{"id":60088,"date":"2015-12-17T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T10:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/ethiopia-anti-terror-rhetoric-will-escalate-brutal-crackdown-against-oromo-protesters\/"},"modified":"2015-12-17T12:14:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T10:14:18","slug":"ethiopia-anti-terror-rhetoric-will-escalate-brutal-crackdown-against-oromo-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/ethiopia-anti-terror-rhetoric-will-escalate-brutal-crackdown-against-oromo-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia: Anti-terror rhetoric will escalate brutal crackdown against Oromo protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span dir=\"ltr\"> LONDON, United Kingdom, December 17, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Protesters have been labelled \u2018terrorists\u2019 by Ethiopian authorities in an attempt to violently suppress protests against potential land seizures, which have already resulted in 40 deaths, said Amnesty International.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>A statement issued by state intelligence services today claims that the Oromia protesters were planning to \u201cdestabilize the country\u201d and that some of them have a \u201cdirect link with a group that has been collaborating with other proven terrorist parties\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe suggestion that these Oromo &#8211; protesting against a real threat to their livelihoods &#8211; are aligned to terrorists will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression for rights activists,\u201d said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International\u2019s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of condemning the unlawful killings by the security forces, which have seen the deaths of more than 40 people in the last three weeks, this statement in effect authorizes excessive use of force against peaceful protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latest round of protests, now in their third week, are against the government\u2019s master plan to integrate parts of Oromia into the capital Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n<p>Similar protests against the master plan in April 2014 resulted in deaths, injuries and mass arrest of the Oromo protesters.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia\u2019s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation 652\/2009, permits the government to use unrestrained force against suspected terrorists, including pre-trial detention of up to four months.<\/p>\n<p>People that have been subject to pre-trial detention under the anti-terrorism law have reported widespread use of torture and ill treatment. All claims of torture and ill treatment should be promptly and independently investigated by the authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government should desist from using draconian anti-terrorism measures to quell protests and instead protect its citizen\u2019s right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,\u201d said Muthoni Wanyeki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON, United Kingdom, December 17, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; Protesters have been labelled \u2018terrorists\u2019 by Ethiopian authorities in an attempt to violently suppress protests against potential land seizures, which have already resulted in 40 deaths, said Amnesty International. A statement issued by state intelligence services today claims that the Oromia protesters were planning to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-60088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}