Gumii Paarlaamaa Oromoo

Over 200 OFDM and OPC Oromo Oppostion members arrested in Ethiopia

Meles Zenawi’s regime in Ethiopia has so far this week rounded up and thrown in jail over 200 members of Medrek, a coalition of eight opposition parties.

Most of the detainees are from the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM) and the Oromo People’s Congress (OPC)

According to Medrek secretary general, 217 OFDM and 40 OPC members have been arrested this week. The whereabouts of many of the detainees are not known.

The Meles regime is rounding up opposition members in a preemptive action to prevent the popular uprising that is sweeping through northern Africa and the Middle East from erupting in Ethiopia.

Meles is also purging some of his own officials in the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), a member of the ruling Woyanne coalition. It’s reported that over 150 high- and mid-ranking OPDO have been arrested in during the past few days and charged with corruption.

From the many (over one hundreds) victims of this most recent political wave, the HRLHA has managed, through its local correspondents, to obtain the names of the following together with some details of their situations:

Mr. Sorsa Dabala, Mr. Getachew Gobana, and four other Oromo nationals whose whereabouts are not known after they were extra-judicially picked up on from different locations at different times by members of security forces of the federal government.

According to information so far obtained by HRLHA in this regard, Mr. Sorsa Dabala, an employee of a private company called F-FARM, was taken from his home in the Burayu locality of the Capital Addis Ababa/Finfinne on March 14, 2011 by federal governments, along with four other Oromo nationals (who could not be identified by names at this moment) at the same time from the same neighbourhood in Burayu area.

Mr. Getachew Gobana was kidnapped by the federal government security agents on February 25, 2011 around the area known as Wallaga Tara in the heart of the Capital.

Although there are unconfirmed reports that Mr. Sorsa Dabala and other Oromo nationals arrested with him were being held at the Ma’ikalawi Central Investigation Office, family members and close friends of Mr. Getacho Gobana have not been able to know anything about him including his whereabouts.