HARARE, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition said on Friday it doubted its unity government with President Robert Mugabe would extradite Ethiopia's former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has asylum there.
Mengistu, called the "Butcher of Addis Ababa" by his enemies, was driven from power in 1991. He was sentenced to death in absentia last year.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has agreed to join a government with Mugabe, said it would seriously consider extraditing Mengistu if it were forming a government by itself.
"But what we are going to have is a government of national unity, and decisions there will have to be reached through some consensus and I don't know whether that's going to be possible," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
The extent of the MDC's influence in the new administration remains unclear.
The Ethiopian government has long called for Mengistu's extradition, but Mugabe's government has refused that.
He was sentenced to death in absentia in May 2008 by Ethiopia's Supreme Court. It found him guilty of genocide arising from the thousands of killings during his 17-year rule that included famine, war and the "Red Terror" purges of his suspected opponents.
Yoseph Kiros, the special prosecutor during the trial of Mengistu and other senior officers, welcomed any chance that prospects for extraditing Mengistu could have improved. He said any such decision by Zimbabwe "would bestow great honour on that country."
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ethiopia: Gaddafi warned against ego
The new African Union Chairman Muammar Gaddafi of Libya has been warned to project the collective views and demands of Africa and not his personal views at the upcoming G-20 summit.
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda cautioned the AU leader to always put Africa first as he nominated three presidents to represent Africa at the G-20 summit in April. They are the President of Tanzanian Jakaya Kikwete, African Union Chairman Muammar Gaddafi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Museveni stated: “Go and explain the views and demands of African not your own when you attend the summit in the UK.”
Global crisis
Zenawi said: “Many African nations are going through the effects of the global financial crisis amidst fears of collapse of some of the nations. The global financial crisis is not a one year phenomenon, it will likely be worse in the future.”
The 12th AU summit ended this week on the theme, “Infrastructure and Development In Africa.” The issues affecting most leaders touched on the global financial crisis.
Member countries gave an overview on the crisis. However, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was unhappy the world has neglected his country. “Is my country not a country like any other yet we cannot get any loans,” he charged.
Zimbabwe is still reeling from the cholera outbreak that has claimed an estimated 3,000 lives according to WHO statistics coupled with dire economic and political crisis.
(Jack Shaka, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Little Paradise in Europe
Newsweek
Each year thousands of tourists flock to the tiny island of Lampedusa off the coast of Sicily. They come for the pristine beaches, the turquoise waters and the dramatic cliffs. What the visitors usually don't see is the boat graveyard. At the center of the island's 24 square kilometers, far from the resorts, wrecked ships hulls are stacked high next to a chain link fence, along with rotting foam mattresses. Each vessel is marked with a date and initials indicating who rescued its passengers, and where they were ultimately sent.
For years refugees have been making the trip by boat to Lampedusa from Libya and other northern African nations with the goal of making a better life in Europe. In recent months, driven by wars, hunger and economic crisis, their numbers have been increasing. Since last February, 36,000 boat people—a 75 percent increase over the year before—landed on this tiny enclave. Last week more than 1,800 refugees were packed into a government building originally built to house a maximum of 800. The situation has gotten so bad that locals fear for the island's tourist trade. How to deal with these huddled masses has become Italy's latest political drama, pitting infuriated residents against the Italian government. Ciick on 'Read More.'
Rome wants to get tough on the immigrants. Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed converting an old military base on the island into a second detention center where those who do not qualify for political asylum will be repatriated directly from the island. At the same time, he is pushing a security plan that will make illegal immigration a crime and extend the detention time for those seeking asylum from 60 days to 18 months.
The island's 6,000 residents have objected strenuously to the proposal, however. Lampedusa Mayor Bernardino De Rubeis says the move is inhumane because it doesn't include any plans to modernize the new building to accommodate the immigrants. "It is unacceptable," he says. "This plan will turn Lampedusa into a Mediterranean Alcatraz." That sentiment is echoed across the island, where last week residents took to the streets in protest. The situation teetered on the edge of chaos on Jan. 24 when nearly 1,000 migrants broke free from the detention center to demonstrate with the locals. After marching arm-in-arm in protest, locals fed the escaped refugees and then escorted them back to the detention center.
In a country where the government is often accused of racism toward almost all immigrants, Lampedusians are astonishingly accepting. They see first hand the desperation of those escaping war, famine and economic hardship. Helping refugees has become a part of the local culture. Pietro Russo, the captain of a commercial fishing boat who won a national medal for heroically rescuing several boat refugees, remembers the names of many people he has helped—including the faces of two young women who died at sea in front of him and his nine-man crew two years ago. "They are willing to risk everything, even their lives, to get here," he says. "Dying at sea is better than what they are escaping from. It is really a voyage of hope for these people."
