February
2, 2013 |
Ethiopia
The
sudden death in August 2012 of Ethiopia’s long-serving and powerful prime
minister, Meles Zenawi, provoked uncertainty over the country’s political
transition, both domestically and among Ethiopia’s international partners.
Ethiopia’s human rights record has sharply deteriorated, especially over the
past few years, and although a new prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, took
office in September, it remains to be seen whether the government under his
leadership will undertake human rights reforms.
Ethiopian
authorities continued to severely restrict basic rights of freedom of
expression, association, and assembly in 2012. Thirty journalists and
opposition members were convicted under the country’s vague Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation of 2009.The security forces responded to protests by the Muslim
community in Oromia and Addis Ababa, the capital, with arbitrary arrests,
detentions, and beatings.
The
Ethiopian government continues to implement its “villagization” program: the
resettlement of 1.5 million rural villagers in five regions of Ethiopia
ostensibly to increase their access to basic services. Many villagers in
Gambella region have been forcibly displaced, causing considerable hardship.
The government is also forcibly displacing indigenous pastoral communities in Ethiopia’s
Lower Omo Valley to make way for state-run sugar plantations.
Freedom
of Expression, Association, and Assembly
Since
the promulgation in 2009 of the Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO Law),
which regulates nongovernmental organizations, and the AntiTerrorism
Proclamation, freedom of expression, assembly, and association have been
increasingly restricted in Ethiopia. The effect of these two laws, coupled with
the government’s widespread and persistent harassment, threats, and
intimidation of civil society activists, journalists, and others who comment on
sensitive issues or express views critical of government policy, has been
severe. Ethiopia’s most important human rights groups have been compelled to
dramatically scale-down operations or remove human rights activities from their
man dates, and an unknown number of organizations have closed entirely. Several
of the country’s most experienced and reputable human rights activists have
fled the country due to threats. The environment is equally hostile for
independent media: more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country
in the world due to threats and intimidation in the last decade—at least 79,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation is being used to target perceived opponents, stifle
dissent, and silence journalists. In 2012, 30 political activists, opposition
party members, and journalists were convicted on vaguely defined terrorism
offenses. Eleven journalists have been convicted under the law since 2011.
On
January 26, a court in Addis Ababa sentenced both deputy editor Woubshet Taye
and columnist Reeyot Alemu of the now-defunct weekly Awramaba Times to 14 years
in prison. Reeyot’s sentence was later reduced to five years upon appeal and most of the charges were dropped.
On
July 13, veteran journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega, who won the prestigious
PEN America Freedom to Write Award in April, was sentenced to 18 years in
prison along with other journalists, opposition party members, and political activists. Exiled journalists Abiye Teklemariam and Mesfin Negash were
sentenced to eight years each in absentia under a provision of the
Anti-Terrorism Law that has so far only been used against journalists. Andualem
Arage, a member of the registered opposition party Unity for Democracy and
Justice (UDJ), was sentenced to life for espionage, “disrupting the
constitutional order,” and recruitment and training to commit terrorist acts.
In
September, the Ethiopian Federal High Court ordered the property of Eskinder
Nega, exiled journalist Abebe Belew, and opposition member Andualem Arage to be
confiscated.
On
July 20, after the government claimed that reports by the newspaper Feteh on
Muslim protests and the prime minister’s health would endanger national
security, it seized the entire print run of the paper. On August 24, Feteh’s
editor, Temesghen Desalegn was arrested and denied bail. He was released on
August 28, and all the charges were withdrawn pending further investigation.
Police
on July 20 raided the home of journalist Yesuf Getachew, editor-in-chief of the
popular Muslim magazine Yemuslimoche Guday (Muslim Affairs), and arrested him
that night. The magazine has not been published since, and at this writing,
Yesuf remained in detention.
On
December 27, 2011, two Swedish journalists, Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson,
were found guilty of supporting a terrorist organization after being arrested
while traveling in eastern Ethiopia with the Ogaden National Liberation Front
(ONLF), an outlawed armed insurgent group. They were also convicted of entering
the country illegally. The court sentenced them to 11 years in prison. On
September 10, they were pardoned and released along with more than 1,950 other
prisoners as part of Ethiopia’s annual tradition of amnesty to celebrate the
Ethiopian New Year.
