Last week, with seven other members of Congress, I wrote the State Department charging that in recent years it "has rarely spoken out about the Meles government's human rights violations." Diplomats, never wanting to offend, always short democracy. They go especially easy on Ethiopia because it checks jihadists in neighboring Somalia. I doubt the Ethiopian government hits them as hard as its polit ...More...
What we’ve been concerned about is voters have been put under extraordinary forms of intimidation and pressure in the months and weeks leading up to the election … Millions of voters went to the polls on Sunday, May 23, knowing they HAD to vote for the ruling party or else they might face very negative consequences: the loss of jobs, the loss of homes, problems with local administration officials ...More...
. Ethiopian security forces continued to carry out periodic arrests of Oromo political leaders, businessmen and their family members, who were often detained, sometimes without charge, for prolonged periods. ...More...
We also would like to bring to everyone’s attentions that all these extrajudicial punishments and human rights violations are being inflicted on Oromo sons and daughters, not because they committed any crime, but simply because they attempted to exercise their fundamental human rights that are universally recognized. ...More...
Ethiopia is on a deteriorating human rights trajectory as parliamentary elections approach in 2010. These will be the first national elections since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in the deaths of at least 200 protesters, many of them victims of excessive use of force by the police. Broad patterns of government repression have prevented the emergence of organized opposition in most of ...More...
Aid agencies that dare to speak out publicly, or even to allow a photo of a malnourished child at a feeding centre, can be punished or expelled from the country. Visas or work permits are often denied, projects can be delayed, and import approvals for vital equipment can be buried. Most relief agencies are prohibited from allowing visits by journalists or foreigners, except under strict government ...More...
The officials gave each of us a different reason about what we were doing wrong in the country. My favorite was that we were “overknowledging” our students by challenging them in the classroom. While we were never given an official reason for our deportation, many of us believe it had to do with the ethnicity of the students we were teaching: Oromo. ...More...
And famine looms once more. At that suggestion, Mr Meles narrows his eyes and growls, “That is a lie, an absolute lie.” There is more than enough food in government warehouses to feed the people, he says. But others say stockpiled grain has already been earmarked for handing out to people in the towns. ...More...
Meles Zenawi launched a diplomatic offensive to block NTV's four-part investigative report on the Oromo Liberation Front, Appeals to cancel the series were backed by Kenya's Foreign ministry, which argued that Kenya's national interests were at stake in the diplomatic row. ...More...
the new law says “Whosoever writes, edits, prints, publishes, publicises, disseminates, shows, makes to be heard any promotional statements encouraging… terrorist acts is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from 10 to 20 years,”. ...More...
The present socioeconomic and political atmosphere in Ethiopia in general and in Afar region in particular has reached unbearable level, where poverty, corruption, injustice and nepotism prevail. ...More...
The government of Ethiopia has put a restriction on trucks with food supplies and prioritized trucks of fertilizers into the country as nine million Ethiopians face hunger and three months of starvation. ...More...
Mr. Aliye Geleto Anota, the young and vibrant current President of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria, Inc., Mr. Sura Itafa, the highly dedicated and renown Oromo artist, and Mr. Shangale Ali, one of the founding members of the Oromo Community Association in Australia (founded in 1984) were the recipients of the “Certificate of Appreciation to Australian Volunteers.” ...More...
Oromo students in several schools in Arsi province of Ethiopia's Oromia state were detained for demonstrating against the Ginbot 20 holiday, saying the holiday is only for the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) of the EPRDF coalition ruling party and it does not concern Oromo people. ...More...
A call to place aid to Ethiopia under greater scrutiny and to bring pressure to bear on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to ensure the respect of human rights in Ethiopia has brought Oromo from all over Europe onto the streets of Brussels. ...More...
Two civilians have become the most recent victims of torture in Ethiopia. Mr. Abdurashiid Ibrahim Adam and Mr. Hassan Ibrahim Tule, both from Eastern Hararge Region in Oromia, have died from extreme torture inflicted on them by members of the Ethiopian Security Forces while they were in prison. ...More...
In Ethiopia, there are currently more than 10 million people who have been affected by drought. Some 4.6 million people are threatened by hunger and malnutrition and require urgent food assistance. ...More...
