people, including the author, were sent to rural areas as part of a literacy campaign. Disappointed with the regime, the author came into contact with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and started to work for it. 2.2 According to the author, the EPRP started to organize resistance against the Mengistu regime by calling students and youth back from the rural areas to Addis Ababa. In 1977 the conflicts between the various political groups resulted in the so-called "Red Terror", the brutal eradication of all opposition to the governing Provincial Military Administrative Council (PMAC) and random killings. An estimated 100,000 people were killed. The author, who had been distributing pamphlets and putting up posters in Addis Ababa on behalf of the EPRP, was arrested and taken to a concentration camp, together with thousands of other young people, where he was held for one year between 1980 and 1981. While in the camp he was subjected to fake executions and brainwashing, the so-called "baptism by Mengistu". According to the author, the "Red Terror" ended when the regime was convinced that the leaders of the EPRP were all dead. Many political prisoners, including the author, were then set free. 2.3 After his release he went underground and continued his work for the EPRP. The author states that the Mengistu regime carefully followed the movements of previous political prisoners to suppress a revival of the opposition. In 1986/87, the author was arrested in a mass arrest and taken to "Kerchele" prison, where he was imprisoned for four years. According to the author, the prisoners were forced to walk around naked and were subjected to ill-treatment in the form of regular beatings with clubs. While imprisoned, he suffered from tuberculosis. 2.4 In May 1991, the Mengistu regime fell and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power. According to the author, the prison guards fled in panic and the prisoners left. Once free, the author tried to get in touch with members of the EPRP, but all his contacts were gone. He then started to work for the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Coalition (SEPDC), a new coalition of 14 regional and national political opposition parties. The author worked as a messenger for one of the leaders, Alemu Abera, in Awasa. In February 1995 he was on his way to deliver a message to Mr. Alemu when he was caught by the police. 2.5 The author states that he was kept in detention for 24 hours in Awasa and then transferred to the central prison, "Meakelawi Eser Bete", in Addis Ababa. After three days, he was taken to "Kerchele" prison where he was kept for one year and seven months. He was never tried or had contact with a lawyer. The treatment in prison was similar to what the author had experienced during his first imprisonment. He says that he was taken to the torture room and threatened that he would be shot if he did not cooperate. He believes that the only reason he was not severely tortured like many other prisoners was that he was already in a weak physical condition. While in prison he developed epilepsy. 2.6 The author, who had previously worked as a technician, was made responsible for certain repairs in prison. On 5 October 1996 he managed to escape when he was taken to the house of one of the high-ranking guards to make some repairs. Through a friend, the author managed to get the necessary papers to leave the country and requested asylum in Norway on 8 October 1996. 2.7 On 18 June 1997 the Directorate of Immigration turned down his application for asylum, mainly on the basis of a verification report by the Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi, on the basis of contradictory information said to have been given by the author and his mother and chronological discrepancies in his story. He appealed on 3 July 1997. The appeal was rejected by the Ministry of Justice on 29 December 1997 on the same grounds. On 5 January 1998, a request for reconsideration was made which received a negative decision from the Ministry of Justice on 25 August 1998. 185