(Advocacy4Oromia, Dec. 1/2016)– Security forces implementing Ethiopia’s six-month State of Emergency have last night detained prominent opposition party leader Dr. Merera Gudina, Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), upon his arrival at Bole International Airport.  

Details of what transpired at the airport are sketchy, but sources told Addis Standard that Dr. Merera was first taken by security forces who have identified themselves as members of the command post overseeing the State of emergency at around 7:30 PM soon after his arrival at the airport. He was then taken to his residence along with several members of his family who came to pick him from the airport. “Merera’s residence was locked from all direction by heavily armed men,” a family member who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of his own security told Addis Standard via phone. “It took security forces several hours before they took him to Ma’ekelawi prison after mid-night. No one was allowed in and out of his residence and no one knows what was happening inside,” our source said.

This morning family members were prohibited access to Dr. Merera at the Ma’ekelawi prison located at the heart of the Piassa. One member told Addis Standard that prison guards have denied Dr. Merera’s presence inside the prison, a practice commonly exercised by security guards. “We know that he was taken inside shortly after midnight but we can’t communicate with him,” she said.

Other sources say after his arrival at the airport Dr. Merera first went to his residence with his family members and claim that security forces have only arrived at his residence a few hours later.  But several people contacted by Addis Standard couldn’t substantiate this claim and say he arrived at his residence after he was already detained by security forces upon his arrival at the airport.

Dr. Merera was touring Europe for more than three weeks during which he delivered a speech to members of the European Union Parliament. He appeared at the EU parliament to testify on current political crisis and human rights violations in Ethiopia. Dr. Merera was joined by two other prominent invitees: Dr. Berhanu Nega, leader of the opposition Patriotic Ginbot 7 (G7), which is designated by Ethiopia’s ruling party dominated parliament as a “terrorist organization” and is now actively fighting the regime from the northern part of the country, and athlete Feyisa Lilessa, Olympic silver medalist who gave a significant impetus to a year-long Oromo protest that gripped Ethiopia when he crossed his arms in an X sign at the finishing line.

Pro-government activists were hostilely calling for the arrest of Dr. Merera after pictures of him sitting next to Dr. Berhanu and athlete Feyissa have circulated on Ethiopian social media sites. They claimed that Dr. Merera violated both Ethiopia’s infamous Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP), and the six-month sweeping State of Emergency law by appearing alongside a leader whose party is designated as a terrorist organization.

Our attempts to reach Dr. Negeri Lencho, newly appointed government communication affairs minister, were unsuccessful. However, Dr. Negeri told The Washington Post that “he had no information about the arrest.”

Dr. Merera’s arrest is not surprising, it “signifies the government’s particular heavy-handedness targeting the Oromo people and opposition political parties representing the Oromo,” said a political science lecturer at the Addis Abeba University and Dr. Merera’s longtime friend. “The story of all prominent Oromo opposition party leaders are the same: they all end up jailed,” said the lecturer who wishes to remain anonymous.

Currently, several members of OFC including Bekele Gerba and Dejene Fita Geleta, first secretary general and secretary general respectively are facing terrorism charges. Bekele Gerba was arrested for the second time since 2011, during which he was sentenced to eight years in prison suspected of allegedly belonging to the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Bekele spent almost four of the eight years before he was freed in April 2015 only to be re-arrested in Nov. 2015 following a wave of protests by the Oromo.

The other notable opposition figure serving eight years prison term is Olbana Lelisa, who was arrested along with Bekele Gerba in 2011. Olbana was a high-ranking leader of the Oromo People’s Congress Party (OPC), which has since merged with the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM) to form OFC, which is led by Dr. Merera.

Dr. Merera, an associate professor of Political science at the Addis Abeba University before his illegal dismissal last year, first founded the opposition party Oromo National Congress (ONC) as far back as 1996. He has been actively engaged in opposition politics in the country and was once an elected member of parliament. He is a well-known critic of the ruling party. AS  

Source:http://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-security-detain-prominent-opposition-party-leader-dr-merera-gudina/

UNESCO: Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – 2016
URL: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/RL/…
Description: Gada is a traditional system of governance of the Oromo people in Ethiopia developed from knowledge gained over generations. It regulates political, economic, social and religious activity serving as a mechanism for enforcing moral conduct, building community cohesion, and expressing culture. Gada is organized into five classes taught by oral historians, with each having to progress through a series of grades before it can take the leadership. Men, whose fathers are members, participate. Transmission occurs within families and at school.
Country(ies): Ethiopia

(Advocacy4Oromia, 1 December 2016) UNESCO has inscribed Gadaa System as Intangible World Heritage on 30th of November 2016 at its eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Finfinne, Oromia.

