https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/30/tigray-forces-say-they-shot-down-ethiopian-plane-retook-axum?fbclid=IwAR1LGKdaASGx6nOr07WqsdMPVVfm9i9OIM1NBWtO1SfgKy7f8U4sysRaLi4
Monday, November 30, 2020
Friday, November 27, 2020
#AbiyMustGo#OromoProtests#Ethiopia
Federal High Court
Lideta Criminal Bench
Addis Ababa
Applicant in Case No. 260215
Defendants:
1st Jawar Siraj Mohammed
2nd Bekele Gerba Dako
Case: Explaining our inability to attend court hearing.
Given the relative sensitivity around the charges against us, as well as our role in the country's politics, including widespread media propaganda waged on us, we know we are vulnerable to any and all attacks. The distance from Kaliti prison to Lideta Court and the congested road increases our vulnerability. We fear that any minor attempt of attack on our journey, combined with the current political turmoil, could plunge our country into crisis.
Therefore, we humbly acknowledge that we will not be able to attend the hearing on November 27, 2020 for the sake of general security, despite our desire for an expedited trial. We respectfully request the court to temporarily assign us to attend a court closer to the prison we are held at.
Best regards,
Jawar Siraj Mohammed
Bekele Gerba Dako
November 26, 2020
Addis Ababa
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Friday, November 20, 2020
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
#AbiyMustGo
Let me just say. The war on Tigray is just a continuation of the war on Oromia. This is an ideological war. It is a war to determine the future identity of Ethiopia. While Tigray has more muscle power than all the other regions due to their political dominance in the last 3 decades, the natural ideological battleground in Ethiopia is Oromia. All these wars, carnages, assassinations, etc are to get complete control of Oromia.
Oromia is the political and economic center of that empire. Who so ever controls Oromia controls Ethiopia. So naturally, wether you are currently so consumed by your hatred for TPLF(while exonerating their OPDO counterparts if I may add) that you are overlooking the wider implications of this war on Tigray and the gut wrenching humanitarian crises unfolding in that region, its worth noting that the final battle will be fought in Oromia and this regime is merciless. Our families and everything we hold dear, everything we’ve fought and sacrificed for, every minor gain made through sweat, tears, bones, and blood will be undone. The very idea of Oromia that we’ve defiantly nurtured & protected in our psyche will be no more.
I wish the reality weren’t so grim. But it is & we aren’t prepared or preparing on a level commensurate to the existential threat we are faced with. We are not ready to face this regime in this impending showdown & it’s important that we are. As we are witnessing in Tigray, the cost is just too much when facing a genocidal, power drunk, well equipped, & delusional wannabe Monarch who genuinely believes he has Devine mandate to rule and aided and abetted by irredentist forces who will love nothing more than to wipe us off the face of the earth.
The choice is no longer murky. I am not appealing to your conscience or your moral compass. I am appealing to your most basic human trait-the primordial urge for survival- as a people. Even if you don’t care about what’s happening in Tigray, you should at least be aware the same fate awaits us and all those who aspire towards an equitable, just, and democratic political arrangement in which our right to genuine self rule is respected. This is an existential threat. I would like those of you cheering on this regime to pause & reflect. I would like those engaged in belittling, insulting and humiliating one another on social media to pause & evaluate what purpose those actions are serving. I would like all of us to really come to terms with the fact that the only strength we’ve ever had in that empire is our people(numbers) & just strategically speaking, we will not survive as a nation divided. We need to find a way to minimize this ASAP.
The “Ethiopia Tikdem” forces are back with a vengeance, backed by an entire state apparatus, with all the power & connections bestowed upon them. So how ready are we to fight back? Not very!
