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Lantos Addresses Erroneous Reports About Legislation on Ethiopia
Source:
United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs
To correct erroneous reports about the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Accountability Act (H.R. 2003), Chairman Tom Lantos of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued this statement today:
"The full committee did not consider the measure at today's markup because I wanted to give Ethiopia's elders, government officials, courts and opposition leaders an opportunity to work out a pardon arrangement for the more than 30 remaining political detainees. Late last week I notified other members of Congress, including the House leadership, of my decision. I continue to be concerned about the detainees, and hope for their release soon.
"This bill will not be considered by the full committee for now, but this does not mean the matter of progress in political and other rights in Ethiopia is closed. The United States relationship with Ethiopia will continue to be conditioned on Ethiopian support for human rights and the rule of law. We will continue to hold the Ethiopian government accountable for the way it treats its citizens."
Lantos is the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
CONTACT: Lynne Weil of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
+1-202-225-5021
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U.S.-Ethiopia: A Double-Edged Partnership
July 31, 2007
Prepared by: Stephanie Hanson
Council On Foreign Relations
After Ethiopia’s December invasion of Somalia to vanquish Islamic militants, many observers labeled Addis Ababa a proxy of the United States, and a few even called it a “puppet” (Guardian). Both labels implied the United States was an unseemly ally. Now, after the Ethiopian government’s recent attempt to put dozens of opposition politicians to death and reports of military abuse of civilians (HRW), Washington may be starting to balk at its close relationship with Addis Ababa (AP).
Read Complete Analysis on CFR website
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Ethiopia - Elders Play Major Role in Recent Ethiopian Pardons
By Joe De Capua
Washington
31 July 2007
VOA News
Listen to De Capua report on elders mp3 audio clip
On July 20th, the Ethiopian government announced the pardons of 38 opposition leaders and activists, many of whom had been sentenced to life in prison. They had been convicted in connection with political violence that erupted after the 2005 parliamentary elections. The pardons may be an example of African solutions to African problems. Ethiopian elders were at the heart of negotiations.
Dr. Ephraim Isaac – an expert on Ethiopian history, near eastern studies and religion – is the leader of the elders.
“I belong to a coalition of elders, whose roots go back to around 1988, 1989, during the period of the civil war in Ethiopia. A group of elders at that time had been assembled to try to create some kind of forum for the various conflicting parties,” he says.
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The elders’ coalition eventually became the Peace and Development Committee of which Ephraim is now chairman of the board. He says elders were involved early on in the cases of those arrested.
“We are watching to see if there’s any conflict arising between any groups or government. So, whenever there’s such a problem we approach. We write a letter or we’ll call and say we would like to be helpful. So it was our own initiative,” he says.
He says about five months ago, there was a chance to settle all the cases before anyone went to trial.
“Before the courts were at all involved, the government did come to a position where they would be willing to withdraw the case. There would be no court process. But while we were trying to mediate and facilitate the agreement time passed and then the judge felt they had to keep moving forward. So then the judge got involved in it, and then once the judge got involved in it then the government could no longer do what was originally promised to us, which is to withdraw the case,” says Ephraim.
Once the defendants were sentenced, he says, the elders were free to once again negotiate with the government about releasing the detainees. The detainees eventually signed a document accepting some of the blame for the post-election violence.
During the trials, many of the defendants called the case against them a politically motivated charade. As a result, many refused to present a legal defense despite court orders to do so.
“No document is acceptable to both sides. We had to shuttle back and forth to look at the document and see what words are acceptable to the government and what words are acceptable to the detainees. And that really required a lot of skill and a lot of elders participating" he says.
Dr. Hailesslassie Belay is another of the elders who took part in the negotiations.
“The wording was very, very difficult because what the detainees wanted the government did not want. This was a very big problem,” he says.
The former UN official and first director of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia says outside pressure did not help matters.
“The United States, the Europeans, especially the Europeans, were trying to use pressure and force to press the government to release them altogether. The government did not want to accept this kind of thing. They considered it a sort of colonialism,” says Belay.
Ephraim Isaac says the pardons stem from Ethiopian tradition.
“We were operating, you see, on the basis that in our tradition, we have many, many examples of people in conflict coming to some agreement because they respect the concept of spiritual forgiveness. Ethiopians are a very spiritual people,” he says.
He says that most Ethiopians feel that people who ask for forgiveness are heroes and those who forgive are saints.
The US State Department praised the work of the elders. It also commended the Ethiopian government for its statesmanship and the detainees for their commitment to advancing democracy.
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Ethiopia - Ethiopian Airlines negotiates MD-11 conversions
Air Cargo News
ETHIOPIAN Airlines has purchased one MD-11 from Boeing for conversion. The aircraft will be delivered to Ethiopian in December 2008.
Ethiopian is also negotiating for a second converted MD-11 freighter aircraft on a lease basis scheduled for delivery at the end of 2009. Ethiopian currently operates two B757 freighters.
“Currently, the Ethiopian export market is exhibiting a dramatic annual average growth rate and ET’s total international freight traffic uplift has been increasing at 12.03 per cent annually. The addition of these two freighter aircraft will bolster cargo capacity of the airline supporting the increasing export market of the country.”
Watch Interview Clips with Ethiopian Airlines CEO Ato Girma Wake
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Ethiopian Cargo provides services to and from various points in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Ethiopian operates eight times per week en route Brussels, the airlines cargo hub in Europe; five times a week to Dubai; four times to Djibouti; three times to Mumbai; two times to Lagos; Kinshasa and flies weekly to Bujumbura, N'djamena, Jeddah and Kigali, in addition to belly-hold cargo space on scheduled passenger services.
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July 26 - Ethiopian and BCC Sign Deal for MD-11 Freighter Aircraft
Ethiopian Airlines P&R
Ethiopian Airlines has signed an agreement with Boeing Capital Corporation (BCC) for the purchase of one MD-11 freighter aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines Chief Operating Officer, Ato Tewolde G. Mariam and Boeing Capital Corporation, Senior Director Mr. Christopher M. Cooked signed the agreement on July 12, 2007.
The MD-11, which at the moment is in a passenger configuration, will soon be converted to freighter with a capacity of 88 tons of cargo. The aircraft will be delivered to Ethiopian in January 2009. Ethiopian is also negotiating for a second converted MD-11 freighter aircraft on lease basis for the delivery at the end of 2009. Ethiopian now owns two 757 freighter aircraft.
Currently, the Ethiopian export market is exhibiting a dramatic annual average growth rate and ET’s total international freight traffic uplift has been increasing at 12.03% annually. The addition of these two freighter aircraft will bolster cargo capacity of the airline supporting the increasing export market of the country.
Ethiopian Cargo provides fast, reliable, safe, competitive air cargo services to/from various points in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Ethiopian operates eight times per week Brussels, the Ethiopian cargo hub in Europe; five times a week to Dubai; four times to Djibouti; three times to Mumbai; two times to Lagos; Kinshasa and flies weekly to Bujumbura, N’djamena, Jeddah and Kigali in addition to belly-hold cargo space on scheduled passenger services.
Ethiopian Airlines recently inaugurated a new cargo terminal in line with its strategic plan to make Addis Ababa a cargo regional hub and to meet the expanding cargo operation as well as in response to the growing export market of Ethiopia.
About Ethiopian
Ethiopian Airlines recently won the 2007 Africa Business Award of The African Times - USA for its significant contributions towards the development of air transport in Africa. In September 2006 it was awarded “African Airline of the Year” for the year 2006 by African Aviation Journal for its financial performance and overall profitability, passenger growth, route network expansion, fleet modernization, in-flight services and over all customer care.
One of the largest airline in Africa, Ethiopian – www.ethiopianairlines.com – made its maiden flight to Cairo on April 08, 1946. With the addition of new flight services to Bahrain, Sana’a, Abu Dhabi, Ethiopian currently provides services to 50 destinations spread around the globe.
African Aviation technology leader, Ethiopian Airline has placed an order for ten 787 Dreamliner – a revolutionary aircraft with unprecedented passenger comfort. The first two of these aircraft will be delivered in September and November of 2008, making Ethiopian the first to operate the 787 in Africa.
PR & Publications
July 26, 2007
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Ethiopians suffer under government corruption
By Dean Jacobs/Letters to America
Fremont Tribune
Our conversation stops as silent eyes glance to the knock that came from the door, a student appears to ask a question and leaves.
Talking about politics is a dangerous undertaking in Ethiopia.
Those who are willing to speak about such things, only do so under the agreement of remaining anonymous. Stories of people being harassed by the federal police are common. It generally starts with a warning phone call about a comment or activity that they call into question.
A newspaper publisher tells me about an opinion column he runs in his business newspaper. He heard once on a BBC TV interview with the current Ethiopia president that he doesn't plan to run again, and he shared that statement in his newspaper. He was called about it, and warned to write only about business, not politics, even though that decision would affect business.
After the student leaves, my office companion, whom I will call David says: “Did you see the marks on his eyebrows, that means he comes from the Tigrai region where the president is from.”
This communicates a potential loyalty to the current government.
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Elections in 2005 were marked with irregularities, according to international officials observing the process. The irregularities are thought to be changed ballots or switched ballot boxes.
After the election, the word got out that the sitting government rigged the election.
“It was so obvious that everyone knew,” so students began to demonstrate peacefully, David says.
Another knock on the door, and our conversation once again stops. This time it is a student David wants me to meet.
“She's very clever and understands what is happening,” he says.
This student, whom I will call Tigist, shares some of her thoughts about the current situation.
“The people are frustrated, and because it is not safe to express one's opinion, they continue to swallow those frustrations. But one day, people will not be able to swallow any more, and we will explode like a volcano,” Tigist says.
When asked about the timing of that explosion, she pauses and says, “the economic situation is not good in Ethiopia. The inflation is running high, and if it continues, people will no longer be able to afford basic food. I feel it will happen sooner rather than later.”
Those peaceful demonstrations turned deadly as federal police opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing 22. People do demonstrate now, but only when the international press is around because the demonstrators know the federal police will not take action in front of international media, at gatherings like major football matches or running races where large groups make it hard to single out one person.
The opposition has a symbol, the peace sign that people in the U.S. would recognize from the 1960s.
“Once I was waving down a taxi using the same two fingers to let the taxi know there was two of us,” says David, “a federal policeman saw me, ran over and started beating me. I had a hard time explaining I was just trying to wave down a taxi.”
The people of Ethiopia are frustrated with the U.S. government. Many have family or friends in the United States, so it is hard to be critical of a place they feel connected to.
“But the U.S. government is supporting the corrupt government of Ethiopia, and that is bringing a larger suffering to the majority of the Ethiopian people as a whole,” David says.
People are just surviving, according to Tigist, and waiting for the next elections.
“I don't think there will be an election. Those who want to run are in prison. What ever you call the opposite of Democracy, that is what we currently have in Ethiopia,” David says.
Dean Jacobs is a former Fremont Tribune photographer and a world traveler. Follow his latest journey each Monday in the Tribune.
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Ethiopia treason suspects "acted within law"
ADDIS ABABA, July 31 (Reuters) - A U.N. elections consultant told an Ethiopian treason trial on Tuesday two anti-poverty activists charged with trying to overthrow the government had been acting within the law.
Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last defendants out of 131 originally charged in the proceedings that followed post-election violence in 2005 which a parliamentary inquiry said killed 199 civilians and police, and resulted in 30,000 arrests.
The defendants were involved in deploying observers at polling stations in and around the capital Addis Ababa.
Most of those originally charged were freed on July 20 after the government published a letter it said opposition leaders had signed admitting their guilt and repenting.
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Defence lawyers say Bekele and Netsanet, who work for ActionAid Ethiopia and the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia respectively, refused to sign and want to be acquitted.
The case has been criticised by human rights groups and donors, who complained that it was an attempt to dismantle the opposition after it made strong gains in elections.
Richard Morgan Chambers, who was assigned by the United Nations to advise the then-chairman of Ethiopia's election board, testified the pair had "performed in accordance with the constitution and the legal framework of the country".
Chambers, who was appearing as a defence witness, said the defendants had provided him with "extremely helpful" analysis.
"Their report on the election was balanced and contained the negative and positive aspects. They performed an impressive job as election observers despite the difficult situation," he said.
The trial was later adjourned to Wednesday afternoon.
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ETHIOPIA: Female circumcision declines in southern region
ADDIS ABABA, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) - The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia's Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties were enforced, an NGO leader said.
"Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo," said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women's Self-Help Centre, a local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones.
According to official statistics, FGM/C prevalence in the state decreased from 80 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in 2005. Bogaletch said this could improve with legal reform.
"The law in our country is very weak and not a deterrent," she said. "When this happens, people are not afraid of breaking it. My life as a woman is not worth more than 500 Birr [US$55]."
Under the Ethiopian Penal Code, FGM/C carries a punishment of imprisonment of not less than three months or a fine of not less than 500 Birr.
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"Ethiopia is a signatory to many international laws, but has not yet ratified the Maputo protocol," she told IRIN in the capital, Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of an African consultative meeting on FGM/C.
The Maputo Protocol came into force in November 2005 and is an African initiative that prohibits and condemns FGM/C. As a result, 16 African countries have banned the practice.
The consultative meeting heard that the occurrence of FGM has reduced in several other African countries.
"Prevalence decline is visible in countries like Kenya, Eritrea, Mali and Nigeria where anti-FGM/C interventions have been going for some years," said Fama Hane Ba, African Division Director at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). "This is good news."
FGM/C, which involves the partial or total removal or injury to the female genitalia, is practised as a deterrent to promiscuity in some African communities.
Hane Ba said the majority of women at risk are in 28 African countries. "An estimated 120 to 140 million women and girls have also been subjected to the FGM/C practice throughout the world," she said.
She added: "It is encouraging to note that many organisations are implementing innovative programmatic strategies combining law enforcement and culturally sensitive approaches to sustain behavioural change."
Community dialogue, alternative rites of passage ceremonies, role modelling by families and consensus-building among communities were cited as achieving positive results in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Egypt.
"Community dialogue uses a wide range of participatory methodologies and culturally sensitive advocacy strategies, such as story-telling, active listening and strategic questioning to generate a deep and complex understanding of the nature of FGM/C," Hane Ba said. "Through this process, many communities are saying 'no' to FGM/C."
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Ethiopia - Eritrea :
'Warring' Ethiopians, Eritreans unite in Valletta church
Times of Malta
Rosanne Zammit
Walking near the top of Merchants Street, in Valletta, on a Sunday morning one is bound to be drawn to St Catherine of Italy church by the sound of voices singing in unison.
Many stop to watch and listen. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Coptic Orthodox congregation claps as it sings, bodies swaying and arms raised in praise of the Lord.
Those who enter remove their shoes, kneel, make the sign of the cross and bow in worship, before sitting.
Song dominates the two-and-half-hour long service during which it is evident the participants are enjoying the ceremony.
When the service comes to an end, the congregation stands and forms a line going up to a makeshift altar where each kisses, kneels and prays in front of a number of framed holy images before going on to a priest holding a Coptic across which they kiss before the priest touches their forehead with it.
The congregation is made up of illegal immigrants who, on being released from detention, asked the director of the Emigrants Commission, Mgr Philip Calleja, for a place of worship where they could celebrate Sunday Mass.
Eritrean Manuel Fissanaye said that, initially, arrangements were made for them to use the Greek church, in Valletta. This was about a year ago when the congregation numbered 26. But after about three months, the congregation grew to over 200 and Mgr Calleja's assistance was sought once more for a bigger place to be provided.
The Coptic Orthodox have since been meeting at St Catherine of Italy church every Sunday at 8 a.m.
The service is partly in Ethiopian and partly in Eritrean. Although war rages between the two countries, the Ethiopians and Eritreans here are friends and blame the war on their governments.
"We have the same skin colour, the same culture, the same religion, we have intermarriages - we are one people," Mr Fissanaye said, adding that the service was carried out in both languages so that everyone would feel included and able to take part.
Asked about his problems in Malta, away from family and friends, Mr Fissanaye said he left his home country after graduating from university in search of a better life to support his family. He ended up here working as a labourer, unable to make use of his academic training.
"But everyone has problems. It is useless complaining and saying I have a problem. I accepted the situation and adapted to it."
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His Ethiopian friend, Ashenafi Bulto said that sometimes people found it difficult to understand that everyone was a person, irrespective of one's skin colour and origins and should be respected as such.
The Coptic Orthodox Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches. The Coptic Church, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, regards itself as a strong defendant of Christian faith.
Daily, in all Coptic Churches around the world, Copts pray for the reunion of all Christian Churches. They pray for world peace and the well-being of the human race.
While the roots of the Church are based in Egypt, it has a worldwide following
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Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Monday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Ethiopia should strengthen cooperation in agriculture and irrigation development sectors.
During talks with King Yong Nam, president of DPRK's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Meles said the two countries should bring their relations to a higher level.
The Ethiopian prime minister expressed readiness of his government to enhance cooperation with the DPRK in various sectors.
Kim for his part said Ethiopia plays a key role in building peace, security and stability in the Horn of Africa.
The DPRK second-most senior leader arrived here Friday for a four-day official visit.
Kim invited Meles to visit the DPRK and Meles accepted this invitation, said an Ethiopian official, who attended the talks.
They also agreed to keep the momentum of high level exchange visits between the two countries, the Ethiopian official said.
He said Kim's visit is to have a greater role in strengthening people-to-people as well as bilateral relations between the two sisterly countries
Source: Xinhua
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U.S. Congressman Donald Payne, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, has called on the United States to keep up the pressure on the Ethiopian government.
“There are hundreds of more political prisoners, and the United States needs to keep pressure on Ethiopia as we would on any other country that’s our ally and friend, to tell them that they must respect the rights of their people. We cannot go back to the days of the Cold War where we supported totalitarian governments just because they were on our side because in the long run you lose,” he said.
Listen to VOA Interview with Donald Payne
More on VOA news
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UN: Ethiopia, Eritrea still a concern
By JUSTIN BERGMAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jul 30, 7:18 PM ET
The U.N. Security Council said Monday the lack of progress on resolving the divisive border issue between Ethiopia and Eritrea remained a cause of "deep concern" and called on both countries to immediately withdraw their troops from the frontier.
The 15-member body voted unanimously to extend the 1,700-member peacekeeping mission in the tense buffer zone between the countries for another six months.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war, but the border between the countries was never officially demarcated. Another war broke out from 1998-2000, killing tens of thousands, and tensions have occasionally flared since then.
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In an apparent breakthrough last month, Ethiopia agreed to accept an international boundary commission's ruling on the border dispute, which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea. But Eritrea dismissed the move, saying Ethiopia had attached conditions to the decision.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi then told parliament that he was building up the army's capabilities because he fears an imminent attack by Eritrea. He also accused his neighbor of arming rebel groups inside his country.
In its resolution Monday, the Security Council demanded that Eritrea withdraw its troops and heavy military equipment from the buffer zone and Ethiopia reduce the number of additional military forces it has recently sent to areas next to the zone.
It also called on both sides to "show maximum restraint and refrain from any threat or use of force against each other."
The resolution welcomed the pledge by Ethiopia to accept the border commission's 2002 ruling, but demanded the country take "concrete steps" to enable the commission to demarcate the border as quickly as possible.
A 2005 U.N. resolution called for a 620-mile buffer zone between the two countries, but in the past year Eritrean forces have moved into the zone and have stymied efforts by U.N. peacekeepers to monitor the area. The Security Council has repeatedly called for Eritrea to lift its restrictions, including its ban on U.N. helicopter flights and night patrols.
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Ethiopia - Chinese Company to Construct First Private Industrial Zone
Addis Fortune
July 31, 2007
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Chinese Jiangsu Qiyaan Investment Group is to construct the first private industrial zone in Dukem, Oromia Regional State, on five square kilometre leased plot. A steering committee headed by Girma Biru, minister of Trade and Industry, was created to support the company on request by the Prime Minister’s Office.
"Jiangsu plans to attract 80 Chinese companies once its 500 million dollar project is completed" Addis Fortune
Also included in the committee are Muktar Kedir, vice president of the Oromia Regional State; Abi Woldemeskel, director general of Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA); Mihiret Debebe, general manager of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), Amare Amsalu, general manager of Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC); Zaid Woldegebriel, general manager of the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA); and an official from Jiangsu.
Named after a Chinese town, Jiangsu, has been managing its own industrial zone in China for the last 30 years. Experts drawn from the Oromia Regional State and the federal government are scheduled to pay a working visit to the industrial village of the company in China.
Jinagsu’s communication with the Prime Minister’s Office concerning the industrial zone construction bore fruit as the PM has delegated the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) to facilitate ways in which the stated industrial lot will be arranged and handed over to the company. In accordance with its responsibility, the Ministry brought its plot request to the Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration (AACCA).
Wubishet Berhanu (PhD), general manager of the city, however, replied to the request stating in its letter that such a vast plot is unavailable in the metropolis. The Ministry, thereafter, looked into granting land around Adama (Nazaret) but the company was after a location closer to Addis Abeba. Subsequently, the parties managed to agree on the plot in Dukem, Oromia Regional State, 37Km east of the national capital.
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Jinagsu’s ‘Eastern Industry Zone’ will be ready for local and foreign investment in textile and garment, leather and leather product, construction machineries and steel manufacturing sectors. Moreover, banking services and offices of the Ethiopian Customs Authority and Quality and Standards Authority will be opened in the industrial compound.
Girma told Fortune Jiangsu plans to attract 80 Chinese companies once its 500 million dollar project is completed.
Until the finalisation of this project, the PM will be briefed with reports every month as to its progress.
An official at MoTI told Fortune this project would be given utmost support as it encompasses industries the government is actively supporting under its plan to encurage agro-processing and other infant industries.
Amidst this discourse, there are still points of division between the company and the committee which are yet to be agreed upon.
The committee declined to accept one of the company’s demands of transporting machineries to the project site using its own heavy trucks as this is only reserved only for local transporters. The other request, which was denied, is the foreign exchange demand of the company for its various procurements. As the country is short of foreign currencies, the company has been told to use its own sources of foreign currency.
If this negotiation is finalised in the coming two months, the handing over of the area would take place after paying compensation to the farmers that would be evicted from the specified area, an official from the Regional State told Fortune.
A Chinese company will handle the construction works of the first privately owned industrial zone. Though various industrial zones have been designated and fenced in cities, there are still shortcomings in handing them over to investors as major infrastructure facilities - road, water and power - have not been installed in them. In an evaluation made by MoTI six months ago, Addis Abeba and Oromia were found to be weaker in actively working towards their realisation, although the latter has recently shown modest improvement, a source at the MoTI told Fortune.
However, industrial zones in Addis Abeba, which are fenced, still have not been handed over to investors. Although over 1,000 investors requested industrial plots in the past two years, not even one of them could get the land. One of these investors told Fortune that the coming of the Chinese company to develop the industrial zone would solve their problem.
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Security Council extends UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
UN News Center
The Security Council today agreed to extend the mandate by six months of the United Nations peacekeeping mission monitoring the ceasefire that ended the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2000, voicing concern about the ongoing tensions between the two African neighbours.
In a unanimous resolution, Council members said repeated violations by both sides of the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) along the border, and continued delays in the demarcation of that border, were creating a “potentially unstable security situation.”
The resolution called on Eritrea to immediately withdraw its troops and heavy military equipment from the TSZ and on Ethiopia to reduce the number of additional military forces recently introduced in areas next to the TSZ, and urged both sides to de-escalate the situation by returning to December 2004 levels of deployment.
Ethiopia and Eritrea should show maximum restraint towards each other, refraining from threats of force or ending their exchange of hostile statements, the resolution added. Earlier this month, in a report to the Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had asked that the mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) be extended until the end of January next year – a request the Council endorsed today.
The Council resolution and Mr. Ban’s report also reiterated previous appeals to Eritrea to lift all restrictions it has imposed on UNMEE’s movement and operations, and said it would reconsider any changes to UNMEE depending on future progress towards demarcation.
The demarcation of the border has stalled despite the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) handing down a final and binding decision in 2002, and today’s resolution voiced frustration at the lack of recent progress on the issue.
It stressed that Ethiopia and Eritrea also have primary responsibility for implementing the Algiers Agreements, the pacts which ended the border war in 2000, and called on the two countries to take concrete steps to resume and complete the demarcation process.
The EEBC has convened a meeting with Ethiopia and Eritrea in New York on 6 September, a move that has been welcomed by the Council.
The 15-member panel also welcomed a recent letter from the Ethiopian Foreign Minister to the Council President saying that his Government has accepted the EEBC border decision without preconditions, and called on Ethiopia to immediately take action to enable the Commission to carry out that decision.
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Ethiopia Opposition denies links in Ethiopia treason trial
ADDIS ABABA, July 30 (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition officials told a court on Monday that two anti-poverty activists on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government were never members of their movement.
(File Photo Daniel Bekele left)
Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last two defendants out of 131 original charged in a long-running treason trial.
On Monday, Hailu Shawel, chairman of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) told the court neither men had been a part of his organisation.
"Charges that they were CUD members are totally false," he said. "If they had been members I would have known."
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Daniel and Netsanet's trial goes on
Shawel and other senior CUD officials were also charged in the same trial, which human rights groups and donors said was an attempt to dismantle the opposition after it made strong gains in 2005 elections.
