Religion has no specific country

 Religion has no country; it can go into any country and attract followers. Believers can have separate countries. Nobody can deny them their separate country, identity, culture, language and history in the name of religion. There are many Catholics in Ethiopia but their head the Roman Pope cannot interfere in relations they have with Ethiopian state. Amaaraa can also not dictate how Oromo must live. There is cacophony heard around Amharic speaking Churches. They are Oromo Orthodox Tawahido fathers lead by Bishop Sawiros that were cause for it by asking equality for nations and nationalities in Tawahido Church. All racketing was against Oromummaa. Oromummaa had been their nightmare since they met the Oromo. Even though they came with unbalanced force to break them, they are scared because they have deeper roots in African culture and civilization and are more productive. They also know that Oromo do not start something that they would not finish. Their tolerance worries them. The Church grew under the kings. They were equally responsible with kings for century of human sufferings, enslaving, genocide, and poverty of the Oromo. For Oromo, Amaaraa/Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido is an arm of their enemy. Therefore, until it is cleansed according to rulings of the ecumenical councils 325-787 to work with it amounts to betraying Christian Orthodox principles and to being enemy agents. For this reason, it is duty of all Oromo to help Oromo Orthodox Church to be absolved and be Oromo church. Amharic speakers think all Oromo they baptized will remain their serfs. That is why they took it as strange for religious fathers to ask for equal rights. That is why they were in hurry to shock them by condemn and excommunicate them from their church only to get counter action fast than being shocked. Matters only became positive now. They must elect head to the new Synod and keep on marching with the likes. Amharic speakers are the ones that refused when asked to correct mistakes and live together. Therefore, there is nothing to regret or blamed for. If they have strong faith Sawiros group will never waver. When their maker monarchic system changed the Amharic speaking clergies did not try to change with it. Let alone the earlier ones, the intrigues they caried out against each other to control the Church since 1959, as Monks of Shawaa, Goojjam Gondar, were immense. The king being head of the Church used to balance between dogmas (Qibaat and Tsaggaa) and the regions, or make them clash which ever was advantageous for him. Even though those that succeeded him tried to control it they failed to become its head. The institution lost directions. Changing of power relations gave Tigraaway chance to be its head. When they were engaged in conspiracy to overthrow the Tigraaway, their villainous deeds against the people broke out on the other side. Tigray declared autonomy and Oromo is bidding them farewell. Now, they are not ashamed; they are barking taking cover under the Tigraaway Patriarch. The Tigraaway is being tested; which one will he support the side of truth or them war mongers and who are more his enemies? We shall live and see. If he chose to side them, those that humiliated him yesterday will never be satisfied until they replace him. Present movement exposed decadence of Amaaraa system. That being what it may, whoever might be behind it, it is victory for the Oromo. Therefore, all Oromo must support Oromo Orthodox Christians to get free from humiliation and contempt enslavement befall them and their nation. Using their own language and script (Qubee) for work and learning enriches Oromummaa. Freedom of religion, thought, speech etc. are basic principles of Oromummaa. Therefore, it will be impossible to call oneself free until every Oromo achieves them.

#justice

𝐎𝐋𝐅 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐎𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐨

 𝐎𝐋𝐅 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐎𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐨

In Amhara Regional State, Oromiya Special Zone, Wallo, a coordinated attack by the Amhara Regional Government Security Forces restarted afresh. Oromo People living in Amhara Regional State have repeatedly suffered death, eviction, and torture at the hands of government security forces and the responsible government structure in the area has never taken remedial action.

On January 21 2023, Amhara Regional Government Security forces and the irregular group Fano armed with heavy weapons opened attacks on the Oromo farmers, burnt their houses into ashes, forced many out of their homes, and killed several others. In the last three days, more than 65 innocent civilians were killed by these brutal forces.

On January 23, 2023, 39 civilians whose names were identified were executed. On the same day, Oromos travelling back from Finfinee to their home village Wallo were intercepted around Shaw Robit at a place called Karra Jajjabaa, and after identifying them to be Oromo, sixteen of them were brutally assassinated. OLF condemns this brutal killings fi unarmed civilians.

