From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Fri Feb 06 2009 - 12:13:37 EST
THE UN REFUGEE AGENCY
Title World Report 2009 - Ethiopia
Publisher Human Rights Watch
Publication Date 14 January 2009
Cite as Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009 - Ethiopia, 14 January
2009. Online. UNHCR Refworld, available at:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49705fa32.html [accessed 6 February
2009]
World Report 2009 - Ethiopia
Events of 2008
The Ethiopian government's human rights record remains poor, marked by
an ever-hardening intolerance towards meaningful political dissent or
independent criticism. Ethiopian military forces have continued to
commit war crimes and other serious abuses with impunity in the course
of counterinsurgency campaigns in Ethiopia's eastern Somali Region and
in neighboring Somalia.
Local-level elections in April 2008 provided a stark illustration of the
extent to which the government has successfully crippled organized
opposition of any kind - the ruling party and its affiliates won more
than 99 percent of all constituencies, and the vast majority of seats
were uncontested. In 2008 the government launched a direct assault on
civil society by introducing legislation that would criminalize most
independent human rights work and subject NGOs to pervasive interference
and control.
Political Repression
The limited opening of political space that preceded Ethiopia's 2005
elections has been entirely reversed. Government opponents and ordinary
citizens alike face repression that discourages and punishes free
expression and political activity. Ethiopian government officials
regularly subject government critics or perceived opponents to
harassment, arrest, and even torture, often reflexively accusing them of
membership in "anti-peace" or "anti-people" organizations. Farmers who
criticize local leaders face threats of losing vital agricultural inputs
such as fertilizer or the selective enforcement of debts owed to the
state. The net result is that in most of Ethiopia, and especially in the
rural areas where the overwhelming majority of the population lives,
there is no organized opposition to the ruling Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The local-level elections in April 2008 were for kebele and wereda
administrations, which provide essential government services and
humanitarian assistance, and are often the institutions used to directly
implement repressive government policies. In the vast majority of
constituencies there were no opposition candidates at all, and
candidates aligned with the EPRDF won more than 99 percent of all
available seats.
Where opposition candidates did contest they faced abuse and improper
procedural obstacles to registration. Candidates in Ethiopia's Oromia
region were detained, threatened with violence by local officials, and
accused of affiliation to the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region, has long suffered from
heavy-handed government repression, with students, activists, or critics
of rural administrations regularly accused of being OLF operatives. Such
allegations often lead to arbitrary imprisonment and torture.
War Crimes and Other Abuses by Ethiopian Military Forces
Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) personnel stationed in Mogadishu
continued in 2008 to use mortars, artillery, and "Katyusha" rockets
indiscriminately in response to insurgent attacks, devastating entire
neighborhoods of the city. Insurgent attacks often originate in
populated areas, prompting Ethiopian bombardment of civilian homes and
public spaces, sometimes wiping out entire families. Many of these
attacks constitute war crimes. In July ENDF forces bombarded part of the
strategic town of Beletweyne after coming under attack by insurgent
forces based there, displacing as many as 75,000 people.
2008 was also marked by the proliferation of other violations of the
laws of war by ENDF personnel in Somalia. Until late 2007, Ethiopian
forces were reportedly reasonably disciplined and restrained in their
day-to-day interactions with Somali civilians in Mogadishu. However,
throughout 2008 ENDF forces in Mogadishu participated in widespread acts
of murder, rape, assault, and looting targeting ordinary residents of
the city, often alongside forces allied to the Somali Transitional
Federal Government. In an April raid on a Mogadishu mosque ENDF soldiers
reportedly killed 21 people; seven of the dead had their throats cut.
ENDF forces have also increasingly fired indiscriminately on crowds of
civilians when they come under attack. In August ENDF soldiers were hit
by a roadside bomb near the town of Afgooye and responded by firing
wildly; in the resulting bloodbath as many as 60 civilians were shot and
killed, including the passengers of two crowded minibuses.
In Ethiopia itself, the ENDF continues to wage a counterinsurgency
campaign against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in
the country's restive Somali region. The scale and intensity of military
operations seems to have declined from a peak in mid-2007, but arbitrary
detentions, torture, and other abuses continue. Credible reports
indicate that vital food aid to the drought-affected region has been
diverted and misused as a weapon to starve out rebel-held areas. The
military continues to severely restrict access to conflict-affected
regions and the Ethiopian government has not reversed its decision to
evict the International Committee of the Red Cross from the region in
July 2007.
