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Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina has been freed after more than a year in detention.
Merera becomes the first ‘political prisoner’ to be released since Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced on 3 January that the government will pardon several convicted politicians and those with cases in court in a bid to foster national cohesion.
Prison authorities told his family that he was released on Wednesday morning and allowed to go back home.
Merera, the leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress, has been in prison since December 2016 and was facing multiple charges, including association with terrorist groups. He denied the charges.
Influential media portal, Addis Standard tweeted a letter (issued in Amharic) which stated that the charges had been dropped ‘for the benefit of the public and the government’.
A letter announcing to discontinue the multiple criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors against Dr. #MereraGudina has been issued by the attorney general Getachew Ambaye. It stated charges were dropped “for the benefit of the public and the government.” cc: @Belay_Ma
Earlier this month, the government said it would pardon and drop the cases against more than 500 prisoners.
The announcement followed more than two years of anti-government protests that have rocked the country, with demonstrators calling for political and economic reforms and an end to state corruption and human rights abuses.
Ethiopia had always denied that there were any political prisoners in the country, as alleged by human rights and opposition groups.
Prominent Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina has been released from prison after more than a year in detention. more at aljazeera.com
Those being freed will first undergo two days of “rehabilitation training”, the government says.
At the beginning of January, Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn announced the government would close Maekelawi – a detention facility in the capital, Addis Ababa, allegedly used as a torture chamber.
Why was Mr Merera arrested?
Mr Merera was arrested in November 2016 at the airport in the capital, Addis Ababa, after he flew in from Brussels.
He had violated Ethiopia’s state of emergency by having contact with “terrorist” and “anti-peace” groups, state-linked media reported at the time.
That month, Mr Merera had criticised the state of emergency in an address to the European parliament.
The government imposed it in October 2016 to end an unprecedented wave of protests against its 25-year rule.
More than 11,000 people were arrested, mostly in the Oromia and Amhara regions, which were at the forefront of anti-government protests.
Many in the two regions complain of political and economic marginalisation.
Who else will be freed?
It is still not clear which other politicians will be released.
Ethiopia says it will not free anyone convicted of using force to overthrow the government, destroying infrastructure, murder or causing physical disability.
However, it says it will pardon some of those convicted under the anti-terrorism law.
Critics and human rights groups have accused the government in the past of labelling its opponents, and some journalists, as terrorists.
Rights group Amnesty International says the release of Mr Merera and other prisoners should not be the last.
“Hundreds of prisoners of conscience continue to languish in jail, accused or prosecuted for legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression or simply for standing up for human rights,” Amnesty’s Netsanet Belay said.
Five more high-profile Ethiopian prisoners:
Bekele Gerba, deputy chairman of the OFC – arrested together with Dejene Fita Geleta, secretary-general of OFC, and 20 others in connection with the 2015 Oromo protests that resulted in the death of hundreds of protesters.
Andargachew Tsege, leader of Ginbot 7 (designated a terrorist group by Ethiopia) – arrested in 2014 while on transit in Yemen and taken to Ethiopia, where he faces the death penalty after being convicted in absentia. A British national, human rights groups have been pushing for his release.
Andualem Aragie, vice-president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party – imprisoned since 2011, and now serving a life sentence on terrorism charges.
Eskinder Nega, journalist and blogger – imprisoned since 2011 after criticising the use of anti-terror laws to silence the press. He was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Woubshet Taye, journalist and editor – imprisoned since 2011 and sentenced the next year to 14 years in prison for terror-related offences.
A member of the European Parliament, Ana Gomes, has reacted to the the move by the Ethiopian government to drop charges against leading Oromo politician, Merera Gudina.
According to Gomes, who frequently comments on political ongoings in Ethiopia, Gudina “should never have been jailed.”
The university don who is leader of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been under detention for a little over a year. He was arrested in December 2016 after returning from an European trip during which time he addressed the E.U. parliament on the political situation back home.
Upon his arrest, the government said he was picked in connection with having flouted an October 2016 state of emergency imposed to quell spreading anti-government protests predominantly in the Oromia and Amhara regions.
He was eventually charged with terrorism but the offense was later downgraded to multiple criminal charges. The case like that of other political elements has been traveling at a slow pace with prosecutors seeking extensions and introducing fresh evidence.
The MEP also commented on Eskinder Nega, an Ethiopian journalist currently in jail. Eskinder Nega is a brave man, paying for freedom and justice for his country. He is still a political prisoner in Ethiopia. He must be liberated! She said in a tweet.
Nega and a Venezuelan writer and journalist Milagros Socorro have recently been honored by Oxam Novib (PEN Awards 2018). “Eskinder couldn’t receive the award because he is in jail for his journalism works,” blogger Befeqadu Hailu wrote.
Ethiopia has released a handful of prisoners – but nothing else has changed, Mail & Guardian Africa
Since November 2015 unprecedented protests have been taking place in Ethiopia: angry and frustrated at the widespread abuse of human rights and the centralization of power in the hands of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) tens of thousands have taken to the streets. The ruling party’s response to this democratic outpouring has been consistently violent; hundreds have been killed and beaten by security forces, tens of thousands arrested and imprisoned.
In an attempt to gag the people, a highly repressive State of Emergency was imposed in August 2016. It failed, the protests continued, the movement strengthened. The regime then tried to inflame ancient ethnic differences amongst various groups by staging attacks using plain-clothed security personnel. In the border region of Oromo and the Ogaden Tesfaye Robela of the Ethiopian Parliament claims that over 10,000 people have been killed. ESAT News (the sole Ethiopian independent broadcaster) quotes the findings of a parliamentary report into the ethnic clashes, which concluded that: “based on interviews with victims of the violence, squarely puts the blame on Somali Region Special Police, local police and militia for perpetrating the killings.” The Liyu Police is controlled by the Ethiopian military.
Despite these attempts to extinguish the movement for change, the people of Ethiopia are continuing to demand freedom, justice and democracy; this time they will not be silenced. The minority powers within the ruling EPRDF coalition – The Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) have been empowered by the popular uprising and there are signs that they are at last standing up to the majority TPLF members. Under pressure from the OPDO and ASDM and in a further attempt to distract attention from the protests and undermine the protestors’ claims, on 3rd January the government put out a convoluted statement relating to political prisoners.
The Prime-Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that the regime would release “some political prisoners”, prisoners that for the last 27 years they have denied even existed. ESAT News (which is based in Europe and America) reports he went on to announce that, “members of political parties and other individuals would be released to widen the political and democratic space” and that “the government would review the cases of certain individuals affiliated with political parties, including party leaders, [and] in some cases, charges would be dropped or people would be released or pardoned, depending on investigation results.”
His words, which have been widely reported in mainstream media, were not only disingenuous they were ambiguous and inconclusive. He failed to acknowledge that those imprisoned for expressing political dissent had been falsely incarcerated; repeatedly stating they were behind bars because they were guilty of breaking the law.
Whilst the release of any political prisoners at all would be a move in the right direction, in its present form the policy, if indeed it is a policy and not simply a public relations exercise aimed at international benefactors, is an insult to the thousands languishing in prison for no other reason than they disagree with the ruling TPLF. The statement is inadequate and needs clarification: who will be considered for release and when? Does it include opposition politicians charged with fictitious terrorist offences under the universally condemned Anti-Terrorist Proclamation of 2009? Will this long-overdue gesture mean that politicians who have been forced to live in exile for fear of arrest and imprisonment can safely return home?
These and other pressing questions need to be raised by opposition groups and human rights organizations, and indeed Ethiopia’s major donors — America, Britain and the European Parliament, all of which have allowed the TPLF to trample on human rights and the people for decades. Intense pressure must be applied on the government to articulate its intentions and, for once in their tyrannical reign, do the right thing and release all political prisoners, including journalists, bloggers, protestors and activists of all kinds.
It was also announced by the PM that Maekelewi prison in Addis Ababa, which has been used as a torture chamber by the TPLF for years, will be closed down, and rather bizarrely, turned into a modern museum, unless common sense prevails and it is demolished. This is a positive development but is again short on detail, there has been no mention of what will happen to the inmates. All political prisoners held there should be released unconditionally, and an independent international monitoring group established to oversee the release and or transfer of all other detainees.
The current of change
Despite being enshrined as rights within Ethiopia’s liberally worded constitution, for over two decades all forms of freedom of speech and political dissent have been virtually outlawed. Anyone who openly disagrees with or questions the ruling party is seen as a threat, and persecuted, arrested, imprisoned and, commonly, tortured. The Anti-Terrorism Act, together with The Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSP), both passed in 2009, are the primary tools of suppression within the regime’s Arsenal of Control.
Both laws have been widely criticized by Human Rights groups; responding to the CSP in 2012 Amnesty International said that, “The law has had a devastating impact on human rights work, both in terms of the practical obstacles it creates for human rights defenders, and in exacerbating the climate of fear in which they operate.” This is of course precisely what it was intended to do. Commenting on the Anti-Terrorist Proclamation when it was drafted, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that it provided “the Ethiopian government with a potent instrument to crack down on political dissent, including peaceful political demonstrations…It would permit [indeed has facilitated] long-term imprisonment and even the death penalty for ‘crimes’ that bear no resemblance, under any credible definition, to terrorism.”
For 27 years the TPLF group within the coalition have dominated all life in the country and like all such tyrannical regimes they have ruled through violence and fear. But we are living in new times; the days of tyrannical regimes is all but over, those that persist are sustained by the polluted energies of the past and are on their death bed. The people of Ethiopia sense that this is their time, that change is not only possible, but is coming.
The government’s half-baked move to release a few political leaders will not appease anyone, but should embolden many. It reveals a crack in the democratic facade presented by the regime, which must be split open under the force of sustained political activism, civil disobedience and public protest.
The minority members of the coalition — the OPDO and ANDM — now have an opportunity, indeed a responsibility to act boldly, to stand up and take a lead. As representatives of the two largest ethnic groups in the country they are in a position to do a number of things: demand The Anti-Terrorism Act, and The Charities and Societies Proclamation be immediately repealed, compile a comprehensive list of all political prisoners (working in cooperation with Amnesty International or The Ethiopia Human Rights Project), and vigorously press for their immediate release. Then, providing opposition politicians are released and political groups outside the country — including Ginbot 7 — are allowed to operate freely, work vigorously to campaign for fair and open elections (such a thing has never taken place in Ethiopia) to be held sometime in late 2019. This is a moment of significance in the country. There is an unstoppable force for justice and freedom sweeping across the world and Ethiopia is firmly within that current of change.
Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
On January 3, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made two major announcements: his government will release political prisoners and close down a notorious detention centre at the heart of Ethiopia’s capital,widely known as a torture chamber for dissidents and government opponents. Desalegn announced the decision as part of a wider package of reforms aimed at fostering national reconciliation and widening the democratic space.
Rights groups welcomed the announcement as “an important step toward ending long-standing political repression and human rights abuse in the country” while others saw the move as a significant concession to the relentless protests of the last two years by the Oromos and Amharas – the two largest ethnic groups in the country.
As local and international media began to scrutinise the rationale, implications and consequences of the announcement, most of the commentary focused on Ethiopia’s perceived admission that there are political prisoners in the country. US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce even issued a statement praising Ethiopia for “finally acknowledg[ing] that it holds political prisoners.”
Shortly after the announcement, however, the government distanced itself from this interpretation by emphasising the fact that the prime minister never used the term “political prisoners” in his initial statement.
Indeed, Desalegn only referred to “political leaders and individuals whose crimes have resulted in court convictions or have resulted in their ongoing prosecution under the country’s law,” in his statement and never gave a clear indication as to which prisoners will be eligible for release.
Ethiopia’s political prisoners
The Ethiopian government has always denied consistent and widespread reports by human rights groups that it holds political prisoners. Like his predecessor, the late Meles Zenawi, who adamantly denied politicising the legal system to stifle dissent and opposition, Desalegn has also repeatedly dismissed the suggestion that Ethiopia is holding political prisoners.
Shortly after he took power in 2012, Al Jazeera’s Jane Dutton asked Desalegn if he intends to “confront” the legacy of political repression he inherited from Zenawi and take steps to release the “thousands of [political opposition] languishing in jail”. Desalegn said, “There are no political opposition that are languishing in prison.”
In May 2015, shortly before the country’s national election in which the ruling party won 100 percent of seats both at the national and regional levels, Al Jazeera’s Martine Dennisasked Desalegnabout the imprisonment of “record number of journalists” to which he replied “these are not journalists …The moment you join a terrorist group, you become a blogger”.
There can be no justification to hold some political prisoners or journalists, bloggers and scholars while releasing high-profile leaders of political parties.
No sitting government would publicly admit to holding political prisoners, and – even after last week’s announcement – Ethiopian government still appears to be refusing to do so. But evidence suggests that very few governments in the world today hold more political prisoners than Ethiopia.
Since assuming power, the government frequently used the legal system to lock up members and leaders of the opposition. Indeed, the courts served as potent instruments of repression and power consolidation second only to the military-security apparatus.
Since the early days of the regime and particularly following the adoption of the country’s notorious anti-terrorism law in 2009, there has been a frightening politicisation of the legal system and the administration of justice. With or without disguise, Ethiopia used its courts and other institutions of justice to harass, intimidate, and eliminate political opposition from the political space.
In the early days of the regime, several members of opposition parties have been held in detention centres throughout the country without charges, particularly in the Oromia regional state. Actual or suspected members of the Oromo Liberation Front have been arrested in mass and detained without charges. More than two decades later, the whereabouts of several individuals including prominent Oromo politicians such as Nadhi Gamada and Bekele Dawano are still unknown.
Following the contested election in 2005, the government rounded up leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) who made significant electoral gains that denied the incumbent its majority. Since the government adopted its notorious anti-terror legislation, more than 1,000 people including opposition political leaders, journalists, bloggers, activists, scholars, and religious figures, have been charged with terror-related crimes. It is estimated that tens of thousands of individuals are currently in jail because of the government’s intolerance to dissenting views.
What makes these individuals political prisoners is not their innocence or guilt but the fact that their arrest, prosecution, and conviction were purely motivated by political ambitions as opposed to normative concerns with the rule of law and justice. In other words, the legal process is set in motion not for the determination of guilt and innocence but for political expedience, to pursue the dual goal of delegitimising political foes and physically eliminating them from the political space.
While the Ethiopian government still appears to be refusing the mere existence of thousands of political prisoners in the country, last week’s announcement, however incomplete, is a step in the right direction.
The closure of the infamous torture chamber commonly known as Maikalawi is another welcome development that signals a departure from the repressive practices of the past. But it needs to be noted that the prime minister did not admit that his government used the prison as a torture centre. He instead noted that the prison will be closed and turned in to a museum as result of its role in past atrocities.
Yet there are many credible reports (pdf) showing that opposition politicians, protest organisers, journalists, suspected dissenters and other voices critical of the government are taken to Maikalawi and subjected to torture or other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment under the rule of the current regime.
The real reasons behind the announcement
The decision to release political prisoners and close down the detention centre is a compromise between the four political parties that make up the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. But understanding the political considerations behind the announcement requires a proper understanding and appreciation of the two central issues: the constitutive and operational logic of the EPRDF and the nature of the crisis destabilising the country for well over two years.
EPRDF is the brainchild of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a Marxist-Leninist movement that fought to liberate the Tigray ethnic group, which comprise six percent of Ethiopia’s more than 100 million people. In the final days of Ethiopia’s civil war, the TPLF orchestrated the creation of three satellite parties – Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM) – that ostensibly represent their respective ethnic groups.
The TPLF assembled these puppet organisations to consolidate its grip on power. They helped broaden TPLF’s appeal beyond Tigray and bolster its political legitimacy while also enabling it to smother real opposition from autonomous parties such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the All Amhara Peoples Organization (AAPO).
For 26 years, TPLF used this vassal configuration to dominate all aspects of the country’s political life, while mercilessly muzzling dissenting voices both from within and outside the party. The discontent and suffering that have been simmering underground for decades exploded into the open in November of 2015 when Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the country, took to the streets in protest.
In July of 2016, the Amharas, the second-largest ethnic group in the country, joined the protest, creating a nationwide protest movement that reconfigured the political landscape and brought the government to its knees.
The protests not only exposed the structural anomalies at the heart of Ethiopia’s political system, but also brought about a significant reconfiguration of the asymmetric relationship between the four parties that make up the EPRDF. TPLF lost its absolute power within the coalition as its junior partners began to reinvent themselves and side with their respective people.
