One of the Secret Mass Graves of Oromo Killing Fields Is Exposed at Hammarreessaa

OLF Press Release

June 14, 2014 (oromoliberationfront.org) — The mass murder, arrest, torture, exploitation and oppression perpetrated by Ethiopian regimes against the subject people, has been passing on from one regime to the next unabated. This pattern of the ruling clique well precedes the formation of the Ethiopian empire. This is because the cliques had continually come to power through violence, against the wish of the people, and they had to resort to sheer force of terror to keep the people under control. Ruthless mass murder was the efficient means to terrorize, demoralize and dehumanize the subject people. As no people willfully accept such illegitimate rule the relation between them and the ruling clique remains one of victor and vanquished.
Since maintaining their power is the main priority for such cliques they commit all heinous crimes against the subject people for this purpose. The case of the Ethiopian empire, created and sustained by violence supported by the foreign powers, is no exception. As the successive regimes are bogged down on ruthless repression of the subject people the empire is plunged in poverty and underdevelopment. Even though many nations and nationalities in Ethiopia have been subjected to inhuman subjugations, the Oromo have carried the brunt of the hostility and mass murder because of the potential threats they are thought of posing to the conquerors.
The accidental revelation of a mass grave used by the former Junta and the current Tirgay People‟s Liberation Front (TPLF) regime at Hammarreessaa in eastern Oromia on June 10, 2014 is a good evidence for the ferocity of the regimes‟ crime and the inevitability of the full exposure of such atrocities against the Oromo people.
Since many people are not aware of these locations and the perpetrators some explanation is in order. Hammarreessaa has been a military garrison since the late Emperor Haileselassie regime, with much more function than that. It harboured centres of torture and secret mass and individual murder and grave for those the regimes consider to be threat to their power. The few known mass murders of the Junta and the TPLF are the evidences of this. This camp was evacuated for leasing the land to a company to „develop‟, when the farming machines inadvertently opened up part of the mass grave. There are several other camps still used by the military serving the same purpose.
In 1991, when the situation in Somalia deteriorated and the regime they fled was about to fall, around 350 Oromo refugees decided to go back home from Hargessa. Unfortunately they were greeted not by their kin and kith they had left behind but by the armed forces of the military junta. The regional commanders of the time Generals Bihanu Gembere and Wubshet Dessie ordered the massacre of all these returning elderly, women, children, sick and disabled refugees that included few of our members and supporters. While facing the squad the few members, that included Central Committee member Baatii Burqaa, shouted “our blood will not be shed in vain! Oromia shall be free!” Now that the atrocity that our enemies thought will remain secret has started to be revealed it is upon the Oromo people to redouble the effort to realize that goal.
The TPLF regime inherited this camp in 1991 with its full function. Several survivors of the horror of this camp have given their testimonies.
Whether the junta or the TPLF regime, the atrocities they secretly committed against the innocent Oromo people simply because of their identity, will eventually be fully exposed like the current one. The Oromo people have to be aware of the history of these martyrs and provide them proper burials.
Victory to the Oromo people!
Oromo Liberation Front
June 13, 2014
Source: Oromo Liberation Front