FROM MAIKELAWI TO KALITI – Bekele Jirata Tells

the Plight of Oromo Political Prisoners under Zenawi’s

Regime
September 18, 2010 at 12:58 am · Gadaa.com

Mr. Bekele Jirata, Former Secretary General of OFDM and Former Prisoner of Conscience
under the Ethiopian regime of Meles Zenawi

The following is a first-hand account of the plight of Oromo political prisoners under the
Ethiopian regime of Meles Zenawi as told by Mr. Bekele Jirata, who was the Secretary
General of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), a prominent opposition
political organization, when he was jailed by Ethiopian security forces in late 2008. Mr.
Bekele Jirata is an agricultural expert with a Master’s degree and was previously employed
by the Oromia Water Resources Bureau.

Note: Some parts describe graphic torture methods; reader discretion is advised.

FROM MAIKELAWI TO KALITI

THE TORTURE-PRISON SYSTEM

Maikelawi is the Amharic name for the Federal Police Crime Investigation and Forensic
Department (FPCFD); and Kaliti is the main prison located on the eastern outskirts of
Finfinne (Addis Ababa) in Hakaki Kaliti Woreda (county).

Maikelawi is the well-known detention and torturing center in the country. It used to also be
called Sostenga Police Tabiya (the Third Police Station) during Mengistu’s military regime.
This is the place where Oromo sons and daughters experience the most atrocities committed
by the EPRDF federal police, security services and anti-terrorism task force. This was the
place where innocent Oromos, including myself, were detained, beaten, intimidated and
dehumanized in 2008. This is not new to Oromos, but I am talking about what I had
witnessed.
Kaliti is one of the biggest prison centers where thousands of Ethiopian citizens, 90% of
whom are Oromos, are suffering. I was lucky to be released on bail and to be able to escape
the long term imprisonment passed on me on March 31, 2010. But, others, who were detained
or sentenced on the same day, are now facing death, life imprisonment (Mesfin Abebe and
Tesfahun Chemeda, respectively), and long-term imprisonments.

This report covers only what I had witnessed during the one and half months of my detention
in Maikelawi, and two months in the Kaliti prison.

THE MASSIVE ARRESTS OF OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2008

The massive arrests of Oromos, which the EPRDF called ‘the crackdown’, was conducted
from early in the morning to the evening of October 30, 2008. The arrests were without court
warrants. Hundreds of heavily-armed federal police and anti-terrorist task force personnel
were deployed for the mission in every corner of Addis Ababa city. It was a terror day for
Addis Ababa city dwellers – a terror carried out by the government forces. The EPRDF
terrorist group terrorized and arrested the following Oromo nationals. These are those
arrested whose names I remember.

1. Eshetu Kitil … the owner of Hawi Hotel, arrested from his hotel office.
2. Kebede Borena … the Deputy General Manager of Hilton Hotel, arrested from his home.
3. Degen Borena … Kebede Borena’s brother and a businessman, arrested when he went to
his brother’s house after hearing his brother had been arrested.
4. Colonel Olani Jebesa … a retired military officer, arrested from his house.
5. Wabe Haji … a legal adviser at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, arrested from his
office.
6. Degene Daba … the owner of a trucking business, arrested from his house.
7. Roba Gedefa … an employee at the Niyala Insurancy Company, arrested from his office.
8. Aberash Yadeta … an employee at the Oda Share Company, arrested from her office.
9. Lelise Wodajo … an employee at the Ethiopian Television (ETV), arrested from her
office.
10. Hailu Delesa … a third-year Haromaya University student majoring in accounting,
arrested from the university campus.
11. Bayisa Husen … a student at Ambo High School, arrested from his house.
12. Bekele Negeri … an owner of a small business, arrested from his house.
13. Bogale Mosisa … a shopkeeper, arrested in Paisa area.
14. Kabebo Faye … a retiree (70 years old) and a Board Member of the Mecha-Tulema
Development and Welfare Association, arrested from his house; and he later died
immediately after his release from Maikelawi.
15. Bekele Jirata … the Secretary General of OFDM, arrested while going to the office
(OFDM office).
16. Husein Moga … a day laborer, arrested from his house.
17. Yasin Jarso … a day laborer, arrested from his house.
18. Zeynu Mohamad … a shopkeeper, arrested from his shop.
19. Zerihun Wodajo … a renown Oromo artist, arrested from his house; and he was released
from Maikelawi after one and half months detention.
20. Asefa Tefera Dibaba … a well-known writer and a lecturer at Addis Ababa University;
he was released from Maikelawi after one and half months of detention.
21. Emiru Gurmesa … who had been released from Kaliti prison after 4 years of
imprisonment without trial, and he was arrested and detained again in Maikelawi; he died
immediately after his release from Maikelawi.
22. Two women, whose names I have forgotten, were brought from Adama; they were
released from Maikelawi after a month and half detention.
23. Another young woman, detained with her 2-year-old baby; and she was released from
Maikelawi after a month and half detention.
24. Tolesa Wolde … a well-known lawyer, arrested in November 2008 from his private
office.
25. Abera Degefa … a Board Member of the Mecha-Tulema Development and Welfare
Association and a Law lecturer at Addis Ababa University, arrested in November 2008.
26. Tsehayi (whose surname I have forgotten) …. the owner of a pharmacy, arrested from his
pharmacy; and, he was released from Maikelawi after two months.

