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DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN ETHIOPIA

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MARCH 9, 2017

Serial No. 115–9

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

ANN WAGNER, Missouri 

BRIAN J. MAST, Florida 

FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida 

BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania 

THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

NORMA J. TORRES, California 

BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York 

ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York 

TED LIEU, California

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia 

KAREN BASS, California 

AMI BERA, California 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Terrence Lyons, Ph.D., associate professor, School for Conflict Analysis and 

Resolution, George Mason University ................................................................ 5

Mr. Felix Horne, senior researcher, Horn of Africa, Human Rights Watch ....... 17

Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo, president, Coalition of Oromo Advocates for Human 

Rights and Democracy ......................................................................................... 38

Mr. Tewodrose Tirfe, co-founder, Amhara Association of America ..................... 45

Mr. Yoseph Tafari, co-founder, Ethiopian Drought Relief Aid of Colorado ........ 54

Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki, representative, Torture Abolition and Survivors 

Support Coalition ................................................................................................. 64

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Terrence Lyons, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ......................................................... 9

Mr. Felix Horne: Prepared statement .................................................................... 22

Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo: Prepared statement ............................................................. 40

Mr. Tewodrose Tirfe: Prepared statement ............................................................. 48

Mr. Yoseph Tafari: Prepared statement ................................................................ 57

Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki: Prepared statement ...................................................... 66

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 82

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 83

Questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith, 

a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, and written responses from: 

Terrence Lyons, Ph.D. ......................................................................................... 84

Mr. Felix Horne .................................................................................................... 86

Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo ............................................................................................. 88

Mr. Yoseph Tafari ................................................................................................ 94

Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith: 

Statement of a coalition of groups ...................................................................... 98

Statement of the Embassy of Ethiopia on H. Res. 128 ..................................... 99

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DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN ETHIOPIA 

THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m., in room 

2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order and good afternoon 

to everyone. As we begin today’s hearing, we examine the troubling 

conditions for democracy and human rights in Ethiopia. Let us 

stipulate that this east African government is a prime U.S. ally on 

the continent. Ethiopia is a primary contributor to peacekeeping 

missions along the South Sudan border, in South Sudan with 

UNMISS, and AMISON in Somalia. 

Ethiopia joined the U.N. Security Council in January and is one 

of the three African members of the Council, along with Senegal 

and Egypt. 

During a series of private negotiations in the last months of the 

previous administration, Ethiopia officials acknowledged that the 

tense situation in their country is at least partly their government’s fault. There have been discussions with opposition parties 

in consideration of changing the electoral system to use proportional representation, which could increase the chances of opposition parties winning parliamentary and local races. 

Late last year, the government released an estimated 10,000 

prisoners despite maintaining a state of emergency. However, there 

are at least 10,000 more people held in jail who are considered political prisoners and the government continues to arrest and imprison critics of its actions. 

In January, two journalists from the faith-based station Radio 

Bilal, Khalid Mohamed and Darsema Sori, were sentenced to 5- 

and 4-year prison terms, respectively, for inciting what they said 

were extremist ideology and planning to overthrow the government 

through their coverage of Muslim protests about government interference in religious affairs. The journalists were arrested in February 2015 and convicted in December under the 2009 anti-terrorism law, alongside 18 other defendants. 

In late February, Ethiopian prosecutors charged Dr. Merara 

Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, with rendering support to terrorism and attempting to disrupt constituVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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tional order. Dr. Merara had been arrested upon his return to Ethiopia after testifying in November at a European Parliament hearing about the crisis in his country. He testified, alongside exiled opposition leader, Dr. Berhanu Nega; and Olympic medal winner, 

Feyisa Lilesa. Other senior OFC leaders including the deputy 

chairman, Gerba, have been imprisoned on terrorism charges, so 

called, for more than a year. Both are viewed by many as moderate 

voices among Ethiopia’s opposition. 

According to the U.S. Department of State’s newly released 

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report on Ethiopia, security forces killed hundreds in what they say is the context of 

using excessive force against protesters in 2016. At year’s end, 

there were more, according to the State Department, more than 

10,000 persons still believed to be detained. Many have not been 

provided due process. The government has denied the U.N. High 

Commissioner for Human Rights access to the Oromia and Amhara 

regions. 

The lack of due process in Ethiopian courts also affects foreigners. Israeli businessman Menasche Levy has been in jail for 

nearly 11⁄2 years on financial crimes charges. The government officials accused of being involved with Levy in illegal activities have 

had their charges dropped and have been released from jail, yet 

Levy’s next court proceeding won’t be for several more months. We 

cannot determine his guilt or innocence on the charges, but it is 

clear that he has been denied a trial in a reasonable time frame 

and has been beaten in jail by other prisoners and denied proper 

medical care. These circumstances unfortunately apply all too often 

to people who come in contact with the Ethiopian court system. 

My staff and I have discussed with the Government of Ethiopia 

the possibility of working cooperatively to find ways to end the repression without creating a chaotic transition. Unfortunately, there 

is significant variance in how that government sees its actions and 

how the rest of the world looks as well. That is why I and my distinguished ranking member, Ms. Bass, and some other of our colleagues have introduced House Resolution 128 to present the true 

picture, as true as can be painted, as to what is going on in Ethiopia today. This panel and this hearing is designed to elicit additional insights so that we can absolutely get it right and then hold 

that government to account. 

In the first panel, we have witnesses who will provide an overview of the current state of democracy and human rights in Ethiopia. They will present the facts. 

Our second panel consists of four Ethiopians representing various ethnic groups and organizations created to help the Ethiopian 

people. 

We have no opposition parties appearing today despite the tendency of the government and its supporters to see anyone, anyone 

who disagrees with them and their actions as supporting terrorists 

seeking to overthrow the government. Presumably, this subcommittee falls into that realm as well. 

It is my belief that until the Government of Ethiopia can squarely face the consequences of its actions, there will not be the genuine reform that it has promised. For example, government officials 

say we have mistakenly said that the ruling coalition holds 100 

3

percent of the legislative seats. We have said the coalition holds all 

of the seats, whether in the name of the coalition itself or as affiliate parties. If the government cannot be honest with us or itself 

in such an obvious manner, it is unlikely that the conditions for reform can exist. 

The government does appear to realize its precarious position. 

We have discussed the frustration it creates by not fully allowing 

its citizens to exercise their rights of speech, assembly, and association. 

In a hearing that we had in June 2013, Mr. Nega said the government had created a situation in which there is no legitimate 

means to redress grievances. Although the government jailed him 

after he won the 2005 race to become mayor of Addis Ababa, he 

was not known to have begun his campaign of armed resistance 

until after that time. 

Let me yield to my colleague, and then I will get into some introductions and then we will continue there. I would like to yield to 

the distinguished gentlelady from California, Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding these 

meetings and to our witnesses that will be coming on both panels. 

I want to thank you for being here. I look forward to hearing from 

each of the witnesses. And I also welcome the audience and understand their concern and desire to see the issue regarding the lack 

of democracy in Ethiopia thoroughly addressed. I know that there 

are a huge number of people outside that are not able to come in, 

and hopefully throughout the hearing maybe we can find room for 

them over time. 

Over the past decade, Ethiopia has made significant economic 

strides addressing poverty and expanding economic development. 

Ethiopia has appeared repeatedly on the list of the world’s fastest 

growing economies with growth rates in excess of 8 percent per 

year. 

Ethiopia has also been a stalwart partner of the United States 

in many areas such as regional security, and increasingly, trade via 

AGOA and enjoying strong bilateral relations with the United 

States. 

I must also note that by way of hard work, astute scholarship 

and a strong support system, the Ethiopian-American community 

has become one of the most successful African diaspora communities in the United States. The Ethiopian diaspora has never 

turned its back on its country and has contributed millions of dollars in remittances to the country’s economy. 

However, all of these achievements take place against a backdrop 

in Ethiopia which is described as a diminished political space and 

a steady assault on the human and civil rights of citizens. The 

right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is increasingly challenged. There is reportedly no free media in Ethiopia and 

Internet service reportedly has only recently resumed following the 

government declared state of emergency in October of last year. 

According to the State Department’s recently released 2016 

Country Report Human Rights report, there were numerous reports of the government committing arbitrary and unlawful killings 

of security using excessive force against protesters. The protests 

4

were mainly in Oromia and Amhara regions. At year’s end, more 

than 10,000 persons were believed to still be detained. 

While these two communities are clearly the focus, as was cited 

in House Resolution 128, supporting respect for human rights and 

encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia, several vulnerable 

communities in Ethiopia are subject to government interference 

such as the Muslim community and the indigenous Anuaks in the 

Gambela region. 

I am privileged to represent a part of my congressional district 

that includes a section of Los Angeles that is called Little Ethiopia. 

Some of my constituents expressed concern before this hearing that 

they felt that they wanted to be sure that the hearing didn’t over 

emphasize ethnic divisions and contribute to the U.S. stereotype of 

Africa, that the problems are just a result of inter-ethnic fighting. 

So I want to make note of that. 

I also want to report on a description of what life is like in Ethiopia now as described by one of my constituents. She says that her 

mother says that the suspension of civil liberties is affecting every 

facet of daily life, that people cannot travel around the country to 

conduct business, visit friends, or care for relatives. She said that 

the Internet was down for some months, but she thinks it was between 2 to 4 months that there was no Internet service, but it has 

been back up for the last several weeks. 

Members of her family are farmers who were forced off their 

lands by the government. The family has fled into the forest and 

is now part of the resistance force. The family doesn’t like being in 

this position and doesn’t want to participate in the resistance, but 

basically now has no crops and essentially cannot support itself. 

Buses won’t travel to her part of the country and with travel restricted, even if there is a crop, it is hard to get to market. She describe a state of emergency that appears to have no end in sight. 

I think it is important that I communicate concerns directly from 

my constituents and from the Ethiopian-American community and 

Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles. I will note and I am sure our chairman will, too, that we have a letter of explanation from the Embassy of Ethiopia that, needless to say, refutes most of these 

charges. I am just looking at the letter. I have not had an opportunity to read it. I will glance at it during the course of this hearing and might raise questions connected to their response. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ranking Member Bass. I would like to 

now introduce our very distinguished first panel beginning with Dr. 

Terrence Lyons, who is an associate professor of conflict resolution 

at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason 

University. Dr. Lyons was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, 

served as senior program advisor to the Carter Center’s Project on 

Post-Conflict Elections in Ethiopia in 2005, and has worked as a 

consultant for the U.S. Government, the World Bank, and several 

non-governmental organizations on issues relating to democracy 

and conflict in Africa. He has written extensively on Ethiopia and 

taught at universities there. Welcome, Dr. Lyons. 

I would also like to welcome, Mr. Felix Horne, who is the senior 

Ethiopia and Eritrea researcher for Human Rights Watch. He has 

documented the human rights dimensions of Ethiopia’s development programs, telecom surveillance, media freedoms, misuse of 

5

counterterrorism law, and other topical issues in the Horn of Africa, including the year-long crackdown against peaceful protesters 

in Ethiopia. Previously, Mr. Horne worked on a variety of indigenous rights and land issues, including several years of research 

into the impacts of agricultural investment in several African countries. 

Again, thank you for being here and I would like to note as well 

that we do have an overflow crowd of very interested EthiopianAmericans and others who are concerned about human rights 

there. 

It is a privilege to welcome each and every one of you here. I 

think you bring additional impact to all that will be said here, that 

there was such heightened concern about what is occurring there. 

And parenthetically Greg Simpkins visited Ethiopia right after the 

2005 elections when people were being killed in the streets, sadly, 

under President Meles. We met with President Meles, and sadly we 

are now talking about a very, very serious deterioration of human 

rights and I look forward to your testimony. 

Dr. Lyons, the floor is yours. 

STATEMENT OF TERRENCE LYONS, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SCHOOL FOR CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY 

Mr. LYONS. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith, and Ranking Member Bass. It is a great pleasure to be with you here today. 

You have very kindly given my introduction. I will maybe pause 

and reflect on one additional thing. The only other time I have ever 

testified before Congress was in 1992 after Ethiopia’s local elections before the House subcommittee, so 25 years later I have the 

privilege again and that lets you know the years that I have tried 

to understand Ethiopia. 

I want to make clear that my thoughts today represent my best 

judgment as an independent scholar who regards himself as a 

friend to a diverse range of Ethiopians on all sides of the political 

spectrum, rather than as an advocate for any specific constituency 

or policy. So I am going to try to provide a context to the current 

crisis, why I think Ethiopia is at the crossroads, and some thoughts 

as to what U.S. policy might be. 

My first point, as you will see in my written statement, relates 

to the stakes in Ethiopia at this moment. But Chairman Smith, 

you covered much of that. Ethiopia is a country of enormous importance to the Ethiopians and to the other people in the Horn of Africa, to the United States, to policies on countering terrorism, peacekeeping, a country that has seen a remarkable process of development over the past decade or so. At the same time, a country with 

very serious human rights concerns that you outlined and my colleague will further elaborate. 

So let me go and give one very, very large overarching point 

about where I see Ethiopia and then some of the more—break it 

down or unpack it. 