They were all arrested following two bouts of violence after the disputed polls in which 199 civilians and police were killed, 800 people wounded and 30,000 arrested, according to a parliamentary inquiry.
They were freed on July 20 after the government published a letter it said CUD leaders had sent to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi admitting their guilt and repenting.
Defence lawyers say Bekele and Netsanet, who work for ActionAid Ethiopia and the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia respectively, refused to sign and want to be acquitted.
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Police in northern Tanzania have detained 22 Ethiopian nationals for illegally entering the country en route to South Africa.
The 22 Ethiopian nationals were intercepted on Friday last week at Himo in the northern Kilimanjaro Region, English broadsheet Daily News reported on Monday.
Regional Police Commander Lucas Ng'hoboko told the newspaper that the detainees would appear in local courts after the police had completed their investigation.
Source: Xinhua News
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Somali wedding planners rejoice in new freedom
Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:52AM EDT
By Guled Mohamed
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Women decked out in brightly colored gowns, gold jewelry and elaborate dance with men to the slow tunes of Somali love songs.
A pianist, guitarist and female singer entertain the crowd packed into a small, stuffy hall for a wedding reception.
Such a scene would have been unthinkable in Mogadishu just months ago when a hardline Muslim movement ruled the seaside capital and much of southern Somalia, imposing sharia law and shutting down many forms of entertainment seen as un-Islamic.
"People [Somalis] can now party freely. It is good for business."
But business is back after the interim government, with Ethiopian military help, in January ejected the Islamists and their strict form of Islam.
Reveling in their new freedom, excited guests cheer and shower the singer with scarves and a confetti of Somali money.
"I'm very happy," wedding planner Muna Omar said as the reception at a former military compound starts to wind down.
"During the Islamic reign we would never dare organize such a party," she said. "They considered it unlawful."
When the Somali Islamic Courts Council was in charge last year, they banned wedding parties, shut video halls screening foreign films and World Cup football matches, outlawed a hugely popular narcotic, khat, and harassed men's barbers.
They also ordered women to wear the hijab, an outfit covering the body and head.
At first, many residents praised them for bringing relative stability to much of a country that had become a byword for anarchy since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
But they were abhorred by others for imposing restrictions on a Muslim society that is traditionally moderate and they drew unfavorable comparisons to the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
GOWNS AND MAKE-UP
One guest taking a break from dancing recalls how he was at a secret party in Mogadishu last year that the Islamists heard of and decided to break up.
"We invited a few guests and the music was on low volume. I don't know who tipped off Islamist troops, but they stormed in and disrupted the party," he said. "They flogged and chased away guests. I was so shocked."
Then he returns to the heaving dance floor, a group of young men looking on with grins, clapping his every twist and turn.
Mogadishu remains one of the world's most dangerous cities, and remnants of the Islamist movement are blamed for almost daily insurgent strikes targeting interim government troops, Ethiopian patrols and African Union peacekeepers from Uganda.
A major peace conference under way in the north of the city has been attacked with volleys of mortar shells -- which missed and crashed down onto residential streets nearby.
But many were relieved to see the back of the Islamists, especially the Somalis whose livelihoods they choked off.
Deqo Afrah, another Mogadishu-based party planner, says business is booming again. She charges about $200 for most weddings, which includes applying the henna, the red dye used to decorate the bride's skin.
"I organize at least two or three weddings per week," she said. "I am very busy, unlike during the Islamic Courts' rule. People can now party freely. It is good for business."
Standing nearby wearing heavy make-up and a flowing semi-transparent gown, her fellow planner Omar heartily agrees.
"Nobody had the guts to dress like this," she said with a laugh. "We were unhappy and bored. I hope the Islamic Courts do not hear me and come for my head!"
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Ethiopia - Addis Dimts Radio Interview with Prof Ephrem Issac and Prof. Al Mariam
Host Abebe Belew of Addis Dimts Radio interviewed Professor Ephrem Issac and Professor Al Mariam on Saturday July 28, 2007 about H.R. 2003.
Here is the audio segment from the show (download mp3)
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Plight of ethnic groups in Ethiopia discussed at U conference
By Abdi Aynte
Minnesota Monitor
15,000 Oromo in Minnesota include many victims of torture, persecution.
Seldom does a former head of state express remorse about crimes committed under his watch, but that's exactly what Dr. Negasso Gidada, the former president of Ethiopia, told more than 100 people Thursday evening at the University of Minnesota.
Speaking at the Oromo second annual international human rights conference, Gidada said he's "ready to be accountable for crimes I committed … and those committed by the Ethiopian government" during his tenure.
Most of the people in attendance were Oromo, the largest of Ethiopia's 86 ethnic groups. Gidada also is an Oromo, but the current regime is dominated by a minority ethnic group called the Tigre. He held the largely ceremonial post of president between 1995 and 2001.
Now an opposition member in the Ethiopian parliament, Gidada admitted that the "rule of law was enforced brutally" while he was president. But he reiterated that he couldn't stop most of those crimes, because the power lied with the Tigre prime minister.
More than 15,000 Oromo refugees, the largest anywhere in the country, live in Minnesota, according to the Oromo-American Citizenship Council, which helped organize the event.
The State Department's human rights index ranks Ethiopia, a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Oromo-Americans said they are particularly disappointed with how the United States turned its back on the protection of human rights in their country.
Ethiopia is already fighting a proxy war for the U.S. in Somalia, said Professor Abdi Samatar, a panelist who teaches geography and global studies at the University of Minnesota.
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Oromo people marched to the State Capitol in Minnesota (Star Tribune)
Ethiopia turns its critics into untouchables (Globe & Mail)
"With blessings from Washington, the Ethiopian military killed thousands in Somalia since January, displaced 450,000 and destroyed one-third of Mogadishu's infrastructure," said Samatar, who studied Ethiopia closely as a Fulbright scholar seven years ago.
A study by the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture found in 2004 that 69 percent of all Oromo men and 37 percent of women in Minnesota were victims of torture -- one of the highest percentages among refugees in the state.
`Color of your passport matters'
Minnesota is also home to the largest Anuak ethnic population in the United States. When Ethiopian soldiers were in the middle of killing more than 400 Anuak people in three days in 2003, Obang Metho, executive director of the Anuak Justice Council, called the U.S. State Department.
According to Metho, who also spoke at the event, the woman who answered his 1 a.m. call told him: "'People are killed over there all the time,'" and the phone went dead. Metho, who now lives in Canada, called back five minutes later. The woman chided him but before she could take her next breath, he interjected that U.S. citizens could be among the dead. Then he hung up on her.
The woman called back with a frantic question: "'Do you know where they live? Their Social Security numbers?'" Metho supplied whatever information he had.
Less than two hours later, he received a call from the U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa, informing him that staff members were on the way to Gambella, where the massacre was under way. But they needed his help.
"At that time, I learned that the color of your passport matters," he said.
Hope in legislation
Members of the Ethiopian community in Minnesota and across the nation, who organized a massive rally Thursday morning at the state Capitol, are hoping for eventual passage of a bill that cleared a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
The bill, authored by Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., connects U.S. financial and military assistance to Ethiopia to improved human rights, freedom of the press and democracy.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who spoke at the Oromo human rights conference through video uplink, told the audience that he supports the bill.
"Those who committed human rights violations ought to be brought to justice," he said.
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Davenport, Ia. — The smile on Wude Ayalew’s face conveyed her joy after winning the women’s portion of Saturday’s Bix 7 road race.
With the help of two translators, the 20-year-old Ethiopian was able to describe the stress-filled 24 hours that preceded her triumph.
It started with Ayalew missing a connecting flight in Washington, D.C., and ended with her arriving in the Quad Cities late at night, not too many hours before the 8 a.m. start.
“She was worried about missing it,” Ayalew said through an interpreter. “But there was no doubt about winning.”
Ayalew led an elite field of women’s runners, finishing the 7-mile course in 36:57. Duncan Kibet of Kenya set the men’s pace in 32:15.
Both winners were given a choice of $10,000 or a new car.
Ayalew, meanwhile, was coming off a win at the Peachtree road race in Atlanta this month.
On Saturday, she was greeted by television cameras shortly after crossing the finish line.
She communicated with the help of two other runners, who helped translate her Ethiopian language of Amharic into English.
Meb Keflezighi, a former men’s champion of the Bix 7, served as Ayalew’s spokesperson.
“The competition was really tough at the Peachtree,” Ayalew explained, “But the course (in Atlanta) is a lot easier.”
Ayalew went ahead in Saturday’s race with 2 miles remaining.
“When (Ayalew) got to the fifth mile, up the hill, she knew she had it,” Keflezighi said. “On the sixth mile, she was able to relax.”
