well if you are praising the communist regime in ethiopia, you are a stalinist. the communist regime in ethiopia came to power in a military coup in 1,974 their leader was mengistu. mengistu was responsable to many atrocities and he terrorised the ethiopian people. he brutaly represed rebels that fight against him or fight for the independce of eritria[eritria got independece in 1,993 the party that led the strugle for independece was the eritrian people liberation front (eplf)]. the cuban army help to fight rebels, and the ussr gave the ethiopian regime wepons. in 1,991 the cuban army live the country, the ussr collapse and mengistu ran away to zimbabwe. the ethiopian people revolutinoury democratic front[EPRDF, an alliance controled by the tigirian people liberaton front(tplf)] in an alliance with the eplf took power an create another stalinist regime. to know about the atrocities of mengistu go to: http://www.ethiopians.com/qey_shibir.htm . here are some of the atrocities of the current regime:
THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN ETHIOPIA
THE EPRDF government has been rigorously condemned by the world at large for its gross violations of the human rights of the Ethiopian people. In fact nothing exposes the regime's character more than its record in the field of human rights. Demagigy to the contrary aside, the government emerges as one of the most repressive governments in the continent.
the EPRDF government tops the list of the countries which have detained independent journalists;
it has more than 13,000 political prisoners;
has disappeared hundreds of others including EPRP leaders and members like TSEGAYE GEBRE MEDHIN, SITOTAW HUSSEIN, YISHAK DEBRETSION, AMHA BELETE, TEKALI GEBRE SELASSIE, MS ABERASH BERTA, TESFAYE KEBEDE, HAGOS BEZABIH, AZANAW DEMILE,LEMA HAILU,ETC.;
has muzzeld the press and repressed dissent;
controls the judiciary, the polcie and security force and the army is primarily Tigrean (the ethnic group of the ruling group called the Tigrean People's Liberation Front or the Ethiopian People's Revolutioanry Democratic Front);
arrests without warrant, keeps prisoners lockwed up in dungeons and underround holes for long periods without any trial, practices torture routinely;
has imposed totalitarian control over civic associations, imprisoned civic leaders on made up charges, gunned down others like Ato Asefa Maru, forced into exile many more and set up its own satellite unions and associations in the place of the autonomous ones;
controls the country's economic life through firms and comaponies set up by itself as private enterprises; harasses other trademen and businessmen; uses political power to secure its economic dominance;
tops the list (at a world level) of thsoe countries who had dismissed the maximum number of judges; has appointed its loyalists (in most cases inept) as judges;
committs atrocites in areas of aremd conflict;
has put in place an ethnic politics that has division and exclusionas its rationale and practices thnic discrimination and repression against other ethnic groups in the country;
interfers in the affairs of religion and has imposed its cadres as patriarchs or sheikhs; has massacred believers at the Anwar Mosque and the Adebabye Iyesus Church of Gondar, holds Sheiks and monks in jail; is accused of murdering Aba Fekade Sellasie in broad daylight inside the St. Estiphanos Church of Addis Abeba;
denies citizenship and nationaity rights to political opponents; practices forced exile to punish opposition; jails realtives for alleged offenses of any kin;
has crossed borders to murder opponents (the killing of Jattene Ali and Afework Alemseged in Kenya), to burn villages (into Somalia), to kidnap dissident refugees (in Djibouti) and has also handed over Djiboutian refugees to the Djibouti government which threatend their lives;
ITS SECUITY FORCES KILL AT RANDOM BUT ARE NEVER CHARGED OR BROUGHT BEFORE A COURT OF LAW.
The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has time and again refused to heed the call for dialogue and peaceful political struggle. Outlawing the viable opposition like the EPRP, the Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces, the Afar ARDUF, etc... it has opted for the politics of intransigence, denying the existence of political prsioners, falsely accusing the Opposition of opting for violence, jailing the leaders of legal opposition groups (like Professor Asrat Woldeyes and many others of the All Amhara People's Organization), Fitawrari Makonen Dori of the SEPDC, etc..), and reusing to seriously sit down and talk with Opposition forces. It is thus tht it refused to attend the March 1993 Peace and Reconciliation Conference in Paris and jailed the peace delegates who went to Addis Abeba to attend the December 1993 Peace and Reconciliation Conference. Abera Yemaneab, the foreign relations dept. head of COEDF at the time, has been jailed in the Central prison of Addis Ababa ever since.
Attempts have been made to cover up the dismal human rights record of the Meles Zenawi regime by making reference to the records of the fallen Mengistu regime. While this "is it better to be devoured by a hyena or a tiger?' type of comparison has worn thin we must emphatically state that the EPRDF has been in power for the last seven years and has thus passed enough time to be judged on its own merit. Its own record belies any attempt to present it as democratic, as a government that respects the rule of law and the rights of its people. it has rigged elections, set up a rubber stamp parliament (the only two independent MPs had to flee to the USA in 1997), and pays lip service to human rights while repressing the people systematically and ruthlessly. Multipartism has been turned into a joke with the ruling party cloning itself in various regions and under various names or by setting up satellite groups and then claiming pluralism does exist.
