Economic and development analysis: Perspectives on economics, society, development, freedom & social justice. Leading issues in Oromo, Oromia, Africa & world affairs. Oromo News. African News. world News. Views. Formerly Oromia Quarterly
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back – and determined to see democracy in his country
Global development is supported by
A man holds an Oromo Liberation Front flag as people in Addis Ababa celebrate the triumphant return of Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital’s main university, entourage in tow.
Nothing demonstrated the breathtaking transformation in Ethiopian politics over the past four months quite like the red-carpeted return of a figure who was once the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) most wanted man.
From a studio in Minneapolis, where he founded the controversial Oromia Media Network, Jawar has spent the past decade agitating over social media for political change back home in Ethiopia, which he left as a scholarship student in 2003. This was his first time in Ethiopia since 2008.
Jawar Mohammed addresses a news conference upon arriving in Addis Ababa in August. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
So effective was he as an activist that by late 2016, as anti-government protests billowed across the country compelling the EPRDF to impose a state of emergency, the Oromia Media Network was banned and Mohammed declared a terrorist.
By early 2018 the revolutionary fervour had grown so loud that Hailemariam Desalegn was forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for his enormously popular successor Abiy Ahmed, a young reformist from Oromia, Jawar’s home and the country’s largest and most populous region.
The Oromia Media Network, along with some smaller outlets and activists, has used social media to devastating effect over the past few years, coordinating boycotts and demonstrations and bringing Ethiopia’s large and often brutal security apparatus close to its knees.
“We used social media and formal media so effectively that the state was completely overwhelmed,” Jawar says. “The only option they had was to face reform or accept full revolution.”
During the course of a triumphant homecoming, the former terrorist (charges were dropped in May) toured the country, mostly around Oromia, where he was welcomed by vast and jubilant crowds. On his first day he led a tub-thumping rally in the capital’s main concert hall.
Later he travelled to Ambo, the epicentre of the Oromo protest movement – a struggle for political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures, which Jawar played a main role in orchestrating. Tens of thousands arrived to greet him, more than when Abiy visited the town shortly after his inauguration in April.
As Jawar had promised his supporters – mostly young, politically active Oromo men known as the Qeerroo – he took off his shoes and walked prophet-like through the streets of the city. He then planted a tree at the site where a young man was killed by security forces nearly 15 years ago, long before the rise of the movement that threw him into the national spotlight.
“They used to make me so happy and proud with what they did,” he said of Ambo’s Qeerroo. “So I told them: ‘One day I will come to your city and show my respect by walking barefoot.’ That day came and I had to deliver.”
Few doubt the importance of Jawar in recent Ethiopian history. Perhaps more than any other single individual, he took the once-marginal politics of Oromo nationalism and made it mainstream. Today, Oromos – the country’s largest ethnic group – dominate the highest offices of state, and Jawar enjoys significant personal influence over the country’s new leaders, including Abiy himself.
In a recent interview with local media he claimed – to the dismay of many Ethiopians – that the country now effectively has two governments: one led by Abiy, the other by the Qeerroo. This puts him in a position of extraordinary responsibility, since he is “one of the Qeerroo” and “a significant portion of the country listens to me”, he admits.
Many are uncomfortable with the whiff of demagoguery that accompanies Jawar. One Ethiopian journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) notes his “Trumpian sense of truth when inconvenient facts surface”.
He has been accused of inflating the numbers of protesters killed by security forces and, infamously, telling his followers (73,000 on Twitter and more than 1.4m on Facebook) that army helicopters fired live bullets at civilians during the tragic stampede that occurred during an Oromo cultural festival in October 2016. Independent journalists present confirmed this did not happen. He has a history of smearing journalists he disagrees with as government “agents”.
He has also been accused of inciting ethnic and religious violence. In a 2013 video, for example, he is heard saying: “My village is 99% Muslim. If someone speaks against us, we cut his throat with a machete.”
In recent years, he has whipped up his supporters against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the once dominant ethnic Tigrayan wing of the ruling coalition, which critics argue led to attacks against Tigrayan civilians as well as those of other ethnic groups. Jawar says that he has long sought to steer his supporters towards “non-violent resistance”, and adds that “even when TPLF was in power and actively killing our civilians we ensured Tigrayan civilians were not subject to attacks”.
These days, Jawar comes across as a more moderate and conciliatory figure. He says he plans for the Oromia Media Network to set up offices across Ethiopia and become a professionalised outfit. He points to the BBC and NPR as models. He insists he has no intention to enter formal politics, preferring to remain an activist.
“I want to help us in the next couple of years transition to democracy. And for that I want to use my influence over the population so that they can calm down, contain themselves, and ensure peace while the political leadership works out arrangements for transition,” Jawar says.
The last point is especially significant. In recent weeks instability across Ethiopia has escalated sharply, especially in his own region. The day after his interview with the Guardian a rally in the town of Shashamene turned violent, as a crowd of Jawar followers publicly hung a man they suspected of carrying a bomb. Two more died in the carnage that followed. Many Ethiopians blame him for the unrest, and he was compelled to cancel the rest of his tour.
Jawar nonetheless remains optimistic about the country’s future, and about the prospect of a peaceful politics free from violent expressions of ethnic identity. “I do believe if we democratise the Ethiopian state – allowing people of all ethnicities to participate in the political process and to get a fair share of power and wealth – there is a possibility the next generation will be proud Oromo and proud Ethiopian at the same time. I think that is possible.”
Abiy Ahmed: ‘To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded.’ Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, has accelerated a radical reform programme that is overturning politics in the vast, strategically significant African country.
Since coming to power as prime minister in April, Abiy has electrified Ethiopia with his informal style, charisma and energy, earning comparisons to Nelson Mandela, Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The 42-year-old – who took power following the surprise resignation of his predecessor, Haile Mmariam Dessalegn – has so far reshuffled his cabinet, fired a series of controversial and hitherto untouchable civil servants, reached out to hostile neighbours and rivals, lifted bans on websites and other media, freed thousands of political prisoners, ordered the partial privatisation of massive state-owned companies and ended a state of emergency imposed to quell widespread unrest.
In recent days, Abiy fired the head of Ethiopia’s prison service after repeated allegations of widespread torture, and removed three opposition groups from its lists of “terrorist” organisations.
On Sunday, the former soldier met president Isaiah Afwerki of Eritrea in a bid to end one of Africa’s longest running conflicts. The two men hugged and laughed in scenes unthinkable just months ago.
“You don’t want to exaggerate but for Ethiopia, a country where everything has been done in a very prescriptive, slow and managed way, these changes are unprecedented,” said Ahmed Soliman, an expert in East African politics at London’s Chatham House. “His main task is to satisfy all expectations of all groups in a huge and diverse country. That’s impossible but he’s trying to do so with some gusto.”
Despite an International Monetary Fund forecast predicting that Ethiopia would be the fastest-growing economy in sub-Saharan Africa in 2018, even the officially sanctioned press has admitted the country’s serious difficulties.
The Addis Ababa-based Reporter described “the spectre of catastrophe hanging over Ethiopia” and called on the new prime minister to pull the nation “back from the brink”.
Ethiopia is facing a critical shortage of foreign currency, only temporarily solved by an infusion of cash from the United Arab Emirates. There is growing inequality, a shortage of jobs for a huge number of graduates, significant environmental damage, ethnic tensions and a hunger for change.
Different interest groups have come together in recent years to constitute a powerful groundswell of discontent, with widespread anti-government protests led by young people. At least 70% of the population is below the age of 30.
“The youth [are] the active force behind the country’s growth. Now there must be a new model to make Ethiopia progress economically by creating more job opportunities for the youth while respecting political and civil rights,” said Befeqadu Hailu, a 37-year-old blogger jailed repeatedly for his pro-democracy writings.
Abiy has apologised for previous abuses and promised an end to the harassment.
“I have always lived in fear but I feel less threatened when I write than I did before,” Hailu said. “It’s not only his word … the moment he spoke those words the security personnel down to the local levels have changed.”
But not all back Abiy’s efforts. Last month, a grenade was thrown at a rally organised to showcase popular support for the reforms in Addis Ababa’s vast Meskel Square, where many among the tens of thousands supporters wore clothes displaying the new prime minister’s image and carried signs saying “one love, one Ethiopia”. Two people died and more than 150 were injured in the blast and the stampede that followed.
“Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat. To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded,” Abiy said in an address shortly after the attack.
Officials said there had been other efforts to disrupt the rally, including a power outage and a partial shutdown of the phone network. At least 30 civilians and nine police officers were arrested.
Since Abiy took power, there have been “organised attempts to cause economic harm, create inflation[ary] flare-up and disrupt the service delivery of public enterprises”, state media said.
One possible culprit could be a hardline element within Ethiopia’s powerful security services – Abiy has replaced military heads with civilians and admitted past human rights abuses. Another could be a faction opposed to the effort to find peace with Eritrea.
Strafor, a US-based consultancy, said the perpetrators of the “amateurish” attack were more likely to be from one of Ethiopia’s restive regions.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the rebel coalition that ousted the Derg military regime in 1991, is split by factional battles between four ethnically based parties as well as fierce competition between institutions and individuals.
Tigrayans, an ethnic community centred in the north of Ethiopia, make up about 6% of the population but are generally considered to dominate the political and business elite.
Born in western Ethiopia, Abiy joined the resistance against the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam as a teenager before enlisting in the armed forces, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He has a doctorate in peace and security studies. After a stint running Ethiopia’s cyberintelligence service, he entered politics eight years ago and rose rapidly up the ranks of the Oromo faction of the EPRDF, which has historically been at odds with the Tigrayans.
Analysts say Abiy’s mixed Christian and Muslim background, and fluency in three of the country’s main languages allow the new leader to bridge communal and sectarian divides. He has also reached out to women, making an unprecedented mention of his wife and mother in his acceptance speech.
One personal acquaintance described the new prime minister as “always looking ahead for the future”.
“He is also a good listener but with a bit of headstrong attitude towards people who don’t deliver,” said Yosef Tiruneh, a communications specialist who worked under Abiy at the science and technology ministry.
Tiruneh, said shelves of books on religion, philosophy and science filled Abiy’s office. “He is physically active and very well organised … He did not have a secretary because he wanted his office to be accessible. His office door was literally never closed.”
Andargachew Tsege, a British citizen unexpectedly pardoned in May after four years on death row on alleged terrorism charges, said Abiy was “very intelligent and a quick learner” who was committed to democratisation.
“Abiy invited me to meet him two days after my release. We spoke for 90 minutes and a lot of issues were discussed. It was a meeting of minds. This guy means business,” Tsege, who was abducted by Ethiopian security services while in transit in Yemen four years ago, said.
But some point out that the autocratic nature of decision-making in Ethiopia has yet to change, even if Abiy is using his new powers to reform.
“The country is still being led by one person and his cabinet,” said Tigist Mengistu, an executive in Addis Ababa. “Sadly we have been there for 27 years and we want that to change. It is bad for a country as diverse as Ethiopia,” she said.
Additional reporting by Hadra Ahmed in Addis Ababa
Related from Oromian Economist Sources:
Ethiopia, Eritrea to normalise relations after historic meeting
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his country would normalise relations with neighbouring Eritrea following an historic meeting with President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara on Sunday, ….
The Oromo Movement and Ethiopian Border-making using Social Media
The Oromo people have had a long and turbulent struggle in Ethiopia. This ethnic majority have been persecuted over decades for sustaining their culture – their language, traditions, and rituals, at times through systematic violence by the ruling regime. This has led to a large number of Oromo people fleeing the country and seeking asylum across the world. The Oromos, while restricted in self-determination in their homeland, have become visible through their activism on social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter. This has led the Ethiopian state to mark some of them as terrorists and block their online accounts due to their significant and growing influence on social media today. Within this context, this chapter critically examines the role of social media in the Oromo social movement and offers a framework to assess their impact. This framework includes, 1) border-making within urban and digital geographies, 2)
networks of digital Oromo activism, and 3) the creative insurgency of the Oromo movement.
By applying this framework, we can assess the complexities surrounding the Ethiopian digital political culture. The Oromo people have indeed reinvented themselves and their histories through digital platforms, at times creating moral dilemmas about group identity that can serve as a barrier to inclusion. –
By Ezekiel Gebissa & Jawar Mohammed, Horn Arguments, November 17, 2017
The Oromo Protest, approaching its fourth year, is now an established historical fact as an Oromia-wide, yearlong resistance movement involving the entire Oromo population. Despite frustrating obstacles to the attainment of its broad goals, the resistance has had many successes. It has rocked an entrenched authoritarian political system to its roots, nibbling down the Ethiopian federal government to paralysis and compelling the Oromia regional government to embrace the demands of the Oromo people. It has exposed the inequities of an economic system purported to be on an inexorable trajectory of growth and broad-based benefits for all citizens. The Ethiopian military, the third largest in Africa, deployed extensively to put down the resistance, was shown to be impotent against unarmed but determined protestors. In sum, the Oromo Protest, an epochal event in Ethiopia’s history, has occasioned the rise of an emergent Oromo nation and a resurgent Oromo nationalism.
In the last half century, the goals of Oromo nationalists have always been the same as the political demands of other Ethiopians. But when the Oromo raise them, they invariably evoke a rhetorical question: “What do the Oromo really want?” This is not an honest query but a mischievous scheme designed to marginalize the Oromo nation, disparage Oromo political demands, and criminalize the Oromo nationalist movement. It is a ploy employed by Ethiopia’s powerholders to make the Oromo the perpetual outsider and cast the Oromo national movement into a subversive nationalism.
Within the framework of this ploy, Oromo nationalism is consistently labeled as a separatist movement that injects discord into domestic politics and threatens the stability of the existing state system in the Horn. In scholarly literature, Oromo nationalists are depicted as disciples of Eritrean secessionists whose objective is the dismemberment of the Ethiopian state. In Ethiopian popular consciousness, Oromo nationalists came to represent a relic of the era of liberation movements who, unlike the levelheaded “democrats” of our time, want to tear down the state, subvert democracy, thwart development and disrupt peace. Simply put, Oromo nationalism was rendered a genie that should be kept inside the bottle.
The eminent British anthropologist Paul Baxter observed this phenomenon nearly forty years ago. In a definitive article published 1978, “Ethiopia’s Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo,” he wrote:
The efflorescence of feelings of common nationhood and of aspirations for self-determination among the Oromo has not been much commented upon. Yet the problem of the Oromo people has been a major and central one in the Ethiopian Empire ever since it was created by Minilik in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. If the Oromo people only obtain a portion of the freedoms which they seek then the balance of political power in Ethiopia will be completely altered. If the Oromo act with unity they must necessarily constitute a powerful force.
For the next four decades, even though both the Oromo nation and Oromo nationalism continued to play a critical role in matters of war and peace, in the formation and fall of regimes, and in the quest for equality and justice, the Oromo question remained Ethiopia’s unacknowledged problem that must be confined the periphery of Ethiopian politics.
Ethiopia’s Unacknowledged Problem
The contemporary Oromo struggle emerged during the revolutionary fervor of the late 1960s as a movement against national and class oppression. During this time, the impoverished, overtaxed and landless Oromo peasants Bale presented their grievances in an armed rebellion, the Bale Rebellion, which lasted several years. Oromo elite who served in the imperial regime as civilian and military officials, realizing that their place was always subordinate to the dominant Amhara, started to join the nationalist camp. In 1963, their dissatisfaction coalesced into an organized movement with the establishment of the Mecha Tulama Self-help Association (MTA).
By the late 1960s, the Bale rebellion had been quelled and the MTA had been outlawed by the imperial government. In response, Oromo nationalists founded a political organization named the Ethiopian National Liberation Front (ENLF) in 1971. Led by Hajji Hussien Sorra, one of the leaders of Bale rebellion, the ENLF’s declared objective was to overthrow Haile Sellassi’s “feudal regime” and to create a “progressive republic” based on a decentralized union comprised of autonomous regions. Specifically, it supported land distribution to peasants, freedom of the press, release of political prisoners and the right to organize political parties and professional associations. Put succinctly, the focus of the Oromo nationalists during this period was on the restoration of human dignity for an Oromo and respect for the identity of the nation.
In the 1970s, the Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM) became the locus of opposition political activities against the imperial government. Oromo nationalists were not just members of the ESM unions but also served in various leadership roles. In these capacities, they participated in the articulation of the two major political questions, encapsulated in the motto of “land to the tiller” and “the question of nationalities,” that have since shaped Ethiopian politics. These same political demands that animated the ESM also galvanized Oromo nationalists.
The twin questions of land and identity culminated in the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. During the early phases of the revolution, Oromo nationalists gave critical support to the Derg government for issuing the Land Nationalization Proclamation of 1975 and introducing various measures to allow cultural expressions of the various nationalities of Ethiopia. Many Oromo nationalists became leaders of the various political parties of the time including the All Ethiopia Socialist Union or Me’ison (Haile Fida) and the Revolutionary Struggle of Ethiopia’s Oppressed or Eche’at (Baro Tumsa) and the League of the Proletariat or Wez Liig (Senay Likki). Once the Derg consolidated its power, it made any talk of the nationalities question a treasonable crime. Oromo nationalists in urban centers were subsequently imprisoned, tortured and killed. Oromo farmers in the eastern region were labelled collaborators of the Said Barre regime, rounded up indiscriminately and summarily executed.
In the aftermath of this unparalleled brutality, some Oromo nationalists joined the armed struggle in the Chercher highlands in the East. At the same time, Oromo nationalist intellectuals framed Oromo nationalist goals in terms of freedom from the Amhara nafxanya class who had oppressed and persecuted Oromo peasants and from the descendants of the nafxanya in urban areas who kept Oromo professionals in perpetual second class status. As Leenco Lata, a leading leader of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) put it in a recent interview on ESAT, “framing the Oromo national question as a colonial question was necessary because Oromoness itself was threatened with extinction by the assimilationist policies of the imperial regime.” The political program that was sketched in the context of a worldview shaped by the prevailing realities of the time culminated in the regime change of 1991.
In the 1990s, the Oromo struggle began to move away from the guerilla movement posture it had for decade to a mass movement on Ethiopia’s national political stage. Within the framework of the language-based federal structure, the use of the Oromo language as the working language in Oromia and the use of Latin script in writing in Afaan Oromo, the Oromo people gradually overcame the cultural domination of the era of assimilation and came to realize that they have a common destiny as a unified nation. This sense of unity was reinforced by protest songs, resistance literature, cultural performances and a public display of new symbols of national pride. The annual Irreecha festival, celebrated in Bishoftu from the early 1990s onwards, became a manifestation an Oromo cultural renaissance and a nationalist struggle that had entered a more mature stage of political evolution.
By 2000, Oromo cultural consciousness, resulting from cultural renaissance and mounting deprivation caused by the barefaced exploitation of the Woyyane era, began to coalesce as an organized collective action. The forest fire of 2000 in Bale and opposition to the relocation of the capital of Oromia from Addis Ababa to Adama in 2003 prefigured a more powerful and resilient civic action that erupted a decade later in 2014. This was the university student-led protests opposing the planned implementation of the now infamous Addis Ababa and Surrounding Oromia Special Region Integrated Development Master Plan.
Since 2014, despite ebbs and flows, the Oromo protest has continued to this day. Even though this epochal phenomenon has yet to achieve its goals, it has incontrovertibly changed the face of Ethiopian politics permanently. With the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) ending its quarter century long drama of dissimulation and promoting the longstanding agenda of Oromo nationalist movement, Oromo nationalism become the leitmotif of politics in Oromia and in Ethiopia. As such, the fate of the Ethiopian polity is now inextricably linked with answering the Oromo demands for freedom, equality and justice. Ethiopia’s unacknowledged problem has been acknowledged as Ethiopia’s political problem that can no longer be externalized or pushed to the periphery.
Oromo Protest, an Oromo Renaissance
The Oromo Protest, the current stage of the long Oromo struggle, is characterized by fast, aggressive, sharp-paced resistance actions that took advantage of technology, artistic expressions and the ingenuity of organizers. Tech-savvy activists creatively employed new communication technologies—especially social media via the Internet—for the mobilization of collective action and the subsequent creation, organization, and implementation of tactical moves in pursuit of strategic goals. They were able to use the Internet to initiate and organize a broad spectrum of activities, including consumer boycotts, public protests, stay-at-home strikes, and demonstrations.
