Ethiopia: Election observers should recognise systematic repression, says human rights watch

Election Observers Should Not Fail to Recognize Effects of Systematic
Repression

(Nairobi, May 10, 2005) ? As parliamentary elections approach, the
Ethiopian authorities have established new institutions that suppress
speech and political activity in the country's most populous region, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released today. At the same time, officials
have continued to detain and harass perceived political opponents.

The 44-page report, "Suppressing Dissent: Human Rights Abuses and
Political Repression in Ethiopia's Oromia Region," documents how regional
authorities and security forces have used exaggerated concerns about armed
insurgency and "terrorism" to justify the torture, imprisonment and
sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens in the
central region of Oromia. The ethnic-based party that controls the region,
the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization, holds the largest share of
parliamentary seats within the four-party coalition that has ruled
Ethiopia since 1991.

Human Rights Watch said that election observers reporting on the May 15
parliamentary vote must acknowledge the extent to which these pervasive
abuses have been used to prevent the emergence of dissenting voices and to
punish those who speak out critically against government policies.

"The Ethiopian government claims that the elections demonstrate its
commitment to democratic principles," said Peter Takirambudde, executive
director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. "But in the run-up to
the elections, the authorities have intensified the repression they have
used to keep themselves in power for 13 years."

In recent months, regional authorities in Oromia have imposed new local
institutions that restrict the large rural population's most basic
freedoms. For more than a decade, the region's ruling Oromo Democratic
Peoples' Organization has sought to solidify its grip on power by
punishing dissenters and intimidating others into silence. So far, these
abuses have been largely ignored by the international community.

The Oromo Democratic Peoples' Organization (OPDO) has enjoyed a position
of unchallenged dominance in Oromia's governance since 1991, following the
overthrow of the military leader Mengistu Haile Mariam. The following
year, the Oromo Democratic Peoples' Organization's only rival for
political control of Oromia, the Oromo Liberation Front, withdrew from the
political process after its candidates and supporters were harassed and
intimidated in the run up to parliamentary elections.

Since then, the Oromo Liberation Front has waged an ineffectual armed
struggle that has provided the authorities with a rationalization for
repression. Throughout this period, Oromo's ruling party has routinely
accused its critics and opponents of involvement with the rebel group to
justify subjecting them to extreme abuse and harassment.

In March, Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed dozens of people in
Oromia who had been arbitrarily detained, often repeatedly, when officials
accused them of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front. In each of those
cases, despite the inability of Ethiopian government authorities to
produce any evidence to support their allegations, the detainees were held
for weeks or months. None of the former detainees interviewed had ever
been tried for any offense connected to their arrest or confronted with
any evidence that they had committed any crime. Human Rights Watch
documented cases in which security officials had arrested children as
young as 11 and accused them of plotting armed insurrection.

Many of the people detained on suspicion of involvement in the Oromo
Liberation Front were severely beaten while in detention, and some were
subjected to brutal methods of torture. Several people detained last year
described being beaten to the point of unconsciousness. Others recounted
how they were stripped naked and made to stand with partially full bottles
of water tied to their testicles.

"They told me that I had gone to school not for education but to do
politics," said a 19- year-old Oromo woman detained in August by police in
Agaro. "They forced me to take off my clothes and I was naked except for
my underwear when they started kicking me.
They put a pistol in my mouth
and said that they would kill me."

Many former detainees said their ordeals did not end when they were
released from detention. In many cases, security personnel subjected them
to continuing harassment severe enough to destroy their livelihoods. After
several former detainees were released without charge, their businesses
failed as clients began to avoid them because police harassed those who
patronized stores owned by the former detainees.

In the past six months, regional authorities have taken even greater
efforts to stifle dissent in Oromia's countryside, where more than 85
percent of the population lives. Beginning late last year, Oromia's
regional government began imposing an entirely new set of quasi-
governmental community "development" organizations called gott and garee,
in thousands of rural communities. While government officials claim that
these institutions exist to facilitate development work, they are actually
being used to monitor and control the speech, movement and personal
associations of rural households in violation of fundamental rights. With
elections approaching, these institutions have also used monetary
sanctions to enforce attendance at pro-ruling party political rallies
thinly disguised as "community meetings."

"Far from being isolated incidents, the patterns of human rights abuse
that prevail in Oromia call into question the Ethiopian government's
professed commitment to human rights," Takirambudde said.

In response to repeated demonstrations by students protesting government
policies, regional and local authorities have gone to great lengths to
monitor and suppress criticism in Oromia's schools. Students said that
they could not express themselves freely in the classroom for fear of
being suspended, expelled or even imprisoned. Several teachers confirmed
that such fears were well-founded, describing how school administrators
pressured them into gathering and reporting information about their
students' political leanings.

People who have suffered abuse at the hands of government officials
because of their critical opinions said that they now avoid speaking in
public about the issues facing their communities. The chilling effect of
these abuses is most pronounced in Oromia's countryside, where dozens of
farmers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the efforts of the
garee to monitor their opinions have caused them to avoid any discussion
that might be seen as political.

"I used to speak at meetings about things that I thought were wrong. But
now I never do this," one elderly man told Human Rights Watch. "They are
too suspicious of anyone whose ideas are not the same as theirs."

Human Rights Watch called upon the Ethiopian government to take immediate
action to end these deeply entrenched patterns of human rights violations
and to hold responsible security and government officials accountable for
their role in carrying them out. International donors should employ their
considerable leverage to press the country's government into taking prompt
and meaningful action in this regard.

With elections approaching on May 15, Human Rights Watch also urged
international election observers to acknowledge the extent to which these
abuses have restricted the possibility for meaningful political debate in
the country's most populous region.

To view this document on the Human Rights Watch web site, please go to:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/10/ethiop10590.htm

Human Rights Watch Press release