Oromo media outlets, OMN and Radio Afuura Biyyaa, have confirmed the release from prison of the Oromo political prisoner Ob. Bekele Gerba, who was the Deputy Chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) at the time of his arrest in August 2011. Ob. Bekele Gerba had been unjustly imprisoned for about three and half years. According to information we have received, his fellow prisoner Ob. Olbana Lelisa, the high-ranking leader in the Oromo People’s Congress party (OPC) at the time of his arrest with Ob. Bekele Gerba in August 2011, remains imprisoned unjustly.
Issues Ob. Bekele Gerba Imprisoned for Remain Unresolved …
BEKELE GERBA LAND-GRABBING AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION:
In 2010 – a year before his arrest, Ob. Bekele Gerba passionately debated during the General Election about land-grabbing, especially land-grabbing around Finfinne, and the appalling environmental pollution in Oromia and beyond (listen below); his firm stand on these issues had brought land-grabbing around Finfinne and environmental pollution to the forefront of the people’s consciousnesses at the time and since then. http://gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2015/03/oromo-political-prisoner-bekele-gerba-freed-the-ideals-land-grabbing-environment-national-equality-he-got-imprisoned-for-still-unresolved/
BEKELE GERBA ON NATIONAL EQUALITY FOR OROMOS AND OTHER NATIONALITIES IN ETHIOPIA:
His firm stand on national equality has been also widely reported by the media (listen below); Ob. Bekele Gerba made the appeal for national equality for Oromos and other oppressed nationalities in Ethiopia as a political prisoner facing the Ethiopian government’s politically biased and motivated court in November 2012.
Oromo Political Prisoner Bekele Gerba Freed. Obbo Baqqalaa Garbaa Hiikamanii Jiru. #Oromo March 31, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Because I am Oromo.Tags: Because I Am Oromo: Amnesty International Report, Obbo Baqqalaa Garbaa
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(VOA AFAAN OROMOO, WASHINGTON DC)—Itti aanaa dura ta’aa paartii mormituu Warraaqsa Federaalistii Dimokraatawaa Oromoo kan turan Obbo Baqqalaa Garbaa hidhaa waggaa sadii fi baatii torbaa booda kaleessa Bitooteessa 30 bara 2015 hiikamanii jiran. Himannaan shoroorkeessummaa irratti dhiyaatEe murtiin hidhaa waggaa saddeetiI eega irratti muramee booda ol-iyyannaa dhiyeeeffatanii turaniin gara hidhaa waggaa sadii fi baatii torbaatti gad cabeef. Akka seera Itiyoophiyaatti hidhaa na irratti murame sadii keessaa harka lama akkaan xumureetti mirgi gadhiifamuu naa kennamuutu irra ture kan jedhan obbo Baqqalaa Garbaa garuU kanas dhorkameen hidhaa na irratti murame xumuree ba’uuf dirqame jedhu.
Kaleessuuma yeroo gadhiifamuuf turantti illee eega baafamanii booda, waan qoratamuu qabuutu jira jechuun yeroof mana hidhaatti isaan deebisuu isaanii dubbatu Obbo Baqqalaan. Booda garuu magaalaa Finfinneetti si geessinee qoranna jedhanii Zuwaay irraa kokolaataa seennee Moojoo akka geenyeetti achuumatti na gadhiisan jedhhan. Akka Obbo Baqqalaan jedhantti himnannaan irratti dhiyaatee ittiin adabaman kan sobaa ta’uu fi ragaan dhiyaates qindeeffamee ta’uu dubabtanii jiru. Haallii fayyaa isaanii ogeessa wal’ansa fayyaan ilaalamuu kan fedhu ta’uus kan sadarkaa hamaa irra hin jirre ta’uu Raadiyoo Sagalee Amerikaaf Ibsanii jiru.
Gaaffii fi deebii geggeedffame armaan gaditti caqasaa
http://www.voaafaanoromoo.com/content/article/2701292.html
(Oromedia, 31 Bitootessa 2015) Ob Baqqalaa Garbaa Bitootessa 30, bara 2015 hidhaa hiikamuun gabaafame.
Maddeen keenya Finfinnee irraa akka nuuf gabaasanitti, Ob Baqqalaan murtii dabaa mootummaa Itoophiyaa irraa itti darbe fixanii bahan.
Ob Baqqalaan miseensa paartii karaa nagaa biyya keessa sochooú, Warraaqsa Federaalistii Dimokiraatawaa Oromoo taánis, mootummaan Wayyaanee garuu miseensa ABO ti, jechuun akka hidhe beekamaadha.
Abbaa ijjoollee afurii kan taán Ob Baqqalaa Garbaa waggaa saddeetiif akka hidhamu dhaddechi Itoophiyaa Muddee 11, 2012 itti murteesse. Yeroo sanatti akka murtiin laafuuf dhiifama akka gaafatu gaafatamnii diduu fi waan hojjatanitti akka hin gaabbine ibsachuun isaanii kan yaadatamu.
Akka sirnaa fi seera biyyattiitti Ob Baqqalaan hidhaa isaanii harka sadii erga fixanii cabsaa seeraatiin hiikamuu qabu turan.
Haataúutii, loogii sanyummaa fi sabummaatiin haga yoonaatti hidhaa keessa turruun isanaii kan beekamu.
Ob Baqqalaan Yunvarsitii Finfinneetti barsiisaa Afaanii ti.
Ob Baqqalaa Garbaa fi Ob Olbaanaa Leellisaa Hagayya 27, 2011 humnoota tikaa mootummaa Itoophiyaatiin hidhaman.
http://oromedia.net/2015/03/30/ob-baqqalaa-garbaa-hiikame/
https://www.oromiamedia.org/2015/03/omn-hubachiisa-bitootessa-30-2015/
Oromo Political Prisoner Bekele Gerba Freed; the Ideals (Land Grabbing, Environment, National Equality) He Got Imprisoned for Still Unresolved
Bitootessa/March 31, 2015 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com
Buhari Deposes Jonathan the Legal Way: hard work begins now for former dictator. #Africa March 31, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Nigeria.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Elections, Nigeria
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‘Fears of political bloodshed in Nigeria appear to have been averted for now, after incumbent Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat in the presidential election against Muhammadu Buhari. The election is likely to usher in the beginning of a crucial new era in Nigerian society, one plagued by corruption and Islamic extremism. A former Major General in the Nigerian Army, Buhari led a military coup against the civilian government on the 31st December 1983 and ruled as dictator until behind deposed by another coup in August 1985. During his short period of rule, Buhari became known for his fierce stance against corruption, his promotion of an ultra-disciplined society, his economic failings and his disregard for human rights.
His victory is a testament to the weak rule of Jonathan, who failed to stem government corruption or halt the brutal onslaught of Boko Haram in the north of the country. Buhari, unlike Jonathan, is a Muslim and hails from the north where he remains extremely popular.’
Fears of political bloodshed in Nigeria appear to have been averted for now, after incumbent Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat in the presidential election against Muhammadu Buhari. The election is likely to usher in the beginning of a crucial new era in Nigerian society, one plagued by corruption and Islamic extremism.
Buhari (r) has seemingly seen off the challenge of Jonathan
A former Major General in the Nigerian Army, Buhari led a military coup against the civilian government on the 31st December 1983 and ruled as dictator until behind deposed by another coup in August 1985. During his short period of rule, Buhari became known for his fierce stance against corruption, his promotion of an ultra-disciplined society, his economic failings and his disregard for human rights.
His victory is a testament to the weak rule of Jonathan, who failed to stem government corruption or halt the brutal onslaught of Boko Haram…
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Rich Men in London Still Deciding Africa’s Future March 29, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa and debt, Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Corruption, Corruption in Africa, Development.Tags: Africa, Aid, Aid to Africa, Causes of poverty, Colonizing Structure, Dead Aid
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Director of the Global Justice Now Nick Dearden said:
“It’s scandalous that UK aid money is being used to carve up Africa in the interests of big business. This is the exact opposite of what is needed, which is support to small-scale farmers and fairer distribution of land and resources to give African countries more control over their food systems. Africa can produce enough food to feed its people. The problem is that our food system is geared to the luxury tastes of the richest, not the needs of ordinary people. Here the British government is using aid money to make the problem even worse.”
Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Nigeria, Benin, Malawi and Senegal are all involved in the New Alliance.
In a January 2015 piece in The Guardian, Dearden continued by saying that development was once regarded as a process of breaking with colonial exploitation and transferring power over resources from the ‘first’ to the ‘third world’, involving a revolutionary struggle over the world’s resources. However, the current paradigm is based on the assumption that developing countries need to adopt neo-liberal policies and that public money in the guise of aid should facilitate this. The notion of ‘development’ has become hijacked by rich corporations and the concept of poverty depoliticised and separated from structurally embedded power relations.
By Colin Todhunter, Global Research
Some £600 million in UK aid money courtesy of the taxpayer is helping big business increase its profits in Africa via the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. In return for receiving aid money and corporate investment, African countries have to change their laws, making it easier for corporations to acquire farmland, control seed supplies and export produce.
Last year, Director of the Global Justice Now Nick Dearden said:
“It’s scandalous that UK aid money is being used to carve up Africa in the interests of big business. This is the exact opposite of what is needed, which is support to small-scale farmers and fairer distribution of land and resources to give African countries more control over their food systems. Africa can produce enough food to feed its people. The problem is that our food system is geared to the luxury tastes of the…
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Foul Sides of Development Aid Business March 29, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor, Aid to Africa.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Aid, Aid and Development, Aid to Africa, Dead Aid
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Celtel advertising in rural Uganda
Here are two different perceptions of the development aid business that is targeting developing countries. One is from Forbes.com; while the other is from Euro-correspondent.com. interestingly, both of these opposing understandings are admitting the controversy of excessive profits made by those rich funding agencies and their middlemen who are paid to invest on their governments’ behalf.
Looking at these contrasting perceptions, they both confirm that it is totally unacceptable to create hundreds of billions of dollars for European agencies and European citizens in just few years out of the poverty of Africa, Asia and Latin America under the covers of development aid and business. Such practices shed lights on the undisclosed objectives of development aid and business.
Claiming that the fast huge wealth made by middlemen, such as Mo Ibrahim and Celtel, from the British aid agencies backing is justified because they made mobile phone revolution…
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The Major Challenges of Opposition Parties in Ethiopia and the Case of Leenco Lata’s ODF. #Oromo. #Oromia. #Africa March 28, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Sham elections, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, The Tyranny of TPLF Ethiopia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Ethiopia's sham elections, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights violations, Oromia, Oromo, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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The Major Challenges of Opposition Parties in Ethiopia and the Case of Leenco Lata’s ODF
Since the adoption of the new Constitution in 1995, Ethiopia has organized 4 elections carried out regularly ever 5 years (in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010); the ruling party, TPLF, claimed victories in all of these elections. Unfortunately, post-election reports always show that none of the elections in Ethiopia has so far been free, fair and democratic.
Through intimidation by local cadres, or by withholding basic government rations from rural and urban poor households, people had been forced to vote for TPLF. Through such controversial elections, TPLF had claimed victories over the majority of the votes. In some places, where the TPLF had been unable to win, stealing the ballot cards had been the case. Election frauds, reactions of the opposition parties to the unfair elections, and anger of the public had been the main reasons to see instabilities, chaos, mass arrests, deaths, harassment and disorders in the aftermaths of election periods. Therefore, due to the undemocratic nature of these elections, dissenting political parties had been unable to win over the dictatorial TPLF regime – which indirectly means that people can’t change their leaders through the ballot box in Ethiopia.
In absence of free and fair election, the election itself can’t be a means to justify the legitimacy of a given government. Thus, the 2015 election will not be different from the past. According to the National Electoral Board, nearly 35 million people had registered to vote, and 60 opposition parties had registered to run for parliamentary polls dated for May 24, 2015.
Having seen the previous elections in Ethiopia, what will we expect from the upcoming 2015 election? I have a firm belief that the upcoming election will not be any different from the previous ones unless otherwise the opposition parties can make miracles helped through the divine power. Given the totalitarian nature of TPLF, no one in Ethiopia votes for the opposition parties to win the election and form a government, but instead people vote for dissenting parties only to have some seats in the TPLF-dominated Parliament.
In meantime, it is important to remind that it is not due to lack of alternative policies that opposition parties fail to win an election in Ethiopia. The major reasons why opposition parties are unable to win elections in Ethiopia are due to the fact that they are mired in multiple challenges, unlike the ruling party. I will briefly discuss these challenges below.
Major Challenges of Opposition Parties in Ethiopia
1. ABSENCE OF FREEDOM OF MEDIA
In the absence of independent media outlets, it is almost impossible to hold free and fair elections. Unfortunately, Ethiopia, under the TPLF government, is not a friendly home for independent media. The government in Ethiopia is best known for its systematic repression of the very few independent media outlets. Especially after the Anti-Terrorist Proclamation of 2009, independent media have been subjected to intimidation, harassment, and in most cases, exile. You can hardly find a single independent, non-state affiliated media outlet in Ethiopia today. The majority of newspapers, and radio and television stations are state controlled or state affiliated. The very few pseudo-independent media, which in some cases are accused of being state-affiliated behind the screen, are also subject to strict procedures of state censorship. The main radio and television stations, which are run by the state, are usually seen broadcasting the propaganda of the TPLF regime and promote government policies; and in contrary, they have no room to broadcast the human rights violations and corruptions of the dictatorial administration of the ruling party.
Since more than 85% of the population in Ethiopia resides in rural areas, radio is the only medium of news, and hence, this gives the ruling party a significant advantage in promoting its policies and preserving itself as the irreplaceable political party by controlling the radio access to the rural population. Journalists of local media outlets, which deviate from state censorship of the government, usually face arrests, harassment, shutdowns and/or exile.
The only media opportunities available for the local opposition parties are Diaspora-based media. Usually, most of these websites are blocked and cannot be accessed in Ethiopia while popular stations like OMN [Oromia Media Network] are jammed by the government in Ethiopia. It is clear that media can have huge impacts to the mind of a society. Due to the fear of the power of media, TPLF has been denying media access to opposition parties, and at the same time, restricting the blossoming of independent media in the country – forcing opposition parties to rely on Diaspora-based media outlets.
The case for Oromo media is even worse. Being the largest nation, Oromo lacks access to media in Afan Oromo, which is the largest language spoken in the Horn of Africa; it is safe to say that there is no single Afan Oromo media outlet in Ethiopia. Due to the fear of the government for independent Oromo media, Oromo political organizations suffer from the absence of freedom of media, more than others.
2. ABSENCE OF A NEUTRAL ELECTORAL BOARD
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, which is theoretically supposed to be an autonomous and independent body, has been accused of being the mouthpiece of the ruling party. The Election Board, which consists of nine individuals strategically nominated by the late Prime Minister, has been the major reason for the lack of fair and free elections in Ethiopia.
Dr. Merga Bekana (Chairman) and Dr. Addisu Gebre-Egziabher (Deputy Chairman) are key figures in the Board that is accused of working for the interest of TPLF. The latter, Dr. Addisu, who is currently working as a Head of a Department in the Ministry of Federal Affairs and a close friend for members of the TPLF Central Committee, is purposely assigned in the Board to protect the interest of TPLF. The Election Board has also been accused of interfering in the internal affairs of opposition parties, and putting complicated procedures and criteria for opposition parties with the goal of expelling them from election runs when found not abiding with these complicated election procedures and criteria.
3. The NON-NEUTRALITY OF THE MILITARY
What has enabled the TPLF regime to brutally rule the country for more than two decades is not its ability to create a robust and democratic political, social and economic environment. The strength of TPLF is its military. The military, which is almost dominated by one nation, the Tigreans, from which the TPLF ruling party officials also come, has been the backbone to the dictatorial regime of TPLF. Basically, a military is responsible to maintain peace, uphold constitutional orders and protect the territorial sovereignty of the country. But, in the case in Ethiopia, the TPLF government has been usually criticized for using the military for spying, intimidating and arresting opposition party individuals. It is not uncommon to hear accusations from dissenting political parties about being spied upon and about their everyday activities being tracked by the military intelligence services, and in some cases, about physical obstacles put on their ways during election campaigns.
THE CASE OF LEENCO LATA’S ODF
Having seen the three major challenges of opposition parties in Ethiopia, ODF [Oromo Democratic Front] will never be an exception to not be mired in these aforementioned challenges, had its move to Ethiopia turned long lasting. ODF’s 24-hour stay in the country, after all, is a witness to what this article wants to address. Members of ODF are prominent politicians with ample experiences in Oromo and Ethiopian politics, and had been pioneers of the Oromo struggle for freedom, and hence, they can have the possibility to make positive impacts on the political atmosphere in Ethiopia. However, that is not what the government in Ethiopia wants at all. Although the government claims to have established a multiparty system to convince donor countries, that remains true only in books; especially, chasing away exiled politicians who had come back home for a peaceful political struggle, has proven the multiparty system in Ethiopia fake and nonexistent.
The above challenges of opposition parties deliver one clear message to outsiders who observe politics in Ethiopia. That is, the totalitarian nature of the TPLF regime. Despite holding regular elections every 5 years – visually appealing rituals for the international community, the TPLF regime wants to rule the country eternally and brutally by using brute-force. Period.
* Kiya Tesfaye is an Oromo activist and lives in Norway; he can be reached at kiyaa28@gmail.com
See more at: http://finfinnetribune.com/Gadaa/2015/03/kiya-tesfaye-the-major-challenges-of-opposition-parties-in-ethiopia-and-the-case-of-leenco-latas-odf/
Moving speech: A pan-African perspective:Decolonising the Mind of Africans March 27, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor.Tags: Africa, African Studies, State and Development, Sub-Saharan Africa
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ETHIOPIA EXPANDS SURVEILLANCE CAPACITY WITH GERMAN TECH VIA LEBANON. #Africa #Oromia March 26, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in African Internet Censorship, Ethiopia & World Press Index 2014.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Ethiopia and Internet censorship, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, THIOPIA EXPANDS SURVEILLANCE CAPACITY WITH GERMAN TECH VIA LEBANON
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ETHIOPIA EXPANDS SURVEILLANCE CAPACITY WITH GERMAN TECH VIA LEBANON
By Claire Lauterbach
25 March 2015 (Privacy International) — German surveillance technology company Trovicor played a central role in expanding the Ethiopian government’s communications surveillancecapacities, according to a joint investigation by Privacy International and netzpolitik.org.
The company, formerly part of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), provided equipment to Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in 2011 and offered to massively expand the government’s ability to intercept and store internet protocol (IP) traffic across the national telecommunications backbone. Trovicor’s proposal was to double the government’s internet surveillance capacity: two years’ worth of data intercepted from Ethiopian networks would be stored.
Trovicor’s predecessor in intelligence solutions, Siemens Pte worked closely with its British partner Gamma Group International via an offshore company in Lebanon to expand lawful interception in the east African country. Gamma Group’s highly intrusive FinFisher malware suite was used to target Ethiopian dissidents. Forensic traces of FinFisher malware have also been traced back to one of Gamma’s Lebanese operations.
Together, the companies and their Lebanese offshore subsidiaries helped one of Africa’s most repressive governments spy on one of its largest populations.
Backdoors to the backbone
Since 1991, Ethiopia has been governed by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF), a coalition of ethnically-based political parties that has severely restricted freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Police has and security forces have been accused of torture. The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), an Ethiopian intelligence agency has used intercepted communications data to identify and punish targets it perceives as opposed to the government. Journalists, activists and average citizens widely assume that their communications are extensively monitored. Phone records and transcripts have also been used to extract confessions under torture, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Information Network Security Agency (INSA), created in 2011, consolidated and extended the state’s surveillance and censorship of internet traffic. It is reported to have used ‘deep packet inspection’ which allows for the inspection and rerouting of internet traffic as it passes an inspection point and fulfils certain criteria defined by the inspecting agent. In 2012, it blocked access to the anonymous browsing service Tor, further restricting safe spaces for communication. INSA is alleged to be the agency responsible for using offensive malware from Italy-based Hacking Team in 2013 and 2014 to target journalists.
Ethio Telecom runs the country’s phone and internet services as a state-owned monopoly. In 2010, the Ethiopian government contracted France Telecom to manage the company, changed its former name and embarked on a serious expansion of the country’s infrastructure. While good news for rural Ethiopians who have much less access to quality communications services, the government also expanded its surveillance capacities to match.
Trovicor was central to this expansion plan. The Munich-headquartered company sells monitoring centres to government and law enforcement clients worldwide to capture, monitor, analyse and store all data acquired during investigation activities transmitted on a wide spectrum of networks. Trovicor technicians work to integrate interception gateways provided by Trovicor or partner companies into network infrastructure of service providers to funnel communications data to the monitoring centres.
Trovicor continues the work of Nokia Siemens Network (NSN), a Helsinki-based joint venture of German conglomerate Siemens AG and Finnish telecoms company Nokia. In 2009, NSN sold its intelligence wing ‘Siemens Intelligence Solutions’ to Perusa Partners Fund 1 LP, a private investment firm, amid controversy that it supplied of surveillance systems to Iran. Perusa renamed its new acquisition ‘Trovicor.’
In January 2010, two representatives of the company presented an Ethiopian customer with a detailed operational plan to massively expand the government’s capacity to monitor IP traffic, according to a document obtained by netzpolitik.org.
Ethiopia’s fiber optic backbone carries the country’s mobile and internet traffic. Signals travel across Ethiopia through many different traffic routers including local and regional routers and international gateways. IP traffic originating or travelling abroad, for example to and from Gmail’s US-based storage servers, would pass through internet gateways at three sites. In 2010, the existing fiber optic cable routes radiated from Addis Abeba along the country’s roadways to key towns including Gonder and the Sudan border to the northwest, Mek’ele to the North, Nekemte to the West, Awassa to the south, Dire Dawa to the East and out to the Red Sea via Djibouti. That year, the government planned to add 37 new fiber routes covering a distance of around 10,000 kilometers and reaching further into rural Ethiopia.
The government required massively expanded powers to intercept IP traffic across the new and existing cables. The government was to add new local-level ‘edge routers’ (ER) to 25 new locations. At each of these ER, Trovicor proposed, the company would install its own next generation network (NGN) taps. These taps would not interfere with the transmission of the signal. Instead, they would also transmit traffic from the ER to a Trovicor aggregation switch that would transmit the signal to the government’s monitoring centre – provided by Trovicor. The monitoring centre would require data from all 25 new aggregation switches to be provided to it on a single 10GbE link.
The government would double its storage and archiving capacity under Trovicor’s plan. Two years’ worth of data transmitted across Ethiopian networks could now be analysed. A total of 3 terabytes could be stored online and actively queried by monitoring centre analysts; a further 28 terabytes of material could be archived.
With Trovicor’s plan, analysts would be able to locate a mobile caller based on his or her proximity to cell phone towers. Trovicor offered to add this geolocation capacity – a “very cheap solution in comparison to the positioning systems” – to the monitoring centre and to integrate the centre with the network architecture provided by Chinese company ZTE.
Throughout this period Ethio Telecom regularly conducted business with Nokia and Siemens companies, some of it for lawful interception, according to records obtained by Privacy International. It is not clear whether Trovicor was ultimately chosen to expand network interception capacities according to the January 2010 plan. Trovicor was, however, doing business in Ethiopia in 2011. In June 2011 the company sent a shipment to the NISS security agency from Munich to Frankfurt and onwards to Addis Abeba via an Ethiopian Airways flight, according to company records. Its exact contents are unknown. Trovicor and Siemens did not respond to requests for comment.
The Lebanese Connection
The 7th floor of Broadway Building in Beirut’s fashionable Hamra district houses two surveillance technology companies – Elaman and Gamma Group, or rather, their offshore affiliates.
Headquartered in Munich, Elaman sells a range of surveillance equipment, from communications monitoring centres to specialist cameras and body-worn call interception devices. It is also a distributor and close partner of the British surveillance consortium Gamma Group. Elaman marketed FinFisher, a malware suite that allows its user to access all stored data and even to take control of the microphone and camera, before Gamma took over the promotion and leadership behind the product in the late 2000s. The Elaman-Gamma partnership had “successfully been involved over the past five years in projects and contracts worth more than 200 million euros”, according to one brochure.
Both companies provide powerful surveillance technology via Lebanon. Four joint stock companies – Elaman – German Security Solutions SAL, Gamma Group International SAL, Gamma Cyan SAL Offshore, and Cyan Engineering Services SAL – share the same registered address, above the Beirut offices of humanitarian charity Save the Children.
Siemens paid one of these companies, Gamma Group International SAL, for an “Ethiopia Lawful Interception” project sometime before July 2011. Gamma Group International SAL’s business is facilitated by Nabil Imad who appears as a beneficiary on a bank account attributed to Gamma, according to information obtained by Privacy International. Lebanese law requires joint stock companies, known by the French acronym SAL, to have between three and 12 shareholders, the majority of whom must be Lebanese. Nabil ‘Sami’ Imad is listed as the director of both Gamma Cyan SAL and Elaman SAL while ‘Sami Nabil Imad’ appears as director of Gamma Group International SAL. Mohammad Farid Mattar, a lawyer representing the heir of assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, is also listed as a director of Gamma Group International SAL. The Lebanese company’s only listed non-Lebanese shareholder is its chairman, John Alexander Nelson Louthean. Louthean directs Gamma Group International Ltd. Gamma Group and Mattar both declined to offer comment.