By Fatuma N. Bedaso
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Pace of Ethiopian refugee arrivals in Sudan unseen in the last two decades This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2020/11/5fb391214/pace-ethiopian-refugee-arrivals-sudan-unseen-decades.html?fbclid=IwAR1xWielxrGeNmQsNcouvASFCegT50zCPqutoWGHjTNff0CUl5q8eqZ4LEs
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Abiy Ahmed and the future of Ethiopia
Abiy Ahmed and the future of Ethiopia
As deadly fighting between federal government troops and regional Tigray forces intensifies, the fate of the country balances on a knife edge.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/15/who-is-ethiopias-pm-abiy-ahmed?fbclid=IwAR1b_yXS-WBcpkoUOL6SSP7obgNcdLTNir4polTp7NezivX2y_kVLVQ-wIs
Hundreds killed and 15 million at risk across borders in growing Ethiopian war
Hundreds killed and 15 million at risk across borders in growing Ethiopian war
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-hundreds-killed-and-15-million-at-risk-across-borders-in-growing/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=Referrer%3A%20Social%20Network%20%2F%20Media&utm_campaign=Shared%20Web%20Article%20Links&fbclid=IwAR3xmF2a-80fi3cZJlP4d9RKxVPUuf7NGUykQTuJ8CDb7IpMprtW4I0xobM
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Friday, November 13, 2020
Ethiopian police seeking lists of ethnic Tigrayans - U.N. report
Ethiopian police seeking lists of ethnic Tigrayans - U.N. report
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopian police visited an office of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in Amhara region to request a list of ethnic Tigrayan staff, according to an internal U.N. security report seen by Reuters on Friday.
The local police chief informed them of “the order of identifying ethnic Tigrayans from all government agencies and NGOs”, the report said, underlining fears over the ethnic undertones to a federal military push against the leaders of Tigray province in north Ethiopia which borders Amhara.
The United Nations told the police they do not identify staff by ethnicity, according to the report. There was no immediate comment from the Amhara regional police or government.
Ethiopia launched a military offensive in the rebellious Tigray region last week that has killed hundreds and shaken the wider Horn of Africa region.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accuses the leaders of the northern region - the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) - of treason. Concerns are growing that the campaign against them could led to ethnic profiling of Tigrayans throughout the country.
News also came on Friday that the African Union had dismissed its security head, an Ethiopian national, after Abiy’s government accused him of disloyalty. An analyst said the dismissal was part of the Abiy government’s efforts to sideline prominent Tigrayans.
Local forces and militias from Amhara, which has boundary disputes with Tigray, are backing the federal troops’ campaign, further increasing ethnic friction.
Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Maggie Fick, Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ethiopia's new war and how its PM is to blame
Americans should congratulate themselves. Their election system is definitely better than Ethiopia's. In fact, it works so well that there's unlikely to be another American civil war.
The United States, a federal country with a complex and decrepit voting system, has nevertheless just held a national election despite about a quarter-million Covid-19 deaths. President Donald Trump is finding it hard to process his defeat, but the system itself worked fine despite the pandemic.
Ethiopia, another federal country with one-third of America's population but less than one-hundredth of the US Covid death rate, should have held its scheduled election this autumn too, but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed it "because of Covid". That was a very serious mistake.
The government of the Tigray region of Ethiopia accused Mr Ahmed of needless delay, and when he refused to change his mind they went ahead and held the election in Tigray anyway.
Mr Ahmed said the newly elected government of Tigray (same as the old government) was illegal because he had postponed the elections, Tigray said the federal government was illegal because it had unilaterally extended its mandate instead of holding the elections, and they went to war. In only a week they've worked their way up from local clashes to air strikes.
This is so stupid and reckless that it makes American politics look positively demure by comparison. To be fair, though, Ethiopia has only recently emerged from 45 years of revolution, white and red terror, renewed tyranny, more revolution, and practically non-stop civil and international war. Ethiopia is a really hard place to govern.
When Mr Ahmed was appointed prime minister two years ago by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), he was the first Oromo ever to govern the country, even though the Oromo are the largest of Ethiopia's many ethnic groups (a third of the population). They have been unhappy for a long time, so that was a plus.
So was the fact that he was the son of a Christian-Muslim marriage, useful in a country that is two-thirds Christian, one-third Muslim. And Mr Ahmed's intentions were good: he immediately set about to dismantle the stranglehold on power of the various ethnic militias that had fought and won the long war against the Derg, the previous Communist dictatorship.
