Amajjii-January 2000

The First Manifest (Oromo Concern)

In the name of the innocently shed blood and scattered bones of our martyred brothers and sisters; in the name of our imprisoned, tortured and suffering innocent Oromo people; in the name of our raped women; in the name of our looted and purposely impoverished Oromo nation; in the name of purposely plagued innocent people who were left to fend for themselves but could not, in the name of our suffering refugees who are scattered around the world; and in the name of justice, freedom, equality and liberty, we pledge our energy, our property and our lives in our struggle against the Abyssinian colonialists.
We have discussed with our Oromo brothers and sisters inside Oromia and elsewhere, and interviewed as many people as we possibly could, and came to the consensus of the majority, and believe that this manifest reflects the view of all freedom loving Oromo’s.

We who prepared this manifest are from a cross-section of Oromo society, from all regions of Oromia, of different backgrounds and different religions, but find our unity in our strong bond of Oromoness and Oromo blood, and one in our dreams and goals of liberation of our fatherland, Oromia. We shall not tolerate political divisions among the Oromo people on religious and regional lines. We should always strive to use our diversities to our advantage.

Phases of our liberation struggle.
1. The first phase-Our learning and warm-up period.
2. The second phase-Our confrontation with the enemy and their surrogates.
3. The third phase-The final victory and the last leg of our struggle.

1.The Learning and warm-up period.
At the writing of this manifest, we seem to be in the middle of the first phase of our struggle. As from the 1880's, the colonialists have done their best to destroy us politically, economically and socially. They tried to destroy our culture, our history and our national identity, without much success. We have been working on our wake-up calls and learning period for decades. During this period we have been doing so many unwarranted mistakes, most of them were probably out of inexperience, unprepared to deal with the fast developing situations. At times, when opportunity of freedom knocked at our doors, we let it slip away. We had so many drawbacks and setbacks partly because we could not organize ourselves convincingly into one strong political organization with an explicit policy; and partly because we failed to check and counter check our leaders of what they were up to but left them despondently on their own to decide our fate.

During the first phase of our struggle, six very weak liberation organizations, with the words "OROMO" and "LIBERATION" as their common denominators, were formed one after the other. Each seems to be the exponent of the other and blames the others of weaknesses and finds itself even weaker than the one preceding it. At times they even had armed confrontations among themselves, weakening and disorganizing themselves further and threatening their own existence. They treat their organizations like private business corporations, forgetting the accountability to the Oromo nation's objective of liberation. We have lost thousands of precious lives and so many years in vein. We are at a point where we can tolerate this no more. The six Oromo Liberation Organizations formed during our first phase of our struggle are (in random order):

1. Oromo Liberation Council (OLC).
2. Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (IFLO).
3. Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
4. Oromo Peoples Liberation Front (OPLF).
5. Oromo People Liberation Organization (OPLO).
6. United Oromo People Liberation Front (UOPLF)

Some of the leaders of the above Liberation Organizations are self-aggrandizes, who have no confidence in the Oromo fighters and the Oromo public, whom they have divided and weakened. In 1991 most of them joined hands with TPLF, (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front), the second colonialist, against the Amhara government, (the first colonialist), only to be kicked out of the country by the TPLF, the same colonialist they had supported. Now, they are trying to join hands with the first colonialist, against the second colonialist, the one they formerly supported.

It is a mind-boggling curse of the first magnitude, unfolding in front of our very eyes, shaming this generation. Their deal with the enemy is a stuff of pulp fiction a hope–to-ruin-saga, punctured by their personal ambitions, arrogance and self-aggrandizements. They think they can beat the odds of history, which seldom understands logic but force and violence. The objectives of the colonizers and the colonized do not mix. We can only join hands with other colonized opposition groups with the same objectives as ours. Sometimes it appears as if a clandestine agenda is being advanced for personal gain in the name of Oromo liberation. Oromo liberation struggle has been tampered with for over 25 years; this has been done by the very people who have been entrusted with leading Oromo liberation organizations. Our people better be on guard and be aware of such people from within as well as from without and the title of "Liberation Front" must be left to those who sincerely struggle to achieve Oromo independence.

Oromo nationalists have always recognized the fact that we can derive strength in the unity of all genuine Oromo liberation organizations and the unity of the Oromo people. The leaders of the above six liberation organizations, under a lot of pressure from all directions were trying to form a union under the name of United Liberation Force of Oromia (ULFO), as from 20th of September 2000, at their exile hideouts in foreign land. They despise each other so much that expecting these "leaders" to form a strong United Liberation Organization is going to be another major disappointment. Though we learn from our past mistakes, let us not dwell on them, but take notes, never to repeat them but finish the first phase of our struggle to go to the second phase as soon as possible.

