Ethiopian security forces accused of grave human rights abuses
New Amnesty report documents extrajudicial executions, mass detentions during security operations in Amhara and Oromia.
by Mia Swart
10 hours ago
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has won international praise for initiating broad domestic
A rights group has accused Ethiopian security forces of continuing to commit grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions and torture, since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.
In its report on Friday, Amnesty International documented the arbitrary detentions of thousands of people and the forcible evictions of dozens of families from their homes, some of which were set alight, during security operations in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in parts of the Amhara and Oromia regions.
The report covers the period between December 2018 and December 2019.
Abiy has introduced a series of sweeping reforms, including granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners and repealing draconian laws, since coming to power in April 2018. The initiation of broad domestic changes - along with efforts to end hostilities with neighbouring Eritrea, a longtime foe - has won Abiy international praise and secured him the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
But Abiy's tenure has also been plagued by ethnic conflict, with hundreds of thousands of people being internally displaced amid a worsening security situation.
"The violations depicted in the report are telling of unfinished business of reform in Ethiopia including impunity for past human rights violations," Deprose Muchena, Amnesty's regional director for Southern Africa and East Africa, told Al Jazeera.
The Ethiopian government did not immediately respond to Amnesty's report. Al Jazeera contacted the Ethiopian Attorney General and Ministry of Peace for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Amnesty also said government offices did not respond to its report.
Mass arrests, killings
Under Abiy's reformist drive, the government in 2018 lifted a ban on several political parties, some of which had been designated "terrorist" groups. The move paved the way for the leaders of the banned groups to return to the ethnically diverse country, and allowed the opposition parties to participate in long-awaited elections initially scheduled for August 2020 but now postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Amnesty said the opening up of the political space has coincided with politicians stirring up ethnic and religious animosities in their efforts to mobilise support, sparking inter-communal violence and armed attacks in several of the country's regional states.
In response, the federal government set up security command posts to coordinate the operations of the military, police and local militia.
Amnesty's report (PDF) documents a series of alleged abuses in Oromia, where security forces are waging a campaign against the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The group is the breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that pursued military struggle before its return to Ethiopia to pursue a peaceful agenda in 2018.
Amnesty said it had collected evidence that at least 10,000 people suspected of supporting or working for the OLA were detained by security forces in rounds of mass detention that began in January 2019.
It also said it had found evidence that at least 39 people were extrajudicially executed amid rising tensions in Oromia's East Guji and West Guji zones. Other documented abuses included multiple cases of torture by security forces, with various people interviewed by Amnesty speaking of severe beatings by the security forces. In one case, a woman suffered a miscarriage shortly after she was beaten.
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In Amhara, Amnesty said "at least 130 people were killed in inter-communal conflict in which the security forces were complicit", either through active involvement or failure to protect the affected communities.
The group said regional police, militia and local vigilante groups carried out multiple attacks targeting ethnic Qemant, who seek greater autonomy, resulting in scores of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of people. "From 10-11 January 2019, the security forces and vigilante groups attacked a [Qemant] settlement in Metema with grenades and guns and set homes on fire. Fifty-eight people were killed within 24 hours as soldiers in a nearby camp failed to respond to cries for help," Amnesty said.
The deputy head of the Amhara Regional Peace and Security Bureau told the rights group the casualties could have been greater if the security forces had not been deployed and also rejected the complicity claim.
'Power struggle'
Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said that while it is "very difficult" for countries to "effectively" police environments hit by inter-ethnic or inter-religious conflicts, as well as those experiencing independentist armed groups or movements, arbitrary killings "are feeding the cycle of violence".
"In my experience, national or local authorities rely on heavy-handed and violent security tactics in place of political engagement towards long-term reform to address historical grievances," Callamard told Al Jazeera.
In the case of Oromia, analysts believe the violence is largely attributed to the return of exiled opposition political parties following the opening up of the political space two years ago.
"When Abiy took power he criticised the authoritarian practices of the preceding government. But he has not been able to completely change the character of the regime just by making changes at the centre," William Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
He said the abuses are, to a large degree, a continuation of the violations seen under the previous governments.
"The expectation was that when the OLF returned to Ethiopia it would put down its weapons. Instead, a power struggle soon erupted between the OLF and the government, which led to continuing violence," he said.
According to Davison, there is "no immediate prospect of a peaceful resolution" to the situation in western Oromia as the government seems intent on eradicating the OLA. The fact that there have not yet been free and fair elections, as promised, and that polls have now been delayed beyond the government's term, complicates the situation, he added.
'Complex security context'
Daniel Bekele, the chief commissioner of Ethiopia's Human Rights Commission, told Al Jazeera that: "Amnesty's findings and ongoing reports of killings and arrests, particularly in the Oromia region should be taken very seriously."
He added, however, that "we should not lose sight of the complex security context in which armed groups are destabilising the area and the fight within these groups is taking a heavy toll on civilians".
