The Ongoing Battle For Human Rights In Ethiopia

In June 2020, Rahima Ganna, a resilient mother of three, was among the crowd voicing their pain. Her beloved Oromo musician, Hachalu Hundessa, was gunned down in Addis Ababa. Ganna and the other protestors were peacefully gathered, but the police arrested them anyway. While in jail, they tortured Ganna and kept her from her three children, who were left home alone. Eventually, Ganna received the news while still in jail: the Oromia Special Forces murdered her oldest daughter. She was only 15 years old. The police did not even allow Ganna to attend her funeral. Eventually, her remaining children—all under the age of 13—were imprisoned along with their mother, in a direct violation of international law.   

 Twenty political prisoners have not eaten in 30 days. Many are now unable to walk or speak and are losing consciousness. The prisoners are on hunger strike to protest their wrongful detention and ill-treatment, after being held since last June on “terrorism” charges.

Under the current Ethiopian administration, terrorism can mean simply operating a news station or leading a peaceful protest.

How did this begin? 

The Oromo people are the single largest ethnic group in East Africa, and they are native to both Ethiopia and Kenya. The Oromo comprise more than 40% of Ethiopia’s population, with an even larger number living abroad. However, despite the population’s majority in numbers, the Oromo remain a political minority in Ethiopia. Since the days of the Abyssinian Empire, the Ethiopian government has committed widespread atrocities against the Oromo people. Later, the 20th century Emperor Haile Selassie banned Oromo language and religion, forced Oromo women to marry Amhara soldiers, and engineered a government-wide campaign of cultural genocide against the Oromo. 

Fast forward to the post-Mengistu era of the 1990s, and the Oromos’ situation did not improve, despite Ethiopia’s supposed democratic makeover. The Oromo population was almost completely excluded from Ethiopia’s newly formed representative government. Although the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) did eventually join the ruling party coalition—the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)—in reality, political power remained concentrated among the Tigrayan and Amharic populations under the new government.

Abiy Ahmed was supposed to end this Oromo marginalization. Starting in the 2010s, Abiy rose to fame as a proud Oromo politician who fought back against the widespread land-grabbing of Oromia land by government forces. Abiy was eventually elected the first Oromo Chairman of the EPRDF, and eventually, the country’s first Oromo Prime Minister. 

In his early days as Prime Minister, Abiy brought democratic reform and a fresh commitment to strengthening Ethiopia’s civil society. Complications arose, however, when Abiy introduced a push to deemphasize ethnic politics within national governance. While many Ethiopians attest that the country’s ethnic federalist system can needlessly pit neighbor against neighbor, this push to set aside ethnic divisions also allows the government to disregard the marginalization that the Oromo continue to suffer. Statistically, Oromo people are more likely to suffer arrest and imprisonment than any other group in Ethiopia. As a legal scholar, Awol Allo said in an interview, “There is a disproportionate and indiscriminate repression of the Oromo.”  

Placed in this context, it is easy to understand the grief and anger that Ganna and others must have felt at the rally that day. 

In June 2020, beloved Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa was assassinated in Addis Ababa. Hundessa, a former political prisoner and Oromo cultural icon, put into lyric the oppression his people have long suffered. In the past three years alone, Ethiopian security forces have led a reign of terror against the Oromo population, killing children and forcing activists to undergo “political rehabilitation training,” as reported by Amnesty International. Hundessa’s death represented not only a cultural loss, but a political one too. After suffering in forced silence for generations, the Oromo community regarded Hundessa as a symbol of the resistance. Many believe that the Ethiopian government assassinated the artist, though there is no official evidence. 

In the aftermath of Hundessa’s death, Ganna and countless others suffered wrongful arrest and detention. Hundreds of people died in riots, murdered by either government forces or rioting mobs. The Ethiopian Human Rights Committee (ERC) formally investigated the crisis and stated that security forces used disproportionate and lethal violence against protestors. In their report, the ERC called the violence a “crime against humanity.” 

In addition to this tragedy, the Ethiopian government has closed Oromo media outlets and arrested journalists, charging them with inciting terrorism. It has imprisoned Oromo political leaders and flouted international standards for due process, according to Human Rights Watch.

Jawar Mohammed is one of those imprisoned leaders. An outspoken political analyst with degrees from Stanford and Columbia University, Jawar spent years in exile in the United States, raising awareness of the human rights abuses suffered by the Oromo in both Ethiopia and abroad. His brainchild the Qeerroo youth movement played a central role in ousting Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in 2018. During a 2019 interview with Al Jazeera, Jawar vowed to participate in his country’s 2020 national elections, which he saw as crucial to safeguard the democratic freedoms introduced by Abiy. 

