Oromos seek justice in Ethiopia

Ethiopia: Loss of Lives and Displacement Due to “Border Dispute” in Eastern Ethiopia

HRLHA Urgent Action

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) would like to express its deep concern over the negligence of both the federal and regional governments in Ethiopia regarding the violence that has been going on for about six months against the Oromos in Eastern Hararge Zone of Oromia Regional State.

According to reports obtained by HRLHA from different sources, this government-backed violence that has been going on in the name of border dispute around the Anniya, Jarso and Miyesso districts between the Oromia and Ogaden regional

 

states has already resulted in the death and/or disappearance of 37 Oromo nationals and the displacement of about 20,000 others. Around 700 different types of cattle and other valuable possessions are also reported to have been looted. The reports indicate that the violence has been backed by two types of armed forces (the Federal Liyou/Special Police and the Ogaden Militia) from the Ogadenis side, while on the side of the Oromos, even those who demonstrated the intentions of defending themselves in the same manner were disarmed, dispossessed and detained. Despite these facts, the reports also dissociate the Ogadeni nationals from the violence mentioning that they have never made claims of ownership of the piece of land in the name of which the government-backed violence has been taking place. HRLHA has also learnt that the said piece of land was demarcated and declared to be part of Oromia Regional State during the 1996 referendum.

Among the 37 dead and/or disappeared Oromos Mohamed Kasim and Kadir Ali were local Oromo elders who were killed by the armed government forces in an effort to resolve the violence in a peaceful manner. According to HRLHA informants from Anniya, the hundreds of thousands of displaced Oromos from Rasa Harre, Marfata, Qillee, Mulqee, Dirraa, Waldayyaa, Biqqoo and Libee community fled to the highland areas in Eastern Hararge Zone in search of temporary shelters and other basic needs. The reports add that the displaced Oromos did not get any kind of help from any local, regional, or federal sources. More worrisome is that there are no hints as to when and where the violence against innocent civilians is going to end. Besides, the fact that the governments at various levels turned blind eyes and deaf ears toward such deadly and destructive violence for this all time strengthens the HRLHA is a non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – (ECOSOC) Consultative Status) which attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa.

allegations that the federal government and the ruling party are behind the conspiracy of clearing the area suspected of harbouring armed opposition groups of anything on it.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa urges the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Regional Government of Oromia to discharge their responsibilities of ensuring the safety and stability of citizens by taking immediate actions of interference to bring the violence to end facilitate the return of the displaced Oromos back to their homes. It also calls upon all local, regional and international diplomatic and human rights organizations to impose necessary pressures on both the federal and regional governments so that they refrain from committing irresponsible actions against their own citizens for the purpose of political gains.

Demonstrerte mot etnisk rensing i Etiopia.

Posted on May 21, 2013

 

Publisert: 21.mai. 2013 15:22 Oppdatert: 21.mai. 2013 15:31

Demonstrerte mot den etiopiske regjeringen i Bergen i dag.

Etiopiere i Norge demonstrerte tirsdag i Bergen not bruddene på menneskerettigheter i Etiopia.
- Utkastelsene av medlemmer av Amharas fra Benishangul-Gumuz og den den sørlige regionen i Etiopia, er etnisk rensing. Utkastelsene har skjedd på en umenneskelig måte. En rekke uskyldige mennesker, inkludert barn og kvinner, sa Mandefero Mengistu Haile i sin appell.

Demonstrasjonen var organisert av DCESON-Bergen.

Amnesty har gitt ut en rapport om hvordan etiopisk lovgivn
ing gjør menneskerettslig arbeid stadig vanskeligere i landet. Den nye loven fører til at organisasjoner som jobber med menneskerettigheter i landet får drastisk dårligere kår, og etiopiere får dårligere tilgang på hjelp i menneskerettighetsspørsmål.

Også Human Rights Watch melder om vanskeligere kår i det afrikanske landet. I en rapport om utviklingen landet i 2011 skriver de at myndighetene fortsatte å begrense grunnleggende rettigheter og at flere hundre etiopiere ble vilkårlig arrestert. source BERGENS TIDENDE NYHETER POSTED

Ethiopia Amnesty International Annual Report 2013

The state stifled freedom of expression, severely restricting the activities of the independent media, political opposition parties and human rights organizations. Dissent was not tolerated in any sphere. The authorities imprisoned actual and perceived opponents of the government. Peaceful protests were suppressed. Arbitrary arrests and detention were common, and torture and other ill-treatment in detention centres were rife. Forced evictions were reported on a vast scale around the country.

