Ethiopia lessons in repression: violations of academic problems, HRW

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parliament of abdicating its responsibility by remaining silent in the face of reports of killings in Oromia and Awassa. 162 162 “Is there an end to all this?” The Addis Tribune. Human Rights Watch 31 January 2003, Vol. 15,No. 2 (A)
V. DENIAL OF TEACHERS’ FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION It is a professional association, not a political party! But I don’t know what will happen in the future. There is a risk that a civil servant can lose his job for opposing education policy. In the [July 2002 mandatory teachers] conference they said that all civil servants are employed at the will of the government and the ruling party. —Ethiopian teacher, July 30, 2002. The Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), essentially banned by the government, has continued to struggle to protect of the rights of teachers in the face of sustained harassment for the past ten years. In addition to ETA’s vocal criticism of education policy, the organization’s membership includes some of Ethiopia’s most influential citizens, and apparently is considered as threatening for this reason. A foreign professor currently residing and teaching in Ethiopia explained why, in his opinion, teachers have been singled out for persecution. “Teachers are one of the largest groups in Ethiopia, the best educated, and the most liberal.” 163 ETA is active in ten of twelve regional states, with the exceptions of Tigray and Somali regions, and has 80,000 registered members out of an estimated 120,000 teachers in more than 6,000 schools nationwide. 164 The Ethiopian government’s curtailment of educators’ freedom of association has not escaped international censure. Since 1996, the government’s continuing interference with the ETA’s freedom of association has elicited criticism from the International Labor Organization (ILO) every year. In addition, on several occasions the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has criticized the government’s mistreatment of the ETA, the resulting impact on educational policy, and the poor status of Ethiopian teachers. 165 In March 1993—less than one year after the ETA submitted a memorandum to the Transitional Government of Ethiopia outlining its demands for better treatment of teachers, including that teachers participate in shaping education—the government registered a new association under the same name as ETA and anointed it the official teachers’ union. 166 Since then, the government has continuously pressured teachers to participate in the “new” ETA rather than the old one, frozen the original ETA’s assets, and arrested numerous teachers and ETA leaders including then Acting Secretary General Shimalis Zewdie and president of the association Dr. Taye Woldesmayet in 1996. Assefa Maru, acting director of ETA after Taye’s imprisonment, was assassinated in May 1997. 167 Shimalis died in April 1999. His health had reportedly been weakened when he was detained yet again and spent one month in prison without charge in September 1998 for refusing to hand over ETA offices and papers to the new ETA. 168 Dr. Taye, who had been in prison since 1996 and was convicted of conspiracy against the state in 1999, was released in May 2002 after an appellate court reduced his sentence to less than the time he had already served. 169 Since then, Dr. Taye has declared that he intends to remain active. “Unless the life of teachers is improved, there is no hope for our children,” he told the BBC. 170 Taye was first arrested by the current government in 1992, on the spurious charge of having fomented religious strife. The arrest came shortly after he 163 Human Rights Watch interview, Addis Ababa, July 18, 2002. 164 Human Rights Watch interview with Abate Angore, July 15, 2002. 165 Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, Report of the Seventh Session (2000), Appendix C. 166 In some cases, the new ETA even acts on the government’s behalf to intimidate teachers exercising their political rights. See, e.g., confidential communication dated April 25, 2002 (in Amharic). 167 Human Rights Watch, “Curtailment of Rights,” pp. 36-41. 168 Education International, “Death of ETA Acting General Secretary Shimalis Zewdie,” April 29, 1999. 169 Amnesty International, “Dr. Taye Wolde-Semayat Released!” May 14, 2002; Nita Bhalla, “Freed Ethiopian dissident to fight on,” BBC News, June 11, 2002. 170 Human Rights Watch interview, Addis Ababa, July 20, 2002; Bhalla, “Freed Ethiopian Dissident. . .” Human Rights Watch 32 January 2003, Vol. 15,No. 2 (A)
Page 1 and 2: ETHIOPIA 350 Fifth Ave 34 th Floor
Page 3 and 4: ETHIOPIA: TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS AN
Page 5 and 6: Human Rights Watch I. SUMMARY Being
Page 7 and 8: II. RECOMMENDATIONS To Government o
Page 9 and 10: III. BACKGROUND Ethiopia is, by all
Page 11 and 12: police arrested an Addis Ababa busi
Page 13 and 14: ultimately waged a successful civil
Page 15 and 16: IV. SUPPRESSION OF STUDENT ACTIVISM
Page 17 and 18: The Oromia State Council also repor
Page 19 and 20: AAU Student Strike, April 2001 In t
Page 21 and 22: Amhara student, “Even some Tigrea
Page 23 and 24: Subsequent Arrests Police silenced
Page 25 and 26: Most of the hundreds of others deta
Page 27 and 28: The next major confrontation betwee
Page 29 and 30: the disputes. On the contrary, they
Page 31: Ethiopian security forces, as descr
Page 35 and 36: Addis Ababa wrote letters to the ol
Page 37 and 38: The teachers in Sendafa were outrag
Page 39 and 40: When the university was first creat
Page 41 and 42: the faculty to teach a human rights
Page 43 and 44: The student union first published i
Page 45 and 46: VIII. ETHIOPIA: A CASE STUDY OF VIO
Page 47 and 48: In his “Thematic Report on Freedo
Page 49 and 50: academic freedom, and freedom of as
Page 51 and 52: intentional lethal use of firearms
Page 53 and 54: X. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was

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