But he is now inside the walls of Kaliti Correctional Facility, reportedly near death. 

Jawar has been detained since last summer, along with Colonel Gemechu Ayana and Oromo Federal Congress member Bekele Gerba—much loved Oromo political leaders. Last June, the activists led mass rallies across the country to condemn Hundessa’s murder. In response, state security forces arrested and detained them on trumped-up terrorism charges. 

Outraged by the arrests, #OromoYellowMovement supporters across the world have staged mass protests. In Addis Ababa on January 27th, 2021, the government arrested at least 80 peaceful protestors rallying outside the Federal High Court, Lideta Division of the Anti-Terrorism and Constitutional Court. Though these supporters have since been released, their arrest is just a small piece of the ongoing human rights crisis in Ethiopia.

The arrest of the #OromoYellowMovement activists prompted Jawar, Bekele, and nineteen other political prisoners to begin their hunger strike on January 27. The strikers’ mission is to “protest the government’s suppression and violation of rights of people and their party; to ask for a stop to the harassment and ill-treatment of Colonel Gemechu Ayana and to demand [that the government stop] the mistreatment and imprisonment of the visitors and relatives who attend their hearings and visit them in prison.”

Jawar’s mother visited him in prison last week. In his weakened state, he did not recognize her. Not long after, Mohammed Deksisso, an Oromo youth, seized the microphone at his university graduation ceremony on February 13 and shouted “Free Jawar Mohammed!” He is now held in an undisclosed location, where his family says security forces have beaten him. 

How many more Oromo sons and mothers will be torn apart? It is time for the international community to demand an answer. 

Oromo hunger strikers in mortal danger in Ethiopia

Free All Political Prisoners!

Prominent Ethiopian democracy advocates Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba, along with 22 other political prisoners, are in the third week of a hunger strike, which began on January 27. Doctors, lawyers, and their families warn that the detainees are getting weaker and are now at risk of organ failure or other complications. At least five of the strikers collapsed this week and were rushed to the hospital.

On Friday, Bekele Gerba, deputy chairperson of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was denied medical treatment after his doctors determined that he needed urgent medical attention and demanded his transfer to the hospital.

Held for more than 7 months based on trumped-up charges, the prisoners went on hunger strike as a measure of the last recourse to demand an end to their unjust detention and the harassment and crackdown of their political parties and their members. The strikers are individuals of considerable popular following, particularly among the Oromo youth, and pose a direct and significant electoral challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his party.

Jawar, Bekele, and Hamza Borana are among the leading members of the opposition OFC party. Michael Boran, Abdi Ragassa, and Gammachu Ayana are among the key members and organizers for the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Together, the individuals and their respective parties are seen as credible threats to Abiy’s chances for victory at the polls. Their arrest and detention angered Oromos across the region, and their deaths would almost certainly plunge Ethiopia into an unprecedented political crisis. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, comprising a majority of the country’s population.

Jawar, Bekele, and Hamza, in particular, played a critical role in the pro-democracy Oromo youth movement that ushered Abiy into power in April 2018. However, as the Prime Minister consolidated power and secured his position, formidable Oromo opposition forces became targets of repression and crackdown. The arrest of these highly visible public figures was carried out last year, within hours of the assassination of the popular Oromo artist and activist Haacaaluu Hundeessaa in Addis Ababa, which occurred the evening of 29 June 2020,

Charges brought against Jawar and several members, supporters, and activists of the OFC and OLF though couched in criminal terms, are unfounded. Their detention is political. The defendants and their lawyers contend that the indictment is a blatant overreach and abuse of power meant to remove Abiy’s adversaries from the democratic competition. Their trial is widely perceived as a deliberate and systematic attack against ethnonational movements and the right to self-determination of nations and nationalities protected under the current constitution. The extended detention and nearly eight months of legal wrangling are driven by the ruling party’s desire to remove its most outspoken and popular opponents from the political field before the election.

By late January, the prisoners launched the hunger strike to demand release and an end to what has become a systematic campaign of repression and disenfranchisement against Oromo and other marginalized peoples in the country. In a letter they sent to the Court, Jawar, Bekele and their co-defendants spoke about the Oromo youth who sacrificed their lives to bring about the change in Ethiopia and how those in power betrayed the cause of Oromo and others, systematically excluding genuine voices from the upcoming election and the national conversation about the future of the country. “Because we are no longer able to use the usual tools of non-violent protest and activism from inside the prison,” the letter noted, “we are resorting to the only form of protest available to us.”

