The following is a Press Release from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).

Tuesday, 04 May 2010

Political Violence Intensifies on the Eve of the Election

Targets Are Candidates of Opposition Parties

As the election date in this month of May approaches, the ruling EPRDF party of Ethiopia has unabatedly continued its violence against civilians; candidates of the opposition political parties becoming the major targets in the most recent weeks.

According to information obtained by HRLHA through its correspondents, hundreds of election candidates of the opposition WFDO [Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement - OFDM] and OPC [Oromo People's Congress] parties from all corners of Oromia have been arrested and sent to prisons, including in the western Oromia zone of Illubbabor. According to the HRLHA reporter, this particular political violence by the ruling party covers the twenty four woredas in the zone; and all the candidates that the two parties have prepared to field for the election are presumed to have been apprehended and literally prevented from running for the election. All the arrestees from all the 24 woredas have been taken to Bishari prison in the provincial capital of Mettu.

HRLHA has learnt that it has been very difficult even for close relatives and friends of the prisoners to visit them in the detention centre; as any person who communicates with those detainees for any purpose would be met with the same fate – imprisonment. As a result, it has been difficult to know the situations of the detainees in the prison. HRLHA considers them incommunicado political prisoners. The threat has deprived, according to the HRLHA reporter, the relatives and friends of the detainees of the courage to disclose information about the detainees to any kind of third party, be they legal advisors, media reporters or human rights agents.

Nevertheless, the HRLHA reporter has managed to obtain the names of the following few prisoners currently held at Bishari prison in Mettu:

In the mean time, the ruling party has been engaged in a full scale of propaganda campaign by temporarily closing big institutions, such as schools and continuously calling public gatherings. According to the HRLHA reporter in western Oromia zone of Illubbabor, at those public gatherings, open threats are made by the cadres of the ruling party against those voting for any other political party, except for the EPRDF member organizations, such as the OPDO. Simultaneously, all other non-EPRDF parties, the WDFO and the OPC, in particular, are being portrayed as anti-people, anti-peace and anti-democracy.

Given the current political developments in Ethiopia, HRLHA believes that both the principles of democracy and democratic elections have already been made null and void by the ruling EPRDF party; as it is preparing to compete against itself by paralyzing and silencing opposition political organizations by means of detention, defamation, threat, etc.

The HRLHA is a non-political and non-profit organization that attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It works on defending fundamental human rights including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It also works on raising the awareness of individuals about their own fundamental human rights and that of others. It encourages the observances as well as due processes of law. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.

- The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa