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Analysis: Ethiopian intervention in Somalia in context
William Church
January 31, 2007
By Emmanuel Fanta
Regional Coordinator Great Lakes Conflict Early Alert Report

Just one moth after the Ethiopian government officially recognised it had sent troops into Somalia, the first contingent of Ethiopian troops have started pulling out of Mogadishu. Although African Union (AU) troops are not expected to be deployed in Somalia for at least two weeks, the Ethiopian military look unwilling to stay in the country any longer.
Given the weakness of the official Transitional Federal Government (TFG) military forces, there are fears that the rapid withdrawal may create a power vacuum. However, this pullout may not announce a profound change in the Ethiopian strategy towards Somalia. In order to understand that statement, it is necessary to look back at the context in which the military intervention occurred in order to understand better the Ethiopian strategy.

[Click here to read fulltext of the article] - Editor.

Marilyn Boyd Eulogy
given by
Dr. Taye Woldesmiate
Bloomington, Illinois
January 25, 2007

When Taye Woldesmiate came to Illinois State from Ethiopia to get a Batchelor’s degree, little could he have imagined the journey he would take with the International House and the life-long friendship he would develop with Marilyn Boyd.

Twenty-five years ago, Taye and other students saw the need for an International House at ISU, and they needed to hire an International House Coordinator. Many applied, and they chose Marilyn Boyd, an ISU employee who worked in the president’s office. Her personality and leadership skills stood out. Everyone knew that Marilyn was the right one.

She was enthusiastic, energetic, and she was committed to the ideals and goals of International House. As Taye and the students soon learned, Marilyn brought that and much more to her job as the International House Coordinator.

Taye had never met Marilyn, but he had hired his boss. Because Marilyn had worked in the president’s office, Taye and the students often joked that they had a spy in International House.

She made the International House just like her home. The students became part of her family and life, and she became part of their family. She lived with them, and their lives became intertwined. . She was the mother to Bengy and Lisa [her children] and to all the international students.

Her job was not a 9 to 5 job. She participated in the Global Review and all programs. She organized and participated in all of the cultural nights. She became synonymous with International House.

Marilyn’s and Taye’s friendship started at the beginning of his academic education at ISU. It continued through his doctorate, his election to the presidency of the Ethiopian Teachers Association, his subsequent arrest, his prison release six years later, and his global work to highlight the lack of educational opportunities for children and the human rights violations around the world. This special friendship lasted for the rest of Marilyn’s life.

In his eulogy, Dr. Taye said, “For me personally, she was friend and family. She was a teacher for me. Marilyn was always there whenever I needed her.

“When I was arrested and jailed in Ethiopia, she moved to the forefront because she knew me. She fought against my arrest. She organized single-handedly the Free Taye movement. Marilyn really struggled for my release. In some of my darkest hours, I always knew that Marilyn was here at ISU doing everything she could to hasten my release from prison. She mobilized so many to get involved. She was not only committed to my release, but she sent me cards, letters, and books. Marilyn nurtured my mind and kept my sanity in place.

“Without her, I would not be here today.

“I feel lucky that I could come to ISU to teach, but I am especially thankful that I was here, at this time in our lives, to be with Marilyn and her family, especially these past months

“Her home was always open for me, and over the past 18 months, it was like old times; we just picked up where we left off—that was just how Marilyn was. It seemed like no time had passed at all.”
Marilyn contributed her time and energy in the fight, not only for Dr. Taye’s cause, but also against human rights violations and injustices in Ethiopia. She was committed to education for all children, regardless of gender and ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Marilyn wanted the world to be peaceful and democratic. She was always attuned to humans around the world. She railed against poverty and hunger. She was a real fighter. She fought injustices, and she fought cancer, with passion and dignity.

“I want to say that I have lost someone very important in my life. It is also a loss to the international program and a loss to the ISU community, as well.

“My promise to Marilyn is that others and I will continue to carry forth what she so proudly stood for─speaking out against hunger and poverty and working for equality and prosperity for all human kind.

“I promise that our family attachment with Benjy and Lisa will continue with the next generation.

“Marilyn has left us, but she will always be with us.

“Marilyn will forever be one of my dearest friends, and I have been lucky to have been her friend for 25 years. It has been one of the great blessings of my life.

“Thank you, Marilyn. I will never forget you, and you will always stay in my heart.”

Ethiopian football players missing in Botswana
January 31, 2007, 13:00

Three Ethiopian football players have gone missing in Botswana. The trio went missing over weekend after their club, Defense FC, played against Notwane of Botswana in the first leg of the first round of the CAF Confederations Cup.

Police say the players disappeared from their hotel rooms on Saturday evening after the game. It is suspected that the players might have joined Ethiopian nationals staying in Botswana. The motive for their disappearance is still not known.

Source: SABC

Erdogan: I am ashamed as a human

Erdogan: I am ashamed as a human Touring Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he felt "ashamed as a human" on seeing the poverty-stricken conditions of some of the people living there.

Erdogan toured the Muslim and Christian neighborhood of Filoha in Addis Ababa, passing out cookies and biscuits to children, and speaking with residents. He also stopped in at the second largest mosque in the city, and greeted the imam there. Comparing his visit with a previous one to Darfur in Sudan, Erdogan noted "There I visited a camp for refugees. Here, there is hunger and poverty, but we are in Ethopia, and in the capital." Erdogan was joined on his tour by various government officials, as well as his daughter, Sumeyye Erdogan.

Source: Hurriyet

Tough road to a brighter future

The Hamilton Spectator

Solomon Germossa arrives for his interview clutching evidence of his optimism: a brand-new baby blanket.

The 34-year-old Ethiopian-born refugee and second- year nursing student became a father a few weeks ago and he still can't believe it.

"I was so excited," Solomon says when asked about the birth of his new daughter, Boonii. His face erupts in a grin.

"When I was in jail I never dreamed ... I never expected to even get out of my country, but I did and now I finally have a baby. I was so excited!"

Solomon used to be a journalist, rising through the ranks of a weekly newspaper to become editor at the tender age of 25. Then, like the editor before him and the one before that, the police came and threw him in jail. He spent four years in a crowded cell, at times chained and beaten, before international pressure finally won him his release. Solomon fled to Canada and his wife, Debela Lelisie, joined him a short time later. They settled in Hamilton, where Solomon, a realist about his career chances as an Ethiopian journalist in Canada, set out to build a new life -- as a nurse.

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Two drug suspects released on bond

1/31/2007 12:38:11 AM
Leesha Faulkner


By Leesha Faulkner
Daily Journal

OXFORD - Two individuals from the Middle East are free on bond after pleading not guilty to charges they sold an illegal amount of ephedrine from a store in Hickory Flat.

Altaf Anwer Ali Kanani posted a $50,000 secured bond late last week. A Yemeni national, Kanani lists his address as 1612 Sugarloaf Reserve Dr., Duluth, Ga. Court records identify him as the employer of the co-defendant, Lemlem Ghebre.

The two and at least 11 other Yemenis are accused of selling drugs used in the making of crystal methamphetamine, trafficking in black-market cigarettes and illegally using electronic food stamps to obtain money in convenience stores across north Mississippi. They were part of a round-up by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, assisted by federal agencies

Ghebre immigrated from Eritrea three years ago, according to legal filings by her attorney Tom Levidiotis of Oxford. Eritrea an east African county bordered by the Red Sea and Ethiopia, which held it as part of a federation until 1993. Ghebre, 22, lists her address as 406 Orchard Circle East, Collierville, Tenn.

Court records show she speaks Tigrinya, a language spoken by the Tigra-Tigrinya people of central Eritrea and at least 50 percent of the country's population. Her attorney said she speaks and understand English about like a high school student.

However, he's filed a motion asking for an interpreter to help her better understand technical legal language. For now, Ghebre's husband has helped translate for her in conversations with Levidiotis. But that might not last long.

"Ghebre's husband is also employed by co-defendant Kanani and accordingly may have his own set of problems ... and therefore may not be the proper person to act in this capacity," Levidiotis wrote in a motion to the court.

For the time being, Ghebre is out on $25,000 bond. She surrendered her passport to authorities late last week.

FAO to open East African office in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have signed an agreement to enable FAO to open a Co-ordinating Office for East Africa in Addis Ababa.

Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin and FAO Director-General Dr. Jacques Diouf signed the agreement on Tuesday at a ceremony at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Ethiopia.

Mr Seyoum, said Ethiopia and FAO were able to forge strong bilateral cooperation and the new office would contribute towards efforts to ensure food security in Ethiopia.

Dr Diouf said the opening of the office would create suitable situations for FAO to provide the necessary assistance to Ethiopia in the area of agricultural development programmes.

"The coordinating office will be manned with the necessary skilled human power to provide technical assistances to the sub-region in the fields of agricultural investment, soil and water conservation, crop development, animal and fishery development, forest resource protection and other areas," he said.

FAO decided to open the office in Addis Ababa since the UN agency and Ethiopia are able to forge stronger bilateral cooperation and the Ethiopian government showed commitment to bolster co-operation with FAO, Dr Diouf said.

Dr Diouf also said the various policies and strategies Ethiopia has put in place to ensure food security and self-sufficiency are registering commendable results.

During talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Addisu Leggese, he commended the increase in crop production the country is registering.

Dr Diouf said he has earlier cited Ethiopia's agricultural development as exemplary at a conference held in Abuja, Nigeria.

FAO would further strengthen co-operation with Ethiopia towards the success of the policies and strategies designed with a view to ensuring food security in the country.

He also expressed the desire of the FAO to collaborate with Ethiopia, especially in the areas of irrigation development, flood prevention and drainage.

Dr Diouf added that the Ethiopian government had made a significant contribution in the preparation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Addisu Leggese said the country's food security programme aims at enabling over 8.2 million people become food self-sufficient in the coming four years.

Increasing agricultural productivity at household level, safety-net and resettlement, among others, are part of the programs set to ensure food security and food self-sufficiency in the country, Addisu said.

Mr Addisu said remarkable results were being registered in the implementation of the programmes.

Regarding pastoralists, Mr Addissu said, a package that fits into the condition of pastoralists has already been designed, adding that wide-ranging support was being provided to pastoralist areas across the country.

Source- BuaNews-NNN

Brand Hypocrisy at Starbucks

Douglas B. Holt*

Oxford

Efforts by the Ethiopian coffee sector to trademark Ethiopia's most valuable coffee brands have come to a screeching halt, courtesy of The Starbucks Corporation. The coffee sector is pursuing trademarks in all major international markets on Sidamo , Yirgecheffe , and Harrar so that they can then apply sound marketing techniques to increase the commercial value of these brands. The goal is to significantly raise the incomes of many of the 15 million Ethiopians who are dependent on the coffee trade. Given that Ethiopia ranks amongst the poorest countries in the world—some 80% of its citizens live on less than $2 a day—this innovative and self-reliant effort to enhance the value of Ethiopia's commerce should be receiving unanimous cheers worldwide.

Instead, Starbucks has worked with its industry lobbyists to pressure the US Patent and Trademark Office to turn down Ethiopia's trademark applications. As a result, the Office has refused to approve two of the three trademarks. And Starbucks has snubbed all attempts by Ethiopian officials to broker an acceptable agreement. Now that Oxfam has taken up Ethiopia's cause in a new media campaign, generating some 70,000 complaints so far, Starbucks has launched a media counter-offensive, publicly scolding Ethiopia's efforts. Even The Economist , that avowed champion of commerce, has taken Starbucks side to help squash this incipient effort to generate economic value. What gives?

In my view, these actions by Starbucks management are not only deeply hypocritical. Ironically, they also pose a serious threat to Starbucks' brand equity. To unpack why this is so, we need first to understand the key role played by these Ethiopian brands in Starbucks' extraordinary success.

Starbucks Relies on Ethiopian Coffee Brands

What distinguishes Starbucks products from the many thousands of other coffee products on the market is powerful brand symbolism. Through its coffees, packaging, store design, baristas, Italian-icized lexicon, and music, Starbucks promotes a very accessible highbrow worldview that has had wide appeal amongst its college-educated “creative class” target. Starbucks invites customers to join its “cosmopolitan connoisseur” culture, which can be yours simply by grabbing a latte at your nearby Starbucks.

One of the most important techniques Starbucks uses to develop this cosmopolitan connoisseur symbolism is the promotion of its coffees as artisanal products. All Starbucks coffees are named, packaged, and promoted to imbue them with the aura of traditional local craft, exotic coffees produced by peoples far removed from modern life in the North. The leading coffee brands from Ethiopia— Sidamo , Harrar , and Yirgacheffe —have played a starring role in allowing Starbucks to claim these artisanal and exotic qualities.

Starbucks markets coffees in a manner very similar to the marketing of fine wines: writing flowery prose about terrior characteristics and idiosyncratic artisanal processes steeped in local traditions. From the Starbucks Website:

From the birthplace of coffee, Sidamo is highly prized by coffee buyers from around the world. It features a fleeting, floral aroma with a bright yet soft finish and, like the best Sidamo coffees, a wonderful hint of lemon.

Each coffee is presented as a product of artistry and tradition, alive with “native” folk culture far removed from the lifeways of Starbucks customers. Starbucks trades on the fact that Ethiopian producers are not commercially minded multinationals, but, rather, simple peasants who exist outside the capitalist marketplace:

Typically, Ethiopian coffee is grown in small, backyard gardens and sold at daily auctions.

Ethiopian coffee growers serve as particularly effective symbolic material for Starbucks. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia offers the most authentic coffee experience in a marketplace dominated by mass-marketed brands. African imagery—photos of farmers, landscapes, folk design—provides access to exotic culture, also highly prized by well-educated consumers. Finally, as a continent in dire economic straits and facing extraordinary humanitarian problems, the idea of supporting coffee producers through trade by buying an expensive local product has tremendous appeal, tapping into the ethical symbolism that Starbuck's customers find increasingly appealing to assuage their concerns about global inequalities.

As Starbucks' revenues increasingly depend upon sweet blended drinks that have little to do with coffee, much less the cosmopolitan connoisseur worldview, Ethiopian coffee brands play an even more vital role in maintaining the imagery that makes the Starbucks brand so valuable. The more syrupy drinks and sugary cakes Starbucks sells, the more it needs to aggressively promote its “roots” in the artisanal, decommercialized world of African coffees to act as a counterbalance to its fast food-like offerings.

Starbucks strategy of late has been to upsell these exotic coffees, turning them into a small but immensely profitable niche. Starbucks has launched the Black Apron Exclusives ™ line, with luxurious packaging and a tagline that boasts of coffee that is “Rare, Exotic, Cherished.” Sidamo and Harrar feature prominently in this line. In the US, Starbucks has retailed these coffees for $24-26/lb, instead of the $10-13/lb for the standard whole bean coffees, a doubling of their prior price, executed simply by positioning them as even more special, exotic, and scarce.

Related Links

Starbucks stirred by fair trade filmThe Guardian

The Black Apron Exclusives line is not only a profitable niche. Its primary role is to provide a halo for the entire Starbucks brand. While few customers are willing to shell out for these extremely expensive coffees, the range is placed front and center in the stores on display so that all Starbucks customers, even those ordering a Bananas & Crème Frappuccino ® Blended Crème , can feel good about the fact that they are still participating in the rarified cosmopolitan connoisseur culture.

Ethiopian Coffees as Ingredient Brands

Starbucks strategy is to use Sidamo, Yirgacheffe , and Harrar —along with other prestigious coffees from Africa, Indonesia, and Central America—to serve as what marketers call ingredient brands. Ingredient brands are brands that are used as one component “ingredient” of another branded product or service. Gore waterproof fabric and Intel computer chips are classic examples. Consumers view the ingredient's inclusion as a distinctive and valuable addition to the offer. The ingredient is revealed to end-consumers through some sort of distinctive mark (name, logo, etc.) so that the inclusion of the ingredient increases the perceived value of the offering.

The consistent promotion of Sidamo, Yirgacheffe , and Harrar by a wide variety of specialty coffee marketers as amongst the best, most distinctive, and most authentic coffees in the world, using the mode of artisanal branding described above, has—as an unintended consequence—built these coffees into powerful and valuable ingredient brands. But, while consumers widely perceive these coffees as valuable brands, two of the three have not been recognized in the United States as legal commercial entities. Therein lies the rub. Despite the fact that consumers value these coffees, Ethiopian producers cannot capture any of this value because their coffee brands do not have legal standing as a trademark.

Starbucks Market Power Means Starving Farmers

If coffee traded as free marketers predict, one would expect that as the perceived value of Ethiopian coffee brands increased, so too would the incomes of Ethiopian farmers. Unfortunately, few markets actually operate in such a well-lubricated manner. And the specialty coffee market in particular works according to principles nearly antithetic to this ideal.

Even though the perceived value of Ethiopian coffees has increased tremendously, none of this value is getting passed back to the producers. Despite the fact that they are producing some of the most valued coffee in the world, Ethiopian farmers are struggling to stay alive, many living below subsistence levels, nowhere close to the heart-warming photos of industrious happy peasants often found in Starbucks marketing. In fact, the commodity price is so low that many farmers are trading out coffee production to grow khat—the slightly narcotic drug of choice in East Africa. Those farmers who stay in the market have no incentive to grow good coffee, and no ability to invest in their crops. Rather than free markets, what we have is market failure.

The specialty coffee market is failing simply because a handful of companies like Starbucks have extraordinary market power and are able to use this power to control the value chain. Starbucks is able to play off the millions of small producers around the world and so are able to set the terms of trade. By comparison, in Ethiopia, specialty beans are produced by an estimated 600,000 small growers with little knowledge of commodities markets, no capital reserves, and no ability to act cohesively as a group to sell their coffee. As a result prices are set for them at niggardly world commodity levels and they have no choice but to take it.

Because Ethiopian brands are traded under the Starbucks trademark, Starbucks controls the transaction with customers and reaps the economic benefits. On the Black Apron line, Starbucks earns $24.00/lb. or more, with gross margins that likely exceed $20.00. Back in Ethiopia, the farmers who supplied their premier land, distinctive plants, cultivation techniques, and hard labor earned less than a dollar. It should not be a surprise that Ethiopians are looking for a means to gain more leverage in the market so that their farmers can earn more for their coffee.

Why Ethiopia Needs Trademarks

In the United States, Ethiopia has two options to turn its regions into legal entities: trademarks and certification marks. The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office views the trademark as a far more effective vehicle to gain commercial leverage for two simple reasons. First, the trademark will give the coffee sector a commercial asset that it can control in the marketplace. With the trademark, American coffee retailers will be required to obtain a licensing agreement to sell Ethiopian coffees, and so Ethiopian producers would have the power to set the terms of trade. The coffee sector would be able to manage their coffee brands as a business rather than letting them be managed by the whims of the global commodity exchange. Only if trademarks are granted can Ethiopia counter the market power of Starbucks. With a certification mark, Starbucks and other Western coffee marketers would still have full control over Ethiopian coffee brands.

