Ethiopia harasses Voice of America and its sources

Nairobi, October 5, 2012--Ethiopian authorities should halt their harassment of journalists covering the country's Muslim community and their intimidation of citizens who have tried to speak to reporters about sensitive religious, ethnic, and political issues, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police in the capital, Addis Ababa, briefly detained Marthe Van Der Wolf, a reporter with the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of Americaas she was covering a protest by members of Ethiopia's Muslim community at the Anwar Mosque, local journalists said. The protesters were demonstrating against alleged government interference in Islamic Council elections scheduled for Sunday, according to VOA and local journalists.

Wolf was taken to a police station and told to erase her recorded interviews, and then released without charge, local journalists said.

This week, security officers have also harassed Ethiopian citizens who were interviewed by VOA's Amharic-language service, according to the station. Police arrested two individuals who spoke to VOA on Thursday about a land dispute outside the capital, VOA reported. On Monday, police harassed individuals who spoke to the station about a dispute over resources between ethnic communities, the outlet said.

"We urge the government's leadership to set a new tone of tolerance and halt the bullying tactics of the past," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Citizens should be allowed to voice their opinions to journalists without fearing arrest or intimidation, and reporters should be allowed to cover even those events the government dislikes."

For much of the year, Ethiopian authorities have cracked down on journalists and news outlets reporting on the unprecedented protests by members of the Muslim community, according to CPJ research. In May, police detained former VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein overnight on accusations of "illegal reporting" for covering a similar protest, VOAreported.

VOA released a statement today that condemned the harassment and obstruction and said the incident was "designed to prevent journalists from doing their job."

Three Muslim-oriented papers have not been published in the country since July after police raided the outlets and searched the homes of their editors. Yusuf Getachew, editor of Ye Muslimoch Guday, has been imprisoned on charges of treason and incitement to violence for reporting on the grievances of the Muslim community, and at least two journalists, Senior Editor Akemel Negash and copy editor Isaac Eshetu, have fled into hiding, according to CPJ research.

With six journalists in jail, Ethiopia is the second leading jailer of journalists in Africa, second only to its neighbor, Eritrea, according to CPJ research.

Talk to Jazeera - Meles Zenawi

COURAGE IN JOURNALISM

Reeyot Alemu, Ethiopia
2012 Courage in Journalism Award

A CRITICAL VOICE LOST TO ETHIOPIA’S WAR ON INFORMATION

Reeyot Alemu has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for more than a year, branded as a terrorist. She is one of many journalists who have been arrested, interrogated and threatened in her country. What makes Alemu exceptional are her commitment to work for independent media when the prospect of doing so became increasingly dangerous, her refusal to self-censor in a place where that practice is standard, and her unwillingness to apologize for truth-telling, even though contrition could win her freedom. In jail, Alemu was offered clemency if she agreed to testify against journalist colleagues. She refused and was sent to solitary confinement for 13 days as punishment for her failure to cooperate. She is currently being kept at Kality prison, which is known for its filthy conditions. Recently, she has fallen ill; in April of this year she underwent surgery at nearby hospital to remove a tumor from her breast, after which she was returned to jail with no recovery time.

“I believe that I must contribute something to bring a better future,” Alemu said in an earlier interview with the IWMF. “Since there are a lot of injustices and oppressions in Ethiopia, I must reveal and oppose them in my articles.” Alemu said one of her “principles” is “to stand for the truth, whether it is risky or not.”

To work for free media in Ethiopia is indeed a risk. The country has the second-highest number of imprisoned journalists in Africa, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, after notoriously oppressive Eritrea. Late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly attacked non-state members of the press, calling them “messengers” of terrorist groups. Increasingly, “terrorist” is a label attached to any entity with an opinion on politics, social issues or human rights that does conform to government rhetoric. In the capital city of Addis Ababa, Alemu worked for numerous, often short-lived independent publications. At least four news outlets to which she contributed were forced out of business by the Ethiopian government. Her reporting explored the root causes of poverty, lack of balance in national politics and gender equality. In 2010, she founded her own publishing house and a monthly magazine called Change, both of which were shuttered.

In the months prior to her arrest, Alemu was slandered in government-run media for her reporting, a common tactic to intimidate journalists. According to a colleague, Alemu also received threatening phone calls. “Reeyot was able to speak about issues even the most mature and outspoken political opposition leaders were unable to voice,” said a friend of Alemu’s who works at an Addis University. “Until this day, she has…faced up to the challenges that many have bowed down to.”

Alemu taught English classes at an Addis high school. She gave part of her salary to her students from poor families. It was at the school that she was arrested in June 2011. Her home was raided by police and a number of her personal documents were seized. At the time, she was working as a columnist for independent daily newspaper Féteh.

