Why are Oromos Opposed to the Addis Ababa Master Plan?

By Olaana Abbaaxiiqi
December , 2015
Introduction
As I am writing this, the Oromo population led by students is revolting throughout Oromia ostensibly against the so called Addis Ababa and Surrounding Oromia Integrated Development Plan (Master Plan). To date, as widely reported, more than 85 students have been killed and thousands have been jailed. Many Oromia areas have fallen under what look like a Martial law, and the Oromo population is being terrorized by the special federal force called Agazi.  As if this is not enough, the government has characterized the uprising as terrorist, implying that it is going to take the most drastic action. Therefore, if things remain the same, in the coming days it’s expected that the death toll may even rise dramatically.
This article is not intended to chronicle the recent events in Oromia; it will simply attempt to explain to the unversed why the Oromo students are revolting against the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master Plan. To the Oromo nation that has borne the brunt of the successive violence, oppression and alienation, the answer to the question why the students started the upheaval is obvious, as well as, easy. In fact, for the simple reason that it is so obvious, one Oromo does not ask another Oromo why students are rebelling.
So, why is the Oromo population vehemently opposing the Master Plan?  Unless one puts the issue in a context and looks at it, it is easy to miss the foundational question. Therefore, I will try to venture, even if briefly, into history, economics and politics in search of an answer.

Early History
Long before Menelik’s wife, Taitu, loved and selected Finfinnee (Oromo name for Addis Ababa) to be her abode, the Oromo clans, Abbichu, Eekka, Galan and Gulale, lived for generations in freedom in this location. Contrary to popular myth, this was not a vacant and unoccupied land where wild animals reigned and roamed freely when she moved into the neighborhood. As time passed and with the growth of the city, the Oromos who lived on this land for generations had to be evicted and banished to distant places. The space was needed for others who were required to be in the capital around the king’s palace and court.  Within few generations, this city that was built on Oromo land and flourished on Oromo natural resource and wealth, morphed into an alien land to the Oromos.
Even though demographically, to the extent, Addis Ababa is made up of multi ethnic composition, it is culturally through and through an Abyssinian city, mostly an Amhara city through assimilation. Contrary to the claim of some, this is not a melting pot city. All the other ethnic groups melted and lost their identity while the Amhara maintained and developed theirs and flourished in Addis Ababa. In comparison, for example, there was not, until very recently, a single institution in the city that reflected the Oromo culture and identity.
Addis Ababa that was only few hectares at the beginning of 20^th century had grown according to some estimates more than 50 folds by the end of the century. The population that was around 50 thousand in 1900 reached 3 million in 2000.  All this growth came at the expense of the Oromo population who lived in the vicinities. For Addis Ababa to grow Oromo farmers had to be displaced. It is this predatory relationship that existed between Addis Ababa and the Oromos who lived in the surrounding area from the time Finfinnee was converted to Addis Ababa.

Even though in every direction Addis Ababa’s city center is less than 10 miles away from Oromia, it is as if it is 10,000 miles away removed from it in every aspect. It was a strange alien spot in the midst of Oromia. Oromos who came to the city were treated as strangers in their own ancestral land; Oromos who for one reason or another had to move into the city had to abandon their Oromoness and be Amharnized to be Addis Ababan. Children of Oromos parents who grew up in Addis Ababa, as a result of cultural imposition, were forced in one way or another to abandon their language and culture. Addis Ababa was the grave yard for Oromumma from its inception to present day.
The total alienation of Oromos from Addis Ababa is a phenomenon that has no parallel elsewhere. Even in settled European colonialism of Rhodesia and South Africa, in cities like Salisbury and Cape Town, we see in shanty towns and ghettos the concentration of black Africans who live as a community exercising more or less their culture. In Addis Ababa there is no area that one can call an Oromo area where Oromo language is spokes as a community.
I am mentioning all this not to open old wounds or to divert attention from what the current regime is doing against the Oromos. I am bringing this up this simply to put in a historical context the relationship that existed between Addis Ababa and surrounding Oromos, so that it could help us to really understand why the Oromo is rejecting the Master Plan. Given such inequitable and pernicious relationship between the two, it would, in fact, be strangely irrational to expect that the surrounding Oromos would readily welcome with open arms any type of integration with Addis Ababa imposed on them.
Add to this the arrogant and top to down EPRDF (read TPLF whenever you see EPRDF) style of governance that tried to shove the Master Plan down the throat of the stake holders. Even if this Master Plan has the intention and effect of improving the lives of the surrounding Oromo farmers, which it is not, and even if the EPRDF had a stellar record with Addis Ababa-Oromia relations, which it does not, the farmers and their children have still all the reason to be suspicious of the Master Plan and oppose it, and by opposing to end it.
Recent History
With EPRDF’s coming to power, the nature and complexity of the relationship between the two became even more complicated.  Addis Ababa became a spot on which the interest of the three major powers in the country, the Oromo, Amhara and Tigray converged upon and clashed. The city became economically and politically Tigray elite dominated, and remained demographically and culturally Amhara, and historically and territorially Oromo. The uneasy relationship between the EPRDF and the Oromo interest as regards the status of Addis Ababa became evident as early as during the drafting of the Ethiopian Constitution. It was to resolve the differences that a compromise was reached in the constitution itself. The difference was

Ethiopia’s fake economic growth borrows from ENRON’s accounting

More than 70 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an ongoing crackdown on peaceful protesters in Oromia. One of the underlying causes of the prevailing tense political situation is Ethiopia’s bogus claim about “miraculous” economic growth in the last decade.

