Author Archives: advocacy4oromia

Congratulations: To Our Sidama Brothers and Sisters

Jun 19

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Oromia Global Forum
6909 Laurel Ave, Suite 5219
Tacoma Park, MD20913
Email: oromiaglobalforum@gmail.com
Phone: 612-483-0161

Congratulations: To Our Sidama Brothers and Sisters

Friday, June 19, 2020

We, the Global Oromia Forum, a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional and Faith-Based Organizations and individual proponents of Human Rights, residing in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa extend our heartfelt congratulations to our brothers and sisters of the Sidama nation.

For millennia, the Sidama and the Oromo peoples share common border, history, culture, religious world views and mutually intelligible languages. We shared a long history of living together and learned the benefits of peaceful coexistence. We developed a strong sense of brotherhood and stood shoulder to shoulder during our happiest and saddest moments. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, we both bled together when a brutal conqueror struck us and took our lands, enslaved our people and subjected survivors to painful political oppression and economic exploitation that continued unabated under successive Ethiopian regimes. You have staged peaceful resistance since the very first day of the conquest but Ethiopian rulers responded brutally at every instance.

In 2002, our heart bled with you when the late dictator, Meles Zenawi, unleashed his local surrogate on you who indiscriminately mowed you down with machine guns at Loqe. In July 2019, our heart bled with you when government forces mowed you down simply to deny you what your earned today. Your peaceful resistance, endurance and finally your success is an exemplary model for other peoples in Ethiopia who struggle to freely exercise the rights granted to them by the constitution but denied by the very government that claims to protect its people.

Once again we congratulate you in your success and we are confident that you will convert your political victory into an economic one by tapping into your resources and raise your people from poverty to which they were subjected for over one hundred years. You are now in control of your fate that espouses greater responsibility and now is your opportunity to develop your brand new state, lay democratic institutions and become a model democracy in the region engulfed with conflicts. We at the Global Oromia Forum are strongly confident that with this remarkable victory you will prove the doubters wrong and become a role model for the rest of us.

Once again, Congratulations for the hard-won victory.

Oromia Global Forum: a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional and Faith-Based Organizations

Signatories

1. Advocacy4Oromia

2. Bilal Oromo Dawa Center

3. Canaan Oromo Evangelical Church

4. Charismatic International Fellowship Church

5. Gaadisa Sabboontottaa KP

6. Global Gumii Oromia

7. Global Oromo Advocacy Group

8. Global Waaqeffannaa Council

9. Horn of Africa Genocide Watch

10. Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa

11. International Oromo Women’s Organization

12. International Qeerroo Support Group

13. Mana Kiristaanaa Fayyisaa Addunyaa

14. Oromo Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church

15. Oromo Communities’ Association of North America

16. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington DC Metropolitan Area

17. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society

18. Oromo Human Rights and Relief Organization

19. Oromo Legacy, Leadership and Advocacy Association

20. Oromo Lutheran Church of Baltimore

21. Oromo Parliamentarians Council

22. Oromo Political Prisoners Association

23. Oromia Support Group

24. Oromo Studies Association

25. Tawfiq Islamic Center

26. Union of Oromo Communities in Canada

27. United Oromo Evangelical Church

28. Washington DC Metropolitan Oromo SDA Church

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Reform From ‘Fake Democracy To No Democracy’ And Horrific Inhumanity Of The Ethiopian Version!

Jun 15

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By: Workineh Torben, PhD & Dessalegn Guyo,PhD

Democracy

File photo: The Ethiopian soldiers standing on the neck of a dying student (A) and brutally kicking the necks and throats of a group of students (B) in Oromia region of Ethiopia. The lastest report by the rights group Amnesty International Issued Friday, May 29, 2020 a report that displayed the endless Ethiopian’s security forces of extrajudical killings, mass detantion, massive human right violations, proprety damages, burning unharvested crops, animals, wildlife, coffe plants, forest and homes in the restive Oromia region as the chemeleon reformist prime minister was awarded the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’.

New York Times reported about Mr. Abiy Ahmad’s factious reform of Ethiopia in the Horn (Matina, Oct. 11, 2019). Here are few of the facts, which are ironically incredible to learn the confusing political atmosphere of the African country where human right violations are still unbelievable. Apparently, the political transformation and the wrongly hailed reformers transformed the fake democracy of the TPLF regime to no democracy at all.  Amnesty International highlighted a few credible facts related to the dysfunctional leadership of Abiy Ahmad in its latest report (amnesty.org/Index: AFR 25/2358/2020). However, the PM of Ethiopia blatantly disagreed with the quality report of Amnesty International. That is never a surprise to hear from Mr. Abiy, who has been committing shocking crimes against peaceful citizens including kids, elementary students, high school students (please look at the pictures A and B, gives the glimpse of  shocking human right violations in the Ethiopian Empire but it is immoral and against the human value to list numerous images which we cannot post in public). Over 35, 000 students were dismissed from Universities in the entire nation  just for being Oromo.

Abiy hijacked the multigenerational movement of the Oromo youth by unique political strategies. He started as a sympathizer of the marginalized people and representative of the Oromos until he secured power. The international community barley understands the Ethiopian politics, because it is complex and unique to the rest of the world. Most writers, bloggers and owners of medial are the beneficiaries of the dysfunctional system. Only a few are honestly describing the nature and the underlying problems of the Ethiopian Empire. For example, Amnesty International  recently disclosed credible facts related to several in humane killings by security forces of  Mr. Abiy Ahmad.

