The report states: "As such unworthy claimants as the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria wrap themselves in the democracy mantle with scant international objection,

the concept of democracy gets cheapened, its human rights component cast

aside." - page 4

"Of course, insisting on real democracy is not the only test of the international

community's commitment to human rights. Also of fundamental importance is its

response to mass atrocities in places such as eastern Chad, Colombia, eastern

Congo, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and the Darfur

region of Sudan..." - page 5

"Ethiopian authorities reacted to unexpected opposition wins

in the 2005 elections by violently dispersing peaceful demonstrations and detaining

most of the opposition leadership." - page 11

"These days, for example, the US government's vigorous criticism

of democratic shortcomings tends to be reserved mainly for long-time adversaries

or pariahs, such as Syria, Burma or Cuba. Washington has largely exempted

such allies as Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, or Ethiopia... Ethiopia has been an illustrative beneficiary of this double standard. The government

of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi arrested thousands of demonstrators protesting against fraud in the 2005 elections and charged 18 journalists with

treason. These arrests were part of a broader pattern of repression, including the

use of torture, detention, and intimidation of people perceived as political opponents

and, more recently, extraordinary brutality in suppressing an insurgency in

the Ogaden region and fighting Islamic forces in neighboring Somalia. The US

government has expressed dismay about the post-election crackdown, but

Ethiopia, a key counterterrorism partner, remains Washington's biggest aid beneficiary

in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ethiopia is also among the top African recipients of European Union aid. After the

2005 election violence, the EU, along with the World Bank and the United

Kingdom, suspended portions of their direct budget support to Ethiopia, but the

UK has since increased its aid" - page 15-16

Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government's human rights record remains poor, both within the

country and in neighboring Somalia, where since early 2007 thousands of

Ethiopian troops have been fighting an insurgency alongside the Transitional

Federal Government of Somalia.

Government forces committed serious human rights violations, including rape,

torture, and village burnings, during a campaign against Ethiopian rebels in eastern

Somali Region (Region 5). Abuses also took place in other parts of the country,

notably in Oromia State where local officials carried out mass arrests, extrajudicial

killings and economic sanctions.

In March and April 2007 in Mogadishu, Somalia, the Ethiopian military used

heavy artillery and rockets indiscriminately, in violation of international humanitarian

law, killing hundreds of civilians and displacing up to 400,000 people, as

they fought an escalating insurgency.

In Addis Ababa, the government pardoned and released dozens of opposition

leaders and journalists detained since the post-election crackdown in 2005.

However, the press remains hobbled and local human rights organizations operate

with great difficulty.

Abuses in Somali and Oromia States

In June, the Ethiopian military launched a major offensive in Somali region, the

eastern third of the country inhabited by ethnic Somalis. The offensive was a

response to increasing attacks by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a

longstanding armed opposition movement demanding self determination for the

region. In April the ONLF attacked an oil exploration site killing nine Chinese oil

workers, 50 armed guards, and 28 nearby villagers; the group was also allegedly

responsible for two bombings in May that indiscriminately killed 17 people, mostly

civilians, and wounded dozens in Dhagabur and Jigjiga, the state capital.

In the five zones affected by the conflict, the Ethiopian military retaliated by razing

entire villages, carrying out public executions, raping and harassing women and girls, arbitrarily arresting, torturing and sometimes killing suspects in military

custody; and forcing thousands to flee their homes. They also imposed a commercial

blockade on the affected region and confiscated livestock-the main

asset in this largely pastoralist region-exacerbating food shortages.

In July, the government expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross and

restricted access to the affected region by other international humanitarian agencies.

Restrictions on humanitarian agencies were slightly eased in September and

October, when the government permitted the UN to conduct an assessment and

open regional offices in the affected area.

In Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous state, government authorities have used the

fact of a long-standing insurgency by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to

imprison, harass, and physically abuse critics, including school children. Victims

are informally accused of supporting the OLF, an outlawed rebel group, but supporters

of the Oromo National Congress (ONC) and the Oromo Federalist

Democratic Movement (OFDM), registered opposition political parties, suffer similar

treatment. In early January, more than thirty students were arrested and at

least one, a tenth-grader, died as a result of police beatings in Dembi Dollo, western

Oromia. Other students were severely injured and hospitalized. Also in

January, local police and militia members in Ghimbi shot two high school students

dead, one as he and others were walking peacefully along, the other as he

covered the body of the first with his own in order to protect him from further

harm. In March security officials allegedly executed 19 men and a 14-year-old girl

near Mieso in northeastern Oromia. Starting in August, federal and state security

forces arrested well over 200 people in western Oromia, including three members

of the executive committee of the Nekemte chapter of the Ethiopian Human

Rights Council and OFDM members, on suspicion of links to the OLF. Some,

including the EHRCO officials, were released under court order after the police

failed to provide evidence against them but most were still detained as of early

November. At least 25 were being held in defiance of court orders to release

them.

Farmers in Oromia who fail to support the governing political party are denied fertilizer

and other agricultural aids over which the government exercises monopoly

control.

