Human Rights league: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped

Human Rights league: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped April 19, 2016

Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests, Africa, Human Rights,Oromia, Oromo. 
Tags: #OromoProtests, Africa, Ethiopia: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped, Genocide, Genocide Against Oromo People, Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, Oromia, Oromo
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Ethiopia: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped

HRLHA Appeal  and Request for Immediate Action

Ethiopia: The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped

HRLHA Appeal  and Request for Immediate Action

For Immediate Release

April 17, 2016

Terrorist and Criminal attacks targeting  Oromo youth, and children, and even pregnant women have continued unabated since the peaceful protest for justice and freedom began on 12^th November 2015 In Oromia.The peaceful  and legitimate protests against the injustices in Oromia, in which Oromo people of all walks of life have participated, had a simple and clear demand at the beginning: ” Stop Addis Ababa”s Integration of the Master Plan, and  stop land grabbing in Oromia”.

Instead of responding justly to the protestors’ legitimate grievances and restoring their domestic and international  rights, the  Ethiopian government has chosen to deploy its special squad “Agiazi” and mercilessly crack down on the peaceful protesters. The ruthless Agiazi force used  excessive force, killed many promos, beat  and detained thousands to stop the protest, which spread to all corners of Oromia Regional State in  a few weeks. Oromia towns and villages were turned into war zones as the special Agiazi force continued its  random killings of  students, children, men and women. During the first two months of the peaceful protests, more than two hundred (200) Oromos were murdered[1],  including infants and pregnant women.

In violation of the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”  and other international treaties [2]the current government of  Ethiopia ratified  on 14th May 1991,(see the other treaties ratified by the current of Ethiopian government from the link)[3] Oromo children, including non-schooled  children, have been killed by the Agiazi force.   Aliya,15  and her brother  Nagassa, 8 (photo on right side) were shot in the leg   on March 25, 2016[4]on the streets of Ambo town. Many minors/teenagers were killed and others wounded. by the Agiazi force in different parts of Oromia. Some are listed in the following table.

No	Name	Sex	Age	Place of Birth
1	Burte Badhadha Dabal	F	15	Jaldu district, West showa, Oromia
2	Tsegaye Abebe Imana	M	14	Jaldu District, West Showa, Oromia
3	Dereje Gadissa Taye	M	12	Chalia,District, East showa, Oromia
4	Dejene Chala	M	14	Gindeberet, West Showa, Oromia

These cruel and inhumane actions of the Agiazi force against Oromo did not stop the angry protesters from demanding their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Ethiopia Military Generls

The Oromia Regional State president Muktar Kedir and the TPLF security intelligence officer generals removed the civil administration and declared  the unofficial martial law as of February 26, 2016. The Oromia Regional State has been subdivided into eight (8) military zones, each to be led by military generals

The merciless Agiazi force has been allowed officially to quell dissents in Oromia by force. On the day following the martial law declaration, the  Agiazi squad started  breaking  into private homes and savagely started to kill and beat children, men and women, including pregnant women. On February 27, 2016 a seven- months pregnant mother of  six, living  in the West Arsi zone in Oromia state in Ethiopia, was shot down in her home by security forces who had come to her home looking for her husband. Another six- months pregnant woman Shashitu Mekonen was  also killed and thrown into the bush in Horro Guduru Wallega, Oromia.

Schools and universities have served as  military camps and battle grounds. The merciless Agiazi force  broke into university dormitories, savagely  killed, raped, beat and detained students (Wallaga University)

The Agiazi murderers intensified their repressions in all corners of Oromia. Since the November 2015 peaceful protest began, over 400 Oromo nationals have been killed, over fifty thousand (50,000) arrested and placed in  different police stations, concentration camps, and military camps. Unknown numbers of students have been confined in the Xolay concentration camp where they are exposed to different diseases because of poor diets and sanitation. No medical attention has been given them and a number of prisoners  are dying each day, according to information leaked from Xolay concentration camp. This represents the systematic elimination of the Oromo young generation. The late prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the architect of the current TPLF Empire,  in 1992 vowed to destroy those he considered major threats to his rule, particularly the most populous nation in the country, the Oromo. He vowed to reduce Oromos to a minority and take over their natural resources.

