so I did too and therefore I must be the one who is
organising the students.”
Young man from Dodola Woreda, Bale Zone1
The anticipation and repression of dissent in Oromia manifests in many ways. The below are some of the numerous and varied individual stories contained in this report:
A student told Amnesty International how he was detained and tortured in Maikelawi Federal Police detention centre because a business plan he had prepared for a competition was alleged to be underpinned by political motivations. A singer told how he had been detained, tortured and forced to agree to only sing in praise of the government in the future. A school girl told Amnesty International how she was detained because she refused to give false testimony against someone else. A former teacher showed Amnesty International where he had been stabbed and blinded in one eye with a bayonet during torture in detention because he had refused to ‘teach’ his students propaganda about the achievements of the ruling political party as he had been ordered to do. A midwife was arrested for delivering the baby of a woman who was married to an alleged member of the Oromo Liberation Front. A young girl told Amnesty International how she had successively lost both parents and four brothers through death in detention, arrest or disappearance until, aged 16, she was left alone caring for two young siblings. An agricultural expert employed by the government told how he was arrested on the accusation he had incited a series of demonstrations staged by hundreds of farmers in his area, because his job involved presenting the grievances of the farmers to the government.
Many Oromo people flee Ethiopia to take refuge in
neighbouring states
Ethiopia has "ruthlessly targeted"
its largest ethnic group for suspected links to a rebel group, human rights
group Amnesty International says.
Thousands of Oromo people had been subjected to unlawful killings, torture
and enforced disappearance, it said.
Dozens had also been killed in a "relentless crackdown on real or imagined
dissent", Amnesty added.
Ethiopia's government denied the allegations and accused Amnesty of trying to
tarnish its image.
It has designated the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which says it is fighting
for the rights of the Oromo people, a terrorist organisation.
Former detainees who had fled the country described torture, "including
beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten
plastic and rape, including gang rape", it added.
Amnesty said other cases of torture it had recorded included:
A young girl having hot coals poured on her stomach while being held in a
military camp because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF
A teacher being stabbed in the eye with a bayonet while in detention because
he had refused to teach propaganda about the ruling party to his students
A student being tied in contorted positions and suspended from the wall by
one wrist because a business plan he had prepared for a university competition
was seen to be political
It compiled the report after testimonies from 200 people who were exiled in
countries like Kenya and Uganda, Amnesty said.
"We interviewed former detainees with missing fingers, ears and teeth,
damaged eyes and scars on every part of their body due to beating, burning and
stabbing - all of which they said were the result of torture," said Claire
Beston, Amnesty Ethiopia researcher.
Ethiopian government spokesman Redwan Hussein dismissed Amnesty's report.
"It [Amnesty] has been hell-bent on tarnishing Ethiopia's image again and
again," he told AFP news agency.
Ethiopia is ruled by a coalition of ethnic groups. However, the OLF says the
government is dominated by the minority Tigray group and it wants
self-determination for the Oromo people.
Case studies to accompany Amnesty International report
‘Because I Am Oromo’: Sweeping Repression in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia
October 2014
The Government of Ethiopia anticipates a high level of opposition in Oromia, and
signs of dissent are actively sought out and suppressed. People from all walks of
life are regularly arrested based solely on the suspicion that they do not support
the government, or conversely, that they support the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF), the armed group in the region.
Below is a small sample of the testimonies documented by Amnesty International
in the course of conducting the research for ‘Because I Am Oromo’: Sweeping
Repression in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Many of those interviewed by
Amnesty International – students, teachers, writers and medical professionals,
among others – had their lives torn apart by repeated human rights violations over
many years.
The following is a statement from the Central Committee (CC) of the Oromo Liberation Front-Change (OLF-Change). The statement is in Afan Oromo and English. In the statement, the Central Committee says, “The committee considered all matters that caused the removal, and accepted the decision of the Executive Committee. Until they choice the permanent leader, the committee has appoint three individuals: Dr. Nuro Dedefo, Chairperson; Brigadier General Hailu Gonfa, Head of Political Affairs; and Mr. Kassim Abbaa Nasha, Head of Foreign Relations.”
—————————-
OROMO LIBERATION FRONT Press Release
The Oromo Liberation Front (the OLF) Central Committee has held an emergency meeting on October 25, 2014.
In this meeting, the Committee has discussed the removal of General Kamal from the chairmanship of the OLF on October 23, 2014 by Executive Committee.
The committee considered all matters that caused the removal, and accepted the decision of the Executive Committee. Until they choice the permanent leader, the committee has appoint three individuals: Dr. Nuro Dedefo, Chairperson; Brigadier General Hailu Gonfa, Head of Political Affairs; and Mr. Kassim Abbaa Nasha, Head of Foreign Relations. The rest of the executive leaders names will be announced subsequently.
The Central Committee directs the new leaders to focus on the directive it gave to Executive Committee last year that is to work without precondition with all political organizations that struggle to dismantle the oppressive Woyyanne regimes that all peoples in Ethiopia live in peace, freedom and justice.
Oromo Liberation Front Central Committee
October 26, 2014
The Oromo Liberation Front (Popularly known as OLF for change) chairman, Brigadier General Kamal Galchuu has been removed from his position effective immediately.