The most powerful of those militias is the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Tigray, the country's northernmost province, has only 6 million people, a mere 5% of Ethiopia's population, but Tigrayan soldiers and politicians have dominated the EPRDF coalition and government for most of the last 30 years because of their historic role in the war against the Derg.
The Tigrayan political elite's privilege was widely resented, and it was time for it to end. Last year Mr Ahmed tried to do that by merging all the ethnic militia-based parties into a single Prosperity Party, but the TPLF leadership wouldn't play. They had always lived in the castle, and nobody was going to make them go and live with the commoners.
It is, alas, as simple as that, and perhaps a more accomplished civilian politician could have finessed it: cabinet posts, ambassadorships and/or fat lifetime pensions for the more flexible Tigrayan leaders, discreet but massive bribes for the greedier ones, and a couple of fatal "accidents" for the hardest nuts.
Mr Ahmed, despite a background in intelligence work that should have given him good political skills, is inflexible and confrontational. The cascade of threats, counter-threats and ultimatums between him and the TPLF leadership is now culminating in what amounts to a Tigrayan war of secession.
It could be a long war, because Tigrayans are over-represented in the armed forces and much of the army's heavy weapons and equipment, which were based in Tigray because of the border war with Eritrea, has fallen into the TPLF's hands. The TPLF has no air force, but it can match the federal army in everything up to and including mechanised divisions.
Ethiopia is Africa's second-biggest country, very poor but with a fast-growing economy. The very last thing it needs is yet another civil war, which in current circumstances could also lead to other regions trying to secede. Even if the TPLF was trying to provoke a war (which looks quite likely), Mr Ahmed's first duty was to avoid it at all costs.
They gave Mr Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize last year for bringing Ethiopia's 22-year border war with Eritrea to a formal end, but that award has been going downhill ever since Henry Kissinger got one. They even gave one to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who now goes around condoning genocide.
Maybe we also need a Nobel Booby Prize.
GWYNNE DYER
INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST
Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. His new book is 'Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)'.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
#AbiyMustGo#OromoProtests#Ethiopia
OLF Press Statement
(September 13, 2020)
The Oromo Liberation Front passionately believes that sustainable and permanent solution to Ethiopia’s complex political problems could only be attained with an All-Inclusive democracy and participation of all political forces. To this effect, OLF had been working with various political forces including those in power of ruling the country and opposition groups to create a national consensus to solve the political crises in Ethiopia.
Since, the OLF moved its leadership to the country on 15th September 2018 it committed itself to work with honesty and integrity for the success of the peace process that lead to inclusive true democracy.
Although OLF was not happy on how the transition to democracy in Ethiopia was handled by PM Abiy Ahmed’s government from the very beginning, we patiently dealt with the situations with the hope that it would be improved; but not without price. However, the Political reform started in 2018 have faced huge challenges both internally within the ruling party as well as externally with the opposition groups. The situations are getting worse from time to time and currently it reached at stage where everything is out of control leading the government to collapse.
Now there is very alarming instability and fractured political prospect in the country and the public have lost hope and trust from the ruling party. We observed a clear ‘’constitutional crisis” in the country and the party in power has fallen short of its initial promises and has been using the government organs responsible to protect the Constitution towards its own political benefits. Detaining leaders and members of opposition political parties and gross human rights violations is a day to day job of the Government security forces.
Despite the atrocities, OLF and other opposition parties have continued to express their willingness to support the reform, individually as well as jointly.
In addition to our individual proposals, the OLF is involved in different fora of opposition parties to support the democratic transition. One of the fora was the Alliance for Multi-nation Federalism (Alliance) that aim to provide joint support to the transition and democratic process. In April 2020, this Alliance provided comprehensive recommendations to the government on the transitional process.
The recommendations clearly set out how to continue with the reform towards political settlement based on consensus and spelled out how stable democratic governance could be formed through a step- by- step process.
The recommendations were drafted within the framework of the Ethiopian constitution and considered the fallacies of the change process and the behavior of the ruling party; the current instability and security issues; and the human rights violations.
