Oromo Parliamentarians Council (OPC)
Oromo MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa. Interview on Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Egypt
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
May 23, 2010
Dr. Demekssa was forced to leave his country and fight from abroad for freedom, liberation, national independence and secession of Oromia. Dr. Demekssa´s revelations should become a matter of utmost concern for international bodies, governments, statesmen and politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, journalists and Human Rights activists worldwide.
The electoral fraud in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) is a Shame for the Mankind in its entirety. Reaction must be taken in order to hold responsible and accountable the perpetrators of the electoral fraud, who are also charged with the most odious Crime against the Mankind: the diffusion of the racist theory of Ethiopianism, the falsehood of an Ethiopian nation within which they intentionally attempt to exterminate once forever more than 15 different African nations with great past and noble traditions.
Interview with Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa
OFDM Executive Committee Member
Head of the Political and Organizational Dept.
MP for Ethiopian Federal Parliament
Chairman of Oromo Parliamentarians Council
1. Dr. Demekssa, would you acquaint our readers with your family background, in Occupied Oromia?
I was born in Western Oromia, in Manasibu, Kilitu Kara district. I am married and have four children, 2 girls and 2 boys. The Oromos constitute the second largest nation in Africa.
2. Would you offer us an outline of your secondary, graduate and postgraduate studies?
I attended the primary and the preparatory school at my birth place Kilitu kara, Manasibu, and completed the secondary education in the high school in Finfinne 1986. I then enrolled in 1989 at the Friendship University, Moscow, in Russia, and successively obtained a BA, and a MA in Management. I continued my postgraduate studies in the Moscow State University (MSU) in the period 1996 – 2000, and obtained a PhD in Political Science and International Relations.
I presented several papers in different international conferences with focus on conflict resolution in Africa and worldwide; I expanded much on the problems created because of the existence Africa dictatorial governments, the negative effects produced due to the existence of unlawful and artificial colonial boundaries (such as in the cases of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, etc.), the relationship between the artificial boundaries and the present corruption, the total absence of elementarily good governance, as well as on the ongoing war and famine that the global community has been attesting in Africa for decades..
3. Would you give us the major landmarks of your political career?
I became involved in Oromo political activism when I was in the high school, when I was rejected from the class because I used my mother tongue, Afan Oromo. After I enrolled in the university, I used to take part in almost every political activity against the permanently prevailing in Abyssinia injustice and oppression. I opposed the tyrannical practices of all the racist, dictatorial regimes that succeeded to one another (monarchical, third world communist, and pseudo-republican).
My nation has faced unprecedented trouble, cultural and physical genocide, and a hidden form of apartheid because the Abyssinian diplomats misrepresented the country, eliminating every reference to Oromo Kushitic culture, socio-behavioural values, language, religion and historical identity although we constitute the country´s largest group. My conscience led me to the footsteps of the leaders of the Oromo national liberation straggle, and to those of other African leaders, namely Nelsen Mandela of South Africa, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
When I was a student in Russia, the Derg (third world communist) regime deliberately denied to renew my passport in order to prevent me from returning to my country. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Derg regime vanished, but the then much promising and newly risen TPLF regime continued the policy and attitude of those they supposedly rejected and effectively overthrew. I had to continue and complete my PhD with UN support.
In 2001, I returned to Finfinne (the old Oromo capital, which after the Abyssinian invasion was peremptorily and offensively renamed as Addis Ababa – a name that equals cultural genocide), and I decided to work in private universities and avoid the state institutions that all means of oppression of my nation, as well as of other subjugated nations.
I worked along with other activists, and we established the OFDM (Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement); I participated actively in the elaboration of the movement´s political program. We definitely identified our commitment as an effort for the liberation of Oromia.
In 2005, OFDM got officially registered as political party. I was founding member and was appointed in the OFDM Executive Committee. I was in charge of the Political and Organizational Dept. I believe that I contributed to our relative success because with only two months campaign, and despite we were a new political formation, OFDM obtained a reasonably good share of seats in the regional and the national Parliaments, and I was elected deputy. It was not an easy affair because there was extensive fraud and deliberate rigging of the process.
4. What were your subjects of focus as Member of the Parliament?
Our objectives were primarily to oppose the socio-economic, and political exploitation of the Oromo Nation. More specifically, we engaged in the struggle for a presidential system of governance and for a dual official language system, in which Afaan Oromo would obtain status of national language in Abyssinia – this would be the first time since the demolition of the Oromo kingdoms in the late 19th and the early 20th century for our language to have the status of an official language.
We also opposed the monopoly exercised by the TPLF-based government on the army and the police, proposed a wide restructuring of the country, and introduced demands for a whole bunch of reforms in many fields. Furthermore, we demanded the release of 40,000 political prisoners and we struggle to put an end to the overall sufferings of the Oromos in their own land. In addition, we campaigned for Finfinne and Dire Dawa in order to include these two administratively separate cities in the wider Oromia province, which is a matter of utmost importance for our subjugated nation.
5. Why did you decide to move abroad, and under what circumstances you relocated?
I used to speak out against the injustices made throughout the country and denounce the Human Rights abuses carried out throughout subjugated Oromia. This attitude of mine spearheaded several developments and led the totalitarian government of Abyssinia to action taking against me and my party. It soon degenerated to systematic persecution of our party and its members. When it became clear to me that my life was not secured and that my activities would not be further accepted by the Ethiopianist dictator Zenawi, I left my beloved fatherland in order to continue my struggle from abroad. I am currently living in Belgium as a political refugee.
6. Through your own experience, to what extent do Europeans have an accurate and comprehensive understanding / perception of East Africa´s realities and problems?
I think they do have all the information. However, their democratic principles and their commitment to democratic change in Africa are marred by specific, short-term political interests. Today, Oromia is still occupied by the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian invaders thanks to European support; European governments still support the aggressor and the oppressor.
They are still comfortable watching the Oromos struggle to liberate their country from the Abyssinian occupiers who invented the trickery of Ethiopianism in order to prolong their illegal presence in and occupation of Oromia and other subjugated nations. It is totally unacceptable for European diplomats, politicians, statesmen and intellectuals, who strive for freedom, democracy, Human Rights and Civil Rights, not to accept the evidence of more than 40 millions of Oromos struggling for freedom, liberation and national independence.
