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AI Index: AFR 25/002/2006
30 January 2006
Urgent Actions
Amnesty International's global Urgent Action network provides an effective and rapid means of preventing some of the most life-threatening human rights violations against individuals.
URGENT ACTION
Ethiopia: Detention without charge/ fear of torture or ill-treatment
PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 25/002/2006 30 January 2006
UA 22/06 Detention without charge/ fear of torture or ill-treatment ETHIOPIA
Shumi Dandana (m) ]Dawit Urga (m) ] Ahmed Musa (m) ] Adam Uma (m) ] students from the Oromia RegionSada Ibrahim (f) ]Ulufa Bilo (m) ]Adem Jildo (m) ]Gemechu Bona (m) ] Musa Buta (m) ] Berhanu Gemechu (m) ] Matewos Teferra (m) ] Addis Ababa University studentsAnd thousands of other Oromo students The 11 students named above are among several thousand school and college students from the Oromo ethnic group who have been detained in a series of anti-government demonstrations in different parts of the Oromia Region, in the capital, Addis Ababa, and in other towns. All those named above are detained incommunicado at a number of different locations, and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment.The arrests have taken place during a wave of student demonstrations which began on 9 November 2005. The demonstrations are still taking place in some areas. Most of those taking part were secondary school students, some of them children under 18 years old, but teachers, farmers, businesspeople and others have also been detained in connection with the demonstrations. Most demonstrations reportedly began peacefully but some police and demonstrators were injured, property was damaged and explosions were reported in some places. The demonstrations are said to have taken place after a call by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an armed opposition group, for demonstrations against the government. Demonstrators called, among other political demands, for the release of Oromo political prisoners, including officials of the Mecha Tulema Association, a long-established Oromo welfare association (see UA 180/04, AFR 25/006/2004, 21 May 2004, and follow-ups). Several demonstrators were reportedly shot dead and others wounded by the security forces. Many protesters were beaten by police. Those detained have reportedly been accused of links with the OLF, although none of them has yet been charged. Some detainees have been released, but others are being held in locations where torture has frequently been reported, such as Ambo Palace prison and Senkele police training centre, near the town of Ambo. The whereabouts of many of the detainees, some taken to remote rural prisons, are not known. In an incident which may have been related to the demonstrations, two Oromo detainees arrested in 2004, Alemayehu Garba (an Addis Ababa University student who is disabled and one of the subjects of UA 180/04) and Morkota Edosa, were reportedly shot dead by police or prison officers in Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa on 9 December.
AI Index: AFR 25/002/2006
30 January 2006
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January 31, 2006
January 26, 2006
TPLF Army Suffers Heavy Damage from TPDM and OLF Forces
TPLF Army Suffers Heavy Damage from TPDM and OLF Forces
Meron Abraha, Jan 26, 2006
A statement issued by the Tigray People’s Democratic Movement (TPDM) disclosed that it killed 75 TPLF soldiers in a battle in Sheraro province in Northeastern Tigray on January 19, 2006. The TPDM combatants also burned down the military supplies’ storehouse in the area. The attack is one of the large-scale offensives planned by the TPDM against the TPLF regime. The statement further revealed that the public guaranteed the TPDM full support in their missions. Meanwhile, in a series of clashes with the TPLF army, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) killed a total of 66 TPLF soldiers, injuring 54 others, and burned a military vehicle.
© Copyright 2001-2005 Shaebia.org
Meron Abraha, Jan 26, 2006
A statement issued by the Tigray People’s Democratic Movement (TPDM) disclosed that it killed 75 TPLF soldiers in a battle in Sheraro province in Northeastern Tigray on January 19, 2006. The TPDM combatants also burned down the military supplies’ storehouse in the area. The attack is one of the large-scale offensives planned by the TPDM against the TPLF regime. The statement further revealed that the public guaranteed the TPDM full support in their missions. Meanwhile, in a series of clashes with the TPLF army, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) killed a total of 66 TPLF soldiers, injuring 54 others, and burned a military vehicle.
© Copyright 2001-2005 Shaebia.org
January 25, 2006
Oromo are taking to stifle the popular uprising
GEESKA AFRIKA ONLINE DAILY NEWS AND VIEWS
Ethiopia: Oromo are taking to stifle the popular uprising
Hassan Hussein heads Foreign Relations for the Oromo Liberation Front
Nairobi (HAN) January 25, 2006 -- The Oromo people have continued the popular uprising that started on Nov. 9, 2005 until now in protest to the Ethiopian regime’s gross violation of fundamental human rights. To date we have issued four reports detailing the atrocities perpetuated against peaceful demonstrators by the government. This fifth one is an update on the continued suppression of human rights, the basic freedom of the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia, and the ruthless measures Meles’ government is taking to stifle the popular uprising.
The underlying popular demands of the people remain the same: respect for human dignity and basic freedom, equality in the court of law, rights to self determination, release of all Oromo political prisoners, reinstatement of the Mecha Tullama self help Association, legalization of Oromo Relief Association, and etc. The people have acknowledged the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) as the sole representative of the Oromo people. They have demonstrated their support for the OLF in many parts of the country by replacing government banners by that of the OLF. Typical slogans read “OLF means Oromo and Oromo means OLF”. Such wide spread support for the OLF has invoked even more brutal reaction from the government. Summary and indiscriminate executions, torture, abductions, and unlawful imprisonment of peaceful people have become all too common. According to the Human Right Watch (HRW) report of January 13, 2006, intimidation and arbitrary detention of the Oromo people have intensified in rural areas.
High school and college students continue to join the popular uprising in increasing numbers. They have drawn attention to their demands by distributing pamphlets, staging hunger strike, and shaving their hair as a sign of mourning for peers killed by government agents. In areas where such protests have intensified, the government has closed schools in fear of further demonstrations. Daily demonstrations and strikes are going on all over Oromia including in Ambo, Xiqur-Incinni, Dambi Dollo, Gimbii, Qoree, Biyyoo-Karaabaa, Asasaa, Kofale, Qoree, Geedoo, Baakkoo, Sarboo, Shashamannee, Kofalee, Adama, Asaasa, Shaambuu, Naqamte, Laaloo Asabii, Jimma, Machaaraa, Finci’a, Kombolcha, Xuullo, Dhangaggoo, Ciro, East Showa, Oliqaa Dingiluu, Qeellam, Haro Maaya, Dobba, Ginir, Habroo, Mattuufi Daarimu, Dirree Dawa, Geedoo, Galamsoo, Baddeessaa, Asaboot, Baddannoo, Mi’esso, Bordodde, Mandii, Daaroo Labuu, Gaadullo, Gololchaa, Calanqoo, Awwadaay, Baatee, Kaarra-Mille, haramaaya, Harar, Qobboo, Laangeey, Masala, Awash, Dhedheessaa, Guttiin, Haro Sabbuu and Gibee.
Student demonstrations and strikes have spread to other parts of Ethiopia including the Amhara regions of Gondar and Gojam. The government has arrested thousands of students and several teachers in many of the educational establishments. Some are killed during indiscriminate shootings.
Large contingents of the Ethiopian Special Forces have been stationed in Oromia since the beginning of the ongoing popular uprising. Reports that reached us since our last update indicate that the Ethiopian government has increased the presence of these Special Forces including the police, particularly in areas where demonstrations continue as a daily phenomenon. The forces have been ordered to control the uprising at all cost. These forces are indeed responsible for the abduction, torture, and killing of several innocent individuals. In addition to those killed during the preceding months and reported in our previous communiqué, 14 Oromos have been killed during the last one-month by TPLF agents in different parts of Oromia. We have also documented the abduction of 51 civilians and the torture of 109 students from Finci’a, Galamsoo, Mandii, Aradda Biliqa, Ciro, and Asaasa. Many have sustained major bodily injuries. The HRW in its press release of Jan 13, 2006 has reported about the torture of several Oromos, allegedly for supporting or sympathizing with the OLF.
The Ethiopian government has also detained thousands of elementary school children, and elders, – in many instances for the mere reason of wearing traditional Oromo clothes. Most of the people detained are in rural areas, far from the eyes of the international community and journalists. The rural population of Oromia is truly under a collective punishment. The HRW (see press release of January 13, 2006) has stated that Oromos are randomly picked at a bus checkpoint and detained. It is difficult to obtain accurate information on the number of detainees. Some reports reaching us from Oromia have suggested it could be in the tens of thousands.
Over the years, the OLF has registered and alerted the international community about the seriousness of this growing tension between the peoples of Ethiopia and the dictatorial government of Meles Zenawi, the Tigrean minority ruling class in particular. We have observed the rising brutality of the government and the alarming deterioration of the rule of law, which could rapidly culminate into a serious political chaos enticing anarchy and mass massacre. Once again, we call upon all concerned governments, the United States of America, the European Union, the UN, and other government and non-government agencies to stop supporting the Meles regime and take a swift action to thwart this looming tragedy.
External Information Division
Foreign Relations Department, Oromo Liberation Front
Why the Oromos are in a deadly struggle
COMMENTARY
Why the Oromo are in a deadly struggle
Story by FIDO EBBA Publication Date: 01/26/2006
The Oromo Liberation Front is compelled to respond to a letter by the Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya, Mr Murad Mussa, in reaction to an earlier, accurate report about the Oromo people and their legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination.
An informed reader could easily discern that the ambassador's letter was devoid of facts and full of intentional misrepresentation and misinformation.
He desperately attempted to portray the minority, tyrannical Ethiopian Government as democratic, and also laboured in vain to convince the readers that the right of self-determination of Oromo people is guaranteed by the regime's constitution.
It is well known that Ethiopia is constituted of diverse nations and nationalities. What is less known is that Ethiopia/Abyssinia stands alone as the only Black power that participated in the colonial scramble for Africa.
The Oromo people's experience under Ethiopian rule is the same as other African peoples under European colonial rulers.
To date, this colonial relation is maintained through use of force by the government that Mr Mussa represents.
Today, the subjugated peoples are struggling to reverse that order and the subjugators are acting to perpetuate the status quo.
In 1991, when Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown, leaders of various political organisations and communities, including the OLF, came together, adopted a Transitional Charter, and formed a transitional government.
Unfortunately, stiff resistance from the Tigrian People's Liberation Front (TPLF) met that initial enthusiasm.
Instead of striving to create new and equitable relations among the peoples in Ethiopia, the TPLF replaced the old order by a new type of domination, establishing the Tigrai minority political, economic and military monopoly of power.
After the collapse of the transitional arrangement, TPLF pushed out all credible organisations that would challenge its determination to establish minority rule. In so doing, they not only failed to resolve the Oromo question, but also closed all possible avenues for redressing legitimate grievances peacefully.
Every attempt by the OLF, friendly governments, and organisations to peacefully resolve the political problem between the OLF and the government has been rebuffed by the regime.
Today, the TPLF regime is engulfed in mutually reinforcing crises. Armed conflict, popular uprising, authoritarian governance, corruption, the misuse of natural resources, the HIV/Aids pandemic and a debilitating famine are besieging the country from different angles - a consequence of the TPLF's failed policies.
The country's grim situation is getting worse by the day. Appallingly, despite a decade of intensive reform efforts initiated and backed through substantial foreign financial assistance, the basic security and livelihood of the majority of peoples in Ethiopia remain highly deficient.
The plight and agony to which this minority regime is subjecting the Oromo people is unparalleled in history. Thousands of Oromo are currently languishing in prison for years without charge or trial.
Thousands of others have been kidnapped and many killed without due process of law. Thousands of Oromo are being forced to flee their homes to neighbouring countries for protection.
The government's acts of violence against the Oromo do not stop at the border.
Disregarding international law, the Ethiopian government soldiers have often crossed into the neighbouring countries to kidnap and kill innocent Oromo refugees.
The allegation that the OLF is the cause of conflict between communities in Northern Kenya is unfounded and malicious. It is rather the Ethiopian government, which arms one community against the other and incites cross-border violence. This is the regime that came to power through violence and perpetuates its rule through violence.
Mr Ebba heads the diplomacy division, Oromo Liberation Front.
Why the Oromo are in a deadly struggle
Story by FIDO EBBA Publication Date: 01/26/2006
The Oromo Liberation Front is compelled to respond to a letter by the Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya, Mr Murad Mussa, in reaction to an earlier, accurate report about the Oromo people and their legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination.
An informed reader could easily discern that the ambassador's letter was devoid of facts and full of intentional misrepresentation and misinformation.
He desperately attempted to portray the minority, tyrannical Ethiopian Government as democratic, and also laboured in vain to convince the readers that the right of self-determination of Oromo people is guaranteed by the regime's constitution.
It is well known that Ethiopia is constituted of diverse nations and nationalities. What is less known is that Ethiopia/Abyssinia stands alone as the only Black power that participated in the colonial scramble for Africa.
The Oromo people's experience under Ethiopian rule is the same as other African peoples under European colonial rulers.
To date, this colonial relation is maintained through use of force by the government that Mr Mussa represents.
Today, the subjugated peoples are struggling to reverse that order and the subjugators are acting to perpetuate the status quo.
In 1991, when Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown, leaders of various political organisations and communities, including the OLF, came together, adopted a Transitional Charter, and formed a transitional government.
Unfortunately, stiff resistance from the Tigrian People's Liberation Front (TPLF) met that initial enthusiasm.
Instead of striving to create new and equitable relations among the peoples in Ethiopia, the TPLF replaced the old order by a new type of domination, establishing the Tigrai minority political, economic and military monopoly of power.
After the collapse of the transitional arrangement, TPLF pushed out all credible organisations that would challenge its determination to establish minority rule. In so doing, they not only failed to resolve the Oromo question, but also closed all possible avenues for redressing legitimate grievances peacefully.
Every attempt by the OLF, friendly governments, and organisations to peacefully resolve the political problem between the OLF and the government has been rebuffed by the regime.
Today, the TPLF regime is engulfed in mutually reinforcing crises. Armed conflict, popular uprising, authoritarian governance, corruption, the misuse of natural resources, the HIV/Aids pandemic and a debilitating famine are besieging the country from different angles - a consequence of the TPLF's failed policies.
The country's grim situation is getting worse by the day. Appallingly, despite a decade of intensive reform efforts initiated and backed through substantial foreign financial assistance, the basic security and livelihood of the majority of peoples in Ethiopia remain highly deficient.
