Ana Gomes to Host Hearing on Oromia, Afar, and Sidama in the Euro-Parliament, following OSG Report
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
March 17, 2010
(http://www.buzzle.com/articles/europe-and-america-have-to-break-ties-with-the-racist-ethio-fascist-abyssinian-tyranny.html), I published extensive parts of the devastating OSG (Oromia Support Group) Report 45 (March 2010), which reveals the chaotic situation that prevails in Occupied Oromia; an absolutely inhuman tyrannical rule is there intertwined with a very preoccupying and overwhelmingly attested Anti-Oromo racial hatred from the part of the guilty Amhara and Tigray Tewahedo Abyssinian tribes. The situation is alarming.
In the light of evidence brought forth by the Report, it becomes clear that democratic nations in Europe and America cannot afford to further recognize the monstrous tyranny that was formed through invasions of neighboring nations and peoples before more than 100 years, and has been ever since ruled by means of serial multi-genocides.
African Diasporas must mobilize all their resources in Europe and America, reach out NGOs, associations, parliaments, activists, intellectuals and democratic politicians and statesmen, and thus force Europe and the US to totally break their relations with the inhuman tyranny, and successfully impose an embargo on Abyssinia (fake Ethiopia), as an alarming warning before a UN intervention and liberation of the subjugated nations.
A first interest was demonstrated in the case of Ogaden with the hearing at the European Parliament, which took place just yesterday. Hearings should be extended to other subjugated nations of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia), namely the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Kambaatas, the Kaffas, the Hadiyas, the Gedeos, the Shekachos, the Anuak, the Gumuz, the Nuer and the Berta.
What happened to the former Yugoslavia, must now occur to Abyssinia, the world´s worst Hell.
I herewith republish further parts of the OSG Report, and I will complete with a forthcoming article.
Oromia Support Group Report 45 - March 2010
Political detention and killings in Ethiopia 2008 - 2010
http://www.oromoliberationfront.org/news/2010/Report_45[1].pdf
Contents
2010: Opposition threatened, detained and branded illegal
Recent wave of arrests in Oromia Region: shootings
Tigray Arena party arrests and threats
Political persecution and killings in 2008
Crackdown on Oromo, October/November: accusations of terrorism
Refoulement from Kenya: terrorist label
More killings and arrests: new ´silent torture´
Political persecution and killings in 2009
January: Killing, arrests, terrorism charges
February: Torture, rape, harassment, arrests, death by torture
March: Attempted assassination, killing, arrests
April: Terrorism charges and convictions, Birtukan Mideksa
Ginbot 7 arrests
May: Detention, killings, death from torture, CUD sentences
June: Beatings, Ginbot 7 charges, torture, tax evasion, terrorism
July: Anti-Terrorism Law
Human Rights League: Oromo political prisoners´ appeal
Torture methods
Prison conditions
Dozens of Oromo arrested: student tortured
August: Convictions, arrests, torture, harassment
September: Pre-trial detention, Medrek and other arrests, torture
October: UDJ members arrested, beaten, raped
Surveillance and intimidation in Dembi Dollo
November: Denial of food aid and food-for-work programme
Intense surveillance: Toronto Globe and Mail
December: Ginbot 7 death sentences
No level playing field for the 2010 election - Dr. Negasso Gidada
Appendices
August 2009: Convictions, arrests, torture, harassment
The Federal High Court reached a verdict on 14 of the 46 Ginbot 7 suspects on 6 August (Reuters, 8 August). One was acquitted and thirteen, including Dr Berhanu Nega, were found guilty.
The OLF reported (OLF News, 13 August 2009) that civilians in W. Hararge, especially in Daro Labu and Bookee districts, had been detained in reprisal for OLF activity in the area. The administrator of Biliqa village, Kamal Adam, and Bayisa, an elder from Tayfee village, were among those detained, alonside several farmers. The report also named Sham Mohammed and Taju Abdalla among several detained and tortured in Dire Dawa, E. Hararge.
On 18 August, the OLF reported detentions and torture in Xiyo, Digalu, Xijo and Muneesa districts of Arsi, naming Abdalla Fiqire, Mr Samuel, Abdalla Qumbo, Abbe Mohammed, Eliyas Kasaya, Mr Kadir, Qaalakiristosa Zamadu and a Mr Qancare and ´all his family´ among those detained.
