16 July 2021, 02:00 UTC

Source: Amnesty International

Police in Addis Ababa have arbitrarily arrested and detained dozens of Tigrayans without due process, following the recapture of the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle, by forces from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that also calls itself Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) on 28 June, Amnesty International said today. The arrests appear to be ethnically motivated, with former detainees, witnesses and lawyers describing how police checked identity documents before arresting people and taking them to detention centres.

“Former detainees told us that police stations are filled with people speaking Tigrinya, and that authorities had conducted sweeping mass arrests of Tigrayans”

Deprose Muchena, Director for East and Southern Africa

“Following the withdrawal of the Ethiopian National Defense Force from parts of Tigray and the announcement of a unilateral ceasefire by the Federal government on 28 June, for the last two weeks Tigrayans in Addis Ababa have been arbitrarily arrested and detained. Former detainees told us that police stations are filled with people speaking Tigrinya, and that authorities had conducted sweeping mass arrests of Tigrayans,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

“Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian government to end this wave of arbitrary arrests, and to ensure that all detainees are either promptly charged with internationally recognized crimes and given fair trials, or immediately and unconditionally released. The government must also inform families of the whereabouts of those detained and ensure that they have access to lawyers and their relatives.”

While some people have been released on bail, approximately hundreds of others remain in detention, and their whereabouts unknown. Amnesty International is not aware of any internationally recognizable criminal charges against those still in detention who were arrested in these cases documented by the organization.

Ethiopian law requires police to present detainees in court within 48 hours of arrest to review the grounds for arrest. Promptly bringing detainees before a judicial authority is an important safeguard against torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance.

Beaten, harassed, arrested

Amnesty International remotely interviewed 14 people in Addis Ababa, including former detainees, eyewitnesses to arrests, and relatives and lawyers of those still in detention.

One man, who was arrested in the Merkato area on Friday 2 July, told the organization that police raided his snooker game business at around 7pm. They began to harass and beat customers and employees and demanded to see their identity documents, before taking five people, all ethnic Tigrayans, to the nearby Woreda 6 police station. Identification cards in Ethiopia identify the ethnicity of the holder. The shopkeeper, who was among those arrested, said:

“They kept us on the open air and it was raining the whole night. We also stayed there the next day on Saturday. More people of Tigrayan origin joined us during the daytime on Saturday. We were 26 Tigrayans arrested in the station that day.”

The Ethiopian government to end this wave of arbitrary arrests, and to ensure that all detainees are either promptly charged with internationally recognized crimes and given fair trials, or immediately and unconditionally released
Deprose Muchena

Nineteen people were released the next day – some after presenting a bond – but the rest were taken to Awash Arba area in Afar Region, 240 kilometers east of Addis Ababa, according to the people Amnesty International has interviewed. The shopkeeper was released on Saturday evening, only to learn that his brother was among those being held at Awash Sebat. He said:

“The next day I was told my brother is also arrested. He called us from Awash Sebat using a phone line of another person. He told us he is taken there by the police with many people. I know some of the people arrested with him.”

Tsehaye Gebre Hiwot, who works at a tyre maintenance shop near Gotera, was arrested by police together with a relative, Haile Girmay, on 3 July. A family member told Amnesty International that she had visited Tsehaye Gebre Hiwot in the nearby police station.

She said: “When I visited him, I saw many other Tigrayan broomsticks and mopper vendors [a business traditionally associated with people of Tigrayan origin] arrested there. They were all speaking in Tigrinya. I don’t know if they are released or taken with him.”

A further nine witnesses told Amnesty International that they had seen dozens of Tigrayans detained in Tekle Haimanot – 5^th Police Station, Gerji, Federal Police Remand Centre, and Merkato police stations when visiting detained friends and relatives. One man, who said five of his friends had been arrested in a raid on a dormitory hall on 2 July in Tekle Haimanot, said he saw about 50 Tigrayans in the 5th police station when he visited on 3 July.

Amnesty International also heard of similar pattern of arbitrary arrests targeting Tigrayan residents in Awash Sebat, a town in Afar Region 200 kilometres to the east of Addis Ababa. One witness told Amnesty International that five Tigrayan business owners in the town, including her husband, were arrested on 3 July. She said:

“He and many other Tigrayans in the town were arrested that day. They stayed in the police station of the Federal Police until 7 July before they were transferred to Awash Arba Prison at a place called Berta. They were taken to a court in Awash Arba on 7 July and the court remanded them until 19 July. Then the police took them to the prison. The prison is around 35 kilometers away from Awash Sebat. We visit and deliver them food and clothes in the prison.”

Activists and journalists targeted

Tsegaze’ab Kidanu is an Tigrayan living in Addis Ababa, who has been coordinating humanitarian assistance for people affected by the conflict in Tigray. He is also a volunteer managing media relations for an association called Mahbere Kidus Yared Zeorthodox Tewahido Tigray. On 1 July, a day before his association released a statement on the human rights situation in Tigray, he was arrested at his home.

Tsegaze’ab’s family and lawyer visited him at the Federal Police Remand Centre on 2 and 3 July, but when they returned on 4 July he was not there. According to Tsegaze’ab’s lawyer, they later heard from another detainee that he had been taken to Awash Arba. His lawyer was also never informed of charges brought against Tsegaze’ab.

The lawyer also shared with Amnesty International the names of 24 Tigrayans who were arrested from various neighbourhoods of Addis Ababa, including 22 Mazoria and Tekle Haimanot, between 30 June and 8 July. The lawyer told Amnesty International that one detainee, released on bail on 5 July, was charged of having ‘links with TPLF (the Tigray People’s Liberation Front)’ which is designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian government.

