Human Rights

Human Rights are inherent to all human beings, and should have available to them regardless of their ethnicity, gender, nationality, belief  and or any defining human quality. No human being should have their human rights taken away and or suppressed by any individual, group, nation and or entity. Europeans adopted the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 10 December 1948 during the United Nations General Assembly in Paris (General Assembly resolution 217 A). The Articles within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) are very specific and include clauses that reflect that no one should be discriminated against particularly in the right to Human Rights.

UNDR Rights include but not limited to

• Civil rights (rights to life, liberty and security),
• Political rights (rights to the protection of the law and equality before the law),
• Economic rights (rights to work, to own property and to receive equal pay),
• Social rights (rights to education and consenting marriages),
• Cultural rights (right to freely participate in their cultural community), and
• Collective rights (right to self-determination).

Nations and Nationalities have also defined Human Rights into their individual cultures through either religion and or laws that govern the land. Among Oromo, laws that protect human rights are defined within Seera fi Heera. Mako Bili's Laws (1500's) expanded on specific rights within the 65 provisions.

Mako Bili's Laws

Enabling Violation of Human Rights

It is understood that 48 countries signed the UDHR with 8 additional countries abstaining.

Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Burma, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey,United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The following eight member states abstained: Belorussia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, South Africa, the USSR, and Yugoslavia.

Given the above, it can be implied that any country that blocks a national groups right to Self Determination through providing material support (or direct military assistance) for a Government occupation of Nationals is violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Any entity that suppress' reporting of human rights abuses of a Nation or Nations is also violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One can also make a case that the entity is discriminating against the specific ethnic group, and in certain cases is "perverting the course of Justice." 

A case can be made that individuals within Amnesty International were discriminating against Oromo people when they removed a video (encouraging Advocacy for Human Rights protection in Ethiopia) after the killing of Haacaaluu Hundessa , followed by a public apology to the Ethiopian Government.

What is not clear is why apologize as it is well documented that the Ethiopian Government is persecuting civilians including Oromo people. It is also well document that Oromo Political prisoners continue to languish in Ethiopian prisoners simply for attempting to run in the elections.

Discrimination by members of Amnesty International is deeply concerning, and contradictory to the well published report "Because i am Oromo." 

Dear Sir or Madam,

Abiy Ahmed is an undeserving speaker at The Green Recovery virtual event, 16-17 September 2020

We, the undersigned member organizations of the Global Oromia Forum, consisting of 41 Oromo Civic, Human Rights, and Religious organizations, wish to congratulate and support the Project Syndicate for organizing this timely event focusing on the most important theme impacting the continued survival of our planet. Climate change is no longer science fiction but the most consequential human activity-caused episode challenging our very existence.  If we fail to take drastic actions today to decelerate or reverse the deteriorating trend, it is no longer if, but when the continued survival of life on earth as we know it will cease to exist. We believe the Green Recovery initiative is a step in the right direction to this end, the reason why we believe the planned virtual event is both critical and timely.

We also note the list of distinguished luminaries and global leaders lined up to share their wisdom and experience as keynote speakers, but with one particular caveat.  The caveat, in our humble opinion supported by hard facts and figures detailed below, is the inclusion of an undeserving speaker, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Abiy Ahmed. We strongly believe that his participation will bring unwanted scrutiny to the conference because of his records on gross human rights violations. Yes, the prime minister is a Nobel laureate, one of the criteria we understand the Project Syndicate considered to invite him as a keynote speaker at this event. However, there are so much compelling evidence that, in hindsight, suggests the most undeserving person got the most coveted prize in the first place. Don’t take our words on this, just ask the Nobel Peace Prize Committee if they would have bestowed the prestigious prize on Dr. Abiy had they known what they know today. They still are answering for the decision they made and have to defend it. He should not be honored once again by featuring him at this global event along with so many deserving and distinguished speakers.  

In our view, here is why Dr. Abiy should not be rewarded with the honor of sharing the stage with these renowned world leaders and professionals with impeccable characters for, as we shall show below, he has reneged on his promise of transitioning Ethiopia to democracy, he is a shameless plagiarizer, and he is known to have changed his biography so often to fit what he believes his audiences would like to hear.

Dr. Abiy served as a senior member of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) dominated regime that terrorized Ethiopians for 27+years, with a record of hundreds of thousands of people killed, maimed, and disappeared during his tenure as Head of the Security Intelligence arm of the regime.   In 2018, when the TPLF members of the regime were forced to retreat to Tigray, following sustained Oromo youth-led popular uprising for over 4+years, Mr. Abiy and his team came to power promising to transition the country into a genuine functional democracy, has officially apologized for the destruction of so many lives and squandering the wealth of the country. During the first year, he was indeed a trailblazer; signed a peace agreement with Eritrea, lifted so many draconian laws that stifled human rights and free speech, invited exiled opposition parties and leaders to return home and participate in a peaceful democratic process, promised to hold free and fair elections, open up the economy to allow increased private sector participation and the list goes on; actions that earned him unequivocal domestic and international support and a Nobel Prize for Peace and accolade of praises. Many believed that the Nobel Prize was a down payment for peace.

No sooner than he received the prize, however, Prime Minster realized that Ethiopians, especially Oromos he claimed to have represented as a blood relative resulting in his appointment as Prime Minister, unequivocally prefer opposition parties as their true leaders. With that realization, the Prime Minister and his team instantly halted in its tracks the so-called change they introduced and reneged on his promise to transition Ethiopia to democracy. They immediately launched a vicious war on unarmed individuals, organizations, and the grassroots that deposed the previous regime and paved the way for the Prime Minister and his team to come to power. His supporters assassinated a prominent Oromo artist, Hachaaluu Hundessa, who inspired and mobilized millions of Oromo youth against the previous tyrannical regime.  During Oromia wide demonstrations that followed Hachaaluu’s assassination, the state security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators, jailed most opposition party leaders and activists, closed or destroyed opposition parties’ offices and properties, carried out extrajudicial killings of the Oromo public suspected of being supporters of the opposition, closed Oromo media houses, jailed their staff and management, and looted their properties.

As documented in multiple Amnesty International reports on Human rights status in Ethiopia (Amnesty International Report on Human Rights Violations, May 29, 2020;  https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/ethiopia/report-ethiopia/ the Prime Minister and the state he is presiding over are waging state-sanctioned terror on Oromos and oppressed nations and nationalities in Ethiopia; the reason why he doesn’t deserve nor should he be rewarded with the honor of sharing a stage with globally recognized world leaders and professionals.