The Ethiopian politics is dysfunctional by nature because it was built on the pretext and pretentious  political elites rhetoric supported by misguided powers. The political dramas of Ethiopia need a sincere attention of the international community. It is becoming the most disgraceful and dangerous for peaceful citizens and the Horn of Africa. The government of Ethiopia is terrorizing Oromos (Human Rights Abuses Committed by the Ethiopian Army in Different Parts of Ethiopia); the Oromos have been under command post since Abiy Ahmad took office, and at this critical time of Coronavirus pandemic, internet and telephone access has been limited or sometimes completely disconnected in the entire Oromia. The world must tell us if the definition of terrorism has a different meaning than what is happening to over 55 million Oromos where human is daily killed, tortured, even beheaded and thrown to wild scavengers like hyenas?

The prime minister of Ethiopia was a key security personnel of the Ethiopian ruling party Ethiopian People revolution Democratic front (EPRDF) who did not remember his regimes shocking crimes. He systematically manipulated the international community through systematic approaches and shrewdly trained political games of making plagiarized speeches directly taken from intelligent politicians like Barak Obama’s

or

Then he was wrongly praised by the western communities. Some of the purposeless politicians nominated him for noble peace prize that he won in early stage of his governance.

Abiy Ahmad is implementing terrorizing strategies which are chronic problems of Ethiopia.  He is moving Ethiopia back to where it had been in 1950 and 1960s. His deception is incredibly dangerous that has been resulting in massive atrocity against humanity and significant violations of basic human rights; and his falling power is primarily restricted to the capital and to the state-controlled media.

Since Abiy Ahmed came to power the country’s ruling pattern has changed from pseudo civil administration to complete military marshals which evade the constitution of the country. He has been still using illegal ‘Command Post’ rule to control the most marginalized Oromos. The Oromo people are determined majority citizens of the country to dismantle lawlessness.  He has been using all kind of inhumane strategies under his command post to weaken the refusal of the desperate and resolute Oromos for freedom. Abiy committed several unique crimes way more than the previous murderous tyrants; for example, his untrained security indiscriminately killing children, elderly, helpless mothers, students, entire family; his national Airforce is bombarding farmers and their cattle, burning unharvested crops, wildlife, and coffee plants. Whenever they are committing crimes, they cut all kind of public communication systems, internet and telephone (wireless and landline) connections in the entire Oromia. As the result, significant number of Ethiopian citizens, particularly the Oromos barley heard about Coronavirus (COVID-19). Clearly, the Ethiopian government is creating a dangerous territory where the emerging virus will continue to kill people and potentially keep the transmission of the deadly infections around the world.

The newest shameful political strategies of Abiy Ahmad are disgraceful and dangerous to the entire world.

The question that Abiy and his administration failed to understand is that ‘state terrorism’ can never be a wise strategy to unify and build a nation. Abiy himself publicly mention about the terrorism strategies of his previous TPLF led government during his parliament speeches; he publicly mentioned that the unsuccessful TPLF was terrorizing the people. We appreciated his honesty about that particular claim, in fact it was confirmed by WikiLeaks. The problem is, Abiy Ahmad repeated the same and even worst terrorism strategy. He failed to understand the fact that the multigenerational movement against inhumanity is unstoppable and will soon squib his regime easily. The Oromo people have been marginalized over 150 years and from the history of the naturally democratic Oromos that UNESCO registered in 2016, one can learn that as the tyrants get murderous against Oromos, the tougher and stronger they are becoming because their peaceful and welcoming mutual coexistence has been challenged Abiy’s misguided politics of hate.   His counterproductive approaches to govern in Oromia will remain the nightmare of the illusionist politician who became a ‘Nobel peace’ laureate at the expense of the fearless Oromos particularly the ‘Qeerroos’. Qeerroo is unmarried youth in Oromo language, unfortunately the youth who transformed the political atmosphere in the Horn are massively targeted by the fake ‘Nobel peace’ laureate.

The international community, and donors of the baseless instability generator government must realize the ultimate outcome of the massive human right violation in Ethiopia. It will be regrettable again. The impacts of the evil actions we see against Oromos is shameful and the lawlessness of Abiy regime is becoming catastrophic against human values in the Horn and it must be condemned by all nations who have interest to maintain peace in Ethiopia and the region.  We must fight lawlessness and we are calling the International community, United Nations, Human Rights Watch, International Legal Experts and interested individuals, groups or institutions to join our efforts to held criminals and massive human right violators accountable at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Abiy Ahmad hijacked the multigenerational movement to win a ‘Nobel prize, but he still prefers ignoring the importance of honest equality, democracy, respectful co-existence and collective respect to all human values. The world must tell us if there is a different definition of terrorism than what Abiy Ahmad is doing. He is designing a disgraceful suicidal network that will disintegrate the nation that is increasing the chances of inevitable civil war in Ethiopia.