For more than a week, Alemu was held with no indication as to why she was detained. Then, a government spokesman announced at a press conference that Alemu was one of nine people suspected of organizing terrorism. The terrorist group they were accused of abetting was unnamed and specific crimes were not cited. It was two months before Alemu and another journalist in the group of nine were formally charged.

Alemu is one in a number of journalists who have been prosecuted under the vaguely worded and broad-reaching anti-terrorism laws passed by the Ethiopian legislature in 2009. The laws allow for the arrest of anyone thought to “encourage” parties labeled as terrorists.

Under this law, Alemu was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined 33,000 birrs (about $1,850). Prior to her arrest, she made less than $100 per month at her teaching job and little more as a reporter. During her trial, government prosecutors presented articles Alemu had written criticizing the prime minister, as well as telephone conversations she had regarding peaceful protests, as evidence against her. In August 2012, an appeals court subsequently reduced the 14-year prison sentence to 5 years and dropped most of the terrorism charges against her.

The Ethiopian government has effectively limited media coverage to topics friendly to the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front), which holds more than 99% of seats in parliament. It has done this through charges of treason and terrorism levied against reporters and free media, public criticism of journalists and passage of laws that punish sources of information about opposition political parties and questions of human rights.

Alemu was willing to risk her freedom to challenge the standard explanations, or failure to explain, the systemic decay in her country. According to her friends and colleagues, she thought she could make a difference in the trajectory of her people; she thought her work might make things better. And now she has been silenced, like so many others.

“She is a person who has a bright vision for her country,” said a friend and former colleague based in Addis. “But, she is in prison.”

Ethiopia: Business As Usual

Aid and Assistance, East Africa, Ethiopia, Governance, Human Rights

BY BEN RAWLENCE, 

Despite Meles' passing, Ethiopia is continuing to conduct repressive policies, and international donors are continuing to ignore them.

Amid the tributes to Ethiopia's recently departed prime minister was much twittering (and tweeting) about 'stability' and the 'transition', especially from Ethiopia's foreign donors. There is considerable concern that without Meles Zenawi, the charismatic former rebel leader who ruled Ethiopia for 21 years until his death, the country may implode, infighting might engulf the ruling party or Ethiopia's fragile economic growth might reverse. While these fears about the country's stability are warranted, there has been little recognition of the role that human rights play in underpinning stability. Sadly that is nothing new.

On September 21, Meles' former deputy and foreign minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was sworn in as his successor as both prime minister and ruling party chief. In his inauguration speech, Hailemariam pledged to continue Meles' policies. These, it should be remembered, included not only far-reaching plans for economic development, but crushing political opposition, the evisceration of independent media and civil society, and the use of arbitrary detention, torture, and other repressive measures to suppress dissent.

Three days later, the World Bank approved its biggest grant to Ethiopia, $600 million, for the third phase of its flagship Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme, along with a new Country Partnership Strategy for Ethiopia, largely drafted before Meles died, that will underpin $1.15 billion in new loans. The new Country Partnership Strategy makes no reference to the deteriorating human rights situation over the past seven years or the complex political landscape that Ethiopia now faces with Meles' death. The only glancing reference to the profound political and human rights problems in Ethiopia comes in the last line of the document, which reads, "In the longer term there is also a risk associated with the next elections, scheduled for 2015". Indeed there is a risk to the country's stability created by long-suppressed basic freedoms of speech, association, assembly and democratic choice. But it is not a risk that the World Bank and other donors have done anything to mitigate.

Ethiopia's transition is an important opportunity for Ethiopia's friends and foreign partners to pause and encourage the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front to return to a democratic path, respect the constitution by lifting restrictions on civil society and the press, and release political prisoners - all steps that would go a significant way to releasing the building pressure from years of repression.

So far, the party has released two Swedish journalists jailed last year for trying to report on rights abuses in Ethiopia's Somali Region, a positive step but one that was in the works long before Meles' death. Meanwhile, donors have said nothing about the nine local journalists who remain jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, or the hundreds of other political prisoners. Business as usual with Ethiopia apparently requires donors like the US, EU and UK with human rights policies and commitments to develop a blind spot to legitimate concerns that in other countries they routinely denounce.

A forgotten concern?

In 2005, after 200 people protesting the elections were killed and at least 30,000 opposition supporters, journalists, civil society leaders (including the staff of Action Aid and other charities) were detained, donors were forced to act, suspending direct budget support to Ethiopia. Less than a year later, aid resumed, albeit through different channels, although a 2006 interim Country Strategy noted concerns over the overlap between the state and the ruling party and risks that aid funds could be "captured" and used to bolster the regime.