In a written response to Privacy International’s and Netzpolitik’s questions regarding the operation, a lawyer for Gamma would neither confirm nor deny the details of this report. The same lawyer, speaking on Mr. Mattar’s behalf, would neither confirm nor deny Mr. Mattar’s involvement.
The “Ethiopia Lawful Interception” project could have been to integrate FinFisher into an Ethiopian Trovicor monitoring centre. Trovicor has offered to supply Gamma products to governments worldwide, including inTajikistan in 2009. A 2010 Gamma Group newsletter celebrated a new partnership with Trovicor based on successful collaboration in joint ventures. Wikileaks has identified that Gamma employees Stephan Oelkers and Johnny Debs visited Ethiopia in 2013 and Elaman CEO Holger Rumscheidt visited in 2012.
The combination of the two companies’ capabilities at the time – massive monitoring centres and the deployment of the FinFisher malware – presents a very concerning capability in the hands of a repressive government. FinFisher was used to target members of the Ethiopian political movement, Ginbot 7. Researchers at the Citizen Lab, a technology laboratory based in Canada, analyzed malware samples and determined that a FinFisher campaign originating in Ethiopia used pictures of Ginbot 7 members as bait to infect users – the corrupted files, when opened, would install the spyware onto the user’s device.
FinFisher was deployed against Ethiopians living abroad as well. Tadesse Kersmo is a London-based lecturer and member of Ginbot 7. Suspecting that his device was compromised, in 2013, he submitted his computer to Privacy International which, in collaboration with a research fellow of the Citizen Lab, analysed the device and found traces of FinFisher malware. The Citizen Lab’s forensic analysis of FinFisher samples obtained elsewhere have linked certificates for the samples to Cyan Engineering Services SAL. Kersmo used to use his computer to keep in touch with his friends and family and continued to advocate for democracy back in Ethiopia. With his chats and Skype calls logged, his contacts accessed, and his video and microphone remotely switched on, it was not only Kersmo that was threatened, but also every member of the movement.
Meanwhile in Germany, where Trovicor is headquartered and Gamma GmbH had an office before they transformed into FinFisher GmBH, German authorities maintain that they are unaware of either company supplying surveillance equipment to Ethiopia. After an investigation prompted by mounting evidence that German companies are leaders in the sale of surveillance technology worldwide, the German export agency said in a letter to the Bundestag that it found no records of any sale of surveillance technology to Ethiopia. However, the absence of records does not mean that no sales were made; unlike the sale of arms and other military equipment that necessitate the consideration of the human rights implications of a sale by export authorities, the sale of surveillance technology was not covered by any export regulation at the time of its export, allowing companies and their customers to trade free from any public scrutiny.
Back in Ethiopia, journalists, activists and many ordinary citizens self-censor in the face of constant government surveillance of their private communications. “We use so many code words and avoid talking directly about so many topics that often I’m not sure I know what we are really talking about” said one person who spoke with Human Rights Watch.
Thousands of kilometres away, European companies and their slightly closer Lebanese entities are responsible for these silences.
The European Union is currently considering if and how to regulate exports of surveillance technologies that lead to abuses of human rights. For more information, visit Privacy International or the Coalition Against Unlawful Surveillance Exports.
Source: Privacy International
Historical and Contemporary Relations between Europe and the Oromo March 26, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Development Studies, Oromo Studies.Tags: African Studies, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Europe and the Oromo, Gadaa System, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, Oromo Studies, Oromummaa, OSA Conference
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Oromo Studies Association’s (OSA’s) Midyear 2015 Conference in Munich, Germany (March 28-29)
The theme of the Conference: “Historical and Contemporary Relations between Europe and the Oromo.
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Oromedia : Seenaa Jaal Abdiisaa Hayilee (1986-2015). #Oromo. #Oromia March 26, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Amnesty International's Report: Because I Am Oromo.Tags: Because I I am Oromo, Genocide against the Oromo, Oromummaa, Seenaa Jaal Abdiisaa Hayilee (1986-2015), The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Jaal Bunguli (Abdiisaa) Hayilee abbaa isaa obboo Hayilee Dagabaasaa Camadaa fi haadha isaa Aaddee Muluu Daammanaairraa Caamsaa 14/1986 A.L .O. ti Godina Shawaa Lixaa Aanaa Jibaat ganda Gaamoo Hadaadiitti dhalate. Yeroo umuriin isaa barnootaaf gahutti, barnoota isaa sadarkaa 1ffaa achuma aanaa Jibaat mana barumsaa iichaa hadaadiitti xumure. Barnoota isaa sadarkaa 2ffaa mana barumsaa shanan sadarkaa lammaffaatti barachuun qormaata biyyoolessaa(kutaa 10ffaa) qabxii giddugaleessaa galmeessissuun gara kolleejjii teknikaa fi oggummaa Ambootti ogummaa seeraa barachuu eegale. Ogummaa seeraa baratee osoo jiruu carraa hojii waan hin arganneef ogummaa dhuunfaa isaa hojii ijaarsaa garaa garaatiin biyyoota adda addaa deemee hojjachuu eegale. Jaal Abdiisaan nama qajeelaa dhaabbii fi ilaalchi isaa namatti tolu ture. Hawaasa naannoo isaa biratti taphataa kubbaa milaa cimaafi farda gulufuun beekama. Jaal Bunguli (Abdiisaa) bara 2014 yeroo ummanni Oromoo daangaa lafa Oromiyaa falmatu mirga saba isaatiif nama of kennee falmaa turee dha. Sababa kanaanis hiriira seeraan alaa gaggeesite; jeequmsaaf ummata kakaafte jedhamee yeroo dheeraaf hordofamaa ture. Innis hordoffiin itti hammaannaan bakka jireenyaa jijjirachuun jiraataa ture. Yeroo keessa haalli tasgabbaa’eera jedhee Ayyaana Irreechaa kan magaalaa Bishooftuutti kabajamuu kabajee gara maatiisaatti galuuf osoo deemaa jiru, osoo maatii isaa bira hingahiin magaalaa Shanan ganda 01 tti gafaa guyyaa 05/10/2014 to’annaa poolisii jala oole. Poolisiin toánnaa jala isa oolches guyyaa lamaaf achuma magaalaa Shanan waajjira poolisii tursuun guyyaaa torba booda gara waajjira qajeelcha poolisii G/Sh/Lixaa Ambootti dabarse. Achittis qorannaa guddaa erga irratti raawwatanii booda gara mana sirreessaa Ambootti dabarsuun hiriyyoota isaa otuu mirga saba isaaniif falmanii diina harka buánitti makame. Jaal Abdiisaan yeroo qorannoo poolisii jala turetti hedduu reebamaa ture. Qaamni isaa hedduu miidhamee ture. Yeroo heddduu kan mana hidhaa keessatti dubbataa tures, waaée miidhamuu isa aotuu hin taane akkamiin akka sabni Oromoo bilisummaa isaa deebifatee goonfatu akn ibsu ture. Yeroo mara kan inni dubbatu, “diinni kan hidhu qaama keenya malee yaada keenya miti; yeroo amra waa’ee bilisummaa keenyaa yaaduu dhiisuu hin qabnu,” jedhaa ture. Waa’ee reebichaa fi hiraarsaa yeroo dubbatus, “namni bilisummaa barbaadu reebicha himatuu hin qabu; gatiin bilisummaa olaanaa dha,” jechaa akka ture hiriyyoonni isaa ragaa bahu. Reebichi Jaal Abdiisaa irra gahe garuu oolee bulee isa miidhuu hin dhiifne. Yeroo hedduu gara mana yaalaa akak geessan iyyatus, manni yaalaa deebii kennuufii dide. Erga inni miidhamee du’a jala gahee booda garuu, gaafa guyyaa 14/03/2015 gara hospitaala Ambootti geeffame. Yeroo geeffame sanatti hedduu hubamee waan tureef akka irraa hin hafne ni beekama ture. Namoota isa gaafachaa turanittis akka dhibee gidiraa irraa itti dhufe irraa hin fayyine itti himaa ture. Keessayyuu, kaayyoo haqaaf falmuun itti fufuu akka qabu dubbataa ture. “Mootummaa gabroofataan nama ofitti amanu hin jaalatu; motummaanni Habashaas sabni keenya akka doofaa taée hafu barbaadu. Kan dide immoo kaan biyyaa ari’uun akka baqataa taú godhan; kaan immoo qabanii mana hidhaatti gidirsuun achuman ajjeessan. Kun har’a miti, kan eegale. Kaleessas nurra ture; har’a illee kunoo aadaa ta’ee nu nyaachaa jira. Sabni keenya qabsoo isaa itti fufuu malee fala biraa hin qabu,” jechaa ture. Abdiisaan dhibee gidiraa irraa itti dhufe irraa otuu hin dandamatiin akkuma kaateenaan hidhametti gaafa guyyaa 17/03/2015 osoo beellama mana murtiitti deddeebi’u hin xumuratiin, murtee dabaa gaaffii bilisummaa isaatiif isatti kannameef ture otuu hin argatiin lubbuun isaa ganama keessaa sa’a 6:00 irratti bakka haati manaan isaa hin jirretti maatii isaa harkatti umurii 29 tti biyya lafaa irraa boqote. Gootichi Oromoo, Jaal Abdiisaan (Bunguliin) yeroo lubbuun keessaa bahuuf jirtutti akkas jedhee barattota Oromoofi ummata Oromoo maraaf dhaamsaa dabarse.
“Yaa ummata Oromoo! Yaa hiriyoottan koo fi yaa firoottan qabsoo bilisumma Oromoo! Duuti koo, du’a goota Oromoo kan obboo H/Gammadaa, kaadhimamaa Engineer Gaaddisaa Hirphasaa fi kan gootota Oromoo biroo waliin wal fakkaata. Ani kanin hidhameef, kanin ajjeeffameefis waanan, ‘lafti Oromiyaa hintaatu kan alagaa!’ jedheef. Akkasumas, waanin Oromumma kootti booneef duá kanaaf na kaadhiman malee yakka hojjadhee miti.”
Abbaan isaa obboo Hayilee Dagabaasaa haala du’a ilma isaanii haala nama gaddisisuun ergaa dabarfatan;
“Yaa ilmaan Oromoo ilmikoo hatee ykn nama reebee, ajjeessee miti kan biyya isaa irratti hidhame; lafti ilmaan Oromoo maaf ciccirama jedheeti kan falme, maal godhu garuu ilma koo miti kan karaa baase; duuti ilmaan Oromoo walfakkaataa dha. Warri kaan reeffa ilmaan isaanii hin argiin jiran. An garuu reenfaa ilma kootii, kaatenaan hidhamee jiru argadheen jira.” jedhan.
Barruu yaadannoo isaa irraa dhaamsi argames ejjannoo dhugaa inni qabu kan ibsuu dha.
“Duuti ilmaan Oromoo amma du’a sareellee dhageettii dhabaa jira. Ani qabeenyaa keenyaafin hidhame; reebame; yoon asitti dué illee kaayyoo saba kootiifan wareegame. Namuu irra deddeebi’ee hidhii xuuxuun waa akka hin finne beekuu qabna. Kan nu baasu kaayyoo goototi keenya irratti wareegaman jabeessinee galmaan ga’uu qofaa dha; imaanaa kun kan tokkoon tokkoon Oromooti.”
Har’a Jaal Abdiisaan nu waliin hin jiru. Kaayyoon inni wareegameef immoo amma illee galii isaa hin geenye. Akak galii isaa gahuuf kan hojjatuu qabu dhaloota haaraa imaanaan eeggatuu dha. Yaadannoon Jaal Abdiisaas kanuma mirkaneessa.
“Karaan irra jirru karaa sirrii ti; karaan kun kan jaallen Oromoo itti wareegamaa jiran, karaa qajeelaa fi haqaa ti. Kana waan ta’eef, waan nu itti roorrifamnee itti ajjeeffamnu kana murannoon galmaan gahuun dhaloota keenay irraa eegama. Namuu waadaa kana tiksuu qaba; dhalooti haaraan hojii manee kana hojjatan malee Bilisummaan tola hin dhufu. Ani gama kootiin, saba guddaa gabrummaa jala jiru kanaaf osoon lubbuu lama qabaadhee kenneefii waanan itti gaabbuiu miti; waanti guddaan dagatamuu hin qabne garuu Oromoo inni hafe gumaa keenya baasuuf irbuu isaa haaromsuu qaba!”
Jaal Abdiisaan akka hawwetti fayyee dirree falmaa seenuu hin dandeenye. Garuu, irbuu isaa cabsee ergamtuu diinaa hin taane. Bakka gahe maratti otuu saba isaaf dubbatuu, otuu haqaaa fi dhugaaf falmuu dhibee roorrootiin addunyaa kana irraa darbe; seenaan isaa seenaa qabsaa’ota Oromoo keessatti hallu kabajaan barreeffamee dhalootaa dhalootatti dubbifamuun immoo mirkana. Jaal Abdiisaan, abbaa ilma tokkoo yoo ta’u, bakka haati manaa isaa hinjirretti qobaa isaa ilma isaa guddisuuf nama dhama’aa tureedha.
http://oromedia.net/2015/03/26/seenaa-jaal-abdiisaa-hayilee-1986-2015/
Hamma hin jirree bookkisa Dullacha Oldie’s Bellow Of no Significance, Ibsaa Guutama Bitootessa (March) 2015 March 22, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in No to land grabs in Oromia, No to the Addis Ababa Master Plan, Say no to the expansions of Addis Ababa, The Tyranny of TPLF Ethiopia.Tags: Abaye Tsehaye: The Ugle Face Tigrean Chauvinism, Genocide against the Oromo, Ibsaaa Guutamaa, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo people, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Hamma hin jirree bookkisa Dullacha
https://oromianeconomist.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/abay-tsehaye-the-ugly-face-of-tigrean-chauvinism/
Gidduu kana gara Awaasaa kanaa dullachi Tigree adeemsa seenaa hin hubannee fakkaatu tokko Oromoon isuma Yohaannis arraba irraa cire sana se’ee farra Oromummaan yoo bookkisu dhagahame. Oromiyaan erga koloneeffamtee kaasee sochiin gara bilisummaatt Oromoon godhu hundi beekaa haa tahu wallaalummaan kanuma isee keessaa bahanii diinaaf ashkarummaa bulaniin hankaaffamaa yoona gahe. Oromoo uumaan waan itt bobaa’an hunda akka keessa hin deebi’amnee fi shafisaan hojii irra oolchuun beekamu. Akka loltuutt janna kumi gad hin qabne. Kanaaf koloneeffataan loltummaan madaqfachuuf isaan keessaa madaqfachuuf durfannoo kennaa. Duula keessaa fi alaaf Oromo irratt utuu hin hafin kan hiriirsu caalaatt jaruma akkasiitii. Garaa guuttannaan kan ajajaman hojii irra yoo oolchan aadaa fi seera safuu akaakilee saaniillee kan dagatan hedduu dha. Kan dur “garbicha abbayyee” jedhanii dhaadatan amma” garbicha abaluu” jedhanii maqaa kan isaan bulchuun dhaadachuutu boonsaa taheefii.
Qabasaawoti farra kolonii tahan tokko tokko galtoota diinaan itt bobbaafaman ilaaluun Oromoo” akka gabbistuu humna koloneeffatuutt ilaalu. Si’ana kanneen diina tajaajilutt qaana’an lakkofi saani guddataa jira. Barri Oromoon hoomaan diinatt buluuf gara mooraa saatt girrisan dur hafe. Faarrri jiru humnoota bilisummaaf tumsuun ummata hacuuccaa jala jiru aangessuu dha. Sochiin bilisummaa Kallacha qabsoo saa ABOn eegalame lafa Oromiyaa qofa utuu hin tahin sammuu diinaan dhiqame bilisoomsuu dabalata. Hanga kan surriin faalame jiranitt Oromiyaan bosona abbaan fedhe soma waraanaa keessaa muratu taatee hafti. Kanaaf yeroo dhaaba diinni maqaa Oromoon ijaare yaadannu kun irraanfatamuu hin qabu. Lammii ofii joonjessaa keessatt dhiisuun ofii qaanii tullachuu taha. Dhaabi diinaa eenyummaa saaniin akka wal hin gitne guyyuu itt himuu dha. Kan gooftaan salphisett dabalanii soqoluu fi abaaruun sabichaaf bu’aa hin qabu. Kan tarkaanfatooti yaadan akka sanatt ta’uu qaba. Tarkaanfatummaan dhuunfaa gita tokkoo yk gola tokkoo miti; murannoo abba abbaa yk murnootaa jireenya hundaa keessaa babahanii jijjiiramaa hawaasaa wayyeessuuf ijaajjani. Dhoofsisi ni dandahama taha, garuu kaayyoon sabichaa dhoofsisa keessa hin galu.
Ijoolleen Tigray Oromiyaa kan qabate tooftaa abboolii see jijjiirattee yoo tahu tarsiimoo muummicha garuu akka turett dhiistee. Qabsaawota Oromoo sabboonoo turaniin dirree lolaatt qubaa wal haqabaatan malee ergama saani isa guddaaf akka barbaadanitt galmeessuunii hin milkoofne. Haa tahu tuqaa jabaa fi laafaa Sochii Bilisummaa ummata Oromoott quwaachuuf saaqaa kan argatan yerosi. Sun dursanii akka itt fashalsiisan karoorfachuuf isaan gargaareera. Akeeki bu’uuraa Oromoo keessaa namoota sossobanii hawwachuu yoo tahu sunis akka abboolii saanii ifatt ashkarummaaf miti. Garuu maqaa Oromummaan dhaaba fakkeessaa, kan saaniin walqixxee fakkaatu uumuunii. Lookoon itt hidhaan akka isaan se’an dhokataa utuu hin tahin kan hundi arguu dandahu ture. Akkasitt jaarmaan Oromoo sobaa, DhDUO (OPDO) Hidhamtoota waraanaa dhandhooname. Amaaraafis “Jaarmaa Demokratawaa Ummataa” biraa itt ijaaranii hogganummaa ABUTn (TPLF) kan amma biyya bulcha jedhamu ADWUI (EPRDF) uumame. OPDO jechuun Tigree fuuloo Oromummaa kaawwatee Oromiyaa bulchu jechuu dha. TPLF kan humna tarkanfataa of fakkeessee dhufe keessisaa bulchoota empayeritt darban hunda caalaa duubatt harkistu akka tahe bulee of saaxile.
Kanneen miseensa OPDO jedhaman akkuma galtuu durii ashkaroota gooftaa bulani malee Oromiyaa kan iddoosan mitii. Namooti Oromoo tokko tokko baasanii OPDOn ashkarii dha jechuuf mamii qabu turani. Kanneen biraa garuu irrabuusa ”Maxannee” jedhu kennaaniifi turan. Amanamummaan saa itt fufuu mirkaneeffachuuf tibba tibba OPDOn walgahii gooftoliin dura taahaa tahanitt “gimgamaa”f waamama ture. Miseensoti OPDO hanga hardhaatt gamagama kanaan arrabsamaa, itt dheekamamaa, doorsifamaa, itt ori’amaa, ari’amaa, dhabsiifamaa fi hidhamama jiraatan. Gidduu kana beekaa haa tahu utuu hin beekin hariiroon koloneeffataa fi OPDO gidduu bora’uun galma koraa keessa dhimmiste. Dullachii Tigray tokko Awaasaatt hogganoota maxxannee saa galma tokkott dachaasee yoo dheekkamuu fi itt kakatu dhagahme. Machaaye taha malee akkas uggee tuuta kanniisaatt hin bu’u.
Moo’ummaa Oromiyaa heeran beekne jedhan irra tarkaanfate. Ibdi saa OPDOn utuu hin daangahamin ummatichatt utalee. Kan nama dhibu jalee saatt dheekkamuu saa miti. Oromoo futirichoo hidhaa natt kennaa jechuu saatu Oromoo waliin aarsee kaasee. Kan walgahanuu itt qasa’aa hursanii. Sochiin bilisummaa Oromoo hamajaajii Oromoo akka itt gaggeessu sagantaa qabaa. Kakawisuun namichaa wanti saganteeffame lafa irraa harkifamuun haaraa fakkaate malee qaamumaa roorroo koloneeffataati. Gochi saa maalummaa EPRDF addaababayitt saaxile Oromoo bu’aa mamii kennaafii turan rifachiisee malee kan maalummaa saa beekan hin dinqisiifne. Dullachichi, OPDOn roobootii Adda Bilisummaa Tigray Addeetitt tumame malee angoo Oromo akka hin taane kan ciicataniif mirkaneesse.
Jarri dorsifame galtuu haa tahan malee maqaa Oromummaan itt dhaadatame. Gabaatt baasanii Oromummaatt qoosuutu nama finiinsee.Nuti walqixee dha jechaa hoogganoota DhDUOtt akka ijoollee dheekamuun miseensota hagam tuffataniituu? OPDOn dhaabota biyya bulchan keessaa akka tokko tahett himamuufiin, isa “Gowwoomsaa Indaaqqoo teephaan kuffisanii” jedhan sana jechuu dha. Amma sossobaan dhossaa sun dhoohee bakka guutee hedduu qaanessee. Hamaa dhufaa jiru ofirraa faccisuuf qophii dha? Oromoon qaaniin du’a caalti jedha.
Teknoolojiin si’anaa Shashamannee taa’ani kan diinqa Awaasaa hasaasamu nama dhageessisaa. Dullachi Wayyaanee sana dagachuun yk maal abbaasee taati jechuun hogganoota maxxannee goleett galchee bookkise. Lafa saba keessanii dabarsaa kennaa yk isinin agarsiisa jedhe. Filmaati du’a hin olle du’a boonsaa du’uu yk miillatt kufuu dha. Walqixxummaan dhaabota ADWUI fakkeessan hafee, sobaa tahuun afaan bulchaa Oromiyaa isa dhugaa irraa dhagahame. Kana booda silaa hin qaana’anii nut dhaaba keessan jedhanii Oromoott dhaquu laata? Hariiroon waggaa digdamii shaniif shaakalamaa dhufe hardha akka tasaa bahe hundi dhagahuun sabboonota waliin aarsuu dandaha taanaan akka hin caamne qixuma sanatt eeguu dha. Sanatu yartuun namatt taphachuu irraa ittisaa. Kanaaf baraan tasummaan tuttuqaa diinaan weraruu irra dursanii itt yaaduun of cimfachuu dha. Yeroof “Qeerroon mataa tuutaa hin jarjartu suuta” Gaddisaa waliin jennuu laata? Garuu hamma yoomiitt haa harkifannuu?
Mootumaan Habashaa erga dhuma Jaarraa 20faa gara heeduu galtuu Oromoo meeshaa godhate kan Oromiyaa fi saboota biyya biraa dhiitaa fi gadi qabaa as gahe. Oromoo kan tahan hanga diina saba ofiif hirree tahu dhaabanitt tuffii halagaa jalaa birmadoomun hin jiru. Habashaan dur walqixxummaan hafee maqaa dhahuufuu Oromo ciigahu, amma yero barri isaanitt badu jalummaa abba tokkoota kana akka waan Oromoon Habashaan walqixxee Itophiyaa bulcha tureett hodeessaa jiru. Empayerri addunyaa darban hundi dantaa ofiif ummata koloneeffatan keessaa raayya guddaa hiriirsaa turani. Fakkeenyaaf yero Britanian Xaaliyaa cabsee Haayila Sillaasee aangoott deebise qondaalota waraana yartuuf malee kan adda lolaatt bobbaase biyyoota kolonii ofii fi kanneen biyyoota Awuropaa keessaa ture. Isaan keessaa biyyoota akka Sudaan, Kongo fi Asiya dhahuun ni dandahama. Xaaliyaaniinis Habashaa kan ari’e harka caaluu Eertranota, Somaalota fi Libiyaanota bobbaaseetu. Jarri sun maqaa ummata ofiin utuu hin tahin abba abbaan qooda fudhatani. Biyyooti saanii hamaaf haa tahuu tolaaf itt hin gaafatamani; Biritaniyaa fi Xaaliyaas waliin bulchan jechuun kolfa taha. Qoodi abba tokkoonni Oromoo taphatan jedhamuus sanumaa.
DhADUO fi miseensoti DhADUO amma jiran uuman adda. TPLF DhAdUO ijaaree godaa hanga gubbaatt boojuu hamileen cabdee ofiif kan Shabiyaan kenneef itt naqe. Hedduu fixee isaan hambisuu saaf boojuun sun akka Waaqaatt sodaataa fi sagadaafii jiraatani. Boojuun, garri caaluu annisaan dhumee keessa keessaa tufamaa hardha gahani. Amma xinnoo qofti gubbaatt hafanii jiru. Kan gidduu kana dheekkamsi dullachichaa itt anga’es isaanuma. Barbaachisummaan saanii raawwachuutt jira. Biyyas afaniis waan barataniif sichi jabbiin gayyaa kan isaan barbaachisu itt hin fakkaanne. Hedduun miseensaa OPDO dargaggoo dhihoo madaqfamanii. Gidiraa angafooti dhandhamatan hin argannee. Kanaaf surrii dhiqaan saanis adda. Akka angafoota saanii qofa utuu hin tahin yoo fedhan sammuu yaadu xinnoo hin dhabani. Sossobaa fi uleen kan sarmanii fi hin sarmine jiraachuu haasaa dullachichaa irraa heduun ni dandahama. Jara sarmuu diddan itt fakkaatett dullachichi kan yeelalee.
