Amnesty International
Dr. Merara Gudina
1 December 2016, 14:02 UTC
Reacting to news of the arrest of Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Michelle Kagari said:
“The arrest of Merera Gudina is an outrageous assault on the right to freedom of expression and should sound alarm bells for anyone with an interest in ending the deadly protests that have rocked Ethiopia over the past year.”
“This is a move that will exacerbate, rather than ease, the underlying tensions currently simmering in the country. Instead of resorting to further repression and clamp-downs, the Ethiopian government must urgently and meaningfully address the human rights grievances that are fuelling unrest.”
Ethiopia arrests top Oromo opposition politician after Europe Parliament speech
Demonstrators flash the Oromo protest gesture during a festival on Oct. 2 where dozens died in a stampede. Top Oromo politician Merera Gudina was arrested on Nov. 30. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)
By Paul Schemm
December 1 at 7:52 AM
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A top opposition politician from Ethiopia’s Oromo ethnic group who criticized the country’s state of emergency at the European Parliament has been arrested, the government announced Thursday.A colleague said police arrested Merera Gudina and three others from his home in Addis Ababa late Wednesday shortly after his return from Europe. The trip included a Nov. 9 speech to the European Parliament in which Gudina said tens of thousands have been arrested under the state of emergency in Ethiopia.The Oromo, the largest ethnic group in the country, have been protesting for the past year over their historical marginalization as well as corrupt local government and the confiscation of farmland for factories. At least 700 people are estimated to have died in the ongoing crackdown.“We don’t know his whereabouts,” Beyene Petros, head of the Medrek coalition of opposition parties, which includes Gudina’s Oromo Federalist Congress, told The Washington Post. “In terms of political leadership, he has been around and operating aboveboard, peacefully.”A statement by the Command Post, formed to manage the state of emergency, said Gudina was arrested for “communication with banned terrorist organizations” and alleged that he held discussions with Berhanu Nega, the leader of the outlawed Patriotic Ginbot 7 armed group, in Brussels.
Gudina appeared at the European Parliament with Nega and Rio Olympics marathon silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa, who drew the world’s attention to the demands of the Oromo people when he crossed his arms in protest as he ran across the finish line in July.
Ana Gomes, a member of the European Parliament who helped organize the meeting, sent a letter on Thursday to Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy representative, expressing her outrage.
“It is unacceptable that Dr. Merera Gudina was detained upon arrival in Ethiopia and his arrest demonstrates the government’s absolute disregard for human rights,” she wrote. “A more stringent approach is necessary from the EU towards the Ethiopian government.”
On Oct. 2, a protest during an Oromo cultural festival turned into a deadly stampede when police fired tear gas into the crowd. More than 50 were killed, according to the government. The opposition says the toll was 10 times as high.
The incident prompted riots around the Oromo region and attacks on foreign- and government-owned factories, farms and hotels, causing millions of dollars in damage.
A state of emergency was declared a week later. Since then, the government has said, 11,000 people have been detained.
Ethiopia is seen as a bastion of stability in an unstable Horn of Africa and a key U.S. partner in the fight against terrorism. It receives about $3 billion a year in international aid.
It has been held up as an economic model for Africa after a decade of high growth, though that has faltered this year because of a severe drought and the unrest.
In a briefing of foreign diplomats on Nov. 17, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that the country has largely returned to calm since the emergency was declared and that the economy had been unaffected.
He also said that the government understood the roots of the unrest and promised a more representative parliament — the last election, in 2015, returned a legislative body with no opposition presence.
But Gudina was arrested on the same day that Defense Minister Siraj Fegessa, the head of the Command Post, held a meeting with opposition parties promising that the emergency law did not pose a threat to them. “It rather guaranteed the existence of opposition parties,” he said, according to the state-controlled Fanabc news site.
Local and international rights organizations have condemned the arrests accompanying the state of emergency, including of journalists and politicians.
“The Ethiopian government says it is open for dialogue with protesters, yet their actions demonstrate the complete opposite,” said Felix Horne, senior researcher for Ethiopia at Human Rights Watch. “Merera’s arrest is illustrative of the ongoing crackdown against those that express opinions independent of the government, and his arrest will likely increase anger and frustration within the Oromo community.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists describes Ethiopia as the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa after Eritrea and Egypt.
In the past month, two members of the Zone 9 blogging collective were rearrested along with a newspaper editor. The Zone 9 bloggers had originally been held for a year and a half and were released in July 2015, coinciding with the visit of President Obama.
Gudina spoke frequently with international media about the plight of the Oromo. Though hundreds of his party colleagues and most of his key deputies had been arrested, he expressed doubt that the government would go so far as to detain him, as well.
“I think for them, most of the leaders of the regime, they know me, and it is not in their interests to detain me. It could provoke wider Oromo action,” he told The Post a year ago. “The strategy of the regime, they say, is to suspend the leadership in the air — they take the middle level and the grass roots.”
International Business Times UK
Gudina accused of ‘violating state of emergency’ by attending European Parliament hearing in Brussels.
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December 1, 2016 10:18 GMT
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Ethiopia declares state of emergency after civil unrest Reuters
Ethiopia has arrested leading opposition leader Merera Gudina after he returned from a trip to Europe. Gurdina was arrested upon his arrival at the airport in the capital Addis Ababa, according to the English private magazine Addis Standard.
Gudina had travelled to Brussels where he alleged, during a hearing at the European Parliament, that Ethiopian security forces had committed human rights violations during recent unrest in the country.
It is believed Gudina called for the parliament in Addis Ababa to be dissolved and for the establishment of a transitional government, the opposition website Ethiopian Satellite Television ESAT reported.
Esat added Gudina was arrested by the command post, founded to oversee the implementation of a state of emergency Ethiopia declared in October following months of anti-government protests in Oromia and Amhara regions.
Media outlets affiliated with the government had been campaigning for his arrest, claiming Gudina had violated the state of emergency by attending the hearing at the European parliament, Esat continued
Professor Berhanu Nega, the leader of Patriotic Ginbot 7 – which Ethiopia labelled as a terrorist organisation – and Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa were also present at the hearing.
Lilesa failed to return to Ethiopia after he staged a protest against alleged human rights abuses committed by his government earlier this year. The runner crossed his arms over his head after he crossed the finish line of the men’s marathon in Rio de Janeiro on 21 August.
Anti-government protests
The response to the protests, labelled as the biggest anti-government unrest Ethiopia has witnessed in recent history, has resulted in the death of more than 500 people since November 2015, a figure the government later confirmed.
Among other things, protesters called for the release of political prisoners, and demonstrated against perceived disenfranchisement and lack of inclusion in the political process as the government is dominated by the Tigray minority.
More on state of emergency
- Five things Ethiopia has banned
- Mass arrests in Oromia after state of emergency declared
- EU calls for dialogue with Ethiopia as state of emergency declared
Full document on state of emergency here
Ethiopia has arrested a top opposition leader after he testified before the European parliament
Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture in October. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)
Written by Lily Kuo
December 01, 2016
Ethiopian authorities have arrested outspoken opposition leader, Merera Gudina, after he testified before the European Parliament about human rights violations in his country where anti-government protests have prompted a harsh crackdown. Merera, head of the opposition party, the Oromo Federalist Congress, was arrested along with three of his relatives yesterday in Addis Ababa after his return from Brussels.
“Police arrested him in his house the same day in the evening. We haven’t been given reasons behind his arrest,” Gebru Gebremariam, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, told Reuters.
For the past year, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, have been protesting against the marginalization of their cultural freedoms and land rights. Merera has been an active advocate of the Oromo cause, often speaking to international media about the ongoing political crisis. Merera may have once been insulated from punishment meted out to other members of his party because of his high-profile position. Now, it seems that he and other top public figures who dare to speak out no longer have that protection.
Authorities haven’t said why Merera was arrested, but local media affiliated with the government had previously said the opposition politician had violating the rules of the country’s state of emergency, declared in October, by attending an EU briefing. The six-month state of emergency bans Ethiopians from discussing the ongoing anti-government protests or any activities that can be interpreted as inciting violence. At the meeting, Merera reportedly called for Ethiopia’s parliament to be dissolved, and for a transitional government to be instated.
Photos show Merara at the EU briefing sitting next to Feyisa Lilesa, the Olympic marathoner who brought attention to ongoing anti-government protests in Ethiopia by raising his arms above his head, a gesture that has come to symbolize the movement. The runner is in the United States but says he is not seeking asylum there. Berhanu Nega, head of Patriotic Ginbot 7, a banned rebel group, was also at the meeting in Brussel
