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The Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA) is the second largest labor union that represents about 120,000 teachers. It is an association that represents teachers and is ongoing in almost all of the regional states in Ethiopia excluding the Tigray and Somali Region.

Background
The ETA formed in February 1949 by 32 teachers from Minilik Senior Secondary School, located in Addis Abba, the capital of Ethiopia. The ETA was initially named Teacher’s Union but in 1965 the association quickly began to be known nation wide and as a result became known as Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA). The ETA has support from UNESCO, UNICEF, Education International, International Organization for Development of Freedom of Education (Switzerland), World Teachers’ Organization (Belgium), ILO, United Nation Human Rights Commission, African Education Association for Development, and Teachers’ Associations of Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the UK. “The Ethiopian Teachers’ Association unifies all teachers and education personnel in Ethiopia."

Government and ETA
The ETA continuously battles with ongoing hardships brought on by the government, Monarchy and Derg. The government wanted education to be based on one part of the Ethiopian culture, the Amhara, which would therefore mean that education would be taught in Amharic only. Taye Wolde Semayat a former professor at Addis Ababa University was elected in 1992 as president of the ETA. In 1993 the Ethiopian government created a new teachers’ association led by Yeshiwas Admasu, named the same as the original and stated that the new ETA is the official teachers’ association of Ethiopia and is the only teachers’ association that is recognized by the Ethiopian government. The original ETA believed that the policy the government was imposing doesn’t allow the Ethiopians the right to free education since they are restricting what’s allowed to be taught in schools. This new educational policy imposed by the government is the main reason for battles between the original ETA and the government. The ETA also denied one other governments policy, which stated to employ American Peace Corps as teachers. The ETA believed that the American Peace Corps they needed to hire as teachers were working for the Central Intelligence Agency. The original ETA and the new ETA created by the government weren’t able to come to a conclusion together and as a result each association filed a suit on one another in the Addis Ababa High Court. Semayat wanted to be the only representative of the ETA while Admasu wanted the transfer all the original ETA’s possession to his association. The Court decided to honor the Ethiopian Civil Code and follow the rules of the ETA, which therefore ruled that only the members of ETA assembly could truly choose the person to represent their association. The decision was ultimately left to the ETA. Both the ETAs gathered on October 18, 1995 and found that Semayat’s association is not the suitable representative of ETA therefore they elected a new executive committee. Following this decision the Ethiopian government stated that they did not have a part in the conflict between the two associations and that they had indeed honored the Addis Ababa High Courts’ decision. The government followed to freeze the original ETA’s assets and continued on to arrest members. The Regional State Councils let all off the teachers that were for Semayat and took over the ETA branch office and gave it over to the new ETA despite the courts decision to not take action upon that Admasu request. “The original ETA’s head office was ransacked and sealed off by the security forces on March 18 1996”.

Arrestments and Killings
In 1996 the Ethiopian government arrested the Semayat and ETA’s acting secretary General Shimalis Zewdie. Taye Wolde Semayat was arrested at the airport returning from a work related visit abroad and charged with being the lead of a terrorist organization named the Ethiopian National Patriotic Front (ENPF). Government exposed Semayat’s role in ENPF, which was discredited by anti government forces. The media, which is known to be pro government, stated that during the period Semayat was believed to be a part of ENPF, the ENPF’s aim was to raise an armed rebellion. About a year after the ETA’s president Semayat’s arrest, on May 8, 1997 the Ethiopian police shot and killed the association’s vice president Assefa Maru who was unarmed and walking to his office. The media, which is controlled by the government, stated “that the police had shot the leader of a notorious terrorist group at his home while he was trying to escape arrest.” The government believed that Maru had taken over Semayat’s role in ENPF while he was away in prison. Maru’s death had created tension between the UK and the Ethiopian government because of a BBC journalist who was dismissed the reason being that he reported on the death of Maru. On August 13, 1998 head office of the ETA was sealed off and about 133 regional branch offices of the original ETA were closed down. On September 17, 1998 the rest of the senior members of the original ETA were forced to hand over the rest of the ETA’s properties and documentation to the new ETA and during that year, Semayat was sentenced to 15 years in prison. With the help from the International Teacher’s Union they were able to free Semayat on May 14 2002, six years into his sentencing. In November 2003 the High Court supported a complaint made by the original ETA but in May 2006 the new ETA found a way to get that decision overturned In 2005 security forces took over the ETA headquarters for two weeks and held six of its members. Since then the ETA members have been consistently under attack. Tilahun Ayalew, Meqcha Mengistu and Anteneh Getenet were three ETA officers that had been arrested and tortured to try and get a confession stating that they were members of the ENPF. “Tilahun Ayalew Chair of the ETA Awi zone, had a fractured leg bone; Meqcha Mengistu, chairperson of the ETA East Gojam Zonal Executive and member of ETA's EFAIDS Committee, had a bleeding ear and hearing difficulties; whilst Anteneh Getnet, member of the ETA Addis Ababa Regional Council, had scars on his arms, both of which were twisted. Their case was adjourned to "allow the police to undertake further investigation" In May 30, 2007, Meqcha Mengistu, a second grade school teacher and former President of ETA in Eastern Gojam was arrested and spent about three years in prison till he was pardoned.

Aftermath
The government decided in February 2008 to close down the ETA and then followed with an order to hand over its asset and name to the new ETA. The following year the Government turned down the registration of an alternate independent union that the original ETA had organized which went by the name of National Teachers’ Association.