No Let Up in Crackdown on Protests
(HRW Nairobi) – Ethiopian security forces are violently suppressing
the largely peaceful protests in the Oromia region that began in
November 2015. Almost daily accounts of killings and arbitrary arrests
have been reported to Human Rights Watch since 2016 began.
Women
mourn during the funeral ceremony of a primary school teacher who
family members said was shot dead by military forces during protests in
Oromia, Ethiopia in December 2015. December 17, 2015.
Security forces, including military personnel, have fatally shot
scores of demonstrators. Thousands of people have been arrested and
remain in detention without charge. While the frequency of protests
appears to have decreased in the last few weeks, the crackdown
continues.
“Flooding Oromia with federal security forces shows the authorities’
broad disregard for peaceful protest by students, farmers and other
dissenters,” said
Leslie Lefkow,
deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to
rein in the security forces, free anyone being held wrongfully, and hold
accountable soldiers and police who used excessive force.”
The Ethiopian government has said that the situation in Oromia is
largely under control following the government’s retraction on January
12 of the proposed “Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan.” The
controversial proposal to expand the municipal boundaries of the
capital, Addis Ababa, into farmland in Oromia sparked the initial
demonstrations.
The plan’s cancellation did not halt the protests however, and the
crackdown continued throughout Oromia. In late January 2016, Human
Rights Watch interviewed approximately 60 protesters and other witnesses
from various parts of the Oromia region in December and January who
described human rights violations during the protests, some since
mid-January. They said that security forces have shot randomly into
crowds, summarily killed people during arrests, carried out mass
roundups, and tortured detainees.
While there have been some reports of violence during the protests,
including the destruction of some foreign-owned farms and looting of
some government buildings, most of the protests since November have been
peaceful. On February 12, federal security forces fired on a bus after a
wedding, killing four people, provoking further protests. A February 15
clash between federal security forces and armed men believed to be
local police or militias, resulted in the deaths of seven security
officers, according to the government.
On January 10, security forces threw a grenade at students at Jimma
University in western Oromia, injuring dozens, eyewitnesses reported.
Multiple witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces stormed
dormitories at Jimma University on January 10 and 11, with mass arrests
and beatings of Oromo students.
Security forces have arrested students, teachers, government
officials, businesspeople, opposition politicians, healthcare workers,
and people who provide assistance or shelter to fleeing students.
Because primary and secondary school students in Oromia were among the
first to protest, many of those arrested have been children, under age
18.
Security forces harassing students in Oromia, January 2016.
“They walked into the compound and shot three students at point-blank
range,” one 17-year-old student said describing security force reaction
to students chanting against the master plan. “They were hit in the
face and were dead.”
Human Rights Watch spoke to 20 people who had been detained since the
protests began on November 12, none of whom had been taken before a
judge. Fourteen people said they were beaten in detention, sometimes
severely. Several students said they were hung up by their wrists while
they were whipped. An 18-year-old student said he was given electric
shocks to his feet. All the students interviewed said that the
authorities accused them of mobilizing other students to join the
protests. Several women who were detained alleged that security officers
sexually assaulted and otherwise mistreated them in detention.
The descriptions fit wider patterns of torture and
ill-treatment of detainees
that Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have documented in
Oromia’s many official and secret detention facilities. Numerous
witnesses and former detainees said that security forces are using
businesses and government buildings in West Shewa and Borana zones as
makeshift detention centers.
At time of writing, some schools and universities remain closed
throughout Oromia because the authorities have arrested teachers and
closed facilities to prevent further protests, or students do not attend
as a form of protest or because they fear arrest. Many students said
they were released from detention on the condition that they would not
appear in public with more than one other individual, and several said
they had to sign a document making this commitment as a condition for
their release.
Human Rights Watch has not been able to verify the total numbers of
people killed and arrested given restrictions on access and independent
reporting in Ethiopia. Activists allege that more than 200 people have
been killed since November 12, based largely on material collated from
social media videos, photos, and web posts. Available information
suggests that several thousand people have been arrested, many of whose
whereabouts are unknown, which would be a forcible disappearance.
Human Rights Watch has documented 12 additional killings previously
unreported. Most of these occurred in Arsi and Borana Zones in southern
Oromia, where protests have also been taking place but have received
less attention than elsewhere. This suggests that the scale of the
protests and abuses across Oromia may be greater than what has been
reported, Human Rights Watch said.