In general, we analyzed the challenges of the reform system in both directions (the ruling party and the oppositions) and proposed workable recommendation that will be implemented jointly by the ruling party and the opposition groups.
The proposed recommendations highlighted to have binding political convention that enables other political parties to take part and to ensure proper oversight of the change process in order to build genuine democracy and help create sustainable peace in the country and would ensure livelihood improvement of citizens in which the Alliance and its member organizations, as well as all other forces would play their part.
The proposed binding political convention include the establishment of:
1. Council of Foreign Relation to inspire domestic trust and gain international legitimacy.
2. Coordinated National Security Council for monitoring the implementation of the Security arrangements in regions.
3. Democratic Building Institution to protect the autonomy and authority of independent judiciary, electoral board and independent media that could hold the executives accountable.
4. A body that resolve conflict and disparity between State building and Nation building to create national consensus on resolving outstanding political problems.
5. A body that would monitor the implementation of the convention to limit the quest of any further extension to the election and set out appropriate election date.
We also indicated the implementation of the recommendations including the details of responsibilities, system, and mechanism by which these parties would operate. We believe implementing these proposed recommendations will help to build democracy and help create sustainable peace in the country.
It also addresses the security issues in regional states among themselves as well as the disparity between the government and opposition parties and differences among the oppositions themselves as well as address issue of contradictory stand on “State-Building” and “Nation-Building.
Therefore, we strongly suggest that the Ethiopian government should reconsider these recommendations as we believe it will resolve the current widespread crises. Also, we would like to reiterate our willingness to play our part in genuine democratic process if stakeholders discharge their responsibilities.
In this instance, we would like to appeal to the international community to take serious action to safe Ethiopia from constitutional crises and total chaos. Particularly, we strongly appeal to the African Union’s (AU), the UN bodies, EU, and other international community to urge the Ethiopian government to engage with negotiation with opposition parties and jointly set out a road map to all-inclusive democracy through power sharing transitional government that will prepare and implement free and fair elections.
We praise the African Union’s (AU) role in leading and promoting dialogue-centered approach to conflict prevention and resolution in many African countries to maintain peaceful and secure Africa. We believe that the current crises in Ethiopia demands, more than any other entity, serious attention from the AU. In accordance with the article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act of the AU the Union has a right to intervene in a member state to prevent grave violations of human rights.
The national and international evidence clearly shows the continuous gross violations of human rights are committed by Ethiopian Regime on Ethiopian civilians for the last 27 years and in unprecedented scale in the last two years. In addition, there are Organized and strong armed forces emerging in most regional states that threaten the general governance and bring about security crises throughout the country.
Given the current crises and fast-moving potential conflicts and threats, the AU must intervene and excel its responsibility sooner than later. Also we would like to stress that the current situation in Ethiopia not only disintegrate the second largest country in Africa but also one of the biggest impediments to achieve AU Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063 which aspires for “A peaceful and secure Africa”.
Moreover, being Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) is the seat of FDRE, capital city of Oromia and the seat of AU headquarters, the security of the AU office and safety of more than 2000 employees working there must be taken into account in line with current peace and instability issues Ethiopia and in particular in Oromia.
We realize the role of UN in averting crises in the world and would like the UN bodies including UN Security Council (UNSC), the UN Human Rights Council, and others play their part in averting the current crises in Ethiopia. Particularly, the UNSC who has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security, should not give a blind eye when one of the second largest country in Africa is encountered with political, social, human rights and economic crises and eventually collapse.
We appreciate the leading role the EU is playing in promoting economic integration, peace, and stability in Ethiopia, whilst supporting the implementation of national reform agenda and forming diversified development cooperation with Ethiopia.
However, the Political reform started in 2018 have faced huge challenges, miss managed by PM Abiy and collapsed. This will halt the EU partnership and all the EU ambitions to Ethiopia. So, we believe that the EU will intervene with its capacities to avert the huge political crises that its key partners in the region is facing now.
