Ethiopia: Human Rights Commission warns about treatment of detainees in Oromiya
A protester wears an "Oromia" t-shirt during a mobilization following the death of musician Hachalu Hundessa in June 2020. (Illustrative image) Getty Images via AFP - STEPHEN MATUREN
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The rule of law is not respected for prisoners in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia.
This is the conclusion of a report released Thursday by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a semi-public institution headed by a former official of the Human Rights Watch association.
The institution expresses its "serious concern" about the treatment of detainees.
She says she is "alarmed" by the conditions of detention observed and believes that "serious violations of human rights have been committed".
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Observers for
the Commission on Human Rights
focused on people arrested in what the authorities call the “current situation”, ie political detainees.
And particularly, says the Commission, those arrested following the assassination of famous Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa last year.
The observers therefore met prisoners who were never formally charged and never brought to justice.
Some were still detained after a court ordered their release.
Others said they were beaten by the police, some with open wounds or physical disabilities from the violence.
They were also told of arrests of entire families of suspects and corruption of the police, in return for largesse.
Women were seen in all the cells visited, sometimes with their young children, as well as defendants aged 9 to 18, and all this in unsustainable conditions of hygiene and promiscuity.
In his response to the findings of the Commission, the Oromiya Prosecutor General, however, stated that investigations had been carried out but that no violation of rights had been noted.
On the issue of human rights in Ethiopia, Reuters published on Friday
a long investigation
into the difficult situation of Tigrayans in the country since the start of the conflict in their home province, under the pretext of fighting against influence of the TPLF.
It details the arbitrary arrests and the bullying of which Tigrayans are victims in the street, in the workplace as in the administration.
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Ethiopia
Human rights