This report is about the human rights record of President Meles Zenawi’s four-year Transitional Government. It is based on extensive research by AI and on the outcome of talks between AI and the Ethiopian Government in February 1995. These meetings discussed a detailed memorandum submitted to the government by AI three months earlier. The government’s response is incorporated in this report. The report documents human rights violations in Ethopia since 1991, including the imprisonment of non-violent critics of the government; detention without charge or trial of political prisoners; “disappearances”; torture; and killings by the security forces and by opposition groups. It also describes the first stages of the trials of officials of the former governments headed by Lt.-Col. Mengistu Haile-Mariam between 1974-1991. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for urgent action to end human rights violations and prevent their reoccurrence.