Therefore:
1. We call up on the AU to intervene into the crises in Ethiopia based on its constitutive right stated in article 4(h) and other supporting articles of the Union.
2. We call up on the UNSC to take appropriate measures in accordance with its obligations stated in Article 39 and 41 of the UN constitutive act as the threats to peace and security is clearly evidenced in Ethiopia. We also appeal to UNHRC to act accordingly to address gross human rights violations in Ethiopia.
3. We call upon the EU to give serious attention to the instability in Ethiopia, especially Oromia, as this is huge conflict of a century and immensely affect the peace and stability in the horn of Africa, and affect the diplomatic and development partnerships of European countries with Ethiopia.
4. We call upon all Political Parties in Ethiopia to seriously take our proposal and work with us to avert looming and eminent chaos.
We hereby also call upon Independent Oromo Political Forces and the General Oromo people to prepare for Transitional Government of Oromia to avert any form of political and Security crisis. The OLF will continue to consult stakeholders on this position at both levels of government.
Victory to the Masses!
Oromo Liberation Front
Finfinnee
September 13, 2020
Friday, November 6, 2020
#AbiyMustGo
Ethiopia PM: Airstrikes target TPLF military depots in Tigray
PM Abiy Ahmed says strikes hit sites in and around Mekelle and destroyed heavy artillery including rocket launchers.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/6/airstrikes-in-tigray-region
Ethiopia's Abiy vows to disarm 'fugitives from justice' in Tigray campaign
Ethiopia's Abiy vows to disarm 'fugitives from justice' in Tigray campaign
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ethiopia-conflict-idUKKBN27M0OS?fbclid=IwAR1FqXJKnd6b0CXS9my9VgJKXlCRveDjjI9GHpLXWwYFabg3FbcgAemIfdo
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
#AbiyMustGo
Responding to the Press Statement of the Chairperson of African Union Commission
(OLF Statement -November 4, 2020)
We would like to express our appreciation to the statement issued by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H. E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, on 3 November 2020 regarding the current Situation in Ethiopia.
The OLF had predicted the looming danger and repeatedly appealed to the Ethiopian Government for the last two and half years to shape and properly manage the reform process. We had been suggesting to provide timely solution to the crises and conflicts and to involve stakeholders in dialogue and the democratisation process. We specifically expressed our concerns of security crises and related inter-communal conflicts.
We also have provided several proposals to the government on our own as well as jointly with other opposition groups to shape the reform process leading to democratic avenues through inclusive national dialogue to build a national consensus.
We have been continuously informing the international community on dangers coming up if the reform process is not properly managed and if the grievances of diversified nations and peoples is not soberly and genuinely addressed.
We are very glad that the African Union Commission has seriously considered our concerns and became ready to assist Ethiopia in its efforts to promote peace and stability in the country and to hold inclusive national dialogue.
As we had repeatedly asserted, we would like to reaffirm that we shall be involved in any joint initiative to design a roadmap and formulate strategy and implementation plan that would lead to to solve the constitutional crisis and eventually to free and fair election for the formation of democratic Country.
We would like to use this opportunity to bring to the attention of Your Excellency that citizens of Oromia Regional State of the FDRE have overwhelmingly supported the OLF call for Oromia National Transitional Government (ONTG) in FDRE. We think this will avert further deterioration of political and security crisis in this highly populated region. We also strongly believe the formation of this ONTG will defuse the non-stop killings, massive imprisonments and repeated protest to counter these atrocities and secure peace and stability in wider regions of Ethiopia.
Finally, we would like to reiterate that we accept the African Union Commission’s proposal to engage in an inclusive national dialogue and work with all stakeholders to build a national consensus to prevent the country from grave crises and to avoid its negative impacts on the Horn of Africa and beyond.
Victory to the masses!
November 4, 2020
Finfinnee
#AbiyMustGo#OromoProtests#Ethiopia
The Prime Minister has declared war on the people of Tigray - an integral member of the Ethiopian body-politic. An unelected PM whose limited mandate has expired with the expiry of his term of office on October 5, 2020, has no constitutional or legal basis to use the armed forces against the Ethiopian people. Abiy cannot go to war against his own people to advance his own egomaniac ambitions. A PM who is willing to go to war with his own people to silence opposition could not bring democracy or stability.
