March 15, 2000

POLICE BRUTALITY, BEATING TO DEATH AND REPRESSION IN AMBO TOWN

Government police beat hundreds of students and youths in Ambo town in an attempt to break up a student movement of protest linked to the fire that is ravaging the forests of Bale and Sidamo (Borena and Wondegenet). As police and some 400 police recruits from the Sonqele police training center joined with army units stationed in the town (in the compounds of Defense Construction Organization) to fire into the air and wade into the students and town dwellers with batons.. By the end of the day on March 9, 1500 youngsters were rounded up and a young student of the 11th grade, GETU DIRIBA, was dead from severe beatings to his skull. Six others students were severely beaten up and one pregnant woman has had a miscarriage. Unconfirmed reports state that the death toll is six students: one girl and five boys. Why? It all begun when students of the Ambo (Western Shoa) Meskerem Hulet Secondary school demanded on March 6 to be sent to Bale and Sidamo where a forest fire has up to now destroyed some 78,000 hectares of forest. The school administration and zone officials gave the students the reply that the "government has no budget in order to fulfill their demands". Reports indicate that the students refused to accept this excuse ("how come there is always money for Badme and Shiraro and for the TPLF celebrations?", many students reportedly asked) and on March 7 many 12th grade students boycotted a scheduled model examination. Police intervened and detained 7 students deemed to be "ring leaders". The resort to arbitrary measures by zone officials complicated the problem and by March 9, the government forces were let loose on the town with tragic consequences. By March 10, most of the 1500 detained people have been released with the exception of 10 students who have disappeared. The students in Ambo are not the only ones blaming the government for inaction while fire raged destroying forests and threatening the endangered and endemic wild animals like the Red Fox (also known as the Semien Fox and only 400 of its kind remaining in Ethiopia, mainly in Bale). Many people blame the government for focusing and spending much on the anniversary of the ruling TPLF while allocating a meager 1.2 million Birr for the emergency. The Federal Parliament was also hindered from discussing the forest fire as an emergency. SOCEPP condemns the government's repressive measures against the students in Ambo and calls for the immediate release of the detained students. Moreover, the government is held responsible for the murder of GETU DIRIBA , whose poor peasant family are demanding justice.

SOCEPP