(Advocacy for Oromia, 7 August 2016) The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)* says the long Oromo nation’s protest against the TPLF/EPRDF- led dictatorial government,  which has been going on for the past  eight  months, expanded its scope  on August 6, 2016.

According to the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) press release over 190  Oromia cities and towns including the capital city of Addis Ababa participated in the grand rally of  Oromo nation to present grievances and  demand fundamental human rights.

In this region- wide August 6 protest , in which for the first time the residents of the capital city participated, over 70 Oromos were recklessly brutalized and beaten and  over 800-1000  Oromos were taken to prison according to the HRLHA informants  in Oromia Regional State.

During the eighth round of the protest on August 6, 2016  the most devastated zones of Oromia were Awaday and Haromaya in East Hararge,  Asasa in  West Arsi , Dodola and Robe in Bale,  Ambo  and Walso in  West Showa,and  Naqamte in East Walaga  among others.

Since the protest started in November 2015, the government of Ethiopia has mercilessly killed over 670 Oromos and detained over 50,000. Among the dead, the majority are university and high school students, young children, pregnant women, and seniors. The killing squad Agazi force killed people not only on the streets, but in their homes  during the night time by breaking down their doors. Many people were taken from their homes and arrested, then taken to police stations, military camps and concentration camps.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)  and other human rights organizations have widely reported on the protests in Oromia in order to  make the world community aware of the real scope of the protests.

However, the world communities have chosen to remain silent and a few government agencies have responded to the horrific human rights crisis in Oromia Regional State.

It was in such circumstances and with outcries from human rights organizations that Ethiopia was elected  on June 28, 2016[4] to a UN Security Council member  seat ” one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for the maintenance of International Peace”. The HRLHA expressed its disappointment at this election to the president of the UN General Assembly in its appeal on July 4, 2016 “ THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT BE REWARDED FOR MASSACRING ITS PEOPLE”[5]

From 2011 to the present, Ethiopia has been a member of the UN human rights council[6]with the responsibility of protecting and promoting human rights globally.

Backgrounds of the Oromo grievances:

Since the TPLF/EPRDF government came to power in 1991, several documents have been created, including the 1995 Constitution. These documents, however, are designed only for show, to make the government look good to foreign eyes. Here is the truth:

From day one when the TPLF/EPRDF assumed power, the Tigrigna People Liberation Front (TPLF) members have focused on diminishing the political capability of the nations and nationalities of Ethiopia, groups that the government regards as its political  opponents.

The TPLF created PDOs (Peoples’ Democratic Organizations) such as Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO) and present them as the representatives of the  people of Ethiopia.

The TPLF, which represents only 5-6% of the total population of Ethiopia, monopolized political and economic power, ignoring the rights of the other 95% of the Ethiopian population.

The OPDO has no power, but serve as messengers and translators for the TPLF to penetrate into Oromia.

TPLF- owned companies such as  the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigrai (EFFORT)[7] and Mesfin Engineering took all opportunities to control businesses in Oromia and other regions. This made the TPLF members, including the military commanders,  millionaires while the area’s business community  members were left powerless

The resources of Oromo, Gambela and Benshangule people have been exploited not only by the TPLF members, but also by TPLF partner foreign government. For example,  for Hasen Guleid , the Djibouti president over 1000 hectares of Oromo land from Bale,Dodola has been granted for

Tens of thousands of  hectares of Oromo, Gambela and Benshangule lands have been leased to foreign investors at cheap prices without consent and consultations with the land owners.  Millions have been evicted from their livelihoods and became homeless, jobless and beggars.

Recommendations:

• The UN Security Council member states- of which Ethiopia is one-should hold the Ethiopian government accountable for its arbitrary arrests, killings and tortures of Oromo’s peaceful protesters
• The UN Human Rights Council, of which Ethiopia is a member, should hold the Ethiopian government accountable for its arbitrary arrests, killings and tortures of Oromo’s peaceful protesters
• Both UN Councils, of which Ethiopia is a member, must ask Ethiopia to immediately allow a neutral body to enter Ethiopia and investigate the crimes against humanity that the Ethiopian Government is committing against Oromo

*The HRLHA is a non-political organisation that attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It works to defend fundamental human rights, including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It also works to raise the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and those of others. It encourages respect for laws and due process. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.

HRLHA Press Release: UN – Councile, HRLHA – Urgent Action

(Financial Times) Scores of people were arrested in Ethiopia on Saturday in a wave of anti-government protests that rocked the capital Addis Ababa and dozens of other towns in the restless region of Oromia.

Images posted on social media showed huge demonstrations in the capital and other cities. Activists said the protests could mark a possible turning point in the nine month campaign against the government.

