Oromos in Ethiopia: Oromoia Students Movement and the Current Trends of Oromo Youths and Intellectuals (Dejene Abdissa Janna)

Disproportionately Torturing of Oromos in Ethiopia: Oromoia Students Movement and the Current Trends of Oromo Youths and Intellectuals

A paper presented on the commemorate of  the popular student uprising known as the Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa (Revolt Against Subjugation), 10th November,2013

By: Dejene Abdissa Janna

Frankfurt,Germany

Introduction

This term paper  highlights only  the tip of many challenges about what happens in Maekalwi and other torture prisons since many Oromos who end up in Ethiopia’s torture prisons barely survive to tell the stories, as in the case of the recent victimer Engineer Tesfahun Chemeda  and thousands of others who died from barbaric acts of torture inflicted up on them for purposes of extracting information and for many other reasons, including for terrorizing the victims and making them spectacles of violence to discourage other actually or potentially strong  Oromos (October , 2013 Oromo Press).

It’s not new or surprising that Ethiopia is party to many treaties and conventions on torture and human rights violations. What is surprising is the lack of will among the so-called international community to disinvest from Ethiopia or to enforce regional and international laws to end the kind of torture that singles out members of a single ethnic group.

Reports can expose injustice and making headlines can make us happy temporarily, but as long as they are not followed-up by international or regional actions, they just raise our hopes and disappoint us more, but we still need them so the stories of those people who have paid heavy prices are not lost in vain. We wait hopefully for actions to follow words while also reinvigorating our will and ability to come forward and tell these crucial stories (Human Rights Watch, 2013).

 Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa (Revolt Against Subjugation)

The popular student uprising known as the Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa (meaning the “Revolt Against Subjugation”) was suddenly broke out on November 09, 2005 following the failed 2005 Ethiopian election in which the Oromo was denied any meaningful representation. The popular revolt started on November 09, 2005 following a call by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to Oromo students and the entire Oromo people to peacefully oppose the government and bring to the forefront the demands of democracy, justice, and most importantly, the realization of the right of the Oromo people to self-determination (The Reporter, 13 November, 2005).

The Conditions of Oromo Prisoners and Tourturing in Prison Centers

Today, there are more than 30,000 Oromos jailed and being torturing in Ethiopian prison centers being suspected of Oromo Liberation Front members and supporters.

Prominent Oromo individuals, scholars, civil servants, businessmen/women, teachers and students, farmers are being murdered, detained, kidnapped, displaced and harassed for no crime committed. According to Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition  (2010/2011 cited in Ayyaantuu.com, 2011), Ethiopia contributes 47.8 percent of the world’s torture survivors who flee to the U.S.,making Ethiopia the number one country in Africa and the world with the most numerous torture survivors of the 13 countries listed. Regional human rights abusers such as Eritrea and Sudan contribute 6.5 and 2.2 percent respectively. Of the 47.8 percent torture survivors from Ethiopia, the overwhelming majority who have come forward and testified are Oromo survivors.

The TPLF-led regime mainly targets the Oromo people and oromia because of their economic resources and political resistance. Because the Oromo occupy Ethiopia’s richest areas and cover nearly half of the population of Ethiopia, they are seen as the greatest threat to the present Tigrean-led government. Subsequently, any indigenous Oromo organizations and independent Medias have been closed by the government. In an effort to destroy all peaceful Oromo movements and institutions in Ethiopia, the TPLF regime attacked all Oromo civil society members and Medias including the famous Mecha Tulema association, the OFDM and Jimma Times and Urji newspapers. We should not forget what the Macca Tulama members and oromo Journalists and activists have suffered for the last 21 years under TPLF and we always remember their peaceful struggle for justice of Oromo people in Ethiopia(Human Rights Watch, 2013: 34).

Now a days, the Oromo people can’t live in their own country and on their own land ; they are unable to cultivate, trade, produce and study in peace and freedom, the natural resources of the Oromo people and its land and minerals are on sale to foreign investors , and leaving all Oromos and our country Oromia in poverty, sadly Productive Oromo youngsters and innovative minds are being dragged to prisons and several thousands  are forced to exiles in fear of persecution, speaking for justice as an oromo  is entirely seen as an act of  terrorism in today’s Ethiopia ( Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa,2013).