Posted in Events, Finfinne, Information, News, Oromia

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Calling from Dr Ibrahim Amae Elemo: Stand in solidarity, fight for justice and fight to end the oppression

Jun 13

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By Ibrahim Amae Elemo

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Dear all:

We have watched in anguish the senseless killings of innocent people in Western and Southern zones of Oromia under the illegitimate government of ODP, and now Prosperity Party of Abiy Ahmed and the government of kleptocrats.

We as a society that paid heavy sacrifices to fight injustices under TPLF rule should have never given their accomplices and stooges another chance to rule or transition Ethiopian people to democracy. They never knew or made to understand the basic principles of human dignity and the rights of people to live a life free from harassment and intimidation by forces loyal to the government.

For the last two years we have watched time and again, government sanctioned extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians and families of people who stood against injustices. We witnessed properties of business owners being destroyed or confiscated by paramilitary police and soldiers deployed to enforce the state of emergency. When all these horrendous crimes happened, the person at the helm of the government never publicly condemned the actions of the security personnels he deployed or acknowledged the widespread existence of such types of actions, nor did he promise to investigate or put forth a strategy to make sure that these types of senseless killings don’t happen again and again.

Some of the members of Opposition and the general public watched these crimes happeing in front of their eyes, hoped that a better day would come and that there is eventually going to be a free and fair election leading to a formation of a democratic and accountable government. Those hopes have become daydreams. The Oromo people have once again found themselves in a situation where there is no option left but to rise up in unison to end the vicious cycle of brutal killings, out cries for the regime to be held accountable for its actions and more of the same. The Oromo are left with no option but to defend itself against genocide and government sanctioned war to silence the general public and rule with iron fist.
Such efforts failed after long fight with past regimes and it will fail sooner with this government of kleptocrats and maniacs.

I as a person have come to believe that the only viable option left for our people is to get rid of the this brutal regime for once and for all by using all means at its disposal. We have to stand behind the Oromo Liberation Forces, mobilize resources to fund the men and women who put their lives in harms way to bring a better day for their people; and call for the opposition to denounce these senseless actions of the government paramilitary forces and call for protests nationwide where appropriate.

Enough is enough! This is a time not to denounce and cry for justice, but a time for actions to save the lives of the Oromo people against these blood thirsty prosperity Party led regime which is an authoritarian regime in its infant stage of creation. We Must end it! For the good of all peoples of Ethiopia.

We can’t stand by and watch our people being killed with impunity and its hope for Justice and democracy being wiped out day by day.

I said no to extrajudicial killings! I said enough is enough!

I hope you too would say the same and we join hands to not only be a voice for our people but a force to reckon with.

The Blood of the fallen innocent lives are calling for us to stand in solidarity and fight for justice and fight to end the oppression and make sure that they have not died in vain!
Kaayoo Qabna.

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Risk of Conflict Rising Between 2 Ethiopia Regional Powers, Report Finds

Jun 13

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By Simon Marks

June 12, 2020 10:30 AM

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announces a failed coup as he addresses the public on television, June 23, 2019. The failed coup in the Amhara region was led by a high-ranking military official and others within the country’s military, he said.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announces a failed coup as he addresses the public on television, June 23, 2019. The failed coup in the Amhara region was led by a high-ranking military official and others within the country’s military, he said.

ADDIS ABABA – Tension between Amhara and Tigray, two of Ethiopia’s most powerful regions, is increasing as the country approaches elections next year, says a new International Crisis Group report. The northern Tigray region, which ruled the country for nearly three decades, has been ostracized by the federal government in Addis Ababa, raising the risk of military conflict in the north. The two regions also share a contested border and are at odds over when federal elections should be held.

Increased competition involving Ethiopia’s patchwork of ethnic groups and political parties has been a hallmark of the government formed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, due to greater social and political freedoms granted by his administration.

But it is the dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions, the new report says, that  “is arguably the bitterest of these contests, fueled in part by rising ethnic nationalism in both regions.”

Eritrean nationals Goitom Tesfaye (L), 24 and Filimon Daniel (R), 23, pose for picture in their garage in Mekele, Tigray Region…
FILE – Eritrean nationals Goitom Tesfaye, 24, left, and Filimon Daniel, 23, are pictured at their garage in Mekele, Tigray region, Ethiopia, July 7, 2019.

William Davison, the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tells VOA that Amhara citizens believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.

“The problem has been there in some form for decades,” Davison said. “It flared up and became more prominent during the anti-government protests [between 2016 and 2018.] It has not gone away and it is simmering away as one of Ethiopia’s major inter-regional fault lines.”

Adding to the heightened tension, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the former ruling party, has threatened to hold its own regional election.

Plans to hold a vote have led political elites in Tigray and Amhara to adopt increasingly hardline stances toward each other, the report says, noting a recent warning from Prime Minister Abiy that any such act would “result in harm to the country and the people.”

Davison pointed out that relations between the TPLF and the federal government, to which members of the Amhara Democratic Party belong, are becoming “increasingly acrimonious.”

“People have to be seeking a compromise and we need a political atmosphere to seek that compromise,” Davison said. “But what I’m getting at is that we obviously do not have that, unfortunately, at the moment…Whilst we have that situation, it’s going to be hard to make any progress on this entrenched territorial dispute between Amhara and Tigray. So, the problem is simmering and it’s not going away and the worse that Tigray and TPLF relations get with other federal actors, the bigger potential risk there is that this problem with Amhara could turn into something more deadly.”

Numerous Amhara and Tigray officials, including Fanta Mandefro, deputy president of the region, did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

But Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, chairman of the opposition National Movement of Amhara, said via a messaging app that Ethiopia’s regional map based on ethnic territories has been the root cause of many tensions, not just between the Amhara and Tigray regions, but many others.

“I would say it [violence] has happened in most of the areas and it’s not [unique] to the Amhara and Tigray regions,” Dessalegn said. “But still, in spite of all these things, I wouldn’t expect that there would be an open clash.”

To reduce tensions, the International Crisis Group recommends that the national boundary commission facilitate dialogue by providing information on the contested land and the two regions’ current and former demographics.

Source: VOA

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Democracy imperiled in Africa by ‘reformers’ turned dictators

Jun 12

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By Michael Rubin  | June 11, 2020

(Washington Examiner) — It is often forgotten that the worst dictators are often, early in their careers, lauded as reformers. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was initially embraced as a “pragmatist” by diplomats and journalists alike. In 1991, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize; only in subsequent decades would she expose herself as an apologist for ethnic cleansing. Of course, she is not the only figure to sully the preeminent peace prize’s legacy.

In Africa, the trend of reformists becoming dictators has been especially acute.

In April 1976, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger declared that the United States supported black rule in Rhodesia, today’s Zimbabwe. He was cautious about Soviet and Cuban inroads among certain liberation movements. President Jimmy Carter, however, had no such caution. He drew parallels between Robert Mugabe’s Marxist Zimbabwe African National Union and the civil rights fight in the U.S. South. Mugabe was, therefore, a reformer and a social justice warrior. Many officials likewise greeted Isaias Afwerki as a democrat and reformer when he became Eritrea’s first president upon its 1993 independence. Indeed, Bill Clinton congratulated his Eritrean counterpart on “Eritrea’s good start on the road to democracy and free markets” when, in 1995, they met in the Oval Office. Diplomats likewise once praised Rwandan leader Paul Kagame for his progressive attitudes toward women and liberal approach to the economy, but most human rights groups today criticize him for intolerance to dissent and human rights abuses.

Now, it appears, another Nobel laureate, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, may be heading down the same path. Perhaps buoyed by the praise he receives on his frequent post-Nobel trips abroad, Abiy on Wednesday announced that he would remain in office beyond the end of his term. For all of Abiy’s enthusiastic and, at times, naive peacemaking abroad, his tenure has exacerbated ethnic tensions at home. Reelection was no certainty, but his decision to seek to hold power extra-constitutionally could precipitate conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country.

Nobel Laureate Abiy Ahmed's Next Peacebuilding Project Should be at Home | United States Institute of Peace

Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed (right) greets Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki at a bilateral summit in Asmara, Eritrea, July 8, 2018. (Odaw/Wikimedia Commons)

Not to be outdone, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has also signaled he seeks to delay elections and remain in power. Farmajo’s tenure has already seen a backsliding of democracy and resurgence of the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabab terror group. If the deeply unpopular Farmajo tries to hold onto power, he will return Somalia into full-blown civil war.

The U.S., in recent years, may have diminished presence on the world stage, but the cards the White House and State Department have still matter. From a realist standpoint, Abiy and Farmajo are both weaker than they themselves admit or realize. Abiy may seek to become the new Mugabe, and Farmajo the new Siad Barre, but their respective peoples will not stand for it. Unbridled ambition will lead to civil war in their respective states. This is in no one’s interest. Rather than promote silly photo-ops with regional presidential summits, like that which the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs plans for this coming week in Djibouti, the U.S. government should signal both to Abiy and Farmajo that they risk pariah status if they continue their undemocratic tendencies.

Central to President Trump’s international philosophy is the idea of restraint: The U.S. should not deploy its forces across the globe in pursuit of agendas that do not directly impact the security of the American homeland. In these troubled economic times, that makes sense, but it requires effective diplomacy now to avoid scenarios where state failure mandates far more expensive responses. The best way to promote regional security is to continue to cultivate democracy and provide a peaceful mechanism for ordinary citizens to hold ineffective leaders and would-be dictators to account.

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Two Oromo elders- wife and husband were killed by the Abiy’s regime forces in western Oromia

Jun 8

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Ob Ceesisaa Gabbisaa and Ad Faantayee Daanyee, father and mother of Caalaa, a fighter of Oromo Liberation Army

(A4O, 8June 2020) Two Oromo parents- wife and husband were killed by the Abiy’s regime forces in western Oromia

Sources indicate that the Abiy’s regime security forces  have committed the worst crime against two Oromo elders- wife and husband in western Oromia.

The coward regime agents who could not fight Caalaa Ceesisaa, an Oromo liberation fighter, in battle killed his innocent parents, mother, Fantaayee Daanyee and father, Ceesisaa Gabbisaa, in Qeellam Wallggaa zone, Western Oromia.

Many agree that this is an outrageous violation of Geneva Convention.

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Caalaa Ceesiaa, an Oromo liberation fighter

The act of killing the mother and the father of Caalaa, an Oromo liberation fighter, by the Abiy regime shows the extent it can go to commit genocide on the Oromo people.