Miseensoti OPDO garri caaluu ayyaan laallattumaan haddheeffamu. Ayyaan laallattumaan gar lamaan ilaalamuu dandaha. Tokko carraan ruuchoo guuttachuu nan darbin jedhee kan itt duudee. Kaan rakkina ummataaf falli achiin argaminnaa jedhee karaa gabaabfachuu itt goree. Walabummaatt karaa gabaabaan hin jiru dafqanii dhiiganii babanii bira gahama. Garuu karaa jalqaban irraa muuxannoo gowwummaa saanii itt mullisu ni argatu taha. Keessummaan abbaa biyyaa irraa qabeenyaa fi ulfina mulquu qofa utuu hin tahin enyummaa saa haquunis akeekaa saa tahuu ni hubachiisa. Sun gara sochii jaalbiyyummaati isaan sherersu hin dandahu taanaan homtuu hin dandahu. Danbooba cimaa akka sibiilaa, kaasaa saba ofiitii dudhama fi kaayyoo Oromummaaf kutannoon bobbaanaan Wayyaanee hafee gaarriyyuu isaan dura dhaabbachuu hin ugguu. Lubbuu ofii caalaa kan nama mararu hin jiru. Garuu gara fedheenuu duuti hin oolu. Garuu kan bahuu hin oolle birmadummaa gatiin hin argamne biqilchaa du’uun salphina dhuma hin qabne keessa jiraachuu irra maqaa qaba. Kan Itophummaaf gororanillee dura of tahaanii milla ofiin yoo ijaajjaan ulfina argatu. Yoos qofa dhaggeeffatamu. Dullachichaa fi hiriyooti, injijjii qabsoon bilisummaa itt naqee harcaasaa dhufan, boquun dhiitahu, garaan afuufamuu qofa utuu hin tahin addunyaa irraa dhageettii fi ulfina kan argatan kaasaa hedduu keessaa tokko yerositt duubbee jabaaf amansiisaa qabaachuu dha.
Tuttuqaa diinana danfuu utuu hin tahin waan tahu malutt dursanii sonaan qophawuutu kan miidhaman irraa eegama. Dullachichi quufee bulgahuun nama rifachiisuu hin qabu ture. Oromoo fedha keenya dura dhaabbatu “Likki innasgabbaalle” jechuun maal jechuu dhaa? Awwaaressee lafaan walqixxeessuufii laata.? Likkiin itt galamu maaliin dhahama laata? Ummaticha gad ciree kan saan wal qixxeessuufii laata? Kanaan duras hileefii hin beeku, amma meeshaa shaffisiisu argatee laata? Gorsa Gooftaa Isaayyas Afawarqii dhagahee angoo 39 haquufii laata? Hacuuccaa nutt jabeessuuf wanti isaan kanaa dura hin tolchin hin jiru. Haa tahu malee akka isaan warraaqsa Oromoo qubaa tokko duubatt deebisuu hin dandeenye dargaggoon Oromoo mirkaneessitetiifi. Afrikaan kan dhaloota itt haanuuti; qoodi gadamoojjiini kan darbe keessa deebi’anii ilaaluun madaluu malee, wanti ofii roga dhabsiisan tarkaanfii fi wal qayyabannoo dhaloota egereett darbee gufuu akka tahu gochuu mitii. Waa’ee Empayer Itophiyaa bosostee gadooduun yaada duubatt hafaa dha. Garaa garummaa malee Afrikaanoti hundi kuukkii kolonummaa keessa deebi’anii ilaaluu qabu. Hogganoota, biyya, ummataa fi ofii saanii akka addaanjiro walirratt hin hirkanneett ilaalan utuu hin tahin, ummati AfriKaa fulduratt bahee akka fedha saatt waldiyyaa saa ijaarrachuu dha. Darabee saanii kan biraa darbanii too’achuu fi garbbomfachuuf gaggabuu irra, murnooti bilisummaa ummata keenyaaf qabsofne jedhan, “bilisummaa” argame sana akkamitt akka ummataaf tursan beekuu qabu. Bu’aa wareegama kumootaan argamett roorrisuun sabicha gidiraa arge sanaaf qofa utuu hin tahin qaabannoo jaalbiyyoota boqotanii jeequu fi salphisuu taha. Balleessaa darbeef gaabbanii gocha fokkuu irraa of qoqobuun, ajjeechaa dhuma hin qabnee fi hidhaatt nambiyaa guuruu dhiisuun beekaa tahuu dha. Sana gochuun eenyuun tajaajilu, eessas gahuuf? Sun maqaa saanii Kuwisling (“Quisling”), Mussolinii fi Hitler waliin gataa kosii seenaatt ergaa. Of sirreessuu baannaan bubbeen ummatootaa mal fiduu akka dandahu isaanuu beeku. Bookkisi dullachaa waldhabdee turett waa hin dabalin malee hariiroo dhaloota egeree godinichaa irratt goodanisa dhiisu hin dhabu.
Ulfinaa fi surraan gootota kufaniif; walabummaa, walqixxummaa fi bilisummaan kan hafaniif; nagaa fi araarri Ayyaana abboolii fi ayyoliif haa tahu!
Ibsaa Guutama
Bitootessa 2015
http://gubirmans.com/Hamma%20hin%20jirree%20bookkisa%20Dullacha.html
Oldie’s Bellow Of no Significance
https://oromianeconomist.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/abay-tsehaye-the-ugly-face-of-tigrean-chauvinism/
A Tigrean Oldie that seems misunderstanding the trend of history was heard bellowing from somewhere in Awaasaa anti-Oromo stance as if the Oromo were still those of yester years that Yohaanis had cut their tongues to impose his will. Since the colonization of Oromiyaa, Oromoo movements towards liberation had come being sabotaged by those that originated from her bosom and registered for serving the enemy knowingly or unknowingly. Oromo by nature are effective and efficient in all fields of engagement. As fighters they were known for bravery that thousands could not subdue. Believing that the colonizer gave priority to hiring them for fields that require guts and open mindedness. For internal and external conflicts including against the Oromo, it used to deploy mostly such hirelings. Those forget even the ethical and cultural obligation of their ancestors once their belly is full. In their cultural setting they used to brag by their father’s name, as galtuu to brag by the master’s name become their source of pride.
Many none Oromo anticolonial activists take the Oromo as force of reaction merely from the number of galtuu (runaways) mobilized against them. These days, those ashamed of serving the enemy are increasing. Gone are the days the Oromo join colonial camp in masse hired to strengthen colonial forces. The trend is joining liberation force to empower subjugate nations. The objective of Oromoo liberation movement that was set by the vanguard OLF is not only to liberate the land but also includes liberation of the enslaved minds. As long as there are those brainwashed, Oromiyaa will remain a forest from where everybody cuts shafts for their spears. For this reason whenever we talk about organization that are formed in the name of Oromo this should not be forgotten. To leave behind one’s nationals behind will be pilling up shame for the nation. They have to be told daily that enemy organization is not compatible with their identity. Stripping them or adding curs to humiliation they are already suffering in hands of the enemy is of no use for the nation. That should be the way progressives think. Progressivism is not a monopoly of a class or a party; it is the determination of individuals or groups from all walks of life that stand for change to betterment of society. Negotiations are possible but the nation’s kaayyoo is not negotiable.
The Tigreans are occupying Oromiyaa by changing their ancestors’ tactics keeping the major strategy constant. They had contact with Oromo activists when both were in struggle for liberation but failed to enroll them for their major mission. However it was then that they were exposed to strong and weak points of Oromo struggle. That helped them to devise ahead the means by which to thwart it. Though the basic objective is to lure and recruit from among the Oromo it was not as glaring recruitment for servitude as their forebears. But they created a pseudo organization for Oromummaa seemingly with equal status as theirs. The tither attached to it was not as discreet as they thought but was visible to the naked eye. In that way a fake organization, OPDO was molded for POW galtuu. They formed a similar “PDO” for the Amaaraa and others and created EPRDF under the leadership of TPLF that is now reigning. OPDO means Tigrean ruling Oromiyaa with mask of Oromummaa on. Thus TPLF that came pretending to be a progressive force was exposed as the most reactionary batch of all past autocratic rulers of the empire.
Those that are now called members of the OPDO are mere servants like olden times galtuu and never represent Oromiyaa. Some Oromo persons had their doubts to call openly OPDO is mere servant. But others has given it an adjective “Maxxannee”(appendage). To assure its continued loyalty periodically OPDO was called for “gimgamaa” (assessment) meeting chaired by the masters. With this “gimgamaa” members of OPDO were subjected to insults, reprimand, threat, and harassment, being chased out, disappearance and imprisonment up to this day. This time, knowingly or unknowingly sour relations between the colonizer and OPDO was leaked from a meeting hall. A Tigray oldie who gathered his “Maxxannee” leaders in an Awaasaa meeting hall was heard swearing and reprimanding them. Unless he was not drunk he would not dared provoking swarm of bees.
He treaded over sovereignty of Oromiyaa claimed to have been recognized by their constitution. The fire was not limited to OPDO alone but jumped to the people they originated from. His reprimand to his “Maxxannee” was not surprising, but what made the Oromo rise together in furry was his demand from servants to hogtie and handover the Oromo people to him. Even those in the meeting roared with laughter at his below, it seems. Oromo liberation movement had its own pre drawn program on how to handle enemy machination. Rumbling of the person seemed new because of foot drugging of Oromo revolution. His doings brought forth the true nature of EPRDF to the open and excited Oromo that were giving it benefit of the doubt; otherwise it did not surprise those that knew its nature. The oldie verified the truth for those that had doubts of OPDO being an Addeet forged arm of TPLF not of the Oromo.
Though those threatened are runaways it was because of their Oromummaa that they were sworn at. It was looking down up on Oromummaa in the open market that provoked nationalists’ anger. Many Oromo and ordinary members of OPDO might have never thought that those leaders of the organization would be censured like small kids. It was told that OPDO was equal partner of the organization that rule the empire but that was like the saying “Hoodwinking the hen they entangled her with cable to put her down”. Now their defective relations are made very public, to quietly overlook is shame. Oromo says “shame is worse than death”.
Modern technology enables one to hear what is whispered in room in Awaasaa from Shaashamannee. The Wayyaanee oldie forgot or from contempt he has for the people he pushed the Maxxannee into a corner and bellowed on them. He told them to give up their nation’s land or he will show them their size. The choice is since death is inevitable to die honorably or to kiss their feet and continue in shame. That equality of member organization is false is officially heard from true ruler of Oromiyaa. Everybody knew that relation between OPDO and EPRDF was not what is in writing but that between master and servant. If relation that had existed for the last twenty five years could accidentally leak and make all nationals to rise in fury there is no reason for it to cool off. That could guard from being kicked around by minority forever. For that reason instead of being caught by surprise and reacting to provocation of the enemy year in year out, it is high time that one firmly sticks to own program. For the time being let us sing with artist Gaaddisaa “Qeerroon mataa tuutaa hin jarjartu suuta” (The hairy head youth moves without haste). But, for how long should we drag our foot?
Habashaa government has come down kicking and suppressing Oromo and other nations with help of Oromo runaway as instrument since the last decades of 19thcentury. The Oromo can never be free from alien contempt until those who are Oromo stop serving as arm of the enemy. The Habashaa that used to shun mentioning the name Oromo now when time got harsh on them started to claim equal participation of Oromo in their administration citing services of individual runaways and POW as if the Oromo nation has ever made a pact with them to participate in their governance. All past world empires had recruited great armies from their colonies for own purposes. For example, when the British defeated the Italians and reinstituted Hayila Sillaasee to his throne except for few officers all it deployed to war fronts were persons from colonies of their own and other European countries’. From among them those from the Sudan, Congo and Asia can be mentioned. The Italians also used fighters from Eritrea, Somalia and Libya when they forced the emperor to flee his empire. Those participated not representing their countries but as individuals. Whether it is for bad or good their countries are not responsible .To say they ruled Britain and Italy together will be laughable. What is attributed as part played by Oromo individuals in Ethiopian administration was not different from those.
OPDO and its present day members are different in nature. TPLF built OPDO and filled its rank and file with demoralized prisoners of war in its captivity and those supplied it by EPLF. Those captives looked upon it with fear as their God and lived kowtowing for it for sparing them after butchering most of their comrades. Most captives survived to this day after losing stamina and lots had been purged. Now only few are left at the top. They were those that rebuke of the oldie thundered on these days. It seems the need for them is waning and they may even be considering to be replaced by better group. Because they have gained knowledge of the country and the language they might have felt no more need for a surrogate. Most OPDO members are recent recruits and are younger. They did not receive the hardship that their seniors experienced. For this reason the type of brainwashing they are subjected to is different. Unlike their elders it is not only with their belly but if they want there could be a bit of grey matter remaining in their head to think with. That there are those that comply with orders by luring or forcing and those that refuse to comply can be deduced from words of the oldie. He yelled at those he took as not conforming to his silly orders.
Most OPDO members are blamed for being opportunists. Opportunism can be viewed in two ways. One is those that went into it in masse not the chance of filling their belly. The others are those that believed it could be a short cut to find solution for problems of their people. Freedom has no short cut one has to sweat, bleed and be maimed to reach it. But they may get experience to realize their naiveté from the road they started to travel. That might give them the experience to realize their naiveté. They may also realize that objective of the guest is not only to plunder resources and honor of the nation but also to erase its identity. If that could not propel them to patriotic move nothing could. With steel strong discipline, revolutionary commitment for national cause and determination to achieve principal goal of Oromummaa, let alone Wayyaanee Mountain will not dare stand in their way. There is nothing valuable than one’s life. But no one can avoid death. For this reason it will be honorable to die cultivating priceless freedom than to live in perpetual humiliation. Even those that salivate for Ethiopianism will be respected if only they could first become themselves and stand on their feet. Then only they will be listened to respectfully. The oldie and friends that came wiping nits that struggle of liberation infested them with got not only chubby chicks and bulging belly but were also listened to and respected by the world because they had among others strong dependable rear.
It is expected from the wronged to be ever prepared rather than spontaneously boiling by periodical provocations of the enemy. Belching of the oldie after over eating should not be a point of irritation. What does “We shall reduce them to their size” means? Does it mean turning them to dust and level them with the ground? What is the unit of measure of said size? Could it mean massacring and reducing size of population to their own? So far they have never spared them; could it be possible that they got new more efficient weapons this time? Could it be that the oldie accepted Master Isaayyaas Afawarqii’s advice and going to erase article 39 of their constitution? There was nothing they did not do to tighten their domination on the Oromo. However Oromo youth had assured them that they cannot move back Oromo revolution one finger. Africa belongs to the future generation; the role of those that are in their last phase should have been reviewing and evaluating their past rather than making distortions they created transcend their time and create obstacles to bright future and understanding of coming generation. Lamenting about archaic Ethiopian empire is a backward idea. Without distinction Africans need review colonial chronic. Not leaders that see country, people and themselves as entities independent of each other but the African peoples should come forward and impose their will in reconstructing their continent. Groups that fought their ways to freedom should know how to maintain it not itching to control and enslave others in their turn. Abusing gains registered by sacrifices of thousands is dishonoring not only the nation that suffered much for it but also to memory of those patriots. They should have the courage to regret for past misdeeds and stop endless killings or herding citizens to prisons. By doing so whom are they serving, for what end? This will only send their names down to garbage bin of history with Quisling, Mussolini and Hitler. Failing to heed they know what peoples’ storm could bring. Bellowing of the oldie did not add anything different to the existing conflict, but it is possible for it to leave stigma to relations of future generation of the region.
Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty equality and freedom for the living and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our fore parents!
Ibsaa Guutama
March 2015
http://gubirmans.com/Oldie%E2%80%99s%20Bellow%20Of%20no%20Significance.html
Oromia:The Calanqoo Massacre Memorial Monument Inaugurated 21st March 2015. #Oromo. #Africa March 21, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Aannolee and Calanqo, Aannolee Oromo Martyrs’ Memorial Monument, Calanqoo Martyrs' Memorial Monument.Tags: Aannolee and Calanqoo, Africa, African Studies, Calanqoo, Calanqoo Oromo Martyrs' Memorial Monument, Genocide against the Oromo, Oromo people, Oromummaa, The Calanqoo Massacre Memorial Monument
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The Calanqoo Massacre Memorial Monument Inaugurated on March 21, 2015.
“YAA CALANQOO LOLAA..!”
Saaphaloo Karriin
Galmee injifannoo si yaa dirree duulaa,
Gootummaa abbootiin si keessatti laala,
Dhiigni galaanawee sirra yaa’e akka lolaa,
Bar dhibba caalaa, lafee dhabde awwaala,
Hanga arraa haffiggaan aduu si affeelaa,
Turte gaa aabboo koo taate lafee callaa,
Arra qubbii arkattee sii dhaabne gaaddisa,
Quuqaa garaa keetii naatu sirraa buqqisa.
…………………………………………
Arra ilmaan kankee si yaadachaa jiranii,
Kaabaaf kibbaa, hundaa walitti dhufanii,
Bahaaf dhihaan hafnee sirratti marsanii,
Yaa calanqoo calii, lafee bobeeysanii,
Tan jechaadha turan san afoola afaanii,
Arra hundi dhufee sirratti wal gahanii,
Oromootaaf himi seenaa gaafa kaanii.
Siin baana tulluu qeerreensaa,
Nuu himi gaa seenaa kaleessaa.
Gootummaa fi tooftaa darbata eeboo,
Tokkummaa saani, gamtaa akka daboo,
Himi dachii duusee, akkatti reeffi abboo,
YAA CALANQOO LOLAA
Oromia: The 2015 Commemoration of Odaa-Bultum (One of the Major Oromo Gadaa System’s Administrative Centers) March 20, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Ateetee (Siiqqee Institution), Black History, Chiekh Anta Diop, Gadaa System, Kemetic Ancient African Culture, Odaa Bultum, Oromia, Oromo Nation, Oromummaa, Sirna Gadaa, The Oromo Democratic system, The Oromo Governance System.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Gadaa System, Odaa Bultum, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo culture, Oromo people, Oromo's Ancient Democratic, Oromummaa
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The 2015 Commemoration of Odaa-Bultum (One of the Major Oromo Gadaa System’s Administrative Centers)
Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com
Oromos from all corners of Oromiyaa have converged at the once-banned Odaa-Bultum, one of the major Oromo Gadaa System’s administrative centers and located in Eastern Oromiyaa, to celebrate Odaa-Bultum and witness the peaceful power-transfer to the newAbbaa-Gadaa; the celebration will last for eight days, starting on January 28, 2015. According to sources, the new Abbaa-Gadaa of Odaa-Bultum will be inaugurated at this week-long celebration.
Odaa-Bultum, together with the other Odaa’s across Oromiyaa, was banned by the invading Habesha army at the end of the 19-century. Though the banning was meant to destroy and erase people’s memory of the Oromo Gadaa heritage, the strong collective societal memory of the Gadaa System continues to propel the ongoing Renaissance of the Gadaa System across Oromiyaa.
Video#2 (click on the clip to play):
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10101480785341103
Video#4 (click on the clip to play):
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10101480936313553
Video#1 (click on the clip to play):
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10101480773474883
Video#3 (click on the clip to play):
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10101480878105203
Source: Amajjii/January 29, 2015 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com
‘Waggoota saddettan dabraniif Gadaa Odaa Bultum kan bulchan Abbaa Gadaa Mahammad Hammad Bookee guyyaa har’aa hogganaa haraya ta’uun kan filaman Abbaa Gadaa Shaamil Hammadootti baallii dabarsan. Gadaan haarayni, Gadaa quufaa-nagaayaa, tan bilisummaan biyyaafi ummata Oromoo keessatti goonfannu akka taatu hawwina.’ Jawar Mohammed, Guraandhala 4 bara 2015.
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Land Grabs and the African land question March 20, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Land and resource Rights, Land and Water Grabs in Oromia, Land Grabs in Africa, Land Grabs in Oromia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, land and water grabs in Oromia, Land grabs in Africa, Omo, Oromia, Oromo people
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The African land question is replete with issues of increasing landlessness, insecure tenancy, eviction and conflict. Portrayed against the backdrop of African Land Tenure and Foreign Land Ownership, commonly referred to as Land Grabs, this article raises questions as to whether such a phenomenon poses a threat or provides opportunity for sustainable development in Africa. More specifically, our thesis contends that the current land acquisitions by foreign investors have put the land question in Africa back on the global development agenda and also argues that land ownership and land use in Africa is a highly contentious, yet emotive, and worthy of critical analysis.
The concept of land is complex and incorporates many different aspects. Even when land is narrowly defined as a question of control over agricultural and pastoral land (rather than rights to natural resources such as water, minerals or forests, which are linked to, and to a large degree, embedded within the question of land rights), the land question is multi-dimensional, with economic, political, social and spiritual dynamics – it is as one civil society activist put it, “When someone loses their land not only do they lose their livelihood, but they also lose their identity”.
During the period 2007 to 2008, when the food insecurity crises pervaded the globe, the land question took on a new meaning and direction. Africa became the new frontier for global food and agro-fuel production. Currently, billions of dollars are being mobilised to create the infrastructure that will connect more of Africa’s farmland to global markets, and billions more are being mobilised by investors to take over those farmlands to produce for foreign markets.
In a rapidly globalising world, land demands are to an increasing extent driven by factors anchored exogenously. Products derived from land use are often not consumed where they are produced. The globalisation of the economy implies that local land use changes are increasingly driven by demands for products that are part of commodity chains with a large geographical span. Local human needs and local capital input are not necessarily as important determinants for land as was the case in many land use systems before the phenomena of globalisation swept the world. In this respect, the land question in Africa has come to the fore, once again. However, this time around, Africa has become the new frontier of land acquisitions – not by local people, but by foreign financial institutions, specifically multinational corporations.
Various terminologies have been used to describe the phenomenon of land outsourcing in Africa and other developing countries. Terms such as “commercialisation”, “colonisation”, “new imperialism”, neo-colonialism”, “land grabbing”, “agro- investments” and “new land invasions” are being used to describe the land acquisition process in Africa. Some investigators contend that the direct control of land by foreign companies is only part of a general trend towards the commodification of land in Africa. They warn that in this period of globalisation, a new inherent tension of security of property rights is born in a hegemonic form, and this in turn, is based on the right to exclude and alienate land. In this respect, it is the peasantry which suffers the most, especially being alienated and evicted from their customary land, once again.
A combination of higher and more volatile global commodity prices, demand for green energy, population growth, urbanisation and globalisation and its overall effects on economic development are the main macro-level factors that have contributed to the land grab phenomena. More specifically, though, the strategic programmes for land acquisition are of food security, particularly in the investor countries, bio-fuels for energy markets in the developed world, finance and hedge funds for land speculation, and more recently, biochar production for the carbon market accreditation.
Given the financial meltdown of 2008, all sorts of players in the finance and food industries, investment houses that manage workers’ pensions, private equity funds looking for a fast turnover, hedge funds which are driven off the now collapsed derivatives market and grain traders seeking new strategies for growth are turning to land, for both food and fuel production – as a new source of profit. Traditionally, land itself is not a typical investment for many of these transnational firms. Indeed, land is so fraught with political conflict that many countries don’t even allow foreigners to own it. And land doesn’t appreciate overnight like gold.
To get a return, investors need to raise the productive capacities of the land. Moreover, the food and financial crises of 2008 combined have turned agricultural land into a new strategic asset. Globally, food prices are high and land prices are low and most of the “solutions” to the food crisis talk about pumping more food out of the land that is available. Clearly, there is money to be made by getting control of the best soils, near available water supplies, as fast as possible.
While the benefits for land-seekers are obvious, the benefits to African countries may not be as apparent. For example, one of the most important patterns to notice in these transnational land acquisitions is the limited importance of financial transfers. Recent reports by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) reveal that the main benefit to the host country is perceived to be investor commitments like employment creation and infrastructure development. Similarly, other reports indicate that such land agreements can provide macro-level benefits such as GDP growth and greater government revenue, raise local living standards, and bring technology, capital and market access. In addition, improving the productivity of African agriculture undoubtedly serves as a huge point of interest for governments seeking foreign investment and in turn transnational land leases.
Despite the possibility for benefits associated with such land transfers, reactions from land-based movements, civil society organisations and organisations like the Oakland Institute and GRAIN have been highly critical and the perceived costs to the local land users appear high. Complaints about the lack of transparency in land agreements are widespread, a problem which can easily spur corruption and unfair negotiations. Many reports describe unbalanced power relationships where rich governments or international corporates have an obvious advantage in negotiating with African nations that may not always be politically stable or respectful of the rights of their citizens and may lack the institutional frameworks necessary to enforce contracts.
