon Arsii Alambaadaa kun akka jedhanitti, diddaa fi mormiin hiree murteeffannaa Oromoo mirkaneessuuf gaggeeggamaa jiru haga galii isaa gahutti hin dhaabbatu!!

#OromoProtests Magaalaa Finfinnee Kutaa Bulchiisaa Qaallittii Bakka Total jedhamutti kan Argamuu Hoteelli Abbaa Qabeenyaa Wayyaanee Teegem Jedhamu tarkaanfii Ibiddaan irraatti fudhatameen barbada’uun gabaafame, guutummaa gabaasaa kanaaf nu eeggadha!! (በቃሊቲ ቶታል አካባቢ የሚገኘው ቴገም ሆቴል በእሳት ቃጠሎ ወደመ)
Injifannoon galuun baranuma!! Via Seenessaa Qeerroo

HAAMARIYANNUU?

ABBAAN QABSOO EENYU? QABSOON OROMOO GARAMITTI DEEMAA JIRA?.
–
Yeroo ammaa kana waan waldhahaa keessa waan jirru fakkaata. Gatii/aarsaa Oromoon kaffalaa jiru kun qoosaatti akka hinbanneef maaltu ta’aa jira. Mee dura Abbaa Qabsoo’ kan jedhu kanarrattan yaada fedhe.
Abbaan Qabsoo Oromoo finiinaa jiru kanaa:
1. Qeerroo Oromoo biyyaa diina dura dhaabatee aarsaa hadhaa’aa kaffalaa jiru kanaa?
2. Diyaaspooraa biyya alaa kanaa dhaaba garaagaratti qoodame kana qabatee miidiyaadhaan as ba’ee nutti dubbataa jiru kana?
3. Aktivistoota Oromoo miidiyaalee hawaasaatiin dhimma qabsoo Oromoorratti nama du’eefi madaa’ee suuraasaafi maqaasaa gabaasaa oolu kanadhaa?
4. Dhaaba karaa nagaanan bilisummaa fida jedhee biyya Oromiyaa keessa socho’aa jiru kanaadhaa?
5. Dhaaba humna qawweenan biyya sana bilisoomsa jechuun hidhannootti amanee bosonaafi Oromiyaa keessa riphee sosocho’udhaa?
6……isin itti daddabalaa……?
Akka amma ilaalaa jirrutti qabsoon Oromoo adeemsa walxaxaa keessa waan seene fakkaata. Bilisoomneerra; bilisoomaa jirra jechuun uummata gowwoomsuufi hawwii abjuutiin saba oofuun kun qabsoo furmaata dhumaa fidaa jiru natti hinfakkaanne. Oromoon kan dheebotaa jiru kan biraa, rakkoo jabduu uummanni Oromoo keessa jiru kan biraa, kan nuti ala kanaa dubbataa jirru kan biraa…..tarsiimoon wayyaanee guutummaatti fonqolchee gatus kan Oromoon lafaa qabu ifa miti. Midiyaan bilisaa kun waanuma xiqqoo hojjetamte akka waan guddaa guddaan raawwatametti dhiheessuunsaa saba gowwoomsaa jira natti fakkaata. Wayyaaneen miillashee nujalaallee achi hinbutanne; waraanni, qabeenyi, qawween, meeshaan waraanaa qilleensarraafi lafarraa harkashee jira. Mee Oromoon maal of harkaa qaba?…Carraan Oromoo isheen bara 2016-2017 kun dabartee jennaan waggaa 100’ttu akka deebitee nutti hindeebine beeka. Yaa uummata bal’aa nana ati geggeessaa dhabdee jirta. Dhaabni sin ooggana jedhee lafa dhiitus naannoof amantiin walhiree dantaa mataasaa ooffataa jira. Dhiigni ilmaankeeti lafatti sijalaa akka hinbanneef atattamaan ka’i!!!….. Via Beekan Gulummaa Irranaa

By Rundassa Asheetee Hundee

Ginchi town, the epicentre of #OromoProtests, started November 12, 2015

Everything around the TPLF power started shifting in 2014 and it continues with an accelerated pace thanks to the inevitable revolution that started in the Jibaat & Maccaa county of Gincii town. This revolution has influenced the entire Oromo attitude and reduced the Amharas discomfort about the Oromo people. Also the recent events in the Amhara region have, understandably so, contributed to the demise of the TPLF in a dramatic way, there is no doubt this tremendous change would have been impossible without the thousands of Oromo youth who lost their lives while fighting the Tigre colonial rule, or while trying to cross endless ocean and the Arabian dessert. One way or the other, the Tigrean colonial rule has ended even if these frog looking TPLF killers are still lingering around 4 kilo.