If the entire political class of the Oromos unites, we will certainly obtain power and impose our rights, making ourselves respectable for fiends and redoubtable for enemies. The Oromo Question evolves around one fundamental issue, namely the freedom and the independence of Oromia, and all the other subjugated nations in the Horn of Africa. The European countries want still to prolong the 19th century Scramble for Africa, and at the time of Derg´s collapse, in 1991, it´s the US and the Europeans who gave power to the then rising Tigray tribe. The Americans and the Europeans consolidated the Tigray-led administration and allowed them to take full control of the country.
Today, not a single Oromo party could accept a compromise with the present administration; and since the Europeans and the Americans fail to express concern and fairness for the Oromo Cause – in proven deeds, not useless and needless words – any discussion with them is mere waste of time.
7. Whom do you hold responsible for this Western misperception and bias?
All stake holders, especially the African dictatorial leaders, are responsible for the lies they diffuse worldwide, hiding the reality of their own countries and the extreme degree they are loathed by their countries´ populations. Equally responsible are the various donors who pump money to bestial gangsters who later use it to further discriminate and oppress their subjugated nations. By blindly offering financial resources to gangsters, the donors merely perpetuate and exacerbate the existing problems throughout Africa, and more particularly in Abyssinia.
Americans and Europeans assist the Amhara – Tigray Abyssinian administration of the racist butcher Males Zenawi, and train his thugs how to suitably and successfully exterminate thousands of Oromos and other oppressed nations. The western slogan about Ethiopian Unity is an Anathema in view of the grave, ceaseless, deliberate and vicious violations of Human Rights in the Hell of Ethiopia.
The theory that the Americans and the Europeans truly worry about the unity of a country is a fake; if they did, they would not accept the split of the former Yugoslavia. The fact that they consciously contributed to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia obliges them to also support Oromia´s secession, and the passionate desire of the Oromos for freedom and national liberation.
If the Americans and the Europeans intend to make fool of us, we also have some means of reaction; we can just ignore them and the Western political allegations as mere waste of time.
8. Two East African countries, Sudan and Abyssinia ("Ethiopia") are currently organizing elections. To what extent do you believe this is a real and genuine democratic process?
It is either a big dream or big lie. The ground-to-earth reality is such that people are not allowed you to live as individual, let alone to hold a free and fair election. You can never expect any kind of democratic attitude, civil behaviour and civilised politics from those dictators. Especially in the case of Ethiopia, it is absolutely beyond imagination.
This is the reason for which the TPLF administration´s long time supporter, promoter and enthusiast, The Carter Center, has secretly turned down the invitation to observe the election process. Furthermore, the existing precedents of TPLF-sponsored elections bear witness to the truth of my words. The elections were marred by rigging and manipulation; thousands of people were imprisoned, torched and killed. The whole Oromo nation is currently terrorised because of the forthcoming elections.
To add one more point out of many, I would say that currently more than half of the proposed opposition candidates are imprisoned on prefabricated grounds. Almost all opposition party offices are closed, and their personal properties is confiscated. You can never get a job without the ruling party membership card. Finally, Meles Zenawi, incumbent prime minister since 1991, has clearly said that no one can unseat him! He has fully and repeatedly proved his despotic and dictatorial identity. He is currently conducting the election-game just to legitimise his governance and to manipulate the funds available in his hidden institutions. So you can easily predict what the result of this election will be.
9. Who are the major beneficiaries of this electoral process?
Meles Zenawi and the small circle of his tribal thugs only. The story of the Tigray land economic development constitutes another evidence of how the racist and rancorous Tigray tribal elites perceive the concept of "national development"; to them, economic development means exploitation of the natural resources of other provinces of the country, Oromia, South, Ogaden Afar, Benishangul, and subsequent investment in the arid and otherwise impoverished Tigray land, Instead of inciting their people to work on specific sustainable development projects, the rob others and bring the stolen wealth in Tigray land under the form of "investment in Ethiopia"! This is the way they obtain the support of the small tribal basis and the ensuing political benefits at the federal level.
The Tigray-controlled administration will also be the beneficiary of the electoral fraud in the sense that they offer a mask of legitimacy to the totally illegal and irrevocably invalid land grabbing; this policy has been deliberately pursued in order to ensure the vicious rise of the TPLF party business empire at the detriment of all the rest.
As of today, the small Tigray tribe assume full control of the entire country, because the country´s race-based administration placed Tigray ethnics in all the key positions of the apparatus, involving ministries, vice-ministries, embassies, the military, public organizations, industries and enterprises, federal and regional administrative posts, and the banks; as a matter of fact, they have been acting as a typical Mafia group.
Critical aid is granted to this Tigray Mafia by the US in exchange with the so-called cooperation against terrorism; this scheme is also supported by the European countries who accept US anti-terrorism policies with no reservation.
For this reason, I consider the Tigray Mafia, and all their American and European supporters as the enemy of the Oromo nation par excellence. It is a shame for the supposedly democratic countries of Western Europe and North America to tolerate the Tigray Ethiopianist administration´s atrocities and keep silent when it comes to the Oromo Question. If they were truly democratic nations, they would listen to the voice of Abyssinia´s outright majority, and to the cries of the tyrannized Oromo Nation, which is incomparably the larger in the Horn of Africa. However, all sorts of changes happen in this world, and we, Oromos, will one day ignore their calls; I can even tell you that this day is not far.
10. How would you describe the current socio-political trends in the colonial state of Abyssinia?
It is a dictatorial regime, and has implemented a hidden form of apartheid of which the international community is fully unaware. In some cases, the horrible abuse of Human Rights which occurs in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) in the beginning of the 3rd millennium goes beyond the wildest imagination of people worldwide. Certain forms of social oppression, several acts of torture, and a wide range inhuman attitudes encountered in the racist Tigray-controlled state of Abyssinia cannot even be narrated; words do not exist to describe similar situations.
