By Olaana Abbaa Xiiqi*For eighteen full days Egypt shook the whole world. Those brave Egyptians inspired us, we were glued to our televisions and watched their every move, we envied them, rejoiced with them, felt their pain, and when finally the dictator fled the city we joined in their jubilation.
The aftershock of this earth moving revolution had an immediate effect in North Africa and Middle East. Movement of the people erupted everywhere, sending shivers down the spine of every authoritarian ruler on the planet. People’s power in action was paraded on TV, not to be ignored any longer. Dictator after dictator scrambled to quell the rising tide, some by outright massacre and some by giving series of concessions to preempt them. To date, the outcome of these uprisings is not clear. But the struggle is far from over. It will continue and will reach every corner of the world.
The question in everyone’s mind is, “could Egypt be replicated in Ethiopia?” Even before Tunisia and Egypt there were amazing Oromo students’ movement of Fincila Diddaa Gabrumma of 2001-2005 that raged in most Oromian cities. However, except for some human rights organizations, not many people outside the county had heard about them. Because TV cameras were absent, and also because they occurred mostly outside the capital city where diplomatic corps and international organizations were nonexistent, the vicious suppressions of Oromo students were not adequately recorded and reported, the world did not see or hear them, and thus they did not capture the imagination of the world.
Even though their impact on Oromo society was immense, and even if they garnered huge sympathy from Oromos of all walks of life, beyond becoming a student movement, this movement failed to bring on board the larger Oromo population to rise up along with it. Not surprisingly, student movements in other parts of the country also went missing during this period. Not a single non-Oromo student organization demonstrated or passed a resolution in support of the Oromo student movement, and most Ethiopian websites also chose to ignore them. The heroic Oromo Student Movement was finally crushed after several students were killed. Lesson learnt was that Oromo student movement not supported by other sector of the society is powerless against an entrenched repressive government.
Just when the Oromo student movement was waning down, the 2005 election and the massacre that followed suit occurred in Addis Ababa. The Addis population without any clear leadership, but inspired by CUD, rose against the TPLF government en masse. Here again long before Tunisia and Egypt, the younger generation of Addis used the new media of the time, texting, for the first time to mobilize the population. They confronted the TPLF regime in a heroic manner, but in its usual fascistic manner the government mobilizing its Agazi force acted swiftly and cruelly and killed more than 200 individuals in one day in broad day light in the capital city. Tens of thousands were also imprisoned. Addis Ababa was very tense for about fifteen days. However, the movement did not persist for long, and it did not progress to other cities, and it was finally crushed. Again because these killings did not occur under the glaring light of TV cameras they did not capture the imagination of the international community. However, because they occurred in the capital city they did get the attention of the western governments and international organizations, and they did create some kind of a buzz and temporary rift between TPLF and western governments Read More
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