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Opposition groups say security forces have killed 20 people in three weeks of protests over a government re-zoning plan. Members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group view the plan as a further infringement on their rights.
Opposition groups say security forces have killed 20 people in three weeks of protests over a government re-zoning plan. Members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group view the plan as a further infringement on their rights.
“Dubbiin lafaa dubbii lafeeti!” (“The matter of land is a matter of the bone.”) When describing the sensitivity of the so-called “Addis Ababa master plan,” Bekele Naga, the Secretary-General of the Oromo Federalist Congress party (OFC), does not mince his words. “The constitution of the country proclaims that the land belongs to the people,” Naga told DW. But he believes this is being violated: “The Ethiopian government has been engaged in land grabbing, leading to cultural genocide [of the Oromo people].”
Oromia is one of nine regional states organized by Ethiopia’s system of “ethnic-based federalism,” which is part of the country’s constitution. The national government is pushing forward with a plan to expand the area of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia state. Protests over the plan have been going on for weeks, but for the Oromo people, tensions have existed for much longer.
Neglect at the root of the crisis
Oromos make up the largest chunk of Ethiopia’s 95 million people, and their language is the fourth most widely spoken African language across the continent. Yet Oromo is not recognized as a federal working language.
Most Oromos feel they have been cheated of political and economic representation by a succession of non-Oromo governments. To them, the plan by the government and city administration to expand the area of the capital – which Oromos prefer to call Finfine instead of the Amharic “Addis Ababa” – is yet another example of the high-handedness of the ruling elite which comprises mostly non-Oromos.
Protests against the plan to connect the capital with a number of Oromia towns first turned violent in April 2014. At least 11 people were killed when security officers used live ammunition against demonstrators. Oromo representatives put the number of dead as high as 47.
According to an Amnesty International report from 2014, “between 2011 and 2014 at least 5,000 Oromos have been arrested […], detained without charge or trial, or killed by security services during protests, arrests and in detention.”
Many of the protestors are students, who are now demonstrating against the violence.
Farming families evicted
In Africa’s second most populous nation, land is hotly contested between farmers and investors, both local and foreign, as the government pushes forward with an ambitious development agenda. Critics of the “Addis Ababa master plan” argue that it is not designed to export development into the surrounding communities as the government claims, but rather to evict Oromo farmers and residents from their land.
One Oromo farmer from Sululta, a town part of the “integrated master plan” located 26 kilometers (16 miles) to the north of Addis Ababa, spoke to DW on condition of anonymity. He claimed that in late November alone, the government evicted 600 farming families on the grounds that their land was needed for the construction of a factory. When asked if they had received fair compensation and a new home, the farmer told DW that the money given to them was “very meager,” and that the families had so far not been given a place to relocate to.
The farmer also claimed that officials at the Sululta municipality and the Oromia regional administration threatened the farmers they were evicting with arrest should they fail to accept the “deal.”
Get the word out
“Where do we go…no one is going to accept us,” another farmer, aged 89, told DW, on condition of anonymity.” Since we have no other solution, we are pleading to you [the media],” he said.
Not surprisingly, there has been little to no information in the country’s mainstream media, which is tightly controlled by a government often criticized by media watch groups for its harassment of independent and critical journalists.
That’s why Oromo protesters have taken to the Internet and to social media. #OromoProtests is trending on Facebook and gruesome images and videos of gunned-down students are circulating widely on the web.
Oromos in the diaspora, known for their vocal contribution to the “Oromo cause,” have also taken to the streets in major cities in the US and Europe. “It is often months before victims and witnesses come forward to reveal what happened in their communities,” says Felix Horne, an Ethiopia researcher with Human Rights Watch. “They eventually do, and the truth will emerge.”
Three weeks of protest have left 20 dead, more than 150 injured and more than 500 arrested – that is according to figures provided to DW by the OFC, the main Oromo political party. The protests are likely to continue, and some embassies in Ethiopia’s capital are bracing for more violence. Norway, for example, has issued travel warnings for parts of Oromia.
In response to the ongoing protests in Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state and authorities’s violent response, killing and injuring several peaceful protesters, Freedom House issued the following statement:
The authorities trying to forcibly stop protests in Oromia should remember that peaceful assembly is guaranteed by Ethiopia’s constitution,” said Jenai Cox, senior Africa program manager. Firing live bullets to disburse peaceful protesters violates this right. The government of Ethiopia should conduct an inquiry into these police killings and bring those responsible to justice.”
Background:
Oromia is the largest regional state in Ethiopia. Students and other residents across the region have staged peaceful rallies to object to a government-proposed master plan that apparently calls for the expansion of Addis Ababa into the Oromia regional state, potentially evicting farmers. Activists report that 14 protesters have been killed by police and several others were injured.
Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.
Did you know that investments in early childhood are crucial for achieving the brain’s full developmental potential and resilience?
Jim Heckman, Nobel Laureate in economics, and his collaborators have shown that strong foundational skills built in early childhood are crucial for socio-economic success. These foundational skills lead to a self-reinforcing motivation to learn so that “skills beget skills”. This leads to better-paying jobs, healthier lifestyle choices, greater social participation, and more productive societies. Growing research also reveals that these benefits are linked to the important role that early foundations of cognitive and socio-emotional abilities play on healthy brain development across the human lifespan.
Brain complexity –the diversity and complexity of neural pathways and networks— is moulded during childhood and has a lasting impact on the development of cognitive and socio-emotional human abilities.
Early life experiences affect childhood development through changes in brain structure and function
The first one thousand days of a person’s life is a window of opportunity for investments that will lead to health and productivity. The quality of nurturing environments, in particular, preschool experiences and the interactions with adults and peers during childhood, shapes cognitive and socio-emotional skills.
Childhood cognitive abilities provide a foundation for adult cognitive functions. This means that successful brain development ensures that children develop basic cognitive abilities. The so-called “fluid abilities” (such as memory, reasoning, speed of thought and problem solving ability), which underlie high-level cognitive processes, are used to acquire new knowledge, tackle novel problems, and reasoning.
Fluid abilities tend to correlate with each other (i.e. individuals who perform well in one domain have a tendency to perform well in other domains) and intertwine to form a person’s general cognitive ability or intelligence. While there are substantial individual differences in cognitive functioning across the life-span, on average, knowledge-based abilities remain relatively stable into late-life. In addition, fluid abilities start to decline in mid-life and more so during advanced aging.
We are more likely to develop pathologies (diseases) with aging
Aging erodes structural and functional brain integrity. One such cognitive disorder of the aging brain is dementia, the incidence of which increases exponentially with age. It is the leading cause of loss of independent functioning and requirement for institutional care in old age.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. The number of people living with dementia worldwide is currently estimated at 47 million –nearly 60% of cases occur in low- and middle-income countries — and is expected to triple by 2050 with increasing life expectancies around the globe. Some of the mainchallenges associated with dementia are the economic impact on families, caregivers, and communities, associated stigma, and social exclusion.
An adequate early childhood environment and strong foundational cognitive abilities protect against the risks of the aging brain. A healthy and active brain, shaped byadequate nutrition and safe and enriching environments in early-life, enables the retention of brain functions across a lifespan.
The peak level of fluid cognitive abilities is shaped, in part, by early childhood cognition and is one of the major factors in determining cognitive aging trajectories. Multiple complex pathways underlie this association, which also explains why childhood cognitive abilities provide, partly via higher educational achievement, entry into better jobs and healthier environments.
The resilient brain
Optimal brain development provides an individual with a greater number of neurons, more synapses (neural connections), and multiple pathways to perform any given task. Such “neuronal redundancy” comes in handy when a person is faced with deleterious brain aging.
More importantly, an increasing number of studies suggest that early childhood interventions targeting mental domains might increase maximum life-time cognition, potentially reduce the trajectory of cognitive decline in late-life, and even postpone the point at which cognitive deficits first appear.
Evidence from this research is inspiring innovations to make brain development a central element in early childhood programs in developing countries. In Colombia, a World Bank pilot program showed caregivers how to stimulate young children using play and talk. A rigorous evaluation shows that it improved their ability to understand and process what they hear or read. A follow up study is being planned to see if the gains have been sustained over the medium term.
In Kenya, researchers are studying whether giving storybooks to poor households helps improve children’s readiness to succeed by stimulating visual and cognitive brain development. In Bangladesh, another study examines whether getting parents to play and sing to their young children helps their brain development by building positive bonds with them.
Studies and increasingly interventions across several disciplines – neuroscience, health, education, economics, and psychology- provide evidence that early and sustained investments in human development are key for our neurons, our brains, for us as individuals, and for our societies. They lay the foundations for our capacity to achieve and to function well despite social or even biological obstacles throughout one’s life course.
Is there a link between the early foundations of brain development and the capacity to recover from adversity? What is the role of socio-emotional development? Advances in the brain sciences show that, indeed, individuals with a good head start in brain development are more resilient to potential mid-life adversities and the aging process.
In our next blog, we will look into new evidence from the fields of neuroscience and psychology. We will write about ‘resilient brain aging’ and the catalytic role of an adequate early-life environment for developing full brain potential. Please check back next week to find out more about the link between socio-emotional abilities and the resilient brain.
Author: Dorota Chapko is a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Aberdeen. Omar Arias is acting sector manager and lead economist in the Human Development Economics Unit for the World Bank Europe and Central Asia region
Violent clashes in Ethiopia over ‘master plan’ to expand Addis
Extending capital into surrounding farmland is part of ongoing discrimination against Oromo people, say protesters. Global Voices reports
Men parade in the Oromia region outside Addis Ababa. Photograph: STR New/Reuters
Endalk Chala for Global Voices, part of the Guardian Africa network
Friday 11 December 2015
At least 10 students are said to have been killed and hundreds injured during protests against the Ethiopian government’s plans to expand the capital city into surrounding farmland.
According to Human Rights Watch, the students were killed this week when security forces used excessive force and live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The students were protesting against a controversial proposal, known as “the master plan”, to expand Addis Ababa into surrounding Oromia state, which they say will threaten local farmers with mass evictions.
According to the Ethiopian constitution, Oromia is one of the ninepolitically autonomous regional states in the country, and the region’s Oromo people make up the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia.
It’s not the first time the security forces have reacted violently to protests in support of the group. At least nine students were killed in May 2014 while defending the rights of famers in the region when the “master plan” was first announced.
In response to the violence, Amnesty International issued a report on government repression last year, noting that “between 2011 and 2014, at least 5,000 Oromos [were] arrested based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.”
The human rights organisation found that in numerous cases “actual or suspected [Oromo] dissenters were detained without charge or trial, killed by security services during protests, arrests and in detention.”
The ruling elite and members of government are mostly from the Tigray region, which is located in the northern part of the country.
Social media
The Ethiopian media has paid little attention to the protests. Demonstrators have been taking to Facebook and Twitter to report the clashes, with additional coverage coming from diaspora media.
“The Oromo youth are a powerful political entity capable of shaking mountains,” one Facebook user, Aga Teshome, wrote in support of the protesters. “This powerful political entity is hell bent on exposing the [ruling party] EPRDF government’s atrocious human rights record and all round discriminatory practices.”
Another user said more should be done to shine light on the movement: “The silence has truly been deafening. We need to see and hear the inspiring actions undertaken by huge numbers of #Oromo in #Ethiopia.”
Desu Tefera echoed the calls for better media coverage: “We call upon the media to investigate the conditions that these students died trying to expose and resist,” he wrote.
“Oromia needs a new kind of reporting by the international media, which gives voice to the voiceless Oromo people, who for a very long time have been killed, mistreated, abused, neglected and repressed in Ethiopia.”
Dubious development
For many Ethiopians, this week’s clashes show that the issue of Oromo rights refuses to go away.
Protests against the master plan for expansion first began in April last year, when students from outside the capital argued that if the proposal was implemented, it would result in Addis further encroaching into the surrounding territory, allowing the capital to subsume surrounding towns and leaving informal settlements vulnerable to government redevelopment.
The government rejected the accusation, claiming that the plan was intended only to facilitate the development of infrastructure such as transportation, utilities and recreation centres.
The unrest halted the development until now, but in November resentment boiled over again when it became clear the government had resumed its plan.
Since the highly contested 2005 national election forceful evictions and urban land grabbing have become frequent in Addis and its environs, opposition groups say. The city’s rapid growth has resulted in increasing pressure to convert rural land for industrial, housing or other urban use.
The population of the capital is estimated to have grown at a rate of 3.8% per year since 2007, but the repurposing of land in order to accommodate the expansion has been a particularly contentious issue.
Ermias Legesse, a high profile government defector, has argued that since 2000 the Addis Ababa city municipality, with the support of the federal government, has enacted five different pieces of legislation to “legalise” informal settlements, allowing them to be sold on to private property developers.
“Sometimes the informal settlers are given only a few days’ notices before bulldozers arrive on the scene to tear down their shabby houses and lay foundations for new investors,” Legesse said in an interview last week.
To: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: + 41 22 917 9022
Oromia Support Group Australia (OSGA) extremely shocked about the killings and torture of innocent Oromo students including Primary School Children in Oromia. Oromo student peaceful protests are spreading throughout Ethiopia, Oromia region, as people demonstrate against the endanger that hundred thousand of Oromo farmers, residents and their families living near the capital, Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), could be evicted from their lands by the name of Addis Ababa expansion policy.
Since the first week of December 2015, horrifying, and heartbreaking images and videos of Oromo children peacefully marched on a street and voiced their anger being beaten to death and killed by shootings. There are credible reports of severe injuries and arbitrary arrests in many locations that the Ethiopian government armed forces and authorities are unable to deny and publicly admitted the killings of Oromo children.
Since the first week of December 2015, horrifying, and heartbreaking images and videos of Oromo children peacefully marched on a street and voiced their anger being beaten to death and killed by shootings. There are credible reports of severe injuries and arbitrary arrests in many locations that the Ethiopian government armed forces and authorities are unable to deny and publicly admitted the killings of Oromo children.
The Ethiopian Federal forces, racially affiliated and heavily armed, known as Agazi and part of the select force of the dominant Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), violently respond when Oromo students and children from various universities and institutions in the country protested against the Master Plan since the beginning of December 2015. (please see attached further statements and evidence).For full document Oromia-Support-Group-Australia-Statment, December 11, 2015 (1)
Oromia-Support-Group-Australia-Statment, December 11, 2015 (1)
IOYA expresses concern about brutality against Oromo protesters
The following is a statement from the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA).
09 December 2015
We are greatly concerned about the recent brutal crackdown against innocent unarmed peaceful protesters in Oromia by Ethiopian police.
Words seem inadequate to express the sadness we feel for the peaceful protesters who have been killed, beaten and unlawfully detained. We share their grief in this time of agony and pain. We are appalled that a similar tragedy occurred last year in April, 2014 and not much has changed in Ethiopia. Recent images surfing the internet are heartbreaking and disturbing. As an organization subscribing to broader democratic engagement of the Oromo youth, we oppose the brutal violence that the Ethiopian government is meting out on innocent, unarmed young students who are peacefully protesting. As International Oromo Youth, we support and stand in solidarity with Oromo student protesters.
The students are protesting the Addis Ababa “Integrated Developmental Master Plan” which aims at incorporating smaller towns surrounding Addis Ababa, displacing millions of farmers. The implementation of the “Master Plan” will essentially result in the displacement of the indigenous peoples and their families. Farmers will be dispossessed of their land and their survival both in economic and cultural terms will be threatened. The student protesters strongly believe that this plan will expose their natural environment to risk, threaten their economic means of livelihood (subsistence farming), and violate their constitutional rights.
We call on the international community to join us in denouncing these inhumane and cruel activities carried out by the Ethiopian government. It has been reported that shootings, unlawful arrests, and harassment by security personals are becoming rampant. We believe it is imperative that the international community raise its voice and take action to stop the ongoing atrocities that are wreaking havoc to families and communities in the Oromia region.
We pray for safety and security of all peoples in Ethiopia.
The following is a statement from the Oromo Studies Association (OSA).
—–
Oromo Studies Association (OSA)
P. O. Box 5641
Minneapolis, MN 55406-0541 www.oromostudies.org
Email: admin@oromostudies.org
For Immediate Release
December 9, 2015
Statement on the Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan and Oromo Student Protests against Its Implementation
The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) decries and denounces extreme measures taken by Ethiopian security forces, ongoing from late November 2015, killing and maiming peaceful student protesters.
Oromo students at every level of the educational system in Ethiopia, from elementary school to university, began peaceful demonstrations in late November 2015, to protest the implementation of a federally designed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan (AAIMP), which usurps the authority of the Oromia regional government. The students have been met by heavily armed and equipped special Ethiopian police force units who fire into the crowds with deadly impact. There are ten (10) confirmed deaths at this writing, with the confrontation escalating.
The “Master Plan” refers to the federal government’s controversial design for expanding the territorial boundaries of the capital city, Addis Ababa, increasing the city to twenty times its present size by taking over prime agricultural land from Oromo farmers. This plan, developed in secrecy, was first exposed in April 2014, a disclosure that prompted widespread protests at that time. In April and May 2014 the Oromo students’ peaceful protest against the imposition of the Master Plan in all of Oromia region was met with deadly force and live ammunition, which resulted in the confirmed deaths of more than 70 students, maiming of hundreds and imprisonment of thousands of university students.
Since late November, the demonstrators have started to resist specific steps taken to implement this Plan. It calls for the Federal jurisdiction of the Capital City to seize fertile, well-watered and centrally located parts of the Oromia Regional State. The blueprints for this undertaking were developed without the participation of the Oromia regional government. Since the revelation, there has been no opportunity for public discussion of the plan. Now as Federal forces have begun to move these arable lands out of the domain of indigenous Oromo and into the control of the central government, Oromo students have responded with renewed protests. The scale of the Master Plan is such that it engulfs enough ancestral farmland to affect the lives and livelihoods of nearly six million Oromo people and dismembers the Oromia Regional State by dividing it into two separate zones. There is universal opposition among Oromo both in Oromia and in the diaspora to this Federal action, taken without due process.
OSA members belong to Oromo public and political organizations representing a wide spectrum of ideological and institutional positions. They share a clear focus and mission to produce verifiable data that reveal the real conditions of life of the Oromo people. They also find it within their mission to inform the public of the value and relevance of those findings. In this regard, OSA members have studied and produced research data on multiple dimensions of this very complex and problematic crisis of land use and proprietary rights in the east, west, north, south, as well as centre of Oromia. Findings reveal a longstanding but largely ignored pattern of land confiscation from the Oromo – of which this Master Plan is the latest expression.
OSA believes that the Master Plan is unconstitutional. It violates the principle of federalism, illegally alters the boundaries and jurisdiction of the Oromia regional government, violates citizens’ human right to property and security, and ignores the constitutional principle of transparency for good governance.
OSA believes that the Master Plan is harmful to human development. Contrary to the principles of participatory policy-making for sustainable development, the Master Plan was developed by the federal government to apportion land, in the name of investment, to the economic elite who are already at the top of the social hierarchy. The plan disregards the livelihood of Oromo farmers who will be displaced to face extreme poverty and an increasing unemployment rate. OSA views the plan as having uneven and detrimental impacts by contributing to policy-driven poverty among the Oromo and exacerbating intra-nation/ethnic economic inequality.
OSA believes that the Master Plan is injurious to the environment. Developed in secrecy, the Master Plan violates established principles and practices pertaining to environmental protection clauses. Under the Master Plan, the expanded city will continue dumping toxic substances and industrial wastes on the surrounding cities, towns and lands of Oromo people. Oromo communities in the outlying zones and the ecosystem will remain on the receiving end of the environmental harm.
OSA members fully support the rights of the students who initiated the protests and the rights of those who have now joined them in massive numbers. OSA officers and members will assist their effort to the fullest extent in its capacity as an academic, non-partisan association of Oromo and non-Oromo scholars. We are deeply concerned that the government is using excessive, often deadly, force against unarmed students, including even elementary school students. These incidents are followed by attacks against parents and townsfolk who come out to protect their children against the very security personnel who are constitutionally mandated to provide protection and maintain law and order. It should be a matter of grave concern when an internationally recognized government uses excessive force against its own citizens. It is extremely grievous that the Ethiopian government has called up its well-armed special forces to move against unarmed students. This violates every international human rights principle and rights enshrined in the Ethiopian constitution that officially guarantees extensive, regional and individual rights.
Let us be clear. The issue is not an abstract debate about whether a government has the duty to develop and implement policies to improve the conditions of lives for its citizens or to conduct urban planning necessary to accommodate natural migration of people from rural areas to urban centers. The issue is the unjust process in this instance developed and designed to implement a massive land transfer from Oromia Regional state control to Federal jurisdiction. Even more troublesome is the government’s utter disregard of the people’s inalienable right in a purported democracy to protest policies and to exercise rights guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution.
The Master Plan is designed to be put into effect over a span of 25 years with a final phase occurring in 2038. When it is fully complete, it will:
o Incorporate 36 towns and 17 rural districts of the Oromia region into the Greater Addis Ababa territory. This includes, Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) Sululta, Dukem, Chancho, Adama, Ambo, Sabata, Mojo and other towns;
o Encompass a total area estimated to be 1.1 million hectares, of which the share of rural and urban areas amount to 85% and 15% with a corresponding population size of 2 million and 11.5 million respectively;
o Accumulate land “to increase rental housing by building 86,000 units every year under what the government calls “Rental Building Cooperative Sector” (10%), “Public Rental Housing Sector” (30%) and “Developmental Owners/Real Estate Sector(15%). As the result, it will uproot millions of Oromo farmers, disrupting not only their lives and livelihoods but dismantling their central position in the territorial and cultural landscape. The takeover disconnects Oromia’s current reach from the eastern to western boundaries of Ethiopia;
o Achieve 30% and 50% level of urbanization in 2023 and 2038 respectively. Given the limited urbanization among the Oromo because of the state-wide discriminatory language and economic policy against the Oromo, the plan will effectively erase Oromo identity, culture and language from the aggrandized Greater Addis Ababa. Even Oromo physical and economic presence would be totally cleared out of this crucially situated zone.
Generally, the plan has the direct effect of forcible transfer, displacement, dislocation and dispossession of the Oromo population from the area in which they are historically indigenous.
The Master Plan reveals that the incumbent policies continue longstanding patterns of historical injustice by denying the Oromo freedom of association, press and expression; by ostracizing residents and the Oromia Regional officials from political decision-making; by stifling and intimidating dissent through invoking arbitrary laws which depict even peaceful protest as terrorism; and by taking repressive measures such as capture, torture, extra-judicial murder, and massive arbitrary detention – all of which were used against Oromo protesters in 2014 and are being actively imposed again as the world witnesses on social media the massacre in broad daylight of the Oromia region’s young and brightest lives.