Source: desmoinesregister
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Is Somalia a Proxy War Between Ethiopia and Eritrea?
By Joe De Capua
Washington
VOA
27 July 2007
Listen to De Capua interview with Timothy Othieno
The tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia may be playing themselves out in part in Somalia. Some observers say the violence in Somalia may be a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Timothy Othieno is a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Midrand, South Africa. He spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about whether he thinks Somalia is a proxy war. “Yes, it can be construed as that based on the fact that if one goes with the allegations that Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia were being funded, armed and also had the political support of the Eritrean government in its fight against the Ethiopian-backed TFG (Transitional Federal Government) government. So in that case, yes, I could argue it is an extended confrontation Ethiopia and Eritrea…but to go into more detail…the unresolved border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia actually can be explained and one can argue that what we’re seeing today in Somalia is actually an extension of that. Because a UN boundary commission ruling in favor of Eritrea has not been implemented to date in favor of Eritrea. Ethiopia has refused to give back the (border town) of Badme to Eritrea as the boundary commission had decided…and that is actually an extension of the current problem that we’re seeing today,” he says.
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More than 250 articles on Ethiopia - Somalia conflict from nazret.com archives
Eritrea’s information minister, Ali Abdu, is quoted as saying the allegations are a “smear campaign.” He describes them as a “fabricated pretext for an Ethiopian invasion and to cover up the failures made by the United States and the United Nations.”
Othieno says, “To a certain extent I would agree with the Eritrean minister in the sense
that the onus was on the United Nations to enforce, to implement its own ruling. I mean you cannot have a UN ruling being ignored, if I may use that word, by a government such as Ethiopia.” He says that the United States and other nations “should have impressed upon Ethiopia to abide by that ruling.”
He says Eritrea and the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia currently have a common enemy in Ethiopia. He says that he doubts there will be peace in Somalia until tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia are resolved and that includes the border dispute.
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Ethiopia turns its critics into untouchables
ZOE ALSOP AND NICK WADHAMS
Special to The Globe and Mail
July 27, 2007
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA -- Dressed in a black Adidas track suit and seated amid a comfortable clutter of term papers and political science tomes in his modest office at Addis Ababa University, Prof. Merera Gudina hardly looks like a menace. But, ever since he was elected to parliament two years ago, people have been avoiding him.
There was, for example, the time that local mechanics were too terrified to repair his car when it broke down on the way back from his mother's funeral east of Addis.
"The mechanic said somebody was giving him a signal and they ran away and we had to transport the car to Addis," Prof. Gudina said. "What they do is that they don't touch me as a person, but people in contact with me, after I leave an area, they harass them or detain them or whatever they want," he said of government security agents.
Optimistic visitors from the United States, which will give $500-million (U.S.) in aid to Ethiopia in 2008, like to point out that the Ethiopian opposition pulled off a feat that would be unthinkable in America or Europe when they unseated more than 150 ruling lawmakers two years ago.
But civil-society groups and supporters of the opposition throughout Ethiopia describe the country's parliament as little more than a Potemkin village. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling EPRDF party puts on a show of democracy for international donors, while enacting a brutal crackdown on supporters of the opposition outside of the capital.
Leaders such as Prof. Gudina say they've been denied offices, staff and access to their constituents and the media.
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Professor Merera... a great survivor and a great teacher. An interview with Addis Ferenji (nazret.com)
"At this point, Ethiopia has some of the trappings of democracy, but none of the substance," said Bronwyn Bruton, a Program Officer for East and Southern Africa with the National Endowment for Democracy, which gets some funding from the U.S. government.
In the 2005 elections, the opposition made historic gains against the EPRDF, which is dominated by Mr. Zenawi's own Tigray ethnic group.
Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and tens of thousands more jailed, including journalists, the elected mayor of Addis Ababa and the head of the country's only independent human-rights organization.
The government only last week released 38 of the opposition activists who had been tried and found guilty of inciting violence, treason and trying to topple the government, but not before they signed statements admitting their guilt.
While a number of opposition members have boycotted parliament in protest against the election, scores of others followed the advice of Western countries including the United States and took office.
"I can't run away from this place and expect some miracle," said Beyene Petros, who has represented the opposition ever since Mr. Zenawi ousted dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Mr. Petros has seen so many colleagues jailed or killed that he seems somewhat bemused at his own survival.
"Not me. I'm sort of an alibi for a lot of bad things they do to others. They will say, 'Look, Beyene Petros has been this, he's a fierce opponent, he can say anything.' Instead of coming to me, attacking me, they have gone and killed my immediate associates, they have abducted some. That's not enjoyable position to be in."
The government's true face, people say, is shown in places like Dembi Dollo, a two-day journey from the capital along more than 480 kilometres of dusty, dilapidated roads. Few foreigners visit, and little news emerges from the area.
Dembi Dollo is the political heart of Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region. It's the birthplace of the Oromo Liberation Front, a group once allied with Mr. Zenawi, but today the largest of half a dozen rebel fronts in the country.
It is here that men who once campaigned for an opposition party called the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement are still paying the price.
"You can say my home is the prison. I spend a lot of my life in the prison," said one elder who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "Since 1991, every year I was in prison it's only this time now, this year, I didn't visit the prison."
Though support for the rebels runs high here, the town's elders campaigned for the OFDM, which eschews violence. Unfortunately for them, the local officials of the ruling party do not distinguish between political parties like the OFDM and the OLF, which was branded a terrorist organization by Mr. Zenawi's administration late last year.
The elders had been jailed and followed. Telephone and power lines to Dembi Dollo were cut off. The OFDM's office was vandalized and closed. After an elementary school teacher campaigned for the OFDM, riot police went after his 16-year-old daughter. They broke both her wrists, bludgeoned her in the abdomen and held her for a month.
"When she went to the court, the witnesses are the police who beat her - so how can this be?" said one teacher, who also insisted on anonymity.
Ethiopia's ruling party attributes any heavy-handedness against the opposition to growing pains. "In most cases there are no problems," said Bereket Simon, a senior adviser to Mr. Zenawi. "We feel there might be problems here and there because this is not a mature democracy like that of the West. It is an emerging democracy and we're bound to make mistakes."
Prof. Gudina has kept his full-time job at the university. After seeing 56 members of his party killed amid post-election violence, he says there's very little he can do in parliament, where, unlike representatives for the ruling party, he has no offices, no budget and no influence. "In a year and a half, I've attended five, six sessions, that's all," Prof. Gudina said. "There's nothing there to do. When Meles makes a report, you go so at least people see you are there."
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Ethiopia - Ethiopian scout legion heading for London
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 27, 2007 (ENA) - President Girma Woldegiorgis has seen off on Thursday the scout legion of the Ethiopian Scout Association (ESA) that left for London to take part at the 21st World Scout Jamboree.
During a ceremony held at the National Palace, the President handed over the the Ethiopian flag, scout and Black Lion logo for the scout team named ‘Black Lion Legion’ after the Black Lion Army of the Ethiopian national military force during the imperial regime.
The President urged Ethiopian Scout Association to promote scout’s objectives across Ethiopia in order to produce active citizens who would play constructive role in the affairs of their country.
ESA Chief Scout, Hon. Dr. Med. Laureate Tebebe Yemane-Berhan said on the event that after 73 years, Ethiopian scouts are now to represent their country in the world forum in which great number of scouts from 126 parts of the world will renew their covenant "One World One Promise."
President Girma handed over an Ethiopian flag and banners of scout and black lion to the legion that is leaving for London tomorrow to attend the international Jamboree for the first time since its establishment.
This year World Scout Jamboree is to be held Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex, in the heart of England, the birthplace of the Scouting movement.
The Scout Association of the United Kingdom is hosting the forum lasting from July 27 until August 8, 2007 and expected to bring together close to 40,000 Scouts across the world.
The theme of this year jamboree, the centennial year of the founding of the Scouting movement, will be "One World, One Promise."
Sir Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scouting program, also pioneered the very first jamboree at Olympia in London in 1920.
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Woman, son guilty in killing of Good Samaritan store owner
Published on: 07/26/07
AJC
Feeling sorry for the customer who said his mom no longer had a place to live, gas station owner Zerit Haileslasie let the mother stay in a shed behind the store rent-free.
A few days later, the man entered the Shell service station in the 3100 block of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and fatally shot Haileslasi three times. Store surveillance cameras then caught the man and his mother stealing money from the cash register.
The Fulton County District Attorney's Office said Thursday that the mother, 47-year-old Regina Roberts, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the December 2006 shooting and testified against her son.
