From: Hilary Naylor < [email protected]> Newsgroups:
soc.rights.human
Subject: Ethiopia:Govt opponents jailed.
1 JULY 1994
ETHIOPIA: COURT JAILS GOVERNMENT OPPONENTS (Professor Asrat W/Yes)
On Monday 27 June, the Central High Court in Addis Ababa sentenced a
medical professor and four
other members of an opposition group, the All-Amhara People’s Organization
(AAPO), to two years’
imprisonment.
“The five convicted prisoners appear to have been imprisoned on the
basis of slender and dubious
evidence and without direct proof of the alleged conspiracy”, Amnesty
International said today. The
human rights organization has not yet received the full details of the
judgement, but at this stage it seems
that the judges relied on prosecution evidence which was not properly
corroborated.
This evidence included a written note apparently found by the police
at the university and a statement
made to the police during the preliminary investigations by a witness who
died before the trial. All five men
denied the charges of incitement to violence and are appealing to the
Supreme Court to overturn the
sentences.
Professor Asrat Woldeyes, 65, had been free on bail during the
long trial but the other four –
Sileshi Mulatu, 61, AAPO’s office manager, Teshome Bimerew,
an Addis Ababa
University student, former army lieutenant Chane Alamrew and
Ambelu Mekonnen, a
farmer from Gojjam, had been in prison for over a year. A court had granted
them bail but the Supreme Court
overruled it. The five men were arrested in July 1993 and charged with
holding a meeting in the AAPO office
nine months earlier at which they were alleged to have planned violent
attacks on the government.
Professor Asrat was previously accused of inciting inter-communal
violence in 1992 following an AAPO
rally speech in Debre Berhan. He denied these charges and has constantly
maintained that AAPO is
committed only to non-violent opposition.
The government, however, and the state-controlled news media have
persistently accused the
organisation of “war-mongering”, although without producing evidence to
substantiate this. In a recent
interview, the Minister of Defence accused Professor Asrat of
“unsuccessfully declaring war against the
government for the last three years”. Although the trial of Professor Asrat
and his four co-defendants was
held in open court and with defence representation, Amnesty International is
concerned whether they
received a fair trial according to international standards. The human
rights organization is continuing its
investigation into the case, but so far it believes all five men to be
prisoners of conscience who should
therefore be immediately and unconditionally released.
The defendants denied any plan of anti-government violence. They said
the meeting had been about
complaints the AAPO had received of abuses by government soldiers of the
Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and pro-government militias against
AAPO supporters and
Amharas.
The AAPO, one of many nationality/ethnic-based political groups in
Ethiopia, was founded in 1992 to
defend the interests of the formerly dominant Amhara nationality (or ethnic
group) and to propagate the
“unity of Ethiopia”.
The AAPO has reported numerous cases of detentions, “disappearances”
and alleged torture and
extrajudicial executions of AAPO supporters and Amharas — including some
cases in the past month — by
government troops and pro-government militias in the central Amhara Region
and in other regions where
Amharas are a minority. The AAPO, along with all other opposition parties,
boycotted the Constituent
Assembly elections of 5 June 1994.
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Subject: Ethiopia: Sights lined up on AAPO
Content-Length: 2629
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> Source: The Indian Ocean Newsletter July 9, 1994
I.O.N.- AAPO comes under strong government pressure just as
it acquires the official status of a
national political party. Its chairman, Asrat Woldeyes, and three
other members of the Amharic
organization have been sentenced to two years prison for alleged incitement
to armed revolt (ION No.630).
Its headquarters was searched by police on July 4 and 5, and its former
chairman, Abebe Simeneh, and
another member were jailed on July 4 after having been charged. To this must
be ed the numerous cases of
murder and disappearance of AAPO officials, members and supporters in
several parts of Ethiopia; these
include the deputy chairman for the eastern region, Mindaye Haile
Selassie (killed on May 22 in Dire
Dawa) and the chairman of the Mana Medir district of northern Shoa,
Zebene Yitna (killed on May
6). At the same time, a certain number of opponents, mostly ex-soldiers,
appear to be slipping towards
the choice of armed opposition to the regime of head of state Meles Zenawi.
The recent resignation of
AAPO deputy national chairman Hailu Shawel, who is one of the
country’s best-known
economists, and of the organization’s representative for Gondar, Mulugeta
Berihun, could also be
connected with this series of events.