Moreover, Dr. Abiy is also intellectually dishonest, widely known as a prolific plagiarizer of other people’s works and speeches verbatim (https://somalilandchronicle.com/2018/08/26/dr-plagiarizer-ethiopian-prime-minister-plagiarizes-henry-kissinger/ He is an infamous impersonator, having repeatedly claimed varying versions of his parents’ ethnic background that seem to change depending on his audience’s prevalent ethnicity and his perception of what that audience wants to hear about his origin of ethnicity. According to BBC report published on October 11. 2019 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43567007 he claimed his father is a Muslim Oromo and his mother is a Christian Amhara (also quoted in the Nobel Prize Institute’s biography of the Prime Minister). He has repeatedly confirmed this claim in multiple interviews he gave to various media platforms available on YouTube. He is also on record, claiming both his father and mother are Oromos in an interview he granted to the Oromo Broadcasting Network TV as recent as July 15, 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZATZ5Q-EyE&ab_channel=OBNOromiyaa%5BOromiaBroadcastingNetwork%5D In our opinion, allowing Dr. Abiy to speak at this event risks tarnishing the good name and image of Project Syndicate, diminishes that stature of the event, and possibly disseminate plagiarized messages on this very important topic.  We thus kindly request Project Syndicate urgently to rescind the invitation to Dr. Abiy Ahmed to prevent any detraction from the real issue of the conference and also because this could be construed as unwittingly enabling a murderous tyrant who did not and is not valuing human life. 

Allowing Dr. Abiy to appear on this world stage, to speak to the environment, is tantamount to ignoring the death of those children, the old and young people, and hundreds of thousands incarcerated in COVID-19 infested jails, and those young girls being raped daily by his soldiers as a deterrent.  All this ongoing death and destruction is due to Abiy’s official shoot-to-kill policy to deter any kind of protest from his tyranny.  One must also examine the inconsistencies of this man’s educational records to know what a master manipulator he has been throughout his life.  The fundamental question is this, what kind of wisdom about climate change can this despicable, intellectually bankrupt, and a profoundly flawed human being can offer at such a global forum? If this invitation stands, he will use it to polish his image that has been tarnished beyond any repair, regardless.  We sincerely hope and passionately urge that in virtue of the above, Project Syndicate will reconsider its invitation and dissociate itself from a leader of one of the most murderous regimes the world has seen in recent years.   If not for anything else, just to preserve the image and credibility of the organization. Attached is a graphic snapshot of the atrocities committed by Abiy’s security forces against innocent Oromo citizens.

Oromia Global Forum

Signatories:

1.     Advocacy4Oromia

2.     Bilal Oromo Dawa Center

3.     Canaan Oromo Evangelical Church

4.     Charismatic International Fellowship Church

5.     DMV Oromo Islamic Center

6.     Gaadisa Sabboontottaa KP

7.     Global Gumii Oromia

8.     Global Oromo Advocacy Group

9.     Global Waaqeffannaa Council

10. Horn of Africa Genocide Watch

11. Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa

12. International Oromo Lawyers Association

13. International Oromo Women’s Organization

14. International Qeerroo Support Group

15. Network of Oromo Studies

16. Mana Kiristaanaa Fayyisaa Addunyaa

17. Oromo Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church

18. Oromo Communities’ Association of North America

19. Oromo Community of Bergen

20. Oromo Community of Oslo

21. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Los Angeles

22. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington DC Metropolitan Area

23. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society

24. Oromo Human Rights and Relief Organization

25. Oromo Legacy, Leadership and Advocacy Association

26. Oromo Lutheran Church of Baltimore

27.  Oromo Relief Association in USA

28. Oromo Parliamentarians Council

29. Oromo Political Prisoners Association

30. Oromo Resurrection Evangelical Church

31. Oromo Scholars and Professinals

32. Oromia Support Group

33. Oromo Studies Association

34. Tawfiq Islamic Center

35. Tawhid Oromo Islamic Center in Minnesota

36. Union of Oromo Communities in Canada

37. United Oromo Chirstian Church in Australia

38. United Oromo Evangelical Church

39. Wabii Maccaa Association

40. Washington DC Metropolitan Oromo SDA Church

Yohannes Gedamu’s disingenuous OPED,"Hachalu Hundessa's death exposed an unlikely anti-Abiy alliance”, published in Al Jazeera on 7/28/20

By Oromia Global Forum

Oromia Global Forum is a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional, and Faith-Based Organizations and individual proponents of Human Rights, residing in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. Our mission is to enhance Oromo unity, discuss, analyze and deliberate on man-made and natural disasters as well as human rights abuses plaguing the Oromo nation, and design and deploy strategies and interventions to mitigate the plights of our people.

We recently came across the above article by Mr. Yohannes Gedamu, evidently a piece of partisan political propaganda, published as an OPED in a supposedly very reputed international news outlet, Al Jazeera. The management and the entire member organizations of OGF are extremely disappointed that Al Jazeera editors allowed such a glaringly obvious piece of political propaganda, riddled with outrageous inconsistencies to slip through its editorial review process unnoticed and get published as an OPED.

 OGF would like to take this opportunity to thank professionals like Mr. William Davison for instantly noticing the Ethiopian Government’s Political propaganda that Mr. Gedamu propaganda piece disguised as objective analysis which is “disingenuous and distorts international understanding of the situation in Ethiopia.” As individual OGF members who were born and brought up in Oromia but left the country to escape persecution, torture, and extrajudicial killings, we can’t agree more.

Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s regime disappointing track record that Mr. Gedamu attempted to sugarcoat

The current regime in Ethiopia came to power in 2018 on the back of the Oromo youth (Qeerroo and Qarree) led popular uprising ignited in 2015 and forced the resignation of the then PM H/Mariam Dessalgne in 2018. Shortly after, the new regime introduced several reforms such as “the release of thousands of political prisoners, allowing the return of opposition politicians from exile and legal registration of their political parties, and the repeal of repressive laws that was out in place to paralyze local independent media, civil society and opposition political parties” (Amnesty International)1,2.

The return of the exiled opposition politicians and parties also revealed something the new regime seems did not expect; the overwhelming popular support the returning opposition politicians and parties commanded as demonstrated by the unprecedented turnout of Oromos in millions to receive their beloved Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and its leaders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYGgO2u8iM)1.
The new regime taken aback by the overwhelming public support for the opposition seems to have abruptly decided to decelerate the pace of change it introduced. The alternative scenario could be the so-called change was unreal in the first place but staged for the purpose of luring all opposition forces to return to the country for easy control and elimination. OGF suspects the second scenario.

