nazret.com

Washington Update

November 3, 2006

1. Pressure continues mount for congressional action on HR 5680. The legislation gained visibility when three members of Congress released statements responding to the Meles regime’s suppression of the commission of inquiry’s report on the 2005 massacres.

Rep. Chris Smith said “Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s silence speaks volumes. The regime refuses to comment on the report, most likely because they never expected it to see the light of day. We have a responsibility to hold them accountable for their brutal actions as well as their subsequent efforts to suppress this inquiry.”

Smith added “this report should prompt the House to move on my bill when we reconvene. We must send a message to the Ethiopian government that these actions will not be tolerated.”

"This delayed, secret report, as well as the repeated delays in the trial of the opposition leaders, human rights activists and journalists, demonstrates an outright contempt for rule of law and due-process," Smith said.

Rep. Donald Payne issued a statement condemning the Meles regime. “I have seen the reports and the video of the deliberation of the Commission. One can not question the quality of the work nor the authenticity of the documents. The faces of the Commissioners are clear to see and the message and conclusions loud and clear. The data presented in these reports and the videotaped testimony of the members of the Commission as they cast their votes further reveals the degree to which a systematic crackdown was in place. I repeatedly stated then and the Commission agrees that the Government used excessive force against civilians in June and November. I said then and I repeat again, those who gave the orders and those who carried out the order must be held accountable for this unspeakable crime.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said the U.S. “should stand on the side of the Ethiopian people and ensure that those responsible for these killings are brought to justice and that political differences are worked out through democratic processes, not repressive actions. When Congress reconvenes, I urge the Speaker of the House to schedule a vote on H.R.5680, the bipartisan "Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act.”

2. In addition to these expressions of congressional support, we are working to stimulate media interest in HR 5680.

3. Despite the excellent messages from members of the International Relations Committee, Congressional staff warn that more must be done to ensure passage of HR 5680. Congressional leadership still scheduled a vote on the bill; pressure must be placed on congressional leaders to allow a vote. All Ethiopians should contact their representatives, and candidates who are running for Congress, and tell them how important HR 5680 is to them, how human rights are deteriorating in Ethiopia, politicians are suffering in jail, and the repression threatens to destabilize the country. Urge the candidates to co-sponsor HR 5680, to speak to the congressional leadership to request a vote on the bill as soon as Congress reconvenes.

4. A list of current co-sponsors follows. Contact these members and congratulate them for their support:

Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] - 6/26/2006

Rep Wolf, Frank R. [VA-10] - 6/26/2006

Rep Lantos, Tom [CA-12] - 6/26/2006

Rep Tancredo, Thomas G. [CO-6] - 6/26/2006

Rep Towns, Edolphus [NY-10] - 6/26/2006

Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] - 6/26/2006

Rep Leach, James A. [IA-2] - 6/26/2006

Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [CA-46] - 6/26/2006

Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 6/26/2006

Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] - 6/26/2006

Rep Green, Al [TX-9] - 6/26/2006

Rep Sabo, Martin Olav [MN-5] - 6/26/2006

Rep Sanchez, Loretta [CA-47] - 6/26/2006

Rep Scott, Robert C. [VA-3] - 6/26/2006

Rep Brown, Corrine [FL-3] - 6/26/2006

Rep McKinney, Cynthia A. [GA-4] - 6/26/2006

Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49] - 6/28/2006

Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 6/28/2006

Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11] - 7/11/2006

Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 7/11/2006

Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 7/11/2006

Rep Smith, Adam [WA-9] - 7/11/2006

Rep Waters, Maxine [CA-35] - 7/25/2006

Rep Royce, Edward R. [CA-40] - 7/27/2006

Rep Davis, Susan A. [CA-53] - 9/7/2006

Rep Lofgren, Zoe [CA-16] - 9/7/2006

Mesfin Mekonen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2006

ETHIOPIAN AMERICANS STAND BEHIND JOHN GARAMENDI, FORMER PEACE CORPS
VOLUNTEER

San Francisco, CA: The Ethiopian-American community in California is rallying behind Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi’s candidacy for Lieutenant Governor and is attending events on his behalf throughout the state. The election takes place on November 7th, and all Ethiopian Americans are being contacted by community leaders, and are being asked to support Garamendi. John Garamendi, and his wife, Patti, served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia following their graduation from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. They taught middle school in Ilubabor in a remote rain forest in the western region of Ethiopia.

According to Neb Alemu, "John Garamendi has been a good friend and mentor to many Ethiopian-Americans all over the United States. We are here for him as he has been there for us for over 40 years."