Grand March for Oromia in Holota town,Oromia, August 6, 2016

 “The dynamic had shifted and people are now calling for the downfall of the government,” said Jawar Mohammed, who runs the Oromo Media Network in the US state of Minnesota and said he was in regular contact with protesters in multiple cities. “This is by far the biggest demonstration that Ethiopia has seen in terms of size and co-ordination across Oromia.”

Fisseha Tekle, an Amnesty International researcher who is based in Kenya, said the police and the army were using live bullets to disperse the protesters.

The demonstrations were sparked last November in protest against a move to extend the municipal boundaries of Addis Ababa into Oromia, which straddles much of the centre and south of the country and includes the capital. But they have grown in intensity in response to a fierce government crackdown.

The Oromo make up about 40 per cent of Ethiopia’s 90m people but they believe they are marginalised by the Tigrayan ethnic group, which dominates federal institutions despite comprising only about 6 per cent of the population.

In a report released in June, Human Rights Watch said that at least 400 people had been killed and thousands more injured since the protests began.

However, Ethiopia’s communications minister Getachew Reda said that Saturday’s protests were “illegal” and that “scores” of people had been arrested in the restless region.

Mr Getachew denied suggestions that security personnel had used live gunfire but said armed protesters were “trying to arm-twist the security forces into shooting” and “destroying private and public property.”

Independent efforts to reach protesters in Ethiopia were unsuccessful. The Ethiopian government has severely restricted access to the internet and social media in the Oromia region, making it hard to verify reports of protests.

But images showing bloodied bodies of protesters were circulated on social media using the hashtag #oromoprotests.

A mass demonstration was held in Gondar last Sunday, a city in the northern region of Amhara, to express solidarity with the Oromo and to express other grievances. It was the first time a major protest had broken out in another part of the country.

The Financial Times

(A4O, 7 August 2016) At least fifty five people have been reported killed over two days of protests in Oromia while dozens were arrested in the capital, Addis Ababa and other major cities and towns of Oromia.

Martyred Mustefa Mohamednur, 6 August 2016

At least hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets in more than 200 towns and cities across Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest regional state, to demonstrate against widespread and systematic persecution.

According to local media reports, over 55 individuals have been killed and thousands arrested as police and security forces opened fire on peaceful protestors, though these details are likely to change as more information comes in.

Ethiopian authorities would not confirm the death toll.

The reported deaths come as dozens of  Oromo protesters were arrested in Addis Ababa on Saturday.

At least 500 Oromo people – protesting against alleged economic inequality and discrimination – gathered amid a heavy police presence on the capital’s main Meskel Square.

The protesters, who shouted slogans such as “we want our freedom” and “free our political prisoners”, were dispersed by police using batons. Dozens were arrested.

Prime Minister Haile Mariam Dessalegn on Friday announced a ban on demonstrations, which “threaten national unity” and called on police to use all means at their disposal to prevent them.

The rally was organised by opposition groups from the Oromo, Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, who have held protests for months against what they say is government discrimination. They have been joined recently by ethnic Amharas, and protests have been reported in other parts of the country.

The Oromo and Amhara together make up some 80 percent of Ethiopia’s population and claim they suffer discrimination in favour of ethnic Tigrayans, who they say occupy the key jobs in the government and security forces.

Ethiopian authorities told the AFP news agency that at least a dozen people have been killed in clashes with police over territorial disputes in recent weeks.

Local people told AFP there had been rallies and clashes with police in the city of Ambo and Nemekte, in the Oromo region, as well as a calls for protests in Baher Dar in the Amhara region.

By Tullu Liban*

(Advocacy4Oromia, 7 August 2016) This piece is inspired by a peculiar bravery I noticed in one of the social media posts on August 6, 2016. Doctors and Nurses of Hiwot Fana Hospital in Harar protested against the government in their compound condemning the killings and suppression that targets the Oromo people.

Given the current Ethiopian context, these professionals are working in government health institution and they are aware that they might be demoted, fired or arrested for the bold action they had taken in support of the Grand Oromia rally. However, they set an exemplary model for other civil servants. They couldn’t resist the moment of truth that compelled them to say no to the atrocities they are witnessing on daily basis. No doubt they might have delivered hundreds of corpses of the brutally butchered Oromo students to the grieved families over the months.
It is clear that these health professionals have mourned on several occasions while they attempted to help the ruthlessly shot dead youngsters. Thus, they decided to march with the masses for freedom on August 6.
Bravo Hiowt Fana! You have broken the silence! It is now up to the other Oromo civil servants to follow suite. How do you fail to demonstrate at least in your organizational premises to condemn the killings of your fellow Oromos-your brothers, sisters, children and parents? Can you stay aloof while your native land is in turmoil? Will you be paid your salaries while Oromia is bleeding? Please come out and send a strongest signal to the TPLF regime that you are sick of massacres, torture and arrests.
To the surprise of the world, and the humiliation of the TPLF thugs, the Oromo protest has now reached a point of no return unless the quest for freedom is addressed once and for all.
This orderly and civilized protest will continue uninterruptedly until the sought freedom is achieved. It will continue with further level of civility and persistence if possible or otherwise depending on the response of TPLF thugs.
As we all know, so far the price we paid in the march to freedom is so huge. Our gallant heroines and heroes are still paying for our inevitable emancipation in their priceless lives. The courageous Qerroos and Qerrittiis, the Qube generation, in particular, are bravely challenging the infamous, brainless, killing machine of the TPLF army known as Agazi. While our children selflessly expose their chests to live ammunition, how dare the Oromia civil servants fail to organize themselves and unequivocally condemn the atrocities being committed against their own people?
Bravo Harar Hiwot Fana!