This is particularly evident in Oromia, where the new leadership of the region refused to play second fiddle. OPDO began to flex its muscles, knowing full well that as the party with the most seats in parliament, and the largest population, it can cripple the government. In a major break, the new leaders of OPDO began protesting the disproportionate and indiscriminate policing, harassment, imprisonment, and torture of Oromos by security forces.
In a joint press statement of the four parties that make up the ruling coalition, Lemma Megersa, the leader of OPDO and the president of Oromia regional state, characterised Maikalawi as “a site in which our citizens have been castrated for years“. Megersa, a transformational figure with a distinct ability to appeal to people across competing nationalist narratives and fault lines that divide Ethiopian politics, went on to argue that “while it is one thing to close it down, it is important that we look at the justice sector more broadly, from investigation to prosecution, trial, and sentencing.”
While the proposed package of reforms are in the interests of the OPDO and ANDM, it is not clear to what extent the other parties, particularly the TPLF, which still controls the intelligence, the military and the federal police, is genuinely committed to enforcing measures, which, if fully implemented, would ultimately reduce its influence within the coalition, the government and the state more generally.
TPLF’s hegemonic status depends on fostering hostility and division, not national reconciliation and democratisation. Indeed, just three days after the announcement, the Federal Police announced a “deep investigation” into “Qeerroo Oromo” (Oromo youth) movement, a decision which collides head-on with the party’s stated goals of national reconciliation and democratisation.
The government acknowledges the unprecedented nature of the crisis facing the country and rightly identifies national reconciliation and widening the democratic space as two of the most significant policy objectives necessary to save the country from plunging into the abyss. However, the government cannot pursue these goals while at the same time proposing measures in conflict with these imperatives.
The government must come to terms with the transformations of the last two years and open up the political process for all voices that seek a hearing and bodies that seek visibility. This means adopting the broadest possible definition of political prisoners and releasing all those whose arrest, detention, prosecution, and conviction have been driven by political considerations.
There can be no justification to hold some political prisoners or journalists, bloggers and scholars while releasing high-profile leaders of political parties. If there is any lesson the government can learn from the protests of the last two years, it is that more repression will only escalate the crisis, not contain or avert it.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
#Ethiopia – Addisu Arega, Oromia state communic'n head, says the Oromo people should ask to postpone the 'public hearing' called by parliament for today to discuss the thorny constitutional issue of #Oromia's special interest over #AddisAbeba. The timing is stressful, he said. pic.twitter.com/zATmoEboVA
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Defence Front (EPRDF), the country’s ruling coalition is facing an internal crisis which has led to Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to two main blocs – the Amhara and Oromia, boycotting parliament, the BBC Africa Live page has reported.
The coalition in a statement released on Wednesday admitted that it was facing gradual ‘mistrust and suspicion’ among the four main blocs. OPDO, ANDM, TPLFand SEPDM.
Twenty four later, members of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) boycotted parliament calling for Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to give an explanation on escalation in recent deadly violence.
The statement according to local media sources went on to assert that a weakness of the executive arm was responsible for the current state of affairs. It said the ‘weakness of the executive’ had contributed significantly to the deteriorating security across the country.
The other two EPRDF parties are the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). The coalition holds 100% seats of the parliament.
Ethiopia speaker of parliament quits over govt handling of recent clashes http://bit.ly/2wESpfi
Ethiopia speaker of parliament quits over govt handling of recent clashes
The government deployed Federal security forces to bring the deadly situation under control, a decision that is said to have led to Gemeda’s …
The security situation in Ethiopia is a mix of anti-government sentiment on one hand, ethnic clashes affecting two major regions and a deadly turn of events across some universities in the Horn of Africa country.
Most universities affected by serial deaths of students have closed down due to a lack of conducive atmosphere for studies. The government has said that the deaths were politically inclined and that it was doing everything possible to remedy the situation.
Then last week, sixteen people were reportedly shot in the town of Chelenko in the Oromia region. The regional communications chief blamed it on federal security forces who opened fire on protesters unhappy about the killing of a resident. The government says it has opened a probe.
Then there is the border tensions between the Oromia and Ethiopia-Somali regional states. An escalation in the age-long tension late last week led to the deaths of 61 people on both sides. Scores were also reported to have been injured, houses burnt and hundreds internally displaced.
An influential news portal in Ethiopia, Addis Standard, has shared photos of students in Oromia region’s town of Nekemte, staging what has been described as “a mass mourning” and silent protest over recent civilian deaths.
The nature of the protest which took place late last week, was of the students marching with their hands up, photos showed then also kneeling with their heads bowed and at a point sitting on streets of the town of Nekemte located in western Ethiopia.
Addis Standard said that the protest was directly linked to the deaths in Chelenko located in the country’s East Hararghe zone. Federal security forces are said to have opened fire on protesters leading to about 16 deaths.
Oromia region communications Bureau chief, Addisu Arega Kitessa, said members of the the national defense force were responsible for the deaths, adding that a probe was underway to ascertain how peaceful civilians had been killed.
Adissu Arega said people in the region’s east Hararghe zone had hit the streets to protest the killing of an individual leading to the latest clashes that have claimed more lives.
The Oromia region was the heartbeat of anti-government protests that hit Ethiopia in late 2015 through the better part of 2016. The protests spread to the Amhara region leading to deaths after a violent security crackdown.
The widening protests led to the imposition of a six-month state of emergency in October 2016. It, however, lasted 10 months after the parliament voted an extension after the initial expiration in April this year. It was eventually lifted in August 2017.
#OromoProtests (students and the public) in Haawaa Galan, Malkaa Roobii town, Oromia, 18 December 2017. Aanaa Haawwaa Galaan magaalaa gabaa roobii hiriira guyyaa har’aa barattootaaf uummata.
At least 15 people were killed on December 11, 2017, when members of the Ethiopian Defense Force fired on peaceful protesters. The demonstration was prompted by the killing of an individual by members of security forces of Ethiopia’s Somali Region, in the latest chapter of a longstanding border dispute between Ethiopia’s two largest states — Oromia and Ethiopian Somali in Eastern Ethiopia.
According to reports from local authorities, one person died after being transferred to the hospital following the attack, and more than 12 were injured in the violence which began in Chelenko, a district town in eastern Oromia:
As journalists managed to get more details, this news from the BBC Afaan Oromoo says five people of the same family were among the #Chelenko victims in east Hararghe of #Oromia region who were shot dead by members of the national defense forces on Monday http://www.bbc.com/afaanoromoo/42348773 …
Reports on social media said that members of the Ethiopian Defense Force fired live bullets on peaceful demonstrators. The Ethiopian government has released a belated statement on the incident, but in an unusual move, the party governing Oromia — the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO), a member of Ethiopia’s governing coalition, the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) — released a strong statement accusing members of the Ethiopian Defense Force of violating the Ethiopian Constitution and vowing to investigate the killing of peaceful protesters:
In a single presser, Oromia regional communication bureau slams PM Hailemariam and defense force for causing Chelenqo massacre. The bureau has called the Oromia region’s security forces to prepare for any kind of sacrifice. #Ethiopia#OromoProtests
Some suggested that the statement is merely a symbolic initiative. Others considered it as a signal of the power struggle raging within the multi-ethnic governing coalition, the EPRDF, which comprises four ethnic-based parties: the Tigrayan People Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM):
TPLF’s sham coalition EPRDF in disarray—OPDO walked out of the CC meeting, ANDM also followed today. This TPLF machination has certainly run out of steam. TPLF must go! The country needs orderly transition before it’s too late. #OromoProtests#OromoRevolution#Ethiopia
The power struggle involving the four EPRDF parties has been simmering since last summer. The row between the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), was exposed when Abdula, the speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament and a prominent member of the OPDO, resigned from his position in October:
The TPLF apartheid like regime propagandist redefines the English definition of a ‘minority’. To misquote the famous saying, “two things are infinite: the universe and TPLF’S stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Power is heavily concentrated among members of the TPLF. However, there is some fear that if the OPDO continues down this road, it will be looking to defend itself using weapons, which could plunge Ethiopia into a civil war that will make the current conflict seem like just fisticuffs:
#Ethiopia‘s TPLF leadership should seriously consider requesting US Government mediation to organize a conference among all parties that will produce new democratic dispensation – before law and order collapse completely.
Despite the fact that the Oromo and Somali people who live along the border of Oromia and the Ethiopian Somali regions share close familial, religious and cultural ties, tensions are high along most of the disputed 1,000 km border. A brutal crackdown on the Oromo community living in Ethiopia’s Somali region has triggered a massive humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Ethiopia. By now, roughly 50,000 Oromos have fled into Ethiopia’s historical town, Harar, since last August.
Protests raged elsewhere in Ethiopia as well. A clash between followers of two football clubs from Ethiopia’s northern states, Amhara and Tigray, led to the death of a football fan from Tigray, which in turn caused episodes of violence in three universities located in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regional states. Last week saw one particularly violent night at Adigrat University (situated in the Tigray region), where a student from the Amhara region was killed. Gruesome images of the victim subsequently went viral on social media:
Political uncertainty in #Ethiopia amid fresh Amhara, #OromoProtests
Mohammed Ademo@OPride
Over a dozen civilians, including a 10-year-old boy, and a father and son, killed by Ethiopian Defense Forces and many wounded across Oromia and in parts of Amhara state. Renewed protests reportedly…
In what appears to be reprisals, two students from Tigray were reportedly killed at Welega University, located in the Oromia region. The number of incidents and casualties, as well as the number of people involved and the ethnic tone of the conflict over the past few days, has raised the prospect of even greater violence in Ethiopia, according to analysts. The Ethiopian government grudgingly characterizes the recent unrest as ethnic conflict, but also points the finger at diaspora-based activists and social media. However, opposition groups argue that Tigrayan politicians instigatedthe violence as a tool to maintain the status quo:
He also said that the national security council will be investigating the killings and “appropriate measures will be taken.” The public should also not reflect on such incidents emotionally. He added that legal measures will be taken based on the findings of the security council pic.twitter.com/TuYYYJ3xvJ
Commenting on the recent clashes inside univ. campuses he said they were different from previous demands of univ students that were attended to by the gov. The recent clashes have taken a clear ethnic dynamics & have resulted in the killings of students, Dr. Negeri further said. pic.twitter.com/GCtAeQiNJs
On December 13, mobile internet services and social media services were cut off in most parts of the country in an attempt to avert the deepening crisis.
The Ethiopian government has allegedly carried out a spyware campaign targeting dissidents living abroad, including in the U.K., a report has claimed.
Canada-based research group Citizen Lab alleged that Ethiopian dissidents were targeted with emails containing “sophisticated commercial spyware posing as Adobe Flash updates and PDF plugins”.
The report further claimed that Ethiopia used a commercial spyware product manufactured by Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd to spy on dissidents.
Those targeted included dissidents from the Oromo community, one of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups, the U.S.-based media outlet Oromo Media Network as well as one of the researchers conducting the investigation.
Etana Habte, an Oromo activist and PhD candidate and Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS, University of London, was also targeted.
He believes the government allegedly targeted him to identify people behind protests in Ethiopia’s Oromia state, which was rocked by months-long demonstrations, some of which turned deadly.
“By spying over us they mainly want to identify a wide circle of people who communicate with us on the movement at home,” he told Newsweek.
“They wanted to break into our privacy, collect information from our communications with one another, because they believe the leadership of Oromo Protests communicates with us.
“The solution for Ethiopia is not in spying over political dissenters like us, it is in listening to the people and meeting their demands” Habte said.
The Ethiopian embassy in London has not responded to a request for a comment on the allegations.
Ethiopian Communications Minister Negeri Lencho declined to comment on the report, according to Reuters.
Researchers said their findings raised questions on Elbit’s human rights due diligence practices.
The company said in a statement: “The intelligence and defenses agencies that purchase these products are obligated to use them in accordance with the applicable law.” It added that it only sell products to defense, intelligence, national security and law enforcement agencies approved by the Israeli government.
Deadly protests explained
People mourn the death of Dinka Chala who was shot by Ethiopian forces in the Yubdo Village, about 100 kilometers from Addis Ababa in the Oromia region, on December 17, 2015. Dinka Chala was accused of protesting, but his family says he was not involved. Oromia was rocked by months-long protests, some of which turned deadly.ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Demonstrations started in Oromia in late 2015, where people initially protested over government plans to expand the territory of the capital Addis Ababa, with farmers raising concerns that increasing the size of the city would lead to forced evictions and loss of farming land.
The government later scrapped the plans, but protests continued. Oromo people argued for a greater inclusion in the political process and the release of political prisoners.
The protests, labelled as the biggest anti-government unrest the country has witnessed in recent history, later spread to Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) region.
The unrest continued throughout 2016.
Last October, the government implemented a six-month-long state of emergency, which was further extended by four months in March, to tackle the unrest.
Critics of the state of emergency claimed the government was trying to quell protests by, among other things, restricting freedoms and banning certain media outlets, including the Oromia Media Network. The government denied the allegations.
Rights groups have criticizied Ethiopia for the way it handled protests, accusing the military and the police of using excessive force to quell demonstrations.
The response to the unrest resulted in the death of at least 669 people, a figure the government confirmed in a report released in April.
While the country’s Human Rights Commission recommended prosecution of some police officers, it maintained that the overall response by security forces was adequate.
Protesters in Aagaa Waayyuu district, Haya Diimaa town in Guji zone denounced Ali Mudin's gold exploitation and plundering in the area. Down Down Wayyane was also their running slogan. #Oromiapic.twitter.com/scyVUojCn6
November 9 is the day we remember Oromo student martyrs for just cause of the Oromo people. In 2005 OLF made a call for revolt against the dictatorial government of Ethiopia and on 9th November 2005, the Oromo students began the revolt in response to the call. Since that day the struggle continued to this date.
In April 2011 Qerroo stretched the struggle for freedom of the Oromo people into every part of Oromia. The struggle which is ongoing with full support of youth and students of Oromia embraces the causes of the people of Oromia.
The well coordinated revolt of last year against the dictator Wayyane government on the issue of land ownership is still continuing in a more aggressive way. In this ongoing struggle many precious lives have been sacrified. Those fallen heroes let their blood to flow like a flood, but left their bones to be broken into pieces just for the freedom of the Oromo people. So every year the history of Oromo people will remember it.
November 9, is the memorial day of the struggle against subjugation and it will be held in different parts of Oromia and all over the world by Oromo communities and the friends of Oromos. On this special day, the Oromo youth who sacrified their life for their goal, their heroic hard word for freedom, and their painful journey they had been through will be remembered and honored. By doing so we show our respect and love that we have for our heroes and it is also our responsibility as a citizen of Oromia.
On this day we also remember the Oromo political prisoners who are in torture and we also make a way of struggle that can bring the freedom of our political prisoners and how we can apply it in to practice.
If Oromos united and revolt with one voice, we can over throw the dictator wayyane government from its root with in just one night. And then we can have our free independent state of Oromia. All we need is a focused struggle with unity and aggressive revolt with any weapon we have. The last year revolt is our positive sign to understand how impactfull our united struggle was.
So that by using our experiences and our achievements of revolt against subjugation and the struggle of Oromo liberation , we can launch stronger and more intensive struggle that will remove the dictator TPLF government painfully from our land Oromia.
On this day ,the Oromo youths, the freedom fighters, the heroes and other Oromos who have been sacrified on the struggle of Oromo people will be remembered!
We will fulfil the dream of our heroes which they sacrified for!
November 9 every year, we will remember the day of Revolt Against Subjugation of Oromo Students.
Thousands of internally displaced Oromos from the recent conflict in eastern Ethiopia remain in temporary shelters
Addis Abeba, September 27/2017 – Ethiopia is fast descending into turmoil as the result of incessant state-sanctioned violence and repression. Popular demands that precipitated a three year-long protest, which started in Oromia in 2014and then spread to the Amhara and other regions, remain unaddressed. The discontent in the two most populous regional states, Oromia and Amhara, home to two-thirds of the country’s population of over 100 million, is deep and widespread. The resulting anxiety, expressed by serious Ethiopia watchers, is confirmed by the country’s leader, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who once warned that the continued protests could push Ethiopia into a situation similar to what has prevailed in neighboring Somalia for the last 26 years: state collapse.
The popular protests signaled a regime in crisis. After ruling for a quarter century, the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), began to exhibit signs of decomposition. Nowhere is this well archived than the reporting by this magazine over the last six years. The economy, once touted as the envy of the world, started experiencing a downward spiral. Tensions emerged at the highest echelons of the security apparatus with the civilian and military intelligence at loggerheads over the direction of the regime’s response to the protests. Beginning in December 2016, two months into the state of emergency that was declared to suppress the protests, the situation got further complicated with rising tensions between regional states – first between the Amhara and Tigray regions and currently between the Oromia and Somali regional states.
