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They are the biggest ethnic group in Ethiopia but they are rarely heard: For almost a year the Oromo people have been demanding their rights. The government has responded brutally and has now declared a state of emergency. Tesfalem Waldyes felt the harshness of the regime: he was jailed for more than a year.
[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner(OHCHR) [official website] on Wednesday urged[press release] Ethiopian authorities to end the violence against peaceful protesters. These attacks by Ethiopian authorities have reportedly led to over 600 deaths in the past year. In response to this violence, the UN has called for an international commission and have requested that the Ethiopian government allow for them to investigate the protests and the violent tactics used against the peaceful demonstrators. Experts claim that there have been numerous allegations of mass killings and disappearances, thousands of protesters injured and tens of thousands arrested. There is also concern that many of those arrested have faced torture and ill-treatment in military detention centers. Another main concern is the use of national security and counter-terrorism legislation to target individuals who are exercising their rights to peaceful assembly. Protests began a year ago [UN News Centre report] in response to the Government’s plan to expand certain boundaries displacing farmers, along with the annexation of Konso Wereda into the Segen Arae Peoples Zone.
The conflict between the Ethiopian government and protestors has been widespread. Tensions increased over the past week when at least 55 were killed in clashes between police and protesters at a festival. Last month Ethiopia’s opposition leader and leader of the Oromo ethnic group, Tiruneh Gamta, demanded the release of all political prisoners [JURIST report] “regardless of any political stand or religion or creed.” The Oromo ethnic group, representing the largest group among the protesters, is largely credited with starting the protests last November when the government announced its plan to expand the capital into the Oromia region. Although the Oromos initially started protesting against what they viewed as a plan to remove them from fertile land in the region, the protests started taking on a different theme even as the government dropped its plan to expand the capital—one calling for the release of political prisoners [Al Jazeera report]. According to rights groups, at least 500 people have been killed and thousands arrested since the unrest began. In January several Ethiopian rights groups called on the international community to address the killing [JURIST report] of protesters.
On October 9, the Ethiopian government declared a country-wide six-month state of emergency. It has been a bloody year for Ethiopia, and the past few weeks have been no different.
Scores of people – possibly hundreds – died in a stampede on October 2 in Bishoftu, Oromia region, fleeing security force gunfire and teargas during the annual Irreecha harvest festival, important for the country’s 40 million ethnic Oromos. This was the latest lethal crackdown by the government, which has suppressed hundreds of protests across Oromia that grew out of opposition to development plans around the capital, Addis Ababa, last November.
While the vast majority of those protests have been peaceful, anger boiled over last week after the deaths at Irreecha. In Oromia, protesters attacked government buildings and private businesses perceived to be close to the ruling party, setting some on fire.
Now, under the state of emergency – declared on state television – the army will be deployed country-wide. Intensifying the military’s role in responding to the protests is sure to fuel the escalating anger in Oromia.
From the hundreds of interviews Human Rights Watch has carried out with protesters, witnesses and victims since the protests began, it is clear that each act of brutality by the military – the same military now tasked with restoring law and order – further emboldens the protest movement.
The government’s announcement indicates that it does not intend to reverse course, away from the use of force and towards engagement with communities about their grievances. Instead it seems determined to use force to suppress free expression and peaceful assembly.
Until Ethiopians can voice their views about critical issues such as development and governance, anger and frustration will likely continue, plunging the country into further uncertainty and possibly toward an even more dire and irreversible human rights crisis.
Women carry water back to their makeshift homes in Aydora, Ethiopia, in February. (Aida Muluneh /For The Washington Post)
August 12
Regarding the Aug. 10 editorial “Ethiopia’s violent silencing”:It is true that, as the editorial board put it, “the United States has long relied on Ethiopia as a partner in the fight against al-Shabab’s terrorism in Somalia and sends the country tens of millions of dollars in development assistance.” But this characterization, which substantially underestimates the amount of aid we devote to propping up this tyranny, implies that we’re at least getting something in return for turning a blind eye to its crimes against humanity.
In fact, when one considers that the regime’s leaders are faking their claims of economic success, covering up the extent of the biggest famine in the country’s history, secretly trading with al-Shabab, embezzling $2 billion every year, enforcing policies that have killed millions of their citizens through neglect and malfeasance, and have perpetrated outright genocide, it becomes clear that we’ve gained nothing that could justify our shameful complicity in this holocaust. Our policy is a strategic failure and a moral stain that history will judge harshly.
David Steinman, New York
The writer is an adviser to
Ethiopia’s democracy movement.
The seizure of large tracts of land is a process of re-concentration and of the marginalization and disempowerment of Ethiopia’s (non-Tigray) ethnic groups.
The EPRDF’s governing ideology, “revolutionary democracy”—a curious concoction of Marxist, Maoist, and ethno-regionalist thought—demands Soviet-style submission to the Tigray-dominated state. It calls for communal collective participation and democratic centralism. Through gim gima, nationally publicized government evaluation sessions, the regime weeds out dissidents and indoctrinates citizens. Following the regime’s violent clampdown during the disputed 2005 elections, the EPRDF published a booklet entitled Democracy and Democratic Unity that it used nationwidegim gima to explain away its brutal response. The booklet gave Ethiopians a “clear choice between dependency and anti-democracy forces” (i.e. opposition parties) and “revolutionary democracy (peace and developmentalism).” Rather than participants in a liberal order, then, Ethiopian citizens are mobilizing apparatchiks for the vanguard party. And since 1991 they have been subject to the diktats of one ethnic (minority) group. Resistance has been met with imprisonment, or worse.
Since November 2015, Ethiopia has been beset by an unprecedented wave of protests. They began as a rebuke to a government plan to expand the municipal boundaries of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia Region. They have since expanded to the neighboring Amhara Region, underscoring decades of grievances against ethnic marginalization and authoritarian rule by the governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The regime has responded aggressively. Human Rights Watch reports upwards of five hundred people have been so far killed in what the United States has decried as an “excessive use of force.” Tens of thousands more have been detained. An unexplained fire on September 3 in Kilinto prison in which hundreds of political prisoners are housed killed at least twenty-three. Rather than backing down, however, the protesters are gathering steam. The unrest has opened a pandora’s box of institutional and ideological contradictions that strike at the heart of contemporary Ethiopian statehood. Understanding these issues is essential for an understanding of the unrest now gripping the country.
“You cannot remove the ethnic issue from Ethiopian politics,” Eskinder Nega, a now-imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and democracy activist, told me in 2010. At the time I was an overeager doctoral student living in Addis Ababa and researching Chinese investments in the country. I had been introduced to Eskinder by a university professor, and he was kind enough to indulge (and endure) the inquisitive pepperings of a graduate student. Ethiopia is made up of nine dominant ethnic groups and approximately eighty others. Historically, the Amhara people—of which Eskinder is a member—were the country’s governing force. Emperor Haile Selassie, Emperor Menilek (1889–1913) before him, and Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Derg regime (1974–89) after him were all Amhara. Each sought to establish a unified Ethiopia with Amharic as the official language and the Amhara culture as the foundation of Ethiopian identity. All other identities were to be eliminated—either by way of assimilation, or by force. In this the Derg was especially merciless. It perceived ethnic diversity as a threat to state unity; through its Red Terror campaign, it brutally slaughtered over five hundred thousand people—all, in its eyes, enemies of the Amhara state. The policies of the Derg were especially damaging to the population of Tigray, a tiny region in the northernmost part of Ethiopia along the border with Eritrea. Today, the Tigray make up a mere six percent of the population. Government brutality, lack of economic opportunity, and prohibitions on labor migration left the Tigray ethnically and economically isolated.
Years of repression ultimately gave way to resentment of the Amhara and, by extension, the state. It also gave rise to what Ethiopian historian Gebru Tareke calls “dissent nationalism,” and the emergence of ethno-nationalist groups like the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). For the TPLF, the state was an oppressive and colonizing force from which the country’s ethnicities had to be liberated. In 1975 the group waged what amounted to a secessionist struggle: its 1976 manifesto established “the first task of the national struggle will be the establishment of an independent democratic republic of Tigray.” When in 1989 the TPLF, then already under the direction of Meles Zenawi, successfully overthrew the Derg and in 1991 merged with three other political factions to form the EPRDF, Ethiopia was subdivided into nine mostly ethnic regions, each with the right to independent lawmaking, executive, and judicial powers. Enshrined in Article 39.3 of the constitution is the right of all ethnicities to “self-government.” Ethnic communities ostensibly inherited Ethiopia. The catch, of course, is that the EPRDF believes the only mechanism capable of ensuring sovereignty for each of the country’s ethnicities is the EPRDF itself. Relations between the central government and the regions have over the years become so centralized, and local authority so emasculated, that the de jurepremise of the modern Ethiopian state—ethnic federalism—is meaningless. Contemporary Ethiopia is a shining example of the ancient dictum, repeated throughout the ages, dīvide et īmpera—divide and rule. Further complicating the narrative is the fact that the EPRDF—in which the TPLF remains the dominant force—has never fully surrendered its vision of an independent Tigray. The 1976 manifesto has never been revised.
In this way, decades of Amhara control have given way to decades of Tigray control. The presidential office, the parliament, central government ministries and agencies—including public enterprises—and financial institutions have since 1991 all been controlled by the TPLF. So too the military. 99 percent of Ethiopian National Defense Force officers are from Tigray; 97 percent are from the same village. Only the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, is not Tigray: he is Wolayta, an ethnic group that forms the majority of the population in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR). His historically close ties to Meles, first while President of SNNPR, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, have, however, effectively rendered him Tigray by association.
The EPRDF’s governing ideology, “revolutionary democracy”—a curious concoction of Marxist, Maoist, and ethno-regionalist thought—demands Soviet-style submission to the Tigray-dominated state. It calls for communal collective participation and democratic centralism. Through gim gima, nationally publicized government evaluation sessions, the regime weeds out dissidents and indoctrinates citizens. Following the regime’s violent clampdown during the disputed 2005 elections, the EPRDF published a booklet entitled Democracy and Democratic Unity that it used nationwidegim gima to explain away its brutal response. The booklet gave Ethiopians a “clear choice between dependency and anti-democracy forces” (i.e. opposition parties) and “revolutionary democracy (peace and developmentalism).” Rather than participants in a liberal order, then, Ethiopian citizens are mobilizing apparatchiks for the vanguard party. And since 1991 they have been subject to the diktats of one ethnic (minority) group. Resistance has been met with imprisonment, or worse. If, as William Davidson writes, today’s protests “seem to be taking on a worrying ethnic tinge,” that is because they have been ethnic from the start. Politics in Ethiopia is inherently ethnic.
Of the EPRDF’s most beloved methods of centralizing control is through the centralization of land—land grabbing—which has become a rallying point in the current turmoil. While it is foreign firms in Ethiopia who are generally accused of expropriating land, the blame in fact lies with the EPRDF. A 2009 government regulation gives the EPRDF full control over all aspects of land investments over five thousand hectares (approximately 12,350 acres), including the right to expropriate land from the country’s regions and transfer it to investors. Under Ethiopian law all revenues, taxes, and associated infrastructure resulting from the investments now accrue to the EPRDF. Previously, real estate transactions had been handled by each of the country’s nine regional governments. As Chatham House, a London-based think tank, notes, “it is the state that stands to reap the most significant gains.” But the factors underpinning the government’s land grabs extend beyond simple economics: they are also a means for the TPLF-dominated EPRDF to realize some version of an independent Tigray. The seizure of large tracts of land is a process of re-concentration and of the marginalization and disempowerment of Ethiopia’s (non-Tigray) ethnic groups. Theoretically at least, it is intended to forge greater dependence on the central state and to render it increasingly difficult for rebel groups to emerge and operate in lowland areas. Most projects are concentrated in Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, SNNPR, and northern Amhara—remote regions of the country where government processes of assimilation and integration are ongoing. By commandeering the land, the EPRDF hopes to speed them up.
Violent attacks carried out by Ethiopian protesters on Dutch, Israeli, Indian and Belgian-owned farms in Amhara in early September therefore did not target foreign interests in the country per se, but EPRDF efforts to strip Ethiopians of land and identity. Foreign firms were the unfortunate middlemen.
For the better part of the last quarter century the EPRDF has attempted to whitewash its ethnic ambitions with its economic development agenda. Ethiopia is at the heart of the “Africa rising” narrative and has succeeded in lifting millions out of extreme poverty, cutting child mortality rates, and overseeing an impressive decline in HIV/AIDS-related deaths by 50 percent. Some argue that rather than ethnic tensions, the protests reflect mounting frustrations with an uneven distribution of the economic pie. This is undoubtedly part of the story. Yet as unrest engulfs places like the Amhara capital, Bahir Dar, and Adama, Oromia’s most vibrant city, which have benefitted from economic growth, it is clear that economic grievances are secondary. When in 2010 Eskinder told me, regrettably, that Ethiopia has become “the world’s star backslider,” he did not mean this economically. He meant in terms of governance and in terms of statehood. “Meles’ rule,” he said, “is not only that of the party but of the ethnicity. Meles’ relatives, friends, et cetera are putting pressure on him not to give up control because he would be giving up the control of the entire Tigray people.” This rings true of the TPLF today.
This is what makes the Ethiopian unrest so significant—and potentially dangerous. At the heart of the protests is the fundamental question of how to build a modern nation state on the back of ethnic fault lines that have been exploited over centuries. Through its formula of ethnic federalism and revolutionary democracy the EPRDF has merely succeeded in repeating the errors of its predecessors through different means. In many respects the state-building question has gone unresolved; Ethiopia’s crisis is largely an existential one. In the coming weeks Hailemariam Desalegn will likely attempt peace by announcing a redistribution of government investments. Most—if not all—political and economic power will remain vested in the TPLF. While this may quell the protests for a time, without genuine attention to the country’s conflicting institutional and ideological challenges—central to which is the dominance of the TPLF and the Tigray—the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. All that is at stake, is everything.
Aleksandra W. Gadzala is an independent political-risk consultant based out of Boca Raton, FL and an Africa contributor with Oxford Analytica. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Oxford.
IT WAS meant to have been a time for celebration. When on October 5th the Ethiopian government unveiled the country’s new $3.4 billion railway line connecting the capital, Addis Ababa, to Djibouti, on the Red Sea, it was intended to be a shiny advertisement for the government’s ambitious strategy for development and infrastructure: state-led, Chinese-backed, with a large dollop of public cash. But instead foreign dignitaries found themselves in a country on edge.
Just three days earlier, a stampede at a religious festival in Bishoftu, a town south of the capital, had resulted in at least 52 deaths. Mass protests followed. Opposition leaders blamed the fatalities on federal security forces that arrived to police anti-government demonstrations accompanying the event. Some called the incident a “massacre”, claiming far higher numbers of dead than officials admitted. Unrest billowed across the country.
On October 8th, a week after the tragedy at Bishoftu, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced a six-month state of emergency, the first of its kind since the former rebel movement seized power in 1991. The trigger was not clear: violent clashes between police and armed gangs, and attacks on foreign-owned companies, had been flaring across the country for several days (and have occurred sporadically for months) but seemed to have plateaued by the weekend. On October 4th an American woman was killed while travelling outside the capital. Protesters have blockaded several roads leading in and out.
One factor in the government’s decision was a spate of attacks on holiday lodges at Lake Langano, and on Turkish textile factories in Sebeta, both in the restive Oromia region south of the capital, on October 5th. The attackers were well-organised and armed, some of them reportedly mounted on motorbikes. These acts, officials suggest, were the final straw.
The government is rattled by the prospect of capital flight. An American-owned flower farm recently pulled out, and it fears others may follow. After almost a week of silence, the state-of-emergency law was a belated attempt to reassure foreign investors, who have hitherto been impressed by the economy’s rapid growth, that the government has security under control.
A calm of sorts now prevails. On October 10th parliament, which since last year’s elections has been entirely populated by members of the EPRDF and its allies, heard details of the decree, which it is expected to formally approve. The bill provides for sweeping powers of arrest and a draconian ban on free assembly and expression. The prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was confident enough to attend to diplomatic pleasantries. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, arrived in the capital the following day to talk about refugee flows from the region. Mobile internet access, which the government blocked in order to disrupt the protests, flickers occasionally and feebly back to life. The hustle and bustle of Addis Ababa continue as before, though an uneasy silence has settled across towns like Bahir Dar in the Amhara region where strikes have emptied the streets for weeks. In Addis Ababa, at least, a mood of resignation has taken hold. Better dictatorship than civil war, residents shrug.
Still, the future is troubling. Over 500 people have been killed since last November, and tens of thousands have been detained. What began nearly a year ago as an isolated incidence of popular mobilisation among the Oromo people, who make up at least a third of the population and opposed a since-shelved plan to expand Addis Ababa into their farmland, has spread. It is now a nationwide revolt against the authoritarianism of the EPRDF and the perceived favouritism shown to a capital whose breakneck development appears to be leaving the rest of the country behind.
The young are frustrated. They feel that growth has yet to bring the broader prosperity promised by the government in return for their political obedience. Thanks in large part to foreign aid, expansive public spending supported by Chinese loans and an uptick (from a very low base) in foreign investment, Ethiopia was Africa’s fastest growing economy in 2015—a remarkable feat for a still largely agrarian country. But the expectations of an increasingly educated population have grown even faster. Despite big strides, a third of Ethiopians, who now number nearly 100m, still live on less than $1.90 a day.
The Oromos are not the only ones with grievances. Many others have been driven off their land to make way for commercial farms and factories. And the Amharans, who have historically been Ethiopia’s dominant ethnic group, resent the leadership of the much smaller Tigrayan group (who make up around 6% of the population) at the heart of the ruling EPRDF. The comparative quiescence of Addis Ababa’s citizens has further fuelled resentment. Angry farmers in parts of the country have been choking the movement of goods towards the city. The opposition calls for political prisoners (who are reckoned to number in the thousands) to be freed, but the government is in no mood to oblige. However, on October 10th the president promised to introduce some form of proportional representation in elections, which would allow all groups a share of power.
Tinkering is unlikely to be enough. The EPRDF has weathered storms before. Civil strife after disputed elections in 2005 resulted in at least 193 deaths and many thousands of arrests. This time Ethiopians are calling just as fiercely for regime change, and not just reform. Ethiopia, until recently a darling of Western donors and security hawks alike, is edging closer to the brink.
This summer, when marathon runner Feyisa Lelisacrossed the Rio finish line with his hands crossed above his head, he expressed his solidarity with a protest movement in Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state.
The marathoner’s gesture comes from a nonviolent resistance movement that has organized demonstrations across Oromia — which includes the capital city, Addis Ababa — for the eight months leading up to the Rio Olympics. It also mourns the more than eight hundred Oromo citizens murdered by government security forces.