The race between Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and State Senator Tom McClintock is now a virtual tie. Alemu believes that the deep relationships that Garamendi has forged with communities such as his will be the key to motivating Californians throughout the state to get out and vote and push Garamendi into the victory column. "It's all about relationships, after all, and John Garamendi has proven time and again, that he can be trusted to work for the good of every community, not just those who have the most power or loudest voice."

US warns of Africa terror attacks

BBC News
The US has issued a warning to its citizens in the Horn of Africa about the threat of suicide attacks from Somali extremists.

The US embassy in Nairobi said public landmarks in Kenya and Ethiopia could be targets for suicide bombers.

The alert follows the collapse of peace talks between rival factions in Somalia vying for control of the country.

In Somalia there are reports of heightened military preparations in an increasingly tense situation.

The BBC's East Africa correspondent, Adam Mynott, says the warning is in one respect specific - it talks of a threat of suicide explosions in prominent landmarks in Kenya and Ethiopia and warns US citizens to take caution in prominent public places.

However, prominent landmarks in Kenya and Ethiopia could mean a very extensive list of possible targets.

Islamic courts

A spokeswoman at the US embassy in Nairobi said the warning was based on threats by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.

Sheikh Aweys is one of the leaders of a group of Islamic courts in Somalia who urge Somalis to carry out the attacks.

The Islamic courts are in a struggle for power in Somalia with the weak interim government of the country.

Talks in Sudan between the two sides intended to find a peaceful solution collapsed on Thursday.

Militias in Somalia are reported to be making preparations for conflict by reinforcing frontline positions and recruiting more fighters.

Source: BBC News

--------------------------

Somali extremists threaten terror attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia, says U.S. embassy

The Associated Press

Extremists in Somalia have threatened to carry out suicide bombings in the Horn of Africa, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi said Thursday, the latest sign that the chaos in Somalia could engulf this volatile region.

The embassy, in a warning to Americans living or traveling in Kenya, said it has received reports of "extremist elements" targeting Kenya, Ethiopia and "surrounding countries," which it did not name.

"These threats specifically mention the execution of suicide explosions in prominent landmarks within Kenya and Ethiopia. American citizens are advised to remain vigilant and to use extreme caution when frequenting prominent public places," the statement said. A spokeswoman at the embassy said she had not seen the warning and could not comment.

Suicide attacks are exceedingly rare in Somalia. In September, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf narrowly escaped a suicide car bomb; that was believed to be the first time such a tactic was used in the country.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictatorship and then turned on one another, plunging the country into anarchy. But an increasingly powerful Islamic group — known as the Council of Islamic Courts — seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, in June and now controls much of the country's south.

The growing fundamentalist movement has prompted concerns that the chaotic nation could become fertile ground for Osama bin Laden's terror organization. Two leaders of the Islamic courts appear on U.S. and U.N. lists of people known to have ties to al-Qaida, although both men have repeatedly denied the allegations.

Kenya, and Tanzania just to its south, have already been victims of terrorism, with the bombings at the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 and attacks on a hotel and an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002. The attacks emanated from Somalia, which has had no effective central government since 1992.

The U.S. embassy's warning came one day after talks collapsed between Somalia's official government and the Islamic group, which has taken over the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the country's south since June. The government, meanwhile, controls only the western city of Baidoa.

A leading member of the militia Thursday blamed Ethiopia for the breakdown in talks. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, supports Somalia's government.

"We cannot negotiate with the government while an Ethiopian gun is on our temples," Abdirahman Janaqow, deputy chairman of the Islamic courts, told The Associated Press. He added that his group had not prompted the U.S. embassy's warning, and that the statement was "designed to create problems."

Somali government officials did not immediately return a call for comment.

Somalia plunged into chaos in the early 1990s after warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and turned on each other. The government was formed with U.N. help in 2004 as a transitional body, but it has struggled to assert authority.

The Islamic movement, meanwhile, has been steadily expanding its influence. Experts have warned that the country has become a proxy battleground for its neighbors Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrea, a nation that broke away from Ethiopia in a 1961-91 civil war and fought a 1998-2000 border war with its rival, supports the Islamic militia.

A confidential U.N. report obtained by the AP last week said 6,000 to 8,000 Ethiopian troops in or near Somalia's border with Ethiopia. The report also said 2,000 troops from Eritrea are inside Somalia supporting the Islamic courts.

Eritrea denied having any troops in Somalia, and Ethiopia says it sent only a few hundred advisers.

___

AP writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report from Mogadishu, Somalia.