The euphoria over the introduced change was still on the rise when the regime began signaling its determination to remain in power for the foreseeable future. Using COVID 19 as excuse, it postponed regional and national elections, vowed to revise the constitution to replace the current multi-national federal system with a unitary state where one language, one culture and one identity dominates in a country of about 84 nations and nationalities. This is promised under the bogus pretext of taking the country back to its past imperial glory of pre 1974, a glory that never existed for the oppressed nations and nationalities but for Imperial Ethiopia’s ruling class, the Amhara-elites.

The regime and its neo-Neftegna, a group strongly opposed to or are admittedly against the federal system and are bent on bringing back the old unitary system of governance, supporters understand that Oromos and the other oppressed nations reject the plan to return to the system they dismantled in 1974. Accordingly, the regime immediately declared a brutal war on Oromo that make up more than 40% of the country’s population and the citizens of the other oppressed nations and nationalities calling for equality, justice, and free and fair election. According to Amnesty International, since Abiy’s regime declared war on Oromos, Ethiopian armed forces, the federal police, regional police special forces, local administration officials, armed allied militia, and youth vigilante groups, especially the traditionally ruling group settled in Oromia, have carried out serious human rights violations in places such as East Guji, West Guji, and Wollega. These targeted locations are believed to be Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)'s strong hold.

The regime and its neo-Neftegna supporters target the same Oromo youth (Qeerroo and Qarree) that were instrumental to its ascension to power. They consider Oromo opposition parties and leaders, especially the leaders of the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) as enemies to be eliminated. As Amnesty International reported, they are carrying out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, tortures, rapes, forced evictions, destruction of property and other forms of ill-treatment. The recent assassination of Hacaaluu Hundeessaa, a renowned Oromo singer, song writer and revolutionary, is part of this grand campaign.

Simultaneously, the regime and its supporters are engaged in aggressive propaganda campaigns to frame Oromo youth and opposition party members and supporters at home and abroad as Ethno-Nationalists, inciting ethnic conflict and committing extra judicial killings of non-Oromo citizens in Oromia. Nothing is farther from the truth than this bogus claim. Internationally, they are engaged in aggressive propaganda campaigns against diaspora Oromo intellectuals and activists speaking on behalf their people subjected to the regime and its supporter’s atrocities. The primary purpose of this propaganda is to distract international communities’ attention from the regime financed defense, police, and militia forces extrajudicial killings of Oromos in opposition strongholds throughout Oromia. The reason for these heinous crimes is obvious; to illegally remain in power for as long as possible.

The extrajudicial killings and destruction of properties that are claimed to have been committed by Oromos have been known to be preplanned and executed by government operatives to blackmail the Oromo struggle for justice and incite conflict among people. This has been the tactic of this government under the principle of ‘dived and rule’ to maintain its grip on power.

The interest of the regime’s primary supporters, especially the Amaharas who are the creators, rulers, and primary beneficiaries of Imperial and/or Colonial Ethiopia, aligns fully with that of the regime. Their shared interests are dismantling the federal constitution that protects the rights of all nationals and nationalities to govern themselves, forcing Amharanization a.k.a. Ethiopian Nationalism on non-Amahara citizens, assert to rule the country with brute force.  Mr. H. Cohen’s Tweet of 24 June 2019 embedded here succinctly captures the rationale behind the behaviors and actions of the regime’s   ardent supporters; to “restore Amhara hegemony over all of Ethiopia that existed for several centuries prior to 1991.” It is this shared vision and objective of the regime and its neo-neftegna supporters that inspires individuals like Mr. Gedamu to illegally misuse and exploit public trust and platform to advance their hidden political agenda. 

How did we get here? Emperor Menelik II of Imperial Ethiopia conquered free nations and nationalities south of the Abyssinian empire, including the Oromo, Gumuz, Benishangul, Sidama, Kambata, Gurage, Wolaita, Somali, etc., between 1883 and 19003,4,5,6. As part of their colonial strategy, the predominantly Amhara Imperial ruling class that ruled the empire through 1974 used racist colonial policies to eradicate the identities of the non-Amhara groups and excluded them from economic, education, and employment opportunities. The policy legally recognized only Amharic as a national language and Orthodox Christianity as State endorsed religion. This carefully socially engineered country in the mold of one language, one culture and one identity at the expense of all the other peoples of the country was then labeled as a brand “Ethiopia” and relentlessly promoted “Ethiopian Nationalism” as an Orthodox Christian Country with Amharic as its only national language. Frighteningly, this is exactly what Dr. Abiy’s regime and its neo-Neftegna collaborators are frantically working to reintroduce.

This system relegated the rest (those who resisted abandoning their identity, culture and religion) to 2nd class citizens. People who did not have Amharic as their first language were discriminated against in all areas of life including education, jobs, politics, the judiciary system, and the economy. The glaring inequality the system engendered, specially the debilitating dual land tenure policy guaranteed land ownership by family lineage for northerners, and expropriated the ancestral lands of the natives and appropriated it to settlers from the north in the south. This serfdom in the south and the inequality in the country eventually triggered massive student uprisings calling for land reform in late 1960s. The then student movement culminated in deposing the emperor in 1974 and ending the feudal form of governance. The movements at the time also led to the creation of liberation fronts to address the demands of nations and nationalities for self-determination.

The military regime that took power in 1974 became dictatorial, totalitarian and could not resolve the question of nations and nationalities for self-determination. The military junta was defeated by liberation fronts including the OLF, TPLF and EPLF in 1991. The EPLF declared independence of Eritrea and the OLF gave a chance for peace trying to implement a free and fair election in order to democratize the empire. But to no avail, the TPLF decided to monopolize power and rule the country using the satellite parties that it created for all nations and nationalities.

Though the OLF, as the sole and true representative of the Oromo people, managed to introduce the existing federal system and the formation of Oromia as one of the federal regional states at the beginning, it was ousted from the political transitional process. TPLF led by EPRDF imposed a reign of terror on the Oromo people. Any proud Oromo or nationalist Oromo was labelled as an OLF member or supporter and subjected to extrajudicial killings, torture, imprisonment, displacement from ancestral land, and all kinds of persecutions. The Oromo people suffered immensely under the TPLF led EPRDF regime to which the current PM of the country and his team belonged.
The TPLF and its supporters including its satellite party members dominated all areas of business and the economy using systems of corruption in ways that are similar to apartheid for over 27 years.

