UN Integrated Regional Information Network
August 13, 2001

The Speaker of the Federal Council, Almaz Mako, has said she has defected to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) after being persecuted as one of its sympathisers. In a statement released on 11 August, Almaz said that as Speaker and as a central committee member of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) she had hoped to advance the cause of her Oromo people through the official Oromo People's Democratic Organisation (OPDO), but that the EPRDF had "brought untold miseries and sufferings on the Oromo people". She said the dominant Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) did not tolerate political independence, and that the government paid "lip service to democracy". According to the statement, Oromiya had lost its autonomy as a region, and "innocent Oromos have disappeared, perished in detention centres from torture, and many more forced to flee the country". She said by retaining her post she would "give the false impression that the Oromos are represented in the government". The Ethiopian government has dismissed the armed OLF movement as an unrepresentative terrorist organisation.

Note from Oromia Online: In the original of the above story UN-IRIN mistakenly used masculine pronouns to refer to Ms. Almaz Mako but we have made the necessary editorial changes to reflect the fact that she is female.