Similarly, the issue of land tenure comes up repeatedly, as African governments are criticised for failing to protect their agricultural workers from exploitation in this regard and accused of leasing land that they only “nominally own.” Land deals are often done in secret without informing the current land users, which causes them to be suddenly dispossessed.
Land garbs are also beginning to pose other threats and risks. Many global analysts predict that the biggest security threats in the twenty-first century may centre on disputes over water and the food that earth’s dwindling water supply is able to produce. The greatest threat to our common future, writes Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, “is no longer conflict between heavily armed superpowers, but rather spreading food shortages and rising food prices—and the political turmoil this would lead to.”
Commodity speculation in food staples has created huge profits for companies such as the American investment firm Goldman Sachs, which is regarded as one of the world’s leaders in the trading of crop futures. Many other international banks are also heavily involved. The United Kingdom–based public interest group World Development Movement (WDM, now renamed Global Justice) estimates that Barclays, for example, has made up to £340 million a year from speculating on food prices. The WDM also found that financial speculation on food had nearly doubled in the preceding five years, from $65 billion a year to $126 billion a year worldwide.
Even ‘prestigious’ universities are joining the queue to invest in these new hedge funds. A new report on land acquisitions in seven African countries suggests that Harvard, Vanderbilt and many other US colleges with large endowment funds have invested heavily in African land in the past few years. Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa’s largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers.
Land grabs—whether initiated by multinational corporations and private investment firms, sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East or state entities such as China and India—are now in the news constantly.
Land grabs in the contemporary period are reminiscent of the colonial era with foreign nations again staking a claim on the continent. Moreover, since African governments are partnering with foreign investors in the land grab, onlookers are left to question if this is another case of corrupt African leaders selling their citizens short or simply governments pursuing an economic development opportunity. Evidence suggests a marked disparity in the benefits received by those involved in and affected by these transnational land acquisitions, particularly for those originally dwelling on the land.
Such a problem deserves both increased international attention and country-level debate to ensure these agreements provide more equal benefits to all parties involved.
The new phenomenon of land outsourcing spawns it own discourses and prescriptions as to how land should be held and how disputes and conflicts should be adjudicated and the institutional frameworks that should underpin such systems. Thus holistically viewed, land outsourcing has to be understood within the context of two mutually inclusive processes, i.e. the macro level (global, regional and national levels) and the micro level (the peasantry and the intermediary administration). In this respect, it is essential to understand nuances and narratives at the intersections of the two, in order to establish what is really going on within the land acquisition process.
The possibility of volatile land conflicts also loom large within the context of the land acquisition process. Given that most of these acquisitions are for macro scale crop production, it is highly likely that a large number of vulnerable rural inhabitants will be displaced. As long as the African peasantry feel and experience economic exclusion, they are more likely to protest politically about their lack of access to land.
Given the recent history of colonial exploits, we contend that the new phenomenon of land acquisition begs the question of how to make the new agreements consensual endeavours as opposed to unwelcomed “land grabbing” that infringes upon the rights of local land holders. While there are definite possibilities for macro level economic benefits for African countries from foreign investment in agriculture and land development, these gains may not be felt by those originally dwelling on the land. The issue must be seriously and immediately debated by African governments, civil society organizations, policy makers, politicians and scholars.
Finally, the authors are of the sincere conviction that business schools, if they are ‘worth their weight in salt’ and bear any testimony to the intrinsic values of social entrepreneurship should assist in unveiling the exploitative tentacles of insidious financial institutions and multinational corporations. In this respect, business educators can contribute significantly by introducing issues of social responsibility, social justice and ethics in their programmes, especially when they deal with investment portfolios of the new hedge funds and multinational companies. This must of necessity be the founding principle of mission statements of all business schools in Africa and other emerging economies.
Certainly investors can make huge profits through investments in new international hedge funds which focus on land, but at what cost? Let us be reminded, once again by Dalrymple’s visionary account of the history of the East India Company – “its story has never been more current”. The new wave of ‘looting’ of land and other natural resources will continue on a scale hitherto unknown. We need to think of the thousands of people in Africa and other emerging nations who are and will become landless in the countries of their birth by an act which is transcribed by a pen on a piece of paper, and then ‘transported’ by a click of a button, thousands of kilometers away to be sanctioned and acted upon. The negative multiplier effects of such acts are too horrendous to contemplate. Remember Dalrymple’s prophetic words!
Source: From part of the article:
Hedge funds and corporate raiders in Africa: Space invaders of the third kind by Dhiru Soni, Ahmed Shaikh, Anis Karodia and Joseph David, 2015-03-16, Issue 718
Ahmed Shaikh, is a senior Faculty and the CEO of REGENT Business School. Anis Karodia, is senior Faculty and Director of the Centre of Health Care Management at REGENT Business School. Joseph David, is senior Faculty and Director of the Centre for Public Sector Management at REGENT Business School. Dhiru Soni, is a researcher and consultant to the higher education sector
Read more at:
Raspberry Pi in Masekelo: Bringing Wikipedia to a school without electricity March 18, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in 10 best Youtube videos, 25 killer Websites that make you cleverer.Tags: Africa, Wikimedia
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Raspberry Pi in Masekelo: Bringing Wikipedia to a school without electricity
BY JANET CHAPMAN, Wikimedia Blog
Students in a Tanzanian high school without electricity can now access Wikipedia via Wi-Fi, using a donated Raspberry Pi computer. Read more at:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/17/raspberry-pi-tanzania-school/
Indigenous Women on Front Lines for System Change: Freedom According to Zapatista Women March 18, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Self determination, THE ZAPATISTA WOMEN.Tags: Development and Change, National Self Determination, THE ZAPATISTA WOMEN
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RELkjXfmoWeHlSNVJpc2d2aTg/edit
https://earthwarriorsrising.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/the-zapatista-womens-revolutionary-law/
An Amusing Historical picture Captured in 1903 showing Irreechaa celebration at Lake Hora Harsadii, Bishoftu town of Oromia March 18, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Culture, Irreecha, Irreecha (Irreesa) 2014, Irreecha (Irreessa) 2014, Irreecha Birraa, Oromo, Oromo Culture.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Amusing picture of Irreecha Oromo at lake Hora in 1903, Hora Harsadii (Bishoftuu), Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving), Irreecha Oromo, Irreessa, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo culture, Oromo people, Oromummaa
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An Amusing Historical picture Captured 112 years ago showing Irreechaa celebration at Lake Hora, Bishoftu town of Oromia
This historical Irreechaa celebration was captured 112 years ago- 1903 at Lake Hora, Bishoftu town. Irreechaa is one of the indigenous Oromo culture by which Oromos are getting together to thank their Creator called Waaqaa or God for the reason that He helped them to turn a year. For a reason that God or Waaqaa transferred them from the rainy and difficult season to a shiny and enjoyable season Oromos are getting together and give their thanks for the Great Lord I .e. Waaqaa or God. It was then banned and the banning era was ended with the fall down of Mengistu’s regime in 1991. The Oromo people celebrate Irreechaa to thank Waaqaa (God) for the blessings and mercies they have received throughout the previous year. The thanksgiving is celebrated at the sacred grounds of Hora Harsadi (Lake Harsadi), Bishoftu, Oromia. The Irreechaa festival is celebrated every year at the beginning of Birraa (the sunny new season after the dark, rainy winter season). Irrecha is celebrated throughout Oromia and around the world where diaspora Oromos live especially North America and Europe. The Oromo people consider the winter rainy season of June to September as the time of difficulty. The heavy rain brings with it lots of things like swelling rivers and floods that may drown people, cattle, crop, and flood homes. Also, family relationship will severe during winter rain as they can’t visit each other because of swelling rivers. In addition, winter time could be a time of hunger for some because of the fact that previous harvest collected in January is running short and new harvest is not ripe yet. Because of this, some families may endure food shortages during the winter. In Birra (the season after winter in Oromoland), this shortage ends as many food crops especially maize is ripe and families can eat their fill. Other crops like potato, barley, etc. will also be ripe in Birra. Some disease types like malaria also break out during rainy winter time. Because of this, the Oromos see winter as a difficult season. However, that does not mean the Oromo people hate rain or winter season at all. Even when there is shortage of rain, they pray to Waaqaa (God) for rain. The Oromo people celebrate Irreechaa not only to thank Waaqaa (God) but also to welcome the new season of plentiful harvests after the dark and rainy winter season associated with nature and creature. On Irreechaa festivals, friends, family, and relatives gather together and celebrate with joy and happiness. Irreechaa festivals bring people closer to each other and make social bonds. Moreover, the Oromo people celebrate this auspicious event to mark the end of rainy season, known as Ganna, was established by Oromo forefathers, in the time of Gadaa Melbaa in Mormor, Oromia. The auspicious day on which this last Mormor Day of Gadaa Belbaa – the Dark Time of starvation and hunger- was established on the 1st Sunday of last week of September or the 1st Sunday of the 1st week of October according to the Gadaa lunar calendar has been designated as National Thanksgiving Day by modern-day Oromo people.
Finfinne Radio: Interview with Obbo Edao Boru. #Oromia March 16, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Obbo Edao Boru, Oromia, Oromummaa.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Development and Change, Genocide against the Oromo, National Self Determination, Obbo Edao Boru, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo people, Oromummaa
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Prof. Habtamu Dugo Introduces the Oromo People at the ASA’s Conference (Indianapolis, Nov. 2014). #Oromia. #Africa March 16, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Amnesty International's Report: Because I Am Oromo, Because I am Oromo, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Fordi jeg er oromo, Jen & Josh (Ijoollee Amboo), Land Grabs in Oromia, Oromia, Oromia at The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), Oromo Nation, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Developing country, Development problems of Oromia, Economic and Social Freedom, Governance issues, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo culture, Oromo people, Oromummaa, Prof. Habtamu Dugo, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Tyranny
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Superfood (Camel Milk) can Beat the Challenge of Superbug (Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics) March 15, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Camel Milk, Uncategorized.Tags: Camel Milk
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‘The microbiologists continuously exploring camel milk for its unique antimicrobial characteristics. They revealed that camel milk’s (CM) antimicrobial attributes are more important than other multi-dimensional benefits especially in scenario as scientists has warned about the future threat of superbug1. Scientists and health officials have been warning us about antibiotic overuse and drug-resistant “superbugs” for a long time. Antibiotics kill bacteria that cause infection but in the process they can also kill good bacteria (the human body hosts about 100 trillion). This phenomenon is developing towards a complicated two pronged dilemma, i.e. resistance of harmful bacteria to antibiotics and vanishing the good bacteria. The scientists has warned that million of people will be killed by the superbug in the years to come.’
The microbiologists continuously exploring camel milk for its unique antimicrobial characteristics. They revealed that camel milk’s (CM) antimicrobial attributes are more important than other multi-dimensional benefits especially in scenario as scientists has warned about the future threat of superbug1. Scientists and health officials have been warning us about antibiotic overuse and drug-resistant “superbugs” for a long time. Antibiotics kill bacteria that cause infection but in the process they can also kill good bacteria (the human body hosts about 100 trillion). This phenomenon is developing towards a complicated two pronged dilemma, i.e. resistance of harmful bacteria to antibiotics and vanishing the good bacteria. The scientists has warned that million of people will be killed by the superbug in the years to come.
Drug Resistant Bacteria Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
With courtesy of CNN
Camel milk fortified with natural antibiotics (lactoferrin, lactic acid bacteria and others)2 with symbiotic affect to the good bacteria…
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Biyya Dimookiraasiin hin jirree keessatti filannoo dimookiraatawaa gaggeessuun hin danda’amu. March 14, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Oromian Voices, Oromians Protests, Oromo and the call for justice and freedom, Oromo News, Oromo Protests.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Economic and Social Freedom, Genocide against the Oromo, National Self Determination, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, Oromummaa, Qeerroo Bilisummaa, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Ibsa Ejjennoo Ariifachiisaa Barattoota Oromoo Dhaabbilee Barnoota Olaanoo Hundaaf.
Biyya Dimookiraasiin hin jirree keessatti filannoo dimookiraatawaa gaggeessuun hin danda’amu.
Bitootessa 14,2015
Adeemsi amma biyya keenya keessatti lafa dimookiraasiin hin jirreetti filaannoo dimookiraataawaa gaggeessa jirra jechuun ololli lallabamaa jiru kun dhaabbachuu qaba. Biyyatti keessa bu’uurri dimookiraasii hin jiru, ilmaan Oromoo jumlaan hidhaatti guuramaa, Ajjeefamaa, barnoota irraa arii’atamaa fi doorsifamaa ,Oromummaan yakkamaa, akkasumas Oromoon qe’ee fi qabeenyaa isaa irraa buqqa’aa, fi mirga abbaa biyyummaa dhabnee waan jirruuf biyya dimookiraasiin hin jirree fi mirgi namummaa fi dimookiraasii dhiitamaa jiru keessatti maqaa filannoo gaggeessina jedhuun kaardii filannoo hiruu fi olola sobaa filannoo dimookiraasii jechuun lallabuu dura mirgootni dimookiraasii fi namummaa kabajamuu qabu. Haalli rakkisaa kanaan uummatni keenya xaxamee utuu jiruu adeemsi amma Mooraa Yuunibarsiitii keessatti kaardii Filannoo hiruuf jirra jechuun Mootummaan EPRDF lallabaa jiru jabeessinee balaaleffachuun, ibsa ejjennoo armaan gadii dabarsina.
- Filannoo gaggeessuun dura Mirgootni dimookiraasii fi namummaa kabajamuu qaba.
- Filannootti seenuun dura gaaffiin mirgaa fi dimookiraasii bara darbe Ebla irraa eegaluun hanga har’atti itti fufinsaan karaa nagaa gaafachaa jirruuf deebiin nuuf kennamuu qaba. keessattuu rakkoon uummatni keenya gama siyaasaa, dinagdee fi hawwaasummaan qabu akka furamuuf gaaffii keenya xalayaa Iyyannoon dhiyeeffachaa kan jirruuf deebiin ariifachiisaan nuuf kennamu qaba.
- Barattootni Oromoo gaaffii mirgaa fi dimookiraasii karaa nagaa waan gaafatan qofaaf jumlaan hidhatti guuraman gaaffii tokko malee hiikamuu qabu. Kanneen ajjeefamaniif mootummaan yakka ajjeechaa rawwate seeratti dhiyaachuu qaba. Kanneen barnoota irraa arii’amanii fi doorsifamaa jiran irraa Mootummaan hiraarsa dhaabuu qaba, beenyaan qaamota midhaman hundaaf kanfalamuu qaba.
- Bu’uurrii dimookiraasii hundeeffamee, boordiin filannoo gartuu mootummaa irraa bilisa ta’ee hundeeffamee filmaatni dhaabbilee Siyaasaa biyyattii hundaa fi kanneen bilisummaa uummata isaanii kabachiisuuf qabsoo gaggeessan hundi kan keessatti himatanii fi filmaatichi yoo qaamooleen leellistoota dimookiraasii addunyaa adeemsa filmata gaggeeffama jiru keessatti hirmachuun ‘’Observe’’ akka godhan yoo ta’ee filachuu fi filatamuun kan dada’amu ta’uu hubachiisuun adeemsa amma jiruu kanaan filamaata kanaatti kan hin hirmaanee fi kaardii filannoos fudhachuun gatii kan hin qabne ta’uu jabeessine hubachiifna.
- Mootummaan ani dimookiraatawaadha filannoo dimookiraasiin gaggeessa jechaa jiru kun waraanaa fi human tikaa mooraa barnoota keessa qubsiisuun mirga keenya guutummatti sarbaa jira, afaan qawweetti fayyadamuun dirqamaan dimookiraasiin jira kaardii fudhadhu jechuun falla dimookiraasii fi abbaa irreemmaa ija baase ta’uu uummata keenyaa fi addunyaan hubachuu qabdi, gaaffii dimookiraasii fi bilisummaa gama hundaan gaafachaa jirruuf filannoo dura deebiin nuuf kennamuu qaba, hanga gaaffiin keenya deebii quubsaa argatuttii Warraaqsi FDG jabaate kan itti fufu ta’a jennee ibsa keenya dabarfannee jirra.
Injifatnoon Uummata Oromoof!
Gadaan Gadaa Bilisummaati!
Qeerroo Bilisummaa
Ibsa Ejjennoo Ariifachiisaa Barattoota Oromoo Dhaabbilee Barnoota Olaanoo Hundaaf.
“If-then” Planning: The Most Powerful Technique for Following Through on Your Dreams March 14, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in 10 best Youtube videos, 25 killer Websites that make you cleverer.Tags: If then planning, Technique for Following Through on Your Dreams
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Here’s the Most Powerful Technique for Following Through on Your Dreams
Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree
“If-then” planning.
Via Nine Things Successful People Do Differently:
It’s called if-then planning, and it is a really powerful way to help you achieve any goal. Well over a hundred studies, on everything from diet and exercise to negotiation and time management, have shown that deciding in advance when and where you will take specific actions to reach your goal (e.g., “If it is 4 p.m., then I will return any phone calls I should return today”) can double or triple your chances for success.
And:
Via Nine Things Successful People Do Differently:
How effective are these plans? One study looked at people who had the goal of becoming regular exercisers. Half the participants were asked to plan where and when they would exercise each week (e.g., “If it is Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, then I will hit the gym for an hour before work”). The results were dramatic: weeks later, 91 percent of if-then planners were still exercising regularly, compared to only 39 percent of nonplanners!Similar results have been shown for other health-promoting behaviors, like remembering to do monthly breast self-exams (100 percent of planners, 53 percent of nonplanners), and getting cervical cancer screenings (92 percent of planners, 60 percent of nonplanners).
Why are these plans so effective? Because they are written in the language of your brain—the language of contingencies. Human beings are particularly good at encoding and remembering information in “if X, then Y” terms, and using these contingencies to guide their behavior, often below their awareness.
And:
Via Nine Things Successful People Do Differently:
Making If-Then Plans
1) Identify a critical action you need to take to reach your goal.
2) When and where should you take this action? What is the critical situation?
3) Put it all together:
If (or When) _________________________, then ___________________. (Example: If it is 8 a.m. on Monday, then I will go for a run.)
4) Now, think about an obstacle that might derail you. This could be a temptation, a distraction, or some other factor that would interfere with your progress.
5) When that temptation or distraction comes calling, how will you handle it? What will you do instead?
6) Put it all together: If (or When) __________________________, then ____________________.
(Example: If an e-mail from a coworker makes me angry, then I will wait thirty minutes before answering so I can respond calmly.)
This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.
Ethiopia: Kwegu people of Omo Valley starves, victims of dam and land grabs March 14, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Genocide, Genocide Kwegu people, Human rights violations, Kwegu nation, Land grabbing, Land grabs in Africa, Land Grabs in Omo Valley, Land Grabs in Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Ethiopia: Kwegu People starves, victims of dam and land grabs
Oliver Tickell, Ecologist
The Kwegu people of Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley are facing starvation because of the loss of their land to a huge sugar plantation, the destruction of their forest and the damming of the Omo river – supported by a UK, EU and World Bank funded ‘aid’ program.
There has been almost no consultation of the indigenous peoples of the Lower Omo Valley about these projects on their land, and resistance is met with brutal force and intimidation.
Local sources report that the Kwegu, the smallest and most vulnerable tribe inEthiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, are suffering severe shortages of food and facing starvation.
The situation follows from the enclosure of much of their land for the huge Kuraz sugar plantation, the destruction of their forest and the damming of the river on which they depend for fish and flood irrigation of crops.
The Kwegu, believed to number no more than 1,000, hunt, fish and grow crops along the banks of the Omo River. Although the smallest of the indigenous tribes of the Omo valley, they are the original people of the area who have lived there, according to our source,“since time immemorial”.
Now the massive Gibe III dam and associated large-scale irrigation infrastructure for commercial plantations on their land and that of other ethnic groups has stopped the Omo River’s regular annual floods.
The alarm has been raised by Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Total crop failure as floods fail to irrigate fields
Normally the Kwegu grow crops of sorgum, maize and ‘green gram’, a protein-rich lentil, on land moistened and fertilized by the receding flood waters. But last year’s flood never took place as the water instead went to fill the Gibe III reservoir – as confirmed by recent satellite images.
Fish stocks on the Omo river are also greatly depleted as a result of the low flows on the river and the total failure of the annual flood.
As well as farming, the Kwegu also maintain a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, eating a wide range of foods including wild fruits and leaves, insects including termites, wild animals and mushroms. Another delicacy is honey from their hives.
But they have been cut off from most of these food sources after their land was taken by force for the Kuraz plantation. The Kwegu have become dependent on food from neighboring tribes to survive, notably the Bodi, a pastoralist tribe with a long history of cooperation with the Kwegu.
“We have reports of children with distended bellies as the food shortage hardens”, said our source. “The Kwegu are now entrusting their children to the Bodi who are nourishing them with blood from their cattle.”
But the Bodi themselves are in an unsustainable position, as much of their grazing land has also been taken for the Kuraz plantation and their remaining pastures have also suffered from the absence of flooding.
“You have to wonder how everyone will survive”, said our source. “We are incredibly concerned that they will start dying. This has been widely predicted – and at this point there is no indication that it’s not going the way everyone warned it would go.”
“This is the first test case for all the tribes below the Gibe III dam, and the others are much more populous. The Ethiopian government promised there would be controlled floods form the dam to allow those that depend on the water to survive – but as we see that’s not true. It was just a smokescreen.”
In disturbing video testimonies filmed in 2012 during the clearing of their land, a Kwegu man said, “Maybe we will die. The river keeps us alive. If they take the water out of the riverbed where will we live? If the fish are gone what will we feed the children?”
http://assets.survivalinternational.org/films/724/embed
Maybe we will die Kwegu tribespeople in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley report that they are starving as a result of being forced from their land and of the irrigated plantations that are drying up the river on which they depend. Filmed in 2012, during the clearing of their land for a government sugar plantation.
Omo Valley indigenous tribes never consulted, victims of official violence
There has been almost no consultation of the indigenous peoples of the Lower Omo Valley about these projects on their land, and resistance is met with brutal force and intimidation.
Army units have been despatched to the Omo valley to quell opposition to the Gibe III dam and the Kuraz sugar plantation, and local sources report that soldiers have raped indigenous women and imprisoned both men and women for voicing their objections.
A member of the Suri, a neighboring people to the Kwegu, told Survival earlier this week,“The government has told us to live in new houses but we don’t want to … They did not try to explain what they were doing or ask us what we wanted.”
UK aid supporting forced resettlement
Several tribes are being forcibly settled by the government in a process known as ‘villagization’, which has received financial support from a massive $4.9 billion World Bank program called ‘Promoting Basic Services‘ (PBS), to which the UK government has committed almost $780 million, and the European Commission $66 million.
Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of US, UK and German aid. DfID, the UK’s donor agency, recently announced it will stop funding the PBS program which has been linked to the forced resettlement of tribes in the Omo Valley.
However, the UK has not reduced the total amount of its aid to Ethiopia and makes no reference to the resettlement program. DfID’s total aid budget for Ethiopia is £368,424,853 for 2014/2015.
The report of a donor mission to the area in August 2014 by the Development Assistance Group – a consortium of the largest donors to Ethiopia including USA, the UK, Germany and the World Bank – has not been released, despite the growing humanitarian crisis in the Lower Omo.
Stephen Corry, Director of Survival, said: “Donor agencies need to reform to ensure taxpayers’ money is not spent propping up governments responsible for evicting tribal peoples from their lands.
“DfID says its aid supports the poorest – yet it turns a blind eye to the many reports of human rights abuses in the Lower Omo, and continues to support an oppressive government hell bent on turning self-sufficient tribes into aid-dependent internal refugees.”
OMN: Qophii Addaa (Shamarree Sirkannaan Ahmad) – Seenaa Gaara Suufii March 14, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Because I am Oromo, Gaara suufii, Human Rights Watch on Human Rights Violations Against Oromo People by TPLF Ethiopia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights violations, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromo people, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Sirkannaan Ahmed tells what happened in Gaara suufii,
the killing mountain, Ethiopia’s tyranny against Oromo people
Afaan Oromoo keenya Haa Dursinu March 14, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Afaan Oromoo, Africa, Kemetic Ancient African Culture, Oromo, Oromo First, Oromo Identity, Oromo Literature, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromo.Tags: Abbo Xaasoo Andreas, Afaan Oromoo, Africa, African culture, African Studies, Ancient African langauge, art, Language and Development, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo culture, Oromo people, Oromummaa, philosophy and civilization, Qubee Afaan Oromoo
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Afaan Oromo is the ancient indigenous language of Africa. Save Afaan Oromo!