In its report, Amnesty acknowledged that the government has taken "initial first steps ... towards improving the human rights environment in the country" but warned that "a persistence of old-style patterns of violence perpetrated by the security forces threatens to derail sustained long-term gain".
Fisseha Tekle, the right's group Ethiopia researcher, said there have been "many positive developments after the coming into power of Abiy, but at the same time the reported violations do not reflect well on the government".
Looking ahead, Amnesty said it was concerned the rights violations and abuses will escalate during the upcoming general election period.
It recommended that the Ethiopian government take measures to immediately order security forces to stop carrying out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, forced evictions and destruction of property belonging to people suspected of supporting opposition political parties or armed groups.
Amnesty further called for an end to the culture of impunity in security forces by demobilising the units that were complicit in the violence and human rights violations.
Ethiopia: Rape, extrajudicial executions, homes set alight in security operations in Amhara and Oromia
Ethiopian security forces committed horrendous human rights violations including burning homes to the ground, extrajudicial executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions, sometimes of entire families, in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in Amhara and Oromia, Amnesty International said today.
In a new report, Beyond law enforcement: human rights violations by Ethiopian security forces in Amhara and Oromia, Amnesty International documents how security forces committed grave violations between December 2018 and December 2019 despite reforms which led to the release of thousands of detainees, expansion of the civic and political space and repeal of draconian laws, such as the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which were previously used to repress human rights.
The Ethiopian authorities have made notable progress in changing the country’s bleak human rights record. However, it is unacceptable that the security forces should be allowed to carry on committing human rights violations with impunity.
“The Ethiopian authorities have made notable progress in changing the country’s bleak human rights record. However, it is unacceptable that the security forces should be allowed to carry on committing human rights violations with impunity,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
“With elections on the horizon, these violations and abuses could escalate out of control unless the government takes urgent measures to ensure security forces act within the law and remain impartial in undertaking their duties.”
In 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government lifted a ban on opposition parties, some of which had been designated terrorist organisations and forced into exile, allowing them to take part in elections initially scheduled for August 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19.
With elections on the horizon, these violations and abuses could escalate out of control unless the government takes urgent measures to ensure security forces act within the law and remain impartial in undertaking their duties.
In trying to mobilize support, politicians have however been stirring up ethnic and religious animosities, sparking inter-communal violence and armed attacks in five of the country’s nine regional states; Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Harari, Oromia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), and in the Dire Dawa administrative state.
In response, the government set up security Command Posts in 2018 to coordinate the operations of the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF), federal police, regular and special (Liyu) police units in regions, and local administration security officers called kebele militia.
Complicity in the killings
Tensions have been high in Amhara after the Qimant, a minority group, voted for their own autonomous administrative unit in September 2017, resulting in clashes between the Amhara and Qimant communities. Amnesty International’s report reveals that the Liyu police, local administration militia and two Amhara youth vigilante groups joined forces to attack members of the Qimant community in January 2019, and again in September-October 2019, leaving at least 100 people dead and hundreds displaced. Qimant homes and property were also destroyed.
From 10-11 January 2019, the security forces and vigilante groups attacked a Qimant settlement in Metema with grenades and guns and set homes on fire. Fifty-eight people were killed within 24 hours as soldiers in a nearby camp failed to respond to cries for help. Flyers and leaflets telling Qimant civil servants to leave the area had been circulating since September 2018, but the authorities took no action.
Armed Amhara youth came and killed three of my brothers and my cousin and wounded my other brother. They killed them at point-blank range while I watched. They died instantly.
Dinqie Tekeda, 25, escaped from her burning house with four of her brothers and a cousin only for Amhara guards at Bunna International Bank, where they had sought refuge, to expose them to vigilante youths. “Armed Amhara youth came and killed three of my brothers and my cousin and wounded my other brother. They killed them at point-blank range while I watched. They died instantly,” she said.
Another attack on 29 September 2019 left 43 more Qimants dead and 12 injured. At least one family was burnt alive in their home, a witness told Amnesty International. “Just 100 metres from my home, the youth burnt Endihnew Nega, his mother, his sister and her baby at around 10pm,” Tsedal Abate said.
Just 100 metres from my home, the youth burnt Endihnew Nega, his mother, his sister and her baby at around 10pm on 29 September 2019.
Businessman Abebe Tilahun, 38, sustained multiple injuries after a grenade was hurled into his house and the house set on fire forcing him out into a barrage of gunfire that hit his shoulder and hand. “I saw the Amhara Police Special Force and the local militia attacking the Qimant neighbourhood together with the Amhara vigilante youth. They were going from home to home to kill Qimant people,” he said.
Three other men - Debeso Megada (27), Ararso Gobena (16) and Qalicha Jarso (22), were killed while riding on a motorbike in January 2019 in Duqisa Megada kebele, Dugda Dawa. And yet another man, Aga Uddessa, was shot dead on 3 February 2019 as he rode past the Command Post in Harqelo, Goro Dola.
The authorities must immediately stop these horrific killings. They must also ensure that those responsible for these callous and brutal acts face justice.
