Arrested, jailed and beaten, tortured and imprisoned, this is the recipe for justice that the Ethiopian government serves up to dissenting voices. Men and women peacefully exercising their democratic right, demanding their human rights, crying out for their moral rights. The victimised are not only those living within Ethiopia who attempt to offer an alternative to the current dictatorship, who form and organise political opposition to the Meles regime, but journalists inside Ethiopia and abroad, who dare to speak out in criticism of the governments criminality, human rights violations and policies of indifference.
Amnesty International in its damning report of the Ethiopian government, Dismantling Dissent in Ethiopia (DDE);1 state that from March to November 2011 “at least 108 opposition party members and six journalists have been arrested for alleged involvement with various proscribed terrorist groups.” By November they were all charged with crimes under the internationally criticised Anti Terrorist Proclamation. In addition, Amnesty continues, “six journalists two opposition party members and one human rights defender, all living in exile, were charged in absentia.”
The ‘T’ word as former Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan, called terrorism, is the umbrella term used by the Ethiopian government (amongst others) to justify the unjust, the dishonest and the criminal. If there is a terrorist organisation flourishing in Ethiopia, committing crimes against humanity and violating the human rights of the people it is State terrorism delivered by the EPRDF government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, as this UN definition of terrorism makes clear. “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable.”2 Fear of the government, fear of reprisal, of violence and [false] imprisonment casts a deep shadow across the people of Ethiopia, whose human rights are being ignored by the Meles regime, that seized power twenty years ago and has brutalised and systematically restricted the peoples freedom and human rights ever since.
Lawless lawmakers
In 2009 the Ethiopian government passed legislation on the highly controversial Anti Terrorism Proclamation. Human Rights Watch (HRW)3 that year looked closely at what was then the proposed law and amongst other recommendations held high within their fury and despair, said, “if implemented this law could provide the Ethiopian government with a potent instrument to crack down on political dissent, including peaceful political demonstrations and public criticisms of government policy” and “It would permit long-term imprisonment and even the death penalty for “crimes” that bear no resemblance, under any credible definition, to terrorism. It would in certain cases deprive defendants of the right to be presumed innocent, and of protections against use of evidence obtained through torture.” Needles to say, the law was passed almost entirely as drafted, duly implemented and has since been used solely to silence dissent. Amnesty in its report found “the prolonged series of arrests and prosecutions indicates a systematic use of the law and the pretext of counter-terrorism by the Ethiopian government to silence people who criticise or question their actions and policies, especially opposition politicians and the independent media.”
It is the utilisation and enforcement of this unlawful law that is enabling the Ethiopian government to quash opposition and free speech within the country and intimidate those voices for fairness, justice and common sense abroad. The legislation allows the government to ban free association and to arrest and imprison anyone who has the courage to speak out against the government and their many human rights violations. The police, who were already commonly acting outside of the law, with little or no knowledge of human rights, were given new and unlawful powers. HRW in its analysis states, “The draft Proclamation grants the police the power to make arrests without a warrant, so long as the officer “reasonably suspects” that the person is committing or has committed a terrorist act. The Ethiopian constitution requires that a person taken into custody must be brought before a court within 48 hours and informed of the reasons for their arrest-a protection that is already systematically violated.” This constitutional requirement as with many articles of decency and good intention is dutifully ignored. Arrested under the Anti Terrorist Proclamation individuals are held in confinement for weeks, sometimes months without charge and denied legal support. Even before this draconian legislation was enforced HRW states “Ethiopian police routinely detain people without charge for months, and sometimes ignore judicial orders for release.”
Five from many
In January five more innocent people were convicted in the Ethiopian Federal High Court, of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, and money laundering. Evidence against the three journalists an opposition leader and a woman, Hirut Kifle Woldeyesus, was made up primarily of online criticism of the government and plans to stage peaceful political protest. None of which constitute acts of terrorism. This is common as Amnesty found in the 114 cases they investigated in their detailed report, “much of the evidence against those charged involves items that do not appear to amount to terrorism or criminal wrongdoing. Rather many items of evidence cited appear to be illustrations of individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression, acting peacefully and legitimately.”
Two of the journalists tried in January were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment while Elias Kifle (tried in absentia), editor of the web-based journal Ethiopian Review, received his second life sentence [emphasis mine]. These cases are simply the most recent in a long line of miscarriages of ‘justice’, where the outlaw government has exercised an abuse of power and in the name of justice imprisoned the innocent. A further 24 journalists and opposition party members are awaiting trial, many of whom could face the death penalty, for trumped up charges which amount to nothing more than journalists exercising their constitutional and moral right to freedom of speech. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya stated in a meeting of UN human rights investigators in February “journalists, bloggers and others advocating for increased respect for human rights should not be subject to pressure for the mere fact that their views are not in alignment with those of the Government.”4 Indeed. Journalists must be free to speak out against the government, to criticise policies of persecution, to highlight the suffering of the people and to draw attention to the multiple human rights abuses taking place within Ethiopia. UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, “Journalists play a crucial role in promoting accountability of public officials by investigating and informing the public about human rights violations, they should not face criminal proceedings for carrying out their legitimate work, let alone be severely punished.” However all those speaking out in anguish and rage at the EPRDF’s criminality and repression are subject not simply to ‘pressure’, or ‘criminal proceedings’, but violent arrest, torture and false imprisonment, or indeed death.