There were many, whose names I do not remember, who were brought from different parts of
the Oromia regional state and also from Amhara regional state’s Oromia zone, Kemise area.
Three young Oromos, who were arrested in mid October from Kemise area, were first taken
to the Afar regional state’s police station and tortured bitterly; with their hands tied, they
were left naked to be bitten by mosquitoes for two weeks before they were brought to
Maikelawi. Since then, no one knows their whereabouts.

THOSE ABDUCTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES FOR TORTURE AND

DEATH
Tesfahun Chemeda and Mesfin Abebe were abducted from Nairobi, Kenya, in 2007; and they
were later detained in an unknown place for over two years without appearing in court until
they were brought to Maikelawi and finally headed the charge list of the 16 Oromos of the
March 31, 2010 decision.

Four Oromos, who were kidnapped in 2006 from Somaliland (Hargeisa), were also detained
in Maikelawi for over two years; they were never taken to court. One of them was an old man
of 60 years. No one knows what had happened and their whereabouts since then.

THE MAIKELAWI TORTURE PRISON

There are three different officially known detention houses in Maikelawi; one is Chelema Bet
(the Dark Dungeon). There are also underground and unofficial detention places inside the
Maikelawi compound.

The Dark Dungeon is constructed in a “U”-shaped design; and it has 9 cells. There is a very
narrow corridor between the opposite cells. At the end of the corridor is found the toilet,
which is never maintained, and dirty water overflows from it.

Above the cells are offices. This underground dark prison is built with black and heavy
stones; and the floor is concrete; it is dark and extremely cold. There is light in the corridor
which gives dim light to the cells through small aperture found above the wall left to let in
air. Inside the cells, detainees can see each other hardly. In each cell of 4*4 meters,
sometimes 12 (other times 16) people are jammed. No space to move, no light; you hear
nothing, and you see nothing. The same cell is used for sleeping and for eating; a urine
bucket is also there. The cell is poorly ventilated, and the unpleasant smell of the toilet
disturbs. These conditions, added to the police humiliation, intimidation and torture, make it
the worst of all in life. In these horrible situations, we had passed 46 days without seeing
sunlight with the doors closed day and night.

In this Dark Dungeon, there is also a special cell, Cell Number 7, which has other cells inside
– cells within a cell. The inner cells are extremely narrow; and prisoners can not sit nor sleep,
and it is used as an additional torturing method. Degene Daba was thrown in this cell for a
week with his hands tied.

During our stay in Maikelawi, we had never been visited by our family. I was visited by a
lawyer only once. We were tortured physically and psychologically. Different torturing
methods were applied on us.

• Beating with electric cables, especially on the head and fingers;

• Kicking groups of detainees with military shoes and standing on barefoot;
• Forcing to stand still barefoot with hands raised above the head for a prolonged time – up to
48 hours continuously – without sleep and rest, day and night;
• Depriving sleep and rest, night and day;
• Tying hands to the roof and beating;
• Forcing to do physical exercises continuously. When a detainee is unable to move, walking
on one’s body with their military shoes, beating with shoes on the face and the head until one
falls unconscious;
• Forcing to lie naked on wet concrete floor;
• Taking to the very dark room and terrorizing at gunpoint;
• Humiliating and degrading female detainees by making them stand naked surrounded by a
group of policemen – injuring their human dignity.

