“There is no Ethiopia without Oromia, yet the empire continues to oppress the Oromo people,” said a group composed of prominent Oromo political, religious and academic leaders at an international conference on human rights organized by the Oromo-American Citizens Council, a Minnesota civil society organization established to raise awareness and to advocate against human rights abuses in Ethiopia on behalf of an estimated population of 15,000 Oromo living in the State of Minnesota.


“Justice for Oromo people is a question of access to state power and the exercise of equitable power,” said Rev. Dr. Gemechis Buba, president of the Worldwide Union of Oromo Evangelical Churches. The Reverend pleaded with Oromo political groups about the dire need for a shift in paradigm in the Oromo national movement. He said because tens of ethnic groups shared long-stretching borders with Oromia, an independent Oromia would be infeasible as that would lead to the demise of Ethiopia as we know it, hampering the security and economic development of future Oromia.

Some of the panelists made the case for the need for a paradigm shift in the Oromo national movement toward a struggle for an all-inclusive multinational democracy and genuine federalism or self-administration of regional states in Ethiopia.

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Conference Panalists

• Obbo Hassan Hussein of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
• Dr. Fido Ebba of OLF
• Dr. Merara Gudina of OPC and Medrek
• Obbo Abduljalil Abdella of OLF
• Dr. Ezekiel Gebissa of Kettering University – Assistant Professor
• Rev. Dr. Gemechis Buba, Oromo Evangelical Churches
• Obbo Abrahim Abaye of OLF
• Dr. Asafa Jalata, University of Tennessee – Associate Professor