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Over 150 Oromo opposition officials detained in Ethiopia
Ethiopian police

Atleast 150 representatives and members of the opposition party Oromo People's Congress (OPC) have been arrested in Ethiopia in less than five months, according to OPC leader Dr. Merera Gudina, who is also the chairman of Medrek (Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum), the largest opposition coalition in the country. Dr. Gudina told Jimma Times (JT) the abuses are spreading and the ruling party is trying to force the real opposition out of the upcoming May 2010 election.

"As things stand now, there is no way the coming elections are going to be free and fair" said the opposition leader, but his OPC party will still continue to push ahead to run under the Medrek ticket.

To unify the opposition for the 2010 election, main opposition forces created the Medrek/Forum coalition, which includes Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty (Arena), Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) and Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), formerly Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). In response, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling party signed an election agreement with over 60 pro-government political parties to sideline the opposition. Since then, the security and state media have been accused of disrupting Medrek meetings and televising alleged divisions inside the opposition.

Despite their efforts, the opposition forces remain weak and underfunded. Dr. Gudina, who visited the Diaspora in North America last November, said he was not satisfied with the amount of support his party received from the passive Oromia Diaspora. His OPC party is mostly based in the Shewa regions of Oromia where over 6 million predominantly Orthodox Christian Oromos live. Compared to the support inside Oromia, Dr. Gudina said the Diaspora support was "very little," even though his OPC party needed their financial assistance for "survival."  In July of 2009, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's EPRDF ruling party established a new regulation in public funding for political parties to further cripple the opposition financially. The change of the law forces opposition parties to return the public money they spent for election campaigning if they decide to boycott or withdraw from the election due to human rights abuses. OPC and other opposition groups of the Medrek coalition have demanded the release of dozens of their members, including political prisoner and UDJ chairwoman Judge Birtukan Mideksa.

This last minute change on the bill was intentionally done so that all the parties, with the intimidation and severe harassment they may suffer, are forced to participate in elections just to keep the ruling party company," added UDJ representative MP Birru.

Many Ethiopians hope for a powersharing deal between Medrek and EPRDF, to end one-party control of the security and government institutions in Ethiopia. But analysts expect Meles Zenawi's ruling party to rigg the 2010 election and share parliament seats with government loyalists or with over 60 parastatal "opposition" parties created by the EPRDF ruling party. The last election in 2005 ended with atleast 200 protesters shot dead by EPRDF security forces after international observers concluded Meles lost the election.

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Added: March 12, 2010. 05:31 PM GMT
peace for all
EBACACHU YEHAGER LEJE --
GOSA ENA ZERANGE MEHOUNE LEMANME AYE BEJEM YEMIBILET NEGER TEGGEZU BE SELAM BEFEQER MESERAT YEBELTAL TELATEN AND HONE MASENEFE YEBELTAL DEHENETEN , FERENJE NEW YEHEN HULE YEMISERAWE
WELGA
Added: February 15, 2010. 06:08 PM GMT
lucesa
Whatever you say we will say
in the future whether olf is the last winner or the riverse.
Anonymous
Added: February 11, 2010. 06:31 PM GMT
Oromo: eject Unitarists, fight Hegemonists, but elect Unionists


During the time of being occupied by Abyssinians for the last about 150 years, we Oromo people were "allowed to elect our leadres" under the monarchy of Mekonnen, T., under the military dictatorship of Mengistu H/M and now under the ethnocracy of Meles Z. We all know what sort of elections we had till now, no need of elaboration about them. Now we are few weeks before we will be "allowed to elect our next leaders". What are we Oromo people and other oppressed nations in the empire going to do? Boycott the election as some people like to advocate and want to convince us? Elect OPDO and the likes, who are the servants of the hegemonist Weyane? Run behind the Oromo individuals who are serving the unitarist Amhara elites, i.e individuals like Yaqob Likie (brother of the famous Oromo, Senay Likie) of AEUP and the Oromo lady Sofiya Yilma Dheeresaa (daughtor of the famous Yilma Dheeressaa) of EDP? Or should we elect democratic federalist Oromo nationalists rallying behind the OFC of MEDREK?

