By Leenjiso Horo* | April 2015
“I lived through the whole war,” Thucydides remarked in his History of the Peloponnesian War, “being of an age to comprehend events and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them.”
The content of this article is not new. Its purpose is to remind those who have already read it in one version or another and to bring to the attention of those who have not read it. It unmasks the evolutionary secret journey that the pro-Ethiopian empire Oromo nationals have gone through in order to organize ODF [Oromo Democratic Front]. Here is what captured my attention. It is Leencoo Baatii’s statement on his interview with OMN with Abdii Fiixee in regard to the return of ODF’s leadership led by Obbo Leenco Lata to Finfinnee/Addis Ababa.
Here’s Leencoo Baatii’s statement:
“Alatti duunee, reeffi keenya galuurra kun (biyya galuun) filatamaa dha. Ummata keenya keessatti duunee, ummatni keenya nuu booyee, lafa dhalannetti awwaalamuun, awwaalamuu qofaa miti, gaafa awwaalamnu seenaan keenna dubbifamuun…barbaachisaa dha. Mootummaa kana wajjiin hojatuu barbaadna. Heera lafa jiru kana jalatti hojjatuu barbaadna …”
Roughly translated: It is preferable to go home instead of dying in foreign land, and our corpses are sent home. We prefer to die among our people, and that our people weep for us; that we get buried in the land of our birth. Not only buried, on the day we are buried, our history will be told … We want to work with this government. We want to work under the existing Constitution.
First, let me state this. I agree with Ob. Leencoo Baatii that the leadership of all Oromo political organizations must be struggling in their country being among their people rather than living in foreign countries. They have to be in the fire of the struggle.