Anti-poverty activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie who have faced several court delays to date, are scheduled to hear the verdict on treason related charges tomorrow FrIday, November 30th. If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment or death sentences.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS and Chair of Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). “Sadly, these two activists are being tried for their commitment to bettering the lives of the people of Ethiopia. We all stand in solidarity with them” he added.
Daniel and Netsanet, both coordinators of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Ethiopia, are the last two accused in the high profile Ethiopian treason trial that originally charged 131 politicians, journalists, organisations and civil society leaders. They have been detained since November 2005, on allegations of conspiracy to overthrow the government, specifically, “outrage against the constitution and constitutional order.”
Originally scheduled to give the verdict on October 8th, the High Court in Addis Ababa delayed it until November 22nd when again they delayed on the grounds one of the judges was ill in hospital.
For more information or interviews, please contact:
Julie Middleton, Programme Communications Associate
Civil Society Watch, CIVICUS Tel: 27 11 833-5959, ext. 123 [email protected]
Ciara O’Sullivan, GCAP Media Coordinator at Tel: +34 679 594 809, [email protected]
For more information on CIVICUS: www.civicus.org
For more information on GCAP Stand Up and Speak Out on 17 October: www.whiteband.org
KEBRIDEHAR, Ethiopia: Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers have abused civilians, committing arson and rape, in a southeastern area where they are fighting rebels, but there have been some improvements in aid delivery, residents said.
Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator, however, denies there is a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden and his government has denied its soldiers have committed abuses. A top United Nations relief official who visited the region Tuesday said much more remains to be done.
A thin, pensive 30-year-old man, who asked not to be identified out of fear, told The Associated Press about two incidents on Friday in which the army burned two villages, Lebiga and Korelitsa, to the ground, killing one man.
The army, the man said, was killing his neighbors “like goats.”
Officials in the area said they had heard similar reports. They also asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The man also described rapes — some of them gang rapes — and public hangings in the region and said that villagers had been told not to speak to international observers. Officials in the area also said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders, and that also was mentioned in a September report by a U.N. fact-finding mission.
Another man, 26, who also asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, accused the government of withholding food in order to punish fighters and supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist movement that in April attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in the region, killing 74 people. In May, the Ethiopian military began counterinsurgency operations, which has stymied trade and some food aid.
On Tuesday, the region appeared calm. Government soldiers dotted the flat, arid landscape and towns of Jijiga and Kebridehar, though there was no evidence of any significant military operations. Women — some wearing scarves of hot pink — fluttered through the streets. Men in Jijiga walked along the main promenade.
But when questioned, residents were reticent. One man in Kebridehar said he believed the streets were full of military intelligence officers.
In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi dismissed a question in parliament about a pending crisis in the Ogaden.
“Whatever some international media and some organizations said about the Ogaden, it’s absolutely a lie that there’s a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden,” Meles told parliament on Tuesday. “Some people from the U.N. actually wanted to see for themselves what was going on in the Ogaden and I told them to go see from themselves what was actually there.”
John Holmes, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation in the Ogaden as “potentially serious.”
“I didn’t get the impression that we are in a catastrophic situation now,” Holmes told journalists, adding, however, “there’s an awful lot of challenges still to address.”
Those challenges included opening up transport and trade, expanding food distribution and addressing human rights concerns, he said.
Holmes said he discussed these issues Wednesday with top Ethiopian Woyanne officials, including Meles.
About human rights, he said Meles, “responded seriously. He takes the issue seriously.”
Holmes said he heard many secondhand reports of human rights abuses and said that “they come from numerous and sufficiently varied sources to be taken seriously.” He did not give details.
In recent months, Ethiopia Woyanne has expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres from Ogaden. But in recent weeks the government has allowed 19 non-governmental organizations to return to work in the Ogaden.
The U.N. fact-finding mission said in September that the situation in the Ogaden had deteriorated rapidly and called for an independent investigation into the humanitarian issues there.
The mission also said that recent fighting in the region had led to a worsening humanitarian situation and a doubling of the price of food. It also called for a substantial increase in emergency food aid to the impoverished region where rebels have been fighting for increased autonomy for more than a decade.
Simon Mechale, director of the Ethiopian government’s Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency, said on Tuesday that his talks with people in the region provided a more optimistic picture.
“From what I have seen so far, I did not see any amazing or disturbing thing,” he said.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front is fighting to overthrow the government for what it says are human rights abuses and to establish greater autonomy in the region being heavily explored for oil and gas. The government accuses the rebels of being terrorists funded by its archenemy Eritrea.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Wednesday there was international anxiety at a possible humanitarian crisis and accusations of rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region.
Holmes went to the remote eastern region on Tuesday, the most high profile visit since Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels killed 74 people in an attack on an oil exploration field in April, provoking a government offensive.
