Amnesty International Report 2005 - Ethiopia

Covering events from January - December 2004

Widespread arbitrary detentions, torture and excessive use of force by police and soldiers were reported. A new media law, which would put journalists in the private media at risk of arrest, was proposed. Several thousand people remained in long-term detention without charge or trial; most were accused of supporting armed opposition groups. Prison conditions were harsh. Some prisoners "disappeared". A parliamentary inquiry into killings of members of the Anuak (Anywaa) ethnic group in Gambela town in December 2003 reported that 65 people had been killed; other reports put the number of dead in the hundreds. Trials continued of over 2,000 members of the former Dergue government detained since 1991 on charges including genocide. Several death sentences were imposed; no executions were reported.

Background

Food scarcity continued to affect seven million people and a new famine crisis threatened those living in the Somali region in the east. A large part of Ethiopia's foreign debt was waived. International aid agencies expressed concern about the government's controversial three-year plan to resettle 2.2 million people to alleviate food insecurity. There were reports of food shortages, malnutrition, a high child mortality rate, and of inadequate health facilities and water in the resettlement camps.

A National Human Rights Commissioner was appointed in July, but his office had not opened by the end of the year.

Women's organizations worked to improve women's access to justice. They held public meetings against female genital mutilation and forced and early marriage of girls.

The government continued to face armed opposition in the Oromia region from the Eritrea-based Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and in the Somali region from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Preparations continued for the May 2005 elections which 67 national and regional parties were scheduled to contest, including opposition parties.

Border tensions

The UN Security Council and others expressed fears that the continuing border dispute could once again result in a new war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In November Ethiopia accepted in principle the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's ruling that the border town of Badme was Eritrean territory according to colonial treaties, which it had previously rejected. However, final settlement of the border issue by both sides was expected to take some time. The mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), administering a buffer-zone along the border, was extended. A Claims Commission, set up through the December 2000 Peace Agreement, judged in April and December that both sides were liable for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law regarding material destruction, rape, abductions, killings, ill-treatment, expulsions and deprivation of citizenship or properties of civilians during the 1998-2000 war.

Freedom of the media

Debate continued throughout the year on the government's proposed new media law. International media organizations criticized it as being even harsher than the existing Press Law under which hundreds of journalists working for the private media had been imprisoned. In December a court overruled a government ban imposed in 2003 on the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, a private media group documenting media abuses and opposed to the new media law.

Dozens of journalists arrested in previous years for their published articles, but provisionally released, faced court cases. By the end of the year only two journalists were believed to be in prison.

• Dabassa Wakjira, deputy news editor of the state television service, was arrested in May and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government and membership of the OLF. He was refused bail and was still detained at the end of the year.

• Tewodros Kassa, editor of Etiop newspaper, was released in September on completion of a two-year prison term for publishing false information likely to incite violence.

Justice and rule of law

Although there were some improvements in the administration of justice, arbitrary and indefinite detention without charge or trial of suspected government opponents remained widespread. Thousands of political detainees arrested several years earlier remained held without charge. Police officers responsible for shooting demonstrators and suspected government opponents were not brought to justice. There were reports of unfair and long-delayed political trials; torture and ill-treatment of prisoners; and ".

• Imru Gurmessa Birru, a former employee of the Ministry of Coffee and Tea Development, was arrested in Addis Ababa in March. He was accused of links with the OLF, and allegedly tortured in the police Central Investigation Bureau (Maikelawi). He was denied medical treatment for diabetes and injuries sustained as a result of torture until June and returned to prison while treatment was continuing. He remained imprisoned without trial at the end of the year.

• Some 28 members of the opposition Gambela People's Democratic Congress Party arrested in 1998 remained imprisoned without trial in Addis Ababa. Among them was the former regional governor Okello Nyigelo.

• In September, in Dire Dawa town in the east, armed police attempting to disperse a crowd angry at customs confiscations killed six people and wounded 19 others. A government investigation into the incident had not reported by the end of the year.

Oromo demonstrations and arrests

More than 100 people were briefly detained in January at a demonstration organized by the Mecha Tulema Association, a long-established Oromo welfare organization. The protest was called to oppose the federal government's relocation of the Oromia region capital and administration from the national capital of Addis Ababa, where there is a large Oromo population, to Adama (also known as Nazareth) in eastern Oromia.

Eight Oromo students at Addis Ababa University were arrested for criticizing the Oromo regional government at a student cultural event on 18 January. Some 300 other students who demonstrated for their release were also arrested on campus. While in detention they were reportedly beaten and forced to do painful exercises. Most were released without charge after a few days. The university administration suspended most of the students and expelled others.

Between February and April there were further demonstrations by thousands of students and teachers in most towns in Oromia region protesting at the regional capital relocation; most of the region's schools were closed. In some places, police used live ammunition to disperse demonstrators, killing several school students. Demonstrators were detained for several months; some were beaten and made to do strenuous physical exercises while in custody. The government accused the OLF of organizing the demonstrations.

In May police arrested three leading officials of the Mecha Tulema Association, including Diribi Demissie, its president. They and 25 others, including several university students arrested in January, were charged with armed conspiracy and membership of the OLF. The three were released on bail in November.

More than 300 people were arrested in Agaro town in western Oromia in August in a continuing pattern of mass arrests of members of the Oromo ethnic group suspected of supporting the OLF. Most were released in October but some were charged. It was alleged that detainees were tortured and that some "disappeared"; some were believed to be held in secret detention centres.

Gambela region killings and detentions

A Commission of Inquiry headed by the President of the Supreme Court was set up by parliament in April following numerous killings of members of the Anuak ethnic group in Gambela town in December 2003. In July the Commission reported that 65 people were killed – 61 Anuak people and four members of highland ethnic groups – and 75 wounded, and that nearly 500 houses had been burned down and plundered. The Commission noted a background of ethnic conflict in the region. Three days of killings starting on 13 December 2003 were sparked off by the public display of the bodies of eight people allegedly killed by an Anuak armed group. The Commission criticized the regional authorities for not taking steps to prevent violence and acknowledged that federal soldiers were involved in the killings alongside highlanders. The Commission made no recommendations regarding prosecution of those responsible, whether police, military or civilians. To AI's knowledge, no one had been brought to justice by the end of 2004 for the killings of Anuak people.

According to unofficial sources and survivors, the number of people killed was several hundred and many women were raped. The violence also spread to other towns and villages in the region. Hundreds of people were detained and tortured, including civil servants and students, supposedly on suspicion of involvement in the murder of the eight. They were still detained without charge or trial at the end of 2004.

There were further arbitrary killings and arrests by the army in other towns and villages in Gambela region in 2004. In January, 300 people were killed by the army in a gold-mining area around Dimma town.

Human rights defenders

Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, former Chair of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, and Berhanu Nega, Chair of the Ethiopian Economic Association, remained free on bail pending trial on charges of instigating violence at demonstrations at Addis Ababa University in April 2001. They denied the charges.

Dergue trials: update

The trial continued of 33 senior officials of the former government of Mengistu Hailemariam accused of genocide, murder, torture and other crimes. Others were on trial in absentia, including former President Mengistu. Ethiopia again unsuccessfully requested his extradition from Zimbabwe. Trials continued of several hundred less senior officials, most detained since 1991; several had been sentenced to death in 2004.

Death penalty

Several death sentences were imposed, but no executions were reported. In October, three OLF fighters detained since 1992, including Asili Mohamed, were sentenced to death after being convicted of killing and torturing civilians in Bedeno town in 1992. They denied the charges and their appeal to the Supreme Court was pending at the end of the year.

AI country visits

AI representatives visited different parts of Ethiopia in March.