The Oromo People Should Not take the OPDO off the hook and Must Stay the Course on their naitonal agenda!

It is deeply troubling to see the OPDO playing the Oromo people to its tune. Let’s be honest. It has stolen the rhetoric of the Oromo people’s cause without any substance to it. Now, OPDO is playing victim within the EPRDF ruling party and expects the Oromo people to comfort it. Some even want to be celebrated as heroes.

But for what? What did the OPDO do for the Oromo people? Which agenda of the Oromo people did they carry out? Forget the agenda, are they even defending the Oromo people they claim to govern from internal and external attacks? The answer is BIG NO!

Let’s look at the Somali Janjaweed Militia invasion and aggression on Oromia over the last six months. Let’s look back for a moment. OPDO was and is the governing party of Oromia while the Somali Janjaweed Militia was created, trained and armed to the teeth and readied for over ten years to invade and attack the Oromo people.

What was OPDO doing over the last ten years while the Somali Region was creating, training and arming standing militia with the tax money that was collected from the Oromo people? OPDO was disarming and impoverishing the Oromo people. Let’s play the fool and assume the OPDO did not expect the invasion from the Somali Janjaweed Militia and there is nothing they could do.

But, what about after the large-scale invasion and aggression by the Somali Janjaweed and its allied militias over the last six months? Let’s lay open this fact. Over the last six months, the Somali Janjaweed Militia invaded five Oromia Zones and fourteen Weradas. It displaced over 600,000 from the invaded five Oromia zones and fourteen Woredas. In addition, the Somali Janjaweed evicted, uprooted and deported about 100,000 Oromos from the Somali Region.

What was OPDO’s response to this humiliating failure to defend the Oromo people from attacks? In pathetic and the most disgraceful measure I have ever seen from any governing party that claim to lead fifty million plus strong population, OPDO is asking the Oromo people to provide humanitarian aid to the displaced, the evicted and the uprooted instead of mobilizing the Oromo people to defend themselves, take back their territory and resettle those displaced. Is OPDO a humanitarian organization? Is it our Oromia Red Cross or Red Crescent? Or is OPDO a governing party with the responsibility to defend Oromia and uphold the rule of law?

The tragedy does not end there. The OPDO, one of the members of the governing EPRDF, is claiming or pretending to claim that it is in power struggle with the TPLF and that it is the TPLF that is organizing the Somali Janjaweed Militia against the Oromo. Let’s assume that is true and that is the case.

Then, what is the OPDO doing in the EPRDF where the TPLF is orchestrating ethnic cleansing against the Oromo people? The OPDO should leave the EPRDF and dismantle that criminal enterprise. The OPDO should tell all its members to resign and leave the EPRDF. After all, what is the OPDO doing in the EPRDF if it is the EPRDF organizing, mobilizing and invading the Oromo people?

Let’s take the matter a bit back. Last year, the EPRDF security forces murdered over 700 Oromo civilians at the Irreechaa 2016 Celebration. As Human Rights Watch confirmed by its recent report, there is no dispute that the EPRDF security forces, of which the OPDO is the member, caused the killings of our people. What did the OPDO do to bring to justice the perpetrators of those crimes? Nothing!

Then, what is the role of the OPDO in the EPRDF? Whose interest is it representing if it is not representing the Oromo people? Unless as Mr. Bekele Gerba asserted the OPDO is representing the interests of the EPRDF in Oromia not the interests of the Oromo people, then EPRDF should be dismantled and all members of the OPDO should leave and abandon this organization. What are they really doing in the front that kills and imprison the Oromo people?

On August 28, 2017, meeting with the Oromo Abbaa Gadaas in the town of Bushoftu President Lemma Megerssa claimed that they pardoned over 17,000 Oromo political prisoners. That is his word: over 17,000 Oromo political prisoners. Remember, they used to claim that there are no Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia!? Again, they said they pardoned over 6,000 more last week. That will put the number of Oromo political prisoners pardoned from Oromia prisons alone to more than 23,000.

Imagine these numbers. The number of Oromo political prisoners just pardoned are bigger than any medium size Oromia cities. Imagine all these people. The livelihood lost. The human cost to the Oromo people. And how could the Oromo people cope with resettling and rehabilitating all these people without the compensation for being unjustly imprisoned? And why did the OPDO imprisoned all these people in the first place? Admittedly as political prisoners, they are all unjustly imprisoned for speaking for the Oromo people. Then how could the OPDO claim to stand for the Oromo people while imprisoning those who speak for the Oromo people?

