May 22, 2016 at 11:22 AM
By Adotei
Akwei,Managing Director for Government Relations and Kayla Chen,
Government Relations and Individuals at Risk Intern at Amnesty International
USA
Sub-Saharan
Africa is facing a growing trend of evaporating political space.
Non-governmental organizations are being heavily and often violently
restricted, and newspapers, bloggers and other voices of dissent or
criticism are being silenced or intimidated into exile.
In some
countries such as Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
heads of state are rewriting their constitutions to eliminate term limits, in
the process using security forces to squash protests from both political
opposition and civil society. In other countries such as in Angola, the
governments make use of
their control over their judiciaries to intimidate or bury critics
and youth activists in legal processes that cripple them financially or trap in
never ending trials. Elsewhere, governments invoke the
specter of terrorism and threats to national security as
justification for passing sweeping laws whose interpretation empowers them to
impose draconian penalties on oppositional parties and civil society, with
little regard for international standards of due process or international and
regional rights standards on freedom of expression, association and assembly.
In several
countries government authorities have cracked down on nonviolent protests with
violence. On Monday May 17, the Kenyan security forces brutally beat nonviolent demonstrations
organized by the opposition Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD), led by
former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to demand the dismissal of the members of
the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Protestors run from water
canons after Kenya’s opposition supporters demonstrated in Nairobi, on May 16,
2016. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
On the 6th
of May the Ugandan police beat demonstrators who had gathered after it was
announced that opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye would face the death penalty for charges of treason.
Ethiopia has
been at the forefront of this wave of violent intolerance. Members of the Oromo
ethnic group are facing a brutal crackdown following initially peaceful protests that
started in the fall of 2015. Some estimates place the number of persons killed
at the beginning of 2016 at over 400. Thousands have been detained and hundreds
of homes and businesses have been destroyed. The violent crackdown is
consistent with the violent security force crackdowns in Oromia in 2014 and in
Konso in March 2016 as well as against other protests.
Closing of
Political Space in Ethiopia
This is the
reality facing Ethiopians whom the government designates opponents
of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The
government heavily restricts freedom of expression and association, and
severely constrains political space, especially for civil society
organizations.
In the 2015
elections, the EPRDF and its allies claimed all of 547 seats in
Parliament amid concern over the lack of conditions for free and fair
elections. It has become virtually impossible to question, challenge or protest
against any action of the government. According to the World Justice Project Rule of Law
Index, Ethiopia ranks 91 out of 102 countries with severe
constraints on government powers and fundamental rights. Freedom House
also rated the country “not free”. Ethiopia scores 6 out of 7, on a scale of
1-7 from free to not free, on both civil liberties and political rights. Civil
society organizations have been forced to close, thousands of political
prisoners are languishing in prisons, and human rights defenders who dare to
speak out are forcibly imprisoned and beaten.
The use of the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation Act continues to be used to silence journalists and
other critics who dare to speak out. People like noted journalist Eskinder
Nega, Oromo leader Bekele Gerba, and Anuak Land rights activist Okello Akway
Ochalla are all behind bars and charged with terrorism for opposing the
government policies. They are just three individual stories of many who are
suffering under the Ethiopian government’s crackdown on human rights.
Eskinder Nega was sentenced to 18 years in
jail in 2012 for fulfilling his role as a journalist and questioning the use of
the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to arrest those that criticized the
government. This was not the first time Eskinder had faced unjust
retaliation due to his refusal to be silenced. Eskinder’s son Nafkot was
born in prison in 2005 when both Eskinder and hjs wife Serkalem were imprisoned for
criticizing the government’s killing of nearly 200 people in
post-election protests in 2005. Four years later after he was unjustly
convicted and imprisoned once again, Eskinder Nega still languishes behind bars
and more convictions have been handed down using the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation.
Bekele Gerba, a prominent leader of the Oromo Federalist
Party, visited the United States last August after his release prior to
President Obama’s visit to Ethiopia. He told NPR that Obama’s visit to Ethiopia
last summer was a trip that sent the wrong message of solidarity to a
repressive government with very little support from its own people. He also
expressed uncertainty in
regards to his freedom when he returned back to Ethiopia. A few
months after his return Bekele was arrested on December 23, 2015 and held in a
4m X 5m cell with 21 others. Bekele and his counterparts were charged on April
22, 2016 with various provisions set forth in the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. This charge is clearly meant to silence him
and others who dare to criticize and oppose the current regime.
Okello Akway
Ochalla, a Norwegian
citizen, was abducted from Juba, South Sudan, two years ago and ended up in an
Addis Ababa court where he was sentenced to
nine years in prison on April 27, 2016. Okello was the governor of
the Gambella region, a key location of land grabbing and forced relocation by
the Ethiopian Government, before escaping the country following a massacre of
his people, the Anuaks, in 2003. Abducted from South Sudan in 2014 and
brought back to Ethiopia, Okello was charged under the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation for speaking to the international media about the massacre of his
people and the ongoing struggle of the people of Gambella. Rights groups are
alarmed that the primary evidence used to convict Okello was a confession
obtained while Okello was in solitary confinement. There have been reports that
Okello was beaten and tortured. His trial highlights serious failures of due
process and the rule of law in the Ethiopian courts.
More laws are being drafted by the Ethiopian
government that confirm it will continue to suppress opposition and dissent.
Current government policies of making access to education, government jobs and
services contingent on party membership, forcing citizens to undergo “policy
trainings” of indoctrination, and widespread monitoring of all public spaces
has created an environment of fear with no room for public debate.
Despite all
this, the ruling ERPD still enjoys support from the international
community. The United States recently renewed a new defense and
security cooperation agreement with Ethiopia, which is being
trumpeted as U.S. support of the Ethiopian government’s policies, including the
military’s excessive use of force. Ethiopia also continues to receive hundreds
of millions of dollars from the United States, the European Union and other
countries in development and humanitarian aid.
It is crucial
that governments that commit human rights violations be held to the spotlight
and pressed to be accountable. Countries that provide assistance to those governments
need to prioritize respect for, and protection of human rights for several
reasons.
First, grave
human rights violations can further stymy development and it potentially drives
voices of dissent to abandon non-violence.
Second,
supporting an oppressive regime for the sake of regional security will only
further destabilize a region already ravaged by conflict, unclear borders,
poverty and lack of respect for the rule of law, all in the pursuit of short
term stability.
The Ethiopian people deserve
better than that.
This entry was
posted in Africa,
Censorship and
Free Speech and tagged Ethiopia, freedom of
expression, human rights
defenders, kenya,
peaceful protest
by Adotei Akwei.
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