By Coalition for HR 5680
January 23, 2007
At UCLA -- Visiting Inquiry Commission officials (from left)
Mitiku Teshome, Alemayehu Zemedkun, and (first, right)
Frehiwot Teshome display their Honorary Citation presented
to them by Karen Bass, Majority Leader of the California State
Assembly on behalf of the California Legislature.
(picture courtesy of Ethiomedia)
LOS ANGELES - Members of the Inquiry Commission on tour in the West Coast of the United States were on Sunday accorded a standing ovation by a crowd of Ethiopians who welcomed the guests at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The honored group, which arrived in L.A. after stopovers in Sacramento and San Jose in Caliornia, is composed of Inquiry Commission Chair Frehiwot Samuel, Inquiry Commission member Mitiku Teshome, and Attorney Alemayehu Zemedkun.
Judge Frehyihot, who was the Chairman of the Inquiry Commission that was setup to investigate into the post-election killings in 2005 in Ethiopia, detailed the methodology the Inquiry Commission used to perform its investigation. He explained that the Inquiry Commission was given limited authority by the Parliament to address two questions: 1) whether security forces used excessive force on June 8, November 1-10 and 14-16, 2005 to control demonstrating crowds in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region and Amhara regional States, and 2) whether there were human rights violations arising from the use of force in violation of the Ethiopian constitution and the rule of law. The Commission was also given the responsibility to investigate damage to property form the various incidents.
Judge Frehyihot said that the Commission in doing its investigation visited various health care providers unannounced and acquired medical charts, preventing any opportunity to falsify or tamper with medical records, and held discussions with over 1,000 Edder leaders (neighborhood funeral arrangement groups). The Commission members also visited the demonstration sites, other locations where alleged explosives had detonated and alleged bank robberies occurred. They spoke with hundreds of witnesses.
He said the Commission spared no effort to discover the truth and used expert police investigators, informational questionnaires, checked daily police logs, obtained expert analysis of property damage allegedly caused in the disturbances, held discussions with bank officials, physicians and hospital administrators and officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Police Commission, interviewed prisoners at various locations, made 122 Radio and TV announcements to the public, collected evidence from non-governmental organizations, including the Ethiopian Human Right Council and examined autopsy photographs of victims and security forces. He said the Commission received special technical training by foreign experts to perform their duties.
Judge Frehyihot said police officials and prison administrators were not at all cooperative in the investigations. The police hospital gave the Commission forged documents about patients who had suffered bullet wounds in the demonstrations claiming that the injured patients had been treated for headaches and stomach aches and released. The police could produce no evidence to show that the demonstrators killed security forces.
He said that their investigation revealed that the demonstrators used stones and sticks. No demonstrator used any firearm. The security forces used firearms, police batons and tear gas.
He said that the Commission found on a vote of 8-2 that the security forces had used excessive force in the killing of 193 persons and injury of 763 others. Dozens of prisoners were shot in Kality prison and buried in mass graves because they had allegedly tried to make a mass escape. He described how 1500 bullets were fired into Kality prison cells, and noted that the commissioners saw 46 bullets on one jail door alone. He said, “The security guard accompanied us at the time of our visit to the prison and proudly showed us what he had done.” He described an incident in which a prison security officer chopped the finger of a prisoner, and the case of Weizero Etenesh Yilma who was shot dead when she followed her arrested husband. He said, “The chief of the command post of the security at that location mocked the Commission that W/o Etenesh Yilma had died from a heart attack seeing her husband being taken away.”
Ato Mitiku discussed the events that took place after the Commission voted on its findings. He said electricity was cut off to the town of Awassa and the local offices of the Commission to prevent the computer from being used in preparation of the final report. The following day, security officials swarmed the offices of the Commission. There were frantic calls from the Prime Minister’s office, and members were under surveillance.
Ato Mitiku said that they were under continuous surveillance by security officials once it became known that a finding unfavorable to the government would be made. The Prime Minister’s advisor tried to pressure Commission members to change their minds about their findings. In early, July 2005, Commission members were called to the Prime Minister’s office who asked them to reconsider their decisions. Sensing their refusal, he launched into a 2-hour lecture on how excessive force should be defined and how the proclamation should be interpreted. He told them to follow the work of the Commission in the Gambella case.
Ato Alemayehu spoke about his expereinces when he was directed to bring civil action against the kality defnednats. He said shortly, after the November 1, 2005 massacre, Dr. Hashim Mohammed, the Minister of Justice, directed him to bring civil action against the jailed Kinijit leaders and others. He was told that the Prime Minster wanted the civil action instituted.
Ato Alemayehu said he refused to file a suit because there was no evidence connecting the protesters to the Kinijit leaders and others to damages that may have been caused by the protesters. He said in November 2005, these leaders were already in custody. that these individuals were in any way responsible for the alleged damages which occurred after they were arrested. He said that because the evidence for the civil case is so weak that if the government lost its case, it could end up paying millions of dollars to the defendants. He strongly advised against the suit. He submitted his resignation hoping to move on with his life. He said they first accepted his resignation, appointed theor own person and within a day they notified him that they were not accpeting his resignation. He managed to go into exile shortly thereafter.
Judge Frehyihot, Ato Mitiku and Ato Alemayehu were asked very thoughtful and challenging questions. They answered the questions thoroughly and without reservation. They related numerous anecdotal experiences they had while performing their investigations and duties. They recounted many shocking moments, including incidents of attempts by officials to pressure them from making their findings public, and promises of financial rewards and threats on their lives to make them alter their findings. They also recounted humorous anecdotes in the way the Prime Minister sought to talk down to them.
The event was moderated by Prof. Al Mariam. In introducing the guests he asked the gathered crowd to stand and observe a moment of “silent meditation and prayer in remembrance of 193 Ethiopian children, men and women killed by government security forces, the leaders of the Coalition for Democracy and Unity, human rights defenders and for all those who continue to be victims of torture and human rights abuses in Ethiopia.”
In introducing the speakers, Prof. Al told the gathering, “My friends, someone is getting away with murder. Not one murder, and not two murders. Not even 10 or 20, or 50 murders. Not a 100 murders or a 150. Just for starters, someone is getting away with 193 murders.” He said, “These murder victims are not some nameless and faceless souls you read about in International human rights reports. They were somebody’s son, daughter, father, mother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandmother or great grandmother.”
Prof. Al recognized the great contribution of Judge Woldemichael Meshesha: “The witness who carried the evidence on his back and crossed the wilderness to bring the truth to us is not here today. At every checkpoint, he resolved his life was over because if any one had discovered the evidence he was carrying, that would have been the end for him. Though he could not be here in person, he is with us in spirit.” A fourth empty chair was left at the head table in recognition of his absence.
In stylized court room style, Prof. Al said, “Today we are here to hear the truth about the deaths of so many of these young men and women, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers who speak to us from their graves and tell their stories. And no tribunal, no forum of justice can have more convincing witnesses than the witnesses we have for the defense today. No witness can speak more eloquently in the defense of the thousands who have been killed, jailed and tortured, than the witnesses we have here today.” Then he read the names of a number of victims who were killed by government security forces, ranging in age from 14 to 75.
The Ethiopians who attended the event showed their heartfelt appreciation not only through eloquent comments and probing questions. They also provided significant material support.
A DVD of the event is expected to be released in the not too distant future. The entire proceeds of the DVD sales will go to provide support to Inquiry Commission members in exile and others who have fled Ethiopia on the grounds of conscience.
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Coalition for HR 5680
E-mail: passhr5680@hr5680.org
Phone:(323) 988-5688
Fax: (323) 924-5563