Lidetu and Temesgen to kill HR 5680

They travel to US
Lidetu Ayalew and Temsgen Zewde will travel to the United States next month. Parliamentary sources informed this blogger that the two will meet US lawmakers and tell them there is a democratic process in Ethiopia which should be supported by US. They will be tavelling as opposition politicians.
The trip is organized by the US embassy in Addis and its aim is to kill the Human Rights Bill, HR 5680. This blogger will post the exact date of the two will travel to the US. The HR 5680 task force and other freedom loving Ethiopians should be alert about the situation.

Source: Ethio-Zagol

Read more!

Defending their lives: On Trial in Ethiopia (Amnesty International)

Amnesty International
In June and November 2005, demonstrations that left over 80 people dead and hundreds wounded took place in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, and other towns across Ethiopia in response to alleged election fraud in the May 2005 elections.
Thousands of opposition party members, human rights defenders, journalists and others were arrested during and after the demonstrations. Many have been released, but now 111 people are on trial before the Federal High Court in Addis Ababa. Charges filed against them include "high treason", "outrages against the Constitution", and "genocide". If convicted, they could receive death sentences. This trial has major implications for human rights, media freedom, democratization and the development of an effective and independent justice system in Ethiopia. The accused include elected opposition members of parliament, journalists and human rights defenders, considered Prisoners of Conscience (POCs) by Amnesty International (AI). AI is urging the international community to increase their efforts to work for the release of these defendants.
Elections and demonstrations
The general elections on 15 May 2005 were the third that took place under the 1995 Constitution and the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, headed by Prime Minister Meles Zenwai, which has been in power since 1991. The coalition is headed by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The EPRDF overthrew the Marxist-Leninist government of President Mengistu Hailemariam (known first as the Dergue, or "committee", and which later formed the ruling Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE)) after a long armed conflict. Many are still being tried on capital charges of genocide for massive human rights abuses committed over a 17-year period by the Dergue and WPE governments after the revolution of 1974, which overthrew Emperor Haileselassie’s government.
In the run up to the 2005 elections, AI had expressed concern at reports of human rights violations against opposition members, particularly the Coaliation for Unity and Democracy (CUD), including several killings, arbitrary detentions, harassment and intimidation by local police and militias. The EPRDF and its affiliated parties faced stronger opposition in 2005 than in previous elections by national and regional opposition parties, mainly from two coalitions, the CUD and the United Ethiopian Front (UEDF). Several opposition parties claimed that their members faced considerable restrictions and human rights abuses, particularly in remote rural areas outside the gaze of the international community and the media, centred in Addis Ababa.
Immediately after the 15 May poll, the opposition alleged election fraud by the government and EPRDF. In response, Prime Minister Zenwai banned demonstrations and took control of the security forces in Addis Ababa. On 8 June, soldiers in Addis Ababa shot dead 42 people who were protesting at the alleged fraud. Thousands of suspected opposition party supporters were also detained in harsh conditions and some were badly beaten. After a few weeks, all had been released on bail after short court appearances (see UA 261/05, AFR 25/013/2005, 30 September 2005 and follow ups).
In early November, the main opposition CUD, whose 109 MPs were boycotting the new parliament after the removal of their parliamentary immunity, called for a series of non-violent protest actions and boycotts of ruling party businesses. On 1 November, 30 taxi drivers were arrested for honking their car horns during the protest action. The demonstrations reportedly started peacefully, but after riot police started using live ammunition to target protestors in the central Mercato and other districts, the protests deteriorated over the next two days into stone-throwing, building barricades and burning vehicles. Many people were reportedly beaten severely by soldiers and police with some 30 people reportedly shot dead, 150 people wounded and thousands of people arrested. Two police officers were also reportedly killed by the protestors (see UA 284/05, AFR 25/017/2005, 2 November 2005).
Many thousands of people are still believed to be detained incommunicado in camps, despite the release of 8,000 people without charge in November 2005. Arrests have continued into 2006. Schoolchildren, college students and teachers were among thousands of demonstrators detained, particularly in Addis Ababa and the Amhara and Oromia regions after demonstrations at the end of December (see UA 26/06, AFR 25/003/2006, 3 Feb 2006). The government-controlled parliament established an inquiry on 26 April 2006 to report within three months on the violence which surrounded June and November demonstrations, but the report has not yet been published.
The European Union Election Observation Mission expressed serious concerns about the fairness of the elections in both an interim report published in August 2005 and a final report published in March 2006. The final report concluded that "overall … the elections fell short of international principles for genuine democratic elections." Prime Minister Zenawi called the interim report "garbage" and has not so far responded to the final report. In January 2006, the British government cut off US$88 million equivalent budget support to Ethiopia due to concerns about governance and human rights issues arising from the elections.
Arrested and charged
After the demonstrations on 1 November 2005 , following the street protests and police shootings, with a stay-home strike in process and many businesses closed, suspected opposition supporters, human rights defenders and journalists of the private press began being systematically arrested by police and taken away to unknown destinations. A woman was reportedly shot dead at home when she complained about the police arresting her husband, a CUD activist (see AI press statement: AFR 25/019/2005). Several thousand suspected government opponents from CUD and other opposition parties were detained over the coming days. There were reports of ill-treatment and intimidation of defendents after arrest, and after several weeks in custody, most of the CUD leaders and journalists went on hunger strike until they felt that the international community had taken notice.
Over 80 defendants, which included ten newly-elected members of parliament and other officials of the opposition CUD party, appeared before the Federal High Court in Addis Ababa on 23 February when the trial formally opened. Charges filed against them included treason, "outrages against the Constitution", armed conspiracy, and attempted "genocide". The grounds advanced by the prosecution for the charge of '"genocide"' do not meet internationally-recognized definitions of genocide and AI has called this charge "absurd". A total of 111 people have now been charged and are facing trial.
Almost the entire leadership of the CUD party are on trial, including major elected officials of the capital Addis Ababa: Dr Berhanu Negga, Hailu Shawel (CUD President and All Ethiopia Unity Party leader and civil engineer) and Birtukan Mideska (f) (CUD vice-president, Rainbow leader and lawyer). The defendants also include human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers (including Yakob Hailemariam, former UN genocide prosecutor at the Rwanda tribunal and former UN Special Envoy in the Cameroon/Nigeria border dispute), academics, members-elect of the national parliament, and members-elect of the Addis Ababa city council.
