Ethiopia: Amnesty International Report 2009
29 May, 2009 | Amnesty International
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) committed human rights
abuses and were reported to have committed war crimes. Security
forces arrested members of the Oromo ethnic group in Addis Ababa
and in the Oromo Region towards the end of the year. Independent
journalists continued to face harassment and arrest. A number of
political prisoners were believed to remain in detention and
opposition party leader Birtukan Mideksa, who was pardoned in
2007, was rearrested. A draft law restricting the activities of
Ethiopian and international organizations working on human rights
was expected to be passed by parliament in 2009. Ethiopia remained
one of the world’s poorest countries with some 6.4 million people
suffering acute food insecurity, including 1.9 million in the Somali
Region.
Background
The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission completed its mandate in
October, despite Ethiopia failing to implement its ruling, and the UN
Security Council withdrew the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE) in the wake of Eritrean obstruction of its operations along the
Eritrea/Ethiopia border.
Thousands of Ethiopian armed forces remained in Somalia to support the
TFG in armed conflict against insurgents throughout most of the year.
Accusations of human rights violations committed by Ethiopian forces
continued in 2008. Insurgent factions stated that they were fighting to
force Ethiopia’s withdrawal from Somalia. A phased plan for Ethiopian
withdrawal was included in a peace agreement signed by the Alliance for
the Re-Liberation of Somalia-Djibouti and TFG representatives in late
October. Ethiopian forces began to withdraw late in the year, but had not
withdrawn from Somalia completely by the end of the year.
The government faced sporadic armed conflict in the Oromo and Somali
regions, with ONLF members also implicated in human rights abuses
against civilians. Ethiopian opposition parties in exile remained active in
Eritrea and in other countries in Africa and Europe.
"Ethiopian forces attacked the al-Hidya mosque in Mogadishu killing
21 men..."
Divisions split the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD)
party, leading to the emergence of new opposition parties, including the
Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP) led by former judge
Birtukan Mideksa. She was one of more than 70 CUD leaders, journalists
and civil society activists convicted, then pardoned and released in 2007.
Suicide bombers attacked Ethiopia’s trade mission in Hargeisa,
Somaliland, on 29 October killing several Ethiopian and Somali civilians.
Prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners
A number of political prisoners, detained in previous years in the context
of internal armed conflicts or following contested elections in 2005,
remained in detention.
Many released prisoners faced harassment and intimidation, with some
choosing to leave the country.
prisoners and commuted one death sentence to life imprisonment to mark
the Ethiopian New Year.
Freedom of expression
Independent journalists continued to face harassment and arrest.
At least 13 newspapers shut down by the government in 2005 were still
closed. Independent journalists were reportedly denied licences to operate,
although others did receive licences. Serkalem Fasil, Eskinder Nega and
Sisay Agena, former publishers of Ethiopia’s largest circulation
independent newspapers, who had been detained with CUD members,
were denied licences to open two new newspapers.
In February the Supreme Court upheld a decision to dissolve the Ethiopian
Teachers Association (ETA) and hand over its assets to a rival union
formed by the government, also known as the Ethiopian Teachers
Association. This action followed years of harassment and detention of
union members. In December the union, under its new name, the National
Teachers’ Association, had its application for registration as a professional
organization rejected.
On World Press Freedom Day (3 May) Alemayehu Mahtemework,
publisher of the monthly Enku, was detained and 10,000 copies of his
publication impounded. He was released after five days without charge
and copies of the magazine were later returned to him.
In November a Federal High Court judge convicted editor-in chief of the
weekly Enbilta, Tsion Girma, of “inciting the public through false
rumours” after a reporting mistake. She reportedly paid a fine and was
released.
Human rights defenders
A draft Charities and Societies Proclamation was revised several times by
the government in 2008, but remained threatening to the rights of freedom
of assembly, association and expression.
Its provisions included severe restrictions on the amount of foreign
funding Ethiopian civil society organizations working on human rights-
related issues could receive from abroad (no more than 10 per cent of
total revenues). It would also establish a Civil Societies Agency with
sweeping authority over organizations carrying out work on human rights
and conflict resolution in Ethiopia. It was expected to be passed into law
by Parliament in early 2009.
