1       Oromo Elders Targeted

Reports were received from Ethiopia in August, September and early October that Oromo elders were being rounded up, detained and their houses searched, throughout the regional state of Oromia, including Addis Ababa.

·      Mulugeta Terfessa Tufa, Dr Tassew Begashaw (see Central region, Imprisonment etc., below) and Obbo Hinsarmu (see Central region, Disappearances, below) were abducted in Addis Ababa, as part of this campaign.  

·      Haile Yesus Kenani, after 8 years of harassment by the current regime, was among those detained in Nekemte, Wollega. He and Fekadu Nagari were detained for fifteen days and released. Also in Nekemte, Ethiopian Red Cross chairman and Personnel Director of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, an insulin-dependent diabetic, Mossisa Duressa, is reported to have disappeared on 1 August, by Amnesty International. His family have been denied knowledge of his location and permission to supply his insulin.

·      Also in Nekemte, Mulugeta Asfaw, also a Mekane Yesus official who had been detained and tortured previously, Sirika Gamachu (ex-civil servant, hotel employee) and Abraham Likaasaa, have disappeared. At least in Nekemte, elders were detained after teenage children of suspected OLF sympathisers were gathered, detained and individually interrogated. Some report being threatened with pistols inserted into their mouths. They were told they would be kept in detention until they named contacts of their relatives or confirmed names of suspects from a list which was provided. All of Haile Yesus Kenani’s sons were threatened like this.

·      Obbo Daka and his family, were taken from their home in Ambo (W. Showa) and detained with ‘many others’. He and his family have been persecuted since the killing of Darara Kafani in September 1994.

·      Arrests have also occurred in Fiiche (N. Showa), Adama (Nazareth, E. Showa), Shashemane (S. Showa), Jimma and Agaro (Illubabor), Gimbi and Dembi Dollo (Wollega), Assela (Arsi) and Hagare Mariam, Moyale, Mega and Yabello (Borana).

2       Addis Ababa and Central Oromia Region

2.1        Killings

Alemante Melisew, was among the mourners of Professor Asrat Woldeyes at his burial ceremony in Addis Ababa on 26 May, when he was shot dead by a plain-clothed security officer. The officer, according to the Addis-based Ethiopian Human Rights Council 26th Special Report, was taken for interrogation to the central investigation department.

Soorsaa Gammoo, a farmer from Genale, Bale, died from torture wounds in Karchale prison, Addis Ababa, on 5 August, according to two independent sources in the capital. He was originally detained in Zeway, S. Showa, in 1995 and tortured. He was transferred to Karchale for medical treatment, but received none. Two of his sons are reported to have disappeared.

Nura Badhaso, a farmer from Ittaya, Arsi, retaliated when security men shot his dog and was himself shot dead, on 11 August, according to information passed via the USA. His horse, 9 cows and 19 goats were killed and 25 cattle confiscated.

2.2       Disappearance

·      Obbo Hinsarmu , a member of the Macha-Tulama Oromo self-help and cultural organisation, has been reliably reported to have been abducted from his house in Ayar Tena, Addis Ababa, on 14 August, since when he has disappeared. Others who were abducted in the same week have been reported to have been taken to Maikelawi (see below).

2.3       28 Oromo students transferred from Mekele to Karchale, 7 to Maikelawi

Two reliable sources in Addis Ababa have reported in July and August that 28 Oromo students at Mekele Business College in Tigray (earlier reports were of 15 – see Press Releases 27 and 28) were held and tortured in Mekele police headquarters and have now been taken to Karchale central prison in Addis.

Seven of the students, including Taddela (Tadale) Dabalaa, from Yabello, Borana, Ramadaan, from Chalanko, E. Hararge, and Dhugaasaa Akkayu, said to be from Wollega or from Ambo, Showa, were said by the government to have been released at the end of June. They have been transferred to Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre.

The students are accused of organising an OLF cell in Mekele. The relatives who disappeared on arriving in Mekele to find their offspring, remain unaccounted for.

2.4       Moti Biyya Severely Ill

At the end of 1998, or in January 1999, he was transferred from Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre in Addis Ababa to Asella, ostensibly to face charges relating to alleged activities in the Derg era. According to independent and separate reports from Ethiopia, he became ill at some time after March and the illness is life-threatening.

His books about the nature of oppression of the Oromo and other peoples by the Ethiopian empire state antagonised members of the previous and present ruling élites and it is believed by some that his illness may be due to poisoning by agents of either or both regimes.

International PEN has expressed grave concerns about his health and is campaigning for adequate medical care and for his transfer back to Addis, where he can be seen by his family.

2.5       65 Prisoners of Conscience: transfers to Maikelawi, disappearance

Among the 15 transferred from Karchale central prison to underground cells at Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre before May 1999 (see Press Release 28) are Gadissa Abarra, Ashenafi Biru, Ashenafi Duressa, Fatana Bayissa, Kadir Ismael, Nasir Ibrahim and Mohamed Abdurahman. They are reported to be handcuffed 24 hours per day, according to two independent reliable sources in Addis Ababa.

Three of the 65 Oromo intelligentsia charged with conspiracy were ordered to be freed on bond by the Federal Court in April/May. Dr Gizaw Erana and Sister Zewditu Dheressa were released but the defence lawyer complained to the court that the other defendant, Sahilu Hassan, has been made to disappear. His family came from Hararge to greet him on release but cannot trace him. He is rumoured to have been deliberately killed.

2.6        Imprisonment, Harassment and Torture

GHA., wrote on 19 July from Kenya of his persecution since supporting the OLF in 1992 and joining the electoral commission in Debre Birhan, N. Showa. As soon as the OLF left the transitional government, he was detained in Daraa military camp for over six months, where he was kept, often bound by all limbs in solitary confinement, and repeatedly beaten. He was detained for two months in 1993 in Asasa, Arsi province, and again detained in August 1995 in Duroo, Arsi. He was tied up, beaten, whipped, and threatened with shooting.

In August 1998, he was taken to Awash Arbaa military camp, where he was held until January 1999. He wrote ‘they put shackles on my arms and legs. For the first three months they used to come at night and tie my hands and legs together and then pass an iron bar between them and hang me . . . they used to whip the sole of my feet with sticks and squeeze my testicles. . . . I became unable to control my urine and they deliberately used to leave me in the mess. They also left me in a single small cell without anything to wear or sleep on for months. . . . During this period . . . the TPLF did not spare my relatives. They killed my father, my sister and brother. They repeatedly detained my wife who . . . was to deliver in detention.’

Witness AX233 wrote on 6 September of being hunted during and after the graduation ceremony at Addis Ababa University on 9 July, because he had edited the Oromo Graduates Bulletin. He had been detained in Teltelle, in Borana, for a month in 1996, for teaching the Oromo language. He wrote ‘During my stay in the university, the OPDO officials asked some of us to be their member and we refused. . . . they repeatedly harassed us and gave us warning. A freshman student should accept their request, otherwise he/she would not be given summer job and get employed after graduation.’ On graduation day, as soon as he left the graduation hall ‘the policemen began searching for the editors of Oromo Graduates Bulletin and I was one of them. I was told to escape soon and I started hiding, taking off my gown and left through the back yard gate. It was only for the reason that our bulletin contains articles on the need for liberation for the Oromo people.’

Witness AX234 wrote on 6 September of detention from 20.6.96 to 13.3.99 in Adama (Nazareth), E. Showa. In April and May, during a conscription drive for the war with Eritrea, all previous detainees suspected of supporting the OLF were asked to report to the security office in Adama. Most of those who reported to the security office were detained. He went into exile.

Witness AX236 businessman and 29 year old father of four, wrote of his family’s persecution. His father was detained shortly after the withdrawal of the OLF from government in 1992 and subsequently disappeared. He and his brother were taken to Shashemane barracks in S. Showa on 15 September 1996. They were tortured and held separately for ‘several days’. He was taken to nearby killing fields and there saw his uncle shot dead by government troops. He was released the following January, after signing the usual documents.

On 15 December 1998, security men came to his home to abduct him. He was not there. As an example of ‘hostage abduction’, reported many times in this Press Release, his wife was taken in his stead. She was severely beaten and raped, in their home, in front of their children. The property was looted before she and their children were detained.

