Misplaced Pages

#310689

48-629: His party nominally won all 152 contested seats and 98.2% of the votes of the 2020 Tigray regional election , which was held in defiance of the federal government that had postponed the elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia . Debretsion was born and raised in the town of Axum in Tigray . He gave up his engineering studies at Addis Ababa University to join the TPLF in the 1970s and fight

96-469: A 3,200-member commando unit with rapid reaction capability. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) supplied the paramilitary police with weapons and vehicles and installed a nationwide teleprinter system, while Israeli counterinsurgency specialists trained commandos and frontier guards. About 5,000 constabulary police, mostly recruited locally, served in Eritrea , as did 2,500 commandos. After

144-591: A military victory against TPLF on 28 November 2020. Debretsion was rumoured to have taken refuge in South Sudan until his message to all TEGARUs came out in March claiming that he is, in fact, near the town of Mekelle (Tigray's capital) stating the TDF forces are still fighting intensively and the outcome will only be victory of the people of Tigray. As of early December 2020, TPLF members and their leader Debretsion resisted

192-510: A policy whereby police constables were recruited at an early age and trained in their native regions. Training was designed to allow police stationed in remote areas to be self-sufficient in building and maintaining their posts. Training standards were not uniform, and, unless it took place in Addis Ababa, in-service or specialized training was limited. In politically stable rural areas where duty requirements and supervision were less exacting,

240-409: A riot squad, or "flying column"; and a police laboratory—organizational refinements not found in regional police units. A small number of women served in police units in large cities. Generally, they were employed in administrative positions or as guards for female prisoners. National police officers were paid according to the same standardized wage scale that applied to members of the armed forces. As

288-429: A rule, police in constabulary units were armed only with batons. Small arms usually were kept in designated armouries and were issued for specific duties. Matériel used by paramilitary units included heavy machine guns, submachine guns, automatic rifles, side arms, mortars, grenades, tear gas, light armoured vehicles, and other equipment adaptable to riot control and counterinsurgency operations. Larger police units, such as

336-435: Is approximately 6000. During Emperor Haile Selassie and Dergue regimes, there were mainly three levels. At present, the hierarchical structure is almost the same except for the difference in title designation. The lower level ranges from constable to chief sergeant, the medium level from deputy inspector to inspector, and the top level from chief inspector to commissioner (Federal Police Regulation No. 86/2003). According to

384-467: The 2020 general election earlier in the year because of the COVID-19 pandemic . According to the election organisers, the Tigray People's Liberation Front won 98.2% of the vote and 100% of the 152 seats that were contested. France 24 reported aging war veterans and university students formed long lines to partake in the elections. 600 candidates from five parties competed for 152 seats in

432-717: The Derg military junta. He was sent to Italy on a false passport and received training in communications technology and led the team that launched the Dimtsi Woyane ('Voice of the Revolution') radio station in 1980. Debretsion was also involved in disrupting the Derg's radio systems. After the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front 's 1991 victory, he joined Addis Ababa University while working full-time as

480-608: The Tigray War started with the TPLF special forces' 4 November attacks against the Northern Command . Debretsion described the attacks as a pre-emptive defensive action. On 12 November, the Federal Police Commission issued an arrest warrant against him and 64 top officials of the TPLF for severe human rights violations , ethnic cleansing , and terrorism . The Ethiopian government announced

528-470: The provinces . Assistant police commissioners in each of the fourteen provinces worked in conjunction with the governors general, but for the most part Addis Ababa directed administration. The Territorial Army 's provincial units, commanded by the governor general and consisting of an unpaid civilian auxiliary, assisted the national police force in areas where police were scarce. Police posts were found in all cities and larger towns and at strategic points along

SECTION 10

#1732780999311

576-419: The 190 seat legislature. The distribution of the remaining 38 seats will be determined at a later date by participating parties. The campaign featured televised debates among leaders of different parties. Opposition parties stated that while they had good access to regional media, they also faced some threats and intimidations. Arena Tigray boycotted the election on the grounds of "political provocations by

624-410: The 1974 Ethiopian revolution , the Derg severely circumscribed the authority of the national police, which had been identified with the old regime and regional interests. The authorities accused constables of protecting landowners against peasants in the countryside, of arresting supporters of the military regime in Addis Ababa, and of being members of the "rightist opposition." In Eritrea , however,