These and other forms of torture, like mental torturing through insults which can never heal,
were applied on us.

Degene Daba was among those who were bitterly beaten almost to death. He was urinating
pure blood for a month while he was kept in chains. He was accused of transporting
ammunition to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) fighters. The police took a picture of him
with bullets taken from one of the offices in the Maikelawi compound, and that picture was
used as an evidence.

Kebabo Faye, who was 70 years old, was denied medical treatment; he died immediately
after he had been released from Maikelawi. He was ill-treated and mentally tortured by the
police.

Emiru Gurmesa, who was arrested for the third time in 2008, had also died after being
released from Maikelawi. I had known Emiru since 1983. He was sacked from the Oromia
Coffee and Tea Development Bureau in 1997 and imprisoned for one year. Again, he was
arrested and jailed in 2004; he was then released from Kaliti in 2007. For the third time, he
was arrested on October 30, 2008. When he was brought to Maikelawi on October 30 around
6 o’clock, one policeman, standing in front of the office, said, “Oh! My God, this man is back
again; I think this is his third or fourth time.”

EPRDF arrests and accuses peaceful and innocent Oromos with fabricated charges. That is
why the charges are related to the occupations of the detained individuals.
Those, who have private businesses, are accused of providing financial supports to young
Oromos fleeing the country; those, who travel abroad for their own private businesses, are
accused of contacting OLF leaders; those, who have trucking businesses, are accused of
transporting arms to OLF fighting forces; those, who are either government or private
employees, are accused of providing financial supports to the OLF. Those, who are students,
are accused of agitating and organizing fellow students against the government. Those, who
are in opposition political parties, are accused of recruiting OLF cadres disguised as party
members.

What we understand from this type of charges is EPRDF’s intention to terrorize and eliminate
Oromo nationalists to continue its domination without any opposition. EPRDF never wants
opposition to exist in the country – which had been clearly seen in 2010 elections.

Though the charges were about having relations with the OLF, the police interrogations and
offers were about:

- “Why do you hate EPRDF?”

- “Why don’t you work with the government?”
- “Do you want to talk to government higher officials?”
- “Why do you oppose? You bring nothing if you oppose.”
- “If you denounce OLF, you will be released.” and so on.

The above clearly show that the charges were based on revenge.

THE KALITI CONCENTRATION CAMP

Kaliti is located on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, at about 25km. The
prison used to have 6 zones when we arrived, but it later became an 8-zone prison center
because of the huge number of new prisoners. Each zone has about 3000 prisoners. The walls
and roofs of the prison houses are made of corrugated iron sheets. Zone #3 has 5 prison
houses numbered from 1 to 5.

In each of these prison houses, 600-800 prisoners are crowded. Let alone to sleep, there is no
place to stand.

Prisoners are beaten and ill treated by self-appointed gangsters. They can punish and order
the prisoner to do whatever they want. They are the ones who decide and force people to
sleep where there is no place to sleep. They order others to pile human beings like sacks of
wheat – one head down, the other head opposite, and the third one on top of the two.

If a prisoner gives money, they treat him better than those who do not have money.
Corruption in the Kaliti prison is official – even up to the prison administration. There are
corruption dealers who terrorize newcomers, saying, “unless you give money, the
administration will send you to Ziway or Shoa Robit prisons,” which are very harsh to live,
and are located far away from one’s family.

Because of the suffocation created by overcrowding, the lack of sanitation, the shortage of
toilets and bathrooms, the lack of medical treatments, the lack of sleeping places, many
prisoners suffer from TB (Tuberculosis) and other diseases, everybody through the prison
coughs. Four prisoners had died of untreated diseases within a month when I was there. I
remember a young man called Sisay, who was a TB patient; he was denied medical treatment
and died in prison.

The prison compound is very small; it’s dusty during the dry time and muddy during the
rainy season; it’s overcrowded and difficult to move around.

At Kaliti, radios and newspapers are not allowed; even books written in the English
Language are not permitted. What is available in Kaliti is cigarette that many young prisoners
“enjoy”.

Over 90% of the prisoners in Kaliti are youngsters, out of which 99% are young Oromos,
aged between 18 and 35 years, accused of being either members or supporters of the OLF.
The charges are fabricated; and the evidences are totally false. They are simply imprisoned
because they have rejected to be members of OPDO/EPRDF or they have spoken out their
mind.

