November 1, 2014
Yesterday Ethiopian government prosecutors have charged 10 people after four months of torture and detention in the notorious Ethiopian prison Makelawi.
Some of the charged are well known and politically active while the rest are less known to the public. These well thinking and vibrant youth who let alone being members of the opposition movement, some of its views they do not subscribe to, are neither the members nor are they known by the oppositions they have been charged in association with.
As far as we understand, they are scholarly youth who care and wish the best future for their Country; that has been their crime.
The charges read that they have links with the Diaspora based Ginbot 7 and have been conspiring terror. This is a baseless attempt of finding a pretext to associate them to a bogeyman that can aggravate their suffering, charges and sentence.
This year alone, several journalists, bloggers (the Zone 9 bloggers collective) and many other opposition members and leaders have been arrested, charged and sentenced. De Birhan believes that these individuals have not had a violent or anti-peace element in them; they all wished, thought, discussed or wrote what they considered were alternatives for the socio-economic and political development of their country including the journalists, some of whom are our close friends. As it has become the culture in EPRDF’s Ethiopia; doing any of these or simply being critical, challenging the politics can get you locked up and accused of links with the usual bogeyman, Ginbot 7. Detainees are forced to confess and sign what has been presented to them as charges. One of the fine lines and difficult points here in current charges is that the views that most Ethiopians would have today are also upheld by the Movement; the issue of Unity for instance.
News media reported yesterday that Britain has suspended most of a £27 million aid programme to support Ethiopia’s police force, amid mounting allegations of torture, rape and murder by the regime. It is likely that many other European states and the U.S. would also suspend their security agreements unless Ethiopia respects human rights and releases political and all other prisoners of conscience. In such a time when people inside and outside the country are being arrested for their political opinion and being critical of the current governance system, the Ethiopian government should understand that this will surely push many of us who have been wary of joining politics; to actively join politics and be polarised.
It is most important to know that the arrested people are individuals with no force, support or any threat; had they had anything organised under them, they would not have gotten to this stage of detention. These are separate individuals with little or no power or cruelty. Most of the 10 detainees have older parents that they support or young babies and toddlers that depend on them. What a government would separate such people from their dearest families and children especially when the prisoners are law abiding, no previous convictions and peaceful citizens with only political interests.
The next appointment has been set for November 5, 2014 to decide if they should be given a bail or not. Therefore, De Birhan calls upon Ethiopia to respect the bail rights of these prisoners and also release them and all other dissenters detained due to their political opinion and criticism.