Cognizant of all of these issues, the Oromo Studies Association calls upon the following:
To the Ethiopian government: o Release immediately all protesters currently being held in open and secret detention; o Stop immediately the use of excessive force by security forces against peaceful protesters; o Honour and protect the rights of citizens to freedom of association, freedom of the press and to freedom of expression; o Protect the constitutionally-guaranteed right of citizens to protest any policy, a right also protected by all international human rights agreements that this government is a contracting party to; o Allow independent investigation into the actions of security forces that have resulted in the death and imprisonment of protesters; and o Bring to justice members of the security force and government officials responsible for the killing and injury of peaceful protesters. o Halt the implementation of the Integrated Development Master Plan for Addis Ababa and submit it to a constitutionally mandated review, giving the citizens a voice in their own governance.
To Foreign Governments, Donors and Consultants engaged in giving expert advice and financial support to the Ethiopian government in the implementation of the Master Plan: o OSA offers our considerable research, data – historical, economic, ecological, cultural and social –to all agencies and government who seek to know the full scope of the impact of their engagement with the Ethiopian government. o OSA acknowledges that all foreign parties in Ethiopia will better pursue their own best interests when operating with full knowledge of the circumstances in the country. We suggest to all parties that reliable information as well as consultation and analysis pertaining to the majority Oromo population of 40 million people is available through Oromo Studies Association. o Examine the evidence that demonstrates that Oromos are a force for peace and stability in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Peace and justice (nagaa fi haaqa Oromoo) are the principles that undergird governance among Oromos.
To Oromo Students all over Oromia and Ethiopia as a whole: o OSA is aware and supportive of your efforts and rights to peaceful protest. We understand that you are risking your lives and well-being simply for exercising your democratic right to peacefully protest a policy that directly impacts you, your family, community and nation. o OSA applauds your commitment to clearly observable forms of peaceful protest. o OSA affirms its commitment to continue to provide the institutional support and intellectual materials to those who will support you in any venue and to document the ongoing crisis.
To the Public in Oromia and in all of Ethiopia: o We offer all possible intellectual and scholarly assistance to those who will create avenues to support Oromo protests against the implementation of the Master Plan, realizing that Oromo cultural identity and livelihood is threatened by this design for unvetted, unexamined land confiscation. o Comparative research by OSA scholars demonstrates that the Ethiopian government’s unconstitutional actions in dealing with one aggrieved the Oromo, indicate an absence of democratic process which inevitably affects all groups. o OSA reaffirms our commitment to providing research and documentation useful to those who wish to create or strengthen avenues for democracy, citizens’ empowerment and peace within and among peoples who are in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
To Non-Governmental, Inter-Governmental and International Community in general: o OSA calls upon you to investigate thoroughly the conditions that the Oromo student protesters are suffering and in many cases, dying, to bring to the world attention. OSA members are committed to work with you to examine the conditions that have given rise to this renewed voice. We call on you to alert your respective governments about the widespread violations of fundamental rights in the Oromo region of Ethiopia. o OSA commends the excellent courageous work of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and International Crisis Group in investigating crises affecting the Oromo over the years. We urge you to continue to document the tragic events underway to bear witness to the sacrifice of the intelligentsia among Oromo youth to draw attention to this issue which is critical to their people’s existence. OSA will provide you with any possible assistance.
To International and Foreign Media Outlets: o There has been a virtual blackout of information and awareness of the Oromo plight in Ethiopia in general and of this immediate crisis in particular. o OSA calls upon all forms of print, broadcast and online media to document and publicize the events underway in the implementation of the Master Plan, the widespread Oromo student protests and the harsh response to them. OSA pledges to supply information as needed. o OSA urges Voice of America to employ at least one, if not several, Oromo correspondents on the ground in Oromia region. o OSA commends BBC for establishing an Oromo language service and anticipates in depth coverage of these issues in near future.
Re-iterating that Oromo livelihood, language, cultural identity and economic survival is threatened by this design to confiscate land in Oromia, OSA affirms its commitment to support the legitimate rights of all citizens to peacefully protest the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan. We are committed to offer all possible intellectual and scholarly assistance to strengthen the efforts of those who create avenues to resist its unexamined and unconstitutional implementation.
The Right Honorable Philip Hammond MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AHOpen letterSystematic repression: Torture, Killing, and Harassment of unarmed school Children in the Oromia regional state of EthiopiaDear Minister,It is with sadness and anger that we report the renewed crackdown on peaceful Oromo protesters by government security forces in Ethiopia. More than 70 students were killed, many made to disappear, others jailed simply for taking part in a peaceful demonstration in April 2014. Amnesty international compiled a detailed report giving a clear account of this crackdown in its report of “because I am Oromo- a sweeping repression in Oromia.” Over the past week the same tragedy was taking place in Oromia high schools and universities as they were protesting against the continued eviction of the Oromo people from their livelihood without compensation and by driving them down to extreme poverty.While more than 15 million peasants are reported to have been starving (BBC report, 9 Nov, 2015) the oppressive regime in Ethiopia continues to push its policy of evicting the Oromo people from their livelihood on
a wider scale. This policy, coupled with the burning of a vast area of natural forests and continued eviction of indigenous people has been opposed in peaceful protest yet met at all times with brutal suppression in the forms of mass arrest, torture and killings.
The government security forces have killed already Twenty four students since the protest began in different parts of Oromia. Among those first casualties,
Clashes between police and protesters in Ethiopia’s Oromia region have left several people dead, according to officials and regional opposition leaders.
Oromia has seen three weeks of protests over a government plan to integrate parts of the region with the capital, Addis Ababa. Critics say the plan will undermine local rule and cause local farmers to lose their land.
Witnesses say police have used force to contain or shut down protests, including one that took place Thursday in the town of Bako.
“Today in Bako city when the students came out to protest, people joined them and they started firing live rounds and hit some students,” a witness told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. There was no word on whether anyone was killed.
Bloomberg news quotes a prominent opposition leader, Bekele Nega, as saying police have killed 10 students taking part in the ongoing protests.
Ethiopia’s communications minister, Getachew Reda, put the number of dead at four, and said security forces have been exercising restraint in the face of violence.
Widening protests
Oromia is one of Ethiopia’s nine ethnically-based states and holds the largest population at more than 27 million.
The protests started on November 20 in the Western Oromo region cities of Ambo, Ginchi and Western Welega, and they have since spread.
The tactics used to clamp down on these protests are reminiscent of the 2014 protests in the Oromia towns of Ambo, Nekemte and Jimma, according to Human Rights Watch, where security forces fired live rounds and beat people who were protesting peacefully.
Speaking to journalists in Ethiopia a few days ago, the police commissioner of the Oromia region, Ibrahim Hajj, blamed misinformation and propaganda for fueling hostilities among some in the Oromo community.
“Today the people are ensuring the rights and are beneficiaries in all sectors including, social, economic sectors. But there are some who are trying to make it seem as if the rights of the people have been violated and they take advantage of this situation behind the scenes,” he said.
Felix Horne, an Ethiopia and Eritrea researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the spread of the protests started slowly and gained momentum within schools and other educational institutions.
“Initially it was students in primary schools, secondary schools, some university students and now we are seeing farmers, workers beginning to take part in these protests in different ways — staging protests peaceful means, sit-ins to mourn the death of those who’ve lost their lives. So the protests definitely seem to be gaining momentum,” he said.
Horne said that while the government’s development for Addis sparked the protests, they are about much larger issues.
“Ostensibly these protests are about the Addis Ababa Master Plan but clearly the Oromos have been marginalized by successive governments and so it’s kind of an accumulation of different frustrations,” he said. “Throughout Oromia, arbitrary detention is common, mistreatment in detention is common and then Oromos just don’t have a voice in issues that impact them day-to-day.”
Ethiopia Faces Worst Drought in 50 Years, Millions Affected
By William Davison, bloomberg.com December 7, 2015
A worsening drought in Ethiopia means 10.1 million people, a 10th of the population, are facing food shortages next year in the Horn of Africa nation, Save the Children said.
The figure is an increase of 1.9 million people from the number the government says currently requires food aid. The assessment means 400,000 children are at risk of severe malnutrition in 2016, the London-based charity said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.
“The worst drought in Ethiopia for 50 years is happening right now, with the overall emergency response estimated to cost $1.4 billion,” said John Graham, Save the Children’s Ethiopia country director.
Ethiopia’s government has allocated $192 million for the crisis and received $163 million from donors since an appeal for $340 million in October, said Mitiku Kassa, who heads the government’s disaster response team.
Another 8 million vulnerable Ethiopians will receive food and cash transfers during the first six months of next year under a mostly donor-funded aid program.
Low rainfall this year had a “devastating effect” on agricultural production, with the next harvest not expected until June, the charity said. Ethiopia’s government has said the drought will not affect official growth rates of about 10 percent a year, despite rain-fed agriculture accounting for almost 40 percent of the economy.
ETHIOPIA RESPONDING TO AN EL NIÑO-INDUCED DROUGHT EMERGENCY:
The El Niño global climactic event has wreaked havoc on Ethiopia’s summer rains. This comes on the heels of failed spring rains, and has driven food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages in affected areas of the country. A well-coordinated response is already underway and Trends in Severe Acute Malnutrition expanding rapidly, although the scale of the developing admission (2011-2015)3 emergency exceeds resources available to date. Given the lead in thousands times necessary for the procurement of relief items, the Government and its international partners have called for early 40 action to this slow onset natural disaster.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Oromia/Ethiopia: Human rights defender says attacks on Oromos are ethnic cleansing war crimes.
Oromia/Ethiopia: Region-Wide, Heavy-Handed Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters
HRLHA Urgent Action
For Immediate Release
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) expresses its grave concern at the continuation of gross human rights violations in Oromia Regional State – violations that have regularly occurred since 1991 when the TPLF/EPRDF came into power.
The most recent heinous crime was committed – and is still being committed – against defenseless schoolchildren protesting against the approval of “the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan” by the Oromia Regional State Parliament a month ago. The peaceful protest involved many elementary school, high school and university students, and civilians. Among them were students in Western Oromia zones: Najo, Nekemt, Mandi high schools, and in other towns, in Central Oromia in Ginchi, Ambo, Addis Ababa high schools and the surrounding towns, Eastern and Southern Oromia zones, in Haromaya, and Bule Hora Universities, and many more schools and universities. In violation of the rights of the citizen to peaceful demonstration enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution(1) [Chapter Two, Article 30 (1) states: “Everyone has the right to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peaceably and unarmed, and to petition. Appropriate regulations may be made in the interest of public convenience relating to the location of open-air meetings and the route of movement of demonstrators or, for the protection of democratic rights, public morality and peace during such a meeting or demonstration.”], students, in all of these places, were severely beaten, imprisoned or even killed.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa emphasizes that the ongoing violence and crimes committed in Oromia Regional State for over two and a half decades by the TPLF perpetrators against the Oromo Nation amount to war crimes, and crimes against humanity – a clear failure of the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO) authorities, an organization claiming to represent the Oromo Nation. The members of this bogus political organization have proved to be not the Oromo peoples’ true representatives, but rather stand-ins for their real masters who have compromised the interests of the Oromo Nation. The Oromia Regional State authorities/OPDO did not resist the TPLF regime when Oromo children, farmers, intellectuals, members of political organizations were killed, abducted, imprisoned, tortured and evicted from their livelihoods by TPLF security agents in the past two and half decades. Instead, they helped the TPLF regime to control the political and economic resources of the Oromia Regional State. TPLF high officials and ordinary level cadres in Oromia Regional State engaged in enriching themselves and their family members by selling Oromo land, looting and embezzling public wealth and properties in the occupied areas of the Oromo Nation, and committing many other forms of corruption.
Committing atrocities and crimes against humanity are failures to comply with obligations under international law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the principles of proportionality and discrimination. With many civilians suffering from the crimes and serious violations of human rights, and by not taking any measures to ensure the accountability of those responsible for these crimes and violations, it has become clear that after all these years the so called Oromia Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) has betrayed the Oromo people by not protecting them. The OPDO members and the Oromia Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) members should not continue in silence while Oromo children are brutalized by Aga’azy squads deployed by the TPLF for ethnic cleansing. The Oromia Parliament(Caffee Oromiyaa) and OPDO have a moral obligation to dissolve their institutions and stand beside their people to resist the TPLF regime’s aggression.
The HRLHA believes that the gross human rights violations committed by the TPLF government, in cooperation with OPDO in the past two and half decades against Oromo Nation, have been pre-planned every time they have happened. TPLF regime security agents imprisoned, killed, tortured, kidnapped, disappeared, and evicted from their ancestral lands thousands of Oromo nationals, simply because of their ethnic backgrounds and to acquire their resources. The TPLF inhuman actions against Oromo civilians are clearly genocidal, a crime against humanity and an ethnic cleansing, which breach domestic and international laws, and all international treaties the government of Ethiopia signed and ratified.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) expresses its deep concern over the safety and well-being of these Oromo nationals who have been arrested without any court warrant and are being held in different police stations, military camps, “Maekelawi” compound, the main federal police investigation center, in Central Addis Ababa and in different unknown places.
Therefore, HRLHA calls upon governments of the West, all local, regional and international human rights agencies to join hands and demand an immediate halt to these extra-judicial actions, terrorizing civilians and the immediate unconditional release of the detainees.
The HRLHA also calls on all human- rights defender non-governmental, civic organizations, its members, supporters and sympathizers to stand beside the HRLHA and provide moral, professional and financial help to bring the dictatorial TPLF government and officials to international justice.
The HRLHA is a non-political organization that attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It works to defend fundamental human rights, including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It also works to raise the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and those of others. It encourages respect for laws and due process. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.
—– Copied to:
– UNESCO Headquarters
– UNESCO – Africa Department
– UNESCO – Africa Regional Office
– Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
– Office of the UNHCR
– African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)
– Council of Europe
– U.S. Department of State – Ethiopia Desk
“Ethiopian police have moved in to suppress this united demonstration of protest. Government sharpshooters are firing into crowds and killing students again.”
Protesters say the central government is trying to evict Oromo farmers from their land under the auspices of urban development, with little or no compensation, essentially turning them into street beggars and daily laborers.
Tensions rise as students in Oromia accuse government of land grab
Activists claim security forces have killed at least seven students in more than two weeks across Ethiopia’s Oromia state, where students have been protesting a government plan to expand the area of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia.
Oromia police have confirmed three fatalities in what it termed provocations by “anti-peace elements.”
Images of severely injured students have been posted on social media, and hundreds of other protesters have reportedly been rounded up in a crackdown on those demonstrating against several state-led development projects.
Oromo students, the opposition and diaspora activists liken the proposed Addis Ababa and the Surrounding Oromia Special Zone Integrated Development Plan, or the Master Plan, to a land grab. They fear that it will displace Oromo farmers and undermine Oromia’s interests by expanding Addis Ababa’s boundaries.
Addis Ababa is in the state of Oromia and serves as the regional and federal capital. In theory, the Ethiopian constitution protects Oromia’s “special interest” in Addis Ababa in the provision of social services and use of natural resources and on joint administrative matters.
While the city, home to 4 million people, has experienced massive growth over the last decade, Oromo activists have long decried the lack of social facilities for its Afaan Oromo speakers, including schools, hospitals and cultural institutions.
The protests broke out in November Ginci, a town about 50 miles west of Addis Ababa. Students from universities, high schools and even some primary schools continue to stage sit-ins and demonstrations around the country.
Oromia, the largest of Ethiopia’s nine ethnically based states, is home to close to half the country’s population of 100 million. The Oromo people have long had a contentious relationship with the national government.
“Many Oromos have felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies,” Felix Horne, the Horn of Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote in a Dec. 5 blog post.
He called for an immediate halt to the excessive use of force by security personnel, an independent and impartial investigation into the killings and the prosecution of security forces involved in the violent crackdown.
‘Long-simmering grievance’
Protesters say the central government is trying to evict Oromo farmers from their land under the auspices of urban development, with little or no compensation, essentially turning them into street beggars and daily laborers.
The government says its plan is mutually beneficial, will enhance cooperation and will make the area globally competitive by remedying its disorganized spatial growth.
Addis Ababa serves as landlocked Ethiopia’s primary gateway to the outside world. Last year the New York–based consultancy A.T. Kearney named Addis Ababa “the third-most-likely city to advance its global positioning,” adding, “the Ethiopian capital is also among the cities closing in fastest on the world leaders.”
Modest economic growth and the lack of opportunities in rural areas have fueled massive rural-to-urban migration. The Master Plan is part of an effort to mitigate the city’s resulting rapid expansion. But critics contend that the proposal focuses mostly on attracting investors and will ensure the continued erasure of Oromos’ historical and cultural values from the city.
The Oromo students’ protests are not new. They been demonstrating against the central state for most of the last two decades.
In April and May 2014, Ethiopian security forces fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters, killing dozens of students and wounding many others. Hundreds of students were arrested and charged under Ethiopia’ssweeping anti-terrorism law, and many remain incarcerated.
A federal court last week convicted five students for participating in those protests. In the early 2000s, Ethiopia saw similar protests and violence over a government plan to move Oromia’s capital from Addis Ababa. The decision was reversed in 2005 amid a public outcry.
There has been limited media coverage of the ongoing protests. There are strong restrictions on the free press in Ethiopia, one of the most censored countries in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Government critics and the independent press face increased scrutiny.
Analysts warn that continued violent responses to peaceful protesters could bode ill for Ethiopia’s future.
“The Oromo have long been humiliated with their still marginal status in Ethiopia’s power arrangement,” said Hassen Hussein, an Ethiopian-born university professor in Minnesota. “These almost annual student protests give voice to these long-simmering grievance and perhaps a harbinger of what is to come. The authorities cannot forever count on an aggrieved nation remaining docile.”
Oromo activists and community leaders in North America, Western Europe and Australia are planning solidarity rallies for next week, when more violence is anticipated.
Bonnie Holcomb, an author and anthropologist based in Washington, D.C., said the current situation mirrors the violence of 2014. “The international media were silent when Ethiopian police opened fire into crowds, killing 68, permanently disabling hundreds and arresting thousands. Now the next stage of the Master Plan is being implemented,” she said.
“Ethiopian police have moved in to suppress this united demonstration of protest. Government sharpshooters are firing into crowds and killing students again,” she said.
(Oromia press): The following is a statement from the Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD), a coalition of five national liberation movements, namely, OLF, SNLF, ONLF, GPLM and BPLM, operating in Ethiopia.
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Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
The Ethiopian Government Brutal Army and Paramilitary Police Use Lethal Force against Oromo Students Demonstrating Peacefully
Press Statement by Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
The Ethiopian government’s brutal army and paramilitary police are shooting at unarmed Oromo students demonstrating against the implementation of Addis Ababa land grabbing master plan.
Just over a year ago, TPLF’s regime planned to exponentially expand Oromia’s capital, the city of Finfinne (Addis Ababa), under the scheme known as ‘Addis-Master-Plan.’ This plan aims to incorporate the rural agricultural areas in Oromia state surrounding Addis Ababa. This Plan will totally displace the entire Oromo rural population in the area without their consent. The said plan has seriously angered the Oromo people, who went on a peaceful demonstration of opposing the plan. The regime’s security and armed forces’ unprecedented and violent response to the peaceful demonstration has left over 60 Oromo University and high School students and the others Oromo civilians dead, and over 200 wounded.
After remaining silent for around a year, the Prime Minister and others government officials have recently announced their decisions to re-implement ‘Addis-Master-Plan.’ Again, the Oromo students started demonstrating, beginning in West Oromia towns, such as Mattuu, Ambo and others places; it has widened its horizons to almost entire Oromia Zones and districts.
On December 1 and 2, 2015 there have been series of demonstrations in various Oromia regional Zones and districts, including in Madawalaabuu university, Agarfaa, Ayira (Guuliso), Bantuu, Burrayyuu, Chancho, Dalloo, Dinshoo, Finfinnee, Gaasaraa, Gimbi, Gudar, Haromayaa, Horro Guduruu, Jaarraa, Maattu, Sabroo, Jaarsoo, Laaloo, Asabi, Jiddaa, Ayyaanaa, Mandi, Najjoo, Qilxuu Karraa, Sabataa, Walisso, Sabroo, Xuqur Incinni and others various high schools, universities, towns and villages. In all these places, the responses of TPLF security and police personnel has been as brutal as always. Several deaths have been reported since last week. The number of wounded Oromo students, including children, has reached to several hundreds.
PAFD categorically condemns the brutal treatments of the civilians, and calls all liberation fronts and opposition parties to unite in ending the current undemocratic rule and create a new system that respects the rights of all peoples in Ethiopia. We call all nations and peoples in Ethiopia to rise up and stop this illegal displacement of Oromo people from their ancestral lands as is happening in all other parts. We call upon the international community to denounce the unlawful action of the Ethiopian brutal regime and urge it to abide with international laws in respecting citizens’ rights, dignity and safety. We also call upon all nationals working for TPLF’s repressive apparatuses, such us military, police and security that are inflicting pain on their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers, to unconditionally stop their alliance with the regime brutalizing all peoples, and join a genuine struggles for democratic change to bring about equality for all.
Finally, with deepest sadness, PAFD sends its condolences to the families of Oromo students who have been murdered by the authoritarian Ethiopian regime.
Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
(Human Rights Watch (HRW, 5 December 2015):Student protests are spreading throughout Ethiopia’s Oromia region, as people demonstrate against the possibility that Oromo farmers and residents living near the capital, Addis Ababa, could be evicted from their lands without appropriate – or possibly any – compensation. Social media is filled with images of bloodied protesters; there are credible reports of injuries and arrests in a number of towns; and local police have publicly acknowledged that three students have died so far.
The current protests echo the bloody events of April and May 2014, when federal forces fired into groups of largely peaceful Oromo protesters, killing dozens. At least hundreds more students were arrested, and many remain behind bars. Both then and today, the demonstrators are ostensibly protesting the expansion of Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary into the surrounding Oromia region, which protesters fear will displace Oromo farmers from their land. But these protests are about much more: Many Oromos have felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies.
Of the student protesters detained in 2014, some have been released. Those I spoke with told me about the torture they endured as part of interrogations. But countless others remain in detention. Some have been charged under Ethiopia’s draconian counterterrorism law for their role in the protests; others languish without charge in unknown detention centers and military camps throughout Oromia. This week, five students were convicted of terrorism-related offenses for their role in the protests.
There has been no government investigation into the use of live ammunition and excessive force by security personnel last year.
Ethiopia’s tight restrictions on civil society and media make it difficult to corroborate the current, mounting allegations and the exact details of the ongoing protests emerging from towns like Haramaya, Jarso, Walliso, and Robe. The government may think this strategy of silencing bad news is succeeding. But while the fear of threats and harassment means it is often months before victims and witnesses come forward to reveal what happened in their communities, they eventually do, and the truth will emerge.
