Meles Zenawi: Stop Your Onslaught on Oromo University and High School Students

(Oromo Studies Association (OSA) Statement Regarding the Suspension of Oromo Students from Addis Ababa University)

The Meles Zenawi regime organized a sham Oromo cultural show through its surrogate political wing the OPDO at Addis Ababa University on January 18, 2004. This show was scheduled to start at 1:00 P.M. at the Christmas Hall of Addis Ababa University and was intended to stage manage political support for the regime. But the show was abandoned when some people from the audience raised questions and violence ensued. Exactly who began throwing stones is not yet impartially investigated. The government accuses Oromo students, and Oromo student have denied these allegations. According to the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), at 3:00 P. M., plain-clothed security personnel apprehended six students and took them to Addis Ababa Police Crime Investigation Department.The security personnel also searched student dormitories and seized two more Oromo students who were thought might have been responsible for the failed event. The apprehended students were tortured at the Addis Ababa Police Crime Investigation Department.

On January 19, several students went to the Dean of Students, demanding the release of the illegally arrested students, and also asking the University to protect the safety of students in their dormitories. According to EHRCO report, the Dean told students that their questions would be answered at 12:00 noon on January 21. Thus, hundreds gathered in front of the University President's office on January 21, 2004, to get answer to their demand and to request guarantees for their safety against the continued Gestapo-like selective arrest and torture of more Oromo students. After a brief encounter with the students, the University President called hundreds of helmeted Federal security police heavily armed with machineguns who rounded up 496 students, took away their identity cards, and took them to Kolfe Police Training Camp, where they were tortured and punished. We have received reliable reports that women Oromo students were tortured and then raped. 329 of the 496 students were suspended from the University and to be readmitted after a year if they apologized for damaging public property while 23 of them were dismissed permanently.

It is particularly distressing to learn that although several non-Oromos were initially arrested, only Oromo students were tortured and suspended or expelled from the University. Meles Zenawi's security forces are targeting Oromo students and teachers because these groups are among the most politically aware elements of the society and question the regime's discriminatory policies and treatment.

The government of Meles Zenawi has since continued to intensify its repression against Oromo students all over Oromia. Based on reliable sources, on March 7, 2004, the regime's military forces rounded up over 700 students of Jimma University and wounded scores of students. Police fired shots from machinegun-mounted vehicles as other security forces clubbed students who were peacefully protesting the mass expulsion of Oromo students from Addis Ababa University. Oromo female students were among those seriously injured.

The TPLF regime's discriminatory treatment of Oromo students is not limited to the expulsion of University students. In addition, many Oromia high schools whose students opposed the expulsion of Oromo students from Addis Ababa University are now closed. The regime's police and security forces have summarily killed high school students for staging peaceful demonstrations against the mass expulsion of Oromo students of Addis Ababa University. The security forces have been resorting to brute force of beating them and closing of the schools again denying them their constitutional rights of staging peaceful protests against the expulsion. Many students are arrested without charge or trial and are being subjected to torture and inhuman treatments.

As an academic organization whose primary purpose is to strive for the wellbeing of African societies through a scholarly promotion of tolerance and objectivity, OSA is extremely disturbed by the torture and prejudicial suspension of Oromo students from Addis Ababa University. As we continue to register this and similar atrocities against Oromos, we would like to emphasize that the intent of demoralizing the Oromo intelligentsia and suppressing the growth of intellectuals stands out consistently central to Meles Zenawi's policy.

It is ironic that a country with one of the lowset literacy rates in the world can afford to mass dismiss hundreds of students from University simply because they demonstrated against or because they are Oromo and other Oromo students have taken part in a peaceful demonstration against injustice perpetrated against their peers. Those who are left behind are under constant threat of torture and imprisonment, and many are forced to run out of the country. The exclusive selection of Oromo youngsters of University caliber to be punished simply because they peacefully expressed their opinion is a clear demonstration that their concerns are justified that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Tigrean based minority regime has a hate driven policy towards the Oromo people. As a scholarly organization OSA carries a historic obligation to inform all concerned individuals and organizations that this hate driven policy also carries catastrophic consequences that will plunge this poor nation deeper into untold miseries, with atrocities that will dwarf Rwanda or Somalia.

The TPLF regime led by Prime Minster Meles Zenawi does not uphold the rule of law and does not honor international laws and treaties. The tyrannical regime's action of expelling the Oromo University Students is discriminatory and capricious. The regime's accusations against the Oromo University students are trumped up charges. The regime falsely accused, singled out and expelled Oromo University students without giving them the right to be heard.

The Meles Zenawi regime had ratified the United Nations' Covenants on Human Rights. Its Constitution also recognizes the fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in international treaties. By denying the Oromo students the right to peaceable assembly to petition the government and arbitrarily and discriminatorily expelling them from schools, the Meles Zenawi regime continued the violation of its own constitution and international treaties.

Even by the standard of its own constitution and other legal provisions the mass expulsion of Oromo students is illegal. The students were allegedly expelled because they damaged public property. Even though, reportedly, some windows were broken, neutral sources have confirmed that no damage to the extent reported by the government media occurred. No investigation was conducted to verify who was personally responsible for causing the damages. The eight Oromo students who were initially imprisoned were imprisoned not because they caused the damages, but because they were suspected of being Oromo student leaders. On January 21, 2004, when more than 400 students were hoarded together and imprisoned and finally suspended, no damage to property occurred. They were simply peacefully congregating to air their grievances, and to stand in solidarity with students who were abducted from the campus and imprisoned. Therefore, their suspension could not be justified on that ground. If the government is not resorting to guilt by association, or is not trying to impose collective punishment, there is not ground at all that more than 400 Oromo students could be suspended/expelled for few broken windows.

The inhuman tortures and discriminatory measures taken against the Oromo students by the Ethiopian government is yet another brutal violation of human rights, one that reveals the true face of the Meles regime. OSA considers this policy extremely dangerous for inter-communal peace and stability and demands the immediate reversal of the policy and readmission of the university students without any precondition. OSA appeals also to academic institutions and scholars and donor agencies dealing with Ethiopia to exert their pressure on the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi to revoke this ill-advised discriminatory punishment immediately and readmit all students to the university and cease harassing Oromo students nationwide.

Abraham Mosisa
OSA President
March 15, 2004