Kelilew Urga: - English Newspaper's Coverage of the Crimes Committed Against Innocent Oromo by the TPLF / Tigrean Govt

Below is an article in a Norwegian newspaper covering the human rights crimes committed against innocent Oromo by the TPLF / Tigrean government. The scanned version of the article (and the text format of the article) are also presented below (language: English).

Scanned version:

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Because I am Oromo

Oromo people the largest ethnic indigenous group in East Africa with a population of around 40 million in the area from Ethiopia to Kenya and parts of Somalia and Egypt. Oromo people is Ethiopia's largest ethnic group and their language is the fourth most spoken in Africa (after Arabic, Hausa and Swahili). Oromo spoken over a geographically large area. The other names in the language includes afaan Oromo, oromiffa and Oromo. But the language and its users are exposed to the marginalization and discrimination of the Ethiopian government.

Oromo Erne in Ethiopia has been cowed by the Ethiopian rulers since the last quarter of the 19th century. Oromo was then banned for use in education, mass media and public life. Afaan Oromo was prohibited under Emperor Haile first Selassie regime. The time was Oromo speaking privately and publicly ridiculed. Government did everything in his power to ensure the dominance of Abyssinian languages ​​and cultures exist at the expense of Oromo. This continued later during the communist regime that followed the emperor's downfall. In 1992, the ban was lifted, and the language used in Oromia regions with certain restrictions.

All subsequent Ethiopian regimes, including today, has driven conscious and systematic campaigns of misinformation about Oromo people and their language and culture to maintain the oppression of people group.

Why did the Ethiopian rulers suppressed Oromo?

It Tigrinya-led regime has mainly chosen out Oromo people because of their financial resources and political resistance. Oromia Support Group, said: "Because Oromo spans Ethiopia richest areas and account for half of the population in Ethiopia, they are seen as the biggest threat to the current Tigrinya-led government. In retrospect, several Oromo organizations including the Oromo Relief Association, have been closed and suppressed by the government. The most commonly used justification for detaining Oromo people is that they are suspected of supporting the OLF. "

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other international organizations dishes regularly spotlight on government ruthless persecution of Oromo people, based solely on their perceived opposition to the government. It mentions how Oromo people constantly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without trial, forced disappearance, torture and repeated unlawful state killings as examples of government's relentless effort to crush dissent.

"The Ethiopian government relentless action against real or perceived dissent among Oromo people is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality," said Clair Beston, Amnesty International's Ethiopia researcher. "This is obviously done to warn, control or silence all signs of political disobedience in the region." According to reports from Amnesty International 5000 ethnic Oromo people were arrested between 2011 and 2014 based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.

These include peaceful demonstrators, students, members of opposition political parties and people who express their Oromo heritage. In addition to these are people from all walks of life, as farmers, teachers, health professionals, civil servants, singers, business people and countless others regularly arrested in Oromia based only on suspicion that they do not support the government. Many are accused of having "incited others against the government". Family members of suspects have also been persecuted based only on suspicion that they share a family member vision or have inherited their opinions or they are arrested instead of their missing relative.

Many of those arrested have been imprisoned without cause for months or years and been subjected to repeated torture. Throughout the region, hundreds of people arrested in unofficial detention in military camps. Many are denied contact with lawyers and family members. Dozens of actual or suspected dissidents have been killed. The majority of them are accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the armed group in the region.

During Tigrinyan People's Liberation Front's brutal rule have courtrooms been important arenas for repression. Since TPLF took power in 1991, people have been murdered, tortured and imprisoned innocent under baseless and false, fabricated accusations that they support the Oromo Liberation Front.

Sources: Amnesty International report published on 28 October 2014
Oromia Support Group
BBC NEWS 28 October 2014
UCLA Language Materials Project

By Kelilew Urga