Free the innocent
These five innocent men and women, who were mistreated in custody, falsely imprisoned and like others, including the celebrated writer Eskinder Nega (imprisoned for life in September for writing an on-line blog), denied their liberty, must be released immediately and an independent enquiry instigated to investigate their cases, their treatment whilst in jail and their hollow convictions. During their three-month imprisonment at the Maikelawi detention center before the trial and in violation of Ethiopian and international law, the defendants were denied access to legal counsel and family members, and claim they were beaten and tortured. This is the experience of a great many whilst held in Maikelawi, Amnesty reveals in its report, “many of the [114] detainees were forced to sign confessions and to acknowledge ownership or association by signing items of seemingly incriminating evidence.” The Ethiopian courts have not investigated any of these claims, they are it seems nothing more than servants of the Government, and are as HRW states “complicit in this political witch hunt.” This collusion of the courts contravenes the Ethiopian constitution that states in Article 78/1. “An independent judiciary is established by this Constitution. Article 79/1. “Judicial Powers, both at Federal and State levels, are vested in the courts,” furthermore, 3. “Judges shall exercise their functions in full independence and shall be directed solely by the law.” The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul “deplored the reported failure to ensure the defendants’ right to a fair trial.” Reports the UN News Centre.
The Ethiopian government cannot be believed or trusted; the international bodies supporting the country should impose independent observers of the judicial system. Amnesty International in its report calls “on the representatives of the international community in Addis Ababa to take up the role of monitoring trials.” This would be an important initial act in placing the EPRDF under international scrutiny and accountability. It is time the international community acting through the UN undertook its responsibility and role as advocate for justice, self-determination, “the suppression of acts of aggression” (article 1) and freedom for the people of the world, in accordance with its charter.
A blind eye to torture
In addition to the suppression of free speech, the use of the death penalty and withdrawing the legal right of presumption of innocence, torture is allowed under the Anti Terrorism Proclamation and information gathered whilst under such duress is admissible in court. HRW again, “The draft Proclamation deems confessions admissible without a restriction on the use of statements made under torture”. This is illegal under international law, The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment does not allow the use of any statements made in a court of law, that where elicited under torture. The use of such information is also prohibited under the Ethiopian Constitution. Article 19 states, “Persons arrested shall not be compelled to make confessions or admissions which could be used in evidence against them. Any evidence obtained under coercion shall not be admissible.” The much-trumpeted constitution in colours green red and yellow, no doubt framed and hung neatly upon a wall of indifference and conceit, unenforced; it means little or nothing to the people and even less to the EPRDF who ignore its charter.
Known unknowables
It is an acknowledged fact within the corridors of the UN and Ethiopia’s donor countries that human rights abuses are occurring daily within the country under the increasingly paranoid gaze of Prime Minister Meles and his ministerial menagerie. How do we as a world community, responsible and alert to the needs of our brothers and sisters, respond to such men, to such injustice and tyranny? Fight fire with fire many would advocate and in the face of such cruelty many of us would perhaps gladly fuel a furnace, however as Mahatma Ghandi said “I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can teach you not to bow your heads before anyone even at the cost of your life.” To be silent in the sight of injustice and persecution is to allow tyrants like Meles to maintain their stranglehold over the innocent. It is time intense political pressure from those providing and delivering the much-needed financial and developmental aid, was applied to put an end to the current regimes human rights violations and abuse of the people, including freezing of personal assets and targeted sanctions. The British government give £315 million a year to Ethiopia, a spokesperson from The Department for International Development (DFID) told the Guardian (3/02/2012) “The prime minister, the foreign secretary and the secretary of state for international development have all raised concerns with Prime Minister Meles over the recent arrests of opposition leaders and journalists.”5 ‘Concern’ is all well and good, but all too easy for the arrogant to shrug off, outrage and horror a more apt response from Westminster and more in keeping with the offences being committed. Criticism alone however will not bring change within the abysmal regime and justice to the long-suffering people.
Repeal and release
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi presides over a brutal manipulative dictatorship that restricts all freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of the media in Ethiopia. Peaceful dissent is met with violence and false imprisonment. Intimidation and fear are the key tools in such repression, this must end and we the international community must ensure it is so. The Anti terrorist Proclamation is an unjust piece of legislation designed and implemented by a corrupt and violent regime who are in breech of international law and there own constitution. It must be repealed immediately, the many innocent good men and women falsely imprisoned released and those supporting Ethiopia through development aid should insist on the implementation of these legitimate and morally right demands. Sit not in silent appeasement, but raise your bowed heads and act.
