Author Archives: advocacy4oromia
Oromo nationalism on the rise in Ethiopia
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Protests and online activism in recent months have brought a resurgence of ethnic Oromo nationalism in Ethiopia. |
Oromo students protested against a government plan to expand Addis Ababa [Jawar Mohammed/Al Jazeera]
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| Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Aslan Hasan, a student belonging to the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia, was called either a guilt-ridden terrorist who committed suicide or an innocent victim of brutal state repression, depending on who you listen to.
His death came following a bout of violence in May, when Oromo students in several towns protested against a government plan for the capital Addis Ababa to expand into Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia’s largest and most populous federal region with around one-third of the nation’s over 90 million people. Security services said Hasan hanged himself in his cell after being arrested for a grenade attackthat occurred at Haramaya University in the east of the country. Online Oromo activists such as Jawar Mohammed say Aslan, 24, had his throat slit by police on June 1 while in custody after being snatched four days before. A witness said it appeared his neck had been cut and his eyes gouged out.
Ethiopia’s government is frequently accused oftrampling on constitutionally protected ethnic rights as it prioritises security, political stability, and public infrastructure investments to drive growth. While technocrats have devised a rational scheme to manage a bulging city, the red-hot political issue of Oromo rights was barely considered, according to an Addis Ababa University academic who wishes to remain anonymous. “They think something is good, they go for it,” he said about the ruling coalition’s top-down methods. “It’s a done deal, it’s not consultative at all.” Jawar and other Oromos – including normally acquiescent Oromo members of the ruling political group – say the “integrated master plan” is an annexation of their territory that will weaken the ethnicity politically and also lead to the eviction of Oromo farmers from their land on the periphery of Addis Ababa. Oromos claim the capital city, which they call Finfinne, as their own, and in 2004 protested against the government’s attempt to change their capital to Adama. Deadly protests The most serious unrest in May took place in the western town of Ambo and involved a student protest-turned-riot, with buildings damaged, cars torched, and civilians shot dead by security forces. At Haramaya, a grenade was chucked at students watching a televised football match. Officials blamed Oromo separatists; activists pointed a finger at agent provocateurs from the regime. In the southeast of Oromia, grainy video purports to show security forces firing on students around Madawalabu University at Robe. An independent assessment estimated as many as 50 people died. The lack of clarity epitomises the propaganda battle raging inside Ethiopia – and online – amid fear of retribution and a paucity of reliable information. Few if any independent journalists or bloggers operate in the hotspots, and Ambo, for example, was placed on lockdown by security services when violence broke out. Two Peace Corps volunteers who blogged about the unrest – saying police killed two of their unarmed neighbours away from the protests – fled the country soon after. While debate continues about exactly what happened, the protests indicate a growing and potentially important trend: a resurgence of Oromo nationalism that’s increasingly driven by online activists. During the demonstrations, US-based Jawar, a graduate student at Columbia University, acted as a central hub to distribute information from Ethiopia via Facebook and Twitter: posting photos of dead students and sharing news of protests under way. Cooperation between disaffected Oromo students and savvy mobilisers in the diaspora presents a fresh and substantial challenge to a government that still has work to do in resolving the centuries old issue of unmet Oromo demands for fair treatment and representation. “The recent Oromo protests and the new online activism is significant, mostly because it represents a fresh, much younger generation of Oromo nationalists, and signals that Oromo nationalism is durable politically,” said Michael Woldemariam, an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University. Since moving into Ethiopia’s highlands in the 1600s, the Oromos have been discriminated against by the ruling Tigray and Amhara classes, who often saw them as “uncivilised”, according to historian John Markakis. The Oromos were largely excluded from national political power until 1991, when the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which was allied with other rebels, helped overthrow a military junta. But the OLF soon left the transitional government after falling out with the dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The OLF has been in rebellion ever since and was classified as a terrorist group by lawmakers in 2011. For the past two decades, the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO) has represented Ethiopia’s Oromo in the country’s ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. But the Oromo opposition claim the OPDO has been subservient to the country’s Tigrayan political elite, and too weak to promote the community’s interests. ‘Fractious political debates’ Jawar’s political profile soared a year ago when he said on Al Jazeera’s current affairs show The Streamthat he considered himself an “Oromo first” before he considered himself an Ethiopian. This put him at odds with many in the opposition, who think the current federal system that promotes ethnic rights undermines national progress and unity. Advocates of a unitary state promote a proud history of Ethiopia’s ancient highland civilisation and resistance to European colonialism led by Amharas. Ethiopia’s 1994 constitution promotes ethnic rights by organising the country into federal states partly on the basis of “language and identity”; recognising all Ethiopian languages equally; respecting ethnic identities and non-harmful cultures; ensuring representation of ethnic minorities in both chambers of legislature; and, controversially, by providing mechanisms for all groups to try and become federal states and for states to secede from the federation. In recent decades, Oromos have been weakened by fractious political debates about the nature of the self-determination pushed for by the OLF. Jawar said a new breed of educated, technocratic Oromo activists is revitalising the cause by moving beyond this factionalism. They have set up the Oromo Media Networkand held “Oromo First” speaking events in the US. Jawar said they have begun to bring OPDO and OLF members closer together, and plan to work with the rest of the domestic Oromo opposition, who will be trying to break the EPRDF’s stranglehold on parliament in elections next year.
