Michael's Blog

This is a translation of a letter by  Bekele Gerba and other Oromo political prisoners  secretly smuggled out of Kilinto Prison on 30th of August 2016. The original letter is in Afaan Oromo.  In the soon-ending year, we have lost huge numbers of our young children, tens of thousands have been imprisoned while the whereabouts of several others still remains unknown. We had recently announced a three-day national mourning to pay homage to the lives lost, to which the public gave an exceedingly positive response. This has left our adversaries in a state of shock and, needless to say, it has us beaming with pride. We appreciate the huge sacrifices you have paid and your courage to stand alongside the people. Please accept our gratitude and respect for your selfless acts.   If we listen to one another, stick up for each other and stand in unison, it should not take long before the collective humiliation we are subjected to comes to an end. And it must end! W...

This is a translation of a letter by Bekele Gerba and other Oromo political prisoners secretly smuggled out of Kilinto Prison. The original letter is in Afaan Oromo. Over the past 20 years, the people of Oromia have been unable to exercise genuine self-rule, systematically robbed off their possessions, locked up en masse and doomed to a life of despair. In the past three years in particular there has been a thoroughly orchestrated plan to displace the Oromo from their ancestral land, destroy their language, wipe-out their culture and strip them of their identity with the pretext of the Addis Ababa Master Plan. Copy of the letter courtesy of Jawar Mohammed In the past 10 months, our people have been fighting tooth and nail with forces bent on destroying them. This courageous act of resistance is showing no signs of slowing down and is in fact on the rise. Nevertheless, immense sacrifices have been made in the process: thousands have been imprisoned; students have been...