___

Muslim leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the supreme leader of Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, talking to an AFP correspondent inside a mosque at the end of the last Holy Month of Ramadhan in southern Mogadishu, Somalia, in 2005. Aweys has purportedly authorized suicide attacks against "prominent" targets in Kenya and Ethiopia, the United States said.(AFP/File/Ali Musa Abdi)

U.S. female circumcision case fuels hot debate in Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- The jailing of an Ethiopian in the United States for circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors has fueled a passionate debate across Africa, with many approving the punishment but some urging understanding.

In what is believed to be the first such case in the United States, Khalid Adem on Wednesday was sentenced to 10 years in prison for removing his 2-year-old daughter's clitoris in 2001.

The practice arouses horror in the West, but is still widespread in many of Africa's traditional societies.

"The punishment is appropriate because what he did is a violation of child rights," Bulti Gueteema, a senior official in Ethiopia's Ministry of Women's Affairs, told Reuters.

"You cannot jail an entire community" PM Meles Zenawi

You cannot jail an entire community'

Ethiopian mother Elizabeth Gorge said it was "revolting" for a father to circumcise his own daughter by himself.

"Even the uneducated parents in rural areas do not do such practices on their own, they always seek assistance of women who specialize in this," she said in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the practice was outlawed but still common in his Horn of Africa nation.

"If a whole community is involved in this practice, you cannot jail an entire community. You have to change the mindset, and that takes time," he said last week.

Girls can bleed to death or die from infection

The practice, also known as female circumcision, usually involves cutting off the clitoris and other genitalia parts.

It is often carried out by an older woman with no medical training, using anything from scissors to pieces of glass under no anesthetics or antiseptic treatment.

An estimated 3 million girls and women are mutilated or cut each year on the African continent, the United Nations' children's agency UNICEF says, in a custom viewed in many traditional cultures as a necessary rite of passage.

Circumcision is also used to control or reduce women's sexual desire to lessen the chance of promiscuity in marriage.

The practice disfigures and sometimes kills girls from intense infection, causes extreme pain, psychological harm, problems with urination, complicates childbirth later in life, and reduces sexual pleasure for women, opponents say.

Considered necessary in traditional cultures

As populations move West, the custom has followed in immigrant communities.

"As long as this happens in a civilized society in the United States, it means our effort to eradicate this practice has failed," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, of UNICEF in Ethiopia.

In Kenya, it is known to be still common among traditional communities like the Masai.

"If a woman is not cut, she remains a baby forever and cannot perform social rites with other women," Ben Koissaba, a Masai elder in Kenya, told Reuters by telephone from the town of Narok in Kenya's Rift Valley.

"This (Ethiopian) man was doing it because he thought it would be a bad omen on his child if he did not. Maybe he should have been reprimanded not jailed, but we should try to understand his culture."

In some Muslim countries of west Africa, considered among the continent's most conservative cultures, mutilation is common. Nine of 10 Malian women have undergone mutilation, for example, a European parliamentarian said this year.

Related Link

Khalid Adem found Guilty

"Circumcision is an affront to the physical and moral integrity of a woman and that is why I will always be against the practice," said Hadiza Moussa, a female teacher in Niamey, capital of Niger.

"Just like a man, a woman has her natural desires, notably to draw pleasure from sexual relations. No, we must outlaw this practice everywhere, especially because it can result in sterility."

Source
CNN

Man denies he had affair with victim of slaying
By Brett Lovelace
Intelligencer Journal

Published: Nov 02, 2006 1:20 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Confessed killer Melkamu Garuma believed his girlfriend was having an affair before he killed her.

But Wednesday, the man who Garuma suspected was seeing his girlfriend denied any such relationship. Garuma, 26, has maintained Estegnet A. Beyene, a 21-year-old Ethiopian national, cheated on him with another Ethiopian immigrant, and he said the sight of them kissing drove him to murder. Garuma pleaded guilty last week to criminal homicide.

The bench trial before Lancaster County Judge Joseph Madenspacher — to decide whether Garuma is guilty of first-, second- or third-degree murder — is expected to wrap up Friday.

Madenspacher also will decide whether he believes Garuma raped Beyene before using a knife to nearly decapitate her inside a Lancaster city apartment.

First Assistant District Attorney Heidi Eakin contends Garuma was jealous and controlling and planned the killing because Beyene was going to leave him.

Defense attorneys Patricia Spotts and David Blanck say Garuma killed Beyene during a spontaneous moment of fury, and that the sex between the couple was consensual.

Awad Mustafa Abdulkadir, the man Garuma believed was trying to steal Beyene from him, testified through an interpreter for about 90 minutes Wednesday.