The government should ensure that the use of excessive force by its security personnel stops immediately. It should then support an independent and impartial inquiry into the conduct of security forces in the current protests – and last year’s as well. Those responsible for serious abuses should be fairly prosecuted. This would be the best way for the Ethiopian government to show its concern about the deaths and injuries inflicted on the students, that it does not condone the use of live ammunition against peaceful protesters, and that those who break the law are appropriately punished. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/05/dispatches-yet-again-bloody-crackdown-protesters-ethiopia
OROMO FIRST. Continued marginalization, discrimination and brutal crackdown against peaceful civilian Oromo protest is fast driving the resurgence of ethnic Oromo nationalism in Ethiopia.
Student protests are spreading throughout Ethiopia’s Oromia region, as people demonstrate against the possibility that Oromo farmers and residents living near the capital, Addis Ababa, could be evicted from their lands without appropriate – or possibly any – compensation. Social media is filled with images of bloodied protesters; there are credible reports of injuries and arrests in a number of towns; and local police have publicly acknowledged that three students have died so far.
The current protests echo the bloody events of April and May 2014, when federal forces fired into groups of largely peaceful Oromo protesters, killing dozens. At least hundreds more students were arrested, and many remain behind bars. Both then and today, the demonstrators are ostensibly protesting the expansion of Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary into the surrounding Oromia region, which protesters fear will displace Oromo farmers from their land. But these protests are about much more: Many Oromos have felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies.
Of the student protesters detained in 2014, some have been released. Those I spoke with told me about the torture they endured as part of interrogations. But countless others remain in detention. Some have been charged under Ethiopia’s draconian counterterrorism law for their role in the protests; others languish without charge in unknown detention centers and military camps throughout Oromia. This week, five students were convicted of terrorism-related offenses for their role in the protests.
There has been no government investigation into the use of live ammunition and excessive force by security personnel last year.
Ethiopia’s tight restrictions on civil society and mediamake it difficult to corroborate the current, mounting allegations and the exact details of the ongoing protests emerging from towns like Haramaya, Jarso, Walliso, and Robe. The government may think this strategy of silencing bad news is succeeding. But while the fear of threats and harassment means it is often months before victims and witnesses come forward to reveal what happened in their communities, they eventually do, and the truth will emerge.
The government should ensure that the use of excessive force by its security personnel stops immediately. It should then support an independent and impartial inquiry into the conduct of security forces in the current protests – and last year’s as well. Those responsible for serious abuses should be fairly prosecuted. This would be the best way for the Ethiopian government to show its concern about the deaths and injuries inflicted on the students, that it does not condone the use of live ammunition against peaceful protesters, and that those who break the law are appropriately punished.
Citizens from all over Oromia have been protesting for months against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, which would see Oromo farmers around the capital evicted from their land with the city’s expansion. Marches have intensified since the events at Haromaya University last week, where Oromo students, protesting peacefully against the government plans, were shot at by the Ethiopian Federal Police, killing at least three and injuring many more. The attack was recorded on a video, which can be viewed from the link below.
The following video shows as the Ethiopian Federal Police, known as Agazi and part of the elite force of the ruling Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), shooting at Haromaya University’s Oromo students – who were out protesting against the Addis Ababa Master Plan in late November 2015. According to media reports, at least three were killed and many more were wounded. The students were protesting against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, whose goal, they say, is to expand the City of Addis Ababa by many folds by evicting Oromo farmers from their land around the City of Addis Ababa in Oromiyaa. The Oromo people, especially students, have been expressing their protests against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, ever since it was unveiled by TPLF officials in April 2014. As a result of the Oromiyaa-wide protests against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, over the last year and half, more than a hundred Oromos were killed by the Agazi force, including the four who had been reported dead at the recent Haromaya protest.
The students, pronounced dead, and those others protesting, come from all sections and all zones of Oromiyaa for their higher education at Haromaya University.
Ethiopia: Ongoing Drought in Ethiopia Being Hushed By Its Own Government
A Call to Take Responsibility: Exiled Ethiopian human rights advocate Yared Hailemariam, who is based in Brussels, speculates on why the government denies that the drought has turned into a famine. It is his opinion that the denial is due to a lack of competent governance, democracy, social justice and political will of the last three regime’s. He also says that the EPRDF (The Government of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) is highly corrupt, and that the development is not what it seems to be.
– The so called development is not humanitarian based – rather it is based on numbers and the economic aspect, but there is still lots of confusion regarding the double digit growth that has been reported to us over the last few years.
ANALYSIS By Fasil Girma, http://allafrica.com/
Birtukan Ali, a woman living in a rural district in Ethiopia, became a sensation following BBC’s report about the ongoing drought and famine. Thereport, which aired on November 10 2015, sparked a new kind of debate on the government’s intention in trying to cover up the famine – a story that remains untold.
Journalist Clive Myrie featured the story of Birtukan Ali who is from a small village called “Kobo” which is located in the North East of Ethiopia. It is a place where the drought is widespread and the effect of it is highly visible. Birtukan told the reporter that her son recently died due to severe malnutrition as a result of the drought in the area. The reporter said that at least two children die in similar cases daily.
The drought, brought on by the El Niño, a weather phenomenon described as a periodic warming of the sea surface, has severely affected the country. Ethiopia is mainly an agrarian economy and the agriculture is fully dependant on rain fall. Ultimately this means that no rain results in no crops, and therefore no food. This year the rainfall was inadequate to cultivate crops for two consecutive seasons. The United Nations estimated that 8.2 million people in Ethiopia’s drought affected areas need relief assistance. UNICEF said that the drought is expected to be the worst in 30 years and that 350,000 children are expected to require treatment for extreme malnutrition.
Ethiopian Government Denies Famine
In a press release by the World Food Program, it is stated that “a dramatic increase in the number of people in need of relief assistance, from 2.5 million at the beginning of the year to 8.2 million in October, led to a serious funding gap”. The Ethiopian government says that it has allocated $192 million USD for emergency food and other assistance.
However, the government and humanitarian agencies have said that Ethiopia needs nearly $600 million USD in international humanitarian assistance. The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has called for international assistance by appealing for food aid to help feed the 8.2 million people that are affected by the drought.
Nevertheless, at the same time, his government denies that there is a famine at all. Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonen, commented on the BBC report in an interview with a local journalist:
– It is obvious that the foreign media works with different bodies of special interest. There is no such thing as famine in Ethiopia these days, Demeke said.
Similarly, the Ethiopian embassy in the United Kingdom has condemned the BBC report as being “sensational”. The embassy denied reports of approximately two children dying from malnutrition in the area on a daily basis.
Five days after the airing of the BBC’ program, government owned Amhara Mass Media Agency, which is based in Bahar-Dar, the capital of the regional state Amhara, presented a televised program that ridiculed BBC’s report. The program includes Birtukan’s interview with the regional media. This time, however, Birtukan claims that her son died of unspecified “sudden illnesses” and not because of the malnutrition as she had told the BBC reporter.
Felanemunemunim, a local journalist and social media activist who is mentioned by his nickname, followed the news on Ethiopian television. He says that regional governors report as if the agriculture is good enough to produce plenty of food.
– They were talking about it on television for more than four months, but the truth is as BBC reported, even if there was exaggeration.
Government Accused of Diminishing the Extent of the Famine
The statements made by the Ethiopian government have sparked a debate among Ethiopian human rights activists. According to them, the government is trying to cover up the severe effects of the drought.
Argaw Ashine, an exiled journalist based in USA and founder of the web based Amharic internet radio Wazema, which is getting a wide acceptance in the Ethiopian online community for its credible information, commented on the drought. According to him, it is obvious that the Ethiopian government continues to hide the drought from the media, and he believes that they will continue to do so despite the United Nations and others predicting that the worst is yet to come. Admitting that there is a famine would create a problem for the Ethiopian government.
– It costs them politically. The success story they fed to Ethiopians and the international community falls severely short after an exposition of the hunger.
Wazema radio reports that the federal government passes strict instructions to regional governments and Ethiopian embassies all over the world to not give any kind of information to any media regarding the ongoing drought and famine. The instructions include denying access for all journalists to drought affected areas and to take necessary measures for nongovernmental organizations to not leak information regarding the crises to the media.
According to Argaw, media restriction is common during humanitarian crises, and specifically the local media is blocked from reporting the situation.
– They may allow some big international media organizations in to specific locations for only a couple of days. International media reporting is part of convincing the international community to send aid, yet the government does not want an in-depth report on the cause of the problem.
– Authoritarian governments are good at controlling the information flow, and the role of media during crises in Ethiopia is kept at a minimum. Media should be at the forefront to end hunger. Development and better life is impossible without vibrant media in Ethiopia, Argaw said.
A Call to Take Responsibility
Exiled Ethiopian human rights advocate Yared Hailemariam, who is based in Brussels, speculates on why the government denies that the drought has turned into a famine. It is his opinion that the denial is due to a lack of competent governance, democracy, social justice and political will of the last three regime’s. He also says that the EPRDF (The Government of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) is highly corrupt, and that the development is not what it seems to be.
– The so called development is not humanitarian based – rather it is based on numbers and the economic aspect, but there is still lots of confusion regarding the double digit growth that has been reported to us over the last few years.
Yared says that the first thing the government should do is to rescue those in need. The level of the ongoing and upcoming disaster that would take many lives, needs to be reduced. It is also important to take lessons from the past.
Civil Disobedience Can Be A Potent Weapon To Dismantle TPLF’s Abyssinian Empire
By Denboba Natie
Civil disobedience is a potent weapon in the hands of those who understand how to use it’ M. Coxall 2015.
I’m Created Equal….No Less No More!
Haromaya University on November 30, 2015. Let us be the voice of the voiceless Oromo peaceful protesters. Their voice is stifled by fascist TPLF regime again. Time to act by Oromo around the world!
People are differently nurtured in different parts of the world although their biological element known as DNA is over 99.5% the same. Nurturing is the basis for peoples’ way of understanding the world around them. History shows that largely, peoples’ attitudes, behaviours and practices have been socially constructed and deconstructed, shaped and reshaped throughout several centuries. Moreover, our collective and individual beings are shaped with our self-awareness as an individual or community. In psychology also, self-awareness is defined as metacognition, awareness of one’s own ability to reasonably and logically assert realities. In humans, metacognition and other advanced cognitive skills, such as social intelligence, planning and reasoning, are all thought to depend on a region of brain known as the prefrontal cortex. Therefore, we, humans became different from the animals only with the power of our brain and the ability of reasoning and self-awareness which distinguish us from most other earthly species.
We are all created equal and thus deserve our inalienable rights enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration and the 18th century American Independence documents as described:-We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the concerned of the governed.
Contrary to the above, there are groups of morally corrupt and politically and economically powerful individuals who ascribe inferiority to the ruled. They dictate the majority that they are created special and given omnipotent power to rule over the others. This is why there are socially fabricated royalty, super rich, corporate management, and ruling politicians. Such morally corrupt, self-appointed persons make up rules and regulations to impose them on their likes. They do so for their own egocentrism by keeping the majorities as simple usable tools – in spite of the fact that their likes equally deserve dignity and respect, and share the same human needs such as physiological, safety, social esteem, cognitive and self-actualisation needs; in addition, these individuals deprive the rest of the Mankind of basic needs, including the pursuit of happiness, aspiration and hope.
The inhumane practices of the rulers and business corporations have been in place since time immemorial although their barbarism become more sophisticated as European modernisation became a reality. Notwithstanding such abhorring crimes of slavery committed by Europeans, Americans and Arabians since the 16th century; regardless the European technological advancements, slavery has increased exponentially since the mid1750s to 1800s with scope and dimension under the infamous name known as industrial revolution. My personal opinion is not that the industrial revolution has been bad for mankind. I rather argue that this progress has brought its own evils with it. During this period, the sophistication of strategizing the enslavement of the majority under guise of civilisation and capitalism, whilst keeping the ruled majority silent, ended up with the enslavement of the dummies; in the same period the number of the prisoners of conscience increased significantly too. One of famous American Black Civil rights movement leaders defies the silence of the majority as; ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter’ Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968.
Human brain power has got the capacity of either positively or negatively impacting human endeavours. History tells us that this capacity has shaped and unshaped social evolution throughout millennia; therefore humans judge any people or any society, based on their individual or collective contributions and actions to their likes. Ever since humans exist in the form of social entity, some groups of people or individuals have viciously treated their kinds, while within the egalitarian societies people have peacefully and fraternally coexisted with one another and in full agreement with the nature and natural orders. Several establishments across History have repeatedly demonstrated their viciousness by viciously treating their subjects and by erroneously recording and promoting their accounts of history which emphasise their own nobility and superiority, thereby preaching the inferiority of their subjects. Howard Zinn, an authoritative American historian professor advises about such flaws of histories and their repugnant roles in the society as follows:-“I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel – let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers”.
Human species with capacity to make fair choice and ability to empathise the sufferings of their likes regrettably switch their positive natural abilities to greed, which takes at times diabolic proportions, and to vicious inhumanity and in this manner they do cause further misery to their kinds. These groups of people create extremely repressive regulations, policies and legislations, which they blatantly impose on the systematically silenced majority, who on most occasions obey without any question. And this has been an ongoing exercise of those who have appointed themselves to be the sole beneficiaries of wealth, greed and social hierarchy since time immemorial. Besides, no person on planet has been given such rights by birth as we saw it from the above argument. Neither royalty nor secret societies nor anyone else has been naturally endowed with such right to be a vicious ruler rejoicing with the sufferings of his likes. Evidences reveal that it’s those who are the ruled ones who allow such systems to evolve from century to century as their minds are increasingly obscured as a result of century’s old bombardments with lies and deceits geared to coerce them to accept the imposed inferiority.
A famous singer, Bob Marley, rightly puts this: ‘Emancipate yourselves from mentalslavery, none but ourselves can free our minds! (Bob Marley 1945 – 1981)’. This has been substantiated by Marcus Garvey as follows: ‘Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you willliberate the bodies of men, (Marcus Garvey 1887 – 1940)). They both agree with one fundamental fact, namely that people must liberate themselves from various forms of injustice imposed on them by simply rejecting such rules.
The first and foremost priority is unambiguously understanding that no one on planet has got any right under whatsoever definition to oppress people individually or collectively or to impose their rules on them due to their military superiority and financial power- with money expropriated from the wealth of the majority. The next step is understanding the power of unity and having unity of purpose. Cognizant of their fundamental rights, if those who are oppressed are united and agree to persistently and unanimously demand their own rights, those who might impose their will on majority will have no choice apart from unwillingly surrendering. However, as mentioned above, it is imperative to acknowledge that those, who are in power, have got weapons and use them against the majority. They have got money and Media machineries and others governmental apparatuses through which they can systematically impose their evil will. More essentially, they might have already systematically brainwashed the majority with lies and deceptive mantras of generations to obscure historical reality. Regardless, if once such erroneous assertions and beliefs of the majority change and the clouds of falsehood diminish, history will inevitably change. Once the majority wake up and understand that no one has got God-given right to rule over them with iron fist from generation to generation, no rulers on planet can stop such wave of united movement.
Throughout Human History, the frustration of the extremely dissatisfied, disillusioned and oppressed citizens has always resulted in some kinds of public reaction. Such reactions, in the best case take the form of civil disobedience (CD) and the others take some form of an armed struggle. As M. Maxall, 2015, analyses it in more extreme cases, CD results in bloody revolution or what modern politicians prefer to call it ‘Terrorism’. Therefore, civil disobedience is an inevitable human reaction to unacceptably imposed oppression by the oppressors in any part of the world. Effectively utilised, CD has brought down governments and even empires, overturned despots of all levels globally, won great civil and human rights victories throughout centuries, driven the engine of human development and brought dignity and power to the people of the world (M. Maxall 2015).
Using CD as a method of forcing government to listen to people’s voice or removing authoritarian rulers from power will undoubtedly have a phenomenal effectiveness. Another famous intellectual and campaigner of civil rights stresses that no one should remain silent while their rights are stifled and they are oppressed for the sake of peace and security: ‘You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom’. ‘Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to… (Malcolm X, 1925 – 1965).
Emphatically Rejecting Oppression until Asserting Own Rights
Preparing to embark on CD needs minimum or no external resources. All the mass need to do is psychologically and mentally feel liberated and freed. They have to believe that they are exonerated from the prisoning systems. It is all about believing that the mass is not any more the slave of the government or corporations and that no one has got right to brutalise and continually enslave them. The oppressed and subjugated subjects need only an internal strength and understanding of the reality on the ground. They must be prepared to continually and in unison demand their unalienable rights whether the regime in power is likely to shoot and kill or intimidate them by any possible means. Often CD can be conducted in a peaceful and in a very discrete manner without even the regime in power or its loyalists understating what is going on. Neither weapons nor expensive means of communications are necessary to conduct CD. Always preparing to conduct CD on non-violent basis will be the most potent weapon as stated by Gandhi:- ‘Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It’s the mightier than the mightiest Weapon of destruction devised by theingenuity ofMan’ (Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 -1948).
Deeply articulating the fact that no one has got right to exploit the resources of the majority, whilst the majorities are left with little or no choice but suffer the consequences, plays a crucial role in bringing together those who are victimised. Once courageous and determined individuals or groups of peoples come together, their unity triggers waves of CD movements with common vision and understanding, who are therefore able to stand own grounds whilst demanding these universal and unalienable rights to equality. No one has got any rights to prevent us from demanding these rights, as a famous American novelist stated: ‘No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow, Alice Walker).
As I have mentioned above, among the various methods of unanimously rejecting the rules of dictators or corporations, the most efficient, cost effective, simple and potent weapon the oppressed can use against their rulers is CD. Effectively used CD can easily shake the foundations of any oppressor in any part of the world. CD manifests itself by unanimously rejecting any regime wherever it might be, whenever possible. CD is nothing but mere refusal to obey governmental demands or commands; it is a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government or removing the government. It is entirely non-violent, and this is the reason it ismore potent than any form of manmade weapons. A famous American intellectual, professor, historian, playwright and human rights activists emphasises the importance of this as follows:-
‘The most formidable military machine depends ultimately on obedience of its soldiers, the most powerful corporation becomes helpless when its workers stop working, when its customers refuse to buy its products. The strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyse the functioning of a complex social structure, these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome state or corporate power’, (Howard Zinn, 1922 – 2010).
Effectively used CD obliges the rulers to understand that their subjects are not dummies any longer; thus the rulers will be forced to relinquish their power in order for the majority to decide their ways out of the difficulties. One of the America’s novelists agree with this as follows:-‘The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t possess it anymore’ (Alice Walker, American novelist)
Although those who have placed themselves in upper social strata or hierarchy dictate their accounts of history and stories, philosophically their place in history is inferior, as they utterly lack the key elements that make us humane. They are short of the key humane element which makes us feel and empathise the sufferings of the others. They rejoice when they bomb innocent children and civilian with nuclear and others forms of WMD. This is the reason why sadly those who are in power dictate false accounts of everything to hoodwink their subjects in order for them to exploit their subjects – ignorant of historical realities. Howard Zinn states the above argument as follows: –“History is important. If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it”. Human histories are recorded and maintained depending on individual region’s or country’s contexts although the following is a universally binding declaration. Orally narrated histories of traditional societies are much more reliable than the written and serve as valuable in their objective as the written accounts. The question is whether the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are respected in any part of the world
Box 1. Excerpts from ‘UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Courageous and Bold Move is Essential whilst affecting CD.
The reason why we need CD is simply because those whose rights are violated by those officials or corporations must unite and demand them. The oppressed subjects must defy the current repressive and exploitative orders, either in Ethiopia or worldwide; the universally self-appointed elites who call themselves the rescuers and governors of our planet must be met with CD, i.e. the most effective manner to have them removed. We should not fear any person on planet as long as we stand for genuine cause and aforementioned universally acknowledged rights. One icon of our century’s struggle for freedom and resistance and renowned African statesman states that we must win over our fear whilst standing for our fundamental rights: ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear, (Nelson Mandela 1918 -2013)
Box 2 Some of Key Reasons Initiating Civil Disobedience
Persistent and blatant abuse of power in a number of ways by government officials.
Controlling of civilians by spying on citizens via state and corporation censorship.
Manipulation of public opinion with lies, deceits and obfuscations.
Disallowing room for a political rights and kidnapping and torturing those who choose to be involved.
Morally, economically and ethically corrupt government officials.
Detention without trials only using kangaroo courts for show trails.
Collective punishment of given ethnic groups or nationals for their political views/economic interests of the rulers.
Massacre and genocide of given ethnic nationals or groups of people for their political views.
Rigging election and promoting state terrorism whilst covering up official misdeeds.
Deliberately and systematically impoverishing given ethnic nationals by expropriating their natural resources.
Targeting given ethnic nationals for belonging to given ethnic identity or nationals therefore torturing and mass imprisoning them.
Denial of justice and arbitrarily arresting non-combatant civilians to keep them jailed for years/decades.
Suppression of dissent voices and misuses of police and army power to stifle citizens and keep them silenced.
Discrimination against certain groups or ethnic nationals for their political and economic importance.
Theft of citizens’ property to enrich politicians and their loyalists.
Blackmailing of dissents and human rights activist by authorities.
Institutional incompetence and negligence of authorities.
Disrespect of citizens and repeated hypocrisy… and more.
Since time immemorial, Mankind has experienced rewarding progress and advancement, but at the same time IT continues to suffer ever worsening and appalling evils, troubles and ills. This is because man’s problems are man-caused therefore potentially easily resolvable matters. We must fight and overcome manmade injustice that humans imposed on their kinds. We must challenge and overcome man’s capacity of causing deliberate harm to his/her likes. The most effective means of achieving this is CD.
Understanding the World: prerequisite to effectively conduct CD while not expecting any good from big Evils
History affirms that the largest part of human decadence is ascribed to European and American colonial expansionists who have in massive scale developed the concept of humans’ inferiority or superiority and thereby played a key role in advancing concomitant human sufferings. In addition to simple economic and political superiority, these groups of peoples created weapons of mass destruction and continually experimented them all over the world. For instance, to such evil and inhumane competitions is due the notorious Chernobyl’s 1986 nuclear disaster where over a million civilians have been affected. The worst and inherently inhumane examples were the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945), resulting in the death of over 300.000 and consequently over a million civilians and children in the following two decades.
The current ongoing global instabilities are mainly ascribed to West in general and to America’s politicians and corporations in particular. These groups of international and regional powerful economic and military giants and their networks don’t want their dummies to know this fact. This is why they have placed themselves in charge of our society. These are the politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television channels who dominate our ideas so that they will be secure in their power. They didn’t need soldiers patrolling our streets until they have fabricated boggy men known as terrorists to stifle our freedom of expression and assembly. They made us dummies that can easily be controlled so that the mass remains subservient enslaved and conformist. This is why we sit down in front of television sets glued to their endless and deceptive propagandas. The majority of world peoples became addicted to celebrity culture and fizzy yet literally poisonous drinks massively produced by the corporations in addition to junk meals by McDonald’s, KFC, etc. The same trend is being used by all the regimes of the world, including in the Ethiopian empire. Clear understanding of the anatomy of global rulers and their corporations enables the majority to be united in order for them to effectively and successfully conduct CD.
