The Right to Protest: ETHIOPIAN REGIME REPRESSION

They speak of democracy, but act violently to suppress dissenting voices and control the people through the inculcation of fear: they ignore human rights and trample on the people, they are a tyrannical wolf in democratic sheep’s clothing, causing suffering and misery to thousands of people throughout Ethiopia. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government repeatedly scoffs at international law and consistently acts in violation of their own Federal constitution – a liberal document written by the regime to please and deceive their foreign supporters. They have enacted laws of repression: the widely condemned Charities and Societies (ATD) law (CSO law) and the Anti Terrorism Declaration, which is the main tool of political control, together with the ‘Mass Media and Freedom of Information Proclamation’ they form a formidable unjust arsenal of government control. Freedom of the media (which is largely ‘state-owned’) is denied and political dissent is all but outlawed.

Against this repressive backdrop, the Semayawi (Blue) party, a new opposition group, organized peaceful protests on the 2nd June in Addis Ababa. Ten thousand or so people marched through the capital demanding the release of political prisoners, “respect for the constitution” and Justice! Justice! Justice! It was (Reuters 2/06/2013 reported), an “anti-Government procession…. the first large-scale protest since a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 200 people”, a ‘disputed election’ result that was discredited totally by European Union observers and denounced by opposition groups and large swathes of the population.

The Chairman of the Semayawi Party, Yilekal Getachew, told Reuters, “We have repeatedly asked the government to release political leaders, journalists and those who asked the government not to intervene in religious affairs”. In keeping with the recent worldwide movement for freedom and social justice, he stated that, “if these questions are not resolved and no progress is made in the next three months, we will organize more protests. It is the beginning of our struggle”. To the disappointment of many and the surprise of nobody, the government has made no attempt to ‘resolve’ the questions raised, and true to their word a second demonstration was planned for 1st September in Addis Ababa. In the event, as the BBC report, around “100 members of Ethiopia’s opposition Semayawi (Blue) party were arrested and some badly beaten”, and “equipment such as sound systems were confiscated”, ahead of the planned rally, which was banned by the EPRDF. Government justification formed, and a cock and bull story was duly constructed with Communication Minister Shimeles Kemal stating “the venue [for Semayawi’s event) had already been booked by a pro-government group condemning religious extremism”.

Non-interference in religious affairs is one of the key demands of the Semayawi party, a demand based upon the constitutional commitment of religious independence from the State, which Muslim groups claim the government has violated. Enraged by government interference in all matters religious, the Muslim community have organised regular small-scale protests and sit-ins in the capital for the last two years. In early August, Reuters 8/08/2013 reported “Demonstrators chanted "Allahu Akbar" and hoisted banners that read "respect the constitution", referring to allegations that the government has tried to influence the highest Muslim affairs body, the Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council”. Around 40% of Ethiopia’s population (around 85 million) are Muslim, for generations they have lived amicably with their Orthodox Christians neighbours, who make up the majority in the country; they are moderate in their beliefs and peaceful in their ways. The EPRDF in contrast are violent, intolerant and ideologically driven; ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ being the particular tune to which the democratic dictatorship hums and drums its partisan rule.

“Name-Calling”

The government’s response to the peaceful demonstrations, has unsurprisingly been intolerant and dismissive; their comments inflammatory and predictable, stating Mail@Guardian 14/07/2013 record, "most of these demonstrators are Islamic extremists”, and showing their own ‘extreme’ tendencies, authoritively declaring that “the protesters aimed to set up an Islamic state in the country and were bankrolled and guided by "extremists" [this time] overseas”. Duplicitous nonsense, which serves to distract attention from the underlying issues being raised and the imperative (and legal requirement) for the government to act in accordance with its own constitution.

Along with such disingenuous comments the regime has responded to the protests in a repressive manner; imprisoning Muslims calling for justice, causing Amnesty International 8/08/2013 to be “extremely concerned at reports coming out of Ethiopia… of further widespread arrests of Muslim protesters”, Amnesty demand that the “on-going repressive crackdown on freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest has to end now”. Despite the fact that the protests have been peaceful and good-natured the regime has consistently described the protesters as violent terrorists, in February the ‘Holy War Movement’ was shown on State Television, it presented protestors and those arrested (including journalists), as terrorists. And in a clear violation of people’s constitutional right to protest, the regime has threatened to take firm action against further protests.

Whilst the majority of actions during the last two years have been without incident, protests in Kofele in the Oromia region on 8th August ended in “the deaths of an unconfirmed number”, there have also been reports of large numbers of people being arrested in Kofele and Addis Ababa, including two journalists. Following the Kofele deaths Amnesty called for “an immediate, independent and impartial investigation into the events in Kofele, as well as into the four incidents last year which resulted in the deaths and injuries of protestors”. Legitimate demands which the regime has duly ignored.

The EPRDF does not tolerate any independent media coverage within the country and indeed does all it can to control the flow of information out of Ethiopia and restrict totally dissenting voices. And they don’t care who the journalist is working for, key allies or diaspora media; In October 2012 a reporter from the Voice of America (VOA) covering a protest in Anwar Mosque in Addis was arrested and told to erase her recorded interviews, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report. This was not the first time a VOA journalist had been detained. “They are criminalizing journalism,” said Martin Schibbye a Swedish freelance journalist who was jailed [in 2011] along with a colleague for more than 14 months in Ethiopia”, for entering the Ogaden region. A heavily militarized area where wide ranging human rights violations constituting crimes against humanity are taking place, which has been hidden from the International media and aid organisations since 2007. Fearing imprisonment, many journalists have left Ethiopia, CPJ report that in 2012, along with Eritrea, it was were Africa’s ‘top jailer’ of journalists”, coming in eighth worldwide.

Unjust Laws of Control

In July last year, hundreds of protesting Muslims peacefully demanding that the government stop interfering in their religious affairs and allow them to vote freely for representatives on the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC). Most were released, but 29 members of the protest committee were charged on 29th October under the universally criticized Anti Terrorist Declaration (ATD), accused of “intending to advance a political, religious or ideological cause” by force, and the “planning, preparation, conspiracy, incitement and attempt of terrorist acts.” Their arrest has been slammed by human rights groups as well as the United States Commission on religious Freedom, who “are deeply concerned that Ethiopia’s government is seeking to silence peaceful religious freedom proponents by detaining and trying them in secret under trumped-up terrorism charges. They should be released now and their trials halted”. The men claim to have been “tortured and experienced other ill-treatment in detention”.

The ambiguous ATD was introduced in 2009 and has been used by the Ethiopian government, “to severely restrict basic rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) state. It violates dues process, which like a raft of other internationally recognized and legally binding rights, is enshrined in the Ethiopian constitution. The legislation cause outrage amongst human rights groups and the right minded when it was proposed. HRW (30/06/2009) said of the draft law, (which un-amended found its way onto the statute books) that it would “permit the government to repress a wide range of internationally protected freedoms”, – precisely the reason for it’s introduction, and it provides “the Ethiopian government with a potent instrument to crack down on political dissent, including peaceful political demonstrations and public criticisms of government policy”.

