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
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