The following is a press release from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
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August 27, 2014
While fresh arrests and detentions, kidnappings and disappearances of
Oromo nationals have continued in different parts of the regional state
of Oromia following the April-May crackdown of peaceful demonstrators,
court rulings
over the cases of some of the earlier detainees by courts of the
regional state are being rejected by political agents of the governing
TPLF/EPRDF Party. The renewed violence by government forces against
Oromo nationals started particularly following what was termed as
“Lenjii Siyaasaa” (literally meaning “
political training”)
that has targeted Oromo Students of higher educational institutions and
has been going on in the past two weeks in different parts of Oromia.
Although the agendum for the “Political Training” was said to be “the
unity of the country,” it instead has become an opportunity of carrying
out further screenings and arrests of students, as around 100
more
students have so far been arrested from Ambo University campuses alone
and sent to a remote, isolated military camp called Sanqalle, leaving
families and friends in fear in regards to the safety and well-being of
the students in particular, not to mention the disruption of their
studies. The arrests were made following the students’ protest of their
confinement into the campuses during this so call “Political Trianing,”
and the demand that the killers of their fellow students be brought to
justice prior to discussing “unity.” Also, five students of Wallaga
University, from among those who were gathered for the same purpose of
“Political Training,” were kidnapped on the 22
nd of August 2014, and taken away in a
vehicle with plate number
4866 ET;
and their whereabouts are not known since then. HRLHA correspondents
have also traced another fresh arrests and detentions of around 100
Oromo nationals in a small town called Elemo, Doranni District in the
Illu Abba Borra Zone. It took place on the 14
th of August
2014; and Waqtole Garbe, Sisay Amana, Tiiqii Supha, Ittana Daggafa,
Badiru Basha, Kamal Zaalii, Rashiid Abdu, Zetuna Waaqoo, Daggafa Tolee,
Adam Ligdii, Indush Mangistu, Dibbeessa Libaan, and Ofete Jifar were a
few among those detainees in Elemo Prison.
More worrisome and frustrating is agents of the federal government’s
interference with regional and local judicial systems. More than one
hundred students and other Oromo nationals, from among the thousands who
were detained following the April-May
nationwide
protest, have been granted bails in local courts of the regional
government of Oromia. These include 64 detainees in Dembi Dollo/Qellem,
10 in Ambo, 40 in Sibu-Sire and Digga District. But, all the court
decisions were overruled by political officials representing the federal
government. The Dembi Dollo/Qellem detainees in particular were granted
bails four times, only to be turned down by political officials all the
four rounds. On the other hand, there have been some cases in which
prison terms ranging from six months to a year-and-half were imposed on
the Oromo detainees, not in courts, but by those representatives of the
federal government. Also, some independent lawyers complain that they
were threatened by officials from the ruling party; and, as a result,
refraining from representing the Oromo detainees. Usual as it has been
in the past fifteen or so years, this case of interfering with and
disobeying court rulings indicates that the case of these most recent
Oromo detainees is purely political.
The
Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)
calls upon the Ethiopian Government to refrain from harassing and
intimidating students through such extra-judicial means as killings,
arrests and detentions, and denials of justice after detention; and
instead, facilitate conducive teaching-learning environments. HRLHA also
calls upon the Ethiopian Government to unconditionally release the
detained Oromo students and other nationals; and, as requested by their
fellow students, bring to justice the killers of innocent and peaceful
protestors during the April-May crackdown.
BACKGROUNDS:
The
Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has reported (May 1
st and 13
th, 2014, urgent actions,
HumanRightsLeague.com)
on the heavy-handed crackdown of the Ethiopian Federal Government’s
Agazi Special Squad and the resultant extra-judicial killings of 34
(thirty-four) Oromo nationals; and the arrests and detentions of
hundreds of others.
Although the brutalities of the armed squad and the resultant
fatalities happened to be very high in Ambo Town, the peaceful protests
by Oromo students of different universities and faculties have been
taking place in April and May in various towns and cities of Oromia,
including Diredawa and Adama in eastern Oromia, as well as Jimma, Mettu,
Naqamte, Gimbi, and Dambidollo in western Oromia.
The Oromo students of
universities and colleges
in different parts of the regional state of Oromia took to the streets
for peaceful demonstrations in protest to the decision passed by the
Federal EPRDF/TPLF-led Government to expand the city of Finfinnee/Addis
Ababa by uprooting and displacing hundreds of thousands of Oromos from
all sorts of livelihoods, and annexing about 36 surrounding towns of
Oromia, the ultimate goal of which is claimed to be redrawing the map of
the Oromia Region. The federal annexation plan, which was termed as
“The Integrated Development Master Plan,” is said to be covering the
towns of Dukem, Gelan, Legetafo, Sendafa, Sululta, Burayu, Holeta,
Sebeta, and others, stretching the boundary of Finfinne/Addis Ababa to
about 1.1-million hectares – an area of 20 times its current size.
- HumanRightsLeague.com
