Ethiounited

"ፍቅር ያሸንፋል" - በቴዲ አፍሮ Teddy's Afro New Single, "Love wins"

2010-08-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

ዋሽቶ ለመኖር (አቤት)አልችልም ከቶ
ታምኖ ይኖራል እንጂ ያለውን በልቶ:
ደልቶኝ የሞላ ኑሮ መኖር ባልጠላም
ገንዘብ ለማግኝት ብዬ አላጣም ስላም:
እኔ አላጣም ሰላም::

ይህ ዓለም ንዋይ ጭኖ ወርቁን በሙዳይ
ማርኮ ከረታት ነፍሴን ከሰጣት ጉዳይ:
ህሊና ሲያጣ ሰላም ወርቅ አልማዝ ሞልቶ
ሳይተኙ ማደር ሊሆን ከራስ ተጣልቶ::
ከእዚህ ሁሉ ቅጣት ይሻላል ማጣት
አስኮንኛት ነፍሴን አልሞላም ኪሴን::

ነፍሴ- እጅ እንዳትሰጪው ለኪሴ
ታጣይኛለሽ ከእራሴ::
ስላሜ እረፍት ያለብሽ በጌታ
ታምነሽ አኑሪኝ ከጌታ::

(አንገት ከሚሰበር
ባይበላስ ቢቀር::
ያሉት ከሚጠፋ
የወለዱት ይጥፋ::
ይሉኝታ ከማጣ
ዛሬ ገንዘብ ልጣ::
አስገምቼው ራሴን
አልሞላውም ኪሴን)2
(አልሞላውም ኪሴን)2
(ባዶ ላርገው ኪሴን)2
አልሞላውም ኪሴን) - ባዶ

ዋሽቶ ለመኖር (አቤት) አልችልም ከቶ
ታምኖ ይኖራል እንጂ ያለውን በልቶ
ደልቶኝ የሞላ ኑሮ መኖር ባልጠላም
ይሄን ለማግኘት ብዬ አላጣም ስላም
እኔ (አላጣም ሰላም)2::

የዓመል ነው እንጂ ደሀ የገንዘብ የለም
ሰው ባይኖር እይዋት ራሷ ባዶ ናት ዓለም
ገንዘብ ብቻ ነው ያለ የእዚህ ዓለም ደስታ
ዳግም ይሸጣል ስምዖን ቢመለስ ጌታ::
ለሰላሣ ዲናር
ሊያጣ ነፍስ ይማር
አስኮንኛት ነፍሴን
አልሞላም ኪሴን
ነፍሴ... እጅ እንዳትሰጪው ለኪሴ
ታጣይኛለሽ ከእራሴ
ሰላሜ እረፍት ያለብሽ በጌታ
ታምነሽ አኑሪኝ ከጌታ

(አንገት ከሚሰበር
ባይበላስ ቢቀር::
ያሉት ከሚጠፋ
የወለዱት ይጥፋ::
ይሉኝታ ከማጣ
ዛሬ ገንዘብ ልጣ::
አስገምቼው ራሴን
አልሞላውም ኪሴን::)2

(አልሞላውም ኪሴን::)2
(ባዶ ላርገው ኪሴን)2
(አልሞላውም ኪሴን::)2

Policy Adrift As Administration Sides With Africa's Enemies--The Corrupt Leaders

2010-07-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

Black Star editorial calls upon Obama Administration not to screw Africa and to redeem Africa policy

There comes a moment in a lifetime when one has an opportunity to break with the bad old ways in order to open a great new future.
That moment is still at hand for President Barack Obama with respect to U.S. relations with the African continent. His decisions could free millions of Africans from bondage -- the one imposed for decades now by African dictators often with Western collusion-- save millions of lives in avoided bloodshed, and help unleash the great reservoir wherein Africa's vast potential has been condemned.
President Obama started that journey last August in Accra, Ghana. He vowed he would help Africans discard the bad old ways. Yet today, the U.S. seems fully vested in that terrible type of past relationship with African countries--assisting and abetting genocidal regimes.
Rather than becoming a friend of Africans --the millions of ordinary Africans who yearn for democracy-- the U.S. is again acting like an enemy of Africa by embracing tyrannical regimes.
In Accra last August, Obama had said gone were the days of the African strongman. Yes, Africa's growth was stunted and there had never been a tradition of democratic governance due to colonial rule, Obama noted. True as these historical injustices had been, African countries could no longer use them as excuses, he added.
Not because they were not legitimate grievances; but because the world's compassion had dissipated and the approach would yield no fruits.
Now, Africans had to seize the day--the new generation of Africans; the young; the women; the entrepreneurs; the scientists; and, in other words, the next generation-- in order to create a new destiny.
The Big Men had had their days.
In a globalized economy, with investment choices, who --apart from the corrupt Western multi nationals that finance genocide in Congo, via Rwanda and Uganda-- would want to sink funds in environments dominated by corruption and embezzlement?
The true Africa --the Africa which remains merely "potential" -- could only be unleashed through regular and established transfer of political power; transparency; the rule of law; and, accountability. An American president was finally inviting the African continent to join the global community.
African countries --and the leadership-- would no longer be evaluated based on a lower standard. It was the end of paternalism and an end to coddling dictators who served U.S. interests while brutalizing their African countrywomen and men while spiriting billions of dollars of embezzled funds abroad.
And all of Africa --except the dictators and their acolytes-- welcomed President Obama's Accra, Ghana speech.
But the speech remains rosy words in the sky.
President Obama has the choice of either doing the right thing, or pulling another Bill Clinton on Africa. The former U.S. President, instead of conditioning U.S. financial and military assistance to African countries based on, to what extent the leadership embraced democratization and the rule of law, simply created,
out of thin air, "a new breed of African leaders."
Clinton knew the leaders --Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, and Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia-- represented the anti-thesis of democratization and the rule of law. Yet, Clinton simply coined a phrase that the imbecilic corporate media embraced and suddenly all was good.
Millions lost African lives later, these bad old leaders still run the show in these African countries, with U.S. financial and military assistance. Rwanda is on the verge of holding a bogus presidential "election" with the opposition political parties' leaders either exiled, under house arrest, or six feet under: And it seems that the U.S. is preparing to recognize the outcome of the "election."
This is abominable and harkens to the days when here in the United States, elections used to be held in the Southern States while Black voters were either barred from voting, being lynched, being "disappeared," or showered with water cannons.
Ethiopia has already held its sham elections that have been recognized by the United States. The Ethiopian regime has sold itself as a frontline state against expansion of Islamism in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia's army was permitted to commit war crimes in Somalia during its U.S.-backed occupation.
Zenawi has a blank check -- business as usual.
In Uganda a genocidal dictator, General Museveni, who also happens to be a racist -- he once told The Atlantic Monthly Magazine that Black people who were captured into slavery were "stupid" -- has similarly prostituted his country's army to serve as policeman on behalf of the United States, in Somalia. Notwithstanding the fact that the same Uganda army had been found liable by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2005 for what amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The court awarded Congo $10 billion in compensation, of which a dime has yet to be paid.
So, an army that had committed terrorism in Congo was sent to keep the peace in Somalia? Even by the contemptuous double standards reserved only for Africa this was exceedingly obnoxious. No wonder most African countries refused to join this charade which has been disguised as an "African Union" force.
Now, lo and behold, Uganda's soldiers in Somalia are reportedly indiscriminately shelling civilian areas in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Also look for General Museveni to use the recent terrorist bombings in Kampala, reportedly by al-Shabab, the Somali militants, as justification as he crushes domestic pressure from pro-democracy forces heading into the presidential election of 2011.
The United States once again --in its narrow quest to satisfy strictly U.S. interests-- is on the wrong side of history in Africa.
It's true that President Obama inherited the U.S. Africa policy --hypocrisy: aiding and abetting genocidal dictators while calling them "allies"-- from George W. Bush, who in turn inherited the policy from Bill Clinton.
But this is now Obama time.
The African continent -- victimized and brutalized by foreign powers and never allowed to fulfill its own destiny for centuries-- deserves better. What better way than to start this transformation under the watch of a leader who traces his lineage directly to central Africa.
So, will President Obama deliver on his own Accra Speech or will be pull another Bill Clinton against Africa?
President Obama still has time to answer this question.

"Speaking Truth To Empower."

Michael O'Leary reveals Ryanair may have owned Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed, killing 90 people

2010-01-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

The Boeing 737-800 jet - which was eight years old - had its last routine maintenance on December, 25, last year, according to Ethiopian Airlines

The Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed off Lebanon was used by Ryanair until last April, its chief executive Michael O'Leary revealed yesterday.
He said the budget airline had sold the Boeing 737 - serial number 29935 - in April last year and it had previously been used on a number of its European routes.
The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that the aircraft was a former Ryanair plane that had logged 17,750 flight hours in its seven years of service.
And planespotters came forward to say they had photographed the jet at British airports between 2002 and last year.
Mr O'Leary denied any liability in the accident, which saw 90 passengers killed, including Britons Afif Krisht, a 57-year-old businessman from Plymouth, and Kevin Grainger, 24.
'What happened we don't know,' he said.
'It's a bit like selling your car and 11 months later the person driving it has a crash. It had nothing to do with us.'
The accident happened on Monday after the plane had taken off from Beirut bound for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Witnesses described seeing the plane crash into the sea and explode in a 'ball of fire'. Investigators said it had left the airport on the wrong route and flown straight into a storm.
It comes as Lebanon’s transport minister revealed the pilot on board the flight went in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the Beirut control tower.
Ghazi Aridi said he was told ‘to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar’ after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.
All 90 people on board are feared dead - with so far 34 bodies pulled from the sea - after the plane went down in flames around at 2.30am during a night of lightning and thunderstorms.
Lebanese officials have ruled out terrorism or ‘sabotage’. The plane was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Searchers are trying to locate the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are key to determining the cause of the crash.
Today, rescue teams and equipment sent from the U.N. and countries including the U.S. and Cyprus are helping in the search.
Pieces of the plane and other debris have been washing ashore, and emergency crews have pulled a large, one-metre-long piece of the plane from the water.

An aviation analyst familiar with the investigation said Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first three minutes of its flight.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said this was standard procedure by Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.
It is unclear exactly what happened in the last two minutes of flight, the official added.
Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer, said there were many possible causes for the crash.
‘Had the plane encountered extreme turbulence, or had it suffered a powerful lightning strike that knocked out instruments while penetrating strong turbulence, then structural failure or loss of control, followed by an in-flight breakup, are possible causes,’ he said.
Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday that the pilot had more than 20 years of experience.
It did not give the pilot's name or details of other aircraft the pilot had flown.
Ethiopian Airlines says the eight-year-old plane was leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group and had its last routine maintenance on December, 25 last year.
It said the jet, a recent version of Boeing's best-selling model, left the U.S. factory in 2002.

An explosion in the sky – and Beirut's worst fears came true

2010-01-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

Concerns about safety of planes taking off in storms confirmed by crash that killed 90 passengers and crew
By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent

All weekend, it had been storming across Beirut, bringing the first snows to the mountains above the capital, a near tempest of lightning and thunder that blasted across the seafront Corniche and the runways of the city's international airport. The Lebanese often wondered just how safe it was to fly out of their country in these winter storms. And in the early hours of yesterday morning, their fears were given terrible expression when Ethiopian Airlines flight ET409 exploded in the sky scarcely two miles from Beirut, less that five minutes after take-off.
All day, while Lebanese army helicopters and European naval ships under the UN's command searched for bodies in the high seas, the pitiful detritus of the disaster – a baby's sandals, baggage, medicine bottles, airline seats and wires – were thrown up by the tremendous waves on Naameh beach, in sight of the airport from which the Boeing 737-800 jet had taken off.
There had been 90 passengers and crew aboard and by yesterday afternoon, there was no hope of finding any alive. Many saw the explosion that burst in the cloudy skies at 2.30am, a scar of sudden bright light on the horizon two miles out to sea. Within hours, Beirut airport became the inevitable scene of human desolation, one woman shrieking with grief in the terminal. Should the plane have taken off in such dreadful weather? And was this the fault of the flight deck crew, or of Beirut operations which had given the pilot clearance to take off?
In a world where suspicions of sabotage accompany any aircraft crash - in the "old world" pre-al Qa'ida days, a crash was assumed to be caused by technical faults or human error unless there was evidence to the contrary – it has to be said that there was no reason to suspect a criminal hand behind the tragedy. The Lebanese president, Michel Sleiman, said as much yesterday morning. There is a large expatriate community of Ethiopian workers in Beirut and, despite its repeated wars, Lebanon has had no political contact with African conflicts.
Of the 34 bodies – two of them children – recovered from the sea last night, many are so dismembered that they will need DNA examinations to be identified. There were two Britons among the 83 passengers, along with 54 Lebanese and 22 Ethiopians. The passenger manifest also included Canadians, French – including Marla Pieton the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish nationals. From their relatives at the airport came awful tales; of the mother who pleaded with her son to delay travelling because of the weather, of parents who could not understand why a plane should take off into a thunderstorm in the middle of the night over a raging sea.
But taking off from Beirut in bad weather has always been an unsettling experience. The location of the airport, just south of the city, means that outbound airliners must fly out to sea immediately after leaving the ground. If they continued south, they would quickly be heading for the Israeli frontier. The usual take-off runway forces pilots to bank heavily to starboard and passengers can sea the ocean immediately below the right wing of the plane. In bad weather – and I write as a veteran Beirut airline passenger – the sight of massive waves and sea-spray under the starboard wing-tip is usually a little terrifying. It normally takes more than 10 minutes to rise above the turbulence and flight ET409 exploded when it was still in cloud, just five minutes after leaving the ground. Beirut has a first-class record in on-time takeoffs; the question must be asked if controllers allowed this to overcome any doubts about the weather. But planes had been taking off into the same storm and lightning for more than 12 hours before the disaster. Yesterday, the Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, paid a painful visit to the airport to meet distraught relatives, some of whom would not accept that the jet had been lost.
The last crash at Beirut airport was more than 20 years ago when a Polish freight aircraft crashed in the hills to the south-east.
During the 1975-90 civil war, a Hungarian Malev airliner was accidentally hit by a stray shell while coming in to land. All aboard were killed. Shortly afterwards, a Lebanese MEA Boeing 707 exploded over Saudi Arabia when a bomb – put aboard, probably by a Palestinian group and timed to blow up when the flight had reached its destination – exploded prematurely.

2009 Human Rights Watch Report on Ethiopia

2010-01-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Ethiopia is on a deteriorating human rights trajectory as parliamentary elections approach in 2010. These will be the first national elections since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in the deaths of at least 200 protesters, many of them victims of excessive use of force by the police. Broad patterns of government repression have prevented the emergence of organized opposition in most of the country. In December 2008 the government re-imprisoned opposition leader Birtukan Midekssa for life after she made remarks that allegedly violated the terms of an earlier pardon.
In 2009 the government passed two pieces of legislation that codify some of the worst aspects of the slide towards deeper repression and political intolerance. A civil society law passed in January is one of the most restrictive of its kind, and its provisions will make most independent human rights work impossible. A new counterterrorism law passed in July permits the government and security forces to prosecute political protesters and non-violent expressions of dissent as acts of terrorism.
Political Repression and the 2010 Elections
As Ethiopia heads toward nationwide elections, the government continues to clamp down on the already limited space for dissent or independent political activity. Ordinary citizens who criticize government policies or officials frequently face arrest on trumped-up accusations of belonging to illegal "anti-peace" groups, including armed opposition movements. Officials sometimes bring criminal cases in a manner that appears to selectively target government critics, as when in June 2009 prominent human rights activist Abebe Worke was charged with illegal importation of radio equipment and ultimately fled the country. In the countryside government-supplied (and donor-funded) agricultural assistance and other resources are often used as leverage to punish and prevent dissent, or to compel individuals into joining the ruling party.
The opposition is in disarray, but the government has shown little willingness to tolerate potential challengers. In December 2008 the security forces re-arrested Birtukan Midekssa, leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, which had begun to build a grassroots following in the capital. The government announced that Birtukan would be jailed for life because she had made public remarks that violated the terms of an earlier pardon for alleged acts of treason surrounding the 2005 elections. The authorities stated that there was no need for a trial as the move was a mere legal technicality.
In July the Ethiopian government passed a new anti-terrorism law. The law provides broad powers to the police, and harsh criminal penalties can be applied to political protesters and others who engage in acts of nonviolent political dissent. Some of its provisions appear tailored less toward addressing terrorism and more toward allowing for a heavy-handed response to mass public unrest, like that which followed Ethiopia's 2005 elections.
Civil Society Activism and Media Freedom
The space for independent civil society activity in Ethiopia, already extremely narrow, shrank dramatically in 2009. In January the government passed a new civil society law whose provisions are among the most restrictive of any comparable law anywhere in the world. The law makes any work that touches on human rights or governance issues illegal if carried out by foreign non-governmental organizations, and labels any Ethiopian organization that receives more than 10 percent of its funding from sources outside of Ethiopia as "foreign." The law makes most independent human rights work virtually impossible, and human rights work deemed illegal under the law is punishable as a criminal offense.
Ethiopia passed a new media law in 2008 that improved upon several repressive aspects of the previous legal regime. The space for independent media activity in Ethiopia remains severely constrained, however. In August two journalists were jailed on charges derived partly from Ethiopia's old, and now defunct, press proclamation. Ethiopia's new anti-terror law contains provisions that will impact the media by making journalists and editors potential accomplices in acts of terrorism if they publish statements seen as encouraging or supporting terrorist acts, or even, simply, political protest.
Pretrial Detention and Torture
The Ethiopian government continues its longstanding practice of using lengthy periods of pretrial and pre-charge detention to punish critics and opposition activists, even where no criminal charges are ultimately pursued. Numerous prominent ethnic Oromo Ethiopians have been detained in recent years on charges of providing support to the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); in almost none of these cases have charges been pursued, but the accused, including opposition activists, have remained in detention for long periods. Canadian national Bashir Makhtal was convicted on charges of supporting the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in July, after a trial that was widely criticized as unfair; he was in detention for two-and-a-half years before his sentence was handed down, and he was unable to access legal counsel and consular representatives for much of that period.
Not only are periods of pretrial detention punitively long, but detainees and convicted prisoners alike face torture and other ill-treatment. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented consistent patterns of torture in police and military custody for many years. The Ethiopian government regularly responds that these abuses do not exist, but even the government's own Human Rights Commission acknowledged in its 2009 annual report that torture and other abuses had taken place in several detention facilities, including in Ambo and Nekemte.
Impunity for Military Abuses
The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) has committed serious abuses, in some cases amounting to war crimes or crimes against humanity, in several different conflicts in recent years. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any meaningful efforts to hold the officers or government officials most responsible for those abuses to account. The only government response to crimes against humanity and other serious abuses committed by the military during a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in Gambella in late 2003 and 2004 was an inquiry that prosecuted a handful of junior personnel for deliberate and widespread patterns of abuse. No one has been investigated or held to account for war crimes and other widespread violations of the laws of war during Ethiopia's bloody military intervention in neighboring Somalia from 2006 to 2008.
In August 2008 the Ethiopian government did purport to launch an inquiry into allegations of serious crimes in Somali Regional State, where the armed forces have been fighting a campaign against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front for many years. The inquiry was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lacked independence, and concluded that no serious abuses took place. To date the government continues to restrict access of independent investigators into the area.
Relations in the Horn of Africa
In August the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission issued its final rulings on monetary damages stemming from the bloody 1998-2000 border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nonetheless the two countries remain locked in an intractable dispute about the demarcation of the heavily militarized frontier. Eritrea continues to play a destabilizing role throughout the Horn of Africa through its efforts to undermine and attack the government of Ethiopia wherever possible. The government of President Isayas Afewerki hosts and materially supports fighters from Ethiopian rebel movements, including the Oromo Liberation Front. Eritrea has also pursued a policy of supporting armed opposition groups in Somalia as a way of undermining Ethiopia's support for the country's weak Transitional Federal Government.
Key International Actors
Ethiopia is one of the most aid-dependant countries in the world and received more than US$2 billion in 2009, but its major donors have been unwilling to confront the government over its worsening human rights record. Even as the country slides deeper into repression, the Ethiopian government uses development aid funding as leverage against the donors who provide it-many donors fear that the government would discontinue or scale back their aid programs should they speak out on human rights concerns. This trend is perhaps best exemplified by the United Kingdom, whose government has consistently chosen to remain silent in order to protect its annual £130 million worth of bilateral aid and development programs.
Donors are also fearful of jeopardizing access for humanitarian organizations to respond to the drought and worsening food crisis. Millions of Ethiopians depend on food aid, and the government has sought to minimize the scale of the crisis and restrict access for independent surveys and response.
While Ethiopia's government puts in place measures to control the elections in 2010, many donors have ignored the larger trends and focused instead on negotiating with the government to allow them to send election observers.
A significant shift in donor policy toward Ethiopia would likely have to be led by the US government, Ethiopia's largest donor and most important political ally on the world stage. But President Barack Obama's administration has yet to depart from the policies of the Bush administration, which consistently refused to speak out against abuses in Ethiopia. While the reasons may be different-the current government is not as narrowly focused on security cooperation with Ethiopia as was the Bush administration- thus far the practical results have been the same. The events described above attracted little public protest from the US government in 2009.

Obama Follows Reagan-era Blueprint After Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

By Alexander Poster
Alexander Poster is Smith-Richardson Fellow at Yale and a graduate student at The Ohio State University. He will defend a dissertation on the history of disaster relief entitled “A Hierarchy of Survival: The United States and the Negotiation of International Disaster Relief” in 2010.
In response to the Haitian earthquake, one of the costliest natural disasters ever to strike the Caribbean, President Obama took immediate action. After promising an initial commitment of $100 million to earthquake relief, the President insisted that further U.S. action in Haiti would be necessary, stating “this investment will grow over the coming year”. Not surprisingly, right-wing pundit Rush Limbaugh voiced his disapproval of the President’s decision. “We've already donated to Haiti, it's called the U.S. income tax," grumbled Limbaugh, creating a firestorm of controversy that he most certainly welcomed.
While Mr. Limbaugh was likely aware of the inflammatory nature of his comments, he may not have known that the framework of American humanitarian relief policy was put in place by a man he frequently cites and admires– former President Ronald Reagan.
Faced with an ambitious slate of Cold War objectives, a war-weary American public skeptical of military intervention, and a flagging U.S. economy, Reagan officials turned to disaster relief in the early 1980s, not just as a humanitarian afterthought, but as part of a foreign policy strategy that pursued political and developmental goals. Beginning in 1984 with the Ethiopian famine, the Reagan administration made a major financial commitment to disaster relief, investing over $500 million as part of a plan that would both feed starving children and weaken Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam’s socialist regime. Since the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance had few people on the ground in Ethiopia and President Reagan was dubious about giving money directly to Mengistu, most of the $500 million was distributed in the form of grants to private aid agencies, such as the Red Cross. Reagan officials were thus able to exercise some degree of leverage in Ethiopia, albeit indirectly. Viewing their humanitarian and political objectives as interconnected, they temporarily discouraged Mengistu from resettling peasants onto collective farms.
The response to the Ethiopian famine comprised Washington’s first hundred-million dollar commitment to a foreign natural disaster, establishing a precedent that is still followed today. In 1986, Reagan officials provided El Salvador with $300 million in the months following an earthquake that threatened political and economic stability in the war-torn Central American nation. Not only did the funds provide President Jose Napoleon Duarte with money to stave off communist challenges (leftist guerrillas started providing Salvadorans with food and fresh water hours after the tremor), Washington’s response to the earthquake allowed Reagan officials a role in the reconstruction of San Salvador, lowering trade barriers and opening up channels for investment from American businesses. The recipients of American reconstruction grants included both aid agencies and private firms. Disaster relief not only represented an important plank in President Reagan’s Cold War strategy, it also served as a means to dictate neoliberal terms of development in catastrophe-stricken countries.
Both Democratic and Republican presidents followed Reagan’s blueprint. During the early 1990s, the Clinton administration funded humanitarian missions in Haiti, using feeding campaigns to weaken support for Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras, whose coup overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, The Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance was one of the few bureaucracies whose funding was not cut by conservative lawmakers. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Bush officials spent $800 million, committing themselves to reconstructing communities in Indonesia. The Agency for International Development’s website boasts of reviving markets, pressing for women’s rights in Indonesian Islamic courts, and promoting democratic local elections. Although the Cold War had ended, the use of humanitarian policy to fulfill political and developmental objectives continued.
President Obama’s commitment to the rebuilding of Haiti thus fits into a larger pattern of American humanitarian policy established during the 1980s. The President’s actions are neither surprising nor partisan. In this instance, Mr. Limbaugh, an avowed conservative, may have been (albeit unwittingly) the voice advocating change.

2009 Person of the Year (video)

2009-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Minister won't return home

2009-07-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's state minister for communication affairs has refused to return home from the United Sates after an official visit, a top government official said on Wednesday.
Ermias Legesse was issued with an 11-day visa and left for the US in the second week of June, but has not returned.
"He didn't report back, but there is nothing political in that," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"He has chosen to stay there. It seems he has dreamt about going to the US," he added. "Sometimes strange things happen."
Ermias, who is in his thirties, was appointed to the position earlier this year.
The US embassy in Addis Ababa declined to comment on the matter, but a diplomatic source said Ermias "has not been reachable for several days".
- SAPA

HRW: Proposed TPLF's Counterterrorism Legislation Violates Human Rights

2009-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2009
(Nairobi) - Ethiopia's draft counterterrorism law could punish political speech and peaceful protest as terrorist acts and encourage unfair trials if enacted, Human Rights Watch said today. The government and members of parliament should amend the draft law, which may otherwise be imminently passed as-is by parliament, to meet international human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch's detailed analysis of the draft Anti-Terrorism Proclamation concludes that the bill violates fundamental freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly, and strips defendants of important due-process protections. As drafted, the law could provide a new and potent tool for suppressing political opposition and independent criticism of government policy, Human Rights Watch said.
"Ethiopia may well need a fair and effective law to combat terrorism, but this is not it," said Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director at Human Rights Watch. "As drafted, this law could encourage serious abuses against political protesters and provide legal cover for repression of free speech and due-process rights."
The measure ignores well-established standards embedded in both international law and Ethiopia's own law, Human Rights Watch said.
The draft law's overly broad definition of terrorist acts could be used to prosecute peaceful political protesters and would in some circumstances impose lengthy prison terms and even the death penalty as a punishment for damaging property or disrupting public services.
Even those who merely express support for a peaceful political protest could be deemed terrorists under the law, as well as any member of the group who engaged in the protest. The law would even eliminate protections against the use of confessions obtained after torture.
Among the draft counterterrorism law's most worrying provisions are:

The definition of terrorist acts, which could be used to prosecute a very wide range of conduct - far beyond the limits of what can reasonably be considered terrorist activity. Besides violent acts and kidnapping, an act that "causes serious damage to property" or "disruption or interference of a public service" may be deemed terrorist under the law if carried out for a specified purpose. This definition is so broad that a nonviolent political protest that disrupts traffic might be labeled a "terrorist act." As the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism has explained, the concept of terrorism should be limited to acts committed with the intention of causing death or serious bodily injury, or the taking of hostages, and not property crimes.
The expansion of police powers to search, arrest, and restrict movement of individuals and destroy property without judicial oversight, in many cases based solely on the belief that terrorist activity "will be" committed. The law also provides for "terrorist suspects" to be held for up to four months without charge.
The approval of using hearsay or "indirect evidences" in court without any limitation. Official intelligence reports would also be admissible, even if they do not disclose their source or how their information was gathered. By making intelligence reports admissible in this way, the law effectively would allow evidence obtained under torture - if defense counsel could not ascertain the methods by which intelligence was collected, they would not be able to show that it was collected in an abusive way.
The criminalization of speech "encouraging," "advancing," or "in support" of terrorist acts even if the speech is not directly inciting acts of terrorism. The law would even criminalize providing "moral support" to someone who is alleged to have engaged in a terrorist act. Coupled with the extremely broad definition of terrorist acts, this could result in a conviction for encouraging or giving moral support to participants in a nonviolent political protest that disrupts traffic or causes minor property damage.
The approval of imposing the death penalty for certain offenses that cannot be considered among the "most serious crimes," as required by international law. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is inherently cruel and irrevocable.

Human Rights Watch urged the Ethiopian government to seek input from human rights experts and to ensure that civil society and the public are given a fair opportunity to review and comment on any draft counterterrorism legislation.
"If the government really wants to produce a solid piece of legislation that can help combat terrorism, then it should immediately seek input from civil society and international experts, and amend the law's worst provisions," Mariner said.
Several bombings and grenade attacks in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, and elsewhere have claimed Ethiopian civilian lives over the years, and the Ethiopian government has alleged that these attacks were carried out by armed opposition groups.
Most recently, in October 2008, the Ethiopian trade mission in Hargeisa, Somaliland, was one of the targets of multiple suicide bombings that killed at least 20 people; the attacks were blamed on al-Shabaab, a Somali armed group with alleged links to al-Qaeda.
Although Ethiopia has legitimate security concerns over terrorism, Human Rights Watch said that Ethiopia's increasing repression of political opposition and independent civil society since the controversial 2005 elections, when scores of individuals protesting the election results were killed and injured by security forces, raises special concerns.
Since 2005, government efforts to suppress criticism have increased, and Ethiopian officials consistently deny well-documented reports of systematic killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture by members of the military and police forces in various regions of the country.

Ethiopia - Pragmatist versus Idealist Politics of Opposition Groups

2009-05-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

by Alex Birhanu alexbirhanu@yahoo.com
Introduction:
Pragmatists are very passionate politicians that follow their instinct or their heart’s feelings and guts. Usually they dream of or believe in what they think as the absolute and unshakable truth. Opposed to principled idealist thinkers, pragmatists never entertain different views coming from various sources other than their astounding beliefs; and no matter the outcomes, they stead fistedly act bold, passionate and desperate when taking decisive actions. Pragmatists use whatever means is available at their disposal to secure what is in their vested interests. At times, they may become merciless in their executive actions especially when circumstances get tough. At such moments they act tougher and gain unwavering militaristic victory.
On the contrary, principle oriented politicians are idealist thinkers who bring about visionary thoughts; and are considered as principled people with good national visions. They are often blamed for being ‘paper-tigers”. But they never give up the principles they stand for in desperate times and in challenging and tough situations. Indeed unflinchingly they stand to the principles they adhere to and remain there till the end, no matter how badly circumstances may change for the worst. A case in point in the Ethiopian politics is the zealous EPRP-followers unwavering stand and efforts that adhere to EPRP’s initial political principles to this very day.
These two extreme categories of political traits at the extreme ends of an isle are at times referred to as the realistic traits versus the idealistic traits. In essence, however, power without principle is vicious; and yet principle without power is unproductive. That means, in real life, each perspective needs some combination of traits taken from one another in order to keep things in a balanced motion. Why is it so necessary to balance between these 2-well known ideological traits standing at extreme ends of the isle? The reason is clear. If our end goal is to bring about a more democratic sphere of functional change in Ethiopia, then we must draw the good bit of each trait to the center with which we can gather momentum for a huge take-off that eventually leads to democratic national building plans devised harmoniously. As each category represents the extreme political stand, each keeps on shaping up human history for good or for worse. Those who took the mid-way between these 2-extreme traits did forge democratic changes required by their nation; and brought about lasting peace. Much of what we observe in Western societies today is simply the result of such outcomes. The relationship between the pragmatist and the idealist political traits are not mutually exclusive; rather, the relationship between these two political traits is a symbiotic one. In either case, one of the traits may achieve its end results without forging something from the other. But such a move doesn’t arrive at any happy endings; in fact it arrives at disastrous results or that of maintaining the status quo without any forward moving progress. On the one hand, if the pragmatists are left with unbridled freedom to exercise their power, then they mess-up national systems and networks beyond repair. On the other hand, if the principled idealists are left all alone to do the most they can, and then they may waste so much time on a series of principal discussions and round-table decision making processes without achieving tangible results – i.e., such moves may leave the public to come to a point of despair.

