The escalating carnage in Oromia is not letting up

In Ethiopia, 2020 witnessed more than a decade’s ration of abuses. Until November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military campaign in Tigray, most of the carnage occurred in Oromia, the largest and most populous of Ethiopia’s ten federal states.

The slaughter of Oromos began in October 2018 with the shooting of three students at Jimma University. Since then, many Oromo youths have been taken from police custody and summarily executed. The orchestrated campaign targets three perceived enemies of the state: The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), and Qeerroo/Qarree (young Oromo activists), who are suspected of supporting the two political parties.

There is blatant dehumanization of victims in life and after death. For example, on 30 September, soldiers shot dead two young farmers, Girma Desse and Lema Boki, in Meta Robi, West Shawa, and discarded their bodies in the bush. Their crime? The young men were suspected of supporting OLF. The bodies of many of those killed while in police custody or military camps are thrown in woods, ditches, and roadsides.

Some of the extrajudicial killings have become frivolous games for security forces. For example, in May 2020, soldiers shot Amsalu Gudata, mother-of-four, in the neck in Anfilo, West Wallega, because a soldier boasted he could kill her with one shot. This shocking assault underscores the Ethiopian government’s brazen disregard for human life. Tragically, this is only the tip of the iceberg amid a media blackout imposed to hide government abuses.

In 2020, the Oromia Support Group (OSG) recorded 837 extrajudicial killings, mostly summary executions, of civilians across the region. Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 1,342 civilians since October 2018. The death toll continues to mount as the Abiy administration sets its sights on spurious elections slated for June 2021.

The persecution of Oromo has also broadened to institutions that cater to the community. It has been months since the Oromia Media Network and the Oromia News Network offices were shut down. Journalists and employees of these and other Oromo media remain behind bars. Oromo NGOs and business owners and managers are similarly targeted. Today, any prominent or outspoken Oromo, unless a government supporter, could be killed or detained without warning.

The escalating carnage is happening in a judicial void. Since 2018, OSG has documented coercion, discrimination, dismissal, and detention of judges. Ethiopia’s judicial system has never been entirely independent, but now there is nowhere to turn for justice. Authorities are weaponizing the court system to eliminate critics and opponents. Police continue to refuse court orders to release detainees on bail. Judges have some protection from arrest and detention. However, at least 20 judges have been arrested and detained in the last two years. Authorities have accused judges of “supporting enemies of the government” over alleged leniency to political prisoners or informing detainees of their legal rights.

The scale of killings by forces loyal to Abiy is eclipsing the wanton abuses of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist from 1991 to 2018. OSG produced 49 reports on atrocities committed by forces loyal to Meles Zenawi from 1992 until he died in 2012. During this time, OSG recorded 4498 extrajudicial killings.

By contrast, in two years and three months, Abiy’s forces killed 1701 civilians, which is more than one-third of the civilian deaths in barely one-tenth of the time.

It is not only the scale of abuse but the pattern and style of violations that have degenerated. Rape and gang-rape were common under the TPLF. There were reports of child rape, especially from the Ogaden, under the former regime, but now the gang-rape of both boys and girls in military camps in Oromia is commonly reported. The brutality of torture and killing – beheading, gouging of eyes, removal of tongues and genitalia – also distinguishes this regime from the TPLF.

The war in Oromia and Tigray is vicious because of the ideological underpinnings. It is a crusade against Oromo and other proponents of regional autonomy vouchsafed in the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution.

Ostensibly, the TPLF rejected feudalism in establishing the 1991 federal structure. This suited nearly all parties at the London Conference. Whether or not the TPLF included Article 39 in the 1995 Constitution as an attraction for others or as a get-out clause for Tigray, it failed. The TPLF behaved like imperialists during its hegemony from 1992-2016. Like previous Ethiopian rulers, it practiced a zero-sum, winner-takes-all game with the domination of resources and economy and violent dissent suppression.

The TPLF was vindictive to Amhara elites. Hostility to Amhara manifested after the 2005 election when seats were won but denied to opposition parties. Over 200 opposition supporters were killed and scores of thousands detained at demonstrations.

Although a federal matter, former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi insisted that 18,000 remaining detainees were tried in Oromia Region Supreme Court. The court’s President, Teshale Abera, was told Federal Court judges were suspected of being Kinijit supporters and that “it would be a good opportunity to exact revenge on Amharas.” Oromia Region President Abadula Gamada rebuked Teshale Abera for refusing to play their vindictive game, releasing 17,500 and handing others over to the Federal Court.

