Pastor Daniel Gebraselassie, head of Prison Fellowship Ministry in Ethiopia informs U.S. Embassy officials in Addis Ababa that the Meles dictatorship has been perpetrating severe tortures against detainees. The information comes from the recently leaked secret U.S. diplomatic cables that are now available on Wikileaks. The following is an excerpt of what Paster Daniel told U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto:
Through meetings with these prisoners while detained and following their release, Pastor Dan learned that they were subjected to severe torture while in prison. (NOTE: Prisoners refuse to meet with Ambassador Kassa, saying that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is not independent of the GoE. END NOTE) Pastor Dan told Embassy officers that prison officials used Derg-era techniques ) e.g. hanging prisoners from the ceiling in arm shackles, beating the soles of their feet and hanging boards from their testicles ) to try to extract confessions. One of the prisoners reportedly died from injuries sustained while in prison, though prison officials maintain that he is “sick in the hospital.” Another of the former prisoners reported that when he was arrested, police dragged him out of his place of work and was pistol-whipped by plain clothes security forces on the way to the detention facility. The released detainees told Pastor Dan that others detained after them on similar suspicions are still held in Maikelawi. In follow-up meetings with prison officials, Pastor Dan was told that such reports are incorrect and that the prisoners were never tortured. However, in a meeting with the Federal Police Commissioner, he was told that some low-level interrogation officers lack the proper training and can sometimes use unsanctioned methods. Pastor Dan told the group of Embassy officers that “officials at the PM cabinet level” do not condone torture either, and that in the past seven years nearly 200 prison employees had been fired for improper behavior.
The burning of Ethiopian woman, Shweyga Mullah, by the family of Libyan madman Gaddafi has shocked the world. The bestiality of the Gaddafis in subjecting a fellow human being to such unspeakable cruelty is horrifying to any decent human being. People around the world would be equally shocked if they see pictures of the tortures that are being perpetrated at this very moment by the U.S.-financed regime in Ethiopia.
One of the torture victims whose story the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist wrote about this week is journalist Woubshet Taye. According to his wife, Berhane Tesfaye, Woubshet and other prisoners are being savagely beaten up and tortured by Meles Zenawi’s security forces. Woubshet told family members that he is unable to hear due to the torture.
The crime of torture by Meles Zenawi’s regime against Ethiopians is not news. Ethiopian prisons are filled with thousands of Shweyga Mullahs. All well-known international human rights organizations have extensively written about savage beatings of prisoners by the Meles rgime.
The Ethiopian women shown below have been burned by Meles Zenawi’s forces in Ogaden, eastern Ethiopia:
Farhia Mohamed Mahad (Age 20) — Civilians are arrested and jailed in Ogaden on mere suspicions of being part of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Farhia was no exception. Farhia was only a child when she was arbitrarily detained and jailed at Garbo Jail in the Ogaden. No explanation was given for her arrest. Farhia remained in jail for five years. During her imprisonment, Farhia was subjected to torture, rape, and electrocution. Her body, especially her chest and breast, suffered severe burns as a result direct electric current. Farhia has permanent scar tissues all over her body. Farhia received no treatment for her injuries.
Ismail Abdirahman (Age 8) — Ismail came to the refugee camp with his grandmother Hawa Hassan. They fled from Gunagado, Dagahbur. According to Mrs Hawa, the military came to her village, caught many villagers by surprise, and ordered everybody to come out of their houses. The soldiers started targeting and burning certain houses including Hassan’s house. Ismail and his uncle Mahamud were in the house when the soldiers set the house ablaze. Mahaumud was severely burned as he shielded Ismail from the flames. As a result, Ismail suffered burns on his thighs and knees and Mahamud died from severe burns and fumes.
