Annex IV: Response from Dr. Shiferaw Teklemariam to Human Rights Watch’s Letter on Maekelawi To: Leslie Lefkow Deputy Director, Africa Division Human Rights Watch Dear Leslie, On behalf of Ministry of Federal Affairs; Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, I am writing to respond to your August 12, 2013 request letter to respond on the “Preliminary findings of research carried out by Human Rights Watch into conditions and treatment of detainees at the Federal Police Crime Investigation Sector, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.” In the interest of candor, we shall from the outset begin by pointing out that your report is marred by excessive reliance on questionable and unverifiable testimonies and clear omission of facts and evidences. Your deliberate neglect of facts on the ground and predetermined conclusion on your presentation strengthen your ideological bias rather than any concern on human rights situation in the Crime Investigation Sector. The reforms undertaken to ensure international standard treatment of detainees as well as the efforts underway to improve the condition of the detention facilities; not to mention other positive measures that aim at ensuring compliance with constitutional and treaty standards, have never been reflected on your report. Similarly, we have found the lack of objectivity, transparency, visible presence and impartiality in your ostensible investigation. It is also incongruent with international established principles and norms. All this bears out our reading of your report as a flawed exercise blemished by, among other things, ideologically driven series of attacks on Ethiopia’s accelerated growth and development. In consequence, your report neither provide precise or detailed information sufficient to warrant local inquiries into the matter, nor does it disclose the process and criteria of selection of witnesses, the methodology employed to verify the validity of the allegations or the credibility of witnesses. Nor is there relevant technical and medical evidences offered to support the allegation of human right violation in our Criminal Investigation Center. The federal Crime Investigation Department of Federal Police of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia carries out its activities within the mandate of its operation set out by proclamation No. 720/2011.
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2013