After almost a decade of relative dormancy, Oromo students across universities in Oromia return to staging brazen rallies across Oromia and Ethiopia defying the presence of fully-armed EPRDF troops and security forces. The students are protesting the new Addis Ababa Master Plan, which aims to expand the landmass on which the city is sitting by unconstitutionally annexing tens of neighboring Oromia state’s cities and rural districts (Aanaalee) within a 140 kilometers range against the will of the Oromo people. Thousands of students participated in the ongoing anti-Addis Ababa Master Plan non-violent demonstrations from Jimma, Ambo, Haromaya and Wallaga public universities.At the most recent rally at Wallaga University in western Oromia, Ethiopia’s army and police opened fire with live ammunition injuring unknown numbers of students and terrorizing others into fleeing the campus to hide in nearby forests, according to a report obtained from the April 26 broadcast of Oromo Voice Radio, in Afan Oromo. Author Archives: advocacy4oromia
Protests Grow Over Addis Ababa’s Expansion
Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) is growing fast and set to expand further, pitting the government against Oromo activists, seeking to protect their rights. Ethnic Oromo students in Ethiopia are ratcheting up opposition to the territorial expansion of the Horn of Africa nation’s capital, Addis Ababa. Thousands of students at all eight regional universities in Oromia, the largest of Ethiopia’s federal states, turned in recent days to demand an immediate halt to the city’s so-called “Integrated Development Master Plan,” unveiled earlier this month.
Gambia Street in downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, bustles with traffic. Credit: David Stanely
Today, Tuesday 29 April, an estimated 25,000 people, including residents of Ambo town in central Oromia, participated in a city wide demonstration, in the largest show of opposition to the government’s plans to date. A handful of students have been injured and others arrested in protests at the campuses of Jimma, Haromaya, Ambo, Wollega, Metu, Bolu Hora, Adama and Maddawalabu universities, according to local reports.
Once dubbed a “sleeping beauty,” by Emperor Haile Selassie, Addis Ababa is an awakening city on the move. Vertically, buoyed by a growing economy and rural to urban migration, there is construction almost on every block — so much so that locals refer to it as “a city underconstruction.” The country’s first light rail transit which will connect several inner city neighbourhoods, being constructed with the help of the China Railway Group Ltd, is reported to be60% complete. Horizontally, over the last decade, not least due to an uptick in investment from returning Ethiopian expats from the U.S. and Western Europe, the city has expanded at a breakneck pace to swallow many surrounding towns.
Addis Ababa’s rapid urban sprawl is also getting noticed abroad. In 2013, it’s the only African city to make the Lonely Planet’s annual list of “top 10 cities to visit.” In April 2014, in its annual Global Cities Index, New York-based consultancy A.T. Kearney named Addis Ababa, “the third most likely city to advance its global positioning” in sub-Saharan Africa, only after Johannesburg and Nairobi. If it maintains the pace of development seen over the last five years, Kearney added, “the Ethiopian capital is also among the cities closing in fastest on the world leaders.”
Overlapping jurisdictions
Founded in 1886 by emperor Menelik II and his wife Empress Taytu Betul, Addis Ababa sits at the heart of the Oromia Regional State. According to the country’s constitution, while semi-autonomous, Addis Ababa is treated as a federal district with special privileges granted to the Oromia region, for which it also serves as the capital.
The Addis Ababa City Administration, the official governing body, has its own police, city council, budget and other public functions overseen by a mayor. The overlapping, vague territorial jurisdictions have always been the subject of controversy. Now contentions threaten to plunge the country into further unrest.
Home to an estimated 4 million people, Addis Ababa offers Ethiopia one of the few gateways to the outside world. The state-run Ethiopian airlines, one of the most profitable in Africa, serves 80 international cities with daily flights from Addis to Europe, different parts of Africa, the United States, Canada, Asia and the Middle East.
In addition to being the seat of the continental African Union, the city hosts a number of United Nations regional offices, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. There are also more than 100 international missions and foreign embassies based in Addis, earning it the nickname of ‘Africa’s diplomatic capital.’ All these attributes require the city to continually grow to meet the needs and expectations of a global city.
City officials insist the new “master plan”, the 10th iteration since Addis Ababa began using modern city master plans in 1936, will mitigate the city’s disorganised growth and guide efforts to modernize it over the next 25 years.
According to leaked documents, the proposed plan will expand Addis Ababa’s boundaries to 1.1 million hectares, covering an area more than 20 times its current size. Under this plan, 36 surrounding Oromia towns and cities will come under Addis Ababa’s jurisdiction. Oromo students, opposition and activists say the plan will undermine Oromia’s constitutionally granted special interest.
