November 1, 2001

POLICE VIOLATE RIGHTS, RAPE AND ROB CIVILIANS

 The police and security officials of the EPRDF are extensively violating the human rights of Ethiopians all over the country. Reliable reports confirm that policemen routinely rob civilians, rape young girls and women and are hired out as enforcers and thug-men for rich businessmen who operate on the shady side of the law. Civilians robbed at night and sometimes in broad daylight by policemen, women and young girls who report brutal rape by policemen, etc: such incidents are becoming far too common and people are as afraid of policemen as they are of the criminals. The authorities have refused to heed the complaint of the people and to rein in the police and security officials who are committing crimes against the people they are supposed to protect. In fact, the government of Prime Minister has made it a point, it appears, to go against the wishes of the defenseless people. In Gedeo zone, Yirgachefe district, soldier Gemetchu Kuttu, who had been accused of having peasant Tesfaye Hailatchew killed by militia Girma Aichilhum has been appointed head of the Anti-Crime Unit of the district.

 The violation of the rule of law continues unabated. The police continue to detain illegally and without any due process. Defendants released by court order are kept behind bars by illegal government order. The Prime Minister himself is violating the rights of the accused by publicly condemning some as "thieves who should have been jailed long ago" even before their trial has ended. The railroading of political rivals through the muzzled courts is well underway and the independence of the judiciary is compromised more than ever before. Despite claims by those in power that errors will be corrected and laws respected the reverse is becoming the reality. The convenient accusation of corruption is being used to throw dissidents behind bars. Instead of fair and proper trial the accused are being tried by the government media and declared guilty long before the courts decide on their fate. In the concentration camps of Zwai, Shoa- Robit, etc the inhumane treatment of political prisoners also continues.

The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a gross human rights violator and should be condemned as such without any procrastination.

SOCEPP