“If this terrorist government is allowed to survive, it will totally exterminate the entire Oromo people,” says Dr Asafa Jalata oh his Facebook page

Abiyi is repeating the genocide Menelik and Gobana committed on the Oromo nation.

The Oromo nation – you have to make your choice: you must rise up and liberate yourself or you should accept your total annihilation and give your country to the neo-nafxanya regime.

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Ethiopian Government Violates Basic Human Rights Under The Guise Of COVID-19 State Of Emergency

Jun 7

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We, the undersigned Oromo Scholars and Professionals, have been carefully monitoring the COVID-19 situation and associated government activities to combat the spread of the disease in Ethiopia. We recognize fighting this pandemic is extremely challenging everywhere. Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on April 10, 2020, following the official acknowledgement of the spread of the disease to that country. While the initial reluctance of the government to start taking preventive actions (for example, allowing the country’s national carrier, the Ethiopian Airlines, maintain regular flights to global COVID 19 hotspots) was deplorable, we support every effort to contain the pandemic and prevent its potentially devastating impact. At the same time, we are also deeply concerned with the simultaneous war that the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been waging on the Oromo people along the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time when all efforts and resources ought to be devoted to controlling the spread of this disease, the Prime Minister is deploying the federal defense forces and the Oromia State special police force to several parts of Oromia under the pretext of flushing out “shifta” (bandits/insurgents). Until mid-March, 2020, areas where the government alleges the insurgent group is operating—all four zones in Wallaga, and Gujii and Borana zones—are closed off and placed under unofficial and illegal military Command Posts.

The Command Posts were later extended to other areas in Oromia, including Western Shawa zone. At a time when citizens are terrified by the potentially devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has intensified arbitrary arrests and extra judicial killings. Even after some detained individuals were released in mid-March 2020, there are still thousands of political prisoners throughout Oromia’s overcrowded jails. For example, pictures recently taken by concerned citizens and released on social media show that the notorious Jaatoo state prison in Nekemte city, Eastern Wallaga, is holding extremely large number of inmates, including many unjustly detained youth, teachers, mothers and civil servants suspected to be supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other opposition Oromo political parties. Under the cover of the COVID-19 State of Emergency, the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Regional State of Oromia are engaged in widespread arrests further bulging the already crowded prison population, an act that defeats the very purpose of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the government does not allow independent journalists to freely report on human rights violations and COVID-19 cases, it is difficult to collect and disseminate information to the public in a timely manner. For instance, until mid-March, the government severed all basic communication services, such as telephone and internet, in all four zones of Wallaga and in Gujii zone, condemning the citizens to information blackout and, under its cover, unleashing its brutal army to terrorize ordinary citizens and leaders and members/supporters of opposition political parties away from the eyes and ears of national and international communities. According to the latest report by the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA), “gross human rights violations, and government sponsored killings, forced disappearances, rapes, detentions, property destructions” are taking place daily in Oromia regional state both during and after the communication blackout (HRLHA, May 2, 2020). This report indicates at least the detention of 264, and death of 169 persons since January 2020. Many more have been imprisoned and/or killed since the release of the KRLHA report.

The Ethiopian regime has never provided a shred of evidence to establish these victims are indeed members of any illegal group or committed any crime. Most of these victims are ordinary citizens caught up in government’s hysterical political campaign of weakening opposition parties that are considered to be a threat to its stay in power. Members of legally registered opposition political parties were not spared from the indiscriminate acts of harassments and intimidations by government military and security apparatus. For example, on February 29, 2020, the regime’s security forces raided the homes of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) leaders and illegally arrested and detained five senior party officials and four supporters. While most were released after public humiliation and mistreatment for 24 hours, Mr. Abdi Regassa, a senior OLF official, still remains in detention (Amnesty International, March 3, 2020). On March 7, 2020, government police arrested two journalists, Dessu Dula and Waqo Nole. According to the statement by Committee to Protest Journalists released on March 18, 2010, these journalists also remain in jail. Earlier, Col, Gemechu Ayana, a high-ranking member of the OLF, who was arrested on January 17, 2019 spent almost a year in prison on bogus charges of terrorism and was released on December 24, 2019.

All these arrests, detentions, and intimidations are taking place under the watch of the Prime Minister, whose promises following his accession to power on the back of Oromo People’s bitter struggle for freedom and democracy some two years ago was hailed as the mark of the dawn of democracy in Ethiopia. However, that optimism was short lived and the prospect of political freedom and the rule of law in the country is squashed once again. During his early weeks and months in power, the Prime Minster had repeatedly condemned the gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government, which he served as a high ranking official (e.g. as a security and military officer, a federal agency head, a minister, to name a few). He also confessed that the EPRDF government itself was a terrorist when it detained thousands of people on fake charges and went on to promise a thorough reform and transition to genuine democracy. Such pronouncements and promises, and the normalization of relations with the neighboring Eritrea quickly earned him credit from near and a far including the 2019 Noble Peace Prize. The Prime Minster continues to present himself to the outside world as a reformist, and his government as democratic. But the true color of Abiy Ahmed and his government has become crystal clear to millions of people, at least to thousands of innocent victims and families of the victims who were made to disappear, openly killed or remanded on trumped up charges and thus languishing in overcrowded prisons.

