ESAT News (November 14, 2016)
An Oromo Leadership Convention held over the weekend in Atlanta called on all Ethiopians to “stand together and act in concert to remove the TPLF regime that has become the source of all discontent, division and disorder in the country.”
In a resolution passed at the end of the convention, which coincided with the first year anniversary of the uprising in the Oromo region, the participants also called upon the international community to support the resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission that calls for an independent investigation into “the massacre committed by the regime against the oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia at the Ireecha festival on October 2, 2016”
The convention also condemned in the strongest terms the state of emergency declared by the regime, which it said uses the martial law to “legalize its illegitimate actions.”
The convention also decided to establish an a human rights organization to assist the people victimized by what it called the inhuman acts of the TPLF regime.
The convention vows to further intensify the support given to the “Oromo revolution to fight against the TPLF regime that has lost all legitimacy.”
The resolution said the participants of the convention discussed four documents in plenary and breakout sessions but it did not give details contained in those documents.
Eight Oromo political organizations, political leaders, civil society representatives, activists and scholars, among others, participated at the three day conference which was closed to media.
At least 1500 people were killed in the last one year of protests by security forces while 60,000 were detained without due process of law, according to local political organizations. Upto 600 people lost their lives at the Ireecha religious festival in October when regime forces fired shots and used teargas at the millions of party goers resulting in deadly stampede. Ethiopian regime officials insist only 55 people lost their lives at the festival.