ADDIS ABABA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian House of People's Representatives (HoPR) on Thursday approved a draft resolution to repeal three rebel groups from Ethiopia's terrorist groups list.
The resolution to lift the terrorist label on the three groups - the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ginbot 7 - was tabled to the HoPR, the Ethiopian parliament's lower house, last week by the Ethiopian Council of Ministers.
The three groups, which are only labeled as terrorist groups by the Ethiopian government, have been recently receiving amnesty calls from the Ethiopian government following the coming of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia's new prime minister on April 2.
The resolution read to the Ethiopian parliament's lower house indicated that the decision is meant to encourage dissident groups to use peaceful political discourse to achieve political ends.
Since coming to power, Ahmed has moved fast to institute political reforms including freeing thousands of prisoners including prominent opposition figures and has promised to amend controversial laws.
Ahmed's government has over the past three months released thousands of political prisoners, including Ginbot 7's second highest leader Andargachew Tsige.
Ginbot 7 had also last month announced its decisions to suspend its self-defense operations using fire arms in all regions of the East African country.
The armed rebel group that Ethiopia has been condemning for smuggling of its members into the country as well as illegal armaments to create chaos, revealed that the ongoing socioeconomic and political transformations witnessed in Ethiopia are the major reasons behind its decision to suspend its armed operations.
OLF senior leaders have also recently returned home, including the infamous Yonatan Dubissa and Abebe Geresu, who are top military leaders of the outlawed rebel group.
The two rebel group leaders had been operating in Ethiopia's neighboring country Eritrea after joining OLF before they returned home last month following "fruitful discussions with Ahmed," according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
