Ethiopians protest U.S. mutilation case

Staff and agencies
18 November, 2006

By LES NEUHAUS, Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - About 2,000 people demonstrated on Saturday to demand the release of an Ethiopian immigrant sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States for mutilating the genitals of his 2-year-old daughter.

The protesters marched peacefully around one of the squares in the Ethiopian capital, chanting "Free Khalid." They were watched from a distance by dozens of policemen.

Khalid‘s attorney Mark Hill suggested during the trial that the couple‘s daughter was coached to testify against her father by her mother, who won custody of the child after they divorced in 2003. The girl, now 7, had testified on videotape that her father "cut me on my private part."

Federal law specifically bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of the girl‘s mother, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. But Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter was cut.

He said he grew up in Ethiopia‘s capital and considered the practice more prevalent in rural areas.

Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used. The tools are frequently not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading to infection.

Since 2001, the U.S. State Department estimates that up to 130 million women worldwide have undergone genital mutilation.

Associated Press writer Errin Haines contributed to this report from Lawrenceville, Ga.