A history of problematic growth
Addis Ababa’s spatial growth has always been contentious. The Oromo, original inhabitants of the land, have social, economic and historical ties to the city. Addis Ababa, which they call Finfinne, was conquered through invasion in 19th century. Since its founding, the city grew by leaps and bounds. But the expansion came at the expense of local farmers whose livelihoods and culture was uprooted in the process. At the time of its founding, the city grew “haphazardly” around the imperial palace, residences of other government officials and churches. Later, population and economic growth invited uncontrolled development of high-income, residential areas — still almost without any formal planning.
While the encroaching forces of urbanisation pushed out many Oromo farmers to surrounding towns and villages, those who remained behind were forced to learn a new language and embrace a city that did not value their existence. The city’s rulers then sought to erase the historical and cultural values of its indigenous people, including through the changing of original Oromo names.
Ultimately, this one-time bountiful farm and pasture land from which it draws the name Addis Ababa – meaning ‘new flower’ – where Oromos made laws under the shades of giant sycamore trees, grew foreign to them by the day. It is this traumatic sense of displacement that elicits deep passions, resentment and resistance from the Oromo community. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s single largest ethnic group, numbering over 25 million – around 35% of the total population – according to the 2007 census.
Ethiopia’s constitution makes a pivot to Addis Ababa’s unique place among the Oromo. Article 49 (5) of the constitution stipulates, “the special interest of the state of Oromia with respect to supply of services, the utilisation of resources and joint administrative matters.”
The Transitional Government of Ethiopia, which drafted the constitution, was fully cognisant of the potential conflicts of interest arising from Addis Ababa’s unbridled expansion, when it decided “to limit its expansion to the place where it was before 1991 and to give due attention to its vertical growth,” according to Feyera Abdissa, an urban researcher at Addis Ababa University.
But in the city’s 1997-2001 master plan, which has been in effect over the last decade, the city planners determined vertical growth posed key urbanisation challenges. In addition, most of Addis Ababa’s poor cannot afford to construct high-rise dwellings as per the new building standards. Officials also noted that the city’s relatively developed infrastructure and access to market attract the private investment necessary to bolster its coffers; the opening up to privatisation contributed to an upswing in investment. According to Abdissa, during this period, “54% of the total private investment applications submitted in the country requested to invest in and around Addis Ababa.” In order to meet the demand, city administration converted large tracts of forest and farmland in surrounding sub-cities into swelling urban dwellings, displacing local Oromo residents.
Local self-rule
In 2001, in what many saw as a conspiracy from federal authorities, the Oromia regional government decided to relocate its seat 100kms away, arguing that Addis Ababa was too “inconvenient” to develop the language, culture and history. The decision led to Oromia-wide protests and a brutal government crackdown, which left at least a dozen people, including high school students, dead. Hundreds of people were also arrested. In 2005, regional authorities reversed the decision amid internal pressures and protracted protests in the intervening years.
But the current opposition to the city’s expansion goes far beyond questions of self-rule. Each time Addis Ababa grew horizontally, it did so by absorbing surrounding Oromo sub-cities and villages. Many of the cities at the outskirts of the capital today, including Dukem, Gelan, Legetafo, Sendafa, Sululta, Burayu, Holeta and Sebeta, were one-time industrious Oromo farmlands. While these cities enjoy a level of cooperation with Addis Ababa on security and other issues of mutual interest, they have all but lost their Oromo identity. If the proposed master plan is implemented, these cities will come directly under Addis Ababa City Administration — thereby the federal government, further complicating the jurisdictional issue.
Among many other compromises made possible by Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism, each state has adopted the use of its native tongue as the official language of education, business and public service. In theory, the country’s constitution also grants autonomous self-rule to regional states. Under this arrangement, each state makes its own laws and levy and collect taxes.
In contrast, municipalities that fall under federal jurisdiction, including Addis, are governed by their own city administrations and use Amharic, Ethiopia’s federal working language. For the Oromo, as in the past, the seceding of surrounding towns to Addis means a loss of their language and culture once more, even if today’s driving forces of urbanisation differ from the 19th century imperialist expansion.
As seen from its recent residential expansions into sub-cities on the peripheries such as Kotebe, Bole Bulbula, Bole Medhanialem, Makanisa and Keranyo, the semi-agrarian community, including small, informal business owners, were given few options. The city’s new code requires building high-rises that are beyond their subsistence means. Unable to comply with the new city development code, the locals were pressured into selling their land at very low prices and eke out a living in a city that faces chronic unemployment. As a result, the horizontal expansion and displacement of livelihoods turned a one time self-sufficient community into street beggars and day labourers.