Background

 

In August, the authorities announced the death of Prime Minister Zenawi, who had ruled Ethiopia for 21 years.

Hailemariam Desalegn was appointed as his successor, and three deputy prime ministers were appointed to include representation of all ethnic-based parties in the ruling coalition.

The government continued to offer large tracts of land for lease to foreign investors. Often this coincided with the “villagization” programme of resettling hundreds of thousands of people. Both actions were frequently accompanied by numerous allegations of large-scale forced evictions.

Skirmishes continued to take place between the Ethiopian army and armed rebel groups in several parts of the country – including the Somali, Oromia and Afar regions

.

Ethiopian forces continued to conduct military operations in Somalia. There were reports of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, and torture and other ill-treatment carried out by Ethiopian troops and militias allied to the Somali government.

In March, Ethiopian forces made two incursions into Eritrea, later reporting that they had attacked camps where they claimed Ethiopian rebel groups trained (see Eritrea entry). Ethiopia blamed Eritrea for backing a rebel group that attacked European tourists in the Afar region in January.

Freedom of expression

 

A number of journalists and political opposition members were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on terrorism charges for calling for reform, criticizing the government, or for links with peaceful protest movements. Much of the evidence used against these individuals consisted of examples of them exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.

The trials were marred by serious irregularities, including a failure to investigate allegations of torture; denial of, or restrictions on, access to legal counsel; and use of confessions extracted under coercion as admissible evidence.

• In January, journalists Reyot Alemu, Woubshet Taye and Elias Kifle, opposition party leader Zerihun Gebre-Egziabher, and former opposition supporter Hirut Kifle, were convicted of terrorism offences.
• In June, journalist Eskinder Nega, opposition leader Andualem Arage, and other dissidents, were given prison sentences ranging from eight years to life in prison on terrorism charges.
• In December, opposition leaders Bekele Gerba and Olbana Lelisa were sentenced to eight and 13 years’ imprisonment respectively, for “provocation of crimes against the state”.

Between July and November, hundreds of Muslims were arrested during a series of protests against alleged government restrictions on freedom of religion, across the country. While many of those arrested were subsequently released, large numbers remained in detention at the end of the year, including key figures of the protest movement. The government made significant efforts to quash the movement and stifle reporting on the protests.

• In October, 29 leading figures of the protest movement, including members of a committee appointed by the community to represent their grievances to the government, and at least one journalist, were charged under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation.

• In both May and October, Voice of America correspondents were temporarily detained and interrogated over interviews they had conducted with protesters.

The few remaining vestiges of the independent media were subjected to even further restrictions.

• In April, Temesgen Desalegn, the editor of Feteh, one of the last remaining independent publications, was fined for contempt of court for “biased coverage” of the trial of Eskinder Nega and others. Feteh had published statements from some of the defendants. In August, he was charged with criminal offences for articles he had written or published that were deemed critical of the government, or that called for peaceful protests against government repression. He was released after a few days’ detention and the charges were dropped.

In May, the authorities issued a directive requiring printing houses to remove any content which could be defined as “illegal” by the government from any publications they printed. The unduly broad provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation meant that much legitimate content could be deemed illegal.

• In July, an edition of Feteh was impounded after state authorities objected to one cover story on the Muslim protests and another speculating about the Prime Minister’s health. Subsequently, state-run printer Berhanena Selam refused to print Feteh or Finote Netsanet, the publication of the largest opposition party, Unity for Democracy and Justice. In November, the party announced that the government had imposed a total ban on Finote Netsanet.

A large number of news, politics and human rights websites were blocked.

In July, Parliament passed the Telecom Fraud Offences Proclamation, which obstructs the provision and use of various internet and telecommunications technologies.

Human rights defenders

 

The Charities and Societies Proclamation, along with related directives, continued to significantly restrict the work of human rights defenders, particularly by denying them access to essential funding.