Two years later, the 2008 strategy document minimised those earlier concerns, paving the way for a massive increase in aid to Ethiopia. It turned Ethiopia's democratic deficit into a technical issue, a problem that could be addressed by building the capacity of parliament and other key institutions: in other words, not an issue of political will, but a problem that could be solved with money.

Five years on, the new country strategy published on September 25 ignores the thorny questions of human rights, democracy and good governance completely, aside from a focus on fiscal accountability. Early on the text declares that, "Good governance and state building form the foundation of the Country Partnership Strategy" - but that's it. The rest of the document is a thorough-going plan for increasing the capacity of a one-party state in precisely the way that the 2006 strategy feared.

At least it has the advantage of clarity: it doesn't attempt to square uncomfortable realities like how the World Bank's social accountability component - designed to increase civic participation and programme accountability through monitoring by NGOs - is compatible with Ethiopia's NGO law that has closed or shackled nearly all independent organisations working on good governance, human rights, advocacy and other sensitive issues. Nor does it answer the question of how a programme founded on good governance deals with a government that won over 99% of the vote in local and general elections.

The Meles conundrum

Working on Ethiopia over the last four years I have become familiar with the confused reactions of diplomats and aid officials as they struggle to reconcile the official narrative about Ethiopia with their experience on the ground. As Human Rights Watch has presented report after report of compelling evidence of human rights abuses, some of them connected to foreign aid programs, donors have agreed with us in private, promised to investigate, publicly dismissed our findings, reneged on their promise to investigate, and then denied the problem exists. They cannot seem to decide whether Ethiopia is a development miracle or a brutal dictatorship. As one shrewd junior official put it to me, "Meles Zenawi messes with your head".

Ethiopia's vision that it will join the ranks of middle income countries by 2020 is repeated throughout the World Bank's new country strategy but there is little mention of the methods with which this growth is being achieved. I never doubted Meles's intentions or his zeal. But the gap between his vision and the reality was startling, and brutal. He pursued an approach to development that would not fly in most of the countries that gave him money. Indeed, the development economists from Western aid agencies I spoke to were a little envious of his power to commission dams and lease thousands of hectares of indigenous land without a nod to anyone. But the approach is founded on the ruling party wielding complete and unchallenged power with no room for any dissenting voices, and it relies on fear.

Meles made this approach more palatable through a combination of shrewd arguments and by limiting the contradictory reports from the ground. From 2005 onward, the ability of foreigners to access sensitive information in Ethiopia, and the ability of Ethiopians to access independent information in their own country, has steadily shrunk. As bad news bubbled up from below, more journalists fled the country after being threatened, more independent papers closed, and an alarming number of journalists ended up in jail on vague charges.

The experience of the 2010 elections was instructive. Human Rights Watch spent over six months in the countryside documenting a subtle but systematic crackdown on opposition offices, rallies, and membership through the ruling party's pervasive state apparatus, including withholding food aid, seeds, fertilisers and jobs. Meanwhile, in Addis Ababa, Meles invited the leadership of opposition parties to conferences and, when they pulled out complaining of the noose tightening around the neck of their membership, the government painted them as spoilers. The ruling party won 99.6% of the vote, and all but two of the 547 seats in parliament.

When Human Rights Watch presented its findings of the widespread manipulation of development aid, donors claimed they had no evidence to support our allegations, even though they hadn't really investigated. And had they tried, officially, they would have been escorted by Ethiopian government officials who would have tracked down their sources, forcing them to recant or threatening their families.

Paid for by donors

In the five lowland regions of Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar, Somali and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), large scale "villagisation" programmes are resettling 1.5 million people, purportedly so that the government can better reach them with schools, hospitals and water pumps; services paid for by the PBS programme mentioned above, recently renewed.

Villagisation is not a new concept in Ethiopia; successive governments have tried to move rural communities for ideological and practical agricultural reasons. Under Mengistu Haile Mariam, it was known as collectivisation and it contributed to appalling abuses, including the terrible famine of the 1980s. A major difference in the contemporary version is that foreign donors are effectively paying for it. As Human Rights Watch showed in a January 2012 report, many people in the Gambella region are being forcibly displaced - away from existing services to unfertile areas without amenities, and people have suffered food shortages as a result.

Prior to the Bank's decision to approve PBS III, Human Rights Watch called on the World Bank to delay the decision on the $600 million, to trigger the Bank's safeguards on forced displacement and indigenous peoples, and assess the very real risks that Bank money might be contributing to rights violations. They didn't.