Let’s push the curtain of the Oromo political prisoners’ saga a bit more! What about the tens of thousands in the so-called federal prisons? ICRC Ethiopia Office sources indicate that there are over 37,000 Oromo political prisoners arrested in connection with the OLF since the early 1990s.

On August 1, 2007, Dr. Nagasso Gidada, the former president of Ethiopia and member of the OPDO, told Jake Grovum of The Minnesota Daily that he knew the existence of over 25,000 such political prisoners. Where are these people now? What happened to these Oromos? Could the OPDO just wash off the blood of these Oromo political prisoners?

Over the last two years alone, according to Human Rights Watch, tens of thousands Oromos were arrested because of the Oromo protests. Add to these thousands of Oromo Federalist Congress leaders and members incarcerated including Dr. Merara Gudina!

When will the OPDO stand for the life of the Oromo people beyond the rhetoric and the deception? OPDO as the coalition member of the EPRDF is directly responsible for the misery and the blood of these Oromos whose only crime is standing up for the rights of the Oromo people.

Then, what is the OPDO doing for the Oromo people today if it does not defend the Oromo people from internal and external attacks and unlawful imprisonment? Will it ever do anything for the Oromo people at all?

One thing is certain, the Oromo people must not take the OPDO off the hook on all and every crime committed against the Oromo people until justice is served and this tentacle of the enemy amongst our people is fully and completely uprooted and dismantled.

In the meantime, the so-called "the new breed OPDO team under the leadership of Lemma Megerssa" must stand up to the task to address the immediate crisis facing the Oromo people:

1. The OPDO and the Oromia National Regional Government must adopt a clear self-defense policy with a clear goal to take back Oromia territories occupied by the Somali Janjaweed Militia and resettle the over 600,000 Oromo civilians evicted and displaced from their ancestral lands by the invading Janjaweed militia. Oromos evicted and displaced from their land inside Oromia must be resettled on their land with clear security guarantee by placing armed Oromia national guards that defend the Oromia territory from the Somali Janjaweed Militia and other similar militias.

2. The Oromia National Regional government and the OPDO must take firm stand and should withdraw all forms of collaboration and relationship including withholding all forms of financial and business relationship with the Somali Region until justice is served by paying just and fair market value compensation for the stolen property and land of all Oromo deportees and evictees as well as by disarming, dismantling and removing from power of the Somali Janjaweed Militia that uprooted and deported about 100,000 Oromo civilians from the Somali Region and displaced over 600,000 Oromo civilians inside Oromia.

3. OPDO and the Oromia National Regional Government must withdraw from the EPRDF until those responsible for training, arming and mobilizing the Somali Janjaweed Militia to invade and attack the Oromo people are brought to justice. OPDO cannot have it both ways. It cannot claim to be for the Oromo people while it is partying with the EPRDF coalition members who kill, uproot and evict the Oromo people from their land including through proxy wars as in the case of the Somali Janjaweed Militia invasion. If the OPDO does not stand up now against the enemy of the Oromo people, when will they stand up? If OPDO will not leave the EPRDF now when will it leave the EPRDF? What else should the enemy do against the Oromo people to warrant the response of the OPDO beyond what they have already done?

4. The OPDO and Oromia National Regional Government must establish an independent commission that will investigate and bring to justice those who were responsible for the killing of over 700 Oromo festival goers at the Irreechaa 2016 Massacre. How on earth does OPDO dare to erect a memorial statute without bringing those responsible for these heinous crimes to justice? OPDO federal appointees including those serving the federal parliament must be instructed to table this agenda at the national level including at the House of Peoples Representatives!

5. The OPDO and the Oromia National Regional Government must release all Oromo political prisoners including those in the federal prisons. How could the Oromo people trust and expect an OPDO to represent the interests of the Oromo people when it cannot even speak up for the release of the Oromo leaders? And what purpose will OPDO’s membership in the EPRDF serve if it does not enable it to stop killing, arresting and dispossessing of the Oromo of their land, their country and their personhood by supposed coalition partners with the OPDO?