The youth is not benefitting from the country’s supposed growth and doesn’t anticipate the fulfillment of those promises given the pervasive nepotism and crony capitalism that underpins Ethiopia’s developmentalism.

The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991 and briefly experimented with democratic transition. However, a little over a decade into its rule, the party’s former strongman, the late Meles Zenawi, realized that their pretentious experiment with liberal democracy was not working. Zenawi then crafted a dubious concept called, “developmental state.”

Stripped of the accompanying jargon and undue sophistication, Zenawi was simply saying that he had abandoned the democratic route but would seek legitimacy through economic development guided by a strong hand of the state. This was a ploy, the last ditch attempt to extend EPRDF’s rule indefinitely.

Using fabricated economic data to seek legitimacy and attract foreign direct investments, the regime then advanced narratives about its double-digit economic growth, described with such catchphrases as Ethiopia rising, the fastest growing economy in the world and African lioness. The claims that EPRDF has delivered economic growth at miraculous scales has always been reported with a reminder that it takes several decades to build democratic governance. The underlining assumption was that, as long as they deliver economic growth, Ethiopia’s leaders could be excused on the lack of democracy and human rights abuses associated with the need for government intervention in the economy.

EPRDF spent millions to retain the services of expensive and well-connected Western lobbying firms to promote this narrative and create a positive image of the country. These investments were also accompanied with a tight grip on the local media, including depriving foreign reporters’ access if they cross the government line. Ethiopia’s communication apparatus was so successful that even serious reporters and analysts started to accept and promote EPRDF’s narrative on rapid economic growth.

However, a few recent events have tested the truthfulness of Ethiopia’s economic rise. Drought and the resulting famine remain the Achilles heels of the EPRDF government. The government can manipulate data on any other sector, including the aggregate Gross Domestic Product, and get away with it, but agriculture is a tricky sector whose output is not so easy to lie about. The proof lies in the availability of food in the market, providing the absolute minimum subsistence for the rural and urban population.

The sudden translation of drought into famine raises serious questions.  For example, it is proving difficult to reconcile the country’s double-digit economic growth with the fact that about 15 million Ethiopians are currently in need of emergency food aid.

Rampant famine

Except for some gullible foreign reporters or parachute consultants, who visit Addis Ababa and depart within days, serious analysts and students of Ethiopian economy know that authorities have often fabricated economic statistics in order to generate fake GDP growth.  To the trained eye, it does not take a lot to find inconsistencies in the data series. In fact, Ethiopia’s economic growth calculus is so reminiscent of Enron accounting.  (See my recent pieces questioning EPRDF’s economic policies, including anomalies in the alleged achievements of millennium development goals, crony businesses,devaluation, external trade and finance.)

The tacit understanding in using GDP as a measure of economic growth is that responsible governments generate such data by applying viable international standards and subjecting the data to scrutiny and consistency checks.

Unfortunately, these standards are not foolproof; irresponsible governments with mischievous motives can abuse them. There is credible evidence that shows Ethiopian authorities deliberately inflated economic statistics to promote feel-good, success stories.

Let’s take the agricultural data, which is timely and topical given the ongoing famine. This came to light recently as the European Union tried to understand anomalies in Ethiopia’s grain market, particularly persistent food inflation which the EU found incompatible with the agricultural output reported by the Central Statistical Authority (CSA) of Ethiopia.

The EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) then developed the technical specification for studying the scope of the Cereal Availability Study in order to account for the developments in the Ethiopian cereal markets. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was selected to carry out the study.

Figure 1 (above) compares the EU-sponsored survey and the Ethiopian government’s survey produced by the CSA. I am using the data for 2007/08 for comparison. The negative numbers indicate that the IFPRI estimates were consistently lower than the CSA data. For instance, CSA overstated cereal production by 34 percent on average.  This ranged from 29 percent for maize to 44 percent for sorghum. The actual amount of Teff produced is lower by a third of what’s reported by the CSA.

The research team sought to explain this “puzzle” by examining the sources of the confusion, the methodological flaws that might have led CSA to generate such exaggerated economic data. Toward that end, they compared CSA’s crop yield estimates with comparable data from three neighboring countries:  Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (see Figure 2).

From 2000 to 2007, the average increase in cereal yield for these countries, including Ethiopia, was 19 percent. Yet the CSA reported a whopping 66 percent for Ethiopia’s yield growth. The country was not experiencing an agricultural revolution to justify such phenomenal growth.  It is unrealistic that Ethiopia’s yield growth would be greater than the neighboring East African countries, particularly Kenya, where the agricultural sector is at a much more advanced stage. If anything, the reality in Ethiopia is closer to Uganda, which did not report any yield increase during that period.

This reveals the extents of data manipulation by Ethiopian authorities to create an inexistent economic success story and seeks political legitimacy using a bogus record. We now know the widespread distortions in official statistics on cereal production thanks, in no small part, to EU’s intervention in sponsoring a study and explaining the disparities. Cereals represent only a sub-sector in the agricultural realm. It is likely that worse distortions would be revealed if similar studies were done on Ethiopia’s growth statistics in other sectors, including manufacturing and service divisions.

