“Such a Brutal Crackdown”

mobilizing students. 84 Detainees were also accused of providing information to diaspora or
international media, particularly in November and December, and several people said their
phones, Facebook accounts, and email accounts were searched during their detention.
Many former detainees said they were interrogated the first night, and sometimes over the
course of several nights.
Many students interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were released after several
weeks, although some were detained for several months. Thousands remain in detention.
Most of the individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were detained for more
than one month described treatment that appeared to amount to torture. Tolessa, a firstyear
university student from Adama University, said:
We were recovering from the teargas and trying to find out who had been
shot during the protest. Then the security forces stormed the dormitories.
They blindfolded 17 of us from my floor and drove us two hours into the
countryside. We were put into an unfinished building for nine days. Each
night they would take us out one by one, beat us with sticks and whips, and
ask us about who was behind the protests and whether we were members
of the OLF. I told them I don’t even know who the OLF are but treating
students this way will drive people toward the OLF. They beat me very badly
for that. We would hear screams all night long. When I went to the
bathroom, I saw students being hung by their wrists from the ceiling and
being whipped. There were more than one hundred students [that] I saw.
The interrogators were not from our area. We had to speak Amharic [the
national language]. If we spoke Oromo they would get angry and beat us
more. 85
Badasa, 18, a Grade 9 student who was arrested before the protests in Adaba, in West Arsi
zone, said that each night for three nights he was chained by the hands and wrists, had a
metal pole positioned under his legs and was hung upside down between two desks.
Badasa said the security officials beat the bottom of his feet and kept asking, “Who is
behind you?” He told Human Rights Watch, “There were three spaces in the ‘torture room’
84 Human Rights Watch interview with #86, location withheld, April 2016.
85 Human Rights Watch interview with #32, location withheld, January 2016.
“SUCH A BRUTAL CRACKDOWN” 38