Notes:
1. http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/ethiopia-dismantling-dissent-intensified-crackdown-on-free-speech-in-ethiopia
2. 1994 United Nations Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism annex to UN General Assembly resolution 49/60 ,”Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism”, of December 9, 1994, UN Doc. A/Res/60/49
3. Human Rights Watch Analysis of Ethiopias Draft Anti-Terrorist Law. http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/06/30/analysis-ethiopia-s-draft-anti-terrorism-law
4. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41112&Cr=journalist&Cr1
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/feb/03/ethiopia-human-rights-questions?INTCMP=SRCH
(About the author: Graham Peebles is Director of The Create Trust, a UK registered charity, supporting fundamental social change and the human rights of individuals in acute need. He may be reached at [email protected])
After 420 days of trial (over nearly four years), 115 witness, over 50,000 pages of testimony, and 1,520 exhibits, Charles Taylor, warlord-turned-president of Liberia, was found guilty on 11 counts by the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity (including murder, rape, mutilating civilians, including cutting off their limbs, conscripting child soldiers, sexual slavery and other acts of terrorism) committed in Sierra Leone from November 30, 1996, to January 18, 2002. Over 50,000 people died in that conflict. Taylor “aided and abetted” the notorious warlords Foday Sankoh, Sam “the Mosquito” Bockarie and Issa Sesay of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Taylor participated in the planning, instigation and commission of these crimes and provided weapons and military support in exchange for “blood diamonds” mined by slave laborers in Sierra Leone. Taylor will be sentenced next month.
There were some problems in the prosecution’s evidence. There were few documents to show the depth and scope of Taylor’s involvement with the rebels. There was no evidence that Taylor was at the scene of the rebel crimes. There was little evidence showing the Liberian troops Taylor sent to Sierra Leone were directly involved in the war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, prosecutors were able to use radio and telephone intercepts and the testimonies of Taylor’s close associates and security detail and show that Taylor had shipped weapons to the rebels in exchange for (blood) diamonds.
Taylor avoided conviction for “command responsibility” under article 6(3) of the Statute of the Special Court which imputes criminal responsibility “if the superior knew or had reason to know that his or her subordinate was about to commit crimes prohibited by the Statute or had done so, and the superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish the perpetrators”. Despite evidence that Taylor had knowledge RUF rebels were committing war crimes and crimes against humanity and that he had significant influence over them, there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had effective “command and control” over them to prevent the crimes or punish the perpetrators.
Taylor denied all of the charges and any responsibility for the crimes committed in Sierra Leone. He testified on his own behalf for seven months seeking to portray himself as a peace maker. The trial reportedly cost $USD250 million! Was it worth the expense? Does justice have a price tag?
Rogues Gallery of African Criminals Against Humanity
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for other current and former African heads of state, including Cote d’Ivoire’s former president Laurent Gbagbo and Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir (and the late Moamar Gadhafi). In November 2011, Gbagbo was quietly whisked away to the Hague from house arrest in Cote d’Ivoire to face justice before the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity (murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts) that were allegedly committed during the post-election period. Gbagbo will soon be warming Taylor’s chair.
Al-Bashir sneered at the ICC indictment in 2009: “Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and everyone who supports this court that they are under my shoe.” (In time, he may come under the ICC’s shoes.) The U.N. estimated well over 300,000 people have perished under Bashir’s regime. Along with Al-Bashir, the ICC has also issued warrants against other Sudanese nationals including Ahmed Haroun, a lawyer and minister of humanitarian affairs, Ali Kushayb, a former senior Janjaweed (local militiamen allied with the Sudanese regime against Darfur rebels), Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a rebel leader and two others.
The ICC has also indicted criminals against humanity in Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta, finance minister and son of Kenya’s famed independence leader Jomo Kenyatta, resigned following an ICC ruling that he will face trial for crimes against humanity in connection with the communal post-election violence between supporters of presidential candidates Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki in 2008. The U.N. estimates some 1,200 people died in weeks of unrest between December 2007 and February 2008, and 600,000 people were forcibly displaced. Cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura, a close ally of president Mwai Kibaki, former Education Minister William Ruto and radio announcer Joshua arap Sang face similar charges.
In Uganda, the ICC has indicted senior leaders of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” including the notorious Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and three other top commanders. In the DR Congo various rebel and militia leaders and Congolese military officers and politicians including Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Bosco Ntaganda, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui and two others have been indicted. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Moammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi who was arrested in Mauritania in March of this year. Libya is contesting ICC jurisdiction so that it may be able to try the two suspects in Libyan courts.
No ICC Indictments in Ethiopia?
While seeking out war criminals and criminals against humanity in the Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, the DR of Congo, Libya and other places, the ICC and U.N. Security Council have avoided “Crimes Against Humanity Central– Ethiopia”. The evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ethiopia is fully documented, substantial and overwhelming.
An official Inquiry Commission appointed by Meles Zenawi in its 2006 report documented the extrajudicial killing of at least 193 unarmed protesters, wounding of 763 others and arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 30,000 persons in the post-2005 election period in Ethiopia. The Commission was limited to investigating the “violence that occurred on June 8, 2005 in Addis Ababa and violence that occurred from November 1 to 10, 2005 and from November 14 to 16, 2005” in other parts of the country. (The Inquiry Commission has evidence on extrajudicial killings by security forces for dates other than those indicated, and had those casualties been included in the official Commission report the numbers would have increased several fold.) The killings investigated by the Commission occurred after Zenawi publicly declared that all of the country’s security and military forces were under his direct, exclusive and personal control.
