State Department Briefing on the situation in Oromia, February 9, 2016

February 9, 2016 Oromia

US State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked during today’s daily press briefing on whether the US believes there should be an independent probe into the violence against #OromoProtests. Here is what he had to say.

QUESTION: Different topic. Yesterday several Ethiopian American groups demonstrated outside of the State Department. They were asking for the Obama Administration to press the Ethiopian Government to open an independent probe into the killing of opposition demonstrators in Oromia. Does the U.S. believe there should be an independent investigation into this violence?

MR KIRBY: Here’s what I can tell you about that: that we remain, obviously, deeply concerned about the situation in Oromia, particularly following the recent widespread protests, many of which escalated into violent clashes between security forces and protesters. The government’s heavy-handed response resulted in the death of numerous protesters and the arrests of many others, including journalists and political party leaders. We’ve raised our concerns both publicly and privately with the Government of Ethiopia, and there is universal agreement that the loss of life, including police officers and local officials, was unnecessary.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski – their visit to Addis Ababa at the end of January as part of a U.S. delegation to the African Union summit had meetings with Ethiopian Government leaders and members of the Oromo community. There was general agreement that there needed to be better communication with that community and particularly with the young people there, and a recognition of the root causes of the protests.

I think we all understand that these protests are about more issues than just the plan. We note that the Government of Ethiopia’s decision to cancel on January 14th the master plan – this was an important first step. This is an important first step.

So we’re concerned by the continuing stifling of independent voices there in Ethiopia and the arrests. They have a chilling effect on a much-needed public consultation to resolve legitimate political grievances there. We reaffirm our call on the Ethiopian Government to refrain from silencing dissent, and to protect the constitutionally enshrined rights of all citizens – including the right to gather peacefully, to write, to speak freely as voices of a diverse nation.