With a simple gesture, Lelisa highlighted the reality of life under a brutal dictatorship, where a few oligarchs have done well at the expense of the majority, who suffer from famine, rampant unemployment, land confiscation, personal insecurity, and the loss of basic human rights.
The Trigger
The Oromo protests began two years ago, when the Ethiopian government — led by the Tigrayan-majorityEthiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF) — unveiled its urban master plan, called the Integrated Development Plan for Ethiopian Renaissance.
The plan designated a total area of 1.1 million hectares of land — extending in a forty-to-one-hundred-kilometer radius around Addis Ababa — part of the planning region. This area included seventeen rural districts and three dozen cities in the Oromia regional state. In effect, the plan would increase Addis Ababa’s size twenty-fold.
When the plan was presented to the Oromia state for approval in February 2014, the regional government members opposed it, arguing that it violated the principle of federalism, the human rights provisions, and the transparency clause of the Ethiopian constitution. That April, students took to the streets decrying the planned displacement of Oromo farmers and residents on the affected land. Above all, the protesters demanded respect for the autonomy of the Oromia regional government in deciding local issues, including land transfers.
Government security forces responded by firing live ammunition and violently beating peaceful protesters. They killed seventy-eight, injured hundreds, and sent thousands to concentration camps in the humid Afar region. The action was so egregious that the protests garnered international attention.
The government has strongly denied any wrongdoing, even as images of dead bodies and injured protesters were widely broadcast across social media. The demonstrations subsided without resolving the problem that incited them in the first place — but not for long.
In the May 2015 national elections, the EPRDF claimed 100 percent of the country’s parliamentary seats. It interpreted its alleged victory as a mandate to accelerate development projects, including the Integrated Development Plan for Ethiopian Renaissance.
In November 2015, government officials arrived in Ginchi, a small town west of Addis Ababa, to lease out a school playground and sacred forest area to an investor. Students and residents protested, and the movement quickly spread to all corners of Oromia. What started as resistance to land seizure quickly transformed into a sustained opposition to the governing party’s stranglehold on the political landscape, to ethnic discrimination in allocating national resources, and to the incessant use of violence to resolve political differences.
Historical Injustice
The issue of land founds the protests’ demands. In Ethiopia, land serves multiple purposes. For smallholder farmers, land marks their identity, organizes their social lives, and provides their means of survival as individuals and as members of a household and a kin group. For elites, land supports the state machinery and serves as an instrument of social control.
The struggle for political power and economic control often takes the form of struggle for land control. Indeed, throughout Ethiopian history, whoever controlled land also controlled the economic base and the infrastructure of domination.
In the nineteenth century, the southward march of imperial Ethiopia in search of arable land and natural export commodities culminated in the conquest of several independent Oromo states and other entities. In the 1880s, Emperor Menelik II annexed their territories and assigned conquering soldiers as administrators. The new rulers and their retinues drew no salaries, instead living off the land they confiscated and the evicted tenants’ labor.
Oromo farmers would lose more land for the next century. After the end of Italian occupation in 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie transferred large tracts to private holders, including members of the royal family and the nobility, individuals with connections to the imperial court, and loyalists who claimed to have fought the fascists.
At the same time, the imperial regime promoted private investments to develop commercial agriculture. Well-connected officials acquired thousands of hectares to grow coffee for export. Foreign firms — such as the Dutch HVA and the British Mitchell Cotts — were given land to grow sugar and cotton in the fertile southern and southwestern areas. The evicted Oromo farmers became day laborers for the commercial companies or seasonal laborers for the new landlords. Many migrated to towns in search of opportunities.
In 1974, this unresolved issue occasioned the imperial government’s collapse. In February 1975, the Derg, the military junta that took power, nationalized rural land, allowing farmers equal access and use rights, prohibiting private ownership, and outlawing hired farm labor. To retain their rights, farmers had to meet numerous demands including joining farmer-operated cooperatives and peasant communes.
In time, the Derg became the sole landlord, turning the cooperatives into its extractive arm and instrument of political control. The regime’s unending demand for surtaxes, fees, various charges, and recruits for the army rendered the gains of the revolution immaterial to the lives of the peasants.
Land to the Investor
The Derg fell in 1991 after almost two decades of struggle. The EPRDF, which largely consists of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), came to power. Its leaders argued that the land-ownership prohibition protected farmers against rapacious capitalist land-grabbers and affirmed state ownership in the 1995 constitution and several land administration proclamations.
This started to shift in 2002 when the late prime minister Meles Zenawi launched an antipoverty campaign. The program rested on increasing productivity in agriculture, which justified allocating land to private interests. At first, the government transferred small plots of land to domestic and foreign capitalists to grow flowers for export, but the practice grew: soon vast agricultural lands in Oromia and other states were being leased out.
In 2005, the EPRDF won highly controversial national elections. In the aftermath, the party leader declared that the country needed an activist government to ensure accelerated, sustained, and broad-based growth. In a surprise about-face, the land law that was supposed to protect rural owner-operators against wealthy capitalists instead facilitated land transfers to investors. The federal government replaced the law that recognized the regional states’ authority over land administration with one that granted that authority to the federal government. The regional states were forced to change their laws to conform to the federal proclamation.
Having passed the unconstitutional measure, the government opened farmlands for foreign and domestic capital owners with generous terms, minimum restrictions, and token capital requirements. Terry Allen sums up: “At a price ranging from cheap to stolen, investors lease vast tracts for as long as ninety-nine years and for as little as forty cents per acre per year.”
When the lease wasn’t cheap enough, corruption helped. One investor noted, “You get a bottle of Johnnie Walker, kneel down, clap three times, and make your offer of Johnnie Walker Whiskey.”
Investors flocked in. By 2011, about 3.6 million hectares of land had been awarded to foreign capitalists, and 4 million hectares more were still available.
To be sure, the federal government wasn’t supposed to get in the business of redistributing land. Under the cover of development, it used land with a view to short-term political goals rather than long-term economic processes. As a result, it fueled unbridled corruption that dispossessed millions and relegated them to destitution. Among the Oromo in particular, this meant not only lost property but also a breakdown in traditional social organization.
In 2015, these concerns converged around the Integrated Development Master Plan. Addis Ababa was originally built on the stolen ancestral land of the Oromo. As the city expanded, the surrounding people were evicted, and new settlers took over, changing the area’s demographic composition.
The new development plan evoked the Oromo’s bitter experiences of the predatory relationship between Addis Ababa and the surrounding area. The scale of the proposed plan and its potential to displace millions touched off the massive resistance that came to be known as the Oromo protests.
State Capture
The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front — which played a central role in toppling the Derg in 1991 and now constitutes the major part of the EPRDF — hails from the northern part of Ethiopia. They initially argued that coercion, forced cultural assimilation, and political centralization cannot succeed as a state-building strategy.
To reconstruct the collapsed state, they devised a new constitution that instituted a federal arrangement among newly demarcated ethnic-based regional states. The approach recognized the unconditional right of every nationality in the country to self-determination, including secession. It was a novel response to the problem of national integration in light of the failure of past regimes.
However, TPLF leaders were never committed to either constitutional rule or their unique federal structure: neither would aid their political or economic interests. From the start of their rule, party leaders understood that the survival of Tigray depended on people migrating south and wealth migrating north. To enact this, the party had to dominate the political center. As John Young points out, the TPLF “did not seriously entertain the idea of building alliances with existing southern parties and instead drove them largely out of existence.”
After 1991, the TPLF-led coalition deployed various justifications for the one-party rule it envisaged, but never succeeded. It finally decided to simply make the institutions of the state subservient to the political will of a party. Elections were conducted, but only to confirm the ruling party in power and to ensure that its development programs were not disrupted by short electoral cycles.
The TPLF-dominated parliament passed draconian laws to consolidate its hold on power.
One measure, approved by parliament in July 2008, added to the numerous restrictions placed on the Ethiopian press. For example, it made journalists and editors potential accomplices in acts of terrorism if they published statements that the government classified as an act of sedition.
In January 2009, a civil society organizations law prohibited foreign non-governmental organizations from engaging in any human rights or governance work, rendering most independent human rights work virtually impossible and making all NGO work that the government declared illegal punishable as a criminal offense.
An antiterrorism law passed in July 2009 granted broad powers to the police and enacted harsh criminal penalties for political protests and nonviolent dissent. Together, the laws gave absolute power to the government to accuse, convict, and punish anyone by executive order. As the result, thousands of journalists, human rights advocates, and political dissidents have been sent to infamous federal prisons in the outskirts of the capital. They languish there without trials or visitation rights, at the mercy of prison guards.
As a direct consequence, human rights violations became more flagrant. International rights groups and other organizations have documented the government’s extrajudicial executions of political opponents, its degrading treatment of prisoners, and its rejection of court orders to free dissidents. As a former defense minister of the incumbent regime noted, the vast majority of the inmates at one of the most notorious prisons belong to the Oromo ethnic group.
Once the Tigrayan-majority party fully captured the state, economic benefits began to flow to political and military elites in exchange for loyalty. Millionaires emerged overnight, and current and former officials now own massive skyscrapers. Apart from these nouveaux riches, the party itself owns businesses that amount to two-thirds of the economy. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens suffer from double-digit unemployment, insufficient housing, rising inflation, and economic insecurity.
State capture requires full control of the coercive apparatus. After theDerg’s national military force was dismantled, TPLF commanders and political commissars created a new non-political military to support the new democratic state rather than to act as the ruling party’s private army.
They organized a new Ethiopian Defense Force, which was smaller in size and broader in its rank-and-file’s ethnic composition. But the military command-and-control structure remained under TPLF control: more than 95 percent of the general staff and commanders come from Tigray. While the military is ostensibly apolitical, it remains highly connected to the political apparatus.
The military is also deeply involved in the private sector. Active and retired military officers own their own businesses. Furthermore, the EPRDF government has increased the military’s stake in the economy through the Metal and Engineering Corporation (MetEC).
Created in 2010, MetEC is supposed to ensure technology transfer across the country. According to its establishing proclamation, the company is directly accountable to the prime minister and operated by the ministry of defense. It participates in all sectors of the economy — manufacturing, construction, energy, and transportation — and produces weapons for the country’s defense forces, including armored vehicles, explosives, ammunition, big guns, light weapons, and personal weapons. The military has become an economically powerful actor.
The TPLF coalition built a political system that has no space for dissenting voices. The architecture of power relations that was meant to ensure the interest of a minority group has now produced an unbridgeable political chasm that is growing thanks to economic inequality, political instability, and personal insecurity. The shortsighted arrangement designed to ensure minority rule in perpetuity has now come back in the TPLF’s face like a boomerang.
Impending Danger
John Markakis concluded his latest book, Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers, with a warning for the EPRDF:
At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the incumbent regime in Addis Ababa is engaged in the same battles that exhausted its predecessors, impoverished the country, and blasted peoples’ hopes for peace, democracy, and an escape from dire poverty.
Indeed, previous governments were brought down because of their refusal to share power with the country’s diverse constituencies and interest groups.
To keep power, the incumbents have built a politically connected, heavily armed, and economically powerful military to protect its monopoly on political and economic power. Because the protesters threaten the party’s and its high-ranking officials’ interests, the military has used force with impunity, killing hundreds of innocent protesters who simply demand respect for their constitutionally guaranteed rights. But force will breed more instability and demand the use of more force.
The military has not succeeded in putting down the protests, and it’s hard to say whether they will.
But Ethiopia’s history shows that when structures fail, humans are capable of unimaginable cruelty not just for survival but in defense of their insatiable desire for comfort. Feyisa Lelissa gave the world fair warning.
“I would always argue for allowing people of a different political opinion … to engage with them and allow them to express their views because, after all, a democratic experience shows that out of these discussions good solutions usually come.” Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel refused a handshake when faced fascist Hailemariam Dessalegn (tyrant) in Finfinne, Oromia ( Ethiopia), October 11, 2016 Africa visit. There was no photo opportunity for the Ethiopia’s fascist.
Finfinnee, Oromia/ Ethiopia (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled support for protesters demanding wider freedoms in Ethiopia during a visit to the country on Tuesday, saying “a vibrant civil society is part and parcel of a developing country.”
After meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Merkel said Germany has offered to train Ethiopia’s police to deal with the sometimes deadly demonstrations that have caused one of Africa’s best-performing economies to declare its first state of emergency in 25 years.
Angela Merkel refused a handshake when faced fascist Hailemariam Dessalegn (tyrant) in Finfinne, Oromia ( Ethiopia), October 11, 2016 Africa visit. There was no photo opportunity for the Ethiopia’s fascist. she said, referring to the region where protests have simmered for nearly a year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, is welcomed by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as she arrives at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
“I would always argue for allowing people of a different political opinion … to engage with them and allow them to express their views because, after all, a democratic experience shows that out of these discussions good solutions usually come,” Merkel said.
The Ethiopian prime minister responded by suggesting his government may increase dialogue. “We have shortcomings in our fledgling democracy, so we want to go further in opening up the political space and engagement with different groups of the society,” he said, noting that the East African country’s huge youth population has created “dissatisfaction and desperation.”
But the prime minister also sounded a note of defiance. “Ethiopia is committed to have a multi-party democracy as per our constitution. And Ethiopia is committed to have human rights observed. … But Ethiopia is also against any violent extremist armed struggling groups,” he said.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency Sunday, faced with widespread anti-government protests. More than 50 people died last week in a stampede after police tried to disperse protesters. The incident set off a week of demonstrations in which both foreign and local businesses with suspected government ties were burned, and one American was killed in a rock attack.
Merkel said the German business community has criticized the business climate in Ethiopia, and she expressed hope that the government will discuss the criticism openly.
At least 500 people have been killed in anti-government protests over the past year, according to Human Rights Watch. The protesters demand more freedoms from a government accused of being increasingly authoritarian.
The United States and others have called on the government to use restraint against protesters, and the U.N. human rights office has asked for access to allow independent observers into the troubled Oromia region.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s president announced during a Parliament session that the country’s election law would be amended to accommodate more political parties and opposing views.
But the country’s internet service continues to be largely blacked out after last week’s unrest.
Merkel’s African tour, with stops earlier this week in Mali and Niger, is also meant to highlight the global migration crisis and security issues. Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest hosts of refugees, with an estimated 780,000 from nearby Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere.
Ethiopia’s prime minister appealed for German support.
Merkel also inaugurated the new African Union Peace and Security Council building in the capital, Addis Ababa, constructed with German funding of 27 million euros. It is expected to be the base for coordination of peacekeeping missions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center-left, and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, center-right, inspect the honor guard at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center-right, inspects the honor guard at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center-left, and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, center-right, inspect the honor guard at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, is welcomed by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, center-left, as she arrives at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/ Mulugeta Ayene)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, inspects the honor guard as she arrives at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, right, inspect the honor guard at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Merkel is visiting Ethiopia, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency, after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
FILE – In this Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 file photo, Ethiopian soldiers try to stop protesters in Bishoftu, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Ethiopia on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo, File)
FILE – In this Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 file photo, protesters chant slogans against the government during a march in Bishoftu, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Ethiopia on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016, where her meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is expected to focus on the country’s newly declared state of emergency after months of protests demanding wider freedoms, and other issues including migration. (AP Photo, File)
“I made the case that you should have open talks with people who have problems,” Merkel told Hailemariam.
“In a democracy there always needs to be an opposition that has a voice – in the best case in parliament,” Merkel.
In another show of German discontent, a diplomat said Addis Ababa had proposed that Merkel address parliament, but Berlin refused because it lacked any opposition members.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said the message being sent was that there was “no business as usual”.
The German-based human rights group Gesellschaft fuer bedrohte Voelker said Merkel should have been even tougher.
“With more than 500 suspected dead, Merkel should have insisted on an independent United Nations investigation to make clear that the brutal oppression of government critics is turning the country into a powder keg and will force more people to flee,” said Ulrich Delius, the group’s African expert.
GENEVA (10 October 2016) –United Nations human rights experts today urged the Ethiopian authorities to end their violent crackdown on peaceful protests, which has reportedly led to the death of over 600 people since November 2015. They further called on the Government to allow an international commission of inquiry to investigate the protests and the violence used against peaceful demonstrators.
“We are outraged at the alarming allegations of mass killings, thousands of injuries, tens of thousands of arrests and hundreds of enforced disappearances,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard. “We are also extremely concerned by numerous reports that those arrested had faced torture and ill-treatment in military detention centres.”
“In light of the lack of progress in investigating the systematic violence against protesters, we urge the Ethiopian Government to allow an international independent commission to assist in shedding light on these allegations,” they stated.
The human rights experts highlighted in particular the 2 October events in Oromia, where 55 people were killed in a stampede.
“The deaths in the Oromia region last weekend are only the latest in a long string of incidents where the authorities’ use of excessive force has led to mass deaths,” Mr. Kiai said noting that peaceful protests in the Ahmara and Konso Wereda regions have also been met with violence from authorities.
“The scale of this violence and the shocking number of deaths make it clear that this is a calculated campaign to eliminate opposition movements and silence dissenting voices,” he added.
The UN Special Rapporteurs voiced particular concern over the use of national security provisions and counterterrorism legislation – the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation 652/2009 – to target individuals exercising their rights to peaceful assembly.
“This law authorises the use of unrestrained force against suspects and pre-trial detention of up to four months,” Ms. Callamard noted while warning that many of the killings could amount to extrajudicial executions. “Whenever the principles of necessity and proportionality are not respected in the context of crowd control, any death caused by law enforcement officials is considered an extrajudicial execution,” she stressed.
The Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances urged the authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of those disappeared and emphasized that” all allegations of enforced disappearances must be thoroughly and independently investigated and perpetrators held accountable”.
Ethiopia’s current wave of mass protests began in the Oromia region in November 2015, in response to the Government’s ‘Master Plan’ to expand Addis Ababa’s boundaries, which would lead to the displacement of Oromo farmers. In Konso Wereda, the protests started in mid-December 2015 after the annexation of Konso into the Segen Area Peoples Zone. Protests later spread to other areas of the country, including the Ahmara region.
“Curtailing assembly and association rights is never the answer when there are disagreements in a society; rather, it is a sign of the State’s inability to deal with such disagreements,” Mr Kiai said. “Suffocating dissent only makes things worse, and is likely to lead to further social and political unrest.”
The experts underlined the urgent need to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the violence. A group of UN experts made a similar call* in January 2016, which went unheeded, they noted.
Mr. Kiai, Ms. Callamard and the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances call has been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, Victoria Lucia Tauli-corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez and the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Roland Adjovi.
The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Welcomepage.aspx
Ethiopia: The TPLF/EPRDF Government has declared an official state of emergency in Oromia
HRLHA Urgent Action
October 9, 2016 The Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailamariam Dessalegn has informed the public through the state run TV that a six month state of emergency has been declared as of October 8, 2016 because “the current situation in the country posed a threat against the people of Ethiopia”
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn indicated in his emergency declaration that the Council of Ministers declared the state of emergency after they discussed the damage caused by protests across the country during the past week.
