Ethiopia: mediation behind the scenes to end the hunger strike by Oromo leaders

Jawar Mohammed, here in October 2019. AFP - MICHAEL TEWELDE

Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow

4 min

In Ethiopia, it was a mediation of members of their families, community and religious figures, and a celebrity in athletics, which on Sunday March 7 convinced Oromo leader Jawar Mohammed and the leaders of his party to cease their hunger-strike.

It is now done since Monday evening.

What role did this delegation play exactly and how was it composed?

Response elements.

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The athletes in

Ethiopia

 are superstars adored by all the peoples of the Federation.

So they sometimes play a political role, like the legend of athletics Haile Gebreselassie, who became a multimillionaire businessman who even aspired to be elected deputy, by playing on his influence and his money " 

to eradicate poverty,

 " he explains.

And so among the veterans of politics and guerrilla warfare, traditional leaders and religious figures who visited Jawar Mohammed and his comrades last weekend at the clinic where they are being held and treated, was the famous Oromo athlete Derartu. Tulu, cousin of the well-respected long-distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba and, like the latter and her sisters, born in the same village as champion Kenenisa Bekele.

For those who know Ethiopia well, this should come as no surprise.

In Oromo culture, conflict resolution is codified and obeys specific rules, with its rites and vocabulary.

And the role of elders and women is decisive.

Academic Hamdesa Tuso explains that, in traditional mediations, elders take precedence in everything - to speak, preside over meetings, pass judgments - and that women are protected by customary law from physical assault, causing 'they are " 

sure messengers to the parties in conflict

 " and " 

moral voices in troubled times

 ".

From the political spectacle

 "

This type of customary mediation has often been initiated outside the politico-military field during the recent history of the Oromiya, he recalls in a research entitled

Indigenous conflict resolution processes in Oromo society

, and in particular after the fall of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 to prevent the internal wars between rebel movements that took part in the armed struggle from jeopardizing the participation of the Oromos in the new democratic life.

But for the researcher Gérard Prunier, the mediation of the last weekend " 

was only spectacle politics

 ", as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed knows how to stage it.

It is about " 

a coup of communication, cooking between Oromos 

" to try to regain control of the situation.

It's as old as Stalin who emptied the gulags to strengthen the army

 ", he adds with irony, a real-false mediation wanted or simply accepted by a head of government " 

who no longer has the favors of the people oromo, while Jawar Mohammed retains significant popularity

 ”.

Behind this operation and the plea of ​​the mediators for

the end of the hunger strike

of the Oromo leaders, according to him, it would be a mistake to see a humanist gesture.

The goal, he said, was to rally everyone " 

through blackmail around national unity, through adored figures of the people

 ."

But he concludes: “ 

Everyone knows that the end of this hunger strike, for an ambitious and intelligent man like Jawar Mohammed, was inevitable, mediation or not.

This man is an excellent chess player and he is always several strokes ahead of Abiy Ahmed. 

"

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  • Ethiopia