War Crimes Against the Oromo Nation in Ethiopia

The Oromo nation is under severe coordinated internal  and external attacks  by TPLF/EPRDF- sponsored mechanized killing squads. In the past three months, since  the state of emergency was declared on October 8, 2016, the  Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF  government  has  deployed  its killing squad Agazi force all over Oromia  and massacred over 1200 Oromo youths, mothers and fathers  in their homes and in the streets, imprisoned tens of thousands, committed rape, and disappeared other  thousands .  Over seventy thousand Oromos  from all walks of life have been arbitrarily detained- under the pre-text of rehabilitation (Tehadiso)- picked up from their homes, workplaces, streets and taken to concentration Camps of  Xolya, Huriso, Diddessa  and also to  unidentified concentration camps.  In these concentration camps, tens of thousands Oromos have suffered and died  from torture, communicable diseases, and malnutrition without receiving medical treatment.

The external attacks have been perpetuated against Oromos by TPLF/EPRDF trained special force (Liyu Police) from the Somali regional state in  the eastern  boundary. The Liyu Police is a special killing squad of the TPLF/EPRDF government in the Ogaden Region, a group  established in 2008 under the pretext of  protecting the people of the region  from the opposition political organization, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) fighting for the self determination of Somali people in Ethiopia.

The Liyu police has routinely conducted heinous massacres in Ogaden villages ever since its formation and committed genocide against its own family members in the past eight years.

According to The Guardian, published  Thursday, 10 January 2013  , millions of pounds of Britain’s foreign aid budget were spent on training an Ethiopian paramilitary security force that stands accused of numerous human rights abuses and summary executions. The Guardian has  also mentioned in its news that  an internal Department for International Development document formed part of a tender to train security forces in the Somali region of Ogaden, as part of a five-year £13m–15m “peace-building” program has recently been discovered.

In its Urgent Action on May 2013 HRLHA reported that the Liyu Police had illegally  crossed into  Oromia in 2013 and attacked  the defenceless people; 700 different types of cattle and other valuable possessions were  reported to have been looted  and over 20,000  Oromos from Rasa Harre, Marfata, Qillee, Mulqee, Dirraa, Waldayyaa, Biqqoo and Libee community fled to the highland areas in Eastern Hararge Zone.

Since then, the TPLF/EPRDF- sponsored Liyu Police periodically has repeatedly attacked the neighboring Oromia districts in Bale, in Eastern Harge zones. The attack of the Liyu police  has escalated into invasions all over Oromia’s neighboring districts multiple times in the past one and half months.

According to the HRLHA informants,  this is the part of  internal and external  coordinated plan of TPLF /EPRDF government to  totally eliminate the Oromo nation  by using paramilitary Liyu Police. (synonym for Janjaweed militia which loosely translates to ‘devils on horseback’) . Janjaweed militia were group  of  killers deployed by Sudan government against the Darfur people in 2003 in which over 480,000 people were massacared and over 2.8 million have been displace)

Acording to the report we received  from our informants, overr 150  Oromos have been killed and many wounded during the war between  Liyu Police and the Oromo civilian in Gursum, Qunbi, Babile, Chiksan, Gursum, and Jarso (Eastern Hararge),  Seweyena, Meda Welabu, Dawe Sarariti and Raytu (Bale Zone),  Liban and Laga Dawa (Guji Zone), Funanagrsu and Elele (Borana Zone) of Oromia.

The TPLF/EPRDF is committing war crimes against the Oromo nation  by deploying its highly trained killing squads from the internal Agazi Force  and by the external Liyu Police funded by foreign governments. The World Community should not remain silent and witness when such systematic war crimes are  taking place  against the Oromo Nation in Ethiopia, crimes that are similar to those committed in Rwanda and Darfur.

The TPLF government and the TPLF surrogate and the so- called Oromo  People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) must be held accountable by the world community for their systematic war crimes against  the Oromos.

The 2003/2004 Genocide against Darfur in Sudan is a striking lesson; the people there were killed indiscriminately and, more sadly, the perpetrators would go unpunished until it culminated in a full genocide. What is happening in Oromia regional state today resembles more or less what happened at the embryonic stage of the Darfur genocide in Sudan.

Even the AU, whose headquarters is in the center of Oromia/Addis Ababa, remain actionless after thousands of Oromo children, seniors, men and women have been massacred by the TPLF/EPRDF killing squads in the past year. The donor governments such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia  and government agencies (African Commission  on Human and Peoples’ Rights, EU Human Rights Commission and  UN Human Rights Council) have not found the courage to take concrete action, other than expressing  their concerns.  Such inaction doesn’t reflect the AU’s  and the UN’s obligation under their own Constitutive Act, which provides for intervention inside a member state against genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

This is a cosmopolitan ideal of protecting people inside states against mass atrocities as a matter of common obligation. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P), coined in 2001 under the leadership of the Canadian government and adopted by 150 heads of states and governments in 2005, obliges the international community to intervene to stop atrocities.

As a matter of principle, a state shoulders the primary responsibility to prevent and protect its own citizens against horrific acts, but if it is unable or unwilling to prevent and protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, the responsibility is thus shifted to the international community. The R2P states, “ when a state is unable or unwilling to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, the international community has the responsibility to intervene”.

The UN Charter’s first and most essential aim is to “maintain international peace and security”. However, when the UN was first created, it was an enormous undertaking based on hope.

Today, one critical question on everyone’s lips is whether the United Nations is living up to its mandate, more particularly, of maintaining international peace and security. Amid ongoing human rights crises in Ethiopia it is hard to figure out what exactly the UN & AU have done to uphold their responsibilities. Nevertheless, it is not too late to act today.  

Recommendation:

For the Ethiopian human rights crisis, two ways can be helpful in restoring peace and stability. In this, the international communities and agencies (AU, EU & UN) can play a decisive role:

• Major donor governments, including the USA, the UK & Canada, Sweden, Norway and Australia should stop funding the authoritarian TPLF/EPRDF government
• Put pressure on the TPLF/EPRDF government to allow neutral investigators to probe into the human rights crisis in the country as the precursor to international community intervention

The HRLHA therefore calls, yet again, upon the international community to act collectively in a timely and decisive manner – through the UN Security Council and in accordance with the UN charter on a case-by – case basis to stop the human tragedy in Oromia.