The plight and agony to which this minority regime is subjecting the Oromo people is unparalleled in history. Thousands of Oromo are currently languishing in prison for years without charge or trial.
Thousands of others have been kidnapped and many killed without due process of law. Thousands of Oromo are being forced to flee their homes to neighbouring countries for protection.
The government's acts of violence against the Oromo do not stop at the border.
Disregarding international law, the Ethiopian government soldiers have often crossed into the neighbouring countries to kidnap and kill innocent Oromo refugees.
The allegation that the OLF is the cause of conflict between communities in Northern Kenya is unfounded and malicious. It is rather the Ethiopian government, which arms one community against the other and incites cross-border violence. This is the regime that came to power through violence and perpetuates its rule through violence.
Mr Ebba heads the diplomacy division, Oromo Liberation Front.
January 22, 2006
Oromo Uprising Nearing Three Months
January 20, 2006
[ Home ] [ Press Release ]
Press Release Oromo Uprising Nearing Three Months
The Oromo people have continued the popular uprising that started on Nov. 9, 2005 in protest to the Ethiopian regime’s gross violation of fundamental human rights. To date we have issued four reports detailing the atrocities perpetuated against peaceful demonstrators by the government. This fifth one is an update on the continued suppression of human rights, the basic freedom of the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia, and the ruthless measures Meles’ government is taking to stifle the popular uprising.
The underlying popular demands of the people remain the same: respect for human dignity and basic freedom, equality in the court of law, rights to self determination, release of all Oromo political prisoners, reinstatement of the Mecha Tullama self help Association, legalization of Oromo Relief Association, and etc. The people have acknowledged the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) as the sole representative of the Oromo people. They have demonstrated their support for the OLF in many parts of the country by replacing government banners by that of the OLF. Typical slogans read “OLF means Oromo and Oromo means OLF”. Such wide spread support for the OLF has invoked even more brutal reaction from the government. Summary and indiscriminate executions, torture, abductions, and unlawful imprisonment of peaceful people have become all too common. According to the Human Right Watch (HRW) report of January 13, 2006, intimidation and arbitrary detention of the Oromo people have intensified in rural areas.
High school and college students continue to join the popular uprising in increasing numbers. They have drawn attention to their demands by distributing pamphlets, staging hunger strike, and shaving their hair as a sign of mourning for peers killed by government agents. In areas where such protests have intensified, the government has closed schools in fear of further demonstrations. Daily demonstrations and strikes are going on all over Oromia including in Ambo, Xiqur-Incinni, Dambi Dollo, Gimbii, Qoree, Biyyoo-Karaabaa, Asasaa, Kofale, Qoree, Geedoo, Baakkoo, Sarboo, Shashamannee, Kofalee, Adama, Asaasa, Shaambuu, Naqamte, Laaloo Asabii, Jimma, Machaaraa, Finci’a, Kombolcha, Xuullo, Dhangaggoo, Ciro, East Showa, Oliqaa Dingiluu, Qeellam, Haro Maaya, Dobba, Ginir, Habroo, Mattuufi Daarimu, Dirree Dawa, Geedoo, Galamsoo, Baddeessaa, Asaboot, Baddannoo, Mi’esso, Bordodde, Mandii, Daaroo Labuu, Gaadullo, Gololchaa, Calanqoo, Awwadaay, Baatee, Kaarra-Mille, haramaaya, Harar, Qobboo, Laangeey, Masala, Awash, Dhedheessaa, Guttiin, Haro Sabbuu and Gibee.
Student demonstrations and strikes have spread to other parts of Ethiopia including the Amhara regions of Gondar and Gojam. The government has arrested thousands of students and several teachers in many of the educational establishments. Some are killed during indiscriminate shootings.
Large contingents of the Ethiopian Special Forces have been stationed in Oromia since the beginning of the ongoing popular uprising. Reports that reached us since our last update indicate that the Ethiopian government has increased the presence of these Special Forces including the police, particularly in areas where demonstrations continue as a daily phenomenon. The forces have been ordered to control the uprising at all cost. These forces are indeed responsible for the abduction, torture, and killing of several innocent individuals. In addition to those killed during the preceding months and reported in our previous communiqué, 14 Oromos have been killed during the last one-month by TPLF agents in different parts of Oromia. We have also documented the abduction of 51 civilians and the torture of 109 students from Finci’a, Galamsoo, Mandii, Aradda Biliqa, Ciro, and Asaasa. Many have sustained major bodily injuries. The HRW in its press release of Jan 13, 2006 has reported about the torture of several Oromos, allegedly for supporting or sympathizing with the OLF.
The Ethiopian government has also detained thousands of elementary school children, and elders, – in many instances for the mere reason of wearing traditional Oromo clothes. Most of the people detained are in rural areas, far from the eyes of the international community and journalists. The rural population of Oromia is truly under a collective punishment. The HRW (see press release of January 13, 2006) has stated that Oromos are randomly picked at a bus checkpoint and detained. It is difficult to obtain accurate information on the number of detainees. Some reports reaching us from Oromia have suggested it could be in the tens of thousands.
Over the years, the OLF has registered and alerted the international community about the seriousness of this growing tension between the peoples of Ethiopia and the dictatorial government of Meles Zenawi, the Tigrean minority ruling class in particular. We have observed the rising brutality of the government and the alarming deterioration of the rule of law, which could rapidly culminate into a serious political chaos enticing anarchy and mass massacre. Once again, we call upon all concerned governments, the United States of America, the European Union, the UN, and other government and non-government agencies to stop supporting the Meles regime and take a swift action to thwart this looming tragedy.
Victory to the Oromo people
Oromo Liberation Front
January 20, 2006
==
For more information, contact:Oromo Liberation FrontDepartment of InformationP. O. Box 73247, Washington, DC 20056Tel: (202) 462-5477 ext. 202 Fax: (202) 332-7011
News from Oromia: Odeessa Kibba Bahaa Oromiyaa irraa
Odeessa biyyaa
Amajjii 20, 2006 (Oromiyaa) – odeessa Kibba Bahaa oromiyaa
Ayyaana Arafaa irratti Sabboontotni Oromoo Naannoo Shaashamannee mararfannoo fi kabajaa dhaaba isaanii ABO f qaban Alaabaa faajjii bilisummaa Oromoo qabatanii akeekkachiisa Wayyaanonni akka alaabaa kana hin qabannee itti dabarsan cabsuun agarsiisanii jiru. Sabboontonni kun nuyi alaabaa dhaaba keenyaa hin lagannu jechuun bakka Ayyaana kabajatanii bahanii Magaalaa keessa qabatanii deemanii suuraa kaafataa diina garaa gubanii jiru.
Gara biraan gargaarsa Uummata Musiliimaaf alarraa argame namoonni Siraaji fi Mahaammad Badhaasoo I/G dhimma Muziliimaa Aanaa Shaashamannee uummata irraa gara dabarsuun wayyaaneef kennanii jiru;haala kanaan Sangaa lama Mana Poolisa Magaalaaf ,Sangaa lama mana Poolisaa Baadiyyaaf kennanii jiru.Gochaa kana uummatni haalaan balaaleffatee jira.
Gama biraan Amajjii 12-16,2006 tti Magaala Shaashamanneetti Mata duree 'Magaalota Oromiyaa Haa Misoomsinu' jedhuun Oromoota Godinoota Oromiyaa adda addaa irraa walitti qabuun walgahii wayyaanonni yaalan yaada mormii Sabboontotni Oromoo dhiyeessaniin fashalee wayyaaneen kisaaraan jaleewwan ishee waliin walitti buuteetti.Haaluma kanaan Sabboontotni Oromoo Oromiyaa uumamaanuu badhaatuu turte isintu hiyyoomse /deegse malee waan misoomsitan hin qabadani,kijiba nurraa dhaabaa jedhanii waltajjicha dhiitanii bahuun fashalsiisaniiru.
Injifannoon Ummata Oromoof!!
Opinions published on News and Views section of this site are those of the authors and not necessarily that of OLF.
Copyright ©2005 ABO/OLF All Rights Reserved Email Webmaster olfinfodesk@earthlink.net
Amajjii 20, 2006 (Oromiyaa) – odeessa Kibba Bahaa oromiyaa
Ayyaana Arafaa irratti Sabboontotni Oromoo Naannoo Shaashamannee mararfannoo fi kabajaa dhaaba isaanii ABO f qaban Alaabaa faajjii bilisummaa Oromoo qabatanii akeekkachiisa Wayyaanonni akka alaabaa kana hin qabannee itti dabarsan cabsuun agarsiisanii jiru. Sabboontonni kun nuyi alaabaa dhaaba keenyaa hin lagannu jechuun bakka Ayyaana kabajatanii bahanii Magaalaa keessa qabatanii deemanii suuraa kaafataa diina garaa gubanii jiru.
Gara biraan gargaarsa Uummata Musiliimaaf alarraa argame namoonni Siraaji fi Mahaammad Badhaasoo I/G dhimma Muziliimaa Aanaa Shaashamannee uummata irraa gara dabarsuun wayyaaneef kennanii jiru;haala kanaan Sangaa lama Mana Poolisa Magaalaaf ,Sangaa lama mana Poolisaa Baadiyyaaf kennanii jiru.Gochaa kana uummatni haalaan balaaleffatee jira.
Gama biraan Amajjii 12-16,2006 tti Magaala Shaashamanneetti Mata duree 'Magaalota Oromiyaa Haa Misoomsinu' jedhuun Oromoota Godinoota Oromiyaa adda addaa irraa walitti qabuun walgahii wayyaanonni yaalan yaada mormii Sabboontotni Oromoo dhiyeessaniin fashalee wayyaaneen kisaaraan jaleewwan ishee waliin walitti buuteetti.Haaluma kanaan Sabboontotni Oromoo Oromiyaa uumamaanuu badhaatuu turte isintu hiyyoomse /deegse malee waan misoomsitan hin qabadani,kijiba nurraa dhaabaa jedhanii waltajjicha dhiitanii bahuun fashalsiisaniiru.
Injifannoon Ummata Oromoof!!
Opinions published on News and Views section of this site are those of the authors and not necessarily that of OLF.
Copyright ©2005 ABO/OLF All Rights Reserved Email Webmaster olfinfodesk@earthlink.net
Oromo rebels claim killing 11 Ethiopian soldiers
Oromo rebels claim killing 11 Ethiopian soldiers
Sunday 22 January 2006 00:07.
Jan 20, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — In a military operations against Ethiopian government forces, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters operating in southeastern Oromia zone have put 11 Ethiopian soldiers out of action and captured seven AKM rifles.
OLA is the armed wing of rebel Oromo Liberation Front , (OLF).
On 13 January 2006, OLA fighters killed six government soldiers and wounded four others at Dhare in the district of Ginir. They also captured seven AKM rifles in the attack, said the Opposition radio Voice of Oromo Liberation translated by the BBC MS.
On 17 January 2006 OLA attacked Ethiopian forces at Dhadacha Tokicha in the district of Goro, wounding one soldier. OLA fighters evicted government soldiers from the site.
A week ago OLA units operating in western Oromia repulsed Ethiopian government military offensive.
In a statement OLA western zonal commander had said that over 30 enemy soldiers were killed and over 45 were wounded in that fighting.
(ST)
Sunday 22 January 2006 00:07.
Jan 20, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — In a military operations against Ethiopian government forces, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters operating in southeastern Oromia zone have put 11 Ethiopian soldiers out of action and captured seven AKM rifles.
OLA is the armed wing of rebel Oromo Liberation Front , (OLF).
On 13 January 2006, OLA fighters killed six government soldiers and wounded four others at Dhare in the district of Ginir. They also captured seven AKM rifles in the attack, said the Opposition radio Voice of Oromo Liberation translated by the BBC MS.
On 17 January 2006 OLA attacked Ethiopian forces at Dhadacha Tokicha in the district of Goro, wounding one soldier. OLA fighters evicted government soldiers from the site.
A week ago OLA units operating in western Oromia repulsed Ethiopian government military offensive.
In a statement OLA western zonal commander had said that over 30 enemy soldiers were killed and over 45 were wounded in that fighting.
(ST)
Ethiopia orders British reporter to leave country
Ethiopia orders British reporter to leave country
Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:32 PM GMT
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has ordered a British journalist to leave the country within 24 hours, accusing him of portraying it in a bad light, state television said on Saturday.
Anthony Mitchell, who worked for the Associated Press, was summoned to the foreign ministry and told to leave.
"Anthony Mitchell has been asked to leave the country in the next 24 hours because of disseminating information tarnishing the image of the country despite repeated advice not to do so," the television said.
Associated Press Managing Editor Mike Silverman said the news agency was aware of the order and was seeking clarification. "We stand by our reporter and we hope he will be able to remain in the country," he said in a statement.
Western diplomats were making efforts to dissuade the government from expelling Mitchell, diplomatic sources said.
Ethiopian television did not elaborate on the reasons for ordering him out of the country.
The expulsion order was announced a day after a procession by tens of thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians turned violent in the capital Addis Ababa, with police opening fire at crowds, injuring more than 20 people, according to witnesses.
Police said they acted after an unidentified person threw a grenade at them, adding it missed and killed a civilian.
The announcement of the expulsion coincided with a visit to Addis Ababa of the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, who is mediating in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Frazer met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi earlier on Saturday, the television said.
Once hailed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton as "part of a new generation of leaders" for Africa and a key member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Africa Commission in 2005, Meles' democratic credentials have suffered in the last year.
A disputed May election sparked bloody protests and a security crackdown in which more than 80 people were killed and top opposition leaders and journalists were arrested on treason charges.
Britain said on Wednesday it would stop budget support worth at least 50 million pounds to Ethiopia because of concerns over governance and human rights.© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:32 PM GMT
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has ordered a British journalist to leave the country within 24 hours, accusing him of portraying it in a bad light, state television said on Saturday.
Anthony Mitchell, who worked for the Associated Press, was summoned to the foreign ministry and told to leave.
"Anthony Mitchell has been asked to leave the country in the next 24 hours because of disseminating information tarnishing the image of the country despite repeated advice not to do so," the television said.
Associated Press Managing Editor Mike Silverman said the news agency was aware of the order and was seeking clarification. "We stand by our reporter and we hope he will be able to remain in the country," he said in a statement.
Western diplomats were making efforts to dissuade the government from expelling Mitchell, diplomatic sources said.
Ethiopian television did not elaborate on the reasons for ordering him out of the country.
