Amnesty: Ethiopia Systematically Repressing Oromo

FILE – Ethiopian migrants, all members of the Oromo community of Ethiopia living in Malta, protest against the Ethiopian regime.

October 28, 2014, ADDIS ABABA(VOA News) — Amnesty International has issued anew report claiming that the Ethiopian government is systematically repressing the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo.

Amnesty says the Oromo are subject to arbitrary arrest, detentions without access to lawyers, repeated torture and even targeted killings as part of the state’s efforts to crush dissident.

Claire Beston, the Ethiopia researcher for Amnesty International, said the East African country is hostile to any kind of dissent but particularly fears the Oromo for a number of reasons.

“[Reasons include] the numerical size of the Oromo because they’re the largest ethnic group; a strong sense of national identity amongst the Oromo; and also kind of [a] history of perceived anti-government sentiment,” said Beston.

Oromia is the largest state within Ethiopia. About 35% of the population is considered to be ethnically Oromo.

Oromo students protested in April and May against the capital city’s restructuring plan – which they said would dilute Oromo culture through annexing traditional Oromo land surrounding Addis Ababa. The rare protests led to violence. Several dozen people were killed and hundreds arrested. Peaceful Oromo Muslim protests in 2012 and 2013 were also crushed with force and mass arrests.

Beston said Oromo students and protestors are not the only ones who are at risk in Ethiopia.

“We’re talking about hundreds of people from ordinary people from all walks of life including teachers and mid-wives, and even government employees, singers and a range of other professions who’re all arrested just on the suspicion that they don’t support the government,” said Beston.

Amnesty International has not been allowed into Ethiopia since 2011. Researchers based the report’s findings on several hundred interviews with Oromo refugees outside Ethiopia and telephone and email conversations with Oromo inside the country. Many of the respondents said they had been detained in prisons, police stations, military camps or unofficial detention centers where they were subjected to repeated torture.

Amnesty has concluded at least 5,000 Oromo have been arrested and detained since 2011, many for weeks or months without being charged. The report said they are usually accused of supporting or being members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an outlawed armed group. The OLF has been fighting for self-determination for more than 40 years. The report claims this is just a pretext for silencing dissent.

In response to Amnesty, the government – through the state-run Oromia Justice Bureau – said there is no clear evidence of violations as claimed by Amnesty and called the allegations “untrue and far from the reality.”

Beston said repression throughout the country, and particularly against the Oromo, is likely to increase as the May 2015 elections approach.

Source: VOA News

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Thousands of Ethiopians tortured by brutal government security forces… while Britain hands over almost £1 BILLION in aid money

• Amnesty International says 5,000 people tortured, raped and ‘disappeared’
• Over the last three years the UK Government has given Ethiopia £1 billion
• It pocketed £261.5 million in 2012 and £284.4 million in 2013

Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Dessalegn, has rejected accusations that his government tortures its own people

October 29, 2014 (The Daily Mail) — More than £1billion from taxpayers was given in aid to Ethiopia while its security forces tortured, killed and raped, campaigners claimed yesterday.

Amnesty International has documented thousands of shockingly brutal abuses against citizens suspected of political opposition.

The human rights group’s report follows calls for greater scrutiny by Britain and other donors to ensure their money does not support state-sanctioned killings and brutality.

Amnesty warned that thousands have faced repeated torture while unlawful state killings have been carried out in a ‘relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent’.

Horrors inflicted on ordinary Ethiopians include women being gang-raped and tortured by prison guards. Amnesty’s report also tells how a teacher was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet after refusing to teach pro-government propaganda to his students.

Entire families were arrested with parents and siblings ‘disappearing’ after they were taken to army camps, said Amnesty.

Britain has donated more than £1billion to Ethiopia in the last five years alone. The Government has denied funding security forces in the autocratic one-party state.

But Britain’s relationship with the East African country is likely to come under scrutiny in a judicial review into claims made by a Ethiopian farmer.

He has been given legal aid in this country to pursue allegations that UK aid supported the regime while it forced thousands of villagers like him from their land using murder, torture and rape.

Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries following decades of drought and famine, suffering highlighted by the 1984 Band Aid fundraising appeal.

The West has been accused of turning a blind eye to human rights abuse and effectively propping up the regime because of its support for the so-called war on terror.

Ethiopia has given support to combat radical groups such as Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa and Al Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia. Last year, an independent analysis accused countries giving aid of not stopping the hardline Addis Ababa regime from abusing its citizens.

It said donors had ‘failed to take decisive action to prevent policies that deny the basic human rights of some of the poorest and most marginalised people of Ethiopia’.

The US report went on: ‘Donor organisations have failed to hold the Ethiopian government to standards of human and political rights, a neglect principally illustrated by the accounts of the forced relocations of entire communities in the name of development.

It should be no surprise that unchecked assistance to a hegemonic political party gets diverted to efforts to maintain political control,’ it added.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening is under pressure to investigate allegations that major recipients of British aid are guilty of torture state-sanctioned murder

International Development Secretary Justine Greening is under pressure to investigate allegations that major recipients of British aid are guilty of torture state-sanctioned murder

The Oakland Institute, of California, added that the Department for International Development was the third biggest donor to the country after the US and the World Bank.

Questions have been raised over the value of some of the projects funded by the DfID in Ethiopia.

Last year, the Daily Mail told how £4million of taxpayers’ money paid for an Ethiopian version of the Spice Girls to spread a message of empowerment to women.

The DfID denies that aid money is used to force people from their homes or to fund security forces.

A spokesman said Britain gave £261.5million to Ethiopia last year. This was used to provide clean drinking water for more than 250,000 people, send 1.6million children to primary school and ensure 110,000 mothers gave birth safely.

‘Not a penny goes to Ethiopia’s police or security sector,’ he said. ‘We work with independent agencies like Unicef to make the security and justice sector fairer and more accountable, eg helping women and girls get better access to justice.

‘The UK provides targeted funding for health, education and sanitation, not to the central Ethiopian treasury. We have robust legal and accounting checks to ensure UK aid is spent where it is intended.

‘We regularly raise human rights with the relevant authorities, including at the highest level of the government.’

A spokesman for the regime ‘categorically denied’ Amnesty International’s claims. Redwan Hussein also accused the campaigners of being ‘hellbent on tarnishing Ethiopia’s image again and again’.

‘They put hot coals on us. We screamed as our clothes melted’

Harrowing accounts of rape and brutality were highlighted by Amnesty International.

In one case, three teenage girls arrested with their parents were tortured with hot coals by soldiers at a military camp where they were held for years.

One sister, named only as Nooria, said the soldiers came to her family’s home when she was 14 or 15, after her father was arrested on suspicion of political dissent.

She said she was interrogated and beaten, and still carried horrific physical scars from when she and her sisters were burned.

‘Two soldiers did this to me. They came into the room, tied up our hands and made us lie down on our backs. They put hot coals on my stomach. They didn’t just burn me; they also burned my two sisters.

‘Our clothes melted on us. We screamed but the soldiers didn’t care, they’re accustomed to screaming.’

Nooria was later released with one of her sisters but has not seen her parents or eldest sister since.

Other detainees told the campaigners how molten plastic was poured onto their legs. There were also shocking accounts of captors cutting off the ears and fingers of prisoners.

A 33-year-old woman told Amnesty she was detained without charge for nine months in a military camp.

‘I was thoroughly beaten,’ she said. ‘I cried for help saying that I was not guilty and should not be killed.

‘One night, three men came to my cell and said that I was being taken for interrogating but they just took me to a room and raped me.

‘After that, they just threw me back into the cell. I was not the only one –they would do the same to the other women there.’

A second woman said: ‘I was raped by three men – one after the other. I remember them very clearly and can identify them. Rape happened several times. This was not unique to me, the other women in the cell had the same experience.’

A midwife said he was beaten and punished after delivering the baby of the wife of a member of the banned Oromo Liberation Front.

A university student told how he was arrested at gunpoint after winning a competition to produce a business plan because security forces said it was political.

