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An Open Letter to President Barak Obama on his Ethiopia Visit
Dear Mr. President Obama,
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa wants to express its deep concern about what it regards as the wrong decision made by you and your staff in making a formal visit to Ethiopia in late July 2015. This will make you the first US leader to break the US promise not to reward dictators. History teaches us that the American constitution of 1787 is the world’s first democratic constitution, a landmark document of the Western World which protects the rights of all citizens in the USA. The following examples show America’s great support of human rights: During the First World War, America entered the war against Germany in 1917 to protect the world- as President Woodrow Wilson put it, “Making the World Safe for Democracy”. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of President Roosevelt and a human rightschampion, drafted in 1948 an internationally accepted human rights bill, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These and other democratic activities have made America a champion of democracy all over the world that all Americans should be proud of.
Mr. President,
Your decision to visit human rights perpetrators in Ethiopia contradicts your country’s democratic tradition. It also disrespects the Ethiopian nations and nationalities who are under the subjugation of the EPRDF/TPLF government.
Mr. President,
We can witness today the government of Ethiopia making a lot of noise about the flourishing of democracy in that country. The reality on the ground shows that the undemocratic behavior of the regime has been overshadowed by the apparently “democratic” and anti-terrorism façade that the regime has demonstrated for the past twenty-four years. During those years, thousands were killed, abducted, kidnaped, and imprisoned by this government because they simply tried to exercise their fundamental rights, such as free speech and expression, freedom of association and religion. University students, journalists, human rights activists, opposition political party members and their supporters, and farmers have been the major victims in Ethiopia.
When the EPRDF/TPLF Government took power in 1991 in Ethiopia, there were high expectations from both local and international communities that there would be an improvement in the human rights situation in Ethiopia from previous regimes. Contrary to everyone’s expectations, however, human rights abuses in Ethiopia worsened. The human rights violations in Ethiopia has been widely reported by local, regional and international human rights organizations as well as some Western governmental agencies including the US State Department’s yearly human rights reports.
Today, in Ethiopia political extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and disappearances, mass arrests and imprisonments- without warrants- in horrible prison conditions, extended imprisonment without trials, torture, denials and delaying of justice, discrimination in resource allocations and implementations, biased educational and development policies, denials of employment and job promotion opportunities and/or the misuse of coercive political tools are rampant. Social crises in Ethiopia are becoming deeper and deeper, while the socioeconomic gap between the favored (the politically affiliated groups and individuals) and the disfavored is getting wider and wider. For the majority of Ethiopians, life has become unbearable. It has even become very difficult for civil servants, the middle class, to support their families.
Mr. President,
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa strictly opposes your visit to Ethiopia. As the president of the country where democracy emerged and respect for human rights was first realized, we believe it would be immoral of you to reward human rights violators. We urge that you withdraw from your decision to visit Ethiopia.
HRLHA is a non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – (ECOSOC) Consultative Status) which attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa.
Liigiin Mirga Ilmaan namaa kan gaanfa Afrikaa,Daawwii Obaamaa balaaleeffate .
Obama is going to tie knots with TPLF-EPRDF’s Ethiopia, the poorest country on the planet – on behalf of the richest and the most powerful country of the world. That is his right. Forget the stereotypical consolation of discussing human rights and democratic governance. The main purpose is economy and security. Again forget about the highest economic growth rates fanned by financial institutions. That, there is no growth can be seen with necked eyes. Million are hungry and destitute. This trip will try to accomplish the deregulation of remaining sectors, like banking, telecoms, land, etc. As far as the peoples of the Ethiopian empire are concerned, these were already deregulated, but monopolized by TPLF business conglomerates. International corporations want their big share. – Ibsaa Gutamaa
Obama’s Pilgrimage of National Interest
By Ibsaa Guutama* | July 2015
The oppressed and abused of Africa, and their friends and sympathizers are making their voices heard high above the globe that President Obama refrain from legitimizing dictatorship and human rights abuse in Ethiopia. This is not a casual visit, but a pre-planned trip for which arrangements were made to pave the way for the diplomatic pampering of the most brutal regime in the area; a long-time Guerrilla-friendly ambassador was appointed in addition to a visit by the U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. The rulers of Ethiopia were among those that Clinton’s Democrats branded as the “new breeds of African Democrats.” Many have now fallen out of line. These ones are also starting wavering. This visit of the President may keep them in line before they jump to another bandwagon. Obviously, it is not a pilgrimage of democracy, but that of “NATIONAL INTEREST.”
