{"id":91309,"date":"2022-04-26T10:43:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T08:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=91309"},"modified":"2022-04-26T11:59:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T09:59:07","slug":"times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html","title":{"rendered":"Time\u2019s ticking for Ethiopia\u2019s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but unique universal jurisdiction trial has again aroused the pains of a period that still embitters both victims and the accused person, Eshetu Alemu. Historian Thijs Bouwknegt tells the story of man who still hopes for an acquittal as he is about to die.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a lot of pain last night,\u201d Eshetu Alemu coughed, \u201cbut I will try to be present during the entire day.\u201d The 68-year-old Ethiopian-Dutchman has terminal lung cancer and he attended his trial via video link from prison. A convicted war criminal, he wants his entire 2017 life sentence <\/a>\u2013 for 75 murders, 6 cases of torture and 320 arbitrary detentions in cruel and degrading circumstances between February and December 1978 in the cities of Debre Markos and Metekel \u2013 quashed. He \u201cregrets\u201d that all these things happened. But he maintains he was never at any crime scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 19 April, Alemu heard his Dutch lawyer plead his case. \u201cWe have to separate facts from fiction,\u201d began Sander Arts. He claimed all testimonial evidence was riddled with hearsay, collusion and inconsistencies. The witnesses mistook the identity of his client, Arts argued: \u201cThere were are least three Eshetu Alemus at the time!\u201d Moreover, he added, the many documents in the gigantic casefile \u201care contaminated\u201d. He questioned how Alemu\u2019s signature \u2013 if even his \u2013 had landed on death reports. And he concluded by contending that Alemu himself was a victim of a deadly Communist regime which had dragged Ethiopia into the abyss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From poetry to \u2018Avenger\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Portrait
Picture of Eshetu Alemu as a Derg member at the Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum in Addis-Ababa. \u00a9 Thijs Bouwknegt<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Alemu was the 49th<\/sup> member of the Derg, a military cabal that took power after the 1974 revolution and dethronement of Africa\u2019s last emperor, Haile Selassie. In March 1977, the junta\u2019s leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, proclaimed the Qey Shibir (the \u201cRed Terror\u201d). The campaign was designed to \u201ccrush\u201d any suspected supporter of the junta\u2019s main socialist rival, the Ethiopian People\u2019s Revolutionary Party (EPRP). Kebele militia and police conducted raids in the cities. At so-called \u201cexposure meetings\u201d, students, teachers and workers were forced to confess they were counterrevolutionaries. Makeshift prisons swelled. Corpses were displayed on Addis Ababa\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former private like his father, who had fought against the Italian fascist invaders in the mid-1930s, Alemu joined the student movement and became a passionate disciple of Mengistu. He liked poetry, drama and theatre, but found most solace in Karl Marx\u2019s writings. A talented orator, Alemu described himself as a propagandist and educator. At the Red Terror\u2019s peak however, he was assistant to Melaku Teferra, a ruthless administrator \u2013 known as \u201cthe butcher\u201d \u2013 in Gondar province. And from 1978, Alemu was sent to Gojam province as \u201cchairman of the Coordinating Council of the Revolutionary Campaign\u201d \u2013 a fact he admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnesses remembered Alemu as a young viceroy, who ran and ordered anti-revolutionary operations and \u201cmeasures\u201d from an old palace in Gojam\u2019s administrative capital and university town, Debre Markos. Although armed conflict raged elsewhere in the country \u2013 Tigray, Eritrea, Ogaden, Oromia \u2013, Gojam was mainly the theatre of political persecution of EPRP associates. Some 321 people, mostly students \u2013 some just 12-years-old \u2013 were arbitrarily detained in late February 1978. Many ended up in a camp called Demmelash (\u201cAvenger\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conditions in Demmelash\u2019s unsanitary \u201cdark rooms\u201d were miserable. Unpalatable food, filthy water and no medicine caused diseases. Prisoners were shackled together during sleepless nights; many were whipped with spoons; others were suspended in the air, with their hands and feet tied together. And on at least one night, on 14 August 1978, 70 prisoners were taken to the prison\u2019s church, where they were forced to kneel, their necks tied together with ropes and strangled. Some still alive, they were buried in a mass grave dug by non-political prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Judge and executioner\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alemu never expected justice to catch up with him. He held a diplomatic post in Bulgaria before settling in the Netherlands in 1990, right before Mengistu\u2019s regime was overthrown. He learned Dutch, obtained citizenship and interned at a university medical centre. For years he worked as a security guard \u2013 including at Schiphol Airport and the prestigious Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The feathers of his secluded new life were only briefly ruffled in 1998, when Dutch journalist Judith Neurink exposed him as a \u201ctorturer living next door\u201d who had been both a \u201cjudge and executioner\u201d. The article<\/a> featured pictures of death lists with his notes on it, but sparked no judicial inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alemu\u2019s in absentia <\/em>prosecution by Ethiopia\u2019s Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SPO) \u2013 a transitional justice mechanism<\/a> set up in 1992 to record the Derg\u2019s atrocities and put its leadership on trial \u2013 also went unnoticed in the Netherlands. During his first trial in Ethiopia in 1998, relating