Organizations: Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP) Postfach 411305, 12123 Berlin, Germany SOCEPP-USA P.O.Box 28605,Oakdale,MN 55128,USA SOCEPP-Canada,P.O.Box 413, Station E, Toronto, Ontario,M6H 4E3 email: Socepp@aol.com

Prisoners and POWs

They are lucky. They are prisoners of war. Thousands died last week

The girl is an Eritrean "soldier"; the boy is Ethiopian.
Her name is Liwam Berhane Hagos and she is a 15-year old girl.
The name of the Ethiopian boy is not know at this time.
But his picture appeared on one of the BBC reports.
Are they enemies?
Ethiopian children became most available for adaption.
I thought that their generation will escape the war.
I was wrong.
March 18, 1999

PS. The war will live, people will die.
Ethiopia enter the new century and the new millennium divided. Ethiopia is a prisoner of war...

Write:
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
P.O.Box 1031, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: 251 1 552020
PAGES OF POLITICS DIRECTORY: Afro-West Africa Stateless Eritrea Intelligencia War Ethiopia and USA Oromo Political Notes POLITICS Guide

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Ethiopiaonline

International Freedom of Expression eXchange Clearing House
IFEX "COMMUNIQUE" # 8-6 16 February 1999

From the International Press Institute's (IPI) "World Press Freedom Review":

In Africa, IPI says, nine journalists were murdered, while others were the targets of "assassination attempts, death threats and other kinds of physical violence, persecution and intimidation during 1998." Journalists were subjected to "arbitrary and often illegal arrest and detention, especially in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Nigeria" prior to the death of dictator Sani Abacha in June. Most of these attacks are "carried out with shocking impunity," says IPI. In addition, "there is a conspicuous and typical lack of neutrality and objectivity in the many state-owned broadcasters in the region." Finally, the media is subjected to legal restrictions including but not limited to criminal defamation laws, as in Ethiopia, Chad, Togo, Cameroon and Gabon, all of which IPI says "contribute to making Africa a very difficult and dangerous place to work in as a journalist."

View the webzine version of the IFEX "Communique" on-line at: www.ifex.org/communique. In Prison & Exile: Ethiopia

The IPI "World Press Freedom Review" is available on IPI's Website at http://www.freemedia.at or hard copies can be ordered from IPI headquarters, Spiegelgasse 2, A-1010 Vienna, Austria, tel: +43 1 512 90 11, fax: +43 1 512 90 14, e-mail: ipi@xpoint.at.

The IFEX "Communique" is published weekly in English, French and Spanish by the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) Clearing House. The office is operated by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) in partnership with the member organizations of IFEX. Contact the IFEX CH at 489 College St. #403, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A5 Canada, tel: +1 416 515 9622, fax: +1 416 515 7879, general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org, "Communique" e-mail: communique@ifex.org. The "Communique" and the alerts can be viewed on the IFEX Internet Service at: www.ifex.org. "Communique" Editor: Kristina Stockwood. Subscriptions are available free or through voluntary donation by e-mail and surface mail. The views expressed in the "Communique" are the responsibility of the sources to which they are attributed.

VOA (March 25) reported that the American-based Center to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has placed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi among Africa's foremost enemies of the free press. In an annual report it issued, CPJ said the Ethiopian Prime Minister's Administration deliberately jailed and harassed journalists forcing them to leave their country. The CPJ report named the late President Sani Abacha of Nigeria as the topmost enemy of the press who has sent 21 journalists to prison while he was in power. According to the report, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone are the two most dangerous African countries for journalists.

Politics Guide

Links

United Nations Human Rights Commission e-mail: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

Petition

SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE FOR ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS (SOCEPP)
POSTFACH 411305,BERLIN 12123, GERMANY
P.O.BOX 28605, OAKDALE,MN 55128, U.S.A.

March 20, 1999

AGAINST CONSCRIPTIONS AND THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

As an organizations concerned with human rights in Ethiopia, SOCEPP is deeply aggrieved by the ongoing Ethio-Eritrean war which has led to the slaughter of thousands of people on both sides. With reason and restraint thrown to the winds, the persecution of the war and the accompanying hate propaganda have favoured the carnage in what in the end is an unwinnbale war, a war that has already made both sides the losers.
SOCEPP has received reports that the EPRDF government is using FORCE to recruit people into its military. Furthermore, concrete evidence also proves that the government is using CHILD SOLDIERS (both male and female) in the front lines. These acts are in no way justified by the argument that the other side is or may be doing the same. For example, all the recruits who are now found in Ambagiorgis (Gondar) were forcefully rounded up from the province of Wegera. Some forced conscripts have also been seen at the Aberja training camp. Similar attempts to use force in recruting youngsters from Gojjam has reportedly failed in the face of the hostility of the local people to the EPRDF and such practices.
Moreover, there are disturbing reports that the EPRDF government is using force ONLY in selected areas inhabited by certain ethnic groups. The same reports allege that the ethnic policy of the government has been in practice in the battle fields and that the majority of the casualties are youngsters from certain ethnic groups( outisde of Tigrai) who have been thrown into the war as canon fodders. The EPRDF government has the duty to give clear accounts on these questions.
SOCEPP condemns the conscriptions and the use of child soldiers and calls for these practices to cease without any delay. It also calls on both sides to let the Red Cross visit the war prisoners and, if possible, to lend their ears to the calls for reason and peace.

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