Democracy is an ideal which all human beings aspire to attend. So far, we have seen attempts, not commitment, to it. It is a principle well defined by persons like Abraham Lincoln, “Government of the people for the people …” But, in most cases, it remains in principle, not in practice. Otherwise, it is assumed that democracy is the standard of political governance – which has, at least, as ingredients equality, freedom, fairly elected officers, and freedom of speech and expression. Any of this missing, there could be no democracy. As the Assistant Secretary of U.S. State Department once said, “America believes in ‘NO DEMOCRACY NO COOPERATION.’” Ethiopia lacks even the few ingredients of democracy mentioned; however, cooperation has never been lacking for the last quarter of a century. It is alright to delay one to three years, but not to abide by one’s promise for so long, for the greatest country of the world is tantalizing. If people’s sovereignty was respected, there was no need to petition a far off power for one’s internal affairs. Their problem could be solved within the region. But, that remaining a wish, expecting fairness and impartiality from those interfering is not too much. Considering their position, they have the moral responsibility to do that.
On part of the abused people, the assumption that democracies of the world will come to their rescue should have been given up long ago. But, unfortunately, protest is made through the social media, through demonstration marches, through written materials, etc. to oppose the continued cooperation. It is all in vain; world powers are blinded by national interests. Hence, the poor and oppressed peoples of Africa are left solely to themselves to fight for their rights. The real “survival of the fittest” theory is being practiced by the world against Africa. Africans have come so long on their own; they have to continue gallantly defending their land, interests and dignity – not to perish silently. Whatever they are doing, world powers are doing knowingly and convinced that they are doing the right thing. Thousands could go hungry, rot in prison, forced to flee their country, and thousands could die and disappear, they are not worth severing friendship relations with perpetrators of genocide.
Obama is going to tie knots with TPLF-EPRDF’s Ethiopia, the poorest country on the planet – on behalf of the richest and the most powerful country of the world. That is his right. Forget the stereotypical consolation of discussing human rights and democratic governance. The main purpose is economy and security. Again forget about the highest economic growth rates fanned by financial institutions. That, there is no growth can be seen with necked eyes. Million are hungry and destitute. This trip will try to accomplish the deregulation of remaining sectors, like banking, telecoms, land, etc. As far as the peoples of the Ethiopian empire are concerned, these were already deregulated, but monopolized by TPLF business conglomerates. International corporations want their big share.
As for security, the TPLF is “the key ally of the U.S.” in hunting down terrorism. Already, many Ethiopian empire’s recruits have perished unaccounted for in Somalia. TPLF is ever ready to engage whenever the U.S. pays without any limit to geography in their deployment. The visit may encourage the continuation of this relation. As for terrorism, TPLF is manufacturing them at its convenience – killing thousands, and terrorizing and imprisoning numberless. Yes, the people have risen and are rising further against the TPLF terror. It is a rise for “liberty equality, freedom and peace” – which no body claims to know its cause and effect more than America. But since terrorism is not defined, the whole population of the empire is branded as a terrorist and is subject to persecutions. It is without consideration to redefine that the package is going to be discussed to strengthen the relation. The peoples of the empire, in particular the Oromo and journalists, are going to continue being terrorized.