The expulsion order was announced a day after a procession by tens of thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians turned violent in the capital Addis Ababa, with police opening fire at crowds, injuring more than 20 people, according to witnesses.
Police said they acted after an unidentified person threw a grenade at them, adding it missed and killed a civilian.
The announcement of the expulsion coincided with a visit to Addis Ababa of the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, who is mediating in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Frazer met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi earlier on Saturday, the television said.
Once hailed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton as "part of a new generation of leaders" for Africa and a key member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Africa Commission in 2005, Meles' democratic credentials have suffered in the last year.
A disputed May election sparked bloody protests and a security crackdown in which more than 80 people were killed and top opposition leaders and journalists were arrested on treason charges.
Britain said on Wednesday it would stop budget support worth at least 50 million pounds to Ethiopia because of concerns over governance and human rights.© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
AP correspondent asked to leave Ethiopia in 24 hours
AP correspondent asked to leave Ethiopia in 24 hours
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-22 02:20:50
ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopia's Ministry of Information announced Saturday it was decided that the Associated Press correspondent in Ethiopia leave the country in 24 hours for "tarnishing the image of the nation, repeatedly contravening journalism ethics."
In an official statement, the Press License and Control Department with the ministry said it was decided that AP correspondent Anthony Mitchell be expelled from the country for "disseminating information far from the truth about Ethiopia."
"Though the correspondent was given repeated advice and reprimand for his misbehavior by the ministry, he continued to disseminate information bent on tarnishing the image of the country," said the statement.
Accordingly, the ministry ordered the journalist be expelled from Ethiopia in 24 hours.
As an AP correspondent, Mitchell was in Ethiopia for four years. He is also working for IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service. Enditem
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-22 02:20:50
ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopia's Ministry of Information announced Saturday it was decided that the Associated Press correspondent in Ethiopia leave the country in 24 hours for "tarnishing the image of the nation, repeatedly contravening journalism ethics."
In an official statement, the Press License and Control Department with the ministry said it was decided that AP correspondent Anthony Mitchell be expelled from the country for "disseminating information far from the truth about Ethiopia."
"Though the correspondent was given repeated advice and reprimand for his misbehavior by the ministry, he continued to disseminate information bent on tarnishing the image of the country," said the statement.
Accordingly, the ministry ordered the journalist be expelled from Ethiopia in 24 hours.
As an AP correspondent, Mitchell was in Ethiopia for four years. He is also working for IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service. Enditem
'You can't eat peace'
'You can't eat peace'
Mogadishu, Somalia
22 January 2006 09:21
Tens of thousands of desperate Somalis have converged on Mogadishu over the past two months, abandoning their homes in the lawless nation's drought-stricken south and centre to beg for food in the capital as famine looms across East Africa.Since December, more than 76 000 hungry, thirsty and ailing peasants and pastoralists from at least five of the war-shattered country's worst-hit provinces have trekked to the mean streets of the bullet-scarred city in search of sustenance, according to aid workers who expect the numbers to rise."This is the beginning," Nicholas Haan, of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) food-security assessment unit, said on Friday in the capital of neighbouring Kenya. "More people will do the same trip in search of food and water."Sheikh Mohamud Omar, who arrived in Mogadishu from his village near Baidoa in south-western Bay province eight weeks ago, tells excruciating tales of deprivation in his home region."One meal a day was standard for the past six months, but even that meagre food is disappearing and people are heading towards maybe one meal every two or three days," he said."What we expect there soon is no meal at all and starvation," Omar said as he stood near a market stall, predicting that many -- mainly women, children and elderly -- would not survive the drought in Bay and neighbouring Bakol province without an immediate infusion of outside assistance.Extreme difficultiesWhile the FAO says up to 11-million people in four nations -- Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia -- are deemed at imminent risk of starvation, the nearly two million affected Somalis face perhaps the most extreme difficulties.With virtually no infrastructure for relief distribution, piracy cutting ocean-going food-aid supply lines, rampant instability from 15 years of anarchy and its worst harvest in more than a decade, Somalia has become the poster child for the Horn of Africa drought disaster, officials say."We are facing a humanitarian challenge of historic dimensions," the UN special envoy for Somalia, Francois Fall, said last week, warning of "extraordinary suffering and loss of life".The recent movements have raised fears that the chronic unrest that Somalia has suffered for more than a decade could get worse as livestock die in increasing numbers, crops fail and farmers and herders compete for rapidly diminishing food and water or leave for the city."The number of people migrating is increasing [and] may lead to violence," FAO nutritionist Noreen Prendeville told reporters in Nairobi.Yet impoverished and insecure Mogadishu, the epicentre of the anarchic violence that has engulfed Somalia for the past 15 years, is far from a welcoming destination for many of the new arrivals who brush shoulders with heavily armed militiamen clustered around markets and squares."I abandoned the horror of hunger, but finding shelter is difficult here," said Ahmed Abdulle Mumin, who fled Bakol with his wife and two children and whose family is now entirely dependent on hand-outs."There are too many of us to be helped," lamented Asha Adan, a mother of three who was begging nearby and grew annoyed with a reporter's interruptions. "We don't want to hear your questions; I need food, do you have any?"OverwhelmedIndeed, the huge influx of their hungry country cousins has taken many in Mogadishu aback, overwhelmed rudimentary social services offered by private aid groups and taxed Islamic traditions of hospitality and charity among residents who already had little to offer."The local agencies are powerless, they have no money," said Medina Elmi, the chairperson of Mogadishu's Save Somali Women and Children organisation, in comments echoed by others."Cash is short and even though the people coming to Mogadishu are hungry, there are many people here that are too," said local journalist Hassan Dusos."We can hardly support the huge number of beggars," said Ali Muhyadin Ahmed, a stall owner at Mogadishu's main Bakara market. "We are eating less just to keep our businesses running."But hunger keeps the Mogadishu migration moving, even from relatively calm areas of the country."What is making us flee is not violence," said Hasan Ibrahim, a 65-year-old retired soldier who is suffering from tuberculosis and came to Mogadishu from Bakol. "Where I was it was peaceful, but you can't eat peace." -- Sapa-AFP
Mogadishu, Somalia
22 January 2006 09:21
Tens of thousands of desperate Somalis have converged on Mogadishu over the past two months, abandoning their homes in the lawless nation's drought-stricken south and centre to beg for food in the capital as famine looms across East Africa.Since December, more than 76 000 hungry, thirsty and ailing peasants and pastoralists from at least five of the war-shattered country's worst-hit provinces have trekked to the mean streets of the bullet-scarred city in search of sustenance, according to aid workers who expect the numbers to rise."This is the beginning," Nicholas Haan, of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) food-security assessment unit, said on Friday in the capital of neighbouring Kenya. "More people will do the same trip in search of food and water."Sheikh Mohamud Omar, who arrived in Mogadishu from his village near Baidoa in south-western Bay province eight weeks ago, tells excruciating tales of deprivation in his home region."One meal a day was standard for the past six months, but even that meagre food is disappearing and people are heading towards maybe one meal every two or three days," he said."What we expect there soon is no meal at all and starvation," Omar said as he stood near a market stall, predicting that many -- mainly women, children and elderly -- would not survive the drought in Bay and neighbouring Bakol province without an immediate infusion of outside assistance.Extreme difficultiesWhile the FAO says up to 11-million people in four nations -- Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia -- are deemed at imminent risk of starvation, the nearly two million affected Somalis face perhaps the most extreme difficulties.With virtually no infrastructure for relief distribution, piracy cutting ocean-going food-aid supply lines, rampant instability from 15 years of anarchy and its worst harvest in more than a decade, Somalia has become the poster child for the Horn of Africa drought disaster, officials say."We are facing a humanitarian challenge of historic dimensions," the UN special envoy for Somalia, Francois Fall, said last week, warning of "extraordinary suffering and loss of life".The recent movements have raised fears that the chronic unrest that Somalia has suffered for more than a decade could get worse as livestock die in increasing numbers, crops fail and farmers and herders compete for rapidly diminishing food and water or leave for the city."The number of people migrating is increasing [and] may lead to violence," FAO nutritionist Noreen Prendeville told reporters in Nairobi.Yet impoverished and insecure Mogadishu, the epicentre of the anarchic violence that has engulfed Somalia for the past 15 years, is far from a welcoming destination for many of the new arrivals who brush shoulders with heavily armed militiamen clustered around markets and squares."I abandoned the horror of hunger, but finding shelter is difficult here," said Ahmed Abdulle Mumin, who fled Bakol with his wife and two children and whose family is now entirely dependent on hand-outs."There are too many of us to be helped," lamented Asha Adan, a mother of three who was begging nearby and grew annoyed with a reporter's interruptions. "We don't want to hear your questions; I need food, do you have any?"OverwhelmedIndeed, the huge influx of their hungry country cousins has taken many in Mogadishu aback, overwhelmed rudimentary social services offered by private aid groups and taxed Islamic traditions of hospitality and charity among residents who already had little to offer."The local agencies are powerless, they have no money," said Medina Elmi, the chairperson of Mogadishu's Save Somali Women and Children organisation, in comments echoed by others."Cash is short and even though the people coming to Mogadishu are hungry, there are many people here that are too," said local journalist Hassan Dusos."We can hardly support the huge number of beggars," said Ali Muhyadin Ahmed, a stall owner at Mogadishu's main Bakara market. "We are eating less just to keep our businesses running."But hunger keeps the Mogadishu migration moving, even from relatively calm areas of the country."What is making us flee is not violence," said Hasan Ibrahim, a 65-year-old retired soldier who is suffering from tuberculosis and came to Mogadishu from Bakol. "Where I was it was peaceful, but you can't eat peace." -- Sapa-AFP
January 21, 2006
Police fire on protesters in Ethiopian capital
Police fire on protesters in Ethiopian capital
Friday, January 20, 2006; Posted: 2:44 p.m. EST (19:44 GMT)
var clickExpire = "02/19/2006";
Nurses clean a wound Friday in the neck of Wubishet Solomon, 16, in an Addis Ababa hospital.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police opened fire on demonstrators in the Ethiopian capital on Friday, leaving at least one person dead and 33 wounded as religious processions became political protests for a second day. At least seven officers were injured.
A police official said protesters threw a grenade at officers, while witnesses said protesters threw stones. A witness said the demonstrators were denouncing the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for being aligned with the ruling party.
Demonstrations were reported in neighborhoods across Addis Ababa, and riot police were driving through the city. Some of the police trucks appeared to be carrying people wounded from the clashes.
A senior police officer said a hand grenade was thrown at a patrol providing security for a religious procession, injuring three officers.
"The problem started when this hand grenade was thrown by unidentified people during the religious celebration in Yeka Michael church. Police were trying to cool down the problem where some people were injured," the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not the official police spokesman.
Four more officers were injured in the ensuing clashes, and one civilian died from a gunshot wound, he added. There were no immediate arrest figures.
Doctors at the main Menelik Hospital said they were treating 20 people with gunshot wounds, and two of them were in surgery. Other hospitals also reported receiving six more wounded people, but none of the doctors would identify themselves for fear of arrest.
"The majority of them are shot in the legs and in the chest, but there are a few shot in the head. They are getting treatment so I can't tell you the figure," one doctor said in between treating patients.
Some of those being treated said the police opened fire indiscriminately.
"I don't really know what was happening to me. I was shot by the police twice, one on my stomach and one on my throat," said 16-year-old Wubishet Solomon, who said he was listening to religious music when the shooting started.
Other witnesses said protesters were throwing stones and the police responded with gunfire.
The protesters were shouting slogans denouncing the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, who was leading the religious observations, one witness said, also asking not to be named for fear of retribution.
The church patriarch, Abune Paulos, has been criticized by opposition supporters for being too close to Ethiopia's ruling party.
Minor protests began Thursday afternoon during Timkat, one of Ethiopia's most important religious observances.
Traditionally, tens of thousands of members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church march through the streets carrying replicas of the Ark of the Covenant, which they believe is kept safe in northern Ethiopia.
During Thursday's protests, marchers began chanting opposition political slogans and throwing stones at police, a police statement said.
The police used live ammunition to quell the demonstrations, shooting one man in the pelvis and leaving three others seriously wounded, the injured man, Pedros Gizaw, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The clashes began the day after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer arrived in the country, and after Hillary Benn, Britain's international development secretary, cut all of his country's aid to Ethiopia's government because of serious concerns about Ethiopia's commitment to good governance and human rights.
Political unrest in Ethiopia began in June 2005 following disputed elections that returned the governing party to power and led to 88 protesters being killed by security forces.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ordered the arrest of most senior opposition leaders and the editors of several independent newspapers. They have been charged with treason and genocide, a move that has sparked international criticism.
He also has banned political demonstrations, but opposition supporters appear to be mounting protests under the cover of Timkat, which was scheduled to end Friday.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
2 killed, 14 injured in Ethiopian unrest: police
2 killed, 14 injured in Ethiopian unrest: police
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-21 15:15:32
ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Two civilians were killed and 14 policemen injured here as a result of bomb attack and stoning by "irresponsible individuals" while Orthodox followers were escorting the Ark of the Covenant replicas to their respective churches, police said Saturday.
Several policemen were injured by a bomb as well as a number ofstones thrown against the faithful and security forces while accompanying the Ark of the Covenant replicas to a church around apolice station in an area called Ferensay, said a statement issued from the Addis Ababa Police Commission.
On Friday, celebrations of Timkat went into the second and final day. On the second day of Timkat, the Ark of the Covenant replicas are returned to the churches in which they are held.
Timkat, a colorful religious festival celebrating the baptism of Jesus Chris, ranks second in importance only to Christmas for Ethiopia's 40 million Orthodox Church followers and draws tens of thousands into Addis Ababa's streets each January 19 and 20.
An individual died in the premise of the church in a stampede caused when the irresponsible individuals threw stones at the faithful at Ferensay, said the police statement.
Similarly, an individual died in stampede when illegal persons threw stones at the faithful and the Ark of the Covenant replicas at the gate of a church popularly called Addisu Michael, it said.
Seven policemen injured while 17 vehicles were shattered with stones thrown by irresponsible individuals in the area locally called Sholla Gebeya as the faithful accompanying the Ark of the Covenant replicas to their respective churches, it said.
Furthermore, 17 windows at a nearby health center were smashed while some property of a police station suffered damage, police said.
