January 2004
The Ethiopian government continues to deny its citizens' basic human rights and to repress the unarmed opposition. Foreign donors have not played any role in correcting these abuses, and have been diverted by famine, the possibility of a renewed Ethiopia-Eritrea war arising out of Ethiopia's refusal to honor an arbitration decision on the location of its border with Eritrea, and Ethiopia's cooperation in the U.S. "war on terrorism."
|
- Restrictions on the Press
- Attacks on Opposing Political Parties
- Failure to Implement Constitutional and Statutory Mandates
- Police and Prison Abuse
- Judicial Delay
- Armed Conflict
- Eritrean Border
- Famine
Restrictions on the Press
The private press leads a precarious existence, and editors, publishers, and reporters are frequently arrested or harassed. Journalist Teodros Kassa, former editor of Ethiop, remained in jail for the second year of a two-year sentence. He was convicted of "harming the reputation" of a dead businessman in an article suggesting security forces killed him because they suspected him of belonging to an armed opposition group. At least four other journalists were arrested and released on bail and another Ethiop journalist, Araya Tesfa Mariam, was attacked and seriously injured by three men in federal police uniforms. Araya told the nongovernmental Ethiopian Human Rights Council that, before the attack, security forces had pressured him for the names of specific sources.
A proposed new press law would tighten government oversight of private newspapers, despite some modifications. In October, the minister of information, the bill's principal author, accused the Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA) of undermining "responsible journalism" by opposing the bill. Less than a month later, the ministry of justice suspended EFJA's registration for allegedly failing to submit required annual audits. In January 2004, the government announced it had confiscated EFJA's bank accounts.
Attacks on Opposing Political Parties
Provincial authorities, including local leaders of political parties allied with the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front (EPRDF), are often implicated in physical assaults on supporters of registered opposition parties. In 2003, there were unconfirmed reports of such attacks in four regions. In one instance, the local police accompanied the attackers.
Failure to Implement Constitutional and Statutory Mandates
Although Ethiopia's 1994 constitution (article 55, sections 22-23) requires parliament to establish a Human Rights Commission and an Ombudsman, neither exists despite repeated pledges by parliamentary leaders, beginning in 2001, that appointments would "soon" be made.
A 1999 broadcasting law was intended to end the government monopoly of radio and television stations, but no licenses have ever been issued and the only non-government radio station is owned by the ruling party. Radio is the only source of information, aside from word of mouth, for Ethiopia's sixty million rural, often illiterate, population.
Police and Prison Abuse
Excessive force has often been used to quell peaceful demonstrations. Demonstrators are subject to mass arrest and mistreatment. In February 2003, at least thirty-four Lideta Church members were arrested while at a peaceful meeting. Security forces took them to a police training camp for two days where they were beaten and forced to run barefoot and to crawl on bare knees and elbows on gravel and sand for several hours each day. This form of abuse has been used repeatedly in mass arrests in past years.
More severe torture remains a problem. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) reported the death of Abera Hay while under police arrest. The police claimed that Abera hanged himself, but further examination of the body and photographs revealed a broken chin, missing teeth, swollen testicles, bruised ribs, and bleeding around the nose and mouth.
Security forces and prison authorities are rarely held to account for their excesses. See, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ethiopia0103/ for other examples of the use of excessive force and the mistreatment of prisoners.
Judicial Delay
While the judiciary is nominally independent, the judicial process is often subject to political pressure and delay because of the lack of trained judges. Criminal proceedings are frequently postponed repeatedly to allow the police and prosecutors more time to obtain evidence. Bail is often denied even where the risk of flight is minimal. Defendants charged with corruption, a non-bailable offense, remain incarcerated for years without trial because of judicially-sanctioned postponements; the most outstanding example is the former minister of defense, the prime minister's chief political rival. A businesswoman, Dinkinesh Deressa, arrested in June 2002 and charged with being a member of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an armed opposition group, was released on bail in July 2002. Three days later she was rearrested on the same charge and denied bail. Although the presentation of evidence in her trial ended one year later, in July 2003, she remained incarcerated without judgment at the end of 2003.
