Tesfahun chemeda biography of william hill

Migration and Refugee Protectionin the Horn of Africa

• § A Week with Ethiopian Immigrants in the Horn of Africa, Uganda

Garoma  B. Wakessa,

Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa

Mission in Uganda – Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa Field Trip Report

March 2014

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)

HRLHA is a non-profit, non-political and non-partisan human rights organization with a Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council. It works on defending fundamental human rights including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It also works on raising the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and that of others. It encourages the observances as well as due processes of law. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.

Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA)

994 Pharmacy Avenue Toronto, Ontario, M1R 2G7

Tel: (647) 280 7062

E-Mail: hrldirector@mail.org.

Web Site: www.humanrightsleague.com

Executive Summary

The field trip in Uganda in October 2013 was targeted on two important missions. The first mission was to facilitate the set-up of HRLHA’s regional office   in Uganda. It was thought that this would help strengthen the involvement of HRLHA in communities of the region and enhance the efforts of the agency in the region.  Over the past six years, the Human Rights League of the Hor

Mark Simmonds MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Africa)

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London SW1A 2AH                                                                        25 August 2013

Open letter

Death in Ethiopian custody of Tesfahun Chemeda, after refoulement from Kenya

Dear Minister,

It is with sadness and anger that I report the death of a young Oromo in Kaliti prison, Ethiopia, on 24 August, yesterday. Tesfahun Chemeda was a student activist in Ethiopia and a political activist among refugees in Kenya, where he was granted refugee status by UNHCR. He was arrested with a colleague, Mesfin Abebe, by Kenyan anti-terrorist police on 2 April 2007.

Although cleared by the anti-terrorist unit and by the FBI, the men were subject to refoulement to Ethiopia at the request of the Ethiopian authorities. UNHCR, the Refugee Consortium of Kenya and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission were told in court, after their application for habeas corpus,that the men had been returned to Ethiopia, whereas they remained in custody in Kenya for at least two more days after the court hearing.

Tesfahun and Mesfin disappeared in detention in Ethiopia until charged with terrorist offences in December 2008. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2010. [1] (Mesfin’s death sentence was later commuted.)

Tesfahun was transferred from Zeway prison to Kaliti, where he had been held in solitary confinement for nearly two years before he was killed.[2]

This is not the first time young Oromo men have been killed in detention. For example, Alemayehu Garba, partially paralysed with polio, was shot dead with 18 others in Kaliti prison in November 2005.[3]

Refoulement of UNHCR-recognised refugees from Djibouti and Somaliland continues.[4]

How long must we wait for Her Majesty’s Government and other wes

Engineer Tesfahun was born in 1976 from his father Mr. Chemeda Gurmessa and his mother Mrs. Giddinesh Benya at Harbu village, Guduru district, eastern Wallaga, western Oromia. He was lucky enough to get the slim chance of going to school for his likes under the occupation. He completed his school starting at Looyaa, then Fincha’aa and at Shambo in 1996. His remarkably high score enabled him to join the university in Finfinne (Addis Abeba) where he graduated with BSc in Civil Engineering in 2001. Subsequently:

1. Sept. 2004–Jan 2005 – he worked as unit manager for the maintenance of Arsi-Bale road project run by Oromia Rural Road Maintenance Authority and Ethio-Italian Company.
2. Worked at Degele-Birbirsa RR50 project in Salle-Nonno District in extreme South-west of Ilu-Abba-Bore Zone
3. Worked on four simultaneous road projects for settlements; Kone-Chawwaqaa, Baddallee-Kolosirri, Gachi-Chate and Yanfa-Ballattii
4. Worked as a project manager for Chawwaqa district head office construction in Ilu-Harari.
5. Oct. 2001–July 2003 site engineer for Siree-Nunu-Arjo Rural Road of Wallaga district.

Because of the policy of persecution and surveillance imposed on him, like any educated and entrepreneurial Oromo class as per TPLF’s standing policy, he decided to flee to Kenya for his safety. He sought protection from the UNHCR office in Nairobi explaining his position, and got accepted and recognized as a refugee. However, for unknown reasons, he and his colleague in skill and refugee life, Mesfin Abebe Abdisa, were arrested and eventually handed over to the Ethiopian authorities by the Kenyan counterpart on April 27, 2007, due to the agreement between the two countries.

Ethiopia, being a member of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT), formed under the auspices U.S. that includes Uganda and Kenya as well, continues to abduct Oromo refugees from the neighbouring countries where they sought UN pr