Bedhadha Galchu

The longest protest (in terms of weeks and months)  in the history of Ethiopia has been slowed down by the military crackdowns.  When protestors returned home from the street, they started facing another form of atrocity.  They were forced day and night to stay indoors, in a kind of house arrest.  At night, the Agiazi force would walk into individual homes and pick up youth and kill them, leaving their dead bodies in front of their doors.  On April 14, 2016, a university engineering department graduate from Gonder University  was cold bloodedly murdered in the Oromia Gujii zone in Oddo Shakisso where he used to live with his parents.

Since Oromia is now under martial law, information, coming out of the Regional State of Oromia is restricted. All social media are being monitored by the military administration.

A number of cell phone users were arrested and their phones taken. Gross human rights abuses, killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and other human rights atrocities are happening in Oromia every day and night.

However, the information about these atrocities is not getting out, because the military has monitored almost all information outlets.  The Ethiopian people hear only the well- crafted stories about Ethiopia being on the path to democracy. These stories come from the government mass media.

International and domestic human rights organizations have been reporting the atrocities, although their access to information in Ethiopia is very limited due to their researchers being banned from entering the country. But undercover investigative journalists still bring out the news of the genocide and ethnic cleansing committed in the name of development.

The current human rights atrocities in Oromia have been condemned by  some western governments and government agencies, notably the EU and the USA, and UN experts/researchers. But still no meaningful action has been taken to stop the atrocities in Oromia.

When  the regime has been pressured enough, they do make concessions and acknowledge the legitimacy of the protestors’ grievances. Indeed the Prime Minister, Hailemariam Dessalegn, has been known to apologize to the people. However, all this seems to be political posturing to deceive the world that is becoming increasingly aware of the atrocities. On the ground, there is no sign of the atrocities abating. There have been no gestures of conciliation. The regime’s force has actually stepped up its mass murders, mass incarcerations and mass rapes.

What is puzzling  is that after all these tragedies, the world donor countries and organizations are still silent. It seems surreal. How many people must die before the world responds? How many millions must be jailed and tortured, how many must be gang- raped before this deafening silence is broken?

Can’t the world community learns from what happened in the past, in Rwanda in 1994, in Bosnia, in 1998 and what is happening in Syria ever since 2011? The genocidal act of armed force should not continue and must be stoped by someone, somewhere.

HRLHA is deeply concerned that if International Communities fail in responding  to the merciless killings presently taking place in Oromia Regional State as soon as possible , this could lead to a genocide comparable to those in Rwanda (1994), in Yugoslavia (1998) and  in Darfur, Sudan (2003).

Therefore, the HRLHA respectfully demands that governments of the west, especially who allies with the Ethiopian government to break their silence about the TPLF hidden agenda of promoting  systematic genocide against the Oromo and other nations in Ethiopia and act swiftly as possible to halt the atrocity in Ethiopia.

#OromoProtest

Ethiopia: 

The TPLF Hidden Agenda of Reducing the Oromo Population Must be Stopped

#OromoProtests

Shameful! On the very day where 200 citizens were massacred in Gambella, TPLF's ( Ethiopian ) foreign minister Tedros Adhanom tells participants of Tana Security Forum to pay mourn for the dead dictator Meles Zenawi rather than the latest victims of barbarism.

Haala Waliigala Yeroo Ammaa Oromiyaa fi Itoophiyaa Irratti Xiinxala Obbo...

#OromoProtests

Ethiopia: Armed men 'kill 140' near South Sudan border

• 4 hours ago
 
• From the sectionAfrica

South Sudan strife

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• South Sudan: Obstacles to a lasting peace
• Why does South Sudan matter so much to the US?

Ethiopia says armed men have killed 140 people near its border with South Sudan and abducted at least 39 children.

Ethiopia's Communications Minister Getachew Reda said the attackers were members of South Sudan's Murle tribe.

He said security forces were chasing the attackers and had killed 60 so far.

Ethiopia is hosting thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled the 2013 clashes that began when President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy Riek Machar, accusing him of plotting a coup.

Mr Machar denied the charges, but then mobilised a rebel force to fight the government. He is due to return to the capital Juba to form a transitional government as part of a peace deal.

Mr Reda told the BBC the attackers were not thought to have any links to the South Sudanese government or rebels.

Ethiopia's Gambella province, where the raid took place, has a history of conflict between communities and a sizable Nuer population, Mr Machar's ethnic group.

The Murle have previously been accused of carrying out cattle raids and stealing children to raise as their own.

Related Topics

OLF- wholeness and Holiness!