Second, certification schemes are not only toothless, they are also impossible to enforce. Certification requires that the government oversee producers and distributors to guarantee that the coffees sold belong to a particular style or region. An estimated 600,000 farmers spread throughout Ethiopia in remote areas now grow specialty coffees. And distribution is done informally, by hauling bags on foot for many kilometers. It is simply not possible to oversee these producers; and even if it were, it would require an onerous surcharge on farmers who are already often living below subsistence level.

With trademarks in hand, Ethiopian producers can collaborate to effectively manage their brands, working with trusted distributors and retailers to manage coffee quality, pricing, and marketing. Trademarks would allow Sidamo , Harrar , and Yirgacheffe to be managed by their rightful owners rather than by the players in the market with the most power.

The case is straightforward. The Ethiopian coffee sector wants to participate in the marketplace on an equal footing with companies in the North. They want to own their brands, rather than hand over the value to Starbucks and others. With ownership in hand, Ethiopian producers would finally have a real chance to significantly increase the earnings of millions who are now desperately poor.

Starbucks Position

Starbucks and its lobbying groups have now gone public in their fight against the Ethiopian trademarks. Starbucks offers two challenges. First the company claims that the Ethiopian brands cannot be trademarked because they are actually generic terms for coffee rather than distinctive and valued marks. Such a claim is easily refuted. Starbucks own ingredient branding strategy demonstrates that Starbucks management does not believe its own rhetoric. Second, Starbucks is trying to persuade the public that the trademarks are against the interests of Ethiopian farmers. Starbucks argues that. “ the trademark application is not based upon sound economic advice and that the proposal as it stands would hurt Ethiopian coffee farmers economically.” No argument detailing this claim is offered.

Recently The Economist has jumped into the fray to coach its business audience on the wisdom of Starbucks rhetoric. An editorial published on November 7 parrots Starbucks views with none of the economic rigor that the magazine champions. Though, what the article lacked in analysis, it made up for in colonial finger wagging: “The Ethiopian government, one of the most economically illiterate in the modern world, would do well to take Starbucks's advice.”

This is a disingenuous, hypocritical, and patronizing claim. Starbucks opposes Ethiopia's efforts in order to shore up its market power, not out of paternal concern for the plight of Africa. Starbucks is worried about losing economic control of ingredient brands that their customers increasingly value. Starbucks has previously treated the Ethiopian coffee brands as its own property simply because they could. Now that Ethiopia is asserting its right to control its intellectual property, Starbucks can defend its position only by making a nonsensical argument: the coffee brands that Starbucks believes to be of such great value that it has used them for decades to promote its most esteemed coffees are of no economic value to Ethiopia! Rather than fess up to the company's true motives, Starbucks claims to be acting in the interests of Ethiopian farmers by refusing to grant them commercial ownership of their local coffee brands!

While in the current political climate, perhaps such Orwellian logic should not be surprising, it is a shock to find this kind of rhetoric coming from a company that takes great pride in its ethical sourcing policies. Starbucks' assertion that it has the right to decide how Ethiopians should transact their business interests—superceding the views of Ethiopian farmers, coffee co-ops, and exporters—is offensive and an abuse of market power. If managed well, the trademarking scheme will no doubt serve Ethiopian farmers very well. If managed poorly, it won't. This is how capitalist markets work. It's not for Starbucks to say that Ethiopia should not participate in the marketplace with the same legal rights that have allowed Starbucks to prosper so.

Brand Stewardship at Starbucks: Win the Battle, Lose the Brand?

In their rash attempt to shut down Ethiopia's applications, CEO Jim Donald and his senior management team have placed the Starbucks brand in significant peril. Because Starbucks markets to educated middle-class consumers, increasingly attuned to ethical issues in the marketplace, the company has no choice but to pursue highly visible activities that burnish the Starbucks brand as “progressive” and “ethical.” Customers are comforted by the fact that Starbucks is now selling Estima™ Fair trade coffee and Ethos™ ethical water. Starbucks works hard to cultivate an image as a progressive business partner, promoting sustainable coffee production especially amongst the poorest coffee growers.

Once the word is out, Starbucks customers will be shocked by the disconnect between their current perceptions of Starbucks ethics and the company's actions against Ethiopia . It is not an exaggeration to compare this case to Nike's purposeful ignorance to deal with the sweatshops producing their shoes. Just as consumers were disgusted by the fact that Air Jordans sold for $120 while Asian laborers produced the shoes in what amounted to slave labor conditions, they will be equally disturbed by the fact that Starbucks is happy to sell coffee for $26/lb while refusing to allow the coffee's producers a shot at climbing out of desperate poverty. Ironically, Starbucks' anti-development stance is likely to cause significant damage to their brand, imposing a far greater hit on profits than any increase in commodity prices the company might encounter were they to support Ethiopia's cause.

Development Starbucks Style: Keeping Africa Capitalism-Free?

Starbucks management is reacting in such an aggressive and rash way because they're scared to death that if Ethiopia wins its trademarks, the company's seemingly impenetrable hold on the specialty coffee value chain will start to fall apart. Foreseeing a domino effect worthy of cold war paranoia, Starbucks no doubt worries that Ethiopian trademarks will beget similar efforts from Kenya , Indonesia , Costa Rica and the like. Down the road, specialty coffee producers might garner enough market leverage to demand 20% or 30% of the value created, rather than the 6-10% they earn today. These increased earnings will come out of Starbucks pocket.

While such battles for market power are a commonplace occurrence, this time much more is at stake than the redistribution of profits. Ethiopia's trademark strategy is one of the most promising developments in the push to improve Africa's commercial leverage in global markets. Political elites around the world have been stumping to improve African trade, and the rhetoric is having an impact. But this advocacy has so far been myopic—focusing on trade barriers for commodities.

If the North really wants to help develop Africa, then we need to talk not only about opening up trade, but about building valued-added businesses that are owned by Africans so that Africans can capture profits from Northern markets. To raise African economic standards requires moving African products up the value chain—from the low-margin commodity markets now controlled by the North to branded offerings that demand good prices in export markets. Ethiopians cannot dig themselves out of poverty unless they are allowed to participate meaningfully in the value chain. Cultivating markets for their own branded goods is one exciting path toward that end. Let's hope that Starbucks allows them to do so.

* Douglas B. Holt is the L'Oreal Professor of Marketing at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. He has published widely on branding, including How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding (Harvard Business School Press, 2004), and several articles in the Harvard Business Review . He is also founding partner of The Cultural Front , a new consumer products company that develops brands sourced in the South based upon social justice principles.

The views expressed in this paper are those of Professor Holt, and not those of either the Saïd Business School or The University of Oxford.
SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

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Adama to Construct New Abattoir AddisFortune Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The municipality of Adama (Nazareth) town, 99Km east of Addis Abeba, is to construct a brand new abattoir facility that is designed to serve a population of 250,000 at a cost of 5.37 million Br. A commercial town on the highway of the Ethio-Djibouti corridor and at the crossroads of Afar, Arsi, Dire Dawa and the nation’s capital, Adama has a lone abattoir that was first built 41 years ago, during the time of Emperor Haileselassie, on a 10,000sqm plot. It was meant to slaughter close to 20 bovines a day, supplying what was then 10 butcheries. There are close to 70 butcheries operating in town now, some being very popular, even to residents of Addis; hundreds of people drive the nearly 100Km for the raw meat and tibs some of these butcheries are serving. They charge from 36 Br to 40 Br a kilo, using up to three bovines a day. Nevertheless, this is in direct contrast to what the lone abattoir facility looks like today. Located on the northwest outskirts of the town, it is overcrowded and unable to manage the 60 to 70 bovines brought to it on any average day. Residents complain that the wastage coming out of the abattoir and the prison centre located nearby is a health risk. The town’s municipality is determined to change this, according to Yadessa Ejieta, head of the Construction and Contract Administration Department in Adama’s municipality. A private consulting firm, Seleshi Consult, developed the design work in four months, after winning a public tender almost a year ago. Giga Construction Plc already signed the construction agreement in January 2007, entering into a commitment to complete the new abattoir in one year. There were 14 contractors who had appeared for the bid, although 11 of them failed to complete bid documents. Giga Construction bided against MKS Engineering and Dereba Gefersha Construction, the latter offered against Giga’s 4.67 million Br. Municipal authorities hope that construction will be launched soon, after the handover of the construction site was made last week. The new abattoir will be built on a 15,000sqm plot, located southwest of the town, six kilometres from Nazareth. Authorities hope that 20pc of the cost will be covered by the town’s municipality, while the balance will be financed from the Urban Development Capacity Building. -------------------------------

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Ethiopian PM Zenawi Elected As Nepad Executive Committee Chair

BuaNews (Tshwane)

January 29, 2007

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was elected as chairman of the executive organ of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), at NEPAD's 6th Ordinary Session on Sunday.

Mr Meles was elected to chair the executive committee of NEPAD for his contributions in the organisation's activities and for taking the regional organisation further towards its vision, the Special Economic Advisor of the Prime Minister, Neway Gebreab, said.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Meles will take over chairmanship of the NEPAD executive committee with effect from 6 June, 2007.

The Chairman of NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, called on NEPAD member countries to come forward to get reviewed.

The mechanism serves as an appraisal platform for civil society and government organs on issues including good governance and democratisation, and thereby to finding solutions to shortcomings.

Mr Obasanjo said little handicaps had been witnessed at implementing the Banjul July plan to setup a brainstorming meeting.

The summit has agreed to hold the brainstorming meeting in March in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the 6th APRM summit has urged African Union member states to immediately start implementing the APRM programs.

Mr Obasanjo said the APRM summit has listened to the six-month reports of Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda that had started implementing the peer review program.

He explained that the APRM aims to identify the weaknesses, shortcomings and needs of member states in implementing good governance and added that the summit has been successful as it reflected ideas and best practices which other countries should copy. - BuaNews-NNN

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Millennium Office to Offer 2m Br Lottery Prize

Addis Fortune

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The largest lottery prize ever offered in Ethiopia is coming soon. The National Secretariat formed by the Council of Ministers under directive 117/2004, made a deal last month with the National Lottery Administration to offer a two million Birr prize for the lucky number.

“Be a Millionaire in the Millennium,” is the catchphrase of the new lottery to be distributed to the public on the eve of the Millennium, although whether to make the cover price two or five Birr is yet to be decided, according to sources at the Secretariat. A contest to pick the design has been on, with individual artists participating.

The Secretariat anticipates raising close to 20 million Br from these lottery sales, which will be the first of its fundraising programme to celebrate Ethiopia’s unique millennium, with a series of events to be held from September 2007 to September 2008. Over 300,000 people are expected to come to Ethiopia to be apart of these events.

Although the Secretariat is formed under a ministerial committee, chaired by Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, its plan and budget was approved by a high profile assembly of a 134 council members, where Prime Minister Meles Zenawi participated, in December 2006.

According to the Secretariat’s projection, building public parks, monuments, schools and lobbying to convince every Ethiopian to plant two trees will cost anywhere between 180 million to 200 million Br. A substantial amount of this budget is anticipated to be covered from sponsorships the Secretariat is hoping to secure from different companies and organizations, according to Mulugeta Asserate, one of the three deputy directors of the Secretariat and head of communications.

According to reliable sources, the Secretariat is planning to start offering the public tombolla, while it is discussing with officials at the Ministry of Transport and Communications issues on the various images of Ethiopian heritage on prepaid mobile cards; the deal is to be commissioned out of these sales.

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Letter to the editor
Mesfin a Hero of Women

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

TO THE EDITOR:
Published on The Hoya (GU Paper)

I would like to take this opportunity to commend Georgetown University for the honor it bestowed upon Azeb Mesfin, the first lady of Ethiopia, in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 14 (“Protesters Disrupt King Ceremony,” THE HOYA, Jan. 19, 2007, A1).

It gives me great sadness that your school has received unnecessary and undeserved scrutiny from the Ethiopian diaspora for recognizing an individual with an irrefutable life of service to Ethiopian society.

Contrary to what members of our vocal diaspora might have you believe, Azeb Mesfin has championed the cause of the poor and completely neglected majority across rural Ethiopia. I am sure those who gave her the award on behalf of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS are well aware of her lifelong struggle and sacrifices, but for those of you who know very little about her, don’t be fooled by the elegance with which she graced your stage on that day.

Related Links

GU Wrong to Honor Azeb Mesfin

Georgetown Awards Dictator's Wife

Protests disrupt Georgetown Award to Azeb Mesfin

Georgetown University Insulting Dr Martin Luther King’s Dream


Georgetown University Honors Azeb Mesfin

She epitomizes the very meaning of the word hero. What has brought her to your attention is her AIDS activism. And she is also respected for the relentless struggle she has waged to be a voice for the voiceless women across Ethiopia.

Hateful politics couldn’t rewrite the truth. Surely a lot of Ethiopians have afforded themselves a right to judge, but who is judging whom? Spare me the hypocrisy of those who were selfish enough to abandon their country for the comforts of the West at a time when it most needed their services.

Mesfin and her husband, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, have given much of their lives to a struggle to bring Ethiopia from the annals of misery. Am I the only person who sees the irony here?

ALEMSHEWIT A. WELDEARAGAY

SEATTLE, WASH.

Jan. 26, 2007
http://www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/013007/view10.cfm

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The price of beer has considerably increased
Beer highs

By Tedla Yeneakal
Capital


Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The price of beer has considerably increased; after the dominant beer producer BGI Ethiopia raised its prices. According to officials of the company the measure was taken after the price of raw materials for the manufacture of beer rose considerably.
Accordingly, draft beer from BGI of 30 liters, increased from the previous 121.60 birr to 135 birr, whereas bottled beers of brands. St. George and Bati cost 60 birr a crate, up from the previous 53 birr. A crate of the Castle brand now costs 74 birr, increasing from the earlier amount of 66 birr.

Surafel Alene, Sales Manager of BGI Ethiopia, told Capital that a substantial increase in raw materials for beer production forced the company to increase the market price of beer.
“We have seen an increase of raw materials up to 30%,” Surafel said. “Price of diesel and other increases in inputs forced us to increase the price.”

In some regions of the country, Harar and Bedele beers have also raised prices but Meta and Dashen have not yet made any adjustments to prices.
“Of course it would affect our revenue for a while but we are certain that it will adjust in the future,” the sales manager said.

BGI Ethiopia’s brands include Bati, Saint George and the export standard Castel.
Since its acquisition, BGI has refurbished the old Saint George plant in Addis Ababa, and is now undertaking a huge expansion project, investing USD 25 million to turn the existing draft beer plant into a bottle plant as well. This project, expected to be completed in three months time, is said to boost BGI’s beer production to 750,000 Hectoliters from the present 650,000, ensuring BGI is the leading beer producer in the country, according to company sources.
There are five breweries in the country, namely Meta Abo, Harrar, Bedele, BGI Ethiopia and Dashen.

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Ghadafi brings in cars, gold as present for leaders

By Tedla Yeneakal

Capital

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Libyan leader Muamar Ghadafi has brought in 15 cars and two bags full of gold as a gift for African heads of states who are expected to participate in the 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, scheduled to open tomorrow, Monday, January 29th.

Photo: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wearing a green badge showing the African continent arrives at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa January 27, 2007, ahead of the African Union meeting due to start on Monday. REUTERS/Andrew Heavens (ETHIOPIA)

Reliable sources disclosed to Capital that Ghadafi’s 15 cars have already arrived at Bole International Airport and have been issued permits to enter the country; however, the two bags of gold are kept in a room at the airport awaiting consent from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The Assembly of the Union is expected to discuss and pass several decisions on the crisis in Somalia and Darfur, Sudan, in addition to conferring on other important issues, such as climate change in Africa.

Ghadafi is expected to lead a large delegation that will stay at the Sheraton Addis. We have not received any confirmation as to whether the Libyan leader has been given the green light from the Ethiopian Prime Minister to bring in the gold until we went to print.
Sources from Bole International Airport disclosed that the two bags of gold have been seized to check on the legality of bringing gold into the country.
Ghadafi is noted for engaging in very controversial ventures; Britain and the United States restored diplomatic relations with Libya in 1999 after a 15- year hiatus and have been involved in negotiations to end the country’s international isolation.

The United States, which retained its 17-year embargo, has Libya on its list of nations that sponsor terrorism. The U.N. Security Council ended sanctions against Libya after Ghadafi’s government took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing and agreed to pay 2.7 billion USD to the victims’ families.

In relation to Ethiopia, Ghadafi has been pushing for many years to have the headquarters of the African Union shifted from Addis Ababa to the Libyan capital Tripoli.

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January 30, 2007
African Union Picks Ghanaian as Its Leader, in Snub to Sudan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Jan. 29 (AP) — The African Union on Monday chose President John Kufuor of Ghana to lead the 53-member bloc. Because of the worsening violence in Darfur, the group turned aside, for the second year, Sudan’s effort to win the post.

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, opened the meeting, asking the African leaders to end the deadlock created by Sudan’s refusal to allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur, the violence-plagued region in western Sudan.

The Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu also sharply criticized Sudan on Monday, and an aid group said it was leaving Darfur for safety reasons.

Sudanese leaders were adamant that they deserved the rotating chairmanship, but international organizations opposed it, accusing Sudan’s government of taking part in the conflict in Darfur. Rebel leaders in the region have said they would stop considering the current African Union peacekeeping mission as an honest broker there if Sudan were selected.

“By consensus vote, President Kufuor of Ghana has been elected to the presidency of the African Union,” Alpha Oumar Konaré, the African Union’s chief executive, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Sudan tried to obtain the post at last year’s meeting, for which it was the host, but African leaders selected the Congo Republic’s president in a compromise deal in which he would hold it for a year and then hand it over to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan.

But the deal hinged on Sudan demonstrating progress in bringing peace to Darfur. Instead of calming down, Darfur’s violence in recent months has spilled into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.

“African heads of states will have to stick to their word,” Ali Sadiq, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, insisting that Mr. Bashir should have the post.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since rebels took up arms against the central government in 2003. Sudan’s government is accused of retaliating indiscriminately against civilians and supporting paramilitary groups called janjaweed that are blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the conflict. Sudan’s government denies the accusations.

The Sudanese government signed a peace agreement with one Darfur rebel faction in May, but violence has worsened in the region. Sudan and Chad also have been trading accusations of supporting each others’ rebel groups.

Mr. Bashir opposes a United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for 22,000 United Nations peacekeepers to replace or absorb an African force. The African Union has 7,000 peacekeepers struggling to end the fighting.

Mr. Ban, on his first visit to Africa since taking over from Kofi Annan on Jan. 1, held talks with Mr. Bashir that were “useful and constructive,” according to a United Nations statement.

“I expressed my deep concerns over the continuing violence and deteriorating human rights situation in Darfur, which afflicts millions of people,” Mr. Ban’s statement said. “I urged President al-Bashir, as I urge all parties, to cease hostilities, as an essential foundation for a successful peace process, and humanitarian access.”

Mr. Bashir agreed “to facilitate such access, and expressed willingness to cooperate with international efforts toward that end,” Mr. Ban said.

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Ethiopia to withdraw third of Somalia troops by Sunday

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A third of Ethiopia's troops in Somalia are expected to have withdrawn by Sunday, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Saturday.

"We are reducing troop numbers by about a third ... that process should be completed today or tomorrow."
P.M. Meles Zenawi

Meles told Reuters in an interview: "We are reducing troop numbers by about a third ... that process should be completed today or tomorrow." He refused to say how many troops had been in the country during a war to oust Islamists who had ruled southern Somalia for six months.

More on Reuters

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Dibaba breaks world indoor record
Meseret Defar, who overcame a heavy cold to claim the women's 3,000 metres in 8:30.31.

BOSTON, Massachusetts -- Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba set a new world indoor record for the women's 5,000 meters when she crossed the line in 14 minutes, 27.42 seconds at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday.

Dibaba started the race cagily by hanging back in third position through the first few laps, but she then began to stamp her authority on the field and lapped several other runners before powering to the finish.

The 21-year-old's new mark improved on her previous world's best time of 14 minutes, 32.93 seconds, set in Boston two years ago.

"I did not think that I'd break it by this much," she told reporters at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Dibaba said she knew the record was within reach at the start of the penultimate lap, by which point she was well clear of her competitors and being spurred on by a cheering contingent of flag-waving Ethiopian fans. Asked what allowed her to set the new mark, she said: "I believe it was God-given talent."

The meeting also witnessed three new Australian national indoor records with Sarah Jamieson leading the way in the women's mile, edging out compatriot Erica Sigmont in a time of 4:28.03.

"It's actually her (Sigmont's) national record that I broke today, so it was very kind of her to pace me," Jamieson said.

In the men's 3,000 meters, Craig Mottram followed Jamieson's example and overhauled Ireland's Alastair Cragg to clock 7:39.24, the 26-year-old pumping his fist in triumph as he entered the finishing straight.

"That was probably one of my best runs ever," Mottram said. "I wanted to come here and put on a show."

Pole vaulter Steven Hooker completed the hat-trick of Australian records when he cleared 5.81m to win the event.

Other winners on the day were American Alan Webb, who clocked 3:55.18 to take the men's mile, and Ethiopia's Meseret Defar, who overcame a heavy cold to claim the women's 3,000 metres in 8:30.31.

Defar, Dibaba, and an Australian invasion in Boston on Saturday
Thursday 25 January 2007
IAAF

Boston, USA - It should be enough to say that both Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, Ethiopia's "Dueling Ds," will be racing at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday, although not against each other. But such a brief meet preview would be a disservice to the other top-ranked athletes competing in the first major fixture of the North American indoor season, not to mention raising suspicions of laziness on the part of the reporter

2007 will be the fifth consecutive year Defar and Dibaba have run at the Reggie Lewis Center, and for Defar, that has meant a streak of four consecutive wins, three times at 3000m and once at 5000m, the first two over Dibaba. But in 2005 and 2006, the two split races, with Dibaba running the longer race and Defar the shorter, and the results have been spectacular.

In 2005, Dibaba ran the still-standing world record of 14:32.93 for 5000m, and last year she ran 14:35.46, the second-fastest mark ever. After her grueling European campaign in 2006, where she won six out of seven 5000m races - with the only loss coming to Defar - Diababa may be ready to make another run at her own world mark, with her favorite pacemaker, her older sister Ejegayehu, also in the race. Ejegayehu herself is tenth on the all-time list, almost the only pacemaker fast enough to set up a record race for her younger sister.


Read more from IAAF Website.

For the latest on this, check out IAAF site and have your say

UAE Firm, Ethiopian Province to Build "Tourist City"

BuaNews (Tshwane)

January 26, 2007
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Oromia region in Ethiopia and the Indus Investment company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), signed an agreement Thursday, to construct a 1.47 billion US dollar "Tourist City" in Oromia.

Chief of the Oromia State Abadula Gemeda and Indus Investment's chief executive officer, Ahmed Hilal Al Falahi, signed the agreement, set to boost development and employ about 12 000 people.

In terms of the agreement, the city, the first of its kind in the country, would be constructed on 38,197 hectares of land in the Abiyata Shalla area.

The city would have an airport, a school, a business centre and hotels, among others.

Related Links

Ethiopia Named "Top Destination" for 2007

Special Section: Tourism Related News

Mr Abadula said the planned city would significantly contribute to the economic development of the region and the country as a whole.

Various incentives have been provided to Insud Investment, he said, adding that the company should launch construction immediately.

Following the signing, Mr Al Falahi said the company decided to invest in Ethiopia because of the encouraging investment opportunities there.

The country is receiving positive worldwide attention as it hosts Africa Union Heads of State Summit and related events in the capital, Addis Ababa from this week until 30 January.

Delegates from across the continent global organisations including the United Nations and world football governing body FIFA have converged on the city.

African minister of foreign affairs are currently meeting to map out and discuss issues to be tabled at the 8th AU Heads of State Summit next week, under the theme "Science, Technology and Research and Climate Change."

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon is to address the African leaders on issues of continental and global importance, while FIFA President Sepp Blatter will address the meeting in connection with the launch of 2007 as the African year of football.

The declaration to make 2007 an international Year of African Football was taken in Sudan at last year's summit.

The summit will also elect the new chair of the AU and Bureaus of the Assembly.

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Ethiopian Supermodel Raises Money for African Village Women
Liya Kebede: First Black Woman Chosen as the Face of Estee Lauder

Jan. 26, 2007

ABC News— - Ethiopia is not a place usually associated with glamour, beauty and sophistication, but superstar model Liya Kebede has single-handedly changed that.

With her good looks, the 28-year-old Ethiopian knockout is one of the fashion world's "it" girls and the first black woman chosen as the face of Estee Lauder.

Despite her wild success, Kebede is not content to simply grace the catwalks and live in luxury. Instead, she's now focusing on the poor African villages she left behind.

"For me, Ethiopia is such a nice place. I mean, really, it was such a nice place to grow up," she said. "It's a really poor country and it's very sad that's such a poor country, but the people are so proud, also."

Related Links

Now an ambassador for the World Health Organization, Kebede, a mother of two children, spends her spare time working to improve the lives of African women, especially those in their childbearing years. She's even formed a foundation to raise money for medical care.

While the image of a supermodel is often the spoiled diva, Kebede feels the need to give back.

"I think it's just that. … I'm from there, and I know that it's just a matter of luck in a way, also, on how your life can just be twisted, you know, around so easily," she said. "It could be me. It easily can be me. Easily."

Kebede proves that you can take the girl out of Ethiopia, but you can't entirely take Ethiopia out of the girl.

Case in point: When she and her husband, Kassie, were expecting their first child in the United States, she was filled with the panic that pregnant women in Ethiopia feel so often.

"Every minute, there's one woman who dies from pregnancy and childbirth complications, every minute of the day," she said. "That's a lot of women."

During a recent visit to a poor Ethiopian village, the women she met had no inkling that they were in the presence of a famous model. They only knew that this stranger spoke their language and was one of them.

"They don't really know at first. … Why I'm there, what I'm trying to do," she said. "But when we start talking and they really start opening up and they. … And then they understand, I think, what we're all trying to do."

"There was no doubt in my mind that I had to do something," she said. "You don't know how, you don't know what, but you know you want to do something."

Liya Kebede with Oprah

Feb 19 2007 is a day that TPLF/EPRDF has marked to pass sentence on Kinijit leaders, human right defenders and journalists that it has falsely accused of fabricated charges of treason.

Attached you can find a resolution put out by Kinijit North America in support of the urgent lobby and vigil campaigns planned by Kinijit International in collaboration with Kinijit North America .

Here is the press release from Kinijit North America

Ethiopian-Somali Town Hall Meeting

Ethiopian-Somali intellectuals in the Twin Cities in Minnesota discuss the Ramifications of Ethiopian troop’s invasion in Somalia.
The recent development in Somalia in which the Union of Islamic Courts group was ousted from power by the invading Ethiopian troops with the pretext to install the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu has generated intense discussions among the large Diaspora-Somali and Ethiopian - communities in the Twin Cities.

A significant segment of the communities seem alarmed by the intervention of Ethiopian government in Somalia’s internal affairs, which many believe violates the Charters of the African Union and the United Nations. Majority of Somalis and Ethiopians are particularly concerned with the long-term impact of Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi’s negative meddling in Somalia on the good neighborliness between the Somali and Ethiopian peoples.

This town-hall meeting, may be is the first of its kind that brings members of the Diaspora Somali and Ethiopian communities in Minnesota together to discuss the current situation in the Horn of Africa particularly as it relates to the respective countries. We are very grateful to our esteemed Somali and Ethiopian intellectuals who agreed to take part in the discussions as panelists. They will discuss and explore very interesting topics and issues that are relevant to the current crisis in the Horn.

Program Agenda

• Prelude & Koran Recitation
• Opening Remarks, Welcome and Introduction.
• Solomon Gashaw, PhD: Impacts of ethnic and clan politics on the basic human rights of the citizens.
• Zainab Hassan, M.P.A: Reconciliation approaches in war-torn societies.
• Hassan Mohamud, J.D: Islamic "Fundamentalism" in the Horn: A myth or a reality?
• Selameab Wold-Tsadik, PhD: Ethiopia's "legitimate" or "perceived" interests for intervening in Somalia.
• Ali Khalif Galaydh, PhD: Historical Relationship between governments of Ethiopia and Somalia.

Panelists Brief Bios

Dr. Ali Khalif Galaydh is former prime minister and one-time minister of industry for Somalia. In 2000, Galaydh among other Somalis, drafted a National Charter based on Somalia's 1960 Constitution which was the by product the Arta reconciliation conference which lead to the creation of the Somali Transition National Government. Dr. Galaydh is currently a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Galaydh teaches courses on the politics of public affairs, strategies for economic development, and the role of nongovernmental organizations in governance. Dr. Galaydh taught public administration and international relations at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University from 1989 to 1996.

Dr. Galaydh earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
Areas of expertise: public administration; international relations; economic development-Africa; nongovernmental organizations and governance

Dr. Solomon Gashaw is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota-Morris. He received his BA in history and his PhD in Sociology and PhD from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr.Gashaw also has a PhD in Law (SJD) from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Interests and research: State, Ethnicity and Law and Social Change in Africa.

Sheikh Hassan Ali Mohamud (Jami’i) is the imam of St. Paul's Al-Taqwa Mosque and president of the Somali Institute for Peace and Justice. Sheikh Hassan is also an immigration lawyer at the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis and teaches Islamic comparative law at William Mitchell College of Law. Imam Hassan is believed to be the first Somali to receive a Juris doctor (J.D.) in Minnesota. Sheikh Hassan received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law.
Area of expertise: Shari’a and Immigration law.

Dr. Selameab Wold-Tsadik is a former United Nations Consultant and program manager for Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation. He received his PhD from University of Minnesota.
Areas of expertise: Business and community development.

Zainab M. Hassan is former chairwomen of Pan Somali Council for Peace and Democracy (Israac). Currently, Ms. Hassan is chairwomen and cofounder of Women of African Resource and Development Association (WARDA), a local nonprofit organization that addresses women and youth issues. Ms. Hassan is a recipient of number of well-regarded fellowships, the 2006 Upper Midwest Human Rights Fellows and 2004-2005, Otto Bremer Foundation's Graduate Fellowship on Philanthropy and Human Rights. Ms. Hassan earned B.S. from Old Dominion University and M.P.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Interests and research: Impact of civil wars, HIV/AIDS in Africa.

www.somipj.org
Email: contact@somipj.org

GU Wrong to Honor Mesfin

Friday, January 26, 2007
TO THE EDITOR

The Hoya

It is with deepest sadness that I write this letter to express my utmost objection to your university’s honoring Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia (“Protests Disrupt King Ceremony,” THE HOYA, Jan. 19, 2007, A1). I will not burden you with the details of what Zenawi and Mesfin, who is a member of the Ethiopian Parliament, did and are doing to Ethiopian political prisoners. I would respectfully request that you read the 2006 Amnesty International report on the subject.

In terms of honoring Mrs. Mesfin, I believe it is unethical to use Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy of a Dream Award in such a case. I assure you if Martin Luther King Jr. were living today as an Ethiopian in Ethiopia, Zenawi and Mesfin, would have him jailed as they did Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, who is the founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council.

It is often reported that more than a hundred Ethiopians are in jail for their belief in nonviolence and for seeking freedom of speech.

Isaiah 10 says, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”

Related Links

Georgetown Awards Dictator's Wife

Protests disrupt Georgetown Award to Azeb Mesfin

Georgetown University Insulting Dr Martin Luther King’s Dream


Georgetown University Honors Azeb Mesfin

Mrs. Azeb and her husband are guilty of the actions described in the above text. Georgetown University should have demonstrated the biblical character as stated in Isaiah 25:4: “For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of the ruthless is like a [rain] storm [against] a wall,”

Lemlem Tsegaw

Chesapeake, Va.

Jan. 23, 2007

Published on
http://www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/012607/view8.cfm

Re: Retract the John Thompson Legacy of A Dream Award

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Dr John J. DeGioia
President
Office of the President
204 Healy Hall
37th & O Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057
Tel: (202) 687-4134
Fax: (202) 687-6660



Dear Dr John J. DeGioia:

The Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA), an organization that seeks to foster human rights and good governance in Ethiopia, very much appreciates the intent of Georgetown University to honor outstanding individuals in leadership positions in Africa who contribute to bettering the welfare and human dignity of Africans.

It is because EACA and Georgetown University apparently share a commitment to honoring and paying respect to those African leaders who operate in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, that our organization was appalled and deeply disappointed to find that you, as the University president, have decided to give an award to Ms. Azeb Mesfin, a member of parliament and wife of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

As an organization representing Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans, EACA is deeply committed to seeing the people of Ethiopia fulfilling their dream of human dignity, elimination of stark material deprivation, and the respect of human rights and democratic rule. However, the government of Ethiopia, which includes first lady, Azeb Mesfin, has overseen a 15 year authoritarian rule that has neither respected democratic principles, nor brought any significant improvement in the lives of the poor in Ethiopia including those with HIV/AIDS. Most recently, in 2005 after an election in which the dictatorial regime lead by Ms Azeb Mesfin’s husband Meles Zenawi saw the possibility of defeat at the ballot box, ordered the massacre of peacefully protesting students and, in which many bystanders (including children) were gunned down. Many abuses followed, including mass arbitrary detentions (in which health risks including HIV/AIDS were increased through unsanitary actions by government officials), and the unjust imprisonment and torture of thousands of civil rights campaigners, human rights activists, journalists, and other civil society members.

Related Links

Georgetown Awards Dictator's Wife

Protests disrupt Georgetown Award to Azeb Mesfin

Georgetown University Insulting Dr Martin Luther King’s Dream


Georgetown University Honors Azeb Mesfin

We understand that, despite the very wide media coverage of these occurrences in the American and international press, despite widely publicized reports by the United States Department of State of the grave human rights abuses committed by the regime in Ethiopia , and despite the detailed statements by respected human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, it may still be possible that you were not aware of the prominent role and unconscionable actions of Ms Azeb Mesfin and her husband’s government that are so starkly antithetical to Dr. King’s spirit, when you decided to honor of the wife of a dictator in the name of Dr. King.

We therefore would like to make available to you a set of articles and reports, all by established independent media and organizations, which document the abuses against the Ethiopian people committed by the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia, of which Ms. Azeb Mesfin is part.

As University president, we urge you to maintain the good name of Georgetown University, which should not be in the business of giving awards to complicit spouses of brutal rulers. We urge you to correct what we deem as a highly inappropriate association of Azeb Mesfin and the regime she represents with the spirit of the honorable Dr. King. We therefore respectfully appeal to you to retract an award that is offensive not only to the millions of Ethiopians whose civil rights have been severely abused by the regime Ms Azeb Mesfin and her husband Meles Zenawi represent, but also to Americans and people around the world who, like EACA, hold the spirit and ideals of Dr. King in the highest esteem. The revered Dr King fought against abuses of civil and human rights, and stood for justice and freedom, and his name should not be misused as we feel that it has in the context of this award. This is a serious matter to us and we hope it is to you as well.

We would be happy for the opportunity to talk further with you or other representatives of the university about this matter.

With best regards,



Kassa Ayalew M.D., M.P.H., (Chair)
Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA)
Phone: +1 (703) 665-4042
PO.Box 1292
Lorton, Virginia 22199-1292
eacadvocacy@gmail.com

CC: Speaker, Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi
CC: Congressman Tom Lantos
CC: Congressman Donald M. Payne
CC: Congressman Christopher smith
CC: Congressman Rahm Emanuel
CC: Congressman Mike Honda
CC: Congresswomen Barbara Lee
CC: Congresswomen Maxine Waters
CC: Congresswomen Diane Watson
CC: Congressman Charles Rangel
CC: Congressman Tom Tancredo
CC: Dr Joseph E. Lowery
CC: Roderick D. Gillum, Chairman MLK Foundation
CC: Human Right Watch CC: Andy Pino
CC: Darryl R. Matthews Vice Chairman MLK Foundation
CC: Amnesty International
CC: Keif Schleifer

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Los Angeles Honors Inquiry Commission Officials

Coalition for HR 5680

January 25, 2007

LOS ANGELES - After stops in Sacramento and San Jose, California, on January 21, 2007, Judge Frehiywot Samuel, Ato Mitiku Teshome and Ato Alemayehu Zemedkun were welcomed with a grand standing ovation by a crowd of Ethiopians at an event held in their honor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Kerckhoff Hall.( IC West Coast Tour Schedule )

Photo: At UCLA -- Visiting Inquiry Commission officials (from left)
Mitiku Teshome, Alemayehu Zemedkun, and (first, right)
Frehiywot Samuel display their Honorary Citation presented
to them by Karen Bass, Majority Leader of the California State
Assembly on behalf of the California Legislature.