We like it or not, the next election is the struggle between the following trio: the unitarist AEUP and the likes, the hegemonist EPRDF and the unionist MEDREK. Who of the three does serve the interest of Oromo national liberation? No question, it is Medrek who at least strives for the genuine ethnic federation and who tries to make Afaan Oromo one of the working languages of the federation! So before we do decide to move for the election, we need to ask ourselves the following question: who will take power from the hegemonist Weyane if at all successfull, the unitarists like AEUP or the unionists like Medrek? It is clear that no Oromo of sound mind will elect the ruling fascists, but we all need to choose from the two camps of the opposition. Nowadays Ethiopian politics is cristalizing very well. The opposition camp against the fascist Weyane is well devided in to the following two:

- the backward unitarists, who do want to forge unitary Ethiopia of one language (of course Amharic), one people, one culture, one religion (of course Orthodox), one ethnic dominance (of course Amhara) and one flag under one God. This camp includes parties like AEUP and EDP who want to dismantle Oromia with the pretext of opposing kilil-federalism, the camp which is now instrumentalized by Weyane to fight against the major pro-genuine-kilil-federalism opposition alliance aka Medrek.

- the forward oriented unionists, who want to form a union of free nations in Ethiopian region in which both individual citizens' rights and collective national rights will be respected. Parties organized under Medrek stand for this action and they are now vehemently attacked by Weyane and its allies.

Mind you all, the word unity has got double meaning. Unitarists want to hide behind the word unity, eventhough the true and acceptable unity is the free union of all citizens and nations based on their free will, which the unionists like Medrek try to achieve. Major parties which belong to the unitarist camp are parties like AEUP of Ato Hailu and EDP of Ato Lidetu, whereas major parties which can be categorized in the unionist opposition camp are those like OFC, UDJ, UEDF of Prof. Beyene and ATSD (Arena Tigrai). Surely in the coming election, the first backward conservative unitarist group will lose, whereas parties in the progressive and unionist second opposition group still must be smart enough to more cooperate and coordinate their efforts in order to get rid of the fascists from Finfinne palace.

Today, Weyanes are very much terrified of the second opposition camp, that is why they do now support the first opposition camp and made the quasi-alliance in the form of Shawel-Zenawi-Handshake, eventhough their policy differs very much, the goal being to weaken Medrek. At this moment Ato Hailu and Ato Lidetu are taken by Weyane as the hopefull saviors of Ato Meles Zenawi's fascist government by trying to neutralize or eliminate the second opposition camp of Medrek. So Oromo should move against the unholy Hand-shake and here are some of the reasons, why Oromo should elect the unionists:

- unitarists are the obsolete mindsets, who still think to subjugate Oromo, to dismantle Oromia and to amharanize the empire. It is mind boggling to read in the program of UDJ, that it is NORMAL to claim Amharic to be federal language and to notice that Oromic needs public verdict to have the same status. If the "moderate" Amhara oriented party UDJ thinks like this, we can imagine how the very conservatives like AEUP and EDP think about the equality of languages in the empire like Amharic and Oromic.

- hegemonist Weyane leaders do have no sound mind to let Oromo people to excercise our God-given right to self-determination for they never want to lose the possibility of exploiting the very rich resource of Oromia to build Tigrai further as far as they are in power and as long as they can.

- the future political move of the region and the globe is in the direction of realizing both national liberation like the self-determination of Oromo nation and the regional/continental integration like the necessary African federation of free nations. So the unionist parties like Medrek are the parties of the future, whereas the unitarists are parties of the past and the hegemonists are parties of only the present.

- election in the empire is not a true election per se for Oromo, but it is a means of struggle for us Oromo people, which we can use to move in our liberation journey a milimeter forward. So Oromo people should use this opportunity of the next election to start another phase of the FDG (Fincilaa Didaa Garbummaa).

- we like it or not, despite the setbacks here and there, under the current visionary leadership, OLF has been transformed into a powerful political/military force that even non-Oromos are starting to rely on to help bring change in Ethiopia. With its military wing led by a professional officers corps of generals and colonels, and with a matured and highly experienced political leadership, OLF has become a leading player in Ethiopian politics. When the fast-decaying Woyanne regime falls apart, the OLF military alone can step in and maintain order, let alone joined by the other opposition parties such as G-7, ONLF, EPPF, TPDM and others. OLF leaders have played a key role in the realignment of forces in the Horn of Africa region. Their visionary leadership has contributed significantly to the recent paradigm shift in Ethiopian politics from serving the unitary empire to fostering the political union of all free nations in the region.

