Save Mesfin Itana!:
Oromo Nationalist and Prisoner Mesfin Itana In Danger of Losing His Life
(OLF News (October 23, 2008): 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
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