The Ethiopian government’s pervasive restrictions on independent
civil society groups and media have
meant that very little information is coming from affected areas.
However, social media contains photos and videos of the protests,
particularly from November and December.
The Oromia Media Network (OMN) has played a key role in disseminating
information throughout Oromia during the protests. OMN is a
diaspora-based television station that relays content, primarily in the
Afan Oromo language, via satellite, and recently started broadcasting on
shortwave radio. The Ethiopian government has reportedly jammed OMN 15
times since it began operations in 2014, in contravention of
international regulations. Two business owners told Human Rights Watch
they were arrested for showing OMN in their places of business. Federal
police destroyed satellites dishes that were receiving OMN in many
locations. Students said they were accused of providing videos for
social media and of communicating information to the OMN. Arrests and
fear of arrest has resulted in less information on abuses coming out of
Oromia over the last month.
The Ethiopian government should end the excessive use of force by the
security forces, free everyone detained arbitrarily, and conduct an
independent investigation into killings and other security force abuses,
Human Rights Watch said. Those responsible for serious rights
violations should be appropriately prosecuted and victims of abuses
should receive adequate compensation.
On January 21, the European Parliament passed a strong
resolution
condemning the crackdown. There has been no official statement from the
United Kingdom, and the United States has not condemned the violence,
instead focusing on the need for public consultation and dialogue in
two statements.
Otherwise, few governments have publicly raised concerns about the
government’s actions. As two of Ethiopia’s most influential partners,
the United Kingdom and the United States should be doing more to halt
the violent crackdown and to call for an independent investigation into
the abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
“Ethiopia’s donor countries have responded tepidly, if at all, to the
killing of scores of protesters in Oromia,” Lefkow said. “They should
stop ignoring or downplaying this shocking brutality and call on the
government to support an independent investigation into the killings and
other abuses.”
For additional information and accounts from eyewitnesses and victims, please see below.
Student protests in Oromia began on November 12, 2015, in Ginchi, a
small town 80 kilometers southwest of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa,
when authorities sought to clear a forest for an investment project. The
protests soon spread throughout the Oromia region and broadened to
include concerns over the proposed expansion of the Addis Ababa
municipal boundary, known as the “Addis Ababa Integrated Development
Master Plan.” Farmers and others joined the protest movement as the
protests continued into December.
Many protesters allege that the government’s violent response and the
rising death toll changed the focus of the protests to the killing and
arrest of protesters and decades of historic Oromo grievances came to
the forefront. Oromia is home to most of Ethiopia’s estimated 35 million
Oromo, the country’s largest ethnic group. Many Oromo feel marginalized
and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments. Ethnic
Oromo who express dissent are often arrested and tortured or otherwise
ill-treated in detention, accused of belonging to the Oromo Liberation
Front, which has waged a limited armed struggle against the government
and which parliament has designated a terrorist organization.
On December 16, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
said that
the government “will take merciless legitimate action against any force
bent on destabilizing the area.” The same day, the government
communication affairs office minister, Getachew Reda,
said that
“an organized and armed terrorist force aiming to create havoc and
chaos has begun murdering model farmers, public leaders and other ethnic
groups residing in the region.” Since that time, federal security
forces, including the army and the federal police, have led the law
enforcement response in Oromia.
On January 12, the ruling coalition’s Oromia affiliate, the Oromo
People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), announced on state television
that the “Addis Ababa Master Plan” would be cancelled. While the
decision was an unprecedented change of policy, people Human Rights
Watch interviewed suggest that there has been confusion over the actual
status of the plan and whether government will follow through with the
cancellation.
After the Addis Ababa master plan had originally been announced in
2014, protests occurred throughout Oromia, which security forces
dispersed using live ammunition, killing at least several dozen people.
Hundreds were arrested. Many of the arrested remain in custody without
charge. Most of the approximately 25 students that Human Rights Watch
interviewed from the 2014 protests who had been detained alleged torture
and other ill-treatment. Many formerly detained students have not been
permitted to return to their universities. On December 2, 2015, five
Oromo students were convicted under the counterterrorism law for their
role in the 2014 protests. There has been no government investigation
into the use of excessive and lethal force during the 2014 protests.