Idealist Opposition:
Embarking on the prevailing Ethiopian political arena, the majority in the opposition camp both at home and in Diaspora seem to fall in the idealist category. We make lots of thinking, and come up with so many proposals, so many ideas, beautiful ideals etc., but still the key works to be done in concrete terms lack enough of the passion with which to bring about change. As opposition groups we remain vocal but action wise we are seriously mortal. Volumes of vocal opposition were produced thus far. But we achieved practically insignificant outcomes in concrete terms inside Ethiopia. Hence, Ethiopia remains artificially land-locked with no access or no retrieving made to regain Assab Seaport. Its people lack basic human rights to speak of; with Birtukan Mideksa still remaining jailed for unfounded reasons. Majority Ethiopian livelihoods still remain in abject poverty. And if we have to reverse TPLF’s anti-peace-policy standing in practical terms by a sustainable peace in the region, it is highly justifiable for the 80 million Ethiopian peoples represented by its solidified and united opposition front to eventually regain the legitimate Ethiopian rights to regain access to the sea through Assab Port. Likewise, by returning the port of Assab to Ethiopia willingly, Eritrea will remain in a better socio-economic and political networking position with Ethiopia and with the rest of its neighbors. It means none of the two countries are to worry about counter-fighting one another due to geographically unsettled demarcation issues that still remain pending under TPLF for nearly 2-decades in raw.

Pragmatist TPLF:
Most of the time, pragmatists are said to be good leaders in war times and in managing crisis moments. Soon after that, however, they become obsolete. This is a typical case of TPLF. Ever since they captured power from the DERG, the TPLF regime has decided to remain in power indefinitely. It declares its unflinching decisions never to kneel down for those coming through ballot boxes for what it paid in blood, tears and sweats under the barrel of the gun. It also means TPLF has already begun to eat-up its own glory of the early 1990s slowly. As pragmatists TPLF-leadership remains tough, stubborn and stuck into their own passionate militaristic glories of yesteryear even when things are getting tougher by the day. But this might have been acceptable in the hay days of the early 1990s, now nearly after two decades later; such stubbornness casts shadows of doubts associated with the pragmatist traits of the man on the driving sit in Ethiopia. When things are tough the PM remains pragmatic and takes critical measures regardless of their repercussions on TPLF’s political features. This might have served him well during those hay-days in the struggle against the DERG regime; but this time around, that same stubborn political stand is simply eating him up alive by each day that goes by; and by depraving him of all the dignity and glory that might be bestowed up on him as a good leader otherwise. Usually, the PM is known for taking swift and decisive actions no matter what these actions might ensue at the end of the day. A case in point is the expulsion of Eritrean persons from Ethiopia. And if such situations start to slide out of hand the TPLF-regime will deal with each, till such time it builds its own glory out of each case. The worst problem with TPLF is that it listens to no one, but to itself.

Lessons Learned From Past Mistakes:
Focusing on the current predicament of the idealist opposition camp, one can see that the number of Ethiopians opposing injustice is increasing by the day; not excluding those who are indifferent and those withdrawing their consent silently. However the leadership of the idealist opposition camps is not yet able to harness or channel this mass opposition inertia of pluralistic nature into a constructive unitary political entity. That means we need to learn from past mistakes and stop acting as vocal opposition only barking from Diaspora or from the Parliament House in Addis Ababa. We should go for winning the hearts, souls, and minds of the Ethiopian public at home and abroad; and bring about a fair and fraternal change without causing havoc or destruction; or without many losses of valuable human lives and property. This can be achieved only when the opposition groups at home and in Diaspora are ready to merge and do away with our die-hard differences for the sake of rescuing Ethiopia’s unity and national stability. We need to come to a workable consensus beyond crying foul on ethnic, religious or worldview differences among us. The idiomatic expression: ‘United, we win; divided we fail’ has been preached many thousands of times but in vain. It is easily said than done. In a serious note, we seem to remain stubborn, and go our own individualistic way to oblivion. When the quest for forging a firmly united opposition force remains at stake; and when the 2010 election is coming closer by each day that goes by, we seem still not fully prepared to deal with our heart-aching tasks properly beyond tones load of vocal opposition. How much of the homework expected of the opposition group is done in a systematic and structured manner compared to the vocal opposition and lip services we rendered thus far? The judgment is left for each reader to outweigh the gravity of our failures thus far.

Ernest Call for a Solidified United Opposition Front:
Transforming those who are in the opposition camp into change agents must be the priority of the opposition camp leading us eventually towards forging a solidified united opposition front. By converting ourselves beyond vocal opposition into fierce fighters and practically contributing partners we can enrich the struggle by the opposition’s united front to achieve results. There is no question regarding our vested will to bring about government change in Ethiopia. Both the overwhelming majority of the Ethiopian public and the well-trenched opposition party sympathizers and members dream of government change. But translating this existing political inertia and vested will into concrete actions require technical expertise, financial, human and material resources. That means both at an individual and group levels, the opposition camp must be more committed and more proficient in our collaborative efforts. I realize that Diaspora people do have other responsibilities. On top of our daily concerns for Ethiopia we remain providers not only to our family members in our immediate surrounding, but also to extended family members in Ethiopia. In order to draw more and more Diaspora groups into the opposition camp for the actual struggle, there is no other alternative than to devise more appropriate means which are compatible with or complimentary to our lifestyles here abroad. Provided that we are solidified as a united opposition front both at home and abroad, the Ethiopian people know well not only that the TPLF regime is on its way out from office, but also they know it will happen pretty soon. For that reason, it is our common task to create a favorable environment for Ethiopians of all walks of life to involve us in the struggle for victory by a solidified united opposition front both at home and abroad.
Finally, the opposition group has to be disciplined. It must learn its lessons from past emotional mistakes and act purposefully, swiftly and by rational reasoning means on the following 3-crucial factors outlined for further consideration:
Firstly, the opposition should act strategically on matters pertinent to foreign relations and seize opportunities to its advantage when they surface incidentally. It should try to hold the balance between political principles and passionate interests concerning foreign policy.
Secondly, the opposition should make a strong presence inside Ethiopia. As a united and firm standing body, the opposition group must be solidified, united, and well equipped to do the grass-roots concretization job at home inside Ethiopia with relative ease. Those groups with knowledge of the local background might do well in each ethnic region that they are familiar with. This will help the opposition executives to critically and rationally allocate organizational roles according to merits rather than emotions. Politics is about reality, and reality is created by perception or reasoning. So there has to be a will and a way the opposition group can compliment each other’s weaknesses and strengths. The opposition group should collectively draw strategic action plans on how to stay united, solid, and remain relevant for winning the struggle waged by the opposition camp. The opposition camp must forge viable semblance for national unity rather than going one’s own way single-handedly.
Thirdly, the opposition group must realize that time is a critical factor of essence. In that case, why is the process for unification taking such a long time? It is very shocking and saddening to watch each opposition group behaving as if it has all the time in the whole world to unit itself gradually with others in the distant future. This shows that time is taken by the opposition groups as luxury entity and opposing the TPLF-regime is taken as an easy job to be accomplished in the unforeseeable future. Let us not be mistaken. The road to freedom is a long and tiresome march. The opposition has to identify and manage its passionate desires and its idealist political principles in clear terms so that some compromise is forged for the good of unity; and for jointly achievable outcomes in a reasonable window of time. Meanwhile each opposition group should place a means of checks and balances that help the smooth working relationship between the two extremist traits. Actually, the opposition group needs to balance its politics between forging shrewdness and aggressiveness of pragmatists and considering its idealistic and current global political perspectives for brighter Ethiopian political governance.

Those who wish to contact the author can reach at his email address indicated at the beginning of the article.

The Ethiopian Community in Washington is Hating on DLA Piper

2009-04-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

Some of our DC-based readers may have spotted this DLA Piper hate ad making its way around town via taxi. An ATL reader sent us this photo, saying:

"I saw this cab on Connecticut Ave. in front of the Mayflower yesterday and it
caught my attention. Strange."

Our first response was, "Bad PR for DLA Piper, but doesn't everybody already know that blood money is the currency of Biglaw?" Our second response was to find out about this legislation and reach out to the firm.
The American Lawyer wrote in 2008 about the Piper's playing the flute for the Ethiopian government. Partners Dick Armey, a former House majority leader, and Gary Klein lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who angered human rights advocates in 2005 with violent crackdowns on protesters during the elections there. The American Lawyer reports that the Piper was playing to the tune of over $50,000 a month. That's a whole lot of injera.
The taxi ad refers to a bill introduced by Senators Feingold and Leahy "to reaffirm United States objectives in Ethiopia and encourage critical democratic and humanitarian principles and practices." Or. in other words, a bill to encourage Ethiopia not to inflict violent crackdowns on its citizens. DLA Piper's lobbying efforts may have paid off. The bill has been languishing with the Committee on Foreign Relations since 2008.
DLA Piper's spokesman told us that the firm's representation of the Ethiopian government actually ended in November. A statement from the firm refers indirectly to the protesting taxi driver (and other DLA Piper haters): "There are some very vocal elements of the Ethiopian Diaspora, particularly in the Washington area, who are opponents of the current administration in Ethiopia and go to great lengths to try to embarrass or demean those who are associated with it."
See the full statement, after the jump. DLA Piper may no longer have Ethiopia as a client, but the firm is actively helping to churn out new lawyers over in Addis Ababa.
DLA Piper says its representation of the Ethiopians ceased in November, though it's still involved in pro bono initiative sending its lawyers to Addis Ababa to teach law school to aspiring Ethiopian esquires.

STATEMENT FROM DLA PIPER
For several years, DLA Piper provided advice and counsel to the democratically elected government of Ethiopia on a wide range of public policy, regulatory, legislative and legal matters. Our work focused on strengthening bilateral relations with the US, including humanitarian, economic and development assistance, trade and investment opportunities, and enhancing relationships with Congress and the Administration. In the past, the firm also provided legal support to the Government of Ethiopia at the International Court of Justice at the Hague on the Ethiopia-Eritrean border dispute. Our government affairs teams have worked with them in London and Brussels as well as Washington, DC.
This representation has ended, but we are continuing to assist Ethiopia on pro bono initiatives. In conjunction with the Northwestern University Law School, DLA Piper lawyers are teaching classes for the next generation of aspiring legal professionals at the law school in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. This is in addition to a number of major pro bono projects we are working on across Africa, including a new project to document systematic sexual violence by the Mugabe government against politically active women in Zimbabwe.
Ethiopia is an emerging democracy and an important ally of the United States in a troubled region of the world. The country has made remarkable progress in the last two decades, moving from dictatorship to a system of free elections, and a commitment to prosperity and greater inclusiveness. There are some very vocal elements of the Ethiopian Diaspora, particularly in the Washington area, who are opponents of the current administration in Ethiopia and go to great lengths to try to embarrass or demean those who are associated with it. While we disagree with these individuals and do not believe their views reflect the majority of Ethiopian Americans, we fully support their right to voice their opinions on this matter.

Ethiopia: Amnesty International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review

2009-04-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

Sixth session of the UPR Working Group of the Human Rights Council

Charities and Societies Proclamation
In January 2009, the Ethiopian Parliament passed into law the Charities and Societies Proclamation (known as the CSO Law),which imposes strict control measures and restrictions on civil society organisations. International organisations working in Ethiopia are now restricted from working on a range of human rights and democracy issues without special permission, and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are barred from undertaking similar activities if they receive more than 10% of their income from foreign sources. The law allows for severe criminal penalties to be imposed, including fines and imprisonment for even minor breaches of its provisions. In addition, the law establishes a Charities and Societies Agency with broad discretionary power over NGOs, including government surveillance and direct interference in the management and operations of such organizations. The new law puts at serious risk the ability of local and international organisations to monitor, report, advocate on and campaign against human rights violations in Ethiopia.
Funding restrictions contained in the new law have several grave implications for NGOs, human rights defenders and victims of human rights violations. The level of funding which NGOs need in order to operate and function effectively is widely unavailable in Ethiopia, particularly given the current global economic climate. Most NGOs in Ethiopia are therefore heavily dependent on donations and support from outside Ethiopia. Restricting the donation limit to 10% of an NGO’s annual income makes the operation of most NGOs unviable. Such restriction directly violates the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders), adopted by the General Assembly in 1999. Articles 13 and 14 guarantee to everyone the right to solicit, receive and utilise resources for the express purpose of promoting and protecting human rights through peaceful means. If enforced, the new law will force many NGOs to close their offices entirely.
In addition, an enforced prohibition on human rights work performed in Ethiopia by international organisations would have a detrimental effect on the human rights situation in the country. International organisations would be unable to undertake independent monitoring of human rights violations and would be unable to provide assistance to national NGOs.
The establishment of an oversight Charities and Societies Agency and the enforcement of its powers, would amount to unwarranted government interference in the running of independent, non-governmental organisations. It would seriously affect the ability of human rights defenders and NGOs to freely develop and discuss ideas and principles, and it would violate the confidentiality of testimony regarding human rights violations. Amnesty International is concerned that such an organ would offer no guarantee of independence or impartiality from the government, and could too easily be used to interfere with an organisation perceived to be critical of the government.
C. Promotion and protection of human rights on the ground
Human rights violations in the context of armed conflict
Amnesty International is concerned about reports of mass arrests, torture, rape and extrajudicial executions by government forces of suspected supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in the Somali region of Ethiopia (known as the Ogaden). While a government commissioned investigation was undertaken in late 2008, these reports have not been investigated by the United Nations or other independent international investigators.
In April 2007, the ONLF attacked an oil installation in Obole village, killing Ethiopian soldiers as well as 65 Ethiopian and six Chinese civilian workers. They also abducted seven Chinese workers, but released them a few days later. In retaliation, the Ethiopian government mounted a blockade on conflict-affected districts in the region, causing severe food shortages and exacerbating the humanitarian situation in those districts. Although a UN fact-finding mission lead to a partial alleviation of the humanitarian crisis in August 2007, the Ethiopian authorities continue to place restrictions on humanitarian aid in the Somali region. Also in August 2007, Sultan Fowsi Mohamed Ali, an independent mediator, was arrested in Jijiga, reportedly to prevent him from giving evidence to the UN fact-finding mission. He was accused of alleged involvement in two hand grenade attacks in 2007 and sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment in May 2008. Amnesty International believes that Sultan Fowsi Mohamed Ali is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of his beliefs.
In July 2008, Ugaas Abdirahman Qani, chief of the Tolomoge group of the Ogaden clan and President of the Somali region from April to November 1994, was arrested along with twelve other individuals, including nine relatives. He was arrested shortly after returning to his home city of Godey after living abroad for two years. In the days following his arrest, a further 70 individuals were also arrested. No charges are believed to have been brought against them and no reason given for their detention. Ugaas Qani was released in October 2008 and his relatives a few days later. In 2005, Ugaas Qani was among a dozen elders seeking to arrange peace talks between the ONFL and the Ethiopian government.
Political prisoners
During the period under review, Ethiopia detained thousands of people. Following the disputed elections in May 2005, there were mass arrests of opposition party activists and supporters, leaders of the opposition party, Coalition for Unity and Democracy(CUD), journalists and civil society activists. Thousands were detained and many beaten, tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and detained without charge or trial for significant periods of time.
In December 2005, 131 prominent opposition leaders, journalists and civil society activists were charged with a range of capital offences, including treason, incitement to armed uprising and genocide against an ethnic group and members of the ruling party. The group included Berhanu Negga, the newly elected Mayor of Addis Ababa; Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge; Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, founder and former president of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council; journalists Serkalem Fasil and Eskinder Nega; and civil society activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie. All were denied bail, but allowed access to lawyers and their families. The main trial began in May 2006, but was boycotted by the CUD and journalist defendants, leaving only Daniel Bekele, Netsanet Demissie and Kassahun Kebede, an official of the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA). The ETA had been Ethiopia’s longest-established trade union. In February 2008, after years of court actions, the Supreme Court upheld a decision to dissolve the union and hand over its assets to a rival union formed by the government and also known as the Ethiopian Teachers Association.
A number of defendants in the main trial and related cases were acquitted in early 2007 and released. The CUD defendants and journalists who refused to present a defence were found guilty as charged and sentenced to life imprisonment or lengthy prison terms. They were, however, freed in July and August 2007 under a presidential pardon after a mediation process by an independent group of elders. They were required to sign an apology letter to the Prime Minister; however, the exact terms of their pardons remain unclear.
Daniel Bekele and Nesanet Demissie were found guilty in December 2007 and each sentenced to 30 months. When denied the usual opportunity of remission of one-third of their sentence for good behaviour, they signed a similar letter of apology as the CUD detainees. They were subsequently pardoned and released in March 2008, two and a half years after their initial arrest.
The nature of the pardon granted to all of the above-mentioned defendants was thrown into doubt by the re-arrest of Birtukan Mideksa in December 2008 on the grounds that she had broken the conditions of pardon by making a statement in Sweden describing the pardon process. Upon her return to Addis Ababa, Birtukan Mideksa was informed by law enforcement officials that she had several days to retract what government officials considered to be a public denial of her pardon request. When she refused to do so, she was arrested and placed in solitary confinement. Justice ministry officials confirmed that her pardon had been revoked and her original life sentence reinstated. Amnesty International is concerned at the lack of transparency surrounding the pardon process that led to the release of political detainees in 2007, and the government’s revocation of the pardon, which is an unprecedented step in Ethiopian jurisprudence.
Dozens of other individuals were arrested in Addis Ababa in late 2006 for possession of a book secretly written in prison by Berhanu Negga or a calendar containing images of the CUD prisoners and encouraging civil disobedience. Yalemzewd Bekele, a lawyer working for the European Commission in Addis Ababa, was arrested in October 2006. She was released on bail after eight days of incommunicado detention. Her case was dismissed, without prejudice, in early 2008.
Arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions - Oromo region
Throughout the period of review, the government has continued to suppress dissent in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, and has arbitrarily detained thousands of individuals suspected of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Many have been held in incommunicado detention, many have been detained without trial, and court proceedings have often been delayed. The detainees are held in poor conditions and many have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
In November and December 2005, thousands of students were detained, many ill-treated and some killed, following demonstrations throughout the Oromia region in support of the release of Oromo detainees and other political demands. They were released in late 2006, early 2007. Hundreds more Oromo people were detained in November 2005 during post-election demonstrations. In November 2007, Mulata Aberra, a trader in Harar city, was arrested for the third time on suspicion of supporting the OLF. During his detention he was tortured and denied medical treatment for his resulting injuries. He was released on bail in July 2008.
From late October 2008 onwards, mass arrests were carried out of suspected OLF supporters. Among the individuals arrested were Bekele Jirata, General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) party; Asefa Tefera Didaba, university lecturer at Addis Ababa University; brothers Dejene Borena and Kebede Borena; and Eshetu Kitili and Desta Kitili. The OFDM party strongly denied that Bekele Jirata or the party had any links to the OLF. A number of them have since been released without charge. Bekele Jirata was released on bail in February 2009 after a number of court appearances. Several more detainees have appeared in court and had their detention extended reportedly to allow police and security forces time to investigate the accusations against them. None of the detainees arrested during the round-up have so far faced trial.
Diribi Demissie, President of the Mecha Tulema Association, an officially registered Oromo community welfare organisation, was released in 2007 along with two other officials of the organisation. They had been detained since 2004 on charges of armed conspiracy and membership in the OLF.

Telahun Gesesse passed away

2009-04-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

The Popular singer Tilahun Gesesse passed away at midnight, Sunday, April 19, 2009 at the age of 72 after undergoing treatment in a Hospital in USA and returned back to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He had been suffering from kidney failure and had since been in a hospital receiving treatment with dialysis.
Tilahun Gessesse was born to Woizero Gete Gurmu and Ato Gessesse Wolde Kidan on Sunday, September 27, 1940, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The majority of Tilahun Gessesse's recordings were in Amharic, and he had recorded a number of songs in Oromiffa as well .
He received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Addis Ababa University.

US remains idle in dictatorship in Ethiopia

2009-04-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

Americans have ignored Ethiopia and they played a role on the country to be led by the rampant dictators for almost 50 years. The damage is higher than they will ever expect of it. I am sure there is, at least, some kind of plan they have already set up to improve the relationship between the frustrated freedom-seeking Ethiopians and the United States of America.
The United States of America must refuse to accept the killings, tortures and detentions of human beings who are involved in political movements in Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi have been indulging Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, Bush Junior and now Barack Obama to stay in power while the US changes its own politics whenever there is a change in power, from Republicans to Democrats and from Democrats to Republicans. The kind of change we are seeing in American politics makes us wonder why it is not established in American politicians mind that it is possible to try it in countries like Ethiopia.
The Situation in Africa could have been fixed if there would be the willingness to start from the least and basic democratical principles. But the Political and Regional Interest took the higher ground over despite all the conflicts that are created under those Regimes and Dictators are on high stake to control.
Ignoring the situation as if nothing is happening and Watching Obama with blood-thirsty dictators like Meles Zenawi on G-20 meeting really frustrates many Ethiopians inside and outside Ethiopia. What was that Obama demanding dictators like Meles? We don't know even if he spoke against those dictators in his inauguration speech.

Is "Silence" the US-Ethiopia Policy?

2009-03-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

U.S. policy toward Ethiopia reflects Washington’s "Love and Hate" affair of Zenawi. Zenawi engages himself in systematic human right abuses in Ethiopia even though Opposition Political leaders and Human Right activists raise the abuses cited in Ethiopia echoing their frustration to the "Muted" US government. The US relationship to Zenawi regime surprises many observers who have been following and getting excited with the "US Department of State Human Right Annual Report on Ethiopia" for almost two decades.
The US Department of State ’s annual Human Right Report is very well recorded, accurate on a wide-range scope of abuses of their friendly ally Zenawi and his adversarial regime. The reports were undeniably magnificent, if the Government of United States hadn't given "US Humvees" for military training despite abuses are occurring through out Ethiopia using the training that was offered under military cooperation between Zenawi Regime and the US government.
US government have silently watched Meles and his cronies enjoy while the poor people of Ethiopia continues to suffer. There are no jobs, no income, no savings and Many poor people have no roofs over their heads while Zenawi, his thug friends and families live in mansions at the expense of the poor people. The United States of America is refusing to take care of those who are in need of help. The West have consistently ignored all the cry for help even though the Department of States know the plights of the poor very well.
"The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are submitted annually by the U.S. Department of State to the U.S. Congress in compliance with sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, and section 504 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. " --US Department of State.
FAA (The Foreign Assistance Act) of 1961 Sec 116(d) says " The Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25 83 of each year, a full and complete report regarding-"
The sub-sections of FAA of 1961 sec 116(d) are not mentioned on the introduction of US Department of State annual Report on Human Right. Why?
The sub-sections of FAA of 1961 sec 116(d)
(6) the steps the Administrator has taken to alter United States programs under this part in any country because of human rights considerations;
(7) wherever applicable, violations of religious freedom, including particularly severe violations of religious freedom (as defined in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998);
(8) wherever applicable, consolidated information regarding the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and evidence of acts that may constitute genocide (as defined in article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and modified by the United States instrument of ratification to that convention and section 2(a) of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987);
(9) for each country with respect to which the report indicates that extrajudicial killings, torture, or other serious violations of human rights have occurred in the country, the extent to which the United States has taken or will take action to en-courage an end to such practices in the country;
These subsections were not mentioned in the introduction of the Human Right Report on countries but it only mentioned the section why Department of States releasing its Human Right Reports on countries. The Question is ... Why is the US administration a Hypocrite?
The US government has accepted these abuses, and continues to provide military aid to the Meles Regime unconditionally, because Zenawi is protecting U.S. interests in the region.
The US government support for abuses by the Zenawi Regime has not yet received big media attention. The US government doesn’t want to know about the looming fraud in 2005, political assassinations and detentions (eg. Birtukan Midekesa's detention), and intimidation of people who wants to participate in political parties .
The next coming 2010 election itself is being rigged before it is even started, and violence, from the regime side, is being taken as a tool to a new depth or The US government can not inform the Zenawi Regime that Zenawi is already unwilling to conduct free and fair elections. But from the US officials, the only voice that is heard "SILENCE".
The US congress is lobbied to change course from the destructive policy that the US government has been following based on "War on Terrorism" and It remains "Silent" to challenge the dictator's attitude.

Obama shall free Birtukan Midekesa

2009-02-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

She is young, only 34 years old, and younger than Barack Obama. She is a single mother raising a 4-year-old daughter. Barack and Michelle Obama have 7-year-old Sasha and 10-year-old Malia, and It won't be a great day for both, the parents, to spend most of their time without any access to speak to their children.
Birtukan Midekesa is held in a confinement for speaking out the process of "The pardon of her imprisonment" for the 2005 election. Birtukan is a graduate in Law. She understands the Law more than those who use it as a weapon to attack, abuse, and confine innocent individuals. Practically, she knows her God-given freedom abiding the law of the land in her professional and ordinary life.
Her understanding of the Constitution had been the subject in her education so she can make an incredible decisions and a fair-shot in judgement to all citizens who had gotten to her court room.
The West have to work on protecting such an important figures who have done a great deal of work for those freedom-seeking human beings. USA won't fix her economic problem unless The US authorities watch their hand-outs, day and night, to build a relationship with those who do not have a respect for human-right, freedom of movement and freedom of speech. That is the reason why Meles Zenawi still keeps Birtukan Midekesa in a confinement.
It is a matter of demanding either for the release of Jailed-Politician or cut the affair between the Regime and the US government. It is so simple. The US will get the support of the people of Ethiopia in case Zenawi refuses to release Birtukan Midekesa. In fact, there was a Bill that had been sent to the Senate from congress and is waiting to go to the Senate floor. It could have basically been shaking the regime's attitude towards the political freedom in Ethiopia if it was to come out as a Senate focal point to shake things up in the Horn of Africa. Ohhh....Inhofe is in a Senate. Inhofe is still running Bush's Guantanamo agenda.
Anyways, Supporting Meles Zenawi is the same as supporting Taliban in Afghanistan or Sadam Hussein in Iraq. By the Way, Sadam is dead.
Obama can spice things up by mixing such virtuous humanly deeds with the Stimulus Package.

Human Rights Watch 2008 Report on Ethiopia

2009-01-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

The Ethiopian government's human rights record remains poor, marked by an ever-hardening intolerance towards meaningful political dissent or independent criticism. Ethiopian military forces have continued to commit war crimes and other serious abuses with impunity in the course of counterinsurgency campaigns in Ethiopia's eastern Somali Region and in neighboring Somalia.
Local-level elections in April 2008 provided a stark illustration of the extent to which the government has successfully crippled organized opposition of any kind-the ruling party and its affiliates won more than 99 percent of all constituencies, and the vast majority of seats were uncontested. In 2008 the government launched a direct assault on civil society by introducing legislation that would criminalize most independent human rights work and subject NGOs to pervasive interference and control.
Political Repression
The limited opening of political space that preceded Ethiopia's 2005 elections has been entirely reversed. Government opponents and ordinary citizens alike face repression that discourages and punishes free expression and political activity. Ethiopian government officials regularly subject government critics or perceived opponents to harassment, arrest, and even torture, often reflexively accusing them of membership in "anti-peace" or "anti-people" organizations. Farmers who criticize local leaders face threats of losing vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer or the selective enforcement of debts owed to the state. The net result is that in most of Ethiopia, and especially in the rural areas where the overwhelming majority of the population lives, there is no organized opposition to the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The local-level elections in April 2008 were for kebele and wereda administrations, which provide essential government services and humanitarian assistance, and are often the institutions used to directly implement repressive government policies. In the vast majority of constituencies there were no opposition candidates at all, and candidates aligned with the EPRDF won more than 99 percent of all available seats.
Where opposition candidates did contest they faced abuse and improper procedural obstacles to registration. Candidates in Ethiopia's Oromia region were detained, threatened with violence by local officials, and accused of affiliation to the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region, has long suffered from heavy-handed government repression, with students, activists, or critics of rural administrations regularly accused of being OLF operatives. Such allegations often lead to arbitrary imprisonment and torture.
War Crimes and Other Abuses by Ethiopian Military Forces
Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) personnel stationed in Mogadishu continued in 2008 to use mortars, artillery, and "Katyusha" rockets indiscriminately in response to insurgent attacks, devastating entire neighborhoods of the city. Insurgent attacks often originate in populated areas, prompting Ethiopian bombardment of civilian homes and public spaces, sometimes wiping out entire families. Many of these attacks constitute war crimes. In July ENDF forces bombarded part of the strategic town of Beletweyne after coming under attack by insurgent forces based there, displacing as many as 75,000 people.
2008 was also marked by the proliferation of other violations of the laws of war by ENDF personnel in Somalia. Until late 2007, Ethiopian forces were reportedly reasonably disciplined and restrained in their day-to-day interactions with Somali civilians in Mogadishu. However, throughout 2008 ENDF forces in Mogadishu participated in widespread acts of murder, rape, assault, and looting targeting ordinary residents of the city, often alongside forces allied to the Somali Transitional Federal Government. In an April raid on a Mogadishu mosque ENDF soldiers reportedly killed 21 people; seven of the dead had their throats cut.
ENDF forces have also increasingly fired indiscriminately on crowds of civilians when they come under attack. In August ENDF soldiers were hit by a roadside bomb near the town of Afgooye and responded by firing wildly; in the resulting bloodbath as many as 60 civilians were shot and killed, including the passengers of two crowded minibuses.
In Ethiopia itself, the ENDF continues to wage a counterinsurgency campaign against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in the country's restive Somali region. The scale and intensity of military operations seems to have declined from a peak in mid-2007, but arbitrary detentions, torture, and other abuses continue. Credible reports indicate that vital food aid to the drought-affected region has been diverted and misused as a weapon to starve out rebel-held areas. The military continues to severely restrict access to conflict-affected regions and the Ethiopian government has not reversed its decision to evict the International Committee of the Red Cross from the region in July 2007.
The Ethiopian government denies all allegations of abuses by its military and refuses to facilitate independent investigations. There have been no serious efforts to investigate or ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Somali Region and in neighboring Somalia in 2007 and 2008. Nor have ENDF officers or civilian officials been held accountable for crimes against humanity that ENDF forces carried out against ethnic Anuak communities during a counterinsurgency campaign in Gambella region in late 2003 and 2004.
Regional Renditions
In early 2007 at least 90 men, women, and children from 18 different countries fleeing conflict in Somalia were arrested in Kenya and subsequently deported to Somalia and then Ethiopia, where many were interrogated by US intelligence agents. An unknown number of people arrested by Ethiopian forces in Somalia were also directly transferred to Ethiopia. Many of the victims of these "regional renditions" were released in mid-2007 and early 2008, but at least two men, including a Kenyan and a Canadian national, remain in Ethiopian detention almost two years after their deportation from Kenya. The whereabouts and fate of at least 22 others rendered to Ethiopia, including Eritreans, Somalis, and Ethiopian Ogadeni and Oromo, is unknown.
Civil Society and Free Expression
The environment for civil society continues to deteriorate. In 2008 the government announced new legislation-the Charities and Societies Proclamation-which purports to provide greater oversight and transparency on civil society activities. In fact, the law would undermine the independence of civil society and criminalizes the work of many human rights organizations. At this writing, the law looked set to be introduced to parliament.
Alongside a complex and onerous system of government surveillance and control, the law would place sharp restrictions on the kinds of work permissible to foreign organizations and Ethiopian civil society groups that receive some foreign funding-barring such organizations from any kind of work touching on human rights issues. Individuals who fail to comply with the law's Byzantine provisions could face criminal prosecution.
A new media law passed in July promises to reform some of the most repressive aspects of the previous legal framework. Most notably, the law eliminates the practice of pretrial detention for journalists-although in August, the prominent editor of the Addis Ababa-based Reporter newspaper was imprisoned without charge for several days in connection with a story printed in the paper. In spite of its positive aspects, the law remains flawed-it grants the government significant leeway to restrain free speech, including by summarily impounding publications on grounds of national security or public order. The law also retains criminal penalties including prison terms for journalists found guilty of libel or defamation.
In March 2008 civil society activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were released from more than two years of incarceration, but only after the Ethiopian Federal High Court convicted them of "incitement" related to the 2005 elections.
Key International Actors
The United States and European donor states provide the Ethiopian government with large sums of bilateral assistance, including direct budgetary support from the United Kingdom and military assistance from the US. The US is Ethiopia's largest bilateral donor and has also provided logistical and political support for Ethiopia's protracted intervention in Somalia, and provides bilateral assistance to the Ethiopian military. Donor governments view Ethiopia as an important ally in an unstable region and, in the case of the US, in the "global war on terror."
The US, UK, and other key donors and political allies have consistently refused to publicly criticize widespread abuses or to demand meaningful improvements in Ethiopia's human rights record. The sole exception in 2008 lay in donor government efforts to lobby against the repressive civil society legislation introduced by the government. No major donor made any significant effort to raise serious concerns about or demand a concrete response to war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ethiopia or ENDF atrocities in Somalia.
Ethiopia remains deadlocked over a boundary dispute with Eritrea dating from the two countries' 1998-2000 war. The war in Somalia is another source of tension between the two countries, with Eritrea backing and hosting one faction of the insurgency Ethiopian troops are fighting against in Somalia. Eritrea also plays host to other Ethiopian rebel movements, notably the OLF and ONLF, with the aim of destabilizing the Ethiopian government.
China's importance as a trading partner to Ethiopia grows year by year. According to official figures Chinese investment in Ethiopia totals more than US$350 million annually, up from just $10 million in 2003.
Ethiopia is due to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council in December 2009.

