Below is an article published by Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa:

It has been a nightmare for families that the whereabouts of their children is not known since the end of the school year of 2011. Among Oromo students left their campuses up on the closure of the Universities at the end of the school year in June 2011 some were not returned to their home of birth place according the information the HRLHA reporter received from the families and friends of the victims. Some of the family members even traveled more than 800 km to seek information about their missing children from the Universities where they were used to attend.  However, none of them obtained credible information about of their children until this report is compiled.

The HRLH reporter managed to get the following nineteen names among many Oromo students believed kidnapped by the Ethiopian Security force at different places and time on their way to their home in June 2011.

Background Information - HRLHA has been  repeatedly reported hundreds of Oromo students have been  abducted, kidnapped, detained, and many of them tortured and killed in this year (2011) with unfounded allegation on suspicion of links with the OLF.

HRLHA calls up on the Ethiopian Government to immediately halt racial and discriminatory human rights abuses against Oromo young generation and disclose where they are detained and also urges unconditionally release of these students. HRLHA also calls up on regional and international diplomatic, democratic, and human rights agencies to make a pressure on  Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF regime to stop  its persistent brutal, dictatorial, and suppressive actions against innocent Oromo students who attempt to exercise their democratic rights granted in the Ethiopian constitution (1995), article 29.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: 

Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its concerned officials as swiftly as possible, in English, Ahmaric, or your own language expressing:

Urging the Ethiopian Government to disclose the whereabouts of the kidnapped Oromo Students

Your Concerns at the apprehension and fear of Torture

Urging the authorities of Ethiopia to ensure that these detainees are treated in accordance with regional and international standards on the treatment of prisoners,

Your concerns to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your country.

To:

His Excellency: Mr. Meles Zenawi – Prime Minister of Ethiopia

P.O.Box – 1031,Addis Ababa

Telephone: +251 155 20 44; +251 111 32 41, Fax: +251 155 20 30, +251 1552020

His Excellency Birhan Hailu –Min. of Justice

PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Fax: +251 11 5517775; +251 11 5520874      Email: [email protected]

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland 

Fax: + 41 22 917 9022 (particularly for urgent matters)         E-mail: [email protected] 

ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross

19 Avenue de la paix CH 1202 Geneva

Tel: +41 22 734 60 01, Fax: +41 22 733 20 57, E-mail [email protected]

African Commission on Human and Peoples‘ Rights (ACHPR)

48 Kairaba Avenue, P.O.Box 673, Banjul, The Gambia.

Tel: (220) 4392 962 , 4372070, 4377721 – 23 Fax: (220) 4390 764 Email: [email protected]

U.S. Department of State

Tom Fcansky – Foreign Affairs Officer

Email: [email protected] Washington, D.C. 20037

Tel: +1-202-261-8009,            Fax: +1-202-261-8197

Amnesty International – London

Tom Gibson

Telephone: +44-20-74135500, Fax number: +44-20-79561157

Email;- [email protected]

Human Rights Watch – New York,

Leslie Lefkow

[email protected]; [email protected]