Ethiopia: Court Ruling Attacks Rights Defenders

(05/19/01) -- A court ruling in Ethiopia has highlighted the government's campaign to silence its critics, Human Rights Watch said today.

Prof. Mesfin and Dr. Berhanu are the latest targets in a terrible government campaign. The Ethiopian government is clearly trying to silence its critics, and human rights activists are at the top of the list. Suliman Baldo, Senior Researcher at the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch

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On May 18, the Federal High Court in Addis Ababa returned to custody for further detention Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, the founder and first chairman of Ethiopia's Human Rights Council (EHRCO), and Dr. Berhanu Nega, an academic and human rights activist. The two were arrested on May 8, 2001 on claims that they instigated student protests that took place in Addis Ababa University in mid-April. Both men were also denied bail during a first court appearance on May 8, and neither has been formally charged so far.  
 
Both Prof. Woldemariam and Dr. Nega have been on hunger strike since May 8 and eyewitnesses said they seemed physically weak in court.  
"Prof. Mesfin and Dr. Berhanu are the latest targets in a terrible government campaign," said Suliman Baldo, senior researcher at the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "The Ethiopian government is clearly trying to silence its critics, and human rights activists are at the top of the list."  
 
Over the past several years, the Ethiopian government has targeted for harassment student activists, members of opposition parties, the independent press, and human rights defenders known for their outspoken criticism of the government. On May 11, just days after the arrest of Mesfin and Berhanu, a court finally acquitted eight founding members of the Human Rights League, but only after three and a half years' detention on unsubstantiated charges of involvement in terrorist activities. The Human Rights League is a monitoring group founded in 1996 by prominent members of the Oromo community that the government has never allowed to function. Some thirty-two other prominent Oromo elders, detained since 1997 and 1998, were ordered back in detention pending trial.  
 
"For forty-three long months, the Ethiopian government has kept the founding members of the Human Rights League in protective custody for no reason," Baldo said. "The international community must denounce this practice, and press for the immediate release of Prof. Mesfin and Dr. Berhanu, the two human rights defenders currently under detention."  
 
A backgrounder on Ethiopia's repression of human rights defenders: ETHIOPIA: TARGETING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS can be found at http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/ethiopia-bck0519.htm