Hayilu Meskele, 42 year old father of five, sacked from employment with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in Addis, and Tegenu Lamma, 32 year old farmer and father of two, were among 30 from Sululta, in the north-west outskirts of Addis Ababa, who were detained in May 1998 following the alleged attempted bombing of the satellite station there. They have not appeared before a court, but were paraded on television after arrest.

Both are reliably reported to have been tortured to such an extent in Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre in the capital, that their lives are at risk. Hayilu Meskele is unable to stand because of torture wounds to his feet. Tegenu Lamma has severe back wounds from whipping. The message received by OSG on 24 September expressed grave concern for their lives.

Solomon Demisse, a member of the former police force, was among mourners for Professor Asrat Woldeyes, founder and leader of the All Amhara Peoples Organisation (AAPO), in Addis Ababa on 25 May. He and about 25 others were taken by uniformed police from the procession as it passed the Sports Commission building, according to the 26^th Special Report of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, based in Addis Ababa.

They were taken to the former Federal Police Headquarters near Mexico Square, where those who admitted membership of the AAPO were released. The others, including Solomon, were kept overnight at the 4^th Police Station. Three were taken to Kolfe training camp the following day. They were forced to wear police trainee uniforms, to avoid discovery, and were systematically tortured. Solomon was held for eight days, beaten until he bled into his urine and forced to run and crawl on sharp stones. He was accused of supporting the OLF, because he spoke the Oromo language, and warned on release to avoid political activity or suffer ‘further measures’.

At the time of Solomon’s abduction, several in the crowd were beaten by police, one to unconsciousness. On 26 May, when Alimante Melisew was killed (see above), another of the gathered mourners, 17 year old Habtewold Alemenga, was shot in the throat by palace security officers.

Dr Taye Wolde Semayat, leader of the Ethiopian Teachers Association, was sentenced to 15 years hard labour on 10 June. Four co-defendants for the alleged terrorist offences were given 8-13 years. Assefa Maru, who acted as head of the ETA in Dr Taye’s absence, was cornered and shot dead by police when walking, unarmed, in Addis Ababa on 8 May 1997.

Dr Tassew Begashaw (named Xaasoo Gonfaa by one source), father of two, from Kebele 01, Woreda 25, Addis Ababa, was abducted from his work at Tarikuwa Clinic in Woreda 6 on 15 August. His house was then searched without warrant. Dr Tassew was initially said to have disappeared, but it was later reported that he was being held in Maikelawi Special Investigation Centre.

Mulugeta Terfessa Tufa, a broker for the Awash Insurance Co., living in Kebele 05, Woreda 13, was abducted from a street in the Mercato district of the capital on 19 August, according to two reliable sources in Addis Ababa. He had been detained in Adama, for three months in 1995, and had his leg broken when injured by government soldiers in 1992. Initially said to have disappeared, he is reported to be being held in Maikelawi. A man named Tadesse is said to be detained with him.

3       EASTERN OROMIA REGION

3.1       Killings

A.M.B., a health assistant, wrote of the ordeal of his family and himself in Dire Dawa, E. Hararge, in mid-1996. He had been released from his third detention in different military camps in December 1995. When working in Dire Dawa, he was told by telephone that two of his friends had been killed by government soldiers and that he was being looked for. He decided not to attend his young sister’s wedding celebration. He wrote that government security men ‘found there at my home the people who had gathered for the wedding ceremony of my younger sister. They searched the whole house and found nothing. Then they collected my sister’s fiancé, his friend and sister . . .

. . . [The fiancé’s] mother followed them . . . On the way they started questioning them of my whereabouts and what relation they have with me. They told them the reason why they were there. The security men started beating them . . . When my brother-in-law tried to protect himself, the security men shot him on his shoulder. He started running . . . they shot the second boy in the legs and ran after him firing . . . They followed the first boy [writer’s brother-in-law] to a room, and still his mother was after him, begging them not to kill him . . . The security men shot the boy with a second bullet while in the house and the boy lay down on the floor. His mother fell on him and begged them not to kill her son . . . While the mother was begging them, the security men shot her with four repeated bullets on her chest and killed the boy  with the last bullet.’

The mother survived after being taken to hospital. The writer’s property, including a clinic, and his parents’ shops, farm and cash crops were seized. His father and brother were abducted and detained.

Elias Abdulwase, father, store-holder and transport businessman in Qobo town, E. Hararge, was detained and tortured in 1992 (3 months) and from April 1995 to March 1996. After giving a lift to two men, who were later arrested, he was abducted in early August 1998. He was executed in public and his body displayed as a ‘warning to would be OLF supporters.’ 

Adem Feto, from Odaa Negelle village, Agarfa, Bale province, was reported by a friend who escaped the village that night, to have been shot dead by government security men on 24 October 1998.

3.2       Imprisonment, rape and torture

Mohammed K.D., 45 year old father of 12, a farmer from Agarfa, Bale, was first detained in 1992, for four months in Agarfa military camp. ‘I was tortured cruelly ’ he wrote ‘I also witnessed the killing of fellow detainees.’ On 5 February 1997, a day after fighting between government troops and the OLF near his village, ‘The EPRDF security personnel came to my home at night, at 3.00 am, broke the door and beat all my family including me.’ He was taken to Goba military camp. ‘I was detained in a separate and dark room for one year and three months . . . [and] once more brutally interrogated. . . . They put a muzzle of gun into my mouth and pointed a gun at my forehead. The EPRDF security personnel tied one litre of water on my sexual organ repeatedly for several days.’

He was transferred to Genale police station in Goba and released two months later after signing that he would be targeted for reprisal for any OLF activity. When men came to arrest him again in October, he fled.

A 41-year-old housewife and businesswoman wrote about her distressing experiences in West Hararge. Her name and details have been omitted at her request. She and her family were subject to repeated interrogation and arrest after the withdrawal of the OLF from government in 1992. She spent three periods in detention, the last, in 1998, with her daughter, a student. Her husband was taken elsewhere, tortured severely and has disappeared. During her last detention in an army camp, both she and her daughter were repeatedly raped by their TPLF captors. She is partially deaf because of beatings and she is psychologically disturbed. She and her daughter were forced to sign a document on their release that ‘measures of killing will be taken on us if anything happens in that area by the OLF.’

M.O.A., a 26-year-old driver from Dire Dawa, E. Hararge, wrote on 31 May of his three periods of detention. In 1993, he was detained with his father and three brothers and tortured in Dire Dawa ‘Air Force military base’, where he remained for one year. His father and one brother died under torture. Another brother had a paralysed hand following the arm-tying torture, and the third remains mentally ill. The writer was again detained in 1995 and kept for two years at Errar central military camp, where he was again tortured. He was at liberty in January 1997 but again detained in July 1998, at Kotten military camp. Here he was kept in an underground room and received many of the torture techniques practised in Eastern Oromia (arm tying, suspension, gagging, sole beating, immersion, burns and suspension of a water container from his genitalia). He escaped during transfer to Zeway, nine months later.

B.A.A., a 32-year-old housewife and businesswoman from a small town near Harar, E. Hararge, and her husband were detained in Qobo military camp in July 1992, as soon as the OLF left the government. During her one month detention ‘They threw me in a small dark crowded room’, she wrote. She was ‘beaten with sticks, gun butts, kicked, slapped  and sexually assaulted by undressing me naked amid their soldiers and gang-raped to force me to reveal to them the whereabouts of many people who had disappeared from the town.’

Following the appearance of OLF fighters in the area, she and her husband were taken to Dadar camp after being seized by TPLF soldiers at 10 pm, 16 April 1995, and having their house ransacked. Again she was tortured and gang-raped, all the time being asked to confess to supporting the OLF and supplying them with arms. Among the standard tortures, she was made to run and stand for long periods, carrying heavy materials and stones, a method reported less frequently than most. She was released in June 1995, signing documents binding her to report to a security office every week, etc. During her detention, her father and two of her brothers were abducted and disappeared.