Kamal Galchu since he came to the helm of the OLF, he has caused great destruction to the functions of the organization as a result of his poor leadership qualities and dictatorial actions.
On numerous occasions he has been counseled to change his controlling and tyrannical behaviors in order to uphold the organization’s bylaws. In addition, he was continuously counseled to focus on the main objectives of the OLF, which is to unite the Oromo people and lead a unified struggle against tyrannical rule in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, he has resisted any initiative to bring different Oromo political organizations to form unit against the Wayyane regime. His irresponsible and tyrannical actions has deterred (OLF Change) from creating a relationship and cooperation between other Oromo Political groups. As chairman, G/ Kamal Galchu has led our organization on the path of political and material corruption by further annihilating the organization from implementing positive changes that serve the interests of the Oromo people as a whole.
G/Kamal Galchu has violated the laws he initially took an oath to uphold to serve his personal benefits and spread false propaganda among members of the organization, making it difficult to implement effective change. There is no a greater betrayal and shame than one who compromises a national struggle for personal benefits, the leadership of General Kamal Galchu displays an outright violation similar of that of tyrannical leaders in Ethiopia. He ran the organization on the platform of absolute tyranny, led by one man and for one man only, by creating an environment that made it difficult, if not impossible, for members to work towards the organization’s goals. This was prevalent when he chose not to abide by the rules of the organization and pushed for deleterious aims in order to advance his personal gains.
His actions led the organizations on a detrimental path and made it difficult for our objectives to become a reality. Essentially, his tyrannical motives have brought great havoc to everyone in the
organization and the broader national struggle of the Oromo people. He displayed oppressive and authoritative behaviors of his former boss Meles Zenawi, whilst enhancing his personal motives at the expense of the cause. He uses divide and rule system of the Wayyane regime that has applied against our people in similar in its context within the organization.
The Oromo Liberation Front, in particular, and the Oromo people in general, do not have any more tolerance for such tyrannical behaviors, which is contrary to the egalitarian Gadaa democracy, which our ancestors gave to our people. The Oromo people have sacrificed the ultimate sacrifice to establish a source of true democracy, rule of law and human rights for all. We certainly cannot allow any tyrannical and self-interested leaders to keep the Oromo people from attaining their freedom. His actions are blatantly shameful, instead of listening to the council and advice of many leaders and elders, Oromo elites and think thank within the organization at different levels; he disregarded his duties and responsibilities by continuously violating our constitution that mandate collective leadership. By violating the collective leadership principles enshrined in our organization’s constitution, he has already removed himself from a position he was chosen to serve whilst creating a hostile environment for other loyal members. These behaviors display anti-democratic principles and utter disregards for rule of law, placing him in a position of the same authoritative leaders we took an oath to fight by all means.
In order to deter him from causing any further destruction and chaos to the organization’s objective, we have decided to remove him from his position as chairman of (OLF for Change). In accordance to our bylaws, formal and informal mediations, we have implemented all available strategies to resolve the issue. However, all our efforts fell on deaf ears of an individual who was determined to destroy the organization, by turning collective leadership embodied in our organization’s constitution into a single person controlled entity, which we are afraid greatly resembles that of his former boss, Melese Zenawi. General Kamal Galchu, by conducting in all of these destructive actions has lost the moral and legal ground to continue to lead our organization. Allowing him to continue with his dictatorial actions will destroy an organization, thousands, if not millions have lost their lives and are still losing to maintain. His lack of leadership skills has been a complete abomination. He has lost the trust, confidence and respect of the organization, both as a leader and a person.
Therefore, we the Executive Committee of the organization (OLF) made political decision and announce that general Kamal Galchu purged from his chairman position of the organization. Until the general assembly of the organization holds an official meeting and chooses a new Chairman/Chairwoman, senior members from the Executive Committee and National Council will lead the organization.
We will also take this opportunity to call upon leaders, individuals and groups who left this organization because of G/ Kamal Galchu’s tyrannical behavior to come back. Let’s stand together, under a unified objective and lead this great organization to victory for our people. We
have no doubt that together; we can ensure great leadership with core principles that are based on teamwork, accountability & responsibility.
Finally, due to the mess that made by G/Kemal Galchu, the wayyane agents and those who have anti Oromo unity have infiltrated in our organization in the past. We assure that our organization has no fertile ground for the infiltrators and we call upon our members to give particular attention to watch infiltrators with great concern for the safety of our organization.
For Information contact: (1) Dr. Nuro Dedefo, jibbaa.roorroo@gmail.com and Phone No.
(612)559-0489
(2) Brigadier General Hailu Gonfa, dhugaasaawaltajjii@gmail.com,
Phone No. +2917179 153
(3) Dhaabaa Gutamaa , dabagutema@yahoo.com , and phone No.
Two maids have spoken of the appalling abuse they claim was dished out by their employers, as a top diplomat called for an end to household “slavery”.
Hedja Ousman, 22, and Wube Tamene, 18, worked for families in the UAE and both say they were beaten, starved, and prevented from contacting their families in Ethiopia.