In addition to organizing and implementing collective actions on the ground in Oromia, social media technologies were used to coordinate transnational actions between activists in the diaspora and their counterparts at home. The technologies were used in promoting a sense of community and collective identity among Oromo society, creating less-confined political spaces, establishing connections with other social movements, and publicizing the Oromo cause to gain support from the global community.
One of the internal characteristics of the Oromo protests is the activists’ devotion to planning and execution of sophisticated civil actions. The activists created symbols, notably the crossed hands over the head, and employed new methods, tactics and actions which were quickly adopted by protestors in major cities, towns and villages across Oromia. Though Oromia-wide in scope, the network of activists who organized and led the protests remained invisible to the regime’s security apparatus. Unable to pin-down the organization and leadership of the protests, the regime resorted to a dragnet approach which landed leading Oromo political leaders in jail and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Oromo in concentration camps. Thousands more were forced into exile while thousands more were summarily executed by security forces acting with impunity.
Their sacrifices are not in vain. The Oromo Protest has ended the era of secretly-conceived, elite-directed and vertically-implemented bad policies. Confronting the regime with waves of demonstrations and insisting to have a voice in their government, the protestors have impressed on the current and future powerholders the true meaning of the principle of popular sovereignty. Streaming into the streets for nearly a year in the face of a heavily armed military that has no qualms raining bullets on unarmed citizens, the Oromo protesters have shown the futility of the use of brute force against a conscious and determined citizenry. Demanding respect for the constitution, the federal arrangement, and the rule of law, the protestors have defended the gains of the Oromo national movement.
Until the Oromo Protest, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) managed to remain in power by dividing the Oromo people into supporters of the “good” OPDO who are pro-peace, pro-democracy and pro-development “patriots” and of the “evil” OLF who are anti-peace, anti-democracy and anti-development “terrorists.” These dichotomies have now dissolved. The political rhetoric of the current OPDO leaders is indistinguishable from those of an OLF nationalist whom they have despised for a quarter century. Oromia government officials and diaspora-based activists now speak with one voice about the future. This signifies the convergence of Oromo interests and an emerging consensus in addressing the longstanding and current demands the Oromo people.
The apparent unity purpose among Oromo political forces is one of the enduring legacies of the Oromo Protest. Oromo demands are no longer the pawn of the competing positions enunciated in political programs. Through the slogans, chants, placards, speeches, songs and other forms of expression, the Oromo protestors have re-articulated the longstanding Oromo quest for self-determination. At this stage of the struggle, the Oromo people demand positive liberty, the freedom to exercise democratic rights, constitutional rule, respect for human rights and the right to live in peace. They also demand negative liberty or freedom from violence, authoritarian rule, deprivation, arbitrary detention, torture and murder by security forces.
Rearticulated as such it is clear that the longstanding demands of the Oromo people for self-determination are not antagonistic to the demands of all peoples in Ethiopia. They are not only the same demands as other peoples of Ethiopia but also consistent with the rights that are enumerated in the Ethiopian constitution and in notable international human rights declarations and convents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). By expressing Oromo demands so clearly and unambiguously, the Oromo protestors have rendered ineffective the TPLF’s tactic of presenting Oromo demands as a plot designed to dismember and destroy the Ethiopian state.
The Oromo Protest’s immediate impact is on the Oromia government leaders. At least three cases exemplify the new leaders’ transformation. First, when Lemma Megersa, President of the Oromia region, decided to stay away from the Irreecha celebrations of 2017, he showed a rare political acumen of exercising leadership by refraining from acting impulsively. Second, during the celebrations at Lake Arsadi, Burayuu and in other places all over Oromia, the Oromia police acted in the best police tradition that the force’s mission is “to protect and serve.” Third, after the Liyu Police of the Somali region engineered the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Oromo from the Somali region, the regional government quickly organized a relief effort to attend to the needs of the displaced. The senior leader of the OPDO, Abba Duulaa Gammada, realizing that his seat of power wasn’t matched by the authority to effect change, resigned in protest. In recent weeks, the new leaders have foiled the plot to instigate conflict between the Amhara and Oromo people and helped diffuse public fear of an impending inter-ethnic conflict by holding a solidarity conference in with the people of the people of the Amhara region.
It is true that the current OPDO leaders were forced by the resilience and determination of the Oromo Protest to respond to popular demands. Regardless, they made the right decision in choosing to heed the people’s voice, embrace the protestors’ vision and desist from doing more harm. Beyond these overall adjustments, the specific actions they made since the Ireecha festival of 2017 are important not just in resolving existing problems but also in terms of their implications for the future. A leader avoiding an opportunity to bask in limelight is a first in Ethiopia. A police force exercising restraint not to shoot at protestors sets a precedent that will be a model of police behavior in the future. A high level official giving up power rather than continue to be a hatchet man presages a new era in Ethiopian politics. The ‘reformed’ OPDO is an unmistakable example of the institutionalization Oromo nationalism.
The Oromo Protest has also reshaped Oromo nationalism forcing its intellectual leaders to reckon the many lost opportunities, strategic blunders, and self-destructive initiatives that have obviated progress toward self-determination. There is now an emerging Oromo nationalism that is pragmatic and is oriented towards solving the problems of everyday life. It is nationalism that is not and cannot be depicted as destructive, dystopian and iconoclastic. It is nationalism that is rational and has a responsible approach to nation-building. No longer the pariah in Ethiopian politics, the new generation of Oromo nationalists is now a positive force for desirable change and for devising workable solutions for Ethiopia’s future.
The Oromo Protest has shown that the force that poses a threat to the unity of Ethiopians is not the Oromo demand for self-determination, which in fact is the ultimate exercise of democratic rights, but a government that is committed to perpetuating a single group’s domination of the state by pitting against each other the various nations and nationalities in the country. The solution to the country’s ills cannot be achieved by denying the right to choose one’s ethnonational identity. The future of unity lies in the construction of a genuine multinational federation based on equality, justice, human dignity and constitutional rule. This is the Oromo alternative vision to a workable social contract for a future of peace and prosperity.
The Oromo Alternative
Nearly forty years after Paul Baxter bemoaned Oromo political marginalization and lack of unity among them, in 2012, the eminent University of Chicago sociologist, the late Donald Levine, expressed optimism about the role of the Oromo in Ethiopia in an article entitled “the Oromo vision could electrify Ethiopia.” He writes:
Oromo leaders could promote wider understanding of the democratic ethos of the remarkable political Gada system and invite themselves more robustly into the Ethiopian center, with a vigorous campaign to reform democratic procedures, protect human rights, and guarantee civil liberties for ALL Ethiopians. Such a role would be in keeping with the expansive project of the Oromo people and their most salient traditional virtues.”
The Oromo vision that Levine proposed for Ethiopia is precisely the vision that the Oromo Protest has put forth. It is a vision of a freedom, equality, justice and dignity in a participatory democracy. What makes it so compelling is that it is shaped by Oromo indigenous knowledge traditions rather by transplanted ideologies or borrowed experiences that have thus far proven to produce only failed experiments and false starts for positive change. The Oromo vision reaffirms Oromo democratic ethos, notions of inclusive economic development, principles of peace-maintenance and respect for human rights rather than by opposition to the now defunct Ethiopian colonialism. As such, it offers a refreshing alternative to the current one-party dictatorship and holds out a realistic hope for attaining a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Ethiopia.
In addition, Oromo nationalism is no longer an urban-centered movement led by a handful of elites but a broad-based social movement involving Oromos from all walks of life. Protests occurred in all of the twenty-one zones of Oromia and in over 200 cities and numerous villages. The absence of a distinct class of elite leaders did not result in chaos and the reign of unruliness in Oromia during the protests. Despite the effort to fan inter-ethnic suspicion and instigate conflict, the protest exercised great restraint not to let emotions run high and create a circumstance where non-Oromo citizens in Oromia could be harmed. By acting responsibly, the protestors have shown that Oromo nationalism isn’t a negative nationalism that poses a threat to non-Oromo or to Ethiopia’s unity but a movement rooted in the Oromo tradition of social inclusiveness, tolerance and willingness to relate to non-Oromo on the basis of common humanity.
These are positive reasons as to why non-Oromo Ethiopians should find a more reliable, stable, and enduring partner in Oromo leaders to create people-based solidarity against domination. Because of the new realities in Ethiopia, solidarity is now possible on the basis of broadly shared democratic, cultural and geographic values. The majority of Ethiopians are members of a national community of the badly governed. The risk of not having solidarity is too grave and the penalty of refusing to forge one too high. That imposes the moral imperative of seeking solidarity based not on ill-defined uniformity or uncritical acceptance of the other but on common ground and common purpose, and mutual acceptance of each other’s differences, and a willingness to tolerate each other’s excesses. It is solidarity for a more positive future which envisions a shared commitment to the ideals of democracy, human rights, government accountability and transparency and other ideas of both positive and negative freedoms.
Even governments who have interest in the Horn of Africa region should find in the Oromo a more credible and better alternative to the incumbent regime to stabilize the region. This is not to suggest that the Oromo cause should be subservient to the needs of the rest of the world, but a simple statement that the Oromo peoples’ quest for fundamental human rights, rooted in its own heritage and traditional values, is not antithetical to international principles that have avoided conflict and sustained peace in the world. Oromo nationalist leaders realize that the Oromo cause is more attainable if it is aligned with the needs of the international community.
The iconic and national hero who gave so much to his suffering people. Rest in Peace.
Colonel Aliyyii Cirrii lived (1912- 2017) an exceptional and impactful life as one of the pioneers and engineers of Oromo national movement against historical, economic, political and cultural injustices.
Born and raised in Madda Walabu, Bale, Southern Oromia, Aliyyii Cirrii joined the Oromo national struggle in the early 1960s along with the late General Waaqoo Guutuu. He spent most of his youth and adult age worked to bring freedom and justice to the suffering Oromo people. He was known among his contemporaries as a brave hero, which he proved during the Bale People’s movement, also known as the “Dhombir” war.