One evening shortly after 2 August 1998, ‘the TPLF soldiers surrounded my house and ordered me to open. Though I obliged, they set on my children and me the moment their boots were in my house. Knocking me to the ground and tying my arms behind and terrorising the children, they searched every inch of the house for hours. They beat me mercilessly to force me to tell them where the guns they claimed we had bought were kept.’ They took all valuables from the house and detained her in Darru military camp, where she was beaten, immersed in foul water, taken to a hillside killing field and terrorised with gunshots, suspended from a cliff and ‘for more than three times they gang-raped me with more than six people till I fainted.’

She was left at a roadside, seriously ill, on 20 December 1998. ‘I found that the house was occupied by some Tigrean soldiers’ families. Neighbours and friends told me that all our properties were looted by the soldiers as it was seen to be the property of the OLF. My children were scattered as there was no-one to take care of them.’ Her husband and his brother were killed during her detention and recuperation.

H.B.H., a 20 year old from Qobo, nearby, had a similar experience. She wrote of her father’s disappearance, her brother’s murder and her own detention, rape and torture. Her father was a prominent local businessman. He was detained and tortured and she was detained, tortured and raped in unofficial detention centres, including the premises belonging to Seyfu Mume. He is now detained and his premises used only for the detention and torture of suspected OLF supporters, she says. Her father disappeared after his last abduction, during the night of 10 June 1998.

Four days later, her brother was detained in Seyfe Mume’s home and killed in detention. His body was thrown in the bush and the family were denied permission to find and bury the body. The day after he was detained, the family home and business premises were confiscated. Harassment continued for the rest of the family and the writer was detained on 1 August. She was beaten, including her genitalia, and tortured by tying, suspension and immersion. ‘While in prison,’ she wrote, ‘one night, five EPRDF security men came and picked me [from among 16 cell mates] . . . and went with me to a private room away from the rest of the prisoners and in turn raped me, one after the other until I fainted. . . . Until that night I had been a virgin.’ She escaped prison when it was attacked by the OLF in late November 1998.

A.K., a father of 12 from Dire Dawa, wrote of his persecution because he ran a shop which sold Oromo video and audio tapes and newspapers. He was detained for nine months and tortured, shortly after the OLF left the transitional government. He wrote ‘Again in 1995, due to my distributing one of Oromo singers . . . named Nuhu Gobana which has on all albums OLF flag and initiates Oromos. I was arrested after a car full of TPLF surrounded my video shop. I was taken to Kotten detention centre where I was electrically wired . . . immersed in cold water and flogged on rough ground. . . . I was taken to . . . the bush where I was forced to dig a deep ditch of mass graves. They bought someone begging them in Oromo language not to kill him and shot him dead, then dumped his body in the ditch.’

Many former detainees in this area refer to these killing fields. He was released after three months, on conditions which again are familiar. ‘I was released signing on my life that I would  not tell about what I had faced in detention and not to move out of the town. I was ordered to report at the military force office on a weekly basis.’

‘When I was released, all my properties were confiscated, my shop was closed and I needed medical care,’ again familiar reading.

In July 1999, he was again sought by security forces. Pro-OLF leaflets had been distributed in the town. When security forces failed to find him at home, they abducted his wife. She was released after ‘signing on life to be killed if not bring me within four days.’

M.A.A.Q., a 20 year old student from Gasera, Bale province, was detained in Goba military camp from 1996 to May 1999. He was secretary to the Oromo students organisation and was abducted on his way to a meeting. He was interrogated about his father (a suspected OLF supporter) and about the activities of the organisation. He was accused of fund raising for the OLF. During his detention he received a gunshot wound. His father has been detained since 1994. All his father’s property has been confiscated and his brothers dispersed. He wrote from Kenya, where he lives in fear, camping on a veranda.

A.A.I., a 27 year old businessman from Kombolcha, E. Hararge, wrote from Kenya. His father was killed because of supporting the OLF. He and his two brothers were detained in November 1995, because his wedding had been in traditional Oromo dress. They were tortured in a military camp near to Kombolcha, with standard methods, and taken to nearby killing fields where they witnessed a detainee being murdered. He was released with the usual signing procedure on 23 March 1996, understanding that ‘harsh measures’ would be taken against him if he supported the OLF.

He was abducted again in June 1997, by plain clothed security men. They killed four Oromo civilians in the neighbourhood that night and he believes that only the noisy crowd support aroused by his abduction saved him from being killed too. He was tortured with electric shocks until unconscious. The intensity of this increased after one of his brothers escaped in October 1997. He was released in March 1998, signing that his life would be forfeit if he did not produce his escaped brother or if there was local activity by the OLF.

Late in 1998, his wife was arrested when was not at home. She was eight months pregnant. She was raped in captivity. He presented himself at the police station, to exchange places with his wife on 2 January. She delivered a still born child at the hospital.

After exposure to the killing fields, he was transferred to another centre. He and fellow detainees believed they were going to be killed when security men came for them at night after they had been threatened for helping another, wounded, detainee to have a drink. Diversion with a gunfight enabled him to escape.

Witness AN322., from Bedessa, E. Hararge, wrote of similar torture experiences during his detentions; in Sebhale military camp from August 1996 to December 1997 and from May 1998 until his escape in November, again from a vehicle taking him for execution, during a gunfight. Despite all this, he has been denied refugee status in Kenya.

Witness AX073., an elderly man from Dodola, Western Bale, wrote of repeated detention and torture, especially at Malka Wakana military camp, notorious among previous detainees for torture and execution. He signed to agree that he would not meet with two or more people after his final release in 1998. His property was confiscated, his house destroyed and his children dispersed.

Witness AX076., a 28 year old father of four from Baroda in Western Oromia, wrote about his family’s refugee life in Somalia in the 1980s and of his detention in 1992 in Qobo, from where he was transferred  after two weeks to Dadar, E. Hararge. He was tortured, including gagging with foul material, immersion in cold water and beating and whipping of the soles of his feet. He was released two years later but abducted again in April 1995 and tortured in Obbi military camp, where among standard torture techniques, he had his toe nails removed with pliers. Over two years later, in July 1997, he was released. There was fighting near his house in December 1998 and government forces took him and his wife to Haddas military camp, where she was raped in front of him. He was subject to suspension of a weight from his genitalia and threats at killing fields among other standard procedures. He escaped when taken to his home, where his captors were to search for weapons. As he ran off, a grenade was thrown, which killed one of his children. He was later told that his family had all disappeared or been detained because of his escape.

AX156., a 43 year old from western Bale, was first detained and tortured, in Agarfa military camp, for 20 days after his abduction at night from his home on 13 December 1996. He was then transferred to Genale prison, Goba, where he remained until his transfer to Karchale central prison in Addis Ababa on 1 April 1997. He was released on condition of not returning to his home area and appearing for questioning three times per week, on 6 August 1997. House, possessions and farm plots were confiscated. Since fleeing the country he has been informed that his wife has died in detention following torture.

4       WESTERN OROMIA REGION

4.1       Imprisonment, Torture etc.

Tayib U.N., a 28 year old trader and driver between Dimtu and Jimma, Illubabor province, wrote of his being detained with his father for over two months in Jimma in 1992/3. When on the road in 1995, delivering grain, he and his brother, Jundi Hussein, were abducted by government soldiers and detained for three months. They were released ‘with a warning’ after paying 10,000 Birr. In 1998, Jundi was abducted from the family home by government soldiers, while Tayib was away on business. Jundi was taken to Gathira, where he was killed.

Daniel Dandana Gurmu, from Gudar, Wollega, has been in detention without trial since 1994, according to a relative in Europe. His father, Dandana Gurmu, a 70 year old diabetic, was detained in 1995 (see Ethiopia: Accountability past and present, Amnesty International, London, 1995).

A.K.S., a former OLF cadre in Suphee and Soode districts in Illubabor, wrote of his torture during detention in Netu, in the Derg ‘political department office’ from 1992 to 1993. With four other Oromo he was tortured during detention again, from December 1995 to March 1996. He was released after paying 1000 Birr and had to report to security men every day. Two of his cell mates escaped to Sudan. The other was killed.

Mohamed J.A., a 34 year old from Jimma, worked as a driver for the OLF before it left the transitional government in 1992. He was first detained in Dembi Dollo, Wollega, in August 1992, where he was beaten unconscious during 12 days of torture, including tying and suspension, removal of toe nails, burning with hot irons and being forced to walk on his knees on sharp stones. He was transferred to Dhidhessa detention camp until May 1994. TPLF soldiers abducted him again in Bambis town, near Asosa, on 12 August 1995. He was again suspected of transferring goods for OLF fighters in the truck he was driving. After nearly a year of torture, when he sustained a fractured skull and left arm, ‘They released me by forcing me to sign conditions. The failure to observe any one of them would result in death penalty.’