On
several occasions in July, federal police used excessive force, including
beatings, to disperse largely Muslim protesters opposing the government’s
interference with the country’s Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs. On July 13,
police forcibly entered the Awalia mosque in Addis Ababa, smashing windows and
firing tear gas inside the mosque. On July 21, they forcibly broke up a sit-in
at the mosque. From July 19 to 21, dozens of people were rounded up and 17
prominent leaders were held without charge for over a week. Many of the
detainees complained of mistreatment in detention.
Forced
Displacement
The
Ethiopian government plans to relocate up to 1.5 million people under its
“villagization” program, purportedly designed to improve access to basic
services by moving people to new villages in Ethiopia’s five lowland regions:
Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’
Region (SNNPR), and Somali Region.
In
Gambella and in the South Omo Valley, forced displacement is taking place
without adequate consultation and compensation. In Gambella, Human Rights Watch
found that relocations were often forced and that villagers were being moved
from fertile to unfertile areas. People sent to the new villages frequently
have to clear the land and build their own huts under military supervision,
while the promised services (schools, clinics, water pumps) often have not been
put in place.
In
South Omo, around 200,000 indigenous peoples are being relocated and their land
expropriated to make way for state-run sugar plantations. Residents reported
being moved by force, seeing their grazing lands flooded or ploughed up, and
their access to the Omo River, essential for their survival and way of life,
curtailed.
Extrajudicial
Executions, Torture and other Abuses in Detention
An
Ethiopian government-backed paramilitary force known as the “Liyu Police”
executed at least 10 men who were in their custody and killed 9 other villagers
in Ethiopia’s Somali Region on March 16 and 17 following a confrontation over
an incident in Raqda village, Gashaamo district.
In
April, unknown gunmen attacked a commercial farm owned by the Saudi Star
company in Gambella that was close to areas that had suffered a high proportion
of abuses during the villagization process. In responding to the attack,
Ethiopian soldiers went house to house looking for suspected perpetrators and
threatening villagers to disclose the whereabouts of the “rebels.” The military
arbitrarily arrested many young men and committed torture, rape, and other
abuses against scores of villagers while attempting to extract information.
Human
Rights Watch continues to document torture at the federal police investigation
center known as Maekelawi in Addis Ababa, as well as at regional detention
centers and military barracks in Somali Region, Oromia, and Gambella. There is
erratic access to legal counsel and insufficient respect for other due process
guarantees during detention, pre-trial detention, and trial phases of
politically sensitive cases, placing detainees at risk of abuse.
Treatment
of Ethiopian Migrant Domestic Workers
The
videotaped beating and subsequent suicide on March 14 of Alem Dechasa Desisa,
an Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon, brought increased scrutiny to the
plight of tens of thousands of Ethiopian women working in the Middle East.
Many
migrant domestic workers incur heavy debts and face recruitment-related abuses
in Ethiopia prior to employment abroad, where they risk a wide range of abuses
from long hours of work to slavery-like conditions (see chapters on the
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon).
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon).
Key
International Actors
Under
Meles Zenawi’s leadership, Ethiopia played an important role in regional
affairs: deploying UN peacekeepers to Sudan’s disputed Abyei area, mediating
between Sudan and South Sudan, and sending troops into Somalia as part of the
international effort to combat al-Shabaab. Ethiopia’s relations with its
neighbor Eritrea remain poor following the costly border war of 1998-2000.
Eritrea accepted the ruling of an independent boundary commission that awarded
it disputed territory; Ethiopia did not. Ethiopia is an important strategic and
security ally for Western governments, and the biggest recipient of development
aid in Africa. It now receives approximately US$3.5 billion in long-term
development assistance each year. Donor policies do not appear to have been
significantly affected by the deteriorating human rights situation in the
country.
The
World Bank approved a new Country Partnership Strategy in September that takes
little account of the human rights or good governance principles that it and
other development agencies say are essential for sustainable development. It
also approved a third phase of the Protection of Basic Services program (PBS
III) without triggering safeguards on involuntary resettlement and indigenous
peoples.
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