They have now sought refuge at the Ethiopian Consulate in Dubai.
Hedja, speaking to 7DAYS yesterday, told of the horrors she endured during the two years she worked for a Kazakh family in Ajman. She said her female employer didn’t like the prospect of the maid speaking to her husband.
She said: “My employer didn’t want me talking to her husband. Every time her husband would instruct me to do something, she would beat me.”
Hedja said the woman even cut off her hair to make her “less attractive”.
Hedja, who earned Dhs500 per month, said the abuse began three months after she started her job. She decided to escape last week when her employer accused her of stealing car keys and beat her.
“I saw the door open and I ran,” she said. I asked someone for water, they called the police for me. I’ve been at the consulate since. I want to go home.”
She has dropped the police case she had filed against her employer but the consulate says it intends to file a new one.
Wube worked for an Emirati family in Dubai and claims at one point she was starved for two days then shown a plate of food, which she thought was hers, only for her employers to throw it in the bin.
Ethiopia’s Consul General in Dubai, Yibeltal Aemero Alemu, said he is seeing “a lot” of such cases, branding it “slavery.”
Housemaid Wube Tamene dreamed of a new life and a decent standard of living in the UAE.
Instead she was made to cut up her clothes and clean her employer’s home with the rags.
The Ethiopian, aged just 18, claims she was also made to walk around in bare feet and was not paid a salary for 18 months.
She also claims she was regularly beaten. Wube is now seeking refuge at the Ethiopian consulate in Dubai, along with fellow maid Hedja Ousman, who escaped an abusive employer – a Kazakh woman – in Ajman.
Their cases have prompted Ethiopia’s Consul General in Dubai, Yibeltal Aemero Alemu, to call for such “slavery” to stop.
Alemu said the consulate is now seeing “a lot” of cases in UAE and has said his office would begin pursuing cases against abusive families.
He said: “These maids have no communication to the outside world, they’re starved and beaten – this is slavery.
“They’re not allowed to have mobile phones. To exploit the maids employers don’t let them communicate with their families back home, so they won’t run away for other opportunities.”
Recalling her abuse, Wube said: “When my employer wanted to get rid of me she made me sign a contract in Arabic that I have settled everything with her. But I didn’t understand what I was signing.
“She took me to the airport without shoes and any luggage, gave me my flight tickets and asked me to leave.
“But I was stopped by authorities. They said ‘where are you going without shoes?’” Consul-General Alemu said Wube has now received her outstanding salary of Dhs9,000 and will be heading back to Ethiopia today.
Ethiopia currently has a ban on its nationals coming to the UAE as domestic workers, but Alemu said the two maids started work before his government implemented it last year. Addis Abada said such a ban would remain in place until there is an agreement reached to protect its nationals from abusive employers.
“There are 90,000 Ethiopians in the UAE and most of them are maids,” Alemu said.
Lola Lopez founder of the humanitarian group Babies Behind Bars, which also helps maids who are abused, said some were being denied basic human rights.
She said: “Some people have no regard for human life. Welfare organisations haven’t been able to help much, because the message they send out doesn’t always reach the women it’s supposed to. Many of these maids don’t read the newspaper and they don’t have phones.
Three decades after images that shocked the world, country has become darling of the global development community – and the scourge of the human rights lobby
A man walks past a portion of the Addis Ababa light railway under construction in Addis Ababa. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images With an Einsteinian shock of hair and a wise man’s beard, Mulugeta Tesfakiros, just off a flight from Washington, settled into an office of glass walls and vibrant artworks in Addis Ababa. The millionaire magnate, who has gone into the local wine business with Bob Geldof, mused on the new Ethiopia: “Most of the people need first security, second food … and democracy after that.”
An hour’s drive away stand the corrugated iron watchtowers of a prison. The inmates include nine bloggers and journalists charged with terrorism. Standing in a bleak courtyard on a family visit day, they talked about how they had been tortured.
“I feel like I don’t know Ethiopia,” one said. “It’s a totally different country for me.”
This is the Janus-faced society that is the second most populous country in Africa. A generation after the famine that pierced the conscience of the world, Ethiopia is both a darling of the international development community and a scourge of the human rights lobby. Even as investment conferences praise it as a trailblazer the entire continent should emulate, organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) describe it as “one of the most repressive media environments in the world”. Ethiopian children in a refugee camp during the famine.Photograph: William Campbell/Sygma/CorbisTo be in Ethiopia is to witness an economic miracle. The country has enjoyed close to double-digit growth for a decade. One study found it was creating millionaires faster than anywhere else on the continent. The streets of Addis Ababa reverberate with hammering from construction workers as the concrete skeletons of new towers and a monorail project rise into the crane-dotted sky. Ethiopia’s government says it is on course to meet most of the millennium development goals and, by 2025, to be a middle-income country.