Genocide of Oromo Intellectuals

Being educated can be a risky business in Ethiopia especially if you are from ethnic group of Oromo. Students and teachers, are often among the most politically active elements of society, and are frequent victims of human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, and denial of freedom of association and expression. The present Ethiopian leaders (TPLF) have targeted the academic community of Oromos now a days and this can be stated as genocide based on article 2 of 1948 UN convention on genocide.

According to international conventions, genocide is the planned destruction of any economic, political or a social group. Such kind organized destruction of Oromo nationalists, Oromo Medias, journalists and the whole leaderships are characterized as genocide.

Article 2 of 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishmentof the Crime of Genocide states as follow:

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Oromo refugees and asylum seekers who escaped such gross human right violation and dispersed to neighboring countries like Kenya, Somaliland and Djibouti are being abducted and forcefully sent back to Ethiopia by the request of TPLF security agents who are working crossing the border in Kenya, Somaliland and Djibouti . The TPLF security forces hunting down prominent oromos by crossing the international border to take them back to Ethiopia and locking them in prison for the rest of their lives- or killing them, as a number of international Human right organizations repeatedly witnessed in their recent reports, those who sent back to Ethiopia were being tortured, sentenced and murdered in Ethiopian prison.

The recent detaintion of Engineer Tesfahun Chemeda  in the kalliti prison center, held in solitary confinement, with no access to medical treatment and severe beatings for nearly two years which resulted in his death in August 2013 in such inhuman way is witnessing the continuity of TPLF government targeting and hunting down of highly qualified Oromo elites and nationalists as wild animals.

Therefore, this all systematic genocidal war waged on the Oromo people  needs an urgent solution  and needs an urgent intervention from all sectors of the Oromo society , oromo political organizations ,oromo nationalists and oromo activists  to stand up together and fire up the struggle to bring an end to this era of darkness and genocidal in Oromia.

Options for Oromo youths and intellectuals now a day

A. Being tourturing in prison center       B. Being eaten by wild animals while fleeing

C. Sinking in ocean than sinking in prison center

D. Too sad underage children (voice of the voiceless) in prison center instead of schooling

Oromia Shall Liberate!!

=>oromiatimes

Oromo Mini Documentary from Oromo activist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOCkf8VtJjM&sns=fb

Wallagga Qeellam Keessatti Guyyaan FDG Sadaaasi 9,2013‏ Kabajame

Sadaasa 13,2013 D.Doolloo

Yaadannoo Sadaasa 9 FDG yeroo 8ffaa oromiyaa keessatti kabajamaa ture ammas haalota ho’aadhaan bakka adda addaa irratti kabajamaa turuu isaa gabaasota Qeerroo adda addaa irraa kan nu gahaa jiruudha.

Madda gabaasaa Qeerroo Qellem Wallaggaa irraa addeessuun Magaalaa Dimbi Doolloi fi aanaalee godinoota kanneen jalatti argaman ifatti aanaa Anfiilloo,Qeebbee, Daallee Waabaraa,Sayyoo,fi mana barumsa Qellem,Beezii fi Oliiqaa Dingil keessatti haala ho’aadhaan kabajamee akka oole gabaasaan isaa addeessa. Guyyaa kabajaa kana irratti wareegamtootaa qabsoo bilisummaa oromoof lubbuu isaanii dabarsan yaadannoo guddaa gochuudhaan barruulee uummata oromoos yaadachiisuu fi suurawwan adda addaa kaasuudhaan wal yaadachiisuuun kabajanii oolaniiru,dabalataan ammoo huyyaa kana hojiin addaan bakkoota kanneen irratti dalagamanii jiran uummata oromoof waamichi qabsoo tahee jira, mirga ofii falmachuun nama hin yakkisiisu,dhugaadhaafis miidhamuun boruu lammii ofii biratti galata guddaa argachuutu jira jechuudhaan barruu adda addaa raabsanii jiru. Akkasuma abbootii qabeenyaa Oromoo godina kana keessa jiraniif waamichi qabsoo oromoo addaan tahe ejira,gumaatni garagaraa maatiwwan dhuunfaa irraa qabsoo oromoof kan tahee jiruudha,kunis gumaacha qarshii,tajaajila tolaa kan akka geejjibaaf malu konkolaataan Qeerro qabsoo irra jiruuf baasii horii tokko malee yoomiyyuu bakkaa bakkatti sochoosuu dirqama lammuummaa ni baana jedhuun waadaa yeroo seenaniidha,