He went to Addis Ababa and lived in and out of hiding until 1998, when he got another driving job. When working in the Mana Sibu area of Wollega in April 1998, he was abducted to Qiltu Karra military camp where he was interrogated, beaten and detained for one month. In November 1998, he was detained in the 4^th Police Station in Addis Ababa and again interrogated – during which electric shocks were applied to his head. After five months of beating and torture he was dumped, in a weakened state, at a garbage disposal site.

The firm for which he drove, Alemayehu Ketema General Contractors, was closed down and all its employees detained. In June 1999, security men came to abduct him from where he was staying. Not finding him there, they detained two of his friends. This ‘hostage abduction’ is commonly reported (see Eastern Oromia, Imprisonment etc., above).

5       SOUTHERN OROMIA REGION

5.1       Imprisonment, Torture etc.

A.H.G., from Dalo Mana, a student at Negele Senior Secondary school in Borana, wrote of the detention in 1995 of officials of the school Oromo Culture and Language Development Association, Ahmed Adem Dire, Guyo Liban, Elema Huka, Barite Godana and Gamada Oddo. There whereabouts are unknown. Two ordinary members of the association, Liban Debesa and Tahir Hassan Sora, are reported to have been killed in Zeway prison.

In June, three replacement officials in the association, which by then was working secretly, including the writer, Dawit Oddo and Boru Dhera, were detained in Airmarafia military camp, 15 km from Negele. They were tortured with gagging with foul material, suspension of weights from their genitalia and severe beating and kicking, every three days for two months. He was hospitalised and released, after signing a document with the usual conditions:

·        Not to be found where people are gathered – weddings, funerals, hotels

·        Not to attend meetings with students

·        Not to leave Negele

·        To forfeit his life if there is any OLF activity nearby

In May 1999, Dawit Oddo and Boru Dhera were again abducted and security men came to the writer’s home, but he was not there. His father and mother were detained in his absence – another example of ‘hostage abduction’.

J.G., a 33 year old businessman from Abomsa, Arsi, wrote of his detention in Jaju military camp for 17 months from 1992, and his daily torture. ‘They murdered my father while I was in detention’, he wrote, ‘they nationalised his house and properties’.

He went to Moyale to stay with his aunt. In 1995, he was again detained but obtained release with her help. In February 1999, he was abducted in Addis Ababa, where he was attending a meeting of the Macha-Tulama (Oromo self-help and cultural) Association, and taken back to Abomsa. He remained in the district police station for 45 days until escaping. His aunt was then detained in Moyale. ‘They want information from her of my whereabouts.’

Within the last three months, an OSG correspondent interviewed victims of the abuses recorded in the following four paragraphs:

Bule Kulu, a businessman from Moyale, Borana, spent a total of 27 months in detention, in four periods from 1992 to 1997, since when he escaped to the bush and has not been in touch with his family. Early this year, after local military activity of the OLF, family members were detained. His mother, Diko Kulu (aged 75), brothers Abagaro, Saraphicha and Godana Kulu and his 18 year old son, Dida Bule Kulu, were beaten and interrogated about Bule Kulu’s whereabouts, of which they knew nothing. Elderly relatives (50-70 years old) were also detained, including Molu Todhicha Duba, Abdulahi Wago Jaldesa, Guyo Jillo Jirma and Amicha Wariyo Roba.

B.T., was detained for 15 days in June 1994 and three weeks in September 1995, during which he was kept in the jungle for four days without food or water and threatened with a machine gun. On 21 September 1998, his property was confiscated and money stolen. Following OLF activity near Hidi Lola, he was again detained on 9 June 1999.

A.N., applied to college in Borana after obtaining her school leaving certificate but was told she would not be accepted or get a job afterwards because she was Oromo and therefore an OLF supporter. She was detained and spent 7 months in prison, during which time she was raped by the prison director. Her brothers have spent two years in detention. She escaped in April 1999.

B.W.D., a 24 year old businessman and father of one from Hidi Lola, Borana, told the correspondent of his being abducted at 9 pm, one evening in June 1996 and beaten by four government soldiers overnight. He was transferred to Mega police station after four days, tortured and held there for another 45 days before being released. In June 1998 he was detained initially in ‘147’ military camp (on the Kenyan border near Moyale, a notorious torture centre) where he was beaten to unconsciousness, threatened at killing fields and made to witness three executions (the first report of this from Borana province), suspended upside down for long periods and tortured with heavy weights suspended from his genitals. He signed the usual warnings on release one month later, from Mega police station.

B.D.G., also from Hidi Lola, wrote his own account of harassment and torture. He was a civil servant working in a state development project. When the OLF left the transitional government, many of his colleagues were detained, demoted, sacked or killed. He was not detained until June 1996, when he was tortured (since when he has been incontinent of urine) for ten days in Yabello police station. He wrote, ‘all night they took prisoners one by one and disappeared them. We were anxious, waiting for our turn.’ He was released after 45 days.

‘I had verbal threats several times from TPLF political cadres, security agents planted inside our office and from people in high positions to change my political ideas and co-operate with the government. . . . finally they terminated me from my job in 1997. In August 1997 I was arrested in Mega, to my utter disbelief. I never knowingly committed any crime, except my reservation to join the TPLF-led government and contribute something to the suffering of my people. In Mega police station, I was beaten, tortured and harassed for two months.’ He was finally released with the usual warnings.

F.H.A., is a 22 year old who had built up a business and owned a car since moving to Negele, Borana in 1993 at the age of 16. He had moved from Ginir, Bale, as he was suspected of supporting the OLF there. During the night of 26 February 1996, he was taken from his home to 43 Military Camp, where he was tortured with heavy weights on his genitalia. Because he had no information to give, his torturers ‘went back to my home and started beating my wife . . . they looted all my belongings and car.’

After being tortured with shooting over his head in nearby killing fields, and electric shocks, on 10 December 1996, he was transferred with 76 others to Goba military camp, Bale. The torture continued until the camp was visited by International Committee of Red Cross officials in February 1997. He was released in October 1998. He was told by his family that they had suffered because of him. His father was abducted in January 1997 and had disappeared.

He went back to Negele, asked for his property to be returned and fled when warned that security men were once more asking for him at his house.

In Press Release 28 (p. 9), the potential disappearance of ten detainees in Moyale military camp was reported after they had been taken out of the camp within the last four months. A reliable source has named eight of those ten men:

Jilo Qoncaro      

Ware Hasano                                                

Bonaya Boru     

Ahimad Abdala                                                           

Hussein Haji Hajole (not named in P.R. 28)

Aman Ahimed Daadi

Jamil Aliyi Dida (not named in P.R. 28)

Aba Garo Alako (not named in P.R. 28)

One of the sources naming detainees in Borana province in Press Releases 27 and 28, has sent the following supplementary information. Detained in Dire district, Mega, 1998/9:

Chaltu (‘Qaliti’) Malicha (at Bokkuluboma military camp)

Qure (‘Guto’) Malicha (at Bokkuluboma military camp)

Dida Jaldessa Adi (at Bokkuluboma military camp)

Molu Arero Huqo

Gufu Kacha

Bonaya Ali Boka

Qalicha Boru

Mio Jillo Dima

Molu Guyo

Gedo Adi

Gufu Dhike

Dima Roba

Dima Banti

Dala Wariyo Galgalo

Abbagaro Waria Galgalo

Ajoftu Wariyo Galgalo

Dida Arero Liban (5.6 – 23.10.98)

Gedo Jarso (5.6 – 23.10.98)

Kanu Birhanu Mamo (5.6 – 23.10.98)

Gurracha Qalicha

Bidu Galgalo Waqo (hotel shut down)

Galma Jarso (property confiscated)

Waqo Rob

The same report  includes names of 39 victims of fines, lootings, dismissals from posts and denial of education in Yabello district, in 1997/8. Thirteen were fined a total of 42,500 Birr, four had their properties and/or animals confiscated, five students were denied access to school and local judge, Danbala Galgalo, was sacked as well as having his property taken. Two senior teachers paid the heaviest fines.

