A global women’s rights and advocacy group, Safe World for Women, has put up an online petition for the immediate release of jailed award-winning Ethiopian journalist with breast tumour, Reeyot Alemu.
Ms. Alemu, 34, who is also a teacher, was jailed under the nebulous Ethiopian anti-terrorism law for her criticism of the intolerant government in Addis Ababa. On June 21, 2011, she was arrested from the school where she teaches and kept in an undisclosed location.
Four days earlier, she had written a critical article about the fund-raising method for a dam project by the ruling political party in her country comparing then Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, with late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. She was subsequently charged with supporting an unnamed terrorist organisation but her specific crimes were not listed. In 2009, the Ethiopian government passed a vaguely worded and far-reaching anti-terrorism law that allows it to charge anyone thought to be encouraging terrorism.
Ms. Alemu was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined about $2,000 (N319, 580) but an appeal court later commuted the sentence to five years. During her trial a government prosecutor presented articles she had written criticising the prime minister and telephone conversations about peace protest as evidence against her.
Despite her failing health, she refused an offer of clemency in exchange for providing information on other journalists. She was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks as punishment.
In 2012, the International Women Media Foundation, WMF, presented the Courage in Journalism Award to Ms. Alemu in absentia for her “refusal to self-censor in a place where that practice is standard, and her unwillingness to apologize for truth-telling, even though contrition could win her freedom.”
“I believe that I must contribute something to bring a better future… Since there are a lot of injustices and oppressions in Ethiopia, I must reveal and oppose them in my articles,” she told the IWMF in an earlier interview.
She is also the 2013 winner of UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
She was held for three months before the trial without the opportunity of a counsel during the trial proper. Her charges were never read to her and the witnesses used by the prosecutor were anonymous. Before the trial, the government also ran a documentary on national television profiling her as a terrorist.
Despite the tumour in her breast, she is being denied proper medical care. Her father, the only person allowed to see her said her breast is bleeding. She might lose the entire breast, even die, if she does not get prompt attention.
Amnesty International described her continued detention as an “affront to freedom of expression.”
The Ethiopian government is one of the most intolerant governments in the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, said, “Ethiopia has refused to comply with a decision by the U.N. special rapporteur on torture in the case of Reeyot.”
“Woubshet Taye, Reeyot Alemu, and Elias Kifle have been sentenced solely in relation to their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, to which Ethiopia is a signatory. We therefore protest the harsh sentences handed down to them and call for the immediate and unconditional release of Taye and Alemu,” said the PEN American Centre.
The petition will be sent to the United Nations’ UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression, Frank William La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, and UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Juan Méndez. A copy will also be sent to Permanent Representative of the Ethiopia to the UN, Tekeda Alemu.
The Petitioner seeks 10,000 signatures; so far only 810 people have signed it. Interested people can sign it on http://chn.ge/1iGxvQj
Reeyot Alemu
Reeyot Alemu is an Ethiopian journalist and teacher who has committed her life to highlighting the corruptions of the Ethiopian government.
In a country where the media is a vehicle for political propaganda, free speech is greatly restricted, Reeyot’s dedication to publicising the suppressions of the government has earned her negative attention from the authorities over the years.
Tenuous Terror Charges and Inhumane Treatment
Reeyot is currently serving a prison sentence under the charge of being involved in terrorist activity. There is an increasing trend within the country of using tenuous terror charges as an umbrella term for incarcerating anyone who speaks out against the inequalities within their society. Reeyot, along with numerous other journalists and political dissidents, have fallen prey to this systematic program of silencing.
The legislation that allows these innocent people to be imprisoned was activated in 2009, ostensibly as an anti-terrorism measure, but has increasingly been used to condemn anyone that the Ethiopian authorities deem to be damaging to their position. A vast land-locked country, Ethiopia is well-known for its disturbing problems with poverty and social inequalities. The party currently in power, the EPRDF(Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front), has devoted much attention to covering this up. The threat that Reeyot and her colleagues pose to this is evidently treated with zero tolerance.