Thirteen years after the overthrow of the former military government (the Derg), several thousands of its former officials remain jailed without trial, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and major felonies. About one third of Derg defendants who have been tried (in civil courts) have been acquitted, some after more than a decade of imprisonment. The loss of evidence over the years has resulted in some acquittals, but the losses may also result in convictions. In a trial of thirty-seven close associates of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, one defendant waived his right to call witnesses, noting that the crimes charged against him occurred almost thirty years earlier. (Mengistu, on trial in absentia, remains a guest of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, with little chance while there of being held accountable for his abuses.).
Armed Conflict
Minor skirmishes between security forces and armed insurrectionary bands occur occasionally in rural Ethiopia. Security forces frequently arrest civilians, claiming they are members of those groups, the Oroma Liberation Front (OLF) in Oromia state; and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya (Islamic Unity) in Somali state. Few of those arrested are brought to trial. Some are released; others are kept in arbitrary detention, often without a hearing or cause shown, for prolonged periods, sometimes incommunicado.
Inter-communal fighting often results in deaths, injury, and displacement, with the action or inaction of security forces a substantial contributing factor. In December 2003, the government acknowledged that at least fifty-seven people were killed in disturbances near Gambella, near the Sudan border. As is often the case, the government blamed the OLF (with purported Eritrean government support) for the fighting. Observers, however, reported more than 400 deaths of civilians of Anuak ethnic origin at the hand of security forces following the murder of eight Ethiopian and foreign refugee camp officials. In past communal conflicts, the government neither conducted nor permitted neutral observers to conduct reliable investigations into the causes of conflict or the security forces= response.
Eritrean Border
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-and-a-half-year war over their common border between 1998 and 2000. It ended with about 100,000 deaths, the displacement of over one million people, and, finally, an agreement in December 2000 to submit the border dispute to arbitration. The agreement established an independent border commission with power to Adelimit and demarcate@ the border based on late 19th and 20th century colonial treaties. Under the peace agreement, the commission's decision would be "final and binding."
Although both governments initially welcomed the commission decision in April 2002, Ethiopia rejected it in 2003 when it became clear that the village of Badme, where the war started, would fall on the Eritrean side. In a letter to the U.N. Secretary General, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called the commission decision "totally illegal, unjust, and irresponsible" and told the Ethiopian parliament that the commission's decision was "null and void." Meles said a renewal of war was "unthinkable" unless Ethiopia were attacked. Eritrea insisted that negotiating with Ethiopia about modifications was equally "unthinkable."
The truce remains under severe stress although the two governments have limited themselves to a war of words so far. Despite international condemnation of the Ethiopian position and U.S. and European offers to pay to build a new, more modern Badme a few hundred meters south on undisputed Ethiopian soil, Ethiopia refuses to permit the border demarcation that would force it to turn over Badme to Eritrea. For its part, Eritrea refuses to negotiate and has rejected international efforts to mediate the dispute.
The tension serves the political interests of both governments. In Ethiopia, Meles has partially redeemed his standing with hardliners, especially in his home base of Tigray state, who have not forgiven him for not recapturing all of Eritrea or, at least, the Red Sea port of Assab. In Eritrea, President Issayas Afeworki uses the tension to repress all dissent (by characterizing it as the traitorous work of Ethiopian agents); to postpone national elections indefinitely; and to refuse to demobilize its army, consisting largely of national service draftees. (See Eritrea).
Famine
Drought, coupled with systemic economic problems periodically, devastates large areas of Ethiopia, especially the southern and eastern lowlands. In 2003, over thirteen million people (about one-fifth of the population) in those areas became dependent on international food assistance. Several international aid groups blamed the Ethiopian government and foreign government donors for exacerbating conditions by relying on emergency relief rather than investing in infrastructure and promoting family planning programs.
Key International Actors
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) maintains 4,200 peace-keeping troops along the twenty-five kilometer-wide armistice buffer line between the two countries. In December 2003, the U.N. secretary general appointed a special envoy, former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, to try to negotiate a way out of the impasse. The European Union warned that foreign aid might be reduced if Ethiopia continues to defy the border commission ruling, but no donor had reduced foreign financial support by the end of 2003.
Most foreign assistance to Ethiopia in 2003 (for example, almost 88 percent of the U.S. assistance of U.S. $ 531 million) was for famine relief.
Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the U.S. in its "war on terrorism." The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. In 2003, the U.S. military, operating out of its base in Djibouti, trained an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism.
