Human Rights Watch issued a statement today asking the Meles dictatorship in Ethiopia to release over 200 Ethiopians from the Oromo {www:ethnic} group who have recently been detained without charges. Read the full statement below:
Ethiopia: Free Opposition Members
Mass Arrests of More Than 200 Ethnic Oromo Appear Politically Motivated
(London) – The Government of Ethiopia should immediately release members of the ethnic Oromo political opposition detained without charge after mass arrests, Human Rights Watch said today.
In March 2011, Ethiopian authorities carried out several waves of apparently politically motivated mass arrests of more than 200 ethnic Oromo Ethiopians. On March 30, the government confirmed that 121 were in {www:detention} without charge, alleging that they were members of the Oromo Liberation Front, a banned rebel armed group. The government told journalists that it had obtained court orders to continue to hold the 121 individuals while it gathers evidence against them.
“The Ethiopian government appears to be back to the old tricks of ‘detain first, ask questions later,'” said Rona Peligal, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately free the Oromo opposition members unless they can bring {www:credible} charges against them.”
Ethiopia’s international partners should press the government to release the detainees immediately if it cannot credibly charge them, Human Rights Watch said.
The authorities arrested 40 members of the Oromo People’s Congress (OPC) in a mass roundup from March 12 through March 14 in several districts of Ethiopia’s Oromia region. Those detained included long-serving party officials and many candidates in the 2010 regional and parliamentary elections. Several of them remain unaccounted for, OPC party officials told Human Rights Watch.
At least 68 members of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), an opposition political party, are among those arbitrarily arrested between March 1 and March 15, according to party officials. Those arrested include former members of Parliament, former local government candidates for election, civil servants, teachers, and students. OFDM officials reported that at least two were beaten at the time of arrest, and the whereabouts of several remain unknown.
Torture is a routine practice at Addis Ababa’s Maikelawi, or Central Investigation Unit, where the majority of the detainees are believed to be held, Human Rights Watch said.
Reports of the arrests broadcast on Voice of America’s Amharic service have been jammed by the government the radio service said in a statement on its website, further raising concerns that the roundups are politically motivated.
Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region. Its regional government is controlled by the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), a member of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The Ethiopian government has a long history of using accusations of support for the Oromo Liberation Front, an armed rebel group that has been carrying out a low-level insurgency for more than a decade, as a {www:pretext} for cracking down on political dissent among the Oromo population.
While Ethiopia has valid security concerns related to sporadic bombings and other attacks, the government has routinely cited terrorism to justify suppressing nonviolent opposition and arbitrarily detaining peaceful government critics. The authorities have indicated that they may charge several of the detainees under the new Anti-Terrorism Law, which Human Rights Watch and others have criticized on human rights grounds.
Enacted in July 2009, the Anti-Terrorism Law severely restricts the right to freedom of expression. It contains an overly broad definition of acts of terrorism that could be used to suppress non-violent peaceful protests, and greatly expands police powers of search, seizure, and arrest. The law also provides for holding “terrorist suspects” for up to four months without charge. These provisions violate basic human rights requirements of due process. Human Rights Watch expressed concern at the time that the new law would become a potent tool for suppressing political opposition and legitimate criticism of government policy.
The Ethiopian constitution requires the government to bring a person taken into custody before a court within 48 hours and to inform the person of the reasons for their arrest, a protection that is already systematically violated. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Ethiopia is a party, provides that anyone arrested for a criminal offense shall be brought before a judicial authority and promptly charged.
5 thoughts on “HRW calls for the release of ethnic Oromo prisoners”
Human Right Call ! are you kidding me Do we expect Weyane will respect the rule of law Like a Human Right issues specially now when they are frustrate. Why don’t we see what is happening this days what Ato Meles is saying like Arresting this people,beating a war dram on Eritrea, coming in the US to divert attention from inside to outside the country. For them a Human Right issue is not important since they have done it over the years and no action was taking against them .