6. If OPDO and the Oromia National Regional Government fails to take the above measures, the Oromo people should seriously consider holding

The West Should Not Waste any more time to avert the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Oromia.

The ethnic cleansing and mass killing of Oromo civilians in Somali Region of Ethiopia and elsewhere in Somalia are worsening. The invasion of Eastern and Southern part of Oromia by the expansionist Somali Janjaweed Militia which is locally known as the Somali Liyu Police remains unabated. The Ethiopian federal government, mainly the leading TPLF, who created, funded and armed the Somali Janjaweed Militia continued to turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the plight of the Oromo civilians and the spilling blood of the innocent.

To date, close to 100,000 Oromo civilians are uprooted and deported from the Somali Region leaving their property and wealth behind in the hands of the Somali bandits. Close to 600,000 Oromo civilians are displaced from five zones and fourteen woredas of Oromia National Regional Government as the result of the invasion by the Somali Janjaweed Militia.

No Ethiopia federal government agencies or federal government supported organizations cared to support the displaced and the uprooted Oromo nationals both within Oromia and from the Somali Region. The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), which is under the total control of TPLF gurus, is the direct accessory of the crime that the Somali Janjaweed Militia is committing on the Oromo people.

The international communities based in Addis Ababa, at the very center of Oromia, are no show. No one expects the African Union to say or do anything. But, the silence of the ICRC, the Western Embassies, the Japanese, the United Nations Organizations like ECA and those dealing with refugees and internally displaced are seriously perplexing, to say the least.

International media organizations like the AP, BBC, Reuters, and host of other television stations reps and freelance reporters remained silent. It seems they all decided to look like as if they are kept in the dark while their true intentions were to distance themselves from the Oromo people to secure favor with the TPLF which now have the power to decide as to who will stay or not stay in Addis. That is pathetic. It shows the inhumanity of the West and their surrogates.

The Oromia regional government has literally zero resources at its disposal. It is extremely overstretched, inexperienced, understaffed and is reaching a breaking point. With hostile, malicious, unwilling and uncooperative federal government agencies, and the inability to reach out to the international community for humanitarian assistance by bypassing the federal government, the Oromia Regional government is totally made immobile with their hands tied and their mouth shut. The personal safety threat on the life of some of Oromia regional government authorities by the TPLF agents and the killing of some regional officials by TPLF/Somali Janjaweed Militia agents made the situation worse.

At this point, all the Oromia Regional government authorities were able to do or allowed to do was to appeal to the Oromia public to help more than half a million displaced and uprooted people. The public is responding both from within the country and the diaspora. Yet, it is barely sufficient to meet the overwhelming demand of close to one million displaced, uprooted and killed Oromo civilians. Remember, since the Oromo people have been marginalized and excluded economically, politically and socially in Ethiopia, the Oromo people are one of the poorest society in Ethiopia to shoulder such large number of displaced and uprooted population on its own.

In addition to an attempt to cope with still unfolding humanitarian crisis, the Oromia regional government also deployed poorly trained and poorly armed members of the Oromia Police to protect Oromia civilians from well-armed and well trained and federal government supported Somali Janjaweed militia. The situation is fast getting out of hand. Few miles down the road, the unfolding crisis is likely to create a further societal breakdown.

The United States and its Western partners have made a lot of wrong judgment calls and policy mistakes on Ethiopia and Horn of African issues. But, nothing is comparable with its current silence on the unfolding tragedy in Oromia, and the West’s acquiescence and direct involvement in allowing TPLF to create, train, arm and fund the Somali Liyu Police in the Ogaden. The creation of this militia is equivalent to helping the Sudanese government, just the way Gaddafi did, to create the Janjaweed Militia in the Darfur to commit the Darfur genocide. Or it is not any different than creating the Kurdistan army in Northern Syria and Northern Iraq.

Although the majority of Ethiopians look ambivalent because of lack of political voice and political space in Ethiopia, the territorial integrity of Ethiopia is more uncertain now than ever been in the history of that country. The unfolding civil war and humanitarian tragedy in Eastern and Southern Oromia Region of Ethiopia as the result of the invasion and aggression of the Somali Liyu Police is only the tip of the iceberg of which the West cannot wash away their hands off the continually following blood of the innocent Oromo people.