Recent government arrests of opposition politicians and bloggers suggest that will be difficult, said Woldemariam. “The existence of armed Oromo opposition makes the task of the non-violent opposition who participate in the electoral process a lot more difficult,” he said. At the end of last year, the activists cut their teeth by taking on and beating multinational giant Heineken by pushing drinkers to #BoycottBedele – a local beer owned by the Dutch brewer that planned to sponsor concerts by Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro. The reason was that the Amhara singer allegedly praised as a “holy war” the late 19th-century military expansions by Emperor Menelik II, who was also an Amhara, that resulted in the incorporation of the Oromo and other southern groups into what became the modern Ethiopian state. The Oromo movement now faces two comparable political challenges, according to Jawar: convincing the Amhara that “the old days of single language, single community dominance, will not come back”, and targeting the Tigrayan elite’s control over the country’s government, security services, and economy. “We have to make sure they cannot have free rein on our resources and there’s a number of tactics in place to make sure that succeeds,” Jawar added. Jawar preaches peaceful civil resistance, yet admits this may not be sustainable. He said he told top security officials that law-abiding protests would be confined to campuses and that they only spread and became unruly after police attacked the demonstrators. “It might be a challenge for the Oromo who believe in non-violence to maintain control over the population, given the kind of killing the government undertook,” Jawar said. “Armed struggle might become the permanent form of response.” |
Ethiopian mother angry over murdered son
The Advocacy for Oromia expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the MH17 plane disaster. We are so sorry to hear such tragedy. Tragedies like this have a devastating affect on both the global community and local communities – our thoughts are with everyone touched by these events, in Victoria, all over Australia and overseas, at this difficult time.
“ I think they were killing people on purpose” Yeshi, mother of man shot dead in April in Ambo. “Yeshi” is still trying to come to terms with the trauma of discovering the body of her son being carried through the streets of the Ethiopian city of Ambo.
A 27-year-old rickshaw driver, he had been caught up in deadly protests between the police and students in the city in April.
They were demonstrating about plans to extend the administrative control of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia state.
Oromia is the country’s largest region and completely surrounds Addis Ababa – and some people feared they would be forced off their land and lose their regional and cultural identity if the plans went ahead.
The government says the “Masterplan”, as it is known, would allow them to better extend city services to rural areas.
However for Yeshi – who asked for her name and those of her family to be changed – the heavy-handed response by the security forces that saw her son shot in the head is hard to fathom.
She had come across a group of people carrying a body and overheard people saying it was her son, Tamiru.
Unable to recognise his features as they were too disfigured, she identified him by his “clothes and shoes”.
“I think they were killing people on purpose,” she told the BBC, saying that Tamiru was not directly involved in any trouble that day.
Red roses
Five other young people were also killed with bullet wounds to the head, she says.
One of her other surviving sons, Ibsa, said he was unable to believe that his brother was dead and asked for the coffin to be opened.
“His head was blackened and torn apart. The bullet had gone through his temple. You couldn’t identify him by his face but I recognised his body,” he said.
“He was a very good boy, level-headed. He did well in his studies. Nobody has a bad word to say about him… But what good is that now?”