Guyyaama kana sadaada 9 sababeessuudhaan qooda shamarraniii qabsoo irratti gahee ofii bahuu irratti harmootin sabboonummaa qabanii fi shamarran Oromoo magaalaa Dambi Doolloo Hoteela Abbunash keessatti wal gahuudhaan sa’a gabaabaaf ibsa ejjennoo baafatanii jiru.

-Nuti sharamarran oromoo godina Qellem magaalaa Dambi Doollo keessa jiraannu bilisummaa saba keenyaa fi walabummaa biyya keenyaaf wareegama barbaachisu gochuuf boodatti hin jennu,

-Qabsoo Bilisummaa Oromoo gumaacha tahu deggersa qabsoof waan qabnu irraa baatii baatiidhaan buusi qabnuun ni dhaabbanna.

-Miidhaa uummata keenyaa ilaallee yoomiyyuu hin callisnu hanga mootummaa abbaa hirree mootummaa wayyaanee hiddaan buqqisnutti tokkummaan hiriiruu keenya waadaa seenerra.

-Afaan,Adaa fi Seenaa saba bal’aa saba oromoo babal’isuuf waan barbachisu hunda ni baafna,ni bal’ifanna,jennee murtoo keenyas dabarsina.

Jedhuun maadhee Guddattuu jedhu jalatti of ijaaruudhaan shamarran magaalaa Dambi Doolloo sadaasa 9 kabajuudhaan sodaa fi shakkii tokko malee qabsootti hiriiruu isaanii waliin Gabaasaan Qeerroo G/Qellem addeessa. Waraabbii qabnu akka kuusatti kan of biratti qabnu irraa kan hafe ykn kuusaa CD fi filashiitin kan dhaamnu irraa kan hafe toora interneetaa maagaal kana keessatti waan hin qabneef nu hoofkalchaa dhaammanna jedhu.

=>qeerroo

Lubbuun Biyyatti Galuu Qofa Feena

Jaallannee Gammadaa

Sadaasa 13, 2013, WASHINGTON, DC (VOA Afaan Oromoo) — Hokkarri Saa’udii Arabiyaa keessatti lammiwwan biyya alaa irratti qiyyaafate hammaachuu isaa irraan kan ka’e biyya ofiitti deebi’uuf carraaqaa kan jiran ta’uus hatattamaan kan milka’uu hin taane jedhu kanneen yaaddoo guddaa keessatti kufanii jiran.

Feedhiin galmaa’aatii biyya irraa dhuftaniitti isin deebifana jechuun eega nu galmeessanii booda lafa guyyaa ho’isaa nama gubuu halkan qorri isaa nama kotteessutti geessanii nu gatan jedhu kanneen raadiyoon sagalee Amerikaa haasoofsisee.

Humnaan gudeeddii hamaa dubartootaa fi shamarran irratti rawwatame dheessuun kanneen biyya ofiitti deebi’uuf harka kennataniis du’aa fi jireenya gidduu jirra jedhu.

Dubartoonni ulfaa kanneen da’anii baatii lama hin guunne akkasumas ijoollee kan qaban gaaga’ama kana keessa jiru. Gama kaaniin Embaasiin Itiyoophiyaa Riyaad jiru kan humnii ehamee maraan carraaqqii gochaa jiru akka itti fufeera jiru ibseera

Embaasiin kun Polisoota saa’uudii wajjin ta’uun lammiwwan Itiyoophiyaa lafa jiraaniitti dhaqqabuuf irratti hojjachaa kan jiran ta’u kan ibsan Obbo Ahmaad Xalahaa
Obsaan eeggatanii gara biyya ofiitti nagaan deebi’uun akkaan barbaachisaa ta’uu hubachisan.  Hokkara Saa’udii keessatti giddu kana uumameen waluumaa gala lammiwwan Itiyoophiyaa sadii ajjefamuu Obbo Ahmaad ibsanii jiru.

