(Advocacy for Oromia, 9 August 2016)  At least 150 people were killed in Oromia and hundreds more injured when Ethiopian security forces fired live bullets at peaceful protesters across Oromia; over 10,000 people were arrested in Oromia after police cracked down on the grand Oromo rally calling for freedom, justice and equality.

Reports we are receiving form various direction indicate that more than 150 Oromo protesters have been killed by Ethiopians security and military forces in Oromia following massive anti-government protests over the weekend.

The challenge to receive accurate and timely information is still unresolved as the government entirely shut down internet connections throughout the country.

The regime also determined to continue jamming and blocking any media out let that providing information for the general public.

Reports from Oromia indicate that Oromo Voice Radio (OVR), VOA, Deutsche Welle Amharic service have been jammed since Yesterday, 8 August 2016.

Several tips from individuals indicates death tolls were high in east Hararge, Awaday, West Hararge, Qobbo, Hirna,West Arsi (in Assasa, Adaba, Shashemene and Kofele cities), West Shewa in the city of Waliso, Ambo and Ginchi town, West Wellega, Mendi, Qilxu Karra, and east Wolega, Naqamte in Oromia.

This is martyred Mammush Birhanu who was killed by Agazi forces in south west Shawa Waliso 6 August 2026.

Accordingly more than 150 individuals identified who were believed to have been shot dead by security forces on Saturday alone.

Hundreds of protesters have also sustained gunshot wounds and denied medical treatment; hundreds detained by security forces while several people have disappeared without a trace.

According to eyewitness accounts, Oromo protesters were beaten with batons and sticks by security forces and then dragged into trucks.

More than 500 people were arrested from Finfinne and taken to unknown concentration camps where family and legal advisers are unable to reach.

Witness from Finfinnee- a city originally belonging to the Oromo, named as Falmata Oromia for the security reasons says Agazi police have quickly, and brutally dispersed protesters on 6 August 2016.

“They brutally beat us for no reason . . . . I was hit about 20 times. They hit me with batons and black plastic sticks and with their hands. Someone slapped me many times on the back of my head. Even now, my left ear hurts. I was hit in the head with a black baton. On 6 August 2016, the Grand Oromo Rally the Agazi police have sealed roads leading up to Mesqel Square where we-(Oromo online activists) called for the grand protests to happen.”

Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Michelle Kagari, condemned the police response to the protests as disproportionate, arguing that “the security forces’ response was heavy-handed, but unsurprising. Ethiopian forces have systematically used excessive force in their mistaken attempts to silence dissenting voices.”