Summary Killings, Unnecessary Lethal Force
In the early weeks of the 2015 protests, security forces who responded
to the demonstrations were largely Oromia regional police, who used
teargas against protesters, although with some incidents involving live
ammunition. Many of the killings initially reported occurred after dark
when security forces went house-to-house searching for protesters. They
killed some students who tried to flee and others in scuffles during
arrests, while the exact circumstances of many deaths are unknown.
Under international human rights standards, law enforcement officials
may only use lethal force in self-defense or to prevent an imminent
threat to another’s life.
After a December 16
announcement
by the prime minister that the government would “take merciless
legitimate action against any force bent on destabilizing the area,”
witnesses said federal police and military forces were deployed in more
parts of Oromia alongside the regional police. Many protesters alleged
that the federal police and soldiers fired into crowds.
Wako – a 17-year-old protester from West Shewa whose name, along with
others, has been changed for his protection, described the change:
During the first protest [in mid-November], the Oromia police tried
to convince us to go home. We refused so they broke it up with teargas
and arrested many. Several days later we had another protest. This time
the [federal police] had arrived. They fired many bullets into the air.
When people did not disperse they fired teargas, and then in the
confusion we heard the sounds of more bullets and students started
falling next to me. My friend [name withheld] was killed by a bullet. He
wasn’t targeted, they were just shooting randomly into the crowd.
Gudina, a 16-year-old Grade 10 student from Arsi Negelle, described the authorities’ response to a protest in early December:
All the schools got together and took to the streets. As we
protested, teargas was thrown, we kept marching and then from behind us
we heard bullets, many students were hit and fell screaming. One very
young student from my school I saw had been shot in throat and blood was
pouring. I have dreams every night of that student.
Protesters from Arsi, West Shewa, Borana, and East Wollega zones all
described similar events in which security forces, predominantly federal
police, shot into crowds with live ammunition, especially since
mid-December. They gave little or no warning about using teargas and
live ammunition.
Three high school students from Arsi who were interviewed separately
described an incident at their school. Kuma, a 17-year-old student,
said:
We heard a Grade 6 student was killed in [neighboring village]. To
show our solidarity we decided to protest. When the different classes
came together and started marching toward the government office,
security forces moved toward us. They threw teargas, and then we heard
the sound of gunfire. My friend [name withheld] was shot in the chest, I
saw him go down and bleeding. We ran away and I never looked back. His
mother told me later he had been killed. He was 17 years old.
Security forces entered a school compound near Shashemene apparently
to discourage their participation in a planned protest. Gameda, a
17-year-old Grade 9 student, said:
We had planned to protest. At 8 a.m., Oromia police came into the
school compound. They arrested four students [from Grades 9-11], the
rest of us were angry and started chanting against the police. Somebody
threw a stone at the police and they quickly left and came back an hour
later with the federal police. They walked into the compound and shot
three students at point-blank range. They were hit in the face and were
dead. They took the bodies away. They held us in our classrooms for the
rest of the morning, and then at noon they came in and took about 20 of
us including me.
Arbitrary Arrests, Detention
Several dozen people told Human Rights Watch about friends and
colleagues who had been arrested without a valid basis, including many
whose whereabouts remain unknown. Fifteen protesters from various parts
of Oromia described their own arrests. Usually in the evening following a
daytime protest, security forces would go door-to-door arresting
students, including many who had not participated, including an
8-year-old in the Borana zone on January 9. They primarily targeted men
and boys, but many women and girls were also arrested. Those arrested
were taken to police stations, military barracks, and makeshift
detention centers.
Kuma, a Grade 7 student from Borana zone, was arrested in early
December, held for five days in an unknown location, and beaten with a
wooden stick:
They said to me “Why were you in the demonstration? This means you do
not like the government. Why? We do good for you.” Then they kept
saying we had relations with the OLF [Oromo Liberation Front, which the
government considers to be a terrorist group]. What does demonstrating
have to do with the OLF? I was released after signing a paper that I
would not go in public with more than one person. Many people in our
town were released after signing this paper. Several days later there
was another protest, I didn’t go, but knew I would be arrested again. I
sat at home hearing gunshots all day long hoping I didn’t know any of
those that would be killed.
Gameda, a Grade 7 student, said he was arrested at his school compound on the day of a planned protest:
For 10 days I was held at the police station. For the first three
days, they would beat me each night on the back and legs with a wooden
stick and ask me about who was behind the protests and whether I was a
member of the OLF. I was released and several weeks later the protests
started again in our town. They arrested me again. Same beatings, same
questions. My family bribed the police and I was released.