to 10 massacres throughout Gojam, witnesses testified about Alemu overseeing people being buried alive and kicked to death. While in 2000 he was sentenced to death for the murders, Alemu \u2013 alongside Mengistu and dozens of other Derg officials \u2013 was additionally convicted for his part in a genocidal plan to destroy opposition groups (in Ethiopia, the genocide law also protects political groups<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only in 2009 would Alemu appear on the radar of the Dutch International Crimes Unit. Until his arrest in 2015, investigators tailed Alemu, tracking his movements, wire-tapping his phone and even communicating with him through a police informant. In Ethiopia, they obtained photographs of Alemu\u2019s SPO files and copies of death lists. With Ethiopia barring access to the investigators (they wanted him extradited, not tried elsewhere), the Dutch followed leads into the diaspora community: first in the Netherlands, and later in the US and Canada, where 20 Ethiopian refugees were questioned. Most witnesses were victims and some put Alemu at the helm of atrocities in Gojam. Like Alemu, they too had never expected to come before a Dutch court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No repentance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Hague\u2019s Palace of Justice is a busy courthouse. The atmosphere is casual. On the floor where the Appeals Court sat, a radio at an usher\u2019s booth played Dire Straits\u2019 Sultans of Swing. <\/em>Outside the court chamber, in the communal waiting area, there was a strange rendez-vous<\/em> of prosecutors, Alemu\u2019s lawyer, victims\u2019 counsels and a police investigator. Nestled together in a corner, sitting on uncomfortable wooden seats, gathered four of Alemu\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 13 April they had their day in court. They had already testified in 2017 (and as \u201cinjured parties\u201d they were awarded \u20ac 226,89 compensation for immaterial damages), and this time they had their lawyer Barbara van Straaten read their statements \u2014 in the first person. On the far right, wearing sunglasses, sat Sebene Ademe. During the first trial she had shown the judges and Alemu a picture of her brother who had been disappeared and murdered in the late 1970s. She still carries the picture with her. Listening to her lawyer, she wiped tears from her cheeks with her scarf. \u201cI have been crying for 40 years,\u201d the lawyer read from Ademe\u2019s testimony. Another victim, Worku Y., testified that he was 16-years-old when he was arrested and tortured at Demmelash. He then told the court about having seen Alemu on 15 August 1978, \u201cwith a smiling face\u201d, overseeing the massacre of 82 prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Court\u2019s president asked Alemu for his response, it was a deja-vu<\/em> from the first trial<\/a> \u2013 during which Alemu talked a lot, and also addressed the very same victims. \u201cThese are profound, frightful events. I find it terrible what happened in Ethiopia \u2013 to me it is like a disease, like cancer,\u201d he said. For a moment Alemu seemed to begin his repentance, saying \u201ctheir grief is also my grief\u201d. But it was a feint: \u201cI was not there, never, when they were tortured, neither when people were put to death. What the victims say is hearsay. I am not a monster \u2013 not at all!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, Alemu sparked resentment. To Sirak Asfaw, who had attended both trials since day one, it felt like Alemu \u201cwas playing with the victims\u2019 pains\u201d. Himself a survivor and therefore expert by experience of the Red Terror, Asfaw found Alemu\u2019s response incomprehensible and very painful: \u201cIt is not only an insult to the victims, to Ethiopia and to the Court, it is malicious and shows he has no remorse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading under a tree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In his public profile<\/a> on a Dutch employment agency, Alemu stated that \u201ccolleagues and managers see me as loyal, reliable, stable, flexible, eager to learn, helpful, people-friendly, honest and a go-getter\u201d. At trial Alemu equally stressed that he is \u201cjust human\u201d. Because of his health, the chamber moved its hearings on 5, 6 and 11 April (screened in the courtroom in The Hague) to prison. In the small penitentiary room stood a dull plant. Alemu, wearing jogging trousers, sat in the middle. Despite the pain in his legs, he appeared to be energetic and sharp, still \u2013 answering, in Dutch, a barrage of questions by the three judges and prosecutor Martin Witteveen, and dodging any responsibility for each charge put to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last day of his interrogation, the presiding judge was curious to know how Alemu experienced the last 6,5 years in prison. \u201cI know how it is to be in prison. As a student I served one month as well, guarded by military and I was tortured,\u201d the accused replied. In the Netherlands\u2019 jailhouse he spent all his time reading his case file \u2013 which infuriated him \u2013 and underwent chemotherapy and radiation. His entire body hurts, and at times the maximum dose of morphine patches he wore felt like psychedelics: \u201cI almost went insane, and started hallucinating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou may not survive, how do you cope with all that, mentally?\u201d the judge asked. \u201cI accept what has happened. That at a certain point I will die.\u201d He said he had no mental problems, but it saddened him to miss his children, and to have never seen his grandchildren. \u201cSuppose that you were released, what do you envisage?\u201d continued the judge. \u201cFreedom,\u201d replied Alemu, \u201cis the most important to humanity.\u201d Often, he dreams about \u201cgoing to the park, lying under a tree and reading a book until I\u2019d fall asleep\u201d, he said. Now, serving a life sentence, he continued, \u201cI have no dignity\u201d. The chamber then asked: \u201cDo you see a psychologist, or need one?\u201d Alemu did not hesitate: \u201cNo! Only people who have problems can deal with a psychiatrist. [\u2026] I do not see a flaw in my psychiatric state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ticking clock<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