Zenawi Police Re-Arrest Opposition Leader Mideksa

2008-12-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

By Jason McLure
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian federal police re-arrested opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa a year after she was released on a pardon following her arrest during the country’s disputed 2005 elections.
Mideksa, a leader of the now-dissolved Coalition for Unity and Democracy, was taken into custody today, said Temesgen Zewde, a lawmaker, who is a member of Mideksa’s new party, Unity for Democracy and Justice.
“She has been arrested,” Zewde said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa. “No charges have been made public yet. We don’t know exactly where she is being held.”
Mideksa was arrested after refusing to acknowledge that she had requested a pardon that led to her release from jail in July 2007, said Bereket Simon, a spokesman for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. She and dozens of other opposition leaders were initially jailed following the 2005 elections and sentenced to life in prison following a May 2007 trial on treason charges.
Security forces killed at least 193 protesters in Addis Ababa in the aftermath of the 2005 elections. Mideksa was jailed along with 126 other opposition leaders, journalists, and activists after disputing government claims of victory in the ballot.
Her release along with 37 others in July of 2007 came after the opposition leaders signed a letter admitting “mistakes committed both individually and collectively,” according to an Amnesty International report.
Life Sentence
Simon suggested Mideksa could again face life in prison.
“She said she didn’t ask for a pardon and the government tried to advise her that she has been freed from jail because of the requested pardon,” Simon said, in a phone interview from Addis Ababa. “She didn’t budge. Technically and legally the verdict has to be implemented.”
Mideksa and other leaders were released in two pardons authorized by Zenawi in July and August of 2007 after mediation by Ethiopian elders. Some opposition leaders, including former Addis Ababa mayor-elect Berhanu Nega, have chosen exile in the U.S. and Europe. Mideksa stayed on in Ethiopia and had planned to contest the 2010 national elections with her new party.
A lawyer and former judge, Mideksa has drawn support from Oromos and Amharas, Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups. Zenawi’s government, which has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, is dominated my members of the Tigray ethnic group.
Fifteen members of another opposition party, the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, were arrested in late October and early November and accused of supporting the separatist Oromo Liberation Front. The move comes as Ethiopia’s parliament is set to approve a new law that would effectively outlaw most non-governmental groups from promoting human rights, democracy, or conflict resolution.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at abolleurs@bloomberg.net.

Just Hold On!

2008-11-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Obama promised to the world that Change is coming. He hasn't yet moved in to the white house and started braking his promises. Africans, including those Kenyans, should stop praising Obama as their own son without seeing him making a difference on crimes against humanity.
Many of American presidents made broken promises to the people of America. George Bush promised not to use the American army for nation building but now they are building a 10 Billion Dollars of Infrastructure inside Iraq. George Bush senior, in 1988 Republican convention, pledged not to tax the American people with his infamous phrase "Read my lips: no new taxes", but once he became a president, he raised several taxes to a part of a 1990 budget agreement with Congressional Democrats. Many of them promised to end wars, poverty, diseases, deficits, and economic instability but most of the promises are broken.
Obama is showing the sign of braking promises that has been rhetorically attracting many all over the world. The Obama president-elect is history-in-the making just because one bi-racial American whose skin color is black won the United States election of 2008. Now it became true that the Obama-on-transition is full of clintonians to run the power that he struggled to get for almost 2 years. The rhetorics and speeches feels like all filled with a lot of beautiful adjectives and pronouns.....to excite the ears that were punished by the speeches of George Bush The president.
What does Obama really change if he doesn't change himself and the field ? Does it mean that Democratic Party belongs to the Clintons?
It really is shocking to find the wife of Bill Clinton picked to be Secretary of state. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have diminished the prospect of Democracy in Africa due to their lack of respect for the local people who really needed the political change. Bill Clinton's African progressive leaders have been engaged in killing, torturing, and assaulting inhumanly. Bill Clinton enjoyed his vacation time with these killers and thugs. They funnel funds to Clinton foundation through Businessmen, their Ambassadors and lobbyists in Washington DC.
Obama needs to wake himself up before he gives Hillary Clinton the Madam Secretary of State cabinet position. Bill Clinton's African progressive leaders(Dictators and thugs) are praying that Hillary holds the State Department number one position so that they can remain in power for longer. Africa needs change, and Africans do not need progressive thugs and killers.

the change that Africans believe in

2008-11-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

Days have gone by since Obama became an elected president of the United States of America. It was and still is amazing and the-history-of-centuries in the United States of America that he just won the election and made the history in the United States where the true democracy can be found and overthrown(Democracy was overthrown by the Bush/Cheney administration).
Democracy won, on November 4, 2008. Obama broke the barriers that are set to dismantle the society due to the person's color of skin.
Obama is half Kenyan and half American through his parents. As much as he cares about America, and I hope, he cares about Africa where his father was born and raised even though he left him when Obama was 2 years old.
It is so easier for Obama to come up with 3 or 4 starting points to the problems that are facing Africans. The first question I expect of Obama to ask himself is why and where did the American policy on Africa go wrong in foreign policy to fail the dream of Africans to live in a peaceful and freedom continent. Does the American foreign agenda work with the reality on the ground? It has been noticeable the failure of the policies of previous Administrations on Africa. It is not a blame game that should be played on "Change we can believe in" but to move forward, we need to learn the-right-and-wrong policies of the previous American administrations.
The Rwanda genocide wouldn't have happened if Non-Africans wouldn't have played the dirty game of ethnicity. Somalia wouldn't be in this situation if the American government understands the culture of the people of Somalia and listens to the people and but not the warlords who are very rich and look down on their own people.
Too much political drama had had happened and many people were killed in Kenya in the name of election for those in power for the last 2 decades. Kibaki and Odinga were oppositions to Arap Moi government. Arap Moi killed and jailed many of supporters of kibaki's and Odinga's political organizations. After Arap Moi had given up his power and kibaki took over, there was the forgotten business between Kibaki and Odinga, which is killing supporters. There must be something devilish that makes African leader's craving to kill opposition political figures and the people who say NO to them.
Meles Zenawi, the buddy of George Bush, is known for killing innocent people in Ethiopia. He outsmarted Condoleezza Rice, big time, and the Republican Administration. After killing innocent people, he painted some kind of false accusations on the people that he made a decision on to be killed in a broad daylight. Isayas Afeworqi of Eritrea is ruling Eritreans the same way the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is leading North Koreans. Al-Bashir is killing innocent people in Darfur, they are dark Africans and they are not lighter enough to live in Sudan. The Northern Sudan rulers of Sudan are the most racist people that I have known in Africa. They do mostly mistreat the darker skin of Africans from South and South western of Sudan because the Northern Sudan relates their blood to the middle Eastern Arab side.
Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has been ruling Uganda for longer than 20 years since 1996. Regan was gone, Museveni is still in Power. Bush Senior was gone, Museveni is still in Power. Clinton was gone, Museveni is still in Power. Bush Junior is going, Museveni is still in Power. Is this an American foreign agenda on Africa? Africans still see many African rulers who held power through out their lives. Africans need change, big one.
Obama Administration should practice "Change that we can believe in" on the power mongers who believe that the American policy on Africa does not change at all. These power-mongers and dictators believe that they will develop a relationship while working together with Obama administration. These dictators go back to refer their doctrine how they were close to the previous US administrations, the Regan's, Bush's, Clinton's and then the Bush's. The African power-mongers do not expect any more change from Obama, and they want to slide in as they had done it with Regan, the 2 Bushes, and Clinton. Does Obama go through their way? Time will tell.
It would have been easier to be wiser, truthful and honest to any US policy makers to go beyond the policies that were laid to them to practice away from USA but Ignorance, untruthfulness and foolishness took them over to deny the standard humanity to the poor people of Africa.
US policy makers should stop favouritism. Americans can sit 2 opponents on the table, if they want to but there are times they over stretch their power to dig a big hole. Bush had lost African's respect due to stretching his power beyond his control. The power-mongers played him good on his own field. They put scary News in front of him to the years that he runs the white house. He mishandled Horn of Africa through his thug friends like Meles Zenawi, Yoweri Museveni, Somalian warlords, Ismail Omar Guelleh, Mohamud Adde Muse, Kibaki, and Al Bashir.

Waaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss up? Obama

2008-10-25T01:01:00.000-07:00

Ethiopia risks £130 million of British aid by 'hiding famine'

2008-10-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Britain is threatening to withhold £130 million of aid from Ethiopia if its government hides the scale of a famine in the Somali region where a bitter war against rebels is taking place.

By Damien McElroy in Addis Ababa

Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, told Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, that Britain would not guarantee future payments to the country. On a two-day visit, Mr Alexander toured a hospital in the town of Kebri Dehar, in the Somali region. Before his arrival, local officials forced starving infants out of the emergency ward and on to the street.
"I put it to him [Mr Meles] that severely malnourished children had been removed from the hospital prior to my arrival," said Mr Alexander. "I made it clear that, if true, that was unconscionable and wholly wrong."
Mr Alexander added that he had given the prime minister a "candid and forthright" message – diplomatic code for a blunt rebuke. He said he would reject official advice and decline to make a cast iron pledge of future aid to Ethiopia. "In the months ahead I will be discussing the funding position within Europe and the United States," he said. "I am not making a decision now because of the continuing issues I have seen here."
Ethiopia is Africa's biggest recipient of British aid – spending this year totalled £130 million – and under Tony Blair, Mr Meles was hailed as the model of a progressive African leader.
Ethiopia wanted a long-term promise of British aid to bolster its negotiating position with international lending agencies and outside investors. But its internal repression has grown too harsh for its allies to ignore.
Since a disputed election in 2005, Mr Meles has become increasingly authoritarian. His government is waging a campaign against rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in the Somali region.
This presents the international community with its greatest dilemma. Aid agencies have only recently been granted permission to deliver food to the bleak desert region. Convoys must still be accompanied by the army, which dictates the safety considerations that allow a delivery to go ahead. The movement of aid workers is severely restricted.
Despite the burgeoning presence of relief agencies in Kebri Dehar, famine is not allowed to show its human face. Mr Meles says he cannot separate the food crisis from the struggle to crush the ONLF.
"I don't believe that it's an effective strategy by the government of Ethiopia to starve the people in that area when we are trying to defeat an armed struggle," he told Mr Alexander. "My military are under clear instructions to facilitate the distribution of food."
Eager to paint himself as a regional leader, Mr Meles has viewed Ethiopia's latest drought and famine as a return to the humiliations of the 1980s when its name was a byword for suffering. Only this week, the government acknowledged that 6.4 million people were threatened with starvation. Oxfam warned that the figure could be higher.
Mr Meles, a former guerrilla leader who earned an Open University degree while in prison, promised to address Britain's complaints. But there was considerable anger in his office at the tone of the meeting. "What are they doing?" asked Bereket Simon, a key lieutenant of Mr Meles. "They are following their own agenda and keeping us waiting."

The advantage and disadvantage of American politics

2008-09-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

In the positive side, The American politics has something spicy to ordinary citizens of the world. Right now, America is in critical situation as far as the two wars, the economy, and the financial inistutions are concerned, but one thing is hidden underneath the kitchen table which people are not interested to talking about outside their surroundings - The Race issue. It is a complicated issue for any politician to figure the solution out in order to come to a middle ground that will attract all Americans to speak their feelings out in a manner that can open a dialogue.

Have I noticed something wrong? yes. At a campaign in Cedarburg, Wisconsin on September 5, 2008, John McCain, his wife Cindy McCain and his running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, It is not the America that Obama introduced to the world. Where was the mixture of America in Wisconsin?

The Obama skin color is really a factor for some white folks, who has still the old-times way of looking at the black skin colored human being as nothing but still nothing, to pick Obama as their choice for presidency. The Race Card is being played out on Obama especially from the begining of the RNC Convention which missed the real issues out from the stage where the Republicans can come up with something to fix all the problems the whole world is facing now. Of course, Obama should be attacked but not using Karl Rove's style of attacks that will diminish the integerity of a black man whose mother is white and who tries to clear the dark spot of the American past history "slavery".

Obama will not lose anything if he loses the presidency. He will be a popular human being, if he wants, away from the politics field which, in fact, stinks for someone who looks at the American politics from outside. Imagine how the world will react if the only Black senator, the first Black candidate for the presidency of the United States of America quit politics.

Polls after polls, people were asked about "experience" and "Values and Principles". What kind of inistitutes are these which conduct these issues in the 21st century? People are dying of War, Genocide, diseases, hunger and etc....Those should be an issue for them since they are human beings instead of worrying about values and experience. Global economics should have been the main agenda for the blue-color middle class people in America. In order to keep Jobs in America, products must be manufactured in America that says "Made in America" for export which has value in a global market.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia wins, Elvan Abeylegesse, born in Ethiopia Turk, is second

2008-08-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

By JERE LONGMAN
With her trademark blistering kick, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia ran the second-fastest women's 10,000 meters ever on Friday night to take the gold medal in the opening track race of the Beijing Games.

With a punishing 60-second final lap, Dibaba crossed the line in 29 minutes 54.66 seconds, a time surpassed only by the 29:31.78 run by Wang Junxia of China in 1993. Her victory, run on a relatively cool and dry night, served as an early counterpoint to fears that smog and heat would disrupt distance performances at these Olympics.
On the bell lap of the 25-lap race, Dibaba blew past silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse, a native of Ethiopia who now competes for Turkey and who delivered the third-fastest time ever in 29:56.34. The two ran alone for the final five laps.
Shalane Flanagan of the United States took third in 30:22.22 with a move over the final two laps, despite intestinal problems earlier in the week and confusion about her placing as the lead runners began to lap the stragglers.
"I had no idea what place it was," Flanagan said. "My coach told just to remain as calm as possible. With two laps to go, I turned on the competitive juices and let it go."
Flanagan's finish further established the American women as a resurgent force in international distance running, following a bronze in the marathon by Deena Kastor at the 2004 Athens Games and a third-place finish by Kara Goucher in the 10,000 at the 2007 world track and field championships.
"I hate the word fluke," said Goucher, who finished 10th Friday in 30:55.16. "It's been said about me. I think Shalane proved tonight U.S. running is at the world level."
Yet, it has yet to match the pre-eminence of the East Africans.
The 10,000 has come to represent the sporting ascendance of women from sub-Saharan Africa and of Ethiopia's dominance over its fierce rival, Kenya, at major international championships. Ethiopian women have now won five Olympic gold medals in distance running, while Kenyan women have yet to win their first.
Ethiopia has taken first place in three of the last five women's 10,000 meters at the Olympics. And they have kept it in the family.
Derartu Tulu, a cousin of Dibaba's, became the first black African women to win an Olympic gold medal by taking first in the 10,000 at the 1992 Barcelona Games. She won the event again at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and has come to represent for some women the possibility of escape from a life of forced subservience.
"From Tulu, we are accustomed to the 10,000," Dibaba said after Friday's victory. "It goes without saying that we have to do well. The footsteps of Tulu have to repeat themselves."
Dibaba and Tulu come from the same high-altitude village, Bekoji, located in Ethiopia's southern highlands. So does Dibaba's sister Ejegayehu, who finished 14th Friday after taking the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. Also from this famed running center are Fatuma Roba, the 1996 women's Olympic marathon champion, and Kenenisa Bekele, the 2004 Olympic champion at 10,000 meters and silver medalist in the 5,000.
Bekoji is located on a verdant plateau, at about 10,000 feet and is as bountiful at producing runners as it is producing wheat and teff, a millet that is rich in calcium, protein and iron. Running is the favored and necessary mode of transportation for many young children in their trips to and from school and in their performance of such chores as hauling water and firewood.
The Dibabas grew up in a conical mud hut and their parents, who are subsistence farmers, lacked electricity, so the family had to go to a local hotel to watch Tulu win the 10,000 at the Barcelona Games.
Tirunesh's own elite running career got an inadvertent start
In 2001, as a 16-year-old, she traveled to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to join her sister Ejehgayehu and another relative who is variously described as a sister and a cousin. With the school year having already begun, Tirunesh said in an interview last year that she entered a cross-country race, finished fifth and was signed to run for the nation's prison police, a common practice in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Two years later, as an 18-year-old, Dibaba became the youngest track athlete to win a world title, crossing the line first in the 5,000 meters at the world track and field championships in Paris. Her style of running emulates that of Miruts Yiftur, known as Yifter the Shifter for a last-lap kick that propelled him to gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Dibaba could become the first woman to win both events in the same Olympics if she runs the 5,000 here, an event at which she holds the world record of 14:11.15. At this point, she is uncertain about doubling. But there was never any doubt that Dibaba would prevail with her searing kick in the 10,000 final.
"My expectation was to get gold," Dibaba said, "beautiful, everlasting gold."

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad

2008-08-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

Commrade Elias Kifle = Dictatorial tabloid Blogger

2008-08-05T02:10:00.000-07:00

By Mulumebet Asfaw
The effort to democratize Ethiopia is not easy at all. Despite the fact that the opposition camp claims to aspire to demolish the monstrous tyranny of Meles Zenawi, there are many among his dissidents who have brought us nothing but division and rumour mongering. Like any ordinary citizen, I sometimes get confused and puzzled with the amount of information and disinformation tossed in cyber space to catch our attention, not only by Walta and Aiga but also the terribly mismanaged websites like the Ethiopian Review, Debteraw and Ethiolion. I will come back some other time with the issue of the two conduits of hatred and the extremism, Debteraw and Ethiolion. For now, allow me to deal with Elias Kifle, a miserably failed spin doctor.
Elias Kifle, dictatorial publisher par excellence of a tabloid website called Ethiopian Review, is destined to be a ruler. Sorry, I have already made a mistake. I mean, he is already an absolute ruler of Ethiopia's cyber space. Every single day he is churning out orders, edicts, laws and doctrines… for us, his hapless subjects who can't survive without his website.
Remember the emergency power he gave to Engineer Hailu Shawel; he ordered us to shun Dr. Berhanu Nega whom he once labelled a Weyane mole; he appointed Isaias Afeworki, Ethiopia's man of the year, he designated Bertukan Mediksa "lady liberty" and then demoted her to "lady surrender" because she rejected his uncalled for advice to wage armed struggle; he called ONLF's slaughter of innocent labourer's and Chinese miners an act of heroism; he called for the dissolution of the newly formed Andinet party and ordered us again to give an unflinching support to Dr Berhanu Nega's Ginbot 7 because he happens to be a lieutenant; he demonized Dr Taye Woldesemait for exercising his right of joining a political group of his choice; he has the audacity to urge us to pack up and join an armed struggle under the leadership of his man of the year Isaias Afewerki; he delivered the heartbreaking news to us, with no regard to his loved ones, that Professor Mesfin Woldemariam died in jail; that proven wrong he is now trying to bury the dear professor alive by calling him to leave politics to his likes…. As no time and space will allow me to list down the orders, edicts, laws, insults, slanders, blackmails and tantrums that Elias Kifle produces with utmost passion, let me stop the listing here and try to examine the underlying motive of the author of all such travesties.
Elias Kifle has started too many projects but usually ends up in conflict with anyone who ventured to work with him. He is a very bold man, ain awta as his website reveals, being sensational, emotional, judgmental, and even worse, dictatorial.
Anyone with his right mind won't dare to tell Ethiopian to form an alliance with Isaias Afeworki, author of Ethiopia's demise. It is quite obvious that even Meles Zenawi would not have made it to the helm of power without the Godfather of ethnic politics. What good has Afeworki done to be shortlisted as ER's man of the millennium? Is it for the blood letting, the misery, the dictatorship, the mafia crimes or for land locking Ethiopia with the full support of the treasonous tyrant? As the facts on the ground tell us, Isaias is a dictator who committed so much crimes and bloodbath only to set up his own empire where he is the law, the constitution, the parliament, the army… and everything. There isn't even freedom to worship the Almighty as he wants to be the only supreme power that must be worshiped in Eritrea. The Eritrean tyrant must be pleased to see our own liberator, Elias Kifle, joining the church of Afewerki worshipers. Yes, Elias has a right to join any church but it offends so many to publicly pester and bully Ethiopians to join Afewerki's church that has a declared aim of liberating Ethiopia. No, thank you!
Anyone with his sanity intact won't have the audacity to tell Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, a lifetime freedom fighter, to leave politics, the struggle for justice, freedom and democracy. Where is the decency? Where is the common sense? Where is the desire for justice? I was shocked to read Elias's scribbling like a naughty school child that enjoys defacing a good desk or a toilet wall: "The current visit to the U.S. by Ethiopia's distinguished scholar and human rights activist Professor Mesfin Woldemariam has one mission: To preach to Ethiopians in the Diaspora NOT to support all-inclusive struggles to defeat the Meles fascist regime in Ethiopia and instead to start preparing for the 2010 elections. It is a mission to disarm the people of Ethiopia and make us all spineless people who do not stand up and defend ourselves." [ER, July 10, 2008]
The outrage did not stop there. It becomes boundless when Mr Elias pours insult: "Dear Professor, you are a great scholar in the field of geography. You are a respected human rights advocate. Please stick to those fields. Leave the politics to those who know the kind of language Woyanne thugs understand…" Such is an example of cyber terrorism that Mr Elias wants to commit. Assaulting and damaging anyone who do not subscribe to his views is his trademark.
On so many occasions, Elias Kifle has declared that he is struggling to bring about democracy, justice, freedom and equality in Ethiopia. As Ghandi has once advised us: "You must be the change you wish the world to be." If one aspires to bring about democracy that person must be a democrat who does not dictate the destiny of others. If one wants to bring about freedom that person must know what freedom entails and must allow others to live in liberty without any fear of his cyber blackmailing, holding any views and making any choices without infringing on the rights of others. In the same manner, anyone who declares to bring us justice has to desist from committing injustice. All the evidence from Elias cyber trails is damning. Elias tries to destroy others using his WMD [Website of Mass Destruction] unjustly.
Let me conclude by referring to Elias Kifle's spin again. Here are the winners of ER's person of the year in 2007: "Alemayehu Gebre Mariam, Berhanu Nega [ER had named him a Weyane spy], Bertukan Mideksa [lady liberty now undeservedly named by Elias as "lady surrender"], Daud Ebsa [OLF leader with a secessionist agenda], Isaias Afeworki [an architect of Ethiopia's turmoil, but now Mr Kifle's Godfather of liberty].
Here are those who won the ER vote for "harming Ethiopia the most". Take note of the interesting voting tally! Hailu Shawel [60%], Meles Zenawi [36%], Taye Woldesemayat [11%], Iyasu Alemahu of toothless EPRP [4%], Jenday Fraser, an employee of George Bush [7%].
There are many who think that Elias is a fighter, fighting for Ethiopia. But what I am witnessing is a confused man fighting with himself…not for democracy or anything to that effect. He is a dictator in the making that I would not allow to dictate me what to do and choose. If ER wants to be a credible source information, the owner must stop giving orders to Ethiopians what to do, what to wear, eat, believe or worship. In all honesty, the reason I sometimes visit ER is just to see watch a shallow spin doctor called Elias Kifle making a fool of himself. Nothing else!

Source: Nazret.com

Zenawi is selling Ethiopian lands to neghbouring countries.

2008-07-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

Here we go again News from Djibouti.
"The president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has returned to the capital yesterday after a working visit to Ethiopia in 48 hours. The purpose of his stay in Addis Ababa focused on the formal concession of arable land with an area of five hectares, from the Ethiopian authorities.
The field, located Baaleh in the Oromo region, should serve the wheat crop. It should be noted that the allocation of arable land Baaleh completes the acquisition of an earlier batch of 2000 hectares in Gadaref in Sudan. Remember also that soil Gadaref have produced five hundred tons of sorghum that Djibouti has recently approved.
In short, both concessions are part of a government strategy adopted in 2005 aimed at meeting the challenge of food security in the country. The objective remains more than ever a national priority insofar as the price of basic food commodities have experienced successive increases over the past months."

Somalia: Time to Pay Attention

2008-07-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

The United States has contributed to the mess in Somalia by failing to grasp the nuances of the Muslim world.
By Frankie Martin

While the world looks elsewhere, Somalia is in flames. The nation just topped a list of the world’s most unstable countries by Foreign Policy magazine, and the United Nations has declared the humanitarian situation there “worse than Darfur.”
In the next three months the number of people requiring immediate food aid will reach 3.5 million. Over one million refugees have fled their homes. Due to a raging insurgency against the current transitional government – which has support from both the West and Ethiopia – Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has earned the nickname, “Baghdad on the sea.”
In Somalia, there are no diplomatic superstars like Condoleezza Rice or Kofi Annan, who rushed to Kenya to settle its election crisis; there are no celebrities like Mia Farrow or Jim Carrey to urge international action and awareness as they did in Sudan and Burma.
Instead, Somalia’s crisis has elicited a collective yawn of indifference. Just mentioning the country’s name is enough to cause even the most dedicated diplomat or aid worker to throw up their hands in desperation.
Ironically, unlike the above conflicts, the current crisis in Somalia has developed in part due to America’s "war on terror" and failure to grasp some of the nuances of Islam.
The Muslim world is not a monolith; there is an ongoing struggle among Muslims with differing interpretations of the religion. Somalia is a traditionally Sufi country – the mystic, open form of Islam distinct from more conservative interpretations as those seen in places like Saudi Arabia.
But in Somalia, a more conservative movement developed under the secular dictatorship of President Siad Barre and during the anarchy that followed his ouster in 1991. The resulting Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) implemented Shari’a law, and although its stricter tenants were opposed by many Somalis, the grassroots movement gained strength because people sought order and justice in a country marred by starvation, warlord violence, and tribal conflict.
Despite internal differences in the interpretation of Islam, the UIC created a state of relative stability that led to the return of Somali businesses, united conflicting tribes and ended piracy off Somalia’s perilous shores.
But the ascension of the UIC worried the United States, which believed the group was sheltering Al-Qaeda members seeking a safe haven in Somalia. The United States intervened by backing secular warlords – reportedly some of the same individuals it had fought during 1993’s “Black Hawk Down” incident – against the UIC, strengthening, rather than isolating, extremism in Somalia. Despite their ample firepower, the warlords were defeated by the UIC in mid-2006.
In December 2006, UIC extremists threatened Somalia’s traditional archrival Ethiopia, which they accused of intervening in Somali affairs. Already concerned the UIC would support a domestic ethnic Somali insurgency, Ethiopia invaded. The United States backed Ethiopia’s invasion and its ensuing occupation with intelligence, air strikes, Special Forces, and rendition of terror suspects to Guantanamo Bay.
An Iraq-style insurgency soon began inside Somalia, mainly drawn from UIC elements but also members of the Hawiye clan, the tribal base of the UIC. These tribesmen believe the United States and Ethiopians are attacking them by supporting the Somali transitional government, run largely by tribal rivals the Daarood. Because they are Muslim, they believe Islam is under attack and seek to defend it.
Somalia faces many profound challenges, but a recent ceasefire – which calls for an end to the insurgency ahead of an eventual Ethiopian troop withdrawal in favor of U.N. troops – has brought some hope.
The recent momentum in Somalia for a shift to religious conservatism – and sometimes militant extremism – mirrors similar shifts around the Muslim world. However, with quick and responsible action, the United States can still help shift it back.
The United States should first pressure Ethiopia to withdraw and bring all Somali factions to the negotiating table.
It can also work within traditional tribal structures to reach out to Somalia’s people, effect political change and distribute aid. By reaching out to Somali moderates who would be happy to challenge the extremists themselves, and funding development programs that show a renewed respect for local customs and religion, the United States can help swing the pendulum away from extremists who preach that Islam is under attack from the West.
To do this, the United States must immediately change a failed policy. Instead of effectively fighting those individuals who wish America harm, it has taken on the Somali people. The United States should learn from its disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that using force to myopically crush “terrorists” at the expense of entire populations only strengthens extremists.
These days any attention given to Somalia is encouraging. But to create a stable society that would alleviate the suffering of Somalis and address Western security concerns, something more is required: a true understanding of what has gone wrong and the will to effect positive change.

Frankie Martin is Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC. He did field work among Somalis in Kenya for the book Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization by Akbar Ahmed (Brookings, 2007). This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Bush’s Rampage in Somalia

2008-07-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

by Mike Whitney
While George Bush was breezing through photo-ops at the G-8 summit in Japan, his Ethiopian proxy-army in Somalia was grinding out more carnage on the streets of Mogadishu. More than 40 civilians have been killed in the last 48 hours.
On Sunday, Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the UN Development Program in Somalia, was shot gangland style as he left a mosque after prayers. He died before reaching the hospital with wounds to the head and chest. Ali Ahmed is just the latest of the peace-keepers who have been killed in the ongoing battle between Bush’s Ethiopian occupiers and the Somali guerrillas.
US foreign policy in Somalia has resulted in disaster. Millions of Somalis have been forced to flee their homes and relocate to tent cities in the south to escape the fighting. The latest surge in violence has been the worst in a decade and the security situation continues to deteriorate despite the arrival of 2,600 troops from the African Union and a tentative truce that was signed in June between some of the warring factions.
The western media has stubbornly refused to report on the rising death-toll in Somalia, choosing instead to focus all of their attention on America’s “villain du jour,” Robert Mugabe. Mugabe appears to be next on the neocon’s list for regime change. (Paul Wolfowitz even composed a postmortem for Zimbabwe’s president in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, “How to Put the Heat on Mugabe”)
In 2006, the United States supported an alliance of Somali warlords known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) who established a base of operations in the western city of Baidoa. With the help of the US-backed Ethiopian army, western mercenaries, US Navy warships, and AC-130 gunships, the TFG was able capture Mogadishu and force the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and their allies to retreat to the south. But, much like Iraq and Afghanistan, the resistance has coalesced into a tenacious guerrilla army which has returned to the capital and resumed the fight making it impossible for their Ethiopian adversaries to govern.
As the struggle continues, the humanitarian situation has gone from bad to worse. At least 2.6 million Somalis are now facing famine due to acute food shortages spurred by a prolonged drought, violence and high inflation. UN monitors have warned that the figure could hit exceed 3.5 million by the end of 2008. The UN Security Council has helped facilitate the violence by failing to condemn US support for Ethiopia’s invasion and by promising to send peacekeepers to mop up after fighting ends. They’ve shown no interest in stopping the bloodshed or threatening sanctions against the aggressors. The UNSC has become little more than an accomplice in Bush’s rampages.
In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Salim Lone, a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq explains the UN’s role in providing the “go ahead” for the US invasion:
The lawlessness of this particular war is astounding; the most lawless war of our generation. You know, all aggressive wars are illegal. But in this particular one, there have been violations of the UN Charter and gross violations of international human rights. But, in addition, there have been very concrete violations by the United States of two Security Council resolutions. The first one was the arms embargo imposed on Somalia, which the United States has been routinely flaunting for many years now. But then the US decided that that resolution was no longer useful, and they pushed through an appalling resolution in December, which basically gave the green light to Ethiopia to invade. They pushed through a resolution which said that the situation in Somalia was a threat to international peace and security, at a time when every independent report indicated, and Chatham House’s report on Wednesday also indicated, that the Islamic Courts Union had brought a high level of peace and stability that Somalia had not enjoyed in sixteen years. So here was the UN Security Council going along with the American demand to pass a blatantly falsified UN resolution. And that resolution actually was a violation [of the] UN Charter. You know, the UN Charter is like the American Constitution and the Security Council is not allowed to pass laws or rules that violate the Charter. And yet, who is going to correct them?
The Bush administration has predictably invoked the “terrorist” hobgoblin to justify its involvement in Somalia, but no one is buying it. The ICU is not an Al Qaida affiliate or a terrorist organization despite the absurd claims of the State Department. It is true that the ICU was trying to enforce Sharia Law, but a much milder form of Sharia than America’s ally, Saudi Arabia.
The ICU was the first government in over a decade to restore security and order to Somalia and — generally speaking — the people were supportive of the new regime. Political analyst James Petras summed it up like this:

The ICU was a relatively honest administration, which ended warlord corruption and extortion. Personal safety and property were protected, ending arbitrary seizures and kidnappings by warlords and their armed thugs. The ICU is a broad multi-tendency movement that includes moderates and radical Islamists, civilian politicians and armed fighters, liberals and populists, electoralists and authoritarians. Most important, the Courts succeeded in unifying the country and creating some semblance of nationhood, overcoming clan fragmentation.