Escalating Tensions
For years, Oromo residents near the regional frontiers have complained of an aggressive attempt by the Somali Regional State to forcefully dispossess their land. Until recently their grievances fell on deaf ears. The conflicts escalated in February and March 2017 as incursions and raids conducted by the Somali Special Police (the Liyu Police), also known as the Liyu Hayil, and militia intensified along the border between the two regional states stretching from Chinaksan in the East (near the border with Somaliland) and Moyale (near the border with Kenya).
Cross-border raids and fighting increased in frequency and intensity in early August and tensions boiled over in mid-September in Oromia’s East Hararghe Zone, where at least 60 people were killed, according to locals. In addition to its assault on Oromo civilians in Oromia, members and sympathizers of the Liyu Police are currently attacking and expelling Oromo residents and merchants from the Somali region. As a result, hundreds of Oromos have been killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes in the Somali region. Authorities in the Oromia region have begun sounding alarm about an all-out war of aggression by the notorious Somali Special Police.
In a more ominous development, officials from the two states are engaged in an unprecedented war of words, particularly on social media. Their tangling is not limited to words. The security organs of the two states have been battling each other over the territories along the common border.
All of this is happening under the watchful eyes of the federal army and security forces, which are now ordered by the Prime Minister to man the common border between the two states and all major roads in Oromia. Oromo residents in the affected areas question the neutrality of the federal army, particularly the impartiality of Tigrean kingmakers in the ruling EPRDF coalition, and not a few accuse them of abetting and enabling the still-ongoing Liyu Police incursions into undisputed Oromo territories.
Critics contend that Tigrayan generals and intelligence officials, the current de facto rulers of Ethiopia, have two overarching objectives for empowering and enabling the Liyu Police and leaders of the Somali region: to cripple the three-year-long Oromo resistance against the EPRDF government, and to undermine, weaken and control the new leaders of the Oromia regional state, who have recently shown some signs of autonomy from the overbearing center. The development risks provoking a total breakdown of law and order on the peripheries, which can gradually creep toward the center—leading to state collapse.
Many observers in and outside Ethiopia, including current and former Ethiopian officials, have offered a bleak prognosis about the country’s fate. For example, last year the former Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Defense Forces, General Tsadikan G/Tensae, warned that the mass protests in Oromia and Amhara regions in particular and EPRDF’s failure to contain them augurs the onset of a full-fledged political crisis. His colleague, Gen. Abebe Teklehaimanot also expressed similar concern about the country’s prospects for stability unless significant reforms are implemented.
Similarly, a string of international media headlines and expert analyses warn of a growing political crisis. Articles appearing in Open Democracy, Foreign Policy Journal, Foreign Affairs, and the Guardian, just to mention a few, have joined the chorus about an impending collapse. Perhaps acting out of this fear, Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in October 2016, which lasted for nearly ten months. The declaration was a stunning reversal for Ethiopia’s rulers, who had some success portraying Ethiopia as an island of stability in a troubled region and propagating a myth of “Ethiopia rising.”
Several trend indices point to Ethiopia’s growing state fragility. According to the Fragile State Index, for example, Ethiopia’s fragility has been rising steadily since 2006. The Index of State Weakness designates Ethiopia as one of the world’s critically weak states. Noting the complete lack of political rights, Freedom House has consistently rated Ethiopia as Not Free — with a score of only 14 out of 100 in its 2017 report.
And all states that collapsed had one thing in common: a violent dictatorship locked into a win-lose conflict with a populace determined to untangle the incumbent regime from the reins of power. The breakdown of state-society relations marks a milestone in a trajectory towards state collapse. Other credible risk assessments underscore this same bleak picture for Ethiopia.
Recently, Christopher Clapham, a long-time Africa watcher, noted that Ethiopia is both the anchor and the main source of the perennial instability that has haunted the Horn of Africa region for decades. Should the Ethiopian state implode, as all indicators point toward, the whole region, where a quarter of a billion souls eke out an already precarious existence, would go down with it.
This is not an implausible scenario. Ethiopia is situated in a region harboring two already collapsed states (Somalia and South Sudan), two failing states (Sudan and Eritrea), and yet another fragile state (Kenya). It also abuts the world’s most volatile region, the Middle East. All of these factors about Ethiopia’s increasing fragility ought to have set off alarm bells in Washington, Brussels, London, and Addis Ababa itself, seat of the African Union.
To be sure, the EPRDF is not the sole culprit for all of Ethiopia’s ills. There are factors beyond its control that contribute to the ongoing political convulsion. One such factor is soaring population growth. Ethiopia’s population has doubled since EPRDF came to power, putting unbearable pressure on the environment and natural resources in a country where backward agriculture is the dominant means of agricultural production. In addition, there are a number of quite contentious issues hampering any consensus among the political class.
Divided elites
Ethiopia’s political class is beholden to deeply divergent diagnoses and remedies to tackle the mounting problems. It doesn’t agree even on such uncomplicated issues as the bases of the country’s statehood. EPRDF is convinced that Ethiopia is a nation of nations. Structuring Ethiopia as a federation of nations, nationalities, and peoples stemmed from this conviction.
The elites of the Oromo and other marginalized groups hold the view that the structuring of Ethiopia as a multinational federation was a positive step but dismiss EPRDF’s federation as bogus. Indeed federalism without democracy is an oxymoron. Their fear is that an undemocratic federation of nations could produce a repeat of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia’s disastrous fates. Members of these groups insist that only democratizing the present federation can avert such eventuality.
Another vocal group, hailing predominantly from the previous ruling elite, rejects the emphasis on Ethiopia’s multinational nature and aspires to forge the country’s numerous ethnic groups into a single Amharic-speaking nation—resurrecting the policies and memories of successive feudal and military regimes that stoked decades of armed conflicts and brought the state at different junctures to the brink of collapse. Since neither of these groups is willing to heed the fears, pains, and perspective of the other, a debate of the deaf has been going on among them for the last three decades.
These contrasting positions come with the dangerous implication of pulling the country in opposite directions. The concern that this configuration of political stands could culminate in ripping Ethiopia apart should not be underestimated.
A successful mobilization by multiple rival groups against a resented centralized power is a harbinger of regime collapse. All indications are that mobilization by both the Oromo and the Amhara, even within the EPRDF, is gathering momentum, thereby exacerbating the regime’s incoherence. To date the protests among the Oromo and Amhara have largely remained peaceful. However, increased repression has made the breakout of armed insurrection all but certain. Most disconcertingly, regime collapse could easily morph into state collapse in Ethiopia as the regime has intricately tied its fate to the survival of the state.
Precipitating factors
The second most threatening factor is the refusal of the ruling party to institute the reforms demanded by the protesters. When the ruled refuse to live under the old order and rulers are unable to carry on in the old way, breaking out of the impasse could be achieved only by instituting significant reforms. And this is just what the EPRDF has been utterly unable and unwilling to do. Without reforms, the specter of a revolutionary breakdown looms around the horizon.
The excessive securitization of the Ethiopian state to stifle growing dissent is also having two unintended consequences. First, it is making rising dissent inevitable. Second, ballooning costs of securing the regime could easily bankrupt it. The recent tax-hike, which resulted in one of the first successful attempts at a general strike in decades, presages what is to come.
The main obstacle to instituting any kind of reform is the lack of democracy and honest conversation within the ruling party. The EPRDF is composed of four entities: (1) The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), (2) The Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), (3) The Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and (4) The Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Of all of these, the TPLF, speaking for the least populous constituency, plays a dominant role, thereby standing the EPRDF pyramid on its apex. The inherent instability of this setup accounts for much of Ethiopia’s fragility than anything else.
Growing fragility
States become susceptible to failure when two factors come into play. The first occurs when rulers lose their mandate to govern and their administration of the affairs of the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes and hearts of a growing sector of the concerned populace. The three-year-long protests in Oromia and Amhara regions bespeak the loss of mandate to govern. The second happens when the rulers’ capacity to keep the governed in tow is exhausted. The failure of the state of emergency to quell the popular appetite for resistance against the system attests to this fact. And there seems to be a dialectical relationship between soliciting legitimacy and seeking domination. As coercion is deployed more frequently, the consent of the ruled plummets, and rulers would be forced to increasingly resort to naked coercion, which further diminishes their legitimacy and necessitates the application of even more coercion. For the EPRDF regime, more repression is not yielding the anticipated results.
This vicious cycle has characterized EPRDF’s rule ever since it came to power in 1991. It started with a questionable legitimacy, which steadily diminished with each passing decade. In order to make up for this falling legitimacy, EPRDF bolstered and fine-tuned its instruments of coercion and control. The crude application of these tools in the absence of an astute political leadership creates more security problems than it solves. To make matters worse, since the death in 2012 of its strongman, Meles Zenawi, the EPRDF has shown signs of atrophy, discord, and unraveling. In place of the centralized rule that characterized earlier decades, multiple sources of authority are currently vying for influence—at times violently.
Political fragmentation
Within the EPRDF, inter and intra-party relations have broken down. Both ANDM, ruling the Amhara region, and OPDO, ruling Oromia, are pressing for more autonomy from the TPLF-dominated center in a bid to respond to the growing popular chorus to end Tigrean domination of the country’s politics, economy, and security apparatus. The gap between the official rhetoric of the devolution of power and the reality of continuing centralization has undermined the resilience normally accruing to a federal arrangement. At the moment, the system is more brittle than it has ever been. The failure to stop armed incursions into Oromia from the Somali region, which has led to the killing of innocent people and mass expulsion of Oromo civilians from the Somali region, is a worrisome sign of the breakdown of central control.
The Oromo protests happened despite the long running process of extending party control over the populace, which culminated in 1 out of 5 Ethiopians (i.e., 20 million) being harnessed into an elaborate state surveillance system. This level of regime penetration of society is unprecedented in Ethiopian history and quite likely in the entire African Continent. This panoptic surveillance structure, however, proved totally useless in averting mass uprising particularly by the Oromo and the Amhara.
That is why authorities resorted to a state of emergency as part of the regime’s increasing reliance on force and coercion to stay in power. Yet even after martial law was imposed, the rebellious societies remain restive and will likely rise up again. It had to be lifted because it had become ineffectual and a burden. This begs a very important question: What would EPRDF do that it has not done to date in order to contain the imminent mass upsurge?
The incumbent regime shows no indication of heeding and addressing the protesters’ grievances. The regime’s effort to placate the people, including through declarations of war on rampant corruption, abuse of power, problems of good governance, cabinet reshuffles, and promises of “deep renewal” have come to naught. And the kneejerk reaction of violently putting down resistance protests has not worked so far and is unlikely to work in the future. This is what makes state failure in Ethiopia a real possibility.
In addition to the mounting political crisis, Ethiopia also faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Drought and famine are back in the headlines: See, for example, the Telegraph, BBC, DW, Washington Post, Euro News, Save the Children, Oxfam, World Food Program, CBC, and IRC, just to mention a few. According to the United Nations, 20 million are suffering from acute food shortages, and in many places the situation has already developed into a famine. This time the crisis is not affecting the traditional famine-prone regions of northern Ethiopia, but the Eastern and Southern regions.
Call for action
The escalating conflict along the vast border between the Somali and the Oromia states indicates that Ethiopia’s political crisis is showing no sign of abating. Instead, it is deepening. It is almost universally believed among the Oromo that the conflict is not between the two brotherly populations, the Oromo and the Somali. Rather, it is a proxy war waged by the Tigreyan military brass, which practically rules the country, to intimidate the Oromo as well as the new OPDO leaders, who are increasingly asserting their autonomy from the TPLF under whose hegemony they grudgingly toiled the last 26 years. The Liyu Police happened to be another handy element in its toolbox of the strategy of “divide and conquer.”
The conflict between two large states of the Ethiopian federation has worsened the growing fear of state fragility. Ethiopia’s implosion would have catastrophic reverberations not only in the strife-ridden Horn of Africa but for the entire continent and beyond. The combined effect of these crises is bound to affect neighboring states and could reach as far as Europe, where the flood of refugees from the Middle East has already led to the rise of nativist and populist far-right-extremists. Until now, the EPRDF regime has been given the benefit of the doubt by its Western and other backers despite its gross abuse of power and persistent violations of human rights.
What would further destabilization of the Horn, home to a quarter of a billion, do? Africa and the rest of the world cannot afford Ethiopia, with a population of over 100 million, disintegrating into chaos. The EPRDF regime has laid the groundwork for this eventuality by design or default, and its continued hold on state power would only worsen the crisis. This should not be lost on anyone harboring the least goodwill toward Ethiopia, the troubled Horn region and its suffering population.
The international community has a stark choice: either it wakes up to the dangers and saves Ethiopia from collapse, or faces the consequences. Only an orderly transition toward a legitimate and accountable political order could avert the imminent danger of collapse. It is the best way out for the regime. And the international community needs to step up efforts to come face to face with the ensuing reality. The alternative is being swept away by a tidal wave of popular anger that has been building up for 26 years under a brutal, corrupt, and unyielding dictatorship.
The international community can no longer hope that the regime can muddle through these crises as it has always done. This time around the gravity of Ethiopia’s collapse is qualitatively different from previous situations, not to mention deadly serious. The writing is on the wall: state collapse is on the horizon. AS
The Ethiopian Government Proxy war Retaliation against Oromo: Boarder Attacks
BY Najat Hamza
The Ethiopian Government Proxy war Retaliation against Oromo: Boarder Attacks
It is very hard to shed light on a human suffering when the world is bombarded with one tragic human history after another. The world has become a show case for various forms of violence, famine, indifference, greed and pure hate. It seems like mother nature has joined the destructive trends by unleashing the worst weather disasters known to us in recent years with more devastation to come. However, all of us come from a home, a place, people we call our own, my own place is Oromia. Oromia is a country fighting to survive. My people, Oromo have been fighting to restore their dignity and self-worth for generations under various Ethiopian regimes. The last 25 years under the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front is no different. We have fought to advance our right to life, to equality, to justice and to democracy on our own land and the fight still rages on.
In recent years Oromo people have resisted the dictatorial regime of Ethiopian in every way they can and still up in arms with it. People have taken it to the streets, they have boycotted government programs, markets, public meetings and tax hikes to show their dissent. The Ethiopian government answered their legitimate demands with more death, torture, disappearances, incarcerations, displacements and denial of necessities. These measures are taken against the Oromo people as an attempt to salience us once and for all. It is hard to care about one issue, in the world filled with nothing but chaos, nonetheless it is about unnecessary human suffering.
The complacency of Western government in this validated violence against the Oromo people and other ethnic groups all over Ethiopia will not be overlooked. The western enablers of a rotten regime unleashing unimaginable suffering on its own people is perplexing to say the least. It raises questions like, what is the geopolitical gain of the West for the complacency of this violence against innocent people? What does each Western country gain for turning a blind eye in this ethnic cleansing? How could one advocate for human rights and democracy and enable such a regime all at the same time? And many more questions that are even more harder to understand.
The boarder attack wages all over Oromia particularly East and West Hararge region is the result of retaliation against people who simply asked for their right to be respected. They are paying with their lives, limbs, incarcerations, rapes, displacements and hunger simply because they dared to ask for their God given rights. How can any of us show indifference to our brothers and sisters along the Oromian boarders while bullets rain on them daily? What would take for Oromo people to say we are in this together, we have to stand together, we must fight together and we will win together? Do we sit and wait for the bullets to come to each of our door steps to care? The suffering of one Oromo person is not enough to sound an alarm for those of us near and far? Why are Oromos on the boarder dying? You know why? Because they spoke for all of us, for Oromia, for each acre of land that makes Oromia a country that it is, that is why they are being sprayed with bullets.
The political differences between us about how to get to the mountain top should not be a hindering force for our progress nor should it be a catalyst for indifference. The current artificial bickering among us, character assassinations, name callings, and all destructive agendas will not allow us to serve the ultimate goal. The goal is to see a country we all call home from vultures of every kind past, present and the future. The goal is secure our home, so that generations that come after us will not be prosecuted simply for who they are. You can disagree, debate, and even walk away from ideas but what you should not do is turn it into smear campaign. It helps no one, particularly those we suppose to assist. Those who are standing in front of fire with their bodies to die for the same ideas we cannot even agree on.
