Opinion- Analysis | By: Tuji Jidda, Washington, D.C
Since its foundation in1973, the OLF has waged a continuous low-level armed struggle for the independence of Oromia mainly from Abyssinia. Latter on, it would change its objective to solely self-determination. In recent times it pushed for self-determination with in the Federal Union of Ethiopia. During the last years of the Derg regime, TPLF and OLF attempted to form a coalition but failed. Then TPLF established OPDO and others as its puppet organization for its own political consumption.
OLF wasn’t a major participant in the Ethiopian civil war, even during the final stages of Deg, but became the major participant in the transitional government. During this time it has managed to get unprecedented support and gathered huge troops within short period of time in the history of liberation fronts. This happened not by reading OLF’s political programs, but simply by indoctrinating how the Oromos became dehumanized by the Abyssinian Menelik’s campaign of “Galla Holocaust” and the atrocities committed by subsequent enemy regimes.
Latter, rumors circulated that says the OLF expected to take over post-war government merely on grounds of popular support, its undeclared landslide victory in the flawed interim election as well as representative of the single largest ethnic group. On the contrary the TPLF was sabotaging the encampment agreement, started provoking, intimidating, closing and confiscating OLF offices, snipes hooting, mass killing and, in some cases like in ‘Water town’ massacring the OLF, its supporters and Oromo at large.
Matters eventually came to a head when the OLF, can’t control and lead the mass support it has gained, became over confident and demanded that they take over the government as of right but without mandate. This became good pretext for TPLF to wage war. It encircled all OLF military camps and offices. Then all of a sudden OLF declared the collapse of the transitional government took their representatives out of the transitional government and tried to bring their troops out of camps.
“The western Ambassadors (i.e. donor groups EU, US and Australia) in the country recognized that the OLF had no grounds for dispute inside government and certainly not for taking their troops out to fight military battles. However, they were clear that their own governments would have a very different attitude and would want to interfere. In an almost unique decision these ambassadors-as a group-did not tell their governments what was going on but only asked the TPLF leaders (Ethiopian government) to ensure that the effective suppression of the OLF military force happened as discreetly as possible! They would allow the government to round up the OLF and end the new war. However, this had to happen as quickly as possible and news of this hadn’t to leak out in to the front pages of Western newspapers. One memorable quote during this negotiations was “…for god’s sake don’t send in helicopter gunships!”
The article published by the then OLF leader Lencho Leta entitled “The making and unmaking of Ethiopia’s Transitional Charter’ supports the above statement.In collaboration with EPLF, the TPLF first cut all communication, including its Radio transmissions from the Sudan, made the disorganized leaders hostage in their office compound and disintegrated the front. Even though more than 100,000 troops were involved, the OLF’s Oromo forces had been practically defeated within a month, though there were skirmish clashes during subsequent years, without major fighting involving helicopter gunships or fighter planes.
It should be noted here that ‘defeated’ was OLF army but neither the moral nor the hearts and minds of the Oromo people. That is why the ruling enemy regime spends millions to categorize the OLF as a terrorist organization there by to get a cover for committing all kinds of atrocities on the Oromo people, especially on Afan Oromo speaking Oromos.
The surprising thing is that no report has been produced in any media regarding the war and causalities except the massive detention of both military and civilian Ethiopians in different camps. Even though TPLF-OLF war had been one of the biggest battles of the decade, the Ambassadors’ home governments never realized what had happened in Ethiopia let alone leakage of reports by Western media. Also whole atrocities committed during the years long campaigns of war waged by TPLF to clear OLF army and Oromo ideology was not reported at all. Unconfirmed source, however, estimate thousands dead, thousands fled to neighboring countries, many thousands imprisoned and millions displaced to lead miserable life, most internally. Its effect: Green famine.
Since the OLF’s founding, its undisputable genuine cause for struggle has been weakened by many reasons; by inability to defuse the artificial differentiation created during cruel past regimes among the vast Cushitic Oromo regions, by the front’s own lack of unity and clarity regarding its ideology and ultimate objectives or strategic vision, by lack of organizational leadership qualities, by, due to historical animosity by the extreme hatred Abyssinian politics, lack of support due to politics of fear from other Southern minority groups, lack of support from neighboring countries, the effect of politics of new world order and the critically biased intervention made by Western donor countries.
Many believe that Abyssinia-Ethiopia conflict and that of the whole East Africa problems would not be solved unless the 120 years of the shadowed 40 million Oromo tragedy is addressed. That is why there is almost no possibility of forming coalition of rivals in Ethiopia. The rise and fall of CUD is also consequence of similar sabotages. It is expected FDD would face same fate.
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