After making all these wrong judgment calls and wrong policy decisions, wasting time by the western powers and the international community who are aware of the unfolding tragedy in Eastern and Southern Oromia while knowing what to do in similar situations are highly irresponsible and morally inhuman. The West should not waste any more time to avert the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in

List of TPLF Military and Intelligence officers involved in planning and commanding the Somali region Liyu Police mercenary paramilitary!!

List of TPLF Military and Intelligence officers involved in planning and commanding the Somali region Liyu Police mercenary paramilitary!!

1. Col. Gebremedihin Gebre, Shhinelle Zone Coordinator and deputy commander of Somali Special Forces
2 Col. Fiseha, chief of intelligence of somali regional government, specializing particularly in Oromos and Oromia issue, also heads and supervises Fefem zone security
3. Col. Gitet Tesfaye , coordinates and leads disputed borders issue and security
4. Major Desalegn Haddish, Babile front intelligence chief
5 Major Abraha Sisay, heads training of mercenaries and
somali recruits at Bobas training center
6 Brigadier General Hadgu Belay, advisor to the president of Somali region on security and organizational affairs on
security at regional government level
7 Col. Gebretensae, heads and coordinates Somali militias organization Oromo mercenaries working with the TPLF officials
1. Lieutenant Hassan Ali, former member of defense forces of Ethiopia, now commands a Liyu Police unit consisting 120 members at attacking Erer district( wereda)
2. Captain Mohammed Ibrahim, with a unit of 120 members at Babile front( WEREDA)
3 Sergeant Usman Mohammed, Garalencha district
4 Sergeant Jibril Ahmed spies on Oromo militia in Gursum district, to Fafam direction
5 Sergeant Mohamed Usman, Raqe, Meyu Muluke areas military operations
6 Sergeant Fuad Aliyi, Chinaksen district
* The Liyu Police and Somali region militia are organized in 26 regiment each consisting up to 500 personnel.

Around 55,000 Oromo people displaced amid ethnic clashes

More than 55,000 ethnic Oromos have been displaced from Ethiopia’s Somali region after a week of clashes with Somalis in which dozens were killed, the regional government of Ethiopia’s restive Oromia region said on Sunday.

The statement from the Oromia government follows claims by Somali regional officials earlier this week that more than 50 people were killed in an attack against ethnic Somalis in Aweday town.

“More than 55,000 Oromos were displaced from the Somali region after the recent incident and are now sheltered in makeshift camps,” Addisu Arega, Oromia region’s spokesman, said in the statement. “Overall, some 416,807 Oromos have been displaced this year alone in fear of attacks by the Somali region’s Special Police Force.”

Oromia officials say only 18 people were killed and that Oromos have been moving out of Somali towns and villages in fear of reprisals.

Border disputes between the two ethnic groups are common. Though they agreed to reconcile in April, conflict persists in many locations.

On Sunday the presidents of the two regions met in the capital Addis Ababa and said efforts are underway to resettle the displaced.

State-affiliated media reported the two leaders were told by federal authorities that areas facing ethnic conflict will be under the control of the Ethiopian army, and that regional forces would keep away from border locations.

Ethiopia’s Somali region is currently experiencing drought conditions, while Oromia region was a hotbed of massive anti-government protests since November 2015 that claimed the lives of more than 600 people.

Human Rights Watch Urges Saudis Not to Expel Ethiopians

"Nuur, from Oromia, said most immigrants have grave fears of returning home."

Human Rights Watch is urging the Saudi government to halt its plan to expel hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian immigrants who missed a late August deadline to register or face deportation.

Felix Horne, HRW’s senior researcher for the Horn of Africa, says the immigrants have a legitimate concern of being imprisoned or worse if they return to their home country.

“They say that they will be killed, arrested and tortured by the government they fled from," Horne told VOA's Horn of Africa Service. "If you are an individual who is fleeing [a] repression system, scared to return to the country of origin, you would be entitled to international protection,” he says.

An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 Ethiopians currently reside in Saudi Arabia, only a fraction of whom have registered their presence with the government.

The country has long been a destination of Ethiopians fleeing repression at home. The HRW report says that tens of thousands of Ethiopians have arrived there since November 2015, the start of a year of bloody anti-government protests in Ethiopia's Oromia region.

Saudi Arabia last deported large numbers of Ethiopians in 2013. Horne says a number of them were arrested upon their return or soon after. "Some of them reported torture in detention," Horne says.

