February 14, 2004

To Whom It May Concern:

February 14, 2004 To Whom It May Concern: We, the Addis Ababa University Oromo students have been under harsh terrorization aimed at us as an ethnic group for undisclosed reasons both in the University Campus and outside from an unknown group for quite some time. Having come to the point where we could not pursue our study properly we have been forced to bring the case to the attention of the University leadership. Upon our request, the University leadership assured us that it would try to find out the said group and stop the threats and physical attack directed against us.

At this meeting, we demanded the University to allow us to make use of the University Cultural Center for the presentation of Oromo cultural performances. Initially, the University received our request positively and permitted us to present our cultural performances on Thursdays. By relying on this permission, we started to make the necessary preparations for the performances. But an unspecified group composed of persons from the Cultural Centre, University Administration, University police and political cadres resisted our performances and preparations.

As a Federal Educational Institution, Addis Ababa University should reflect the multicultural character of Ethiopian society. Consequently, the request of Oromo students to take part in the cultural activities of the Cultural Centre was lawful and constitutional. But rather than properly entertaining the demand of Oromo students, the University Administration conceived secretly a well-calculated formula which was intended to sabotage our legitimate demand for equality.

The music show prepared for 18 of January 2004 was fully supported and financed by Oromo peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO) in consultation with the Addis Ababa University Administration. As an academic institution, the University should have refrained itself from the temptation of officially allowing a political party to use academic premises for promoting party line. In view of the fact that Oromo students have previously asked to advance their own culture at the University Cultural Center and been refused, the act of the University to permit a political sponsored music show was a calculated provocation which was designed to trap those who were unsympathetic to the party line.

On the day of the incident on, January 18 2004, when some students peacefully showed their disapproval of the political agitation being made by the organizers, the agent provocateurs who were anxiously waiting for this moment seized the opportunity and started to violently act and destroy property. As Oromo students, we would like to express our disapproval of such acts honestly. On our part, we state publicly that any attempt being made to make us responsible for the act is simply a fiction. The main target of the clandestine group was to seal off once and for all the legitimate question of Oromo students for equality and maintain the hegemony they have over the University Cultural Centre and the University.

The question we have asked was a challenge to the status quo, which prevailed in the University. We still believe that the University has to necessarily reflect multiculturalism in all its and profile since that is the only way it can be representative of the whole Ethiopian people; the Cultural Centre has to be the decisive institution in this regard.

For the proper understanding of the whole incident, what came out immediately after the incident of January 18, 2004 is worth considering. Oromo students were depicted as responsible for the destruction of property and the violence over the government media without any independent investigation and findings. The fabrication of a fiction by way of producing a letter purportedly written by Oromo students, which stated that Oromo students were "proud of destroying property and responsible for the incident", was totally nonsense on the part of who designed it. It was an insult to the Oromo people in general and Oromo students in particular.

The preparation of the letter was a futile orchestration, which was designed to form in the minds of all Ethiopian people wrong image regarding Oromo students and thus obtain the required acquiescence to the decision they were planning to take against the students. They wanted to demonstrate that Oromos, and their children are against the law and irresponsible. In the history of this country, Oromos and their children never had a propensity to damage public property let alone publicly declaring that they do such act as the Government media has tried to portray us. No group in Ethiopia can legitimately claim to be more protective of the property of Ethiopian people than Oromo people and its children. The Oromos are known in this country as the most law-abiding and tolerant citizens.

Having made the destruction they have planned, they arrested 8 Oromo students from the University with full consent of the University authorities' on January 18 2004, since the whole operation was a sinister design intended to trap Oromo students, they handpicked with greatest care those Oromo students who were at the forefront in challenging the hegemony of one cultural group in the activities of the University Cultural Center. Thus, the original intent of the group, hostile to our legitimate questions have been picked up in the night from their dormitories in secret but have not been found guilty of destroying the University property, other Oromo students appeared before the University authorities to seek explanations regarding the where bouts of the 8 arrested students.

The University authorities told the students that it would give the required explanations on January 21, 2004. Based on this, we appeared peacefully before the President's office on January 21, 2004, in the afternoon. But the University authorities instead of giving us the required explanations they threatened us of being detained by police in mass. In the absence of a single incident of violence or where no student threw a single stone, as we sat there waiting for the required explanations they ordered a Federal police force and took more than 500 of us a Kolfe Police Training Camp by a number of police cars.

According to the presidents statement the action taken is authorised under AAU student regulations. Firstly, our gathering was made based on the earlier agreement we have made with the University authorities on 19 January 2004. Secondly, we have not conspired nor have we attempted to conspire since our questions were clearly presented to the president's office publicly. Hence, the action taken by AAU administration is not legal.