The ceremony continued after police and the public brought law and order by picking up illegal individuals, according to police.
In the statement, police commended the efforts demonstrated by the faithful in picking up suspects bent on disturbing the ceremony.
Some 42 individuals were apprehended and a team was set up to investigate the case.
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-21 15:15:32
ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Two civilians were killed and 14 policemen injured here as a result of bomb attack and stoning by "irresponsible individuals" while Orthodox followers were escorting the Ark of the Covenant replicas to their respective churches, police said Saturday.
Several policemen were injured by a bomb as well as a number ofstones thrown against the faithful and security forces while accompanying the Ark of the Covenant replicas to a church around apolice station in an area called Ferensay, said a statement issued from the Addis Ababa Police Commission.
On Friday, celebrations of Timkat went into the second and final day. On the second day of Timkat, the Ark of the Covenant replicas are returned to the churches in which they are held.
Timkat, a colorful religious festival celebrating the baptism of Jesus Chris, ranks second in importance only to Christmas for Ethiopia's 40 million Orthodox Church followers and draws tens of thousands into Addis Ababa's streets each January 19 and 20.
An individual died in the premise of the church in a stampede caused when the irresponsible individuals threw stones at the faithful at Ferensay, said the police statement.
Similarly, an individual died in stampede when illegal persons threw stones at the faithful and the Ark of the Covenant replicas at the gate of a church popularly called Addisu Michael, it said.
Seven policemen injured while 17 vehicles were shattered with stones thrown by irresponsible individuals in the area locally called Sholla Gebeya as the faithful accompanying the Ark of the Covenant replicas to their respective churches, it said.
Furthermore, 17 windows at a nearby health center were smashed while some property of a police station suffered damage, police said.
The ceremony continued after police and the public brought law and order by picking up illegal individuals, according to police.
In the statement, police commended the efforts demonstrated by the faithful in picking up suspects bent on disturbing the ceremony.
Some 42 individuals were apprehended and a team was set up to investigate the case.
January 20, 2006
HRW World Report 2006 on Human Rights Violations in Ethiopian Empire
Country Summary HRW January 2006
Ethiopia
The aftermath of Ethiopia's landmark May 2005 parliamentary elections has laid bare the deeply entrenched patterns of political repression, human rights abuse and impunity that characterize the day-to-day reality of governance in much of the country. This dispiriting reality has come as a shock to many international observers who had viewed the electoral process with a great deal of optimism. The run-up to the May elections witnessed displays of openness and genuine political competition unprecedented in Ethiopia's long history. But many Ethiopians experienced these limited openings in a context still dominated by heavy-handed government efforts to suppress and punish any form of political dissent. Worse, the aftermath of the May elections has been marred by seemingly intractable controversy and displays of government brutality that threaten to reverse the gains yielded by the electoral process.
Post-election Uncertainty and Violence
Official tallies in the weeks following the May 15 voting indicated that opposition parties had made enormous gains in parliament but had fallen well short of obtaining a majority. The largest opposition coalition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), refused to accept those results, alleging that it had been robbed of outright victory by widespread government fraud. The government, in turn, has accused the CUD of conspiring to overthrow the government by force. At the time of writing, a full five months after the elections, it is still unclear whether the CUD will take its seats in parliament.
These tensions exploded in early June, when protests broke out in Addis Ababa in defiance of a government ban on public assemblies. Police and military forces responded with excessive force, killing at least thirty-six unarmed civilians and wounding more than 100. Security forces then arrested several thousand opposition supporters throughout the country. In November negotiations between the government and leading opposition parties broke down, sparking a fresh wave of protests. Ethiopian security forces again reacted with brutality, killing at least 46 people and arresting more than 4000 in Addis Ababa and other towns. The government then ordered the arrest of several dozen opposition politicians, journalists, editors and civil society activists. Ethiopian authorities have indicated that several among them are likely to face charges of treason, which carries a potential sentence of death under Ethiopian law.
Political Repression
Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent. For more than a decade, authorities in the country's vast Oromia region have used exaggerated concerns about armed insurgency and "terrorism" to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens. Student protests in 2004 at Addis Ababa University and in secondary schools throughout Oromia led to the arrest of hundreds of students, many of whom were mistreated while in custody. Ever since the protests and throughout 2005, regional officials in Oromia have gone to oppressive lengths to monitor and control the speech and conduct of students and teachers alike.
In rural areas in Oromia, local officials often threaten to withhold vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer from impoverished farmers if they speak out against them or their policies. In other cases, local officials selectively enforce harsh penalties for the non- repayment of debts to justify the imprisonment of their critics or the seizure of their property. In the months prior to the May 2005 elections, regional officials in Oromia created new quasi-governmental structures used to subject the rural population to intense levels of surveillance and to impose restrictions on farmers' freedoms of movement, association and speech.
Abuses Committed by the Ethiopian Armed Forces
The Ethiopian government has taken no meaningful action to address widespread atrocities committed by Ethiopian military forces in the remote southwestern region of Gambella. Federal authorities have refused even to investigate human rights abuses so severe that they may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and continue to allow the authors of those crimes the enjoyment of near-total impunity.
In December 2003, military personnel joined civilian mobs in a rampage through indigenous Anuak neighborhoods in Gambella town, murdering as many as 424 Anuak civilians. In the months that followed, Ethiopian military forces subjected Anuak communities throughout the region to widespread and systematic acts of murder, rape, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and the destruction of entire villages. The immediate trigger for these abuses was a series of attacks in 2004 by Anuak civilians against civilians on other ethnic groups in the area.
A government-sponsored Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the December 2003 violence in Gambella town resulted in a whitewash, and since then the government has refused even to investigate any of the abuses that have taken place throughout the region since early 2004. Reports of ongoing abuses continued to emerge from Gambella in 2005, albeit on a smaller scale than the violence in late 2003 and 2004.
Security forces frequently arrest civilians in other parts of Ethiopia, claiming they are members of the Oromo Liberation Front in Oromia state or the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya in Somali state. Few of those arrested are brought to trial. Some are released; others are kept in arbitrary detention for prolonged periods, often without a hearing or cause shown, sometimes incommunicado. Frequent reports of extrajudicial executions and torture emerge from Somali region, but access to the region has been restricted by the military to such a degree that these reports are impossible to confirm.
Restrictions on the Press
Many independent journalists, editors and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books. In June 2005, the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of five Ethiopian journalists working for the Voice of America and Radio Deutsche-Welle because it disapproved of their coverage of the elections and the post-election controversy.
Judicial Delay
The courts in Ethiopia often step in to order the release of government critics jailed on trumped-up charges of treason or armed insurrection. However, judicial action often occurs only after unreasonably long delays, both because of the courts' enormous workload and because of excessive judicial deference to bad faith police requests for additional time to produce evidence. In addition, courts have shown themselves far less likely to contest prolonged pretrial detention in high-profile cases that have the attention of high-level federal officials.
Fourteen years after the overthrow of the former military government (the Derg), several thousand of its former officials remain jailed awaiting trial, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and major felonies. Former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, on trial in absentia, remains a guest of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, with little chance of being held accountable for his abuses so long as he remains there.
Local Human Rights Defenders
Ethiopia has only one large, nationwide human rights organization, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). Government officials routinely accuse the organization of working to advance an anti-government political agenda and its staff and ordinary members are often subjected to harassment and intimidation by local officials and members of the security forces. In June 2005, three EHRCO investigators were arrested and taken to military detention camps because of their efforts to document the human toll of the government's post-election crackdown. All three were subsequently released but were threatened with future criminal proceedings.
Another human rights organization, the Human Rights League, reopened its offices in March 2005 after winning a protracted court battle against government efforts to ban its operations. It remains to be seen whether the organization will be allowed to operate free of government interference.
Key International Actors
Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the United States in its "war on terrorism," and Washington has generally been unwilling to apply meaningful pressure on the Ethiopian government over its human rights record. The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. The U.S. military, operating primarily out of a base in
Djibouti, cooperates closely with the Ethiopian armed forces in counterterrorism efforts and capacity building work. The United States is also the largest donor of bilateral aid in Ethiopia.
Other Western donors have also been reluctant to criticize Ethiopia's human rights record and have in many respects actually embraced the Ethiopian government as something of a model for Africa. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to play a leading role on Blair's Commission for Africa, which was charged with finding solutions to some of the continent's most intractable problems. There is no indication that donors' unusually robust criticism following the postelection crackdown in Addis Ababa will translate into a sustained willingness to be more vocal in demanding that the federal government respect human rights.
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) maintains approximately 3300 troops and military observers along the twenty-five kilometer-wide armistice buffer line between the two countries. In September 2005 the Security Council voted to extend UNMEE's mandate through March 2006, as tensions remain high between the two countries (see Eritrea chapter).
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, New York 10118-3299 Tel. +1 212 216 1200 Fax +1 212 736 1300 www.hrw.org
Ethiopia
The aftermath of Ethiopia's landmark May 2005 parliamentary elections has laid bare the deeply entrenched patterns of political repression, human rights abuse and impunity that characterize the day-to-day reality of governance in much of the country. This dispiriting reality has come as a shock to many international observers who had viewed the electoral process with a great deal of optimism. The run-up to the May elections witnessed displays of openness and genuine political competition unprecedented in Ethiopia's long history. But many Ethiopians experienced these limited openings in a context still dominated by heavy-handed government efforts to suppress and punish any form of political dissent. Worse, the aftermath of the May elections has been marred by seemingly intractable controversy and displays of government brutality that threaten to reverse the gains yielded by the electoral process.
Post-election Uncertainty and Violence
Official tallies in the weeks following the May 15 voting indicated that opposition parties had made enormous gains in parliament but had fallen well short of obtaining a majority. The largest opposition coalition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), refused to accept those results, alleging that it had been robbed of outright victory by widespread government fraud. The government, in turn, has accused the CUD of conspiring to overthrow the government by force. At the time of writing, a full five months after the elections, it is still unclear whether the CUD will take its seats in parliament.
These tensions exploded in early June, when protests broke out in Addis Ababa in defiance of a government ban on public assemblies. Police and military forces responded with excessive force, killing at least thirty-six unarmed civilians and wounding more than 100. Security forces then arrested several thousand opposition supporters throughout the country. In November negotiations between the government and leading opposition parties broke down, sparking a fresh wave of protests. Ethiopian security forces again reacted with brutality, killing at least 46 people and arresting more than 4000 in Addis Ababa and other towns. The government then ordered the arrest of several dozen opposition politicians, journalists, editors and civil society activists. Ethiopian authorities have indicated that several among them are likely to face charges of treason, which carries a potential sentence of death under Ethiopian law.
Political Repression
Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent. For more than a decade, authorities in the country's vast Oromia region have used exaggerated concerns about armed insurgency and "terrorism" to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens. Student protests in 2004 at Addis Ababa University and in secondary schools throughout Oromia led to the arrest of hundreds of students, many of whom were mistreated while in custody. Ever since the protests and throughout 2005, regional officials in Oromia have gone to oppressive lengths to monitor and control the speech and conduct of students and teachers alike.
In rural areas in Oromia, local officials often threaten to withhold vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer from impoverished farmers if they speak out against them or their policies. In other cases, local officials selectively enforce harsh penalties for the non- repayment of debts to justify the imprisonment of their critics or the seizure of their property. In the months prior to the May 2005 elections, regional officials in Oromia created new quasi-governmental structures used to subject the rural population to intense levels of surveillance and to impose restrictions on farmers' freedoms of movement, association and speech.
Abuses Committed by the Ethiopian Armed Forces
The Ethiopian government has taken no meaningful action to address widespread atrocities committed by Ethiopian military forces in the remote southwestern region of Gambella. Federal authorities have refused even to investigate human rights abuses so severe that they may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and continue to allow the authors of those crimes the enjoyment of near-total impunity.
In December 2003, military personnel joined civilian mobs in a rampage through indigenous Anuak neighborhoods in Gambella town, murdering as many as 424 Anuak civilians. In the months that followed, Ethiopian military forces subjected Anuak communities throughout the region to widespread and systematic acts of murder, rape, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and the destruction of entire villages. The immediate trigger for these abuses was a series of attacks in 2004 by Anuak civilians against civilians on other ethnic groups in the area.
A government-sponsored Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the December 2003 violence in Gambella town resulted in a whitewash, and since then the government has refused even to investigate any of the abuses that have taken place throughout the region since early 2004. Reports of ongoing abuses continued to emerge from Gambella in 2005, albeit on a smaller scale than the violence in late 2003 and 2004.
Security forces frequently arrest civilians in other parts of Ethiopia, claiming they are members of the Oromo Liberation Front in Oromia state or the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya in Somali state. Few of those arrested are brought to trial. Some are released; others are kept in arbitrary detention for prolonged periods, often without a hearing or cause shown, sometimes incommunicado. Frequent reports of extrajudicial executions and torture emerge from Somali region, but access to the region has been restricted by the military to such a degree that these reports are impossible to confirm.
Restrictions on the Press
Many independent journalists, editors and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books. In June 2005, the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of five Ethiopian journalists working for the Voice of America and Radio Deutsche-Welle because it disapproved of their coverage of the elections and the post-election controversy.
Judicial Delay
The courts in Ethiopia often step in to order the release of government critics jailed on trumped-up charges of treason or armed insurrection. However, judicial action often occurs only after unreasonably long delays, both because of the courts' enormous workload and because of excessive judicial deference to bad faith police requests for additional time to produce evidence. In addition, courts have shown themselves far less likely to contest prolonged pretrial detention in high-profile cases that have the attention of high-level federal officials.
Fourteen years after the overthrow of the former military government (the Derg), several thousand of its former officials remain jailed awaiting trial, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and major felonies. Former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, on trial in absentia, remains a guest of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, with little chance of being held accountable for his abuses so long as he remains there.
Local Human Rights Defenders
Ethiopia has only one large, nationwide human rights organization, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). Government officials routinely accuse the organization of working to advance an anti-government political agenda and its staff and ordinary members are often subjected to harassment and intimidation by local officials and members of the security forces. In June 2005, three EHRCO investigators were arrested and taken to military detention camps because of their efforts to document the human toll of the government's post-election crackdown. All three were subsequently released but were threatened with future criminal proceedings.
Another human rights organization, the Human Rights League, reopened its offices in March 2005 after winning a protracted court battle against government efforts to ban its operations. It remains to be seen whether the organization will be allowed to operate free of government interference.