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4 dead, 2 wounded in shootings at Atlanta home
Special Section: Crime Related Articles
The son, David Leeks, 26, was found guilty last week of malice murder. He was sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison. Roberts was given 20 years.
Haileslasie, known in the neighborhood as Simon, had moved to Atlanta from Toronto to help run the family business.
"He was saving money to become the next in the family of Ethiopian entrepreneurs to open a store," said District Attorney spokeswoman Lyn Vaughn.
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Red Cross deplores Ethiopian expulsion
By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 26, 8:38 PM ET
The Red Cross denied government allegations it was helping rebels in Ethiopia's volatile east, and said Thursday its expulsion from the region will restrict people's access to basic services.
The government has given the International Committee of the Red Cross one week — until Monday — to leave the area known as the Somali regional state, accusing it of helping ethnic Somali rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
"A suspension of ICRC activities will inevitably have a negative impact on the population concerned, whose access to basic services will be reduced," said Daniel Duvillard, ICRC's head of operations for the Horn of Africa. The Red Cross conducts water and sanitation projects in the east.
The rebels, who have been fighting the government for more than a decade, earlier accused Ethiopia of blockading aid to their region near the Somali border for nearly two months.
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Ethiopia expels Red Cross from east - AP
Deal Near on Food for Sealed Area of Ethiopia (NY Times)
Ethiopia announced a crackdown on the rebels in June, two months after the rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field, killing 74 people.
The U.N. World Food Program said this week that the military operations are hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, but that the government is not blockading shipments.
The rebels said the Red Cross expulsion was designed to prevent the world from "witnessing the war crimes taking place against the civilian population of Ogaden at the hands of the Ethiopian regime."
Jama Ahmed, vice president of the Somali region, said the ICRC must "recognize what they did wrong" before officials consider allowing it to continue work there
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Ethiopia - 'Marching for the people ... arrested back home'
Oromo people marched to the State Capitol to raise awareness about human rights violations in Ethiopia.
By Ifrah Jimale,
Star Tribune
Last update: July 26, 2007 – 8:26 PM
Two thousand Oromo people, part of the largest ethnic group in East Africa, marched Thursday to the State Capitol to raise awareness of human rights violations in Ethiopia.
People came from around the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe to march from Dale Street and University Avenue to the Capitol in 94-degree temperatures. Last week and this week have been declared Oromo Week in Minnesota.
"We're marching for the people who are arrested back home," said Kamer Hurumo, holding a large U.S. flag and walking with marchers holding Oromo Liberation Front flags. Hundreds carried signs saying, "U.S., stop supporting Ethiopia."
Oromo people are the majority in Ethiopia but have no representatives in the Ethiopian government, which is ruled by a minority ethnic group.
Thursday's march was organized by the International Oromo Youth Association in cooperation with the Oromo Community of Minnesota and the Oromo American Citizens Council.
"Ethiopian solders who are now in Somalia are committing atrocities against the Oromo refugees in Somalia," said Gawar Mohamed, president of the youth association. "Since Ethiopia invaded Somalia, more than 30.000 Oromo refugees were deported back to Ethiopia. Many of these are in prison now."
Aduu Joba, 20, and her brother Olyad, 19, came from London for the march.
"We have so many relatives back home who cannot demonstrate peacefully like we can," she said.
"Almost every person here today has lost either a father, a mother a sibling or close relatives," said Rammy Mohamed, a student at the University of Minnesota and member of the International Oromo Youth. Her cousin was killed two months ago; he was an engineering student at the University of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
"He had nothing to do with politics and yet he got killed right in front of his family just because he was Oromo," she said.
Oromo people have been experiencing persecution under the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRDF) led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Many fled to neighboring countries and settled in refugee camps.
"We hope this is a wake-up call for the international community," Mohamed said.
Ifrah Jimale • 612-673-4165 • ijimale@startribune.com
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Ethiopia - Statement by the Embassy of Ethiopia on False Reports by the New York Times
Thursday July 26, 6:31 pm ET
WASHINGTON, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Articles published today and in the July 22nd editions of the New York Times about Ethiopian aid efforts in the Ogaden Region were factually inaccurate, the Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Washington, DC, said today.
The Embassy released this statement by Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia's Ambassador to the United States:
The reporting was wrong. I can only conclude from the articles by Jeffrey Gettleman that he is willing to take the word of a terrorist organization over that of the U.N. World Food Program and the democratically elected government of Ethiopia.
We have asked New York Times editor Bill Keller for a full retraction as the false statements and misrepresentations are so severe that they go beyond simple correction.
The articles' two central claims have been denied not just by the Ethiopian government but also by international organizations overseeing these aid programs.
Related Links
Deal Near on Food for Sealed Area of Ethiopia (New York Times)
Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region (New York Times)
Opinion: Jeffrey Gettleman, Journalist Par Excellence (By Selam Beyene)
Opinion: Jeffrey Gettleman condemned by UN and WFP; lessons learned? (By Behailu Damte)
First, the contention that the Ethiopian government is systematically blocking food to the Ogaden has been refuted by the U.N. World Food Program, which said the government is allowing food shipments to the region. Further, the WFP said that its Country Director was quoted out of context in Mr. Gettleman's article.
Second, the allegation that funding was being diverted from a polio program was challenged by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a statement released Tuesday.
The Times' articles contained an appalling number of unconfirmed rumors and innuendos. In 20 instances -- including some of the most disturbing allegations -- Mr. Gettleman apparently relied primarily on unnamed sources in the article published on the front page of The Times on Sunday.
The article quoted a single unnamed source stating, falsely, "It's a starve-out-the population strategy." That's an astounding and brutal allegation to level under any circumstance and it's simply false. How could The Times allow Mr. Gettleman to make this unbelievable allegation from an anonymous source?
In today's report, Mr. Gettleman dispensed even with anonymous sources and stated as fact that "the Ethiopian military has recently sealed off [the Ogaden region] in an apparent effort to squeeze a growing rebel movement there."
This isn't a matter of whether The Times allowed sloppy articles to be published.
The most fundamental allegations in the articles were simply wrong and it's egregious that The Times would allow such inflammatory and unsupportable claims to be published.
The facts are as follows:
-- The Ogaden National Liberation Front is a terrorist organization.
In April the group slaughtered more than 70 civilian workers, both
Ethiopian and Chinese, at a Chinese-run oil field in the Ogaden.
(Mr. Gettleman continues to report that soldiers were killed in this
attack, which is false.)
-- The Ethiopian army is working to facilitate humanitarian food
shipments while striving to provide security in a region under
attack by the Eritrean-backed ONLF. (AP reported today that:
"Eritrea has secretly supplied 'huge quantities of arms' to a Somali
insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaeda in violation of an
international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African
peacekeepers, U.N. arms experts have concluded.")
-- The Ogaden is one of the impoverished areas of Ethiopia that has
frequently suffered food shortages and the government is deeply
committed to preventing another such crisis in the context of
terrorist activity.
-- The UN says the Government of Ethiopia is allowing food aid into the
region.
-- The WFP Country Director for Ethiopia was quoted out of context in
The Times article. The Country Director actually said that food
delays were the result of UN processes, not an Ethiopian blockade.
-- An interagency UN mission, including OCHA, WFP, and others, is
visiting the Ogaden to continue facilitating the distribution of
humanitarian relief.
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Ethiopia - Ethiopian opposition pledges reconciliation, democracy
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (AFP) - Ethiopia's main opposition party on Thursday said it was committed to political reconciliation but vowed to keep struggling for democracy in the troubled African nation.
Nearly a week after the pardon of 38 opposition figures sentenced to heavy jail terms over deadly incidents that erupted in the aftermath of disputed 2005 polls, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) issued its first statement.
The opposition alliance voiced its objections over the "propaganda" that surrounded the collective pardon, which the regime said it granted after the 38 signed a document admitting mistakes.
"We have chosen to overlook the government propaganda and not to respond in kind because it would serve no purpose other than poisoning the spirit of reconciliation that we, the elders, and the Ethiopian people in general would like to see prevailing," the statement said.
"We have chosen to look forward to a bright future, because we believe that this approach will provide us a sound foundation for the success of our struggle for democracy," it added.
The release of the 38 after nearly two years in detention came after intense international criticism over the sentences and was welcomed in Ethiopia as a step towards political reconciliation.
The ruling alliance of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won the majority of seats in the 2005 parliamentary polls but the opposition claimed it was robbed of victory by widespread government-sponsored fraud.
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UN: Eritrea Arming Somalia Insurgents
Thursday July 26, 2007 11:31 AM
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Eritrea has secretly supplied ``huge quantities of arms'' to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaida in violation of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African peacekeepers, U.N. arms experts have concluded.
