DECEMBER 28/2000

 THE REPRESSION INTENSIFIES AGAINST STUDENTS

The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has intensified the repression against students all over the country. In a violent incident that was provoked by the government cadres and police in the Addis Abeba University more than 70 students have been detained. Many more students in Awassa's Teacher Training College are also under detention. The Addis Abeba University students, who were protesting the arrest of students who had expressed their objections to a term paper written by a Tigrean student,Getachew Deslaegn, in which an allegedly derogatory appellation has been used for Oromos), have been struggling to have the government respect the principle of academic freedom and campus autonomy.

The detained students have been taken to the Wereda 11 police station. Government policies towards educational establishments encourage ethnic division and inter-ethnic hostility as many Tigrean (the ethnic group of the members of the ruling front) students are treated on a partial basis and organized as government spies and enforcers. In the Addis Abeba university incident, many Tigrean students joined the rampaging police in beating up the other students. While latest reports indicate that some of the detained students have been released from Wereda 11 and Sendafa others are still jailed.

Another discriminatory act witnesses during this incident is also the fact that the police checked on the names and ethnic identities of the detained students and jailed those whose Oromo identity left no doubts. This on-going policy of ethnic discrimination characterizes the government's deliberate policy. In this connection, SOCEPP will also like to signal that the repression in the Southern region has continued without any letup. Illegal detentions, beatings, killings and forced exile are reported as the governments tries to deny southern political groups public support.

SOCEPP