ETHIOPIA: Rights group concerned over student arrests

Photo: Amnesty International

ADDIS ABABA, 9 April 2002 (IRIN) - A leading human rights organisation has expressed concern about “hundreds” of students arrested during rioting in southern Ethiopia. Amnesty International believes the students may have been “tortured” or “ill-treated” after they were detained by security forces. The organisation – which campaigns on behalf of prisoners of conscience – said they should either be charged or immediately released. Hundreds of students started rioting after holding demonstrations demanding aid for farmers, hard-hit by plummeting coffee prices, in the Oromiya region of southwest Ethiopia. The Oromiya regional government has blamed the rebel Oromo Liberation Front for "orchestrating" the riots. "A number of school students in Ethiopia have been shot dead and hundreds arrested since March 25th 2002 as police used live ammunition to disperse anti-government demonstrations in southern Ethiopia which are still continuing," Amnesty International said. It also called on the public to lobby Ethiopian government officials to demand the early release of the students. The rioting began in Ambo, which is 80 km from the capital Addis Ababa, before spreading to the towns of Gimbi, Shambu and Nekemt. Regional officials say two students were killed in Shambu by an unidentified gunman "firing in self-defence". The OLF says at least 10 students were killed and accuses the Ethiopian government of "making a futile attempt to discolour the true political picture in Oromiya". "The student resistance against the Ethiopian oppression clearly demonstrates the level the Oromo struggle has reached," it said in a statement. Amnesty called for the students to be given immediate legal access and the right to see their families. It also urged the government to hold an independent and impartial inquiry into whether the security forces used excessive force. In a statement issued on Monday, the Oromiya regional authorities warned that "acts of terrorism" by the OLF would be "decisively dealt with", the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported. The OLF, which seeks self-determination for Oromiya, has been fighting government forces in the region since it left the Ethiopian government coalition in 1992.