Activists fear that the latest expansion is part of a grand plan to contain a resurgent Oromo nationalism. As witnessed during the 2001 protests, any attempt to alter Addis Ababa’s administrative limits, unites Oromos across religious, regional and political divides. Unless halted, with a steam of opposition already gathering in and outside of the country, the ongoing of protests show ominous signs.
In a glimpse of the fervent opposition that could quickly turn deadly, within weeks after the plan was unveiled, two young and upcoming Oromo artists have released new music singles lamenting the city’s historic social and cultural heritage. One of the singers, Jafar Yusef, 29, was arrestedthree days after releasing his musical rendition — and has reportedly been tortured. Despite the growing opposition, however, the Addis Ababa municipal authority is vowing to forge ahead with the plan, which they say was developed in consultation with a team of international and local urban planners. Federal Special Forces, known as Liyyu police, who have previously been implicated in serious human rights violations, have been dispatched to college towns to disperse the protests. Soldiers in military fatigues have laid siege to several campuses, preventing students from leaving, according to eyewitness reports.
Trouble at the top while those at the bottom lack the basic necessities
The city administration is also riddled by a crippling legacy of corruption, massive inefficiency and poor service delivery. Its homeless loiters in the crowded streets that are shared by cars, pedestrians and animals alike. There are few subsidised housing projects for poor and low-income families. Many of the residents lack clean drinking water, healthcare and basic education. While some progress had been made to upgrade the city’s squatter settlements, the city is full of dilapidated shacks. Despite poor drainage system and other infrastructural deficiencies, studies show that there is a general disregard for health and environmental hazards in Ethiopia’s urban redevelopment scheme.
A lot of these social and economic problems are caused by the city’s poorly conceived but dramatic urban expansion. In the last two-decades, in an effort to transform the city into a competitive metropolis, there have been an uptick in the construction of high-rise buildings, luxury hotels and condominiums, which displaced poorer inhabitants, including Oromo farmers. “No one is ensuring the displaced people find new homes, and there are no studies about what his happening to them,” Mara Gittleman of Tufts University observed.
Regardless, the outcome of the current controversy will likely test Ethiopia’s commitment to ethnic federalism. The advance of the proposed master plan would mean further estrangement between the Oromo masses and Oromia regional government. Long seen as a puppet of the federal regime, with substantial investment in cultural and infrastructural development, regional leaders are only beginning to sway public opinion. Allowing the master plan to proceed would engender that progress and prove suicidal for the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Oromo element in Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. In the short run, the mounting public outcry may not hold much sway. The country’s one-time vibrant opposition is disarray and the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has almost complete control of the political system.
The opposition to the expansion plans does not pose an immediate electoral threat to the EPRDF who, controlling the system as they do, are likely to win an easy victory in next year’s elections. However, opposition, and the government’s possible aggressive response to it, could make Oromo-government relations more difficult. The government now has a choice, violently crackdown on protestors, labelling them “anti-development”, or engage with them as stakeholders representing historically marginalised communities. Ethiopia’s federal constitution suggests the latter course of action; sadly, recent history may suggest the former.
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Oromo Student Protests against the new Addis Ababa Master Plan
By Qeerransoo Biyyaa*
After almost a decade of relative dormancy, Oromo students across universities in Oromia return to staging brazen rallies across Oromia and Ethiopia defying the presence of fully-armed EPRDF troops and security forces. The students are protesting the new Addis Ababa Master Plan, which aims to expand the landmass on which the city is sitting by unconstitutionally annexing tens of neighboring Oromia state’s cities and rural districts (Aanaalee) within a 140 kilometers range against the will of the Oromo people. Thousands of students participated in the ongoing anti-Addis Ababa Master Plan non-violent demonstrations from Jimma, Ambo, Haromaya and Wallaga public universities.At the most recent rally at Wallaga University in western Oromia, Ethiopia’s army and police opened fire with live ammunition injuring unknown numbers of students and terrorizing others into fleeing the campus to hide in nearby forests, according to a report obtained from the April 26 broadcast of Oromo Voice Radio, in Afan Oromo. 
