POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: A Career In Dissent

Michael Chebsi

Mideksa -- "The values that guide me are truth and fairness"

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 29 (IPS) - Frozen in disbelief on the steps of the courthouse where she presided as a federal judge, Bertukan Mideksa watched as a man she had just ordered released on bail was detained by plain-clothes police with no warrant and no apparent regard for the law.

That was in 2001. She next saw that man when she became a fellow inmate at Kaliti Federal Prison in 2004, charged with crimes serious enough to have her imprisoned for life: treason, outrage against the constitution, inciting, organising or leading armed rebellion, obstruction of the exercise of constitutional powers, impairing the defensive power of the state and attempted genocide.

She claims her only true transgression was dissent.

"I couldn't stand the lack of human dignity," said Mideksa, seated behind her desk at her poorly furnished office in central Addis Ababa.

Mideksa is unique among Ethiopia's politicians. At 34 years old, she is exceptionally young; she was still in high school when rebels toppled the country's brutal military regime in 1991. And she is a woman, the first ever to head a political party in this notoriously patriarchal country.

Fewer than 22 percent of the country's 547 lawmakers are women. The only female cabinet member -- predictably -- is in charge of women's affairs. Mideksa became the exception to the rule in September, when she was elected to head Ethiopia's newest political party, the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party. She has since become the leading spokesperson for the opposition.

At a press conference on Oct. 10, Mideksa, flanked by her fellow party leaders, announced her party's plan to open 117 regional offices in a bid to mobilise the public across the country. Her party has also joined a forum of other opposition parties to forge a joint platform ahead of the 2010 elections, where the coalition hopes it will fare better than in the past.

In November 2004, leaders of two long-standing opposition groups and two newly-formed political parties formed an electoral coalition. The strategy helped the opposition to win significant gains in the parliament, but fell short of a majority.

Pointing to reports by international observers of irregularities at the polls, the opposition claimed that there were significant instances of expulsion and harassment of poll workers, incidents of intimidation, multiple voting and ballot stuffing.

The political conflict turned into violent clashes on the streets, and when some of the coalition members refused to assume their elected posts, the coalition fractured acrimoniously.

The newly-constituted administration of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi detained over 100 leaders of the opposition and jailed tens of thousands of their supporters in the ensuing crackdown. Mideksa, then vice president of the coalition, was among the detainees. She was convicted on July 16, 2007 by the Federal High Court.

Mideksa and 34 others were sentenced to life imprisonment while three others were handed jail sentences that range 18 months to 18 years. The same day, they appealed for amnesty, which was later accepted by the pardon board and endorsed by President Girma W. Giorgis.

"It was the greatest challenge of my life," Mideksa told IPS. "It's strengthened me though."

Mideksa was not discouraged by the experience. She cites as one of her inspirations the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma (Myanmar). "I marvel at her courage and determination," she says.
Her party, however, will need more than mere determination to prevail.
In the April local elections, the Ethiopia People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) scored an overwhelming victory, with pro-government candidates outnumbering opposition candidates by 500 to 1. Irregularities in voter registration and difficulties in the result and complaints processes combined to reduce the legitimacy of the election. Recent legislation affecting political parties, the press and civil societies threatens to narrow the political space even more.
Mideksa believes she can help broaden the political space through a series of public dialogues with the media. Her party has also announced that it has allocated close to 750,000 dollars to mobilise supporters from the four corners of the country in the run-up to the election.
But observers doubt that Mideksa has the leadership skills to bring together the fractious opposition.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, Mideksa went to public schools for her primary and secondary educations. She joined the law school at Addis Ababa University, and graduated with an LLB degree in 1996.
Prior to her entry into politics, she served as a Judge at the Federal First Instance Court for close to seven years, before she resigned, claiming that there is government interference in the judiciary.
"The values that guide me are truth and fairness," she says.
She first entered politics running as an independent parliamentary candidate back in 2000. Neither her friends nor her mother supported the decision, warning her against the dangers of politics. After eight years, however, she is content with her decision.
"It is a great success for me personally," says Mideksa, adding with a shrug and a smile, "and I guess for Ethiopian women too."

'Famished' Canadian held in Ethiopia

Terrorism Charges; Human Rights Watch urges Ottawa action
Stewart Bell, National Post

A Canadian awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges in Ethiopia was described as injured and malnourished in a human rights report released yesterday.

Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed a former detainee who saw former Toronto resident Bashir Makhtal in a prison in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"He was limping. He had a deep cut in one of his legs. He looked weak. He looked so famished," the report quoted the unidentified witness as saying during an interview conducted at a refugee camp.

The report did not directly accuse Ethiopia of mistreating Mr. Makhtal but it did say that detainees like him have been subjected to "brutal beatings and torture." It also quoted a man who was detained with Mr. Makhtal as saying that Ethiopian interrogators had repeatedly asked, "Are you al-Qaeda" and beaten him when he said no.
He was arrested in December, 2006, as he was crossing from Somalia into Kenya. He was secretly flown to Mogadishu, Somalia, where he was handed over to Ethiopian officials who brought him to Addis Ababa.

At the time, Islamist militants in Somali were fleeing toward Kenya to escape U. S.-backed Ethiopian and Somali troops. The Canadian government has claimed that some of the Islamists fighting in Somalia were actually Canadians.

