Gaafa: 13– 11- 2014
Date:
ADDA BILISUMMAA OROMOO
OROMO LIBERATION FRONT
His Excellency Mr Ban Ki-Moon
United Nations Secretary-General
Office of the Secretary General of United Nations
885 Second Avenue
United Nations Headquarters
Room DHL-1B-154
New York, NY 10017
Fax +1 212-963-4879
Your Excellency
I write on behalf of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to bring to your kind attention the plight
of the Oromo people and to ask you to request the Security Council of the United Nations to treat
the matter as a priority, to condemn the lawless atrocities by the Ethiopian regime, adopt
appropriate actions to bring perpetrators to account, and safeguard the wellbeing of the Oromo
and other peoples in Ethiopia.
In the land of their birth, the Oromo, who constitute the single largest national group in Ethiopia,
are denied the most basic democratic right to organize freely and legally and express their
political opinion. We do not know any country in the world, expect Ethiopia, where 35 million
Oromo people are denied the right to have their own newspapers, to elect their own leaders and
support an organization of their choice. Today, it is a serious crime, even punishable by death, to
support independent Oromo organizations, such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF),
internationally recognized organization, which jointly ruled Ethiopia with the TPLF in 1991/92.
Supporters of the OLF and other independent organizations are harassed, detained for years
without charge and their property confiscated without due process.
Your Excellency, there is no doubt that the OLF enjoys support from the majority of the Oromo
population. The current Ethiopian regime is dominated and controlled by the ruling Tigrayan
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF represents less than seven percent of the
population of Ethiopia. The TPLF, which fears the Oromo numerical voting power in any free
and fair election, has directed multi-faceted attack on the Oromo political organizations, cultural
institutions, educational establishments, the press and the killings of Oromo men and women,
young and old, truly reaching a very dangerous proportion. This has to stop before it is too late.
Today in Ethiopia all independent Oromo organizations are crippled and our people’s legal
newspapers and magazines closed down. Even the Matcha and Tulama Association, a civic
association, which was established in 1963 was closed down, its leaders detained and its property
confiscated. We believe the TPLF dominated Ethiopian government deliberately targets the
Oromo for persecution. This has been well documented by several human rights organizations,
including the Ethiopian Human Rights League, European Parliament, Human Rights Watch/
Africa, and Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, Oromia Support Group and the State
Department Annual Human Rights Report. The very recent 156 page Amnesty International
October 2014 report clearly demonstrates that the TPLF dominated Ethiopian regime
deliberately targets the Oromo population for persecution. This attack on the Oromo must be
تاریخ Lakk.: 042/xal-abo/ رقم 2014
No.:
جبھۃ تحریر اورومو
P. O. Box 6973 Asmara, Eritrea Tel 2911 153886 , E-mail: amartii1952@gmail.com, www.oromoliberationfront.org
stopped before it is too late.
The Amnesty International, AI, report contains graphic accounts of harassment,
intimidation, arbitrary and indefinite detention in formal and secret detention centres,
extra-judicial killings and disappearances of innocent civilians on mere suspicion of
individuals for sympathies with the Oromo Liberation Front. Collective punishment
sometimes punishing entire neighbourhoods and penalising a close relative in place of a
suspect, and mutilation and rape in detention are also common place in Oromia.
Peaceful demonstrators are wantonly beaten, tortured and mutilated, and many suspects
indefinitely disappeared. The AI report is thoroughly detailed and it is based on
information gathered in real time from real victims past and present, and from close
family and friends of victims and from observers on the ground. The report provides
specific cases that constitute crimes against humanity and violation of international law
against arbitrary and cruel punishment. Whilst the report brings forth the regime's
arbitrary and lawless behaviour, it must be said that it only scratches the surface, as the
reality is even much worse.
There is no question that details unearthed by AI constitute extra-judicial killings and
violations of international law. If disputed, the facts can be verified but the regime has to
agree and guarantee another neutral investigation. The fact remains that the Oromo
people and indeed all the different population groups in Ethiopia are undergoing a
harrowing experience under abject misrule with no respite. What is happening in
Ethiopia that AI report brought forth is a denial of basic freedoms including freedom to
organise, freedom of expression, freedom to life and personal security, the freedom to be
judged and the freedom to take part in decisions over ones affairs. As experience
somewhere showed such lawlessness by governing elites lead to complete breakdowns
and increased violence leading to even worse mass suffering and deaths and engulfing
ever wider areas within the country and beyond. On experience of similar tragedies
elsewhere including Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the
behaviour of the current Ethiopian regime constitute a clear and present threat to
international peace and security, which should not be ignored.
