OLLAA’s staff has spoken with Dambi Tashoma regarding his multiple arbitrary arrests and detention since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power in 2018.
Dambi Tashoma Baqala was born in Gimbi West Wollega Oromia in 1985. He holds a baccalaureate degree and is currently studying for his Master’s degree. He has taught History at various high schools and has served as a school headmaster. Dambi joined the Oromo struggle led by OLF in 2015 and moved to northern Kenya. He eventually came back to Ethiopia following the peace agreement between OLF and the Ethiopian government in 2018.
After returning to Ethiopia, Dambi faced a number of human rights abuses, including three arbitrary arrests, under Abiy Ahmed’s regime. He was first arrested in December 2018 along with five of his colleagues and was detained in federal police detention facilities for about 17 days without any charges. Again, in December 2019, the government security members arrested him, along with 10 other OLF members and remanded them into Burayu police custody. They accused the OLF members of supporting the OLA. However, the court system absolved them of these charges and ordered them released.. However, the police refused to release them from detention, ignoring the court order. The police instead took the detainees to a military training center in Awash Arab, Afar region. Upon arrival at this military training center, Dambi and his fellow OLF members were held alongside 350 other detainees, in a space that had previously been used to house chickens.. As a result of the unsanitary conditions in that place, Dambi developed an asthmatic infection which later developed into a long-term lung problem due to the failure of the prison system to provide him access to medical treatment.
After his release in October 2020, the police once again arrested Dambi at his home in the Asko area and detained him at an Addis Ababa police prison facility. While detained at this facility, Dambi contracted tuberculosis. Once again, a court ordered Dambi to be released, this time with a bail of 20,000 birr.
Unfortunately, Dambi reports that this was not his final run-in with the Ethiopian police. Just recently, he claims police came to his home intending to arrest him for a fourth time. However, Dambi managed to escape.
International Law
International law protects citizens from arbitrary arrests and detentions, which are arrests and detentions that are not in accordance with the procedures established by law, and guarantees certain rights to those who have been detained, including to the due process of law.
The right of detained persons to access medical care has its basis in the right of all persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and respect to the inherent dignity of the person (ICCPR article 10), as well as in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which sets out that all persons have the right “to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” In addition, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) set out that States have a responsibility to provide health care for prisoners, and that “Prisoners should enjoy the same standards of health care that are available in the community, and should have access to necessary health-care services free of charge without discrimination on the grounds of their legal status.”
These rights are also protected under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Ethiopia is a party to.