Oromo Community Radio with Dr. Nuroo Dadafo
KFAI, Minneapolis - Mar 1, 2007

This installment of Oromo Community Radio, host Ana Ousie is joined by Dr.Nuroo Dadafo, the owner of Nuro Dadafo�s law firm in the Twin Cities area. Oromo Community Radio is a new show produced as part of KFAI�s program development project ... Listen: (RealAudio)

Letter to Ethiopian Ministers on Human Rights Violations Against Students
Human Rights Watch - Feb 20, 2007

Federal Agencies Must Investigate Alleged Abuses By Police
Human Rights Watch draws attention to several incidents of human rights violations allegedly committed by federal police officers against students in the Ethiopian towns of Dembi Dollo and Ghimbi in western Oromiya State in the past weeks ...

Mass arrest of Oromo professionals continued - OLF Sudan Tribune, Sudan - Feb 24, 2007 The past couple of months more than 14 Oromo professionals heading the Ethiopia Rural Roads Construction Authority offices in various parts of Oromia have been arrested. The recent victims of such arbitrary detention were engineer Ababa Garoma, manager of the Rural Roads Maintenance Department of the Illu Abba Bora zone of Oromia, and another person heading the finance department of the same office. Currently the victims are being tortured in Mattu police station and are expected to be sent to the notorious Makalawi prison in Finfinnee soon. Victim’s friends have identified a government security agent by the name Iyasu, who also works in the same office, for the imprisonment of engineer Garoma by accusing him of being a sympathizer of the Oromo Liberation Front. Similarly the mangers of the Ethiopia Rural Roads Construction Authority offices in Bale and Hararghe zones have also been arrested ...

Ethiopia: Massacre of Mount Sufi Sudan Tribune, Sudan - Feb 23, 2007 Residents of Western Hararge of Oromia State witness that over 20 people were massacred on Sufi Mountain. In the zone, reports indicate that killings torture, and arbitrary detentions are escalating. Government security forces do this to revenge an Oromo civil disobedience that started a year ago. The mount Sufi tragedy like any holocaust is motivated by the ruling party’s hatred against the Oromo people. Parents of holocaust victims who prefer to be anonymous tell tragic stories. A mother to a 14 year old daughter tells us the tragedy of how her daughter was taken from home and killed. She said that Ayisha Aliyi was taken at night by security forces in her nightgown. Ayisha never came back. Local police station told the mother that it does not know the whereabouts of Ayisha. Later, the mother figured out Ayisha was amongst the 20 killed on mount Sufi. She found her hair and bits of her body and clothes ...

Ethiopan undemocratic govt, a dilemma of western donors Sudan Tribune, Sudan - Feb 23, 2007 The second most populous country in Africa and one of the poorest, Ethiopia is a test case for the West in its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty on the continent. But its government’s undemocratic leanings have presented donor countries with a dilemma. Should they continue to funnel their taxpayers’ money to a country that routinely jails and tortures its critics or should they turn off the tap and thereby hurt the blameless poor? Most donors are keeping up or even increasing their giving. Britain, with qualms, is upping its aid from $180m last year to $260m this year. Some donors have harmonised and even pooled their support. Many have signed up to schemes to promote transparency and hold the government to account. Whether the nastier bits of Ethiopia’s government will co-operate fully is moot ...

ETHIOPIA: Surviving forced marriage
Reuters AlertNet, UK - Feb 23, 2007

Standing at the front of her classroom, Mulu Melka reads out of her English book in a shy voice like any other 13-year-old schoolgirl; betraying nothing of the fact that twice within two years, she has been abducted and forced into marriage.

A target of the traditional practice, known locally as "marriage by abduction", Mulu managed to escape on both occasions. "The first time I was 11," she recounts. "I was going to the mill, when a group of men grabbed me from behind. They took me by surprise. I fell on the ground, and when I woke up again I was in the house of my abductor. I stayed there three days" ...