Abera Alemayehu, 68, from Welkait bitterly recounted his 25-year imprisonment in various prisons notably in the infamous Gehanem(meaning hell) jail that the terrorist TPLF used to detain ethnic Amharas who demanded the faction to return Welkait, Tegede and Telemt areas that it forcefully annex to Tigray to the rightful owners. Abera and his father suffered a lot at the hands of TPLF cadres and lived in constant fear.
Abera’s father, Priest Alemayehu Yigzaw serves the Cherkos Orthodox Church in Dejena town of Amhara State since the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie I. When TPLF fighters arrived in the area in 1982 they gathered local elders and religious leaders to persuade the latter to accept that Welkait belongs to Tigray and teach others. Priest Alemayehu refused this demand, and publicly told them that Welkait has never been part of Tigray and he will not be the instrument of their lie. Due to this TPLF forces sent Priest Alemayehu to BadoSidist jail (literally 06) and tortured him and his family a lot.
During his stay with the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA), Abera recalled that he was 28 when his father was detained and he rebelled against the criminal group and waged fighting. When TPLF seized political power in 1991, it arrested Abera and fellow youths and detained them in BadoSidist. The prison was a place of utmost suffering and up to 600 civilians were being detained in one torture camp.
“The prison is located in a secluded place under a mountain and TPLF forces’ examinations of detainees were carried out at night. The examination was so cruel that the inmates were beaten by hammers. Having suffered a lot by TPLF carders, I was informed by the former that I was sentenced to death.”
“The main aim of such crimes was to harm the prisoners’ psychology and my fellow prisoners were being taken away and killed abruptly. After I was sentenced to death, I was forced into a constant fear that one day he would lose my life.”
As to him, he and many other ethnic-Amharas were subjected to unspeakable atrocities in prison centers. In addition to beatings, torture, and killings, TPLF forces were committed heinous crimes to undermine the morale of the prisoners. “They were forcing us to pee and urinate on plastic plates at night and to eat on it during the day.”
Commenting on the issue, Psychology Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University TigistWuhib (PhD) stated that TPLF’s prisons have been places of greater psychological trauma. When a person enters a prison, he loses his physical and mental freedom because he is deprived of all his rights. As a result, prisons at all levels are a source of emotional turmoil.
Prisons are a place where people are controlled by other bodies and unable to move about freely, leaving prisoners with only a few issues in mind.
Tigist also explained that the alleged detention in Welkait has not only physical but also psychological impact. In addition to the harm caused by incarceration, the torment inflicted on the detainee can be devastating. “People who were in this situation are more likely to suffer severe mental illness and even death.”
Instead of educating people, detaining and sentencing them to death without a due process of law is intended to inflict pain and psychological distress, the academician elaborated.
Abera stated that, the whereabouts of his friends namely NegaAsres, Chalachew Tadesse, and others are still unknown. “Most of the inmates at that time were killed; the lucky ones have fled the country; but no one is alive and I am the lucky one to have survived and told this to my people.”
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
The Ethiopian Herald 17 May 2022