Let alone a big power, the tiniest being knows no limit in defending its interests. But, for human beings, there should have been moral restraints. Here, our concern is not that for now. It is a lesson from history. During the past regimes, and under the present one, whenever there is an occasion, the destitute in towns are rounded up, beaten and taken to unknown places. There, they live in crowded enclosure without enough food and water in a deplorable hygienic environment. Many perish unreported. Now that a leader of the most powerful country is coming, and since the coming is unprecedented, unprecedented measures are certainly going to be taken. What makes this time different is that thousands were recently uprooted from their homes by the land grab, and the policy to de-Oromize and expand Finfinne (Addis Ababa). The evicted are the majority of thousands of homeless in Finfinnee. A fate worse than that of the infamous Shoolaa Camp under the emperor is awaiting them. Then very few mothers, children and the elderly were saved from typhus epidemic after university students discovered them accidentally. In addition to rounding these up much more harsh measures are to be expected to impress U.S. intelligence that certainly will be there to bolster their efforts.
Many complain that the visit amounts to recognizing the atrocities committed by the notorious dictators of the Horn of Africa. Had Africa not been ruled by autocrats pretending to be elected democrats, the visit would not have happened. Only those types can serve as partners in plundering the wealth and service of the continent during this period of the New Scramble for Africa. Whether the President visits or not, his administration had already recognized legitimacy of the illegitimate. The endeavors made to “democratize, and the free and fair election” was praised by frontline cadres months ago. Was it true? What they should complain about must have been their not been ready to defend their interests as peoples. Assuming democratic values are intrinsically universal, and no double standard for it, it would have been just if the President did not make the trip his predecessors had avoided. Healthy human and political developments could have eventually served the interests he is after better and for a longer time to come. But, the world had never been just.
If the President does not come out with a conclusion that he was dealing, not with hooligans, but legitimate rulers, the agony of the peoples of the Horn is going to be double fold; for the hooligans will be more encouraged with their brutality. We wish the President a good trip to his father’s land and back to the White House. Here inHabashaa land, his Lou people are going to be considered as Americans for his participation in the American administration, as Oromo are considered likewise for Tafarii’s participation in the Ethiopian administration. This trip will give the Wayyaanee a moral boost. We will see the leaders gleaning sitting around this powerful leader of the world to get photographed for the last time. People of the empire will wake up to another miserable day worse than before.Bon Voyage, Mr. President! Viva Oromiyaa! The struggle shall continue!
Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty, equality and freedom for the living, and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our forefathers!
Appeal Letter to President Obama from OCA-NA, an Umbrella Organization of NA Oromo Communities.
July 07, 2015President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 http://www.whitehouse.gov
Tel: (202) 395-2020
Subject: Your Plan to Visit Ethiopia in July, 2015
Dear President Obama,
On behalf of the Oromo Communities in the United States, we, the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the (OCA-NA), are writing this urgent letter regarding your plan to visit Ethiopia in July 2015. OCA-NA is an umbrella organization of the Oromo communities, and represents thousands of citizen and legal residents of Oromo origin in the United States. It is organized to advocate for the human rights of the Oromo in Diaspora and those at home, in the Horn of Africa.
Like the majority of US citizens and the global community, we were excited when you were elected as the president of the United States in 2008 and expected huge progress for all freedom loving people in the world. Your statement in Ghana, during your first visit to Africa in 2009, in which you promised your administration’s commitment to support “strong and sustainable democratic governments” in Africa and to deny assistance to corrupt and dictatorial regimes confirmed our hopes and widened our imaginations. Despite moments of frustration, over the last seven years, we have continued to hope for your strong support for democracy and freedom in Ethiopia. On several occasions, the Oromo communities have appealed to your administration and to you personally, regarding the repressive acts of the Ethiopian regime. Incidentally, the Oromo residents of Washington, DC Metropolitan Area and representatives of communities from many states were holding a peaceful rally in front of the White House when they learned the announcement of your planned visit to Ethiopia.
