The HRLHA Dispatch: The Humanitarian and Human Rights Crises in Ethiopia Demands that the World Respond

Changes without Lasting Justice

Changes without Lasting Justice               

It has been almost one year and six months since the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) – led Government of Ethiopia (GoE) was forced to give up its authoritarian rule. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling GoE’s military had brutally killed over 7500 Oromo citizens- who ranged in age from seven to eighty- one – to stop the social movement that began in 2014 to bring down the dictatorial regime. The social movement started in 2014 in Oromia Regional State and spread all over the country, including Amhara Regional State, which was also involved in the social movement. The social movement, which had continued unabated for over four years with grievances, forced the TPLF led Ethiopian government PM to resign from his position in 2018.

In April 2018, the EPRDF had made a political shift by removing almost all old cadres from leadership and replacing them with younger new faces and declared a transformation to democracy and equality and a movement away from the repressive system of the past. Most of the new appointees were from the Oromo wing, the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO) of the EPRDF who were assigned to hold key positions as PM and the Foreign Minister positions.

Following those changes, Ethiopians and their friends expected some kind of improvements in terms of democracy, human rights and peace and a calming of the unrest which had continued for over four years all over the country. During his inauguration ceremony, the new PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed vowed to bring about tangible political change in the country where nobody will be imprisoned or be allegedly accused for his/her opinion, or because they were affiliated with other political organizations. After PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed took office on 2 April 2018, the new administration released prisoners of conscience, closed notorious detention places, including Maikelawi prison where torture was prevalent, and embarked on legal reforms. The new PM also invited all political parties operating in exile come home and operate peacefully.  

However, as soon as the protest was over in 2018, in connection with the unrest during the protests in Oromia (2014 to 2018) the government incarcerated thousands of protesters from Oromia for three months. The government of Oromia Regional State explained the prisons as if the people were taken to training camps not as prisoners but trainees. This was the immediate act after the protest came to an end in 2018 which has been taken by the government contrary to the peace promise of the new PM.  In their three months of being in concentration camps in Tolay and Senkele, several young men and women complained that no training has been delivered; instead the police committed inhumane acts against them such as beatings and harassments.

The unrest steadily increases in the country, in Oromia, Amhara and other regional states contrary to the PM Abiy’s promises of bringing peace to the country. With regards to the unrest in Oromia both the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Government blame one another for the failure of the peace agreement reached at Asmara, Eritrea. The OLF complained that the government did not show willingness to hold up its promises of the Asmara joint agreement with respect to treatment of its army wing, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) who had been fighting against the government in different parts of Oromia for over twenty-seven years.

The bilateral committee, which has been created from both sides to restore peace in the Oromia Regional State, has failed without creating a further plan to proceed. To solve the outstanding problem and bring peace between OLF and the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), which changed its name from OPDO, with the initiation of Oromo elders, a two- day conference was held in Finfinne/Addis Ababa by concerned Oromos who came together to discuss the issue and a committee was formed from Oromo Abba Gada and individuals to bring the problem to an end. The elected peace committee was unsuccessful in bringing all OLA members home due to many reasos. The conflicts and clashes between the deployed government troops and OLA have continued without solution to this date. These conflicts and clashes were mostly taking place in Western Oromia of four Wallaga zones; Southern Oromia in Borana and Gujjii zones; and Central Oromia in some Showa zones. The fight between the government troops and OLA since the new administration came to power, for over one year and a half has resulted in the loss of hundreds of civilian lives, property damage, evictions, starvation, imprisonments, etc. Currently, Western and Southern Oromia are under a Military Command or a defacto State of Emergency (SoE) not officially declared by the parliament. This is contrary to the procedures of Declaration of SoE stipulated under Article 93 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution and Article 4 of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Ethiopia is a State Party. As a result, the civil administrations have been incapacitated in the aforementioned six zones of Oromia for over six months.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has expressed its concerns about the human rights infringements in the regional state of Oromia twice in writing to the Oromia Regional State President Office about the arrests, forceful disappearing, and inhuman treatments in Oromia which directly violate the constitutional rights, the international human rights standards and principle of democracy which the Regional State’s ruling party, ODP, claims to bring.   