At the camp, we have been ruthlessly punished and received in human and degrading treatment by the police. Having recorded the full address of each student, the police force ordered us to leave the camp in groups of four. We have been told not to go to the university. We all left the camp in different directions, as the area was strange to many of the students who came from the Regions it was difficult for us to find our ways. Consequently, it has now become impossible to know the whereabouts of many students. Since the University has not communicated to the students procedurally that they have been suspended, the exact number of students who have been suspended is not known. We could not enter the University and take our belongings after we left the police camp. Now our plea is, where it is the same University to which our parents have entrusted our safety, including the provision of food and lodging chases us away, where do we go and to whom do we appeal? We feel insecure because it is our government, which should protect us at least from humanitarian point of view, has thrown us in the streets. In view of the fact that we are starved and do not have places to stay, and yet the appropriate authorities have chosen to remain in different, we feel abandoned by the entire Ethiopian people and the world.

As a result of all these state of affairs, we are compelled to communicate the terrible conditions we are actually experiencing to any group or institution that would like to help us survive the dangers we are exposed to and the threats awaiting us. We cannot go to our areas as we have been portrayed as OLF sympathisers by the media; those officials in the Regions are not going to be friendly to us. Besides, since our ID cards have been taken from us, it is not easy to move about freely, in which case, wherever we turn the probability of our being detained is great.

In particular, we would like to respectfully appeal to the concerned Federal Governmental bodies, principally, the house of peoples' Representatives, the House of Federation and other humanitarian organisations to positively welcome our problems and influence those responsible for suspending hundreds of exclusively Oromo students from a federal University. Those responsible for the rushed and ill-considered measure may try to justify their actions, but the problem is if things are left as they are, the implications of this move may have far-reaching repercussions for the country.

Finally, we demand:

1. The immediate and unconditional of the suspension and our return to the University.
2. The immediate release of those students who have been imprisoned without any proof that they are the ones responsible for the destruction of the property. They have the right to be releases on bail. These students have the right to be presumed innocent until a court establishes their guilt.
3. The fabricated letter disseminated over the media that tried to incriminate Oromo students and misrepresent Oromos and Oromo students to the Ethiopian public as responsible for the destruction of University property has to be officially withdrawn. We still think fabricated letter has a damaging effect on the image of Oromo people and Oromo students in the eyes of Ethiopian people.
4. The investigation of the whole problem in the University and particularly the series of events leading to the recent incident by an independent body. The profile of the University or the extent to which the University has become accommodative and pluralistic (multicultural) in all its activities and personnel has to be effectively investigated into.
5. Those responsible for initiating and orchestrating the incident by permitting University premises to serve as political party propaganda forums have to be identified.
6. The University guarantees the safety of all students entrusted to it by parents.
7. The University Cultural Center has to reflect in its activities the multicultural character of Ethiopian society by way of accommodating the cultural performances of other nations, nationalities and peoples.

In its handling of the whole affairs, we still think the University has not been neutral. In its press release it stated about death threats being "directed by the concerned group against other members of the student body", but when and how did the university verified this fact? Is it not possible for any interested group or individual to allege that he has been threatened? Is it proper for AAU administration to readily accept such claim for granted? Obviously, it is unlikely for the Interim student's council to defend Oromo students where the very media of the Government has already depicted Oromo students as supporters of OLF. The evil design intended by AAU administration to create a rift between Oromo students and other non-Oromo students including the Interim student's council would not serve the interests of AAU and the Country. In this regard we want to warn the Non-Oromo students of AAU the danger of such intrigues.

At the end we would like to draw the attention of all the concerned authorities to one important fact. The university in co-operation with Government media had aimed at isolating us from the student body and Ethiopian people and thus deprives us of the possible support we could get. Doesn't the fact that such a huge number of students from one ethnic group have presented a problem to the AAU administration call for sober evaluation of the issue? Even the suspension of a single student should not be made swiftly? Giving such an ill-advised decision in a split of a second and single-handedly judging on the fate of hundreds of the Oromo students is counter productive in so many ways to the country and to the harmony of AAU in the future.

Whatever the case is, those who think the fate of this country is in their hands should consider our petition and give us solution without delay. If you all disregard our request and the action taken bay AAU administration is maintained, we would then understand we are helpless as Oromos in this country and then we will help ourselves if we can in our own ways.

Thank You,

Attached here are the names of students suspended from AAU. The names of some Oromo students suspended from Addis Ababa University and Dila University

[Names of 365 expelled students removed for obivious reason]