Bulcha Demeksa, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), criticized the government saying that thousands of ethnic Oromo Ethiopians are being detained without due process of law.

 

OFDM has led the way as one of the opposition parties recently more outspoken of the alleged human rights abuses by the EPRDF ruling party’s government. According to MP Bulcha Demeksa, “Oromo people are being imprisoned and beaten in masses” and he added that families have given him names of 204 Oromos recently detained.

 

In response, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi agreed with the opposition MP that around those numbers of Oromos are in fact imprisoned, though not because they are Oromos, according to him, its because they had connections with OLF.  Meles mocked Mr. Bulcha’s phrasing that claimed Oromo people in general are imprisoned, asking him if the Oromo population is 204 people. Meles declared that peace and democracy is present in Ethiopia, citing that around two million Oromos attended town square festivals to celebrate Irreecha holiday colorfully. He stated that Oromos who support the OLF organization would be detained and brought to court.  
  

The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is labeled a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government; however it has office in Washington D.C. and transmits its daily political & cultural program thru a clandestine radio station. OLF accuses the Ethiopian government for not allowing the implementation of Article 39 of the Ethiopian constitution which allows a referendum for an ethnic region’s secession from Ethiopia. Meles claims that he has reached out to the OLF for dialogue, with no avail. Recently, the OLF has joined other opposition groups in accusing the EPRDF-led government of human right abuses inside Ethiopia and among Oromo refugees in Somalia.
 

MP Bulcha Demeksa also criticized President Girma Wolde Giorgis’s report that concluded there is peace in Ethiopia while ignoring the concerns of illegal imprisonments raised by opposition parties. Speaking in Afaan Oromo language, Bulcha referred to how Oromos are being imprisoned daily for allegedly belonging to OLF and stated “if so many thousands of people are engaged in criminal activities, it means there is no peace in the country.”

However, an unusually animated Meles stated that those imprisoned were OLF members, declaring “if there is a person who considers Oromo people and OLF the same, then that is the person’s problem.”

 

Despite Meles Zenawi’s long speech about the hard work of Oromo people to achieve economic development under his government, it was overshadowed by his statements alleging an underground collaboration of opposition MPs with the OLF. Meles declared the government has detected opposition MPs association with the OLF “not only in lower level, but also in higher positions of leadership” apparently directed at Bulcha and Merara Gudina – the chairman of Oromo National Congress (ONC). 
  

Bulcha asserted that the Ethiopian government’s statements claiming it respects human rights and democracy are “just words” because “in practice” his party has “witnessed human beings detained like animals.” He added that even close friends and students who spoke with him were suddenly being detained few minutes later.