Of more than 75 detained in Mega district in 1995/6, the report names 38 (OSG had names of 7 previously). Thirteen were fined a total of 52,500 Birr, one policeman was sacked, three had all their property taken and three lost cattle or goats. In addition to the death of Doyene Tadessa from torture injuries, Molu Gufu is reported also to have died because of injuries under torture.

In Yabello, 1992-5, the shooting dead of Galma Dida and Boru Chala and the serious wounding of Dida Waqo Borora by government soldiers have not been recorded previously by OSG. The detention of over 450 in the area has been reported before.

The number detained in Dire district, Mega, in 1992-4, is now known to be over 170 (99 previously reported). Not recorded previously are the deaths from torture injuries of Tarka Nagara and Jarso Wariyo Chana or the shooting to death of Abduba Naqata, by TPLF soldiers at Dubuluqi Qabale.

6       Somali Region – Ogaden

6.1       Ogaden Human Rights Committee report, Ogaden: Graveyard of rights

This year’s report, Ogaden: a graveyard of rights, by OHRC, based in Godey, Ogadenia (Somali region), was released by the organisation’s international co-ordinator in Porrentruy, Switzerland, on 23 August. As stated in the detailed report ‘[f]or the last four years, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee has carried out extensive investigation of the human rights situation throughout the Ogaden and has documented gross violations including illegal imprisonments, mass arrests without charge or trial, enforced disappearances, torture, rape, child molestation, extra-judicial killings, abduction, forced labour, hostage-taking, systematic religious and racial persecution, dispossession and widespread looting by Ethiopian government army and security forces.’

The abuses, which have been verified by OHRC since their last report, are summarised below. Abuses documented in the organisation’s three previous yearly reports are recorded in OSG Press Releases of Oct/Nov 1996, March/April 1997 and March/May 1998 (No. 22).

The style and pattern of killings, torture, rape, abduction, confiscation and detention in the Ogaden are very similar to those in Oromia and elsewhere in Ethiopia. ‘Ethiopian authorities held thousands of Somali Ogadenis in overcrowded and filthy military detention camps . . . including women, elderly people and minors, accused of membership of the ONLF . . . for years or many months without charge or trial ’ the report states, ‘detainees are . . . tortured and beaten routinely . . . to extract confessions and information about the ONLF.’

Referring to the forced conscription for the war with Eritrea, ‘Ogadeni teenagers are being used as cannon fodder and minesweepers . . .[having] neither military training nor adequate arms to defend themselves.’

6.2       Killings

Sixteen ‘defenceless nomads’ were shot in a revenge attack after Ethiopian soldiers had engaged ONLF fighters, in December 1998, in the Nogob region. The victims, including 5 children and 6 women (7 victims from one family), were shot with automatic weapons at close range.

Mukhtar Ali, from Dhagaxbuur, was executed to avenge the death of two EPRDF officers killed by the ONLF, in 1997. He was ‘crippled’ by torture before the public execution and denied burial for two days. The execution was justified by the commanding officer because Mukhtar had a beard, like the killers of the EPRDF officers.

A young nomad, watering his camels in the Bulaale area, was killed on 4 August 1997. His throat was cut and his body displayed after nearby fighting between government forces and the ONLF.

Halimo Hassan and her brother, Abdi Hassan, were also killed in 1997. He was an ONLF fighter who had been wounded and captured. He was transferred to Qabridaharre and executed in public, in front of his sister. When she displayed her grief, she was ‘shot dead on the spot’.

Mohamed Abdi, a civilian, was arrested in February 1998, in Bulaale. He was tortured and finally strangled to death with a rope.

Yusuf Hirsi Olow was arrested in Djibouti in September 1996 and handed over to Ethiopia. He was tortured daily and denied medical treatment. He died from torture injuries in April 1998.

Five bodies were found in a pit in Kebele 03, Jigjiga, in September 1998, by workers digging latrines. Three officials for the Kebele were briefly questioned after the remains were transferred to Addis Ababa, but no action has been taken. The bodies are thought to be those of victims of disappearance.

Mohamed Ahmed, from Higlaley, Dhagaxbuur region, was taken away by government soldiers at gunpoint on 20 November 1998. Two days later his beheaded and tortured body was publicly displayed ‘to spread terror among the civilian population’.

Ali Dahir Ibrahim, a civilian from Bukudhabo, Awaare district, was abducted from his house by soldiers on 26 November 1998. He had been detained several times before. One week later, his body was found in a pit by a military camp.

Deeq Abdi Rasin and Timojilic, ONLF delegates attending secret peace talks which foundered on 28 December 1998, were on their way home when ambushed by government troops. Both were killed. Sheikh Bashir Abdi Ibrahim was captured and later disappeared (see below).

Saharla’ Ali, an elderly lady from Dhagaxbuur, is reported to have been raped and killed by EPRDF soldiers in March 1999.

Abdi Ibrahim Abdisamad and Ibrahim Awil, two nomads from the Bulaale area, were abducted to military barracks on 12 April 1999, tortured and executed by firing squad.

Ruqiya Mahdi, from Fooljeex, and Sureer S. Mohamed, from Qabridaharre, were also listed in the report as being killed after extensive torture.

6.3       Disappearances

Abdirahman Isse, businessman and head of a large family, was detained in Dire Dawa in 1996 and transferred to prison in Addis Ababa. His subsequent disappearance has not been reported previously by OSG.

Mohamed Nur Farah and his two sons were taken from their home at gun-point by Ethiopian security men and held initially at Awaare barracks. Since then, their whereabouts are unknown.

Aden Abdullahil was abducted when his vehicle was commandeered by Ethiopian soldiers this year. Another driver who refused was ‘gunned down’. Aden Abdullahil was forced at gun-point to drive the soldiers to Somalia, and his family have neither seen nor heard of him since then.

Sheikh Bashir Abdi Ibrahim was abducted at the end of December 1998 when he was part of a delegation from the ONLF holding peace talks in Addis Ababa. Two others in the party were killed (see above). He was taken to Qabridaharre barracks, held in solitary confinement and tortured heavily. He disappeared after being transferred to a secret detention centre in Harar.

Three Oromo were abducted by agents of Ethiopia from Mogadishu, Somalia, in February 1999. At least two of them, Abdulkadir Sheikh Ali and Ismail Ezadin, were detained by Ethiopian forces in Godey barracks, ‘subjected to extensive torture’ and subsequently disappeared.

Seventy four other individuals who were detained between October 1998 and May 1999 are named in the report as being disappeared. Their families do not know of their whereabouts.

Victims of disappearance in 1994 who are believed to be being held in secret detention centres in Harar, according to OHRC sources, are Haji Ahmednur Sh. Mumin (Imam of Dhagaxbuur mosque), Abdullahi Abdi Taflow (ONLF central committee member), Deeq Yusuf Kariye (journalist), Bashir Abdi Adan, Ahmed Mohamed (businessman), Mohamed Ganey (businessman), Ali Adan Osman and Siyad Deyl.

6.4        Imprisonment

Detention is commonly used to coerce family members to give themselves up, as in Oromia Region. Also, detainees are often released after paying ‘fines’, as in Oromia Region.

The three high-ranking ONLF officials, Ahmed Mohamed, Abdullahi Qaji and Abdullahi Haliye, who have been detained since July 1996, were transferred to a military camp in Harar in 1997, after Dire Dawa High Court had ordered their release because of lack of evidence. They were acquitted by Addis Ababa High Court in January 1998. Despite the court ordering their release they were transferred to Dire Dawa prison, where they remain. Similarly, officers of the Ogaden Welfare Society (including chairman Dr Mohamed Abdi-Gani and treasurer Mubarak Aidid Odawa), and three ex-governors in the region (including Bashir Sheikh Abdi who is elderly and infirm) are still in detention. Previously unreported by OSG is the detention in October 1997 of 14 members of the Regional Parliament, including MPs for the districts of Fiiq (Mahdi Ayub Guled, former vice-president of Regional Assembly), Shiniile (Mohamed Adan Bile, assembly secretary), Dhagaxbuur (Abdirahman Abdi), Afdheer (Mohamed Abdi) and Liiban (Abdi Omar).