Refugees are usually either rescued by the coast guard, hauled in by fishing boats like Russo's, or simply crash into the rocky shore. Shoes, jeans, jackets and food containers with Arabic writing are scattered all along the shore next to Lampedusa's main port. After landing, refugees receive medical treatment, warm clothing and food and are taken by minibus to the island's reception center for identification. They sleep 10 to 15 in a room in bunk beds. There are minimal facilities for hygiene, few showers and no play areas for the children. Many who leave the center claim that sedatives are put in their food to keep them calm. Others tell unthinkable stories of abuse and rape. Those who apply for asylum are moved to open centers in Sicily or mainland Italy within 60 days. Those with whom Italy has repatriation agreements are sent back home, generally via a mainland center.
Many Lampedusians worry that detaining refugees for 18 months, as the government proposes, would only increase overcrowding, lead to social instability and hurt tourism. The island is a beach haven for wealthy Italians, but lately the news of over-crowded facilities and a record number of boat landings has kept some away. Most islanders have sympathy for the migrants, but others worry that a second identification center and longer detentions will cause those who are being detained to revolt. "What if there are over three or four thousand inside those tiny facilities?" says Riccardo Garito. "If they break out and fight us, we will have a civil war."
If the tourism trade continues to decline, many locals say they will leave to seek employment elsewhere. Roberto Cabiddu, who makes his living from the tourism industry, is not only worried that the new detention center and the effects of the security pact will detract tourists, but that it will compromise basic amenities like health care, schools and other services on the island. "People in Lampedusa are not against the migrants," he says inside a protest tent he and others set up in the city's main square. "Nobody minds if they are here temporarily in transit to the mainland. But if they keep them here longer and more keep coming, we will have a big problem on our hands."
No one knows how to keep the boats from coming. Libya signed an agreement with Italy in August to start patrols in exchange for investment in Libya's infrastructure. But that agreement has not yet been passed by the Italian Parliament, and Libya has hinted that it wants more concessions before it will start patrols to stop the flow. The agreement won't help even if it is ratified, says Laura Boldrini, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy. "The Libyans will not have a mandate to physically stop the boats from leaving. They cannot shoot at them and they cannot ram them," she says. "What will they do, yell, wave a flag to get them to stop?"
The United Nations, along with the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Save the Children, have called for measures to better identify people's nationality and move them more quickly to open centers on the mainland. These groups are not against a second detention center on the island to alleviate overcrowding and improve conditions for the refugees, but they worry that Italy's tough stance would compromise their human rights. "There is no recipe in fighting against irregular migration," says Boldrini. "You have to address the causes. And when there is desperation, there will always be those who risk their lives to escape it. Punishing those people doesn't make sense."
Each year thousands of tourists flock to the tiny island of Lampedusa off the coast of Sicily. They come for the pristine beaches, the turquoise waters and the dramatic cliffs. What the visitors usually don't see is the boat graveyard. At the center of the island's 24 square kilometers, far from the resorts, wrecked ships hulls are stacked high next to a chain link fence, along with rotting foam mattresses. Each vessel is marked with a date and initials indicating who rescued its passengers, and where they were ultimately sent.
For years refugees have been making the trip by boat to Lampedusa from Libya and other northern African nations with the goal of making a better life in Europe. In recent months, driven by wars, hunger and economic crisis, their numbers have been increasing. Since last February, 36,000 boat people—a 75 percent increase over the year before—landed on this tiny enclave. Last week more than 1,800 refugees were packed into a government building originally built to house a maximum of 800. The situation has gotten so bad that locals fear for the island's tourist trade. How to deal with these huddled masses has become Italy's latest political drama, pitting infuriated residents against the Italian government. Ciick on 'Read More.'
Rome wants to get tough on the immigrants. Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed converting an old military base on the island into a second detention center where those who do not qualify for political asylum will be repatriated directly from the island. At the same time, he is pushing a security plan that will make illegal immigration a crime and extend the detention time for those seeking asylum from 60 days to 18 months.
The island's 6,000 residents have objected strenuously to the proposal, however. Lampedusa Mayor Bernardino De Rubeis says the move is inhumane because it doesn't include any plans to modernize the new building to accommodate the immigrants. "It is unacceptable," he says. "This plan will turn Lampedusa into a Mediterranean Alcatraz." That sentiment is echoed across the island, where last week residents took to the streets in protest. The situation teetered on the edge of chaos on Jan. 24 when nearly 1,000 migrants broke free from the detention center to demonstrate with the locals. After marching arm-in-arm in protest, locals fed the escaped refugees and then escorted them back to the detention center.
In a country where the government is often accused of racism toward almost all immigrants, Lampedusians are astonishingly accepting. They see first hand the desperation of those escaping war, famine and economic hardship. Helping refugees has become a part of the local culture. Pietro Russo, the captain of a commercial fishing boat who won a national medal for heroically rescuing several boat refugees, remembers the names of many people he has helped—including the faces of two young women who died at sea in front of him and his nine-man crew two years ago. "They are willing to risk everything, even their lives, to get here," he says. "Dying at sea is better than what they are escaping from. It is really a voyage of hope for these people."
