MN Oromos decry human rights violations in Ethiopia, say violence continues

MRP News
The Ethiopian government may have backed off its planned expansion of the capital after deadly protests last fall, but ethnic Oromo in Minnesota say violence and arrests continue.

Manifestazioni di Oromo  ad Addis Abeba

On Thursday, members of the community — around 40,000 Oromo people live in the state — came together for a daylong forum in Minneapolis to discuss the human rights violations in the East African nation.

In the last few months, clashes between state security forces and students in the Oromo region of Ethiopia have been deadly. Activists say more than 200 people have been killed, but Human Rights Watch said it couldn't verify the number. And it's unclear how many Oromos, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, have been arrested and imprisoned.

Teshite Wako, president of Oromo Community of Minnesota, said Oromo people are being targeted.

"By the name of development, and investments in the country, Oromos are evicted from their land, and students started to protest against that, and the response they got was to be killed," Wako said.

Ethiopia's prime minister said he regretted the loss of life during November's demonstrations, and since then the government has ceased its plan to develop beyond the capital. However, daily killings and arrests have continued, said Wako.

"It's an urgent matter that we need to pay attention to," he said. "We would like, really, for genocide not to happen in our country. We are not against developments, investments, but what we are against is developments and investments that marginalize our people."

Among those featured at the forum was Anuradha Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, who spoke about human rights violations that her California nonprofit has been reporting about in Ethiopia since 2007.

"What is horrifying is a very systematic violation of human rights toward all communities that are not in political power," she said. "This is based on so-called development schemes, which will result in the renaissance state of Africa, grand highways, the largest dam. But all of those schemes are being carried out through land-grabbing, taking away farmlands of communities without their consent, without compensation."

Mittal added that when people protest, as young students apparently attempted to in November, there's violence.

"They've been tortured, they've been intimidated, arrested, there's no rule of law," Mittal said. "There's a complete misuse of the anti-terrorism law, which has become a tool to lock up people (and) not have them face charges for years. It is shameful for us to keep quiet."

When President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia last year, he reportedly discussed greater business developments with officials, as well as human rights in the state. But Oromo Minnesotans say that's not enough and many are urging Obama to help the Oromo before he leaves office.

Human Rights Watch Dispatches: Arrest of Respected Politician Escalating Crisis in Ethiopia

Human Rights Watch
Over the past eight weeks, Ethiopia’s largest region, Oromia, has been hit by a wave of mass protests over the expansion of the municipal boundary of the capital, Addis Ababa. The generally peaceful protests were sparked by fears the expansion will displace ethnic Oromo farmers from their land, the latest in a long list of Oromo grievances against the government.

Security forces have killed at least 140 protesters and injured many more, according to activists, in what may be the biggest crisis to hit Ethiopia since the 2005 election violence.

The crisis has taken another worrying turn: on December 23, the authorities arrested Bekele Gerba, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Oromia’s largest legally registered political party. There had been fears he would be re-arrested as the government targets prominent Oromo intellectuals who they feel have influence over the population. He was first taken to the notorious Maekalawi prison, where torture and other ill-treatment are routine. The 54-year-old foreign language professor was reportedly hospitalized shortly after his arrest but his whereabouts are now unknown, raising concerns of an enforced disappearance. Other senior OFC leaders have been arbitrarily arrested in recent weeks or are said to be under virtual house arrest.

This is not the first time Bekele has been arrested. In 2011, he was convicted under Ethiopia’s draconian counterterrorism law of being a member of the banned Oromo Liberation Front – a charge often used to silence politically engaged ethnic Oromos who oppose the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). He spent four years in prison and was only released shortly before the elections last May. The OFC ran candidates but the EPRDF coalition won all 547 parliamentary seats, a stark reflection of the unfair electoral playing field.

Bekele is deeply committed to nonviolence and has consistently advocated that the OFC participate in future elections, despite the EPRDF’s stranglehold on the political landscape.

By treating both opposition politicians and peaceful protesters with an iron fist, the government is closing off ways for Ethiopians to nonviolently express legitimate grievances. This is a dangerous trajectory that could put Ethiopia’s long-term stability at risk.

