June 13/2007

TSEGAYE, YISHAK AND OTHERS

JUNE 1991------ JUNE 2007

16 YEARS OF DISAPPEARANCE

June 1991: Tsegaye Gebre Medhin (aka Debteraw), Yishak Debretsion, Amha Belete, Teklai Gebre Sellasie, Sitotaw Hussein, Hagos Bezabih, Desalegn Amsalu fall into the hands of the TPLF in Quara /at a place called Sankisa for some/. Azanaw Demile, ak Tulu, was also forcefully deported from the Sudan and handed over to the Tigrean front that took power in May 1991. All were taken to Bahr Dar where they were imprisoned with other captives. From there, the traces of the above disappeared as the reports indicated that they were taken to Tigrai and sent to one of the secret prisons there. The regime denies ever holding them though some of its officials have said in private that "all were shot and killed".

 For years, SOCEPP and other concerned groups have been demanding a report on the whereabouts of the disappeared. Unexplained as it is, many human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have kept silent on the fate of these disappeared EPRP leaders and veteran members. Tsegaye, Sitotaw and the others were veteran fighters for justice since the Emperor's time and well known as leaders of the democratic movement in Ethiopia. In addition, Tsegaye was a very well known and able poet and man of literature. As they publicly stood against the ethnic divisive politics of the Tigrean front, it is feared that it has taken revenge on them and killed them in secret. Since 1991, dozens of EPRP members and sympathizers have been disappeared by the regime and others killed (Like Gebre Igziabher/Gaim/ and Tesfaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa).

 SOCEPP once again calls on international human right groups to take up its call and to demand that the Meles Zenawi regime come clean on the fate of the disappeared.