The nonviolent OromoStudents protests are going on in different
universities and high schools across Oromia. Accordingly, there is
information that indicates at least two high school students were shot
by government agents in Ambo this morning while the nonviolent rally has
been underway at Guder High School. Mass arrests are also going on in
Ambo town. As usual, government security forces are opening fires at
unarmed high school students
.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
OPDO’s Leader Aster Mamo Caught Speaking out of Both Sides of Her Mouth
OPDO’s Leader Aster Mamo Caught Speaking out of Both Sides of Her Mouth: She Supports the Addis Ababa Master Plan, and the Ongoing Oromo Students Nonviolent Movement Against the Addis Ababa Master Plan at the Same Time
OPDO’s leader Aster Mamo was caught today in double-speak. She spoke out of both sides of her mouth on the ongoing fight about the Addis Ababa Master Plan between the TPLF tyrannical regime and the Oromo people (represented by the brave Oromo students protesting in university campuses across Oromia).
Oromo analysts have stated that the Addis Ababa Master Plan is a plan to cleanse the Oromo ethnic group from the districts of Oromia surrounding Finfinnee – in the same way that Finfinnee is devoid of its Oromo identity, and also, if implemented, the Addis Ababa Master Plan will divide Oromia into “West Oromia” and “East Oromia.”
In the above report by Somalilandpress.com, OPDO’s Aster Mamo first stated that she and her organization supported the ongoing Oromo Students Nonviolent Movement against the Addis Ababa Master Plan to evict and dispossess Oromo farmers from their ancestral lands around Finfinnee (also called Addis Ababa).
The report said,
“Mrs Aster Mamo, the Deputy Chairwoman of the regional ruling party Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO) said her party is pleased with the Oromo student protests happening in universities throughout Oromia. This week, thousands of Oromo students have demonstrated in several universities to express their concerns about the government’s investment plan around the capital Addis Ababa.”Then, she dropped the bomb – she stated the following – which supported and justified the Addis Ababa Master Plan as a “job creator,” basically negating her own stance about supporting the ongoing Oromo Students Nonviolent Movement against the Addis Ababa Master Plan.
“Mamo said the development plans surrounding Addis Ababa are meant to create more jobs and gain capital and industrial know-how from corporations and investors.”Such deceiving public statements to misinform the Oromo people, and being sales-agents when Habesha rulers are stealing land from millions of defenseless and voiceless Oromo farmers is not what the Oromo nation expects from OPDO.
The Oromo Students Nonviolent Movement Against the Addis Ababa Master Plan will continue.
This report is based on the report by Somalilandpress.com.
Widespread violation of rights is currently underway in Ethiopia.
Widespread violation of rights is currently underway in Ethiopia. Oromo University students being beaten by police, Oromo farmers displaced from their land,Bloggers and Journalists jailed.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Ethiopia detains bloggers and journalist
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Security forces arrest six bloggers and a journalist in latest crackdown on opposition voices. |
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The Ethiopian government has arrested six independent
bloggers and a journalist in what human rights group Amnesty
International has called a "suffocating grip on freedom of expression". Six members of independent blogger and activist group ‘Zone 9’ and a prominent Ethiopian journalist were arrested on Friday in the capital Addis Ababa.
The Zone 9 group who are said to be very critical of government policy and have a strong following on social media had temporarily suspended their activities earlier this year after accusing the government of harassing their members. Journalist Tesfalem Waldyes who writes independent commentary on political issues for a Ethiopian newspaper was also arrested. According to Ethiopian journalist Simegnish Yekoye, Waldyes is being denied visitation by friends and family and it's unclear what prompted his arrest and what charges he is being held under. Simegnish Yekoye told Al Jazeera she was unaware of why the government had clamped down on journalists and their was growing fear on the future of a free press. "I am very scared, I don't know what's going to happen next," she said. Ranked 143 in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, media watchdogs say 49 journalists fled the country between 2007 and 2012 to evade government persecution.
"The Ethiopian government is tightening its suffocating grip on freedom of expression in a major crackdown which has seen the arrest of numerous independent, critical and opposition voices over the last two days", Claire Beston, Ethiopia researcher at Amnesty International, said. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reporting from Bahir Dar said it was unclear what will happen to the detained journalists. "There are scores of journalists currently serving between 14 and 27 years in prison with some charged on terrorism offences." |
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Source:
Al Jazeera
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Monday, April 21, 2014
De-Oromonizing Finfine and Beyound: TPLF’s Evil Agenda THAT MUST BE STOPPED NOW
By HGoche
Over a week ago, while skimming through current news and articles, I read an article titled “Old World Order: How geopolitics fuels endless chaos and old-school conflicts in the 21st Century” on Time Magazine of March 31, 2014 by Robert D. Kaplan., which I thought explains the behaviours past and current Abyssinian regimes land grab in Oromia and the South.