In addition, six newspaper publishing companies are charged. Twenty-five defendants are being tried in absentia for "outrage against the constitution", including five journalists of original Ethiopian nationality who live in the United States and work for the Voice of America (VOA) radio station.
"These people are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely on account of their non-violent opinions and activities," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "It is unacceptable that they are now facing serious criminal charges that could lead to death sentences and possible execution. We demand their immediate and unconditional release and a halt to this attempt by the Ethiopian government to criminalize freedom of expression and prevent legitimate political and human rights activity."
The CUD leaders and journalists decided in advance of the opening of the trial on 2 May, to boycott the trial on the grounds that they believed that it would be fundamentally unfair and that the court was not independent. They claimed that they had been convicted in advance. The court entered "not guilty" pleas on their behalf.
The trial is being held in open court before a panel of three judges headed by a presiding judge. An EU trial observer, foreign diplomats and some local and foreign journalists have been attending the proceedings, and Amharic-English interpretation is being provided by the court.
If they are convicted, the defendants will have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court. If they are condemned to death, they will have the right to petition the the President, Girma Woldegiorgis, for clemency. According to the Constitution, the President may commute a death sentence, except if the accused has been sentenced for crimes against humanity.
Human rights defenders and journalists at risk
Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, aged 76, a retired geography professor at Addis Ababa University, founded the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), a non-governmental organization and the only human rights group officially registered in Ethiopia, in 1991. Prior to his arrest, he was in bed for three months suffering from severe leg and back pain requiring regular medical attention. He was allowed to have his own mattress in prison but his physiotherapist was not allowed to treat him. In detention, he manages to walk with a stick. In December 2005, Professor Mesfin was among several CUD members who went on a hunger strike for several weeks. He resumed his hunger strike on 8 February 2006 and is reported to be very weak.
Daniel Bekele, a human rights lawyer, is the policy and advocacy manager of the Ethiopian office of ActionAid, the international development agency. Netsanet Demissie, a human rights and environmental rights lawyer, is the founder and director of the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE) a local human rights NGO. Both men, as anti-poverty activists, had been closely involved in activities in Ethiopia in support of the Global Call for Action against Poverty (GCAP). They were not members of any political party, and it appears that they may have been arrested solely on account of their criticisms of the government in the course of their legitimate civil society activities. Kassahun Kebede is a chair of the Addis Ababa branch of the Ethiopia Teachers association (ETA), the oldest trade union in Ethiopia.
The charges against the journalists of independent and privately-owned newspapers are apparently based on published interviews with opposition leaders that criticized the government and ERPDF during the election process. The charges against them contradict both guarantees of media freedom contained in the Ethiopian Constitution and international standards. Journalist Serkalem Fasil, has reportedly just given birth whilst in detention and has complained of a lack of medical and pre-natal care during her detention. Since 1992, at least 300 journalists have been arrested and imprisoned in Ethiopia, although since 2003, international pressure has resulted in fewer arrests and trials of journalists.
All of the defendants, except those tried in abstenia, are held in Kaliti prison on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Cells are reportedly overcrowded, with some cells holding 30 prisoners and others holding up to 300. Sanitary and toilet facilities are inadequate, and during the night prisoners are locked into cold zinc-walled cells. Medical treatment is available when prisoners need to go to hospital, although treatment is often delayed. Written communications are not allowed, even to legal counsel, and reading materials are restricted. Consultations with legal representatives must usually be conducted in the presence of a police or security officer and must be carried out in Amharic, even if this is not the prisoner’s mother-tongue. There have also been some reports of beatings of prisoners.
Will the trial be fair?
AI has received reports that many judges have been dismissed in recent years, some allegedly on account of delivering judgments against the government. Defendant Birtukan Mideska, alleges that her own dismissal as a judge was a result of her delivering a judgement that was unfavourable to the government. Other judges have allegedly been promoted on delivering favourable judgements.
On 5 December 2005, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Ethiopia which included requests to release all those arbitrarily detained and to guarantee rights including fair trial, freedom of expression and political assembly. AI attended the 39th session of the Africa Commission in May 2006 and highlighted AI’s concerns and pressed for the implementation of this resolution. The European Union, concerned about the fairness of trial, has appointed an international trial observer, and AI delivered a statement outlining concerns to the European Parliament on 15 May 2006.
On 24 April 2006 Ethiopia’s main donor group, the Ambassadors’ Donors Group, which includes bilateral donors, the African Development Bank, the European Commission, the UN Development Programme and the World Bank, called for the release of the imprisoned CUD leaders and representatives of the media and civil society, saying that "All elected leaders should be given a chance to take part in the political reconciliation process".
Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Ethiopia in late April 2006. She is reported to have met with Ethiopian Government officials, including Prime Minister Zenawi, and visited local prisons. She reportedly expressed concern about the charges against the defendants, and she reportedly described the human rights situation in Ethiopia as "worrying".
The Government of Ethiopia sent a response to AI via the embassy in London condemning AI's report and campaign: "Amnesty has no grounds whatever(sic) for the position it took with regard to these individuals who are accused of very serious crimes, nor does it have any grounds to question the independence and integrity of the Ethiopian institutions."
Even so, AI will continue to urge the international community to increase their efforts to work for the release of these defendants and to mobilize AI's membership to campaign on behalf of them. AI has received messages of thanks from associates of the defendants for the report and Urgent Actions, which may continue throughout the trial.
For complete information about the defendants and the proceedings, please see AI's report, Ethiopia: Prisoners of Conscience on trial for treason: opposition party leaders, human rights defenders and journalists, AI Index: AFR 25/013/2005

