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 Human Rights Watch Report Critical of Ethiopia
January 21, 2010 -- Human Rights Watch (HRW) annaul report says Ethiopia is on a deteriorating human rights trajectory as parliamentary elections approach in 2010. "These will be the first national elections since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in the deaths of at least 200 protesters, many of them victims of excessive use of force by the police. Broad patterns of government repression have prevented the emergence of organized opposition in most of the country. In December 2008 the government re-imprisoned opposition leader Birtukan Midekssa for life after she made remarks that allegedly violated the terms of an earlier pardon.", the report states.
"In 2009 the government passed two pieces of legislation that codify some of the worst aspects of the slide towards deeper repression and political intolerance. A civil society law passed in January is one of the most restrictive of its kind, and its provisions will make most independent human rights work impossible. A new counterterrorism law passed in July permits the government and security forces to prosecute political protesters and non-violent expressions of dissent as acts of terrorism."
"As Ethiopia heads toward nationwide elections, the government continues to clamp down on the already limited space for dissent or independent political activity. The space for independent civil society activity in Ethiopia, already extremely narrow, shrank dramatically in 2009. The Ethiopian government continues its longstanding practice of using lengthy periods of pretrial and pre-charge detention to punish critics and opposition activists, even where no criminal charges are ultimately pursued."
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has strongly denounced the HRW report. Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal rejected the findings, telling Reuters: "Most of this report is based on fabrications from the Medrek (opposition party) and the ONLF rebel group.
"We don't have any policy of suppressing opposition. But nobody is above the rule of law in Ethiopia, whether members of the opposition or not."
(2010/01/22 - HRW) |
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| 1/22：Human Rights Watch Report Critical of Ethiopia (HRW) |
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