‘Poverty reduction’

The IMF has praised Ethiopia for achieving accelerated growth with a focus on equity and poverty reduction, a challenging dilemma for most countries. However, a closer look at three interconnected facts turns this claim on its head.

Ethiopian opposition urges scrutiny of industrial plan

Aljazeera,

The international community needs to pressure the Ethiopian government to halt land grabs and respect human rights, an opposition party leader has said after two prominent opposition members were arrested for inciting protests in Oromiya earlier this week.

Oromiya is the largest region in Ethiopia. Groups such as the OLF, accuse the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition of marginalising ethnic Oromos.

Bekele Nega, secretary of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), said security forces have killed at least 86 people since protests began earlier this month over government plans to create an investment and industrial zone near the capital, Addis Ababa.

"They have killed 86 and wounded thousands [and are] imprisoning people and political leaders including our vice-chairman Bekele Gerba," Nega told Al Jazeera.

Merara Gudina, OFC chairman, said police detained Gerba on Friday and the party's assistant secretary, Dejene Tafa, a day earlier.

"They suspect that our party and some of our members are part of the protest movement, that we have been inciting the demonstrations," he told Reuters news agency, denying that the OFC had incited violence.

"We do not know when Bekele and Dejene will be released or be charged for anything."

Opposition leaders and activists said the "Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan" designed to merge certain rural areas into Addis Ababa will result in land grabs and the displacement of farmers.

Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia's prime minister, told parliament on Friday that people had a legitimate right to oppose Addis Ababa's plan, but that the government would take "unflinching measures" against those who incite violence.

Hailemariam said "anti-peace forces" had incited violence by spreading false information about the plan.

The government has accused the secessionist Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and opposition group Ginbot 7 of involvement in the protests. Both organisations are regarded by the state as terrorist entities.

Amnesty International, the human rights monitor, said earlier in December that protesters have been labelled "terrorists" by Ethiopian authorities "in an attempt to violently suppress protests against potential land seizures".

The Ethiopian government has neither released an official death toll nor confirmed how many people were arrested since the protests started.

'Impartial investigation' 

Betsate Deneke, the head of the the Human Rights Council (HRCO), said his organisation was currently collecting information on how many were killed and would announce their findings next week.

He told Al Jazeera that HRCO demanded an "impartial investigation into the killings of people" takes place.

Earlier this week, the opposition said the government had rejected, for the second time, an application to hold a public demonstration on December 27 to protest against the Addis Ababa Master Plan.

Blood and terror on the streets as protests grip Ethiopia

Wolenkomi - Two lifeless bodies lay on the ground as the terrified crowd, armed only with sticks against gun-toting Ethiopian security forces, fled the fierce crackdown on protesters.

Blood seeped through a sheet covering one of the bodies on the road outside Wolenkomi, a town just 60km from the capital Addis Ababa.

"That was my only son," a woman sobbed. "They have killed me."

People standing near the body of a
protester from the Oromo group in Ethiopia
who was allegedly shot dead
by security forces in Wolenkomi.
(William Davison, AFP)

Back at the family home of 20-year-old Kumsa Tafa, his younger sister Ababetch shook as she spoke. "He was a student. No one was violent. I do not understand why he is dead," she said.

Human Rights Watch says at least 75 people have been killed in a bloody crackdown on protests by the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group.

Bekele Gerba, deputy president of the Oromo Federal Congress, puts the toll at more than 80 while the government says only five have been killed.

The demonstrations have spread to several towns since November, when students spoke out against plans to expand the capital into Oromia territory, a move the Oromo consider a land grab.

The sight of the protesters on the streets of towns like Wolenkomi, shouting "Stop the killings! This isn't democracy!" is rare in a country with little tolerance for expressions of discontent with the government.Tree trunks and stones are strewn on the asphalt on the road west from Addis to Shewa zone, in Oromia territory, barricading the route for several kilometres.

Chaos broke out on a bus on the road when it emerged that the police were again clashing with demonstrators in Wolenkomi.

"My husband just called me," said a woman clutching her phone, as others screamed and children burst into tears.

"He's taking refuge in a church. Police shot at the protesters," she said.

The man next to her cried in despair: "They're taking our land, killing our children. Why don't they just kill everyone now?"

The army raided Wolenkomi again the next day, the rattle of gunfire lasting for more than an hour.

"They grabbed me by the face and they told me, 'Go home! If you come back here, we'll kill you'," said Kafani, a shopkeeper.

Rights groups have repeatedly criticised Ethiopia's use of anti-terrorism legislation to stifle peaceful dissent, with the US expressing concern over the recent crackdown and urging the government to employ restraint.

But Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn declared on television that the government would act "without mercy in the fight against forces which are trying to destabilise the region."

'Land is everything'

Oromo leaders have vowed to keep up their resistance against proposals to extend Addis, and Human Rights Watch has warned of "a rapidly rising risk of greater bloodshed".

"The government can continue to send security forces and act with violence, we will never give up," said Gerba.

Land is at the heart of the problem. Under Ethiopia's constitution, all land belongs to the state, with owners legally considered tenants, raising fears amongst the Oromo that a wave of dispossession is on its way.

