Haramaya University students clashed with police as a series of protests takes place across Ethiopia’s Oromia region.
The first of the protests was reported in Ginchi town (Western Shewa zone) on November 19 and 20, which appears to have been mainly triggered by local officials transferring part of the school land for another use.
Major regional and national demands gained prominence last week as the protests spread to several small towns including Mendi, Ambo, Jarso, Guliso, Kiltu, Kara, Nejo, Jeldu – located in central and western Ethiopia.
On Monday, protests were reported in Haramaya University, in the east.
The controversial draft plan for integrated development of the capital Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia towns featured in the protests.
The draft plan, popularly referred to as “the master plan,” was the reason for the deadly 2014 protests. Critics believe it will be a facilitator of massive displacement of Oromo farmers.
The demand to make Afaan Oromo a federal language, maladministration, taxation, and others were raised by protestors, which comprised elementary, high school students, and local residents at varying proportions.
Haramaya University students who staged protests on Monday also demanded the release of people detained from other towns last week.
An instructor of the university told HornAffairs, a group of students started protesting on Monday at dawn, while others rushed to leave the compound. University officials met with the students, promised to the deliver their demands to the government, and asked the students to disperse.
The students wished to continue their demonstration, but local police blocked the road to the gate, the instructor narrated demanding his name be withheld. At 8:30 am, federal police entered the campus and dispersed the students chasing them all the way to dormitories. Students resting in their dorm rooms were beaten, while one student running away for the police jumped from the third floor of the building. Three students are said to be in critical condition receiving treatment in nearby hospital.
The instructor claimed to have seen several injured students in the campus clinic and later transported to hospital by ambulance. He also witnessed an office building which had most of its glass window smashed apparently by rocks thrown by students.
An official from OPDO/EPRDF, the ruling party’s regional wing, vehemently opposed this narrative in a phone remark to HornAffairs. According to the official, who did not wish to be named, the students were not as calm as portrayed and provoked the clash as the police urged them to disperse.
He added, “we are not supposed to wait until the situation escalates rather control it at the earliest possible moment. There is only one direction the situation could have gone – we know from past experience, and we have obligations to other students as well.”
The official claimed, the federal police was invited by and acted in coordination with them. Only one student had his hand broken as he jumped from building and about fifteen students were detained, while several police officers were injured. He argued, the situation was handled responsibly given the circumstances.
There were also reports of protests in Meda Welabu town, in the south, on Tuesday.
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two tplf members are enough for all oromopeople
biyye keenya biyaa hatutti? kanafuu maal gochu qabna ?………………\
ilmi oromo biyyi keenyi anuma keenya lafti keenya kanuma keenyatti? ayezo jebadha?
i am ethiopian // Monday, December 14, 2015 @ 2:00 pm at Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:00:57 +0000 // Reply——- I agree with you. Don’t let your loved ones die. We live once just appreciate what you have and fight peacefully. I am not an Ethiopian or an African but sitting all across the world I can just say dont do this! We all understand what you guys are going through but dont let your children, brother, sister, mother, father or relatives die!
in stead of saying oromo peoples evacuated from their land correct it by saying Ethiopians evacuated from their land. now it make sense. don’t make the bias of their evacuation on discrimination of ethnic group we are all Ethiopians. we have one country we cannot alter our identity. we suffered enough of civil war. toleration is the best way to survive. even if there are some administrative problems now a day in Ethiopia make it right in peaceful way. WE ARE ONE. NO MORE…
in stead of saying oromo peoples evacuated from their land correct it by saying Ethiopians evacuated from their land. now it make sense. dont make the bias of their evacuation on discrimination of ethnic group we are all Ethiopians. we have one country we cannot alter our identity. we suffered enough of civil war. toleration is the best way to survive. even if there are some administrative problems now a day in Ethiopia make it right in peaceful way. WE ARE ONE. NO MORE…
pray to GOD!!!