Another version change that every Oromo here in diaspora embraced and run around with is the acceptance of UNITED Ethiopia for which they are rushing around to form some sort of organization so that they could represent that organization and share power in the dreamed transitional government of UNITED Ethiopia. These groups have already started to make proper preparation; meeting with the Amharas, rub shoulders with well known Habasha elites, give commentaries on TV and face book networks etc.

While this is going on here in diaspora, the TPLF murderers who were trashed by the mass revolt are investing their time and energy to accomplish the following.

1. Try to create rift between the Oromians and the Somalis who had been killing the Oromo people in south and easter part of Oromia

2. Prepare the Tigreans for the worst by preaching about Rwanda and Germany like genocide

3. Encourage university teachers and independent journalists to criticize the TPLF so that the mass would believe that the TPLF is democratic government worthy to keep

4. Assist the Somali groups with ideas, with fund and with guns so that the Oromo unity strengthened by the protest would gradually deteriorate

5. Inspire division among the Oromians by inter injecting name calling by pretending as the supporters certain group or men such as Junadin Saddo

6. Accept the idea similar to what Tasgayee Araarsaa talks about and writes regarding forgiveness and understanding of COMMON mistakes. By doing so, stay in power and prepare for a change with no consequences for the thousands they have killed and for the hundreds of thousands they jailed and still torture in harsh desserts and jungles.

Now the question that the proponents of UNITED Ethiopia have to answer is;

A) Is it possible to form a democratic state with people who see their ideas as divine that should not change? For example, the Amharas think that their flag, their language and their culture are divine. Hence, they will not change. Plus they are entitled to share others people’s lands but their’s remain to be their’s if we want to live with them in harmony. Further more, this divine thinking requires us to free our minds from our Oromo feelings and become true Ethiopians by accepting their divine believes. To become worthy of this idea that they think is “perfect”, one has to appear on the conferences and meetings they organize and speak in Amharic.

B) Was the “Change and Progress” that the founders of the Oromo Liberation proponents envisioned back in the days is just the transitional government that some diaspora Oromos are excited to sustain? In other words, can conversion from free Oromia to UNITED Ethiopia be considered as change? Is it possible to live with complete harmony with the Habashas who never accept change about the divinity of their Ethiopia?

Now, lets assume that old united Ethiopia is restored and every power hungry Oromo is given certain position in the transitional government. But was this the future that the pro free Oromia proponents envisioned? A redemption from being an Oromo to become an Ethiopian is what we were crying for all along? Is this really the journey all those who were killed and tortured wanted to take or our anger against the Tigre rulers changed us to the degree of forgetting what we’ve worked for for 25 years or more.

Well, we become free as we take, knowingly, full responsibility for our own future and as we stop blaming the actions of those who take advantage of us. For me, the liberation movement that is going on now for two years happened because of those who fought for our freedom without any hesitation: it is the consequence of their bravery and it is because of their determination to restore the knowledge of the long-lost and nearly forgotten truth about the Oromo, US!: the knowledge about who we are, where we need to go in the future, what the meaning of being an Oromo, why we experienced so much misery and injustice.

What then does it mean to be free? Freedom means to assume responsibilities as a human being. We have learned that everything we do, and even say or think, has consequences. We have said that we were victims of the Ethiopian empire and wanted to restore everything we’ve lost. It is also true that our people live under so much misery, pain, suffering, and even starvation today. When many of us here in diaspora said that freeing ourselves from the Tigre colonial rule is impossible, young kids loosened the false bondages of slavery and now such narrow thinking born out of the tragedies of inferiority have disappeared. If we understand the smallness of the TPLF and start seeing ourselves unbroken brave men and women, our little enemy will gladly submit to our vast power in no time. But we just have to understand that there is a big difference between mere desire and conviction. It seems to me that, many of us have a desire for which we don’t want to work towards achieving it.

One thing, of course, we know: having “freedom to” means that we have the potential of making wrong choices. Wrong choices have their merciless consequences, and when they are not stopped and corrected they lead us into misery and pain. Wrong choices, if not corrected, will lead us to the ultimate possible disaster. I think that is where the pro transitional government formation groups are heading to.