The National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy, Qeerroo, reported on its website that when the protest began on Jimma University campus on April 22, 2014, government soldiers and police responded with brutality– kidnapping, arresting and torturing over 12 students.The students called for an end to the evictions of an estimated 8-10 million Oromo farmers in the vicinity of Finfinne (Addis Ababa) from their ancestral lands. Among other human rights, the Oromo students demanded Oromia’s rights to self-government and the right to decide on the fate of its resources, including land and minerals.Ambo University students alongside residents of the town of Ambo, in central Oromia,took to the streets in several hundreds and protested the master plan on April 25,2014.
The students marched chanting slogans such as “Oromia belongs to the Oromo people,” and “Finfinne is the heart (center) of Oromia,” highlighting a long-standing Oromo yearning for self-government and freedom from colonial oppression.
Another contingent of Oromo student staged a similar rally at Haromaya University, eastern Oromia, emphasizing that the Oromo people are not going to “cut and give away” cities and rural districts of Oromia to Abyssinian colonial powers in Addis Ababa. They demanded the release from prison of Oromo singer Jafar Yusuf, who released a music video protesting the master plan, which became the cause for his imprisonment. They also demanded Afan Oromo, the Oromo language, be made a federal official language. Haromaya Univesity students demanded an end to killings, imprisonment and torture targeting the Oromo people.
Another contingent of Oromo student staged a similar rally at Haromaya University, eastern Oromia, emphasizing that the Oromo people are not going to “cut and give away” cities and rural districts of Oromia to Abyssinian colonial powers in Addis Ababa. They demanded the release from prison of Oromo singer Jafar Yusuf, who released a music video protesting the master plan, which became the cause for his imprisonment. They also demanded Afan Oromo, the Oromo language, be made a federal official language. Haromaya Univesity students demanded an end to killings, imprisonment and torture targeting the Oromo people.All the protests have had a common theme of demanding the Oromo right to self-government and ownership of its own country/land. Many of the slogans chanted by the students in all universities viewed Addis Ababa Master Plan as a callous plan by Ethiopia’s minority government to continue committing atrocity crimes [including genocide] against the Oromo people.
The master plan was secretly created by the inner circle of the Tigire People’s Liberation Front, who announced the implementation of the plan in an imposing way early this April. The people of Oromia, who never participated in the plan’s making, sternly objected to its implementation from day one across Oromia and the diaspora, and the opposition to it is gaining momentum by the day.
Addis Ababa city officials tried to make the unpopular plan to look like a popular “development plan” by staging partisan and fake public discussions of the plan for non-Oromos in Addis Ababa who are not the victims of the planned new expansion, but who are the benefactors of the spoils of the city’s expansion currently and historically.
*http://oromopress.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/student-protests-against-addis-ababa.html
Ethiopia: Opposition leaders denied medical treatment
 Action Requested: Authorities are refusing medical attention for two prisoners of conscience. Some are concerned for the very life of one of them. Amnesty requests your urgent intervention, as indicated below.
Act By: 25 May 2014 |
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| Sponsor: Amnesty International | Target: Ethiopian government officials |
| Action Site: http://www.amnesty.ca/urgentaction | Other Contact Info: UrgentAction@amnesty.ca |
African Charter Article #16: Every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health.
African Charter Article #161. Every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health. 2. States parties to the present Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick. |
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For more information: https://advocacy4oromia.org/campaigns/ethiopia-opposition-leaders-denied-medical-treatment/
“It gives scary pictures for the most Oromos”
By Leggese Alemu Gurmu
(From Social media, 24 April 2014) Ato Mathewos Asfaw, the General Manager of AA/Oromia Special Zone Master Plan Project, is not clear yet on the most important and sensitive public matter. During interview on ETV he said one of the demands for the new Master Plan is the ever growing population. He said currently Addis Ababa has about 3 million people and it is going to be doubled in the coming 10 years i.e it can go up to 6 million. With the Oromian towns, which have been already spatially and functionally integrated in to Addis, the city will have about 8 million people in coming ten years.
According to him, there are huge surges in population and therefore it is very critical to be prepared to welcome these population pressures (giving them the required housing, space, the required services, transportation and other social and other municipal services). There are also huge demands for investment that comes both from local and abroad. He said, when the plan begin to be implemented, there will be huge investment than we never saw before.
During this interview, he was neither asked nor took a proactive role to explain how all these demands can be met without displacing the surrounding indigenous population (Oromo peasants) from their lands and homes. Nor he said about any long and short term strategies that are going to be put in place to deal with these displacements. He was not asked or he did not address these critical issues b/c the main target of this plan is not benefiting the indigenous people from these development activities.