The Ethiopian government should release unjustly detained opposition figures including Bekele and rein in the excessive use of lethal force by the security forces. They should also allow people to peacefully protest and to express dissent and ensure that farmers and pastoralists are protected from arbitrary or forced displacement without consultation and adequate compensation.

These steps would be an important way to show Oromo protesters that the government is changing tack and is genuinely committed to respecting rights. Without this kind of policy shift, desperate citizens will widen their search for other options for addressing grievances.

Can Obama Influence Ethiopia on Human Rights, Democracy?

Voice of America
For years, the United States has displayed a kind of split personality when it comes to Ethiopia, working closely with its government to fight designated terrorist groups like al-Shabab, while denouncing the same government for arresting journalists, suppressing dissent and making it impossible for opponents to win even a single seat in parliament.

Human rights and democracy advocates want President Barack Obama to focus on the second set of issues when he visits Ethiopia beginning late Sunday and meets with officials including Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

"I don't know how much scope the U.S. or other outsiders have to pressure the Ethiopian government to be a little bit more open and inclusive," said Mark Bellamy, a former U.S. ambassador to Kenya, now a senior adviser on Africa for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "What I think is that this has to be discussed. We need to find a way to raise these [issues] frankly with the Ethiopian leadership and ... point out that in the long run, this is going to happen one way or another in Ethiopia, and it'd be better if this opening happened in a more controlled and peaceful fashion."

Bellamy was one of 14 analysts and advocates who signed an open letter to Obama released this week. The letter raised human rights issues in Kenya, where the president arrived Friday evening, but the signees voiced stronger concerns about Obama's decision to go to Ethiopia. " ... [Y]our visit may send the message that the United States is giving short shrift to the profoundly repressive policies pursued by the government," they said. "The political environment in Ethiopia is dramatically restricted, as is the ability for Ethiopians to express themselves."

Other individuals who signed the letter are leaders and officials with groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, the Council on Foreign Relations and the United States Institute of Peace.

Earlier this month, hundreds of Ethiopian-Americans protested outside the White House, waving their native country's flag and calling on Obama to cancel his stop in Ethiopia.

At a pre-trip news conference this week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would emphasize the importance of democracy and respect for rule of law and human rights during his two-nation tour.

Pre-visit detentions

Ethiopia's ruling EPRDF party has imposed greater and greater restrictions on the media and political opponents since the 2005 elections, when the opposition made substantial gains and challenged the ruling party's hold on politics. Disputes over the results triggered protests and led to violence that killed some 200 people.

In 2010, opposition parties found it hard to campaign, held back by harassment on the street, restrictions on broadcast time, and the ruling party's dominance over the voting process. When the votes were tallied, the EPRDF and allied parties had won all but one seat in parliament. That seat was held by an independent. Opposition groups were shut out.

The 2015 election results were the same, except that the EPRDF coalition won that last elusive seat.

The opposition All Ethiopian Unity Party says the repression continues, charging that authorities have arrested more than 100 of its members this month ahead of the president's visit. The party's president told VOA's Amharic service this week that few of the detainees have been brought to court. The Ethiopian government refused to comment on the arrests.

Authorities did release six detained bloggers and journalists last week, but scores of other journalists, protesters and political opposition leaders remain in jail.

Balancing act

U.S. criticism of Ethiopia has been muted, because of the country's importance in combating Islamist militants in the region, especially Somalia's al-Shabab. In 2006, Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia and ousted an Islamist movement that had seized most of the country. The troops stayed another two years and have returned periodically since to fight al-Shabab in areas near the Somali-Ethiopian border.

On Wednesday, President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, offered only mild criticism of the outcome of the 2015 vote, saying the U.S. has "some concern for the integrity of the electoral process."

"Ethiopia has always played a very strong hand vis-a-vis the U.S. government," said E.J. Hogendoorn, the deputy program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group. "It has always said that its security cooperation is contingent on not too much public criticism of the government. And again, that will be a delicate balancing act for the president to play."

Hogendoorn said the IGC believes the president should have gone to other countries like Nigeria because of its democratic elections in March. He said the president has legitimate security concerns to discuss with Ethiopia but added that "certainly, he could push Ethiopia a little harder on its record with its citizens."

Terrence Lyons, an associate professor at George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, said he thought that if the president pushed, there is a chance Ethiopia may yield.

