Ethiopia: Cruel and inhumane actions against street children in Addis Ababa (World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) Human Rights NGO)
Case ETH 080501.CC
CHILD CONCERN
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Ethiopia.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), a member of the OMCT network, that the government is engaged in cruel and inhumane actions against street children in Addis Ababa.
Due to the recent conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, children who do not have parents or economically strong relatives to support them are forced to discontinue their education. The streets, churches, mosques, bus and taxi stations of cities in Ethiopia are crowded by a increasing number of these defenseless citizens.
According to the information received, as of February 2001, the government tried to solve this problem by rounding them up, taking them to and abandoning them to hyenas and other wild animals in forests outside the city. A number of the children that EHRCO has been able to interview reported that some of their friends, especially the very young and weak, which had been taken with them to these forests, have so far not returned.
For instance, according to the information received, 14 year old Yirgalem Melaku was among those picked up on 29 April, taken to Dukem and abandoned in the woods. Yirgalem has not returned and his whereabouts are still unknown. His friends fear hyenas may have eaten him.
According to EHRCO, between March and April 2001, the police detained destitute children at Kolfe Police Training Camp (KPTC) where they were made to perform various military-like ìsports" and, later, taken and abandoned at such places as Dukem, Sebeta and Kara Qore. Some of these children managed to return to Addis Ababa in spite of the threats and strict instructions they had received from the police not to come back to the city. As pointed out earlier, it is feared that some may not have been as lucky.
In addition to what the government has been doing to the destitute, it has started a similar campaign against those children that have been trying to survive and support their families by selling newspapers, magazines, and second-hand items in the streets. These children are also being picked up from the streets, taken to Kolfe Police Training Camp, and made to perform military-like ìsports". Then, they are made to sign written statements that they "will never again sell newspapers or other things anywhere in the city", and released. A number of these children have also reported their grievances to EHRCO. It has not been possible to include samples of these, since the children are frightened of even more serious retaliation.
So far, EHRCO has registered 41 children who have been persecuted by the police (a list is available at the International Secretariat of OMCT).
