Ibsa ABO | The OLF Condemns the Acts of Ethnic Cleansing in Finfinnee

Posted: Ebla/April 17, 2014 · Gadaa.com

The following is the statement of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) on the current situation of eviction of Oromo farmers from regions Surrounding Finfinnee and the ongoing land-grab.

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The OLF Condemns the Acts of Ethnic Cleansing Perpetrated Against the Oromo People by the TPLF-led Regime in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa)

PRESS RELEASE
16th April 2014

We are gravely concerned that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front-led (TPLF) regime has, once again, intensified its policy of cleansing the Oromo people from Finfinnee, the capital city of Oromia, and the surrounding districts.

The regime first created the so-called Oromia Special Zone in 2008 and since pursued a relentless systematic removal of the indigenous Oromo people from their ancestral land in the name of “land for investors”, with the sole purpose of forcefully usurping and controlling Oromo land and resource.

The Oromo towns including Akaki, Bonsa, Burayu, Chaffe, Chancho, Dukam, Galan, Holata, Mojo, Mulo, Sabata, Sandafa, Sululta, and Walamara, which the regime has brought under the administration of the “Special Zone”, are scattered along the four main gates to and from the capital in the range of 25Km to 50Km from the capital city.

The regime has launched its most recent atrocity under the guise of “Addis Ababa and the Surrounding Oromia Integrated Development Plan Project” and annexed the aforementioned towns from Oromia. The regimes’ long-term sinister strategic plan is to surgically remove Finfinnee and the surrounding from Oromia and annex it to the neighboring Amhara state and deprive Oromia of its vital economic and political capital when Oromia eventually becomes an independent country.

Having compulsorily and illegally evicted the Oromo people from areas surrounding their capital city, and now removing a huge landmass and vital strategic towns away from Oromia, the regime has — as it did in 2004 when it imprisoned, killed and exiled over 350 Oromo students for opposing the eviction of Oromo institutions from their capital city — provoked the Oromo youth to rise up and protest. Now it will use this as pretext to dismiss Oromo students from universities, imprison them, and send them into exile en masse.

The TPLF regime and its collaborators need to understand that the land taken from the Oromo people will be returned to its lawful owners sooner or later.

The regime has been waging state terrorism against the Oromo people to suppress their protest against eviction from their homeland and confiscation of their farmlands. It has imprisoned tens of thousands of them for their objection to its apartheid-like educational policy and for their demands of political rights and the right of self-determination for the past two decades. Numerous reports from credible regional and international human rights organizations confirm that the TPLF considers all socially and politically conscious Oromo nationals as enemies, and that it targets them as such.

There has been no regime that has pushed the Oromo people harder than the TPLF in their history. They are being pushed to the limit by the brutalities of the regime and have no alternative but to rise up in unison. Hence, the current TPLF-led regime needs to be reminded that its premeditated human rights abuses and dehumanization of the Oromo people constitute a recipe for a disastrous civil war.

The OLF believes the TPLF must be stopped. The OLF will do all in its power to strengthen its struggle against the regime. We will also renew our call to our people to stand shoulder to shoulder and strengthen our unity to defeat the enemy and guarantee the survival of our nation.

Oromia shall be free!

Oromo Liberation Front

Addi Bilisummaa Oromoo Mootummaan Wayyaanee Oromoo Finfinnee fi Naannoo Keessaa Haxaayee Baasuuf Itti Jiru Ni Balaaleffata

16 Ebla 2014

Mootummaan Itoophiyaa Adda Bilisummaa Uummata Tigraayiin (Wayyaaneen) gaggeeffamu magaalaa guddittii Oromiyaa, Finfinnee fi magaalota naannoo ishee jirani irraa Oromoo haxaayee baasuuf imaammata qabu itti fufuun isaa hedduu yaaddessaa ta’ee jira.

Mootummaan Wayyaanee jalqaba bara 2008 keessa godina addaa Oromiyaa kan jedhu uumuun Oromoota akaakayyuu fi abaabayyuun laficha irra jiraataa turan buqqisuun shiraan maqaa ’misooina’ jedhuun lafa Oromoo humnaan saamee towannaa isaa jala galchee jira. Finfinnee irraa km 25 – 50 irratti kan argaman magaalonni akka Aqaaqii, Boonsaa, Buraayyuu, Caffee, Caancoo, Duukam, Galaan, Hoolota, Moojoo, Muloo, Sabbata, Sandaafaa, Sulultaa fi Walmaraa bulchiinsa godinoota addaa Oromiyaa jedhamu jalatti yeroo ammaa kana dhuunfaa mootummaa Wayyaanee jala jiru.

