Horrendous atrocities in Ethiopian prisons

• Report rights infringement
• published: 28 Dec 2010
• views: 21269

Horrendous atrocities in Ethiopian prisons By Assefa Negash, M.D.: Introductory note: Dear readers, it is while I have been on vacation in a county located thousands of kilometres from my second home country, Holland where I live as exile, that I read this horrendous account of the atrocities perpetrated on fellow Ethiopians. It was while thumbing through the pages of the Ethiomedia website that I stumbled on this report that carries gory account of gruesome human rights violations taking place in Ethiopia. Words cannot convey what I felt while reading this account of the barbaric atrocities and I could not sleep that night. After having read the report, the least which I could do was to respond to one of the pleas (i.e. making the world community know about this atrocity) of the few brave Ethiopians who, at the peril of their life and in defiance of a vindictive ethnicist regime, compiled and wrote this report. So the next morning, I decided to translate it from the original Amharic language in which this report has been written into English. I have translated this Amharic document with the hope of reaching many people, dotted across every nook and corner of the world, who are concerned with human rights. Once the big hurdle of translating the original Amharic document into English has been overcome, translating the English document into other European or even Asian languages would be a minuscule task owing to the available technology at hand. And I will shortly embark on the task of translating the English document into different European languages (French, Dutch, German, Spanish, etc) with the help of some editorial help from Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian foreign friends dotted around the world. For four consecutive days I stayed hooked on a computer (located in an internet café) translating this Amharic document into English on some days working for as long as 11 hours a day. As I could not afford the luxury of working on my own computer (as I have not taken laptop with me on vacation), I was not able to go through this document thoroughly to make detailed review of minor translation errors. But I believe that my translation would do justice to the original Amharic document in lucidly bringing out to readers what the few brave Ethiopians have compiled with extraordinary dedication, dexterity, sense of patriotism and above all, sense of humanity. Translating some of the offensive insults (directed at defendants by the Tigrean ethno-nationalists) into English was not an easy task as the nuances in Amharic cannot be adequately captured in the English language. So I had to search words and expressions in English which approximate to the Amharic nuances expressed in the original Amharic document. I have translated almost all of the documents except some of the introductory pages that I deemed are redundant. All the texts put between parenthesis signs are added by me by way of explaining the matter at hand. But I have translated the document pertaining to the defendants and the concluding part in its entirety. All the texts put between parenthesis signs are added by me (the translator) by way of explaining the matter at hand. Let me say that I take off my hat for those brave Ethiopians who compiled and wrote this report. I salute these brave Ethiopians for the altruistic effort in immortalizing the pain of the victims of these atrocities so that all human beings dotted around the world may do something to alleviate the pain of these forgotten Ethiopians that languish in the dungeons of the incumbent ethnocentric regime that has been ensconced in power in since May 1991. I also salute the exemplary Ethiopian from Tigrai (Mr. Ermias) who has been rendered physically invalid for putting his humanity before his Tigrean ethnicity. To listen the audio version of this document, click the play button: Shocking as the gruesome manner in which these Ethiopian prisoners were physically and psychologically tortured, any one who is aware of the hatred which some of these Tigrean ethnonationalists (the authors & perpetrators of the atrocities documented in this translated report) were brought up, hearing narratives of alleged victimisation of their ancestors by Amharas, cannot fail to fathom or understand their potential capacity and readiness to perpetrate such gruesome atrocities on Amharas and members of other ethnic groups (Oromos, Gurages, Somalis, etc). In addition to this, the ethnic ideology of hate they have embraced during the last 36 years of TPLF’s emergence and its pervasive influence or hold on the psyche of its followers has made them to consider any one outside their ethnic group as a sub-human creature. Even a member of their own group, who does not subscribe to their ethnic ideology of hate, is considered as a sub-human creature (what TPLF has done to Mr. Ermias corroborates this fact). Let me say, in passing, a little bit about the effects of ethnic nationalism on the psyche of those who are affl