
British taxpayers' money is being used to provide Masters-level
training for Ethiopian security sector officials, despite that country's
recent kidnapping of a British citizen, it has emerged.
Andargachew
‘Andy’ Tsege, a father of three from London, was travelling to Eritrea
in June this year when he was seized during a stopover in Yemen. He was
later rendered to Ethiopia, where he has now spent over 100 days in
incommunicado detention at an undisclosed location. Mr Tsege, who is a
member of an opposition party, is under sentence of death, imposed
in absentia in
2009 on politically-motivated charges. The Ethiopian government has
refused to allow the British government proper consular access, and the
country's Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has declined to say
whether the death sentence will be carried out or not.
Legal charity Reprieve, which is assisting Mr Tsege’s family, has
unearthed details of a UK aid programme worth over £2m that provides a
free Master’s degree in ‘Security Sector Management’ to approximately 70
top-ranking Ethiopian officials working in the policing and security
sector; individuals who are very likely to be those responsible for
Andy’s abduction and detention. The British-funded programme has no
conditions attached to it, despite widespread concerns about
human rights abuses
in Ethiopia. The Department for International Development (Dfid)
describes the Ethiopian police and defence forces as being “amongst the
best in the region in terms of effectiveness and with regards to human
rights.”
Torture is common in Ethiopian prisons, with political detainees such as Mr Tsege
routinely
subjected to serious abuses in order to extract ‘confessions’. Mr Tsege
has twice been presented on Ethiopian state television as having
‘confessed’. In the highly edited footage, he appears gaunt and
exhausted.
Reprieve has written to Justine Greening, Secretary of State for
International Development, asking her to clarify the Government’s
position on security sector aid to Ethiopia, and to ensure that UK
support for the security forces does not continue while Mr Tsege remains
in detention. In a reply received last week, the minister said that
“all DFID's work is carefully designed and robustly monitored […] I can
assure you that the UK Government is and will continue to monitor
closely the use of aid in Ethiopia.”
Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s death penalty team,
said: “British taxpayers will be shocked to learn that they have been
funding training for the very same Ethiopian security officials who are
likely to be responsible for the unlawful kidnap and incommunicado
detention of an innocent British citizen. Andy Tsege has now spent over
three months in secret detention, likely subjected to torture, and
without access to a lawyer, his family or proper consular assistance. On
top of that, he is under sentence of death. His family in London is
desperately worried. Instead of subsidising this shameful state of
affairs, the UK government should be doing all it can to ensure Andy is
returned home without delay.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. For further information, including
details of the Security Sector programme and Reprieve's correspondence
with Dfid, please contact Reprieve’s press office: +44 (0) 207 553
8160/66, or
donald.campbell@reprieve.org.uk /
clemency.wells@reprieve.org.uk /
alice.gillham@reprieve.org.uk.
2. Human rights abuses in Ethiopian prisons have been documented by Human Rights Watch