It is with shock and profound sadness that we received this message. We are afraid that your visit sends the wrong messages to both the government of Ethiopia and the people suffering from government’s repressive policies. First, your visit emboldens the dictatorial EPRDF regime and encourages it to implement even more destructive and undemocratic policies. Portraying your visit as an endorsement of its misguided actions, the regime intensifies the violence against innocent people, continues violation of human rights, further suppresses dissidents, stifles legitimate grievances of citizens, and displaces farmers, the youth and intellectuals. Your meeting and photo ops with Ethiopian government officials will be exploited to the maximum by the regime to subdue the people claiming that your administration fully supports its dictatorial practices and the unbelievable 100 percent victory in its sham elections. Second, the Oromo in particular, and the Ethiopian people in general, would lose hope. They would feel the most powerful nation and its president, whose speeches and actions they passionately follow and expect highly from his administration, have ignored their plight. Your meeting in Addis Ababa with Ethiopian officials, who torment innocent people daily, will deepen the people’s disillusionment and frustrations. Third, the Oromo communities in US are extremely concerned that your visit will have negative implications for the policy objectives of your administration and the long term interests of United States in the region.
The Ethiopian government distorts facts, manipulates the reality, and represents itself as democratic. But, human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Survival International, Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa and the annual human rights reports of the State Department have attested to the massive human rights violations of the EPRDF regime. The well documented long list of imprisoned students, journalists, bloggers, and members of opposition political parties fully confirm the undemocratic nature of this regime. In a country like Ethiopia, with complicated and highly contested political issues, the recent 100 percent victory in the national elections is totally unbelievable, and leaves no doubt about EPRDF regime’s dictatorial rule. Finally, the Ethiopian government also exploits global and regional security issues. Declaring its support for the war on global terrorism and posing as an ally of the United States, the government uses resources it receives from big powers for suppressing dissent, terrorizing innocent people, and for subverting democratic processes. It should be clear that a regime that terrorizes its citizens cannot be a reliable ally to fight extremism.
Mr. President,
For these reasons, we are puzzled by your decision to visit Ethiopia and meet government officials who contradict your convictions and the principles of American democracy. First, we are strongly appealing to you to reconsider your planned trip to Ethiopia. Second, if your visit to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa is absolutely necessary, we are strongly urging you not to meet Ethiopian government officials in public and not offer them the opportunity to use your visit for their domestic propaganda. Third, we also request you to make it clear to the people in public that the Ethiopian regime’s undemocratic practices are unacceptable. We believe the United States will not ignore the atrocities perpetrated against the 95 million people in favor of the oppressive regime in the name of alliance against global terrorism.
Sincerely,
Oromo Communities’ Association in North America (OCA-NA)
Washington wants a stable partner in the Horn of Africa. But cozying up to the repressive regime in Addis Ababa isn’t the way to go about finding one.
Later this month, President Barack Obama will become the first sitting United States president to ever visit Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, and a nation viewed by many as a bastion of stability in a region otherwise beset with civil strife. The trip — which will also include a stopover in Kenya — is being billed as part of the Obama administration’s regional efforts “to accelerate economic growth, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve security.”
These are indeed laudable goals and should be actively pursued by the U.S. government. But the timing and tenor of the visit to Addis Ababa sends a worrying signal that Washington’s priorities — not only in Ethiopia, but on the entire continent — are actually at odds with the president’s oft-repeatedrhetoric about advancing human rights and strengthening African democracy and institutions.
Let’s be clear: Ethiopia is not a model of democracy that should be rewarded with a presidential visit.
Let’s be clear: Ethiopia is not a model of democracy that should be rewarded with a presidential visit. The long-ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), now in power for 25 years, claimed a landslide victory inlegislative polls held in May, winning all 547 parliamentary seats, which places it among the ranks of North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Iraq in terms of the sheer efficiency of its electoral sweep. The results should not have come as a surprise: theEPRDF swept the last four elections, including in 2010,in which it took a whopping 99.6 percent of the vote. This time around, Washington and the European Union did not even bother sending election observers, knowing full well that anEPRDF victory was a foregone conclusion.The lead up to the May 24 vote saw a widespread crackdown on journalists, human rights activists, and opposition supporters. What’s worse, Obama’s trip was announced on June 19, the same week it was revealed that threeopposition party members were murdered in the country, all under highly suspicious circumstances.
