The Second Human Rights Conference Successfully Completed.

 The Oromo-American Citizens’ Council (OACC) organized an international human rights conference this year on July 26, 2007, in Minneapolis, at the University of Minnesota.  It is for the second time that OACC is organizing such a conference since its creation in 2002.  This year’s conference was conducted under the heading of Conflict in East Africa and the Current Human Rights Situations. This Conference is intended to inform and provide a forum for discussion on the very serious human rights and political challenges in Ethiopia and surrounding countries in the Horn of Africa.

 Six panelists from varied background presented their paper on different aspects of the conflict in the Horn, and Honorable Keith Ellison, United States House of Representatives addressed the symposium by video conference. Senator Norm Coleman and Representative Betty McCollum’s messages were also read by their representatives.  

 This year’s conference is unique in a sense that it included both individuals who have first hand knowledge of the internal working of the EPRDF government and also people who have studied the US foreign policy vis-à-vis human rights considerations. Mr. Samuel who was the chairman of the Ethiopia Government Inquiry Commission, that was set up to investigate human rights violations committed in the aftermath of the May 2005 election, explained how the commission conducted its investigation and what its findings were. He emphasized that the final conclusion of the investigation in a clear and an unambiguous manner exposed the actions of the government. He stated that the government’s claim that it took action in order to stop robbery was not substantiated by evidence. No proof that the civilians used firearms during the demonstration was found. He further noted that the government’s justification for killing of prisoners in Qaliti prison on the ground that they were attempting to break and escape were unfounded.

 Obang Metho, Anuak Justice Council Director of International Advocacy, spoke about human rights violations in Ethiopia with a special focus on the Anuak as well as to assess the risk of genocide and further human rights violations against other ethnic groups in the Horn of Africa. He explained about his personal experience and how he became a human rights advocate.  He went into detail and described how he became involved in exposing the Anuak killing by the Ethiopian government in 2003. During his presentation he emphasized on how important it is to find a balance between making too much emphases on the past grievances and totally forgetting our past. He said, unless we forgive or let go of the past oppressions, we will not be open for finding solutions for present problems. He also stated that if we forget our past and do not want to learn from it we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.  Finally he concluded his remarks by talking about how coming together is important to remove the current government in Ethiopia that is subjecting the population to serious human rights violations.

 The most scatching criticism of the EPRDF’s policy of the night came from Professor Samatar.  After describing the Horn of Africa today as the most difficult place to liven in, he went ahead and compared the regime’s ethnic policy with Apartheid system.  He described the Meles Zenwi’s policy from its inception of how it “invited” only some to the so-called national conference and how it conducted elections as farce.  Although he admitted that there had been some improvement over the past regimes in some aspects, he said that the existence of only one national party (that of the ruling party) and relegating all the others as ethnic and local parties, and balkanization of them to their ethnic enclave is comparable to what the Apartheid regime was doing in South Africa. He furthermore stated that except for the ruling group that control the center, for all the others there is a qualified citizenship in today’s Ethiopia.  He said those who control the center are the lords while the others have become subjects just like during British colonialism of the past. He feared what the regime’s ethnic policy is doing to the people in that part of the world by taking away from them a common destiny.  He concluded his remarks by saying that you can find solution only in getting rid of this government and that tribalization will on bring solution.

Barbara A Frey, Law School and office Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota, welcomed the congregation on behalf of the University of Minnesota. She then went ahead and addressed the conference on the possibilities of international advocacy to prevent human rights violations.  She observed that Ethiopia had been party to all the major human rights treaties in name but was not abiding by them. Based on this she commented how this creates an opportunity to make Ethiopia answerable to some of the violations she commits using the standards of these treaties. She in particular mentioned how the McKinney-Rohrabacher Amendment that states the US government should not give military assistance to governments who commit serious human rights violation could be used against Ethiopia. She further spoke about the positive and negative elements facing those advocating for international action against human rights violations committed by the Ethiopian government. She stated how the growing diaspora population has started to become an important player in the international advocacy efforts.  She noted that the complexity of the ethnic make up in the Horn is extremely difficult for an American to understand, thus hampering the separate ethnic groups’ advocacy efforts.  She said, in order to get more sympathy, the ethnic groups have to come together and work together. She further stated how the existence of armed groups gives justification for the Ethiopian government to crackdown on the opposition groups. Regarding the US foreign policy on Ethiopia she stated that the US government has little incentive to pressure Ethiopia due to Ethiopia’s antiterrorism rhetoric, and emphasized that a great deal of education is very important in this regard.

 The former president of Ethiopia, Dr. Negasso Gidada spoke about Prospect of Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia.  Probably this year’s singly most dramatic moment of the conference was the presentation of Dr. Gidada, as he reached the climax of his speech by apologizing to the Oromo population with the following statement: “I do not exactly know how many people were killed, abused, tortured etc due to the brutality of the OPDO, of which I was part for ten years. But I would like to say sorry to all of you.  I take personal and collective responsibility. I am ready to be accountable for the crime I committed individually and collectively. I do not want to give excuse. I do not want to say I did this for the sake for the people or country.”  He described that there were 25 thousand Oromo political prisoners when he was in power and that currently, in the biggest prison in the Ethiopia, that Oromo is the lingua franca of the prison. His description of how the police treated Oromo students in Dembi Dolo by going to their school compound and beating them harshly was a moving testimony of what is currently happening in Oromia. Dr. Gidada also spoke how the EPRDF boasts about the 10.7 % economic growth while hiding the existence of a near galloping inflation at the rate of 16 %.  He described how poverty is growing, and how more than 40% of the population lives under the poverty guidelines. At the end using statistical data he compared resource allocation between different regions accusing the government of discrimination by giving the larger share to Tigrai compared to others.

Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni, former Legal Affairs Advisor to the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations, was the last speaker of the night. He spoke under the title of Human Rights Violation in Ethiopia. He went ahead and explained how the human rights violation the EPRDF regime is perpetrating is not an ordinary type of human rights violation, but an orchestrated crime against humanity and should be understood as such. To prove this he went back to the history of the formation of TPLF, and how it created its ethnic PDOs out of the captured military personnel, and explained how from the beginning its policy revolved around creating the supremacy of Tigrai. To achieve that, he said, the EPRDF set on creating different policies and using different mechanisms with the purpose of divide and rule. He said that today we have an Ethnic Apartheid regime in Ethiopia. He identified four pillars of what he called Ethnic Apartheid Regime of Ethiopia, which are: (1) ethnic regions (2) ethnic apartheid policy (3) apartheid education policy and (4) apartheid bureaucratic system. For him the ethnic regions are created with the specific purpose of divide and rule, the economic parted policy is used by TPLF to dominate the Ethiopian economy and channel foreign aid to Tigrai, and the apartheid education policy is utilized to create Tigrai dominance in the field of medicine, engineering etc. Finally, the apartheid bureaucratic system is used for the TPLF cadres to dominate almost every government offices which will enable them to control the lives of the people.

(1) Obang Metho, Anuak Justice Council Director of International Advocacy (2) Abdi Samatar, Professor of Geography and Global Studies, University of Minnesota (3) Firehiwot Samuel, Chairman of the Ethiopian Government Inquiry Commission (4) Barbara A. Frey, Law School and office Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota (5) Negasso Gidada, Former Ethiopian President and Member of Ethiopian Parliament and (6) Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni, Former Legal Affairs Advisor Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations.

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