THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
FOR ETHIOPIAN PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE (ISCEPC)
North American office: P. O. Box 53022, Medford MA 02153. U. S. A
UNRAVELING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN ETHIOPIA: WAYS AND MEANS OF
ALLEVIATING THE PROBLEM
Human rights week observance and electronic mail conference
Dates: 3-8 March, 1997
Dedication: To past and present Ethiopian men
and women who gave up their freedom, family, friends and career
to struggle for a democratic Ethiopia
Prisoner: Fitawrari Mekonnen Dori; DOB 1936;
Married with seven children, Member of the Central Committee,
Southern Peoples' Coalition, Fitawrari Mekonnen was thrown into
jail on tramped up charges in 1994, and despite ill health,
receives no medication.
Fitwarari Mekonnen was born in Alta in Southern
Oro where his father, Ato Dori Wange, was a "paramount
chief" of the Hamar. He first went to school through the
auspicies of Dajazmach Abebe Awraris, a one-time governor of the
region. As a privilage for boys of his background, the Emperor
Haile Selassie had him in a boarding school for his primary and
secondary education in Addis Ababa. He had a higher edcuation in
teacher training and holds a directors' and inspectors' diploma.
He also has a post-graduate diploma from Manchester University in
the U.K.
HIs long career in government service spans three different
governments: the monarcy (which lapsed in 1974), the dergue
(1974-91) and the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (1991-) He
started with employment as a teacher at the Ministry of
Education, followed by positions as director and inspector of
several schools. He later developed expertise in adult education
and worked in that capacity too for the Ministry. He was
administrator in five different districts for a period of time at
the Ministry of Interior, which is probably when he was given the
title *Fitawrari* by the Emperor. He went to be General Manager
of three different factories at the Ministry of Industry, and
Manager of the National Theater and the Ambassador Theater at the
Ministry of Culture and Sports. He was finally a Vice minister of
Information for a brief period in 1992.
These government services were accompanied by social and civic
activities. Among his wide ranging leadership in such fields are
posts as Assistant Secretary to the Ethiopian Society for
Orphans, Member of the Executive Committee of the Ethiopian Boy
Scouts Association, and Acting Secretary General of the Ethiopian
Teachers' Association (ETA).
Interesting in this regard is also his literary
activities. He has authored more than twenty-five plays, all of
which are in manuscript. His interests in this field found
expression when he acted in a paly translated from the French by
Molier. In the 1990's he had began to record Hamar culture and
tradition, for whom he was also preparing literacy material.
The political activitis which brought him into
clashes with the EPRDF began when he founded and became Chairman
of the Omo Peoples' Democratic Front, delegating which he also
became the Member of the Central Committee of the Southern
Democratic Coalition (SEPDC). It was in that capacity that he
chaired the organizing Committee of peace and reconciliation
meeting held in December 1993 in Addis Ababa (and out of which
emerged the Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy
in Ethiopia (CAFPDE). He joined the SEPDC delegation to peace
talks between opposition groups, organized at Atlanta, Georgia,
by the Carter Center and later to the talks between the Ethiopian
government and the opposition organized by the US Congressional
Task Force in Washington DC. His arrest and detention after the
failure of those talks was aimed at cracking down the non-EPRDF
created parties that had gained visibility within the opposition.
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Note:
The ISCEPC thanks the Addis Ababa office of the Council of
Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia (CAFPDE)
for making available this biographical sketch.
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