The OLF later reported (8 September) that Oromo in W. Showa had been arrested, dismissed from their jobs and denied educational opportunities for refusing to join the government Oromo party, the OPDO. Those detained in Jaldu district included Hailu Gobana, Dejene Tolasa, Birhanu Milkeesa and Kabee Xaafa. No attempt had been made to take these men to court two weeks later. The organisation also reported that three men, Tasfaye Boka, Haile Fulasa and Zeena Bachaara, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2009 for inciting student disturbances in 2005 were being severely tortured in Ambo prison, W. Showa.
On 23 August, Capital reported that the UDJ presented a report to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi which detailed abuses against party members. Its offices across the country had been shut down by local security officers and some had been demolished. Senior party members had been detained ´on fabricated charges´, predominantly in SNNPR, Oromia and Amhara Regions. One member was detained for ´posting a UDJ banner without permission´ said the acting chair, Gizachew Shiferaw.
On 29 August, Ethio-Channel reported that 25 university students, teachers and farmers were sentenced by the Federal High Court to 10-15 years in prison for suspected links with the OLF, damaging government institutions and robbing ´millions of Birr from Fincha sugar factory´.
Former Ethiopian President and Medrek coalition partner, Dr Negasso Gidada, announced to the press at the end of August that government cadres disrupted a political meeting which he was addressing in Adama (Nazaret) in an ´organised disturbance´.
September 2009: Pre-trial detention, Medrek and other arrests, torture
Bako Tibe Woreda (W. Showa) finance office employee, Mr Dabala, was arrested on 10 September and taken by security forces to an unknown location after his house had been searched in vain for evidence linking him with the OLF (OLF News, 16 September).
HRLHA (Press Release 19, September 2009) reported that 73 detainees, most of whom had been detained in Shinile, Dire Dawa, E. Hararge, for five years without charge or trial, were finally brought to court in September. Their names were taken from the Dire Dawa Prosecutor General´s charge sheet which was presented to the Federal High Court in March 2009. According to HRLHA´s informants, a number of prisoners had died in detention before the court hearing, due to lack of food and medical care. They receive only two glasses of water and three pieces of local bread each day. The survivors are aged 18-80 and include 9 women. All were charged with involvement with the OLF. Their names and ages are listed in Appendix 6.
Reuters and AFP, reporting from Addis Ababa on 10 September, published claims by Medrek coalition parties that they were being ´crippled by a campaign of arrests, imprisonments and intimidation´. The parties claimed that nearly 200 members had been arrested over the preceeding three months. OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told reporters ´Ruling party cadres throughout the country are jailing our potential candidates on false charges´. Nine men were convicted that day and sentenced for 10-17 years for financing and buying weapons for the OLF. Bulcha Demeksa said ´The authorities plant documents in potential politicians´ houses, trying to relate them to rebel groups like the OLF or the ONLF. They are simply potential candidates.´
Oromo singers Haacaaluu Hundasa and Ms Diribe Gada were arrested on 15 September and were reportedly tortured in Maikelawi CID, according to Ethiomedia, 6 October.
OLF News reported on 29 September that family members Malkamu Ababa, Malkamu Tarafa and Bayisa Tarafa, were taken from their home in Addis Ababa earlier in the month and severely beaten in Maikelawi CID. Also mentioned in the report, in Fantalee Woreda, E. Showa, Dalale and Abdi Mi´eeso were among several Oromo detained on 24 September and tortured, and at least 110 were detained in W. Hararge on 28 September.
GSF, aged 25, writing from exile on 25 January 2010, recounted a five year history of persecution culminating in his last arrest in September 2009, before he fled the country. He was first arrested and tortured in Ambo police station for two months at the beginning of 2004, following student disturbances there. He was released on condition that he stopped attending the high school, avoided contact with other students and teachers and that he avoided all public meetings.