HRLHA reported in its “Ethiopia: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped” on April 17, 2016 that the Oromia regional State has fallen under the TPLF Security intelligence officer generals’ control when they removed the civil administration and declared unofficial martial law as of Febrary 26, 2016. The recent declaration is designed to legitimize the previuos military administration of TPLF government.
Background:
The protests in Oromia regional state, which have continued steadily since November 2015, escalated on October 2, 2016 after many Oromo people were killed by the Agazi force on the ground supported by helicopter gunships at the Irrecha Festival – which left reportedly at least 600 civilians dead and thousands wounded.
The Oromo nation has been under attack since November 2015 when Oromo protests restarted in West Showa, Ginchi town . The protests demanded that the Chilimo forest clearing by land buyers should stop. In response to the peaceful protest against the land grabs- which included the Addis Ababa Master plan- the TPLF/EPRDF deployed its Killing Squad Agazi force to quell the protests. In the past eleven protest months, including the October 2, 2016 Irrecha festival massacre, an estimated 2000 civilians have been killed and several thousands have been taken to detention centers.Despite the brutalities committed against Oromo civilians during the past eleven months, the international community has not made a concerted response to end the crisis in Oromia.The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa has appealed several times to the world community , including the UN Human Rights Council, UN Security Council and Donor States such as USA, Canada, UK, Sweden and Norway to put pressure on the government of Ethiopia to respect the constitution of the country and International human rights standards to solve the political crisis in the country in general and in Oromia regional state in particular.HRLHA is deeply concerned that if International Communities fail in responding to the killings presently taking place in Oromia Regional State as soon as possible , this could lead to a genocide comparable to those in Rwanda (1994), in Yugoslavia (1998) and in Darfur, Sudan (2003).
Therefore, the HRLHA respectfully demands that the International community including the UN Security Council take concrete actions by:
Using its influence to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to respect international human rights, its own promised obligations, as well as domestic and International laws and refrain from its ethnic cleansing and respect the fundamental rights of Oromo Nation
Passing a decision to intervene to stop the killings in Oromia using the mandate of the three pillars of the responsibility to protect, as stipulated in the Outcome Document of the 2005 United Nations World Summit (A/RES/60/1, para. 138-140) and formulated in the Secretary – General’s 2009 Report (A/63/677) on implementing the responsibility to protect :
The State carries the primary responsibility for protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, and their incitement;
The international community has a responsibility to encourage and assist States in fulfilling this responsibility;
The international community has a responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect populations from these crimes. If a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations, the international community must be prepared to take collective action to protect populations, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
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There has been increasing unrest in several towns in the Oromia region, south east of Addis Ababa, since last Sunday when many people died after falling into ditches or into the Arsede lake while apparently fleeing security forces following a protest at a religious festival in the town of Bishoftu. The protests have apparently been fuelled in part by a lack of trust in the authorities’ account of events as well as wildly differing information about the death toll and the conduct of security forces. We call on the protestors to exercise restraint and to renounce the use of violence. Security forces must conduct themselves in line with international human rights laws and standards.
There is clearly a need for an independent investigation into what exactly transpired last Sunday, and to ensure accountability for this and several other incidents since last November involving protests that have ended violently.
Instead of cutting off access to mobile data services in parts of the country, including in Addis Ababa, we urge the Government to take concrete measures to address the increasing tensions, in particular by allowing independent observers to access the Oromia and Amhara regions to speak to all sides and assess the facts. In August this year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights requested access to the regions to enable the Office to provide assistance in line with Ethiopia’s human rights obligations. We again appeal to the Government to grant us access.
We are also concerned that two bloggers, Seyoum Teshoume and Natnael Feleke, the latter from the blogging collective Zone 9, were arrested this week. Feleke and a friend of his were reportedly arrested for loudly discussing the responsibility of the Government for the deaths at last Sunday’s Irrecha festival in Oromia. There have also been worrying reports of mass arrests in the Oromia and Amhara regions. We urge the Government to release those detained for exercising their rights to free expression and opinion. Silencing criticism will only deepen tensions.
Security officials watch as demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia, on October 2, 2016.
The following questions and answers are critical to understanding recent events inEthiopia. Responses are written by Felix Horne, senior Ethiopia researcher at Human Rights Watch. The Human Rights Watch analysis of the situation is informed by 15 interviews with people who witnessed and lived through the events of October 2, 2016, as well as hundreds of other interviews with people caught up in violent government responses to protests across Ethiopia in the past year.
What is Irreecha and what happened on Sunday, October 2 during Irreecha?
Irreecha is the most important cultural festival to Ethiopia’s 40 million ethnic Oromos who gather to celebrate the end of the rainy season and welcome the harvest season. Millions gather each year at Bishoftu, 40 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa.
This week, people spoke of increased tension after year-long protests in Oromia. There was an increased presence of armed security forces in Bishoftu compared to previous years.
The government attempted to have a more visible role in the festivities this year. The government and the Abba Gadaas, the council of Oromo traditional leaders, held extensive negotiations about the arrangements for the festival. At the festival, tensions within the massive crowd built when government officials appeared on stage and even more so when the current Abba Gadaas were not present on stage. Instead, a retired Abba Gadaa who is perceived to be closely aligned with the government took to the stage.
A military helicopter flying low overhead increased public concern about the government’s intentions, according to witnesses. Eventually, a man went on stage and led the crowd in anti-government chants. The crowd grew more restless, more people went on stage, and then security forces fired teargas and people heard gunshots.
The security forces have used live ammunition while confronting and attempting to disperse numerous public gatherings in Oromia for almost a year. As Human Rights Watch has documented in many of those protests, teargas preceded live ammunition, so when the pattern seemed to be repeating itself at Irreecha, panic very quickly set in. People ran and fell into nearby ditches, while others were trampled in the ensuring chaos.
The Ethiopian government makes it extremely difficult to investigate these types of incidents. The government limits independent media and restricts nongovernmental organizations, both domestic and international, so that currently no one has had the access, expertise or impartiality necessary to determine a precise, credible death toll. Making things worse, over the last few days, the government has restricted internet access, as it has done intermittently throughout the protests.
Based on the information from witnesses and hospital staff Human Rights Watch has spoken to, it is clear that the number of dead is much higher than government estimates. But without access to morgues and families who lost loved ones, and with many people unwilling to speak for fear of reprisals, it is impossible to come up with a credible total. Anecdotal reports from some hospital staff indicate high numbers of dead, but they are also under pressure to keep silent. There are numerous reports of medical staff not being permitted to speak, or being pressured to underreport deaths. They may also have had limited access to the bodies. During the last 12 months, Human Rights Watch hasdocumented several arrests of medical staff for speaking out about killings and beatings by security forces, or in some cases for treating injured protesters.
All of this underscores the need for independent international investigation to document who died and how they died in Bishoftu on October 2.
Did security forces violate international laws or guidelines on the use of force in Irreecha?
As a crowd-control method, teargas should be used only when strictly necessary as a proportionate response to quell violence. International guidelines, such as the United Nations Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, stipulate that the police are expected to use discretion in crowd control tactics to ensure a proportionate response to any threat of violence, and to avoid exacerbating the situation. Police should exercise restraint when using teargas in situations when its use could cause death or serious injury.
The witnesses all said the crowds were not violent, but they were clearly protesting against the government. Witnesses said they believed security forces fired guns into the crowd in addition to in the air but there is thus far no corroborated evidence of people hit by gunfire – but restrictions on access make it impossible to say for sure.
Based on the information Human Rights Watch has, it appears that the security forces’ use of force was disproportionate. To the extent that this force was used to disperse protests rather than in response to a perceived threat posed by the crowds, it may also have constituted a violation of the rights to free expression and assembly. The research leads us to the conclusion that the security forces’ disproportionate response triggered the stampede that resulted in so many deaths.
Why is an independent, international investigation important? Isn’t it the government’s responsibility to investigate?
Yes, ideally the Ethiopian government should investigate. In the past, it has conducted investigations into alleged abuses by security forces that were neither impartial nor credible. Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission presented an oral report to parliament in June about the protests over the last year, saying the security force response was in all cases proportionate to a threat posed by demonstrators. That conclusion is contrary to the findings of Human Rights Watch and other independent groups that have looked into recent events. It is very clear that security forces consistently used live ammunition to disperse protests, killing hundreds of people. The government’s findings have further increased tensions, underscoring concerns protesters have voiced about lack of justice and accountability.
The lack of credibility of government investigations into the brutal crackdown and the scale of the crimes being committed are a compelling argument for the need for an independent, international investigation into those events and the events on October 2. Ethiopia’s international allies should be pushing hard for this.
Despite growing calls from the EU and from the UN’s most important human rights official, the government has strongly resisted the calls for international investigations. The government has a history of resisting outside scrutiny of its rights record. Access has been requested by 11 special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council since 2007, and all were refused except for the special rapporteur on Eritrea. On one hand the government wants to play a leadership role on the world stage, as seen in its membership on the Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council; but on the other it has resisted any international involvement in its own affairs.
How has the government responded to the deaths in Bishoftu?
The government has been blaming “anti-peace elements” for the deaths, which continues to increase the people’s anger throughout Oromia. The government should instead allow an independent investigation and then acknowledge and ensure accountability for any abuses committed by its security forces. It should also demonstrate a commitment to respecting human rights by creating a forum to listen to protesters’ grievances in Oromia and other parts of Ethiopia. The protesters say that this is about rights denied: security force killings, arrests and torture, economic marginalization, and decades of grievances. Recent protests and the ensuing violence are not about social media trouble makers, or interference from neighboring Eritrea, as the government often contends when abuses come to light.
What are protesters telling Human Rights Watch about the government response to the protests and about what they want now?
Over the last year, protesters have often told me that each killing by security forces increased their anger and determination. And the fear that was very present in Oromia and elsewhere in Ethiopia is dissipating. Some protesters say they feel they have nothing left to lose. I hear from one man each time he is released from detention. He has been arrested four times during the protests, including once when he was held in a military camp. He says he has never been charged with any crimes, has never seen a court room, and has been beaten each time he has been detained. He told me that in the military camp, soldiers stripped him down to his underwear, hung him upside down and whipped him. His brother was killed in a protest, his father arrested, and two of his closest friends have disappeared. I asked him why he keeps protesting despite the risks, and he said: “We have nothing else to lose. Better to go down standing up for our rights than end up dead, disappeared, or in jail.” I hear similar statements from many protesters, particularly the youth.
While the last year’s protests have been largely peaceful, more and more people are telling me that approach has run its course, that when you protest lawfully and peacefully and are met with bullets, arrests, and beatings, and little is said or done internationally, there is little incentive to continue that approach. Bekele Gerba, a staunch advocate for non-violence and deputy-chairman of the main registered opposition party in Oromia, is in detention and is on trial under the antiterrorism law. Treating those who advocate or engage in non-violent acts as criminals or terrorists sends a very dangerous message.
What should the government be doing?
It seems clear that force will not suppress the protesters’ movement and has in fact emboldened it. When the government is willing to tolerate the free expression of dissent, allow peaceful assemblies, and engage in a genuine dialogue with protesters, it will help to end this crisis.
Most of the several hundred protesters interviewed in depth over the past year have a lengthy list of people close to them who have been arrested, killed, or disappeared, in addition to their own trauma. Older people have similar lists going back many years. Ethiopia needs accountability to rebuild trust with its citizens. The government has had numerous chances to make concessions and address protesters’ concerns. At those times when it has done so, as in January when it cancelled the master plan that ignited the initial protests, the action was taken far too late and done in a way that protesters did not consider credible.
In terms of immediate steps, the government should permit peaceful protests, ensure that no protests are met with excessive force, release those arbitrarily detained, and address grievances including ensuring respect for freedom of assembly, expression and association. This is what we have heard from the hundreds of protesters we have interviewed in the last year.
What should Ethiopia’s key international allies, such as the US, UK and EU, do to help ensure improved human rights in Ethiopia?
For too long Ethiopia’s major international partners have not adequately raised serious concerns about the complete closure of political space in Ethiopia that has led to an inability to express dissent. At this point they need to take urgent action to ensure that the situation does not further spiral out of control. They should push for an independent international investigation. They should push for those arbitrarily detained to be released. And they should reiterate in the strongest way that lawful peaceful protests should be allowed to occur without the threat of bullets and mass arrests. They have leverage, and they should use it more effectively. For more background:
In theory, the Oromo and Amhara are well-represented by parties in government. But they have never been perceived to have either legitimacy or autonomy.
The government claims 52 people were killed in the Irreecha celebrations, but the opposition puts the figure much higher.
When Shibiru Amana heard gunshots ring out near his home in the town of Mandi on 26 September, he immediately rushed outside where he saw people clamouring for safety and kids running for their lives. Across the commotion, he later told VOA Afaan Oromo, Amana spotted a young boy lying lifeless on the ground. He mustered up the courage and took a few steps towards him. It was his younger brother Lidata.
Lidata, who was just 15 years old, had been shot in the torso. His transgression had been shouting a few anti-government slogans at a gathering on the eve of the Meskel holiday.
A week later, enormous numbers of people from all corners of the Oromia region descended on the town of Bishoftu to celebrate Irreechaa, an annual Oromo thanksgiving festival. When some began to protest, security officers responded by firing tear gas and live ammunition, according to witnesses and videos that later emerged on social media.
The crowed was packed between a lake and treacherous terrain, and in the panic that ensued, many died. The government reported that 52 died. Human rights groups say several hundreds were killed. Meanwhile, the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) put the death toll at a huge 678.
The ongoing wave of protests in Ethiopia was initially triggered in November 2015 by a development plan that would have expanded the capital Addis Ababa into neighbouring Oromia towns. This plan was eventually suspended, but the protests amongst the Oromo people continued and have since spread to over 200 towns and been joined by Amhara demonstrators too. The government has often responded by sending in security forces that have engaged in deadly violence, leading to the deaths of over 600 people, according to rights groups, and over 1,000, according to activists.
While some of these killings in Oromia have been carried out by regional police, it is notable that much of the security response has been conducted by the federal police and army. As Amana explained, “I wanted to ask the police officers why they killed my brother but they speak a different language”.
Under Ethiopia’s system of ethnic federalism – comprising of nine states and two chartered cities – significant powers are devolved to regional authorities, including the right to establish a state police force and maintain public order within the region. The federal army is only permitted to intervene at the request of the Oromia regional government.
However, the reality is that much of this devolved autonomy only exists in theory, and the fact that federal forces have been deployed reportedly without the express request of the Oromia government speaks to its lack of sovereignty.
Indeed, for the last 25 years, politics has been controlled by the four-party ruling coalition known as the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). This alliance includes the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). But its lead partner is the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
This latter party’s base represents just 6% of Ethiopia’s 100 million population, but TPLF elites have long dominated the country’s political and economic spheres and kept a hold on key posts such as defence, intelligence and foreign affairs.
It is partly anger at these inequalities that is driving protests in Oromia and Amhara. The government has largely denounced these demonstrators and used force, but it also recently announced it would evaluate the performance of its regional parties and engage in the necessary reforms of them to address the people’s concerns.
“Deep reform”?
In 2001, the year Lidata was born, the Ethiopian government also faced the need for an internal upheaval. A struggle for power within the TPLF had just concluded and the faction led by then Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had come out on top. A major purge of his opponents in government soon followed.
OPDO’s leaders had been indecisive in declaring their loyalties during the factional fight and were largely sidelined. Negasso Gidada, former president of Ethiopia and chair of the OPDO, was suspended along with other senior leaders. Meanwhile, Kuma Demeksa, an OPDO central committee member and president of the Oromia region, was removed and later replaced by Juneydi Saaddo, a new technocrat on the block.
In times of crisis and internal party strife such as these, there was nothing Meles enjoyed more than conducting a highly charged meeting (‘gimgema’) in which participants engaged in criticism and self-criticism. Those from the OPDO reportedly engaged in a frantic admission of guilt.
15 years on from this – and four years since Meles’ death in 2012 – today’s widespread protests have forced senior leaders in the TPLF and EPRDF to resurrect their ideologue’s penchant for reform. These recent changes have been spoken about under the banner ofTilq Tehadiso, which is Amharic for “deep reform”, and are supposed to “tackle rent-seeking” and “root out nepotism”. But the reality is that the exercise has been, at best, a cosmetic reshuffle.
At worst, it has been used to usher in an even more confrontational approach to the protests. In its September 2016 party congress, for instance, the OPDO replaced its chair and vice-chair with Lemma Megersa, a former Security Chief for the region, and Workneh Gebeyehu, a former Director-General of the Federal Police Commission. This shift is widely believed to have been choreographed by the TPLF, and the combined intelligence and law enforcement expertise of the two new leaders will be of immediate value to the government. According to Jawar Mohammed, a US-based Oromo political activist, the move is an attempt to “further militarize the administration in Oromia”.
Indeed, early evidence suggests the new leadership is taking a more ruthless approach. Weeks after the change of guard, crackdowns have intensified in parts of Oromia, leading scores if not hundreds such as Lidata to lose their lives. “That’s the closest I have ever been to a war,” Bayesa Abera, who has attended every Irreechaa celebration for the past 10 years, said of events earlier this week. “I am lucky to be alive today.”
Neither the cause nor the solution
The OPDO is not the only Oromo political party in Ethiopia, but thanks to the TPLF, it has developed a sense of near invincibility over its competitors in the region since the 1990s.
According to insiders, the TPLF masterminded the very creation of the OPDO in 1989 in order to pit them against the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a group with which its relations were deteriorating. The TPLF struggled to encourage the formation of this new OPDO party, however, and reportedly had to call upon on Oromo-speaking prisoners of war to make up its members. From its early days, OPDO officials were widely referred to disparagingly as ‘maxxanne’, Oromo for freeloader.
In 1992, the now banned OLF, a more potent symbol of Oromo nationalism, finally withdrew from the transitional government in acrimonious circumstances, and since then, the TPLF has ensured that its OPDO ally has completely dominated in the region. As a Human Rights Watch report from 2005 noted, “From top to bottom, the OPDO has had a near-total monopoly on political power in Oromia since 1992”.
Two Oromo opposition parties – the Oromo National Congress (ONC) and Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) – did manage to enter the political fray when they won seats in the 2005 elections. But they were constantly undermined to prevent them from mounting a real challenge to the OPDO’s supremacy. This strategy of restricting political space to opposition parties culminated in the 2015 elections in which the OPDO officially won all 537 seats in the regional state council and all 178 seats allocated to the region in the federal parliament.
The OPDO’s loyalties have thus always been with the TPLF, and when men and women across Oromia have been gunned down, no OPDO official has had the courage to condemn excessive use of force. Juneydi Saaddo, a former ODPO cabinet minister who is now in exile, explained recently in an interview that those in government fear reprisals if they speak out against TPLF dominance, and confessed that the OPDO has never been able to shake off its subservient status.
For the protesters in Oromia therefore, the OPDO possesses neither legitimacy nor autonomy, and any reshuffle of its leadership is considered as inconsequential as the party itself. The overwhelming belief is that its leaders are handpicked by the TPLF puppet-masters, and the new generation of Oromo youth – known as the ‘Qeerroo’ – have seen that it is business as usual after the latest reform. As Jawar Mohammedargued following the change of guard, “the OPDO is neither the cause nor the solution for the political crisis”.
Over the past year, Oromo protesters have been calling for genuine representation in government, an end to the dominance of a single ethnic group, respect for democratic and human rights, an end to indiscriminate killings and repression, and the cessation of marginalisation and evictions of Oromo from their ancestral lands. These are issues that far exceed the powers of the OPDO.
A Luta Continua
Over the past few months, the Amhara have joined the protests and there have been shows of unprecedented solidarity with the Oromo, united in their shared grievances. This is a significant development. Together, these two ethnic groups make up more than two-thirds of Ethiopia’s population, and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s most urgent and perhaps toughest job now is to halt or reverse this growing trend.
Former strongman Meles Zenawi long managed to avoid this situation by stoking historical antagonisms in order to create perpetual mistrust between the two groups. He effectively drilled this trick into his disciples too, including current Communications Minister Getachew Reda, who in a recent interview, bluntly admitted that “the alliance between the two…is clear evidence that the government has failed to do its job”.
But Prime Minister Hailemariam, a former technocrat hailing from Ethiopia’s southern region, has proven less politically cunning than his predecessor. His attempts at employing the old divisive tactics, even mimicking Meles’ language and gestures at times, have failed as solidarity between the Amhara and Oromo has grown both within Ethiopia and in the diaspora. When the state TV recently unearthed and aired old footage of Meles expounding on the “narrow nationalism” and “chauvinism” of the two groups, it highlighted Hailemariam’s comparative lack of skill in delivering effective propaganda.
From Hailemariam’s first day in office, it has been clear that the TPLF still calls the shots. In fact, it is believed that his very survival strategy is to play second fiddle to gain approval from the TPLF hierarchy. But if protests continue, he could end up as a sacrificial lamb.
However, one thing the PM may take encouragement from is the fact that despite the turmoil facing the country, support from key Western allies hasn’t wavered. The US government in particular has shown little interest beyond penning half-heartedstatements of concern, reluctant to criticise a partner it sees as a force for stability in a volatile region and a major ally in its War on Terror.
In this configuration, the Ethiopian government has barely had to project even the semblance of democracy for Western diplomats to continue singing its praises. For instance, when US President Barack Obama paid a visit to the country in July 2015 – just two months after the ruling party and its allies won 100% of seats in parliament amidst accusations of intimidation and fraud – he described the government as “democratically elected”. The killing of hundreds of protesters since then has done little to shift this position.
The events of the last 11 months – and the responses from the Ethiopian government and its allies – have shown that Ethiopia’s protesters must take it upon themselves to define their destiny and bring an end to their peripheral role. Indeed, this seems to be the position that demonstrators in both Oromia and Amhara have willingly adopted, aware that as the two largest ethnic groups in the region, the success of their struggle lies in their ability to galvanise the public to rally and create links of solidarity with others who share their grievances. External actors can facilitate, but not replace, this process.
But this struggle goes on. At the funeral of Lidata, just one of many who have lost their lives at the hands of security forces, friends and family said their eulogies to celebrate his life and grieved that it had been so tragically cut short. A whole community gave him the send-off that he deserved, with mourners chanting pro-freedom slogans, of which one particularly stood out. Qabsoon itti fufa, or Oromo for “A Luta Continua”.
Michael C. Mammo is studying for his PhD at the University of Birmingham. He is a former Ethiopia correspondent for Inter Press Service and Spanish News Agency (EFE). He tweets at @mcmammo.
Political protests which have swept through Ethiopia are a major threat to the country’s secretive government, writes former BBC Ethiopia correspondent Elizabeth Blunt.
For the past five years Ethiopia has been hit by waves of protest, not only by formal opposition groups but also Muslims unhappy at the imposition of government-approved leaders, farmers displaced to make way for commercial agriculture, Amhara communities opposed at their inclusion in Tigre rather than the Amhara region and, above all, by groups in various parts of the vast Oromia region.
In the most recent unrest in Oromia, at least 55 people died when security forces intervened over the weekend during the annual Ireecha celebrations – a traditional Oromo seasonal festival.
The Oromo protests have continued long after plans to expand the capital Addis Ababa’s boundaries to take in more of the region were abandoned earlier this year. And in the last few months groups which were previously separate have made common cause.
In particular, Amhara and Oromo opposition has coalesced, with both adopting the latest opposition symbol – arms raised and wrists crossed as if handcuffed together.
The picture of Olympic silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa making this gesture while crossing the finish line at the Rio 2016 went round the world, and photographs from the Ireecha celebrations in Bishoftu show the crowd standing with their arms crossed above their heads before police intervention triggered the deadly panic.
Image copyrightAFPImage copyrightREUTERSImage captionHis style of protest was also seen at the festival
The ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has some solid achievements to show for its 25 years in power, in terms of economic development and improved health and education, especially for the rural poor.
But what it has not been able to do is manage the transition from being a centralised, secretive revolutionary movement to running a more open, democratic and sustainable government.
‘Inflaming anger’
In theory, Ethiopia has embraced parliamentary democracy, but such hurdles are put in the way of potential rival parties that there are currently no opposition members of parliament.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionThe security forces have been accused of using excessive force to quell unrest
The EPRDF has in theory devolved a good deal of power to the country’s ethnically based regions, but time and again regional leaders have been changed by central government.
Ethiopia’s constitution allows freedom of speech and association but draconian anti-terrorism laws have been used against those who have tried to use those freedoms to criticise the government.
It is now clear that these attempts to hold on to control in a changing world have misfired.
Just as attempts to dictate who should lead the Muslim community led to earlier protests, reports from Bishoftu town, where the 55 died, say that anger spilled over on Sunday because of official attempts to control which Oromo leaders were allowed to speak at the event.
The overreaction of the security forces then turned a protest that might have gone largely unnoticed into a major catastrophe, inflaming anger in Ethiopia itself and causing growing concern abroad.
And so the cycle continues, and every time protests are badly handled they create more grievances, and generate more anger and more demonstrations.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMany Ethiopians rely on agriculture for their livelihoodImage copyrightAFPImage captionCoffee is a major export earner
The US government is among those who have expressed concern at the deteriorating situation. Its Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, met Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn during the UN General Assembly last month.
She urged him to be more open to dialogue, to accept greater press freedom, to release political prisoners and to allow civil society organisations to operate.
“We have encouraged him to look at how the government is addressing this situation,” she said after the meeting.
“We think it could get worse if it’s not addressed – sooner rather than later.”
Oromo PM hopes dashed
The latest reports from Ethiopia show why concerted opposition from Oromia is such a potential problem for the government.
The Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, and they have a long-standing grievance about the fact that despite this they have never controlled the political leadership.
Amhara domination, under Ethiopia’s former military government and emperors, was replaced by Tigrean leadership following the overthrow of long-serving ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Meles Zenawi, who played a key role in the rebellion to overthrow the Mengistu regime, took power, serving as president and later as prime minister.
When he died in 2012, the Oromo hoped it would be their turn to rule, but his chosen replacement, Mr Hailemariam, came from the small Welayta ethnic group in the south.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMeles Zenawi was in power from 1991 until his death in 2012
Not only are the Oromo numerous, their region is large and more productive than the densely populated highlands.
It produces a lot of Ethiopia’s food, and most of its coffee, normally the biggest export earner.
The sprawling region encircles Addis Ababa, controlling transport routes in and out of the city.
For a government so worried about loss of control, big Oromo protests are a serious threat indeed.
Ethiopian police have arrested a blogger who criticised the government, especially its handling of the ongoing protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions.
Seyoum Teshome, an outspoken university lecturer who has been quoted frequently by foreign media outlets about the anti-government protests, was detained on October 1 at his home in Wolisso town in the Oromia region.
Ethiopia’s government spokesman, Getachew Reda, told The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that he heard about Seyoum’s arrest and is investigating the reasons why.
Days before his arrest, Seyoum told the AP that he was planning to start his doctoral studies at Addis Ababa University and was starting his own blogging website, Ethiothinkthank. He wrote about Ethiopia’s anti-government protests on his blogging site and Facebook page.
“This arrest of a prominent writer and commentator is deeply disturbing as it comes against a backdrop of government moves to stifle protests and criticism,” said Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “Seyoum Teshome should be released without delay and without condition.”
Ethiopia is the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa, and a number of journalists are serving jail terms for writing critical pieces about the government, said the journalists’ group.
The arrest came a day before dozens of people were killed in the Oromia region.
They were crushed in a stampede after government forces fired tear gas and bullets to disperse protesters during the annual Irrecha thanksgiving celebration of the Oromo people.
The government has said 55 have died, but online activists and opposition groups outside Ethiopia claim the death toll is much higher.
The incident has sparked renewed protests in many towns across Oromia, where over the past year anti-government protests have called for respect for human rights, wider freedoms and the release of detained opposition figures and journalists.
Witnesses said many people were crushed to death and others fell into ditches as they tried desperately to escape police. Shoes and clothing littered the scene of the disaster as a small group of angry residents dug for bodies in a deep ditch.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation and said the government should “end the use of deadly force to quell largely peaceful protests that began nearly a year ago”.
Protests started among the Oromo – Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group – in November. They later spread to the Amhara, the second-most largest in the country.
Both groups say a ruling multi-ethnic coalition is dominated by the Tigray ethnic group, which makes up about six percent of the population. – Al Jazeera
Public statement of Oromo religious organizations on the killing and injuries that took place at the Irreecha festival in Bishoftu on October 2, 2016
Dear my Friend,
Peace of the Lord be with you.
In repose to the tragic events unfolding in Ethiopia, the Oromo religious organizations: Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society, Oromo Muslim Association of North America, Oromo Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Minnesota and United Oromo Evangelical Churches (UOEC), have issued the attached public statement to express our grave sadness by the irresponsible killing and injuries that took place at the Irreecha festival in Bishoftu over the weekend, where thousands of people gathered here for the annual thanksgiving. The report that government’s troops and a helicopter gunship had opened fire, driving people off a cliff and into a lake, for entirely peaceful expression opinion, is beyond our comprehension.
We mourn the loss of precious lives and express our deep condolences to the families of the deceased.
In this Association, we have also made it clear that Ethiopia is heading toward unrecoverable human tragedy, only because of the irresponsible action of the Ethiopian government and absolute disregard for human life and dignity. We call on the Ethiopian government for an immediate corrective action, and the international community to take tangible direct involvement to save the nation from further loss of the human life, and serious national and regional destabilization, which is not in the interest of all concerned.
I want to encourage and comfort you all with a quote from Martin Luther King, and the scripture, that we should not lose sight with this tragic event, and not to be swept up into simple bitterness, but only work for a united action.
“Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all … Violence ends up defeating itself.” Martin Luther King
“Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.” Prov. 22:8
This evil government is paving a way for its demise, but we should be united and resolved more than ever to endure with the powerless majority, with one voice: advocating for justice, freedom, liberty, democracy now or never!
Addis Abeba. As a valuable friend, the EU needs to push Ethiopia to respect divergent views, and rein in forces who rapidly turn to bullets, beatings, and mass arrests. (Photo: Henrik Berger Jorgensen)
(EU Observer) — In January, the European Parliament passed a 19-point resolution condemning the Ethiopian government’s brutal crackdown on protests that had left more than a hundred dead. Many Ethiopians rejoiced at the resolution. I read it to some Ethiopian friends, who cried.
They had assumed Ethiopia was part of an international order in which no Western institution would dare criticise a trusted ally despite the government’s brutal repression. They hoped the resolution would be a watershed in Europe’s relationship with Ethiopia.
But in the nine months since, the European Parliament’s outrage has not been matched by the European Union or its member countries. This despite the hundreds more Ethiopians killed throughout the country, the detention of tens of thousands, and widespread torture in detention, as we have documented.
Instead, on the sidelines of EU Development Days in June, High Representative Frederica Mogherini and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn worked on a joint declaration “Towards an EU-Ethiopia Strategic Engagement” that proclaimed business as usual. While demonstrators were being shot, journalists and opposition members locked up, and peaceful activists punished, the EU was silently signing the cheques.
EU officials are quick to point to rare but tepid statements expressing concern for Ethiopia’s human rights situation but it’s not enough. The October 12 European parliamentary hearing on Ethiopia could be the catalyst for much stronger action —built on a willingness to use the considerable leverage that comes with providing various forms of support to the Ethiopian government, including €745 million in European aid for 2014-2020.
Ethiopia’s protests began last November in the largest region, Oromia, over the government’s development plans. Protests soon spread to the Amhara region where grievances focused on complex questions of ethnic identity and the dominance in economic and political affairs of people with ties to the ruling party.
Perfect storm
Security forces have shown no intention of changing their heavy-handed tactics, and the government hasn’t been willing to discuss the issues. The cycle of demonstrations and brutal government responses is feeding Ethiopia’s biggest political and human rights crisis in decades.
How this plays out could jeopardise Europe’s long-term interests in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia’s current crisis came as a surprise to many European policymakers, but it follows years of systematic government attacks on fundamental rights and freedoms, cutting off dissent.
Despite widespread frustration with the government, the ruling party is able to hold every one of the seats in the federal and regional parliaments. The courts have shown little independence on politically sensitive cases, misusing an anti-terrorism law to punish peaceful dissent.
There is little scrutiny of abusive security forces in part because of restrictions on independent media and NGOs. All of this has contributed to the complete closure of political space, creating the perfect storm.
An international investigation is needed
The EU is among many donors that have historically been silent about Ethiopia’s human rights abuses, afraid to risk strategic partnerships on development, migration, peacekeeping, and security.
Foreign diplomats and development organisations working in Ethiopia understand that you limit public criticism in exchange for access. The EU claims that “quiet diplomacy” is the most effective way to push Ethiopia in the right direction.
But given the dramatic deterioration in Ethiopia’s human rights record it’s hard to argue that this approach works.
Offering government benefits in exchange for silence is something many Ethiopians, particularly in rural areas, have known for years.
Ethiopia’s government carefully controls access to the benefits of development– including seeds, fertilisers, food aid, and jobs, much of it funded by the EU and its members.
To their credit, some African institutions have broken rank and expressed concern over the killings, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Union. And the United States, a key ally of Ethiopia, has been stronger than usual in condemning the use of lethal force, with forceful resolutions introduced in the US House and Senate.
Last month the UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said an international investigation is needed. A recent EU statement at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva echoed his call for an investigation, an important step that needs follow-up.
Investigate the killings
The EU needs a new approach to Ethiopia. Strategic relationships will become obsolete if Ethiopia plunges further into crisis, and all the signs are there. As a valuable friend, the EU needs to push Ethiopia to respect divergent views, and rein in forces who rapidly turn to bullets, beatings, and mass arrests.
Ethiopia’s current approach to dissent guarantees future unrest and makes it less likely that the government will be able to find a way back to gain the trust of its citizens, all of which jeopardises the EU’s long term interests in the Horn.
The EU and its member states should continue to push for an international investigation into the killings, press the government to grant the UN access to investigate, and urge the government to hold to account security force members responsible for abuses.
By taking these steps, the EU and its member states can improve the potential for Ethiopians to be stable long-term partners.
Felix Horne is the senior Ethiopia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The genocidal massacres of Oromos at the Irreechaa Fesival: The lies of the Tigre-led Ethiopian government
Asafa Jalata, PhD
The University of Tennessee
On October 2, 2016, the Tigre-led Ethiopian regime massacred more than seven hundred Oromos and injured hundreds more at Irreechaa, the Oromo national holiday of thanksgiving held in Bishoftu in which millions had gathered. During the Irreecha festival, Ethiopian security forces shot live ammunition into the crowd and fired tear gas, although they claimed that the lives lost were due to a stampede. Western media have joined in this claim, spreading inaccurate information about the tragic events of this day. However, Oromo victims know what happened to them and they are telling their truth. They have used videos, pictures, and social media to release accurate information.
The victims say that the Tigre-led government used live bullets, tear gas, helicopter gunships, armored cars, and snipers to terrify and kill Oromo children, elderly, women and other sectors of the Oromo society that had gathered to celebrate Irreecha. During the holiday, many young Oromos had chanted anti-government slogans to show support for Oromo Protests, a protest movement that has been taking place since November 2015. Although the holiday festival had this political moment, the massacre of hundreds of people on this day was an inhumane violation of one of the most sacred rituals of the Oromo.Irrechaa is a sacred holiday of peace and a celebration of culture, and the Ethiopian regime continues to push the limits of its inhumane violent practices.
For a quarter of a century, the Tigre-led regime has targeted Oromo mosques, churches and Galma (the house of Oromo indigenous religion) and killed hundreds of Oromo religious leaders who have expressed their Oromummaa (Oromo identity, culture, and ideology) through their religions, language, clothing, and other activities. The regime, mainly representing the interests of the Tigre, 6% of the Ethiopian population, has been committing heinous abuses and violence against the Oromo people, the largest ethno-national group in Ethiopia, and others, since its coming to power. Furthermore, in the process of transferring Oromo land and other resources to Tigre colonial elites and their collaborators, the regime has also targeted Oromo activists, politicians, students, and farmers who oppose its discriminatory and terrorist policies.
It is estimated that more than one million Oromos have been killed and thousands of Oromos have been suffering in prisons and secret concentration camps. Oromos who have been released from these prisons and concentration camps have exposed how Oromos are tortured, castrated, blinded, incapacitated, killed, and infected with HIV in various prisons and concentration camps. Also, hundreds of prisoners have perished due to the lack of adequate food, clothing, healthcare and other essential services. All these criminal acts have been committed on the brightest and conscious elements of the Oromo society. Unfortunately, the financial, military and diplomatic support of big powers has contributed to these genocidal and terrorist policies and practices for twenty-five years. Still these big powers refuse to take practical actions to stop the regime from its criminal acts. While giving lip service, these powers have continued to provide material support to the regime.
Currently, the Oromo people are determined more than ever to establish their political destiny. Despite continuous violent crackdowns and heinous massacres such as that at Irreecha, they continue to protest peacefully and raise their voices to challenge the Ethiopian regime’s oppressive anti-Oromo policies. Tigre colonial elites and their collaborators have somehow convinced themselves that continuing and escalating violence against unarmed and peaceful civilians is their answer to controlling and quieting a people who are determined to struggle for their rights, sovereignty, and freedoms. The reaction from the Oromo has instead been more protests and more outrage at the Ethiopian regime’s inhumanity.