Both sides say they have killed hundreds of the others’ fighters since then, and aid agencies say people in the region are suffering severe food and medical needs.
“There is the possibility of a very serious humanitarian crisis in the region as a consequence of the security situation,” Holmes said in carefully chosen words on a highly sensitive subject for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government.
“What I was trying to do was symbolise by my visit the extent of international concern about the situation there and the depths of our concern to avert a serious humanitarian crisis there in the future.”
The Ogaden crisis has been largely overshadowed by other hot-spots in the region, including neighbouring Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur region.
Holmes reiterated calls for investigations into accusations of rights abuses. The ONLF says troops have been terrorising the people, while the government says it is the rebels, whom it calls terrorists backed by arch-enemy Eritrea, who are guilty.
“They are clearly serious allegations and they are coming from not just one source,” Holmes told a news conference.
“They need to be looked at carefully, they need to be taken seriously and, if possible, they need to be investigated openly and independently.”
Holmes said he had recommend such an investigation during meetings with officials including Meles.
“I did bring it up with the prime minister, he takes the issues seriously. He also recognises the damage that can be done with a counter-insurgency campaign,” he said.
“He said he would continue to take it seriously and make sure that didn’t happen as far as he could.”
A Canadian citizen who has been detained in Ethiopia for the past 10 months without being charged is suing the government there and its officials for “violations of international law, assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment.”
The statement of claim, which was filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice late last week, names Workineh Gebeyehu, the head of the Ethiopian police, and Taadese Masaret, the head of the prison where Bashir Makhtal is being detained.
The suit claims that Ethiopia “is illegally holding” Makhtal and is “subjecting him to torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment.” According to the statement of claim, Makhtal has been held “incommunicado” for more than nine months, and he has not been charged with any offence. Nor has he been brought before a court of law.
His rights to legal counsel and adequate access to the consular protection of Canada have also been denied, the suit says.
“He has been denied his fundamental rights under international, Ethiopian and Canadian law,” according to the suit.
The suit adds Makhtal was also “subject to frequent interrogations during which he has been subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. He was also forced to videotape a false confession under the coercion of the Ethiopian authorities. The false confession was broadcast on the television in Ethiopia.”
The suit also alleges that Makhtal’s family, many of whom remain in Ethiopia, have been detained, arrested and subjected to torture and coercion to force them to implicate him.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in a court of law.
Officials at the Ethiopian embassy were served yesterday afternoon with the lawsuit, but they were not available for comment.
Makhtal’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, his cousin, Said Maktal, and Amnesty International held a news conference in Ottawa yesterday detailing the $1.5 million civil suit.
But it is not clear whether the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case because of the State Immunity Act, which shields sovereign states from liability here. Waldman, however, said he will try to convince the court that because Makhtal is a Canadian citizen and is still being psychologically tortured he should be able to hold Ethiopia accountable in a Canadian court of law.
Makhtal was rendered to Ethiopia in January after being detained for three weeks in Nairobi by Kenyan officials.
According to the lawsuit, Makhtal had been travelling in Somalia, selling used clothes, when the Ethiopian Army invaded that country. He has been held in the Central Investigation Detention Centre in Addis Ababa ever since.
It is believed Makhtal was of interest to the Ethiopian government because of his grandfather’s connection to the Ogaden separatist movement.
But there has been no evidence of Makhtal belonging to that or any of the warring factions in Ethiopia, his family says.
(Reuters) – U.N. undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes was on Tuesday in Ethiopia’s troubled southeastern Ogaden region where government forces are fighting separatist rebels.
The one-day visit is the most high profile since the ethnically Somali region made international headlines in April when Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels attacked a Chinese-owned oil exploration field and killed 74 people.
Holmes is due to meet the region’s president before inspecting U.N. relief operations that began a couple of weeks ago, after the international body said 953,000 people there needed food aid.
Holmes will also meet representatives of local herding communities but there has been no mention of him meeting rebels, who have welcomed the U.N. presence in the region.
The rebels accuse the government of human rights abuses in a crackdown that followed the April attack and both sides routinely claim to have inflicted huge casualties on the other.
Holmes will be accompanied by the head of Ethiopia’s Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency and by the heads of U.N. humanitarian operations in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government Woyanne and the United Nations say emergency relief operations continue in the region and that 7,000 tonnes of food aid has now been delivered.
It has also pledged that 30 trucks of food a day will travel to Ogaden over the next two months until the estimated 17,407 tonnes needed are delivered.
The United Nations said last week 19 non-governmental organisations have been allowed to work in the Ogaden region following the expulsion from the region of some aid agencies including the International Committee of the Red Cross in July.
Holmes will meet Ethiopian dictator Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa on Wednesday before continuing his east African tour in Sudan and Kenya.
(Reporting by Barry Malone; Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Janet Lawrence))