Meanwhile, in South Omo, Africa's tallest dam is being constructed in the absence of proper environmental and social impact assessments. A power line to carry electricity to Kenya is also being funded by the World Bank, although not the controversial dam itself. Downstream, hundreds of thousands of pastoralists are in the process of being 'villagised', their riverside gardens flooded and grazing areas turned into enormous sugar plantations upon which they are expected to work. The effect on Kenya's Lake Turkana - which is fed by the Omo River - is uncertain and a further 300,000 people in Kenya risk impoverishment too. The Ethiopian government, keen to show off its infrastructure, takes journalists on guided tours of the dam but forbids the indigenous people of South Omo from talking to the media - threatening those who do. The absence of a free media to test and examine official claims allows donors the chance to choose whom to believe.

Business as usual

But stability and prosperity cannot be founded on repression, forced displacement, interference in the courts and closing down the opposition, media and civil society. Donors forget that, at least according to their own policies and commitments, economic development and human rights go hand in hand.

They are about to be reminded. A case in the UK is being brought by Leigh Day and Co. on behalf of a man from Gambella. Mr O alleges that the UK Department for International Development contributed to Ethiopia's villagisation programme (via PBS) that displaced him and destroyed his livelihood. The case aims at a judicial review of the department's human rights policy on Ethiopia. In Washington, the day before the World Bank approved all that new money, another group of residents from Gambella filed a complaint with the World Bank's own accountability mechanism, contending that the Bank had ignored its own policies on forced displacement and indigenous peoples in Ethiopia.

In the risks to Ethiopia's expected economic growth that are enumerated in the Bank's new country strategy, opposition from the people who are supposed to be beneficiaries is not mentioned at all. That may be business as usual in Ethiopia, where voicing your real opinion typically lands you in jail, but it shouldn't be business as usual at the Bank.

Ben Rawlence is senior researcher on Africa at Human Rights Watch. Follow him on Twitter @BenRawlence.

ESAT Phone interview with a Corrupt Ethiopian General Fiseha Kidanu.

Reading the lips of Hailemariam Desalegn[Hindessa Abdul ]

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s presence in New York for the United Nations General Assembly will rather be remembered for the 40 minutes odd interview with the Voice of America (VOA) than the significance of his speech at the podium.

While there was nothing new in the interview that is groundbreaking or of utmost importance, the mere fact of the interview being held makes it newsworthy. Otherwise, most of the answers were similar to his late predecessor save for the arrogance the later was known for.

The PM’s maiden interview since he took office raised issues ranging from Sudan to China. From concerns of water to stories of hats. He explained at length how Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is democratic and how those who think EPRDF is “biased towards certain ethnic groups…is a false and unwarranted speculation.”

He sounded comfortable expounding on foreign affairs than that of political prisoners as he doesn’t seem to have sufficient information in that regard; or may be he served as minister of foreign affaires for two years before he assumed the current position; could be understood either ways.

His answers concerning freedom of speech is devoid of any details whatsoever except for the archaic metaphors of the “two hats” that he had to repeat dozens of times.

Talking about issues of the media and free speech most of his words were borrowed from Ethiopian information Tsar Bereket Simon, in some cases they sounded a recital of his predecessor’s signature phrases like “the red line.”

Ironies abound

To show how there is freedom of the press in the country at one point Hailemariam says: “You know you have been there. You have been operating there,” the You being the interviewer Peter Heinlein. If Hailemariam only knew that Mr Heinlein was detained this last May for covering Ethiopian Muslims protest at the Grand Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa. He had to spend a night at the notorious Maeklawi prison before the American Embassy in the capital intervened to secure his release. After that Peter never reported from Ethiopia. He quietly left the country to continue his work as head of the Horn of Africa Service of VOA. So much for the operation Mr Prime Minister!

The other irony is that the interview may never reach the intended audience as VOA is blocked in Ethiopia.

Though the PM mentioned he will work with VOA Amharic Service in Addis, he didn’t hide his disdain for the “people in Amharic service” whom he accused of “trying to destabilize this country in terms of instigating certain issues.”

We may not expect a lot from the new PM whose accession to office was shrouded in lots of politicking. The fact that it took him more than two months to take over the position by all earthly logics he was entitled to, tells a lot about the internal wrangling within his party. Shaking off the ghosts of his predecessor is definitely going to take a while. Until then we will be humming “Will the real Hailemariam Desalegn please stand up?”

Hailemariam Desalegn parroting dead tyrant By Abebe Gellaw

Hailemariam Desalegn’s recent interview with Peter Heinlein of VOA confirms that his rise to the helm of power can be largely attributed to his opportunistic imitation of how the late dictator talked and walked as well as his commitment to serving TPLF bigwigs that control him as their Trojan horse.

Hailemariam called political prisoners such as famed journalist Enskinder Nega and Andualem Aragie “terrorists” that wear two hats operating legally and illegally as operatives of terrorist organizations. He claimed that protecting the country from these kinds of people is a national priority.