=>ayyaantuu

23,000 undocumented Ethiopians surrender to authorities

Around 23,000 illegal Ethiopian workers have surrendered to the Riyadh police, with the Saudi authorities now arranging for their repatriation, the Ethiopian ambassador told Arab News on Tuesday. 

Muhammed Hassan Kabiera said the Ethiopian mission had intervened because many illegal workers were unsure about how to proceed when the amnesty ended.

“So our mission had discussions with the Saudi authorities and made arrangements to enable such citizens to hand themselves in,” the ambassador said.

Under the agreement, Kabiera said the workers would be kept at various holding centers until they could get exit visas. “We have been informed that so far about 23,000 Ethiopians have handed themselves in.”

The Ethiopian Embassy assisted 38,199 workers to correct their employment status during the amnesty period, which ended on Nov. 4, he said.

The envoy said the embassy’s officials and volunteers, with various Saudi government agencies, were working to get the workers travel documents.

“Ethiopia was one of the first countries to request an extension of the initial amnesty so that citizens would benefit and correct their status.” He said the extension “was gracefully accepted.”

However, when many workers could not rectify their status, the embassy began preparations for them to go home.

Referring to the incident in Manfouha on Saturday, where three people including a Saudi was killed, the envoy said it was unfortunate that clashes occurred between some Ethiopian nationals and Saudi youths. He sent his condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives.

He said the clashes occurred because the illegal workers were frustrated they did not have a way to surrender to the police. They then took to the streets to voice their concerns, which led to clashes with some youths in the neighborhood.

“Such confrontations and clashes are unacceptable.” He said the safety and human rights of all people should be respected.

=>arabnews

Oromo Studies Representation at African Studies Annual Meeting

African Studies Association (ASA) will hold its 56th annual meeting under an encapsulating theme "Mobility, Migration and Flows" in Baltmore, Maryland, November 21-24, 2013. 

Qeerransoo Biyyaa, host of Oromo Press Radio (OPR), spoke to Bonnie Holcomb, the founding mother of Oromo Studies Association and co-author with Sesai Ibsa of Invention of Ethiopia: The Making of Dependent Colonial State in Northeast Africa about the line-up of events leading up to and during the ASA conference. From the feature interview OPR conducted with Qabbanee, two Oromo Studies panels and several individual presentation slots have been secured at ASA. 

A panel on the history and achievement of the Oromo Diaspora rightly identified as, "Past and Present Oromo Diasporas: Experiences, Identities and Achievements," will be chaired by a renowned Oromo Sociologist Professor Mekuria Bulcha.  Sandy Shell will fly in from the University of Capetown in South Africa in time to present a doctoral research  on liberated Oromo slaves in South Africa under this panel. The title of Sandy's work is  The Oromo Children of Lovedale, South Africa: A Prosopography of African Slavery and its After-Effects. 

Many in the Oromo diaspora and Oromia know Sandy Shell for authoring a  popular  article titled, "How an Ethiopian [Oromian] slave became a South African teacher" for BBC-Africa.  This article has not only been shared thousands of times online, but it also generated immense interest from the Oromo as well as from Oromo rivals who wished to suppress the story. Our sources say Abyssinians tried to discourage Sandy by heckling her and sending vitriolic messages to her employers. Far beyond the BBC article, she wrote a doctoral dissertation by investigating the details of the subject noted above. 

An Oromo Studies Association-sponsored workshop will be conducted to honor and introduce Sandy Shell and her much anticipated work to the Oromo Community residing in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Veteran OSA scholars Mekuria Bulcha and Guluma Gemeda will join Sandy at at the pre-ASA meeting workshop in Washington DC.  If you can't have enough of Sandy Shell, a 30-persons RSVP-based event that exclusively features Sandy Shell is going to be held at Georgetown University in Washington DC on November 19 from 11-12:30pm prior to  the workshop and the ASA conference. Try to make it by all means. If she comes all the way from the South Africa, you can surely make a short metro trip on one of DC's colored lines.

Asebe Regassa,  a new Oromo Studies  face and an independent researcher from Germany, will also be speaking at the ASA conference on the topic of land grabbing in Oromia. Mardaasaa Addisu, a veteran  advocate for Oromo refugee rights is expected to speak on the devastation of environment in Oromia as the leading cause of of Oromo migration or exodus out of the land of repression. 