Three months later it was a very different atmosphere in Ambo, which is about 125km (77 miles) west of the capital and was the focal point of the protests.
When the BBC team visited, it was in the middle of the graduation season and the area around the university was full of graduates in their gowns and caps ahead of their big ceremony.
Students were posing for photographs with armfuls of red roses wrapped in cellophane and the mood was one of celebration.
Yet this was the same place – the main entrance to Ambo University – where witnesses say the protesters and police clashed in April.
The government says that 17 lives were lost in the violence. Opposition, human rights groups and some eyewitnesses say the figure is much higher.
‘Rabble rousers’
Ethiopia’s Information Minister Redwan Hussein old the BBC the dead included five students and 12 civilians and strongly denies that the government was responsible for any of the violence.
The protest was hijacked by “rabble rousers” with a political agenda – “hell-bent on raising havoc”, he said.
“They were shooting, they had guns – ammunitions,” Mr Redwan said.
“They were attacking and fighting so it was not through the government shooting, or the police shooting that people died.”
He dismissed accusations from international human rights organisations that police and government security forces shot at unarmed protesters.
“Whatever they said was not actually founded on facts.”
The students, the minister added, had a right to ask questions about the “Masterplan” and that the government was “ready to discuss” it with them.
Mathewos Asfaw, general manager of the “Masterplan”, told the BBC that the demonstrators had completely misunderstood the project and that no-one would be forced off their land.
“The plan doesn’t have a single concept or idea of expansion, because it’s not possible to expand the city of Addis beyond the current boundary and jurisdiction.”
Ethiopia is no stranger to accusations of intolerance when dealing with its critics and opposition groups.
The UN Human Rights Council recently recommended that the country improve on its media freedom and pay more attention to human rights.
Mr Redwan says he has “no objection” to the recommendations as they are already “being implemented”.
This is no consolation for Yeshi, who remains dressed in traditional mourning clothes.
“I’m very sad – until now I’m not right in the head. I’m walking around like a zombie. I’m not OK.”
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28485044?SThisFB
The Oromo human rights concert is scheduled in Melbourne
(A4O, 19 July 2014) The Australian Oromo community is pleased to invite you to the ‘Oromo Human Right Awareness Night’ scheduled from 4pm-8pm, 9th of August 2014 at Church of Scientology, 251-255 Mt Alexandria Rd, Ascotvale, 3032.
According to the press release, the purpose of this event is to promote the awareness of gross human right violations occurring in Ethiopia, particularly in Oromia state.
“We anticipate this event has the potentiality to enable us seeking support from politicians, communities and organisations so as to continue our campaign for respect of human right, freedom of people and democracy in the region,” says the press release.
Book this date in your calendar and email this to your networks who would love to see the Africa’s got talent artists, Oromo food, Youth hip hop dancers and much more!
You can also learn what you can do to stop the Oromo people from being pushed out of Oromia! FREE entry. All are welcome!!! Book the date in your calendar! 4:30pm, Sat 9th August.
For more information, you can contact the event organisers at ocaustralia@gmail.com
Twenty Oromo journalists dismissed, in hiding
By Tom Rhodes, CPJ’s East Africa Representative*
(A4O, 12 July 2014) “If they cannot indoctrinate you into their thinking, they fire you,” said one former staff member of the state-run Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO), who was dismissed from work last month after six years of service. “Now we are in hiding since we fear they will find excuses to arrest us soon,” the journalist, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told CPJ.
On June 25, 20 journalists from the state broadcaster in Oromia, the largest state in terms of area and population in Ethiopia, were denied entry to their station’s headquarters, according to news reports. No letters of termination or explanations were presented, local journalists told CPJ; ORTO’s management simply said the dismissals were orders given by the government. “Apparently this has become common practice when firing state employees in connection with politics,” U.S.-based Ethiopian researcher Jawar Mohammed said in an email to CPJ. “The government seems to want to leave no documented trace.”
The journalists, some of whom had worked for the state broadcaster for over five years, can only speculate on the reason for their dismissals. Two of them told CPJ they believe it is linked to student protests earlier in the year.
