June 7/2000
REPRESSION IN WOLLISSO
Midnight June 3 in the town of Wollisso( 115 kms outside of Addis Abeba on the Jimma road), EPRDF policeman, Isaias, arbitrarily shot dead truck driver Habtamu Tena Zemedkun outside a Mobil petrol station. This was not the first time a policeman killed an innocent civilian in the town.
The inhabitants of the town asked for permission to stage a peaceful demonstration protesting against police brutality and the fact that the police who shoot people to death in the town have never been tried. Permission for the demonstration was denied. However, the people gathered and marched on the central police station on June 5. Police gain opened fire at the demonstrators and wounded three youngsters (Mamush, Geset,Boru Abera) while there are reports that one policeman was stabbed by the demonstrators.
Special Flying Squad police from Ambo rushed to the town to control the situation and disturbed the people by their random and continuous shooting into the air. The police have detained a number of people while others, fearing reprisals, have fled from Wollisso. The tense situation that still prevails in the town highlights the routine trampling of the law perpetrated by the government police and security men who act with impunity and cruelty in such small towns.
The government has not up to now shown any vigor in persecuting police or security personnel who shoot and kill people arbitrarily for whatever reasons. This has favored the further violation of rights and the absence of due process and the rule of law. SOCEPP calls on the EPRDF government to stop the repression in the town of Wollisso and to bring to trial the policemen involved in the arbitrary killing of civilians like the above- mentioned Habtamu.
SOCEPP
