We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: ETHIOPIA TIGRAYAN PERSECUTION (TV)
HEADLINE: Ethiopia’s Arbitrarily Detained Tigrayans Recall Abuse
TEASER: Rights groups say authorities arbitrarily detained thousands of Tigrayans last year in waves of ethnically motivated arrests
PUBLISHED AT: Wednesday, 07/13/2022 at 8:25am
BYLINE: Henry Wilkins
DATELINE: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Wilkins
VIDEO EDITOR:
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, Salem Solomon
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Sumur, twitter.com/TghatMedia
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO__
TRT: 3:50
VID APPROVED BY: mia
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[While Ethiopia’s civil war has not reached the capital, Addis Ababa, rights groups say authorities arbitrarily detained thousands of Tigrayans last year in waves of ethnically motivated arrests. VOA spoke to recently released Tigrayans about the conditions they endured. Henry Wilkins reports from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.]]
((NARRATOR))
Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa appears as a modern, international city with the African Union headquarters prompting some to call it the continent’s diplomatic capital.
((NARRATOR))
But rights groups say tensions are boiling beneath the surface from Ethiopia’s war with Tigrayan forces that saw thousands of Tigrayans last year arbitrarily arrested and abused, after the government claimed some Tigrayans in the capital of being “undercover agents.”
((NARRATOR))
VOA spoke to a Tigrayan man, his identity hidden for safety, who said he was released in February after being jailed in the capital for three months in a makeshift prison.
((Formerly Detained Tigrayan, (in English, 21 secs))
“The police would have mood swings. You might get kicked. A lot of us were kicked. I personally was kicked one day for doing nothing. I did nothing. I was about to take a shower. We were kicked a lot of times. They only needed (an excuse) to beat you.”
((NARRATOR))
((MANDATORY COURTESY: Amnesty International))
Rights groups (like Amnesty International) say ethnically motivated detentions increased days after the government declared a state of emergency in early November following threats by Tigrayan forces to attack the city.
Sumur, who declined to give his full name, says he fled to Uganda in March after being held for nearly three months in a prison in Addis Ababa.
((VIDEO: shot and provided by Sumur))
((Sumur, Formerly Detained Tigrayan (English, ?? secs))
“It was astonishing to learn that there were kids with us there. I specifically remember this kid; he was in grade seven. He’d barely begun high school, you know, and he wasn’t even born in Tigray, his father is a Tigrayan, and his mother is not even Tigrayan.”
((MANDATORY COURTESY: twitter.com/TghatMedia))
((NARRATOR))
In May, the death in custody of a Tigrayan general and a former commander in the African Union Mission in Somalia, General Gebremedhin Fikadu, sparked protests in the capital.
((NARRATOR))
Reuters reported in June at least 15,000 Tigrayans were detained between November and February and that seventeen died in custody, some after being taken from the capital to a prison in the town of Mizan Teferi.
VOA spoke to another Tigrayan man, his identity also hidden, who recalls the state of inmates transferred from the Mizan Teferi prison to his prison.
((Formerly Detained Tigrayan, (Amharic, 15 secs))
“Five prisoners had to share one loaf of bread and two liters of water for three days. That means one glass of water per person per day. All were in terrible condition. They were very hungry and thirsty.”
((NARRATOR))
VOA could not independently verify the reported deaths and allegations of abuse while in custody.
The state-funded human rights organization, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, claims all Tigrayans held arbitrarily in the capital have been released.
((Tarikua Getachew, Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (English, 27 secs))
“All the arrests that happened during that period in relation, in particular, to the state of emergency have ceased since the lifting of the state of emergency, around February. And yes, to our knowledge all of the people have been released.”
((NARRATOR))
Ethiopia lifted its six-month state of emergency in February. But the commission in late June confirmed reports that 9,000 Tigrayans are still being held in the town of Semera and called for their immediate release.
Ethiopia’s government did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment but has in the past denied any ethnically motivated arrests or abuse of Tigrayans.
((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateJuly 13, 2022 08:11 EDT
BylineHenry Wilkins
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