Particular Case of the Ethiopian Empire
When it comes to the Ethiopian empire, it is essential to note that the mentees of American and European colonisers have caused similar sufferings to all the subjugated nations that are found at their disposal. They have crushed dissents of various ethnic nationals who demanded their collective rights. They have demonised such dissents whilst encouraging and praising subservience. The survival of this colonial state has been stitched together by lies and subterfuges. Its history dictates the hegemony of the rulers and the subjugation and the ensuing blackmailing of those who demand their rights. Although historians and social justice activists strongly believe that ‘Dissent is the highest form ofpatriotism’ and that silence is equivalent to dead walking, while something important to humanity is at stake, Ethiopian TPLF’s regime remain as adamant as all its predecessors.
Those courageous social justice advocates suggest CD as a means of achieving social justice and equality for all – by conquering our fear and uniting with purpose in the following manners: – “CD is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem”. (Howard Zinn)
In the Ethiopian empire, the above account is absolutely correct, and this will never stop unless we prevent the criminals, who call themselves ‘government’, from incriminating innocent majority, impoverishing and enslaving them all. No one has given TPLF’s barbaric regime any rights under whatsoever definition to sell the Sidama land, the lands of the Oromo, Gambela, Ogaden, Afar, Gedeo and other subjugated nations. It is us, the majority who are allowing the regime to freely continue with their criminal acts against the interests of the mass.
Where CD can begin?
CD can begin at home. Stop having any deal with your neighbour, who might be known to you and others for his/her part in torturing and brutalising innocent citizens and expropriating their resources whilst impoverishing them. Systematically stop cooperating with your family member who might have a link with the brutalising regime. Stop allying your pure conscience with the regime whose hands are dirtied with the blood of the innocents. Refuse attending their weddings and funerals. Stop visiting these groups of criminals whilst they are ill, either at home or in hospitals. Systematically stop buying their products and selling yours to them. Stop befriending with such groups of worst quislings.
Never hesitate to surreptitiously offer the necessary support to dissent and never think that it is none of your business. After all, the pain of one person who is targeted today by the regime’ssecurity and army will be yours tomorrow or after tomorrow, if you remain silent today. But if you are courageously and defiantly involved, the regime, though unwillingly, will stop individually targeting innocent civilians or nations’ peoples for their being who they are. If so, the CD will be unanimous. Never think that you don’t have a weapon. Your unity, determination, and indefatigable approach, your effort to underscore of your own rights and your preparedness to persistently demand them is your formidable and lethal weapon. The rulers know this fact, therefore they don’t want you to know about it.
To be able to persistently reclaim your rights until you assert them, unity with likeminded is paramount. Explicitly and implicitly plan your actions and strategize your methods. If the majority can do so, they can easily incapacitate the capability of any brutal regime, let alone the minority of TPLF’s increasingly wobbling bunches of criminal mafias. One of the distinguished Indian human rights activists and author, Arundhati Roy, emphasises about this as follows:-
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” Arundhati Roy, April 2003, War Talk’
It is nearly 25 years since the current brutal regime has assumed power and promised millions of lies and deceitful projects none of which has materialised. Therefore, the only way for the empire’s subjects is standing on own ground and rejecting the regime. The regime has got a lot of weapons, but we have to understand that our weapons are much mightier than theirs. Therefore, open your mind; wake up from your hibernation to reclaim your dignity and pride as a fellow respected human being who has got his own life, aspiration, hope, and dream. These all are denied to all captives of Ethiopian empire by the vicious incumbent. To reclaim your rights, the most potent and long lasting method is CD. If CD progresses, other means of struggle, involving the use of arms, will also have further leverages in their momentum to successfully accomplish their part.
Begin it at home, from your neighbours, colleagues, classmates and friends. Completely, yet surreptitiously ostracise all inhumane members of regime’s criminal networks.
Meles Zenawi is in #Landgrabs Even from Grave: TPLF Fascist Ethiopian Government Has Taken 1200 Hectares of Land from Sabbataa Oromo ( Indigenous) Farmers in Oromia in the Name of Meles Zenawi Who Died 20 August 2012 in Brussels, Belgium.
Want to double world food production? Return the land to small farmers!
GRAIN, Ecologist
22nd November 2014
All over the world, small farmers are being forced off their land to make way for corporate agriculture, writes GRAIN – and it’s justified by the need to ‘feed the world’. But it’s the small farmers that are the most productive, and the more their land is grabbed, the more global hunger increases. We must give them their land back!
The data show that the concentration of farmland in fewer and fewer hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going hungry every day.
Family farmers, FAO say, manage 70-80% of the world’s farmland and produce 80% of the world’s food.
But on the ground – whether in Kenya, Brazil, China or Spain – rural people are being marginalised and threatened, displaced, beaten and even killed by a variety of powerful actors who want their land.
A recent comprehensive survey by GRAIN, examining data from around the world, finds that while small farmers feed the world, they are doing so with just 24% of the world’s farmland – or 17% if you leave out China and India. GRAIN’s report also shows that this meagre share is shrinking fast.
How, then, can FAO claim that family farms occupy 70 to 80% of the world’s farmland? In the same report, FAO claims that only 1% of all farms in the world are larger than 50 hectares, and that these few farms control 65% of the world’s farmland, a figure much more in line with GRAIN’s findings.
Just what is a ‘family farm’
The confusion stems from the way FAO deal with the concept of family farming, which they roughly define as any farm managed by an individual or a household. (They admit there is no precise definition. Various countries, like Mali, have their own.)
Thus, a huge industrial soya bean farm in rural Argentina, whose family owners live in Buenos Aires, is included in FAO’s count of ‘family farms’.
What about sprawling Hacienda Luisita, owned by the powerful Cojuanco family in the Philippines and epicentre of the country’s battle for agrarian reform since decades. Is that a family farm?
Looking at ownership to determine what is and is not a family farm masks all the inequities, injustices and struggles that peasants and other small scale food producers across the world are mired in.
It allows FAO to paint a rosy picture and conveniently ignore perhaps the most crucial factor affecting the capacity of small farmers to produce food: lack of access to land. Instead, the FAO focuses its message on how family farmers should innovate and be more productive.
Small farmers are ever more squeezed in
Small food producers’ access to land is shrinking due a range of forces. One is that because of population pressure, farms are getting divided up amongst family members. Another is the vertiginous expansion of monoculture plantations.
In the last 50 years, a staggering 140 million hectares – the size of almost all the farmland in India – has been taken over by four industrial crops: soya bean, oil palm, rapeseed and sugar cane. And this trend is accelerating.
In the next few decades, experts predict that the global area planted to oil palm willdouble, while the soybean area will grow by a third. These crops don’t feed people. They are grown to feed the agro-industrial complex.
Other pressures pushing small food producers off their land include the runaway plague of large-scale land grabs by corporate interests. In the last few years alone, according to the World Bank, some 60 million hectares of fertile farmland have been leased, on a long-term basis, to foreign investors and local elites, mostly in the global South.
While some of this is for energy production, a big part of it is to produce food commodities for the global market, instead of family farming.
Small is beautiful – and productive
The paradox, however, and one of the reasons why despite having so little land, small producers are feeding the planet, is that small farms are often more productive than large ones.
If the yields achieved by Kenya’s small farmers were matched by the country’s large-scale operations, the country’s agricultural output would double. In Central America, the region’s food production would triple. If Russia’s big farms were as productive as its small ones, output would increase by a factor of six.
Another reason why small farms are the feeding the planet is because they prioritise food production. They tend to focus on local and national markets and their own families. In fact, much of what they produce doesn’t enter into trade statistics – but it does reach those who need it most: the rural and urban poor.
If the current processes of land concentration continue, then no matter how hard-working, efficient and productive they are, small farmers will simply not be able to carry on.
The data show that the concentration of farmland in fewer and fewer hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going hungry every day.
According to one UN study, active policies supporting small producers and agro-ecological farming methods could double global food production in a decade and enable small farmers to continue to produce and utilise biodiversity, maintain ecosystems and local economies, while multiplying and strengthening meaningful work opportunities and social cohesion in rural areas.
Agrarian reforms can and should be the springboard to moving in this direction.
To double global food production, we must support the small farmers
Experts and development agencies are constantly saying that we need to double food production in the coming decades. To achieve that, they usually recommend a combination of trade and investment liberalisation plus new technologies.
But this will only empower corporate interests and create more inequality. The real solution is to turn control and resources over to small producers themselves and enact agricultural policies to support them.
The message is clear. We need to urgently put land back in the hands of small farmers and make the struggle for genuine and comprehensive agrarian reform central to the fight for better food systems worldwide.
FAO’s lip service to family farming just confuses the matter and avoids putting the real issues on the table.
Oromia (Finfinnee): KFO fi Fincila Diddaa Saamicha Lafaa (FDSL). The public meeting convened by Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) in Finfinne on Sunday, October 18, discussed the so called the ‘Master Plan’ and conclude that it is a land grab policy disguised as a development plan and called on Ethiopian authorities to halt it, and on the public to continue rejecting it.
On 30 May 2015 residents in Buraayyuu (Central Oromia) protesting the demolishing of their residential houses by TPLF/ Agazi for being the supporters and voting for the popular opposition OFC/Medrek) in the 24 May 2015 General Elections.
Gaafiin mooraa Yuuniversitii kanatti ka’ee jiru dhimma amantaan kan wal qabate tahullee barattootni Oromoo heddumminaan keessatti gaaffii miidhaan saba Oromoo kaasuun, gubachuu bosonaa fi warshaalee Oromoo keessa jiranis kaasuudhaan gaaffii barattootaa gara gaaffii mirgaatti naannessanii guyyoota lamaan kana jechuun Bitootessa 17 fi 18 barumsi dhaabbatee akka jiru odeessaan Qeerroo gamasii addeessaa jira. Barumsas akka hin baranne Oromiyaan boca uumamashee mootummaa Wayyaanen utuu gadhisaa jirtuu, ilmaan Oromoo mana hidhaatti osoo gidirfamuu jireenya dhuunfaa keenyaaf barumsa kennee lafa dhiituun haa dhaabbatu jechuun diddaan mooraa kanattis qabatee akka jiru odeessi nugahee jira.
Naannoo Wallootti:-
Aanaa Gudayaa ganda Konkaa Ijaa jedhamau Bitootessa gaafa 15 fi 19 /2015 mootummaa irraa ergamee hojii basaastummaa aanaa kana keessatti kan hojjetu dhalootaan Amaara kan tahe tokko nama dhalootaan oromoo tokko sabboonummaa qabu harka mootummaatti dabarseekennuu irraan tarkaanfiin ajjechaa basaasaa mootummaa wayyaanee kana irratti raawwatamee jira. sababa kanaan manneen jireenyaa saba amaaraa 4 ol tahus ibiddaan gubateera,diina mootummaan ergamee uummata hammeenyaaf kennaa jiru kana irratti boombiinis darbatamee namoonni hedduun mada’anii jiru, odeessa Qeerroo hubatamu irraa uummanni tarkaanfii mootummaa wayyaanee irratti fudhachuu eegalee jira,deggertootni mootummaas sodaa kana keessa seenuudhaan hojii isaanii irraa akka deebi’aa jiran dhalootaan saba biraa kan tahan, ilmaan habashaa hojii diinummaa irratti bobbahanii jiranis naannoo sana irraa uummataan ariyamaa akka jiran odeessi Qeerroo addeessa. http://qeerroo.org/2015/03/19/diddaan-sirna-wayyaanee-fi-gaaffiin-mirga-abbaa-biyyummaa-guyyaa-haraa-yuuniversitii-afur4-keessatti-jabaatee-itti-fufe/
Qeerroo’s Status Updates: Feb. 22, 2015 – March 13, 2015
Oromo students protests continue to erupt in several towns in the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia – taking various forms in recent weeks. The new round of protests began on February 22, 2015, when Oromo students and youth of Jimma town turned an Oromian Sports Championship event, which had been taking place in the city, into a protest against the so-called “Addis Ababa Master Plan” and against the recent inflammatory speech of Abay Tsehaye, one of the TPLF strongmen. The students chanted slogans, such as “Finfinne is ours! Adama is ours! Jimma is ours!” and more, a reminiscent of the bloody April/May 2014 widespread protests, in which more or less the same slogans had been chanted throughout Oromia. The Oromo youth were also singing revolutionary songs in the whole stadium. The protests continued beyond control in Jimma Stadium and on the streets of the city on a daily basis until the Sports Championship was to come to a close on Sunday, March 1, 2015.
Speech of Oromian “President” Muktar Kedir Interrupted
On March 1, 2015, the Oromo students protest escalated to a higher level when two high-level delegates of the Ethiopian government, the so-called President of Oromia – Muktar Kedir and President of Amhara Region Demeke Mekonnen appeared in the stadium for the closing ceremony, and also in an attempt to address and pacify the protesting youth. As the whole stadium erupted with shouting voices, slogans and revolutionary songs of the students, Muktar Kedir was unable speak at all, and he and all the “guests,” including the Honorable GuestDemeke Mekonnen, were forced to leave the stadium in humiliation and eventually reported to have left the city the same day.
Audio: March 1, 2015 – Jimma, Oromia
Govt Messenger’s Indoctrination Meeting Foiled in Nekemte
On the evening of March 1, 2015, the same day students of Jimma university protested, a meeting organized in Wollega University by the government delegate and messenger Dr. Getachew Begashaw through the university administration intended to inculcate the students with the evil policies of the government and to pacify the Oromo students from protesting was foiled by the Oromo students, and the meeting was dismissed. It was as soon as the meeting began that Oromo students started shouting, singing revolutionary songs and chanting slogans, such as “the [Addis Ababa] Master Plan will never be realized! OLF is the hope of Oromo people! International community should be made aware of the genocide committed against us!” and more. Dr. Begashaw and other “guests” were forced to stop their lecture, and leave the university while the students continued chanting slogans and singing in the whole university campus throughout that night. Although the students were protesting peacefully, hours later, a large number of police force entered the university campus and started beating the students and arrested many of them, including a 3rd-year electrical engineering student Kuma Gammachu. The whereabouts of the arrested students is still unknown.
At least 10 Oromo Students Abducted in Jimma
On March 2, 2015, the Ethiopian government unleashed its police force in Jimma University, and abducted at least 10 students for no crime other than exercising their rights by peacefully protesting, together with thousands of other Oromo students. Among the abducted Oromo students of Jimma University are:
These and other abducted Oromo students are said to be held in a prison in Jimma city in an area known as Alazar.
Looting of Oromian Top Soil Thwarted in Sibu Sire
On March 7, 2015, Oromo farmers – who were evicted from their land and from whom their farm land was given to investors in East Wollega zone, Sibu Sire district, in a village called Tuqa Wayyu – organized the youth and the local Oromo population, and stopped lorries which were looting top soil (fertile soil) of their land and taking to an unknown place.
Three OPDO Officials Fired
On March 10, 2015, the government fired three OPDO officials in Western Shaggar (Shoa) zone, Abuna district, accusing them of siding with the protesting Oromo people for their right and being sympathetic to Oromo students. These are:
1. Shiferaw Mekonnen, Head of Finance of the district
2. Bacha Lamessa, Head of Human Resource
3. Girma Bacha, Jobs Coordinator
Protest in Wama Hagalo: An Oromo Pastor Arrested
On March 10, 2015, protest of the Oromo population for their right and against the policies of the EPRDF government was flared up in Eastern Wollega zone, Wama Hagalo district, Qasso town. A fierce clash has occurred between the Oromo population – who were protesting, and government police forces during which the police arrested several people, among whom are:
1. Qajeelaa Raggaasaa
2. Boodanaa Baqqalaa
3. Misgaanuu Raggaasaa
4. Danjaa Dhangi’aa
5. Dhugaasaa Abdiisaa
6. Booboo Addunyaa
7. Misgaanuu Addunyaa and many more.
Moreover, an Oromo pastor of the Evangelical Church of the district, Waqgari Ayana, was abducted and disappeared, accused of praying to God for the downfall of the current government. The whereabouts of this pastor is still unknown. It is to be recalled that a respected Oromo pastor Gudina Tumsa was abducted and killed by the Derg regime in 1970’s.
2nd Round of Protest in Wollega University
Oromo students of Wollega University, Nekemte town, protested for the second time on March 11, 2015 in their university campus. It was right after their breakfast that the students gathered in front of the cafeteria and started chanting the slogans which they had prepared. One of the students who was interviewed by Simbirtu Radio and another student interviewed by OVL/SBO (Oromo Voice of Liberation) – both explained the details of the protest. It was before the protest expanded to the entire campus that a large number of police force came and dispersed the students. It is reported that still a tense situation exists in the university campus, and no two students are allowed to stand together.
Audio: March 11, 2015 – Wollega, Oromia
Protest in Busa: Young Oromo Severely Beaten & Abducted
On March 11, 2015, protest of Oromo population erupted in South West zone of Oromia, Dawo district, Busa town, during which the people chanted slogans, such as “Oromia belongs to the Oromo! We will not give Finfinne (Addis Ababa)! We need peace! We are fed-up of Woyane’s lies!” and more. During this time the government dispatched a large number of police force which were seen beating the protesters. Especially the police has severely beaten an Oromo youth Geleta Waqo – dragged him on the floor and have taken to an unknown location.
Kana malee Anaa Deedoo irraa ilmaan Oromoo torba kanneen ammaf maqaan isiinii nu hin qaqqabiin humna poolisii federaalaan qabamanii mana hidhatti darbamuu maddeen keenya gaabasan.
Haaluma kanaan Yeroo amma kana Mootummaan Wayyaaneen humni Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo ABO’n Godina Jimmaa keessa buufate jira maqaa jedhuu fi maqaa sakkatta’aa dhabamsiisuu jedhuun humna poolisii naannoo Oromiyaa irraa shakkii guddaa qabatuun ajaja mootummaa federaalaatiin poolisoota Federaalaa fi waraanaa aanota Godinichaa keessa bobbaasuun ilmaan Oromoo maqaa qorannoo fi sakkatta’insaan dararuu fi ukkamsuun hidhatti darbaa jiraachuun saaxilamera. Adeemsi gochaa diinummaa mootummaan Wayyaanee fudhachaa jiru kun uummata bakka jiruu dammaqsuun akka uummatni fincilee sochii FDGtti makamuun mirga isaa kabachiifatuuf dirqamsiisa jiraachuu irraa uummatni utuu hidhatti hin ukkanfamiin harka walqabatnee mootummaa abba irree irratti finciluun yeroon gamtaan kaanee falmannuu amma jechuun dhaamsa waliif dabarsaa jiraachuun ibsame jira.
Ethiopia Official Threatens to Continue Mass Murder in Oromia to Grab Land; Use the Hashtag “#StopAbayTsehaye” to Protest Abay Tsehaye and the Addis Ababa Master Plan
February 21, 2015 · Finfinne Tribune & Gadaa.com
(OromoPress) – Abay Teshaye, a member of the Executive Committee of Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and adviser to the current nominal Prime Minster of Ethiopia, made a genocide threat against the Oromo people who oppose the implementation of a land grabbing policy. Abay Tsehaye made the threat with a vitriolic tone of hatred and arrogance toward the Oromo:
“The master plan will be implemented now. If anyone from the Oromia regional administration or anti-peace forces oppose this, we’ll cut them to size,” OMN reported citing a leaked Amharic audio of Abay Tsehaye from a meeting that took place in Hawasa town in the south. Made against the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the wider Oromo people; the threat comes on a the heels of massacre across Oromia region from May to July 2014. Oromo media have repeatedly reported that Abay Tsehaye was one of TPLF/EPRDF masterminds of the episode of genocide that claimed the lives of over 200 Oromo students and led to the incarceration of 3,765 students and farmers across Oromia in mid-2014. The students were protesting the implementation of a land grab policy in Oromia towns and rural districts in and around Fifninnee/Addis Ababa, which led to an unexplained disappearance of over 200,000 Oromo farmers.
Abay Tsehaye made the statement at an official meeting on behalf of his party and the Tigrean-led Ethiopian government. His speech was not an empty threat since he and other TPLF officials have followed through with threats and engaged in acts of genocide in Oromia State against innocent civilians, especially the Oromo youth, over the last 24 years (since Tigreans grabbed state power). Oromo activists created a Twitter hashtag #StopAbayTsehaye to protest the angry and arrogant genocide threat by Abay Tsehaye and to spread awareness about the issue to the global audience.
We Are Ready to Pay Any Sacrifice to Stop Abay Tsehaye and His Cohorts
Qeerroo Bilisummaa Calls for Revolt In Response to Abay Tsehaye’s Insult of the Oromo People
One of the leaders of the TPLF/EPRDF regime and an architect of the so called “Addis Ababa Master Plan”, Abay Tsehaye, has openly insulted the Oromo people and particularly the OPDO by saying that the “Master Plan” will be put into practice by all means. Filled with contempt and arrogance, Abay Tsehaye said those who oppose the Master Plan “will be put down” or “face the consequences”. He proved the long time belief that the so called OPDO is nothing but a puppet of the TPLF which can be intimidated by a single TPLF individual. The dictatorial Woyane Ethiopian regime’s leader Abay Tsehaye, who is working as an “advisor” of the Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, is one of the TPLF heavy-handed personnel who interfere in all internal affairs of the nominal so called “Oromia regional government”. He is said to be constantly harassing and intimidating high ranking OPDO officials and the leaders of the so called Oromia Regional Administration by calling them into his office. It should be clear that his current insult of Oromo nationalists and members of the Oromia regional administration is an insult to the entire Oromo nation. The so called “Master Plan”, which Abay Tsehay and his TPLF hooligans are trying to shove down into the Oromo people’s throat, is a plan intended to evict Oromo farmers from their ancestral land and destroy the Oromo identity. It intended to take away Oromo land without the will of the owners of the land and destroy Oromo language by incorporating Oromian towns and villages into one big Addis Ababa, the capital city which should belong to Oromo in the first place. In doing so, Abay Tsehaye and the Tigrayan elites have a plan to divide Oromia into two: East and West.