The unjust law allows for long-tem imprisonment and the death penalty for so called crimes that meet some EPRDF definition of terrorism, and denies in some cases a defendants right to be presumed innocent – the bedrock of the international judicial system. Torture is used without restraint by the military and police, under the ATD evidence obtained whilst a prisoner is being beaten, hanged, whipped or drowned is admissible in court, this criminal act contravenes Article 15 of the United Nations Convention against Torture (ratified by Ethiopia in 1994), which ‘requires that any statement made as a result of torture is inadmissible as evidence’. Terrorism is indeed an issue of grave concern in Ethiopia, it is not rooted in the Muslim community, the media, the Blue Party or the Universities, it is State Terrorism that stalks this land, that kills and falsely imprisons, tortures and rapes the innocent, it is the EPRDF; the rebel group that ousted a communist dictator in 1991 only to take up his tyrannical mantle, who manipulate the law to serve their repressive rule and who violates a plethora of human rights, consistently and with impunity. Ethiopia’s donors and international friends, (primarily America and Britain) have other, larger fish on their minds, and even though they give the country over a third of its federal budget they seem unconcerned by the criminality being committed, much of which is taking place under the cloak of development. Violent rule however is a storm that is imploding throughout the world, the people, who have suffered long enough, sense their collective strength and are awakening.

Need for Unity

Although completely contrary to the EPRDF’s pledge of Ethnic Federalism, divide and rule is the effective methodology of division employed by the regime. In a country with dozens of tribal groups, various ethnicities and different religious beliefs (Islam and Christianity), unity is the key to any popular social revolution, much needed and ardently longed for by millions throughout the land. We are witnessing a worldwide protest movement for change; age-old values of freedom, equality and social justice, brotherhood and peace are the clarion call of many marching and protesting. And so it is in Ethiopia, the Blue party and other opposition groups, the Muslim community and the students on the streets demanding Justice! Justice! Jusitce! are in harmony with the rhythm of the times. Out of step and blind to the needs of the people and their rightful demands, the ruling party acts with violence to drown out their voices and suppress their rights: in Addis Ababa, where thousands marched in June, in Oromia and the Ogaden, where the people seek autonomy, in Amhara, where thousands have been displaced, in Gambella and the Lower Omo Valley, where native people are being driven off their ancestral land into state created villages, women raped and men beaten.

Unity is the song of the day, rich with diversity united in intent, the collective will of the people of Ethiopia and indeed throughout the world is an unstoppable force for change. All steps need to be taken to remove the obstacle to the realization of unity throughout the country, ethnic prejudices and tribal differences; all need to be laid aside. The Ethiopian regime may succeed in subduing the movement for change that is simmering throughout the country, however with sustained unified action, peacefully undertaken and relentlessly expressed, freedom and social justice, longed for by millions throughout the country, will surely come.

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*Graham Peebles is director of the Create Trust. He can be reached at: graham@thecreatetrust.or

In Ethiopia, more land grabs, more indigenous people pushed out

A journalist's visit to South Omo, where rights groups say police have raped women and otherwise pressured locals to leave an area tagged to become a huge sugar plantation, was quickly curtailed by authorities.

Hailewuha village, South Omo, Ethiopia

As night wore on in a remote valley in southern Ethiopia, one policeman dozed and another watched a DVD comedy on a battery-powered laptop.

Close by, in a clutch of thorn trees and grass huts, an ethnic Mursi man tried to explain to outsiders why he is so concerned for his people, who have lived here as semi-nomads for generations but may soon be evicted to make way for a giant sugar plantation.

"We Mursi [people] do not accept this ambitious government ideology," the man said of an official state plan to house them in new villages in exchange for their compliant departure. He is speaking in the village of Hailewuha, his face lit by flashlight. Cattle shuffle and grunt nearby.

"What we want is to use our own traditional way of cultivation," he says.

Ethiopian officials say the Mursi, like a growing number of ethnic or tribal groups in Ethiopia, are voluntarily moving out of their ancient lands; human rights groups say this is untrue.

The ongoing controversy is not new in Ethiopia, and "land grabs" by governments for lucrative leasing deals have become a story across the continent.

For example, in Ethiopia's lush Gambella region, in the western area bordering Sudan, locals have been forcibly relocated to make way for the leasing of farms to foreign firms. This year, the World Bank and British aid agencies were swept into controversy over charges they helped fund the relocation including salary payments to local officials involved in the clearing of land.

The Mursi have lived in Omo for centuries. Partly for this reason they get frequent visits by tourists and anthropologists alike. Tall and elaborately decorated, their scarified bodies are daubed with paint and ornamented by hooped earrings and bicep bangles.

But now the Mursi may be those most affected by government operations to overhaul South Omo, an area that officials in Addis Ababa are calling economically and socially backward.

The plan would turn this scrub and savanna into about 700 square miles of state-owned sugar plantations that would in turn require building Ethiopia’s largest irrigation project.

The water to feed the sugar cane year-round is to come from the Omo river, and is made possible by Gibe III, a partly Chinese-funded hydropower dam that may be completed as early as next year. The cane will be processed at some five local factories.

The people of this valley, the Mursi, Bodi, and Karo, some of whom number only a few thousand, would need to reduce their cattle -- their most prized possessions. Then many if not all will move into enlarged permanent villages.

Controlling the flow of the river will mean the end of an annual flood that makes fertile a strip of land for crops once the seasonal waters recede. An ongoing attempt to control Mursi traditions now means that at public meetings, state authorities implore the group to end “very bad” cultural practices like stick fighting and their characteristic lip-plates.

To be sure, Ethiopian authorities promise new jobs, public services, and plenty of irrigation for every Omo household that agrees to move out.

But this is not the view of international human rights groups who claim that Ethiopia is broadly and constantly harming locals as part of an authoritarian model of development.

In the most recent salvo, the Oakland Institute accused the state of using killings, beatings, and rapes as methods of forcing South Omo residents to accept the sugar cane projects. The California-based advocacy group also accused Western aid agencies and some US and British officials of covering up evidence of the abuses they heard about on research missions.

Instead of investigating claims made by Survival International, Human Rights Watch, and the Oakland Institute, Ethiopian authorities smear them as anti-development.

These groups help "drag Ethiopia back to the Stone Age," is how the prime minister's spokesperson, Getachew Reda, recently described Oakland's agenda.

“We have a scar from them [critics]," says the chief administrator of South Omo, Molloka Wubneh Toricha, about the activists and journalists who make the 400 mile journey from Addis Ababa to the Kenya-border area, hoping to monitor developments. "They try and blacken our image."

Yet in the single nighttime interview the Monitor was able to conduct with the Mursi, the criticism of the rights groups were echoed: "The government uses our ignorance and backwardness to control us,” said the Mursi man. “They force us to do farming…. Those who have been in the bush shall settle together in common village and be brothers. But our leaders do not accept this."