As the TPLF criminal enterprise with its satellite parties worked hard to obliterate Oromo and Oromia, Oromo youth intensified their peaceful struggle demanding justice and equality. The regime retaliated by assassinating and incarcerating thousands of Oromo youth, accusing them of being OLF members and supporters. The irony is that the supposedly OPDO dominated EPRDF regime, rebranded as the Prosperity Party that self-identifies as a reformist government, invited OLF and others back to the country. In doing so, it promised to allow the returnees to peacefully participate in a free and fair democratic process. And yet, it is now hunting and incarcerating the returnees exactly the way its predecessor, the TPLF dominated EPRDF did. This same group that served in the TPLF dominated EPRDF is now accusing OLF for collaborating with TPLF to oppose it. Where is the truth?

We understand the complicated and rapidly evolving group and party relationships in Ethiopia’s recent political dynamics sounds confusing. However, the factors and incentives that are controlling the actions and behaviors of the various actors are not. Both the previous TPLF dominated EPRDF and the current neo-Neftegna dominated EPRDF are terrified with the prospect of entering into a competitive free and fair political process to compete with representatives of the most populous and richest region, Oromia, and the other equally rich but previously oppressed nations and nationalities. That is the rationale for TPLF to have provided lip service to democratic values and federal form of government but to have ruled the country as dictators.

The neo-Neftegnas addicted to unique privileges and opportunities, though those privileges were eroded over the last 30 or so years, are also equally terrified with the prospect of participating in competitive democratic process, the outcome of which will likely further empower the previously oppressed nations and nationalities to have more say in their regional affairs and control their resources for their citizen’s use.
The team currently ruling the country, fully aware of the crime it committed, as it repeatedly confessed at the peak of the Qeerroo and Qarree protest, the departure of TPLF, and during the appointment of Dr. Abiy Ahmed, seems to be deeply concerned with the prospect of being held accountable should it relinquish power through elections. It is this converging interest that explains the newfound love between the neo-Neftegnas and the regime that is putting the country on an extremely dangerous path toward civil war should they continue to kill and incarcerate opposition party politicians and prolong and/or further delay holding national elections.

Ethiopian Government propaganda and Mr. Gedamu’s dubious analysis are presented in quotations and rebuttals are given bold italics text below.

“During the violence (this refers to the spontaneous protest at home and abroad that started as soon as the assassination of Hachaaluu Hundessa was announced and still continues today), scores of innocent Ethiopians were murdered for the sole "crime" of belonging to a certain ethnic group, mostly Amhara.”

This bogus assertion repeated also by Prime Minister Abiy’s surrogates, senior advisors, and supports such as Mr. Gedamu have been crowding social media. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of the victims (killed, incarcerated, and targeted with bogus character assassination campaign) are predominately Oromos!

“The violence…drew renewed attention to the ethno-nationalist detractors of Abiy's government. More importantly, it exposed the dangerous alliance. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - the political representative of the Tigray minority which dominated a coalition government for years before Abiy took office - and some radical Oromo political organizations formed to undermine the reforms that are being enacted by Ethiopia's first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to end the country's ethnic divisions.”

These are the most outrageous allegations only desperate dictators like Dr. Abiy and his team as well as their fanatic supporters have been throwing out hoping somehow it will stick. Currently, several versions of it are lurking on internet, in addition to saturating airwaves and print media in Ethiopia since the regime fell off TPLF's good book and began attacking. Mr. Gedamu is simply reposting the bogus allegation as OPED. It is also important to again remind readers that PM Abiy and all his team were part of the TPLF led EPRDF regime. In fact, Abiy served as one of the top spy agents of the TPLF led government herding people to their torture and death quarters.

“The violence that followed Hacaaluu's tragic murder drew renewed attention to the ethno-nationalist detractors of Abiy's government”

Note that the folks Mr. Gedamu and Dr. Abiy now refer to as “Ethno-nationalist” and “Detractors of Abiy’s Government” are the same folks who paid enormous price in blood and treasure to fight TPLF and eventually paved the way for Abiy to ascend to power. The Prosperity Party team and their neo-Neftegna supporters coined and began labeling all Oromos demanding their right to self-determination and retain and develop their language, culture, and identity as such. Similarly, by all accounts, including Mr. Gedamu, no other citizens suffered (murdered, and incarcerated in mass and resources expropriated/looted and transferred) like Oromos. The TPLF-dominated EPRDF regime, of which all the individuals and parties currently in government belonged to, are rejected by all nations and nationalities.

“The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - the political representative of the Tigray minority which dominated a coalition government for years before Abiy took office - and some radical Oromo political organizations formed to undermine the reforms that are being enacted by Ethiopia's first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to end the country's ethnic divisions. After Haachaaluu's murder, rather than allowing the relevant authorities to investigate the crime and punish the perpetrators, the TPLF and ethno-nationalist Oromo groups embarked on a blame game and intentionally raised tensions across the country.”

Dr. Abiy and the Prosperity Party team targeted OLF as their number one enemy the very day the senior leaders of OLF landed in Finfinnee and they witnessed millions of Oromos literally carpet Finfinnee for as long as the eye could see from all corners of the city. The same day the ruling team began blowing their fake propaganda claiming a sudden partnership between TPLF and OLF. These are the same guys who worked for TPLF and murdered OLF members and supports throughout their tenure as TPLF employees! How convenient, Mr. Gedamu!

“Oromo leaders who expected Abiy, himself an ethnic Oromo, to fight solely to expand Oromo influence over the federal government were disappointed by his policies aimed at achieving national reconciliation.”

This is probably the most baffling claim for playing a prophet and magically detect what Oromo leaders expected and what disappointed them. At all times the Oromo leaders uttered a word in person or imprint, they conveyed a single message – hold the constitutionally mandated and required election now! No, they are not “disappointed by his policies aimed at achieving national reconciliation.” They and the entire 40+ million Oromos and all the other nations and nationalities are not just disappointed but ready to fight to stop Abiy and his cronies from reversing the gains that has been achieved by the bloods and bones of their children. They will not allow Abiy to take our country back to pre 1974 colonial political order.

Conclusion
Yesterday when the Oromo youth were peacefully fighting the TPLF led EPRDF for change, they were heralded as hero and applauded for their sacrifices only until they ascended to power. Today, after ascending to power, they reversed their stand and defaming the same people when they know very well that the Oromo people's struggle is not directed against any group of people, but is for justice, equality, and genuinely democratized federal system through a fair and free election. Mr. Gedamu knows this truth but chooses to ignore it for political expediency. 
 
