Oromo-Ethiopia affairs: the toughest job in Minnesota

There are more than 15,000 ethnic Oromo Ethiopians in Minnesota, enjoying a much cherished freedom and democracy in America. It is a democracy which they can only dream & wish their Oromo brothers and sisters back in East Africa would one day experience. And there is no lack of leadership for this large group in Minnesota since a militant organization known as Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has continuously waged heavy guerrilla border campaigns against successive Ethiopian governments which it considers to be the enemy of ethnic Oromos, and utilizes its VOL radio station to reach out to Oromos residing in Ethiopia. During the last two decades, after spending some time in Oromia region of Ethiopia, most people would probably say that economically, linguistically and culturally many things seem to improve for the Oromo people in Ethiopia but certainly not politically. But the real problem recently has been about how the OLF leadership goes about fighting to bring more political & other freedom to its Oromo people in Ethiopia.

Last week, northern Kenya residents were once again attacked by raiders who are claimed to be bandits with links to OLF. Also a Kenyan inquiry on OLF’s role in the Marsabit massacre hasn’t been concluded especially because of the mysterious & tragic death of one of the Kenyan MPs who used to be against OLF’s incursion in that border country – MP Dr Bonaya Godana. What has happened to the Oromo liberation movement during almost the last two decades has been just as mysterious and just as tragic as Dr Godana’s sudden death. It is as mysterious because the liberation front’s formal mission statement & goal has been changing back and forth more often than normal. Some days the organization says its mission is to achieve an independent nation of Oromia after separating from the Ethiopian “empire” while in other days it claims to fight for democracy inside Ethiopia disregarding an independent nation of Oromia ideology. And it has been as tragic because the Liberation Front’s reckless and at times vicious military intrusions have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians over the years that many people are actually beginning to doubt OLF’s commitment to basic human rights and international laws.

Accordingly, the list of tragedies caused by OLF’s attacks throughout East Africa is extensive. For example, in 1998, the Bagalla Massacre carried out by the Oromo Liberation Front’s fierce militia near the border between Kenya and Ethiopia was catastrophic. More than 180 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by the OLF militia in the Wajir district (North eastern Kenya) however some sources claim that the causalities were even higher & approaching 216 civilians killed by Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) – which is a heavily armed wing of OLF. According to University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies Center report, “over 8000 livestock” were also destroyed in addition to the hundreds of human injuries and deaths at the end of the massacre.

Also according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), 154 ethnic Amharas were killed by OLF supporters and militia in another incident in December 1991. This mass murder was known as Arba Guugu Massacre and most of these slaughtered Amhara settlers were labeled by OLF members by the derogatory term “Neftenga.”

Then there is also the Assosa Massacre. This massacre of nearly 300 Amharas in the Benshangul region of Ethiopia has been mostly the work of OLF rebels in the 1990 transition periods. The fact that the causalities were civilians instead of Ethiopian army soldiers, who OLF was fighting against, has marred OLF’s image in that Ethiopian region for many years. Despite these terrorist works of OLF that has killed so many civilians, various pro-OLF Oromos living in Minnesota continue to finance OLF's violent activities.

In addition, most Ethiopians haven’t forgotten the horrifying ordeal of the Bedeno Massacre. According to Human Rights Watch, OLF spokespersons admitted that its members murdered 150 more civilians during the Bedeno massacre where most of the causalities were forced to jump off a cliff by extremist Oromo members of OLF in Ethiopia.

These are only some of the major mass killings committed by OLF in the last few years. There are numerous more assassinations, provocations and small scale killings carried out by the OLF and its OLA armed division. MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (TKB) does comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents – mostly small scale cases. According to TKB’s database, the Oromo Liberation Front has increased its arbitrary attacks since 2000, including assaults on educational institutions, private citizens, hotels and other businesses. In fact TKB indicated that the Oromo Liberation Front has admitted to committing some of the most deadly attacks on civilians and property damages; including admitting the June 24 2002 bombing of the Railway Commission of Dire Dawa, South East Ethiopia.

