July 4, 2020
The HRLHA is asking the international community for international intervention out of profound concern about the quickly deteriorating human rights situation in the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia- which has been worsening since the prominent Oromo singer-songwriter Hachalu Hundessa was assassinated on June 29, 2020. If the situation does not get international attention immediately, there could be warfare in the country.
The government human rights record in Ethiopia in general and in Oromia Regional State in particular shows that in the past two years since the reformist government came into power on April 2, 2018, a handful Oromos have been killed and thousands have been arbitrarily detained and others have been forcefully disappeared. The HRLHA has regularly expressed its grave concerns regarding these harassments, arbitrary arrests, judicial-killings, and disappearances of the members of opposition political party members and unarmed civilians by the current Government of Ethiopia.
Though the current human rights crisis in Oromia is in many ways a continuation of the past, the assassination of artist Hachalu Hundessa, the King of Oromo song, in the capital city of Addis Ababa on June 29, 2020, at 2:30 pm EST (9:30 pm Ethiopia Time) has aggravated the unprecedented political turmoil in the country. As soon as people learned about the assassination, the sympathizers of the artist occupied the street where the dead body was taken to hospital. The fatal shooting of the celebrated Oromo resistance singer-songwriter has turned a fragile political situation in the country from bad to worse.
Artist Hachalu Hundessa’s death sparked protests across Oromia Regional State on the following day on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, when at least over 60 people were shot and killed by the military in Adama, Bishoftu, Bale Robe, Ambo and Arsi Asela and in many other towns.
On the same day, several protesters were critically injured and taken to hospitals for medical treatment and hundreds were arrested. Among the arrestees were political figures of the opposition political organization, Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC); Mr. Bekele Gerba and Jawar Mohamed were arrested on June 30, 2020, along with 34 others.
The arbitrary detentions also continued on the next few days- President of Balderas for Genuine Democracy Eskinder Nega was also reportedly arrested on Wednesday on July 1, 2020, in Addis Ababa
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has also confirmed that Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) officials 1. Mr. Michel Borana 2. Dr. Shugut Geleta (Advisor), 3. Mr. Kennasa Ayana and two others were arrested by government security agents at their homes today, Friday 3 July, 2020.
The Internet communication shutdown has made it more difficult to obtain more information on the crackdowns from the peripheral parts of the Oromia zones.
Despite the shutdown of the internet, credible reports of violence are coming to HRLHA’s office from different towns in Oromia with the help of landline telephone cables. The HRLHA reporters in different zones of Oromia Regional State indicate that there were properties distractions including government buildings in Shashamanne, Adama, Robe Bale towns and the death toll caused by indiscriminate shootings of the Federal and Oromia special force has risen to over 120, with over 250 injuries as we compile this document.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa is deeply concerned that the present politically motivated crackdowns against protestors demanding democracy, justice and freedom across Oromia could escalate to crimes against humanity in Oromia. If these crimes continue they could spread to other regions and instigate uncontrollable political crises in the country which could also lead to a warfare in the country.
Therefore, the HRLHA appeals to the UN Security Council, UN Human Rights council and to the world community at large to intervene to solve the political crisis in Ethiopia before it is too late to act.
The African Union and the UN Human Rights Council have expressed their concerns about the current situation in Ethiopia but have not taken any concrete actions. Such inaction doesn’t reflect the AU’s and the UN’s obligation under their own Constitutive Act, which provides for intervention inside a member state against genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
This is a cosmopolitan ideal- protecting people inside states against mass atrocities as a matter of common obligation. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P), coined in 2001 under the leadership of the Canadian government and adopted by 150 heads of states and governments in 2005, obliged the international community to intervene to stop atrocities and looming warfare.
As a matter of principle, a state shoulders the primary responsibility to prevent and protect its own citizens against horrific acts, but if it is unable or unwilling to prevent and protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, the responsibility shifts to the international community. It states, ” when a state is unable or unwilling to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, the international community has the responsibility to intervene”.
The UN Charter’s first and most essential aim is to “maintain international peace and security”. However, when the UN was first created, it was an enormous undertaking based on hope.
The most immediate motivation for the creation of the UN was to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, just the kind of war in which Allied powers were then embroiled, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights which were being so fragrantly and brutally violated by the Axis powers.
Today, one critical question on everyone’s lips is whether the United Nations is living up to its mandate, more particularly, of maintaining international peace and security. Amid ongoing human rights crises in Ethiopia it is hard to figure out what exactly the UN & AU have done to uphold their responsibilities. Nevertheless, it is not too late to act today.
For the Ethiopian human rights crisis, two ways can be helpful in restoring peace and stability. In this, the international communities and agencies (AU, EU & UN) can play a decisive role:
• Major donor governments, including USA, UK & Canada could put pressure on the Ethiopian Prosperity Party (EPP) government to allow neutral investigators to probe into the human rights crisis in the country as the precursor to international community intervention
- If the government of Ethiopia is reluctant to accept, the UN Security Council must use its mandate to response to the profound failure of individual States to live up to their responsibilities and obligations under international law, as well as the collective inadequacies of international institutions.
Therefore, the HRLHA again calls upon the international community to act collectively in a timely and decisive manner – through the UN Security Council and in accordance with the UN charter on a case-by-case basis to stop the human tragedy in Ethiopia.
Copied To:
1. UN Security Council:
Stéphane Dujarric
Office of the Spokesperson
for the UN Secretary-General
United Nations, S-233
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-1234
dujarric>at<un.org
2. UN Human Rights Council
OHCHR address:
Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais
Wilson
52
rue des Pâquis
CH-1201
Geneva, Switzerland.
Contacts;
+ 41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org
+ 41 22 917 9296 / ethrossell@ohchr.org
+ 41 22 917 9466 / mhurtado@ohchr.org
3. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
31 Bijilo Annex Layout, Kombo North District
Western Region P.O. Box 673 Banjul
The Gambia
Tel: (220) 441 05 05, 441 05 06
Fax: (220) 441 05 04
E-mail: Au-Banjul@Africa-Union.Org
| Bekele Gerba |
