At least 15 critics of the regime arrested in Ethiopia

At least 15 critics of the regime belonging to the ethnic group of the Oromo have been arrested in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa since 30th October. This was reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in Göttingen on Friday. Among the persons known by name to the human rights organisation is Bekele Jirata, General Secretary of the opposition party, the Federal Democratic Oromo Movement (OFDM). The OFDM has publicly criticised the Ethiopian government on several occasions for having intimidated the voters in the elections for Parliament in April 2008.

Many of those arrested are Oromo in leading positions in politics and commerce, said the GfbV Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius. They are charged with having financially supported the Oromo liberation movement. „Those arrested are faced with torture and long prison sentences because they are accused of supporting terrorism.” This sweeping charge is regularly made by Ethiopia’s security forces to silence unpopular critics of the persecution of the Oromo ordered by the government and to criminalise leading representatives of the oppressed ethnic group.

Also arrested is Ms. Lelise Wadajo, who has worked as journalist for a forbidden Oromo TV station. Her husband has recently served a three year prison sentence as a political prisoner and has now fled abroad. Also in custody is Assefa Dibaba, poet and lecturer of the Oromo language at the University of Addis Ababa. Other prisoners are the hotel owner Eshetu Kitil and Kebede Borena, deputy manager of the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa and his brother Dejene Borena, owner of a travel bureau and the businessman Bekele Negeri.

„There are at present several thousand Oromo being held in Ethiopian prisons”, said Delius. The ethnic background alone is time and again reason enough to hold Oromo, above all in the rural areas of Ethiopia, under the general suspicion of „supporting terrorism”. Since 2004 several thousand Oromo students have been compulsorily taken off the university register for their criticism of the persecution of their ethnic group. However journalists, song-writers and teachers, who have peacefully stood up for the retention of the Oromo language are also being persecuted. The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in the state of Ethiopia, which is made up of many nationalities.