"For farmers in Oromia and elsewhere in the country, their land is everything," said Felix Horne, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"It's critical for their food supply, for their identity, for their culture," he said.

"You cannot displace someone from their land with no consultation and then inadequately compensate them and not expect there to be any response," Horne warned.

Some Oromo have already seen their lands confiscated.

Further west, in the town of Ambo, a woman named Turu was expropriated of her two hectares, receiving only $1 900 in compensation.

"We had a good life before," she said.

The Making of Addis Ababa and the Alienation of the Oromo

By Teferi Mergo (Prof.)* | December 2015

In a recent interview he gave to the Oromia Broadcasting Service (OBS), artist Sayyoo Daandanaa was asked what motivated him to write his now famous tune Boole. His eloquent response alluded to a poignant encounter he had while on a show-biz related trip to Eerar some years ago — an encounter that suggested to him that the alienation of the Oromo from their own land (Finfinnee) is so complete that they have grown to resent the city. Because of this alienation, the Oromo of Eerar (as he explained it) traveled to Sandaafaa for trading purposes, instead of going to Finfinnee, despite the latter’s clear favourability in terms of geographic proximity.

Say No to Addis Expansion !!!

Eerar (misnamed Yerer by Amharic speakers) is located a few kilometers to the southeast of Bole Airport, and not too long ago, it used to be a rural community where certain members of the Tuulamaa Oromo lived in relative peace and harmony, earning an honest living cultivating their plots. I remember this Eerar, because I had been there, in more ways than one. I grew up in Finfinnee proper – in the so-called Doro Manaqiya Sefer (not very far from the old airport), and had made numerous excursions as a lad with my peers or cousins into the rural villages and communities that used to surround Finfinnee (Furii, Wacacaa, Eerar, Lagatafo etc.) – outings we relished, because it gave us opportunities to engage in boyhood mischief not approved by our parents (e.g. swimming in the areas’ rivers and streams). I still remember with great fondness the Eerar, the Wacacaa, the Furii and the Lagatafo of my younger days, where I felt liberated enough to speak Afaan Oromoo with the local people without “my buddies” making injurious comments about my language, my identity.

But, of course, the Eerer of yesteryear which offered me glimpses of what could be and should be, is no more. Today, it is a space where “white fences and manicured lawns surround the villas of an elegant housing estate … a potent symbol of the emerging elite in a country better known for drought and famine.” (Taste for luxury: Ethiopia’s new elite spur housing boom By AFP PUBLISHED: 07:28 GMT, 2 December 2015 | UPDATED: 07:29 GMT, 2 December 2015) I am well aware that the Ethiopian government is doing its utmost to promote a positive image of the country, trying to sell a narrative that it is overseeing an impressive expansion of the country’s GDP, with a promise of making Ethiopia a middle-income country by the year 2025. It turns out that Eerar and similar other spots in the vicinity of Finfinnee have become ground zero for this number-focused and image-heavy marketing strategy.

I am also aware of arguments some have made about the importance of integrated urban development in a country that aims to climb the development ladder. I currently teach Economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and have been making regular trips to Finfinnee to conduct empirical researches on economic development. I have thus a professional opinion of what is taking place around Finfinnee in the name of urban development, but leaving that for another piece (I will present a paper on this topic at the upcoming OSA Mid-year Conference at the London School of Economics), I want to recount a couple of my encounters during some of those research-related trips to the homeland, incidents that speak to the burning issue of our time – the alienation of the Oromo from their ancestral land.

Ethiopia: Anti-terror rhetoric will escalate brutal crackdown against Oromo protesters

Protesters have been labelled ‘terrorists’ by Ethiopian authorities in an attempt to violently suppress protests against potential land seizures, which have already resulted in 40 deaths, said Amnesty International.
A statement issued by state intelligence services today claims that the Oromia protesters were planning to “destabilize the country” and that some of them have a “direct link with a group that has been collaborating with other proven terrorist parties”.
“The suggestion that these Oromo - protesting against a real threat to their livelihoods - are aligned to terrorists will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression for rights activists,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
“Instead of condemning the unlawful killings by the security forces, which have seen the deaths of more than 40 people in the last three weeks, this statement in effect authorizes excessive use of force against peaceful protesters.”
The latest round of protests, now in their third week, are against the government’s master plan to integrate parts of Oromia into the capital Addis Ababa.
Similar protests against the master plan in April 2014 resulted in deaths, injuries and mass arrest of the Oromo protesters.
Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation 652/2009, permits the government to use unrestrained force against suspected terrorists, including pre-trial detention of up to four months.
People that have been subject to pre-trial detention under the anti-terrorism law have reported widespread use of torture and ill treatment. All claims of torture and ill treatment should be promptly and independently investigated by the authorities.

Ethiopian Opposition Say 10 Oromo Students Killed at Protests

Ethiopian police killed 10 Oromo students who were demonstrating peacefully overplans to integrate the capital, Addis Ababa, with surrounding towns in Oromia region in the past three weeks, an opposition leader said.

High-school and university students from across Ethiopia’s most-populous region are protesting to demand the government shelve a master plan for the city, said Bekele Nega, general secretary of the Oromo Federalist Congress.