Your Excellency, my people were brought under Ethiopian domination through violent
conquest during the Scramble for Africa and made part of the expanded Empire of
Ethiopia. My organisation was forced to resort to armed resistance to regain Oromo
people's national rights only after the previous imperial regime adopted violent
repression to Oromo attempts at peaceful processes to regain their basic human and
democratic rights. The military dictatorship that replaced the imperial regime in 1974
initially raised hopes for a democratic alternative but soon snuffed the life out of any
such hopes by instituting an intolerant one party dictatorship that respected no law,
trampled elementary democratic practices and denied our people's right to determine its
destiny. The violation of basic human rights by that regime was also well documented
by AI and many other human rights organisations.
My organization the OLF and the core of the present regime the Tigrean People's
Liberation Front, TPLF, were during the Marxist military regime on the same side
opposing and exposing the lawlessness and excesses of that regime, and they solemnly
committed themselves to institute a democratic future for all the oppressed peoples in
Ethiopia. They also agreed to recognise their respective peoples' rights to decide their
own affairs and to freely determine their future destiny. They were partners also in
organising a transitional programme enshrined in a charter which guaranteed basic
liberties for the individual and self-determination of peoples including the Oromo.
According to the transitional programme, all peoples in Ethiopia would govern their
affairs and participate in central government on equal basis. The process meant to
guarantee equality and a level playing field for all parties with stake in the process.
Unfortunately, within less than two years of the transitional exercise, the TPLF and its
stalking-horse the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF,
systematically drove all autonomous organisations out of the transitional process and
ever since running a one party dictatorship. While opposition parties are registered in
name, in an echo of practices in eastern European countries during the Cold War, their
members face constant intimidation, harassment and repression and their political
activities severely curbed. Similarly, the regime in Ethiopia does not tolerate any
criticism of its arbitrary actions, not even a peaceful demonstration by the affected
people. The peaceful protests in Oromia at the beginning of the current year 2014 was
triggered by the regime's arbitrary plans to extend the city limits of Addis Ababa against
the wishes of the Oromo people, when, as witnessed, the regime unleashing severe
repression firing live ammunition on peaceful demonstrators killing many, and
detention, torture and disappearance of many more.
Your Excellency, there are undeniable changes from the era of the imperial rule and the
Marxist military regime when the very name Oromo and Oromia were outlawed.
However, mere facade of federal framework on paper that the current regime boasts
does not amount to a real change. The trampling of basic human and democratic rights
and the denial of our people's right to decide their own affairs is fraught with further
resentment and resistance. As the saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine. That is why
we call on Your Excellency to bring the ever deteriorating situation in Ethiopia to the
attention of the Security Council asking them to adopt measures that impress on the
TPLF/EPRDF regime to uphold basic freedoms including freedom of expression,
organisation, peaceful demonstration, and respect for the national rights of the Oromo
people.
It will be recalled that the regime in Ethiopia has on several occasions during the past
two decades organised sham elections to justify its misrule. However, far from giving it
legitimacy, the charade has only deepened the mistrust and scorn of the Oromo and all
other peoples and political players in Ethiopia. Regardless, the regime is again busy to
run a similar election in 2015. The result is of course simple to predict. In view of the
total obliteration of any meaningful competitors, the TPLF/EPRDF will retain power
and the status quo will be maintained. This is an opportunity for the Security Council to
act to prevent maintenance of the status quo, which would speed a slide down the
treacherous trail trekked in the past by similar tyrannical regimes in Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Liberia and Syria with ruinous consequences. Your kind and swift action is
much appreciated.
Please accept the assurances of my highest considerations.
Daawud Ibsaa
Chairman
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
CC: His Excellency Gary Quinlan
The Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
and President of the Security Council for November 2014,
NEW YORK MISSION
General office fax 212.351.6610
His Excellency Dr. Jan Eliasson
Deputy Secretary General
New York, NY 10027
001-2129637055
His Excellency Mr. Wu Hongbo
UN under Secretary General for Economic and Social
Affairs,
His Excellency Ambassador Maged Abdelfatah Abdelaziz
United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa(OSAA)
One UN Plaza, Room DC1-1256
Postal Code : 10017
New York, NY, USA
Telephone: +1 212 963 4780
Attachment:- http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR25/006/2014/en/539616af-0dc6-
43dd-8a4f-34e77ffb461c/afr250062014en.pdf
