Journalist, Solomon Namarra, and Save the Children Fund accountant, Gabissa Lamessa, were transferred from Addis Ababa central prison at Karchale to underground cells at Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre during December.

Solomon Namarra was acting Editor-in-Chief of URJII newspaper when he was taken with Tesfaye Dheressa, his assistant, from the URJII office on 16 October 1997. In common with many, he remained in Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre for several months despite a Federal High Court ruling in May 1998 ordering that all of the 65 Oromo charged with conspiracy be transferred to Karchale. As special punishment, Solomon Namarra was shackled by arms and legs, needing help to feed himself, until his inclusion in an International PEN campaign in December 1998. Within one week of having his shackles removed, he was transferred back to Maikelawi.

Gabissa Lamessa, in his sixties, was detained in early November 1997 and also held in Maikelawi before transfer to Karchale. Like other founder members and Board Members of the Human Rights League (an apolitical human rights education body), and like other members of the Macha-Tulama Association (a 35 year old Oromo self-help organisation) he is regarded by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.

Gabissa was returned to Maikelawi in early December as a punishment for refusing to speak in Amharic to an Oromo elder who was visiting him. He is reported to have told the TPLF guard that if the Derg could not stop him speaking the Oromo language, then the Woyane (TPLF) could not either. He was a long term prisoner of conscience under the Derg and is no stranger to the sophisticated torture facilities at Maikelawi.

There is no light in the underground cells. Tamrat Layne, previous Deputy Prime Minister, is being held there and is among the many who complain of visual problems when taken to court in daylight.

Routinely, no underground prisoners are allowed visitors at Maikelawi, but following international pressure, Solomon Namarra is allowed one visitor for 45 minutes each week. Gabissa Lamessa’s relatives have been turned away.

The 65 Oromo, all prominent intellectuals and businessmen, who have been charged with conspiracy, have been the subject of 18 court hearings and appearances in the last 18 months. Adjournments and postponements due to absence of judges, lawyers or defendants and delays in defendants’ transfer from Maikelawi to Karchale, have resulted in the trial proceeding only as far as deliberations on defence lawyers’ objections to the charges, on 25 February 1999.

Oromo students and relatives detained in Mekele, Tigrai

A reliable source in Addis Ababa reported on 7 February that several Oromo students, attending Mekele Business College in Tigrai, had failed to return home with other students when the college closed due to the conflict with Eritrea.

Students who did return to Borana, Harar and Wollega told of mass detention of Oromo students at the college. Only some were released because they ‘were not on the list’ of those accused of ‘passing information to the enemy’. Relatives of the detained students were themselves detained when attempting to visit them. Among the many so detained were Tadale Dabalee (from Borana), Waariyoo Guyyuu (Borana), Dhugaasaa Akkayu (Wollega) and Obbo Ramadaan (Harar).

Relatives are now afraid to investigate the detentions or visit detainees.

Reprisals against civilians in Borana, South Oromia

A report reached OSG from Borana on 5 March that over 98 Oromo in Hidi-Lola and Mega (50 km from Hidi-Lola) districts, in Borana province, were detained, beaten and tortured shortly after 25 January, following OLF military activity in the area. Government cadres called all people to a gathering at Tesso, about 10 km from Hidi-Lola. Once assembled, government soldiers rounded them up and started beating them. Many were injured and about 60 were initially detained for questioning, 30 elders remaining in detention. Similar arrests were made in Mega. More were taken from the Ethiopia-administered part of Moyale town. All of the 30 who remain in detention in Hidi-Lola have been severely tortured and beaten. One has disappeared.

A corroborative report received on 1 March, stated:

Among these men some are already nursing serious injuries inflicted on them by policemen, besides confiscating their belongings and threatening to bomb them all should they allow their land to [be used by] rebel militiamen.

South Africa – harassment and beating by Ethiopian government agents

The Oromo community in South Africa reported on 7 February that Oromo asylum seekers in South Africa, who have been campaigning against human rights abuses in Ethiopia, are being harassed, intimidated and beaten by a newly formed Ethiopian group, Hager Fiqir (Love of country), working from Johannesburg.

It was reported that, in January 1999, the Ethiopian ambassador to South Africa and the visiting deputy mayor of Addis Ababa opened the group’s office in the Bertram district of Johannesburg. Government ex-soldiers and security agents belonging to Hager Fiqir confront any organised or unorganised opposition to the Ethiopian government – the aim of the group, as outlined by the ambassador at the opening ceremony. Local criminals are hired to help. Presently the organisation is harassing Eritrean and Oromo exiles.

The ambassador is a member of the group and the embassy finances it.

On 26 January 1999, the day after an Oromo community celebration when government abuses against Oromo were discussed, Abebe Atomsa was taken from his home in Johannesburg by Ethiopian government forces accompanied by two local men. He was taken to the office of Hager Fiqir, where he was detained, bound and beaten. His keys were taken and his belongings, including 15,000 Rands, were removed from his hotel.

The Oromo community believe that the security and lives of prominent community members are at risk from the Hager Fiqir group. The report states that members are afraid to leave their rooms and go to work.

Among those known to be at risk are Isayas Bayyata, Lamessa Garoma, Tamam Lemi, Mr Bula, Wandimu Banti, Barsisa Gutama, Mr George, Abebe Atomsa, Zewada Yamane, Kemal Habib and Ali Mohammed.

Hager Fiqir groups were originally developed by Haile Selassie, and re-established by the communist military dictatorship in 1989. The present Ethiopian government is believed to have established other groups, including one in Nairobi.

Israel – Oromo refugees detained

A number of arrests of illegal immigrants, including Oromo, occurred on 9 February 1999 and was reported to OSG by an Oromo in exile in Israel. Further details are awaited. Already known to be at risk and unable, despite appeals, to obtain UNHCR mandate refugee status are Tadesse Eberu, Abdataa Homaa Bobe, Teka Mekonnen Mena, and Abebe Gesessee.

Kenya – Imam of Mosque killed by Ethiopian soldiers

On the evening of 15 January, after the OLF attacked two government garrisons over the Ethiopian border in Borana province, Ethiopian soldiers attacked Damballa Fachana, a village of Boran Oromo a few kilometres over the Kenyan border. Kenyan citizens and homeguards were injured in the manyatta and three were abducted.

The Kenyan Police Reserve is now reinforcing the border and there are reports of a military build-up on the Ethiopian side.

Ten days after the OLF attack, on 25 January, Oromo nationalist and religious leader, Haji Hassen Ali, the Imam of Jamia mosque in Moyale, Kenya, was shot dead at his home by Ethiopian gunmen, while the village of Somare, 3 km away, was attacked as a diversionary tactic. The attackers returned to Ethiopia after a shootout with Kenyan homeguards.

Sudan – Oromo pastor imprisoned

It was reported on 26 February that the pastor of the Oromo church in Khartoum, Pastor Gullumaa Beenyaa, had been abducted by Sudanese government security agents and had been handed over to the Ethiopian government. Three Oromo, Teferi Dhaba, Daniel Salamon, and Jabril Barii who were ex-members of Pastor Gullumaa’s church and now living in Ethiopia, have also been detained in Addis Ababa.

Members of the church are reported to ‘be in great fear’ in Khartoum.

Adagne GebreMariam Agena, in his mid-twenties, is from Gamogofa in the Southern Peoples Region and has campaigned against human rights abuses, especially against his Gedeo people. He was involved with the Gedeo People’s Democratic Organisation, whose participation in the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Coalition, in 1993, resulted in its expulsion from the transitional government.

Following this, he studied in Germany and returned to Ethiopia in late 1998.

Within a few months, he realised he was at risk of persecution in Ethiopia and he came to England on around 2 March 1999. He immediately applied for asylum on arrival at Heathrow airport.

He was detained at Harmondsworth Detention Centre at Heathrow, where he was seen briefly by the secretary of a Refugee Arrival Project solicitor.

Without anyone taking a detailed history, he was transferred to Haslar prison in Gosport, Hants, on 17 March. Friends have been unable to obtain a response to messages left with the Refugee Arrival Project.

Germany – refoulement of refugees

Refugees in Bavaria remain in hostile conditions (see Press Release 26, p. 12-13) and there are a growing number who have exhausted all appeal procedures against deportation. Documents from the Ethiopian embassy, legalising their deportation, have been signed under threat of imprisonment. Among those with realistic fears of imminent refoulement are Abdulsemet Ahmed Hasan, Getachew Tujuba Wayessa, Tolchaa Wegii Satto, Berhanu Shitaye and Getahun Tefera. Many others await decisions on second applications, having been refused asylum once.

Abdulsemet Ahmed Hasan has been in prison since resisting deportation in March 1998. Tesfaye Chibsa Regassa was imprisoned in May 1998 after resisting deportation. Following an altercation on the airplane, he was beaten and had bones in his hand broken. He was deported in September 1998. Paulos Teferraa Danuu was forcibly repatriated on 31 October 1997. Dr Demanalash Arada Bifa was deported on 13 March 1998. Asfaw Wadajo and Dr Zewudu Lechisa were forced to leave Germany, but are believed to have avoided deportation to Ethiopia, in early 1998.

Germany remains the only country known by OSG to have forcibly repatriated Oromo to Ethiopia in recent years, apart from Djibouti.

This refoulement from Germany is against German immigration law. It also contravenes Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the U.N. 1984 Convention Against Torture (Article 3), the 1966 U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 7) and the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to Status of Refugees.

Abbreviations

OLF - Oromo Liberation Front
OPDO - Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation (government party)
OSG - Oromia Support Group
TPLF - Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (dominant party in government).

The full version of OSG’s Press Release may be obtained, without charge, from OSG.
OSG aims to draw attention to human rights violations and lack of fundamental freedoms in Ethiopia and lobbies for the withdrawal of western support to the Ethiopian government.