''The conflict between the TPLF and the OPDO has been simmering for a while.
During the last few decades, Oromo nationalists had charged that since the new constitution came into force, the OPDO and Oromo affairs had been "run by assigned TPLF members", and that OPDO members have been victims of TPLF purges.
The OPDO has shown serious concerns regarding the problem of unequal economic development whereby Oromia mainly finances Tigray’s. They also stressed that human rights abuses, the role of the TPLF in Oromoland and lack of real autonomy in their kilil needed prompt redress.
Dr. Negasso Gidada, who was Executive Committee Member of the OPDO, and the Council of the EPRDF, as well as President of the Federal Government of Ethiopia had shown his reservations about all these and was contemplating resignation for the last two years but was convinced not to do so through the advice of many individuals including the German Ambassador to Ethiopia.
It was under the instigation of the Prime Minister that the OPDO's Politburo and Central Committee held meetings in Addis Ababa earlier. However, it was soon moved to Adama, the capital of Oromia Kilil. The meeting, which started here on June 4, 2001 in order to discuss the debate over the Meles Zenawi document castigating the TPLF dissidents, was acrimonious and poisoned from the outset. Meles had sent Sebhat Nega to represent him in supervising the meeting. But Negasso Gidada together with Shiferaw Jarso protested his
presence. As the opposition to the meddling by the TPLF members intensified, Shiferaw Jarso made an impassioned speech in which he told Sebhat Nega to his face: "Rather than continuing to cower to you [the TPLF,] I would rather die in order to make sure that my children will have a chance to live in freedom!
Negasso also presented his grievances in detail. He pointed out among others, that whereas the law stipulates that he has to sign government decrees before they are made public, recently, many of them have been issued without securing his signature - and very oddly with his name on them. He also stated that the OPDO leaders have not been able to freely express their views at EPRDF meetings, and that whenever he and his colleagues tried to present matters important to the Oromos, they were castigated as narrow nationalists and
tribalists. After being snubbed, the furious Sebhat Nega left the premises to return to Addis Ababa and report the
revolt in the OPDO to the PM.
Following the terse criticism that came from Negasso and Shiferaw, 600 Oromo Cadre met in Adama and talked of what had been in the offing among the leadership of the OPDO - the independence from the EPRDF of the OPDO which is feared by Meles because with its 175 seats [constituting the largest block in the parliament] it may cripple the PM's chances of garnering a majority in parliament and also of the EPRDF as a party competing against him with all the election manipulation techniques it has learnt.
The Adama conference did not come to a conclusion and did not resolve the discord among the leadership. It also failed to fulfil Meles' wishes that the OPDO condemn the Tewolde-Siye faction as Addisu Legesse and Kassu Ilala have done in ANDM and SEPDF respectively. Negasso had earlier refused to sign a letter expelling them from their seats in parliament. Thus, when the OPDO went to the meeting of the EPRDF
central committee, it was not in agreement with the other three partners in the EPRDF coalition. In actual fact, it was holding a parallel meeting at night while attending the Central Committee meeting during daytime.''
[Ethiopia, TPLF and Roots of the 2001 Political Tremor - P.Milkias, pages 8-10
During the last few decades, Oromo nationalists had charged that since the new constitution came into force, the OPDO and Oromo affairs had been "run by assigned TPLF members", and that OPDO members have been victims of TPLF purges.
The OPDO has shown serious concerns regarding the problem of unequal economic development whereby Oromia mainly finances Tigray’s. They also stressed that human rights abuses, the role of the TPLF in Oromoland and lack of real autonomy in their kilil needed prompt redress.
Dr. Negasso Gidada, who was Executive Committee Member of the OPDO, and the Council of the EPRDF, as well as President of the Federal Government of Ethiopia had shown his reservations about all these and was contemplating resignation for the last two years but was convinced not to do so through the advice of many individuals including the German Ambassador to Ethiopia.
It was under the instigation of the Prime Minister that the OPDO's Politburo and Central Committee held meetings in Addis Ababa earlier. However, it was soon moved to Adama, the capital of Oromia Kilil. The meeting, which started here on June 4, 2001 in order to discuss the debate over the Meles Zenawi document castigating the TPLF dissidents, was acrimonious and poisoned from the outset. Meles had sent Sebhat Nega to represent him in supervising the meeting. But Negasso Gidada together with Shiferaw Jarso protested his
presence. As the opposition to the meddling by the TPLF members intensified, Shiferaw Jarso made an impassioned speech in which he told Sebhat Nega to his face: "Rather than continuing to cower to you [the TPLF,] I would rather die in order to make sure that my children will have a chance to live in freedom!
Negasso also presented his grievances in detail. He pointed out among others, that whereas the law stipulates that he has to sign government decrees before they are made public, recently, many of them have been issued without securing his signature - and very oddly with his name on them. He also stated that the OPDO leaders have not been able to freely express their views at EPRDF meetings, and that whenever he and his colleagues tried to present matters important to the Oromos, they were castigated as narrow nationalists and
tribalists. After being snubbed, the furious Sebhat Nega left the premises to return to Addis Ababa and report the
revolt in the OPDO to the PM.
Following the terse criticism that came from Negasso and Shiferaw, 600 Oromo Cadre met in Adama and talked of what had been in the offing among the leadership of the OPDO - the independence from the EPRDF of the OPDO which is feared by Meles because with its 175 seats [constituting the largest block in the parliament] it may cripple the PM's chances of garnering a majority in parliament and also of the EPRDF as a party competing against him with all the election manipulation techniques it has learnt.
The Adama conference did not come to a conclusion and did not resolve the discord among the leadership. It also failed to fulfil Meles' wishes that the OPDO condemn the Tewolde-Siye faction as Addisu Legesse and Kassu Ilala have done in ANDM and SEPDF respectively. Negasso had earlier refused to sign a letter expelling them from their seats in parliament. Thus, when the OPDO went to the meeting of the EPRDF
central committee, it was not in agreement with the other three partners in the EPRDF coalition. In actual fact, it was holding a parallel meeting at night while attending the Central Committee meeting during daytime.''
[Ethiopia, TPLF and Roots of the 2001 Political Tremor - P.Milkias, pages 8-10