Ethiopia, since 1991, has had a balance between a politics that 

was about autonomy, was about regional states, was about ethnically defined political parties. That was one direction that the 

state was going on. At the same time, it was a state of an extraorVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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dinarily powerful, centralized regime, very much a top down development model of the developmental state and these two kind of opposing logics were in tension, but kept together by a very strong 

center, a very strong central committee. 

It is my concern today that that balance has now been upset. 

That balance is now no longer holding and that is why I think this 

is a real structural concern, larger than simply something that a 

change of the cabinet is going to address. 

Predictions that the regime is about to fall have been around 

since at least since 2005. Actually, people were saying that in 1992. 

I was among those. So I think it is worth pausing and thinking 

about that this is a regime that still retains considerable strengths. 

It is a party of some 8 million people. It is a party that controls 

mass organizations and large endowment efforts. It is a party that, 

as we pointed out a number of times, along with its affiliates won 

100 percent of the seats in the most recent election. So it is something that is unlikely to disappear with the first movement against 

it. 

It is also strong relative to its competition at home, particularly 

in terms of organized political parties. The regime has very systematically closed down political space so that opposition parties, civil 

society organizations, and independent media are not able to operate. 

There have been prior demonstrations. I particularly want to 

note, as I do in my written statement, the early Ethiopian Muslim 

demonstrations that were really quite remarkable. But a new type 

of demonstration or a new phenomenon in Ethiopia happened in 

2015, particularly in the Oromo region. In Oromia protests began 

in part because of concerns about Addis Ababa, a master plan expanding into Oromo areas, but a much more structural kind of 

struggle for control, for power, for the Oromos to be able to control 

their own land, to control their own destiny. 

The pattern of Ethiopia’s response to demonstrations in the past 

has typically been to deny there is a problem, to blame the opposition, or the diaspora, or Eritrea for fomenting the dissent and arresting lots of people, particularly young men in kind of sweeps and 

sometimes using live fire to clear the streets when they have perceived it as being necessary. 

Those same things happened in 2015 in Oromia, but surprisingly 

or at least contrary to past patterns, the demonstrations weren’t 

demobilized. They continued. And in fact, they spread. They became larger. It was a real momentum. And so the tactics of trying 

to repress opposition, to repress dissent, didn’t seem to be working 

any more. 

You mentioned the crackdown, the arrest of Bekele Gerba and 

Merera Gudina, somebody I know from my days at Addis Ababa 

University. And so the use of—the government succeeded in suppressing the demonstrations, but not really resolving the underlying state, the underlying concerns, the underlying grievances. 

Similarly, in the Amhara region, demonstrators were not dissuaded by the power of the regime. 

The state of emergency that was put in place, it was really an 

incredibly expansive state of emergency, has at least for now succeeded in lowering the level of violence, lowering the temperature, 

7

if you will. And if that was being used a first step in a larger more 

structural process of political reform, there might be other ways of 

thinking about the state of emergency, but I don’t think that is the 

case. 

Let me just say a few things about why I think Ethiopia is at 

the crossroads, and then a few comments about U.S. policy. 

As I alluded to earlier, I think Ethiopia is really at the crossroads because this original bargain of 1991, a constitution that was 

decentralized and set up these regional states, at the same time a 

very centralized, top down kind of regime. But that has been 

knocked off balance and it is not clear how it can be put back together again. 

Part of the evidence for this is that there were elements within 

the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, the Oromo wing of 

the ruling party, that were at least looking the other way as the 

demonstrations were going on. Similarly, in the Amhara region, the 

Amhara wing of the ruling party supported some of the Amhara 

nationalists’ ideas that were being advanced by the demonstrators. 

So this suggests that the ruling party really is beginning to, the 

elements of it are really beginning to question the direction of the 

center with unclear, where that will go. We haven’t really seen that 

in 25 years. 

The short term path forward I don’t think is particularly hard to 

see. The Ethiopian Government, if it was serious about reform 

would have to end the state of emergency. Perhaps larger than 

that, reduce the role of the armed forces and politics. In general; 

release political prisoners. You mentioned some of them. But not 

simply reform the civil society proclamation, but I think it needs 

to be scrapped and start over again. It really has prevented the 

kind of advocacy networks, people working on human rights and 

democracy that Ethiopia so desperately needs. Respect the political 

space of opposition so that the alternatives are able to speak. And 

in general, a process of dialogue with a broad range of actors, rather than a kind of the EPRDF will sort it out within itself, the kind 

of instinct that they often have. 

On U.S. policy toward the region, the first thing that I would 

note is that I think actually the U.S. needs to be quite modest in 

its assessment of its influence in Ethiopia. Many of my friends in 

the diaspora who are with me always disagree with me on this, but 

I don’t think that the dynamics that are taking place on the ground 

within the ruling party and within the leadership are not because 

of what the U.S. is doing or not doing. These domestic politics, 

these regional constraints, the U.S. assistance has become less relative to the investments of China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other 

actors. 

But I do think it is essential to speak clearly and plainly and 

publicly about Ethiopia’s human rights record. The U.S. simply has 

to go on the record and explain why it is that we have grave concerns about the direction that the country is going and as a good 

partner, how we are looking for ways to engage the regime so that 

it can open up, so that it can have more political space and allow 

releasing the political prisoners and all those other things that I 

spoke about. 

8

It seems to me to be past time for the U.S. Government to shift 

its emphasis when thinking about Ethiopia from a kind of counterterrorism and regional security agenda. Those things are important. The Ethiopian military play very important peacekeeping 

roles, for example, in Sudan. But beyond that, there is a larger, 

longer term agenda that has to rest upon participation and rule of 

law. As a long-time partner of Ethiopia, I think the United States 

needs to shift its orientation in that way. 

Let me conclude there and I would just like to thank the subcommittee for this opportunity and look forward to any questions 

you may have. Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lyons follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Dr. Lyons, thank you so very much. Mr. Horne, I regret that there are two votes that have been called. We have got 

about 5 minutes to get there. We will suspend briefly and come 

right back and you will be next on deck. So I apologize to you and 

to all of our distinguished witnesses for the delay. We stand in recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will resume, and I yield the floor to Mr. 

Horne. Thank you again for your patience. 

STATEMENT OF MR. FELIX HORNE, SENIOR RESEARCHER, 

HORN OF AFRICA, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 

Mr. HORNE. Thank you. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, thank you for holding this important hearing on the current 

situation in Ethiopia and for inviting me to testify. I am pleased 

to be a part of it. 

Ethiopia is a country of dual realities. Visitors and diplomats 

alike are impressed with the double digit economic growth, the 

progress on development, and the apparent political stability. But 

in many ways, this is a smoke screen. Many Ethiopians live in fear. 

The current government, the only one since 1991, runs the country 

with an almost complete grip on power, controlling almost all aspects of political, public, and often private life. Pervasive telephone 

and online surveillance and an intricate network of informants 

allow the government to quickly curb any threats to its control. It 

silences critical voices through the use of arbitrary arrests and politically-motivated prosecutions. 

Ethiopia remains among Africa’s leading jailers of journalists. If 

you are an independent journalist, you must choose between selfcensorship, harassment or arrest, or living in exile. The government blocks Web sites. It blocks the Internet completely. It jams 

radio and television stations. In short, the state tightly controls the 

media landscape, making it extremely challenging for Ethiopians to 

access information that is independent of government perspectives. 

As a result, Voice of America, which broadcasts in three Ethiopian 

languages, has become an increasingly important source of information for many Ethiopians but the government has, at times, obstructed its broadcasts as well. 

The independent civil society groups, independent NGOs face 

overwhelming obstructions also. The 2009 Charities and Societies 

Proclamation has made obtaining foreign funding nearly impossible 

for groups working on human rights, good governance, and advocacy. As a result, many organizations have stopped working on 

human rights and good governance altogether to avoid problems. 

There have also been serious restrictions on opposition political 

parties. This led to the ruling coalition in the 2015 election winning 

100 percent of the seats in the Federal and regional parliaments. 

This is despite evident anti-government sentiments in much of the 

country, as the protests would later illustrate. The arbitrary detention of members and supporters, politically motivated criminal 

charges, and restrictions on financing ensure that political parties 

are constrained and largely ineffective. 

The state also systematically ensures that many of the country’s 

100 million citizens, particularly those in rural areas, are dependVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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ent on the government for their livelihoods, food security, and economic future. The government controls the benefits of development 

including access to seeds, fertilizers, jobs, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance, even when it is funded by the United States or 

other donors. While U.S. funded development assistance contributes to much needed poverty reduction efforts, it also adds to the 

repressive capacity of the government by bolstering Ethiopians’ reliance on the government for their livelihoods. 

Now there is no evidence that the ruling party rigs elections because they don’t need to. The population’s dependence on the ruling 

party and the limits on opposition parties leaves many citizens, 

particularly in rural areas, little choice but to support the ruling 

party come election time. As one farmer in the Amhara region told 

me in July 2014, ‘‘We do not like the government, but we always 

vote for them. We have to because we get our seeds and fertilizer 

from them. During times of drought, we get food aid from them. If 

we don’t vote for them, we can’t eat.’’

He went on to tell me about his neighbor who voted for the opposition in the 2010 election and shortly thereafter was denied food 

aid, was denied treatment at a government health clinic, and eventually was displaced from his land for an investment project run 

by a government cadre. 

The justice system provides no check on the government. Courts 

have shown little independence during politically charged trials. 

Many opposition politicians, journalists, and activists have been 

convicted under the repressive 2009 antiterrorism law and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Acquittals are rare, credible evidence is often not presented, and trials are marred by numerous 

due process concerns. Mistreatment and torture are common in 

Ethiopia’s many places of detention. 

So this begs the question: What avenues are left in Ethiopia to 

express dissent, to question government policies, or to voice concern 

over abusive practices, and how can the United States help 

strengthen human rights and democracy in Ethiopia? 

I speak to you to today 16 months after large-scale and unprecedented protests started in Ethiopia’s largest region of Oromia in 

November 2015, spreading to the Amhara region in July 2016. 

Ethiopian military and police cracked down on these largely peaceful demonstrations, killing hundreds and detaining tens of thousands as we have discussed. The protests were a predictable response to the systematic and calculated suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms that I have described here today. 

On October 2, the protest movement took a devastating turn. In 

Bishoftu, in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, security forces mishandled a 

large crowd at the Irreecha cultural festival causing a stampede 

that killed scores of people as they fled security forces. In the days 

that followed, angry mobs of youth destroyed government buildings 

and private property. Ethiopia was on the brink of chaos. One week 

after the Irreecha tragedy, the government announced a state of 

emergency, that was 5 months ago today, that remains in place. It 

prescribed sweeping restrictions on a broad range of actions and 

goes far beyond what is permissible under international human 

rights law. It signaled a continuation of the militarized response to 

the expression of grievances. While the state of emergency has 

19

halted both the destruction of properties and the protests themselves, underlying grievances clearly remain. No one should deny 

there are serious risks, that more unrest could occur. 

Since imposing the state of emergency, the Ethiopian Government has repeatedly committed publicly to undertake ‘‘deep reform’’ and engage in dialogue with opposition parties to address 

grievances. In short, the authorities are saying the right things. 

But the only changes the government has made so far are largely 

cosmetic and fall dramatically short of the protesters’ calls for the 

protection of basic human rights. 

The continuation of the state of emergency, which further crushes the space for free expression and divergent views of governance, 

is not conducive for the open dialogue that is needed to address 

Ethiopia’s ongoing crisis. The government announced that it arrested over 20,000 people since the state of emergency began, and 

although there has been little corroboration of these numbers, it 

could be higher. These mass arrests along with politically motivated trials of key opposition leaders, like Merera and Bekele, reinforces the message that the government is continuing along the 

path of suppressing dissent by force and not engaging in genuine 

and meaningful dialogue with opposition groups and citizens. 

The Ethiopian Government’s responses to all of these abuses is 

consistent. The allegations are routinely denied without meaningful 

investigation, the government claiming they are politically motivated, while simultaneously restricting access for independent 

media and human rights investigators. 

While we are speaking today about the lack of accountability 

over the brutal crackdown in Oromia and Amhara over the last 16 

months, Ethiopians in other regions have also been victims of serious abuses, without any meaningful investigations by the government. For example, Human Rights Watch documented possible 

crimes against humanity committed by the Ethiopian Army in 2003 

and 2004 in the Gambela region. There was no credible investigation into the abuses. In Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, the Ethiopian military committed war crimes and possibly crimes against 

humanity between mid-2007 and 2008 during their 

counterinsurgency campaign against the ONLF, the Ogaden National Liberation Front. Since that time, there have been serious 

abuses committed in the Somali region by the Liyu police. Again, 

no meaningful investigations have been undertaken into any of 

these alleged abuses in the Somali regional state. 

International scrutiny of Ethiopia’s rights record has also been 

lacking despite its June election to the U.N. Security Council, and 

its membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council. Ethiopia has 

refused entry to all U.N. Special Rapporteurs since 2007, except for 

the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea. In total, there are 11 Special 

Rapporteurs that have outstanding requests for access to Ethiopia. 

Despite abundant evidence of serious and growing repression by 

the Ethiopian Government, the U.S. Government has been a muted 

critic. Quiet diplomacy has proven ineffectual. It has coincided with 

the dramatic downward spiral in human rights and a serious constriction of political space leading to the crisis Ethiopia is in today. 

