Amnesty International Reports Impose UN Mandate on Abyssinia (Falsely Named ‘Ethiopia’)

Following many earlier articles on violations of Human and Civil Rights in the colonial relic ‘Ethiopia’, the shameful and disreputable realm of the totalitarian, racist, cruel and barbaric Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian elites, I republish collectively herewith the recent statements of Amnesty International about the impermissible and unacceptable state of ‘Ethiopia’.

The statements help reveal allover the world the real image of the evil and perfidious state – anomaly in the World History to which a dead end must be put as soon as possible.

Document - Ethiopia: Draft Law Would Wreck Civil Society
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR25/009/2008/en/a10370df-99f4-11dd-bf88-f59215f3db50/afr250092008en.html

Amnesty International
Public Statement
AI Index: AFR 25/009/2008
14 October 2008

Ethiopia: Draft Law Would Wreck Civil Society

Amnesty International today called on Ethiopia’s Parliament to reject the proposed new Charities and Societies Proclamation when it is tabled for debate in the next few weeks. The organization said that if passed into law, the Charities and Societies Proclamation would wreck Ethiopian civil society’s ability to meaningfully operate in the country, and would have a negative impact on the human rights of citizens throughout Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s federal government claims that this proposed law is intended to encourage financial transparency and accountability among non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but its oppressive provisions demonstrate the government’s increasing intolerance of the work of human rights activists and civil society organizations. Amnesty International said the bill is a ploy by the government to conceal human rights violations and prevent public protest and criticism of its actions.

The bill has been revised at least twice over the last few months, but without any change to its most menacing provisions, such as:

- The proposed new legislation would criminalize human rights activities undertaken by both international and Ethiopian organizations who receive more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad.

- Activities that would become illegal include campaigning for gender equality, children’s rights, disabled persons’ rights, conflict resolution and judicial and law enforcement capacity-building.

- The law would establish a Charities and Societies Agency with broad discretionary power over civil society organizations, which would allow strict government control and interference in the operation and management of civil society organizations.

Civil society actors including the political opposition, human rights activists and journalists already face increasing pressure that hinders their activities in Ethiopia. The country’s human rights record has markedly deteriorated since disputed 2005 elections, when at least 187 demonstrators were killed and members of the political opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), journalists and civil society activists were arrested and tried for treason.

Background

The draft Charities and Societies Proclamation law purports to address perceived inadequacies in the existing legal regime and to "provide for the proper administration and regulation of charities and societies". It also claims to "ensure the realization of citizens’ right to association enshrined in the constitution". However, the provisions of the act do the exact opposite. The provisions and objectives of the draft bill violate international and regional human rights treaties to which Ethiopia is a party, and if passed would lead to an increase in human rights violations.

Document - Ethiopia: Further information on Arbitrary Detention / Torture
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR25/011/2008/en/ef534dd4-afdd-11dd-9f8f-4b096084dc04/afr250112008en.html

Public AI Index: AFR 25/011/2008
11 November 2008

Further Information on UA 232/08 (AFR 25/007/2008, 22 August 2008)
Arbitrary Detention/ Torture

Ethiopia

Abdirahman Mohamed Qani (m), tribal leader
Abdiaziz Mohamed Layli (m), Danish citizen
Diriye Layli Siigaale (m)
Nabadiid Askar (m)
Shaafi dhala-hool (m)
Cumar Madoobe (m)
Ahmed Allow-xiir (m)
Inqaas Karuur (m)
Dhakoorr Luuntire Adan Geeddan (m)
Abdullahi Ahmed Qormahaye (m)
Three others

Ugaas (clan leader) Abdirahman Qani is now known to have been released on 7 October 2008. His relatives were all released several days later.