In fact, Abiy's supporters and our detractors know this fact very well. But they are deliberately trying to divert to race to blame the victimized Oromo people to cover up their crimes and their effort to revive a 19th century imperial and backward system of slavery. This is a system, where Oromos and other marginalized nations and nationalities of the country are considered as second-class citizens. Their land is confiscated, and they are used as free laborers. 

This is where their Oromophobia comes from. As well explained in this letter, Oromos are not willing to accept the stories, lies, and deceptions of the old ruling bandits that are now trying to come back. That is why they are using all means to defame the Oromo people.
In this effort, Mr. Gedamu and other supporters of this government are sponsored by Abiy and his embassies around the world. Their goal is to suppress the Oromo people by silencing Oromo intellectuals, students, businesspeople, and Oromos cultural heritage.
 
Their effort to hurt diaspora Oromo professionals through blatantly false and fabricated allegations and telephone calls to their employers with utterly fabricated accusations have awfully failed as all of them have been cleared of false accusations after thorough investigations.  Unfortunately, our brothers and sisters at home are paying heavy price as the regime and its supporters continue to murder and incarcerate them far from eyes and ears of yhe international community. It is our hope that Al Jazeera would also take the same measures as Facebook, employers, etc. after learning the facts we listed in this piece. We also hope Mr. Gedamu and his group stop the destructive path they are on and join the Oromo people and other nations and nationalities to build a free and fair tomorrow for all the peoples of Ethiopia as they so choose.   
 
Oromia Global Forum

Signatories:

1. Advocacy4Oromia
2. Bilal Oromo Dawa Center
3. Canaan Oromo Evangelical Church
4. Charismatic International Fellowship Church
5. DMV Oromo Islamic Center
6. Gaadisa Sabboontottaa KP
7. Global Gumii Oromia
8. Global Oromo Advocacy Group
9. Global Waaqeffannaa Council
10. Horn of Africa Genocide Watch
11. Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa
12. International Oromo Lawyers Association
13. International Oromo Women's Organization
14. International Qeerroo Support Group
15. Network of Oromo Studies
16. Mana Kiristaanaa Fayyisaa Addunyaa
17. Oromo Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church
18. Oromo Community of Bergen
19. Oromo Community of Oslo
20. Oromo Communities’ Association of North America
21. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Los Angeles
22. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington DC Metropolitan Area
23. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society
24. Oromo Human Rights and Relief Organization
25. Oromo Legacy, Leadership and Advocacy Association
26. Oromo Lutheran Church of Baltimore
27. Oromo Parliamentarians Council
28. Oromo Political Prisoners Association
29. Oromo Relief Association in USA
30. Oromo Scholars and Professinals
31. Oromia Support Group
32. Oromo Studies Association
33. Tawfiq Islamic Center
34. Tawhid Oromo Islamic Center in Minnesota
35. Union of Oromo Communities in Canada
36. United Oromo Chirstian Church in Australia
37. United Oromo Evangelical Church
38. Wabii Maccaa Association
39. Washington DC Metropolitan Oromo SDA Church

¹Amnesty International, (2020). Ethiopia: Rape, extrajudicial executions, homes set alight in security operations in Amhara and Oromia.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/05/ethiopia-rape-extrajudicial-executions-homes-set-alight-in-security-operations-in-amhara-and-oromia/#:~:text=Amnesty%20International's%20report%20reveals%20that,people%20dead%20and%20hundreds%20displaced.&text=They%20died%20instantly.

²Amnesty International (2019). Ethiopia 2019. https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/ethiopia/report-ethiopia/

³Baxter, P.T.W., 1978. ETHIOPIA'S UNACKNOWLEDGED PROBLEM: THE OROMO; African Affairs, Volume 77, Issue 308, Pages 283–296,

⁴ Herbert S. ⁵Lewis,  2001; Jimma Abba Jifar: An Oromo Monarchy Ethiopia 1830-1932, 2001-11-01)

⁵infoplease: https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/ethiopia

By Oromia Global Forum; August 12, 2020.

Oromia Global Forum is a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional, and Faith-Based Organizations and individual proponents of Human Rights, residing in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. Our mission is to enhance Oromo unity, discuss, analyze and deliberate on man-made and natural disasters as well as human rights abuses plaguing the Oromo nation, and design and deploy strategies and interventions to mitigate the plights of our people.

 We, the members of Oromia Global Forum (OGF) condemn in the strongest possible term the brutal killings and atrocities committed against the people of Wolaita by the Ethiopian government security forces for peacefully demanding their right to form their own administrative regional state, a right that is enshrined in the constitution of the country.

Violence against the Wolita people began when they peacefully demanded the release of their political leaders, activists, and community leaders who were arrested while conducting a meeting to discuss about the status of their demand to establish the Wolaita regional state.

Any government’s minimum primary responsibility is to keep the peace and safety of its citizens and attend to their demands based on the laws and the constitution of the country. Unfortunately, this minimum standard has not been met by the regime in power in Ethiopia. PM Abiy’s Neo-Naftanya regime, as usual, responded with brutal armed suppression. So far, over 30 innocents and peaceful Wolaita citizens, including a pregnant woman and children, have been brutally murdered on the streets and corners, over 100 people have been injured and several have been jailed.

The Wolaita, like the Oromo, lived as free people before they were incorporated into the Abyssinian Empire after Minilik’s brutal conquest that was supported by foreigners in the 1880s. During this invasion, the people of Wolaita did not surrender easily. They heroically fought against the invaders by inflicting heavy casualties.  They were finally conquered by the better armed forces of Abyssinian invasion.   

The conquest meant the imposition of serfdom and slavery on the people of Wolaita, like the rest of the people of the South including the Oromo people. Since then, Wolaitas and Oromos were reduced to second class citizens in Ethiopia. The struggle to be free, to have justice, freedom and democracy began then and has been going on for about 150 years for Oromo, Wolaita, and other oppressed nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire.  The ongoing war in all parts of Ethiopia is the manifestation of the unresolved colonial subjugation.

The peoples of Ethiopia rejected the feudal serfdom and various forms of slavery and ended the monarchical rule in 1974 by deposing the then Emperor Haile Selassie. Unfortunately, the military junta that took power could not address the demands of the country’s nations and nationalities to determine their own fate and establish self-rules. The military rule turned out to be undemocratic and totalitarian.