This armed aggression against a constituent member of the federation represents the single greatest threat to the integrity of the Ethiopian state. This could be the moment that would change the shape and texture of the Ethiopian state. This is dangerous, unhinged, irresponsible and totally unacceptable.
Monday, November 2, 2020
Ethiopia : Statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell on the latest developments
https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/87959/Ethiopia%20:%20Statement%20by%20the%20High%20Representative/Vice-President%20Josep%20Borrell%20on%20the%20latest%20developments?fbclid=IwAR1IKzfiFmOHtFKk2fNPxQnT9fuNvHkN5_IsGZukdSyrGVfXmklcdDCLC74
Sunday, November 1, 2020
#AbiyMustGo
Abiy Ahmed’s campaign against Oromo: a new Red Terror?
By TREVOR TRUEMAN 1210 views
‘Oromia is a slaughterhouse now’ was how Teshale Abera, former president of Oromia Supreme Court, described the carnage in Wallaga, Arsi, and Hararge in August 2020. These words were quoted at the beginning of the 53rd report on human rights abuses in Ethiopia by the Oromia Support Group, published on 24 September.
The contents of the report do not make light reading. It describes in gruesome detail incidents of shooting, raping, and torturing to death. Compiling and recording more than 1100 deaths at the hands of government forces since December 2018 leaves one disturbed, unbalanced, and anxious for the future. A regime that attacks its citizens on this scale is not stable. A significant collapse of law and order underlies and underlines this instability.
The onslaught on Oromo in Qellem, Southwest Wallaga, and in East and West Guji zones of the Oromia region was initially justified as a crackdown on the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), rebel fighters who broke ranks with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), after the latter’s triumphant return from exile in September 2018. Since then, there has been a concerted campaign to obliterate OLA and its supporters, especially in these three Oromia zones.
Executed in Chiro in August 2020.
Attacks by government forces began in October 2018 with the killing of three students in Jimma Agaro. It accelerated with the establishment of military command posts at the beginning of 2019.
The campaign quickly broadened. Officials and members of the OLF were killed and many detained. Oromo Federalist Congress politicians and supporters and Oromo journalists were detained and media houses closed. But it is the Qeerroo and Qarree who are bearing the brunt of the killings. They are young, energetic, bright, optimistic Oromo; movers and shakers whose horizontal movement propelled Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to power in April 2018. More than 1000 were killed in peaceful protests which accomplished this change.
These same youngsters, budding leaders, scientists, professors, playwrights, musicians, and artists, are again subjected to lethal persecution. Oromo whose only crime is to be proud of being Oromo and who showed their support for Qeerroo/Qarree, the OLF or Oromo media outlets – during the first few months of Abiy’s premiership, are now being systematically eliminated or detained.
Amsalu Gudeta was shot in the neck at her house.
In Wallaga alone, 421 have been killed since December 2018. Out of these, most (322) have been killed in 2020 , as the pace of killings has accelerated. Across Oromia, 166 were killed in demonstrations after Haacaaluu Hundeessa’s assassination on 29 June. Only 67 have been named so far by OSG and included in its published figures.
Government forces killed at least 16 in Arsi and 55 in Hararge during and following protests 17-19 August. These protests were sparked by the apparent illness of Jawar Mohammed, a prominent opposition leader who was arrested on 30 June, when he appeared in court, but the majority of protests, and the lethal force with which they were met, were more likely pre-planned.
Abuse on a scale of Red Terror
Abuse and lawlessness have not been seen on this scale since the White and Red Terrors of 1977 and 1978. Young men and women are being shot dead on the street, in their homes, and on their farms. Gruesome torture and gratuitous violence are reported, including the removal of eyes and genitalia during torture and the mutilation and beheading of corpses.