The Commission’s evidence further showed that nearly all of the 193 unarmed protesters died from gunshot wounds to their heads or upper torso. The Commission found substantial evidence that professional sharpshooters were used in the indiscriminate and wanton attack on the unarmed protesters. The Commission further documented that on November 3, 2005, during an alleged disturbance at the infamous Kality prison near Addis Ababa, guards sprayed more than 1,500 bullets into inmate cells in 15 minutes, killing 17 and severely wounding 53. These and many other shocking facts were meticulously documented by the Inquiry Commission which examined 16,990 documents, received testimony from 1,300 witnesses and undertook months of investigation in the field. There is also documentary evidence to show that there are at least 237 named police and security officials directly implicated in these crimes and subsequently dismissed from their positions. No person has even been criminally investigated, arrested, charged, prosecuted or in any way held accountable for any of these crimes.
In December 2003, in the Gambella region of Ethiopia, 424 individuals died in extrajudicial killings by security forces. A report by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program corroborates the extrajudicial killings. In 2008, in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, reprisal “executions of 150 individuals” and 37 others were documented by Human Rights Watch:
Ethiopian military personnel who ordered or participated in attacks on civilians should be held responsible for war crimes. Senior military and civilian officials who knew or should have known of such crimes but took no action may be criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility. The widespread and apparently systematic nature of the attacks on villages throughout Somali Region is strong evidence that the killings, torture, rape, and forced displacement are also crimes against humanity for which the Ethiopian government bears ultimate responsibility.
No person has even been criminally investigated, arrested, charged, prosecuted or in any way held accountable for any of these crimes.
In 2010, Human Rights Watch made a submission to the U.N. Committee Against Torture “regarding serious patterns of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in Ethiopia.”
Torture and ill-treatment have been used by Ethiopia’s police, military, and other members of the security forces to punish a spectrum of perceived dissenters, including university students, members of the political opposition, and alleged supporters of insurgent groups, as well as alleged terrorist suspects. Human Rights Watch has documented incidents of torture and ill-treatment by Ethiopian security forces in a range of settings. The frequency, ubiquity, and patterns of abuse by agents of the central and state governments demonstrate systematic mistreatment involving commanding officers, not random activity by rogue soldiers and police officers. In several cases documented by Human Rights Watch, military commanders participated personally in torture.
No person has even been criminally investigated, arrested, charged, prosecuted or in any way held accountable for any of these crimes.
International Criminal Court of Justice or International Criminal Court of Selective Justice?
It is historic and commendable that the ICC UN Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone has convicted Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The verdict is undoubtedly a giant step forward in ending the culture of official impunity and criminality in Africa. African dictators and tyrants may no longer assume automatic impunity for their criminal actions. David Crane, the former prosecutor who indicted Taylor in 2003 correctly pointed out, “This is a bell that has been rung and clearly rings throughout the world. If you are a head of state and you are killing your own people, you could be next.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the Taylor verdict as “a significant milestone for international criminal justice” that “sends a strong signal to all leaders that they are and will be held accountable for their actions.”
But the ICC and the U.N. Security Council must not succumb to the shameful practice of selective justice. It is hypocritical to indict criminals against humanity in the Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and the DR Congo and pretend to “hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil” on the war criminals and criminals against humanity in Ethiopia. There cannot be a double, triple or quadruple standard of justice tailored for different grade of war criminals and criminals against humanity. There is no such thing as a good war criminal or criminal against humanity. There can be no beauty contest among warthogs. What is good enough for the Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and the DR Congo MUST be good enough for Ethiopia because what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Based on the compelling and substantial readily available evidence, the ICC has a legal duty and a moral obligation to at least open an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ethiopia since 2002 when the court was created.
FREE ALL ETHIOPIAN JOURNALISTS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS!!!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
Alliance for Liberty, Equality, and Justice in Ethiopia (ALEJE) Let us struggle in unison for our dignity and freedom! May 4, 2012 Alliance for Liberty, Equality and Justice in Ethiopia (ALEJE) has been closely monitoring the development of events in Ethiopia in the last three months. From the intensifying deterioration of human rights in Gambella to the forced eviction of ethnic Amharas, from the desecration of sacred places in Waldiba Monastery to the political manipulation of the Muslim faith and worship, and from the ever worsening economic conditions to the ever shrinking political space, Ethiopia has become a completely uninhabitable land. As a result, today, thousands die trying to reach safe havens and tens of thousands are in filthy prisons all over the world. As evidenced by national and international human rights groups, those who bravely opposed the regime often find themselves in jails or graves.
The continued pattern of land grab by foreign multinational companies combined with forcible eviction of long time Amhara inhabitants from the southern region are creating an intolerable situation that can only be described as a form of ethnic cleansing. In the sphere of religion, Meles Zenawi’s regime has displayed its disrespect and utter insensitivity to faith and faith based institutions of the nation. Thru its political cadres, the regime has infiltrated the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and has turned this holy institution into its machinery of oppression; and currently, the Zenawi regime is working hard to control the Muslim faith institutions. All in all, Zenawi’s repressive ethnic minority regime has viciously attacked Muslims, Christians, farmers, merchants, artisans, students, teachers and workers.
