EHRCO special report: Torture of Detainees should Stop

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Also in the news:
[Court Postponed again] - [CIA and FBI agents visit Ethiopian secret jails] - [Eritrea urges Uganda to withdraw troops] - [Ethiopia says killed 23 Eritrean-backed rebels] - [Islamist cleric in Mogadishu urges jihad against invaders] - [AIDS Holy Water 'Cure']

International:
[National strike begins in Zimbabwe] - [Retired FBI Agent Missing In Iran] - [Blair says standoff with Iran at critical stage] - [TGV breaks train speed record] and more of today's top stories!

(Picture - Ethio-Zagol) -- Runners participating in the women’s great run in Addis Abeba, flashing the opposition party's "V" sign and calling for the release of Prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia, this past sunday. The faces are covered to hide their identity

Postponed again

(EZ)

The judges in the trial of CUD leaders, independent journalists and civil society members yet again decided to adjourn the proceeding. They finished most of the briefing today.

The judges said they would conclude the briefing and read the ruling tomorrow. The briefing was read today by judge Leul who was supposed to be sick.

EHRCO special report: Torture of Detainees should Stop
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The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit, and non-partisan organization with headquarters in Addis Abeba.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Ethiopia has adopted, prohibits cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment under article 5.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Ethiopia is a party, affirming the right under Article 7, further provides that this right is inalienable and inviolable (Article 4 (2)).

...Contrary to these Constitutional and treaty provisions, however, Tsegaye Ayele Yigzaw (Mr.) has been tortured to death.

Tsegaye Ayele Yigzaw, 34, was married, head of a family of three and member of Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP). He was a radiologist in Gondor Hospital. Because of persecution by the police, he moved to Debre Markos town where he was employed as a radiologist in a private clinic.

He was arrested by the police without court warrant on December 18, 2007 at 8:45 a.m. on his way to office. After detained for eight days in Debre Markos and Bahr Dar towns, he was transferred to Addis Ababa Crime Investigation Department where he was interrogated whether he was member of a front called Patriotic Front and whether he knows a particular (named) person.(More...)

CIA and FBI agents visit Ethiopian secret jails

(Associated Press) - CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.

The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP.(More...)

Ethiopia says killed 23 Eritrean-backed rebels

ADDIS ABABA, (Reuters) - Ethiopian soldiers have killed 23 Eritrean-backed rebels, captured 18, and received the surrender of 112 more, the state news agency said on Tuesday.

"The 23 rebels engaged in proxy war coordinated by the Eritrean government were killed in gunfire with the army in Armacheo district of the northern Gondar region," Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) said, quoting a regional official.

Ethiopia, the major military power in the Horn of Africa, has frequently accused its smaller neighbour Eritrea of backing, arming and harbouring a variety of insurgents.(More...)

Islamist cleric in Mogadishu urges jihad against invaders

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A leading official of the Union of Islamic Courts urged Mogadishu’s residents on Monday to wage jihad against the invading Ethiopian army and its supporters.

Moallim Hashi Mohamed, who was deputy governor of Middle Shabelle region under the Islamic administration, said in his first public comments that he is inside Mogadishu helping direct the insurgency.

He was speaking a day after militias loyal to him took control of areas in the outskirts of Mogadishu deserted by Ethiopian forces last week. Military officials have declined to comment on the withdrawal.(More...)

Eritrea urges Uganda to withdraw troops from Mogadishu 'trap'

ASMARA (AFP) - Eritrea's president urged his Ugandan counterpart to pull out his peacekeeping troops from Somalia, warning that the war-torn country was a trap, a statement said Tuesday after talks between the two in Eritrea.

An offensive by Eritrean arch foe Ethiopia in Mogadishu last week sparked some of the worst fighting in Somalia's history, during which a first Ugandan African Union peacekeeper was killed.

Some 1,500 Ugandan peacekeepers deployed in Mogadishu last month. Eritrea on Tuesday repeated the country's objection to the deployment of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia to help bolster the Ethiopia-backed Somali interim government.(More...)

Ethiopian Church Offers AIDS Holy Water 'Cure'

Thousands of Aids and HIV patients are risking their lives by refusing medication in favour of holy water, reports Sky News.

The controversial treatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers. Sky News correspondent Ian Woods reports on the practice doctors in the country say is extremely dangerous:

"It was a scene which reminded me of the holocaust. Naked men, women and children, some of them in chains to prevent them escaping, cower in front of the men in charge in a dimly-lit room in the church of St Mary on Mount Entoto.(more...)

Today's Top Stories

-National strike begins in Zimbabwe
-Retired FBI Agent Missing In Iran(American Citizen Reported Missing While On A Business Trip Several Weeks Ago)
-Blair says standoff with Iran at critical stage
-TGV breaks train speed record
-Chavez: Government could seize private hospitals
-Ukraine rivals in tense stand-off(Ukraine's PM Viktor Yanukovych has called the president's decision to dissolve parliament a "fatal mistake", amid a deepening political crisis)
-Anything to declare? Tell Norway's customs machine



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