Abdirahman Qani, chief of the Tolomoge group of the Ogaden clan, had been detained without charge from 13 July 2008. He was arrested, along with nine members of his family and three others, shortly after his return to his home city of Godey, in the Somali region of Ethiopia, in the eastern part of the country, on 12 July. He had been living abroad for the previous two years and large numbers of people gathered at his house to welcome him. He was arrested and taken to Godey military barracks. In the following days, security forces arrested around 70 people, all of whom have now been released.

Abdirahman Qani, who was President of the Somali region in Ethiopia from April to November 1994, was in 2005 one of a dozen elders seeking to arrange peace talks between the government and an armed group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for an independent state of Ogaden, an area that would include most of the Somali region. As part of this mediation, Abdirahman Qani travelled to meet with the Ogaden Diaspora in the US in 2006

Many thanks to all who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network. Amnesty International will continue to monitor the situation, and take further campaigning action as necessary.

Document - Ethiopia: Arbitrary detention/torture or other ill-treatment
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR25/012/2008/en/320fc73f-b277-11dd-8634-af6d09acdcad/afr250122008en.html

Public AI Index: AFR 25/012/2008
14 November 2008

UA 315/08 Arbitrary detention/torture or other ill-treatment

Ethiopia

Bekele Jirata (m), General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist Democratic
Movement (OFDM) party
Asefa Tefera Dibaba (m), university lecturer at Addis Ababa University
Bekele Negeri (m), a businessman
Dejene Borena (m),
Fiqadu Jalqaba (m), college student
Eshetu Kitil (m), owner of the Hawi Hotel
Desta Kitili (m), his brother
Kebede Borena (m), assistant manager of the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa
Leslie Wodajo (f), a journalist

An unknown number of other members of the Oromo ethnic group

At least 15 members of the Oromo ethnic group, including those named above have been arrested in the capital Addis Ababa and also reportedly in eastern and western parts of the Oromia region of Ethiopia, since around 30 October 2008. Most are reportedly held incommunicado in detention facilities in Addis Ababa, including Maikelawi, where torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners has been reported in the past.

Some of those detained were reportedly briefly brought before a primary court, accused of financially supporting the OLF. Some were also paraded on state television on 5 November. Amnesty International believes that those detained are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

The Government of Ethiopia, including the National Anti-Terrorism Taskforce, has reportedly claimed that those detained had links to the armed opposition group, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and a previously unknown armed group, Kawerj.

Bekele Jirata is General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) party, a small registered political party in Ethiopia that holds seats in parliament. Others arrested include Asefa Tefera, a lecturer at Addis Ababa University, and a number of students. Leslie Wodajo is a journalist who worked for the Oromo television programme on Ethiopian state television. On 12 September, the airtime of this programme was cut, a move the OFDM and another opposition party, the Oromo National Congress, claimed was politically motivated. Sixty staff members of the Oromo television programme were also removed from their jobs, many of them placed under security surveillance while their movements in Addis Ababa were restricted.

The OFDM has strongly denied that Bekele Jirata, or the party, has had any links to the OLF. In April, the party accused the Ethiopian authorities of intimidation during local elections, the first held since the post-election violence of 2005 which killed some 187 civilians.

This wave of arrests follows on a series of suicide bombings in Hargeisa, Somaliland, one of which targeted the Ethiopian consulate, killing several Ethiopian officials and a number of Somalilanders queuing for visas.

Background Information

Thousands of members of the Oromo ethnic group have been detained, and many of them tortured, in recent years on suspicion of links with the OLF. The OLF has been fighting the Ethiopian government in the eastern and western parts of the Oromia Region and other areas since 1992. Among detainees held on these grounds have been people who Amnesty International considered to be prisoners of conscience who had not used or advocated violence.

Recommended Action: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:

- calling for formal charges to be brought against Bekele Jirata and other Oromo citizens, including those named above, who were recently arrested, or their immediate and unconditional release;

- expressing concern that those detained are being held incommunicado and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment;

- urging the authorities to bring all those detained before a court with a guarantee of fair trial, and allow them access to their families, legal counsel and medical treatment;

- expressing concern that those detained may be prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence.