8 August 2016, 17:57 UTC

By Djemaol H Mani*

Those who shoot on the head an innocent people boldly
Or those who refusing to sell out one’s soul and demonstrate anger peacefully?
Tell me, who is the terrorist?
The one who turns people against each other
Or the one who hate injustice for better?
The one who murder people on a street
Or the one who strive for human right?
Please tell me, who is the terrorist?
The one who committed unspeakable crimes against humanity
Or the one who disagreed it with honesty?
The one who declares succession
Or the one who demand for transition?
In its broadest sense terrorism is the act of violence used against people to reach political or religious or ideological aim. It is classified as a violent crime. Hence, a terrorist is the one who uses whatsoever power he/she gained for terrifying the people and forces them to share its view.
Our world has seen many terrorist organizations that work for the benefit of a few gang groups. Unlike other part of the world, Ethiopia has never experienced a significant violation of such an act until the TPLF/Woyane takes the ruling power.
It was since then that this gang groups (TPLF/WOYANE) introduces the act of terrorism in Ethiopia. Many evidences point out that countless acts were organized and taken place by the current terrorist regime in order to gain a public trust and to kill and torcher opposition leader, political activists, journalists and dissidents falsely charged or convicted as “terrorists.” The TPLF/Woyane has been doing an authorized massacre since it came to power in Ethiopia, especially in Oromia Region.
TPLF/Woyane has its own minions and messengers to carry out its evil act against the people. These minions are those who are organized and established as a political party by the TPLF itself and have no own political stand, agenda or view rather than transmitting, as a pipe, whatsoever TPLF/Woyane orders them to do. One of such a party is OPDO, which was established by the TPLF/Woyane only just a few months prior to the taking over of the Derg regime. OPDO does not even have history of its own as a political party. It was only organized to serve the TPLF will and human right abuse against its own people and their role is simply to rubber stamp TPLF’s agenda. The members of OPDO are just like an Uncle Toms for the Oromo People.
TPLF/Woyane has doing its best to criminalize speech, outlaw critical publications, intimidate hearts, crush spirits, terrorize minds and shred constitutional and internationally-guaranteed human rights in Oromia through these fake party, OPDO. The climate of terror that invades every aspect of urban and rural society is secure and upheld by a structure of repression that is steeply integrated from the top to the low level making impossible dissent or peaceful opposition political activity. Thus the structure of state terrorism in Ethiopia is so horrific- the systematic use of killing innocent people and threat of use of violence and coercion, intimidation, imprisonment and persecution to create a prevailing climate of fear in a population with a specific political message and outcome.
It is due to these facts that the opposition against the regime in a current Ethiopia have symbolized as the worst tragedy of the era, which is taking place especially in Oromia region. The TPLF/Woyane loyal soldiers killed hundreds of peaceful protestors on a single day from the region. They shoot many and wounded them to death. These awful events have carried out by the TPLF most trusted soldiers called Agazi and the fake Oromia Police members.
What hurts most is to see the act of the Oromia police members they carried against their own people. Their deed shows how the TPLF/Woyane is a devilry possessed blood lust terrorist with the aim of turning one people against each other. TPLF/Woyane has been shooting the Oromo people using its trusted Agazi squad who are trained to kill civilians without hesitation and the fake Oromia Police force who are not educated and traitors of their own ethnics. TPLF/Woyane uses the so called Oromia police force deliberately to overcome the question of mass killing and genocide. However, rumors are showing that these killers are also compromised of the Agazi Squads wearing the Oromia Police force’s uniform for its cover.
In resent mass protest which take place all over the Oromia region on August 06, 2016 against the TPLF/Woyane tyranny, dozens of protestors has killed and hundreds were wounded by these collusion forces in almost all parts of Oromia. In the town I reside, Nekemte, most of the shoots were targeted at the chest and the head of the protestors. These shows TPLF/Woyane ordered its trusted forces to kill the innocent people, not to settle them. I can witness what I saw in the Nekemte Referral Hospital at the time. It was a heartbreaking incident. Dozens have killed and several children and mostly women were wounded and injured by the TPLF/Woyane forces. I was told the one Police I saw dead was killed by its own members for resisting to kill his own brothers and sisters. They turned the town in to a war zone. Shooting were everywhere. They even shoot at the Hotel rooms and resident. How could one enjoy killing an innocent people unless he is possessed by a demonic spirit? How can one kill a child running for his freedom with a mere hand unless he is inhuman and immoral? It was painful and tragic act which hurts not only the mind but also the soul. I believe the same is true all over the Oromia region. Let God have mercy upon us and deliver us from this monster!!
So who is a terrorist? Those who invent terrorists and fabricate terrorism or those who demanding for human right? Those who cheats people vote or those who asking for it? Those who uses violence and coercion or those who speaking truth to power? Those who use imprisonment and persecution or those who defending the rule of law? THE OROMO PEOPLE or TPLF/WOYANE?????
Despite its immoral and evil doing, the TPLF/Woyane has been declaring, using few gang group owned media (EBC), those protestors were members of a terrorist affiliation which resides in sovereign country. Also the TPLF media announce that people at large in the country are condemned the demonstration. The question is who are those people condemning the protest if the people itself were at the demo? In my opinion, TPLF and its monopolist media, EBC, might have their own imaginary people other the people of Oromia.
However, it is an indisputable fact that the TPLF/Woyane itself is a licensed terrorist organization officially listed in the Global Terrorism Database. It is in their conspiracies that categorize TPLF/Woyane as a terrorist group. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is a political party in Tigray, Ethiopia that has been listed as a perpetrator in the Global Terrorism Database. http://www.trackingterrorism.org/…/tigray-peoples-liberatio…
I think the wait should be over!! It is becoming not only about the right, freedom or good governance… it is about the survival. I consider our life is at risk!!! We don’t know what will happen on a street of Oromia every single minute. Let’s fight for our survival and for the one we lost.

OROMIA SHALL BE FREE!!

*This story is from  Djemaol H Mani

(#GrandMarch4Oromia, 8 August 2016) At least sixty people were killed during fresh clashes between police and anti-government protesters in more than 200 Oromia cities and towns since 6 August 2016.

Saturday’s grand rally was called by Oromo activists 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.

(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!!!