Authorities must also ensure that all detainees are protected against torture and other ill-treatment
Deprose Muchena

Journalists and media workers who have been reporting on the situation in Tigray have also been detained without due process. On 30 June, police arrested 11 journalists and media workers for Awlo Media and Ethio Forum, You Tube based media who have been covering the conflict and the human rights situation in Tigray, along with their lawyer. A lawyer and family members interviewed by Amnesty International said that they were able to visit the detainees on 1 July, but since 2 July their whereabouts are unknown and they also have no information whether the detainees have been charged with any crime or not. A relative of one detainee said:

“On Friday [2 July], the police told us that they released them early in the morning around 6 pm. But none of them came to their house or called us. When we asked them repeatedly, the police said, we[police] don’t know where they are, don’t ever come again’. We have been looking for them since then.”

“Ethiopian authorities must reveal the whereabouts of detainees to their families and lawyers. Not disclosing the fate or whereabouts of detainees is committing the crime of enforced disappearance. Authorities must also ensure that all detainees are protected against torture and other ill-treatment.” said Deprose Muchena.

Source: Reuters

Tigrayan militia took about 19 refugees from Adi Harush on Wednesday to an unknown location and one refugee – a Muslim man – was killed after they told him to carry some weapons and he refused, another refugee told Reuters.

Ethiopia conflict heats up as Amhara region vows to attack Tigray forces

Dawit Endeshaw

Members of Amhara Special Forces stand guard along a street in Humera town, Ethiopia July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

ADDIS ABABA, July 14 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s war in the northern region of Tigray looked set to intensify on Wednesday as the prime minister signalled the end of a government ceasefire and the neighbouring Amhara region said it would go on the offensive against Tigrayan forces.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has recaptured most of its home region in the past three weeks after an abrupt reversal in an eight-month war, has vowed to retake western Tigray, an expanse of fertile territory controlled by Amhara forces who seized it during the conflict.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed abruptly pulled central government troops out of most of Tigray last month, citing a unilateral ceasefire that the TPLF mocked as “a joke” designed to justify his forces’ retreat. Wednesday’s statement marked a shift in rhetoric, as Abiy said the ceasefire had failed to deliver.

A spokesman for the Amhara regional government also said the authorities there were rallying their own forces for a counter-attack against Tigrayan forces.

“The regional government has now transitioned from defensive to offensive,” Amhara spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh was quoted as saying by the region’s state-run Amhara Media Corporation. “Amhara militia and special forces have been systematically trying to defend but now our patience has run out and as of today we have opened an offensive attack.”

He did not respond to requests for further comment. On Tuesday the National Movement of Amhara, a major regional political party, called on irregular volunteer militia – known as Fano – to mobilise.

Western Tigray has long been home to large populations of both Tigrayans and Amhara, and renewed fighting between two of Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic groups over the territory could drive another wave of refugees from a conflict that has already forced 2 million from their homes.

When Abiy sent troops to fight the TPLF last year, Amhara militia fought on the central government’s side, using the opportunity to take control of a swathe of territory administered by Tigrayans for decades.

Since Abiy’s abrupt withdrawal on June 28, the TPLF has pushed steadily outwards, recapturing most of Tigray. Its forces retook Alamata, the main town in the south, on Monday and pushed across the deep ravine of the Tekeze River to take Mai Tsebri from Amhara control on Tuesday. read more

But a tougher fight could loom for western Tigray, which the Amhara consider a reclaimed part of their own historic homeland and have vowed to keep under their control.

ABIY STEPS BACK FROM CEASEFIRE

Abiy’s more forceful remarks in a statement on Wednesday suggested his government was abandoning its three-week-old emphasis on its ceasefire declaration, proclaimed as government troops abandoned regional capital Mekelle to the advancing TPLF.

“The ceasefire could not bear the desired fruits,” he said. “The TPLF…poses a great danger to the sovereignty of the country. The federal government, through mobilising the people of Ethiopia, is determined to curb this threat.”

He blamed the TPLF for choosing to fight rather than allow in aid or observe the ceasefire, and accused them of recruiting, drugging and deploying child soldiers.

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda dismissed the claim.

“We don’t have child soldiers because mature soldiers are never in short supply,” he told Reuters via satellite phone.

Getachew also repeated that the TPLF welcomes aid, and would not observe a ceasefire while parts of Tigray remained under control of the central government or its allies.

REFUGEES STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

Caught in the middle of the fighting are 23,000 Eritrean refugees sheltering in two camps near the town of Mai Tsebri. Many have already fled the Tigrayan war once when two other refugee camps were destroyed, and told Reuters they had seen refugees kidnapped and killed during previous fighting.

One refugee from Adi Harush camp told Reuters Tigrayan militia were searching refugees’ homes and confiscating cell phones.

“There is still shooting all around the camp,” he said.

Tigrayan militia took about 19 refugees from Adi Harush on Wednesday to an unknown location and one refugee – a Muslim man – was killed after they told him to carry some weapons and he refused, another refugee told Reuters.

“Our forces are not after Eritrean refugees. We will make sure refugees are protected and we are more than ready to investigate any claims,” TPLF’s Getachew said, adding refugees would be permitted to leave the area if they wished.

Tesfahun Gobezay, head of Ethiopia’s refugee agency, said they wanted to relocate the refugees away from fighting as fast as possible.

“We will bring refugees into the high schools as we try to build shelters,” he said.