He went to Addis Ababa and joined the OFDM party. He was again arrested in November 2005. He remained in detention at Maikelawi, Karchale and then Kaliti until February 2009. During this period of more than three years he was shackled hand and foot for prolonged periods, whipped with electric cable, beaten severely by fist, boot and gun and accused of organising students on behalf of the OLF.
He successfully challenged a ten year prison sentence at the Federal Supreme Court to obtain his release. He was shot at by security forces around his family home in Wallega in June and again returned to Addis Ababa, where he was closely followed. He reported that a four day detention in September 2009 was the worst. After ´severe torture´ he was taken out at 1.00 a.m. to Entoto mount to the north of Addis Ababa and threatened with a pistol inserted into his mouth to ´reveal OLF secrets´ (see Torture methods, Oromo political prisoners´ appeal, p. 16). He was again released on conditions; of avoiding personal, internet and telephone contact with anyone and of remaining within Addis Ababa. After hearing from a friendly Federal Security insider that he was being targeted for assassination, he fled the country at the end of 2009.
October 2009: UDJ members arrested, beaten, raped
The Amharic weekly Addis Admas (October 10) reported UDJ complaints of beating, harassment and intimidation of its members in East and West Gojam zone of Amhara Region. Deputy chairman Dr. Hailu Araya said that 21 members in Awenet Menz Kebele and Denbecha in Jabi Tena Woreda were targeted by local officials who accused them of illegal political activities following some of them attending a meeting in Addis Ababa. Three weeks later, the paper stated that another 20 UDJ members had given accounts at a meeting with western diplomats on 30 October of their being recently beaten and arrested in SNNPR and Amhara Region. One lady from S. Gondar, Amhara Region, reported being raped in detention three months previously.
Surveillance and intimidation in Dembi Dollo
Medrek coalition candidate, former Ethiopian President Dr Negasso Gidada (Ethioforum.org, 13 October) wrote of the harassment and intimidation that he and his supporters experienced when he visited his constituency in Dembi Dollo, Wallega, the previous month. His article is reproduced in full on the next page. As well as cataloguing reasons for the May 2010 national elections being unfair, he descibed in detail the structure and activities of the pervasive Ethiopian security apparatus. Operating down to the level of individual households, the security apparatus monitors any communication between opposition supporters (see also Intense surveillance: Toronto Globe and Mail, below). Meetings were disrupted and supporters followed and interrogated during and after his visit. Seventy five supporters were detained for up to 48 hrs prior to his visit and charged 100 Birr to be released on bail. They were warned that if they voted for the opposition as they did in 2005 the government party cadres would ´not give in like then´ but defend themselves ´even with guns´.
November 2009: Denial of food aid and food-for-work programme
Reuters (3 November) carried a report from opposition parties claiming that nearly 450 of their members had been jailed to prevent them standing as parliamentary candidates in the May 2010 election. On 17 November, the news agency wrote that UK Minister for International Development, Gareth Thomas, was investigating claims by the opposition coalition that their supporters were being denied emergency food aid (needed by 6.2 million this year) and access to the food-for-work scheme, the long-running programme helping another 7 million Ethiopians cope with food shortages.
Intense surveillance: Toronto Globe and Mail
Corroborating the account given by Negasso Gidada, the Toronto Globe and Mail (17 November) carried a report including interviews with him and with Bulcha Demeksa, OFDM leader, and Siye Abraha, former Defence Minister and colleague of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, also standing as an independant with the Medrek coalition.
Negasso Gidada told the reporter ´People are so intimidated that they are afraid even to speak to me on the phone. Campaigning is totally impossible. How can it be a fair election?´ He described a meeting being broken up by ´dozens of thugs´ from the ruling party, police prohibiting the use of a megaphone because of the lack of a permit and the monitoring of his emails and phone calls.
