Jan 05, 2012

Oromo: Peaceful Exercise of Free Will for Rights


The OLF has reiterated its commitment to the peaceful securing of the rights of Oromo and Ethiopians of all communities, refuting and clarifying statements recently issued in the name of the OLF.

Below is an abridged press release issued by the OLF:

[…]

The group that calls itself OLF and issued a ‘press release’ on Jan. 1, 2012 to the effect of amending the organization’s program […] has no legal or moral basis to claim the name OLF as we have stated in our previous statement. According to the organization’s constitution and any organizational norm it is the decision of the majority that has to finally prevail. This negligible minority group negate this norm and the organizational constitution to which they were a party and try to usurp the name OLF itself.

While they themselves are illegally using this name they made further unconstitutional decision by amending the Program of the organisation. Amending the Program, the Constitution and election of members of the National Council is an exclusive prerogative of the National Congress which meets periodically, not the National Council as they wrongly state.

More than that, the right to self-determination up to and including independence is the right of any nation enshrined in the UN Charter that no entity can negate or abridge other than the concerned people themselves who can decide through free universal suffrage. Anything short of acceptance of this right will only prolong the agony of the peoples in Ethiopia who have been victims of the conflict between those who want to perpetuate the conquest under the phoney unity and those who want to reverse the conquest.

Finally it goes without saying that neither unity nor independence can be imposed by force or by deception if what we need is peace, freedom and democracy, which are prerequisite for development and prosperity. We have to believe in, trust and accept the free will of the people as the final verdict on this issue.

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