“The protest is not as usual, they are not backing away,” he said by phone from Addis Ababa. “They are not willing to stop until the demands are met.” Authorities gave a lower number of fatalities.

Ethiopia, which the International Monetary Fund forecasts will have sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economy this year, is seeing tensions between its plans for rapid development and its constitution, which enshrines the right to ethnic self-administration. Oromo critics say the integration of the capital with surrounding towns amounts to annexation of the ethnic group’s territory as farmers will be evicted and the language and culture lost.

Integrated development will benefit Oromo residents of peripheral towns and there will be no changes to administrative boundaries, said Getachew Reda, Ethiopia’s communications minister.

Four students died and 20 police officers were injured when protesters became violent, including an attempt to take control of a police station in Toke Kutaye in West Shewa zone, Getachew said by phone from Gambella town on Wednesday.

‘False Claims’

“We know the protests are based on false claims by some political elements, but whatever the source of protest they should be done in a peaceful manner,” he said. “Generally security forces have been exercising significant restraint, but there were areas where they have been overwhelmed.”

Around 150 people have been injured and 550 arrested, although persistent demonstrating has led to the release of 140 detainees, Bekele said. A worker from the state-owned Fincha sugar factory was killed on Dec. 7 during a protest, he said. The Sugar Corp. is seeking further information on a reported incident at Fincha, which is in Horo Gudru Welega zone, spokesman Zemedkun Tekle said Wednesday by phone from Addis Ababa.

OSA Statement on the Master Plan and the Oromo Protests

Oromo Studies Association (OSA)

P. O. Box 5641
Minneapolis, MN 55406-0541
www.oromostudies.org
Email: admin@oromostudies.org

For Immediate Release

December 9, 2015

Statement on the Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan and Oromo Student Protests against Its Implementation

The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) decries and denounces extreme measures taken by Ethiopian security forces, ongoing from late November 2015, killing and maiming peaceful student protesters.

Oromo students at every level of the educational system in Ethiopia, from elementary school to university, began peaceful demonstrations in late November 2015, to protest the implementation of a federally designed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan (AAIMP), which usurps the authority of the Oromia regional government. The students have been met by heavily armed and equipped special Ethiopian police force units who fire into the crowds with deadly impact. There are ten (10) confirmed deaths at this writing, with the confrontation escalating.

The “Master Plan” refers to the federal government’s controversial design for expanding the territorial boundaries of the capital city, Addis Ababa, increasing the city to twenty times its present size by taking over prime agricultural land from Oromo farmers. This plan, developed in secrecy, was first exposed in April 2014, a disclosure that prompted widespread protests at that time. In April and May 2014 the Oromo students’ peaceful protest against the imposition of the Master Plan in all of Oromia region was met with deadly force and live ammunition, which resulted in the confirmed deaths of more than 70 students, maiming of hundreds and imprisonment of thousands of university students.

Since late November, the demonstrators have started to resist specific steps taken to implement this Plan. It calls for the Federal jurisdiction of the Capital City to seize fertile, well-watered and centrally located parts of the Oromia Regional State. The blueprints for this undertaking were developed without the participation of the Oromia regional government. Since the revelation, there has been no opportunity for public discussion of the plan. Now as Federal forces have begun to move these arable lands out of the domain of indigenous Oromo and into the control of the central government, Oromo students have responded with renewed protests. The scale of the Master Plan is such that it engulfs enough ancestral farmland to affect the lives and livelihoods of nearly six million Oromo people and dismembers the Oromia Regional State by dividing it into two separate zones. There is universal opposition among Oromo both in Oromia and in the diaspora to this Federal action, taken without due process.

OSA members belong to Oromo public and political organizations representing a wide spectrum of ideological and institutional positions. They share a clear focus and mission to produce verifiable data that reveal the real conditions of life of the Oromo people. They also find it within their mission to inform the public of the value and relevance of those findings. In this regard, OSA members have studied and produced research data on multiple dimensions of this very complex and problematic crisis of land use and proprietary rights in the east, west, north, south, as well as centre of Oromia. Findings reveal a longstanding but largely ignored pattern of land confiscation from the Oromo – of which this Master Plan is the latest expression.

OSA believes that the Master Plan is unconstitutional. It violates the principle of federalism, illegally alters the boundaries and jurisdiction of the Oromia regional government, violates citizens’ human right to property and security, and ignores the constitutional principle of transparency for good governance.

OSA believes that the Master Plan is harmful to human development. Contrary to the principles of participatory policy-making for sustainable development, the Master Plan was developed by the federal government to apportion land, in the name of investment, to the economic elite who are already at the top of the social hierarchy. The plan disregards the livelihood of Oromo farmers who will be displaced to face extreme poverty and an increasing unemployment rate. OSA views the plan as having uneven and detrimental impacts by contributing to policy-driven poverty among the Oromo and exacerbating intra-nation/ethnic economic inequality.

OSA believes that the Master Plan is injurious to the environment. Developed in secrecy, the Master Plan violates established principles and practices pertaining to environmental protection clauses. Under the Master Plan, the expanded city will continue dumping toxic substances and industrial wastes on the surrounding cities, towns and lands of Oromo people. Oromo communities in the outlying zones and the ecosystem will remain on the receiving end of the environmental harm.

