Clergymen, demonstrators reportedly beaten up by police

Ethiopia’s federal police have beaten up clergymen and tortured religious demonstrators, the country’s human rights watchdog claimed on Thursday.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said the assaults occurred after clashes between police and demonstrators at Addis Ababa's Lideta Mariam Orthodox church on 26 December.

The clashes were sparked by a dispute between the Church of Lideta Mariam and the Addis Ababa Diocese. The community has been resisting attempts by the office of the Patriarch to appoint a church administrator.

Hundreds of religious demonstrators were arrested and taken to a police training camp 30 km from the city, EHRCO claimed. It said the demonstrators were forced to plunge fully clothed into a barrel of cold water.

According to the report, deacons from the church who were arrested had their heads shaved and were forced to sleep in the open. Others were forced to sleep on gravel and run barefoot
on stone grounds or walk along a road on their knees.

Under the Ethiopian constitution, anyone arrested by the federal police should appear in court within 48 hours. But the human rights group, which is funded by international organisations and governments, said that hundreds were held for five days.

Many of the demonstrators have since appeared in court but are still being held in custody while police prepare evidence against them.

At least seven policemen were also injured in the fighting.

EHRCO called on both the Ethiopian Patriarch Abune Paulos – who heads the 25 million strong Ethiopian Orthodox Church - and the federal authorities to try to resolve the issue.

“We strongly condemn the repeated acts of human rights abuses in contravention of constitutional
rights against the laity and the employees of Lideta Church who had been peacefully saying their prayers,” EHRCO said.

The dispute between Lideta Mariam Church community and the Patriarch's office has been going on for more than two years, despite the secular court of the church ordering the Lideta community to accept the appointee.

In November clashes broke out among armed groups and the laity of the church. But attempts to resolve the conflict have failed.