February 4, 2004

SOCEPP is once again calling for the immediate release of the university students who have been rounded up in big numbers and jailed. The action targeted Oromo students and was discriminatory in that it was ethnically motivated.

Many of the students have been released from Kolfe and other detention centers but reliable sources insist that many more have been taken to secret detention centers. At least 18 students are still kept in Kolfe and the police have brought before a judge only 14 accusing them of cuasing a riot and damages. The incident at the university involved Oromo students backing the regime and others opposed to the recent decision to transfer the capital of the Oromiya region/Kilil/ from Addis Abeba to Adama /Nazreth/.

The EPRDF in power officially follows ethnic politics as its guiding policy and in this respect has been justifiably accused of ethnic discrimination, of fanning division and conflicts among the people. The recent massacre of the Anuak people in Gambella is a result of this discriminatory politics that violates the rights of the people and endangers their lives. In educational establishments too, the regime applies its ethnic division policy and has pitted students against one another. Many local and international political groups and bodies, including SOCEPP, had demanded the revocation of the ethnic politics also.

The detained students should be released and all students dismissed from the university should be reintegrated.

SOCEPP