It is impossible to verify whether these comments reflect the community's opinion since officials and police prevented further inquiries by reporters in a trip there in August.

While regional officials at first permitted access to the Mursi, a few hours later, the administration backtracked.

Reporters on an independent visit were forced to camp next to the Hailewuha police station. A security commander regularly called in on a shortwave radio to check that the journalists were still corralled. Senior regional police arrived the next morning to escort them back to the regional capital, Jinka.

Later, apologetic officials in Jinka all had the same explanation: there had been a "misunderstanding."

Yet rather than a genuine mix-up, the obstruction seemed to stem from a basic mistrust of outside eyes and voices. Mr. Molloka said journalists frequently "divert" the views of residents: "This is what burns our hearts," he says, "at public meetings we told all the people not to give information to journalists."

With media muzzled and most civil society initiatives stifled by restrictive laws, there is little independent information about what is happening in South Omo.

Along with the plight of the Mursi, for example, little is known about the impact of as many as 700,000 migrant workers that may move here to work on the sugar cane plantations.

Tewolde Woldemariam, a scholar and senior figure in the ruling party, who left in 2001, and an academician, Fana Gebresenbet, argue that the people, cultures, language and rights of South Omo people, which are theoretically protected by the constitution, are threatened by the new influx of migrant workers.

“Unless the problem is realized and mechanisms to tackle it are put in place, this demographic change puts the cultural and linguistic rights of the indigenous ethnic groups…at great risk," they wrote for a conference in April at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University. "If we will be mixed with external people, perhaps we will be exposed to some contagious diseases like HIV/AIDS which we have never experienced in life."

The sugar and resettlement projects are well-intended but note little authentic official response about possible adverse effects, they wrote.

“The attitude of lumping everyone who raises the possibility of negative consequence of the development project on the local culture as one who wants to permanently perpetuate the pastoral lifestyle for tourist purposes is rampant at all levels of the region," they said.

An important failing of trying to engineer and control the future of Omo is that local residents are kept from the design and involvement in policies concerning themselves, is the consensus view of a number of analysts sympathetic to the nomads.

As the Mursi man who we spoke to asked reporters late at night: "The government forces us to accept this project. Do you think this is a good way?"

TPLF’S Long Term Political Objective and Its dreadful Impact For Oromos

Riyad B. Ebrahim

Oromo elders have been practicing Gadaa system for well over 500 years.  Social scientists of diverse backgrounds at different times have studied the Gadaa system. Many of them have testified that it is uniquely democratic. The above three sentences partially clears that our ancestors were ruling our land democratically since long time back. Starting from 70’s we have been struggling to get back that right of we had lost under Menelik’s Empire, it was self-determination of Oromoiyyaa. Indeed, we shall get back our right for two main reasons, firstly we are capable of ruling our land, secondly it’s our natural right to posses and govern our land. The young generation has to show its super effort to secure those rights by what ever it takes. ‘’We should say enough for once again!’’ TPLF should not rule our land for the coming years in the presence of us.
The latest event of ethnic cleansing that is being  perpetrated against the Oromos in Eastern Hararge zone is a continuation of a grand design of the TPLF-led regime of Ethiopia to undercut the demographic weight of the Oromo and the territorial expanse of Oromiyyaa.  This design, one which its leaders in many occasions in such obvious boldness have spoken about, is framed to fulfill its long-term political and economic objectives.
The obvious political objective of the TPLF-led regime of Ethiopia is primarily the restraint of the Oromo political life. The regime with a minority constituent base is always scared of the Oromo population size with its potential political weight. To overcome this fear and sense of insecurity, it has been determined to maintain its political hegemony and keep Oromiya under its occupation by all what it takes. To achieve their devilish political interest they had to go through different mechanisms .One of among their methods is preying young Oromo generation who are vibrant and insuperable in political stage.  Frankly TPLF have chosen to squeeze our political knowledge superiority by using their aggressive power. As we still see they are exercising their power by carrying out worst actions like Imprisoning, torturing, killing, chasing of Oromo patriots.
With the intent of ethnic cleansing, the TPLF has directly launched a silent war on the Oromo people over the years. However, such a war meant to extinct a community of people has often been masked under the heading of “human rights violation”. In effect, what the TPLF has been and is still carrying out on the Oromo nation should be taken as a designed action of ethnic cleansing. Its actions that clearly attest to this fact are many.  Other actions of the TPLF have violated the very existence of Oromo communities during its rule. Man-made famines it help created resulted in starvation that took heavy tolls in life in many parts of Oromiya and most notably in Borena, Hararge, and  Arsi that the international media once referred to it as ‘green famines’. Its barbaric act of environmental terrorism has equally brought about destruction of ecosystems and exacted an inordinate number of human lives and loss of habitats for rare flora and fauna. Suffice to mention here two notorious cases that illustrate the TPLF’s acts of brutality on the environmental resources of Oromiya: The blazing and decimation of the forests in Bale and most recently in Iluu Abbaa Boora. The immediate impact of this act on the present generation of the affected communities is enormous. Furthermore, looking at this heinous crime of the TPLF from a larger scope, it is conceivable that such a destruction of ecosystems would have far-reaching implications on generations to come. It would undoubtedly check the population growth of the communities, a desired result that the TPLF leaders are hoping to secure.
Despite relentlessly working at its silent ethnic cleansing grand plan over the last two decades, the demographic weight of the Oromo people has still remained upsetting for the TPLF led-regime.
For the TPLF regime, pitting one ethnic group against another has served as a political survival means for so long. It would continue using this wild political card for as long as it is in power. Should all ethnic groups who have lived in harmony side by side for millenniums and shared a common political history fail to see its divide and conquer policy and rise up in unison and challenge it, the policy will continue serving its purpose. This would mean all oppressed ethnic groups will remain prey of this parasitic regime.
For at least two decades, genocidal massacres against Oromo have been framed that way in order to cover-up the deliberate effort by TPLF elites to either reduce Oromo by attrition to a minority population or to destroy them fully so that Tigireans can take over Oromia and its resources. That is their long-term plan.
With absolute military, economic and diplomatic powers, Tigirean elites have ever been emboldened to destroy the Oromo nationality and its material, cultural and intellectual properties. They are accountable to no one–not to their laws, not to international law and not to moral principles. TPLF elites’ arrogance is becoming limitless, soaring. While they engage in genocidal activities in Oromia, the international community has afforded them the complete silence they so want. However, the human and material destruction caused by Tigire elites in Oromia is equivalent crisis to Syria and Darfur. Although, we should have to get limited interference of international community to calm current genocidal deeds of TPLF. We shouldn’t wait their help, we have to strengthen our struggle as much as we can . I will conclude this short article with Martin Luther king saying   ‘’freedom is never voluntarily given by oppressor, it must be demanded by oppressed ‘’.
Oromiyyaa for Oromos !!
Riyad B. Ebrahim

Photo Report: Oromos Hold Peaceful Protest Rally in Frankfurt Against the TPLF Tyranny in Oromia

Photo Report: Oromos Hold Peaceful Protest Rally in Frankfurt Against the TPLF Tyranny in Oromia

Human Rights are Universal and Indivisible

Photo: TBOJ.de (More Photos Below)

Over the past 21 years, the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF)-led and dominated Ethiopian government has imprisoned tens of thousands of political opposition and citizens, mainly Oromos. As a consequence to the government’s repressive policies, thousands of innocent citizens have been languishing in prisons and secret camps, and many have been and are being severely tortured, disabled and/or killed. Others have been abducted in broad daylight, and made to disappear or murdered secretly.