Key International Actors
Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the United States in its "war on terrorism," and Washington has generally been unwilling to apply meaningful pressure on the Ethiopian government over its human rights record. The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. The U.S. military, operating primarily out of a base in
Djibouti, cooperates closely with the Ethiopian armed forces in counterterrorism efforts and capacity building work. The United States is also the largest donor of bilateral aid in Ethiopia.
Other Western donors have also been reluctant to criticize Ethiopia's human rights record and have in many respects actually embraced the Ethiopian government as something of a model for Africa. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to play a leading role on Blair's Commission for Africa, which was charged with finding solutions to some of the continent's most intractable problems. There is no indication that donors' unusually robust criticism following the postelection crackdown in Addis Ababa will translate into a sustained willingness to be more vocal in demanding that the federal government respect human rights.
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) maintains approximately 3300 troops and military observers along the twenty-five kilometer-wide armistice buffer line between the two countries. In September 2005 the Security Council voted to extend UNMEE's mandate through March 2006, as tensions remain high between the two countries (see Eritrea chapter).
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, New York 10118-3299 Tel. +1 212 216 1200 Fax +1 212 736 1300 www.hrw.org
Post-election Uncertainty and Violence HRW
Ethiopia
The aftermath of Ethiopia’s landmark May 2005 parliamentary elections has laid bare the deeply entrenched patterns of political repression, human rights abuse and impunity that characterize the day-to-day reality of governance in much of the country. This dispiriting reality has come as a shock to many international observers who had viewed the electoral process with a great deal of optimism. The run-up to the May elections witnessed displays of openness and genuine political competition unprecedented in Ethiopia’s long history. But many Ethiopians experienced these limited openings in a context still dominated by heavy-handed government efforts to suppress and punish any form of political dissent. Worse, the aftermath of the May elections has been marred by seemingly intractable controversy and displays of government brutality that threaten to reverse the gains yielded by the electoral process.
Printer Friendly Version
Related Material
Ethiopia Country PageCountry Page, January 18, 2006
Download pdfWeb Site, January 18, 2006
World Report 2006Web Site, January 18, 2006
Free Email Newsletter
Contribute to Human Rights WatchPost-election Uncertainty and Violence Official tallies in the weeks following the May 15 voting indicated that opposition parties had made enormous gains in parliament but had fallen well short of obtaining a majority. The largest opposition coalition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), refused to accept those results, alleging that it had been robbed of outright victory by widespread government fraud. The government, in turn, has accused the CUD of conspiring to overthrow the government by force. At the time of writing, a full five months after the elections, it is still unclear whether the CUD will take its seats in parliament. These tensions exploded in early June, when protests broke out in Addis Ababa in defiance of a government ban on public assemblies. Police and military forces responded with excessive force, killing at least thirty-six unarmed civilians and wounding more than 100. Security forces then arrested several thousand opposition supporters throughout the country. In November negotiations between the government and leading opposition parties broke down, sparking a fresh wave of protests. Ethiopian security forces again reacted with brutality, killing at least 46 people and arresting more than 4000 in Addis Ababa and other towns. The government then ordered the arrest of several dozen opposition politicians, journalists, editors and civil society activists. Ethiopian authorities have indicated that several among them are likely to face charges of treason, which carries a potential sentence of death under Ethiopian law. Political Repression Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent. For more than a decade, authorities in the country’s vast Oromia region have used exaggerated concerns about armed insurgency and “terrorism” to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens. Student protests in 2004 at Addis Ababa University and in secondary schools throughout Oromia led to the arrest of hundreds of students, many of whom were mistreated while in custody. Ever since the protests and throughout 2005, regional officials in Oromia have gone to oppressive lengths to monitor and control the speech and conduct of students and teachers alike. In rural areas in Oromia, local officials often threaten to withhold vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer from impoverished farmers if they speak out against them or their policies. In other cases, local officials selectively enforce harsh penalties for the non- repayment of debts to justify the imprisonment of their critics or the seizure of their property. In the months prior to the May 2005 elections, regional officials in Oromia created new quasi-governmental structures used to subject the rural population to intense levels of surveillance and to impose restrictions on farmers’ freedoms of movement, association and speech. Abuses Committed by the Ethiopian Armed Forces The Ethiopian government has taken no meaningful action to address widespread atrocities committed by Ethiopian military forces in the remote southwestern region of Gambella. Federal authorities have refused even to investigate human rights abuses so severe that they may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and continue to allow the authors of those crimes the enjoyment of near-total impunity. In December 2003, military personnel joined civilian mobs in a rampage through indigenous Anuak neighborhoods in Gambella town, murdering as many as 424 Anuak civilians. In the months that followed, Ethiopian military forces subjected Anuak communities throughout the region to widespread and systematic acts of murder, rape, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and the destruction of entire villages. The immediate trigger for these abuses was a series of attacks in 2004 by Anuak civilians against civilians on other ethnic groups in the area. A government-sponsored Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the December 2003 violence in Gambella town resulted in a whitewash, and since then the government has refused even to investigate any of the abuses that have taken place throughout the region since early 2004. Reports of ongoing abuses continued to emerge from Gambella in 2005, albeit on a smaller scale than the violence in late 2003 and 2004. Security forces frequently arrest civilians in other parts of Ethiopia, claiming they are members of the Oromo Liberation Front in Oromia state or the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya in Somali state. Few of those arrested are brought to trial. Some are released; others are kept in arbitrary detention for prolonged periods, often without a hearing or cause shown, sometimes incommunicado. Frequent reports of extrajudicial executions and torture emerge from Somali region, but access to the region has been restricted by the military to such a degree that these reports are impossible to confirm. Restrictions on the Press Many independent journalists, editors and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books. In June 2005, the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of five Ethiopian journalists working for the Voice of America and Radio Deutsche-Welle because it disapproved of their coverage of the elections and the post-election controversy. Judicial Delay The courts in Ethiopia often step in to order the release of government critics jailed on trumped-up charges of treason or armed insurrection. However, judicial action often occurs only after unreasonably long delays, both because of the courts’ enormous workload and because of excessive judicial deference to bad faith police requests for additional time to produce evidence. In addition, courts have shown themselves far less likely to contest prolonged pretrial detention in high-profile cases that have the attention of high-level federal officials. Fourteen years after the overthrow of the former military government (the Derg), several thousand of its former officials remain jailed awaiting trial, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and major felonies. Former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, on trial in absentia, remains a guest of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, with little chance of being held accountable for his abuses so long as he remains there. Local Human Rights Defenders Ethiopia has only one large, nationwide human rights organization, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). Government officials routinely accuse the organization of working to advance an anti-government political agenda and its staff and ordinary members are often subjected to harassment and intimidation by local officials and members of the security forces. In June 2005, three EHRCO investigators were arrested and taken to military detention camps because of their efforts to document the human toll of the government’s post-election crackdown. All three were subsequently released but were threatened with future criminal proceedings. Another human rights organization, the Human Rights League, reopened its offices in March 2005 after winning a protracted court battle against government efforts to ban its operations. It remains to be seen whether the organization will be allowed to operate free of government interference. Key International Actors Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the United States in its “war on terrorism,” and Washington has generally been unwilling to apply meaningful pressure on the Ethiopian government over its human rights record. The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. The U.S. military, operating primarily out of a base in Djibouti, cooperates closely with the Ethiopian armed forces in counterterrorism efforts and capacity building work. The United States is also the largest donor of bilateral aid in Ethiopia. Other Western donors have also been reluctant to criticize Ethiopia’s human rights record and have in many respects actually embraced the Ethiopian government as something of a model for Africa. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to play a leading role on Blair’s Commission for Africa, which was charged with finding solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable problems. There is no indication that donors’ unusually robust criticism following the post-election crackdown in Addis Ababa will translate into a sustained willingness to be more vocal in demanding that the federal government respect human rights. The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) maintains approximately 3300 troops and military observers along the twenty-five kilometer-wide armistice buffer line between the two countries. In September 2005 the Security Council voted to extend UNMEE’s mandate through March 2006, as tensions remain high between the two countries (see Eritrea chapter).
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The aftermath of Ethiopia’s landmark May 2005 parliamentary elections has laid bare the deeply entrenched patterns of political repression, human rights abuse and impunity that characterize the day-to-day reality of governance in much of the country. This dispiriting reality has come as a shock to many international observers who had viewed the electoral process with a great deal of optimism. The run-up to the May elections witnessed displays of openness and genuine political competition unprecedented in Ethiopia’s long history. But many Ethiopians experienced these limited openings in a context still dominated by heavy-handed government efforts to suppress and punish any form of political dissent. Worse, the aftermath of the May elections has been marred by seemingly intractable controversy and displays of government brutality that threaten to reverse the gains yielded by the electoral process.
Printer Friendly Version
Related Material
Ethiopia Country PageCountry Page, January 18, 2006
Download pdfWeb Site, January 18, 2006
World Report 2006Web Site, January 18, 2006
Free Email Newsletter
Contribute to Human Rights WatchPost-election Uncertainty and Violence Official tallies in the weeks following the May 15 voting indicated that opposition parties had made enormous gains in parliament but had fallen well short of obtaining a majority. The largest opposition coalition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), refused to accept those results, alleging that it had been robbed of outright victory by widespread government fraud. The government, in turn, has accused the CUD of conspiring to overthrow the government by force. At the time of writing, a full five months after the elections, it is still unclear whether the CUD will take its seats in parliament. These tensions exploded in early June, when protests broke out in Addis Ababa in defiance of a government ban on public assemblies. Police and military forces responded with excessive force, killing at least thirty-six unarmed civilians and wounding more than 100. Security forces then arrested several thousand opposition supporters throughout the country. In November negotiations between the government and leading opposition parties broke down, sparking a fresh wave of protests. Ethiopian security forces again reacted with brutality, killing at least 46 people and arresting more than 4000 in Addis Ababa and other towns. The government then ordered the arrest of several dozen opposition politicians, journalists, editors and civil society activists. Ethiopian authorities have indicated that several among them are likely to face charges of treason, which carries a potential sentence of death under Ethiopian law. Political Repression Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent. For more than a decade, authorities in the country’s vast Oromia region have used exaggerated concerns about armed insurgency and “terrorism” to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens. Student protests in 2004 at Addis Ababa University and in secondary schools throughout Oromia led to the arrest of hundreds of students, many of whom were mistreated while in custody. Ever since the protests and throughout 2005, regional officials in Oromia have gone to oppressive lengths to monitor and control the speech and conduct of students and teachers alike. In rural areas in Oromia, local officials often threaten to withhold vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer from impoverished farmers if they speak out against them or their policies. In other cases, local officials selectively enforce harsh penalties for the non- repayment of debts to justify the imprisonment of their critics or the seizure of their property. In the months prior to the May 2005 elections, regional officials in Oromia created new quasi-governmental structures used to subject the rural population to intense levels of surveillance and to impose restrictions on farmers’ freedoms of movement, association and speech. Abuses Committed by the Ethiopian Armed Forces The Ethiopian government has taken no meaningful action to address widespread atrocities committed by Ethiopian military forces in the remote southwestern region of Gambella. Federal authorities have refused even to investigate human rights abuses so severe that they may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and continue to allow the authors of those crimes the enjoyment of near-total impunity. In December 2003, military personnel joined civilian mobs in a rampage through indigenous Anuak neighborhoods in Gambella town, murdering as many as 424 Anuak civilians. In the months that followed, Ethiopian military forces subjected Anuak communities throughout the region to widespread and systematic acts of murder, rape, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and the destruction of entire villages. The immediate trigger for these abuses was a series of attacks in 2004 by Anuak civilians against civilians on other ethnic groups in the area. A government-sponsored Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the December 2003 violence in Gambella town resulted in a whitewash, and since then the government has refused even to investigate any of the abuses that have taken place throughout the region since early 2004. Reports of ongoing abuses continued to emerge from Gambella in 2005, albeit on a smaller scale than the violence in late 2003 and 2004. Security forces frequently arrest civilians in other parts of Ethiopia, claiming they are members of the Oromo Liberation Front in Oromia state or the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya in Somali state. Few of those arrested are brought to trial. Some are released; others are kept in arbitrary detention for prolonged periods, often without a hearing or cause shown, sometimes incommunicado. Frequent reports of extrajudicial executions and torture emerge from Somali region, but access to the region has been restricted by the military to such a degree that these reports are impossible to confirm. Restrictions on the Press Many independent journalists, editors and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books. In June 2005, the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of five Ethiopian journalists working for the Voice of America and Radio Deutsche-Welle because it disapproved of their coverage of the elections and the post-election controversy. Judicial Delay The courts in Ethiopia often step in to order the release of government critics jailed on trumped-up charges of treason or armed insurrection. However, judicial action often occurs only after unreasonably long delays, both because of the courts’ enormous workload and because of excessive judicial deference to bad faith police requests for additional time to produce evidence. In addition, courts have shown themselves far less likely to contest prolonged pretrial detention in high-profile cases that have the attention of high-level federal officials. Fourteen years after the overthrow of the former military government (the Derg), several thousand of its former officials remain jailed awaiting trial, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and major felonies. Former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, on trial in absentia, remains a guest of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, with little chance of being held accountable for his abuses so long as he remains there. Local Human Rights Defenders Ethiopia has only one large, nationwide human rights organization, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). Government officials routinely accuse the organization of working to advance an anti-government political agenda and its staff and ordinary members are often subjected to harassment and intimidation by local officials and members of the security forces. In June 2005, three EHRCO investigators were arrested and taken to military detention camps because of their efforts to document the human toll of the government’s post-election crackdown. All three were subsequently released but were threatened with future criminal proceedings. Another human rights organization, the Human Rights League, reopened its offices in March 2005 after winning a protracted court battle against government efforts to ban its operations. It remains to be seen whether the organization will be allowed to operate free of government interference. Key International Actors Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the United States in its “war on terrorism,” and Washington has generally been unwilling to apply meaningful pressure on the Ethiopian government over its human rights record. The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. The U.S. military, operating primarily out of a base in Djibouti, cooperates closely with the Ethiopian armed forces in counterterrorism efforts and capacity building work. The United States is also the largest donor of bilateral aid in Ethiopia. Other Western donors have also been reluctant to criticize Ethiopia’s human rights record and have in many respects actually embraced the Ethiopian government as something of a model for Africa. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to play a leading role on Blair’s Commission for Africa, which was charged with finding solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable problems. There is no indication that donors’ unusually robust criticism following the post-election crackdown in Addis Ababa will translate into a sustained willingness to be more vocal in demanding that the federal government respect human rights. The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) maintains approximately 3300 troops and military observers along the twenty-five kilometer-wide armistice buffer line between the two countries. In September 2005 the Security Council voted to extend UNMEE’s mandate through March 2006, as tensions remain high between the two countries (see Eritrea chapter).
