May 15, 2006
Testimony of Hassan Hussein, Foreign Relations head of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), at EU Parliamentary hearing
Honorable Chairperson, Esteemed Lawmakers and Invited Guests:
Thank you for holding these important hearings
My name is Hassan Hussein, head of Foreign Relations with the OLF.
Today I speak not only on behalf of OLF but also ONLF and SLF. To the extent that the yearning for these ideals is universal, I speak for all who yearn for freedom and democracy in Ethiopia.
It is an understatement to say that Ethiopia is at a crossroads. The next year is likely to determine whether we are able, at long last, to overcome the bitter legacy of the past in which small cliques have ruled and the majority suffered and whether Ethiopia becomes a source of regional stability or instability. If Ethiopia descends into chaos, it will be Somalia on steroid.
Over the past year, in consultation with our constituencies inside the country and around the world, we have given much thought to finding ways to resolve the current crisis. After sober analysis and soul searching, we have concluded that dialogue offers the only way to achieve a lasting solution.
Honorable Chairperson and Your Excellencies,
In order to get such a process started, we need the support of the international community. It is for that reason that we welcome this hearing.
The international community has long played a crucial role in Ethiopian politics. Unfortunately, rather than supporting democracy, it has usually chosen to back whichever group happened to be in control of the state.
In 1992, interim elections were held which could have led to the creation of a government that represented all of the diverse groups that live within the political boundaries of the Ethiopian state. Instead, the EPRDF chose to use the tactics of intimidation to prevent other parties--and the OLF, ONLF and SLF in particular--from freely and fairly contesting those elections, making that and all subsequent elections hollow exercises in futility for their respective populations. In the 14 years since, as Human Rights Watch has documented, the government has systematically and often brutally repressed political activity in Oromia, with rampant violation of human rights.
If the international community had taken a strong stand in support of free and fair elections in 1992, it would have given us a reason to remain in the political process and perhaps avert years of mayhem. Instead, however, it implicitly sanctioned the EPRDF’s monopolization of power.
As a result of last May’s elections, the international community now has a new opportunity to support the struggle for freedom and democracy.
Those elections demonstrated that the peoples are unwilling to be ruled as they have been for the last fifteen years. It should now be clear that the present rulers cannot continue to monopolize power without resorting to increasingly draconian measures, instigating more instability.
Fuelled by frustration by the absence of real choices in the elections and lack of political settlement to legitimate political demands, a popular uprising has been underway in Oromia since November. As in apartheid South Africa of the early 1970s, students have been in the forefront. In response, the ruling party has stepped up repression. Many have been killed. As I speak, thousands are being detained without trial. A military confrontation is ongoing in Ogaden. The Sidama face heightened suppression. Repression is fuelling tension all over the country. Unfortunately, these violations are taking place in the countryside - away from the watchful eyes of the media.
Events in Oromia, Somali state and Sidama demonstrate that the people are no longer willing to endure their traditional status as second-class citizens. The experiment in democracy in Ethiopia needs the meaningful participation of historically marginalized groups--who make up the majority population in Ethiopia-- to be successful; else the problem would simply be postponed.
Your Excellencies,
We believe now is an opportune time to launch an all-inclusive process that would afford us all a new beginning. It gives me a great pleasure to inform you that we are currently talking to various parties on how to initiate such a new beginning. Charting this new course requires the participation of all--including the ruling party and the international community.
An extraordinary situation now prevails--demanding extraordinary solutions. We sincerely believe that the only way out of the quagmire is dialogue.
It is my hope that the EU would partner with us in the search for just peace and a genuine transition to freedom and democracy.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Ethiopia: Political culture of deceit and manipulation
Media manipulation and misinformation has become the trade mark of the Ethiopian regime. This is particularly manifested in recent years, by repeated and brazen fabrications of events by Ethiopian diplomats to Kenya in matters related to recurrent violation of the country’s Northern border and terrorizing the pastoral communities inhabiting the area.
In its well known habit of creating confusion and malicious cover-up, it is not uncommon for the Ethiopian regime to blame the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) for the conflicts and cross-border raids from Ethiopia into Kenya when in fact it is a shameless act of its own militia. We condemn any attempt to draw wage between the OLF and the Kenyan Government and people.
For Kenyans who live around the Ethio-Kenya border, it is a common knowledge that over the last fifteen years Ethiopian security forces and militia have constantly violated the Kenyan sovereignty and disrupted the life of its citizens. Mr. Ajebe L. Wolde, the Ethiopian diplomat to Kenya, in his interview with the East African Standard on April 19th, 2006, in the usual attempt to mislead the Kenyan public and cover-up the dirty acts of his government has tried to lay the blame on the OLF for recent cross-border raids on border villages of Dukanaa and El Haadhi in Northern Kenya.