In April and May, 2014, Qeerroo Bilisummaa has organized Oromian youth for nationwide protest against this so called “Master Plan”, in which the regime brutally killed hundreds of school children and arrested and ruthlessly tortured tens of thousands others. Our people have already paid the ultimate sacrifice with their blood and the lives of their children. The current chauvinistic outburst of Abay Tsehaye only reaffirms to us that our struggle should continue and that we should pay all necessary sacrifice. We will NEVER let this minority regime dictate its will upon us. We shall ignite the torch of Revolt Against Subjugation (Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa) again and defend our father’s land and dignity. A minority regime will not “put us down”. More:- Stop Abay Tsehaye and His Cohorts
Addis Ababa has expanded rapidly over the last 20 years by swallowing villages and farming communities, all of whom are Oromos, along its path. This has resulted in the eviction of at least an estimated 100,000 Oromo farmers to make way for “industry” and other high priority “development” endeavours, and for the construction of luxury apartments and mansions for TPLF officials and their accomplices. These farmers, because they have never had any experience with urban ways of life and doing business, soon become homeless, jobless begging on the street when they run out of the unfair compensations they were given by the government. This is very sad, and a crime of genocidal proportion.
Many OPDO officials, contrary to their TPLF masters, know these horrifying stories of farmers left on the street of Addis begging, and others working as daily labourers. And it seems they have said enough when they resisted the top-down approach of imposing the so-called Addis Ababa surrounding Oromia integrated Master Plan, which is kind of a way to legitimize the annexation of towns around the city. Many were killed when they peacefully took to the streets to protest the Master Plan in April/May 2014. No enquiry has ever been conducted regarding the massacres in Ambo and other locations.
And TPLF continues to bully OPDO officials to submit themselves in continuing to committing genocide on the Oromo farmers. Some bow for their masters. Others not so much.
Many believe the Master Plan is not according to the interest of the Oromo people, and it has to be prepared by the Oromia regional state after Addis Ababa is handed over to the Oromia regional state as a special administration territory, also stipulated in article 49(5). Well, TPLF is not even willing to amend the plan, let alone giving the city to Oromia regional state. This is shown in the ignorance of officials, such as Abay Tsehaye, who declares war on people as unison on public meeting. Abay Tsehaye, probably the second in command of TPLF, has vowed to crush any resistance to the Master Plan. But the Oromo youth or Qeerroo and other political parties, both peaceful and through armed movement, have echoed their concern and promised to address the issue seriously.
The following video is a compiled satellite night time images making time lapse of Addis Ababa since 1992. It clearly shows the city has rapidly grown particularly huge jump between 2003 and 2006.
Ask yourself, is this growth or genocide? What is the meaning of development if it just displaces resources, makes one rich for every 1000 poor? Ask yourself, why farmers who have always lived with their land in pride, sustain themselves for generation, are removed from their livelihoods into new ways of life that are quite radical and hard to comprehend? http://finfinnetribune.com/Gadaa/2015/02/reinvent-ethiopia-areal-satellite-images-of-the-addis-ababa-expansion-1992-2013-at-the-expense-of-oromo-farmers/
Few months ago, in an interview with journalist Befekadu Moroda of Oromia Media Network (OMN), I asserted that TPLF and the Tigrean ruling class have transformed into Neftegna. Abay Tsehaye’s recent words and behavior testament to that. Remember the Neftegna system that gave monopoly over the means of violence and the sources of wealth produced chauvinistic agents who exploited and disrespected oppressed groups in Ethiopia. The system also engineered social behaviors that justified the actions of those agents and popularized myths of the dominant groups socio-cultural superiority. Overtime, the ruling class and its base began rationalizing and institutionalizing prejudice and extreme form of violent responses towards those who dissented.
During the early years of their rule, as violent and oppressive they were, TPLF differentiated themselves from their predecessors by being sensitive and showing reasonable respect for groups they subjected. However, they began abandoning such sensitivity as they consolidated power and began amassing wealth, and they have started adopting the ugly behaviors of their predecessors. Nowadays, emboldened by the absolute monopoly of the means of violence, intoxicated with abundance of wealth at their disposal and facing no so significant threat to their rule, the TPLF Tigrean rulers’ rudeness, arrogance and disrespect for other cultures have become their norm. Just like their predecessors, they have the false sense of inherent superiority which had made them feel invincible. This behavior is even worse among their rising generation – which was born into wealth and power and grew up being drugged with post-victory (post-1991) bravado of TPLF.
This is good and bad news. It’s ‘bad’ because such collective behaviors increase and justify violence and repression against the subjected populations. However, on the ‘good’ side, it makes the system intolerable – expanding the base of resistance, and, consequently, speeding up the downfall of the system.
Abay Tsehaye’s threat, its tone and spirit, is very revealing of TPLF’s contempt and disrespect for Oromos, even those who are serving them as puppets. What is the story behind such outburst? After completion of the the Master Plan without any involvement from the Oromia side, Abay Tsehaye gathered senior OPDO leaders and ordered them to implement the plan. They expressed concern that they were not involved in the process of drafting the plan and that it will be hard to convince the rank and file. They were told they will not take NO for answer. The OPDO leaders could not even agree on the matter and when they took the issue to the mid-level leadership, they were met with fierce resistance and hostility. While the Oromia state leaders were planning to bring the issue to the Caffee ( parliament) for deliberation, Abay/TPLF could not wait so they bypassed them, gathered administrators of cities surrounding Finfinne and told them to begin implementation. At this meeting, the city administrators raised several procedural and policy objections and said they cannot take this plan without further study and deliberation at Caffee ( Oromia parliament level.) The administrators said they cannot convince the public about a plan even they themselves neither understand nor accept. In their typical manner Abay Tsehaye and TPLF leaders rejected the request for further discussion at the leadership level and gave them strict orders to begin the implementation phase. This conflict reached the public leading to the mass protest and massacre of April/May 2014.
During and in the aftermath of the protest, OPDO leaders agreed on the need to postpone the Master Plan as a way of containing the situation. This idea was initially accepted by the official EPRDF including the Prime Minister. However, Abay Tsehaye summoned the OPDO leaders and accused them of sabotage and threatened to eliminate them from the top down, and anyone who stands in the way of the Master Plan. Terrified, the puppet leaders went home and began hibernating avoiding the subject altogether.
Therefore, what is heard in this leaked audio of Abay Tsehaye threatening over a thousand urban planners and administrators is nothing new. His contempt towards Oromo and insidious plan to rob them of their land must be confronted. They have already began implementing the Master Plan and Abay Tsehaye had made it abundantly clear that they will go ahead by any means necessary. Well this needs to be met with the same spirit–the plan must be stopped by any means necessary.
Lets remember that the Finfinne issue is not isolated. TPLF’s real master Plan is to establish Tigrean economic monopoly by depriving Oromos of any real source of economy across the country including fertile land, mineral sites, manufacturing and trade. Therefore the target of Oromo resistance needs to focus on fighting back against this real Master Plan. The resistance needs to identify businesses of TPLF and its affiliates across Oromia and take them on to ensure they don’t succeed.
Arrogant TPLF leaders should realize that their power is more vulnerable than their fortified headquarters lead them to believe. The roots and branches of their domination extends deep into the remotest part of our homeland.
Biyya tuffatan harreen garmaaman ========================
The Gulele Post • February 15, 2015
“Waan feetaanis fiddan Masteer Pilaanin Finfinnee hojirra ni oola. Warra nu dura dhaabbate abbaa feetes taatu ‘likkii’ galchina. Qondaalonni Oromoo godiina naannawa Finfinnee yakkamtoota. Qonddaalonni Oromiyaa laamshoodha.” Kun hundi arrabsoofi dhaadannoo qondaaltichi Wayyanee guddichi Abbaay Tsahaayyee Oromoota walitti qabee itti huruurse kaassaayi. Sagalee gabaabduu waraabamtee OMN geette irraa jechoota fokkisaa akkasii yoo dhageenyu kan nuti hin dhagayin hafan maal faa akka ta’e yaadun nam hin dhibu. Akkan dhagayetti, tibba mormiin godhamaa ture san qondaaltoota OPDO gurguddoo walitti qabuun arrabsoo dhuunfaa bira dharbee hamma doorsisuufi harkaan itti aggaamutti gahame ture.
Tuffiifi jibba Abbaay Tsahaayyeefi waahillan isaa Oromoof qaban afaan ajaayan as bahe kun dhimma nam- tokkee akka hin taane namuu hubachuu qaba. Ejjennoo jaarmayni Wayyaanneen qabattee deemtuun, kan qabeenya Oromoo saamuun sirna cunqursaa isaanii tursiisuuf hammeenya hammamii raaw’achuuf akka muratan ragaadha. Karoorri maqaa Master Pilaaniitin Finfinnee bal’isanii, Oromiyaarraa muranii fudhachuu kunis kophatti laalamuu hin qabu. Master Pilaaniin kun karoora guddicha fi isa ol aanaa Tigroonni ol’aantummaa dinagdee yoomifu turu ijaaruuf qaban irraa kan maddeedha. Akkuma namuu argu yeroo amma kanatti lafti gabbataan jaraaf hirmaa jira. Iddoon albuudaa, warshaalee gurguddaani fi magaalaan sochii dinagdee qabdu too’annaa jaraa jala galfamaa jira. Daldaltoonni Tigraay hamma baadiyyaa Oromiyaatti caasaa diriirfachuun daldaltoota Oromoo taphaan ala godhanii jiran. Qonnaan bulaa Oromoo kaan lafa irraa fudhatanii warshaafi mana jireenya waardiyyaa isaani godhatan. Warra hafe ammoo xaa’oo gatiin samii tuqee itti fe’anii kasaarsanii hiyyoomsan.
Sochii Warraaqsa Bilisummaa ta’aa jiru daran jabeessuun dhadannoolee uumata onnachiisanii fi waamicha diddaa sirna Wayyaanee kan qabu barruuleen kun bakkoota mootummaan Wayyaanee beeksisa maxxanfatu irrattii fi lafa magaalota bakka bebbeekamoo irratti maxxanfamuu fi uumataafis raabsamuu gabaasi Qeerroo naannicha irraa nu gahe addeessa.
Keessattuu Qeerroon aanaa Daawoo magaala Buusaa mana murtii fuula duraa fi secondary fuuldura ti waraqaa waamichaa dhoobuu fi magaala iddoo hedduu ti faca’uurraan kan ka’ee uummanni gammachuu guddaan kan itti dhagaheef qeerroon daraan kan onnatan ta’uu odeessi gama sana irraa nu dhaqabeera.
Gabaasa guutuu dhimma kana agama fuula duraa dhiheesina.
When it comes to eliminating poverty, the degree to which the benefits of growth are shared can have a significant impact on outcomes. According to Martin Ravallion, the former head of research at the World Bank, as cited in The Economist, a 1% increase in incomes in the most unequal countries produces a mere 0.6% reduction in poverty; however in the most equal countries, it yields a 4.3% cut. In other words, societies can get much more ‘bang from a boom’ if they ensure benefits are more widely shared.This brings us to the point at which trickle-down theory ends and inclusive growth begins. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), inclusive growth is “a new approach to economic growth that aims to improve living standards and share the benefits of increased prosperity more evenly across social groups”.Inclusive growth refers to both the pace and pattern of growth, which are considered interlinked and therefore need to be addressed together. Inclusiveness represents equality of opportunity in terms of access to markets, resources and an unbiased regulatory environment for businesses and individuals. In a nutshell, it is not just about the quantity of growth within our economies and societies, but also about its quality.
Despite its higher severity in terms of intensity and magnitude as compared to similar humanitarian crises in recent time, the current hunger in Ethiopia doesn’t receive adequate response yet from national and international aid organizations. Though good news are coming about bilateral aid support from U.S and certain EU members, the INGOs which have got ample experience in the area of humanitarian responses in the country are either still on the stage of preparation or did not yet plan to respond. The irresponsible position of the ruling party-EPRDF – that claimed the drought would not be beyond government capacity- might have contributed for the late and/ or no response acts of the aid organizations.
Moreover, Aid organizations become more curious about their mandate/roles and forced to operate under strict precaution (even in the case of emergency interventions) since the new civil society law enacted in the year 2009- that explicitly prohibited them to undertake any right based projects. The critical question usually asked by the practitioners goes, “is there any thing as such which can not be a right in the development endeavor? be it education, livelihood, economic empowerment or emergency food support?”. The ruling elites have never wanted to properly address such confusions emanated from their notorious enactment, as their main intention is to narrow dawn the space of civil society in Ethiopia’s political engagements.
Whatever the reasons, the emergency response support to millions who are severely affected by the disaster is already delaying. The results of such irresponsible acts might claim the lives of the vulnerable groups, if the trend continues so. The internationally accepted “Humanitarian” principles and standards are being compromised in Ethiopia due political irresponsibility in the ruling elites and lack of adequate sensitivity in the aid sector. The hunger incident has already severely affected the life of 15 million people through putting at least six regional states in “red level” hot spot situation. Oromia regional state having more than 125 most affected districts is leading in the humanitarian crisis. It should be noted that the recurrent drought crisis is proportionally shifting to South of the country during the recent incidents.
The claimed “food aid” through various government owned mechanisms do not address the need of all affected communities fairly and equally mainly due to autocratic political acts. The target community/ localities that showed their support to opposition forces during the recent national election 2015, for instant, would be discriminated by blind cadres during such government based aid support. Denial of such food aid-humanitarian support- to certain severely affected households due to failing to pay membership fee for OPDO- ruling party in Oromia region- was also observed in some areas.
Thus, alternative emergency response interventions should be in placed immediately. The Aid Organizations (INGOs) and other national civil society organizations as well as the entire community should act now, irrespective the prevailing political and bureaucratic challenges.
Related:-
SBO – Sadaasa 22, 2015. Oduu, Qophii Beelaa, Dhimmoota Adda Addaa Irratti Gaaffii fi Deebii Namoota Gara Garaa Waliin Taasifamee fi Qophiilee Biroo
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9022 (particularly for urgent matters)
E-mail: tb-petitions@unhcr.org
Mr. Antonio Guterres United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR)
Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Geneve 2 Depot Suisse
Email: infoDesk@ohchr.org; GUTERR@unhcr.org
The UNHCR Representation in Kenya
PO Box 43801-00100 GPO
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 41 22 739 7280
The President of the Republic of Kenya
President Uhuru Kenyatta
Harambee Avenue
P.O. Box 74434 – 00200
Nairobi, Kenya.
The International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ethiopia
Bole Sub city-, Kebele 12/13, House no. New
P. O. Box 5701
ADDIS ABABA
Phone: (+251 11) 647 83 00
Fax: (+251 11) 647 83 01 Head of delegation: Mr REYNOLDS James
The ICRC regional delegation in Kenya
Denis Pritt Road
P.O. Box 73226 – 00200
NAIROBI
(covers Kenya, Djibouti, Tanzania)
Phone: (+25420) 2723 963 – 4 – 5
Fax: (+25420) 2713003
Head of regional delegation: Mr MEYRAT Thierry Media contact persons: Ms KILIMO Anne
Phone : (+254 20 2723963
Mobile (+254) 0722 202039
Mr STRAZIUSO Jason
Mobile: (+254) 733 622 026
Subject: Appeal on the urgent case of Mr. Dabasa Guyo’s disappearance and other Refugees in Kenya
Dear All,
I am writing this appeal letter on behalf of the International Oromo Women’s Organization (IOWO), a Non-Profit, Non-governmental Organization established to promote gender equality and be the voice for the voiceless.
The oppressed people in Ethiopia that include the majority of Oromo people fled their home to escape government persecutions, killings, arbitrary arrest, and abductions in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government spearheaded by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), came to power in the early 1990’s. Since that time until present, mass killings, arbitrary arrests, abductions, and evicting people from their home become the day-to-day activities of the government forces. Hundreds and thousands of Oromo and other nationals run away to escape from such government actions.
However, the government security forces hunt refugees in neighboring countries, assassinate or abduct and take back to Ethiopia for further torture and killing.
I. Few examples of mass killings by Government forces in Ethiopia since TPLF came to power:
• The mass killing of University Students in Ambo and other cities April/ May 2014 on the peaceful demonstration against the expansion of Addis Ababa city to other neighboring Oromia cities, which is still continuing. (BBC News May 2, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27251331).
• The massacre of Muslim peaceful protestors April and August 2013 in Asasa and Kofele, Oromia, killed at least 26. ( Extracted from the report of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation report 19th Session of the UPR Working Group Submitted 16 September 2013)
This is in violation of religious freedom provided in the country’s constitution of 1995 Article 11/3 which states “The state shall not interfere in religious matters and religion shall not interfere in state affairs”.
• The massacre of members of the Suri tribe took place in December 2012, at least 147 Suris killed. (extracted from HRLHA Statement Feb.2013).
• The Massacre of Oromos Gara Sufi in February 2007. The victims age range from 14 years old Ayisha Ali to seventy years old Ahmed Mohamed Kuree. (VOA Afaan Oromo program on Wednesday Feb. 21, 2007).
• The Locke, Sidama, Massacre 24 May 2002 killing 46 and wounded 44. (OSG No. 38).
• The Massacare of Sheko and Majenger people on 11 March 2002, at least 128 dead. (By Nita Bhalla BBC, Addis Ababa, Tuesday, 16 July, 2002, 11:39 GMT 12:39 UK).
• The Massacare of Babo Gambel village West Wollega on 28 April 1995, 27 people were summarily executed by the EPRDF army in the Babo Gambel village in Jarso District at a places called Shimala Ture and Qiltu near Ganda Sheik in western wollega. (Report from Sue Pollock 13 April
1996 Schottlands National Newspaper PP.10-13).
And others.
II. Some examples of individuals abducted by Ethiopian Security forces and disappeared or not known their whereabouts.
Amanti (Shafee) Abdisaa abducted by Ethiopian Airport security men on August 20, 2000 at Addis Ababa Airport after he boarded the plane for conference in Nairobi representing the Ethiopian Environmental Organization he was working for. (OSG Press Release No.38).
Engineer Banti Guddataa Hirpha: Abducted by armed men January 5, 1998 in Addis Ababa around Behere Tsige in his firiend’s house. (OSG press release n. 23).
Efrem (Xibabu) Kaba: abducted from Addis Ababa November 17, 2000. (OSG press release n. 39).
Lammessa Boru: Arrested on September 17, 1992 near Dembi Dollo by EPRDF soldiers in Toyota land cruiser, later seen in military hospital in Jimma, but disappeared from there since October 23, 1992. (AI Index: AFR 25/06/95)
Yosef Ayele Bati: Arrested by unidentified security officer, on November 27, 1992 in Addis Ababa. (Amnesty International: http://bit.ly/yosefbati).
Zerihun Kinati Dheressa: Abducted by armed plain clothe men and uniformed police in Addis Ababa on October 17, 1997. (OSG press release 20).
According to different sources:
Nadhi Gamada: Detained in 1994 by the Ethiopian security force. Since then his whereabouts is unknown.
Jirenya Ayana and Temesgen Adaba: Abducted by government security men when walking near “Urael Church” in Addis Ababa in August 1995 and disappeared.
Bekele Dawano Hebano: Disappeared while in detention in 1993.
Dachasa (Masfin) Bayana Iticha: Abducted in Addis Ababa around “Mesalemiya” near the City Hotel by government security men in September 1995.
Dagaagaa Bayisaa: Abducted in 1993 while traveling by bus between Siree and Nekempt, and last seen in an underground cell at Bakko.
Daniel (Ida’aa) Akkummaa: Arrested in Addis Ababa in 1992. Since then his whereabouts is unknown.
Dereje Qana’aa: Disappeared in February 19, 1992 from the place he was teaching in Bodji in Wallaga.
Mustafa Idris: Disappeared on his way to home from work in Addis Ababa on May 31, 1994.
Takele Oljirraa: Abducted by government intelligence men in November 1992, near “Teklehaymanot” area (Addis Ababa), another person detained in 1994 believes he saw Takale in the Kasainchis secret detetion center in Addis Ababa (OSG August 1995 press release report, p. 13).
Takalinyi Dago: Abducted from Addis Ababa by the Ethiopian Secret Service, on January 14, 1996.
Due to such brutal actions of government forces, some escaped and ended up their lives in Ocean/sea, some suffered in Yemen and other countries, and some seeking asylum in Kenya and waiting for the resettlement option in third countries.
We thank the Kenya government and people for their hospitality. However, the Ethiopian government forces extended their brutal actions in killing or abducting and taking back, torture and put in prison or kill them.
III. Some examples of such Ethiopian government actions mentioned in “AN OPEN PETITION” of the Oromo Refugee community in Kenya to the UNHCR, September 2013, the followings are the victims of killings and abductions by Ethiopian security forces and mercenaries in neighboring countries:
A. OROMO REFUGEES WHO WERE ASSASSINATED BY ETHIOPIAN SECURITY IN KENYA
2. In 2003, asylum seeker Mr. Halakhe Diidoo was killed by Ethiopian security in the town of Moyale – Kenya as he crossed to seek asylum.
3. In 2004, Mr. Areeroo Galgalo was gunned down in Moyale – Kenya just some 50 metres away from Moyale Police Station as he was heading to seek asylum at the police station.
4. On 4th September 2007, Mr. Gaaromse Abdisaa was shot dead in Moyale town – Kenya while in bid to save his life and seek asylum.
5. 6th November 2007, a group of ten (10) Oromo refugees were attacked in their living apartment in Eastleign Nairobi. At least two were killed on the sport and some injured.
6. On 20th March 2010, Mr. Asefa Alemu Tana, a refugee with UNHCR File No.: Neth 029833/1 was found dead at his home near a bathroom, with deep head injuries. He lived in Huruma with his family members.
9. In 1994 a twenty four year old Boru was found hanged on a tree at the backyard of the camp. Most Oromos believe that the EPRDF agents killed him.
10. In 1994 an unknown gunman, who is believed to be an EPRDF agent, shot and killed many Oromo refugees inside the refugee camp.
11. In the same year (1994), an Oromo religious man, Sheik Abdusalam Mohammed Madare, was shot and wounded seriously. As a result, many Oromos living in the camp had protested against the discriminative killings of the Oromo refugee.
12. In 1995 three Oromo houses were burnt down in Kakuma camp, where a 5 year old baby girl, Hajo Ibrahim, was killed.
13. N 1996 a frustrated Oromo refugee, who fled from the camp and was found dead in the surrounding area, after half of his body was eaten by scavengers.
14. In 1998 a group of masked gunmen, showered bullets in the Oromo section of the camp for several hours.
15. In 1998 Mr. Rashid Abubaker was found dead in Eastleign by gunmen believed to be EPRDF agents.
16. In 1999 Mr. Sulxan Adem, Awal and Mohammed Seraj were kidnapped by unknown secret agents, and disappeared.
17. On 3rd June, 2000 a young nationalist Abudulwasi Abdulaziz was killed by EPRDF government secret killing square at Juja Road at Pangani. He was a member of Oromo Traditional Band.
18. In the same year (2000) Mr. Alamu a well known and respected Oromo in Dadab, was killed by unidentified people, but it is believed that those killers were assisted by Ethiopian authorities.
19. In the same year (2000), a UNHCR field officer named Shida had found one of the Ethiopian community members who bought a gun to kill the Oromo. She was said to have brought the person to Nairobi so that he would be charged in Kenya for his killing attempt.
