In the heart of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, an Orthodox Christian st. George cathedral lies one of the country’s most notorious police stations, the Federal Police Crime Investigation Sector, commonly known as Maekelawi.
Maekelawi detention center is closed before a year ago. Now, it is turned museum and open for the public. Many people lost their lives in the process of hard investigation, which most of the time include torture.
The notorious Maekelawi prison was made open for visitors for five consecutive days starting from Puagmen 1 (September 6). The Prison was made open for visitors in relation to the Justice Week marked on September 10. Among the visitors, some of them were prisoners who have survived from the notoriously brutal interrogation practices at Maekelawi—looking at every room with a mix of emotions.
Many Ethiopians suffered in Maekelawi. People were interrogated through physical and psychological harassment. Prisoners were forced to stay in a dark room. They used to see sunlight only for 10 minutes within a day. Prisoners did not have access to clinics.
Some of the prisoners said that the idea of setting a foot in the compound of the ill-famed Maekelawi detention center gives a cold shiver to anyone who knows its history. No one has forgotten the sheer optimism and trust that the brutal and inhumane treatment of the people.
Serious human rights violations, unlawful interrogation tactics, and poor detention conditions were common in Addis Ababa’s Maekelawi detention center. Those detained in Maekelawi include scores of opposition politicians, journalists, protest organizers, and alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies.
If interrogators cannot successfully extract information from prisoners in this way, they force confessions by punching, beating, extended physical exercise and flogging.
Prisoners were made to plead guilty. They were confessed under duress. They could not bear the ceaseless brutal and psychologically degrading pressure. They could not carry on surviving the hell of Maeklawi. Prisoners ended up telling interrogators what they wanted to hear. Some of the prisoners tried to explain but others had to endure beatings.
Police interrogations were not using modern investigation techniques via involving sophisticated skills, knowledge and psychological tactics to establish facts. At Maekelawi, the driving principle of police interrogations is that you are guilty unless proven otherwise. Prisoners pleaded for innocence – or even for explanation – fall on deaf ears.
Prisoners had been brought to Maekelawi after suffering through even worse ordeals at other detention centers in the country. These detainees suffered from diabolical barbarity such as forcible extraction of their nails from their fingers, flogging, and hooding.
The information extracted from detainees in the unnamed detention center is then verified through more interrogation at the pre-trial detention center. Detainees never know where they were taken for this brutal investigation because they are hooded throughout. The unnamed detention centers are like black holes.
At this juncture, the notorious detention and investigation center becomes a history and turned museum in order to educate the generation to come. And the detainees in the center have been transferred to another correctional facility. The closure comes just days after Abiy Ahmed took over as Ethiopia’s new prime minister following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor.
The Ethiopian Herald September 12, 2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
