as suspected Oromo dissidents arrested in scores of other cases reported to the organization, were accused of
supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
The OLF (and its armed wing the Oromo Liberation Army, OLA), formed in the 1970s, was one of a number of
armed groups that fought against the previous government of Mengistu Hailemariam. When Mengistu
Hailemariam was overthrown in 1991, the OLF was briefly part of a transitional government led by the
Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. However, the OLF always had an uneasy
relationship with the TPLF – the strongest political party in the EPRDF coalition. These tensions led to the OLF
leaving the transitional government in 1992. Subsequently, thousands of OLF fighters, supporters and
suspected supporters were arrested.
Since then, the OLF has continued to wage a low-level armed struggle against the government, stating that its
fundamental objective is to exercise the Oromo peoples’ right to self-determination.
The 1994 Constitution guarantees the “right of self-determination up to secession” (Article 39). Nevertheless,
without charge or trial, and sometimes for many years, on the allegation of supporting the OLF. In June 2011,
parliament proscribed the OLF as a terrorist organization.
The Constitution established Ethiopia as a multicultural federation based on ethno-national representation
and provided for nine ethnic-based regional states. However, the regional state governments are considered to be weak compared to the federal government. Further, the Oromo-based party in the ruling EPRDF coalition –
the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), which was formed in 1990 – is widely known to have
been created by the TPLF, and never had the same base of popular support in the region as the OLF. The OPDO
continues to be distrusted by many Oromos. In addition, the OPDO is considered weak within the ruling
coalition.
The OLF has been riven by leadership divisions and relatively inactive in recent years. Estimates put the
number of fighters now at a few thousand. A summary of the group’s activities in 2012 (the latest available)
listed around 65 incidents, including single targeted killings, attacks on military camps, ambushes and
skirmishes. The group says it killed around 150 people during 2012 including soldiers, local and federal
police, ‘security officers’ and militia.
The OLF has also been accused of human rights abuses through the years. The government has accused the
group of responsibility for a series of bombings throughout the country. The group openly states in its list of
2012 activities that some people were killed for refusing to stop collaborating with the government.
The government suggests the OLF continues to enjoy popular support in Oromia and many observers agree.
This may be true, at least to some extent - a widely-held perception of marginalisation and repression of the
Oromo at the hands of the government may cause some Oromos to retain sympathy for the aims of the OLF,
and a belief that the OLF represents their interests, although some young Oromos state the OLF ceased to exist
before they were born and is not relevant to them in the current context.
However, the government regularly equates exercising various rights such as participation in peaceful
protests, membership of a political opposition party or refusal to join the ruling political party, as ‘evidence’ of
OLF support.
In the context of the EPRDF’s hostility to dissent, it is often unclear whether the government still believes there
to be a high level of support for the OLF or whether it is merely politically expedient for it to say so. The
government anticipates opposition to the EPRDF in Oromia and the pretext of OLF support is frequently used to
silence voices the government does not wish to be heard and justify the large-scale repression of all dissent in
Oromia.
ARBITRARY ARRESTS OF ACTUAL OR SUSPECTED DISSENTERS
“In 2011, there was unrest and revolution in the
Middle East. So the government had fear that such
a movement would happen in Ethiopia and, if it
did, we would mobilise the people. So they
arrested people before anything happened.”
Member and former regional parliamentary candidate of Oromo People’s Congress opposition political party, arrested in 20118
Under international law and the Ethiopian Constitution, the rights to the freedoms of
expression, association and cultural participation are guaranteed.9 No-one can be arrested
based on their actual or imputed political opinion, participation in peaceful protests, lawful
exercise of their right to freedom of expression or expression of their cultural identity. Such
arrests are arbitrary and contrary to international and Ethiopian law.
However, Amnesty International has received reports and information about the arbitrary
arrests of at least 5000 actual or suspected opponents of the government in Oromia since
2011, based on their manifestation of dissenting opinions, exercise of freedom of expression
or imputed political opinions. These included thousands of peaceful protestors, hundreds of
political opposition members and hundreds of other individuals arrested for various reasons.10
Due to restrictions on human rights reporting, independent journalism and information
exchange in Ethiopia and a lack of transparency with respect to detention practices, it is
possible there are many additional cases that have not been reported or documented.
The Government of Ethiopia exhibits a general intolerance of dissent, encompassing criticism
of the government or even suggestions about the government’s unpopularity.11 In Oromia, this
intolerance manifests regularly. But further, the government repeatedly shows that it
anticipates a high level of dissent or opposition to the government in Oromia, and signs of
dissent are sought out and regularly, sometimes pre-emptively, suppressed, including through
the use of arbitrary arrest and detention, often without charge.