``Somalia is awash with arms,'' the experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. Surface-to-air missiles, suicide belts and explosives with timers and detonators are among the arms held by the Islamic insurgents, known as the Shabab, the report said. Eritrea denied providing any assistance to the Shabab.
The Monitoring Group on Somalia was appointed by the Security Council to report on violations of the arms embargo on Somalia established in 1992. The report determined that the Horn of Africa nation has more arms now than at anytime since civil war broke out in 1991.
Since then, various clan and religious groups have struggled for power, dividing Somalia into warring fiefdoms. In December, Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia to save an internationally backed administration that was under attack from an Islamic group trying to seize power.
Ethiopian and government troops have since come under near daily attacks by the Shabab, and the Islamic leadership continues to operate from Eritrea.
Since December ``huge quantities of arms have been provided to the Shabab by and through Eritrea,'' the U.N. monitors said.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu denied the accusation and that his country provided any assistance to the Shabab.
``It is a total fabrication and the intention of the report is to depict it as if there is a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia,'' Abdu told the AP from Asmara.
In past reports, the U.N. monitors have said almost a dozen countries were supplying arms or cash to the warring parties in Somalia. The latest report was likely to fuel fears Somalia is shaping up as an Ethiopia-Eritrea war by proxy.
Ethiopia and Eritrea, tiny compared to its neighbor and longtime rival, fought a border war to a stalemate from 1998-2002, and Ethiopia has so far refused to give up territory granted to Eritrea under an internationally mediated agreement.
In a letter attached to the U.N. report, Eritrea's ambassador to the U.N. claimed his country was the victim of ``continuous and deliberate subtle disinformation campaigns,'' and accused Ethiopia of ``destabilizing military adventurism'' in Somalia.
The U.N. allegations revolve around a chartered Boeing 707 cargo plane that made 13 flights from the Eritrean capital of Asmara to Mogadishu, Somalia. Despite Eritrean denials, the flights were confirmed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the report said.
The monitoring group also determined that the Ethiopian military intervention, which represents a violation of the U.N. arms embargo, only succeeded in scattering the Shabab and that they remain a potent guerrilla force. The Shabab have enough explosives to continue suicide attacks against the government.
Eritrea also has supplied the Shabab with SA-18 surface-to-air-missiles, one of which was used to shoot down a Belarussian cargo plane on March 23, the group determined.
``The SA-18 was reported to be part of a consignment of six SA-18s that had been delivered by Eritrea to (the Shabab),'' the report said. ``The group has also learned ... that additional missiles may be secreted in arms caches.''
The monitoring group also requested information from the United States concerning air strikes carried out on Jan. 7 and 23 and a naval bombardment on June 1. The U.S. government acknowledged in a letter to the group that it had ``conducted several strikes in self-defense against al-Qaida terrorist targets.'' The U.S. sees Ethiopia as a partner in the war on terror.
Arms prices in Somalia have skyrocketed with the growing Islamic insurgency against the government, the experts found. Warlords were the most important buyers as the country appeared to be descending back into chaos.
``They had lost control of their fiefdoms after the Islamic Courts Union took over central and southern Somalia during 2006,'' the report said. ``The Monitoring Group has received information that the warlords are currently trying to reconstitute and arm their respective militias.''
The group recommended more support for the internationally backed government in efforts to reach peace deals with the various armed groups, start a disarmament program and eliminate the main arms markets in downtown Mogadishu. It also recommended professional police and border control forces to end the smuggling of weapons.
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Ethiopia - Shaken baby's father faces assault charges in case
Star Tribune
The father of a baby boy who suffered a severe brain injury when he was shaken in February has been charged in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree assault.
Remedan B. Mohamed, 35, eventually told St. Paul police that he shook his son, then 4 months old, in an effort to quiet him after the boy fell to the floor while he was trying to feed him, according to a complaint filed last week.
Mohamed, who said his left arm was weakened from torture in Ethiopia, said the boy was too heavy for him to hold when he was in his care Feb. 6.
The father also had told hospital staff members that the boy tumbled out of a "bouncy chair," and then that he had fallen off a couch before saying he'd dropped and shaken the baby, the complaint said.
According to authorities, the baby's brain was bleeding, and extraordinary measures had to be taken to keep him alive. The extent of the damage is not yet known, the complaint said.
The boy's mother told police it was the first time that the father had watched his son alone.
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Deal Near on Food for Sealed Area of Ethiopia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
July 26, 2007
The New York Times
LAMU, Kenya — United Nations officials and the Ethiopian government appear to have reached an agreement to allow emergency food aid into a conflict-ridden area that the Ethiopian military has been blockading for several weeks, both sides said on Wednesday.
But Ethiopian officials expelled the Red Cross from the same area after accusing its workers of being rebel spies.
According to Nur Abdi Mohammed, a government spokesman, food deliveries will soon begin to most parts of the eastern Ogaden region, which the Ethiopian military has recently sealed off in an apparent effort to squeeze a growing rebel movement there.
“The food distribution has started from the center to different areas,” Mr. Mohammed said. “I think it will reach most places soon. But where there is no security, there will not be deliveries.”
Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the United Nations’ World Food Program, said that United Nations officials had been meeting with the Ethiopian government for several weeks about access for food aid and that teams had reached most parts of the conflict region to determine how much aid was needed.
“The food is still not there in all the zones, but there is a process under way,” Mr. Smerdon said. “We are working with Ethiopian officials and others on exactly how the food will be dispatched.”
Related Links
Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region (New York Times)
WFP says no Ethiopia aid blockade, but has concerns
Ethiopia expels Red Cross from east (AP)
Mr. Smerdon said that with food prices rapidly rising, local markets empty and the flood season beginning next month, there could be a “humanitarian crisis” in some areas unless the military lifted restrictions on food aid and commercial traffic.
The Ogaden is one of the poorest parts of one of the poorest countries, and also the site of an intense insurgency and counterinsurgency.
The most active rebel group in the area, and possibly all of Ethiopia, is the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The government considers it a group of rebel terrorists, especially after members attacked a Chinese oil field in the area in April, killing more than 60 soldiers and Chinese workers. At the same time, human rights groups and villagers say that Ethiopian troops have gang-raped women, burned down villages and tortured civilians.
Several former administrators from the area and a member of Parliament who recently defected have accused the Ethiopian military and its proxy militias of skimming food aid and using a United Nations polio eradication program to funnel money to fighters. The Ethiopian government has denied the accusations and said it was the Ogaden rebels who were stealing food aid and abusing the population. The government has also accused the Front of getting arms and training from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s enemy.
Western diplomats and lawmakers in Congress have expressed concern about Ethiopia’s human rights record. Several measures are moving through the House and Senate that would place strict conditions on assistance to Ethiopia, which receives nearly half a billion dollars in American aid each year.
Western diplomats in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, said their biggest issue was the military blockade, which they said was putting hundreds of thousands of impoverished nomads at risk of starvation. Several humanitarian officials have said that they need to temper their criticisms or not speak publicly so as to prevent their organizations from being permanently blocked from the area.
On Tuesday, regional government officials, who oversee the Ogaden, expelled the Red Cross.
“They were spies,” Mr. Mohammed said. “They were following regional officials and relaying information to the rebels.”
Red Cross officials declined to comment, saying they were still negotiating with the government to find a way to stay. The regional government has given the Red Cross, which runs water and livestock projects in the Ogaden, seven days to leave; its projects in other parts of the country would not be affected.
It seems that the Ethiopian government is increasingly suspicious about foreign involvement in the Ogaden, a desert on the Somali border where most residents are ethnic Somalis and where a separatist movement has brewed for decades.
Mohamed Abdi, an Ethiopian-American working as an interpreter for the American military in the Ogaden, has been held incommunicado and without charges in a prison in eastern Ethiopia since he was arrested in early May. Relatives and American Embassy officials said Mr. Abdi, 45, was working on humanitarian projects in the Ogaden when Ethiopian troops detained him and two American soldiers, who were soon released.
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Ethiopia - Beyonce for Ethiopian Millennium Party in Addis?
Capital newspaper in Addis is reporting that R&B diva Beyonce will be coming to Ethiopia for the Millennium celebration. The paper has also reported that 50 Cent will be coming. Sheraton Addis has reportedly paid a million bucks for Beyonce to appear, according to the report on Capital's website.
Sheraton Addis so far has brought JA Rule, Wyclef Jean, Maxi Priest, Kool and The Gang, Chaka Demus, Sean Paul, Shaggy and other singers for Christmas and Ethiopian New Year. Beyoncé will be the first female star to have come to Addis, the paper wrote.
