When Lilesa crossed the finish line, he crossed his wrists forming an X. The symbol was one of protest from Lilesa toward the Ethiopian government led by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
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Ethiopia will not bar runner Feyisa Lilesa from entering the country after he made an anti-government gesture upon finishing second in the Olympic marathon on Sunday, an official said.
“Oromo people now protest what is right, for peace, for a place”, Lilesa said.
“I can assure you nothing is going to happen to his family nothing is going to happen to him”, said Ethiopia’s Communications Minister Getachew Reda.
The 26-year-old endurance runner raised his crossed arms to end the race as a show of support for the Oromo people in Ethiopia, who are fighting to save the farmland they live on as the government attempts to sell it. If not kill me, they will put me in prison.
“If you talk about democracy they kill you”.
It was not immediately clear whether Lilesa plans to return.
“State security forces in Ethiopia have used excessive and lethal force against largely peaceful protests that have swept through Oromia, the country’s largest region, since November 2015”.
Protesters from the Oromo ethnic group say that the government is trying to take away their lands and use them for everything – from setting up industries to luxury housing projects.
In Ethiopia, the state broadcaster did not air a replay of the finish. “The Ethiopian government is killing my people so I stand with all protests anywhere as Oromo is my tribe”.
“Maybe I move to another country. you get the freedom if you support only the government”. In 2014, four of the country’s runners applied for asylum in the United States after disappearing from the worldwide junior track championships in Eugene, Ore. Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa said that it was “deeply concerned” about the most recent killing of protesters.
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Ethiopia has always been one of the world’s poorest nations but has industrialised rapidly in the past decade. He finished with a time of 2:08:44.
