Ethiopia’s Oromo people demand equal rights in protestsLargest ethnic group in Ethiopia continues to rally against the government despite crackdown.

Wolonkomi, Ethiopia – Six-year-old Abi Turi and her nine-year-old brother Dereje have not been attending classes in Wolonkomi.
Their school was closed in January as the Ethiopian government began what its critics call a crackdown on protests by the Oromo, the country’s largest ethnic group.
It is uncertain how many people have died in clashes betweensecurity forces and protesters since November, when a series of demonstrations began.

Local estimates put the figure at between 80 and above 200. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that more than 200 people may have died in about six months, a figure the government denies.
“With regards to allegations from human rights groups or self-styled human rights protectors, the numbers they come with, the stories they often paint, are mostly plucked out thin air,” Getachew Reda, the information minister, told Al Jazeera.
Abi and Dereje’s mother was among those shot in January. She was hit by a bullet in the neck. Despite receiving medical treatment, she died of her wounds in March.
“The little girl cries and keeps asking where her mother is. We feel her pain,” said the children’s grandfather Kena Turi, a farmer. “The older one cried when his mother was shot and died, but now it seems he understands she’s gone.”
Oromo students began rallying to protest against a government plan they said was intended to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa, the capital, into Oromia’s farmland.
Protests continue
Oromia is the country’s largest region, and many there believe the government did not want to redevelop services and roads, but that it was engaged in a landgrab.
Though the government shelved its “Integrated Development Master Plan” due to the tension, protestscontinued as the Oromo called for equal rights.
In February, another anti-government rally turned violent. Nagase Arasa, 15, and her eight-year-old brother Elias say they were shot in their legs while a demonstration happened near their home.
“I was in the back yard walking to the house when I was shot,” Nagase told Al Jazeera.
“My brother was in the house. I couldn’t walk I was bleeding. Then I was hit again when I was on the ground I felt the pain then my brother came to help me and he was shot too.”
Ethiopia has an ethnically-based federal system that gives a degree of self-rule to the Oromo people.
But the Oromo opposition, some of whose members have been detained, says the system has been corrupted by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
A ‘marginalised’ community
Merera Gudina, an Oromo politician, said that members of his community feel marginalised — excluded from cultural activities, discriminated against because of their different language, and not consulted in political or economic decisions.
With double-digit growth over the last decade, Ethiopia has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but the majority of the Oromo remain poor.
“Until the Oromo’s get their proper place in this country I don’t think it [dissent] is going to go. The government wants to rule in the old way; people are resisting being ruled in the old way,” Gudina said.
Reporting and recording human rights abuses is also risky, activists told Al Jazeera. Local and foreign journalists said attempts were made to intimidate them, with some detained.
Al Jazeera spoke with local reporters who said they were too afraid to even try and cover the issue.
“It’s very dangerous. Everybody is living in fear. They imprison people every day. People have disappeared. Doing this work is like selling my life,” a human rights activist told Al Jazeera, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Government rejects claims
Kumlachew Dagne, a human rights lawyer, said there was a need for “public forums and consultation for debates on public policy issues” to allow for different views to be heard. He added that the protesters who were injured or killed had not been armed.
“Many of those people were killed after the protests took place many of the people were shot in the back some were shot in the head, which shows that these people were not armed,” he said.
“They were peaceful demonstrators. That is consistent with reports we had from victims’ families.”
The government rejects such claims as exaggerated or fabricated.
“People, whether they are civilians orsecurity officials who have been involved in an excessive use of force, will be held responsible,” Reda said.
He said the government would consult with the Oromo people and “address the underlying problems”

The people of Ethiopia must stand together Now !

These heart-wrenching photos of the people of Omo valley region of Ethiopia make me feel numb and irritable. It reminds me of the 17th and 18th-century slavery.

These pictures show how unfair life really is in Ethiopia under ethnic apartheid regime of the TPLF/EPRDF and how the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid regime is in Ethiopia. These heartbreaking images resonate, reminding us of the absolute physical and emotional devastation on the people of Ethiopia.

The people of Ethiopia must stand together and expose the unspeakable crimes against humanity and condemned the racism against the the people of Omo valley.

IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of all Ethiopian people to speak the truth in exposing crimes against humanity and Institutional racism and lies. Only the truth can set Ethiopia free.

We have long been taught that the truth will set us free, and that seeking the truth is a worthy goal for the betterment of all our precious people and survival of our beautiful country.

In the case of Ethiopia, donor foreign policymakers have been reluctant to confront the unjust ethnic apartheid system of government in the country for fear of creating instability; however, ignoring its basic nature is actually going to also backfire; and when it does, the poor people will be the victims.