On April 25, students at Ambo University, Oromia State, protested the government’s “Master Plan” to cede parts of Oromia State to the capital, Addis Ababa, a federal region, according to news reports. The state claimed in a statement that eight people died in violent protests in Ambo over a plan designed to provide urban services to rural areas. Oromo citizens say that many more died in Ambo at the hands of security forces for demonstrating against a proposal they fear will lead to the federal government grabbing their land and reducing local autonomy, news reports said. More student and civil society protests ensued soon after the Ambo University demonstrations and authorities were determined to quell any reporting on the unrest.
But the Oromo state broadcaster, listened to by millions of Oromo citizens, hardly covered the protests, according to local journalists. ORTO only discussed the protests after they had concluded, dismissing one of the region’s largest social actions as an illegal initiative conducted by violent elements, one journalist said.
Prior to the protests, however, TV Oromia aired a short segment where ruling party members criticized the plan to cede parts of Oromia State to the capital, local journalists told me. Many were surprised by the critical coverage coming from the state broadcaster, the same sources said. Senior members of Ethiopia’s ruling party may also have been surprised.
Last month, senior ruling party members such as former Communications Minister Bereket Simon and the pro-government Director of Fana Broadcasting, Waldu Yemasel, led an indoctrination program called “gimgama” (meaning “re-evaluation”) for the ORTO staff at the station’s headquarters in Adama, journalists who attended the program told me.
“The main purpose of the training was not to build the skill and profession of the journalists, but rather to identify the political positions of the staff,” said one of the journalists in attendance. The 180 staff members were divided into 12 groups with two ruling party cadres in charge of evaluating the staff within each respective group, the journalist told me. Some of the ORTO staffers suspect the government decided to rid the broadcaster of staff who sympathized with the protesters. The management told one source that the government was not pleased with them for not producing “developmental journalism,” a term local journalists define as “positive reporting on government projects.”
The fear of being imprisoned next is not unfounded. Ethiopia is the second worst jailer of journalists in Africa, trailing only Eritrea, with 17 journalists currently behind bars. They are all imprisoned on trumped-up charges or none at all, according to CPJ research. Under such conditions, local journalists told CPJ, many resort to fleeing the country to evade arrest. CPJ has assisted 41 Ethiopian journalists in exile since 2009.
New employees, Jawar said, now fill the 20 positions and it is business as usual at the state broadcaster. Following this purge, the Oromo–Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group with around 27 million people–will likely hear even less about civil society’s concerns in the future.
Source: https://www.cpj.org/blog/2014/07/twenty-ethiopia-state-journalists-dismissed-in-hid.php
*Tom Rhodes is CPJ’s East Africa representative, based in Nairobi. Rhodes is a founder of southern Sudan’s first independent newspaper. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ
LESSONS AND THE FUTURE OF THE #OROMOPROTESTS
(A4O, 8 July 2014) — In his book The Dictator’s Learning Curve, journalist William Dobsonwrites, “revolutions, if they are to be successful, require planning, preparation, and an intelligent grasp of how to anticipate and outwit a repressive regime that thinks of little beyond preserving its own power.”
As activists around the world get more sophisticated with the use of technology and out-organize repressive states, governments have also learned to wait it out and sup momentum out of otherwise formidable movements.
In a sense, time seems to be the worst enemy for activists. Too often passion burns out and social movements falter as quickly as they begin. In the last five years, horizontal movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring used social media to mobilize a critical mass and proved more effective than states. However, they failed to overcome this test of time.
#OromoProtests
In one of the least connected corners of the world, students in Ethiopia’s Oromia region have also uncovered and harnessed this power of technology. Beginning in mid-April, Oromo students across various campuses in Oromia began to peacefully protest the expansion of that country’s capital —quickly getting images, videos and firsthand accounts of government crackdown out on social media.
Ethiopia criminalizes all forms of dissent and heavily monitors independent reporting. As such, the world only got a glimpse of the government clampdown on protesters via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Oromo-centric websites and blogs. With ongoing global solidarity rallies and petitions, the growing Oromo diaspora was instrumental in amplifying the students’ voices. From Malta to Melbourne, South Dakota to Toronto and anywhere in between, silence was not an option. Activists used #OromoProtests and #FreeOromoStudents across various social media platforms to draw attention to the repression and demand mainstream media coverage.
