Amnesty International Report 1995 - Ethiopia

Several thousand suspected government opponents were detained during 1994. Many, including several journalists and opposition party activists tried and imprisoned for political offences, were prisoners of conscience. Over 5,000 alleged opponents of the Transitional Government detained without charge since 1992 were released. Trials on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity began in December against officials of the previous government. There were widespread allegations of torture. Scores of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions of government opponents were reported. Two people were sentenced to death but there were no executions. The Transitional Government headed by President Meles Zenawi, leader of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), extended its two-and-a-half-year term pending future general elections. A Constituent Assembly was elected to establish a new Constitution, which it ratified in December. Fighting continued in Oromo-populated areas between government forces and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and violent incidents occurred in other regions. In March Ethiopia acceded to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and in April to the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Over 70 journalists of the independent press were arrested on account of articles criticizing the government. Many were repeatedly denied bail but eventually released provisionally: in May the Minister of Justice announced that 43 court cases were pending against journalists. Kefale Mammo, chairman of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), was held for 19 days in April, apparently for contacting international human rights and media organizations. Several journalists were convicted under the Press Law (1992) and received prison terms, suspended prison terms or heavy fines. Tefera Asmare, editor of Ethiopis magazine, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in March for criticizing the government. He was a prisoner of conscience, as was Goshu Moges, editor of Tobia magazine, who was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in October and released on bail pending appeal in December for publishing a letter from an imprisoned prominent government opponent, Professor Asrat Woldeyes, which said he did not expect a fair trial (see below). Tesfaye Tadesse, a lawyer and human rights activist, was arrested in July, apparently in connection with an article in a magazine to which he was legal adviser. He was held for four months without charge. Hundreds of opposition party members were detained on account of their peaceful political activities. Throughout the year there were widespread arrests in eastern Ethiopia of members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an ethnic Somali party. Many of those held seemed to be prisoners of conscience who were not involved in armed opposition by ONLF militias. Hajio Dama, chair of the Ogadenian Women's Democratic Alliance, was one of many people arrested in January on account of the ONLF's call for an independence referendum for the region. She was released in February with serious medical problems resulting from ill-treatment. In May government troops detained the regional assembly President, Hassan Jirreh Kalinle, and other elected members. The authorities alleged they were arrested for embezzlement of public funds. Hassan Jirreh Kalinle was released provisionally in July. Many ONLF supporters were still detained incommunicado by the army at the end of the year, including Ibado Abdullahi, a woman poet, and Haji Abdinur Sheikh Mumin, Imam of Degabur mosque. In April, 26 members of the Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC), a political organization opposed to the government of Eritrea, were arrested in Addis Ababa and Mekelle, apparently at the request of the Eritrean Government. They were still held without charge at the end of the year pending resettlement in another country. Scores of members of the All-Amhara People's Organization (AAPO) were detained during 1994. AAPO's chairman, Asrat Woldeyes, a professor of surgery, was imprisoned in June after being convicted with Sileshi Mulatu, an AAPO official, and three others, of conspiring to form an armed group. They had been arrested in mid-1993 and only Asrat Woldeyes had been granted bail. All five, who denied calling for anti-government violence at a private AAPO meeting in October 1992, were sentenced to two years' imprisonment after an unfair trial. They were prisoners of conscience. On 20 September up to 1,500 people, including elderly women, children, former ambassadors and AAPO supporters, were arrested at the Central High Court in Addis Ababa during a demonstration against a new trial of Asrat Woldeyes and two former AAPO officials. The protest was peaceful, but ended in scuffles after a police attack. About 1,000 people were soon released without charge; however, after a month of unlawful detention, 500 were charged with holding an illegal demonstration and public provocation. They were released on bail but no date had been set for their trials by the end of the year. Asrat Woldeyes was imprisoned for a further six months in October for contempt of court on account of a letter he wrote refusing to attend court on the grounds that he did not expect a fair trial, and for an additional three years in December on another charge. Hundreds of members of southern opposition parties were detained in the second half of 1994. They included Lemma Sidamo, vice-chairman of the Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM), who was arrested in Addis Ababa in September but provisionally released after two months, and Merid Abebe, chairman of the Omo People's Democratic Union, who was arrested in Addis Ababa in October. Some were charged with political offences but the majority were detained without charge, and none was tried. There were widespread arrests of suspected OLF supporters in conflict zones as well as in Addis Ababa and other towns with large Oromo populations. Most were detained