December 12/2008

ON THE REPORTED RELEASE OF TAMRAT LAYNE

There are reports that Tamrat Layne, one time prime minster of the EPRDF regime in Ethiopia, may be released soon after purging 12 years of his eighteen years prison sentence. Tamrat was railroaded on a corruption charge by a regime headed by equally, if not more corrupt, people.

Tamrat Layne was denied due process and thrown into prison for political reasons. That he was one of the top officials of the regime and supported the human rights violations does not detract from the fact that he was a victim of the unjust system he helped set up and supported. That Tamrat Layne is to be freed on parole is good news in that a violation of right has at least on to an end on an individual level. However, many victims of injustice are still behind bars. Abera Yemane Ab is one case in point.  Berhanu Ijigu the disappeared journlist, Aberash Berta, Lemma Mekonen, Tesfaye Kebede, Wondu Sirak Desta, Eyob Tekabe, Mot Baynor, Tamrat Gizachew, Azanaw Demile,Tsegaye Gebre Medhin.Sitotaw Hussein, Amha Belete, Hagos Bezabih, Teklai , Demissie, and many more are unaccounted for. More than 35,000 political prisoners are suffering in Shoa Robit, Zwai, Dedesa, Bir Sheleko concentration camps. All over Ethiopia, torture is rampant, denial of the rule of law routine.

Our campaign calling for the release of ALL political prisoners must be intensified. Ethiopia is under the grip of a ruthless regime that routinely violates basic rights, a regime that continues to commit massacres. The struggle for the respect of human rights in Ethiopia must intensify and SOCEPP is committed to be part of this noble struggle.

Free all political prisoners in Ethiopia!!

SOCEPP