The New Theft of Africa: The Advent of Large-Scale Land Grabbing March 13, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.add a comment
‘While there is no exact definition of land grabbing, one of the most recognized was drawn out by the Tirana Declaration of 2011, during a meeting of the International Land Coalition. They are defined as acquisitions or concessions of land that violate human rights, are not based on free, prior and informed consent of the affected land users, are not based on thorough assessment of environmental or economic impacts, are not transparent about binding commitments and are not based on effective democratic planning. Basically, this means that if the people currently using the land are not involved in the transaction of the land, if they are misled about how the land will be used in the future, or if they are forcibly removed from the land, it is a land grab. The poor economic climate of 2007-08 led to an increase in food prices. Countries and businesses around the world needed land to increase their agricultural capabilities. Finding very few cheap options in their own countries, they turned to the Global South, particularly Africa. In Africa, they find corrupt leaders willing to assist the foreign investors, with acres of land that in the US would cost many thousands of dollars, being sold off $.50-$7. Those who are most impacted by these practices are small farmers, who rely on the land to feed themselves and their families. After the large businesses drive them off their land (often forcefully), their livelihoods are lost. They are forced to move into the cities to attempt to find work there, or to take low-paying, sporadic jobs on the foreign-run farms. Often the foreign companies make lavish promises involving greatly increased economic opportunity, but in most cases, the local people find themselves in worse situations (for an example of this, one might research the case of Dominion Farms, an American firm from Oklahoma with operations in Kenya and other countries). Since women make up the vast majority of farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and are usually given little say about the land deals, they are the most affected by the land grabs…. The international community has made no binding legislation regarding the abolishment of land grabbing. Thus far, the African Union and UN have been relatively silent on the issue. However, millions of people around the world are losing their livelihoods to this practice. It is an issue that needs to be given more attention, so that the problems associated with the loss of land can be brought to an end.’
BY JOE LYONS
Today in the Global South, millions of people are losing the ability to provide livelihoods for themselves and their families. A new practice, brought on by the need to lower prices of food production, has led countries and the corporations involved in large-scale acquisitions of land for incredibly cheap prices. These acquisitions, when done in unfair or illegal manners, are referred to as land grabs.
While there is no exact definition of land grabbing, one of the most recognized was drawn out by the Tirana Declaration of 2011, during a meeting of the International Land Coalition. They are defined as acquisitions or concessions of land that violate human rights, are not based on free, prior and informed consent of the affected land users, are not based on thorough assessment of environmental or economic impacts, are not transparent about binding commitments and are not based on effective democratic…
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Ethiopia has continued to suppress free speech and associational rights. #Oromia #Africa March 13, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in African Internet Censorship, Amnesty International's Report: Because I Am Oromo, Because I am Oromo, Censorship, Ethiopia & World Press Index 2014, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights Watch on Human Rights Violations Against Oromo People by TPLF Ethiopia, The Tyranny of TPLF Ethiopia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Genocide against the Oromo, Governance issues, Horn of Africa, Human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Freedom House Report: Ethiopia in 2015
Discarding Democracy: Return to the Iron Fist
Overview:
In 2014 the Ethiopian government continued to suppress free speech and associational rights, shattering hopes for meaningful reform under Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Government harassment and arrest of prominent opposition and media members continued, including the April arrest of nine journalists who were charged under Ethiopia’s controversial antiterrorism law. In April and May, massive protests in Oromia Regional State broke out following the announcement of the planned expansion of Addis Ababa into Oromia. At least 17 people died after the military fired on unarmed protesters.
Despite nascent signs of an opening with Eritrea, formal dialogues remain frozen between the two countries. The Ethiopian-Eritrean border remains highly militarized, though no major border clashes were reported in 2014.
Sporadic violence resumed in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region after talks failed in 2013 between the government and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist group that has fought for independence since 1991. In January 2014, two ONLF negotiators dispatched to Nairobi for a third round of talks were abducted and allegedly turned over to Ethiopian authorities by Kenyan police. The kidnappings effectively ended the talks.
Ethiopia ranked 32 out of 52 countries surveyed in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, below the continental average and among the bottom in East Africa. The country’s modest gains in the index are due to its improvement in human development indicators, but its ranking is held back by low scores in the “Participation and Human Rights” category.
Political Rights: 7 / 40 [Key]
A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12
Ethiopia’s bicameral parliament is made up of a 108-seat upper house, the House of Federation, and a 547-seat lower house, the House of People’s Representatives. The lower house is filled through popular elections, while the upper chamber is selected by the state legislatures; members of both houses serve five-year terms. The lower house selects the prime minister, who holds most executive power, and the president, a largely ceremonial figure who serves up to two six-year terms. Hailemariam has served as prime minister since September 2012, and Mulatu Teshome as president since October 2013.
The 2010 parliamentary and regional elections were tightly controlled by the ruling coalition party Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), with reports of voters being threatened with losing their jobs, homes, or government services if they failed to turn out for the EPRDF. Opposition party meetings were broken up, and candidates were threatened and detained. Opposition-aligned parties saw their 160-seat presence in parliament virtually disappear, with the EPRDF and its allies taking all but 2 of the 547 seats in the lower house. The next elections are scheduled for 2015.
B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 2 / 16
Shorn of their representation in parliament and under pressure by the authorities, opponents of the EPRDF find it difficult to operate. In July 2014, opposition members—two from Unity for Democracy Party, one from the Arena Tigray Party, and one from the Blue Party—were arrested without charges and held without access to legal representation. The Ethiopian government denies the arrests were related to 2015 elections, but the detainments follow the government’s pattern of suppressing political dissent prior to popular votes.
A series of December 2014 rallies by a coalition of opposition parties saw nearly 100 people arrested, including the chairman of the Semayawi Party. Witnesses report that police beat protesters, though nearly all those arrested were released on bail within a week.
Political parties in Ethiopia are often ethnically based. The EPRDF coalition is comprised of four political parties and represents several ethnic groups. The government tends to favor Tigrayan ethnic interests in economic and political matters, and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front dominates the EPRDF. While the 1995 constitution grants the right of secession to ethnically based states, the government acquired powers in 2003 to intervene in states’ affairs on issues of public security. Secessionist movements in Oromia and the Ogaden have largely failed after being put down by the military.
C. Functioning of Government: 4 / 12
Ethiopia’s governance institutions are dominated by the EPRDF, which controlled the succession process following the death of longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in 2012.
Corruption remains a significant problem in Ethiopia. EPRDF officials reportedly receive preferential access to credit, land leases, and jobs. Petty corruption extends to lower-level officials, who solicit bribes in return for processing documents. In 2013, the government attempted to demonstrate its commitment to fighting corruption after the release of a World Bank study that detailed corruption in the country. As part of the effort, the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission made a string of high-profile arrests of prominent government officials and businessmen throughout 2013 and 2014. The Federal High Court sentenced many corrupt officials in 2014, including in one case a $2,500 fine and 16 years in prison. Despite cursory legislative improvements, however, enforcement of corruption-related laws remains lax in practice and Ethiopia is still considered “highly corrupt,” ranked 110 out of 175 countries and territories by Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Civil Liberties: 11 / 40
D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16
Ethiopia’s media are dominated by state-owned broadcasters and government-oriented newspapers. Privately owned papers tend to steer clear of political issues and have low circulation. A 2008 media law criminalizes defamation and allows prosecutors to seize material before publication in the name of national security.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Ethiopia holds at least 17 journalists behind bars—the second-highest number of jailed journalists in Africa as of December 2014, after Eritrea. Restrictions are particularly tight on journalists perceived to be sympathetic to protests by the Muslim community, and journalists attempting to cover them are routinely detained or arrested. Those reporting on opposition activities also face harassment and the threat of prosecution under Ethiopia’s sweeping 2009 Antiterrorism Proclamation. At least 14 journalists have been convicted under Ethiopia’s antiterror law since 2011, and none convicted have been released.
In April 2014, police arrested nine journalists—six associated with the Zone9 blogging collective and three freelancers—and charged them with terror-related offenses. Their trial has been postponed 13 times and was closed to the public until recently; their defense lawyer claims the defendants were forced to sign false confessions while in prison.
In June, the government fired 18 people from a state-run, Oromia-based broadcaster, silencing the outlet’s reporting on Oromo protests. In August, the government charged six Addis Ababa–based publications with terrorism offenses, effectively shuttering some of the last independent news outlets inside Ethiopia. In October, three publication owners were convicted in absentia after they fled the country. The same month, Temesgen Desalegn, former editor of the weekly Feteh, was convicted under Ethiopia’s criminal code on defamation and incitement charges and sentenced to three years in prison.
Due to the risks of operating inside the country, many Ethiopian journalists work in exile. CPJ says Ethiopia drove 30 journalists into exile in 2014, a sharp increase over both 2012 and 2013. Authorities use high-tech jamming equipment to filter and block news websites seen as pro-opposition. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), since 2010 the Ethiopian government has developed a robust and sophisticated internet and mobile framework to monitor journalists and opposition groups, block access to unwanted websites or critical television and radio programs, and collect evidence for prosecutions in politically motivated trials.
The constitution guarantees religious freedom, but the government has increasingly harassed the Muslim community, which has grown to rival the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as the country’s largest religious group. Muslim groups accuse the government of trying to impose the beliefs of an obscure Islamic sect, Al-Ahbash, at the expense of the dominant Sufi-influenced strain of Islam. A series of protests against perceived government interference in religious affairs since 2012 have ended in a number of deaths and more than 1,000 arrests.
Academic freedom is often restricted in Ethiopia. The government has accused universities of being pro-opposition and prohibits political activities on campuses. There are reports of students being pressured into joining the EPRDF in order to secure employment or places at universities; professors are similarly pressured in order to ensure favorable positions or promotions. The Ministry of Education closely monitors and regulates official curricula, and the research, speech, and assembly of both professors and students are frequently restricted. In 2014, the Scholars at Risk network catalogued three incidents in academia, including the jailing or firing of professors who expressed antigovernment opinions.
The presence of the EPRDF at all levels of society—directly and, increasingly, electronically—inhibits free private discussion. Many people are wary of speaking against the government. The EPRDF maintains a network of paid informants, and opposition politicians have accused the government of tapping their phones.
E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12
Freedoms of assembly and association are guaranteed by the constitution but limited in practice. Organizers of large public meetings must request permission from the authorities 48 hours in advance. Applications by opposition groups are routinely denied and, in cases when approved, organizers are subject to government meddling to move dates or locations. Since 2011, ongoing peaceful demonstrations held by members of the Muslim community have been met with violent responses from security forces. Protesters allege government interference in religious affairs and politically motivated selection of members of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council. Though momentum has slowed, protests continue.
After the government announced an expansion of Addis Ababa’s city limits into the Oromia Regional State in April 2014, thousands of Ethiopians took to the streets. Witnesses reported that police fired on peaceful protesters, killing at least 17—most of whom were students in nearby universities—and detained hundreds.
The 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation restricts the activities of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by prohibiting work on political and human rights issues. Foreign NGOs are defined as groups receiving more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad, a classification that includes most domestic organizations as well. The law also limits the amount of money any NGO can spend on “administration,” a controversial category that the government has declared includes activities such as teacher or health worker training, further restricting NGO operations even on strictly development projects. NGOs have struggled to maintain operations as a result of the law.
Trade union rights are tightly restricted. Neither civil servants nor teachers have collective bargaining rights. All unions must be registered, and the government retains the authority to cancel registration. Two-thirds of union members belong to organizations affiliated with the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions, which is under government influence. Independent unions face harassment, and trade union leaders are regularly imprisoned. There has not been a legal strike since 1993.
F. Rule of Law: 3 / 16
The judiciary is officially independent, but its judgments rarely deviate from government policy. The 2009 antiterrorism law gives great discretion to security forces, allowing the detention of suspects for up to four months without charge. After August 2013 demonstrations to protest the government’s crackdown on Muslims, 29 demonstration leaders were charged under the antiterrorism law with conspiracy and attempting to establish an Islamic state; their trial remains ongoing. Trial proceedings have been closed to the public, media, and the individuals’ families. According to HRW, some defendants claimed that their access to legal counsel has been restricted.
Conditions in Ethiopia’s prisons are harsh, and detainees frequently report abuse. A 2013 HRW report documented human rights violations in Addis Ababa’s Maekelawi police station, including verbal and physical abuse, denial of basic needs, and torture.
Yemen’s June 2014 arrest and extradition of British citizen Andargachew Tsige to Ethiopia at the government’s request has sparked outrage from human rights groups. Andargachew is the secretary-general of banned opposition group Ginbot 7 and was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009 and again in 2012 for allegedly plotting to kill government officials. Reports suggest that police have denied the British Embassy consular access.
Domestic NGOs say that Ethiopia held as many as 400 political prisoners in 2012, though estimates vary significantly. Nuredine “Aslan” Hasan, a student belonging to the Oromo ethnic group, died in prison in 2014; conflicting reports about the cause of his death—including torture—have not been verified.
The federal government generally has strong control and direction over the military, though forces such as the Liyu Police in the Ogaden territory sometimes operate independently.
Repression of the Oromo and ethnic Somalis, and government attempts to coopt their parties into subsidiaries of the EPRDF, have fueled nationalism in both the Oromia and Ogaden regions. Persistent claims that government troops in the Ogaden area have committed war crimes are difficult to verify, as independent media are barred from the region. The government’s announcement of its intention to expand Addis Ababa’s city limits into the Oromia Regional State exacerbates tensions over historical marginalization of Oromia; according to activists, the expansion will displace two million Oromo farmers.
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited by law and punishable by up to 15 years’ imprisonment.
G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16
While Ethiopia’s constitution establishes freedom of movement, insecurity—particularly in eastern Ethiopia—prevents unrestricted movement into affected sites.
Private business opportunities are limited by rigid state control of economic life and the prevalence of state-owned enterprises. All land must be leased from the state. The government has evicted indigenous groups from various areas to make way for projects such as hydroelectric dams. It has also leased large tracts of land to foreign governments and investors for agricultural development in opaque deals that have displaced thousands of Ethiopians. Up to 70,000 people have been forced to move from the western Gambella region, although the government denies the resettlement plans are connected to land investments. Similar evictions have taken place in Lower Omo Valley, where government-run sugar plantations have put thousands of pastoralists at risk by diverting their water supplies. Journalists and international organizations have persistently alleged that the government withholds development assistance from villages perceived as being unfriendly to the ruling party.
Women are relatively well represented in parliament, holding 28 percent of seats and three ministerial posts. Legislation protects women’s rights, but these rights are routinely violated in practice. Enforcement of the law against rape and domestic abuse is patchy, and cases routinely stall in the courts. Female genital mutilation and forced child marriage are technically illegal, though there has been little effort to prosecute perpetrators. In December 2012, the government made progress against forced child labor, passing a National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor and updating its list of problematic occupations for children.
X = Score Received
Y = Best Possible Score
Z = Change from Previous Year
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2015/ethiopia#.VQIiHNKsX5M
OROMIA MEDIA NETWORK: OMN 1ST YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION March 12, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in 10 best Youtube videos, 25 killer Websites that make you cleverer, Africa, OMN, Oromo First, Oromo Media Network, Oromo Nation, Oromo News.Tags: OMN, Oromia, Oromia Media Network 1st Year Anniversary Celebration, Oromo News, Oromummaa
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THE DEPTHS OF ETHIOPIA’S CORRUPTION. #Africa March 11, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Colonizing Structure, Corruption, Corruption in Africa, Illicit financial outflows from Ethiopia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Developing country, economics, Ethiopia: TPLF's corruption empire, The corruption of Ethiopia, Tyranny
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According to the World Bank, companies held by business group the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) account for roughly half of the country’s modern economy. The group is closely allied with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF), an alliance of four parties.
EFFORT is a conglomerate formed from assets collected in 1991 by the EPRDF to rehabilitate the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia after it had been decimated by poverty and conflict. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is the lead party in the EPDRF coalition.
Tigrayans, however, only account for eight percent of the country’s 90 million people. According to Abebe Gellaw, an exiled Ethiopian journalist and founder of Addis Voice, a web platform that provides news that is otherwise censored by the Ethiopian government, EFFORT has become a business racket for the Tigrayan elite who are monopolising major sources of the country’s wealth.
“The TPLF controls key government institutions and a significant portion of the economy. For over 15 years, EFFORT has been used by the TPLF to channel public resources and funds to the coffers of the TPLF through illegal deals, contracts, tax evasion, kick-backs and all sorts of illegal operations,” he told IPS.
Azeb Mesfin, Zenawi’s widow, currently manages the multi-billion-dollar business empire.
She claims her husband paid himself a modest salary of 250 dollars a month, yet the online website “the Richest.org”, which publishes the net worth of the richest people in the world, recently divulged that Meles was in fact one of Africa’s wealthiest leaders having amassed a personal fortune of three billion dollars.
http://www.africacradle.com/2015/03/11/the-depths-of-ethiopias-corruption/
THE DEPTHS OF ETHIOPIA’S CORRUPTION
– Ethiopia may be one of the fastest-growing, non-oil producing economies in Africa in recent years, but corruption in this Horn of Africa nation is a deterrent to foreign investors looking for stable long-term partnerships in developing countries.
“Bankers, miners and developers presenting projects to investment committees in countries that fare badly in corruption rankings frequently struggle to get investment. Corruption raises red flags because it makes local markets uncompetitive, unpredictable and therefore largely hostile to these long-term players,” Ed Hobey, the East Africa analyst at the political risk firm Africa Risk Consulting, told us.
On May 11, in the biggest crackdown on corruption in Ethiopia in the last 10 years, authorities arrested more than 50 high profile people including government officials, businessmen and a minister.
Melaku Fanta, the director general of the Revenue and Customs Authority, which is the equivalent rank of a minister, his deputy, Gebrewahid Woldegiorgis, and other officials were apprehended on suspicion of tax evasion.
But the arrests have raised questions about the endemic corruption at the heart of the country’s political elite.
Berhanu Assefa of the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission of Ethiopia told us that these arrests highlighted how corruption has insinuated itself into the higher levels of officialdom.
“Corruption is a serious problem we are facing. We now see that corruption is occurring in higher places than we had previously expected. Areas vulnerable to corruption are land administration, tax and revenue, the justice system, telecommunications, land procurement, licensing areas and the finance sector,” he said.
Ethiopia ranks 113 out of 176 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, a global civil society coalition that encourages accountability. The country has also lost close to 12 billion dollars since 2000 to illicit financial outflows, according to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), whose statistics are based on official data provided by the Ethiopian government, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dr. Getachew Begashaw, a professor of economics at Harper College in the United States, told IPS that there was a fear that the recent high profile arrests were merely political theatre designed to placate major donors such as the World Bank and the IMF, and to give credibility to the new regime’s fight against corruption. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn took over leadership of the country after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died in August 2012.
“They are using this as a PR stunt to appease not only the donors, but to also dupe the Ethiopian people. Because many non-party affiliated Ethiopians in the business community are complaining, and this complaint is trickling down to the average people on the streets,” he told IPS.
According to the World Bank, companies held by business group the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) account for roughly half of the country’s modern economy. The group is closely allied with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF), an alliance of four parties.
EFFORT is a conglomerate formed from assets collected in 1991 by the EPRDF to rehabilitate the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia after it had been decimated by poverty and conflict. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is the lead party in the EPDRF coalition.
Tigrayans, however, only account for eight percent of the country’s 90 million people. According to Abebe Gellaw, an exiled Ethiopian journalist and founder of Addis Voice, a web platform that provides news that is otherwise censored by the Ethiopian government, EFFORT has become a business racket for the Tigrayan elite who are monopolising major sources of the country’s wealth.
“The TPLF controls key government institutions and a significant portion of the economy. For over 15 years, EFFORT has been used by the TPLF to channel public resources and funds to the coffers of the TPLF through illegal deals, contracts, tax evasion, kick-backs and all sorts of illegal operations,” he told IPS.
Azeb Mesfin, Zenawi’s widow, currently manages the multi-billion-dollar business empire.
She claims her husband paid himself a modest salary of 250 dollars a month, yet the online website “the Richest.org”, which publishes the net worth of the richest people in the world, recently divulged that Meles was in fact one of Africa’s wealthiest leaders having amassed a personal fortune of three billion dollars. This has led many to question the provenance of the erstwhile leader’s wealth – when he had no known business engagements.
Illicit financial flows as a result of corruption are a major hindrance to a country’s development, undermining institutions, economies and societies. According to the Africa Progress Panel’s Africa Progress Report 2013, the continent is losing more through illicit financial outflows than it receives in aid and foreign direct investment.
A commitment to greater accountability and transparency to curtail illicit financial flows should occur on both the national and international levels, according to E. J. Fagan, deputy communications director at GFI.
“Reforms and policies are needed to strengthen customs enforcement and make governing apparatuses more transparent. The international community can create a multilateral system of automatic exchange of tax information that African countries like Ethiopia can access, so as to make it difficult for illicit actors to hide money and transfer large amounts of illicit money without detection,” he told IPS.
Begashaw added that corruption in the social sphere also breeds social inequality, disenfranchisement and a breakdown in national unity and civil society.
“The very existence of parastatals and TPLF-affiliated endowed business conglomerates like EFFORT is a major source of corruption. The Birr (Ethiopian currency) will depreciate and inflation will skyrocket. The capacity of the state to provide public goods and services will decline. Free market competition will be eroded. Government revenue will be reduced and the budget deficit will rise.
“If they are really serious about combating corruption, they should start doing so from the top,” he said.
Consumerism = Corruption? March 10, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Economics, Uncategorized.Tags: Consumersim, economics
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‘So yes, the media manipulates people into buying things they think they need to become someone they think they should be, but that is not the only way consumerism exists. We are just as easily manipulated by other people and by what is “normal” for our class – or our perceived class – in society. And of course, we always have a choice. The magazine or TV advertisement doesn’t force you off the couch and to the bank to extend your credit card limit, and drag you mercilessly to the nearest mall to purchase that iPhone you need to live . . . so next time your credit card maxes out, don’t be too quick to blame the media and advertising. It’s just as likely something (or someone) closer to home has planted and nourished that seed of consumerism inside you. And even that doesn’t have the final say, you do – so stop blaming the media and the rest of the world, and learn to budget, folks!’
Consumerism can be defined as the creation of material needs in order to swipe 
money off the unsuspecting consumer. It blurs the line between a need and a want, and companies all around the globe use it, via the media (TV, radio, print media etc.), to manipulate us into thinking we need their products. We will be happier, smarter, more beautiful, more popular . . . you get the picture. But do you want to know the really sad part? It nearly always works. That’s the common perception, anyway.
But is it that simple?
Consumerism is a current anxiety trend regarding contemporary media practices. And rightfully so – media practices promoting consumerism do have detrimental effects on society. Think of all the photo-shopped models in magazines. This is done to convince a person they will be of equal beauty or social status if they purchase the product the model is advertising, without the advertisement actually saying so (because…
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Economist and Oromo Parliamentarian Obbo Bulchaa Dammaqsaa on Oromo-TV with Kadiro Elemo March 10, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Human Rights Watch on Human Rights Violations Against Oromo People by TPLF Ethiopia, Obbo Bulchaa Dammaqsaa.Tags: Genocide against the Oromo, Obbo Bulchaa Dammaqsa's in terview, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, Oromummaa, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Related:
http://www.gadaa.com/BulchaOFDM.html
Ethiopia: “They Know Everything We Do”: Digital Attacks Intensify. #Oromia #Africa March 10, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, African Internet Censorship, Amnesty International's Report: Because I Am Oromo, Censorship, Internet Freedom.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Ethiopia: Digital Attacks Intensify, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Tightening the net
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“They Know Everything We Do”
Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia
One day they arrested me and they showed me everything. They showed me a list of all my phone calls and they played a conversation I had with my brother. They arrested me because we talked about politics on the phone. It was the first phone I ever owned, and I thought I could finally talk freely. — Former member of an Oromo opposition party, now a refugee in Kenya, May 2013
The vast majority of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch involving access to phone recordings involved Oromo defendants organizing Oromos in cultural associations, student associations, and trade unions. No credible evidence was presented that would appear to justify their arrest and detention or the accessing of their private phone records. These interrogations took place not only in Addis Ababa, but in numerous police stations and detention centers throughout Oromia and elsewhere in Ethiopia. As described in other publications, the government has gone to great lengths to prevent Oromos and other ethnicities from organizing groups and associations.123 While the increasing usefulness of the mobile phone to mobilize large groups of people quickly provides opportunities for young people, in particular, to form their own networks, Ethiopia’s monopoly and control over this technology provides Ethiopia with another tool to suppress the formation of these organizations and restrict freedoms of association and peaceful assembly. Human Rights Watch interviews revealed that interrogations seem to follow a similar pattern in which individuals are repeatedly told that security “is monitoring everything” and they should confess to various charges. If confessions are not forthcoming, security officials reveal knowledge of individual phone calls. If a confession or information is not revealed then an entire list of phone calls is produced or an individual phone call is played. At this stage, if no confession or information is obtained, prolonged detention takes place. As is often the case in Ethiopia, arbitrary detention without formal charges is common. In the cases Human Rights Watch has documented, mistreatment in detention at this stage frequently occurs. THEY KNOW EVERYTHING WE DO
Ethiopia: Digital Attacks Intensify
Spyware Firm Should Address Alleged Misuse
(Human Rights Watch, New York) – The Ethiopian government has renewed efforts to silence independent voices abroad by using apparent foreign spyware, Human Rights Watch said today. The Ethiopian authorities should immediately cease digital attacks on journalists, while foreign surveillance technology sellers should investigate alleged abuses linked to their products.
Independent researchers at the Toronto-based research center Citizen Lab on March 9, 2015, reported new attempts by Ethiopia to hack into computers and accounts of Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) employees based in the United States. The attacks bear similarities to earlier attempts to target Ethiopian journalists outside Ethiopia dating back to December 2013. ESAT is an independent, diaspora-run television and radio station.
