Amnesty International Report 1996 - Ethiopia

Hundreds of critics and opponents of the government were arrested, including prisoners of conscience. Some were sentenced to prison terms after apparently unfair trials but most were detained without charge or trial. More than 1,500 officials of the former government continued to be detained without charge, but 45 others were brought to trial charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. There were allegations of torture of government opponents and reports of extrajudicial executions of suspected opponents, particularly in areas of armed conflict. Courts condemned at least two prisoners to death but no executions were reported. Elections were held in mid-1995 for the parliament, federal council, and regional and state assemblies of the renamed Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, in accordance with the Constitution established in December 1994. Opposition parties boycotted these elections. In August the Transitional Government, which had ruled Ethiopia since the overthrow of Lieutenant-Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam's government in 1991, handed over to the new government headed by Prime Minister (formerly President) Meles Zenawi of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. Fighting continued between government forces and the armed opposition Oromo Liberation Front (olf) in the Oromo region and there was also some fighting in the Somali and Amhara regions involving other groups, including the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a Somali opposition party which had taken up armed opposition to the government. At least 40 journalists were arrested in Addis Ababa and held for varying periods. Most were released provisionally, pending possible future trial, but several were convicted and either fined or given suspended prison sentences. Eight other journalists were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year to 18 months on account of their articles criticizing the government or reporting on opposition to the government. They were prisoners of conscience. They included Terefe Mengesha of Roha magazine, who was sentenced to one year's imprisonment in February; Tamana Getachew, the general manager of Madda Walabu magazine, who was jailed for a year in March; and Getahun Bekelle of Tarik magazine, who received a 30-month sentence in November. Also in November, 10 journalists and the chairman of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, were charged with spreading false information in their reporting of a student demonstration in 1993. All were released on bail and the charges were withdrawn the following month. Several hundred people suspected of supporting the OLF were reportedly detained without trial in different areas. They included Dandana Gurmu, aged 70, an Oromo elder arrested in February in Ambo, near Addis Ababa; Guteta Kabeta, an engineer; and Bogalech Tolosa and her sister Bizunesh Tolosa, arrested in August in Nazareth, 45 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, after a grenade explosion in the town. Some appeared to be prisoners of conscience, including five Oromo Relief Association staff who were arrested in September in Negelle Borana town in the south, and in Chinka in Wollega district. Two of them were released in October but the others, including Martha Arera, a storekeeper, were still held without charge or trial at the end of the year. There were widespread arrests in Addis Ababa in February in connection with disturbances in the Anwar mosque and nearby mercato (market) areas on 2 February involving rival Islamic groups, both pro- and anti-government. The disturbances led to nine deaths; some of those killed were reportedly shot by the security forces. Thirty-five people were kept in custody and charged with incitement to violence but their trial was still at a preliminary stage by the end of the year. Some may have been arrested solely for their non-violent opposition to the government, including Haji Mohamed Welle Ahmed, a Muslim leader, and Mohamed Abdu Tuku, an engineering lecturer. Scores of suspected members of the ONLF were also among those detained. They included Ambaro Ahmed Musse, president of the Ogadeni Women's Association; Abdullahi Yasin, a religious leader; and Hassan Ali Omar, the mayor of Shilabo, all of whom were detained in July. Ambaro Ahmed Musse was released in October but many others were still held without charge or trial at the end of 1995. Professor Asrat Woldeyes, chairman of the All-Amhara People's Organization opposition party and a possible prisoner of conscience (see Amnesty International Report 1995), was brought to trial with 31 others charged with incitement to rebellion. The trial was still at a preliminary stage at the end of the year. He was already serving prison sentences totalling over five years after being convicted on similar charges in three separate trials in 1994 which appeared not to satisfy international fair trial standards. Hundreds of suspected government opponents detained in previous years continued to be held, including 285 members of the OLF forces detained in 1992, whose trial on charges of armed rebellion began in early 1995 in Ziwai town, 100 kilometres southwest of Addis Ababa. Bayera Mideksa, a businessman, suspected OLF supporter and possible prisoner of conscience, had his sentence increased to five years' imprisonment after a prosecution appeal. He had been arrested in 1992, accused of possession of weapons, and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment after an apparently unfair trial. Mengesha