Mulata Aberra, a trader of Oromo ethnic origin, has been held incommunicado at a federal police detention
centre in Harar city in eastern Ethiopia since his arrest on 29 November. Also arrested at the same time were
Najima Jamal Ismail and her step father. Najima Jamal Ismail is being held in a women’s detention centre in
Harar. Amnesty International has received reports that Mulatu Aberra and possibly the other two have been
tortured. Mulatu Aberra and Najima Jamal Ismail were transferred to hospital in Harar on 10 December and
were retuned to prison on 11 December.
All three appeared together before a court in Harar on 6 December where police obtained permission to
extend their detention for investigation into alleged involvement with the armed opposition group, the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF).
Mulatu Aberra has been detained on two previous occasions and accused of being a supporter of the OLF.
In 1996 he was arrested, and was detained incommunicado in Harar without charge or trial. His family was
not informed of his whereabouts until 1998, when he was charged with killing a person on behalf of the OLF.
He was tried and acquitted in 2000. He was frequently tortured during this period of detention and as a result
he now suffers from a hearing impairment and both of his arms are partially paralysed. He was arrested for a
second time in late 2006 in the nearby town of Dire Dawa and accused again of links with the OLF, but was
released without charge after five months. During this period of detention Mulatu Aberra was again tortured,
and was seriously injured.
Amnesty International in not aware of any case in Ethiopia where a judge has ordered an investigation into
allegations of torture
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Thousands of members of the Oromo ethnic group have been detained, and many of them tortured, in recent
years on suspicion of links with the OLF. The OLFhas been fighting the Ethiopian government in eastern and
western Oromia Region and other areas since 1992. Among detainees held on these grounds have been
people who Amnesty International believed were prisoners of conscience who had not used or advocated
violence.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:
– expressing concern at reports that Mulatu Aberra, and possibly also Najima Jamal Ismail and her stepfather,
who were arrested with him on 29 November in Harar, have been tortured in incommunicado detention;
– calling on the authorities to allow all three detainees regular access to their families and legal
representatives, and any medical treatment they may require;
– expressing concern that Najima Jamal Ismail is said to be under 18 years of age and calling for her to be
treated as such under the juvenile justice system;
– calling for an immediate and independent inquiry into the allegations that the three have been tortured while
in police custody and for the findings of the inquiry to be made public and for any police officer found
responsible for torture to be brought to justice;
– pointing out that according to international fair trial standards, no statement made as a result of torture can
be used as evidence in any court proceedings and judges are obliged to separately investigate or order an
investigation into allegations of torture;
– calling on the authorities to release the three people if they are not to be charged with a recognizable
criminal offence and given a prompt and fair trial.
APPEALS TO:
Meles Zenawi, Office of the Prime Minister, PO Box 1031, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 1552020
Assefa Kesito, Ministry of Justice, PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 5517775 or +251 11 5520874
Email: [email protected]
Workneh Gebeyehu, Federal Police Commission, Ministry of Federal Affairs
PO Box 5068, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
COPIES TO:
The official Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
Ambassador Dr Kassa Gebreheywot, Chief Commissioner, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
PO Box 1165, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 618 0041
Email: [email protected]
and to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if
sending appeals after 22 January 2008.
A wide cross-section of Ethiopian groups is planning to protest Wednesday in Petah Tikva against what is sees as a policy of apartheid adopted by the education system specifically and Israeli society in general.
The demonstration, which is set to kick off at 10 a.m. opposite the town’s municipal building, is to express the community’s anger over the revelation last week that a Petah Tikva school had been keeping four Ethiopian second-grade pupils separate from the rest of the student body.
“This phenomenon of apartheid by the education system should be a cause of concern to all the Israeli public and not just the Ethiopian community,” commented Avraham Neguise, head of a coalition of Ethiopian groups in Israel. “As Jews, we moved here to be part of Israeli society and not to be kept separate.”
Among those expected to participate in the rally are Ethiopian community spiritual leaders, heads of community welfare organizations, students, Knesset Members and any one who believes in justice, wrote Neguise in a statement.
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Petronas and China’s Sinopec remain in talks to resume oil and gas prospecting in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, where rebels killed Chinese workers in April, the Ethiopian government said on Monday.
Exploration in the remote area halted after separatist rebels killed 74 people, including nine Chinese employees of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), part of Sinopec, China’s biggest refiner and petrochemicals producer.
“We hope the two sides will reach an agreement and resume exploration work in the Ogaden because the situation has changed and there is no security threat now,” Sinknesh Ejigu, Ethiopia’s Woyanne state minister for mines and energy, told Reuters.
ZPEB exploration equipment was sitting idle at the site of the April 24 guerrilla attack near Degabur, 630 km (390 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa, she said.