KalkidanYibeltal interviewed Gebru on the current Ethiopian political affairs. 

Gebru Asrat

(Addis Standard) — Born in Mekelle, the Capital of the Tigray regional state in the north, Gebru Asrat became one of the early members of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), Ethiopia’s all too powerful member of the governing coalition, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). But Gebru left EPRDF in early 2000 following a major split within TPLF in the wake of the 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Prior to that Gebru served as the president of the Tigray Regional State from 1991 – 2001 and was one of the top executive members of the TPLF’s politburo as well as the executive member of EPRDF. After leaving EPRDF, Gebru established the opposition Arena Tigray and became its chairman in 2007. Today Arena Tigray is one of the member parties of the larger opposition block, MEDREK.  In 2014, Gebru has published an acclaimed book: “LualawinetEna Democracy Be Ethiopia” (Sovereignty and Democracy in Ethiopia).  Addis Standard’s

Addis Standard – In your 2014 book “Democracy and Sovereignty in Ethiopia” you argued that TPLF’s culture of secrecy had helped its eventual triumph in overthrowing the militarist Derg and most of the party’s followers were indoctrinated with the propaganda of Stalinist determination. What’s the context of that culture, if you will, in light of the current situation in the TPLF-dominated-EPRDF led Ethiopia?

 GebruAsrat – TPLF was initially formed to pursue a political struggle. In order to meet that political goal through military means, it had established an army. This is one of its features. In its early days TPLF was a Marxist Leninist party. An army needs prudence [and] caution; secrets are not needed to be passed to the opposing group or to the enemy. But there is also fierce centralism which comes from the Marxist Leninist ideology.

These two factors [contributed to TPLF’s culture of secrecy] and helped it for the success of the armed struggle. But later on, after the armed struggle came to an end [with victory] TPLF denounced the Marxist Leninist ideology, and its militarist approach was seemingly replaced by a political program. But what TPLF did was to remove the flesh from its Stalinism structure, not the bone and the skeleton.  It kept the skeleton so that it would help it to rule the people of Ethiopia. It did so by using the fundamental principles of centralism; there is the rule of one party, which now they call the dominant party under the guise of revolution ary democracy.  The party kept its culture of secrecy and its centralism principle because they are convenient to rule [with an iron first].All the talks about democracy, justice, equality and the rule of law were eventually abandoned. Although it somehow shifted the gear to Capitalism during the early days of its rule the transition was not clear either. The party didn’t completely abandon the old Marxist Leninist ways; it selected what it needed to rule, to maintain its power and sustained them. Transparency was lost and a highly centralized one party dominated system was established. This secretive nature of the dominant TPLF and its refusal to be open to the public has impacted the democratization process of the country. More than that the features it has brought from the Marxist Leninist ideology like centralism, the concept of a dominant party and revolutionary democracy has eventually hampered the road to democracy and gave way to our reality today in which one party does whatever it wants.

 AS – There are people who argue that TPLF betrayed its initial noble goals, which were its foundations, after it assumed power. But judging from what you just said above (its culture of secrecy and its loyalty to an out-of-date ideology) one could say that the formation of TPLF was essentially flawed from the very beginning. And it seems that the problems we are witnessing today are the manifestations of those flaws. Am I correct?

GA – We have to clarify this in two ways: there are those who argue that TPLF’s noble goals could have only been attained through [the guiding principles of] Marxist Leninist ideology. I was one of those who believed in this. I used to fully believe that other ways of democratization were wrong; that it would not bring equality, liberty and justice. It was a mixture of belief, philosophy and ideology. So people who saw [the party’s last minute conversion to capitalism] felt they were betrayed. Many of the old guard (the old cadres), were carved in this way, so they clearly felt betrayed. On the other hand there were those even in that time who asked [if TPLF] shouldn’t have to be a democratic organization in which a marketplace of ideas were entertained. People who saw things from this perspective felt like the Marxist Leninist ideology, in its essence, could not have brought democracy. These were people who felt betrayed from the very beginning. At the end both of them have lost. There is no democracy; and there was no Marxist Leninist as it was envisioned in the beginning. Those ardent Marxist Leninist ideology supporters were betrayed because at the dawn of victory when the rebel soldiers entered into the capital the ideology was not even to be mentioned. And those who yearned for democracy were also betrayed because we ended up having a system of one dominant party rule.