672-749: The Board Chairman of the National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation for the Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam . In November 2017, Debretsion was elected chairman of the TPLF. His rise within the party was largely facilitated by the fact that he was viewed as a younger figure when compared to the high-ranking figures that had led the TPLF for decades prior, as well as

720-702: The EPF. The Commission reports to the Ministry of Peace following the politically motivated reform of 2018, which in turn is responsible to the parliament ; however, this subordination is loose in practice. In previous years, the police reported to the Security, Immigration, and Refugees Affairs Authority, a unit of the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice . Within the EPF, the Special Force is tasked with

768-534: The Ethiopian Federal Police Commission Establishment Proclamation No. 720/2011, the ranks of police officers are the following from lowest to highest: As of 2015, Ethiopia's prison system consists of six federal prisons, 120 local prisons, and many unofficial detention centers. Prison and pretrial detention center conditions remained harsh and in some cases life-threatening. Severe overcrowding

816-620: The Ethiopian and Eritrean invasion by remaining in the mountains. In June 2021, after the TDF controlled Mekelle, Debretsion returned to the capital of Tigray, Mekelle and remains among the main political influencers of this conflict. During August 2024, the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) rejected the TPLF’s request to reinstate its pre-war legal status. On 12 August, Debretsion declared that NEBE's decision undermined

864-724: The Federal Police Commissioner and handles the main operational Main Departments : Crime Forensic investigation, Crime Prevention and Support Service Main Departments. The Deputy Commissioner also commands the Ethics police college, the Human Resources and Administration and the Research and Planning departments. The Ethiopian Federal Police is in charge of riot control. This activity is dealt with by

912-678: The Riot Control Department, which is part of the Crime Prevention Main Department. The Riot Control Department, in turn, is subdivided into 5 Riot Divisions (the operational arm), and into three auxiliary Divisions: Support Division, Information and Intelligence Division and Training and Appointment Division. Each Riot Division has three battalions with each battalion having about 400 men. Battalions are further subdivided into Platoons and both layers have their own equipment. The total Riot Police strength

960-629: The TPLF", the COVID-19 pandemic and what it saw as the illegitimacy of the election. The Tigray Democratic Party also stated that it would boycott the election. On 11 September 2020 the Amharic language service of the BBC reported that, of the 190 members of the state council, 152 were controlled by the TPLF and 38 were to be distributed to rival parties. However, in local reports in September 2020,

1008-649: The TPLF's 50-year legacy and violated the Pretoria Peace Agreement which had ended the Tigray War during November 2022. 2020 Tigray regional election Debretsion Gebremichael TPLF Debretsion Gebremichael (disputed) TPLF On 9 September 2020, the Ethiopian region of Tigray held an election for its state council. The election was considered illegal by the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed , who postponed

SECTION 20

#1732780999311

1056-680: The Tigray Region state council allocated 16 seats to the four opposition parties. This Ethiopian elections -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Law enforcement in Ethiopia Law enforcement in Ethiopia is dealt with by the Ethiopian Federal Police at federal level and by regional police commissions in the Regions of Ethiopia . The Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP)

1104-496: The army already had taken over police functions in January 1975 from local police units suspected of being sympathetic to the secessionists. The Asmera police voluntarily stayed at their posts for some time after their dismissal to protect civilians from attack by unruly soldiers. In 1977 the national police were re-organized, and a politically reliable commissioner put in command. A security committee formulated policy, which then

1152-528: The augmented 9,000-member paramilitary Mobile Emergency Police Force for employment in counterinsurgency operations. The Directorate of Police, which reported to the commissioner, included the special Criminal Investigation Branch, which had the role in directing police counterinsurgency activities through regional branch offices. Another branch of the directorate investigated economic crimes, particularly smuggling and other forms of illicit commerce. The Revolutionary Operations Coordinating Committee, organized at

1200-550: The authorities opened the Ethiopian Police College at Sendafa . Further developments was the promulgation of a new penal code, written by the jurist J. Graven of Switzerland in 1957, which was part of a series of legal codifications which included the promulgation of a criminal procedure code in 1961, written by jurist Sir C. Matthew of the United Kingdom. In 1956 the imperial government amalgamated

