by Alemayehu G. Mariam
The trashing of constitutional rights
The Ethiopian Constitution guarantees, “Persons arrested have the right to remain silent. Persons arrested shall not be compelled to make confessions or admissions which could be used in evidence against them. Any evidence obtained under coercion shall not be admissible.” (Article 19(2)(5).) In reality, this guarantee is not worth the paper it is written on!
Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report documenting the horrors that take place in the little shop of horrors of the ruling regime in Ethiopia known as the “Federal Police Crime Investigation Sector” (the dreaded “Maekelawi (Central) Police Station”). Located in the capital Addis Ababa, Maekelawi is “the country’s most notorious police station.”
HRW’s report, “They Want a Confession” Torture and Ill-Treatment in Ethiopia’s Maekelawi Police Station”, is based on intensive interviews of former detainees, many of whom were tortured for opposing the regime. Maekelawi is the first stop for “many of Ethiopia’s political prisoners — opposition politicians, journalists, protest organizers, alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies, and many others after being arrested.”
Maekelawi lives up to its reputation as “third degree” central — a place “beyond wrath and tears” where “looms but the horror of the shade” to borrow from William Ernest Henley. Regime opponents, dissidents, independent journalists and others are “interrogated, and, for many, at Maekelawi they suffer all manner of abuses, including torture.” I have met some former detainees who were delivered from the “clutches” of Maekelawi — that black pit of physical and mental suffering and citadel of false confessions. HRW’s report barely scratches the tip of the iceberg of horrors that take place at Maekelawi.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of State in its annual human rights report concluded:
Numerous credible sources confirmed in 2009 that in Maekelawi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, police investigators often used physical abuse to extract confessions. Citizens widely believed that such treatment remained a common practice at Maekelawi. Authorities continued to restrict access by diplomats and NGOs to Maekelawi.
A genuine Medieval torture chamber in 21st Century Ethiopia!
Maekelawi evokes images of Medieval torture chambers of Europe infamous for inflicting “horror, dread and despair” on their victims. According to HRW, “Police investigators at Maekelawi use coercive methods on detainees amounting to torture or other ill-treatment to extract confessions, statements, and other information from detainees.” Not unlike many Medieval European torture chambers, Maekelawi has four categories of prisoners grouped in terms of their level of cooperation and compliance with the demands of their interrogators: “Maekelawi has four primary detention blocks, each with a nickname, and the conditions differ significantly among them. Conditions are particularly harsh in the detention blocks known by detainees as ‘Chalama Bet’ (dark house in Amharic)… [where] detainees have limited access to daylight, to a toilet, and are on occasion in solitary confinement… In ‘Tawla Bet’ (wooden house) ‘access to the courtyard is restricted and the cells were infested with fleas.’ Short of release, most yearn to transfer to the block known as ‘Sheraton,’ dubbed for the international hotel, where the authorities allow greater movement and access to lawyers and relatives.” There is also “an overcrowded women’s section”.
The ruling regime in Ethiopia uses a variety of torture methods to extract information, statements and confessions from political prisoners. “Detainees are repeatedly slapped, kicked, punched, and beaten with sticks and gun butts. Some reported being forced into painful stress positions, such as being hung by their wrists from the ceiling or being made to stand with their hands tied above their heads for several hours at a time [Medieval “strappado”], often while being beaten. Detainees also face
The trashing of constitutional rights
The Ethiopian Constitution guarantees, “Persons arrested have the right to remain silent. Persons arrested shall not be compelled to make confessions or admissions which could be used in evidence against them. Any evidence obtained under coercion shall not be admissible.” (Article 19(2)(5).) In reality, this guarantee is not worth the paper it is written on!Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report documenting the horrors that take place in the little shop of horrors of the ruling regime in Ethiopia known as the “Federal Police Crime Investigation Sector” (the dreaded “Maekelawi (Central) Police Station”). Located in the capital Addis Ababa, Maekelawi is “the country’s most notorious police station.”
HRW’s report, “They Want a Confession” Torture and Ill-Treatment in Ethiopia’s Maekelawi Police Station”, is based on intensive interviews of former detainees, many of whom were tortured for opposing the regime. Maekelawi is the first stop for “many of Ethiopia’s political prisoners — opposition politicians, journalists, protest organizers, alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies, and many others after being arrested.”
Maekelawi lives up to its reputation as “third degree” central — a place “beyond wrath and tears” where “looms but the horror of the shade” to borrow from William Ernest Henley. Regime opponents, dissidents, independent journalists and others are “interrogated, and, for many, at Maekelawi they suffer all manner of abuses, including torture.” I have met some former detainees who were delivered from the “clutches” of Maekelawi — that black pit of physical and mental suffering and citadel of false confessions. HRW’s report barely scratches the tip of the iceberg of horrors that take place at Maekelawi.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of State in its annual human rights report concluded:
Numerous credible sources confirmed in 2009 that in Maekelawi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, police investigators often used physical abuse to extract confessions. Citizens widely believed that such treatment remained a common practice at Maekelawi. Authorities continued to restrict access by diplomats and NGOs to Maekelawi.
A genuine Medieval torture chamber in 21st Century Ethiopia!
Maekelawi evokes images of Medieval torture chambers of Europe infamous for inflicting “horror, dread and despair” on their victims. According to HRW, “Police investigators at Maekelawi use coercive methods on detainees amounting to torture or other ill-treatment to extract confessions, statements, and other information from detainees.” Not unlike many Medieval European torture chambers, Maekelawi has four categories of prisoners grouped in terms of their level of cooperation and compliance with the demands of their interrogators: “Maekelawi has four primary detention blocks, each with a nickname, and the conditions differ significantly among them. Conditions are particularly harsh in the detention blocks known by detainees as ‘Chalama Bet’ (dark house in Amharic)… [where] detainees have limited access to daylight, to a toilet, and are on occasion in solitary confinement… In ‘Tawla Bet’ (wooden house) ‘access to the courtyard is restricted and the cells were infested with fleas.’ Short of release, most yearn to transfer to the block known as ‘Sheraton,’ dubbed for the international hotel, where the authorities allow greater movement and access to lawyers and relatives.” There is also “an overcrowded women’s section”.
The ruling regime in Ethiopia uses a variety of torture methods to extract information, statements and confessions from political prisoners. “Detainees are repeatedly slapped, kicked, punched, and beaten with sticks and gun butts. Some reported being forced into painful stress positions, such as being hung by their wrists from the ceiling or being made to stand with their hands tied above their heads for several hours at a time [Medieval “strappado”], often while being beaten. Detainees also face