“Aliyyii Cirriitu beekaa, isaa beekaa, karaa dhombiriin dhukaatee, way dhukaatee…”- artist Haacaaluu Hundessaa’s 2013 song.
OMN: ODUU AMMA NU DHAQQABE /BREAKING NEWS DU'AAN BOQACHUU GOOTA OROMOO KOL/ALIYYII CIRRII ILAALCHISUUN SADAASA… https://t.co/K3KODQ1REA
Aanaa Dalloo Mannaa fi Madda Walaabuu kan waldaangessu Malkaa Amaanaarratti guyyoota 7f nafxanyaan saamichaa fi weeraraaf bobba’e akka hin dabarre dhoorkera.
Press Release For Immediate Release March 14, 2017
The Oromo Leadership Convention (OLC) held its second meeting in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, March 10 – 12, 2017. The Convention was opened with the blessing of representatives of the main religious groups in Oromo society and concluded after successfully deliberating on the current situation in Oromia and passing landmark resolutions that affirm the unity of all Oromo and underscore the need to strengthen institutions of democracy.
This Convention was attended by over 600 religious, civic and community leaders from across North America and other parts of the world, political organizations, professional and civil societies, artists, businessmen, scholars, veterans of the struggle and Oromo notables who have contributed to the advancement of the Oromo cause in their respective fields.
Considering the gravity of the deteriorating situation in Oromia and the tremendous suffering that the state of emergency has imposed on our people, the Convention focused on taking action.
1. Based on the proposal recommended by the Task Force on Humanitarian Assistance, the Convention established a non-governmental organization known as HIRPHA International (Humanitarian Initiative to Relieve the Plight in the Horn of Africa) to assist in the effort deliver coordinated and efficient aid to the victims of the Ethiopian government.
2. Accepting the proposal of the Task Force on Diplomacy and Advocacy, the Convention established a research and policy center that will assist the efforts to conduct diplomatic action in a strategic and coordinated manner with the view to assisting the struggle to end tyrannical rule in Ethiopia. This center will be named Organized Diplomacy and Advocacy Action in the Horn of Africa (ODAAHA).
3. Recognizing that the Task Force of Experts presented revised documents known as the Declaration of Oromo Unity and National Aspirations and Oromo Charter of Freedom, Justice, Dignity and Human Rights reflect the views of the delegates regarding the foundation of Oromo unity and a common ground for political action, the Convention adopted the revised documents as its official documents.
4. Recognizing that the need for further discussions to internalize the contents of these documents, the Convention recommended them to Oromo communities around the world for studying and discussions. The Task Force of Experts was named as a Commission of Experts to spearhead the effort.
Considering that the Oromo struggle needs robust, functioning and autonomous democratic and civil society institutions, the Convention discussed new agendas proposed by the OLC Executive Committee. The new agenda emphasized the need for enhancing women’s participation and youth engagement in the Oromo nation’s future and initiated an effort to create professional associations.
After thoroughly discussing two concept papers, the delegates recommended launching a community-wide conversation with a view of taking concrete steps to enhance women and youth participation in Oromo affairs within a reasonable period.
Recognizing the demand of the Oromo people, the Convention stressed the importance of the unity of purpose among Oromo political organizations for the success of our people’s struggle. The participants recommended to all political parties to continue to work together to find ways to mobilize our people for the bitter struggle ahead and redouble efforts to expand the arena of interparty collaboration, build democratic institutions, and fortify self-rule capabilities.
Recognizing the gravity of the time, Convention participants decided to increase their support for the Oromo struggle and to join hands in solidarity with all freedom loving peoples to fight against the repressive TPLF regime. In view of the continued suffering of our people, the Convention, once again, condemns in the strongest of terms the continued killings, mass incarcerations, enforced disappearances, and persecution of Oromo. The delegates also demanded an immediate end to the State of Emergency that has made life impossible for our compatriots.
Concerned with the continued impunity of the Ethiopian regime, the Convention, once again, calls upon the international community to live up to its commitment not to “never again” allow mass killings from occurring again by demanding the establishment of an independent and thorough investigation into the mass killings, especially at the Irreecha festival on October 2, 2016, and the other crimes perpetrated by Ethiopian security forces against innocent people.
Finally, the Oromo Leadership Convention extends its call to all peoples in Ethiopia to redouble their efforts to end totalitarian rule in the country.
Kaayoon isaa akka koree yaa’ii tana kopheessite keessaa Dr.Izqiheel Gabbisaa yuniversitii Kaateringi ka Mishigen jirtu keessaa dubbatetti ummata Oromoo biyya keessaa fi biyya alaatti rakkoo gugurdoo keessa jiru gargaarsa ilmaan namaatii fi gama siyaasaalleen gargaaraa tokkummaa Oromoo ijaaruu fi jabeessuu dhaaba dhaabuu.
Akkuma kanaan Yaa’iin tun dhaaba HIRPHA International (Humanitarian Initiative to Relieve the Plight in the Horn of Africa) jedhu ka nama mootummaan Itoophiyaatiin Afrikaa gama Gaafaa keessaa miidhame gargaarsa qindaahee kennuun qagaraafuu.
Tanaafuu Afrikaa gama Gaafaa keessatti damee Organized Diplomacy and Advocacy Action in the Horn of Africa (ODAAHA) yayyaban.
3.Tana maleellee galmee yaada Koree Qindeessituutin dhiyaatte jedhan Declaration of Oromo Unity and National Aspirations and Oromo Charter of Freedom,Justice, Dignity and Human Rights jedhuun tokkummaa Oromoo jabeesitu jedhan yayyaban.
“Long before the term ‘fake news’ became part of the everyday lexicon, the Ethiopian government had been actively working to induce the public into a post-truth world where the norm is fake news.”
Facing the worst drought in half a century, Ethiopia had managed to avert a crisis without significant foreign aid, boasted a December 27th report on state-run news agency ENA. A day later Eshetu Homa Keno, a U.S.-based online activist, posted on Facebook a figure released by the United Nations showing that the amount of foreign humanitarian aid Ethiopia received in 2016 was more than a billion U.S. dollars while the government’s share was a relatively meager 109 million dollars.
In another post on the same day, Eshetu raised a curious case of a stadium construction project in southwestern Ethiopia. The stadium, initially reported by state media to be finished in two years, was in its eighth year of construction without completion. Earlier that year the ENA told the public that most of the project was completed. However, the image it used in its report to illustrate the progress of the construction was uncovered by Eshetu to have been snatched from a Russian website. Public ridicule followed, forcing the news agency to take the picture down.
Eshetu is among a new breed of online activists working to hold state news agencies in Ethiopia accountable – a task that has grown more important as independent media wither. He has been active on social media for more than eight years but it was only a couple of years ago that he decided to focus on what he calls “exposing the outlandish lies and exaggerated development reports” by state-owned and affiliated-media in Ethiopia.
In addition to fact-checking inflated claims, he frequently monitors reports looking for contradictions and inconsistencies. “I am not a journalist by training,” he says, “I am just doing this to fight back against government-run propaganda machinery.”
Eshetu annotates state media articles so that his followers can grasp inconsistencies
Close monitoring has raised interesting questions about seemingly bland and straightforward state news items. For instance, Eshetu pointed out last month that a new ENA report on the opening of a hospital in the town of Jigjiga contradicted reports carried earlier by other state-affiliated agencies, Walta and FanaBC, which pointed to an earlier opening date. The underlying inconsistency of these reports raises questions about why the hospital project opened behind schedule, whether there were also cost overruns, and other performance issues not addressed by the state media reports themselves.
Online activism in Ethiopia is also trying to fill a gap left by a lack of vibrant civil society. An online project, Ethio-Trial Tracker, hopes to bring light to the government’s “use and abuse of anti-terrorism proclamation,” by documenting people charged under it.
Ethiopia is ranked as one of the top five worst jailers of journalists worldwide, second only to neighboring Eritrea in sub-Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists imprisoned currently, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. A 2015 report by human rights watchdog Freedom House claimed that the government employed a variety of strategies to weaken the independence of the press, including legal pressure, censorship of newspapers and the internet, arbitrary detention and intimidation of journalists and bloggers, and heavy taxation on the publishing process.
According to a journalism and communications lecturer at Addis Ababa University, the weakness of the independent media coupled with the government’s tight grip on information creates a fertile ground for fictitious reports to flourish.
“The government has made it difficult, if not impossible, for journalists to independently verify the various claims it makes,” said the lecturer, who wished to remain anonymous. Accordingly, “Long before the term ‘fake news’ became part of the everyday lexicon, the Ethiopian government had been actively working to induce the public into a post-truth world where the norm is fake news.”
Eshetu Homa Keno
Eshetu argues that the withering of independent media helped social media to grow impactful. Ethiopia has one of the lowest rates of internet penetration in the world. In 2016 only an estimated 4.4 per cent of its 100 million people used the internet. Regardless, Facebook and Twitter are now preferred platforms for Ethiopians as forums for expressing opinions. Eshetu says they are also important places for “disseminating information and exposing human rights violations.”
Pushback
Speaking at United Nations General Assembly summit in September, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn warned world leaders about the dangers of social media. “Social media has certainly empowered populists and other extremists to exploit people’s genuine concerns and spread their message of hate and bigotry without any inhibition,” he said. A couple of weeks later he declared a state of emergency as a response to a yearlong wave of unrest and shut down certain social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Viber and WhatsUp, in various parts of the country.
The lecturer at Addis Ababa university says that the prime minister “raised a legitimate concern when he talked about the potential perils posed by social media activism especially in the context of Ethiopia.”
“Most of the activists are based abroad and some of them have a tendency to disregard the truth or to shun responsibility so long as it serves a political end they see.”
One of the early victims of the state of emergency was the Addis Standard, a monthly magazine critical of the government which was forced to stop its print edition in November. Its editor in chief, Tsedale Lemma argues that social media has become a den for extremists but also presents great opportunities for journalists to highlight unreported issues and offer alternative perspectives.
Tsedale Lemma
“It is easier for the Ethiopian media, with its limited capacity, to get stories breaking on social media and follow the lead for further verification when that’s possible,” she says. The editor cites the example of the anti-government protests that started in November 2015 in Ethiopia’s largest state Oromiya.