Thousands of people openly expressing dissent – such as peaceful protestors and members of
legally-registered opposition parties – have been arrested between 2011 and 2014. In
addition, the government also anticipates dissent amongst certain groups and individuals.
Many students in Oromia are harassed, subjected to surveillance and arrested based on their
actual or suspected political opinion or participation in peaceful protests. Expressions of
Oromo history and culture have also been interpreted by the government as manifestations of
dissent and not tolerated – Amnesty International has received reports of hundreds of people
arrested for celebrating their cultural identity as Oromos, singing or writing about their
culture, or during traditional Oromo festivals.12
These groups – opposition political parties, student groups, peaceful protestors, people
involved in promoting Oromo culture and other people in positions the government believes
could influence their communities – are treated with hostility, not only due to their own
actual or alleged dissenting behaviour, but also due to their perceived potential to catalyse
opposition to the government. A number of people arrested for actual or suspected dissent
told Amnesty International they were accused of the ‘incitement’ of others to oppose the
government.
Anyone arrested based on their actual or suspected political opinion, their participation in
peaceful protests, the exercise of their right to freedom of expression or their expression of
their cultural identity as an Oromo, is a prisoner of conscience and should be released
immediately and unconditionally.
The majority of actual or suspected dissenters who had been arrested in Oromia interviewed
by Amnesty International were accused of supporting the OLF – the armed group in the
region, proscribed as a terrorist organization by parliament in June 2011. This accusation is
often levelled against individuals arrested for openly exercising dissenting behaviour such as
membership of an opposition political party or participation in a peaceful protest as a pretext
to silence them.
In addition to targeting openly dissenting or politically active individuals, the government
frequently demonstrates that it anticipates dissenting political opinion widely among the
general population of Oromia. People from all walks of life are regularly arrested based on
their suspected political opinion – on the accusation they support the OLF. Amnesty
International interviewed medical professionals, business owners, farmers, artists, civil
society workers and others who had been arrested based on this accusation in recent years.
These arrests were often based on suspicion alone, with little or no supporting evidence. In
some cases, suspicion is based on actions such as refusing to join the ruling political party
and some people ‘inherit’ suspicion from their parents or other family members. Family
members have been arrested in lieu of somebody else wanted for suspected OLF support, a
form of collective punishment illegal under international law. Even expressions of dissenting
opinions within the OPDO have been responded to with the accusation that the dissenter
supports the OLF. In some of these cases too, the accusation of OLF support and arrest on
that basis appear to be a pretext to control or punish signs of ‘political disobedience’ and/or
people who might influence others.
The government demonstrates that it continues to believe sympathy or support for the OLF
remains widespread in the region. Further, the government appears to also believe the OLF is
behind many signs of peaceful dissent in the region. People arrested for participation in
peaceful protests on a range of issues, for membership of legally-registered opposition
political parties, for membership in a student or cultural society and other peaceful
expressions of their political opinions or cultural identity, have been compelled during
interrogation in detention to confess the OLF was behind their actions.
The testimonies of many people interviewed by Amnesty International showed a pattern of
suspicion accumulating based on previous actions:
“The 2011 arrest was worse than previous arrests. The problem was my
accumulated record: I became more and more of a suspect because I
didn’t attend the government’s political meetings.”13
People who had participated in a peaceful protest, failed to attend ruling political party
meetings, refused join the ruling political party or had previously fallen under suspicion of
holding dissenting opinions, told Amnesty International they subsequently fell under ongoing
suspicion and, in some cases, would be subjected to repeated arrest on the allegation of
being anti-government:
“If you’ve been suspected once by the government, then you are under
constant surveillance. All your activities are monitored.”14
Many Oromos have been arrested on repeated occasions based on the same suspicion of
holding dissenting opinions, without being charged, taken to court or having any evidence
presented against them. One young man interviewed by Amnesty International had been
detained five times between the ages of 14 and 18, for periods ranging from three weeks to
eight months, without being charged on any occasion.15 Another young man detailed to
Amnesty International the four times he had been detained, for periods ranging from two
weeks to nine months, without charge or trial, each time on suspicion of having instigated
demonstrations. When he heard the government was looking for him to arrest him for a fifth
time, he fled the country.16
The targets of suppression are often young people, particularly those who are frequently the
instigators of and participants in protests, but also as part of a demographic from which the
government appears to fear large-scale dissent or popular unrest might manifest, as detailed
below in relation to the harassment of students. In 2012-13, Ethiopia’s Muslim community
staged a series of protests against alleged government interference in Islamic affairs,
including in Oromia, which saw incidents of unnecessary and excessive use of force by
security services and mass arrests. In the wake of one such incident in Oromia, a local
resident told Amnesty International:
“You can’t see any youth in the area now. They have been arrested,
they are not leaving their houses, or they have fled to the rural areas to
hide.”17
Many Oromos believe they are targeted based purely on their ethnic identity. When asked why
they were arrested, the initial answer many people gave to Amnesty International was simply
“because I am Oromo.”
