Thursday, 8^th April, 2004

 

How Much ‘Politics’ is There in the Current Student ‘Unrest’?

 

Our commentator Fitsum Getachew sustains that any issue susceptible of arising popular sentiments or emotions of a certain nationality needs to be handled with due care before it risks to  precipitate to further complications...

 

By Fitsum Getachew                                                                                    

 

Ever since the first student-police clashes (on Sunday  January 18, 2004) took place at the Addis Ababa University (AAU), newspapers, particularly the private ones, have been teeming with reports of ‘Oromo students’ doing this or that in this or that locality of Oromia Region. It appears that following these ‘protests of Oromo students’ who allegedly created disturbances at the Main Sidist Kilo Campus of the AAU, there seems to have proliferated a chain of reactions and counter reactions in many Ethiopian towns with substantial presence of ‘Oromo students’. We have read reports of these students having been arrested or expelled (300) from the AAU following accusations of violence and destruction of university property and led to the disruption of academic activities for days. Such nationality issue or any issue that has the potential of arising certain sentiments to then turn to emotions for that matter, should be handled with due care.

 

The sparkle began on the occasion of the aborted presentation of an Oromo Musical Show (Biftu Oromia) scheduled to be staged (in the presence of illustrious invited guests such as parliamentarians, university rank and file, parents and a large crowd of students) at Christmas Hall, AAU. The main message in the show, according to the opposing faction of Oromo students, was to ‘exploit’ the occasion to create the impression that Oromo students of AAU were supportive of the decision that Adama be Regional Capital of Oromia. This was vehemently denied by those students who never supported it. They claimed it was pure fabrication of OPDO elements in and outside the campus, and had nothing to do with the choice and will of the majority.

 

Following the disruption of the festival, police arrested and detained what it called were suspects of the ‘mischief’. Students taken to military camps in detention, told tales of harsh, physical punishments by police and this only on the ground of their ‘ethnic identity’. Subsequently, eight students were made to remain under lock and others were subjected to disciplinary measures by the university administration, including dismissal. This of course created the reaction of the rest of the student body who in protest organized a rally. Again this led to further arrests and detention. The move lit further protests and there have been disturbances in other areas involving a substantial number of students of Oromo nationality ever since.

 

 

Students at Ambo Agricultural College, Nazareth Technical College, Jimma Agricultural College and other learning institutions in various Oromo localities (including high and elementary schools (Dembi Dolo, Dukem, Modjo, Ghimbi, Welisso....) demonstrated in apparent solidarity with their peers at AAU, demanding for the release of those arrested, for the readmission of those suspended, and for the reconsideration of the decision that has ordained Adama the regional capital. This has provoked further standoff between security personnel and the students (generating further arrest and detention of the latter). There are reports that even teachers and parents were included in the list of the detained on the grounds that they supported or participated in the resistance. Many were accused of militating in favour of or  associated with the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front, OLF or other ‘anti-peace elements’.

 

The Federal government and specially the AAU administration have issued statements condemning the action of these students, who they said were encouraged/supported and inspired by alien elements, such as the discredited OLF and other splinter groups. The AAU administration said the protesters had infringed on the rights of those students who wanted to enjoy the show, and it was not the business of any faction to disrupt that. It also condemned the violent acts that resulted in the breaking of windows of vehicles, the library, the lunch hall and other destructive and hooligan moves. (The estimated damage was put at 1.5 million Birr!) It said it had no intention of tolerating such students and had no choice but to punish the culprits. Statements from the Federal Police talk of violence inspired and infiltrated by extremist elements who use violence as a means of conducting their political beliefs to the detriment of the Oromo people. The government asserts that this has happened at a time when ‘the Oromo question’ was being properly addressed, and there has been significant progress in terms of improving the living standards of Oromo nationals, (unlike during the previous regimes) and that the Oromo nationals through their party OPDO, (an affiliate of the EPRDF coalition), was marching towards further progress, conquest of better representation of its interests, in all decision making processes in the Federation.

