On the Case of Oromo Students at AAU
By: Fekade Shewakena
Let me make it clear at the outset that I would not condone violence any where in Ethiopia let alone on a university campus which should be the center of civil discourse in resolving conflicting views. If the allegations of the officials that property worth millions of birr was destroyed by the alleged OLF supporter students, I find it regrettable and seriously. Accuse me of hypocrisy for belonging to a generation of students where breaking school property and city buses (with people riding in them) was considered heroic and revolutionary, I believe such actions should get appropriate and proportionate reprimand. It was wrong then and it is wrong now or in the future.
The most disturbing part of this story however is the dismissal of over 300 students by the university administration without an apparent due process. It looks like the selection was made through ethnic profiling. How was it then possible that the guilt of so many students was investigated and established over a three day period and a decision was reached to dismiss them all? If the University officials dealt with them summarily, then it is logical to conclude that Oromo identity was used to profile the students. If this were the ground over which they were dismissed, every one of us, irrespective of our ethnic identity, should be rightfully outraged and demand a lawful redress. The University in its memo said that these students can apply for readmission during the next academic year provided that they incriminate themselves by "publicly admitting their wrong doing". If the University officials have proven each one of them guilty of deserving dismissal, why would they want them to "publicly admit their wrong doing' in order to be considered for readmission. Is it not the university administration that should prove the guilt of the students that it punished? I thought coercing people for self incrimination was a basic human rights violation. I find it difficult to blame everything on the university officials alone. My experience is that the university administration wouldn't take such measures without the blessing or the order of the central government. Anybody familiar with how things are done there knows that it is a hand and glove relationship.
The university officials and the government are telling us that they are doing this persecution in the interest of the people of the country, to save us from OLF supporter students that have ill will to all of us. That, I suspect, is why they attached the name of OLF to the students they dismissed without telling us how they arrived at the conclusion that these students were supporters or members of OLF. We know an Oromo can be against the OPDO for a number of reasons. I know many Oromos who consider the OPDOs as surrogates of the TPLF and despise them only for that reason.
The students may have destroyed public property, the university officials and the government however are destroying lives. More importantly, they are playing with fire by fueling ethnic strife and hatred which is increasingly becoming a threat for the survival of the country. The recent carnage in Gambella wouldn't have occurred without the fueling of this strife and had it not been for the reckless handling of ethnic relationships in the region by the authorities. Thanks to them all we have succeeded in having a mini Rwanda in south west Ethiopia. I thought Rwanda would be the last place that I have to apologize to humanity for being an African. I am now to apologize for being an Ethiopian too. And the reckless actions such as this one at Addis Ababa University is adding to my fear that the worst is yet to come.
[Opinions in this article are solely that of the writer.]