Many often fail to imagine the subjective consequences of public actions. Here I want you to imagine personal crises with the numbers I will follow.
As a living victim of (mis)use of the Anti-terrorism Proclamation (ATP) in Ethiopia, I face a heartbreaking judgement oftentimes from ordinary citizens who knew that I was once charged of the ATP. They say, “you must have been involved in โsomethingโ that got you suspected of terrorism”. I find it difficult to explain how the ATP became a tool to stifle dissent in the country. This, however, is not my personal problem, it is a challenge of many others; nor it is the only problem, there are a lot of sufferings it caused. Once someone is charged of Ethiopiaโs ATP, her/his life will turn upside down. It is mostly difficult for ex-suspect/convict of the infamous ATP to get oneโs job back nor to find a new one; the blank space in oneโs CV sounds to employers like โdonโt give them the job, otherwise you will draw government spiesโ attention towards your companyโ. Past suspects/convicts of ATP will remain โusual suspectโ anytime anti-government protests erupt.
How many people were prosecuted of the ATP in Ethiopia? How many fled the country in fear of persecution? How many families suffered the consequences? A lot of individual stories have been reported about the ATP and its (mis)use but no significant research has been conducted uncovering the entire (mis)application of it. Who are the main targets of the ATP? How many people have so far suffered direct consequence of this โ apparently โ abusive Proclamation?
They say “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”; one of my co-defendants in the ATP charges pressed against us,ย Zelalem Kibret, used his experience in jail to study the (mis)use of the Proclamation and developed a research on the topic as a visiting scholar in New York university, later.
Zelalem explored the [mis]application of Ethiopiaโs ATP under 123 cases which involved more than 985 defendants in a research titled as โThe Terrorism of โCounterterrorismโ: The Use and Abuse of Anti-Terrorism Law, the Case of Ethiopiaโ. (You can download it here:ย https://eujournal.org/
You Might โunknowinglyโ Become a Terrorist
Zelalem explores the cases at his hand and explains that “the ATP mainly raises rabble on two core notions, an overbroad substantive conception of terrorism and an overblown executive power camouflaged as enabling legal procedures.” Starting from the definition part, ATP defined โterrorism actsโ without mentioning what โterrorismโ is. The definition of โterrorism actsโ in Ethiopia included โcriminalization of the broadly listed acts like, rendering support to terrorismโknowingly or unknowinglyโpublications that rendered support to groups designated as terroristsโknowingly or unknowinglyโindividuals who knowingly and unknowingly omits to cooperation with the state in its effort of countering terrorism, and other unqualified and vaguely provided acts.โ
Moreover, โthe law stipulates overextended executive powers to the police, the intelligence and the public prosecutor is also a further criticism on the substance of the ATP.โ This, added to the fact that all the security, intelligence and public prosecutor apparatuses of Ethiopia being entirely controlled in a single political group, made the result very abusive to all kinds of dissenting voices and movements.
The Numbers
Of the 123 cases that have 985 defendants under them that Zelalemโs research analyzed:
ย 96% of the ATP target individuals are Ethiopian citizens;
ย 81% charged individuals are accused โof relationsโ with 5 of proscribed “terrorist” organizations;
ย 70%+ cases are pressed in relation to only either of the two groups: Ginbot 7 or OLF; 45% charged “for leading or abetting with Ginbot 7” and 28% charged for “leading or abetting with OLF”;
ย ATP charges targeted legally registered political party members: among them AEUP, Blue Party, UDJ and OFC included
ย 10 (9 of them Ethiopian) not proscribed (as “terrorists”) groups mentioned in the charges constitute 20% of the cases; (these groups are: the Amhara Democratic Union Front, Benishangul People Liberation Movement, Ethiopian People Patriotic Front, Ferketul Linajiya Muslim Juma, Gambela Democratic Movement, Gambela People Liberation Movement, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Jum’atitu Muslim Jihadi, Khawarij, and Tigray People Democratic Movement.) [A committee of Muslims better identified as ‘Dimtsachin Yisema’ is also dubbed as a “terrorist” group by the plaintiff (Federal Public Prosecutor);]
ย One third of the targeted individuals are journalists and bloggers, activists and political party members who have been peacefully and publicly working in the country;
Global Excuse for Rights Violations
The study explains that โit is universal phenomenon that in the name of countering terrorism states are seen compromising basic rights and liberties enshrined under their legal systemโ but the case of Ethiopia seems the worst. โThe application of Ethiopiaโs anti-terrorism lawโ, writes Zelalem, โis an epitome of misusing counter terrorism as an excuse for violation of human and democratic rights as well as silencing dissidentsโฆ
โIn Ethiopia, as [the] research finds, the state is targeting those individuals who should [are supposed to be] primary partners in the counterterrorism allianceโactivists, writers, and revered political figuresโby the law that is actually expected to countering terrorism. [โฆ] Generally, though the Ethiopian anti-terrorism law is a widely opened toolkit of abuse, but its implementation is far reaching to the extent of blurring the line between what is right and what is wrong. The super majority of the cases studied in [the] research are the glaring testimonies for this verdict. It is self-evident that a widely written law is prone to abuse, however when such laws met an abusive, readymade criminal justice system and exclusionary and hostile political environment, the impact of such laws will be devastative. Ethiopiaโs anti-terrorism law and its implementation is a prototype of such abusive instances that ultimately signifies as quintessential case for how not to counter terrorism.โ
Zelalem disclaimed in his paper that the list is not exhaustive; sure it is not. An independent website that is crowding โterrorismโ related charges of Ethiopia,ย ethiotrialtracker.
