RIGHTS-ETHIOPIA: Group Decries Repression of Students, Teachers

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 2003 (IPS) - Ethiopia’s attacks on the freedom of expression of students and teachers should be criticised much more strongly by western countries, despite their deepening alliances with the government in Addis Ababa, says a report released here Friday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 52-page report, ‘Lessons in Repression: Violations of Academic Freedom in Ethiopia’, concludes that the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which came to power in 1991, has committed serious abuses against dissident students, including summary killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture.

It has also repressed the independent Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), whose members include many of the country’s most distinguished professors, as part of a broader effort to stifle academic freedom, the report says.

”Ethiopia’s security forces have targeted students and teachers because they are among the most politically active elements of Ethiopian society,” said Saman Zia-Zarifi, HRW’s academic freedom director. ”There is no excuse for shooting unarmed students or civilians exercising their rights,” he added in reference to two major incidents over the past year.

The report come as Ethiopia, which is enduring a punishing drought that has put 11 million of its 64 million people at risk, is seeking massive food aid from the international community.

At the same time, Addis Ababa, whose proximity to Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen give it the status of front-line state in the ”war on terrorism”, has been avidly courted by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which has provided it with a steady supply of military aid.

”The United States and the United Kingdom should question the value of allying with a government that is so callous in dealing with its own citizens,” noted Zia-Zarifi.

While HRW said it strongly supports humanitarian assistance, it deplored the fact that Washington has not used its leverage to at least ensure that its military aid is allocated to non-lethal crowd control equipment or that those responsible for abuses are brought to account. Most killings of students have occurred during confrontations between demonstrators and security forces.

Academic freedom, according to the report, has suffered as a result of three major kinds of abuses: repeated, unjustified use of lethal force by security forces putting down student protests; the repression of ETA; and the stifling of independent thought through the government’s control of the administration and activities on university campuses.

The most violent examples of recent years include an incident last March in which high school students from across Oromia Regional State protested against economic conditions and education policy. In a succession of such demonstrations, state police forces used live ammunition to disperse unarmed students, resulting in at least five officially acknowledged deaths.

In the aftermath of the demonstrations, hundreds of people – mostly students and teachers – were arrested and detained for an average of two months. Some were tortured during their detention.

In April 2001, students at Addis Ababa University (AAU) in the capital went on strike to demand academic freedom, including the right of the student union to meet and publish a newspaper.

Paramilitary federal police special forces raided the campus in full force, killing more than 40 demonstrators and arresting thousands more. While the government, under popular pressure, admitted that the police should not have been permitted onto the campus, it has released no information about what, if anything, it had done to punish those responsible.

The students ended the strike one year later without having gained any of their demands. Despite their sympathy for the students, the AAU’s professors, for whom the state does not provide tenure, have continued working, after being reminded that they are government employees who can be fired for dissent.

The government has also been ”ruthless” in repressing labour organisations, particularly the ETA, which it has tried to destroy during the past decade, according to the report. Tactics have included arresting many ETA leaders across the country and confiscating its property and bank accounts. One ETA leader was assassinated in 1997.

The government has also imposed a system of evaluations known as ”gimgema”, which may be used to pressure academics and teachers to promote the ruling party’s ideology. Some of AAU’s most distinguished professors resigned last month to protest the new system.

The report stressed that the government’s treatment of ETA has been similar to that used against other independent institutions, including the Ethiopian Human Rights Council. ”Taken together, these actions create an environment strongly hostile to independent thought,” it said.

In spite of this record, the international community has failed to hold the government accountable, the report says. Ethiopia remains one of the biggest aid beneficiaries in Africa, and some donors’ assistance has been aimed at promoting democratisation and educational development.

But on the security front, donors tended to provide the aid without strings, the report adds. What criticism was directed at the government for its human rights record, has been largely muted since the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Indeed, an unnamed senior State Department officials told HRW that since then, so far as Washington is concerned, human rights is ”not a factor” in the bilateral relationship.

HRW noted the U.S. Embassy’s refusal to take a strong stand against the 2001 police shootings recounted in the report, despite their inclusion in the State Department annual report for 2002.

By contrast, the European Union (EU) has shown a growing willingness to criticise the government and has called for, among other things, an inquiry and accountability for police shootings of demonstrators.