

Ethiopia: The Finfinne Intercept Station letter to Under-Secretary of State for Africa James Duddridge MP (21.02.2021)





If you speak about Michael Plout, Alex De Wall, William Davidson, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or Kjetil Tronsvoll. All of them are now in the same camp. The same is the International Media Houses, who all differs in reporting, than the ‘accepted’ and ‘fact checked’ based reporting of the state media in Addis Ababa. Because, everyone is supposed to eat of the hands of the authorities and of the state. Not be critical, ask questions or even check other sources. If you do… then you are an associate or a cadre of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Surely, as I have seen on social media. Some is calling my style of blogging, the fake bloggers. That’s because we straight shoot and has no cause to speak our minds. I am not involved in one party or another. I just bring the views to the table and serve them here. I’m not affiliated with any political party or movement. I speak my peace and I move-on. That is maybe one minute or years ago. I was hostile towards the TPLF for its ill activity, but now in these days questions the Prosperity Party (PP). That’s because no matter who does the wrong. I will call them out. If you are violating human rights. Then I will say so. If you are a War-Lord. I will state it. No matter what label you got on your political party.
The current method of undermining the media. Having media blackout. Ensuring avenues for humanitarian convoys into Tigray. While silencing reporters isn’t doing Ethiopia any good. Yes, it stops reporting, but also ensures the state to drop “propaganda” in its favour. They try to sway public opinion about the warfare in Tigray, but the stories from there will leak out. The acts of the state is kept in the dark, but refugees and witnesses are telling their tales. These is the stories that Federal Government wants to “hush” down.
That Prime Minister Abiy wants to look good isn’t anything new. He wants to be crowned and reflect the aspirations, which he came into office with. Abiy don’t want to be seen as a War-Lord. Though his actions speaks of it. Either its in Tigray, Oromia or elsewhere. There is violence and its persistence with state sponsored ammunition. There is no end of it and it doesn’t get better either. It is those two regions as mentioned, but also in Ogaden and Afar. There are so many unresolved conflicts and he seems to got no real aspiration to stop it. Unless, he gets the credit and can bash in glory. If any of the mentioned writers wrote this. They would be deemed ‘TPLF’ cadres to suggest such a thing.
However, they are doing this to undermine and to de-platform the ones reporting ‘negatively’ about the government. Because, the supporters and the ones cheering Abiy on. Cannot sustain the idea of separating the state and the ones running it. They have to blindly praise the government, even when it does atrocities and violates human rights. These folks have gotten so “hoodwinked” that they have to worship the Prosperity Party and their beliefs, in such a manner, that they are saying anyone who oppose – is TPLF. That is just the way things are.
It doesn’t matter, if it is true or not. They call ‘Westerners’ who oppose the warfare and the brutal conflict ‘TPLF’ on the spot. It doesn’t matter if they are just questioning the usage of force, the reporting and possibly the lies of the Federal Government. However, nobody is supposed to call them out. We are just supposed to eat out of their hands. We are just supposed to be “yes men” and be like a patronage of the Prime Minister. Because, nobody has a better vision or a mission as that man. That is just the way it is.
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister and his enterprise is only showing the deficiencies of his reign. He is opening a can of worms and it hurts him. This is why, instead of being sincere in the address of the report. It is just baselessly claiming these men is affiliated with the now deemed ‘terrorists’ and ‘outlawed’ organization, which a hot minute ago was part of government.
Well, we are not supposed to mentioned the unconstitutional sixth year of the House of Federation. The manner, which the Prime Minister and such postponed the elections to this year. The way he has arrested, killed and silenced the Oromo leadership. The way the state is also going after the leaders and candidates of Ogaden. There is no mercy ahead of the elections. However, we are just supposed to look by, as another forced leadership is ‘selected’ in the Republic. Because, that is the way ‘Ethiopia Prevails’. If that is the way it prevails, I don’t want to know how it will prosper. Since, this is just a pointless enterprise to conquer and destroy the ones who dares to challenge Abiy. By saying that… I know some would call me ‘TPLF’ too. Even though, I have criticised them countless in the past and can easily do again. However, if people want to go after them. Use legal means and use courts. Use measures and get the crimes of the past exposed. Not create new crimes and violations to get them. Then there is no difference between “you” and “them”.
No matter what side of the gun you are, there will be blood and someone will be hurt. The bullet doesn’t see, if you are “good” or “bad”. The bullet just leaves the barrel and hit someone. That is the job of the bullet. The bullets doesn’t solve anything, but only creates new victims and new cases to resolve. New damage and new suffering. The state has only created new wounds and will pay a price in the long-run. The short-con is maybe hurting the TPLF and the Regional Government of Tigray. However, the long-con will be about how they address and is able to revitalize the hurt and patch it. Also, how they can build trust in communities it came in with soldiers, mechanical warfare and killed their loved ones. Because, that is what they did for selfish reasons. Instead of solving it with words, negotiations and with mercy. No, they came with ruthless action and with vengeance.
That is why its dangerous to address anyone opposing a government as “affiliate” with the “enemy”, because if you do that. Then the next time you disagree with the government. You will be one of them too. Nobody will accept or agree with everything a government does, because if you do. Then your blind and doesn’t see what it does. You are brainwashed and cannot question the acts and keep them in check. There will be no accountability and transparency. Since everything they do is fine and dandy. That is just reckless and stupid.
It is healthy to ask and the government is not credible when it’s doing this and supporting it. The Abiy government and its supporters aren’t making any favours. Especially, when they have made media-blackout in Tigray, its issues with media before that and how it has handled critics in general. If it was open and let people criticised it. Things would have been better, but its only backfiring for an outsider looking in. It is really insincere.
Just writing a piece like this. The state and its supporters would label me ‘TPLF’ without tracing my history and my pieces in the past. I been even dismissed for addressing the TPLF, but now people are getting aimed at for reporting ‘negative’ towards PP and Abiy. That is just dumb. Peace.






