By Leenjiso Horo, April 2016
The Tigrayan fascist regime has undertaken open and hidden total genocidal war against the
Oromo men, women, and children. It has been carrying out systematic, methodical, pre-planned,
and centrally-organized genocidal mass massacre against the Oromo men, women and children.
Aannoole Memorial Monument
Oromo unity is power! In
unity we have raised Oromo
Flag over Oromiyaa
With the blood of hands of innocent Oromo men and
boys and breasts of women and girls mutilated at
Aannoolee by Menelik II Oromiyaa shall be
liberated.
It has particularly targeted women, youths and children. The purpose is to deny to Oromo, their
future generation so as to reduce the population of Oromo to a minority. It has already put its
plan of action to erase the Oromo people through genocide.
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Today, many Oromo know about Aannoolee- Harmaa fi Harka muraa Aannoolee, but most know
very little about Azule. Azule is a place where Menelik Army defeated Arsi on September 6,
1886. The question is as to what lead to the defeat of Arsi after having defeated Menelik II’s
army five times. Here is the reason. Prior to Azule, at the fifth military engagement the
Abyssinians by the help of their Europeans advisors prepared thousands blankets infested with
smallpox and dropped them in the engagement sight. The Abyssinian Army having defeated, left
the blankets behind and fled away. The Arsi warriors after having defeated the enemy, then took
the blankets without knowing that the blankest were infested with smallpox. Here what has to be
understood is that the Abyssinians had used smallpox as a biological warfare to totally
exterminate Arsi Oromo. The weaponization of smallpox as a biological warfare has been
widely considered as the most powerful and effective weapon ever created to eliminate human
life. Menelik II of Abyssinia used this weaponized smallpox against Arsi. Few months after its
introduction, smallpox epidemic broke out in killing many Arsi Oromo. This devastated and
totally decimated Arsi who had never exposed to such disease before. Countless number of
people died; hundreds of thousands became sick and weak. It was during this time, Menelik of
Abyssinia again launched his sixth military attack against Arsi. It was the introduction of this
weaponized smallpox as a biological warfare that led to the defeat of Arsi at the six military
engagement. Still after the defeat, Arsi continued resisting the Abyssinians. Menelik II was
unable to collect tribute from Arsi during his life time. Because Arsi refused to pay.
The collection of taxes was left to Haile Selassie. Haile Selassie upon crowned emperor of the
Ethiopian empire in 1930 created a mechanism of collecting taxes. First, in the same year in
1930, he established Balabbat system in Arsi. The Balabbats’ became instrument for collecting
taxes and keeping “peace” in the area on the behalf of the new Abyssinian rulers. He gave
twenty acres of land to the each Balabbats to live on and the rest of Arsi were dispossessed of
their lands as a punishment. The lands were given to absentee landlord who had never set their
feet on the lands. For first time landlordism implemented in Arsi. Hence, Arsi became tenants
on their own lands. In addition to this, Haile Selassie split Arsi into four: eastern part of Arsi
was annexed to Hararghe; the western part was annexed to Central Oromiyaa and re-named it
“Haayqoochinaa Buttaa Jaraa”-the Rift Valley region and its southern part was made Bale
province, Goba as its capital city. And the central and northern part remained as a proper Arsi
province, Asalla as its capital city. Hence, the relationship between Arsi and Abyssinian ever
since the war of conquest to-date has remained a relationship of enmity. In the words of Patrick
Wolfe,”Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life. Thus contests for land can be—
indeed, often are—contests for life.” This is true throughout history to-date. The Tigrayan
fascist regime’s grabbing the Oromo lands and eviction of our people from their lands must be
understood in terms of life. Evicting the Oromo farmers from their farmlands means depriving
them life.
Aannoolee: A birth place of non-violence resistance
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Non-violence has been used as a means to challenge injustices since and before the time of
Christ up to present. The first recorded act of civil disobedience in history is the refusal of the
Hebrew midwives to obey Pharaoh’s order to kill all male Hebrew babies in 1350 BC (Exodus
1:15-19).
Since the Christ time, the first non-violent resistance stated in American in 1765-1775 against
the British rule. It was a decade of non-violent struggle. It started as American Independent
movement. The resistance took three phases of non-violent struggle.