So why is President Obama visiting a country where democracy is in such a sorry state and where human rights violations remain systemic and widespread? Because, despite the obvious lack of political rights and civil liberties in Ethiopia, and its status as one of the top jailers of journalists in the world, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is palatable to Washington and other Western donors precisely because of who he is not: a retrograde dictator in the mold of his regional counterparts, Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea or Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. The brutal and oft heavy-handed oppression exhibited by the latter two regimes is brazen, whereas Desalegn and the EPRDF work within the (regime-controlled) judicial system, giving their repression a veneer of legality.
A former academic, Desalegn’s elevation to the highest office in Ethiopia came courtesy of the sudden death in 2012 of Ethiopia’s strongman, Meles Zenawi, who had ruled the country for two decades. Zenawi was a favorite in Washington: Though he brutally crushed political opponents and implemented a series of draconian laws meant to muzzle the press and stifle dissent, he also managed to establish an image of Ethiopia as a stable and growing economy in the troubled Horn of Africa. Zenawi’s Western allies, particularly the United States, applauded the country’s modest economic growth and the regime’s willingness to endorse the so-called “War on Terror.” As a result, leaders in Washington routinely turned a blind eye to the EPRDF’s rampant human rights abuses and its ongoing suppression of civil society, the media, and political opposition.
Several key Obama advisers were close associates and personal friends of the late prime minister. Susan Rice, Obama’s national security advisor and former top diplomat at the United Nations, for instance, made no secret of her esteem for and friendship with Zenawi, whom she eulogized as “a servant leader.” Another top Obama aide, Gayle Smith — the current nominee to lead the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which provided Ethiopia nearly $500 million in 2013 — was also never shy about her admiration for Zenawi.
Desalegn, largely seen as a compromise candidate for the shaky, ethnicity-based EPRDF coalition, has continued to rule in the same mode — and Washington’s perverse need to embrace a dictator in technocrat’s clothing has continued. This March, two months before Ethiopia’s sham elections, U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman publicly praised Ethiopia’s “democracy” during a visit to the country, which a state department spokesperson further bolstered by saying “her statements fully reflect the U.S. Government’s positions.” Even a cursory glance at Ethiopia’s abysmal human rights record would turn this bogus claim on its head.
On June 25, the State Department released its annual human rights reporton Ethiopia, citing widespread “restrictions on freedom of expression,” “politically motivated trials,” “harassment and intimidation of opposition members and journalists,” “alleged arbitrary killings and torture,” “limits on citizens’ ability to change their government,” and restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, and movement. Yet Ethiopia’s donors, including the United States, which provides nearly half of Ethiopia’s national budget, have continued to ignore these signs of trouble. The facade of economic growth and the West’s eagerness for a “development success story” to tout on the international stage has seemingly precluded genuine diplomatic pressure to reform.
To be sure, deeply afflicted countries surround Ethiopia. Despite recent progress, Somalia faces credible and ongoing threats from the al-Qaeda affiliated militant group, al-Shabab. South Sudan has devolved into an intractable civil war with no end in sight. Kenya has yet to fully overcome the ramifications of post-election violence in 2007–2008, not to mention its inability to ward off al-Shabab’s cross border attacks. Eritrea, dubbed by some as the North Korea of Africa, remains a highly repressive police state from which hundreds of thousands continue to flee. Further afield, Yemen is in a state of bloody lawlessness. By contrast, Ethiopia has remained largely stable.
Despite this outward veneer of stability and progress, Ethiopia’s current system is unsustainable. A one-time vocal opposition has been systematically weakened. Ethnic discontent is rife. Religious revival has been met with brutal state repression. Economic prosperity is not widely shared and inequality continues to rise. Nepotism and corruption plague an already bloated bureaucracy. Youth unemployment is a persistent and serious challenge. Independent media, the human rights community, and civil society writ large have been decimated. And countless citizens arebeing displaced from their ancestral lands under the guise of development. These factors, taken together, may ultimately sow the seeds of a tangled conflict that could reverberate across an already troubled and tense region.