1248-646: The construction of the ICT park in Bole Lemi Industrial Park in Addis Ababa. In 2017, he laid the cornerstone for the ICT park and stated that he wants to build more ICT parks in the regional states . Debretsion was the Board Chair of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. In his role in the state owned electricity company, he oversaw the construction of billions of dollars of hydropower dams and electrical infrastructure, as well as seeing service as

1296-486: The country, Emperor Haile Selassie undertook several reforms to improve law enforcement. The first was the drafting of a criminal code in 1930, but was not distributed until 1932. This was followed in 1935 by the establishment of formal, British-trained police forces in Addis Ababa and four other cities. This replaced a police force of about 3,000 men who operated in and around Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa , and along

1344-437: The country. In 2012, Debretsion was appointed the federal Minister of Communications and Information Technology. In 2012, Debretsion announced that a $ 1.6 billion deal had been reached with Huawei , Ericsson and ZTE to significantly expand the capacity of Ethiopia's communication infrastructure. As of September 2016 project has been progressing on schedule. 4G cellular service is now available in Addis Ababa . The ultimate goal of

1392-704: The duty of keeping peace and security during riots, violence and demonstrations. At the supreme level, the Federal Police Commissioner is assisted by the Council of Commissioners and directly controls three services and two offices: the Legal Service, the Ethics and Anti Corruption Services, the Public Relation Services, the Office of Commissioner and the Addis Ababa, Diredawa & Regional coordination office. The Deputy Commissioner depends on

1440-733: The government was seeking assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross , the local non-governmental organization Prison Fellowship Ethiopia (JFA-PFE), and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to improve and professionalize its human rights training and curriculum. The JFA-PFE provided human rights training for police commissioners and members of the militia in 2008. In traditional Ethiopian society, customary procedures resolved conflicts. One example of these customary procedures

1488-540: The main roads in the countryside. The police usually recruited local men who were familiar with the social values of the areas in which they served; however, the populace rarely looked upon such individuals with affection. Police operations generally emphasized punishment rather than prevention. By 1974 the national police numbered approximately 28,000 in all branches, including 6,000 in the Mobile Emergency Police Force, 1,200 frontier guards, and

Debretsion Gebremichael - Misplaced Pages Continue

1536-409: The nobility enforced law in the countryside according to the will of their leaders. In 1916 the imperial government formed a civilian municipal guard in Addis Ababa to ensure obedience to legal proclamations. The general public despised the municipal guard, nearly all of whose members were inefficient at preserving public order or investigating criminal activities. As part of his efforts to modernize

1584-403: The one in Addis Ababa, were also equipped with modern military vehicles, which were used as patrol cars and police vans. In many rural areas, however, horses and mules were often the sole means of transportation for constables. In January 1992, a "Charter of National and Regional States" proclamation No. 7/1992 was issued. Under this proclamation, the national and regional states were vested with

1632-551: The perception that he was a political moderate who was less committed to Tigrayan nationalism than his predecessors. In January 2018, he was also elected Deputy President of Tigray Region. As Debretsion was not a member of the Tigray Regional parliament, he could not become president. Nonetheless, as the post of the President became vacant, he became the President of Tigray Region in an acting capacity. On 4 November 2020,

1680-504: The police and the Ethiopian military . Corruption is a perennial problem, particularly among traffic police who solicited bribes. The U.S. Department of State states that its contacts within the Ethiopian government report that the findings of investigations into abuses by local security forces, such as arbitrary detentions and beatings of civilians, are rarely made public. However, the Ethiopian government continued its efforts to train police and army recruits in human rights. During 2008

1728-457: The police were less efficient than their urban counterparts. A high percentage of rural constables could neither read nor write and therefore did not keep records of their activities. Many crimes were considered to be matters concerning only the persons involved and were often ignored by the police unless one of the interested parties filed a complaint. The Addis Ababa police, by contrast, were organized into uniformed, detective, and traffic units;

1776-455: The power of establishing their own police forces. The Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP) was established as a federal organ having its own legal personality tasked to maintain law and order at federal level, as well as to deal with riot control. Since a reorganization in October 2000, the responsibility of the federal police has been transferred to the Federal Police Commission , which oversees

