Statement of the National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (aka Qeerroo Bilisummaa)
August 29, 2014
Currently, the atrocities committed by this regime on innocent Oromo civilians have been escalated to unimaginable scale. Hundreds of Oromo students, teachers, farmers, daily labourers, and civil servants are languishing in prisons located at several places in Oromia.
The overwhelming majority of those who are sent to detention centres are subjected to severe and inhuman torture. Some have died in prison cells or thrown out of jail and left to die in hospital simply because they couldn’t stand the torture. Oromo nationalists Wako Tola (teacher), Usmayyo Musa (singer), Alamayehu Gerba (handicapped university student), Nimona Tilahun (former University student), Tesfahun Chemeda (engineer), Aslan Hassan (university student), and many others are all killed by the regimes police as a direct result of torture while in prison cells. Those who survive the brutal torture will be subjected to trumped-up charges and will be brought to judges of the kangaroo court of the regime. Before bringing to the court false witnesses are prepared and “evidence” is planted at their homes by the regimes police and convicted based on these fake testimony and made-up and planted “evidence”. Others are kept in prison indefinitely without any charge at all. In few cases judges render a “not-guilty” verdict after the prisoners have already spent several years in jail and let them go “free”.
In some of such cases the police arrests them back before they even leave the court house and prepare other made-up charges. This has been a well-known and established norm of the judiciary system of the current regime in Ethiopia. Oromo students are subjected to such police brutality and unjust judicial process and branded as “terrorists” for no crime other than raising the rightful and legitimate questions of the Oromo people in a peaceful and non-violent manner. It is not an exaggeration if we say this regime in Finfinne (Addis Ababa) is a mafia regime, brutal than the former apartheid regime of South Africa.
It is to be recalled that on July 7, 2014 Qeerroo Bilisummaa has compiled a partial list of 61 Oromos that were brutally murdered and 903 others who were thrown into jail and tortured as a result of the Oromo student protest of April and May 2014 mainly in opposition to the controversial Finfinne (Addis Ababa) so called “Master Plan”. Most of these Oromo nationals are still languishing in prison and still under brutal torture. Currently, the reports we received indicate that among those arrested in April/May, 2014 some 25 Oromo nationals are intensely brutalized in the notorious “Maikelawi” prison and Dire Dawa prison. Our reports reveal that these prisoners could not stand the torture and are extremely weakened to a point that they are unable to stand or walk. Just like many others before them, these nationals are also at a risk losing their lives in the prison cells of the regime. Qeerroo Bilisummaa vehemently condemns these callous atrocities of the regime and asks the regime to stop such unlawful, cruel and barbaric practices perpetrated on lawful and innocent Oromo civilian citizens. The TPLF regime should have realized from its own experience with the Derg regime that arresting and brutalizing active members of a nation under occupation will not stop the oppressed nation from struggling for their inalienable right. Past and current history tells us that it will rather intensify the struggle and ultimately freedom, democracy, and justice will prevail over tyrannical rule.
The names of the 25 Oromo nationals currently going under severe and intense torture and at risk of losing their lives are as follows.
Oromo Nationals Under brutal tortured in “Maikelawi” Prison, Finfinne
- Chaltu Dhuguma – Wollega University (female teacher)
- Teshale Bekele – Jimma University
- Nimona Chali – Haramaya University
- Bilisumma Gonfa – Haramaya University
- Abebe Urgessa – Haramaya University
- Gemechu Bekele – Jimma University
- Lenjisa Alemayehu – Jimma University
- Bilisumma Dandana – Adama University
- Adunya Tesso – Adama University
Oromo Nationals Under brutal tortured in Dire Dawa Prison (all students from Dire Dawa University)
- Derartu Abdeta Ararso (female)
- Lencho Tewodros Deksisa
- Efa Getachew Ibsa
- Bacha Bezu Balda
- Tagel Gulumma Olqaba
- Musa Umar Tusa
- Tadele Bekele Tolasa
- Abulsalam Hussein Ganna
- Moti Bandu Ayyano
- Gada Banti Gannabi
- Dereje Tesfaye Mekonnen
- Amanuel Etefa Terfasa
- Dessaleyn Korifu Lateny
- Milkessa Qato Galasa
- Gadisa Asfaw Retta
- Olyad Bulbula Indalew
Qeerroo Bilisummaa appeal to all national and international governmental and humanitarian organizations to exert pressure on the Ethiopian regime to stop torturing and brutalizing these Oromo national.
Victory to the Oromo People!
Qeerroo Bilisummaa
August 29, 2014
Finfinne, Oromia
No comments:
Post a Comment