In this context, Obama’s upcoming visit to Ethiopia sends the wrong message on Washington’s stated commitment to strengthening democratic institutions — not strongmen — in Africa. What is more, turning a blind eye to widespread human rights abuses for the sake of counterterrorism cooperation and so-called “regional stability” may prove to be a self-defeating strategy that is bad in the long term for the United States, as well as for citizens throughout the Horn of Africa.
If the United States wanted to help strengthen democratic institutions and stand in solidarity with Africans, who are now more than ever demanding democracy, then Nigeria would have been a much better alternative model. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest economy, held landmark elections this March, in which an opposition candidate ousted an incumbent who then graciously accepted defeat. In Ethiopia, this scenario remains a pipe dream for its 96 million citizens. The EPRDF is now set to lord over the country at least until 2020, allowing the party to further entrench its repressive machinery and to extend its dominance long beyond its current mandate.
It is unlikely that Obama and his handlers will change the itinerary of his upcoming trip. However, it is not too late for the president, and for the United States government, to speak honestly to the people of Ethiopia, making it clear that the historic visit is not intended to validate or otherwise endorse the EPRDF’s autocratic dominance. Rather, Obama should be clear with EPRDF leadership, both in private and most importantly, in public that the United States appreciates the complex challenges facing the country and that repression is not an acceptable means of addressing them.
Obama and his staff should also meet openly with Ethiopia’s political opposition and civic leaders, including those based in the country and abroad in Kenya, where many have been forced to relocate due to increasing oppression at home. Obama should additionally raise the issue of the recently murdered opposition members, as well as the many cases of journalists, activists, and political prisoners who have been wrongly jailed and arbitrarily detained under a raft of draconian laws that have criminalized dissent.
In the long-term, the U.S. government should redouble its commitment to Ethiopia’s beleaguered civil society. Obama’s 2016 budget request includes more than $400 million in assistance to the country, of which less than 1 percent is allocated for democracy and human rights programming — an actual improvement from last year, when zero was devoted to this vital sector, much of the spending going towards health and humanitarian aid. A robust, reenergized, and empowered Ethiopian civil society, in which human rights groups are free to operate, is central to deepening democratic principles, not only in Ethiopia, but also throughout the East and Horn of Africa.
Overall, Obama must firmly reiterate that stability and security, and respect for basic human rights and the legitimacy of civil society, are not mutually exclusive objectives in Ethiopia, or elsewhere. Rather, he should be unequivocal — in both rhetoric and in practice — that, together, these issues help form an unshakable and long-term pillar for U.S. engagement on the African continent.
Macha-Tulama Association – USA, Inc
811 Upshur ST NW
Washington, DC 20011
contact@machatulama.org
July 2, 2015
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20500
Your Excellency President Obama,
The Board of Directors of the Macha-Tulama Association (MTA), U.S.A., is writing this urgent letter regarding your plan to visit Ethiopia in July 2015. The MTA is a non-profit organization incorporated in the U.S.A. because it was banned in Ethiopia. It advocates for human rights and for social justice for the Oromo and others in the Horn of Africa and beyond. For almost a quarter of a century, Ethiopia has been ruled by the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, which calls itself the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. This minority regime has been engaging in sham elections, which are elections only in name. The regime disregards all the principles and practices of democracy in spite of its pretension to be democratic since 1991. The regime’s promise of democratization by restructuring the state, liberalizing the economy, and respecting and protecting human rights has been subverted. While claiming to be a democratic government in order to receive ‘development aid’ and to gain political legitimacy, this regime has killed, imprisoned and tortured the Oromo and other ethno-national groups who have struggled for democracy, national self-determination, human rights, and social justice. In fact, the Oromo people have been mainly targeted for elimination and repression because they are the largest national group in Ethiopia, and they have started to recover, manifest, and exercise their rights to culture, history, and language, which have been repressed by the state of Ethiopia for over a century.