Meles Zenawi can “generate’ credible charges aginst them. They have done that repeatedly in their 20 year of occupation of center of power in the country . Dr. Asrat Woldeyes and recently a group of military officers was charged with “credible evidence” and sent to the dungeons of TPLF. This time it may not be free ride for Woyanes.
The woyane started their anti-Ethiopian hate campaign and killing spree by inciting one ethnic group against the other, back in 1991 when they first marched to Addis Abeba from Dedebit. At that time the Amhara were the main targets of the woyane. After so much massacre, they have now shifted their focus on the Oromo.
Literally, there is no ethnic group now that has not been affected by the ethno-fascist woyane junta. The trend follows similar patterns all the time. First the woyane would set up an ethnicist organisatuon in their own image (OPDO, OMMO, ANDM, SELO, GMMO,ARDO, YGUO etc). when that group has served the objectives of the woyane all the members of that group are targeted under a crime the woyane create (e.g corruption, terrorism etc). This is how the woyane have been operating since day 1.
The sad thing is there are still people who are willing to lick the boots of the woyane and to do their dirty work of divide and rule the people.
It is no surprise that the OPDO, OPC ( long time serevants of the woyane are targeted for persecution). People have to wake up and stop being used as pawns of the woyane. No one in Ethiopia is free until all the people of Ethiopia are free.
Wake up you people serving the woyane, your time is short with the woyane, you are only being used as serevants.
We like it or not, the Oromo people do have no other alternative to fighting in unison against this nama-nyaataa regime! All Oromo nationalists in the spectrum of Oromo organizations from the far-left (UDJ of a unitary Ethiopia with Oromo leadership), middle-left (OPDO of a limited Oromian cultural autonomy), central-middle (OFC of a complete Oromian autonomy within Ethiopian union, i.e pre-walabummaa union), middle-right (ULFO of an Oromian independence) and the far-right (OLF of Oromian union including the Horn region, where other Oromo clans live, i.e post-walabummaa union) must now build a formal or informal tokkummaa and tumsa to push together for their common ground, for BILISUMMAA from Woyane fascism! After achieving this bilisummaa, they do have a chance to compete and advocate for their version of Oromo national sovereinginty, on which the Oromo public will decide per referendum. Wake up all Oromo nationalists in all walk of life and be united for this noble cause of bilisummaa!
Bilisabaas and Jabaa,
good look at the current political spectrum of the Oromo nationalists. Can we give the five parties their original Gadaa name? For instance:
– UDJ = Birimaji
– OPDO = Horata
– OFC = Bichile
– ULFO = Duulo
– OLF = Robale?
Then just taking in to consideration the liberation journey according to the famous metaphor (the journey from Djibouti/Garbummaa to Finfinne/optimal Bilisummaa):
– UDJ wants to bring back the status of an Erased Oromia from the world map = a backward move to Djibouti,
– OPDO wants to maintain the present Occupied Oromia by Woyane occupation force = a life in Ayisha, the desert town at the border of Djibouti,
– OFC strives a forward move to Autonomous Oromia = a move to Diredhawa,
– ULFO fights for a further move to Independent Oromia = further move to Adaama, and
– OLF struggles for an optimal form of bilisummaa beyond an independence, i.e for a United Oromia in the Horn = a final journey to Finfinne.
So, UDJ’s struggle for individual liberty of citzens is good, but its attempt to erase Oromia must be checked. OPDO is good only to hinder this attempt of erasing Oromia, but its tendency to maintain the occupied status of Oromia can not be accepted. The moves of OFC, ULFO and OLF are just complementary, if they are wise enough to synchronize their move and work in tandem to promote our liberation journey first to Diredhawa, then to Adaama and finally to Finfinne without creating artificial conflict as they sometimes seem to do. But now as you said, we have to give a priority to getting rid of the fascist and racist Woyane regime by any means possible, including the REVOLUTION!