OROMO ARTISTS AND OTHERS CELEBRATING OROMO CULTURE Under Ethiopian and

An OPC candidate in the 2010 elections said he continued to be harassed by the security
services after the poll and was eventually arrested in 2011:
“After the election, they were still trying to make me join their party. I
told them how can I, when I already have my own party. On 10 June
2011, I was taken from my workplace and taken to Maikelawi. I spent
the next four and a half months in detention.”106

OROMO ARTISTS AND OTHERS CELEBRATING OROMO CULTURE Under Ethiopian and international law everyone has the right to enjoy, develop and promote
their own culture and therefore no-one may be arrested for the expression of their cultural
identity.107

Nevertheless, hundreds of people have been arrested in recent years because of their
involvement in expressions of Oromo culture. The government has exhibited hostility to
displays of Oromo cultural heritage. Oromo artists, including writers and singers, have been
harassed, arrested and tortured. In a number of incidents, the government has shown signs of
equating Oromo cultural expression with anti-government sentiment and fearing cultural
expression as a potential catalyst for political opposition to the government. A former student
told Amnesty International:
“If you talk about your rights, culture and identity as an Oromo, you
must be a supporter of OLF.”108
More than 10 people interviewed by Amnesty International said they had been arrested for
some form of cultural expression, in addition to students interviewed by Amnesty
International who were harassed or arrested for their involvement with student cultural
societies, as documented above. The organization also received information from a number of
sources about large numbers of arrests at Oromo traditional festivals and several other cases
of singers and artists arrested since 2011.
More than 200 people were reported to have been arrested at the 2012 celebration of the
traditional festival of Irreecha, celebrated in Debre Zeit (which the Oromo call Bishoftu).
Some were reportedly arrested in several locations including Guder, Ambo and Shashemene
on 29 September 2012 as they were on their way to the festival and further arrests were
reported to have taken place at the festival itself on 30 September 2012. Some of those
arrested were reportedly transferred to Maikelawi. Reported reasons for arrests included
wearing clothes in colours considered as symbols of Oromo resistance – red and green – or
alleged chanting of political slogans during the festival.
Several people reported to Amnesty International they had been arrested because of their
participation in or promotion of the Oromo traditional religion Waaqeffannaa or the traditional
governance system of Gadaa. Over 150 people were reportedly arrested on 23 August 2011,
after the ceremony in the Gadaa tradition when leadership is handed over to the next
generation. One of those arrested, a young man who had been a student at Adama University,
told Amnesty International he had been travelling around the region to document the
ceremony but was arrested on the accusation he had being trying to incite people to rebel