Inhuman treatment of political detainees in Ethiopia Urgent Appeal from Tania Martinet

(I-Newswire) November 16, 2005 - When stone throwing youths, most of them unemployed angry young men with no political motives other than their own grievances, expressed their frustrations in protests, the armed militia responded by firing live ammunitions indiscriminately into crowds. I have seen with my own eyes when security forces killed and injured at least seven young kids around Piazza who were fleeing for their lives. Eyewitness accounts have confirmed that security forces brutally shot defenseless protesters even in areas where there were no protests. Though the government media reported that the number of people killed in was 42 local residents estimate over 200, which needs to be independently verified.

Some of those killed were street kids whose bodies have been disposed by government troops. The inhuman treatment of innocent people was so widespread that the troops rounded young men from their homes en mass. So far the police have said that they have released nearly 9000 people who were not involved in the riots from harsh concentration camps. The fact that all those people were detained without due process of law shows the extent to which the government is violating basic human rights.

Returnees from the detention centres are claiming that they were held against their wills in appalling conditions and some were apparently tortured. There is also a report that the detainees were shaved off with shared razor blades exposing them to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Beatings and degrading treatment is reportedly rampant in the concentration camps. Detainees are also said to be given a roll of bread a day.

It is estimated that over 10,000 detainees have still been held against their will and without due process of law in degrading and inhuman conditions including in Didesa, a remote military camp, were the weather is harsh and yellow fever is widespread.

I call upon the international community including the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and Unicef to investigate the gross human rights violations and crimes against humanities being perpetrated by the government troops and security forces. I urge the partners of the Ethiopian government especially the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom to take a firm stand against the authorities who have been killing, torturing, and jailing their critics. I also call upon the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi, to stop behaving ruthlessly and inhumanely against unarmed civilians. May I remind the His Excellency that there is time for expiry of military power and the likelihood of facing justice.

The government of Ethiopia should be held to account to any appalling crimes it is committing against its own vulnerable poor people including the unemployed, orphans, street children and women.
Act now urgently.

Tania Martinet
Relief Worker

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Tania Martinet