Information on the Kebele [ETH10648]

The Kebele or the basic administrative unit under the Mengistu regime was disbanded along with other military and security organizations (Country Reports 1991, 1992, 118). Country Reports 1991 (1992), further reports that the Transitional Government (TG) has "retained the kebele structure for administrative purposes" and "instituted a parallel system of thousands of "Peace and Stability Committees" with sweeping powers of detention" (Ibid.). An Immigration Counsellor at the Ethiopian Community Centre in Washington, D.C., corroborated this information during a telephone interview with the IRBDC (24 Apr. 1992). Further information on this subject is currently unavailable to the IRBDC in Ottawa.

References

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1991. 1992. U.S. Department of State. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Ethiopian Community Centre. Washington, D.C. 24 April 1992. Telephone Interview with Immigration Counsellor.