Dogoma, a leader of the Gedeo People's Democratic Organization, was another possible prisoner of conscience. He had been arrested in 1992 and was still detained at the end of 1995 awaiting trial on criminal charges. Several ONLF supporters arrested in 1994 remained in detention without charge or trial throughout 1995 and were possible prisoners of conscience, including Haji Abdinur Sheikh Mumin, imam of Degabur mosque (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Hundreds of opposition party activists, most of whom had been detained in 1993 and 1994 and held without charge or trial, were released. They included Yilma Chamola, the vice-chairman of the Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM), who had been held since 1993, together with about 300 other SLM members detained since 1994; and Merid Abebe, chairman of the Omo People's Democratic Union, and dozens of supporters of other southern opposition parties held since early 1994. Tefera Asmare, a prisoner of conscience and editor of Ethiopis magazine, was released in September after serving a two-year prison sentence on account of an article criticizing the government (see Amnesty International Report 1995). The trial continued of 45 members of the former ruling Provisional Military Administrative Council (known as the Dergue), charged with committing genocide and crimes against humanity (see Amnesty International Report 1995). The trial was still at a preliminary stage when it was again adjourned in November. More than 1,500 officials of the former government of President Mengistu Haile-Mariam (in exile in Zimbabwe) remained in indefinite detention while charges relating to human rights violations were being prepared against them. They included former military and security officers and civil-ian administrative officials; Alemayehu Teferra, a former university president; Mammo Wolde, a former Olympic athlete; and Aberra Yemane-Ab, who had returned from exile to attend a peace conference in 1993. Some new arrests also took place. They included Mekonnen Dori, a former vice-minister in the Transitional Government, who may have been arrested on account of being a prominent member of the opposition Southern Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Coalition. Reports of torture by the security forces were received from areas in which the OLF or the ONLF were engaged in armed opposition. In one case, the Reverend Bekelle Deressa, an elderly minister in the Ethiopian Evangelical Mekane Yesus Church, was reportedly tortured while detained for six weeks in Wollega district in April. He was said to have been stripped, tied, hung upside-down, and beaten in an attempt to make him confess to involvement in the olf. The fate of dozens of people who had "disappeared" during the Transitional Government's four-year rule remained unknown and there were increasing fears for their safety (see Amnesty International Report 1995). They included Mustafa Idris, a telecommunications worker who "disappeared" in 1993; Hagos Atsbeha, a businessman held by the Tigray People's Liberation Front since 1988; Yoseph Ayele Bati, an OLF supporter abducted in 1992; and several ONLF supporters detained in 1994, including Deeg Yusuf Kariye, a journalist, and Mohamoud Muhumed Hashi, a former university lecturer. There were numerous reports of extrajudicial executions by the security forces, particularly in areas of armed opposition by the OLF and ONLF. To Amnesty International's knowledge, there was no official investigation into any of the complaints of killings by soldiers of suspected government opponents. Reports claimed that one of the Muslim activists killed in February, Siraj Mussa Obsee, an elderly man who was nearly blind, was deliberately shot dead by soldiers arresting him. One of many suspected OLF supporters who were killed was Henock Yonatan, a farmer arrested by soldiers in Najo in March and allegedly tortured. His body was found near a military camp six weeks later. The bodies of Ali Yusuf Khalif, a poet and singer, Mohamed Haybe Yusuf, a science graduate, and Buhul Sheikh Abdirahman – all suspected ONLF supporters arrested by soldiers in July near Wardheer – were reportedly found near Kebre Dahar a few days later. At least two people were sentenced to death by regional courts for murder but no executions were reported. An Amnesty International delegation visited Ethiopia in February and discussed the organization's concerns with the Minister of Information (who was later elected President), the Minister of Justice and other officials. In April Amnesty International published a report, Ethiopia: Accountability past and present – human rights in transition. This welcomed the long-delayed start of the trial of former government officials for human rights crimes but criticized the Transitional Government for failing to investigate and prevent human rights violations by its own forces. Amnesty International called for a review of prisoners' cases to ensure the release of prisoners of conscience and for the fair and prompt trial or release of other political detainees. It also called for independent and impartial inquiries into allegations of "disappearances", torture and extrajudicial executions, and urged the government to abolish the death penalty. Regarding the trials of former government officials, Amnesty International urged the authorities to guarantee international standards of fair trial and to exclude the death penalty. In response to Amnesty International's appeals, the government denied that there were any political prisoners and repeated its earlier denials of torture or "disappearances".