Ethiopian government responds to UN review
By Amy Bergquist,
The Advocates for Human Rights

May
20, 2014 (Twin Cities Daily Planet) — When students in Ethiopia started
protesting last month against the Ethiopian Government’s proposal to
annex territory from the state of Oromia to facilitate the expansion of
the capital city Addis Ababa, diasporans mobilized to show their
solidarity. As federal “Agazi” security forces
cracked down,
opening fire on peaceful protesters, placing students on lock-down in
their dormitories, and conducting mass arrests, Oromos around the world
staged rallies and hunger strikes to raise international awareness and
to call on the governments of the countries where they live to withhold
aid and put pressure on the Ethiopian Government to respect human
rights.
In the first three posts in this series, I discussed the
Oromo diaspora’s mobilization to shed light on the human rights violations on the ground, the
sharp criticism the
government of Ethiopia faced during the Universal Periodic Review on
May 6, and the steps the Oromo diaspora in Minnesota is taking to
show solidarity and press for accountability in
Ethiopia. This final post tells some of the stories of Oromos in the
diaspora who have spoken with friends and family on the ground in Oromia
about events over the past three weeks, and also covers the Ethiopian
government’s formal response to the UN review and offers some
suggestions for next steps.
Not “voiceless,” but deliberately silenced by Ethiopian government
“We need to be a voice for the voiceless” has been a common refrain
from the diaspora. But in my view, the students and others who are
protesting in Ethiopia are far from voiceless. They have been bravely
marching, placing their lives and academic careers on the line, to
express their opposition to the government’s “Integrated Development
Master Plan for Addis Ababa.” In the words of 2004 Sydney Peace Prize
winner
Arundhati Roy, “there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
The government controls the media and telecommunications in Ethiopia,
effectively placing a stranglehold on open debate and criticism of the
government. Historically, efforts by western media,
including CNN,
to cover events on the ground in Ethiopia have been stymied. The
government’s repression and intimidation also create obstacles for
independent journalists trying to cover the story from outside the
country. I spoke with one U.S.-based reporter who covers the Horn of
Africa, and he explained that when he tried to confirm casualty reports,
hospital personnel in Ethiopia refused to speak to him, fearing for
their jobs.

The
Oromia Media Network (OMN),
a Minnesota-based satellite news network that has been covering the
student protests, offering commentary, and dedicating attention to the
diaspora response,
reported that
on May 2, the Ethiopian government blocked access to its website, and
on May 13, began jamming OMN’s satellite transmission. Oromos in
Ethiopia have turned to the
OMN Facebook page, urging, “Please send us a new frequency.”
The Ethiopian government even attempts to silence social media. One
Oromo messaged me on Facebook from an internet cafe in Addis Ababa, but
he said that he didn’t feel safe going into too much detail, fearing
that the government or people in the cafe were monitoring his
communications.
He’s not being paranoid, and the OMN experience is nothing new. The
government has used its monopoly control over telecommunications to
conduct surveillance of
regime opponents, as well as to block websites of opposition groups,
media sites, and bloggers. Speaking of bloggers critical of the
Ethiopian government, since The Advocates for Human Rights launched this
blog series on May 5, I’ve been pleased to see a huge spike in visitors
from Ethiopia. We’ve had over 700 views from Ethiopia, and so far
there’s no sign that the government is blocking access to The Advocates
Post. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
On May 5, I had a conversation with an Oromo in London who had just
spoken with his sister, who the day before had fled to Addis Ababa from
Madawalabu University in Bale Robe. She reported that the military had
started beating students who were demonstrating at the university. She
told her brother that students were unable to get the word out because
cell phone and internet service had been turned off. She saw forces kill
one student, but feared that there were more casualties. She was able
to share the news with her brother only because she had fled 430
kilometers (267 miles) to the capital, where the phones hadn’t been shut
off.
New reports that Ethiopian government is inciting inter-ethnic violence
I’ve read reports on social media that the Ethiopian government is
provoking inter-ethnic violenceby
spreading false reports of attacks and planned attacks. With no
independent media, it’s safe to conclude that any reports on official
media outlets in Ethiopia reflect the government’s efforts to shape
perceptions of reality. When a vacuum exists where independent media
should be, rumors—some likely fed by the government—can create fear and
misunderstanding.

Flags of the Oromo and Ogaden people were on display at the May 9 rally in St. Paul, Minnesota
Outside Ethiopia, diasporans are actively combating efforts to divide opposition voices along ethnic