Ethiopia Drops Charges Against Journalists

By LES NEUHAUS Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An Ethiopia court Wednesday dropped charges of treason, attempted genocide and other crimes against 18 people, including five Voice of America journalists, accused of attempting to overthrow the government.
The United States had pressed Ethiopia to drop charges against the Voice of America journalists. VOA is an arm of the U.S. government.
Judge Adil Ahmed of the Federal High Court ordered the release of nine people and told the court in the capital, Addis Ababa, that charges against the others, who were being tried in absentia, also should be dropped.
However, the case will continue against 111 opposition leaders, aid workers and journalists on charges stemming from the violence that erupted in November during protests over disputed May 15 elections that returned Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to power.
Chief Prosecutor Shemelis Kemal told the court that one of the seven counts all the defendants face _ the capital offense of threatening political integrity of the nation _ has been dropped.
Some of the accused have been in prison since Nov. 1, when the government started a crackdown on independent media, opposition politicians and human rights activists after at least 46 people were killed in clashes with security forces.
In similar protests in June, 42 people died.
VOA journalists Nigussie Mengesha, Addisu Abebe, Tizita Belachew, Adanech Fessehaye and Solomon Kifle were all charged in absentia because they are based in Washington.
Charges also were dropped against two teenage boys. They are expected to be released by Thursday.
International human rights groups have condemned the trial, arguing that the charges against the government critics were politically motivated.
The prisoners included the leadership of the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy; human rights activist Mesfin Woldemariam; a former prosecutor in the U.N. tribunal for Rwanda; and a former high court judge.
The defendants have refused to recognize the authority of the court and appeared Wednesday wearing black in protest over the ongoing hearings.
The next hearing is scheduled for May 2, when the prosecution is expected to being its case.
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posted by Ethiounited Moderator at6:08 PM
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ETHIOPIA: Court drops charges against five Voice of America journalists

New York, March 22, 2006—An Ethiopian court today granted a state prosecutor’s request to drop charges of treason and genocide against five Voice of America journalists and another radio journalist being tried in absentia. “We welcome the dropping of these ridiculous charges against VOA staff,” said Ann Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “But they should never have been charged in the first place. We call on the government to release all journalists imprisoned for their work in Ethiopia immediately.”The journalists were indicted along with dozens of opposition leaders and civil society activists following anti-government protests last year. This month, a CPJ delegation met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and asked for the release of the 16 journalists currently in jail in Ethiopia. Fourteen of them are facing anti-state charges. The CPJ delegation also visited the prison where most journalists are held, and met with some of those charged with treason and genocide. The journalists all professed their innocence. They include Serkalem Fassil, 26, who is five months pregnant. No reason was given for the dismissal of charges against the five Ethiopian journalists who work for VOA in Washington. CPJ sources said U.S. diplomatic pressure may have played a part. VOA, which is funded by the U.S. government, broadcasts into Ethiopia in the local language, Amharic. Charges were also dropped against a journalist for the Washington-based radio station Netsanet Le Ethiopia Radio, which is available on the Internet and is strongly critical of the Ethiopian government. Charges remain, however, against several other exiled journalists charged in absentia. The government cracked down on the private press after opposition demonstrations in November against alleged poll rigging in May elections that returned Meles to power. At least 46 people were killed in the November clashes with security forces, international news agencies reported. In similar protests in June, at least 42 people died. The court will continue to hear cases against some 100 opposition leaders, aid workers and journalists on charges that stem from the November violence.
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posted by Ethiounited Moderator at5:54 PM
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Africa's sham democracies / Several leaders use reforms to mask repressive regimes

Paul Willis, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Kampala, Uganda -- In the closing week of campaigning in Uganda's presidential elections last month, incumbent Yoweri Museveni held his final public rally at an airstrip on the outskirts of this capital city. The 62-year-old Ugandan ruler stood imperiously in his trademark broad-brimmed hat above a crowd of supporters chanting: "No change, no change!" The event seemed more like a victory celebration than an appeal for votes.
The suspicion that Museveni's victory was a foregone conclusion has grown since he was comfortably elected to a third term despite widespread accusations of fraud, intimidation and misuse of state funds. International election observers said Uganda lacked a level playing field for its first multiparty elections in more than two decades, while a spokesman for the main opposition, the Forum for Democratic Change, went further: "This election was as free and fair as it would have been under Saddam or Hitler."
