country remain poor. The Department of State, in 
its 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Prac-
tices, noted a myriad of human rights abuses by the 
Government of Ethiopia. Moreover, journalists and 
editors of the independent press have been and con-
tinue to face harassment and prosecution for alleged 
violations of press laws in Ethiopia. Dozens of jour-
nalists have fled the country, and some are currently 
in exile fearing prosecution or harassment. 
(9) In June 2005, more than 35 demonstrators 
were killed by Ethiopian Government security per-
sonnel and in November 2005 an estimated 53 peo-
ple were killed, including seven policemen, according 
to Human Rights Watch and several other reports. 
The violence against these victims occurred after 
pro-opposition groups went to the streets of the cap-
ital to protest government actions in handling the 
elections results of May 2005. Tens of thousands of 
people suspected of being opposition supporters were 
detained over the past months, although many of 
these detainees were released. Nonetheless, govern-
ment security forces continue to abuse opposition 
leaders, supporters, and family members. 
(10) An estimated 112 political leaders, human 
rights activists, community leaders, and journalists, 
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including the chairman of the CUD (Hailu Shawel), 
the newly elected Mayor of Addis Ababa (Berhanu 
Nega), and the founder of the Ethiopian Human 
Rights Council (Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam), 
were imprisoned and charged with treason and geno-
cide. These measures were deliberately taken to sti-
fle and criminalize opposition party activity in the 
country. The measures also were intended to intimi-
date and silence independent press and civil society, 
raising serious question about the Ethiopian Govern-
ment’s commitment to democracy and good govern-
ance. 
SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN ETHIOPIA. 
The Secretary of State shall— 
(1) establish a mechanism to provide financial 
support to local and national human rights groups 
and other relevant civil society organizations to help 
strengthen human rights monitoring and regular re-
porting on human rights conditions in Ethiopia; 
(2) establish a program to provide legal support 
for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience 
and to assist local groups or groups from outside 
Ethiopia that are active in monitoring the status of 
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in 
Ethiopia; 
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(3) seek to increase the independence of the 
Ethiopian judiciary through facilitation of joint dis-
cussions for court personnel, officials from the Ethi-
opian Ministry of Justice, relevant members of the 
legislature, and civil society representatives on inter-
national human rights standards; 
(4) create and support a judicial monitoring 
process, consisting of local and international groups, 
to monitor judicial proceedings throughout Ethiopia, 
with special focus on unwarranted government inter-
vention on strictly judicial matters, and to inves-
tigate and report on actions to strengthen an inde-
pendent judiciary; 
(5) establish a program to strengthen private 
media in Ethiopia, provide support for training pur-
poses, offer technical and other types of support as 
necessary, and expand programming by the Voice of 
America to Ethiopia; and 
(6) establish a mechanism to identify and extra-
dite members of the Mengistu Haile Mariam regime 
and the current government residing in the United 
States who were engaged in gross human rights vio-
lations and work with other governments to identify 
and extradite such persons, including Mengistu 
Haile Mariam. 
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SEC. 5. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIZATION IN ETHIOPIA. 
(a) STRENGTHENING LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND NA-
TIONAL DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES.—The Secretary of 
State shall— 
(1) provide assistance to strengthen local, re-
gional, and national parliaments and governments in 
Ethiopia through training in consultation with gov-
ernment authorities, political parties, and civil soci-
ety groups; 
(2) establish a program focused on reconcili-
ation efforts between the Government of Ethiopia 
and peaceful political and civil society groups, in-
cluding in minority communities, in preparation for 
negotiation and for participation in the political 
process; 
(3) strengthen training for political parties in 
Ethiopia in areas such as organization building and 
campaign management; 
(4) provide training for civil society groups in 
election monitoring in Ethiopia; and 
(5) facilitate ongoing communications between 
the Government of Ethiopia through the National 
Election Board (NEB) in order to address issues 
such as delimitation of constituencies, voter registra-
tion, political party registration, candidate registra-
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tion, and related matters to enhance the credibility 
of the next elections in Ethiopia. 
(b) DEMOCRACY ENHANCEMENT.— 
(1) ASSISTANCE.—United States technical as-
sistance for democracy promotion in Ethiopia should 
be made available to the ruling party as well as op-
position parties in Ethiopia. 
(2) RESTRICTION.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—Nonessential United 
States assistance shall not be made available to 
the Government of Ethiopia if the Government 
of Ethiopia acts to obstruct United States tech-
nical assistance to advance human rights, de-
mocracy, independence of the judiciary, freedom 
of the press, economic development and eco-
nomic freedom in Ethiopia. 
(B) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 
term ‘‘nonessential United States assistance’’ 
means assistance under any provision of law, 
other than humanitarian assistance, assistance 
under emergency food programs, assistance to 
combat HIV/AIDS, and other health care as-
sistance. 
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