Ethiopian Athlete Could Die If He Goes Back Home For Doing This Sign At The Olympics

Forum 7 years ago

Ethiopian Athlete Could Die If He Goes Back Home For Doing This Sign At The Olympics

As Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia crossed the finish line in his silver-medal marathon run at the Rio Olympics on Sunday, he raised his arms and crossed them in an X, a gesture of protest against his country’s government that he said could get him killed if he returned home. He is uncertain where he will go next, and what will become of his wife and two children in Ethiopia.

Lilesa was protesting the Ethiopian government's killing of hundreds of the country's Oromo people -the country's largest ethnic group that has long complained about being marginalized by the country's government.

The group has held protests this year over plans to reallocate Oromo land. Many of those protests ended in bloodshed. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 people have been killed since November.

For months, the Oromo have been using the same "X" gesture that Lilesa, 26, used at the finish line.

“If I go back to Ethiopia, maybe they will kill me,” he said at a news conference after the race, according to The Sydney Morning
Herald. “If I am not killed, maybe they will put me in prison.”An accomplished distance runner who has one of the 50 fastest marathon times, he defied an Olympic prohibition on political demonstrations to make his statement, raising his arms again in protest at the race’s medal ceremony. He quickly attracted supporters on social media.