OSA members fully support the rights of the students who initiated the protests and the rights of those who have now joined them in massive numbers. OSA officers and members will assist their effort to the fullest extent in its capacity as an academic, non-partisan association of Oromo and non-Oromo scholars. We are deeply concerned that the government is using excessive, often deadly, force against unarmed students, including even elementary school students. These incidents are followed by attacks against parents and townsfolk who come out to protect their children against the very security personnel who are constitutionally mandated to provide protection and maintain law and order. It should be a matter of grave concern when an internationally recognized government uses excessive force against its own citizens. It is extremely grievous that the Ethiopian government has called up its well-armed special forces to move against unarmed students. This violates every international human rights principle and rights enshrined in the Ethiopian constitution that officially guarantees extensive, regional and individual rights.

OLF STATEMENT ON THE PLANNED KENYAN AND ETHIOPIAN JOINT MILITARY OPERATIONS.

Olf-statement-on-the-planned-kenyan-and-ethiopian-joint-military-operations:

PAFD, alliance of liberation movements, calls all in Ethiopia to unite against land-grabbing

The following is a statement from the Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Alliance (PAFD), a coalition of five national liberation movements, namely, OLF, SNLF, ONLF, GPLM and BPLM, operating in Ethiopia. Currently, extensive land-grabbing campaigns are underway in Oromia, Sidama-land, Gambella, Benishangul, among other places.

Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)
The Ethiopian Government Brutal Army and Paramilitary Police Use Lethal Force against Oromo Students Demonstrating Peacefully

Press Statement by Peoples’ Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (PAFD)

The Ethiopian government’s brutal army and paramilitary police are shooting at unarmed Oromo students demonstrating against the implementation of Addis Ababa land grabbing master plan.

Just over a year ago, TPLF’s regime planned to exponentially expand Oromia’s capital, the city of Finfinne (Addis Ababa), under the scheme known as ‘Addis-Master-Plan.’ This plan aims to incorporate the rural agricultural areas in Oromia state surrounding Addis Ababa. This Plan will totally displace the entire Oromo rural population in the area without their consent. The said plan has seriously angered the Oromo people, who went on a peaceful demonstration of opposing the plan. The regime’s security and armed forces’ unprecedented and violent response to the peaceful demonstration has left over 60 Oromo University and high School students and the others Oromo civilians dead, and over 200 wounded.

After remaining silent for around a year, the Prime Minister and others government officials have recently announced their decisions to re-implement ‘Addis-Master-Plan.’ Again, the Oromo students started demonstrating, beginning in West Oromia towns, such as Mattuu, Ambo and others places; it has widened its horizons to almost entire Oromia Zones and districts.

On December 1 and 2, 2015 there have been series of demonstrations in various Oromia regional Zones and districts, including in Madawalaabuu university, Agarfaa, Ayira (Guuliso), Bantuu, Burrayyuu, Chancho, Dalloo, Dinshoo, Finfinnee, Gaasaraa, Gimbi, Gudar, Haromayaa, Horro Guduruu, Jaarraa, Maattu, Sabroo, Jaarsoo, Laaloo, Asabi, Jiddaa, Ayyaanaa, Mandi, Najjoo, Qilxuu Karraa, Sabataa, Walisso, Sabroo, Xuqur Incinni and others various high schools, universities, towns and villages. In all these places, the responses of TPLF security and police personnel has been as brutal as always. Several deaths have been reported since last week. The number of wounded Oromo students, including children, has reached to several hundreds.

PAFD categorically condemns the brutal treatments of the civilians, and calls all liberation fronts and opposition parties to unite in ending the current undemocratic rule and create a new system that respects the rights of all peoples in Ethiopia. We call all nations and peoples in Ethiopia to rise up and stop this illegal displacement of Oromo people from their ancestral lands as is happening in all other parts. We call upon the international community to denounce the unlawful action of the Ethiopian brutal regime and urge it to abide with international laws in respecting citizens’ rights, dignity and safety. We also call upon all nationals working for TPLF’s repressive apparatuses, such us military, police and security that are inflicting pain on their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers, to unconditionally stop their alliance with the regime brutalizing all peoples, and join a genuine struggles for democratic change to bring about equality for all.

Oromia: Region-Wide, Heavy-Handed Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters

HRLHA Urgent Action

December 05, 2015

For Immediate Release

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa expresses its grave concern at the continuation of gross human rights violations in Oromia Regional State, violations that have regularly occurred since 1991 when the TPLF/EPRDF came into power.