Judge Frehiywot, who was the Chairman of the Inquiry Commission, in a soft-spoken voice, detailed the methodology the Inquiry Commission used to perform its investigation. He explained that the Inquiry Commission was given limited authority by the Parliament to address two questions: 1) whether security forces used excessive force on June 8, November 1-10 and 14-16, 2005 to control demonstrating crowds in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region and Amhara regional States, and 2) whether there were human rights violations arising from the use of force in violation of the Ethiopian constitution and the rule of law. The Commission was also given the responsibility to investigate damage to property form the various incidents.

Judge Frehiywot said that the Commission in doing its investigation visited various health care providers unannounced and acquired medical charts, preventing any opportunity to falsify or tamper with medical records, and held discussions with over 1,000 Edder leaders (neighborhood funeral arrangement groups). The Commission members also visited the demonstration sites, other locations where alleged explosives had detonated and alleged bank robberies occurred. They spoke with hundreds of witnesses.

He said the Commission spared no effort to discover the truth and used expert police investigators, informational questionnaires, checked daily police logs, obtained expert analysis of property damage allegedly caused in the disturbances, held discussions with bank officials, physicians and hospital administrators and officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Police Commission, interviewed prisoners at various locations, made 122 Radio and TV announcements to the public, collected evidence from non-governmental organizations, including the Ethiopian Human Right Council and examined autopsy photographs of victims and security forces. He said the Commission received special technical training by foreign experts to perform their duties.

Judge Frehiywot said police officials and prison administrators were not at all cooperative in the investigations. The police hospital gave the Commission forged documents about patients who had suffered bullet wounds in the demonstrations claiming that the injured patients had been treated for headaches and stomach aches and released. The police could produce no evidence to show that the demonstrators killed security forces.

He said that their investigation revealed that the demonstrators used stones and sticks. No demonstrator used any firearm. The security forces used firearms, police batons and tear gas.

He said that the Commission found on a vote of 8-2 that the security forces had used excessive force in the killing of 193 persons and injury of 763 others. Dozens of prisoners were shot in Kality prison and buried in mass graves because they had allegedly tried to make a mass escape. He described how 1500 bullets were fired into Kality prison cells, and noted that the commissioners saw 46 bullets on one jail door alone. He said, “The security guard accompanied us at the time of our visit to the prison and proudly showed us what he had done.” He described an incident in which a prison security officer chopped the finger of a prisoner, and the case of Weizero Etenesh Yilma who was shot dead when she followed her arrested husband. He said, “The chief of the command post of the security at that location mocked the Commission that W/o Etenesh Yilma had died from a heart attack seeing her husband being taken away.”

Ato Mitiku discussed the events that took place after the Commission voted on its findings. He said electricity was cut off to the town of Awassa and the local offices of the Commission to prevent the computer from being used in preparation of the final report. The following day, security officials swarmed the offices of the Commission. There were frantic calls from the Prime Minister’s office, and members were under surveillance.

Ato Mitiku said that they were under continuous surveillance by security officials once it became known that a finding unfavorable to the government would be made. The Prime Minister’s advisor tried to pressure Commission members to change their minds about their findings. In early, July 2005, Commission members were called to the Prime Minister’s office who asked them to reconsider their decisions. Sensing their refusal, he launched into a 2-hour lecture on how excessive force should be defined and how the proclamation should be interpreted. He told them to follow the work of the Commission in the Gambella case.

Ato Alemayehu spoke about his expereinces when he was directed to bring civil action against the kality defnednats. He said shortly, after the November 1, 2005 massacre, Dr. Hashim Mohammed, the Minister of Justice, directed him to bring civil action against the jailed Kinijit leaders and others. He was told that the Prime Minster wanted the civil action instituted.

Ato Alemayehu said he refused to file a suit because there was no evidence connecting the protesters to the Kinijit leaders and others to damages that may have been caused by the protesters. He said in November 2005, these leaders were already in custody. that these individuals were in any way responsible for the alleged damages which occurred after they were arrested. He said that because the evidence for the civil case is so weak that if the government lost its case, it could end up paying millions of dollars to the defendants. He strongly advised against the suit. He submitted his resignation hoping to move on with his life. He said they first accepted his resignation, appointed their own person and within a day they notified him that they were not accpeting his resignation. He managed to go into exile shortly thereafter.

Judge Frehiywot, Ato Mitiku and Ato Alemayehu were asked very thoughtful and challenging questions. They answered the questions thoroughly and without reservation. They related numerous anecdotal experiences they had while performing their investigations and duties. They recounted many shocking moments, including incidents of attempts by officials to pressure them from making their findings public, and promises of financial rewards and threats on their lives to make them alter their findings. They also recounted humorous anecdotes in the way the Prime Minister sought to talk down to them.

The event was moderated by Prof. Al Mariam. In introducing the guests he asked the gathered crowd to stand and observe a moment of “silent meditation and prayer in remembrance of 193 Ethiopian children, men and women killed by government security forces, the leaders of the Coalition for Democracy and Unity, human rights defenders and for all those who continue to be victims of torture and human rights abuses in Ethiopia.”

In introducing the speakers, Prof. Al told the gathering, “My friends, someone is getting away with murder. Not one murder, and not two murders. Not even 10 or 20, or 50 murders. Not a 100 murders or a 150. Just for starters, someone is getting away with 193 murders.” He said, “These murder victims are not some nameless and faceless souls you read about in International human rights reports. They were somebody’s son, daughter, father, mother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandmother or great grandmother.”

Prof. Al recognized the great contribution of Judge Woldemichael Meshesha: “The witness who carried the evidence on his back and crossed the wilderness to bring the truth to us is not here today. At every checkpoint, he resolved his life was over because if any one had discovered the evidence he was carrying, that would have been the end for him. Though he could not be here in person, he is with us in spirit.” A fourth empty chair was left at the head table in recognition of his absence.

In stylized court room style, Prof. Al said, “Today we are here to hear the truth about the deaths of so many of these young men and women, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers who speak to us from their graves and tell their stories. And no tribunal, no forum of justice can have more convincing witnesses than the witnesses we have for the defense today. No witness can speak more eloquently in the defense of the thousands who have been killed, jailed and tortured, than the witnesses we have here today.” Then he read the names of a number of victims who were killed by government security forces, ranging in age from 14 to 75.

The Ethiopians who attended the event showed their heartfelt appreciation not only through eloquent comments and probing questions. They also provided significant material support.

A DVD of the event is expected to be released in the not too distant future. 100% of all DVD sales will go to provide support to Inquiry Commission members in exile and others who have fled Ethiopia on the grounds of conscience.

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Is Harar 'the Forgotten City of Islam?'

By Will Connors

Middle East Times

Published January 25, 2007

Atop a narrow dirt road carved from sandstone, Ahmed Zekaria looks down, past cactus and fields of corn, toward the walled city of Harar. "This is my city," he says. "People need to know about this city."

As an historian and professor, but more importantly as a Harar native, Zekaria knows the significance of this place as well as any Ethiopian or Muslim scholar, and he is on a mission to call attention to the city, which to him is "the forgotten city of Islam."

Recently, Ahmed's job was made easier. In 2003 the city, 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) east of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, was given a World City of Peace award by the United Nations, in honor of Harar's unique ability to accommodate many ethnicities in a small space without conflict, in a region often beset by tribal and border clashes.

Seventy-year-old Amina Adulahi, the great-great-granddaughter of the Harari king Abadir Shakur, believes the award to be well-deserved. "Harar is a city of love," the still-spry Amina says, bustling through the city's lovely environs, followed by her four beautiful daughters. "Regardless of religion or ethnicity, you can come to Harar and drink and eat in peace."

Shakib Djidawi, curator of the city's Rimbaud Museum, says: "Harar is like the Noah's Ark of culture. We have dark skinned people; light skinned people. Every Harari is multilingual, and they are very peaceful. Harar should be an example for the world - so many cultures coexist [here] peacefully."

More significant than the City of Peace award was the decision by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include Harar on its list of World Heritage sites this year, the seventh such distinction for Ethiopia. With this recognition, Harar's international profile should have risen dramatically. So far, though, it hasn't.

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Special parliamentary representative to the city of Harar, Abdusamad Idris, says the city's oversight of the city has been largely due to the Ethiopian government's ill-will toward the city's Muslim community and the administration's efforts to suppress Harar's religious history.

"There is no promotion [carried out] by the central government for Harar; only for [Ethiopia's] northern cities," Abdusamad says, in reference to the tourism push for several historic Christian sites elsewhere in Ethiopia. He adds the government has "an agenda" to ignore Harar "because it's a Muslim city; they want it to be forgotten." What is crucial in letting the world know about this Ethiopian jewel therefore was indeed "promotion - from all sides. If the central government would only believe in it, believe that we are also Ethiopians, things could change."

According to Abdusamad, little is done to encourage Muslims from abroad to visit Harar because when "Muslims come to Ethiopia, the government puts them under suspicion. Questions from officials such as 'why are you going to Harar?' and 'why not travel to other parts of the country?' are common," says Abdusamad, concluding "it is not comfortable for Muslims to come here." He adds that "even with aid money, it is difficult for Arab countries," because "the [Ethiopian] government does not want to be associated with those countries."

Ethiopia is considered by most a Christian nation, chiefly because the ruling government is Christian, but according to many others, and to several studies, it has, in fact, a predominantly Muslim population. Some put the proportion of Muslims in Ethiopia as high as 65 percent. And the city of Harar represents a crucial part of Ethiopia's long history with Islam; its current status indicative of the role religion plays in government policies.

World officials all agree that Harar is an important Muslim city both because of its defiant and steadfastly religious pugnacity in the face of a growing Christian sovereignty hundreds of years ago, but also because it houses some 82 mosques and innumerable tombs within such a small area. Unfortunately, few agree on just how significant a role the city's Muslim roots should play in the country's self-promotion.

Harar has been cited by some as Islam's fourth holiest city, but the origins of this postulation are dubious, and invariably bring controversial reactions.

Ethiopia's supreme Islamic Council vice-president Sheikh Elias Redwan, who is also one of the country's leading voices of Islam, categorically denied this number. "We are very proud that Harar was named a UNESCO site," he said recently, "but the fourth holiest city? No."

However, Zekaria not only believes in such a ranking, but argues also that Harar should be listed even higher. He notes that before Islam traveled to Medina, the religion's second holiest city, it arrived in Ethiopia, where the country provided refuge for Muslims fleeing persecution in the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

"As far as I am concerned Ethiopia is the second home of Islam," he says. "Before it reached the [officially recognized] second city, Islam was here. So it ... may [even] be the first-and-a-half [most holy city], but not the second."

In light of Redwan's and the Islamic Council's denial of this claim, Ahmed offers a firm, measured response. "Forget them. They are not historians," he says, adding "they don't know what they are talking about." But he is swift to reassure that "we are not trying to get into religious provocations; we are simply trying to promote Harar."

Despite the efforts of those like Zekaria and Abdusamad to do so, despite UNESCO's distinctions, and despite a World Bank project to promote local handicrafts (which one official called 'sluggish' due to 'typical World Bank bureaucracy'), Harar has a long way to go to position itself as a world-class tourist destination.

In the past, local custom dictated that every homeowner cleaned the area surrounding their door, but few do so today. The once-spotless narrow streets are now lined with plastic bags and garbage, and the trash that does get collected is dumped directly outside the city walls, often into streams and riverbeds.

Satellite dishes protrude from almost every building within the walled city. Zekaria says that "the genie" of modern excess is "out of the bottle," and cultural preservationists are having a hard time keeping up. "The speed of change is beyond our comprehension," he says.

An apt illustration of the current state of Harar is the boyhood home of former emperor Haile Selassie. Selassie's father, Ras Mekonnen, was appointed governor of Harar after Prince Menelik (later the emperor) claimed the city in 1887. Unprotected and ignored, the residence is now in grave disrepair. According to locals, 20 families of squatters are currently living within its walls.

A Muslim holiday unique to Harar, however, shows that "the Living City" is by no means fading quietly away.

Showal Eid, the culmination of an extra six days of fasting in addition to Ramadan's original 30, is a buoyant affair that brings Hararis from all over Ethiopia and the world to the city's ancient walls.

Traditionally, the day was a celebration of breaking fast but also a time for young men and women to find their spouses. Singles members of both genders dressed in colorful, resplendent attire to attract attention, and marriage unions were widely organized.

Things are slightly less traditional today, but according to many who were out on the streets during this year's Showal Eid, the spouse-hunting element is alive and well.

Attendees noted that a significant number of well-dressed young people crowded the narrow roads, looking for - if not husbands and wives - at least boyfriends and girlfriends. Questioned about the holiday, one young man in a dark blue business-suit exclaimed, "I can't talk to you - I'm looking for my future wife - she could be out there right now!" The half-dozen young men at his side laughed and nodded in agreement. They, too, peered into the heart of the festivities in search of a beautiful Harari girl.

An older woman named Meftuha, holding her own in the dance-area of a large tent concurred that Showal Eid is a great holiday worthy of attention. "All [single] women who were previously just staying ... home alone come out to dance and to find a husband," she said. And she wasn't above looking a male visitor squarely in the eye, urging him to go out and do exactly the same. "This is the perfect chance for you to find a wife [so] get out there and dance ... now's your chance!"

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Ethiopia-Eritrea impasse could lead to new war - UN

Thu Jan 25, 2007

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The stalemate between Horn of Africa neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea is a major threat to stability that could trigger renewed war in the volatile region, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.

"Not only does the overall situation remain unsettled, but it has also continued to worsen over the last month," Ban said in his latest progress report to the U.N. Security Council on the long-stalled Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process.

"The potential for this situation to deteriorate further or even to lead to renewed hostilities is real, especially if it is allowed to continue indefinitely."

Ban's warning as the 15-nation Security Council heads for a vote at the end of the month on a resolution expected to cut the peacekeeping mission to 1,700 U.N. troops from 2,300.

Last May the council trimmed the peacekeeping force to 2,300 troops from 3,300.

Ban's report recommends that the council extend the mission's mandate for another six months but is silent on whether it should further reduce the number of troops. Without a council vote, the mandate would expire January 31.

U.N. troops were first sent to Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2000 to enforce a cease-fire ending a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people.

As part of the peace agreement, both countries pledged to accept a new border as set out by an international commission.

But the new border was never marked out after Ethiopia rejected part of it and Eritrea objected that Ethiopia was not being held to its word, leading to a four-year impasse.

More recently, Eritrea has piled restrictions on the U.N. force, arbitrarily arrested U.N. staff, ordered some humanitarian relief groups to leave the country, and sent armed personnel into a buffer zone set up by the United Nations between the two countries, Ban said.

"The current impasse is a serious source of instability for the two countries as well as the wider region," Ban said, pointing to the recent brief war in neighboring Somalia pitting government forces reinforced by the Ethiopian military against Islamist troops backed by Eritrea.

"The two governments need to take the political decision to put the conflict behind them, for the sake of their own people," Ban said.

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Ethiopian soldier dies in Somalia

BBC News
An Ethiopian soldier has been killed and another seriously wounded after unknown gunmen opened fire on troops at a market in Kismayo, southern Somalia.

Somali army commander Abdulrazak Afgudud told the BBC that several people had been arrested.

The Ethiopian soldiers were on board a pick-up truck when the gunmen shot at them and escaped.


More on BBC News

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Cell Phone Markets in Middle East and Africa

Ethiopia is the second least developed cell phone market in Africa

There was no change to the top ten most penetrated markets in the Middle East & Africa between June and September 2006, the United Arab Emirates continuing to lead from Bahrain, Israel and Kuwait at the top of the table.

Eritrea remains the least developed market on the continent, with Ethiopia second from bottom, and Rwanda third from bottom with a 3.1% rate of mobile ownership having been overtaken by eight other nations between September 2005 and September 2006.

Read More

The World in 2007 from The Economist also has a small piece about the Telecommunication sector in Ethiopia and Africa in general.

Should the government privatize the telecommunication sector?

Have your Say

Ethiopian Shipping Lines inaugurates Shebele cargo ship at Djibouti Port

January 24, 2007

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ENA) - The Ethiopian Shipping Lines Share Company inaugurated its new Shebele cargo ship in the presence of senior government officials and the business community at Djibouti Port on Monday.

Speaking at the occasion, Company Managing Director Ambachew Abreha said the ship, built at a cost of over 23.5 million US Dollars, has the capacity to carry 25,000 tons of goods.

Photo: ESL Ethiopian Ship Shebelle

Ambachew said the cargo ship would help increase Ethiopia’s international shipping of trade items besides enhancing the company’s competence and market share.

He said the company has built two new ships named 'Shebele' and 'Ghibe' with a view to providing lofty cargo freight services for construction, heavy industries and other development sectors in the country.

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Ethiopian Ambassador to Djibouti, Shemsedin Ahmed on the occasion said the Ethiopian Shipping Lines has been contributing its part in facilitating the country's import and export trade.

Photo: ESL Netsanet Ethiopian Ship

Ambassador Shemsedin said the endurance of the company in today's competitive market is worth appreciation.

At present, the company owns 10 cargo ships with an overall freight capacity of 147,672 tons.

According to the Comapny another ship named 'Ghibe' is also expected to reach the Port of Djibouti after two months.

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Ethiopian troops to fully withdraw from Somalia in three phases: Meles

January 24, 2007

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ENA) - Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced that the Ethiopian defense forces that crushed the extremist group in Somalia in collaboration with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) would be leaving the country in three phases.

The Premier expects the deployment of African Union peacekeeping forces to Somalia before the end of the third phase withdrawal of Ethiopian forces.

In a press conference he gave to local and international journalists on Wednesday, Meles said the Ethiopian defense forces that crushed extremists that threatened Ethiopia’s security began withdrawing from Somalia as of Tuesday (23 January 2007).

Meles said the victory of the Ethiopian defense forces over the extremist group in Somalia without casualties on civilians showed the military capability and heroism of the defense forces.

The Prime Minister said the withdrawal of the Ethiopian defense forces from Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia would successfully be completed in the coming few weeks.

Ethiopia begun withdrawing its troops as the forces of the TFG began stabilizing the country, Meles said.

Meles said war lords and their militias have become part of the army of the TFG through peaceful ways after handing over their armaments.

The TFG in collaboration with the people of Somalia has already shouldered the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability in Somalia, he said.

According to Meles, the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops would be executed as per the schedule irrespective of the deployment of African Union peacekeeping mission to Somalia.

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Nature
Published online: 24 January 2007

Science in Africa: All eyes on Addis

Next week, African leaders will come together to talk about science and technology at a summit in Ethiopia. This presents an opportunity to allot some foreign aid and, if they get it right, to launch projects that will draw further donations from abroad, says Michael Cherry.

If asked to name Africa's highest priorities, most people would cite poverty, disease and conflict, not science and technology. But at next week's summit of African leaders in the ancient Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, science and technology research for African development is top of the agenda.

