From Washington DC to Toronto, Melbourne, London, Oslo and Johannesburg, the Oromo diaspora held demonstrations worldwide in over 30 cities demanding justice for over 85 students and residents massacred across Oromia region by Ethiopia's TPLF army and police.
The demonstrations aimed at condemning the weeks-long killings, injuries, detentions of Oromo students (oft under ages) and members of the general public by Ethiopia military and federal police. From slogans commonly carried and heard at worldwide rallies and letters submitted to members of the governments of the cities and countries mentioned, it was clear that the Oromo diaspora was not only opposed to the killings, but it was also outraged by the silence of donor governments to Ethiopia on the ongoing ethnic-cleansing targeting members of the Oromo nationality.
The marchers sought the attention of Washington, London, Oslo, Pretoria, Toronto, among others, to resolve the ongoing crises in Oromia by ending the killings first and then taking practical measures that would stop the Ethiopian government from using lethal excessive force against Oromo school children and youth. The practical measures, include, ending the culture of impunity by Ethiopia's government officials who order ethnic-based killings of the Oromo as DC demonstrators asked for in the following video.
Over 1,500 Oromo and friends of Oromo marched on Washington appealing to US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to discontinue funding Ethiopian government, which uses the funds, advice and diplomatic support it receives to repress and discriminate against the Oromo people and others who don't have any legitimate representation in Ethiopia's state and in ongoing pseudo development activities that are benefiting a tiny minority of ruling elites from EPRDF and TPLF.
Oromo students in universities, high schools and even elementary schools have been marching in millions with members of the general public to stop the Addis Ababa Master Plan that's is evicting and will evict millions of Oromo farmers and town residents across areas adjacent to the capital city. Demonstrators in Washington DC characterized the master plan as "Addis Ababa Master Plan is a genocide plan" against the Oromo people presented innocently as " development and expansion of Ethiopia's capital city," which is ironically at the same time the capital city of Oromia state by virtue of resting on Oromia's land.
Demonstrators stressed that they are not opposed to development activities that are legitimately and autonomously conducted by Oromia region for the people of the region without an imposition and territorial colonization of Oromia to benefit non-Oromos in state power in Ethiopia.
People outraged by the atrocities of the Ethiopian government against unarmed Oromo students turned out in large numbers, as rarely seen before, showing the surge in popular concern about the increasingly bleak directions the Ethiopian government is taking toward the long-persecuted and excluded Oromo population, which is estimated at least to be half of the Ethiopia's 95 million population. Oromos cannot understand how it is possible to develop a country by just enriching a tiny ruling elite from the north while the majority routinely sees its lives and property snatched away illegally at gun-point.
Disregarding the number of people who turned out in Washington DC to protest widespread massacre across Oromia, US media, including CNN, Fox News, AP and so on were no where to be seen to cover the peaceful rally events that brought several street closures in several states and were clearly massive. Not sure that the media or governments that support Ethiopia will even hear or care to hear from them, protesters shouted naïve, but important slogans such as, "Where is the media? Where is CNN? Where is Fox?" and so on. Do you expect them to maintain a semblance of independence and report on the complicity of their governments? Well, the silence proves that given that invitations and news tips were sent out to these media in advance to consider covering the rallies. The standard responses to news tippers (concerned callers) were: "Okay, I got your information down," hinting you can now hang up the phone and I will forget you right next second.
The general feeling is that the massacres in Oromia are silenced not only by the Ethiopian government, which has a stranglehold on information flow out of the region, but also by the members of the international media who fail to shade light on the major problems raised by peaceful protesters.
Marchers crossed state lines, country lines and so on to get to the cities in which demonstrations were being held; a sizable number of parents did bring their little ones as there is no one left at home to look after them.
Some of these demonstrations were grueling as they lasted from 9:am through 2pm, leaving many to lose their voices after shouting slogans for miles and hours without hydrating. But, they seemed to think that losing voice and exhaustion are nothing compared to Oromia's students and residents who are paying the ultimate price in their lives for demanding the end to land grabbing and massive evictions of genocidal proportions in Oromia.
=>oromopress
No comments:
Post a Comment