In December 1998, detainees at Jigjiga prison staged a five day peaceful protest against being held after sentences were expired, being held without charge, lack of medical care and no regular family visits. The protestors were beaten, especially the alleged leaders, and their injuries remain unattended.

The report names 17 from Qoriile, detained in a military camp since October 1998 (all had property looted), 5 from Wardheer (November 1998, all tortured), 6 from Dhanaan (December 1998, 24 sheep and 20 camels looted), 4 from Yucub (December 1998, tortured), 4 from Gunagado (tortured), 6 from Yoocaale (in a military camp, property looted), 2 from Barguun (tortured, looted), 2 from Qabridaharre (tortured), a businessman from Dire Dawa (vehicle, cash and bank account taken), 3 from Dhagaxbuur (tortured) and a thirteen year old, Mohamed Hirsi, sentenced to 17 months in Jigjiga for ‘sympathising with the ONLF’.

6.5       Torture

Torture is used routinely on detainees for gathering information about the ONLF. The methods vary little from those used in Oromia Region. The report specifically mentions beatings on the soles of the feet and testicles, suspension upside down, death threats with guns pointed at the head, and the usual beating with heavy instruments. Methods not commonly reported from Oromia Region include forced exposure to the sun with arms and legs tied behind the back, burying alive and being forced to drink salty water and urine.

Twenty nine victims of torture since October 1998 were named in the report. A further 54 in need of treatment for torture injuries received during detention were named.

6.6        Rape

Rape of detainees is commonplace and many of the 36 women detainees named in the report, including 24 active members of the Ogaden Women’s Democratic Association, are known to have been raped in detention. The report also states that women are being kept against their will in army barracks as sex slaves. The following specific cases of rape are reported.

W.M. Ali, a young girl from Gasaangas village, Fiiq district, was gang-raped by government soldiers on 23 September 1996, who beat her unconscious when she resisted. She had severe scarring from injuries to her face, arms and legs, when interviewed two and a half years later.

The wife of Addani, from Toonceeley, aborted her 7 month pregnancy after being gang-raped in front of her husband in May 1997.

Two young girls, Ebla Ali and Udbi Barkhadle, from Malayko, were collecting firewood when beaten and raped by government soldiers on 20 July 1997.

Seven girls from Qoriile were detained in 1997, under the pretext of sympathising with the ONLF and are reported to have been tortured as well as raped.

Fadumo Yusuf, from Caado, was abducted and raped by a TPLF officer in November 1997. After she escaped from his barracks, her 60 year old mother was detained in her stead.

6.7        Looting, conscription and discrimination

Many instances of confiscation of farms, numerous cattle and other animals, cars and other private property are reported. Particularly destructive during the last years of drought, government soldiers have been commandeering wells and denying their use by animal herders, including the owners. Impoverished farmers cannot afford the taxes levied for the war. Four men in Yucub were detained for not contributing money or livestock for the war effort, in December 1998.

The report is very critical of youngsters being used as ‘cannon fodder and minesweepers’ in the war with Eritrea. Teenagers are being told that they have been awarded ‘scholarships’ abroad, before being sent unprepared to the battle front. Hundreds have been rounded up while tending animals, working on farms or going to the few schools.

All jobs in health care, education or the civil service have been taken from Ogadenis, however well qualified, and given to Tigreans or government supporters. Students staged a peaceful demonstration in Jigjiga, in August, against discriminatory scholarship awards to university. Over 20 arrests took place, many were beaten and injured, and troops fired over the crowd. Injured detainees were denied medical attention.

7       Kenya

7.1        Bishop of Marsabit complains of atrocities against Oromo in North Horr

In June, Roman Catholic Bishop Ravasi, of Marsabit, informed the BBC office in Nairobi of atrocities in North Horr District, committed by Kenyan armed forces. Father Antony Mahl, from the Catholic Mission in North Horr, had sent a report of the atrocities to Bishop Ravasi on 29 May.

Father Mahl gave a detailed account of the beating and torture of Oromo residents in Balessa by Kenyan soldiers on 22 May, and an attack by the same soldiers on non-combatant OLF fighters camped at El Hadi on the following day (see Sagalee Haaraa 29, p.1, for details).

About 75 Kenyan army and police arrived at Balessa in the morning of 22 May and, without asking to speak to the chief or councillor, they closed the road and forced about 70 residents together, leaving their animals unattended. They immediately began beating people, asking where OLF weapons were hidden and where the fighters were. Houses were ransacked and three men, Godana Guyo Machala, Barako Adi Adano and Shamo (Bati) Umuro Lugama, were arrested for possession of guns and ammunition without permit, and taken away.

Diba Dida Godano Adano received head injuries resulting in deafness and a dislocated jaw. Sora Adhi Guro was severely beaten and sustained injuries by stones to his testicles, back, thigh and leg injuries, a thorn driven under the nail on his right fourth finger and ‘dislocation’ of his left hand.

Guyo Adhi Adano, Dokata Mamo Elema, Garse Elema Mamo and Adano Bodicha Mocho also received wounds in beatings with sticks. 22 others received treatment at the dispensary and a total of 38 were treated by a Ministry of Health doctor sent later to the village.

Clothes and money were stolen and at least two cattle killed when unattended and at least 15 went missing.

7.2        Refugees in fear in Kakuma and Nairobi

In August, Kenyan police uncovered a detailed plot by the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi to assassinate high profile Oromo refugees and professionals in the city and to harass, assault and abduct others. It is alleged that documentary evidence of the scheme, produced by the embassy, was seized. Professionals who are not supporters of the OLF were among the assassination targets.

Infiltrators have been installed in refugee communities, non-governmental organisations and the Kenyan security and police system over the last two years. The Hagere Fikir group, the rejuvenated Ethiopian nationalist organisation of the Haile Selassie and Dergue eras, is funded by cultural events organised by the embassy and attended by Ethiopian community members.

At least five Hagere Fikir agents are posing as Oromo refugees, under assumed Oromo names, in Nairobi. All have UNHCR mandate status. Some are with their families and living within tight refugee communities. They are Negassi Germa Markos (Case No. 6133), Tasen Keneni Jima (6585), Lemlem Tsegai Haile (7296), Abdu Rahmato (7092) and Jamal Rahmato Kerta (7080).

A Community Social Worker at UNHCR, Tsehaye Jakob, a Tigrean, is believed by refugees in Nairobi to be a spy from the embassy. He has access to the files of all Oromo refugees in Kenya. In letters to OSG, torture victims have named him as being responsible for their being ordered to Kakuma camp, before being treated adequately. B.A.A., a 32 year old widow from Baroda, who was repeatedly gang-raped and tortured (see East, Imprisonment etc., p. 7) was strongly recommended for psychological treatment in Nairobi, but ordered by Jakob to Kakuma at the end of June.

Increasingly large numbers of Oromo refugees are arriving in Nairobi. The majority who write to OSG give credible histories of detention and torture by the Ethiopian government (see Refugees facing insecurity in Nairobi, below). Often, they are deeply psychologically scarred and physically damaged. OSG was about to include the disappearance of K.J.S., a 28 year old from Haromaya, E. Hararge, when informed of his discovery in Nairobi ‘on bad health condition and mentally abnormal due to mistreatment and torment by EPRDF in detention.’ Up to 200 refugees are reported to be arriving daily, according to the Ethiopian press. Tobia newspaper claims 57,000 Oromo refugees are in Nairobi.

The refugees live in misery and fear. The atrocities which are summarised in the insert Atrocities and abuses against Oromo in Kenya are recorded in more detail and referenced in OSG Press Releases: Aug/Sept 1996, p. 12; Jan/Feb 1997, p. 13; March/April 1997, p. 9; May/June 1997, p. 14; July/August 1997, p. 18; Sept/Oct 1997, p. 13; Nov/Dec 1997, p. 17; Feb/April 1999 (No. 27), p. 13; May/July 1999 (No. 28), p. 13; and below.

The abuses are not restricted to beatings, abduction and attempted murder. An Oromo working in Nairobi, A.K., was attacked by three Ethiopian men in November 1998. When he reported the incident to Kenyan police, all they did was to interrogate him about OLF sympathies. After harassing him to contribute a month’s salary to the war with Eritrea, the Hagere Fikir group sent death threats unless he quit his job in the media.