"This trip is a big deal to Ethiopia," he said. "This is something they want, the kind of diplomatic recognition, the kind of profile they get from hosting the president of the United States. That, I think, provides an opportunity for some leverage, some ability for the president to shape the conversation we have with Ethiopia. And that policy discussion, that debate, must include opening up political space, more room for civil society, more independent media."

Dan Joseph

Ethiopia: Ethnic Oromos arrested, tortured and killed by the state in relentless repression of dissent

www.amnesty.org
Thousands of members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, are being ruthlessly targeted by the state based solely on their perceived opposition to the government, said Amnesty International in a new report released today.

“Because I am Oromo” – Sweeping repression in the Oromia region of Ethiopia exposes how Oromos have been regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings as part of the government’s incessant attempts to crush dissent.

“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher.

“This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region.”

More than 200 testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal how the Ethiopian government’s general hostility to dissent has led to widespread human rights violations in Oromia, where the authorities anticipate a high level of opposition. Any signs of perceived dissent in the region are sought out and suppressed, frequently pre-emptively and often brutally.

At least 5,000 ethnic Oromos have been arrested between 2011 and 2014 based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.

These include peaceful protesters, students, members of opposition political parties and people expressing their Oromo cultural heritage.

In addition to these groups, people from all walks of life – farmers, teachers, medical professionals, civil servants, singers, businesspeople, and countless others – are regularly arrested in Oromia based only on the suspicion that they don’t support the government. Many are accused of ‘inciting’ others against the government.

Family members of suspects have also been targeted by association – based only on the suspicion they shared or ‘inherited’ their relative’s views – or are arrested in place of their wanted relative.

Many of those arrested have been detained without charge for months or even years and subjected to repeated torture. Throughout the region, hundreds of people are detained in unofficial detention in military camps. Many are denied access to lawyers and family members.

Dozens of actual or suspected dissenters have been killed.

The majority of those targeted are accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) - the armed group in the region.

However, the allegation is frequently unproven as many detainees are never charged or tried. Often it is merely a pretext to silence critical voices and justify repression.

“People are arrested for the most tenuous of reasons: organizing a student cultural group, because their father had previously been suspected of supporting the OLF or because they delivered the baby of the wife of a suspected OLF member. Frequently, it’s because they refused to join the ruling party,” said Claire Beston.

In April and May 2014, events in Oromia received some international attention when security forces fired live ammunition during a series of protests and beat hundreds of peaceful protesters and bystanders. Dozens were killed and thousands were arrested.

“These incidents were far from being unprecedented in Oromia – they were merely the latest and bloodiest in a long pattern of suppression. However, much of the time, the situation in Oromia goes unreported,” said Claire Beston.

Torture
Amnesty International’s report documents regular use of torture against actual or suspected Oromo dissenters in police stations, prisons, military camps and in their own homes.
A teacher told how he had been stabbed in the eye with a bayonet during torture in detention because he refused to teach propaganda about the ruling party to his students.

A young girl said she had hot coals poured on her stomach while she was detained in a military camp because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF.

A student was tied in contorted positions and suspended from the wall by one wrist because a business plan he prepared for a university competition was deemed to be underpinned by political motivations.

Former detainees repeatedly told of methods of torture including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic and rape, including gang rape.

Although the majority of former detainees interviewed said they never went to court, many alleged they were tortured to extract a confession.

“We interviewed former detainees with missing fingers, ears and teeth, damaged eyes and scars on every part of their body due to beating, burning and stabbing - all of which they said were the result of torture,” said Claire Beston.

Detainees are subject to miserable conditions, including severe overcrowding, underground cells, being made to sleep on the ground and minimal food. Many are never permitted to leave their cells, except for interrogation and, in some cases, aside from once or twice a day to use the toilet. Some said their hands or legs were bound in chains for months at a time.

As Ethiopia heads towards general elections in 2015, it is likely that the government’s efforts to suppress dissent, including through the use of arbitrary arrest and detention and other violations, will continue unabated and may even increase.

“The Ethiopian government must end the shameful targeting of thousands of Oromos based only on their actual or suspected political opinion. It must cease its use of detention without charge, torture and ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance and unlawful killings to muzzle actual or suspected dissent,” said Claire Beston.