According to a recent Amnesty International report, entitled ‘Because I am Oromo: Sweeping Repression in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia,’ between 2011 and 2014 alone, at least 5000 Oromo were arrested, tortured, and sentenced with extra-judicial executions because of being Oromo and for also peacefully demonstrating against the regime’s land grabbing policies and the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan, intended to evict millions of Oromo farmers from their homelands in and around Addis Ababa (which the Oromo call Finfinnee), the capital city of Ethiopia. Since 1992, several human rights organizations have been reporting that Oromo prisoners have been predominantly populated Ethiopian prisons and other detention places. As a result these prisons and concentration camps speak Afaan Oromo (the Oromo language), as testified by many nonOromo prisoners.
Mr. President,
It is with shock and profound sadness that we received the message of your intention to visit Ethiopia in July. As the leader of a great country that subscribes to the principles of democracy and fundamental rights and liberties for all human beings, and as the leader of a country whose foreign policy in principle is committed to promoting the ideals of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy around the world, we believe your visit will send a wrong message to the regime and its likes across the globe that they can get away with grotesque violations of human and democratic rights as long as they remain ‘strategic allies’ to the United States.
Mr. President,
Because of these reasons, we earnestly request that you rethink your intention to visit Ethiopia. We believe your visit to the country also sends three messages: First, it encourages the Ethiopian government to continue intensifying its repressive policies. If your government continues to support and finance the regime regardless of what it does, the regime will see no reasons for changing its violent and dictatorial policies. Second, your visit to Ethiopia demonstrates to the affected people that the United States government only gives lip service to democracy and human rights while supporting the dictatorial minority regime of Ethiopia. To the 90 million people who are facing massive human rights violations in Ethiopia, particularly to the over forty million Oromo, your visit will mean that the U.S.A. does not care for the aspiration to live in a free, open, and democratic society. Your visit will also mean that human rights and democratic self-governance are not part of the list of U.S. priorities in Africa and beyond. Third, it convinces the people in Ethiopia and beyond that your policy is not different from some of your officials, such as Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, who recently undermined the process of democratization in Ethiopia by endorsing the regime’s record whose democracy, she said, is ‘improving.’ The Undersecretary has been roundly criticized, and we believe, rightly so.
In closing, we would like to bring to your attention that when, in July 2009, you visited Ghana, you made a speech in which you promised that the U.S.A. does not, and will not, support dictatorship and strongmen, and that you seek to assist the development of “strong and sustainable democratic governments” everywhere in Africa. We believe it is only appropriate now to request that you do not ignore your commitment and promise of that historic speech you made in Accra, Ghana, by visiting Ethiopia, the graveyard and prison house of thousands of men and women who have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, maimed, and disfigured only because they have aspired to exercise their God-given rights and to live in a democracy by demanding national self-determination and democratic rights in their own country.
Sincerely,
Asafa Jalata, PhD.,
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Macha-Tulama Association &
Professor of Sociology and Global and Africana Studies
OromianEconomist 
Oromia: Macha-Tulama Association Requests President Obama to Rethink Visit to Tyrannical, Undemocratic Ethiopia July 6, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, Freedom House in response to comments by Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Macha-Tulama Association Requests President Obama to Rethink Visit to Tyrannical Ethiopia, Obama's plan to visit Ethiopia criticised as 'gift' for repressive government, Oromia
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The following is a letter to President Obama from the Macha-Tulama Association-USA, Inc.