Ironically, all of these OLF terrorist attacks on hundreds of civilians in the name of an ethnocentric liberation ideology during the last two decades seem to oppose its own mission statement that was supposed to stand for human right values. This has drastically harmed the abilities of OLF members, especially living in Minnesota, to gain any diplomatic benefit in their favor. Not only that, it has been almost impossible for OLF to accuse the Ethiopian government on human rights. While asking for anonymity for his safety, one anti-OLF Oromo American living in Minnesota said “it is hard for OLF or ULFO or actually any armed liberation fronts to lecture others on human rights while they continue to commit every human rights violation there is. People wait until civilian causality to condemn this militia but what about the killing of Oromo national soldiers by OLF militia? There has to be a phase where they adjust their movement and choose peaceful means instead of following the same formula for decades.”

OLF's ongoing fight against Oromos in Ethiopia

Even more aggravating the issue is that the voice of a million or more Oromos of mixed ancestors or mixed Oromos from Oromia, Abyssinia and/or mixed with one of the other 79 Ethiopian ethnic groups, has been almost completely ignored by the OLF movement. Even in some cases, both mixed and full Oromos who didn’t accept OLF’s ideologies have been ignored and at times attacks by the Oromo separatist groups. A Human Rights report published in 1993 has described the prior incidents and events in Ethiopia while OLF was still in the country during the transition periods. The report showed that OLF and other Oromo separatist groups had to “detain” and “torture” Oromos who didn’t accept OLF and its policies. According to the Institute of Security Studies, the Oromo liberation movement has overtime “transformed from a revolution movement into a terrorist movement.”

Also it hasn’t been just ordinary Oromos condemning the OLF militia, condemning their Oromo financers in Minnesota and some pro-OLF Oromo immigrants in Washington D.C. Various Oromo professors and Oromo intellectuals in Ethiopia continue to accuse OLF of harming the peaceful struggle to improve Ethiopia from inside out. For example, the ethnic Oromo former President of Ethiopia, Dr. Negasso Gidada, has been rebuking the violent actions taken by OLF. Particularly during the OLF bombing of hotels in Addis Ababa, Dr. Negasso accused them of carrying out “terrorist activities.” On his thesis paper writen after the 2005 Ethiopian election, Dr. Negasso Gidada wrote about another OLF movement called “Fincila Diddaa Garbumma” (FDG) which can be best translated as “revolt against tyranny.” And he described the need for political reconciliation in Ethiopia in order to solve such political issues and achieve sustainable economic progress & democracy. At the same time, he accused OLF and other armed movements saying, “The spirit of tolerance, compromise and reconciliation is absent in these organizations and their supporters. They promise that democracy would be introduced and protected once they come to power. But they forget that power is very sweet and that this sweet thing, power, which is taken by force, has to be defended by force. Eritrea and Ethiopia have experienced that the high sounding promises of armed organizations about democratization have only been means to come to and stay in power.” Talking about the conduct & philosophy of such liberation movements, Dr. Negasso said “Nationalist ideologies can be dangerous when they are based on racial or ethnic suspicion and hatred. The situation up to now is that the movements have not been able to prove they are free from negative aspect of nationalism.” Another famous Oromo leader who has dedicated his life to advancing Oromo people's rights, Mr. Kuma Demeksa, accused OLF of working with the Eritrean government which sponsors and arms more than 13 other militias to attack Ethiopia and create instability. He called OLF an "anti-Oromo traitor" and accused it of trying to "separating the Oromo people from their Ethiopian brothers and sisters."

In addition, Oromo elders & Oromo gada leaders throughout the regional state of Oromia continue to voice their opposition to OLF. Led by political parties inside Ethiopia, including Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO) and Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), monthly community meetings are held inside Oromia state to address the problems caused by OLF, especially addressing the OLF propaganda transmitted through VOL radio station which has led to many student riots motivated by the OLF propaganda.