Siye Abraha also claimed that he and his children were closely followed and that his emails and phone calls were monitored. ´In restaurants, spies sit close to me, and you can´t ask them to leave´ he said ´There is no private life, no private property. And there is nowhere you can complain. You can go to the police, but they will do nothing.´
Campaign letters have to be hidden from security informants. ´Families are afraid to pass the letters from one to another´ claimed Bulcha Demeksa. He continued ´If tomorrow I go to my constituency and speak to people under a tree, the police will disrupt it.´
The paper quoted a recent International Crisis Group report ´Thanks to Chinese electronic monitoring-and-control software, the government is able to block most opposition electronic communications when it desires.´
December 2009: Ginbot 7 death sentences
Amnesty International (21 January 2010) appealed to the Ethiopian government to rescind death sentences passed on five of the Ginbot 7 defendants. Only one of those sentenced to death, Melaku Tefera, is detained in Ethiopia. The others, including Dr Berhanu Nega, are in the USA or UK. Sentences were passed on 22 December 2009. Life imprisonment was imposed on the 33 other Ginbot 7 defendants, including one woman.
No level playing field for the 2010 election - Dr. Negasso Gidada Ethioforum.org 13 October 2009
Current Political Situation in Dembi Dollo Area
I visited Dembi Dollo, in Qelem Wallega Zone of Oromia Region from September 18-28, 2009. During my visit, I tried to gather as much information as possible on the current political situation. I was unable to hold public meetings because the local administration was unwilling to cooperate. I therefore tried to meet as many individuals as I could. During the 10 days, I talked to over two dozen individuals, including cadres of the OPDO/EPRDF, business leaders, community elders, government workers (teachers and health workers), local qabale* officials, vacationing university students, church leaders, private professionals, NGO employees and members and supporters of the OFDM.
This descriptive analysis summarizes and focuses on a few major issues. My general conclusion is that the OPDO/EPRDF totally controls and dominates the local political arena, and therefore, there could be no level playing field for the opposition in the Dembi Dollo area. Unless the situation changes dramatically in the next few months, I do not expect the 2010 election will be fair, free or democratic. The first step in correcting the current situation is by appointing well trained election officers to different levels of the election administration.
I. Strict Security Control and Surveillance
The OPDO/EPRDF which claims to have won the 2005 and 2008 elections seems determined not to allow any other political organization which could compete against it in the area. This goes as far as not welcoming individual visitors to the area. Visitors are secretly followed and placed under surveillance to determine where they have been, whom they have visited, and what they have said. The visitors would rarely be called for interrogation or approached by the security people. It is the local people who had contact with visitors that are summoned and grilled by security officials. In my case, my brother-in-law, with whom I stayed, made a copy of the letter I brought with me from the parliament and gave it to the security office. He also received telephone calls from the Dembi Dollo and Naqamte* security offices. He was asked why I came, whether I came for preparation for the coming election or for any other purpose.
About two months ago Professor Haweitu Simeso of the USAID visited Dembi Dollo with colleagues from the Irish and Canadian embassies. The visiting group was followed from the time it arrived in Naqamte. After the group returned, several security officials interrogated leaders of the Dembi Dollo Bethel-Mekane Yesus Church who had spoken to Haweitu and his colleagues. One of the church leaders was even summoned to the zonal administrator´s office and asked detailed questions about the visitors from Addis. Three weeks before I went to Dembi Dollo, Dr. Belaynesh (member of the OFDM and an MP) was in Dembi Dollo. After she returned to Addis, all the people who went to her father´s house to greet her and others she greeted on the streets in the town were arrested, interrogated and held in custody for 24 to 48 hours. The houses of some of these individuals were also searched. A building contractor who arrived in Dembi Dollo on September 28 to inspect the construction of the new Bethel Church was also followed. He left the next day fearing that he will be summoned to the security office. OPDO/EPRDF in Dembi Dollo, besides using the police and security offices and personnel, also collects information on each household through other means. One of these methods involves the use of organizations or structures called "shane", which in Oromo means "the five". Five households are grouped together under a leader who has the job of collecting information on the five households every day and pass it on to a higher administrative organ called "Gare". There are 30 to 40 households in a "Gare" group which has a chairperson, a secretary, a security chief and two other members. The security chief passes the information he collected to his chief in the higher administrative organs in the Qabale, who in turn informs the Woreda police and security office.
Each household is required to report on guests and visitors, the reasons for their visits, their length of stay, what they said and did and activities they engaged in. The "shane" leader knows if the members of the households have participated in "development work", if they have contributed to the several fund raising programs, if they have attended Qabale meetings, whether they have registered for election, if they have voted and for whom they have voted. The OPDO / EPRDF runs mass associations (women, youth and micro-credit groups) and party cells ("fathers", "mothers" and "youth"). The party cells in the schools, health institutions and religious institutions also serve the same purpose.