The most recent heinous crime was committed- and is still being committed- against defenseless school children protesting against the approval of “the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan” by the Oromia Regional State Parliament a month ago. The peaceful protest involved many elementary school, high school, university students and civilians. Among them were students in Western Oromia zones, Najo, Nekemt, Mandi high schools and in other towns, in Central Oromia in Ginchi, Ambo, Addis Ababa high schools and the surrounding towns, Eastern and Southern Oromia zones, in Haromaya , and Bule Hora Universities and many more schools and universities. In violation of the rights of the citizen to peaceful demonstration enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution[1] Chapter two, article 30 (1) states “Everyone has the right to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peaceably and unarmed, and to petition. Appropriate regulations may be made in the interest of public convenience relating to the location of open-air meetings and ‘the route of movement of demonstrators or, for the protection of democratic rights, public morality and peace during such a meeting or demonstration” students in all of these places were severely beaten, imprisoned or even killed.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa emphasizes that the ongoing violence and crimes committed in Oromia Regional State for over two and a half decades by the TPLF perpetrators against the Oromo Nation amount to war crimes, and crimes against humanity- a clear failure of the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO) authorities, an organization claiming to represent the Oromo Nation. The members of this bogus political organization have proved to be not the Oromo peoples’ true representatives, but rather stand-ins for their real masters who have compromised the interests of the Oromo Nation. The Oromia Regional State authorities/OPDO did not resist the TPLF regime when Oromo children, farmers, intellectuals, members of political organizations were killed, abducted, imprisoned, tortured and evicted from their livelihoods by TPLF security agents in the past two and half decades. Instead, they helped the TPLF regime to control the political and economic resources of the Oromia Regional State. TPLF high officials and ordinary level cadres in Oromia Regional State engaged in enriching themselves and their family members by selling Oromo land, looting and embezzling public wealth and properties in the occupied areas of the Oromo Nation, and committing many other forms of corruption.

Committing atrocities and crimes against humanity are failures to comply with obligations under international law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the principles of proportionality and discrimination. With many civilians suffering from the crimes and serious violations of human rights, and by not taking any measures to ensure the accountability of those responsible for these crimes and violations, it has become clear that after all these years the so called Oromia Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) has betrayed the Oromo people by not protecting them. The OPDO members and the Oromia Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) members should not continue in silence while Oromo children are brutalized by Aga’azy squads deployed by the TPLF for ethnic cleansing. The Oromia Parliament (Caffee Oromiyaa) and OPDO have a moral obligation to dissolve their institutions and stand beside their people to resist the TPLF regime’s aggression.

The HRLHA believes that the gross human rights violations committed by the TPLF government in cooperation with OPDO in the past two and half decades against Oromo Nation have been pre-planned every time they have happened. TPLF regime security agents imprisoned, killed, tortured, kidnapped, disappeared, and evicted from their ancestral lands thousands of Oromo nationals, simply because of their ethnic backgrounds and to acquire their resources. The TPLF inhuman actions against Oromo civilians are clearly genocidal, a crime against humanity and an ethnic cleansing, which breach domestic and international laws, and all international treaties the government of Ethiopia signed and ratified.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) expresses its deep

The Making of Addis Ababa and the Alienation of the Oromo

In a recent interview he gave to the Oromia Broadcasting Service (OBS), artist Sayyoo Daandanaa was asked what motivated him to write his now famous tune Boole. His eloquent response alluded to a poignant encounter he had while on a show-biz related trip to Eerar some years ago — an encounter that suggested to him that the alienation of the Oromo from their own land (Finfinnee) is so complete that they have grown to resent the city. Because of this alienation, the Oromo of Eerar (as he explained it) traveled to Sandaafaa for trading purposes, instead of going to Finfinnee, despite the latter’s clear favourability in terms of geographic proximity.

Eerar (misnamed Yerer by Amharic speakers) is located a few kilometers to the southeast of Bole Airport, and not too long ago, it used to be a rural community where certain members of the Tuulamaa Oromo lived in relative peace and harmony, earning an honest living cultivating their plots. I remember this Eerar, because I had been there, in more ways than one. I grew up in Finfinnee proper – in the so-called Doro Manaqiya Sefer (not very far from the old airport), and had made numerous excursions as a lad with my peers or cousins into the rural villages and communities that used to surround Finfinnee (Furii, Wacacaa, Eerar, Lagatafo etc.) – outings we relished, because it gave us opportunities to engage in boyhood mischief not approved by our parents (e.g. swimming in the areas’ rivers and streams). I still remember with great fondness the Eerar, the Wacacaa, the Furii and the Lagatafo of my younger days, where I felt liberated enough to speak Afaan Oromoo with the local people without “my buddies” making injurious comments about my language, my identity.

But, of course, the Eerer of yesteryear which offered me glimpses of what could be and should be, is no more. Today, it is a space where “white fences and manicured lawns surround the villas of an elegant housing estate … a potent symbol of the emerging elite in a country better known for drought and famine.” (Taste for luxury: Ethiopia’s new elite spur housing boom By AFP PUBLISHED: 07:28 GMT, 2 December 2015 | UPDATED: 07:29 GMT, 2 December 2015) I am well aware that the Ethiopian government is doing its utmost to promote a positive image of the country, trying to sell a narrative that it is overseeing an impressive expansion of the country’s GDP, with a promise of making Ethiopia a middle-income country by the year 2025. It turns out that Eerar and similar other spots in the vicinity of Finfinnee have become ground zero for this number-focused and image-heavy marketing strategy.

I am also aware of arguments some have made about the importance of integrated urban development in a country that aims to climb the development ladder. I currently teach Economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and have been making regular trips to Finfinnee to conduct empirical researches on economic development. I have thus a professional opinion of what is taking place around Finfinnee in the name of urban development, but leaving that for another piece (I will present a paper on this topic at the upcoming OSA Mid-year Conference at the London School of Economics), I want to recount a couple of my encounters during some of those research-related trips to the homeland, incidents that speak to the burning issue of our time – the alienation of the Oromo from their ancestral land.