In Finchawa, Dugda Dawa, two truckloads of soldiers drove into town on 28 December 2018, and indiscriminately shot at people for an hour, killing 13. Witnesses told Amnesty International the attack was in retaliation for a soldier stoned to death three weeks earlier.
“The authorities must immediately stop these horrific killings. They must also ensure that those responsible for these callous and brutal acts face justice,” said Deprose Muchena.
Brutal beatings, lifetime scars
At least 10,000 people, including entire families, were arbitrarily arrested and detained in 2019 as part of the government’s crackdown on armed attacks and inter-communal violence in Oromia Region. They were accused, but never charged, for “supporting, sharing information with and feeding” members of an armed group calling itself the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) that splintered from the Oromo Liberation Front’s (OLF) military wing.
A bullet wound sustained on the arm of one victim we interviewed
Many people were arrested multiple times, some detained for up to five months and put through political indoctrination to compel them to support the ruling party. Most were subjected to brutal beatings. For Momina Roba, who was beaten while four months pregnant, the ordeal ended in a miscarriage.
“I was beaten on the day I was arrested and the next day. I told them I was pregnant when they were beating me. But they said it does not matter whether I am pregnant or not. They said they may even kill me,” she said.
I was beaten on the day I was arrested and the next day. I told them I was pregnant when they were beating me. But they said it does not matter whether I am pregnant or not. They said they may even kill me.
Ebise Eba was arrested in January 2019 by two local administration security officials who took her to the Duqisa Megada administration office and raped her. They said if she did not sleep with them, they would hand her over to EDF soldiers and she would be killed. “One of them, I only know his nickname ‘Qeyo’. He is from the kebele peace and security department. The other is the commander of the militia in the kebele,” she told Amnesty International.
Forced evictions, burnt homes
Since March 2019, security officers forcibly evicted at least 60 families from Oromia’s East and West Guji zones by burning down homes, often while families were inside, leaving them stranded homeless. Amnesty International further confirmed that another 300 families were forcibly relocated from their rural homes into peri-urban areas leaving being everything – household items, harvests and crops on farms.
“We are not able to come back though this is the season for harvesting coffee. We sent elders to petition the local officials to allow us to return. They told the elders we cannot return since we support (OLA),” Faysal Udo said.
“Failure to prevent inter-communal violence and the use of unlawful force by security forces against ordinary people in response to either inter-communal violence or armed attacks is tragic. Law and order measures should never harm people or deprive them of their livelihoods driving them into poverty. The authorities must ensure all evicted and relocated families can immediately and safely return to their homes and farms,” said Deprose Muchena.
Failure to prevent inter-communal violence and the use of unlawful force by security forces against ordinary people in response to either inter-communal violence or armed attacks is tragic.
“The authorities must also recognize that holding diverse political views and opinions is legal. Everyone has the right to choose whom to support and these rights to freedom of expression must be guaranteed, upheld and protected. The authorities must stop killing and criminalizing people for their political choices.”
Ethiopian soldiers and police officers allegedly carried out dozens of extrajudicial executions last year in a crackdown on a rebel group active in the country's restive Oromia region, Amnesty International said in a report Friday.
The alleged killings – 39 in total – are part of a pattern of abuses that also include torture and mass arbitrary arrests, with detainees subjected to "political rehabilitation training" promoting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government, the report said.
The abuses highlight how Ethiopian security forces continue "to crush dissent and political opposition" under Abiy, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, Amnesty researcher Fisseha Tekle told AFP.
They risk aggravating political tensions ahead of general elections that were scheduled for August but have been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Fisseha said.
"What is really happening is beyond a normal law enforcement mandate," he said. "They are going after people who are perceived to be supporters of the opposition as well as the families of militants."
A relative of one slain man described hearing the gunshot that likely killed him but told Amnesty, "I couldn't go and check since there was a curfew."
"The next morning, we found his body near the military camp," the relative said. "His body had clear marks of physical abuse, as his hands and leg were broken."
The crackdown in Oromia is ostensibly targeting the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), blamed for a spate of assassinations, bombings, bank robberies and kidnappings in Oromia.
The OLA, believed to number in the low thousands, broke off from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after Abiy took office in 2018.
The Amnesty report largely concerns abuses committed in the East and West Guji zones, in southern Oromia.
In February AFP reported on how the campaign against the OLA was playing out in an area of western Ethiopia known as Wollega, also in Oromia.
Residents there told of extrajudicial killings and mass arrests unfolding amid a monthslong internet blackout that was only lifted after Ethiopia recorded its first case of COVID-19 in mid-March.
Amnesty's report also claims security forces' "complicity" in intercommunal violence in the northern Amhara region, either through active involvement or a failure to intervene to protect vulnerable communities there.
When contacted by AFP, Abiy's office referred questions to Ethiopia's Ministry of Peace, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amnesty notes in its report that various ministries and government bodies did not respond to multiple requests for comment on its findings in Oromia.
An official in Amhara rejected Amnesty's findings and claimed that security forces' responses in that region limited the number of casualties, the report said.
