Oromos suspected of having OLF links await trial

Addis Ababa, 17 September 2007 - Eight named Oromo Ethiopians and allegedly more ethnic Oromos suspected of having links with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) remain in prison despite international attempts to persuade the regional government to take legal actions. 

Most of the prisoners were arrested in August and some were working for the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) branch in Nekemte town, Oromia Regional state. Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is an illegal organization in Ethiopia, though some opposition parliamentarians claim such information is not available for the rural Oromo population in Ethiopia.  Bulcha Demeksa of the opposition party Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) argued there are no recognized and written laws stating what organization is illegal in Ethiopia and for what reasons.  

Though it is stated as an independent organization, some critics claim the EHRCO is partisan and at times confrontational – citing that some of EHRCO members are or have been members of opposition political parties, as an example. Since OLF is labeled a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government, anyone suspected of having links with the OLF faces an imminent detainment. Some pro-OLF critics of OLF say the organization has put its Oromo supporters in a perilous middle, with no direction, by not taking notable measures yet still promising via radio of such measures. The critics say, despite OLF's indecisive stance, its supporters nonetheless back it, pending their routine imprisonment.

Dozens of Oromos, who allegedly had links to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), were released before the Ethiopian millennium, though some opposition critics claimed that there were no OLF members among the thousands who were released early last week. The OLF, though labeled a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government, has an office in Washington D.C. and transmits its daily political & cultural program thru a clandestine radio station. OLF itself 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. Unconfirmed sources stated that some of the imprisoned Oromos in custody are kept in “police stations” while others are in “remote camps in Western Oromia.”

Source: Jimma Times