Jawar Mohammed, Bekele Gerba, Hamza Borana and other Oromo political prisoners are on their 24th day of a hunger strike in Kaliti Federal Prison. They are all in critical condition.
DEMANDS:
1. Release All Oromo Political Prisoners.
2. Allow Oromo political party offices to be opened and to operate fully.
3. End mistreatment of families of political prisoners while they visit their loved ones at Kaliti Prison and elsewhere.









The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) offers this urgent message to Oromo political prisoners detained unjustly in Ethiopia. You have resorted to put your lives on the line through a hunger strike to make your voices (and all Oromo voices including ours) heard inside the country and in the public arena. Your voices were now silenced at a critical time. Yet today you are heard.
You are our fellow OSA members, our former President, 2015 Keynote Speaker and 2016 and 2018 conference presenters together with 22 fellow prisoners who are also victims of erasure. We hear you loud and clear. We are all trying to ensure that the world hears you loud and clear. We wholeheartedly support your just demand that the Ethiopian government release you, putting an end to the lethal delaying tactics of “due process” and the creation of bogus charges. Your actions have waked the world to the stakes of using state power to eliminate the participation of millions in the political process.
OSA members share your strong commitment to the movement to bring democracy to Ethiopia. We share your belief that fundamental human rights are the building blocks of democratic governance systems and that no just society can be built on any other foundation. We are committed to do everything in our power to protect these rights in deed as well as in word.
We wholeheartedly join with you in pursuing each of the demands you have identified.
Here is our appeal to you now, as you are in the third and possibly deadly week of this hunger strike – please know that we struggle with you, that we feel the enormous frustration over the injustice, outrage at the disenfranchisement and fury at being erased by a government brought to power through our sacrifices. We understand that you are willing and committed to die to bring resolution of these staggering obstacles. In the face of this we urge you to acknowledge that the enormous changes we all demand together will require longer than your life span on this trajectory.
We ask you to pause the hunger strike and take sustenance while we all continue to work full speed ahead to achieve the objectives of the strike.
Your good health and well-being are public assets to the Oromo people and also for all other marginalized peoples in Ethiopian whose participation in the political process is obstructed. We need to fight this battle together with urgency. We believe that your experience is irreplaceable as is your dedication to the Oromo struggle. All of you provide a moral uplift for the Oromo struggle. We plead with you to suspend this action while we appeal to the Government of Ethiopia with the assistance of the United States, the EU, the UN, the AU, and private groups to ensure that these demands can be met in full.
Oromo Studies Association (OSA)
February 18, 2021
Background:
Demands of Oromo Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike
February 12, Day 16 of Hunger Strike at Kaliti Federal Prison
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Jawar Mohammed, Bekele Gerba, Hamza Borana and other Oromo political prisoners are on their 16th day of a hunger strike in Kaliti Federal Prison. They are all in critical condition. Five of the strikers are hospitalized, and all of them have developed kidney problems.
The prisoners asserted that they started this hunger strike because of a worsening political condition and the derailed transition to democracy.
The Oromo political prisoners put their demands as follow:
1. Release All Oromo Political Prisoners.
Jails and prisons are full of Oromos, more than any other group in the country. Currently there are more than 50,000 Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia. In Kaliti alone there are more than 5,000 Oromo political prisoners, constituting 90% of the nation’s entire prisoners.
There are also more than 30 Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia who returned from different parts of the world following the 2018 promised transition to democracy. Among the returnees are high ranking officials of the OLF & OFC, including the most influential young political figure from the U.S, Jawar Mohammed.
Therefore, release all prisoners of conscience languishing in Ethiopian jails and prisons, of which the overwhelming majority are Oromo political prisoners.
2. Allow Oromo political party offices to be opened and to operate fully.
More than 103 offices of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) across the country, including the HQ in Finfinne, have been closed by the government. More than 90 Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) offices across Oromia are also now closed by the government.
The ruling party must stop the alienation and systematic disenfranchisement of the Oromo Nation from political participation in the country. Government must allow Oromo media TV station offices that were closed and their licenses suspended to be reinstated and to resume operations. We also demand that they organize an all-inclusive national dialogue before the national election.
The government must open up and widen the political space in order to bring the derailed transition back on track, so that all who have a vision for the betterment of Ethiopia could participate in a free and fair election.
Hence, the hunger strikers demand is to open and allow opposition political parties offices to operate. Stop the alienation, systematic disenfranchisement and to open up the political space equally for all.
3. End Mistreatment of Families of Political Prisoners.
Government security forces must end mistreatment of political prisoners while they visit their loved ones at Kaliti Prison and elsewhere. End any inhumane treatment of prisoners under custody or under investigation.