The First Phase: The first phase of nonviolence started with protest marches, demonstrations,
petition writing; boycotts; stoppage of work; refusing to purchase gods and services belongs to
British citizens and its supporters; settling disputes out of colonial courts. After all these failed to
bring any change they went to the second phase.
The Second Phase: The second non-violent phase started with the destruction of the British
properties; destroying import and export goods, burning the British citizens’ and its supporters’
farms and etc. With all these, the British did not respond with killing the members of non-violent
movement. Again, this phase also did not bring the intended result. Then, the third phase came
into being.
The Third Phase: In the third phase, non-violence resistance was abandoned for military action.
Here, what this means is the non-violent movement transformed itself into taking violent action.
It was through direct military action, the thirteen American colonists defeated the British colonial
rule and declared independence from it in 1776.
The second non-violent resistance in history after the birth of Christ was that of Hungarians
resistance against Austrian rule in 1850-1867. In this non-violent resistance, Austria conceded
self-governance to Hungary as a part of Austro-Hungarian federation without killing the
members of resistance.
The third non-violent resistance in history of the world was the Arsi Oromo non-violent
resistance after their defeat at Azule that ended in blood shed in 1886. It was the first non-
violent resistance in history that ended in bloodshed; never happened in history before it. After
the defeat at Azule, Arsi continued resistance to Abyssinia. They refused to pay tribute to
Menelik II. For this, Menelik II of Abyssinia sought to negation with Arsi terms of peace. Arsi
Oromo were open to negotiation for peace. The location chosen for the negotiation was
Aannoolee. So, they assembled at Aannoolee to work out the terms of peace. Tenth of
thousands of men and women with their children were gathered at Aannoolee. The terms of
peace the Abyssinians offered to Arsi were to surrender their sovereignty, to render obedience
and promise to pay tribute and accept Menelik as their legitimate king. The Arsi Assembly
refused to negotiation on the sovereignty of Arsi and refused to subject themselves to alien
domination. Hence, Arsi rejected the terms of peace the Abyssinian King Menelik offered them.
In anger at the rejection, Menelik gave ordered to his uncle Ras Darge Sahle Selassie, the
commander of war in Arsi to attack the men, women and children at the assembly so as to teach
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the Arsi a lesson for their refusal. The Arsi Oromo at the Assembly were not armed. But, the
Amaras were armed. Despite this, Arsi choose to die or to loose part of their body rather than
negotiate terms of surrender of their sovereignty to Abyssinia. In the attack, the Abyssinian
Army cut off the right hands of men and boys and right breasts of women and girls as a
punishment for their résistance. Not only these, the cut off hands and breasts were used as
means of punishment, degradation, humiliation, and terrorization of Arsi by tying the cut off
hands and breasts around the necks of men, women, girls and boys. From the infection of the
wounds many men, women and children perished. Despite of all these, Arsi Oromo throughout
history of their occupation have never accepted the legitimate of Abyssinia over their territory.
Aannoolee is the first in history where a peaceful, non-violent unarmed resistance was violently
attacked and the attack was ended up in bloodshed. Still, Arsi refused to surrender. In
committing such heinous crimes with cruelty on human beings, on the peaceful, non-violent
unarmed resisting people, Menelik II of Abyssinia showed the world how human cruelty can go.
For this, centuries may pass by, generations may come and go, but the crimes and cruelty of
Abyssinia — the mutilation of hands of men and boys and of breasts of women and girls at
Aannolee will never be erased from the memory of generations; will never be diminished, and
never be forgotten. Aannoolee is not in the remote ages and not about forgotten things; it is a
living picture of things of present. Aannoolee is a living spirit of Oromo non-violent resistance.
Indeed, Aannoolee stands as a symbol of non-violent unarmed resistance that ended in
bloodshed. It has moved into our collective memory. The memory of Aannoolee can be shared
and passed on to the generations Oromo to come.