“For this government, being Oromo is a crime.”18
The accusation of OLF support is frequently levelled against people with little or no evidence.
In numerous cases, the accusation and the resulting arrest do not ever translate into a
criminal charge. In the majority of all cases documented in this section of the report – in all
categories of reasons for arrest – individuals said they were detained without being charged,
sometimes for months or years. In many cases, therefore, their alleged support for the OLF
remains unsubstantiated and unproven. Frequently, it is merely an informal allegation made
during the course of interrogation. Questions asked of actual or suspected dissenters by
interrogators in detention also suggest the exercise of certain legal rights – for example,
participation in a peaceful protest – is taken as evidence of OLF support. Amnesty
International has also documented cases in which the lawful exercise of the right to freedom
of expression, or other protected human rights, is cited as evidence of illegal support for the
OLF in trials.
Further, in cases where there is a genuine basis for the allegation of OLF support, and where
charges and a trial do take place, broad and ambiguous terms in the criminal law which
criminalize, for example, “moral support”19 for a terrorist organization lack the clarity
required of laws restricting the exercise of rights.20 It is difficult to discern, for example,
whether the law criminalizes acts such as holding an opinion in support of the OLF – for
example, where an individual believes the OLF is fighting a just cause, agrees with the aims
of the OLF or similar – or whether the law considers such opinions the valid exercise of
freedom of expression and opinion protected under the Constitution and international law
which may not be criminalised.21
Therefore, many people arrested based on genuine suspicion of support for the OLF, who
have not had further involvement or used or advocated violence, are prisoners of conscience –
arrested solely on the basis of their suspected political opinion and should be released
immediately and unconditionally.
Arrests of actual or suspected dissenters in Oromia reported to Amnesty International were
made by local and federal police, the federal military and intelligence officers, often without
a warrant. Detainees were held in Kebele, Woreda and Zonal22 detention centres, police
stations, regional and federal prisons, military camps and other unofficial places of detention.
In some cases apparently considered more serious, the detainee was transferred to the
Federal Police Crime Investigation and Forensic Sector known as Maikelawi in Addis Ababa.
Both the regional and federal authorities are responsible for arbitrary arrests and detentions.
In some cases, former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International reported there had
been cooperation between local and federal authorities in these practices.
The majority of people arrested for actual or suspected dissent interviewed by Amnesty
International said they were held arbitrarily – without charge or trial, and without being
brought before a judicial officer to review the legality of the detention. Actual or suspected
dissenters were detained for periods ranging from several days to several years, in many cases
without ever being charged. In several cases reported to Amnesty International, when large
numbers of people (hundreds or more) were arrested after demonstrations, the majority were
released after periods ranging from a few days to a few months, while some, including those
suspected of instigating the demonstration, were detained for longer periods. However, often,
as detention is arbitrary and the duration is not decided by a judicial process, periods for
which people are detained for a similar ‘offence,’ for example, membership of an opposition
political party, can vary significantly, and there does not appear to be consistency in the
treatment of actual or suspected dissenters arrested for similar reasons.
Part II of this report documents what happens to actual or suspected dissenters after arrest,
including numerous violations of the due process rights of detainees. In addition to detention
without charge, trial or judicial review, a significant proportion of former detainees
interviewed by Amnesty International said they were held incommunicado – with no contact
with family members, legal representatives or others, and many were held in unofficial places
of detention. Detentions in these circumstances often amount to enforced disappearance –
the government refuses to confirm the arrests or conceals the whereabouts or fate of the
disappeared persons, placing them outside the protection of the law. Torture and other illtreatment
were widely reported among former detainees interviewed by Amnesty
International.
In cases where actual or suspected dissenters are charged, generally on the accusation of
supporting the OLF, the charges usually fall under the group of charges in the Criminal Code
entitled ‘Crimes against the Constitutional Order and the Internal Security of the State,’ a
group of charges used innumerable times in the past to imprison and thereby suppress
suggestions of dissent amongst the Oromo, as well as against actual or suspected dissenters
in other regions.23 Convictions have been handed down against actual or perceived dissenters
in proceedings marred by fair trial concerns.
Part II also documents cases of extra-judicial execution of actual or suspected dissenters.
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