As he rightly said, the main target is responding to the ever growing of population pressure and needs for investment in the City of Addis. This is very clear and almost unambiguous. This mind set up also fits the very historical development of that “garrison”, (Amharic Katama). It has been pushing out the indigenous people from their lands, while they have been diminished and made extinct, Addis has been growing. The current plan is simply the continuum of past policies and practices. That is why evicting Oromo peasants from their home and lands have been considered as almost normal way of development for City of Addis.
The most amazing thing is that when Ato Mathewos Asfaw asked by Ethiopian Reporter, the Amharic vision, that who he thinks going to be the most beneficiaries from this master plan, his answer was this one “የበለጠ ተጠቃሚ ይሆናሉ ከተባለ የሚጠቀሙት ከዚህ በፊት ተጎጂ የነበሩት አካባቢዎች ናቸው፡፡ በዚህ ማስተር ፕላን ሁለቱም ተጠቃሚ ናቸው፡፡ የበለጠ ግን ሲጎዱ የነበሩ አካባቢዎች ተጠቃሚ ይሆናሉ፡፡” To be honest, I do not know to whom he is referring to as “ከዚህ በፊት ተጎጂ የነበሩት አካባቢዎች”. However, most people definitely know who these areas /አካባቢዎች/ are. They are indigenous people:the Oromos. It is Oromo peasants who have been the victims of the development of City of Addis so far. So, are these the people who are going to be the most beneficiaries from the plan that has been designed to respond to the demands of City of Addis or are there any other people / area he is referring to? The fate of the indigenous people has never been even the subject of his interviews so far and how all of the sudden they turned to be the most beneficiaries of this this plan? He thinks he smart or what?
During ETV interviews he said administrative takeover of Oromian Towns and Woradas is not the part of the plan. He is right and most people know this and I do not know why he repeats the most obvious. This is not even the main part of the concerns for now. The main issue is that: First, for the coming 30 years or so the plan significantly changes the demographic structure of the Oromian towns and Woradas which are included in the Master plan.
This is very inevitable if the master plan get implemented properly. Then, it is very clear that it is going to be presented to internal secession according to Article 47 of FDRE constitution, if it stays as it is now. This is also very clear b/c there is no any legal or moral reason why majorly non Oromo population want to be administered under Oromia regional state while they can establish their own autonomous region. The argument in this regard is, thus, this plan is the first of the beginning of breaking down of Oromia National Regional State into so many parts. Is this not very clear and visible?
Anyways, there are many things to be said on this matter. The bottom line is, however, the public and major stakeholders are not getting the information they need most at this critical junction. (The plan begins to be implemented on May 2014). The information available, including the one we get from the General Manager, does not make sense or does not add up. If it adds up, it gives scary pictures for the most Oromos.
Here are the links for whatever purpose:
The Oromo Yorkshire Community Celebrates Oromo Martyrs’ Day
By Ipsa Biana and A4O Staff
(A4o, 21 April 2014) The Oromo Yorkshire Community Celebrates the annual Oromo National Martyrs Day: April 15 with great community participation.
According to the information received, the annual celebration was opened with a 2-minute of silence and a blessing of the elders. Following the blessing, Meti, a 10-year-old girl, read a poem depicting the history of the Oromo fallen heroes and heroines during the successive Ethiopian regimes.
The poem was a very moving piece, and many were not able to hold back their tears. This was followed by more poems and an accompanying drama.
The community members also passionately discussed the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) master plan to depopulate the indigenous Oromos of Finfinne (Addis Ababa) by forcefully moving them from their land. If the TPLF succeeds with this plan, it might create another human tragedy similar to that in Rwanda.
People, who attended the occasion, committed themselves to work towards exposing the notorious TPLF regime to the British public as the TPLF is funded by UK taxpayers’ money. The TPLF perpetuates injustice against the Oromo people in Ethiopia.
“We, the Oromo Yorkshire Community members, appeal to all peace-loving nations of the world, and in particular the European Union and the United States of America, not to support the notorious TPLF regime which mercilessly arrests, prisons, kills and uproots Oromo farmers from their land,” says the community’s press release.
If you are not aware of the century-long suffering of the Oromo people under the successive Ethiopian regimes, please see the Amnesty International Reports on Human Rights 2013.
These reports highlight the abuse of human rights in Ethiopia, particularly the Oromo people, as written by Dr. Trevor Trueman, who is an expert in this subject.
Background
April 15th is Oromo Martyrs Day also known as Guyyaa Gootota Oromo. This commemorative day was first started by Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) following the execution of its prominent leader’s on diplomatic mission enrouted to Somalia on April 15, 1980.