 

Juneidin Sado, Head of the Regional Administration, was heard over the media stating the achievements of the Oromo people ever since the federal arrangement was adopted by the current government. Celebrating the fourteenth anniversary of OPDO, he gave an interview to the media where he was heard condemning all violent elements in the country that tried to destabilize the peace of the people, and dismissed them as obstacles on the way to progress. Anti-peace elements were trying to promote their hidden agenda and appealed to the people not to heed their propaganda. He said destruction, burning down of schools (such as Dejazmatch Deressu Duki School in Welisso, West Shoa Zone of Oromia) and the breakdown of the teaching-learning process in many schools of all sorts in Oromia was not in the interest of the large masses of Oromos. It just contributed to the arrest of the stride of the Oromo people towards development. The country was not in a position to afford such vandalism, he said, and exhorted the populace not to heed these outlaws and proceed with their normal day to day activities.

 

The ‘Association of Oromo Students of AAU’, on the other hand, has denied any contact with any political organization nor that they were serving the interests of any party. They said they were fighting for their human rights, both as Ethiopians as well as Oromos. In the statement they issued dated January 22^nd 2004, they denied any participation in deliberate violence or destruction, admitting that they protested against the musical show, ‘disrupting’ it, because they said it was intended to be a weapon for propaganda purposes, and that was against their will and beliefs, against the truth. The festival was organized to create the ground for the consecration of Adama as Oromia Regional Capital, with the presence of a large mass of Oromo people at the show. This was challenged by the students as a not true representation of the reality . They said, in principle, they would not oppose to any musical festival depicting Oromo culture and tradition, but such move should not be intended to advance the cause of the minority government against the interest of the large Oromo masses. They said their protests were peaceful and only agents of the government deliberately used violence to present it as a pretext for the adoption of subsequent measures such as arrest, persecution and dismissal of students. Similarly, the meeting they had the next day with Dr Samuel Assefa (Officer at the AAU Admin) was also peaceful because they only asked for the immediate release of the eight students arrested. Again it was the police who dragged the peacefully protesting unarmed students into buses, taking away their ID cards to then take them to their barracks, where they were ‘punished’.

 

In the event of these disturbances, the private media of course grabbed the occasion to condemn the acts of police and the government in general, apparently in solidarity with the students. AAU administration was accused of letting in Federal police agents into the reputed institution where students were handpicked (by looking at their ID cards) and accompanied to jail after undergoing beating! The administration should not have called in Federal police in the campus, the students accused. The private media made headlines of such move, and whenever there were stories related to the ‘students’ movement’, (immediately dubbed as the Oromo Students Protests, through out many areas in Oromia), titles, pages and editorials were dedicated to them. Parliament was solicited to intervene in the matter before it became too big to handle. Investigations on alleged abuses and harassment were called for.  Many linked the story with the recent clashes in Gambella and together wanted the House of Peoples Representatives to make an independent probe in the matter. They accused the government of ‘targeting’ only a nationality and taking non-proportional measures. The statement of the ‘Association of Oromo Students of AAU’ fits in this scenario.

 

Similarly, opposition parties, including those of not Oromo descent issued party statements abhorring the violence and arrests and persecution of Oromo students, without due process of law and made a big political and legal issue out of it. They attributed such moves to the ‘incapacity of the EPRDF’ in administering the country efficiently, and called for its ‘replacement’ with another popular government. UEDF, the coalition of 15 opposition parties recently formed, issued a statement condemning the act of government on the students, and invited the same to stop violence and persecution. It condemned the acts and decision targeting only one nationality and that such state of affairs could entail dangerous consequences. Such acts it said would inevitably be reserved to others as well at another occasion and thus every one should show signs of solidarity against the current tendency.