Ethiopian troops in Somalia
Ethiopia maintained a significant troop presence in Somalia which
supported the TFG until the end of the year. Ethiopian forces committed
human rights abuses and were reported to have committed war crimes.
Ethiopian forces attacked the al-Hidya mosque in Mogadishu killing 21
men, some inside the mosque, on 19 April. More than 40 children were
held for some days after the mosque raid before being released .
Many attacks by Ethiopian forces in response to armed insurgents were
reported to have been indiscriminate and disproportionate, often occurring
in densely civilian-populated areas.
Internal armed conflict
The government continued counter-insurgency operations in the Somali
Region, which increased after attacks by the ONLF on an oil installation in
Obole in April 2007. These included restrictions on humanitarian aid
which have had a serious impact on conflict-affected districts of the
region. The government did not allow unhindered independent access for
human rights monitoring.
Reports, dating back to 2007, of beatings, rape and other forms of
torture, forcible conscription and extrajudicial executions in the Somali
Region were investigated by a government-contracted body but not by an
independent international body.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Reports of torture made by defendants in the trial of elected
parliamentarian Kifle Tigeneh and others, one of several CUD trials, were
not investigated.
Conditions in Kaliti prison and other detention facilities were harsh –
overcrowded, unhygienic and lacking adequate medical care. Among
those detained in such conditions were long-term political prisoners held
without charge or trial, particularly those accused of links to the OLF.
Death penalty
While a number of death sentences were imposed by courts in 2008, no
executions were reported.
Amnesty International reports
Ethiopia: Government Prepares Assault on Civil Society
(1 July 2008)
Ethiopia: Comments on the Draft Charities and Societies
Proclamation (1 October 2008)
Ethiopia: Draft Law would Wreck Civil Society
(14 October 2008)
Ethiopia: Arbitrary detention/torture or other ill-treatment
(14 November 2008)
Routinely Targeted: Attacks on Civilians in Somalia
(6 May 2008) .
29 May, 2009 | Amnesty International
- Restrictions on humanitarian
assistance to the Somali
Region (known as the
Ogaden) continued. The
government engaged in
sporadic armed conflict
against the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF) and
both forces perpetrated
human rights abuses against
civilians.
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) committed human rights
abuses and were reported to have committed war crimes. Security
forces arrested members of the Oromo ethnic group in Addis Ababa
and in the Oromo Region towards the end of the year. Independent
journalists continued to face harassment and arrest. A number of
political prisoners were believed to remain in detention and
opposition party leader Birtukan Mideksa, who was pardoned in
2007, was rearrested. A draft law restricting the activities of
Ethiopian and international organizations working on human rights
was expected to be passed by parliament in 2009. Ethiopia remained
one of the world’s poorest countries with some 6.4 million people
suffering acute food insecurity, including 1.9 million in the Somali
Region.
Background
The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission completed its mandate in
October, despite Ethiopia failing to implement its ruling, and the UN
Security Council withdrew the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE) in the wake of Eritrean obstruction of its operations along the
Eritrea/Ethiopia border.
Thousands of Ethiopian armed forces remained in Somalia to support the
TFG in armed conflict against insurgents throughout most of the year.
Accusations of human rights violations committed by Ethiopian forces
continued in 2008. Insurgent factions stated that they were fighting to
force Ethiopia’s withdrawal from Somalia. A phased plan for Ethiopian
withdrawal was included in a peace agreement signed by the Alliance for
the Re-Liberation of Somalia-Djibouti and TFG representatives in late
October. Ethiopian forces began to withdraw late in the year, but had not
withdrawn from Somalia completely by the end of the year.
The government faced sporadic armed conflict in the Oromo and Somali
regions, with ONLF members also implicated in human rights abuses
against civilians. Ethiopian opposition parties in exile remained active in
Eritrea and in other countries in Africa and Europe.