Many people use to look to OLF as only the party which represents nationalist oromo. This thinking actually was true since when this party was founded,1973, to the early period of 1990s. However, back after the millennium, it was transformed to be party of wholeness and holiness incorporating all those who claim to be Oromo. This needs to be elaborated as every one needs to understand it. When a given party is asked the number of its members certain number is set to be given depending up on the registration . In case when OLF out let’s this information in the early age and mid 1990 it was reported 60,000 members were there.

In actual sense, if one tries to check for this membership to day, it may leads to confusion as everyone feels it and believes to be a member . In such circumstance, OLFshares the nature of Gadaa administration in which one becomes member in born. Today, what is being observed in oromia is this one, where a baby of five cries for pansion of OLF on the back of its mom. This is its wholeness.Surprising enough again, with out any cadres’ propaganda, no time and budget spent, there born OLF sm in the heart of all oromo in and out; that is why every one tend to hold its flag every where mass appears, in crouds including religious events and even at funeral ceremonies, some intentionally and others feeling normal as simple life of having milk from their cows.

This is the holiness of this party. So, for every one going to work with or on Oromo way forward, it is only be possible to succeed if he bears the banner of OLF in his hand and hears and calls this part’s name as many times as possible per activities. For the real existence of the country Ethiopia too, the best politics and policy so far to be followed is the policy of adopting OLF sm as all Oromo is currently OLF and no long can they be detached from the love of this party. It has now been party of all in one and one for all. OLF wholeness and holiness! 

ABO- ummaa

ABO qaama addaati jedhanii yaaduun hangam dogongora seetan yaa jamaa. Yeroo bara dura dhaabni kun dhaabbatu dhaabichi dhaaba miseensan socha’u qofa ture. Toora bara 2000 booddee garuu dhaabni kundhaaba saba keenya maraafi kan nama ani Oromoodha jedhuu maraati. Waan kana beekuuf wanti biraa hin jiru, ijoollee harma haadhaa gadhiiftee ABO koo jettee boochu kana qofa ilaaluun gahaadha. Ijoollee tana namni waa’ee dhaaba kanaa itti hime hin jiru. Kun waan dhiiga keessa namatti darbu akka ta’e nama hubachiisa. Amala kanaan ABO’n amala Sirna Gadaa kan namiyyuu dhalootan dhaalu san qooddata.

Haalli kun afaan ingiliizitiin “wholeness” jedhamu san ta’a. Gama biraatin ammoo namiyyuu kiyya jedhee keessa isaatti qabaachuun amala jaalalaafi abbummaa qulqulluu mul’isa. Kun ammoo”holiness” kan jedhan sanitti ciisaa. Kanaaf ABO n yeroo kana nama hunda. Miseensummaanis dhiiga. Kanaafi kan namni gaddaa gammachuu isaa isaa keessatti, bakka rakkoofi bal’oo keessattillee, bakka amantiifi iddoo gataatittillee alaabaa kana qabatee kan deemu. ABO’n amma gara “ABO ism, divinely being” gara jedhutti dhaaba jaalala sabaatin guddateedha. Kanaaf namiyyuu yoo saba Oromootif hojjechuu yoo fedhe naqaa dhaaba kanaafi alaabaa isaa kana kaasee isaan yoo socha’een achi sabni kun akka baalatti salphiser nama darba.

Biyyi toophiyaa jefhamtuufi warri toophiyicha jedhanis dhugaa tana hadhooftullee liqimsuun dirqama itti ta’a. Kan tana dide karaa ganda ABO nama hindabarsu yoo jennuun dhugaa qabatamaarta teenyeti. Kanaaf ABO n hunduma, hunduus ABO dha. Namiyyuu gahee isaa yaa bahatu malee kan tokkoof dhiifnee cina tokkoo dubbannuu miti dhimmichi.

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APRIL 12, 2016

Deafening Silence from Ethiopia

Published in Foreign Policy in Focus

For More Commentary See Here

Felix Horne

Researcher, Horn of Africa@felixhorne1

Since November, state security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. It’s the biggest political crisis to hit the country since the 2005 election but has barely registered internationally. And with the protests now in their fifth month, there is an almost complete information blackout.

A teacher arrested in December told me, “In Oromia the world doesn’t know what happens for months, years or ever. No one ever comes to speak to us, and we don’t know where to find those who will listen to our stories.”

