April 29, 2002

WIDE SCALE VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS IN AREAS INHABITED BY OROMOS

 Wide scale violations for rights in many areas inhabited by Oromos have been reported as the EPRDF itself admits officially that it is battling against the guerrillas of the Oromo Liberation Front in Wellega, Western Ethiopia. The violations of rights have intensified with the spreading student unrest in what the EPRDF calls Oromia Kilil (region). SOCEPP had reported on the deaths and arrest of several students in Nekemte, Ambo and various areas.

Reports coming from these areas attest that the EPRDF police and troops are engaged in what is emerging as a virtual ethnic repression against Oromos young and old. In Dembi Dello, for example, Chaltu Tesfaye,Dire Benti and several other children from a primary school have been jailed as 'subversives". Elderly people, some as old as 78 or more, have also been jailed in a vast campaign aimed at terrorizing the population .

 The repression has more and more become arbitrary and many Oromos fear that they are victimized because of their ethnic origin. There are enough grounds to justify this fear as in the past years the EPRDF has practiced a policy of ethnic discrimination and repression against the major ethnic groups, Oromos and Amaras for example. The arbitrary killings by the EPRDF have been reported not only from the areas of guerrilla activity but also in towns like Zwai where soldiers summarily shot youngster Feysa Wonde and his younger sister. The anti-Oromo repression is also affecting the members of the organization linked to the EPRDF itself. Leaders and cadres of the OPDO have been jailed or purged in great numbers. The latest example is lieutenant Tesfaye Gemetchu, a high official of the Oromia Police Administration who has been jailed and "disappeared".

The EPRDF is engaged in a massive violation of rights targeting members of the Oromo ethnic group. SOCEPP demands that this be made to stop immediately.

SOCEPP