Read more!

Long wait for thousands still stranded in Lebanon, Including Ethiopians

By David Clarke
BEIRUT (Reuters) - "One at a time, one at a time," screamed the guards at Sri Lanka's embassy in Beirut, shoving back crowds of people waving passports, desperate to get inside.
There are some 80,000 Sri Lankans working in Lebanon and thousands have descended on the small embassy a 20 minute drive from downtown Beirut, seeking help to flee Israel's bombs.
The mass evacuation of Western nationals is drawing to a close but tens of thousands of poor migrant workers are trapped in Lebanon. Some are frightened, some are simply homeless, having been deserted by their fleeing bosses.
The Sri Lankan community is the biggest and 98 percent work as maids for about $100 a month. There are some 30,000-40,000 Filipinos, up to 20,000 Ethiopians and 10,000 Bangladeshis.
Their embassies have limited resources and are being helped by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and aid group Karitas. They are aiming to put the evacuees on buses to Syria, and then onto planes home.
"I'm leaving because I'm too afraid and a I have a small, three-year-old son in Sri Lanka," said Ganegamage Malkanthi, 24, standing next to her Lebanese employer who was helping get her application to leave processed.
Inside the embassy the corridors are clogged and scores of Sri Lankans crowd the few rooms, hunkered down, leaning on suitcases, sleeping sprawled on the floor in the sticky heat.
Amanul Farouque, Sri Lanka's ambassador to Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, is coordinating the evacuation, working round the clock with his staff of eight, calmly fielding call after call on his mobile and pleading his case to those who can help.
STRANDED AND HOMELESS
He says 500 Sri Lankans slept at the embassy on Monday night and another 300 were housed in Karitas shelters in Beirut. Farouque is just about managing to keep them fed but says the embassy keeps running out of water.
"People are pouring into the embassy in their hundreds, their thousands ... and we have limited resources," he said. "We hope that in the next three, four, five days the situation will even itself out."
Vincent Houver, IOM's head of operations for Beirut emergency activities, said he hoped to move 900 Sri Lankans out through Syria by Saturday. About 2,000 are registered to leave and many more queued on Tuesday to add their names to the lists.
Houver said many of the 3,000 Filipinos waiting to go were simply left on the street when their employers packed up and fled, so getting them home was a priority.
"The Westerners left so people are asking why can't we leave? Then some in a community get out so others decide to go," he said. "It's a snowball effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Many Lebanese families depend on their Sri Lankan and Filipino staff to run their homes and look after their children.
Farouque worries some Sri Lankans are being prevented from leaving by employers keeping their passports. But he said the authorities were understanding, and if people turned up without their documents there was still a chance they could leave.
Nassif Freen, 36, a computer engineer in Beirut, was one of many Lebanese doing their utmost to help scared staff get out.
But one man at the embassy clearly had a different motive.
"Our girl left the house. So I came to the embassy to find her. I saw her, 10 metres away, but she ran away," said a Lebanese businessman who just called himself Said.
"I have her passport and her papers so I've come to see if she wants to leave -- or not. Why does she want to leave? She's happy," he said, as he pestered embassy officials, calling them "servants" under his breath.
Finally, one official reassured Said his maid needed her passport to leave Lebanon. So he headed home -- relieved.

Read more!

Ethiopian woman killed in Lebanon by Israel Bombs

Suzanne Goldenberg in Tibnin, Lebanon
Wednesday July 26, 2006
The Guardian

But he too left people behind. In the ruins of his home, hit by the Israeli forces on Monday night, lay the bodies of his two maids: one Ethiopian, one Sri Lankan. The women were asleep when Mr Baydoun's home was attacked.