II. Organizational Structures
Understanding how the OPDO/EPRDF itself and its Woreda administration are organized is very important. There is the OPDO/EPRDF Qellem Wallega Zonal office in Dembi Dollo. This office receives information and instruction from the regional office in Addis Ababa. It passes messages to the lower structures and oversees the propaganda and organizational activities of the party. This office has branches in every village, schools and health institutions. These branches are subdivided into basic cells. The branches of these cells are organized into supporter groups, candidate groups and full members groups.
Additionally, the party has organized the people into youth, women and micro-credit associations for tighter control and easy dissemination of its propaganda and to do party activities. Dembi Dollo town is a special Woreda Town Administration. The Administration is sub-divided into four large "Ganda" (villages). The town used to have seven Qabales but was restructured just before the Qabale election in 2008. Each Qabale has 15 in the Woreda Council. It is said that the OPDO/EPRDF presented the names of pre-selected council members to the Qabale Council and had them endorsed. There is also the Sayyo Rual Woreda (24 Qabales). The administration of Sayyo Woreda also has its seat in Dembi Dollo town. These are all appointees of the party and are believed to be "strongly committed" to it. The four "Ganda" (villages or some times called Kifle Ketema) have each their own councils. A council has 300 members. The members were "elected" in 2008. All the people I talked to confirmed to me that the party pre-selected the candidates. The Qabale has its own cabinet and these are also party members. A Qabale is further sub-divided into different zones. The zones are sub-divided into "Gare". There are up to 17 "Gare" in each zone.
III. Misuse of Public Property, Finance and Civil Servants
The party´s propaganda and organization committees are located in the Zonal, Woreda and Qabale Administration building. The party does not pay rent for the rooms it uses. The committee members are party cadres but their monthly salaries and per diems are paid by the administration from public treasury. Their secretaries, cleaners and messengers also get their salary from public treasury. All civil servants are also members of the party. Monthly contribution of the members to the party are collected by the Woreda finance office at the time they pay the workers their monthly salaries. The party officials use government office materials, supplies and equipment, including official transport vehicles. The party uses town and qabale halls without paying rent. Meeting halls in health and educational institutions are also used without any payment and at will. This system is practiced from Zonal to "Gare" levels. But opposition to the OPDO / EPRDF are not allowed to rent rooms for offices from private owners or rent public halls in the town for meetings. Plasma televisions supposed to be used for school-net and Woreda-net are used for dissemination of party propaganda.
IV. Dissemination of OPDO/EPRDF thoughts
All adults in the qabales and government employees are forced to participate in different seminars and workshops. The same is true of all school children who are in high schools and vocational training institutions. University students on vacation are also required to participate in such programs. Lessons in "Tarsimo" (Strategy) and "Bulchiinsa Gaarii" (Good Governance) are given to all residents (school children, college and university students, and private and government employees). Workshops on BPR have been held and each government employee is given Birr 25 for participation. The seminar for university students lasted five days. The per diem for this seminar was supposed to be Birr 35 per day for each participant for nine days. Every two weeks on Friday afternoon, all government employees participate in study circles of the party and cell meetings during work hours and in the public meeting rooms. No rent is paid for the use of the rooms. Fund raising programs are organized once in a while for support of the party. It is the administration´s finance officers who deduct the pledged amount from employees and transfer the money to the party.
V. Elections
During the 2005 election, I have witnessed that civil servants were deployed for two weeks for election campaign for the OPDO/EPRDF and that government vehicles (cars and motor cycles) were used for this purpose. OPDO/EPRDF members and cadres were busy disrupting public meetings I called in the field. One of my observers was bribed with Birr 200 and agreed to give the votes I received to my opponent (OPDO/EPRDF). In one qabale, I was prevented from holding an election campaign meeting 500 meters away from a market place. The qabale officials told me that my meeting will disturb "their market". My posters were removed from several places and leaflets I distributed were collected and destroyed. I persistently appealed to the election officials to correct the OPDO / EPRDF illegal activities or cancel it from the election in accordance with the election law but no one heeded my appeals.