The Ethiopian government denies all allegations of abuses by its
military and refuses to facilitate independent investigations. There
have been no serious efforts to investigate or ensure accountability for
war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Somali Region and in
neighboring Somalia in 2007 and 2008. Nor have ENDF officers or civilian
officials been held accountable for crimes against humanity that ENDF
forces carried out against ethnic Anuak communities during a
counterinsurgency campaign in Gambella region in late 2003 and 2004.
Regional Renditions
In early 2007 at least 90 men, women, and children from 18 different
countries fleeing conflict in Somalia were arrested in Kenya and
subsequently deported to Somalia and then Ethiopia, where many were
interrogated by US intelligence agents. An unknown number of people
arrested by Ethiopian forces in Somalia were also directly transferred
to Ethiopia. Many of the victims of these "regional renditions" were
released in mid-2007 and early 2008, but at least two men, including a
Kenyan and a Canadian national, remain in Ethiopian detention almost two
years after their deportation from Kenya. The whereabouts and fate of at
least 22 others rendered to Ethiopia, including Eritreans, Somalis, and
Ethiopian Ogadeni and Oromo, is unknown.
Civil Society and Free Expression
The environment for civil society continues to deteriorate. In 2008 the
government announced new legislation - the Charities and Societies
Proclamation - which purports to provide greater oversight and
transparency on civil society activities. In fact, the law would
undermine the independence of civil society and criminalizes the work of
many human rights organizations. At this writing, the law looked set to
be introduced to parliament.
Alongside a complex and onerous system of government surveillance and
control, the law would place sharp restrictions on the kinds of work
permissible to foreign organizations and Ethiopian civil society groups
that receive some foreign funding - barring such organizations from any
kind of work touching on human rights issues. Individuals who fail to
comply with the law's Byzantine provisions could face criminal
prosecution.
A new media law passed in July promises to reform some of the most
repressive aspects of the previous legal framework. Most notably, the
law eliminates the practice of pretrial detention for journalists -
although in August, the prominent editor of the Addis Ababa-based
Reporter newspaper was imprisoned without charge for several days in
connection with a story printed in the paper. In spite of its positive
aspects, the law remains flawed - it grants the government significant
leeway to restrain free speech, including by summarily impounding
publications on grounds of national security or public order. The law
also retains criminal penalties including prison terms for journalists
found guilty of libel or defamation.
In March 2008 civil society activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet
Demissie were released from more than two years of incarceration, but
only after the Ethiopian Federal High Court convicted them of
"incitement" related to the 2005 elections.
Key International Actors
The United States and European donor states provide the Ethiopian
government with large sums of bilateral assistance, including direct
budgetary support from the United Kingdom and military assistance from
the US. The US is Ethiopia's largest bilateral donor and has also
provided logistical and political support for Ethiopia's protracted
intervention in Somalia, and provides bilateral assistance to the
Ethiopian military. Donor governments view Ethiopia as an important ally
in an unstable region and, in the case of the US, in the "global war on
terror."
The US, UK, and other key donors and political allies have consistently
refused to publicly criticize widespread abuses or to demand meaningful
improvements in Ethiopia's human rights record. The sole exception in
2008 lay in donor government efforts to lobby against the repressive
civil society legislation introduced by the government. No major donor
made any significant effort to raise serious concerns about or demand a
concrete response to war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ethiopia
or ENDF atrocities in Somalia.
Ethiopia remains deadlocked over a boundary dispute with Eritrea dating
from the two countries' 1998-2000 war. The war in Somalia is another
source of tension between the two countries, with Eritrea backing and
hosting one faction of the insurgency Ethiopian troops are fighting
against in Somalia. Eritrea also plays host to other Ethiopian rebel
movements, notably the OLF and ONLF, with the aim of destabilizing the
Ethiopian government.
China's importance as a trading partner to Ethiopia grows year by year.
According to official figures Chinese investment in Ethiopia totals more
than US$350 million annually, up from just $10 million in 2003.
Ethiopia is due to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review
mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council in December 2009.
Topics: Freedom of expression, War crimes, Armed forces/military,
Military operations, Arbitrary arrest and detention, Protection of
civilian persons in time of war, SGBV, Extrajudicial executions,
Militias, Elections, Opposition, Persecution based on political opinion,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49705fa32.html
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