October 6/ 2008

TORTURE HAS BECOME ROUTINE IN EPRDF JAILS

AND DETENTION CENTERS

The Kenyans who were detained illegally by the EPRDF in a detention center in AddisAbaba have now been released and they have exposed the brutal torture to which they were subjected by EPRDF security personnel and foreign intelligence operatives allied toMeles Zenawi. 

Torture is routine in the jails and detention centers of the EPRDF. In many of the secret('ghost") prisons, dissidents and political prisoners have all been tortured. Beating of the soles of feet, tying hands so tight as the blood stops circulating; hanging tied prisoners from the ceiling and beating them with iron rods, electric torture, starvation, denial of medical care, beating and mistreatment by prison guards, rape, etc have all been reported.Prisoners who had to undergo amputation are many. Up to now, neither the Red Cross nor any prison observation group has visited the dungeons of the regime. Some are tortured so brutally that the regime has kept them in its secret detention center for fear of releasing them and exposing its brutality. 

Torture has been declared illegal by the UN and world bodies. Those who routinely torture prisoners must be condemned without reserve. Let alone defenceless Ethiopians, there are still dozens of foreign prisoners being tortured and mistreated. This must be stopped.

SOCEPP