According to the people I talked to, the chief of an election office during the 2008 election was also a member of the OPDO/EPRDF. There is a rumor that the same person is being appointed to the office by the OPDO/EPRDF for the 2010 election. The OPDO/EPRDF appointed a supporter or a member to each polling station to stand by the voters and tell the voters in which box they should put voting signs or signatures.
VI. Situation of the Opposition
The office of the OFDM has remained closed since 2005. Members and supporters were beaten up and imprisoned several times. They were intimidated or bribed. During the three weeks before my visit to Dembi Dollo, 60 people in Sayyo and 15 people in Dembi Dollo were arrested and kept in police custody for up to 48 hours. They had to pay one hundred Birr as bail before being released. They were reprimanded and warned for the 2010 election. They were told, "Be careful! Don´t support, or join or vote for the opposition as you did in 2005. We shall not give in like then. We defend ourselves even with guns." OFDM is equated with OLF while the CUD or the "Qindomina" as it is called in Oromia, is equated with the "Nafxagna*". The campaign against the UDJ as a "Nafxagna" organization has already begun.
VII. Media
No private or independent newspapers exist in Dembi Dollo. Alternative news sources to the Federal and Oromia public media are only VOA and Deutche Welle. The Oromia information office and the OPDO send their press media to the area by bus. These are picked up by a government employee and distributed to different institutions and offices. All workers are forced to buy these news papers.
VIII. Conclusion
It is plain to anyone who has been to Dembi Dollo and surrounding areas that there is no political level playing field. I can not imagine how the opposition can enter into an election process under such conditions. If the ruling party is serious about having a peaceful, fair and democratic election in 2010 it has much to do, including the release of all political prisoners and putting a stop to new illegal arrests, intimidations, detentions and bribing opposition member, immediate reopening of offices of the opposition, providing immediate equal access to the public media, allowing public meetings organized by the opposition to take place freely, amending the Election Law so that neutral election officials can be appointed and making it possible for international election observers free access to ensure fair elections, and putting into place control mechanisms so that its supporters and members respect the constitution and the election laws. It must also start repaying rent for offices and halls it has used for its party activities over the past several years as well as for use of government office materials and equipment, fuel, telephone and electricity, and return the money it took out of the public treasury and paid as salaries to its members
Qabale = Kebele; Nafxagna = Neftegna, a derogatory term, meaning ´rifle-carrier´, used in reference to Amhara landlords who were imposed on Oromo peasants after the conquest of Oromia in the late 19th century.
Abbreviations & terms
AEUP- All Ethiopia Unity Party (offshoot of CUD)
Arena- Tigrean opposition party (Medrek member)
CUD- Coalition for Unity and Democracy, former opposition party
EDUM- Ethiopian Democratic Unity Movement (Medrek member)
EPRDF- Ethiopian People´s Revolutionary Democratic Front, umbrella government party
ESDP- Ethiopian Social Democratic Party (Medrek member)
Ginbot 7- Banned opposition movement
Maikelawi CID- The Central or Special Investigation Department in Addis Ababa, adjacent to the Third Police Station
Medrek- Coalition of opposition parties
OFDM- Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (Medrek member)
OLF- Oromo Liberation Front, banned in 1992
OPC- Oromo People´s Congress (Medrek member)
OPDO- Oromo People´s Democratic Organisation, government Oromo party
OSG- Oromia Support Group
SDAF- Somali Democratic Alliance Forces (Medrek member)
TPLF- Tigrean People´s Liberation Front, dominant party in EPRDF
UDJ- Unity for Democracy and Justice (offshoot of CUD, Medrek member)
Oromia Support Group
The Oromia Support Group is a non-political organisation which attempts to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Ethiopia. OSG has now reported 4,185 extra-judicial killings, including deaths in custody, and 944 disappearances of civilians suspected of supporting groups opposing the government. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been placed in illegal detention, where torture and rape are commonplace. Most of these detainees are Oromo.
Note
Picture: Independent Oromia will bring a dead end to the world´s most shameful and inhuman tyranny.
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