In 1991, a coalition of liberation fronts, the OLF, TPLF and EPLF managed to take down the military junta and establish a transitional government. As a result, the then province of Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia declaring its independence. The OLF, though it was ousted from the transitional government in 1992, played a key role in establishing a new national federal system that had nine regional states, one of them being the regional state of Oromia. However, 56 nations and nationalities of the South were put in one cluster called the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP). The people of Wolaita, like all the rest of the people of the South, could not exercise their right to self-rule. It is important to note that the federal arrangement under the TPLF-EPRDF rule was symbolic and only served to benefit the ruling TPLF regime.

The Oromo people, the people of Wolaita and all the peoples of Ethiopia fought against the TPLF-EPRDF’s brutal repression for 27 years prior to 2018. The Oromo youth called Qeerroo and Qarree put up a fierce but peaceful resistance against this brutal regime and managed to dislodge it from power in April 2018. The Oromo people and the rest of Ethiopians trusted those who claimed to be reformists within the same TPLF-EPRDF regime to lead the transition to democracy. The current PM Abiy was then catapulted to the highest office of the land through the sacrifices of the Qeerroo and Qarree peaceful movement and other Ethiopians. That change came at a cost of about 5000 young lives and hundreds of thousands of injuries.  

Unfortunately, Abiy and his partners turned out to be con artists who were in this just for their own personal power and dream. In fact, Abiy blatantly talked about his lifelong dream of being the 7^th king of Ethiopia as his mother kept telling him since he was seven years old. PM Abiy, despite the euphoria he created around peaceful transitions to democracy during his early tenure, started to dial back the clock to take us back to the imperial rule of the 19^th century. Praising the emperors and kings that committed genocide against the Oromo, Wolaita and other peoples of the South, he began erecting statues after statues for the much despised emperors of the past and promised to annul the current federal constitution and dismantle the existing Multi-national federal system of government. A few months after he came to power, he began reinstituting a unitary and assimilative system to facilitate the dominance of the Amharic language, culture, and identity under the disguise of “Medemer”. This meant that he was on a collision course with the majority of the country’s 80% to 90% of the population. In his dream to become the 7^th king and to resurrect his so called ‘the old glorious Ethiopia’, which was a living hell for the marginalized nations and nationalities, he has found his best partners in Neo-Naftanyas. These are people who do not want to hear the demands of nations and nationalities for genuinely democratized self-rule and self-determination. They are against a multi-national federal system, and want to bring back the old unitary and assimilative system where the Amharic language, culture and identity is uniquely dominant and the Amhara remain the beneficiaries. 

We, Oromos, fully sympathize with the people of Wolaita as we are also in fierce struggle against Abiy’s regime of terror. Since the June 29, 2020 assassination of our hero, Hacalluu Hundeessaa, the renowned musical genius and revolutionary, over 500 Oromos have been massacred by the government. Many political opponents, activists, Oromo nationalists and journalists have been thrown to jail in thousands and are still suffering in congested jails without due process. Since all the prisons are now full, the government has ironically turned schools into prisons. It has weaponized COVID 19 and is exposing its opponents to this viral infection. Blatant human rights abuse and atrocities including rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, and displacement are rampant in Oromia, the regional state of the Oromo people.

We, Oromos, are grateful to our Wolaita sisters and brothers for their recent expression of solidarity with our people before this brutal massacre and atrocity began taking its toll on them too.

Our fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the people of Wolaita and all marginalized nations and nationalities, we are together in this fight for justice, equality, freedom, and democracy.

Again, we, members of Oromia Global Forum, would like to reiterate our strongest condemnation of the brutal suppression, killings and atrocities committed against the people of Woliata and express our full support and solidarity in their quest to establish the Wolaita regional state and to assert their right to self-rule.

We would also like to use this opportunity to call up on all nations, nationalities and peoples to stand together in the face of government sanctioned brutality, against PM Abiy’s Neo-Naftanya regime.  Because, he wants to take us back to the old days of imperial slavery by reinstituting the backward system, we have to stand together to assert our right to self-determination and self-rule as enshrined in the current constitution of the country.

Victory to the oppressed!

United, we shall overcome and win, divided we fall!

Oromia Global Forum

Signatories:

1. Advocacy4Oromia
2. Bilal Oromo Dawa Center
3. Canaan Oromo Evangelical Church
4. Charismatic International Fellowship Church
5. DMV Oromo Islamic Center
6. Gaadisa Sabboontottaa KP
7. Global Gumii Oromia
8. Global Oromo Advocacy Group
9. Global Waaqeffannaa Council
10. Horn of Africa Genocide Watch
11. Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa
12. International Oromo Lawyers Association
13. International Oromo Women's Organization
14. International Qeerroo Support Group
15. Network of Oromo Studies
16. Mana Kiristaanaa Fayyisaa Addunyaa
17. Oromo Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church
18. Oromo Community of Bergen
19. Oromo Community of Oslo
20. Oromo Communities’ Association of North America
21. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Los Angeles
22. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington DC Metropolitan Area
23. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society
24. Oromo Human Rights and Relief Organization
25. Oromo Legacy, Leadership and Advocacy Association
26. Oromo Lutheran Church of Baltimore
27. Oromo Relief Association in USA
28. Oromo Parliamentarians Council
29. Oromo Political Prisoners Association
30. Oromo Scholars and Professinals
31. Oromia Support Group
32. Oromo Studies Association
33. Tawfiq Islamic Center
34. Tawhid Oromo Islamic Center in Minnesota
35. Union of Oromo Communities in Canada
36. United Oromo Chirstian Church in Australia
37. United Oromo Evangelical Church
38. Wabii Maccaa Association
39. Washington DC Metropolitan Oromo SDA Church

Who is dictator Abiy Ahmed

Mengistu Haile Mariam born May 1937 in Kaffa, Ethiopia was a career Army officer in the Ethiopian Army.

Mengistu Haile Mariam born May 1937 in Kaffa, Ethiopia was a career Army officer in the Ethiopian Army.

Who is dictator Abiy Ahmed

Cable reference id: #10ADDISABABA370 

“All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.” — “Refus Global“, Paul-Émile Borduas

Yemen: Houthis Kill, Expel Ethiopian Migrants

The majority of the victims are Oromo Refugee as heard in the HRW video

Saudis Fire on Survivors, Detain Hundreds in Appalling Conditions

(Beirut) – Houthi forces in April 2020 forcibly expelled thousands of Ethiopian migrants from northern Yemen using Covid-19 as a pretext, killing dozens and forcing them to the Saudi border, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi border guards then fired on the fleeing migrants, killing dozens more, while hundreds of survivors escaped to a mountainous border area.

