Oromo youth demand release of detainees

The Oromo Youth Association (OYA) has demanded the immediate release of students and activists detained by the Ethiopian security forces. The OYA said that it “condemned” the activities of police in continuing to detain student protesters arrested during riots two weeks ago. The OYA - affiliated to the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)- called on the United States, the European Union, the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations to impose sanctions on the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front until it “lives up to its obligations to the OAU and UN charters on human and civil rights”. The OYA said that over 20,000 Oromos were currently imprisoned in Ethiopia, suspected of being OLF members, supporters or sympathisers. Local sources told IRIN that while there was no confirmation of the numbers of Oromos currently detained, police had recently forcibly intervened in a dispute on the Addis Ababa campus between Oromo and Tigrayan students which may have contributed to the tensions in the university. The source added that there are concerns that the authorities had taken the opportunity to arrest Oromo activists during the recent unrest. The OLF withdrew from the coalition government in 1992. It is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government, which has said it enjoys no support in country.