Mr. Makhtal immigrated to Toronto from Ethiopia and is the grandson of the founder of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian guerrilla group, but his family says he was only selling used clothing in Somalia.

The New York-based human rights group yesterday released a report, titled "Why Am I Still Here?" that named Mr. Makhtal as one of 10 who were sent to Ethiopia as part of a rendition program and who remain in detention there.

The report said several of the men were interrogated by American officials in the Ethiopian capital soon after they were transferred there from Kenya and Somalia. Others remain unaccounted for, it said.

Mr. Makhtal was placed in solitary confinement, the report said. He could face the death penalty if convicted at his upcoming military trial.

Canadian officials visited Mr. Makhtal in July, 2008. Ethiopia has assured Canada he will have a lawyer at his trial.

The report called on the Canadian government to ask Ethiopia either to prosecute Mr. Makhtal in a civilian court that meets international standards or release him and return him to Canada. The Department of Foreign Affairs had no comment yesterday.
sbell@nationalpost.com

Ethiopia/Kenya: Account for Missing Rendition Victims

Secret Detainees Interrogated by US Officials Are Still in Custody
(Washington, DC, October 1, 2008) – At least 10 victims of the 2007 Horn of Africa rendition program still languish in Ethiopian jails and the whereabouts of several others is unknown, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Several of the detained men were interrogated by US officials in Addis Ababa soon after they were secretly transferred from Kenya to Somalia, and then to Ethiopia in early 2007.
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"Why Am I Still Here?": The 2007 Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of Those Still Missing
Report, October 1, 2008

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The 54-page report, “‘Why Am I Still Here?’: The Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of the Missing,” examines the 2007 rendition operation, during which at least 90 men, women, and children fleeing the armed conflict in Somalia were unlawfully rendered from Kenya to Somalia, and then on to Ethiopia. The report documents the treatment of several men still in Ethiopian custody, as well as the previously unreported experiences of recently released detainees, several of whom described being brutally tortured.

“The dozens of people caught up in the secret Horn of Africa renditions in 2007 have suffered in silence too long,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Those governments involved – Ethiopia, Kenya and the US – need to reverse course, renounce unlawful renditions, and account for the missing.”

In late 2006, the Bush administration backed an Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from the Somali capital Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands to flee across the border into Kenya, including some who were suspected of terrorist links.

Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women, and children from more than 18 countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada – in operations near the Somali border and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then rendered dozens of them – with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves – on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia.

Those rendered were later transported to detention centers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian towns, where they effectively disappeared. Denied access to their embassies, their families, and international humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the detainees were even denied phone calls home. Several have said that they were housed in solitary cells, some as small as two meters by two meters, with their hands cuffed in painful positions behind their backs and their feet bound together.

A number of prisoners were questioned by US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Addis Ababa. From February to May 2007, Ethiopian security officers daily transported detainees – including several pregnant women – to a villa where US officials interrogated them about suspected terrorist links. At night, the Ethiopian officers returned the detainees to their cells.

“The United States says that they were investigating past and current threats of terrorism,” Daskal said. “But the repeated interrogation of rendition victims who were being held incommunicado makes Washington complicit in the abuse.”

For the most part, detainees were sent home soon after their interrogation by US agents ended. Of those known to have been interrogated by US officials, just eight Kenyans remain. (A ninth Kenyan in Addis Ababa was rendered to Ethiopia in July/August 2007, after US interrogations reportedly stopped.) These men, who have not been subjected to any interrogation since May 2007, would likely have been repatriated long ago but for the Kenyan government’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge their claims to Kenyan citizenship or to take steps to secure their release.

Human Rights Watch recently spoke by telephone to several of the Kenyans in detention in Ethiopia, many of whom complained of physical ailments and begged for someone to help get them home. Although Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga made a campaign pledge to help repatriate these detainees, little progress has been made to date. In mid-August 2008, Kenyan authorities visited these men for the first time. The officials reportedly told the detainees they would be home within a few weeks, but more than a month and a half has now passed.

“The previous Kenyan government deported its own citizens and then left them to rot in Ethiopian jails,” Daskal said. “The new Kenyan government should reverse course, bring these men home, and show that it is not following the same shameful path as the old.”

The Ethiopian government also used the rendition program for its own purposes. For years, the Ethiopian military has been trying to quell domestic Ogadeni and Oromo insurgencies that receive support from neighboring countries, such as Ethiopia’s archrival, Eritrea. The Ethiopian intervention in Somalia and the multinational rendition program provided them a convenient means to gain custody over people whom they could interrogate for suspected insurgent links. Once these individuals were in detention, Ethiopian military interrogators and guards reportedly subjected them to brutal beatings and torture.

Detainees said Ethiopian interrogators pulled out their toenails, held loaded guns to their heads, crushed their genitals, and forced them to crawl on their elbows and knees through gravel. Several reported being beaten to the point of unconsciousness.

The Human Rights Watch report calls upon the Ethiopian government to immediately release the rendition victims still in its custody or prosecute them in a court that meets basic fair trial standards. It also urges the Kenyan government to take immediate steps to secure the repatriation of Kenyan nationals still in Ethiopian custody, and the US government to withhold counterterrorism assistance from both governments until they provide a full accounting of all the missing detainees.