The authorities have imposed collective punishment on people deemed
to have been helping protesters. Lelisa, a woman who assisted students
fleeing the security forces in Arsi in early December, said:
I wasn’t at the protests but I heard gunfire all day long and into
the night. Students were running away and hiding themselves. Ten
students came to me and asked for help so I hid them from the police.
The police were going door-to-door at night arresting students. They
came to my house, arrested all the boys and I convinced them that the
three girls were my daughters. Then an hour later they came back and
arrested my husband. They beat him in front of me, when I begged them
not to kill him they kicked me and hit me with the butt of their gun.
They took him away. I have heard nothing from him since.
Negasu, an owner of a private school, said he was arrested because students at his school were involved in the protest:
I owned a private school in [location withheld]. The students
protested but the police did not break it up violently, they just filmed
it and then arrested many people at night. Four of the protesters were
from my school. So the police came at night and arrested me and took me
to a military camp [name withheld]. For five days I was held in a dark
hole by myself. It was freezing and they did not feed me for two days. I
was beaten each night and accused of giving money to opposition groups,
to the Oromo Federalist Congress and to OLF. They also accused me of
posting videos to social media and sending to OMN. They just make things
up. They closed my school and froze my bank account. They took my house
also. Now I have nothing and the students are either going through what
I did in detention or are not able to go to school because it’s been
closed.
Students who were perceived to be vocal or had family histories of
opposing government were particularly at risk. Lencho, 25, said:
I was known to be vocal and was a leader among the students. My
father was known to oppose the government. I did not even participate in
the protests because of fear but I was identified as one of the
mobilizers. I was arrested, and when I got to the police station I saw
local government officials, a local Oromo artist [singer], my teacher,
and all of the outspoken students of our high school. They were
arresting those that they thought were influential. I don’t even think
any of them were in the protests because of fear.
Prominent Oromo intellectuals, including senior members of the Oromo
Federalist Congress (OFC), a registered political party, have also been
arrested. On December 23, Deputy Chairman Bekele Gerba was
arrested at his home and taken to Addis Ababa’s Maekelawi prison, where torture and other ill-treatment have been
documented.
On January 22, he appeared in court, and prosecutors were granted an
additional 28 days for investigation, suggesting he is being
investigated under the abusive Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. Bekele has
been a moderate voice in Oromia politics and a staunch advocate for
non-violence.
In addition to those perceived to be actively involved in the
protests, security forces have arrested influential people, including
prominent Oromo businessman, teachers, professors, and numerous singers
and artists. One teacher said:
The students protested. At night they came and arrested many of them,
my students were calling me all night to tell me the police were at
their door. Then I heard that most of the teachers had been arrested,
too. I was away from town at the time. Then the
woreda[district]
administrator called and told me I was to be held responsible for my
student’s behavior since I did not talk them out of it. I had already
been in trouble because I did not attend a workshop at the school on the
master plan and how we were to convince students it was good for them.
A well-known Oromo singer, now living in exile, said:
I released a song on Youtube [in December] that spoke about the
protests and the need for students to stop the silence and speak out
about the abuses our people face. I had been arrested three times
previously for my songs. My songs have always focused on Oromo history
and culture but I was always careful for the songs not to be seen as
political in any way. But they arrest you anyway. After my third
detention, I stopped censoring myself and spoke openly through my music.
Hours after my song was released, I got word from the local
administrator that I was to be arrested so I ran away from my home and
haven’t been back.
An Ethiopian intelligence official acknowledged to Human Rights Watch
in January 2016 that targeting public figures was a deliberate
government policy. “It is important to target respected Oromos,” he
said. “Anyone that has the ability to mobilize Oromos will be targeted,
from the highest level like Bekele, to teachers, respected students, and
Oromo artists.”
Human Rights Watch also interviewed a number of students who had been
detained during the 2014 protests, eventually released, and then were
arrested again as soon as the protests began in November 2015. Some
described horrendous treatment in detention. Waysira, a then-second year
university student, said:
[In 2014] I was arrested for two weeks. I was stripped to my underwear
and beaten with sticks. They applied electric wires to my back. They
wanted me to admit being OLF and to say where my brother was – who they
suspect was OLF. Eventually they released me. I wasn’t allowed to go
back to school, so I have been sitting around doing nothing ever since. I
went back to my family’s village. When the protests started again in
Oromia, they came to my house and arrested me again. There hadn’t been
protests in that area, but there were on the campus I had been suspended
from. They accused me of mobilizing students, and beat me for two days.
