The Oromo Project

The Advocates of Human Rights based in Minneapolis has just released a report telling the Oromo Story. Please take the time to read it and circulate it amongst your networks. Here is an introduction to the project as posted on their website:

"The Advocates for Human Rights' report, Human Rights in Ethiopia: Through the Eyes of the Oromo Diaspora, documents the experiences in Ethiopia of members of the Oromo diaspora throughout three successive political regimes. The long arm of human rights violations reaches directly into diaspora communities, including the Oromo, who reported a widespread belief that e-mail communication to Ethiopia is read by the Ethiopian government, that telephone conversations are overheard, and that the Ethiopian government monitors the activities of diaspora members in the United States. Oromos interviewed for the report also described decades of human rights violations in Ethiopia, including arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, torture, and extra-judicial executions. Reports of widespread surveillance and interference with rights to freedom of association, assembly, expression, conscience, and the press were pervasive. Oromos reported that the current Ethiopian government’s federal system has served to isolate ethnic communities, including the Oromo, leaving them even more vulnerable to human rights violations."

The March on Washington: Oromo Youth Rally at the capitol

The brutal regime of Ethiopia has intensified its repression against the citizens of the country, especially the Oromo people, by systematically depriving them of basic human rights and access to basic needs. Because of this, since the current minority regime of Addis Ababa clinched power in 1992, the Oromo people have seen the largest exodus in its recorded history in the search for a peaceful life. Today, hundreds of thousands who fled the country to neighbouring African nations are living in nightmare, in fear of forced deportation, killing and arrest pursuits, while those who remained in the country are oppressed and kept economically and politically isolated.

March 30, 2009

 The ever increasing repression of Oromos and other people in Ethiopia has become a big concern for Oromo youth across the globe. The disturbing news that rarely gets reported by international media is a daily occurrence for the Oromo mass in Ethiopia and neighboring countries which compelled us to get up and march in hopes of bringing public awareness to the alarming human rights violations in Ethiopia. As recent as March 5, 2009, the Ethiopian government brutally beat many Oromo students and arrested over 80 of them from Bahir Dar University merely for asking certain individuals be brought to justice for their derogatory remarks towards Oromia and Oromos as well.

In the past year alone, hundreds of innocent civilians including college students, business people, farmers, teachers and other professionals have been arrested without any warrant, detained without bail, tortured and extra-judicially killed. The arbitrary arrests did not spare even nursing women and the elderly. While the Ethiopian government is amassing millions of dollars from international donors, more than ten percent of the population is on the brink of starvation and millions of children are severely malnourished. The government has been hiding this grave situation that has been dubbed by many 'a green famine.' Lack of good governance and corruption of almost all government officials are the culprits for this humanitarian crisis.