The real motives behind the invasion were oil and geopolitics. According to most estimates 30 percent of America’s oil will come from Africa in the next ten years. Bush’s new warlord friends in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) have already indicated that they are ready to pass a new oil law that will encourage foreign oil companies to return to Somalia. The same oil giants that are now lining up in Iraq will soon be making their way to Somalia as well.
The Horn of Africa is also critical for its deep-water ports and its strategic location for future military bases. It’s all part of the Grand Schema for reconfiguring the region to accommodate America’s hegemonic ambitions.
Humanitarian Catastrophe: “The Ethiopian invasion has destroyed all the life-sustaining systems”
Heavy fighting and artillery fire have reduced large parts of Mogadishu to rubble. More than 700,000 people have been forced to leave the capital with nothing more than what they can carry on their backs. Entire districts have been evacuated and turned into ghost towns. The main hospital has been bombed and is no longer taking patients. Ethiopian snipers are perched atop rooftops across the city. Over 3.5 million people are now huddled in the south in tent cities without sufficient food, clean water or medical supplies. It is the greatest humanitarian crisis in Africa today; a man-made Hell entirely conjured up in Washington.
Just weeks ago, Amnesty International reported that it had heard many accounts that Ethiopian troops were “slaughtering (Somalis) like goats.” In one case, “a young child’s throat was slit by Ethiopian soldiers in front of the child’s mother.”
In another Democracy Now interview, Abdi Samatar, professor of Global Studies at the University of Minnesota, had this to say:

The Ethiopian invasion, which was sanctioned by the US government, has destroyed virtually all the life-sustaining economic systems which the population have built without the government for the last fifteen years. And the militia that are supposed to protect the population have been looting shops. For instance, the Bakara market, which is the largest market in Mogadishu, has been looted repeatedly by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, supported by Ethiopian troops. And the new prime minister of Somalia, Mr. Hassan Nur Hussein, has himself announced in the BBC that it was his militias that — who have looted this place. So what you have is a population that’s hit from both sides — on one side, by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government, which is recognized by the United States, and on the other side, by the Ethiopian invaders who seem to be bent on ensuring that they break the will of the people to resist as free people in their own country…. What you have is really terror in the worst sense of the word, a million people have been displaced that the Ethiopians have been denying humanitarian aid, and the United States which seems to just watch and let it happen. It’s like there’s has been a calculated decision made somewhere in the world, maybe in Washington, maybe in Addis Ababa, maybe in Mogadishu itself, to starve these people until they submit themselves to the whims of the American military and the Ethiopians, who are acting on their behalf.

Amnesty International has called for an investigation of the United States role in Somalia. Regrettably, neither the United Nations nor the establishment media are at all interested in Bush’s war crimes in Africa. All they care about is Mugabe.

NEW LAWS THREATEN FREE EXPRESSION IN ETHIOPIA

2008-07-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Ethiopia has passed a new media law that bans censorship of private media and the detention of journalists, but which critics say maintains other threats to free expression.
"Under the new law, previous restrictions against private media outlets, such as detention of journalists suspected of infringement of the law, has been scrapped," a Parliament statement said.
But opposition members say the law, passed on 1 July, still allows state prosecutors to invoke national security as grounds for impounding publishing materials prior to publication and distribution.
Opposition Parliamentarian Temesgen Zewede told reporters, "Although censorship is abolished, such a right to impound press material before distribution is tantamount to censorship."
The government is also planning to impose strict controls and "draconian" criminal penalties on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a separate law, say Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Ethiopia says the draft law on charities and societies is a way for NGOs to be financially transparent and accountable to their stakeholders. But Human Rights Watch says the government's intent is "to consolidate that trend by taking the 'non' out of 'non-governmental' and putting civil society under government control."
For example, the draft law imposes stiff criminal penalties for anyone participating in "unlawful" civil society activity - jail time for participating in a meeting held by an unlawful organisation or disseminating the organisation's information.
Who decides which NGOs are lawful? The government of course - the bill calls for a Charities and Society Agency with extensive powers to license NGOs, monitor their activities and interfere in their management and staffing, says Human Rights Watch.
Plus, all non-Ethiopian NGOs are not allowed to carry out work related to human rights - making it difficult for IFEX members to report free expression violations or engage in human rights activities in the country. Meanwhile, Ethiopian rights NGOs that get more than 10 percent of funding from foreign sources would be considered foreign and would also be closed down.
"The law's key provisions are blunt and heavy-handed mechanisms to control and monitor civil society groups while punishing those whose work displeases the government," say Human Rights Watch and Amnesty. "It could also seriously restrict much of the development-related work currently being carried out by some of Ethiopia's key international partners."
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty are calling on donor governments, especially Ethiopia's biggest donors, the United States and the United Kingdom, to speak out publicly against the criminalisation of human rights work in Ethiopia.
"Their policy of silence has had the effect of helping to embolden the Ethiopian government to make further assaults on human rights, exemplified by the draft NGO law," says Human Rights Watch.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, once considered a pioneer of democracy in Africa, had seen his reputation wane since post-election violence that killed 200 people in 2005. Journalists and opposition members viewed as sympathetic to the protesters were then arrested and charged with treason, and now formal political opposition has become nearly extinct in most of the country.

DLA Piper Pleads Ethiopia's Case Against Human Rights Sanctions

2008-07-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Daphne Eviatar
The American Lawyer
As reported last week in The Hill and also by an overseas blogger at an E.U. hearing in Brussels, DLA Piper is lobbying on behalf of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his Ethiopian government on Capitol Hill. For a minimum of $50,000 a month, DLA Piper lobbyists are urging Congress not to sanction the country for human rights violations. It's a bold move, given that Zenawi's violent crackdown on protesters following contested national elections in 2005 was strongly condemned by human rights advocates.
Although the United States has maintained good relations with the Ethiopian government, deeming it an ally in its war on terror, the Department of State in 2006 reported that Ethiopian security forces shot and killed 187 people, wounded 765, and arrested and detained opposition leaders, human rights advocates and journalists. The State Department's report last year suggested the situation had not improved, noting that the government's human rights violations included:

Unlawful killings, and beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees and
opposition supporters by security forces; poor prison conditions; arbitrary
arrest and detention, particularly of those suspected of sympathizing with or
being members of the opposition or insurgent groups; detention of thousands
without charge and lengthy pre-trial detention; infringement on citizens'
privacy rights and frequent refusal to follow the law regarding search warrants;
use of excessive force by security services in an internal conflict and
counterinsurgency operations; restrictions on freedom of the press; arrest,
detention and harassment of journalists for publishing articles critical of the
government...

A bill pending in Congress -- the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007 -- would withhold $1.5 million in military aid and place other sanctions on Ethiopia until the government agreed to take specific steps to improve its human rights record. DLA Piper partner Dick Armey, a former House majority leader, together with partner Gary Klein are among the lead lawyers working on Ethiopia's behalf to defeat the bill. The bill passed in the House last October and has been strongly promoted by human rights groups. According to The Hill, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not yet taken up the bill.
That may be why some Ethiopians are increasingly expressing outrage at DLA Piper for trying to kill the legislation. Kinfu Assefa, an exiled Ethiopian journalist and editor of the Ethiopian Media Forum, was on hand last week when DLA Piper appeared at an E.U. hearing in Brussels on behalf of the Ethiopian government to defend the country’s human rights situation.
In his post on Nazret.com's Merkato blog -- which identifies itself as "the largest Ethiopian news and information service online" -- Assefa recounted an exchange between the mayor-elect of Addis Ababa and the DLA lawyer:
"You were doing everything to kill HR 2003," Dr. Berhanu [the mayor of Addis Ababa and a leader in the opposition party] responded to the lobbyist. "You earn money by defending a corrupt and criminal regime at the expense of the misery of millions of the Ethiopian poor."
DLA Piper spokesman Jason Costa said that the firm's partners were all at a global retreat off the coast of Spain and could not be reached for comment. The firm did provide the following statement: "The firm is assisting Ethiopia in strengthening bilateral relations with the U.S., including assisting Ethiopian capacity-building efforts, expanding trade and investment opportunities, building relationships with Congress, and enhancing relationships with financial, academic, and public policy institutions."In documents filed with the Department of Justice in May 2006 in which its fee arrangement is disclosed, the firm says that it will provide "legal advice and counsel on a broad range of legislative, regulatory, legal matters and public relations needs."
Interestingly, as The American Lawyer will be reporting in more detail, DLA Piper also is assisting Ethiopia on a pro bono basis with its law school in Addis Ababa. Working with a Northwestern University law professor, DLA sent several partners and associates this past spring to teach two-week courses in business negotiations, international corporate dealmaking and international arbitration. It fell to the Northwestern professor to teach international human rights law.
Asked if he knew that DLA was also helping Ethiopia try to kill the human rights bill, DLA partner Sheldon Krantz, who directs the firm's nonprofit arm, New Perimeter, said he was unaware that the firm represented the Ethiopian government before he agreed to take on the Addis Ababa Law School project in mid-2007. That's not wholly implausible, given that DLA has more than 3,700 lawyers in 25 countries. Then again, the firm's lobbying for the Ethiopian government had been reported on by Legal Times in November 2006 and by the International Herald Tribune in October 2007.
"We were not aware of that when we decided to take on this project," says Krantz. "But our view is that New Perimeter was going to take on the law school as a client separate and apart from the firm's work with the government. Whether there is an issue or not, our view is that this is the right time to help this law school."

How a continent missed its moment

2008-07-03T02:45:00.000-07:00

By Michela Wrong (has spent 13 years reporting on the African continent and is the author of two non-fiction books, "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz," about the Congolese dictator Mobutu, and "I didn't do it for you", about the Red Sea nation of Eritrea.) Blogger's Note: I recommend her book "I didn't do it for you.", and it is worth reading.

Mbeki's grand project has been sabotaged by his inability to view events on the continent outside a narrow racial prism
As the UN, EU, US and Britain all piled in to cajole or browbeat the African Union into Doing the Right Thing over Zimbabwe at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, I experienced a sudden déjà vu.
There was another occasion when commentators informed us that Africa's leaders had fin ally lost patience with Robert Mugabe and were about to rap him across the knuckles. That would be the August 2007 meeting of the Southern African Development Community - at which Mugabe's entrance triggered a standing ovation. Funny how we keep getting it wrong.
As this column was going to press, the AU had eventually decided to press for "a government of national unity". A call for dialogue between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC is perfectly unobjectionable but Zanu-PF and the MDC have been negotiating for years without any noticeable dilution of Mugabe's powers, and the sheer viciousness of the election was an unlikely harbinger of trust and compromise.
The AU had, in any case, already missed its moment. The time for Mugabe's African brothers to speak forcefully was in March, when Tsvan girai won the first round of the election and officials sat on the results for five weeks. Their silence, urged on them by South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, encouraged Mugabe to wage a rearguard action. Zimbabweans paid a bloody price.
But what did the international community really expect of the AU? Any organisation that includes among its elder statesmen Egypt's Hosni Mubarak (27 years at the helm), Gabon's Omar Bongo (41 years) and Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang (a modest 29) will have problems lecturing members on the merits of democracy, as Mugabe himself pointed out. Exactly which recent elections could they have held up as models? Kenya's? Nigeria's? Ethiopia's?
Then there's the mindset. The Organisation of African Unity, dubbed "the dictators' club", was consigned to history back in 2002, its members' knee-jerk tendency to attribute their woes exclusively to colonialism, apartheid and Cold War interference supposedly buried with the title. Thanks to a generation of progressive "Renaissance" leaders, announced Mbeki, an invigorated institution would in future deliver "African solutions to African problems".
The continent would still need western financial and technical help, of course, but the world should no longer assume Africa was incapable of policing itself. A key ingredient would be the African Peer Review Mechanism, which catered for governments to be assessed frankly by their counterparts. Six years on, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Eritrea's Isaias Afewerki and Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi no longer look like enlightened Renaissance leaders. Or rather, theirs is the Renaissance of the Borgias and Machiavelli, not that of the Medicis and Galileo.
On the policing front, it is true that Nelson Mandela managed to negotiate a peace deal between rebels and the government in Burundi, and that an AU force successfully snuffed out a separatist movement in the Comoro Islands. But it took a British military operation to stop civil war in Sierra Leone and Somalia. AU forces have proved little more than token presences, short of equipment, manpower and political backing.
During Kenya's election crisis in December, what was striking was the ruling party's open contempt for Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ghana's president, John Kufuor, two eminent Africans who flew in to mediate. It was only when the British and US governments told President Mwai Kibaki that travel bans had been drawn up and asset freezes were being prepared that it stepped back from the brink.
Zimbabwe tops the list of failures. The classic explanations for African leaders' long indulgence of Mugabe - respect for an elder and former liberation guerrilla, irritation at being lectured by the west, a preference for quiet diplomacy - lost most of their force in the dreadful run-up to the second poll. The facelift has slipped, leaving the AU today bearing a depressing resemblance to its predecessor.
Mbeki's grand project has been sabotaged by his inability to view events on the continent outside a narrow racial prism, and by his refusal, having publicly adopted a position, to be seen to backtrack.
As the South African president was the man who first championed the notion of "African solutions to African problems" with such passion, it is fitting he should now bear the blame for discrediting it in the eyes of the world.

The Two-Cents politics in Ethiopia and the Western's Agenda

2008-07-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

By Z_Journalist
It is easy to understand the Western governments and the Meles Regime use the kind of political formulas to what exactly they stood together on the worst situation of the Horn of Africa. Meles, on one hand, needs to protect his power and he is needed to serve the western governments by organizing weak governments around the Horn of Africa who do not have the dignity to respect and protect their own people.
The political languages we hear from the diplomats, especially the State Department officials from Bush Administration, really makes one wonder if they really have the American foreign agenda "Notebook" with themselves while they are traveling to the Horn of Africa. State Department officials and the American Ambassador in Addis Ababa are scared of the dictator, Meles Zenawi, not to find themselves hanging around the curtain to implement their agendas but they would rather spend most of their time around 4-Kilo and Shiro-Meda drinking their Cappuccino than fixing the worst situation ever happening in Ethiopia. The diplomats are pretending as if nothing bad is happening in the horn of Africa under the dictator's hand. American diplomats are in Ethiopia to implement their political and strategical agenda, and The British are in Ethiopia to punish the country for not receiving them with open hands in the 18th and 19th century for their Colonial agendas. The Italians are there to take their revenge on the people for chasing the Mussolini "Italians" out of the country.
The 21st Century Power struggle on how to control the globe is affecting the horn of Africa due to the economical strategy between the two Economic Power, the USA and China.
China is dumping all its useless materials and human resources to show the Western world that it is business as usual since they are not interfering in the political situation in Ethiopia. Where do the Dollar and Euro come from? Yes, USA and European countries. Who are the Engineers to build the weak Road Systems? China.
China doesn't care that the regime in Addis respects neither the human rights nor the people of Ethiopia. Since when does China respect human-rights? Since when does china respect the people of China? Building the Economic Power in Africa by itself will become another political explosion between the Western world and the Chinese government. The westerns do not trust Africans for any business, refer to Nigeria Oil, due to the bad relation they have developed in Colonial times and after the cold war.
There is a big difference between the US of America and United Kingdom on their foreign relation and policy with the African Countries, especially Ethiopia. United States has lost its ideal relationship with the rest of the world due to the military intervention and the support the US offers to dictators and War-Mongers. Especially, the current US Administration lack of Global politics and Issues has made the people through out the world to stop looking up to the American Ideal of the "well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all". America lost it, big time.
The UK, on one hand, never cares about the atrocities which is spreading all over Africa specially in the countries which were under British Colonies, Egypt, zimbabwe, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Nigeria. Britain will neither stand for the dignity of Human Beings in Africa nor fight for the freedom of the people in the third world. Britain is one "control-freak" which wants nothing but a damage to the African countries. That is the way Britain is and will never change its agenda for the sake of Human-Right as long as An African dictator is working for Britain, as we Ethiopians call those who sold themselves "Bandas".

Ethiopia: Government Prepares Assault on Civil Society

2008-07-01T01:13:00.000-07:00

Human Rights Watch
Repressive New Legislation Should Be Amended or Scrapped

(New York, July 1, 2008) ? Ethiopia's government should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The two groups called on donor governments, whose behind-the-scenes efforts to see the bill reformed appear to have failed, to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia. Ethiopia's federal government claims that its draft Charities and Societies Proclamation (draft law) is a benign attempt to promote financial transparency among NGOs and enhance their accountability to stakeholders. In fact, the law's key provisions are blunt and heavy-handed mechanisms to control and monitor civil society groups while punishing those whose work displeases the government. It could also seriously restrict much of the development-related work currently being carried out by some of Ethiopia's key international partners, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.
"Ethiopia's government has already made meaningful public engagement in governance impossible in many areas by persecuting its critics and cracking down on freedom of expression and assembly," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The clear intention of this legislation is to consolidate that trend by taking the 'non' out of 'nongovernmental' and putting civil society under government control."
The law would apply to every NGO operating in Ethiopia except religious organizations and those foreign NGOs that the government agrees to exempt. Many of the key provisions of the draft law would violate Ethiopia's obligations under international human rights law and fundamental rights guaranteed in its own constitution, including the right to freedom of association and freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both produced separate detailed analyses of the draft law. Among its most damaging provisions are articles that would:

Impose stiff criminal penalties for anyone participating in "unlawful" civil society activity. The draft law would accord government agencies nearly unfettered discretion in deciding whether to register individual NGOs, and then defines as "unlawful" any civil society group that is not registered. To lend teeth to this restriction, the draft law would impose fines and prison sentences of up to 15 years for a range of new offenses including participation in any meeting held by an "unlawful" organization. It would also make dissemination of any information "in the interests of an unlawful charity" punishable by imprisonment. If the law were in effect today, this last provision could potentially be used to imprison anyone in Ethiopia who disseminated this statement.
Subject all civil society groups to intrusive government control and surveillance. The draft law would set up a Charities and Societies Agency (CSA) with extensive discretionary powers to refuse to accord legal recognition to NGOs, to disband NGOs that have already been legally recognized, and to interfere in the management and staffing of NGOs up to the point of altering their organizational missions. The CSA would also have broad powers to monitor all activities of every NGO covered under the law. No NGO could hold any meeting without notifying the CSA in writing at least one week in advance, and the CSA and other government agencies would then be empowered to send police officers to attend and report on those meetings.
Prohibit all activities carried out by non-Ethiopian NGOs that relate to human rights and other identified fields. The draft law draws an important distinction between "foreign" and "Ethiopian" NGOs. "Foreign" NGOs are expressly barred from doing any work related to human rights, governance, protection of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities, conflict resolution and a range of other issues. This would make expressly illegal any attempt by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or any other international human rights organization to engage in human rights activities in Ethiopia unless the government would choose to exempt them from the law.
Strip Ethiopian NGOs that work on human rights issues of access to foreign funding. The draft law would effectively close down the few independent domestic NGOs that continue to work on human rights- and governance-related issues by stripping them of access to foreign funding. The draft law defines as "foreign" any Ethiopian NGO that receives more than 10 percent of its funding from foreign sources or has any members who are foreign nationals, and then bars "foreign" NGOs from working on human rights and governance issues. This would hit hard, given the lack of obvious fundraising and development opportunities inside Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world.

These and other similar provisions in the draft law would have a devastating impact if implemented. But the likely impact is still more ominous when understood in its broader context.

Should this law be passed, Ethiopia's already-limited political space would be further narrowed. Over the years, the government of Ethiopia has demonstrated a pattern of repression, harassment of political opponents and human rights defenders critical of the government, and pervasive human rights violations. These trends have accelerated since the country's controversial 2005 elections. Disputes about the results of those elections led to street protests that were brutally suppressed and then followed by the arrest of opposition politicians and leading activists on charges of treason.
Official tolerance of political dissent, already thin, has waned markedly in the years since then. Formal political opposition has largely evaporated in most of Ethiopia. April's kebele and wereda elections saw the ruling party running unopposed in most constituencies and winning more than 99 percent of all seats.
"This law is not just an assault on independent civil society organizations," said Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director at Amnesty International. "It's part of a broader effort to silence the few independent voices that have managed to make their criticisms of the government heard in an increasingly repressive climate."
Ethiopia is one of the world's most aid-dependent countries. Ethiopia's key bilateral donors, however, have largely maintained a public silence in the face of the government's worsening human rights record. For example, the United States and Britain, which collectively provide Ethiopia with more than $600 million in foreign assistance each year, are the Ethiopian government's most important donors. Both governments have consistently failed to speak out publicly against longstanding patterns of repression and human rights violations including war crimes committed by Ethiopian armed forces in Somalia.
Several donor governments, along with a range of international and domestic NGOs, have had intensive private discussions with Ethiopian officials in an attempt to convince the government to abandon the most repressive aspects of the draft law. These efforts, however, have failed to improve many of the most worrying provisions of the law according to the latest draft released in late June.
"Ethiopia's bilateral partners have consistently failed to speak out publicly against severe patterns of government-sponsored human rights violations," Gagnon said. "Their policy of silence has had the effect of helping to embolden the Ethiopian government to make further assaults on human rights, exemplified by the draft NGO law."

Ethiopian human rights bill stalls

2008-06-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

By Kim Chi Ha
A group of Ethiopian expatriates is pushing Congress to pass a bill that would impose sanctions on the Ethiopian government if it fails to improve its human rights record. But their effort has stalled in the Senate in the face of a well-funded lobbying campaign financed by the government and opposition from the Bush administration, which has credited Ethiopia with aiding its anti-terrorism efforts.
Members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy who now reside in the United States have pushed the bill ever since a controversial presidential election in 2005. The CUD is the largest political opposition party in Ethiopia. Many of its members were arrested following a series of protests to dispute the election results.
“The purpose of this bill is to enable Ethiopia to move forward into the future, especially in regards to international human rights,” said Mesfin Meknonen, a member of the CUD International Foreign Relations committee who has lobbied in support of the bill.
“Human rights training for domestic human rights organizations and government agencies, an area where the current regime has failed, is more than necessary.”
The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007 passed in the House last October. Human rights groups have joined CUD officials here in promoting the bill. Even so, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has yet to take the measure up.
“To a large extent, this bill represents a serious attempt by Congress to push back against the administration’s unconscionable silence about Ethiopia’s dismal human rights record,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, African researcher for Human Rights Watch . “It is both welcome and overdue.”
The government of Ethiopia has fought back by retaining DLA Piper for $50,000 a month. Since March 2007, DLA has collected more than $1.3 million from the east African country.
Lobbyists for Ethiopia circulated a memo on Capitol Hill stating that the bill could undermine U.S. national security interests. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is among the DLA lobbyists working on behalf of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia argues that the bill overlooks the advances that the country has made in adopting democratic reforms, after a long history of being ruled by monarchs and dictators.
“The task towards democracy isn’t going to be easy because our culture is lacking. We went from empire to monarchy to Marxism-Leninism,” said Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian ambassador to the United States.
“I was naïve; I really thought we were going to be a mainstream democracy overnight.”
But Assefa said the legislation will hurt, not help, Ethiopia’s efforts to promote democracy and could destabilize the region.
“The bill would undermine regional stability by severing vital security cooperation between Ethiopia and the U.S.,” said Assefa. “Its champions are those who are advocates of trying another course besides political avenues for expressing whatever political wrongs they seek. This is a misguided approach.”
Since 2000, Ethiopia has been ruled by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The bill is in large measure a response to the violent crackdown by the govern ment following elections in May 2005. Election monitors credited the government with promoting free and fair elections prior to the vote, but said democratic institutions broke down after the highly contested results.
Members of opposition parties called for civil disobedience to protest what they believed was an unfair outcome. According to a 2006 State Department report, Ethiopian security forces shot and killed 187 people, wounded 765, and arrested and detained opposition leaders, human rights advocates and journalists.
The legislation that passed the House would place sanctions on Ethiopia, including the withholding of $1.5 million in military aid, until Zenawi’s government adhered to specific steps outlined in the bill. The United States would also withhold security assistance to Ethiopia, with exceptions made for peacekeeping and counter-terrorism efforts.
Under the bill, any Ethiopian official involved in using lethal force against peaceful demonstrators or accused of “gross” human rights violations would be denied entry into the United States.
In fighting the legislation, critics of the bill have noted Ethiopia’s help in combating terrorism. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has been one of the most vocal opponents of the measure.
“Ethiopia is a strong ally in our war on terror and this is significant because it’s an area of strategic importance,” Inhofe said during a speech on the Senate floor. “We saw firsthand their democratic process in fighting terrorism.”
The Bush administration also opposes the bill. In an interview with Ethiopian TV during a trip to the country last December, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the administration doesn’t “think this is the way to solve this problem.”
“We don’t think that the isolation from the Ethiopian government is going to help at this point,” Rice said.
Supporters of the bill complain that the administration has given too much deference to Ethiopia because of its anti-terrorism support.
“Unfortunately, the Bush administration’s approach to strengthening and building bilateral ties with Ethiopia has been shortsighted and narrow,” said Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).
“As in other parts of the world, the administration’s counter-terrorism agenda dominates the relationship, while poor governance and human rights concerns get a pass.”
Although the impetus of the bill began after the 2005 crackdown, alleged human rights abuses by Ethiopian troops in the Ogaden region, which is largely populated by ethnic Somalis, have increased support for the bill among groups like Human Rights Watch.
That group released a report this month critical of the treatment of civilians in the Ogaden state. The report accused government security forces of raping, torturing and killing civilians who have refused to move out of region.
“While one might quibble with some of the specific provisions of the bill, the administration’s opposition to it is grounded mostly in an indefensible desire to avoid upsetting its cozy relationship with the Ethiopian government,” said Albin-Lackey of Human Rights Watch.
In the interview with Ethiopian TV, Rice said she planned to push government officials during her visit to ensure civilians in the region were protected from abuse.
“Tragic events like those in the Ogaden region have happened, but you have to hold every player accountable,” said Assefa. “In regards to this bill, this is clearly not the case.”
Mesfin Ayenew, executive director of the Ethiopian Center for Public Advocacy, said the legislation was too heavy-handed and could create a rift between the U.S. and the Ethiopian governments.
In addition to threatening to withhold aid, the bill would provide $20 million each year for two years for programs fostering human rights, democratization and economic development.
“The bill goes beyond being a statement of concern because it attempts to micromanage the policies of Ethiopia,” Ayenew said. “Congress has a right to state its concerns, but this bill undermines the sovereignty of government.”

Obama’s victory in Democratic Party poll has continent in a spin

2008-06-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

By NATION Correspondents

Until he started making news as a possible contender for the US presidency, Barack Obama, who this week won the Democratic ticket in the White House race, was almost unknown in Ethiopia. Now, he has a huge fan club in the country, with one of his greatest fans being Ms Birtukan Mideksa, former deputy chair of Ethiopia’s opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party.
Mideksa, who was jailed by the government of Meles Zenawi for two years for “treason and inciting genocide” said that George W. Bush’s administration backed the Zenawi government despite its “betrayal of Ethiopia’s democratisation effort in 2005”.
Mideksa is inspired by Obama’s promise of change and hopes that, if Obama becomes president, the US will be more willing to nudge Mr Zenawi in a more liberal political direction.
“Senator Obama is an agent of change. I am sure he would restore basic civil rights, which many are being denied in the name of war on terror all over the world,” she said. “I am highly impressed by his determination, courage and wisdom. He is my role model and I have fallen in love with his philosophy of change.”
She said she hoped African leaders would learn from Obama how to win the hearts of their people and also respect their rivals instead of fomenting hatred and confrontation.
Meanwhile, Abreham Kumela, a young NGO worker, has been nicknamed “Obama” because of his strong support for the Illinois senator.
“He is not a politician; he advocates tolerance. He teaches us all how to effect change,” Kumela said, explaining his admiration for Obama.
He pointed out that, although Ethiopians at home will not vote in the American elections, he is campaigning among the thousands of Ethiopians in the US, who are also raising funds for Obama, to vote for Obama.
“Obama is bigger than just a politician with African roots; he is a symbol of tolerance and multiculturalism,” Kumela said.
Equally hopeful, but on for different reasons, was Dr Costentinos Berhe, former UN adviser to Nigeria. He believes that, if elected president, Obama might just solve the complex situation in the Horn of Africa.
“The war on terror should not just be a military project,” said Berhe. “It should also address the cultural, social and political changes in this part of the world. “I hope that, because of his African heritage, Senator Obama realises that this change is necessary.”
Human rights
When Obama spent a day in Ethiopia during his African tour in 2006, many Ethiopians realised that he did not support the actions of the current Ethiopian regime. His support for the Bill accusing Ethiopia of having a poor human rights record and proposing serious sanctions, including aid cuts, helped strengthen that view.
Indeed, Dr Rewodros Kiros, an Ethiopian lecturer at Harvard University, US, argues that Obama’s victory might be disastrous for régimes like Ethiopia’s, which do not respect human rights.

Evne in Uganda, where the British Premier football league is a must-watch for many, Obama is as recognisable as the premiership superstars.
“I support Obama for ethnic reasons,” said a university lecturer. He is a black man doing something extraordinary.
In the capital, Kampala, Obama merchandise is highly visible, from locally made T-shirts bearing the senator’s picture and the words “Change you can believe in”, to bumper stickers.
Masaka town, 130 kilometres Kampala, has even named a road after the US Presidential candidate.
“Obama Boulevard”, though not a boulevard in the ordinary sense of the word, was the brainchild of a local businessman, Frank Gashumba, who together with his neighbours, decided to bestow the honour on the Illinois senator.
“Obama has shown us all that you can come from a humble background and give the entire world hope. He makes you proud [to be] black,” the businessman said.
Meteoric rise
Younger educated Ugandans have formed an Obama fan club. And their name, Ugandans for Obama, gives a notable ring to the senator’s meteoric rise in American politics. The founder, Bernard Sabiti, said he was inspired to form the group when he found people in a bar asking, “How is a Kenyan going to rule America?” The group mainly comprises university students with access to the Internet, where they campaign for him.
Another group, the Obama Support Group, says it admires Obama because of his oratorical skills and inspiration. Their aim is to lobby Ugandan-Americans as well as US citizens in Uganda to vote for Obama. Excitement about Obama’s candidature is also evident in neighbouring Tanzania, where many people view him as one of their own. After all, his father was a Luo from Kenya, but Luos are also found in Tanzania, some argue. The Obama-mania cuts across the different sectors of society, with many city commuter taxis now having the name “Obama” emblazoned on them.
As news of Obama’s victory in the Democratic party nomination spread in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, a local fan, Ave-Maria given remarked: “At least America can have a president who is one of our own!”
Peter Tumaini-Mungu, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, gave a somewhat philosophical explanation for his support for Obama.
“Being a person of African origin might not be that important,” he said. “Obama’s policies towards Africa are ambitious, and he has a keen interest in the continent. That is something a person of any origin can have.”
The lecturer, who has attended several Obama campaign in the US, says Obama is a passionate and visionary whom the world needs to make it a better place.
“Obama articulates his policies in favour of the poor and the marginalised, something both Africa and Tanzania need,” he said.
And in West Africa, The Lagos State House of Assembly in Nigeria in April this year launched a website to popularise the Illinois senator and campaign for his White House bid.