Macha-Tulama Association – USA, Inc
811 Upshur ST NW
Washington, DC 20011
contact@machatulama.org
July 2, 2015
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20500
Your Excellency President Obama,
The Board of Directors of the Macha-Tulama Association (MTA), U.S.A., is writing this urgent letter regarding your plan to visit Ethiopia in July 2015. The MTA is a non-profit organization incorporated in the U.S.A. because it was banned in Ethiopia. It advocates for human rights and for social justice for the Oromo and others in the Horn of Africa and beyond. For almost a quarter of a century, Ethiopia has been ruled by the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, which calls itself the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. This minority regime has been engaging in sham elections, which are elections only in name. The regime disregards all the principles and practices of democracy in spite of its pretension to be democratic since 1991. The regime’s promise of democratization by restructuring the state, liberalizing the economy, and respecting and protecting human rights has been subverted. While claiming to be a democratic government in order to receive ‘development aid’ and to gain political legitimacy, this regime has killed, imprisoned and tortured the Oromo and other ethno-national groups who have struggled for democracy, national self-determination, human rights, and social justice. In fact, the Oromo people have been mainly targeted for elimination and repression because they are the largest national group in Ethiopia, and they have started to recover, manifest, and exercise their rights to culture, history, and language, which have been repressed by the state of Ethiopia for over a century.
According to a recent Amnesty International report, entitled ‘Because I am Oromo: Sweeping Repression in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia,’ between 2011 and 2014 alone, at least 5000 Oromo were arrested, tortured, and sentenced with extra-judicial executions because of being Oromo and for also peacefully demonstrating against the regime’s land grabbing policies and the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan, intended to evict millions of Oromo farmers from their homelands in and around Addis Ababa (which the Oromo call Finfinnee), the capital city of Ethiopia. Since 1992, several human rights organizations have been reporting that Oromo prisoners have been predominantly populated Ethiopian prisons and other detention places. As a result these prisons and concentration camps speak Afaan Oromo (the Oromo language), as testified by many nonOromo prisoners.
Mr. President,
It is with shock and profound sadness that we received the message of your intention to visit Ethiopia in July. As the leader of a great country that subscribes to the principles of democracy and fundamental rights and liberties for all human beings, and as the leader of a country whose foreign policy in principle is committed to promoting the ideals of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy around the world, we believe your visit will send a wrong message to the regime and its likes across the globe that they can get away with grotesque violations of human and democratic rights as long as they remain ‘strategic allies’ to the United States.
Mr. President,
Because of these reasons, we earnestly request that you rethink your intention to visit Ethiopia. We believe your visit to the country also sends three messages: First, it encourages the Ethiopian government to continue intensifying its repressive policies. If your government continues to support and finance the regime regardless of what it does, the regime will see no reasons for changing its violent and dictatorial policies. Second, your visit to Ethiopia demonstrates to the affected people that the United States government only gives lip service to democracy and human rights while supporting the dictatorial minority regime of Ethiopia. To the 90 million people who are facing massive human rights violations in Ethiopia, particularly to the over forty million Oromo, your visit will mean that the U.S.A. does not care for the aspiration to live in a free, open, and democratic society. Your visit will also mean that human rights and democratic self-governance are not part of the list of U.S. priorities in Africa and beyond. Third, it convinces the people in Ethiopia and beyond that your policy is not different from some of your officials, such as Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, who recently undermined the process of democratization in Ethiopia by endorsing the regime’s record whose democracy, she said, is ‘improving.’ The Undersecretary has been roundly criticized, and we believe, rightly so.
In closing, we would like to bring to your attention that when, in July 2009, you visited Ghana, you made a speech in which you promised that the U.S.A. does not, and will not, support dictatorship and strongmen, and that you seek to assist the development of “strong and sustainable democratic governments” everywhere in Africa. We believe it is only appropriate now to request that you do not ignore your commitment and promise of that historic speech you made in Accra, Ghana, by visiting Ethiopia, the graveyard and prison house of thousands of men and women who have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, maimed, and disfigured only because they have aspired to exercise their God-given rights and to live in a democracy by demanding national self-determination and democratic rights in their own country.
Sincerely,
Asafa Jalata, PhD.,
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Macha-Tulama Association &
Professor of Sociology and Global and Africana Studies