Nothing can be more disappointing than learning that a government that is supposed to protect the wellbeing of its citizens from emergencies such as COVID-19 is using it as a weapon to eliminate its political adversaries. The recently declared COVID-19 State of Emergency, for example, is being implemented illegally and without accountability. Article 93 of the Ethiopian constitution that allows the government to declare state of emergency also requires the House of Peoples’ Representatives (Parliament) to establish the State of Emergency Inquiry Board consisting of seven persons representing the house and legal experts. This inquiry body is supposed to have legal power to obtain identity of people detained under the terms of the state of emergency and announce their names and reasons for their detentions. The law also authorizes the investigation of any inhumane treatment and recommend corrective actions to the Prime Minister to ensure prosecution of violators. Ironically, the Prime Minister himself recently brushed aside concerns raised by opposition party leaders about gross human rights violations by his military in a public setting and justified that the alleged measures were taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The fact of the matter, however, is that the vast majority of people detained or killed are members and supporters of opposition parties, and it is hard to believe that only opposition party members break the state of emergency.

At the time of this writing, it is not clear if the State of Emergency Inquiry Board has been created when the state of emergency was declared, and no announcement of the identities of people detained and the state of their wellbeing while in detention have been made. But we have credible information that hundreds of people have been rounded since the declaration of the state of emergency suffering in various detention centers. The declaration of a state of emergency without the creation of the constitutionally mandated inquiry body and the glairing absence of transparency in the implementation of the state of emergency is colossal violation of the law and the rights of citizens.

We end this piece by calling upon:

  1. The Ethiopian government to refrain from using the state of emergency as a disguise to harass, intimidate, imprison, and kill innocent Oromo people, and to unconditionally release all political prisoners.
  2. International community to use their political and financial leverage to pressure the Ethiopian government into respecting basic human rights of its citizens.
  3. The Oromo people to be cognizant of the fact that the struggle you sustained for over a century and the sacrifices you made along the way has been hijacked before it reached its final destination. You have no other choice but to rise up in unison, once again, and push it across the goal line.
  4. The Ethiopian people to understand that Oromo people’s struggle is not against any specific group but against the oppressive system that marginalizes some sectors of the Ethiopian population. As such, all peace-loving Ethiopians should support the Oromo people’s struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy.

Signatories (in alphabetical order)

Adugna Birhanu (Ph.D) Galaana Balcha (MD) Namara Garbaba (Ph.D)
Alemayehu Biru (Ph.D) Gizachew Tesso (Ph.D) Oli Bachie (Ph.D)
Alemayehu Kumsa (Ph.D Gobena Huluka Samuel Geleta (Ph.D)
Amanuel Gobena (Ph.D) Guluma Gemeda (Ph.D) Rundassa Eshete (Ph.D)
Asefa Jalata (Ph.D) Habtalem Kenea (Ph.D) Solomon Geleta (Ph.D)
Asfaw Beyene (Ph.D) Haile Hirpa (Ph.D) Teferi Margo (Ph.D)
Ayana Gobena (Ph.D) Hambisa Belina (Ph.D) Tekleab Shibru (Ph.D)
Bahiru Duguma (Ph.D) Ibrahim Elemo (Ph.D) Tesfaye Negeri (Ph.D)
Baro Deressa (MD) Iddoosaa Ejeta (Ph.D) Tesfaye Tesso (Ph.D)
Bedassa Tadesse (Ph.D) Ismael Abdullahi (Ph.D) Thomas Baisa (MD)
Begna Dugassa (Ph.D) Jamal Ebrahim (MD) Tolawak Beyene (MD)
Bekele Temesgen (Ph.D) Jemal Hebano (PharmD) Workineh Torben (Ph.D)
Benti Getahun (Ph.D) Jenberu Feyisa (Ph.D) Worku Burayu (Ph.D)
Berhanu Kedida (MD) Junaidi Ahmed (MD)
Bersisa Berri (Ph.D) Koste Abdissa (Ph.D)
Bichaka Fayissa (Ph.D) Mekbib Gebeyehu (Ph.D)
Daniel Ayana (Ph.D) Mekuria Bulcha (Ph.D)
Degefa Abdissa (MD) Moa Apagodu (Ph.D)
Dessalegn Negeri (Ph.D) Mohammed Hassan (Ph.D)
Desta Yebassa (Ph.D} Mosisa Aga (Ph.D)

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Dawud Ibsa: A Leader with Moral Authority!

Dawud Ibsa: A Leader with Moral Authority!

Jun 5

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                         By Bedassa Tadesse 

The OLF had many leaders who are noble, brave and worthy of praise. All of them gave up opportunities almost every Oromo had for the sake of their own people. Many of the OLF leaders, dead or still alive, are adored for that. However, only very few of them possess the moral authority that makes them stand tall.

Dawud Ibsa, the current leader of the OLF, is an exception in that he proved himself as a leader with moral authority – a quality very few other OLF leaders can claim.

You may ask why? And how? First, let me define moral authority – having the weight, a sense of wisdom and experience that encourages other people to put their trust in you.

A leader with a moral authority is someone who has turned time into an ally— proved to be consistently competent, maintained a consistent character, and showed consistent courage. Note that there is a common theme here—Consistency.