It is time for a new U.S. approach to Ethiopia in which Congress 

plays a leadership role in seeking a more balanced policy and reVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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quiring more deliberate oversight as it has done in other countries 

in crisis, including the DRC and Egypt. 

As a starting point, Members of Congress should speak out 

strongly and publicly against abuses by the Ethiopian Government. 

House Resolution 128 and the resolutions introduced last year are 

steps in the right direction and contain many important elements. 

While non-binding, they are impactful because they let the Ethiopian Government know there are repercussions for brutality 

against their own citizens, brutality that undermines U.S. priorities in the Horn of Africa, including security, development, and 

economic growth. These partnerships are dependent on long-term 

stability in Ethiopia. Opposition to the ruling party’s repressive 

rule, as witnessed in the last 16 months, is a glaring indication 

that Ethiopia’s governance model marked by lack of respect for 

basic rights, is incapable of ensuring that stability. 

It is crucial that the U.S. makes it clear that if Ethiopia is going 

to remain a strong U.S. partner, it needs to open up legitimate political space and allow for critical voices to be heard. Members of 

Congress can and should call for the release of all political prisoners, including Bekele and Merera, because they should be part 

of any credible dialogue between the government and the opposition parties. 

Members of Congress should also call for the release of all journalists unjustly jailed and call for the repeal or substantial amendment of repressive laws used to stifle critical voices. Now any meetings with the Ethiopian Ambassador to the U.S. should include 

these points, as should any meetings with other Ethiopian officials, 

whether in DC or elsewhere. As the FY18 budget process gets underway, U.S. support to the Ethiopian Government should be conditioned on making progress in these and other areas of concern. 

Members of Congress should use available opportunities to tell 

Ethiopia to stop hiding its own human rights record from international scrutiny. As a member of both the Human Rights Council 

and the Security Council, Ethiopia should cooperate fully with U.N. 

special mechanisms, in particular the rapporteurs on peaceful assembly and torture. 

As expressed in House Resolution 128, Members of Congress 

should reiterate the call of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human 

Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 

and others, for an independent international investigation into the 

crackdown in Oromia and Amhara. Such action will send a powerful message to the Ethiopian Government that its security forces 

cannot shoot and kill peaceful protesters with impunity. It will also 

send an important message to the victims and families, including 

those here in this room, that their pleas for justice are being heard. 

International legitimacy is very important to the Ethiopian Government. It wants to be a key player on the international stage and 

condemnation of its human rights record contradicts that image. So 

consistent, sustained, and vocal pressure is critical. 

I will close by saying that I am aware of concerns expressed by 

some in the administration, and even here in Congress, that a 

more public stance on Ethiopia’s domestic situation might undermine the bilateral partnership between Addis Ababa and Washington. But the United States has often underestimated its own leVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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verage and been overly cautious as a result. Some of Ethiopia’s 

international partners have made strong public statements in the 

last year and these statements have not undermined their strategic 

partnerships. Far from it. The U.S. may need Ethiopia, but Ethiopia needs the U.S., too. The U.S. should send a strong signal of 

support to the many Ethiopian citizens and Ethiopian-Americans 

who seek the protection of their rights, greater political space, and 

democracy but whose fight for dignity and freedom has been 

crushed time and again. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Horne follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Horne, thank you very much for your very incisive testimony. 

I will begin the questioning. You mentioned that U.S. policy has 

been muted. I can’t tell you how welcoming that assessment is because it traverses both the Bush administration and the Obama administration since at least 2005 and before. I, my staff, and others 

in a bipartisan way have raised the issue that everything post-9/11 

can’t be antiterrorism and regional stability. Human rights ought 

to be at the core of what we say and how we condition our funding. 

So thank you for that refreshing and important admonishment to 

the new administration because the last couple have not gotten it 

right and that is unfortunate. I say that because we held hearings 

when we heard from the Ambassador and high officials in the Bush 

administration and I expressed not only my displeasure, but my 

deep concern over unwitting complicity. Looking the other way is 

complicity. And the same thing has happened, unfortunately, under 

the Obama administration. 

Now we have provided some $820 million between 2015 and 2017 

for health, food, and development aid to Ethiopia. You have pointed 

out in the testimony that people have been denied access to medical care and food, humanitarian assistance if they were not part 

or supportive of the regime. 

Has there been a response from the U.S. Government when that 

has happened? Are they aware of it? Have we pushed back and 

said wait a minute, we are the prime providers of that aid. We 

want to make sure it gets to the poorest of the poor or those who 

are at risk without any kind of political pre-condition. 

Secondly, you talked about the VOA and I think your point, all 

of the points that have been made about the journalists and being 

one of the worst areas where journalists are censored and the idea 

of self-censorship is a terrible consequence because that which is 

never written because of fear means that obviously human rights 

abuses go unscrutinized. 

But you mentioned the VOA at times is inhibited. Is that 

through jamming? How do they do that? Has it happened recently? 

What has been the response of the U.S. Government when that has 

happened? Because obviously, we should speak out loudly and 

clearly. Perhaps Dr. Lyons, either of you might want to speak to 

this, but the idea of hiding in plain sight, potential crimes against 

humanity and other kinds of serious human rights abuses, this is 

what adds to the shock and horror of that is that in plain sight of 

the African Union which is based in Addis, as we all know. It 

seems to me that a showcase city ought to have a showcase government that respects the dignity of everybody’s life and not just those 

that are supportive of the regime. So if you could. 

Mr. HORNE. Yes, thank you for those important questions. On 

the misuse of development assistance, Human Rights Watch documented this in 2010 in a reported called ‘‘Development Without 

Freedom’’ and it was focused on how the government uses the benefits of development assistance to control the rural population. And 

the response from donors, not just in the United States, but all of 

Ethiopia’s Western donors was very much one of yes, that might 

be happening, but it is not happening on a very wide scale and the 

benefits of development outweigh these potential problems. 

29

There was initially some discussion about them potentially investigating the extent of this problem, but we have not seen any evidence that it has been investigated. And it is a very tricky thing 

to investigate, of course, not easy. But I can say in that time, in 

the interviews that we do about other human rights abuses, it 

comes up so often that you do not get—things I mentioned, food, 

seeds, fertilizer, everything, unless you are a member of the ruling 

party. It used to be that as long as you weren’t considered to be 

the opposition then you wouldn’t have problems, but now it seems 

to be much further, and lots of individuals who seem to genuinely 

avoid being involved in politics, including refusing to join the ruling 

party, have reported not being allowed access to food aid, to the 

seeds, the fertilizers. 

In Ethiopia and in many parts of the country, poverty is still a 

big problem and so yes, they don’t have anything to fall back on. 

So it means they are really dependent on government. So it is definitely something that needs to be investigated more, because it is 

a big problem. 

On the Voice of America question, I think there are a number of 

ways that Ethiopia uses to prevent international broadcasters and 

this applies to others as well, including some of the diaspora stations that broadcast into Ethiopia, but yes, jamming is a big problem; jamming of radio and also jamming of television stations for 

some of the diaspora stations. But also, denial of work permits, a 

lot of the international broadcasters report having great difficulty 

having people on the ground. We talked to many individuals who 

were sources of information, who were interviewed on VOA and 

other stations who were arrested as a result. So the government 

uses various techniques to ensure that VOA can’t operate. 

I can’t comment on whether VOA or the other stations self-censor, but this is part of the strategy. If you make it difficult to do 

your media, and jamming and other tactics increase after you have 

reported on something very sensitive or after individuals were on 

VOA that the government doesn’t approve of, the national tendency 

would be a self-censor. I am not saying VOA is self-censoring. I 

can’t speak to that, but that is the strategy that they use. 

Mr. LYONS. I will just state one or two brief comments on the African Union. It came up in perhaps a more dramatic context in the 

mid-1970s during the period of Red Terror in Ethiopia where the 

OAU again, different organization, different era, was there while 

horrific street violence was taking place. This was, of course, before 

this regime came to power. 

The African Union is a growing organization that is increasingly 

talking about things like governance, human rights, and democracy. I think it should be encouraged. I think the United States 

does have important bilateral relations and has an Ambassador to 

the AU and that is all to the good. But the Africa Union is also 

an organization of heads of state who typically do not want to look 

too closely at the governance of neighboring states and to the extent that they do, it is often through the kind of quiet diplomacy 

that we were referencing earlier with the United States. It rarely 

becomes public and that in and of itself is part of the problem. 

Mr. SMITH. Before yielding to Ms. Bass, I just point out we have 

got a very sophisticated report from the Embassy which I suspect 

30

has been produced in whole or in part by their lobbying organization which was set up, funded, beginning on January 1 by SGR 

LLC. And if the filings we have seen are correct, we are talking 

about a $1.8 million year cost for the lobby. 

And you know, having been on this committee now 36 of my 37 

years, I have to tell you that I remember which Nicolae Ceausescu, 

one of the most brutal dictatorships with a Securitate, the KGB 

equivalent, every year his lobby firm would come around with bullet points and made them look like they were Mother Theresa. It 

was just incredible. 

So I think we all need to look at that submission very carefully, 

but the lobby firms are very adroit at putting things together that 

obscure very often the heinous human rights abuses that we are 

trying to highlight. 

Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Wow. I actually wanted to refer to it on the next panel 

because I want to ask questions based on the memo. 

But I believe, Mr. Horne, you were saying that other countries, 

the U.S. is concerned because obviously Ethiopia is a strategic 

partner and you were referring to other Western countries that 

have not ruptured their partnership because they have been critical and perhaps Dr. Lyons would like to respond to this as well. 

So I wanted to hear from both of you about other countries in the 

international community that have significant partnerships with 

Ethiopia and how they are responding to the situation. 

Mr. HORNE. I think maybe there are two examples that I would 

speak to. One is the European Parliament. In January of last year, 

they passed a very strong resolution that condemned Ethiopia for 

some of these human rights abuses. It was the strongest thing we 

have seen out of the European Parliament in many, many years on 

Ethiopia. And since that time, the relationship between Europe and 

Ethiopia has strengthened. There is lots of assistance on migration, 

on supporting refugees, on development which has continued to go 

into Ethiopia, so it doesn’t seem to have had a particularly negative 

effect of those sort of strategic partnerships. 

The more recent example is Germany. Chancellor Merkel visited 

Ethiopia just after the state of emergency had been called and in 

a public setting made a very strong statement that talked about 

the importance of political space, to open up space for the opposition. That was a very strong thing to say in public, in Addis and 

they didn’t chase Germany away. 

In fact, the opposition dialogue that is currently under way and 

Germany is playing a leading role in facilitating that. So yes, I 

think there are lots of examples to point to that shows that yes, 

they are not. As angry as they get and the response with these 

briefing papers about how we are all wrong about the human 

rights abuses, they do get angry, but at the same time they are 

very strategic and they realize that U.S. assistance or Germany assistance in that case is very important to their country. 

Ms. BASS. Dr. Lyons. 

Mr. LYONS. My point will be just on the more general question 

of who has leverage over who. Typically, Ethiopia says listen, we 

are not going to take your conditions. We don’t accept your human 

rights, State Department’s human rights report or whatever it is 

31

that they are unhappy about. And because there are things that 

the United States wants to work with Ethiopia on, let us talk about 

the peacekeepers in the Sudan. That position is never pushed. 

I think I agree that there is a lot more room to say we are not 

going to back down just because you are angry at us, but rather, 

as a partner who wants to remain engaged with you for the long 

term, as a long term friend, we have to say it again, and we have 

to say it even more clearly because we think it is so important to 

us. So I guess without—you had the specifics. I can think of the 

Europeans as well. Germany is another good case. So I would share 

those. 

Ms. BASS. Are there any African countries? 

Mr. LYONS. Do you have a quick——

Mr. HORNE. I mean I wouldn’t say—I can’t think of any African 

countries offhand that have made strong statements on Ethiopia. 

I mean the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 

called recently for an investigation. I mean that is probably the 

closest thing we have. 

Ms. BASS. So you said then that statements have been made. The 

question is what results were produced because of that? 

Mr. LYONS. I am going to use Mr. Horne’s example. I do think 

that, while I have concerns about it being not a deep enough process of reform, the fact that the EPRDF is now engaging in discussions with a fraction of the opposition is a good thing. It is perhaps 

a small step in the right direction. It is not enough and so on. And 

I do think that while you never know what causes what, that it did 

follow some tough statements from European leaders and particularly in Germany. So at least it is consistent to say it was after 

Germany made a tough statement that EPRDF began to talk to 

elements of the opposition. The causation, of course, would be impossible to tease out. 

Mr. HORNE. I would just say I think it is very difficult to, because there hasn’t been that many strong public statements, it is 

very difficult to ascertain whether that is the correct strategy on 

Ethiopia. 

What is clear is that the quiet diplomacy hasn’t worked. We have 

been talking about this for 10 years, since 2005. It clearly hasn’t 

worked. So it is time to try something new. So I think this is something worth exploring. 

Ms. BASS. So I know that in many times in Los Angeles, my constituents would like for me to support the termination of all foreign 

aid, even humanitarian assistance. I have difficulty with that notion because I am concerned that, you know, their point of argument is that it never gets to the people that it is supposed to get 

to. And I guess what makes me fearful with that is that I don’t 

want to play into forces here that are hostile to foreign aid and if 

it gets to some, then is that not better than others. 