The core and the nature of these persons´ minds are absolutely evil. No human being can possibly accept the paranoia of the abhorrent acts perpetrated by the racist Ethiopianist rulers in the same of a country that cannot exist – except by use of these abhorrent acts.
So devilish, paranoid and bestial they are that they fail to realize that when the existence of genocidal state "Ethiopia" is already totally rejected by the outright majority of the therein enslaved populations, namely the different subjugated nations and ethno-religious groups, they have no chance to make it acceptable by these populations through use of this monstrous oppression. By ignoring the nature of the human beings, the Ethiopianist elites of the God-damned state clearly and plainly demonstrate that they are not humans.
There has never been a spot of land whereby human life was as cheap as it has been in the inhuman, colonial state of Abyssinia which has been falsely renamed as "Ethiopia". The ruling Tigray Mafia feel no restraint in torturing pregnant women, and killing anyone anytime anywhere without facing the slightest consequence; the latest technology in fire arms is used, thanks to the US military aid and the support provided under the masquerade named "antiterrorist agreement" and the related AFRICOM scheme. This situation is due to the neo-colonialism and the neo-apartheid that we currently experience, and it all can change with our own commitment, struggle and decisiveness.
11. Would you describe the colonial state of Abyssinia as racist, and why?
Absolutely! They are indeed racist. For more than a century, an extraordinarily high number of Oromos have lost their lives, families have been dissolved, properties have been confiscated, millions have been imprisoned and tortured only because they happened to be born Oromo. When in Abyssinia you are not born Amhara or Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) or you don´t accept that you belong to the fake, prefabricated and otherwise inexistent "Ethiopian" nation, the Gates of the Hell open for you. This is in fact one of the greatest human tragedies that have ever taken place in the History of Africa.
On the other way, can you imagine of a country whereby 6% of the total population (the Tigray tribe) occupy 90% of the key political, economic, diplomatic, military and academic positions?
Who on Earth can accept that these criminals should be allowed to function as state-controlling gang just out of fear for the security of the region?
In today´s Abyssinia, there are hundreds of Oromos unlawfully sentenced to death, and dozens of thousands of Oromos who have been extra-judicially killed by the racist TPLF regime.
In today´s Abyssinia, there are more than 40000 extra-judicially arrested and imprisoned Oromos, and more than 100000 Oromos who were forced to leave the fatherland and escape to Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, and Yemen whereby they had to struggle to make ends meet without the slightest support form international community.
Every month, Oromos are deported back to Abyssinia where they face death penalty; this is an abhorrent practice that has been condemned by all democratic countries of the world, but still no interest is shown – either by international bodies or democratic governments – for the case of Oromos extradited to Abyssinia by either appalling tyrannies or illegal pseudo-sates, like Somaliland and Puntland. I have sent more than 10 appeal letter to UNHCR head office in Geneva, but the Oromo refugees in those countries are still not safe and their lives are at risk.
As you can easily realize, the Ethiopianist TPLF regime not only is a colonial system based on a racist dogma that helps proliferate apartheid throughout East Africa, but it also represents to focus of Evil in Africa. I therefore find it unacceptable that Western countries and international organizations like the UN, UNHCR, ICC, ICJ are oblivious of the Oromo genocide, the ongoing persecution and atrocities carried out by the Tigray racists that exceed by far the governmental practices of the already punished Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The fact that the international bodies and the hypocritical Western governments demonstrated such unbalanced predisposition, impeaching Saddam Hussein instead of the incommensurably more atrocious Tigray dictator Meles Zenawi, is a shame for the entire mankind. However, similar acts and attitudes only consolidate the Oromos´ conviction to struggle and use all possible means in order to achieve secession, independence and freedom.
12. What socioeconomic progress was made over the past 20 years in Abyssinia?
When the Tigray political movement TPLF came to power, there were few people exposed to famine and lack of food but today ca. 10 million people throughout the country, which means 1 out of 8 inhabitants of the country, are threatened by famine. Women and children are dying out famine, while the Zenawi and his gang spend colossal amounts of money to build Africa´s largest army.
I have however to admit that the TPLF gang deployed an enormous effort to et up a tribal business empire, by stealing the wealth of so many subjugated nations and building Tigray-controlled conglomerates often in cooperation with the notorious M. Ala Mudin (Mohammed Al Amoudi), who starting from an absolutely insignificant base accumulated great riches and became the 43rd richest person in the world. This felon who linked his fate with the Tigray gang embezzled the gold mines and the other natural resources of Occupied Oromia.
One can hardly call this a progress.
The then leader of the TPLF tribal movement became the country´s prime minister, and since 1991, Meles Zenawi and his tribal government have received ca. US $26 billion in development aid from Western donors, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, the European Union, and Britain´s Department for International Development.
Out of this money, the unscrupulous tyrant pocketed ca. US $ 2 billion, and originating from an execrable and miserable background he became the 10th richest world leader. If the IMF, which is the epitome of global corruption, announced that Males Zenawi is a great leader and that under his government the country achieved a 10% annual growth, I wouldn´t be surprised. However, these figures would truly be fake, unrepresentative and nonsensical.
13. How do you evaluate in general the political life in Occupied Oromia?
Oromia is a n immense prison; the Oromo nation in its entirety has been held captive of the tyrannical TPLF prison-administration, being deprived of their natural and legal rights, lands and properties. Such is the oppression, the persecution, and the inhumanity that for the Oromo political prisoners, a life imprisonment sentence or a death penalty are rather viewed as a present. Outside the jails is at times worse than inside; this is political life in Occupied Oromia.
There is no legal platform for the Oromo opposition to organize their activities, and even communication with people is difficult and deliberately perturbed. The Tigray-led racist, Ethiopianist administration is convinced that the best they have to do is to force the Oromo nationalists to exile in the neighbouring countries. This is not however the end of their concern but a transportation of the problems to other territories. Outside the country, the vindictive Tigray secret services and paramilitary never stop pursuing Oromo nationalists in Kenya, Somaliland, Puntland, Djibouti, and even Yemen.
