Malicious and Completely False Statement about the Oromo Community in Oslo by Ethiomedia
By Saketa Etafa and Daniel Gemtessa | February 23, 2012
We, the Oromo participants in the task force opposing the Norwegian and Ethiopian governments’ agreement to involuntarily repatriate asylum seekers to Ethiopia (Saketa Etafa and Daniel Gemtessa), read with utter amazement the gibberish entitled “We are moving in the right direction” posted on Ethiomedia on 20 February by a group calling itself Concerned Ethiopians. We categorically reject ever making any of the statements attributed to us by the useless drivel. We participate in the task force only to achieve the single aim of opposing and hopefully averting the involuntary repatriation of asylum seekers from Ethiopia currently residing in Norway. We have repeatedly made this crystal clear to the other participants in the joint task force contrary to the stand attributed to us by the so-called Concerned Ethiopians. Furthermore, the task force has at no time dealt with the issue of addressing the “tense political differences among Ethiopian opposition parties,” as the group calling itself Concerned Ethiopians claims. Addressing such issues is clearly beyond our mandate as members of the Oromo Community in Oslo since it is not only a non-political body but also embraces members subscribing to different political stands and supporting diverse political groups. For the same reason, the Oromo Community in Oslo is in no position to support or oppose any faction of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), contrary to what the group calling itself Concerned Ethiopians alleges. Read more…
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Survival uncovers shocking human rights abuses in Ethiopia
Two Karo by Ethiopia's Omo River. It is crucial to their way of life.
February 22, 2012 (Survival International) – Survival has uncovered shocking new evidence of human rights abuses against tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, as government efforts to develop lucrative sugar cane plantations in the region intensify.
Bulldozers are flattening land near a UNESCO World Heritage Site, destroying villages and forcing local communities to give up their pastoral way of life.
Fear is growing as violence becomes commonplace and reports of beatings, rapes and arrests spread among tribes close to the Omo River.
As recently as January 2012, Survival received reports of three Bodi men being beaten to death in an Ethiopian jail.
The government is also ordering families to sell their livestock. One man told Survival, ‘My money is my cattle. My bank account is my cattle.’ Read more…
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Ethiopian Opposition Figure Injured in Qalitti Prison Cell Attack
VOA News (Feb. 20) An Ethiopian politician standing trial for terrorism is said to be injured and in fear for his life after being attacked in his prison cell by a convicted murderer. The leader of the largest opposition party is appealing to Ethiopia’s human rights body to intervene in the case.
Former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada sent an urgent appeal to Human Rights Commission chief Teruneh Zenna Monday asking protection for opposition leaders being held at Addis Ababa’s Kaliti prison. Read more…
Ethiopian Government to resettle 1.5 – million People
Mesenazeria – Amharic weekly (February 21) Government to resettle 1.5 – million people residing in four regions. Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report criticizing the villagization program undertaken in Gambella region. According to HRW, in Gambella until December 2011 government resettled 45-thousand people. HRW says the resettlement site lacks basic infrastructures. HRW report indicated that government has plans to resettle 1.5 – million people in Afar, Beneshangul Gumuz and Somali regions next year.
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11 Found Dead in Ethiopian Container
February 21, 2012 (The Africa Report) – At least 11 people were found dead in a container trucker in Ethiopia on Sunday and are suspected to be victims of human trafficking.
The container was reportedly on its way to Djibouti but police suspect Saudi Arabia was the final destination. According to police, the truck driver was part of a syndicate of human traffickers.
Police said the driver allegedly loaded 75 people in a single container-with no windows after demanding $400 from each person. They were supposed to travel to various destinations through Arab countries including Yemen and Somalia.
Police who got a tip off followed the lorry and intercepted it before it entered Djibouti. But the driver of the lorry, suspecting that he was being followed by police, stopped the vehicle and ran away.
Police expressed shock when they found the 11 people including a woman already dead. Read more…
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How Long Can a Patient Stay in the Intensive Care Unit?
By Kiflu Hussain
February 20, 2012 (All Africa) – One of the protagonists portrayed as a pathologist in Arthur Hailey’s book, titled, The Final Diagnosis, observed that ‘the remarkable thing about the human body is not what kills us but what we can have wrong inside us and still go on living.’
Accordingly, a person may live normally while carrying a cause that is harmful to health for a long time before succumbing to any form of illness.
I even heard real medical practitioners talk about insidious cancer in real life. And so I have a fair idea as to how a person after being admitted as a patient can stay in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for quite some time. Yet, that is an exception rather than the rule. In most cases, either the condition of the patient improves or deteriorates whereby they get discharged from the hospital to resume normal life or the mortal remain gets relegated to the morgue and eventually burial. Now that is in a human being over which I have neither the intention nor the capacity to dwell upon. Read more…
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Ethiopia: USA already looks to post- Meles
February 18, 2012 (The Indian Ocean Newsletter N°1326) ”Some Ethiopian opponents are convinced that the United States may have already begun to discuss the succession of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The United States has already reportedly begun to check two options for what could follow after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi: he could either rapidly designate his own successor to prepare him for his role or he could establish government of national unity before the end of his term. Such is the belief of Ethiopian opponents who have had contacts with American diplomats in Addis Ababa or in Washington. These diplomats have had talks with the faction of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) headed by Kemal Gelchu, with the Ginbot 7 group led by Berhanu Nega and with Daoud Ibsa, the leader of another faction of the OLF who was discreetly invited to Washington at the end of last year. Read more…
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Lebanon Joined Eritrea to Condemn Ethiopia’s Jamming Practice
February 18, 2012 (ghezana) – The Ethiopian government, in its desperate attempt to jam the increasingly popular Eritrean Television from being viewed in Ethiopia and the region, has instead knocked a number of other satellite TV operators out from the service of Arabsat and Nilesat networks.