Review excerpts from ASA schedule below to see the panels, topics and  panelists representing the Oromo nation and the Horn of Africa at the 56th convention of the African Studies Association. 

The Oromo Studies Panels at African Studies 

1) Past and Present Oromo Diasporas: Experiences, Identities and Achievements 
Chair: Mekuria Bulcha, Malardalen UniversityOromo Diaspora Institutions in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area: A Glimpse into a Transnational Sociocultural Field Zakia Posey, Michigan State UniversityDiasporic Contributions to the Development of Oromo Studies Mekuria Bulcha, Malardalen UniversityThe Oromo Children of Lovedale, South Africa: A Prosopography of African Slavery and its After-Effects Sandy Shell, University of Cape Town (UCT)The Significance of the Oromo Diaspora in Europe for the Beginning of Oromo Studies in the 1840s Guluma Gemeda, University of Michigan-Flint

 2) Oromo On and Off the Land 
Chair: Bonnie Holcomb, The George Washington University
Competing Notions of Nature: The Guji Oromo Ecological Wisdom and its Encounter with State Conservation Discourse, Asebe Regassa, IndependentEnvironmental Destruction in Ethiopia: A Leading Factor in Oromo Migration Mardaasa Addisu, Macha Tulama Cooperative and Development, USALand and Environment: The Oromo in the Horn of Africa Daniel Ayana, Youngstown State UniversityOromo Religion and Ecology Bonnie Holcomb, The George Washington UniversityDiscussants: Ezekiel Gebissa, Kettering University

=>oromopress

Illegal workers surrender in Saudi as 3 Ethiopians die

Riyadh (AFP) - Thousands of Africans, mostly Ethiopians, surrendered to Saudi authorities for a second day on Tuesday as Addis Ababa announced the death of three citizens during clashes in the Gulf kingdom.

The men, women and children could be seen lining up under the blazing sun in the poor Manfuhah neighbourhood of the capital waiting to be packed into buses to carry them to deportation centres.

"We were forced to sell our furniture for very low prices and, in our haste, had to give away much of it," said one of the Ethiopians sitting on the ground in despair.

A fellow citizen who also spoke to AFP said he was being deported despite having valid documents.

"Some of us have a legal residency permit, but our sponsors have disappeared with the money" paid to legalise their employment status, he said.

Saudi Arabia announced this year that migrants can only work for their sponsors, even those of them who have residency permits.

On Monday, the ultra-conservative kingdom began rounding up thousands of illegals following the expiry of a final amnesty for them to formalise their status.

Among them are foreigners who overstayed their visas, pilgrims who have sought jobs, and migrants working under one sponsor trying to get jobs elsewhere.

Having an official sponsor is a legal requirement in Saudi Arabia and most other Gulf states.

Buses have been transporting illegal immigrants to assembly centres near the capital Riyadh where authorities are finalising procedures to deport them.

These centres have received some 17,000 foreign workers during the past few days, Saudi media reports said on Tuesday, quoting a police spokesman.

In Addis Ababa, Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told reporters that three Ethiopians had been killed in Saudi Arabia during the police crackdown on illegal immigrants in the Gulf state.

"The act of killing innocent civilians is uncalled for, we condemn that," Mufti said.

Saudi police on Saturday said they intervened following riots in Manfuhah neighbourhood after foreigners attacked Saudis and other foreign expats with rocks and knives.

One Saudi and another person, whose nationality and identity remains unknown, were killed Saturday, said a police statement carried by the SPA state news agency.

Ethiopia announced last week it would repatriate its citizens illegally living in Saudi Arabia after the seven-month amnesty period expired.

Mufti said the government had called for an investigation into the deaths, adding a delegation had been sent to Saudi Arabia to help the repatriation process.

Nearly a million migrants -- Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis among them -- took advantage of the amnesty to leave.

Another roughly four million were able to find employers to sponsor them.

Expatriates account for a full nine million of the oil-rich kingdom's population of 27 million.

The lure of work, even in low-paid jobs as domestics or construction workers, has made the country a magnet for migrants from Asia as well as from poorer Arab states.

Despite its huge oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has a jobless rate of more than 12.5 percent among its native population, a figure the government has long sought to cut.

=>yahoo news