Must Read: Eye witness
After the protests and violence in Ambo, we fled to the capital city of Addis Ababa and stayed at a little hotel called Yilma. Immediately, we started telling everyone about what happened in Ambo. We called and texted our friends, we talked to anyone at the hotel that would listen, and we posted things on Facebook. If we tell everyone about the protesters in Ambo being imprisoned and killed, surely it will stop, we reasoned. The next day, two strange men - one tall with dark skin, the other short with lighter skin - struck up a conversation with us in the hotel restaurant. "We're from Minnesota, here to visit our family in Wollega," they said. "Oh, we're from St. Paul!" we replied, excited. "Oh, we're from St. Paul, too!" they said, pulling out a fake-looking Minnesota driver's license. The address said Worthington, not St. Paul. Continue May 28, 2014 (World News Publishing Focus) — “The current regime follows this pattern: immediately before elections, they start to muzzle every critical voice,” protests Endalk Chala, a co-founder and member of the Ethiopian blogging collective called “Zone 9” – a proverbial reference to Ethiopia’s situation beyond the eight zones that divide the notorious Kaliti prison, where many journalists and political prisoners are kept behind bars. While pursuing his doctorate in the United States, Endalk recently saw six of his colleagues arrested along with three independent journalists on April 25 and 26. The detainees face charges related to accepting assistance from a foreign human rights group and “inciting violence” through social media, though no formal charges have been filed. The youngest of the collective, 25 year old Atnaf Berahane, was reportedly tortured during police investigations. Launching their blogging collective in May 2012, the Zone 9 members had visited fellow journalists in jail and advocated for the respect of the constitution and against censorship through several online campaigns. “Our language was highly polished and polite. We did not want to provoke the government and invite them to arrest us, because we wanted to remain outside the prison and work a little bit so that we could start a discussion,” explains Endalk. Continue Reading By Asafa Jalata | May 25, 2014
Although it was more or less ignored, this proposal was forwarded a decade ago to Oromo activists in the Diaspora. The current Oromo struggle led by the Oromo students in Oromia has fundamentally changed the attitudes and behaviors of the Oromo in the Diaspora. So I believe that the ongoing debate on how to continue the struggle in the Diaspora can benefit from this piece. Hence, without revising it, I reproduce the article below. Statement of Purpose At the turn of the twenty-first century, our nation and its national movement are at a crossroads just at the moment when capitalist globalization and the Ethiopian empire state are facing their deepest crises. Despite the fact that Oromummaa and Oromo nationalism have been developing and that the Oromo national struggle has achieved an ideological and moral victory over Ethiopian colonialism and the Tigrayan-led fascist Ethiopian government, the Oromo national movement faces serious ideological, political, and organizational crises coming from two main sources. One of these sources is external and structural, and the other one is internal and behavioral. Although it is necessary that all Oromo activists understand these external and structural factors, for this purpose we must focus on internal and behavioral factors in order to critically and comprehensively deal with our current complex problems. The lack of ideological clarity, political confusion, and organizational and leadership shortcomings in the Oromo national movement and society are the major internal problems that hinder the movement from emerging as one of strong political forces in the Horn of Africa. Consequently, our people are targeted for destruction by the Tigrayan-led terrorist regime. Continue Reading Please read and share this eyewitness account! The government has control over media and telecommunications in Ethiopia and has been largely successful so far in keeping the story of the student protests quiet. Two brave Peace Corps volunteers who were stationed for 1 1/2 years in Ambo but left this week because of the violence have asked for our help in spreading the truth about what is happening. This account of events in the Oromia town of Ambo–events which began exactly one month ago, on April 25–was originally posted on the blog Jen & Josh in Ethiopia: A Chronicle of Our Peace Corps Experience. Disclaimer: We are no longer Peace Corps Volunteers, and the following is a personal story, not a news report, and does not reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, the Ethiopian Government, or the people of Ambo. May 25, 2014
Part One By Mekuria Bulcha The so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan (AAMP[1]) has ignited an Oromia-wide protest involving university and high school students. The TPLF-led Ethiopian regime has responded to the peaceful protests staged by Oromo students against the plan with tanks and live ammunition, killing dozens in the crowds. The protest, which started on April 24, 2014 at Jimma University, is joined not only by tens of thousands of the students of all the universities in Oromia but also tens of thousands of high school students and members of the local population in many cities, towns and villages. The voice of this massive Oromo rally against the AAMP cannot be silenced by bullets and tanks as in the past. It concerns not only the cause of the Oromo farmers in Central Oromia, whose livelihoods will be affected by the AAMP, but also that of all the Oromo farmers and pastoralists throughout Oromia whose farms and pasturelands have already been sold and are targeted to be sold to land grabbers by the present Ethiopian regime. In short, it concerns the survival of the Oromo as a nation. HRLHA – Urgent Action May 24, 2014 For Immediate Release While kidnappings and/or extra-judicial arrests and detentions have continued particularly around academic institutions in different parts of the regional state of Oromia in Ethiopia, disturbing and worrisome reports are coming out of detention centres where the Oromo students arrested in the past two weeks are being held. According to HRLHA correspondents in Nakamte, Wollega Province in western Oromia, there have been cases of tortures of varying levels as well as detainees being taken away in the middle of the night to unknown destinations for unknown reasons. Fifty (50) detainees, including thirteen females, were taken away at one time alone; and their whereabouts were not known. In relation to tortures, the reports indicate that some of the detainees are isolated from others and held in separate rooms handcuffed and legs tied together with their hands on the their backs. There were ten students subjected to this particular situation, among whom were Std. Tesfaye Tuffa (male) and Std. Bontu Hailu (female). Although not confirmed at this point, there were also eight students who were screened out in order to be transferred to a detention or investigation office at the federal level; and these include: Recently, Ethiopia’s Kangaroo court handed down an unfair verdict for innocent civilians accused of being members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Many of those who were sentenced have already spent years of incarceration in TPLF’s concentration camps. Tigabu Yilma, a former class mate for one of the victims of TPLF’s ethnic cleansing policy, recounts his time at Addis Ababa University Law School with Wabe Haji Jarso. By Tigabu Yilma* May 23, 2014 (OPride) — As might be the case for millions of Oromos and other Ethiopians, it was a shocker for me to learn that the Tigre Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) regime of Meles Zenawi has sentenced leading Oromo intellectuals (political leaders, lawyers, engineers, professors and students) and business people to death, life sentence, and long years of imprisonment. This is the second time in less than three months that the TPLF regime issued such a verdict after the regime sentenced the leaderships of Ginbot 7 and their alleged supporters to death and life imprisonments. After I saw the news headlines on Gadaa.com and Ethiomedia.com, quite instinctively I went on to see the names of these people. I was barely half way. I was shocked. One of my former classmates, Wabe Haji , was among the list. Wabe Haji Jarso is an Alumni of Addis Ababa University (AAU) Law School, class of 1993/4. Wabe is an Oromo from Arsi region of Oromia State in Ethiopia. Before joining AAU Law School, Wabe served in the Ethiopian Air Force. He was quite, apolitical, farsighted and very considerate member of our class. He was voice of reason and magnanimity. For these noble qualities, we all love, respect and admire him. Ayyaantuu |
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