Although, Kaplan’s article much focuses on the geographical struggle between the East-West struggle for control of Ukraine, and the consequent annexation of Crimea by Russia as the mere reality of the 19th century behaviour in the 21st century. According to Kaplan, it is not the international law that defines territory but rather the bonds of blood that go with one’s own territory is central to what defines us human. In other words, the European behaviours of 19th century geographical expansion into different parts of the world for economic and geo-politics of the place is well alive and kicking in different parts of today’s world. Apart from the East-west struggle for control of Ukarine, Kaplan, also demonstrates the fracturing of Middle Eastern states into ethnic and sectarian fiefs or the Sunnis and the Shiites for control more geography and resources, the disputes over territorial claim of the East China sea among the East Asian states as more examples that geo-politics and the control for resources is not negated by technology and globalization. Kaplan, further, argues that “whereas the West has come to think about international relations in terms of laws and multinational agreements, most of the rest of the world still thinks in terms of deserts, mountain ranges, all- weather ports and tracts of land and water. The world is back to the maps of elementary school as a starting point for an understanding of history, culture, religion and ethnicity- not to mention power struggles over trade routes and natural resources”.
The expansion of the Abyssinian Empire since the late 19th century by Menilik with the help of the Europeans and the resulting conquest of the states south of the empire, namely the Oromos, the Sidamas, and the Walaitas, have resulted in massive killings and displacement of the indigenous population and confiscating of their land and appropriating to the Abyssinian army and the new settlers from the North. Furthermore, garrison towns were established in the new colonies, where the invading Abyssinian army enforces the new laws of evicting the indigenous population from their ancestral land or in the case of many places, the new Abyssinian settlers were given the land with the whole population living on it, by making them the properties of the settlers. These policies of dispossessing the indigenous population of their land at will continued under successive Abyssinian regimes by disguising their crime using names such as cooperative farms, state farm, etc. Dispossessing societies of their own ancestral land is not only depriving them of their lively-hood and means of survivals but also depriving them of their culture, history, norms and way of life.
Although, this geographical genocide in the south by successive Abyssinian regimes continued unabated, it reached its climax under the current minority TPLF junta. Since 1991, the TPLF junta has been busy selling Oromia’s land to the highest bidder to his Tigrian cronies and his Arab backers in the name of development. TPLF is not only selling Oromia’s land at the highest speed but also destroying Oromia’s forests deliberately starting fires, and hence destroying the indigenous wildlife, flora and fauna that the Oromos cared for centuries for generations to come.
The recent fake debate by the TPLFities to incorporate towns and villages of Oromia under the Finfine jurisdiction in the name of development is the continuation of a century old Abyssinian expansion to stamp out Oromos footprint from their ancestral land.
One should ask why only towns and cities in Oromia are designated special administrative status under the TPLF so- called Federal system?
Since 1991, the TPLF juntas named two economically significant cities, Finfine and Dire-Dawa as special zones, just merely for the purpose of denying Oromos to have economic, social and political benefits that these two cities generate, rather the social, economic and political benefits generated from these cities goes to fatten the coffers of TPLF cronies and the companies they control.
The lousy argument used by TPLF to grant special status to Finfine and Dire- Dawa, and, thereby under TPLF control was that the two cities are multi-ethnic and cities with heavy industries. On the other hand, the 1994 TPLF constitution and the Oromia State constitution stipulate that the Oromia State shall receive “special” benefits from the two cities, which will be decided by the law. Both the law that define the special benefits the Oromia State should receive from both cities as well were not materialized for over 20 years. This testifies the official claim that OPDO is full of all yes men like trained dogs, and their only mission and purpose is to carry-out tasks given to them by their TPLF masters. It also demonstrates, it is the TPLF that controls every single affair of the Oromia State.
According to secret internal sources, after the next election, the following cities are on TPLF’s hit lists to bring them under TPLF control in the name of development and the industries in these cities. These cities are: Awasa, Jima, Shashemene, Adama cities are on the hit lists of TPLF. The question that needs to be asked is why assigning special status to only cities and towns in Oromia and the South? Why not cities such as Bahir Dar, Kombolcha, Mekele not under Federal control? Because these cities are also have many industries as those cities in Oromia and the South.
