April 26, 2001

 UPDATE ON THE REPRESSION

 As the student protests continue, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has stepped up its repression and violations of rights all over the country.

* When prisoners in Nazreth protested against inhumane conditions of detentions, 14 of them have been summarily shot dead last week.

 * The government police have taken out from the district police stations in Addis Abeba hundreds of prisoners (including detained leaders of legal political organizations) and taken them to undisclosed places. It is suspected that some of them may have been taken to the notorious Zwai concentration camp.

 * All those detained at Sendafa, Shegolle Police Training Center,Kolfe,etc.. have been treated brutally.

* The government continues to rely on force and violence to respond to public dissent. Meanwhile, SOCEPP has written to the Kenyan government asking for the immediate release of Iticha Amenu and Geremew Woubishet, leaders of the Ethiopian Refugees' Association at Kakuma (Kenya) who are being held at the Lodwar prison.

The refugees were legally trying to express support to the students in Addis Abeba and other places. The government of Prime Minster Meles Zenawi, which is in the grips of a serious political crisis, is obviously trying to cast a stable and forceful image by resorting to violent suppression of peaceful demonstrators. Dozens of lives have been lost and much property damaged as this policy is pursued. SOCEPP calls on the government to stop the repression and to accept the justified demands of the students for their rights. The attempt to force students to sign "I am guilty" declarations" also hankers to Stalinist practices that should have no place today.

SOCEPP