Gross Human Rights Violations in Conflict Areas under State of Emergency (SoE)

Arbitrary Detention

According to the report HRLHA received from its informants, gross human rights violations in Wallaga and Gujii zones are very alarming. The government troops and Oromia Regional State special force, including the Oromia police, have detained thousands of Oromo civilians’ family members from these zones. The detainees have been kept in concentration camps of Tolay and Senkele, (most of the Sekele prisoners were released since September 2019) under the pretext of training and others in different police stations which the HRLHA believes for allegedly being OLF members or supporters. Denying the constitutional rights of the citizens enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995 Article 19 (3), Rights of Persons Arrested,Persons arrested have the right to be brought before a court within 48 hours of their arrest all people incarcerated in Senkele and Tolay military camps were not take to court.

Legal requirements limiting the period of detention without charge and requiring judicial oversight of detentions are routinely ignored. Over 20 thousand detained persons, especially family members (for example; a mother with four children and couples) from Boran and Gujii (Southern Oromia), and four zones of Wallaga (Western Oromia) had confined at Senkele Camps, suffered severe beatings, lack of meals and water, and poor sanitation for several months- the interviewed prisoners from Senkele camp had disclosed to the HRLHA.

The interviewees also told the HRLHA that all the detainees have been kept incommunicado in camps for months and no one has been taken to court and stayed days, many of them for several weeks or months. The detainees are often re-arrested at different detention centers or police stations after they had been released. For example, Oromo prisoners who were released from Senkele on September 2, 2019 have been rearrested in Gidami West Wallaga by police upon their arrival at their home place from Senkele (Ambo town). Similarly, those who have been released from Senkele and rearrested in Ada’a Barga, West Showa Zone of Oromia and still languishing in Ada’a Barga police station are: Fayisa Abarra, Dasse Bayisa, Boja Kabbaba, Badhassa Mekonin, Warku Dabusha, Lema Belacho, Belachew Birru and others. Although Oromos from all ages, including children and elders have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, government security forces have targeted Oromo youth (Qeerroo and Qarree) especially those with braided hair, school and university students, business leaders, and opposition politicians on suspicion of spying, organizing, or providing financial or other support to the OLA. According to the report obtained from Dambidollo, a capital of Kelem Wallaga zone, many people are languishing in different police stations simply because they have relatives in the OLA widely operating in the area.               

The mistreatment of persons in custody is ‘a serious violation of the Principles for Protection of all Persons under any form of Detention or Imprisonment’ adopted by General Assembly Resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988, (Principle1) which states ‘All persons under any form of detention or imprisonment shall be treated in a humane manner and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person’.

For Example: –

A senior Civics teacher at Ambo High School and Political Science and International Relations graduate Mr. Ashebir Oncho was a prisoner of conscience who suffered prison terms from 1991 up to 2018 and freed on pardon by PM Abiy Ahmed in 2018 has been rearrested at Senkele from June 12, 2019 to Sep 14, 2019 for three months. He was jailed eight times altogether. Mr. Ashebir Oncho was arrested in 1991 for the first time in Ambo for supporting Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Though he has been released on bail after few months and was again rearrested two times until 1997 of the mass arrest of Oromo by the TPLF led government where he was one of the detainees. After three years and eight months in prison at Karchale penitentiary he was released with 60 codefendants free without compensation and apology from the authorities. Mr. Ashebir Oncho was again rearrested in 2015 and taken to Kilinto penitentiary with similar allegation of being a member of the OLF. He suffered in Kilinto for another three years and was released in 2018 on pardon by a new leader PM Abiy Ahmed. There was in every prisoner of conscience a belief that there would be no person who could be taken to custody anymore in Ethiopia because of his political beliefs after the big promise of the new leader PM Abiy Ahmed delivered on different occasions. However, the PM did not live up to his words and many Oromos and from other nations people were taken to different concentration camps after the promising PM speech. Mr Ashebir Oncho became one of them and was detained at Senkele for another three months (from June 12, 2019 to Sep 14, 2019) where he has suffered from several diseases which he had received during his multiple arrests from the bad prison conditions and developed over five different diseases including diabetes, blood pressure, kidney problem and so on.