So, why is TPLF is pushing hard to expand Finfine to other towns and villages in Oromia under the guise of development?
Over a week ago, while skimming through current news and articles, I read an article titled “Old World Order: How geopolitics fuels endless chaos and old-school conflicts in the 21st Century” on Time Magazine of March 31, 2014 by Robert D. Kaplan., which I thought explains the behaviours past and current Abyssinian regimes land grab in Oromia and the South.
Although, Kaplan’s article much focuses on the geographical struggle between the East-West struggle for control of Ukraine, and the consequent annexation of Crimea by Russia as the mere reality of the 19th century behaviour in the 21st century. According to Kaplan, it is not the international law that defines territory but rather the bonds of blood that go with one’s own territory is central to what defines us human. In other words, the European behaviours of 19th century geographical expansion into different parts of the world for economic and geo-politics of the place is well alive and kicking in different parts of today’s world. Apart from the East-west struggle for control of Ukarine, Kaplan, also demonstrates the fracturing of Middle Eastern states into ethnic and sectarian fiefs or the Sunnis and the Shiites for control more geography and resources, the disputes over territorial claim of the East China sea among the East Asian states as more examples that geo-politics and the control for resources is not negated by technology and globalization. Kaplan, further, argues that “whereas the West has come to think about international relations in terms of laws and multinational agreements, most of the rest of the world still thinks in terms of deserts, mountain ranges, all- weather ports and tracts of land and water. The world is back to the maps of elementary school as a starting point for an understanding of history, culture, religion and ethnicity- not to mention power struggles over trade routes and natural resources”.
The expansion of the Abyssinian Empire since the late 19th century by Menilik with the help of the Europeans and the resulting conquest of the states south of the empire, namely the Oromos, the Sidamas, and the Walaitas, have resulted in massive killings and displacement of the indigenous population and confiscating of their land and appropriating to the Abyssinian army and the new settlers from the North. Furthermore, garrison towns were established in the new colonies, where the invading Abyssinian army enforces the new laws of evicting the indigenous population from their ancestral land or in the case of many places, the new Abyssinian settlers were given the land with the whole population living on it, by making them the properties of the settlers. These policies of dispossessing the indigenous population of their land at will continued under successive Abyssinian regimes by disguising their crime using names such as cooperative farms, state farm, etc. Dispossessing societies of their own ancestral land is not only depriving them of their lively-hood and means of survivals but also depriving them of their culture, history, norms and way of life.
Although, this geographical genocide in the south by successive Abyssinian regimes continued unabated, it reached its climax under the current minority TPLF junta. Since 1991, the TPLF junta has been busy selling Oromia’s land to the highest bidder to his Tigrian cronies and his Arab backers in the name of development. TPLF is not only selling Oromia’s land at the highest speed but also destroying Oromia’s forests deliberately starting fires, and hence destroying the indigenous wildlife, flora and fauna that the Oromos cared for centuries for generations to come.
The recent fake debate by the TPLFities to incorporate towns and villages of Oromia under the Finfine jurisdiction in the name of development is the continuation of a century old Abyssinian expansion to stamp out Oromos footprint from their ancestral land.
One should ask why only towns and cities in Oromia are designated special administrative status under the TPLF so- called Federal system?
Since 1991, the TPLF juntas named two economically significant cities, Finfine and Dire-Dawa as special zones, just merely for the purpose of denying Oromos to have economic, social and political benefits that these two cities generate, rather the social, economic and political benefits generated from these cities goes to fatten the coffers of TPLF cronies and the companies they control.
The lousy argument used by TPLF to grant special status to Finfine and Dire- Dawa, and, thereby under TPLF control was that the two cities are multi-ethnic and cities with heavy industries. On the other hand, the 1994 TPLF constitution and the Oromia State constitution stipulate that the Oromia State shall receive “special” benefits from the two cities, which will be decided by the law. Both the law that define the special benefits the Oromia State should receive from both cities as well were not materialized for over 20 years. This testifies the official claim that OPDO is full of all yes men like trained dogs, and their only mission and purpose is to carry-out tasks given to them by their TPLF masters. It also demonstrates, it is the TPLF that controls every single affair of the Oromia State.
According to secret internal sources, after the next election, the following cities are on TPLF’s hit lists to bring them under TPLF control in the name of development and the industries in these cities. These cities are: Awasa, Jima, Shashemene, Adama cities are on the hit lists of TPLF. The question that needs to be asked is why assigning special status to only cities and towns in Oromia and the South? Why not cities such as Bahir Dar, Kombolcha, Mekele not under Federal control? Because these cities are also have many industries as those cities in Oromia and the South.