*Source: Tullu Liban

For Immediate Release

August 5, 2016

The Grand Oromia Rally is a national act of protest by the Oromo and non-Oromo citizens of Ethiopia to gather in unison to express deep-seated mass grievances, country-wide anguish and suffering, widespread violation of rights that is perpetrated by the TPLF regime over the past several decades.

In the past 9 months alone, the Oromo people saw one of the bloodiest military response from the regime that murdered over 600 lives, shot and injured over 5000 persons, incarcerated tens of thousands and caused forced disappearances of thousands. The regime has also rendered hundreds of thousands landless, jobless, homeless, and placeless. It has demolished houses of thousands who have been rendered homeless and left out in the punitively cruel cold weather of the rainy season. All this is mainly, although not merely, because of the people’s decision to protest the government’s Master Plan that illegally and unconstitutionally annexed their ancestral lands in and around the Capital Finfinnee/Addis Ababa.

This Grand Rally is going to be staged in all the major cities and district towns of Oromia. This rally is a peaceful rally expressing the people’s general yearning for a just peace.

During this planned Grand Oromia Rally, we expect the Oromo people to remain connected using the Internet, mobile technologies and social media platforms. We strongly urge the government to refrain from blocking communications channels, using tactics of fomenting conflicts, provoking and meting out violence and mass arrest in order for it to disrupt and restrict lawful assembly and peaceful protest. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Oromo and non-Oromo citizens are ready to gather across more than 200 districts, over 20 zonal cities and in the Capital, Finfinnee (also called Addis Ababa), to join in this peaceful protest as a part of the grassroots Oromo movement.

On August 6, as we march, we acknowledge millions who are also marching in solidarity with us. So, we march in the company of all people who, like the Oromos, were wronged by the regime’s ruthless dictatorial, at times, even terroristic practices. The Grand Rally comes at a time when the regime lost all kinds of reason by placing elite political benefit over public service, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, and most importantly privileging members of one ethnic group over those of others. Let it be known to all, near and far, local, national, and international, that we are peacefully assembled here, as it is our God-given right. Also, we feel obliged to highlight these facts as worth noting by all:

• Oromo and friends of Oromo people are united in their anger and outrage against the sickening brutality of its military on peaceful innocent civilian population. We also like to underscore the obvious mal-governance by the TPLF regime–rampant corruption, mass arrest, mass killings, dehumanization, torture, and rape by the regime’s military that also colluded with its business and political elite since 1991.

• The Oromo people categorically and unequivocally express their rejection of the regime; and that it has indisputably lost its legitimacy, the legitimacy it hardly had at any rate, among the Oromo people.
• All foreign visitors and expatriates working and living in our country will be given an extra-care by the protesters. Hence, there is no need to fear. We are inherently bound by our Gadaa democracy to ensure the safety and security of our guests. To the extent the people can, they pledge their full protection to all residents.

• On August 6, 2016, starting 8:00 AM in the morning (ganama keessaa sa’a lama akka lakkofsa Oromotti), the march will take place in all districts and zonal cities and towns across Oromia. We reiterate in the strongest of words that it is a totally peaceful march. Consequently, there will be no weapons in the rallies. Roads shall not be blocked. Government offices and officials will not be bothered.

• Given the tendency of the regime’s military and security force to use live ammunition to shoot at the protesters from a point blank range and cruel treatment of protestors in response to the situation, the grand rally will continue to show the utmost ethical standards in terms of ensuring orderliness, peace, and non-violence. There will be no reason to fear any attack against any property.

• Demonstrators shall march steadily and in a completely orderly procession. There will be no rushing, running, or a resultant commotion. We call upon all peace loving people to pay attention and to bear witness as we, today, march for justice, peace, voice, dignity, equality, and liberty for all.

Sincerely,

Organizers of the Grand Oromia Rally

E-mail: oromomarch@gmail.com

Freedom, Justice, Liberty, Dignity, and Democracy for ALL!