Even though this was a big story, “for the first couple of months, there was a terrifying silence among the established media,” she recalls, “while people on social media were quite vocal often calling out the media to pay attention.”
The government believes that the protests may have been orchestrated from abroad – or at least hijacked by foreign-based activists. In February charges were made against a prominent social media activist based in the U.S., Jawar Mohammed, for his alleged involvement in the protests. For Eshetu, though, “the protests were the result of a continuous abuse of power by the ruling party which left the country’s youth disillusioned and hopeless.” Yet social media gave it some energy, he says.
Four months into the state of emergency, the government has shown no sign of loosening its grip on the media or civil society. But authorities reopened access to Facebook in Addis Ababa in December – a boon for Ethiopian online activism.
With Facebook as their preferred medium, online activists like Eshetu might succeed in eventually eroding popular trust in state-run media. But also possible is that they will spur reforms that will make state outlets more professionalized and responsive. What’s clear is that state media and social media – and not independent media institutions – are the two dominant publishing sectors at the moment and they are likely to continue in uneasy coexistence for some time to come.
The Ongoing Massacre of Oromo Civilians Never Resolve EPRDF/TPLF’s Inherent Malice!
Press Statement by Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF)
February 2, 2017
Since capturing the state power a quarter of a century ago, the TPLF/EPRDF dictatorial regime has monopolized the political governance and embarked on a project of fear, dehumanization, depersonalization, exploitation of peoples’ lands and wealth for its benefit, and systematic enslavement of the citizens of the country. Often changing its color like Chameleons, TPLF/EPRDF has proved its expertise in cheating, deceiving, stealing and more importantly brutalizing its subjects at an unprecedented scale. The regime has maintained its grip on power with barrel of gun terrorizing its subjects day and night. During TPLF/EPRDF 26 years of tenure, it became clear that the grotesque nature of the regime is multilayered and deeper than any person can comprehend. When it wishes, it sows the seeds of hatred between two or three sisterly nations whose peoples have peacefully coexisted with deep-rooted spirit of fraternity and cooperation for centuries. At the same time, the regime pretends to intervene to appear to be a provider of peace for the conflict it has meticulously masterminded. When it wishes, it massacres civilians who demand their constitutional rights in the name of defending the constitution which it persistently violates. Massacre, executions and incarceration of civilians have become a daily routine for the oppressed nations under the TPLF’s brutal regime.
The TPLF/EPRDF regime remains in power by terrorizing the nations and peoples of the country it claims to govern. As we speak, it is terrorizing the citizens under the ‘State of Emergency’ with the intensity of cataclysmic proportion. The current State of Emergency began since October 2016. One of its key objectives is quelling the Oromo and Amhara revolutions that began in November 2015 in Oromia and July/August 2016 in Amhara region. The two largest nations of the country are demanding freedom, democracy and self-rule in their respective regions.
To quell the Oromo national demand, for the last three months, the regime embarked on deploying Ogaden Somali Liyu militia to kill Oromo civilians, on its behalf in the entire areas neighboring Oromia with Ogaden Somali. The Oromo people are massacred by TPLF armed and commanded ‘Ogadeni Liyu Militia’ day and night, from Borana Zone to Harar and beyond. It orchestrated and instigated such conflicts between the two down trodden sisterly nations to secure a breathing space from the intense Oromo struggle for freedom and emancipation. The Amhara struggle for the same cause is also putting the regime’s position in precarious situation. The aim of the brutal regime is to shatter the dream and aspirations of the Oromo nation and other oppressed nations by setting them up against one another employing a typical colonial divide and rule strategy copied from the West. Together with the likeminded oppressed nations and peoples, the Oromo nation will never surrender its fight to the last drop of blood. The Oromo nation as well as Ogadenia, Amhara, Sidama, Konso, Benshangul-Gumuz, and other oppressed nations of the country are determined to liberate themselves from the TPLF’s tyranny now than ever before. The popular demand couldn’t be easily silenced by the power of weapon and military might, and draconian State of Emergency laws that stifle basic human freedom.
Acting unlawfully, the regime has proved its vicious nature time and again. Impoverishing the target subjects and most of the regions, it has indescribably enriched its region and people, who are exponentially multiplying their wealth and assets day by day. The TPLF elites, who were penniless apart from rifles and ammunitions when they occupied Addis Ababa in May 1991; turned to multi-millionaires by expropriating the resources of Oromia, Sidama, Gambella, Benshangul, Amhara, Konso, Ogadenia and the rest of Ethiopians. In the past 26 years, tens of millions have been displaced from their lands to vacate it for Tigreans and TPLF’s business empires and for those whom the TPLF regime recruits from abroad under the pretext of international investment.
The regime has time and again shown its blatant disregard for a peaceful settlement of political differences. Instead it answers all constitutionally guaranteed demands for freedom with live bullets. In the past 16 month alone, the TPLF/EPRDF regime has executed over 1,700 Oromo civilians and unlawfully arrested over 170,000 who have demanded their constitutional rights in Oromia alone. The Amhara people are also similarity targeted as are in Ogaden, Konso, Sidama, Gambella, Benshangul and elsewhere in the country. Ethiopia is under an act of state terrorism! Under this regime, children and elderly, women and men alike have been increasingly subjected to ongoing massacre and state terrorism.
The ongoing massacre of the Oromo people by Ogaden Liyu Militia, armed and coordinated by TPLF generals behind the scene is deplorable, thus it must be unconditionally stopped. It is wholly loathsome for the regime that calls itself a government to play such barbaric games on human lives. The Oromo and Ogaden Somali nations fully understand the vicious attempts by the TPLF to divide and sow seeds of conflict between them, must foil this heinous plot and stand together in denouncing these criminal actions. We must show the regime that it can’t ‘divide and conquer us’ by standing shoulder to shoulder more than ever until we get rid of the barbaric regime. The ongoing massacre of the Oromo people in the entire militarized Oromia must be unconditionally stopped and the region must be immediately de-militarized. The Oromo and Ogadeni Somali nations must focus on targeting the regime which has denied them their dignity, identity and pride. The Ogandeni Liyu Militia are also urged to reject the TPLF and its sinister agenda of sowing seeds of belligerence between the two sisterly nations to prolong its rule.
Finally, the Sidama National Liberation Front calls up on all the oppressed nations and the entire peoples in Ethiopia, to stand in unison to denounce the TPLF fascism and forge a united front for freedom, democracy and genuine self-rule.
In the two months since the historic Oromo Leadership Convention (OLC), held in Atlanta, Georgia, November 11 – 13, 2016, the situation in Oromia has deteriorated precipitately. The Ethiopian government has unleashed the full array and fury of its security forces against Oromos. Several thousand innocent citizens have been herded to military concentration camps, hundreds gunned down and numerous people subjected to enforced disappearances. Unable to cover the mounting expenses of enforcing the State of Emergency it promulgated on October 9, 2016, the regime has essentially legalized confiscation of private assets and looting by soldiers. Click here and read more at (www. oromoconvention.org)
Image copyrightAFP. Image caption The Oromo style of protest, arms crossed above the head as if handcuffed, has become famous
Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amhara, were using these hashtags for months to bring attention to their protests over economic and political marginalisation.
They accused the government of killing hundreds of demonstrators and arresting thousands in brutal crackdowns.
But in August, when Ethiopia’s Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa, himself an Oromo, crossed his hands above his head in a gesture of protest as he crossed the finish line in Rio, the world’s media sat up and took notice.
“The Ethiopian government is killing my people so I stand with all protests anywhere as Oromo is my tribe. My relatives are in prison and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed,” he said.
One Ethiopian activist on Twitter compared Lilesa’s actions to the famous black power salute made by two American athletes at the 1974 Olympics, when they staged a silent protest against racial discrimination:
Image copyrightTWITTER
Lilesa was named in Foreign Policy Magazine’s top 100 global thinkers for 2016, which praised him for “breaking the rules of the games” by staging a protest at the Olympics.
He is now living in exile in the US, having said he feared he would be killed or imprisoned if he returned home.
But protests have continued in his home country, with more than 24,000 people arrested since the government introduced a state of emergency in October – half of whom remain in custody.
#OromoProtests 30 August 2016: Arsi,Dodola, Gannata Haaraa, Oromia, 30 August 2016
Hagayya 30/8 bara 2016 Godina Arsii lixaa Aanaa dodolaa Qeerroon Ganda Gannata Haaraa bifa kanaan gaddaa ilmaan Oromoo dhumaniif kanneen mana hidhaa jiraniif gaddaa fi finxilaan dabarsan.
Motummaan nama nyaata wayyaneefi jala deemtu wayyanee Opdofi yoomillee hin jilbifannuu mirga kenyaaf ni falmanna haqa qabna ni moona injifannoon kan ummaata Oromoti jedhan.
#KonsoProtests 31 August 2016: The Konso people have maintained their protests against fascist TPLF Ethiopia’s regime.
Uuummanni saba koonsoo kan naannoo uummattoota kibbaatti argamu wayyaanee waliin walitti bu’aa jiru. Barana kan wayyaanee hin jibbine hin jiru.
RUELTY of TPLF
#OromoProtests 31 August 2016: You might recall the report about killing of 15 farmers in West Hararge, masala District Choma village over the last four days. You also remember reading how the military prevented people from burying the dead and helping the wounded. Today they are dressing body of dead civilians in military uniform and video taping it. They want to make fake documentary claiming they killed armed combatants.
Guyyaa hardhaa ilmaan Oromoo 15 Harargee Lixaa Aanaa Masalaa Araddaa Coommaa keessatti ajjeefaman san reeffa isaanii huccuu waraanaa offisuun fiilmii sobaatiif viidiyoo waraabaa jiran. Source: Jawar Mohammed
Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany’s No 1 well respected newspaper, published a big feature story about Ethiopia and Oromo Protest. It is an in-depth reporting & published on page 3 of the newspaper.