Interviewees repeatedly told Amnesty International that there was no point trying to complain or seek justice in cases of enforced disappearance, torture, possible killings or other violations. Some were arrested when they did ask about a relative’s fate or whereabouts.

Amnesty International believes there is an urgent need for intervention by regional and international human rights bodies to conduct independent investigations into these allegations of human rights violations in Oromia.

Ethiopia's Falash Mura repatriated to Israel

BBC Africa
About 450 Ethiopians of Jewish descent have been repatriated to Israel, concluding an Israeli government-backed scheme to relocate the community.

Their migration was "historic", Israel's Minister of Absorption Sofa Landver is quoted as saying.Many members of the Falash Mura community lived in poor conditions in northern Ethiopia.
The Falash Mura's ancestors converted to Christianity under pressure in the 19th Century.
They have been waging a decades-long campaign to be allowed to settle in Israel.

'Welcomed'Their campaign has been plagued by controversy, as some Israelis questioned their Jewish links while others accused the government of not doing enough to help them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start QuoteI am proud to take part in this historic event”Sofa LandverGovernment minister

In 2010, the Israeli government agreed to resume its repatriation programme, dubbed Operation Dove's Wings, after it was halted two years earlier.

The 450 migrants had been living in transit camps in Gondar city in northern Ethiopia, as they waited to go to Israel.

They were the last of some 8,000 Ethiopians who qualified for repatriation under the scheme.

The group flew into Israel's Ben Gurion airport in two chartered flights, with their relatives on hand to welcome them.

"Three years after I advised the prime minister of Israel to bring Operation Dove's Wings to an end, to close the compound in Gondar and to complete the journey of organised aliyah [migration] from Ethiopia, I am proud to take part in this historic event," Ms Landver said, the Jewish Press reports.

Some 12,000 members of the Falash Mura community in Ethiopia have not been granted permission to move to Israel, the Times of Israel newspaper reports.

About 90,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel since it was founded in 1948.

They make up one of the poorest sections of Israeli society.

Ethiopian migrants tell of torture and rape in Yemen

BBC News

Efta is just 17 but has experienced shocking brutality.The Ethiopian teenager survived a treacherous boat journey being smuggled across the Red Sea.

But on reaching Yemen, she was kidnapped and driven at gunpoint to a mud brick house.

She said: "They tortured other girls in front of me. They beat us and they raped us at gunpoint. I was terrified."

She is one of 80,000 Ethiopian migrants who undertake this dangerous journey every year.

They hope they will find work in the wealthy Gulf state of Saudi Arabia and be able to send money home.

But they risk being exploited by criminal gangs and the Yemeni military in the 500 km (310 miles) trek across Yemen to the Saudi border.

A map showing the journey of Ethiopian migrants to Saudi Arabia.

Raped and burned'

Efta was held at what is known as a "torture camp" for three months.

She was too ashamed to ask her parents for money to set her free so she was raped every day.

Once it became clear that no ransom was going to be paid and after Efta fell ill, she was thrown out on the street.

She is now being cared for in a refugee centre run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Yemeni border town of Haradh.

She remains traumatised by her experience.

"The women get raped and the men are burned. They break bones. They take people's eyes out," she said.

"Everything you can imagine, they do it. I saw it with my own eyes."

Most of the Ethiopians we met came from the Tigray region in the north of the country.

They crossed the mountains into Djibouti and then paid people smugglers to take them across the Red Sea at its shortest point, Bab al-Mandab (or the Gate of Grief).

It was a harbinger of the trials and tribulations ahead of them where thousands are tortured and sexually exploited by people smugglers.

And if they make it to Haradh, many die trying to get across the heavily-fortified border into Saudi Arabia.

Saleh Sabri is the local undertaker. He has lost count of the number of migrants he has buried.

"Some people are shot at the border. Some have been hung. Some are beaten to death," he said.

"They all die from unnatural causes."

Inside 'torture camp'For centuries, Haradh has thrived on gun-running and drug-smuggling. Now, the commodity is people.

The Medecins Sans Frontieres charity says there are an estimated 200 "torture camps" in this area alone.

We become the first journalists to enter one after we are promised safe passage by a local judge.

One of the judge's soldiers accompanies us for our safety.