For Immediate Release

August 5, 2016

The Grand Oromia Rally is a national act of protest by the Oromo and non-Oromo citizens of Ethiopia to gather in unison to express deep-seated mass grievances, country-wide anguish and suffering, widespread violation of rights that is perpetrated by the TPLF regime over the past several decades.

Source: THE GRAND OROMIA RALLY FOR FREEDOM, JUSTICE, VOICE, AND PEACE!!!

(#GrandMarch4Oromia, 6 August 2016) Today, Oromia marches. To demand justice. To lament the suffering of its people. To mourn its dead. To voice its horror, anger, and rage in the face of an act of State terror.

This is a march for peace, justice, and voice.

This is a march for life. This is a march calling for immediate cease to the indiscriminate killing of our people, young and old, male and female, worker and farmer, everywhere.
This is a march for freedom of the mass of Oromo bodies that have congested in Ethiopia’s jails. This is a march against torture of our citizens. This is a march calling for the dismantling all torture chambers and all repressive institutions. This is a march for government atrocities on people. This is a march of love–to denounce hatred, institutionalized and disseminated by the regime in power. This is a march against all forms of prejudice: ethnic, religious, and cultural. This is a march for civility and moderation within and beyond our borders.

This is a march for equality of all peoples. This is a march for socio-economic justice. This is a march for immediate freeze of all acts, discourses, and acts of land grab. This is a march against the bureaucratic machine producing unnecessary suffering through eviction, demolition of houses, and dispossession of farms. This is a march for restoration of the evicted into their rightful places. This is a march for a consultatively determined, fair, and just compensation. This is a march against displacement, current and historic. This is a march against the dispossession of the poor to favour the rich. This is a march against the oppression of the powerless and the vulnerable to favour the powerful. This is a march to resist the dumping of urban waste on defenceless poor farmers. This is a march for a clean and pure natural environment. This is a march for social justice.

This is a march for voice, for the people’s truth. This is a march to be heard. This is a march for rights. This is a march for our natural rights to life, liberty, equality-in-dignity, and security of the person. This is a march for our freedoms, freedoms to speak, believe, express ourselves, write, associate, assemble, and vote. This is a march for true, equal citizenship.

This is a march for self-rule of Oromos and all other peoples of Ethiopia. This is for an immediate stop to indirect rule through mercenaries, co-opted, corrupt, and unrepresentative EPRDF cadres. This is a march for a genuine federalism. This is a march for equal recognition of the identities of all peoples in Ethiopia, a march for the respect of languages, histories, cultures, traditions, names, and all its accompaniments. This is a march to call for recognition of Afaan Oromo as a working language of Ethiopia, co-equally with other languages, including Amharic. This is a march for our rightful title over the Oromo land including the cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. This is a march for affirmation of our dignity on our own land, the land that is the embodiment of life, sustenance, and sovereignty for us.

Above all, this is a march for a just peace. This is a march that says NO to state-driven war against peoples. This is a march for rest in the land of our ancestors. This is a march for the state artilleries to be deflected from our peoples.

We say NO to all forms of violence, atrocities, insecurity, and any manufactured miseries. We say NO to killings, and we disavow death!

We march for life, its sustenance, reproduction, and flourish in a just, peaceful, and prosperous social order.

Nothing more nothing less.

For PDF format:Pamphlet_OromoProtests

(Advocacy4Oromia, 1 August 2016) One of the founders and a senior member of OLF leadership, Obbo Tarfa Dibaba, passed away on 29th July 2016 at the age of 76.

Tarfa Dibaba (1940-2016)

According to our sources, Ob Tarfa Dibaba was one of the early educated few that helped in advancing Oromo national struggle that led to the present awakening.

Many agree that Ob Tarfa had never stopped encouraging his comrades not to waver from their set objective until he took his last breath.

Ob Tarfa was remembered for his highly principled professional contribution ranged from the battlefields of Oromia to the refugee camps in Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Yemen, Egypt and Djibouti, and to the diplomatic corridors of the capital cities of the most powerful nations, fighting for independence of Oromia.

He was also committed to support Oromo nation as human rights advocate, a charitable campaigner for rights of Oromo refugees as a founder and lifelong head of the Oromo Relief Association (ORA).

Ob Tarfa Dibaba has not only saved thousands of life but also consoled and comforted hundreds of victims of torture and unimaginable cruelty in the hands of the enemies of the Oromo nation.

Ob Tarfa Dibaba has survived by his beloved wife Arfase Gamada, their three children Yared, Benjamin and Talile, and grandchildren Gilcha, Hirtz-Dibaba, Jootee, Hawani and Yadani.

Our hearts and prayers go to them.

Fadumo Dayib is the first woman to run for president of Somalia. And she has some pretty high expectations of what she would like to achieve if she’s elected president of a country that’s faced over two decades of instability.

Source: Somalia’s First Female Presidential Candidate Vows to Negotiate With Al Shabaab