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<text>
<title>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992: Ethiopia
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992
Africa Watch: Ethiopia
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Human Rights Developments
</p>
<p> The story of human rights in Ethiopia during 1991 falls into
two distinct phases: before May 28, the day on which the
government of former President Mengistu Haile Mariam
surrendered, and after May 29, when the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front (EPLF) took control of Eritrea and a government
headed by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF) seized power in the remainder of the country. While
human rights abuses occurred on both sides of the dividing day,
they were very different in nature. Overall, the human rights
situation in Ethiopia is now enormously improved.
</p>
<p> The year opened with the end of a prolonged lull in the civil
war, in which neither side had made much progress for about ten
months. Still, abuses had continued, notably the bombing of
civilian targets by the Ethiopian air force and violations
associated with forcible conscription into the Ethiopian armed
forces. Violations associated with forced conscription included
the use of press gangs and other arbitrary and violent means of
recruitment without due process or an opportunity for
conscripts to communicate with their families; the maltreatment
of conscripts and summary execution of those attempting to
escape; and the conscription of children under age fifteen.
</p>
<p> Famine conditions persisted in several parts of the country.
The Joint Relief Partnership of the Ethiopian churches was
successfully transporting food across the battle lines into
EPRDF-held Tigray, but the government continued to bomb relief
convoys moving across the border from Sudan. In January, the
EPLF, the government and the United Nations belatedly agreed on
a procedure for transporting food from the EPLF-held port of
Massawa to the government-held city of Asmara.
</p>
<p> A particularly egregious abuse by the air force occurred on
May 8, when fighter-bombers attacked the small Tigrayan market
town of Sheraro, killing fifteen and wounding ninety civilians.
Sheraro lay several hundred miles behind the front line and
thus had no military significance; it did, however, have
symbolic significance as the first town occupied by the Tigrayan
rebels in the 1970s.
</p>
<p> In late February, the war suddenly escalated when the EPRDF
launched a major military assault on government positions in
the northwest. The attack was stunningly successful and set in
motion a relentless advance on Addis Ababa, which culminated in
the flight of President Mengistu on May 21 and the capture of
the city a week later. The advance saw abuses, principally by
the government. These included the summary execution of over
120 prisoners in Gonder prison, the bombing of civilian targets
and the burning of villages. On the rebel side, there were
reports of detentions of suspected political opponents and the
forcible dispersal of hostile demonstrations. The advance also
brought the EPRDF into conflict with the guerrilla forces of the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), a conflict which
continued until the end of the year.
</p>
<p> A joint EPRDF-Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) force also
approached the camps, where about 270,000 southern Sudanese
refugees were seeking shelter from the war in Sudan. As the
fighting approached, the refugees fled back into Sudan,
creating a humanitarian emergency. While the camps were never
actually attacked by the EPRDF or the OLF, a general breakdown
in law and order in the border area led to killings by local
militias. The refugees were also subject to abuses by the
Sudanese government, notably aerial attacks (see chapter below
on Sudan).
</p>
<p> In Eritrea, the EPLF advanced simultaneously on the port of
Assab and the city of Asmara. EPLF shelling of Asmara hit a
relief airplane and forced the premature ending of a U.N.
relief airlift. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian army in Asmara refused
to distribute the international relief brought to the city from
Massawa, evidently holding it as a reserve for its troops.
Government soldiers launched deliberate reprisals against
civilians, such as the execution of prisoners in response to
successful EPLF operations. There were also numerous instances
of soldiers killing local residents and looting their homes.
The EPLF intensified its campaign of assassinating alleged
security-force collaborators, claiming that the people killed
had been previously tried in absentia and warned to cease their
criminal activities.
</p>
<p> The escalation of the war saw a further crackdown on civil
and political rights in government-controlled areas. A notable
abuse was the forcible conscription of school and university
students to the armed forces. Students were simply rounded up
and bused off.
</p>
<p> The EPRDF occupied Addis Ababa on May 28. About seven to
eight hundred civilians were killed in the occupation, mostly
because of explosions at ammunition dumps. During the
occupation of Addis Ababa, about four to five hundred civilians
were killed when an ammunition dump exploded on the western
periphery of the city. The civilians were apparently engaged in
looting the arms depot when a member of the EPRDF fired in their
direction, apparently to deter them, and set off the explosion.
About two hundred people, combatants and civilians, were killed
in the last battles in the city as Mengistu's final loyal forces
fought to the last. On June 4, in an act of sabotage, another
ammunition dump was exploded, almost certainly by supporters of
the former regime, and one hundred were killed and 130 wounded.
</p>
<p> While occupying the city, the EPRDF was confronted with
several demonstrations. Many of the demonstrators were armed
with stones, and a few with firearms. The EPRDF combatants had
neither training in riot control nor appropriate equipment, and
used their firearms on several occasions. In a series of
incidents, at least two EPRDF members and ten demonstrators were
killed.
</p>
<p> Although large-scale war has now ceased, there have been
continuing disturbances in several parts of the country,
notably the Afar lowlands and the Oromo and Issa areas of the
southeast. Some of these have involved significant loss of
civilian life. The underlying reason for the continuing violence
has been the century-old legacy of bitterness felt by
marginalized people toward their Amhara rulers. The immediate
spark has been disagreements over whether EPRDF or local forces
should police certain areas. A major dispute in Dire Dawa, in
eastern Ethiopia, was between the Oromo and Issa communities
over land rights, which led to several dozen deaths. These
disputes have led to friction between the EPRDF and the OLF,
Issa and Afar organizations.
</p>
<p> Upon seizing power, the EPRDF immediately instituted a number
of welcome measures, such as releasing all political detainees,
dissolving the security organizations of the previous regime,
and promising that those primarily responsible for gross abuses
of human rights under that regime would be brought to justice,
with due process and in the presence of international observers.
In July, a national conference was held with most groups
represented, with the notable exception of the EPRP. A Council
of Representatives was convened and a Transitional Charter was
adopted. Democratic elections were promised within two years.
These steps signified the most serious attempt in fifteen years
to start a peaceful political process that could bring together
the disparate groups of Ethiopia. Progress has been hampered by
the lack of a democratic tradition, considerable distrust among
groups, and the EPRDF's status as the only group with a
sufficiently clear and comprehensive command structure to
operate as a functioning political party. Partly because of
this organizational disparity, and partly because of its
Marxist-Leninist background, the EPRDF has to a large extent
monop