AS – In chapter two of your book you explained the rocky relationship that often existed between TPLF and other armed groups that were operating in the country during the armed struggle. As someone who has been in the inner circles of the TPLF both during the armed struggle and afterwards, how do you characterize this nature of TPLF as a party vis a vis its relationship with the other sister parties within the governing coalition of EPRDF?

 GA – Yes I have written that TPLF often ended its relationships with other armed groups, which did not identify with it, by force and war. That was during the time of the armed struggle. Now, these four parties that make up the EPRDF are sister parties. More than that they say they have the same program and objective. But even in that case, there is something that must be known:  these parties are not unified and it is not clear why. If they do not have a program difference, if they have similar national visions, if they do not have a principle or ideology difference, as they claim, they should have been one national party [or] should have formed a unity. But this didn’t happen because there is this notion that EPRDF can keep the interests of each party, so it stayed this way for 25 years.

As it is known, of the four parties the one with the highest influence and the most veteran is TPLF. The amount of influence TPLF has, or we should rather say had, on other parties is not a minor one. This is not visible during eventless and peaceful times. But when there is a problem, things start to surface. For example in 2000, when EPRDF as a governing coalition was hit by a serious crisis, the value of these parties began to be measured by their loyalties to the late MelesZenawi, or TPLF. The leaders of some of these parties have even found themselves in dangerous positions.  Senior party members who have a sense of independence were kicked out and were replaced by others. This is to say that during the times of peace, the parties appear to be equal. Gradually this led the umbrella party to become what we can call a one man tyranny. As a result every party or member, who is not loyal, has faced difficulties.

But now there appear to be changes following the death of MelesZenawi, which had a very big tactical implication to EPRDF. The late Meles was a leader who managed to control and rule all the parties as well as the army. After his death all the parties within EPRDF, or rather senior leaders within those parties, have nominated him/herself to be the next Meles, showing visible signs of an increasing distance between the four parties.

AS  – In the past intra-party or intra-region conflicts which are common in federal states like Ethiopia were effectively managed by TPLF/EPDRF. This was attributed to the absence of the role of opposition parties in any of the regions. Since EPRDF governs all the regions, it has found it to be easier to manage potential intra-party or intra-region conflicts. But recent regional squabbles, for example between the Amhara and Tigray regions, seem to be on the rise. These are not simply expressions of discontent by the people of the two regions.  They are rather conflicts between the two parties governing the two regions. What is at the bottom of this? These are two parties under the same umbrella. What does this say about the two parties which are seemingly loyal to the principles of the mother party EPRDF?

GA – We can call these parties one and at the same time four. They are one because they have a common program and a national vision. On the other hand they are parties formed to maintain the interests of their individual regional interests. So this problem, even if it was not as accentuated as now, was seen before, especially in border issues. There were problems about border demarcation between Tigray and Amhara in two particular places; one in Wolkait, specifically in the place called Dansha; the second around Agaw, in the area called Abergede. There were conflicts. At the end of the day what are these parties loyal to? Their own regions or the country in general? It is not clear. Even if we see them as members of one party, they are also four different entities. So they give precedence   for their respective regions. This in itself creates conflicts; here it is expressed in the form of border conflict. It might as well be expressed in a different form. In benefits, in budget, for instance.So it can stem from the regional interest each party is trying to pursue. But essentially the Wolkait situation can be resolved by following the dictates of the Constitution. The same with Addis Abeba and Oromia. They can be solved following the Constitution. But the questions raised by the public go beyond that. They are questions of basic rights and liberties. They are questions of justice. They are questions of governorship. But in EPRDF’s Ethiopia whenever there is a problem, there is a tendency to externalize the sources. They point fingers at others. They are even saying that the public movement we are seeing now is the doing of the Eritrean government, the doings of our enemies from abroad. I think it is pure insanity to assume that millions are bought by the enemy; it is insane to assume that the Eritrean government has the power, in our country, to mobilize all these people. This externalization is also visible in other ways; whenever there is a problem in Oromia, the others see it as the fault line of OPDO. Whenever there is a problem in Amhara, the others point their fingers at ANDM and so on. They do not see it as a national problem. So when big problems, like we are witnessing now, occur, they tend to pull each other. We have seen it in 2000. It was triggered by the Eritrean question and how sovereignty was handled. There are problems within one party, let alone a front of four parties that are not unified.