As I already said, there are more than 100000 Oromo refugees in the Horn of Africa; thousands of them have already been deported to Abyssinia whereby they have been exposed to torture and many of them condemned to death, like Jamil Sherif Yasin, Masfin Abebe, and Tesfahun Chameda. Others have been detained incommunicado or condemned to life imprisonment and taken to one of the country´s numerous, unknown secret prison.
Quite indicatively, since the 2005 elections, 15 Oromo Members of Parliament have been exiled. Most of them are today in unknown locations. Despite this unprecedented situation, there has been as of today no reaction from the supposedly democratic countries that sponsor the inhuman dictator Zenawi. Even the International Parliamentarians Unit and the European Parliament have not shown the slightest concern. The international community failed to abide by the international laws, the democratic and the humanitarian principles that they declared, and the concepts of Human Rights for which so hypocritically they have been demanding respect, and thus they remained silent about the severe political persecution of the Oromo Nation.
In striking contradiction with any concept of equity and justice, the American and European administrations, who do not give a damn of the exiled Oromo parliamentarians, are so much worrying about the Eritrean refugees up to the point of fully supporting them in every sense.
This make me conclude that every Oromo political organization must learn from this evident and biased choice of the North American and West European countries – sponsors of the Abyssinian tyranny. Their silence about the Oromos is a clear indication of who can be our friend and ally, and who is our enemy; we have to make our choice, as Oromos, on the basis of the aforementioned evidence.
I therefore recommend to the US and EU delegations, while participating in several conferences, to immediately terminate this attitude toward the Oromo Nation because we may be a tolerant people but we are fully aware of the injustices done to us by generations of colonial leaders originating from Western European and North American countries.
14. Would you briefly express your viewpoint on all major political formations (parties, liberation movements) of the Oromo political life?
All Oromo political parties have contributed to the Oromo national struggle; mainly the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been the organization that generated in the Oromo heart the belief that national liberation can be achieved. Its reputation proved to be wider than that of an average political party, and reached nation-wide appreciation and consideration.
But the Cause that led to the formation of the OLF, and the political mission that the great organization fixed for themselves goes far beyond the personal ambitions of one political leader or an ordinary political party. It is therefore a movement of national liberation, and as such it must function.
Every Oromo household has sacrificed at least one person´s life in this great struggle. The entire nation demonstrated absolute concern, total commitment and wholehearted devotion in supporting the national liberation struggle in every sense. We have learnt, and we are still learning from our mistakes.
All the types of socioeconomic, cultural, ideological, military and political struggle proved to be a true university for all of us, and we all thus clearly mirrored ourselves onto the National Oromo Soul, found our identity and specified the stages of our struggle.
Due to the totalitarian nature of the Abyssinian colonial regime, no one was allowed to teach Oromo history, culture, literature, religion and above all, Identity. Our Life and struggle taught us everything, and proved to be our real instructors.
It would be untrue and unjust to deny the historical fact that all the Oromos have supported the struggle for freedom and national liberation and worked effectively and efficiently in the path leading to Oromia´s National Independence and Self-Independence which will undoubtedly be a dream come true tomorrow.
There have been political parties, leaders and members who preferred to get engaged in the peaceful struggle for Oromia´s progress and ultimate liberation; they viewed this as amore realistic option or path, and in this no one should judge them as imperatively wrong. When it comes to a matter of the utmost significance, there can eventually be more than one option. They must however understand now that the TPLF-led regime is not ready to lose or even share its power peacefully. That´s why I believe that they should rather opt for an effective balance in their programs and view their contribution to the national struggle in more than just one manner.
At this point, I would like to draw the attention of international bodies, democratic governments, intellectuals, activists, mass media and every person concerned with the injustices done in Occupied Oromia that, in the population census undertaken by the dictatorial TPLF administration, the number of the Oromo natives throughout the country has been minimized almost by half.
The real, total number of the Oromo population, according to my own sources, the experts on whom I rely and their special calculations, slightly exceeds 50 million people; and I am referring only to Ethiopia, not Kenya.
There are several reasons for which the TPLF administration altered the census data and hid the correct figures; the fake reality about the subjugated nations that the TPLF administration want to publicize worldwide is only a minor reason.
The census alteration pertains also to the false proportions of Muslims, Christians, and other religions´ followers in Ethiopia that the CIA demands the TPLF administration to provide them with, in order to facilitate the confusion that the US administration has to diffuse in the Congress and the Senate before further pursuing their pro-Ethiopian policies.
Furthermore, the census alteration helps the TPLF administration adjust the federal budget to the false data, and thus allot more subsidies and grants to the Tigray region where they almost all originate from.
For similar situations, a greater consensus is evidently needed. In my interview offered to Eritrea TV 2006, I called all East African liberation fronts and movements to come together, deliberate on all issues that are common to all of us, and make a consensus about our future by forming one umbrella organization – front and widening the scope of our struggle. This would bring us closer to the establishment of an independent Kushitic Oromo state in the Horn of Africa, and along with us, other Kushitic nations would also enjoy freedom and progress in their liberated lands. I think that recently the OLF has engaged in a similar project and I truly I hope we will succeed in this.
15. Many anticipate an electoral fraud and victory for the Tigray-controlled, governmental party; what do you estimate?
The 2010 election already finished before stating. If the main opposition party candidates are killed by TPLF gangsters in the daylight, how can possibly other candidates decide to participate in the election?
I would also ask you this: how can people get the right to vote for the opposition parties?
In the Abyssinian colonial state that is fallaciously named Ethiopia, there are no fair, honest and unbiased police forces. There are no independent and impartial judges. There are no free, unprejudiced, independent and fair-minded journalists and mass media. There is total absence of well-structured, capable and transparent institutions to monitor and criticize the sociopolitical events, denounce wrongdoings, and effectively protect the public interest and the rights of the unprivileged and the needy.
It is well known that race-based, TPLF agents with full support of the state can kill, and have actually killed, several opposition candidates; who could therefore possibly be ready to take the risk and present himself as a candidate of the opposition – or even vote for the opposition candidates?
It may be unknown to the rest of the world, because the world mass media systematically hide the truth and the reality which currently prevails throughout the country, but it is plainly known in Ethiopia that the race-based TPLF cadres have already warned at the local level both, candidates and voters, not to try to vote against the ruling party because this attempt would have grave consequences for them. Loss of land, property, children or one´s own life are some of the threats hinted at by the TPLF cadres.