20. In the same year (2000), one Oromo refugee was shot and lost one of his limbs.
21. In the same year (2000), in Dadab Mr. Solomon was shot dead.
22. In 2001 Ifrah Hassen was kidnapped in Kakuma by unknown group of people and her whereabouts unknown to this date.
23. In 2001 Mr. Jamal Mussa, Mr. Mohammed Adem and Mr. Mohammed Jamal and Tofik Water all disappeared and their whereabouts are still unknown.
24. In 2001 again the one Oromo refugee was killed by planned car accident, the car was driven by an Ethiopian who is believed to be an Ethiopian government agent.
25. At the beginning of 2002 Awel Mohammed Hussen was kidnapped from Dadab, and then found while he was taken to Dolo Military Camp in Ethiopia where he was killed by EPRDF soldiers two days later.
26. In the same year four Oromo refugees escaped in Kakuma fleeing to Nairobi from planned assassination by EPRDF squad.
27. On 2nd November 2002 Mr. Indalkachaw Teshome Asefa was murdered by Ethiopian security forces in Moyale town.
28. On the same day the body of Oromo women, believed to be murdered by security force was found in the town.
29. In December, 2009 an organized attempt by the Ethiopian government to deport some innocent Oromo refugee community members Mr. Mamed Said a well known elder of the community Mr. Alemu Ware and Yesuf Mohamed was reversed by the help of concerned bodies and the cry of Oromo community members.
B. DEPORTATION OF OROMO REFUGEES WHO LIVES WITH UNHCR MANDATE IN KENYA
1. Mr. Legesse Angessa and Teklu Baleha Dhinsa were abducted from Dhadhab Refugee Camp and deported back to Ethiopia.
2. In 2005, Mr. Liiban Jarso, Olqabaa Lataa and Amansiisa Guutaa (former student from Addis Ababa University) were abducted from Eastleign, Nairobi and unlawfully deported back to Ethiopia. In connection to this and many other disappearances of Oromo refugees, hundreds of Oromo refugees marched into mass demonstration and gathered outside UNHCR office in Nairobi on 27th December 2005 to complain the rise of insecurity and abduction cases instigated by the Ethiopian government and claimed that some had been killed.
The Kenya government authority intervened and the security detectives arrested three Ethiopian men believed to be secret security agents deployed to cause atrocities to Oromo refugees in Kenya. The three; Mr. Tesfaye Alemayo and Lulu were charged and tried before the law court which ruled and ordered their deportation to Ethiopia.
Efforts by members of Oromo community, Kenya Human Rights Commission and the UNHCR to prevent their refoulement went to no avail, when on 7th May 2007 during a court hearing of Hebeus Capeaus, Kenyan officials told a local judge, and the two were already deported back to Ethiopia to face terrorism charges.” (Oromo Refugee Committee in Kenya, 2013).
Engineer Tesfahun Chemeda has been killed in Ethiopian prison and Mesfin Abebe is still in prison.
IV. Another example of mass killings in neighboring countries: According to OSA appeal letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Massacre of Oromo Refugees in Bassaso, Puntland (Somalia) on Tuesday December 01, 2009 in which at least 67 lost their lives and hundreds wounded and another time in Bassaso at different place on 02/05/09 mass massacre of 65 were brutally murdered and more than 100 others were injured.
Ethiopian government security force hunting Oromo Refugees anywhere in neighboring countries nonstop.
V. According to the recent HRLHA’s Urgent Action and Appeal of October 25, 2015, 131 Oromo refugees in Kenya targeted to be abducted or assassinated by the TPLF regime. The action started with the first named in the TPLF list, Mr. Dabasa Guyo Safarro, 80 years old, an Oromo cultural legend, resident of Mololongo, Kenya for more than thirty-five (35) years disappeared on September 27, 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya.
We are highly concerned for Mr. Dabasa Guyyo’s safety and security as well as the security of other 130 Oromo refugees named in the list.
We request President Uhuru Kenyatta and the government of Kenya to protect Oromo refugees in Kenya and stop the Ethiopian government boundary violations and harassing Oromo refugees.
We ask the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to urge the Ethiopian government stop human rights violations and abuse.
We request the ICRC to take urgent action in search of the where about of Mr. Dabasa Guyyo and safe his life.
We request the UNHCR to protect registered refugees and urgently work on their applications to secure asylum request to third countries.
We request the third countries governments and societies to support refugees who are in urgent need of security for their lives in providing asylum and urgent process for their resettlement.
Peace and justice for all,
Yours Sincerely,
Dinknesh Deressa Kitila
International Oromo women’s Organization
Board Director
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere!!!
Related:-
OMN: Jim Bernholtz’s Appeal on The Disappearance of Dabbasa Guyyo Nov. 14, 2015
MARSABIT: The Kenya Defence Force (KDF) has moved its armoured vehicles and tanks from the Odha Military Camp in Moyale to Sololo following an invasion by Ethiopian forces who killed three police officers.
MARSABIT (The Standard): The development last evening follows a fierce gun battle earlier in the day between Kenya police and Ethiopian forces at Anona and parts of Sololo Township in Kenyan territory.
Marsabit County Police Commander Bernard Kogo said three Kenyan security officers were killed but declined to reveal the casualty on the Ethiopian side. “We lost three officers at the border (Sololo) and I do not know what happened on their (Ethiopian) side,” said Mr Kogo. On Thursday, a senior provincial administrator identified a senior chief who was gunned down by allegedly rebels from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Ethiopia is fighting the rag-tag OLF rebels in Ethiopia and parts of Marsabit County that it claims hosts their rivals. OLF is opposed to Ethiopia’s ruling regime and claims it has marginalised the majority of Oromia-speaking people who include the Borana, also found in Kenya. At dawn Friday, Ethiopian forces in full military attire invaded villages in Sololo District where locals led by area MP Roba Duba said at least 24 Kenyans were abducted. “Eleven people were rounded up and taken away by Ethiopian soldiers. Before that they beat up everyone in their sight with gun butts, kicks and blows,’’ said Adan Jirma, a resident of Sololo South.
See also: Ethiopian soldiers cross to Kenya, kill three policemen, five missing At around midday Friday, Ethiopians soldiers made a second invasion in the two centres while backed by armoured vehicles.
This prompted administration and regular police, backed by Kenya police reservists, to engage the foreign army in a shootout. As the gun battle between the two sides raged up to about 4pm Friday, KDF’s army multi-unit detachment from Odha in Moyale, about 100km away, rolled its armoured cars and tanks that were deployed at the border, stretching a distance of about 15km. Sololo OCPD Benjamin Mwanzia said the military had been deployed to guard against further incursion but declined to give details. National Hospital Insurance Fund Chairman Mohamud Ali called on the Kenya Government to protest what he called frequent invasion by Ethiopian forces into Kenyan territory. “We are a sovereign state and this (invasion) is bad because Ethiopia is considered a friendly neighbour. It is high time our government sends a strong signal to them,” said Ali. Mid this year, Ethiopian forces invaded Kenyan territory on three occasions — at Illeret, Sololo and Moyale.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000183121/kdf-deployed-at-border-after-ethiopian-forces-kill-officers
Related:-
Ethiopia risks diplomatic row after its soldiers enter Kenya and kill local police officers.
NAIROBI will seek an explanation from Addis Ababa after Ethiopian soldiers killed three Kenyan police officers in foreign territory, Kenyan media reported Sunday.
November 16, 2015His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta
Office of the President
The Republic of Kenya
Harambee Avenue
P.O. Box 74434 – 00200
Nairobi, Kenya.Appeal Regarding the Disappearance of Mr. Dabassa Guyo
Your Excellency President Kenyatta,
I am writing this letter on behalf of the Oromo Community Organization (OCO) of Washington DC Metro Area. OCO was founded as a non-profit organization with the main objective to help Oromo Diaspora, to promote the development of the Oromo language and culture through education and to advocate for the human rights of the Oromo in Diaspora and their relatives in the Horn of Africa.
It is with great shock that we learned the disappearance of Dabasa Guyo – a prominent Oromo Cultural and religious leader residing in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Dabassa Guyo was born and raised in the Borana region of Oromia, Ethiopia. Since the Derg and TPLF governments came to power to the present, hundreds of thousands of Oromo and other nationals have run away from arbitrary detentions, degrading tortures and violent killings in Ethiopia to save their lives by seeking refuge in the Republic of Kenya and other neighboring countries. Mr. Dabassa Guyo, has moved to Kenya several decades ago for his safety and due to the persecution of the Oromo people in Ethiopia. Mr. Guyo has been residing in Nairobi for the last thirty-five years until his sudden and mysterious disappearance on September 27, 2015.
Mr. Guyo is an indigenous Oromo philosopher and cultural expert. During his entire life, he has been a peacemaker and has developed a philosophy of peaceful living and coexistence among the human race. He has traveled to the United States of America, and several countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America to teach ways of peaceful living and the resurrection of Oromo culture and ancient civilization, including the Gadaa System (Oromo democracy). Mr. Guyo is a founding father of Oromo civic institution known as Argaa-Dhageeti and a walking encyclopedia of the Gadaa System. In particular his profound knowledge of the Gada system – an indigenous Democratic system of governance- has placed him among the few irreplaceable Oromo experts in the Horn of Africa. Over the last three decades, thousands of Oromo refugees have attended his cultural education center in Nairobi, Kenya, to learn about Oromo culture, history and an indigenous religion. His former students are now scattered all over the world. Mr. Dabassa Guyo is a family man and a prominent teacher of the Oromo people.
Mr. Dabasa Guyo took part in the celebration of Irreecha on September 2015- an annual Oromo thanks giving day – where he delivered his annual thanks giving blessings to his fellow Oromo country men. On this day, he was kidnapped while on his way from the ceremony
We are shocked by his sudden disappearance. Family members, relatives and his formers students have been trying to learn his whereabouts for over six weeks with no results. It is puzzling that someone would attempt to hurt or abduct such a peaceful person and an elder who had been preaching peace all his adult life. But based on a document which the Ethiopian government submitted to your government, which we recently learned from public sources, and other numerous acts of violence that the Ethiopian government has been perpetrating against Oromo refugees in the Horn of Africa, we suspect that Mr. Guyo was abducted by Ethiopian security agents. The letter to your government lists Mr. Guyo at top of 131 Oromo refugees residing in your country whom the Ethiopian government considers terrorists and wants to be repatriated. In fact, threats, illegal and criminal acts of violence against Oromo refugees by the Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government is not new. It has been engaging in terrorizing and killing the Oromo people in general and the Borana Oromo in particular for the last twenty four years. In 1992, the Ethiopian government sent its security agents and assassinated Mr. Jatani (Mebeatsion) Ali, a prominent Oromo and former administrator of the Boraana region in Ethiopia. Furthermore, the government has been sending its security agents to Kenya to abduct other prominent Oromos that it suspects to be national leaders and opinion makers among the Oromo society. For example, Engineer Tesfahun Chamada was abducted, tortured and killed in Ethiopian prison in 2013. We fear that Mr. Guyo may have been a victim of similar act of violence conducted by the Ethiopian government. He may have been abducted to be tortured and killed. Sadly, if our worst fear proves to be true, it will be a huge tragedy and an immense disappointment for the Oromo people and for all peace loving peoples of the world. In short, it is a great loss to the world’s humanity.
Therefore, we appeal to you, so that you could use your presidential power to find the whereabouts of Mr. Dabassa Guyo and return him to his peaceful daily life and his family, so that he could continue his contributions to the development of peace-making and education of his people and others about indigenous Oromo civilization. As a longtime resident of your country, Mr. Guyo and his family deserve the highest protection afforded to all refugees under international law.
We request that you and your government protect Oromo refugees in Kenya and stop the Ethiopian government from harassing Oromo refugees and engaging in gross human rights. Particularly, we request you to take urgent actions to find the whereabouts of Mr. Dabassa Guyo, secure his immediate release and return to his family safely.
Sincerely,
Desta Yebassa, PhD
Board President
Oromo community Organization (OCO)
6212 3rd St NW,
Washington DC 20011
Phone: (office):202-234-1151
(Mobile): 202-422-8971
CC:
Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs
PO Box 56057-00200, Co-operative Bank House, Nairobi
Mr. Antonio Guterres United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR)
Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Geneve 2 Depot Suisse
Email. infoDesk@ohchr.org;GUTERRES@unhcr.org Attention
The UNHCR Representation in Kenya
P.O. Box 43801-00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya
Email: kenna@unhcr.org
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org
(Mail & Guardian Africa): ANGOLA marked its 40th birthday this month and while the south African country blew off the candles, there’s one situation it would be happy the world didn’t pay much attention to.
The “Republic” of Cabinda has even set up its own de facto government, but Angola has no doubt about who the area falls under, having steadfastly held that it is sovereign territory administered from Luanda.
The geography, and history, however stokes the debate: not only is the area completely separated from Angola by a narrow strip of territory belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it was also only a protectorate of the Portuguese (called Portuguese Congo) and was only formally integrated into Portuguese Angola in the 1950s. In 1963, the Organisation for African Unity – now the African Union – recognised the distinction between Angola and Cabinda by ranking Cabinda as the 39th state. Internationally though, the area is recognised as part of Angola.
Following independence from the Portuguese, the self-determination movements in Cabinda carried on in the activities of FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda), this time against their African colonisers. The Cabinda people have not given up, even though the region has now become the country’s most militarised area as a way of control. FLEC continues to carry out a low-level insurgency in the area, with sporadic attacks on army patrols and oil workers – one high profile attack included a bus carrying the Togolese football team in 2010.
So why won’t Angola let go? Though Cabinda represents just a tiny part of Angola’s overall territory – it’s about the same size as The Gambia – it holds vital economic importance to the country producing most of Angola’s oil wealth – up to 70%—and therefore the revenue on which the government survives.
Cabinda is not alone. Across Africa there are areas which have famously called for secession such as Western Sahara, Somaliland and Puntland – functioning with their own governments and in some cases getting increased international recognition, but there are still others which fly low below the radar…where their “African masters” like to keep them:
Barotseland
The people and royal household of Barotseland, in western Zambia, have been agitating for the region’s independence. They accuse the Zambian government of ignoring a 1964 treaty which established Barotseland’s position within Zambia as an autonomous region, in place of the earlier agreement between Barotseland and the British Government.
Barotseland, the kingdom of the Lozi people ruled by the Litunga (king or paramount chief), was a protectorate under British colonial rule and became part of Zambia at the country’s independence in 1964. In 2012, a group of traditional Lozi leaders, calling itself the Barotseland National Council, declared that Barotseland was now free to pursue its own peaceful “self-determination and destiny.”
Zambia was quick to quash these declarations and in December 2014 the administrator general of the Barotseland transitional government, Afumba Mombotwa, and three other secessionists were arrested for treason. If they are found guilty they will be hanged. Their trial, which began in August 2015 is still underway though petitions have been handed to the UN demanding the release of the political prisoners.
So why won’t Zambia let go of the Kingdom? Barotseland is in the upper Zambezi valley which means it has very fertile land. The floodplain is also something of a tourist attraction but the main reason could be because the region has oil potential, in addition to other minerals. In 2011 the government awarded the first petroleum exploration licence to a Zambian company, Barotse Petroleum Company, to explore oil and gas in the province.
Free Republic of Rehoboth
Chances are that you’ve not heard of this one.
The Rehoboth Basters, descendants of Cape Colony Dutch settlers and African women, number about 35,000-55,000 people and live in an area of 14.216 sq.km south of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. They claim they settled in the late 1860s and developed their own legislation, years before the Germans installed their colonial rule over Namibia in 1885, giving them a right to independence.
With Namibia’s independence in 1990 they lost their status, which they have been demanding back. The United People`s Movement (UPM) was established in 2009 to unite the Baster People and provide them with a political voice, pushing for autonomy of their political affairs.
However, in the case of the Basters, it’s not that the government doesn’t want to let the area go – they are simply not seen as being of consequence because of their small numbers. Their traditional authority is not being recognised anymore and the Namibian government has registered Rehoboth as commercial land.
Ogoniland
Under the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), founded in 1990, the people of Ogoni are attempting to disengage from Nigeria having declared independence in 2012. They also presented a Bill of Rights to the Government of Nigeria calling for political control of Ogoni affairs by Ogoni people. It states that the Ogoni people seek, “political autonomy to participate in the affairs of the Republic as a distinct and separate unit (by whatever name called), provided that this autonomy guarantees political control of Ogoni affairs by Ogoni people”.
MOSOP claims that the Ogoni people’s independence was first violated by British colonialism and then “handed over to some other Nigerian ethnic groups in October 1960.” The problem is in 1957 Shell Oil Company struck oil in Ogoniland, which set in motion a process transformed both Ogoni society and Nigeria as a whole. Today, oil accounts for over 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings and some 80% of government revenue, controlling the entire Nigerian economy.
The independence movement is driven by the community feeling inadequately compensated for the take-over of their land by the oil companies and the environmental damages they suffered.
Nigeria has also seen activism around Biafra, for which hundreds of people marched this week, as marginalisation grievances swirl over an area that caused a major civil war in the 1960s.
Oromia
In Ethiopia the Oromo people – the country’s largest community with 30 million members, constituting 34.49% of Ethiopia’s population – lay claim to the country of the Oromo, called Biyya-Oromo or Oromia. Oromia is described as one of the free nations in the Horn of Africa until its colonisation and occupation by Abyssinia at the end of the nineteenth century. Their self-determination movement is being pushed by the Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, an organisation established in 1973.
Their attempts for secession however are being fought by a central government that cannot afford to lose this bread basket, with human rights groups saying there have been excesses. Oromia is the region where coffee first originated, today it accounts for more than 65 % of the country’s total coffee growing land and coffee is the country’s largest export.
Casamance
The Senegalese region has also since the 1980s waged low-level resistance over what it says is marginalisation. Successive peace deals have been signed, and the central government has pushed economic plans to stamp out the disquiet, which has been quiet for the last few years.
Alarm bells are ringing for a food emergency in Ethiopia. The UN says 15 million people will need help over the coming months. The government, wary of stigma and therefore hesitant to ask for help, has nevertheless said more than eight million Ethiopians need food assistance. Extra imports to stem the crisis are already pegged at more than a million tonnes of grain, beyond the government’s means. Inevitably, comment and media coverage compare the current situation with 1984 – the year Ethiopia’s notorious famine hit the headlines. Reports suggest this is the worst drought in 30 years. One declares it a“code red” drought. So how bad actually is it?
The country of close to 100 million people is huge, spread over an area of more than a million square kilometres that ranges from semi-desert to swamp to mountain ranges and fertile farmland. The weather systems and agricultural patterns are diverse and complex. Even within the higher-altitude areas of the country, the most densely populated, the typical rainy seasons vary and crops are grown at different times of the year. This year, the weather has been prone to even greater variation due to the global climate phenomenon El Niño, last seen in 1997-1998.
Ethiopia produces more than 90 percent of its own food. Last year, the cereal harvest was estimated to be 23 million tonnes, but imports in recent years averaged 1.2 million tonnes – just five percent of that. So even if 2015 and 2016 are bad years (the impact of a poor harvest is felt months later as food stocks run out), the vast majority of Ethiopian people will support themselves and eat produce from their own country. But in a giant like Ethiopia, 15 percent of the population is 15 million people – more than the entire humanitarian caseload of the Syrian crisis. An extra five percent of cereals is another 1.2 million tonnes.The costs and logistics become formidable at this scale.
WEATHER
The weather is only one part of the equation in whether people go hungry. Politics, economics, the availability of seeds and fertiliser, conflict, trade and labour markets, population pressure, social habits, and a host of other factors matter too.
While the science and sociology of food security is complex and layered, international agencies working on drought and hunger-prone countries, including Ethiopia, use a scheme called the Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase Classification Framework (IPC) to simplify the mass of underlying data into a five-step scale – from minimal food security pressure to famine. Some parts of northern Ethiopia are already flagged as being in “Phase 4”, one step from the worst category. More are expected to follow, unless sufficient resources can halt the slide.
Even getting a single view of one year’s weather, let alone human interaction with it, is no simple matter.
For more than 30 years, meteorologists have gathered a giant archive of satellite data for Ethiopia. US satellites, in particular METOP-AVHRR, churn out petabytes of data. Triangulating that with other sources, including ground-based measurement, farm assessments, nutrition, and price monitoring provides a rich toolkit to estimate vegetation, rainfall, soil moisture and temperature – ultimately giving an idea of food on the table.
Considering all the variables, the drought and famine watchdog FEWS NET, established in the wake of the 1984 famine, has used direct, but not alarmist, language to describe the prospects: its latest report for Ethiopia is titled “Large-scale food security emergency projected for 2016”. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, meanwhile, warned: “food security conditions sharply deteriorated.”
Political sensitivity, donor pressures, logistics, media distortion, inefficiency and scepticism may yet conspire to tip more Ethiopians into “Phase 4.” Even in the best-case scenario, the financial resources will be hard to find – $270m is still needed for 2015 alone, according to UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, and needs are set to rise sharply (the US, the UK and China have pledged relatively early to the response, according to the government).
To illustrate the complexity of weather patterns in Ethiopia and attempt to demonstrate a link with El Niño, IRIN analysed 30 years of satellite imagery to provide some visual evidence of the complex and erratic picture of weather in the Horn of Africa. Read more in the following link
The thirty-three case studies shed light on the tremendous success of agroecological agriculture across the African continent. They demonstrate with facts and figures how an agricultural transformation respectful of the farmers and their environment can yield immense economic, social, and food security benefits while also fighting climate change and restoring soils and the environment.
What is Agroecology?
Agroecology is the application of ecological science to agriculture and agroecosystems. It encompasses a wide-variety of practices, which are coherent with key principles of environment preservation, social fairness, and economic viability. Therefore, agroecology combines parameters of sound ecological management, like minimizing the use of toxics by using on-farm renewable resources and privileging endogenous solutions to manage pests and disease, with an approach that upholds and secures farmers’ livelihoods.
Local Context, Long-Term Impact
While agroecology promotes low use of external inputs, it is a very knowledge-intensive system. Transmission of this knowledge, adaptation to local contexts, and appropriation by farmers and government technicians, are essential steps for farmers and communities to reap the benefits of agroecology. The case studies demonstrate how the expansion of agroecological practices will generate a rapid, fair and inclusive development, that can be sustained for future generations.
The EPRDF government officials are repeatedly denying the current famine that around fifteen million people are facing In Ethiopia. International media are busy reporting about the famine showing the pictures of emaciated children; the dead bodies of hundreds of animals and telling stories of mothers who lost their children due to starvation. It is funny to hear what the government officials say regarding the drought and famine that is causing the death of many people and animals. Some of the government officials are even accusing these media (BBC for example) that tried to showcase the extent of the problem to the world saying that they have sensationalized reports about the drought in Ethiopia.