Reports indicate that since her incarceration, Reeyot has been subjected to solitary confinement, been denied food, family visits and legal advice, as well as being subjected to unfair trials with false evidence. Alarmingly, after being operated on for a benign breast tumour, without proper anaesthetic, Reeyot was immediately taken back to prison without any aftercare, and is now suffering painful complications from this horrendous lack of basic medical care.
International Media
The political situation in Ethiopia is renowned for being fraught with fractious relationships and corruption. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising, though no less disturbing, that people such as Reeyot are being treated in such an inhumane way, and being falsely accused of crimes. What is surprising, however, is how little attention this situation is awarded in the world’s media; worryingly little seems to be known about Reeyot and others like her. This is perhaps indicative of the success with which the Ethiopian authorities have kept this problem away from the attention of the international media. Human rights organisations, however, are deeply concerned with the welfare of all those being held under false accusations, and are campaigning for their rights to fair trials, proper access to legal counsel, and safe prison conditions.
Denial of Medical and Legal Rights
The most recent news on Reeyot creates a disturbing picture: suffering complications from her operation, she is in pain and is being denied proper medical care. Her visits by loved ones are greatly restricted, and her father, who is also serving as her lawyer, is banned from giving her any advice in a legal capacity. It is therefore more important than ever that the ongoing campaigns to free Reeyot and the other journalists falsely imprisoned bring much-needed attention to this dire situation.
Imprisonment of Swedish Journalists
Reeyot is a symbol of the oppression being suffered by journalists in Ethiopia. The government uses the fear created by the label ‘terrorist’ to justify this mass-imprisonment. Many others have suffered similar treatment within the country; journalist Martin Schibbye, was imprisoned in Ethiopia, along with photographer Johan Persson, under these terror laws after crossing into the country from the Somali border. Since their release from prison, they have been avid campaigners for the release of these prisoners of conscience.
Incarcerated Family
In a case that gained attention from the international community, Eskinder Nega was similarly committed to bringing the problems with the Ethiopian government to public attention. He suffered a similar fate to Reeyot, and is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence.
The element of this story that gained so much media coverage, however, was the imprisonment of his pregnant wife alongside him on a previous occasion back in 2005. Serkalem Nega was forced to give birth in prison, reinforcing the Ethiopian authorities’ lack of concern with the welfare of these prisoners. Having since fled the danger of her home for the US, Serkalem is carrying out important work to help raise support for her husband’s plight and the many like him.
Foreign Interests and Diplomacy
It is surprising to hear that democratic countries such as the US can be aware of the human rights abuses taking place on a daily basis in Ethiopia. This, however, is the alarming truth. One topic that Reeyot brought attention to was the impact of a proposed dam of the part of the Nile that lies within Ethiopia. Since this is seen as a diplomatic issue between this country and Egypt, the human rights problems that arise out of this plan have been largely ignored by countries not wanting to embroil themselves in any conflicts. The Ethiopian government has been useful to the US authorities in tackling its problems with neighbouring Somalia, and observers from the international community have suggested that this explains America’s apparent leniency towards Ethiopia’s appalling treatment of its prisoners and its use of terror laws.
Ethiopian president Mulatu Teshome has cleverly used the rampant anti-terror sentiment within US policy to justify the condemnation of anyone speaking out against corruption.
Global Community
Reeyot Alemu is an award-winning journalist who is committed to preserving the rights of the people within her community, and her incarceration under false charges and in such horrendous conditions is inexcusable. Since it appears that political authorities from other countries are not willing to intervene in this situation, it falls to the invaluable human rights campaigners to rally support for Reeyot and all those wrongly imprisoned.
The campaign for Reeyot is picking up speed, and many more people are becoming aware of the dire situation of human rights abuses in Ethiopia. By spreading awareness of these inequalities, enough pressure will eventually be put on the Ethiopian government to answer for its actions, and for other governments to add weight to these demands for justice. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide powerful mediums for campaigns such as this one, and in this way everyone is able to make a difference. We must demand justice for Reeyot, Eskinder, and all those who are punished for exercising their right to knowledge and truth.
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