Document #1130351
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
Information on the Casa Inces building in
Addis Ababa between the years 1975 and 1991 could not be found
among the sources consulted by the DIRB.
A 1996 unpublished report by Sue Pollock on
human rights abuses against the Oromo people includes the "Casa
Inchis" in a list of secret detention centres in Ethiopia (Mar.
1996, 16). The author describes the "Casa Inchis" building as an
interrogation centre located in "an unmarked compound with a maroon
painted fence on a road joining Jomo Kenyatta Avenue and Tito
Street behind the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA)"
(ibid.). A professor of political science at Oklahoma State
University in Stillwater stated in a 20 September 1996 telephone
interview that a building called "Casa Inches" was located in an
Addis Ababa Italian neighbourhood of the same name during the 1950s
and 1960s. The professor, who worked at the building when it was
occupied by the Peace Corps in the 1960s, described the building as
a military office building with garages at street level and offices
above (ibid.). The professor further stated that the building was
in the neighbourhood behind the UN-ECA building in Addis Ababa,
near Tito Street (ibid.). The professor was unaware of who occupied
the building during the Mengistu era (ibid.).
In a telephone interview on 17 September
1996 a professor of political science at Old Dominion University in
Norfolk, Virginia, while not familiar with the Casa Inces building,
corroborated the information that the neighbourhood near the UN-ECA
was known as Casa Inces.
The attached map from La Grande
Éthiopie, une utopie africaine indicates a "Casa INCIS"
building in the neighbourhood of the Africa Hall building, which is
the seat of the UN-ECA (Gascon 1995, 215). Also attached is a map
of Addis Ababa indicating that Tito Street intersects with Jomo
Kenyatta Avenue in the neighbourhood behind the UN-ECA building
(Crowther 1989, 293).
Please note that according to the 1995
edition of Africa on a Shoestring, "there's little point giving ...
street addresses [in Addis Ababa] as the roads have more than one
name and people commonly know them by quite another. To add to the
problem, the fetish for renaming streets renders all addresses
obsolete overnight" (Crowther 1995, 318).
For general information on detention
facilities in Ethiopia during the Mengistu era, please consult
pages 6 and 7 of the 1986 Amnesty International report Ethiopia:
Political Imprisonment and Torture attached to Response to
Information Request ETH15972.E of 29 November 1993, which is
available at Regional Documentation Centres.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below a list of
additional sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
References
Crowther, Geoff et al. May 1995. 7th ed.
Africa on a Shoestring. Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: Lonely
Planet Publications.
_____. 1989. 5th ed. Africa on a
Shoestring. Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet
Publications.
Gascon, Alain. 1995. La Grande
Éthiopie, une utopie africaine. Paris: CNRS
Éditions.
Pollock, Sue. March 1996.
"Ethiopia(Human Tragedy in the Making: Democracy or Dictatorship?"
(Unpublished report)
Professor of political science, Oklahoma
State University, Stillwater. 20 September 1996. Telephone
interview.
Professor of political science, Old
Dominion University, Norfolk, Va. 17 September 1996. Telephone
interview.
Crowther, Geoff. 1989. 5th ed. Africa on
a Shoestring. Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet
Publications, pp. 292-93.
Gascon, Alain. 1995. La Grande
Éthiopie, une utopie africaine. Paris: CNRS Éditions,
p. 215.
Amnesty International Report.
1975-1992.
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices. 1975-1991.
DIRB Ethiopia Amnesty International
Country File. 1983-1991.
Ethiopia: From Bullets to the Ballot
Box. 1994.
Evil Days: 30 Years of War and Famine in
Ethiopia. 1991.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Daily Reports.
Human Rights Watch Global Report on
Prisons. 1993.
Human Rights Watch World Report. 1990
& 1992.
News from Africa Watch. Various
reports.
Red Tears: War, Famine and Revolution in
Ethiopia. 1989.
On-line searches of media reports
(NEXIS).
Four oral sources consulted did not
provide information on the requested subject.