It is their feet that tell their story. They are bloody, swollen and bandaged after carrying them over mountains and under rocket barrages as Israel's war against Hizbullah erased the lives behind them.
In their villages lay ancestral houses crushed by bombs, family heirlooms abandoned mid-flight, the elderly and the frail, and of course the dead, their bodies trapped beneath the rubble. All that belonged to the past now.
The awful present was here in Tibnin General Hospital, a modest facility even in ordinary times, whose doors yesterday opened on a vision of hell: as many as 1,600 desperate and terrified refugees caught up in Lebanon's deepening humanitarian crisis.
They were men, women, children and newborn babies, forced to abandon their homes as the frontline drew nearer, and stranded in this hospital for days. There was no running water or electricity, no doctors or medicines, little food and even less hope.
They had walked here over hills shuddering beneath Israeli air strikes. Some were barefoot. Others were shellshocked. Some barely managed to enter this world; five babies have been born prematurely at the hospital since the beginning of the war, the Lebanese Red Cross said.

The hundreds here are the most wretched of this war: too poor or unwilling to flee when the first waves of refugees washed up from south Lebanon. The only destination open for them was the darkness of this hospital cellar, barely relieved by a few flickering candles.

And they still aren't safe. Tibnin lies 7km from the town of Bent Jbail, a Hizbullah redoubt a couple kilometres north of the border that is now encircled by Israeli troops. Minutes after our arrival, two artillery shells slammed into the hillside below the hospital. A woman screamed: "Save us". A man yelled at the crowd to calm down, and then a surge of human flesh carried both of them inside. Another shell landed, and then two more.
The roads leading to Tibnin are scored with craters from Israeli air strikes, and in several of the neighbouring villages at least one house has been flattened by an Israeli bomb, carrying a tonnage capable of blowing out the shutters of shops several hundred metres away.
But it was nothing compared to what Kamal Mansour left behind. A farmer from the eastern village of Aaitaroun, which lies barely 2km from the Israeli border, he had been determined to stay in his home despite the increasing intensity of the air war.
But by yesterday morning he could take no more. "They hit us very aggressively," he said. "They didn't leave a single house standing, and there are still people there, buried under the rubble."
He gathered his children - nine of them - and began the trek to safety, carrying the smallest ones on his shoulders. There was no other way out. In this time of war, transport is at a premium: the fare to Tyre has risen to $100 (£54) per person, or $250 for a car. That was inconceivable for Mr Mansour. "We had no gas and no car. Whoever had a car and could leave had already left."
Hala Abu Olaya, a dental secretary from Bent Jbail who lived with her mother and two sisters, also had no car. As the war wore on, the women were forced to flee to four different houses in succession in the besieged town. None offered any real safety. "First they destroyed our house. We left with only the clothes on our back," she said. "We ran to one house, and the bomb fell in front of the door, so we had to escape that house too. Then we ran away to another house. But then that house got bombed."
By the time she arrived in Tibnin, Ms Abu Olaya had been wearing the same clothes for 14 days. Her mother and sisters were no longer with her. "I have nothing now," she said.
For Ali Hourani, a stonemason, also from Bent Jbail, flight offered the cruellest of choices: his ageing parents or his five children. At 82, his father, who has diabetes, was in no condition to flee, nor was his mother, who is 75.
"We spent 10 days under bombs, and it was as if we had died 100 deaths," he said. "No one cared about us. No one asked about us."
As Israeli forces moved deeper into the town, seizing houses on its outskirts, Mr Hourani arrived at his decision. Leaving his parents behind in their home, he took his children out over the hills. He also carried the guilt with him. "There are still a lot of people in the village," he said. "Please help us to get them. We are desperate to get them out. They are injured and old."
In Tibnin hospital, the circumstances are no less desperate. The only supply route is from the coastal town of Tyre via ambulances belonging to the Lebanese Red Cross. The volunteer medics estimate that they can bring in 500 packets of Arabic bread, and 100 cans of tinned fish per trip. It's just about enough for one meal a day.
It can't come too soon for Yusuf Baydoun, 78, who spent 2½ hours walking here over the hills in socks and plastic bath sandals.
"They were bombing all the time," he said. "It was very bad. I thought my heart was going to stop."
Mr Baydoun managed to bring out his wife and two daughters. But he too left people behind. In the ruins of his home, hit by the Israeli forces on Monday night, lay the bodies of his two maids: one Ethiopian, one Sri Lankan. The women were asleep when Mr Baydoun's home was attacked. "It is very sad," he said. "It was not their war."

Read more!

Muslims protest at Arat kilo, Addis Ababa

The federal police storm a place where muslims pray at Arat Kilo to demolish the place at 9:30 this morning and met a strong resistance. Eye witnesses said that more than hundred young muslims threw rocks on the federal police which responded by sealing roads and driving them out of the place.
Some non-muslims also joined the protest. Although the place wasn't a proper mosque, it was frequented by young muslims who attend prayers. The provisional city government declared that the place belonged to another owner.

Source: Ethio-Zagol

Read more!

the International Development Economics Associates in support of Dr. Berhanu Nega

This letter is officially emailed to the Minister and it is also sent by fax and post.

