Sub-Saharan Africa is facing a growing trend of evaporating
political space. Non-governmental organizations are being heavily and often
violently restricted, and newspapers, bloggers and other voices
of dissent or criticism are being silenced or intimidated into exile.
In some countries such as Uganda,
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, heads of state are rewriting
their constitutions to eliminate term limits, in the process using security
forces to squash protests from both political opposition and civil society. In
other countries such as in Angola, the governments make use of their control over their
judiciariesto intimidate or bury critics and youth activists in
legal processes that cripple them financially or trap in never ending trials.
Elsewhere, governments invoke the specter of terrorism and
threats to national security as justification for passing sweeping laws whose
interpretation empowers them to impose draconian penalties on oppositional
parties and civil society, with little regard for international standards of due
process or international and regional rights standards on freedom of
expression, association and assembly.
In several countries government
authorities have cracked down on nonviolent protests with violence. On Monday
May 17, the Kenyan security forces brutally beat
nonviolent demonstrations organized by the opposition Coalition
for Reform and Democracy (CORD), led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to
demand the dismissal of the members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission.
Protestors run from water canons after Kenya’s opposition supporters demonstrated in Nairobi, on May 16, 2016. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
On the 6th of May the Ugandan
police beat demonstrators who had gathered after it was announced that
opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye would face the death
penaltyfor charges of treason.
Ethiopia has been at the forefront of
this wave of violent intolerance. Members of the Oromo ethnic group are facing
a brutal
crackdown following initially peaceful protests that started in
the fall of 2015. Some estimates place the number of persons killed at the
beginning of 2016 at over 400. Thousands have been detained and hundreds of
homes and businesses have been destroyed. The violent crackdown is consistent
with the violent security force crackdowns in Oromia in 2014 and in Konso in
March 2016 as well as against other protests.
Closing of Political Space in Ethiopia
This is the reality facing Ethiopians whom the government
designates opponents of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF). The government heavily restricts freedom of
expression and association, and severely constrains political space, especially
for civil society organizations.
In the
2015 elections, the EPRDF and its allies claimed all of 547 seats in
Parliament amid concern over the lack of conditions for free and fair
elections. It has become virtually impossible to question, challenge or protest
against any action of the government. According to the World Justice Project Rule of Law
Index, Ethiopia ranks 91 out of 102 countries with severe
constraints on government powers and fundamental rights. Freedom
House also rated the country “not free”. Ethiopia scores 6 out
of 7, on a scale of 1-7 from free to not free, on both civil liberties and
political rights. Civil society organizations have been forced to close,
thousands of political prisoners are languishing in prisons, and human rights
defenders who dare to speak out are forcibly imprisoned and beaten.
The use of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation Act continues to be
used to silence journalists and other critics who dare to speak out. People
like noted journalist Eskinder Nega, Oromo leader Bekele Gerba, and Anuak Land
rights activist Okello Akway Ochalla are all behind bars and charged with
terrorism for opposing the government policies. They are just three individual
stories of many who are suffering under the Ethiopian government’s crackdown on
human rights.
Eskinder Nega was sentenced to 18 years in
jail in 2012 for fulfilling his role as a journalist and questioning the use of
the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to arrest those that criticized the
government. This was not the first time Eskinder had faced unjust
retaliation due to his refusal to be silenced. Eskinder’s son Nafkot was
born in prison in 2005 when both Eskinder and hjs wife Serkalem were imprisoned
for criticizing the government’s killing of nearly 200 people
in post-election protests in 2005. Four years later after he was unjustly
convicted and imprisoned once again, Eskinder Nega still languishes behind bars
and more convictions have been handed down using the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation.
Bekele Gerba, a prominent leader
of the Oromo Federalist Party, visited the United States last August after his
release prior to President Obama’s visit to Ethiopia. He told NPR that Obama’s
visit to Ethiopia last summer was a trip that sent the wrong message of solidarity
to a repressive government with very little support from its own people. He
also expresseduncertainty
in regards to his freedom when he returned back to Ethiopia. A
few months after his return Bekele was arrested on December 23, 2015 and held
in a 4m X 5m cell with 21 others. Bekele and his counterparts were charged
on April 22, 2016 with various provisions set forth in
the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. This charge is clearly meant to silence
him and others who dare to criticize and oppose the current regime.
Okello Akway Ochalla, a Norwegian
citizen, was abducted from Juba, South Sudan, two years ago and ended up in an
Addis Ababa court where he was
sentenced to nine years in prison on April 27, 2016. Okello was
the governor of the Gambella region, a key location of land grabbing and forced
relocation by the Ethiopian Government, before escaping the country following a
massacre of his people, the Anuaks, in 2003. Abducted from South Sudan in
2014 and brought back to Ethiopia, Okello was charged under the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation for speaking to the international media about the massacre of his
people and the ongoing struggle of the people of Gambella. Rights groups are
alarmed that the primary evidence used to convict Okello was a confession
obtained while Okello was in solitary confinement. There have been reports that
Okello was beaten and tortured. His trial highlights serious failures of due
process and the rule of law in the Ethiopian courts.
More laws are being drafted by
the Ethiopian government that confirm it will continue to suppress opposition
and dissent. Current government policies of making access to education,
government jobs and services contingent on party membership, forcing citizens
to undergo “policy trainings” of indoctrination, and widespread monitoring of
all public spaces has created an environment of fear with no room for public
debate.
Despite all this, the ruling ERPD
still enjoys support from the international community. The United States
recently renewed a new defense
and security cooperation agreement with Ethiopia, which is
being trumpeted as U.S. support of the Ethiopian government’s policies,
including the military’s excessive use of force. Ethiopia also continues to
receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States, the European
Union and other countries in development and humanitarian aid.
It is crucial that governments that commit human rights violations
be held to the spotlight and pressed to be accountable. Countries that provide
assistance to those governments need to prioritize respect for, and protection
of human rights for several reasons.
First, grave human rights violations can further stymy development
and it potentially drives voices of dissent to abandon non-violence.
Second, supporting an oppressive regime for the sake of regional
security will only further destabilize a region already ravaged by conflict,
unclear borders, poverty and lack of respect for the rule of law, all in the
pursuit of short term stability.
The Ethiopian people deserve better than that.
Source: Amnestyusa
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