Lebanon, the latest victim country, is now openly condemning the jamming practice of the Ethiopian government after it puts several of its TV channels out of the Arabsat network.
The country’s telecommunications Minister, Mr. Nicolas Sehnaoui, yesterday thrown his accusations at the increasingly totalitarian government of Ethiopia after results from the preliminary investigations into the jamming of Arabsat satellite transmission confirms Ethiopia as the source of the jamming signal. Read more…
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EU backs Ethiopia into a corner over jailed Swedes
February 16, 2012 (Africa Review) – Tense negotiations are underway for the release of two Swedish journalists jailed by Ethiopia on terrorism charges in September.
A delegation from the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is said to have already met with Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi.
EU and Swedish officials are this week expected to outline options to further press the Horn of Africa country into releasing the journalists, including a review of aid obligations.
“In the last couple of days, we have been discussing with Ethiopian officials and we hope to secure the release of the two reporters,” a high ranking EU official told this reporter on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Read more…
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Sehnaoui: Jamming of Arabsat coming from Ethiopia
Sehnaoui visits a satellite station in Mount Lebanon’s Jouret al-Balout.
February 16, 2012, BEIRUT (The Daily Star) – Preliminary investigations into the jamming of Arabsat satellite transmission shows that it is originating from Ethiopia, Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui said Wednesday, calling on Arabsat’s operator to secure new frequencies for its transmission in Lebanon.
“Arabsat told us that the source of the jamming is Ethiopia and it handed us a copy of their complaint they have passed to Ethiopian authorities on this matter,” said Sehnaoui. Read more…
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Ethiopian premier said “gripped by fear ” of assassination
Feb 14, 2012 (Ethiopian Review) – Ethiopia’s khat-addicted dictator is gripped with fear that disgruntled members of his own ruling party, the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), are plotting to assassinate him.
Two months ago, Meles replaced many of his bodyguards from Tigray with those from the Adwa Awraja and some Eritreans whom he seems to trust more.
Last week, at least 5 of the replaced Tigrean bodyguards have been arrested and taken to an unknown location, according to Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unit Sources.
The detained bodyguards have been arrested after being suspected of secretly communicating with the opposition ARENA Tigray Party. Read more…
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Ethiopia telecom, France telecom at loggerheads over service delivery
February 14, 2012 (The Africa Report) – Mobile telecommunications customers are riled at what they describe as poor service delivery and have demanded an immediate improvement from Ethio-Telecom and France Telecom, which took over management of the Ethiopian firm a year ago.
However, Ethio-Telecom has implied that the problem was the French company, amidst reports that the two sides are said to be renegotiation their contract agreement.
In November 2010, Ethiopia awarded France telecom a 30 million Euro two year contract to manage Ethio-Telecom. But the past few weeks have seen Ethio-Telecom customers launch massive complaints over the company’s poor service.
Many say the company’s mobile phone credit cards are defective.
“It took me two days to enter the number on my scratch card. I don’t really understand why this company can’t improve its service. We heard that France Telecom took over the management, but we are yet to see any improvement,” Tesema Belay, an irate customer, said. Read more…
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Ethiopia’s tribes cry for help
A drive to become a world leading sugar producer threatens the livelihoods of thousands of people in rural areas.
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Feb 13, 2012, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Aljazeera) - The Lower Omo Valley in south-western Ethiopia is a vast and rugged region of mountains and valleys, inhabited largely by nomadic agro-pastoralist tribes numbering some 200,000 people. Many live a simple existence, living in straw thatched huts and have little contact with the outside world. But the Ethiopian government’s new found appetite for large-scale sugar production threatens the very existence of many of these tribes.
The Ethiopian army has been violently clashing with tribes, forcing many from their land [Dominic Brown/Al Jazeera
Nearly 300,000 hectares of land in the Omo and Mago National Parks, which comprises much of the Lower Omo Valley, has been earmarked for the Kuraz Sugar Development programme. Backed by large-scale investment from Indian companies, the programme aims to help increase overall sugar production in Ethiopia to 2.3 million tonnes by 2015, with the goal of achieving a 2.5 per cent global share by 2017. Read more…
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Ethiopia accused of forcing people from land
Government forcibly removing people to make way for firms to lease agricultural land, says rights group.
Read more…
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UN-US Admonitions of Ethiopian Anti-terrorism Law Still ‘Kid Glove Treatment’ of Zenawi’s Ethnototalitarian Regime
What is new in the UN-US admonition is not really the content or substance of the statement because human rights organizations have already better articulated how the law has been misused. What is new is not only that the issue is now being taken up at these high global levels, but also the seemingly slow awakening of the U.S., and the UN human rights body to the issue.
This belated and extra-soft UN-US. admonitions of the misuse of Ethiopian anti-terrorism law might be reactions initiated by massive reports and analyses by human rights organizations, notably Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. I am using the word ‘reactions’ because US and UN officials seem to have come to an important belated realization that it has come to the point where continuing to ignore this issue will turn global public opinion against U.N. and the U.S. and implicate them in complacency with the regime’s own intensifying state-sponsored repressive campaigns in Oromia and Ogaden regions to the south. HRW and AI already adequately characterized the ant-terrorism law as Zenawi’s method/strategy of squashing dissent, freedom of speech and expression. So, what is new in this condemnation? Read more…
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