Ethiopia refutes US human rights report
US condemns Ethiopia's human rights record.
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian government officials are speaking out against a recent American State Department report that criticized the East African country’s human rights record, telling Bikyanews.com that the findings are “unwarranted.”
“We have been pushing toward a more democratic society and we believe Ethiopia is a leader on human rights issues across Africa,” a foreign ministry official told Bikyanews.com on Saturday on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“If we want to condemn human rights violations, how about the US and their continued use of terror tactics, drones against civilians in the world. That is a crime and should be condemned,” the official continued.
The US government on Friday commended activists, netizens, and journalists for their courage in advocating for universal human rights and expressed concern over the heightened crackdown on civil liberties, rebuking several countries for shrinking the space for journalists and activists.
In its 36th annual report of human rights practices around the world, the State Department criticized the increased suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, association and religion. The report said governments continued to repress or attack the means by which individuals organize and “demand better performance from their rulers” by instituting new impending laws throughout 2012.
The State Department report singled out Ethiopia for its use of “counter terrorism or extremism as a pretext for suppressing freedom of expression.”
It added the ruling party, EPRDF, used anti-terrorism legislation to prosecute journalists, opposition members, and activists.
The report’s expanded section on Ethiopia, a key US ally in the war on terror, contained damning criticisms of the country’s human rights violations. It documented “politically motivated trials and convictions of opposition figures, activists, journalists, and bloggers, as well as increased restrictions on print media.” The report also highlighted the use of force and arrest of Muslims, who’ve been protesting against what they say is government interference in religious matters for close to two years now.
Other grave human rights violations included impunity for government officials; arbitrary killings; allegations of torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; reports of harsh and at times life-threatening prison conditions; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; a weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights, including illegal searches; allegations of abuses in the implementation of the government’s “villagization” program; restrictions on academic freedom; limits on citizens’ ability to change their government; police, administrative, and judicial corruption.
BN
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