ETHIOPIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia
30th Regular Report
Introduction
June, 20, 2008

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) in this 30th regular report assesses the general human rights situation in the country. The human rights violations incorporated in this report have not been covered by any of EHRCO’s preceding reports issued until the end of March 2008, and are compiled based on complaints received from victims, evidence gathered through on site investigations and testimonies of eyewitnesses.
PRESS THE LINK ABOVE FOR DETAILS.

Female opposition leader is Ethiopia's first, BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA

Ethiopia's opposition survivors of the post-election government crackdown in 2005 have once again re-grouped in Addis Ababa, and after several ups and downs, formed their party: "Unity for democracy and Justice party (UDJP)," or known by its short Amharic name "Andinet," meaning "Unity."

Elected to lead the new party is Bertukan Mideksa, a 34-year-old former judge who was - while in prison for nearly two years - hailed by the pro-democracy community as the "Aung San Suu Kyi of Ethiopia."

In an Internet radio interview with the Ethiopian Diaspora, Ms. Bertukan on Teusday hailed the formation of the new party as a "political breakthrough."
Her former party, then Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP), would have been the legitimate government in Ethiopia today had it not been for the war Mr. Zenawi conducted in the name of a ‘state of emergency’ against the Ethiopian people who overwhelmingly voted for the opposition parties: CUDP and UEDF.

In the subsequent nationwide terror campaigns, hundreds were killed, thousands wounded, and over 100,000 interned at concentration camps where many died of hunger, torture, and disease.
Heavy-weight political leaders of CUDP, including former CUD chairman Hailu Shawel, current Ginbot 7 opposition leader Dr. Berhanu Nega, current Andenet leaders Engineer Gizachew Shiferaw, Dr Hailu Araia, Dr. Yacob Hailemariam, Prof. Mesfin Wolde-Mariam and many more others, were thrown into jail under fabricated charges of “attempts to overthrow a constitutional oder.”

In the nationwide terror campaign that stood out on the African continent for its brutality, and left Ethiopians wailing for help, the West gave scant attention, though Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others, were frequently alerting the international community of the murder spree Zenawi was carrying out with impunity.

If there were exceptions to the eerie silence of the Western democracies, it was members of the US Congress in the likes of The Honorable Donald Payne and the Honorable Chris Smith, the latter known for making a huge and honest remark: “No regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror."
Relentless protests by Ethiopians around the world, and the support among some EU members and the US Congress secured the release from prison of CUDP leaders last year.
The survivors of one of Ethiopia's darkest moments have once again tried to re-build their once robust opposition party from scratch, and Bertukan pins her hopes on the commitment of the change-seeking Ethiopian people, particularly the Ethiopian youth.

Last week Ethiopia Zare, a newly-launched website fast gaining the trust of its readers, reported that the founding Andenet party was brimming with a class of young educated delegates.

In a country where the ruling party is above the law, and knows no mercy at the slightest challenge to its rule now close to 20 years, one must be gutsy to join hands with the likes of the charismatic Bertukan Mideksa.

Though Bertukan's fledgling party is most likely to enjoy the crucial support of the people at home and the Ethiopian Diaspora, many skeptics say it is a matter of time before Zenawi – long resented as a mercenary than a tyrant – axes his rivals to death.

"We must stop pretending that Ethiopia is run by a respectable government,” once said Ana Gomes, member of European Parliament, “When in fact it has a murderous and oppressive regime."

Collective Punishment

IN JUNE 2007 New York Times Video Report on ONLF - Ogaden Somali Fighters



War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia’s Somali Region

ONE YEAR LATER JUNE 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT
Summary
Tens of thousands of ethnic Somali civilians living in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali
Regional State are experiencing serious abuses and a looming humanitarian crisis in
the context of a little-known conflict between the Ethiopian government and an
Ethiopian Somali rebel movement. The situation is critical. Since mid-2007,
thousands of people have fled, seeking refuge in neighboring Somalia and Kenya
from widespread Ethiopian military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to
war crimes and crimes against humanity.
For those who remain in the war-affected area, continuing abuses by both rebels and
Ethiopian troops pose a direct threat to their survival and create a pervasive culture
of fear. The Ethiopian military campaign of forced relocations and destruction of
villages reduced in early 2008 compared to its peak in mid-2007, but other abuses—
including arbitrary detentions, torture, and mistreatment in detention—are
continuing. These are combining with severe restrictions on movement and
commercial trade, minimal access to independent relief assistance, a worsening
drought, and rising food prices to create a highly vulnerable population at risk of
humanitarian disaster.
Although the conflict has been simmering for years with intermittent allegations of
abuses, it took on dramatic new momentum after the Ogaden National Liberation
Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run oil installation in Somali Region in April 2007,
killing more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians. The Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government, led by Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi, responded by launching a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in the five
zones of Somali Region primarily affected by the conflict: Fiiq, Korahe, Gode,
Wardheer, and Dhagahbur. In these zones the Ethiopian National Defense Forces
(ENDF) have deliberately and repeatedly attacked civilian populations in an effort to
root out the insurgency.
Ethiopian troops have forcibly displaced entire rural communities, ordering villagers
to leave their homes within a few days or witness their houses being burnt down and
Collective Punishment 4
their possessions destroyed—and risk death. Over the past year, Human Rights
Watch has documented the execution of more than 150 individuals, many of them in
demonstration killings, with Ethiopian soldiers singling out relatives of suspected
ONLF members, or making apparently arbitrary judgments that individuals
complaining to soldiers or resisting their orders are ONLF supporters. These
executions have sometimes involved strangulation, after which their bodies are left
lying in the open as a warning, for villagers to bury. The information confirmed by
Human Rights Watch is only a glimpse of what is taking place—real figures are likely
to be higher.
Mass detentions without any judicial oversight are routine. Hundreds—and possibly
thousands—of individuals have been arrested and held in military barracks,
sometimes multiple times, where they have been tortured, raped, and assaulted.
Confiscation of livestock (the main asset among the largely pastoralist population),
restrictions on access to water, food, and other essential commodities, and
obstruction of commercial traffic and humanitarian assistance have been used as
weapons in an economic war aimed at cutting off ONLF supplies and collectively
punishing communities that are suspected of supporting the rebels.
To read the whole report please follow the above link