AS – Ethiopia is experiencing frequent protests almost in every corner. With that in mind some prominent veterans say TPLF/EPRDF is at a crossroads and they are calling for a reform from within. What is your take on that? Do you agree that their prescription of reform within the TPLF/EPRDF is what a better Ethiopia needs now?

In my view TPLF was at the crossroads for a long time now. It’s been a long time but now it is very clear. It is failing to even manage the situation in its own backyard. There are demonstrations, for example the one in Embasenet. There is public discontent. There are questions of absence of good governance and democracy, and the presence of rampant corruption. These problems, through time, have penetrated into the party itself. Last year in August and September when the TPLF held its convention, the questions were raised from within the party. Party members were saying that the party was not in the right track. They criticized TPLF for being so weak that it can’t even manage its own region properly let alone impact the wider country. These questions are still alive.  Now the situation is very critical. For an entire year, there have been public gatherings, public meetings by members of civil servants and the society at large. But as [Albert] Einstein said it well it’s insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.  They have tried it for more than twenty years without a change. And now we have reached at a tipping point. This problem cannot be solved in a similar way unless there is a fundamental change in the country. So these people, my older comrades, appear to be concerned by this reality. I agree with the analyses they give about the presence of a critical situation in the country.  I see their initiation to do this as a much needed positive move. However, when we come to solutions they subscribed, I must say that, they have said what I have said personally and as a member of Arena Tigray Party, which is also a member of the larger Medrek. We, as a party, have long put what we saw as the solutions to the problems in Ethiopia on several occasions. Fundamental democratic change is needed, much different from what EPRDF is following right now. If there is no democratization in Ethiopia, the problems will keep on escalating and they will put the country in a very dangerous situation. So I agree with some of what they had to say personally. But there are also suggestions that revolutionary democracy is still right. I disagree with that. It is not right. It hasn’t been right. It never worked. It cannot be a means to cultivate democracy. In fact it chokes it to death. And those commentators are saying that they agree with the principles of the developmental state. This is a scheme to put the entire economy in the hands of the state; to put the land, the budget, the country’s wealth in the hands of the state to oppress the others more easily. So I don’t agree. I do not have any problem with the government putting its hand in the economy. But like the way it is now, when the government controls everything, it becomes wrong. But the main thing is they have seen it that the country is in a critical state. And there are some solutions they suggested, like mass public discussions. But I don’t have the naiveté to believe that EPRDF is capable of reforming itself. I don’t believe that. To be fair, these are not the only solutions they suggested. They also recommended the party to have a dialogue with other opposition parties and to open the political space, which I agree with. If EPRDF reforms itself it might be useful for it. However I, as an opposition, and as someone who is a member of a party representing an alternative way,  I say, as long as democracy is not practiced in its entirety, I don’t see a way out of this quagmire for Ethiopia. There will not be justice. A fundamental change is what is needed; not a mending reform.

AS – But do you believe TPLF/EPRDF is capable of reforming itself? The language of reform has been applied for over 15 years. It’s been that long since the late MelesZenawi himself admitted EPRDF was ‘rotten’ inside out. Can TPLF/EPRDF reform itself or is the fear that if it does it might bring in its own demise takes precedence? Which one do you believe in: is it the unwillingness or the incapacity to reform that’s holding it back?

In my view reform can come in two ways; from the forces within or from the outside public. In TPLF/EPRDF when they talk about reform, it is all about keeping the status quo because on many of the important questions the party falters.  They believe any change must happen over the graves of the party. They say they are ready to debate but they are not open for debate because they are afraid; they work from the assumption that any change on the status quo will be dangerous for them.  They tried it after the split in 2000 and during elections in 2005, but the results became overwhelming. So they used all means to close until they ended up taking a 100 per cent of the parliamentary seats. They have managed to have eight million members in an attempt to control every village. The recent statement by Prime Minister HailemariamDesalegn can be read in this light. For over a year, he has been saying they have problems of all sorts. But recently he resorted to force as a means to relinquish these pubic demands. All he said was they have the military power and they can control the situation forcefully.  He didn’t solicit political legitimacy. He didn’t see democratization as a solution, unless nominally. So far the way TPLF/EPRDF follows is guided by the principle that it controls the army, the police and the intelligence to rule the country with an iron fist. So the pressures witnessed from within are not making TPLF/EPRDF to reform. Now we have to wait and see how the public demands are pressurizing them into having a reform.