At this very moment, the leaders and the members of OFDM are being targeted. As an example, I can mention Ms. Obse Abera Dirirsa, from my constituency Manasibu of the Kilitu Kara district, who was elected to the Oromia Parliament in 2005, when I was elected to the Federal Parliament. For the 2010 election, Ms. Dirirsa was nominated as candidate for the Federal Parliament to replace me. However, she was forced to exile by the extremely brutal and very menacing security forces, Similarly, my party secretary, Mr. Bekale Jirata, was also forced to exile because of the incessant harassment and grave persecution that he was met with.
I can narrate to you thousands of cases in order to clearly demonstrate that the TPLF fake elections of May 23, 2010 finished before they take place.
The criminal gangster, who impersonates the prime minister of a member state of the UN, Meles Zenawi, is not ready to lose or even share his absolute power; his words addressed to the outright majority of the country are not highly publicized abroad, but I can certainly translate for you some of his utterances.
Meles Zenawi says: "the group who want the power must go the forest and fight to achieve power".
The parody of elections that will take place in Abyssinia next Sunday constitute pure wastage of money and time; quite unfortunately and quite tragically, they also constituted a terrible loss of human life, How could it be otherwise?
Meles Zenawi was a guerrilla fighter who never struggled for democracy, never spoke of democracy, and never considered the option to rule a country democratically. His fight was due to his personal and tribal thirst for power and money, not for Freedom, Liberation, Democracy and Prosperity – either of the other subjugated nations of Abyssinia or his own. Human Rights, Civil Rights, Democracy, Humanity, and Civilization are merely a joke for Meles Zrnawi.
16. What should be the Oromos´ stance toward Zenawi´s electoral parody? Abstention? Participation? Demonstrations?
This issue depends of course on the cost that can bring forth the fundamental change that we all passionately desire. Abstention, participation or demonstration will not bring that change, election already finished 2009. I personally had the opportunity to take many lessons from my participation in the 2005 election, another fake event and shameful parody. My physical presence in the parliament was the reason for an incredible shock and unexpected landing to down-to-earth reality.
For me, if a parliament is like the Ethiopian Parliament, there is absolutely no need for it to exist, and it is better – for an oppressed nation – to know that officially only an one party parliament and government are acceptable (as it was at the times of the third world communist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam). The reason I say this is that in the Ethiopian Parliament you can´t bring any change or improvement; even worse, you can´t say a single word. The parody of 2010 election in Ethiopia is necessary only in order to ensure that USAID money and support will be granted to the TPLF tyranny over the years ahead.
17. What should be the first concern for the Oromo opposition after the electoral fraud?
All the opposition parties must defend the voice of the Oromo people. In the 2005 election, when the people and the students started protesting against the electoral fraud and took to the streets, most of the leaders did not support the protesters, as it happened in Kenya or Zimbabwe. Worse, the renowned Carter Center that had sent observers announced that the election was fair; similarly, EU governments approved of this falsehood, with the only honourable exception of the European Parliament Deputy, Ms. Ana Gomes, the EU election mission head.
The 2010 election results are already known. What is left is to announce the margin of victory that the ruling party will decide to attribute to themselves in an effort to fully please their local and – mainly – foreign financiers.
As I am in continuous contact with my electoral basis and Oromos from any remote location in Occupied Oromia, I can share with you my data and my understanding of the situation. Throughout Oromia, 99% of the people are ready to give their support to the opposition parties. Similar is the situation in every other annexed territory and land, in Ogaden, in the Afar land, in Benishangul, and in the South. Tyrannized people throughout Abyssinia are also ready to defend their political volition by all means if the oppositions leaders are now ready to stand by their people up to the end.
Even without the support of the international community, the oppressed people of Ethiopia can oppose and turn down any governmental action taken against them. All the tyrannized people and their leaders must therefore be ready for all types of reaction.
18. Do you believe the Oromo opposition can offer a reliable alternative to the subjugated Oromo Nation?
This is our last chance to bring forth an alternative and to produce a fundamental change in the country, to put an end to the present situation and to make the freedom of every nation respected throughout Ethiopia. People throughout the colonial empire, and their leaders must be fully aware that the Ethiopianist gang around Meles Zenawi is not ready to proceed with the democratization of the country. This is so because any step toward democratization would automatically significant loss of power, financial benefits and security for this race-based gang. It is an illusion to imagine that the Tigray Mafia gang may be ready to lose (on annual basis) an income totalling billions of dollars, which is due to illegal monopolies guaranteed only by means of totalitarian power.
As far as the Oromo opposition parties are concerned, at this very moment, the possibilities are certainly limited, but if we all persist and demonstrate total commitment to our goal, we can open the path toward freedom and liberation, and in the process get support from abroad.
19. If not, what should they do in order to gain in terms of credibility and effectiveness?
We must fight; we must engage a frontal battle against TPLF. For all of us, the tyrannized nation of the Oromos, the only solution is to fight for our freedom and oppose all of our enemies. We have human resources, millions of people ready to liberate Oromia, so the gun we will get from our enemies themselves!
The most important point is to stop being fair about anything, to stop being the nation that pays sacrifices, to stop being a nation living under conditions of double slavery.
We are the only to liberate ourselves; a nation cannot be liberated by another nation, except to face another type of slavery. Real freedom is obtained only through total commitment to liberation – and this must be demonstrated by the suffering nation – not others.
I would also like to add that those who live on Earth without freedom will certainly fail to find peace in the Hereafter.
Last year, I was in Atlanta, US, and I had the opportunity to deliberate with many of our leaders and intellectuals; I strongly recommended to them that we all Oromos have to be ready to sacrifice ourselves first, and thus give our youth the best example of how our National Liberation can be achieved. I find this far better than blaming one another for the wasted time that left our Nation without freedom.
Either in Occupied Oromia or abroad, my suggestion was only one, and it has never changed; every Oromo must eliminate all the occupants who are on the holy soil of our fatherland. Every Oromo has the national task to carry out whatever bravery it takes to physically eliminate every illegal occupant of our country.