And I think both of you made a statement that you thought foreign aid should be conditioned on making progress. One, do you 

think the foreign aid gets to the people, to some of the people who 

need it? And then two, if it is conditioned on making progress, 

number one, what would those conditions be and how would anybody verify? 

32

Mr. LYONS. I do not support ending all aid and particularly humanitarian aid because I do think it makes a tremendous difference on the ground. There were some 10 million people in Ethiopia following the El Nin ̃ o drought of 2014 or 2015 who were able 

to survive, in part, because of the generosity of the United States 

and other donors. 

An important part of our aid package is for things like HIV/AIDS 

and PEPFAR money and education programs. You can go out to regional medical centers and see lots of things that USAID has done. 

You can see the work on regional universities and other things. 

We have a very, very small democracy and governance budget in 

Ethiopia. I think that there could be places where that could be 

used more creatively to try to get momentum behind some of these 

larger processes of all party dialogues and of a real discussion of 

how this country goes forward. Those discussions would not be possible unless there were things like release of political prisoners and 

the opening of political space. I think that that could be a place 

where there is leverage. 

The other place of leverage I think that is probably stronger and 

more available to use is diplomacy. Ethiopia wants to be a respected member of the world community. It matters greatly. They 

really, really wanted President Obama to visit. They thought that 

was an important way for them to be recognized as the most important state in Africa or something like that. And that then you don’t 

necessarily get that recognition unless certain conditions are met. 

Ms. BASS. You know, there is the role that Ethiopia played in the 

negotiations with South Sudan. 

Mr. LYONS. Very important. 

Mr. HORNE. Yes, I would certainly echo all of that. I think that 

Human Rights Watch does not call for aid to be cut off to Ethiopia. 

What we have called for is increased monitoring of the aid that is 

given, so the positive benefits of the aid can be experienced, but 

without some of the negatives. And right now what we see is that 

there is all of this money being put in, but there is not a lot of effort to really monitor the negative aspects like this increased repressive capacity that it gives the government. 

Ms. BASS. One other question I had as I know my colleagues 

want to ask questions, too, is that I have heard that the Ethiopian 

Government is feeling less pressure with the new administration in 

thinking that there is not going to be a concern considering that 

the positions that are being put out there are really more inward 

looking, concerned about what is happening here and not a concern 

so much on the international, especially with little to no mention 

of Africa at all. 

So I want to know what you believe in terms of the signal the 

new administration is sending to Ethiopia. 

Mr. LYONS. It is a very difficult to know where this administration is planning to head toward Africa, in part, because the personnel just aren’t there yet and the kind of road map, the budgets 

and so on are unclear. The way I would—signs that I would look 

for is that on the one hand if this administration has heightened 

concerns about terrorism and counterterrorism, that there is a way 

to think that Ethiopia then would be able to get more attention in 

33

Washington because it would be able to play that role or at least 

position itself to play that role. 

But on the other hand, if USAID gets cut in a dramatic way, that 

presumably would be something that falls on Ethiopia as well as 

other countries. And so I just find it very difficult to know which 

way things will go with regard to U.S. policy toward Ethiopia. 

Mr. HORNE. Yes, agreed. I think there is still a lot of importance 

to U.S. relationships and partnerships with Ethiopia that have 

been there for a long time and will continue to be there on security, 

on peacekeeping, and potentially development assistance. 

Ms. BASS. Is there oil in Ethiopia? 

Mr. HORNE. That is a good question. Yes, there is believed to be 

some oil and natural gas in the Somali region, definitely. But I 

think when we talk about the importance of benchmarks and 

human rights measures and conditioning some of this support, it 

is also because you all saw what happened last year, you can’t have 

a partnership on security, on development, on delivering humanitarian aid when people are protesting when a country almost descends into chaos. So respect for human rights actually makes development and security assistance much more effective which I 

think is an important part of this. 

Mr. SMITH. Before yielding to Mr. Garrett, without objection, a 

correspondence from a coalition of NGOs, diaspora groups that support this effort, they also call for the passage of House Resolution 

128, without objection will be made a part of the record. 

Mr. Garrett. 

Mr. GARRETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just curious if either of these gentlemen could enlighten us as to what sort of accountability we think has happened as it relates to the crackdown 

on dissenters that we saw just last year in the region and then on 

top of that, and obviously, I have had your present testimony of the 

transparency as it relates to that accountability. 

Mr. HORNE. Yes. I mean there were some calls from various 

countries for an international investigation. And Ethiopia’s response to that always is we can investigate ourselves. We don’t 

need the help of the international community. The fact of the matter is they haven’t investigated. So the Human Rights Commission, 

which is the body that would be mandated in doing that investigation, they presented an oral report to Parliament in June of last 

year, the day that the Human Rights Watch came out with a big 

report into the protests in Oromia. And they largely exonerated the 

Federal security forces. No one knows who they talked to. No one 

knows how they arrived at a conclusion that was so radically different from what everyone else has found who has looked into the 

issue. And we have spoken to many diplomats, foreign diplomats 

in Addis, but also Ethiopian Government officials, and no one has 

seen a written version of that report. 

So in short, it doesn’t seem that there was any meaningful investigation that was undertaken. There continues to be more promises 

with more investigations, but we haven’t seen anything to date. 

Mr. LYONS. If I could add just a couple of sentences on to that 

because there is a media piece to this as well. The Ethiopian Government is often very unhappy when groups like Human Rights 

Watch and others come up with estimates on how many died or 

34

what the casualties were and so on and so forth. But there were 

very few other estimates, in fact, because the journalists cannot go 

out and ask questions and talk to people and go to the emergency 

rooms or whatever it is to get a handle on—we are here on the 

ground and we think that Human Rights Watch has overestimated 

it, but there is nobody on the ground collecting that with credibility. And so that is a further problem. 

The restrictions on the press mean that that type of restriction 

on accountability. 

Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Chairman, I want to preface this by saying 

that we have had very few allies in some regards better than Ethiopia as it relates to combatting terrorism, the number of peacekeepers that the Ethiopians have contributed to global missions 

and I want to hat tip Ethiopia for that. 

Now as an editorial aside, I will tell you that one of my great 

complaints is that I think sometimes the United States participates 

in creating vacuums vis-a-vis regime change initiatives without 

contemplating who will fill said vacuum upon the creation of the 

vacuum. 

What is the state? What we have here in one person’s estimation 

is a nation of Ethiopia that on the one hand does wonderful things 

to be integrated into the world community and on the other hand 

stymies any freedom of the press and we know is certainly very 

vigorous on cracking down on dissent. 

Is there even a viable opposition that would be an entity with 

whom we could do business in Ethiopia just by your estimate? Because again, the worst thing I think we can do, look at Libya preand post-Ghadafi. Look at Syria. Look at what happened in Egypt 

with Sisi sort of stepping in and creating stability where we don’t 

know if we would have a Morsi, but I contemplate that it might 

be far worse. Is there a viable opposition at all? 

Mr. LYONS. The way I would frame that question is that there 

are a number of small parties and civil society organizations that, 

at great personal risk, have continued to operate within Ethiopia, 

but they have been marginalized by systematic actions by the regime. 

The way that I would put it about the vacuum, however, though 

is that if the EPRDF is a strong regime, which in some ways it is, 

8 million members of the party, 100 percent seats in the Parliament, one of Africa’s most effective militaries in peacekeeping 

and so on and so forth, double digit growth, it may also be a very 

brittle party that once challenged could very quickly, the veneer 

collapses and the underlying structures cannot stand. So that 

would be the concern I would have for a vacuum, that if the ruling 

party can’t hold it together because it is under too much pressure, 

then what? And so it is not that we need to put pressure on——

Mr. GARRETT. I know I am interrupting, but with all due respect, 

that is my question. Then what? If the ruling party fractures, and 

there is a vacuum, who rushes in to fill that vacuum? 

Mr. LYONS. Very hard to know. My best expectation or my—it is 

really a guess rather than even a very strong conclusion is that the 

organizations in Ethiopia that have the ability to mobilize are one, 

ethnically-based political parties that are part of the ruling coalition, so some of the power might gravitate back to the ethnic reVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
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gions and it will be weaker centrally; and two, the Ethiopian military, which is very, very difficult to get a bead on. And typically, 

historically has kept out of politics, but in the state of emergency, 

it is much more directly in politics, the command centers that are 

part of the state of emergency are Ethiopian military command 

centers. And so those would be two possible dynamics. One more 

toward autonomy and two, a greater role for the military. 

Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Horne? 

Mr. HORNE. Yes, it is a difficult question for us to answer. I 

guess what I would just point to is that there has been a—in my 

statement I talk about this, that there are a lot of tactics they have 

used to decimate the opposition to ensure that the opposition is not 

effective. And quite often when it gets to be hundreds of protesters 

over the last year and when you ask them about how they see the 

opposition, they don’t see the opposition as being terribly effective. 

They don’t see the opposition being able to represent their views 

in any sort of form. 

Mr. GARRETT. So Mr. Chairman, I would yield back in a moment. 

I want to be very though. My concern is that in pushing Ethiopia 

to be a better actor as it relates to openness, freedom of the press, 

etcetera, that we accidentally create a vacuum that creates chaos 

beyond that which we currently imagine. So everybody, I think, on 

both sides of the aisle, wants to see free and fair democratic societies across the globe, but sometimes if we push and something 

falls off that ledge, what steps to fill the vacuum is not any better 

than the one that precedes and oftentimes, unfortunately, is worse. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Garrett, thank you very much. The gentleman 

from New York, Mr. Suozzi. 

Mr. SUOZZI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to echo some of 

the things that Mr. Garrett was just talking about. I am new to 

this party. I am a freshman member and this is a new area for me 

as well as a member of this committee. 

But my big concern in the world today is not so much this country versus that country or this ideology versus that ideology, but 

it was described in Tom Friedman’s recent book of control versus 

chaos, places that are stable versus places that are unstable. 

And so many places in the world today that were once propped 

up by the Soviets or by the Americans during the Cold War that 

are average or sub-average governments or that are either incompetent or corrupt or just lack resources, are not able to survive in 

the current environment because it is easy to be, as he described, 

a breaker in the world as it is to be a maker. 

And a lot of places end up with, because of climate change and 

the droughts such as you are experiencing in Ethiopia with 80 percent of the people involved in agriculture and these terrible 

droughts and so many people are suffering and then they move into 

the cities and they are looking for a better life, but they can’t find 

it there and there is civil unrest and it becomes political foment 

and we have gone from 35 million refugees in the world to 65 million refugees in the past 10 years. 

And so if there is a movement to make this change, but as a result there is terrible unrest and de-stability that takes place in the 

country as a result, you have got another hot spot and another 

source of refugees in the world that have really few places to go. 

36

So what should we be looking at to help Ethiopia to not only address some of the concerns that you were testifying about, but also 

just to be stable in this world where there is so much instability? 

Mr. LYONS. The answer, one is broadly and then a little more 

precisely. I think another way of thinking about the concern in 

Ethiopia is not kind of a binary, is not control versus chaos, but 

rather in a context of rapid change, including within Ethiopia beginnings of new forms of development, but in a time of rapid 

change and without deeply embedded institutions and rule of law, 

is that the path to chaos? In other words, what you need is to have 

a political opening to better manage the process of change so you 

don’t get to chaos. 

I certainly agree and many Ethiopians have gone through periods of chaos and have seen neighbor states go through chaos. That 

is not the desired end point. The question is if the Ethiopian Government does not recognize the challenges that face it, is it more 

likely to lead to that chaos or can a process of opening the regime 

up better manage that threat? 

I do think there are ways to open it up in terms of releasing political prisoners, of allowing these opposition parties to operate, and 

other things that I listed in my testimony. That does not mean that 

the regime is going to collapse. This isn’t regime change. This isn’t 

going in and bombing Benghazi or sending troops into Iraq. This 

is getting them to provide space so that Ethiopians who care about 

democracy and human rights are able to speak about those things. 

And it would be a very, very precariously perched regime that 

thought that that was what was going to lead to chaos. 

The Zone 9 bloggers are an example of that. A young group of 

Ethiopians who blogged in a way that was critical of the regime 

and the regime was very, very unhappy about that and regarded 

them as criminal. If you are worried about a group of young people 

who are blogging, when you have just won 100 percent of the seats 

in Parliament, you have the strongest military in sub-Saharan Africa or one of the strongest militaries, there is a disconnect there. 

Why are you so worried about being criticized, if in fact, you are 

the control and not the chaos? 

Mr. HORNE. Yes, I mean I think this isn’t the first time there has 

been sort of this protest in Ethiopia. We said it is unprecedented, 

the scale of the protest was unprecedented and the scale of the brutality was unprecedented. But under this government there has 

been protests, movements in the past, and the government’s response to that is to crush it through force. And it has worked. That 

approach has worked. It didn’t work last year. And for so many 

people that I interviewed who were out there, when they faced bullets, when they saw their friends being shot and killed, when they 

faced tear gas, arrests, torture, and detention, it just emboldened 

them further. 

