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53rd Special Report: To render displaced people shelterless is unjust

Posted on 3rd July 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Uncategorised
Posted on: Jul 3, 2003
Region: Addis Ababa

“For the past ten years, the displaced persons lived under such conditions in the various shelters located in the 14 Weredas of the city. Lately, the displaced persons who used to live in three of the fourteen Weredas were forcibly kicked out of their shelters by Region 14 Administration and the Police. As a result of this measure, they have been dispersed in all places and are facing extremely grave difficulties. The displaced Ethiopians who are staying in shelters located in some of the Weredas have been notified to evacuate. Their future lives are therefore at stake and quite uncertain. EHRCO staff have gone to the shelters, met the displaced people in person, spoke to them and gathered considerable evidence about their situation. In the process, EHRCO has established that the situation described has been worsened.

The government has spontaneously issued an urgent notice ordering the displaced people (who had lived in the shelters for over ten years) to evacuate the area. The government has taken such a measure without making any preparations and without taking the rainy season into consideration. The notice says that the displaced people is should each receive a small amount of rehabilitation fund from the Administration’s Public Relations and Development Cooperation Bureau and evacuate their temporary shelters within a few days. EHRCO has gathered sufficient information from the notices issued to the displaced people. EHRCO has verified the situation and has presented the following details relating to the number of displaced people who would be affected by the decision.”

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62nd Special Report:The Safety of Citizens Under Police Custody Should Be Ensured!

Posted on 23rd June 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Commentaries, Press Releases, Special Report
Posted on: Jun 23, 2003
Region: Addis Ababa

“On April 26, 2003 (on Saturday, the eve of Ethiopian Easter), at about 12:00 noon, two men in civilian cloth and two uniformed policemen from Wereda 19 came to Ato Abera Hey’s residence. Upon their arrival, Ato Yohannes Abay, who lived in the same compound as Ato Abera, opened the gate for them. One of the men in plain cloth pointed a gun at Ato Yohannes. Frightened by this, Ato Yohannes shouted and the policemen overpowered, handcuffed, and beat him. He sustained injuries on his lips and nose from the beating. While two of the four security officers were watching over Ato Yohannes, the other two rushed into Ato Abera Hey’s house and into his bedroom and, waking and informing Ato Abera that he was “wanted”, took him to Wereda 19 Police Station while still dressed in his night cloths. The security officers released Ato Yohannes informing him that he was not “wanted”.

The detainee’s wife took food and clothing to Wereda 19 Police Station, but the police refused her permission to give the food and clothing she had taken for her husband. As the detainee’s family members were waiting around the Wereda 19 Police Station, the police took Teodros Girma, a child that Ato Abera was bringing up, but released him after having kept him for about 15 minutes. Some twenty minutes afterAto Abera had been detained and as members of his family were assembled in front of the police station, the police took Ato Abera in double cabin pickup car (plate number not known) to an unknown place. Two armed persons in civilian cloths also accompanied Ato Abera.

Following information they had received, members of Ato Abera’s family had gone to Addis Ababa Criminal Investigation Department looking for Ato Abera, but the policeman on duty informed them that “there was no one here with the name of Ato Abera”. Suspicious of the policeman’s response, they patiently waited for further information. In the mean time, they saw one of the policemen and the driver of the car that had arrested Ato Abera. These two informed them that Ato Abera was undergoing investigation and told them to wait. After waiting for a long time, the policeman on duty told them that Ato Abera was at the Department and that they should bring him some bread. Ato Abera and his family members were able to see each other from a distance. His family members then left home.”

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61st Special Report: An urgent call For the Immediate disclosure of the Whereabouts People Who Have Been Abducted and Disappeared!

Posted on 21st March 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Press Releases, Special Report
Posted on: Mar 21, 2003
Region: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Oromia, Southern Nations

“It would have been the primary duty of a government that claims to stand for the cause of democracy, the rule of law, and the respect of human rights, to be governed by and ensure the respect of the very laws which it has promulgated and the universal declarations and conventions which it has ratified. In principle, the EPRDF government should, through its own initiative, take practical action to demonstrate its commitment to ensuring the rule of law, the establishment of a democratic system, and the respect of human rights. In cases where it finds it difficult to do so, the government should take practical action towards the achievement of these ends on the basis of the clues provided to it and calls made by bodies such as EHRCO. However, the regime continues to turn a deaf ear to the evidence, appeals, suggestions and views forwarded to it by EHRCO and other parties that are deeply concerned about the country’s fate and destiny. The unwillingness on the part of the government to give serious attention to the issues is perplexing indeed.