So, why is TPLF is pushing hard to expand Finfine to other towns and villages in Oromia under the guise of development?
- The first and most strategic objective of expanding Finfine is to split Oromia into two separate geographies, that is Eastern Oromia and Western Oromia, which will be much easier to govern.
- To de-Oromonize Finfine by settling more Abyssinians
- To appeal to the Amhara groups (inside and outside) that TPLF has not abandoned their project of assimilating the South under the Abyssinian empire.
- There is more resources that can be sold to TPLF cronies and the so-called investors.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Abusing Legitimate Refugees Is Violation of Human Rights and International Conventions
The following is the statement of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) on the current situations of Oromo refugees in Kenya.
OLF statement regarding the Oromo refugees in Kenya
Citizens flee their own countries for different reasons. Some of the causes are short term incidents while others are long term, requiring radical solutions. Natural calamities like drought, flood, earthquake and the like; and man-made causes like civil war, economic and political crises can force people to flee their own countries. Everyone wants to return to one’s own country once the cause for the flight is solved. Of the huge number of the current refugee in the Horn of African countries the Oromo predominates. The majority of them fled their country for none other than a deep-rooted political crisis that cannot be solved overnight. They apparently began this flight, right after the conquest during the last century,to save their lives and human dignity. Thus the Oromos have managed to survive in all the neighbouring countries for a long time. The OLF likes to express its gratitude to the countries that had harboured these refugees for such a long time. However, some developments of the last two decades are worrisome.
After building special relation with the current regime in Ethiopia the neighbouring countries have repeatedly violated the rights of these refugees who are recognized by appropriate UN agencies to be accorded proper protection. The fact that such acts, which have been reported by different human rights agencies, are perpetrated by the security and armed forces of these countries, have spread terror among the refugees.
Out of hundreds of thousands of refugees registered by the UNHCR in Kenya, Oromos constitute a big chunk. Many of such legitimate refugees in general and the Oromo in particular have been constantly maltreated, forcefully returned to the regime that they fled, robbed of their belongings and shockingly harassed. A case in point is an incident on April 5, 2014 when Kenyan armed forces broke into the houses of Oromo refugees beat them up, robbed them of their properties and detained them in mass while many disappeared. No tangible effort of the UNHCR to protect these refugees was observed.
The OLF requests the Kenyan government to immediately halt this recurring vicious abuse of legitimate refugees in general and the Oromo refugees in particular, release those detained, return their robbed properties and provide them the protection they deserve. We implore the concerned UN agencies to pay attention to this ordeal of the Oromo refugees and make sure that they get appropriate protection as well as finding permanent solution to this endless saga.
Victory to the Oromo People!
Oromo Liberation Front
April 7, 2014
OLF statement regarding the Oromo refugees in Kenya
Citizens flee their own countries for different reasons. Some of the causes are short term incidents while others are long term, requiring radical solutions. Natural calamities like drought, flood, earthquake and the like; and man-made causes like civil war, economic and political crises can force people to flee their own countries. Everyone wants to return to one’s own country once the cause for the flight is solved. Of the huge number of the current refugee in the Horn of African countries the Oromo predominates. The majority of them fled their country for none other than a deep-rooted political crisis that cannot be solved overnight. They apparently began this flight, right after the conquest during the last century,to save their lives and human dignity. Thus the Oromos have managed to survive in all the neighbouring countries for a long time. The OLF likes to express its gratitude to the countries that had harboured these refugees for such a long time. However, some developments of the last two decades are worrisome.
After building special relation with the current regime in Ethiopia the neighbouring countries have repeatedly violated the rights of these refugees who are recognized by appropriate UN agencies to be accorded proper protection. The fact that such acts, which have been reported by different human rights agencies, are perpetrated by the security and armed forces of these countries, have spread terror among the refugees.
Out of hundreds of thousands of refugees registered by the UNHCR in Kenya, Oromos constitute a big chunk. Many of such legitimate refugees in general and the Oromo in particular have been constantly maltreated, forcefully returned to the regime that they fled, robbed of their belongings and shockingly harassed. A case in point is an incident on April 5, 2014 when Kenyan armed forces broke into the houses of Oromo refugees beat them up, robbed them of their properties and detained them in mass while many disappeared. No tangible effort of the UNHCR to protect these refugees was observed.