This detail from 2005 illustrates both the problem and the way forward. For Ethiopia to move forward, its politicians must ditch the zero-sum mentality and the winner-takes-all game. These are the ways of feudal kings of two centuries ago. It is no way to heal a country beset by historical and political divisions.

The war waged by Abiy Ahmed on Oromo is disguised for international media. Using techniques honed under the TPLF, atrocities are engineered by the government and then blamed on the OLF, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), or Qeerroo to vilify them and spread fear and hatred among non-Oromo.

That is why the killing of mostly Oromo in central Oromia last summer was described in Ethiopian media as an atrocity, even a genocidal act, perpetrated by Qeerroo against Amhara in response to the assassination of Oromo singer Haacaaluu Hundeessaa on 29 June, which was blamed on the OLF and TPLF. Despite evidence that the violence was committed by provocateurs unknown to the local people and with local law enforcement officers’ acquiescence, the Ethiopian media quickly blamed the Qeerroo.

Thus, there has been no widespread condemnation of Abiy Ahmed for his abuses. The Oromo are portrayed not as victims of persecution but as perpetrators of racist violence against Amhara.

The ferocity of the attack on Tigray is consistent with the crushing of regional voices elsewhere; not only in Oromia but in Amhara Region (100 Qimant killed in 2019), Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (150 Sidama killed in 2019; 58 Wolaita killed in 2020) and in the border area of Amhara Region and Benishangul-Gumuz, where there are ethnic cleansing and killing by soldiers and Amhara militia.

Old imperialist elites call for the complete elimination of the OLF after      ‘finishing with’ Tigray and for Oromo youth to be ‘knocked on the head.’ Abiy Ahmed says that nothing and no-one will prevent his God-appointed leadership of a united Ethiopia, a future superpower.

The punishment for exerting its autonomy by holding an election was fuelled by ancient feudal antagonism between Tigrean and Amhara dynasties. We are witnessing no more than a continuation of the medieval clashes between rival kings of Shawa and Tigray: except now they are fighting over the resources of the Ethiopian empire, not just old Abyssinia. The Oromo and other peoples incorporated by force into Menelik II’s empire are irrelevant to this power struggle.

A profoundly racist ideology underpins the subjugation of the majority of the peoples of Ethiopia. It is as though the voices of Oromo, Sidama, Walaita, Ogadeni, Anuak, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar, and numerous other peoples simply do not exist or matter.

Ruling elites fear that if Oromo had power and access to resources and media proportional to their numerical dominance, all other peoples would be suppressed, in tune with their own zero-sum culture.

But there is a better way: the Oromo way – Kara Oromoo. In the Oromo culture, any captive who was taken in a war automatically became a full citizen with equal rights at the next (eight-yearly) Gadaa ceremony. Decision-making at Gadaa ceremonies is by consensus after the debate, without coercion or violence. There are checks and balances in the power structure. Any representative of their eight-year age set can be withdrawn instantly by popular vote.

Zero-sum and winner-takes-all are not the Oromo way. Whether their aspirations are embodied by the OPDO, OFC, OLF, or whatever legal or illegal party, Oromos want no more than equality, a fair share.

But they are frustrated by those who refuse to respect the rights of others, those wishing to reduce regional autonomy, to maintain hegemonic power by force.

There is a spectrum of views among the Oromo on independence. For example, in its manifesto, the OLF states that the citizens of Oromia – whatever their ethnicity – should decide by referendum the system under which they are governed. There has been less appetite for secession since regional autonomy realized a place called Oromia and allowed administration and primary education in Afaan Oromo in 1991.

Until now, that is: young Oromo are again talking of secession of Oromia from Ethiopia.

It is time for another transitional government, as in 1991. Otherwise, the country is heading for mass slaughter and conflict, even greater than in Tigray. The Amhara Region could become the rump of Ethiopia after the smoke and dead bodies are cleared. Other regions will have separated.

The Amhara have been bombarded throughout their lives with negative propaganda about Oromo. The Amhara media lens amplifies fear and distrust of Oromo parties and institutions.

Nonetheless, the Oromo owe it to the future to temper their justified anger and continue to eschew the violence that has cursed Ethiopia’s history. Now is not the time to dig trenches and build barriers due to persecution under successive regimes. Now is time for the Oromo way: a vote and a voice for everyone.

If Oromo and Amhara politicians and organizations cooperate and work together with genuine respect for human rights, it may allay Amhara fears, and trust may develop. A transitional government apparatus could facilitate this.

This article was written before OFC and OLF leaders began a hunger strike protesting their continued detention and the derailment of democracy in Ethiopia. At the time of publication, the life of several of the hunger strikers hangs in the balance.