Save Mesfin Itana!

Save Mesfin Itana! Oromo Nationalist and Prisoner Mesfin Itana In Danger of Losing His Life

(OLF News)

Mr. Mesfin Itana was arrested from his home 6 years ago accused of having link to the bombing of Tigrai Hotel in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). Since then he is reported to have been brutally tortured and beaten on a regular basis in the notorious Kalitti prison, as a result of which he now incurred a fatal illness and he is currently on the verge of death. Caused by infections due to the constant torture and a severe malnourishment in a prolonged detention of over six years, it is reported that Mr Mesfin Itana is subjected to two surgeries of his reproductive organ in just one month. The Wayyaanee "health professionals" later claimed to have made mistakes in the first two surgeries and reportedly tried to make a third one. Feared for his life, Mr Mesfin Itana refused the third surgery of his reproductive organ, and is now in a critical condition.
It is to be noted that one of the torturing methods of the current regime is to hang a bottle of water on the men´s reproductive organ (testicle) and leaving there for a long time causing a severe pain. The idea is to force the victims of the torture "confess the crime" they claim the prisoners have committed and have the victims solicit the names of other Oromo individuals who they think may have participated in the said crime. However, more often, when victims are unable to stand the brutal torture, they simply tell the names of their friends and relatives to get a temporary relief from the severe pain. One such incident is, when an Oromo farmer was asked what kind of weapons he hid in his area, he listed to the TPLF agents all kinds of weapons he knew. But the TPLF cadres are never satisfied, and they continued asking the farmer "what else"? Then the farmer responded that he buried a tank in his backyard. Such is the result of blind brutal torture.

Meanwhile, the beating and torture of Mr Mesfin Itana continued even when he is severely ill, inflicting a deadly wound on his forehead, and he is forced to have three other surgeries on his head just recently. Consequently, Mr Mesfin Itana is on the verge of losing his life in prison, just as so many Oromo prisoners died in Kalitti detention center and many other jails in Oromia and elsewhere in the Empire.

It is to be recalled that several Oromo prisoners such as Mesfin Mosisa, Wako Tola, university students Alemayehu Gerba, Gadisa Hirphasa, Morkata Iddosa, and many other Oromo prisoners lost their lives in detention centers in exactly the same situation as a result of an unbearable beating and torture. Our reporters from Finfinnee alarmed that Mr Mesfin Itana will very likely lose his life soon in the hands of TPLF/Wayyaanee forces.

All Oromo nationals living in Oromia and abroad have been urged to appeal to humanitarian, governmental and non-governmental organizations to save the life of Mr Mesfin Itana and thousands of other Oromo prisoners suffering in several detention centers under Meles Zenawi regime.

For most humans the worst thing they fear is death. But for many Oromo nationals the worst thing they fear, even more than death, is falling in the hands of TPLF beasts who do not have the slightest sympathy not only for any Oromo individual´s life but also for their suffering. Mr Mesfin Itana and many Oromo nationalists who fell in the hands of TPLF forces are simply peaceful civilians who have had unlucky day of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

OLF News (October 23, 2008)


Additional Info to save Mr. Masfin Itana

Mesfin Itana was a young businessman when detained in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) in 2002 in connection to the bomb blast at Tigray Hotel. The bomb blast was exactly a year later on the same date after the Septembeer 11 bomb blast at New York city trade centre. The blast was delebretely organised on this date by TPLF security engineers in order to blame the OLF as if it was behind the attack and to link this activity with international terrorism. Here I wanted to say that the bomb blast was a sole action taken by the TPLF as a precondition to harass Oromo nationalists and to defame the OLF as a terrorist organisation. Mr.Itana and his other co-detainees are the victims of this TPLF security agents constillation.

Mr. Itana is in detantion under very hard conditions and torture since then, 2002. He spent months in the notorious torture centre maikelawi where he was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatments and was forced to confess the crimes he didin`t actully commited. One can read from the face of Mr. Itana when he was presented on TPLF TV. Sources very close to Mr. Itana asked him in prison about his confession. Mr. Itana replied “ it was for the time being a relief for me to lie and get breath in between those cruel treatments commited at me. What I was saying on Tv was what I was told by TPLF security agents to say. “ he said.

Mr. Itana also exposed “ it is totally unbelievable how human beings treat other human beings and dehumanise in such a way “ to explain the cruelity of TPLF investigators in Maikelawi.

During the arrest the residence of Mr. Itana was stormed by TPLF security agents and his house was searched and everything he had were confisicated including cash money and gold. Accordingly, 30.000 Eth Birr which he took as a loan from the Ethiopian Development Bank for which he had a Bank statement to run his business and 120 gm gold were taken as exhibits as if they were OLF belongings.

After months of detantion and cruel treatments in maikelawi he was transferred to Kaliti prison where he is still treated differently from other prisoners.Mental and physical torture are still commited to him even in Kaliti. As a result he is subjected to different diseases, including epilepsy for which he is taking treatments at a daily bases . On top of this he was subjected to three surgical operations in one month. The first operation on his urogenital organs was considered wrong operation after it was completed and admitted him again for the same operation. After he was operated for the second time on the same organ he was again told that the 2nd operation is also wrong. He was again told to be operated on the same organ for the third time while the first two operations were wrong. Then he realised that the operation was a systematic killing than saving him and rejected the third operation.

Since then he was kept in a dark room with metallic bars on his hands. Putting metallic bars on the hands of a sick person and keeping him in a dark room is very brutal. He is denied acces to friends and families. Recently in this month , October he had another surgical operation on his head. He is now sick and under fear. Mr. Itana is counting six years in prison under such conditions. He is so far not tried. I fear that Mr. Itana is going to sucrifice his life in the TPLFs dirty prison in such a way unless we we make a campain to save his life.