The Oromo, the Amhara, the Somali, the Konso, the Sidama, the Gambella and others need to join the Oromo protest movement to remove the Tigre-led terrorist and genocidal regime. Learning from the failures of the last two decades, the Oromo movement must rebuild its national organizational capacity and form an alliance with all peoples that are suffering from Ethiopian state terrorism, genocide, and war on the principles of national self-determination and an egalitarian multinational democracy.
The following video shows two segments: one is the moment immediately before the Ethiopian government’s security forces opened fire at the Oromo Irreecha participants who gathered around the main stage in millions – some voicing their protests peacefully; the stage is situated in front of Hora (Lake) Arsadi, which is the sacred ground where millions of Oromos come to every year to pay tribute to Waaqa, the Supreme spiritual power equivalent to God.
Secondly, immediately after the gunshots, the area around the stage is seen to have been evacuated massively and swiftly as millions run away from the gunshots — as a consequence, hundreds ran into their untimely deaths as they slipped into ravines around the lake. The government’s sniper gunshots were accompanied aerially with military helicopters (not shown on the video, but see photo below) – which entered the civilian perimeter to further escalate the situation. And, on the ground, military-grade Humvees were deployed (seen on the video) straight into the main stage area to drive Oromo Irreechaparticipants into the ravines.
These remain unanswered:
1) who gave the order to deploy the military as a response to the peaceful protest at the Irreecha festival;
2) the swiftness (fastness) with which the military responded (within minutes of the breakout of the peaceful protests) does initiate the question: was this a pre-planned massacre? Why was the military staged near the civilian festival?
Photo of the aerial force deployed against Oromo Irreecha participants:
Military-grade Humvee inside the civilian perimeter at the 2016 Irreecha festival (why was the soldier’s face covered with a bandanna?):
#OromoProtests: “We want our own government and those in the current government don’t represent us. They are incompetent to administer us and we want them to leave power.”
FILE — Demonstrators chant slogans and flash the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia.
(VOA, WASHINGTON )Ethiopia is observing an official mourning period for more than 50 people killed during a crackdown and stampede at an ethnic cultural festival in the Oromia region Sunday.At the same time, the country is seeing a continuation, possibly an escalation, of the anti-government protests that sparked the violence.
Hundetu Biratu took part in a protest that turned deadly Monday in Dembidolo, a town in southwestern Ethiopia. She told VOA that her brother was shot and killed during the demonstration.
“We were taking my brother to the hospital. A bullet pierced his neck and exited through his ears. They fired tear gas and I fell. When I got up they shot me on my thighs and I fell,” she said.
Mulatu Gemechu, assistant deputy chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, said other protests took place Monday and Tuesday across eastern and western Oromia. He said clashes broke out in Sendefa, a town in central Ethiopia, as mourners returned from a funeral for a mother and a child who died in Sunday’s pandemonium.
The Oromia Police Commission deputy commissioner, Sori Dinqa, told reporters that protesters in the region are destroying property, burning cars and targeting government offices.
Demonstrators protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia. More than 50 people were killed in the violence.
“There are continued and sporadic efforts to block streets, disturb the peace and burn administrative buildings. Our police are continuing to prevent that. We want the people to condemn the uprising and discourage people from taking part in these acts,” he said.
But few people appear to be heeding his call.
A witness in Alem Gena, a town in central Ethiopia, said a funeral service for victims turned into an anti-government demonstration. He said no one was killed but anger in his area is running high.
“We want our own government and those in the current government don’t represent us. They are incompetent to administer us and we want them to leave power,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.
Questions about the stampede
Official tallies put the death toll from Monday’s violence at 52, while Desalegn Bayisa, general manager of the Bishoftu Hospital, told reporters 55 people had been killed. Opposition members and activists, however, place the number of people who died in the hundreds.
Bayisa said the hospital also treated more than 100 injured people.
Questions about safety precautions are also being asked of the organizers of the festival, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to a location that includes a lake and deep ditches.
FILE — People assist an injured protester during Irrechaa, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia.
“It’s amazing really. There seemed to be no preparation or planning about how to manage the flows of people,” said William Davison, a reporter for Bloomberg News who attended the event and said there were no barriers between the people and the ditches.
“To make those mistakes given the high likelihood of a protest and a government response just seems sort of criminally negligent to me,” Davison added.
Stifling dissent and criticism
Free speech advocates say the government was attempting to silence critical voices even before the festival.
“My attempts to reach him via his phone ended unsuccessfully. May he stay safe,” wrote Befekadu Hailu, another blogger, on his Facebook page.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a group advocating for the safety of journalists, condemned the arrest and called on the government to release Teshome without delay or conditions.
It is “deeply disturbing as it comes against a backdrop of government moves to stifle protests and criticism,” CPJ’s deputy director Robert Mahoney said.
“We want to see any pending charges or charges they might try to pursue dropped,” Kerry Paterson, the senior advocacy officer for CPJ’s Africa program told VOA. “The chilling effect that occurs as a result of arresting people doesn’t just hurt the individual journalist who gets arrested. It hurts all Ethiopia.”
What’s next?
Analysts see no end in sight to the ethnic tensions roiling Ethiopia.
Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa Movement, a group that advocates for good governance, said protesters do not feel the promise of Ethiopian federalism, in which all regions are supposed to have a degree of self-governance, has been realized.
“I don’t see it ending anytime soon,” he said of the widespread anger. “I think a lot of this resentment and a lot of this discord that we are seeing is because the highly intrusive, highly repressive central government has not allowed those basic democratic avenues to be opened up. They have not allowed the Oromo people in particular to exercise and to demonstrate their basic rights that are enshrined in the country’s own constitution.”
Adane Tilahun, the chairman of the opposition All Ethiopian Unity Party, said that to begin the healing process from this week’s events, the government needs to recognize the killings were unjustified, apologize, and offer compensation to the families of the victims.
Tilahun also called on international actors and human rights groups to put pressure on the Ethiopian government in order to establish an independent investigation into the deaths.
VOA reporters Tujube Hora and Solomon Kifle contributed to this report.
Bloggers arrested, internet shut down periodically, and foreign firms attacked as anti-government protests continue.
File: A man at a funeral holds up the portrait of Tesfu Tadese Biru, a construction engineer killed in Bishoftu [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Often violent protests in which rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed by security forces have flared again in Ethiopia, with a US citizen among the latest deaths.
Protests reignited in the Oromia region – the main focus of a recent wave of demonstrations – after at least 55 people were killed in a stampede at the weekend, which was sparked by police firing tear gas and warning shots at a huge crowd of protesters attending a religious festival.
Fifty-five is the official death toll given by the government, though opposition activists and rights groups say they believe more than 100 people died as they fled security forces, falling into ditches that dotted the area. Ethiopian radio said excavators had to be used to remove some of the bodies.
The anti-government demonstrations started in November among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, and later spread to the Amhara, the second most populous group. Though they initially began over land rights they later broadened into calls for more political, economic and cultural rights.
Both groups say that a multi-ethnic ruling coalition and the security forces are dominated by the Tigray ethnic group, which makes up about six percent of the population.
The government, though, blames rebel groups and foreign-based dissidents for stoking the violence.
Staff at the California-based UC Davis university confirmed the identity of the US citizen as Sharon Gray, a postdoctoral researcher of biology, who had been in the Horn of Africa nation to attend a meeting.
The US embassy said she was killed on Tuesday when stones were hurled at her vehicle on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, where residents said crowds have attacked other vehicles since the stampede.
The embassy did not give further details or a precise location for the incident.
Foreign firms attacked
News of Gray’s death came as foreign-owned factories and equipment were damaged in the protests. Demonstrators in Oromia say farmland has been seized to build foreign factories and housing blocks.
On Tuesday, crowds damaged a factory run by Turkish textile firm Saygin Dima and the BMET Energy cable plant, which also has Turkish investors, officials from firms in the area said. Both plants are in the Oromia area.
A third of the Saygin Dima plant in Sebeta, 35 km (20 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, was destroyed by fire, General Manager Fatih Mehmet Yangin said.
“A large crowd attacked the factory,” he said, adding three vehicles were also destroyed.
Yangin said a flower farm nearby was also attacked. The Oromia Regional Administration said vehicles and some machinery at a plant owned by Nigeria’s Dangote Cement were vandalised.
Oromia has been a focus for industrial development that has fuelled Ethiopia’s economic growth, but locals say they receive little compensation when land is taken by the government.
The death toll from unrest and clashes between police and demonstrators over the past year or more runs into several hundred, according to opposition and rights group estimates. The US-based Human Rights Watch says at least 500 people have been killed by security forces.
The attacks will cast a shadow over Ethiopia’s ambition to draw in more investment to industrialise a nation where most people rely on subsistence farming, and have been struggling with a severe drought in the past two years or so.
The government has been building new infrastructure, including an electrified railway connecting the capital of the landlocked nation with a port in neighbouring Djibouti, which was inaugurated on Wednesday.
At least seven foreign-owned flower farms in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, another area where protests have flared, were damaged in political violence at the start of September.
Bloggers arrested
Rights groups and opposition politicians accuse the government of excessive force in dealing with demonstrations, crushing opponents and stifling free speech.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) called on authorities on Tuesday to free Seyoum Teshoume , a blogger critical of the government, who writes for the website Ethiothinktank.com. CPJ said he was reported detained on October 1.
Another blogger who has expressed support for the protests, Natnael Feleke, was arrested on Tuesday, according to a blogging collective of which he is a member. Natnael was previously arrested in 2014 and released after more than a year in prison when charges against him were dropped.
There were also reports that the internet had been shutdown periodically over the last two days.
Officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but the government says it only detains people who threaten national security and says it guarantees free speech.
The opposition failed to win a single seat in a 547-seat parliament in a 2015 election and had just one in the previous parliament.
Ethiopian anti-government protesters are escalating attacks on foreign investors as anger grows over the regime’s crackdown on demonstrations, in which hundreds of people have been killed.
Activists torched a Turkish textile factory and attacked a mine owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, damaging trucks and machinery on Tuesday, days after more than 50 people were killed when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protests at a religious festival. The US embassy in Addis Ababa said an American woman died on Tuesday when her vehicle was struck by rocks thrown by Ethiopians on the outskirts of the capital.
The violence comes after a wave of protests this year that were originally triggered over a land dispute in the Oromia region of central and southern Ethiopia. They have since escalated into broader demonstrations against the autocratic government and spread to other regions, threatening the stability of one of Africa’s best-performing economies.
Addis Ababa has responded with force — activists accuse security forces of firing live ammunition on unarmed demonstrators and say hundreds have been killed in the protests.
Washington has called the government’s approach to the unrest “self-defeating,” while the EU on Wednesday called for the authorities to address the “wider aspects of the grievances”.
Activists and analysts say the attacks on foreign companies are becoming increasingly co-ordinated.
More than two dozen foreign companies, including flower farms and other agribusinesses have suffered millions of dollars in damage in recent weeks, according to Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based consultancy.
Juan Carlos Vallejo, co-owner of Esmeralda Farms, pulled out of the country after his business was attacked several weeks ago.
“Right now, everyone is really scared,” he said. “We never expected something like this to happen. I don’t think anyone is going to want to invest here any more.”
Ethiopia has been one of Africa’s star performers, recording 10 per cent annual growth and attracting tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment over the past decade thanks to a carefully planned, state-led development and industrialisation policies.
But it is also a tightly controlled society, with the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front — which has governed with an iron grip since 1991 — and its allies controlling all the seats in parliament.
Dissent is swiftly repressed and the political opposition was severely weakened by a government crackdown — during which scores of people were also killed — after disputed 2005 elections.
“We have made clear that Ethiopia’s prosperity depends on the ability of its government to maintain a stable and predictable investment climate and to expand political space,” a western diplomat said.
The current protests began in Oromia region last November over plans to expand Addis Ababa into Oromo lands. The initiative was shelved but the government’s aggressive response to the protests saw them spread to northern areas, which are dominated by the Amhara ethnic group.
Both the Amhara and Oromo are frustrated by the political dominance of the Tigray minority, which makes up 6 per cent of the 100m population, analysts say. The Oromo and Amhara comprise some two-thirds of Ethiopians.
Awol Allo, an Ethiopian law lecturer at Keele University, said foreign investors were being targeted because “they are seen as the source of legitimacy for the government”.
“The government has to attract foreign investment to keep the economy growing and has to provide land and services cheaply,” he said. “People are taking out their anger on investments by foreigners to undermine the government.”
The government has sought to play down the protests, blaming overseas agitators and criminal elements.
Analysts say the Tigray-dominated regime has maintained its grip in part by keeping the larger ethnic groups divided. But they add that now the Oromo and Amhara have united in their opposition to the government, it will be hard for the authorities to appease them without making significant concessions.
However, Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said some ministers, and the Tigray-controlled military, are loath to do this.
“The protests have now reached a serious level, a different scale,” he said. “We should not exaggerate and say the government is going to keel over tomorrow, but it portends future trouble unless they get a grip. What’s worrying is that so far they haven’t.”
Afar People’s Party is dismayed by the mass killing of our Oromo brothers in Bishoftu, while celebrating the Irrecha seasonal holyday. This act of state-terror and coward action on civilian population is a testimony for that the Woyane regime is falling apart and the situation is getting out of its control. It’s time to make sense of the causes, the causes that people are scarifying their lives for all over the country. Many heroic Ethiopians have been killed, prisoned, tortured and driven from their homes because they merely voiced their grievances and saidNo to social injustice and said Yes for human dignity.
In this trying time our hearts are bleeding and our souls are mourning with all families who lost their beloved ones. Afar People’s Party would like to express its solidarity with all Ethiopian people in general and with our Oromo brothers in particular.
Since its control of power, the EPRDF/TPLF regime has been systematically dismantling every aspects of societal institutions to create fertile ground for its divide and rule policies. The paradox is that those who have been killed repeatedly are civilians not armed opposition groups.
For instance, since 2005 Ethiopian have been massacred when they protested to protect their votes from being snatched;
Our Muslim brothers were killed and prisoned and tortured when they say “listen to our voices” and respect our religious freedom and demanded to restrict state interference in religious affairs;
Ethiopians were massacred in Gambela to give land for foreign investors;
Ethiopians were massacred and villages were burned in Ogaden when people asked for full-fledged federal arrangement;
Ethiopians were massacred in Gonder/ Wolkait/ Bahirdar/ Konso/ Sidama/ Konnaba/ Sawne/ Gawani etc., when they demanded that one’s identity should be determined by a group or individual but not by the state;
Ethiopians are massacred, prisoned and displaced in Afar because of they protested against land grabbing, territorial claims and marginalization;
Ethiopians were massacred in every corner of Oromia and now while celebrating the traditional ceremony of Errecha; and the list can continue…
The question is now, how long shall we wait and see while such gross human rights violations and crime against humanity are committed in daily basis? We believe that it’s our responsibility to accomplish the dreams and aspiration of many fallen brothers and sisters and we can only achieve that when we are united against the tyrannical regime.
We condemn all forms of barbaric acts and convey our condolences to those families who lost their beloved ones.
We call up on all Ethiopians to unite for lasting peace, justice, freedom and peaceful coexistence among Ethiopian.
Following the death of at least 55 people in the weekend, Ethiopia is coming out of a three-day national mourning with a complete internet shutdown and more protests engulfing the country. Anti-government protests have broken both in the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, with reports of closed roads, a heavy presence of riot police…
The annual Irreechaa festival is a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the Oromo people of Ethiopia. After the hardship of the winter months, the festival welcomes the spring and attracts millions to the town of Bishoftu in one of the largest cultural and spiritual celebrations of the year.
Protest for Human Rights in Ethiopia, Oakland, CA. Credit: Elizabeth Fraser
The exact details of this atrocity are difficult to confirm—Ethiopian authorities routinely jail journalists and bloggers for critiquing the government and internet and cell phone reception in the Bishoftu region has reportedly been cut off. But regardless of the exact details, this is the latest in a series of events that signal increasing state violence.
State Violence Mounting in Ethiopia
For almost a year, protests have erupted in the Oromo and now also the Amhara regions of Ethiopia. They originated in response to a “Master Plan” that was set to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa and take land away from farmers in the region, but have grown into larger calls for democracy and human rights in the country. Between November 2015 and January 2015, at least 400 people—mostly students—were killed by security forces in Oromo in the start of these protests. In August, nearly 100 more were killed in similar events in Oromo and Amhara. In September, a fire in the prison holding political prisoners and anti-government protesters in September took the lives of 23.
The trend is clear: state violence and repression in Ethiopia is mounting, and the international community is doing little to stop it.
Over the past eight years, the Oakland Institute has extensively researched, monitored, and reported on land and human rights abuses in Ethiopia. We started this work by examining detrimental land investments. This work led us to document the widespread human rights violations and repression of critics and opponents of the government’s development plans that were grabbing land and resources from its own citizens. In the wake of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation that led to the arrest of students, land rights defenders, journalists, indigenous leaders, opposition politicians, religious leaders, and more for exercising basic freedoms; in the wake of the villagization program that set out to forcibly relocate up to 1.5 million people to make their land available for foreign investment; in the wake of this year’s anti-government protests that have seen hundreds, if not thousands, killed by security forces—our work has expanded and our appeals for justice have grown.
Today, as we all reel from this latest tragedy, we say enough is enough. The US—as the largest bilateral donor to the country—must take a firm stand for human rights, democracy, and justice in Ethiopia.
House Resolution 861—Human Rights in Ethiopia
In September, Resolution 861—“Supporting Respect for Human Rights and Encouraging Inclusive Governance in Ethiopia”—was introduced in the House of Representatives, thanks to the courageous leadership of Representative Chris Smith. To date, it has been publically co-sponsored by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Al Green (D-TX), Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH). The resolution summarizes and condemns the massive abuses taking place in Ethiopia; calls on numerous US departments and agencies to review their financing of the Ethiopian government; and “stands by the people of Ethiopia and supports their peaceful efforts to increase democratic space and to exercise the rights guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution.” The resolution’s support is growing, with news received last week that Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) will also be signing on.
The US Must Act Now
The US and Ethiopia have a unique relationship: the US has relied on Ethiopia in its war on terrorism in the region, while Ethiopia relies on the US as a primary aid contributor. Because of this relationship, the position of the US is vital. A strong statement from the US would not only cause the Ethiopian authorities to take heed, but could inspire other world leaders to stand up for human rights in the country as well.
Over the past year, nearly one thousand people have lost their lives because they stood up for justice and human rights. How many more innocent lives need to be lost before the US is willing to take a stand?
Ethiopia: human rights defender condemns deadliest mass murder in Oromia #IrreechaaMassacre #OromoProtests
Ethiopia: Deadliest TPLF/EPRDF Mass Murder In Oromia
HRLHA Urgent Action
October 2, 2016
The HRLHA deeply condemn the mass murder by the Ethiopian government sponsored killing squad Agazi force near Bishoftu, Oromia where over 4,000,000 Oromos were gathered to celebrate the Irrecha annual festival , the Oromo thanksgiving day on October 2, 2016.