Yet the frenetic urban expansion has uprooted thousands of farmers while, critics say, those who speak out against it are rounded up and jailed. Of 547 MPs, only one belongs to an opposition party. Activists and journalists describe an Orwellian surveillance state, breathtaking in scale and scope, in which phone conversations are recorded and emails monitored by thousands of bureaucrats reminiscent of the Stasi in East Berlin. The few who dare to take to the streets in protest are crushed with deadly force. Amnesty International has called it an “onslaught on dissent” in the runup to elections next year. The architect of this ostensibly Chinese model of development – or “authoritarian developmentalism” – in east Africa was the late prime minister Meles Zenawi, who appeared to set the blueprint with his remark: “There is no connection between democracy and development.” When Meles died in 2012 after 21 years in power, the UK prime minister, David Cameron, described him as an inspirational spokesman for Africa, while the former PM Tony Blair, whose autographed photo adorns the five-star Sheraton Addis hotel, spoke of his “great sadness”.
Among the winners of the Meles legacy is Tesfakiros, the head of the Muller Real Estate company with a business empire that includes logistics, transport, food manufacturing and the wine venture with Geldof, which last year made a profit of $5m (£3m). “We’re trying to put Ethiopia as a wine-producing country like California or South Africa,” he said.
Ethiopia also imports about 10m litres of wine a year to serve a growing middle class, a concept that would have been unthinkable to viewers of the images of helplessness and starvation that spurred Band Aid in 1984.
“People would be surprised. It’s very hard for them to believe,” Tesfakiros reflected. “There has been amazing growth in the last 15 years. People have got the work ethic and are investing. The real estates market is booming and will boom for a time.”
He praised prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s government for ensuring peace, encouraging domestic entrepreneurs and attracting investment from China, India and the west. Asked if all this was at the sacrifice of democracy, Tesfakiros replied: “What’s democracy? The opposition needs support by the middle class. When we have a middle class, we will have a stronger democracy. Until then, we have a nanny for the democracy. Democracy is a matter of education and civilisation – 85% of our population is farmers; we don’t know how to read and write. When you have a middle class, you push for your rights.” Men walk along a road with cattle near turbines at Ashegoda wind farm in the northern Tigray region.Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesIf progress means surrendering civil liberties, including his phone calls being tapped, that is a price Tesfakiros is willing to pay. “If they listen and make the country safer, I don’t care. In America they do it, in Europe they do it.”
Independent journalists have described telephone conversations they had years ago being played back to them during interrogations. This year an investigation by HRW noted the government had complete control over the telecoms system and virtually unlimited access to the call records of all phone users. Most of the technologies were provided by the Chinese telecoms firm ZTE, it said, while Ethiopia also appears to have used tools made by UK, German and Italian companies in the UK, Germany and Italy.
Some believe the spying programme is so sophisticated that it must have western support at government level. Ethiopia is seen as a reliable police officer in the region, hosting a US military base and sending troops to fight the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia. Advocates of its hardline security approach – patrons of the leading coffee shop chain are patted down on entry – point out that it has not suffered atrocities like Kenya, which is also engaged in Somalia.
The three journalists and six bloggers arrested in April and charged with terrorism in July are accused of planning attacks in Ethiopia and working in collusion with Ginbot 7, the US-based opposition group labelled by authorities as a terrorist organisation. They deny the charge and say they have been tortured. During the visit by the Guardian to the prison on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, one said he had been locked in a 20 sq metre room with 100 inmates.
“It’s not just the slapping you or beating you on the feet, it’s the way they wake you in the middle of the night in that shitty room where you’ve tried so hard to sleep,” the prisoner said above the noise of fellow inmates and their relatives. “It’s mental as well as physical torture. For a person who followed the world and was on the internet 24 hours, I feel like I’m shut down here. The only freedom I have here is thinking. They can’t stop me thinking, but even that is distorted.”
Hope is fading for the group as they get caught in the cogs of the court system. “We feel this is our new life. We know from the past experience of others that we have started a prison life already. There’s not going to be any bail; it’s going to be waiting day after day. Even though we know we are innocent, we know we have to accept it. The only choice we have is to smile or cry – and we want to cry about it.”
They are not the only journalists and activists behind bars. In June, Andargachew Tsige, a Briton of Ethiopian origin and secretary general of Ginbot 7, was seized at a Yemeni airport and illegally extradited to Ethiopia, where he could face the death penalty. Opposition parties, who boycotted parliament after the last election, say their members have been incarcerated, or worse.
The Oromo Federalist Congress, representing Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, is resisting the government’s “masterplan” for expanding Addis Ababa, claiming it has forced 150,000 Oromo farmers off their land without compensation. Witnesses say police killed at least 17 protesters, including children and students, during demonstrations this year and hundreds more are being detained without charge.
While tycoons such as Tesfakiros are showered in money from the property boom, Bekele Nega, general secretary of the congress, which has more than 10,000 members, has a different perspective. “This we don’t consider ‘development’,” he said. “This we consider the uprooting of the indigenous people, who will lose their culture and identity. The government say they are expanding Addis Ababa but the reality is they are getting rid of the people who don’t support the EPRDF [the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front].” Traffic passes along a street with buildings under construction in Addis Ababa.Photograph: ReutersHe challenged the west’s perceptions of positive change in the country. “Foreigners who see these tall buildings will say Ethiopia is developing. The reality is we are not developing. We are not having three meals a day. People like Bob Geldof and others consider they have helped our people and of course they have. But they didn’t come to the kernel of the matter. The EPRDF used the money from that time to build the empire they are in control of. Somebody hijacked the money from that hunger. It’s written in black and white.”