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January 18, 2006
Ficila Diddaa Gabrummaa Oromiyaa Naannoo Addaa Addaa ti babal'achaa jira
Oduu
Fincilli Diddaa Gabrummaa Oromiyaa Naannoo adda addaa ti babal'achaa jira
Amajjii 17, 2006 (Oromiyaa) - Barattoonni yunvarsitii .K. moora qoonnaatti ID Kaardiin isaanii poolisiin federaalaa irraa fudhate sabaaba kanaan rakkacha jiran fi yakka malee kutaa qorranoo dedeebi'aa maqaan isaanii 1.Tamirat caanalo 2.Tamasgen Hordofaa yoo ta'an sabaabin guyya arafaa ijjoolle kabbajje suuraa kaaftan fidaa jechuudhaani.
Gamaa biraatin ijoollee Oromoo rakkinaa fi dhiibba hordoffii tikni wayyanee irraan gahu irraan kan ka'ee baraataa Tasfaaye Birru mataa dhukkubisatee hospitaala awaasaa ciisee jira.Uneversitii kibbaa Maadhee Urjii Walabummaa irraa. Harargee Bahaa
Onoota hararge bahaa17an guy 3hif adaree tti wal ghii yaamanii hin hojjane ja,anin.tanaaf garee fi gooxii jajjabeysun dardarootaa dalgaa kennuun biyya haa toohannuu ja,anin. dursanii ammo araddoonni akka gammachuu,leencaa,gobeelle,aduu baatee,haqaa,fandishee fafakkaatan nu tanabooda wayanen sobamnee enyummaa keenyaa fi biyya teenya hin gurgurru.daranuu abo bira dhaabbanneeti diinaan falmina jachaan ibsa ejjannoo sabN qillensa rra akka oolu gaafatan. ammajii 1/2006 maadhonni aanaa sabaa fi ifaa bilisaa ja,aman gara xalayaa 2000 tan wayyanee fi ergamtuun isii diina oromoo ti jachaa ibsitu badiyyaa fii magaalota keysa jeynummaan rabsanii jiru.
TV sun gammaddanii ililchitan jachuun adde halimaa hasan fi med a/rahmaan mumad 1/1/2006 awwaday itti hidhanii dararaa jiran. maadhonnii fii jiraattonni hararge baha gammachuu TVsunii qabnu karaa maadhee isaanii tin ibsatanii nuu gayaanii. awwaday keysaa miskiina dalagaa barbaaddatu halkan qaqqabanii karaa biyya teysanii galaa ja,aniin akka waan awwaday biyya oromoo hin tahinii aradaa qeerransaa keesaa fuudhamanii magaalaa konbolchaatti torbaan lamaa oliif kan hidhaman,
1.feysal abdullee yoonee
2.abdullaahi ahmad muumee fi
3.abdii alii ta'uun ni beekkama. isaan kana keesaa yeroo ammaatti feeysal abdullee yoonee fi abdullahi ahmad muummee achi buuteen isaanii dhabameeti jira. maatiin isaaniitiis dhabamuu jara kanaattiin yaddoo guddaa keessa seenuudhaan barbaaduu itti fufanii jiran.warri isaan hidhee ture ( abbaa araddaa qeerransaa faan) nutti gad hin dhiisinaa jechuudhaan ture kan hidhan. yoo nutti gad dhiftan nu ajjeesuu waan malaniif nutiis ni ajjeefna jechuudhaan dubbatanii turan.
haaji mahammad abduramaaniifi addee haliima kan jedhaman jiraattoota magaalaa aawwadaay barattoota nurratti kakkaftan jedhaanii guyyaa borumtaa iidaatii jalqabanii guyyoota sadiif erga hidhaman booda gad dhiifamanii jiran.keessattuu hajii kana masgiidattiia "yaa rabbii oromoo bilisoomsi " jettee rabii kadhatta jechuudhaaniis yakkaniiti jiran.
Araddaa nagayaa keessatti abbaan araddaa Yusuf Abraahim maaliif DH.D.O.U filachuu dhabdan jechuudhaan ummata maallaqaan adabaati jira. Akka kanaan nama tokko iraa qarshii 100, namoota lama irrraa ammoo qarshii 150 erga fuudhan booda manguddooni magantaan irraa dhorkanii jiran.
***************
Kaleessa amajjii 16-2006 magaalaa Amboo keessatti fincilli diddaa gabrummaa itti fufee oole.Ganama sa´a 10:30 (4:30) irratti barattonnoon mana barnoota sadarkaa lammaffaa Amboo dallaa keessatti polisii fi waraana wayyaaneen tikfamaa jiran gootummaan mana barnootaa keessaa bahuun hidhattoota wayyaanee irratti jabinaan falmaa gochuu jalqaban. Barattoonni Amboo guyyaa diddaan jalqabee irraa kaasee falmaa hadhooftuu ummanni Oromoo gageessaa jiru keessatti qooda guddaa waan qabaniif mana barumsaa keessatti boqonnaa dhorkamanii yeroo boqonnaa hin bahani, yeroo mana barumsaa bahanii fi galan hidhattoota fi tikoota wayyaaneen tikfamu.
Haala kanaan barattoonni Oromoo Amboo karaa foddaa utaalanii bahuun nuti hardhaan booda wayyaanee waliin warra abbaa harkaati(Warra Gumaati) kanaaf warra abbaa harkaa waliin ijoollee keenya ajjeestu, hiidhu fi hiraaruu dhaabuun ijoollee keenya mana hidhaa jirtu nuuf gadi haa lakkifamtu, warri ajjeesan seeratti nuuf haa dhiyaattu jedhanii kaasan, gaaffii kanaaf wayyanoonni deebbiin isaanii humna waan ta´eef dhukaasa itti banan, haala kanaa dallaa mana barumsaa irraan utaaluun ummatatti makamuun karaa cufuun diddaa isaanii jabinaan muldhisan. Ummannis daandii cufuu irratti barattoota gargaaree jira. Kan namoota hedduu ajaai´ibe namani sammuun bilisoome waa gochuun isa hin dhibuti namni jabaa fi sammuun bilisoome kiraanchiin deemu tokko akka harka tokkoon kiranchii qabate harka tokkoon barattoota cinaa dhaabbatee falmaa barattootaa kana gargaaraa turellee hubatamee jira.
Haala kanaan barattoonni hidhataa tokko kufisanii irraa kilaashiin bu´ee akka ture beekameera, guyyaa kanatti dhukaasni barattoota irratti baname guddoo itti hin milkoofne, dhagaa mooraa barumsaa bakka hedduu akka rukutes ibsameera.
Wayyaanonni humna federaalaa fi humna waraanaa dabalachuun ummataa fi barattoota Oromootti duulanii karaa cufame sana bansiisanii jiru. Barattootaa fi ummatas konkolaataan qabanii guuraa oolan, barattoota hedduu madeessanii hospitaalatti bakka glukosiin itti kennamaafii jiru irraa yoo du´anis haa du´an jechuun namoota hedduu hospitaalaa baasuun gara mana masaraa mootummaa magaalaa Amboo jiruutti dabarsanii jiru. Ummataa fi barattoota rasaasaan dorsisaa jilbeeffachiisuun gochaa nama irraa hin eegamne hojjechaa oolan.
Barattoota madaahanii dhiigni irra yaa´uu fi barattoota reebaman muraasa walitti qabuun gaaffiin keessan maali jedhanii yoo gaafatan barattoonni gaaffiin kun gaaffii barataa daree lama hin guunnee qofaa gafatamuu qabu miti! Gaaffiin kun kan hardha jalqabe miti! Gaaffiin kun kan keenya qofaa miti ! kan Ummata Oromoo mara dha. Yoo gaaffii keenya hubachuu barbaddan bakka barataan hundi jiruu fi ummanni Oromoo Amboo walitti qabameetti stadiyomiitti walitti nu qabaati isinitti himna jechuun itti himanii wal gahii isaanii bittinsanii bahanii jiru. Kun guyyaa sa´a 2:00(8:00Alh) ta´e.
Barattoota mana namaa baqatanii seenanitti hidhattoonni seenanii waan qabaniif ummanni itti qophaahee qottoo, fasii, gajamoo fi kkf qopheeffatee hidhataa barattoota arihee mana namaa galee qabuuf yaalu irratti tarkaanfii fudhatuuf qophii ture jedhu.
Ummanni 05 fi 06 hedduun jabinaan hidhattoota kana dura dhaabbachuuf diddaa barattoonni godhan deeggarsa isaa muldhisee jira, naannoo kollejjii qonnaa Amboottis akka ummanni sirriitti bahee ture ture hubatameera.
Barattoonni manneen barnootaa Carii fi Addis katamaa Amboo keessa jiran diddaa kana keessaa qooda fudhatanii jiru. Hardha (Amajjii 17-2005) irratti illee barattoonni Addis katamaa mana barnootaa deemun diddaa isaanii agarsiisuun hidhamuu fi du´uun ummata keenyaa hagam umurii dhaan xinnoo yoo taaneyyuu nutti dhagahama, isin waliin jiraachuu hin dandeenyu, dhimma kana daa´imin harma hootu illee hubachuu dandeessi jedhanii ifaa ifatti hidhattootatti himuun abdii kutachiisanii jiru. Amma nuti kann yaadaa jirru waan barmsaa otoo hin taane lammii keenya nu jalaa hidhamanii fi ajjeefamaniiti nuti hagana nutti dhagahameera nurraa deemaa jechuun dhugaa jiru itti himuun qaanessaniiru.
********
Yeroo amma falmaa hadhooftuu ilmaan Oromoo mirga isaanii kabachiifachuuf godhaniin wayyaanee kan qabduu fi gadhiistu wallaaltee dhiphuu hamaa keessa jirti. Gama tokkoon WBO Gama biraan Oromoon kokkee qabee jira. Miseensonni OPDO kana dura Oromoo irratti yakka dalagdanis ta´e hin dalagiin yeroon itti ummata keessan cinaa dhaabbachuun seenaa hojjettan malee seenaa xuraahaa qabdan ittuu samsitan akka ta´uu hin qabne hubachuu qabdu jechuun sabboontonni Oromoo dhaamsa isaanii dabarsu.
Kaleesaa Amajjii 16, 2006 magalaa finca'atii Falmiin guddaa ummataa fi kittillayyoo gidduu ta´een reebichaa hamaa fi gara jabeenyummaan Barataan Daguu Fikaduu irratti fudhatameen barataan kun amma Hospitalaa Amboo gale jira. Guyyaa kanatti magaalaa Amboos akka malee ta'a oolteetti. Gudduruuttis tarkaanfiin lukkeewwan irrati fudhatama jiru jajjabaatee itti fufee jira. ****************
Ibsa ejjennoo Tokkummaa barattoota Oromoo magalaa Naqamtee!
Nuti Baratootni Maneen Barnoota Magaala Naqaamtee tanee marii Diddaa fi finciilaa mootumaa kanaa irra qabnuu Haala seeri fi Heeri Biyiti eyyamuun dandii nagaa irraa osoo hin maqiin mormi keenya mul’isuuf batti sadasaa keessa eegallee yeroo adda addaa yalii guddaa gochuun keenya ni beekama.
Haa ta’uu malee deebbiin qaamni mootummaa nuuf kenne akkuuma amalaa isaa reebichaa, hidhaa, human tirkaan dhukkamsuu fi ajjechaa fi k.k.f dha. Maqa caqaasuu yoo baarbachisuu yoo battelee kan bakka hin beekamneeti dhukkamsanii, kan Hoospitalaa cisaa, kan immo manaa addabati daraaramaa fi kan biyyaa bahaani jiruu.
Kanaafuu gochaa sukkanessaa mootumaan nurrati fudhatee fi fudhachaa jiruuf of duuba osoo hin deebi’iin gafiin mirgaa hiree muteefanaa Biyya keenya hamaa nuuf murta’uutii Ibisaa ejeeno armaan gadii baafannee jirra.
Ibsa Ejjennoo Tookuumaa Baraatoota Magalaa Naqamte
1. Mirgia hiree murteeffannaa Oromoo haga mirkanahutti Qabsoo keenya bifa hundaan itti fufuuf murteeffanne!! kanaaf Barnoota yaada tokko fi Afaan tokkon hardhaa qabee dhabneera!
2. Oromoon akka harka wal qabatee diddaa isaa bakka hundaatti muldhisu waamicha dabarsina!!
3. Oromoon gaaffii mirgaa hidhamee mana hidhaa jiru haga hiikamutti qabsoo hadhooftuu ni gageessina!!
4. Dhaala Oromoo ta’uni lukkee dinuumma Qabsoo kenyaa irratti guffu kan ta’an irrati tarkaanfii isaa dhumaa fudhaachuuf murteesineraa.
5. Ilmaan abbashaa fi Baratotaa Abbaan isaanii dabaalee kittillayyoo Wayyanee ta’aan yeroo adda addaa mana baruumsaa saaquuf kan dhama’an yoo jiraatan midhaa fi tarkaanfi iraatii fudhatamuuf itti gafatamaan mataa isaati
6. Dhaalootan Oromoo ta’ani human tikaa Wayyaanee saddarka adda addaa irra kan tajaajilaa jirtaan gochaa dinuumaa ummata keesaan irrati rawwachaa jirtaan irra akka deebitaan wammicha isiinii goona ta´uu baannaan rakkoo isin irra gahuuf gaafatamoon isinuma mataa keessani!!
Gadaan Gadaa Biilsuumaati!!
Injifannoon Ummata Oromoof!!
