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1 The HRLHA Dispatch, Ethiopia – Nov 10, 2019 Website: www.humanrightsleague.org , FB: Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa - HRLHA The HRLHA Dispatch: The Humanitarian and Human Rights Crises in Ethiopia Demands that the World Respond __________________________________________________ November 10, 2019 Changes without Lasting Justice It has been almost one year and six months since the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) - led Government of Ethiopia (GoE) was forced to give up its authoritarian rule. The Ethiopian People‟s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling GoE‟s military had brutally killed over 7500 Oromo citizens- who ranged in age from seven to eighty- one - to stop the social movement that began in 2014 to bring down the dictatorial regime. The social movement started in 2014 in Oromia Regional State and spread all over the country, including Amhara Regional State, which was also involved in the social movement. The social movement, which had continued unabated for over three years with grievances, forced the TPLF led Ethiopian government PM (PM) to resign from his position in 2018. In April 2018, the EPRDF had made a political shift by removing almost all old cadres from leadership and replacing them with younger new faces and declared a transformation to democracy and equality and a movement away from the repressive system of the past. Most of the new appointees were from the Oromo wing, the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO) of the EPRDF who were assigned to hold key positions as PM and the Foreign Minister positins. Following those changes, Ethiopians and their friends expected some kind of improvements in terms of democracy, human rights and peace and a calming of the unrest which had continued for over four years all over the country. During his inauguration ceremony, the new PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed vowed to bring about tangible political change in the country where nobody will be imprisoned or be allegedly accused for his or her opinion, or because they were affiliated with other political organizations. After PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed took office on 2 April 2018, the new The HRLHA is a non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – ECOSOC Special Consultative Status) which attempts to challenge human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa. 2 The HRLHA Dispatch, Ethiopia – Nov 10, 2019 Website: www.humanrightsleague.org , FB: Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa - HRLHA administration released prisoners of conscience, closed notorious detention places, including Maikelawi prison where torture was prevalent, and embarked on legal reforms. The new PM also invited all political parties operating in exile come home and operate peacefully. However, as soon as the protest was over in 2018, in connection with the unrest during the protests in Oromia (2014 to 2018) the government incarcerated thousands of protesters from Oromia for three months. The government of Oromia Regional State explained the prisons as if the people were taken to training camps not as prisoners but trainees. This was the immediate act after the protest came to an end in 2018 which has been taken by the government contrary to the peace promise of the new PM. In their three months of being in concentration camps in Tolay and Senkele, several young men and women complained that no training has been delivered; instead the police committed inhumane acts against them such as beatings and harassments. The unrest in the country steadily increases in the country, in Oromia, Amhara and other regional states contrary to the PM Abiy‟s promises of bringing peace to the country. With regards to the unrest in Oromia both the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Government blame one another for the failure of the peace agreement reached at Asmara, Eritrea. The OLF complained that the government did not show willingness to hold up its promises of the Asmara joint agreement with respect to treatment of its army wing, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) who had been fighting against the government in different parts of Oromia for over twenty-seven years. The bilateral committee, which has been created from both sides to restore peace in the Oromia Regional State, has failed without creating a further plan to proceed. To solve the outstanding problem and bring peace between OLF and the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), which changed its name from OPDO, with the initiation of Oromo elders, a two- day conference was held in Finfinne/Addis Ababa by concerned Oromos who came together to discuss the issue and a committee was formed from Oromo Abba Gada and individuals to bring the problem to an end. The elected peace committee was unsuccessful in bringing all OLA members home due to many reasos. The conflicts and clashes between the deployed government troops and OLA have continued without solution to this date. These conflicts and clashes were mostly taking place in Western Oromia of four Wallaga zones; Southern Oromia in Borana and Gujjii zones; and Central Oromia in some Showa zones. The fight between the government troops and OLA since the new administration came to power, for over one year and a half has resulted in the loss of hundreds of civilian lives, property damage, evictions, starvation, imprisonments, etc. Currently, Western and Southern Oromia are under a The HRLHA is a non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – ECOSOC Special Consultative Status) which attempts to challenge human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa. 3 The HRLHA Dispatch, Ethiopia – Nov 10, 2019 Website: www.humanrightsleague.org , FB: Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa - HRLHA Military Command or a defacto State of Emergency (SoE) not officially declared by the parliament. This is contrary to the procedures of Declaration of SoE stipulated under Article 93 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution and Article 4 of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Ethiopia is a State Party. As a result, the civil administrations have been incapacitated in the aforementioned six zones of Oromia for over six months. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has expressed its concerns about the human rights infringements in the regional state of Oromia twice in writing to the Oromia Regional State President Office about the arrests, forceful disappearing, and inhuman treatments in Oromia which directly violate the constitutional rights, the international human rights standards and principle of democracy which the Regional State‟s ruling party, ODP, claims to bring. Gross Human Rights Violations in Conflict Areas under State of Emergency (SoE) Arbitrary Detention According to the report HRLHA received from its informants, gross human rights violations in Wallaga and Gujii zones are very alarming. The government troops and Oromia Regional State special force, including the Oromia police, have detained thousands of Oromo civilians‟ family members from these zones. The detainees have been kept in concentration camps of Tolay and Senkele, (most of the Sekele prisoners were released since September 2019) under the pretext of training and others in different police stations which the HRLHA believes for allegedly being OLF members or supporters. Denying the constitutional rights of the citizens enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995 Article 19 (3), Rights of Persons Arrested, Persons arrested have the right to be brought before a court within 48 hours of their arrest all people incarcerated in Senkele and Tolay military camps were not take to court. Legal requirements limiting the period of detention without charge and requiring judicial oversight of detentions are routinely ignored. Over 20 thousand detained persons, especially family members (for example; a mother with four children and couples) from Boran and Gujii (Southern Oromia), and four zones of Wallaga (Western Oromia) had confined at Senkele Camps, suffered severe beatings, lack of meals and water, and poor sanitation for several months- the interviewed prisoners from Senkele camp had disclosed to the HRLHA. The HRLHA is a non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – ECOSOC Special Consultative Status) which attempts to challenge human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa. 4 The HRLHA Dispatch, Ethiopia – Nov 10, 2019 Website: www.humanrightsleague.org , FB: Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa - HRLHA The interviewees also told the HRLHA that all the detainees have been kept incommunicado in camps for months and no one has been taken to court and stayed days, many of them for several weeks or months. The detainees are often re-arrested at different detention centers or police stations after they had been released. For example, Oromo prisoners who were released from Senkele on September 2, 2019 have been rearrested in Gidami West Wallaga by police upon their arrival at their home place from Senkele (Ambo town). Similarly, those who have been released from Senkele and rearrested in Ada’a Barga, West Showa Zone of Oromia and still languishing in Ada‟a Barga police station are: Fayisa Abarra, Dasse Bayisa, Boja Kabbaba, Badhassa Mekonin, Warku Dabusha, Lema Belacho, Belachew Birru and others. Although Oromos from all ages, including children and elders have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, government security forces have targeted Oromo youth (Qeerroo and Qarree) especially those with braided hair, school and university students, business leaders, and opposition

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