“Ethiopia’s government has over the past year intensified its assault on media freedom by systematically trying to silence journalists,” saidCynthia Wong, senior Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These digital attacks threaten journalists’ ability to protect the safety of their sources and to avoid retaliation.”
The government has repressed independent media in Ethiopia ahead of the general elections scheduled for May, Human Rights Watch said. Many privately owned print publications heavily self-censor coverage of politically sensitive issues or have shut down. In the last year, at least 22 journalists, bloggers, and publishers have been criminally charged, at least six publications have closed amid a campaign of harassment, and many journalists have fled the country.
Many Ethiopians turn to ESAT and other foreign stations to obtain news and analysis that is independent of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. However, intrusive surveillance of these news organizations undermines their ability to protect sources and further restricts the media environment ahead of the elections. Government authorities have repeatedly intimidated, harassed, and arbitrarily detained sources providing information to ESAT and other foreign stations.
Citizen Lab’s analysis suggests the attacks were carried out with spyware called Remote Control System (RCS) sold by the Italian firm Hacking Team, which sells surveillance and hacking technology. This spyware was allegedly used in previous attempts to infect computers of ESAT employees in December 2013. If successfully installed on a target’s computer, the spyware would allow a government controlling the software access to activity on a computer or phone, including email, files, passwords typed into the device, contact lists, and audio and video from the device’s microphone and camera.
Citizen Lab also found that the spyware used in the attacks against ESAT appeared to have been updated as recently as December 2014. On November 19, a security researcher, Claudio Guarnieri, along with several nongovernmental organizations, publicly released a tool called Detekt, which can be used to scan computers for Hacking Team RCS and other spyware. Citizen Lab’s testing determined that Detekt was able to successfully recognize the version of RCS used in a November attack, but not the version used in a December attack. Citizen Lab concluded that this may indicate that the software had been updated sometime between the two attempts.
These new findings, if accurate, raise serious concerns that Hacking Team has not addressed evidence of abuseof its product by the Ethiopian government and may be continuing to facilitate that abuse through updates or other support, Human Rights Watch said.
Hacking Team states that it sells exclusively to governments, particularly law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The firm told Human Rights Watch in 2014 that “we expect our clients to behave responsibly and within the law as it applies to them” and that the firm will suspend support for its technology if it believes the customer has used it “to facilitate gross human rights abuses” or “who refuse to agree to or comply with provisions in [the company’s] contracts that describe intended use of HT [Hacking Team] software.” Hacking Team has also stated that it has suspended support for their product in the past, in which case the “product soon becomes useless.”
Media reports and research by independent human rights organizations in the past year have documented serious human rights violations by the Ethiopian government that at times have been facilitated by misuse of surveillance powers. Although spyware companies market their products as “lawful intercept” solutions used to fight serious crime or counterterrorism, the Ethiopian government has abused its counterterrorism laws to prosecute bloggers and journalists who merely report on public affairs or politically sensitive issues. Ethiopian laws that authorize surveillance do not adequately protect the right to privacy, due process, and other basic rights, and are inconsistent with international human rights requirements.
Hacking Team previously told Human Rights Watch that “to maintain their confidentiality” the firm does not “confirm or deny the existence of any individual customer or their country location.” On February 25, 2015, Human Rights Watch wrote to the firm to ask whether it has investigated possible abuse of its products by the Ethiopian government to target independent media and hack into ESAT computers. In response, on March 6 a representative of the firm emailed Human Rights Watch that the company “take[s] precautions with every client to assure that they do not abuse our systems, and, we investigate when allegations of misuse arise” and that the firm is “attempting to understand the circumstances in this case.” The company also stated that “it can be quite difficult to get to actual facts particularly since we do not operate surveillance systems in the field for our clients.” Hacking Team raised unspecified questions about the evidence presented to identify the spyware used in these attacks.
Human Rights Watch also asked the company whether contractual provisions to which governmental customers agree address governments’ obligations under international human rights law to protect the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and other human rights. In a separate March 7 response from the firm’s representative, Hacking Team told Human Rights Watch that the use of its technology is “governed by the laws of the countries of our clients,” and sales of its technology are regulated by the Italian Economics Ministry under the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export controls regime for dual-use technologies. The company stated that it relies “on the International community to enforce its standards for human rights protection.”
The firm has not reported on what, if any, investigation was undertaken in response to the March 2014 Human Rights Watch report discussing how spyware that appeared to be Hacking Team’s RCS was used to target ESAT employees in 2013. In its March 7 response, the company told Human Rights Watch that it will “take appropriate action depending on what we can determine,” but they “do not report the results of our investigation to the press or other groups, because we consider this to be an internal business matter.”
Without more disclosure of how Hacking Team has addressed potential abuses linked to its business, the strength of its human rights policy will be in question, Human Rights Watch said.
Sellers of surveillance systems have a responsibility to respect human rights, which includes preventing, mitigating, and addressing abuses linked to its business operations, regardless of whether government customers adequately protect rights.
“Hacking Team should publicly disclose what steps it has taken to avoid abuses of its product such as those alleged against the Ethiopian government,” Wong said. “The company protects the confidentiality of its customers, yet the Ethiopian government appears to use its spyware to compromise the privacy and security of journalists and their sources.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/08/ethiopia-digital-attacks-intensify
Spyware vendor may have helped Ethiopia target journalists – even after it was aware of abuses, researchers say
Wal Quunamtii Uummata Jidduu Kutuuf Jecha Dhaabbati Tajaajila Bilbila Itiyoophiyaa Godinoota Oromiyaa fi Beneshangul Gumz Tajaajila Bittaa Siim Kaardii Dhorkataa Jira.
Gabaasa Qeerroo Naqamtee,Bitootessa 9,2015, Dhaabbanni Ethio Telecommunication jedhamu Oromiyaa godinoota adda addaa fi naannoolee Beeneshangul Gumuz tajaajila bilbilaa dhorkachaa jira. Addatti Wallagga lixa keessaa fi naannoon Beeneshangul gum, tajaajila bilbilaa fi bittaa SIM akka hin arganne guutummaatti dhorkaa jira,haalli kunis uumanni Oromoo technology fayyadamuun mootummaa irratti wal kakaasaa jira sababaa jedhuun jiraattoti bilbilaa fi SIM kaardii argatanii akka hin bitannee sababaa dhorkeef jecha jiraattoti konkolaataan hamma magaalaa Naqamtee deemanii akka bitatan taasifamaa jira.
Haala kanaan hiriitti tajaajila bilbila bituu daran hammaachaa jira,jiraatoti godina adda addaa irraa gara magaalaa Naqamtee dhufuuf illee geejjibi gahaa akka hin jirre Qeerroon addeesse.
A Glorious Past Before Colonialism: The world’s first civilizations arose from the spiritual, economic and social efforts of African women and African women in turn went on to lead those Matriarchal societies. March 9, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Ancient African Direct Democracy, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Rock paintings in Oromia, Colonizing Structure.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, African Women, Ancient Africa
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Historian Cheikh Anta Diop illustrates how as early as 10,000 BC women in Africa pioneered organized cultivation, thereby creating the pre-conditions for surplus, wealth and trade. African women are responsible for the greatest invention for the well being of human kind, namely, food security. It is the practice of organized agriculture that made population expansion, food surpluses and the emergence civilization possible. http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/06/the-capitalist-origins-of-the-oppression-of-african-women/
The Capitalist Origins of the Oppression of African Women
Sunday marks International Women’s Day, which was founded in 1908 by the Socialist party of America in order to promote the struggle for women’s equality. Unbeknown to many, for the vast majority of human history, which took place in Africa, women have been equal if not superior to men.
The world’s first civilizations arose from the spiritual, economic and social efforts of African women and African women in turn went on to lead those Matriarchal societies.
Matriarchy in ancient Africa was not a mirror image of patriarchy today, as it was not based on appropriation and violence. The rituals and culture of matriarchy did not celebrate violence; rather, they had a lot to do with fecundity, exchange and redistribution.
Early man was unaware of the link between intercourse and birth, therefore it was thought that new life was created by the woman alone. This belief created the first concept of God as a caring, compassionate, generous, all loving and all powerful Mother, which is the basis of the African matriarchal ideology.
Historian Cheikh Anta Diop illustrates how as early as 10,000 BC women in Africa pioneered organized cultivation, thereby creating the pre-conditions for surplus, wealth and trade. African women are responsible for the greatest invention for the well being of human kind, namely, food security. It is the practice of organized agriculture that made population expansion, food surpluses and the emergence civilization possible.
Pre-capitalist matriarchal civilizations in Africa included the Nigerian Zazzau, Sudanese Kandake, Angolan Nzinga, and Ashanti of Ghana, to name but a few. The quintessential African matriarchal system was most evident and most enduring in black Ancient Egypt.
Women in Ancient Egypt owned and had complete control over both movable and immovable property such as real estate in 3000 BC. As late as the 1960s, this right could not be claimed by women in some parts of the United States.
A closer look at ancient Egyptian papyrus’ reveals that society was strictly matrilineal and inheritance and descent was through the female line. The Egyptian woman enjoyed the same legal and economic rights as the Egyptian man, and the proof of this is reflected in Egyptian art and historical inscriptions. Egypt was an unequal society but the inequality was based much more upon differences in the social classes, rather than differences in gender.
From ancient legal documents, we know that women were able to manage and dispose of private property, including: land, portable goods, servants, slaves, livestock, and financial instruments such as endowments and annuities. A woman could administer all her property independently and according to her free will and in several excavated cemeteries the richest tombs were those of women.
The independence and leadership roles of ancient Egyptian women are part of an African cultural pattern that began millennia ago and continued into recent times, until Europeans brought capitalism and Christianity to Africa.
In the 1860s, the colonial explorer Dr. David Livingstone wrote of meeting female chiefs in the Congo, and in most of the monarchical systems of traditional Africa there were either one or two women of the highest rank who occupied a position on a par with that of the king or complementary to it.
Professor of Ancient African History, Barbara Lesko illustrates how anthropologists who have studied African history and records of early travelers and missionaries tell us “everywhere in Africa that one scrapes the surface one finds ethno-historical data on the authority once shared by women.”
Under colonial misrule, black women suffered double-edged discrimination and dis-empowerment both as women and as black people.
It is difficult for many people to accept that racial discrimination and antagonism, which is such a pervasive phenomenon in the world today, has not been a permanent historical feature of humanity. In fact, the very notion of “race” and the ideology and practice of racism is a relatively modern concept.
For instance, historians recount how the Romans and Greeks attached no particular stigma to the colour of a person’s skin and there were no theories about the inferiority of darker skin. Slavery in ancient societies was not defined by color, but primarily by military fortune: conquered peoples, irrespective of their color, were enslaved.
Just before colonisation, African women were largely equal to men. The significant value of African women’s productive labour in producing and processing food created and maintained their rights in domestic, political, cultural, economic, religious and social spheres, among others. Because women were central to production in these pre-class societies, systematic inequality between the sexes was nonexistent, and elder women in particular enjoyed relatively high status.
With the creation of the capitalist colonial economy, the marginalization of women came in several ways:
Firstly, the advent of title deeds, made men the sole owners of land. Consequently, as women lost access and control of land, they became increasingly economically dependent on men. This in turn led to an intensification of domestic patriarchy, reinforced by colonial social institutions.
Secondly, as colonialism continued to entrench itself on African soil, the perceived importance of women’s agricultural contribution to the household was greatly reduced, as their vital role in food production was overshadowed by the more lucrative male-dominated cash crop cultivation for the international market. Prior to colonialism, women dominated trade. Markets were not governed by pure profit values; but rather, by the basic need to exchange, redistribute and socialize. Traditional African economic systems were not capitalist in nature.
Thirdly, colonialism brought with it Christianity and a masculine fundamentalism, which is now prevalent across Africa today. The imported patriarchal religion does not allow women to play the leading roles they have in the indigenous African religion.
In Ancient African religions it is not only God who is female, but also the main guardian spirits and sacred principles. Rosalind Jeffries, a historian, documents the concept of the Supreme Mother. In a paper entitled, “The Image of Woman in African Cave Art”, she shows how African Creation stories focused on the Primordial Mother, creating woman first, then man.
Christianity brought the monogamous nuclear family unit to Africa. Its sole purpose was to pass on private property, in the form of inheritance, from one generation of men to the next. Under capitalism, the modern family unit is founded on concealed, domestic slavery of the wife; and, the modern capitalist society is a compound made up of many individual families as its molecules.
A glance at the dictionary will reveal that the word family, has rather telling Latin origins. Famulus literally means domestic slave; andfamilia, which is also the Italian word for family, signified the total number of slaves belonging to one man. Karl Marx lays it bare: “The modern family contains in germ not only slavery (servitus) but also serfdom, since from the beginning it is related to agricultural services. It contains in miniature all the contradictions which later extend throughout society and its state.”
Finally, the introduction of wage labour affected women by uprooting men from villages to work in urban areas, causing profound, negative economic impacts on women. Colonial authorities routinely used native African males to impose taxes on women, thereby entrenching male dominance in the Native’s psyche. After all, colonialists brought to Africa the concept of the Victorian woman: a woman who should stay in the private domain and leave “real work” to the men. Due to the Victorian concept of women held by all colonialists, African women were excluded from the new political and administrative system, whose sole purpose was to extract raw materials and labour from the colony.
Colonialism replaced the role and status of the pre-colonial, African woman with a landless and disenfranchised domestic slave.
The United Nations Development Program notes that nowadays, African women perform sixty-six percent of the world’s work, produce fifty percent of the food, but earn only ten percent of the income and own only one percent of the property.
The greatest threat towards the African woman’s glorious future is her ignorance of her glorious past. Armed with knowledge, Africans must now fight to restore women to a position of respect and of economic freedom that exceeds that which she enjoyed before colonialism.
Garikai Chengu is a scholar at Harvard University. Contact him ongarikai.chengu@gmail.com
Oromo TV: Presentation About Human Rights Abuses In Ethiopia March 8, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Because I am Oromo, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Groups at risk of arbitrary arrest in Oromia: Amnesty International Report.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights violations, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Oromia forests set on fire: The Oromia’s Natural Forest has been subjected to deliberate destruction by the TPLF government of Ethiopia March 6, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Colonizing Structure, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Forest fire in Oromia, Land Grabs in Oromia.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Bale Mountains, Forest fire in Oromia, Gelema forest in Cilaloo Oromia on fire, Human rights violations, Land grabs in Africa, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Saanatee, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Yayu
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From all corners Oromia, Oromia forests are set on fire by the TPLF! Bosonni Oromiyaa kan ibiddi itti hin jirre hin jiruu, iyyaa iyya dabarsaa! Bitootessa (March) 5, 2015
Saanatee, Chilalo, Carcar. What area is next?
Galema forest in Cilalo and Saanatee Plateau forest in Bale Mountains that stretches hundreds of kilometerson in Oromia set on fire by the TPLF Ethiopian regime.
Bitootessa 02 bara 2015 eggalee bineensotaa fi qabeenyi uumamaa bosona Cilaaloo godina Arsii fi Saanatee Baalee keessatti argaman wayyaanee dhan abiddaan gubamuun barbadaa’anii jiru!
http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/oromia-forests-set-on-fire/
On 19th February 2015, the Ethiopian regime set Sabbata town in Central Oromia in fire.
Guraandha 19 bara 2015 godina addaa naannoo finfinnee kan taate maagaa sabbataa ganda 02 bakka kenterrii (Alem Gena) jedhamutti balaa ibiddaa cimaa muudateen qabeenyi uummataa hedduun barbadaa’e. Balaan uumamees hanguma deemu deemee tattaaffii uummataatiin salphachuu danda’eera. Yoona kana ittisni balaa qaama mootummaa tokkollee achi hin turre. Ummanis mootummaan hin jiruu jedhee iyya. kuun immoo mootummaa maaltu jira waaqni qofti nuuf haa dhaqabu jechaa watwaata. Gochaa kana kan raawwate qaama mootumma akka ta’ee shakki tokko maleen jechuu dhandeenyya.
Akkuma beeknu magaalan Sabbata Master Plan fi Misooma magaalichaafi nannawa ishii sababeefachuf Oromiyyarra muruf kan karoorfatan erga hin milkaa’in boodhe toftaa haarawan nutti dufaa jiran. Ummata nannawa Finfinnee balaa ibiddan irratti raawwachuu dhan ummata nannawa kana akka lafa isaanirra buqa’uu taasisa jiran.
Walaloo Shamarree Oromo :Uuuuu….Uuuuuu Cilaaloo Gubanii
The regime set on fire the trading center of Hawassa city of the Sidama just week a go.
The Sidama Owned Small Businesses on Fire in Hawassa
Statement by United Sidama Parties for Freedom and Justice
February 24, 2015
It’s with deepest sadness that the United Sidama Parities for Freedom and Justice (USPFJ) express its hear felt condolences for the Sidama small scale business owners in Hawassa city New market place ‘ Addis Gebeya’ for loss of lives and property. The source of the fire has not yet been confirmed.
The incident took place on 21 February 2015 at 7 pm local time. The Fire has been left on to burn for over 2 hours. The Sidama business community who have set up these new businesses in this particular place over a decade ago had registered their plots of lands as they have been pushed away far from the city centre to give room for investors from other parts of the country.
We also condemn the slow response from the fire brigade in the region. The response of the fire brigade was awfully inadequate. The inept Fire Brigade only arrived 105 minutes after the fire has engulfed the entire shopping areas, shops and residential homes attached to these. The Fire Brigade has been delayed for a lengthy period of time to arrive at a place less than 4 kilometres away. Moreover, peoples from the neighbouring villages and neighbourhoods have been denied access to the area by police officers who have been seen blocking the entrances from all corners until all shops and attached houses have been totally burned down to ashes.
To date, the number of dead Sidama people has exceeded a dozen by the time we’ve published this press release; and the bodies of dead Sidama have been kept in the Hawassa municipality morgue and the identification process of the bodies is also difficult as they have been burnt beyond recognition. The material cost of this accident is estimated to be over hundreds of millions of Birr. Ironically the burnt out empty place is being guarded by the federal police to confirm that the previous owners are unlikely to be allowed to their places. As a result there is a suspicion among the Sidama people that the fire might have been deliberately ignited to destroy the properties to allocate the plots to other “investors.”
The fire began burning an entire market place mainly owned by the Sidama small scale traders who have been as mentioned above pushed out of Hawassa city centre which became a hot cake for the central rulers who have all considered Hawassa, a resort town for their personal entertainment. In Hawassa, the rulers spend their honeymoon, spare times and hold a special national and international conferences; with very little or nothing trickling down to the real stake holders, the Sidama people. Instead, the Sidama people are pushed away and punished by this very regime time and again including the May 24, 2002 massacre of over 70 confirmed Sidama civilians who demanded their constitutional rights to regional self-determination; at the exact place where the Sidama market has been burnt out on the aforementioned date. The regimes federal as well as regional anti-Sidama cadres work day and night to deny the Sidama nation their rights to regional self-administration. The destruction of the livelihood of the Sidama People might have been planned behind the scene to remove them from their ancestral land of Hawassa step by step; although this will never happen as the Sidama people will never give up an inch from their land.
About a week ago the Sidama farmer known as ‘Hussein Kadir’, who is the father of numerous children has been ordered by the Hawassa investment office cadres both Dehidin and SPDO’s to vacate his land for an investor. The land he has been asked to leave was the one on which his ancestors have lived and inherited to him. His livelihood depends on these plots of land as are his numerous children and family members. As he has been ordered, to leave his land for investors, he decides to climb onto a tree near his house and told the cadres that he would rather commits suicide than allowing his land to be taken by strangers. He vowed that unless the regime stops ordering him to leave his ancestors land, he never climbs down. After spending few days on the top of the tree (see bottom picture), the regime persuaded him through customary elders negotiations by promising to give him a place to live in, in Hawassa’s city administration owned place. It came to our attention that he has been indeed managed to get something for his family members and moved to a new place. This isn’t a separate incident; but it’s a daily phenomenon the Sidama farmers around the outskirts of Hawassa and all over the region are subjected to.
It’s the saddest era for the Sidama nation as it is for the other subjugated nations in a number of ways. The Sidama people for their first time in their history become beggars in their own soil as their main livelihood security around Hawassa, their land, has been taken away from them little by little to serve the interests of those who are enslaving the nation. Nevertheless, the Sidama nation never rests until its quest for freedom, justice, equality and self-governances are fully respected.
The USPFJ send its deepest and heartfelt condolences to the Sidama families and others (if any), who lost their properties and lives in Hawassa’s Addis Gebeya Market fire. We emphatically condemn the manner in which the local and regional governments managed the fire incident. Those who have planned, ordered, masterminded and implemented such abhorring crimes against humanity can’t escape from justice sooner or later in a free Sidama land. The Sidama nation must remain extra vigilant and united at this trying times.
May the souls of unlawfully burnt Sidama martyrs rest in peace!!
United Sidama Parties for Freedom and Justice (USPFJ)
February 24, 2015
http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/the-sidama-owned-small-businesses-on-fire-in-hawassa/
Deforestation, Land-Grabbing by Neo-Neftegna (TPLF) in UNESCO-registered Yayu Forest Reserve, Oromia
Yaayyuu forest
(OPride, April 30, 2013) – A recent massive brush fire in the Illu Abba Boora zone of Oromia region, Ethiopia has wiped out a sizable portion of the UNESCO-registered Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, reports said. The cause of the blaze, which has spread around the Yayu forest over the last several weeks, remains unknown.
According to eyewitness accounts, the blaze has scorched an estimated 50 to 80 acres of the thick coffee forest. “Such fire has never happened before in the history of the Yayu forest and the knowledge of the people living in the area,” one Yayu resident, who asked not to be named, told OPride. “It has been burning for several weeks without any intervention from the government except that of the local community to contain it to protect its advancement to their side.” The internationally recognized Yayu forest is home to the last remaining species of wild coffee Arabica and some of Ethiopia’s rare flora and bird species.
Several diaspora-based activists have accused the government for setting the forest ablaze to make a way for its development projects. The state-run media ignored the fire, and instead reported on a new fertilizer factory being built near the area. Citing several “journalists working for the government TV and radio stations,” New York-based political analyst Jawar Mohammed said, Ethiopian authorities have once again imposed a media blackout warning local reporters, including those working for state-run media houses, not to cover the story.
EPRDF, Ethiopia’s ruling party, now in power for 22 years, has been accused of setting forest reserves on fire in the past. For example, in 1999 and early 2000, a similar forest fire in Bale and Borana, also in the Oromia region, led to Oromia-wide student protests and the government’s slow response caused a strong public outcry. At the time, instead of putting out the fire, the government resorted to cracking down on students.
As was the case in 2000, eyewitnesses said the government is blaming the current fire on locals amid reports of some arrests. “The Ethiopian regime is known for playing the blame game on others for its own crimes,” another Yayu native told OPride last week. “The government doesn’t want the image of the coal mining and fertilizer factory projects to be associated with such environmental destructions,” the source said. Eyewitness reports indicate that the government alleges, “the fire was lit by people doing forest honey collection, a process associated with the life of the local people.” The OPride source noted, the locals lived collecting honey for generations, “but never witnessed such incidents of disaster.”
According to a new research by Plos One, a peer-reviewed online international publication, while there is some wild coffee in the Bale mountains range, the Yayu forest has “the largest and most diverse populations of indigenous (wild) Arabica” anywhere in the world.
Ethiopia’s overall forest reserves have dwindled in the last two decades due to growing population, land scarcity, and uncontrolled deforestation in the name of development. In 2010, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated Ethiopia’s forest cover at 12.2 million hectare or 11 percent of the total landmass. The study noted a decline from 15.11 million hectare in 1990 (a year before the current regime took office). While statistics on forest fire is rare, the FAO study said, “in 2008 fire affected 16 163 hectare of land in the autonomous region of Oromiya.”
UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are meant as sustainable development test cases in efforts “to reconcile conservation of biological and cultural diversity and economic and social development through partnerships between people and nature.” The Yayu forest reserve is one such effort by the international body to find sustainable ways for the forest to be preserved. But as another Yayu native, who asked not to be identified due to fear of repercussions told OPride, little has been done besides symbolic UNESCO designation as the initiative crosses the “the political border of national development interest.”
The source added, the federal “government never really supported the designation of the Yayu afromontane forest area as a UNESCO reserve.” “Rather, a team of scientists at Addis Ababa University led by Dr. Tadesse Woldemariam, which used the forest as a research base for several advanced studies supported by German based institutions affiliated to the interest in the forest coffee put a great deal of effort into this.”
Evidently, the federal government has struggled with how to proceed with its development agenda in the area. According to our source, more than ten years ago, local youth raised concerns that the development objectives didn’t offer benefits for the local people. To “address” this local discontent and lend the projects some legitimacy, the federal government turned to few elites who grew up in the area but whose parents were relocated from Tigray during the infamous 1985 famine. Speaking about the government’s efforts to assuage local grievances, the source gave an example of certain Getachew Atsbeha, a graduate of the local high school, who flew in with an Ethiopian Defense Forces helicopter last year leading a team of visiting researchers of the new project.
