March 30, 2000
UPDATE ON THE REPRESSION BY THE EPRDF GOVERNMENT
The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is continuing with the repression that has been intensified in connection with the general election planned for next May-June. The government party man sent from the Prime Minster's office to supervise the South, Tewolde Berhe, has not been found to e an improvement on his predecessor, Bitew Belay, who has gone back to the PM's office. Two more people have been shot dead in the Hadiya zone in the last week and many more detained. · In Ambo, the decomposed body of a girl student who had been beaten to death by the police has been found and has led to further protests. · 150 students from Gedo school (57 kms out of Ambo town) have been rounded up and are being punished in the Senkele police training center. · More than 120 students detained from Ginche, Jeldu,Chobi and Kushukte schools are also being given "military punishment". · In connection with the protest of Ambo students, youngsters from 6-12 years old have also been beaten and detained. Parents of the students have refused to reregister their children and have demanded a public apology from the police, the trail of the police who beat the students to death, compensation for the families of the victims and a guarantee of the students' safety. Since the government has refused to give a reply to these demands the schools in Ambo region remain closed. ·
While the notorious Judge Hagos Woldu has been removed from his presidency of the Federal High Court and demoted to become an ordinary high court judge (no explanations given but his official car and bodyguards have been taken away from him), reports of the arbitrary sacking of more than 20 judges in the Oromia region has alarmed the people. Their replacements have not been named and the increasing load of untried cases means that more and more people will stay in jails without being tried. Moreover, the government has admitted that 17,660 files have been lost and that the cases have to be reconstituted again. This is also another violation of rights as it means the victims, thousands of whom have already stayed in prison for more than 5 years, will spend more time in the prisons without being tried. ·
In continuation of the violation of the economic rights of the people, a government party official within the PM's office, Zerai Hagos, who is in charge of the Gambella and Beni Shangul zones, has not only ordered the imprisonment of two private businessmen for two years but has also deprived of them of their rights to take part in any auction in any part of the country. The two businessmen, Alemayehu Ketema (Oromo) and Melke Shibabaw (Amara) had won an auction for a big construction job in Gambella but they were sent to prison and the contract given to a company called Latkon which is partly owned by the ruling TPLF and partly by a businessman who hails from Tigrai (Samuel Teklai). Ethnic discrimination and violation of economic rights are rampant and practiced under the order of high officials within the Prime Minister's office.
SOCEPP
