Ethiopia must guarantee religious freedom for Muslims – criminalization causes violence

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses Ethiopia of violating the religious freedom of the Muslim population and of arbitrarily criminalizing Muslim protesters. "Mass arrests of Muslim protesters and punishments based on the anti-terrorism laws can only lead to more violence," said the STP's Africa-expert, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Thursday. "All Muslims who were arrested simply because they took part in public protests must be released immediately!"

All over the country, hundreds of protesters were imprisoned or beaten up by security forces, following their peaceful demonstrations to celebrate the end of Ramadan and to protest against the arbitrary arrests of Muslim religious leaders. The demonstrators also refuse to accept the unjust court rulings against 28 Muslims who had organized demonstrations within their religious communities – and demand them to be released.

According to official information, at least three people were killed in demonstrations in different cities since last Thursday. However, according to eyewitnesses and local human rights groups, the police forces killed at least 16 people last week in the district of Kofele (in the southwest of the Oromia region) alone.

Muslim leaders accuse the government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa of interfering with the internal affairs of the religious community. The government seems to have appointed only hand-picked pro-government representatives for the "Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council". The 28 imprisoned Muslim leaders had organized protests to demand these councilors to be removed from office. Since January 22, 2013, they are facing secret trials before the Supreme Court. Among the defendants, there are 9 of 17 members of a Muslim self-representation that was formed in January 2012 to negotiate with the government about the status of the Muslim population. The defendants are isolated from the outside world and only have limited possibilities to contact their lawyers or complain about ill-treatment in police custody. "Obviously, the leading Muslim representatives are to be sentence to long prison terms to intimidate the religious minority," said Delius.

Officially, the Muslims make up about 33 percent of the population, but the actual number is probably about 50 percent. Most Muslims belong to the population group of the Oromo, who have been discriminated for a long time already.