The same story is being repeated across Africa as nations -- often in response to pressures from the West -- introduce democratic reforms that their leaders are then accused of manipulating to stay in power.
Christopher Albin-Lackey, an Africa specialist with Human Rights Watch, said, "These governments have become increasingly adept at using the trappings of Western democracy for repressive ends."
One exception to the continental strongmen may be Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was in Washington on Tuesday and met with President Bush in the Oval Office. He called Sirleaf a "pioneer."
"You're the first woman elected president to any country on the continent of Africa, and that requires courage and vision and the desire to improve the lives of your people," Bush said.
It's still too soon to know whether Sirleaf, who won election late last year, will be able to effect changes in the desperately poor country -- 206th in per capita income out of 208 countries on a 2004 World Bank list -- that would make democracy work. If she does, it will be a rare African success.
Political reformers and human rights groups said that across the continent, leaders are exploiting democratic processes to give their governments a veneer of respectability.
In Ethiopia, for example, May's elections were marred by accusations of vote-rigging by the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. In the months that followed, more than 100 people died in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators.
Zenawi, who like Museveni fought his way to power in a coup, has since used the state apparatus to quell dissent, putting on trial more than 80 alleged ringleaders -- including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists -- on charges ranging from treason to genocide.
In North Africa, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak allowed opposition candidates for the first time in September, rather than give voters only a yes-or-no ballot choice. But opposition leader Ayman Nour was arrested and sentenced to prison on charges that Egyptian democracy advocates contend were trumped up.
Albin-Lackey said rather than replacing state violence, in most cases so-called reforms were being used to complement and conceal brutality that was continuing unchecked.
Though abuses have not gone unnoticed in the West, they have largely gone unpunished in Uganda and elsewhere.
The arrest of Uganda opposition candidate Kizza Besigye after he returned from self-imposed exile at the end of last year led to two days of rioting in Kampala and a storm of criticism from foreign donors. Britain, one of Uganda's biggest donors, withdrew $27 million of aid in protest.
Museveni's government remained uncowed, and Besigye was charged with rape and treason, severely limiting his opportunities to campaign. After the election results were announced, a judge cleared Besigye of rape, dismissing the prosecution case as "crude and amateurish." But Besigye still faces treason charges in the high court, and the army is pursuing terrorism and weapons charges.
In Egypt last year, an international furor followed Nour's first arrest on charges of forging signatures on election documents, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delayed an official visit in protest. The government released him but did not dismiss the charges.
After Mubarak easily won the election, Nour, who got 7.6 percent of the vote, was rearrested on charges that included insulting the president. On Dec. 24, he was convicted and sentenced to five years hard labor.
Professor Aaron Mukwaya, a lecturer in international relations and security studies at Mekere University in Kampala, said Western governments are caught between a desire to promote democracy and maintain security in notoriously unstable regions.
"The main preoccupation of the West when dealing with Africa is stability," he said. "They don't want the whole continent descending into civil war, so they tolerate leaders who are not democratic but who offer peace."
While this pragmatic approach may have restored relative stability to countries once torn apart by infighting, he said, the abuse of the institutions of power would inevitably lead to disaster.
"Almost all state institutions in these countries are under the direct control of the ruling party. So, for example, during the last elections in Uganda, everything from state TV to the military was mobilized to ensure a Museveni win," Mukwaya said. "The problem comes when you have a change of regime. Then these institutions are left in tatters because they were never given the chance to develop independently. And then you are back to square one."
He said even institutions that had managed to maintain a degree of autonomy, such as the media and the judiciary, were punished if they stepped too far out of line.
After demonstrations in October, the Ethiopian government shut down all independent media in the country for more than two months.
In Kenya this month, heavily armed and masked police smashed into the offices of the country's second-largest media company after its criticism of the government over multimillion-dollar corruption scandals. About 3,000 Kenyans protested the raid in the capital.
"They will allow just enough freedoms to give everything the appearance of normality," Mukwaya said. "But if you overstep the mark, then you are in trouble."