"Ethiopian forces attacked the al-Hidya mosque in Mogadishu killing
21 men..."
Divisions split the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD)
party, leading to the emergence of new opposition parties, including the
Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP) led by former judge
Birtukan Mideksa. She was one of more than 70 CUD leaders, journalists
and civil society activists convicted, then pardoned and released in 2007.
Suicide bombers attacked Ethiopia’s trade mission in Hargeisa,
Somaliland, on 29 October killing several Ethiopian and Somali civilians.
Prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners
A number of political prisoners, detained in previous years in the context
of internal armed conflicts or following contested elections in 2005,
remained in detention.
- Bekele Jirata, General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist
Democratic Movement party, Asefa Tefera Dibaba, a lecturer at
Addis Ababa University and dozens of others from the Oromo
ethnic group were arrested in Addis Ababa and parts of the Oromo
Region from 30 October onwards. Some of those detained were
accused of financially supporting the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF).
Sultan Fowsi Mohamed Ali, an independent mediator, who was
arrested in Jijiga in August 2007 reportedly to prevent him from
giving evidence to a UN fact-finding mission, remained in
detention. Tried for alleged involvement in two hand grenade
attacks in 2007, he was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment in
May 2008.
On 15 January Birtukan Mideksa, Gizachew Shiferaw and
Alemayehu Yeneneh, then senior members of the CUD, were
briefly detained by police after holding party meetings in southern
Ethiopia. Birtukan Mideksa was rearrested on 28 December after
she issued a public statement regarding the negotiations that led to
her 2007 pardon. Her pardon was revoked and the sentence of life
imprisonment reinstated.
Many released prisoners faced harassment and intimidation, with some
choosing to leave the country.
- Human rights defenders and lawyers Daniel Bekele and Netsanet
Demissie were released on 28 March. They had been detained
since November 2005 together with hundreds of opposition
parliamentarians, CUD members and journalists. Unlike their co-
defendants in the trial who were pardoned and released in 2007,
Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie remained in detention, having
refused to sign a document negotiated by local elders. They
mounted a defence and were convicted by the Federal High Court
of criminal incitement (although the presiding judge dissented) and
sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment. When it became evident
they would not be released, even after they appealed, they chose to
sign the negotiated document, and were subsequently pardoned
and released after serving 29 months of their sentence.
Charges of conspiring to commit “outrages against the
Constitution” faced by Yalemzewd Bekele, a human rights lawyer
who had been working for the European Commission in Addis
Ababa, were dropped, without prejudice, before trial.
Abdirahman Mohamed Qani, chief of the Tolomoge sub-clan of the
Ogaden clan in the Somali Region, was detained on 13 July after
receiving a large public welcome when he returned from two years
abroad. He was released on 7 October, and his relatives who had
also been detained were reportedly released several days later.
CUD activist Alemayehu Mesele, who had suffered harassment
since his release from prison in 2007, fled Ethiopia in early May
after he was severely beaten by unknown assailants.
The editor of the Reporter newspaper Amare Aregawi was
severely beaten by unknown assailants on 31 October in Addis
Ababa. He had previously been detained by security officers in
August.
prisoners and commuted one death sentence to life imprisonment to mark
the Ethiopian New Year.
Freedom of expression
Independent journalists continued to face harassment and arrest.
At least 13 newspapers shut down by the government in 2005 were still
closed. Independent journalists were reportedly denied licences to operate,
although others did receive licences. Serkalem Fasil, Eskinder Nega and
Sisay Agena, former publishers of Ethiopia’s largest circulation
independent newspapers, who had been detained with CUD members,
were denied licences to open two new newspapers.
In February the Supreme Court upheld a decision to dissolve the Ethiopian
Teachers Association (ETA) and hand over its assets to a rival union
formed by the government, also known as the Ethiopian Teachers
Association. This action followed years of harassment and detention of
union members. In December the union, under its new name, the National
Teachers’ Association, had its application for registration as a professional
organization rejected.
On World Press Freedom Day (3 May) Alemayehu Mahtemework,
publisher of the monthly Enku, was detained and 10,000 copies of his
publication impounded. He was released after five days without charge
and copies of the magazine were later returned to him.
In November a Federal High Court judge convicted editor-in chief of the
weekly Enbilta, Tsion Girma, of “inciting the public through false
rumours” after a reporting mistake. She reportedly paid a fine and was
released.
Human rights defenders
A draft Charities and Societies Proclamation was revised several times by
the government in 2008, but remained threatening to the rights of freedom
of assembly, association and expression.
Its provisions included severe restrictions on the amount of foreign
funding Ethiopian civil society organizations working on human rights-
related issues could receive from abroad (no more than 10 per cent of
total revenues). It would also establish a Civil Societies Agency with
sweeping authority over organizations carrying out work on human rights
and conflict resolution in Ethiopia. It was expected to be passed into law
by Parliament in early 2009.
Ethiopian troops in Somalia
Ethiopia maintained a significant troop presence in Somalia which
supported the TFG until the end of the year. Ethiopian forces committed
human rights abuses and were reported to have committed war crimes.
Ethiopian forces attacked the al-Hidya mosque in Mogadishu killing 21
men, some inside the mosque, on 19 April. More than 40 children were
held for some days after the mosque raid before being released .
Many attacks by Ethiopian forces in response to armed insurgents were
reported to have been indiscriminate and disproportionate, often occurring
in densely civilian-populated areas.
Internal armed conflict
The government continued counter-insurgency operations in the Somali
Region, which increased after attacks by the ONLF on an oil installation in
Obole in April 2007. These included restrictions on humanitarian aid
which have had a serious impact on conflict-affected districts of the
region. The government did not allow unhindered independent access for
human rights monitoring.
Reports, dating back to 2007, of beatings, rape and other forms of
torture, forcible conscription and extrajudicial executions in the Somali
Region were investigated by a government-contracted body but not by an
independent international body.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Reports of torture made by defendants in the trial of elected
parliamentarian Kifle Tigeneh and others, one of several CUD trials, were
not investigated.
Conditions in Kaliti prison and other detention facilities were harsh –
overcrowded, unhygienic and lacking adequate medical care. Among
those detained in such conditions were long-term political prisoners held
without charge or trial, particularly those accused of links to the OLF.
- Mulatu Aberra, a trader of the Oromo ethnic group accused of
supporting the OLF, was released on 1 July on bail and fled the
country. He had been arrested in November 2007 and reportedly
tortured and denied medical treatment for resulting injuries while in
detention.
Death penalty
While a number of death sentences were imposed by courts in 2008, no
executions were reported.
- In May the Federal Supreme Court overturned earlier rulings and
sentenced to death former President Mengistu Haile Mariam (in
exile in Zimbabwe) and 18 senior officials of his Dergue
government. The prosecution had appealed against life
imprisonment sentences passed in 2007, after they were convicted
by the Federal High Court of genocide and crimes against humanity
perpetrated between 1974 and 1991.
On 6 April a court sentenced to death five military officers in
absentia. They served under Mengistu Haile Mariam, and were held
responsible for air raids in Hawzen, in the Tigray Region, which
killed hundreds in a market in June 1980.
On 8 May a court in Tigray Region found six people guilty of a bus
bombing in northern Ethiopia between Humora and Shira on 13
March and sentenced three of them to death.
On 21 May the Federal Supreme Court sentenced eight men to
death for a 28 May 2007 bombing in Jijiga in the Somali Region.
On 22 May a military tribunal sentenced to death in absentia four
Ethiopian pilots , who sought asylum while training in Israel in
2007.
Amnesty International reports
Ethiopia: Government Prepares Assault on Civil Society
(1 July 2008)
Ethiopia: Comments on the Draft Charities and Societies
Proclamation (1 October 2008)
Ethiopia: Draft Law would Wreck Civil Society
(14 October 2008)
Ethiopia: Arbitrary detention/torture or other ill-treatment
(14 November 2008)
Routinely Targeted: Attacks on Civilians in Somalia
(6 May 2008) .
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