Ethiopian migrants told Human Rights Watch that after they spent days stranded without food or water, Saudi officials allowed hundreds to enter the country, but then arbitrarily detained them in unsanitary and abusive facilities without the ability to legally challenge their detention or eventual deportation to Ethiopia. Hundreds of others, including children, may still be stranded in the mountainous border region.

“The lethal disregard Houthi and Saudi forces have shown civilians during Yemen’s armed conflict was replayed in April with Ethiopian migrants at the Yemen-Saudi border,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “United Nations agencies need to step in to address the immediate threats to the Ethiopian migrants and press for accountability for those responsible for the killings and other abuses.”

In June and July, Human Rights Watch interviewed 19 Ethiopian migrants, including 13 men, 4 women, and 2 girls, currently in Saudi Arabia or Ethiopia. The Houthi armed group, which took over the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 in an armed conflict that a Saudi-led coalition joined in March 2015, have for many years controlled Yemen’s northwest border areas.

Migrants told Human Rights Watch that on or about April 16, Houthi fighters in green military uniforms brutally rounded up thousands of Ethiopians in al-Ghar, an unofficial migrant settlement area in Saada governorate. The Houthi forces, who were regularly seen patrolling the area, forced the migrants into pickup trucks and drove them to the Saudi border, firing small arms and light weapons anyone who tried to flee.

Witnesses said that Houthi fighters screamed that the migrants were “coronavirus carriers” and had to leave al-Ghar within hours. “They [Houthi forces] created chaos,” said an Ethiopian woman. “It was early in the morning [on April 16] and they told us to leave in two hours. Most people left, but I stayed. But after two hours, they started firing bullets and rockets – I saw two people killed.”

Another woman, who was pregnant and traveling with her young child, said the Houthi forces were using “rockets” to clear the area: “There were lots of Houthi soldiers. There were more than 50 trucks. They were firing a mortar which you put on the ground and it fires. Everyone started to run to escape. I ran with a group of 45 people – and 40 people were killed in my group. Only five of us escaped. They were not firing guns, just these mortars.”

Twelve of the migrants interviewed witnessed killings of migrants or saw their bodies, but the number killed could not be determined. Migrants who managed to return to al-Ghar found their tent settlement and surroundings destroyed. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite imagery recorded immediately before, during, and after the alleged attack, and observed widespread destruction of over 300 tents and houses consistent with witness accounts.

Once migrants approached within one to two hundred meters of the border, Saudi border guards in gray and tan uniforms started firing at them with what witnesses described as mortar shells and rocket launchers. They said that Houthi forces responded by firing at the Saudi border guards and at any migrants who tried to escape from the chaos of the fighting back into Yemen.

Full story Yemen: Houthis Kill, Expel Ethiopian Migrants

Alarming news from Qilinxo !

 As Ethiopia grapples to solve its multiple security issues ahead of the elections this year, an international human rights group has accused the East African nation’s security forces of arresting opposition supporters.

Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa, said: “The return of mass arrests of opposition activists and supporters is a worrying signal in Ethiopia. These sweeping arrests risk undermining the rights to freedom of expression and association ahead of the 2020 elections.”

The home front

Just months ahead of the elections, Addis Ababa is trying to solve multiple security issues, as the number of hate crimes increase.

• Parts of Western Oromia have been shut off from the internet and phone services since late 2019. At a press conference in mid-January, EthioTelecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru acknowledged the shutdowns and said they were “connected to peace and security” in the area, according to the Addis Standard.
• Several Ethiopian media houses have reported that OLF-Shane, the military splinter wing of the OLF, has been waging war against the government in the Kelem Wollega region.

Last November, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government deployed security forces to universities in Amhara and Oromo regions after a spate of ethnic-based clashes left three students dead. As the government closed down several universities, 18 students —14 of them female —were abducted while on their way home from Dembi Dollo University in Oromo.

• Both the Oromo Liberation Army and the government have accused each other of abducting the students, the VOA reported.

The government said it had secured the release of 21 of the abducted students, but the whereabouts and fates of the other 11 remains unknown.

In addition to these ethnic-based clashes, there has been a marked rise in religious-based hate crimes.

On 21 January, the Anadolou Agency reported attackers vandalised shops and other properties owned by Muslims in what has become a pattern of such attacks and counter-attacks in parts of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s elections, the first democratic exercise in 15 years, are scheduled for later this year. Some opposition groups have proposed they be postponed because of the escalating security issues as well as seasonal ones. The elections will tentatively be held in August, which also happens to be the rainy season in the region.

The regional and global issues

Meanwhile, PM Ahmed also has to grapple with security threats from outside of Ethiopia. For example, Israel suspended planned student trips to Ethiopia “following warnings against travelling to Africa by the Foreign Office.” Tel Aviv had already suspended direct flights to Addis Ababa, as part of measures to prevent attacks on its citizens during the ongoing US-Iran conflict.

On Monday, 27 January, the Prime Minister and two of his regional counterparts, Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki and Somalia’s Mohammed Farmajo, agreed to work together and form a joint front in the region, promising to work together to deal with terrorism.

“The three leaders adopted a Joint Plan of Action for 2020 and beyond focusing on the two main and intertwined objectives of consolidating peace, stability, and security as well as promoting economic and social development,” a joint communique available on the Somalia President’s websites says.

• They also discussed security, as Somalia has been grappling with being the staging ground for home grown and international terror networks in the region. The three leaders said they agreed “to combat and neutralise the common threats they face, including terrorism, arms and human trafficking and drug smuggling”.
• And in a sign of their growing camaraderie, they also promised to prioritise their plan to “build, modernise and interface their infrastructure and develop their production and service sectors”.

The meeting in Asmara was the second time the three leaders had met to discuss how to navigate their multiple, related economic and social issues. With both Somalia and Ethiopia set for elections in 2020, there are mounting concerns of how their internal security issues could shape not just the polls, but also the Horn.

Nile dispute

Another regional issue that could play a role in the polls is the Nile Dispute. Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan are also set to start for a second round of negotiations. The first round of talks, which were also hosted by Washington, collapsed amidst controversy of US President Donald Trump’s gaffe about which peace talks his diplomats were involved in.

• Both Ethiopia and Egypt have stuck to their talking points on the main issues, which include assurances of how much water Cairo will get, and how fast Addis Ababa can fill up its GERD dam on the Nile.
• After the first round of talks in early January, legal and technical experts from the three lower Nile countries retreated to Khartoum, where the river’s two main tributaries meet, to work on the details of a potential deal.

