Request for the release of Human and land right Activists, Ethiopia

From: The Organization of Tigreans Network for Advancing Actions (OTNAA)
To: The Ethiopian Government (Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed) and its backers: the United States Government), UK Government
German Government, Swiss Government, Canadian Government, and the World Bank, Human Right Watch, Amnesty International.

Helping to give indigenous and marginalized people a voice about their most precious resources—their land and their food—is NO treason; it is the foundation of a democratic and sustainable development policy. We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the arrest of Ethiopian human right, land activists and demand for their release!

In April 14, 2019, Nebiyu Sihul Michael, and other dozens of Endarta youth have been kidnapped in Tigray Ethiopia by the special forces of the region while they were participating in the community based cleaning program called by the current prime minster.

These human right activists of land and indigenous rights have been detained for 3 days without charges and their whereabouts is not known. Their families have been denied from visiting them. The opposition political party of the region, Arena Tigray, Chairman Abraha Desta has requested the police their situations and police prevented him from visiting them.

ON THE WORDS OF THE EYEWITNESS, On April 14, 2019, the activists have been bitterly bitten up by the police and the regional government has accused those saying renegades, allies of enemies of the Tigray people and the ruling party TPLF.

With this petition, we denounce the Ethiopian government as well as its financial backers—the US, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the World Bank,
Which provide financing to Ethiopia through international aid packages—of repressive land policy for the unjust imprisonment of these activists.

Nebiyu Sihul Michael is a university lecturer at Mekelle university & a nobel writer, a leader and human right defender in the Enderta indigenous people movement, who dissents widespread forced displacement and human rights violations related to the enduring grave land grabbing problems in the capital city of Tigray Mekelle and its vicinities in Ethiopia. Nebiyu has arranged meetings with the people and deliberated the severe land grabbing problems of the communities. Soon after these meetings and public mobilizations, government agents began hunting for Nebiyu, visiting his church, his family, and leaving messages on his phone leading up to his arrest in April 14, 2019.

The accusations against Nebiyu and the other activists claim that they are active in the Enderta Peoples indigenous movement though it is not considered by the Ethiopian government or any other body to be an illegal movement. The activists have no ties to any organizations banned by law. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the Enderta indigenous local movement which opposes human right violations of the ruling party has not associations with other illegitimate organizations. The allegations are fabricated by police in order to intimidate and silence the Enderrta indigenous communities.

Although the land grabbing is nation wide problem, it’s more rampant in outskirts of big cities - Mekelle is one of them. The Enderta indigenous peoples in Tigray are struggling to defend their lands and resources against the incursion of large-scale land grabbing by foreign and domestic investors.
Sign the petition and inform Ethiopia, the US, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the World Bank that you stand with land rights and human rights defenders!