He defended the anti-terrorism law and the unjust incarceration of journalists and dissidents. According to Hailemariam, the regime is punishing only those who wear two hats and operate legally as journalists and dissidents and illegally as operatives of terrorist and violent organizations.

His convoluted, repetitive and at times unintelligent answer to a simple question why the government resorts to repression and blocking the free flow of information, Hailemariam did his best to use his dead boss’s [that he calls the “Great Leader”] words and catch phrases such as “crossing the red line and wearing two hats”.

In response to how he views the dominance of the TPLF that ruled the country in exclusion of the others, he made his best to please his TPLF bosses by denying the obvious and saying that EPRDF is composed of four “parties” that have equal share of power. According to Hailemariam, his election as Prime Minister is a “living witness” of the “internal democracy and equity” within the EPRDF.

“For those who say that EPRDF is biased to certain ethnic groups, is a false and unwarranted speculation… Internal party democracy is the basis of our strength,” he claimed in an interview punctuated with numerous factual [and grammatical] errors.

Asked why websites and other media outlets are being blocked, Hailemariam said that even in the United States Osama Bin Laden’s blo is not allowed. “You cannot open a blog of Osama Bin Laden in the United States. So it is the same,” he said.
—-
Following are excerpts from the VOA interview where Hailemariam tried to answer a couple of fundamental questions confronting him:

Peter Heinlein: One of the first things that Ethiopians notice about the change from Prime Minister Meles to you is that you are not part of a minority group and the armed struggle perceived as having ruled the country to the exclusion of the other larger ethnic groups. Can you say that the Tigrayan influence on Ethiopian politics is in decline? How do you answer to skeptics who say that the TPLF is still in control behind the scene?

HMD: Well, first of all, if you want to understand the whole situation you have to understand our party. Our party is a coalition of four major parties in the country… These are the four coalitions [sic] of the EPRDF.

EPRDF was initially been [sic] established by the two parties which has been [sic] in armed struggle in the Northern part of Ethiopia. TPLF was the pioneer of this struggle and so later on joined by the Amhara National Democratic Movement [sic] and then against by the OPDO and finally after the overthrow of Derg the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement has joined EPRDF….

After the renewal process, since the last ten years [sic] the renewal process has brought up a new, I mean, refined strategy and policy in line of the party. So in this regard, all the parties has [sic] gone into a new movement and has [sic] become parties which has [sic] embraced the same line, the same experience, I mean, the same way of working within the internal party system and almost equitable way of engagement. Even if there are natural differences with experience everywhere…

So I think all the four parties has [sic] equal settings in all the EPRDF mechanisms like the council, the party congress, assignments. The witness is I am the product of this process. So it is a living witness. For those who speculate that EPRDF is biased towards certain groups or ethnic groups, it is based on the powerful influence of this or the other group is a false and unwarranted speculation. So we see internally, in our party system the first and foremost thing is a democratic discourse. You know, internal party democracy is the basis of our strength. So those who are thinking from outside, they think without knowing the inside of the party. We have to explain this properly to those who are confused because they don’t understand the party mechanism and how the party operates.

This party is internally a democratic party. All its decisions and engagements are made in a democratic fashion. Therefore, you cannot say that this or the other party is influencing or overriding the other parties because all the all parties are equal number of constituents, I mean, individuals, that constitute the EPRDF and they have all the influence necessary if they want in a democratic process…

Peter Heinlein: Ethiopia has been criticized in some quarters for its tight control over the flow of information. Critical newspapers have been forced to close, journalists have been accused of violating anti-terrorism laws, and websites have been blocked, even VOA has been jammed, foreign broadcasts have been jammed. What would your government do particularly in this high profile cases such as that of the newspaper Fiteh that has been closed and the jailing of very critical blogger-journalist Eskinder Nega?

HMD: I know that these are your friends and you are so much sympathetic about them. The only thing is, Peter, you have to understand that anybody who has two hats should stop to wear two hats and should wear only one hat in a possible way. These two hats are one hat in a legal system, legal operating on the other hand having the other hat, which is illegal and violent working with a violent organization.

People who are arrested in Ethiopia are not arrested or convicted because they are working in a legal manner. Those who are arrested are has a connection with violent organizations. They are not convicted because of their journalistic business. It is allowed, you know have been there, you have been operating there but you couldn’t cross the red line ahhh to have a connection supporting a violent organization, terrorist organization. That is a case and I think it is a national security matter. It is a different thing. It is not journalism; it is not opposition.

Opposition doesn’t operate in illegal and violent manner connecting itself with ahhh, by the way, with terrorist groups. These are individuals not parties. We have never convicted any party because we know that those legally registered can operate legally in the country. But individuals who are registered with these parties but having two registration, one registration legal parties the other registration with illegal and violent terrorist parties.