Appeals to:

Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi
Office of the Prime Minister
PO Box 1031
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 1552020
Salutation: Your Excellency

Minister of Justice
Berhan Hailu
Ministry of Justice
PO Box 1370
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 5517775/ +251 11 5520874
Salutation: Dear Minister

Copies to:

Governor of Region of Oromia
Mr. Abadula Gemeda,
P.O. Box 10176
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

and to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your country.
Please Send Appeals Immediately.

Growing calls for end to executions at UN
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/good-news/growing-calls-end-executions-un-20081218

18 December 2008

Over one hundred countries voted overwhelmingly in favour of a second resolution on "Moratorium on the use of the death penalty" at the United Nations (UN) on Thursday. The resolution reaffirms last year's UN General Assembly call for a moratorium on executions.

106 states supported the resolution, 46 voted against and 34 states abstained. In 2007, the vote was 104 in favour, 54 against and 29 abstained.

"This increased support solidifies the solid and long-standing trend towards global abolition of the death penalty." said Martin Macpherson from Amnesty International.

When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948, eight countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Sixty years later, as of December 2008, the number stands at 137.

More than two thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty and the numbers continue to grow.

"The trend towards abolition is unmistakable," said Martin Macpherson. "This trend can be seen in all regions in the world".

In Central Asia, there is a clear move towards abolition. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan retained the death penalty when they gained independence in 1991. However, by December 2008, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had abolished the death penalty. The Russian Federation and Tajikistan have a moratorium on executions and death sentences.

Europe is a virtually death penalty-free area, the only exception being Belarus.

The continent of Africa is largely free of executions, with only seven of the 53 African Union member states known to have carried out executions in 2007: Botswana, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia and Sudan.

In November 2008, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Commission) adopted a resolution calling on African States to observe a moratorium on the death penalty. It is an important step towards making the African Union (AU) a totally death penalty-free zone.

In the Arab League, several states, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Mauritania and the United Arab Emirates, abstained rather than voting no. At national level, draft abolitionist laws have been tabled in Algeria, Lebanon and Tunisia.

In Asia, the total number of countries that have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice in the Asia Pacific region has reached 27. On 21 May 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Justice and the Supreme People's Court (SPC) jointly issued a regulation to outline the defence lawyers' role in capital cases.

According to a senior official of the Supreme People's Court, the SPC re-turned for retrial about 15 percent of the death sentences handed down by higher people's courts in the first half of 2008. However, this was impossible to confirm as data concerning the use of the death penalty in China is considered a state secret and not publicly available.

In South Korea, there have been no executions since 1998 and a Death Penalty Abolition Bill is under consideration. Viet Nam is reviewing the number of offences punishable by death.

The Americas are almost free of executions. Since 2003, only the United States of America continues to execute on a regular basis. The only other countries to have carried out executions this century are Cuba in 2003, Guatemala in 2001 and the Bahamas in 2000.

Although the 10 countries of the English-speaking Caribbean retain the death penalty in law, there remains a hiatus on executions. Central and South America are virtually death penalty free, with only Guatemala, Belize and Guyana retaining the death penalty.

On 29 April 2008, Cuban President Raúl Castro announced in a speech concluding the Sixth Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba that virtually all death sentences in Cuba will be commuted to life imprisonment or to 30 years imprisonment.

The United States of America is turning against the death penalty. The Death Penalty Information Centre reported that the annual number of death sentences has dropped by 60% since the 1990s. 37 executions took place in 2008, marking a 14-year low and continuing a downward trend that began in 2000.

This week, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment this week released its final report, calling for an end to capital punishment and making Maryland the latest state in the nation to move toward abolishing the death penalty. Fourteen states in USA do not have the death penalty.

Note
Picture: Barbaric Amhara and Tigray criminals, disreputably presented as ‘soldiers’, persecute a Somali at the times of the bygone Abyssinian occupation of the Somali South. From: http://www.benadir-watch.com/