The attack by the killing squad Agazi which was supported by helicopter from the air has left at least 300 civilians dead on the spot and thousands wounded and has been taken to hospitals in Bishoftu and Addis Ababa, 40 km away from the place of mass murder took place. According the HRLHA informants from the place, the dead bodies were everywhere on the ground around the Hora Arsadi, the area of the irrecha festival
The October 2, 2016 mass murder would be one of the highest tolls for a single day in Oromia since 10 months the Oromo protest has begun in November 2015
The HRLHA calls on the world governments and donor organizations to condemn the barbaric acts of government sponsored killing squad Agazi force against Oromo civilians and put pressure on the TPLF/EPRDF government to allow swiftly neutral body to investigate this horrific action of this dictatorial government sponcered killing squads..
The HRLHA will continue updating the fast growing number of the victims from around the area.
Warning!!
Note: The following pictures are extremely graphics. Proceed with procuation
All photos were taken from social media, names are not identified
Ummatni Oromoo gochaa diinaa kana jabinaan dura dhaabbatuun Har –Sadeen bakka uumaa itti galateeffatan malee waltajjii siyaasaa mootummaa itti faarsan ykn eebbisan akka hin tahiin hubachiisuun, mootummaan gochaa kana irraa akka dhaabbatu hubachiisaa fi yaadachiisaa ture. Haa tahu malee mootummaan humnatti amanu kun akkuma bare humnaan to’achuun waltajjii ofii godhatuuf yaalii godheen mormii dhalateen ummata meesha maleeyyii ayyaana kabajataa jiru irratti boombii harkaa darbatuun lubbuu gaaga’ee, waraana lafoo fi helikooptara waraanaan marsee dhukaasa baneen lammiilee fayyaaleyyii Oromoo dhibbaa ol ajjeesuu dhaan diinummaa isaa caalaatti ifa godhee jira. Guyyaan kun Oromoof Sanbata Gurraacha seenaa keessatti hin dagatamne tahee jira.
Kanneen aadaa fi safuu ummataaf kabajaa hin qabne ajjechaa jumlaa fi tarkaanfii sanyii duguggii kana kan rawwatan bakka Irreeffannaatti tahuun ammoo mootummaan kun Ayyaana ummata Oromoof kan kabajaa hin qabne tahuu kan durii caalaa mirkaneesse. Waan taheef tarkaanfii diinummaa kana ABOn gadi jabeessee balaaleffata.
Hawaasni addunyaa, nagaa jaallattootni, dhabbattootni mirga namoomaa gochaa gara jabinaa fi faashistummaa mootummaa Wayyaanee kana akka balaaleffatan ABOn jabeessee gaafata. Addatti ammoo mootummootni mootummaa kanaaf waahela tahan ajjechaan jumlaa haa gahu jechuun callisa isaanii irra aanuun tarkaanfii barbaachisuu fi quubsaa yeroon itti fudhatan amma tahuu irra deebi’ee yaadachiisa.
Ummatni Oromoo mootummaa Wayyaanee ummatoota hunda irratti roorrisaa jiru kun akka gatiittii ummatoota irraa bu’uuf qabsoo gaggeessuun durummaan kaafama. Qabsoo ummatni Oromoo itti jiru fakkeenya godhatuun kan qabsoo mirgaa fi eenyummaa kaasuun falmaa seenanis hedduu dha. Ummatootni qabsoo eenyummaa fi mirgaatti jiran martis gochaa kana akka balaaleffatanii fi qabsoo mirgaa fi dimokraasii ummatni Oromoo itti jiru cinaa hiriiruu fi wal tumsuun falmaa isaanii akka finiinsan ABOn gaafata.
Tarkaanfiin fashistummaa guyyaa har’aa Onkoloolessa 2, 2016 ummata Oromoo irratti fudhatame hariiroon mootummaa Wayyaanee fi ummata Oromoo gidduu kan diinummaa tahuu waan daran caalaatti mirkaneesseef, ummatni Oromoo mootummaa kana irraa ajjeechaa fi hidhaa, xiqqeenyaa fi salphina malee kan argatu homaatuu akka hin jirre hubatee, qabsoo bilisummaa itti jiru bifa hundaan akka finiinsu ABOn dhaamsa dabarsa.
Dhaabotni bilisummaa fi mirga waliigalaaf qabsaawan hundi fi ummatootni marti akka qabsoo hadhaawaa kana finiinsanii umrii mootummaa fashistii kana gabaabsuu irratti akka fuulleeffatan waamicha keenya dabarsina.
Sanbatni kun Oromoof Sanbata Gurraacha Seenaan hin dagatamne dha.
An Oromo just shot and killed in Bishoftu at an area called ‘Circle’. His body still there as soldiers prevented medical personnel and civilians from picking him up.
Shoes of Oromo people killed by fascist Ethiopia’s regime forces (TPLF, Agazi) during Irreecha 2016 in Bishoftu. Genocide is gooing on. 2nd October 2016.
UUUUUUUUU Genocide against Oromo people by TPLF. This is at Hora Harsadii while millions of Oromo People at Irreecha, 2nd October 2016.
As social media more accurately reports from the field and hospitals, more than 800 people were massacred and thousands were jured by TPLF while more than 4 million people celebrating the most popular African based Oromo Thanksgiving season on 2nd October 2016. The number of people killed by Agazi on 2nd October on Irreecha day may be increased. The genocide has been going on over 25 years particularly since November 12, 2015 as the world community has been watching.
Hundreds of people fell into this deep ditch as bullets tear gas fell on millions from helicopter and ground soldiers
Ergaa kana naaf dabarsi Beekan.. ANi ogeessa fayyaa Hospiitaala Bishooftuuti. Namoota du’aniifi gaggaban adda baafachuu hamma dadhabnetti jirra. AKka warra lubuun keessa jiru hinyaallannettis nama jala erganii nudanqaa jiru. Dawwaanillee dhumee waan ittiin madaa isaani qoorsinu fixneerra. Warri akkanumaan gar aFinfinneetti refer’ gochaa jirrus utuu achi hingahiin du’uuti malu. Nama gaddisiisa. Har’an ogeessa fayyaa ta’uukoo of abaare. Jarri saba keenyaa lafarra daguuguuf murteeffatteetti. Ani kanin lakkaa’ee qofti dhibba sadii ol ta’a…maaloo warri sagalenkeessan dhaga’amu, sabni kun ciisee du’uurra ajjeesee akka du’uuf dhamsa nuuf dabarsa. Namoota naannoo Bishooftu jiraniin adaraa dhiigaa nobboleeyyan keessaniif nuuf arjoomaa naajedhiin. kana boda abbaatu ofmara jedhe bofti.ani dhukkuba uumamaa sabnikoo ittiin miidhamu yaaluufan baradhen se’e amma garuu ajjeechaa Wayyaaneen lammiikoorratti gootu ..yeroon siif katabu kana office ‘ koo balbala cufadhee imimmaan ofirra lolaasaadha. Gaafa haatikoo duute akkas boo’ee hinbeeku. Adaraa tokkummaan ka’aa naa jedhiin.
(OPride) — At least 250 feared dead in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, after police used tear gas and opened fire on people gathered to mark Irreechaa, the Oromo thanksgiving festival, according to activists and eyewitness reports. The Irreechaa holiday at Hora Arsadi, the crater lake near the site of Sunday’s massacre, is considered the biggest cultural and spiritual celebration in Africa.
On this day, October 2, which will be entered into history books as the Irreechaa Massacre, the sacred grounds of Arsadi were littered with dead bodies, according to reports. The mass arrests began a day early. Tensions run high all day as military helicopters flew above the crowd at lower altitude, in what was seen as an effort to intimidate the gathering crowd. At the city entrances, security checkpoints stretched for hours as festival goers arrived from across Oromia. But despite the heavy security presence, Irreechaa goers still expected to partake in a peaceful celebration of the arrival of Birraa, as the holiday marks a seasonal change from dark and rainy winter months to a bountiful Spring.
But chaos, confusion and stampede broke out in the early afternoon when the youth booed the newly elected chairman of the ruling Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, OPDO, off the stage. The protests began as soon as the crowd filed into the malka, the river bank, close to the stage where politicians hoped to make political statements – statements that are often unheard and unheeded even on a “normal” year. It’s clear that the youth were ready to make a statement of their own to the local officialdom – in an unusual in your face type of way. But their protests were peaceful. They crossed arms, forming an X, popularized by Oromo marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa, to say no to the killings, beatings and arrests. It is an incident like no other. A turning point for the 11-month old Oromo protests, a popular uprising against the Oromo people’s continued social, economic and political marginalization by the central government in Ethiopia.
Irreechaa has emerged at the most important event among the Oromo. It is officially a celebration of the bountiful harvest of Birra but a celebration of Oromummaa itself. It is the most unifying event for the Oromo, who constitute at least half of Ethiopia’s 100 million people.
This wasn’t an ordinary year for Oromo and for Ethiopians as a whole. More than 1,000 people have been killed, mostly in Oromia, but also in the Amhara state in the last 11 months.
Opposition party says stampede kills at least 50 people in chaotic scenes in restive Oromiya region
Protesters run from teargas during the Irreecha festival of thanksgiving in Bishoftu. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Reuters in Addis Ababa Sunday 2 October 2016
Police in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a stampede the opposition party said killed at least 50 people.
Note: Dr Merera told The guardian about 50 casualties several hours ago right after the news first emerged. Current estimate stands over 350. Also note, they are still waiting for bulldozers to dig people who feel deep into the ditch and waiting for divers for those who fell into the lake. Jawar Mohammed
Thousands of people gathered for the annual Irreecha festival in Bishoftu, about 40km south of the capital.
Protesters chanted slogans against the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation, one of four regional parties that make up the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the nation for quarter of a century.
When we think of land grabbing in Africa, all too often we think of China or the Gulf States as being the principal actors, but this is far from the truth. “Development agencies, universities, pension funds, Norwegian churches, banks and private equity funds are all involved.” There is also a common perception that the lands grabbed are then turned over to monoculture production of soy, corn or palm oil, products which sustain unhealthy Western diets with lots of sugar and meat. But in fact, a lot of the time something even worse happens. The lands are not used to grow any food at all, but left completely fallow. “This is true for the majority of the hundreds of land contracts we have studied,” Mittal tells us. “They grow nothing at all, but simply speculate on the land in order to sell it at a profit later.” The consequences for the previous residents of these lands are internal displacement, hunger, and violence if they try to resist. In cases, where lands are used for agricultural production, furthermore, the nature of social relations is changed, as the new owners create seasonal jobs, meaning the people who once farmed the land freely are reduced to being sharecroppers, inevitably increasing profits for the new owners.
On September 24th, we were joined by activists from six countries as well as Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Anuradha Mittal, the founder of the Oakland Institute, who moderated the Terra Madre Forum on land grabbing, “Take Your Hands Off The Earth”.
As Mittal pointed out in her opening speech, food prices have risen both in nominal terms and as a percentage of spending for people in the developing world since 2008, with the amount of household expenditure on food up by as much as 50%. The capacity of poor people in developing countries to grow their own food and feed themselves without reliance on imports or supermarkets is more important than ever, insofar as it represents people’s ability to withstand the whims of the free market. When we think of land grabbing in Africa, all too often we think of China or the Gulf States as being the principal actors, but this is far from the truth. “Development agencies, universities, pension funds, Norwegian churches, banks and private equity funds are all involved.” There is also a common perception that the lands grabbed are then turned over to monoculture production of soy, corn or palm oil, products which sustain unhealthy Western diets with lots of sugar and meat. But in fact, a lot of the time something even worse happens. The lands are not used to grow any food at all, but left completely fallow. “This is true for the majority of the hundreds of land contracts we have studied,” Mittal tells us. “They grow nothing at all, but simply speculate on the land in order to sell it at a profit later.” The consequences for the previous residents of these lands are internal displacement, hunger, and violence if they try to resist. In cases, where lands are used for agricultural production, furthermore, the nature of social relations is changed, as the new owners create seasonal jobs, meaning the people who once farmed the land freely are reduced to being sharecroppers, inevitably increasing profits for the new owners.
There are harrowing stories of lands being bought at unbelievable prices, Mittal continues, citing the example of South Sudan, which gained statehood in 2011. Though for the Western media, the creation of the new country signaled a settlement to a decade-long civil war, the problems are far from over. “In South Sudan, the country with the most transnational land acquisitions, land has been sold for as little as US$0.025 cents per hectare.”
Nyikaw Ochalla of the Anywaa Survival Organization in Ethiopia told us of the country’s vague anti-terrorism laws which allow the government to arrest and imprison anyone who dissents from the State’s policy. There activists such as Yonatan Tesfaye who are facing the death penalty in Ethiopia simply for criticizing the government’s crackdown on anti-landgrabbing protests on Facebook.
Mamy Rakotondrainibe, a key activist in the Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches in Madagascar, told us how the South Korean company Daewoo had bought over a million hectares of land there in 2009 to create an enormous palm oil plantation, the product of which would have been exported back to South Korea. The deal represented half the country’s arable land, and the Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches petitioned the government to stop it. At first the government ignored the petition, and it was only after violent protests which left over 100 people dead that country’s President Ravalomanana fled to South Africa, and his replacement stopped the deal. Nonetheless, smaller but less-publicized deals continue to go ahead in Madagascar, slowly stripping the population of their ancestral lands, in a country where 65% of the population live from agriculture.
Andrew Orina from Kenya told us how the construction of hydroelectric dams on Lake Turkana (the fourth largest in Africa, and the world’s largest alkaline lake) threaten its very existence, and it will likely be split it in two. This will force massive migrations, loss of arable land, destruction of fisheries, and an ecological disaster.
Edward Loure, a Goldman Prize winner from Tanzania, is pioneering a fightback against land grabbing in his country through deeds which recognize indigenous communities’ collective right to their ancestral lands, rather than and instead of any one individual’s propriety. Despite this, Tanzania continues to be a prime target for foreign direct investment in land, and it will require a sustained struggle against the investors to secure the rights of these indigenous peoples.
Helpme Hamkhein Mohrmen of Northeast India told us how in that region, it is a change in thinking about land brought about through modern legal structures which is to blame for tensions over land. In the past, the indigenous clans saw themselves as “custodians” of the land, that is, not having inherited the land from their ancestors, but borrowing them from their children. This idea of custodianship is dying out, replaced by ideas of propriety, which has mainly been exacerbated by the recognition of the value of the region’s mineral resources (including Uranium) which were once irrelevant.
Néstor Joaquín Mendieta Cruz of Colombia, who is also a Slow Food convivium leader, recounted how since 1990, the amount of land available for agricultural production in Colombia was 2.5 million hectares, which has now been reduced to 1.5 million. Half of this land, 500,000 hectares, is now used for the production of palm oil, and despite Colombia already being the number one producer of palm oil in South America, the government plans to increase the amount of land dedicated to its production to a million hectares. In some regions of the country, private security forms create checkpoints along the roads to stop local people from occupying their lands.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz brought a message of hope to the audience, and clearly conveyed her conviction that the fight for indigenous peoples’ land rights is an essential part of the struggle for global food security. As UN Special Rapporteur for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, she wants to see laws still in force from the colonial era which consider indigenous lands to be empty (as happened in Australia and the Philippines) revoked, and is leading the charge by tackling governments directly, around the world. Though many of the large industrialized countries, particularly the United States, Australia and New Zealand ignore or deny her reports, progress is being made. We need a concerted, collaborative effort, which Slow Food can proudly take part in, in order to reverse these trends and shift government policy around the world in recognition of land rights, and against land grabbing.
(Africa Times) — Oromo rights activists said Friday that Bontu Bekele Gerba, daughter of the imprisoned Oromo political opposition leader in Ethiopia, had been released after security forces detained her in the town of Mojo.
Independent Oromo journalist Mohammed Ademo, a former al Jazeera America columnist based in the United States, said the family’s lawyer confirmed the late-afternoon disappearance.
Ademo and other Oromo advocates immediately took to social media, some demanding that U.S. officials and international NGOs confirm her whereabouts and intervene as necessary.
Journalist Jawar Mohammed, executive director for the Oromio Media Network in the U.S., reported that she was released after being detained for questioning at a Mojo police station.
Bontu Bekele Gerba is a political activist in her own right, speaking often to media organizations and Ethiopian activists on behalf of her father, a leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress, and the movement.
The elder Bekele Gerba was most recently detained at Ethiopia’s Kilinto Prison in Addis Ababa, a maximum-security facility where high-profile political prisoners and anti-government protesters are incarcerated. He was rearrested in December following a short release and since remained at the facility, where a fire claimed 23 lives in early September, according to official Ethiopian government totals.
Bontu Bekele Gerba led a search for her father when prison authorities failed to provide information to anxious families who knew nothing of their loved ones’ fate, and spoke publicly again on their behalf.
Her father’s initial 2011 arrest followed a meeting with Amnesty International researchers that led to terrorism charges, which are often used by Ethiopia to silence political dissidents including the Oromo.
Global concern for the 30 million Oromo living under President Mulatu Teshome has increased, following a year in which at least 500 hundred Ethiopians died in violent clashes with security forces.
That visibility was raised following the protest of Ethiopian Feyisa Lelisa at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and his subsequent application for U.S. asylum. Activists in the U.S. have held large protest marches, most recently on Thursday in Washington D.C., on behalf of the Oromo.
U.S. Representatives push for legislation targeting Ethiopia after Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch document human rights abuses.
A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives has proposed legislation targeted at the government of Ethiopia, after Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented hundreds of cases of alleged human rights abuses. House Resolution 861, titled “Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia,” was introduced by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Al Green (D-TX), Mike Coffman (R-CO), and Eliot Engel (D-NY).
“It is an abomination when any country tortures its own citizens,” said Rep. Smith, at a September 13th press conference on Capitol Hill. The human rights abuses, waged primarily against the Oromo and Amhara populations, have come to light despite Ethiopian authorities efforts preventing independent screeners from conducting transparent investigations.
The Resolution condemns the killing of peaceful protesters, the arrest and detention of students, journalists, and political leaders, and the stifling of political dissent under the guise of “counterterrorism.”
Ethiopia is a strategic ally of the United States. The country headquarters the 54 nation African Union, and, critical to U.S. interests, assists in counterterrorism efforts against al-Shabab, an Al-Qaeda aligned jihadi terrorist group based in Somalia. Ethiopia is also host to a staggering 750,000 refugeesfrom the war torn region.
