SOMALINET NEWS ...Archives
ETHIOPIA: AMNESTY RAPS GOVERNMENT ON MANY ARRESTS February 1, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Amnesty International has said Ethiopia has arrested thousands of citizens majority being members of the Oromo ethnic group over the past three months.
Students are among those who have been rounded up since November by Ethiopian Government. Amnesty said the arrests follow protest calls by the rebel Oromo Liberation Front against alleged government fraud. The London –based body has called for the release of some of the detainees and warned that they may be "at risk of torture or ill-treatment"
Ethiopian opposition groups have accused the government of rigging last May's elections. Meanwhile, Amnesty said among those arrested were school students, teachers, farmers and, businessmen.
"Those detained have reportedly been accused of links with the OLF, although none of them has yet been charged," it said.
Ethiopian authorities have been called upon by Amnesty to either charge or release the detainees and investigate alleged mistreatment of some of those held. Meanwhile, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Frezer Negash, an online journalist for the Ethiopian Review, had been arrested on Friday and was being held without charge in Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian government has been cracking down on protesters.