Oromos Bring Appeals For Justice To Heart of Europe
UNPO - July 1, 2008

(Picture Credit: OromiaTimes & UNPO)

Ethiopia's government, led since 1991 by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has used the nature of the diverse multiethnic state to muzzle opposition to the incumbent Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) regime and to perpetrate civil and human rights abuses against the numerous ethnic groups that make up Ethiopia's citizens.

The largest of these ethnic groups, the Oromo, number over 30 million people, but remain largely unrepresented in the major decision-making bodies of the state. Despite a deepening drought and growing food shortages, the abuses against Ethiopia's citizens have continued unabated and the Ethiopian government remains one of the most serious abusers of international human rights conventions.

It was to highlight this fact and to raise the profile of the Oromo representation that members of the Union of Oromo Students in Europe (UOSE) congregated in Brussels on 30 June 2008. Coming from all over Europe, they brought the issues of Oromo human rights to the doorsteps of the major European institutions with demonstration in the Place Jean Rey and outside the European Commission Berlaymont building. Read More.