 

Human rights groups as well abhorred the move and called for restraint. Certain scholars and observers even went to the extent of adopting the cause of the Oromo students and said such cause was also the cause of all Ethiopians as they are part and parcel of the oppressed peoples of the country. Former President Negasso Gidada gave interviews loathing the moves of the police and the authorities, and called for an independent body to inquire into the situation and clear if there have been abuses of human rights on the students. He recommended that the issue of the Oromo nationality should be addressed in time if we do not want to drift to further violence and unrest. He said that many of the problems that existed in Oromia were not properly addressed by the current government. One of the things that disheartened him was the statement given by the Regional Administrator Ato Juneidin Sado in which he had invited for more severe punishments against the students. Negasso said this was very regrettable as it could not be expected from an organization that postures itself as an advocate of Oromo peoples’ rights. He also mentioned cases in which Oromo parents were forced to submit their children for detention up on presentation of official letters from the authorities. Numerous students were also arrested up on orders of woreda administrators, and dismissed students were prevented from joining their families and whoever gave them support (such as the Oromo Mecha Tulema Aid Association) were incriminated. Giving orders to the 15 Oromo Regional Bureaux to shift to Adama by Juneidin has disheartened Dr Negasso. Provisions of the federal Constitution were being breached, he argued.

 

Similarly, Dr Taye Wolde-Semayat, president of Ethiopian Teachers Association, condemned the moves of the government and warned that such creation of division among the peoples of Ethiopia (along ethnic lines) was the basic policy, and weakness of the coalition that is leading the country. He said the dangerous precedent of endorsing the expulsion of 6500 teachers from Oromia, some years back, because they did not belong there, was being repeated. It should not have been accepted, then, and today this scenario would have been averted. History has the tendency to repeat itself! The issue AAU students raised pertains to the eviction of a certain sector of people from one locality to another, without seeking their consent. It is not possible to evict people from a certain locality on the grounds that they did not belong there. Being Ethiopian nationality should be enough to all to live anywhere. He said such decision implied that he would be evicted from Nazareth (where he was born and brought up) just because some one said that he did not belong there! As Ethiopian, he had the right to live in any locality. ‘Ethnic cleansing’ or any thing that resembles such concept, is very dangerous and leads to  disintegration, he warned. This is the policy of a minority government that tries to keep busy in their divisions along ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. He said for instance, what had happened in Kotebe Teachers College in Addis, was very sad, because students were markedly divided along ethnic/regional lines even at the level of dormitories, and this had created factionalism and clashes. The question of university students must not be narrowed down to one nationality or people. He said it should be all encompassing. It is a question of rights and as such should be addressed. ‘Ethnicizing’ it is falling into the trap of the current authorities.

 

Higher learning institutions have always been birthplaces of new, ‘avant garde’ ideas and political motives. They have been places where intellectuals were formed and led popular movements and lighted the fire of protest against incumbent governments or parliaments or parties that they thought did not address the issues of the peoples they governed. In Ethiopia, such tradition is rife among university students who contributed a lot in bringing down the Imperial government of Haile Selassie although the Derg hijacked the movement’s fruits and destroyed the mission of the students by putting up a repressive machinery. The students themselves brought the idea of Marxism-Leninism and inculcated the military which was then used and abused, as it suited the purposes of Mengistu and company.

 

Later on, the same leaders of today were a germination of students movements, who abandoning institutions of higher learning at AAU and other institutions, joined the armed struggle movement in the rural areas, which after so much sacrifice of seventeen years came to grab power. Hence, students have had decisive role in the political games of this country, often paying extra sacrifices, inspiring and leading the rest of the population, raising the consciousness of the masses. No one would know how many students had to be sacrificed to attain the current glory of this government. The Derg has exterminated as many students as it could, if it was against it. At a certain epoch, all EPRP (Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party) members were chased and persecuted. The so called Red Terror was riding in the country! Those who made it escaped the violence and claimed refuge in the Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti (from which many eventually made it to the West. And the current student unrest must be reminiscent of old, dark stories, the steps they had to go through, before becoming today’s ‘lords’. Many are ‘returnees’ in triumph from  such battles and exiles. It should recall them of the dark days passed in similar circumstances. Students are therefore a potential force to be reckoned with, and could not be dismissed as an incapable group of dreamers or idealists easily manipulated by dangerous ‘factions’. It is always a dream, however lofty, that continues to serve as a target, an inspiration, and with the right dose of endurance helps attain a certain objective. Observers believe that if students unrest gets too spread out, touching on all institutions, the consequences could be more than we can foresee, let alone cope with it. Analysts say, timely consideration and response therefore deserves to be put in place in search of a viable solution.