June 8, 1999
REPRESSION INTENSIFIED IN THE RURAL AREAS
PERSISTENT report reaching SOCEPP affirm that the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is engaged in an ongoing repression of peasants in many areas of Shoa, Oromia, and the Southern region. Thousands of peasants (including students and teachers in the rural towns) have found themselves in prison either
- for opposing or resisting the ongoing forced recruitment into the army and the militia,
- or because they had allegedly failed to pay close to 1000 Birr (a huge amount for the oridnary Ethiopian peasant) which the government is demanding from them as debt incurred when they bought (from the government) fertilizer for three years. Reliable reports indicate that the government forced the peasants to buy the fertilizer in the first place since the supply was itself controlled by a government owned enterprise.
The selective repression of peasants linked to the non payment of debts is not seen when it comes to the forced recruitment since our reports confirm that young Tigreans are being rounded up in Tigrai and many have landed in prison for resisting the measure in one way or another.
Argatchew Berara,Regassa Tulu, Hailu Degefa,Tsegaye Demissie, Gurmu Shambuna, Weizero (Mrs.) Abonesh Shoda, Terumi Dadi, Weizero Datchu Shene, Tefera Wake, Ambatchew Ayele, Asrat Beletkatchew, and hundreds of others are presently being detained on the above mentioned grounds. The repression is continuing and convulsing rural Ethiopia which is already gripped by famine and the effects of the war with Eritrea.
SOCEPP calls on the EPRDF government to:
- release all the detained peasants;
- release all those detained for resisting the rounding up for the militia/army;
- cease the violation of the rights of the people as a whole since the repression has been intensified in many areas on the grounds that the government is engaged in a war with Eritrea and certain opposition forces.
SOCEPP