ALEJE believes that an attack on Muslims is an attack on Christians and an attack on the workers is an attack on farmers. Therefore, ALEJE urges all Ethiopians to stand together and defend each other’s rights and freedom by coming together to fight the common enemy of the country and the freedom of its people. It is time to critically see the inner core of the regime’s divide and rule policy and acknowledge that, Muslim or Christian, student, teacher, soldier or farmer; as citizens of Ethiopia, we all live in the context of each other. Hence, it is exceedingly important that we stand for one another because an attack on one of us is and on all of us. ALEJE takes this opportunity to call upon all Ethiopian Christians to join our Muslim brothers in order to enable the popular struggle to a victorious end by embracing all pockets of resistance forces in different parts of the country.
Alliance for Liberty, Equality and Justice in Ethiopia strongly believes that the territorial integrity of Ethiopia and the socio-economic & political well-being of its people have never been at a greater risk like they are now under the ever intensified destructive and divisive policies of the minority regime. The rapid development of events in Ethiopia clearly indicates that the current conditions in Ethiopia have given us the opportunity to claim our country. ALEJE encourages Ethiopians inside and outside the country to set aside their differences and cease the moment to claim back our country, dignity and freedom from the current ruthless, reckless, and thoughtless dictators. ALEJE would like to assure to all Ethiopians that it will stand and struggle with them throughout the rugged march towards freedom, equality and national dignity for all.
Victory for the struggling people of Ethiopia!
Down with Meles Zenawi’s minority dictatorship!
ALEJE Member Organizations:
Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy
Afar People’s Party (APP)
Ethiopian Unity and Justice Movement (EUJM)
The past two weeks have been glorious days for Africans. Eskinder Nega, the heroic Ethiopian journalist was honored with Pen America’s Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The award honors writers throughout the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression. Charles Taylor, warlord-turned-Liberian-president, was convicted of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the U.N. Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone. Yesterday Reeyot Alemu, the young Ethiopian journalist, became the winner of the International Women’s Media Foundation 2012 Courage in Journalism Award.
Reeyot, 31, is a teacher and columnist for the independent Ethiopian newsweekly Feteh. When she and her co-defendant Woubshet Taye were arrested in June 2011, they were accused of plotting to sabotage telephone and electricity lines and held incommunicado. In a June 17 column in Feteh, Reeyot criticized Zenawi’s harebrained public fundraising campaign for the so-called Grand Renaissance Dam on Abay River project. That column seemed to have gotten Zenawi’s goat. But Reeyot has been persistent in her criticisms. She even had the audacity to nick Zenawi’s scared cow, the half-baked so-called five-year growth and transformation plan. In September, Reeyot and Woubshet were charged with “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and participation in a terrorist organization” under Meles Zenawi’s cut-and-paste anti-terrorism law.
The so-called evidence of “conspiracy” against Reeyot in kangaroo court consisted of intercepted emails and wiretapped telephone conversations she had about peaceful protests and change with other journalists. Reeyot’s articles in Feteh and other publications on the Ethiopian Review website on the activities of opposition groups were also introduced as evidence.
Reeyot and Woubshet had no access to legal counsel during their three months in pretrial detention. Both were denied counsel during interrogations. The kangaroo court refused to investigate their allegations of torture, mistreatment and denial of medical care in detention.
Regime mouthpiece Shimeles Kemal blathered in interviews about Reeyot and Woubshet’s certain involvement in planning terrorist acts while the case was pending in court. He seemed totally clueless of Art. 20 (3) of the Ethiopian Constitution which guarantees: “During proceedings accused persons have a right to be presumed innocent.” The kangaroo court sentenced Reeyot to a 14 year prison term and fined her birr 33,000.
As to the judgment of the kangaroo court, Amnesty International was appalled: “There is no evidence that they are guilty of any criminal wrongdoing. There is no evidence that they are guilty of any criminal wrongdoing. We believe that they are prisoners of conscience, prosecuted because of their legitimate criticism of the government. They must be released immediately and unconditionally.” Human Rights Watch was confounded by the idiocy of the charges: “According to the charge sheet, the evidence consisted primarily of online articles critical of the government and telephone discussions notably regarding peaceful protest actions that do not amount to acts of terrorism. Furthermore, the descriptions of the charges in the initial charge sheet did not contain even the basic elements of the crimes of which the defendants are accused….”
In recognizing Reeyot for its Courage in Journalism Award, the IWMF’s stated:
Women are grossly under-represented in journalism and the media in Ethiopia. There are few Ethiopian journalists in Ethiopia (state media), and even fewer in the independent media. Journalism in Ethiopia is traditionally dominated by males and societal and cultural expectations discourage women from choosing the field of journalism. Cultural stereotypes are particularly discouraging to young women interested in journalism. The fact that the Ethiopian Government pursues and persecutes courageous, brave and professional women journalists does not bode well particularly for young women who may be interested in journalism. As a result, women’s voices (as reporters, editors, journalists, decision-making chambers) are rarely heard and women’s issues are often relegated to secondary position.
Congratulations to Press Freedom Heroine Reeyot Alemu!