They will be convicted for not legally hat but for the other hat which is illegal, violent and connection with terrorist organizations. So we have to differentiate between the two. If they stop clearly, unequivocally without any hesitation to work on the legal spectrum it is always the room is there [sic], the place is there.

If they mix the two, then we delineate between the legal one and the illegal, violent, terrorist one and for the action which is the second hat the violent and terrorist connection and support. Then that will be convicted according to the law of the land and will be punishable. I think these differences should be understood for you. In the United States it is not a problem because journalists do not go illegal way.

They go for legal and they have only got one hat. They do not have a mixed hat. So that is the difference between here and in Ethiopia. Unusually the Western countries do not understand the mix because they do not have this problem. They just see that all journalists work in legal manner. They don’t have this problem of illegal and the other hat. So that difference is sometimes confused. As far as we are concerned we focus for [sic] our national security interest.

Our national security interest cannot be compromised somebody having a two hat. We want to tell them properly that they have to have only and only one hat, which is legal and the legal way of doing things between journalism and opposition discourse. But if they opt to have two mixed functions then we are very clear to differentiate the two. People should be questioned for illegal and violent terrorist connection.

Peter Heinlein: What would be your government’s position on may be possibly opening up a little bit on the issue of press freedom. Right now websites are blocked, foreign broadcasts jammed and newspapers are being closed.

HMD: This I think should be very clear that my government has no policy of blocking these issues. It is depending on the websites or whatever that comes in. If there is any connection with these kind of organisations it is obvious that is done in every country. You cannot open a blog of Osama Bin Laden in the United States. So it is the same.

ESAT TPLF Suporter with ESAT & Public reaction September 2012 Ethiopia

Ethiopia: Galvanization

by Antehunegn Yihenew
26 September, 2012

Whether we like it or not, one thing is clear in Ethiopia now; the most tyrant ruler, Meles Zenawi, is gone for good and Hailemariam Desalegn from south Ethiopia is assigned new Prime Minster of Ethiopia. The process is accepted half heartedly by Tigrian people’s liberation front (TPLF) and its supporters. Because, even though they knew that the change doesn’t create any problem on their day to day life, they believed that, this position was blessed only for them. Whatever, there are rumors of disagreement on the subject matter among them, for the time being, the game seems be over.

Hailemariam Desalrgn himself and the swearing process get a very warm approval from West governments including America. And they are saying that the transition is good indication of grown Democracy in the country, Ethiopia is going in the right track, and the new generation takes over the leadership position…and so on.

The transition by itself may be good, but the paradox begins when we saw and heard what is going on in Ethiopia now. The nonstop interviews and their trash messages of TPLF prominent leader Sebihat Nega, “The king maker”, and Tigray region president in the last few weeks thought us that, they are still controlling the whole thing. And the new PM magnified to keep and continue the late tyrant Meles Zenawi’s legacy without any change on his speech when he was sworn in reveals also, TPLFs are not changed and they are still in different from what the West are saying and were thinking about TPLF. If we see the consequence of the change even deeper on the eye of Ethiopians, it is obvious that it will become more complicated than ever. We Ethiopians need to have real democracy, freedom and rule of law. The West prefers to secure their interest in Ethiopia and around East Africa than democracy and rule of law. And Woyane’s were playing and want just to oscillate in between.

For instance, Ethiopians require multidirectional talk among different political parties including Woyane and reach agreement before we go on. But Woyane’s top priority is securing their power and West’s interest than talking with its own people and instead, showing galvanized democracy for the West. And they are confirming this using their media and through their well-known leader’s interview in the previous weeks. In relation to The West, if and only if their interest is protected, they will continue accepting the new as they were accepting the old. Because, Ethiopians were not, are not and can’t be their priority. Who cared for innocent Ethiopians then?

We Ethiopians have to care for Ethiopians. We are voices for the voiceless, so we have to disclose Woyane’s tricks. Along with this, we have to struggle to shift West’s main concern to the interest of the people of Ethiopia (which are creating real justice, freedom and democracy in Ethiopia) by using any possible ways and we have to expose the main message of this and similar changes in the future as much as possible.

What was the message of swearing Mr. Hailemariam as PM of Ethiopia? Woyane’s were trying to dispatch that they are in the process of transferring power. This was the main point of this change. And this was the message that makes the West happy, because Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn and Vice Prime Minster Demeke Mekonnen are both from the new generation. And also, the former is from the small ethnic group Wolayita and Protestant and the latter is Muslim.

But do they have the real authority and can they exercise it with free mind without direct or indirect influences from TPLF? I can really say that, they can’t have and can’t exercise their authority. They are like lions without teeth. Because our life experience in the last twenty one year’s thought us that TPLF leads others follow. In any area of the country, in any position and in any situation, what was approved by TPLF was performed, not by the interest of respective region governments or Ethiopians. And this will continue till TPLF taken out from the game.

