The Plight of the Oromo People in Ethiopia

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday December 18, 2002 16:21 by Abiyu P'ak'alo - Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) Occupied Oromiya

The Ethiopian regime, led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), is committing acts of genocide against the Oromo people to forcibly suppress their demand for self-determination. The Oromo people in Ethiopia currently number over 30 million. Before Ethiopia colonized them, the Oromo people had their own Gada State—an indigenous African polity. In the Gada government, the Oromo people elected their leaders for an eight-year term of office. The Oromo people's distinct cultural, social, and linguistic identity has survived multifaceted continuous oppression by successive Ethiopian regimes for the last 105 years. The current Ethiopian regime has resorted to grave violations of human rights to suppress the Oromo people's demand for national self-determination.

Billions of bilateral and multilateral aid provided by world powers and international finance institutions has been used by the regime to build and maintain institutions of violence against the Oromo people.The Ethiopian political elite, aided and abetted by its international supporters, has perpetuated its domination over the much larger Oromo people by maintaining different forms of autocratic regimes. Ethiopia has always remained an autocratic state without any democratic tradition. The Oromo people have never been admitted into Ethiopian political process to change their dependent position.

Despite billions of dollars pouring into Ethiopia, the basic and fundamental rights of the Oromo people to be free from abject poverty and constant hunger is not at all respected. According to the Country Watch organization report 2000, Ethiopia is ranking 104th out of the 108 country ranking in Human Development Index. The most crucial disaster the Oromo people are facing today is the deadly disease, AIDS. According to the Oromo Support Group (OSG), an independent human rights group established in the UK by human rights activists interested in following violations of Oromo human rights, over 2,592 extra-judicial killings and 838 "disappearances" of civilians were reported from 1992-1999. Most of these are suspected of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an Oromo political resistance organization.

The Ethiopian regime is engaged in systematic destruction of Oromo social fabric and vital natural resources.

The Oromo people have the right of self-determination that is recognized as a basic human right by Articles 1 (1) of the two Covenants of International Bill of Human Rights. Article 1(1) provides that, "All peoples have the right of self-determination. The Oromo people's right to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development is just and legitimate, because the people's social, cultural, political, national sovereignty and other distinct identities have been violated by a foreign aggressor in a war of conquest. The OLF holds that the Oromo people's demand for self-determination is not an internal affair of the Ethiopian state. The Oromo people do not consider themselves ethnic Ethiopians. The Oromo people who are asserting their right of self-determination demand total emancipation—decolonization—to freely decide whether to associate or integrate with another state, or whether to declare national independence.

Successive Ethiopian regimes have used force to suppress the Oromo people's legitimate demand to exercise their right of self-determination. The action of the regimes contravenes the UN Charter that bans the use of force by member states in international dispute, including dispute regarding the claim of self-determination by dependent peoples. Moreover, there is an international duty imposed on states to refrain from giving military or economic assistance to powers forcibly denying self-determination to dependent peoples.

The right of self-determination is an exceptionally significant human right, because it is the synthesis of individual human rights. Enjoyment of individual rights presupposes the realization of self-determination. While the right of the Oromo people is violated, individual Oromos cannot be really free to exercise their basic rights and freedoms. Denial of the right of self-determination has become the root-cause of violations of rights of individual members of the Oromo society. International human rights groups who observe and report violations of human rights of Oromo individuals have to realize the evident linkage between forcible denial of the collective right of the Oromo people and the pervasive violations of human rights of individual Oromos.

The Ethiopian political elite seek a democratic process that allows them to compete for control of the political power of the country. The elite uses the Oromo people as not having any inherent right of determining their own political destiny. They want to impose on the Oromo people the view that practically equates the right of self-determination with democratization of Ethiopia.

The attitude of the international community that ignores the plight of the Oromo people is inconsistent with the principle declared by UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, in June 1993 that says all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and inter-related. The UN Human Rights Commissioner has recently called upon the international community to ensure equality of treatment in the protection of civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights.

Peaceful resolution of the Oromo people’s demand for self-determination cannot be achieved as long as Ethiopia remains under an iron fist of its autocratic rulers. We hope a democratic political force may emerge from Ethiopian political elite to be willing to enter into a genuine dialogue with the OLF and other Oromo political forces without imposing as a precondition acceptance of Ethiopia's sovereignty over the Oromo people.

Vigilant involvement by human rights activists is required to save the Oromo people from genocide. The Oromo people are subjected to acts of genocide for demanding their right of self-determination that is their collective human right. The principle that all categories of human rights are indivisible elements of human security and development must be respected and promoted for the Oromo people. Specifically, the following is solicited:

Support and advocate a special investigation of the pattern of grave violations of human rights aimed at destruction of the Oromo people;
Oppose the Ethiopian regime's forcible denial of the Oromo and other dependent people's right of self-determination;
Support and advocate the release of Oromo political prisoners;
Support the Oromo people's right over their natural resources and oppose the Ethiopian regime's plunder and destruction of the resources;
Advocate relief and rehabilitation assistance for victims of human and natural disasters, as well as to fight the spread of AIDS virus among the Oromo and other peoples in Ethiopia;
Promote balanced development of Oromo people's human resources and democratic institutions.