 Abuses Relating to the Conflict in Somalia

Thousands of Ethiopian troops were deployed in Mogadishu and other parts of

Somalia in late 2006 as part of the military campaign to oust the Islamic Courts

Union (ICU) and install the Transitional Federal Government. In March and April

2007, the Ethiopian military indiscriminately bombarded large residential areas of

Mogadishu with mortar shells, artillery, and "Katyusha" rockets, killing hundreds

of people and causing up to 400,000 people to flee the city. Ethiopian forces

made no apparent effort to distinguish between civilian and insurgent targets,

and they shelled and occupied several key hospitals located in the frontline

areas. (See Somalia chapter)

In collaboration with TFG forces, Ethiopian troops detained and sometimes beat

hundreds of men in mass arrests in Mogadishu in June and July. Dozens of suspected

ICU supporters who fled Mogadishu in December 2006 were detained by

Ethiopian forces in Somalia or by Kenyan officials at the border, and rendered to

Ethiopia in January and February, where they were held in incommunicado detention

for months of interrogations, by US security agents, among others. At least

40 of the detainees were released in April and May-including more than a dozen

women and children under the age of fifteen-but scores of others have disappeared.

Suppression of Free Expression and Attacks on Civil Society

An unknown number of people remain imprisoned without trial after electionrelated

violence following events in June and November 2005, although in July

2007 the government finally released the leadership of the leading opposition

party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and six newspaper publishers.

In proceedings that became popularly known as "the treason trial," the government

had accused the CUD leadership, journalists and others of using unlawful

means to change the "constitutional order," obstruct the exercise of constitutional

powers, promote armed rebellion, and impair "the defensive power of the

state," as well as treason and genocide. In April 2007, the treason and genocide

charges were dismissed, but some defendants were convicted of the other

charges. The court also ordered three newspapers to be closed. Shortly after sentencing, most of the defendants were released and all charges against them were

dropped after they submitted letters accepting some responsibility for the 2005

unrest. However, two civil society representatives, Daniel Bekele and Netsanet

Demissie, who acted as mediators between the EPRDF and the CUD after the

2005 elections, refused to sign letters of regret and insisted on judicial exoneration.

Despite flimsy government evidence against them, they remained incarcerated

as of early December 2007, two years after their arrest, because of repeated

court recesses.

Following the 2005 elections, the government has sharply reversed a liberalizing

trend and subjected independent newspapers and their editors, publishers, and

reporters to renewed harassment, intimidation, and criminal charges. Three journalists

acquitted during the treason trial fled the country after their release from

jail, citing multiple death threats from government security agents. The government

and its allies own all electronic media. It blocks access to internet sites critical

of its policies. In October, the government began jamming Deutsche Welle and

Voice of America Amharic and Oromomifa language broadcasts, the principal

source of news for the rural population.

The government has long tried unsuccessfully to outlaw the Ethiopian Teachers

Association (ETA), the largest independent membership organization in the country.

ETA's president, released from six years in prison in 2002, was tried in absentia

in the treason trial; the chair of ETA's Addis Ababa branch was acquitted. Four

ETA members were arrested in December 26, 2006, severely beaten, and otherwise

tortured to coerce confessions that they were members of an armed opposition

group, the Ethiopian People's Patriotic Front. Released in March 2007, they

were rearrested in late May and early June.

Lack of Judicial Independence

The judicial system remains unable to assert independence in prominent cases.

In the treason trial, for example, the trial judges showed little concern for defendants'

procedural and constitutional rights and ignored claims of serious mistreatment

by prison authorities. With exceptions, courts generally allow police

protracted periods to investigate for evidence that might support the charges brought by prosecutors; in the meantime, defendants remain jailed without an

opportunity for release on bail.

In January 2007 a court convicted Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide in absentia,

and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Mengistu, the leader of the former military

government, lives in Zimbabwe under the protection of the Zimbabwe government.

Several hundred former officials remain jailed awaiting trial, sixteen years

after Mengistu's overthrow.

Mistreatment of Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society

The staff of Ethiopia's only nationwide human rights organization, EHRCO, is regularly

subjected to government harassment and intimidation. One investigator who

fled the country in 2005 was charged in absentia in the treason trial. Three members

of the Nekemte executive committee were arrested and imprisoned for fifteen

days (see above.)

The Oromo-focused Human Rights League, allowed to register in 2005 after years

of litigation, remains inactive. Leaders of the traditional Oromo self-help organization

Mecha Tulama, arrested in 2004, were released without trial in early 2007.

Key International Actors

Ethiopia remains deadlocked over a boundary dispute with Eritrea dating from the

1998-2000 war. The war in Somalia is another source of tension between the two

countries.

International criticism of the Ethiopian government's human rights performance is

muted. The United States and major European donor states view the government

as an important ally in an unstable region. Ethiopia remains the largest beneficiary

of US military and development aid in sub-Saharan Africa. The US provided

logistical and possibly financial support for Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in

December 2006 and has not pressured Ethiopia to accede to the Eritrea boundary

decision.

Ethiopia is also among the top African recipients of European Union aid. After the

2005 election violence, the UK suspended direct budget support to Ethiopia, but

has since increased its aid to an annual GBP 130 million in 2007-2008.

China is an increasingly important trading partner. Chinese-Ethiopian trade has

increased 17 percent since 2006, to US$660 million, and Chinese investment has

reached $345 million from just $10 million four years ago, according to official figures.

In August 2007 the government expelled two thirds of the diplomatic staff of

Norway, apparently for criticizing its human rights record and pressing too aggressively

for acceptance of the Eritrea boundary commission decision.

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