During the launch, Lagos was turned into an “Obama state”, with taxis draped with banners bearing the senator’s pictures. Their Vote Obama Initiative website explains their stand thus: “Though without a voting right in the ongoing party primaries of the Democrats in the USA, like everybody around the world, we are very much involved because of the global implications the outcome of the elections would have on the world.
“We are particularly thrilled by Obama’s feat because, for the very first time in the history of the US, he has successfully broken the colour bar. We are even more thrilled that white voters can rally forcefully behind this charismatic black man in his quest to become the first black president in the most powerful nation on earth.
Like Martin Luther King Jr said, today he is no longer being judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character, which has propelled him from near obscurity to international limelight.
In Barack Obama, the agitations of early black nationalists such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and so many others found concrete expressions as he attains leverage in the political calculation of the US that would no longer ignore Afro-Americans and their electoral strength. To us, this is a feat worthy of celebration as the dawn of a new era.”
Obama spell
So potent is the Obama spell that a group of militant youths in Nigeria’s Niger Delta were taken in by the tricks of a creative-minded security agent who, left with no answer to the fire power of the militiamen, decided to send them a message they could not ignore. He simply sent an e-mail purportedly from Obama, in which he asked that the militants stop the war in the area.
Surprisingly, the militants agreed and announced to the world that Obama had been requested to observe a ceasefire by a person they could not defy!
World oil prices were just starting to fall when the real Obama denied that he was the one who asked for a ceasefire. The young men of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta returned to their trenches immediately.
Obama also enjoys huge support in Ghana, where Godwin Yaw Agboka, a columnist, tried to explain his appeal thus: “Obama appears to have a magic wand that appeals to the youth, independents, and liberals. For the first tim, in many decades, the expectations among voters, are reaching boiling point — call it a crescendo. Voters seem to want things to change in Washington. Obama represents the change they want. Forget about the fact that he is black. Obama has transcended race. He talks about hope, and believes that ‘there is nothing false about hope’. He knows how to say the right things at the right time”.
African initiative
With Obama now the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, one can expect the African Initiative for Obama group to swing into action – selling posters, caps, and other merchandise, all to support him.
The group has affiliates across West Africa, and plans to spread throughout the continent.
On Tuesday, its chairman and continental coordinator, Elvis Agukwe, told Daily Nation in Abuja that in about a week, they will approach church leaders and Imams to ask their congregations to begin special prayers for God to guide Americans in their choice of president.
Beyond the buzz, however, Obama has clearly touched something profound among many Africans. As Patricia Jebbah Wesley, a Liberian poet, puts it, “It is a good thing that I am alive to see all of this, and it is a good thing that you are reading this ,and you too, are alive to record this for your children”.

Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network Project

Magazine issue seized, its editor and others imprisoned

2008-05-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

(EFJA/IFEX) - In a move that is widely believed to have been deliberately chosen to coincide with World Press Freedom Day, the Ethiopian government struck against the private press on 3 May 2008. This development is part of a slide toward naked tyranny, following the brutal crackdown after the 2005 election.
Ten thousand copies of a non-political monthly magazine, "Enku", have been impounded by police and the publisher and deputy editor of the magazine, Alemayehu Mahtemework, imprisoned. The magazine was impounded on the night of 2 May, just before it was set to hit the market early on 3 May.
Along with the publisher, three other persons in no way connected to the magazine, but who were in the van carrying the magazine out of the printing press, were also imprisoned. The magazine's cover story is about the imprisonment of Ethiopia's pop icon and critic of the government, Tewdros Kasahun, which is stirring political passions in the country. The imprisoned are due to appear before court on 5 May.
The EFJA expresses its deep concern over these illegal actions. It also calls on all free press institutions, professional associations, international human rights activists and organizations to make their voices heard in protest of this development, which poses a great danger to the democratic rights of Ethiopian journalists.

Ethiopia opposition group to boycott local elections

2008-04-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Ethiopia's largest opposition group said Thursday it will boycott this month's elections, claiming the ruling party has forced tens of thousands of candidates to drop out through intimidation, detentions and threats.
"We are getting out of the whole process. The whole process is an illegal process," Beyene Petros, leader of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, a national coalition of opposition parties, told The Associated Press.
Ethiopia, a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, has a long history of human rights abuses and flawed elections. Government security forces killed 193 civilians protesting alleged fraud in the 2005 general elections, which the European Union said were flawed.
Ethiopia will hold local, regional and some federal elections on April 13 and 20, with some 4 million seats up for grabs. But the main opposition groups, including UEDF and the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, say at least 17,000 of their candidates have dropped out under pressure.
Many of the dropouts are in volatile western Ethiopia, where a rebellion by the Oromo ethnic group has been simmering for decades, the opposition said.
The dropout figures, which the opposition cited from their own tallies, could not be independently verified.
The Ethiopian government strongly denied the allegations.
"That's simply baseless," said Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "There is no harassment, that's why nobody can prove it. We haven't experienced that, and they haven't experienced it either. Both the opposition and the ruling party haven't experienced any intimidation."
But the AP interviewed a dozen candidates and voters who gave independent accounts of intimidation by local officials with the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
"Intimidation is going on on a mass scale," said Bulcha Demeksa, a lawmaker who heads the opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement. "People have been told all kinds of scary things, like their children won't find jobs when they finish school ... that if they starve, they will not get any food."
David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, told a congressional committee in Washington in March that he was concerned about this month's elections.
"The local elections are an opportunity for advancing democracy in Ethiopia," Shinn told the panel. "If they fail to achieve this goal, it will be an enormous lost opportunity."
In the tiny town of Nedjo, nestled deep in Ethiopia's western coffee country, aspiring teacher Seifu Tamiru said local officials from the ruling party forced him to abandon his ambitions of becoming a member of the town council.
"They said, 'If you keep on running for this position, you will not be employed as a teacher,'" said Seifu, 26, who ran as a member of the OFDM. "They said, 'Nobody in your family is going to be employed.'"
Seifu's campaign didn't even last a week.
"I was registered on Friday," Seifu said. "They started intimidating me on Saturday. I dropped out on Wednesday."
Beyene, leader of the UEDF, said at least one candidate from his party faced an attempt on his family's life.
"They torched a family when they were sleeping," he said. "The father was running as a candidate on our ticket."
The family, he said, escaped unharmed.
"That is our biggest success," Beyene said wryly, "that no one has been killed."
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia said it has received complaints but cannot act without more evidence.
"Can they provide the evidence they were forced (to drop out)?" said board secretary Tesfaye Mengesha. "No, we asked them, they can't. How can they say they are forced? It's just an allegation."
OFDM said it has determined that up to 3,000 candidates may have been forced to drop out, according to their internal records. Beyene, the leader of the other opposition party, said the party lost 14,000 candidates for local seats in western and southern Ethiopia.
"This is from our own records," he said. "We maintain our own records and we tally who has passed, who has qualified and who has been dismissed. Our district managers compiled this information."
Beyene said he again fears violence in constituencies where his party's candidates have popular support. He also cited ethnic concerns and popular frustration with the nation's political elite, which is dominated by Ethiopians from the northern Tigray region.
"My fear is that in many of these places there will be violence," he said. "The worrisome point is how this society is being polarized. And this follows ethnic lines."
Also Thursday, about 2,000 people gathered in central Addis Ababa to hold a rare political protest.
"We want to be free," said Tayib Mohammed, 37, a member of the Welene, a predominantly Muslim tribe from the south of Ethiopia. That group also claims exclusion from the political process.
But despite promises by the government to bolster freedoms, many critics, opposition supporters and politicians feel democracy in Ethiopia has regressed since 2005.
"It has not gotten better," said Bulcha, the opposition lawmaker. "Democracy in Ethiopia is stillborn. It is not active now."

Freedom for Ethiopian anti-poverty campaigners

2008-02-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

CIVICUS & GCAP Press Release

28 March 2008 – After a long two years and five months in prison, the two Ethiopian anti-poverty campaigners Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were released from prison this afternoon.
“We are thrilled that Daniel and Netsanet have finally been released from prison. It has been a long wait for them and their families, but finally freedom and justice is theirs. The release is a testament to Daniel and Netsanet’s contributions to human rights and poverty eradication in Ethiopia, Africa and around the world, and is a vindication of civil society efforts to confront injustice.” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), speaking from outside Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa upon their release.
Daniel and Netsanet, both coordinators of GCAP in Ethiopia, were today released following recent negotiations. While they were acquitted on treason related charges in December 2007, they were found guilty on the lesser charge of “provocation and preparing incitement” and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. If they had served the full sentence, they would have been released in early May 2008.
“It is indeed a wonderful moment for civil society in Ethiopia. Two of the country’s most courageous defenders of human rights and social justice are once again free. Today, their release is being celebrated in the over 100 country coalitions of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and CIVICUS members in more than 120 countries,” said Irfan Mufti, Campaign Manager of GCAP.
Daniel and Netsanet were the last two remaining detained in the high profile treason trial that originally charged 131 journalists, politicians and civil society leaders on a range of charges from genocide to treason. They were among thousands who were detained following protests accusing the government of rigging the 15 May 2005 parliamentary elections.
Aside from their work with GCAP, Daniel is also head of the policy department at ActionAid International Ethiopia. Netsanet is also the founder of local human rights group Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia. Daniel and Netsanet were instrumental in coordinating legitimate election monitoring activities by local civil society organisations during the May 2005 election.

Ethiopa's war on its own

2008-02-25T00:20:00.000-08:00

DADAAB, KENYA -- The bullet tore through Ibrahim Hamad's torso and lodged in his hip. The 26-year-old teacher was at home with his elderly father when government forces swept through his town in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, burning huts and killing civilians. "The young girls were the first to die. The soldiers shot them and gathered the bodies and burned them," he said. The troops demanded that surviving men join their ranks, threatening those who refused with torture, imprisonment and death.
"When they came to my home, I told them, 'I am just a schoolteacher, I will not leave my family,' " said Hamad. In a bleak whisper, he recounted the ordeal that followed. "They strangled my father with a wire and hung his body in a tree. Then they shot me and left me for dead."
Hamad now struggles to survive in this remote refugee camp in northern Kenya, joining thousands who have fled a reign of terror by the Ethiopian army. Little noticed by the world, Ethiopia is waging war against its own people in the Ogaden desert. Long-simmering tensions erupted last April when separatist rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field. The Ethiopian government responded by ejecting humanitarian agencies and launching a scorched-earth campaign in the region.
The targeting of the predominantly ethnic-Somali Ogaden population has led to accusations of ethnic cleansing. In October, Human Rights Watch warned that events in Ogaden were following a "frighteningly familiar pattern" to those in Somalia's Darfur region, noting "ethnic overtones" to attacks and accusing Ethiopia of "displac[ing] large populations" and "deliberately attack[ing] civilians." Government forces have been implicated in escalating looting, burnings and atrocities. Recently, soldiers have begun a brutal campaign of forced conscription, often torturing or killing those who refuse to join.
The Ethiopian government has suppressed most news from the region, sealing Ogaden's borders and denying access to the media. Last May, three New York Times reporters researching the crisis were held for five days and had their equipment confiscated. Ethiopian officials have been quick to dismiss mounting reports of bloodshed as propaganda. But in this camp, refugees fleeing Ogaden tell stories of rape, torture and mass murder perpetrated against civilian villages by Ethiopia's military.
However, it is the U.S. government, not Ethiopia's, that elicits the most anger from Hamad and the other Ogadenis seeking shelter in Dadaab. The bullet that shattered Hamad's hip, and the gun that fired it, were likely supplied by the United States. The soldier who pulled the trigger was almost certainly compensated with U.S. military aid.
The U.S. has historically provided Ethiopian forces with arms, funding and training. In recent years, the bond has deepened, with Ethiopia's military serving as a proxy for American interests in a region increasingly viewed as a crucial front in the war on terrorism. Since 9/11, military aid to Ethiopia has soared, growing at least 2 1/2 times by 2006. A close intelligence-sharing relationship between the governments has burgeoned.
In the face of mounting evidence of atrocities, some U.S. officials are questioning the no-strings-attached backing of Ethiopia's army. "This is a country that is abusing its own people," said Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, accusing the Bush administration of "look[ing] the other way" as Ethiopia's abuses worsen. Last fall, the House passed the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act, sponsored by Payne, to limit military aid to Ethiopia. It awaits action by the Senate. "The United States cannot afford to allow cooperation on the war on terror," Payne said, "to prevent us from taking a principled stance on democracy and human rights issues."
Ironically, unbridled support of Ethiopia's army in the interest of combating terrorism may serve as a powerful catalyst for anti-U.S. sentiment. "We hate the U.S.A. more than the Ethiopians," one Ogadeni told me. "It is guns and money from the U.S.A. that are killing our people."
If Washington wants to fight the rising tide of terrorism in the Horn of Africa, it cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the abuses of its closest ally in the region. The U.S. wields unique influence over Ethiopia; how it uses that influence will determine Ogaden's future. Legislators should continue to press the Bush administration to help stop the bloodshed. Current levels of U.S. aid should be made contingent on Ethiopia halting its attacks on civilians. That might sacrifice some goodwill with Ethiopian officials -- but it could save the people of the Ogaden.
Ronan Farrow, a student at Yale Law School, has worked on human rights issues for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and recently accompanied a congressional delegation to the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopians for Obama raised fund

2008-02-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

The irreparable "US-Ethiopia" Policy

2008-01-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

By untouchable_9
American government policies on Ethiopia and the rest of African countries have been a disaster even to implement to what they have been pin-pointed at their meetings and discussions in the fancy offices of Washington DC. The American National interest in Africa is not about the changes that the people of Africa would like to have on freedom of movement, expression, and participating in resolving the political crisis within their own countries.
White House is a place where the decision-making is taking place on the policies of US of America on Africa. The Intention of the US of America leaders makes the difference in the policies on which each department of the US government determines either to pass the “life-and-death” decision on the “undemocratically elected” regimes of African countries whether the citizens of Africans like it or not, or to undermine the regime while holding it as America’s own personal property. State Department may have the power to make the call on the road of diplomacy. Pentagon may have the power to look at the geopolitics of the strategic position of the American logistical coordination of its Army, Navy, and Air force, and National Security Council, as a closer advisor of the President, to authorize the resolutions made by the white house. The last one that has to be not forgotten is the congress, which is the medium between the people of America and the American government that plays the political flip-flops in the Capitol Hill Halls.
The US role in Africa is played only in these departments by the African power-mongers living in exile and their embassies, and some political researchers from School of Kennedy who are working as advisors for the White House, and the American decision makers. The United States of America should have been an example to install the respect for human rights of the people of Africa even though the people are poor and cannot determine the plight of the political process, which is made on them.
The US should have had the desire to involve the people of Ethiopia directly on the political process since the effort the US has produced in changing the political environment put the US-policy in a great trouble. The overarching goal of US policy is blankly limited and not even spread conclusively to involve the natives in general without creating a big hole in the differences of culture and language that Marxism played in its doctrine. I hope Marx is not laughing at the US political players from his grave.
The American public may not have a clue or don’t have the energy to even check the policies themselves to what extent the people in Ethiopia would gain on how American policy-makers decide on the plight of the country, Ethiopia. US-policy represents the citizens, Americans, and the policies should really act like their mirrors in looking at their outlook in ones eyes. This same ideology must be performed when the American policy makers deal with a country like Ethiopia. Ethiopians represent Ethiopia and Ethiopians should be advised on the changes that are made on behalf of them before any decision-making. Isn’t why congress is the pole of politics representing American constituents?
The regime change by another regime in Ethiopia is the pain that Ethiopians are going through and still the suffering never ends from the day the installment of the Meles Zenawi Regime. It is now the time for questions to be answered, and American-policy makers should prepare their plain answers to the very important questions the people of Ethiopia would like to hear from them. Preparing “cover-up” stories for diplomatic purposes on the poorest people in the world would never give any impression of the modern democratic country, the US. Why does the US allow the people of Ethiopia to suffer under the Meles Regime?

ቅንጅት እና አቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል

2007-12-30T11:26:00.000-08:00

ከተሰሎንቄ

ኢትዮጵያውያን ሃገራቸውን ከገባችበት ማጥ ለማውጣት በሚያደርጉት የፖለቲካ ትግል እና የፖለቲካ እንቅስቃሴ ድካማቸውን አሳይተው ምስጋና ለማግኘት ሳይሆን ለሃገራቸውና ለራሳቸው የሚመኙት ነፃነት ፣ ፍትሕ ፣ ዲሞክራሲና አንድነት ተወልደው በምድረ-ኢትዮጵያ ለማየት ከመሻት የተነሳ ነው። ለዚህም ነው ከ40 ዓመታት በላይ ገዥውን መደብ የሚታገሉ የሰላም እና የትጥቅ ትግልን መስመር የያዙ የፖለቲካ ድርጅቶችን በእቅፉ ይዞ የትግል ጉዞውን እጅ ለእጅ ተያይዞ ለመጓዝ የተገደደው። ለዚህም ነው ደርግ በጠመንጃ ኃይል ከሠራዊቱ በወጡ መኮንኖቹ የአፄ ሀይለሥላሤን ንጉሳዊ አገዛዝ ሲጥል የሕዝብ እሮሮ እና ጩኸት ረድቶት እና አበረታቶት ቤተ-መንግስቱን ሊወርስ የበቃው፤ እንዲሁም የወያኔ/ኢህአዴግ አምባገነናዊ አገዛዝ በጠመንጃ ኃይል የደርግን አምባገነናዊ አገዛዝ ሙሉ በሙሉ በሆነ የሕዝብ ድጋፍ ገርሰሶ ያው የደገፈውን ሕዝብ ረስቶ፣ ይኅው አሁንም ከቀደምቶቹ ሁለቱ አገዛዞች ባልተናነሰ የሀገሪቱን ሕዝብ ነፃነቱን ነስቶ በአምባገነንት እየገዛ ነው።
ለመሆኑ እንደዚህ አይነቶቹን አምባገነናዊ አገዛዞችን የመታገል መብት ያለው ማን ነው? ወጣም ወረደ ኢትዮጵያውያን ናቸው አምባገነኖችን ታግለው የፈቀዱትንና የመረጡትን እንዲያስተዳድራቸው ለስልጣኑ ብቁ ሊያደርጉት የሚገባው። ይህ ከዚህ በላይ የቀረበው ወግ(principle) ከአለው ተጨባጭ ሁኔታ አንፃር እና ኢትዮጵያ ከአለፈችበት የአገዛዝ ስርዓቶች በጭብጥ ያሳየው የስርዓት ለውጥ ባይኖርም ነገር ግን በሃገራችን ሊጠበቅ የሚገባና በእያንዳንዱ ዜጋ ተከብሮ መቆየት ያለበት ጉዳይ ነው።
ቅንጅት ከ2005 ምርጫ በፊት ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ከአሰራጨው የፖለቲካ መርሆ መሃል ዋንኛው ዜጋው ራሱን የማስተዳደር ብልሃትን በምርጫ ወቅት በድምፁ የመለወጥ መብት እንዳለው ያለፍርሃት ማሳወቁና ማስተማሩ ነው። ይህ የሕዝብን ምኞት እና መብት የፈሩት አፀፋውን በጥይት እና ብልግና በተሞላው ሁኔታ የሰውን ልጅ ስብዕና ገፈው ስልጣን ጨብጠው ለሁሉም መፍትሔው እኛ ብቻ ነን በሚል ፈሊጥ ላይ ይገኛሉ።
እውነት ቅንጅት የማን ነው? ለምንስ ነው ቅንጅት በኢትዮጵያውያን ልብ ውስጥ ገብቶ እና ሰርፆ መገኘቱ አንዳንዶችን እያደማ የሚገኘው? ምኑ ላይ ነው ጥፋቱ?
መቼም ይህን ፅሁፍ በምፅፍበት ጊዜ የቱን አንስቼ የቱን እንደምጥል አላውቀውም። ነገር ግን ከሁሉ በፊት አስቀዳሚ እና ያሰፈልጋል የምላቸውን እና የማስባቸውን ትህትና በተሞላበት ሁኔታ ላቀርብ እወዳለሁ።
ለአራት ወራት ያህል በቅንጅት መሪ እና በአመራር አባላቶች መካከል የተከሰተው ልዩነት ብዙዎችን ሊያሳዝን ይችላል። ቢሆንም ግን ከእዚህ እውነታ ብዙዎቻችን ተጠቅመናል እንጂ አልተጎዳንም። የተጎዳንባቸው ሁኔታዎች ዛሬ የተፈጠሩ ሳይሆን በቀድሞ ዘመናት በህይወታችን ውስጥ የተከሰቱ እና ክስተታቸው ደግሞ በአስደናቂ ሁኔታ ተመልሰው የመጡብን ናቸው። ወያኔ/ኢህአዴግ የዚህ ክስተት ውጤት ነው። ለወያኔ/ኢህአዴግ በአገራችን ላይ ለሚያደርሰው በደልና ጥፋተኛ አሰራር ትልቅ አስተዋፆኦ ያደረገው “ከኔ በላይ ማን?!” የሚለው ድርቀት ያተሞላበት አመለካከት ነው።
ነገሮች ቢዳፈኑ ምንም ጥቅም የላቸውም። ተዳፍነው ከሰነበቱ ከእንደገና ከተዳፈኑበት ቦታ ሲወጡ መልሰው ጉዳት ማድረሳቸው አይቀሬ ነው። እስከዛሬ ድረስ በዚህ አራት ወራት ውስጥ በቅንጅት ላይ የተፈፀሙትን ደባ ለምስክርነት ደባው ሲፈፀም በቦታው ተገኝቼ ለመስማት እና ለማወቅ በመታደሌ በአንድ መልኩ ሐዘኔ ከፍ ያለ ነበር፡ በሌላ መልኩ በቻልኩበት ቦታ ሁሉ እየተፈፀመ ያለውን ደባ አስፈላጊ በሆነ መልኩ ለማሳወቅ ሞክሬአለሁ።
በቅድሚያ በቅንጅት አለምዓቀፍ አመራር መካከል እና በሻለቃ ዮሴፍ ቡድን በኩል የተደረገው የሽምግልና ሂደት ፈፅሞ እግዚአብሔር በማይወደው መልኩ ዕድሜያቸው ገፋ ባለ ወደ አንድ ወገን ያደሉ እና በውስጣቸው ቂመኝነትንና “የምላችሁን ካልሰማችሁ… ዋ!” በሚሉ አዛውንቶች የተፈፀመ ነው፣ አዝናልሁ።
የቅንጅት አለምዓቀፍ ምክርቤት በሚል መጠሪያ የተሰየመው ድርጅት አመሠራረት በሽምግልና በቅንጅት አለምዓቀፍ አመራር እና በሻለቃ ዮሴፍ ቡድን መካከል ተፈጠረ የተባለውን ስምምነት አስታኮ በመምጣት በባህላችን ታላቅ ቦታ የሚሰጠውን የሽምግልና ልምድ ያቃለለ እና ያዋረደ ነበር። እዚህ ላይ ዱለታው መፈፀም የጀመረው ሁለቱ ታራቂ ቡድኖች ያላቸውን የውስጥ ልዩነት እንኳ ሳይፈቱ ማለትም “ሽማግሌዎች ነን” ብለው የቀረቡት ግለሰቦች ቀድሞውኑ የአንዱ ተሸምጋይ አካል(ወገናዊ) ሆነው እንደቀረቡ አውቅ ነበር። ለማን ልናገረው? ብጮህ ሰሚ አልነበረም፤ አልፈርድም፤ ምክንያቱም እንደእኔ በአካል በተዶለተበት ቦታ ሆኖ ዱለታውን ያየ ባለመኖሩ!!!
በዚያን ወቅት ይህን ሁኔታ ሳዳምጥና ሳስተውል በተለይ የቅንጅት አለምዓቀፍ አመራር አካሎች ሊያዳምጡ ይችላሉ ብዬ በአሰብኩበት ቦታ “እባካችሁን እንዲህ አይነቱ ሽምግልና ውስጥ እንዳትገቡ” የሚለውን መልዕክቴን ላደርስ በሞከርኩ ጊዜ ሽምግልናው በአለምዓቀፉ አመራር በኩል በወቅቱ የታየውንና ያለውን ልዩነት እና ክፍፍል በተቻለ መልኩ ከትግሉ ለማራቅ በሚል እምነት ነው። የሆነ ሆኖ ነገሮቹ እንደፈራሁት ሆኖ በመገኘቱ ያኔ አልተቆጨሁም ነበር። አሁን ግን የዚያን ጊዜ ወይንም ከዚያ በፊት የተፈጠረው ልዩነት ውጤት ይኅው ከምድረ-አሜሪካ አልፎ ከእስር እንዲፈቱ የጮህንላቸው የቅንጅት አመራር አካል ውስጥ ገብቶ የሃገር ቤቱን ትግል እንዲያዘግም እና ዋና ፈሩን እንዲለቅ በማድረጉ ያንገበግበኛል።
በሃገሪቱ እንዲሰፍን የሚፈለገውን የዲሞክራሲ ሂደት በአፅንዖት ለማየት ከአስፈለገ የግድ ትዕግስት የተሞላበት አጠቃላይ የኢትዮጵያን ሁኔታ ማጥናት እና መረዳት ተገቢ ነው። ለዚህ ጉዳይ የግድ የ“ፖለቲካ ሳይንስ” ማጥናት ወይንም “የተማረ” ሆኖ መገኘት ብቻውን ጠቃሚ ሆኖ ሊገኝ አይችልም። እንደዚህ ላለው ትግል በኃይል የመጣን ወይንም ያለውን ፈንግሎ ጥሎ ሌላ ኃይለኛን የኢትዮጵያ ገዢ እንዲሆን መሾሙ በጣም ቀሎ ሊታይ ይችላል። ነገር ግን አሁን ያለው በኢትዮጵያ እየተካሄደ የሚገኘው የትግል አቅጣጫ እያንዳንዳችን ልናገኝ የሚገባንን ነፃነት ላይ ያተኮረ ነው። ማንም፤ ቅንጅቱም ቢሆን፤ ሀገሪቱን ቢመራ የፍትህ፣ የሀሳብ፣ እንዲሁም ድምፅ የመስጠት ነፃነት መከበር ዋንኛው ለሀገራችን ሊኖራት የሚገባና እነዚህ ከላይ የተጠቀሱት ነጥቦች ሀገር አስተዳዳሪዎችና ተዳዳሪዎች የሚመሩባቸው ቁልፍ እሴቶች ሆነው መገኘት ልንታገልበት የሚገባ ነው።
ለምን ይሆን “ቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ ምክር ቤት” ብሎ ራሱን የመሰረተው ቡድን ከላይ ከጠቀስናቸው የሕዝብ ራዕይ ውጭ የሆነ አስፀያፊ ተግባር ውስጥ የገባው? እልህ ነውን?! ወይንስ “የበላዩ እኔ ነኝ” በሚል ለራስ የማይገባ ስልጣን ውስጥ መወርወር ነውን?! ዋናው በውስጡ ያቀፈው አካሄድ ለማንም በተለይ በቅንጅት ውስጥ ለታቀፈው አባላት እና ደጋፊ ይበጃል ብሎ ማሰብ የሚፈይደው ምንም ነገር የለም። ይህ ድርጅት የቅንጅትን ማኒፌስቶ ማቀፉ በጣም አጠያያቂ ከመሆኑም ሌላ፡ ህገ-ደንቡ ምን እንደሆነ የማይታወቅ በህቡዕ የሌሎች ድርጅቶች አባሎች እና ደጋፊዎች ከቅንጅት ራዕይ እና ዓላማ ውጭ በሆነ አመለካከት ይዘው በውስጡ እየዋኙበት መሆኑ ነው። ቅንጅት የያዘው ዓላማ ወያኔ/ኢህአዴግ በስልጣን ላይ ኖረም አልኖረ በኢትዮጵያ ላይ ሊሰፍን በሚገባው የነፃነት፤ የመብት፡ እንዲሁም የፍትሕ በሀገሪቱ ውስጥ ተግባራዊ መሆን ላይ ያተኮረ ነው።
በቅንጅት አመራር መሀከል የተፈጠረው ልዩነት በምዕራቡ ዓለም ለሚኖሩ ምሁራን ግልፅ ሆኖ አልታይ ያለበት ምክንያት ምን እንደሆነ ለዚህ ፀሀፊ ግራ ከማጋባቱ ሌላ ምን ያህል እነዚህ ምሁራን በጉዳዩ ላይ ጠለቅ ያለ ምርመራ አለማድረጋቸው በግልፅ እየታየ መሄዱ ነው።
እስቲ ከእስር ከተፈቱበት ጊዜ አንሰቶ የተከሰቱትን ክስተቶች አጠር ባለ ሁኔታ ዘርዘር እያደረግን እንያቸው።

አቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል ከእስር እንደተፈቱ በቀጥታ ወደ አሜሪካ ሄደው ህክምናቸውን ለመከታተል እና እንዲሁም ከቅንጅት ደጋፊዎች ጋር ለመነጋገር ቪዛ ለማግኘት አሜሪካን ኤምባሲ ማመልከቻ ያስገባሉ። በሚያሰገቡበት ወቅት መጀመሪያ ያሰቡት ነገር ቢኖር ከሌሎቹ የቅንጅት አመራር አባላት በቅድሚያ ወደ አሜሪካ ተጉዘው እንዳሰቡት እና እንዳቀዱት ሁሉ ይሳካል ብለው ነበር። እንደዚህ ፀሀፊ ግምት አቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል አስቀድመው ወደ አሜሪካ በመሄድ በግንቦት 1997 ምርጫ ወቅት እንዳደረጉት፤ የገንዝብ ማሰባሰብ እና የሕዝብ-ግንኙነት፤ በምድረ-አሜሪካ ራሳቸው ብቻ ማስፈፀም እና ሀይላቸውን ለማጠናከር እና ለማዳበር ነበር።
ሌላው ደግሞ ከእስር የተፈቱት የቅንጅት አመራር አባሎች በኩል ፀድቆ ከሀገር ውጭ የፖለቲካ ውክልናን በተመለከተ የፖለቲካው ስራ አመራሩ ከእስር እስከተፈታ ድረስ በቅንጅት አመራር በኩል መካሄድ እንደሚጀምር እና በውጭ የሚገኙት በተለይ “ቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ ምክር ቤት” እና “ቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ አመራር” ስራቸውን እንዲያቆሙ የሚገልፀው መግለጫ በቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ አመራር በኩል ተቀባይነት አግኝቶ አመራሩ ሲፈርስ “ቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ ምክር ቤት” ግን አልፈረስኩም ብሎ ራሱን ባርኮ መቀመጡ ነው።
አቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል ይህን መግለጫ በፊርማቸው አፅድቀው ነገር ግን ለ“ቅንጅት ዓለም አቀፍ ምክር ቤት” የይገባዋል ስልጣነ-ሹመት ሲሰጡ፡ ይዞ የመጣው መዘዝ ለአቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል መያዣ መጨበጫ ያጣ ከመሆኑም በላይ ለራሳቸውም ሆነ ለድርጅቱ እንደ ሀይሉ ሻውል ሆነው መመሪያ ሊሰጡ አልቻሉም። አቶ ሀይሉ ሻውል በእርግጥ በህመም ላይ ናቸው ቢባል፡ ከዚህም በላይ የሚያዳምጧቸው እና የሚያወያይዋቸው በዚህ ፅሁፍ ውስጥ የጠቀስኩዋቸው የሌላ ፖለቲካ ድርጅት አባሎች እና ደጋፊዎች በዚሁ የቅንጅት የዲሞክራሲ ትግል ውስጥ ገብተው የአቶ ሀይሉ ሻውልን ሕመም እና ሌሎች ገንዘብ ነክ ምክንያቶች አስታከው፤ ይኸው አሁን ቅንጅት የደረሰበት ደረጃ ደርሷል።

..... ይቀጥላል

Rice's visit to Ethiopia puts focus on Zenawi accused of human rights abuses

2007-12-05T00:49:00.000-08:00

By Shashank Bengali McClatchy Newspapers
NAIROBI, Kenya — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Ethiopia this week puts a spotlight on the tight but troubled relationship between the United States and the volatile Horn of Africa nation.
Over the past year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has emerged as the Bush administration's staunchest African ally in the war on terrorism, sending troops into neighboring Somalia to topple a hard-line Islamist regime and cooperating with the U.S. military in a hunt for al Qaida suspects that so far has been unsuccessful.
But Rice's arrival Wednesday comes as Ethiopian troops are bogged down against Islamist-led insurgents in Somalia and face a growing outcry over alleged human rights abuses against Muslims in the restive Ogaden region — two conflicts that experts believe could serve as a rallying cry for Islamic fundamentalists.
While Rice is expected to focus on other African hot spots — Sudan, Somalia, Congo — when she arrives, experts say that the visit will serve as a diplomatic pat on the back for Meles.
"It's clearly an indication of support for the government in Ethiopia and an acknowledgement of their support on issues related to counterterrorism," said David Shinn, an ambassador to Ethiopia during the Clinton administration.
That support looks increasingly problematic.
Last December, Ethiopian forces, backed by U.S. military intelligence, ousted an Islamist regime in Somalia that the Bush administration said had ties to al Qaida. The U.S. military launched airstrikes in Somalia this year on suspected terrorists, including three men wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but none of the leading suspects is believed to have been killed.
Meanwhile, one of the targets, Aden Hashi Ayro, an Afghanistan-trained jihadist who is on U.S. terror lists, has returned to Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. At the helm of a militant group known as the Shabaab, Ayro has called for holy war against Ethiopian and Somali government forces.
Facing near-daily attacks, Ethiopia recently sent in reinforcement troops, boosting its occupation force to perhaps as many as 10,000, say security analysts.
Some experts believe that Ethiopia, with its heritage of Christianity, is proving to be a magnet for foreign jihadists. Somalia's U.S.-backed president, Abdullahi Yusuf, has said that Shabaab has an "international wing" that includes fighters from foreign countries, while the proliferation of remote-controlled roadside bombs — a new tactic in Somalia — suggests a more sophisticated insurgency.
Foreign fighters "have been in Somalia in small, modest numbers for some time," Shinn said. "The longer the Ethiopian presence remains, it's likely to increase, even if not in large numbers."
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Ethiopian forces of violating the laws of war by indiscriminately bombing densely populated parts of Mogadishu and deliberately shooting civilians. The U.N. estimates that 215,000 people fled their homes over the past six weeks, and relief agencies are struggling to deliver food and medical supplies to refugee encampments along a dusty highway leading away from Mogadishu.
"There is no solution to the humanitarian crisis with the presence of Ethiopian troops," Georges-Marc Andre, the European Union's special envoy to Somalia, said recently.
In Ethiopia, clashes have escalated between government troops and a separatist group known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is made up of ethnic Somali Muslims in the desert-like eastern region bordering Somalia. Ogaden refugees have accused Ethiopian forces of blocking all commercial trucks, commandeering food and water supplies and executing civilians accused of supporting the rebel group.
Some Somalis are now fighting alongside the Ogaden insurgents, according to a Somali Islamist leader who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.
Analysts believe that Ethiopia, which has one of the best equipped armies in Africa, will continue to fight on both fronts, raising the possibility of even worse conflict.
"Ethiopia at the end won't lose," said a senior Western diplomat who follows Somalia, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to journalists. "They will throw men and money at the problem until they lick it."
Meanwhile, Meles faces trouble on the home front as international observers voice concerns about the lack of political freedom ahead of local elections next year.
In July, Ethiopia freed 38 opposition leaders who'd spent nearly two years in prison for allegedly fomenting unrest following disputed elections in 2005. But opponents say that the government continues to stifle their activities, preventing them even from opening offices.
Andargachew Tsege, a leader of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy, said that Rice's visit could overshadow the problems in Ethiopia, where four out of five people live on less than $2 per day.
"Simply her presence there would give an impression that everything is well," he said by phone from London, where he lives in exile. "That is a diplomatic bonus for Meles."