Consistency is key to leadership and success. In fact, it’s the sign qua non of leadership. If you do the right things the right way for the right reasons when you are young, it often goes unnoticed by the world at large. But do that over decades (40 years in the case of Dawud Ibsa), more credit, love and respect than you think you deserve will flow your way.

Are you bracing for evidence? Look no further than the date more than 5 million Oromos gathered in Finfinne ( September28, 2018) to welcome Dawud Ibsa and the OLF leadership back to Oromia.

Back to my point on consistency! Dawud Ibsa have been consistent in his personal growth, political position, character, thinking, and interactions with his colleagues and the Oromo people—and because of that, he has been able to stay in the game for over forty years. Call that a layered living—the benefits and gains of the sufferings he endured to produce a life of leadership that others may want to learn from and emulate.

Fast forward that to moral authority. In a world filled with daily changes and continuous disruptions, people look for a leader who can provide stability. A leader with moral authority is flexible enough to accept changes while steadfastly trustworthy and providing hope. Spend an hour with Dawud Ibsa, you will come across with the conclusion that his consistency exudes trust and hope even in the face of adversity.

Dawud Ibsa also excells in three critical areas that earn him the moral authority:

Competence—the ability to lead well. Making smart decisions, knowing your people, understanding your field, and committing to personal growth. Dawud Ibsa demonstrates that he knows what he is doing—and that he learns from his mistakes. To me this is what enabled him to establish himself as a leader worth following.

Courage—moving forward in the face of fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the presence of mind to act when afraid. Dawud Ibsa has the courage to make hard decisions, needed changes, and cast vision.

Character—being bigger on the inside than the outside. Leaders of character know who they are is more than what they achieve. Dawud Ibsa has unparalleled commitment integrity, authenticity, humility, and love.
He always puts people first; lives to make a difference, not to make money; he is always himself; expressed gratitude, rejects entitlement; has the will to be misunderstood and lonely for the right reasons.

I assume that he had made the commitment to live out those things, not because he saw them as a means to an end, but because he felt they were simply the right things to do.

Finally, I feel that Dawud Ibsa is a leader with moral authority, because he never granted himself the authority, but allowed the rest of us to see it, deny or grant him.

Summing up, in a shifting world, leaders with moral authority provide the foundation for others to build upon. Dawud Ibsa’s leadership, whether you agree with me or not, is a leadership worth its making and I am very proud to say it.

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OLF,OFC URGE GOV’T TO TAKE REPORT BY AMNESTY SERIOUSLY; HEED RECOMMENDATIONS TO REVERSE TROUBLING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE RECORD

OLF,OFC URGE GOV’T TO TAKE REPORT BY AMNESTY SERIOUSLY; HEED RECOMMENDATIONS TO REVERSE TROUBLING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE RECORD

May 29

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(A4O, May 29/2020,Oromia) – In a joint statement released by opposition parties Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) on Amnesty International’s Report, the parties urged “the federal and regional authorities to take the report by Amnesty International seriously, heed the recommendations put forth and promptly reverse the government’s deeply troubling record on rights and liberty.”

In a report released today, Amnesty International said “Ethiopian security forces committed horrendous human rights violations including burning homes to the ground, extrajudicial executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions, sometimes of entire families, in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in Amhara and Oromia.” Graphic design: Amnesty International

“In a new report, Beyond law enforcement: human rights violations by Ethiopian security forces in Amhara and Oromia, Amnesty International documents how security forces committed grave violations between December 2018 and December 2019 despite reforms which led to the release of thousands of detainees, expansion of the civic and political space and repeal of draconian laws, such as the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which were previously used to repress human rights,” Amnesty International.

Below is the full text of the joint statement sent to Addis Standard.

In its first comprehensive report since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government came into office, Amnesty International has presented a detailed account of the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the Ethiopian security forces against dissidents and perceived political opponents particularly in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

The report titled “Ethiopia: Beyond Law Enforcement” and released on May 29, 2020,   has precisely exposed the wanton destruction of property, rampant extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of members of the opposition, mass detentions and forced political indoctrination, and the application of torture and gender-based violence by state actors as a means of stamping out dissent in the last two years.

The report is further proof that the new administration has not parted ways with the practice of forcefully stifling dissent, committing egregious human rights violations and carrying out extrajudicial killings common under its predecessor- he Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front- despite taking over in April 2018 off the back of a much touted promise to reform itself.

Although the report provides a very good and consolidated highlight of the continued human rights violations under the current regime, it doesn’t come close to disclosing the full extent of the horrendous abuses and gruesome atrocities committed by the security forces.

The report covers mostly the period up to the end of 2019. However, the situation in Oromia region specifically has gotten progressively worse this year (2020), with a substantial rise in mass incarcerations, extrajudicial killings and destructions of property in provinces that were not previously affected. The Amnesty Report highlights abuses carried out by the federal army. Nevertheless, the regime has also been using newly trained regional militia forces named ‘Liyu Police’ which have unleashed a reign of terror in parts of Oromia.

As we speak, these forces are carrying out gross human rights violations against political prisoners and perceived political adversaries, with some being held without due process, the whereabouts of many is still not known after their abduction and on several instances relatives are finding the human remains of some of the abductees in the bushes.

Reports of systematic disappearances and gruesome killings at the hands of security forces is a daily occurrence, particularly in western Oromia.