But, as with other social movements, the passion seems to be burning out. The government continues to hunt and imprison anyone suspected of organizing these protests, as the students begin to lose control of their movement, #OromoProtests seems to be losing more steam. Amid major world news events such as the turmoil in Iraq and Brazil’s World Cup, the ongoing arrest and alleged torture of Oromo students is not receiving the attention it so deserves. Hundreds of students have gone underground to avoid arrest. The lack of access to prison records and difficulty of getting facts on the ground weakens diaspora’s efforts to generate awareness. On June 27, the International Oromo Youth Association launched a three-day social media campaign to draw attention to ongoing arrests and demanding justice for those who were killed in the crackdown. While the group’s creative use of various modes of communication including a short documentary in English is commendable, judging from the reception even among the Oromos, momentum is clearly running out.
Future of #Oromoprotests
The road for Oromo recognition has not been easy. Under the circumstances, Oromo students can take solace in the amount and quality of the media coverage their movement garnered. Ultimately, politics is a game of patience and activism is fueled by passion. Coordination and centralized leadership is key to sustaining the movement, especially in a country as repressive as Ethiopia.
All successful non-violent movements had one similar characteristic: strong leadership. When leaders effectively articulate the goals and hopes of the movement, it creates a central message and a sense of unity. Take the Ethiopian Muslims movement for example. In early 2012, the movement appeared on the cusp of winning major concessions from the government through disciplined nonviolent movement. The activists were trained in nonviolent ways of resistance and responded peaceful to government provocations. Unable to slow down the resistance, the government arrested the protesters representatives (the Committee) in July 2012. The silent protests and sit-ins continued for months. But, with the central leadership languishing in jails, once the most sustained nonviolent movement in Ethiopia’s recent history (if not ever), it is now all but dead.
Nevertheless, the experiences offer valuable lessons for Oromo students. First, the student movement needs to solidify the non-violent stance. Nonviolent resistance requires coordination, discipline and patience to respond peacefully to an act of aggression. As such, even if the government responds with violence, the movement must respond with more peace, for violent reaction would only exacerbate the situation.
Second, the Oromo diaspora must also do more than holding rallies, writing press releases, changing profile pictures on Facebook and sending out few Twitter updates a day. A peaceful movement feeds off of ideas and intellectual conversations. Besides, given the ubiquity of information on social media networks, in order to make journalists and the international community understand the students’ position, reliable information should be gathered, synthesized and organized into easily accessible formats. The OromoProtests.com website was a great stride in that direction. But more can be done.
There were also other encouraging efforts (in places such as Minnesota) to hold community forums to discuss the best way to respond to the crisis. But those sessions must not be for mere therapeutic purposes where we express our anguish. Protesting in our respective communities gets the story out, but without a unified message the story fades. The #hungerstrike and resolutions passed by Minnesota legislature because of the community’s efforts are worth noting. While efforts to organize global day of action was also commendable, there appeared very little communication and coordination between the organizers. It would have had more effect if all Oromo activists across the U.S. went on hunger strike at the same time, and more local resolutions were passed. This would have undoubtedly received more media coverage and better response from U.S. lawmakers.
Third, have a clear message. The message should highlight the lack of human rights and less of the factional politics. The focus should be on getting the story of innocent student massacres into the international news cycle.
There were also moments where different factions of Oromo leaders sought to own the narrative. This is wrong. The students had legitimate grievances and their call for the respect of the constitution was unambiguously clear. We must put away our political ambitions and differences and focus on getting the information out to a broader audience.
Finally, it is important to seek out and build solidarity across ethnic lines. The government propaganda equates the struggle for Oromo rights with Oromo attempts to takeover the government. While many in Ethiopia fear an impending Oromo domination, Oromo students raised legitimate, constitutional and fundamental questions of group rights. This message of peace needs to be stressed to ensure all freedom advocates and those who feel unfairly marginalized or unjustly treated by Ethiopian government can join in efforts to make Ethiopia into a democratic nation. The EPRDF regime thrives by making different ethnic groups to fear one another. Instead of playing into government hands and perpetuating tyranny, rights advocates in Ethiopia must build bridges on common principles of human rights, freedom and justice. Patience and passion channeled into rational actions can go a long way in bringing change to Ethiopia. Factionalized outbursts of heated reactions benefit only the regime.
