For those who really know him I do not need to say who he is.
Hussein Bunee belongs to the last generation of traditional patriotic revolutionary leaders of the struggle of the Oromo people.
In the sixties and seventies he led the armed struggle in eastern Bale with his brother Mahmud Bunee, effectively pinning Ethiopian army units down in many fronts for years, at the same time as the two Waaqoos battled with whole army divisions in the south.
Hussein Bunee was throughout his life not only a man of action and bravery but also of immense natural wisdom. His ability of reconciling a wide variety of views, often accommodating lot of differences in matters of political and military strategy, made him extremely popular among ordinary fighters. His kind treatment of the non-combatant civilian population was exemplary and unforgettable. He ate and slept on the ground with his fighters, never distinguishing himself from them. Jaarra knows him in the field better and is more qualified than myself to talk about him.
It is unfortunate that the names of such great patriots as Hussein Bunee and Waqoo are loaded with military ranks, giving the impression that many Oromo heroes belonged to military establishments, with wrong implications. Among us there are certainly those who rejoice in giving this wrong impression to cover up part of our reality. Others do parrot only what they heard without thinking for themselves. The military rank is true only of General Taddesse Birru versus the Gobanas. I will put them rather alongside, for example, Elemoo Qilxuu , Mahdi or, among the living, Jaarraa, as people’s patriots of revolutionary character without any official ranks, having nothing to do with any state institutions. Haji Ishaq Daadhi can also be remembered in this context along many others as an Oromo patriot who challenged the regime. This fits their genuine historical roles better. It is also part of our historical and political reality. Genuine Oromos, especially Moslems, had never any part or say in the Abyssinian military establishment. Most Oromo generals in the military were and still are, in my opinion, Gobanites, without exaggeration, traitors. By the way I never cease to admire Jaarraa for refusing to join the Institution of the so-called transitional Woyane government, even though the Islamic Front had three chairs in the parliament at the time.
I met Hussein Bunee often in Finfinne from 1991 till 1995 before I left Ethiopia the last time. With the Slamic Front no more in picture, in the parliament, Hussein Bunee remained most of the time in the capital, living in relative poverty. The truth is at times very bitter but it must be swallowed whole, and be, above all, told. I mention this as a reminder of how little our people are practically organized and have no friends in the world so that nobody could take care even of our heroes when they needed help most. When it comes to lip service all of us are nationalists and even revolutionaries. It is part of our tradition to wail and weep dramatically for the dead for whom we did not care in life.
Mahmud Bunee died in complete isolation in 1994, taken ill in Woyane concentration military camp in Bale. Immediately after that I met Hussein Bunee and he told me literally that he had to beg shop keepers for help to survive. Now that Hussein Bunee is dead it is safe for everyone to talk a lot about him.