- the nucleus of all the unionist parties was the AFD and now it is the Medrek, both of which are the nucleus of the necessary coalition for common purpose. Medrek's current objective is to facilitate a demise of fascism and then to promote a national reconciliation dialogue. It is good to believe that one of the routes to a regime change in Ethiopia is the one that is being followed by Medrek. The fact that alliances like AFD and Medrek do exit at all has completely changed the Ethiopian political landscape over night by bringing ethnic-based groups to the "mainstream Ethiopian politics".

The ideal remedy against the fascist Weyane would have been the transformation of the unitarists in to unionists, so that ALL do fight together against Weyane. That means people in parties like AEUP, EPPF, EPRP and EDP should stop dreaming and talking about bringing back the old unitarist Ethiopia and they should accept the NEW union of free nations in Ethiopia (NEW Ethiopia). Additionally, I also would like to encourage the oppressed mass of both Amhara and Tegaru nations to fight for their own self-determination and then for a holy union of free nations in the empire/region. This could have united all the opposition groups under one umberella to fight and get rid of fascist Weyane. Hopefully unitarists will come to their sense to do this in a far future so that we can have ALL-inclusive Medrek at home and ALL-inclusive TIBIBIR in diaspora against the worst EVIL of the Horn region aka Weyane.

So the future politics of the empire/region is to get rid of both the unitarism and the hegemonism and to rally behind the unionists like Medrek in order to forge the future union of autonomous nations in the empire/region, where all the citizens individually and the nations collectively will be free to determine our own fate without being looted and lorded as it is now under Weyane. That is why I do recommend in short that Oromo people in particular and all oppressed nations in general radically eject the unitarist forces like AEUP, but fight against the Weyane hegemonists and of course elect the unionists in Medrek. Then to boycott the next election as some people try to advocate is not a solution for Oromo and other oppressed nations, eventhough we know that the election will never be fair and free under Weyane regime. I just encourage all Oromo and other peoples to be registered and then to start the new phase of FDG in order to get rid of the deceptive OPDO and the likes in favour of promoting the democratic forces like OFC in Merdek. I wish us all Oromo people and other oppressed nations at home and in diaspora a good fight against both unitarism as well as hegemonism and I do have a holy wish of the necessary success in our fight!

Galatooma!
AFDist
Added: February 11, 2010. 01:58 PM GMT
4 ever beggars
Girmay, and all his kinds,
I am not Kumsa,
Regarding your claimed bravery and arrogance, you never learn whether you are in the bushes, or among the human beings. This the exact mental stagination, and claiming to be what you are not: kept this country bagging food from other nation a year after a year with no end in sight. You and your masters are the most disgrace to Ethiopia.

I am 100% sure that the gallant OLA is going to kick your starving asses. Till then, keep dreaming!!!
Oromticha
Anonymous
Added: February 10, 2010. 02:21 PM GMT
OLF 4EVER LOL
Dear Ato Kumssa,

Do you know this simple fact

1 TPLF soldier is better than 1000 OLF farmer soldiers. These farmers are rebelled from ploughing. They will not hurt anybody except themselves.Beacause others will plough it. The indians, the chinese,...will come and plough it. you can run run run... forever hiding yourself from your shadow.

Bravo TPLF/EPRDF
Anonymous
Added: February 10, 2010. 01:58 AM GMT
OLF 4Ever Sucks
One TPLF bare hand soldier is by far better than 1000 well equiped OLF farmer soldiers. Well Done EPRDF/TPLF.
Girmay
Added: February 09, 2010. 04:08 PM GMT
what is democracy?
majority rule and genocide on minority? sometimes majority rule can become like majority mob and wosre than minrity rule
let us becareful what we wish for
Waqjira
Added: February 09, 2010. 01:25 PM GMT
Wake up OLA is back.
Well, you wish we are gone, and finished. This is your habitual fallacy!!! The reality, we never be finished. We are alive and kicking your starving ass. All the previous Ethiopian colonial regimes did claim so before going down the hill to hell
Long live OLA.
Anonymous
Added: February 09, 2010. 05:52 AM GMT
wooooow
death to wwwwwwhat/
Anonymous
Added: February 09, 2010. 05:05 AM GMT
Godamned OLF. you have been fighting for 50 years now and have failed to liberate even 1 town....give it up stupids! we need peace and development not your failed stupid sh*t...if not we will crush u and make u paralyszed for another 50 years
Tigray 4ever
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