While the recent Yayu forest fire has been contained, in large part thanks to heavy rain and community involvement, the lingering issues over planned projects remain. “The government seems intent on selling the land,” one caller said on ESAT Radio program last week. “People have been displaced to make ways for the factories…government officials and state-owned enterprises are moving in…even the daily laborers are coming from Tigray.”
According to sources familiar with the ongoing projects, the main project under construction is a multi-purpose fertilizer factory. “The project became a cause for developing the area such as the road in Yayu town and constructing houses for the staff in the project,” the source said. “This has direct links to other national projects such as the sugar industry…the fertilizer will be used to support the sugarcane production, while other mechanized farming in Gambella and Benishangul regions [are expected to] become immediate consumers.” As fertilizer prices continue to soar worldwide, the building of a local manufacturer would reduce the import of fertilizer. In addition, the sugar factories around the country would operate on coal that would be produced in Yayu alongside the fertilizer. The alternative energy source will then reduce over reliance on hydroelectric power.
Last January, local newspaper Capital Ethiopia reported, the state-owned engineering company, Metal and Engineering Corporation, “is on the right track to produce fertilizer for the next cropping season.”
By the end of the much-publicized Growth and Transformation Plan, which ends in 2015, “Ethiopia envisions building eight fertilizer companies in the Oromia Regional state as per its governing five-year economic plan,” the report said. “The construction of Yayu fertilizer factory number one and two will reach 65 percent and 33 percent completion rate, respectively, this year. The design work for the Dap factory is already completed, while civil work and equipment production is underway.”
The Ethiopian government has commissioned several feasibility studies on the Yayu coal reserves for many years. Most recently a Chinese firm called COMPLANT did a study with a price of 12 million birr. The study found the Yayu area has over “100 million tons of coal”, which could “produce 300,000 tons of Urea [used in the manufacture of fertilizer], 250,000 tons of Dap, 20,000 tons of ethanol and 90MW of electric power annually for decades.” Following the feasibility study, “in March 2012, METEC awarded the construction of the first fertilizer factory in the country to Tekleberhan Ambaye Construction Plc at a cost of 792 million birr,” according to Capital Ethiopia.
The government turned to COMPLANT, after a 2005 study by a European consultancy firm, Fichiner, deemed the project not environmentally responsible temporarily forcing the government to reconsider the project, according to Addis Fortune.
Year 2000 on record:Forest Fires in Oromia and Open statements of National and International Communities
Year 2000 on record Forest Fires in Oromia Open statements of National and International Communities
Human Rights Brief: Oromo: HRLHA Plea for Release of Detained Peaceful Protestors March 5, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Because I am Oromo, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Groups at risk of arbitrary arrest in Oromia: Amnesty International Report, Human Rights Watch on Human Rights Violations Against Oromo People by TPLF Ethiopia, Oromia wide Oromo Universtiy students Protested Addis Ababa Expansion Master Plan, Oromians Protests, Oromiyaa.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights, Human Rights Brief, Human rights violations, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Oromo: HRLHA Plea for Release of Detained Peaceful Protestors
From March to April 2014, members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, engaged in peaceful protests in opposition to the Ethiopian government’s implementation of the “Integrated Regional Development Plan” (Master Plan). The Oromo believe that the Master Plan violates Articles 39 and 47 in the Ethiopian Constitution, by altering administrative boundaries around the city of Addis Ababa, the Oromia State’s and the federal government’s capital. The Oromo fear they will be excluded from the development plans and that this will lead to the expropriation of their farmlands.
In response to these protests, the Ethiopian government has detained or imprisoned thousands of Oromo nationals. In a January 2005 appeal, theHuman Rights League of the Horn
of Africa (HRLHA) claimed that the Ethiopian government is breaching the State’s Constitution and several international treaties by depriving the Oromo prisoners of their liberty. Amnesty International reports that some protestors have also been victims of “enforced disappearance, repeated torture, and unlawful state killings as part of the government’s incessant attempts to crush dissent.”
Under the Ethiopian Constitution, citizens possess the rights to liberty and due process, including the right not to be illegally detained. Article 17 forbids deprivation of liberty, arrest, or detention, except in accordance with the law. Further, Article 19 provides that a person has the right to be arraigned within forty-eight hours of his or her arrest. However, according to the HRLHA, a group of at least twenty-six Oromo prisoners were illegally detained for over ninety-nine days following the protests. The HRHLA claims that these detentions were illegal because the prisoners were arrested without warrants, and because they did not appear before a judge within forty-eight hours of their arrest. The Ethiopian authorities’ actions also disregard the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires that no one be subject to arbitrary arrest, and that those arrested be promptly brought before a judge. Ethiopia signed and ratified the ICCPR in 1993, and is thus bound to uphold the treaty.
Additionally, the Ethiopian Constitution deems torture and unusual punishment illegal and inhumane. According to Article 18, every citizen has the right not to be exposed to cruel, inhuman, or degrading behavior. Amnesty International reports that certain non-violent Oromo protestors suffered exactly this treatment, including a teacher who was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet for refusing to teach government propaganda to his students, and a young girl who had hot coals poured onto her stomach because her torturers believed her father was a political dissident. Amnesty International further recounts other instances of prisoners being tortured through electric shock, burnings, and rape. If these reports are an accurate account of the government’s actions, the Ethiopian authorities are not only acting contrary to their constitution, but also contrary to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT). According to Article 2 of the CAT, a State Member must actively prevent torture in its territory, without exception. In addition, an order from a high public authority cannot be used as justification if torture is indeed used. Ethiopia ratified the CAT in 1994, and is thus obligated to uphold and protect its principles.
The HRLHA pleads that the Ethiopian government release imprisoned Oromo protesters. This would ensure that the intrinsic human rights of the Oromo people, guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution and several international treaties ratified by Ethiopia would finally be upheld. Furthermore, it would restore peace to and diminish the fear among other Oromo people who have abandoned their normal routines in the wake of government pressure, and have fled Ethiopia or have gone into hiding.
*The Human Rights Brief is a student-run publication at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). Founded in 1994 as a publication of the school’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the publication has approximately 4,000 subscribers in over 130 countries.
Yakka Godina Gujiitti Oromoorratti raawwatame: Genocidal Crimes Conducted Against Guji Oromo March 4, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Afar, Ogaden, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Groups at risk of arbitrary arrest in Oromia: Amnesty International Report, Guji.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I Am Oromo: Sweeping Repressions in Oromia, Genocide, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights violations, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Yakka Godina Gujiitti Oromoorratti raawwatame
Ummanni Oromoo erge humna waranaatin bittaa alagaa jalatti kufee kaasee ajjeechaa dabalatee yakki suukaneessaan bifa hedduu irratti raawwatamaa har’a gahe. Kanuma bara bittaa murna bicuu TPLF/EPRDF yoo ilaalle baroota kurna lamaan dabran keessa yeroo fi bakkoota adda addaatti ajjeechaan jumlaa, toorchariin namoom-dhabaan, saamichii fi qabeenya barbadeessuu raawwatame tarrifamee kan dhumu miti. Mootummaan wayyaanee borumtaa aangootti bahee kaasee miseensotaa fi deeggartoota ABO kan jedhuun sabboontota Oromoo hammana hin jedhamnerratti yakka suukaneessaa bifa hedduu raawwachuun gamatti miidhaa kana ijaa-gurra addunyaarraa balleessuuf dhoksuuf shira dabalataa xaxuun beekkama.
Dhugaan qal’attus hin cittu akkuma jedhan garuu dhugaan saba Oromoo barootaaf gabroomfattootaan ukkaamsamuuf tattaafatamaa bahe akka diinnonni yaadanitti awwaalamee hafuu hin dandeenye. Kanaaf ammoo ajjeechaan gaara Suufii, lafeen ilmaan Oromoo Hammarreessatti mul’atee fi gochaalee wayyaanee fakkaatoo addunyaaf ifa bahan tuquun ni danda’ama. Haalli quunnamtii fi fageenyaa ture ajjechaa saba Oromoorratti raawwatamu waggootaaf haa tursu malee, yeroo isaa eegee haqi ummata kanaa akka ifa bahu, dabi wayyaanee akka saaxilamu odeessi har’a nu dhaqqabu kanuma dhugoomsa.
Haaluma walfakkaatuun sirni nama-nyaataa wayyaanee bara 1994 hanga 2010tti Kibba Oromiyaa Godina Gujiitti ilmaan Oromoo hedduu maqaa ABO waliin hidhata qabaachuutiin yakkee dararaa hamtuuf saaxilaa erga baheen booda ajjeesuu gabaasni dhihoo kana nu dhaqqabe ni addeessa. Kana ragaadhaan dhugoomsuufis eenyummaa fi teessoo ilmaan Oromoo badii malee mootummaa wayyaanetiin ajjeefaman yeroo gabaabduu dura harka keenya seenee isinii dhiyeessina.
- Obboo Guyyee Xelxelaa – Ona Malkaa Sooddaa ganda daada odaa budhii
- Rashiid Baallii -Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Ejersaaa
- Naasin Alii – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Ejersaa/Kilkille/
- Boruu Duubee – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Ejersaa/Waaccuu diinaa/
- Qajeelaa abbaa Daroo – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Ceekkata kojo’aa
- Kuusoyi Roobee – Ona Adoolaa shaakkisoo – ganda Magaadoo
- Guyyee Dhugoo – Ona Malkaa Sooddaa – ganda daada odaa budati
- Dhugoo Guyyee – Ona Oddoo shaakkisoo – magaalaa shaakkisoo
- Dhaddacha Figiiguu – Ona Malkaa sooddaa -ganda daada odaa budhuttii
- Taakkalaa – Ona Malkaa Sooddaa – ganda Malkaa Sooddaa
- Aadamaa – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Ejersaaa
- Shaaroo – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Ejersaaa
- Efreem Adoolaa Ona Sabbaa boruu – ganda Harragessee
- Shaambal Odaa – Ona Sabbaa boruu – ganda Siree buqqeettii
- Galgaloo Biilee – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Burii Karroo
- Samarroo Gannaalee – Ona Oddoo shaakkisoo – ganda magaadoo
- Dastaa Dhaddachaa – Ona Oddoo shaakkisoo – ganda magaadoo
- Aadan Gujii – Ona sabbaa boruu – ganda Haroo garrii
- Boruu Sheekoo – Ona Oddoo shaakkisoo – ganda Walaaboo
- Hasan Huseen – kan wayyaaneen reeffa isaa mana waliin gubde
- Halloo Badhoo – abbaa ijoollee jahaa wayyaaneen haala sukaneessaan ajjeese
- Uqubaay – Adoolaa
- Ilaalaa Kaffalaa – abbaa maatii saddeetii
- Milkeessaa Gadaa
- Jaarsoo Boruu
- Yohaannis
- Sulee Baallee
- Kadir Koottee
- Abdataa Dalloo fi
- Lataa Sabaa kanneen jedhaman warreen sirna wayyaanetiin ajjeefamanii dha.
Lammiileen Oromoo jiraattota Godina Gujii tahan olitti maqaan isaanii tarrifame kunneen abbootii warraa maatii qaban yoo tahan, mootummaa wayyaanetiin Oromummaa isaanii qofaan yakkamanii ajjeefamuurraa maatiin isaan jiraachisan rakkoo hamtuuf saaxilamaniiru. Akka ragaan nu gahe addeessutti maatiin ilmaan Oromoo badii malee murna faashistii tahe kanaan ajjeefamanii faffaca’uu fi hiyyoomachuudhaan gadadoof affeeramanii haala akkaan yaaddessaa keessa jiru.
Mootummaan wayyaanee ilmaan Oromoo ABO waliin hidhaata qabaachudhaanii fi Oromummaa isaanii qofaan yakkee rasaasaa fi hiraara bifa adda addaa irraa gahee lubbuu galaafachuutti dabalee kanneen miidhaa qaamaa fi qor-qalbiif saaxilamanis lakkoofsi isaanii hammana kan jedhamu miti. Sabboontonni Oromoo kumoota hedduun lakkaawaman har’allee haqa Oromoof dhaabbachuu isaaniitiin humnoota sirnichaatiin rasaasaan reebamanii miidhaa ulfaataaf saaxilamaaru.
Ragaadhuma Godina Gujiirraa argame olitti tuqne waabeffannee yoo ilaalle ilmaan Oromoo cubbuu dalagan tokkollee odoo hin qabaatin Oromoo tahanii dhalachuu isaanii qofaaf mootummaa diina Oromoo tahe, Wayyaaneedhaan waraanni, poolisii fi tikni itti bobbaafamee rasaasaan reebamanii madeeffaman, qaamaa hir’atanii fi qabeenyi saamame hedduu dha. Kanneen keessaa muraasni isaan armaan gadii ti:-
- Birbirsa Baanataa – ganda Ejersaa – kan rasaasaan dhawamee qaamaa hir’ate
- Uddeessa Caaccuu – ganda haadhaa gord – rasaasa wayyaaneen madeeffame.
- Mitikkuu Roobee – haadha gord – ni madeessan
- Baallii Ideemaa – ganda Burii Ejersaaa ni madeessan
- Jamaal Baallii – ganda Burii Ejersaaa – ni madeessan.
- Quxxun Waaree – ganda Burii Ejersaa ni maddeessan
- Godona Gannaalee – ganda Burii Ejersaa ni madeessan
- Goluu Saafayii – ganda Burii Ejersaa ni madeessan
- Hareedii Saafayi – ganda Gooroo doolaa – ni madeessan
- Boraamee Bariisoo – ganda Hirmaayee – ni madeessan
- Waaqoo Uddoo – ganda Malkaa Sooddaa – ni madeessan
- Shushugoo Hadaa – ganda Burii Ejersaa – ni madeessan
- Badiriyaa haadha obsaa.-ganda Burii Ejersaaa-ni madeessan.
- Aashaa Abbaa Baalee – ganda Haadha diimaa – ni madeessan
- Rooduu Dhaddachaa – ganda Daada Odaa budhuu – ni madeessan
- Useenii Baallii – ganda Burii Ejersaa – ni madeessan
- Goobanaa Waaqoo – ganda Burii Ejersaa – ni madeessan
- Bay’ootee Waallee – ganda Ceekataa kojo’aa – ni madeessan
- Turee Waaccuu – ganda Burii Ejersaa – ni madeessan
- Basaayee Jiloo – Ceekataa – ni madeessan
- Yaasiin Waaqoo – ganda Burii Karroo – ni madeessan
- Shakkamaa Waaqoo – ganda Burii Karroo – ni madeessan
- Toree Useen – ganda Burii Karroo – ni madeessan
- Soraa Useen – ganda Burii Karroo – ni madeessan
- Bunoo Adoolaa – ganda Burii Karroo – ni madeessan
- Roobaa Adulaa – ganda Daada Odaa budhu – ni madeessan
- Elemaa Xeendhee – ganda Galabaa – ni madeessan
- Qumbii Shundhaa – ganda Burii Ejersaa – ni madeessan
- Odaa Xeeloo – ganda Daada Odaa budhuu – ni madeessan
- Jaarsoo Saafayi – ganda Galabaa – ni madeessan
- Roobee Godaanaa – ganda Galabaa – ni madeessan
- Iyyaasuu Basaayee – ganda Adoolaa waayyuu – kan madeeffame akkasumas
- Machaawaa Turee – ganda Galabaa – qabeenya qabu hunda ABO jechuun saaman
- Bonayyaa Waaqoo – ganda Galabaa – qabeenya qabu hunda kan ABO jechuun saaman
- Boruu Duubaa – Halloo madheedhee – qabeenya qabu maraa ni saaman
- Asaffaa Dhaddachaa – ganda Gooroo doolaa – qabeenya qabu maraa saaman
- Bookkiyyee Baallii – ganda Burii Ejersaaa – qabeenya qabu mara irraa saaman
- Muttarii Addoo – ganda Burii Ejersaa – qabeenya qabu maraa saaman
- Baatii Guyyee – ganda Burii Ejersaa mootummaa wayyaaneetiin saamaman
- Geetuu Dukkallee – ganda Burii Ejersaa fi
- Shifarraa Yembee – ganda Bulee horaarraa warreen wayyaanedhaan saamamani.
Walumaagalatti egaa sabboontonni Oromoo Godina Gujiitti maqaa ABO waliin hidhata qabaachutiin ykn Oromummaa isaanii qofaan yakkamanii gara jabinaan ajjeefaman, miidhaa qaamaa fi qor-qalbiif saaxilamanii fi saamamanii hiyyoomfaman dhugaan oolee bulus awwalamuu waan hin dandeenyeef, amma ifa bahee beekkame. Miidhaa fi roorroon kun har’allee Godina Gujii dabalatee guutummaa Oromiyaa keessatti ilmaan Oromoorratti itti fufiinsaan babal’atee raawwatamaara. Kunis waa lama akeeka.
Inni duraa diinni kooraa akaakilee-abaabilee isaa kaleessa dhaale Oromiyaa gabroomfataa jiru, murni wayyaanee, Oromoorratti yakka raawwachuutti quufuu dhabee awwaaluudhaan yakka dachaa raawwachuun jibbaa fi tuffii saba keenyaaf qabu agarsiisuu itti fufuu isaa ti. Inni lammaffaan ammoo dhaamsa gochaan diinaa kun nu ilmaan Oromoo har’a lubbuun lafa kanarratti hafnee jirruuf dabarsuu dha.
Gochaan hammeenyaa diinni Oromoorratti raawwataa bahee fi ammas itti jiru kun, ilmaan Oromoo ajjeefamuu, rasaasaan reebamuu, hidhamanii dararamuu fi saamamanii hiyyoomsamuu jalaa bahuu kan danda’an yoo didatan qofa tahuu dhaamsa nuuf dabarseera. Akka sabaatti mataa walitti qabannee, gurra walii laannee, jaarmayaa keenya jabeeffannee tokkummaadhaan diinaan “Si gaha” jennuun malee falli rakkoo kana keessaa ittiin baanu gara biraan hin jiru.
Kanuma waliin ammoo sabboontonni Oromoo Oromummaan yakkamanii hiraarfamuun dhaabbachuu qaba jechuun wareegama qaalii baasan daandii gatii lubbuu itti baasanii nuuf saaqaniin dhaamsi nuuf dabrsan ijoon Oromoon biyyasaarratti kabajaa fi bilisummaan jiraachuuf furmaanni qabu roorroo diinaa gootummaan dura dhaabbachuu tahuu isaa ti.
Maarree, nuti dhaloonni Oromo ammaa, gumaa ilmaan Oromoo badii malee mootummaa wayyaaneetiin roorroof saaxilamanii baasuuf hammam of qopheessine, hammamis qooda lammummaa keenyaa bahataa jirraa ofis walis haa gaafannu. Ajjeechaa, hidhaa, saamichaa fi dararaa ummata keenyarratti sirnoota gabromfatoon barootaaf walitti fufiinsaan gaggeeffamaa jiru kanatti xumura gochuufis qooda lammummaa dachaan bahachuun sabaa fi biyya keenya roorroo wayyaanee jalaa bilisa baasuun seenaa hin irraanfatamne galmeessinee dabruuf bakkayyuu haa warraaqnuun dhaamsa keenya.
Injifannoo Ummata Oromoof!
SBO
Oromia: The formulas for Bilisummaa (Freedom) and Gabrummaa (Subjugation-cum-slavery) March 3, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Genocide against the Oromo, Human Rights and Liberties, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromummaa, The Dynamics of Ethiopian State Terror in Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia
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Motummaan Abisiiniyaa (TPLF) Farra Ummata Oromooti
Tasfaayyee Mootii irraa, Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com | 3 March 2015
Seenaa Oromoo keessatti erga sirni abbaa irree Abysiniyaa jedhamuu aangoo afaan qawweetiin harkatti galfatee eegalee, ajjeecha suukkanneessan ummata Oromoo irraa hin cinne. Sabni Amaraa Minilik jalatti gurmaa’un meeshaalee waraana warra Awuroopaa tti fayyadamuun ajjeechaa sukkaneessaa ummata keenya irratti raawwachaa turan.
Bara 1868 fi 1900 gidduutti, ummanni Oromoo miliyoona shan dimshaasha ummata Oromoo keessaa walakkaa kan ta’u Minilikiin kan ajjefaman yoo ta’u, bara 1992 hanga 1994 ammoo Oromoo kuma shantama ABO waliin hidhata qabdan sababa jedhuun ragaa tokko malee mana hidhaatti naqamanii achitti kuma sad kan ta’an TPLFn ajjeefamaniiru. Dabalataan, bara 1992 kaasee hanga 2001 tti Oromoon 50,000 ta’u yoo ajjeeffaman 16,000 ammoo eessa buuteen isaanii hin argamin hafan bara waraana Ertiraa Oromoonni du’aaf waraana fuul duratti dabarsamanii kennamu turan.1
Akkuma sirnoota minilikif lukkeelewwan isaa dura turan sirni TPLF kayyoo Oromoo cunqursuu, ajjeesuu, qabeenya Oromoo saamuu, aadaaf seenaa Oromoo balleessuu, hedduminaan mana hidhaatti naqee achitti gidiraa adda addaaa irratti rawwachuu daran itti fufee jira.
Akka fakkeenyatti yoo kazsbe, fiigicha qaxxaamura dheeraa fuugun kan beekamu Shambal Abbaba Biqilaa, qabsa’aa Oromoo Janaral Taddasaa Birruu (motumma Hayilesillaaseen kan ajjeefaman), Maamoo Walde, weellisaa Eebbisaa Adunyaa, Inginar Tasfahun Camadaa, ijoollee Oromoo kan gargaarsa ORAn guddachaa turaniif kkf motumma TPLF ajjeechan dugiiginsa sanyii irrati rawatameera.2
Yeroo dhiyoo keessatti (Ebla/Caamsaa, 2014) ammoo sababa maastar plaanii “Addis Ababa” tiin walqabatee motumman abba irree TPLF qaanii tokko malee barattootaf ummata harka qullaa mormii isaa dhageessisa jiru irratti waraana banuun ummata Oromoo fixaa kan ture fi ammas kan itti fufee jiru ta’uun nibeekama. Dabalatas, hidhamtoota manneen hidhaa TPLF keessatti argaman keessaa tilmaamni harki 95 Oromoo akka ta’e ni beekama. Bara 2011 hanga 2014 qofa Oromoon manneen hidhaa TPLF keessatti hidhaman kuma shan ol ni ta’a.3 Kana malees motummaan abbaa irree TPLF gargaarsa biyya guddatan kan akka UK, Australia, USA fi kanneen biraa irraa fudhatuun meeshaa waraanaa bituun ummata nagaa ajjeessuf itti fayyadamaa akka jiru nibeekama.4,5
Obbo Abbaay Tsahaayyee Waajjira Muummicha Ministeeraa keessatti Gorsaa Olaanoo Muummee Ministeera Itoophiyaa kan ofiin jedhan dubbii dhaddannoo dheekkamsa, doorsisaaf akeekkachiisa of keessaa qabuun akka beeksisanitti Yeroo kami irraa tuffii ummata Oromootif qaban ifatti kan mirkaneessedha. Akkas jedhan “karoorri kun lafarra harkisamuun isaa ijaa barattoonni wacaniif ykn waliin dhahuu qondaaltota motummaa nannoo Oromiyaa tokko tokkoon osoo hin ta’in sababa doofummaa, rincicummaaf lamsha’uu qondaalttota motummaa Oromiyaatin. Ammas karoorichi hojiirra ni oolfama! Yaa ta’u malee namni ykn qaamni kamiyyuu karoora kana gufachiisuf yaalii godha taanan tarkaanfin gahaa ta’e ykn sirriitti isa ni galchina. Bulchinsi motummaa naannoo Oromiyas hattuuf bututtuun kan keessa guutedha” jechuun haasa’a dhadannoon walmakeen ifa godhaniiru.
Adeemsi isaa kunnis Oromoo lafaaf qabeenya isaa irraa buqqisuu, aadaa, afaan fi seenaa ummata Oromoo dhabamsiisuu, biyya Oromiyaa jedhamtee waammamtu tun gara fuula duraatti akka isheen hin jiraannee gochuu, lafa Oromoo, qabeenya Oromoo fi biyya Oromoo saba Tigreef oolchuuf halkaniif guyyaa boqonnaa malee socha’aa jiru.
Dhaddannoon Ob. Abbaay Tsahaayyee kan ammaa kun seeraaf heera ittiin bulmaata biyyatti kan cabseef kabaja ummata Oromoo kan mulqe yoo ta’u saba Oromoo irratti lola dugugginsa sanyii kan labse, jibbinsaf tuffii saba bal’aa Oroomoof qaban yeroo kammi irra kan ifa baasedha.6
Egaa, dhimmi kun dhimma Oromoo hundaa waan ta’eef namni kamiyyu kaayyoo diinni biyya Oromoo ballessuf ka’e kana tokkumman dura dhabbachuun murtee filannoo hinqabneedha. Dhabbileen siyaasa Oromoo kamiyyuu Hojjetaan mootummaa, miti mootummaa barattoota cinaa hiriirun tokummaan diina qe’ee fi lafa keenya irraa nu biqqisaa jiru kana ofirra darbachuun barbaachisaa ta’a jedheen abdadha.
