Human Rights Abuses Against the Oromo by the Ethiopian Government

Source: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)

• The Assault on Mecha and Tulama Self-help Association is Repetition of History and Sign of Desperation (May 20, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Lying and Distorting the Truth Won't Bring Solution (April 28, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Bombing of Innocent Students is Fascism in Its Naked Form (April 18, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Oromo Students Movement is Part and Parcel of the Oromo Liberation Movement (March 9, 2004) ... Click Here for More 

• Police round up over 700 Jimma University students (March 10, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• TPLF Regime's Recurrent Attacks on Oromo Students Cannot be Justified by Any Standard (January 22, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Oromo Students in Mekele under Constant Pressure (May 25, 2003) ... Click Here for More

• Harassing and Terrorising Oromo Students Won't Impede the Progress of Oromo People's Liberation Struggle (March 25, 2002) ... Click Here for More

• OLF Statement on AAU Students' Demonstrations (April 18, 2001) ... Click Here for More

Source: Oromiyaa Liberation Council (Gumii Bilisummaa Oromiyaa)

• Protest against the Ethiopian Government's Brutal Treatment of the Oromo People (May 22, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• The Oromiyaa Liberation Council (OLC) held a two-day semi-annual council meeting on April 10 and 11, 2004. The council conducted a thorough deliberation on organizational matters and a range of other agenda items that included the TPLF latest bill on the status of Finfinne (Addis Ababa), the present onslaught of the TPLF-led government of Ethiopia on Oromo students and various sectors of the Oromo society, the state of the Oromo national liberation struggle, the genocide that the TPLF recently committed on Anuak people, the soaring TPLF dictatorship and the escalating political, economic, and social crisis in Ethiopia, and the reaction of the international community on the crime that the TPLF perpetrates on its subjects (May 11, 2004) ... Click Here for More 

• No wave of violence of the Ethiopian Government can mute the voice of Oromo students (April 03, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Harassment and Intimidation of the TPLF Regime Cannot Reverse Our Determination for Freedom and Justice (March 11, 2004) ... Click Here for More 

Source: Oromia Online

• UOSE [Union of Oromo Students in Europe] Protests Ethiopia's Harassment of Oromo Students (March 29, 2002) ... Click Here for More

• To Whom It May Concern: We, the Addis Ababa University Oromo students have been under harsh terrorization aimed at us as an ethnic group for undisclosed reasons both in the University Campus and outside from an unknown group for quite some time. Having come to the point where we could not pursue our study properly we have been forced to bring the case to the attention of the University leadership. Upon our request, the University leadership assured us that it would try to find out the said group and stop the threats and physical attack directed against us (February 14, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• It started as a simple scuffle in an ethnographic presentation class on 22 December where a Tigre student presents a provocative paper on the Oromo. Some of the the students get hold of him afterwards and ask why he had to do that, to which he replies they deserve it (December 23, 2000) ... Click Here for More

• Partial list of Oromo students of Finfinne University Detained by TPLF (December 2000) ... Click Here for More

Source: Human Rights Watch

• Human Rights Watch urgently calls for investigations by the Ministries of Federal Affairs and Justice into allegations of torture inflicted on University of Addis Ababa students at the Kolfe Police Training Academy on January 20-21, 2004. Individuals found responsible for acts of torture should be criminally prosecuted as well as dismissed from employment (March 17, 2004) ... Click Here for More 

• “Failure by the ministers to investigate and prosecute makes them accomplices in torture under international law,” Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, said. “It’s time to assign individual blame for allowing repeated brutality.” (March 18, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• “Shooting at unarmed students is a shameful misuse of government power. The Ethiopian government has to investigate and prosecute the authorities responsible for firing on the students. (May 22, 2002) ... Click Here for More

• Ethiopia: Timeline of Key Events and Assaults on Academic Freedom Since 1991 ... Click Here for More

Source: Amnesty International

Diribi Demissie (m), President of the Macha Tulema Association (MTA) Gemechu Feyera (m), MTA Vice-President Sentayehu Workneh (m), MTA Treasurer 13 other members of the Oromo ethnic group, names not known Fifteen members of the Oromo ethnic group, including the first two men named above, were arrested on 18 May in the capital, Addis Ababa. Sentayehu Workneh was arrested on 20 May. They are reportedly held incommunicado at the 3rd police station, the Central Investigation Department ("Maikelawi"), where torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners has been reported in the past. Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience (AFR 25/006/2004) ... Click Here for More