• In October, the Supreme Court upheld a decision to freeze around US$1 million in assets of the country’s two leading human rights organizations: the Human Rights Council and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association. The accounts had been frozen in 2009 after the law was passed.
• In August, the Human Rights Council, the country’s oldest human rights NGO, was denied permission for proposed national fundraising activities by the government’s Charities and Societies Agency.

It was reported that the Agency began enforcing a provision in the law requiring NGO work to be overseen by a relevant government body, severely compromising the independence of NGOs.

Torture and other ill-treatment

 

Torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners were widespread, particularly during interrogation in pre-trial police detention. Typically, prisoners might be punched, slapped, beaten with sticks and other objects, handcuffed and suspended from the wall or ceiling, denied sleep and left in solitary confinement for long periods. Electrocution, mock-drowning and hanging weights from genitalia were reported in some cases. Many prisoners were forced to sign confessions. Prisoners were used to mete out physical punishment against other prisoners.

Allegations of torture made by detainees, including in court, were not investigated.

Prison conditions were harsh. Food and water were scarce and sanitation was very poor. Medical treatment was inadequate, and was sometimes withheld from prisoners. Deaths in detention were reported.

• In February, jailed opposition leader, Andualem Arage, was severely beaten by a fellow prisoner who had been moved into his cell a few days earlier. Later in the year, another opposition leader, Olbana Lelisa was reportedly subjected to the same treatment.
• In September, two Swedish journalists, sentenced in 2011 to 11 years’ imprisonment on terrorism charges, were pardoned. After their release, the two men reported that they were forced to incriminate themselves and had been subjected to mock execution before they were allowed access to their embassy or a lawyer. 

Arbitrary arrests and detentions

 

The authorities arrested members of political opposition parties, and other perceived or actual political opponents. Arbitrary detention was widespread.

According to relatives, some people disappeared after arrest. The authorities targeted families of suspects, detaining and interrogating them. The use of unofficial places of detention was reported.

• In January the All Ethiopian Unity Party called for the release of 112 party members who, the party reported, were arrested in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) region during one week in January.

Hundreds of Oromos were arrested, accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front.

• In September, over 100 people were reportedly arrested during the Oromo festival of Irreechaa.

Large numbers of civilians were reportedly arrested and arbitrarily detained in the Somali region on suspicion of supporting the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

• The authorities continued to arbitrarily detain UN employee, Yusuf Mohammed, in Jijiga. His detention, since 2010, was reportedly an attempt to get his brother, who was suspected of links with the ONLF, to return from exile.

Between June and August, a large number of ethnic Sidama were arrested in the SNNP region. This was reportedly in response to further calls for separate regional statehood for the Sidama. A number of arrests took place in August around the celebration of Fichee, the Sidama New Year. Many of those arrested were detained briefly, then released. But a number of leading community figures remained in detention and were charged with crimes against the state.

There were reports of people being arrested for taking part in peaceful protests and publicly opposing certain “development projects”.

Excessive use of force

 

In several incidents, the police were accused of using excessive force when responding to the Muslim protest movement. Two incidents in Addis Ababa in July ended in violence, and allegations included police firing live ammunition and beating protesters in the street and in detention, resulting in many injuries. In at least two other protest-related incidents elsewhere in the country, police fired live ammunition, killing and injuring several people. None of these incidents was investigated.

• In April, the police reportedly shot dead at least four people in Asasa, Oromia region. Reports from witnesses and the government conflicted.

• In October, police fired on local residents in Gerba town, Amhara region, killing at least three people and injuring others. The authorities said protesters started the violence; the protesters reported that police fired live ammunition at unarmed people.

Security forces were alleged to have carried out extrajudicial executions in the Gambella, Afar and Somali regions.

Conflict in the Somali region

 

In September, the government and the ONLF briefly entered into peace talks with a view to ending the two-decade long conflict in the Somali region. However, the talks stalled in October.

The army, and its proxy militia, the Liyu police, faced repeated allegations of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions, and rape. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were widely reported. None of the allegations was investigated and access to the region remained severely restricted.

• In June, UN employee Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan was found guilty of terrorism offences over alleged links to the ONLF, and sentenced to seven years and eight months’ imprisonment. He was arrested in July 2011 after negotiating with the ONLF over the release of two abducted UN World Food Programme workers. 
  

 

Forced evictions

 

“Villagization”, a programme involving the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people, took place in the Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali, Afar and SNNP regions. The programme, ostensibly to increase access to basic services, was meant to be voluntary. However, there were reports that many of the removals constituted forced evictions.

Large-scale population displacement, sometimes accompanied by allegations of forced evictions, was reported in relation to the leasing of huge areas of land to foreign investors and dam building projects.

Construction continued on large dam projects which were marred by serious concerns about lack of consultation, displacement of local populations without adequate safeguards in place, and negative environmental impacts.

The state stifled freedom of expression, severely restricting the activities of the independent media, political opposition parties and human rights organizations. Dissent was not tolerated in any sphere. The authorities imprisoned actual and perceived opponents of the government. Peaceful protests were suppressed. Arbitrary arrests and detention were common, and torture and other ill-treatment in detention centres were rife. Forced evictions were reported on a vast scale around the country.

Ethiopia holds reporter covering evictions in dam region

New York, May 30, 2012

–Ethiopian authorities have detained since Friday a reporter who sought to interview people evicted from their homes in a region where the government is building a contentious hydro-electric dam on the Blue Nile, according to a news report and the reporter’s editor. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today that the case highlights authorities’ disregard for the rule of law and its systematic efforts to suppress news critical of government officials.

Muluken Tesfahun, a reporter for the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar, is being held in a prison in the town of Asosa, capital of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Getachew Worku, the paper’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ. Muluken has not been formally charged or presented in court, Getachew said. The detention appears to run counter to constitutionalguarantees that a person be brought to court within 48 hours of arrest.

“By arresting journalist Muluken Tesfahun for gathering information from the victims of forced relocation, Ethiopia is once again criminalizing independent journalism,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Ethiopia should make good on its obligation as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council to uphold citizens’ rights by releasing Muluken immediately.”

Local security forces picked up Muluken on Friday in the village of Dobi and confiscated his reporting equipment, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America reported, citing Getachew and members of the journalist’s family. Ethio-Mehedar assigned Muluken to report on the return of thousands of ethnic Amhara, Oromo, and Agew farmers who had been forcibly evicted from their land in mid-March, Getachew said.


Ethiopian state media have not reported in detail on the evictions, despite local testimony reported by VOA and accusations of ethnic cleansing made by opposition parties, according to local journalists. After weeks of silence, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn acknowledged the evictions in an April speech in the House of Peoples Representatives. The prime minister called the action “illegal,” blaming it on lower-level officials and inviting the displaced to return. This month, Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam announced the arrests of 35 Benishangul officials in connection with the evictions.

 
Neither federal or local authorities have provided an official explanation for the evictions, and it’s not immediately clear they were directly related to construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam, which the government says will be Africa’s biggest power plant. The dam’s impact on water supply has renewed international tensions between Ethiopia,Egypt and Sudan.


The Ethiopian government has denied allegations of coercion, abuse, and violence in unrelated resettlement programs, in which authorities have displaced small-scale farmers in order to lease large tracts of land to foreign commercial farmers, according to international news reports.
With eight journalists behind bars, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea among Africa’s worst jailers of journalists, CPJ research shows

Lack of Statehood Exposes Oromo to Humiliation in Their Own Homeland

Successive Ethiopian regimes worked against the Oromo. A comparatively larger population, wide
geographic area and immense economic resources of Oromia have been viewed by these regimes in
Ethiopia as the threat to their naked ambition for domination for which reason they targeted Oromo as an
object of fear and hate. Leaving the past regimes’ horrific acts against the Oromo for history we will cite
few samples from the current regime.

For the last 22 years of its reign, the current Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) regime has been
pitting other nations and nationalities, previously co-exiting with the Oromo people in harmony, against
the latter in every direction, under the guise of peoples-based federation. This has been one of the
regime’s standing policies against the Oromo.

Having Oromos killed, raped, their properties destroyed, physically displaced and their fertile land
appended to the neighbouring peoples’ thereby changing the demography of the area, has been going on
since the current regime came to power. In the west of Oromia the regime have mobilized and armed
elements of the Gumuz people against the Oromo, after previously disarming the latter, which resulted in
the death and displacement of hundreds of innocent persons and loss of millions of dollars worth of
property.