Since then this day was celebrated as Oromo Martyrs Day by Oromo nationals around the world to honor those who have sacrificed their lives to free Oromia and to renew a commitment to the cause for which they have died.
Afeerraa Eebba TV Bakkalchaa
Jaalatamtoota lammii Oromoo hundaaf,
Bakka jirtanitti
Dhimmi: Eebba TV Bakkalchaa irratti isin affeeruu ilaala
Duraan dursinee nagaan keenya kan Oromummaa bakka jirtanitti isin haa dhaqabu. TVn BakkalchaaMidiyaa ilaalcha siyaasaa, amantaa, laga, gosaa fi naannoo kamiiyyuu irraa walaba ta’ee lammii Oromoo hundaa walqixa tajaajiluuf kan hundaa’ee Midiyaa sub-qunnamtii Oromooti.
TVn Bakkalchaa kan Oromoo hundaati. TVn Bakkalchaa haqa dhugaa irratti hundaa’ee Oromoo hunda walqixa tajaajiluuf Miidiyaa dhabbatee dha. TVn Bakkalchaa ija Oromooti. TVn Bakkalchaa sagalee Oromooti, TVn Bakkalaa gurraa fi dhageettii Oromooti. TVn Bakkalaa tokkummaan Oromoo akka daraan jabaatuuf halkanii fi guyyaa cimee hojjchuuf karoora guddaa qaba. TVn Bakkalchaa tumsa lammii isaa barbaada. Waan keesan irratti hirmaadhaa isniin jedha. TVn Bakkalchaa ilam keessan kunuunsaa, guddisaa, akkasumas itti fayyadamaa.
Yeroo ammaa TV Bakkalchaa qophii isaa hunda xumuratee tajaajila torbaan guutuu kan saa’aa 24f Oromoota biyya keessaa fi biyya ambaa jiraatniif sagantaalee tajaajila adda addaa kennuuf qophii isaa xumuratee jira. TV Bakkalchaa gaafa Ebla guyyaa 30 bara 2014 Biyya Noorwee Magalaa Moss jedhamtu keessati sagantaa isaa eebbaan eegala.
Kanaafuu jalatamtootaa fi kabajamoon Ummanni Oromoo hundinuu gaafa guyyaa eebba TVn Bakkalchaa irratti akka nuuf argamtan kabaja guddaan isin affeerra. Warri qaamaan nu bira dhufuu hin dandeenye akka yaadaan nu bira dhaabbattan irra deebinee isin gaafanna.
Warri qaamaan nu bira dhufuu barbaaddan karaa tora marsalee teessoo keenyaatiin nu qunnamuu dandeettan. Yaadaa fi qeeqa qabadnis akka nuu gumachitan irra deebinee kabajaan iisin gaafanna. Teessoon keenya www.bakkalchatv.com, Email: bottaa@bakkalchatv.com, grete@bakkalchatv.com, wadaay@bakkalchatv.com, +47 96671888/+4799874452/+4790609725
TVn Bakkalchaa sagalee Ummata Oromooti.
Nagaa wajjiin
Qindeesitoota
AOCAV: Safeguarding the Rights of Oromo Refugees and Asylum Seekers
(A4O, Press Release, 16 April 2014) Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria (AOCAV) is highly concerned at the wave of arrests that have taken place during the last two weeks in Nairobi, following recent terrorist attacks in Mombasa and Nairobi.
We recognize the security concerns of the Government of Kenya and the steps taken to protect the people who live in the country. While we appreciate these efforts, our concern is that innocent Oromo refugees and asylum seekers have been arrested during the security operation.
We, therefore, requests the urgent intervention to ensure that the law enforcement agencies to uphold the rights of all those arrested and to treat them in a humane and non-discriminatory manner.
Here is the AOCAV Press Release
Sincerely,
Yadata Saba,
President
“Think locally, act globally”
Hello everyone;
Today: April 15 is Oromo Martyrs Day. It is an occasion to remember all our martyr’s work for the country’s freedom, peace, unity, progress and welfare.
Advocacy for Oromia calls upon you-all, Oromos, to rededicate yourselves to our national cause: Kaayyoo Oromoo. An Oromo national cause which does not accept a degenerate standard, the standard of most, but one that is determined by dedication, character, & deeds.
Dedication- completely to our Oromo cause
Character: The doing of what is right, just, honorable under all circumstances.
Deeds: Action in support of our national cause.