(A McClatchy special correspondent, who cannot be named due to safety concerns, contributed to this report from Mogadishu.)

Giuliani’s Firm Lobbied for H.R. 2003 Considered Threat

2007-12-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

By ERIC LIPTON and RUSS BUETTNER
Published: December 4, 2007
The Newyork Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — Although Rudolph W. Giuliani is campaigning as President Bush’s staunch ally in the war on terror, his law office has lobbied Congress on behalf of legislation that the Bush administration calls a threat to antiterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa.
Mr. Giuliani was not personally involved in the lobbying last year on behalf of the company’s client, the American wing of a dissident Ethiopian political party known as the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, leaders of the group said.
But the firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, used Mr. Giuliani’s name in its pitch to win the assignment, and his clout was a reason it landed the job, said Seyoum Solomon, an Ethiopian-American from Maryland who helped negotiate the deal.
“He is a popular Republican, a good friend of the president and he might have some influence on the State Department,” Mr. Solomon said to explain the hiring decision.

The legislation sought by the dissidents proposes restrictions in American aid if Ethiopia does not agree to share power with opposition parties and take other steps promoting democracy. As part of its work, the Giuliani group set up a meeting at the White House last year at which the administration was urged to consider the viewpoint of a consortium of Ethiopian political parties that included Mr. Solomon’s group, as well as a more militant rebel organization.
The Ethiopian effort demonstrates the complications Mr. Giuliani confronts as he simultaneously runs for president and remains a name partner in a law firm that lobbies in Washington. He is the only Republican candidate who remains engaged in business pursuits.
The Bush administration supports the government in Ethiopia as a bulwark against terrorism and has characterized the legislation as a liability in that effort.
A White House spokesman declined comment on Bracewell & Giuliani’s role. A State Department official described the legislation that the firm helped to push as detrimental. “The reality is, in fact, it does harm a relationship” with an ally, the official said.
The Ethiopian opposition has many supporters in Congress, in part because of concerns about the existing government’s reputation for repression. Even the Bush administration is not critical of the coalition as an organization and has refrained from classifying as terrorists the more militant opposition parties in the consortium that some coalition leaders helped establish.
But the administration believes, said one State Department official who was not authorized to speak on the record about the matter, that the existing government is making progress toward creating a democratic government and has helped to combat an extremist Islamic insurgency in neighboring Somalia, where it has sent troops and worked to aid American operations against Qaeda suspects.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the Giuliani campaign, said Mr. Giuliani’s views were not necessarily consistent with the lobbying stands taken in Washington by Bracewell & Giuliani.
“At the end of the day, the mayor’s position and ideas on the campaign trail are his own,” Ms. Comella said.
Scott H. Segal, a lobbyist for Mr. Giuliani’s firm, said its primary mission had been to secure American support for the release of jailed Ethiopian opposition leaders, not to promote the legislation. He said Mr. Giuliani’s firm primarily sought to use the legislation to draw attention to those disenfranchised in Ethiopia.
“Not everything we did on behalf of the client was 100 percent consistent with United States foreign policy at the time,” he said. “Our job was to cajole the U.S. foreign policy establishment into taking a principled stand in Ethiopia.”
The lobbying contract, signed in January 2006, is one of the few that Mr. Giuliani’s firm, based in Houston, has had with clients looking to influence United States foreign policy.
The law firm, which Mr. Giuliani joined in 2005 and which pays him more than $1 million a year, specializes in corporate finance and energy matters. But several years ago, the firm was approached by an Ethiopian-American who knew Marc F. Racicot, the former Montana governor and Republican Party leader who once worked at Bracewell as a lobbyist.
“We did not go to the firm because of Giuliani,” said Solomon Bekele, an leader of the American affiliate of the coalition who was involved in the hiring decision. “It was a plus.”
When the contract was signed, the country had suffered through a bloody few months after a May 2005 federal election that was first heralded as the most democratic in the country’s history. Soon, protests organized in part by the Coalition of Unity and Democracy turned violent as demonstrators began to complain about election fraud. The government claimed some protesters were armed, while observers said the police and armed forces had overreacted, sparking conflicts in June and November of 2005 in which 199 people were killed, including six police officers.
The government arrested thousands, including coalition leaders who had just been elected to Parliament, including Hailu Shawul, the chairman, and Birtukan Midekssa, a vice president.
Last year, the firm was able to persuade the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa to insert language into a bill that condemned the violence and the arrests. One new provision in the bill, introduced by Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, demanded that the country reconfigure its national election board to include representation by opposition parties.
Members of Mr. Smith’s staff said they had received advice on the bill from many parties, including Bracewell & Giuliani and a lobbying firm hired by the Ethiopian government, DLA Piper. The Ethiopian government position is that the legislation is being pushed by “extremists in Ethiopian politics who reject peaceful and legal avenues of political participation,” according to a statement issued by its embassy in Washington.
Mr. Smith said support for the bill hardly constituted weakness toward terrorism. “The war on terror is very, very important,” he said in a speech in October about the proposal. “But no regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror.”
In June 2006, the Giuliani firm set up a meeting for coalition leaders with Michael J. Gerson, at the time one of Mr. Bush’s senior policy advisers.
At the meeting, coalition leaders asked the United States to put pressure on Ethiopia to negotiate with a new consortium of opposition parties that included both the coalition and more militant members like the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist group, according to a written account of the meeting provided by coalition party officials.
About a year after the meeting, the Ogaden group was involved in an attack on a Chinese-run oil field in which more than 70 people were killed.
Mr. Solomon said the coalition had always been a peaceful party and did not condone the attacks. But he would not condemn what he called “freedom fighters.”
Mr. Segal said his firm had lobbied the administration only on behalf of the coalition, not the larger alliance of opposition groups.
A White House spokesman, Scott M. Stanzel, said Mr. Gerson could not recall details of the meeting but described it as merely informational.
Last summer, the administration worked behind the scenes to win the release of the jailed opposition leaders, as the coalition had urged. But the administration has consistently opposed the legislation in letters written to the House sponsors.
The lobbying contract between Bracewell & Giuliani and the American affiliate of the coalition ended last year. Mr. Solomon said the coalition’s affiliate had terminated the deal because the firm had not lined up more news coverage and never delivered on a promised meeting with Mr. Giuliani. The law firm said a meeting had never been promised.
Lobbying disclosure records indicate the firm was paid $210,000 in 2006, but Mr. Solomon said his group had actually paid $90,000.
Nonetheless, the legislation that the firm helped push has moved forward and passed by a voice vote in the House of Representatives in October.
Though Bracewell & Giuliani is no longer employed by the Ethiopian dissidents, its communications director, Frank Maisano, arranged a news conference in October on the topic at the National Press Club. Mr. Segal said that Mr. Maisano had been involved in that function as a member of the press club and that his help was not related to the former Bracewell contract.

Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Kenya.

Democrat sees break, joins U.S. Senate race, to challenge Inhofe

2007-12-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

By Chris Casteel
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Andrew Rice was only six months into his new life as a Democratic state senator when people started urging him into the ring with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.
It was this past summer, and no viable candidates had emerged to challenge Inhofe, of Tulsa, who has been in the Senate since 1994.
Rice, of Oklahoma City, traveled around the state for a few weeks and decided to go for it. He filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in early August and, by the end of September, had raised more than $300,000.
It is an ambitious quest for Rice, a 34-year-old political neophyte taking on the 73-year-old Inhofe, who has spent most of the last 40 years in politics.
"I feel like this is an anti-incumbent year,” Rice said in a recent interview.
Rice will be running against an incumbent with a long record, who has made some enemies in Washington, particularly in the environmental community.
The League of Conservation Voters, a national environmental group that has targeted its "Dirty Dozen” list of candidates in previous elections, has its sights on Inhofe.
But the group targeted Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, in the last election cycle and didn't follow through with any money or effort since Boren didn't appear vulnerable.
Whether that group and others, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, ultimately decide Inhofe is vulnerable — and Rice viable — remains to be seen.
"State Senator Rice in Oklahoma is a good candidate,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the senatorial campaign committee, told reporters recently. "He's going to surprise people.”
What would be a surprise in Oklahoma is a Democrat getting more than 41 percent of the vote in a U.S. Senate race.
That hasn't happened since 1990, when former Sen. David Boren won his final race. Inhofe was elected in 1994 to fill Boren's last two years; his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Dave McCurdy got 40 percent of the vote. Neither of Inhofe's last two opponents have topped that. Nor did either of the Democratic opponents of former Sen. Don Nickles, in 1992 and 1998.
In 2004, former U.S. Rep. Brad Carson, a Democrat, got 41 percent of the vote — in the race to replace Nickles — against Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee.
If he is ultimately the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat, Rice, like Carson, will be on the ticket in a presidential year, in a red state that hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.
But Rice sees an opening for a new face, at a time when, he said, voters are tired of partisan gridlock in Washington and nasty campaigns.
"They want competent and responsible government,” he said. "I think sometimes (political) races are portrayed as people are looking for the ideal candidate.
"People are pretty down-to-earth and realistic about what they expect. People want you to pay attention to what they're saying. They want immigration reform. They want affordable health care.”
Religion and politicsBy now, Rice's connection to the 9/11 attacks is fairly well known, at least in Oklahoma City, where he won a state Senate seat vacated by a term-limited Democrat: Rice's brother, David, was killed in the World Trade Center; he was 31.
At the time, Rice was working as a documentary filmmaker and living in New York. Soon after, he moved to Texas and worked for a group called the Texas Freedom Network, which, he said, organized religious leaders to give an alternative take on issues from those he referred to as "religious extremists.”
He later moved back to Oklahoma and started his own group, called the Progressive Alliance Foundation, which aimed at encouraging discussion about political issues.
He considers abortion and gay marriage to be religious issues, he said, and "government doesn't have a role there.”
Rice favors abortion rights and civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
He said he tends toward Libertarian views of limited government on many issues and that Oklahomans also have been historically suspicious of government intrusion. He said he didn't get into public service to legislate on personal decisions.
Rice's views didn't prevent him from winning a Senate district that is among the most Democratic in the state and supported Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for president in 2004.
But running statewide, against an incumbent who declared in 1994 that "God, gays and guns” would decide his race, may be a different story.
"I'm fully supportive of gun rights,” Rice said when asked about Inhofe's oft-repeated comment.
Then he added, of Inhofe, "I feel like he's still stuck campaignwise in 1994.”
Opposition to Iraq war Rice opposes the war, saying that al-Qaida and religious extremism was the real threat to national security. Inhofe is one of the most outspoken supporters of the war.
"Al-Qaida are the ones we need to get smart about,” he said. "We've got to find a way to defuse their ability to recruit people and cut off their funding. We can't be at the forefront of changing hearts and minds (among Muslims). We have to rely on moderate Muslims to do it. You don't want to create a new generation of radicalized Muslims. We've got to be tough and smart.”
He said it isn't feasible or responsible to withdraw all of the troops out of Iraq immediately. He favors a phased withdrawal.
"I don't think it's realistic to expect the majority of the troops to be out in a year,” he said.
Rice voted for the state immigration bill, parts of which recently went into effect in Oklahoma. And his views on the subject have no obvious differences from those of Inhofe. Rice said the most urgent need is border security. Only when that's accomplished, he said, lawmakers should tackle the issue of what to do with people who are here illegally.
"I'm not an advocate of blanket amnesty,” he said.
Critical of global warmingThere are, however, plenty of issues on which Inhofe and Rice disagree, including global warming. Rice has been critical of Inhofe's efforts to discredit scientific studies about global warming and to block legislation aimed at curbing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Inhofe, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, is the most outspoken skeptic of global warming and has called it a hoax.
Should outside groups decide to get involved in the Oklahoma Senate race next year, Inhofe's views on global warming will no doubt be a major focus.
Rice said he can't control what outside groups do or say, but that he would set some limits on his own campaign rhetoric.
"Demonizing, smearing — (Voters) really have no appetite for it,” he said. "It doesn't mean I'm not going to be critical. But it's going to be done with decency, not character assassinations. And it's going to be accurate.
"Oklahomans like mavericks, but they don't like rudeness.”

IPI retained Ethiopia on its Watch list

2007-11-22T01:24:00.000-08:00

IPI Watch List Report
Ethiopia
Ethiopia was placed on the IPI Watch List at a board meeting on 15 May 2004. A press release announcing the decision quoted IPI Director Johann P. Fritz as saying, "While I acknowledge the severe problems in the areas of poverty, education, health and food production in Ethiopia and the pressures these place on the government, the IPI Executive Board felt that the forthcoming elections could lead to greater difficulties for press freedom and access to information and, with this in mind, it was decided that IPI should pay careful attention to the Ethiopia media environment in order to support journalists."
November 2007 Update
Although some journalists were released from prison this year, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi continues to prosecute and jail members of the media profession. The independent media in Ethiopia is slowly disappearing: newspapers have been banned, Websites have been blocked and the only television broadcaster is the state-run Ethiopian Television. As a result, in the latter part of 2007, there was a continuing decline in press freedom.
In June, four journalists, Andualem Ayele Legesse of the Ethiop newspaper, Mesfin Tesfaye Gobena of Abay, Wonakseged Zeleke Tessema of Asqual and Dawit Fasil Woldeselassie of Satenaw were convicted of charges carrying life imprisonment or death.
The journalists were arrested after the government carried out a crackdown on the media and opposition groups in November 2005 following post-election protests. The Addis Ababa court also convicted three publishers on related charges. Two months before these convictions, the Ethiopian government had released eight journalists.
Following their convictions, the prosecutor in the cases demanded the death penalty for the journalists. The decision led to strong criticism from the international community, including the International Federation of Journalists, which stated, "sadly Ethiopia has a long history of trampling press freedom but sentencing these journalists to death would push the country to a new low for human rights and freedom of expression." Based on reports, a negotiated deal was discussed whereby the prisoners would recognise their culpability in return for a pardon.
On 27 July, the four editors, and two academics sentenced alongside them, were released following a presidential pardon. In early August, four more journalists received heavy jail sentences. Editors Dawit Kebede of Hadar and Wosonseged Gebrekidan of Addis Zena were sentenced to four years in prison each on charges of "inciting and conspiring to commit outrages to the constitutional order," while editor Goshu Moges of Lisane Hezeb and freelance columnist Tadios Tantu were convicted on similar charges. On 20 August, the journalists were released on a conditional pardon. The Ethiopian government said they could continue their media activities, but were forbidden from engaging in "any subversive action against the Constitution." A spokesperson also said they could return to criticising the government and denied that guilty confessions were obtained from the journalists through duress.
In September, there were attempts to force the Ethiopian government to provide information about detained Eritrean journalists, Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi and Saleh Idris Gama form the Eritrean state broadcaster Eri-TV.
During April, a video trilogy titled "The Strategy of Sowing Discord by Isaias [Afewerki's] Eritrean Clique," which appeared on an Ethiopian government Website Waltainfo, suggested the journalists were involved in military activities in Somalia. The journalists had been sent to Mogadishu by the Eritrean government, but later went towards Kenya, reaching the border, before Kenyan forces intercepted them. They were held for three weeks and then handed over to the Ethiopian authorities. According to the video testimony, the journalists have admitted their connection to the Eritrean military. In response, the Ethiopian government refused to comment on the whereabouts of the two journalists.

Former political prisoner says thanks at talk in Beach

2007-11-22T01:18:00.000-08:00

By DAVE FORSTER, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH
Yacob Hailemariam is thankful he is no longer a political prisoner, but he is far from satisfied.
Hailemariam, 63, spoke Wednesday night at an interfaith Thanksgiving service of about 100 people at Congregation Beth Chaverim and thanked the community for its support for him while he was behind bars.
The former Norfolk State University professor was freed in July after 21 months of imprisonment in Ethiopia after he advocated for democratic change and won a parliamentary seat there in 2005.
Hailemariam wants to return to his homeland and continue the push for democratic reforms.
"Ethiopia hasn't moved an inch" toward democracy and human rights, he said. "The fight has to go on."
He has said that the support he received from Norfolk State and the Hampton Roads community boosted his morale while he was in prison.
"I really don't deserve such an outpouring of love," he said. "It was really humbling what Hampton Roads did for me."
Hailemariam and about three dozen other opposition leaders were convicted earlier this year of crimes against the government.
The human-rights group Amnesty International called the defendants "prisoners of conscience." They were sentenced in July to life in prison, but the Ethiopian government pardoned them days later and released them.
Hailemariam taught business law for nearly 20 years at Norfolk State but retired to return to Ethiopia when the country announced it would hold democratic elections in 2005.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com

More than two years later: Ethiopian journalists still seek resettlement

2007-11-20T01:16:00.000-08:00

Written By: Moneer Al-Omari (YEMEN POST STAFF)
Article Date: November 19, 2007
It's been over two years and about 100 Ethiopian newspaper editors and journalists are still trying to find a stable and peaceful life. Their only crime is that they helped spread public awareness in their country at a time of dictatorship and army ruled government. They kept fleeing their country over the last few years, especially following the general Ethiopian elections conducted in May 15, 2005, according to Daniel Gezahegen, who was the editor-in-chief of the Addis Ababa-based Mogad newspaper. Further, over 20 opposition editors are still in prison.
Several international human rights and press organizations have criticized Ethiopia for its low record in this respect and asked the government to stop its suppression against editors and journalists and to respect human rights.
To escape the regime's further suppression and prison, Ethiopian editors have sought refugee status in different countries and some of them have been accepted and resettled in their hosting countries; while others have not or they are in the process.
Along with Gezahegen, another journalist who chose Yemen to host them was Tamrat Serbessa. He left behind his own families and people. They risked their lives in a hazardous journey heading to Yemen as they reached Aden earlier this year.
Gezahegen was the editor-in-chief of Addis Ababa-based Mogad, an Amharic language newspaper and Serbesa was editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language weekly Satanaw.
He was arrested several times over writings criticizing the regime and outspoken articles published in his news paper, the last of which was in 2005 over covering the post-elections unrest and the alleged defamation of the Ethiopian Air force affiliates as well as defying the ruling system. He was set free after he paid a bail mounting to $ 114.
His fellow editor Serbesa was arrested as well over defaming the ruling system and contesting the legality of the May 15 elections. He was jailed on July 8, 2005 for one day and released on bail.
Both editors complain their life is difficult in Yemen and they cannot do anything about it, especially when Gezahegen is diabetic and Serbesa is partially paralyzed. They further note the have spent over two years in Yemen and applied to UNHCR for refugee status; however, they are not accepted until now.
"We have suffered a lot and we lead a very awful life since our arrival in Aden early in 2006. We spent few months in an Aden's old and open building, which used to be an Indian hotel in the past. We lived on people's help. Later police raided the place and forced them out the building," Gezahegen narrated.
He went on to say that a fellow Ethiopian journalist offered him to reside with him in Sana'a and thus he shifted to Sana'a along with Serbesa. However, his living in Sana'a is no better than Aden and Gezahesgen alleges his life is not safe and the Sana'a-based Ethiopian Embassy affiliates chase him and his friend.
Now, he wishes the UNHCR would accept his application or work to relocate him in the US.
"We want nothing just to be granted refugee status by the UNHCR here in Yemen or to be relocated somewhere. About two years have elapsed since we arrived in Yemen and our case has not changed," maintained.
The two journalists are now in Yemen, only hoping that their long patience is worth the wait. "We have lived in Yemen for nearly one year, and we still await justice as well as support from our colleague journalists," concluded Gezahegen.
The journalist complain the lack of support they have received CPJ. They claim that their last release of CPJ was months ago, but did not help at all.
Today they live a life of unemployment and count on their friends and colleagues to support them financially. "Our friends and colleagues who where lucky enough to be exiled to the United States are the ones who support us with the little they have. We appreciate their efforts and support."
The suffering will continue for the Ethiopian journalist until; a final destination is found for them. It has been years since they have seen their wife and children, but they continue to be hopeful. "One day will come when we will get our right. With patience their will always be prosperity, Gezahegen concluded.

Verdict to be passed on Ethiopian activists for treason charges

2007-11-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

(CIVICUS) Anti-poverty activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie are due to hear their verdict on treason related charges on Thursday, 22 November, after numerous judicial delays. If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment or death sentences.
Daniel and Netsanet, coordinators of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Ethiopia, are the last two accused in the high profile Ethiopian treason trial that originally charged 131 politicians, journalists, organisations and civil society leaders. Daniel and Netsanet assisted in monitoring the May 2005 election – peaceful and legitimate civil society work for which they have been detained since November 2005 on allegations of conspiracy to overthrow the government.
Thousands were detained following protests accusing the government of rigging the 15 May 2005 parliamentary elections. Many of the accused were acquitted during the course of the trial. Others were convicted but pardoned in July and August 2007 – all of whom had allegedly signed a confession. Although Daniel and Netsanet they were asked to sign a similar statement, declined. They argue that their activities in 2005 were entirely legal and did not serve to undermine, but rather to protect and promote Ethiopia’s constitutional order.
“Civil society around the world is standing by Daniel and Netsanet in solidarity until they are found innocent of these unfounded treason charges. If monitoring elections is treason, then what is left to remain patriotic about? Our friends have been loyal the constitution of Ethiopia in that they stand for truth and for the upliftment of Ethiopia and its citizens.” said Kumi Naidoo, Chair of GCAP and Secretary General of CIVICUS, who will be in Addis Ababa to support the men in court on Thursday.
Background Notes on trial of Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele
19 November 2007
How are CIVICUS and GCAP active in Ethiopia?
CIVICUS and GCAP have been actively rallying support and solidarity around their case since their arrest in November 2005.
In April 2006, a group of prominent civil society leaders – Kumi Naidoo; Archbishop Ndungane of Cape Town; Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign and Henry Malumo of GCAP Africa – visited Ethiopia and met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to express their concern about the case. Prime Minister Zenawi reassured the team that the trial would be fair and swift, but that they must let justice system proceed without interference. The Prime Minister also agreed to allow the re-establishment of GCAP in Ethiopia.
Aside from this high level action, CIVICUS has organised many appeal campaigns, reminding the Ethiopian government that civil society activists around the world continue to watch the case.
Most recently, CIVICUS and GCAP organised an International Day of Solidarity with Daniel and Netsanet on 28 June 2007. Organisations and individuals in more than 10 countries wrote letters and organised events supporting Daniel and Netsanet.

What are CIVICUS and GCAP asking for?
We are asking for the swift completion of the trial, and the acquittal of Daniel and Netsanet.
We are also asking the government of Ethiopia to respect the rights of civil society organisations and actors in Ethiopia to freely associate, assemble and express themselves without fear. These rights are enshrined in the constitution of Ethiopia, as well as the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Since the arrest and detention of Daniel and Netsanet, as well as political opposition leaders, journalists and trade unionists in Ethiopia, civil society has been plunged into a state of paralysis, where they are afraid to be publicly critical of government policy. We ask that the government support the vital work of civil society, and reassure activists that they can peacefully engage with the government, without fear of harassment, arrest and detention.

What are Daniel and Netsanet accused of?
Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele are two civil society activists, who have no political connection, and appear to have been arrested solely on the basis of their legitimate critique of the government during their anti-poverty and human rights work. They were both organizers and members of the executive committee of the Network of Ethiopian NGO's and CSOs that monitored the 15 May 2005 election. They are also both coordinators of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Ethiopia.
Both have been detained since November 2005 and their case began on 2 May 2006. They were charged alongside around 131 others, who were political opposition members and journalists, facing charges including treason and genocide.
Daniel and Netsanet are being charged with criminal conspiracy with the intention of overthrowing the constitution or constitutional order. This charge carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment or death. They have been consistently denied bail, even upon appeal. Both Daniel and Netsanet are recognised as Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience.

Could you tell me about the trial’s background, and its current status?
At the start of the trial in May 2006, 131 opposition politicians, journalists and civil society leaders stood accused of a range of charges from genocide to treason. They were among thousands who were detained following protests accusing the government of rigging the 15 May 2005 presidential elections.
In April 2007, the charges of high treason and genocide were dropped against all the defendants, leaving them accused of charges including “outrage against the constitution or constitutional order;” “obstruction of the exercise of constitutional powers;” “inciting, organising and leading armed rebellion,” and “impairing the defence power of the state.”
On 11 June 2007, in the trial’s first verdicts, 38 journalists and opposition politicians were found guilty. The Prime Minister pardoned this 38 on 20 July. Another 33 others were later sentenced and pardoned on 18 August. Altogether, approximately 61 were sentenced and then pardoned.
Prior to their sentencing and pardon, these approximately 61 reportedly signed an undisclosed statement, admitting that they used "unconstitutional means to change the constitutionally established government functions” following the 2005 elections.
Although they were asked to sign a similar statement, Daniel and Netsanet declined. They argue that their activities in 2005 were entirely legal and did not serve to undermine, but rather to protect and promote Ethiopia’s constitutional order. They wish to establish this in court and secure their acquittal. Had they agreed to sign the statement, it would have undermined civil society in Ethiopia.
Daniel and Netsanet presented their defence from 27 July until 2 August, calling 29 witnesses and presenting 300 pages of documentary evidence. Their witnesses included members of the opposition party CUD and a UN election observer, all who pointed to Daniel and Netsanet’s innocence.
Both the prosecution and the defence have now submitted their final statements (albeit 5 weeks later than expected).
Their verdict was originally set for Tuesday, 9 October 2007 at 9am in Addis, however judges have delayed giving the verdict until 22 November 2007. Because the final statements were submitted later than expected, giving the judges less time to deliberate, they said they needed more time to decide.

What are the possible outcomes of the case?
Whenever the judgment is given there are obviously two possible verdicts – innocent or guilty; but more importantly there are three possible outcomes:-

1-Acquitted - innocent & freed immediately;
2-Guilty, but freed
immediately – they could be sentenced to a period less or equal to the time they
have already served, so therefore released.
3-Guilty & further
imprisonment – they could receive an additional prison sentence. This could also
result in them being pardoned later (as happened in the other cases)

If innocent:

We would welcome this verdict, and celebrate the release of Daniel and Netsanet.
However, we must also stress that civil society continues to be restricted in Ethiopia. Daniel and Netsanet’s release is a step in the right direction, but the government must go further. Daniel and Netsanet’s case has frightened civil society activists in Ethiopia, intimidating them from speaking out against government policy for fear of meeting the same fate. The government of Ethiopia must ensure that civil society is able to operate freely.
We are also happy to hear that the ban on internal text messaging has recently been lifted, allowing people to text message freely. It has been impossible for the duration of the case.

If guilty:
If they are found guilty, there will be a delay as the judges deliberate on the appropriate sentence. This would be a difficult and extremely uncomfortable time for all involved as we would be waiting to see whether a) they receive a sentence of two years or less and would therefore be freed immediately because of the time already spent in prison, or b) they are given a longer sentence, perhaps of the order of five to ten years, and therefore remain incarcerated.
If they receive a sentence of two or less years, we would welcome their freedom, but express shock that they now have criminal records for their legitimate civil society work.
If they receive a longer sentence, it would be a shock to all the trial observers, family, friends, colleagues, the diplomatic community and the many supportive governments and international institutions; and a massive blow to international civil society.

What happened during the 15 May elections in Ethiopia?
Immediately following the 15 May 2005 presidential elections, the opposition alleged rigging by the government and ruling party. Opposition supporters demonstrated in Addis Ababa, accusing the ruling party of fraud and the national election board of bias. Peaceful demonstrations led to violent confrontations with security forces, and at least 36 protesters were killed. Over 9,000 opposition supporters, journalists and activists were detained, but released by end of June.
In a second series of opposition demonstrations in November 2005, police shot dead at least 42 protesters, wounding many others. The security forces arrested about 10,000 opposition supporters. After this second demonstration the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused the opposition of treason and organizing a violent uprising to overthrow the government. Before the election, he had also claimed the opposition was encouraging ethnic hatred that could lead to genocide.

Tell me a little more about Daniel and Netsanet:
Daniel Bekele is a human rights lawyer who is Head of Policy Research and Advocacy Department of ActionAid Ethiopia, a branch of ActionAid International. He has been an active participant in a number of civil society organizations and professional associations such as the Ethiopian Bar Association and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association in gender discriminatory law reform initiatives, human rights & women rights education and defending women in difficult situations. He was the lead drafts person of the civil society alternative draft legislation on registration and operation of CSO/NGOs in Ethiopia.

Netsanet Demessie is Executive Director and co-founder of the Ethiopian NGO, Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE), which began its work in September 2004. OSJE was an anchor of a local network of approximately thirty-five local NGOs and CSOs that organized to deploy domestic monitors during the May 2005 Ethiopian National Parliamentary elections. The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) attempted to change its policy regarding the qualifications for domestic monitoring within a few short weeks of the election. Netsanet was instrumental in organizing the class action suit in April 2005 that defeated the proposed Directive of the NEBE.

