CIVICUS:
World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the East and Horn of Africa Human
Rights Defenders Project (DefendDefenders) and Amnesty International urge
Ethiopia’s development and international partners to addressthe killing of at
least 140 protesters in the Oromia region since December 2015.
On 12
November 2015, peaceful protests started in the Oromia Region, southwest of the
capital, Addis Ababa, in response to measures taken to transfer the ownership
of a community school and portions of a local forest to private investors. The
protests have since expanded in scope and size against wider grievances
concerning the expansion of Addis Ababa into the Oromia Region under the
government’s Integrated Development Master Plan. They have also turned violent,
resulting in the killing of protesters, and arrests of protesters and
opposition leaders.
The
government announced on 12 January that it was cancelling the Master Plan, but
protests continued the next day in parts of Western Hararghe, Ambo and Wellega
where the police and the military used live bullets and beat protesters.
The government’s labelling of the mostly peaceful protesters as
“terrorists” on 15 December 2015 further escalated the response of the police,
and the military.
Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty
International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great
Lakes.
“Use
of excessive and lethal force against protestors, coupled with mass arrests of
peaceful demonstrators and human rights defenders represent a worrying
escalation of the government’s on-going campaign to silence any form of dissent
in the country,” said Mandeep Tiwana, Head of Policy and Research at CIVICUS.
“The international community must take up the issue of accountability for these
grave rights violations with the Ethiopian government.”
The
police and the military responded with excessive force to the peaceful protests
that began on 1 December 2015, including by use of live ammunition against
protesters, among them children as young as 12. Estimates confirmed by
international and national watchdog groups like Human Rights Watch indicate
that at least 140 protesters have already been killed in the protests.
“The
government’s labelling of the mostly peaceful protesters as “terrorists” on 15
December 2015 further escalated the response of the police, and the military
and resulted in more violations, including killings, beatings and mass arrests
of protesters, opposition party leaders and members, and journalists” says
Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East
Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
Scores
of those arrested have been denied access to lawyers and family members. They
are reportedly being held under the Anti-terrorism Proclamation and remain at
risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
Journalists
and opposition leaders, including Bekele Gerba (Deputy Chairman, Oromo
Federalist Congress), Getachew Shiferaw (Editor-in-Chief of the online
newspaper Negere Ethiopia) and Fikadu Mirkana (Oromia Radio and TV), have also
been arrested while documenting or participating in the protests.
The
violent response to the Oromo protests represents perhaps the most severe
crackdown on the right to peaceful assembly since the contested 2005 elections
in which nearly 200 protestors were killed in the capital,” said Hassan Shire,
Executive Director of DefendDefenders. “The international community’s worrying
silence on this matter may further embolden the authorities to crank up their
campaign of repression.”
Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and other organisations have also previously
documented similar patterns of excessive use of force, mass arrests, torture
and other forms of ill-treatment against demonstrators, political oppositions
and activists. On 28 October 2014, Amnesty International published a report
entitled “Because I am Oromo”: Sweeping Repression in the Oromia
Region of Ethiopia (AFR 25/006/2014).
All
those being held solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression
and assembly must be immediately and unconditionally released. The Ethiopian
authorities must ensure that victims of human rights violations by law
enforcement officials have access to an effective remedy and obtain adequate
reparation, including compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and
guarantees of non-repetition.
CIVICUS,
the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and Amnesty
International appeal to Ethiopia's development and international partners to
encourage the government to:
- immediately stop mass arrests,
beatings and killing of protesters, journalists and opposition party
leaders and members;
- ensure access to family
members, lawyers and review of detention by a court of law for protesters,
journalists and opposition party members and leaders in detention; and
- establish an independent
inquiry into the use of excessive force during the protests. If the
investigation finds that there has been excessive use of force, those
responsible must be subject to criminal and disciplinary proceedings as
appropriate.
Source: Amnesty International
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