The war is spreading to the whole district of Jiillee Dhumuga to places such as Wasan Kurkur, Kollash, Allaalaa Dirrichi, Kunde, Waahcuu, Baalchii, Walakko, Goodaa, Atayee and Sanbate. Death, displacement, and property destruction are increasing at an alarming rate.

The OLF calls up on all Oromos in Oromiya and worldwide to stand by and support their kins in Wallo. Oromos in Wallo have been subjected to the most brutal subjugation, killings, destructions and displacement since they were forcefully invaded and made the vassals of the Ethiopian ruling groups. They survived to this day with their tears and blood.

Oromos should support their kins in any form possible. It is time to show your solidarity and readiness to support, in any form possible, your brothers and sisters in Wallo.

Victory to the Masses!

Oromo Liberation Front

January 2023

Finfinnee

2022 was “difficult year”of extreme rights violations in Oromia , we calls for independent prob into atrocities

  In its annual report which reviewed the year 2022, Oromo Legacy Leadership & Advocacy Association (OLLAA), a leading diaspora-based Oromo advocacy group, called the year as “difficult year” compounded by extreme human rights violations in the Oromia region and called the international community, including the African Union to influence the government in Ethiopia to allow independent investigations into atrocities committed not only in 2022, but since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has came to power in 2018.

In its 33 pages annual report “Human of Oromia”, OLLAA emphasized that the UN and other investigatory bodies must be given access to the Oromia region in order to conduct “independent, impartial, thorough, and credible, investigations on allegations of human rights violations” committed throughout Oromia by security forces ostensibly deployed to maintain peace and other actors and other armed actors operating in the region, and “prosecute those individuals found responsible for human rights violation.”

“Greater action must be taken by all stakeholders, including both the Ethiopian government and the international community, to ensure that the rights of Oromo civilians are upheld throughout Ethiopia,” the report said.

Based on media reports, its own researches and evidence gathering, OLLAA documented in its report countless human right violations committed against Oromo civilians, including “extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, inhuman treatment, denial of access to medical care, and the destruction of property”.

Human Rights violations are rife in the past five years that have inflicted devastating harms to war-torn areas including Tigray and Oromia regions. A recent report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) revealedthat civilians are caught in crossfire and subjected to alarming crimes amounting to “grave violation of human rights” due in most part to attacks by armed groups operating in the region, including by armed militia crossing over from the neighboring Amhara regional state; civilians are also increasingly being targeted in militarized clashes and deliberate attacks involving government security forces and armed groups.

OLLAA, which has documented its own report into atrocities and extreme human rights violations in Oromia region urged the international community to pressure the government to “fulfill its obligation to respect and uphold fundamental rights” in line with Universal Declaration of Human Rights principles.

Similarly, in what it referred to as “Ethiopia’s Other Conflict” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that “well before the conflict in northern Ethiopia, there has been widespread impunity for ongoing rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, including in areas already suffering from conflict. Many of these abuses still persist and require urgent international attention.”

OLLAA’s report said “2022 was a difficult year for the Oromo,” and that “the situation throughout Oromia became increasingly volatile, as conflict and the drought led to mass displacement and human rights abuses were perpetrated against Oromo civilians with impunity.”

The report stated that there were credible reports of attacks against Oromo civilians perpetrated by state agents, including members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Amhara regional forces, and the Oromia regional security forces and police, adding “attacks have ranged from acts of physical violence perpetrated against civilians–including extrajudicial executions to the destruction of civilian property”.

“Indiscriminate attacks across Oromia have drastically increased, as multiple drone strikes took place in heavily-populated areas killing several dozen civilians throughout western and central Oromia,” it emphasized, adding “in the attacks that took place on 02 November 2022 in which dozens of people had died and hundreds were injured in Bila, West Wollega zone”.

There were numerous attacks against Oromo civilians mainly by the “Amhara militia group known as Fano” in 2022 within Oromia frequent in “the East Wollega, West Wollega, and Horo Guduru Wollega zones and in the Wollo Oromia Special zone of the Amhara region, it emphasized. The report also underscored the attacks have increased in recent months, leading to mass displacement and the death of civilians that on the 25th and 29th November Fano militias carried out two separate attacks on residents of the Kiremu district, East Wollega zone, which were followed by attacks in the Gida Ayana district.