The student was beaten, starved and endured months of interrogation, including a mock execution.e

Source: The Daily Mail

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http://finfinnetribune.com/Gadaa/2014/10/amnesty-says-ethiopia-detains-5000-oromos-illegally-since-2011/

Amnesty Says Ethiopia Detains 5,000 Oromos Illegally Since 2011

Posted: Onkoloolessa/October 28, 2014 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com | Comments off

By William Davison

(Bloomberg) – Ethiopia’s government illegally detained at least 5,000 members of the country’s most populous ethnic group, the Oromo, over the past four years as it seeks to crush political dissent, Amnesty International said.

Victims include politicians, students, singers and civil servants, sometimes only for wearing Oromo traditional dress, or for holding influential positions within the community, the London-based advocacy group said in a report today. Most people were detained without charge, some for years, with many tortured and dozens killed, it said.

“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” Claire Beston, the group’s Ethiopia researcher, said in a statement. “This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region.”

- Bloomberg

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ETHIOPIA: Minor gets prison terms for alleged political instigation, a Human Rights group calls for an urgent action

The following is an HRLHA Urgent Action; the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) is a nonpolitical 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.

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ETHIOPIA: A Minor Gets Prison Terms for Alleged Instigation

HRLHA – URGENT ACTION

October 14, 2014

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) strongly condemns the sentencing of Abde Jemal, a fourteen-year-old minor, in adults’ court to four years in prison and $700.00 Birr fine for allegedly inciting people to political violence. According to HRLHA’s correspondents, Abde Jemal was arrested by the security agents while tending his parents’ cattle out in the field. HRLHA has learnt that Abde Jemal was severely beaten up (in other words, physically tortured) following his arrest by members of the security force in order to coerce him into confessing in court to the alleged crime. To begin with, this was allowed to happen despite the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990, to which Ethiopia is a signatory, and which clearly states under Article 37(a) that State Parties shall ensure that “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”; and additionally guarantees under article 40, sub-article 2(a) that every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law should … “Not be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt.”

HRLHA has also learnt through its correspondents that Abde Jemal, after being sentenced to four years in jail on the 2^nd of September, 2014, in criminal charge file #06055 in the Bilo Nopha District Court, in the western Illu Abbabor Province of the Regional State of Oromia, was soon sent to Bishar, the provincial grand prison in Mettu, where adult offenders of all kinds of common crimes including murder are held. Being born to a poor family, Abde Jemal assumed the responsibilities of supporting his parents and himself at this very young age.

In the first place, it is undoubtedly abnormal and unusual to accuse a child of Abde Jemal’s age for inciting or being part of a POLITICAL violence. What is more, the Ethiopian Criminal Code, Chapter IV, sub-section I, under “Ordinary Measures”, states that, “In all cases where a crime provided by the criminal law or the Law of Petty Offences has been committed by a young person between the ages of nine and fifteen years (Art. 53), the court shall order one of the following measures …”: admitting to a curative institution (Art. 158), supervised education (Art. 159), reprimand; censure (Art. 160), school or home arrest (Art. 161), and other similar and light conditional sanctions and measures that facilitate the reforming, rehabilitation and reintegration of the young offender. The Criminal Code also provides, particularly under sub articles 162 and 168 in the same chapter, that the court shall order the admission of young offenders “… into a special institution for the correction and rehabilitation of the young criminals …” and “When the criminal was sent to a corrective institution, he shall be transferred to a detention institution if his conduct or the danger he constitutes renders such a measure necessary, or when has attained the age of eighteen years and the sentence passed on him is for a term extending beyond his majority.” Besides, the above mentioned UN Convention, under article 40, provides that “States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth, and which takes into account the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society”. These all provisions inarguably show that minor offenders of Abde Jemal’s age deserve none of what have been imposed on him, including sending him to adults’ jail such as Bishari.

Also, the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, another international document that Ethiopia has ratified, states that the child shall in all circumstances be among the first to receive protection and relief, and that the child shall be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other form of discrimination. In spite of these all, according to HRLHA’s belief, Minor Abde Jemal has been subjected to all forms of discrimination – racial and political in particular, and was not given any of the protections he is entitled to as a child or a minor.