The EPRDF leaders say Ethiopia is food self sufficient; needs no aid from outside. They say there is no problem, no famine, no drought and no death. Other time they say, there is drought in some parts of the country and it is under control. Still, they say, only very insignificant number of people (15 million people out of 90 million people) are affected by the drought. Oh, my God, how on earth they say that 15million people are very insignificant? These people are gone out of their mind; the life of a single person matters let alone the life of 15 million people.
Recently, we have learned that the government is building very modern houses with 154million birr for six retired EPRDF officials. What a paradox! People are dying because they have nothing to eat while the government is allocating all this money for building houses for its corrupt retired officials who have been amassing unimaginable wealth over the last two decades.
Why does this government likes denying the facts on the ground? Why is it they are hiding the famine? is it because it contradicts with their 11% economic growth for 10 consecutive years?Please, guys come to your sense, tell the world the truth about the scale of the problem; mobilize all the citizens and gather the resources needed to save the millions of people who are on the verge of death. At least for now, forget the politics and do the right thing-saving the lives of people should be given a priority.#Ethiopiafamine
Ethiopia and Somalia have a long history of mutual distrust and acrimony roughly similar to the history of India and Pakistan. Somalia has border dispute with both Ethiopia and Kenya whose roots are in colonial impositions. It would be just as cynical and foolish for Ethiopia to send troops to Somalia as for India to send troops to Waziristan intending to stabilize its relation with Pakistan.
Regarding democratic elections in Ethiopia, Susan Rice could not contain herself fromchuckling cynically about the regime’s 100% claim of victory. How she could reconcile her sarcasm with her impassioned speech during the mourning for the late Prime Minster, Meles Zenawi, is puzzling. She called those who oppose Meles fools and idiots. After the violence and rigged election of 2005, hopes for any democratic transfer of power in the country have been dashed.
There are also questions raised on the sustainability of the much publicized double- digit economic
growth of Ethiopia, despite the current dramatic makeover of Addis Ababa: the government seems oblivious to the fact that 80% of Ethiopians are peasants even asfamine now threatens 15 million Ethiopians. The impact on the country of the foreignland grab, with its environmental cost and human displacement and the destruction of the pastoralist life style, has received wide coverage. A fertile area the size of Belgium has been leased cheaply to Indian and Saudi investors in the name of development. Along with the environmental costs, the displacement of indigenous pastoralists is enormous.
Mary Harper in her report says that inequality gap in Ethiopia is one of the narrowest in the world. However, a quick search shows that inequality in Ethiopia is one of the highest in the world. Ethiopia’s positioning in UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) is 173rd of 187 countries for the 2013 data. Transparency index ranks Ethiopia 111th of 177 countries for corruption, “with a score of 33 on a scale where 100 means very clean and 0 means highly corrupt.” The country suffers from high levels of bribery and those with access to state power act in brutally self-interested and exploitative ways. By most accounts, polarized ethnic divisions in the country have led to winner-take-all situations.
In an ideal scenario, the brotherly people of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia, whose fates are intertwined by geography and history, need cooperation and trade between and within themselves based on mutual respect for basic human rights and due regard for the health of the environment. Increased militarization and fragmentation will only entrench existing cycles of violence, death, displacement, environmental degradation and famine. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yohannes-woldemariam/the-ethiopian-regime-is-d_b_8507642.html
The Ethiopian Regime Is Destabilizing the Horn of Africa Region
huffingtonpost.com
By Yohannes Woldemariam, Associate Professor of International Relations and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College
The Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn claims Al-Shabab is diminishing with Ethiopian support to the Somali government. He also told BBC Africa editor, Mary Harper, that “Ethiopians are satisfied with the system of government in the country.”
During the interview, PM Desalegn painted a very rosy picture of the situation in Ethiopia and its dealings with the region. The regime seems to be on a charm offensive with the Western media. According to Mary Harper, PM Desalegn requested for the interview, which was conducted impromptu. After listening to the interview, I wished Ms. Harper had scrutinized the PM a bit more on Eritrea and Somalia as she did with his domestic human rights violations. For example, the PM was never confronted on the important issue of the boundary demarcation with Eritrea. He freely pontificated on the issue of refugees without being challenged about the role of the Ethiopian regime in refugee production.
One can easily make a case that in fact Ethiopia is destabilizing the region through its interventions in Somalia and its insidious refusal to implement the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Ethiopia has chosen to blackmail Eritrea with impunity through a “no war, no peace” strategy assisted by successive U.S. administrations. As a result, Eritrean survival as a state is increasingly threatened, exacerbating the acute issue of refugee flows.
The Eritrean regime’s response of indefinite conscription of its population into the military is having disastrous consequences. Eritrea is hemorrhaging and experiencing unsustainable brain drain. A whole generation is being wasted in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Sudan, and those who made it farther are suffering all the tragic consequences of life-in-exile. The Ethiopian regime, while claiming the moral high ground, appears to be enjoying humiliating Eritreans by every means available.
Mr. Girma Asmerom, who is the Eritrean envoy to the UN, dubiously claims that the reason for the exodus is economic and that the pull factor from Europe exerts a “pull factor” when it “freely” grants asylum to Eritreans. He also blames Eritrea’s suffering on a conspiracy by Western countries to weaken the regime. It is true, as Mr. Asmerom also asserts, that many African countries in addition to Ethiopia are experiencing unprecedented migrations of their own; neverthelsss, the Eritrean exodus is numerically more alarming and qualitatively different from other migrations in Africa.
To dismiss it as motivated primariy by economics is to wallow in a dangerous self-serving denial. Indeed, there can be no doubt that a major cause of the refugee exodus is the indefinite military conscription by the Eritrean regime and by the loss of even basic freedoms for the people. The Eritrean government has declared a self-defeating war on the Eritrean people while deceptively affording the same Ethiopian government the opportunity to play the magnanimity game.
It is also true that the U.S. continues to reward the Ethiopian government despite its intransigence in the face of accusations of human rights abuses and other flagrant violations of international law. The U.S. wrongly and stubbornly assumes that Ethiopia is a stabilizing force for the region.
Faced with isolation from the world community as well as by UN sanctions and Ethiopian belligerence, the Eritrean regime appears to be looking to strengthen its alliances with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. There are reports that Eritrea is “making available…its land, territorial waters and airspace to conduct military operations” against the Houthis in Yemen in exchange for fuel and monetary compensation. About 400 Eritreans are also said to be embedded with troops from the UAE/Saudi campaign in the Yemeni civil war.
If true, this is a dramatic turnaround after the rumors that Eritrea was serving as an Iranian conduit for the transfer of weapons to the Houthis. It appears that the latent Ethiopian ambition to snatch and annex the port of Assab, its refusal to demarcate the border between the two countries, and the effectiveness of Ethiopian campaign to isolate the Eritrean regime may have driven it to entangle itself in the Yemeni conflict. The Yemeni conflict started out as a local civil war but is increasingly a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
According to Howard French, a keen observer of Africa, writing in The Atlantic and quoting Samantha Power, says that Rice has a “Cold War” approach to African politics, who supports African strong men whom she approves of — regardless of their human rights track record and complete disregard for international law. Salem Solomon, writing an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times articulates the destructive role that Susan Rice has played with the Eritrea Ethiopia dispute.
Decisions by the likes of Susan Rice impact the lives of so many like we witness with the youth exodus from Eritrea. It should be noted that Ethiopia has a population approaching 100 million while Eritrea’s population is approximately 5-6 million. I fear that increasing Ethiopian bravado over U.S. support may cause more states to collapse in the Horn of Africa. U.S. military involvement in Africa is much deeper than is generally acknowledged. The U.S. has a base in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, which it uses to unleash drone operations in Somalia, in addition to camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
The U.S. encouraged Ethiopian intervention in Somalia in 2006 with disastrous implications. Any one with a cursory understanding of the region knows that Ethiopian intervention only strengthened the extremists in Somalia, resulting in the emergence of Al-Shabab. Even as PM Desalegn was claiming in his interview that Al Shabab is “diminished,” it struck with a suicide attack in Mogadishu against a well-fortified hotel which hosts foreign journalists and important Somali political and military figures. The violence shows no sign of abating. If anything, it has expanded into the neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda.
Ethiopia and Somalia have a long history of mutual distrust and acrimony roughly similar to the history of India and Pakistan. Somalia has border dispute with both Ethiopia and Kenya whose roots are in colonial impositions. It would be just as cynical and foolish for Ethiopia to send troops to Somalia as for India to send troops to Waziristan intending to stabilize its relation with Pakistan.
Regarding democratic elections in Ethiopia, Susan Rice could not contain herself fromchuckling cynically about the regime’s 100% claim of victory. How she could reconcile her sarcasm with her impassioned speech during the mourning for the late Prime Minster, Meles Zenawi, is puzzling. She called those who oppose Meles fools and idiots. After the violence and rigged election of 2005, hopes for any democratic transfer of power in the country have been dashed.
There are also questions raised on the sustainability of the much publicized double- digit economic
growth of Ethiopia, despite the current dramatic makeover of Addis Ababa: the government seems oblivious to the fact that 80% of Ethiopians are peasants even asfamine now threatens 15 million Ethiopians. The impact on the country of the foreignland grab, with its environmental cost and human displacement and the destruction of the pastoralist life style, has received wide coverage. A fertile area the size of Belgium has been leased cheaply to Indian and Saudi investors in the name of development. Along with the environmental costs, the displacement of indigenous pastoralists is enormous.
Mary Harper in her report says that inequality gap in Ethiopia is one of the narrowest in the world. However, a quick search shows that inequality in Ethiopia is one of the highest in the world. Ethiopia’s positioning in UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) is 173rd of 187 countries for the 2013 data. Transparency index ranks Ethiopia 111th of 177 countries for corruption, “with a score of 33 on a scale where 100 means very clean and 0 means highly corrupt.” The country suffers from high levels of bribery and those with access to state power act in brutally self-interested and exploitative ways. By most accounts, polarized ethnic divisions in the country have led to winner-take-all situations.
In an ideal scenario, the brotherly people of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia, whose fates are intertwined by geography and history, need cooperation and trade between and within themselves based on mutual respect for basic human rights and due regard for the health of the environment. Increased militarization and fragmentation will only entrench existing cycles of violence, death, displacement, environmental degradation and famine. As it stands, the egoistic leaders are making the region dangerous and vulnerable to intensive neocolonialist extractive exploitation by the U.S., China, Canada, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others.
The purpose of this paper is to make known historical development of written Afaan Oromo to 1900. The study draws upon primary and secondary sources. The primary data are drawn from oral and archival sources. Books and articles in Afaan Oromo and in other languages about Afaan Oromo were consulted. Many of these sources are not only indicators of the status of written Oromo but also of situations that the Oromo people have endured over decades and centuries. The paper reveals how the assimilation activity targets above all the language of the society to be assimilated and how Afaan Oromo had been able to survive such assimilation policy of successive Ethiopian regimes. In addition, it puts an overview on how the missionaries, foreign travelers, religious personalities and some Ethiopians attempted to reduce Afaan Oromo into written language. It gives an idea about the beginning of writing Afaan Oromo in the early 17th century. The study also indicates the school founded in those problematic periods to teach in Afaan Oromo and the translations of many books into Afaan Oromo.
INTRODUCTION
Literature is linguistically documented facts and ideas through which people used to preserve their deeds and worldviews from one generation to the other (Owamoyala, 1993). It is also important to note that one cannot separate language and culture from literature that define them. Language is therefore, a pedestal in the evolution of literature as it is one of the typical ingredients in one’s awareness of her/his culture, identity, custom and history. The sources to study the historical movements of human beings have come from the study of languages that were spoken by the preceding generations as a proto language. This is because, language harbors human culture, knowledge, arts, history and others (Isichei, 1995; Yule, 1996; Ehret, 2008). This is also true for Oromo language what the Oromo prefer to call Afaan Oromo (henceforth Afaan Oromo). Among the Cushitic language families to which it belongs, Afaan Oromo ranks first by the number of its speakers. It is the third among the widely spoken languages in Africa next to Swahili and Hausa Languages. It is a common language among many nationalities, like the Harare, Bartha, Shinahsa, Anuak, Sidama, Gurage (Mekuria, 1994), Koma, Yam, Kaficho, Dawuro, Gedeo, Konso, Somali, Afar, Amhara, and others (Feyisa, 1996). The indigenous speakers are uninterruptedly distributed from Southern Tigray in the North to Northern Kenya in the South, and from Harar in the East to Gidaamii in the West (Gada, 1998; Richard, 1995; Baxter, 1978). They form the largest homogenous culture sharing common descent, history and psychological makeup (Baxter, 1978). Geographically, except in the Northern, Afaan Oromo is found in Eastern, Southern, Central and Western Cushitic Language families by retaining its homogeneity. The Oromo of all these areas could communicate in this language without dialectical barriers (Ibid.). Despite these facts, it is denied official status and no comprehensive scholarly study conducted on it.
Some Facts as a Precursor to Written Oromo Language
Recent sources are reveal the neglected history of Afaan Oromo under its past consecutive Ethiopian rulers. The attempts of the rulers to lock up Afaan Oromo’s outlets where they had been are now being wearied away by discovering of the sources which were masked by the scholars of Ethiopian history under the influences of her rulers. Jackson who made anthropological and historical studies of the civilizations of the Middle East and Northeast African states that Afaan Oromo is the purest living specimen of primitive Babylonian languages. He asserts that when the other languages have since been mixed up with other languages, Afaan Oromo in Ethiopia and Mahra in South Arabia have been able to maintain their purity without significant changes. As he put it:
In regard to the language of the primitive Babylonians, the vocabulary is undoubtedly Cushite (Cush Ethiopia), belong to that of tongue which in the sequel were everywhere more or less mixed up with the Semetic languages, but of which we have probably the purest modern specimens is the Mahra of South Arabia and the [Oromo] of Ethiopia (John G. Jackson, 1974)
Šihãb ad Din Ahmad bin Abd al-Qãder, Chronicler of Imam Ahmad bin Ibrahm al-Gahz and an Arab writer, indicates that the Yejjuu Oromo had been well established in Walloo before the war of Imam Ahmad bin Ibrahim alGahz. According to Šihãb ad Din, the Imam ordered his soldiers to speak only Yejjuu (Oromo) language as the area was populated by the Yejjuu Oromo. Even, the Imam recruited more than three thousand Yejjuu Oromo into his soldiers (Lester Stenhouse, 2003). This indicates that Afaan Oromo was a popular language in northern Ethiopia before the alleged Oromo expansion of the sixteenth century began. Similarly, Abbaa Bahrey (1993) who is said to have been the author of “Zenaw Lahula (Oromo)” written in 1593 employed many Oromo names and terminologies like gadaa, malbaa, muudana, Tuulama, Maccaa, Galaan, walaabuu and many cultural concepts. Moreover, the book leads us to raise an argument that there was at least one person who knew both Geez and Oromo languages to have produced the book. Otherwise, as Jan Vansina (1995) states it is difficult for someone to collect oral tradition of the society whose language he/ she did not know. At the very least, it would have been impossible to get oral information embodied in the book without Abbaa Bahrey’s using the services of Oromo with good knowledge of the Geez language. Whether Abbaa Bahrey knew Oromo or used the services of others, the literature of the book written by him is another instance of an indirect entrance of Oromo into written literature. Early Printed Sources of Written Oromo Language In the middle of seventeen century, Hiob Ludolf, in his linguistic production, wrote a few Oromo words with its parallel translation in Geez and Latin. According to Ludolf (1682), the Oromo words were told to him by Abbaa Gregory between 1652 and 1658 which again gives clue that Abbaa Gregory was well versed in Oromo language. This book in which Oromo words were written appeared in 1682. It is the first written words of the Oromo language we have at our disposal. James Bruce, who visited Ethiopia, did some work related to Afaan Oromo. (Jumce Bruce, No year of publication) In his journey to discover the Source of Blue Nile, Bruce had the opportunity to be among the Oromo of Walloo. Bruce was the first traveler and second European writer next to Hiob Ludolf to record the Oromo language in his account as one of the major languages he had come across. According to his report, he had wished to get ready made written literature for the languages; but he points out that he could not get even one because of the traditional law that forbade the translation of any religious documents into any language other than Geez (Ibid.). The act was religiously condemned and became immoral. As he puts it: …there is an old law in this country (Ethiopia), handed down by tradition only, that whoever should attempt to translate the holy scripture into Amharic, or any other language, his throat should be cut after the manner in which they kill sheep, his family sold to slavery, and his house razed to ground…it was great obstacle to me in getting those translations of the song of Solomon made which I intended for specimens of different language of those distinct relations (Ibid.). Daringly breaking that traditional law, he translated Solomon’s alleged praise for the Queen of Sheba into Afaan Oromo by using Geez characters on a page of his work. This is the second early tangible evidence of the beginning of writing in Afaan Oromo. Afaan Oromo was a palace language during the reign of Iyoas who was monolingual in Afaan Oromo (Richard Greenfield, 1965). The employment of 3,000 soldiers as palace guards (Tesfaye Zergaw, 2001; Trimngham, John, 1965) helped to make Afaan Oromo virtually the official language of the palace (Martial De Slavic, 2008).
The occupation of the position of Ras Bitwedid by the Yejjuu lords from the middle of 1770 onwards (Ibid.). Further exalted the use of Oromo language in the state system. On the other hand, many Oromos who were sold into slavery attempted to make Afaan Oromo popular under the opportunities got to be Christian preachers (Ibid.). Although the origin of Alaqa Zannab, Chronicler of emperor Tewodros, there were many freed Oromo slaves participated in the translation of the scripture before the popular Abba Gammachis (Onesmos Nasib), Zannab , Ruufoo, Waaree, Jagaa, Soolaan and Liban (Wolbert Smidt, 2002) are few among many. The translation of the Scriptures into Oromo language continued. On June 30, 1877, Menilek ordered Alaqa Zannab to translate the books of Jeshewa, Judge Ruth, and Samuel to use the translation for himself for revision after Hebrew. However, the works did not see light of the day due to the death of Krapf, who used to publish Alaqa Zannab’s works, in 1881 and the unstable political situation between the interior and the coast. Nevertheless, R. Pankhurst, who has written about these materials, does not explain why Menilek II preferred Afaan Oromo to Amharic for the revision of the Hebrew Bible (Pankhurst, 1976). But the reason is clearly stated by Hudeson “It is a curious fact that, although so many of the great Abyssinian officers are pure [Oromo], and although nearly every Abyssinian know[s] [Oromo] as well as Amharic, yet they do not care to speak [Oromo] in public. This can only be ascribed to a kind of false pride, as in private they will talk it readily” (Hudeson and Walker, 1922). To have indigenous religious scholars who could study Oromo language scientifically and translate the religious scripture into the language, the Catholic missionaries invested lots of their efforts on Afaan Oromo. Abbaa Massaja intensively continued to request the opening of (Oromo) College in France. It was great for Massaja to get land for the construction of (Oromo) College on 18 January 1866 in Marseille. On 15th April, 1866, St. Michael Oromo College was officially inaugurated by Massaja Marseille, France. By February 1869, the college was reported to have enrolled about twenty-nine Oromo students collected especially from ransom slaves (Abba Antonios Alberto, 1998). For the first three years, the Oromo College was functional to teach theology and linguistics with the focus on Oromo language under the direction of Fr. Emanuel and Louis de Gonzangue Lassere. However, it was unfortunate that the Oromo students of the College could not acclimatize well with the weather and many of them died (Ibid.). This forced Massaja to try to establish another College in the homeland of the students in order to fulfill the pastoral missions of the vicariate. Following his requests, the Capuchin of propaganda Fide allowed Massaja to build another (Oromo) College in the Oromo country in 1868. As soon as he received the letter of permission, Massaja left for Shawaa accompanied by his four Marseille Oromo students and instructors. After forty-eight days of tiresome journey, they reached Liche, the king’s court at the time on March 11, 1868 (Ibid.). Based on Menilek’s advice Massaja sent Fr. Tuarin, the vice-perfect of the mission to Finfinnee with some of the Oromo students on 11 September 1868. Immediately they began constructing Catholic Church of St. Marry at Birbirsaa with the assistance of some Oromo people (Ibid.). Birbirsaa (Oromo) College was officially inaugurated on 25 July 1869. The former instructor of the Marseille Oromo College, Fr. Emanuel and Fr. Louis de’ Gonzague were sent to teach at the college but Fr. Emanuel died on the way to Shawa. Louis de’ Gonzague became the director of (Oromo) college of Birbirsaa in 1873 (Ibid.). At this College, Fr. Tuarin prepared religious texts in Oromo language for church and academic services. Attempts were made to produce religious and academic literature both in Oromo language (Ibid.). At the college, many recruits and some freed Oromo slaves, enrolled and became literate. The trained Oromo also participated in productions and translations of Oromo language literature as both writers and assistants to the foreigners. Nonetheless, the progress of Catholic Missionaries’ expansion and its roles in the development of written Oromo literature were impeded by Emperor Yohannes’s suspicious policy of king Menilek’s secrete contact with the Europeans. Yohannes feared that Menilek might have earned ample firearms through the contact.