25 July 2006

The Minister of Justice
Mr. Assefa Kesito,
Ministry of Justice,
PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Fax: + 251 11 552 0874
Email: ministry-justice@telecom.net.et

Dear Minister,

We, the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), a network of progressive economists across the world engaged in research, teaching, and dissemination of critical analyses of economic policy and development, appeal to you to urgently provide adequate medical treatment for Dr Berhanu Nega, Professor of Economics of the Addis Ababa University, who is currently a prisoner at the Kaliti prison near Addis Ababa.
IDEAs is a non-profit research organisation led by economists based in several developing countries as well as developed countries. We are headquartered at New Delhi, India, with financial support from the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), the Ford Foundation and others. IDEAs has been formally associated with Dr. Berhanu Nega as a respected Ethiopian Economist and in his earlier capacity as the Director of the Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA), Addis Ababa.
We are all shocked and deeply concerned that Dr. Berhanu Nega’s health condition has deteriorated because he is reportedly not receiving adequate medical attention in the Kaliti prison, even when he is known to be suffering from the potentially life-threatening health conditions of high blood pressure and cardiomyopathy. As has been pointed out by Amnesty International, this is absolutely against regional and international standards for the treatment of prisoners, such as the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
We therefore urge you and appeal to you to take immediate action to provide adequate medical treatment for him and all the other prisoners in this trial, in accordance with regional and international standards for the treatment of prisoners. We call upon you to use your high offices to ensure that he is given access to a trained cardiologist immediately for a full assessment of his heart condition and medical treatment as needed; and that he is transferred to better conditions in Kaliti prison in accordance with the medical recommendations.

Sincerely,

1. Professor Pasuk Phongpaichit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (Chairperson, IDEAs Executive Committee)
2. Dr. Thandika Mkandawire, UNRISD, Geneva (Chairperson, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
3. Professor C. P. Chandrasekhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (Member, IDEAs Executive Committee)
4. Professor Erinc Yeldan, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey (Member, IDEAs Executive Committee)
5. Professor Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (Member, IDEAs Executive Committee)
6. Professor K. S. Jomo, Assistant Secretary General, United Nations, New York (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
7. Professor Samir Amin, Dakar, Senegal and Forum du Tiers Monde (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
8. Professor Maria da Conceicao Tavares, UFRJ, Brazil (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
9. Professor Kari Polanyi Levitt, Canada (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
10. Professor Diane Elson, University of Essex, United Kingdom (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
11. Professor Korkut Boratav, Ankara University, Turkey (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
12. Dr. Arturo O'Connell, Director of Central Bank of Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
13. Professor Prabhat Patnaik, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
14. Professor Dani Rodrik, Harvard University, USA (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
15. Professor Amartya Sen, Harvard University, USA (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
16. Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University, USA (Member, Advisory Board of IDEAs)
17. Mr. Anilkumar Mani, Administrative Manager, IDEAs Secretariat, C/O Economic Research Foundation, New Delhi.
18. Dr. Ranja Sengupta, Senior Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
19. Dr. Smitha Francis, Senior Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
20. Dr. Sukanya Bose, Senior Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
21. Ms. Shipra Nigam, Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
22. Mr. Anamitra Roychowdhury, Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
23. Mr. Shouvik Chakraborty, Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
24. Mr. Amitayu Sen Gupta, Economist, IDEAs Secretariat, New Delhi.
25. Dr. Murali Kallummal, Centre for WTO Studies, IIFT, New Delhi.
26. Prof. Madhura Swaminathan, Indian Institute of Statistics, Kolkatta.
27. Prof. V.K. Ramchandran, Indian Institute of Statistics, Kolkatta.

Read more!

Policemen fear being used for Meles Zenawi's misadventure

EPRDF is giving anti-terrorism training for more than a thousand federal policemen at Blate military training camp. Informants at the federal police confirmed to this blogger that 1400 members of the federal police are in the military camp for special training. The trainees were told about terrorism in East Africa and terrorism by anti-peace elements at home. According to other informants, there will be additional policemen, mostly from the Addis Ababa police force, who will be taken to Blate for same training. Some who fear a call up are already deserting the force.
The Ethiopian military is being stretched across the country's border as Meles Zenawi's illegitimate government it is in a problem with all its neighbors. Although the government is not reporting its misadventure to Somalia, People in Addis Ababa, who got news for VOA, have been seriously opposing the intervention of Ethiopian forces in Somalian domestic affairs. Members of the police force are anxious that they may be taken to warfront as a back up for the army.Thousands of members of the Addis Ababa police force are already undergoing through a very tough training regime at the Hurso military camp.

Source: Ethio-Zagol

Read more!

Al-Ahbash ("the Ethiopians")

The Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (Jami'at al-Mashari' al-Khayriya al-Islamiya), known as Al-Ahbash ("the Ethiopians"), almost 8,000 members: One of the most controversial and interesting of contemporary Islamic groups, due to its origins, its eclectic theological roots, and its teachings, which do not fit the conventional Islamist mold.21 The Ahbash is a Sufi (or spiritualist) movement that devoutly follows the teachings of Sheikh `Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Hirari ash-Shi'bi al-Abdari, also known as al-Habashi, a religious thinker of Ethiopian origins. It is spiritually Islamist but not politically. By the late 1980s, the Ahbash had become one of Lebanon's largest Islamic movements, having grown during the civil war from a few hundred members to its present size. The Ahbash did not create a militia of its own, nor did it engage in sectarian violence or fight Israel. Proselytizing and recruitment are its main aims, along with a commitment to moderation and political passivity.
The Ahbash became a key player in Lebanese politics by offering a moderate alternative to Islamism, attracting a wide following among the Sunni urban middle class by advocating pluralism and tolerance. Its ideology makes the Ahbash politically significant, including sharp controversies with Islamist movements. While Habashi pays allegiance to the pious ancestors (salaf) and the Shari'a, his emphasis on "the science of hadith" makes him suspect as being a follower of the Kalamiya (literalist) tradition of the Mu'tazila who stressed the superiority of reason over revelation. He rejects such Islamist authorities as Ibn Taymiya, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, and Sayyid Qutb. In contrast to Hizbullah and the Islamic Association, the Ahbash opposes the establishment of an Islamic state on the grounds that this divides Muslims. Instead, it accepts Lebanon's confessional system (which used to give Christians six slots for every five Muslim slots, and now gives them parity). Its foreign policy orientation is equally mild, making no reference to jihad and directing no anger toward the West. To achieve a civilized Islamic society, it recommends that members study Western learning. Also, the Ahbash has established branches in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, the Ukraine, and the United States (with headquarters in Philadelphia). It enjoys excellent relations with most Arab states, particularly Syria. In rivalry with the Islamic Association for dominance of the Sunni community, it entered the parliamentary elections of 1992 and won one seat in Beirut, though it lost it in 1996.

Source: http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/meria/journal/1997/issue3/jv1n3a2.html

Read more!

TPLF Runs Into Jihad

Ethiopians in Somalia may prove interesting. Recently, the UN undertook a program improve the quality of peacekeeping troops supplied by certain countries. Ethiopia was specifically cited as providing poorly trained and physically unfit personnel. Ethiopian peacekeepers often turned up for duty badly equipped and were rarely paid (with Ethiopian officials taking the UN payments). This led to poor morale and discipline, and resulted in some Ethiopian peacekeepers going into business for themselves. The troops going into Somalia may be of higher quality, but not a lot. That said, at least the Ethiopians are trained soldiers. The Somalis, even the best of them, are warriors. These lads are long on bravado and short on discipline. Back in 1994, when U.S. troops fought warlord forces in Mogadishu, over twenty Somali gunmen died for each U.S. soldier. In the past, Ethiopians have usually gotten the better of Somali troops, and did even better against Somali irregulars. That said, the Ethiopians are not invincible against Somalis, otherwise, Ethiopia would include the coastal areas that now comprise Somalia. But for centuries, the Arabs have actively assisted the Somalis in keeping the Ethiopians away. The coastal areas of East Africa have had an Arab flavor for thousands of years. That interference continues, with the Islamic Courts receiving weapons from Yemen, either directly, or via traders in Eritrea.

Source: http://www.strategypage.com

Read more!

There has been a black presence in Basra — present-day Southern Iraq

(AD 869–883), a black-slave revolt against the 'Abbasid caliphal empire. A number of Basran landowners had brought several thousand East African blacks (Zanj) into southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes east of Basra. The landowners subjected the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, to heavy slave labour and provided them with only minimal subsistence.
Past Imperfect: Black Iraq
Basra's more than the center of Iraq's oil industry; it's the center of a centuries-old history of African influence.
By William Jelani Cobb

Enter the words "black," "city" and "fuel" into the search engine of the American psyche and you'll conjure up the image of a Chevron station in Detroit. But add a historical element into the equation and you come up with Basra, Iraq. In the three-card hustle of American foreign policy, the port-city of Basra is the elusive Queen. (The other two bluff cards say "Saddam Hussein" and "War on Terrorism.") This week, Iraq's delegation to OPEC gleefully reported that 2.1 million barrels of crude oil were flowing from the Basra wells daily. The city's contemporary significance centers around its oil production; historically, though, the city was a commercial and governmental center that rivaled Baghdad for wealth and influence. It is also home to the little-discussed populations of black Iraqis.
The Zanj, who were primarily persons of East African descent, were to have a significant impact upon Iraqi history. Thirty years of black and Diaspora studies have shed light on the scale, intensity and impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade — the 400-year traffic of Africans between the continent, Europe and the colonies of the alleged new world. Less attention has been paid, though, to the millennium-long slave trade that scattered African slaves throughout present-day Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan and India. Emerging European capitalism and the labor requirements of cash crops like sugar, cotton and tobacco drove the Trans-Atlantic trade; the Trans-Saharan trade, which flourished from the eighth century AD through the 1840s, brought African labor to the hazardous enterprises of pearl diving, date farming and the raw, brutal work of clearing Iraqi salt marshes. African boys were commonly castrated to serve as eunuch guards of royal harems. Unlike those who were enslaved in the west, however, blacks enslaved in the Arabic-speaking world also served as guards, sailors and high-ranking soldiers. In the 19th century, Basra was one of the most profitable slave ports in the region, commonly offering slave traders as much as 50% returns upon their "investments."
As early as the 7th century, when Abu Bakra, an Ethiopian soldier who had been manumitted by the prophet Muhammad himself, settled in the city. His descendants became prominent members of Basran society. A century later, the writer Jahiz of Basra wrote an impassioned defense of black Africans — referred to in Arabic as the Zanj — against accusations of inferiority which had begun to take root even then. The Zanj, who were primarily persons of East African descent, were to have a significant impact upon Iraqi history. They had been traded from ports along the African coast (Zanzibar, which is derived from the term "Zanj," was a major slave exporting center during the era) to clear salt marshes. Laboring in miserable, humid conditions, the Zanj workers dug up layers of topsoil and dragged away tons of earth to plant labor-intensive crops like sugarcane on the less saline soil below. Fed scant portions of flour, semolina and dates, they were constantly in conflict with the Iraqi slave system. Between the 7th and 9th centuries, the Zanj staged three rebellions, the largest of which occurred between 868 and 883 AD.
Led by an Iraqi poet named Ali Ibn Muhammad, the Zanj uprising of 868 galvanized thousands of black slaves who laid siege to and eventually overran the city of Basra. In short order, black soldiers in the army of the ruling Abbasid emperors based in Baghdad began to desert and swelled the ranks of the rebellion. Similar to later rebellions that created liberated "maroon" communities throughout the new world, the 15-year conflict, known as "The Revolt of the Zanj," led to the establishment of an independent Zanj capital city, minting of currency and the decade-long control of Basra — one of the most important trade ports in the Abbasid empire. At their zenith, the Zanj armies marched upon Baghdad and got within 70 miles of the city.
The Zanj uprising was crushed in 883 by the Abbasids, but doing so required vast amounts of the empire's extensive resources. African slavery in Iraq continued to exist throughout both the Ottoman and British empires which incorporated the region into their holdings. In the mid-19th century, decades after the Trans-Atlantic trade had been (technically) outlawed, the Arab trade persisted. As historian Joseph Harris writes in his African Presence in Asia:From Kuwait, slave parties were dispatched in small groups on land and sea to Zubair and Basra, where brokers sold slaves in their homes. The surplus was marched along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to Baghdad.
British officials during the era noted how widespread slave ownership was among the Iraqi families.
The descendants of the Zanj exist in the region today in (often self-contained) communities with names like "Zanjiabad, Iran" that hint at the history of the peoples living there. The status of these black Iraqis is little discussed — though Iranians have written of persistent racism and stereotypes directed at the Zanj in their country. One can only wonder, though, what the addition of hundreds of oilmen will do for a black minority community living in Basra — because word-association for the terms "oil" "money" and "slavery" yields the following results: Texas; see also: Presidential Politics.

Source: http://www.assatashakur.org

Read more!

Ethiopian women: trafficked and trapped in Lebanon

You have to search hard and then read between the lines to find anything about the tens of thousands of African women - mostly Ethiopian - currently trapped in Lebanon in the midst of the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel's overwhelming and prolonged military assault. Just to interject a piece of traditional wisdom about this deadly turn in the "Mideast (read Palestinian) conflict": Two wrongs don't make a right. What I find just as sad as whole-scale cross-border fighting is that even before these missile and rocket attacks began these women already were trapped in a largely ignored humanitarian disaster - in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. What other African countries likely have citizens trapped in Lebanon's man-made tragedy? Somalia, Burundi, and probably even Nigeria. On Wed., 19 July from relative safety in a Beirut underground parking garage, BBC News showed the unidentified face of a lone displaced Ethiopian woman. She appeared to be 40ish and seemed to be wearing a blue maid's uniform. Obviously distressed, she stood against a cement pillar, covering her mouth with her hand. In that moment my impression was she seemed alone, even among the people - mostly Lebanese - also sheltering there and milling around her.
It was a few years ago while living in Nairobi, in east Africa, that I first learned that Ethiopian women were being trafficked to Lebanon, including for prostitution.
Blogher's own JaninSanFran's Happening Here blog has an entry on foreign workers trapped in Lebanon - "Foreign nationals under the Israeli gun". Jan's post includes the BBC's own chart showing numbers of other countries' nationals in Lebanon (attached below). Five of the six countries have populations traditionally, and not always accurately, identified as white or only slightly more vaguely "European". The same groups are euphemistically referred to as "westerners". The sole exception on the BBC list is the Philippines.
In spite of the obvious geography of the current crisis - i.e., the so-called Middle East adjoins Africa - for some reason there is far more awareness of the thousands of "guest workers" in Lebanon from Asia - Sri Lanka and Philippines in particular - yet next to nothing on persons from countries virtually next door to the west and south of Egypt. That would be Africa. In the midst of shelling and lack of electricity, food and water, and uneven evacuations by other countries of their nationals, virtually all these Africans and Asians remain stranded: unaided or somehow 'beyond the reach' of assistance by their own governments (or in Somalia's case transitional, interim government ).
Ethiopian writer Bathseba Belai corroborates the broader issues of trafficking as she writes about the "forgotten diaspora" of Ethiopian women labour migrants in the Middle East.
According to the U.S. State Department's 2005 Lebanon human rights report, from July 2004 the Lebanese government quit issuing visas to Ethiopian migrant workers. "... the SG [Lebanese police known as the "surete general"] stopped issuing visas to migrant workers from Ethiopia because Ethiopian authorities could not guarantee that adequate safeguards against fraud in the recruitment of these women for work in Lebanon were being taken."
State Department's Ethiopia human rights report for the same year goes into detail:

"... Young Ethiopian women were trafficked to Djibouti and the Middle East, particularly Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain for
involuntary domestic labor. A small percentage were trafficked for sexual exploitation to Europe via Lebanon.

How many women equal "a small percentage"?