Then I was released. They wanted to target anyone they thought might be
thinking of protesting.
Torture, Ill-Treatment in Detention
All of the students interviewed who had been detained said the
authorities interrogated them about who was behind the protests and
about their family history. They said interrogators accused them of
having connections to opposition groups – typically the legally
registered Oromo Federalist Congress and the banned Oromo Liberation
Front. Interrogators accused some students of providing information to
diaspora or international media and a number of students said their
phones, Facebook accounts, and email accounts were searched during
detention. These descriptions of interrogation match patterns Human
Rights Watch has documented in Oromia over several years.
Tolessa, a first-year university student from Adama University, said:
It was the evening after the protest. We were recovering from the
teargas and trying to find out who had been shot during the protest.
Then the security forces stormed the dormitories. They blindfolded 17 of
us from my floor and drove us two hours into the countryside. We were
put into an unfinished building for nine days. Each night they would
take us out one by one, beat us with sticks and whips, and ask us about
who was behind the protests and whether we were members of the OLF. I
told them I don’t even know who the OLF are but treating students this
way will drive people toward the OLF. They beat me very badly for that.
We would hear screams all night long. When I went to the bathroom, I saw
students being hung by their wrists from the ceiling and being whipped.
There was over a hundred students I saw. The interrogators were not
from our area. We had to speak Amharic [the national language]. If we
spoke Oromo they would get angry and beat us more.
Meti, in her 20s, was arrested in late December for selling traditional Oromo clothes the day after a protest in East Wollega:
I was arrested and spent one week at the police station. Each night
they pulled me out and beat me with a dry stick and rubber whip. Then I
was taken to [location withheld]. I was kept in solitary confinement. On
three separate occasions I was forced to take off my clothes and parade
in front of the officers while I was questioned about my link with the
OLF. They threatened to kill me unless I confessed to being involved
with organizing the protests. I was asked why I was selling Oromo
clothes and jewelry. They told me my business symbolizes pride in being
Oromo and that is why people are coming out [to protest]. At first I was
by myself in a dark cell, but then I was with all the other girls that
had been arrested during the protest.
A 22-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch she was arrested the
night of a protest in late December and taken to what she described as a
military camp in the Borana zone. She was held in solitary confinement
in total darkness. She said she was raped on three occasions in her cell
by unidentified men during her two-week detention. On each occasion,
she believed there were two men involved. She was frequently pulled out
of her cell and interrogated about her involvement in the protests and
the whereabouts of her two brothers, who the interrogators suggested
were mobilizing students. She was released on the condition that she
would bring her two brothers to security officials for questioning.
Right to Health, Education
The authorities have targeted health workers for arrest during the
protests, and as a result some wounded protesters have been unable to
get treatment. Demiksa, a student from Eastern Wollega, said that he was
refused medical treatment in late December for his injured arm and face
after he was pushed to the ground in a panic when Oromia regional
police fired teargas at protesters: “[The health workers] said they
couldn’t treat me. The day before security forces had arrested two of
their colleagues because they were treating protesters. They were
accused of providing health care to the opposition.”
Health workers said security forces harassed them and arrested some
of their colleagues because they posted photos on social media showing
their arms crossed in what has become a symbol of the protest movement. A
health worker in East Wollega said he had been forced at gunpoint to
treat a police officer’s minor injuries while student protesters with
bullet wounds were left unattended. The health worker said at least one
of those students died from his injuries that evening.
Many students said the local government closed schools to prevent
students from mobilizing, or because teachers had been arrested. Some
students said they were afraid to go to class or were refusing to go to
school as a form of protest against the government. Four students who
had been detained said that security officials told them that they would
not be allowed to return to their university. A Grade 6 student who
said she had the highest marks in her class the previous year said that
the principal told her she would not be allowed to go back to school
because she attended the protests. As a result, she decided to flee
Ethiopia.
Human Rights Watch previously documented cases of students who were
suspended after they participated in the 2014 protests, a pattern that
is also emerging in the aftermath of the current protests.