The first one happened in the summer of 2010, when my wife and I went for a spin to one of those now virtually non-existent rural villages, largely out of curiosity to discover what has become of my boyhood stomping grounds. Needless to say, the transformation is devastatingly complete, as captured by the above mentioned article. On this trip, I wandered off the paved path (which is not out of character for me) without much resistance from my lovely wife, past the new developments, into what is left of the Eerar countryside, running into a young Oromo couple who were going about their business. I stopped to have a few words with them, to which they initially reacted with unmistakable agitation – which they couldn’t hide despite their best effort at composure. I don’t blame them, because they had been conditioned to be apprehensive of strangers, particularly the type that shows up at their doorstep, uninvited. Who knows they might have thought that I was one of the would-be “developers” of what are shaping up to be apartheid-like estates adorning their former farmlands.

Human-rights-watch-says-the-bloody-crackdown-on-oromo-protesters-must-stop

Yet Again, a Bloody Crackdown on Protesters

Student protests are spreading throughout Ethiopia’s Oromia region, as people demonstrate against the possibility that Oromo farmers and residents living near the capital, Addis Ababa, could be evicted from their lands without appropriate – or possibly any – compensation. Social media is filled with images of bloodied protesters; there are credible reports of injuries and arrests in a number of towns; and local police have publicly acknowledged that three students have died so far.The current protests echo the bloody events of April and May 2014, when federal forces fired into groups of largely peaceful Oromo protesters, killing dozens. At least hundreds more students were arrested, and many remain behind bars. Both then and today, the demonstrators are ostensibly protesting the expansion of Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary into the surrounding Oromia region, which protesters fear will displace Oromo farmers from their land. But these protests are about much more: Many Oromos have felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies.

Of the student protesters detained in 2014, some have been released. Those I spoke with told me about the torture they endured as part of interrogations. But countless others remain in detention. Some have been charged under Ethiopia’s draconian counterterrorism law for their role in the protests; others languish without charge in unknown detention centers and military camps throughout Oromia. This week, five students were convicted of terrorism-related offenses for their role in the protests.

There has been no government investigation into the use of live ammunition and excessive force by security personnel last year.

Ethiopia’s tight restrictions on civil society and media make it difficult to corroborate the current, mounting allegations and the exact details of the ongoing protests emerging from towns like Haramaya, Jarso, Walliso, and Robe. The government may think this strategy of silencing bad news is succeeding. But while the fear of threats and harassment means it is often months before victims and witnesses come forward to reveal what happened in their communities, they eventually do, and the truth will emerge.

The government should ensure that the use of excessive force by its security personnel stops immediately. It should then support an independent and impartial inquiry into the conduct of security forces in the current protests – and last year’s as well. Those responsible for serious abuses should be fairly prosecuted. This would be the best way for the Ethiopian government to show its concern about

SCHOOL CLOSED AFTER MYSTERIOUS MASS COLLAPSE OF STUDENTS IN CHANCHO TOWN OROMIA

Chancho Elementary School , located in Finfinne surrounding, Oromiya Region Special Zone, Sululta Woreda, Chancho town, remains closed since yesterday after nearly 200 students experienced sudden (and so far mysterious) collapse yesterday afternoon.

Pictures of young and unconscious students being carried away from the school compound yesterday afternoon found its way to the social media; one particular picture (above) of an unconscious young girl sent a shockwave through social media activists who are trying to bring the plight of unarmed Oromo students protesting the Addis Abeba Master Plan but are met with excessive police crackdown.

It was widely reported on Facebook and Twitter that the students in Chancho town were also suffering from police crackdown as was the case in several cities in the Oromiya regional state for the last two weeks.

However, in an interview with this magazine, the school’s Deputy Principal Asnakech Wodajo said that due reasons that are unknown so far students started collapsing in the compound around 2: 30 PM.“First about ten students collapsed and we took them out of their classrooms,” says Asnakech. “Then a lot more students who were outside watching started collapsing as well.”

The collapsed students were taken to St. Pawlos Hospital in the capital. According to the Deputy Principal, among those who collapsed was a teacher. The students were discharged from the hospital and returned home after receiving mainly “counseling and psychological treatments,” according to Asnakech.

As Ashenafi Degifie, a father, whose nine old daughter attends the school recounts the events of the afternoon to Addis Standard, initially a lot of people in the town had assumed there was some sort of violence that had broken out in or around the school. “So I hurriedly drove to the school. And when I arrived there, I saw lots of kids falling. So I took my daughter and eight other kids to Pawlos [hospital].”

Commander Jemal of the local police force maintains that the police were instrumental in helping the students go to the hospital. “We haven’t got the report from the hospital yet. As a result we cannot ascertain what has happened. But there was no violence of any kind,” he told Addis Standard.

Oromo Student, Wounded at Haromaya’s Anti-Master-Plan Protest, Dies

According to a reliable source, an Oromo student, who was beaten by the Ethiopian Federal security forces (known as Agazi) at the Haromaya University’s protest against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, died at the University’s clinic from complications of the wound. This brings the death toll of the protest at Haromaya to four, based on media reports. The students were protesting against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, whose goal, they say, is to expand the City of Addis Ababa by many folds by evicting Oromo farmers from their land around the City of Addis Ababa in Oromiyaa.

The name of the deceased has not been released for this report; the following are photos of the student.