illegally and incommunicado without being brought to court and charged, and many seemed to be prisoners of conscience. In September, 40 people were detained in the town of Ambo, after attending the funeral of Derara Kefana, an Oromo businessman shot dead by soldiers near his home. Over a dozen of them were still held without charge or trial at the end of 1994. Some 5,000 suspected OLF members detained in 1992 and 1993 were released in early 1994. The government said that the others remaining in detention would be brought to court, charged and tried, and that Hurso and Dedessa special military camps for "OLF detainees" would be closed. At the end of 1994 around 300, who had been moved to Ziwai prison, were still awaiting trial. Several hundred long-term political prisoners remained in detention throughout 1994, most of them without charge. They included many alleged OLF members, four members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) abducted from Sudan in 1992, and members of the SLM and ONLF (see Amnesty International Report 1994). The trial of Colonel Daniel Tessema and five others charged in 1993 with plotting a coup did not start during the year. On 25 October the Chief Special Prosecutor filed capital charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against 45 of the 1,315 former officials of President Mengistu Haile-Mariam's government, security forces and ruling party who had been detained since 1991 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Twenty-two others, including the former president in exile in Zimbabwe, were charged in absentia. Other former officials were arrested during 1994, including two who were forcibly repatriated from Djibouti in May. The trials, which opened before the Central High Court on 13 December, were adjourned to allow defence lawyers to prepare their case. Seven exiles detained after returning to Ethiopia for a peace conference in December 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994) were freed in January. Charges of armed rebellion were withdrawn but Aberra Yemane-Ab was kept in detention for alleged crimes in the 1970s. Dozens of non-violent Oromo demonstrators arrested at the trial of the two returning OLF leaders were imprisoned for a month for contempt of court. One of the demonstrators, Elfinesh Kano, a folk-singer, was kept in detention while the authorities investigated whether her songs were seditious. A prisoner of conscience, she was released after another four months' imprisonment without charge. Scores of suspected government opponents from different political groups "disappeared". They were believed to be held secretly by the security service. Some "reappeared" months after their relatives had given up searching for them. Those still "disappeared" at the end of the year included Nayk Kassaye, editor of Beza magazine, who "disappeared" in Addis Ababa in May; Mustafa Idris, a telecommunications worker, who also "disappeared" in Addis Ababa in May, and his sister Fatuma Idris, who "disappeared" in Harar in July after complaining about her brother's "disappearance"; and many alleged OLF and ONLF supporters. Several people who "disappeared" in previous years were feared to have been extrajudicially executed, including Hagos Atsbeha, held by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) since 1988 whom the authorities claimed had committed suicide in prison; four EPRP military leaders captured in 1991; and Yoseph Ayele Bati, an OLF supporter abducted in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Torture of suspected government opponents, particularly OLF suspects, was frequently reported. Torture survivors reported having their arms tied tightly behind their backs with plastic ties; beatings with sticks and guns; whippings with electric cable; mock executions and death threats; and rape. Torture took place in secret security prisons and army camps, particularly in areas near anti-government fighting. Oromo demonstrators arrested in Addis Ababa in December 1993 and those arrested at Asrat Woldeyes' trial in September were beaten by soldiers. They were detained incommunicado in Sendafa Police College near Addis Ababa, had their hair roughly shaved without soap or water, were made to do rigorous physical exercises, and were given little food or medical treatment. Government soldiers were reported to have killed unarmed civilian opponents on several occasions. In February troops fired on an ONLF demonstration in Wardheer which was becoming violent, reportedly killing 60 people. Other ONLF supporters were also reported to have been extrajudicially executed by soldiers, including Mohamed Omer Tubar, a regional commissioner, in February and Mirad Leli Sigale, former mayor of Gode, in May, whom the authorities claimed was killed while escaping from detention. Among many OLF suspects killed by soldiers during 1994 was Bekele Argaw, a former army colonel, shot dead at his home in Ambo in September. There was still no reaction from the Council of Representatives (the interim parliament) to a report submitted by a commission of inquiry into the police killing of a student demonstrator in January 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Two people were sentenced to death for homicide but there were no executions. Amnesty International appealed for the release of prisoners of conscience. It welcomed the start of trials of former officials charged with gross human rights violations but urged the authorities to rule out death sentences. It stressed that all political detainees should be charged and tried as soon as possible in accordance with international standards, or released. It called for impartial investigations into the emerging pattern of "disappearances" and torture, and into reports of extrajudicial executions of government opponents. Amnesty International representatives visited Ethiopia in May. In November Amnesty International submitted to the government a 45-page memorandum on political imprisonment, "disappearances", torture and political killings of government opponents. It recommended a series of measures to stop these serious human rights violations.