The following from Beyonce fan site
Beyonce Knowles will be performing for the Ethiopian millennium to be celebrated on September 12[SIC] in Addis Ababa.
Our diva will be accompanied by other singers from the United States whose identity has not yet been made public. But there are sources that Michael Jackson will also attend the Ethiopian millennium as a special guest together with other VIPs.
The Ethiopian calendar is eight years behind that used by most of the world. It is still 1999 in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian millennium has been recognized by the African Union and United Nations as an African and worldwide celebration.
Over 400,000 Ethiopians from the diaspora, tourists and other invited guests are expected to come to Ethiopia for the millennium celebrations.
Wonderful show in an amazing country, Ethiopians are too behind. Whoaaa!
Source by:beyoncesource
Beyonce Music Videos
09:25:41 am, by nazret.com, 410 words, 3471 views 
Ethiopia - Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches reconcile
World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org For immediate release - 19/07/2007 04:12:12 PM
Source:
World Council Of Churches
The "entire fellowship of the Word Council of Churches (WCC) rejoices" at a successfully culminated "process of healing and reconciliation" that involved two of the Council's founding members, stated WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a letter welcoming the "historic achievement" today.
Through an agreement signed on Friday 13 July 2007 in Cairo, Egypt, and announced yesterday by the press office of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church have "solemnly declared their unity of faith, their commitment to common witness and their readiness to deepen and expand collaboration, leaving behind more than two decades of tensions," Kobia wrote.
In a letter to the heads of both churches, Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa and Abune Paulos, Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia and Archbishop of Axum, as well as to Catholicos Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Cilicia), who played an instrumental role as mediator, Kobia affirmed that the event confirms that "true reconciliation among churches is possible".
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Special Section: Religion Related Articles
The three heads of churches involved are "well known to the WCC fellowship of member churches as outstanding ecumenical leaders," the letter from Kobia says. Pope Shenouda III served as one of the WCC presidents from 1991-1998; Abune Paulos currently serves as one of the WCC presidents, having been elected in 2006. And Catholicos Aram I served as the WCC central committee moderator for two terms from 1991-2006.
The three churches belong to the Oriental Orthodox family, which also includes the Syrian, Indian and Eritrean churches. These churches have world-wide diaspora and are active in the ecumenical movement.
The full text of the WCC letter is available at: http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3905
Additional information on the agreement is available at the website of the Armenian Orthodox Church (See of Cilicia): http://www.cathcil.org/v04/doc/English/English.htm
Additional information: Juan Michel, +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
Source: WCC
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5 opposition members plead guilty in Ethiopia but ask for pardon
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Five opposition members who have been imprisoned since 2005 in connection with deadly election protests pleaded guilty Wednesday but asked the judge for a pardon.
The case comes days after the country pardoned and freed 38 other opposition members in the same case following international condemnation and strong pressure from the United States.
High Court Judge Adil Ahmed told the court that defendants submitted a letter saying: "I plead guilty and I don't want to defend the case. I request the court give a judgment on me." He also said they immediately asked for a pardon.
Related Links
Ethiopia Pardons 38 Opposition Leaders(Washington Post)
Ethiopia frees 38 opposition members
Ethiopia's freed leader defiant (BBC)
The defendants are accused of inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government. Prosecutors have been pushing for the death penalty.
The opposition won an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats in the 2005 vote, but not enough to topple Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The opposition claimed the voting was rigged, and European Union observers said it was marred by irregularities.
Last year, Ethiopia acknowledged its security forces killed 193 civilians protesting alleged election fraud but insisted they did not use excessive force. A senior judge appointed to investigate the violence disagreed, accusing the security forces of excessive force.
Initially, the opposition leaders, journalists and others were charged with treason, inciting violence and attempted genocide. Judges dropped the treason and attempted genocide charges in April and later that month freed 25 prisoners, among them eight journalists.
In Washington last week, a House subcommittee completed work on legislation that decries Ethiopia's recent human rights record and opens the door for sanctions. The bill would still have to be passed by both houses and be signed by U.S. President George W. Bush.
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Ethiopia expels Red Cross from east
Tue Jul 24, 9:50 PM ET
Ethiopia on Tuesday gave the Red Cross one week to leave the Ogaden region in the country's volatile east, accusing the aid group of talking to rebels operating in the area.
The Red Cross workers "are interfering with the political situation," said Jama Ahmed, a vice president of the Somali region. "They are talking to the rebel groups. We have many kinds of evidence. If they review their actions and they apologize and they promise only to stick to humanitarian activities, they are welcome (to come back)."
Calls to the Addid Ababa office of the Red Cross, which has been conducting water and sanitation projects in eastern Ethiopia, were not immediately returned.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels, ethnic Somalis who have been fighting the government for more than a decade, earlier accused Ethiopia of blockading aid to their region near the Somali border for nearly two months and called for a U.N. investigation.
Ethiopia announced a crackdown on the rebels in June, two months after the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field, killing 74 people.
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WFP says no Ethiopia aid blockade, but has concerns
Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region (New York Times)
The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday that the military operations are hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, but the government is not blockading shipments.
The ONLF is fighting to overthrow the government for what it says are human rights abuses in the eastern Ogaden region of Ethiopia and to establish greater autonomy.
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Ethiopian diaspora keeps pressure on U.S. Congress
The Hill
By Jim Snyder
July 25, 2007
Despite the Ethiopian government’s decision last week to release 38 leaders of an opposition party from prison, Congress must still pass a bill that ties that country’s human-rights record to U.S. aid, say Ethiopian-Americans who have lobbied for the measure.
The community, which has worked in recent years to add its voice to the list of influential ethnic lobbying groups, backs H.R. 2003, a measure authored by Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) that directs the State Department to support democracy in Ethiopia and restricts assistance for security efforts until the country releases political prisoners and meets a series of other benchmarks.
The House Foreign Affairs Africa and Global Health subcommittee, which Payne chairs, passed the bill last week. The full committee is expected to mark up the bill on Tuesday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the decision to pardon the prisoners was unrelated to efforts in Congress to pressure his government.
“The Ethiopian government isn’t willing and is unable to be run like a banana republic from Capitol Hill,” he said. His government has worked closely with the Bush administration on counter-terrorism efforts in the region.
Human-rights activists and congressional backers of the Payne bill welcomed the news that the government had pardoned 38 of the country’s top political opposition leaders. But Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, indicated the bill would still move forward.
“At least 36 more activists remain in detention because they either refused to sign a required letter of remorse or because they signed the letter but their cases remain undecided,” Lantos said.
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Ethiopia deadline for Red Cross
BBC News
The Red Cross has been given seven days to leave the Ogaden region bordering Somalia by the Ethiopian government.
The ICRC has been carrying out water and sanitation projects there.
An army crackdown in the area after a series of rebel attacks has restricted the movement of essential goods.
The rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Movement, accuses the government of blockading the region, and producing a "man-made famine".
On Monday, the New York Times carried an article saying that Ethiopian troops were preventing emergency aid reaching the mainly Somali speaking region.
Related Links
WFP says no Ethiopia aid blockade, but has concerns
Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region (New York Times)
But aid agencies have been reluctant to complain publicly about the lack of access, fearing that it might compromise their work in the future.
The regional president of Ethiopia's Somali region, Abdullai Hassan, told the BBC that the ICRC had been given seven days to leave the area.
He accused the organisation of collaborating with the enemy and of spreading baseless accusations against the regional government on its website.
Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region shares a long and porous border with Somalia, and most of its people are of the Somali ethnic group.
The ONLF has fought for the secession of the Ogaden region since the early 1990s.
In April, rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field killing nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians.
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Ethiopia - Djibouti Airways Cargo Plane Crashes in east Ethiopia's Somali region 1 dead
One person died and eight others sustained light and severe injuries after a cargo airplane, which is the property of the Djibouti Airways, crashed in Ethiopia's Somali region on Monday, Ethiopian police said.
The official Ethiopian news agency quoted Guled Diryo, a local police officer, as saying that the accident occurred on Monday in Shinele town at around 1:00 p.m. (1000 GMT).
One of the persons on board died after he was sent to a local hospital and all of the injured were admitted to the hospital for medical treatments, according to the news agency.
The Antonov An-26 cargo airplane, which took off from east Ethiopia's Dire Dawa airport for Djibouti, crashed due to technical failure, it said.
The news agency also quoted hospital medical director Abel Melkamu as saying that five of the injured have already been discharged from the hospital after receiving medical treatments while three others remain in the hospital for further follow-up.
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