Ethiopian government carries out extensive monitoring of its citizens, including in Norway, according to a new report.

Felix Horne
Africa-worker, Human Rights Watch

In late 2012, Yohannes Alemus ? wife of arrested people from the Ethiopian security during a visit with relatives in the capital Addis Ababa. She brought with her the couple's two children. Yohannes is a former refugee , now a Norwegian citizen , and he is a supporter of a political opposition party that is banned in Ethiopia. Security Police questioned Yohannes ? wife about his political connections , sending him e -mails and called him in Norway . They wanted more information about his colleagues in the opposition. He refused , and after 20 days, his wife finally released and sent back to Norge.Yohannes thought that this episode was over it. He was wrong .

Without him knowing it contained one of the emails an attachment that was infected with a German developed spyware called finfish . As soon as it had infected his computer , had the Ethiopian security unlimited access . After he had unsuspectingly forwarded e -mails to others, gave this spyware potentially free access for security authorities to their computers as well. Computer experts confirmed that computer to at least one of his contacts were monitored using the infected attachment in the message .

All over the world people responded last year with disbelief and anger when it was revealed how the U.S. has been monitoring our phone calls and emails. In Europe , few people worry that monitoring will result in threats to their lives and families . But for Ethiopians , among them refugees living in Norway , the monitoring of their governments lead to arrests , intimidation , torture and unfair trials . And , as our research shows , is not people safe from espionage from Addis Ababa , even when they have fled abroad .

Investigations we have undertaken in the past 18 months shows that the Ethiopian government uses its control over the country's Chinese-made telecommunications system to monitor communications between its own citizens , as well as arrest and gag dissent both in Ethiopia and abroad. Officials in the security services have unlimited access to the registers of all the country who owns a phone . Often they play recordings of calls for people on remand during illegal interrogations .

This has had a very direct impact on the Ethiopian community in Norway . Many fear that if they communicate with their families back home in Ethiopia, the calls will be tracked so that relatives could face reprisals. They are right to be redde.Etiopia has a terrible record of human rights abuses - torture by critics is common, opposition parties have been decimated , independent organizations are practically non -existent , and there are hardly independent media. Thousands of Ethiopians fleeing threats to their lives and safety, and many have come to Norway .

But even in this safe haven , just as elsewhere in Europe , using the Ethiopian government very sophisticated, European -produced electronic monitoring tools to listen divergent voices among the Ethiopian Diaspora. These tools can provide security and intelligence agencies full access to the files, information and activities on that person's infected computer . They can read keystrokes and passwords, and turn on both webcam and microphone , allowing a computer here in Norway becomes an effective monitoring apparatus.

While I was doing research on the issue , I met another man, Badessa ( not his real name) . He lives in a refugee camp in Kenya. He told me: " I ​​used to get phone calls from my brother in Norway and my sister in the Netherlands. Then one day I was arrested and submitted a list of my phone calls , and was asked to tell who the foreign numbers belonged . I replied that it was my relatives . Then they played a phone conversation with my brother in Norway , where we talked about politics . I was then a member of the ( forbidden ) Liberation Front Oromo Liberation Front. "

BADESSE was severely tortured for ten days in a military camp in Ethiopia. Although he is now in relative safety in Kenya , he is afraid to talk to someone in the family, and he has physical and psychological injuries after the experience. He is hoping he can move to his brother in Norway , but has not spoken to him since the previous call. In Ethiopia, a number of people were arrested and abused without having done anything wrong , other than talking to Ethiopians living abroad .

While the world are right to let the shock of Edward Snow Its revelations about the U.S. government's mass surveillance , we should also worry that repressive governments in many countries , such as Ethiopia , buys and uses European- produced technology targeted to independent voices across the world, including Norway .

NORWAY MAY implement important measures to stop this abuse . Norwegian authorities should join the initiative to regulate the export of such technology to governments that have a questionable intercourse with human rights , such as Ethiopia . Until that happens , it will not Yohannes Alemu be the latest victim of cyber - surveillance.


Chronicle writer is co-author of the report " They know everything we do: Telecom and Internet Monitoring in Ethiopia ", released yesterday by Human Rights Watch , and the post is based.

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