Recent interviews with individuals who have been held in non-traditional detention facilities have shed anecdotal light on beatings and abuse by Ethiopian security officials against civilians in country. While we cannot confirm the scope or persistence of such mistreatment, these first-hand reports do offer a unique insight into abuse of detainees and dynamics regarding Ethiopia’s non-traditional detention facilities. A handful of released political and other prisoners in Ethiopia have recently reported to PolOff that they and other detainees have been tortured in police station jails in attempts by security officials to elicit confessions before cases go to trial. Depending on the detainee, abuses reported include being blindfolded and hung by the wrists for several hours, bound by chains and beaten, held in solitary confinement for several days to weeks or months, subjected to mental torture such as harassment and humiliation, forced to stand for over 16 hours, and having heavy objects hung from one’s genitalia (males). Based on what our sources have reported, torture seems to be more common at police station detention centers (most notably Ma-ekelawi police station in Addis Ababa), while less is reported at Kaliti prison. Released prisoners have also reported to PolOff cases of prisoners being detained for several years without being charged and without trial, prisoners held in jails despite having been released by the courts, and police interference with court proceedings.
The question Ethiopians ask the Obama Administration is, in light of such overwhelming evidences, including testimonies by U.S. officials about the crime of torture that is being perpetrated by the Meles regime against Ethiopian civilians, why is the U.S. continuing to prop up the regime with billions of dollars in assistance?
The U.S.-financed tyrant in Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, has been committing horrific crimes in Ethiopia during the past 20 years. Many of these crimes have been documented by every major international human rights organization, including Amnesty Int’l and Human Rights Watch. Ignoring such crimes against humanity, the U.S. Obama Administration has allocated $580 million in assistance to the Meles regime in 2011. The following are graphic pictures of two Ethiopian women and an 8-year-old boy in the Ogaden region who are suspected of being supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Such actions alone should have landed Meles at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Instead, he is invited by the U.K. and U.S. governments to attend G20 meetings. The photos below are provided by African Rights Monitor (ARM) this week:
Kowsar Yusuf Gud’Ade (Age 23) — Kowsar was arbitrarily detained by security forces of Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi.
While in detention, she was severely beaten and tortured. The soldiers used different methods of torture including electrocution. Kowsar’s left arm was broken during one of the many beating sessions.
Kowsar begged for mercy and asked for medical attention, but the army denied her any treatment. She was eventually released. No explanation was given for the arrest or the subsequent release. Kowsar sought treatment for her injuries.
As shown in the picture, the injury was severe and the damage could not be reversed as the treatment facilities in the Ogaden are not equipped to deal with such severe injuries. She fled the region shortly after her release. Kowsar is now in constant pain and has so far not received the proper medical attention.
Farhia Mohamed Mahad (Age 20) — Civilians are arrested and jailed in Ogaden on mere suspicions of being part of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Farhia was no exception. Farhia was only a child when she was arbitrarily detained and jailed at Garbo Jail in the Ogaden. No explanation was given for her arrest. Farhia remained in jail for five years. During her imprisonment, Farhia was subjected to torture, rape, and electrocution. Her body, especially her chest and breast, suffered severe burns as a result direct electric current. Farhia has permanent scar tissues all over her body. Farhia received no treatment for her injuries.
Ismail Abdirahman (Age 8) — Ismail came to the refugee camp with his grandmother Hawa Hassan. They fled from Gunagado, Dagahbur. According to Mrs Hawa, the military came to her village, caught many villagers by surprise, and ordered everybody to come out of their houses. The soldiers started targeting and burning certain houses including Hassan’s house. Ismail and his uncle Mahamud were in the house when the soldiers set the house ablaze. Mahaumud was severely burned as he shielded Ismail from the flames. As a result, Ismail suffered burns on his thighs and knees and Mahamud died from severe burns and fumes.
(VOA) — Ethiopian government Woyanne and rebels in the restive Ogaden region have confirmed a deadly clash this week in an area where a Chinese firm is exploring for oil. Each of the two side’s respective versions of the event differ sharply.
Details provided by both the Ethiopian government Woyanne and rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Force [ONLF] are sketchy.