"... Private entities arranged for overseas work and, as a result, traffickers
sent women to Middle Eastern countries--particularly Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates--as domestic or industrial workers. These
women typically were trafficked through Djibouti, Yemen, and Syria. The chief of
the investigation and detention center in Lebanon reported in October [2005]
that 30 thousand Ethiopian women worked in Beirut, the vast majority of whom
were trafficked. ... Approximately 50 percent of these women were not able to
return legally to their home country. ...

Source: http://blogher.org/blog/marian

Read more!

Ethiopians in Lebanon cry for help

Ethiomedia
July 23, 2006
In war-torn Lebanon, where there are an estimated 30,000 Ethiopians, many governments have taken nealy all of their respective citizens out of the country. But not Ethiopians. Chocking with tears of hopelessness, two Ethiopians called on their fellow compatriots around the world for help as they had neither the financial means nor a government like others to leave war-ravaged Lebanon behind for safety.
"We are in the most difficult situation ... we are abandoned as stateless vagrants...we don't know what has happened to the thousands of Ethiopian workers in southern Lebanon, the site of fierce fighting," a woman who gave her name as Martha told Addis Dimts Radio while chocking back sobs.
In Ethiopia, the story is, sadly, quite different.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the first batch of Ethiopians have arrived in Syria from Lebanon through an effort to rescue them from being victims of the ongoing crisis in the country [Lebanon]," the government reported in the July 20 edition of the state-owned Ethiopian Herald, adding, "Ethiopians who illegally stayed in Lebanon have also been evacuated to Syria after the government exempted punishment of 350 USD they should annually pay for illegally staying in the country."
Another woman told the online Debteraw that the story being told to the Ethiopian people was quite different. "Speaking on the phone from Addis, my mom asked me how come I was not coming home. She thought the government news was really true."
The Ethiopian woman said many of her compatriots were clustered in groups of 20 and 30 everywhere, not knowing how their fate would turn out. "Our problems - ranging from hunger with our children to the fear of being killed - are worsening by each passing hour. We call on all Ethiopians in North America and elseswhere around the world to do a life-saving campaign on behalf of us. "We are trapped in the death valley. Save us."
Commenting on the obscured life of Ethiopian women trapped in Lebanon's underworld, blogger Marian wrote: "On Wed., 19 July from relative safety in a Beirut underground parking garage, BBC News showed the unidentified face of a lone displaced Ethiopian woman. She appeared to be 40ish and seemed to be wearing a blue maid's uniform. Obviously distressed, she stood against a cement pillar, covering her mouth with her hand. In that moment my impression was she seemed alone, even among the people - mostly Lebanese - also sheltering there and milling around her."
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting Sunday in southern Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and Hezbollah rockets killed two civilians in northern Israel, AP reported July 23.
The stricken minibus was carrying 16 people fleeing the village of Tairi, heading through the mountains for the southern port city of Tyre. A missile hit the bus near the village of Yaatar, killing three and wounding the rest, security officials said.
On Saturday, the Israeli military told residents of Taire and 12 other nearby villages to evacuate by 4 p.m.

Read more!

Military intervention is dividing TPLF

Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1190
22/07/2006
The possibility of a military intervention to support its allies in Somalia is dividing the EPRDF. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF, governing coalition) is split over the idea of a military intervention in Somalia to support its allies of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The militia of the Islamist Courts Union (ICU) are preparing for military actions in the direction of Baidoa, the stronghold of the Somalian TFG and warlords who oppose the Islamists. The question of Ethiopian aid for the TFG forces is on the cards, but is dividing the Ethiopian authorities. According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newletter, the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, supported by Bereket Simeon, is considering a direct and decisive intervention against the Islamists. But the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Seyoum Mesfin, as well as Sebhat Nega and Abay Tsegaye advise him to take a more cautious approach.
There are similar divergences within the army, with the Army Chief of Staff Samora Yunis along with some Tigrayan generals in favour of a strong intervention in Somalia. On the other hand, other generals, whether Tigrayan, Oromo or Amhara, are opposed to such intervention. They are wary that it may be exploited by Eritrea as in this case the EPRDF forces would be divided on two fronts a long way from each other. According to sources in the Ethiopian opposition, several hundreds of combatants of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF, opposition), armed and supported by Eritrea, have already infiltrated these last few weeks via Djibouti into the Ethiopian region of Ogaden, in the hope that an Islamist victory in Mogadishu would favour the development of their own breakaway struggle in Ethiopia.
Another topic of discussion in the EPRDF leadership concerns the idea of changing the name and the manifesto of this coalition. Certain nostalgic people, such as Adissu Legesse, are strongly opposed to such a change. Meanwhile, the EPRDF is setting up a committee to celebrate the millennium (according to the Ethiopian calendar, the first day of the New Year 1999 will be on 11 September). Mulugeta Asrat Kassa, son of the late Asrat Kassa, was called to Addis Ababa from his home in London to be one of the executives of this committee. The EPRDF wants to still be in power when it celebrates the first day of the year 2000 (according to the Ethiopian calendar) and hopes that by that time the unrest in the opposition will have dissipated. Particularly as the big shots have not entirely cut off links with the radical opponents. Hence, the Norwegian authorities have passed a message to open negotiations on to the government in Addis Ababa, from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD).
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Girogis, currently undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia and whose mandate ends in October, could be replaced by the present Minister for Water Shifferaw Jarso.