AS – Perhaps getting into the bottom of the party’s way of governing the county may help us understand on whether or not applying the language of reform could yield any result. You have, for instance, served as the president of the Tigray Regional state for about ten years. And one of the long standing problems of TPLF/EPRDF is its failure to implement the federal system as stipulated in the constitution. You had a chance to see how exactly that was played out during your presidency. How do you evaluate, for example, the fault lines in the federal-regional nexus? And what’s its contribution to the current crisis?

GA – This is a good question. Constitutionally speaking Ethiopia is a federated country. There are authority levels and limitations between the Federal government and the Regional governments. But the Constitution is not functioning. EPRDF is not practicing the Constitution. The fundamental rights and freedoms stipulated in the constitution are not respected. They are being muzzled. Human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of organization, are to mention few. My opinion is that the government is not operating following the Constitution.  It must be known that EPRDF is a highly centralized party which has and follows its own program outside of the Constitution. There is nothing like revolutionary democracy in the Constitution; it is a liberal constitution. There is no centralism in the Constitution. The Constitution is designed in such a fabulous manner only to appease the public and the wider world. But what is practiced is EPRDF’s party program. The party releases so many regulations and directives and that is what is used to govern the county. Almost all these papers are written to ensure the hegemony of one party. And all the cadres are guided by these papers. The ‘shared-rule’ and ‘self-rule principles of federalism cannot work in a highly centralized party.  Let me make myself an example. [In 2000] the split within TPLF occurred. When the split occurred, I was the President of Tigray Regional government. I was elected by the Tigray people. But I was sacked by the central government.  This means that the people have no right at all. The party ousts, sacks anybody that it wants to. The regional government, the regional entity has no power at all. This didn’t happen only to me. Abate Kisho, the president of the Southern regions was sacked in a similar manner. In Benishangul and Gambella and Somali regional states the leaders are changed frequently by the order from the EPRDF office. This flawed operation of the Federal system is just one example. But it works in all aspects. The justice system suffers from similar fate as is the military. EPRDF’s central hand is stretched in every aspect.

AS – Often time people talk about first 2000 and then 2005 being the turning points or the downward spiral in the country’s democratic experiment. The implications of these assertions are that all was well before 2000. You were the President of a Regional government before the first turning point in 2000. Do you believe that the country was on the right track before that?

GA– There are two things here: on the one hand I was the President of a regional state, on the other I was a member of EPRDF’s central committee as part of TPLF’s Executive Committee. Decisions were always made not by the regional parliament but by the party’s Executive committee. After that happened, the decision was taken to the public. In what I mentioned earlier as democratic centralism, it is not possible to refuse this. Even if it was wrong, you can’t refuse it. Of course there are possibilities to convince the committeeby raising arguments but it was up to the committee, not the public. One of the flaws of the system, I believe, is this. The party members are everywhere. They are in the Federal system. They are in the civil service structure. And they decide based on the instructions that they receive from above, from the party. Not according to what the public demand and need in every aspect. It must be known that the cause of public resentment, especially now, is this. What the people need is one thing, the party’s interest is another. There is a gap. When I look back at what was happening in the party then, there were arguments and dialogues but when it comes to the relationship between the Federal government and regional states, the dominance lies within the party. It makes the decisions.

AS – Despite these blatant failure of the ruling party to implement the federalism arrangement many people, including some opposition parties, point their fingers at the ethnic (some call it linguistic) federalism to be the main cause of the problem the country finds itself today. What is your opinion of that? Do you think the federalism arrangement is something that is worth protecting or something to blame for the country’s problems today?

