Mass Arrests of Tigrayans and Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia
26 November 2021
There are an increasing number of reports of Tigrayans being rounded up in Addis Ababa and other parts of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian police have confirmed the arrests of “many people”. Although Ethiopia denies it, there are fears that Tigrayans are being ethnically targeted.
Many Eritrean refugees have also been rounded up and detained in Addis Ababa, and in the Oromia special zone. Some of the detained Eritreans came to these areas from refugee camps in Tigray, after two of the camps were destroyed by Eritrean forces and thousands of inhabitants were forcibly returned to Eritrea. The basis for their arrest seems to be the fact that they speak Tigrinya, the language spoken in Tigray. Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE) has been informed of their arrests by Eritreans whose relatives have been rounded up and detained in Ethiopia; the whereabouts of most of the detainees are unknown.
On November 2, the government declared a state of emergency. The New York Times reports that the resulting round-ups have swept up anyone of Tigrayan descent, or those speaking Tigrinya, many of whom had no ties to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), or even any affinity with them. Those detained are not just young men and women, but also mothers with children, and the elderly, according to human rights advocates and interviews with nearly a dozen family members and friends of detainees. They were seized in the streets of Addis Ababa and elsewhere, in their homes and even in workplaces — including banks, schools and shopping centres — and taken to overcrowded cells in police stations and detention facilities.
Liz Throssell, a UN representative for human rights, described the mass arrests in Addis Ababa, and in the northern cities of Gondar and Bahir Dar, as police invoking and using the “excessively wide provisions” of the State of Emergency regulations. So far thousands of individuals have been detained.
It is reported that Tigrayans have been targeted by the police based on very unfair and illegal grounds, such as their surnames, the details listed on identification cards and driving licenses, and even on the basis of their accents and pronunciation of the national language, Amharic.
Even in times of national emergency, no civilian should be arrested simply on the basis of their ethnicity, speech or language, without any evidence to implicate them in illegal activity or crime. Such racially motivated arrests are reminiscent of the actions of the Nazi regime in Germany or the Stalinist regime in USSR.
HRCE calls upon the government of Ethiopia to release immediately all Eritrean and Tigrayan civilians and refugees, and to conduct immediate enquiries into the arrests of any such persons, ensuring that no such illegal arrests and detentions on the grounds of ethnicity are made in future. Only those charged with identifiable offences, with accompanying clear evidence, should be detained, charged and brought to court immediately to hear appeals for bail.
HRCE calls upon the United Nations and its institutions to direct Ethiopia to release all Tigrayans and Eritrean refugees living in Ethiopia who have been detained on grounds of ethnicity and language, and to bring an end this campaign of arrests.
HRCE calls upon all member nations of the UN to make immediate representations to the government of Ethiopia to end all such racially-motivated mass arrests and release all such detainees.
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Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
