The Oromo liberation struggle marches forward; never backward

By Leenjiso Horo
November 9, 2017
The Oromo struggle is for national liberation and independence.
This means it is for totally political emancipation. For this,
the struggle continues marching forward until liberation is
realized. In order to bring about this, our people are standing
together shoulder to shoulder fighting in unity. Oromiyaa is
Oromo country, it is Oromo land, and Oromo home. The Oromo land
is a sacred land for the Oromo people and it must be respected
by all as such. Hence, Oromo struggle continues until the
restoration of their lost freedom, democracy, liberty,
liberation and independence.
Oromiyaa has been under occupation since the last quarter of
nineteenth century to-date. During this period, our people have
been killed, subjugated and exploited. However, today the
TPLF’s subjugation and oppression of the Oromo people and its
robbery, thievery, and plunder of Oromo resources have passed
the combined of all its predecessors. Not only these, it has
been murdering, and slaughtering our people in mass and
committing genocide against them. Forced mass expulsion and
eviction from their homes and lands have been implemented in
Oromiyaa. Hundreds of thousands intellectuals, men and women
have been sent to concentration camps; several hundred thousand
have been killed across Oromiyaa and millions have been forced
into poverty, hunger and starvation. The TPLF has three
policies for the Oromo: extermination, exile and prison. The
fact is the Oromo people have met a mortal enemy that they have
never met before.
The actions of this enemy have never stopped or discouraged the
Oromo people and their nationalists from the struggle for the
liberation. Here what is clear is this: the enemy may kill our
people and their nationalists but it can never kill their spirit
of fighting for liberation of their country. It can never kill
the spirit, the courage, the determination and commitment of the
Oromo people fighting for liberation and independence of their
country.
The Oromo people and nationalists must keep their eyes open for
new tricks, for new variations of neo-gobanas’ plans, for new
deceitful twists and turns on the propaganda to spread
confusion, devious and false information. The neo-gobanas are
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the representatives of revisionists, renegades,
collaborationists, capitulationists and liquidationists embedded
within the Oromo nationals. Nationalists have to be vigilant
against all types of tricks, turns and twists to undermine the
struggle for independence of Oromiyaa. For instance, OPDO is
organization of neo-gobanas. It is a puppet organization
created by the TPLF. It is TPLF’s foot soldiers in Oromiyaa.
Hence, as organization, OPDO is organization of enemy of the
Oromo people and their struggle for liberation. It has no
independent existence in itself apart from its creator as well
as its master-the TPLF.
In 1991, OPDO had a choice to abandon the TPLF and join the
Oromo people and their nationalists. But, it failed to do so.
The failure was emanated from the fear instilled in it by the
TPLF while it was a captured prisoner. Hence, its choice was to
remain a pawn for the TPLF. That is, it allowed itself to be
used against the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Oromo
people by the TPLF. Since then, it has been unable to free
itself from the TPLF set trespasses for it. And so, it is and
politically paralyzed and organizationally dead. That is, it
has been and is unable protect Oromiyaa, its resources and the
Oromo people. Tragically, since its creation to date, it has
been serving in aiding and abetting the fascist TPLF in the
occupation of Oromiyaa and plunder of its resources. Its
leadership is and has been responsible in disarming the Oromo
people so as to deny them from having firearms and other
instruments or means for their self-defense against the fascist
Tigran attacks. It has become a vehicle for the TPLF in spying
and arresting the Oromo nationals and at the same time serving
as the prison gate keeper in Oromiyaa. Its leaders and members
helped the fascist Tigran regime in the rape of Oromiyaa for
twenty seven years. It has been silent for the last twenty
seven years as the fascist TPLF committed genocide against the
Oromo people. This means OPDO has been complicity in the crimes
committed against the Oromo people and plunder of Oromiyaa
resources. Hence, one must needs to be wise enough not to jump
on the OPDO’s ship. It is important to take with a grain of
salt whatever its leaders say and its cadres in the diaspora
preach. At the same time, it is import to bring its members who
are pro-liberation into the struggle and neutralize those
members who are anti-liberation struggle.
As a member of EPDRF, the only thing the OPDO leadership can do
at this time of Oromo struggle is to totally, completely and
unconditionally withdraw from the fascist TPLF lead EPDRF
government and its institutions. It has to demand TPLF to
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release all political prisoners without any pre-condition. In
fact, if it claims to be a government of Oromiyaa, it should
open the prison gates in Oromiyaa and let go free all the
political prisoners without permission from the fascist TPLF.
In addition to these, it needs to officially accuse TPLF that it
has been and is committing genocide against the Oromo and other
peoples. Other than these, it is impossible to be member of a
fascist government and at the same time claim to be on the side
of the Oromo people.