GA – I don’t agree with such accusations. Federalism can be arranged in various ways. Now, what we have here in Ethiopia is an ethnic Federalism arrangement. There can also be a Federal arrangement based on geography. But the main thing is not this; the main thing is whether there is a condition for the pubic to choose these freely. Is there a condition to protect the people’s rights and freedoms? I believe that is the fundamental thing. As long as there is no democracy, there is going to be a problem. I mean, if there is a democratic system, those things can be debated upon. If the people don’t like them, the people can change them. But in the absence of democracy, there can’t even be a debate. So what I say is the source to all problems is lack of democratic practices, rights and freedoms by and for the public. As I said earlier the current federalism is not practiced rightly.  It’s just nominal. Yes, people work in their own languages, they celebrate their cultures. But when it comes to essential decisions, the Federal arrangement is not functioning at all. As long as there is a dominance of one party, federalism, ethnic or geographical, cannot function. I don’t think the root of Ethiopian problems is this arrangement. Problems were there long before the system came in place.  TPLF and OLF and others started armed struggle in the absence of this arrangement. It was the lack of democracy. In fact what I believe is that, the structuring of the current system has lessened ethnic resentments.  What the Ethiopian people, including intellectuals should focus on is the absence or presence of democracy. Rights and freedoms must be respected. Without doing this all the attempts will be futile. What I am saying is that this is not the root cause of all problems the country is facing today. It is the dominance of one party and the lack of basic democratic practices.

AS – When you say the dominance of one party, are you saying EPRDF in general or TPLF’s dominance over EPRDF?

 GA – To make it clear, I don’t think EPRDF is a non-existent entity. Their level of power might be different but OPDO is an existing party. ANDM is an existing party. I don’t think those parties are free from taking responsibilities from whatever is happening in the country. I don’t think they have no influence on what is going on. TPLF used to be the most influential one; I doubt if it is like this now. It’s not clear. When I see what is going on and ask if TPLF has the level of influence it used to have, I have [doubts].  But even if TPLF is the most influential party, the other three cannot be exempted from taking the blame.

 AS – What do you mean when you say TPLF might not have the level of influence it once has?  The protests in Oromia throughout the year and quite recently in Amhara have laid bare not only the level of public discontent, but also the deep seated dissatisfactions by the two parties representing the two regions, the OPDO and ANDM against the all too powerful TPLF. Do you agree with that?

 GA – I find it difficult to answer this question with full certainty. However I tried to explain it earlier. Whenever there is a problem, pointing fingers is very common. In my opinion, for the lack of democracy in the country, for the muzzling of rights and freedoms, and for the rampant corruption all member parties of the EPRDF are blameworthy. They participated in the thievery; they have participated in the oppression so they can’t claim innocence. But as I said earlier pointing fingers is very common. TPLF points its fingers at others. It says it has been betrayed as the recent article on Aigaforum claims. It is nothing more than casting blame on others. And the fact is in a union that was not formed in a democratic way, this is inevitable.  Because whenever individuals or groups become stronger the others develop a sentiment of antipathy. When I see TPLF and others, I don’t think the lower level party members think like the leadership. I don’t think the leadership has enough control, influence, on its own members, like it used to have. It’s weak now. Each party has more than a million members. Those members can’t even control what’s going on in oneKebele, or in one Woreda. So when this happens, instead of saying this happens because of us, because of the roads we follow, they say it’s all about failed implementation, even worse, they say it’s because some betrayed us. It’s an inevitable accusation.

AS – What do you think is the best way to address the country’s not only political and economic but also historical crisis without causing a regrettable outcome? What do you see as prescription for redemption, if you will? 

