August 24,1999
ON THE RELEASE OF SOME PRISONERS FROM KALITI AND KERCHIELE
AND END TO A TRAVESTY BUT MORE ACTION STILL NEEDED FROM THE EPRDF
The EPRDF government has released some 18 officers of the former EthiopianAir Force, who had been imprisoned at Kailiti for the past 8 years, and has also let go from the Kerchiele (Central Prison) a handful of army officers of the former regime.
It is surely an end to the travesty of justice SOCEPP had been firmlycondemning and we rejoice with the rleased and their families that their ordeal has finally come to an end. But. all tendencies to commend the government are blocked by the realization that all this is too little too late, that the prisoners should not have been denied due process of law in the first place, that thousands of others still languish in hellholes and secret/ghost/prisons, that due process is still denied to many and that the same government continues to arbitrarily and illegally condemn others to long terms of imprisonment. We note also that there are serious allegations that the government released only those pilots and military officers that it needs for its war effort against Eritrea.
SOCEPP has repeatedly denounced the Kaliti prison where inmates are held in sub human conditions. Major Fisseha, an air force officer, and others have already died while being detained there. Kaliti still holds far too many prisoners and the call for its closure has not been heeded by the EPRDF government. SOCEPP again calls for the release of all prisoners in the Kaliti prison and the closure of this terrible site.
SOCEPP also notes that there is a clear attempt to subvert the campaign for the release of ALL political prisoners by arbitrary,sporadic and tiny measures which are accompanied by media barrage and coverage Thousands and not a mere twenty or so officers of the old regime are behind bars and most of them have not been charged or brought before a court of law up to now.Thousands of non-military political prisoners are still suffering illegal incarceration all over Ethiopia.The EPRDF government MUST release ALL the political prisoners and should cease the cynical manipulation of their condition for its own political or military ends.
Release All Political Prisoners Now!! This continues to be our driving slogan. The campaign shall not slacken, it shall not be sidetracked.RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!!
SOCEPP
