The Mobilization of Peoples of Ethiopia into Senseless War

 

OLF

It is distressing to see the Ethiopian peoples in general and the Oromo people, in particular, are unwillingly trapped into endless war and conflicts for more than a century. Since the formation of the Ethiopian empire, the country remained the home of internal conflicts. In these vicious circles of conflicts, the majority of Ethiopian peoples were victims of war for more than a century-long. Particularly the Oromia people, which is a peace-loving society, having a deep-rooted tradition of solving any sort of conflicts peacefully, had been the most victimized society under the endless war of the Ethiopian ruling system. The selfish nature of consecutive dictators of the Ethiopian ruling regimes, who mostly come to power by the armed military force, had plunged the Oromia citizens and other Ethiopians into war and conflicts from generation to generation. This Authoritarian type of political system packed with elements of dictatorial regimes had put the Ethiopian peoples into continuous war and conflict and left the country without a shred of civilization and economic development.

The Oromo people had been persistently resisting this conflict-driven ruling system for more than a century. Particularly since the OLF started consolidating the Oromo national struggle for self-determination 50 years ago, huge sacrifices had been made to change the dictatorial and conflict-driven system into democratic governance. In this journey, the Oromia citizens, particularly the Oromo youth, have paid heavy sacrifices to change the empire system into peaceful and democratic governance.

However, the consecutive Ethiopian regimes, particularly the current Prosperity Party have chosen the war line and continued reproducing conflicts after conflicts and trapping the Ethiopian peoples in endless war. OLF denounces this repeated extension of war. In this regard, the OLF seriously denounces the recent call of the Oromia Regional Government (aka Oromia Prosperity Party) to intensify the war against opposition groups. This last-minute call of ‘every able body to fight’ has no contribution to the peace and security of the country but is designed to keep the Prosperity Party officials in power at the expense of human lives. The OLF believes that sending innocent youngsters to the senseless war is committing crimes against this generation. We strongly denounce this generational crime and believe the mobilization of civilians for this dangerous war has no positive outcome but will be an additional loss of people’s lives and destruction of the country’s resources.

We would strongly advise the citizens of Oromia to reject the recent call- to- fight issued by Oromia Regional Government and instead ask the Oromia citizens to focus on building their regional governance and defending their regional territory. In this regard, we call the Oromia citizen to strengthen their regional governance and solidify the structure of the Oromia National Regional State Transitional Government and protect themselves. Every citizen of Oromia must clearly understand that the widespread conflicts orchestrated by the PP ruling group may engulf into Oromia regional state whereby the defenders must be only the Oromia citizens and its armed forces, nobody else. We also call upon the Oromia citizens to maintain and strengthen peaceful co-existence with their neighboring regions and peoples.

The OLF wants to use this opportunity to remind the TPLF and its force TDF to respect the sovereignty of the Oromo People and refrain itself not to entering into Oromia territory militarily. We hope the reason for our reminder will be understood.

We would like to advise the Ethiopian peoples to denounce any call that intensifies conflicts among peoples and instead focus your attention on a peaceful way of reestablishing Federal Republic Governance involving multi-nation societies and working together for peace and stability and organizing free and fair elections that reflect the long aspirations of Ethiopian peoples.

We urge the international communities to step up for seeking genuine and all involving peaceful solutions to multifaceted crises in Ethiopia and pressure all the stakeholders for peace and security and establish a transitional system that paves the way for all-inclusive political dialogue.