jump to navigation

Paper Chase: JURIST: UN urges Ethiopia to end violence against peaceful protesters October 15, 2016

Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.
Tags: , , , , , ,
add a comment

Odaa OromooOromianEconomist

the-heroes-said-down-down-wayyane-down-on-2nd-october-2016-at-irreecha-bishoftu-to-protests-mass-killings-p2irreecha-malkaa-birraa-2016-at-horaa-harsadii-bishoftuu-oromia-this-brave-oromo-woman-is-one-of-the-murdered-by-fascist-tplf-ethiopia-2nd-october-2016irreecha-malkaa-2016-bishoftu-horaa-harsadi-oromia-oromoprotestsmilitary-grade-humvee-inside-the-civilian-perimeter-at-the-2nd-october-2016-irreecha-festivalin-bishoftu-why-was-the-soldieed-against-oromo-irreecha-participants-on-2nd-october-2016-bishoftu-massacroromoprotests-and-fascist-tplfs-human-rights-violations-anaginst-civilians-2016-bbc-sources

UN urges Ethiopia to end violence against peaceful protesters

Justin Cosgrove, 14 October 2016
protests1476455858864

©  WikiMedia (user)

[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner(OHCHR) [official website] on Wednesday urged[press release] Ethiopian authorities to end the violence against peaceful protesters. These attacks by Ethiopian authorities have reportedly led to over 600 deaths in the past year. In response to this violence, the UN has called for an international commission and have requested that the Ethiopian government allow for them to investigate the protests and the violent tactics used against the peaceful demonstrators. Experts claim that there have been numerous allegations of mass killings and disappearances, thousands of protesters injured and tens of thousands arrested. There is also concern that many of those arrested have faced torture and ill-treatment in military detention centers. Another main concern is the use of national security and counter-terrorism legislation to target individuals who are exercising their rights to peaceful assembly. Protests began a year ago [UN News Centre report] in response to the Government’s plan to expand certain boundaries displacing farmers, along with the annexation of Konso Wereda into the Segen Arae Peoples Zone.

The conflict between the Ethiopian government and protestors has been widespread. Tensions increased over the past week when at least 55 were killed in clashes between police and protesters at a festival. Last month Ethiopia’s opposition leader and leader of the Oromo ethnic group, Tiruneh Gamta, demanded the release of all political prisoners [JURIST report] “regardless of any political stand or religion or creed.” The Oromo ethnic group, representing the largest group among the protesters, is largely credited with starting the protests last November when the government announced its plan to expand the capital into the Oromia region. Although the Oromos initially started protesting against what they viewed as a plan to remove them from fertile land in the region, the protests started taking on a different theme even as the government dropped its plan to expand the capital—one calling for the release of political prisoners [Al Jazeera report]. According to rights groups, at least 500 people have been killed and thousands arrested since the unrest began. In January several Ethiopian rights groups called on the international community to address the killing [JURIST report] of protesters.

Human Rights Watch: Anger Boiling Over in Ethiopia Declaration of State of Emergency Risks Further Abuses. #OromoProtests October 15, 2016

Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
add a comment

Odaa OromooOromianEconomistHRW

oromorevolution-thefinalmarchforfreedom

Anger Boiling Over in Ethiopia

Declaration of State of Emergency Risks Further Abuses

Felix Horne, Senior Researcher, Horn of Africa,   Human Rights Watch, 11  October 2016,

On October 9, the Ethiopian government declared a country-wide six-month state of emergency. It has been a bloody year for Ethiopia, and the past few weeks have been no different.

Scores of people – possibly hundreds – died in a stampede on October 2 in Bishoftu, Oromia region, fleeing security force gunfire and teargas during the annual Irreecha harvest festival, important for the country’s 40 million ethnic Oromos. This was the latest lethal crackdown by the government, which has suppressed hundreds of protests across Oromia that grew out of opposition to development plans around the capital, Addis Ababa, last November.

Protestors run from tear gas launched by security personnel during the Irecha, the thanks giving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2, 2016.
EXPAND

Protestors run from tear gas launched by security personnel during the Irecha, the thanks giving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2, 2016. © 2016 Reuters

While the vast majority of those protests have been peaceful, anger boiled over last week after the deaths at Irreecha. In Oromia, protesters attacked government buildings and private businesses perceived to be close to the ruling party, setting some on fire.

Now, under the state of emergency – declared on state television – the army will be deployed country-wide. Intensifying the military’s role in responding to the protests is sure to fuel the escalating anger in Oromia.

From the hundreds of interviews Human Rights Watch has carried out with protesters, witnesses and victims since the protests began, it is clear that each act of brutality by the military – the same military now tasked with restoring law and order – further emboldens the protest movement.

The government’s announcement indicates that it does not intend to reverse course, away from the use of force and towards engagement with communities about their grievances. Instead it seems determined to use force to suppress free expression and peaceful assembly.

Until Ethiopians can voice their views about critical issues such as development and governance, anger and frustration will likely continue, plunging the country into further uncertainty and possibly toward an even more dire and irreversible human rights crisis.

 

WP: Letter to the Editor: America’s complicity in Ethiopia’s horrors October 15, 2016

Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.
Tags: , , , , , ,
add a comment

Odaa OromooOromianEconomist

stop-killing-oromo-people

America’s complicity in Ethiopia’s horrors

 

Women carry water back to their makeshift homes in Aydora, Ethi­o­pia, in February. (Aida Muluneh /For The Washington Post)
August 12
Regarding the Aug. 10 editorial “Ethiopia’s violent silencing”:It is true that, as the editorial board put it, “the United States has long relied on Ethiopia as a partner in the fight against al-Shabab’s terrorism in Somalia and sends the country tens of millions of dollars in development assistance.” But this characterization, which substantially underestimates the amount of aid we devote to propping up this tyranny, implies that we’re at least getting something in return for turning a blind eye to its crimes against humanity.

In fact, when one considers that the regime’s leaders are faking their claims of economic success, covering up the extent of the biggest famine in the country’s history, secretly trading with al-Shabab, embezzling $2 billion every year, enforcing policies that have killed millions of their citizens through neglect and malfeasance, and have perpetrated outright genocide, it becomes clear that we’ve gained nothing that could justify our shameful complicity in this holocaust. Our policy is a strategic failure and a moral stain that history will judge harshly.

David Steinman, New York

 The writer is an adviser to
Ethiopia’s democracy movement.