Afar people protests, #AfarProtests 29 August 2016 and solidarty with #OromoProtests
De senaste månaderna har otaliga kvinnor, män och barn dött i Etiopien. Ännu fler har fängslats. Detta för att de valde att inte blunda för de orättvisor som pågår. Detta för att de valde att säga ifrån när människor behandlas illa. De senaste dagarna har Facebook fyllts av bilder som denna, människor som visar sin heder för alla de som inte längre är bland oss. Vi fotograferas med händerna korsade, en symbol för att om några av oss fängslas för att ha krävt att mänskliga rättigheter respekteras, är vi alla fängslade med dem! Vi måste säga ifrån när människor mister livet för att helt enkelt ha brytt sig om varandra! Låt oss fylla internet med bilder som denna. Tagga dem med #OromoProtestsoch #AmharaRistance. Det visar att du står med Oromofolket, Amharafolket och alla etiopiens folk som i årtionden förtryckts av den etiopiska regimen. Visa att du bryr dig. Om vi alla gör något litet blir det tillsammans något stort. Tack! By Melody Sundberg
#Amhara Protests in Gojjam, 28 August 2016, Road closure in action in Kosobar, Gojam and also they are in solidarity with #OromoProtests. More anti TPLF protests are going on in various cities and towns in Gojjam and Gonder.
Ethiotelecom has lost at least 30 million birr in potential revenue as a result of yesterday’s hacking that enabled customers to make free call domestically and international. The company is now trying to recover its loss by billing customers although it mostly provides prepaid service. Looking at the bills it is been sending, the loss could be way higher than the above estimate.
Oromia: Athletic nation Report: Short poem (Rio) about Oromo Olympian Fayyisaa Lalisaa, the world icon of #OromoProtests (the call for social justice). Oromian EconomistAugust 23, 2016
Oromia: Athletic Nation Reports: Crowdfunding campaign for #OromoProtests world icon, Rio 2016 Olympian, Fayyisaa Lalisaa has been exceeding the target. Dirmannan Goota Oromoo Fayyisaa Lalisaaf ta’aa jiru hamma abdatamee oli ta’aa jira. Oromian EconomistAugust 22, 2016
Oromia: Athletic Nation Report: #Rio2016 Olympic Marathon: Oromo athlete Fayyisaa Lalisaa has demonstrated his Solidarity to #OromoProtests as he wins silver medal. Oromian Economist August 21, 2016
(Yahoo Sports) — With the eyes of the world upon him, Ethiopian marathonerFeyisa Lilesaused the stage of Sunday’s Olympic marathon to daringly protest his own government back home.
As he neared the finish line and a silver medal, Lilesa raised his arms to form an ‘X’. The gesture is a peaceful protest made by the Oromo people, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and one that is facing a brutal response to widespread protests that began late last year.
Human Rights Watch estimated in June that 400 people have been killed and thousands more injured as the government attempted to stop the estimated 500 protests that the Oromo people staged to draw attention to systemic persecution by the govermnent.
Lilesa is from Oromia, which is home to a large majority of the country’s 35 million Oromo. He didn’t back down from the protest after the race either, flashing the sign for cameras as a press conference and pledging to do it again during Sunday night’s closing ceremony.
Rule 50 of the Olympic charter bans political displays or protests and the American duo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos was famously stripped of its medals after the pair flashed the black power salute on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Games.
Lilesa, however, has bigger things to worry about than just losing a medal as such dissent puts his life in real danger if he returns to Ethiopia.
Columbia University students in USA are in solidarity with #OromoProtests
The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert for Ethiopia on Friday 19 August 2016 over anti-government protests.
“Protests are likely to continue, and could spread to other parts of the country, including the capital, Addis Ababa,” the State Department said in a statement. The embassy said disruptions and internet services have hampered its ability to communicate with American citizens.
Hagayya 19,2016 Gguyyoota lamaa asitti godinaalee Oromiyaa hundarraa Qeerroon hidhamaa jiru. Sababa addaa hin qabu gochi addaas hin jiru garuu Bilisummaan waan dhiyateef wayyaaneen kufaatii ishees waan mirkaneessiteef jecha uummata oromoo hidhaatti guuruu murteesse. Kaan tarkaanfii ajjechaan diinni uummata oromoo irratti aggaamee jiru biraa deebihaa kan hin jirrree fi bakka uummanni fi iji namaas hin arginetti ilmaan Oromoo ajjeessuunis Oromiyaa keessa magaalota tokko tokkotti kan mul’ataa jiru tahuunis Qeerroon gabaasaa jira. kun uummata Oromoof haaraa tahuu baatus FXG oromiyaa keessatti isa xumuraa itti fufuu irraan amma hidhaan daran jabaatee jira.
Godina Qellem ona garagaraa irraa Qeerroon gabaasaa jiruun fakkeenyaaf Anfilloo irraa namotni 15 ol tahan kaleessuma ukkaamfamuu akkasuma
Jimmaa Horroo irraa
– Dargaggoo Hasan Jamaal
– Dargaggoo Bulchaa Qalbeessaa
– Dargaggoo Tizaazuu Akkattii fi
– Dargaggoo Qalbeessaa Tolasaa kan jedhaman ukkaamfamuun gabaafamee jira.
Dabalataan onuma kana manneen jireenya namoota 4 WBO jiraachisu jechuun humna waraana Wayyaaneen sakatta’amuu irraa eegamaa jiraachuun kan gabaafame
– Mana jireenyaa Lataa Wiirtuu
– Mana jireenyaa Caalii Ganjoosaa
– Mana jireenyaa Yaadasaa Danuu fi
– Mana jireeenyaa Solomoon Gurichoo
Kan jedhaman humna agaaziitiin eegamaa jira. Akkasuma ona Gaa’oo Qeebbee, Gidaamii fi Begii keessaa ijoolleen dargaggeyyiin hidhaatti guuramaa jiru. Kun godina oromiyaa maratti akka tahes Qeerroon gabaasaa jira.
Godina Shaggar kaabaa, shagger Bahaa fi shaggar Lixaa Qeerroon hidhamuun daran jabaatee jira. uummannis hidhaanii fi ajjechan Bilisummaa nun dhorku nu doorsisuun FXG hin hambisu jechuun dhaadannoo isaa itti fufee jira. Hidhamtootni hedduun bakka itti hidhaman irraa bakka biroottis jijjiiramuudhaan hedduun namootaan bakka buuteen isaanii dhabamaa jira. Kanuma keessatti FXG ammas yeroo dhumaa kanaaf kan wayyaanee aangoo isheetti xumura taasisu itti fufuun uummannis gibira diduun, walgahiin wayyaaneen oromiyaa magaalotaa fi godinaalee adda addaatti gaggeessuuf uummata mariisisuuf deemtus bakka hundatti gara FXGtti jijjiramuu fi feshelatuun Wayyaanee isa dhumaa abdii kutachiisuudhaan bifa naasuutiin uummata hidhaatti guuruu murteeffachuun beekameera.
#OromoProtests, Black Lion Medical school students in Finfinnee, the capital, Oromia, protesting fascist Ethiopia’s regime mass killings on 18 August 2016.
Hagayya 14,2016 Sochiin Warraaqsaa Biyyoolessaa Oromiyaa FXG daran jabaachuun Walqabatee Addaatti Magaalootni Gurguddoo Oromiyaa fi Magaalotni Oromiyaa naannawaa Finfinneetti argaman homaa waraana wayyaaneen shororkeeffaama jiru.
Sochiin warraaqsaa biyyoolessaa Oromiyaa utuu wal irraa hin citiin ji’oota 8 guutuu gaggeeffamaa jiruun motummaan abbaa irree raafama ulfaata keessa seenuun kasaaraa Siyaasaa , Dinagdee fi hawaasummaa ulfaataa keessa seenee kan jiru abbaan Irree Wayyaanee EPRDF/TPLF ummata Oromoo Uummata Sivilii mirgaa fi haqa dhugaa isaaf falmatu irratti hoomaa waraanaa bobbaasuun uummata shororkeessuu ittuma fufe jira . Magaalootni Oromiyaa Naannawaa Finfinnee Sulultaa, Burraayyuu, Sabbataa, Holotaa, Aqaaqii Qaallittii, Duukkam, Galaan bishooftuu, Moojoo, Adaamaa, Laga Xaafoo laga daadhii fi Sandaafaa Hoomoo waraanaan shororkeeffamaa kan jiran Yoota’uu, Oromiyaan Bulchiinsa Waraana Wayyaanee Komand post ifatti labsiin jala erga galfamtee ji’oota 8 oli lakkoofsisaa kan jiru. Uummatni Oromoo fi goototni dargaggootni Qeerroon Oromoo soda waraanaa gabrummaaf harka akka hin kennineefi hanga gaaffiin mirga abbaa Biyyummaa uummata Oromoo deebii argatutti warraaqsaa irraa duubatti akka hin deebine diinaaf mirkaneessan.
Warraaqsii Biyyoolessaa Oromiyaa FXG Gaaffiin mirga abbaa biyyummaa haalaa caalatti mootummaa wayyaanee kasaaraa guddaa keessa galchuu danda’uu fi aangoo irraa qaarisuu danda’uun jabaatee rogaa hundaan kan itti fufu malee shororkeessa waraana wayyaanee fi hidhaa jumlaa, ajjeechaa duguginsa sanyii wayyaaneen rawwachaa jirtuun kan hin dhaabbatne ta’uu Qeerroon bilisummaa Oromoo hubachiisa.
A massive deployment of police in Ethiopia’s restive Oromo and Amhara regions prevented fresh anti-government protests over the weekend, an opposition leader said Monday. #OromoProtests 15 August 2016.
Aljazeera Inside Story – What is triggering Ethiopia’s unrest?