The confusion of diaspora politics is having some effect in the way we respond to tragedies as they unfold. We suppose to help with, funds, advocacy and being moral supporters for the real heroes back home fighting for their survival. What are we doing we cannot contribute the bare minimum? What the use of our elaborate ideas if can turn to something practical that could help our people? Who is the hero? Who is dying? Why are they dying? What is our call? How do we serve the purpose? In what way can we serve the purpose? These are the questions we should ask ourselves, we are fortunate enough to be in someone else’s country, enjoying peace. We can use this advantage to help our people in an impactful way.
Oromia does not need leadership, a mouthpiece, or self-serving individuals from diaspora. What they need is a support system from us. A support system that can deliver financial, moral and political on the ground. They need a ground to stand on, to fight their own fight. We can be their ground, we can be their support, as soon as we understand it is never about us. It has always been about those who refuse to run from their country and fight try to make it better. It is about the Oromo people in Oromia. What are you going to do about that?
Najat Hamza speaking to Aljazera about the state sponsored political crackdown or Severe measure on peaceful protesters in ETHIOPIA , On Oromo people and many others ,We thank you for an amazing explanation of the crackdown by Ethiopian government within very short time!
The arrest and charge of seven artists in Ethiopia with terrorism in June 2017 constitutes yet another example of the Ethiopian government’s disregard for freedom of expression. Especially members of the Oromo community and artists criticising the government such as singer Teddy Afro have systematically been the victims of harassment by Ethiopian authorities, including being prevented from performing or even being arrested. The UNPO condemns these actions and calls for the charges against the seven artists currently held in custody to be dropped.
Ethiopian authorities charged seven artists – musicians and dancers – with terrorism in late June 2017 for producing and uploading “inciting” political songs and videos, according to media reports. Freemuse is concerned about the charges and the continued erosion of freedom of expression in Ethiopia, especially of the Oromo people, the largest ethnic group in the country.
Freemuse is also alarmed by the wide latitudes Ethiopian authorities have taken during the recently lifted ten-month-long state of emergency put in place in response to protests stemming from the government’s plan, announced in 2014, to expand capital city Addis Ababa into farm lands in the Oromia region, the country’s largest region and home to the Oromo people.
“What is happening in Ethiopia is not a spin off from the recent protests and uprising, but rather is about a government clampdown on the artistic community in general and of Oromo artists in particular. We call on national authorities to drop the charges on the seven artists and protect all peoples’ right to freedom of expression, including expressions critical of governments,” Freemuse Executive Director Dr Srirak Plipat said.
The seven artists – Seenaa Solomon, Elias Kiflu, Gemechis Abera, Oliyad Bekele, Ifa Gemechu, Tamiru Keneni and Moebul Misganu – were arrested in December 2016 and held in Maekelawi Prison, which Global Voices reports is notorious for its torture practices. Misganu had been arrested before in 2014 in connection to student protests in Oromia and was released in 2016.
More recently, the BBC reported that Ethiopian police stopped the formal launch of singer Tewodros Kassahun’s, who performs as Teddy Afro, latest album without any official reason, preventing event organisers from entering the venue and demanding a permit. His new album, released in May, has become Ethiopia’s fastest selling album and topped Billboard’s world album chart.
Additionally, his Ethiopian New Year’s Eve concert scheduled for 11 September this year was cancelled for the third consecutive year, according to non-profit Music in Africa Foundation.
Teddy Afro is no stranger to controversy as he first drew negative attention from authorities in 2005 when he released his third album which contained songs critical of the government that became anthems for protest movements.
In 2008, he was imprisoned for a hit-and-run accident in a case that he claims was politically motivated and was released in 2009, after serving 18 months of a two-year sentence.
Freemuse has registered over the years several attacks and forms of harassment on Oromo artists, including the imprisonment, beatings and forced exile of artists, as well as the banning of music and shutdown of studios.
Strikes and protests in volatile Oromia state reflect widespread anger over business tax rises as the government tries to reduce its reliance on aid
A vegetable seller at Dessie market in northern Ethiopia. About 80% of the country’s workforce is employed in smallholder agriculture. Photograph: Ivoha/Alamy
Tuesday 29 August 2017 13.33 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 29 August 2017 13.36 BST
In the dense cobblestone streets of Burayu town, outside Addis Ababa, Melaku Abdella* and his family had been making a living selling basic items such as vegetables, cooking oil and soft drinks at competitive prices from their kiosk. But after the Ethiopian government stung him with a more than 300% tax increase last month, Abdella says he was left with no option but to close the business.
Like many low-income traders in the country’s Oromia region, the family didn’t keep accounts, meaning the authorities based their annual tax demand of 7,000 Ethiopian birr (£231) on an estimate of income. “It’s beyond my capacity to pay. I will have to hand in my business licence,” Abdella says.
The hikes on grocers, barbers and cafes were met with widespread anger and protests in parts of the volatile state, which has endured unrest and fatal clashes during the last two years.
The situation creates a dilemma for a government that is desperate to increase income tax and reduce its reliance on aid, but is also wary of further instability. Ethiopia’s parliament only lifted a 10-month state of emergency earlier this month following protests over land disputes and alleged political marginalisation. The unrest since November 2015 involved security forces killing at least 600 demonstrators and tens of thousands being jailed, according to the government.
Although still one of world’s least developed countries, Ethiopia’s economy has grown rapidly in the last decade, as the government used loans, aid and tax revenue to build clinics, universities, roads, railways and hydropower dams. Its budget has increased roughly in line with gross domestic product. Ethiopia’s tax revenue is around 14% of output, according to the International Monetary Fund, which is lower than the sub-Saharan African average. This financial year, almost a third of the federal budget of 321bn birr (£10.6bn) is projected to come from aid and loans.
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has been credited for overseeing growth and improving infant mortality and life expectancy, but it is also blamed for suppressing democratic rights, maladministration, increasing corruption and, now, the draconian tax swoop.
The root of the dispute is a sizeable semi-formal economic sector – around 80% of the workforce is still employed in smallholder agriculture – entrenched mistrust between the state and traders, and an estimation system for small businesses.
Girls on their way to school, in Goba, Oromia. Photograph: Fis/imagebroker/Rex/Shutterstock
Enterprises with an annual turnover of less than 500,000 birr are not required to produce audited accounts. Instead, officials visit each premise to make an income assessment. That has set up a game of cat-and-mouse with many vendors running down stock in anticipation of the visits. The result has been a large discrepancy between what traders say they earn and what their assessments are based on, even if they made an accurate verbal declaration. “What most people tell the government is too low, so the officials don’t believe anybody. Honesty does not work,” says one Burayu business owner, who also requested anonymity.
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Oromia revenue officers take the estimation and multiply it either by 300 days for goods retailers or 360 days for services to produce a turnover estimate. Profits are calculated by applying a standard margin for each type of business, which is then taxed at marginal rates from 0% for profits of less than 7,200 birr to 35% for those earning more than 130,800 birr.
“The assessment has basic technical problems. From the selection of people to assess, to the criteria used for assessment, it does not fit into any objective presumptive tax assessment methodology. It’s just an ad hoc categorisation of taxpayers,” says business consultant Getachew Teklemariam.
At Burayu town revenue department, deputy head Samuel Tadesse explains that business owners were shocked at the new evaluations because the government hadn’t carried out an assessment for seven years.
Annual inflation shot up to 40% in 2011, but has been hovering near 10% recently. Also, last year, the tax thresholds increased. For example, the tax-exempt portion rose from 1,800 birr to 7,000, while the upper margin was previously 60,000. “They are confused because for six years they paid a similar amount,” Tadesse says.
By Lake Hora in Bishoftu town, about 50km south-east of Addis Ababa, a man in a bright yellow T-shirt and matching sunglasses repairs a door with a soldering iron and angle grinder amid a shower of sparks. He’s given up on his business after a 13,000-birr tax bill that he believes was four times what it should have been, and is using a friend’s workshop. “It’s better to be mobile, going here and there. That is better than being licensed,” he says.
Ethiopian craftsmen shut their shops to protest against tax regulations in Holeta, Oromia, in July 2017. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Others in the area say the levies on small businesses are another example that the system only works for the rich, who receive favours and tax breaks. Another small business owner believes access to jobs, land and controlled commodities such as sugar requires loyalty to the ruling party. The welder thinks the government wants the extra revenue to buy weapons – one of a number of conspiracy theories about the tax policy, testament to the extent of Oromo discontent, and the difficulty the authorities will have implementing unpopular policies. Protests over the tax, which closed businesses in July, have merged with other grievances and led to widespread strikes in Oromia last week.
Back in Burayu,rather than risk an unaffordable tax demand next year, Abdella says he will try to support his family by working in the construction industry. He has no faith that the ruling coalition will change its ways to make life easier for small businesses. “I don’t think there will be a solution if this government stays,” he says.
The Oromia-wide economic boycott and stay-at-home campaign announced by Oromo activists, popularly known as Qeeroo Oromoo, commenced throughout Oromia as scheduled on August 23, 2017. The campaign completed its third day and is expected to remain in place as planned until August 27, 2017.
As planned, the campaign started on the scheduled day throughout Oromia. In some areas, it actually commenced at dusk on the eve of the scheduled days. For three days, businesses in large and small towns, daily markets in rural villages and inter-city transactions remained closed. Transport services leading to Finfinne, the main arteries of economic activities and supply lines to the center were discontinued. City buses and transport within cities and between cities were not in service. In short, the Oromia region came to a standstill soon after the boycott commenced and remain in effect for three days throughout Oromia.
The campaign was launched following the lifting of the state of emergency that was introduced in October 2016. Contrary to the regime’s claim that the state of emergency succeeded in suppressing the Oromo protests, we made a conscious decision to use time to regroup and strategize the next phase of the struggle after an arduous year of sustained resistance against a brutal totalitarian regime. At the end of the state of emergency, we deemed it necessary to counter the regime’s claims and demonstrate the protests have resumed in a different form.
The campaign was launched to achieve measurable objectives. First, it was meant to send an unmistakable message to the regime that the Oromo protest cannot be suppressed and that the struggle will continue until its longstanding demand for self-determination is achieved. Second, it was designed to deny the regime its undeserved claim to legitimacy on the basis of economic performance by slowing down economic activities without severely damaging people’s livelihoods. Third, it was intended to affirm the unity Oromo nation and the popular base of Oromo nationalism by showing that the Oromo people can rise in unison and act in concert at a time of their own choosing. Forth, it was planned to demonstrate that the Oromo struggle has shifted from resistance mode to a focused struggle for victory.
At the end of the third day, we have determined that these objectives have been fully achieved. The economic effect of the boycotts was felt in the major cities of the neighboring countries. The success of the campaign is so complete and comprehensive that a reassessment was deemed necessary. Having determined that the campaign has achieved its goals in record time and that the campaign has proven the Oromo qeerroo’s capacity to strike at the strength of the regime, we have decided to declare victory and call off the campaign at the end of the third day. This means, the boycott campaign and stay-at-home campaign will end at 6 PM Finfinne time on August 25, 2017.
As we end this campaign, we want our adversaries to know that this generation of Oromo nationalists will respond in way that its commensurate to the enemy’s egregious actions. We are satisfied that the campaign has driven home a message that we will not rest until the longstanding goals the Oromo national movement have been achieved. We want the adversary to know that we were deeply outraged at the public humiliation of our respected and august political leaders, Dr. Merera Gudina and Bekele Gerba and we will not accept further humiliation our leaders and our nation. Second, we will not tolerate the dismemberment of Oromia. The government has been given sufficient warning that the arming of mercenaries to murder Oromo residents of Oromia and carving out of Oromo lands under any circumstances, whether that land is around Finfinne or in eastern and southeastern Oromia or southern Oromia. Third, we will not accept the attempt to drive Oromo businesses into bankruptcy and Oromo street side peddlers and vendors out of existence.
Finally, we want the Oromo people to consider this campaign as an instance of rededication to the longstanding Oromo demands. The Oromo struggle will continue until the Oromo people have established full control over their governance, the resources of Oromia and their individual and collective identity. Oromo protesters didn’t die in the thousands so that the surrogates of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front can become the legitimate champions Oromo nationalism and reformers who would return civil administration to Oromia. The Oromo struggle will not be completed until genuine self-rule has been established in Oromia and all of Ethiopia. The Oromo struggle will not complete its journey until its representatives have achieved full control over Oromia’s resources, including Finfinne. Investors must know that their investments are welcome on condition that they are legal, incorruptible and undisruptive of indigenous livelihoods. The Oromo struggle was not waged to witness tampering with the main achievement of this generation: the use of qubee alphabet in written afaan Oromo. The Oromo resistance will continue with determination and dedication.
Nation wide Boycott and Sit-in is underway in the Ethiopia’s largest state, Oromia.
What is this boycott about?
••• Demanding unconditional release of OFC leaders and all political prisoners in Ethiopia.
•••Demanding lifting of heavy taxes
••• demanding the government to stop the Somali regin’s #Liyupolice cross boarder attack and active genocide.
•••Demands the government to address all those demands raised are under#OromoProtests#OromoRevolution#Ethiopia
The protest is successful in planning and successful in action.
#Breaking: Harar and its surroundings under strike; no trade and transport activities observed. Some damaged vehicles were also spotted. pic.twitter.com/YmyOSIt2Tk
Many people have stayed at home and business owners have closed their doors in parts of Oromia region. Most shops, hotels and restaurants in south-eastern towns of Miesso, Chiro, Hirina and Aweday towns have been shut after strikes were called on Wednesday. The latest protest is said to be a continuation of the nation wide strike that started in July to protest against the government over the imposition of a revised tax law. Taxi service from the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Asko to Burayu has been disrupted. In the town of Ambo 130 kilometres west of Addis Ababa almost all shops, hotels and restaurants have been shut. In nearby Woliso and Ginchi retail businesses were also closed. There were similar strikes in some towns of Arsi and Bale zones including Shashemene, despite reports that police and security forces were threatening to revoke the licenses of those who joined the strikes.
While most protests are peaceful and the towns are quiet, in some parts damages on public transports and farms are reported. A minibus carrying passengers on the road from Harar to Dire Dawa has been attacked by stone throwers. A long distance bus, Selam heading to Harar from Addis Ababa made a half turn at Adama town this morning, sources told Ethiopia Observer. Selam bus, as it is owned by the ruling regime, has been a frequent target of attack in the past.
The latest protest is one of the biggest stay-away actions, since the state of emergency has been lifted in early August. Emergency law imposed in October, after more than a year of violent protests in the region led to the arrests of more than 21,000 people. Click here to read more at Ethiopian Observer
Liyu police incursion into Oromia is the manifestation of TPLF proxy war on Oromia. It has nothing to do with the brotherly Somali ppl. pic.twitter.com/iAc0YWiV47
Guyyaa Arba’aa/Roobii/ Dhufurraa jalqabee Guyyaa Shaniif (5) Walitti aansee Waan Godhamuuf Jimaan Haqaaran Takka Harargerraa Gara Awaash, Adaamaa Fi Finfinnee Kan hin seenne Tahuu Dursinee isin Beeksifna.
Dubbii kana Salphiftanii/Tuffattanii Bira Darbuun Hojirra Hin Olchitan Taanan, Rakkoo Isin Mudatuuf Qeerroo fi Ummatni keenya Kan itti Hin Gaafatamne Tahuu Beekaa.
Mootummaa Abbaa Irree Dhiiga Saba Keenyaa Qulqulluu Dhangalaasutti Hin Gurguurru!!!!
Tokkummaan Ummata Oromoo ha dagaagu
Murteessan Hegeree Oromiyaa Oromoodha
Injifannoon kan Ummata Oromooti
“Godinaa Jimma Aanaa Nonnoo Beenjaa Magaalaa Algaa Kessatti Guyyaa Har’aa Hagayyaa 13/12/2009
{19/08/2017
Mormiin Qeerroo Haala Ho’aan Itti Fufe Jira
Sababni Isaa Yeroo Mormii Gabaa Lagaanaa Marsaa 2ffaa darbee irraatti polisonii uummataa yeroo dorsisuuf yaalanitti uummanii nu hin dorsistaan mootummaadha nu samaa jiru hayyootaa keenyaa mana hidhaatti dararamaa jiru jechuun uummanii hiriraa bahun sagalee isaanii dhageessifacha turan kanaan wal qabaate polisoonii uummataa dorsisaa turan sun yeroof miliqaani turun guyyaa har’aa mormii marsaa 3ffaa fashaalessuf har’aas yeroo uummataa dorsisuu jalqabaniitti qeerroon algaa tokkummaan ka’un mana polisii tokko irratti tarkanfii fudhatani turan .kanaaf yeroo ama kana magaalaan algaa muuddamsaa cima kessa jirti.”