The bottom line: While Ethiopian PM and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Abiy Ahmed works to steady the ship at home and in the region, there are concerns about his security strategy at home. The arrest of opposition supporters is likely to shore up opposition against his government, which has the potential to escalate or morph into something else before August. In addition to the resurgence of armed groups in parts of the country, there’s also potential that some opposition groups could make unlikely partners to mount a formidable challenge to PM Abiy’s first elections.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was in Russia when the protests broke out and has yet to publicly comment on the violence.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Weeks after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is coming under harsh criticism over his silence in the face of protests this week that police said had resulted in the deaths of 67 people.

Mr. Abiy remained at a summit meeting of African leaders in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Russia when thousands of people took to the streets of the Ethiopian capital and several regional towns on Wednesday.

The protests were spurred by a prominent critic of the prime minister who had accused the police of plotting an attack on him. The critic, Jawar Mohammed, is the founder of an independent media network, and claimed that there was a plan to arrest or possibly kill him at his house in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The accusations stoked longstanding tensions in Ethiopia, the second-most populous nation in Africa, and drove hundreds of Mr. Jawar’s ethnic Oromo supporters to gather outside his home.

Thirteen of those who died in the protests were killed by security forces and the remainder died in sporadic fighting that broke out between rival groups, said Kefyalew Tefera, the regional police commissioner for the Oromia region. He said that another 213 were injured. He did not say what the root cause of that fighting was or what groups were involved.

By Thursday night, Commissioner Kefyalew said, calm had been restored to the country, with “no kind of protest or violent activities.” Officials also announced on Friday that they had deployed soldiers to seven regional towns, including six in the Oromia region, after violence broke out this week.

“This will bring about stability in the areas in cooperation with the regional security forces,” Maj. Gen. Mohammed Tesemma of the Ethiopian Army said at a news conference.

Since coming to power, Mr. Abiy has released tens of thousands of political prisoners and been credited with ending the decades-long conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, its isolated neighbor. The Nobel Committee that awarded Mr. Abiy the Peace Prize on Oct. 11 cited the accomplishments of his first 100 days, including lifting a state of emergency, granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, halting media censorship and legalizing outlawed opposition groups.

But during his time in office, domestic tensions have festered between ethnic groups that feel emboldened by a renewed sense of political freedom.

Mr. Abiy’s failure to return to Ethiopia when the protests broke out, or to say anything to try to calm the tensions, has disappointed some Ethiopians.

“The fact he was in Russia, doing nothing to take measures, that is raising some eyebrows,” said Zemelak Aytenew, an associate professor in government studies at Addis Ababa University. “He’s supposed to be a prime minister. In other countries when these crises happen people abandon their invitations and take charge of the situation.”

“Like many people I feel ashamed he has not done more than he did in terms of taking charge of the situation,” Mr. Zemelak said.

Mr. Jawar, the Ethiopian media owner and activist, has sometimes been an ally, and sometimes a rival of Mr. Abiy. Earlier this week, before the protests erupted, Prime Minister Abiy warned Parliament that unidentified media owners were fomenting ethnic unrest.

Analysts say that Mr. Jawar, who is 33 and has American citizenship, could mount a convincing campaign to succeed Mr. Abiy in next year’s general election. Mr. Jawar fueled the protests that helped bring Mr. Abiy to power in 2018, after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was ousted.

Mr. Abiy now finds himself in the tricky position of having to quiet Mr. Jawar’s supporters while living up to his new acclaim as a global peacemaker.

“He does have the network to launch a party,” said Mr. Zemelak, of Addis Ababa University, though he said it was unclear how popular Mr. Jawar is in poorer and more rural areas of the country.

New Amnesty report documents extrajudicial executions, mass detentions during security operations in Amhara and Oromia.

The killing of Oromo civilians have gone on for decades by successive Ethiopian Regimes. This was worsened by

• Russian financial and military support of past Marxist regimes; The support included sending Russian and Cuban troops to Oromo and Ogaden Regions in 1978.
• Western financial and military Aid to the Ethiopian military; British were also involved in training Ethiopian Liyu police, who were implicated in direct violence against civilians. 

Marginalization of these human rights crimes by the International community particularly the United Nations, amounts to complete disregard for humanity.

The United Nations and related bodies require a stern self reflection, and reform in order to restore confidence in the institutions that were designed to preserve humanity.

The video is in memory of Oromo civilians who were killed by the Ethiopian Regime, including Haacaaluu Hundessa.

Remember Oromo Civilians Killed by The Ethiopian Government

A document released today describes killings, detentions and destruction in just five of  23 districts in one of Oromia Region’s 17 zones – over 127 civilians killed up to 3 April. The detailed report, compiled locally from eye-witness accounts in West Wallega, describes the targeted killing of Qeerroo members, youngsters elected to local offices after the reforms in 2018, following their propelling P.M. Abiy Ahmed to power.

Read OSG Press Release

Ethnic cleansing in Amhara Region; collapse of democracy and rule of law; attacks in Guliso; massacre of migrants in Yemen Wollo Oromo, isolated within Amhara Region, were attacked by Amhara

We are pleading out to the world community concerning a deadly situation where thousands of Oromo University Students have been held hostage at various universities in the Amhara region of Ethiopia for almost a month.

The killing of Oromo civilians have gone on for decades by successive Ethiopian Regimes. This was worsened by

• Russian financial and military support of past Marxist regimes; The support included sending Russian and Cuban troops to Oromo and Ogaden Regions in 1978.
• Western financial and military Aid to the Ethiopian military; British were also involved in training Ethiopian Liyu police, who were implicated in direct violence against civilians. 

Marginalization of these human rights crimes by the International community particularly the United Nations, amounts to complete disregard for humanity.

The United Nations and related bodies require a stern self reflection, and reform in order to restore confidence in the institutions that were designed to preserve humanity.

The video is in memory of Oromo civilians who were killed by the Ethiopian Regime, including Haacaaluu Hundessa.

Remember Oromo Civilians Killed by The Ethiopian Government

A document released today describes killings, detentions and destruction in just five of  23 districts in one of Oromia Region’s 17 zones – over 127 civilians killed up to 3 April. The detailed report, compiled locally from eye-witness accounts in West Wallega, describes the targeted killing of Qeerroo members, youngsters elected to local offices after the reforms in 2018, following their propelling P.M. Abiy Ahmed to power.

Read OSG Press Release

Ethnic cleansing in Amhara Region; collapse of democracy and rule of law; attacks in Guliso; massacre of migrants in Yemen Wollo Oromo, isolated within Amhara Region, were attacked by Amhara