Addis Ababa — Ethiopia's most notorious prison lurks within the capital's atmospheric Piazza, the city's old quarter popular for its party scene at the weekend when the neon signs, loud discos and merry abandon at night continue into the early hours of the morning.
The troubling contrast is one of many in this land of often painful contradictions. The Ethiopian Federal Police Force Central Bureau of Criminal Investigation, more commonly known by its Amharic name of Maekelawi, has for decades been associated with torture and police brutality--a symbol of the dark underside of the authoritarian nature of the so-called Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
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