After her sentence, Reeyot’s father, Ato Alemu, in an interview said that his daughter will not apologize, seek a pardon or apply for a clemency. “As a father, would you rather not advise your daughter to apologize?” Ato Alemu replied:
This is perhaps one of the most difficult questions a parent can face. As any one of us who are parents would readily admit, there is an innate biological chord that attaches us to our kids. We wish nothing but the best for them. We try as much as humanly possible to keep them from harm…. Whether or not to beg for clemency is her right and her decision. I would honor and respect whatever decision she makes… To answer your specific question regarding my position on the issue by the fact of being her father, I would rather have her not plead for clemency, for she has not committed any crime.
When Zenawi jailed Birtukan Midekssa in December 2008, he emphatically and sadistically guaranteed that “there will never be an agreement with anybody to release Birtukan. Ever. Full stop. That’s a dead issue.” No doubt Zenawi would like to make Reeyot, Eskinder, Woubshet, the Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson , the 193 unarmed protesters massacred in 2005…. a dead issue. But they shall live in our hearts, in our spirits and even our souls, for they are freedom of expression personified.
This past Monday I raised my pen to salute my hero Eskinder Nega. Today I rise up to salute my heroine Reeyot Alemu. In the face of the wicked enemies of press freedom, my cup runneth over! Two home runs in one week! It just doesn’t get better than that!
FREE REEYOT ALEMU! FREEYOT ALEMU!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
NEW YORK (AP) — An imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and blogger who could face the death penalty for advocating peaceful protests in his Horn of Africa homeland was honored Tuesday with PEN America’s “Freedom to Write” award.
Eskinder Nega was arrested in 2011 under Ethiopia’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws, which PEN says criminalize any reporting deemed to “encourage” or “provide moral support” to groups and causes the government deems “terrorists.”
Nega is still in jail after a judge in Addis Ababa found him guilty Jan. 23 on terror charges. He could face the death penalty at sentencing.
Ethiopia has arrested close to 200 people, among them journalists and opposition politicians and members, under last year’s anti-terrorism proclamation.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country in the world over the past decade.
Nega was honored at PEN/America’s annual gala dinner Tuesday at the American Museum of Natural History, with some 500 PEN members and supporters in attendance.
PEN/America granted him the year’s PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
Forty-six women and men have received the award since 1987; 33 of the 37 honorees who were in prison at the time they were honored were subsequently released.
Accepting the award was his wife, Serkalem Fasil, a free expression advocate in her own right, who served 17 months in prison for treason starting in 2005 and gave birth to their child behind bars. She won the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award in 2007.
“The Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega is that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk,” said Peter Godwin, president of PEN American Center. “Yet he did so nonetheless. And indeed he fell victim to exactly the measures he was highlighting, Ethiopia’s draconian `anti terrorism’ laws that criminalize critical commentary.”
Nega has been publishing articles critical of the government since 1993, when he opened his first newspaper, Ethiopis, which was soon shut down by authorities.
He was the general manager of Serkalem Publishing House, which published the newspapers Asqual, Satenaw, and Menelik, all of which are now banned in Ethiopia.
Nega has also been a columnist for the monthly magazine Change and the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which are also banned in Ethiopia.
He has been detained at least seven times under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, including in 2005, when he and his wife Serkalem were imprisoned for 17 months on treason charges for their critical reporting on the government’s violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections, and briefly in February 2011 for “attempts to incite Egyptian and Tunisian-like protests in Ethiopia” after he published articles on the Arab uprisings.
Nega has been denied a license to practice journalism since 2005, yet he has continued to publish columns critical of the government’s human rights record and calling for an end to political repression and corruption.
Nega was again arrested Sept. 14, 2011, after he published a column questioning the government’s claim that a number of journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticizing the arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu on terror charges earlier that week.
Shortly after his arrest, Nega was charged with affiliation with the banned political party Ginbot 7, which the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization. On Nov. 10, Nega was charged and further accused of plotting with and receiving weapons and explosives from neighboring Eritrea to carry out terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. State television portrayed Nega and other political prisoners as “spies for foreign forces.”
He is being held in Maekelawi Prison in Addis Ababa, where detainees are reportedly often tortured.
On May 1, 2012, Eskinder Nega, Ethiopia’s foremost journalist and political prisoner, will be awarded the “Freedom to Write Award”, the highest honor given out by Pen America, one of the great international free press institutions that has been in continuous operation since 1922. The award honors writers throughout the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression. Eskinder will not be able to accept the award in person in N.Y. City because he is jailed by arch dictator Meles Zenawi. The award confirms Eskinder is truly an international hero of press freedom. But he is also the hero of the ordinary African who has been denied human rights and democracy. To his countrymen and women, Eskinder is the symbol of absolute defiance to tyranny, dictatorship and despotism and a candle of press freedom that shall never flame out.