Rampant arrests, unlawful killings, abductions, tortures and other human rights abuses by the Ethiopian government, consistent with the direct experiences of many of us, are documented and confirmed in the annual reports of well-respected human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department.

Despite these tangible facts of human rights abuses, the Ethiopian government continues receiving billions of dollars of aid money every year. Subsidizing over one third of its budget from foreign aid, Ethiopia has built one of the biggest and best-equipped armies in Africa – while millions of its citizens depend on food aid. In fact, the aid money is used to impose the Tigrayan ethnocentric dictatorship on Oromos and other peoples in an involuntary multinational society.

It is frustrating to witness the West’s reluctance to use their influence to effect real change, and even worse to believe the fairytale of a human-rights-abusing government that claim to be moving on the road to democracy.

While thousands of Oromos and others are languishing in prisons under bogus terrorism charges, the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Hailemariam Dessalegn, brazenly argued in public that there are/were no political prisoners in Ethiopia.

Such blatant misinformation has been the norm within the entire leadership of the TPLF-regime – intended to deceive international donors and allies. Again, referring to his inauguration speech, the new prime minister also promised to continue implementing the policies of the late autocratic Prime Minister Meles Zenawi; this is a clear indication that the new prime minister is under the control of the Tigrayan elites and that he cannot make any reform and democratic changes in the empire-state of Ethiopia.

Observing the painful agony and sufferings of the ordinary people, the political prisoners in particular, and the worsening situation at home, we, members of the Oromo communities and the Union of Oromo Students in Germany, held a peaceful demonstration on August 30, 2013 in Frankfurt am Main, to protest against the tyranny of the TPLF-Ethiopian government, and earnestly appeal to the German government and its allies to use their good offices with the Ethiopian government and facilitate the following:

1. Immediately stop of financial support to the dictatorship in Ethiopia
2. Immediately stop to ethnic-cleansing now underway in eastern-Oromia’s Anniyya region
3. Unconditionally and immediately release of all political prisoners
4. Practical action to promote real democratic changes in the country
5. Immediately stop to Land-grabbing and their restitution to the indigenous owners
6. Immediately implement the right of the Oromo and other nations for national self-determination.
7. Respect freedom of religion and journalism
8. justice for those criminally murdered in Arsi–Kofele and all parts of Oromia

Union of Oromo Students in Germany

A prisoner of conscience’s call for sanctions against Ethiopia

European aid has transformed my country’s economy but also props up one-party rule. Let EU donors give us democracy.

Eskinder Nega

September 7, 2013 (The Guardian) — To Ethiopia‘s archaic left, which dominates the ruling party, the new euphemism for the west is neoliberal. Compared to the jargon of bygones days – imperialists – when Lenin and Mao were still in vogue, neoliberal sounds decidedly wimpy. But this hardly matters to Ethiopia’s ruling party. What it seeks is a bogeyman to tamp down rising expectations for multiparty democracy.

To this end, plying nationalist sentiment is the easy option. And so, we get a tale of heroes and villains in which there is a defender of national ethos, honor and economic growth (inevitably, the ruling party), and a foreign horde bent on subversion, domination and economic exploitation (infallibly, the west: the neoliberals).

In this narrative, Ethiopia’s recent economic growth, amidst a global slump, is ascribed to the stability afforded by one-party rule, as in China – and not, as many experts are prone to point out, the generosity of donor countries. Hence the paradox of well-intentioned European money promoting Chinese interests in one of the more important economies in Africa.

Aggregate aid is to the Ethiopian economy what Obama’s fiscal stimulus was to the American economy: minus these injections, both economics would suffer catastrophically. The theatrical blustering of the Ethiopian government notwithstanding, donor countries have a make-or-break power over the Ethiopa’s prosperity.

Ethiopian women wait to cast their votes in May 2010. European election observers said that the election fell short of international standards. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

And European aid has done wonderful things in Ethiopia. Despite the government’s ingratitude, we – the disenfranchised majority – are grateful and appreciative. We have improved access to schools, health facilities and roads because of donor benevolence. But an aid policy tied only to economic and social needs is only half complete; a comprehensive approach entails a linkage with politics.

Ideally, aid should have an impact on GDP growth. Ethiopia now ranks in the world’s top ten fastest-growing economies, the pride of Eurocrats. But aid should also increase trade between donor and recipient, as was the case with US aid to Europe under the Marshall Plan. By this measure, Europe has failed. Ethiopian trade with China has exploded, while stagnating or shrinking with Europe. Again, China wins without lifting a finger.

Aid should also strengthen democratic institutions. Here is where European donors’ policy falters dramatically. The unintended consequence of indifference to democratic accountability translates into the subsidy and reinforcement of tyranny. The time for reassessment has come.

After two decades of one-party rule, Ethiopia is visibly aching for change. Even the traditionally placid Sufi Muslim community is increasingly restless. There is clear danger of communal strife.

As a prisoner of conscience committed to peaceful transition to democracy, I urge Europe to apply economic sanctions against Ethiopia. What short-term pain may result will be compensated by long-term gain. A pledge to re-engage energetically with a democratic Ethiopia would act as a catalyst for reform.

Sanctions need to be targeted – and the continuity of basic humanitarian aid without precondition is a moral necessity. But the EU should also impose travel bans on Ethiopian officials implicated in human rightsviolations.

We live in an age of global expectations. Our hopes have converged in many ways, none more so than in our democratic aspirations. The moral imperative is for Europe to align with the reform movement in Ethiopia. It is time to stand up for democracy.