Mr. Wolde, in a blatant lie and misinformation, accused the OLF of entering Kenya donning Ethiopian uniform and riding in military trucks to commit crime against Kenyans. In his muddled up imagination and in total underestimation of the capacity of the Kenyan State and public to see things through, Mr. Wolde attempts to mislead Kenyans by distorting the reality of the violation of the territorial integrity of Kenya by the Ethiopian security forces. It is a baseless allegation, as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) doesn’t possess military trucks and will not don its enemy’s uniform.
The recent act of entering the Kenyan territory, by Ethiopian security forces, pillaging and robbing thousands of livestock and killing innocent civilians is a clear indication that through unwarranted aggressions on almost all of its neighbors the Ethiopian regime is committed to destabilize the region. We fail to understand why anybody should perpetrate such act of cruelty against a population trying to cope with the devastating effect of drought and famine which hit the region and while the Kenyans are still also mourning the loss of several Kenyan leaders, in plane crash, who were on their way to a Peace Conference at Marsabet.
The Ethiopian regime rocked by public upheaval has resorted to desperate actions both inside and outside the country in a bid to stay in power through a sheer force of arms and has intensified the killings, imprisonments and abductions of its citizens including school children. For sure, Ethiopia under a tyrant is bound to continue to violate the rights of its citizens and those of its neighboring states and peoples. It should also be understood that Ethiopia that is not at peace with itself will continue to be a cause for suffering and terror in the region.
This is a tyrannical regime that neither understands nor respects international norms. The present cross-border raid on the villages in Kenya is not an isolated incident. The constant incursions into Kenya should be a warning to the states of the region that the current minority Tigrean dominated Ethiopian regime will continue to violate their sovereignty in order to divert the attention of the international community from its serious internal troubles.
The OLF in the struggle for the Right of Self-Determination of the Oromo people in Ethiopia does not condone any operation targeting civilian population and there could be no motive or expediency whatsoever, for the baseless allegation made by Mr.Wolde.
Department of Foreign Relations
Oromo Liberation Front
P. O. Box 73247
Washington, DC 20056
In its well known habit of creating confusion and malicious cover-up, it is not uncommon for the Ethiopian regime to blame the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) for the conflicts and cross-border raids from Ethiopia into Kenya when in fact it is a shameless act of its own militia. We condemn any attempt to draw wage between the OLF and the Kenyan Government and people.
For Kenyans who live around the Ethio-Kenya border, it is a common knowledge that over the last fifteen years Ethiopian security forces and militia have constantly violated the Kenyan sovereignty and disrupted the life of its citizens. Mr. Ajebe L. Wolde, the Ethiopian diplomat to Kenya, in his interview with the East African Standard on April 19th, 2006, in the usual attempt to mislead the Kenyan public and cover-up the dirty acts of his government has tried to lay the blame on the OLF for recent cross-border raids on border villages of Dukanaa and El Haadhi in Northern Kenya.
Mr. Wolde, in a blatant lie and misinformation, accused the OLF of entering Kenya donning Ethiopian uniform and riding in military trucks to commit crime against Kenyans. In his muddled up imagination and in total underestimation of the capacity of the Kenyan State and public to see things through, Mr. Wolde attempts to mislead Kenyans by distorting the reality of the violation of the territorial integrity of Kenya by the Ethiopian security forces. It is a baseless allegation, as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) doesn’t possess military trucks and will not don its enemy’s uniform.
The recent act of entering the Kenyan territory, by Ethiopian security forces, pillaging and robbing thousands of livestock and killing innocent civilians is a clear indication that through unwarranted aggressions on almost all of its neighbors the Ethiopian regime is committed to destabilize the region. We fail to understand why anybody should perpetrate such act of cruelty against a population trying to cope with the devastating effect of drought and famine which hit the region and while the Kenyans are still also mourning the loss of several Kenyan leaders, in plane crash, who were on their way to a Peace Conference at Marsabet.
The Ethiopian regime rocked by public upheaval has resorted to desperate actions both inside and outside the country in a bid to stay in power through a sheer force of arms and has intensified the killings, imprisonments and abductions of its citizens including school children. For sure, Ethiopia under a tyrant is bound to continue to violate the rights of its citizens and those of its neighboring states and peoples. It should also be understood that Ethiopia that is not at peace with itself will continue to be a cause for suffering and terror in the region.
This is a tyrannical regime that neither understands nor respects international norms. The present cross-border raid on the villages in Kenya is not an isolated incident. The constant incursions into Kenya should be a warning to the states of the region that the current minority Tigrean dominated Ethiopian regime will continue to violate their sovereignty in order to divert the attention of the international community from its serious internal troubles.
The OLF in the struggle for the Right of Self-Determination of the Oromo people in Ethiopia does not condone any operation targeting civilian population and there could be no motive or expediency whatsoever, for the baseless allegation made by Mr.Wolde.
Department of Foreign Relations
Oromo Liberation Front
P. O. Box 73247
Washington, DC 20056
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