Among the thousands facing criminal charges in the wake of the SoE are these group of women in Assela town.
Liyat Fekade
Addis Abeba, August 22/2017 – On Friday August 04, members of the Ethiopian parliament have reconvened after having been called off their summer recess. Of the three topics they reconvened to discuss was the lifting of the ten month old State of Emergency (SoE), first declared on Oct. 08 2016.
Briefing the members of parliament (MPs) on the need to lift the SoE, Defense Minister Siraj Fegessa, who is also the secretariat of the command post established to oversee the implementations of the SoE, said that the country was experiencing a return to normalcy as compared to the months and days prior to the declaration of the emergency decree, hence the need to lift the SoE.
However, almost as news besides the lifting of the SoE, Siraj Fegessa told the lawmakers that there were 7, 737 individuals who were facing legal actions in different courts in the country after having been charged with criminal offenses. According to Siraj, 4, 136 of these people were from the Oromia regional state, the epicenter of the 2016 yearlong anti-government protests; 1, 888 from the Amhara regional state, which followed suit six months into the protests in Oromia; 1, 166 from the less publicized protest-hit areas in the Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Regional state (SNNPR); and 547 from the capital Addis Abeba.
It was a déjà vu
Ethiopians are acutely familiar with the government’s intuitive response of mass detention that quickly follows popular anti-government protests. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians from all walks of life had ended up in the country’s military camps, prisons wards and temporary detention facilities in the post 2005 general elections, in which close to 200 protesters were also gunned down in the streets of the capital by fully armed security forces.
These detainees include students, mothers and in some instances, government employees
Reminiscent of that recent past, 24,799 Ethiopians were detained in two rounds during in the first few weeks into the October SoE, according to the government’s own account. However, countless others were already detained in the lead up to October 2016, which brought the number of those detained to over 27, 000.
Grieving in Ethiopia’s politicized court rooms
It is worth mentioning here that the 7, 737 people who are now facing charges of serious criminal offenses, including but not limited to outrage against the constitutional order, is a number three times higher than the 2, 449 individuals that Siraj Fegessa said would be brought to face justice on Dec. 17, 2016.
In what could safely be considered as politically motivated act, the federal Supreme Court has “placed considerable pressures on courts and prisons authorities in Oromia, Amhara and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regional states to bring thousands of detainees to Addis Abeba for them to be tried with terrorism offenses,” a senior judge in Adama, 100 km south of Addis Abeba, told Addis Standard.
A somewhat similar incident in post-2005 elections played a significant role in forcing the then president of the Oromia Regional State Supreme court, Teshale Aberra, into exile.
Judge Teshale Abera is now living in exile
Speaking from his exile in the UK, Teshale told Addis Standard that in 2005, the rift between him and the federal Supreme Court widened when the later requested him to facilitate the trials of some 18,000 detainees who were transported to several detention facilities in Oromia regional state after having been detained in the capital Addis Abeba. “Because the case concerned protesters who supported the opposition CUD, which won all the 23 seats allocated to the city of Addis Abeba in the federal parliament, and because many of the judges who were presiding in the federal courts in the capital were ethnic Amharas, authorities at the federal Supreme Court believed that the trial would lack judicial impartiality from the judges,” Teshale said. “This was a clear case of politically motivated decision, which I refused to accept.”
Teshale’s experience in 2005 remained a perpetual stain in judicial procedures in Ethiopia, leaving the fate of hundreds of Ethiopians detained during protest-crackdowns and subsequently prosecuted hanging in the country’s politicized court rooms.
For starters, detainees are often brought to the capital from all corners of the country to face terrorism charges. This practice often exposes detainees to extrajudicial brutalities, including torture, inside prison facilities in the capital, especially the notorious Ma’ekelawi prison, where hundreds are forced to spend months on end without any due legal process. It also leaves detainees isolated from family members, thereby denying them of adequate legal representations.
A data available on newly established tracking website documents the number of people brought from different parts of the country and are facing terrorism charges in the capital, which shows a recent sharp increase since Ethiopia first introduced the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP) in 2009.
The iconic picture of activist Nigist Yirga wearing a t-shirt with a text “The People of Amhara are not terrorists”
Of the close to 900 cases of terrorism (most of which is related to people who were brought from different parts of the country), a particular case in point is the case of six detainees who were brought to the capital after having been arrested in north Gonder and Bahir Dar of the Amhara Regional state. Activist Nigist Yirga, known by her iconic protest picture captured during last year’s protests in Amhara regional state with a text “The People of Amhara are not terrorists”, is facing terrorism charges along with Alemneh Wase Gebre Mariam, Tewdros Telay, Awoke Abate, Belayneh Alemneh, & Yared Girma in the federal high court 4th criminal bench here in the capital. A recent short animation video produced by the Ethiopia Human Rights Project (EHRP) sheds light on the disturbing abuse Nigist Yirga sustained while she was held in Ma’ekelawi.
However, Nigist’s case – neither her arrest nor the prison abuses she is subjected to – is by no means an isolated one. On July 25/2017, the families of Ayele Beyene, who died while in police custody at Qilinto prison, a maximum prison facility on the southern outskirt of Addis Abeba, have received and buried his body in his home town in Gidami, east Wallaga zone of western Ethiopia. After having spent months at Ma’ekelawi following their arrest in October 2016, Ayele and seven others with him were charged on May 10 with terror related as well as criminal offenses.
Ayele Beyene died while in police custody. He was detained in Oct. 2016 and was only charged in May 2017.
Delegation of federal courts jurisdiction
Perhaps beyond and above this disturbing practice is the constitutional legality of transferring detainees from other parts of the country to face terrorism charges in the capital Addis Abeba. The federal Constitution and the criminal justice policy (adopted in 2011) highly centralize criminal law, i.e. investigation and prosecution of crimes, under the federal government. It is a legal practice which relegates regional states in a federated Ethiopia to depend on the federal government concerning criminal matters that are political in nature, in particular terrorism related offenses.
Currently, there are two tiered courts both at the federal and state levels in Ethiopia: the Federal Supreme Court, (Federal High and First Instance Courts), and the State Supreme Court, (State High and First-Instance Courts). Article 80 of the federal constitution clearly stipulates that State Supreme Courts have the highest and final judicial power over State matters. Quote: “They shall also exercise the Jurisdiction of the Federal High Court [by delegation]. State High Courts shall, in addition to State jurisdiction, exercise the jurisdiction of the Federal First-Instance Court.” In other words, although the legislative criminal power has been centralized by the Federal Government in Ethiopia and has been ferociously applied to punish dissenting , it is, at the same time, decentralized in terms of its execution and adjudication by doctrine of delegation, at least on paper.
According to Yohannes Bekele (name changed), a former public prosecutor who is currently an attorney and counselor at law, there are two arguments to be made on the issue of criminal jurisdiction. The first is that all cases arising from the Federal Criminal Code should be the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Courts in line with Art. 3(1) of the Federal Court Proclamation No. 25/96. “This is the common argument the federal government criminal investigation and prosecution organs use when they want to investigate a crime of their interest”, Yohannes told Addis Standard.
The second argument is that the Regional State courts are empowered to hear cases other than the ones exhaustively reckoned under Article 4 of Federal Courts Proclamation. These are cases related to, among others, offenses against the constitutional order or against the internal security of the state; offenses against foreign states, against the law of nations, against the fiscal and economic interests of the Federal Government, as well as offenses regarding counterfeit currency, and forgery of instruments of the Federal Government.
Teshale on his part believes that if regional courts can take up cases as grave as these ones, “there should be no question about their ability to preside over terrorism cases.”
Terrorism related offenses
Despite the constitution however, Article 31 of the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation solely sanctioned the Federal High Court and the Federal Supreme Courts to have jurisdictions over terrorism related offenses. This proclamation does not incorporate a delegation clause to regional courts, giving federal courts the exclusive mandate to preside over terrorism cases brought against defendants who come from all parts of the country.
This, in and of itself, raises several concerns. The most alarming is the issues of access to justice. “Many of the suspects, especially those from Oromia and the southern regional state, do not have translation facilities during interrogations while in prison and during the hearing procedures,” said the senior judge in Adama, who wants to remain anonymous.
The issue of access to justice was one of the many concerns Addis Standard raised in its extensive coverage on Ma’ekelawi prison ward. To quote one of the interviewees then: “The fact that detainees come from afar disconnects them from their family and their support system thereof. But more importantly such distance from one’s place of residence becomes a barrier to access to justice. Physical distance, cultural distance, and linguistic distance are the three major barriers to access to justice.”
In a 2014 research paper submitted to the Addis Abeba University (AAU) titled Criminal Jurisdiction of State Court under FDRE Constitution, Abdi Gurmessa, a law graduate, stated that the current trend of centralization of criminal law and policy in the federal government is not effective when tested in light of the guiding principles of the distribution of powers, the principle of subsidiarity and the experiences of other federations. Centralized criminal law, according to Abdi, has an “adverse effect on the regional autonomy of the states”, and prohibits regional states from exercising the right to self-determination in the context of criminal laws.
This judicial overreach by the federal court was raised during a preliminary objection in one of the high profile terrorism charges in recent history of the country involving the Federal Attorney General vs. Gurmessa Ayano et al (including prominent politician Bekele Gerba). In a debate the later have since lost to the former, the defense team have argued on lack of jurisdiction of the federal court and said that the case could be tried by the Oromia Regional State Supreme court through delegation pursuant to the constitution. Their objection was dismissed by the federal court citing Article 31 of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation; the case continued to be tried at the federal high court 4th criminal bench where it reached a curious stage.
‘Sharp departure’
However, in what is seen by many as a ‘sharp departure’ from what was expected, a complaint was lodged by the executive of the Oromia regional state sometime between November and December 2016 at the federal Supreme Court to block possible additional terrorism indictments against hundreds of individuals detained in the wake of the 2016 protest. (Gurmessa Ayano et.al were detained in the beginning of the protests in Dec. 2015, as are several others).
Subsequently, the federal Supreme Court has granted a rare delegation to the Oromia Supreme court to look into the cases involving the 4, 136 people who are now facing criminal charges in eleven different courts within the regional state, according to the judge in Adama. “It was a chance for these people to avoid terrorism indictments,” he said, “we are now working even in weekends to facilitate speedy trials.” Some of these courts where the hearings are taking place include courts in Dambi Dollo and Gimbi in western Ethiopia, Asella and Adama in south east, Batu (Ziway) and Shashemene in west Arsi, as well as Bale Robe and Yabello in south eastern Ethiopia, according to him.
Copy of a letter exclusively received by Addis Standard showing the federal Supreme court’s delegation
Too little too late?
Despite this positive turn of event, however, the lingering detention and trial not only of the 4, 136 in Oromia, but also the rest in Amhara, SNNPR and Addis Abeba after the state of emergency was declared over defies constitutionalism.
The federal constitution under Article 22 provides protection under “Non-Retroactivity of Criminal Law.’ Art.22/1: “No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offense at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed on any person than the one that was applicable at the time when the criminal offense was committed.” Art.22/2: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-Article 1 of this Article, a law promulgated subsequent to the commission of the offense shall apply if it is advantageous to the accused or convicted person.”
“If the newly enacted law [that ostensibly repealed the SoE] is advantageous to those people who are accused of violating a repealed law, the new law will be implemented,” wrote Zelalem Kibret, a lecturer of law before he was dismissed by the Ambo University following his arrest as part of the Zone9 blogging collective, from which he was later on acquitted. In a series of twitter post shortly after the SoE was declared over, Zelalem wrote, “The State of Emergency decree criminalizes many trivial things that thousands were convicted of [or] are currently accused of. However, the State lifted the [SoE] by another proclamation, hence since the subsequent repeal is obviously advantageous to the incarcerated, it [would] get precedence in its application. As a result, all the cases invoking the SoE decree must be dropped and all awaiting and convicted prisoners must be released,” Zelalem said.
It is an optimism that Nigist Yirga, 24, and her co-defendants, as well as hundreds of others facing similar fate, could use following the lifting of the SoE on Aug. 04. But Ethiopians know that it may be too little too late. On August 18th, the Federal High Court 4th criminal bench has once again, and after several protracted hearings, failed to deliver a key a verdict on whether Nigist Yirga et.al have a case to defend; like several other cases, the court adjourned the next hearing to October 31/2017 after its summer recess. AS
Ed’s Note: Kiya Tsegaye, Addis Standard’s legal affairs researcher, contributed to this story
TPLF Ethiopia’s Somali Liyu Police and the federal defence forces jointly invaded Oromia and currently conducting their ethnic cleansing in five Oromia Zones and 14 Districts. The following are some of the Oromia’s districts currently under attack:
i. Qumbi, Cinaksan, Midhaga Tola, Gursum, Mayu Muluqe and Babile in East Hararghe Zone;
ii. Bordode in West Hararghe Zone;
iii. Dawe Sarar, Sawena, Mada Walabu and Rayitu in Bale Zone;
iv. Gumi Eldelo and Liban in Guji Zone; and
v. Moyale in Borana
Profile of the Invading Somali Liyu Police that Invaded Five Oromia Zones and 14 Oromia Districts
1. Established in April 2007 as counter insurgency military group, the Somali Liyu police are estimated to have more than 40,000 well-armed and well-funded troops.
2. Who is providing the funding and training: Initially, it was funded and trained by the government of the United Kingdom. Now, the group is believed to have a wider network in the Middle East, in addition to the support it regularly receives from the TPLF/EPRDF government of Ethiopia….. Click here to read more …..
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) says the regime in Addis Ababa is worsening clashes between the Somali and Oromo communities that share common borders.
The ONLF also accused the Liyou (special) police of the Somali regional government of committing rape, abduction and killings against the Oromo and even against their own Somali communities with backing of the brutal regime.
Hassan Abdulahi in an interview with ESAT said the main culprits were the TPLF generals who are behind the Somali special police that just takes orders from the generals.
Abdulahi says the Somali special police have since 2007 committed inconceivable crimes against Somali, Oromo and other communities.
He said there are over a million people who are internally displaced due to the brutal actions of the Liyou police under the auspices of regime generals.
Border clashes between the two communities resulted in the death of hundreds of people, abduction and cattle raiding, according to the ONLF and other Oromo political parties.
4. Furmaatni maali? Wayyaaneen yoo hinjirre, Liyyuu Poolisiin hinjirtu. Wayyaaneen yoo hinjirre, OPDOn hinjirtu. UUmmatni Oromo miliyoona 50 ta’u mormii biyya keessaa fi lola daangaa irratti itti baname ofirraa faccisuuf dandeettii qabaachuu qaba. Mirga uumamaa qaba. Of gurmeessee, walgurmeessee of hidhachiisuu, walhidhachiisuu qaba. The right to defend oneself from enemy is a God given right. Haallii Oromoiyaa yeroo ammaa kan duraanii irra adda.
This is Hayat Aliyi Ahmad age 17. This horrific attack said to have been committed against her by official of the Somali regional government in Jigjiga. She is currently at Hiwot Fana Hospital. She is originally from Malka Ball, East Hararge, Oromia. Click here for the image and detail of the attack.
Recently you might have noticed that TPLF is propagating ‘Somalis’ protesting against OLF, G7 etc. Its important to know that these are members of the TPLF’s puppet party in Somali region ( its like OPDO and ANDM members rallying in support of the regime). In fact many of the thugs are not from Somali regional state but from Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland and even Kenya. Back home the psychopathic president of the region has forced residents of Jigjiga to stage a rally. Why all this? First it shows the regime have given up on its puppet parties in Oromia and Amhara regions. Pro-regime rallies planned in Oromia and Amhara were either cancelled due to fear of turning into protest or no one showed up.
But there is more sinister motive than just this. It is part of the minority card TPLF leaders are trying to play as they fight for survival. Two weeks ago Seyoum Mesfin and Abay Tsehaye gave interview where they repeatedly pulled the minority card. They have two objectives in doing so. First they want to mislead and gain sympathy of the liberal international community that their minority ethnic group (Tigreans) are facing genocide from alliance of the two largest ethnic groups Oromo and Amhara. They have been telling diplomats that it’s not just Tigreans facing existential threat but also other minorities. Second, they want to implement their long held plan of ‘minority coalition’ to withstand pressure from Amhara and Oromo forces. Since the days of their armed struggle, TPLF leaders believed that the best way to cope with being outnumbered is to forge alliance (under their domination) with other minorities. The controversial map that connects Tigray with Benishangul-Gumuz and all the way down to Gambela on the West, and Afar and Somali through the East is not some simple error or latest development. It has been on the works since 1980s. Although it failed due to economic competition with Tigrean businessmen, they have also tried to bring urban minorities to their side as well.