Therefore, we didn’t see real changes. It is like as before, all the economic sectors, defense, national security and federal police are still tightly controlled by TPLF. Even civil service offices are totally controlled by TPLF. They are not ready to share real power. This is proved when they upgrade Brigadier Generals and Major Generals weeks ago to further tighten suppression. Most of these Generals were from the same village and from TPLF. Members of Hailemariam’s new cabinet also will not be free from such influences. We will see it in the coming weeks.

What the West called Change, basically it is not, is therefore, can’t be taken as one of democratization process in Ethiopia rather it is galvanization. What we are seeing in Ethiopia now is galvanized democracy. It is not transferring power rather filling their gaps in their own way. Their way is simply presenting the old thought with a new face. Thank you

Ethiopia: Internal feud dismantling EPRDF

by Robele Ababya, 26 Sep 2012

Lesson from the demise of the USSR

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was in charge of KGB before he became President of the defunct Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) on 12 November 1982 following the death of Leonid Brezhnev whose era (1964 – 1982) of economic growth nearly came to a standstill due to lack of reforms. His successor Andropov was reported as saying that comrades candidly backbite the shortcomings of CPSU without fear as long as their number is not more than two but otherwise compete in glorifying the Party unanimously in official meetings comprising more than two participants. Is it not true?!

Andropov died on 09 February 1984 after only 15 months in office and the moment of truth came up when internal feud crushed and dismantled the monolithic Central Communist Party and mammoth clumsy government state machinery under the omnipresent tight control of the Party. This is in sharp contrast to cases in a democratic society where individuals are free to voice their free opinion without fear and changes of regimes take place in orderly manner through the verdict of the people casting their votes at the polls.

As a copycat of the Brezhnev era and Stalin-style grip on power, ultimate demise of the exclusive misrule Zenawi’s was never in doubt just like that of his predecessor Mengistu Hailemariam who was advised by Brezhnev himself to follow a policy of mixed economy to be implemented by an inclusive government with broad base.

The powerhouse of EPRDF built according to Stalin’s design is replete with mistrust instilled in it by its architect the late pathological liar. Therefore it would be naïve to expect the new Prime Minister (PM) as an accomplice to the heinous crimes of his former boss to denounce in his acceptance speech the destructive policy of the EPRDF of which he was one of the architects. He didn’t even mention God in taking oath of office.

Champions of liberty freedom and human dignity

The following fall in the category of outstanding individuals,  with vision and exceptional acumen of great leaders rallying others with similar vision for the purpose of ending tyranny:-

1.            Abraham Lincoln: One of the greatest statesmen in the world known for gallantly leading his divided nation locked in a bloody civil war that culminated in the abolition of slavery in the United States of America. From his famous Gettysburg Address commemorating fallen heroes we often quote:  “… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. He underscored the bedrock principle according to which the USA was founded, thus: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Note: Quotes are from the famous President’s Address made on 19 November 1863 (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania).

2.            Emperor Menilik II: The victor of the famous Battle of Adwa that beacon of hope of the black people in the Diaspora; a truly beloved Great Leader of His people that dubbed Him Immye Menilik (Mother Menilik). Adwa is our hallowed ground where Ethiopians from all corners converged to defend their liberty by paying incalculable sacrifice in human life, spilt blood, and material resources. The Emperor was a magnanimous great leader who had elevated His captives in the battle fields to enviable top positions in His cabinet.

3.            Mahatma Gandhi: Mahatma means “Great Soul”- an accolade given by the people to the Founder of the Indian Nation, the largest democracy in the world. Gandhi developed a method of direct social action based upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth called Satyagraha. He believed that the way people behave is more important than what they achieve. Satyagraha promoted nonviolence and civil disobedience as the most appropriate methods for obtaining political and social goals. Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by the great physicist, Albert Einstein: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood”. For the purpose of my writing this piece, I would like to add this quote by Gandhi: “Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men. “

4.             .Martin Luther King: Supreme champion of human rights who gave his life in the struggle for those rights. Here is one of his scores of quotes I chose for my purpose: “Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: – ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’.”

Nelson Mandela: The only celebrated Statesman of our time who had sacrificed his life for 27 years in prison during the Apartheid era to which he put an end and set up Truth, Peace and Reconciliation Commission to bury the past and lay the foundation for building the Rainbow democratic nation of South Africa.

I should be quick to add that the distinguished exceptional leadership of President Lincoln and Martin Luther King laid the foundation for the minority black people of the USA to hold positions of political power progressively culminating in Mr. Barrack Hussein Obama as the first black African-American. This is a highly commendable act of elevating merit above the ethnic origin, color or creed in electing individuals to high office.