2. Our confrontation with the enemy and their surrogates,we strongly recommend that the following carefully formulated suggestions be implemented.

2A. One strong Liberation Organization with strong leaders and active members the question of what we expect of our leaders and what our leaders expect from us must be addressed carefully. Since our goal is to have a strong organization and a strong leadership, we have to discuss about our leaders first, and our organization and ourselves next. What we value and covet above all others, in our struggle for liberation is to have strong, trusted courageous and capable leaders in place. At this stage of our struggle, we should be able to produce strong and disciplined leaders, leaders who are willing and capable of leading liberation activities, leaders with humility and valor, leaders who can unite us under one strong organization, and who can effectively lead the liberation struggle. The liberation Organization has to establish a convincingly resolute policy for the liberation of Oromia and get its priorities in the right order and follow through.

Can we then find such leaders among the present groups of leaders who are in exile as divided as they are into six groups, and could not even unite a handful of people, let alone 35 million people? Condition might force us to look to our forces in the field very seriously to include them in the pool of completely new breed of potential leaders. Our forces want Oromia’s independence without any compromise. The only effective way to lead our forces to victory is from within not from foreign lands, consequently, trust between the fighters and these leaders in exile has been irreparably eroded. It takes a fundamental change in leadership to fix this broken trust. Therefore, in order to fully advance our struggle we have to have new trusted leaders, one strong liberation organization and build a formidable force as our first priority and recruit members and supporters.

2B. Association of Oromo Communities

We have discussed enough of what we expect from our leaders; now we must turn our attentions to what our leaders and our beloved country expect from the Oromo people in general.

We have to organize ourselves to help our leaders in their duties to help liberate Oromia. Local Oromo communities around the world must be networked to form well-organized Oromo communities associations, regionally and nationally, such as North American, European, African, Middle Eastern and Australian Oromo communities associations, to aid our leaders in our cause of liberation. Members of the liberation organization and members of the communities associations are the backbone of our liberation organization, in financial contributions and in all other aspects. Oromo unity forums must be conducted around the world, wherever Oromo communities are located, and solutions must be debated and results must be communicated up and down the ladders in the communities’ networked associations and the liberation organization.

Leaders of the Oromo communities associations from around the world shall meet from time to time to discuss and debate important issues that concern Oromos and Oromia. Liberation organization members and supporters and community members must be very active in their communities to promote awareness, to debate and discuss issues of concern and carry out the recommendations in this manifest or implement their own ideas towards our unity and liberation.

International Oromo communities association’s head quarters shall be established with full time employees, if possible, to carry out all these programs to aid our people in social, political, cultural and economic endeavors with emergency response units. We must not only react to what is happening to our people nationally and internationally but also be pro-active and act through our Oromo communities associations and our political organization to do everything possible to help our people and our refugees.

We have to improve our communications systems through radio, television, the Internet and Oromo national magazines and newspapers to reach all Oromo’s around the world. Our continuous learning process will help us to organize ourselves to the highest level of organizational efficiency.

2C. Oromo Individuals

Oromo individuals from all walks of life; doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, engineers, scientists, mechanics, journalists, economists, farmers, businessmen, accountants builders etc…have national obligation to help; therefore, every Oromo must answer this call to national duty and participate in one form or another as active member or supporter. We have to note also that many brilliant military professionals and other able and better qualified civilian individuals were reluctant to join any one of the six mentioned organizations because of these organizations’ inactive and poor leadership and their wavering and irresolute policies. However, if we all sit and wait for these Oromo organizations to go through a metamorphosis for the better, it is not going to happen. Only our mass participation will put our organizations back on track.

2D. International Organizations and governments

The United nation and all international community’s including political, social and religious organizations and governments around the world must be approached and informed about the miserable conditions of our people under the dictatorship of Abyssinian colonialists. Oromo’s, especially those in foreign lands must make as many friends as possible and educate them of our conditions. We have to approach government officials, presidents, Prime ministers, parliamentarians, congressmen, senators, governors, influential individuals, the press and human rights activists around the world to advocate our cause. However, the justness of our cause and all the campaign around the world is almost meaningless unless we can take on the Abyssinians irrespective of the attitudes of others.