Read Complete Article from Nature Magazine

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Kapuscinski dies

WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) -- Polish journalist and author Ryszard Kapuscinski, whose chronicles of the world's trouble spots won him an international reputation, died on Tuesday, the PAP news agency said. He was 74.

From 1959 to 1981, Kapuscinski covered the globe's poorest and most dangerous places as a correspondent for PAP. He also wrote books about Africa's emergence from colonialism -- and its descent into turmoil and war.

Best-known among his 19 books was "The Emperor", an account of the downfall of Ethiopia's Haile Selassie told from inside the castle walls.

He witnessed 27 coups and revolutions, befriended the likes of Che Guevara, and was sentenced to death four times, according to his American publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

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Ethiopians in Desperate Search of Foreign Passports

Ogaden Online Editorial

For months, the current autocracy in Addis Ababa and its affiliates have told anyone within an earshot that there were thousands of 'foreigners' in Somalia. The foreign force element was hammered home to anyone who would listen or had a sympathetic ear. Even the UN Somali arms monitoring committee was fooled to include in its last report that there were among others, two thousand Ereterians, present in Somalia.

Now that the same Ethiopians who concocted the foreign forces fiction have illegally occupied the Somali country, the world is yet to see a shred of evidence of even ten dead foreigners, whatever their nationality might be. Where have the thousands of the supposed foreigners gone? Or have they simply vanished into thin air? Why is no journalist putting these questions to the Ethiopian architect of the Somali invasion and occupation Mr. Meles Zenawi?

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Of course there have been mutterings from Zenawi and his Somali minions such as Hussien Aidid and Mr. Buba, members of the Ethiopian backed 'Somali' transitional government, about foreigners captured or killed in the Somali occupation. When pressed for evidence though, they, Zenawi and his Somali minions, failed to provide either a captured 'foreign' fighter or the passport of one dead foreigner.

To reduce the current heat by Western governments asking Ethiopia to provide evidence of foreigners, and in a desperate act of evidence gathering it is reported that Ethiopian soldiers in many parts of Somalia have now been instructed to find Somalis with foreign passports. It is said that the Somalis with foreign passports are to be arrested, and arraigned in front of the world press, the very few that have so far ventured into chaotic Somalia, as evidence of the presence of 'foreign' elements in Somalia.

The Ogaden Online Editorial Board cautions the world community not fall for Zenawi's machinations yet again. Countries, such as USA, Great Britain and Canada for example, whose Somali citizens have moved back to Somalia prior to the Ethiopian occupation should not assume, without firm evidence to the contrary, that every Somali in Somalia who now wants to leave Somalia is a former Union of Islamic Courts, UIC, fighter or sympathizer, as Ethiopians would want the world to believe.

editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
Jan 22, 2007

Deceptive, Ethiopian Military Maneuvers in Somalia

Jan 24, 2007

Ogaden Online Special report

Reports reaching our service desk from two high-ranking members of the Ethiopian regime in Somalia who requested anonymity due to their positions and lack of authorization to speak to the media, confirm that recent pronouncements of Ethiopian military departures are a smokescreen.

The same sources add that two weeks ago, at the home of the head of the Ethiopian autocracy in the outskirts of Addis Ababa, a discussion about the best way to 'legitimize' Ethiopian military presence in Somalia took place.

One of the ideas discussed articulated the immediate need to change the perception held by the European Union, EU, and the Arab League, AL, about Ethiopia being an occupying force in Somalia.

United States, US, government put a request to both the EU and AL to bankroll the deployment of African troops in Somalia following the defeat of the Union of Islamic Courts, UIC. Both EU and AL are reportedly receptive to fund the African troop deployment provided Ethiopia pulls its troops out of Somalia.

The proponents of the best way to accomplish the perception change without actually having a single Ethiopian soldier leave the country, Somalia, suggested that publicized Ethiopian troop movements from one city to another is the way to go. The proponents emphasized the need to publicize the departure but not the destination of the Ethiopian troops since they will be going to another city within Somalia.

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The two high-ranking officials who requested anonymity said that the Somali press, especially those in the big cities such as Mogadishu, was to be allowed to film the supposed departures of Ethiopian troops. Ogaden Online reporters in Somalia have reported that the movement of Ethiopian troops has already started.

Yesterday Ethiopian troops left completely the central regions without even informing the locals that they were leaving to avoid any road ambushes. Instead of crossing the border back to Ogaden, the Ethiopian troops that left the middle regions were spotted late this morning at the outskirts of Jowhar heading to Mogadishu.

About the same time this morning, the Somali reporters in Mogadishu were called to witness a farewell ceremony for the departing Ethiopian troops stationed in Mogadishu. Our Mogadishu reporter who was present in today's Mogadishu sendoff of the Ethiopian troops have confirmed that the Ethiopians who left Mogadishu are headed for the central regions.

The second phase of the deceptive military maneuvers is said to take place in the lower Jubba region. The troops there are scheduled to start pulling out of Kismayu before the end of the week. They are to be replaced by those now deployed in Bay region as confirmed by the troop redeployment plan shown to our reporters by the two high-ranking Ethiopian officials.

Ethiopian troop redeployments aside, the sources add that the Ethiopian chief of staff presented his worries of not having enough troops should there be sustained insurgency attacks as evidenced in Mogadishu recently. The head of the autocracy in Addis Ababa is reported to have brushed the chief of staff's concerns.

--Ogaden Online Staff
Staff@ogaden.com

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Ethiopia - It is all about access to the sea!

By Mekonnen Kassa

January 24 2007

It is natural for individuals to entertain differing views on matters of national importance, but the opinions put forth by some Ethiopian pundits, bloggers and “journalists” on reasons why Ethiopia went to war against Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) are more for pedestrian pandering than anything else. Theirs was not based on prevalent condition in the Horn of Africa and certainly not based on factual evidence on the state of political conditions inside Ethiopia.

Photo: NASA Satellite Image of Red Sea and Nile Delta

The reality was that the extremist UIC organization, as if its own empty threats to use force to annex part of Ethiopia were not enough, had become a host to a new and historical enemies of Ethiopia. The new ones included ONLF, OLF and Shabiya of Eritrea. OLF and ONLF are armed guerella groups fighting for the secession of Southern and Eastern regions of Ethiopia, respectively. Both groups are armed and trained by the government of Eritrea (Shabiya), a former secessionist movement which fought against the rest of Ethiopia for more than 30 and succeeded to declare independence in 1993. The old and historical enemies who have a vested interest to keep Ethiopia mired in conflict include our neighbors Egypt and Sudan, and some other Arab countries.

Ethiopia was within its right to fight an enemy that repeatedly declared war against it, issued an ultimatum, and threatened its access to sea. Had Ethiopia allowed UIC to hold on to power and stay any longer, the whole Somalia would have become a safe haven to all that threaten the security, territorial integrity and economic interest of Ethiopians.
The national security and economic well being of Ethiopia was compromised in 1993 when Ethiopia become a landlocked nation because of the hastily made decision by the transitional government of Ethiopia. EPRDF leaders who made up the transitional government should have researched precedent cases, consulted experts, and waited until they had the mandate from the people, by the way of election, to enter into lasting international agreements involving Ethiopia. But as the result of their inexperience, EPRDF leaders took Isayas’s word at it’s face value and signed for sessesion of Eritrea without a written and binding agreement that secured access to sea for Ethiopia.

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I cannot fanthom how Meles Zenawi who in 1991 told David Mercer that he “wanted to make Ethiopia a big player in the Middle East; ranking alongside Egypt” failed to appreciate the importance of secured access to the Red Sea to achieve his vision.

EPRDF’s blunder of Chambelian proportion has made Ethiopia a hostage to the goodwill of its neighbors Djibouti and Somalia. A goodwill that can easily be reversed at anytime when a political group that harbors ill will towards Ethiopia comes to power or when a rich country pays the right price for their cooperation to deny Ethiopia access to the sea.

There is a heightened concern as we hear news recently that the control of the port of Djibouti has been transfered to a company owned by Dubai. This is the same company which would have managed some US ports had the US Congress not intervened and subsequently nullified the contract citing American national security concerns. Given the Arab world’s animosity towards Ethiopia, the ownership of Port of Djibouti by a Dubai company should be a concern to Ethiopians. The long documented hostile Arab activity against Ethiopia aside, it is sufficient to mention that it was Qatar, an Arab nation and the current chair of the UN security council, that introduced a resolution and called for a unilateral withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somalia. Qatar and other Arab countries never voiced a concern while Somalia - a card carrying member of the Arab Legue- wallowed in a lawless state for over fifteen years. But one becomes suspicious to see them become gravely concerned the day they heared news that Ethiopia is protecting its national interest by engaging the UIC ragtag army.

Given the uncertain future of Port of Djibouti, Ethiopia’s access to the sea may become limited to the North West through Port Sudan or to the South through Somalia. Sudan, another Arab League nation, is unrealiable as it has its own political problems which forces it to have an on-again and off-again relationship with Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Sudanese government can turn against Ethiopia at anytime. That leaves us with Somalia, and if it were to be controlled by unfriendly government that claims territory from Ethiopia and plays host to our internal and external enemies, then Ethiopia would not be able to gain access to sea through Somalia. We need only point to Eritrea to illustrate the consequence of having unfriendly neighbors.

Fortunately, at least for now, we do not have to worry much. Former transitional government turned current government leaders have wised up and made a farsighted and well thoughtout decision, and mitigated these risks by driving out UIC and helping establish a friendly government in Somalia. Ethiopia’s action also has the added benefit of forcing Djibouti to keep its ports open and fiercely compete for our business. And by the way, that is already happening. There is a Pepsi vs. Coca like battle between Barbera and Djibouti ports resulting in reduced cost and better service for Ethiopian import and export business needs.
As for the other alleged reason, namely the governments attempt to draw attention away from domestic political repression and human right violation, of course there is a lot to be desired to improve the situation. But it is comical to claim the government created “bogeymen” and went to war as the result of political problems at home. Because I do not believe the domestic problems in Ethiopia are grave enough to require risking a war with a neighboring country just to distract the population or the international community. Whatever problem there is may be noise made by a few Ethiopians abroad and a few more at home disgruntled over the incarceration of former CUD leaders. I doubt it if the “pundits” and “journalists” traveled outside of the capital city and polled public opinion in places like Oromo, Afar, Somalia, Tigray, and Benishangul before they broadcasted their allegations. Had they done that, they would have found the situation far from their allegation, and if not a support to the government, then at least they would have found that people are living peacefully and going about their daily business.

We have heared the opposition sympathizers, some of whom never set foot in Ethiopia for over 30 years overload the internet with their account of the situation in Ethiopia. I think their allegation is based on what they hear from the city that overwhelmingly voted for the opposition. If that is the case, then their assessment can be likened to measuring Bush’s approval rating by polling the residents of Washington, DC where 90% of the people voted against Bush.

There is nothing new, wars have been fought, deals have been made, borders have been drawn to secure access to the sea and to create a security buffer zone. Ethiopia is not different and has to fight for her right to secure unfettered access to the sea. But I think the war in Somalia is a band-aid solution. The Ethiopian government has a second chance to secure access to sea for Ethiopia through negotiation when the demarcation talks with Eritrea resumes. Unless Ethiopia gains her own access to sea, there will never be a lasting peace in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan or Djibouti. Let us not mistake the “absence of war for peace.” Ethiopians will have to continue to go to war for their rightful access to sea because their continued existence depends on it.

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Concerned Ethiopians in Los Angeles

Press release

Los Angeles Shall not be Safe-Heaven for Agents of Tyranny

The people of Ethiopia have remained subject of oppressors and repressors of civil liberty under various tyrants that maintained their rules by the will of their greed for a number of decades. Nevertheless, there was little time that the people have not waged their struggle against these tyrants that appeared in different times. The last five decades especially are remembered for the wish of the people to bring about democratic governance and the rule of law in a much more organized manner.

In the process of bringing about good governance in Ethiopia children of the people have willingly sacrificed their dear lives for the just cause of the struggle. And yet tyrants have come and tyrants have gone without learning from the experiences of their preceding wrong doers. EPRDF is one such group of unlearnt mobsters that is imposing tyranny on the people of Ethiopia right at these present days of civilized societies.
Intimidating, harassing, imprisoning and massacring opposition leaders, students, farmers, workers, women, children and the aged are therefore characteristics of EPRDF leadership that are inherited from the past dictators. Thus the people of Ethiopia are still engaged in struggling oppressions that are imposed on them now as have been since the past many years.

The demonstration that was launched yesterday, January 20th, 2007 was a continuation of the struggle that was going on in the past many decades for the prevalence of democracy, good governance and the rule of law in Ethiopia. Its specialty however was that it was aimed at defying EPRDf’s call for a town hall meeting made in order to persuade the Diaspora in Los Angeles to support its unholy agenda of dismantling our unity and national integrity as well as the national interest of Ethiopia.

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In spite of its loss of public election of the May 2005, and failing to learn from the evicted governments of its type in the past few decades the EPRDF has been manipulating its cruel massacre and incarceration of workers, farmers, journalists, school children and representatives of the people elected by popular votes from the office it holds by the barrel of the gun. The leaders in Qality sanitary lacking prison are living examples of such victims of blind justice the release of whom the people are demanding. In addition to the crimes it is committing at home the EPRDF is also actively engaged in suppressing the voice of Ethiopians in Diaspora. In lieu with this it has invested millions of dollars of the people’s wealth to dismantle the unity of the Diaspora through its divisive propaganda and hired agents that serve its purpose. In addition to what is mentioned above the call for a town hall meeting on Saturday, January 20, 2007 was therefore a part and parcel of the agenda of EPRDF designed to divide and rule the Diaspora in Los Angeles and thereby abort the struggle for democracy and unity at home.

The divisive agenda however has been aborted by the gallant sons and daughters of Ethiopia residing in Los Angeles that gathered in a demonstration at Little Ethiopia, Fair Fax Avenue where the town hall meeting was to take place. According to estimates of 100 guests invited to attend the meeting inside the auditorium of the Korean Church at Fair Fax avenue only less than seventeen were counted coming out of the hall. About ten of these were organizers, security guards and journalists.

The people united against tyranny have come out triumphant in foiling EPRDF’s evil agenda as demonstrated yesterday. The infamous Ambassador of EPRDF, Taye and his loosing team had to drive out head-down among the crowd that cursed the evil mission of EPRDF. We, Ethiopians in LA have vowed that Los Angeles shall not be safe-heaven for agents of TPLF led EPRDF tyranny. We have also demonstrated that our demands are simple, the release of all political prisoners and thereby the removal of dictatorship from the yoke of the people.
In this regard we call for the people of the U.S. to bequeath their steady support to our struggle. We also take this opportunity to reminiscent the President of the United States, to remain loyal to his promise committed in one of his popular speeches that run
“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know–the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you.” Well, Mr. President, We Ethiopians in LA have successfully demonstrated that we stand for our liberty. How about you? Do you really stand for your commitment above?

Concerned members of the Diaspora in Los Angeles,
January 21, 2007,
Los Angeles California

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Demonstrators vow to keep Little Ethiopia free of Agents of Tyranny

Los Angeles (AR): Demonstrators, that call themselves “Concerned Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans in Los Angeles,” angrily shouted slogans when Ethiopia’s Councilor Taye Ezeke Selassie entered the Korean Church at Fairfax Av., Little Ethiopia, to open a town hall meeting he called on Saturday, January 20, 2007. “Leiba, Leiba, Leiba, (meaning thief in Ethiopian language of Amharic) Killer, Murderer,” the crowd shouted when the councilor passed by the crowd to enter the auditorium in which he expected over 100 Ethiopian supporters of his government but ended with less than 10 that entered the hall deafened with the complaints outside of the hall. Most of the invited gusts did not show up scared of the demonstration that was announced ten days before the meeting. Some who showed up joined the crowed blaming the government for illegally imprisoning party leaders and Journalists and other political activists as well as massacring demonstrators in the street of Addis Ababa in the aftermath of the may election.
The demonstrators composed of Ethiopian residents in LA regardless of partisanship to religions, ethnic groups and political parties lined in front of the Korean Church auditorium shouting slogans that condemn the totalitarian government of Ethiopia and its tyrant leader Melese Zenawi. Some of the slogans that the demonstrators hold reads; “Melese is a tyrant,” “Down with Tyranny, ” “Democracy for Ethiopia now!” “Stop Killing Now!” “Melese is a Killer!”

According to one of the organizers the demonstrators had swarmed the Korean Church Administration with tens of telephone calls demanding to halt the meeting but refused to do so saying that it was too late. Instead it looks like that the church had to inform the police that surrounded the church on Saturday morning only to worsen traffic juxtaposition. This incident of traffic conjunction created conducive condition for the demonstrators to hand out leaflets that describes the cause of the demonstration.

Hundreds of leaflets and flyers have been dispersed. One such leaflet with a title of “Press Release” reads that “On May 15, 2005, 26 million Ethiopians went out to vote and with a clear majority voice said that ‘It is time for change.’ A change for democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law which has been lacking for l5 years of EPRDF rule in Ethiopia.”

It is however noted that the EPRDF robbed the voice of the people to declare itself winner of the election it lost by far to the opposition parties that made a coalition at the start of the election. The EPRDF cracked protests in the street of Addis Ababa killing tens of demonstrators that supported the winning opposition party and throwing the winners in jail accusing them of felony and genocide. In line with this the Press Release says:
“ In the aftermath of the May 2005 election, Ethiopian Government forces killed nearly 200 unarmed civilians and critically wounded over 700 demonstrator. Thousands of civilians have been thrown in jail. Of those jailed over 100 top Kinijit leaders, journalists, human rights defenders have been charged with treason and genocide, thus resulting in the reversal of the democratic process in Ethiopia.” Organizers of the demonstrators claim exiting triumph over the government agents and vow to free Little Ethiopia in LA from activities of conducted by agents of Ethiopian tyrant Melese Zenawi.

(AR [Assigned Reporter]. The organizers of the demonstration assign the reporter of this news)

Ethiopian troops begin Mogadishu pullout

By Ali Musa Abdi

AFP Ethiopian troops have begun pulling out of Mogadishu despite fears of a security vacuum in the still largely lawless Somali capital, nearly four weeks after they helped oust hardline Islamists.

The first batch of Ethiopian troops leaving the Somali capital Mogadishu hold a departure ceremony. Ethiopian troops have begun pulling out of Mogadishu, nearly four weeks after they helped oust hardline Islamists despite fears of a security vacuum in the still largely lawless Somali capital.(AFP/Shabelle)

Ethiopian and Somali officials who attended a send-off ceremony for around 200 soldiers hailed the move as a sign the situation was stabilising in a country that has been the scene of near-endless bloodshed since 1991.