Therefore, we

  • Urge the federal and regional authorities to take the report by Amnesty International seriously, heed the recommendations put forth and promptly reverse the government’s deeply troubling record on rights and liberty.
  • Would like to remind the government that continuing along this dangerous path of wanton disregard for human life and dignity and rampant violation of rights will have far reaching consequences for the country.
  • Call upon local and international human rights organizations to conduct further investigations and expose the worsening situation across the country, particularly in recent months.
  • Call upon the international community to hold Ethiopian authorities to account for clearly reneging on their promise to help the country transition towards a peaceful and democratic order, and for choosing to chart an authoritarian path in keeping with the tradition of previous regimes.

Finally we would like to remind all stakeholders that human rights violations, the use of extrajudicial killings, torture and intimidation is what got Ethiopia into the current multifaceted socio-economic and political crisis.

Continuing with such abuse will only deepen the crisis, fracturing the society, paralyzing the economy and paving the way for potential disintegration of the country itself. Therefore, we urge the government to refrain from repeating mistakes by past regimes and ask internal development partners to exert maximum pressure to ensure the transition towards a democratic state is put back on track before it’s too late.

Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)

Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC)

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Ethiopia’s security forces accused of torture, evictions and killings – report

May 29

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(A4O, 29 May 2020, Oromia) Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has been lauded for his democratic reforms. But Amnesty International are now urging him to investigate allegations of serious human rights abuses

in Addis Ababa

A man waves an Oromo flag
 A man waves an Oromo flag as people from the community gather in Addis Ababa in October 2019, on the eve of Irreecha, their thanksgiving festival. Photograph: Yonas Tadesse/AFP

Ethiopia’s Nobel peace prize-winning prime minister Abiy Ahmed has been urged to investigate allegations that state security forces have committed a raft of serious human rights abuses including torture and unlawful killings since he came to power in 2018.

According to a report by Amnesty International, published on Friday, Ethiopia’s military and police in its two most populous regions arbitrarily detained more than 10,000 people, summarily evicted whole families from their homes – some of which were burnt and destroyed – and in some cases were complicit in inter-communal violence targeting minorities.

Federal authorities have not responded to the report, which focuses on the period between January and December 2019 in the regions of Amhara and Oromia.

“Given the gravity and the duration [of the period in which abuses were reported] I cannot believe top officials are not aware of what was happening,” the report’s author, Fisseha Tekle, told the Guardian. “And if they are not then it is a dereliction of duty.”

In Oromia, security forces are waging a counter-insurgency campaign against rebels from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an armed guerrilla movement demanding more autonomy for Oromos, which returned from exile in 2018 after Abiy removed it from Ethiopia’s list of terrorist organisations.

The move was part of a package of democratic reforms which won the prime minister widespread acclaim and, along with making peace with neighbouring Eritrea, secured him the Nobel peace prize last year. Shortly after becoming prime minister Abiy also confessed that security officials had in the past committed torture, and promised to ensure the sector was fully accountable in the future.

But the OLA has since returned to armed conflict, and accuses the government of failing to deliver its promises of more democracy and self-rule for Oromos.

Fighting in western and southern parts of Oromia has involved targeted killings of local officials and community leaders and what the UN has described as “serious human rights violations”. In Oromia’s Guji district the unrest had driven 80,000 people from their homes by the start of this year.

Amnesty said it had a list of 39 people suspected of supporting the OLA who had been unlawfully executed in two parts of Guji since January 2019. It also said that on a single day in December 2018, soldiers from the federal military killed 13 people in the town of Finchawa in West Guji. One of those killed was an old woman selling milk on the street, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Amnesty.

Security forces are estimated to have detained more than 10,000 men and women suspected of supporting or working for the OLA, among other abuses documented by the organisation.

Many were detained for several months without being charged, in violation of both national and international human rights laws, under conditions which at times amounted to torture, the report found. Detainees were made to undergo two months of “training” in subjects such as constitutionalism, the rule of law and the history of the Oromo people’s struggle.

In Amhara, according to the report, regional police, militia and local vigilante groups engaged in targeted attacks on ethnic Qemant, a minority group demanding more autonomy, in inter-communal violence which resulted in at least 130 deaths last year. In January 2019, at least 58 people were reportedly killed in less than 24 hours and buried in mass graves.

Nobody has yet been held accountable for the atrocity.

Amnesty said it had sought responses to its findings from nine government offices including the defence ministry and the attorney-general’s office but had only received a response from Amhara’s regional security bureau, which denied that state security forces had been involved in any atrocities.

The rights group called on the government to carry out full investigations into human rights violations and to order security forces to stop carrying out unlawful executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, as well as forced evictions and destruction of property belonging to people suspected of supporting opposition political parties or armed groups.

In February last year the former head of the Ethiopian army said it had embarked on “deep institutional reform” as part of the democratic changes sweeping the nation.

The head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Daniel Bekele, told the Guardian: “While the Amnesty findings and ongoing reports of killings and arrests in parts of Oromia region should be taken seriously and fully investigated, it is also important to understand the complex nature of the security operations where armed groups are seriously destabilising the affected areas.”

The prime minister’s office said it would put the Guardian’s request for official comment to the peace ministry, which did not respond in time for publication.

Source: The Guardian 

Posted in Events, Finfinne, Information, News, Oromia, Promotion

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