In a press statement Rep. Ellison said, “While Ethiopia is an important ally for the United States, continuing to let the Ethiopian government oppress its own people will only further destabilize the region. We must do all we can to ensure that the human rights of all Ethiopians are respected.” Rep. Smith added, “A valuable contributor to global peacekeeping missions, growing unrest in Ethiopia in reaction to human rights violations by the government threaten to destabilize a nation counted on to continue its role on the international scene”.
Resolutions, like the one proposed, tend to be more of an opinion that often do little in themselves because they lack the political leverage to prompt much action. They often fail to hold allied nations to a standard of conduct, as countries and international organizations are hesitant to regulate how other nations behave within their own borders.
Noteworthy, is that the bill also seeks to apply financial and other pressure towards the government, by calling for the Secretary of State to “conduct a review of security assistance to Ethiopia” and “improve transparency” with respect to such assistance, and to “improve oversight and accountability of United States assistance to Ethiopia”.
OROMO AND AMHARA PROTESTERS CALL FOR EQUITABLE RIGHTS, AUGUST 6, 2016. REUTERS/TIKSA NEGERI
Despite the good intention of the bill, critics highlight that it doesn’t go far enough. Henok Gabisa, a visiting Academic Fellow and faculty member at Washington and Lee University School of Law, stated in a personal interview:
“H.RES.861 is generally a good gesture from the United States Congress. It is very specific in a sense that it points out the consistent and constant patterns of corrosion of civil and economic liberties in the country. It also seems to give scrupulous attention to the marginalized groups who remain on the receiving end of the pain. That is really great. Nonetheless, owing to the mammoth financial aid transported to Ethiopian government by the U.S. under their bilateral security partnership, H. RES. 861 failed to deploy the political leverage of the [United States Government], and as a result it is nowhere nearer to fulfilling the goal it promises. In fact, Resolutions by merit are just declaratory statements or positions of a government. They may not be considered law in a positivist school of law. Yet again, H.RES.861 has no teeth to bite those who fail to comply the soft obligations it enumerated under the last sections 3-6.”
In a country of over 86 million, Oromos and Amharas constitute the two largest ethnic groups, combining for over 61% of the population. Yet, they are the most politically marginalized andeconomically disenfranchised. In 2015 Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, won every seat in parliament despite little ethnic diversity. The EPRDF has remained in power since the overthrow of Ethiopia’s military government in 1991.
J David Thompson (US Army) is a Juris Doctor candidate at Washington & Lee University School of Law focusing on International Human Rights Law. He is a Veterans in Global Leadership Fellow, and brings experience on human rights, international relations, strengthening civil society, refugee issues, interagency collaboration, and countering violent extremism. Prior to Washington & Lee, he served in the US Army as a Military Police officer and Special Operations Civil Affairs with multiple deployments to Afghanistan and one to Jordan—receiving a Bronze Star amongst other decorations. In Jordan, David worked at the US Embassy in countering violent extremism, strengthening civil society, and refugee response with other United States Government organizations, the United Nations, and various non-governmental organizations.
Winner of Mississauga CanKen 5K race protests in support of Ethiopia’s Oromo people.
Ethiopia’s Hajin Tola won the inaugural CanKen 5K road race in Mississauga, Ont. on Sunday and performed a political protest by crossing his wrists to form an “X.”
Oromia: Athletic Nation World Report: The Rio 2016 Paralympic: Athlete Tamiru Demisse showed solidarity with #OromoProtests against the tyrannic Ethiopia’s regime as he claimed a silver medal, following a protest gesture made by Olympic counterpart Fayyisaa Leellisaa (Feyisa Lilesa). Gootichi Oromoo AtleetTaammiruu Demisee Paralympic Riyoo tti tibba injifate mallattoo mormii Oromoo agarsiise.
Throwing up the “X” in parliament, Swedish MP Mr. Anders Österberg asked the Sweden Government to break silence on killings of Oromo & Amhara protesters in Ethiopia. 30 September 2016.#OromoProtests
Sean John Combs also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, Puffy, Diddy, and P. Diddy, is an American Hip Hop Recording Artist, Record Producer, Entrepreneur and Actor showing his support for Ethiopian Human Rights Global Movement.
A meeting called by TPLF’s puppets in Oddo Shakkiso district in Guji Zone turns into fierce protest as elders stand up and denounce the regime and vow to fight to death
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Godina Gujii aanaa Oddoo Shaakkisoo ganda Magaadoo keessatti walgahiin uummataa mootuummaan waamee gara mormii uummataatti jijjiirameera. Guyyaa kaleessaa Fulbaana 26, 2016 yookiin fulbaana 16, 2009tti, uummanni gaaffiiwwaan ciccima mirgaa abbaa biyyummaafi qabeenyummaa gaafachaa turane. Walgahiin mootummaan yaame kun gara mormiitti jijjiiramuun guutumaa gututti injifannoo ummataatiin xumurameera.
Birraan baranaa kan bilisummaatti. #OromoProtests during Irreechaa season. September 2016
Qabsoonis barannoonis itti fufa. #OromoProtests 27 September 2016
OromoProtests, East Hararghe, Biabbile, 27 September 2016
OPDO is neither the the cause nor solution for the political crisis
Yesterday the regime announced that the top two puppets in Oromia have been removed and replaced by not so new faces. TPLF is either still dumb and numb about the depth of the crisis or chose to continue insulting the intelligence of our people. The cause of conflict between the regime and the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia is TPLF’s mission of and obsession with building and maintaining the supremacy of Tigreans. They have successfully built a system whereby power and wealth is monopolized in their hand. They are killing, jailing, exiling and reshuffling to preserve such domination. The puppet parties be it OPDO, ANDM or SEPDM were built and maintained to serve as tools of advancing and protecting this Tigrean supremacy. Hence reshuffling men and women at the head of these puppet parties does not make any difference in the ongoing conflict. They could appoint an OPDO or ANDM as prime minister, and still it won’t solve the problem. Since its created to advance TPLF mission of creating and protecting Tigrean supremacy, the so called EPRDF cannot be reformed through changing of guards or policy fixes –solution will come only when the mission is defeated and the regime is dismantled.
Having said this, why are Lemma Megersa & Workineh Gebeyehu chosen as the new place holders in Oromia? It meant to achieve two tactical objectives; to pacify the growing resentment within OPDO rank and file and the bureaucracy in Oromia, and to further militarize the administration in Oromia.
– Lemma is relatively popular among the younger cadres–hence TPLF believes appointing him will give false hope to the bureaucracy and give them breathing time internally. .
– Workineh is a shrewd politician with keen understanding of the role of the cultural sphere. He has long experience of reaching out to Oromo elders and religious leaders every time the regime faces challenge. They hope he can tap into that to isolate young protesters from the masses through the elders.
-The most important reason however is this. Both men come from the security branch having worked as police and intelligence chiefs. As it anticipates and prepares for further escalation into armed confrontation, TPLF believes these guys will be easier to work with the military and intelligence than Mukar ad Aster whom were very loyal but clueless about dealing with the military generals and spy masters who took over through command post.
Well that is TPLF’s calculation. They are still using that very old calculator left behind by Meles. The input, the machine and the output is off the mark. Jawar Mohammed, 21 September 2016
Waldaan Christian Oromoo Magaalaa Finfinnee. – Oromo Christian church in Finifinnee, Oromia, in solidarity with #OromoProtests, 11 September 2016. The church held New Year prayer and solidarity with our people.
Teachers who are forced to participate in the 10 day indoctrination conference are engaged in #SilentProtest by refusing to ask, answer of comment. They are also boycotting food provided by the regime.
“Hirmii hin nyaannu!!” #OromoProtests September 2016
“Yuniavrsitii Wallaggaa Kampasii Shaambutti diddaan barsiisonni caldhisuun godhan itti fufee jira. Nama Dr. Balay Shifara jedhamuu mqaan waamtee dubbisuuf yaallaan waci eegalee achumaan dhiisan. Amma laaqana esheen qopheessites lagannee jirra.” #OromoProtests 15 September 2016
“Leenjii Barsiistota irratti Barsiistonni Kolleejjii Polii Teeknika Bishooftuu fi koolleejjiwwan dhuunfaa magaalichaa bakka yokkotti bakka leenjii koolleejjii poli Teeknika bishoftu keessatti hirmaachiseen Barsiistonni CALLISUUN DIDDAA giyyaa guutuu waan tokko otuu hin dubbatin hafanii waan ajaa’ibaati
Jarri nu teechisan keessaa obbo Caalii Xiiqii, Leggesee, fi itti aanaa diinii koollejjii pooli teeknika bishooftu kan ta’e Sulxaan ciigoo kan jedhaman dubbadhaa , yaada qabduu ……… cicci xumaaxum namni tokko dubbatu dhabamee jennaan kan duursanii warra afaan oromoo dubbatuuf hin dandeenye adda baasaanii otuu jiranuu waan jedhan wallaallan warri afaan hin dandeenye jirtu? Mee kan afaan oromoo dandeechan harka baasaa jechuun, Barssiisyonni afaan oromoo akka danda’an ibsachuuf otuu hin dubbatin harka baasan, eegas jedhan amma warri harka baastan maqaa waamanii dubadhaa jedhanii gara dirqiittis hoofuf jennaan Barsiistonni sagalee wal fakkaatun kolfa guddaa daqiiqaa walakkaaf ta’u kolfuun erga yokko deebisanii callisan guyyaan saa akka habashaatti 04/01/2009.” #OromoProtests 15 September 2016.
#OromoProtests 3 September 2016: People are rushing (Bank run) to take out their money from Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. This picture is taken from Kumsa Moroda branch in Naqamte, Oromia.
#OromoProtests mass solidarity rally in Berlin, Germany September 2, 2016.Fuulbana (Birraa) 2 bara 2016 Hiriirri deeggarsa FXG magaalaa Berlin, German keeysatti gaggeeyfamaa oole.
Solidarity with #OromoProtests at European Parliament at the conference/hrearing on crisis in Ethiopia, #OromoProtests, #AmharaProtests and land grabs in Afar state. 2nd September 2016
Hagayya 2 bara 2016 Gamtaan Awurooppaa Paarlaamaa Keessatti walgahii wa’ee yakka dhimma Oromo irraattii TPLF/EPRDF saba Oromoo fi Amahara akkaasumaan sabaa fi sabbonttotaa Ethiopia daballatee duguuggaa sanyii balleessuuf raawwatee fi Saamicha lafa Itoophiyaa keessatti gaggeffamuu keessumattuu Saamicha lafa Affaar irrati TPLF gaggessu irrati Marii guddaan gaggeeffameera.
#OromoProtests 2nd September 2016,Qobboo, East Hararge, Oromia : Funeral service for Saladin Shakim, who was wounded on the grand rally and died 1st September 2016.
#OromoProtests 31 August 2016: Cruelty of the TPLF
You might recall the report about killing of 15 farmers in West Hararge, masala District Choma village over the last four days. You also remember reading how the military prevented people from burying the dead and helping the wounded. Today they are dressing body of dead civilians in military uniform and video taping it. They want to make fake documentary claiming they killed armed combatants. Jawar Mohammed
Guyyaa hardhaa ilmaan Oromoo 15 Harargee Lixaa Aanaa Masalaa Araddaa Coommaa keessatti ajjeefaman san reeffa isaanii huccuu waraanaa offisuun fiilmii sobaatiif viidiyoo waraabaa jiran. Jawar Mohammed
The TPLF has continue indiscriminately mass killings of the peace loving Oromo people everywhere throughout Oromia.
The following 15 innocent Oromo people were killed by Agazi soldiers (Tigray People’s Libration Front) in Choma village , Masala District, West Hararge on August 27, 2016
1.Hamzaa Abdullaa
2.Mohammadnur Kaliif
3.Asiyaa Abbaas
4.Imaam Jaabir
5.Jaabir Mohammed
6.Feesal Abdallaa
7.Adam Mikaa’il
8.Mikaa’il Aliyyii
9.Kaamilee Mikaa’il
10.Shukrii Umar
11.Kaamil Hassan
12.Muraad Ahmad
13.Jaabir Hassan
14.Ahmad Imaamee
15.Jamaal Aliyyee
Our thoughts are with all the victims relatives and families.
May their soul rest in peace!!
The Oromo nation is East Africa’s largest ethnic group for its cultural, spiritual and social values. In Ethiopia, home to the majority of East African Oromo, the main celebration of Irreecha in October coincides with the end of the summer rainy season. In a ceremony held every year at Hora Harsadii (Lake Hora ) in Bishoftu town, 45Km south east of the capital Addis Abeba, a gathering of millions of Oromo will give thanks to Waaqaa (God) and ask for Nagaa (Peace), Finnaa (the development of mind and body), Walooma (togetherness or harmony), and Araaraa (Reconciliation). They also pay respect to the previous generations of Oromos who endured the odds and helped this colorful celebration sustain from generations to generations. Last year, during the last week of October, Addis Standard witnessed the gathering of, by state radio and television account, about 4 million Oromos to celebrate Irreecha. Shortly after the celebrations, Addis Standard conducted the following interview with Alemayehu Diro (please see short Bio of our interviewee at the end of the interview), about the relevance of Irreecha for the Oromo nation and Ethiopia at large. Excerpts:
Addis Standard – If you can please start by telling us about the historical background of Irreecha (Thanksgiving) within the Oromo nation?
Alemayehu Diro-Irreecha is one of the ancient ceremonial events taking place twice a year ever since the existence of Oromo as a nation. The Irreecha festivity celebrated in Birraa (in September and October) is the cultural expression of Galata (thankfulness) to Waaqaa (equivalent to the English word God) for providing life necessities to human beings and other living things. This is because the Oromo believe Waaqaa is the sole creator of everything and source of all life. It is also regarded as pure, omnipresent, infinite, incomprehensible and intolerant to injustice, crime, sin and all falsehood. It can do and undo anything.
Irreecha constitutes one of the several religious and cultural practices defining the hallmark of the entire Oromo life. It has promoted and enhanced understanding and unity among the Oromo. It has helped build their common values and shared visions, and consolidated peace (Nagaa Oromo), tolerance and resilience. During Irreecha festivity, the Oromo pray to Waaqaa for peace and stability to prevail; prosperity and abundance to exist; law and social order to be maintained; and the environment to be protected. The Oromo also pray to the supreme Waaqaa for deliverance in times of difficulties and challenges.
This cultural and religious practice of the Oromo was systematically outlawed for more than a century following the fall of the Oromo nation under the tyrant and brutal rules of Minilk II and subsequent Regimes. Despite several odds and difficult circumstances, however, Irreecha has begun to revive in the last two decades. The festivity has registered impressive development from year to year in terms of the number of people attending the occasion and cultural shows being demonstrated. In particular, the Irreecha festivity taking place at Hora Harsadii in Bishoftu has uniquely become Oromo-wide religious and cultural event drawing millions of people from all corners of Oromia and beyond.
AS – How do you describe the main differences between Irreecha and other traditional or religious festivities celebrated by Ethiopians, such as Meskel, Christmas (Gena), or Easter (Fasika)?
AD – All religious and cultural festivities practiced by different people have some degree of similarities and differences. All such festivities describe worldviews of the respective people practicing them. By a worldview I mean a system of values, attitudes, and beliefs, which provide people with different mechanisms to understand the world around them.Irreecha, Meskel, Gena and other similar rituals are ceremonies that celebrate or commemorate specific events that have deep religious and cultural significance. Rituals serve to reinforce important religious and cultural beliefs through meaningful activities that bring comfort and unity of the respective followers. I think in this general sense we may talk of similarities of various religious and cultural festivities. However, since our value systems, attitudes and beliefs are different, their religious and cultural ceremonies and practices remain different.
In this regard, Irreecha is different from other festivities such as Meskel and Gena in that it provides the Oromo with mechanisms to understand their worldview. For example, it provides the Oromo in a unique and particular way a system of morality that establishes right from wrong, good and appropriate from bad or inappropriate behavior. The Oromo have complete sense of ownership, full control and leadership over Irreecha as an institution. Some Oromo may attend and accompany Meskel and Gena festivities but do not have shared objectives and decision-making powers on the institutions. Irreecha is celebrated in the manner that the Oromo would like it to be. It is an invention of the Oromo whereas Meskel and Gena are not.
AS – The Oromos’ participation in many spheres that define Ethiopia’s socio-political and socio-cultural landscape has been largely marked by absenteeism, particularly prior to the 1991 regime change in Ethiopia. And yet Irreecha has been one of the few festivities that the Oromos were able to preserve. Why do you think was that?
AD – I do not think the Oromo preferred absenteeism to participation. As the subject people, the Oromo were denied the rights and opportunities to be part and parcel of mainstream socio-cultural and political economy of Ethiopia for over a century. Successive Ethiopian Regimes have forcefully destroyed the Oromo Gadaa system, robbed of the Oromo land and natural resources, denied them official use of their language (Afaan Oromo), prevented them from exercising and developing their culture, and systematically pushed them away from participating in key economic matters. They were officially denied to be called Oromo and were given a derogatory name called Galla. Ethiopia’s successive regimes were nasty and hateful to anything Oromo. In short, the Oromo were reduced to slavery for over a century. Irreecha happens to be one of the Oromos’ religious and cultural rituals abandoned by these ruling regimes.
But despite the cruelty and enmity, the Oromo paid heavy sacrifices to preserve their language, culture and religious values. At present, at least in thoery, the Oromo have repossessed their land and natural resources thanks to the 1974 revolution that led to state ownership of land proclamation. Afaan Oromo is the national working language in Oromia. Gadaa, the Oromo traditional democratic system of governance, is reviving. The traditional support systems such asBuusaa Gonofaa are also coming to existence. Irreecha is just one of the major cultural rituals the Oromo were able to preserve overcoming several odds and difficulties. It constitutes one of the vivid cultural renaissances the Oromo have been experiencing since the last few years.
AS – As of late the number of people attending Irreecha in Bishoftu town has seen a significant increase. By a rough estimate between four to five millions Oromos were reported to have participated in the last Irreechaheld in October [2015]. Do you attribute that, as many people do, to the growing movement of Oromo nationalism?
AD – Attributing the growing number of participants in Irreecha to the growing Oromo nationalism is absolutely true. That is why millions of Oromos from various geographical areas and religious backgrounds come together to attendIrreechaa at Hora Harsadi. Apart from its cultural and religious functions, Irreecha symbolizes the unwavering unity and solidarity among the Oromo nation. We all understand that the festivity at Hora Harsadi is one of the biggest rituals in the country. We are also observing multiple localities in Oromia where people celebrate Irreecha on same or different dates in the same fashion as the one in Hora Harsadi. The Irreecha ritual is unexpectedly spreading across different countries and continents of our globe where the Oromo live as well. If we bring all these together, the attendants are numbering in tens of millions, which means the overwhelming majority of the Oromo are brought together because of Irreecha to pray for their unity, freedom and wellbeing. Verities of cultural dressings and songs plus associated joys, happiness and other emotions are self evident expressions of the growing Oromo nationalism.
