It was revealed that the detainees had not disappeared but had irregular contacts with their families since the latter are very far from Addis Ababa. It was also revealed that their case have been heard by both the Federal High Court and the Federal Supreme Court in Addis Ababa. Both courts claim they do not have jurisdiction to hear the matter and referred the matter to the Gambela Regional Court. However, the government continues to detain them in Addis Ababa claiming they have to be tried by a Federal Court since their offence – inciting ethnic violence - is a federal offence. During a session with the Vice Minister of Justice, the Special Rapporteur was informed that there is a Circuit Court with federal jurisdiction that sits in all the regions and when this court will sit in the Gambela region, the matter will be heard and dealt with. (c) The existence of secret prisons The Special Rapporteur was also informed by an NGO about the existence of secret or underground prisons in Ethiopia. The NGO itself is not certain about the claim. When the Special Rapporteur asked the NGO to be more specific and provide concrete information where these secret prisons could be found, the NGO only said they could be found any where. Without any details, the NGO said they are usually government buildings portrayed as government offices which, according to the NGO, are actually secret prisons where opponents of the regime are kept. When asked whether they could identify anyone who had been detained in such prisons, the NGO accepted but said the victims are too afraid to come forward for fear of reprisals. The Special Rapporteur however, raised the matter with government authorities who refuted the allegations and added that there are only three official places where people could be detained in Ethiopia – the civilian prison, the military prison and the police stations. Any other detention facility outside these three is illegal. The Special Rapporteur however urged the authorities to investigate the allegations as some overzealous politicians may be detaining innocent civilians for personal reasons. (d) The detained Derg6 Officials The Derg officials are officials of the regime of the former dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam. When the latter’s regime was toppled in 1991, many of his supporters and government employees were arrested and detained. Most of them have been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. Many of them have been in detention for over ten years, some up to thirteen years. They are found in almost all the prisons across the country but concentrated in two main prisons – the Addis Abba Prison (for top government officials) and the Kaliti prison (for top military officials). 6 Derg means Council or Committee in Amharic and is usually associated with the Mengistu regime. 36 Report of the Mission of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons to Ethiopia 15 – 29 March 2004