Part of the problem is the government’s draconian restrictions on news reporting, human rights monitoring, and access to information imposed over the past decade. But restrictions have worsened in the last month. Some social media sites have been blocked, and in early March security officials detained two international journalists overnight while they were trying to report on the protests. As one foreign diplomat told me, “It’s like a black hole, we have no idea what is happening. We get very little credible information.”

With difficulty, Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 100 protesters. They described security forces firing randomly into crowds, children as young as nine being arrested, and Oromo students being tortured in detention. But the Ethiopian media aren’t telling these stories. It’s not their fault. Ethiopian journalists have to choose between self-censorship, prison, or exile. Ethiopia is one of the leading jailers of journalists on the continent. In 2014 at least 30 journalists fled the country and six independent publications closed down. The government intimidates and harasses printers, distributors, and sources.

International journalists also face challenges. Some do not even try to go because of the personal risks for them, their translators, and their sources. And when they do go, many Ethiopians fear speaking out against government policies—there are plenty of cases of people being arrested after being interviewed.

Diaspora-run television stations have helped fill the gap, including the U.S.-based Oromia Media Network (OMN). Many students in Oromia told me that OMN was one way they were able to learn what was happening in other parts of the region during the protests. But since OMN began broadcasting in March 2014 it has been jammed 15 times for varying periods. Radio broadcasts are also jammed–as international broadcasters like Voice of America and Deutsche Welle have experienced intermittently for years.

In December OMN began transmitting on a satellite that is virtually impenetrable to jamming. But security forces then began destroying private satellite dishes on people’s homes. Eventually the government applied pressure on the satellite company to drop OMN, which has now been off the air for over two months.

Social media has partially helped fill the information gap. Photos of injured students and videos of protests have been posted to Facebook, particularly in the early days of the protests. But in some locations the authorities have targeted people who filmed the protests on their phones. At various times in the last month, there have been reports of social media and file-sharing sites being blocked in Oromia, including Facebook, Twitter, and Dropbox. Website-blocking has been documented before – in 2013, at least 37 websites with information from Ethiopia were blocked. Most of the sites were operated by Ethiopians in the diaspora.

Independent non-governmental organizations that might be reporting what is happening face similar restrictions. The government’s Charities and Societies Proclamation of 2009 virtually gutted domestic nongovernmental organizations that work on human rights issues. The independent Human Rights Council released a report on the protests in March. It was a breath of fresh air, but the council released it at great risk. As the first report from Ethiopian civil society on an issue of great political significance, it was a damning indictment of the limits of freedom of expression in Africa’s second-largest country, with a population of 100 million.

The government may believe that by strangling the flow of information coming out of Oromia it can limit international concern and pressure. And so far the response from countries that support Ethiopia’s development has been muted. The deaths of hundreds, including many children, have largely escaped condemnation.

Yet the government’s brutally repressive tactics cannot be contained behind Ethiopia’s information firewall for long. The sooner the government recognizes this and acts to stop the mass arrests and excessive use of force, the better the outlook for the government and the affected communities.

The government—with the assistance of its allies and partners—needs to support an independent investigation of the events in Oromia, commit to accountability and justice for the victims, and start dismantling the legislative and security apparatus that has made Ethiopia one of the most hostile places for free expression on the continent. What’s happening in Oromia has long-term implications for Ethiopia’s stability and economic progress, and Ethiopians and the world need to know what is happening.

Region / Country

 

• Africa
 
• Ethiopia

Deafening Silence from Ethiopia

Deafening Silence from Ethiopia

#OromoProtests

Norwegian man will probably avoid the death penalty in Ethiopia

POSTED BY: TOR INGAR OESTERUD 12. APRIL 2016

A Norwegian citizen who has been indicted for terrorist planning and financing of terrorism in Ethiopia, will most likely  avoid the death penalty after being acquitted of violating the country’s anti-terror laws.

Okello Akuay Ochalla was instead found guilty by a provision of the ordinary criminal law of working to divide the nation,  the newspaper Dagbladet writes.
This means he no longer risks no longer being sentenced to death,  his Ethiopian lawyer, Ameha Mekkonen, said in an email to the newspaper.
– Since he is found guilty of  attempted actions, and not having carried out these actions, he can not be sentenced to death by this provision,  Mekkonen says.
Gerald Folkvord of Amnesty International, on the other hand, is unsure whether Ochalla now can rest assured that he will not get the death penalty, and says that the Ethiopian legal system can come up with anything.
The sentencing is scheduled to be announced on April 27, but after a series of delayed and canceled court proceedings through the judicial process, it is not inconceivable that even this date could be postponed.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

#OromoProtests

Ethiopia’s Smoldering Oromo

• by James Jeffrey (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
• Monday, April 11, 2016
• Inter Press Service

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Apr 11 (IPS) - The Ethiopian government's most serious domestic political crisis in more than a decade began over a scruffy football field appropriated by local officials for development.

