Ethiopian Embassy Responds to Yemen Times Article of August 10th: “WHO ARE THE SO-CALLED OROMO POLITICAL ACTIVISTS IN YEMEN?” [Archives:1998/33/Local News]

archive
August 17 1998

The Ethiopia Embassy, with regret, has noted the untruthful allegation by some individuals (calling themselves political activists) that “the Ethiopian Government burned their farms and villages. If they go back they will be killed, upon their arrival in Ethiopia” (Yemen Times Aug. 10-16/98). Why should a government committed in developing the farmers’ lives in the entire country burn farms? The whole world, let alone the closely related neighbor and friendly country and people of Yemen, knows what is happening in today’s Ethiopia. Democratic institutional building, autonomous regional administration, good governance and rule of law are the clear features of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
Then why defame the good name of the country with false allegations? If these individuals claim to be members of the so-called OLF, they are neither politically oriented nor have any peaceful program -they are terrorists who have committed many atrocities in Ethiopia killing innocent citizens in the rural as well as urban centers of the country. That is what OLF does. Such terrorist killers calling themselves political activists would like to enjoy the democratic rights as if they are innocent law-abiders. They should face justice like any and all terrorists elsewhere. If they are free of such unlawful acts, why are they afraid to go back? Hundreds of other economic migrants have gone back. Nothing has happened to them.
With regards to the real situation and the rights of Oromo people in Ethiopia, the Embassy would like to use this opportunity to invite the editors of the Yemen Times to visit Ethiopia and assess the facts as they exist whether the Ethiopian Government is burning the farms and villages or whether it is engaged in the bitter war against poverty, backwardness in Ethiopia. We assure all readers of Yemen Times that the picture in Ethiopia today is far from what the terrorists wish it to be.
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