(RSF/IFEX) – In two letters addressed to Ali Abdi Farah, Djibouti’s foreign affairs minister, and Wolde Woredewolde, Ethiopia’s justice minister, respectively, RSF expressed its concern about the disappearance of Amir Adaweh, editor-in-chief of the Djibouti newspaper “La République”, the mouthpiece of the opposition National Democratic Party (Parti national démocratique, PND). “If he is imprisoned because […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In two letters addressed to Ali Abdi Farah, Djibouti’s foreign
affairs minister, and Wolde Woredewolde, Ethiopia’s justice minister,
respectively, RSF expressed its concern about the disappearance of Amir
Adaweh, editor-in-chief of the Djibouti newspaper “La République”, the
mouthpiece of the opposition National Democratic Party (Parti national
démocratique, PND). “If he is imprisoned because of his activities as a
journalist, our organisation requests that you use your influence to obtain
his release,” declared Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general.
RSF also asked authorities in Ethiopia and Djibouti to disclose where the
journalist is incarcerated.
According to information gathered by RSF, Adaweh, who is also a member of
the PND’s political office, has allegedly been held in Harer, in Ethiopia’s
eastern region, for over three months, in particularly appalling conditions.
Having travelled there to spend his holidays in the region, the journalist
and several other persons were allegedly apprehended by Ethiopian police
following a request by Djibouti officials. The appeals court trial of
thirty-one PND activists – including Adaweh – is scheduled to take place in
Djibouti on 13 October 1999. The activists are accused of having organised
an illegal demonstration.