Ermias Amenti, who reported the slaying to police, and Beyene’s roommates also testified through Ethiopian interpreters Wednesday.

Abdulkadir is a native of Sudan and became a U.S. citizen in 2004. He is a delivery driver for a Lancaster produce company and lived in the same East Hempfield Township apartment complex as Beyene.

Eakin asked Abdulkadir about his relationship with Beyene and encounters with Garuma.

Abdulkadir said he met Beyene in August 2005 at the Wal-Mart in East Lampeter Township. They exchanged telephone numbers and later made plans to go to a nightclub in York.

Beyene told Abdulkadir her name was “Gigi,” and she never mentioned Garuma, he said.

Abdulkadir and his roommate, Hasan Mohamed Abdelrahman, drove to pick up Beyene outside her apartment for the trip to York. Garuma was waiting with Beyene when they arrived, Abdulkadir said.

“I had no idea what they meant to each other,” Abdulkadir said. “We got out and said, ‘Hello,’ then left for the nightclub.”

At first, Abdulkadir said, Garuma wanted to drive Beyene in his car and follow Abdulkadir and Abdelrahman in their Mazda sedan. Garuma later pulled into a gas station off Route 30 and agreed to ride with Abdulkadir.

The group paired off after entering the nightclub, Abdulkadir said, and he didn’t speak with Beyene until closing time approached. Garuma suddenly head butted Beyene, Abdulkadir said.

“(Garuma) hit his head against her head,” Abdulkadir said. “Gigi was shocked. I told Melkamu that it’s not good to hit her.”

Garuma repeatedly apologized to Beyene, Abdulkadir said, but she refused to go with him when they returned to Lancaster County.

“Gigi was upset. She was very sad and had a bruise on her forehead,” Abdulkadir said.

“She was frightened and crying.”

Garuma followed Abdulkadir in his car. He later attempted to get inside Abdulkadir’s apartment but was rebuffed.

Beyene spent three hours with Abdulkadir and Abdelrahman before they walked her home, Abdulkadir said.

About two weeks later, Abdulkadir saw Beyene again. He helped carry groceries from her car into her apartment.

Beyene asked Abdulkadir to stay for coffee, he said, but he insisted on returning home to shower and change clothes. Abdulkadir later came back and spent about two hours with Beyene inside her apartment. Garuma said in a confession to detectives that he was suspicious about an affair and left work that night, Sept. 22, 2005, to spy on Beyene.

Abdulkadir adamantly denied to Eakin and Blanck ever being intimate with Beyene.

“We only talked,” he said.

Garuma found Abdulkadir and Beyene in the apartment.

“I saw them through the french door,” Garuma said in his confession.

“They were on the sofa, kissing and hugging.”

After Abdulkadir left, Garuma convinced Beyene to go to his East King Street apartment.

While at the apartment, Garuma confronted Beyene about being with Abdulkadir. He killed Beyene, then wrote several confession letters before driving to Amenti’s apartment.

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Related Links


Ethiopian immigrant to stand trial for throat-slashing death




More Crime Related Stories

AP Interview: Ethiopian PM says militants in Somalia are threat to international community

The Associated Press

Ethiopia's prime minister says Islamic militants in Somalia represent a threat to the Horn of Africa and the entire international community and that more must be done to contain them.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told The Associated Press on Wednesday he held out little hope that a peace agreement could be reached between Somalia's internationally recognized government and Islamic militants who have taken over much of the country. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, supports neighboring Somalia's secular government.

"Apparently some people believe that the al-Qaida elements in Mogadishu ... are people one can talk to in a reasonable manner, that they can be convinced not to be extremists," Meles said in an exclusive interview.

The extremists "represent a direct threat first to Somalia and the Somali people, second to the region and Ethiopia and lastly to the international community," he said. "When they control the whole of Somalia it would be very naive to assume that they will mend their ways, cease to be terrorists and become very civilized and very tame pussycats."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is seen during an interview with The Associated Press in the capital Addis Ababa Wednesday Nov. 1, 2006. Meles said Wednesday that Islamic militants in Somalia represent a threat to the Horn of Africa and the entire international community and that more must be done to contain them. (AP Photo/Les Neuhaus)

Meles has confirmed that he has sent military advisers to help Somalia's weak government, prompting Islamic leaders to declare a holy war against Ethiopia.

"In effect they have declared war on us, they have massed their troops very close to our border, so they have publicly shown that they pose a direct security threat to us," Meles said. "It would be a dereliction of duty for any Ethiopian government to ignore that and welcome the takeover of the whole of Somalia by jihadists."