After students responded by taking to the streets of Ginchi, a small town 80km from the capital, Addis Ababa, their protest was quickly quelled. But a spark had been lit for what has turned into an outpouring of grievances by the Oromo—Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, accounting for about a third of the country's 95 million population.

As protests spread, they ostensibly focused on a plan to expand the Ethiopian capital's city limits into Oromia—the largest of the federal republic's nine regional states and two city states—which encircles Addis Ababa.

Land in Ethiopia—all of which is government owned—has become an increasingly contentious issue as Ethiopia has opened up to the world, reflecting a worldwide trend particularly effecting developing countries such as Ethiopia.

Globally, investors are increasingly looking to investments not linked to volatile equities and bonds: other countries' land. And few have attracted as much attention as Ethiopia, with its lowlands watered by the tributaries of the Blue Nile, a particularly bountiful draw.

The Ethiopian government has been on the front foot and quick to respond to such interest, and since around 2009 has leased about 2.5 million hectares to more than 50 foreign investors, from the likes of India, Turkey, Pakistan, China, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

The so-called Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan was seen as fitting a disturbing trend by the Oromo—many of whom are smallholder farmers—and they weren't having any more of it. Ethiopia's security forces are well equipped to deal with protests and unrest, although such has been the scale of the Oromo protests that security forces have been stretched. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS But even after the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation—the regional arm of the Ethiopian government—shelved the plan, a government back down described as historic by many, protests continued.

"The widespread, sustained and recurring protests are clear messages of no confidence by a young and restless segment of the population which is driven by a feeling of marginalization," stated a February editorial in Addis Ababa-based Fortune newspaper.

Many observers in Ethiopia, local and foreigners alike, note that although protests have taken an ethnic-based identity and focused on land, other deeper issues behind them—corruption, unfair elections, political and socioeconomic marginalisation—are familiar to many disenchanted Ethiopian voters.

Numbers of those killed since November given by international rights organisations, activists and observers range from 80 to 250-plus.

Some Addis Ababa residents suggest such numbers are preferable to even higher numbers if the government lost control of a situation that could, they argue, spiral into anarchy.

For against the narrative of a typically brutal Ethiopian government crackdown that brooks no dissent, there have been reports of looting, and organised armed gangs attacking foreign-owned factories, and private and governmental buildings. Even churches were damaged during a particularly violent flare up in the south in February.

Ethiopian citizens had a right to question the master plan but protests were hijacked by people looking to incite violence, according to Getachew Reda, a government spokesperson.

"You shouldn't define a largely peaceful movement by this," says a security analyst who focuses on Ethiopia for an Africa-based research organisation.

Despite February's trouble in the south, many observers in Ethiopia say the majority of protests were peaceful, involving Oromo from across the demographic spectrum airing widely held grievances.

"It is also about competent government structure," says Daniel Berhane, a prominent Addis Ababa-based political blogger, covering Ethiopia for the website Horn Affairs. "You have got ministries next door to each other not talking, and at every level—regional, zone or district—governmental staff arguing about who is responsible while criticising each other."

"People have a perception of lack of competence in governance on the ground," Daniel adds.

The government heeded the call of the people, according to Getachew, and observers say the government deserves credit for listening about the master plan.

But, more importantly, these same observers add, the government must allow Ethiopians to exercise their constitutional right to protest, and handle events in a way that does not escalate.

Protests have often resulted in deployment of military forces to support federal police, both regularly accused of ruthless suppression, with the perceived unaccountability of Ethiopia's security forces added to the list of grievances, the analyst says.

There have even been reports of police taking head shots and shooting people in the back. But such alleged actions by police in remote locations, with backup often hundreds of miles away, defy logic as they would result in such a ferocious backlash by the local populace, according to a foreign politico in Addis Ababa.

This individual also suggested that some local militia, ostensibly part of state security but who sided with protestors and turned against federal forces, fired from behind women and children at police. Numbers of state security forces killed haven't been released.

Nevertheless, shooting at protesters, as well as arbitrary arrests, especially of students—who initially formed the body of protests—have a long track record in Ethiopia, preceding this government back to during the brutal military dictatorship that ruled between 1974 and 1991.

