SUMMARY OSG PRESS RELEASE NO. 30

February 2000

Human rights violations in Ethiopia.

This summary includes a small but representative fraction of reports of human rights violations received by OSG. The full version Press Release may be obtained, without charge, from OSG.

 OSG has now recorded 2,509 extra-judicial killings, 795 disappearances and thousands of instances of detention, rape, torture and looting by forces of the present government of Ethiopia.

EUK wrote on 4 October 1999. He graduated from Addis Ababa University in Library and Information Science in 1990 and worked as head of district for the Ministry of Culture and Sport in Arsi province.

He was detained and tortured in January 1992, six months before the OLF were forced out of representation in government. He wrote, ‘Three detainees and OLF members named Ahmed Mohammed, Ibsa Dhuguma and Tolosa Lama were killed in front of me. I was warned wherever I go not to talk about these individuals’ death. As they could not find any evidence against me, they released me by last warning like not to go far, not to approach anybody, to report to their office weekly and the like.’

 In April 1992, he was detained ‘in the Central Investigation Centre located in Finfinnee [Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre in Addis Ababa]. While I was there, I was bitterly tortured with electric wire. Due to this excessive torture, one part of my face has a nerve disorder.’ He was released on 15 August 1997. On 12 May 1999, he was warned of imminent arrest and decided to escape.

Tigrean radio reported on 1 February that the mobile court of Oromia Regional State had passed the death sentence against the former commander of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (IFLO), Jibril Musa, formerly of Miesso, W. Hararge.

According to statements by witnesses, he had difficulty walking and speaking, due to being tortured while being held in solitary confinement for the last seven years. He was refused legal representation and the right to be heard in his own language. He was not allowed to defend himself or call defence witnesses.

Sali Abdullahi Mica, father of six, Soddomagoromisra village, Miesso, W. Hararge, was shot dead on 21 June 1999, because he would not reveal the whereabouts of his older brother, whom the soldiers sought. His older brother reported the incident to OSG in December 1999. 

MAB, a 25 year old from Karfa Chale, Hararge, wrote on 25 November. He ran a successful grain business and supported the OLF when they were legal. Soldiers came to his house at midnight on 1 January 1993. He and his father were severely beaten and the house was searched. They were taken to Gurawa military camp, from where his father disappeared. After two years of threats, beating and interrogation, he was released on the usual conditions.

He was abducted a second time, by three soldiers, from his shop on 10 May 1996, held in solitary confinement in an underground cell at Harar camp and tortured for five months. ‘I had to go directly home and remain silent about my tribulation in the hands of government soldiers’ he wrote.

‘At around noon on 5 July 1998, five armed EPRDF soldiers raided my grain store and arrested me. They looted several sacks of grain, beat me up and terrorised employees and customers.’ He was tortured at Adale military camp, with the standard techniques of tying, suspension, whipping, water bottles attached to his genitals, walking on his knees on gravel and ‘often times threatening to kill me by pointing a pistol at my head or inserting it into my mouth’. He escaped on 23 February.

A reliable and regular OSG informant from Borana province wrote in January about Galma Jarso, a businessman from Hidi Lola in Dire district, Borana, who was detained and tortured in Boku Luboma military camp from August 1992 to January 1993 and again from April 1995 to October 1996. He was tortured with standard techniques, had property taken and paid 8,700 Birr to be released. A third spell of detention and torture began in Boku Luboma on 24 September 1997 and ended in Moyale military camp in December 1999. The remainder of his belongings, including 55,000 Birr from his home and goods valued at 32,000 Birr from his shop, were confiscated and his family harassed and beaten.

 Djibouti - deportations, starvation and abuse: refugees criticise UNHCR

The Press Release and newsletter, Sagalee Haaraa, carry features on hardships faced by Oromo refugees in Djibouti, from Djibouti police and from Ethiopian government agents. Thousands of refugees are without support or access to adequate food, water or basic health care. Dead bodies have been reported on roadsides.

In the city of Djibouti, Oromo property is reportedly being confiscated and handed over to the Ethiopian government. The Oromo Refugee Committee wrote in December, that because of lack of access to UNHCR,  thousands of Oromo refugees are ‘wandering here and there, lacking reception centre protection and assistance, and facing gross refoulement back to Ethiopia’.

