Human Rights

Violent and Deadly Crackdowns Against Worshipers In Ethiopia

Ethiopia: HRLHA Urgent Action and Appeal,

             PUBLIC 13 May, 2012

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) strongly condemns the Ethiopian Government’s interference into religious affairs and its heavy-handedness against Muslim communities in various parts of the country.

In this religion-based and allegedly government-sponsored violence that openly started around the beginning of February, 2012 and has widespread particularly in the central and southern parts of the country, four people have been confirmed to have been killed by armed government forces,(Musa Gabi 13, student of local madrasa (religious) school, Kamal Irena 60, tailor, Aliyi Waqo 40, peasant, and Shafi Jano Tufa 40; daily laborer)  while hundreds of others have ended up in prisons. The four dead, who were from the Gadab Asasa locality of Arsi Zone in Southern Oromia Region, and the killing happened on the 6^th of April, 2012 when a very huge crowd of Muslim worshipers where met with well-armed government security forces in front of a local mosque following a Friday “Jum’a” prayer. Read more…

Fifth Anniversary of HRLHA

A Speech at “Night to fight for human rights”
Dinner and Entertainment Event

By  Garoma Wakessa ;- Executive Director of HRLHA | May 5, 2012

Good evening and welcome to HRLHA’s “Night to fight for human rights” dinner and entertainment event.  It is, as always, an honor to be a part of this event and especially this year, as we celebrate HRLHA’s fifth anniversary.

I have a number of people to thank tonight on behalf of myself and Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa.

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who worked on Fundraising committee, and as Volunteers to put this event together,

Thanks to sisters who offered us a delicious dinner covering all expenses by themselves,

Thanks to HRLHA Board members for the service they are rendering to this organization. Read more…

Oromia: Burqaa is Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence

Oromo torture survivors will join other survivors from around the world, Human Rights Organizations and educational institutions to tell the brutality of the TPLF regime. They will give testimonies about their experiences and that of other Oromos who did not have the chance tp tell their stories. The prison didn’t only speak Oromiffa but also the TPLF prison was hell on earth for Oromos. We repeatedly reported that about 50 % of survivors come from that brutal empire – Ethiopia.

The tentative schedule we obtained from the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) International is as follows:

Join TASSC International in June to Commemorate Survivor Week

BE PART OF THE SOLUTION…..

This June will mark the 15th anniversary of TASSC International’s June Survivor Week. We invite you to participate in our activities during the week, and to organize a local commemoration on June 26 in recognition of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

During the week, survivors will be participating in a three day human rights training, and lobby Congress on Wednesday, June 20.

Schedule of activities for the Washington DC Metropolitan area include the following public events:

Thursday morning, June 21, 9 am – 12 noon, Catholic University: Campaign to End Torture, Enforced Disappearance and Impunity Read more…

UDJ expresses concern for safety of Ethiopian refugees to return from Norway

Finote Netsanet – Amharic weekly (March 27) Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) criticizes Norwegian government on its decision to forcibly return Ethiopian refugees.   UDJ executive member indicated that his party held discussion with Norwegian ambassador here in Addis and send letters to high ranking officials expressing concern for safety of political refugees.  In a related development, UDJ express deep condolences on the death of Alem Dechasa, Ethiopian migrant domestic worker in Lebanon.  The party condemns Ethiopian government for failure to protect rights of migrant citizens.

Sudan – Asylum Seekers are entitled to Protection not Detention

Fear of Torture and Deportation, HRLHA Appeal and Urgent Action | March 18, 2012

His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hasan Al-Bashir
President of the Republic Sudan,
President’s Palace,
PO Box 281,
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: (00 249) 11 771651, (00 249) 11 787676, (00 249) 11 783223

Dear Honorable President,

First of all, Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) would like to express its appreciation to the people of the Republic of Sudan and to its government for their hospitality and kindness over so many years towards thousands of refugees who have fled their homes to escape government persecutions in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and other neighboring countries at different times and now living in Sudan. Read more…

Ethiopia: Human rights work crippled by restrictive law

March 12, 2012 (Amnesty International) – A law in Ethiopia is crippling human rights work in the country, forcing organizations to cut programmes, close offices and lay off staff, according to an Amnesty International report published today.

“Stifling human rights work: the impact of Ethiopia’s civil society legislation” describes how the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation puts in place restrictions on organizations working on human rights and allows for excessive government interference. The result is that people in the country have less access to independent human rights assistance.

“Rather than creating an enabling environment for human rights defenders to work in, the government has implemented a law which has crippled human rights work in Ethiopia” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s deputy Africa director.

“The space to make legitimate criticism is more restricted than ever.” Read more…

Oromo Human Rights Advocates Presentation at George Mason University

March 8, 2012 (ayyaantuu.com) – We were invited by the George Mason University on February 28, 2012 to speak to students of Social Work that are working on their masters degree. They gave us adequate time to speak about our own experiences and we thank them for listening to us with respect. We do not want to go in to details about our personal issues. We were more interested in the issues that made us to get involved to defend our human dignity.

We also tried to connect them to what Oromo scholars and other experts have observed about the brutality of the TPLF regime in particular and Abyssinians in general.

“Are You Involved’? Yes, I am!

