Gudina dreams every night of the student she saw with blood pouring
out of their mouth after being struck by a bullet fired by Ethiopian
security forces during a protest in December. At a related protest in a
different town, 17-year-old Gameda saw security forces enter a school compound
and shoot three students point blank, and then carry the bodies
away.
Tear gas and bullets from
security forces have become a regular part of the state's crackdown in
Ethiopia's Oromia state, as students keep up a protest movement against
the government's plan for expansion and development of the capital, Addis
Ababa. Many say the plan will push the Oromo people off their lands.
According to a report from
Human Rights Watch this week, Ethiopia has continued to violently suppress the
demonstrations that sparked in November, killing protesters and arresting
thousands more without charges. Several people the advocacy organization spoke
with said they were subjected to torture and sexual assault while detained.
"Continuing to treat the
protests as a military operation that needs to be crushed through force shows
the complete disregard the government has for peaceful protest and freedom of
expression," said Felix Horne, Human Rights Watch's
researcher for the Horn of Africa.
"Things have become
considerably more violent in the last few days," he said. "Given the
limitations on independent reporting on the ground, it's hard to know precisely
what has been happening." The organization, which is the source of the
eyewitness accounts, has changed the names of people it mentions and even
avoids specifying their gender, to protect them for the crackdown by the
government Tensions are longstanding between the Oromo and the government,
lead with a heavy hand by Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn.
The demonstrations
started in mid-November in Oromia, the nation's largest state and home to
27 million people, including 3.3 million living in Addis Ababa. The Oromo, who
are the country's largest ethnic group, are opposed to the
government's Addis Ababa and Surrounding Oromia Special Zone Development Plan.
Activists claim the development agenda will swallow up Oromo land and displace
farmers as the capital grows outward.
That expansion
reflects Ethiopia's status as one of the fastest-growing economies in
the world. The International Monetary Fund ranks it among the top five expanding
economies globally, with a gross domestic product that expanded 10.3
percent from 2013 to 2014. The capital development plan is in line with
the economic and urban growth, with plans for building highways, roads, parking
lots, market areas, and an airport.
On November 12, elementary and
high school students formed the first demonstration in the town of
Ginci, about 55 miles from Addis Ababa. As a part of the controversial
development project, work had just begun on clearing a forest at the edge of
town. Activists said the students engaged in peaceful demonstrations, and
videos at the time showed them often standing in silence.
Over the next few weeks,
protests began to spread to towns throughout the state as part of a larger and
years-long Oromo movement. The Oromo account for more than 80 percent of
the Oromia state population. Nationally, they represent more than 35 percent.
Many Oromos say they have
not benefitted from the country's development. Literacy rates and government
representation are bleak for the Oromo.
This is not the first protest
against the so-called Master Plan; there was a similar uprising in April and
May of 2014 after the development plan was approved. A crackdown by security
forces left dozens dead and hundreds arrested.
As the current movement
unfolded, the recent demonstrations quickly surpassed the scale of those from
2014. By January activists estimated upwards of 140 people had been killed and,
according to Human Rights Watch, killings and violence have been
reported daily. That figure has since risen to more than 200 people.
With Desalegn and the Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front controlling the parliament and the
judiciary, while having eroded independent civil society and media, Horne said
that the protest crackdowns were limiting one of the few outlets for criticism
left.
"If Oromia's citizens have
concerns how are they to peacefully express it?" he said. "As we've
seen the last three months, if you take to the streets you run the risk of
being shot by security forces who view protest movements as something to be
crushed through brutal force."
Source: news.vice
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