Source: http://www.opride.com/oromsis/news/3761-the-future-of-oromo-protests
Ethiopia: an empire initiated, established and maintained by violence
(A4O, 6 July 2014) Study reveals Ethiopia is an empire initiated, established and maintained by violence targeted against the Oromo and its neighbouring nations.
According to the concluding remarks of researcher Denebo Dekeba, the current government of Ethiopia has committed despicable crimes against humanity including genocide; arbitrary arrest, torture ,and other inhuman or degrading treatment of people ; economic exclusions and discriminations ; land grabbing and eviction from land; violation of freedom of thought and expression of opinion.
The question remains: How long and what does it take to stop the ruthless violation of human rights and crimes against humanity committed by the government of Ethiopia? May the international community show solidarity to victims of the crimes against humanity as committed by the government of Ethiopia? If so, what action must be taken by the international community in response to the mounting evidence proving that crimes against humanity are being committed by the government of Ethiopia?
These and other questions concerning the issues of democracy, human rights and rule of law need to be addressed by all actors including researchers, policy makers and, of course, those “democratic” countries providing the government of Ethiopia with financial aid in the face of such appalling crimes against humanity.
Read the full article https://advocacy4oromia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethnic-persecution-and-crimes-against-humanity-in-the-horn-of-africa.pdf
Oromia: State Broadcaster Fires 20 Journalists
June 30, 2014 (Reporters Without Borders) — Reporters Without Borders condemns last week’s politically-motivated dismissal of 20 journalists from Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO), the main state-owned broadcaster in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest regional State.
Muktar Kedir, President of the Oromia regional state
The 20 journalists were denied entry to ORTO headquarter on 25 June and were effectively dismissed without any explanations other than their alleged “narrow political views,” an assessment the management reached at the end of a workshop for journalists and regional government officials that included discussions on the controversial Master Plan of Addis that many activists believe is aimed at incorporating parts of Oromia into the federal city of Addis Ababa.
The journalists had reportedly expressed their disagreement with the violence used by the police in May to disperse student protests against the plan, resulting in many deaths.
It is not yet clear whether the journalists may also be subjected to other administrative or judicial proceedings.
“How can you fire journalists for their political views?” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk. “The government must provide proper reasons for such a dismissal. Does it mean that Ethiopia has officially criminalized political opinion ?
“In our view, this development must be seen as an attempt by the authorities to marginalize and supress all potential critiques ahead of the national elections scheduled for 2015 in Ethiopia. These journalists must be allowed to return to work and must not be subjected to any threats or obstruction.”
Ethiopia is ranked 143rd out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
20 ORTO journalists banned from work
As Addis Admass newspaper writes quoting sources, twenty ORTO (Oromia Radio and Television Organization) journalists are banned from work for the alleged “Narrow minded political attitude” in connection with the assessment session it had on the issue of the Addis Ababa integrated master plan.
It is remembered that a discussion was held in April, 2014 at the Adama city on the topic of the Addis Ababa integrated master plan where the region’s politicians, journalists and higher officials participated. The discussion and assessment sessions were also conducted following the region wide violence in protest to the integrated master plan.
As sources told the newspaper, lots of journalists were expressing their idea and concern on the integrated master plan at the April’s discussion session and during the two-months long training given to the journalists.
Addis Admass writes that twenty ORTO journalists are prohibited from entering into their office on Wednesday and the journalists told the newspaper that expressing their idea on the training sessions must have been the reason behind their ban from work.
http://www.diretube.com/articles/read-20-orto-journalists-banned-from-work_5629.html#.U68oo0DDvIU
What “…..the world to know”
Kulani Jalata | June 26, 2014
On April 25, 2014, a reported 47 peacefully protesting students were gunned down by federal security forces in Ambo, Oromia region, Ethiopia.
“The government of Ethiopia doesn’t want the world to know about what has been happening with the [Oromo] student protests, that federal forces have used violence against the students, that there have been mass arrests of students, that there are allegations of beatings and brutality. The government doesn’t have any incentive to have outside forces to do an investigation. So there are certain barriers to spreading the word.”
These are the words of Amy Bergquist, a human rights attorney at Advocates for Justice, in a newly produced documentary by the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA). During April and May of this year, Oromo[1]university students across Oromia, Ethiopia, organized peaceful demonstrations against the “Integrated Development Master Plan”, a government plan to expand the capital into the state of Oromia.