It was in 1988, the year I graduated from Finfinne/Addis Ababa University. I was walking from Sidist Kilo Campus towards Arat Kilo. Three university students were walking in front of me. They were not only walking and talking but they were also laughing and giggling. I got closer to them to listen to what makes them laugh like that. One of them was telling them about their King of Kings, Immiye Menilik II of Ethiopia. He was telling them about a bill (awaj) that was written into law by their favorite King. The bill was written into law when automobile was brought to Ethiopia for the first time. He was quoting from this bill to please his friends: “Sawu magdal kilkil nawu; Gaallam bihon”. It means it is illegal to kill a person even a Galla. To make us angry they also usually say, it is illegal to kill an animal even a Galla. Read more…

Survivors of torture actions to end impunity

Ayyaantuu.com, 3.2.12:  TASSC (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International) has been working to end torture in countries where this inhuman and barbaric action is practiced. Over the years this organization has travelled a long distance to create awareness and mobilize people to voice against torture. Through efforts of survivors of torture from all over the world, it has managed to score a lot of meaningful results. In recent time, there was big victory attained with regard to actions to end impunity. Read more…

A Letter to the Prime Minister of Norway

His Excellency Mr. Jens Stoltenberg
Prime minister of Norway
Glacisgata 1
Postboks 8001 Dep,
0030 Oslo, Norway
postmottak@smk.dep.no
kesp@smk.dep.no
sfb@sm

Your Excellency Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg,

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) is writing this letter in an attempt to bring to your attention the case of 400 refugees from Ethiopia who were dined political asylum in Norway, and the agreement recently signed between the Ethiopian and the Norwegian governments in relation to the case of those refuges. The agreement, which appears to have been politically motivated, aims at returning the 400 refugees to Ethiopia. Norway has a proud tradition of providing shelter for refugees from the Horn of Africa, including thousands of Oromo nationals, who fled their homeland to escape extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, disappearances, and imprisonments. We thank the government and the people of Norway for welcoming the victims of human rights abuses in Ethiopia, especially Oromo nationals, who were forced to flee their homeland in search of safety and security. We are truly disheartened and greatly alarmed by the prospect of those very refugees to be returned to Ethiopia, where the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia are subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without trial, denials of job opportunities due to political reasons, confiscation of property without compensation and extrajudicial execution without any due process of law. Read more…

Persecuted in Ethiopia: Hunted in Hargeisa

Oromia Support Group Report 47 | February 27, 2012

Summary

Refugees from Ethiopia and officials of NGOs and governments were interviewed in Somaliland and Djibouti in November and December 2011. Formal interviews with 43 refugees, including 17 in Hargeisa, confirmed other reports that a high proportion of refugees from Ethiopia give histories of torture. Twenty one of the 43 interviewees (49%), including 13 of the 17 interviewed in Hargeisa (76%), had been tortured. Many instances of killing and rape by Ethiopian government forces were reported. Read more…

Local Media Censorship Goes Global – CPJ

CPJ (Feb. 23, 2012) Repressive governments, militants, and criminal groups across the globe are leveraging new and traditional tactics to control information, with the aim of obscuring misdeeds, silencing dissent, and disempowering citizens, according to ‘Attacks on the Press’, a yearly survey released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Read more…

Widespread Violence against Students in Ethiopia

Dismissals and Suspensions of University Students on Political Grounds

February 20, 2012

Three students of Jimma Unversity in the regional State of Oromia in Ethiopia were given academic dismissal while four others were suspended from their studies at the university for two years for demanding for a halt to what was described as politically motivated racial slurs allegedly perpetuated by students of Tigrian oringin, the ethnic group that controls the political power in the current regime in the University campuses. According to the HRLHA reporter in Jimma (Wetern Oromia), Wubshet Zelalem, Mengistu (Amhara nationasl), Tesfaye Berihanu Bari’e and Moera Lema Debela (both Oromo nationals) were dismissed from the University, while Mekonnin Dabale Tolla, Nuredin Ahmed Bariso  and Takalign Konta Oli (Oromo) were temporarily abrogated for two years. Another student called Melesse Tilahun (who was a Gurage by birith) was penalized with one year suspension from the University. Read more…

Screams from the Desert

February 16, 2012 (Huffington Post) – I can’t get the sounds of their torture out of my head. Sounds I imagined. But the accounts of the Eritrean men, women and kids we met at the Shagarab refugee camp in East Sudan are terrifyingly real.

The refugees from Eritrea thought they were buying a simple cross-border ride to freedom via Sudan to a safe country. Instead they were being led to locked compounds to be chained and shackled, beaten with iron rods and subjected to electric shock. Instead the women were dragged into the forest and raped systematically. Read more…

Preventing Genocide in Ethiopia

By Kallacha W. Kune, A Torture survivor from Oromiyaa

February 15, 2012 (Ayyaantuu.com) – I have the moral obligation to bring the Ethiopian crisis to your attention because Maryland University has recently released a report that Ethiopia is on a high risk of genocide, instability, and politicide. World Genocide Watch, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many human rights groups have also repeatedly warned the international community about the severe human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The Oromo Studies Association and Oromo Women’s Association have also written a letter of concern to President Obama and major Western countries and the UN High Commission for Human Rights and the World Genocide Watch, etc.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) also advised donor countries to take governance problems more seriously but the international community never paid attention to their advance warnings about the Ethiopian crisis. Synopsis of a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) dated September 4, 2009, Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and its Discontents, may help to understand how this minority group has created an ultra-big government to control the state and people by the funds it obtains from donor nations, the IMF and the World Bank. Read more…

Ethiopia: Future of last remaining human rights monitoring NGO in the balance

Joint Press Statement

On February 3, 2012, the Cassation Bench of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia will hear a petition by the Human Rights Council (HRCO), Ethiopia’s oldest human rights organization, to admit an appeal against the freezing of its bank accounts. Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and Human Rights Watch express deep concern at the obstacles and restrictions to which HRCO and other human rights organizations in Ethiopia are now subjected, as illustrated by this case. The decision of the Supreme Court will be of great significance for the future of HRCO’s vital work and for the wider promotion and protection of human rights in Ethiopia. Read more…