"EVEN TO THE CASUAL OBSERVER, MELES'S DEMOCRATIC SPEECHES STRIKE A HOLLOW NOTE.'' wrote Lara Santoro in the Christian Science Monitor (April 23/1998). The hollowness of official speeches and claims have been exposed time and again by local and international human rights organizations. The list of prisoners is long, the record of the violations numbing, the demagogy nauseating. After 17 years of totalitarian rule by a repressive military clique, the Ethiopian people have fallen into the clutches of another repressive clique whose main difference with its predecessor is that it claims to be democratic and concerned for the establishment of the rule of law. When Ethiopians say not much has rally changed they are not being forgetful or extreme but bitterly expressing their dashed hopes and grim realities.
The EPRP has always been a thorn on the side of the TPLF because it had consistently opposed the totalitarian politics and criminal actions of the Tigrean front even when the TPLF had not yet assumed power. The TPLF, aided all the time by the Eritrean front now in power in Asmara, had waged war against the EPRP in Tigrai and Gondar in the late seventies and then in Gondar and Gojjam in 1991. The TPLF has thus captued in 1991 and disappeared scores of EPRP leaders and members , murdered EPRP leader Gebre Igziabher (Gaim ) in Addis Ababa in 1993, jailed and disappeared countless others like Aberash Berta, Lemma Hailu, Tesfaye Kebede, etc.. and conducted a relentless policy of repression against the EPRP. The EPRP's search for legality and the right to struggle peacefully have always been rejected by the ruling group on one pretext or another.
II/ AMONG THE DISAPPEARED WE CITE THE FOLLOWING:
Hagos Atsbeha (a former TPLF member)-since 1988;
Tsegaye Gebre Medhin, Yishak Debretsion, Sitotaw Hussein, Amha Belete, Teklai gebre Sellasie, Hagos Bezabih, Abera, Azanaw Demile-EPRP leaders and senior members-since 1991
Abebe Ainekulu, Wondusirak Desta, Alazar, Getachew Eshetu, Aberash Berta, Lemma Haile, Eyob Tekabe, Demissie Tesfaye, journalist Berhanu Ijigu,Tesfaye Kebede since 1993-1994;
Mengistu Eshetu and Mot Baynor since 1996;
Major Workineh Ouisa,Ayalew Abate, Damtew Tafesse, Major Bisrat Filflu, Getachew Abebe, Teshome Beyene, Abayneh Shiferaw, Berhanu Zewdu Hussein Osman, Mola Ijigu, Estifo Argaw,Dereje Deme,Getnet Asnake, Girma Moges Newaye (kidnapped from Djibouti)
captain Bulto Kumsa,Mohamed Cheheem, Mulu Ambaw, journalist Kumsa Berayu, major Hailu Fufa, Zewdu Gebre Mariam (former TPLF fighter), Feyera Negera, Jemal Hussein, Basha Shimeles Argaw, Berhanu Asemu, colonel Befekadu Disassa, major Yohannes Afework, Sewinet Mulualem,Abiywork haile Mariam, Teshome Bimrew, Retta Mosisa, Abdi Mohamed, getachew Abebe,Alebatchew Worku Kassaye,Lt. Eyasu Temam, Captain Daniel, Wolde Michael Borriso,Yosef Ayele Bati, Lamessa Boru,Kassahun Habte,Abdullahi Abdi,Ibado Abdullahi,
etc.....
The list of summary executions and killings and arbitrary arrest is very very long.
III/ Documentation
There are a number of reports and documents written by local and international bodies on the human rights situation in Ethiopia. We cite below some of the documents that give a detailed picture of the violations of the rights of the people by the EPRDF government.
Amnesty International: Country Report; Ethiopia; 1997 Amnesty International, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ, England. e mail
[email protected] contact person: Dr. Martin Hill
Human Rights Watch: Ethiopia: The Curtailment of Rights, December 1997 report 350 Fifth Avenue,34th floor, New York,NY 10118-3299, e mail:
[email protected] contact person Suleiman Ali Baldo
Ethiopian Human Rights Council: *The Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia: 12th Report, November 1997 EHRCO, p.o.box 2432,Addis Abeba, Ethiopia; fax no. 251 1 514539
Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP)
ETHIOPIA: The EPRDF and Human Rights , 1996
Selected Statements on the Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia (1995-1998)
SOCEPP, postfach 411305, 12123 Berlin,Germany
SOCEPP, p.o.box 28605, Oakdale, MN 55128,USA. e- mail:
[email protected] contact person:Ezra Nathaniel
Committee to Protect Journalists
fill in the address and the title of their last statement