But they agree that clashes took place this week in Ethiopia’s Somali region, between the main city, Jijiga, and the town of Degehabur, 150 kilometers to the south. The area is about 500 kilometers east of Addis Ababa, where the Chinese firm PetroTrans is exploring for oil.
ONLF communiqué
An ONLF communiqué received by email Friday said 25 soldiers from an elite Ethiopian Woyanne army brigade had been killed, along with a few rebel fighters in a battle last Tuesday. The statement said the army units had been escorting a PetroTrans exploration team, and had been “dislodging farmers from their lands” on the pretext that their farms were located on a seismic fault line.
The ONLF email alleged that the Chinese workers embedded with the army were wearing army camouflage uniforms, jeopardizing their rights as unarmed civilians stipulated in the Geneva Convention.
Ethiopian government Woyanne spokesman Shimeles Kemal ridiculed the ONLF claim. In a telephone interview, he said rebels had attacked what he called “civilian targets,” but had been rebuffed by local militia, suffering heavy casualties.
Contradictory version of events
“It’s the usual lie, the usual fabrication by the ONLF propaganda machinery. There was no attack against Ethiopian Woaynne soldiers that allegedly accompanied the Chinese oil exploration company,” said Shimeles. “What happened was, a bunch of ONLF rebel forces had tried to launch an attack against civilian targets. The local militia had ambushed and preempted their attack, and in the ensuing conflict, 11 members of ONLF were killed there and then.”
Shimeles confirmed that oil exploration is in progress in the region, but denied there had been any attacks on oil workers or their facilities.
“There are some oil exploration companies, particularly PetroTrans oil exploration company, which undertakes an exploration of oil in the area, and this company has undertaken its activities, and so far there has been no incident, no attack on it. They are undertaking their operation peacefully.
The Ogaden has since been largely off limits to foreigners. The International Committee of the Red Cross was expelled from the region by the Ethiopian government in 2008 after being accused of providing aid to the rebels.
Two Swedish journalists were arrested in the Ogaden in July after being injured in a battle between pro-government Woyanne forces and ONLF rebels. The pair remain in jail, and have a court date next week.
It looks like we are all upset. All our independent Web sites are headlining the news. It is the main conversation among our people outside of the country. Mere language is not enough to describe our profound displeasure with the Libyan ruling class. Our anger knows no bounds.
What exactly is getting us so hot and boiling with righteous indignation? It is none other than the report by CNN regarding our daughter/sister Shweyga Mullah and her ordeal as part of the Gadhafi household. To begin with it is highly possible that Shweyga is not even her name. In the scheme of the unfolding story it is not even important but it is part of the story. How she got Libya is another breath taking tale all by itself. I assure you she just did not buy a plane ticket and flew into Tripoli. If she did she is an exception. Any way those two factors are not my focus here.
Our collective reaction is my interest in this horrific story. I am not surprised by the reaction of free people in the West. It is news to them. Stuff like this does not happen every day. I don’t mean to say there are no bad people in the US or Europe. I am sure incidents like this do occur everywhere. But I believe it will be fair to say they are isolated and very infrequent. Now when it comes to us Ethiopians why do I get this feeling that our anger is a feeble attempt to cover up our indifference to all the injustice that surrounds us?
I am not trying to belittle what happened to Shweyga. It is ugly and beyond my ability to understand the dark side of human nature. I am glad she survived her ordeal. Anti-Slavery International has set up a fundraising page on their Web site to help pay for her medical needs. The mental scar will take a long time to heal. Please go and give what you can. That is saving one human being. It is a beginning.
What I want to focus is the circumstances that made a young girl leave her village to be a maid thousands of miles away from home? She is one among the tens of thousands that roam the Middle East in search of a better life. Many stories have been told about their trials and tribulations in the hands of some that do not know the meaning of Human dignity or Human Rights.