The only way to liberate Oromia is the participation of the entire Nation in an overwhelming effort to make the physical presence of every Abyssinian occupant of Oromia leave our country or die.
The dynamics of this effort will be thunderous; few will start and soon all the rest will follow in precipitation.
This is the only path to Freedom: if every Oromo decides to eliminate – by any means and without caring for the consequences – one Abyssinian illegal occupant of our fatherland, our freedom and national liberation will be a dream come true. This happened in every country when the liberation struggle reached a culmination and brought forth the most desired result, the National Self-determination.
20. How do you evaluate the role of the Oromo Diaspora in the fight against Oromia´s occupation? Are you happy with it? What else would you suggest in this regard?
Today, the condition in which the Oromo Diaspora is found, and the actions that they undertake are for me more troublesome that the TPLF evildoings. Most of them deem correct to open a website and thence engage in interminable discussions and debates that damage the Oromo struggle and unity.
I have never encountered a similar situation back in Occupied Oromia; there we don´t know and cannot understand this sort of attitude. We are all One in our fight against the Ethiopianist regime of TPLF; there is no difference and there can´t be any division among us. Religion and clan matter not in Oromia. I still remember that back in 2006, Oromos of any faith and denomination, Muslims, Waaqeffataa and Christians prayed together in the same hall, in the same building.
At the time, the Abyssinian TPLF rulers were shocked because of the Oromo unity, and machinated an evil scheme to divide the Oromos as pr religion and clan in order to further exploit Oromia´s natural resources and extend the illegal occupation of our land. I must admit that, although the TPLF machinations failed totally throughout Occupied Oromia, they proved to be quite successful among the Oromo Diaspora. I can interpret this sad phenomenon in a way; as one can easily understand the Oromo Diaspora is constituted out of people who do not suffer anymore in the societies where they have been integrated, mainly in America, Europe, and Australia. Because of the rather relaxed life they enjoy, they fail to remember the situation they had lived in when back in Occupied Oromia, and they do not feel the extent of the Oromos´ suffering and the difficulties of the life in Occupied Oromia. I would however like to close this issue for the time being, and I would rather suggest to discuss this point after we liberate Oromia from our enemy.
I believe it is part of the national duty for the Oromo Diaspora to stop blaming the different Oromo organizations, movements and liberation fronts, as well as their leaders. Every Oromo, from any organization, from any position in a movement, did something positive for our struggle and truly nobody deserves the severe criticism and the extreme deprecation that I have at times noticed – with great sadness. All of them are ready to bring forth the changes that are needed, and the Oromo liberation depends on these changes whereto the Diaspora must contribute as well.
In addition, I believe that the Oromo Diaspora must realize that they have to make sacrifices, and give money, time and even their lives for the Freedom and the Liberation of our country.
It is absolutely unacceptable – and worse, it is totally un-Oromo and anti-Oromo – to see people ready to easily put the blame on many others, but unable to contribute to our national struggle even a tiny amount of money, let´s say US $ 10. This sort of people must stop immediately their tactics, useless and intentional criticism that generate an unnecessary environment helpful only to the enemies of the Oromo Nation. And any person who hasn´t slept even one night in the forest for our struggle for Oromia´s freedom is not entitled to open mouth criticism.
Our community back in Occupied Oromia and the Oromo Diaspora must reorganize and restructure themselves to fully and effectively adapt themselves to the needs of our liberation struggle and get prepared to undertake all it takes to physically eliminate or remove the last Abyssinian invader from the soil of Oromia.
My last suggestion in this regard is a recommendation to those Oromos from the Diaspora to read the articles published by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, and in particular the following, which is posted on our website (http://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/News_Archive/Oromo%20Action%20Plan%20for%20the%20Liberation%20of%20Oromia.htm): "Oromo Action Plan for the Liberation of Oromia and the Destruction of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia)". 1
21. Do you expect developments in the Sudan (South, Darfur, Kordofan, etc.) to affect Abyssinia?
Yes, any change in the Sudan can affect or exercise pressure or influence on Ethiopia; unfortunately, the Sudanese government has failed so far to realize the secret cooperation between the US , EU governments, and the racist Abyssinian tyranny, which poses a major threat for Sudan´s existence, and consists in a real conspiracy for the outright majority of the East African peoples and ethno-religious groups.
More precisely, to give you an example, at the moment, the TPLF regime has been involved in the South Sudan, acting as an agent for the US, and providing training, logistic and political support to groups that want to secede from Khartoum and offer South Sudan´s rich natural resources to Western companies, multinationals and conglomerates. The criminal Tigray Mafia that rules the colonial state of Ethiopia plans to extract some profit in the process.
Despite the fact, the Sudanese government has not reacted as it should in order to protect the Sudan´s national interests. Sudan could effectively and irreversibly outmanoeuvre the US, EU and Ethiopian machination and energetically demolish Ethiopia by offering great support to the OLF.
In fact, the Oromo Nation and the peoples of Sudan share a common Hamitic – Kushitic History, Culture, and above all, socioeconomic and political interests of the utmost importance.
Contrarily, neither the peoples of Sudan nor the Oromos and the other Hamitic – Kushitic or Nilo-Saharan peoples of the Ethiopian colonial tyranny have anything in common with the outcast Abyssinian tribes who – with the help of the colonial France and England – expanded in the late 19th century at the detriment of so many nations and ethno-religious groups.
Quite unfortunately, and despite the existing common need for cooperation and concert between Khartoum and the Oromo political leadership, the government of Sudan has properly speaking sold the Oromo Nation to the enemy of all the African nations in the name of the present, delusional stability and sustainable development that several intruders portrayed to the Khartoum authorities as real, thus deceiving the Sudanese.
Without freedom and liberation of the Oromos and without the emergence of an independent "Kushitic Republic of Oromo Ethiopia", there will never be peace, stability and sustainability in the wider Horn of Africa region. This reality must be made understood to the Western governments that have caused so many troubles to the entire African continent.
22. Do you expect developments in Kenya (collapse of the governmental alliance) to affect Abyssinia?
The government of Kenya is a most corrupted authority; to judge upon its nature, there is not much difference between them; for PNU and ODM, what is at stake is neither constitutional nor political differences, but their respective leaders´ personal financial interests and their greed for money which leads them to corruption.
If you remember, after the last election and the subsequent death of thousands of people, what counted in the agreement for the coalition government were not the real hot issues, namely the people who lost their lives, Kenya´s possible democratization or the equitable socioeconomic development of the country, but about the different ministerial positions and the resources one can control from each of them.
People all over the world imagine Kenya is a peaceful country in East Africa, but there hasn´t been any significant development there because of the corruption. If at a certain moment the ODM decided to leave, this could lead to the breakdown of the coalition government. There would be a major political and constitutional crisis of course, but still Kibaki´s government would continue ruling the country.
Bonaya Adhi Godana (born September 2, 1952, in Dukana, Kenya and murdered April 10, 2006, in an air crash in Marsabit, Kenya) was Kenya´s foreign minister from January 1998 until 2001. From 2002 till his death in 2006, he was the deputy leader of the opposition KANU party. Except him, 13 other influential persons, doctors, generals and MP´s were also killed in that air crash. President Kibaki's Party of National Unity announced that it "would continue ruling as if nothing happened". According to different sources, the air crash was machinated by the Ethiopian and Kenyan security forces in close cooperation in order to eliminate the well educated, smart, and politically highly influential Oromos from the Kenyan government. The cause of the air crash was never really investigated by third parties that would issue an objective and impartial report. In Kenya, the corruption has become an inherent part of the culture starting from the presidential palace and reaching the small shop keepers.
23. Do you expect developments in Somalia (rise of the Shabaab in the South) to affect Abyssinia?
The Somali Shabaab and other groups do not have any relations with the racist and tyrannical Tigray administration of Ethiopia. The Somalis have been without government for ca. 20 years; their struggle to re-establish a national government in Somalia is absolutely rightful because every country and every nation have the right to form their own parliament, government and other institutions. In this case, the US and the Abyssinian dictator Zenawi wanted to put in place a puppet government to serve their interests and catastrophic plans for the entire region. The fake transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia cannot bring any positive result for the brave Somali nation.
24. Do you expect developments in Eritrea (War with Abyssinia or Djibouti) to affect Abyssinia?
For Eritrea, a war with Djibouti is unnecessary; it can trigger regional destabilization and cause great damage for all the countries in the area, not just for one. The Abyssinian dictator Zenawi carried out a provocative propaganda for the dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti. The Eritrean government is not made of fools who want to trigger a war with Djibouti. Sometimes, the conflicts are due to external machinations and countries are pushed to war by the third parties, as it happened in the case of the First Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait. This is an unnecessary development that leads to impasse and disaster. Similar disputes and developments in the Horn of Africa region are promoted by lobbies and establishments that deploy every effort to divert and cancel the rightful struggle of the region tyrannized nations for freedom and national liberation. If unpredicted developments happen, we will be in front of a totally different situation.
25. What are the major issues in today´s Oromia? Economy? Human Rights? Environment? Development?
The Oromian economy is currently fully controlled by Males Zenawi and his adviser Nuwy Gbra Ab and their subservient puppets, the Minster of Finance Ahmed Sufian and the Minister of Industry and Trade Girma Biru. These are all TPLF gang members and have absolutely no idea about the socioeconomic realities that prevail in Occupied Oromia.
The Oromia land-grabbing is today the most preoccupying matter for all the Oromos because sizeable lots of fertile land are being sold for 100 years to Indian, Saudis, Sudanese, Europeans and other businessmen. Oromia´s surface totals more than 350000 km2, but the precipitated rhythm of these illegal and absolutely invalid transactions consists in an unprecedented phenomenon in Eastern Africa. I will give you now some examples.
Bangalore-based Karuturi Global Ltd., which is currently leasing more than 300,000 hectares (765,000 acres) of local land, sold out an area larger than the entire Luxembourg (ca. 2600 km2) for only 15 birr (US $ 1.18) per hectare per year.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, has "bought" and currently "owns" a land lot of 20,000 m2 near the town Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) in Occupied Oromia.
Last year, Ismael Omar Guelleh, the president of Djibouti, "bought" a land lot of 10000 m2 in Bishoftu in order to have a house built there, and more recently he "bought" another 30000 m2 in Bale for agricultural purposes – all in Occupied Oromia.
Furthermore, his woman, Khadra Mohammed, the first lady of Djibouti, "bought" a land lot of 20 hectares in Sebeta (Oromia) in order to set up a flower farm.
The National Bank of Egypt announced that during this year they will buy a land lot of 20000 hectares to invest in agriculture.
It is noteworthy that no less than 240 Saudi companies have applied and got the governmental license for investment in agriculture. Some of these companies have started investing and operating; in their totality, the Saudi investment companies are expected to invest US $2.5 billion in these projects for which a sizeable part of Oromian land has been unlawfully sold to them.
A German company has been working for some time in bio-fuel project that involved an area of ca. 13000 hectares.
Another German entrepreneur has been recently allocated an area of ca. 150000 ha for livestock project.
Notorious for his support to the racist TPLF dictator Meles Zenawi, the Ethio-Saudi entrepreneur Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi Al Amoudi acquired many vast pieces of land in various parts of Occupied Oromia, notably in the periphery of Finfinnee, in the zones Arsi, Gurji (more than half the area) and Bale, and in the West Wellega district of Mansibu.
Last year, in the first months, the TPLF Mafia lords sold unofficially to personal friends and acquaintances areas totalling 607760 hectares – all in Occupied Oromia.
According to recommendations made by specialists and experts, the disproportionate sales of Oromian land at incredibly low fake prices, which occur without involving preconditions and special agreements, can end up in irreparable disasters.
Land deals must be assessed in the light of the often complex overall package they are part of, including commitments on investment, infrastructure development and employment – the "land grab" emphasized by some media is only part of the equation;
Land leases, rather than purchases, are predominant in Africa, and host country governments tend to play a key role in allocating them;
Land fees and other monetary transfers are generally small (for instance, three dollars to $ 12 per hectare per year in Mali and Ethiopia), not least due to the difficulty of setting land prices in absence of well-established formal land markets;
Host country benefits are mainly seen in the form of investor commitments on investment levels, employment creation and infrastructure development –
though the structure of current land deals suggests that these commitments may be difficult to enforce.