Dhuma irrattis yaada waliigalaa kan “Oromian Economist” kanaan xumura The Critical Minimum Effort (dhambicuu murteessaan): Gaheen Oromummaa maal?
Bilisummaa (Freedom) dhambicuu murteessan; Qabsoo (Struggle), Tokummaa Oromoo (Oromo Unity) (T) fi afuura Oromummaa (Spirit of Oromummaa) qabachhun murteessadha.
B = f(Q,T,O)
Garbummaa (subjugation-cum-slavery), faallaa bilisummaati kunis amala warra Abyssinian (A), Neo-Gobanaa’s factor (N factor), Lack of Oromo unity (L) fi Un-Oromummaa (U) (lack of the Spirit of Oromummaa). G = f (A, N, U) Garubummaa (G) faallaa Bilisummaa (B) ykn garagalcha isaa jechuudha.7
Injifannoo Ka Ummata Oromoo!
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Toora Ilaaltaa:
1. http://www.aljazeera.com/…/opinion/2013/07/2013714133949329…
2. http://ayyaantuu.com/…/deportation-and-death-in-the-dhidhe…/
3. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/006/2014/en/
4. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Thousands-Ethiopians-tortured-…
5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9556288.stm
6. http://finfinnetribune.com/…/omn-gabaasa-addaa-maastar-pil…/
Oromia: Appeal Letter of Oromo Students of Jimma University March 2, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in No to land grabs in Oromia, No to the Addis Ababa Master Plan, NO to the Evictions of Oromo Nationals from Finfinnee (Central Oromia), Oromians Protests, Oromo Protests.Tags: National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromo, Oromo Protests
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Appeal Letter of Oromo Students of Jimma University
To: The Administration of Jimma University
Jimma
March 2, 2015
We, the Oromo students of Jimma University, are deeply disturbed by the multifaceted repression, subjugation, political marginalization, economic exploitation, and mass and indiscriminate killings that the Oromo people are subjected to by the current TPLF/EPRDF government and profoundly distressed by the endless insults, harassment and humiliations we are facing from the remnants of the old and neo-nafxanyas (gun carriers who settled on our land by force) here in our university and in the Ethiopian empire at large. To add insult to our injury, Abay Tsehaye, one of the prominent leaders of the Ethiopian regime and one of the founders of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF), has demonstrated his contempt of the Oromo people by his current provocative and inflammatory remark. It has been exposed on several independent media outlets that Abay Tsehaye arrogantly stated that, the so called Addis Ababa Master Plan, which was met with fierce opposition from the Oromo public, “will be realized whether you like it or not” and bragged that anyone who opposes the Master Plan “will face severe punishment”. Basically, this Tigrean chief, who is currently serving as the “advisor” of the TPLF-led government, undermining the power of the people, arrogantly stated that the Oromo people have no right to oppose the evil plan that the Tigrean led Ethiopian regime has put forward.
Abay Tsehaye’s contemptuous and disrespectful remark is a clear testimony of the attitude of the entire TPLF gang who has been using the so called OPDO “Oromo organization” as a tool to subjugate the Oromo nation and not in any measure an equal partner in the EPRDF coalition as they try to mislead the public. We consider his disdainful and condescending remark as remorseless and callous act of ridiculing of the blood and graves of our fallen brothers and sisters who he and his cohorts have murdered in broad day light for no crime other than showing opposition to this so called “Master Plan” they have designed in order to loot Oromo land and subjugate the great Oromo nation. Read More:-
Appeal of Oromo Students of Jimma University March 2 2015 (1)
Iyyatnoo Barattoota Oromoo Yuni Jimmaa Bitootessa 02 2015
Iyyannoo Barattoota Oromoo Yuunibarsiitii Jimmaa
Bulchiinsa Yuunibarsiitii Jimmaatiif
Jimma
Bitootessa 2,2015
Nuti dargaggootni barattootni Oromoo Yuunibarsiitii Jimmaa rakkina haala yeroo uummata keenya hudhee qabee jiruu fi yeroo irraa gara yerootti jechootni ilmaan nafxanyaa uummata keenya tuffachuu, xiqqeessuu, arrabsuu fi yakka duguuginsa sanyii (genocide) moototni habashaa fi dabbalootni EPRDF/TPLF ummata Oromoo irratti rawwachuu irra darbuun dhiyeenya kana sadarkaa itti aanatti gorsaan mootummaa EPRDF/TPLF Abay Tsayee jechoota dhiiga nama danfisuun uummata Oromoo ifatti ba’ee arrabsuun isaa tuffii saba Oromoof qabu agarsiisuu caalaayyu, dhiiga barattoota obboloota keenya bara darbe gara laafina tokko malee ajjeefamanitti qoosuu waan ta’eef boqonnaa nu dhorkee jira. Dhaadannaan hooggana TPLF kun seeruma mootummaan Itoophiyaa baafatee ittiin masakamuun illee kan isa gaafachiisu dha.
Bara darbe Ebla 11/2014 irraa eegaluun gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa fi dimookiraasii bifa barreeffamaan qaama dhimmi isaa ilaalu hundaaf dhiyeessinee, akka guutuu biyyattiitti warraqsaa FDG karaa nagaa gaggeessa jirruuf mootummaan EPRDF/TPLF barattoota Oromoo nagaa qalama malee meeshaa tokko of harkaa hin qabne irratti humna waraanaa bobbaasuun lubbuun ilmaan Oromoo dhibbootaan lakkaa’aman galaafatee jira. Barattootni Oromoo kumootaan lakkaa’aman mana hidhaa mootummaa Wayyaaneetti guuramuun hanga har’aatti dararaan irratti rawwatamaa jira. Gaaffii keenyaaf deebiin ajjeechaa jumlaa, hidhaa, reebicha, barnoota irraa hari’atamuu fi dararaa sukkaneessatu nurratti fudhatame. Mootummaan biyyan bulcha jira, sirna federalizimii fi dimookiraasiin utubameen jira, jedhee dhaadatu gaaffii mirgaa karaa nagaa gaafatneef humna waraana Agaazii jedhamuun beekamuu fi garalaafina tokkollee hin qabne nurratti bobbaasuun yakka duguuginsa sanyii (genocide) waliin wal-gitu raawwachuudhaan yakka itti gaafatama seera idil-addunyaa jalaa isa baasuu hin dandeenye keessa galee jira. Yakka duguuginsa sanyii ilmaan Oromoo irratti raawwateef hanga ammaatti itti gaafatamuumma fudhachuu diduudhaan seeraa addunyaa cabsee jira. Yeroo amma kanatti immoo yakka duguuginsa sanyii uummata Oromoo irratti rawwatameef “itti gaafatamaan uummata Oromoodha, qabeenyaa badeef itti gaafatamuu qabdu” jechuudhaan miidhaa qabeenyaa sababa dalagaa badiinsaa fi seeraan alaa ergamtootaa fi dabballota isaatiin magaalaa Amboo fi Oromiyaa bakkoota tokko tokkotti qaqqabeef uummata dirqisiisee gibiraa fi beenyaa kaffalchiisaa jiraachuun mirkanaa’ee jira.
Mootummaan amma aangoo siyaasaa biyyattii dhuunfatee jiru, mirga dhalootaan nuuf kenname,mirga dhala namummaa fi dimookiraasii nu irraa mulqee, mirgi uummata Oromoo dhiitamaa, qabeenyi ummata Oromoo saamamaa, yakka tokko malee hidhamaa, reebamaa fi ajjeefamaa hiyyummaa fi gadadoo keessa kan jirru ta’uu dhugaa addunyaan beekudha. Walumaagalatti, rakkinoota haala yeroo keessa jirru ilaalchisuun furmaata sirna qabeessa argachuuf qaamota dhimmi isaa ilaalu hundatti iyyannoo keenya dhiyeeffachuuf, mirga keenyaaf falmachuuf murteessuun iyyannoo keenya haala wal irraa hin citnee fi addunyaan dimookiraasii leellistuu fi jaarmiyaaleen mirgoota namummaa addunyaa fi mootummootni gamtooman nu cina dhaabbachuun mootummaan abbaa irree kun yakka duguuginsa sanyii (genocide) uummata Oromoo irratti gaggeessaa jiruuf itti gaafatamee seeratti akka dhiyaatuuf jennee yeroo dhiyeeffannu, gaaffiiwwan armaan gaditti tarreessineef haalduree tokko malee deebii sirriin akka nuuf kennamu kan barbaannu ta’uu beeksifna.
1. Dabballee fi Angawaan mootummaa EPRDF/TPLF Abbay Tsaayee sadarkaa itti aanatti gorsaa mootummaa kan ta’e dhiheenya kana walgahii dhoksaa sirnichi taasise irratti jechoota dhiiga namaa danfisuu fi eenyummaa fi sabummaa uummata Oromoo xiqqeessuun dhaadachuudhaan saba Oromoo guddicha kana irratti labsii waraanaa godhee mediyaa walaba adda addaarratti ifa ta’ee jira. Saba Tigree fi hundeessitoota TPLF keessaa tokko kan ta’e Abbay Tsehaye, of tuulummaadhaan guutamee saba Oromoo mirga dhalootaan qabu sababa karaa nagaa gaafateef qe’ee isaarratti hidhamaa, hiraarfamaa fi ajjeefamaa jiru, “liki innasgabbachewaallen”, jechuunis karoora cubbamaa inni fi dhaabni isaa TPLF ummata Oromoof qaban kanneen morman “qoricha qonnaaf” jechuudhaan tuffii hangana hin jedhamne ummata Oromoof qabu ifatti labsee jira. Nuti barattoonni Oromoo, dhiigni obboloota keenyaa dhangala’e utuu hin qooriin akka kana yammuu sabummaadhaan xiqqeeffamnee nurratti qoosamu teenyee ilaaluu hin dandeenyu. Kanaafuu, aangawaan TPLF Abbay Tsehaye jedhamu kun hatattamaan akka aangoorraa kaafamuu fi yakka duguuginsa sanyii (genocide) uummata keenyarratti rawwachaa turee fi amma illee labsaa jiruuf seeratti akka dhiyaatu gaafanna.
2. Bara darbe Ebla 11/2014 irraa eegaluun gaaffii mirgaa fi dimookiraasii karaa nagaan barreeffamaan dhiyeeffaneef aangawootni sirna EPRDF/TPLF/OPDO yakka ajjeechaa duguuginsa sanyii (genocide) uummata Oromoo irratti labsuun uummata karaa nagaa sirna abbaa irreen mormaa jiru jumlaan ajjeessan, hidhatti guuran, barnoota irraa ari’atan, manguddoo ganna 80 hanga daa’ima ganna 7tti utuu bira hin darbiin guyyaa saafaa yakka gara jabeenyaan guutameen dhukaasanii ajjeessaniif to’annoo jala oolfamanii hatattamaan seeraatti akka dhiyaatan gaafanna.
3. Shirri maqaa misoomaa ‘’Master Pilaanii Finfinnee’’ jedhuun mootummaan EPRDF/TPLF uummata Oromoo qe’ee fi qabeenyaa isaa irraa buqqisuun afaan, aadaa, eenyummaa fi duudhaan uummata Oromoo akka quucaruu fi maappiin (Kaartaan) Oromiyaa akka ciccituuf shira waggaa 23 guutuu itti yaadama ture gadi baasuun adeemsi hojitti hiikuuf fiigaa jiran haalduree tokko malee akka dhaabbatu gaafanna. Magaalaan Finfinnee mataan isheeyyu qabeenya Oromo waan taateef, bulchiinsi magaalaa Finfinnee Mootummaa Naannoo Oromiyaatiin to’atamuu fi gaggeeffamuu qaba.
4. Yaaliin magaalawwan gurguddoo Oromiyaa naannawaa Finfinnee kanneen akka:Bushooftuu, Dukam, Aqaaqii Qaallittii, Sandaafaa, Laga-Xaafoo Laga-Daadhii, Sulultaa, Buraayyuu, Hoolotaa fi Sabbataa bulchiinsa Finfinnee jala galchuu fi magaalaawwan Oromiyaa kanneen akka Adaamaa, Shaashamannee, Jimmaa, Naqamtee fi Amboo illee to’annaa mootummaa Federaalaa fi bulchiinsa magaalaa Finfinnee jala galchuuf shirri guddaan Oromiyaa irratti raawwatamaa waan jiruuf, mootummaan ‘EPRDF’ akeeka kana akka hatattamaan nurraa dhaabuu gaafanna.
5. Gurgurtaan lafaa maqaa Investimeentii fi Liizii jedhuun mootummaa amma aangoo irra jiruun Oromiyaa keessatti babal’chuun Uummata keenya qe’ee fi qabeenya dhabsiisuun abbaa biyyummaa fi qe’ee uummata Oromoo sarbaa waan jiruuf, keessattuu, naannawa Finfinneetti uummanni keenya qe’ee fi qabeenya isaanii irraa buqqifamuun jiruu fi jireenyaan dararamaa waan jiraniif, akeekni kun uummata keenya irraa akka dhaabbatu gaafanna. Kanneen qe’ee fi qabeenya isaanii irraa buqqa’aniifis beenyaa guddaan kanfalameefii qe’ee isaanii fi lafa isaaniitti akka deebi’an gaafanna.
6. Gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa ,mirga dhala namaa fi dimookiraasii Ebla 11/2014 irraa eegaluun ifatti gaafatneef ilmaan Oromoo dhaabilee barnoota olaanoo garaagaraa fi godinaalee Oromiyaa hunda irraa jumlaan guramanii hidhatti ukkanfaman atattamaan akka hiikaman gaafatna. Kanneen ajjeefamaniif akka gumaan kanfalamu, kanneen barnoota irraa arii’aman barnoota isaanitti akka deebi’an gaafatna. Mootummaan biyya bulchaa jiru hamilee isaanii cabee fi qaama isaanii hir’ateef akkasumaaf lubbuu badeef beenyaa akka kanfaluu fi dabbalootni mootummaa kanneen tarkaanfii ajjeechaa, hidhaa, barnootaa irraa ari’uu irratti keessaa qooda fudhatan hundi akka seeraatti dhiyaatanii adabaman gaafanna.
7. Mirgi dimookiraasii fi namummaa uummata keenyaaf akka kabajamuu jala murree akeekkachiifna.
8. Uummanni Oromoo akka baay’ina isaatti, akka qabeenyaa isaa fi bal’ina lafa isaatti gama siyaasaan qoodannaan aangoo sirna ‘EPRDF’ keessatti qabu xiqqaa fi qaanfachiisaa waan ta’eef, bulchiinsii sirna dimookiraasii dhugaan dhaabbatee, uummata keenyaaf qoodannaan aangoo siyaasaa madaalawaan kennamuufii akka qabu beeksifna. Mirgi abbaa biyyummaa uummata Oromoo kabajamuu qaba.Uummanni Oromoo gita bittaa kamiyyu jalaa ba’ee ofiin of bulchuu qaba. Mirgi qe’ee fi abbaan qabeenyummaa isaa mirkanaa’uu qaba jennee jabeessinee gaafanna.
9. Biyya dimookiraasiin hin jirree keessatti filmaata haqa qabeessaa fi dimookiraatawaa ta’e gaggeessuun hin danda’amu waan ta’eef maqaa filannoo waliin dha’insaa fi sobaan mootummaan EPRDF, jecha dimookiraasii fayyadamuu malee gochaan isaa faallaa dimookiraasii waan ta’eef adeemsii filannoo sobaa gaggeeffamaa jiru akka dhaabbatuu fi filannoo dhugaadhaaf haalli akka mijeeffamu gadi-jabeessinee gaafanna.
10. Ademsii jaarmiyaalee siyaasaa biyyatti hunda hirmachisuu mootummaan ce’umsaa hundeeffamee bu’uurrii demokiraasii dhugaan akka hundeeffamuu, Boordiin filannoo gartuu kam irraa iyyuu bilisa ta’ee uummataan akka filamuu fi filmaatni dimokiraatawaan kan jarmiyaalee bilisummaa uummata Oromoo, mirga namummaa fi dimookiraasiif qabsoo gaggeessa jiranii fi akkasumas jaarmiyaaleen saboota cunqurfamoo hunda kan hirmaachiise filannoon bilisaa fi walabaa akka gaggeeffamu jabeessinee gaafatna.
11. Humnootni tikaa,waraanaa fi milishootni mootummaa EPRDF’n hundeeffamanii bu’aa mootummaa Wayyaanee qofa tiksuu qofaaf dhaabbatan hatattamaan akka diigaman jabeessinee gaafachuun; humnootni tikaa fi qaamoleen nageenya sabaa fi sablamoota biyyatti eegan gartuu/leellistummaa kam irraa iyyuu bilisa ta’an hundeeffamuun nageenya uummataa fi biyyaaf akka dhaabbatan ta’ee gaaffii mirgaa abbaa biyyummaa, dimookiraasii, fi namummaa akka tiksan akka godhamu jabeessinee gaafatna.
12. Maqaa Siyaasaan Ummanni Oromoo yeroo irraa gara yerootti jumlaan hidhaatti guurame manneen hidhaa biyyattii keessatti dararamaa jiru haalduree tokko malee akka hiikaman ni gaafatna!!
13. Mootummaan Wayyaanee sabaa fi sab-lammoota biyyatti gidduutti waraana qabsiisuun dhiigaa fi lubbuun lammiilee akka dhangala’uuf shira diinummaa uummata biyyaatti gidduutti qabsiisuun kan beekamu yoo ta’u addatti immoo uummata Oromoo fi saboota olla Oromiyaa ta’an irratti xiyyeeffachuun, adeemsii dhiiga waldhangalaasuu fi qabeenyaa barbadeessuu godinalee Bahaa Oromiyaatti gama saboota olla Oromiyaa dhaabbachuun Somaalota hidhachiisuun Harargee, Booraana, Gujii, fi Baalee keessatti lubbuun ilmaan Oromoo dhibbootan lakka’aman badee jira; qabeenyaan uummataa jumlaan barbadaa’ee uummatni nagaan qe’ee isaa jiraachuu dadhabee buqqa’eera. Haaluma walfakkatuun dhiha Oromiyaatti Gumuzoota hidhachiisuun ilmaan Oromoo dhibbootaan lakka’aman dhumaniiru; qabeenyaan miliiyonotaan lakka’amu barbada’era.Yakka ulfaataa uummata keenyarratti gaggeeffamaa jiru kanaaf mootummaan EPRDF itti gaafatamummaa akka fudhatu jabeessinee gaafatna.
14. Lafti kan qotee bulaa ta’uu qaba.Uummatni Oromoo fi lammiileen cunqurfamoon sabaa fi sablamootni biyyattii lafa qabeenyaa isaanii irraa haala fedheen iyyuu dirqisifamanii buqqifamuu hin qaban. Dhiibbaan mootummaan EPRDF bifa kamiinuu irratti godhuu akka dhaabbatu gaafatna.
Kanaafuu, nuti dargaggoonni Oromoo Yuunibarsiitii Jimmaa, qabxiileen jajjaboon armaan olitti tarrifaman akka mootummaa gabroomfataa saba keenya hacuucaa jiru kanaan akka hojiitti hiikamaniif jecha, wareegama fedheyyu baafnee qabsoo hadhaawaa gochuuf waan murteeffanneef, jarmiyaaleen siyaasaa fi waldaaleen hawaasa Oromoo hundii fi jarmiyaaleen siyaasaa fi waldaaleen sabaa fi sablammoota cunqurfamoo biyyatti hundi nu cina dhaabbaachuun akka falmattan jabeessinee gaafatna. Dhabbileen mirgoota namummaa addunyaa fi mootummootni gamtoomanii kanneen sirna giloobalayizeshiinii keessatti hirmannaa guddaa qabdanii fi bulchiinsa dimookiraasii babaldhisa jirra jettan akka nu cinaa dhaabbachuun mootummaa abbaa irree EPRDF irra qoqqobbii siyaasaa fi dinagdee kaayuudhaan dhiibbaa feesisu akka gootan jabeessinee gaafachuun gaaffiiwwan keenya kana hubachuu fi qaama dhimmi isaa ilaalu qooda fudhachuun deebii sirriin akka nuuf kennamu barbaadna jechuun iyyaannoo keenya kabajaan dhiyeeffanneera.
Barattoota Oromoo Yuunbarsiitii Jimmaa
Garagalcha:
Uummata Oromoo Hundaaf
Bulchiinsa Mootummaa Naannoo Oromiyaatiif
Koomishinii Poolisii Oromiyaa fi Dhimmoota Nageenyaa Oromiyaaf
Bulchiinsa Godina Jimmaa fi Komishinii Poolisii Godina Jimmaaf
Dhaabbilee Mirga Namummaa Biyyattiif, Afrikaa fi Addunyaaf
Oromia: Oromos face chilling oppression in Ethiopia. #Africa March 1, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Afar, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Groups at risk of arbitrary arrest in Oromia: Amnesty International Report, Human Rights Watch on Human Rights Violations Against Oromo People by TPLF Ethiopia, Ogaden, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Because I am Oromo, Genocide against the Oromo, Oromia, Oromo people, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Times of Oman
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Oromos face chilling oppression in Ethiopia
DEBASISH MITRA, Times of Oman, 28 Feb. 2015
In Ethiopia they live like animals, relentlessly persecuted, hunted down like games, killed at will and incarcerated en masse. No mercy is shown even to women and children. They are the Oromos — the largest ethnic group, the most marginalised in Ethiopia and arguably one among the most oppressed people in our planet. Despite their numerical majority, the Oromos, much like the Palestinians, are facing xenophobic oppression.
Amnesty International’s report on the state of existence of the Oromos, published last year, has been damning. It painted a chilling picture of the brutality unleashed by Ethiopian government on the hapless community to which the country’s President, Mulatu Teshome, belongs. The rights group, based in London, said: “At least 5,000 Oromos have been arrested based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government”. And most of them have been “subjected to treatment amounting to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
Amnesty researcher Claire Beston has been scathing. She said, “The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality. This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region”. Beston, in her report, said in no uncertain terms that she saw “signs of torture, including scars and burns, as well as missing fingers, ears and teeth” on those Oromos she interviewed.
The scenario in the country is perhaps far more terrifying. The United States, in its 2013 Human Rights Report, has pointed out that at least 70,000 persons, including some 2,500 women and nearly 600 children are incarcerated with their mothers, in severely overcrowded six federal and 120 regional prisons. “There also were many unofficial detention centres throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele,” the report added further.
Plurality, respect for basic democratic values and tolerance for dissent have never been the fortes for which Ethiopia is known in the world. It is for reasons on the contrary the country has already earned a massive notoriety internationally. Corruptions are rampant and behind the façade of development the government in Ethiopia is infamous for selling out the country to the western world and foreign corporations and, of course, for its blatant violation of basic human rights.
What defines Ethiopia today is the greed and corruption of its politicians, especially those in power. The brazenness with which the government is trying to sell out Omo Valley to foreign corporation is a shame and a heinous crime. Twice the size of France and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Omo Valley is known as the ‘cradle of mankind’ which, according to ancient-origins.net, has the world’s largest alkaline lake as well as the world’s largest permanent desert lake.
The Ecologist says, Lake Turkana in Omo Valley was a prehistoric centre for early hominids. Some 20,000 fossil specimens have been collected from the Turkana Basin. Anthropological digs have led to the discovery of important fossilised remains, most notably, the skeleton of the Turkana Boy, (or Nariokotome Boy). Finding Turkana Boy was one of the most spectacular discoveries in palaeoanthropology. His reconstruction comes from the almost perfectly preserved skeleton found in 1984 at Nariokotome near Lake Turkana.
Discovery of the fossilised Turkana Boy, aged between seven and fifteen who lived approximately 1.6 million years ago was a milestone in the study of our origin and ancestry. Yet, to the corrupt, shameless and avaricious Ethiopian government it is of no significance. And neither is the welfare of the indigenous people of the valley who are believed to be the living descendants of the early hominids.
Alas! Ethiopian government wants to sell out this important archaeological treasure trove to foreign corporations where they want to develop sugar, cotton and biofuel plantations. A shameless land grab is underway in Omo Valley where hundreds of more fossilised skeletons of our forefathers are expected to be found and retrieved.
Misrule, human rights violations, hubris, arrogance and corruption plagues Ethiopia. Continuous demagoguery against the Oromos has made Ethiopia sit atop a huge mound of gun powder waiting for a spark to explode. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is getting ready for yet another armed struggle to overthrow the present political dispensation in power.
And given the history of insurgency in Ethiopia the country today seems to be heading fast towards a fresh bout of armed insurrection.
A low intensity struggle has already started as the Oromos are no more in mood to take the oppression, they are in no mood to suffer in silence their marginalisation. The ethnic fire the Ethiopian government has been stoking is gradually turning into an inferno.
We know human stupidity is endless and that of Ethiopia is infinite and dark. It cannot achieve growth and progress keeping its people delegitimised and aggrieved. The oppressed and tortured shall one day erupt to claim what legitimately belongs to them as well.
The author is the Opinion Editor of Times of Oman. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman. He can be reached at opinioneditor@timesofoman.com
Oromian Economist 
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