Amnesty report,,,Because i am Oromo part3 “The prison speaks Oromiffa”

A number of former prisoners have commented on the high proportion of Oromos among the
population of Ethiopia’s federal prisons and the federal police detention centre of Maikelawi.
Siye Abraha, former politburo member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the
most powerful group in the ruling coalition, famously said upon his release in 2007 after
more than five years’ detention on alleged corruption charges “the prison speaks Oromiffa”
(the Oromo language, also referred to as Afan Oromo). Former President of Ethiopia, Negasso
Gidada, has stated that, when he left power in 2001, there were 25,000 Oromo prisoners in
regional and federal prisons on the accusation of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF).4
Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest region, covering more than 30% of the country’s landmass,5 and
the Oromo are the largest ethnic group in the country – comprising 35.3% of the population
according to a 2012 Inter-Censal Population Survey.6 However, this numerical size alone
does not account for the high proportion of Oromos in the country’s prisons. Oromia and the
Oromo have long been subject to repression based on an imputed opposition to the
government. Among the Oromo population inside Ethiopia and in exile, there is much
criticism of the government’s treatment of the Oromo, the historical treatment of the Oromo
by previous governments and criticism of the government’s practices in the region.

The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is hostile to dissent
wherever and however it manifests. Since the 2005 elections, the environment for freedom of
expression and association has steadily deteriorated – members of legally-registered
opposition political parties have been jailed in large numbers, the independent media and
human rights civil society have been dismantled through a combination of harassment and
repressive legislation. But in Oromia, the government’s intolerance of dissent is particularly
potent. The government has demonstrated repeatedly that it anticipates a high level of
dissent among the Oromo. This, in conjunction with the numerical size of the Oromo and the
sense of Oromo identity and nationalism, is assumed to pose a potential political threat.
As a result, hundreds of Oromos are regularly arrested, individually and in groups, based on
their actual or suspected opposition to the government. Thousands have been arrested in the
last few years alone. Signs of dissent are sought out and suppressed. Peaceful protestors,
students, people celebrating Oromo cultural heritage and members of political opposition
parties are targeted for arbitrary arrest and detention. In addition, people from all walks of
life, including medical professionals, artists, athletes, businesspeople, teachers and many
others, are regularly arrested and detained based on their suspected political opinion.

Comprehensive official statistics are not available of the number of Oromos currently in
detention. A 2012 report from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) stated there
were 26,527 detainees in regional detention centres in Oromia.7 The statistics also cited a
total of 17,752 detainees in federal detention centres. However, a breakdown of this figure
disaggregated by ethnicity was not available, so it is not known how many of these were
Oromos. The regional figure for Oromia does not include detainees in police stations or in
unofficial places of detention such as military camps – in which hundreds of people are
arbitrarily detained in Oromia. Nor does the report acknowledge or take into account people
held arbitrarily without charge or trial and without being brought before a judicial authority to
review the lawfulness of the detention. Therefore, it is not possible to know the accurate
figure of Oromo detainees in the country.
The significant majority of Oromos arrested for their actual or suspected opposition to the
government are accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – see box below.
However, in a high proportion of these cases, the arrested person is not charged with a crime.
Hundreds of people are regularly detained without charge or trial, for weeks, months or years
– apparently intended to warn, punish or silence them, in ways in which justice is often
absent.
Part I of this report documents the patterns of targeting, harassment and arbitrary arrest of
people based on their actual or imputed political opinion. Part II of the report documents the
patterns of arbitrary detention without charge or trial, enforced disappearance, torture and
other ill-treatment, extra-judicial executions and other violations against actual or suspected
dissenters targeted by the government.