Kenneth Best, founder of the Daily Observer (Liberia’s first independent daily); Lydia Cacho, Mexico, one of Mexico’s most famous journalists and noted author; Juan Pablo Cardenas, Chile, chief editor of Análisis during General Pinochet’s regime and professor of journalism at the University of Chile’s School of Journalism; May Chidiac founder and president of the May Chidiac Foundation in Lebanon who nearly lost her life in a car bomb attack in 2005; Sir Harold Evans, one of Britain’s most respected journalists and editor of The Sunday Times; Akbar Ganji, Iran’s foremost dissident; Amira Hass one of the foremost independent journalists in Israel; Daoud Kuttab, Founder of AmmanNet in Jordan, the Arab world’s first Internet radio station; Gwen Lister, founder and former editor of The Namibian in Namibia; Raymond Louw veteran champion of press freedom and journalists’ rights in South Africa and Chairman of the South African Press Council. Veran Matic, co-founder of Radio B92 in Serbia, who provided accurate and impartial account of events in Serbia in the 1990s; Adam Michnik, editor in chief of the first independent (and bestselling) Polish daily foremost dissident and Polish human rights advocate; Fred M’membe, editor-in-chief for The Post in Zambia; Nizar Nayouf, chief editor of Syria Truth and Sawt Al Democratiyya; Pap Saine, Gambian publisher and editor Pap Saine and a Reuters correspondent for West and Central Africa; Faraj Sarkohi, a long time Iranian writer and journalist persecuted by both the Shah of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran; Nedim Sener investigative journalist with Turkish daily newspaper Posta; Arun Shourie, one of India’s most renowned and controversial journalists and editor of the English-language daily Indian Express; Ricardo Uceda, one of Peru’s most renowned investigative journalists and editor of newsweekly Sí, Ricardo Uceda; Jose Ruben Zamora, founder and former editor-in-chief of the independent daily Siglo Veintiuno….
These journalists in their letter to Zenawi
express[ed] [their] extremely strong condemnation of the Ethiopian government’s decision to jail journalist Eskinder Nega on terrorism charges on September 14, 2011. We believe the government’s decision to arrest him violates the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution, the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The imprisonment of Eskinder Nega and other journalists represents the criminalisation of investigation and criticism, which should be part and parcel of any democratic society.
In September 2011, William Easterly, Professor of Economics, New York University; Mark Hamrick, President, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., Aryeh Neier, President, Open Society Foundations; Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch and Joel Simon, Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists called for U.S. involvement in securing Eskinder’s release and to “publicly repudiate Ethiopia’s efforts to use terrorism laws to silence political dissent” and “ensure that our more than $600 million in aid to Ethiopia is not used to foster repression.”
What Makes Eskinder a Hero?
There are all sorts of heroes in myth and folklore. Some become heroes for showing moral excellence and martial courage in the face of danger and adversity. Others become heroes by fighting for honor and principles. Still others become heroes by slaying their enemies in the battlefield. There are romantic heroes and tragic heroes. There are traditional and modern heroes; and there are unsung heroes. But all heroes share some common virtues in one form another: sacrifice, integrity, courage, determination, conviction, perseverance, and so on.
Eskinder is a hero of a special kind. He is a hero who fights with nothing more than ideas and the truth. He slays falsehoods with the sword of truth. He chases bad ideas with good ones. Armed only with a pen, Eskinder fights despair with hope; fear with courage; anger with reason; arrogance with humility; ignorance with knowledge; intolerance with forbearance; oppression with perseverance; doubt with trust and cruelty with compassion. Above all, Eskinder speaks truth to power and to those who abuse, misuse, overuse and are corrupted by power. Eskinder is the one man who looked straight into the vengeful eyes of the Beast and said: “You can arrest and jail me for the eight time; you can beat, torture and throw me into solitary confinement; you can persecute and prosecute me; you can starve and deny me medical care in your stinking jail; you can scandalize my name and defame my character; you can even persecute and humiliate my wife and laugh at my child as he cries his eyes out when your goons manhandle me; and you can harass, intimidate and make life hell on earth for me and my family. But I will never, never, never bow down to your tyrannical rule, your corruption, your brutality, your sadistic cruelty and abysmal barbarity! For I am Eskinder Nega. I am the master of my fate and captain of my soul!”
Eskinder Nega: A Hero for All Seasons
Eskinder is a man of courage. Seven months before he was arrested, Eskinder was summoned by Zenawi’s “police commissioner” and told to shut up or else:
Your writings on the Internet and the interviews with various media outlets were inflammatory. You write about General Tsadkan to undermine the army. But be assured that EPRDF is capable of defending the constitution. If anything happens, we will first come to you.” Eskinder asked, “Are you asking me to stop writing and giving interviews?” “No,” the police commissioner said. “But be warned that you have already crossed the boundary. We have enough to convict you already. I want you to understand that this is a serious warning.” Eskinder kept on writing until the day he was arrested vehicle picking up his son from school. (His official captors videotaped the arrest and laughed as the traumatized child cried out for his daddy.) Today Eskinder is facing “trial” in Zenawi’s kangaroo court even though he was convicted long before he committed the alleged crime.
Eskinder is a man of integrity. When Zenawi came to Columbia University in September 2010 to speak, Eskinder, and his equally extraordinary journalist wife, Serkalem Fasil, wrote a letter to Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger to expose Zenawi’s bottomless capacity for cruelty and inhumanity:
We are banned Ethiopian journalists who were charged with treason by the government of PM Meles Zenawi subsequent to disputed election results in 2005, incarcerated under deplorable circumstances, only to be acquitted sixteen months later; after Serkalem Fasil prematurely gave birth in prison.
