“Such a Brutal Crackdown”

themselves in to authorities. Human Rights Watch and others have documented similar
tactics in Oromia in the past. 56
Security officials also arrested those suspected of hiding protesters in their homes. Lelisa,
a woman who assisted students fleeing the security forces in Arsi in early December, said:
I wasn’t at the protests but I heard gunfire all day long and into the night.
Students were running away and hiding themselves. Ten students came to
me and asked for help so I hid them from the police. The police were going
door-to-door at night arresting students. They came to my house, arrested
all the boys and I convinced them that the three girls were my daughters.
Then an hour later they came back and arrested my husband. They beat him
in front of me, when I begged them not to kill him they kicked me and hit
me with the butt of their gun. They took him away. I have heard nothing
from him since. 57
Arrests at Schools and Universities
Human Rights Watch documented four cases where security forces arrested students or
teachers in their classrooms to prevent students from protesting or to deter future
protests. Midasa, an 18-year-old Grade 7 student from Hidilola in Borana zone said:
It was the second day of the first round of protests in Hidilola. The police
came to our school and wouldn’t let anyone leave. We were all called into
the courtyard and all our names were read out to see who was there. After
your name was called out if you were present you were told to go to the
classroom or the principal’s office – if you were sent there [the principal’s
office], you were taken to jail. I went to the classroom. The teacher was
telling us if anyone protested they would be expelled from school, and then
the same police came in and started just randomly grabbing and hitting
56 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, “Because I am Oromo’, Sweeping Repression in the Oromia Region of
Ethiopia,” October 10, 2014, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/006/2014/en/ (accessed May 19, 2016).
57 Human Rights Watch interview with #16, location withheld, January 2016.
“SUCH A BRUTAL CRACKDOWN” 30