These and many other issues have been part of the dilemma facing the Oromo Liberation Front and the umbrella association known as United Liberation Forces of Oromiyaa (ULFO). So far, because of human rights issues and their extreme policies based on ethnic hatred & revenge which has already led to massive violence; the Oromo liberation groups have failed to attract strong foreign support including from America & UK. And principally, almost all of these Oromo liberation militant organizations are based and reside outside Ethiopia; with their main militia being stationed & trained in Eritrea and their financial support coming mostly from Oromos residing in America – particularly in Minnesota.

And the situation in Ethiopia’s Oromia region is not helping pro-OLF Oromo leaders in Minnesota and it is making the job harder for ULFO because economically, linguistically and culturally the Oromo people in Ethiopia continue to improve their living standards. For the first time in more than a century, the Oromo language is now allowed to be used publicly alongside the major languages of Ethiopia – in financial institutions, schools and colleges. Since the Ethiopian economy changed from a socialist system to a pro-capitalist way of development since 2001, things seem to be improving and massive infrastructure improvements have been made with roads, civic institutions & primary school coverage drastically increasing. Various new hospitals & universities have been and are being constructed in the Oromia region with sustainable industry and farming technological improvements. For being one of the poorest countries in the world that was in a total chaos a couple of decades ago, such basic but proportional improvements have been praised by many governments & international institutions including IMF, WB and African Development Indicators (ADI). These domestic changes together with OLF’s own problems continue to make its task harder and has forced OLF to further exploit its main asset, pro-OLF Oromos in America & Europe, for its survival.

Marginalized Oromo Movement embracing extreme propaganda & Al-Qaeda

Since the early 1990’s, according to various analysts, OLF’s defeat inside Ethiopia harmed the movement and forced it to move its bases more southward to Kenya & Somalia. However after various massacres committed by the OLF in northern Kenya and its aggressive support for pro-OLF Borana Kenyans against the rest of north Kenyan ethnic groups; the Kenyan government began arresting & pushing out OLF rebels in order to “ensure members of the Oromo Liberation Front do not operate from Kenya.” According to The Nation, a Kenyan national newspaper, various OLF fighters were arrested in the country and some OLF rebels have been defecting to the Kenyan government’s side.

Despite joint cooperation security campaigns between East African countries to remove the OLF militia; before the war in Somalia this January, OLF maintained key bases in Southern Somalia. According to BBC analyst Patrick Gilkes, Oromo Liberation Front had “training camps in Qorioli and Marka” in Somalia. And before the short war in Southern Somalia, many analysts indicated that OLF started to use “extreme propaganda” including claiming that Ethiopian security forces, who are made up of mostly Oromos themselves, were killing several pro-OLF Oromos in Ethiopia. According to various regional newspapers, OLF manipulated one incident in Tigray region; where one Oromo student was killed, by using this one incident for propaganda saying instead that “thousands of Oromos” are being killed by Ethiopian security forces. Thus using such extreme propaganda during the war in Somalia, using its VOL radio station, OLF started to request Oromos in Ethiopia to revolt against the Ethiopian government. According to Ethiopian news websites, this propaganda was also used to gain more financial support from pro-OLF Oromos in America and to also block Ethiopian support to the Somalia government in flushing out the OLF militia bases in Qorioli, Marka and later in Mogadishu as well as remove Al-Qaeda threat in the country.

According to the US State Department, Al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the US Embassy bombings in East Africa were training in southern Somalia where OLF was also based, and were in control of the radical ICU movement. In general, the call for a revolt by OLF was mostly ignored by most Oromos and a small number of Oromos who obeyed the call for revolution & started a violent riot were arrested. It was then noted that OLF leaders in America blamed the Ethiopian government for the arrests claiming the arrests were human right violations. Accordingly, the OLF leadership and its Oromo sponsors in Minnesota complained to Amnesty International claiming that the Somalia, Ethiopian and Kenyan governments are committing human right violations for cracking down on OLF’s violent militias and for cracking down on Al-Qaeda operatives in Southern Somalia. Late in January, OLF fighters arrested in Kenya and in Somalia confessed on national television that they were trained in Eritrea & sent to Mogadishu and then admitted that the OLF militia fought alongside Al-Qaeda operatives and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia.

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