Gada is a traditional system of governance used by the Oromo people in Ethiopia developed from knowledge gained by community experience over generations.

The system regulates political, economic, social and religious activities of the community dealing with issues such as conflict resolution, reparation and protecting women’s rights.

It serves as a mechanism for enforcing moral conduct, building social cohesion, and expressing forms of community culture. Gada is organized into five classes with one of these functioning as the ruling class consisting of a chairperson, officials and an assembly.

Each class progresses through a series of grades before it can function in authority with the leadership changing on a rotational basis every eight years. Class membership is open to men, whose fathers are already members, while women are consulted for decision-making on protecting women’s rights.

The classes are taught by oral historians covering history, laws, rituals, time reckoning, cosmology, myths, rules of conduct, and the function of the Gada system.

Meetings and ceremonies take place under a sycamore tree (considered the Gada symbol) while major clans have established Gada centres and ceremonial spaces according to territory.

Knowledge about the Gada system is transmitted to children in the home and at school.

(Advocacy4Oromia, 22nd of November 2016)–  Australian MP Andrew Wilkie addresses the parliament speaking about the plight of Oromo people.

“On Tuesday 15th of November 2016, We the Australian Oromo Community of Tasmania invited our independent MP Honourable Andrew Wilkie & expressed the shocking truth of human rights abuse, massacre and mass incarceration & today he is standing in Solidarity with the Oromo people in the parliament of Australia we deeply appreciate for becoming avoic for the voiceless”

(Advocacy4Oromia, 16 Novemebr 2016) Oromo journalist, Abdi Gada, went missing in Adama, Oromia since Nov 9, 2016.

According to our sources, the employee of OBS-Oromia Broadcast Service Television, Abdi Gada  missed in Adama and his whereabouts is not known yet.

His family, friends and colleagues have been looking for him in all areas of detainees and prisoners including Ma’ikelawi, and Zeway (Batu).

Many of his family, friends and colleagues believe that Journalist Abdi Gada was kidnapped by Ethiopian security forces because thousands of Oromo people are missing and have been arrested in Ethiopia.
Journalist Abdi Gada was one among 20 Oromo (Ethiopian) journalists who were dismissed from the Oromia regional state owned media, Oromia Radio and Television Organization in 2014, in a single day.

More arrest and restrictions 

On Nov. 11/2016 the security member of the command post established to oversee Ethiopia’s six-month State of Emergency have this morning re-arrested human rights activist and blogger Befeqadu Hailu.

According to information, two security officers who have identified themselves as members of the command post have taken Befeqadu around 6:00 AM this morning.  He is now detained at a police station known as 06 here in the capital Addis Abeba.

Befeqadu is a member of Zone9 blogging collective and was one of seven bloggers (one in absentia) and three independent journalists arrested in April. Three months after their arrest all ten of them were charged with Ethiopia’s infamous Anti-Terrorism Proclamation.

Ethiopia’s six-month State of Emergency said last week that 11, 607 were detained in the wake of nationwide anti-government protests.

The Ethiopian government has also increased its efforts to restrict media freedom – already dire in Ethiopia – and block access to information in Oromia. In March, the government began restricting access to social media sites in the region, apparently because Facebook and other social media platforms have been key avenues for the dissemination of information.

State security forces in Ethiopia have used excessive and lethal force against largely peaceful protests that have swept through Oromia, the country’s largest region, since November 2015.

Ethiopian authorities have arrested over 11,000 people since Addis Ababa declared a state of emergency in early October following violent protests.

Taddesse Hordofa, the chairman of the State of Emergency Inquiry Board

“Some 11,607 individuals have so far been detained in six prisons, of which 347 are female, in connection with the state of emergency declared in the country,” said Taddesse Hordofa, the chairman of the State of Emergency Inquiry Board, in a statement broadcast by the EBC television on Saturday.

Ethiopia has been the scene of political crisis with numerous outbreaks of violence over the past year. Addis Ababa has been engaged in a bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrations since last year.

The protests were triggered by a government plan to expand the municipal boundaries of the capital city into the central region of Oromia, a move that could result in farmers from the Oromo ethnic group being displaced and losing their land and property.

