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Activists in prison jumpsuits and handcuffs protest human rights abuses against the Oromo people in Ethiopia at a demonstration in London, October 10, 2020. © 2020 David Cliff/NurPhoto via AP
Last week, the Ethiopian government finally released seven long-detained senior members of the Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition political party.
Abdi Regassa, Dawit Abdeta, Lammi Begna, Michael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Gaada Oljira, and Gaada Gebissa should never have been arrested, let alone jailed. They spent four years in detention without charge while the government ignored multiple court orders for their release.
The authorities repeatedly violated their rights, as Human Rights Watch’s research found. For months at a time, they were forcibly disappeared or held incommunicado, leaving their lawyers and families with no knowledge of their whereabouts. Authorities frequently moved the men between makeshift and official detention sites, including a police training camp and a poultry farm where they were kept in a storage room with no light or water supply. Kenessa Ayana and Gaada Gebissa suffered serious health conditions in detention.
Their family members and supporters have welcomed their release, but the circumstances that resulted in their arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention remain, putting all politicians at risk. The government should provide prompt and adequate redress.
The Ethiopian government needs to address the broader issue of ensuring that those engaged in peaceful political activity need not worry about putting their lives and liberty at risk. In April, Batte Urgessa, a colleague of the detained men who had campaigned tirelessly for their release, was brutally murdered shortly after being released from detention.
Ethiopia’s partners, including the United States, have welcomed the release of the opposition figures, but they should go further. They should underscore the illegality of the detentions and press Ethiopian authorities to end the practice of arbitrary arrest and detention without charge as well as the enforced disappearances of government critics, both of which remain common in Ethiopia today.