The OLF requests the Kenyan government to immediately halt this recurring vicious abuse of legitimate refugees in general and the Oromo refugees in particular, release those detained, return their robbed properties and provide them the protection they deserve. We implore the concerned UN agencies to pay attention to this ordeal of the Oromo refugees and make sure that they get appropriate protection as well as finding permanent solution to this endless saga.
Victory to the Oromo People!
Oromo Liberation Front
April 7, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
How Ethiopia Spies on Its Diaspora Abroad
European companies sell surveillance technologies to abusive foreign regimes.
By FELIX HORNE | The Wall Street Journal
By FELIX HORNE | The Wall Street Journal
March 31, 2014
Boys play with a cellphone as Bill Clinton tours an Ethiopian health center. Getty Images
The global trade in this powerful “spyware” is virtually unregulated and that needs to change. Using digital technology to monitor the Ethiopian diaspora in Europe, the regime in Addis Ababa has brought its abuses right into Europe’s midst. The EU needs to regulate the sale of such technology, at least to governments with such questionable human-rights records.
Inside Ethiopia, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s government abuses mobile and Internet networks to monitor opposition groups and journalists, and to silence dissenting voices. Using Chinese-made telecom equipment, the Ethiopian security agencies have nearly unfettered access to civilians’ phone records and recorded calls. Taped calls have been played back to people being interrogated by security officials and used against them in trials under the government’s deeply flawed antiterrorism law.
For mobile or Internet users in Ethiopia, the violation of the right to privacy is not an abstract harm. One Ethiopian man, who asked only to be identified as “Jirata,” was once a member of a registered political party; he now struggles to survive as a refugee in Kenya.
“I was becoming well known and respected in my political party and one day security officials came and arrested me and showed me list of phone calls I had made,” Jirata recalled to me in a recent interview. “They demanded to know who the foreign numbers were. I told them everything—I had nothing to hide. They began to beat me with a rubber whip, demanding I confess to belonging to the [banned] Oromo Liberation Front. I was kept in solitary confinement for three months and pulled out each night to be beaten.”
His story is too common. Thousands of Ethiopians have fled threats to their lives and security, and many have found asylum in Europe. Now Ethiopian spy agencies are trying to silence any independent criticism of government policy by extending their reach abroad, with the aid of advanced surveillance tools designed and sold by several European companies. These tools give intelligence officials access to files, emails and activity on a target’s computer. They can log keystrokes and passwords and remotely turn on a device’s webcam and microphone—effectively turning a computer into a listening device.
Yohannes Alemu, a former refugee and now a Norwegian citizen who supports an Ethiopian opposition party that the government has banned, found out too late about the spyware. In late 2012, when Mr. Alemu’s wife and two children were visiting family in Ethiopia, security officials detained and questioned her about her husband’s political connections. They sent Mr. Alemu emails demanding more information about his opposition-party associates. He refused, and after 20 days his wife was finally released and returned to Norway.
That was not the end of the incident.
One of the government emails Mr. Alemu received contained an attachment infected with spyware known as FinFisher. FinFisher GmbH, based in Munich, did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s requests for comment regarding the use of its product by Ethiopian authorities.
Once Mr. Alamu’s computer was secretly infected, the Ethiopian security agencies had unfettered access to it. After Mr. Alemu unwittingly forwarded the infected emails to other people, the spyware gave Ethiopian security agencies potentially unfettered access to their computers, too. Researchers at Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based center focused on security and human rights online, confirms that at least one of Mr. Alamu’s contacts’ computers was monitored as a result. Different spyware developed in Italy has been used to target the computers of others in the diaspora.
Such sales are currently perfectly legal, but European companies nonetheless risk complicity in human-rights abuses when they provide products and services that facilitate Ethiopia’s surveillance. Ethiopians living in the U.K., the U.S., Norway, and Switzerland are among those known to have been targeted with Addis Ababa’s spyware. Citizen Lab has documented evidence of use of these tools in over 25 countries.
In December, the 41 member states participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement—a multilateral export-control regime for dual-use technologies—agreed to regulate the export of “intrusion software” and “IP network surveillance systems.” This development signals growing consensus that the trade in powerful surveillance tools being used to violate rights should be reined in.
But much more is needed. The European Commission should lead efforts to regulate the export of such technology to governments with poor human rights records, and to implement the new Wassenaar controls without delay. Until then, Yohannes Alemu will not be the last victim of Ethiopian cyber-surveillance.
Mr. Horne is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of a new report, “‘They Know Everything We Do’: Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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