This year, there has been no large-scale roundup as of yet. Mohamed, an Ethiopian national living in Riyadh, says he thinks the Saudi government is waiting for the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to start the deportations. The pilgrimage ended on Sunday.

"After the deadline [in past years], the police usually come during nightfall, cracking down on the immigrants, and even in the daytime, at the bus stop, at work, and anywhere," he tells VOA.

“They [Saudi officials] say that they have built big prisons to imprison immigrants who fail to register on the deadline. But people prefer staying in Saudi prison instead of getting back home because they ran away for fear of their lives.”

During Saudi’s 2013 expulsions, Human Rights Watch says more than 160,000 Ethiopians were returned. The rights group's report alleged various abuses in the deportation process, including xenophobic attacks, beatings in detention, and horrendous jail conditions.

Human Rights Watch and the immigrants say part of the problem is that Saudi Arabia lacks an official asylum system, leaving the immigrants in legal limbo.

Horne urges the Saudi government to implement asylum procedures in line with international norms.

“We urge for Saudis to put in place some sort of asylum system to understand all those migrants. Which ones should be entitled to international protection? Which ones are at risk of prosecution if they go back to Ethiopia? They should halt deportation until such time these are understood,” Horne says.

The country imposed an August 24 deadline for Ethiopian immigrants to register with the government in order to obtain work permits and "to better facilitate their cases."

Fatimah Baeshen is a director at the Arabia Foundation, a Washington-based think tank focusing on the Arabian peninsula, who told VOA the Saudi government is responsible for upholding the law with respect to illegal immigrants and also ensure its citizens have equal access to the labor market.

"There have been several attempts to rectify the situation: amnesty deadlines, the centers to house those who come forward to take advantage of the amnesty deadlines, etc.," she says.

She says its hard to understand why so few Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia register with the government.

For Nuur, the reason is obvious. "Even people who returned to the country after the Saudi and Ethiopian government facilitated their return are coming back in large numbers, because in Ethiopia they don’t have anything to start their life again as they had left everything behind. Here, they can help themselves, their family, and build the county they fled from as they send huge amount of money home,” he says.

A Total of 1361 people killed in Eastern Ormia by Somali Regional Police in the last 12 years.

Stop killing Oromo People!!!

"A Total of 1361 people killed in Eastern Ormia by Somali Regional Police in the last 12 years."

It has now become a daily news headline since the so-called “Somali-Region Special force/Liyyu Hayil” has waged the Ethiopian version of Janjawiddi’s militia genocide on the Oromo people in Eastern and Southern Oromia. In an interview, the Oromia Media Network (OMN) conducted with Mr. Mahammad Kamal, an Oromo fellow from the Me’esso area of West Herarghe on August 31, 2017, I shockingly learned the unnoticed genocide that has been taking place since 2005 in that part of Oromia. Mahammad has exposed that 1361 innocent Oromos have been ruthlessly killed over the past 12 years by the Somali forces backed by TPLF. According to Mohammed who has been recording the causalities in Me’esso district, the genocide campaign was conducted in 18 villages of the district. Mohammed listed the number of people killed in different villages of the district as follows:

1. 30 Goro Migira village 167

2. Kurfaa Sawwa 103

3. Buri Mullo 97

4. Waltane 89

5. Qiqilfitu 68

6. Faayyo 63

7. Gulufa 61

8. Dannaba Hunde Misoma/Dalacha 86

9. Ittisa Roro 76

10. Deeba 73

11. Walda Jajjaba 59

12. Ananno 64

13. Dirre Qallu 59

14. Buri Arba 71

15. Bordodde Town 91

16. Obensa 55

17. Gumbi 53

18. Mi’esso Town 33

Total 1361 lives.

One can imagine the number of lives lost and the amount of properties looted in various districts of Oromia ever since the Darufirian version of genocide project has been launched by the TPLF in the Oromia zones bordering with the Somali region.

One point to be remembered here is that our Qerro and the Oromo elite should follow suit to record all the atrocities being committed against humanity in that unfortunate empire under this regime. Thanks to technology almost every event is now on record. For instance, TPLF can never deny the mass massacre it carried out at Irrecha 2016. In the same manner, it can never deny the street killings it conducted in Oromia during the Oromo protests.