The Addis Ababa Massacre by Campbell Ian;

Author:Campbell, Ian;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2017-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

91. Taddesse Tiruneh and Dr Richard Pankhurst standing in front of the main building during a visit to the former St George’s Prison with the present author in December 2004. From left to right, Taddesse Tiruneh, school staff member Gétachew, Richard Pankhurst, unidentified staff member

St George’s Prison was often used for ‘political’ prisoners, and executions were frequently carried out there. The reader may recall, for example, that it was the place of execution of at least one of the sons of Dr ‘Charles Martin’ Werqineh. While many of the prisoners held at St George’s were sentenced to summary execution after Yekatit 12, there is no doubt that many other captives incarcerated there died from disease, ill-treatment and unlawful killings.

* * *

The second largest penitentiary in Addis Ababa, known to Ethiopians as Karchale (a corruption of carcere, Italian for ‘prison’), was the Central Prison, the first modern gaol built by Emperor Haile Selassie before the Italian invasion. Enlarged by the Italians, it stood approximately one kilometre south of the railway station, just above the Tinishu Akaki River (known to the Italians as the Cataba). Consisting of two tiers of cells arranged around an octagonal courtyard, the prison acquired a fearsome reputation for deprivation and torture during the Occupation. It achieved such notoriety that it was known as Alem Beqañ, which can be loosely translated as ‘I have had enough of the world!’, broadly equivalent to ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’.80

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.