14 April was a busy day for The Hague\u2019s war crime prosecutors. In a courtroom just around the corner, they won a case before the lower court, which sentenced Abdul Razaq Rafief<\/a> to 12 years imprisonment for war crimes in Afghanistan between 1983 and 1987 \u2013 also committed in a prison, with similar conditions as Demmelash. For a full day, prosecutors Nicole Vogelenzang and Witteveen presented their requisitoire <\/em>(closing brief). <\/em>They sought a reversal of several findings and a full conviction \u2013 including for various acquittals regarding specific victims in the first instance judgement \u2013 and demanded, again, a life sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeals case has dragged for nearly 5 years, partially because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the volatile situation in Ethiopia. But prosecutors have managed to collect additional documentary evidence (the case file holds copies of 22 letters, orders, lists and reports, each bearing Alemu\u2019s name and\/or autograph), hear three more witnesses and order three expert reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of Alemu\u2019s condition, the prosecutors may not have expected that the appeals trial would actually take place. Now that it had come to trial, said Witteveen, they also hoped that Alemu, \u201cknowing he will not live long\u201d after the case ended, \u201cwould decide to recognise what he had done and ask for forgiveness\u201d. \u201cHow naive was that thought,\u201d Witteveen told the court. He and Vogelenzang were shocked that after his long detention Alemu would not come around. Pointing to a 54-page letter Alemu had sent the Court \u2013 explaining what he and the Derg had done for Ethiopia \u2013 Witteveen said this ideology was an \u201cengine of the worst and cruellest that man can bring out\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the largest murder trials in the Netherlands ever (only the MH-17 trial has more victims), the Alemu case is a lot to digest for the chamber. Judges are scheduled to issue their verdict on 8 June -- if Alemu is still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"\"<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tDutch court to try Ethiopian for \u201cRed Terror\u201d crimes\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n
\n

\"ThijsTHIJS BOUWKNEGT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thijs Bouwknegt is a historian of mass violence and transitional justice at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but unique universal jurisdiction trial has again aroused the pains of a period that still embitters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":91300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[567,2801],"tags":[2683],"ji_location":[2219,2373],"class_list":["post-91309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-universal-jurisdiction","tag-war-crime","ji_location-ethiopia","ji_location-netherlands"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTime\u2019s ticking for Ethiopia\u2019s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but unique universal jurisdiction trial has again aroused the pains of a period that still embitters both victims and the accused person, Eshetu Alemu. Historian Thijs Bouwknegt tells the story of man who still hopes for an acquittal as he is about to die.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time\u2019s ticking for Ethiopia\u2019s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. 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With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but unique universal jurisdiction trial has again aroused the pains of a period that still embitters both victims and the accused person, Eshetu Alemu. Historian Thijs Bouwknegt tells the story of man who still hopes for an acquittal as he is about to die.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Time\u2019s ticking for Ethiopia\u2019s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands","og_description":"Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. 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With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg\u2019s \u201cRed Terror\u201d of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but unique universal jurisdiction trial has again aroused the pains of a period that still embitters both victims and the accused person, Eshetu Alemu. Historian Thijs Bouwknegt tells the story of man who still hopes for an acquittal as he is about to die.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ethiopia_Red-Terror-victims_@Thijs-Bouwknegt.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ethiopia_Red-Terror-victims_@Thijs-Bouwknegt.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"The wall of victims at the Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum in Addis-Ababa. \u00a9 Thijs Bouwknegt"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/91309-times-ticking-ethiopia-red-terror-trial-netherlands.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Time\u2019s ticking for Ethiopia\u2019s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","name":"JusticeInfo.net","description":"For justice to be done, it must be seen","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization","name":"Justice Info","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","width":1199,"height":1200,"caption":"Justice Info"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/","https:\/\/x.com\/justiceinfonet","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/justice-info","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCyCEsARodyuWtkWyhn-e7pA"]},{"@type":"Person","name":"Thijs Bouwknegt","url":"\/en\/?s=Thijs Bouwknegt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91309"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91322,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91309\/revisions\/91322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91309"},{"taxonomy":"ji_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ji_location?post=91309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}