The Ethiopian Commission for Human Rights denounces “multiple human rights violations” and requires the immediate release of these people.
Le Monde with AFP
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), an official organization, demanded the immediate release of 8,560 Ethiopians from the Tigré, a region in the federal government on Wednesday, June 29. According to the EHRC, public institution but statutory independent, these people – men, women and children – have been selected since December 2021, “without legal and discriminatory basis”, in two camps in Semera, capital of the AFAR region , region neighboring the tiger, families being separated, men and women not being held together.
These individuals “have been the subject of arbitrary and illegal arrests based on their ethnic affiliation […] and should therefore be released immediately,” said commission chief Daniel Bekele in a statement. These arrests were carried out in the districts of Abala, Konaba and Berhale, border workers of the Tiger, “on the initiative of security officials of the AFAR region” and “in collaboration with local civilian officials” of the various administrative levels, according to the ‘Ehrc: “The Tigreans were first sorted and then transported in vehicles” to the camps.
Managers of the AFAR region said “restricting the movements of individuals for their own safety as well as to make a filtering of those suspected of crimes or representing a risk for security”, according to the EHRC, to whom people retained said the being “against their will”. Several people have died of illness, as medical care and humanitarian aid in the camps are very limited; And it is prohibited for those who are held there to go to a health establishment except to give birth, underlined the commission.
“no legal basis”
“This situation has no legal basis, in addition to submitting those living in camps to multiple human rights violations. It must therefore stop immediately and without preconditions”, demanded Mr. Bekele.
“If some people want to stay in the camps until their return home, it must be of their own free will and without restrictions on their movements” and all the necessary help must be given to them, as well as those wishing Go home or go elsewhere, he added. “As for those reasonably suspected of offenses”, they can only be held “via regular criminal procedure and only on the basis of a court decision,” said the boss of the EHRC.
The Tiger conflict began in November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the Federal Army to dislodge the leaders of the region – from the Liberation Front of the Tiger People (TPLF) -, who disputed his authority and which he accused of having attacked bases of the federal army on the spot. The conflict then overflowed in the 2021 in the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar after the TPLF resumed control of almost all of the tiger.