So if we care about Ethiopia’s stability and we all do, everyone 

agrees, we want Ethiopia to be a stable, long-term partner, respect 

for human rights is core to that, is crucial to that. This is not about 

a vacuum of which party can take over post-EPRDF. That is not 

what we are talking about. We are just talking about basic respect 

for human rights which will keep Ethiopia stable and will ensure 

37

that it can be a valuable partner for the United States for many 

years. 

Mr. SUOZZI. Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, we will have some additional questions 

that all of us will submit for the record, but thank you for your tremendous input to this subcommittee and for your leadership for so 

many decades. 

Mr. LYONS. Thank you. 

Mr. HORNE. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. I now would like to welcome our second panel beginning with Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo who was born in South Oromo, in 

Ethiopia. From a very young age, she grieved over the injustice she 

saw growing up and studied political science in the hopes of becoming the solution. 

While in school, she served as president of the African Student 

Organization and assistant executive director for the Oromo Community Association of Chicago. Currently, she is president of the 

Coalition of Oromo Advocates for Human Rights and Democracy 

and is an environmental health inspector as well. 

We will then hear from Tewodrose Tirfe, who is one of the founding members of the Amhara Association of America, an organization dedicated to organizing Amhara people and a refugee who 

came to the United States in 1982. He has worked with international human rights organizations to bring attention to oppression of Amharans and worked to engage policy makers and raise 

awareness of humanitarian issues in Ethiopia that advocates for a 

policy that ensures that American interests and moves Ethiopia on 

the path of democracy. He also works as a senior network engineer. 

We will then hear from Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki who is a torture 

survivor from Ethiopia. He contracted polio when he was 3 years 

old and was raised in an orphanage. He was an outstanding student and became an activist for disability rights and the general 

manager of the Ethiopian National Association of the Physically 

Handicapped. Ethiopia’s ruling party tried to force him to join the 

party and when he refused, they arrested him several times and 

dumped him in the jungle area with his wheelchair believing that 

hyenas would attack him and kill him. Miraculously, Mr. Deki survived, came to the United States in 2003, and was granted political 

asylum in 2014. 

We will then hear from Mr. Yoseph Tafari who was born and 

educated in Ethiopia where his social and political activism forced 

him to flee to Khartoum, Sudan in 1976. During his time in Sudan 

he successfully organized the Ethiopians who were exiled in that 

country to have the full protection of the UNHCR. Since coming to 

Colorado, he has worked as a project manager in constructing the 

largest Ethiopian Orthodox church ever built outside of Ethiopia 

and co-founded the Ethiopian Drought Relief Aid of Colorado, an 

advocacy group bringing awareness and much needed aid to the 

victims of the Ethiopian famine. He also owns a printing company. 

I would like to now yield to our distinguished first witness. I 

would point out to our witnesses, I have been called to a leadership 

meeting at 4:00. I have to be there for it and I apologize. I will read 

your testimonies very carefully. Ms. Bass and I both invited you to 

be here, so we both, all of us on the subcommittee want to hear 

38

you, so I apologize. When I do depart, it is not a lack of interest, 

I can assure you. 

Please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO, PRESIDENT, COALITION OF OROMO ADVOCATES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY 

Ms. JIMJIMO. Thank you, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, and members of the subcommittee for this opportunity. I 

must say my presence here is historic and I am beyond honored for 

the opportunity to speak before you here. 

Today, I acknowledge the suffering of many Ethiopians like the 

Amharas. I am here to speak about three generations of pain, 

agony, and political oppression against the Oromo people. My 

grandfather saw massacres, my father and uncles served in prison 

camps as do my younger brothers and sisters today. This is not just 

the story of my family, rather the story of Oromos who constitute 

over 40 percent of the Ethiopian population and occupy the most 

productive lands. Oromia is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, with the key export items: Coffee, gold, other precious minerals. Yet, the Oromo are politically, socially, and economically 

marginalized people. 

I must also acknowledge that while hundreds are better qualified 

than I could be here today, I bring a unique voice. To begin with, 

I am a follower of Wakefanna, the much less known indigenous religion. I am also a woman, the primary victims of human rights 

violations you often never hear about. And I represent a generation 

that knows, understands, and lives in two different worlds, my 

birthplace and America, land of opportunity. 

To speak the truth, I highly doubt my own people, for whom I 

am fighting day and night, will value me equal to my brother who 

cares less about them. It is with this understanding that I not only 

value the American interest in the region, but believe it is necessary that the American mission succeed because it is the only 

voice for women like me. Therefore, I want to assure this House 

that American interest is my interest and the interest of so many 

Oromos. 

Twenty-six years ago, in June 1991, Assistant Secretary of State 

of Hermann Cohen testified in front of House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He said, ‘‘No democracy, no support.’’ For 26 years, 

Ethiopia has become an open prison for so many Ethiopians, particularly Oromos, who make the overwhelming majority of the prison population. Today, 26 years later, under the code name of ‘‘state 

of emergency,’’ a husband watched his wife and daughters get 

raped, sons taken away or killed. 

Even though I myself have lived under this terror and been 

watched and beaten by this government, what is new is the use of 

this new term ‘‘state of emergency,’’ which allowed it to shut off the 

small means of communication to the outside world. In Ethiopia, 

as others before me have said, all sorts of media is either banned 

or greatly curtailed. Social media is punishable by up to 5 years in 

jail, all rights organizations banned, requests by U.N. for independent investigations are denied, and U.S. concern is ignored. 

Moreover, although as early as January 2016, the Ethiopian GovVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
39

ernment admits to the use of excessive force, no single individuals 

have been brought to justice. Now 3 years later, nothing has 

changed except the implementation of the most brutal system of 

killing, silencing innocent people under the cover of martial law. 

For Oromos, the torture is unending, even as they flee Ethiopia. It 

follows them wherever they go in the region. As a proud partner 

to the U.S. War on Terror, the Ethiopian Government can go to 

Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and even as far as Saudi Arabia 

to bring back those who they consider threats to their power. 

While I understand the need for strong and dependable partners 

in a volatile region too close to extremism, reliance on a minoritydominated government hailing from a mere 6 percent of the population, cannot be sustainable and would rather endanger American 

interests. A country of 100 million people inhabited by 82 different 

ethnic groups cannot survive a fake democracy or federalism. 

Mr. Chairman, a blind support of this government can only extend what is inevitable. If what we seek is united democratic recognition where all people have equal opportunity as a human 

being, we must ask for greater accountability and push for real 

tangible actions. Certainly, the introduction of House Resolution 

128 is a great start. While I thank the leadership being behind it 

and all those who co-sponsored it, I ask you and I beg you to reach 

out to your colleagues to co-sponsor to speak before it is too late. 

The window of opportunity closes with each passing day, with 

each passing day, lives are murdered at the hands of this government. We know that in no democratic country, let alone Ethiopia, 

can a ruling party win an election by 100 percent. We should not 

ignore the young people’s aspiration for democracy and justice who 

make up 50 percent of the entire population. We must not leave 

Ethiopia’s fate to the current government or leave it up to them to 

investigate into its own gross human rights violations documented 

by the United States Government. Ethiopia’s ruling party does not 

represent the country’s future, but the past. A regime that kills its 

own people cannot be a regional team player for peace or stability. 

For me, I speak about this knowing I am putting my family who 

still lives there and those who I mentor in great danger. I choose 

to speak because this is not history, but rather testimony on my 

own personal experience for which I am ready to accept all sacrifices. 

Thank you again for your commitment in promoting democracy, 

peace, justice, and your relentless efforts to speak on human rights 

violations in Ethiopia. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Jimjimo follows:]

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STATEMENT OF MR. TEWODROSE TIRFE, CO-FOUNDER, 

AMHARA ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 

Mr. TIRFE. Good afternoon. Esteemed members of the Subcommittee on Africa, on behalf of the organization I represent, Amhara Association of America, Ethiopian-Americans across this country, and all Ethiopians who have suffered unconscionable brutality 

at the hands of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the ruling 

party of Ethiopia, I want to thank you for holding this hearing and 

bringing awareness to a humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding before us for the past 26 years. 

The subject of today’s hearing, Democracy Under Threat in Ethiopia, is an misnomer in many ways since democracy has never existed under this current Ethiopian Government. 

Since the establishment of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, 

in their 1976 manifesto, they labeled their struggle as ‘‘anti-Amhara oppressors’’ and in order to achieve their struggle they must 

destroy the old and the dominant Amhara culture which represents 

over 30 percent of the Ethiopian population and replace it by a new 

and revolutionary culture. It is only through this that they may be 

able to secede from Ethiopia and establish the Republic of Tigray. 

The TPLF-led government has forcefully annexed historical Amhara lands of Wolkite, Tegede, Humera, Tselemti, and Raya-Azebo 

to Tigray. Under the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, the TPLF 

transferred thousands of Tigray settlers to the annexed Amhara 

land in an attempt to change the demographic make-up of the region. 

As the ruling party of Ethiopia, TPLF has been and continues to 

commit ethnic cleansing on the Amhara people in Wolkite. Their 

native tongue, Amharic, is suppressed. Widespread discrimination, 

killing, arrest, torture, and confiscation of land have led to many 

of the ethnic Amhara people in this escaping to Gonder City, other 

regions of Ethiopia, and foreign countries for survival. 

In 2015, under the guidance of the Ethiopian Constitution’s covenants, the Amhara people organized themselves and petitioned 

the Ethiopian Government to have the Wolkite region to rejoin to 

the Amhara State. The response by the TPLF regime was to kidnap the officers of the Wolkite Amhara Identity Committee in the 

middle of the night in 2016, and charge them with terrorism. 

These officers were named in a joint letter to the U.N. Human 

Rights Council by 15 human rights organizations including Human 

Rights Watch and Amnesty International. 

They are: Colonel Demeke Zewudu, who is the face of the Amhara Resistance; Getachew Ademe, Atalay Zafe, Mebratu Getahun, 

Alena Shama, Addisu Serebe, and Nega Banteyehun. 

My family is from Wolkite. I, myself, was born in the Wolkite 

city of Humera. Some of the men arrested are either related to me 

or close to my family. The chairman, Getachew Ademe, was a student of my father. Nega Banteyehun is my cousin. Their crime is 

being Amhara and petitioning the government for the Wolkite region to be rejoined to the Amhara State. 

I have family members who have fled Ethiopia to neighboring 

countries because they are being hunted down, one escaping with 

bullet wounds. I have had to collect money to send to these young 

46

men who have fled to Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. It has been both 

financially and emotionally challenging for us. 

But Wolkite and Raya-Azebo are not the only areas where ethnic 

cleansing and genocidal acts have been committed against Amharas. We can cite in the areas of Benishangul, West and East Arsi 

and Afar between 1990 and 1994, close to 41,800 Amharas were 

killed and 70,000 Amharas were displaced from their homes. In the 

areas of Wollega in the year 2000, 1,200 Amharas were killed and 

14,000 displaced from their homes. During this atrocity, children 

were thrown into fire and a 4-year-old child was forced to drink the 

blood of her dead father. In Bench Maji, 2015, 600 Amharas were 

killed and 22,000 Amharas were displaced from their homes. In 

West Shewa, 500 Amharas were displaced in 2015. Since the Amhara protests began in 2016, over 227, and these are governmentprovided numbers, have been killed, but we believe the numbers 

are much higher. This is just a small sample of the many atrocities 

committed against Amharas. 

As stated in the 2007 Ethiopian Census that was released, the 

Amhara population was short by 21⁄2 million. A debate was not 

even allowed in Parliament when this fact was presented. Some estimates have the number now closer to 5 million. We believe there 

has been a systematic effort by the government to depopulate the 

Amhara population. Thus, the recent protests by Amharas was not 

about democracy or economics, but was simply about their identity, 

their land, and the need to survive as a people. Hundreds have 

been killed while peacefully protesting, hundreds of homes burned 

by security forces in retaliation against Amharas, and thousands 

imprisoned. We can never know the exact number killed, wounded, 

tortured, and arrested unless an independent and transparent investigation is conducted by an international body. 

When all these horrendous acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing 

were occurring, the world including Ethiopian opposition groups 

were silent. It is because of this silence, the Amhara people had no 

other choice but to organize themselves so they may have a voice. 

It is because of this silence and the basic need for survival the Amhara farmers in Gonder and Gojam decided to wage an armed 

struggle. One of the leaders of these brave farmers, Gobe Malke, 

was lost to Amharas just 2 weeks ago. 

The Amharas are not the only victims of this brutal regime, of 

course. We have witnessed the atrocious violence committed 

against Oromos where thousands have been killed while peacefully 

protesting, the Konso people, Anuaks, Afars, Somalis, and I can go 

on. The TPLF regime reasons to represent 6 percent of the Tigray 

population while at the same time suppressing the majority Ethiopian population. In the past 26 years, Ethiopia has received over $30 billion from the United States and over $20 billion from our allies. This figure 

does not take into account the humanitarian aid Ethiopia receives 

from the U.S., Europe, and other donor countries. Still, Ethiopia 

ranks as one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the 

world. Independent research has revealed a corrupt system whereby $2 billion to $3 billion annually is leaving the country. 