–The Guardian

the charge of journalist solomon kebede

ጋዜጠኛ ሰለሞን ከበደ የተከሰሰው በጋዜጠኝነት ስራው ነው!(ድምፃችን ይሰማ)

በማእከላዊ ቆይታው አሰቃቂ ጊዜ አሳልፏል

በእስር ላይ የሚገኘው ጋዜጠኛ ሰለሞን ከበደ ክስ የተመሰረተበት ከጋዜጠኝት ስራው ጋር በተያያዘ ነው፡፡ የቀድሞ የሙስሊሞች ጉዳይ መጽሄት ማኔጂንግ ዳይሬክተርና አዘጋጅ የነበረው ሰለሞን ከበደ ባለፈው ዓመት ጥር ወር ላይ ከቤቱ ወደ ስራ ቦታው ሲሄድ ታፍኖ ከተወሰደ በኋላ በማእከላዊ ለአራት ወራት ያህል አሰቃቂ ምርመራ ተደርጎበታል፡፡ በምርመራ ወቅት በቀን ከ12 ሰዓታት በላይ በተለያዩ ገራፊዎች ተፈራራቂነት ቶርች ሲደረግ ከመቆየቱም በላይ ለተደጋጋሚ ጊዜያትም ራሱን ይስት እንደነበር ታውቋል፡፡ ጋዜጠኛ ሰለሞን በምርመራው ወቅት በድብደባም ሆነ በሌላ መልኩ ሊያስጠይቀው የሚችል ምንም ወንጀል ባይገኝበትም ክስ ተመስርቶበት አሁን በቂሊንጦ ወህኒ ቤት ይገኛል፡፡Journalist Solomon kebede
ጋዜጠኛ ሰለሞን ሰለሞን በእነ አማን አሰፋ የክስ መዝገብ የተከሰሰ ሲሆን የክሱ ጭብጥም ‹‹የከተማ ጂሀድና መላውን ሙስሊም ያካተተ ጂሀድ ማቀጣጠል›› የሚል አሳፋሪ ውንጀላ ነው፡፡ በመንግስት ክስ ከተማ ጂሀድና የትጥቅ ትግል በመምራት፣ በማደራጀትና በማቀጣጠል የተከሰሰው ሰለሞን በዚህ ውንጀላ መነሻነትም የማእከላዊ ገራፊዎች ሰለሞንን ደጋግመው ‹‹የጦር መሳሪያዎችን የት ነው የደቅከው?›› ሲሉ ይገርፉት ነበር፡፡ ከዚህም በተጨማሪ ‹‹ለወታደሮች ስልጠና ትሰጣለህም›› ተብሎ የማእከላዊ ገራፊዎች እረፍት የማይሰጥ አሰቃቂ ቶርች ፈጽመውበታል፡፡ ከአራት ወራት አሰቃቂ አስር በኋላም በሰኔ 2005 ክስ ተመስርቶበታል፡፡
ሰለሞን ከበደ ላይ መንግስት ክሱን ከመሰረተ በኋላ ለሁለተኛ ጊዜ ክሱን ከልሶ ያቀረበ ሲሆን በዚሁ በተከለሰው ክስ ላይም ሰለሞን የተከሰሰው በጋዜጠኝት ስራው መሆኑን ተመልክቷል፡፡ ክሱ ‹‹… ከ2004 ዓ.ም ጀምሮ ከሽብር ቡድኑ አባላት ጋር በመገናኘትና በአወሊያና በየመስጂዶቹ የተጀመረው አመጽ እንዴት መቀጠል እንዳለበት በመወያየት ለአመጽ የሚያነሳሱ ጽሁፎችን በየወሩ በመጽሄት በተለያዩ ርእሶች ሲያወጣ ቆይቶ በመጨረሻም ይህንኑ በማሰባሰብ ‹‹የኢትዮጵያ ሙስሊም የት ጋር ነው?›› በሚል ርእስ አመጽ ቀስቃሽ ጽሆፎችን በማሰባሰብ መጽሀፍ በማሳተምና በማሰራጨት…›› በሚል በግልጽ በሙስሊሞች ጉዳይ መፅሄት ላይ ይሰራ በነበራቸው የጋዜጠኝነት ስራዎች መከሰሱ አውን ሆኗል፡፡
መንግስት ደጋግሞ ‹‹ጋዜጠኞች በሙያቸው በሰሩት ስራ አልተከሰሱም አይከሰሱም›› ሲል የቆየ ቢሆንም ሰለሞን ከበደ በዚሁ የጋዜጠኝነት ስራው ተከሷል፡፡ የመፅሄቱ ዋና አዘጋጅ የነበረው ዩሱፍ ጌታቸው በተመሳሳይ መልኩ በመፅሄቱና በቢ.ቢ.ኤን ሬዲዮ ላይ ያቀርባቸው በነበሩ ዘገባዎች ምክንያት ክስ ተመስርቶበት ከሙስሊም መፍትሄ አፈላላጊ ኮሚቴ አባላት ዳኢዎችና ኡለማዎች ጋር ከ14 ወራት በላይ በእስር ላይ ይገኛል፡፡ የጋዜጠኛ መብት ተሟጋች የሆኑ አለም አቀፍ ድርጅቶች ጋዜጠኛ ዩሱፍ ጌታቸውና ሰለሞን ከበደ ከእስር እንዲለቀቁ ተደጋጋሚ ጥሪ ለመንግስት አቅርበዋል፡፡ ኢትዮጵያ በአለም አቀፍ ደረጃ ጋዜጠኞችን በማሰር መጥፎ ስም ማትረፏ የሚታወቅ ሲሆን በአፍሪካም ከኤርትራ ቀጥሎ ብዙ ጋዜጠኞችን ያሰረች አገር እንደሆነች አለም አቀፍ ሪፖርቶች ያመላክታሉ፡፡

