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April 25, 2000 MORE THAN 183 PEOPLE ROUNDED UP IN JIMMA IN connection with the coming general elections and following the policy of political repression, the mass arrests signaled in Bale, Harar and Illu aba Bor has now been complemented by the rounding up of more than 183 people in the town of Jimma alone. Most of the imprisoned are teachers and they are being held in different and faraway police jails and prisons making it difficult for their relatives from Jimma to visit them. Up to now, the government has given no official explanation for the massive sweep and arrest of these people. Unofficially, the cadres of the party in power (the TPLF) claim that the jailed teachers and students are (allegedly) "Islamic fundamentalists, members and supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front, of the SEPDC, and those belonging to cells of the opposition EPRP" in the town. Both the OLF and the EPRP are outlawed opposition organizations. Accusations of being "Islamic fundamentalist" have not been explained and it is not possible to know if those accused of it belong to any such local or foreign organization. SOCEPP has called on international organizations and prisons observatory groups to demand that the government allow them to visit the prisons and jails in the towns all over the country. SOCEPP
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