August 14, 2016 in
Calls for an international investigation in Ethiopia have surfaced after more than 100 people were killed in demonstrations.It is a conflict that has led to 400 deaths since November, 100 of them in the last week alone, according to human rights groups.The Ethiopian government is cracking down on ethnic Oromos and Amharas, who are calling for political reforms.Human rights groups have called the reponse ruthless. And the United Nations wants to send international observers to investigate.Ethiopia has denied that request, saying it alone is responsible for the security of its citizens. But what can be done to ensure the Ethiopian government respects human rights?Presenter: Folly Bah ThibaultGuests:Getachew Reda – Ethiopian communications affairs minister.Felix Horne – Ethiopia reseracher for Human Rights Watch.Ezekiel Gebissa – Profesor of History and African studies at Kettering University.- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe– Follow us on Twitter:https://twitter.com/AJEnglish– Find us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera– Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com
#OromOroprotests 14 August 2016: Walfalmii mooraa OPDO keessatti deemaa jiru kam miliiqee saba gahe:
#OromoProtests: A candlelight vigil in in front of The White House in honor of innocent peaceful protesters -brutally gunned down in cold blood by Ethiopian government. 12 August 2016
“DHIIGI MUCAA KOOTII DHANGALA’EE HIN HAFU. OROMIYAAN NI BILISOOMTI!” :AKEEKA UMMATNI OROMOO BAKKAAN GAHUUF MURTEEFFATE.
Fascist Ethiopia’s regime’s detaining and torturing Oromo children.
#OromoProtests 13 August 2016: Children make up a third of the protesters jailed in connection with Grand #OromoProtests. This photo was taken at Iyasu IV prison in Gara Mulata, East Hararge. (The former emperor was jailed there after loosing power to Hailesilassie)
Ijoollee Oromoo kan Waajjira poolisii magaala Burrayyuutti hidhamanii darara hamaan irra ga’aa jiru irraa dhaamsa nu gahe. I#OromoProtests 12 August 2016.
This is martyred Oromo teenager girl Mamiituu Hirphaa who was killed by cruel fascist Ethiopia’s regime Agazi forces in Ambo town, West Shawa, Oromia on 6 August 2016, Grand #OromoProtests
Kun wareegamtuu keenya Maammituu Hirphaa, kan godina Shawaa Lixaa, magaalaa Amboo keessatti hiriira guddaa Oromoo irratti Hagayya 6 bara 2016 wararana Wayyaaneen wareegamte.
Mammituu intala sabboontuu otuu mirga saba Oromoof falmituu wareegamte. Gootota Oromoo kumaatamaa wajjin nagaan nuuf boqodhu!
Qabsoon hanga bilisummaatti itti fufa!!
Rabbi lubbuu ishii haa qananiisu.
#OromoProtests, a determination of an Oromo man, 80 years old confronting fascist Ethiopia’s regime, Agazi forces, Arsi, Oromia, 12 August 2016
Grand#OromoProtests: POWERFUL!! A woman takes the stage during saturday protest in Dallo Manna ( Bale) moves the crowd to a higher spirit of resistance.
Hidhamuun nu gaya
Ajjeefamuun nu gaya
Oromiyaa waraanni hin bulhu
oromiyaan bulchiinsa ofiitin bulti
Grand #OromoProtests 7 August 2016 in Amboo Continues:Guyyaa 07,08,2016 Oduu oromiyaa magaalaa Amboo irraa
Magaalii Amboo kaleessaa irraa kaassee hangaa ammaatti raafama guddaa keessaa jirtii ,finciili uummaata har’as itti fufee oole jedhu jirraatoon ,poolisiin oromiyaa fi poolisiin fedderaala magaalaa keessaa hin muldhatani, magaalaa kan dhunfatee jiruu raayyaa ittisaa biyyaa(agaaze) yoo ta’uu isaannis irraa caalii saba Tigiree afaan Tigirfaa dubbatani,nama argani hundaa daa’ima,jarsaa fi jartii osoo hin jedhiini mana cabsanii reeba fi hidhaa jiruu .
hangaa ammaatti sagaleen dhukaasa magaalaa keessaa dhaga’amaa jiraa ,kan hidhaa jiruuf kan du’ee addaan baafachuun hin danda’aminee jedhuu.
Finicilaa kaleessaa keessaatti magaaluma ambootti mucaa waggaa kudha sadii (13) hin caalee alaabaa abo qofaa waan qabatee deema tureef Agaazen konkolaatan ari’anii irraa baasuun gara jabbinaan ajjeesaniiru jedhuu warrii ijaan argan.
Grand #OromoProtests, Grand #OromoProtests full scale Military massacre has been conducted by Ethiopia’s fascsit regimei n Naqamte, East Walaga. 6 August 2016 pcture.
Similar genocidal mass killings all over Oromia (in town and rurals of Hararghe, Shaggar, Finfinnee, Arsi, Baalee, Boranaa, Gujii, Walloo, Wambaraa, Jimmaa and Eluu Abbaa Booraa).
Grand #OromoProtests on August 6, 2016, Norwegian Embassy in Finfinnee, travel restrictions
BBC: Oromo community calls for more protests in Ethiopia
Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Nairobi
Posted at11:43
Activists from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, have called for more anti-government protests this weekend, days after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the northern city of Gondar.
Activists say that hundreds have been killed in a security crackdown
They say they will hold countrywide protests against what they describe as continued killings and other abuses by the authorities.
In the latest incident earlier this week, at least six people were allegedly shot dead by police in the eastern town of Awaday.
Prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn warned on Tuesday that Ethiopia was sliding towards ethnic conflict similar to that in neighbouring countries.
Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group, the Amhara, held a large demonstration last Sunday in Gondar.
The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front has been in power since 1991 and won all seats in parliament in last year’s elections.
Since November 2015, Ethiopia has been experiencing a wave of anti-government protests unleashed by fears by the Oromo people that the government was planning to seize their land. Hundreds of people have been killed.
In early August, anti-government demonstrations rocked the Oromia and Amhara regional states of Ethiopia. Thousands of demonstrators went on to the streets calling on the government to stop killing protesters, release those arrested, implement political reform, and respect justice and the rule of law. However, the response from government security forces, which used live ammunition against protesters, led to the death of about 100 unarmed people.
Although the government security apparatus reported that the demonstrations had been contained, “the current political situation has become volatile. Things are fast changing and developments have become increasingly unpredictable,” according to analyst Tsegaye R. Ararssa. Activists are said to be busy devising alternative methods of protest that range from weakening government institutions through staying at home and not operating businesses to organizing a Diaspora-based “grand solidarity rally.”
Change of tactics
In the town of Gondar in the state of Amhara, where the first demonstration took place, residents resorted to a new mode of protest – staying at home. A resident of the town, talking on condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Welle that from last Sunday to Tuesday the streets were deserted. Workers stayed at home and stores remained closed.
Asked why the public had opted for this type of protest, the man said “it is clear that society has demanded an answer from the government, but the response was one of bullets in return, so the public decided to launch a stay-at-home strike.”
For Tsegaye, this peaceful method of protest demonstrates “a complete rejection of the regime by the people. It also blunts the regime’s false claims that the protests were violent. The stay-at-home protest is an indication of the increasing maturity of civil disobedience in Ethiopia.”
Protesters are now leaving the streets and staying at home
Internet restrictions
Residents in both the Oromia and Amhara regions say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get an internet connection and access to social media tools has been blocked. “The only way to get through is by using proxy servers,” one resident of Gondar told DW.
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Ethiopia’s Communications Affairs Minister Getachew Reda claimed that that social media had been used “to churn out false information after false information, mostly seditious remarks, trying to agitate people against security forces and also against fellow brothers and sisters.” The administration therefore decided to gag “the kind of vitriol running over social media,” he said.
However, political pundits argue that the state move to censor the internet places a strain on political discourse and the sharing of information. Despite the fact that the country has less than three percent of internet access, there are growing numbers of news and opposition websites which the regime is notorious for blocking.
Aid from the West
The Ethiopian government receives some 3.5 billion dollars (3 billion euros) annually from international donors and has remained a key strategic partner of the West, particularly the US and the EU, in the ‘war against terror.’ However, analysts argue this financial support has been toughening the regime’s resolve to silence dissenting voices. The western approach of tiptoeing around human right violations in the country and its continued support for the regime has been stirring up anger among sections of the public.
Tsegaye says that US and EU “support of the regime – which they know is clearly undemocratic – is the very cause of the state terrorism we observe in the region.”
A recent editorial in The Washington Post argues that the Obama administration, beyond releasing their “deeply concerned” statements, should put pressure on the regime to allow for “credible investigation into the killings.” Following the demonstrations in the two regions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, urged the Ethiopian government to “give access to international observers in the affected areas to establish what really happened.”
In an interview with DW, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the commissioner, said restrictions on internet access, the blocking of social media and lack of civil society organizations in the country have made it difficult to verify reports of deaths and casualties.
Oromo activists took to the streets of Berlin in November 2015
Mohammed Said, public relations officer with Ethiopia’s Communications Affairs Office, told DW that the government had its own system of checks and balances and the country’s own Human Rights Commission was doing its job in investigating and publicizing the human rights situation in the country.
For analyst Tsegaye, this shows that the regime “is still in denial of the injustice its policies have resulted in.” The Ethiopian government now has the opportunity to change its approach – otherwise, Ravina said, “if the situation is left to fester, there will be more outbursts, more unrest, more protests and perhaps more violence.”
Ethiopia’s Crackdown on Dissent: Police Attack Oromo Protests
Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration over what they say is unfair distribution of wealth in the country at Meskel Square in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, Aug. 6, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
The protests have left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with police Saturday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa after campaigners called for nationwide protests due to what they say is an unfair distribution of wealth in the country.
Violence broke out as police tried to stop several hundred chanting protesters from accessing the historic Meskel square.
The demonstrations started as a small-scale student protest over the government’s plan to expand Addis Ababa into adjacent farm lands of Oromiya, Ethiopia’s largest constitutionally autonomous state.
Now they have evolved into a series of large and bloody demonstrations against the government, leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed.
On Friday, two people were killed in similar clashes with police in Ethiopia’s ancient city of Gonder. The violence broke out when police brought one of the leaders of the land campaign movement to court.
Protestors chanting “Freedom!”
Chief administrator of the Amhara region, Gedu Andargachew, has declared the protests illegal and said security services will take measures against those who take part.
In a country known for cracking down on dissent, the public protests are rare.
But tensions over the status of Wolkayt — a stretch of land that protestors from the region of Amhara say were illegal incorporated in the neighbouring Tigray region — have been embroiling for at least the past 25 years.
The issue first resulted in violence two weeks ago when throngs of people in Gonder protested against an attempt to arrest Wolkayt campaigners.
‘People like TPLF leaders are those who never change no matter how much one tries to explain to them about the brutality of their ruling system and barbaric actions of their military and special commandos. This article expose the failed policy of the TPLF and their new destructive plan to slow-down the Oromo people movement for freedom.’
“The government’s repression of independent voices has significantly worsened as the Oromo protest movement has grown,” said Yared Hailemariam, Director of the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE). “The international community should demand the end of this state-orchestrated clampdown and the immediate release of peaceful critics to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.”
UNPO: Oromo: Protesters Achieve Postponement of University Exams
After an exam paper had been leaked by Oromo protesters, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education had to cancel upcoming university entrance exams. Mostly student-led protests over the rights of the country’s marginalized Oromo people have effectively led to the months-long closure of the region’s high schools. Therefore, Oromo students had less time to prepare than students in other parts of the country. The leak of exam papers by Oromo students, thereby buying more time for students to prepare for university entrance exams, is thus a major success for the beleaguered movement.
The Oromo people in Ethiopia have long complained of being marginalized. Addis Ababa expansion plans which sparked fresh protests have been scrapped but the conflict continues to simmer.
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken condemned the lethal violence used by the government of Ethiopia against hundreds of Oromo protesters. #OromoProtests
HRW: Foreign Policy In Focus: Deafening Silence from Ethiopia:The Ethiopian government is cracking down on journalists and NGOs. Where’s the outrage from the international community?
Why Have Oromo People Been Clashing With The Ethiopian Government For So Long? http://www.afrizap.com/en/why-have-oromo-people-been-clashing-with-the-ethiopian-government-for-so-long
France 24: Focus: Anger among Ethiopia’s Oromo boils over.
Residents protesting as the fascist Ethiopia’s regime is to demolish their houses in Hanna Furi, Finfinnee, 29 June 2016. Roads are blocked. ” ታሪኩ የተባልው የአፍራሽ ግብረ ሀይሉ መሪ በህዝቡ ተገድሏል.”
OromoProtests 29 June 2016: Oduun Waxabajjii 29 bara 2016 nannoo Finfinneeti qaxxamuree Asi ga’e akka ibsuuti humni polisii wayyaanee kan meeshaa waraanaa hidhatee jiru humna Ummata Oromoo kan meeshaa Uumama ykn dhagaa hidhate jiru wajjiin warrana gaggeeffamaa ture irratti loltun diina 17 ajjeefamanii hedduun immoo hojiin ala akka ta’an Odeessii gamaa sanaa ifa godhee jira. Garuu soba polisii amma kana miti kan du’e jechuun motummaan kan ufiin jettu fashitii wayyaanee wakkachuu akka jirtus himame.
17 Armed fascist Woyane officers killed and seven civilians injured in a clash at Hanna Furi Area, Lafto Subcity of Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). Residents have been protesting the governments decision to demolish some 30,000 houses in the area with the aim of giving the land to TPLF. The commander of the woyane police was ambushed and his motor cycle was burned down as you see below.
June 28 /29 2016: #Oromo protests in Oromia (finfinnee, Hanna Furi) as the regime engaged in destroying residential houses for land grabs.
This is not just a political slight of hand. This is downright tragic. This is simply brutal. This is an act of state terror. This is bureaucracy deployed to disrupt life and terrorize poor citizens. This is a heartless exposure of people to a miserable death on the streets in these dark rainy days. You can’t call out women and children to a meeting and yet demolish their houses in their absence. We say NO to this in the strongest possible terms! NO! to a continued infliction of unnecessary suffering to poor people! Tsegaye Ararssa.
Rakkooleen kun wayta adda addaatti jiraattota irratti raawwatamaa jiraachuu kan nuuf himani jiraattoonni inni ammaa kun haalaan hamaadha jedhanii jiru.
Godina Arsii aanaa Diksiis magaalaa Hamdaa keessatti guyyaa har’aa mormii barattoonni mana barumsaa sadarkaa tokkoffaa godhaa oolani.
Kana malees ummanni Magaalaa Asaasaa fi naannoo ishee mormiirra ooleera mormiilee isaanii keessatti ajjeechan gara jabeenyaa kan addatti ummata Oromoorratti raawwataa jiru haa dhaabbatu nuti wayyaanen hin bullu soba Wayyaanee hifanne jechaa oolaniiru, Arsii magaalota hedduu keessatti waraana akka cabbiitti gadi naquun ummata sochii dhoorgaa jiru.
TPLF’s delegates being escorted by police in Rotterdam, Netherlands after their planned event was forcefully cancelled by #OromoProtests, 25 June 2016.
Lukkee Wayyaanee bifa kanaan poolisiin Holland ummata jalaa baasee geggeesse.
Demonstratie in Rotterdam tegen ‘genocide’ Ethiopië
Demonstratie tegen de Ethiopische regering (Foto: Marianne van den Anker)
De emoties liepen hoog op toen ambassademedewerker met een busje vertrokken
Demonstratie tegen ‘genocide’ Ethiopië
Kinderen in de Ontdekhoek konden pas vertrekken na de demonstratie27 juni – oromo demonstratie
Honderden demonstranten blokkeerden zaterdag een zaal in Rotterdam waar leden van de Ethiopische ambassade aanwezig zouden zijn. De emoties liepen daarbij hoog op.
De activisten zijn woedend op de Ethiopische leiders. Die zouden zich schuldig maken aan ‘genocide’ op de Oromo, de grootste etnische groep in het land.
”Duizenden Oromo zijn gearresteerd en in hechtenis”, staat te lezen in flyers, die door demonstranten werden uitgedeeld aan de Tamboerstraat in Rotterdam.
Eieren De sfeer tijdens de protest was gespannen. De activisten bekogelden een busje met vertrekkende ambassademedewerkers met eieren.
Het vertrek van de Ethiopische functionarissen ging verder gepaard met veel gejoel en geschreeuw. De politie moest de aanwezige demonstranten in bedwang houden.
Voor de jonge bezoekers in het aangrenzende kinderwerkplaats de Ontdekhoek was de demonstratie even schrikken. Zij moesten enige tijd binnen wachten.
Veiligheidstroepen Mensenrechtenorganisatie Human Rights Watch sloeg eerder deze maand alarm over het gewelddadige optreden van veiligheidstroepen in het Afrikaanse land.
Zij zouden sinds november vorig jaar tijdens demonstraties zeker vierhonderd activisten hebben gedood. Ook zouden tienduizenden mensen zijn opgepakt.
De Oromo demonstreren volgens de activisten in Rotterdam tegen illegale landroof door de regering, die boeren hun land zou afpakken.
OromoProtests in Asaasaa, Arsi, Oromia, 25 June 2016.
Akkuma amaleeffatee fi baratee mootummaan wayyaanee fi ergamtuun wayyaanee OPDO’n ilmaan Oromoo bulchiinsa waraanaa jala jiran irratti loltoota agaazii bobbaasuun Oromoo nagaa hojjetatee of jiraachisuu fi mormii keessatti illee hin argamiin itti dhukaasanii ajjeesuu itti fufuun Shaamarree Oromoo kan hojii buna daandii irratti danfistee ittin of jiraachiftuu fi maatii ishee tajaajiltuu dubree Sabrina Abdallaa jedhamtuu Harargee Bahaa magaalaa Calanqootti itti dhukaasuun, lubbuun ishee wareegame jira.
Kana malees Godina Harargee Bahaa fi Lixaa keessatti bakkoota garaagaraatti yakki waraanaa ummata Oromoo irratti gaggeeffamaa jiraachuun walqabatee Qeerroo fi ummatni wal ta’uun addatti warraaqsa Biyyooleessa Oromiyaa FXG daran jabeessuun dura dhaabbachuu qofatu furmaata jechuun waamicha warraaqsaa waliif akkasumas guutuu barattoota, dargaggoota/qeerroo fi ummata Oromoo cufaaf dabarsaa jiraachuun ibsamee jira.
Injifannoon uummata Oromoof
.
#OromoProtests 22 June 2016: Ajjeechaan Sabrina Abdallaa kan dhagahe hunda Sabrii dhowwate. Ajjeechaan mucittii miskiina kana irratti hidhattoota mootummaatiin raaw’atame ergaa guddaa Oromoof dabarsa. Ajjeefamuuf Oromoo tahuun qofti gahaa akka tahe nutti hima. Sabriinaan dhagaa darbitee miti yookiis qawwee baattee hidhattootatti dhukaaftee miti kan ajjeefamte. Oromoo waan taateef qofa. Bakki ajjeechaan kun itti raaw’atame ammoo Calanqoo lafa lafeen Oromoo kumaatamaa lafa jala ciiftu. Tarkaanfiin Wayyaaneen Shashamannee fi Baha Oromiyaatti ummata Oromoo nagaa irratti fudhataa jirtu godaannisa madaa gaafa Calanqo fi Aanoolee daranuu billawa itti horfee dhiigsuun tarkaanfii maayyii fi murteessaaf Oromoo qopheessa malee hin callisiisu!
#OromoProtests 21 June 2016, the Road to Dire Dawa has been closed by commandeered bus at Chalanqo in protest against the barbaric killing of Sabrina Abdalla.
Daandiin gara Dire Dhawaa deemuu ganama kana Calanqorratti cufamee jira.
18 years old young Oromo woman Sabrina Abdalla was shot by fascist Agazi of the TPLF Ethiopia’s regime on 20 June 2016 in Chalanqo, East Hararge, Oromia. She has died at upon arrival at Harar hospital. She was shot in a small hut she uses to sell tea and coffee.
Body of Sabrina Abdalla (18 years), the 10th grade Oromo female student who was gunned down in the night of 20 June 2016 byfascist Ethiopia’s regime soldiers in Chalanqo, East Hararge, Oromia.
#OromoProtests 20 June (Waxabajjii) 2016: Students in Shamene staged mass protest against the killing of their classmate, Harun Haji Tusu, who was murdered by unknown assailants. The students marched through the town and paid a mass visit to Harun’s family. Students have demanded those responsible must be identified and held accountable at the court of law. Shashemene Police has announced arresting several.
#OromoProtests 20 June 2016: 12 grade students rally in Qobo town, East Hararage, Oromia complaining that the government is not providing with necessary support needed prepare for exam.