EHRCO has been repeatedly urging and entreating the government to take measures with a view to checking and putting under control various human rights violations that are being committed in the country. The cases of those persons whose whereabouts are unknown after they were abducted by state security forces are among most serious human rights violation issues. There are many people who have been abducted by state security forces from the streets, their residences, and offices and whose whereabouts remain unknown ever since. EHRCO has, in the reports it has issued so far, disclosed that 210 people have been abducted by state security forces and taken to unknown destinations. EHRCO has, through its investigative and follow-up efforts, discovered that a few of the individuals that were abducted have been released after having undergone great miseries and ordeals. The whereabouts of most of the rest still remain unknown. EHRCO has confirmed from the families of the abducted persons that the whereabouts of the persons whose names and photographs presented in this report are unknown since the time of their abduction.”

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60th Special Report: People must live under conditions where they are free from fear and poverty

Posted on 2nd March 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Commentaries, Featured, Special Report
Posted on: Mar 2, 2003
Region: Addis Ababa

“Ethiopia is among the poorest countries of the world that receive alms in the form of support from developed nations. Political instability in the country, an economy that is going down the drain with each passing day, drought that has widely devastated most of its regions, ethnic conflicts and civil wars that repeatedly spring up in the various regions, the border dispute with Eritrea that culminated in a destructive 2-years war, problems of implementing government policies that have not been properly studied and other numerous reasons have all converged and plunged it (the country) into the morass of extremely serious problems.

The potential mental and physical capacities of the youth of the country that would have otherwise been deployed in various constructive activities continue to be simply wasted. Since there are hardly any employment opportunities, the jobless youths have only one alternative: to wait for manna from heaven or for handouts sent by the industrialized countries. One could just walk through the main streets of Addis Ababa and have a look left and right. It is common to see a large number of youths lying hopelessly in the avenues (squares) and under trees. It is common to see school-age children, aged men, and women carrying small children on their backs, begging at traffic lights and at bus and taxi stops.”

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59th Special Report: Conflict between Dizzi and Surma Nationalities:

Posted on 15th February 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Special Report
Posted on: Feb 15, 2003
Region: Southern Nations

“Members of the Surma and Dizzi tribes have, for ages, lived together in an atmosphere of peace and harmony in Bench Maji zone, Jeba and Surba weredas. Members of these tribes are living testimonies that they have, over the ages, lived together with a deep sense of mutual respect and concern. However, things started to change for the worse since the EPRDF put the country under its control. The ethnic policy pursued by the EPRDF government badly undermined the culture and tradition of mutual respect and concern that held the two tribes together for years on end.

In consequence, one tribe rose against the other. Feelings of inferiority and superiority made their presence felt between the two tribes. Their relations continue to be more strained with each passing day. These unwelcome developments culminated in the flare up of conflicts between the two tribes. Many people were killed; many others sustained physical injuries; still many others have been displaced from their homes, and a lot of properties have been destroyed in a recent conflict that sprang up between members of the two tribes.

EHRCO has investigated the conflict that had flared up between the two tribes and the causes of the conflict. The investigation was based on information it gathered from members of the two tribes and other inhabitants of the area.”

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58th Special Report: Another Round of Human Rights Violations committed against the clergy and Laity of Lideta Church

Posted on 9th January 2003 by HRCO
Categories: Special Report
Posted on: Jan 9, 2003
Region: Addis Ababa

“It is to be recalled that the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) had issued its 57th Report on December 3/2002 as regards the beatings and detentions committed by government armed men on the clergymen and a large number of the laity of Lideta Church on November 18/2002. In the just mentioned report, EHRCO had urged the government and the Ethiopian Patriarchate to exert great and unreserved efforts to peacefully and without any bloodshed resolve the misunderstanding that had cropped up between the administrators of Lideta Church and Addis Ababa Diocese. EHRCO had also asked the government to bring before the court the government armed men who had launched the attacks referred to above.

Following the conflict that took place on November 18/02, the Federal government and the Addis Ababa Administration have made efforts to find solutions to the problem by repeatedly bringing the two parties together and resolving issues through dialogue. It was, however, impossible to reconcile the differences between the views maintained by each of the two parties. In consequence, the contradictions between the two parties have continued to assume very serious dimensions. Since the conflict flared up, the gates of the church have been closed. Prayers and the church’s other daily activities have been discontinued.”

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