While his peers were eagerly awaiting the landing of Santa Claus, young Canadian Bekam Habtamu made the following appeal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Christmas Eve 2015. On the other side of the globe, in Oromia/Ethiopia, young Oromo children were being given bullets as Christmas gifts by the Ethiopian government as the Ethiopian government continues to disturb the peace of the Oromo people by illegally grabbing farmlands – thereby destroying the livelihoods of millions of Oromo farmers, and then killing, maiming and arresting hundreds and thousands of Oromos for peacefully protesting against these land thefts.
Text:
I am writing to you as a constituent to express my extreme concern about the situation unfolding in Ethiopia and to call upon the Canadian government to issue a statement condemning the killing of innocent civilians expressing their democratic rights in Ethiopia.
The Oromo people have been oppressed, subjugated, tortured, raped, killed, not to mention economically disadvantaged and systematically disenfranchised, for more than a century. They are now rising and demonstrating peacefully against a plan that will uproot up to 2 million farmers and their families, and rob them of their livelihoods. Their protests are being met with bullets and over 100 students, including 11 and 12 year olds, have been murdered by the government. Protesters are being charged with acts of terrorism and denied bail. Doctors and nurses are being targeted contrary to international conventions.
Despite all this, the Canadian government continues to disburse $73 million dollars in development assistance to the Ethiopian government annually. How can Canada continue to support such a regime and turn a blind eye to the atrocities being committed? How can Canada be sure that those $73 million are not being used to buy the bullets and fund the army and police that are killing civilians?
Ethiopia could be a beacon of light for Africa. But we cannot get there if the Ethiopian government continues to oppress and deny citizens their basic human rights. Respect of human rights must be a precondition to Canada’s development assistance in Ethiopia.
Will this new Canadian government finally take a stand and condemn the actions of this regime or will it let the situation degenerate into a genocidal war? Why is it that the Canadian government was so quick to react to the shooting in Paris and have not said a word about the terrorist acts being committed by the Ethiopian government against its own citizens, the Oromo people? Do African lives not matter?
Enough is enough. We expect more leadership from our government. Oromo lives matter.