The committee wrote that refugees ‘get no access for applying to get refugee status’ and are being arrested by Djibouti police and sent back to Ethiopia. ‘Our refugees are sleeping and living outside on the roads and by the sea . . . UNHCR assumes our refugees are angels living on oxygen alone. They rarely register us . . . Djibouti UNHCR has closed its doors for asylum seekers and for refugees holding attestation papers. Since July 1999, Djibouti UNHCR has stopped attestation renewal.’

 The committee named 20 individuals who were sent back to Ethiopia soon after being visited by two UNHCR staff members on 5 December. The 20 who were subjected to refoulement had been registered with UNHCR for between two to four years.

The refugees argue that if they cannot be protected or accommodated by UNHCR in Djibouti, they should be moved to where they can receive shelter and protection. They appeal for the help of humanitarian agencies and UN bodies.

Finally, they request that Oromo communities across the world ‘lobby concerned bodies to solve our problem’.

OLF hero killed by hit squad

Jaal Mul’is Abba Gada, alias Adam Tukale, a member of the executive committee of the OLF, was shot dead in Mogadishu by Ethiopian government assassins on 8 February. A relative, Diinaras Waday, was seriously wounded in the attack. Jaal Mul’is, aged 55, has been an extremely important figure in the Oromo nationalist struggle for 35 years. He had developed diabetes and was unfit to travel, being cared for by relatives in Mogadishu.

Fear in Nairobi

Of the many reports received of harassment and persecution by Ethiopian government agents in Nairobi, the following are typical.

MSS claimed that Ethiopian agents working within UNHCR were selling documents of Oromo refugees. AHA was rejected mandate status by UNHCR and reports being followed by Ethiopian security men in Nairobi. He changes his residence daily and wears different clothes to evade discovery. KHG wrote, ‘here in Nairobi, I still fear the EPRDF spies. I am not settled, shifting from place to place in fear of exposure to the EPRDF security agents.’

 GAA wrote of frequent imprisonment in Nairobi and being sought by security men at his home on 15 August 1999. He moved from the Eastleigh district but was told that strangers were asking about his movements. He was attacked near his new residence at 8 pm on 11 September and writes that persistent enquiries have ‘made me fearful of my own shadow’

 IBM was strangled to unconsciousness by attackers in Nairobi on 16 July and robbed of his identity document. Two days later, he received a warning note from the Hagere Fikir group (see Sagalee Haaraa, 29). IBR was attacked in an identical manner on 15 October and had his documents including his UNHCR protection letter stolen.

OJK was taken from a friend’s house in Eastleigh in November 1999 to the outskirts of Nairobi by three plain clothed men claiming to be Kenyan police. He was detained in a house and threatened with guns and beaten with electric wire the following day. He was tortured and questioned about the OLF daily, from 7-12 November, and warned he would be killed if seen again in Nairobi.

BBD, a young lady, wrote that she was ‘being daily assessed and hunted secretly’ by Ethiopian government agents in Nairobi. ‘I am also being forced to provide Kenyan Government security police with thousands of shillings’ as bribes to avoid repatriation.

Oromo refugees robbed and killed in South Africa

Translated excerpts of a letter from Oromo refugees in South Africa, sent on 31 December:

‘Since1996, the Ethiopian embassy has been organising the Ethiopian community. The Hagere Fikir (Love of Country/Motherland) group was consolidated when the conflict with Eritrea broke out in 1998. The embassy now monitors both the community and the Hagere Fikir group.

Their objective is to search out and take action against any person or group, which is not Amharic-speaking or which opposes the unity of the Ethiopian state. The Hagere Fikir group began taking organised action in September 1996. [Plundering of Oromo property became common. See Sagalee Haaraa or Press Release.]

One evening in December 1997, a young man named Ayyaanaa Oljirraa Guulaa was threatened on the street by Hagere Fikir members and accused of reporting the attacks to the police. He was threatened at gunpoint, severely beaten and left unconscious on the street. On 12 September 1998, Ayyaanaa was shot dead in Johannesburg, by a South African gunman, hired by the Hagere Fikir group. His shooting was witnessed by escaping community members [named in the original letter] and the killer was arrested. However, the killer was released within one month and personally threatened the witnesses.

In February 1999, the group broke into the house of Abbabaa Atoomsaa, seized his property and took him for 24 hours interrogation at the house of Iyaasuu, the Hagere Fikir chairman. He reported the incident to the police but no action was taken.

On 3 September 1999, Fayisaa Jaafar Waagessoo was left for dead on the street, after being beaten unconscious and having limbs broken by Hagere Fikir agents.