We call on the US, the UK, the EU and others donor countries to publicly make a statement condemning the killing of the innocent people and to use your leverage to press for a dialogue leading to democratic change.

We call on the donor countries to openly condemn the repression and violence and for the donor countries to use their leverage as a means to bring about a dialogue leading towards a meaningful and sustainable solution in the best interests of all the people.

The people of Ethiopia are already working to find a way to collaborate together in building a better future for all the people. Once this is achieved and it becomes a nationwide effort; the TPLF regime will be done. This is a time to side with the people instead of with a dying regime. Support for an autocratic regime, while speaking the rhetoric about caring about Ethiopian’s democratic and economic development, must change.
===================
Increasing human rights violations and deaths from careless state-owned sugar plantation in the Omo Valley!

We in the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) sounds an urgent emergency alert regarding the present endangerment of the people of the Omo Valley.

These fellow-Ethiopians are being threatened with human rights violations and atrocities by the TPLF/EPRDF’s troops in the region as the regime moves ahead to remove the people from their land in another crony development scheme for a state-owned sugar plantation on245,000 hectares of land with an additional 100,000 or more hectares of some of the most fertile land committed for other agricultural projects. Those who resist, face state-sponsored human rights crimes.

In all of Ethiopia, the 500,000 people of the Omo Valley may be among the most neglected of Ethiopians by the current TPLF/EPRDF regime.

These dark-skinned and marginalized tribes—the Bodi, the Mursi, the Kwego, the Suri, the Hamer, the Karo as well as others—have only been valued in Ethiopia for the tourism business they attracted due to their unique and primitive customs that have remained unchanged for centuries. Now, the TPLF/EPRDF has found a better use for their land and it does not include them.

The previous and present government of Ethiopia never did value them and even now, they do not see them as their own people. In the entire Diaspora of about a million Ethiopians, some experts suggest that only one person from Omo Valley is among them. This is an example of how marginalized these people are.

Not only have they been intentionally denied access to entering the 21st century—it would negatively impact tourism—they have also been denied access to clean water, education, health care and other opportunities to a much greater degree than most other marginalized groups.

Now, as their land is being taken away from them, they are also being denied their most prized asset, their indigenous land and water.

Just wait, the TPLF/EPRDF regime will suddenly pretend to be forcing the people from their land and into resettlement camps—where they have no means for independent sustenance—in order to “help” bring these people into the 21st century. Do not believe it! It is just an excuse to cover up for illegally stealing their ancestral land and they are ill-prepared to defend themselves!

The people of the Omo Valley are living in a nation set up under the flawed government policy of ethnic federalism. Each ethnic group is supposed to look after people of their own ethnicity, without the expectation that others will care about the rights, interests and well being of those outside their own groups. Because of this, the people of the Omo Valley are more deprived of their rights than many others. Who speaks for them?

Their land is being taken over by their own government without any consultation. The authorities did not care about them and now the people of the Omo Valley have taken matters into their own hands.

Some limited fighting has broken out and as the TPLF/EPRDF sends troops to silence them through intimidation, human rights crimes and secretive extra-judicial killings, they seem to think they can eliminate these people without the world knowing.

The people of the Omo Valley are depending on the world not caring about them, but the SMNE has already received information from the people and we want to warn the ethnic apartheid regime in Ethiopia to stop the human rights abuses against these people and if they do not, they will be found accountable.

We also call on other peace and justice loving Ethiopians to stand up with the people of the Omo Valley. They are us. The people of the Omo Valley may be deprived and they may have been used as commodities for tourism in the past, but to God and to us, they are precious, just like everyone else.

The establishment of the SMNE was to educate Ethiopians about the value of those outside our villages, tribes and regions. One of the SMNE goal was to eradicate this primitive thinking where some devalue the humanity of others and turn away in apathy to their pain and suffering.

This SMNE principle of putting “humanity before ethnicity” and caring about the freedom, justice and well being of others—neighbors near and far—is the basis for healthy societies and cooperative global partnerships.

We in the SMNE will continue investigate and gather evidence to be used for future prosecution so perpetrators of these crimes will face justice and not get away with these crimes.

The people of Ethiopia will hold them accountable under the rule of law that is not simply rhetoric.

If any think that they can commit crimes without being found out, you are wrong as we already have our sources from this remote region of the country. We will continue to monitor what is going on there.

As we stand up for the people of the Omo Valley, let it bring us together as one people of Ethiopia who stand up for the freedom, rights and wellbeing of all of us.

by Obang Metho