More analytically: http://www.inwent.org/ez/articles/155062/index.en.shtml
(an in-depth analysis by Lorenzo Cotula and Sonja Vermeulen)
For all of us, the Oromo Nation who are the undisputed proprietary of all these land lots, as well as of the territory of Occupied Oromia, the aforementioned – and similar, past or future – transactions of the undemocratic, totalitarian TPLF government are illegal and absolutely void. The unlawful foreign and Abyssinian owners will certainly lose their monies in this shameful affair, because the transactions will be cancelled. They cannot deal with a tyrant and illegal tenant of our land.
26. How happy are you with the stance of the Europeans, statesmen, politicians, academia, and intellectuals toward the grave violations of Human Rights in Abyssinia?
Western countries have created fake colonial borders which caused a real political volcano in many African countries across the continent. Until we finally change these colonial borders, the political volcano will continue erupting every now and then, producing genocides, massacres, atrocities and all sorts of calamities.
It is essential to note that the problems between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi have not in fact been created by these two nations, but they are the direct result of the colonization, and the unlawful, immoral and shameful relationship established between the former colonizers and their proxies, today´s fake leaders who are forced to rule tyrannically and within unacceptable and impossible borders that by themselves generate troubles because they represent nothing. Due to the colonialism and its side effects, the Oromo Nation does not have a most deserved position among the UN General Assembly members, but has disappeared, divided among Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
For Western politicians and diplomats, guys like Meles Zenawi, who are ready always to disregard and undermine the interests of diverse subjugated nations and disrespect the interests of the entire African continent, are useful and functional; that´s why they praise them so much. The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change is an example; the shameful, catastrophic and utterly Anti-African positions supported by the Tigray Mafia lord Meles Zenawi fully exposed his corrupted personality.
Even in the 21st century, the Western countries failed to demonstrate a genuine interest in the democratization of African countries that they condemned to undeserved tyrannies in the first place. I have shaped the idea that they must imagine that Democracy, Freedom, National Independence and Progress are ideals and concepts good only for themselves, not the rest. When it comes to Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, the Western governments are interested only generating conflicts, wars and destruction. That is paranoid and inhuman.
27. What could they do in your opinion?
Ethiopia is indeed a land of silence and human rights violations, as I said in a Complaint Statement that I submitted to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Africa Department. The world community has forgotten all our appeals, and today the Oromos are among the voiceless nations at the margin of the international society. I can use the description I made for the HRW to specify what the Western countries could do:
"Meles Zenawi has killed tens of thousands of innocent Oromos and other nations in Ethiopia. Meles is much more brutal than Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Milosevic of Yugoslavia, and Idi Amin Dada of Uganda. The difference is he wants to play a different card at different time to show as if he is Western-friendly. He is the most silent killer ever. While we expect him in the Hague, the support European power´s definitely discourage the struggle for justice and democratic reformation in Africa and else where.
Innocent Oromo individuals are being killed in cold blood and denied the honour to get normal burial, some of the dead are left in the forest for hyenas and wild beasts to feast on them. This is what happened in Ciro town in Western Hararge two years ago, the Gara Suufi massacre.
Oromo students who staged for peace protests against the injustice being committed against their people were beaten severely, denied their graduation certificate, dismissed from school and shot dead in the school compound - for no crime committed until today.
There are more than 40000 Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia, most of them were tortured, shot dead or disabled forever in the same prisons. Oromo intellectuals, business men, farmers and civil servants are detained, tortured and humiliated in a way which can be related to systematic eradication of this big nation.
The most shocking tragedy of this regime is that elected parliamentarians and members of other political parties were subjected to executions and other acts of inhumane treatment. For instance, Mr. Adane was an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament representing the Oromo Peoples Congress Party (OPC). A week after the election of May 2005 a police shot and killed Mr. Adane in Arsi Negele town.
Oromo refugees in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Kenya are under unprecedented suffering after fleeing their land, deported in contrary to international convention, and persecuted for the last 18 years of TPLF regime. In Somalia (Bossaso), 65 Oromos were brutally murdered and more than 100 others were injured in this incident. Among international news outlets, Reuters reported that at least 20 were killed and over 100 were injured. Some other sources have also reported that about 250 homes have been burned. Back in November 06, 2007, 10 Oromo refugees were reported to have been executed in their apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, and killed others are punished by death sentence.
As a way to stay on power, the TPLF regime is putting different ethnic groups against each other almost continuously everywhere in Ethiopia, a land known by tolerance and coexistence for centuries is getting the vice-versa reality. As example, I can mention the Benishangul Gumuz civil war against civil Oromo natives which caused thousands of victims".
These are few examples of the Human Rights violations being committed against the Oromo Nation and ignored by world community. The Western countries can do everything that it takes to put an end to this situation.
Oromo Parliamentarians: 13 MP´s have been forced to exile, but the world community, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), keep silent. The Western countries can stop their silence and act according to the ideals that they have long declared as theirs.
I therefore ask again the World Community to make high pressure on Meles Zenawi and force him to stop these evildoings. I call the World Community to respond to all these tragedies, according their solemnly declared humanitarian and democratic principles.
In parallel, I also call the Oromo Diaspora and all Oromo freedom fighters to underscore that starting by Monday a new face of our struggle for National Liberation must begin and all the Oromo leaders must come to the front of this national struggle. All the Oromos who belong to fronts, movements and parties must be mobilized at all levels for this struggle. Every division must stop now and forever. We need to deploy the best coordinated effort at all levels, political and diplomatic, military and socioeconomic; the struggle for the National Liberation of Oromia must become our only concern, and the action must prevail over theoretical talking. Oromia shall be free!
Note 1
I want to express personally my gratitude to Dr. Demekssa for his recommendation of my article; to me these words have greater value than all the prizes and the awards a scholar can have in this world.
Dr. Muhamamd Shamsaddin Megalommatis