Severely underweight at birth because Serkalem’s physical and psychological privation in one of Africa’s worst prisons, an incubator was deemed life-saving to the new-born child by prison doctors; which was, in an act of incomprehensible vindictiveness, denied by the authorities. (The child nevertheless survived miraculously. Thanks to God.)… While we acknowledge his right to express his views, it is an affront to his government’s numerous victims of repression to grant him the privilege to do so on the notable premises of Columbia… Such is the government that PM Meles Zenawi leads.
Eskinder is a man of compassion and empathy. When Birtukan Midekssa, the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history, was released from prison having served nearly two years (without trial) on the ridiculous charge of “denying a pardon”, Eskinder spoke with her:
‘We are proud of you,’ I told her. ‘You are our hero.’ There was pained expression on her face. Something is visibly bottled up in her, pushing to explode. But there were too many people in her living room for an intimate conversation. She nodded when I finished, her head slightly inclined downwards to avoid eye contact.” Thank you,” she finally said faintly. I could barely hear her. And suddenly I felt guilty. Though I meant what I said, I worried whether I was making things worse by sounding patronizing. This is not what Birtukan needs right now. Sitting next to me is a woman at what is one of her worst moments in her life. A woman suffering profoundly on the inside — exactly what coldhearted aging men, addicted to unaccountable power after two decades at the helm of a nation they have persistently pushed towards dysfunction (so far unsuccessfully), intended in their pitiless drive to destroy their ‘enemies.’” (Ironically, today Eskinder has taken Birtukan’s place in Zenawi’s prison.)
Eskinder is a man of honor and dignity. When “abune” Paulos, the “patriarch” of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church commissioned a grandiose bronze statute of himself to commemorate his 18th year of papacy, Eskinder questioned:
Statuary was rejected by Orthodox Christianity because the dimensional representations were considered to glorify the human flesh rather than the divine spirit. Orthodox iconography, which has a rich history in Ethiopia, was alternatively developed to emphasize the spiritual holiness of figures rather than their humanity. And thus, no statues have ever been built for Abune Selema, who brought Christianity to Ethiopia; Yared, who developed the Church’s sacred gospel music; Lalibela, who built the Church’s greatest relic, the rock-hewn Churches in Lasta; and Abune Tekle-Haymanot, Ethiopia’s greatest native-born Saint. But they have all been amply represented by Ethiopian iconography. Why is Orthodox tradition being uprooted?
Eskinder is a witness for the suffering people of Ethiopia.
The repression is as unrelenting as ever. Food inflation has reached the atrocious 50% mark. Unemployment shows no sign of declining. Small businesses, the backbone of the expanding service sector, are suffering perceptibly. The specter of famine dominates the headlines. Corruption is getting worse. There is growing tension within the ruling party.
Eskinder is a voice of hope.
…Hope not oppression that had made revolutions possible. Neither Egyptians nor Libyans had more reason to rebel in 2011 than they did for decades. Too few were any more capable of imagining life free from the oppressive status-quo. Too many had been co-opted; many more had simply learned how to muddle through. But events in Tunisia changed everything. Change was proved possible… Hope will come to sub-Sahara’s remaining dictatorships, too. The Arab Spring has already brought it to their doorsteps. It will not wait forever to get in. No one knows which sub-Saharan dictatorship will relent first. But that is almost irrelevant. What matters is that its spread will be unavoidable once it begins. The triumph of hope in only one sub-Saharan dictatorship will beget a continent wide African Spring, hopefully all peaceful. And as Egypt, the Arab world’s biggest dictatorship during Mubarak’s reign, was the Arab Spring’s golden prize, so will Ethiopia, sub-Sahara’s biggest dictatorship, be the golden prize for an African Spring. There couldn’t have been an Arab Spring without Egypt. There will be no African Spring without Ethiopia.
Eskinder is a man with a message.
Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi, who now leads Africa’s largest dictatorship, and who many suspect is calculating as Gaddafi did at first, should take serious note. Killings enraged Libyans as it did Tunisians and Egyptians before them. Inexplicably and suddenly massacre failed to terrorize the young any more. Despite Gadhafi’s assertion that only a drugged youth could have refused to succumb to live bullets, hope is really what had fueled the protests….
Hope is the greatest weapon against tyrants. Keep hope alive in Ethiopia!!!
I wish I had the eloquence of diction to express my deep sense of pride and respect for Eskinder Nega for he represents the quintessentially irrepressible impulse for freedom that inhabits the soul of every human being. On the occasion of the 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, I rise to salute Eskinder Nega with William Ernest Henley (1875) poem “Invictus” (“unconquered”), a poem which sustained Nelson Mandela’s spirit through the years in Apartheid South Africa’s prisons.
Eskinder Invictus! Eskinder Aybegere!
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” Mahatma Gandhi
FREE ESKINDER NEGA!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic and
http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24
Previous commentaries by the author are available at:
Reeyot Alemu
Eskinder Invictus! 