But is TPLF an ally of minorities in Ethiopia? Its records say NO!
– Its military carried out ethnic cleansing against Ethiopian Somalis as meticulously recorded by human rights organizations. Abdi Illey was their henchmen who was facilitating the massacre.
– It massacred the Agnuwak in Gambella region in 2003 and still continue to kill in the region.
– The Sidama were massacred at Loqe in 2002.
– Entire villages in Konso are being burned down as we speak.
– The Mursi are killed en mass and those captured alive are chained like animals as might have seen on pictures
– Silte and Gurage businessmen have been pushed out of the market and replaced by Tigreans.
– Afar land is all but taken over by Tigrean land grabbers.
– On and on and on……
Yet as it faces increasing resistance in Oromo and Amhara, TPLF will be aggressively using this ‘minority card’ in the up coming weeks and months. This will be done with action that will create rift between minority ethnic groups and Oromo/Amhara. We should henceforth expect the following:
– More rallies in diaspora and targeted regions in Ethiopia with participants holding slogans that offend Oromo/Amhara.
– Intensified campaign on media using languages that provoke debate and counter attack.
– Physical attack on Oromo/Amhara activists and institutions with the aim of provoking counter attack on Somalis.
– They will intensify instigating conflict on regional boarders. We are already hearing provocation on Benishangul-Amhara boarders, Somali -Oromia boarders.
If left unchallenged, these tactics could cause serious short and long term problem between various nations of the country. Therefore, the following steps should be taken to counter that:
– Oromos and Amharas shouldn’t fall for the provocative trap. Avoid debates and arguments against Somalis and others.
– Let activists, political leaders and organizations respond to debunk them.
– Beware that the regime’s agents will engage in nasty exchanges pretending to be Oromo, Amhara, Somali etc.
– Prominent activists, political leaders should be careful against attacks by hired thugs. Community and religious institutions should be protected. In case attacks occur, the situation must be wisely contained. No doubt the regime agents in Amhara and Oromo communities will try to instigate counter attack on Somali and others. Hence no matter the severity, the possible attack on Amhara/Oromo personalities, the response should never be communal; the individual who committed the crime should be singled out and brought to justice.
Such old and tired tactic of divide and rule cannot extend TPLF’s dictatorship.”
From November 2015, Ethiopia has experienced an unprecedented wave of popular mobilisation. The protests took place mainly in the Oromia region, spanning nearly 300 locations. They are generally seen as part of a movement that began in April-May 2014, when students across several locations in the region protested a plan to expand the boundary of the capital, Addis Ababa (hereafter, the Addis Ababa Master Plan). The 2014 protests, led by university students, were comparatively small and situated in the Western part of Oromia (see Figure 1). From November 2015, the demonstrations quickly gained momentum, and farmers, workers and other citizens soon joined the students in collective marches, boycotts and strikes (seeACLED, June 2017 for a more detailed background on the roots and dynamics of the protests).
Despite the government’s suspension of the Addis Ababa Master Plan in January 2016, the protests continued and expanded to other regions, such as Amhara and the SNNPR. The Amhara community joined the Oromo protests in August 2016, after a fatal clash between security forces and Amhara residents over the Wolkayt district’s identity issue ignited regionalist grievances (African Arguments, 27 September 2016). The continuation of the protests revealed widespread suspicion of the Ethiopian regime and enduring grievances among different ethnic groups, particularly in the way federalism is implemented, and in the way power and resources are shared. The Ethiopian government’s unrelenting use of lethal force against largely peaceful protesters since November 2015 has played a major role in bolstering a shared sense of oppression among the Oromo and other ethnic groups. Available data collected from international and local media since November 2015 points to more than 1,200 people reported killed during the protests. Approximately 660 fatalities are due to state violence against peaceful protesters, 250 fatalities from state engagement against rioters, and more than 380 people killed by security forces following the declaration of the state of emergency on 8 October 2016.
The state of emergency was declared after government violence at the Irecha festival in Oromia led to a “week of rage” among the opposition. The move cemented the government’s commitment to repression rather than dialogue (The Guardian, 20 October 2016; Amnesty, 18 October 2016). The state of emergency imposed tight restrictions that have since successfully curbed the protests. However significant developments have occurred in parallel, pointing to persisting discontent in Ethiopia.
First, the significant reduction in riots and protests accompanied an increase in battles involving security forces and foreign-based rebel groups, and in political and ethnic militia activity. Though the link between the protesters and the various armed groups remains unclear, these trends point to an escalation from peaceful unrest to an armed struggle taken up by local armed militias and rebel movements united in their aim to remove the government.
The ACLED dataset shows that rebel activity in 2016 was at its third highest since 1997 (see Figure 2). Rebellion reached unprecedented levels in Oromia and Tigray, led by the OLF and the AGUDM forces respectively; and in Amhara, rebellion led by the AGUDM forces resurged after two years of inactivity. So far in 2017, AGUDM has represented the most active rebel front in the country. The group significantly stepped up its attacks in June 2017, confronting government forces on several fronts in the Amhara region’s Gonder zone, and claiming a rare attack in Addis Ababa on a government ammunition depot. The movement’s leader recently announced that AGUDM’s attacks would not subside. Other rebel fronts, however, have been relatively inactive in 2017. As of end June, no attack had been claimed yet in 2017 by the OLF for instance.
In parallel, militant activity has significantly increased in Oromia and Amhara in 2017 (see Figure 3). Since January 2017, large numbers of the Oromo community have risen up against a marked increase in attacks and human rights violations in Oromia by state and paramilitary forces, such as the Liyu police. Data collected shows nearly 40 clashes between the two parties along the border with the Somali and Afar regions between 1 January-8 July 2017, resulting in around 170 fatalities. This compares to only six clashes between Oromo militias and state forces during the protest period. The Oromo community identifies the increased activity by the Liyu police as a way for the government to usurp Oromo lands and further quash dissent (Opride, 5 March 2017). The assignment of federal soldiers to all members of the Oromia regional police in May after suspecting some of them of supporting Oromo militias in the recent clashes, revealed the government’s continued control of the country’s security apparatus. In Amhara, unidentified armed groups also engaged in various clashes with state forces and executed no less than 14 bomb and grenade attacks, mainly targeting state officials, between 1 January-8 July 2017.
Secondly, the ruling party’s continued domination since the declaration of the state of emergency and failure to engage in a dialogue with the protesters underlines its lack of interest in addressing the grievances that motivated the protests in the first place. This suggests that there is a strong possibility of demonstrations resuming once the state of emergency is lifted at the end of July 2017.
Several developments since the declaration of the state of emergency have reinforced the perception of government oppression among the protesters. Chief among them is the implementation of the state of emergency’s tight restrictions, which has led to hundreds of new fatalities and arrests, as well as to a pervasive state control of Internet access and use. Many people have been arrested on the basis social media posts perceived as inciting violence for instance, while the government imposed prolonged periods of nationwide Internet blackouts to control students during national examinations (Tadias Magazine, 13 June 2017;Africa News, 11 June 2017). The ruling party’s refusal to allow an independent probe into the protests has also fuelled a loss of hope among the protesters for a better form of government, which respects peoples’ basic rights. This is despite the many international calls for the establishment of a fair accountability process, including by the UN and by members of the European Parliament (IPS, 17 April 2017; Africa News, 11 July 2017).
Other oppressive state practices in 2017 have also led to several punctual protests, most of which were severely repressed. In Oromia, people protested in March 2017 against violence by the Liyu police. Students also protested in Ambo in June 2017, after the Ethiopian education authority revealed a plan to re-arrange the Oromo alphabet. Police arrested 50 students, including two whom died from severe beatings received during their transfer to prison facilities. In Amhara, people protested in April 2017 against the planned demolition of thousands of houses by the government, and were fired on by federal military troops (ESAT, 23 March 2017). Finally, at various international sporting events in early 2017, several Ethiopian athletes have protested the ruling party’s inability to embrace ethnic and religious diversity, by refusing to wave the current starred Ethiopian flag to celebrate their victories (African Arguments, 6 March 2017).
Politically, the several changes introduced to the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and to the leadership of the party representing the Oromos within the ruling coalition in the course of 2016 suggested only minimal ideological repositioning and thus did not convince the protesters. The government’s introduction in July 2017 of a draft bill to review the status of Addis Ababa represents the first attempt at credibly addressing the Oromo protesters’ grievances politically, by giving concrete meaning to Oromia’s constitutionally-enshrined “special interest” in the capital. However, there is still a possibility of future unrest if dissensions are not solved with its detractors, particularly among the Oromo nationalists (QZ, 6 July 2017;Global Voices, 7 July 2017). A recent plan to establish an oil venture in Oromia has also been seen by the ruling party as a way to address the protesters’ economic grievances (Bloomberg, 21 June 2017). Building on these overtures could lead to advancements in negotiations between the protesters and the government, and reduce the likelihood of future disruptions.
The Ethiopian prevailed in the competition with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
Feyisa Lilesa, winner of the Bogota Half Marathon 2017.
Photo: Abel Cárdenas / CEET
By: SPORTS,July 30, 2017
This year, the Bogotá Half Marathon celebrated its 18th edition, the race counted with the participation of more than 43,350 athletes, in addition to a general bag in prizes that exceeded 200 million pesos.
The Bogota Half Marathon, in the elite category, proclaimed Feyisa Lilesa, from Ethiopia, who prevailed with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and 30 seconds. In the second box the podium is the Kenyan Peter Kirui, who arrived 10 seconds after the leader. In the third box, the Ethiopian Shura Kitata.
In the category of ladies, Brigid Jepchirchir Kosgei of Kenya prevailed with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes 20 seconds. Veorincah Wanjiru, also from Kenya, concluded Monday and Ruth Chepngetich, who was third.
The best Colombian athletes in the competition, were of the team Porvenir: Miguel Amador, who got tenth, with a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 32 seconds; Angie Orjuela that was seventh in its category, with a time of 1 hour 17 minutes and 57 seconds.
Top ten (elite)
Male Open Category 1. Feyisa Lilesa
2. Peter Cheruiyot
3. Shura Kitata
4. Stanley Kpileting
5. Kimutai Kiplimo
6. El Hassan El Abbassi
7. Afewerki Berhane
8. Motoloka Clement
9. Yerson Orellana 10. Miguel Amador
The full USA’s House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to advance a resolution, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), highlighting the human rights violations of the Ethiopian government, and offering a blueprint to create a government better designed to serve the interests of the Ethiopian people.
The resolution, which passed without objection, also calls on the U.S. government to implement Magnitsky Act sanctions, targeting the individuals within the Ethiopian government who are the cause of the horrific abuses.
New York Times journalist says Ethiopia faces dangers due to oppression of majority http://www.thethiopianmedia.com/article_read.php?a=121
New York Times journalist, who worked as the paper’s East Africa Bureau chief for a decade, says the oppression that the majority, especially Amharas and Oromos, suffer under the minority government is a danger for the future of the country.
Jeffrey Gettleman, who won the most coveted journalism award, the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for his work focusing on East Africa, said in an exclusive interview with ESAT that building infrastructure is important but not an excuse to kill, jail and torture innocent civilians.
“Infrastructure is really important in Africa right now. But if you are very repressive you are jeopardizing everything because you are creating this anger and resentment and volatility. We have seen that in the last couple of years, more volatility, violence and political upheaval in Ethiopia than there has been since the 1990s,” he said.
Pasar Minggu Baru is a quiet, leafy neighborhood for refugees and asylum seekers, whose paths to there have been long and fraught, South Jakarta, Indonesia, July 26, 2017. (K. Varagur)
Ranna, 24, an Oromo Ethiopian woman, is not only a third-generation refugee, but also a two-time refugee. Indonesia, which is home now, is the second place to which she has been displaced in her young life.
She was born in Saudi Arabia because her mother, the daughter of a prominent dissident, fled Ethiopia before her birth. But that country did not recognize asylum-seekers and she was officially stateless. After a brief interlude in Ethiopia, where she was deported to at age 16 and where she earned a bachelor’s degree, she was again forced to flee during a government crackdown on Oromo activists in 2015.
After a harrowing interlude in Djibouti, where she says Oromo asylum-seekers were being rounded up and deported because of an agreement with the Ethiopian government, Ranna’s smuggler booked her, her mother and her brother on a flight to Indonesia. It was a country where they knew no one and did not speak the language.
Pasar Minggu Baru abuts a commuter rail line, South Jakarta, Indonesia, July 26, 2017. (K. Varagur)
They were granted refugee status within a year and able to make a home in Pasar Minggu Baru, a South Jakarta neighborhood that abuts a commuter train line and station. Over the last three years, the neighborhood has come to house an enclave of East African refugees and asylum-seekers, some of whom arrived, like Ranna, through unscrupulous smugglers. Others got stuck in transit when Australia blocked maritime refugee arrivals in 2014.
East African asylum seekers face years-long wait times to even be granted refugee status in Indonesia, according to Trish Cameron, an independent refugee lawyer based in Jakarta. And if that happens, they face even longer wait times for resettlement out of Indonesia — if they are resettled at all, which is not a given, especially as developed countries have closed their doors in recent years.
“There’s not really anywhere to go right now,” said Ranna.
Pasar Minggu Baru community
There are about 200 Oromo refugees in Jakarta, according to Cameron, and “hundreds” of East African refugees in Pasar Minggu Baru. Ranna said she finds it quite safe.
An alleyway in Pasar Minggu Baur, which is home to many East African refugees, South Jakarta, Indonesia, July 26, 2017. (K. Varagur)
“They don’t make you feel like a stranger, maybe because refugees have been hosted here for a long time,” said Ranna. There also is a small Arab market nearby, a happy coincidence because her family speaks Arabic from their time in Saudi Arabia.
Although Ranna has been a Muslim her whole life, she began wearing a headscarf only when she moved to Jakarta, out of respect, she said, for her neighbors.
About 16 percent of the 14,093 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR Indonesia are from East Africa, said Mitra Salima Suryono, a spokesperson for the agency. Most are from Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, plus a handful from Eritrea, Uganda and Mozambique.
Today, Ranna volunteers intensively as a translator — she is fluent in Oromo, Arabic, Amharic and English, and is now conversational in Bahasa Indonesia — to help asylum-seekers in her community prepare for their interviews.
Oromo unrest
The Oromo people are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, split about evenly between Muslims and Christians [Ethiopian Orthodox and Protestant], and account for about one-third of the country’s population.
The protests that began in 2015 grew out of a grass-roots movement led by students in the Oromia region. There also is a history of armed struggle for self-determination, however, led by the Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition group formed in 1973 after a military coup. The government has outlawed the OLF as a terrorist organization and blames anti-government protests on OLF and other groups that it labels “anti-peace elements.”
Ranna’s grandfather was a member of OLF and was the earliest family member to flee Ethiopia as a refugee. Although Ranna came to her homeland only as a young adult, she quickly picked up the nationalist energy that ran through her family. She became a prominent student activist and public health official, and was in her first year of medical school when she had to leave for Indonesia.
“There is grief inside me whenever I think about our people,” said Ranna. “Even in my short time there I could see how wrong it was.”
She spent a night in jail (“it felt like a year”) for her activism, but her middle brother suffered a worse fate before he could flee: He simply disappeared.
Human Rights Watch says more than 800 protesters have been killed since the unrest began in November 2015 and thousands more people have been arrested.
In December 2016, the Ethiopian government announced it would release nearly 10,000 people detained for “rehabilitation.”
Ranna’s youngest brother had just finished 10th grade when they fled, and in him, she sees signs of the aimless boredom that is now typical of the refugee experience in Indonesia, where refugees cannot legally work or attend school. Her mother has diabetes, and is in and out of hospitals.
She still manages to make spongy injera bread in their makeshift house. Ranna herself has acute anxiety and trouble sleeping at night, bearing, as she does, the weight of her family and community, and extant fears about the Ethiopian state.
Ranna doesn’t regret her activism, even as she and her family prepare for an indefinite stay in Indonesia. “I couldn’t see people dying in front of me and do nothing,” she said. “I could not.”
Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture in October. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)
A new tax levied by authorities on small businesses and vendors has reportedly led to protests in Ethiopia’s Oromia region with the military and police deployed to bring the situation under control. The tax hike is being imposed on businesses with an annual turnover of up to 100,000 birr ($4,300), as part of a new government proposal to boost the tax base and raise much-needed government revenue.
Residents in Ambo city in Oromia damaged two state-owned vehicles, according to Addis Standard newspaper, while businesses in Woliso town shut their businesses in protest. The paper also quoted state officials saying that even though the situation was currently under control, there were plans for region-wide protests.
Like many sub Saharan Africa countries, tax collection in Ethiopia is still a low share of GDP when compared with the average for OECD countries of around 34%. Just 15.2% of Ethiopia GDP was generated by tax revenue as of 2015, according to the World Bank. Last year, a World Bank survey also showed that 54% of businesses thought the process of complying with taxation was more burdensome than the amount of due tax itself.
The new reports from Oromia are significant given that it was the genesis of anti-government protests that hit the country in Nov. 2015. The demonstrations initially began in response to the government’s master plan which sought to expand the capital Addis Ababa into neighboring towns and villages inhabited by the Oromo, the country’s largest ethnic group. The Oromo said the plan would displace farmers and stymie the growth of their culture and identity.
For Oromos, who make up at least a third of the population, they believe the federal capital, which they call Finfinne, belongs to Oromia. They recount a long history of grievance which casts Oromos as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.
The Ethiopian government reacted with force to the protests, leading to the death of 669 protesters, according to a government-mandated investigation. Last October, the government also declared a still-ongoing state of emergency, shut down the mobile internet, and banned the use of social media networks to document the unrest.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
― Frédéric Bastiat
And also, protests against this new systematic escalation of TPLF’s thievery in the name of taxation is viral on Ethiopia’s related social and independent media.
Oromia business owners asked to pay upto 500% tax compared to previous year. Mutinational companies who extract resources has 3 years taxfri pic.twitter.com/5mlb05liSn
On 7 July 2017, a letter expressing concerns for the human rights situation in Ethiopia, signed by 38 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), was addressed to European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini. Highlighting the violent suppression of Oromo protests by the Ethiopian State, the letter, in line with the European Parliament resolution passed in May, calls for an independent investigation into the killings of protesters.
During the protests that occurred in the Ethiopian regions of Oromia, Amhara and the SNNPR in 2016, government security forces used aggressive repression against the peaceful protesters, causing the protests to descend into chaos. Besides this violence against demonstrators, the security forces also used systematic sexual violence against ethnic minority and indigenous women across the country and continued to jail political activists without any legitimate ground. One of them, British citizen Andy Tsege, is currently held on death row.
In an effort led by the office of MEP Julie Ward, a letter was drafted and sent around the European Parliament expressing serious concerns over the treatment of Ethiopian protesters by armed security forces during the mobilisations and asking High Representative Federica Mogherini – head of the European External Action Service (EEAS) – to react accordingly.
In the letter, the MEPs call for the EEAS to issue a statement expressing their concern and condemning the violence with which protests have been met in Ethiopia and for an independent investigation into the conduct of the police forces during the protests to be conducted. The letter – signed by thirty-eight MEPs, spanning six different political groups – can be read in its entirety here.
UNPO expresses its gratitude to the MEPs who threw their support behind this letter, taking it as a sign of a growing European concern regarding the difficulties faced by, among others, the Oromo, the Ogadeni and the Amhara protesters and the violations of human rights against minorities and indigenous peoples in Ethiopia in general. Our organisation is committed to pursue its close collaboration with decision-makers to move toward a greater respect and a guarantee of the safeguard of human rights for all of Ethiopia’s peoples and especially the most vulnerable. UNPO hopes that the MEPs’ call will lead to a strong EU response and, in the long run, to significant improvements on this matter.
Manni murtii Federaalaa himannaa Dr. Mararaa Guddinaa, Dr. Biraahnuu Naggaa fi obbo Jawaar Mohamed ISAT FI OMN irratti himannaa abbaan alangaa dhiyeesse dhaggeeffatee jira. Dr. Mraraanis himannaan isaan irratti dhiyaate kanneen bakka hin jiraannetti himatamaniittii adda ba’ee akka, ilaalamuuf gaafataniiru. Dr. Mararaan yakkamaa utuu hin taane hidhamaa siyaasaa ti jechuun ille mana murtichatti dubbataniiru.
For many activists the revised bill is wholly insufficient. There are no plans to “pay a penny” to Oromia for use of its natural resources, such as water, or for dumping the city’s waste on its farmlands.
Nine months into a state-of-emergency imposed to quell popular unrest, Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has unveiled its first significant political concession. But the furor surrounding the draft bill presented to parliament last week reveals just how deep tensions in Africa’s second most populous country still run. At stake is the answer to a highly charged question: who owns Addis Ababa?
For Oromos, who make up at least a third of the population and formed the backbone of last year’s mobilization against the central government, the answer is simple: the federal capital, which they call Finfinne, belongs to Oromia. They recount a long history of grievance which casts Oromos as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.
This anger became especially acute in the past decade as Addis Ababa expanded rapidly and when, in April 2014, the authorities published a new master plan which proposed further eviction of Oromo residents and farmers in the name of development. “The issue of Finfinne is the heart of our politics,” says Gemechis, an Oromo resident of the city. “It is where we lost everything.” The master plan was dropped in January 2016 but demonstrations continued unabated until October.
Addis Ababa, with a population approaching four million people, is also home to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa and is widely regarded as Africa’s diplomatic capital—and indeed the world’s third largest diplomatic hub.
Pro-Oromo protesters in Addis Ababa. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)
The new bill is a symbolically important effort to address some of the protesters’ demands, and to give concrete meaning to Oromia’s constitutionally-enshrined “special interest” in the capital. Proposed changes include making Afan Oromo an official language of the federal government alongside Amharic, as well as setting up Afan Oromo schools in the city; renaming the city “Finfinne/Addis Ababa”; restoring original Oromo names of public squares, roads and neighborhoods; and the establishment of a joint council with the federal government to administer the city.
It is a watered down version of an earlier draft that reportedly met with much objection inside the ruling party. This is not surprising since the meaning of “special interest” has never been fully spelt out and there is much debate as to how much privilege Oromos should have in a multiethnic city that, despite being located entirely within Oromia, has a population that is only around 20% Oromo.
For many activists the revised bill is wholly insufficient. There are no plans to “pay a penny” to Oromia for use of its natural resources, such as water, or for dumping the city’s waste on its farmlands, says Seyoum Teshome, an academic and blogger. “The bill is trash.” He and others argue that promises to pay farmers proper compensation for further evictions merely proves that the government still intends to expand the boundaries of the city.
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa was built after 1941 to commemorate the liberation of Ethiopia from Fascist Italy. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr. CC BY 2.0
At the end of June, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers revealed a bill that seeks to address questions of social services, language, education and culture involving the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, and Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region within which Addis Ababa is located.
The government and its supporters say the law is needed to redress the historical injustices that the people of Oromia suffered since the establishment of Addis Ababa. Critics see the law as a tactic to disenfranchise the residents of Addis Ababa. Some go further in their allegation that the law is intended to worsen the already sensitive ethnic relations in Ethiopia.
Most of the debate about the bill has fallen along the lines of regional elites against more cosmopolitan elites, tradition against modernity, and ethno-nationalists against civic nationalists — divisions that are often a source of strife in Ethiopia.
On the map of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa is a stretch of high plains inside the state Oromia. With just 0.047 percent of the country’s territory, Addis Ababa is the largest metropolitan area in Ethiopia. Numerous ethnic and religious groups from every corner of Ethiopia live in Addis Ababa; a significant number of Addis Ababa’s 4 million residents generally present themselves as cosmopolitan, liberal and post-ethnic.
Oromia, meanwhile, is home to the Oromo people, the single largest ethnic group comprising at least 34 percent of Ethiopia’s 100 million population, but which has also historically been politically marginalized. Addis Ababa is the seat of the current government — EPRDF, which is dominated by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front — and although it is inside the state, Oromia does not control the city; the federal government does and has since 1991 when Ethiopia was transformed into a federation of nine ethnic-based regional states.
The Ethiopian constitution, however, accorded Oromia what the government called “Special Interest” over Addis Ababa when it was adopted in 1995 due to the city’s unique location.
The purpose of the new draft law is to legislate the “Special Interest” provisions of the constitution and solve other problems that have arisen between Addis Ababa and Oromia, such as the possible expansion of the city’s boundaries, which would have meant the eviction of Oromo farmers whose subsistence depends on farmlands that are located around the city.
The expansion, among other things, was at the heart of protests mounted by Oromo students from 2014 to 2016. The Ethiopian government cracked down on the movement hard; according to rights organizations, hundreds were killed and thousands were arrested before Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in October 2016.
The proposed law is contentious, but many expect that it will be passed over the next few days.
Addis Ababa’s skyline provides a backdrop for Meskal Square, site of military parades and rallies during the Communist era which ended in 1991. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr. CC BY 2.0
Incorporating Oromo identity into Addis Ababa
There are about 13 “titles” in the bill, each dedicated to the “Special Interest” of the state of Oromia over Addis Ababa.
In its major provisions, the bill would incorporate Oromo (known as “Afaan Oromo”) as a working language of the municipality, mandate that the city government provide education for residents of Addis Ababa whose mother tongue is Afaan Oromo, and preserve Oromo cultural enclaves and buildings within the city. The bill also sanctions the use of Finfine (in Oromo language) as an alternative name of Addis Ababa and allows the renaming of streets, public squares, and neighborhoods in Addis Ababa with names memorializing Oromo culture and identity.
This part of the bill has been discussed widely on social media as it deals with the history, identity and language use of Addis Ababa.
Opponents fear it causes division and strife by appealing Oromo nationalists, and some have further claimed the problems these provisions claim to solve don’t actually exist.
However, many Oromo nationalists support this part of the bill, albeit with qualms.
Who owns Addis Ababa land?
Oromo nationalists, however, categorically oppose a different part of the bill that deals with the ownership of land in Addis Ababa.
In the current practice, the federal government owns the land and the bill explicitly asserts that Addis Ababa is a federal land. But the bill would warrant the state of Oromia to acquire and develop land for government activities and public services free of occupancy payment.
For critics, that doesn’t do enough to grant Oromia its rightful and historical ownership of the city of Addis Ababa. As a guest author of the pro-government news analysis site the HornAffairs wrote:
The constitution clearly provides that territorially the Ethiopian State is structured into only nine regional states. The territory of Ethiopia comprises the territory of these member states.
Apart from the member states territory there is no piece of land belonging to the federal government or any other kind of administration. Any conception of Addis Ababa as an administration with its own separate territorial jurisdiction outside of Oromia or as a federal territory is ruled out from the beginning.
Anyone living in Addis is living in Oromia Regional State.
Non-Oromo opponents of the bill claim that this section will allow discrimination against Addis Ababa residents, who usually present themselves as post-ethnic and cosmopolitan.On Facebook, the former chairman of Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, Kebour Ghenna, wrote:
Very soon, I will be celebrating my sixtieth birthday in Addis Ababa. My son was born in Addis Ababa. I was born in Addis Ababa. My father was born Addis Ababa. My grandfather also!
Last week’s EPRDF arbitrary edict, offering Addis Ababa an absurd affirmative action model has come as a surprise and shock to me… I am sure to many others too. This decree reinforces further the attempt of the government to divide of Addis Ababians according to ethnic lines, and disenfranchises a huge number of residents.
But Oromo nationalists argue back that they were forcefully removed from the land over the course of numerous bloody disputes, so it makes sense for Oromia to be guaranteed some level of influence over the city. In his response to Kebour Ghenna, Birhanemeskel Abebe wrote:
No Armageddon! No Apocalypse at the return of Addis Ababa’s as an Oromia City and Capital!
Healthcare and jobs
Another important component of the bill deals with jobs, social and health care services.
Under current practice, all Ethiopians including Oromos in Addis Ababa are entitled to jobs, social and health care services. But the bill would institute opportunity structures for Oromo youth who live in and around the city of Addis Ababa, seeming to imply that there is discrimination against Oromos in Addis Ababa. Opride, a news analysis site wrote:
…the draft further alienates and excludes the Oromo people from the city by misconstruing basic constitutional and human rights as Oromia’s special interest. For example, a key provision on health care states that Oromos living in towns and rural areas around Addis Ababa can “access health care services at government hospitals and medical facilities like any resident of the city.” This is laughable. It implies that there is a law in place that currently prevents Oromos from seeking medical treatment at public hospitals and clinics in Addis Ababa. Or that Addis Ababa residents currently enjoy preferential access and treatment at public health institutions in the city.
Seenaa Solomon is a talented musician, actor and journalist. She is one of the most adored in Oromo (indigenous) cultural music with her inspirational and beautiful songs and lyrics. Because she is an Oromo woman, promotes Oromo culture and music, and advocates for the rights of people under tyrannical regime, she has been kidnapped by TPLF Ethiopia’s fascist forces and thrown into Ma’ekelawi torture camp.
On 30 June 2017, the People’s Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD) issued a press statement denouncing the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)’s violation of the rights of the Oromo in the framework of the expansion of Addis Ababa. The “masterplan” aiming at expanding the capital into surrounding Oromia, thus threatening of eviction a number of Oromo farmers, had sparked the protests that led the ruling party to impose a state of emergency in the country back in October 2016. While the power in place has officially made a U-turn, cancelling the plan after months of peaceful demonstrations in Oromia and beyond, the PAFD today fears that the masterplan will be indirectly implemented, thus overlooking the rights of the region’s inhabitants.
Article 49 (5) of the current Ethiopian constitution recognizes the Oromia’s special interest in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). According to these rights, Oromia should have had the said interests honored, decades ago. However, in the past 26 years, TPLF’s regime has repeatedly denied these and the other fundamental rights; instead displacing tens of thousands of Oromo peasants from the environs of Finfinnee and the other neighboring villages and districts, as the capital rapaciously expands. Tens of thousands of Oromo civilians have been murdered by the security and armed forces of the incumbent for demanding these rights to be honored. Tens of thousands become destitute beggars in their own ancestral lands; whereas TPLF and its affiliates exponentially increase their wealth in Oromo land, including in Finfinnee.
Furthermore, between 70 and 80, 000 unlawfully incarcerated Oromo’s noncombatant civilians including prominent politicians, academics, peasants, students of all categories, are to date languishing in various substandard prison cells and discreet torturing chambers. To this date, TPLF works hard to continue with its confiscation of the Oromo land, the current fake, the ‘Oromo interest in Finfinnee’ mantra is, a continuation of its plots to further displace millions.
As we speak, TPLF pretends to be caring for the Oromo nation’s interests in their own soil, despite it has continually brutalized the nation for the last 26 years for demanding these. TPLF’s pretense on legalizing the special interest for Oromo nation in Finfinnee is nothing other than; firstly, a plot to deceive the Oromo nation, and secondly separate them from their fellow non-Oromo country men and women with whom they have peacefully coexisted for centuries, with the said systematically masterminded plots. Thirdly and ultimately, the regime aims at indirectly implementing its Addis-Master plan under whose name, the regime has mass murdered Oromo civilians; for abhorring crimes, no one held into account to date.
Therefore, TPLF demonstrates its inaptness when, it erroneously asserts that, the Oromo nation doesn’t know its malicious plots against the Oromo’s national interest. The fact is that, the level of Oromo national consciousness is beyond TPLF’s comprehension; the reason why it recklessly plans for further bloodshed. From this time onwards, the Oromo nation never allow TPLF’s barbaric regime to continually milk its wealth peacefully. The Oromo is not stagnating with the level of the 18th century mentality of subservience. If TPLF begs the subservience of the Oromo nation and the rest peoples of Ethiopia after this period, it plays fatal game. The time of innocence and subservience is over. We would like to reiterate that, TPLF’s brutal regime must know that, the sons and daughter of the Oromo nation have already shaken its foundation since October 2015 Oromo revolution. This is clear to both friends and foes, including the incumbent. It was the Oromo revolution coupled with lately joined Amhara, that has obliged TPLF’s regime to impose ‘State of Emergency’ since October 2016. It must be crystal clear to TPLF and its Oromo quislings that, the Oromo nation never surrenders its rights. The nation with likeminded nations and peoples of the country fights, to the last drop of blood. This must be unambiguously clear.
We strongly believe that, the owner of the land in Finfinnee and its environs is the Oromo nation, but no one else. TPLF can’t give Oromo’s land to Oromo people. Instead, TPLF must lease the Oromo land from the Oromo people. It can’t be other way around. Therefore, the current maliciously masterminded, fake Oromo ‘special interests’ lies and deceits brings no benefit to the Oromo people. The Oromo nation unequivocally knows this unshakable fact, as do its allies and the entire peoples of Ethiopia. TPLF’s reckless plots, rather will be extremely dangerous, as it is unfolding whilst the regime is ruling the country under State of Emergency.
Finally, disregarding the outcries and bloods of thousands of Oromo people, who have been gunned down in broad day lights by the army and security forces of this very regime, whilst demanding their fundamental rights, the ongoing TPLF’s attempts only exacerbates, already volatile situation. It further angers the Oromo nation and their allies, thus prepare them for further bitter struggle. It must be clear to TPLF’s from Oromia, and the other regions’ looted wealth intoxicated generals and politicians that, the Oromo nation never allow its land to be further graveyards for its sons and daughters whilst enriching TPLF and its affiliates. We strongly believe and reiterate that, the said special interest are better rationed to those who have settled in Oromo land including in Finfinnee, for all including TPLF and its bandit-generals, by the legitimate owners of the land, the Oromo nation. TPLF’s minority regime has no legitimate rights to overtake the land of the Oromo whose population constitute over 40% out of 104 million. The actions and policies of TPLF’s minority regime is indefensible, thus, we wholly condemn it with all possible words, and urge it to uncondti0nally stop it.
The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) believes the draft law’s utter neglect of the Oromo people’s demands risks reigniting conflict on the unresolved issue of Oromia’s right over Addis Ababa.
On June 27, 2017, the Council of Ministers of the Government of Ethiopia announced that it has adopted a draft legislation to determine by law the “special interest” provision of the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution and sent it to the House of People’s Representatives. The legislation was an abridged version of the draft law the government had leaked a few weeks earlier and quickly disavowed after a backlash from a deeply skeptical public about the intent and contents of the legislation. On June 29, the draft legislation was taken up by House of People’s Representative with a view to promulgating it as law.
The Ethiopian Constitution posits, in Article 49 (5), that the special interest of the State of Oromia in Addis Ababa concerns three important areas: the provision of social services, the utilization of natural resources and joint administration of the city in lieu of the fact that Addis Ababa location within the State of Oromia. The law that was designed to determine these issues would be expected to explain in detail the meaning and process of implementation of the constitutional provisions.
Assessed by any measure, the draft legislation is not worthy of its name. Nowhere does it attempt to define the “special interest” provision of the constitution or recognize the struggle of the Oromo people and their demands regarding Finfinnee/Addis Ababa. The draft legislation doesn’t designate the Oromia regional government as the beneficiary of the constitutional “special interest.” The boundary of Finfinnee is not delimited, even though that is a sinquanon for implementation of the proclamation. Instead there are indications of intent to expand the city limits into the Oromia state territory. With regard to social services, the proclamation only reiterates conventions and practices already in use and in place.
Rather than defining the constitutional provision, the “proclamation” rehashes policy issues that any city government must undertake to serve its citizens. Providing inter-state transport services shouldn’t be a matter defined by law as a “special interest;” market forces are already at work in this respect. Providing youth employment is a responsibility of an incumbent in any city government. It cannot be designated as a special interest of a state. Overall, if there is anything resembling a definition of the constitutional provision, it is allusions to the rights of Finfinne residents who happen to be Oromo rather than those of the Oromia regional state as stipulated in the constitution. The proclamation also re-grants constitutional rights to Oromo residents as if their rights within Finfinnee aren’t already protected by the Ethiopian Constitution.
In this sense, OSA considers the draft proclamation a mockery of the process of legislation that should be solemn and dignified. Even worse, the proclamation is an insult to the legitimate demand of the Oromo people for which, in the last two years, thousands have given their lives, limbs and livelihoods. To reduce the Oromo people’s demands to issues of youth unemployment, compensation for confiscated properties and provision of services is a dangerous political ploy that entails severe consequences.
As a scholarly organization that has documented the struggle of the Oromo people for freedom, justice, dignity and human rights, OSA condemns the Ethiopian regime’s blatant disregard for the Oromo people’s demands over Finfinnee. OSA scholars have documented the history of violent conquests and the consequent dispossession of Oromo lands, dislocation of homesteads and displacement Oromo people from the area today known as Addis Ababa.
It is unconscionable that the Ethiopian regime, when it is given the chance to correct historical injustices, has chosen to pursue the short term goal of perpetuating in power a group that has been there for more than a quarter century by force. OSA feels that the complete failure of the Ethiopian government to heed the cry of the Oromo people can only pave the way for more violence and bloodshed.
Cognizant of the long history and the intensity of the current demands of the Oromo people, OSA calls upon the following to take immediate action to obviate conflict and its horrendous consequences.
To the Ethiopian Government
The Oromo interest on Finfinnee is not “special.” It is historical and inherent. If this draft legislation were to have a chance of being accepted as adequate, it should respond to the Oromo people’s articulation of their interest during their protests last year. At a minimum, the draft legislation must include the following provisions.
Delimit the boundary of Finfinnee the city boundary as it existed in 1991. Continued expansion is a recipe for renewed conflict.
Recognize the Oromia regional government’s right to joint governance of the city. – Establish the Oromo language as a working language.
Respect the political, economic and civil rights of all the residents.
Recognize the city resident full democratic right of municipal self-governance instead of treating them as subjects of federal authority.
– Restore and legally establish the city’s indigenous name, Finfinnee, as the official name of the city.
Established by legislation the Oromo people’s right to socio-cultural, economic, environmental, and political benefits in the city and take measures to facilitate the enjoyment of these rights.
To Oromo people all over Oromia and Ethiopia:
OSA is believes that your protest last year has brought you to the verge of victory. Your gallantry and fearless engagement of security forces has caused the Ethiopian government at all levels to heed your demands. OSA salutes you on your achievements and your discerning wisdom concerning timing and appropriateness of direct action.
OSA believes the government is aware of the power of your commitment to peaceful protest. We reckon that it will quickly abandon its misguided draft legislation. At the same time, we fully support your commitment to peaceful protest.
OSA affirms its commitment to continue to provide the institutional support and intellectual materials needed to press on the Oromo people’s struggle for ensuring Oromia’s interest on Finfinnee.
To Foreign Governments and Donors supporting the Ethiopian government:
The issue of land and the Oromo interest over Finfinnee were the main causes of the protests that lasted for nearly a year in Oromia in 2016. This draft legislation on Oromia’s “special interest” is now being described as a backdoor attempt to implement the dreaded Addis Ababa Master Plan that triggered the protests. Governments and representatives of the international community have an obligation to use their good offices and leverage to persuade the Ethiopian government to refrain from forging ahead with this draft proclamation.
OSA urges all parties to understand that Oromos are a force for peace and stability in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Respect for human rights and commitment to peace and justice have been the traditional governing principles of Oromos. It is in the interest of those states that have security and other interests in Ethiopia to support these enduring Oromo values and denounce the rule of violence and rule by administrative fiat. OSA is aware that all foreign parties in Ethiopia pursue their own interests. However, an interest that is singularly self-serving cannot guarantee long term stability.
To Non-governmental organizations and rights groups
In line with OSA statement on the Master Plan and the Oromo protests, issued on December 9, 2016, we reiterate our commendation of the courageous work of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and International Crisis Group in
investigating crises affecting the Oromo over the years. The irresponsible act of the Ethiopian regime in drafting the Oromia “special” interest legislation undermines the demands of the Oromo people over Finfinnee. As such, it is bound to provoke public anger. We urge you to continue to document the injustices that are being perpetrated under the state of emergency that has been in effect since October 9, 2016.
To International and Foreign Media Outlets:
OSA calls upon all forms of print, broadcast and online media to document and publicize the events underway in Ethiopia. The issue of Finfinnee is a potent political issue. We urge you to watch the events surrounding this draft proclamation as it is pregnant with all the elements that ignited a historic protests movement that resulted in the death of thousands of people in 2016.
The scheme to dispossess the Oromo of their land and homeland, to dislocate them from their livelihood, and destroy their language and cultural identity, whether expressed blatantly as a Master Plan or shrouded with a cloak of a “special interest” draft law, is a threat to the economic wellbeing and survival as a nation. OSA affirms its commitment to offer all possible intellectual and scholarly assistance to strengthen the efforts to prevent its implementation.
As massive protests swept across Ethiopia last year, the dire human rights situation in the country made headlines around the world. The Financial Times described it as Ethiopia’s “Tiananmen Square moment,” and then-US Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Tom Malinowski called the government’s crackdowns on dissent “self-defeating tactics.”
A poster of Olympic silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa at a protest in Oakland, California. Making the crossed arm gesture is now a criminal offense under Ethiopia’s state of emergency. Credit: Elizabeth Fraser.
The protests that brought this unprecedented attention to the country were rooted in land grabs. Starting in November 2015, Ethiopians took to the streets to oppose a “Master Plan” to expand the borders of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, which would have displaced Oromian farmers from their homes and land. The plan was eventually canceled, but the protests struck a nerve and became more widespread, calling for human rights and democracy in the country.
After failed attempts to quell the increasing dissent with force, the Ethiopian government imposed a country-wide state of emergency in October 2016. Since then, the news out of Ethiopia has waned, but problems remain.
The State of Emergency: A Veil to Hide Political Turmoil
In late July 2016, as protests spread from Oromia to the Amhara region, the country’s two largest ethnic groups – who together make up over 60 percent of the population – joined together. Despite being faced with violence from the security forces, citizens refused to back down and took to innovative means, like shaving their heads in solidarity with political prisoner Bekele Gerba and launching city-wide stay-at-home protests. In August, when Olympic silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa crossed his hands above his head in solidarity with the protests as he crossed the finish line at the Rio Olympics, the plight of his people was brought to the TV screens of millions around the world. And in October, the political situation in Ethiopia further unravelled as dozens if not hundreds were killed at an annual Irreechaa celebration in Oromia, when the police response to protests triggered a stampede.
To curb this mounting dissent, a state of emergency was imposed in October 2016, including a long list of draconian measures curtailing freedoms across the country. Security forces were given greater powers, social media and diaspora news outlets were banned, curfews and travel restrictions were imposed, and more. Over 26,000 people were arrested, most of whom were sent to “rehabilitation camps,” where detainees reportedly endured physical violence, degrading conditions, and were forced to take part in a training program to ensure allegiance to the ruling party.
In March 2017, while some of the restrictions were lifted, the state of emergency was extended for another four months.
An oral report from one internal investigation, provided by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in April 2017, concluded that nearly 670 people lost their lives in last year’s violence, over 600 of whom were civilians. The commission, however, went on to blame much of the violence on opposition groups, as well as diaspora-based media outlets such as the Oromo Media Network and the television station ESAT. Worse still, the commission deemed that the use of force by security officials in many instances was “proportionate.”
Several observers have challenged these findings and question the EHRC’s independence. The Commission is both funded and overseen by the parliament and is led by Dr. Addisu Gebregziabher, who took the appointment after finishing his term as deputy chairman of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia – the agency under which the current government won 100 percent of the seats in parliament in the last election.
A few weeks after the EHRC’s oral report was heard, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein traveled to Ethiopia where he met with numerous government officials, as well as political prisoners at the notorious Kilinto jail.
In a press conference, High Commissioner Zeid brought attention to several issues plaguing Ethiopia, including the need for more “substantive, stable and open democratic space.” Zeid also noted that laws such as the Anti-Terrorism and Charities of Societies Proclamations are not aligned with international legal norms. High Commiss
![Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]](https://i1.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2017/5/25/4712f0ab84fd472ba8f10f3c09ede279_18.jpg "Ethiopia's decision on 'political prisoners' in context")
#OromoProtests continues with protests against fascist TPLF regimes’s mass killings and demanding immediate withdrawal of armed forces.![[Photos] Ethiopia students stage peaceful protest over Oromia deaths](https://static.euronews.com/articles/415201/400x225_415201.jpg?1513552800)
Godina Wallagaa aanaa Gudayyaa Biilaa irraa,ummaanni gudayyaa biilaa sababa lukkeelee Sirna nama nyaataa mootummaan wayyaanee mirga hiree namummaa fi qabeenya uunfaa ofiitti fayyadamu sarbamnee murtoo balleessanii baduurra geenyeerra jedha qeerroon gudayyaa Biilaa.
jalatti Argaman keessatti lagannaan gabayaa itti fufeeti jira Qobbootti Lagannaan gabaa roga hundaan godhamaa kan jiru yoo ta’uu wayyaanen daldaltoota walitti qabdee dirqamaan gara hojii keessanii akka deebitan jettee doorsisaa jirti.daldaltoonnis gibirri humnaa ol nutti fe’ame kan doorsisa kamuu kan nu sodaachisuu miti.nuti waan waggaa kudhanitti dalagannee hin arganne waggaa tokkotti mootummaadhaaf kaffaluu maaltu fide osoo hin hojjanne jiraachuu ni dandeenya jechuun ergamtoota wayyaanee ufirraa oofaniiti jiru. 
Godina Arsii.
Adooleessa 18,2017/Godina Arsii Aanota hedduu keessatti guyyoota lamaan har’aaf kaleessa lagannaan gabaa kan taasifame yoo ta’uu Suuqonni daldalaa magaalota akka Seeruu,Balee, Geersaa, Shaashamannee,Adaabbaa, Dodola,Roobe,Saddiiqa, Waabee, Eddoo, Kofalee, Nageellee, Ajjee keessatti Gibira Wayyaanen Ummatarratti feete mormuun gabaa lagatanii jiru. Tajaajilli Geejjibaas dhaabbateera Konkolaachiftoonni fi Abbootin qabeenyaa sabaan Oromoo hin ta’in muraasni isaanii dalagaa isaanii didanii kan itti fufan yoo ta’uu. Diddaa kanatti akka makaman karaa adda addaatin Qeerron ergeefii kan jiru yoo ta’uu gaaffii isaanif dhiyeessine kana fudhachuun gara ummataa hin goran yoo ta’e Qeerron tarkaanfii Qabeenya isaanii irratti akka fudhatus hubachiisee jira. jedhu Gabaasaalen Qeerroo magaalota adda addaa irraa nu gahaa juru.
Adoolessaa 18/2017 Godina Lixa Shaggar Aanaa Adaa’aa Bargaa Magaalaa Incinnii Keessatti Qeerroon Dargaggootni Oromoo Sochii Warraaqsaa Biyyoolessa Oromiyaa FXG daran jabeessuun finniinsaa jiruu, Warraaqsii kun yeroo amma sagalee dhaadannoo jabaa dhageesisuun itti fufani jiru. 
Adoolessa 16/2017 Galgala keessaa sa’a 2:50 irraa eegalee Magaalaa Amboo Keessatti Dhukaasni cimaan kan waraana wayyaanee irraa uummatatti baname , gara naannoo Mooraa Yuunibarsiitii Amboottii Waraanni Wayyaanee dhukaasaa guddaa uummata sivilii irratti banuun dargaggoota Oromoo Lama Wareeguun Ibsame jira, Kanneen madeeffaman hanga gabasni kun nu gaheetti adda kan hin baanee ta’uu maddeen Qeerroo Magaalaa Amboo addeessaan. Magaalaan Amboo galgala kana caalaatti gara dirree waraanaatti waan jijjiiramte fakkaatti , gabaasaa dabalataan walitti deebina. 
Adoolessa 16,2017/ Uummanni Shaggar lixaa rakkoo guddaa keessa jiraachuu Qeerroon naannoo Sana’a addeessan.akka gabaasa qeerroo naannoo sanaatti rakkoowwaan jireenyaa ilma namaaf barbaachisan kan akka,tajaajila Daandiin, Ibsaa,Bishaan fi kkf guutummaatti surni nama nyaataa mootummaa wayyaanee ummatarraa kuteera uummanni rakkoo guddaa keessatti argama.
Adoolessa 15,2017. Godina Arsii Aanaa Siree keessatti Guyyaa har’aa Suuqonni cufaa oolanii jiru. Tilmaama gatii kan galii gibiraa jechuun waajjirri Galii Aanichaa maxxanseen wal qabatee daldaltoonni hojii dhaabanii jiru Waraanni wayyasnees magaalicha keessa deemee ummanni dirqamaan akka suuqii daldalaa isaanii banan furqamsiisuf tattaafachaa jiraachuu maddeen keenya magaalaa Siree gabaasanij jiru. 
Gidduugaleessaa Oromiyaa Godina Lixa Shaggar Magaalaa Ambootti Sochiin Warraaqsaa Biyyoolessa Oromiyaa FXG Kanfaltiin gibiraa dachaa guddaan Uummatarratti dabalamuu waliin walqabatee daran jabaachuun Mormii Guddaan Qeerroo Dargaggoota Oromoo, Daldaltoota fi Uummata Hundaa kan Hirmaachise Warraaqsii Finiinaa jira. 