Now since 2015, the Oromiyaa wide non-violent unarmed is underway demanding
independence. Again, the crime committed at Aannoolee against the innocent men, women and
children is back. This time in a form of more dangerous and more deadly than Aannoolee. This
means, Aannoolee’s mutilation of hands and breasts has been transformed into war of Oromiyaa
wide genocide—politically motivated slaughter. Today, the killings of on-violent Oromo men,
women, and children including pregnant women with their unborn baby are unparalleled in the
history of the Ethiopian empire. The fascist Tigrayan regime has been waging a war of Oromo
extermination. Its purpose is and has been to extinct the Oromo people. For this, it has planned,
organized and implementing genocidal extermination of the Oromo people. Its concentration
camps and terrors have already swallowed hundreds of thousands of its Oromo victims. It has
categorized the Oromo women, youths and children as enemies to be liquidated by terror and
slaughter.
We oftentimes say, never again to genocide in Oromiyaa. We say, the seeds of Aannolee against
women, girls and boys must not be allowed to sprout again in Oromiyaa. And yet, it has already
sprouted; violence is again engulfed Oromiyaa; violence of genocide is now consuming Oromo
men, women, girls and children. What is clear is, today the Tigrayan fascist regime has re-
constructed and renewed Menelik II’s crimes at Aannoolee against non-violent peaceful Oromo
women and children and implementing it Oromiyaa wide. This time, not by mutilating hands of
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men and breasts of women, but by physically annihilating men, women, children and including
pregnant women. The plain truth is that the fascist Tigrayan regime has turned the peaceful,
non-violent and unarmed Oromo resistance into the bloodiest of all times-killing hundreds of
thousands of men, women, youths and children.
The way forward
We must implement five important pillar of struggle in order to liberate our country from the
Tigrayan fascist occupation. These pillar are as follow:
Pillar I: the Oromo patriotic forces, nationalists, and revolutionaries must unity and fight
against occupation;
Pillar II: uphold the clear objective, clear goal, and clear mission of the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF);
Pillar III: Totally reject the dangerous political poison to the Oromo body politics as promoted
by the opportunist pro Ethiopian empire revisionist Oromo nationals in the formation of AFD,
PAFD, and ODF to establish “Transitional government of Ethiopia” or “Democratization of
Ethiopian Empire”, or “federalization of the empire” or under whatever sheep’s new clothing
they may come. The alliance itself is not a genuine alliance. It is simply disingenuous alliance.
It is unprincipled alliance. Hence, it is the Oromo national liberation struggle crippling politics
at worst. Here are the reasons: our interests do not converge. Our goals collide; clash. We have
conflicting interests. The identity of our interests are different. We are pursuing different
political paths — the OLF’s path is for independence, while AFD, PAFD, ODF’s path is to
maintain the Ethiopian empire. The alliance we are told is unprincipled alliance. Principled
alliance must be born out of struggle The purpose of honest Alliance must be to convince the
enemy to leave the colonies so as to let each colonized nation choose its own future not to
establish “Transitional government with occupying power.” On the contrary, to fool ourselves
into believing that “democratization,” “federalization,” or “Transitional government” of Ethiopia
is the same as the liberation of Oromiyaa is a grave mistake with consequence of next wave of
genocidal implications for our people. Our first obligation is to ourselves. This means, our first
obligation is to secure total independence of Oromiyaa from occupation. For this, we need
objective unity; we need organizational unity. However, making alliance with alien
organizations by avoiding unity with Oromo nationalists’ political organizations is a political
scandal. Worst of all, calling upon the fascist Tigran regime that has been committing genocide
against the Oromo people to establish “Transitional government of Ethiopia” with is a treason
against the Oromo people. Such is equivalent to aiding and comforting the enemy. The “current
Ethiopia government” that is called-upon “to establish transitional government of Ethiopia with”
is the enemy of the Oromo people. Then our second obligation is either to make a voluntary new
political arrangement in the form of alliance or union or confederation or Commonwealth with
the nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian empire on the basis of common interests or choose
to remain as independent and sovereign state of Oromiyaa—a member of United Nations as
stated in the political program of the OLF. This choice is to be made by the Oromo people alone
after the restoration of independence to Oromiyaa.
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The Peoples’ Alliance for freedom and Democracy (OLF, ONLF, SLF and some candidates of
AFD)
It stated its political position as: “Finally, the Peoples’ Alliance for freedom and Democracy
(AFD) calls on all concerned parties, including the current government of Ethiopia, the
representatives of all nations and nationalities in Ethiopia with the facilitation of the international
community to seize this opportunity and hold a comprehensive conference to resolve the existing
dysfunctional political and social dilemmas confronting the Ethiopian Empire.”
The Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
Its political statement reads as: “Finally, the PAFD calls on all concerned parties, including the
current government of Ethiopia, the representatives of all nations and nationalities in Ethiopia,
with the facilitation of the international community, to seize this opportunity and hold a
comprehensive conference to create a broader roadmap to thereby resolve the enormous
problems confronting the Ethiopian Empire state.”
Leaders and members of the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF)
ODF is a splinter group from the OLF to struggle for Ethiopian citizenship. It is a collections of
pro Ethiopian individuals. It is an organization that does not believe in establishment of
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sovereign and independent Oromiyaa. It is for this, the Oromo nationals in both in AFD, PAFD
and ODF weakened the OLF; split it; encamped OLA; decimated the OLA and avoided the
formation of unity of Oromo patriotic forces, nationalists and revolutionaries. Such actions are
undertaken to diminish the values of hopes, aspirations, and dreams of our people for
independence. The Oromo members in AFD, PAFD and ODF are those who encamped the OLA
and abandoned the objective, the goal and mission of the Oromo struggle. It is important,
therefore, to remove all pro Ethiopian “leaderships” from the position of leaderships and allow
the new generation of Oromo nationalists in Oromiyaa to assume leadership of the Oromo
national liberation struggle.
Pillar IV: Establish Central command national leadership based in Oromiyaa from Oromo
nationalist new generation. Without such leadership, it is impossible to successfully lead this
national liberation struggle to independence. Furthermore, in order to defeat the fascist Tigrayan
regime and render its reactionary allies impotent, we must have a truly revolutionary perspective
informed by concepts of revolutionary national liberation struggle, a liberation front without
such a perspective will fail to defeat the enemy.
Pilar V: Strengthen the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). It is important to rebuild the Oromo
Liberation Army (OLA) as a superior mighty force, both in quantity and quality in order to
protect the population and secure liberation. This enables our people to drive out the Tigrayan
fascist regime out of Oromiyaa and establish the independent Democratic Republic of Oromiyaa.
All of the pillar need to go hand-in-hand simultaneously. They are the burning question of today.
The blood of Harmaa fi Harka muraa at Aannoolee, the blood at Calanqoo, Azule and the blood
of so many millions of Oromo martyrs over a century and the blood of Oromo men, women and
children today is not in vain. They sacrificed and still scarifying their lives for the liberation of
Oromiyaa and their people, not for “democrazation of Ethiopia’ or “federalization of Ethiopia”
or “establishment of Transitional government of Ethiopia.” What is clear is this: Oromiyaa can
only be liberated with the blood and sacrifices of Oromo men, women and children. For this,
today the Oromo people are united from across Oromiyaa- from south to north, from west to east
and center to break down the wall of colonial occupation together. Urban, cites, towns, villages
and countryside are all united into a single whole against the genocidal fascist Tigrayan regime
despite the propaganda of AFD, PAFD and ODF to establish “Transitional government” with it
to maintain the unity of the Ethiopian colonial empire.
The causes of problem of the Oromo struggle has been and is internal, not external. Nobody
seems to talk about internal problem that has been paralyzing the Oromo struggle. The problem
is the current leaderships. They are not in the battlefield of struggle. All of them are in exile.
The exiles cannot liberate Oromiyaa. Hence, the solution to this problem is to remove these
current leaderships of Oromo political organizations who rely upon external forces, because they
won’t get the Oromo people through the darkest days. Reliance on outside forces puts national
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unity, organizational unity, the country, and the national struggle at risk. We must avoid reliance
upon external powers. In order to avoid this, we all need mental strength-the inner strength.
Mental strength comes from having clear vision, clear objective, clear goal and clear mission and
from reliance upon ourselves, our people, and the resources of our country and it does not come
from external powers or from heaven. The Oromo people have already shown the unity and are
fighting in unity without reliance upon others. It is time to learn from our people. Oromo of all
ages and sexes are united. In unity, they are making the enemy to shiver; to lose hope of
controlling and raping Oromiyaa and making the ground under its feet to shake. Indeed, its
demise is coming soon. The Oromo people are confident and have faith in themselves; and have
confidence and faith in the capacity, willingness and commitment of their sons and daughters to
fight and liberate their country-Oromiyaa.
Oromiyaa Shall Be Free!