Amaajii 16/1/2006
**********
Ummanni Oromoo godina hararge lixaa aanaa doobbaa araddallee waddeeessaa, biiftuu oromiya fi farra samaa jedhaman gaafa guyyaa 9 bara 2006 ayyaana Iida arafaa akka uffata aadaa uffatanii hin ayyaanneffanne lukeewwan wayyaneetiin dhoorkamanillee sodaa tokko malee uffaranii lukkkeewan wayyaanee kanneeen akka abbaa aradda waddeessa mohaamad amimad jedhamuu siifii wayyaaneetu biyyaa bada malee aaddaan Oromoo hin badu jedhanii lukkeewan ofiraa guyisan. yeruma san baratton mana barumsa sad.1ffaa fijidu galeessa 2ffaa magaala waddeessaa sodaa tokko male dhiichiisaan ABO faarsaa uummata dirree iidaa jiruti dabalaman. yeroo ammaa kana namichi abba aradaa waddeessaa kun barattootaa fi sabbontota naanichaa hiraarsa waan jiruuf gocha kana irraa aka of qusatu jechun sabbontonni akkekachiisani jiru,
Gaafa guyaa 12 fi 13 sabbontonni oromoo madhee gaaddisaa, callaa fi mormor jalati gurmaa'an marii godhatanin qabsoo teenya kan ABOn durfamtu fi baratoota ilmaan keenya cinaa amma wareegama lubbuutti ni dhaabana, uummanni Oromoo biyya keessaa motummaa wayyanee sabboontota Oromo fi barattoota ilmaan keenya fixaa jiru, humna namaatii fi maalaqa isaaniin gabbartan akka irraa dhaabdan jechuun Oromoota maraaf wamicha godhaniiru. dhumaratti humnaa fi qabeenya wayyaneen deegaru amman boda qabsoo bilisumma Oromotiif oolu qaba jedhaniiru.
Aanaa mi'eesoo keesatti sabbontonni Oromoo madhee carcar diida niinnii jedhamtu jalatti ijaaraman mari godhataniin booda qarshii kan gumaachan yoo ta'u kana booda maallaqa hedduu guumaachuuf waadaa galanii jiru.
Opinions published on News and Views section of this site are those of the authors and not necessarily that of OLF.
Copyright ©2005 ABO/OLF All Rights Reserved Email Webmaster olfinfodesk@earthlink.net
Eritrea vs Ethiopia: the shadow of war
Eritrea vs Ethiopia: the shadow of war
Edward Denison
18 - 1 - 2006
The Horn of Africa is on the brink of another devastating war. If it occurs, the blame will be widely shared, says Edward Denison.
------------------------------------------
The “year of Africa” proclaimed by grateful western political leaders and music celebrities showered considerable policy and media attention on the continent but in too many cases allowed serious problems away from the spotlight to fester. Nowhere is this truer than the Horn of Africa, where there were many signs that the dangerous territorial dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia might bring these two shattered countries to a repeat of their 1998-2000 war.
Unless the dynamic of escalation can be halted in 2006, the likely result is a war that will devastate the lives of millions. If it occurs, the “international community” should do more than blame the usual suspects – namely megalomaniacal African leaders, in this case Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi and Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki. Rather, the primary responsibility will lie closer to home, chiefly with the self-interest of western governments, a catastrophic failure of international law, and the impotence of the United Nations.
The acrimonious relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia is both ancient and new. Resentful ethnic stereotypes run deep, but more recent political events have added a toxic element of embitterment. Whipped into this unstable mix is the fact that the Horn of Africa is a region at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa where the ambitions of the world’s greatest powers have collided with local populations, religions and political formations for centuries.
This is as true today as it has ever been. Eritrea and Ethiopia currently face each other across a border, which also serves as a temporary security zone manned by 3,337 military personnel of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee). The sanctity of this border is the cornerstone of lasting peace. Ambiguous demarcation was arguably the key cause of the previous war that raged from May 1998 to December 2000.
War between Eritrea and Ethiopia does not conform to the lethal African stereotype of conjoined machete and AK47. High-tech weaponry employed on an old-fashioned battlefield takes barbarity to a different level. In just eighteen months, up to 100, 000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. The ensuing misery permeates life’s every detail in the region.
Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace agreement on 12 December 2000, the terms of which stipulated that a specially appointed United Nations boundary commission would oversee the border demarcation. The commission’s judgment would be final and binding. Both countries signed on the dotted line. Lasting peace, it seemed, was plausible.
In April 2002, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague announced the decision. Both sides immediately declared it a success and a vindication of their actions in the war. However, critically, the name of the tiny settlement of Badme, a village near the border, was noticeably absent from the official report.
Badme was administered by Ethiopia before the war and Eritrea’s brash attempts to liberate the village by force led to the first shots of the war being fired. Due to the village’s adopted significance, the UN’s experts had decided not to mention its name in their official report, but it was quickly apparent that Badme had been awarded to Eritrea. This fact alone, in the eyes of Eritrea, was the ultimate vindication. The UN had upheld Eritrea’s consistent claim that Badme was Eritrean and it was time now for Ethiopia to withdraw. It still has not.
An impossible problem
Herein lies the nucleus of this impossible problem. For three years, the UN and the international community have failed to impose The Hague’s ruling on Ethiopia, while the Eritrean government has stuck doggedly to this point of principle: the inviolability of international law should be sacrosanct.
In spite of this, Ethiopia has courted international governments and organisations with sublime aplomb. Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, is a member of Tony Blair’s all-male Commission for Africa and is a darling of Bob Geldof. He even appeared at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, bending the ears of the world’s political heavyweights. It is small wonder Eritrea is incensed and disillusioned.
Zenawi is the latest in a long line of supremely gifted Ethiopian diplomats stretching back beyond Haile Selassie, who, in June 1936, famously pleaded in vain to the League of Nations against Italy’s invasion. The same diplomatic proficiency saw Eritrea’s federation with Ethiopia sanctioned by the UN in 1952, a decision that led to much of the hostility that has characterised the Horn since. Exactly half a century later, the UN’s impotence has undermined Eritrea’s legitimate right for self-determination, which it won in 1991 after a thirty-year “struggle” with Ethiopia.
This international impasse has forced Eritrea into a corner where, despite having justice on its side, it has no international support. This is a dark and lonely position for any country to be in. Unfortunately, the conduct of the Eritrean government has been far from deft. It closed the free press on 18 September 2001, and has since jailed many journalists, politicians and religious figures without trial, citing national security as an overriding precedence. According to the international journalism watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, Eritrea is a media “black hole” ranking second worse in the world to North Korea. Eritrea’s once celebrated democratic process is defunct and a distant memory, and its Amnesty International report reads like an advertisement for Abaddon.
With nearly 10% of its 4.5 million population standing guard along its southern border against Ethiopia (whose population exceeds 73 million), this constant watch is an unsustainable burden on Eritrea’s economy, depriving the tiny nation of a trained labour force, while draining scarce resources. To counter this, national service serves as a cheap workforce. All Eritrean men and women from the age of 18-40 have to undertake demoralising jobs in government departments or be made to build the nation’s undeveloped infrastructure for pitiful monthly salaries of $3-$30. Conscientious objectors are rounded up in frequent raids on homes and incarcerated in prisons or Eritrea’s infamous military training camp, Sawa.
If the loss of freedom is a symptom of Eritrea’s passing, Sawa is the tumour. Once a military camp in the lowland desert of western Eritrea where students would have to undergo six-months military training, Sawa is now a self-contained training camp under the aegis of the Eritrean military where the country’s school students have to complete their “education”. The brutal reputation of this camp, where rape and torture have been well documented, instils an awesome fear into Eritrea’s youth.
Hope has deserted Eritrea along with tens of thousands of young Eritrean refugees who want only the freedom to influence their own destiny. This is not possible in their homeland, where no one can leave the country lawfully without an exit visa. For most Eritreans, this is impossible to obtain.
The Horn and the world
With such a poor record, it is understandable that international governments refuse to fund Eritrea’s development, yet in 2005 Britain’s department for international development had an aid budget for Ethiopia of more than £60 million. Ethiopia’s achievements in the year it was awarded this bounteous largesse consisted of a continued refusal to honour international law, national elections widely acknowledged to be flawed, the killing of student demonstrators, the arrest of political opposition, and a well-known weapons shopping-spree.
In addition to the obvious devastation a war between Eritrea and Ethiopia would reap on these two nations, its wider consequences would be felt worldwide. The fragile peace in neighbouring Sudan might be threatened, it might cause the disintegration of Ethiopia, and it would make America’s task of supervising its “war on terror” from its bases in the region very much harder.
America bears many scars from meddling in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian communists who deposed Haile Selassie in 1974 ejected it unceremoniously from its huge military base, Kagnew Station, in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and its interventions in Somalia in the 1990s ended in disaster. Up to now, America has hedged its bets with Ethiopia, whom it sees as a major ally in its phoney war, but in the last few days, it has assembled a team to try and break the deadlock. In another country whose administration deals only in the extremes of right and wrong, America should understand the icy reception it will get if it tries to convince Eritrea of anything other than upholding international law over the border decision. History books are unambiguous about what happens to those who pursue a policy of self-interest in the Horn. If Eritrea and Ethiopia start fighting, America should take a note from history and be cautious of pursuing a policy of self-interest.
Also in openDemocracy about Eritrea and Ethiopia:
Ann Pettifor, “Ethiopia: the price of indifference” (February 2004)
David Styan, “Tony Blair and Africa – old images, new realities”
(May 2005)
Becky Hogge on Michela Wrong’s I Didn’t Do It For You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation (August 2005)
Ethiopia’s problems are as complex and deep-rooted as Eritrea’s, but despite the claims against the Eritrean government’s conduct, Eritrea’s consistent stand over the ruling of international law is legitimate and unbowed and, in its eyes, precedes all other reforms. Until the world’s leaders are willing to uphold justice over the border ruling, no one is in a position to indict others over extraneous misdeeds. Everyone is guilty. An Ethiopian withdrawal from Badme would force Eritrea to deliver its former promises of democracy, a free press, religious freedom, civil liberty, and demilitarisation. Until then, national security remains a supreme excuse for repression.
Eritrea’s frustration is now so great that on 7 December 2005 it expelled American, European, Russian and Canadian UN staff from the peacekeeping mission based in Eritrea. In October 2005, it banned the UN from flying their helicopters in Eritrean airspace. The UN mission is now little more than an impotent force costing the global taxpayer half a million dollars a day.
As if to drive the final nail into the coffin, an International Commission in The Hague ruled on 21 December that Eritrea had no right to invade Badme in 1998. Ethiopia is drafting a reparations bill that will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, it seems, international law is on both sides. Stalemate.
As both countries continue to spend millions of dollars on weapons from east-central Europe, there is every possibility that this “year of Africa” will witness a conflict that will stain the hands of the Asmara and Addis Ababa governments, the international community, and the United Nations. The world should pay attention before dangerous brinkmanship turns once again to terrible tragedy.
Edward Denison
18 - 1 - 2006
The Horn of Africa is on the brink of another devastating war. If it occurs, the blame will be widely shared, says Edward Denison.
------------------------------------------
The “year of Africa” proclaimed by grateful western political leaders and music celebrities showered considerable policy and media attention on the continent but in too many cases allowed serious problems away from the spotlight to fester. Nowhere is this truer than the Horn of Africa, where there were many signs that the dangerous territorial dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia might bring these two shattered countries to a repeat of their 1998-2000 war.
Unless the dynamic of escalation can be halted in 2006, the likely result is a war that will devastate the lives of millions. If it occurs, the “international community” should do more than blame the usual suspects – namely megalomaniacal African leaders, in this case Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi and Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki. Rather, the primary responsibility will lie closer to home, chiefly with the self-interest of western governments, a catastrophic failure of international law, and the impotence of the United Nations.
The acrimonious relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia is both ancient and new. Resentful ethnic stereotypes run deep, but more recent political events have added a toxic element of embitterment. Whipped into this unstable mix is the fact that the Horn of Africa is a region at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa where the ambitions of the world’s greatest powers have collided with local populations, religions and political formations for centuries.
This is as true today as it has ever been. Eritrea and Ethiopia currently face each other across a border, which also serves as a temporary security zone manned by 3,337 military personnel of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee). The sanctity of this border is the cornerstone of lasting peace. Ambiguous demarcation was arguably the key cause of the previous war that raged from May 1998 to December 2000.
War between Eritrea and Ethiopia does not conform to the lethal African stereotype of conjoined machete and AK47. High-tech weaponry employed on an old-fashioned battlefield takes barbarity to a different level. In just eighteen months, up to 100, 000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. The ensuing misery permeates life’s every detail in the region.
Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace agreement on 12 December 2000, the terms of which stipulated that a specially appointed United Nations boundary commission would oversee the border demarcation. The commission’s judgment would be final and binding. Both countries signed on the dotted line. Lasting peace, it seemed, was plausible.
In April 2002, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague announced the decision. Both sides immediately declared it a success and a vindication of their actions in the war. However, critically, the name of the tiny settlement of Badme, a village near the border, was noticeably absent from the official report.
Badme was administered by Ethiopia before the war and Eritrea’s brash attempts to liberate the village by force led to the first shots of the war being fired. Due to the village’s adopted significance, the UN’s experts had decided not to mention its name in their official report, but it was quickly apparent that Badme had been awarded to Eritrea. This fact alone, in the eyes of Eritrea, was the ultimate vindication. The UN had upheld Eritrea’s consistent claim that Badme was Eritrean and it was time now for Ethiopia to withdraw. It still has not.
An impossible problem
Herein lies the nucleus of this impossible problem. For three years, the UN and the international community have failed to impose The Hague’s ruling on Ethiopia, while the Eritrean government has stuck doggedly to this point of principle: the inviolability of international law should be sacrosanct.
In spite of this, Ethiopia has courted international governments and organisations with sublime aplomb. Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, is a member of Tony Blair’s all-male Commission for Africa and is a darling of Bob Geldof. He even appeared at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, bending the ears of the world’s political heavyweights. It is small wonder Eritrea is incensed and disillusioned.
Zenawi is the latest in a long line of supremely gifted Ethiopian diplomats stretching back beyond Haile Selassie, who, in June 1936, famously pleaded in vain to the League of Nations against Italy’s invasion. The same diplomatic proficiency saw Eritrea’s federation with Ethiopia sanctioned by the UN in 1952, a decision that led to much of the hostility that has characterised the Horn since. Exactly half a century later, the UN’s impotence has undermined Eritrea’s legitimate right for self-determination, which it won in 1991 after a thirty-year “struggle” with Ethiopia.