For more information or interviews, please contact:
· Micha Hollestelle, CIVICUS Media Manager, mobile phone at +27 (0) 766 33 8525, or per mail at micha.hollestelle@civicus.org, http://www.civicus.org/
· Ciara O’Sullivan, GCAP Media Coordinator, mobile phone at +34 679 594 809, or per mail at ciara_os@hotmail.com, http://www.whiteband.org/

Kinijit Leaders visit in Canada

2007-10-27T03:52:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Rep. Smith's Newmakers Speech on Ethiopia and Human Rights

2007-10-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Washington, Oct 22 - U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Africa, Global Health and International Operations Subcommittee, today delivered the following remarks at a "Newsmakers" event at that National Press Club:
Human rights in Ethiopia is not a burning question in Washington today. It ought to be. We don’t read, or hear, or talk much about it. That has to change, and I believe most of us here today know that. That’s why we’re here.
I got involved in Ethiopian human rights issues during Ethiopia’s infamous famines—when food was used by the Mengistu dictatorship as a “weapon” to murder countless women, men and children. In the eighties, I joined members on both sides of the aisle in pushing for “corridors of tranquility”—a safe means by which humanitarian aid workers would be permitted to deliver food, medicines, clothing and shelter to hundreds of thousands who were literally starving.
My most recent involvement took off when I visited Ethiopia in August 2005. This was two months after the post-election slaughter in Addis of scores of pro-democracy demonstrators, and the harassment, arrest and detention of thousands of political prisoners.
In Addis I had talks with a broad section of political, civic, religious, diplomatic and political leaders. I met with Mr. Hailu Shawel, the Chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy. I met with the Patriarch. I met with the European diplomats who led the election observer mission and many others.
I also had a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. I urged him to investigate the slaughter of the pro-democracy demonstrators, to punish those responsible, and to release all political prisoners. I raised my deep concerns regarding the lack of fairness—especially the intimidation tactics employed by his agents--during the recent national elections. I told him that I believed it wrong and counterproductive to have ousted the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). By banishing these highly respected organizations, his regime was begging the question: What is it that you don’t want the world to see? What are you hiding? I asked the Prime Minister to invite them back. I also raised concerns regarding the egregiously flawed means by which contested election outcomes where being adjudicated.
I also expressed my deepest disappointment and sorrow over his regimes recent legalization of abortion on demand and argued that Ethiopia’s women and children have suffered enough death. Abortion is violence against children—it dismembers and chemically poisons babies--and it hurts women physically and psychologically. (In a meeting with Ethiopia’s Justice Minister, I was told that the government’s new abortion policy was written by a U.S. pro-abortion non-governmental organization.)
Finally, when I asked the Prime Minister to work with the opposition and show respect and tolerance for those with differing views on the challenges facing Ethiopia he said, “I have a file on all of them; they are all guilty of treason.”
I was struck by his all-knowing tone. Guilty! They’re all guilty simply because Meles says so? No trial? Not even a Kangaroo court?
I urged Prime Minister Meles not to take that route.
I remember thinking, as I got on the plane for the flight home, we need the equivalent of the Belarus Democracy Act and the Vietnam Human Rights Act--for Ethiopia. As you may know, I am the prime author of the Belarus Democracy Act signed into law by President Bush on October 20, 2004 as well as the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR 3096) which has passed the House of Representatives on three separate occasions (most recently on September 17th). Working off both those country-specific models, I wrote the first outline draft of the Ethiopia Human Rights Bill on the flight back to Washington. Greg Simpkins, my subcommittee’s Africa specialist at that time did a superb job on the draft bill.
Over the course of the next several months, my friend and colleague Don Payne helped shape the legislation. What emerged for House floor consideration was a bipartisan bill, that if enacted would have made a serious difference.
The bill provided financial support to human rights promoters in Ethiopia, and conditioned certain forms of U.S. Government assistance to the Ethiopian Government on that government meeting a very modest list of human rights benchmarks.
When we tried to bring it to the floor after approval by the full International Relations Committee, we were blocked. This year, in the new Congress, Mr. Payne introduced the bill and we worked together again, and this time, despite furious lobbying by the Ethiopian Government and others against the bill, the House of Representatives adopted it.
Now we have to help the bill get through the Senate. I’m afraid voices are already being raised against the bill in the Senate, and in the Administration. One of the things they are saying now is that the bill fails to recognize that the situation in Ethiopia has gotten better.
First, if the situation has improved, which is highly debatable, or if it does improve, the legislation contains a broad waiver of its punitive sections. The bill gives the President complete flexibility to respond to any improvement--or deterioration--on the ground. However, given the recent history of systematic human rights abuse by the Meles regime and the credible reports of rape and slaughter in Ogaden, it is hard for any reasonable person to trust the government or anything it might say without independent verification, fresh accountability, genuine transparency, and systemic reform.
Everything that has happened since 2005 has only made the need for our legislation more compelling. In July 2006 the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the slaughter of 2005 fled the country, and his replacement did the same in September. In October one of them said that the government had pressured the Commission into changing its findings, and announced that most of the 193 demonstrators killed had died from shots to the head. Some of Ethiopia’s best and brightest and bravest spent almost two years in prison on trumped up charges and today remain at risk of unjust and capricious incarceration. There are no indications that Meles has embraced the rule of just law or an independent judiciary.
I believe that neither we nor the international community has pushed the Meles government hard enough on human rights issues because we have been satisfied it cooperates with us to some extent in the war on terror. The war on terror is very important, but no regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror. Terrorism isn’t just a military issue. It is also a human rights issue. Terrorists come from countries where their governments fail to respect their human rights. In promoting human rights in Ethiopia, we are attacking terrorism at its roots.
As you know, the Ogaden is a region of eastern Ethiopia of mixed ethnicity where the Ethiopian Government, fighting an insurgency, has carried the war to the innocent civilian population. Many, perhaps most, of the people who live in the Ogaden are Somalis. According to many reports, the Ethiopian National Defense Force is using the most brutal tactics imaginable against them.
Ogadeni villages suspected of supporting ONLF insurgents have been burned down, young women from these villages gang-raped and killed, men beaten to death. Refugees are making their way to Somalia, where, near the port of Bosasso, they have built ramshackle refugee camps. Journalists have been banned from the Ogaden, where the Ethiopian air force has bombed villages, and the Ethiopian army has destroyed crops, and prevented food and medical aid from being brought into the region. During the Summer, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross were expelled.
Just a few weeks ago we heard testimony on these atrocities on the Africa Subcommittee. A representative of Human Rights Watch said that, while “the Ogaden is not Darfur yet, it is probably only a few months away from sliding over the edge into a full-blown humanitarian crisis of massive proportions.”
One newspaper, The Independent on October 17th published a story with the headline: Ethiopia’s ‘own Darfur’ as villagers flee government-backed violence. The story, written by Steve Bloomfield described the harrowing abduction by government troops of seven young girls from on village—all aged between 15 and 18. “The following mourning the youngest girl was found. Her body, bloodied and beaten, was hanging from a tree. The next day a second girl was found hanging from the same tree. A third suffered the same fate. The others were never seen again.”
The story goes on: “A former Ethiopian soldier who defected from the army said how he had been ordered to burn villages and kill all their inhabitants. He said the Ethiopian air force would bomb a village before a unit of ground troops followed, firing indiscriminately at civilians. ‘Men, women, children—we killed them all,’ he said.”

Back home in Virginia, opposition leader to return to Ethiopia

2007-10-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

By the Associated Press
October 22, 2007
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Freed from a prison in Ethiopia, Yacob Hailemariam is home in Virginia but said he will risk arrest again in his homeland to promote democratic rule.
"There is a chance we could go back to prison, but what are you going to do?" he asked. "We have made promises to the people, and we can't renege on those promises."
In August, Hailemariam was among three dozen dissidents released after their arrests in 2005. None had been charged in court.
Ethiopia freed the opposition leaders following international condemnation and strong pressure from the United States. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the target of the dissidents, announced the pardons.
While the opposition won an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats in the 2005 vote, it did not win enough to topple Meles. The opposition claimed the voting was rigged, and European Union observers said it was marred by irregularities.
Hailemariam, 63, was a former U.N. special envoy and a former professor at Norfolk State University.
The human rights organization Amnesty International labeled Hailemariam and the other opposition members "prisoners of conscience."
Since his release, Hailemariam and several Coalition for Unity and Democracy colleagues have spent six weeks visiting 12 cities in nine European countries. They thanked supporters and begged for continued pressure for a freer Ethiopia.
"We assured them we are not going to abandon the struggle for democracy, justice and the rule of law," he told The Virginian-Pilot, which visited Hailemariam at his home here.
"Many people think now that we are released, everything is fine and dandy. It is not. There are many people in jail. And the objectives of the party have not been fulfilled," he said.
Tegist Hailemariam had seen her husband once in more than two years. Now, with their son out of college, she'll follow Yacob to Ethiopia.
"I am part of the struggle, too," she said.
Yacob Hailemariam said it's difficult to sell American-style democracy when people around the world hear reports of abused detainees in U.S. military prison camps.
"If the Bush administration can violate human rights with impunity, what prevents some petty African dictator from doing that?" he asked.
For now, he wants to see family and friends and to thank supporters from Norfolk State, churches, human rights groups and members of Congress who pushed for his release.
He said he plans to go back in two months to continue the "unfinished business" of peacefully instilling democracy.
Elections are scheduled in 2010.

Indulging An Adopted Ethiopian child to kill H.R. 2003

2007-10-19T00:04:00.000-07:00

Mr. INHOFE : the House of Representatives has recently passed the Ethiopian Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, H.R. 2003. Although this legislation states that its purpose is to encourage and facilitate the consolidation of democracy and security in Ethiopia--words right out of the resolution--in reality it focuses on the shortcomings, on the problems that they face, and not on the successes the country has made.

H.R. 2003 ACT is all about encouraging and facilitating the consolidation of peace and security, respect for human rights, democracy, and economic freedom in Ethiopia. Where in Ethiopia had the gentleman Senator from Oklahoma gone to? May be in Addis Ababa with his security guards, the regime's security officers and cadres. Has he be able to speak the regular Ethiopian citizens who are hurt the most under the current Meles Regime? The senator from Oklahoma is irresponsible standing by the regime with so little regard for its citizens. The regime did not hesitate to increase the suffering of the people of Ethiopia by denying them - the advancement of human rights, democracy, independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press, peacekeeping capacity building, and economic development (H.R. 2003 SEC. 2. 1). What is wrong with respecting Human rights and democracy? The senator should deeply care about Ethiopia and he should spend more time on reading the regime's human rights report from United States of America State department of Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the lack of democracy and the dictatorial government of Meles that is holding power for more than 16 years.

Mr. INHOFE: Ethiopia takes great pride in being the oldest independent country in Africa. It continues to be a close friend of the United States, a strong ally in the war on terrorism in the Horn of Africa. I have to say that this is significant because if you kind of use your mental map of northeastern Africa and you think about the terrorist activity that has taken place in the Middle East and how it is now coming down through the Horn of Africa, through Djibouti and that area into the Uganda-Ethiopia area, it is a very significant area right now.

In short, The Senator should have awarded Ethiopians a "Thank You" for being the true lasting friends of America in the war on terrorism but not the dictatorial regime. One thing the Senator missed out in his statement is that as much as he loves his liberty in the Senate, the people of Ethiopia deserve to have independence of the judiciary in Ethiopia.

Mr. INHOFE:Now, as many of you know, I have had quite an extensive background in Africa. I think I am safe to say that I have been to Africa more than any Senator in the history of America. I have been really tied to that continent and recognize the significance in the future of our country as well as their country. It is an area of strategic importance globally to this Nation.

Yes, It is a fact that Ethiopia has a strategic importance to America, but still Ethiopians' liberty should be respected as is Senator Inhofe's liberty respected in the United States of America.

Mr. INHOFE:I have traveled to the country on several occasions, both on my own and as a Member of the Senate and the House. A short while ago, I was there with Congressman Boozman from Arkansas. Throughout my travels in the region, I have met and developed friendships with many political and religious leaders.
In Addis 6 years ago, we found a little baby. The little baby was 3 days old. The baby was almost dead. It was not unusual. In some countries in Africa, they throw away mostly young baby girls. Then after about 3 days, when they die, the dogs get them. We were there before the dogs got there. I have 20 kids and grand kids of whom I am very proud. My daughter Molly had nothing but boys. She always wanted a girl. So we were able to take this little girl from Ethiopia and nurse her back to health. She had several very close calls. She is healthy and has now been here in the United States and is my adopted granddaughter. Her name is Zegita Marie, which is a very common name in Ethiopia. I say that because I do want to impress upon this group that I know something about Ethiopia. I know something about its background. I know something about its significance to our safety.

Of course, a United States Senator can easily develop a friendship with political and religious leaders in any African country where there is a "welcome" sign in the entry door but developing a friendship with 77 million Ethiopian population takes a lot of guts and understandings and it is amazing and surprising to hear that an American Senator from Oklahoma found a little baby girl who was almost dead, who is only 3 days old, from Addis. It was not unusual for Mr. Inhofe that parents are throwing their daughters away in some African countries. His statement should seriously be seen to show the true picture that Ethiopian women under Meles dictatorial regime are not be able to raise their child for three days. So where is "the success" story that the senator came up with in the beginning of his statement ? Where in Addis did the Senator see the dogs eating little girls? whose "dogs" are those that do eat human fleshes? Mr. Inhofe's daughter, Molly, adopted Zegita Marie not because her Adopted Grandfather, Mr. Inhofe, can walk around in the street of Addis chasing those "dogs" away, which are after little baby girls, but Mr. Inhofe's daughter, Molly, has only boys, not girls. Simply, Zimeta got adopted for a reason much more understandable than what the Senator from Oklahoma had intended to express his view on what is happening on little baby girls in Africa.

Mr. INHOFE: In Ethiopia, recently, I met with Prime Minister Meles, his wife. I met with members of the Parliament and with all the individuals there who are trying to do a good job. While there, I saw firsthand their democratic progress and commitment in fighting terrorism. Although I appreciate the increased attention being given to Africa, particularly Ethiopia, I believe the bill is misguided and takes the wrong approach by placing demands on a friend and ally that has made obvious advancements in democracy and human rights. While I continue to agree that the violence and intimidation that took place after the 2005 election was an unnecessary use of excessive force, the Government of Ethiopia has taken significant steps again to regain a democratic process that is fair and respectful of human rights.

Mr. Inhofe may or may not understand the true interpretation of democratic progress in Ethiopia. Meeting Meles Zenawi and the members of Kangaroo Parliament doesn't mean that Ethiopia is not into an era of repression, suspicion, and an atmosphere of fear. Zenawi's democracy is only on paper if that is what we call "democratic progress". In fighting terrorism, the bill says "collaborate with Ethiopia in the Global War on Terror."(SEC. 2.5). Under the cover of fighting terrorism, Manufacturing Phantom terrorists and buying the way to the corridors of power in the white House or Capitol Hill using donors' funds should be stopped in order to bring the democratic progress.

Mr. INHOFE: On July 20, 2007, following convictions and sentencing, 38 opposition leaders were granted full pardons. All remaining members of the opposition were pardoned and released on August 18, 2007. Since these events, reforms have been made in the election process. So often we use America as a standard by which to measure democracy in other countries. It is the same problem we have in the Middle East. People say they are not reaching the goals we want them to reach, having a democracy in Iraq. Why would they? It took this country several years to come up with a democracy. Why should they be able to do it?

There are still thousands of political prisoners detained in different parts of the country where only members of Meles Spy Agency know the exact addresses. Detaining and releasing prisoners can not be the procedure that the American Constitution offers to the American government to do if an American opposes the political process in America. The Standard of Democracy is Freedom and Justice no matter how it is being interpreted in Washington DC. . Why would they reach to the goals that the Senator wants them to reach? Oh...Ethiopians sure do need to reach to those democratic principles as long as the estabilishment of Democracy is not measured with the Democracy in America. The brutal Meles Regime didn't take too long to come up with the word "democracy" because the West donors have been willing to transfer over 20 Billions of Dollars in the name of the poor people and the ruling party cares more for all the major enterprises to keep the the ruling dictatorship regime in power. H.R. 2003 (sec. a-1,2,3 and B) would assit the Meles Regime so that they should be able to reach the goals not only the Democratic Processes that the people of Ethiopia demands but also the principles of Democracy in Ethiopia that the Americans want to reach to .

....will continue

The Deranged Mind of James Inhofe - Maybe the Dumbest US Senator of the All

2007-10-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2004
By BRUCE JACKSON
On Tuesday, May 11, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony from Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, whose report documents American atrocities and administrative failures of various kinds at Abu Ghriab prison; Stephen A. Cambone, the Defense Department undersecretary for intelligence, who worked very hard to keep from letting any responsibility for anything land anywhere; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith, the deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, who looked the entire time as if he desperately wished he were anywhere else but where he was. The subject was torture, responsibility and accountability.
Some of the senators asked questions that elicited interesting and useful answers from the witnesses. An equal number asked questions articulating or staking out political positions regarding the Bush administration's war in and occupation of Iraq. A few talked so long there was no time for any of the witnesses to respond.
But the remarks of Senator James M. Inhofe (R., Okla.) were transcendent. They were like the remarks of no other senator on that very large panel. His basic position seemed to be that since some Iraqis had done terrible things it was outrageous for anyone to be questioning Americans for having done anything terrible to anybody. If we have Iraqis locked up and if we are torturing them, they must deserve it, and it's a shame and a scandal that we're giving the Department of Defense a hard time over this trifle when they're out there protecting the flag and whatever. The fact that we have those Iraqis locked up is all the proof we need of their guilt, so they are only receiving punishment they've earned. . It was straight out of the Inquisition Handbook.
Inhofe's remarks were full of pomp and smugness; they were devoid of ethical sensibility. Listening to him was like listening to someone on his way home from a lynching 50 years ago: 'They deserve what they get, whether or not they did what we said. They are what they are, aren't they? If they weren't, why would we have lynched them? Goddam right!' If our enemies abroad were as interested in words as they are in photographs right now, Inhofe's words would serve them as well as the Army reservists' digital photographs from Abu Ghraib.
When the Senate debates issues like going to war and clamping down on civil rights, Senator Inhofe has a vote, just like the other 99 senators. Other senators have to be nice to him because if they offend him, he will vote against their porkbarrels; that is the way the Senate works. In the US Senate, nobody ever stands up and says, "The Senator from Oklahoma is a moron with no ethical sensibility whatsoever and he should never again be permitted to vote on any issue the outcome of which might bring harm to any human being, and he surely should never be permitted to appear on television because he brings shame on this body and on the entire nation with the banality and amorality of his remarks." They don't do that, even though they may think it, as I'm sure many of them must, since they're not all brain-dead. What they do instead, is they refer to one another as "the distinguished this" and "the distinguished that" and they go to parties and have a lot of drinks.
Here are Senator Inhofe's May 11 remarks in their entirety. I suppose any foreigner reading them would think we live in a country ruled by vengeful, self-righteous goons. I assume they would be as puzzled as everyone else by Senator Infoe's final question about the barbershop, the blindfolded man, and the AK-47. All three witnesses and all the senators in camera range except Lindsey Graham looked as if they were trying to keep their faces straight when Infoe posed it. Graham just did weird things with his mouth and rocked back and forth in his chair, as he did during Inhofe's entire performance.
SENATORE INFOE:
First of all, I regret I wasn't here on Friday. I was unable to be here but maybe it's better that I wasn't because as I watch this outrage -- this outrage everyone seems to have about the treatment of these prisoners -- I have to say, and I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment.
The idea that these prisoners -- you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners -- they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.
And I hasten to say, yes, there are seven bad guys and gals that didn't do what they should have done. They were misguided. I think maybe even perverted. And the things they did have to be punished, and they're being punished. They're being tried right now and that's all taking place.
But I'm also outraged by the press and the politicians and the political agendas that are being served by this, and I say political agendas because that's actually what is happening.
I would share with my colleagues a solicitation that was made. I'm going to read the first two sentences.
"Over the past week we've all been shocked by the pictures from Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, but we have also been appalled at the slow and inept response by President Bush which has further undermined America's credibility."
And it goes on to demand for George Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld. And then it goes on to a time line, a chronology.
INHOFE: And at the very last -- and they say, "a solicitation for contributions."
I don't recall this ever having happened before in history.
Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that this solicitation be made a part of the record at this point.
WARNER: Without objection.
INHOFE: Mr. Chairman, I also am -- I have to say when we talk about the treatment of these prisoners that I would guess that these prisoners wake up every morning thanking Allah that Saddam Hussein is not in charge of these prisons.
When he was in charge, they would take electric drills and drill holes through hands, they would cut their tongues out, they would cut their ears off. We've seen accounts of lowering their bodies into vats of acid. All of these things were taking place.
This was the type of treatment that they had -- and I would want everyone to get this and read it. This is a documentary of the Iraq special report. It talks about the unspeakable acts of mass murder, unspeakable acts of torture, unspeakable acts of mutilation, the murdering of kids -- lining up 312 little kids under 12 years old and executing them.
Then, of course, what they do to Americans, too. There's one story in here that was in the -- I think it was the New York Times, yes, on June 2nd. I suggest everyone get that and read it. It's about one of the prisoners who did escape as they were marched out there blindfolded and put before mass graves and they mowed them down and they buried them. This man was buried alive and he clawed his way out and was able to tell his story.
And I ask Mr. Chairman, at this point in the record, that this account of the brutality of Saddam Hussein be entered into the record and made a part of the record.
WARNER: Without objection, so ordered.
INHOFE: I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do- gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying, and I just don't think we can take seven -- seven bad people.
There are some 700 guards in Abu Ghraib. There are some 25 other prisons.
INHOFE: About 15,000 guards altogether and seven of them did things they shouldn't have done. And they're being punished for that. But what about some 300,000 have been rotating through all this time, and they have -- all the stories of valor are there?
Now, one comment about Rumsfeld: A lot of them don't like him. I'm sorry that Senator McCain isn't here because I just now said to him, "Do you remember back three years ago when Secretary Rumsfeld was up for confirmation?" I said, "These guys aren't going to like him because he doesn't kowtow to them. He is not easily intimidated." I've never seen Secretary Rumsfeld intimidated. And quite frankly, I can't think of any American today as qualified as Donald Rumsfeld is to prosecute this war.
Now -- oh one other thing: All the idea about these pictures, I would suggest to you any pictures -- and I think maybe we should get direction from this committee, Mr. Chairman, that if pictures are authorized to be disseminated among the public, that for every picture of abuse or alleged abuse of prisoners, we have pictures of mass graves, pictures of children being executed, pictures of the four Americans in Baghdad that were burned and their bodies were mutilated and dismembered in public. Let's get the whole picture.
Now, General Taguba, many, many years ago, I was in the United States Army. My job -- I was a court reporter. I know a little bit about the history. The undue command influence that is a term that you've heard -- and I'd like to make sure that we get into the record what that is.
I'm going for memory now, but it's my understanding that commanders up the line can possibly serve as appellate judges. Consequently commanders up the line are not given a lot of the graphic details, but merely said, as in the case of Rumsfeld, "Serious allegations need to be investigated," and they start an investigation. This is back in January.
Now, Rumsfeld said, and I'm quoting him now, "Anything we say publicly could have the impact on the legal proceeding against the accused. If my responses are measured, it is to assure that pending cases are not jeopardized."
INHOFE: Do I have an accurate memory as to why they have this particular undue command influence provision that we have been following now for five decades that I know of?
TAGUBA: Sir, I'm not a lawyer, and...
INHOFE: Isn't that reason you were called in? Well, I should ask General Smith.
General Smith, isn't that the reason that General Taguba was brought in the first place, to keep this from happening?
SMITH: Yes, sir. To do the investigation and do the fact- finding, so the commanders could make informed decisions on what actions should be taken thereafter.
And the difficulty in the command influence piece is that, should General Sanchez or should I or General Abizaid say something along the lines that, "We must take this action against these individuals," then that is command influence down the line that those that are making judgment on them would influence and bias their decisions.
INHOFE: And that, sir, has not changed for the last 45 years.
SMITH: That has not changed. And that has happened -- we have had a number of folks that have -- their sentences or whatever have been impacted by command influence.
INHOFE: Mr. Chairman, one last question to General Smith.
All kinds of accounts are coming out now, many of are fictitious, I would suggest. One was about a guy being dragged out of a barber shop -- it was in The Washington Post this morning. They talked about the person doing this had AK-47s, was blindfolded.
Are our troops issued AK-47s?
SMITH: They are not, sir. *
INHOFE: Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Chairman.
WARNER: Thank you very much, Senator.
* A followup question, which Senator Inhofe had no interest in asking, was,"Even though they're not issued them, do they use them?" The answer to that would have been "Yes." See the August 24, 2003, A.P. story, "U.S. Troops Use Confiscated Iraqi AK-47s"

Ethiopians recieved CUDP leaders in Washington, DC

2007-09-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

DC Reception

The Struggle for Democracy in Ethiopia: A talk by Dr. Berhanu Nega

2007-09-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Struggle for Democracy in Ethiopia: A talk by Dr. Berhanu Nega. Thursday, September 6th, 7:30 pm, New School for Social Research, Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue, New York. Join us for a talk by Dr. Berhanu Nega, New School alumnus and mayor-elect of Addis Ababa. Dr. Nega was held as a political prisoner in Ethiopia for almost two years, along with thousands of others in the current government's crackdown on dissent. Recently released from prison, he is in New York to share his experiences at his alma mater, The New School for Social Research.

Ethiopians suffer under government corruption

2007-07-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

By Dean Jacobs/Letters to America

Our conversation stops as silent eyes glance to the knock that came from the door, a student appears to ask a question and leaves.
Talking about politics is a dangerous undertaking in Ethiopia.
Those who are willing to speak about such things, only do so under the agreement of remaining anonymous. Stories of people being harassed by the federal police are common. It generally starts with a warning phone call about a comment or activity that they call into question.
A newspaper publisher tells me about an opinion column he runs in his business newspaper. He heard once on a BBC TV interview with the current Ethiopia president that he doesn't plan to run again, and he shared that statement in his newspaper. He was called about it, and warned to write only about business, not politics, even though that decision would affect business.
After the student leaves, my office companion, whom I will call David says: “Did you see the marks on his eyebrows, that means he comes from the Tigrai region where the president is from.”
This communicates a potential loyalty to the current government.
Elections in 2005 were marked with irregularities, according to international officials observing the process. The irregularities are thought to be changed ballots or switched ballot boxes.
After the election, the word got out that the sitting government rigged the election.
“It was so obvious that everyone knew,” so students began to demonstrate peacefully, David says.
Another knock on the door, and our conversation once again stops. This time it is a student David wants me to meet.
“She's very clever and understands what is happening,” he says.
This student, whom I will call Tigist, shares some of her thoughts about the current situation.
“The people are frustrated, and because it is not safe to express one's opinion, they continue to swallow those frustrations. But one day, people will not be able to swallow any more, and we will explode like a volcano,” Tigist says.
When asked about the timing of that explosion, she pauses and says, “the economic situation is not good in Ethiopia. The inflation is running high, and if it continues, people will no longer be able to afford basic food. I feel it will happen sooner rather than later.”
Those peaceful demonstrations turned deadly as federal police opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing 22. People do demonstrate now, but only when the international press is around because the demonstrators know the federal police will not take action in front of international media, at gatherings like major football matches or running races where large groups make it hard to single out one person.
The opposition has a symbol, the peace sign that people in the U.S. would recognize from the 1960s.
“Once I was waving down a taxi using the same two fingers to let the taxi know there was two of us,” says David, “a federal policeman saw me, ran over and started beating me. I had a hard time explaining I was just trying to wave down a taxi.”
The people of Ethiopia are frustrated with the U.S. government. Many have family or friends in the United States, so it is hard to be critical of a place they feel connected to.
“But the U.S. government is supporting the corrupt government of Ethiopia, and that is bringing a larger suffering to the majority of the Ethiopian people as a whole,” David says.
People are just surviving, according to Tigist, and waiting for the next elections.
“I don't think there will be an election. Those who want to run are in prison. What ever you call the opposite of Democracy, that is what we currently have in Ethiopia,” David says.

Dean Jacobs is a former Fremont Tribune photographer and a world traveler. Follow his latest journey each Monday in the Tribune.

Interpreter Freed

2007-07-31T21:43:00.001-07:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Mohamed Abdi, an Ethiopian-American interpreter detained for more than two months without being charged, was released over the weekend, American officials said. He had been working as an interpreter for the American military in the volatile eastern Ogaden region when Ethiopian troops arrested him and two American soldiers in early May. The Americans were promptly released, but Mr. Abdi was sent to a military camp where he was kept until Sunday. An Ethiopian military spokesman said he had no information about the event

Lantos Addresses Erroneous Reports About Legislation on Ethiopia

2007-07-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC – To correct erroneous reports about the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act (H.R. 2003), Chairman Tom Lantos of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued this statement today:
“The full committee did not consider the measure at today’s markup because I wanted to give Ethiopia’s elders, government officials, courts and opposition leaders an opportunity to work out a pardon arrangement for the more than 30 remaining political detainees. Late last week I notified other members of Congress, including the House leadership, of my decision. I continue to be concerned about the detainees, and hope for their release soon.
“This bill will not be considered by the full committee for now, but this does not mean the matter of progress in political and other rights in Ethiopia is closed. The United States relationship with Ethiopia will continue to be conditioned on Ethiopian support for human rights and the rule of law. We will continue to hold the Ethiopian government accountable for the way it treats its citizens.”

Lantos is the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Ethiopia turns its critics into untouchables

2007-07-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

ZOE ALSOP AND NICK WADHAMS
Special to The Globe and Mail
July 27, 2007
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA -- Dressed in a black Adidas track suit and seated amid a comfortable clutter of term papers and political science tomes in his modest office at Addis Ababa University, Prof. Merera Gudina hardly looks like a menace. But, ever since he was elected to parliament two years ago, people have been avoiding him.
There was, for example, the time that local mechanics were too terrified to repair his car when it broke down on the way back from his mother's funeral east of Addis.
"The mechanic said somebody was giving him a signal and they ran away and we had to transport the car to Addis," Prof. Gudina said. "What they do is that they don't touch me as a person, but people in contact with me, after I leave an area, they harass them or detain them or whatever they want," he said of government security agents.
Optimistic visitors from the United States, which will give $500-million (U.S.) in aid to Ethiopia in 2008, like to point out that the Ethiopian opposition pulled off a feat that would be unthinkable in America or Europe when they unseated more than 150 ruling lawmakers two years ago.
But civil-society groups and supporters of the opposition throughout Ethiopia describe the country's parliament as little more than a Potemkin village. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling EPRDF party puts on a show of democracy for international donors, while enacting a brutal crackdown on supporters of the opposition outside of the capital.
Leaders such as Prof. Gudina say they've been denied offices, staff and access to their constituents and the media.
"At this point, Ethiopia has some of the trappings of democracy, but none of the substance," said Bronwyn Bruton, a Program Officer for East and Southern Africa with the National Endowment for Democracy, which gets some funding from the U.S. government.
In the 2005 elections, the opposition made historic gains against the EPRDF, which is dominated by Mr. Zenawi's own Tigray ethnic group.
Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and tens of thousands more jailed, including journalists, the elected mayor of Addis Ababa and the head of the country's only independent human-rights organization.
The government only last week released 38 of the opposition activists who had been tried and found guilty of inciting violence, treason and trying to topple the government, but not before they signed statements admitting their guilt.
While a number of opposition members have boycotted parliament in protest against the election, scores of others followed the advice of Western countries including the United States and took office.
"I can't run away from this place and expect some miracle," said Beyene Petros, who has represented the opposition ever since Mr. Zenawi ousted dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Mr. Petros has seen so many colleagues jailed or killed that he seems somewhat bemused at his own survival.
"Not me. I'm sort of an alibi for a lot of bad things they do to others. They will say, 'Look, Beyene Petros has been this, he's a fierce opponent, he can say anything.' Instead of coming to me, attacking me, they have gone and killed my immediate associates, they have abducted some. That's not enjoyable position to be in."
The government's true face, people say, is shown in places like Dembi Dollo, a two-day journey from the capital along more than 480 kilometres of dusty, dilapidated roads. Few foreigners visit, and little news emerges from the area.
Dembi Dollo is the political heart of Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region. It's the birthplace of the Oromo Liberation Front, a group once allied with Mr. Zenawi, but today the largest of half a dozen rebel fronts in the country.
It is here that men who once campaigned for an opposition party called the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement are still paying the price.
"You can say my home is the prison. I spend a lot of my life in the prison," said one elder who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "Since 1991, every year I was in prison it's only this time now, this year, I didn't visit the prison."
Though support for the rebels runs high here, the town's elders campaigned for the OFDM, which eschews violence. Unfortunately for them, the local officials of the ruling party do not distinguish between political parties like the OFDM and the OLF, which was branded a terrorist organization by Mr. Zenawi's administration late last year.
The elders had been jailed and followed. Telephone and power lines to Dembi Dollo were cut off. The OFDM's office was vandalized and closed. After an elementary school teacher campaigned for the OFDM, riot police went after his 16-year-old daughter. They broke both her wrists, bludgeoned her in the abdomen and held her for a month.
"When she went to the court, the witnesses are the police who beat her - so how can this be?" said one teacher, who also insisted on anonymity.
Ethiopia's ruling party attributes any heavy-handedness against the opposition to growing pains. "In most cases there are no problems," said Bereket Simon, a senior adviser to Mr. Zenawi. "We feel there might be problems here and there because this is not a mature democracy like that of the West. It is an emerging democracy and we're bound to make mistakes."
Prof. Gudina has kept his full-time job at the university. After seeing 56 members of his party killed amid post-election violence, he says there's very little he can do in parliament, where, unlike representatives for the ruling party, he has no offices, no budget and no influence. "In a year and a half, I've attended five, six sessions, that's all," Prof. Gudina said. "There's nothing there to do. When Meles makes a report, you go so at least people see you are there."