2E. Our refugees and others who need help

All our fallen heroes, POWs (prisoners of war), missing in action and other prisoners in our struggle must be accounted for and help should be available for the survivors and their families. Our refugees must be accounted for and help must also be extended to them wherever they may be. Well-organized branch of service must be established to help and co-ordinate all of the above. We must do all these under the guidance of our leaders, in earnest and in urgency. Our independence is overdue; and in the final analysis no power on earth can stop a determined nation struggling for self-determination.

2F. Awareness, communications and liberation activities

The most disturbing of all, in our struggle, is the lack of awareness and information. Effective communication networks and good coordination of our struggle is terribly lacking. Therefore, we must put effective communication mechanisms in place. We have to deal with those who work in enemy’s favor by deliberately spreading misinformation. Those who try to divide us politically on regional and religious lines, the procrastinators, "wait and see" people, the politically unconscious, those who say this job can not be done, and excuse givers against the re-establishment of independent Oromia must be dealt with accordingly.

The pitiful condition we are in; that two million people could dominate, intimidate, exploit, colonize and kick around over 45 million people at will is sickening and bewilders the minds of the International communities. Some do not understand that this handful of people could do this with the help of foreign powers and their bullying national interests. These foreign powers, under the cover of the fallacy and mockery of the double standard foreign policy, give lip service to democracy and human rights around the world, but help brutal colonialist dictators whose state sponsored terror commits genocide on the Oromo people. This is a disgrace to humanity and should not be allowed to continue any longer. This teaches us how ugly this world could get if one is weak and cannot defend itself.

To those who still think democracy can be achieved under the present government if international pressure is applied to them; we say it is a fallacy. We have tried this under international observers and it became a joke. Democracy can only be achieved under a majority rule; never under a minority rule. The more rights and fairness you beg of them, the uglier they get, but the harder you punch them, the better they understand.

Dear friends, we have discussed and debated about our problems and solutions for many decades and we left no stones unturned. Most of the wars in East Africa have been caused by Abyssinian colonialists trying to cling to power by force. We firmly believe our independence will finally bring a lasting peace to East Africa. It is the final solution and the final settlement of most disputes in the Horn of Africa. Therefore, no one on earth has the right to compromise the independence of Oromia.

3. The final victory and the last leg of our struggle the third phase of our struggle and the final victory will surely arrive. Therefore, we have to briefly envision what kind of society we are going to build.

After the final victory when Oromo national flag replaces the Abyssinian colonial flag in Oromia, we must establish a free democratic government where the rights of all including the rights of minorities will be respected and protected. The grand task that awaits us is that of rebuilding our looted country starting from the scratch.

Freedom of religion, language, culture, the press, education and speech will be vigorously protected. All exiled people of our territory will be encouraged to return to Oromia to help rebuild our economy. We will control our resources and decide our destiny. There will be no more government sponsored terror, no more corruption, no more torture, no more rape, no more kidnapping, no more looting, no more fear and no more tears. We shall build our infrastructures from the ground up; we shall build schools, universities, hospitals, factories, freeways, airports, railroads, and state of the art communication systems for faster development to be par with other free nations. Our farmers can farm at will, and there will be no more abject-deadening poverty in Oromia. Our children will go to school without interruption due to wars and war trauma; we will see happy faces again.

We will protect our environment and replenish our forests and there will be an arsonist government no more to set fire to our forests, and our wild life will be free to roam around at will. Our people, wherever they may choose to live, will be proud that they finally have a government that can guarantee liberty for all.

This generation has the knowhow and a great responsibility of freeing our nation. Oromo youth should realize that Ethiopian nationalism is propaganda against Oromo interest. We have our own battle to fight and let us not be cannon fodders for the Abyssinians in their quest to destabilize East Africa. Our forefathers gallantly fought the enemy with spears and shields and gave their lives against the superior enemy weaponry.

We can build a credible force in east Africa to be reckoned with, only to be used in our defenses and to live with our neighbors in peace.

Our brothers and sisters, this is a grand undertaking. We are not trying to form another liberation organization because we have already too many. We are trying to be the catalysts for the formation of the Oromo unity initiative forums all around the world. We will work towards the consolidation of all existing political and/or liberation organization’s into one strong liberation organization under new and capable leaders, and all local Oromo community organizations be networked to form international Oromo communities association.

Unity is strength!

Free Oromia!

The Oromo Initiative for Action