Ethiopia is still one of the biggest recipients of UK development aid, getting about £300m a year. Money also pours in from the US. Nega believes it is misspent: “The west has left us, left the people. The US is aiding dictators and turning a blind eye to us. Why? The same with Britain, which has democratic values. They give the taxpayers money for buying weapons or for the police station to handcuff people.”
Donor aid is also helping the government to spy on its citizens and even turn family members against each other, he alleged. “For any five family members, one will be reporting to the police. Your brother or your sister or your mother.
Ethiopia has turned its back on the concept of western liberal democracy, Nega said. “Whether we like it or not, we are in the Chinese developmental state. The west wants us to be democrats and build a democracy. This question is not comfortable for our leaders. According to them, we need only food. They don’t understand that poor people need democracy. They fact we are poor does not mean we are not human beings. We cannot be uprooted and tormented.
“As human beings we deserve democracy, human rights, rule of law. Until we get it, we’ll go on demanding it, even at the cost of our own lives. We are demanding it for the sake of our children. Maybe tomorrow, maybe today, any day I could be in prison. But I have my tongue and my pen and they cannot drive me back from telling what I know and believe. I hope the world will know what the reality is.”
Similar criticism of the disjunction between economic progress and political freedom have been made of Rwanda under Paul Kagame. But Ethiopia is much bigger. Its government is unrepentant and convinced of its mission. Any hint of doubt would seem like weakness. One senior official said: “The most basic human right is food on the table. If we’re doing that, why would we violate other human rights? This is a safe, secure place and we want to keep it that way. We’ll do anything to keep it that way. We have 90 million people – you try to control them.”
Insights of the 2014 Irreecha festival
By Daniel Dormeyer
October 12, 2014 (The Ethiopian Reporter) — When they left from Addis Ababa early in the morning of Sunday October 5, the two Europeans, James Cator from England and Daniel Dormeyer from Germany, accompanied by two Ethiopians, Minassie Alemayehu and Haile Mekonen, did not really gauge the significance and importance of what they would experience when attending Irreecha in Bishoftu, Oromia regional state, around 45 minutes south of the capital.
With almost one third of Ethiopia’s population, the Oromo constitute the largest ethnicity in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.
Cator and Dormeyer had just arrived, excited about a country charged of history, culture and noble values, and willing to overcome waves of preconceived ideas about Ethiopia. The season of blessing and love
Established by Oromo forefathers, Irreacha (also called Irreessa) takes place annually throughout Oromia and amongst Oromo communities abroad on the first Sunday of last week of September or the first Sunday of the first week of October according to Oromo time reckoning (Dhahaa). Bishoftu hosts the major gathering of a festival believed to be one of the largest in Africa.
Known as Oromo’s Thanksgiving to their God (Waaqa) for his goodness over the past year, Irreecha marks the beginning of a new lunar calendar and a seasonal change from winter to spring, and more particularly the end time of starvation (Gadaa Belbaa), disunity, chaos (Mormor), and the auspicious occasion to wish plentiful harvests in the upcoming year.
After a pleasant drive through enchanting though unexpected landscapes on the uncrowded highway in the wee hours of the morning, during which they wondered about a dead hyena and the probability of getting hit by a car, the multicultural group of friends finally reached Bishoftu.
Bishoftu means “the land full of water” in Oromiffa language. Indeed, the main ceremony would take place at the Lake Hora Arsadii. In fact they reached sacred ground, where Oromo people believe God will grant all their wishes.
Waves of joy, harmony and unity
The car needed to get parked right before a blocked area. It was a short, but already crowded walk down to the lake. The rising sun dispelled the last clouds around Bishoftu, and casted bright spotlights on first waves of chanting and dancing people running down the street and moving towards the venue. Like tens of thousands of Ethiopia’s ethnic Oromo, they gathered for Irreecha to celebrate the transition from the dark and challenging rain season to the sunny new Birraa (Spring) season.
Even though some habitants got together in front of their homes around a delicious coffee while teenagers were still playing football, they knew that new waves of people from different parts of the country would arrive soon and just take them along to the ceremony. The effervescence, an irresistible attraction was already palpable.
“I was so impressed by the huge number of people, all beautifully dressed and moving ahead peacefully and cheerfully. A real festival of colors. I can’t remember having seen in my country such a traditional event respected and followed by so many people and with so much passion.”, Cator says.
Symbols of an identity and a worldview
The group of four bought scarfs in the traditional white / red / black colors and a green tree on it, as well as the green grass and yellow flowers (umama) to comply with the tradition. Indeed, everything related to Irreecha has a meaning and a purpose: for instance the Oromo gather in symbolic places such as hilltops, river sides and the shades of big sacred trees. Green being a symbol of fertility, peace, abundance and rain.
At Lake Hora Arsadii the three predominant Oromo colors on the Oromia’s traditional dressings sticked out of this huge green area.