Ethiopia is again facing a massive famine, with an estimated 5.6 

million Ethiopians requiring emergency food assistance by June 

47

2017. The question Ethiopian-Americans are asking is where is all 

the U.S. aid going? Where is the accountability from the State Department and European partners? This is not representative of a 

democratic form of governance, and may even be failure by our own 

democratic government to account for taxpayer aid. Unaccountable 

support to the Ethiopian Government does not serve the national 

security interest of the United States. I am honored today to be accompanied to this hearing by one of my younger brothers, Yowseph 

Tirfe, who is a veteran of the U.S. Marines and who proudly served 

a tour in Iraq. He was inspired to give back because he valued and 

wanted to preserve the freedom that he and our parents were afforded as immigrants in this great country. My younger brother, 

Yowseph Tirfe, has served in the United States Army. EthiopianAmericans are law-abiding and tax-paying citizens who are proud 

to be Americans and deeply cherish the security, opportunity, freedom, the value of human rights, and representative democracy we 

have in America. However, we are very disappointed with the U.S. 

foreign policy that has failed the Ethiopian people and have appeased a brutal regime. 

As an Ethiopian-American based organization, the Amhara Association of America has provided a 14 point recommendation that we 

believe will ensure our national security interests and will lead 

Ethiopia on a path to democracy. 

Thank you and I forward to any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Tirfe follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you, sir. Mr. Tafari. 

STATEMENT OF MR. YOSEPH TAFARI, CO-FOUNDER, 

ETHIOPIAN DROUGHT RELIEF AID OF COLORADO 

Mr. TAFARI. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the situation in Ethiopia. 

I would like to open my testimony first by thanking our representative of the 6th District of Colorado, the Honorable Mike 

Coffman, for his unyielding supportive voice for the 

Ethiopian people and our diverse community in the state. I also 

would like to recognize the passionate advocacy of my Ethiopian 

brothers and sisters from the Oromo community, especially Mr. 

Jamal Said, who is here today. 

Please allow me to introduce myself to make relevance of my 

presence before you. My name is Deacon Yoseph Tafari, co-founder 

of the Ethiopian Drought Relief of Colorado. I am an ordained deacon serving under the Archdiocese of the exiled Ethiopian Orthodox 

Holy Synod. I am an entrepreneurial businessman operating a commercial printing company in Colorado. 

I grew up in Ethiopia where in 1976 I was forced to flee Ethiopia 

and seek refuge in the neighboring Sudan. Fortunately, I was allowed to enter the United States as a refugee which paved the way 

to a life-changing journey. Since then, Ethiopia has not fared well 

in most measures, especially since the current TPLF, the Tigray 

People’s Liberation Front, regime took the central political power 

in 1991. Ethiopia has gone from bad to worse. 

Please allow me to provide some of the major aspects of Ethiopia’s profile. 

Religious freedom. One of Ethiopia’s enduring virtues is its 

multi-century tradition of the coexistence of people with various Semitic faiths which exists to the present day of Ethiopia. By and 

large, the Ethiopian Christians, Muslims, and Jews together have 

long recognized the individual right to worship free from persecution as the only way for national cohesiveness. Throughout its history, evidence of common inter-religious marriages, co-observation 

of sacred holidays, social assimilation, mutual inter-dependence for 

trade, and even the gallant sacrifices shared to defend the freedom 

of the country is a rare find anywhere. 

Therefore, in the fight against extremism and global terrorism, 

one can never find a better natural ally than the people of Ethiopia 

who for centuries have possessed the wisdom and ingredients for 

peaceful coexistence amongst people of different religions. This collective asset will undoubtedly contribute far more lasting regional 

stability, provided it is represented by a democratic political structure. Instead, Ethiopia is ruled by a minority ethnic regime which 

has brought about highly destructive governance by perpetually 

marginalizing and terrorizing other ethnic and religious groups by 

pitting one against the other which may yield a damaging consequence to the nation’s unique virtues and ultimately the fight 

against extremism and global terrorism itself. 

Ethnic identity. From the early days of its foundation, TPLF 

goals have been well documented. It is to break up Ethiopia’s population by ethnic identity while simultaneously controlling all the 

55

nation’s resource for the benefit of a single ethic minority group. 

All actions in every layer of civic duties, legislation, public policy, 

economic planning, as well as national security is shaped by this 

singular mission. Today, Ethiopia is strained to a breaking point 

due to excessive marginalization of the majority ethnic population. 

Desperate for their lives, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians are 

fleeing the country making it one of the world’s top refugee producing nations. 

Oromo and Amhara are the two biggest ethnic groups, together 

composing over 65 percent of the population. Since taking power, 

the regime embarked on a national campaign to incite conflict between these two significant ethnic groups to no avail. When the 

clear majority of Ethiopians finally said enough, massive protests 

were sparked across the country. In particular, a joint declaration 

of unity between the Oromo and the Amhara ethnic groups, has resulted in the regime declaring an emergency decree on the entire 

nation. Unlike its predecessor, the TPLF is a silent killer utilizing 

covert methods including assassins, sniper sharp shooters, poisoning, and numerous inhuman methods against its own people. 

The emergency decree is an added blanket tool in its lethal arsenal 

to efficiently execute its barbaric measures against all humanity in 

Ethiopia. 

Much ink has been spilled in documenting the crimes of the 

TPLF regime against the Ethiopian people. In short, Ethiopia is a 

country with no opposition, judicial system, civil society, independent media, or political space. Instead, the country has turned 

into closed killing chambers and the prisons and detention centers 

are packed with thousands of political prisoners while the world is 

looking the other way. 

Ethiopia’s aspiration for genuine democracy and the reality of 

ethnic dictatorship, to point a few highlights in order to frame today’s discussion. 

Religious freedom. All religious institutions are under the strict 

control of the regime making moral challenge virtually impossible 

to the ruling party’s brutal measures. 

Political freedom. Systematic suppression of independent political 

parties especially after its resounding defeat by the opposition parties in the 2005 national election. Since then, the regime has devised the most perfect—I say that again—the most perfect rigging 

mechanism of the entire election process, resulting in ‘‘perfect vote 

score’’ of 100 percent electoral margin in the subsequent national 

elections of 2010 and 2015. 

Independent media. Ethiopia has virtually no independent media 

within its borders and international broadcasters’ signals are regularly jammed. Today, Ethiopia is the second-highest number of 

jailed journalists in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Independent judicial branch. The legislative and judicial bodies 

in Ethiopia are totally controlled by the regime as a convenient ‘‘legalizing platform,’’ an effective tool for the executive branch to rule 

the country at will. 

The military. Ethiopia has no national army. I know this may 

come as a surprise to many, but the entire military apparatus is 

a direct extension of the ruling party, and over 95 percent of its 

56

generals are ethnic Tigray to ensure unwavering loyalty to the minority regime. 

Economy. Highly centralized where by the largest source of gainful employment source in the country is the government itself. In 

order to self-serve the ruling party, it is used as an exclusive weapon for nationwide mechanism to reward its supporters and punish 

its potential foes. Despite claims of growth and prosperity, Ethiopia 

still remains the eighth world’s poorest nation where nearly 20 percent of the population is facing endless chronic famine. 

Mr. DONOVAN [presiding]. We are going to put your entire statement into the record. I just want to give the other witnesses a 

chance to speak and make sure all the members get to ask their 

questions. 

Mr. TAFARI. Can I——

Mr. DONOVAN. Do you want to sum up? Yes, certainly, sir. 

Mr. TAFARI. Okay. Ethiopia has been gripped by an apartheidlike system of governance affecting 100 million of its citizens. The 

regime has repeatedly showed the world that it operates much as 

an underground criminal enterprise than a ruling body with a 

mandate to govern an ancient country like Ethiopia. All its activity 

and sheer existence is for monetary gain from the nation which has 

made a few individuals of the inner circle fabulously wealthy. To 

those individuals, Ethiopia is for sale and the asset of the nation 

is to be monetized in every turn. By providing material assistance 

it receives under the pretext of ‘‘ally against terror’’ the regime 

should never be given the license to terrorize its own people. The 

United States needs to take into account that dictatorship based on 

the sole interest of a minority ethnic group can be the most ruthless force as the world is just witnessing the humanitarian crisis 

unfolding in present-day Syria. The primordial fear of retribution 

becomes a self-fulfilling cycle of suppression and human rights violations by this minority ethnic dictatorship. 

Last, we can find examples within the same continent of much 

better political solutions in which the United States played a major 

role in bringing to historical outcome. This fine example is none 

other than the end of apartheid system in South Africa. In both instances, the culprit for the suffering of the people of Ethiopia and 

South Africa is minority ruling dictatorship. Intrinsic to its core belief, such system can only function by forceful suppression of the 

will of the majority. As a result, both TPLF of Ethiopia and the 

apartheid system of South Africa are the perfect example of 

unsustainable political status quo. 

As in the case of South Africa, the gallant struggle of the majority combined with world economic embargo forced the dictatorship 

to come to the table for peaceful transition, thereby creating a more 

perfect union. In my opinion, that is the ‘‘the fierce urgency of now’’ 

for Ethiopia today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Tafari follows:]

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Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you very much. I have to go on. Mr. Deki. 

STATEMENT OF MR. GUYA ABAGUYA DEKI, REPRESENTATIVE, 

TORTURE ABOLITION AND SURVIVORS SUPPORT COALITION 

Mr. DEKI. Thank you. My name is Abaguya Ayele Deki, I am a 

survivor of torture from Ethiopia. I would like to thank this subcommittee for inviting me to testify at this important hearing, and 

Congressman Chris Smith and Congressmember Karen Bass for introducing House Resolution 128 on Ethiopia. 

I am here today representing the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, TASSC. TASSC is a small organization in 

Washington DC that services to more than 300 torture survivors a 

year, mostly from Africa. Two-thirds of TASSC survivors are from 

Ethiopia. They were brutally tortured and raped for criticizing the 

government, refusing to join the ruling party, exposing government 

corruption, or participating in a peaceful demonstration. 

This is my story. After I contracted polio at age three, my father 

decided I needed an education to survive. He sent me to an orphanage in Addis Ababa where I completed high school. I graduated at 

the top of my class and then became the first student in a wheelchair to enroll at Addis Ababa University. The students used to call 

me the ‘‘wheelchair man.’’

There was and still is lots of prejudice against disabled people in 

Ethiopia. But since I was very young, I decided to fight for my 

rights instead of feeling sorry for myself. I became an activist for 

disability rights and then general manager of the National Association of the Physically Handicapped, a job I held for 7 years. Because I was a leader of such a large independent organization, the 

ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic 

Front, or EPRDF, wanted to control and manipulate me. It tried 

to force me to tell the media and the community what a great job 

the party was doing for disabled people. But this was not true. 

I remember one time before the 2005 election, government cadres 

took wheelchairs donated by the United States, Sweden, and The 

Netherlands had donated and put them on a truck. They drove the 

truck through the city telling people the wheelchairs were a ‘‘gift’’ 

from the ruling party and about how the party helped disabled people. But it was all a big lie. The government did nothing for us. 

It was America and the other foreign donors who helped us. 

The government became much more repressive, especially in 

Addis Ababa, after losing the 2005 election. Cadres started attacking anyone who criticized the government. In many neighborhoods, 

commandos called the Agazi invaded people’s homes and dragged 

the men to hidden prisons. The Agazi threatened the women, saying their husbands and children would be killed if the women did 

not have sex with the Agazi. These Agazi are not part of the police 

or army, they are special forces trained to be killing machines. 

I was detained a total of nine times for refusing to participate 

in activities to promote the ruling party. In 2007, security forces 

abducted me in a van and took me to a jungle about 25 kilometers 

from Addis Ababa. They threw me and my wheelchair out of the 

van, breaking one of my fingers and badly bruising my shoulders. 

They thought I would be killed and eaten by hyenas, since they 

threw me in a place with lots of hyenas. I made a fire from dry 

65

grass using my lighter, local families from the Oromo ethnic group 

found and rescued me. 

In 2010, I was arrested again by security forces in a taxi. The 

driver punched me in my mouth with his pistol and I lost my two 

lower teeth. They kept me for 3 days in solitary confinement in a 

tiny dark cell. My hands were tied to a chair and my mouth was 

wrapped up with dirty wet socks and I had to crawl on the ground 

outside to get to the toilet outside my cell. Friends and board members of my association convinced them to finally release me. 

The government wanted me to go into exile instead of killing me 

because then I would have become a martyr for people with disabilities. 

In 2013, I did leave Ethiopia to save my life and then in 2014, 

I was granted asylum. I am now living in Joseph’s House in Washington, DC, and hope to study computer science at the university. 

I would like to conclude my testimony with some recommendations. 

First, House Resolution 128 refers to the Global Magnitsky 

Human Rights Accountability Act which calls on the United States 

Government to punish individuals or entities responsible for 

killings, torture, and other gross violations of human rights. The 

Magnitsky Act should be applied to leaders of the Agazi killing machine and the security forces guilty of terrible human rights 

abuses. 

Second, House Resolution 128 also calls for better oversight and 

accountability of U.S. assistance to Ethiopia. People need this aid, 

especially to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, improve education, and combat food insecurity. But the government 

divers far too much of this aid for political purposes, to promote the 

ruling party and to pay off government supporters. There needs to 

be a stronger monitoring mechanism to ensure American funds are 

used wisely, not to strengthen Ethiopia’s one party ethnic dictatorship. Also, in certain regions, women from the Amhara ethnic 

group are being possibly sterilized in government hospitals to reduce the Amhara population. USAID should investigate to see if 

any of these forced sterilizations are being carried out in hospitals 

supported by the U.S. assistance. 

Third, please, ask Mr. Girma Birru, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to 

the United States, to tell his government to immediately stop 

harassing the families of tortured survivors and the other Ethiopians in the United States. Many TASSC survivors are upset because the government began harassing their families in Ethiopia 

after they fled the country. 

Thank you for listening to my testimony. I hope the Ethiopian 

Government will pay attention to this hearing and change its policies and that the U.S. Congress will be watching closely to see 

whether Ethiopia makes any specific and concrete changes after 

this hearing. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Deki follows:]

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Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, 

Mr. Deki. 

Each member of the subcommittee will be allowed 5 minutes to 

ask questions. I now recognize myself for 5 minutes. I would like 

to begin by congratulating and recognizing the great work of Chairman Chris Smith and my good friend, Karen Bass from California, 

on House Resolution 128. That is a starting point. 

What I would like to use my 5 minutes up with is to ask you 

each just to describe for 1 minute aside from the House Resolution, 

what do you think the United States can do to help Ethiopia and 

their efforts for a better democracy? 

Ms. JIMJIMO. First, the U.S. has a lot of opportunity to negotiate 

and talk to the Ethiopian Government because they receive millions of aid from the U.S. and not only the aid that comes from 

here, but the influence of other governments whether the European 

Government or Asian, other governments. But they have a leverage 

to influence the whole entire world, how they operate with the 

Ethiopian Government. 

So what they need to do, I think, is the U.S. can, should pressure 

the Ethiopian Government to open up—first they should release all 

political prisoners without any precondition. Lift the state of emergency because what is happening under the state of emergency 

that people cannot record any video. People cannot be seen walking 

together. So they go house to house killing people and lift the state 

of emergency and allow journalists, not just even Ethiopian journalists, but international community, such as what the U.N. asked 

last year for independent investigation. For that to happen, they 

need to force and allow, actually, demand that they do a lot of 

those independent investigations to take place of all those killings. 

The killing is not being reported. 

And another thing is the U.S. does give a lot of money. That 

money should come with a lot of accountability. For example, the 

question that was asked earlier, U.S. gives millions of dollars and 

is that money going to certain people even if it is going to a small 

amount of people. The vast majority of that money is being used 

even if it goes to the people, it goes to the people through only government channel with you support me, you do this, or you vote for 

me or you do something for me, then you get this fertilizer, you get 

this kind of aid. So make sure those civic organizations actually do 

exist and the new proclamation system they have is like everything 

is through government. There is no NGO or independent organization that is operating independently outside of Ethiopia, even the 

international organizations. 

So the U.S. has huge leverage. They should use this leverage to 

open up the political space, request the release of political prisoners, lift the state of emergency and above all, I think it is time 

that Ethiopia should not continue to be ruled with the one party, 

even though they fake federalism, that does not actually exist. But 

that is what I think should happen. 

[Additional information follows:]

ADDITIONAL WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION

ASKED DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE DANIEL DONOVAN

The Ethiopian regime is a one-party state that has been in power for the past 

26 years. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) controls 

71

100% of the political space at all levels—local, regional and state, plus the legislative, executive, judiciary and security apparatus of the country while the majority 

of the people of Ethiopia, particularly in Oromia and Amhara states, which add up 

to at least 60% the entire population, has rejected the regime. Hence, the State of 

Emergency to control a large swath of the country by direct military command 

posts. 

Lack of tolerance by the EPRDF for multiparty democracy is the leading obstacle 

to the opportunity for democratic tradition taking root in Ethiopia. EPRDF on its 

owe will never open up the political space in Ethiopia without either outside pressure or inside turmoil. We have seen this since the 2005 election, at which point 

the EPRDF experimented with democracy and seen the outcome, which was not favorable to EPRDF, and since closed the democratic avenues firmly, by passing laws 

that effectively bans civic societies and independent political parties. 

The current situation in Ethiopia is a clear recipe for a devastating instability in 

the Horn of Africa unless stopped—a region already troubled by civil wars, failed 

states, famine, extremism and other natural disasters. Therefore, in addition to already introduced H. Res. 128, the United States government should consider the following options in order to give democracy a chance in Ethiopia: 

A. Since, the second largest regional state—Amhara regional state has joined 

Oromia in resisting EPRDF rule, the United States policy towards Ethiopia has to 

show a paradigm shift i.e. recognize Oromia political actors as the future of Ethiopia 

in regards to betterment of the efforts of the people of Ethiopia for democracy. 

B. The United States should provide tangible efforts such as training, diplomatic, 

financial and other support to start dialog with opposition party that represent constituent not the one the government creates at free will when they deem necessary 

to confuse/manipulate the international community. 

C. Insist for immediate access to Ethiopia by the UN human rights rapporteur 

to conduct an independent investigation into the Ethiopian state brutality against 

peaceful demonstration in Oromia, Amhara, Gambela and other regional states. 

D. Demand the immediate release of tens of thousands of political prisons in Ethiopia, including prominent democratic leaders such as Mr.Bekle Gerba, Dr. Merera 

Gudina, federal judge Wabe Jarso, highly respected elder and lawyer Mr. Dekeba 

Wario and highly respected historian, thinker and cultural guru Dabasa Guyo, journalist, and all other political prisoners in the country. 

E. Accept the fact that EPRDF had 26 long years to improve democracy in Ethiopia and failed or has shown no interest in listening to the United States in this 

regards. So, the United States should consider a new policy vis-a-vis the democratic 

transition of power in Ethiopia. In this regards, it may pay off to sponsor a research 

project that can objectively study the possibilities for nurturing effective opposition 

or alternative political force/s that is/are able to replace the EPRDF and make recommendations to the United States government who should be supported. 

F. The United States remains among the largest donors to Ethiopia. The United 

State development assistance to Ethiopia focuses on reducing famine vulnerability, 

hunger, and poverty and emphasizes economic, governance, and social sector policy 

reforms. Moreover, as a strategic United States alliance in war against terrorism, 

Ethiopia also receives large sums of money and technical aid towards its military 

and intelligence capability. The EPRDF uses money from aid given to the Ethiopian 

regime for total domination and favoring its own supporters as a means to remain 

in power. Hence, the United States must give aid money and assistance directly to 

local and international non-governmental organizations to deliver to the people in 

need of assistance rather than funding a corrupt regime.

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you very much. Mr. Tirfe, I know you said 

you had 14 points. If you could just summarize what they are. You 

didn’t think I was listening, did you? 

Mr. TIRFE. I guess you did listen. Thank you for that. And thank 

you for your question. I won’t repeat what Seenaa said, so to echo 

what she said, the U.S. does have a lot of leverage. 

Ethiopian Government, the TPLF government mainly is heavily 

dependent on foreign aid. So that foreign aid can be used to open 

up some things within Ethiopia to allow the political space and 

other civic organizations to operate. So not just the foreign aid that 

comes from America, but also from our allies. But America can lead 

that effort. 

72

One of the things that is really concerning to us is to allow for 

an international, independent and transparent investigation into 

the cost of 21⁄2 million to 5 million missing Amharas. As he has just 

stated, that there is a belief that there is a forced sterilization effort of Amhara women that has been taken place to depopulate the 

Amhara population. We cannot know that unless there is an independent investigation that happens there. And there is a belief that 

there is a silent genocide that is occurring now amongst the Amhara population. 

Also, we need a push to allow for international independent 

transparent investigation into all the deaths caused by the Ethiopian security forces and other human rights violations and hold 

those responsible accountable. 

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you. I only have 30 seconds left. I need to 

let these two gentlemen speak. Thank you. 

Mr. TIRFE. Sure. 

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you and we will review every one of those 

14 points. I promise you. 

Mr. TIRFE. And I will follow up. 

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you. Mr. Tafari. 

Mr. TAFARI. How many seconds do I have? 

Mr. DONOVAN. Fourteen now, but go ahead. 

Mr. TAFARI. Well, in that case, I will just state one. Immediate 

hold of direct foreign aid to the Ethiopian Government, especially 

direct budgetary assistance, and all humanitarian assistance 

should be applied to a direct humanitarian organization on the 

ground, preferably the United Nations’ World Food Programme. 

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you, sir. Mr. Deki, do you have any recommendations to the United States? 

Mr. DEKI. I would say if United States doesn’t give due recognition for this dictatorship as elected government so that they cannot 

use this political support or recognition to harm the people back 

home. So United States should scrutinize that. The minority represented party cannot be elected 100 percent. Therefore, the United 

States, the first and most important to just denying political recognition. Thank you. 

Mr. DONOVAN. Thank you, sir. And thank you again for sharing 

your story with us. And best of luck with your studies. 

The chair now recognizes my friend from California, the ranking 

member of the subcommittee, Karen Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I wanted to ask a few 

questions. I mentioned in the first panel that a reference was made 

to a letter from the Embassy of Ethiopia, but Chairman Smith says 

it is a from a consulting firm that was paid a hefty amount of 

money, $1.8 million, he presumes. But I want to raise several of 

the things that are mentioned in their letter. 

If I cut you off, it is only because I have limited time and so I 

want everybody to have an opportunity to respond. 

So one of the things it is said in this letter is that it is not that 

the EPRDF controls all of the seats in Parliament. They control 

500 out of 546. And that there are 46 seats that are controlled by 

other parties. So I want to know is that true, yes or no? 

73

Ms. JIMJIMO. The short is that is not true because even if those 

46 persons, these people are 100 percent controlled by EPRDF in 

every aspect of the government. 

[Additional information follows:]

ADDITIONAL WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION

ASKED DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE KAREN BASS

In order to answer this question one needs to understand what EPRDF is. The 

EPRDF is an alliance of four parties: the TPLF based in the Tigray Region; the 

OPDO, which is based in the Oromia Region; the ANDM based in the Amhara Region; and the SEPDF based in the Southern Nations. Nationalities, and People’s Region. This alliance won 500 seats in the national parliament. 

The OPDO, ANDM, and SEPDF are surrogate organizations controlling their respective regions for the TPLF. Now, the TPLF has also created surrogate organizations (although not formally part of the EPRDF alliance) for the rest of the regions: 

SPDP in Somali Region; BGPDP in Benishangul Gumuz Region; ANDP in Afar Region, GPDM in Gambela Region; APDO in Argoba Region; and HNL in Hareri Region. These surrogate organisations created by TPLF won 47 seats.

Map of Ethiopia’s regional states 

Although the EPRDF alleges that it won 500 out of 547 seats, I reality the 

EPRDF controls 100% the seats through its surrogate parties. 

Time and again they have openly and proudly have bragged about winning 100% 

of the seats. In addition, United State national security advisory Susan Rice said 

they won by 100% at press statement on July 22, 2015. In fact, whether EPRDF 

controls 100% or 90% of the so-called parliamentary seats is academic as on the 

ground the EPRDF controls the entire economic, social and political lives of people 

in Ethiopia.

Ms. BASS. Okay, the second question is that there has been a 

halt to the moving of people off the land, that that has been halted; 

that the plans to incorporate farm land around Addis Ababa were 

on hold. Is this still the case? Has there been any seizure of land 

taking place elsewhere in the country? Mr. Tirfe? 

Mr. TIRFE. I mean right now, Representative Bass, Ethiopia is 

under a state of emergency and so to know what is going on in 

terms of moving people outside of their land is very difficult. But 

one thing that we do know, the Amharas in the Wolkite region are 

being moved out of their land and in fact, because out of fear, their 

own, themselves, they are moving. They are leaving that area into 

safer regions and many are escaping to neighboring countries. 

[A written response follows:]


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WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION ASKED

DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE KAREN BASS

No, the expansion of the capital and displacing Oromo farmers is not halted. It 

is true that the Ethiopian regime was forced to announce that it will abandon the 

plan for the expansion of the capital in January 2016, after two months of protests 

by the Oromo people who have complained about the handling of the expansion into 

their land. However, the regime has announced a renewal of the expansion known 

as the ’Master Plan’ and the formation of a special committee that will have an 

oversight of the removal of 20,000 Oromo households (estimated 100,000 people) 

from areas surrounding the capital, according to a special broadcast on Ethiopian 

Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) television, on 13 December 2016. After this was announced, the Oromo people would have been back on the streets demonstrating 

against the renewed expansion of the capital had it not been for the State of Emergency and the military command posts all over Oromia. 

The scale of the so called ’integrated zone’ covered in the plan for the expansion 

of the capital (’Master Plan’) needs to be understood. The plan for expansion in the 

plan includes a 1.1m hectare strip of land around the city, outside the current municipal boundaries. A glance at the map shows the expansion of Addis Ababa would 

have neatly bisect Oromia.

It is my understanding that the regime is determined to implement the expansion 

of the capital into Oromo land for the purpose of ethnic cleansing rather than a natural development of the capital. In so many town planning experts’ opinions the capital must grow upwards rather than into the villages and small towns in the vicinity 

with all its disastrous consequences for human life and the environment. 

