OLF decries systematic killing of Oromo, urges pressure on Ethiopia

Jan 29, 2007 — The Tigrean dominated TPLF/EPRDF regime does not stop at nothing to maintain its precarious hold on power. On several occasions the Prime Minister officially declared that the mere fact of becoming a member or association with the Oromo Liberation Front is a criminal act by itself. Such blanket criminalization of large swath of the Oromo people amounts to a genocidal decree that legalizes mass murder as a result of political views.

It was to put this sinister policy, aimed at liquidating dissent, into effect that Minase Woldegiorgis, aka Abbaa Duulaa Gammadaa the unelected and Tigrean installed President of the Oromia Regional State was recently dispatched to Eastern Oromia. He began his bloody campaign under a mission dubbed “eliminating opposition supports” and the human rights situation in the region has since steadily and gravely deteriorated. During the visit, in which the population refused to turn up to welcome Oromia’s tormentor, Abba Dula instructed local cadres, officials and the security forces to detain and eliminate all dissidents suspected of supporting the opposition, mainly the Oromo Liberation Front. Almost immediately the local government
forces unleashed their terror, rounding up hundreds of people from localities such as Mi’eessoo, Asaboot, Haroo Carcar (Baddeessaa), Gubbaa Qorichaa, Doobbaa and Hancaar.

Sources from the areas indicated that the detainees were initially collected at Mi’eessoo prison, and so far, the security forces have murdered twenty of the detainees. From among the dead, which included elders, women and young children, eleven corpses were discovered on the hills known as Suufii and Daalacha and collected for burial. The names of these murder victims were:

1) Ahmed Kureeyba, 2) Aashaa Kormee (female), 3) Kadiir Aliyyii, 4) Shaanqoo, 5) Ahmaddiin, 6) Abdallaa Mohammed ((a student from Asabot who is shot after the courts have cleared him of all charges and ordered his release after declaring his innocence), 7)Yaasiin Mohammed, 8) Ahmad Aliyyii Turee ( an elderly person from Doobbaa), 9) Ahmed Shankoor and 10) Ahmaddin and 11) Abrahim Badhaassaa,

The same extra-judicial killings are being reported in many other districts of Eastern Oromia. Detention, displacement, and death in the hands of the security forces have been intensified throughout the Oromia Regional State. The perpetrators of this heinous crime are identified as Duresso, an intelligence official recently transferred from Bale zone to the Mi’eessoo area, Abdalla Idris, Commander of the Militia, and Abdi Waqo.

Finally, we would like to call on the Oromo and all the people in Ethiopia to persevere in the struggle for freedom, democracy and justice. We would also like to call up on the international community to put pressure on the regime to respect human rights and press it to seek a political solution to the mounting political crisis in the country and the region.

Victory for the Oromo People