By jimluceOctober 1978, inside the main police station in Addis Ababa.Bekele Geleta is hanging upside down, his feet being beaten bloody by interrogators. They insist he belongs to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); he insists he doesn’t. He is a civil servant, not a politician or an activist.
It does not matter. Bekele has been caught in another purge... of the socialist dictatorship... in an effort to eliminate the OLF. Many of his friends and relatives have been arrested.
"At that time there were roundups in the country, lots of killings left and right," says Bekele. "Anybody who was reported to be politically anti-government was rounded up and sent to prison."
Finally he is brought before a special investigator, who declares a sentence of five years in jail, no trial.
Bekele is transferred to the Central Prison in Addis Ababa, known informally as Karcheli prison. The inmate population numbers in the thousands, with as many as 1,500 political prisoners alone.
Pickpockets, activists, academics, businessmen, murderers, civil servants -- all are penned together behind the imposing walls and iron bars of the prison building in the city’s downtown, "right behind the offices of the Organization of African Unity," says Bekele.
When he first arrives, he is put into a cell with 200 inmates and two hole-in-the-floor toilets. There are no chairs, no tables, no beds except for some mattresses on the floor....(read more)
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