New York (Human Rights Watch) — The Ethiopian regime should urgently initiate an independent investigation into the murder of an opposition candidate for parliament and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
Aregawi Gebreyohannes, the victim, was a candidate for the Arena-Tigray opposition party for the May 23, 2010, elections. He was stabbed to death by five men at his home in Shire, in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, on the evening of March 1, press reports and witnesses said.
“This attack demands an urgent, credible, and independent investigation given Ethiopia’s highly charged pre-election environment,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Getting to the truth of this incident will help build confidence in the electoral process.”
Opposition officials contend that the attack was politically motivated and followed months of intimidation and harassment of Aregawi and other opposition candidates. The government told international journalists that the killing was a personal dispute, not political, and that Aregawi had tried to break up a fight in his restaurant. The government also said that one of the men who attacked Aregawi has been taken into custody. Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the others have been released.
The Arena-Tigray party is a member of the largest opposition coalition, known as the Forum for Democratic Dialogue (FDD, or Medrek). The leader of Arena-Tigray, Gebru Asrat, told Voice of America radio that the killing of Aregawi and the beating of another Arena-Tigray candidate, Ayelew Beyene, by armed men on March 1 were part of a campaign of intimidation by the ruling party.
The May 23 elections will be the first parliamentary elections in Ethiopia since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in bloodshed. Up to 200 people were killed by government security forces responding to street protests in June and November 2005. Tens of thousands of people were arrested in the course of the political crisis over disputed election results, including dozens of opposition leaders, journalists, and several civil society activists.
Since 2005, Ethiopia’s human rights situation has worsened, marked by a harsh intolerance for independent civil society activity, criticism of government actions, or opposition political activity. Government critics continue to be subjected to harassment, arrest, and even torture. Repressive new legislation passed in 2009 makes most forms of independent human rights activity impossible and provides an overbroad definition of terrorism that could be applied to acts of peaceful protest or to media reporting on security-related topics.
Opposition parties contend that government officials regularly harass, intimidate, and assault opposition supporters to repress political dissent. The government routinely denies the allegations. A prominent opposition leader, Birtukan Midekssa, is serving a life sentence after the government revoked a pardon it issued for alleged acts of treason connected to post-election protests in 2005. UN experts said in 2009 that her detention was arbitrary.
4 thoughts on “HRW calls for investigation into candidate’s killing in Ethiopia”
የዚህ የኩሩ ኢትዮጵያዊ ደም ፈሶ መቅረት የለበትም: ምን አለ በሉኝ የመለስ ደም ይፈሳታል::
ከአቶ አረጋዊ ሞት በላይ ደግሞ ያሳዘነኝ በሞቱ ላይ በረከት የሚባለው እርጉም(በረከት ይንሳውና!!)የቀለደው ቀልድ ነው:: ለ ብሉምበርግ ጋዜጣ ምን ብሎ ኢንተርቭኢው የሰጣል?,,”በጥቅም ግጭት ነው የተገደለው አለ”,,በማግስቱ ደግሞ ይሄው እርጉም የሚያስተዳድረው ቴሌቭዥን ሌላ ወሬ አወራ::
Gebru Asrat and Siye Abraha are among the original members of TPLF before chased, accused and imprisoned by Little meles and his criminal family and group; His street wife, boy Sebhat Nega and his family such as his sister who is mayor of mekelle and her husband who is president of Tigry, Abay Tshay and Sebhat’s others sister husband who is a known layer against Siye, Arkebe Equbay.
We will see how these two men and the rest of Arena Tigry members and supporters will deal with the people of Tigry, they are associating with for years. We also are going to see the truth how the people of Tigry will deal with meles group and the rest of Tigry such as Gebru, Siye and the likes.
Arena Tigry is a party its base is/must be in Tigry. Therefore, we are very curious about this party election activity in Tigry. This party must be very, very active in Tigry than the rest of Ethiopia.
Are they (the Arena Tigry) ready with determination and full-scale election campaign in Tigry or are they backing and kneeling down and continuing just talking nonsense. This is the time the Gebrue, Siye and the likes long relationship with Tigry will be broken forever or will shine forever?
We will see with in the coming curtail two months.
Just like all the previous human rights investigation this too will pass without any concrete result. Woyane knows all these games and will walk through this like a trip to the store down the road. Woyane is master of staying alive games, he has been through this several times and will do it one more time without any problem at all.
Killing one Tigryan politician or beating on another is not as much damaging as eradicating the whole of Ethio-Somalis or igniting a war between two small tribes and wipe out the people that made it alive. Woyane has done much more henious crimes than these two incidents. Keeping Birtukan in jail because she refused to play by Woyane book is a good example. The US is helping Woyane as it is eradicating one small defensless minority after another.
Meles is a killer and as if he is a wise leader, he like to distance himself from the killings of innocents. Now that everything is coming to light and the last straw for his cling to power, the Tigrian people, are being part of the open repression of Ethiopians, the base of the regime is being shaken to the core. EPRDF would remain with paid members and those taken hostage by promises of benefits and jobs. The crimes should be investigated and Meles should be held responsible – just like the Commission that held him responsible for the massacre of 200 post-election innocent protesters.