The Oromo people and their nationalists are proudly determined
to fight. And they will never abandon this fighting until the
goal of struggle is realized. On the contrary, there are few
Oromo nationals who have taken ahistorical road; a wrong road
and a misleading road- a road of abandoning armed struggle for
.non-violet struggle. Advocating for the abandonment of armed
struggle in favor of only non-violence form of struggle is a
road that leads to undermine the Oromo struggle. These
nationals are out of touch with the wishes and aspiration of the
Oromo people. To abandon armed struggle is unprincipled
political tactics which is a political sell out, or betrayal of
the struggle to restore to Oromiyaa-its sovereignty, its
independence and its territorial integrity. These individuals
have taken political position that is intended to weaken the
unity of Oromo nationalists and their struggle for the right of
Oromo nations to self-determination. Those nationals who prefer
non-violent form of struggle over armed struggle are comfortably
sitting atop the political fence of Ethiopian empire and
enthusiastically dancing to the Abyssinians political music of
empire democratization. Non-violence means of struggle by
itself cannot overthrow the illegitimate occupying force. On
the Contrary to the non-violent resistance alone, in the
liberation struggle both armed struggle and non-violent form of
resistance go together, hand-in-hand. One is not in
contradiction to the other. Hence, the struggle benefits from
the combination of the two. While this is true, still armed
struggle takes priority over non-violent form of struggle. The
fascist Tigran regime of TPLF has been using violence against
the peoples of Ethiopia since 1991 to date. Here, one needs to
understand that violence is not the monopoly of the TPLF alone
and other forces can use it too. Military action or violence is
the only thing the TPLF understands. In national liberation
struggle, the use of armed struggle is legitimate against an
illegitimate occupying force. TPLF is illegitimate not only
because it came to power through force of arms and support of
external powers but it is also an alien occupying force. For
this, as it came to power by the force of arms, it will only go
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by force of arms. Hence, armed struggle against an illegitimate
TPLF is legitimate and just and it is a means to an end. Here,
the most important form of propaganda is military action. It
creates sparks and the sparks set the nation in motion against
the enemy. In this case, the enemy is the TPLF.
Action Versus words
The Oromo struggle is a historic struggle. It has never ceased
since the occupation, annexation and colonization of Oromiyaa.
After over a century of struggle, the Abyssinian colonial feudal
regime was finally wiped out in 1974. Unfortunately, it was
replaced by military dictatorial regime that consumed the lives
of hundreds of thousands of the intellectuals, youths, farmers,
peasants, men, women and children. Again, after 17 years of
struggle, this dictatorial regime was also finally wiped out in
1991. However, it was also replaced by fascist Tigran genocidal
regime of the TPLF. Again the Oromo struggle is marching
forward ceaselessly to wipe out this fascist genocidal regime,
as those regimes before it. To do this, it is time for Oromo
political organizations to go fast forward in unity and struggle
today along with their people. This unity should not be next
year, or next month or next week or not tomorrow, but today. It
must be now. It should not be in words but in action. Hence,
it is time to prioritize actions over endless debates and
manifestos and deeds over words. The Oromo people are fighting
this enemy together, in collective action and in solidarity
today. It is time for the Oromo political organizations to
follow suit.
However, the Oromo nationalists are unable to not only defeat
the Tigran fascist regime, they have been unable to effectively
fight it out since the last twenty seven years. There are
reasons for this. Among the reasons are egocentrism and
infiltration. Many are infested with egoism. Personal ego is
and has been what has driven disunity and into factions. Hence,
the organizations are riven by petty distinctions. Subsequently,
they are unable to unite. Some are even disinterested in real
practical unity. In addition to egocentrism, the Oromo
political organizations are also infested with infiltrators.
The purpose of infiltrators are to create divisions in order to
weaken and undermine unity and struggle and to change the goal
and direction of the struggle. Here, the mechanism the
infiltrators use is sowing seeds of mistrust within and between
organizations. Real unity is unity of thought, of outlook, of
perspective, and unity in aspiration, in principle, in action,
in means and goal. The real practical unity is this: a single
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leadership, a single organization, a single army and with a
clear political program of struggle. Unity in words is
illusion, self-deception and sham. This type of unity has been
seen time and again among Oromo political organizations. All
ended in futile. Such unity must be avoided. History tells us
time and again that no a nation has ever defeated its enemy in
the liberation struggle without a unity and armed struggle.
Unity means a single national political and military leadershipa
single entity with coherent command structure with a
consistent political position to lead the organization and the
struggle for liberation.
In unity and armed struggle, Oromiyaa can be turned into a no-go
area; ungovernable territory for the fascist TPLF and its puppet
organizations. Hence, in unity, we can turn every village in
Oromiyaa into a freedom fighters base; everything in Oromiyaa
into a weapon and everyone a freedom fighter, a soldier. For
this, it must be underlined that our strength lies in our unity,
not in factions. Hence, it is time for the Oromo political
leaderships to lead this struggle in unity, in a spirit of
humility, sincerity, courage, commitment, determination and
firmness of mind to liberate Oromiyaa.
Finally, the Oromo struggle is not a struggle against people who
live in Oromiyaa as their home. It is, therefore, not a struggle
to push other ethnic groups out of Oromiyaa. Again, the Oromo
struggle is not struggle against its neighbors who have been
living side by side for centuries. Rather it is a struggle of
the Oromo people to liberate themselves and their country from
colonial occupation, oppression and exploitation. It is a
struggle which aims at uprooting of the fascist Tigrayan regime
of TPLF and putting in its place a philosophy whose basic
principle is equal rights for all who live in Oromiyaa as their
home, irrespective of their ethnic or national belonging. In
order to achieve this, the liberation struggle marches forward;
never backward.
Oromiyaa Shall be free!