Akka hammeenya mootummaan Wayyaanee caalaatti yeroo dhihoo kana jalqabee jiruutti aguuggii ’Finfinnee fi Karoora Qindoomina Proojektii Guddina Misooma Naannoo Addaa Oromiyaa’ jedhuun magaalota arman ol maqaan ka’e Finfinneetti maxxansuuf yaalaa jira. Akeekni kanaas Finfinnee fi naannoo ishee Oromiyaa irraa kutuun bulchiinsa isaa biyyoota ollaa kan akka Amaaraan walitti dabaluun fuulduratti siyaasaa fi hawaasummaa Oromiyaa walaba taatu xiqqeessuuf akka ta’e hubatamaa dha.

Mootummaan Wayyaanee Oromoota naannoo magaalaa guddittii isaanii taate Finfinnee jiraataa turan dirqamaa fi seeraa ala buqqisaa turee amman tana ammoo lafuma isaanii kanaa fi magaalota beekamoo naannoo Finfinnee Oromiyaa irraa kutuun Finfinneettan dabala jechaa jira.

Mootummaan TPLF kun bara 2004 keessas akkuma kana dhaabbatoota Oromoo Finfinnee irraa buqqisuuf yeroo tattaafataa ture barattoota Oromoo sadarkaa olaanaa gocha kana morman 350 ol ta’an hidhuu, ajjeesuu fi biyya irraa akka godaanan godhe ture. Ammas barattoota Oromoo University tuttuquun akka isaan mormii kaasan gochuun hedduminaan barumsa irraa akka arihataman, mana hidhaatti akka guuraman akkasumas biyya irraa gara biyya alaatti akka godaanan gochuuf kan yaadame dha.

Mootummaan Wayyaanee fi warri isa waliin tumsa qaban oolee bula malee lafti Oromoo seeraan abbaa lafaa kan ta’e Oromootti akka deebi’uu danda’u beekuu qabu.

Mootummaan kun Oromoon dache isaa irraas ta’e qonnaa isaa irraa yommuu buqqa’u akka hin iyyanneef ykn hin mormineef ’seera shororkeessituu’ baafatuun ittiin gadi qabaa jira. Kana dura waggoota kurnan lamaan darban keessa imaammata barumsaa kan seera ’aparteid’ fakkaatuu gadi hinjirre mormuuf, gaaffii mirga siyaasaa fi mirga hiree ofii ofiin murteeffachuu gaafachuuf barattoonni kumaatamatti lakkaa’aman sochii waan godhaniif mana hidhaatti guuraman. Akka gabaasota dhabota mirga dhala namaa Addunyaatti, Wayyaaneen siyaasaanis ta’e hawaasummaan Oromoota eenyumaa isaanii irratti dammaqiinsa qaban irratti xiyyeeffachuun akka diineffatee jiru ragaa bahu.

Seenaa cunqursootaa keessatti kan akka Wayyaanee uummata Oromoo irratti dhiibbaa guddaa godhe hin turre. Kanaaf uummatni Oromoo tokkummaan ka’ee qabsoo isaa jabeessuu malee fala biraa hinqabu. Mootummaan Wayyaanee kan beekuu qabu qeyee isaa irratti mirga uummata Oromoo jeequu fi namummaa isaa xiqqeessuuf gocha itti jiru kana irraa yoo of hinqusanne ummatoota biyyattii gidduutti wal waraansi akka ka’uuf karaa banaa akka jiru dha.

Wayyaaneen gocha uummata Oromoo irratti raawwataa jiru kana irraa dhaabamu akka qabu Addi Bilisummaa Oromoo itti amana. ABOn qabsoo mootummaa Wayyaanee irratti godhu karuma fedheen iyyuu ciminaan itti fufa. Uummanni Oromoo tokkummaan harka walqabatee qabsoo isaa jabeessuun diina isaa injifatee abbaa biyyummaa isaa akka mirkaneeffatuuf irra deebiin waamicha keenya haaressina.

Oromiyaan Ni Bilisoomti!

Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo

ETHIOPIA’S BORDERLESS CYBERESPIONAGE

by Felix Horne

Chinese- and European-made spyware is enabling Addis Ababa to silence dissent

April 8, 2014 (Al Jazeera) — I met Abdi (not his real name), a 32-year-old primary school teacher from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, last July while in Nairobi. Abdi had been arrested a year earlier in his hometown for organizing a protest against local government corruption. He was already under the eye of Ethiopian security officials because he refused to provide information on the activities of his students to local authorities.

Over the course of two weeks in detention, Abdi was repeatedly beaten and accused of belonging to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which originated in nationalist movements fighting for increased autonomy in the 1960s. The Ethiopian government considers the OLF a terrorist organization and uses the threat of an armed struggle to justify repression of ordinary Oromos, who constitute Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.

The harassment continued after Abdi was released. Eventually, like thousands of other Ethiopians, he felt compelled to flee to Kenya, leaving behind his wife and two children. After some time in Kenya he called home and spoke to his wife, who told him that security officials had been harassing her since he left. That was the last time he spoke to her.

Abdi later learned from neighbors that security officials came to their house hours after his call, demanding to know who was calling her from Kenya and accusing her of being in contact with rebel operatives there. He no longer calls Ethiopia and does not know the whereabouts of his family.

Abdi’s story is not unique. In the last two decades, tens of thousands of Ethiopians have fled their country because of government repression or limited economic opportunities. Most of these migrants, especially those living in neighboring African countries, fear that if they communicate with their families back home, their calls will be traced and their relatives will face repercussions. As new research by Human Rights Watch shows, their fears are well founded. The fear that permeates the lives of many inside Ethiopia has been successfully exported to other countries.

Ethiopian expats, including those living in the United States, have become targets of Addis Ababa’s global espionage.

The state-run Ethio Telecom is the sole provider of phone and Internet services in Ethiopia. The Chinese telecom equipment and systems company ZTE is helping Ethiopia modernize its telecommunications infrastructure. The Ethiopian government uses a Chinese-developed telecom system to monitor and control the communications of its citizens and to silence dissenters both in Ethiopia and abroad. Security officials have unlimited access to the phone records of everyone in the country who owns a phone. During abusive interrogations, security officials often play back recorded phone calls to people in their custody. Those calling or receiving calls from foreign numbers are particularly at risk of reprisals by a government keen to punish those it considers a threat.

But Ethiopia goes even further to monitor dissenting voices outside its borders. The government has acquired and is using commercially available European-made spyware — namely the U.K.- and Germany-based Gamma International’s FinFisher and the Italy-based Hacking Team’s Remote Control System — to monitor dissenters in other countries, effectively extending its surveillance capabilities far beyond its borders. These tools provide security and intelligence agencies with full access to files and activity on an infected target’s computer. They can log keystrokes and passwords and switch on a device’s webcam and microphone, turning a computer anywhere in the world into a listening device. Ethiopian expats, including those living in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, have become targets of this global espionage.

In late 2012, security officials detained the wife of Yohannes Alemu, a Norwegian citizen and member of a banned opposition group, as she was visiting family in Addis Ababa. They questioned her about her husband’s political connections. Then the security officials demanded information from Yohannes via phone and email about his opposition party colleagues. He refused; after 20 days his wife was finally released and returned to Norway.

But the incident did not end there.

One of the emails he received contained an attachment infected with FinFisher spyware. Once he had downloaded this spyware, the Ethiopian security agencies had unfettered access to all the information on his computer.

While people around the world are right to be shocked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance by the U.S. government, they should also be concerned that repressive governments such as Ethiopia’s are purchasing and using advanced technologies to target independent voices beyond their borders. The export and use of these European-made commercial products remains virtually unregulated. This is particularly worrying given that evidence exists that similar technologies may be in the hands of authoritarian regimes throughout the world.

These technologies enable repressive governments to monitor dissenting voices in other countries — even in countries where privacy rights are stronger and legal protections are in place to limit state-sponsored surveillance.

The United States, European Union and other donors that together provide an estimated $4 billion in annual aid to Ethiopia should take concerted steps to stop this abuse. They should support global efforts to regulate the export and use of such technologies to governments with poor human rights records. African governments should also speak out and make it clear to Ethiopia that it is an infringement on basic rights to use these technologies to spy on citizens outside of Ethiopia’s borders — people who are all too often seeking protection from repression back home.

Felix Horne is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of a new report, “‘They Know Everything We Do’: Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia.”

Source: Aljazeera