AS – Such assumptions emanate from the fact that many festivities conducted by the Oromo nation are often considered to have political significance in the struggle of the Oromo nation for a fair representation within the political sphere in Ethiopia. What is your reflection on that? Do you see any connection?
AD – The connection between Irreecha festivity and political system is widely vivid. Irreecha, as it has been practiced in the last few years, is not only a mere cultural and religious ritual. It serves as an opportunity for the Oromo to express their grievances and dismays with the prevailing system of political governance. Using their songs, the Oromo publically express their concerns in relation to massive land grabbing practices in the name of investment; denial of genuine and equal opportunities and political representations; harassment and detention of people without due process of the law; and pervasiveness of corruptions and other perceivably unfair political practices.
I do not think there is better environment than Irreecha for interest groups aiming to understand feelings and concerns of the Oromo. I think many of us witnessed for years the detention and harassment of several young Oromos for peacefully expressing their grievances to the government using their traditional songs. In this sense, Irreechaceremony is partly political because it is quite often used by the Oromo to voice their grievances and concerns. I think the government could have used Irreecha to listen to voices and aspirations of the people.
AS – Increasing number of Oromo literature assert the presence of Irreecha and other Oromo festivals as having direct links with the term ‘Oromummaa’ (Oromo identity). There are in fact arguments that Irreecha is considered by many Oromo youth as a “rite of passage” to their ‘Oromummaa’. Can you share with our readers your reflection of that argument?
AD – I think, for the youth (which are also called the Qubee Generation) Irreecha is not a ‘rite of passage’ to theirOromummaa. The youth have obtained better opportunities to learn about the Oromo nation and identifies that constitute ‘Oromummaa’ from their early time of socialization. They were brought up using their language (Afaan Oromo) for education, learning Oromo history and culture from the start, attending multiple cultural ceremonies, etc. The youth are proud of being Oromo and practicing ‘Oromummaa’. For instance, if one looks at the young and emerging artists, writers and fashion designers, they are the ones committed and dedicated to promoting‘Oromummaa’.
The youth are the driving force for ‘Oromummaa’ to [shine] and continue flourishing. The youth have taken initiatives to mobilize the older generations (the majority of whom were passive) to play their roles to build ‘Oromummaa’ to its fullness. Irreecha as core component of ‘Oromummaa’ is being driven by the youth. They have centered Irreechaon the underlying concept of ‘Oromummaa’. In short, my understanding is that the older generations are credited for connecting (remnants of) Oromo rituals and practices constituting ‘Oromummaa’ to the new generation, and the young generation is credited for the courage and initiative they have taken to advance ‘Oromummaa’ as it should be.
AS – But at the same time there are strong, if not convincing, arguments that there is no such thing as‘Oromummaa’ and festivities such as Irreechaa are mere rituals practiced by the Oromo. How do you respond to that argument?
AD – I do not think this argument holds water. Basically, the significance of Irreecha is more pronounced as core component in the reconstruction of Oromo identity (Oromummaa) than practicing mere religious beliefs. As discussed earlier, Irreecha has revived putting the Oromo identity foremost before anything else. That is why the Oromo Muslims and Christians have unreservedly joined the Irreecha festivity. The Oromo are massively mobilized from all corners to attend Irreecha rituals largely because “Oromummaa” as a common denominator is in a desperate need to advance the cause of freedom, human dignity and social justice. Thus, disentangling Irreecha from ‘Oromummaa’ is not only erroneous but also unacceptable.
AS – Let’s talk about religion (mainly Christianity and Islam) vs traditional festivities by the Oromo. For example Meskel (the founding of the true cross in Orthodox Christianity) is known as ‘Damotii’ or ‘Masqalaa’ inAfaan Oromo and is celebrated accordingly. Although Meskel is still widely celebrated among hundreds of thousands of Oromos, some assert that it has overshadowed the relevance of otherOromo festivities, most notably Irreecha. Do you agree with that assumption? Why?
AD – In my view, Meskel and other externally imposed religious rituals were deliberately and systematically designed to subdue the Oromo traditional rituals including Irreecha. These [religious] rituals have overshadowed the Oromo festivities not because the latter ones were irrelevant to the Oromo but because the Oromo were coercively reduced to the level they would not preserve and protect their cultural and religious rituals openly. These imported religious and cultural rituals have no space to entertain anything Oromo. The Oromo were utterly denied to express what they believed in. When the Oromo said they believed in Waaqaa (God), the imposed religions did not want to accept and rather openly preached that the Oromo were worshipping false gods, trees, rivers, mountains, etc. Defamation and humiliation of the Oromo indigenous religion were the strategies consistently pursued. The Oromo were in a difficult position to fully accept and integrate themselves into these exotic religions. However, as subject people, they had no option but to practice what ‘their supposed masters’ told them to do. As the time passed, the Oromo began to assimilate to these imposed rituals and started to attend their festivities. When opportunity opens up following the fall of the military regime in 1991, the Oromo did not take time to begin revitalizing their traditional rituals such as Irreecha.
AS – But on the flip side of that storyline, Irreecha has singlehandedly become the most celebrated Oromo festival. But there are growing concerns that it has overshadowed other Oromo festivities such as ‘Waaqeefannaa’ or the concept of worshiping God. Do you think there is a need to reverse this trend in such a way that other traditional and cultural values of the Oromo are equally recognized and celebrated?
AD – It is true that Irreecha has unprecedentedly become the dominant Oromo ritual compared to other traditional ones. Strong Irreecha institution paves the way and complements other cultural rituals and practices. But despite its overwhelming growth, Irreecha has not developed to the level required. As the time and condition allows, the Tulluu Irreecha, which takes place in spring, will have to develop in a similar manner as [Birra Irreecha]. The Irreechainstitution must develop to the extent that no force can once again brings down its functions and values. More research, more dialogue, more institutional capacity building efforts, and stronger leadership are required to develop it into its fullness. I think stronger Irreecha institution feeds and waters other cultural festivities to grow and flourish, not otherwise. We are witnessing the revival of other cultural rituals and practices such as the different Gadaa rituals, cultural marriage practices and other ‘rite of passage’ rituals. The different cultural and religious rituals are interdependent and complement one another. They do not compete against each other as some people might think.
AS – Let’s move to the significance of Oromo festivities such as Irreecha to the national agenda. Do you think it is relevant? If so what do you think is its contribution to Ethiopia as a country?
AD – Irreecha constitutes the cultural and religious treasury of the Oromo nation. It is one of the greatest pillars of the Oromo identity. It symbolizes the inherent unity and solidarity among the Oromo. That is why so much sacrifice has been paid to retain and revive its ritual for over a century. Nothing explains the relevance of Irreecha to the Oromo much more than the sacrifice they paid. The cultural and religious values embedded in its traditional institution are too big for the Oromo, who by in large constitute the biggest ethnic group in Ethiopia, to be irrelevant. In addition, Irreecha is connecting the Oromo nation with other peoples around the globe. I don’t see anything bigger that can culturally contribute to the national agenda. It is also becoming one of the attractive rituals drawing attention of the ever growing numbers of tourists, generating income for the country. In my view, recognizingIrreecha in the national agenda is long overdue.
AS – Lastly, do you think complaints that none of the Oromo festivities are marked as national holidays in the Ethiopian calendar are justified? Some argue that Irreecha, its meaning being Thanksgiving, is as significant to the Oromo as Christmas is to the Christian Ethiopia.
AD – What is certain at this stage is that Irreecha continues to grow in breadth and depth. Its future is brighter no matter what. This is so because more or less the Oromo, particularly the youth, have taken the matter into their hands.Irreecha does not need more justification to be marked in Ethiopia’s calendar as a national holiday. As I have said earlier, it is long overdue. Rather, it is the government in charge of the affair that has to justify why it has failed to recognize Irreecha in the official calendar as a national holiday.
Ed’s Note: Alemayehu Diro studied economics (B.A in 1988) and Social Anthropology (M.A in 2004) at Addis Abeba University (AAU). He attended several international and national trainings in the field of development, conflict transformation and peace building, project cycle management, leadership, human rights, communication, micro finance, and gender, among others. He worked as development practitioner in the civil society sector for nearly 20 years , of which he spent 13 years working for HUNDEE – Oromo Grassroots Development Initiatives as Program Operation Manager; two years with Forum for Oromo Studies; and five years working as General Manager for Network of Civil Society Organizations in Oromiya). He also worked as a freelance consultant for several local and international NGOs. He is the founding committee member of Oromia International Bank S.C., Oromia Insurance Company and Gutu Oromiya Business S.C. Alemayehu, 47, is married and is a father of six children.
*This Interview was first published on Addis Standard magazine A year ago in Nov. 2015
Despite the country’s constitution professing the equality of ‘all the peoples of Ethiopia’, for the past 25 years ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991. As a result of the political atmosphere in the country, wherethe best armed takes all, all aspects of the federal government (i.e. intelligence, military, police, state banks, airlines and core sectors of the country’s economy) are now dominated by an elite from a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that represents only 6% of the general population.
Divide and rule: For 25 years, the TPLF elite has guaranteed its grip on state power through the divide-and–rule tactic of festering ethnic animosity. The Amhara and the Oromo are their prime targets. Hate speech against the Amhara (the second–largest ethnic group in the country)was broadcast on state– and party–owned mass media outlets, denigrating millions of people by referring to them as ‘timkehetegna’, which means ‘the conceited’ The killing and jailing of the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in the country) has been normalised, thereby creating an entire generation of people who feel like second-class citizens in their own country.
Ethiopia is seeing an increasing number of civilian protests, which are brutally suppressed by the government. It seems that the elite in power needs to heed the lessons taught by the Rwandan genocide: Do not play with ethnic hatred.
Oromo Liberation Front fighters. Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie/ Wikimedia Commons
The year-long, nationwide and unceasing popular anti-government revolt in Ethiopia has brought the country’s ‘ethnolinguistic federalism’experiment to a dead end. Despite the country’s constitution professing the equality of ‘all the peoples of Ethiopia’, for the past 25 years ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991. As a result of the political atmosphere in the country, where the best armed takes all, all aspects of the federal government (i.e. intelligence, military, police, state banks, airlines and core sectors of the country’s economy) are now dominated by an elite from a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that represents only 6% of the general population.
Divide and rule
For 25 years, the TPLF elite has guaranteed its grip on state power through the divide-and–rule tactic of festering ethnic animosity. The Amhara and the Oromo are their prime targets. Hate speech against the Amhara (the second–largest ethnic group in the country)was broadcast on state– and party–owned mass media outlets, denigrating millions of people by referring to them as ‘timkehetegna’, which means ‘the conceited’ The killing and jailing of the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in the country) has been normalised, thereby creating an entire generation of people who feel like second-class citizens in their own country.
There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.
Threatening the country they lead
Unlike the former military regime, which relied on force to crush any opposition but never compromised on the sovereignty of the nation, the current TPLF–led dictatorship is unprecedented in its threat to wreak havoc if its absolute power is contested. The late Meles Zenawi was often seen using this tactic of bullying the country whenever his party’s reckless corruption and unconstitutional dominance over the federal government was questioned.
One aspect of the mayhem that Meles designed and his colleagues now desire to unleash isthat of instilling hatred among the people of Tigray and other ethnic groups by turning anycriticism of them as leaders of the country into an attack on the Tigray people. This hate–mongering is evidence that the elite does not have the Ethiopian people at heart, onlypower. The Tigray people have not only been betrayed by the TPLF elite but they are alsobeing manipulated as the party tries to hide its many failing. Tigray deserves peace and development as much as the other parts of Ethiopia, not to be taken hostage by the corrupt and power-hungry TPLF, which is terrorising them.
For the first time in the 25 years of minority control of the federal government, the people of the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Oromo, have come together to create a common front of the oppressed. This unexpected show of unity has sent a shockwave throughthe TPLF elite, who is frantic and has sent in the military, armed with tanks, helicopters and missiles, against civilians – as if people who are simply demanding their rights and equalitywere foreign invaders.
Country at a crossroads
The current popular opposition in the Oromia and Amhara regional states is a great opportunity for the government to re–examine its divisive policies, admit to its failings and design a reconciliatory road map that would save the nation from descending further into conflict. The elite, however, still chooses to use special killing squads, military force, burning prisons and killing prisoners in custody.
For the past 25 years, ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991.
In addition, it is now spending taxpayers’ money and foreign aid on the launching of media campaigns to derail the unity of the Amhara and the Oromo people.
A silent coup
Following the first wave of uprising by the Oromo last year, the Ethiopian military, controlled by the TPLF, has made official its unequivocal allegiance to the ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ policy, which is the governing policy of the ruling party. This act of merging party and government into one practically re-mandated the defence force of Ethiopia into being a mere protector of the minority elite and, by implication, declared the country’s constitution obsolete.
This is a silent coup. This fact becomes evident when one considers the supposed industrialisation of Ethiopia, which is to be led by the military, under the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC). This is a corporation under the Ethiopian National Defence Force that is fully controlled by generals who were former TPLF rebel leaders. They were tasked by the late Meles Zenawi with the industrialisation of the country. This dangerous disregard for the constitution amounts to running a government inside a government and is pushing Ethiopia towards being an ethnic apartheid state. This can only lead to more violence.
Embracing real democracy
Just a few months ago, the government won 100% of the seats in parliament seats. Voterigging is suspected. The whole country erupted in opposition, showing the real danger of authoritarianism.
Sending in an army, equipped with tanks and missiles, against civilians – as the government has done against the people of Amhara – for no reason other than the fact that they exercisedtheir democratic rights, is not how democracy works. Such a display of power is the most cowardly and desperate exhibition of despotism.
It is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite, who seem more determined than ever to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda.
The path of national reconciliation
Unfortunately, due to the divide-and–rule policy of the government over the past 25 years,Ethiopians have been targeted for their ethnicity: The Amhara, Oromo, Anuak, Somali, Tigray, Kembata, Konso and many other ethnic groups have been targeted at different times. This is a sad reality and testifies to the policy of hate–mongering that is practised by the elite.
The government of Ethiopia needs to stop encouraging further division and animosity. No Ethiopian should be targeted for his or her ethnicity. There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.
However, it is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite who now, more than ever, seem determined to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda. Our silence today will not save us sorrow tomorrow. We should say no to the machetes of hatred that the country’s leaders are selling in their media. We should say no to the use of our name to justify the killing of any Ethiopian.
The martyrdom of our time is saying no to hatred and ethnic conflict while calling for equality and justice for all.
Slave trade existed in the African sub-region for a very long time. On the Arabian slave trade there has been divergent views depending on the background of the scholar who writes. This brief piece therefore makes use of where these scholars share same or similar views/opinions.
While Europeans in their trade of slaves majorly targeted men in West Africa, the ‘Arab’ trade primarily targeted the women of East Africa to serve as domestic slaves, wet nannies and sex-slaves in the infamous harems (This is not to say men were not captured). Their children were born free to Arab fathers, and thus would have been heirs to wealth and status, fully and equally assimilated into the population (good for Arabia, bad for African identity). Their mothers received the title of “umm walad”, which was an improvement in their status as they could no longer be sold. Among Sunnis, they were automatically freed upon their master’s death, however for Shi’a, mothers were only freed so long as their children were still alive; a mother’s value is then deducted from this child’s share of the inheritance. These umm walad, attained “an intermediate position between slave and free” pending their freedom, although they would sometimes be nominally freed as soon as they gave birth.
However, Besteman, 1999 reveals that not all African women were raped or used for sex slavery. The Bantu (Hudwick) were less frequently used for sex-slavery as they were not seen as attractive as Habesha (Ethiopian) slaves. The Somali slavers avoided all sexual contact with Bantu slaves due to perceived racial superiority.
Arab enslavement of Africans was radically different from its European counterpart. It was more complex and varied depending on time and place.
NB:‘Arab’ is not a racial group, but an overarching term hugging Arabs who are African and some who are White and Jewish. (Mizrahi, which includes Syrian, Iraqi, Persian, Kurdish, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Jews). This makes any discussion of the Arab slave trade problematic using 21st century identity models.
Scope of the trade
Salt was profitable, gold was more profitable still, but no commodity was more abundant and profitable than slaves. There had always been slavery in Africa, but the Arabs brought to the trade a new thoroughness and energy, unsurpassed in its rapaciousness until the mercantilist economies of the West turned their attention to Africa.
The trade of slaves across the Sahara and across the Indian Ocean also has a long history, beginning with the control of sea routes by Arab and Swahili traders on the Swahili Coast during the ninth century. These traders captured Bantus (Zanj) from the interior in present-day Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania and brought them to the littoral. The captives were sold throughout the Middle East. This trade accelerated as superior ships led to more trade and greater demand for labour on plantations in the region. Eventually, tens of thousands of captives were being taken every year. The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, there were slave revolts of the Zanj called the Zanj Rebellion against their Arab enslavers in Iraq.
Zanj slave gang in Zanzibar – 1889
During the 19th century, the Arab slave trade took a brutal turn. The Portuguese had destroyed the Swahili coast and Zanzibar emerged as the hub of wealth for the Arabian state of Muscat. By 1839, slaving became the prime Arab enterprise. The demand for slaves in Arabia, Egypt, Persia and India, but more notably by the Portuguese who occupied Mozambique and created a wave of destruction on Eastern Africa. 45,000 slaves were passing through Zanzibar every year.
It’s worth stating that in April 1998, Elikia M’bokolo, wrote in Le Monde diplomatique. “The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth).” He continues: “Four million slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean”.
The most expensive enslaved group in Arabian societies were the eunuchs who were castrated men drawn from Europe but also Darfur, Abyssinia, Korodofan and other African nations. Ironically because of their lack of sexual function they obtained great privileges while African female slaves privileges were due to their sexuality. Young boys, victims from raids and wars were subjected to the horrid monstrous inhumane process of castration without anaesthesia which had a 60% mortality. To stop the bleeding hot coals were cast into the naked wound, which was followed by the most blood curdling alien scream a human could make. If the child survived this brutal act there was to be a life of influence and luxury; silk garments, Arabian thoroughbreds, jewels, were bestowed on them to reflect the wealth of their masters.(Hunwick) Strangely eunuchs were both distinguished and greatly revered as elites in Arab society, despite being enslaved. They served as guards and caretakers of mosques as well as administrators.
One of the biggest differences between Arab slaving and European slaving was that slaves were drawn from all racial groups and they were rarely used as a means of crop production; slaves were not the economic engine behind Arab economies. Social mobility was possible “from slave to Sultan” (Mamluks and Najahid dynasty), many Africans were used in the armies of Moroccan sultan (17th century) and also in the Egyptian forces during the early days of Islamic expansion.
Unlike the European trade in enslaved Africans, the physical remnants of this trade are very hard to measure. No one has detailed records of numbers lost, or a full chronology of events.
Slavery, mild or otherwise, is a crime against a human being.
Oromian Economist 
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