Ethiopia is in crisis. The domestic social-economic & religious inter-relationship in this nation is in turmoil. Most of the conflict is based along ethnic lines which has ever being developing after the current government took power. The now government has been in power for the last 24 years, & it is founded on single ethnic minority set. The government has ensured the control of all major sectors with its ethnic group. The religious, military & economic composition has constantly & still continues to rotate around Tigray ethnic set.
The Oromo teachers and students have been imprisoned, with many others suspended and expelled from their studies in Ethiopia. Extra-Judicial execution of many Oromo students has been witnessed. The Ethiopia council in-charge of Human Rights has recorded more than 300 names of Oromo students who were detained from a University of Addis Ababa in the year 2004 February and who were severely tortured while in detention. On April 26th 2004, CNN had reported that over four hundred Oromo students had fled the country to Kenya for fear and avoidance of ethnic persecution. There has been continued massive detention of the Oromo teachers, intellectuals and students in Oromia and Other Oromo regions of Ethiopia. The main aim of this is to intentionally cripple the educations gains of the people of Oromo, hence depriving the people of Oromo skilled human capital in future.
Racist attitudes to Oromo people are deeply entrenched. For instance in the year 2006 at Mekelle’s University a history instructor named Kassaye initiated a curriculum to teach racist discourse about the people of Oromo. Despite the fact that it’s a public university fully funded by the public, this professor was permitted to carry on with spread of malicious, dehumanizing & racist stories about the people of Oromo. Those students who protested against this dehumanizing and degrading language employed in teaching were automatically denied graduation certificate.
Despite Regime’s claim of double digit economic growth, illiteracy and poverty levels remains very high. The regime has been using illiteracy and poverty as tools, to polarize the people along clans, Ethno-national groups & religious groups. For instance till recently in Oromia there existed no religious conflicts, nevertheless, of late the government has established such conflicts.
In the Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is the Nation that is benefiting from the biggest financial aid from Western Nations as well as enjoying military and diplomatic support. The security forces that undertake these mass arrest and rampage shootings receive training from the Western Nations United States included. Their salaries also come from these financial aids given to the government. This has made the Western nations United States included who offer training & provides salaries to security forces & police a complaisant to rampage imprisonments and shootings.
The writer can be reached at arifali209@gmail.com