Extrajudicial Killings of Civilians and Property Destructions in the Western Wallaga Zones

Wallagga

Though the clashes between the government military and the civilians took place in several places in Oromia and Amhara Regional states, the two Oromia Regional State Zones of Eastern Guji, Western Wallaga and Kelem Wallagga are the most affected areas in the Regional State of Oromia. It has been almost a year since these areas had failed under unofficial SoE Military Command. 

The current human rights and humanitarian crises in those Oromia zones because of the Military Command is very harsh and the Oromo people living in those areas explained to the HRLHA reporters in similar words and full of anger expressing their pain and suffering that “in their history of war in many years, they never had such brutal, fascistic acts committed against them by the government military force.” Killings and imprisonments, as well as beatings are common. Fathers have been killed, in front of their family members, young boys and girls have been cold bloodedly killed by the government troops. Among several extra-judicial killings committed this year in Western Oromia is the case of two young brothers named Lalisa Kanate and Eyasu Kanate (both are students) by the Oromia Police a residents of East Wallaga Zone- Ebantu. The boys were killed on the evening of 04/06/11 EC in their home compound. They were buried in a single hole.    

Another victim of killing in West Wallaga was a young man Gammachu Garomsa, who was inhumanely murdered by police on 08/01/12 E.C. Gammachu Garomsa was a residence of Ayira District, Western Wallaga and arrested by the police on the charge that he was a member of the OLF army that was operating in the area. Gammachu Garomsa’s brother explained to the American Voice of Oromo language, he was shot down by the local militia. The military dehumanized him and killed him and threw him into forest.

The inhumane killing of Mr. Yohannis Fite, age 42, by the Ethiopian Federal defense force members on September 19, 2019 was also unforgettable. He was murdered at his home located in Yamalog Walal District, Hawusa Sasiti community (Masara town) Kelem Wallaga zone.  According to his family members interviewed by the HRLHA “Mr. Yohanis Fite was killed by six bullets fired at his head by the military in front of his four children. His wife was ordered to kneel down facing the wall.”  

Borana Gujji

Borana-Gujji Western and Eastern zones are also part of Oromia Regional State in the South that are under a severe attack by the Federal defense force for over a year since the reformist government led by EPRDF took power in April 2018.  In these areas the atrocities like rape of women and young girls, and property destructions were rampant. The Ethiopian military operation in West and East Gujii zones is in connection with the OLA operating in those areas. The military arrests civilians they suspect are supporting the OLA fighting against the state military in those Zones.

For example, the government military force has committed extrajudicial killings on three Oromos, Dhadacha Miessa (Senior), Abdulahi Golu, 15 and Karte Kutura, 10^th grade student in Eastern Guji in Gara Dolo District, Raro community in Sep 2019, taking them from prison in the night. Overall, under the unofficial SoE, hundreds of Oromos have been killed and other hundreds have been critically wounded by the attacks of the EPRDF Federal army in Guji, both West and East Zones. According to the HRLHA’s informants, most of the time the civilians killed by the government troops were denied burials and eaten by hyenas.

The following charts demonstrate the atrocities committed against the people of Western Oromia (especially the four Wallaga Zones, namely W/Wallagga, Kelem Wallaga and East Wallaga); and the Southern parts of Oromia, East and West Guji Zones; and other areas in Oromia Regional State in the past one and half year.

Killings

Rape and other Sexual Harassments

Arrests and Forcible Disappearances in Wallaga Zones 

Bodily Injury (physical harassment, beating, torture etc.)

Recommendations:

• The world community must intervene to stop atrocities committed due to excessive use of force by the Ethiopian military in conflict zones in the country. 
• The Government of Ethiopia needs to conduct a genuine community engagement with the people of the Western and Southern Oromia zones to resolve the humanitarian and human rights crises undergoing in the area.
• The Government must allow neutral third party investigations to those areas under the unofficial SoE Command in particular the four Wallagga zones and the two Gujii zones.
• The Government shall as soon as possible stop the unofficial SoE or Military Command operating in the above mentioned six zones of Oromia and resort to peacefully deal with the armed group, namely the OLA, operating in those areas.
• The Oromia Regional Government must unconditionally release the Oromos incarcerated merely for their political opinion in different concentration camps and police stations found within the region.
• The Federal Government shall take an urgent action to stop and ensure accountability for the human rights violations that have been committed by the Federal police and military force against peaceful and innocent civilians throughout the above six zones of the region being administered by Command Post.

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