The entire “population of 19 villages” in Kiremu had been displaced due to the violence, it emphasized, adding “the Oromo civilians were routinely faced arbitrary arrests and detentions in 2022,” the report added. It was also reported the catastrophic attacks in Kiremu district, East Wollega zone of Oromia region, killed dozens of people, including Damtew Kefyalew Gemeda, Kiremu District Court judge which the residents witnessed that the attacks took place on 25 and 29 of November, 2022 blaming the Amhara militants called “Fano” for the attack.

The report also highlighted the systemic nature of human rights abuses perpetrated against Oromo civilians throughout Ethiopia that Oromos have been frequently subjected to violent attacks, by state agents and non-state armed actors.

OLLAA has recommended the urgency of pressuring the Ethiopian government to fulfill its duty to protect and promote the human rights of the Oromo people, and to launch an independent investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses, and to enter into negotiations for a comprehensive ceasefire agreement with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as it has done with the TPLF.

It also called for the establishment of inclusive transitional justice mechanisms, including an inclusive dialogue process that can lay the groundwork for lasting peace and regional stability. 

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞

 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞

OLF

Atrocities that ravaged Oromiya for years and then the North, have now again shifted to the South, Oromiya with its full force. The so-called ‘Coalition Force’, which constitutes Ethiopian National Defense Force, Amhara Regional State Special Force, Federal Police, and Fano, once again started their despicable onslaught on Oromiya in different directions. On the Eastern Oromiya, Fantale and Boset front, heavy fighting between the Oromo Liberation Army and the ‘Coalition Force’ has now counted its fifth day. On the Guji front, the massive operation resulted in heavy fighting. In Western Oromiya, a vast number of the ‘Coalition Forces’ invaded Metekal, crossed the Abay River through Agamsa and continued its onslaught. In North Showa, Central Oromiya, a similar war campaign is going on in Salale and Meta areas.

The most disgraceful face of the unnecessary war is that many innocent civilians are being evicted from their homes. Women, children and the elderly are left in the wilderness—no food, shelter, or medicine for the victim. The coalition force’s cruelty is reaching its maximum. The Ethiopian Government’s blatant and unpopular policy of ‘drying the ocean to catch the fish’ has continued unabated.

The onslaught is so scandalous that the whole enterprise is being led and maneuvered by an external force, namely the Eritrean Defense Forces, which has a track record of heinous brutalities in the North. Other allies are supplying drones and intelligence technologies. The Ethiopian Government bears all the responsibilities for inviting an external force to the sovereign territory they claim they have the mandate to protect but still let the massive human rights violation happen.

There is a credible report that this war is planned to intensify in the coming months. OLF is genuinely concerned that millions of civilians will be affected by this planned offensive. Displacement and civilian casualties in the deliberate use of air attack and heavy weapons in the civilian settlement will hugely affect the population. OLF again call on Regional states in Ethiopia not to send their Special Forces and militias to take part in this war. OLF has credible report of more than 27 civilians killed by Benishangu Regional Special Froce in Begi, Western Oromiya, in the last week only.

We have iterated repeatedly that the only solution to the political stalemate and conflict in Ethiopia and Oromiya is political. Military solution will further drug the poorest country of the world into a disaster that menace not only this generation but leave a lasting scar for the future generation and further disintegration of the country. OLF has not observed a genuine attempt by the Government and its supporters to make a sincere effort for a peaceful resolution with regard to the conflict in Oromiya. Here, OLF also wants to go on record that Prime Minster Abiyi Ahmed (PhD), Lamma Magarsa (Former President of Oromiya) and Berhanu Jula (Field Marshal) and Workineh Gebeyehu (PhD) are responsible for failure to implement the OLF-Ethiopian Government Asmara agreement of August 07, 2018, and for the continuation of this war in Oromiya.

We are very much dismayed by the international community’s persistent indifference while another atrocious human disaster is in the making in Oromiya. The principle of a peaceful approach to conflict does not imply any discriminatory action between people, regions, or groups. All human beings have the right to a peaceful existence, decent life and national and international protection as stipulated in different international conventions and treaties, especially of the UN. The UN and other parties who played a pivotal role in ending the conflict in North Ethiopia, Tigray, have a special responsibility to act the same way in South Ethiopia, Oromiya, when atrocities shift south.