Furthermore, it is important to remember the behavior of this government. Like 

other policies they announce time and again they will only change the name and 

tactic not actually address the root issue. In the case of ’Master Plan’, not only did 

they made the same statement of halt in 2014 but also the party leaders like Abay 

Tsahaye have said it out in open on the national TV that the plan will be implement 

one way or the others. Therefore, they cannot be trusted or their word cannot be 

taken literally because of ...


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EBC TV programme 13 Dec 2016 (screenshot)

Ms. BASS. Okay, the ruling party has said that they are embarking on a dialogue and a negotiation with 22 opposition parties. The 

dialogue and consultations will include a discussion on amending 

the election laws and encouraging the participation on different 

voices in Parliament. Mr. Tafari? 

Mr. TAFARI. The history of TPLF, the EPRDF is woeful in terms 

of having to cooperate and work with any opposition group, with 

anyone. 

[A written response follows:]

WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION ASKED

DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE KAREN BASS

To begin with only three are truly opposition groups while 19 others are simply 

created by government. Second, as of now the single largest opposition party, Oromo 

Federalist Congress (OFC) have formal withdrawn. Third, if the opposition parties’ 

leaders are in jail who are they negotiating with? In fact, on the latest interview 

by the largest option party, MEDREK leader Prof. Beyene Petros (an umbra organization that represent several different option, Oromo Federalist Congress, Sidama 

Liberation Front, Union of Tigreans for Democracy and Sovereignty and the Ethiopian Social Democracy—Southern Ethiopian people Democratic Union) said there is 

no point without of staying on table if our demand were not met. According to him 

the PM . . . seem to walk back on something he promised the party leader. To be 

frank to expect this negotiation will be fruitful is totally absurd because these socalled opposition parties know if they do not accept they will be arrested or worse 

killed or pushed to exile.

Ms. BASS. Is there a dialogue that is taking place? 

Mr. TAFARI. There is, but all we have to do is go back 40 years 

of their history to see how we see these type of dialogues would 

come to a real fruition. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. Measures were taken on the government officials who were engaged in corrupt practices and some were removed from office and the legal process is underway. Mr. Deki? 

Mr. DEKI. This is a big lie. The TPLF is known by its big lie. 

Ms. BASS. Go ahead. 

Mr. DEKI. I would like to remember the past history of TPLF 

which says we can negotiate just below the sun. Everything then 

after just starting the negotiation and the opposition parties came 


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to the table, then the facilitator is changed from the Prime Minister and then it is forgotten. They are killing people like that. 

They are very much well versed in this manipulation. 

[A written response follows:]

WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION ASKED

DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE KAREN BASS

Nothing is far from this or the truth in this regard. This sort of shenanigan 

by the regime is not new. They regime has been engaged in ’removing corrupt officials’ since the mid 1990 starting from the removal of the then prime minister Mr. 

Tamrat Layne (removed from office on charge of corruption in 1995). The fact is the 

real corrupt inner TPLF circle is never removed. The ruling elite uses corruption 

as a pretext to get rid of opponents and non-loyal officials. They had two decades 

to stump out corruption, but nothing seems working. If anything, corruption is getting worse by the day. For instance, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Ethiopia ranks 103 out of 168 countries and territories 

included in 2015 index [https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015]. 

Moreover, in the case of recent 2016 Oromo Protests, there is no single individual 

brought to court or announced to public they were removed from office either for 

corruption or violating/ excessive use of force that killed hundreds by government 

admission. If the rotation or reshuffling of the Oromia president or few high officials 

is/can be considered the government is addressing corruption than these people are 

only placed in different position. How is rotating or reshuffling can be/should be considered as addressing corruption? If not government need to show or name a single 

individual who lost his/her job because of corruption or killing hundreds of unarmed 

protests.

Ms. BASS. So going back to what I was referring to in the past 

about the elections in 2015, there were a number of televised debates during which all sorts of political issues were voiced and argued between the candidates. Back to Ms. Jimjimo. 

Mr. TIRFE. Can you repeat the question, Representative Bass? 

Ms. BASS. Sure. In the last election, there were numerous televised debates during which all sorts of political issues were voiced 

and argued between the candidates. This is in contrast to the notion that there has been diminished political space. 

[A written response follows:]

WRITTEN RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO TO QUESTION ASKED

DURING THE HEARING BY THE HONORABLE KAREN BASS

First, even during televised debate the opposition parties were given only limited 

time whereas the EPRDF was given as much time as it liked. Second, right after 

televised debate where Mr. Bekele Gerba gave influential statement he was given 

ultimatum, warning and physical abuse by the EPRDF security agents for speaking 

what he believed and forthright. Hence, the debate was nothing more than a fac ̨ade 

that the EPRDF used for tricking donors and the international community. The people of Ethiopia are forced to vote for the EPRDF not because the EPRDF was better 

at debate but rather uses underhand techniques of controlling the population for 

people voting for the opposition parties are not entitled to employment, food aid, 

land or any rights that the people who grudgingly vote for EPRDF. 

Therefore, what is the purpose of televised debate when there is no fair or free 

election where international observers are not present? 

Moreover, could quasi debate whereby individuals know what they say on that 

stage will be used against them as ’plan to terrorize or overthrow government’ be 

a real indicator for open and free debate let alone ground for fair election? How 

come those who spoke against the policy of the government are relinquishing in jail? 

How come opposition leader Mr. Gerba sits in jail with terrorism charge while his 

party is not labeled as such or sits in jail for over 14 months without government 

haven to provide his link or action to terrorism? To governments’ admission over 

28,000 people were arrested since the State of Emergency’’ and what are the crimes 

of those individuals beside taken part in peaceful rally to express their grievance? 

In what nation, can a government impose such restriction in social media, arrested 

thousands of people without justification, implement state of martial law simply to 

control dissent and continue to intimidate citizen while receiving unconditional supVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:13 Apr 20, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00080 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\_AGH\030917\24585 SHIRL
77

port to which millions end up in military training to kill, arrest and abuse citizen? 

When should the international community say enough that a country that received 

30 billion in aid and stole 30 billion (Steinan) https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/

2017/03/03/ethiopias-cruel-con-game/#17e5352b29d0, refused UN request and ignore 

US continues concern statement? When or where is the red line for Ethiopian government?

Mr. TIRFE. Representative Bass, the TPLF-led political party won 

100 percent of all parliamentarian seats in 2015. 

Ms. BASS. They won 500 out of 546. 

Mr. TIRFE. One hundred percent and the regional seats, 100 percent also. So imagine the Democratic or Republican party winning 

all of Congress, as well as the governors and——

Ms. BASS. Depending on which party you are in. 

Mr. TIRFE. Right. I know many of us refer to 2015, but if we go 

back to the 2005 election, they won 99.99 percent of all the parliamentarian seats. 

Ms. BASS. I think the point of the letter was to show that some 

progress had been made and so that was the question. 

Mr. TIRFE. No, because we went from 2005 election where there 

was one opposing member in Parliament to in 2015, there is none. 

They won 100 percent. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

Ms. JIMJIMO. I would like to just answer that. The thing is they 

have arrested all liable, all actual opposition parties. They are in 

jail. So they create their own party and they bring 22 parties. 

There is no dominant or a voice that is talking to them. They created, they make up and then they call is a negotiation. I just wanted to add that. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. I yield back my time. 

Mr. DONOVAN. The chair recognizes for 10 seconds because he 

has to leave for somewhere else. Actually, it is Mr. Rohrabacher’s 

time, but the chair is going to recognize Mr. Suozzi for 10 seconds. 

Mr. SUOZZI. I just want to thank all of you because I know how 

difficult it was for you to get here and prepare for this today. I 

apologize that I can’t stay, but thank you very much. [Speaking foreign language.] Thank you very much. 

Mr. DONOVAN. We had to allow him to show you that he studied 

before the hearing. The chair now recognizes my friend from California, Mr. Rohrabacher. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. First and foremost, I would like to thank the 

witnesses for coming here and to putting yourselves in a public 

place on the record, when you were dealing with a brutal regime 

that you have no idea whether or not you will face retaliation. So 

thank you for having the courage and thank you for your patriotism to your country of Ethiopia. 

And frankly, I believe all those people who believe in honest government, all those people who believe in honest elections and representative government are all basically Americans at heart. So 

your fellow Americans who share those values wish you well. 

I want to thank Chris Smith as the chairman of this subcommittee. I believe the fact that he has put this hearing together, 

he has been unrelenting in his efforts to expand freedom and respect for the dignity of individuals around this world. And nowhere 

is that message of Chris Smith more important than in Ethiopia. 

78

And let me just say that I think it is disgraceful, especially after 

the election of 2005 where it was clearly a loss of ruling party and 

then we end up with understanding that a—I don’t know what I 

want to describe it as—an offensive after the election with military 

equipment spreads out throughout the country of Ethiopia and the 

people of Ethiopia begin feeling oppression immediately after a 

supposed free election. And the worst part of that is that these people who were out there in their uniforms have American weapons 

that they were using to repress their own people. 

I believe there has to be some level that we Americans have, if 

indeed we do share, if we really are soul mates with people who 

love freedom around the world, at the very least, we should say 

that corrupt regimes that utilize weapon systems from the United 

States to repress their own people will be not be provided those 

weapons. So I would renew that today. It is time to eliminate Ethiopia from its ability to purchase and to obtain United States weapons. 

Okay, so what is the result of all of this? What is going on? The 

result of this is you have repression, political repression. How does 

it manifest itself? Twenty percent of the people of Ethiopia are 

hungry. They are starving. This is outrageous. This is a country 

that has every ability to feed itself if it had honest government and 

instead, you have a small clique running Ethiopia and we have 

heard the testimony today. A small clique that is corrupt and brutal and the product of that raping of that country, the product of 

that is not only repression, but misery and hunger for a larger percentage of its people. 

It is disgraceful and it is time for the United States—I understand during this whole war against radical Islam and we have 

been at war with radical Islam because they are at war with us, 

radical Islamist terrorists want to hurt the United States. We have 

used that as an excuse to form a relationship with a horrible regime. 

I have to ask you now if we didn’t support this government in 

Ethiopia that says it is helping us with radical Islamic terrorists, 

wouldn’t just regular people and a really honestly elected government be against radical Islamist terrorism? There you go. 

Now let me let you know how I understand, how I came to understand this issue. I am a surfer out in California. That is what 

I do. I am a surfer. I couldn’t help but notice that there was a black 

surfer who was with me out in the water. So one of the few black 

surfers in California is Petros Berhane who comes from Ethiopia 

and became one of my best friends. And his family owned a major 

distillery in Addis Ababa and when the communists took over, they 

left, they fled and his family are now U.S. citizens, proud U.S. citizens. 

Anyway, he told me about the plight of his family. And after the 

communists left, they were supposed to get back the distillery. All 

of the property that was illegally confiscated was supposed to be 

given back by the current ruling clique. But instead the current 

ruling clique found out that his distillery had actually been making 

money and so they are not getting back their distillery. 

And the reason I am telling you this is because I have been a 

Member of Congress here for a number of years. I am a senior 

79

member, so I have been working for my—he is my surfing buddy, 

but he is also my constituent who I am watching out for his needs. 

And I was demanding that the Ethiopian Government, if they are 

not going to give back that distillery at least give him some compensation for taking the distillery. Well, the government there has 

been so arrogant they refused to even consider any type of compensation. 

I had the Overseas Private Investment Corporation do an analysis to make sure that that claim was a legitimate claim. And they 

came back and they said yes, we find the fact that the Berhane 

family honestly owns that and they should be given some compensation for it. Well, I said okay. There is going to be no loans 

guaranteed through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation 

to Ethiopia until they treat this American citizen right and do justice by him. All of these years now, it has been over 10 years, 

maybe 15 years. The Government of Ethiopia is so arrogant, or also 

may be making money from the distillery themselves, that they 

were willing to sacrifice the well-being of the people of Ethiopia in 

order not to pay any just compensation to a man whose distillery 

had been illegally confiscated. 

Now if you just take Petros out of the picture and you just say 

these people who are heading that government do not care anything enough about their people because all these investments 

which we would have been involved with helping bringing jobs and 

money and wealth to the people, they rejected that because they 

themselves were not going to necessarily benefit from it as compared to owning that distillery or whatever they are getting from 

that distillery. So if we have a government that cares that little 

about their own people, a government that basically represents a 

very small minority of people in Ethiopia and we are providing that 

small clique, that corrupt and brutal clique, it is time for the 

United States to step up and say we made a mistake by going 

down the road with that clique of people. We should be friends with 

the overall population of Ethiopia and not just that clique. That 

would serve America’s interests as well as the people of Ethiopia. 

Mr. DONOVAN. I would like to ask our guests to respect to decorum of the chamber. Thank you, Member Rohrabacher. 

This concludes the testimony and the questions of the members 

of the hearing. I remind everyone that the record of the hearing 

will remain open for 10 days. Many of the members may have 

other questions they may want to submit during that 10-day period. We that all of you submit your answers to those questions in 

writing. I thank you all for appearing today. I thank you for your 

testimony. 

Again, Mr. Deki, I thank you for sharing your experiences with 

all of us. 

The Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human 

Rights, and International Organizations is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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A P P E N D I X 

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS


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