Deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia

Center for Rights of Ethiopia Women (CREW) is deeply concerned with the current state of affairs in Ethiopia. Since the government declared a state of emergency in October, thousands of men, women and particularly young people including journalists, opposition leaders and member were arrested by Ethiopian security forces.

According to human rights organizations reports, the body that is authorized with the execution of the state of emergency has been conducting unlawful search of homes and arbitrary arrest in utter violation of the constitution. In some parts of the country the state of emergency prohibits public gathering of any sort, no two Ethiopians can stand together. Citizens are randomly picked up by security forces, after having endured, interrogation, beating and torture arrest victims are herded to mass detention centers. There are reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and thousands fleeing the country in droves losing their precious lives in oceans and deserts.

By its own admission the Ethiopian government has arrested close to 12 thousand people and has turned the country to Gulag a huge detention camp. The government claims to reeducate these prisoners but thousands are held in a deplorable condition. Prisoners interviewed on Ethiopian television have complained that they don’t have clean drinking water and space for sanitation in the detention camps. They are not allowed legal assistance or visitation by loved once.

And now the Ethiopian government has arrested Oromo Federalist Congress Chairman Dr. Merera Gudina upon his return home from Europe. Dr. Merera was in Brussels briefing EU Parliament on the human rights situation in Ethiopia. The arrest is for “transgressing the country’s state of emergency law”.

CREW believes that the concentrations camp-like mass detention in Ethiopia will have a lasting negative psychological impact on victims. The wound that is inflected on the nations as a whole cannot heal for generations to come.

Therefore we call upon all peace loving nations, International human right organizations all over the world to pay attention to deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia. Western governments who sustain ruling party through funding should exert pressure so human rights are respected and democratization takes place in that country.    CREW would like to thank the human right organizations who continuously advocate on the Ethiopian issue.

*Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit, peace and human rights organization created to promote the rights of Ethiopian women worldwide. Address:  P.O Box 10412, Silver Spring, MD 20914, USA. E-mail:  ethiowomen@gmail.com Website:www.centerforethiopianwomen.org