REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
Secretary of State John Kerry meeting nurses and
workers during a visit to the Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia on May 1.
Members
of Minnesota’s Oromo community plan to rally Friday in St. Paul and are
calling for a hunger strike to mourn the deaths of student
demonstrators gunned down last week by Ethiopian security forces in
Addis Ababa.
Oromo students and others in Ethiopia have
been protesting since April 26 a plan to develop the capital Addis
Ababa, saying the proposal will displace farmers in the city outskirts,
erase significant landmarks and dismantle the rich culture and identity
of the ethnic Oromo people. Because the Oromia region surrounds Addis
Ababa, an expansion of the city will mean a further blow to the region
and its people, who have been marginalized for decades, they say.
Addis
Ababa city officials argue the plan will develop and improve the city —
one of the fastest growing cities in Africa — and its surrounding
suburbs.
There are conflicting reports about
casualties, with government officials saying the death toll has grown to
11 and witnesses counting nearly 50 dead.
Hassen
Hussein, an assistant professor at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
and a longtime Oromo community activist, said in an interview Thursday
that the regime has killed more than 75 demonstrators and wounded up to
200.
Whatever the case, Nasser Mussa, a Minneapolis
Oromo-American activist, noted that the demonstrators have been peaceful
and were attempting to exercise freedom of expression and demanding
their rights.
“Killing unarmed protesters is
unacceptable and should not be tolerated,” Mussa said. “The Ethiopian
government says they are democratic, but they have been doing
undemocratic things for years, including the killing of innocent people
and committing other serious human rights abuses.
“The
current situation there is making me feel terrible,” said Mussa of the
unfolding political tensions and violence in Ethiopia. “Those killed are
like brothers and sisters to me.”
Friday protest at state Capitol
Members
of the Oromo community in Minnesota will assemble Friday outside the
state Capitol to call attention to the killings and condemn the
Ethiopian regime. At the rally, which will run Friday to Sunday,
demonstrators plan a hunger strike and a 24-hour vigil.
Courtesy of Hassen Hussein
Hassen Hussein
“Although
experience of oppression at the hands of the Ethiopian government is
not new to the Oromo population in the Twin Cities, nothing in my recent
memory has moved the community as much as the killings of peaceful
protesters these past two weeks throughout the vast Oromia region,” said
Hussein.
An estimated 40,000 Oromos live in Minnesota,
the largest concentration outside Ethiopia. Hussein, who is organizing
the protest, and other demonstrators hope the event will raise
awareness.
“The regime is a strong ally of the United States,” Hussein said. “We want the U.S. government to reconsider its policies.”
The
United States provided the Ethiopian government more than $135 million
for humanitarian aid this year. Hussein and Mussa said that aid isn’t
used to assist vulnerable populations. Instead, they said, it’s used for
human-rights abuses.
“We need to stop our tax dollars
from killing innocent people, our children,” Mussa said. “We need to
hold the Ethiopian government accountable for what they’re doing.”
Human-rights abuses
According to a 2013 report
by the U.S. Department of State, the most common human-rights abuses
Ethiopian forces commit include suppressing freedom of expression,
harassment and intimidating journalists and politicians. The report
added:
Courtesy of Nasser Mussa
Nasser Mussa
The
East African country has more than 80 ethnic groups, according to the
report. It has a federal-government system, with its boundaries
generally divided into ethnic groups. Likewise, its political parties
largely remain ethnically segregated. Other human rights problems
included arbitrary killings; allegations of torture, beating, abuse, and
mistreatment of detainees by security forces; reports of harsh and, at
times, life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and
detention; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; a
weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence;
infringement on citizens’ privacy rights, including illegal searches;
restrictions on academic freedom; restrictions on freedom of assembly,
association, and movement; alleged interference in religious affairs;
limits on citizens’ ability to change their government; violence and
societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; trafficking
in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities.
The Oromo ethnic group makes up about 40 percent of Ethiopia’s 94 million people, the largest ethnic group in the country.BBC World News report on the Oromo protests.
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