December 13, 1999

 H.E. Commissioner Sadaka Ogata,

 UNHCR, Geneve.

 Respected Commissioner, SOCEPP is addressing this brief letter to Your Excellency to register its strong protest to the reported statements by the UNHCR concerning the status of Ethiopian refugees in the Sudan and other neighboring countries. To declare that the Ethiopian refugees in these areas (whether they fled their country prior to 1991 or after the takeover of power by the EPRDF government) can and should go back to their country is to show little or no understanding of the prevailing situation in Ethiopia. The EPRDF government of Prime Minster Mles Zenawi routinely violates the rights of the people. It is repressive and its ethnic politics has led to the virtual designation of millions of people as enemies of the government. Summary executions, wide spread arrests, detention in inhumane conditions and secret (ghost )prisons, torture and disappearances, denial of due process of law, repression against journalists and civic associations: name it and the government in Addis Abeba is found guilty of all by commission. No wonder if people flee into exile or refuse to return to Ethiopia. Moreover, the government has even crossed borders to murder refugees (Jattene Ali and Afework Alemseged in Nairobi), to kidnap (many from Djibouti and the Sudan), and it has also handed over to Djibouti bona fide refugees from there. SOCEPP had repeatedly called on the UNHCR to protect the refugees in the area. Any action that leads to the decision to send back refugees to Ethiopia when they do not want to is a violation of their rights. Any statement which calls on possible resettlement countries not to consider these refugees as worthy cases is also an injustice. At present, Ethiopian refugees in the Sudan are about to be sacrificed for a political alliance that has been formed between the two governments. The UNHCR should do well to focus on this and to protect the thousands of refugees there. Events in Ethiopia do show that more and more people will flee from a government that they consider very repressive and anti-democratic.

thanking you, Commissioner,

Ezra Nathaniel SOCEPP/BERLIN