But amid the optimism, the spectre of an Islamist insurgency raised its head as Al-Qaeda's number two called on fighters to "break the back" of the Ethiopians still remaining in the Horn of Africa nation.

After interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed held talks with officials in Addis Ababa, a senior Ethiopian official said the pullout showed "we are not forces of occupation."

"We have always said that ... as soon as Somali forces are able to take care of their security, the Ethiopian forces would leave Somalia," he told AFP Tuesday. "That time has now come."

His view was echoed by Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohamed Aidid who said the opening of a Yemeni embassy in Mogadishu "shows the improved level of security."

“Why can’t they stay?” asked Mohammed Omar Ali, a milkman in Mogadishu, as he watched truckloads of Ethiopians chug out of the city. “They’re leaving us to the bandits.”

“Our enemy is finally leaving the country,” grumbled Mohammed Gedi Nur, who was selling second-hand clothes on the street. “Now we can bring back Islamic law.”
Source: The New York Times

But speaking in Nairobi, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Ethiopian troops would continue to have a presence until a proposed nearly 8,000-strong African Union stabilisation force is in place.

Only two countries, however, Malawi and Uganda, have so far pledged to provide troops and Gedi said he would not allow a security vacuum to develop.

"If need be, Ethiopia will remain and this is a decision between the two governments," he told diplomats.

In a sign of the push to get more countries involved, Yusuf travelled from Addis Ababa to Rwanda which has also been asked to contribute troops.

Gedi and his transitional government had only been able to operate out of a provincial backwater until the Ethiopians intervened on their behalf in December, prompting the Islamists to flee Mogadishu.

The prime minister acknowledged his administration faced huge challenges, especially in disarming militias, and needed international funds.

"Disarming Somalia is not an easy task ... the government is doing its job with the limited resources we have," said Gedi.

Somali police, last on regular patrol in the city in 1991 before the demise of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, were meant to have begun patrols of Mogadishu on Tuesday, but there was no sign of them on the streets.

The capital, a battleground for rival warlords until the Islamists took power and established some degree of order last June, has again been the scene of deadly firefights this week.

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a new video message that Islamist fighters would "break the back" of the Ethiopians who got "bogged down" by the United States in "a real disaster" in Somalia.

Washington, which backed Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia and then launched an airstrike at suspected Al-Qaeda operatives there, has welcomed the change of regime as a chance for Somalia to turn its back on violence.

While some members of the former Islamist regime have threatened guerrilla warfare against Mogadishu's new rulers, the US is hoping one of its top officials can help the reconciliation process.

The US embassy in Nairobi said ambassador Michael Ranneberger, whose brief includes Somalia, plans to meet an Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, this week after his weekend surrender to Kenyan authorities.

File Photo: Islamic Courts Militia burn an Ethiopian flag in Mogadishu, Monday, July 24, 2006. More than 5,000 people gathered for an anti-Ethiopia protest in the capital Monday
(AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor)

Somali Islamists say told by God to fight Ethiopia

Gedi also held out an olive branch to Ahmed, who is his cousin.

"Any dialogue with Somali nationals who are willing to join the peace process will be undertaken in Mogadishu or inside Somalia," he said.

"We have appealed to them (Islamists) to come back and join the negotiations and Sheikh Sharif is one of them."

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Ethiopia rides the tiger

Immanuel Wallerstein Agence Global
Published: January 23, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut: The prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, must have been studying the magnificent successes of the U.S. pre-emptive invasion of Iraq and Israel's recent foray into Lebanon. He has clearly decided to emulate them. His argument is exactly that which was given by George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert: We must attack our neighbor because we have to keep Islamic terrorists from pursuing their jihad and attacking us.

In each case, the invader was sure of his military superiority and of the fact that the majority of the population would hail the attackers as liberators. Zenawi asserts he is cooperating in the U.S. struggle against terrorism. And indeed, the United States has offered not only its intelligence support but has sent in both its air force and units of special troops to assist the Ethiopians.

Still, each situation is different. And it is worth reviewing the recent history of the Horn of Africa, where countries have switched geopolitical sides with ease in the last 40 years.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Ethiopia was a symbol of African resistance to European imperialism. The Ethiopians defeated the Italian colonial troops at Adowa in 1896 and the country remained independent. When Italy tried again in 1935, Emperor Haile Selassie went to the League of Nations and pleaded for collective security against the invasion. He received no help. Ethiopia then became the symbol of Africa throughout the black world.

In the difficult genesis of the Organization of African Unity in 1963, Haile Selassie used his prestige to play a key role as intermediary between differing African states. The OAU established its headquarters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. But if Ethiopia served this symbolic role throughout Africa, it also had an oppressive state machinery. And when acute famines began to plague the country in the 1970s, internal discontent mounted. In 1974, an army officer, Mengistu Haile Mariam, led a revolt against the monarchy and established a military government, which soon proclaimed itself Marxist-Leninist.

Ethiopia's neighbor, Somalia, also had a military government, under Siad Barre, which referred to itself as "scientific socialist." It had strained relations with the United States and fairly close relations with the Soviet Union. After the 1974 coup, when Mengistu proclaimed his government Marxist-Leninist, the Soviet Union dumped Somalia and embraced the larger and more important Ethiopia. So the United States embraced Somalia in turn.

To understand what happened next, a few words of ethnic analysis is needed. Ethiopia is an ancient Christian kingdom, long dominated by Amhara aristocrats. There is another large Christian group, the Tigre, who speak a different language. There are two other quite large groups — the Oromo (half of whom are Muslim) and the Muslim Somalis. In addition, at the end of World War II, Ethiopia absorbed the coastal Italian colony of Eritrea. Under Haile Selassie only the Amhara counted, and Eritrea was waging a war for independence. Without Eritrea, Ethiopia is landlocked.

Somalia was quite different. There had been two colonies — Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland. Italian Somaliland became independent in 1960, and British Somaliland was added onto it. In the 1960s, when ethnic conflicts began to plague many African states, it was commonly said that the one African country that would never know ethnic conflict was Somalia, since almost everyone in the country was ethnically Somali, spoke Somali, and was a Muslim.

People in both countries chafed under the respective dictatorships. And when the Cold War ended, neither government could survive. Both Mengistu and Barre were overthrown in 1991.

In Somalia, the "perfect" ethnic state fell apart, as clans began to fight one another. In 2006, a group called the Union of Islamic Courts took over Mogadishu and expelled the feuding clan leaders, restoring relative peace for the first time in more than a decade.

Washington saw the Union of Islamic Courts as a replica of the Taliban and allied to Al Qaeda. So did Zenawi. So Ethiopia decided to oust the union, and prop up the powerless central government that had been unable even to enter the capital city.

There we went again. Of course, Ethiopia has won the first round. But the Somalis are not welcoming the Ethiopians as liberators. The clan leaders are fighting one another again, and Mogadishu is again in turmoil.

As Israel had to withdraw from Lebanon, and as the United States is going to have to do in Iraq, so Ethiopia now has to pull back from Somalia. An Ethiopian general said Tuesday that the first troops would start pulling out immediately. The situation within Somalia will not have been improved because of its preventive attack. Preventive attacks are always a potential boomerang. Either one wins overwhelmingly or one loses badly.

Immanuel Wallerstein is the author of "The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World." This article was distributed by Agence Global.

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Ethiopia cholera death fears grow

BBC News

Some 570 people have died in Ethiopia during what aid agencies say is a cholera outbreak.

But Ethiopia's health ministry is resisting pressure to declare it an emergency, despite evidence that the epidemic is sweeping the country.

Officials are instead describing it as acute watery diarrhoea.

A spokesperson for one aid agency said the government would not declare it was cholera because of the damage it could cause to the Ethiopian economy.

It could mean that cross-border trade would have to stop and markets close.

International agencies working in the country say 52,500 people have been infected with cholera - first reported in the south west last April.

"It needs to be declared an emergency because unless it is, the appropriate measures will not be taken. We need extra resources," said an aid worker, who did not want to be named.

The disease has seriously affected Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Oromiya and the Somali Region.

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Toronto man shipped to Ethiopia, family says

Bashir Makhtal's relatives fear he'll be tortured; they press Ottawa, politicians for aid
January 23, 2007
Debra Black
Toronto Star

Family members of Bashir Makhtal – a Canadian who had been deported from Kenya to Somalia – believe their worst fears have come true and the self-described used-clothing dealer is now in detention in Ethiopia.

Bashir Makhtal was arrested in late December as he tried to enter Kenya from Somalia with a Canadian passport. He was detained in Kenya and then deported to Mogadishu on Saturday – one of 30 prisoners taken in handcuffs and shackles.

Local news reports in Kenya allege he is a member of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia. Makhtal is originally from the Ogaden region, and his grandfather was one of the founders of the liberation group, family members say.

But relatives deny he has any connection to the group, saying he came to Canada in 1989 to get away from the troubles in Ethiopia. Makhtal lived in Toronto, studied computer programming and worked at CIBC and Bank of Montreal.

Makhtal's wife and family in Nairobi reached the Somalian government yesterday to ask about his status, said Said Maktal, a 35-year-old cousin of the detained Canadian.

A Somalian official told them that by the time the prisoners arrived, "another plane was waiting for them and they have been shipped to Ethiopia – to Gode," said Maktal.

It's a place that terrifies him. When Maktal was a child growing up, Gode was the place where people were sent to be tortured, he said.

If Bashir is in Ethiopia, it's even more important that Canada act quickly, Maktal said. He fears Bashir Makhtal will be tortured or executed.

Yesterday, Maktal met with his local MP and talked with Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby about the case. He plans to contact NDP leader Jack Layton's office today and to continue to press the foreign affairs department.

A foreign affairs official repeated Sunday's statement that Ottawa "strongly objects" to the deportation of a Canadian citizen to Somalia and representations have been made in both Kenya and Ottawa.

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Awassa's New Lewi Resort Hopes for Millennium Readiness

Addis Fortune

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Owners of a new resort named Lewi, which is under construction on the edge of Lake Awassa hope that their hotel will be ready to receive some of the 300,000 people estimated to come to Ethiopia for the Ethiopian Millennium celebration.

Hotel owner, Wondyefraw Endeshaw and family, had launched the construction of this resort in 2002, after securing loans from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), which finance part of the 35 million Br construction cost. The company leased a one hectare plot of land from the Awassa town's administration, on a spot located between Wabi Sheballe (number two) and a recreational centre, managed by the Sidama Cooperative Union.

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Designed to face Lake Awassa, the resort will have three stories that will accommodate 100 rooms, a conference hall for 500 people, a tennis court and executive villas; it is designed by a private architect and resembling the traditional homes of Sidamas, Wollaitas, and Dorzes, according to Wondyefraw, general manager of the company. Close to 90pc of the construction has been completed as of last week.

When completed, it will not be the only such resort to be built along side Lake Awassa, located 275Km south of the capital, on the Ethio-Kenya international highway. Track star Haile Gebresellasie has also received a 11,000sqm plot nearby, in order to build another resort at a cost of 35 million Br. Haile was awarded almost half of this plot from the regional state for his Olympic achievements, while the remaining he received from the town's administration through a lease.

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EEPCo Pushes to Speed Dam Project after Delays

Addis Fortune

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The Chinese joint venture, CWGS, that is building the Tekeze Hydroelectric project, in the Tigray Regional State, brought to Ethiopia last week over 10 experts from China, to speed up the pace at which the project is moving now.

This was followed after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi raised concerns on the delayed project during his visit to Beijing to attend the China-Africa Summit, in November 2006. He had met with Chinese leaders and top managers of China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Company (CWHEC), 49pc, and China Gezhouba Water and Power (group) Ltd, 30pc, and Sur Construction, subsidiary company of EFFORT, 21pc.

The project owner's, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), hoped to start catching water during the last winter season, but it had to be postponed until next year because the Arch dam was simply not ready as originally planned. This project could mark a major milestone only when the water starts to pour into the dam, according to Mehiret Debebe, managing director of the Corporation. It is one of the three major phases of the project.

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CWGS signed a contract on June 1, 2002, to construct a hydroelectric power plant on the Tekeze River, at a cost of 1.9 Billion Br. Believed to have cut prices from the competition (the Turkish Enka and Japanese Kajima) 20pc lower than engineers' estimate, the joint venture was supposed to be finalized construction at the end of this year. Industry analysts had projected, at the time of the contract signing in June 2002, that the Chinese joint venture would not be able to complete the project on time.

When completed, the 180 meter high Tekeze will become the 10th hydroelectric power plant in the country, designed to generate 300mw of electric power, and adding to the 700mw the Corporation generates now.

Projects Underway

Beles 435 MW
Gigel Gibe II 420 MW
Tekeze 300 MW
Total Cost $1.4 Billion USD
Source: *African Business January 2007

Gilgel Gibe III 1870 MW
Cost $1.7 - $2 Billion USD
Source: *The Africa Report January 2007

Note: Please check the print edition of these publications at a newsstand near you. The above quotes are not online

It is only the first phase of constructing a 120Km transmission line and the second part of building a sub-station in Tekeze, which have now been completed. But the third and the most critical part of constructing the dam, which consumes 70pc of the work involved, is yet to be done. It was planned to be completed in June 2006.

"In addition to increasing the number of their experts, the company has identified its technical predicament which was its major setback," Mehiret stated.

The major challenge Chinese engineers have faced is changing the river's course toward the dam, according to experts at EEPCo. This requires busting hard rock in a chain of mountainous area at Tekeze River, at a location called Abi Adi, 170Km from the town of Mekelle, seat of the Regional State. Now engineers claim to have discovered a way to circumvent the challenge and a new technique by which the water could easily discharges into the dam.

"We are pretty much certain that water will pour into the dam during the coming rainy season," an engineer, assigned by EEPCo to the site, told Fortune.

"The Chinese must know that this has to happen one way or the other," Mehiret told Fortune.

If Mehiret sounds as if he is talking tough, it is because high level negotiations between his management and those of the joint venture produced nothing for nearly six month, except the extension of project deadlines. Mehiret is now banking on the fast progress of the Chinese to compensate the delay the project has suffered to date.

The joint venture company has brought 10 engineers and drilling experts, as well as mobilizing construction machineries.

"The company now seems to have a greater commitment to complete the project than ever before," he told Fortune.

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Photographer raises Ethiopia's profile

The Commonwealth Times

Images of sick, dying people were the only perception of Ethiopia one freelance photographer had a little more than a year ago. Today is a different story.

After spending a month in the African country and researching its culture, Emily Taylor now is trying to educate people in Richmond about the life of Ethiopians.

Read More

For more information about the Project Image Ethiopia, go to projectimageethiopia.org

January 22, 2007

Issaias Afeworki’s Presidency over Matters of a Region in Crisis

By Alex Birhanu

Background

For the most part important pieces of information and their analyses in this article are exclusively pertinent to looking at Issaias Afeworki’s presidency over internal and external affairs. Hence In what follows this article provides a reflection of the absence of transparency both in terms of Eritrean Regime’s handling of its internal and foreign affairs.

Part I: Eritrean Affairs
Inhibiting the wave of struggles of the Eritrean peoples, Issaias Afeworki’s despotic regime has chosen to rule the country under a hard handed one-man-dictatorship. Soon after the euphoria of the de facto Eritrea independence from Ethiopia was over in 1993, Issaias Afeworki introduced his long-stretching authoritarian arms brought forward from his hay-days as commander in chief of EPLF, a guerrilla fighting front, of the 1980s thereby spreading spy soldiers throughout Eritrea, polarizing, subjugating and ultimately putting people in prison - including those who struggled within EPLF’s 30 years of liberation process (labeling them as the gang of 15). Currently, the inhuman acts of spying, liquidations, tortures, purges, the intrigues played against those Eritrean groups who attempted to opt for power struggle especially since 2004 and the slavery of the rank-and-file members within his government machinery are among incidences worth noting.

The foremost victims of the hitherto ongoing anti-peace policy and moves of the hard-handed Eritrean government are the Eritrean people itself. The secular life of people has fallen under tight control of the government’s manipulative mechanisms. For instance, soon after Issaias Afeworki’s tyrannical government banned Evangelical churches in 2002, the condition for Christians has rapidly deteriorated. The government has closed Evangelical houses of worship, confiscated and destroyed their property, and imprisoned and tortured many Evangelicals. The government is also restricting activities of previously approved Lutheran, Catholic, and Orthodox churches. “In the beginning of 2006, the government forced the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Abune Antonios, to step down. Eleven months later, the state demanded that all offerings and tithes collected through the Orthodox Church be deposited directly into a government account. The government further made restrictions by limiting the number of priests to be allowed to serve in each parish throughout Eritrea.” (1)

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As if to say: ‘I know everything except myself’, Eritrea is ruled by an increasingly repressive, isolated, and unpredictable regime that is not willing to open-up pathways for a democratic political platform that guarantee justice, peace, equality among all. Instead of opening-up the way for peace, prosperity, empowerment and socio-economic development through which all the nine ethnic groups of the Eritrean peoples can live in harmony, Issaias Afeworki’s totalitarian regime became raison d’etre for the flaring-up of opposition groups and quagmire among Eritrean factious groups and those in Diaspora. In effect, the clandestine opposition process that started in 2004 inside Sudan has ringed the bell for a wake-up call and has shown signs of progress towards putting pressure on straightening up of the Shaabia think-tank. People are now working ways and means on how to push the arrogant Wedi Afom out of office by any and all means available on the ground. This episode has really become a reminder to Issayas Afeworki and to Shaabia cohorts to respond in time to key popular demands asking for sharing power. Before long Issaias Afeworki’s Shaabia regime will have no choice but to relinquish power and to embark on a multi-party politics that includes the rights and empowerment of all the nine ethnic groups within Eritrea proper.

There is popular consensus among the public expressing their feelings by suggesting that Eritrean political leadership must stop dumping its nose into political matters of neighboring states and start to mind its own national affairs. This autocratic regime must also stop fostering military training that it gives to opposition political groups coming from neighboring countries. In its place Shaabia should attempt to foster peace, prosperity and fraternity among and between the Eritrean peoples and the peoples of the neighboring states existing primarily within the region.

