NAIROBI, Kenya – Human Rights Watch report suggests Ethiopian authorities arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, and committed other abuses against Tigrayans in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in what now Tigray Defense Forces confirms [TDF] allegations of mass killings in the Tigray region.
HRW now wants the Ethiopian authorities to immediately report on the enforced disappearance of the Tigrayans, release those detained without credible evidence of a crime, and end all discriminatory treatment.
On June 28, after eight months of fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, Tigray forces retook the regional capital, Mekelle, while government forces withdrew. TDF has since established itself in neighboring Afar and Amhara states.
In revenge for TDF’s occupation of Amhara and Afar, report says, Ethiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF] would target Tigrayans in Addis Ababa. There are thousands of Tigrayans in Addis Ababa.
“In recent weeks, Ethiopian security forces have carried out arbitrary arrests and widespread enforced disappearances of Tigrayans in Addis Ababa,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should immediately end its ethnic profiling, which has cast unwarranted suspicion on Tigrayans, produce information on all those detained and provide redress to the victims. ”
In July and August, Human Rights Watch interviewed eight current and former Tigrayan detainees, four Tigrayan business leaders, and 25 relatives of detainees, witnesses of abuse, and lawyers by telephone.
Human Rights Watch also reviewed relevant court and police documents and photos. An August 11 email to Attorney General Gedion Timothewos summarizing Human Rights Watch’s findings and requesting further information has not been answered. This research complements interviews in November and December 2020 with nine people subjected to profiling, searches and arbitrary arrests of Tigrayans in Addis Ababa after the start of the conflict in Tigray in November, notes HRW.
Last month, Addis Ababa Police Commissioner Getu Argaw told media that more than 300 Tigrayans had been arrested, saying they were under investigation for their alleged support for the former Tigray’s ruling party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray. [TPLF], which the Ethiopian parliament called a terrorist group in May.
Although the attorney general told media outlets that ordinary citizens would not be affected, in the arrests Human Rights Watch researched most, if not all, appeared to have been targeted on the basis of ethnicity.
Witnesses said security forces arrested and arrested Tigrayans in streets and cafes and other public places, as well as in their homes and workplaces, often in warrantless searches.
In many cases, security forces checked people’s identity cards to confirm their identity before taking them to a police station or other detention center. A Tigrayan political activist and a Tigrayan aid worker, both based in Addis Ababa, were among those arrested in July, as were at least a dozen journalists and media workers who reported abuses against Tigrayans.
While family members often knew where their loved ones were held during the first days of detention, many were later secretly transferred to unidentified locations. Lawyers and families discovered, often weeks later and sometimes informally, that some detainees were being held in the Afar region, more than 200 kilometers from Addis Ababa. The fate of the others, including 23 cases documented by Human Rights Watch, remains unknown.
On July 2, authorities arrested a 34-year-old Tigrayan with a friend and two other Tigrayans at a cafe in the popular Haya Hulet neighborhood. He said 12 police officers entered the cafe, checked their IDs and took them to Karamara police station, where all detainees were separated on the basis of ethnicity.
While the man was released the next day, his friend was among around 90 Tigrayans who were not. Two days later, the man received a call from his friend using a borrowed phone, who said, “We are being transported by 16 buses. There is the police, intelligence and also the army. The man called the number the next day and a police officer said the detainees had been taken to Afar.
Security forces have also intimidated and threatened people, including detainees and their relatives. “Many policemen who were in the compound [of the detention center] insulted me, ”said a woman detained in July. “They were using abusive words that are directly related to identity. They said I was a “poisonous snake”.
The Ethiopian government’s abuses against the Tigrayans in Addis Ababa began after the outbreak of the Tigray conflict in November. In November and December, authorities arbitrarily arrested and fired Tigrayans working in the government security and public services, profiled Tigrayans in systematic identity checks and searched homes without warrants, in many cases repeatedly. These actions restricted the freedom of movement of Tigrayans throughout the conflict.
Many illegal tactics currently used by security forces, such as the secret transfer of suspects between various law enforcement authorities to evade legal requirements and extend periods of detention, were used in 2020 against opposition figures and journalists. arbitrarily detained.
Enforced disappearances are defined under international human rights law as the arrest or detention of a person by state officials or their agents, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the arrest or reveal the person’s fate or place. Forcibly missing persons are not protected by the law, making them more vulnerable to torture, extrajudicial killings and other abuses.
People who forcibly disappear deny them access to a lawyer, which undermines their right to a fair trial and can inflict severe mental suffering on their families. In Ethiopia, their situation is exacerbated because detainees rely on their relatives to provide them with enough food, clothing and other essentials that the government does not provide.
Ethiopian authorities must comply with international legal prohibitions against arbitrary deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearance, Human Rights Watch said. As a matter of urgency, they should provide families with information about their loved ones, release those wrongly detained and transfer civilians held by the military under civilian control.
“Ethnic profiling, arrest, detention and enforced disappearances of Tigrayans by the Ethiopian government are illegal and unjust,” Bader said. “Donor countries should voice their concerns to the government to immediately end and investigate these discriminatory practices which threaten to escalate ethnic tensions in the country.”
AXADLETM
