HRLHA Press Release
August 29, 2018
The current Government of Ethiopia was established in 1991 after 17 years of Dergi’s brutally repressive rule. As the EPRDF- led transitional Government came to power, it quickly took on the crucial task of bringing to justice the officials of the former government responsible for gross human rights violations. Surprisingly, the EPRDF- led transitional period government has started abusing the human rights of opposing political organization’s members by detaining hundreds of thousands; other thousands forcefully disappeared and their whereabouts are still unknown.
The peaceful protest started by Oromo youth /Qeerroo in 2014 in Oromia demanding freedom, equality and justice, which has steadily continued and the protest has been later supported by the people of other regional states of Amhara and others, has changed the political dimension in the country by forcing to bring a changed within the repressive EPRDF regime at the end of the first quarter of 2018.
The EPRDF government was forced to substitute its senior members for young, energetic and reformist members when the new Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, came to power. Dr. Abiy Ahmed took many encouraging and constructive measures to calm down the political tensions in the country. In the few months after assuming power, the PM released thousands of political prisoners and many outlawed political organizations were allowed to return to their country to continue their political activities peacefully. However, even though many promising changes have occurred, still thousands of prisoners still remain in jail and the whereabouts of thousands more remains unknown since 1992.
The present crucial crises in the country are the people’s unrests throughout the country and the deliberate invasion of Oromia territory from the east, south and southeast by the Somali State paramilitary, “Liyu Police” in which over thousand Oromos have been killed and over a million others have been evicted which has continued for over eight years since 2011.
Abdi Mohamoud Omar, Abdi Illey, the Somali Regional State president and dictator in the region was announced to have been detained by the federal police on August 27, 2018. This is the first action in the past 27 years in which the government has held accountable any member in authority for his/her wrong doings in violating human rights. Under Abdi Illey authority hundred of thousands Somalis have brutally murdered, incarcerated, and thousands forcefully disappeared.
However, the Somali paramilitary “Liyu Police” has still continued to attack the Oromos by crossing the border between the two regional states. This shows that there are more anti- peace elements in the Somali Regional State which the government must continue to hold accountable, including the paramilitary “Liyu Police” commanders, the Ethiopian army and the intelligence service members, who are complicit and involved in these heinous crimes.
The HRLHA encourage the Ethiopian government to continue to hold accountable the government authority members with impunity, who used their power and committed crime against humanity on citizens in the past 27 years.