This international impasse has forced Eritrea into a corner where, despite having justice on its side, it has no international support. This is a dark and lonely position for any country to be in. Unfortunately, the conduct of the Eritrean government has been far from deft. It closed the free press on 18 September 2001, and has since jailed many journalists, politicians and religious figures without trial, citing national security as an overriding precedence. According to the international journalism watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, Eritrea is a media “black hole” ranking second worse in the world to North Korea. Eritrea’s once celebrated democratic process is defunct and a distant memory, and its Amnesty International report reads like an advertisement for Abaddon.
With nearly 10% of its 4.5 million population standing guard along its southern border against Ethiopia (whose population exceeds 73 million), this constant watch is an unsustainable burden on Eritrea’s economy, depriving the tiny nation of a trained labour force, while draining scarce resources. To counter this, national service serves as a cheap workforce. All Eritrean men and women from the age of 18-40 have to undertake demoralising jobs in government departments or be made to build the nation’s undeveloped infrastructure for pitiful monthly salaries of $3-$30. Conscientious objectors are rounded up in frequent raids on homes and incarcerated in prisons or Eritrea’s infamous military training camp, Sawa.
If the loss of freedom is a symptom of Eritrea’s passing, Sawa is the tumour. Once a military camp in the lowland desert of western Eritrea where students would have to undergo six-months military training, Sawa is now a self-contained training camp under the aegis of the Eritrean military where the country’s school students have to complete their “education”. The brutal reputation of this camp, where rape and torture have been well documented, instils an awesome fear into Eritrea’s youth.
Hope has deserted Eritrea along with tens of thousands of young Eritrean refugees who want only the freedom to influence their own destiny. This is not possible in their homeland, where no one can leave the country lawfully without an exit visa. For most Eritreans, this is impossible to obtain.
The Horn and the world
With such a poor record, it is understandable that international governments refuse to fund Eritrea’s development, yet in 2005 Britain’s department for international development had an aid budget for Ethiopia of more than £60 million. Ethiopia’s achievements in the year it was awarded this bounteous largesse consisted of a continued refusal to honour international law, national elections widely acknowledged to be flawed, the killing of student demonstrators, the arrest of political opposition, and a well-known weapons shopping-spree.
In addition to the obvious devastation a war between Eritrea and Ethiopia would reap on these two nations, its wider consequences would be felt worldwide. The fragile peace in neighbouring Sudan might be threatened, it might cause the disintegration of Ethiopia, and it would make America’s task of supervising its “war on terror” from its bases in the region very much harder.
America bears many scars from meddling in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian communists who deposed Haile Selassie in 1974 ejected it unceremoniously from its huge military base, Kagnew Station, in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and its interventions in Somalia in the 1990s ended in disaster. Up to now, America has hedged its bets with Ethiopia, whom it sees as a major ally in its phoney war, but in the last few days, it has assembled a team to try and break the deadlock. In another country whose administration deals only in the extremes of right and wrong, America should understand the icy reception it will get if it tries to convince Eritrea of anything other than upholding international law over the border decision. History books are unambiguous about what happens to those who pursue a policy of self-interest in the Horn. If Eritrea and Ethiopia start fighting, America should take a note from history and be cautious of pursuing a policy of self-interest.
Also in openDemocracy about Eritrea and Ethiopia:
Ann Pettifor, “Ethiopia: the price of indifference” (February 2004)
David Styan, “Tony Blair and Africa – old images, new realities”
(May 2005)
Becky Hogge on Michela Wrong’s I Didn’t Do It For You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation (August 2005)
Ethiopia’s problems are as complex and deep-rooted as Eritrea’s, but despite the claims against the Eritrean government’s conduct, Eritrea’s consistent stand over the ruling of international law is legitimate and unbowed and, in its eyes, precedes all other reforms. Until the world’s leaders are willing to uphold justice over the border ruling, no one is in a position to indict others over extraneous misdeeds. Everyone is guilty. An Ethiopian withdrawal from Badme would force Eritrea to deliver its former promises of democracy, a free press, religious freedom, civil liberty, and demilitarisation. Until then, national security remains a supreme excuse for repression.
Eritrea’s frustration is now so great that on 7 December 2005 it expelled American, European, Russian and Canadian UN staff from the peacekeeping mission based in Eritrea. In October 2005, it banned the UN from flying their helicopters in Eritrean airspace. The UN mission is now little more than an impotent force costing the global taxpayer half a million dollars a day.
As if to drive the final nail into the coffin, an International Commission in The Hague ruled on 21 December that Eritrea had no right to invade Badme in 1998. Ethiopia is drafting a reparations bill that will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, it seems, international law is on both sides. Stalemate.
As both countries continue to spend millions of dollars on weapons from east-central Europe, there is every possibility that this “year of Africa” will witness a conflict that will stain the hands of the Asmara and Addis Ababa governments, the international community, and the United Nations. The world should pay attention before dangerous brinkmanship turns once again to terrible tragedy.
Oromo Athelet Qananiisaa Baqqalaa named as Man of The Year
Our World-famous year-ending issue has hit the streets in all its glory, with distance superstar Kenenisa Bekele and vaulter nonpareil Yelena Isinbayeva once again being chosen as Athletes Of The Year.
But our Annual Edition is about far more than just the single best athletes of the year. It’s about the best collections of athletes in each event. So once again you’ll find the most definitive set of World Rankings to be found anywhere.
Plus U.S. Rankings, plus yearly Top 40 lists for both the world and U.S. Before 2006 starts, check out the final word on 2005.
January 16, 2006
Diktatur oder politischer Schluckauf
Diktatur oder politischer Schluckauf
Äthiopien in der Krise
14.01.2006 · 13:30 Uhr
Bei Demonstrationen gegen die umstrittenen Wahlen in Äthiopien kam es im November 2005 zu schweren Zusammenstößen zwischen Jugendlichen und der Polizei. (Bild: AP Archiv)
Diktatur oder politischer Schluckauf
Äthiopien in der Krise
Von Thomas Kruchem
Seit der großen Hungersnot im Jahre 1984 ist Äthiopien für viele ein Symbol für die Armut in Afrika. Wirtschaftlich geht es dem Land bis heute miserabel, obwohl das Land derzeit die beste Ernte seit jeher erlebt. Armut und Perspektivlosigkeit sorgen aber für ein angespanntes innenpolitisches Klima in Äthiopien. Hinzu kommen ständig aufflammende Auseinandersetzungen unter den gut 80 unterschiedlichen Ethnien im Lande. Der Ausgang der Parlaments-Wahlen im Mai 2005 hat die Stimmung im Lande zusätzlich angeheizt.
Äthiopiens Hauptstadt Addis Abeba ist ein Moloch aus Zement, Wellblech und qualmenden Schrottautos; aus zahllosen Bettlern und plärrender Kaffeehaus-Musik. Dazu Baustellen; neuerdings schießen überall schmucke Geschäftshäuser aus dem Boden, vor denen junge, gut gekleidete Leute ins Handy gestikulieren. Die Zeitungen berichten von der zweiten guten Ernte hintereinander. Äthiopien könnte - so scheint es - auf einem guten Weg sein."Es ist auf einem ganz schlimmen Weg", sagt in einem winzigen, blechgedeckten Betonhäuschen am Stadtrand ein junger Student mit schmalem, fast ausgezehrt wirkendem Gesicht; ein Student von der Volksgruppe der Oromos, der größten Äthiopiens.Wir alle leben in Angst, weil so viele Soldaten in der Stadt sind. Sie schießen auf Dich; sie nehmen Dich fest und verschleppen Dich in ein Konzentrationslager. Das größte liegt 350 Kilometer von hier - im Didessa-Tal. Wir schätzen, dass sie dort 20.000 Oromos festhalten. Viele andere wurden umgebracht oder haben das Land verlassen.Der Student deutet auf ein Foto über dem Sofa: "Meine Schwester bei der Examensfeier. Sie ist seit dem 3. November verschwunden." - Der Student erzählt von der Unterdrückung der heute 30 Millionen Oromos, die mit der Kolonisierung durch Amharen-Kaiser Menelik von 120 Jahren begann und unter der jetzigen Meles-Regierung andauert. - "Ich bin Kämpfer der 'Oromo Liberation Front', der OLF", gibt sich der junge Mann zu erkennen. "Ich kämpfe bewaffnet für die Rechte der Oromos."Die "Oromo Liberation Front" ist zwar militärisch nicht stark, dafür jedoch politisch. - Die OLF will übrigens nicht, wie es oft heißt, Oromia vom Rest Äthiopiens trennen. Wir wollen was uns als größter Volksgruppe im Lande gerechterweise zusteht. Wir wollen in unserer Sprache lernen und unsere Ressourcen selbst verwalten. Fast der gesamte äthiopische Kaffee und fast alle Nahrungsmittel stammen ja aus Oromia; wir Oromos aber sehen davon herzlich wenig.Nicht weit von der Hütte des jungen Mannes steht ein bescheidenes Gotteshaus aus Backstein: die protestantische deutsche Kirche von Addis. Pfarrer Hans-Joachim Krause, entsandt aus Hannover, betreut von hier aus die deutschsprachigen Christen der Stadt, die wie er noch immer unter dem Eindruck der Wahlen vom 15. Mai 2005 stehen. Vor diesen ersten freien Wahlen in Äthiopien hatten die Regierung und das bunt gemischte Oppositionsbündnis CUD intensiv debattiert - über das Verhältnis zwischen den 80 Ethnien des Landes, über wirtschaftliche und soziale Fragen. Als die Regierung nach herben Verlusten jedoch versuchte, das Wahlergebnis zu fälschen, schlug die Aufbruchstimmung im Juni 2005 um: in verzweifelten Widerstand der Opposition gegen den jetzt als Diktator wahrgenommenen Premier Meles Zenawi. Die Staatsmacht reagierte mit rabiater Gewalt; es gab 40 Tote. Ende Oktober flackerte der Widerstand erneut auf.Die Opposition hat dann auch zu einem gewaltfreien Generalstreik aufgerufen. Es fuhr kein Taxi mehr. Die Busse wurden dann auch nicht mehr auf die Straße geschickt. Und dann kam es zu dem Steinewerfen und den Schießereien. Die Schießereien muss die Regierung verantworten - und die vielen Toten. Ich schätze, es sind hunderte von Toten und tausend verletzte und zigtausend, über 40.000, die dann in Internierungslager durch Razzien nachts abgeführt wurden und auch heute noch dort draußen auf dem Land zum größten Teil noch sitzen - in verschiedenen Internierungslagern.Begrenztes Verständnis für Premier Meles bringt Amare Aregawi auf. Der Chefredakteur der englischsprachigen Wochenzeitung "Reporter". Ist ein quirliger kleiner Mann im Nadelstreifenanzug. Schlecht ausgebildete Polizisten, sagt Aregawi, seien im Juni und November 2005 angesichts Steine werfender Demonstranten und brennender Reifen einfach durchgedreht. - Aregawis Zeitung berichtet sachlich, aber durchaus kritisch über innen- wie außenpolitische Turbulenzen. Ein Artikel über das Gefangenenlager Didessa etwa dokumentiert, wie Gefangene, tagelang im Freien sitzend, von Löwen, Hyänen und Schlangen getötet wurden. - Trotzdem sei der 'Reporter' ein Feigenblatt, das wenigen tausend englischsprachigen Äthiopiern und Ausländern Pressefreiheit vorspiegeln soll", meint der deutsche Pfarrer Krause. Von den tatsächlich wichtigen, den Zeitungen in der Amtssprache Amharisch seien 20 verboten; Dutzende von Journalisten säßen, angeklagt wegen Hochverrats, in Haft. - "Stimmt", sagt Aregawi. Zugleich aber fordert er Selbstkritik auch von den meist schlecht ausgebildeten Journalisten.Zu den Spannungen beigetragen haben sicherlich Teile der Presse, indem sie extrem polarisiert berichteten. Viele Zeitungen unterstützten bedingungslos eine Partei, fabrizierten in diesem Sinne Nachrichten und schürten Hass auch zwischen Ethnien; Fakten oder Ausgewogenheit waren ihnen egal. - In einer bitterarmen, ungebildeten Gesellschaft wie der Äthiopiens kann so etwas verhängnisvolle Folgen haben. Ethnische Konflikte hier entzünden sich an Nichtigkeiten und werden dann zum Flächenbrand - so wie in Ruanda zwischen Hutu und Tutsi oder in Nigeria zwischen Haussa und Ibo. - Wir Journalisten tragen deshalb enorme Verantwortung in einem Land wie Äthiopien, wo 80 ethnische Gruppen miteinander leben müssen.Wohin steuert Äthiopien - wo die Landwirtschaft, von der 85 Prozent der Menschen leben, hoffnungslos unterentwickelt ist; wo das höchste Bevölkerungswachstum der Welt, wurzelnd in tiefer Religiosität, fast selbstmörderisch wirkt; wo sich in den Städten ohnmächtige Wut erwerbsloser Massen zusammen braut? Diese Wut entlädt sich immer häufiger in Protesten, schürt ethnische Konflikte, führt Politiker in Versuchung, Schießbefehle zu geben oder sich mal wieder auf den äußeren Feind Eritrea zu konzentrieren. - Der Journalist und der Befreiungskämpfer sehen die Zukunft ganz unterschiedlich.Ich bin überzeugt, dass wir nicht in einer Diktatur leben. Sicher, mehrere Zeitungen wurden geschlossen - was ich für bedauerlich halte. Andererseits erscheinen nach wie vor Zeitungen, die die Regierung offen kritisieren. Und das staatliche Fernsehen überträgt live, wie Parlamentsabgeordnete den Premierminister attackieren und bisweilen aus Protest den Plenarsaal verlassen. - Um kein Missverständnis aufkommen zu lassen: Die jüngste Entwicklung halte ich für gefährlich - wenn sie anhält. Wahrscheinlich aber haben wir es nur mit einer Art politischem Schluckauf zu tun.Unser Land versinkt im Chaos. Wenn es so weiter geht, wird Äthiopien, glaube ich, zerfallen - in etliche Einzelstaaten. Die Menschen haben doch solch einen Hass auf die Zentralregierung, auf diese Minderheit von vier Millionen Tigreern, die glaubt, 70 Millionen Menschen beherrschen zu können. - Ja, ich bin pessimistisch, was die Zukunft dieses Landes angeht. Äthiopien, das befürchte ich, wird auseinander brechen - nicht jetzt, aber irgendwann.
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