We drive across sand dunes to reach a mud brick house on the outskirts of town.

As we enter, there appear to be five migrants sitting on the ground with two armed men guarding them.

We ask them if they have been abused.

"For the last three days, they have threatened to beat us if our families don't pay," said one migrant.

We then spot the entrance to a small room at the edge of the compound.

The soldier says this is where the migrant women are taken.

We ask to go inside but the soldier says what is going on behind the door could be haram, meaning forbidden.

We are told there could be a man and a woman in there.

We are not allowed to knock on the closed door but there are two pairs of shoes outside.

A man then appears with a pistol who says he was the owner of the camp. We ask him if torture exists on this farm.

"That's forbidden," he said.

"There's no torture here. If we were capturing them by force, we'd have plenty of migrants there. They come here willingly."

We also ask if there are women here.

"No, there's no women in this farm," he said.

After we left, we visited a senior local police officer and told him what we had seen.

We understand that the next day, all the migrants in the camp were released.

The International Organization for Migration says it is dealing with an "international humanitarian crisis".

Failed stateBut Yemen is ill-equipped to solve this problem when it is fighting two insurgencies that have displaced tens of thousands.

International aid is mainly directed towards them and the 200,000 Somali refugees in the south.

In the vacuum, gangs of kidnappers and torturers seem to operate at will.

But many Ethiopian migrants say the Yemeni army is complicit.

Efta said the men who kidnapped her were dressed in military clothing.

"They were wearing army uniforms," she said.

"So that's why we did what they said. We didn't think they would do all of this to us."

She also said the same men - Yemeni soldiers - raped her at the 'torture camp'.

And 16-year-old Asma said the same. She nearly made it past the Yemeni guards at the Saudi border.

"Then the Yemeni army came," she said.

"They caught us. They sold us to the torture camp."

Asma was raped by up to three men every day for two months. She got out because one of her captors, she said, felt pity for her.

She is also living in the refugee centre in Haradh.

We requested an interview with the Yemeni government about the treatment of migrants but our request was declined.The undertaker of Haradh is used to operating without government support.

"I have 40 bodies in the morgue and I have only six draws to store them," said Saleh Sabri.

He still washes and prepares the bodies in the traditional way.

"I'm a simple man with a simple job," he said.

"I take care of the morgue so I must take care of these poor unknown people. I do it for God."

By Yalda Hakim

Ethiopia: European Human Rights Committee Denied Access to Ethiopian Prison

All Africa

Members of a European Parliament human rights delegation have been blocked from visiting an Ethiopian prison, and are concerned about the human rights situation in that nation.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament Subcommittee for Human Rights wrapped up a visit to Ethiopia to assess the country's human rights situation. The delegation had a trip scheduled to the infamous Kality prison just outside the capital, Addis Ababa. The facility is known for housing political prisoners in harsh living conditions.

In spite of previous assurances from Ethiopia's government, however, the group was denied access to the prison Wednesday morning, according to delegation member Jacek Protasiewicz.

"We were more than disappointed. Personally I cannot understand the reasons behind it," said Protasiewicz. "Because if you don't want to show the parliamentarians how people are detained and the conditions in the prisons, it is clearly that something is to be hidden."

The delegation also was scheduled to meet with a prominent imprisoned journalist, Reeyot Alemu, at the prison.

The members of the committee called upon the Ethiopian government to release journalists and opposition members, jailed under Ethiopia's anti-terrorism proclamation.

The European Union (EU) delegation said it believes the proclamation is used arbitrarily. The proclamation has also been criticized by organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

A framework for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), implemented by the Ethiopian government, also is a point of concern for the EU subcommittee. The framework includes rules that say no more than 10 percent of an NGO's funding can come from foreign partners when the organization works in the field of human rights.

The chair of the EU delegation, Barbara Lochbihler, believes the framework makes it difficult for NGOs to work independently.

"We strongly encourage the government to give more space on the domestic levels for civil society organizations to operate independently and in a meaningful way. We think the restrictive NGO framework should be urgently revised," said Lochbihler.

The conclusions of the visit will be presented to the European Parliament. If Ethiopia does not improve its human rights record, it might be complicate the country's trade with the European Union. The EU is considering linking trade policy agreements to other factors, such as human rights.