| Date |
Event |
| May 1991 |
The London Conference was attended
by the Derg, Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), Oromo Liberation
Front (OLF) and Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), but the Derg
officials withdrew from the end of the meeting after hearing the news that
Mengistu Haile Mariam fled to Zimbabwe. The Mengistu
regime was finally deposed. |
| July 1991 |
A national
conference for establishing a transitional government was convened in
Addis Ababa as an attempt on the part of the TPLF/EPRDF to rapidly secure
widespread acceptance among the general population. It resulted in
the signing of a Charter by the representatives of some 31 political
movements, the creation of an 87-seat Council of Representatives, and the
establishment of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE). The
OLF joined the coalition that formed the TGE and it held the second
largest number of seats in the Council of Representatives. Five more
seats were allotted for the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (IFLO),
Oromo Abbo Liberation Front (OALF) and the United Oromo People's
Liberation Organization (UOPLO). The Oromo People's Democratic
Organization (OPDO) also held seats as part of the EPRDF coalition. |
| 3
November 1991 |
The
OLF convened a meeting of over 1,000 Oromo intellectuals to decide which
alphabet to use to write Afaan Oromo. After a many hours of debate,
they decided unanimously to adopt the Latin alphabet.
|
| 1992 |
The OLF stated that its efforts to
negotiate and work within the TGE for democracy had been blocked.
Insisting that the TGE was dominated by the EPRDF, that it did not offer
an avenue for democratic reforms in Ethiopia, that its supporters had been
violently attacked and that the TGE simply represented the continuation of
Ethiopian colonialism under a new disguise by replacing Amhara domination
with that of Tigrayans, the OLF left the coalition and renewed its program
for achieving an independent Oromo state.
Aradoolaa Abdalla
led her OLA unit in the fight against the army of the TPLF/EPRDF in the
vicinity of Najjoo, where she was wounded. But, even when she became
separated from her unit, Aradoolaa did not give up the struggle. She
acquired valuable information about the enemy and passed it to the Oromo
fighters.
Over 20,000 Oromo fighters were arrested and held for
long periods in camps around Oromia.
|
| 1992-1994 |
Thousands of Oromo people were
imprisoned as opponents of the government, without being charged or
tried. This included journalists, human rights activists and members
of officially-recognized political parties but the main targets were Oromo
suspected of OLF membership or sympathies. |
| 1994 |
The OLF launched 157 launches
against the forces of the TPLF/EPRDF regime. |
| Feb 1995 |
In a military communiqué, the
OLF claimed victory in 17 recent attacks on government forces. |
| 21 August, 1995 |
The convening of Ethiopia's
Federal Parliament officially brought an end the transitional period that
was launched more than four years earlier. This was nothing more
than the formalization of a one-party regime resulting from the systematic
reversal of the targets originally set at the July 1991 Conference. |