In the south and east the same plot has been going on pitting different Somali tribes against the
Oromo. The Borana and Gujii Oromo in the south have faced the same ordeal while their appeal and
inquiries from other Oromo nationals were deflected under the cover-up explanation of ‘traditional
clashes between tribes on grazing land and water wells’. The number of lives lost through this criminal
policy of the TPLF regime in different parts of Oromia is in the thousands.
All this instigation of conflict with every possible neighbouring people is done to prevent the Oromo from
transforming its human and material resources into a force to counter the regime’s overall domination. It
is only a continuation of the war TPLF declared on the Oromo people as primary enemy and persistently
carried on, using its own armed forces and agents, to this day.

The current phenomenon going on in eastern Oromia is the same process continued on a higher level of
coordination between the heavily armed regular ‘special police force’ and the state trained and armed
bordering Somali tribal militia unleashed against the Anniyyaa and other Oromo, with very high atrocities
so far. Oromos are killed, dispossessed and evicted. Hundreds, including women and children, have been
massacred to date, unknown amount of property looted, several villages burned and vast swathes of land
taken using misguided Somali tribal elements whose mind set is stuck in the old ‘greater Somalia’ dream.
This ordeal has been going on for more than half a year uninterrupted.

As a nation under occupation of and ruled by an alien regime that is bent on keeping Oromo disarmed
defenceless and constantly at risk, the only alternative to local residents is either to put up resistance
bare-handedly and die or abandon their ancestral homesteads in the face of the government directed well
trained and armed aggression.

There is no question that all the nations, nationalities and peoples in Ethiopia are suffering under the
dictatorship of the TPLF. However, the intensity of oppression the Oromo nation is experiencing is
exceptional in that the regime is bent on neutralizing Oromia’s vast human and material resources and its
strategic centrally located landmass, sharing boundary with almost all the nations and nationalities in
Ethiopia.
 An exceptional subjugation of the Oromo demands an exceptional solution to terminate.
Some may naively question why the so-called Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), which
was created and is run by the TPLF, does not defend the Oromo against such blatant aggression carried
out in the name of neighbouring people.

 The fact remain that conscientious elements in the OPDO are
themselves victims of the relentless harassment and humiliation their people are subjected to and cannot
even protect themselves let alone defending the people. The rest are simply enlisted to implement the
whims of their TPLF masters and nothing more than a conduit between the TPLF and the Oromo people.
While the entity is fundamentally organized to perpetuate TPLF occupation speaking in Oromo language,
we leave it to the conscience of every Oromo serving this system how they can possibly justify standing
idly by and watching this ordeal the Oromo people.

As has always been the case, there is only one solution for the Oromo, get organized and resist!
Succumbing to aggression that comes to your doorsteps will only encourage further aggression. It is the
success of the original aggression and occupation that paved the way for the current ones. The
fundamental objective of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and its Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is to
end occupation and all its consequences. It is the duty of every Oromo to contribute all he/she can to
strengthen this force numerically and materially so that all sorts of aggressions are quickly brought to an
end. The peace loving culture of the Oromo is being challenged by the TPLF regime by every means. In
so doing the regime has committed crimes against humanity for which it shall be held accountable.

We have a message for nations, nationalities and peoples who neighbour with Oromia, those whose
regions are fully located in Oromia and non-Oromo individuals living among the Oromo. Let us all be
mindful that TPLF occupation will come to its ignominious end through our concerted struggles. Taking
the side of the TPLF aggressors in the current conflict and working against your Oromo brothers for
temporary benefits can only perpetuate oppression and actually harm the eternal neighbourly relations
between our peoples which shall remains enduring. Oromo has done no harm to you. Neither will this
condition of unarmed and defenceless Oromo last forever, it will change.

Furthermore, since the TPLF regime is committing crime against humanity and war crimes in Oromia, for
which they shall b held accountable, there is no way that those who participate in the regime’s crimes will
avoid being accountable for their share in the atrocities. TPLF is well known for its ‘use and throw’
policy for persons and groups it makes use of. It can use anyone against any other to advance its particular
interests. Besides, it remains our common oppressor. This regime will inevitably fall, and the future is
more important for all our peoples. Do not harm the historical harmonious relation you have had with the
Oromo people. We should rather cooperate and hasten the downfall of this oppressive regime and work
together for our common progress.
Victory to the Oromo People!
OLF Info Desk