The pre-dawn raid by Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels was one of the worst on Beijing’s growing energy interests in Africa, and it prompted a major military crackdown by the Ethiopian army that began in June. In September, Ethiopia’s government said the violence had not deterred Sinopec, and that the Chinese company had expressed renewed interest in negotiating energy production-sharing deals.
The government believes the Ogaden basin, which covers 350,000 sq km (135,100 sq miles), contains gas reserves of some 4 trillion cubic feet. It has assured firms operating in the vast, barren area bordering Somalia that security has been stepped up.
An Ethiopian A Woyanne official said in August that the country had signed a deal allowing Malaysian state company Petronas [PETR.UL] to develop natural gas in the Ogaden region.
Sinknesh said on Monday that Sweden’s Lundin (LUPE.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) had started surveying four Ogaden blocks, while PEXCO — another Malaysian firm — was about to begin exploration in the area. (Editing by Daniel Wallis, editing by Anthony Barker)
LISBON – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe pledged to uphold “democracy and the rule of law” yesterday when a raft of African autocrats signed a declaration supposedly heralding a new era of open politics.
Their solemn pledge came at the end of the Lisbon summit of European and African leaders.
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who seized power in a coup and is waging a brutal war in Darfur, also signed the “Lisbon declaration.” Other signatories included Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian dictator prime minister, who jailed the entire opposition leadership after staging a widely condemned election in 2005, and President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria, who won an election denounced by every independent observer group for ballot-rigging and violence.
In all, 13 African leaders seized power by force and two inherited their positions from their fathers. None had any reticence about endorsing the declaration.
“We are resolved to build a new strategic political partnership for the future, overcoming the traditional donor-recipient relationship and building on common values and goals in our pursuit of peace and stability, democracy and the rule of law, progress and development,” read the document they signed along with 26 EU leaders.
Observers were skeptical about the sincerity of African leaders. “They commit to democracy and human rights, but do nothing about Zimbabwe,” said Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch.
“They commit to joint action to protect civilians while the people of Darfur and Somalia are allowed to die. They commit to combat corruption while European banks stash away the ill-gotten gains of African dictators. The question is what difference these wonderful promises are going to make on the ground?”
But Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister who hosted the gathering, said the summit had been an “extraordinary event,” worthy of being “remembered as a milestone in the relations between Europe and Africa.”
During a closed session yesterday, Mr. Mugabe responded to the attack on his human rights record delivered on Saturday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Why was the prime minister of Great Britain not here?” asked Mr. Mugabe. “Because he had his spokesman here from Germany.”
The Zimbabwean leader added that Europe was “arrogant” and convinced of its “superiority over Africans.”
He said Zimbabwe had endured a long struggle for “democracy” after suffering almost a century of colonial oppression. Accusations that his regime abused human rights were “trumped up.”
Mr. Mugabe’s brief speech was his only intervention during the two-day summit. The 83-year-old leader looked tired and repeatedly stumbled over his prepared text.
Baroness Valerie Amos, a member of Britain’s House of Lords, represented Britain after Gordon Brown decided he would not attend in protest of Mr. Mugabe’s presence. With Mr. Mugabe listening, she told the summit that life expectancy for Zimbabwe’s women had fallen to 34 and that one third of the country’s people now depended on food aid — much of it provided by Britain.
Meanwhile, European leaders admitted at the end of the summit that efforts to conclude new trade agreements with Africa were struggling.
“The African countries are more and more afraid to be in some way pushed down by sudden competition, so they are asking for guarantees,” said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a former head of the European Commission.
Current European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also conceded the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations were “difficult,” while acknowledging the concerns of African countries.
The EU is seeking new trade deals with African, Caribbean and Pacific nations to replace the current preferential system that has been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
The Kinijit top leadership led by Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa — in the absence of Ato Hailu Shawel who is still in Minnesota — has not been using the Kinijit office in Addis Ababa, claiming that they were pushed out by former AEUP members Ato Abayneh Berhanu and others. Ato Abayneh and Ato Mamushet disagree, saying that Wzt. Bertukan and her colleagues are free to come to the office and start carrying out their responsibilities.
First of all, it is not clear why Ato Abayneh, the former vice chairman of AEUP, is still in charge of the Kinijit office. Reportedly, the office staff and security guards are being paid salary from AEUP account that was re-opened recently. Second, many Kinijit rank-and-file members are expressing frustration that Wzt. Bertukan and her executive committee are reluctant to assert their leadership, allowing themselves to be pushed around by a few former AEUP officials who are systematically regrouping their former party, while trying to dismantle Kinijit. Read more in Amharic at zikkir News Service.
