URGENT ACTION Amnesty International

PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 54/057/2007
30 October 2007

Further Information on UA 190/07 (AFR 54/038/2007, 20 July 2007)
Forcible return/Fear of torture/ Arbitrary detention

SUDAN Several hundred Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals


The Sudanese authorities forcibly returned 15 refugees to Ethiopia on 27
September. They are now at risk of enforced disappearance, arbitrary and
incommunicado detention, torture and unfair trials. They were among the several
hundred Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals who were arrested by Sudanese
authorities in early July. (See UA 280/07, AFR 25/024/2007, 30 October 2007)

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on 11
October that the 15 had been part of a group of more than 30 Ethiopian refugees
arrested in early July 2007 by Sudanese intelligence officers in Khartoum and
Blue Nile state, and expressed fears that up to 20 more refugees still in jail
were facing forcible return. The UNHCR said that the Sudanese authorities had
not responded to its repeated appeals to provide information about the
remaining refugees in detention and prevent them being forcibly returned.

Amongst those who were returned and detained are reported to be alleged members
of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is fighting the Ethiopian security
forces in the Oromia Region. Several thousand members of the Oromo ethnic group
have been arbitrarily detained and tortured in Ethiopia in recent years.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Hundreds of Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals were arrested in Sudan in early
July 2007. Many of those detained were asylum-seekers or recognized refugees.
Some were held in Omdurman prison in Khartoum, but the whereabouts of most is
not known. Some were taken to court in Khartoum, charged with illegal entry and
summarily sentenced to imprisonment or immediate deportation as "illegal
migrants".

Sudan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967
Protocol, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU – now the African Union)
Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, all of
which oblige the authorities not to forcibly return any person to a country
where they risk torture or other serious human rights violations.

The Sudan government has recently improved political relations with both the
Ethiopian and the Eritrean governments. The recent detentions of Ethiopians
came immediately after the Ethiopian foreign minister visited Sudan in June
2007. Many of the detainees have been living in Sudan as refugees since the
late 1970s, and others are opponents of the government of Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi in Ethiopia, who have been arriving in Sudan since the 1990s to seek
asylum.

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URGENT ACTION
Ethiopia: Forcible return/ fear of torture or ill-treatment/incommunicado detention/
prisoner of conscience

PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 25/024/2007

31 October 2007

UA 280/07 Forcible return/fear of torture or ill-treatment/incommunicado
detention/prisoner of conscience

ETHIOPIA Atanaw Wasie (m), aged 74, political activist
14 Ethiopian refugees

On 27 September, the Sudanese authorities forcibly returned 15 recognized
refugees to Ethiopia, handing them over at the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Their
whereabouts are now unknown and Amnesty International believes they are at risk
of enforced disappearance, arbitrary and incommunicado detention, torture and
unfair trials.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on 11
October that the 15 had been part of a group of more than 30 Ethiopian refugees
arrested in early July 2007 by Sudanese intelligence officers in Khartoum and
Blue Nile state.

Among the 15 was Atanaw Wasie, who has chronic asthma for which he needs
medical treatment. He was a leader of the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU)
political party, which opposed the Dergue government that was overthrown in
1991, but is no longer active. He was arrested on 7July 2007 in the eastern
town of Gedaref and held incommunicado.

Others who were returned and detained are reported to be alleged members of the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is fighting the Ethiopian security forces
in the Oromia Region. Several thousand members of the Oromo ethnic group have
been arbitrarily detained and tortured in Ethiopia in recent years.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Ethiopian foreign minister visited Sudan in June 2007. Shortly afterwards,
in early July, hundreds of Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals living in Sudan
were arrested. Many were asylum-seekers or recognized refugees. Many of the
detainees had been living in Sudan as refugees since the late 1970s; others
were opponents of the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who
have been arriving in Sudan since the 1990s to seek asylum

Ethiopia is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, both of which
oblige the Ethiopian authorities not to torture individuals, detain them
arbitrarily or detain them incommunicado. Both also oblige the authorities to
allow detainees access to lawyers, relatives and all necessary medical
treatment.


AI Index: AFR 25/024/2007 30 October 2007