I feel rapture for having such media awareness, the horn affairs.
the big issue behind the master plan is that who will be the ultimate beneficiary ? It has nothing to do with the case of china you are using silly logic chinise leaders work for their country but our racial government no longer creat balanced environment it is tather against unity and development of oromo please do not compare the case of china with ethiopia tel this logic to rural tegre farmers the government is always supporting them the master plan is a master killer i hate those fat headed leaders who create such chaos wayane is always suspect oromo
ወሬን……..ለወረኛ!
I think there are people who are leading the protest.The students are just used as weapons..it’s obvious.Why should they west there time for athing that wouldn’t benefit them?…why don’t they just do ther thing>>study..
to whom we blame we blame we blame!!!
First on the piece itself: The writer of this piece reports “Critics believe it will be a facilitator of massive displacement of Oromo farmers.” I wonder if this person is really trying to report the facts on the ground as they are, or just pay lip service to the truth. The fact of the matter is this: more than 150,000 farmers were already evicted, and this is being quoted erroneously even now. However, this is a figure way outdated, since this happened immediately after the 2005 election, which is ten years ago. Since then several times more farming households and thousands more farm land has been snatched by Tigre led regime which is gnawing at the Ethiopian economy, not governing it. By now, perhaps close to a million farmers, whose status has turned to a status of destitute. So, reporting such a glaring fact so pathetically as “critics believe” shows that the writer is more sympathetic to the aggressors than to the victims.
Now a few words on Jarso’s comment: I guess you’ve just returned from a visit to China, with a group of some government officials who often travel to places for a leb-leb course. And now regurgitating what you thought was happening in China. This reminds me of Dergue days. One official visits a country, nobody knows which, goes out for a sunday morning walk. He observed the streets were deserted, no cars. He made up is mind and declared upon his return, that people should not be allowed to drive cars on Sundays in Addis Ababa. Another went to somewhere else, and saw some factory workers in khaki uniforms. He returned and declared that all civil servants to wear uniforms, and this gave birth the those infamous blue and (and was it beise?) colour uniforms we used to suffer with. This is what Ethiopian people deserve to get when they allow a bunch of illiterates to rule them.
why the government chose only oromiya region this system mainly aim on interrupting oromos population and it must be stoped …….if this government is responsible for its people
In Bishoftu farmers are displaced to expand Bishoftu town without talking about plans. Who will be responsible for this displacement? who shall we blame? Please students demonstrate for this issue too. And
In Bishoftu farmers are displaced to expand Bishoftu town without talking about plans. Who will be responsible for this displacement? who shall we blame? Please students demonstrate for this issue too.
Mr. Jaarssoo. With due respect for your opinion, do not try to teach about how a town master plan works elsewhere around the world in the countries where the rule of law works. Nobody is illiterate of that. The thing is how to make a master plan or town plan an equally beneficial to all citizens of a nation. If you are in the country, please pay a visit to the areas in the vicinity of Finfinee and witness what is happening to the livelihood of the Oromo farmers and their households. Many have turned beggars, many are leading a way of life they are not used to, many are now private guards at private houses and villas built on their own land, others are lost and disappeared, etc. Do you think some one cared for them over the last 15 to 20 years while the town (Finfinee) has been expanding in all directions eating in to the heartland of the country’s prime agricultural area (a country who prime development agenda is food security at all times), the land looters and ‘delaalas’ have been building their own heavenly life at the expense of livelihood of thousands of Oromo farmers and their families. It is these poor communities who have been sharing what they have, albeit meager, and who have been feeding the urban dwellers of this poor nation. They should not have been displaced, marginalized, thrown way and left to their fate and all evils of life. It is easy to say it. Think if you were one of them, the son or a daughter of such families. No body denies the economic and social gains of a modern and expanded town, if it benefits all. I hope you will come to your head and think again about why the students are protesting and sacrificing their precious life.
I`m sorry for those hurt in the violence. can we say the Addis Ababa master plan is a big issue? by no means,No. why not we take lesson from China its master plan for Beijing is 200km in radius. where almost all of the residents included in are benefiting accordingly. there are many cities in the world that develop a master plan for their citizens where new job opportunities are opened up for the community at large. let`s fight for green eyed monsters who are against the wish of the sweet Ethiopians who have ever lived without disparity in the need for their common development.