Many who fled that period now compose part of the large Ethiopian diaspora, with the government claiming foreign-based opposition bolstered by US-based social media activists is manipulating the situation to its own ends.

"The diaspora magnifies news of what is happening, yes, but no matter how much it agitates it cannot direct at village level in Ethiopia—this is about dissatisfaction," says Jawar Mohammed, executive director of US-based broadcaster Oromia Media Network, strongly criticised by the government and some non-government observers for fomenting conflict.

Imprisonment of leaders of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, Oromia's largest legally registered political party, along with thousands of other Oromo political prisoners, makes negotiating a lasting solution a tall order, Jawar says.

Governance in today's Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia—to use its full title—exhibits an inherent tension.

A decentralised system of ethnic federalism jars with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front ruling party's authoritarian one-party developmental state style of leadership, similar to China's.

"The political space has increasingly narrowed, becoming uneven, non-competitive and unwelcoming…contrary to the diversity of desires and interests in Ethiopian society," states the same editorial.

It is a long way from the heady hopeful days of Ethiopia's new federal constitution after the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1991.

"The ruling government is a victim of its own success—the constitution it developed made promises and people trusted the EPRDF," the analyst says. "Now people are demanding those rights and the government is responding with bullets and violence."

The analyst acknowledges the government deserves credit for creating a constitution that is the best fit for an ethnically diverse country like Ethiopia, and for expanding basic services, infrastructure, respecting different cultural and ethnic identities, and better integrating Ethiopia's large Muslim population.

But, the analyst adds, this federal constitution espouses a liberal philosophy that the government appears unable to reconcile with its decision-making processes.

The government's hitherto successful job of holding together this particularly heterogeneous federation is not about to crumble tomorrow, observers note.

But things may get worse before they get better, unless underlying sources of friction and frustration are addressed.

The government has since acknowledged there was insufficient consultation with those likely to be effected by the master plan.

And during his latest six-monthly performance report to Parliament in March, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn apologised to those who lost family members during protests, while the government has suggested there will be investigations into allegations of police brutality.

What is happening in Ethiopia could be a foretaste of what is to come elsewhere, as forces of global markets—including a growing global urban population in more developed nations that eats more than it farms—clash with indigenous desires to protect historical homelands.

"A fundamental tenet of the ruling party at its creation was its social democratic focus on farmers, who still make up 80 per cent of the country," Daniel says. "It cannot suddenly become capitalist."

(End)

© Inter Press Service (2016) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

My People #OromoProtest

#OromoProtests

World | Fri Apr 1, 2016 11:12am EDT

Related: WORLD, AFRICA

Ethiopia opposition say land-protest arrests aimed at deterring future demonstrations

ADDIS ABABA | BY AARON MAASHO

• 
  
• An Ethiopian opposition group said on Friday that police had arrested more than 2,600 people in the last three weeks for taking part in land protests and that the government was thereby aiming to deter future protests.

Plans to requisition farmland in the Oromiya region surrounding the capital for development sparked the country's worst unrest in over a decade, with rights groups and U.S.-based dissidents saying as many as 200 people may have been killed.

An opposition coalition said the arrests over protests in the four months up to February came despite government assurances of clemency.

Representatives of the government were not immediately available for comment.

Authorities scrapped the land scheme in January and pledged not to prosecute the demonstrators, while Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn issued an apology in parliament last month saying his administration would work to address grievances over governance.

Despite the pledges, the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (MEDREK) said 2,627 people have since been "illegally rounded up" and remain under custody.

"It is an act of reprisal," MEDREK's chairman Beyene Petros told Reuters.

"The whole purpose why they are increasing their witchhunt is to simply stop the public from planning or initiating any future public protest," he added.

The coalition said in a statement that the arrests took place in 12 different areas of Oromiya, Ethiopia's largest region by size and population.

The second-most populous nation in Africa with 90 million people, Ethiopia has long been one of the poorest countries in the world per capita, but has made strides toward industrialization, recording some of the continent's strongest economic growth rates for a decade.

But reallocating land for new developments is a thorny issue in a country where the vast majority of the population still survives on small farms. The opposition says farmers have often been forced off land and poorly compensated.

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Yaa'ii 1ffaa Jaarmiyaa TUBDI Irratti Gaaffii fi Deebii H/D ABO Obbo Daaw...