Oromo armed groups oppose conflict with Eritrea

Since the signing of a cooperation agreement by all the major Oromo opposition groups, the main armed party, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has focused a military and diplomatic initiative on the issue of the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. With a tenuous cessation of hostilities signed between Ethiopia and Eritrea on 18 June, the Oromo opposition groups have attempted to draw attention to internal political discontent in Ethiopia and an increased military presence in the southeast. OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told IRIN in a telephone interview that since the 18 June agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the government had been moving troops to the southeast, including a recent “military build-up” in Awasa, southern Oromiya. Recent OLF press statements said the front had targeted troop movements from the north of the country, where soldiers had been fighting on the Ethiopian-Eritrean front, to Harerge in the east, to Arsi in the west and to the Ogaden region in the southeast. On 16 November an OLF press release said a mine had “completely destroyed” a train transporting troops and weapons. According to the OLF, the troops were being redeployed from northern Ethiopia to eastern Oromiya. The press release claimed that the explosion had caused heavy casualties. The incident had taken place on 14 November near the town of Kora, about 230 km from Dire Dawa. In its press release, the OLF said the Ethiopian government had started using trains to “speed up the movement of troops” and weapons to other areas of the country where there was armed opposition. The central government had been “transferring troops from the north to Oromiya” to counter resistance by a number of Oromo groups, said the OLF. It described “all roads, railways and other communication routes used for military purposes” as “legitimate targets”. According to spokesman Lencho Bati, there had been no direct talks between the Ethiopian government and the OLF for the last six months, although “some NGOs and diplomats do go between us with messages”. Bati said that in the last direct talks, the prime minister’s office had “acknowledged the Oromo problem was real”, and insisted on the renunciation of violence by the movement and its acceptance of the Ethiopian constitution. Bati told IRIN that this had been rejected by the OLF on the grounds that the present regime “is itself a source of violence”. He said the OLF’s demand was for talks with the government “without any preconditions”. Bati told IRIN that in October the Oromo organisations had merged to form the United Oromo Liberation Forces (UOLF). The UOLF embraced the OLF; the Oromo People’s Liberation Front (OPLF); the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromiya (IFLO); the Oromiya Liberation Council (OLC); the United Oromo People’s Liberation Front (UOPLF); and the Oromo People’s Liberation Organisation (OPLO). Bati said this was the first time a comprehensive - rather than a piecemeal - agreement had been signed between all the Oromo groups. The OLF had been fighting the IFLO “for over 20 years”. The new group is headed by General Wako Gutu (from Bale), who joined the OLF at its formation in 1973, fled to Somalia in 1977, and returned to Ethiopia when the OLF had a temporary coalition government with the ruling EPRDF. The UOLF is co-chaired by Daud Ibsa of the OLF (from Welega), and (Abd al-Karim Ibrahim Hamid a.k.a.) Shaykh Jara Abagada of the IFLO. Shaykh Jara (from Harer) was one of the original OLF founders, but later split off and formed the IFLO. Galasa Dilbo, the military leader of the OLF, was appointed secretary-general of the new alliance. OLF sources told IRIN that Galasa Dilbo was operating from outside Ethiopia”somewhere in the Horn of Africa” and that all the leaders of the UOLF were present in the region. Background: While claims of armed victories by Oromo groups are generally dismissed by diplomats and regional analysts, there is concern over arrests, detentions, harassment and torture of Oromos in Ethiopia. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that there had been a notable exodus of Oromo refugees from Ethiopia fleeing to neighbouring countries over the last few years. The destabilising regional effects of the Ethiopia-Eritrea war on the wider Horn of Africa region has been an issue for diplomatic and foreign policy concern since the border war began in 1998. Opposition groups like the OLF have sought out opportunities for material and moral support. Groups formerly distinguished by disarray and ineffectiveness have gained new impetus. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, but have had little political power since the expansion of Ethiopia in the 19th century. The OLF pulled out of an interim coalition with the ruling EPRDF in 1992, complaining of political harassment and electoral irregularities. It has continued to fight for “self-determination” as opposed to an independent state, but has been characterised by division, and political and military ineffectiveness. Oromo people constitute about 45 percent of Ethiopia’s population and embrace roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims. Before the OLF pulled out of the coalition with the EPRDF government in 1992, it had a close relationship with the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), which had mediated and supported the coalition. The OLF also enjoyed military and political bases in Sudan prior to 1991 when it joined the EPLF and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which later formed the EPRDF, during the successful fight against former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. After the OLF withdrew from the coalition in 1992, its leaders failed to persuade Sudan and Eritrea to provide it with military support and external bases. According to Bati, the OLF has good relations with Eritrea. “Our relations with Eritrea precede the coming to power of the Tigrayans. It is a relationship based on fighting domination of any sort.” He said that this relationship now involved a mutual antipathy towards the present Ethiopian government, wherein “the Tigrayans have betrayed our past history”. But he refused to confirm any official support from or provision of offices in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. However, from the onset of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the OLF had made attempts to strengthen its regional relations. Regional links: Bati said the OLF had secured “regional sympathy”, including support from neighbouring Somali groups. According to him, the Oromo people are “linguistically and culturally related to the Somalis... and our relations predate the modern state”. However, there had been no direct talks with the newly elected government of President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan. In the context of the historical animosity between successive Ethiopian governments and Somalia, Ethiopia was likely to “want to destroy” the new government, Bati said, while the Oromo opposition was keen to see a “fully-fledged government” in Somalia. The OLF had received support from Somali faction leader Husayn Muhammad Aydid, and Oromo leaders were known to be living in Mogadishu in the late 1990s until a prominent leader was killed in 1999. According to the OLF, the Ethiopian government’s policy is to assassinate Oromo opposition leaders living in Somalia and Kenya, but the Ethiopian government has always strenuously denied this. Of increasing significance in the regional political map is the presence of armed Oromo opposition in neighbouring Kenya. During a joint border meeting in Awasa, Ethiopia, on 1 and 2 November, the Ethiopian-Kenyan joint border committee and sub-border committees discussed the presence of the OLF in Kenya. According to a statement released by the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi on 5 November, armed opposition groups had “been launching sporadic and destructive attacks both within Kenya and in areas bordering Ethiopian territory”. The attacks were being “considered at the highest level”, and had also been discussed when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi visited Kenya on 9 March. The statement emphasised that “Ethiopia has never claimed that the Kenyan government either supported or sympathised with disgruntled terrorist elements, such as the OLF”. However, a senior Kenyan official, North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Maurice Makhanu, complained in early November that a “diplomatic row” was brewing over the behaviour of Ethiopia. He said Kenyan businessmen and truck drivers were being harassed by the Ethiopian authorities at the common border, and that relations between the two countries were “gloomy”, the ‘Sunday Nation’ said on 5 November. He said Ethiopia had been given an ultimatum to release a kidnapped teenager from Moyale, Kenya, on 7 July. Local officials had previously complained of Ethiopian soldiers carrying out “pursuit” operations across the border. OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told IRIN that while the OLF had “never had a base in Kenya”, there were “significant and high-ranking officers in Kenya”. He said as there were Oromos in Kenya, particularly communities in the border region which were both ethnically and linguistically related, the OLF benefited from “people who sympathise with our movement”. Claims of armed victories by the OLF in the Oromiya State have been regularly issued, but diplomats in Addis Ababa told IRIN that they were considered “exaggerated”. Ethiopian government sources also dismiss the OLF statements. According to Bati, this was a “culture of ignoring and marginalising Oromo politics, not only by the government but also from the international scene”. He said that discontent in Oromiya affected the official Oromo party, the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO). Originally created by the ruling EPRDF during the armed Tigrayan-Eritrean led struggle against Mengistu Haile Mariam, the OPDO is criticised by Oromo opposition groups as “a replica of the ruling power”. Opposition groups in Oromiya say there are defections from the OPDO because of the party’s “limited influence” and political frustration. However, while there was initial resistance to the OPDO in the region in 1991-1992, regional observers and local political sources told IRIN it had gained acceptance as a regional administration. According to Ethiopian government sources, the OLF has committed atrocities against its own people, and has rejected a democratic option in favour of “chauvinistic violence”.