Oromo demonstration in Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

                                 April 11, 2000, Tuesday, Home Edition


Hello Alan:

My apologies if i seemed carried away in my last email.  I suppose i was 
resenting the enmeshing of OLF, Eplf and TPLF all in one scale.  There are 
grades of evil and I believe the TPLF (the Tigrean minority)
government in Ethiopia is particularly dangerous at this phase of the 
struggle for justice in the Horn of Africa.  I would say that the TPLF has 
all the potential and fanaticism of Pol Potism in the Horn of Africa.  In a 
perverse way, this impending tragic famine may provide the catalyst to 
expose them and give an opening to the various oppressed and muffled people 
of the region and the people of Oromia.
Incidentally, the TPLF is a darling of the World Bank and is implementing a 
structural adjustment program for Ethiopia.  Never mind that it was the 
only 
African "liberation" organization in the 1980s that espoused allegiance to 
Alabanian (Anver Hojxa) version of  Marxism-Lenninsm.

Alexy



SECTION: Local News; Pg. 2B
LENGTH: 715 words
HEADLINE: Ethiopians air problems in Atlanta
BYLINE: Colin Campbell, Staff

SOURCE: CONSTITUTION

BODY:
A demonstration of about 250 Oromo men, women and children from Ethiopia 
marched through downtown Atlanta Monday. It assembled
within camera shot of CNN, passed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 
continued on to the state Capitol and tried, throughout, to call
attention to what organizers call a growing pattern of human rights abuses 
by the Ethiopian government.

The 25 million Oromo are the biggest ethnic group in Ethiopia, and one of 
the largest in Africa. They're certainly not the sole subnation
claiming to be victims of their government and demanding greater autonomy, 
and in some ways their plight is a reminder of how politically
confused and economically marginal Ethiopia has been for decades. Yet 
Monday's march also reflects rising concerns over several crises
gathering in Ethiopia.

Not only do many Oromo feel neglected and worse by the ethnic Tigrayan 
minority that runs Ethiopia; there's also growing concern
around the world that Ethiopia's 3-year-old drought could break out into 
another killer famine. Meanwhile the bitter, wasteful border
conflict between Ethiopia and its former province of Eritrea is as 
dangerous 
as ever (some feel it may explode again soon) and recently the
country has faced a new plague. More than a month ago, a huge forest fire 
broke out in the south. It has destroyed thousands of farms
and houses, bared the land to erosion and threatened several already 
endangered species of mammals, such as the mountain nyala and
Menelik's bushbuck.

Atlanta's connection with all this is larger than Monday's march suggested. 
In addition to the 1,000 or more Oromo living here, there are
also about 4, 000 Amhara, Eritreans and others who until a few years ago 
were all " Ethiopians." The biggest Oromo community in the
U.S., about 10,000 strong, is in Minneapolis; yet here in Atlanta the 
Carter 
Center and CARE take a special interest in Ethiopia, and Prof.
Mohammed Hassen Ali, a historian at Georgia State University, is widely 
known as an Oromo scholar and activist.

Most curious of all, according to a British scholar and Oromo sympathizer 
who recently visited Atlanta, the so-called Oromo Support
Group (as distinguished from the armed Oromo insurgency in Ethiopia --- see 
www. oromoliberationfront.org) might not exist at all without
the financial support of Atlanta's Oromo.

A letter on Monday from the Oromo Community Association of Georgia to Gov. 
Roy Barnes (like similar letters the Oromo have sent in
recent weeks to President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and other 
leaders) 
urged Washington to take steps against Ethiopian
government abuses. Oromo activists assert that the forest fire --- which 
has 
threatened Bale National Forest and drawn volunteer
firefighters from South Africa, Germany and Canada --- was deliberately set 
by the Ethiopian government to deny sanctuary to Oromo
guerrillas. (The Ethiopian government denies this.)

Citing criticisms of Ethiopia by Amnesty International and other human 
rights groups, Oromo activists also are appealing to Americans to
help stop the Ethiopian government from shooting Oromo students who've 
protested the fire, to protest Ethiopia's imprisonment of 165
farmers who've been arrested for setting the fire, and to quit introducing 
settlers, "corporate farms" and foreign mining operations to the
region where many Oromo live.

The fire is said to have spread over millions of acres in Ethiopia's south 
and southeast. A Chinese news service reported recently that the
fire had been snuffed out by rain and emergency aid. But I don't know.

The Oromo in America are probably wise at this point to be amplifying their 
view of Ethiopia's troubles --- before more dramatic crises cry
out for attention.

More than 300 children are reported to have died lately from hunger-related 
diseases at a little place called Danan, in Ethiopia's Ogaden.
The U.S. and Europe have pledged a million tons of food aid for the Horn of 
Africa, where the last rainy season failed just as Mozambique
was being devastated by floods. Most of this food probably will be 
earmarked 
for Ethiopia. But renewed fighting with Eritrea could cut off
that effort, which even in peacetime will face the usual grim challenges of 
tardy food shipments, terrible roads and less than perfect
government.

GRAPHIC: Graphic
ETHIOPIA AT A GLANCE
Originally, the Oromo occupied most of the southeast part of Ethiopia, but 
by the 16th century they occupied all of southern Ethiopia,
with some settling along the Tana River in Kenya.
Area: 437,794 square miles, two-thirds the size of Alaska
Population: 58.7 million
Life expectancy: 45.5 years for men, 47.8 years for women
Literacy: 35.5 percent
Ethnic breakdown: Oromo 45 percent; Amhara and Tigre, 32 percent
Chief export: Coffee
Includes map of Ethiopia; inset map of Africa pinpoints the area shown on 
the larger map.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannca Online / ROB SMOAK / Staff
Photo
Members of the Oromo Community Association of Georgia protest at the state 
Capitol Monday the treatment their ethnic group receives
in their Ethiopian homeland./ NICK ARROYO / Staff
Map
Ethiopia
Includes map of Ethiopia; inset map of Africa pinpoints the area shown on 
the larger map.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannca Online / ROB SMOAK / Staff
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