Waves of joy and happiness brought the pilgrims and the group of four to the shores, amongst thousands of people already standing there and waiting the elders to stir long grasses in the lake before sprinkling the blessed water. They believe to get blessed as well and that it will bring them closer to Waaqa (God). Many of them also made presents to thank God for the blessings and mercies received in the previous year.
In the distance various boats could be spotted on the lake, sometimes with newly married couples aboard.
An older man started explaining the spiritual significance of Irreecha to Minassie and his obligation to convey the meaning of a ritual that has been passed down many generations and that will be passed to the next ones.
Then the group of friends also dipped their grass in the water, trying to imitate the repetitive hand movements people did to reject all possible bad vibrations while making wishes. Probably more generally about peace and health when the Oromos praise God also for fertility and abundance with regards to the one who matter to them, their livestock and the upcoming harvest.
Three united Dimensions
Overwhelmed by this visual feast of colors and the irresistible vision of fraternity, the four friends climbed back to a clearing where the main ceremony would take place. The white seats in the shade of the big sacred trees they spotted when walking down to the lake were now occupied by the central persons of the blessing festival.
At this very moment the group of four realized the union of three dimensions of Irreecha: religious, political and social.
First this thanksgiving embraces all religious persuasions: Christians (amongst them Orthodox, Protestants), Muslim and Animists. They all came to thank the higher force and pray for a fruitful harvest.
Second Oromos from all ages and all stripes gather to Irreecha, sharing the same values and respect for the traditions.
Third various officials (speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, President of the Oromia Regional State) performed in harmony with the honored Abagedas (the elders, the traditional leaders of the Oromo community, elected according to the traditional Gadaa principles). The speeches were held in three languages: English, Amharic and Oromiffa. Solemnity, pride, confidence and magnificence emerged from the speeches, reminding people about the uniqueness of this highly symbolic and truly global event.
Ethiopia is coming
Warmth was in the air and also in the words. Besides the respect of tradition and the awareness for the Oromo culture and history, this unique event symbolizes the pride and rise of Ethiopia.
Elites and supporters got encouraged to help paving the way for promoting Ethiopian values of sharing and fraternity conveyed by Irreecha, but also to convince the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to register this outstanding festival on the representative list Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“The holiday is the only occasion, to the best of my knowledge, that brings together members from all religious persuasions to honor it. Seeing the masses attending this day is an evidence to how people here have not abandoned their traditional values even as they embrace modernity. It’s no wonder that it is a candidate for UNESCO’s World Heritage list with generations after generations protecting it,”Minassie says.
A sign sent to the world
When the group of four left, they walked back against further, even more massive waves of people joining the celebration. Waves of peace (Nagaa), freedom (bilisummaa), unity (tokkummaa), and reconciliation (araara), bringing people closer to each other and making religious, political and social bonds.
The two Europeans perceived Irreecha also as a positive movement against many waves they are experiencing in their societies: tradition resisting to modernity (people still looking for endorsement by the elder), all ages united instead of generations divided, all social classes brought together rather than class struggle, all confessions in harmony unlike so many parts of the world.
This year Oromos celebrated the Irreecha blessing festivities in millions. The group of four felt proud and honored to have been part of this movement. And they simply let themselves go with these positive waves.
Okok Ojulu’s Speech Delivered at the World Bank Panel Discussion | October 11, 2014 Honorable Panelists, Distinguish invited guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honored and privileged to represent the voice of millions of indigenous populations of the Southwestern regions in particular, and many other oppressed groups elsewhere in Ethiopia. My speech echoes a big “No To Ethiopian Apartheid” and presents the anguish and death of the voiceless indigenous populations, languishing in blood, suffering insecurity, torture, and life imprisonment in Ethiopia. It also presents the voice of many refugees in the neighboring countries from Gambella, Lower Omo Valley area, and Beneshangul/Gumuz regions of Ethiopia who are living under difficult conditions facing threats to their lives; insecurity, cross border killings, and deportations from the neighboring countries.
Southwestern Ethiopia is a sanctuary to more than 28 indigenous Nilotic and south Omotic tribes namely Anywaa (Anyuak), Arebore, Berta, Bodi, Bena, Bale, Brile, Bacha, Dasenach, Gumuz, Hamer, Kwegu, Kara, Komo, Majenger, Mursi, Minit, Murle, Male, Mao, Nuer, Nyangatom, Opo, Suri, Sheko-Majenger, Tsmayeko, Tirma, and Zelimama. Their population is estimated to be between 4-5 million people who live in geographical location that stretches out from Lake Turkana via Gambella to Beneshangul/Gumuz regions, at the border with Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan.
Southwestern Ethiopia abounds with the most fertile land and many other natural resources. Ironically, the Ethiopian government has failed to recognize its people as full citizens. It engages itself in ethnic cleansing and policies aimed at getting rid of the indigenous populations from their lands in order to utilize the resources in their absence. The government is keener on the resources than the peoples of the land. This development strategy adopted by the Ethiopian government has finger prints of the World Bank and moves forward with its blessings.
In a recent press release on Oct. 3, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture claimed that over 30 million people have benefited from the Sustainable Land Management Program, operating with the support of the World Bank. The Bank and other donors have been active supporters of the current policies of the Ethiopian government through this and several other programs, ignoring the reports of human rights abuses and forced displacement coming in from organizations like the Oakland Institute, Human Rights Watch and the others.
As the Bank officials come together for the annual meetings in Washington DC, at least 3-5 of the indigenous peoples die every day on account of land grab, hatred and discrimination against their color, race, culture, and religion. As we meet here, the Majenger tribe in the Godere district of the Gambella region is being massacred by the illegal settlers from the Northern regions, the government soldiers disguised as civilians, and many others sponsored by foreign investors, while the government military forces and police deployed in the area attend the killings and the eviction of the tribe.
These killings are reminiscent of the Anyuaks’ massacres, many of which were reported by the international media, such as the December 13/2003 Anyuak genocide and the 1984/5 mass killings. The Suri people have also undergone such massacres in the past, the latest being in May – June/2013; Bodi, Mursi and many other indigenous tribes in the Lower Omo Valley of SNNPR have also undergone through such massive killings; likewise the tribes of Beneshangul/Gumuz region, the Gumuz, Berta, Komo and Mao who have also undergone the ordeal of recurring mass killings, tortures, life imprisonments in the prisons where their relatives cannot visit them.
The indigenous populations of Southwestern regions live in terror and death, to no end. One of the Bodi farmers lamented about one such massacre:
The settlement of highlanders and Konso people in our land in 2002 who were lighter in skin than us, was a government plan to claim our land and to get rid of us. In the incident of 2005 we were killed like dogs in the markets, not leaving even the pregnant women, whom their stomachs were opened with knives, and left their babies on top of their dead mothers crying for help until they died slowly of hunger. In particular cases some women, sticks were pushed into their stomachs. In relating this story he shed tears in the meeting, recalling the human tragedy they had gone through and he took deep breath and said “I don’t know where I can get someone who can show me the road leading to God; whatever it may cost of my life I would go to face God with reality why He created us and handed us to this painful life under the Ethiopian regimes and Ethiopian highlanders, and we are dying without future. Ethiopian highlanders treat us like dogs and even dogs are better treated than us.” .
An Anti–Ethiopian Apartheid Movement to bring credible freedom, democracy, justice, and prosperity to all different nations in Ethiopia is urgently needed.
The indigenous populations are not impediments to the development as the TPLF government says while promoting investment policies to attract investors. This it is a cover to serve the government intentional killings with the desire to wipe away these people from their lands. Indigenous populations govern by their traditions and cultures– they are welcoming people to any friendly guest, and they would like to share their lands with good neighbors but not murderers and criminals like the TPLF government land grabbers like the Saudi Star and other investors they have invited from India, Malaysia, and elsewhere.
The ongoing killings and massacres against the indigenous populations in the southwestern regions cannot cease unless the international community intervenes to support the vulnerable tribes and ensure that they do not disappear from this world. There is a moral obligation to stop the Ethiopian government from killing them like animals.
Stop land grabbing and the eviction of the indigenous people. To them the theft of their land, their forests, their natural resources and their way of life, is the last nail in their coffin.. The international community needs to intervene to rescue the indigenous populations from the ongoing killings and massacres. Recommendations
International community intervention to stop the ongoing killings of the indigenous peoples from their land and consider their self determination of Southwestern regions.
Campaign that the indigenous people are not an impediment to the development of Ethiopia but they are welcoming people, seeking good neighbors not murderers.
Support or join Anti-Ethiopian Apartheid Movement to eliminate racial discrimination in Ethiopia.
The World Bank, which gets a large part of its funding from the United States, must adhere to the 2014 US Appropriations bill that contains provisions to ensure that US development funds are not used to support forced evictions in Ethiopia.
(OPride) — There are few writers more controversial than Tesfaye Gebreab among contemporary Amharic writers. He has authored nine books, including two in which he’s contributed chapters. His work on Oromo people, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, has been met with equal part praise and condemnation.
Tesfaye, who is touring the United States, is back with a new book: Ye Jemila Inat. It is already available online via MeshCartand will be officially released this week. Book signing events are scheduled in Washington D.C. and Minnesota.
The book has been widely promoted on social media. His fans and detractors are waiting to see what Tesfaye has written about this time. Among the Oromo he's hailed as a hero. His decision last month to become Oromo and change his name as per Mogaassa custom has endeared him even more to his many Oromo fans.
Tesfaye's detractors, particularly ethnic Amharas, have accused him of sowing discord among, otherwise united, Ethiopian people. Tesfaye is keenly aware of this charge. "If Ethiopia's unity can be shaken by one ordinary writer's work, it's fair to conclude that there was never a unity in the first place," writes Tesfaye in the preface of the new book.
Tesfaye has found a niche, focusing on untold stories and uncovering hitherto falsified historical accounts. In this regard, Ye Jemila Inat, delves deep into the archives of imperial palace. Tesfaye's previous work as a journalist for a state-run magazine, before his eventual fallout with the ruling party, gave him a unique access to historical records dating as far back as Menelik's era. These documents include marriage licenses; court cases; appeals; decisions by emperors Menelik and Haile Selassie; reports by Fitawrari Wolde Giorgis; news clippings about Ethiopia from abroad, etc.
