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Wednesday 10 December 2008

Ziwaye Prison, Ethiopia's Abu Gharib !!!!

Tedla Asfaw


The military government of Mengisu Hailemariam, Derg, was  known for widespread killing of its opponents. Elimination of opponents was well choreographed then. The first official victims were  the sixty high officials of Imperial Ethiopia thirty five years ago. Since then many opponents lost their lives and we were accustomed to the accompanying musics/ "Shilela", the famous one was "Yefeyele Wetete/young goat Vs tiger" , the trademark of Derg's brutality.

However, the TPLF regime  is totally different. It has its own choreography. You do not hear official music/shilela before or after killing of opponents. Killing is usually followed by seating down with victim families and watch who is showing up and try to find out what the public is thinking about the killing and possibly find other enemies.

The killing is also going slowly in many prison camps as we speak. Young Oromo prisoners were gunned down few years ago under the cover of prison riots, however, the most common method of eliminating political opponents is by exposing them to unsanitary and deadly condition inside the prison. One of such prisons is the malaria infested  Ziwaye prison where  our beloved son Teddy Afro is rumored to be sent.

Why Ziwaye prison/ Abu Ghairb ? It is just to expose Teddy Afro to the deadly malaria that took many prisoners lives in the past. It is also a place where torture is carried out regularly far from  witnesses and we might not see Teddy Afro alive if he is sent to Ziwaye. We have to expose the deadly scheme of TPLF before it is too late.

TPLF racists can not sleep well until they shut down Teddy Afro's mouth forever and that is why they are going  to send him to his death cell in Ziwaye. Teddy Afro is not a criminal to be sent far from his families and millions of his admirers. TPLF wanted to preempt the weekly visit of thousands of Ethiopians similar  the elected Kinijit leaders while they were locked up in Kaliti few  years ago.

TPLF know that Teddy Afro has millions of followers, most of them young who would like to see him each week if he is in Kaliti. When Ethiopians are calling for Teddy Afro's immediate and unconditional  release in last month Great Run, sending him to remote  far prison not to be visited is an insult to millions of Ethiopians.

Hate is a force that is driving Meles and his racist circles. They are also experts in digging underground jails in Northern Ethiopia where they kept many EPRP leaders like "Debteraw" and  former Ethiopian army high officials  for more than two decades. The case of the Ethiopian Air Force pilots we recently learned about is fresh testimony to that.

Meles and his inner circles had "Phd" in "prison management" and have more than thirty years of experience  on how to brake opponents spirit using prison and in many cases these underground prisons also became a burying ground for many Ethiopian patriots. Ziwaye Prison is not underground but still run by the underground prison experts guided by the thick prison book/constitution of TPLF.

Human Right  Organizations should expose these prisons both underground and on surface for international community and held those who run this deadly enterprise accountable. Former TPLF founders like Ato Sieye Abraha, Gebru Asrat and many others who now  claim to be on peoples side should expose the "prison industry" of Ethiopia they pioneered to bring all who have blood on their hands to face justice.