Because of the Hagere Fikir infiltration of UNHCR, access to staff who are known to be sympathetic to the Oromo situation is blocked. Some Oromo refugees have been frightened to approach the organisation for protection, for fear of exposure to Ethiopian agents. Waiting time for a first appointment has doubled to over five months, in the last year. Recent correspondents, tortured before they escaped Ethiopia, tell of their fear of Ethiopian government agents in Nairobi while waiting until the end of February 2000 for a first appointment with UNHCR. Torture victim and father of twelve, A.K.I.Y., wrote  ‘I am not yet settled and have been shifting from one place to another with my family, waiting till Kenyan authority deports me, when I will be arrested and even killed.’ A.A.I., another victim of repeated torture who escaped to Nairobi one year ago, has also been moving from place to place and wrote ‘TPLF security men . . . in Kenya, through some agents, are still looking for an opportunity to assassinate me’. K.S.M., a rape and torture victim, wrote ‘for this reason I am confined at home with my children and am changing places from time to time.’ E.M. came to Nairobi with his sisters and brother after their father died due to torture soon after OLF withdrawal from the transitional government in 1992. Their mother died on the journey. Kenyan police ‘want to forcefully practice sexual harassment on my sisters,’ he wrote.

Most Oromo asylum seekers achieve mandate status – although some torture victims inexplicably do not (see insert) – but almost without exception they are then ordered to go to Kakuma camp.

J.A., a teacher from Bale, came to Nairobi in 1996 after being hunted and shot at in Ethiopia. With his wife, he ran a shop in Nairobi. He was attacked by ‘three Ethiopians’ on 6 December 1998. Members of the public prevented them abducting him in a vehicle. On 6 and 12 February, the shop security guard was beaten and threatened at gunpoint by Ethiopians, and on 14 February they came to his home, which he had vacated. His wife received further threats from four men on 7 April, one of whom ‘vowed he would finish us both.’ On two occasions, he informed Pangani police station, but they did nothing. When Kasarani Centre police made investigations, local Pangani police denied knowledge of the incidents. Finally, the police recommended to UNHCR that he and his wife be resettled, but they were merely told to go to Kakuma.

B.A.A., a rape and torture victim from E. Hararge who is in need of treatment, has twice been saved by Kenyans from being kidnapped in Nairobi. She wrote ‘I am running from place to place to save my life . . . I do not think we have long to stay alive. . . .

A Protection Officer . . . saw my situation and forwarded me to the person in the Social Services. This Tigrean by the name of Tsehaye Jacob refused to help me and ordered me to immediately report to the camp.’

C.A.D., aged 25, from Debre Zeit, another victim of torture during two terms of detention in Showan military camps, at Mekodi and Biheraw, attended counselling in Nairobi but ‘before I complete my medical treatment and didn’t recover from traumas, I was made to report to Kakuma refugee camp where my life will be exposed to EPRDF spies and other Oromo enemies. . . . I am not able to report to the camp and suffering in Nairobi. My life is also under risk by Ethiopian spies in Kenya. Even though I had appealed to UNHCR . . . [I was not] heard by officers and I am unable to reach . . . [named Senior Protection Officer] due to the blockage.’

Kakuma is a hot, unpleasant place in north-east Kenya, between Lodwar and the Sudan border. It is on a route frequented by Ethiopian government troops. The Oromo community there complain of frequent attacks by armed men at night, beatings, assassination attempts and burning of property, instigated by the Ethiopian government and its Hagere Fikir group.

M.K.W., detained and tortured at Hurso and for over a year at Ginir, Bale, lived in Kakuma from December 1996. On 22 December 1997, he was attacked when walking around the camp, by three men speaking Amharic. ‘I was rescued by community members after I screamed for help’, he wrote. ‘Again, in September 1998, I was beaten by former SPLA members [Sudan Peoples Liberation Army forces, because of their relationship with successive Ethiopian regimes, have been fighting the OLF and doing the bidding of host Ethiopian governments for over two decades]. . . . Still again, in March 1999 I was attacked by Amharic speaking people whom I suspect to be . . . backed by the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi. . . . the Ethiopian refugees are intimidating me to kill me, accusing me that I have secret connection with the OLF.’

M.A.A., (see East, Imprisonments etc, above) was badly beaten by a soldier of the former Dergue regime in Ethiopia, in Kakuma camp on 10 April 1999. He lost two teeth in the assault  and attended hospital. His assailant was released on bond, after threatening to kill M.A.A. with a gun he had hidden. M.A.A. fled the camp and appealed to UNHCR with the backing of the Oromo Community in Kakuma, but was ordered back to the camp.

S.O.A., was detained and tortured, as was her husband, in Kombolcha, E. Hararge, before being settled in Walda camp,  and later Kakuma. On 23 February 1995, their home was burnt down and a young girl killed. Her husband became mentally ill. Animals bought to ensure survival of their children were stolen in March 1998. She described frequent attacks on Kakuma by ‘unknown gunmen’.

I.H.A., 24 years old, from Chalanko, E. Hararge, a victim of torture during two year-long detentions in Hurso and Qobo military camp, wrote of arriving in Nairobi, to discover that his step-brother, Jemal Hassen, disappeared from Kakuma. He therefore refused to go there.

S.T.A., a victim of torture by the Ethiopian government, wrote of repeated threats and attacks at Kakuma, since his transfer there in early 1997. His hut was attacked on 10 April 1999, by an ‘ex-military Ethiopian group.’ Following an attack by an ‘Oromo speaker, EPRDF sympathiser, who is mobile and not registered at the camp,’ he left the Ethiopian community at the camp. Despite recommendations by Kakuma Oromo Community representatives and his report to the Lutheran World Federation Security Office, he is still ordered to remain in Kakuma.

Three elders wrote from Kakuma on 13 July. They described two decades of refugee life and hundreds dying in Walda refugee camp before it was closed – ‘more than half were [killed] by TPLF militia . . . [in] cross-border raids, the rest killed by malaria and other epidemic diseases. . . . Kakuma proved to be worse than any other refugee camp we were roasted in before. . . . more than 40 degrees centigrade, malaria and . . . disease swept several of our companions. . . . The endless and sorrowful exile life has eroded from the hearts of many of us the essence of existence.’

A.K.A. wrote in October that he and his family, after 14 years of refugee life in Somalia and 3 years in Kakuma, chose the insecurity of Nairobi to that of Kakuma camp.

There are camps in Sudan which are worse than Kakuma, in terms of physical conditions and lack of medical facilities, but scores of letters have arrived at OSG’s office in the last three months from refugees refusing to go to Kakuma because of the insecurity there. They prefer to face the insecurity in Nairobi. Chances of resettlement for the majority are very slim, because UNHCR does not have the resources or the necessary invitations from foreign countries.

Among the many refugees living in fear in Nairobi, are the following:

J.A.Y., teacher, Bale province. Detained and tortured 1992-4. Friend shot dead. Ordered to Kakuma.

I.H.A., 38 year old, E. Hararge. Detained and tortured 1997 in Goba, Bale. Ordered to Kakuma or Dadab (refugee camp on Somali border).

A.J.M., 17 year old, from Micheta. Both parents disappeared in 1998. Initially given treatment for torture, but ordered to Kakuma in August.

M.T.G., 29 year old, Arsi. Detained and tortured 1992-3. Ordered to Kakuma.

T.M.J., Arsi. Ex-OPDO member, escaped assassination in 1993. Ordered to Kakuma.

R.W.O., Addis Ababa. Related to famous victim of assassination, detained and tortured 1992-3, 1996-7 and 1998-9. Ordered to Kakuma.

S.M.I., young woman, OLF member. Wounded and mentally ill. Refused refugee status by UNHCR.

A.K.M., torture victim. First interview with UNHCR in February 2000.

J.A.W., Arsi. Detained and tortured four times. Receiving treatment in Nairobi and recommended for ongoing treatment. Mentally ill, incontinent of urine. Ordered to Kakuma.

J.A.H., Ginir, Bale. Detained and tortured in Goba military camp, 1993 and 1996. Husband disappeared. All property, including house, money and truck, confiscated. She and four year old child ordered to Kakuma.

B.D.T., Zewai, S.Showa. Detained and tortured twice. Escaped security surveillance. Ordered to Kakuma.

G.G.W., 38 year old, Waranto. Detained and tortured three times. Ordered to Kakuma.

S.K.S., 24 year old Addis Ababa student. Tortured and detained nine months. Ordered to Kakuma.

J.B.W. Detained and tortured repeatedly, stabbed and shot. All property taken. Family dispersed. Ordered to Kakuma.

M.M.S., R.A.D., M.A.A. and N.T.M., from Arsi, were each detained and tortured. One was raped. Waiting five months for first interview with UNHCR.

W.A.A., 22 year old, Dire Dawa, E. Hararge. Tortured, businesses, shops and farm confiscated in 1995. Detained and tortured by Djibouti security for four days from 28 May 1998 and then subject to refoulement to Ethiopia, where he was detained for one year. Fears refoulement from Nairobi and Kakuma.

7.3        Other abuses in Kenya

The following were reported by a representative of Clandestine Human Rights Group A, which used to operate out of Addis Ababa, in June.

Subi Waqqo, aged 36, Jirma Duubaa, aged 40, and another man who is un-named were shot dead by Kenyan troops in Marsabit district on 28 May. According to a separate report from Nairobi, the men were tortured at Forelle Hills, before being killed. The second report also names ten men held by Kenyan authorities and in danger of repatriation: Malicah Halake, Dube Shonto, Golicha Dheege, Guyo Galgalo, Galgalo Elema, Miyo Jarso, Qalicha Wago, Elema Wariyo, Galgalo Xache and Boru Bonaya.

Waqqo Boru, 37, having fled from the Ethiopian to the Kenyan side of Moyale, was abducted by Kenyan soldiers on 17 May. Since 13 June, his whereabouts are unknown.

Wounded OLA fighters handed themselves in to Kenyan authorities on 12 June, at Dukana, Marsabit. The five men, Jatani Huqqa Galgalo, Abdi Dhenge Roba, Wariyo Hukayo, Galgalo Doyo Huqqa and Abdurahiman Gamade, were sentenced to a year’s imprisonment on 18 June and deportation to Ethiopia afterwards. They are being denied medical treatment for their injuries.

OSG received two reports of the murder of a prominent Boran Oromo figure in Marsabit town. Qala Waqo Bero was shot dead by one or two gunmen in a red saloon, at close range, 400 metres from his shop, in the evening of either 12 or 14 August. A local MP blamed Ethiopian government hit-men. The victim had been warned several times by Ethiopian agents to not sympathise with the OLF. The District Commissioner blamed ‘bandits’.

According to one report, Chief Liban Waqo of Dambala Fachana and Rob Dima of Borr were arrested in April, for allegedly harbouring OLA fighters.

8       JOURNALISTS IN DETENTION

The International Federation of Journalists (Brussels) reported on 7 July that URJII journalists, Garoma Bekele, Solomon Namarra and Tesfaye Deressa, were granted bail for charges under the Press Law but remained in detention to face conspiracy charges.

Wondwosen Asfaw (Atkurot newspaper, detained since October 1997) was released from detention on 23 June.

Eleven journalists (not including Moti Biya) are currently in detention, according to the organisation. 

9       Djibouti

9.1       Refoulement, detention and torture

Immediately before going to press, OSG was informed that thousands of Oromo refugees, fleeing food insecurity in Hararge province, had crossed the border into Djibouti at Dawale.

Reliable sources, in a report that several Oromo had been held in Gabat prison, Djibouti, for 5 months without charge, also stated that 300 TPLF soldiers arrived in two helicopters on 28 August.

From 25 August until the information was sent on 6 September, 3000 refugees, mostly Oromo, were rounded up. 2500 were held at Laggad prison centre.

Refugees were handed over to TPLF soldiers and interrogated under torture at a ‘police investigation centre’. They were questioned about OLF activity and support in Djibouti. Two men, Mohammed Abdu Idris and Mohammed Siraji, were taken to hospital in Djibouti after having Coca-Cola bottles forced into their rectums.

Some refugees have been taken from where they lay, hungry and thirsty on roadsides and scavenging for food, and presented on Ethiopian television as captured OLF fighters.

Two refugees, sent back from Djibouti, were used for anti-OLF propaganda when interviewed for Ethiopian television on 23 August.

Other Oromo refugees have been turned back from the border at Galile, when taken there by Djibouti forces.

Oromo refugees, especially elders, are being hunted in Djibouti by the combined security forces of Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Refoulement of Oromo refugees is said to be organised by security men from the Ethiopian embassy, including Tasfaye Zewde Tamirat, Haile Selassie and Hingida. They have bought the help of some Oromo, Jamal Ganda Koree, Sufya Galmoo, Abdul Hakim and Abdulmajid Karee.

10    Europe

10.1   Repatriation and Death of Asylum Seekers in Germany, Austria and Belgium

Further information has been obtained about the death, on the 28 May Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Khartoum, of Amir Ageeb during his forced repatriation to Sudan. The thirty year old asylum seeker was handcuffed and shackled to his seat, and was forced to wear a motorcycle helmet, because he was resisting deportation. He was placed between two border police. They pushed his head ‘down as far as it would go’ to prevent his disturbing other passengers. When they tried to raise him later, he was dead.

The African Courier reported in its June/July edition that Bavarian authorities were intending to defy a ban on forced repatriation which followed Ageeb’s death, and repatriate another Sudanese who resisted deportation last year.

In 1997, over 17,000 asylum seekers were deported from Germany, most being sent unwillingly. Since January 1998, 15,500 deportations are reported by the Federal Border Police. Force was needed in 113. The Anti-Racist Initiative (Berlin) reports four deaths and 58 injuries from deportation out of Germany, since 1993. The group claims that many attempted suicide while awaiting deportation, and 64 have killed themselves. Another four have done so after being returned to their home country. Another 90 died while trying to enter Germany, including 9 in police custody.

A growing number of Oromo asylum seekers in Germany have exhausted legal procedures against deportation. In addition to those known by OSG to be at risk of imminent forced repatriation, i.e. refoulement (see Press Release No. 27, p. 14), is Deneke Bero Badhadha. In a sinister development in his case, he has been forced to apply for an Ethiopian passport.

Four weeks before Amir Ageeb was killed, a Nigerian, Marcus Omafuma, died of suffocation on board a flight from Austria on 1 May, after his vocal protests had been silenced with adhesive tape applied across his mouth. His limbs were bound to prevent him resisting forced repatriation from Austria to Nigeria.

Another Nigerian, Ms Semira Adamu, died when suffocated with a cushion by Belgian police while she was being deported, in September 1998.

Although two thirds of asylum seekers in western Europe are from the eastern bloc, all three recent deaths have been Africans.

11    Correction

OSG mistakenly reported the disappearance of Abdulahi Genamo and Ahmed Abdulahi, from Adaba, Bale, in Press Release 28, p. 8. Abdulahi Genamo died under the previous regime, and his son, Ahmed Abdulahi, died under the current administration.

12    Abbreviations

EPRDF          Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (government party; umbrella group led by TPLF)

OHRC           Ogaden Human Rights Committee

OLA               Oromo Liberation Army (armed wing of OLF)

OLF                Oromo Liberation Front

ONLF            Ogaden National Liberation Front

OPDO           Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation (government Oromo party)

OSG               Oromia Support Group

TPLF              Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (dominant party in government)

UNHCR        U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

13    End piece

A health worker known to OSG staff for over ten years, wrote from exile of his experiences in Dhidessa concentration camp in 1992 and the deaths of mutual acquaintances. The camp held at least a quarter of the 20-40,000 detained in the months after the OLF left the transitional government.

It is always shocking to me when I remember young Oromo mass graves at Dhidesa, where Hunduma, Habtamu, Solomon and two other fellow members were buried in a single hole.

Before burial, their bodies were displayed as garbage close to the pathway. . . . Armed OLF members were very few in number, most were gathered, murdered and tortured because of their ethnic origin or beliefs.

Especially from the second [of three] detention camp, I knew of more than eighty Oromos who died from physical and psychological torture. . . . I have got a big scar in my mind about Dhidessa.