Lincoln, Menilik II, Gandhi, and King dedicated themselves to the noble cause of either fighting aggressors or violators of fundamental human rights so that our common humanity shall be the centerpiece of a democratic and caring society without discrimination based on ethnic origin, creed, gender or political belief. Individual merit should be the sole criterion in public service as was vividly expressed in the Tenesa Teramed (Stand up and stride) rallying song that became popular in the aftermath of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. So it matters not to me where the new PM originated from.

Those among the above who held the reigns of political power at the helm did nothing to enrich individuals of their ethnic background because merit was their only yardstick in appointing individuals to higher positions. None are tainted with corruption or abuse of power. All of them fit the template of “Great Leaders” or “Great Statesmen”! Such accolades are validated after a long time and emerge from the masses expressed in various ways such as in poems, music, paintings, folk songs et al – as well as from the chronicles of historians and writings of scholars.

But Zenawi was a cruel despot who tried hard to “make dictatorship work; he is the antithesis of the above supremely stalwart leaders. It is almost certain that Bereket Simon and the EPRDF Party Secretary prepared the acceptance speech in which the accolade of ‘Great Leader’ was inscribed five times and asked the poor new PM to read it. The speech went as far as exalting the tyrant as a leader who cared about the poor of the world. That is how the Stalinist system works!

Giving time to the new PM?

The new PM vowed to retain the legacy of his former boss intact undiminished. One wonders whether it was really out of his own free volition or under duress that he made his acceptance speech given the repugnant legacy left behind by Zenawi, to wit: sellout of Ethiopia’s vital national interests such as active support for the separation of Eritrea; grisly heinous crimes including genocide, victims of torture, incarceration of peaceful protesters en masse; extra judiciary execution of peaceful protesters, the wailing of mothers, the agony of bereaved families, filthy jails in which hundreds of political prisoners are cruelly kept, toiling peasants in serfdom, interethnic hatred, dangerous interference with Orthodox Christian and Muslim religious affairs in violation of the constitution; daylight robbery of votes, pervasive corrupt practices, culture of pathological lies, demised free media, government monopoly of all pillars of democracy, blocked freedom of expression, poor educational standard, forbidden academic freedom in tertiary institutions, a land-locked country, fertile farmland ceded to the Sudan; leasing large chunks of fertile farmlands to unscrupulous foreign investors at tiny price; massive unemployment largely affecting the youth; demoralized youth addicted to psycho-thermal drugs; abject poverty; rampant unemployment; environmental disaster; rampant breach of the constitution; regional instability et al.

Given that the new PM did not make any concession for relaxing the Stalinist policy of the late dictator Zenawi, I oppose the costly traditional “wait and see attitude” and subscribe to the old adage of beating the iron while it is hot. In support of my contention, I provide this quotation by Martin Luther King, which directly applies to the current messy Ethiopian political environment: “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood”.

Conclusion

The cancerous legacy inherited from tyrant Zenawi that, among other of its atrocious components, relegates Ethiopians to live in divisive ethnic cocoons, and which his successor has vowed to implement, must be categorically rejected. The Amara and Oromo ethnic groups, previously earmarked by Fascist Italy and subsequently by TPLF regime for political extinction, should join forces in self-defense.

This is not the time to relax the struggle against the repressive EPRDF regime particularly when it is engaged in internal feud of the type that dismantled the former USSR and its monolithic CPSU; it is not the time to give it respite at this time when Andualem Aragie, Eskinder Nega, Reyot Alemu, et al are in prison in the face of the vow of the new PM to carry forward the policy of his former boss undiminished.

Four decades of creeping change to democracy has already resulted in incalculable cost in terms of human lives, human sufferings, and wastage of natural resources. The time is now for the Ethiopian people, all opposition forces and civic organizations to deal a heavy blow to the EPRDF while it is in disarray – at this time of internal feud and mistrust is dismantling it. Give no respite to a repressive regime while political prisoners languish in filthy jails and Ethiopia is on the verge of falling apart!

The Almighty God has done His part; he is not going to interfere in the remaining works that we can do in unison as Ethiopians for our own freedom, liberty, dignity, democracy and prosperity.

The legitimate Muslim-Christian joint demand for religious freedom should translate into nationwide peaceful civil disobedience for the sake of securing all liberties enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

President Obama should, in the best longtime interest of his country, reject the EPRDF policy in favor of change to democratic dispensation in Ethiopia that would be a reliable ally in terms of her strategic location particularly at this time of souring relations with Egypt and the Arab world and the rising global political ambition of China. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have lived in relative harmony for centuries in Ethiopia.

LONG LIVE ETHIOPIA!!!

ESAT DC Daily News 27 August 2012 Ethiopia