From its title, Ye Jemila Inat gives the impression that it is about Muslim socio-political problems in Ethiopia. When Tesfayehanded me an advance copy of the book last week, I was curious to know who Jamila's mother is. "Are you out to make Muslims and Christians fight, as you have done with Oromo and Amhara," I jokingly inquired. Tesfaye laughed and replied, "You will have to read and be surprised."
The new work is a collection of 35 short stories: works of fiction based on true stories, articles and anecdotal diaries. Most of the stories in the 220-page book that Tesfaye calls "Ye Isat Dar Wegoch," roughly translated as fireside chats, are not necessarily new. But it's some of the minute details that I found most surprising. For example, the chapter about Jamila's mother is a tale about Haileselassie's family root. It's a common knowledge that Haileselassie had an Oromo ancestry. But few details are known about his mother's family tree. Tesfaye notes, the late king mentions his mother's name only twice in his book, My life and Ethiopia's Progress. "He mentioned his mother's name (without mentioning her father's name) only to say she had me and she passed away," Tesfaye wrote.
In the book Tesfaye recounts her Muslim background and also tells us her given name was Jemila. He details how the name was changed to Yeshimebet and efforts by Ethiopianist writers who've repeatedly tried to conceal this fact by adding her a different last name and identity. Tesfaye notes that Haileselassie, who had Oromo, Muslim and Gurage background, hid or disowned his family roots to protect his throne and be accepted into the Orthodox Amhara-dominated system. He ends the chapter about Jamila's mother with a poignant observation: Ethiopia's racist feudal system had the ability to frighten its leaders as with the ordinary folk.
Tesfaye is a political writer and keen observer of Oromo-Ethiopian politics. Using the official archival accounts, he takes bold positions, including in one chapter where he proposes a Horn of Africa union (similar to Lencho Lata's proposal for forging Horn of Africa as a common homeland for various ethno-national groups in the subregion).
The book also spills the dirty secrets of other past Ethiopian leaders: from relationship to awful deeds they committed against the masses to stay on power. For example, who knew one of Menelik's daughter was orphaned at 8 years old when her mother died?How about an attempt by Sertse Dingil's wife to make an unborn child blind to prevent him from taking the throne based on a prevailing prophecy, which as Tesfaye notes has greatly contributed to making Ethiopian history a contested, singular narrative.
There are also a few chapters dealing with the issue of church and the state. In one instance, he writes about how the official state religion, the Orthodox Church passed a decree urging people to fast Wednesdays and Fridays and how that was later changed to Saturdays by another decree from the Catholic Church. It underscores the trials and psychological trauma the people of Ethiopia endured in the name of religion. And the violent history of forced conversion and expansion of religion, both Islam and Christianity, to Ethiopia. It made me question not only the faith of those leaders but also why God allowed them to do those things.
It is these kinds of perennial questions and the war between the two churches that forced Abba Zerayakob took refuge in the forest, according to Tesfaye. While there, he prayed and questioned God searching for answers. He wanted to understand which God is the real God, who he was praying to, who gave him wisdom, why he was there, etc.
Zerayakob hated humans because of their inability to question. He was angry about the fact that people believed they knew a lot and did not want to explore more. After years of contemplation, Zerayakob came to a conclusion that others believed their religion was the right one, much the same way he thought about his own. He believed in God's existence and the fact that he created the universe but eventually concluded it's not possible to give this God a name. He gave up christianity and religious life.
Overall, Tesfaye has ably and artistically weaved so many historical events into such a short book. Ye Jamila Inat is a snapshot of historical accounts, culture and indigenous knowledge, life in exile, ethnic tension and politics in Ethiopia. Those who read and liked his previous works would greatly enjoy reading this book. As Tesfaye notes in the preface, Ye Jemila Inat will be yet another disappointment for his detractors and those who insist on maintaining a falsified and distorted account of Ethiopia's past.
It goes without saying that there's always more than one perspective to every story. Tesfaye is one among those who are curious about the other side of the Ethiopian history. It is also clear that history books are open ended and inconclusive even in countries that have developed a culture of documenting and writing well ahead of Ethiopia. In this respect, Ye Jamila Inat will be a great addition to many contemporary works about Ethiopia by historians, writers, film producers, artists and so on. To be sure, Tesfaye is not a historian and doesn't claim to be one but most of his books are based on a true story.
As such, instead of trying to suppress a voice different from that which we have been led to believe, it will be better to interrogate both sides of the Ethiopian story so as to use it to understand the past. That is the only way we can shape our future and not repeat the ugly mistakes of yesteryears.
-- *The writer, Tigist Geme, is a citizen journalist and activist based in Washington, D.C.
October 12, 2014 (The Ethiopian Reporter) — When they left from Addis Ababa early in the morning of Sunday October 5, the two Europeans, James Cator from England and Daniel Dormeyer from Germany, accompanied by two Ethiopians, Minassie Alemayehu and Haile Mekonen, did not really gauge the significance and importance of what they would experience when attending Irreecha in Bishoftu, Oromia regional state, around 45 minutes south of the capital.