European Citizens are
imprisoned & tortured in Ethiopa
Ø A Norwegain and a
British Citizens are in jail since 2014
Mr. Andargachew Tsege from
United Kingdom, was arrested at an airport in Yemen while he was in transit in
June 2014 and promptly vanished. Two weeks later it emerged he had been sent to
Ethiopia, where he has been imprisoned ever since. This Briton, a prominent
opponent of the Ethiopian regime, is facing a death sentence imposed five
years ago at a trial held in his absence. He is in a high risk of torture in an
unknown prison and in death row.
The Britain government never
played a role in the first two weeks of his capture to protect its citizen
before Mr. Tsege was extradited to Ethiopia. Yemen knowingly and intentionally
violated the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by rendering Mr.Tsege
to the regime in Ethiopia without informing the British embassy and consular office
in Sanaa. Under the Convention against Torture, which Yemen ratified in
1991, a government may not “expel, return (‘refouler’) or extradite a
person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that
he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
Diplomats noted that neither
Yemen nor Ethiopia informed Britain about the rendition of its citizen. From
the very date, pro-democratic protesters are leading the campaign “Free Andargachew Tsege” all over the
world. Recently the Daily mail newspaper reports “UK diplomats clash over Briton on
death row in Ethiopia: Officials’
fury after Foreign Secretary claims he couldn’t ‘find time’ to help
father-of-three facing execution”
Mr
Andargachew Tsege, 59, was living in UK since 1979, the time he came from
Ethiopia as a political refugee. He is a founder and Secretary General of Ginbot
7, a banned movement in Ethiopia, but favored by the majority of
Ethiopians in diaspora. It is popular because the mission of Ginbot
7 movment is to establish “a national political system in which
government power and political authority in Ethiopia is assumed through
peaceful and democratic process based on the free will and choice of the
people.”
Tsege’s family and lawyers
insist that he is a peaceful man trying to stand up against an authoritarian
regime. The family of a north London man who is facing the death penalty in
Ethiopia has said the government should be doing more to help get him home.
The reluctance on the British
side isn’t the first case. Mr. Okello Akuay, who has a Norwegian citizenship was arrested in South Sudan and extradited
to Ethiopia last year. There is no information if the Norwegian government has
said anything at all. He was a president of Gambella region of west Ethiopia,
he is also known for defecting the regime and became Norwegian a decade ago.
Mr. Bashir Makhtal, an Ogadeni businessman who has a Canadian citizen and Oromo
Refugee such as Tesfahun Chemeda were arrested by Kenyan security and sent to
Ethiopia in 2006. The latter died on August 2013 from injuries sustained during
years of torture.
These
are just few of the high profile cases of Ethiopian origin Western citizens. Two Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye
and Johan Persson freed from a prison in Ethiopia after serving more than 400
days of an 11-year sentence. The journalists were accused on ‘terrorism”
charges captured on June 2011. They, “would have been released months earlier
if the Swedish foreign ministry and Human Rights Watch hadn’t kept making loud
public noises about ill treatment and human rights abuse. By 2014, according to
CPJ, more than 60 journalists are
imprisoned or fled under the pretext of anti-terror
law that is manipulated wrongly in Ethiopia to avoid pro-democracy activists.
What has the British Government done to secure
the rights or release of one of its second class citizens abused by thugs in
Ethiopia? Diplomats urged “We do not believe that the Government of the UK
has done all that it could have done and should have done. The measures taken
so far or are being taken were not prompt and speedy.” What
makes the arrest of Mr. Tsege unique
is that he is being held incommunicado cut off completely from family and
friends. The name of the prison is
secret for the last 6 months and still the time of writing this article.
The Abduction of the Briton
Andargachew Tsigie from Asian Country/Yemen to African/Ethiopia has ignited a
fury among exiled Ethiopians, who are still living under a refugee status and
those who have taken citizenship of other countries. This is dangerous trend
and must be confronted. If sufficient pressure is not mounted, diaspora based
activists and even regular people might be at risk of been whisked away any
time they visited an African, Arab, Asian or even some Western countries.
Therefore
- The Western countries should stand up for people they granted citizenship and refugee status.The Briton Mr.Tsege, the Norwegian Mr.Akuay and others should be released and join their families in Europe. Europeans must use their leverage to pressure these neighboring countries to refrain from illegal rendition.
- The neighboring countries to a dictator government in Africa such as Ethiopia should protect those who seek refuge within their border and refrain from detaining and rendering people to Ethiopia. Respect international conventions!
- The international community, nations, and aid agencies by large should stop financial donations to the blood-tainted hands of the Ethiopian regime, and desist from the unethical practice of doing business with the authoritarian regime of Ethiopia. Rather say enough with the brutal rule of the Ethiopian regime TPLF.
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