Ethiopia: Information on law which imposes the death penalty for illegal emigrants; documentation on persons fleeing Ethiopia for reasons of religious persecution, specifically Muslims

In July 1976, an amendment to the Special Penal Code, section 17b, "Commission of Counter-revolutionary Acts", prescribed penalties of 5 to 25 years imprisonment, or life imprisonment or death "where the commission of the offence is exceptionally grave", for anyone who ... commits treason against the country and the people by illegally leaving or attempting to leave the country". [ Amnesty International, Ethiopia Political Imprisonment and Torture, (London: Amnesty International Publications, June 1986), p. 9.] When the Special Penal code was repealed in 1981, it was replaced by the Amended Special Penal Code which retained the same penalties for the offence of illegally leaving or attempting to leave the country. [ Ibid.] More recent information on the existence of revisions to the penal code is not presently available to the IRBDC. However, Amnesty International, in its Report 1988 indicates that the penalty was still in effect at the beginning of 1988. It reports the existence of political prisoners who were arrested for "seeking to avoid military conscription or to flee the country, ... an offence for which the penalty may be lengthy imprisonment or, in special cases, death." [ Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1988, (London: Amnesty International Publications, 1988), p. 38.] According to Amnesty International, some relatives of illegal emigres and conscription evaders were also arrested in reprisal. [ Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1988, (London: Amnesty International Publications, 1988), p. 38.] When The State Kills, the 1989 Amnesty International publication, confirms that the aforementioned penalties are still in effect.

Although approximately half the Ethiopian population is Sunni Muslim, Amharic speaking Christians have dominated the Ethiopian government for years, and still play an important part in the Marxist Dergue of Lt.-Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam. [Delury, World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties, (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1987), p. 332.] In the recent past, the Amhara ethnic group has been less predominant, and other ethnic groups from Eritrea, Oromo and Tigre are represented in government. However, most senior positions in government are still held by Christians. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p. 118.] Many of the members of resistance groups such as the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and or the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) are Muslim, though of the two, the EPLF is less exclusively Muslim. [ Ibid, p. 331.]

Specific information on the religious affiliation of refugees fleeing Ethiopia is not available to the IRBDC at this time. The vast majority of the ethnic Somalis living in the Ogaden region are Muslim, which would make the profile of the refugee population fleeing the Ogadeni war Muslim. The current government is a Marxist regime, and although the leaders may profess Marxist, rather than religious, beliefs, the only religion that is strictly banned in Ethiopia is the Jehovah's Witnesses. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, pp. 114-115. ] Some acts of violence against religious institutions have occurred during the war. For example, one opposition front (the Tigre People's Liberation Front -TPLF) stated that government troops displaced 80,000 people and destroyed churches, schools and mosques in a retaliatory fall offensive in 1980. [ Henry Degenhardt, ed, Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, (Essex: Longman, 1988), p. 104.] Another source, Africa's Refugee Crisis, discusses the military's policy of repression to `punish' civilian populations suspected of sympathy and even of `collaboration' with enemies of the regime, but also to deter the civilian population from supporting guerrilla movements. [ Africa's Refugee Crisis, 1986, p. 87.] The report states that the Dergue "undertakes a deliberate policy of depopulation in the disputed areas". Amnesty International also reported the imprisonment of Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) on charges of helping to arrange the emigration of Falashas to Israel. [ Ibid, p. 39.] According to the U.S. Department of State, since April 1988, the government has indicated that it is factoring religion into some aspects of national planning. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p. 114.] The government has allowed freedom of worship and proselytization by the Orthodox church and proponents of Islam, but it has, attempted to maintain a separation between religion and state by keeping religious references out of the media and official government statements. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1985, p. 108.]