The Diplomacy of Nonviolent Change in Ethiopia

The Diplomacy of Nonviolent Change in Ethiopia

September 8, 2013
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam
In my commentary last week, “Interpreting and Living MLK’s Dream”, I discussed, among other things, Dr. Martin Luther King’s (MLK) philosophy of nonviolent social change. MLK argued that the “crucial political and moral question of our time” is the “need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” I believe the crucial political and moral question for Ethiopians today is how to transform Ethiopia into an oasis of democratic governance in the middle of a sub-Saharan desert of African tyranny in a nonviolent struggle.
MLK dreamt about creating the “Beloved Community”– a community that has rid itself of racism, poverty and militarism. He said, “The end of nonviolent social change is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends.”
The question I seek to address here is whether and how Ethiopians, particularly young Ethiopians, could use MLK’s “diplomacy” of love, brotherhood, sisterhood and nonviolence in their struggle against an entrenched and depraved dictatorship in their country. I use the word “diplomacy” here advisedly to signify the importance of dialogue, negotiations, compromise, bargaining, concessions, accommodations, cooperation and ultimately peace-making and reconciliation. (I plan to offer my views on the “diplomacy of nonviolent change” in Ethiopia on a regular basis in the future.)
Recent clampdown on Semayawi (Blue) Party
According to a BBC report, last week “some 100 members of Ethiopia’s opposition Semayawi party were arrested and some badly beaten.” In June of this year, Semayawi (Blue) Party (BP), a political party comprising of young people and openly committed to nonviolent social change, had organized its first major street demonstration against the ruling regime demanding the release of political prisoners, journalists and human rights activists.  Regime police raided the BP headquarters to prevent a scheduled “rally” by the party to demand political reforms. According to BP chairman Yilekal Getachew, regime police assaulted party members and confiscated sound systems, computers and other equipment. The rally has been rescheduled for September 21.
Regime official Shimeles Kemal “denied there had been a crackdown” and explained that the BP party could not engage in protest activity because the “venue had already been booked by a group condemning religious extremism.” The pro-government counter demonstration was organized by the “Addis Ababa Inter-Religious Conference”, a regime front organization. The regime-staged counter-demonstration was an effort aimed at showing the “vehement opposition of Addis Ababa resident against [religious] radicalism recently observed in the country”.
MLK’s “first step” in nonviolent social change  
How relevant are MLK’s teachings in undertaking a nonviolent moral and political struggle in Ethiopia? Can Ethiopians inform their struggle against tyranny with MLK’s ideas of nonviolence, love, civil resistance and disobedience? I believe MLK’s teachings are relevant to any society suffering under tyranny, dictatorship, racism, poverty and militarism.
MLK taught that the first step in a nonviolent struggle is a commitment to  truth which requires “information gathering”.  He understood that a struggle based on facts (in contrast to propaganda and ideological indoctrination) is a struggle based on truth. He believed that one must thoroughly and methodically research, investigate and gather vital information on the scope, magnitude and severity of problems facing the community before contemplating action. More importantly, one must gain understanding and insight into the lives of the people who are impacted by conditions of oppression and work with social, civic and political organizations engaged in seeking to bring about change. Without fact-finding and community support, the struggle for nonviolent social change is likely to lead not only to uninformed and erroneous decisions but also end up in counterproductive and ineffective actions driven by anger, resentment and impatience.
MLK’s prescription for “gathering information” is consistent with the old adage that there is power in “information” and “knowledge”. Nelson Mandela said it best: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Education is ultimately about acquiring, imparting, accumulating and disseminating systematized knowledge and information. In as much as formal education is important, as Albert Einstein said, “imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Yet there can be neither information, knowledge, education nor imagination if the human mind is gripped and made captive to the tyranny of fear and ignorance.  Before taking the first step of “information” gathering, those committed to nonviolent change must overcome their fear of tyrants and dictators.
The regime in Ethiopia has ruled by fear (not the rule of law) for over two decades. Dissenters and members of the opposition are harassed, intimidated, arrested, placed in prolonged pre-trial detention, tortured and put on show trials and subjected to extrajudicial killings.  As I argued in my commentary “Edu-corruption and Mis-education in Ethiopia”, the regime has used “ignorance as its most powerful weapon to prevent change and cling to power. They have long adopted the motto of George Orwell’s Oceania: ‘Ignorance is Strength’. Indeed, ignorance is a powerful weapon to manipulate, emasculate and subjugate the masses. Keep ‘em ignorant and impoverished and they won’t give you any trouble.”
Overcoming the tyranny of fear: Precursor to MLK’s first step in nonviolent social change  
MLK said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Oftentimes, the oppressed are too fearful, too traumatized and too confused to demand their freedom. For 30 years, Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt by spreading fear and loathing among the population. Invoking a “State of Emergency (“Law No. 162 of 1958”), Mubarak wielded unlimited power and imposed his iron will through a vast network of secret police, spies, informants and honor guards who used torture, intimidation and extrajudicial killings to make sure he stayed in power and his opposition decimated.  By the time he was thrown out of office in 2011, he held an estimated 20,000 persons under the emergency law; and according to human rights organizations, he held over 30,000 political prisoners. When Egyptian youth overcame their fears of Mubarak and stood up to his secret police, spies, informants and bloodthirsty thugs, it was all over for him and his kleptocratic regime. In less than three weeks, Mubarak’s empire of fear, terror and torture crumbled like an Egyptian ghorayebah cookie.
Most of the nonviolent social and political changes we have seen over the past three decades were the direct result of the people losing their fear of the tyrants who oppress them. The Poles succeeded in their nonviolent struggle when they lost their fear of their communist tyrants. In 1981, the Soviets put General Wojciech Jaruzelski in charge to crackdown on Solidarity, a non-communist controlled trade union established a year earlier. Jaruzelski immediately declared martial law and arrested thousands of Solidarity members, often in in the middle of the night, including union leader Lech Walesa. Jaruzelski flooded the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and elsewhere in Poland with police who shot, beat and jailed strikers and protesters by the tens of thousands. The crackdown drove the opposition underground. Where the jailed union leaders left off, others including priests, students, dissidents and journalists took over. Unable to meet in the streets, the people gathered in their churches, in the restaurants and bars, offices, schools and associations.  By 1988, Poland’s economy was in shambles as prices for basic staples rose sharply and inflation soared. In August of that year, Jaruzelski was ready to negotiate with Solidarity and met Walesa. In December 1990, Lech Walesa became the first popularly elected president of Poland. It took nearly a decade to complete the Polish nonviolent revolution. When Poles overcame their fears of Jaruzelski and his Soviet backers and stood up to his secret police, spies, informants and bloodthirsty thugs, it was all over for him and his iron-fisted regime.
Nonviolent social and political change came to many of the former Soviet republics and post-communist countries in Eastern Europe through the so-called “color revolutions” (people wearing symbolic colors to show their demand for change) over the past decade. In Serbia (2000) Georgia (“Rose Revolution” 2003), Ukraine (“Orange Revolution” 2004) and Kyrgyzstan (“Tulip Revolution” 2005), ordinary people engaged in defiant massive nonviolent street protests which culminated in the removal of oppressive and corrupt regimes. Not long ago, the “Arab Spring” dawned in the Middle East when Ben Ali’s regime in Tunisia was swept away in the “Jasmine Revolution.”  The one common element in the “color revolutions” was the fact that they were led by  youth who had lost their fear of their tyrannical oppressors.
How do the people lose fear of their oppressors?
The history of nonviolent social and political change shows that people lose the fear of their oppressors when the burden of their material conditions outweigh the fear of their oppressors. Simply stated, people lose their fear of their oppressors when they just can’t take it anymore. They come to a point where they stand up and say, “Enough is enough!”
During the civil rights movement, African Americans lost their fear of police thugs, police dogs, police informants and police brutality when they became sick and tired of the dehumanization, discrimination and segregation they faced daily. When the bus driver threatened to have Rosa Parks arrested if she did not go to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, her answer was, “You may [have me] arrested.” She ain’t moving; and she will no longer accept second class citizenship. MLK’s essential message at the 1963 March on Washington was the same.   It was equality and justice for black people under the Constitution or escalating civil resistance, civil disobedience and protest. He announced, “We  can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality… and our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity…”
Gandhi launched the salt march of 1930 to protest the British salt tax which charged ordinary Indians for a basic necessity of life. Instead of paying the tax submissively, Gandhi engaged in a massive act of civil disobedience leading tens of thousands of people to the sea to make salt. The British arrested over 60,000 people, but thousands more took the places of those arrested forcing the British to come to terms with Gandhi’s demands.
In the past two years, the youth that led the “Arab Spring” mustered the courage to confront their long-standing dictatorships because they felt hopeless, helpless and futureless. The Middle East, like much of Africa, is experiencing a youth bulge (large segment of the population comprised of children and young adults). Neither the leaders nor the political economy of those countries is capable of accommodating the needs of this burgeoning population. There are few productive employment opportunities for young people. The vast majority of the people could no longer afford the basic essentials of life while the ruling elites and their cronies wallowed in a sea of corruption, oil revenue and Western aid.
I have long and repeatedly argued that Ethiopia’s youth will be the tip of the spear of nonviolent social change in Ethiopia (no pun intended). The youth bulge is estimated at 70 percent of the population. According to a 2012 USAID study, “Ethiopia has one of the highest urban youth unemployment rates at 50 percent and there is a high rate of youth under­employment in rural areas, where nearly 85 percent of the population resides.”  Another 2012 youth unemployment study in Ethiopia reported that the “current 5 year [Ethiopian] development plan 2010/11-2014/5, the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), does not directly address the issue of youth unemployment, but rather implicitly through improved performance of the various sectors in the economy.” The study found that “in 2011, 38 percent of youth were employed in the informal sector” which “often provides low quality, low paying jobs.”  The study reported high underemployment rates; “approximately 50 percent of youth reported being available and willing to work more hours.” There is a substantial segment of the youth population that is not only unemployed but also unemployable because they lack basic skills. On the other hand, access to public sector jobs depends not so much on merit or competition but connections and party membership. The youth will no doubt demand greater economic justice and radical political reforms that will enable them to have increasing input in governance.
It is unlikely that the regime can remain indefinitely in power by using repression and violence, particularly against the youth. No amount of force can crush or subdue a rising tide of young people in the population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2050, Ethiopia’s population will more than triple to 278 million, placing that country in the top 10 most populous countries in the world. Demographic changes, persistent  unemployment and galloping inflation, limited educational opportunities, ever increasing cost of living and expanding social media will make the youth in Ethiopia a powder keg on short fuse.
Overcoming fear together and finding courage together
I do not want to suggest here that fear and loathing resides only in the hearts and minds of the oppressed. Fear strikes not only the victims but also the victimizers. Those who run the regime in Ethiopia and their cronies   have their own fears and tribulations. As I argued in great detail in my commentary, “Terminal Paranoia”,  regime leaders have used fear to cement their ugly and divisive ethnic politics. By setting one group against another and inspiring distrust and hatred, they have managed to cling to power for a long time. Today, the façade of political institutions they have created for the various ethnic groups to maintain their control no longer works. Their appeal to ethnic loyalty inspired by fear of what other groups might do to one group no longer holds sway. They are overwhelmingly rejected by every single ethnic group in the country, bar none. The people have come to the obvious realization that the regime’s “ethnic federalism” (Bantustan-style regions) has only served the interests of a few kleptocratic ruling elites and their cronies. Thus, the ruling elites fear “payback” for their nasty games of ethnic division.
The innermost fear of the regime operators is the likelihood of a spontaneous mass uprising. Regime leaders are terrified by the prospect of a sudden popular uprising breaking out and literally consuming them. They have deep fears of accountability and retribution.  They know they have committed unspeakable crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious crimes punishable under their own criminal laws and the Constitution. They also know that they will be held accountable for their corruption and abuse of power if a mass uprising takes place.  The specter of prosecution and punishment for crimes they have committed keeps them in a state of high anxiety and sleeplessness. In the final analysis, the regime’s problem is the same as the proverbial tiger rider’s. They have been riding the Ethiopian tiger for over two decades. They know one day they have to dismount; and when they do, they will be looking straight into the angry eyes, gleaming teeth and pointy nails of one big hungry Ethiopian tiger!
Truth and Reconciliation
MLK dreamed about creating a “Beloved Community”. Ethiopians cannot aspire to create a “Beloved Community” permeated with fear. My understanding is that many regime leaders and their supporters are gripped by fear and desperately seek an “exit strategy”. They seek assurance that they will not face extreme retribution in the event of change; indeed, they hope to get some accommodation that will allow them to retain their wealth while having an opportunity to play a role in the future of the country. The victims of the regime fear the use of indiscriminate violence to cling to power as seen after the elections in 2005 where hundreds of people were gunned down in the streets.
Perhaps there is a way to “negotiate fear itself.” Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk managed to negotiate their fears in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Mandela had to make distasteful moral choices and tough political compromises. de Klerk had to convince his diehard Apartheid racists that change is not easy but their choice was to abandon their ways and come to terms with the new reality or lose everything. He told his people, “In order for change to happen, you must really accept the need for change. Yes, it’s scary.”  By negotiating their fears, Mandela and de Klerk made significant strides to create their “Beloved South African Community.” South Africans have a long way to go; and two decades later, they are still struggling with the economic and political legacy of Apartheid.
If Ethiopians are to create their own “Beloved Community”, they must begin to “negotiate their fears”, which requires a reckoning with the history of the past 22 years and an open and honest discussion of their innermost fears. MLK said, “The end of nonviolent social change is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved  which transforms opponents into friends.” I believe it is time to invent a “new diplomacy of nonviolence” which facilitates the creation of a Beloved Community in Ethiopia. It is a diplomacy that stresses dialogue, negotiations, compromise, bargaining, concessions, accommodations, cooperation and ultimately peace-making and reconciliation. MLK said, “Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.” It has also been said that the “only thing to fear is fear itself.” I believe the only thing to fear is fear of each other; and the only thing to be courageous about is to communicate with each other without fear, with honesty and in good faith.
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino and is a practicing defense lawyer.

Displacement Follows Clashes On Kenya-Ethiopia Border

Inter-clan violence continues to cause death and destruction (file photo)

MOYALE, 6 September 2013 (IRIN) – Thousands of families remain displaced from the northern Kenya district of Moyale, close to the Ethiopian border, following the latest spate of clan violence, which has left at least two dozen dead since it broke out on 30 August.

Aid agencies say they have been unable to conduct a comprehensive assessment of humanitarian needs, essential for providing emergency assistance to populations in some of the district’s more volatile areas. 

Two days of inter-clan fighting among the Gabra, Burji and Borana communities saw houses torched, gunfire exchanged and business come to a standstill in the areas of Somare and Teti. The violence has since subsided, but tension remains high in the area.

Education officials say all 32 primary and secondary schools in Moyale remained closed on 2 September, as all both teachers and students remained displaced, too afraid of renewed violence to return home.

The violence is believed to be part of a series of revenge attacks that began when the Borana and Gabra clashed on 15 July, leaving one dead and three wounded.

Displaced

“More than 38,000 people from 6,381 households have been forced to leave their homes,” said the Kenya Red Cross Society’s (KRCS) Moyale coordinator, Stephen Bonaya, who noted that most of the displaced had crossed into Ethiopia, while others were staying with relatives in Moyale and the counties of Marsabit and Wajir.

He said scores of children, women and men were still separated from their families, while others were missing. “A team is helping families trace lost members and reunite them. At the moment, 60 families have been united,” he added.

According to Bonaya, displaced families are in urgent need of food assistance, shelter, drugs, water, cooking utensils, clothing and mosquito nets, among other things.

Moyale’s traders say the suspension of operations by transporters has led to a spike in food prices in the area.

“My lorry has been parked for a whole week now. I am afraid it could either be burnt or hijacked, and yet I am supposed to service a loan,” said Golicha, a truck owner.

Ismail Adan, a livestock trader and a transporter, said the prices of hiring and ferrying livestock by lorries doubled as a result of the clashes. “It’s not possible to make any profit from livestock trade. Animals at the market are too few and very expensive,” he said.

Seeking a solution

Historically, the regions’ communities – which straddle Kenya and Ethiopia – have fought over resources such as pasture and water for their livestock, butresearch by Tufts University and KRCS shows that the violence has recently become more deadly and communities and their leaders now seek to achieve control over these resources through the political system.

“The government is now in charge. Militia gangs from the warring communities have been flushed out [by the police and the army],” Marsabit County commissioner Isaiah Nakoru told IRIN. “Some have fled and crossed the border. We have arrested eight Ethiopians, two Kenya[ns]. The state is serious; nobody will escape punishment… Politicians responsible will not be spared.”

He added that preliminary investigations had established that “foreign militia” armed with mortars and bombs had fuelled the fighting.

People affected by the conflict say the intermittent violence will continue unless the government addresses the root causes, involving the warring communities and their leaders.

“This is a political problem. Neither Kenya’s entire military nor police can contain or end this problem. Arrest the politicians, involve all communities in the political process and share resources fairly,” said one Moyale resident, who preferred anonymity.

Former national assembly speaker Francis Ole Kaparo said a peaceful solution to the conflict needed to be found. “These communities must stop this bloody way of resolving disputes and share them [resources] or lose all anticipated benefits,” he told IRIN.

14 victims of massacre in Kofele, Ethiopia identified Posted by Gishe Abdi Wako on August 29, 2013 Posted

 “Wolahi, Wolahi…” swears 85 year old Totolamo village barley farmer and cattle herder Hajji Abdinur Shifa when a reporter asked him if he know  any terrorist hiding in his village. His face looks like a paint of sorrow and grief. His wife affectionately called by the villagers, Adiyo, was too fragile to talk about the August 3 2013 blood bath that turned their agriculture and livestock rich village into an inferno.

“My son took three bullets and died a day later at Sashemene general hospital. The body that was weakening by fasting could not respond well to treatment and he succumbed to his wounds without saying goodbye. His killers (federal police commandos) did not allow us entry to the hospital. My son Abdulkarim is dead but he will live in my heart until I join him in paradise…,” the respected elder said wiping his tears with a piece of garment.

On that fateful day, 3 August 2013, Abdulkarim Abdinur Shifa, 39, was at Erob Gebeya mosque loading onto his van sacks of barley, corn, and potato donated by farmers to be distributed among the needy in the city of Sashemene for Eid celebration.

When he was about to leave, bullets started raining down and the scream of women and children filled the salubrious air of Totolamo. Tigre people Liberation Front gunmen in police uniform massacred eleven people including an elderly imam and an infant.

The tragedy touched every household from Totolamo to Kofele in southwest oromyya.

In the land famed for its sylvan beauty, despite the aroma of ripe corn, the stench of death still hangs in the air. The approach of the delightful month of September did not lift the gloom of the August blood bath. According to our sources from Sashemene general hospital, currently the death toll stands at sixteen- all Muslims and close relatives.

The Horn Times manage to obtain the names of 14 victims of the August 3 slaughter…
1.   Adam Jamal
2.   Lenco Jilcha
3.   Habib Wabe
4.   Gachano Tuse
5.   Muhammad Debel Ouse
6.   Jamal Arsho Arsi
7.   Muhammad Eidao
8.   Amman Buli
9.   Muhamud Hassan
10. Rashid Burka
11. Abush Ebrahim
12. Mamush Ebrahim
13. Tuke Besso
14. Abdulkarim Abdinur Shifa

Furthermore, two hundred young men arrested on 3 August 2013 are still languishing in Kofele town police prison without any charges.

infohorntimes@gmail.com

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By Getahun Bekele | goolgule.com

high degree displacement of Oromo & ogaden-somali peoples in eastern Ethiopia

early 100 000 people were reported displaced

Due to security incidents between Somali and Oromo populations, nearly 100 000 people were reported displaced. More than half of them are now returning to their place of origin. Given the extent of  heavy damage done to private properties and public infrastructures, cases of rape and torture and violent confrontations leading to casualties, assistance is required for both those who have temporarily moved to a safer location and those who have returned. This is the third time in a period of 12 months that similar confrontations cause massive displacement in the woredas of Qumbi and Meyu in East Haraghe.

When Would the Specter of Heinous Persecution Against Oromos End?

When Would the Specter of Heinous Persecution Against Oromos End?

Hawasa Oromo in the Netherlands | August 29, 2013

We members of the Hawasa Oromo in the Netherlands are stunned by the death of Tesfahun Chemeda Gurmessa in Ethiopian dungeon on the 24th of August 2013.

Tesfahun Chemeda was exemplary activist in Oromo student movement while he was studying in Finfinne/Addis Ababa University. After graduating in Civil Engineering, Tesfahun had served his people in his professional capacity as civil engineer for more than four years in Arsi, Ilu-Abbabora and in Wallaga. More and above all, Tesfahun was a man of high sense of justice, vibrant voice and strong advocate of freedom for the Oromo people. For mere reasons of these activisms, he was made one of the prime targets of  persecution by the Woyane authorities and forced to flee to Kenya to escape the imminent danger from the perpetrators of the day.

While in exile in Kenya, Tesfahun sought international protection and granted refugee   status by the UNHCR; and continued in his advocacy for freedom and justice among Oromo refugees in that country. Irrespective of the international protection granted to him in accordance with relevant international instruments, here again, he came up against the ghost of persecution he left behind. There, along with his fellow national-Mesfine Abebe, he was arrested by Kenyan authorities and handed over to his persecutors.

In the hands of his persecutors Tesfahun suffered all and every inhuman and degrading treatment: he was handcuffed, blindfolded and coercively taken back to Ethiopia; was  victimized by kangaroo court verdict: detained in Maikelwai, the center that frequently houses political prisoners and is known for brutal abuse of detainees, including torturing during interrogations; was denied medical treatment and held in solitary confinement for  more than a year in darkness that resulted in  sight  problem  until and up to his death.

The death of Tesfahun Chemeda Gurmessa in such a situation  is a case book  of the current  circumstances of the Oromo people. On the one hand, it casts a long shadow of historical injustices. On the other hand, it reveals the continuity of cruel slaughter of our people in contemporary time by the perpetrators of the day. Here,  it suffice to recall the recent massacre in Asasa, Garba (Wallo) and  Kofale under a blanket banner of the so-called  terrorism.

In such testing   time and circumstances, Oromos as people and their organizations as key players  must pose the question; when would the specter of heinous persecution against Oromos end? Not only posing,  the questions needs appropriate and timely answer. To this effect, we call upon our people-organized and unorganized to get prepared up to the challenge of the time.

In due course, the Hawasa Oromo in the Netherlands extend its condolence to the family of Tesfahun, to his relatives and friends and pray to have strength at this hours of grief.

Hawasa Oromo in the Netherlands

Executive Committee