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Monday, September 12, 2016

Ethiopian Paralympic athlete Tamiru Demisse in new finishing line protest against oppressive regime | The Independent

1500m runner echoes protest of fellow countryman Feyisa Lilesa, who has now fled to the US

Adam Withnall Africa Correspondent
@adamwithnall
4 hours ago
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Ethiopia's Tamiru Demisse (C) reacts after the final of men's 1500 m (T13) of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro on September 11, 2016 AFP/Getty Images

A runner has become the latest Ethiopian athlete to stage a political protest in Rio, after he crossed the finish line in a 1500m event at the Paralympics.

Tamiru Demisse, who was competing in the final of the T13 race for visually impaired runners, crossed his arms above his head as he crossed the line in second place, taking silver behind Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka.

The crossed-arms symbol is in reference to the political persecution of the Oromo ethnic group by the government back home, and echoed a similar gesture made by Feyisa Lilesa at the end of the marathon event in the Olympics.

Unlike Feyisa, who was reminded by officials that the International Olympic Committee frowns upon political gestures at the Games, Tamiru also repeated the gesture during the ceremony to receive his medal.

Last month, Feyisa explained that he he conducted his protest in response to the killing of the Oromo people, saying the government was “killing our people”.

He has now travelled to the US, after a crowd-funding campaign to support him and his family raised its target of $150,000. He said if he returned to Ethiopia “they will kill me… or if not kill me, they will put me in prison”.

Sunday evening’s T13 1500m race was also remarkable for the fact that the top three runners, Algeria’s Baka, Tamiru and Kenya’s Henry Kirwa, all ran faster times than the 3:50:00 that won gold for the US’s Matthew Centrowitz Jr in the Olympic 1500m race.

The conflict between the government and the Oromo, the largest single ethnic group in Ethiopia, flared up last year over land and political rights.

Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 500 people have been killed since the government began a brutal crackdown on political protests. The government disputes that figure.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Ethiopian Olympian Feyisa Lilesa seeks asylum on US soil - The i newspaper online iNews

Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa (silver) crosses the finish line of the Men's Marathon athletics event during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Adrian DENNISADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Ethiopian Olympian marathon runner who said he wanted to seek asylum after making a symbolic protest against his country’s repressive regime during the Olympics, has arrived in the US.

Feyisa Lilesa claimed silver in the marathon event in Rio last month and crossed the line with his arms crossed over his head in a solidarity with Oromo activists, who are staging protests in Ethiopia. The 26-year-old later repeated the gesture during the race’s medal ceremony and at a press conference, saying he was afraid to go back to his homeland.

On Friday the BBC reported that he had arrived in the US. The Ethiopian government has been accused by Amnesty International and other rights groups of brutally cracking down on dissent and Lilesa failed to return to the country last month, despite assurances from the country’s Information Minister Getachew Red that he had nothing to fear and would be welcomed home as a hero.

However when Ethiopian sports officials congratulated the team, but made no mention of Lilesa’s silver medal achievement – one of only eight medals won by the country’s team.

Speaking after the race, Feyisa said: “If not kill me, the will put me in prison. I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country”.

His family later said the runner wanted to claim asylum in the US and a crowdfunding campaign, which has raised £113,000, was set up to pay his legal fees and support his family in Ethiopia.

The runner is from Oromia – home to the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo people – where in November 2015 more than 400 people were killed by security forces.

The clashes came amid complaints over social and political marginalisation by the 35 million-strong Oromo community, Human Rights Watch reported.

A spokesperson for the Ethiopian embassy in London, which has reportedly been targeted by Oromo protesters in recent days. told i that the claimed death toll was “inaccurate” .

In recent weeks violence has spread to the Amhara region amid increasing instability, and locals have been shaving their heads as a sign of solidarity with jailed opposition leaders.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ethiopian Runner Won’t Return Home, but Doesn’t Know Where to Go - The New York Times

By JEFFREY GETTLEMANAUG. 23, 2016

Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia made a protest gesture as he crossed the finish line in the marathon at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. CreditOlivier Morin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Ethiopian marathoner who flashed an antigovernment gesture as he crossed the finish line in second place at the Rio Olympics will not go home.

The runner, Feyisa Lilesa, will not fly back to Ethiopia on Tuesday with the rest of his team, his agent said, choosing instead to remain in Brazil with his immigration status unclear.

“He didn’t plan at all for this,” said Mr. Lilesa’s agent, Federico Rosa, speaking by telephone from Brescia, Italy. "He doesn’t want to go to Ethiopia, he wants to go to another country. The U.S. would be very good but right now we just don’t know where he’s going to go. He was very happy after winning but also a bit confused.”

By raising his arms and crossing them in an X in front of his face as he crossed the finish line Sunday, Mr. Lilesa, 26, has crossed the Ethiopian government, one of the most repressive in Africa.

His gesture, which he repeated during an award ceremony on Sunday after the race, was the most visible in a growing w ave of protests in recent months against Ethiopia’s government. This unusual burst of protests has erupted across Ethiopia, especially in Oromia, the region from which Mr. Lilesa hails, and where the gesture of raised arms crossed in front of one’s face has become a sign of defiance.

Tens of thousands of protesters have been jailed and hundreds have been killed, according to Human Rights Watch. Mr. Lilesa said in interviews after his race that he believed that if he were to return home, he, too, would be punished. The Ethiopian government has said he has nothing to worry about and that he would be treated like a hero upon his return.

Mr. Rosa said that Mr. Lilesa was a serious young man who “doesn’t like to play games.”

Some sports analysts have speculated that Mr. Lilesa, who finished the Olympic marathon in 2:09:54, and has one of the 50 fastest times in history, might chose to run for another country, such as Bahrain or Qatar. The Gulf states have wooed many other African-born athletes with promises of large pay days if they win international competitions.

Mr. Rosa said that Mr. Lilesa, who won the Tokyo marathon this year and has a contract with Nike, did not make his protest in an effort to cash in.

“He didn’t plan at all to go to another country,” Mr. Rosa said. “I don’t know even when he decided to do this. He didn’t say anything to me about it. I was surprised. And you don’t do something like this for money. He did this to defend his country.”

In an interview with journalists Sunday in Rio after his race, Mr. Lilesa saidhe did not discuss his protest beforehand with his agent, coaches, teammates or his family. His wife and two children remain in Ethiopia.

If Mr. Lilesa wants to apply for asylum in the United States, it would be difficult to do that while in Brazil. He might first have to get asylum in Brazil and then apply to the American authorities for so-called humanitarian parole. Under that program, which is used sparingly, often for people in danger, Mr. Lilesa would be allowed to travel to the United States and stay temporarily. Once on American soil, he could apply for political asylum.

Mr. Lilesa has became a sensation on social media. As of Tuesday night, nearly $100,000 had been raised for him via a crowdsourcing website. “We assure you all the money collected will go to support this Oromo/Ethiopian hero,” the site said.

Correction: August 23, 2016

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated when Feyisa Lilesa made his second protest gesture. It was at a separate awards ceremony after the men’s marathon, not the medals ceremony.

Abebe Bikila 1960, 64& Feyisa Lilesa 2016