Daniel Fido
It is deeply troubling that TPLF-affiliated media outlets, Ethio Forum and Zara Media, have turned into anti-Oromo forums actively spreading misinformation and distortion of facts related to the Oromo people and struggle. This aggressive campaign has escalated following the recent political conversation the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) had with representatives of the wider Oromo people. One expects that any decent human being would be happy when a nation torn by decades and centuries of war that turned life for its people into a hell on earth would be to support such a peace initiative. However, old Abyssinian intrigues have kicked in, and the two most powerful Tigrean media outlets have made war making and domination their priority. Hidden political and economic ambitions seem to have come to the forefront of TPLF political agenda despite its own internal turmoil, – to re-occupy Oromia and exploit its resources.
Ethio Forum and Zara Media often rely on unverified social media rumors or unnamed government sources. Their reporting is designed to undermine the Oromo people and their organizations, the OLF and OFC. Rather than working with these organizations towards a lasting peace to resolve conflicts in Tigray and in Oromia, these outlets have chosen to manifest hostility towards these organizations and the Oromo struggle. For example, these media reported the gathering of the Oromo people as if it was organized by the Prosperity Party (PP the OLF, OFC, and several Oromo civic societies, scholars, religious institutions had a consultative meeting on the future of Oromia. The press release of this important and historic gathering is available here. Ethio Forum reported about this meeting as if it was called by the ruling party, Prosperity Party. In fact, it characterized the meeting as a “new drama”, labeling it “the forum of Abiy, OLF, and OFC.” The report read Shimelis Abdisa and Adanech Abebe will participate in the meeting while Abiy Ahmed plans to attend the closing ceremony. This cunning Ethio Forum report is available here. However, no PP official attended the meeting, neither Shimelis nor Adanech were there. Since the meeting was attended by over 100 people, it would not have been difficult for Ethio Forum to find out the truth. However, Ethio Forum’s intention was to smear the independence of the Oromo struggle, not to report the truth. Hence, it never corrected the false report.
Ironic, that historically these outlets never reported the horrors that the TPLF perpetuated against the Oromo people for 27 years, as well reported here. Ethio Forum and Zara Media never reported about the thousands of Oromo farmers, students, teachers, and business owners unjustly imprisoned under false pretenses of supporting the OLF, even when a former TPLF leader, Siye Abraha testified that Ethiopian prisons under the TPLF speak Afaan Oromo. They never informed about the mass rape and killings of Oromo refugee forcibly deported to Oromia from Sudan refugee camps at the TPLF’s demand. They never spoke on the Irreecha massacre, the Eastern Oromia Watar massacre, or on the over 7,000 Oromo youth protesters killed cold-bloodedly on the streets of Oromia by the TPLF’s Agazi Forces, reported here. They never said a word about the thousands of Oromo scholars, academicians, political leaders, and teachers who disappeared without a trace despite the overwhelming evidence. They never commented on the cultural genocide, including the abduction and murder of Dabassa Guyyo, and the destruction of Oromo cultural institutions. The two TPLF medias were never interested in reporting on the forced displacement of millions of Oromo farmers from their ancestral lands near, for example, Finfinne which the TPLF generals and party leaders appropriated for themselves and for their relatives, lands that to this day remain under their control. They never objected to the infamous “Master Plan” that became a cause for the killing of tens and hundreds of thousands of Oromos. In short, Ethio Forum and Zara Media, never paid attention to the truth unless it serves the TPLF’s political camp that the editors served for decades, they never embraced journalistic ethics, they were never concerned about victims other than Tigreans, gave deaf ears to news about victims of the TPLF. They are firmly grounded in whitewashing the TPLF’s genocidal crimes and aggrandizing its leader, Meles Zenawi. It is interesting to note how, even during these difficult times for Tigray, a region torn apart by a devastating war, famine, corruption, and internal political divisions, the two medias still have not abandoned their domination-driven political mentality earmarked to them by Getachew Assefa, the Tigrean spy chief. We mention here some crimes of the TPLF against the Oromo people, but we are fully aware that the regime spared no non-Tigreans in Ethiopia, see for example this link.
The two media outlets remain loyal to their creators, the TPLF security headed by the infamous spy chief, Getachew Assefa who was responsible for the massacre of hundreds and thousands of Oromos during TPLF’s reign from 1991 to 2018. During his interview with Riyot Media, the current President of Tigray and TPLF central Committee member, Getachew Reda admitted that these media are paid by the TPLF to glorify Meles Zenawi and his regime, while conveniently ignoring the crimes committed under his leadership, see this link, for example.
For the good of the Tigrean people, the TPLF and the two media must correct courses, report facts, and balance their reports to serve the Tigrean people, not its political gang. They should propagate no hate against peace efforts and must abandon if not condemn TPLF’s attempts to create puppet organizations once again like OPDOs in 2025. TPLF’s peace hereafter depends on its collaboration with independent Oromo organizations, not on forging puppet organizations. It is time for the TPLF and its two media to abandon its old and toxic tricks. To think that the trick will work again is insanity. TPLF is in a survival mode, but a few of its old guard leaders and media still dream the same dream of the 1990s, i.e., an illusionary aspiration that they still carry the same sword even after devastatingly losing a war with Ethiopia in 2020-2022.
To conclude, one must acknowledge that history is unyielding. The Oromo people may forgive, but they will not forget the atrocities they endured under the TPLF-led EPRDF government. The scars of the TPLF reign are fresh and live for many Oromos. Amputated limbs, widowed spouses, orphans, the mental burden, and the displaced serve as constant reminders of the suffering inflicted under Meles Zenawi’s rule. The TPLF and its media outlets must cease sanctification of Meles Zenawi and the EPRDF’s crime years. Continued interference in Oromo affairs will only deepen resentment and distrust, extending the misery of their people too. The last 35 years of politics with TPLF at the center is proof that the Oromo people’s pursuit of justice and freedom will not be deterred by manipulations and ill-intended maneuvers. The TPLF or any other power cannot stop the march of the Oromo people towards attaining its full freedom. Unhindered admission of this fact is as useful to the TPLF as it is to the Oromo people.