We thus call upon the International Community, including the UN, the US, the Governments of the Republic of Kenya, South Africa, the European Union, and the African Union, to stop the bloodshed and displacement of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly in Oromiya.

Victory to the Masses!

Oromo Liberation Front

January 08, 2023.

Finfinne

Disappearance in police custody and remaining behind bars despite acquittal by the court of law. Oromia

STOP ILLEGAL
DETAINMENT!

 Disappearance in police custody and remaining behind bars despite acquittal by the court of law became a modus operandi in the Oromia regional state.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission revealed in a report in May, illegal detentions were rampant in Oromia region, in police stations, irregular prisons, military training camps, or military bases. The report highlighted the prisoners, especially those who are in the leadership of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) were arrested without due process of law.

“EHRC learned that they [OLF leaders ] are being illegally detained in various places for periods ranging from months to 2 years and some of them have been exposed to physical injuries and health problems due to improper treatment and beatings during the detention process”, the report said.

Arrests based on political activities are reportedly carried out without legal process and court orders. The reports on the arrest of the Vice-chairman of Finfinnee Renaissance Association and OLF political officer Batte Urgessa revealed this. It was no different for our two witnesses as both were arrested without a court order and one of them never got a day in court.

Dibaba was arrested on the evening of 03 May 2021 from his residence in Addis Abeba by the police around 8:30 PM EAT. Dibaba was arrested by security forces composed of Federal Police, Addis Abeba Police and intelligence operatives. Dibaba said, “I and two others were taken to the Burayu Police Station in the Oromia special zone surrounding Finfinnee”.

Our other witness Tola  was arrested on 20 December 2020 from his residence in Kolfe Keranio sub-city in Addis Abeba. Tola described his arrest as scary as Federal Police, Oromia Police, Oromia Special Force and Addis Abeba Police raided his residence early in the morning.

Tola said, “They surrounded my residence around 6:00 AM local time. They broke into my bedroom while I was asleep. I woke up in shock and asked what it was and they started beating me,” adding, “then they searched for what they wanted and took every electronic device they could find.”

According to Tola during the search and arrest, he was threatened at gunpoint and given no explanation as to why the house is raided nor did they present any court document. According to Tola, the only explanation offered to him were in the form of accusations of being a member of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Army and funded by the then-rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), before ending up in Burayu Police station just like Dibaba.

Tola says that his official charge was collaborating with OLF. These charges were brought against him in the Burayu District Court eight days after his arrest in clear violation of his constitutional right to be presented to a court of law within 48 hours of his arrest. The court granted the police 14 days for investigation.

Tola spent 57 days going back and forth between the district court and the police station. “On 22 February 2021 the Burayu District court closed the file and acquitted me on the ground of insufficient evidence. However, the police kept me in custody despite the court’s decision,” said Tola.

Dibaba on the other hand never had a day in court. He recalled, “I was never brought to court. Once, during my detention at the Police Headquarters in Galan, and for the first time after 4 months of my detention there, investigators from the Oromia Police Commission called me to their office and told me that they wanted to take me to court. They told me that I am suspected of declaring the National Transition Government of the Oromia Region, that I had made speeches on Media and that I had incited people against the government. But they didn’t come back to me after that and they didn’t bring me to Court either.”

Tola filed an appeal a month and 15 days after being acquitted. However, the court didn’t review his case stating “the district court could not review his case”. Due to the failure by the courts of law to uphold their decision of acquittal, he was transferred to another prison.

In the EHRC report released last May, the commission said it has witnessed some of the prisoners in the makeshift prisons were released on bail, others their cases were closed and they were released by court order. While some have no charges filed against them at all, this was confirmed by regional prosecutor.

The two witnesses were held in four prisons during their detention period. They were both held at Burayu Police Station, Awash Malkaasa, Galaan Police Station and Galan Sololiya Military Camp. The witnesses say the process of transfer from one prison to another is not legal, it was rather in the form of kidnapping and disappearance as it was the case for OLF leader colonel Gemechu Ayana.

Dibaba was taken to Awash Malkasa with 400 other prisoners on the afternoon of 28 May 2021, after being detained at the Burayu Police Headquarters for about a month, where he shared a room with 168 others.