Oromia, with at least 27 million people, is the largest ethnic group and the most populous of the East African country’s federal states, surrounding the capital Addis Ababa on all sides. The demonstrations, however, were limited to Oromia and spilled into Amhara region, with at least 35 million people, in the north.

According to an August report by Human Rights Watch, over 500 people have been killed by security forces since November last year.

At least 55 people were also reportedly killed after clashes between protesters and police turned into a stampede in the town of Bishoftu in Oromia on October 2.

In a bid to curb the unrest, the current government, which has been in power for 25 years, declared on October 9 a six-month state of emergency, first of its kind, “because the situation posed a threat against the people of the country.”

In the Saturday statement, Hordofa also read a long list of alleged offenses committed by the arrested people, ranging from major crimes such as “attacking security forces using firearms” or “killing civilians and members of security forces” to the much more mundane “denying provision of public services” and “disrupting movement of vehicles.”

The announced figure of the detained protesters shows a huge rise in the 2,500 arrests announced by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in late October.

Source: http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/11/12/493270/Ethiopia-Oromia-Amhara-protest-arrest-HRW

The Ethiopian security forces continued their unparalleled genocidal crimes of torturing, raping and killings, largely hidden from the eyes and ears of the international observers, embassies and the media. Records show that over two thousand Oromo civilians (students, farmers, teachers, civil servants, elders, leaders and members of the Oromo opposition party) were killed in the last one year from live bullets of the Ethiopian security forces. Witnesses out of Oromia show exceptional heinous crimes of killing that includes children from age 1 to the old men to the age of 80, pregnant women and mothers, a mother killed with her two sons, three siblings from the same parent. There are evidences of mothers and siblings ordered to sit on the dead body of their loved ones after being killed by the security forces. Wives and daughters were gang raped in front their husbands, loved ones and parents. Moreover, every independent Oromo person is routinely subjected to harassment, extrajudicial killings, imprisonment, rape and torture. Several thousands were wounded from live bullets and estimated over 50,000 were arrested in different detention camps in remote areas labeled as “terrorists” without convictions and/or rare trials.

The TPLF/EPRDF is still acting with impunity despite continued call for investigation into the genocidal crimes it commit by the renowned international human rights organizations, the UN Human Rights Council, African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights in the last several months. The western governments such as US, UK, Canada, Australia and others issued the statements of concern and travel warnings which may not be enough to curb the looming dangerous situation. The Ethiopian government had been major recipient of direct investment and economic aid earnings mainly from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the US, UK and the EU used to further human sufferings. Western governments are requested to sanction, use their diplomatic leverage to pressure the Ethiopian government to allow an independent UN and African Commission investigations over the massacres, completely halt the state of emergency and remove command posts from the villages, unconditional release of Oromo politicians and civilians from detention camps. Furthermore, the perpetuators of the massacres must be brought before international tribune to curb the genocide in the making in Oromia.

Source: Genocide in the making in Oromia

The current situation in Ethiopia in general and in Oromia in particular is at an alarming stage. Unless intervened promptly, Ethiopia as a state will collapse and the human right crisis will be out of control. This will also have a chilling impact for the horn of Africa as a whole.

Noticing the impending crisis, Her Excellency, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Chairwoman of the African Union Commission, has recently called upon the Ethiopian government to engage in a serious dialogue with the protesters (http://www.au.int/en/pressreleases/31333/au-calls- restraint-encourages-dialogue- followingprotests-ethiopia). Unfortunately, I do not expect a different response from the Ethiopian government than what their response was to the UNHRC. It is, therefore, for this reason that I ask the UN, as a responsible international body, to promptly intervene to save lives in Ethiopia.

Sincerely,

Daawud Ibsaa

Chairman, Oromo liberation Front National Council

Source: OLF asks the UN to promptly intervene to save lives in Ethiopia.

It is our strong belief that beyond creating further confusion among the Oromo people, the Atlanta convention will do little to help address the problem facing Oromia and millions of the Oromo people. A novel and timely effort would have been to work on mobilizing resources in support of our people who are doing the real fighting on the ground.

With or without convention, there is no doubt that the gallant Oromo people will defeat the ruthless enemy and free themselves from a century old yoke of subjugation and exploitation.One needs to remember, however, that history will never forget and forgive. It is not too late for all of us to do the right thing and rewrite our personal history.

Source: Questioning the Motives of the Atlanta Leadership Convention