More than 400 people have been killed in protests of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group
Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 400 people, including
children,in the Oromia region by using excessive
force to quell
anti-government protests, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Tens of thousands of people have been arrested and many remain in
The organization called for Ethiopia to investigate and prosecute those
among its security forces responsible for abuses and demanded greater
pressure be exerted by the international community on the Horn of Africa
state.
The protests in Oromia began in November 2015 in response to the Ethiopian government's proposed Addis Ababa Integrated Development
Master Plan, which suggested an expansion of the Ethiopian capital that could result in farmers from the Oromo ethnic group being displaced and losing
their land. The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, constituting around a third of the population at the last census in 2007. Oromia is the
largest state in Ethiopia and surrounds the capital Addis Ababa on all sides.
The Ethiopian government announced in January that it was dropping the expansion plan, but protests have continued in Oromia, in part motivated by
the brutal crackdown up until that point. According to Felix Horne, Ethiopia
and Eritrea researcher at HRW and the report’s lead author, methods used by
the security forces included firing live ammunition into crowds. “It’s quite
often indiscriminate, randomly spraying bullets into crowds,” says Horne. “Children are often the ones at the front of the protests—they’re more eager,
[so] they’re often the ones that were hit.”
Abiy Berhane, minister counsellor for the Ethiopian Embassy in London, toldNewsweek that HRW’s report was inaccurate. “The allegations in the
HRW report talking about 400 deaths are not acceptable. HRW always gives exaggerated figures because it does not have a physical presence in Ethiopia
and relies on casualty numbers supplied by opposition groups,” says Berhane.
was submitted to parliament on June 10, which found that 173 people were
killed—including 14 members of the security forces and 14 local government officials—and 261 were seriously injured, 110 of whom were from the security forces.
The HRW report was based on more than 125 interviews with protesters,
witnesses and government officials, and documented around 60 of the 500 reported demonstrations. The Ethiopian government has previously accused
HRW did document instances of violence by protesters—including the
majority of instances, the use of violence by police was unwarranted. “These
are not tens of thousands of protesters that are overwhelming security forces. These are hundreds at most, so there’s no excuse for the level of force that the security forces used,” says Horne.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn—who previously accused neighboring Eritrea of manipulating the protests to incite civil disobedience—issued an apology for the deaths of protesters in March but accused
“anti-peace forces” of being responsible for the violence. But according to
Etana Habte, an Ethiopian author and PhD candidate at SOAS University of London, the apology has proved hollow as the security forces have not faced punishment for their actions. “If he apologized for what happened in Oromia, [where] over 500 people have been killed, no one was brought to justice in
relation to this,” says Habte, citing a higher death toll. “No one was released
from prison, among the killers no one was brought to justice. The government did nothing practical, it simply said ‘we are sorry.’”
Oromos have suffered a difficult history in Ethiopia. The Oromo language was
not taught in schools for much of the 20th century, and activists from the
ethnic group have often clashed with the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has ruled the country since 1991. A 2014 report by Amnesty International found that at least 5,000 Oromos were
arrested between 2011 and 2014 on the basis of alleged opposition to the government.
According to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission’s report, the violence
was prompted by poor governance in Oromia and failure to address public grievances. The Commission’s report said that legitimate demonstrations
were hijacked by armed groups including the Oromo Liberation Front—a
group established to campaign for Oromo self-determination but designated
a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government—which used women
and children as human shields by placing them at the front of crowds during demonstrations.
Berhane says that the Ethiopian government has begun dealing with the
aftermath of the violence by arresting those alleged to be involved in
corruption and running public consultations. “In short, the government is
listening to the people and addressing their grievances,” says Berhane.
Coverage of the protests has been limited in Ethiopia, which is ranked 142
out of 180 countries in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters
Without Borders. Several journalists covering the protests were reportedly detained in March, though a representative of the Ethiopian government
said the detentions were because the reporters had violated the terms of their accreditation.
Source:http://europe.newsweek.com/ethiopia-hundreds-killed-excessive-
force-oromo-protests-says-hrw-470800?rm=eu
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