So far, the government has chosen to ignore the issue. The hunger strike is taking place as international attention is focused almost exclusively on the war and the humanitarian crises in the northern Tigray region. In other parts of Ethiopia, however, public discontent was on full display this week. Secondary school students in various cities across the east, west-central, and southern Oromia came out to demonstrate, demanding the immediate release of these political figures. Members of the Oromo community across the U.S. and around the world are also staging solidarity rallies. The political crisis and the return of street protests in Oromia underscore the complete reversal of Ethiopia’s promised democratic transition.

As Jawar et.al continue hunger strike Oromia region sees multiple protests demanding their release, justice for slain artist Hachalu

Protests broke out in different parts of Oromia regional state since February 5, 2021. Protestors who took to the streets in Ambo last Friday raised several demands, including the release of Oromo politicians including Jawar Mohammad, Bekele Gerba and Hamza Borana of the opposition Oromo federalist Congress (OFC), a resident of the city told .  Many students were arrested and beaten by police according to eyewitnesses. 

It comes in the heels of continued hunger strike by defendants in Jawar’s file which started on January 27. On February 05, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Chief Commissioner Daniel Bekele said that “very close supervision is required to prevent any grave threat to their health and life and that reasonably justified demands of the prisoners must be addressed.” He added that “during visits to prisons or attending court hearings visitors must be treated properly.”

Jawar and the other defendants with him went to a hunger strike to protest against the arrest of some 80 supporters and family members from federal court premises during a key hearing the previous day. They demanded their release as well as respect for the right of their family members to attend the court hearing without police harassment mistreatment of their supporters and family members when they come to attend their hearing. In addition, the defendants also demanded the change of prison cell for Colonel Gemechu Ayana, Executive Council member the opposition Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), who remains in federal prison after he was repeatedly granted bail by a federal court and despite the discontinuation of the changes against him by Oromia prosecutors.

Quoting the Kality prison administration, EHRC said that “prisoners are regularly moved from one holding area (zone) to another and that there are other prisoners in the same area (zone) as Colonel Gemechu. During the visit, the Commission found one prisoner who had indicated being moved to the area (zone) for breaking prison rules.

Kaliti Prison Administration was preparing to move Colonel Gemechu Ayana to another holding area following EHRC’s recommendations in this regard, when the Federal High Court at a hearing on February 3, 2021, ordered for the prisoner to be returned to Kilinto noting that the prisoner’s transfer to Kaliti did not follow due process. The Commission has confirmed the transfer by visiting the prisoner on February 4, 2021, according to EHRC.

Since Friday February 05, protests are being held mostly by by high school students in different cities in Oromia, including Ambo and Dire Dawa. Today the protests spread to cities including Woliso, Yabbelo, Gimbii, Nekemte, Dembi Dolo, Shashamane, and Asebot demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to political instability in Oromia region. However, the protesters were met with excessive use of force that has resulted in unconfirmed number of injuries  and one confirmed death.

A high school student in Asebot told that the protests started in the morning today by high school  students and were later on joined by the community. The release of political prisoners was the main demand made by protestors in Asebot before it was dispersed by the police leading to the arrest of many, according to him.

Similarly, another protest that took place in Gimbii by Gimbi secondary high school students demanded justice for Hachalu Hundessa, a prominenet Oromo artist who was assassinated on June 29 last year, and the release of political prisoners; they have also carried banners asking an end to extrajudicial killings in Oromia. The organizers of the protest along with some teachers were arrested.

It looks like the government no longer cares about the feelings of the people it governs

The arrest and detention of Kadir Bullo, one of the lawyers defending Oromo political prisoners such as Jawar Mohammed & Bekele Gerba, represents a new low in Ethiopia’s long running politicisation of the legal system.

Free Them All!

While using the legal system to eliminate political foes of the regime is nothing new and the EPRDF government was known for that worldwide, arresting and detaining their lawyers is a new low, even by the standard of EPRDF and its continuation, the Prosperity Party.

The government is not satisfied by merely locking up its opponents and dragging them before its subordinate courts. It is not satisfied by muzzling the voices of millions who support these politicians at a time the government and ideologically aligned parties are preparing for elections. It is going further and arresting people who took up the very difficult and impossible task of defending people subjected to political show trials on the instruction of the ruling elites, not as a matter of routine law enforcement operation.

The prisoners themselves are currently on a hunger-strike. Their demands are very basic and the government can address those issues.

It looks like the government no longer cares about the feelings of the people it governs or its reputation abroad