• Dozens of Oromo students at Addis Ababa University were arrested on 4 January at a peaceful demonstration by members of the Oromo ethnic group or “nationality? The students were taken by police and security officers to an undisclosed place of detention, where they could be at risk of torture or ill-treatment (AFR 25/001/2004) ... Click Here for More

• The eight Oromo students named above were arrested on the Addis Ababa University campus on 18 January, and are reportedly held at Kolfe police camp in Addis Ababa. Many more students who called for their release have since been arrested. All are at risk of serious ill-treatment in custody (AFR 25/003/2004) ... Click Here for More

• Up to 150 Oromo students from Addis Ababa University have been in police custody since 22 December 2000. Only 18 were brought to court and charged within 48 hours, as required by law, and Amnesty International fears that the students, particularly those not yet taken to court, may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment (AFR 25/001/2001) ... Click Here for More

Source: American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

• In late March 2002, high school students from several towns in the Ethiopian state of Oromiya engaged in peaceful demonstrations against the regional government's education policies. Authorities declared the demonstrations to be illegal and attempted to break them up. In several towns, the police used live ammunition against the students (May 24, 2002) ... Click Here for More

Source: The Indian Ocean Newsletter (N^o 1075)

• The recent exclusion of numerous Oromo students from Addis Ababa University (AAU) because they protested against a meeting of supporters of the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO, ruling party, which backs the transfer of the Oromia Regional State capital) is making waves (February 7, 2004) ... Click Here for More

Source: IRIN News

• The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) has criticised both the security forces and Oromo students over recent clashes that left one student dead, and called for international pressure to be brought to bear on the forces to end alleged abuse (May 25, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Hundreds of Ethiopian students have crossed into Kenya to escape what they claim is government harassment, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The students have set up camp in the compound of a Kenyan police station, it said (April 30, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Ethiopia’s human rights group on Wednesday condemned the mass arrests and physical abuse in January of hundreds of university students in the capital, Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said federal officers had rounded up 349 students belonging to the Oromo ethnic group before transporting them to a detention centre (March 3, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Ethnic violence has left at least 18 people dead and several hundred homes burnt down in eastern Ethiopia, the country’s human rights organisation revealed on Friday (February 6, 2004) ... Click Here for More

Source: Agence France Presse

• Ethiopian police have arrested eight students after a riot broke out in the University of Addis Ababa during a cultural show organised by ethnic Oromos, the official news agency reported Thursday (January 22, 2004) ... Click Here for More

Source: Shaebia

• Tens of thousands of Oromo high school, college and university students have been staging massive demonstrations in several towns of Oromia of Ethiopia in the past two weeks despite the Wayane regime's attempts to terrorize, harass, intimidate, imprison and frustrate them by pursuing all possible means of vanquishing them, according to several reports coming out of Ethiopia (May 15, 2002) ... Click Here for More

Source: EthiopiaFirst.com

• The most disturbing part of this story however is the dismissal of over 300 students by the university administration without an apparent due process. It looks like the selection was made through ethnic profiling (January 2004) ... Click Here for More

Source: Addis Tribune

• The recent student disturbances at the Addis Ababa University were widely commented on by leading Amharic-language independent weeklies (January 30, 2004) ... Click Here for More

• Oromo students from the Addis Ababa University on Monday clashed with police as they were heading to the office of the Oromia regional State to file their grievance on the killing and arrest of Oromo students in western Ethiopia and other parts of Oromia region (May 17, 2002) ... Click Here for More

Source: Ethiomedia.com

• Student protests sweep Oromia Region of Ethiopia (March 17, 2004) ... Student protests in Oromia region of Ethiopia have swept towns from west to east as observers say more activism may be in the pipeline ... Click Here for More

• AMBO, Central Ethiopia - Student protests in the central Ethiopian town of Ambo in Oromia region took a different turn on Tuesday when shots were fired by "armed students" reportedly staying on campus as government agents. Tomar newspaper said the armed individuals were Tigrinya speakers who were living on campus as regular students. Previous student demands were on lifting a ban on the 300 Oromo students expelled by the government, as well as reversing a government order which took Oromia's capital from from Addis Ababa to Adama (Nazret) (March 24, 2004) ... Click Here for More

Source: Walta Information Center

• Students of the Addis Ababa University who claim membership with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) created havoc and disrupted the Oromo Cultural Show just before the event began at the X-mass Hall on January 18, Police said (January 22, 2004) ... Click Here for More