HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH -- PRESS CONFERENCE INVITATION

“TARGETING THE ANUAK:
Human Rights Violations and Crimes against
Humanity in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region”

Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based international human rights monitoring organization, invites you to a press conference on the release of a major new report on the Gambella region of Ethiopia.

Following the December 2003 massacre of some 400 Anuak civilians in a Gambella town by mobs and soldiers, the Ethiopian military launched a series of attacks on Anuak villages that have forced several thousand Anuak civilians to flee their homes.

Since then, the Ethiopian military has committed the widespread abuses of murder, rape and torture against the Anuak population that could amount to crimes against humanity.

The report details the continuing pattern of abuse of Anuak communities, and urges concerned states to pressure the Ethiopian government to halt the abuses and prosecute those responsible.

Please join us to hear Human Rights Watch’s Africa Advocacy Director, Michael Clough, present the findings of the new report and discuss Human Rights Watch’s message to the international community.

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2005
Time: 10 A.M. (TK)
Location: The Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa (FCAEA) Press Center
Chester House

To attend the press briefing, please RSVP to Minky Worden at wordenm@hrw.org.

Note to journalists: The full report is embargoed until after the press conference. Copies of the entire report and other materials will be available at the press conference.

Human Rights Watch monitors human rights developments in more than seventy countries worldwide and issues detailed reports for policymakers, international organizations, the media, and the general public.