The Ethiopian government authorities are using the state of emergency to suppress “peaceful opposition”, according to the international human rights activist Amnesty International. Amnesty , February 11/2024. In his statement, he accused the Ethiopian authorities of using the state of emergency to suppress peaceful protests by arbitrarily arresting prominent politicians and journalists critical of the government.
The human rights defender also said that the state of emergency gave the government the power to detain suspects without a court order, impose curfews, restrict freedom of movement and ban public gatherings.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, said, “The Ethiopian government must stop using the previous strategy of denying basic rights under the pretext of emergency declarations.”
In the last five years, a state of emergency has been declared in the whole of Ethiopia and in certain regions, and since the end of last year, a state of emergency has been imposed in the Amhara region and Ethiopia as needed. Following the unrest in the Amhara region, the six-month state of emergency was extended by the House of Representatives last month for another four months.
Director General Tigere Chagutah added, “The extension of the state of emergency has not yet been published in the country’s Negarit newspaper. This lack of transparency is against the right to information and the principle of law, as Ethiopians cannot know whether their actions are in violation of the law or whether the law is applicable at the national level.
Amnesty said in a statement that five politicians and three journalists were detained without charge as a result of the state of emergency. Among the politicians who have been arrested by the organization are MP Christian Tadele and Addis Ababa City Council member Dr. Kasa Teshager, who were arrested from their homes when the state of emergency was announced in July last year.
A member of the Amhara Regional Council, Ato Yohannes Buayalue, also mentioned that he was arrested in Bahir Dar in early August, ten days after the declaration of the state of emergency.
Taye Denda, the former Minister of State for Peace, who was arrested two months ago; Amnesty also mentioned that he was arrested after calling the Prime Minister a “barbarian playing with human blood”.
The Oromia Regional Council, of which Ato Taye is a member, revoked Ato Taye’s immunity in a meeting it had been holding since last Sunday.
Amnesty added that when the state of emergency was extended at the end of January, the representative of the Amhara National Movement (ABN) in the House of Representatives, Dr. Dessalen Chane, was arrested. Among the five politicians, the media expert, Bekalu Alamreu, Abai Zejdu and Baili Manaye, were arrested after the declaration of emergency was mentioned in Amnesty’s statement.
Amnesty pointed out that there has been an increase in mass arrests in Addis Ababa and the Amhara region since the proclamation of the state of emergency in July of last year. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while giving an explanation to members of the House of Representatives on June 30, said that thousands of people were arrested under the state of emergency and released after receiving “training”. statement, Amnesty said that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the regime before him have been using the state of emergency to suppress peaceful protests and asked the government to stop this action.