Ethiopian Prisoners in Vote Protest Case Are Pardoned and Released

2007-07-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 20 — Ethiopia pardoned and released 38 opposition politicians and activists on Friday in a case that had been widely criticized as political punishment.
Dozens of supporters cheered and waved Ethiopian flags as the prisoners left Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Some of them had been incarcerated for nearly two years on charges of trying to overthrow the government. Earlier this week, a judge sentenced 30 of the prisoners to life in prison.
Western nations, which give hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid to Ethiopia, had been urging the government to release the prisoners. But Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Friday that the pardon had nothing to do with Western pressure. “The Ethiopian government isn’t willing and is unable to be run like a banana republic from Capitol Hill,” Mr. Meles said in a news conference.
Among those freed were the mayor-elect of Addis Ababa, Berhanu Nega, and a former Harvard scholar and the founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam.
The 38 were jailed in November 2005 after landmark elections in which the leading opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, said it had won a large number of seats in the Ethiopian Parliament. When the ruling party announced different results, opposition supporters poured into the streets in protest.
Army commandos were trucked into the capital, and sharpshooters took to the rooftops. A report later commissioned by the government found that the police used “excessive force,” resulting in the deaths of 193 civilians. The government also arrested 30,000 people.
Representative Donald M. Payne, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health, said he was going ahead with a bill he wrote that seeks to withhold nonessential aid to Ethiopia if certain conditions, including an improved human rights record, are not met. “These prisoners should never have been put in prison for exercising their constitutional rights,” Mr. Payne said Friday. “Those security personnel who murdered 193 innocent civilians are still free.”

Kangaroo Court sentences CUD leaders to life imprisonment

2007-07-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

Ethio-Zagol

The Federal High Court today sentenced all CUD leaders who were convicted of outrage against the constitution to life imprisonment. The other nine who weren't in CUD leadership got sentences ranging form 1 year and six months to 18 years imprisonment.

The court also decided to take away the political rights of CUD leaders to elect and be elected to office. It decided that the judicial interdiction is absolute.

Deep concern at Prosecutor’s request of the death penalty against 43 opposition party members and human rights defenders in Ethiopia

2007-07-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

The International Federation for Human Rights

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) expresses its deep concern over Ethiopia’s State Prosecutor’s request on July 9, 2007, for the death penalty against 43 defendants. On 11 June 2007, the second bench of the Federal High Court convicted the 43 defendants on various counts, including the crime of outrage against the constitutional order.
Among the defendants are the top leaders of the opposition party CUD (Coalition for Unity and Democracy), including human rights defenders such as Prof. Mesfin Wolde Mariam (founder and long-time chairperson of EHRCO, FIDH member organization in Ethiopia) and journalists. 38 of the defendants are members of the the CUD’s higher council.
The CUD had been complaining against the official election results, claiming that there were massive irregularities that should be investigated by independent investigation panels and reruns of the election in some of the constituencies. It had also called for peaceful demonstrations in protest against the results. In June and November 2005, there were spontaneous street protests which the government declared «unlawful» and constitutive of «an insurrection to overthrow the constitutional order». The violent crackdown by the security forces in June and November 2005 led to massive human rights violations (such as extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, mass arrests and arbitrary detentions, etc.).
In December 2005, some 131 opposition party members, journalists and newspaper publishers, civil society activists, lawyers, other human rights defenders as well as the newspaper firms and political organizations were prosecuted in connection with the June and November protests and formally charged with serious crimes including «conspiracy» and «armed uprising», «trying to subvert the Constitution», «high treason» and «attempted genocide». A number of the accused, including some charged in absentia, were later acquitted and the charge on genocide dropped. Out of the 43 defendants (5 were charged in abstentia) 38 had initially refused to submit a defence, claiming that the charges were politically motivated and that they had no faith in the independence of the Court. FIDH considers these charges to be arbitrary and disproportionate to the nature of the events that occurred in the aftermath of the May 2005 elections.
Concerned by the human rights violations committed during these protests and the pending trial, FIDH sent two international mission to Ethiopia in order to observe this trial. According to the mission delegates, the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s commitment to provide a «fair, prompt, rapid and transparent trial», has been challenged by many irregularities: absence of court warrants, continuing delays of the procedure, violation of the right to be tried in a speedy manner, use of illegally obtained or manufactured evidences, and the defendants’ rights to examine all evidences submitted against them and their right to express their views at court [1]
According to the revised penal code of Ethiopia, the offences for which the 43 defendants are convicted, carry penalties ranging from 3 years up to the death penalty. However, during the court session held on 9th July 2007, the State Prosecutor demanded that all the 43 defendants charged with one to four counts be sentenced to death, and a fine of 500,000 ETB and a ban be imposed against the convicted newspaper firms.
FIDH recalls its total opposition to the death penalty, which is contrary to the right to life enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

FIDH

Strongly hopes the Federal High Court will not follow the Prosecutor’s request;
Urges the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, particularly the Working Group on death penalty, to make a public declaration before the sentences are pronounced on July 16, 2007, to recall the provision of its resolution adopted in 2006 requesting States to refrain from applying the death penalty;
Calls on the Ethiopian authorities to ratify the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which provides for the abolition of the death penalty
Urges the Ethiopian authorities to guarantee, at all times, the freedoms of opinion and expression as well as the right to hold peaceful demonstrations and to political assembly, in compliance with the Ethiopian Constitution and the international and regional instruments ratified by Ethiopia and notably the ICCPR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

No Justice for Murdered Ethiopian Christian, Says Group

2007-07-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Gold
Christian Post Correspondent

More than three months after an Ethiopian evangelist was killed by Muslim militants in March, there are still no signs of movement on bringing those responsible to justice, reports International Christian Concern (ICC).
“We are alarmed to report that it has been more than three months since the killing occurred, but no one has yet been charged or imprisoned for the killing of evangelist Taddesse,” ICC wrote in a statement.
The only action taken by the Ethiopian authorities so far is to detain the guard of the mosque where the murder occurred. He was later freed, however.
Despite calls from church leaders for the prosecution of those involved in the killing, the Muslim-dominated justice system in Jimma has refused to respond, ICC was told.
“By failing to prosecute the killers of Taddesse, Ethiopian authorities are violating their obligation to protect human rights and their commitment to do so in agreeing to international human rights instruments like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“They are also failing to abide by their own constitution which requires them to protect the human rights of their citizens,” stated ICC.
The persecution watchdog group warned the international community that the latest killing was a sign of worsening conditions for Christians in Ethiopia.
“The attack against evangelist Taddesse is not a single incident but it is a part of growing pattern of attacks against Christians and churches in Ethiopia since the May 2005 election in which Ethiopian government was challenged by strong opposition politicians," it stated.

Human Rights Activist and Businessman Charged of Attempting to Overthrow the Ethiopian Government

2007-07-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

By Meqdela
The prominent human rights activist Yalemzewd Bekele and top businessman Alemayehu Fantu have been charged of attempting to overthrow the existing Ethiopian government. The two were both arrested by the Federal police last October for disseminating the civil disobedience calendar which calls for non-violent actions from the citizenry until imprisoned political leaders are freed. EZ Post reported that Alemayehu Fantu was tortured then.
The charge was filed by the prosecutor last week. The defendants were due in court today. In the charge the prosecutor alleged that Yalemzewd Bekele and Alemayehu Fantu, jointly and severally, with the intention to dismantle the constitution through violence, and to obstruct the exercise of constitutional powers, having fully participated directly and indirectly in criminal act and consequences thereof, had designed and printed a calendar which lists 14 forms of struggle under the title ""I will fight for the release of our leaders, will you?", and had attempted to overthrow the government in power, to obstruct its functions,to disturb the authorities, and impede their functions, by creating in them fear, insecurity, and lack of self-confidence, and especially, to destroy the economy.
The charge entails fifteen years imprisonment. Yalemzewd was this year's nominee for the Bindman's Law and Campaigning Award for her projects relating to civil society and women's rights. Alemayehu is one of the most respected businessmen in Addis Ababa.

Death Sentences Recommended in Ethiopia

2007-07-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

By ANITA POWELL
Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Ethiopian prosecutors on Monday asked for the death penalty for 38 politicians and activists accused of inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government.
The court is expected to issue a sentence on July 16. The accused, who have chosen not to defend themselves, did not speak during Monday's session but will have a chance to do so during next week's court session.
"They have not shown any sign of regret in the court, and they have not (accepted) the sovereignty of the court," prosecutor Abraham Tetemke said during Monday's court session. "Therefore we request that they should be punished with capital punishment."
The prosecution said they felt the maximum penalty was appropriate for the leaders, who were part of a group of more than 100 people jailed for allegedly inciting violence after Ethiopia's controversial May 2005 elections. While there is a death row in Ethiopia, no one has been executed in at least eight years.
"They have attempted an outrage against the constitution and the constitutional order, and attempted to disintegrate the nation," Tetemke said. "They have created violence and many people lost their lives. ... This criminal act has caused a serious social crisis."
After court adjourned Monday, family members of the accused shuffled out silently, some wiping away tears.
Mulatu Teklu, 67, walked dazedly out of court after he learned that his youngest son, 32-year-old Yenene Mulatu, could die for his actions.
"I'm very sorry," he said, shaking his head. "I'm very sorry."
Others were more optimistic. Asrat Tassie, a former defendant and opposition politician who was among 25 defendants released from jail in April, said he was sure there would be a pardon.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman stopped short of criticizing Monday's recommendation.
"We call on the Ethiopian government and high court to take action in making a final sentencing determination, which is consistent with the greater objectives of bolstering the rule of law and promoting much-needed reconciliation," said the spokesman, Sean McCormack.

Final Statement of the Prosecution

2007-07-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

Ethio-zagol
Today in court the prosecution presented their final statement. Shemeles asked for capital punishment for all defendants--those facing single and multiple charges--and that their rights be denied.
What rights he thinks still exist for prisoners who have been convicted but not yet sentenced is unclear.
In three days the group of nine Party members, journalists and others who have chosen to defend will present their defense to the court.The sentencing is scheduled to take place next Monday, July 16 2007.

Ethiopian leaders face sentences

2007-07-09T02:09:00.000-07:00

BBC

A group of 38 Ethiopian opposition leaders found guilty of links to violent election protests in 2005 is to be sentenced shortly.
Among them are several of the capital's elected MPs and city councillors, including Berhanu Negga, mayor-elect of Addis Ababa.
The 38 originally faced treason and genocide - which sparked international condemnation and cuts in aid.
Their relatives say the 38 have signed a document which could see them freed.
The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says this could be some form of apology or plea for mercy.

Armed rebellion

The Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders refuse to recognise the court or enter any defence - the reason why the judges said they were forced to find them guilty as charged last month.

Their offences included outrage against the constitution and, in the case of party leader, Hailu Shawel, and four others, inciting, organising and leading armed rebellion, for which the sentence is likely to be either death or life imprisonment.
But our reporter says the sentences may not be the end of the story.
The government has repeatedly said it cannot interfere in the judicial process.
However once sentence has been passed, then there may be the possibility of clemency or pardon.
Some 193 people were killed in protests at alleged rigging in the 2005 elections, won by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's party.
The government has denied accusations that the convictions were intended to stifle political dissent.
But an opposition lawyer said the suddenness of the verdict exposed the trial as a sham and mockery of justice.
Hundreds of thousands took part in demonstrations complaining of fraud and vote-rigging.
Most of the dead were protesters killed by security forces.
An independent inquiry carried out by an Ethiopian judge concluded that the police had used excessive force.
He went on to accuse them of carrying out a massacre. The judge later fled Ethiopia, saying he had been put under pressure to change his findings and had received death threats.

Tarnished

The government points out that it introduced multi-party elections to Ethiopia after years of military rule.
In the elections, the opposition made huge gains but says it was cheated out of victory.
Three months ago, a judge threw out controversial charges of attempted genocide and treason against another 111 people arrested after the election protests.
The violence and the charges of election fraud have tarnished Mr Meles' image as a favourite of Western donors and one of a new wave of reforming African leaders.

Former NSU professor still jailed in Ethiopia

2007-07-09T00:17:00.000-07:00

By Jason Marks
A retired Norfolk State professor awaits his fate in Ethiopia. Dr. Yacob Hailemariam left NSU and returned to his native country to run for office. Even though he won he was still jailed by the ruling regime.
That was a year ago. Now an international effort is going down to the wire to save his life. The court process has gone on now for months however the former professor could know his fate as early as tomorrow.
It has been an agonizing year not only for Hailemariam, but for his family.
"It's very much up and down," said Hailemariam's daughter Seyenie Yacob. "You hear things that might be a little bit hopeful here and there, so you get excited and then it doesn't come through."
Seyenie worries about her father who is more than 7,200 miles away. He could be sentenced to death by the Ethiopian government. Hailemariam retired from NSU in 2005 and decided to run for a parliament seat in his native country. Not only did he win, he became the instant leader of his party. However he never took his seat in office. The ruling government threw him in jail and charged him with treason.
"We knew that there was going to be many challenges and risks," added Seyenie.
Hailemariam was convicted in June. He's now waiting to be sentenced. Seyenie was able to visit her dad in March.
"It was very tough especially cause I had not seen him in over a year," said Seyenie. "I saw him in a very public setting for the first time with the other fellow prisoners."
The U.S. is trying to help out. Trying to free a man who just wanted to help people who were in desperate need of help. He did that by taking a risk, a risk his daughter says is worth it.
"Big changes like this don't happen easily for any country," added Seyenie. "We are really hoping that he will be a part of something great for Ethiopia one day."
Seyenie says her father has no regrets about leaving NSU and heading back to Ethiopia. Amnesty International, a human right organization is working very hard to see that he is released. Of course we'll keep you posted.

Meles ready to sentence CUD leaders

2007-06-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

By Ethio-Zagol
Last gasp mediation efforts have failed as the convicted CUD leaders rejected Meles' proposal that they be our before the sentencing by admitting that they have made mistakes. According to sources, Meles had said that his "compromise" proposal was a "take it or leave it."
The prisoners have decided to leave it and face the consequences. The crime they were convicted of carries death penalty or a mandatory rigorous imprisonment.

Ethiopian Prisoners Sign Paper in Bid for Release

2007-06-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

By Stephanie McCrummen
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania -- Ethiopian opposition leaders jailed in a brutal crackdown following 2005 elections have signed a document accepting partial responsibility for the violence in exchange for their release, senior U.S. and Ethiopian officials said.
Only some of the 38 political detainees, whom Amnesty International has called prisoners of conscience, have agreed to sign the document. Others, including the senior opposition leaders, have refused, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are involved in the discussions.
Those who signed could be freed within days, the officials said.
Negotiations on the prisoners' release have proceeded despite their conviction last week on charges including "outrage against the constitution" and aggravated high treason in a trial that human rights groups and some U.S. officials condemned as a sham. The prisoners are to be sentenced in July and could face the death penalty.
The prisoners' families have accused the United States of softening its criticism of Ethiopia's human rights record because the country is a key military ally in the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.
The 2005 elections were generally hailed as free and fair, and the opposition made significant gains. But when opposition members took to the streets to protest some of the results, Ethiopian security forces, including sharpshooters, responded with massive force, arresting about 30,000 protesters and killing at least 193 people.

Alliance With Atrocity: Bush's Terror War Partners in Ethiopia

2007-06-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

Written by Chris Floyd
The New York Times paints a pretty picture of George W. Bush's bosom pals in Ethiopia, in an important story that once again gives the howling lie to the Bushists' pretensions of advancing freedom and democracy in their world-encircling Terror War.
Of course, the story itself, by Jeffrey Gettleman, is marred by the usual uncritical acceptance of Administration spin on its key role in aiding the Ethiopian dictatorship's aggression in Somalia, and ignores entirely the American airstrikes during the invasion that killed scores of civilians (and are still going on in the Somali hinterland). This is not surprising, given that Gettleman's last big piece from the region was a truly odious bit of propaganda hackwork that essentially painted the victims of the aggression as greedy, worthless, anarchic trash who got what was coming to them. (See "The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia.")
Still, the new article is a vast improvement on its predecessor, employing a journalistic device that is increasingly rare in the higher circles of the coporate media: reportage. Gettleman has actually gone to the Ogaden desert to talk with victims of the Ethiopian dictatorships's savage internal repression. He actually details Ethiopia's brutal crackdown on its nascent democracy movement, and its strangling of free elections in 2005 -- and even compares it to the murderous Chinese reaction to the historic Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
(Of course, Bush only increased American military aid to Ethiopia after the 2005 repression -- just as his father never let the Tiananmen massacre derail his courtship of China's leaders, which has paid off so handsomely for America's ruling family, with fat Chinese contracts for son Neil and lucre aplenty for George I's brother, Prescott Jr., long-time head of the Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce. Who wants to bet that Ethiopia will soon adopt Neil's latest wheeze, a"computer learning" gizmo he is marketing with business partners like Boris Berezovsky and Sun Myung Moon? For more on the Warbuckian Bushes, see "Uncle Sugar" and "Buried Treasure.")
So let's give credit where it's due. Although Gettleman downplays the American partnership with Ethiopia's conquest of Somalia -- and takes 40 paragraphs before he mentions that the European Commission is now investigating Bush's partner for war crimes "in connection to hundreds of Somali civilians killed by Ethiopian troops" -- he does bring in a Democratic congressman to decry the U.S. military alliance with Ethiopia, and its bitter fruit in Somalia. I believe this is the first time I've seen such a criticism aired by an elected official in a story from the major corporate media since the attack on Somalia last December.
What's more, the Timesman admirably puts the suffering of the persecuted ethnic Somalis of Ethiopia's Ogaden desert front and center in the story. And he makes an explicit connection between the perpetrators of these atrocities and their staunch supporters in the Bush Administration:

In village after village, people said they had been brutalized by government troops. They described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will.
It is the same military that the American government helps train and equip — and provides with prized intelligence. The two nations have been allies for years, but recently they have grown especially close, teaming up last winter to oust an Islamic movement that controlled much of Somalia and rid the region of a potential terrorist threat.

Of course, even in making this connection, which ties the Bush Administration directly to the atrocities detailed in the story, Gettleman still totes White House water by retailing, as unqualified fact, the baseless charge that the overthrown Somali regime was a "potential terrorist threat" -- and thus a legitimate target for the Terror War treatment. (Then again, you could say that any group or any person is a "potential" terrorist threat. If that's your basis for "intervention," then you can invade, detain or kill anyone you like. Which, as we have often pointed out here, is actually the operating philosophy of the Bush Regime.) But let's brush aside Gettleman's knee-jerk spin, and return to the facts and testimonies he unearths.

Anab, a 40-year-old camel herder who was too frightened, like many others, to give her last name, said soldiers took her to a police station, put her in a cell and twisted her nipples with pliers. She said government security forces routinely rounded up young women under the pretext that they were rebel supporters so they could bring them to jail and rape them. “Me, I am old,” she said, “but they raped me, too.”...
Human Rights Watch issued a report in 2005 that documented a rampage by government troops against members of the Anuak, a minority tribe in western Ethiopia, in which soldiers ransacked homes, beat villagers to death with iron bars and in one case, according to a witness, tied up a prisoner and ran over him with a military truck....
[Ethiopia's] leaders...had promised to let some air into a very stultified political system during the national elections of 2005, which were billed as a milestone on the road to democracy. Instead, they turned into Ethiopia’s version of Tiananmen Square. With the opposition poised to win a record number of seats in Parliament, the government cracked down brutally, opening fire on demonstrators, rounding up tens of thousands of opposition supporters and students and leveling charges of treason and even attempted to kill top opposition leaders, including the man elected mayor of Addis Ababa.

As everywhere in the world where violence and repression flourish, women have been particular victims. (Of course, given the Administration's proven track record of callous disregard for the world's most vulnerable women, the fate of the Ogaden women is not likely to trouble the White House very much.)

Asma, 19, who now lives in neighboring Somaliland, said she was stuck in an underground cell for more than six months last year, raped and tortured. “They beat me on the feet and breasts,” she said. She was freed only after her father paid the soldiers ransom, she said, though she did not know how much.
Ambaro, 25,
now living in Addis Ababa, said she was gang-raped by five Ethiopian soldiers in January near the town of Fik. She said troops came to her village every night to pluck another young woman. “I’m in pain now, all over my body,” she said. “ I’m worried that I’ll become crazy because of what happened.”

As Gettleman notes, the struggle in the Ogaden was simply ignored by the Bush Adminstration -- until a rebel Ogaden faction staged a bloody attack on an oilfield in Ethiopia last April. Raping women and beating villagers to death, that's just background noise; but messing with the sacred crude -- now, that's serious. So now the Bush administration is seriously considering Ethiopia's oft-repeated request for Washington "to add the Ogaden National Liberation Front to its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations." That could open the spigot to even more U.S. military aid for the dictatorship, and perhaps even bring America's secret Terror Warriors -- such as the Special Forces units operating in Somalia today -- into the Ogaden.
After all, for America's war-profiteering ruling family, and its many like-minded barons among the respectable elite, you can never have too many killing fields to play upon -- just as your proxies can never be brutal enough to forfeit your aid...as long as they keep doing your bidding.

In Ethiopia, Fear and Cries of Army Brutality

2007-06-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

IN THE OGADEN DESERT, Ethiopia — The rebels march 300 strong across the crunchy earth, young men with dreadlocks and AK-47s slung over their shoulders.
Often when they pass through a village, the entire village lines up, one sunken cheekbone to the next, to squint at them.
“May God bring you victory,” one woman whispered.
This is the Ogaden, a spindle-legged corner of Ethiopia that the urbane officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, would rather outsiders never see. It is the epicenter of a separatist war pitting impoverished nomads against one of the biggest armies in Africa.
What goes on here seems to be starkly different from the carefully constructed up-and-coming image that Ethiopia — a country that the United States increasingly relies on to fight militant Islam in the Horn of Africa — tries to project.
In village after village, people said they had been brutalized by government troops. They described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will.
It is the same military that the American government helps train and equip — and provides with prized intelligence. The two nations have been allies for years, but recently they have grown especially close, teaming up last winter to oust an Islamic movement that controlled much of Somalia and rid the region of a potential terrorist threat.
The Bush administration, particularly the military, considers Ethiopia its best bet in the volatile Horn — which, with Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, is fast becoming intensely violent, virulently anti-American and an incubator for terrorism.
But an emerging concern for American officials is the way that the Ethiopian military operates inside its own borders, especially in war zones like the Ogaden.
Anab, a 40-year-old camel herder who was too frightened, like many others, to give her last name, said soldiers took her to a police station, put her in a cell and twisted her nipples with pliers. She said government security forces routinely rounded up young women under the pretext that they were rebel supporters so they could bring them to jail and rape them.
“Me, I am old,” she said, “but they raped me, too.”
Moualin, a rheumy-eyed elder, said Ethiopian troops stormed his village, Sasabene, in January looking for rebels and burned much of it down. “They hit us in the face with the hardest part of their guns,” he said.
The villagers said the abuses had intensified since April, when the rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field, killing nine Chinese workers and more than 60 Ethiopian soldiers and employees. The Ethiopian government has vowed to crush the rebels but rejects all claims that it abuses civilians.
“Our soldiers are not allowed to do these kinds of things,” said Nur Abdi Mohammed, a government spokesman. “This is only propaganda and cannot be justified. If a government soldier did this type of thing they would be brought before the courts.”
Even so, the State Department, the European Parliament and many human rights groups, mostly outside Ethiopia, have cited thousands of cases of torture, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings — enough to raise questions in Congress about American support of the Ethiopian government.
“This is a country that is abusing its own people and has no respect for democracy,” said Representative Donald M. Payne, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health.
“We’ve not only looked the other way but we’ve pushed them to intrude in other sovereign nations,” he added, referring to the satellite images and other strategic help the American military gave Ethiopia in December, when thousands of Ethiopian troops poured into Somalia and overthrew the Islamist leadership.
According to Georgette Gagnon, deputy director for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia is one of the most repressive countries in Africa.
“What the Ethiopian security forces are doing,” she said, “may amount to crimes against humanity.”
Human Rights Watch issued a report in 2005 that documented a rampage by government troops against members of the Anuak, a minority tribe in western Ethiopia, in which soldiers ransacked homes, beat villagers to death with iron bars and in one case, according to a witness, tied up a prisoner and ran over him with a military truck.
After the report came out, the researcher who wrote it was banned by the Ethiopian government from returning to the country. Similarly, three New York Times journalists who visited the Ogaden to cover this story were imprisoned for five days and had all their equipment confiscated before being released without charges.
Ethiopia’s Tiananmen Square
In many ways, Ethiopia has a lot going for it these days: new buildings, new roads, low crime and a booming trade in cut flowers and coffee. It is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Nigeria, with 77 million people.
Its leaders, many whom were once rebels themselves, from a neglected patch of northern Ethiopia, are widely known as some of the savviest officials on the continent. They had promised to let some air into a very stultified political system during the national elections of 2005, which were billed as a milestone on the road to democracy.
Instead, they turned into Ethiopia’s version of Tiananmen Square. With the opposition poised to win a record number of seats in Parliament, the government cracked down brutally, opening fire on demonstrators, rounding up tens of thousands of opposition supporters and students and leveling charges of treason and even attempted to kill top opposition leaders, including the man elected mayor of Addis Ababa.
Many opposition members are now in jail or in exile. The rest seem demoralized.
“There are no real steps toward democracy,” said Merera Gudina, vice president of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, a leading opposition party. “No real steps toward opening up space, no real steps toward ending repression.”
Ethiopian officials have routinely dismissed such complaints, accusing political protesters of stoking civil unrest and poking their finger into a well-known sore spot. Ethiopia has always had an authoritarian streak. This is a country, after all, where until the 1970s rulers claimed to be direct descendants of King Solomon. It is big, poor, famine-stricken, about half-Christian and half-Muslim, surrounded by hostile enemies and full of heavily armed separatist factions. As one high-ranking Ethiopian official put it, “This country has never been easy to rule.”
That has certainly been true for the Ogaden desert, a huge, dagger-shaped chunk of territory between the highlands of Ethiopia and the border of Somalia. The people here are mostly ethnic Somalis, and they have been chafing against Ethiopian rule since 1897, when the British ceded their claims to the area.
The colonial officials did not think the Ogaden was worth much. They saw thorny hills and thirsty people. Even today, it is still like that. What passes for a town is a huddle of bubble-shaped huts, the movable homes of camel-thwacking nomads who somehow survive out here. For roads, picture Tonka truck tracks running through a sandbox. The primary elements in this world are skin and bone and sun and rock. And guns. Loads of them.
Camel herders carry rifles to protect their animals. Young women carry pistols to protect their bodies. And then there is the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the machine-gun-toting rebels fighting for control of this desiccated wasteland.
Rebels Live Off the Land
Lion. Radio. Fearless. Peacock. Most of the men have nicknames that conceal their real identities. Peacock, who spoke some English, served as a guide. He shared the bitter little plums the soldiers pick from thorn bushes — “Ogaden chocolate,” he called them. He showed the way to gently skim water from the top of a mud puddle to minimize the amount of dirt that ends up in your stomach — even in the rainy season this is all there is to drink.
He pointed out the anthills, the coming storm clouds, the especially ruthless thorn trees and even a graveyard that stood incongruously in the middle of the desert. The graves — crude pyramids of stones — were from the war in 1977-78, when Somalia tried, disastrously, to pry the Ogaden out of Ethiopia’s hands and lost thousands of men. “It’s up to us now,” Peacock said.
Peacock was typical of the rebels. He was driven by anger. He said Ethiopian soldiers hanged his mother, raped his sister and beat his father. “I know, it’s hard to believe,” he said. “But it’s true.”
He had the hunch of a broken man and a voice that seemed far too tired for his 28 years. “It’s not that I like living in the bush,” he said. “But I have nowhere else to go.”
The armed resistance began in 1994, after the Ogaden National Liberation Front, then a political organization, broached the idea of splitting off from Ethiopia. The central government responded by imprisoning Ogadeni leaders, and according to academics and human rights groups, assassinating others. The Ogaden is part of the Somali National Regional State, one of nine ethnic-based states within Ethiopia’s unusual ethnic-based federal system. On paper, all states have the right to secede, if they follow the proper procedures. But it seemed that the government feared that if the Somalis broke away, so too would the Oromos, the Afar and many other ethnic groups pining for a country of their own.
The Ethiopian government calls the Ogaden rebels terrorists and says they are armed and trained by Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor and bitter enemy. One of the reasons Ethiopia decided to invade Somalia was to prevent the rebels from using it as a base.
The government blames them for a string of recent bombings and assassinations and says they often single out rival clan members. Ethiopian officials have been pressuring the State Department to add the Ogaden National Liberation Front to its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations. Until recently, American officials refused, saying the rebels had not threatened civilians or American interests.
“But after the oil field attack in April,” said one American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “we are reassessing that.”
American policy toward Ethiopia seems to be in flux. Administration officials are trying to increase the amount of nonhumanitarian aid to Ethiopia to $481 million next year, from $284 million this year. But key Democrats in Congress, including Mr. Payne, are questioning this, saying that because of Ethiopia’s human rights record, it is time to stop writing the country a blank check.
In April, European Commission officials began investigating Ethiopia for war crimes in connection to hundreds of Somali civilians killed by Ethiopian troops during heavy fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.
Women Are Suffering the Most
In the Ogaden, it is not clear how many people are dying. The vast area is essentially a no-go zone for most human rights workers and journalists and where the Ethiopian military, by its own admission, is waging an intense counterinsurgency campaign.
The violence has been particularly acute against women, villagers said, and many have recently fled.
Asma, 19, who now lives in neighboring Somaliland, said she was stuck in an underground cell for more than six months last year, raped and tortured. “They beat me on the feet and breasts,” she said. She was freed only after her father paid the soldiers ransom, she said, though she did not know how much.
Ambaro, 25, now living in Addis Ababa, said she was gang-raped by five Ethiopian soldiers in January near the town of Fik. She said troops came to her village every night to pluck another young woman.
“I’m in pain now, all over my body,” she said. “ I’m worried that I’ll become crazy because of what happened.”
Many Ogaden villagers said that when they tried to bring up abuses with clan chiefs or local authorities, they were told it was better to keep quiet.
The rebels said thats was precisely why they attacked the Chinese oil field: to get publicity for their cause and the plight of their region (and to discourage foreign companies from exploiting local resources). According to them, they strike freely in the Ogaden all the time, ambushing military convoys and raiding police stations.
Mr. Mohammed, the government spokesman, denied that, saying the rebels “will not confront Ethiopian military forces because they are not well trained.”
Expert or not, they are determined. They march for hours powered by a few handfuls of rice. They travel extremely light, carrying only their guns, two clips of bullets, a grenade and a tarp. They brag about how many Ethiopians they have killed, and every piece of their camouflage, they say, is pulled off dead soldiers. They joke about slaughtering Ethiopian troops the same way they slaughter goats.
Their morale seems high, especially for men who sleep in the dirt every night. Their throats are constantly dry, but they like to sing.
“A camel is delivering a baby today and the milk of the camel is coming,” goes one campfire song. “Who is the owner of this land?”

Will Connors contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.