Consequently, Yohannes ordered Menilek to stop contacting Europeans independently and the two sealed this in one of the articles of the Liche Agreement signed in 1878. The agreement forced Menilek to expel Europeans including all the Catholic missionaries from Shawaa. (Elio Ficquet, 2003) After thirty years of evangelical activity and Oromo language study in Ethiopia, Massaja was expelled (Tewelde Beyene, 2003). The mission station and the (Oromo) College of Birbirsaa had to close down. In 1897, the St. George Church was built on the site of the college by the order of Menilek (Alberto, 1998). Despite these challenges and obstacles, the catholic missionaries had never given up their mission of evangelizing the Oromo and translating books into Oromo language. Mgr. Cahagne, who became Vicariate Apostolic of the Oromo following the resignation of Massaja on 3 October 1879, designed another way to enter the Oromo land. Mgr. Cahagne and his compatriots were able to pass through Zeila and established themselves at Harar in 1881. In Harar, they established two schools; one for freed slaves and the other for missionaries. In both schools Afaan Oromo and Arabic languages were intensively given. Fr. Andre Jarosseau was busy in studying Afaan Oromo and Arabic in Harar during 1882- 1883, which could be a key for his future apostolate among the Oromo. (Kevin, O’Mahone, and Wolbert Smidt, 2003). Parallel with the establishment Oromo College and missionary station, the Catholic Missionaries embarked on collecting Oromo words, studying its grammar. They also translated their religious scriptures into Oromo language. In addition to the 1853 of catechism translation, Abbaa Jacob had translated the gospel of Matthew into Oromo language. He published the book which was 135 pages long at the printing house of Banasfus in Carcassonne in 1900. The main constituent of the translation is 28 chapters of Matthew, Morning and Evening Prayers, Revelation of Sin, and the Ten Commandments. Like his translation of 1853, the book has the problem of precise representation of Oromo sounds which is difficult only for the non-native learners but also for the natives themselves. His orthographical usage is based on the accent of French language. Otherwise, Jacobi had the concept of Oromo words that are long or stressed (Abba Antonios Alberto, 1998). The attempt of translating and composing Oromo language continued. In 1887, Ettore Viterbo an Italian scholar published Afaan Oromo grammar in Italian language under the title Grammatica Della Lingua Oromonica in Ermanno. The grammar consists of about 397 pages majority of which is devoted to the discussion in Italian language. The first hundred pages are devoted to Oromo grammar, from 103- 266 to Oromo-Italian and from 267-397 to ItalianOromo vocabularies where as the rest is left for Kaficho, Yem and the other Southern nations’ grammar. In the book Oromo words, phrases and sentences written in Latin script are cited as an example under each explanation of the grammar with it transcriptions into Italy. As he states in his grammar, his Oromo-Italian and Italian-Oromo bilingual vocabularies were aimed at easing twoway translations that was to benefit both the Oromo and Italian speakers. (Abune Jacobi, 1900) Nonetheless, as his approach of both the grammar and the vocabularies orthographic representation of Oromo sounds are the corruptions of Italian sounding system that it is difficult to pronounce Oromo words correctly for both the Oromo and nonnatives. Similarly, Franz Praetorius a German scholar, published Zur Grammaticka der Gallasparche in 1893 in Berlin. Praetorius’ 130 pages of Oromo grammar in Germany employed Geez script for the Oromo words, phrases and sentences cited in the book to show the practicality of the discussion. (Franz Praetorius, 1993) In this grammar, the focus he made on Oromo language is not worth as most part of the account is left for the German.
Conclusions
Although Oromo nation has been one of the largest ethno nations in Ethiopia, the attention given to study their language particularly from historical aspect is remains minimal. Policy of marginalization was also exercised for the purpose of building a country of one language, religion and culture. Promotion for the language was inspected and strictly forbidden. Therefore, the Oromo language in general and written Oromo literature in particular remained less studied. Until recently, Afaan Oromo lacked developed written literature and has insignificant written and printed materials. In spite of this pressures, some literate Ethiopians, foreigners, religious men and sold Oromo slaves to Europe tried to document some sketches of Afaan Oromo whenever they got any opportunity they came across. These efforts enabled us to take down the origin of written Oromo literature down to 17th century.
Kenya put to task over missing Oromo leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro
By STELLA CHERONO, Daily Nation
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights is seeking information from the Kenyan government over the disappearance of Oromo leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro who was under UNHCR protection.
BANJUL – Africa’s top human rights body on Monday put Kenya to task over the disappearance of Oromo community leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro.
Mr Saffaro, according to ACHPR Commissioner Maya Sahli Fadel, has been missing since September 27, with his family claiming the government may know where he is.
She said the Ethiopian refugee, who moved to Kenya in the early 1970s fleeing political persecution, lived in Mlolongo, Machakos County with some members of his family.
“It is alleged that the government had on several occasions accused him of being a leader of an Oromo community that practiced terror,” she said.
Mr Saffaro lived under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was in the process of renewing his expired Kenyan identity card and travel documents when he disappeared. His family has been asking the UN refugee agency to help trace him.
The government representatives at the forum are on Tuesday, expected to respond to the questions directed to them by the commissioners who seemed to delve mainly on extrajudicial killing, access to information, freedom of the press, the rights of prisoners and the rights of persons living with disabilities.
Ironically, while Ethiopia is facing a hunger crisis and making urgent appeals for aid, tonnes of food are actually leaving the country. This illogical development is due to the fact that the regime in Addis has sold large tracts of arable land to a range of foreign investors and corporations in transactions described as “land grabs.” The process also involves “villagization,” a government-led program which entails the forcible relocation of indigenous communities from locations reserved for large, foreign-owned plantations. Reports by rights groups list a plethora of human rights violations, including murders, beatings, rapes, imprisonment, intimidation, and political coercion by the government and authorities. A report by the Oakland Institute (OI), a prominent international human rights organization, vividly describes how via “strongarm tactics reminiscent of apartheid South Africa, the Ethiopian regime has moved tens of thousands of people against their will to purpose-built communes that have inadequate food and lack health and education facilities to make way for large, foreign-owned commercial agricultural projects.” Notably, the program has also led to food insecurity, a destruction of livelihoods and the loss of cultural heritage of ethnic groups.
Food insecurity is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues in the Horn of Africa, and the situation is expected to deteriorate further over the coming months. Ethiopia, in particular, is faced with a massive crisis. According to the European Commission, “the situation in Ethiopia is at present the most alarming, where the number of food insecure people has increased from 2.9 million at the beginning of the year to 8.2 million by early October. It is foreseen that these numbers will further rise up to 15 million by the end of 2015. Rates of acute under-nutrition are well above emergency thresholds in many parts of the country, while the response to this situation is hampered by an important shortage of nutrition supplies. In the worst affected areas in the Northern, Central and Eastern regions of the country hundreds of thousands of livestock deaths are reported.” Moreover, UNICEF warns that a large number of those facing hunger will be children; approximately 5 million children will “require relief food assistance during the last quarter of 2015,” with hundreds of thousands urgently requiring treatment for acute severe malnutrition.
The crisis is largely being attributed to the El Niño weather phenomenon and the underperformance of two consecutive rainy seasons, which have combined to negatively affect the country’s agricultural harvest cycle. During the last two months, prolonged, erratic and insufficient rainfall has led to poor vegetation conditions in southern Ethiopia, and widespread drought, which has severely impacted ground conditions.
However, although environmental factors have been significant, it is important to examine the crisis within a broader framework. The roots of hunger are multidimensional and complex; beyond immediate environmental causes, hunger involves a variety of factors including, amongst others, socio-political and governance dynamics. According to scholar Tim Hitchcock, “famines aren’t about the lack of food in the world. They aren’t about the lack of aid. We know that the harvest is going to fail in Eastern Africa once every 12 to 15 years. If you have a working state and your harvest fails, you raise the cash and you buy food and ship it in, and you make sure it is distributed. You don’t allow people to starve.” In Ethiopia, “[hunger and] food insecurity stems from government failures in addressing major structural problems” (Siyoum, Hilhorst, and Van Uffelen 2012).
The European Union (EU) has provided over €1 billion in humanitarian aid to the Horn of Africa since 2011, much of which has gone to Ethiopia. Annually, Ethiopia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from a variety of bilateral and multilateral sources; across the 2004-2013 period, the country was the world’s 4thlargest recipient of foreign assistance, receiving nearly US$6 billion, while in 2011 alone, its share of total global official development assistance – approximately 4 percent – placed it behind only Afghanistan. However, even while it has long-been one of the leading recipients of foreign, humanitarian, and food aid in the world, the country continues to face crises. Why? One influential factor is the debilitating mix of domestic corruption and poor governance. According to prominent development scholar and international economist Dambisa Moyo (2009), aid is often closely linked to corruption and poor governance, and “aid flows destined to help the average African…[get] used for anything, save the developmental purpose for which they were intended.” Moreover, “a constant stream of ‘free’ money is a perfect way to keep an inefficient or simply bad government in power.” In the 1980s, during widespread famine and drought, Ethiopia’s brutal Dergue regime, led by Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam, diverted millions in humanitarian aid to the military, while under the despotic rule of Meles Zenawi, aid was frequently utilized as a political tool of manipulation and repression. Several months ago, leaked emails revealed that the Ethiopian regime, which is now making appeals for aid and external support, was paying the Italian surveillance firm, Hacking Team, to illegally monitor journalists critical of the government.
Corruption and poor governance remain deeply embedded within Ethiopia’s socio-political structure, and the country consistently scores extremely poorly on the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators, especially within the areas of corruption, rule of law, and governance (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi 2010; World Bank 2014). The indicators, based upon a variety of perceptions-based data sources, provide measures for various states, with scores ranging from around –2.5 (low) to around 2.5 (high). Table 1 illustrates that corruption, rule of law, and governance are significant problems within Ethiopia.
Another area of considerable concern is democracy and civil liberties. Ethiopia has been consistently criticized by an array of international rights groups for its broad range of human rights abuses including its harsh repression of minorities and journalists, press censorship, draconian anti-terror laws that are utilized to silence all forms of dissent, and brutal crackdowns upon opposition groups and protestors.
According to the Polity IV Project (Marshall and Gurr 2013), which is widely used in international comparative analyses of democracy, governance, and human rights practices, Ethiopia is one of the most authoritarian, autocratic states in the world. The Polity IV Project codes the political characteristics of states, using an array of data sources, to rank states from –10, representing least democratic and most autocratic states, to 10, representing most democratic states. Table 2 displays that Ethiopia’s scores place it within the autocratic, authoritarian category. The applicability of this categorization is underscored by the fact that, mere months ago, the government in Addis Ababa won 100 percent of parliamentary seats in a widely discredited national election that involved massive irregularities and intimidation, crackdowns, and arrests of the opposition.
Importantly, scholars and analysts have pointed to the existence of an intricate relationship between democracy, civil liberty, and hunger or famine. According to internationally renowned development and human rights scholar Amartya Sen, “no democracy has ever suffered a great famine” (1999: 180-181). Specifically, Sen notes that throughout history famines have been avoided in democratic states because these states’ promotion of political and civil rights afford people the opportunity to draw forceful attention to their general needs and to demand appropriate public action through voting, criticizing, protesting, and the like. Authoritarian states, which curtail democracy and free press, sustain much less pressure to respond to the acute suffering of their people and can therefore continue with faulty policies. Sen’s discussion of many of the great famines within recent history – including those in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, China, the former USSR, and North Korea – helps emphasize the fundamental relationship between democracy, civil liberties, and widespread famine and hunger (Sen 1999).
Ironically, while Ethiopia is facing a hunger crisis and making urgent appeals for aid, tonnes of food are actually leaving the country. This illogical development is due to the fact that the regime in Addis has sold large tracts of arable land to a range of foreign investors and corporations in transactions described as “land grabs.” The process also involves “villagization,” a government-led program which entails the forcible relocation of indigenous communities from locations reserved for large, foreign-owned plantations. Reports by rights groups list a plethora of human rights violations, including murders, beatings, rapes, imprisonment, intimidation, and political coercion by the government and authorities. A report by the Oakland Institute (OI), a prominent international human rights organization, vividly describes how via “strongarm tactics reminiscent of apartheid South Africa, the Ethiopian regime has moved tens of thousands of people against their will to purpose-built communes that have inadequate food and lack health and education facilities to make way for large, foreign-owned commercial agricultural projects.”
Notably, the program has also led to food insecurity, a destruction of livelihoods and the loss of cultural heritage of ethnic groups.
Essentially, the Ethiopian regime’s participation in “land grabs” represents a dire lack of leadership, prioritization, and proper governance. It has caused terrible disruption to local communities and greatly harmed food security in the name of economic development. Such failure is reminiscent of previous humanitarian crises in the country. As described by Mosse (1993), during the 1960s and 1970s, the nomadic Afars of Ethiopia were displaced from their pasturelands in the Awash valley. The Awash River was controlled in the 1960s to provide irrigation for Dutch, Israeli, Italian, and British firms to grow sugar and cotton. Consequently, the annual flooding of the river, which covered the valley with rich soil and provided grazing lands for the Afars, was disrupted. The Afars went in search of new pastures and attempted to make a living on the ecologically fragile uplands, which were poorly suited to their nomadic lifestyle. Cattle found less to eat and the Afars began to starve. Subsequently, when drought struck Ethiopia’s Wollo region in 1972, between 25 and 30 percent of the Afars perished. The problem was not due to particular inadequacies of the Afars – who had flourished for centuries; rather, the problem was with the attempt to develop the Afar lands and bring them into the mainstream economy, without any regard for their actual needs. Ultimately, the pursuit of economic growth or development, if not sensitive or responsive to local needs, can so damage existing local populations and communities that substantial harm, poverty, deprivation, and hunger are created as a result (Mosse 1993).
Ethiopia’s hunger crisis is an important humanitarian issue meriting immediate attention and concern. In order to fully understand the crisis it is imperative to recognize that while the environment has been an important contributing factor, a range of other structural socio-political and governance dynamics, including corruption, the lack of rule of law or democracy, poor governance, failures in long-term planning, and misplaced national and development priorities have also been highly influential.
International Indigenous Terra Madre-2015 (an international gathering of indigenous cultural communities organized by Indigenous Partnership) started in Shillong University, India. It brings over a 100 national groups and tribes from 58 countries across the world-already kicked off on 3rd November 2015 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. The event will run till 7th of November 2015. Oromo representatives from Ethiopia and Kenya among the cultural crew showcasing their ingenious heritages on the international event.
600 International Delegates at Indigenous Terra Madre 2015, Including Ethiopian Tribes and Communities 23 Oct 15
Representatives of Ethiopian tribes and communities will contribute to the event by sharing their knowledge and experiences
A large delegation of representatives of indigenous communities from the Slow Food Terra Madre network and beyond will be participating in Indigenous Terra Madre (ITM 2015), which will take place from November 3 to 7, 2015 in Shillong (Meghalaya, India). The event is the result of a collaboration between Slow Food, the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (Indigenous Partnership) and the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society(NESFAS).
International representatives will be coming to the event from five continents, from 14 Africancountries, 17Asian countries, 8 European countries, 12 American countries and 7 Oceaniancountries.
Representatives from several Ethiopian communities will be attending:
– the Konso community (south-central Ethiopia). The origins of Konso culture are intertwined with the domestication of the moringa tree and its introduction in the highlands. Moringa leaves have joined the Slow Food Ark of Taste. The trees provide shade for coffee, the most valuable cash crop in the highlands. In fact the association of the two plants, moringa and coffee, exists only in the Konso area as it is a specific cultural expression of the deep link between the Konso and their ecosystem.
– the Hortribe (southwest Ethiopia, north of Lake Stephanie Basi). An agro-pastoral community with a population of 6,000, mainly pastoralists and fishers. They plant different type of sorghum and raise sheep, goats and cattle, acting as custodians of rare local varieties.
– the Guji-Oromo community (Guji zone in the Oromia region). They are among the indigenous Oromo tribes sharing borders with the Sidama, Gedeo and other ethnic groups in southeastern part of the country. The Guji people are pastoralists in lowland areas and farmers in the highlands. In the highlands they produce honey, coffee, cereals and other crops, whereas in lowland they raise camels, sheep, goat and cattle. They govern themselves using the Gada system.
– the Gedeo community (southern Ethiopia between the Sidama and Boran zone of the Oromia region). They are sedentary cultivators, focusing on a food crop, ensete (Ethiopian banana), and a cash crop, coffee. They are unique among the ensete-growing peoples, as they plant the ensete, elsewhere largely a homestead crop, in the fields. They are the only people to intercrop their ensete with coffee. The Gedeo are also renowned for their conservation of natural resources. Using ensete, the Gedeo are able to produce food, livestock feed and wood from the same plot.
– the Hadiya community. Mainly shifting cultivators.
– the Gamo community. They are agro-pastoralist people and grow cereals, root crops and livestock on a mountain landscape.
Representatives of several groups and organizations from Ethiopia will also attend the event, including the Woyera-Moringa Suppliers Association (a cooperative which unites mostly female members of the Konso community who work with moringa leaves); the Baaboo (a local NGO which focuses on ensete development—planting, processing, and marketing—and on Gedeo ensete cuisines; the Tena Agar Traditional Foods and Utensils Protection and Promotion Association (established in 2011, it studies, documents, promotes and supports the production, preparation, supply and distribution of traditional foods and drinks and their utensils); the Daanchee Gedeo Ensete Cuisines Baaboo Development & Relief Association (whose mission is to promote Gedeo ensete cuisines through food shows, cultural events and its mobile kitchen) and Addis Ababa University.
Indigenous Terra Madre 2015 gratefully acknowledges funding support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The Christensen Fund and the Government of Meghalaya. Indigenous Terra Madre 2015 is also thankful for the contributions made by Tamalpais Trust, Swift Foundation,AgroEcology Fund, Bread for the World and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Terra Madre is a worldwide network, launched by Slow Food in 2004, which unites small-scale producers from 163 countries involved in the sustainable production of food. Among these, to date the Indigenous Terra Madre Network comprises 372 indigenous food communities, 41 indigenous Presidia projectsand308 indigenous Ark of Taste products. For more information:http://slowfood.com/international/149/indigenous-terra-madre-network
Slow Food involves over a million of people dedicated to and passionate about good, clean and fair food. This includes chefs, youth, activists, farmers, fishers, experts and academics in over 158 countries; a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide (known as convivia), contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize; and over 2,500 Terra Madre food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.
The views expressed in this post (blog) are those of the author/authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OromianEconomist. Posting does not imply endorsement of views by the author/ authors.
The following is a call for papers from the International Oromo Lawyers Association (IOLA).
INTERNATIONAL OROMO LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (IOLA)
12711 Mankato Street NE Blaine, MN 55449; USA
Email: iola@oromolawyers.org
IOLA call for Papers: Mid-Year Conference London, 1 April, 2016
Theme: The State of Rule of law, Human Rights and Democracy in Ethiopia
Continuous efforts have been made to create a modern state and the legal basis that underpins its formation in Ethiopia for about one century. The adoption of the 1930 constitution and the 1955 revised constitution which is followed by series of law making attempts that produced half a dozen of codified laws over a space of 10 years in the mid twentieth century. The 1991 Transitional Charter and more importantly, the 1995 constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia could be taken as one of the most radical marking point and complete departure from the past in the legal and political history of Ethiopia. This new constitution brought about a new state formation and instituted the formation of nine Regional States with their respective state structures. Politicians and the academia fiercely debate on the legal and political implication of the rights of the nations and nationalities enshrined in this constitution.
IOLA seeks to reflect on the underlying reasons that necessitated the adoption of major legal documents that constitute today’s Ethiopia and to discuss the level of success of such legislative attempts. It would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the legacies of past and present constitutive moments.
With that in mind, IOLA would like to invite interested individuals from the academia and politics to present research papers in which they attempt to explore recurring theoretical and empirical issues that have dominated the Ethiopian political landscape from different disciplinary perspectives.
Possible topics include, but not limited to:
– The power relationship between the Centre (Federal) and its constituting Regional Sates under the 1995 FDRE Constitution: theory and practice;
– The position of Oromia Regional State regarding the capital city (Addis Ababa or Finfinnee);
– Electoral politics in Ethiopia: the role of the opposition and civil society;
– Federalism as a solution for Self-determination of people/nations;
– The current state of law enforcement and justice systems in Ethiopia: comparative analysis to the rule of law and universal human rights norms;
– Freedom of the press and the media landscape in contemporary Ethiopia.
Interested participants are urged to submit their respective abstracts and a biography of no more than 150 words to iola@oromolawyers.org by 30th December 2015. A limited number of partial bursaries towards travel/accommodation may be available for participants from Ethiopia.
Call for Papers | OSA’s Midyear Conference to stay in Europe | London will host the conference on April 2 & 3, 2016
The Oromo Studies Association’s (OSA’s) 2016 Midyear conference will take place at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London on April 2 and 3; the following is the Call for Papers (keep in mind the deadlines, and act accordingly). The theme of the Conference will be “The Oromo in the Global Political Economy.” For the latest update, visitOromoStudies.org
OROMO STUDIES ASSOCIATION – 2016 MIDYEAR CONFERENCE
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (LSE), LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
APRIL 2-3, 2016
CALL FOR PAPERS
THEME: The Oromo in the Global Political Economy
The Oromo Studies Association invites paper abstracts and panel proposals for its 2016 midyear conference to be held at the London School of Economics (LSE) in collaboration with the LSE Africa Initiative.
The conference provides a platform for examining major changes, challenges and opportunities that impact the Oromo via the global political economy. The theme sets a broader context in which to examine the power dynamics and major actors and beneficiaries of global political economy in Ethiopia. We are also interested to examine how these dynamics and actors inform the questions of economic and political justice, history, law, leadership, and environmental challenges. Global trade, finance, and geopolitical interests over the last few decades seem to have shaped both inter-state relations and regional political economy. From the Oromo perspective, these subjects are critical to the process of mapping knowledge across multiple disciplines with a view to seeking direct global alliances and partnerships.
Research papers are sought for this midyear conference that builds on existing scholarship and research generated within Oromo Studies. Panels and papers should concentrate on a deeper understanding of structures, trends, theoretical and analytical tools that explore pressing issues in global political economy on multiple levels related to the Oromo in Ethiopia.
The event presents an opportunity to explore unique and exciting themes that will broaden understanding of the Oromo nation through research and dissemination of findings globally. With such a diverse range of interest focusing on the Oromo in global political economy, the famous London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) presents an excellent ideal academic environment for OSA’s midyear conference.
Please submit an abstract no more than 200 words proposing a paper or panel. Themes of the conference include:
– The place of the Oromo in the geopolitics of the Horn;
– Federalism; Oromo land and property security: natural resource ownership;
– Economic justice, state/party-capitalism and conglomerates in Ethiopia;
– The ‘developmental state, constitution and constitutionalism
– China-Africa Trade Policy and Implication for the Oromo
– Global events/turning points in modern history & the Oromo, 1935/36, 1974, 1991)
– Imperial Ethiopia, local alliances and global connections;
– Finfinnee, Oromo hinterlands and the fate of Oromo national identity;
– Climate change and its impact on ecological health, sustainable development, renewable energy in Oromia;
– Historical wrongs and the pursuit of justice and reconciliation;
– Regional networks, alliances & political projects: the Oromo & the rest of the South
– Ethiopia’s counter-archives: narrative, memory, history
– The identity/alterity nexus in the Oromo-Ethiopia dualism
– The politics of othering and the othering of politics
– The next chapter in the political economy of Oromia and Ethiopia
– Other topics related to the conference theme are welcome …
We look forward to papers addressing the various themes based on empirical data and research findings that will sharpen the values and perspectives of Oromo studies and scholarship. Specifically, we encourage papers from Oromia/Ethiopia.
ABSTRACT DEADLINE:
o Please submit abstracts of no more than 200 words on or before November 30, 2015 by midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) using the OSA online submission form prepared for this purpose. Please follow this link to submit your abstract. Preference will be given to early submissions.
OSA will inform you the decision on whether your abstract has been accepted no later than December 15, 2015.
DEADLINE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION:
o A draft paper of no more than 8000 words will be due by March 20, 2016 (Midnight US Eastern Time).
ENQUIRY:
If you have any question about the conference, please send an email to Henok G. Gabisa, President of Oromo Studies Association at admin@oromostudies.org or GabisaH@wlu.edu
To: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
![Jimma[1]](https://qeerroo.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/jimma1.jpg)
Oromian Economist 