By allowing such extra-judicial impositions to happen to its own citizen, a minor in this case, the Ethiopian Government is inviting the questioning of the credibility of its own justice system, and its adherence to international documents it has signed and ratified.

Therefore, HRLHA calls up on the Ethiopian Government to unconditionally reverse all that have been imposed on Abde Jemal and other minors like him, if any, in adults’ criminal court, and ensure that the Minor gets fair trial in an appropriate judicial setting, in case he has really committed a crime. We also request that the Ethiopian Government honours all international documents that it has signed and that apply to children’s rights. HRLHA also calls up on regional and international diplomatic, democratic, and human rights agencies to challenge the Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF Government in this regard; and join HRLHA in its demand for a fair treatment for Minor Abde Jemal.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its concerned officials as swiftly as possible, in English, Ahmaric, or your own language:

• Expressing your concerns over the absence of fair and appropriate delivery of justice, and the political biases impacting on the overall justice system,
• Urging the concerned government offices and authorities of Ethiopia to ensure that Minor Abde Jemal would get a fair trial in appropriate court and based on the proper provisions of the criminal code as well as the constitution of the country,
• Urging the Ethiopian Government to abide by all international instruments that it has ratified
• Requesting diplomatic agencies in Ethiopia that are accredited to your respective countries that they play their parts in putting pressure on the Ethiopian Government so that it treats its citizens equally and fairly, regardless of their racial, religious, and/or political backgrounds.

- Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)

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Gabaasa Hiriira Nagayaa Hawaasa Oromoo Cairo Posted: Onkoloolessa/October 20, 2014 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com | Comments off

Hiriirri nagayaa miseensota hawaasa Oromoo biyya Masrtiin magaalaa Cairo fuuldura waajjira UNHCR irratti geggeeffame milkiin xumuramee jira. Akkuma durfamee hubachiifame kaayyoon hiriira kanaa ilmaan Habashaa biyya Masr jiran case baqatummaa Oromoo fudhatama dhabsiisuuf jecha Dilbata ganama saáa 8pm irratti hiriira waamanii turan fashalsiisuu ture.

Haaluma kanaan, baqattoonni Oromoo magaalaa Cairo keessatti argaman kan lakkoofsaan dhibbootatti herregaman hiriira kana irratti argamuudhaan dhaadannoolee farra Habashootaa afaan Ingliffaan, Afaan Oromoo fi Arabiffaan dhageessisanii jiru. Hunda caalaa hiriira kana irratti lammiileen Oromoo naamusa jabaa akka sibiilaa agarsiisuu isaaniitiin geggeessitoota waajjira UNHCR irraa dinqisiifannoo guddaa gonfatanii jiru.

Injifannoon hiriira kana irratti argame inni guddaan, guyyaa, saáatii fi bakka itti Habashoonni wal gahanii dhimma baqattummaa Oromoo fudhatama dhabsiisuuf dhaadatanii dhufan irratti lakkoofsa guddaadhaan argamanii dura dhaabbannoo qaroominaan guutame agarsiisuu danda’uu dha. Kunis akka geggeessitoonni waajjira UNHCR Habashoota caalaa Oromoof xiyyeeffannoo gaarii kennan gochuu danda’eera.

Namoonni hiriira kana irratti argaman tokko tokko yaada kennataniin akka jedhanitti, hawaasni Oromoo hiriira kana irratti argame murtee yeroo isaa eeggate kana hatattamaan fudhachuu isaatiin dhageettii silaa warri Habashaa argachuu malte harkatti doomsee jira jechuun gammachuu itti dhagahame ibsatanii jiru. Gara fuula duraattis bakka mirgi Oromoo tuqamu kamuu irratti osoo yeroo hin kennin hatattamaan argamuun sagalee qaban dhageessisuuf qophii tahuu isaanii mirkaneessan. Miseensonni hawaasichaa kun yaada isaanii yoo itti fufan, yeroo diinni mirga Oromoo biyya keessatti ukkaamsee quufuu dadhabee biyya baqaa keessattis mataa irra nu bahuu barbaadu, boru iftaan baanee balaaleffanna jedhanii lafa irra harkisuu yaaduun ‘eega waraabessi dabree sareen dutuu dha’ eega jedhanii booda, Oromoon Oromummaan itti dhagahamu hundi tarkaanfii yeroo isaa eeggate akkasii fudhachuu irratti gara fuulduraaf akka of qopheessu waamicha dhiheessanii jiran.