Meles declined to discuss what action he might take against the Islamic militias.

The Arab League has sponsored peace talks between the Somali government and the Islamic courts. But so far the talks, being held this week in Khartoum, Sudan, have been deadlocked. Meanwhile, Islamic militias expanded their control over Somalia by taking over a strategic coastal town Tuesday night. The fighters peacefully seized Hobyo in the central Mudug region, according to an Islamic official.

The leaders of the Council of Islamic Courts have demanded that Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia before they will meet with the government. They have also called for the secular national charter to be replaced with Islamic law.

But Meles said he has little faith that extremist elements within the Islamic courts would ever honor an agreement with the transitional government.

"I think so far the talks have not been serious, I believe the (extremists) believe they have the military momentum and that they are using the talks in Khartoum as a cover for their military takeover," Meles said.

He added that international diplomats are not taking the threat posed by the Islamic courts seriously. The Islamic courts appear to be split between a moderate wing, ready to negotiate with the government, and an extremist wing led by men the United States accuses of having ties to al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist group.

Meles insisted that the Ethiopian troops inside Somalia are there to train a new Somali national army and protect the government. He said the training began about a month ago and the new army was not yet capable of protecting the transitional government.

A recent U.N. report said there are between 6,000 and 8,000 Ethiopian troops in or near Somalia's border with Ethiopia. The report also said 2,000 troops from Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea, are inside Somalia, supporting the Islamic courts.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-year border war and tensions remain high since a final peace deal has not been reached. Meles said he had information that Eritrea was not only supporting the Islamic courts, but also training Ethiopian rebel groups hiding in Somalia.

Meles first warned the world about the Islamic militants in a May 2005 interview with the AP, but he said the world did little to support the transitional government. He said the Islamic militants took advantage of the government's weakness to become the most powerful military force in the country.

"I believe the international community could have done more and should have done more," he said.

Source: IHT

Statement Given by the Crown Council Regarding the
Recent Conflict between Christian and Muslim Ethiopians
October 30, 2006. USA

It is with deep dismay that members of the Crown Council have followed recent reports of conflicts between Christian and Muslim Ethiopians in various parts of our country. Our heartfelt condolences are sent to all those who have lost loved ones. We Ethiopians have for centuries lived side by side in peace with mutual respect of all religions. Therefore it is disheartening to hear that certain misguided people have now been swayed by the current tide of intolerance and violence.

History had taught us for centuries, how the Christian Ethiopian King had welcomed the followers of the Prophet Mohammed when they fled from persecution in their home land, and allowed them to live amongst his people in peace, undisturbed because of their religious difference. It is written that, in appreciation of the King’s hospitality, the Prophet Mohamed himself had instructed all his followers never to attack Ethiopia. Given this rich history of mutual respect, why has the Islamic Court in Somalia declared a Jihad on Ethiopia, contrary to the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed?

In more recent times, our forefathers had believed, advocated, and upheld the fact that “religion is a very individual personal expression of our relationship with our God, while a country is a shared entity for which each and every citizen has the responsibility to work and protect locally, regionally, and globally.” This deeply held conviction and continued teaching had, in the past, united our people and made Ethiopia the beacon of religious freedom and tolerance. Thus, Ethiopians of Christian and Muslim faith had intermarried and many of us have relatives from the respective faiths.

Regrettably, the intentional disconnect from value building blocks, such us our ancient history, religion and tradition, which were the trademark of the communist Dergue government, have resulted in weakening the long established values and the mutual respect that existed between people of different faith. However, by the Grace of God, there are still Ethiopians who deeply believe and uphold our long established values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

Recently, we were most encouraged to hear that some Ethiopians of Muslim faith had condemned the violent attacks on Christians in the Western Region, and that a Council of Elders of both faiths, is discussing in Addis Ababa how best to educate our people so as to help reconcile the current conflict. The discussion that was held between Christian and Muslim Religious Leaders on the Muslim Radio here in the USA, on the eve of October 29th 2006, has also shown that Ethiopians of different faith are committed to jointly seek solutions to promote peace within our country and with our Muslim neighbors. This kind of interfaith dialogue must continue to be promoted and supported.

Furthermore, we implore our country men of all faith to teach our youth about the value of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. The news media also has great responsibility to be tactful while reporting the various incidents so as not to inflame the already strained relationship between some of our people. We must acknowledge that we are all stakeholders in creating a culture of peace in our country. After all, the core teaching of all religion is reconciliation, harmony and Peace.

May God in his infinite mercy grant us Peace.