Amnesty: Ethiopia’s extrajudicial executions in security operations in Amhara and Oromia

A new report by Amnesty
International accuses Ethiopia’s security forces of extrajudicial killings and
mass detentions.
Amnesty is urging Ethiopian
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to investigate the allegations, which the group says
have occurred since he came to power. So far, the government
has not responded.
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.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty
International's Director for East and Southern Africa
“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.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty
International's Director for East and Southern Africa
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, victim
of attacks on Qimant community
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.
Tsedal Abate, a witness to
attacks against Qimants
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.
Extrajudicial executions
Amnesty International
documented the extrajudicial execution of at least 39 people in Oromia
including 17-year old Seid Sheriff who was shot in the head outside a café in
Harqelo, Goro Dola for allegedly alerting a motor-bike driver of an impending
arrest.
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.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty
International's Director for East and Southern Africa
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 gunshot wound on the arm of victim of excessive force
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.
Momina Roba, was beaten
until she miscarried
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.
“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.