Eighty percent of the young Oromos in the Kaliti prison are high school or university
students. These young people are sentenced to long-year imprisonments. By the time they
come out (if they escape death), they will be over-aged and could not continue school; they
do not have plans about what to do next. Even they will not get place to live because the local
OPDO/EPRDF cadres will never allow them to live in peace. As a result, many, who have
been through similar conditions, flee the the country after their releases. They suffer or die in
concentration camps of the neighboring countries: Kenya, Somaliland (Hargeisa), Djibouti,
Yemen, Uganda, Tanzania, and so on.

Others, in violation of international laws, are abducted from those neighboring countries by
the Ethiopian government’s security services in collaboration with the host country’s police;
and they are thrown back to the same prison for more suffering and danger on their lives.
Examples are Mesfin Abebe and Tesfahun Chemeda; Mesfin Abebe was sentenced to death,
and Tesfahun Chemeda to life imprisonment on March 31, 2010.

THE (KANGAROO) COURT PROCESS

Among Those Targeted: Top (L to R) – Mr. Mesfin A. Abdissa, Mr. Tesfahun Chemeda.
Bottom (L to R) – Mrs. Aberash Yadeta, Mrs. Lelisa Wodajo, Mr. Wabe Haji, Mr. Kebede
Borena, and Mr. Bekele Jirata

All detainees of the October 30, 2008 case were taken to the nearby court after two days of
arrest. The two Oromos (Mesfin Abebe and Tesfahun Chemeda), who were kidnapped from
Kenya in 2007, also appeared in court for the first time on this day.

We appeared in this court six times during this ordeal. Our appeals for being tortured by the
police and our requests for bail were rejected by the judge.

On December 15, 2008, we were taken to the Federal High Court’s Third Bench; we
appealed for bail, but the court rejected. We were taken to the Kaliti prison.

On our third appearance, the court ordered the federal prosecutor to bring his witnesses to
continue the trial.

The prosecutor listed a number of so-called witnesses. Most of them were brought in by the
federal police from different parts of the Oromia regional state and stayed in Maikelawi for a
week to be given orientation, with the help of detainees’ pictures, by security services on
what to say in court. This was confirmed by the witnesses themselves.

In addition to that, the security police showed the prisoners to the witnesses at the gate of the
court so that they could clearly identify before appearing in the court. Some of the witnesses
were those who were imprisoned by the same charge and released on agreements made
between the government and the prisoners. Others were unemployed young people paid by
the federal security service.

The judiciary was under government pressure and direct interference. The prejudicial
statement of the Minister of Communication, Bereket Simon, was a warning to the judiciary.
The interference and pressure also resulted in changes of judges every now and then during
the trial – causing the trial to be delayed for over two years.

CONCLUSION
EPRDF continuously denies prisoners are political prisoners. But, the massive arrests, and
sentences to death and long-term imprisonments of hundreds of innocent Oromo nationals is
purely political; it is nothing else.

As all knows, the killings, imprisonments and harassment of members of the Oromo People’s
Congress (OPC) and OFDM, and other opposition party members on the eve and after May
23, 2010 elections had been political.

The acts of genocide the EPRDF government has carried out and still carries out on the
Oromo people are not hidden from the international community, especially from the
governments supporting this brutal government. Amnesty International (AI), the Human
Rights Watch (HRW), the Oromia Support Group (OSG), the Human Rights League of the
Horn of Africa (HRLHA), and other human rights organizations were and are still reporting
the criminal acts committed by the Ethiopian antidemocratic government against peoples in
Ethiopia in general, and the systematic elimination, especially, of the Oromo youth at the
allegations of supporting the OLF.
But, the never-ending human rights violations, and the genocide the Ethiopian government
has committed and is committing have not gotten due attention from the international
community, particularly from governments supporting the Ethiopian government. The U.S.
Department of State has expressed its concern several times about the human rights violations
and the antidemocratic moves of the EPRDF government, but it has never taken serious
actions more than words that actually encourage the dictatorial regime.

Finally, I appeal to all to use their leverages and say to EPRDF to stop chasing and killings
Oromos and to release all political prisoners.

It is difficult for me to report the whole situation and reality of what has happened to each
Oromo national in Maikelawi and in Kaliti, and the process of the federal court’s unfair trial.
It does not even cover the entire inhuman acts the interrogators applied on me. It covers only
the highlight. I will leave the rest for history.

Bekele Jirata
Former Secretary General, the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM)