08/15/2017
This is Tedele Fufa Mosissa. Here is his story. Please take the time to read it and spread the news.
My name is TADELE FUFA MOSISSA; I was born in 1985 in West Wollega a place called Dembi Dolo. I grew up there and went to school in the same town. After that I joined Jima University in the year 2005 I was elected as a chairperson of student council representing first year students. While I was attending my education in the department of Health Office in the year 2005, the government was accompanying for the general election and wanted us to elect the government party so that when you graduate we will get job easily.
The student opposed the idea and protested, following that, the government accused me that I am exited student for demonstration instead of convincing them to elect the government. As the result I was arrested by government security agents and taken to Jima Military Base for 3 days and transferred to Makelawi where I was held for 3 years subjected to different kinds of mental and physical torture. I was confined in an underground solitary room which was dark without seeing sunlight for years and while being interrogated and being questioned that we were being motivated by OLF. They removed five of nails from both of my leg and shaved me with broken glasses.
I had been through all this torture for 3 years and charged with inciting student against the government, destabilizing, they leaving process in the University, having secret conviction with OLF. During this time I was suffering from mental illness because of the torture I have been through, I was sentenced other students for 14 years without having enough hearings. I appeared once in a court of law and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
Then I was taken to Kaliti Prison, served in Kaliti Prison for 2 years. While at Kaliti I was subjected to physical work, most of the time, while I was working in the kitchen I found out that the government was mixing the food for detainees with chemicals which made me feel sleepy and not think properly. When I told my fellow detainees about that the prisoners protested and refused to eat. When they started investigating and since I was working in the kitchen, they accused me that I was the one who told them. Because of that I was held in underground room for two weeks, and transferred to notorious prison in Zeway. I was held in Zeway for two years.
After two years I was visited by International Red Cross (ICRC) in Zeway. I told them the situation in the detention facility that we political prisoners are being mistreated and subjected to different kinds of torture and physical work. Following that, the Commander in Charge of prison facility called me in his office and beat me up because I told IRCS the ill-treatments we have been facing in detention. The following day I was taken back to Kaliti – after spending two nights I was transferred to Shewa Robit Prison. While I was in Shewa Robit I was visited by the same person from ICRC. The person from IRCS asked the file I was accused for and the government failed to produce it, because of that they released me.
After being held in different prisons for 9 years and 10 days I was released from Shewa Robit Prison. On the gate the government security agents waited for me with a case and asked me to enter the car, when I entered I found a person who investigated me for the first time in Makelawi Detention Centre. He asked me to work with them and wanted me to do for them an assignment to be given explosives by them and pretend that I was given by OLF to give the Oromo Federalist Congress Party Vice Chairperson, Bekele Gerba and they recorded my interview and were going to air on TV and other media.
“If you do this, if you need a house, money, or car we can give you and you can work with us as intelligent”. I refused to accept the offer; they arrested me in Makelawi for two weeks in an underground room. Following my refusal they released me that not to tell anybody where I had been held all these time, what happened to me while I was in detention and not to give any interview with the media. If anything happens in my area that I report to the nearest police station.
I signed on these conditions and released. I was released around 3.30am in the morning. I travelled to my home but on the way, in a town called Gimbi, people were protesting against the new Finfine Master Plan expansion. I was asked to produce ID Card, I showed the paper I was given when I was released from detention. The officers returned the paper saying “we are looking for you”, they beat me up severely where I lost conscious, I don’t know what happened to me after that, Good Samaritans rescue me from the ditch.
After that I was taken to hospital, when the government heard that I was admitted to hospital they went to hospital and wanted to arrest me but the doctor, Dawit assisted me to escape before they came. Then I went back to Addis Ababa.
After 3 days I heard that a driver who took me to Addis was arrested. After that I decided to flee from my country. I was given money by people for transportation. I started my journey from Addis to Hawasa then to Moyale, Ethiopia. Finally I crossed over Kenyan border on 15/09/2014.
After I came to Kenya, I gave an interview to Oromia Media network, following that I was receiving threatening calls from Ethiopian security agents. Still my life is in danger, what will happen to me anytime.
