Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army
GNUM/A Press Release
August 10th, 2013 (Gambella)
“Unity for Peace and Freedom for the People of Gambella”
Second Year Anniversary of GNUM/A
August 10th 2013 is the Second Historical Anniversary day of GNUM/A, wishing peace and freedom for all people of Gambella and the Nilotic Omotic people of the Southwest Ethiopia. This is a special day in the history of the Gambella People for their commitment they showed to come together as one force to fight for their freedom, security, and development through sacrifice, to end the oppression from Ethiopian regimes. This day will be remembered by all unity-loving-people of Gambella, and the people who participated directly or indirectly in all process of building the unity including their exercise of the democratic rights to vote for their leaders for self-determination. As fully supported by many Gambella communities and their representatives from different part of the world, the unity that formed in this day in East Africa, was very successful and fruitful for the indigenous people of Gambella, and it has further embraced the other Nilotic-Omotic people of Southwest Ethiopia, through the vision of the umbrella organization called SENPIM (Southwestern Ethiopia Nilotic-Omotic Peoples Independent Movement.)
The Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army has worked very hard and achieved tremendous results toward orienting people for peaceful and unity among the indigenous people of Gambella and the neighboring Nilotic Omotic people. In the last two years of unity for freedom, GNUM/A has come a long way and has gratefully accomplished many political and organizational activities to have the idea of political dialogue and form political alliances with different opposition political movements of Ethiopia with same vision and mission.
As it is a day of unity for the freedom of Gambella people, it is also a day of new hope and new beginning for future of Gambella. As the dictator and corrupt leaders of Ethiopian regimes have continued carrying out their cruelty and brutality through military operations against the indigenous populations, the people of Gambella didn’t lose hope for the victory to come. This day will be commemorated as a day of great political event and achievement in our political history of Gambella, in which different political movements have shown tolerance and came together as one body and discussed their future.
The commitment showed in creating unity for the people of Gambella living in east African countries should be built upon to unify our resources for common objective. We are calling upon all people of Gambella around the world to remind again that, the best way to freedom and victory to overthrow the repressive TPLF/EPRDF government is only through bringing the resources together than operating in different line of operation both politically and militarily. Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army would like to urge all people of Gambella to stand together as one force. Our journey of liberation will be concluded with your clear and majority support for the freedom of the oppressed of the Southwest Nilotic-Omotic people including Gambella.
The Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army would like to take this opportunity to bring the attention of all people of Gambella in the diaspora and in the homeland that our freedom is in our hand and requires our commitment and sacrifice to remove the dictator regime of TPLF/EPRDF government in collaboration with other opposition parties outside the country. And we would like to urge all the oppressed Nilotic Omotic indigenous peoples to stand together and fight the TPLF regime. As we struggle together, we should not be divided by the regime along the tribal or ethnic lines or clans. As we discriminated and marginalized against our race, color and cultures we should denounce any tribal rivalries or divisions of any kind, we should unite our peoples around the common enemy.
In celebrating this day, we shall solemnly remember our heroes’ brothers and sisters too who sacrificed their lives for justice and freedom of Gambella people and we wish to assure to carry out this vision alive. We should remember our prisoners also who are currently suffering under the TPLF/EPRDF brutality and cruelty in various prisons in Ethiopia. We should be aware that since 1991 the TPLF/EPRDF government took many of our indigenous people into prisons and some are still under detention in different military barracks, some died in the prison, and some their fates are not yet known. We condemn the whole inhuman treatment and the attacks against the civilians in the Gambella region or elsewhere in the country by the TPLF/EPRDF government.
Today, while we are celebrating our second year anniversary, we grieve with our evicted farmers and the indigenous populations whose their land has been sold out by the TPLF/EPRDF government and their cronies. Our stand should be known clearly that the indigenous land is community property which generates a source of our pride and identity. As the Ethiopian constitution provides the UN principles and others, in which the Ethiopian government signed by itself and obliged by them, the TPLF/EPRDF government is breaching its own constitution and the international laws which protect the indigenous rights and freedom to extinct our populations and take the land. We hold the TPLF/EPRDF government accountable for robbing our land without informed consent of our peoples. As land is our God given gift to our people we will never allow the TPLF/EPRDF government to lease our land and impoverish our people in their own territories. We also hold the government accountable for the atrocities (whether directly or indirectly) it is carrying out against the indigenous populations in their ancestral land.
Currently, we have more than 20,000 refugees in South Sudan and Kenya among which 55% are children and women. The Ethiopian government intelligence service and the embassies in these countries are interfering and harassing the lives of refugees by putting too much pressure on the host governments to mistreat our people in exiles. In extreme case our refugees in Alaari, Pochalla County of South Sudan have been relocated to Gorom, Juba, after some were killed by the South Sudanese soldiers in Pochalla, and they are still under harassment and are being mistreated through the interference of the Ethiopian security forces in Juba. For this abusive mistreatment of our refugees in Juba we urge the UNHCR to observe and enforce its international laws in respect to the protection of our refugees in South Sudan.
We would like to call upon the EU, UN, Human Rights Organizations and all Democratic Nations to observe their funding to Ethiopia as the government is misappropriating these funds to help increase the extinction and eviction of the indigenous populations from their lands. We would like to call up the international community to condemn the plans and practices of the TPLF/EPRDF regime against our indigenous populations and urge to stop funding the regime.
Finally, we are calling the TPLF/EPRDF to stop harassing the indigenous people, detention, tortures, and killing of the civilians inside the country. The government has to stop treating the indigenous people like animals. Land grabs and forced displacement of the indigenous populations has to stop without conditions. We oppose any indirect settlement of the highlanders especially from the north in our land to assimilate and extinct our people in the land. Our indigenous members and the communities who are suffering in the TPLF/EPRDF prisons should be released without any conditions. Failure or ignorance not to accept these calls the TPLF/EPRDF government will bear the full responsibility for damage in the region, and the struggle for the people of Gambella will continue until full realization of our self-determination in our ancestral land. Our land is our identity, dignity, history, and land is our communal property and meaning of our self-worth in the region. It is politically very emotional to our souls in which we are determined and ready to sacrifice our lives at any cost.
“UNITY FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM FOR THE PEOPLE OF GAMBELLA”
ONE PEOPLE, ONE GOAL
GNUM/A CENTRAL COMMITTEE