Among those shot dead are innocent children, mothers out shopping, a nursing mother in her compound, those with mental disabilities, beggars, and bystanders. These casual and incidental killings of innocent people are not integral to the targeted campaign to eliminate Oromo activists and Oromo media but are merely a symptom of the scorn for the value of Oromo lives exhibited by those carrying out the killings and arrests.
Judge Kamil Siraj arrested in Ginir, Bale.
There has been complete contempt for the rule of law too. Judges are being dismissed or imprisoned for not bending the law in the government’s favor, despite constitutional safeguards against the arrest of judges unless they are found carrying out a criminal act or after being sanctioned by a Judicial Commission. Judges are living in fear. People do not know where to go or to whom to turn for legal redress. Court orders to release prisoners on bail are being ignored by police but detainees are being taken from prison by government soldiers and killed – as in 1977/8. This deterioration in judicial independence and rule of law means that the future of the Ethiopian state is at risk.
OSG Report 53 describes soldiers dragging detainees out of police custody and torturing, killing, and mutilating them. It describes the gang-rape by soldiers of an eight-year-old girl in a military camp in Mandi and the rape of five schoolboys, aged 14-17, in an East Guji military camp; Oromo children used as disposable sordid entertainment. It describes the casual shooting of a nursing mother for target practice. These are examples of behavior not seen, at least for over 40 years, in Oromia.
Media bias: Blaming the victim
Despite the weight of evidence of government atrocities against Oromo, the media inside and outside Ethiopia give fewer column inches to this persecution than they give to claims, without evidence, that the Oromo youth, and not hired agents provocateurs, were responsible for the violence in Shashamane, Dhera, and elsewhere, which followed the killing of Qeerroo/Qarree icon Haacaaluu.
Despite eye witness reports that perpetrators of the violence were transported in from outside the area; despite evidence that security services and kebele officials were complicit with the violence; and despite at least two-thirds of the victims being Oromo, in a remarkable demonstration of cognitive dissonance, media blamed the violence on Oromo youth, specifically Qeerroo.
Claims of Oromo violence are often made in response to sophisticated and deliberate fabrications that are aired in right-wing Amhara circles such as Abbay Media. The effect of well-connected lobbyists using this material must not be underestimated.
Institutional racism
In my opinion, deep-seated, racist hostility exists between citizens identifying with ancient Abyssinia and those living in other parts of modern Ethiopia. Whatever one’s views on the colonial narrative in the history of Ethiopia, there is no denying the existence of racist attitudes and beliefs about Oromo and other peoples. These attitudes are ingrained within the culture of urban elites.
Changing public beliefs and attitudes is especially difficult if they are culturally and ethnically assigned. The attitude of the people of Britain towards its colonial or postcolonial subjects took decades to swing from the paternalistic and racist belief in innate British superiority and privilege to the present, at least professed, ideals of fairness and equality. Similar changes are necessary for Ethiopia.
Executed in Chiro in August 2020.
It is important not to ethnicize human rights and it is especially important not to weaponize human rights. But abuse must be called out and must therefore be accurately reported. The Ethiopian government is concocting a thin veil of legality to mask its detention of Oromo politicians and silence Oromo media while conducting a concerted campaign against supporters of self-determination in Oromia, Sidama, Wolaita, Qimant, and Benishangul-Gumuz areas.
In conclusion, the collapse of whatever remained of the integrity of the judiciary and legal custodial system in Ethiopia is alarming. This and the increasing use of violence against its citizens token ill for Abiy’s regime. If the possibility of collapse into Somali-style chaos is to be avoided then moderation and dialogue are essential.
It is the people of Ethiopia who must decide how they are ruled and by whom. The role of the present Ethiopian government should be to facilitate those decisions by holding elections. Meanwhile, establishing a transitional government with representation from all parties – as in 1991- is a feasible option. However flawed such a transitional arrangement may have been and may still be, it could still prevent Ethiopia from descending into lawless anarchy.
Above all, the integrity of an independent judiciary is essential for the future of Ethiopia. A strong independent judiciary and ending the impunity of the security forces for abuses against citizens would be enormous strides forward for stability in Ethiopia.
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