GA– As I see Ethiopia is a country at the verge of crisis. In this regard I agree with what my previous comrades have written about. The crisis is created. In this reality, there are things not just politicians but also the general public must think about. The first one is that in Ethiopia there is lack of one strong guiding vision. So the main thing, I think, is to have a consensus of vision for the country. When I say this I am not denying the fact that each party has its own vision. But it has become a country without a vision which can gather people around. So in order to salvage the country out of this crisis, we must have more dialogues, more ideas. We need ideas, strong ideas that can gather the public together. But since ideas are not enough, strong institutions are needed. Strong parties are needed.  By this I don’t mean dominant party.I think Ethiopia lacks strong national parties that can gather people of all spectrums together. Some of them incline too much to their region. Some others deny the questions of nations and ethnicity; they claim to be national but their influence doesn’t transcend from one region. So I don’t see alternatives in which strong parties with strong vision can be created. We evaluate EPRDF on many parameters and we understand that the party is finding it difficult to bring forth solutions to the problems the country is facing. Or we are saying the party is in crisis. But we must also ask does the alternative certainly has principles and organizations that can bring forth change? We can’t bring in change using the same ideas. What Ethiopia needs is a change of ideas. Besides that there is yet another question that must be raised. Before now, during the Derg and Imperial regimes, there were problems in the country such as lack of democracy, lack of justice, lack of equality. But the country somehow survived these problems and stayed as one. We should be careful that the current situation isn’t any different.  What I see now dominantly, among the radical opposition and EPRDF alike, is the proliferation of racial or ethnic hatred. We can see that in the state owned and affiliated media there is a proliferation of mixing the ruling party with the people. This will lead us to irrevocable conflicts. There is no weak area in this regard, even if it is small. But sadly EPRDF is using it to its advantage. To put it bluntly, TPLF is doing a lot of mobilization saying to the [Tigray] people that chauvinists are going to invade them and they should gather around it. It is trying to make the [Tigray] people believe that all the critiques it is receiving are critiques not against the party but against the [Tigray] people. This is very dangerous. Similarly there are others who mix up the party and the people and spread rumors that the Tigayans are about to do this or that to this or that people. The opposition finds it easy to collect followers by telling people that what’s happening to them is done to them by Tigrayans. The ruling party is doing the same. They have been doing it for quite a long time actually. Every time an election approaches they tell the people in Tigray that chauvinist Amharas are going to engulf them.  And they tell the Amhara that narrow Oromos are coming to destroy them. And for the Oromo they say the chauvinists are going to sabotage them. This is an age old way of the party. And I believe that it has contributed to what is going on now. If religious leaders in this country were not followers and executers of EPRDF’s program who never slide an inch from the party’s dictates, they would have been important in looking for solutions for the country’s problems. The intellectuals and religious leaders must be part of the solution. So what I see as a strategy to get out of this quagmire is there must be an organization with a strong vision which can be an alternative to the EPRDF and which can gather the people of Ethiopia around this vision.

AS – Owing to this monumental failure to uphold the rule of law, many people say the ruling party in Ethiopia has forced its relationship with the people of Ethiopia to become violent. Your own party Arena Tigray has been pushed left and right to a point where peaceful politicking has become virtually impossible. This is leading many people to say that the idea of armed struggle is now becoming the last resort to deal with EPRDF. As a party which is denied the means to a peaceful struggle, do you see Arena Tigray responding to EPRDF’s dominance in what many say is the only means EPRDF understands: armed struggle?

 GA – Your question is right. EPRDF is pushing the people, especially the youth, to the extreme. It made me recall a Central Committee member we once had. He raised an argument that with EPRDF in power it’s impossible to have a peaceful struggle. But we said we have to use the political space that is available, as narrow as it can be, and conduct a peaceful struggle. Otherwise the other way is going to unleash calamity. He finally moved to Eritrea to join TIMIHT. This man represents a way of thinking among the youth. And the narrower the space gets, the more the youth are pushed to pick up armed struggle because they see what they see; they believe peaceful struggle is just getting to jail. But I don’t believe in that; I believe the current movements [the protests in various parts of the country] are essentially peaceful. I have a belief that it is possible to force the government to change. I also believe that it is possible to execute policy in a peaceful way.

Right after the election [in 2015] we have three of our members killed including a member of our central committee here in Addis Abeba. Another of our member was poisoned to death and we have about twenty members in jail. Incidents like this make peaceful struggle difficult. But paying the prices requires us to continue the peaceful struggle. And the protests we are seeing now, I count them as part and parcels of peaceful struggle. Other than that I don’t see anything but bloodshed from armed struggle.

AS – Where is EPRDF taking Ethiopia to?

 GA – This is a very difficult question. A hard one. In its own book, it is taking the country to development, to wealth, to job creation, to the providing of health services and what have you. That’s what it says. Of course there are some changes in some regards. This is undeniable. Access to health and education is better than what it used to be. There are foreign and domestic investments. But this cannot be a source of legitimacy for a regime. The main thing is: is there democracy? Are the rights and freedoms of people protected? A person who owns a cart feeds the horse that pushes the cart but it doesn’t mean that he gives the horse freedom. And humans are different from horses, from animals. Freedom is the main foundation and element of development. What is being seen right now is that people come out to protest, EPRDF kills. It is trying to govern by the force of arms, but the Ethiopian people are not going to accept that. If things continue this way, we are getting into a very dangerous road. Talking about development while refusing to protect the rights and freedoms of the people, who are the main instruments of development, is both insanity and an embarrassment. Any dictatorial regime can build infrastructure but development, in its essence, is intertwined with the rights and freedoms of the people who benefit from it. Unless EPRDF tries to seek its legitimacy from respecting these rights and freedoms, it is taking the country in a wrong way, to a very dangerous place where there might be carnages.