Likely Demise of Despotism

Due to misfortunes both at home and abroad, Issaias Afeworki’s tyranny is temporarily ailing politically beyond repair and counting its doomsday. All its Machiavellian tactics of governance by using spy soldiers at home and by spreading terrorist tactics using foot-soldiers like OLF, ONLF, AFD and the like have collapsed and all its cards have now burnt out. The arrogant Issaias Afeworki’s Shaabia regime sided with UIC that harbored fundamentalists and dashed in Somalia simply to show its “presence” to the fund raising few Arab governments but in vain. By now, Issaias knows it better that he is just buying time; otherwise he knows it well that he cannot make it all alone by support coming from few Arab countries. As he can no longer collect funds through Eritrean persons living in Diaspora any more, it is not difficult to guess what the final option of this abhorred clique with few Arab countries will take him through. Obviously, the road which the Issaias Afeworki’s despotic regime has chosen may buy it time but definitely it is this same venue that will take his tyrant regime to its ultimate downfall.

The Eritrean people living in Diaspora and those who are closely following developments at home, can't be fooled by Issaias Afeworki’s troubled, drained and domineering regime. Simply, Shaabia is trying to deceive all eyes wearing glittering robes within and from handful Arab governments. For as long as the direction held by Issaias Afeworki’s single-handed totalitarian regime is moving towards its ultimate demise, there is equally a serious need to prevent the Eritrean peoples from likely danger and change the political direction until the polity lands on and proceed towards democracy that allows fostering a multi-party parliamentarian constitution. This corrective action must become operational without any delay simply due to the fact that all options that are being attempted outside the voice and choice of the Eritrean people will end up to be unproductive and chaotic. Enough is enough. Communities should be empowered to take their fate in their own hands. The ever growing and ongoing - one man show – and his protagonist political platform characterized for the most part by dictatorial governance and despotic polity must be clogged once and for all.

Tension at the Horn

The Horn of Africa that consists of: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda are a region of strategic geopolitical importance. It is also a region in crisis. Particularly, tensions along the heavily militarized Ethiopian-Eritrean border escalated in late 2005 as Eritrea imposed new restrictions on the movement of the UN peacekeeping mission mandated to monitor the demilitarized zone established by the 2000 Algiers Agreement. The breakdown of the Ethiopia-Eritrea peace implementation process contributes to the dangerous escalation of regional conflicts. The ongoing stalemate on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border is further fueled by the growing authoritarianism in both states. Since the 2000 cease-fire, ruling parties in both Eritrea and Ethiopia have responded to demands for political openings with harsh restrictions and arrests criminalizing dissent.

(i) The border dispute with Ethiopia: These heightened border tensions, along with internal political turmoil in Ethiopia, increasing political repression and tyranny in Eritrea, and the rooting out and chasing away of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) of Somalia out of the country by the end of December 2006 are core factors among the political feud in the region. As to the fragmentary border issues between Eritrea and Ethiopia, on January 17, 2007, the UN indicated that it would reduce the peacekeeping forces on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border by 600 persons (from its current 2300 UN-troops to 1700 UN-troops) by the end of January 2007 working in or near the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) of the disputed regions of the border, which separates Ethiopia and Eritrea. Actually, the UN mandate for the Ethiopia-Eritrea mission must be renewed by January 31.

Unless the Ethio-Eritrea border issue comes to a closure, the tension will further persist eventually igniting yet other unsettled matter like Ethiopia’s legitimate access to the sea causing another war resulting in excessive death-toll on either sides of the conflicting countries. In fact, failure to resolve the Ethiopian-Eritrean dispute could exacerbate governance, health, and humanitarian problems within the region.

In connection to the border conflict, the hegemonic rule devised by Issias Afeworki and his cohorts are breeding political danger of ant-peace policy against Ethiopia pertaining to ethnicity and tribal politics by supporting groups like OLF, ONLF, AFD, EPPF and the like.

(ii) Altruistic access to the sea:
With reference to Assab port’s feasible utilization, it is crucial that all stakeholders show concern beyond today’s short-sighted geographical seizure of the port and try to resolve this matter through a negotiated settlement in the way that Assab will no longer remain as a permanent source of future instability between Eritrea and Ethiopia. If maintaining sustainable stability and socio-economic relations between these two states is given its due recognition, then the significance of Assab must be taken into critical consideration and be given eminent and immediate solutions. So far Meles Zenawi and his cohorts have been shrugging their shoulders as regards access to the sea and adamantly grumble Ethiopia’s rightful ownership of the port of Assab. According to likely suggestions made in earlier reports it is argued that Ethiopia may stage-up the not yet demarcated border matter including that of the Assab port as points of negotiation between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Likely justification to be drawn for the Assab port case would be: (a) that Assab port was part of Wollo until 1990 and it was given to Eritrea by TPLF as a good will gesture, will simply prolong the suffering of the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia.(2) (b) that the 1993 Eritrean referendum was conducted on emergency grounds; without formally conducting the border demarcation prior to the 1993 inauguration date;(3) and (c) with its nearly 80 million peoples living landlocked inside Ethiopia, makes the Ethiopian population feel like living in a closed house without any of the windows or doors open to the outer world.

In any case, once anti-peace policy is discarded, it is high time for both the Eritrean and the Ethiopian governments to jointly discuss in order to arrive at viable options on how to enable Ethiopia secure its access to the sea. As stakeholders on this critical national issue, both Ethiopian opposition political groups as well as the Eritrean opposition groups alike must be consulted and take a tenacious stand.

There is, however one fear factor: Issaias Afeworki and his cohorts are so self-righteous, so-ill-informed, and so-dogmatic in their dealings that nothing one can say or do will change their minds. Trying to convince them to negotiate may at times seem a futile and not particularly useful exercise. Notwithstanding the likelihood of facing challenges and tough times in arriving at viable solutions, justice should govern in order to end anti-peace policy stance and sole Ethiopia’s landlocked bottleneck through viable provision of a sustainable outlet to the international water.

At the end of the day, economic and social development in the region cannot be achieved through military intimidation and confrontation by any party; but through partnership, peaceful dialogue and negotiated settlement between the two countries. Denying access to the sea would jeopardize sustenance of permanent peace between the two nations. And for Shaabia to hold on to the port of Assab coercively, that

So if anti-peace-policy is to be reversed by a sustainable peace in the region, it is highly justifiable for the nearly 80 million Ethiopian peoples to regain their legitimate rights to access the sea through Assab port. Likewise, by returning the port of Assab to Ethiopia, Eritrea will be in a better socio-economic and political networking position not only with Ethiopia but also with the rest of its neighbors in the region. It means none of the two countries have to worry about counter-fighting one another.

In connection to the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict management issue, the long sustained relationship between Canada and the USA or between Mexico and the USA in North America; between Switzerland and its neighboring countries in Europe or between the three neighboring countries in Scandinavia may be considered as models or exemplary factors for re-enforcing such suggestions at the Horn of Africa. The previous attempt by Eritrea to rent the Assab port in early 1990s in return for extracted hard currency from Ethiopia is simply a bizarre attempt as Assab legally belongs to Ethiopia. Therefore, the Ethiopian government and the opposition political parties jointly must start dialogue with their counter parts in Eritrea in order to set the course for a visionary regional solution that may bring durable peace between the two nations. The bell is ringing in different sounds. Eritrea and Ethiopia should come up with viable solutions at this critical and urgent time. All told, the night may be long but surely and eventually, a day will come soon when Ethiopia will retain access to the sea. Likewise, a day will come soon when Eritrean and Ethiopian peoples will join hands, talk the talk and walk the walk jointly for mutual socio-economic progress and peaceful co-existence. But the main precondition for these factors to be fulfilled is the wearing away of any form of tyranny both from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

(iii) Unknown fate of some Sudanese in Eritrea

Although not so serious, intermittently, few tensions have been cropping up between Sudan
and Eritrea. For instance, in its article published on Saturday, 11 February 2006 by the Sudanese Media Center (SMC), the fate of some Sudanese persons who have been in Eritrea since some time in the past few years is not yet known. Although detailed and well accounted evidences are not yet provided, according to SMC, some of the Sudanese individuals are said to be languishing in the following eight prisons located within Eritrea:

1. Traf, A, B, and C prisons that belong to the army’s contingent 32;
2. Mai Tamnei prison.
3. Beit Gergeesh prison.
4. Addi Abeito prison.
5. Addi Anfas prison.
6. The special prison attached to the Police Center-2 and
7. Kharshly Grand Prison
8. Joro added that most of the Sudanese prisoners sent to the Gat agricultural projects near the Read Sea coast.

It is hoped that Amnesty International, International Red-Crescent and Red Cross as well as other humanitarian aid agencies may attempt to investigate these cases and come up with tangible answers to this particular issue.

(iv) Instable conditions in Somali politics
Somalia has lacked a central government since 1991, when the overthrow of U.S.-backed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre threw the country into the hands of rival warlords. Hence the last fifteen years of Somalia’s history could easily be called an era of lawlessness and chaos. With no strong central government to bring stability, warlords established their own authority in the capital of Mogadishu, fighting each other for greater control and influence. Amidst all the chaos, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia was formed in 2004 by a conference convened in neighboring Kenya but remained confined in Baidoa away from the capital Mogadishu for nearly two years. In June 2006 the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) captured Mogadishu and imposed a Taliban-style fundamentalist Islamic rule on Somalia.

The prime objective of the UIC since it seizure of power in Mogadishu in June 2006 was to expand its fundamentalist Islamic ideology into neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. As the UIC started to govern Southern Somalia, they indoctrinated school children and pushed them into the militant "al Shebab," whose merciless leaders were emerging progressively close to al Qaeda with the end goal to form a Muslim caliphate in Greater Somalia under whose banner their reach would extend throughout the Horn and even deep into Central and Southern Africa. Ethiopia, along with the African Union (AU) and the international community, pressed both sides for dialogue. But the Islamic Courts, covertly funded and armed by Eritrea and supporters of a radical Islamic state in the Horn of Africa, declared a jihad on Ethiopia and attacked the TFG. Markedly, as per accounts made by Pajamas Media, the Eritrean soldiers “were in full combat” alongside the Islamic Courts Union army, including firing on Ethiopian and Somali government forces (4).

On its part, Eritrea hoped to use the conflict in Somalia to destabilize its archenemy Ethiopia, while Islamists hoped to upset the delicate balance between Ethiopia's nearly 80 million evenly divided Orthodox Christians and Muslims.

In due time the UN and the AU recognized the TFG that took power after driving out the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from the country with the support from Ethiopia. Likewise, by the beginning of December 2006, the U.S. sowed its support to the TFG as the government was already supported by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). At the same time, the Security Council of the UN authorized a regional “peacekeeping” force to protect the TFG, which was then biding its time in Somalia’s second city of Baidoa. By the end of the first week of January 2007, more or less the war of driving out the Islamists from Somalia was completed within a period of two weeks time.

By mid-January 2007, Kenya and Ethiopia have issued a joint statement asking African nations to provide peacekeeping troops for Somalia. Ethiopia insists that it will withdraw its military forces from Somalia "within weeks." An African Union regional security meeting is scheduled for January 29 and no doubt peacekeeping contingents for Somalia will be discussed at this conference.

On January 12, 2007, Eritrea warned the US of "dangerous consequences" because of US air strikes made on Islamic Courts militia positions in Somalia. What those consequences might be was not made clear. Initially, Eritrea has in fact been a de facto US ally in the War on Terror, but when Ethiopia failed to implement the border changes, Eritrea expected the US and the UN to force Ethiopia to comply but in vain. When the US and UN did not react according to Issayas Afeworki’s wishes, Eritrea turned on both and maintained its support for the Islamic Courts militia. The Ethiopian and the Somali transitional government joint victories in Somalia have been a clear defeat for Eritrea. Eritrea might consider letting radical Islamic terrorists operate from its territory. That would be a stupid mistake, but angry governments do stupid things. As Eritrea has little interest in radical Islamists and the Islamists utopian goals, Issaias Afeworki found the Islamists as useful tools for his tactical alliance with them in order to carry out a proxy war with his arch-foe Ethiopia.

Conclusive remarks:
When all is said and done, despite his ideological acrobatics, Issaias Afeworki remained consistent in his anti-peace policy in the region in crisis and in his internal policy of arbitrary killings, divide-and- rule, intrigues, manipulations, and psychological terror in marathon and endless meetings within his despotic government system since 1993. For Issaias Afeworki his left-wing inclined and age-old partisan political ideology grafted from China has remained as a means to stick to power and never an end in itself. Consequently, Issaias has not only deepened Eritrea in huge socio-economic, political and geopolitics crisis but he has also duplicated the problems at hand at least for the next generation to take over power.

Footnotes:
(1) For details kindly see, an article posted by ICC on www.persecution.org - icc@persecution.org.
(2) Heard as Saying - "The Port of Assab is a pure gift of TPLF to Eritrea." (In 1996 in Asmara, at the presence of an Ethiopian pilot instructor, it was claimed that Solomon Petros, was heard saying the above quotation. Solomon was the former EPLF second-in-command). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petros_Solomon.
(3) For details please see, an article posted by Toommaa on December 27, 2006 on: http://www.ethioforum.org/Forums/viewtopic/t=680.html).
(4) (http://www.pajamasmedia.com/2007/01/eritrea_sides_with_alqaeda_in.php).

The author can be reached at: alexbirhanu AT yahoo.com

Accor to launch construction this week

By Tedla Yeneakal

The Capital

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Accor, the much awaited international hotel chains group, which leased land near Meskel square from the Addis Ababa City Administration two years ago is set to officially launch construction this week on Wednesday, January 24, at a ceremony in the presence of top management, government officials, diplomats and invited guests. Guest of honor is to be Minister of Culture and Tourism H.E Ato Mahamud Dirir.

Accor is the world's largest hotel and tourism group with more than 4000 hotels and resorts in 90 countries and with the most comprehensive choice of hotel styles and locations. Accor's hotel brands include the luxury Sofitel, business class Novotel, the flexibility of Mercure, value of Ibis and the convenience of Formula 1 among others.

The group signed an agreement with the city two years ago that allows them to build two international class hotels in Addis Ababa at a cost of around 25 million USD near the vacant plot next to the Sunshine Construction Company headquarters adjacent to the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center. The brands to be built are, Novotel and Ibis.

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Sunshine is also building another hotel near Accor’s spot.
Accor had finalized the terms with the city administration seven months ago to launch the project. The group initially planned to finalize the construction of the tow hotels this year, targeting two years back to complete construction in 24 months, while furnishing and other finishing touches should take another six months. The project, according to informed sources has been delayed over land right issues which required a revision of the original project design.

Ibis will be 12 stories and incorporate 154 rooms, international standard bars and restaurants with ample parking. Ibis is present in 36 countries with 750 hotels.

Novotel will be a six-storey building and will have 119 rooms, and shall be fitted with international standard bars, restaurants, swimming pools and parking areas. Novotel has 409 hotels in 56 countries.
The two hotels will be constructed by Kuwait’s Al Kharafi and Sons Construction at a total cost of 22 million dollars with 60% of the financing from Al Kharafi and Sons and 40% covered by Accor Group itself. Al Kharafi and Sons Construction have experience in the construction sector in Ethiopia, as they undertook the expansion works of the new terminal of Bole International Airport inaugurated in 2002.

According to information from Accor, each day, more than 21 million people in 35 countries use a range of services created and managed by Accor. In the Asia Pacific region, Accor is the largest and fastest growing hotel group of some 4000 hotels with more than 475,000 rooms in 90 countries including Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea.

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Yamamoto takes Ethiopia to heart

By Eskinder Michael

The Capital


Addis Ababa, Ethiopia His credentials might make him seem like a giant out of Washington, but this soft spoken expert on the horn of Africa is quite the contrary. H.E Donald Yamamoto, Ambassador of the USA to Ethiopia, projects a warm feeling of friendship to whoever meets him.

In his first ever meeting with the press, Yamamoto made an effort to convoy the message that Ethiopia was close to the heart of the US in terms of friendship and support for development.

Photo: The Capital
Business community leader Eyesuswork Zafu conferring with the newly appointed ambassador of the US to Ethiopia. Amb. Donald Yamamoto, explaining what he wants to see done in terms of business during his three year stay here.

“There are four major countries in Africa for the US, and Ethiopia is a cornerstone country for the US, not only politically but also economically,” he said.

Though he kept the issue of Somalia on the sidelines, the Ambassador was keen on talking about what he would like to see done during his three years here.

The former Deputy Assistant Secretary in Washington has 11 years of experience in the horn of Africa and his arrival here in Ethiopia shows the need for a knowledgeable person for the region. “I was assigned here because we wanted to show that Ethiopia means a lot and that we won’t just assign a junior here to Ethiopia,” he said.

Yamamoto, hailing out of New York says he watched as the second plane went into the World Trade Center (WTC) on 9/11 and he said that many of his high school friends had died there. “When the WTC collapsed, many of my high school friends who were cops and firemen went in and died. My college buddies were in the tower as they worked there and they died. Ethiopia was the first country to send its condolences and that means a lot. Ethiopia was there for us during 9/11, so now we want to be there for
Ethiopia,” he said.

The ambassador also said that his country also assists Ethiopia in training peacekeeping forces as Ethiopia is the 2nd largest country in Africa to provide peacekeeping forces and the 6th in the world.
Yamamoto believes that the US hasn’t done enough to help Ethiopia. “We fear that we haven’t listened enough to what people want and in some cases that has got us in trouble, but now we want to listen to what the people want,” he said. He made it clear that he wants to focus on poverty reduction, modernizing and developing Ethiopia not to mention the education sector. He believes that as Ethiopia, is the top investment location for the US, export sectors such as flowers and livestock should be expanded further.

Donald Yamamoto was sworn in as US Ambassador to Ethiopia on November 9, 2006, and prior to his appointment, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs from 2003 to 2006. He also served as US Ambassador to Djibouti and Deputy Director for East African Affairs from 1998 to 2000.

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Al-amoudi haggles to buy CMC houses

By Tedla Yeneakal

The Capital

The Ethio-Saudi business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Al-amoudi is under negotiations with the Rental Houses Agency to buy houses in the CMC area in a new round of talks with officials of the agency. Both sides failed to reach an agreement on the terms of the purchase a two years ago.

The Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Al-amoudi
Photo: The Capital

Sources disclosed to Capital that Al-amoudi intends to buy the residential houses known as CMC to be used by the many foreign construction professionals that are making their way to the country, for the piazza tower project as well as to accommodate other workers that will be involved in the ongoing ventures of the Ethio-Saudi business tycoon.

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In mid- September last year the agency increased rental fees for houses in CMC by almost 100%. Disagreeing with the terms of increase many tenants have left their homes.

A two bedroom apartment in the area was previously being rented for 2,300 birr and has now been increased to 4,600 birr.

An official of the Rental Agency confirmed to Capital that he was aware of the negotiations that were underway but refrained from unveiling details.
CMC was built during the Derg regime for diplomatic homes. The present government gave the property to Rental Houses Agency to administer.
The agency has been renting the apartments for the last decade, mostly to diplomats for high rental fees.