The capital city’s municipal expansion into Oromia would invariably result in mass evictions and the displacement of millions of poor farmers. When students decided to peacefully protest the expansion plan, they were met with bullets, as reported by BBC (video), Al Jazeera, and the Guardian. Leslie Lefkow, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Africa director stated, “Ethiopia’s heavy handed reaction to the Oromo protests is the latest example of the government’s ruthless response to any criticism of its policies.
UN member countries should tell Ethiopia that responding with excessive force against protesters is unacceptable and needs to stop.” On May 6, 2014, Ethiopia was summarily grilled at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review regarding its human rights violations against Oromo student protestors.
While it is true there have been “barriers” as Bergquist notes to documenting the protests and the Ethiopian government’s violent response because of the absence of free media in Ethiopia, diaspora Oromo communities organized worldwide protests in May and created a website to raise awareness about the Oromo student protests.
Now, the International Oromo Youth Association is embarking on a social media campaign, starting this weekend, to continue advocating for the rights of the Oromo students that were not only gunned down and killed, but that were also imprisoned and are currently languishing in Ethiopian prisons known for torturing prisoners of conscience and their inhumane living conditions (BBC, U.S. Dept of State).
Below is IOYA’s documentary on the Oromo protests, including eyewitness accounts from Peace Corps volunteers Jennifer Klein and Josh Cook.
Jennifer and Josh had been working in Ambo on a health project when the protests began in Ambo and security forces responded: “Every few minutes, we were hearing gun shots. Sometimes we would hear what sounded like an explosion followed by a round of 30 or 40 gunshots. Sometimes there were gunshots within a block or two of our house…the gunshots were so close that it frightened both of us a lot.”
Not only did Josh and Jennifer bear witness to the massacring of students that day as well as the loading up of buses and trucks of protesting students by police officers to be shipped to prisons, but they also witnessed Ethiopian police officers follow two of their neighbors into their home while the protests were taking place across town and shoot them to death.
“That’s when Jen and I were very frightened,” Josh said. “We couldn’t believe that the police would enter somebody’s private home and shoot them in their home. It was awful.”
The Ethiopian government’s response to the Oromo student protestsis only the surface of the Ethiopian government’s repressive and violent approach to governance and politics.
In 2005, unarmed Oromo students protesting against fraudulent election results were also met with violence and live ammunition, political imprisonment, and torture, and for years, Human Rights Watch has been reporting the government’s use of surveillance, arbitrary detention, and torture to severely restrict freedom of expression, association, and assembly.
In the documentary, Josh notes that people in Ethiopia today are “not allowed to say anything” in critique of the government, otherwise risking imprisonment. “People have absolutely no voice at all.”
Amane Badhasso, the current president of IOYA, says that the purpose of the IOYA campaign on the Oromo student protests is to raise global awareness and to ask for the immediate release of thousands of Oromo students currently being held in detention and very likely being tortured for simply protesting against the Integrated Development Master Plan. “We want to show the world that a government’s disregard for basic human and constitutional rights is unacceptable,” she says.
[1] The Oromo are the largest ethnonational group in Ethiopia, constituting almost 40% of the population.
IOYA releases a short documentary about Oromo Protests
(A4O, 27 June 2014) In order to raise global awareness about the protests and the imminent threat facing students who have been expelled from school and those imprisoned, the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) is launching a social media campaign.
IOYA has prepared a short informative documentary that provides a summary of the protests to date. IOYA is also calling for the immediate release of thousands of Oromo students currently being held in detention and are likely to face torture for peacefully protesting against the Integrated Development Master Plan.
Amane Badhasso, the current president of IOYA, says that the purpose of the IOYA campaign on the Oromo student protests is to raise global awareness and to ask for the immediate release of thousands of Oromo students currently being held in detention and very likely being tortured for simply protesting against the Integrated Development Master Plan.
“We want to show the world that a government’s disregard for basic human and constitutional rights is unacceptable,” she says.
The Ethiopian government’s continuous use of brutal force, arbitrary detentions, and torture to severely restrict freedom of expression and rights of citizens should be condemned.
The campaign will call on various international human/governmental organizations to urge the Ethiopian government to release the students arrested and to refrain from expelling and abducting innocent students.
Advocacy for Oromia 