Ethiopia lessons in repression: violations of academic problems, HRW

III. BACKGROUND
Ethiopia is, by all accounts, a troubled country. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. 1 In a
region known for recurrent famines, failed rains in some areas and a global decline in the price of coffee led to yet
another humanitarian disaster in late 2002. With a population of nearly 65 million, Ethiopia is home to more than
eighty ethnic groups. The country is still reeling from the negative effects of its 1998-2000 border war with
Eritrea. Its neighbors in the Horn of Africa including Sudan and Somalia are hotbeds of insecurity.
The government of Ethiopia has failed to meet the basic needs of its population, to protect civilians from
ethnic or communal violence, and to impose accountability for human rights violations. Political leaders have
long sought to control and suppress members of the political opposition, journalists, intellectuals, and members of
certain ethnic groups. Students and teachers have been victims of repeated human rights abuses since the present
government came to power as well as under previous regimes.
Governance in Ethiopia
Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa. Despite a brief period of Italian occupation, it was
never colonized by Europeans. The current government, led by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic
Front (EPRDF), came to power in 1991 in an atmosphere of great hope, ending a decade of civil war and
overthrowing dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. A coalition of armed groups, including the Tigrean People’s
Liberation Front (TPLF) and Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), both ideologically driven Marxist
organizations, banded together to overthrow Mengistu’s “Derg” (an Amharic word meaning committee), which
had been in power since 1974. The Derg was responsible for human rights violations on an enormous scale
including the torture, murder, and “disappearance” of tens of thousands of Ethiopians during the 1976-1978
period dubbed the Red Terror. The Derg continued to commit widespread violations of human rights until its
defeat in 1991. 2 Prior to the Derg, Emperor Haile Selassie ruled the country for more than forty years. His
imperial rule was also characterized by widespread human rights abuses, autocratic control of the legislature and
judiciary, and maintenance of an essentially feudal system in the countryside.
The EPRDF shepherded Ethiopia through a four-year transition culminating in the adoption of a
constitution that has been praised internationally for its progressiveness and the holding of national elections. 3
Having shed its Marxist ideology to win the favor of international donors, the EPRDF, under the leadership of
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, now cites the promotion of “revolutionary democracy” and “ethnic federalism” as
its major policy goals. In 2001, a new ministry was created to oversee an extensive program of capacity-building
that aims to provide citizens and civil servants with the skills and knowledge necessary for sustainable
1 Ethiopia was ranked sixth from the bottom in 2002. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report
2002: Deepening democracy in a fragmented world, July 2002.
2 Africa Watch (now the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch), Evil Days (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991).
Thousands of people who were government officials under the Derg are currently in prison; some have been tried for crimes
of genocide and other human rights violations. For an analysis of the prosecutions, see Human Rights Watch/Africa,
“Ethiopia: Reckoning under the Law,” A Human Rights Watch Report, Vol. 6 No. 11, December 1994. At least 600 remain
in pretrial detention, although the Federal High Court has announced plans to complete their trials by September 2003.
“Court to Reach Verdict on All Genocide Charges This Year,” Ethiopian News Agency, October 2, 2002.
3 See Theodore M. Vestal, Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State (Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT: 1999), Chapter 9
“An Analysis of the Constitution of the FDRE.” On the transition more generally, see Part I: “The Transition Period, 1991-
1995.”
Human Rights Watch
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January 2003, Vol. 15,No. 2 (A)