Tezeta, Senait, Matente, Etsegenet are not just names. They are Ethiopian maids in Lebanon that committed suicide within a twelve days period in October of 2009. Tezeta jumped from a third floor, Senait from a balcony, Masente hung herself and Etsegenet jumped from the seventh floor. Those are our women. Our boys don’t fare any better. December 2008 twenty Ethiopians, January 2011 eighty, April 2011 sixteen, May 2011 forty Ethiopians drowning in the Gulf of Aden is just another boring story.
When asked about the situation in Tripoli this is how our rulers reacted. “The government of Ethiopia will make every necessary effort to bring the victim from Libya and get her due compensation for the damage,” Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Dina Mufti said on Thursday. You see what I mean. The horror is reduced to monetary compensation. No rage about how dare you do this to my citizen! No indignation and demand for justice! Pound for pound we must be the cheapest humans.
We are abandoned people. The government thinks of as cash cows to be abused at home or exported abroad for remittances. We have no place at home to turn to for justice. We have no Embassy or Consulate abroad that we call our own and turn to incase of emergency. We as a people are full of rage. The gist of the matter is in my humble opinion we are unable to direct this rage to construct a new reality that will ensure that there are no Shweyga in the future. In the end that is the only thing that matters.
Why do you think Ethiopians are the preferred maids in the Middle East? The answer is very painful. It is because we know how to suffer in silence. Our capacity for absorbing injustice and abuse is beyond comprehension. It is part of our culture. It is part of our up brining. The Gulf Arab knows that. We are afraid to challenge authority. Be it our own parents, a village chief or the Prime Minster we submit willingly. The most increadable aspect of this situation is that we think of it as a virtue. We keep quiet and justify it by saying silence is golden. We whisper but complain of not being heard.
Our government knows that too. Our leaders work very hard in stripping the little self-respect we might have every opportunity they get. They did not invent something new. They did not have to. They just used better knowledge to manage us. Every new technology is exploited to enhance our sense of paranoia and drive a wedge between us. Our ignorance is cultivated and fed back to us. I am not blaming others for our failure to stand up. I am blaming myself for going along with it. It is not what others are trying to do to me but rather it is all about what I am doing to myself.
We all have the capacity to do good or bad. For every Nelson Mandela within us there is also Adolf Hitler competing for attention. The seeds of good or evil are in us. The question becomes which of these seeds are each one of us going to water and cultivate. It is a choice we have to make. Shweyga is our face. Our girl is far away from home. She is afraid and confused. She is lost like us. Shweyga’s skin damage will be repaired by the Doctors. Even her mental scar will heal in time. But there are millions of Shweygas out there. Our indignation should be channeled to make sure there are no more. That requires a deeper look into our selves. If we want a lasting solution we have to look at the root cause of all this dark cloud hovering on our home land. As Henry Thoreau said “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
Farhia Mohamed Mahad (Age 20) — Civilians are arrested and jailed in Ogaden on mere suspicions of being part of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Farhia was no exception. Farhia was only a child when she was arbitrarily detained and jailed at Garbo Jail in the Ogaden. No explanation was given for her arrest. Farhia remained in jail for five years. During her imprisonment, Farhia was subjected to torture, rape, and electrocution. Her body, especially her chest and breast, suffered severe burns as a result direct electric current. Farhia has permanent scar tissues all over her body. Farhia received no treatment for her injuries.
Ismail Abdirahman (Age 8) — Ismail came to the refugee camp with his grandmother Hawa Hassan. They fled from Gunagado, Dagahbur. According to Mrs Hawa, the military came to her village, caught many villagers by surprise, and ordered everybody to come out of their houses. The soldiers started targeting and burning certain houses including Hassan’s house. Ismail and his uncle Mahamud were in the house when the soldiers set the house ablaze. Mahaumud was severely burned as he shielded Ismail from the flames. As a result, Ismail suffered burns on his thighs and knees and Mahamud died from severe burns and fumes.
Kowsar Yusuf Gud’Ade (Age 23) — Kowsar was arbitrarily detained by security forces of Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi.