Source: oromoindex.com
On Saturday August 27, 2007, there was a secret meeting scheduled to take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The delegates of the “Oromian Regional Government” were supposed to speak at that meeting. Although the meeting was claimed to be public, there was no publicity or announcement prior to the meeting. In fact it was rumored that the meeting would take place on September 1st, 2007, which was the information released to mislead the public.
However, the cover of that highly secretive meeting was blown up when information leaked to Oromo youth activists on the evening of Friday, August 24. The youth rapidly transmitted the information and were well prepared to face the sellout delegates. The youth marched to the Hilton Hotel in Bloomington and waited for the “delegates” to arrive. After almost an hour, the “delegates” arrived led by Faisal Abrahim, an agent working for the “Diaspora Affairs” at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC. He took the lead and introduced his guests and their ranks within the surrogate OPDO government. In the meantime, tension in the room was raising, any observer could read fear and confusion on the face of the “delegates.” Especially the self-proclaimed vice president of Oromia Muktar Kedir was sweating bullets and staring blankly into the audience.
Before the delegates said a word, the youth asked permission to comment on the agenda of the meeting. However Faisal refused to allow such comments and instead called the security just as he would do against unarmed Oromo students in Oromia by calling Agazi commandos. This led to confrontation between the audience and the delegates. The police arrived but stayed aside because the youth explained to them the reason for the stand off which was legal action without violence. It was at this time that the so called delegates realized that they were the only members and supporters of OPDO in the room while the rest of the audience was there to confront them. The debate became heated to the level where Faisal was forced to resign from chairing the meeting and the youth activists took over the meeting. One young audience member told the delegates that just as they the delegates, were made to take order from Melles in Oromia, now they should not refuse to take order from the Oromo youth.
Scared by such development, the delegates ran out of the room. The youth followed them denouncing the OPDO and its master the TPLF. An attempt by the nervous dark suited delegates to attack a female member of the audience led to a brief moment of physical confrontation which resulted in the audience overpowering the delegates. The meeting was cancelled and the victorious Oromo youth showed their solidarity to their peers back home who are the subject of gross human rights violations by the wayanes and their surrogates. The latest information indicates that the humiliated delegates have cancelled their remaining tour to other states and have returned back to the country. It was noted that the so called Oromia V/ President Mukhtar was taken to Emergency Room at local hospital and all delegates had visible cuts and burses when they were departing to DC the next day.
One thing very obvious at that meeting was the absence of local OPDO members and sympathizers. The reason for their absence is that they didn’t want to be identified by the community due to fear of isolation. The most amazing of all is that just as they spy for the regime in Finfinne, they were also serving as double agents providing information against the delegates. This is an indicator of the nature of the relationships between the TPLF and its surrogates; a relationship based on mistrust and betrayal. This relationship is a positive development and advantageous to the camp of those who struggle for freedom, justice and democracy.
This heroic action of the Oromo youth in Minnesota should serve as an example for all those who oppose the regime in Ethiopia. It is crucial that we stop the regime’s agents from dividing the Diaspora in the name of investment while in fact the regime is engaged in gross human rights violations and looting of national resources.
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Baker Ware, Freelance reporter, Minnesota Oromo Index News (OIN)
6 thoughts on “OPDO delegates chased away by Oromo youth in Minnesota”
What about the Washington, DC meeting?
Are we now to resolve our differences by chasing people from meetings? In any meeting those that don’t want to take part can choose to protest outside the meeting place. Those who choose to participate can agree or disagree with those that called the meeting. Only hooligans do what Beker Ware is proud to report. He is not a reporter as such he is in fact an advocate of the action taken. Is this what Oromos want? I don’t think so unless they pride themselves by associating with hooliganism. I am not from the Oromo region but my sister is married to an Oromo gentleman who would be ashamed of such action. We can not substitute tribal hooliganism for the communist hooliganism of the 1970s. The result will be the same. Those who accuse Oromos, who are not for secession, are nothing but enemies of a united Ethiopia and propagators of inter tribal warfare and inter religious warfare soon after. For me they are anarchist. Those who take pleasure in helping such people are Enemies of Ethiopia. No matter how much they hate the current government, being a tool for OLF is nothing but anti Ethiopian action of the worst kind. The current government will go away some day but a fractured Ethiopia will never be put together.
Of course those who are not direct victims of violence will preach “turn the other cheek” when one is dealing with an enemy. In an Utopian world,differences can be settled by compromise, but the reality is that we live in Etopia, where Woyanes and their agents are responsible for putting Ethiopia, particularly, Oromo, in a state of despair. They rendered the Oromo people helpless and powerless.
Minnesota Oromos represent a unique demography of Oromos; most of them are either direct victims of torture,or imprisonment,or they have one or more family members that have experienced the brutality of the TPLF regime, including merciless killing. When you allege people who have gone through all this for “hooliganism”, it makes you nothing more than an insensitive idiot or ,of course,a TPLF agent.
One thing your biased mind failed to catch from the article is that the physical violence was initiated when one OPDO/TPLF agent, who is from MN, punched a little girl who was shouting “thief”, “Murderer”, “Blood sucker”, “Zenawi’s puppet”, etc.
I think the Oromo Youth did the best thing
to get rid of them. Today any Govenment who do not respect Human Rights, Justice, Democracy and Freedom of speech & others do not need RESPECT. Those who called
these delegates aren’t real & true Oromos who really care about their brothers and sisters and other Ethiopians. It’s just for their own gain.
Stop hating and start building one another.
Think of all the people who died & victims of violence.
በሚኒሶታ የ ኦሮሞ ወጣቶቸ እነ ሙከታረ ክድር ላይ የወሰዱት እርምጃ በ ኦሮሚያ ዉሰጥ ያለነዉንም ጭምር በጣም ደስ አሰኝቶናል። በርቱ እንላለን።
OROMIAN HINBILISOOMTI !!!
As much as I hate the Woyanne this kind of behaviour cannot be condoned. The youth would have done well to emabarass the hodam delegates in a more democratic way. They could have done that just like the people of the Southern Region in Atlanta or in Amsterdam. Resorting to violence solves nothing.