Let’s value our Kaayyoo Oromoo by not forgetting the sacrifices of the martyrs. It’s time for us to unite and fight any kind of domination that affects our national Kaayyoo!
Let us pray and fight to make every subsequent 15 April a happy Remembrance Day!
Let us remember our martyrs’ work for freedom, peace, and goodwill!!.
“Think locally, act globally”
Advocacy for Oromia
Victoria Police gets new traffic cameras to nab motorists using mobile phones or not wearing seat belts from 700m away
VICTORIA Police has started using futuristic new traffic cameras to nab drivers who text, talk or tweet on mobile phones.
Camera operators can zoom in and snap offending drivers from 700m away — long before motorists spot the camera.
Mobile phone users caught by the hi-tech traffic cameras will be hit with a $433 fine and get four demerit points.
IMPORTANT FOR SAFETY OR TOO INTRUSIVE? Tell us in the comments below.
The new cameras will also be used to detect and fine drivers and passengers who aren’t wearing seat belts, as well as motorists driving carelessly by doing such things as applying make-up or eating at the wheel.
Top traffic cop Robert Hill yesterday confirmed the new hi-tech cameras will be out in force from today in what will be Victoria Police’s longest and biggest ever Easter road blitz.
Police ready to pull over drivers caught out with news road safety cameras. Picture: David CairdSource: News Limited
“We received the technology last week. We have trained our members and we are now deploying the technology across Victoria,” he told the Herald Sun.
Speeding, drink, drug and distracted drivers will be busted by thousands of police on patrol and hundreds of fixed and mobile traffic cameras during the record Easter blitz.
Assistant Commissioner Hill said the new cameras to tackle driver distraction were a welcome addition to the arsenal of other detection devices that will be used during the Easter crackdown, which will run for 13 days from today.
Because the new cameras are mobile they can be moved and set up quickly in many locations — so motorists never know where or when they will pop up.
“I drive the Monash Freeway to and from work and what I see in congested traffic are people taking their eyes off the road, being distracted and looking at their mobile phones,” assistant commissioner Hill said.
Officers operating the new camera in Prahran. Picture: David Caird Source: News Limited
“These irresponsible drivers are putting themselves and others at risk and that’s a concern to Victoria Police.
“This new piece of technology is a way of combating that.
“With these cameras we can see from 700m away who is distracted and who is not concentrating.
“We can see them before they can see us.
“We don’t need to actually see them holding their mobile phone for them to be breaching the road rules.
Brooke Richardson was killed after texting while driving. Source: Supplied
“So if someone is clearly distracted by taking their eyes off the road and looking at their mobile phone on their lap, whether it be texting or whatever, they could still be infringed for offences such as using a hand held mobile phone while driving, careless driving or failing to have proper control of a vehicle.”
The Herald Sun has also discovered speed camera commissioner Gordon Lewis is recommending the State Government buy an even more sophisticated version of the new cameras Victoria Police has just started using.
IMPORTANT FOR SAFETY OR TOO INTRUSIVE? Tell us in the comments below.
Mr Lewis last week made the recommendation in a letter to Police Minister Kim Wells after attending a UK road safety conference, where he was briefed on the car-mounted cameras police in Manchester, England, are using to target mobile phone use in particular.
Victoria Police has already sent a team of officers to Manchester to watch the cameras in operation.
Assistant commissioner Hill yesterday said they would be a valuable addition to the road safety tools available in Victoria, but it was a matter for the State Government to decide whether or not to buy them.
New traffic cameras in action in England with the cameras mounted on the roof. Source: HeraldSun
Mr Lewis said he was impressed by how good a deterrent to dangerous driver behaviour the UK car-mounted cameras are.
“I would like the State Government to consider their introduction here,” Mr Lewis told the Herald Sun yesterday.
“Using a mobile phone while driving and failing to wear a seat belt are already offences. What I propose is a process designed to assist in the detection of these offences.
“I believe I speak for the great majority of motorists when I say that road users are utterly intolerant of the menace created by drivers who are either distracted by the use of a mobile phone or, perhaps worse, devoting their attention to texting.
“Once the telescopic camera is deployed the operator can view oncoming traffic at a distance, with the ability to pivot the camera about the telescopic arm as well as zoom in to get a clear view of what is happening inside the vehicle.
“I am not alone when I say I am sick and tired of having distracted drivers immobile at green lights in front of me, or threatening to rear-end me, because of lack of attention.
The camera mounted on the roof is controlled by a joystick and screen on the centre dashboard.Source: HeraldSun
“Driving is a full time occupation, not a part time responsibility to be squeezed in while steering a mobile telephone box.