Hiriira kana irratti dargaggoonni, shamarran, manguddooleen, joolleen, haawwanii fi haadholiin harma hoosisan osoo hin hafin daa’imman isaanii fudhatanii dhihaachuudhaan sagalee mirga Oromoof falmaa oolanii milkiin galuu danda’anii jiru.

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MUST-WATCH | NTV Report: Oromo community in Uganda celebrate Irreecha festival

The Oromo people, the largest nation in Ethiopia, celebrate Irreecha, a festival of thanksgiving. Oromo communities spread out across the world perform rituals on this day around water sources to thank God for enduring the rainy season and ushering in the Spring season. The Oromo Community in Uganda held their celebrations at the Kabaka’s Lake in Lubaga on October 5, 2014. Source

Credits/Tags: Irreecha, Irreecha 2014, NTV-Uganda

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In Photos/Videos: Millions Celebrate the Largest Festival in Africa – Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) at Hora Arsadi in Bishoftu, Oromia (October 5, 2014)

Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) is a celebration of the coming of the new Birraa (Spring) season in Oromia. Though it is celebrated by many millions throughout Oromia, the celebration at Hora Arsadi (Lake Arsadi) in Bishoftu, Oromia, is the largest of all. The celebration at Hora Arsadi has been identified as the largest festival in Africa, and there’s a proposal submitted to UNESCO to register it as the Cultural Heritage of the world.

Here’s a look at this year’s Irreecha at Hora Arsadi (photos and videos from social media).

Credits/Tags: Featured, FinfinneeTube, Irreecha, Irreecha 2014

Two female Oromo refugees died and about ten others wounded due to brutal actions of human smugglers

By Boruu Barraaqaa

October 2, 2014 (Cairo, Egypt) — On September 10, 2014, about ten Oromo refugees were terribly loaded on a Toyota pickup to flee Khartoum, a city where the Ethiopian government thugs abduct any body they want at any time. When they started their journey from Khartoum, the refugees had a dream to reach Cairo safely, at least to get some security relief and enjoy a better life. Unfortunately, what happened to them in the middle of the Sahara desert on September 14, 2014, turned their dream untrue.

According to the information obtained from the survivors, the human smugglers who were illegally transporting these poor Oromo refugees were turned extremely violent for unidentified reason, just after crossing the Sudanese-Egyptian border. They tried to rape the female refugees, but the male refugees who were on the same vehicle opposed this attempt and combated the transporters, showing a relentless bravery.

It was in this scary situation that an unidentified police vehicle was suddenly emerged from behind and the transporters managed to escape hastily. They were driving with the highest speed furiously in the terribly windy and hazardous rocky desert, and finally tipped over. The result was so sad, in which two of the refugees namely Fatuma Mohammed Hundesa and Nahira Abamacha died instantly and about eight others were seriously wounded. Those who died were never buried properly, the report added.
A number of sources confirm that hundreds of female Oromo refugees have been raped, beaten, tortured, infected with diseases like HIV Aids and finally died over the last five years alone, while they were trying to find their way from different areas of Oromia to Khartoum. In last April, just in an area where this fresh sad incident happened, about eight Oromo refugees were captured by the Egyptian police, detained for four months and finally deported back to Ethiopia.

Currently, due to a developing tight diplomatic relations between the governments of Ethiopia and Sudan, Oromo refugees residing in Khartoum are experiencing day and night hunt by Woyane security agents. Fearing not to be abducted by these brutal thugs, they are forced to flee further to Egypt, daring the harsh clandestine journey of the trans-Sahara.

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