1824-404: The project is to increase cellular coverage to 100% and to increase capacity to 50 million. Before becoming Tigray's leader, he was sometimes considered as a "low-key technocrat " according to The New York Times . Debretsion was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister for Finance and Economic Clusters in 2012. In 2015, Debretsion helped to launch a free trade zone with Sudan. In 2015, he inaugurated

1872-664: The route of the railway, and had been reorganized by Belgian advisors. These promising beginnings were snuffed out with Ethiopia's defeat in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War . After his restoration to power in 1941, the emperor promulgated the founding of the Imperial Ethiopian Police in Proclamation 4/1942. This was organized under British tutelage as a centralized national force with paramilitary and constabulary units. Then in 1946

1920-640: The second man to Kinfe Gebremedhin . He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Addis Ababa University . He received a PhD in information technology from Capella University in 2011. His dissertation was on "Exploring the Perception of Users of Community ICT Centers on the Effectiveness of ICT on Poverty in Ethiopia". Debretsion is an avid tennis player in his free time. He married Askale Gebrekidan. He has two young children. They are US citizens. In 2005, Debretsion

1968-408: The separate city police forces with the national police force. Initially administered as a department of the Ministry of Interior , the national police had evolved, by the early 1970s, into an independent agency commanded by a police commissioner responsible to the emperor. Local control over police was minimal, despite imperial proclamations that granted police authority to governors general of

Debretsion Gebremichael - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-441: The subregion level, cooperated with the police in battling smuggling and economic sabotage. The Marxist regime stressed that the mission of the national police was essentially political—more involved with suppressing political dissent as the local law enforcement role shifted to People's Protection Brigades. Mengistu described the police mission as contributing to the "intensification of the class struggle". The government adopted

2064-467: Was a problem. In October 2008 it was reported that there were 52,000 persons in prison. Earlier that year, prison populations decreased by 10,000 due to pardons but reportedly again increased due to increases in ethnic conflict and economic crimes. Prison conditions have been reported as unsanitary and there was no budget for prison maintenance. Medical care was unreliable in federal prisons and almost nonexistent in regional prisons. The daily meal budget

2112-735: Was appointed director of the Ethiopian Information and Communication Development Agency (EICDA). As its director, Debretsion claimed to improve its public service by launching the Public Service Capacity Building Program (PSCAP). In 2007, Debretsion launched a $ 1.5 billion infrastructure project with ZTE which expanded the network capacity to 30 million (from 6.5 million in 2007 and 1.35 million in 2001) and constructed 10,000 km of fibre cable. By 2012 Ethiopia had constructed 16,000 km of fibre cables and had voice cellular coverage at 64% of

2160-406: Was approximately 9 birr (US 43 cents) per prisoner, and many prisoners supplemented this with daily food deliveries from their family or by purchasing food from local vendors. Prisoners often had less than 22 square feet (2.0 m ) of sleeping space in a room that could contain up to 200 persons; sleeping in rotations was not uncommon in regional prisons. Kaliti Prison is a federal prison on

2208-559: Was established in 1995 to serve the public, to ensure the observation of human and democratic rights and to maintain the safety and welfare of the public. Its stated duties are the enforcement of laws and safeguarding constitutional guarantees, the prevention, detection and investigation of crime, the coordination of national state police commissions and development of national policing standards. The EFP also has to provide operational support to regional police commissions. However, local militias also provide local security largely independent of

2256-513: Was implemented by the Ministry of Interior. The army assumed a larger role in criminal investigation and in maintaining public order. People's Protection Brigades took over local law enforcement duties previously assigned to the constabulary. As a result of these changes, by 1982 the strength of the national police had declined to about 17,000. Mengistu also created the army's new Eighth Division from police commando units. Other special units joined

2304-409: Was the tradition of parties in civil, and even minor criminal disputes, to call upon a passing stranger to decide the issue. As Margary Perham notes, "These informal roadside courts might last for hours to the deep interest of the spectators, and many travellers have described this characteristic Ethiopian scene." Families usually avenged wrongs committed against their members, and the armed retainers of

#310689