“Our roads will be safer with improved detection of mobile phone use and better enforcement of the wearing of seat belts.”
Even without the new cameras, almost 80,000 drivers in Victoria were last year fined more than $29 million for mobile phone and seat belt offences.
The UK camera system Mr Lewis is recommending is used to automatically send fines out to drivers in the same way Victoria’s speed and red light camera system already works.
Victoria Police is using a similar camera, with the same capability as those police in Manchester are using, but a legislative change would be needed for them to be used to automatically issue fines.
Instead, police in Victoria are mounting the new cameras on tripods and using officers in patrol cars to immediately intercept and fine offending drivers.
IMPORTANT FOR SAFETY OR TOO INTRUSIVE? Tell us in the comments below.
The traffic cameras Mr Lewis is recommending for use in Victoria sit on top of extendible poles fitted to the roof of cars.
They are controlled from inside the car by a camera operator who uses a joystick to rotate them through 360 degrees, extend them to a height of 3.6m and zoom in to get close-up views of offending drivers.
Because the spy cameras are attached to the roof of a car they can be moved and parked just about anywhere.
The UK camera cars are marked police vehicles, but, if introduced in Victoria, it is possible the cameras would be fitted to unmarked cars as mobile speed camera cars used here are unmarked.
Police Minister Kim Wells yesterday said the traffic camera car technology being recommended by Mr Lewis would be evaluated.
“Victoria is considered internationally to be a leader in road safety and always interested in potential advances in road safety technology,” he told the Herald Sun.
“When assessing new technology, Victoria Police and the Department of Justice consider whether the technology is appropriate and compatible for local enforcement and its potential to make Victorian roads safer.
Victoria Police with the new cameras in action in Prahran. Picture: David Caird Source: News Limited
“There are approximately 2000 pre-approved mobile camera sites across Victoria, which together with Victoria Police on-the-spot enforcement sends a strong message to Victorians that they can be caught anywhere, anytime.”
A Victorian TAC campaign against driver distraction was launched last year by Vicki Richardson, whose daughter Brooke, 20, died in December 2012 when her car hit a tree just moments after she had been texting.
Ms Richardson made an emotional public appeal to motorists not to be tempted to use a mobile phone while driving.
“It’s just not worth cutting a life short,” Ms Richardson said.
Mr Lewis yesterday said the presence of cameras to detect drivers using mobile phones would help prevent tragedies like the senseless death of Brooke Richardson.
The Victorian Government’s latest road safety action plan claims texting increases the risk of a crash or near-crash by up to 15 times for car drivers and more than 20 times for truck drivers.
It also claims 80 per cent of crashes and 65 per cent of near crashes involve driver inattention in the few seconds prior to the onset of the crash or near crash.
The 2013-2016 plan also revealed almost half of all truck drivers killed during the past three years were not wearing a seat belt and that wearing a seatbelt doubles the chances of surviving a serious crash.
Assistant commissioner Hill said the new camera to detect driver distractions — known as the Ranger camera — was just one of the techniques officers will use to capture irresponsible drivers during the high risk Easter and Anzac Day holiday period.
The mounted car camera in use in England. Source: HeraldSun
He said police from Highway Patrol, general duties and specialist areas would be saturating Victorian Roads in a bid to reduce road trauma.
“This is one of the most significant road policing operations conducted in this state over the Easter period,” assistant commissioner Hill said.
“History tells us that we experience significant trauma on our roads during the Easter holiday break.
“Over the past five years, 1385 people have suffered as a result of 1018 collisions on Victorian roads. That means 22 people have been killed, 528 have suffered life threatening or life changing injuries and 835 suffered minor injuries.
“As a community, we need to more to reduce the pain and suffering. We all have a role to play to reduce the risks on our roads.
“We know that during this time people will be travelling to see family and friends, they will be on unfamiliar roads, driving long distances with distractions in the car. These factors are what result in terrifying collisions. My message is plan your trip, take regular rest breaks and stay alert and focused.
“We’ll be doing what we can to ensure that people behaviour responsibly.
“We will be using the Ranger. We know motorists are quick to put their phone down and put their seatbelt on when they see a police car. With this long lens camera, we will see them first.
“During this long weekend there are a lot of people riding dirt bikes off road. We’ll be watching this closely because it causes high levels of trauma.
“We’ll be on the roads intercepting drivers, enforcing the road rules and you can expect to be breathalysed during your trip.”
keith.moor@news.com.au
Advocacy for Oromia 