Ethiopia: Torture in the Somali Region Prison

(Nairobi) – Arbitrary detention and torture prisoners for years in the notorious regional prison known as Ogaden Prison. The new Ethiopian prime minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, should urgently order investigations into this horrible situation, and the government should ensure that security forces and regional officials are held accountable.

The 88-page report, "We are like the Dead" Torture and other human rights violations in prison Ogaden, Somali regional state, Ethiopia, "describes a brutal and relentless pattern of abuse , torture, rape and humiliation, with little access to medical care, family, lawyers or even food. . Prison security forces, including the infamous paramilitary force of the Somali region, Liyu Police, are involved. The unit reports to the president of the Somali region, Abdi Mohamoud Omar, known as Abdi Illey. Most of the prisoners are accused of affiliation with the Liberation Front of the Ogaden (ONLF), a banned opposition group, but most are never targeted. charges or lawsuits. "New Ethiopian Prime Minister admits that security forces have tortured Ethiopians, attacking the culture of impunity in Ethiopia and ensuring that security forces are accountable for the violations committed" , said Felix Horne, senior researcher for Africa at Human Rights Watch. "The horrific situation at Ogaden Prison demands an immediate and transparent investigation into the actions of the regional president, other senior officials in the region. Somali police and Liyu police. "

The Ethiopian Prime Minister acknowledged, at A speech to parliament on June 18, that security force personnel had been tortured.He did not talk about the abuses committed in Ogaden prison in particular nor how the government could t guarantee responsibility for torture throughout Ethiopia or justice for the victims.

Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 100 people, including members of the security forces, and 70 former detainees and documented abuses in Ogaden Prison between 2011 and early 2018.

"J & # 39; I was kept in solitary confinement in the dark during most of my detention, "said a former prisoner. "I was only taken away at night for torture.They [prison officials] did a lot of things – they electrocuted my testicles, they tied wire around them, and they have put a plastic bag with chili powder on my head.I often had a gag in the mouth so as not to cry too much. "

The inmates said they were stripped naked and beaten in front of any the prison population and made to commit humiliating acts in front of their fellow prisoners.

"They once let me lie naked in front of everyone and roll in the mud while they beat me with sticks," recounts Hodan, 40, jailed without charge for five years. "Once they made an old naked man with his daughter … you would be ashamed after these treatments in front of all the other prisoners."

Prisoners said that senior prison officials, including senior Liyu officials, not only ordered torture, rape, and denial of food, but personally took part in the rape and torture. In the overcrowded night-time cells, the prisoners at the head interrogated the detainees violently, handing notes to the prison leaders, who then selected the people to punish them further.

Overpopulation, torture, famine and epidemics. food, water and lack of health care and hygiene led to deaths in custody.

Many children were born at Ogaden Prison, some of whom allegedly were conceived by rape of prison guards. Prisoners described giving birth in their cells, in many cases without medical care or even water.

Almost all former prisoners interviewed stated that they had not been brought to justice or charged with any crime. Former judges told Human Rights Watch that officials in the Somali region had forced them to sentence detainees they had never met or seen any evidence of prison.

In 2007/8, the Ethiopian army committed crimes against humanity and war crimes. ONLF, including extrajudicial executions, torture and rape. Liyu police, established after this period, repeatedly perpetrated similar crimes in the Somali region, following the pattern of collective punishment. The incursions of the Liyu police in the regional state of Oromia from 2016 have caused hundreds of deaths. About one million people from these areas have been displaced.

The federal government is expected to thoroughly reform Liyu police in the Somalia region and hold senior members to account, Human Rights Watch

. Watch regularly receives reports of abusive interrogations throughout the country. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has inspected Jail Ogaden many times since 2011, but the reports of these visits are not publicly available, and it is not clear what steps have been taken, if any, to combat against abuses

. the most visibly injured, children and pregnant women were held in secret rooms or out of prison before visits by the commission. Others said that they had been told what to say to the commissioners. Those who spoke to them openly faced brutal reprisals.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister should establish a federal commission of experts to investigate abuses at Ogaden Prison to identify civil servants, regardless of rank, for criminal investigation. This commission should also develop a process to badess the cases of every prisoner currently held at Ogaden Prison, and either release them or charge them with a crime based on credible evidence.

"The extent of torture and abuse in Ogaden Prison can not be overstated," Horne said. "Dr. Abiy should continue to publicly condemn torture and take action against Ogaden Prison to show that he is serious about stopping the torture and the end of the torture." Impunity. "

Selected Accounts ( All Names are Pseudonyms .)

On the Non-stop Cycle of Abuses, from Abdusalem, 28:

J & # 39; I was kept in solitary confinement in the utter darkness of my detention [three-year]. I was only taken at night to be tortured. They [prison officials] did a lot of things – they electrocuted my testicles, they tied some wire around them, and they put a plastic bag with chili powder on my head. I often had a gag in my mouth when they were doing all this so as not to cry too much. During the day, I was given very little food – a bread and sometimes a little stew. They also raped my wife [who was also in Jail Ogaden]. She gave birth to a child who was not mine.

On torture involving water techniques, Fatuma, 26:

They tied my hands with a rope, plunged us into the pool deeper than my head and kept me inside. They put about 10 people in this pool at a time. … They ask you all the usual questions: "Who do you know of the ONLF? How did you support them? Some people withdraw and there is no answer from them. I do not know if they are dead.

Nocturnal self-evaluations, Ali, 32:

When night falls, badessments begin. It's only the inmates who do it, in the morning the report is given to the guards. The more you deny, the worse the torture. Better confession, less beatings. The more you admit during the badessment, the more people will applaud during your self-badessment, and if you do not admit it, the Kabbas [head prisoner] or the prisoners will beat you there.

and the humiliation of the detainees, Mohamed, 28:

I saw hundreds of men undressing themselves completely. It was night and it was raining and muddy. They had called us out of the room, told us to undress, lie down and roll in the mud. Then some of us were brought back to our bare rooms. Others were invited to walk in line while holding the bads of each other. Once you return to the room, you can let go. The guards took pictures of that laugh. "

On the psychological trauma of being pushed to abuse other prisoners, Abdirahman, 31:

We were always told to humble ourselves, but the worst was that one day they were gathering a number of prisoners and that they were told to beat another person to death, they had metal sticks to give us for that, and they said that if I refused, I had to commit suicide. When we refused, they beat us – but it is this constant psychological punishment that is the worst.

At the time of confinement in detention, Ayan, 31:

None of the children born while I was there had [professional] help, only women detained.I asked [medical care] for a treatment for my birth because I knew that I was The police from Liyu said, "Put him [the baby] in the toilet, they will be useless, they will become a sympathizer of Fr. have national liberation from Ogaden (ONLF). "I asked to be taken to hospital for birth. They laugh. I asked for extra water. They refused. So I gave birth to the prison. The women had a sharp piece of metal that they used to cut the umbilical cord and they tied it themselves.

On the constant state of fear and the regular deaths in detention, Hodan, 30:

Every night I could hear them hitting people. I've heard so much crying. In the morning, when people are sitting in front of my house having lunch, everyone is quietly talking about who was taken away the night before: "Someone was killed while hitting last night, so-and-so was raped last night or beaten "Every morning, we would go through the list of those who died or did not return to their cells, we lived in a state of constant fear that we would be next."

During visits of the Ethiopian Rights Commission from the man, Amina, 34:

"When the Human Rights Commission comes, it takes out the serious cases. new people. I was one of the people that they hid. They took me to the military camp, Garbbada. The first time I was there for seven days. They kidnapped elderly women, and those who were hit in the face, had injuries or had young children.