In 2004, a Singapore based company involved in real estate development submitted a proposal to the office of the Prime Minister for the acquisition of the properties. The company submitted its proposal through the Ethiopian consulate in Singapore.

The company has also sent its consultants for a pre-feasibility study to evaluate the agency’s property but negotiations for the sale have not been finalized.

The Agency for Administrating Rented Houses merged with the Government Housing Agency to form the Rental Houses Agency six months ago.
The Administration for Rented Houses presently administers more than 3,000 houses including apartments and spacious villas that host embassies, governmental institutions, residential units and offices.

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Ethiopian, Lufthansa to strike partnership deal

By Groum Abate

The Capital

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ethiopian Airlines is going to sign a partnership agreement with Lufthansa next week.

The long awaited partnership on code sharing procedures has been negotiated by the two parties for a long time.
If the negotiations bear fruit, the two airlines would co-operate in many areas of the airline business, which they expect will make them more competitive.

As part of a bilateral cooperation, Lufthansa and Ethiopian Airlines will operate code share flights on several routes and also recognize the respective partner's frequent flyer programme.
According to their agreement the two airlines would exchange passengers on off routes.

Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise Chief Executive Officer Girma Wake, recently said that the airline would be privatized at some point and this partnership according to observers is a step forward.
Emirates and Gulf Air are becoming rivals for Ethiopian Airlines, sharing its West African business more, a route that used to be an Ethiopian Airlines monopoly.

Emirates and Gulf Air have an advantage over Ethiopian with their easy access to cheap fuel. Ethiopian however, buys fuel with hard earned foreign currency and could not compete with the two airlines.
Emirates and Gulf Air are also hiring Ethiopian Airlines staff for much better salaries.

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Lufthansa had a gross revenue of 18 billion Euros in the year 2005, and transported 51.3 million passengers. It earned an operating profit of 577 million euros in the year 2005.

Lufthansa is bilaterally co-operating with a range of quality airlines. According to the official website of Lufthansa, the cooperation enables the airline to offer their customers a maximum number and range of flights within the Lufthansa airline system.

Ethiopian Airlines has also appointed in May 2006, AVIAREPS to represent it in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela, Chile and Peru. The enterprise already relies on the airline representation specialist to serve the Belgian and Austrian market.

According to the financial report of Ethiopian Airlines, the airline secured net profit of 277 million birr in the year 2003, from a net profit of 79 million birr in the year 2002. For the period June to December 2005, Ethiopian recorded a 208 million birr profit before tax, registering a 19.9% increase in revenue at a time when many airlines around the world were filing for bankruptcy. The operating cost of the airline for the same period has shown an increase of 21.9% or 2.4 billion birr.

Ethiopian Airlines has become Africa’s biggest airline* 60 years after its foundation and it is still expanding. With the construction of a new
Cargo Terminal and the sales contract for ten Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets, which will be delivered from 2008 on, the carrier is getting prepared for a splendid future in air transport services both for passengers and for cargo. The African airline is the national flag carrier of Ethiopia and offers flights to Europe, America, Middle East and Asia.

Ethiopian Airlines operates a modern fleet of six Boeing 767-300 for long-haul flights, nine Boeing 737’s for medium-range flights and several Fokkers for the domestic routes. With the order for the ultramodern Boeing 787 jetliner the airline will become first operator in Africa of the new jet.

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Editor's Note
* As some visitors already indicated Ethiopian airlines is perhaps not the largest airliner in Africa. It is also not clear whether the comparison is based on fleet size, revenue, passengers etc. According to Wikipedia Ethiopian Airlines ranks 5th in Africa based on passengers

1. South African Airways 6,500,000
2. EgyptAir 6,500,000
3. Royal Air Maroc 3 252 490
4. Kenya Airways 2,400,000
5. Ethiopian 1,500,000
Source: Wikipedia

Ethiopia's foreign minister meets Somali president in Mogadishu

AFP Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin has become the first senior Ethiopian official to travel to Mogadishu since the toppling of its former hardline Islamist rulers as he held talks with top officials.

File Photo: AFP Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin speaks at a meeting in Khartoum, January 2003

Seyoum met with interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed at the presidential palace Monday, a fortnight after he took up residence at the Villa Somalia, and had other meetings scheduled.

"They discussed bilateral relations, regional security and the current political situation in Somalia," said a senior Somali government official on condition of anonymity.

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"The transitional government is grateful to the government and people of Ethiopia for the sacrifices they made in order to make Somalia a peaceful place where no regional religious extremist could organise themselves."

While Yusuf's transitional government was founded in 2004, it had only been able to operate out of a provincial backwater until intervention from the Ethiopian army led to the toppling of the Islamists on December 28.

The presence of troops from Ethiopia, a traditional enemy of Somalia, has angered many in Mogadishu.

Ethiopia troops again came under fire Monday while conducting searches in the volatile south of the capital, with residents saying that at least four civilians were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

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Witnesses: Ethiopia Troops Kill 3 People

MOGADISHU, Jan. 22, 2007
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer

Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's fledgling government killed three civilians early Monday, while a top leader of Somalia's Islamic movement turned himself over to authorities in Kenya, a witness and official said.

The troops were firing at several gunmen who were trying to hide in a house in the Hurwa district, said Mustaf Hassan Ali, who witnessed the shooting. He said the victims were not the gunmen but civilians in the home.

"The Ethiopians fired at the civilians when unknown gunmen sought refuge in their house," Ali said.

Ethiopian troops have come under fire frequently in recent days in the Hurwa district, which is considered a hotbed of sympathizers for Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts. The radical group was driven out of the capital and much of southern Somalia last month with the help of powerful troops from neighboring Ethiopia.

In neighboring Kenya, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed crossed the Somali border and was flown immediately to Nairobi, a Kenyan security official said on condition of anonymity because the operation was supposed to be secret. Ahmed was under U.S. protection at a top hotel, a Somali official said, also asking for anonymity for the same reason.

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Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed surrenders in Kenya

Special Section: Somalia

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment.

Ahmed was apparently afraid for his life following his decision to leave Somalia, where his Council of Islamic Courts is being hunted by Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces.

U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger has repeatedly said Ahmed is a moderate Islamic leader whom the U.S. thinks should be part of a national reconciliation process in Somalia. Ahmed was the chairman of the Executive Council of Islamic Courts and shared the leadership with Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was chairman of the court's legislative council.

On Saturday, gunmen fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at an Ethiopian convoy in Hurwa district, but missed. The Ethiopians responded with heavy weapons, killing four bystanders, witnesses and medical officials said.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictator and turned on each other. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but was weakened by internal rifts.

The intervention of Ethiopia prompted a military advance that was a stunning turnaround for the administration, which is trying to assert control in this battle-scarred country. But the potential for violence remains great because of traditional clan rivalries and a threat of guerrilla war from remnants of the Islamic movement.

Many Somalis also resent the Ethiopians' presence. Somalia, a Muslim country, and Ethiopia, with its large Christian population, fought a brutal war in 1977.

On Sunday, Somalia's government spokesman said Kenya has handed over 34 Islamic militiamen, and that some of them may be senior leaders of the Islamic movement.

Kenyan border patrols arrested the men in the past few weeks, said Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman. He said the government is investigating the identities of the men and will soon make the details public.

The government has invited African peacekeepers to help provide security in Somalia, but they are unlikely to come if fighting continues. African Union officials approved an 8,000-peacekeeper mission on Friday.

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Statement of the Union of Oromo Students in Germany (UOSG): Request for assistances to protect Oromo refugees in Somalia

January 19, 2007 (Germanyt) - The UOSG is founded in 1975 as one of Oromo mass organizations in exile to support the struggle of Oromo people for justice, peace, freedom, democracy, and stability. The struggle of the Oromo people has its root in its resistance to political dominations and economic exploitations by successive regimes in Ethiopia: it is not directed against any people but against the system of oppression. Since its foundation the UOSG has been committed to bring the voices of Oromo people to the attention of the international communities and the democratic governments mainly via the following major activities: organizing peaceful demonstrations, conducting annual seminars, writing appeal letters, publishing annual bulletin, etc. Unfortunately the genuine voice of Oromo people has been silenced by rules of gun under successive tyrannical governances of Ethiopia for more than a century. The UOSG is one of the Oromo people’s mass organizations that have been evolved out of the suppressed voices of the Oromo people.

The UOSG respectfully request for the assistances of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFGS) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in particular and the international communities in general to protect the help less and innocent Oromo refugees in Somalia who are without voices. The Oromo refugee in Somalia in particular and anywhere else in Africa and across the globe in general have been managed under difficult conditions to escape from the widespread human rights violations practices of the Ethiopian government lead by the Tigray People Liberation Front /Marxist Leninist League of Tigray (TPLF/MLLT) that known by its fake name Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

The unpopular government of Prime Minster Meles Zenawi lead by his political front (party), the TPLF/MLLT, has been not committed to minimize human rights violations perpetrated by its security forces against the innocent Oromo civilians across Oromia federal state since 1992. This wide spread human rights violations across Oromia is unhidden facts from the eyes of the international communities, international financial institutes, and developed countries who are reluctant to assess their polices of assisting the tribal political monopoly of the dictator Prime Minster who is not different from his predecessors in formulating and implementing policies that marginalize the Oromo people from meaningful political, social, and economic empowerments. The TPLF/MLLT regime has been systematically manipulating its monopoly of tribal military and political powers to silence the voices of Oromo people. The regime ill political attitude towards the Oromo people and majority of Ethiopian peoples is very dangerous for the stability and positive coexistences of highly diversified peoples of Ethiopia.

The TPLF/MLLT regime is manipulating its full control of military and police forces, security offices, and ministry of justices in order to routinely accomplish harassment, torture, disappearance, and extra judicial killings of innocent civilians across Oromia federal state and major parts of Ethiopia to guard its brutal governance. Seasonal and annual Human Rights Violations records in Ethiopia that have been released in the forms of statements, appeal letters, or reports by credible international human rights defenders (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Society for Threatened Peoples, etc) and local human rights groups (Oromia Support Group, Ethiopian Human Rights Council or League, Anuak Justice Council, Sidama Concern, Oromia Human Rights and Relief Organization, Ogaden humanitarian Association etc) are the best indicators of the increased degrees of human rights violations practices of the regime’s security apparatus.

The TPLF/MLLT security apparatus have been intensified all kinds of repressions against all segments of the Oromo society in fashion of cold war since 1992. This is the major factor that have been driven tens of thousands of Oromo people from their home land (Oromia) and forced them to seek refugee in the neighboring countries where they hope to live under protection provided to them based on Article 33 of the Convention of the Status of Refugees, 1951. However Oromo refugees residing in Djibouti, Somalia, the Sudan, South Africa, and Yemen have been victims of cross border activities of the security forces of Ethiopian regime that operate underground through its diplomatic institutes. In December, 2005 the security agent of the regime has killed 25 Oromo refugees residing under the protectorate of Kenyan government and the UNHCR. This was not the only incident, however the killings, kidnappings, and harassments of defense less Oromo refugees in countries neighboring Ethiopia by the security forces of the TPLF/MLLT regime have been going on for the past 15 years and it will continue for unknown periods of time.

Currently the fate of Oromo refugees in Somalia is not an isolated affair. Somalia is home of hundreds of thousands of Oromo refugees who escaped the atrocities of successive Ethiopian regimes since the half of the 20th century. The UOSG has learned from different media sources that unknown numbers of Oromo refugees across Somalia have been harassed and detained either by the solders of the TFGS or by the armies of the TPLF/MLLT regime. The UOSG worried that the harassments, imprisonments, torturing, disappearance, or killings of defense less innocent Oromo refugees across Somalia since January 2007 could be complicated by the joint operations carried out by the TFGS and the TPLF/MLLT regime to restore peace and stability in Somalia. However the Ethiopian government lead by the TPLF/MLLT has no respect for International Human Rights Covenants and Treaties it ratified: and it is not concerned about rules of law and basic human rights protection. Thus Oromo refugees across Somalia are exposed to either disappearance or extra judicial killing practices of the TPLF/MLLT security forces if the TFGS will be reluctant to give necessary protection to Oromo refugees in Somalia according to international legal norms. Either illegal repatriation of Oromo refugees from Somalia to Ethiopia or the harassment and detentions of Oromo refugee in Somalia by the TPLF/MLLT armies are the grave violations of international laws.

Therefore, the UOSG kindly appeal to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, the UNHCR, the international communities, and the governments of developed countries:

1. To assist the immediate release of Oromo refugees detained across Somalia;
2. To assist in establishment of an independent Human rights committee that investigates cross border human rights violations perpetrated by the TPLF/MLLT security agents against Oromo refugees in Somalia;
3. To assist in implementation of special strategies to protect Oromo refugee in Somalia from ill treatments perpetrated by the TPLF/MLLT security agents that could be shadowed by complex conflicts in Somalia in particular and in the Horn of African sub region in general.

With great regards,



Executive committee of the Union of Oromo Students in Germany

January 19, 2007

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed surrenders in Kenya

Key Somali Islamist surrenders in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A top leader of Somalia's ousted Islamic movement seen by the U.S. as a potential key to preventing a widespread insurgency there surrendered to authorities and is under protection in Nairobi, officials said Monday.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who has been described by a U.S. diplomat as a moderate who could play a role in reconciling Somali factions, crossed into Kenya, went to a police station along the border on Sunday and was flown to Nairobi, according to a police report.

The U.S. said it was not involved in protecting Ahmed, who apparently feared for his life in Somalia, where the remnants of his Council of Islamic Courts are being hunted by Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces.

"The U.S. government is not holding or interrogating Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and was not involved in his capture or surrender," a U.S. Embassy official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger has repeatedly said Ahmed is a moderate Islamic leader who should be part of a national reconciliation process in Somalia.

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Ahmed was the chairman of the Executive Council of Islamic Courts and shared the leadership with the Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was chairman of the court's legislative council. While Ahmed is considered a moderate, Aweys is on a U.S. list of people with suspected ties to the al Qaeda terror network, though he has repeatedly denied having links to international terrorists.

If Ahmed agrees to hold talks with Somalia's government, it could be a major step toward preventing the widespread insurgency that many Islamic leaders have promised in Somalia.

Somali troops, with crucial aid from neighboring Ethiopia, drove the Council of Islamic Courts out of the capital and much of southern Somalia last month. But violence has been breaking out because of traditional clan rivalries and resentment among Somalis over the presence of Ethiopia.

Somalia, a Muslim country, and Ethiopia, with its large Christian population, fought a brutal war in 1977.

On Sunday, Somalia's government spokesman, Abdirahman Dinari, said Kenya has handed over 34 Islamic militiamen, and that some may be senior leaders of the Islamic movement.

Also Monday, Ethiopian troops killed three civilians in an area where Ethiopian forces have been attacked in recent days, a witness said.

The troops were firing at several gunmen who were trying to hide in a house in the Hurwa district, said Mustaf Hassan Ali, who saw the shooting in the neighborhood, considered a hotbed of sympathizers for the Islamic movement.

"The Ethiopians fired at the civilians when unknown gunmen sought refuge in their house," Ali said.

The government has invited African peacekeepers to help provide security in Somalia, but they are unlikely to come if fighting continues. African Union officials approved an 8,000-peacekeeper mission on Friday.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictator and turned on each other. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but was weakened by internal rifts.

The intervention of Ethiopia prompted a military advance that was a stunning turnaround for the administration, which is struggling to assert control in this chaotic country.

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Row At Football Federation

The Reporter

January 20, 2007


Addis Ababa, Ethiopia A row broke out recently between the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF), the national team coach Diego Garziatto and his deputy Raoul Savoy over salary payment.

Garziatto told journalists that he and his assistant coach signed a two-year contract and came to Ethiopia in November but so far he received a one-month salary and did not get the copy of his contract. But the federation denied this accusation and said that it paid the head coach his salary.

At a press conference held at Juventus Club last week, the two coaches said that although they signed the two-year contract and commenced training since November 13, 2006, they were not able to receive the copy.

Regarding the CECAFA cup held in Addis for eastern and central Africa in late November, Garziatto said that his mission was to take the national team to the next Cup of African Nations but the regional tournament was an opportunity to acquaint themselves with team members.

Special Section: Ethiopian Football News

Although Ethiopia was eliminated at the semis by eventual cup winners Zambia, the game was useful to assess the strength and weaknesses of the national team, according to the coach. "We were also able to see that the team lacks competent goalkeeper and forwards.

According to the coach, the tournament calendar that he presented to the federation technical committee has not been implemented properly.

Gariziatto also complained that during the Christmas and New Year break, he and his assistant were recalled in the middle of their vacation. But when they came back to start training, they were told that nothing was going on according to schedule.

"No one was willing to speak to us. And we learned that we were practicaly fired," the coaches said.

Garziatto then said he was compelled to hire a lawyer and demand that he received his copy of the employment contract.

He pointed out that he repeatedly requested federation officials that they give him the contract but there was no response.

"The federation didn't officially terminate our contract. But so far, we received only a one-month salary," the two coaches said.

As a head coach, Garziatto receives USD 5,000 while his assistant, Savoy, get USD 3,000.

The federation president, Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis, however, said that the coaches' salaries were paid in time, and the federation even paid for the air tickets when the coaches went home for vacation.

Regarding the copy of the employment contract, Dr. Ashebir pointed out that the contract states that the federation can terminate the contract if the national team loses three games. Despite that, the federation has not terminated the contract, according to the president.

Dr. Ashebir also noted that the federation is contemplating to take the matter to FIFA and cannot divulge any more information at this stage.

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Ministry and Petronas to Sign Gas Development Agreement

By Kaleyesus Bekele
The Reporter

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), on Thursday, disclosed its plan to sign Petroleum Development Agreement (PDA) with the Malaysian oil and gas company, Petronas, in March this year after a series of negotiations that began in July 2006.

Petronas has won the Calub and Hilala gasfields development tender put up by the Ministry. Minister Alemayehu Tegenu told the House of Peoples' Representatives that Petronas presented a proposal for the gas development project. Alemayehu said the company proposed to transport the gas to a sea port and to export it by ship.

Petroleum Development Agreement (PDA) and Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), gas transport, and gas processing are the three major components of the project proposal. Petronas has presented a draft agreement document and memorandum of understanding on the three components of the project proposal.

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Special Section: Energy and Mining

Since last July Officials of MME and Petronas have held three rounds of negotiations in Addis Ababa and Kuala Lumpur. Alemayehu said the parties have agreed on most of the issues adding they planned to sign the agreement next March. The agreement would enable the company to extract and sell the gas reserve found in Calub and Hilala localities in the Ogaden basin. Petronas is prospecting for oil in other three areas in Ogaden and also in the Gambella region, western Ethiopia.

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