Or as Kenya's Internal Security Minister John Michuki put it at a news conference after the police raids: "If you want to rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it."
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posted by Ethiounited Moderator at5:41 PM
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Ethiopia gripped by fear of regime

By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 21, 2006
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- A climate bordering on fear has taken hold of the Ethiopian capital as journalists, lawyers and politicians carefully measure their public remarks and contacts in the face of widespread arrests and prosecutions. "Oh, no, that would not be wise," said a law professor when asked if a reporter could observe a class where students were to discuss the ongoing trial of 131 opposition leaders, publishers, journalists and human rights activists. Despite boasting about the openness of debate in his class, the professor declined to give his name. The defendants face charges of attempted genocide, treason and "crimes committed against the constitution" -- which is punishable by death -- stemming largely from protests against elections last year. Tens of thousands more have been arrested on a variety of charges, according to Amnesty International, most of these stemming from violent political demonstrations in November. Advocates say it is impossible to know how many are still being held. Human Rights Watch offers anecdotal reports of farmers denied fertilizer and seed because of their political affiliations, nighttime sweeps by federal police and beatings at checkpoints. Most independent newspapers have been shut down. The few remaining news outlets carefully tailor their coverage to not run afoul of stringent government censorship. The longtime Associated Press correspondent was expelled last month. And visas are rarely issued to human rights advocates or investigators. In its annual human rights survey this month, the State Department reported a sharp increase in civil rights violations by the Ethiopian government during 2005. "We can say we've regressed since the May elections; there is no independent voice in Ethiopia right now," said Yoseph Badwaza, chief of the monitoring division of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, which lost three senior investigators when warrants were issued for their arrest. He said critics of the government are subject to intimidation, and many are arrested without charges, denied access to lawyers or contact with their families, and tried by judges who are "not independent." "This is a dictatorship in the guise of democracy," Mr. Badwaza said. "The recent crackdown is not the first of its kind, but we've never witnessed such widespread punishment and retribution." The turning point was the November general strike, called by frustrated members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), an opposition umbrella group. The CUD and other opposition parties had captured an unprecedented 220 seats in the 547-member Parliament, up from 12 seats previously, but felt cheated out of an absolute majority despite the finding of international observer groups that the election was generally fair.
Politicians advocated peaceful resistance, but protest demonstrations in June led to 36 deaths and another 46 were killed in the three days of protests in November, including seven policemen and soldiers. More than 100 were injured. In an interview with The Washington Times last month, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi defended the use of force, but said a government inquiry would release its findings, possibly in April. The Bush administration has carefully modulated its criticism of Addis Ababa, reluctant to alienate a strategically located country of more than 60 million people that is an avowed ally in the war on terrorism. That has frustrated some European diplomats and many Ethiopians, who had hoped for a more outspoken response. "The last year or so has been one of promise and disappointment," said a U.S. diplomat in Addis Ababa, acknowledging that the government "has been operating more or less as a one-party state." Mr. Meles came to power with the military defeat of Mengistu Haile Mariam's communist administration in 1991. His backing comes mainly from the Tigreans, an ethnic group in northern Ethiopia that allied itself with the Eritreans' decades-long struggle that ended with independence for Eritrea. The opposition is centered on the nation's Amhara ethnic group, who have traditionally ruled Ethiopia; they are supported in the south by the Oromos, long oppressed by successive Ethiopian regimes. Mr. Meles took office with promises to rebuild a shattered economy and transform the country into a model of democracy. His government has made strides, especially by the yardstick of eastern Africa: International observers gave the May elections high marks for the quality of open debate between the parties, and the apparent lack of coercion at the polls. But while the opposition parties have become a much larger bloc in the parliament, they say the rules of procedure have changed to make it harder for them to air their issues. Beyene Petros, chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces party, says the ruling party has silenced them with a rule change that requires 51 percent agreement to introduce any issue. "And when we do have a question period, they cut it off after maybe 15 minutes," he said in an interview. Politicians aligned with the CUD also say they cannot work effectively, with their offices shuttered and party leaders under arrest. Jailed CUD candidates include the mayor-elect of Addis Ababa, a former prosecutor in the U.N. tribunal for Rwanda and a former high court judge.
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posted by Ethiounited Moderator at10:46 PM
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