Refugees are usually either rescued by the coast guard, hauled in by fishing boats like Russo's, or simply crash into the rocky shore. Shoes, jeans, jackets and food containers with Arabic writing are scattered all along the shore next to Lampedusa's main port. After landing, refugees receive medical treatment, warm clothing and food and are taken by minibus to the island's reception center for identification. They sleep 10 to 15 in a room in bunk beds. There are minimal facilities for hygiene, few showers and no play areas for the children. Many who leave the center claim that sedatives are put in their food to keep them calm. Others tell unthinkable stories of abuse and rape. Those who apply for asylum are moved to open centers in Sicily or mainland Italy within 60 days. Those with whom Italy has repatriation agreements are sent back home, generally via a mainland center.
Many Lampedusians worry that detaining refugees for 18 months, as the government proposes, would only increase overcrowding, lead to social instability and hurt tourism. The island is a beach haven for wealthy Italians, but lately the news of over-crowded facilities and a record number of boat landings has kept some away. Most islanders have sympathy for the migrants, but others worry that a second identification center and longer detentions will cause those who are being detained to revolt. "What if there are over three or four thousand inside those tiny facilities?" says Riccardo Garito. "If they break out and fight us, we will have a civil war."
If the tourism trade continues to decline, many locals say they will leave to seek employment elsewhere. Roberto Cabiddu, who makes his living from the tourism industry, is not only worried that the new detention center and the effects of the security pact will detract tourists, but that it will compromise basic amenities like health care, schools and other services on the island. "People in Lampedusa are not against the migrants," he says inside a protest tent he and others set up in the city's main square. "Nobody minds if they are here temporarily in transit to the mainland. But if they keep them here longer and more keep coming, we will have a big problem on our hands."
No one knows how to keep the boats from coming. Libya signed an agreement with Italy in August to start patrols in exchange for investment in Libya's infrastructure. But that agreement has not yet been passed by the Italian Parliament, and Libya has hinted that it wants more concessions before it will start patrols to stop the flow. The agreement won't help even if it is ratified, says Laura Boldrini, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy. "The Libyans will not have a mandate to physically stop the boats from leaving. They cannot shoot at them and they cannot ram them," she says. "What will they do, yell, wave a flag to get them to stop?"
The United Nations, along with the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Save the Children, have called for measures to better identify people's nationality and move them more quickly to open centers on the mainland. These groups are not against a second detention center on the island to alleviate overcrowding and improve conditions for the refugees, but they worry that Italy's tough stance would compromise their human rights. "There is no recipe in fighting against irregular migration," says Boldrini. "You have to address the causes. And when there is desperation, there will always be those who risk their lives to escape it. Punishing those people doesn't make sense."
A row over human rights
The Economist
INDEPENDENT voices in Ethiopia are finding it ever harder to be heard. Suffocated by an irascible government, the country’s newspapers are now the least informative in east Africa. Journalists deemed critical of the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, are pilloried. And they are not alone.
Foreign aid people and diplomats say a law pushed through parliament last month will curtail the activities of local human-rights workers. The new law means that independent local outfits that get more than 10% of their income from abroad will be classified as foreign. Once designated as such, they will not be allowed to engage in anything to do with democracy, justice or human rights. Real foreigners are already banned from doing so. As few home-grown charities and non-governmental organisations can stand on their own feet in a country as poor as Ethiopia, the government will be able to control domestic dissent more tightly. Click here to read the full version of the piece from the Economist.
INDEPENDENT voices in Ethiopia are finding it ever harder to be heard. Suffocated by an irascible government, the country’s newspapers are now the least informative in east Africa. Journalists deemed critical of the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, are pilloried. And they are not alone.
Foreign aid people and diplomats say a law pushed through parliament last month will curtail the activities of local human-rights workers. The new law means that independent local outfits that get more than 10% of their income from abroad will be classified as foreign. Once designated as such, they will not be allowed to engage in anything to do with democracy, justice or human rights. Real foreigners are already banned from doing so. As few home-grown charities and non-governmental organisations can stand on their own feet in a country as poor as Ethiopia, the government will be able to control domestic dissent more tightly. Click here to read the full version of the piece from the Economist.
Museveni, Gaddafi clash in Ethiopia
President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday night openly clashed with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after the two disagreed over the direction of the formation of a single government for all African states.
According to sources at the summit, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe reportedly helped Mr Museveni take on Col. Gaddafi, who besides mooting the single African government plan, also sought to be bestowed the title “King of Kings”.
Col. Gaddafi reportedly clashed with Mr Museveni over his calls for speeding of the single African government plan. Whereas Mr Museveni calls for strengthening of regional blocs, a position he reiterated in Addis Ababa, Col. Gaddafi wants an immediate fast track to form the United States of Africa.
In what looked like a parliamentary debate characterised by points of order, the two leaders also disagreed on the involvement of traditional leaders by Col. Gaddafi in his pursuit of the United States of Africa dream.
Col. Gaddafi sponsored Mr Museveni’s National Resistance Army guerilla war that brought the Ugandan leader to power in 1986. Click on 'Read More.'
Their current disagreements could bring one of the longest political relationships to an end. At the AU summit, Mr Museveni reportedly warned that he would arrest any traditional leader in Uganda who claimed to speak for Col. Gaddafi.
The Ugandan government last month cancelled a summit of traditional leaders across the continent convened in Kampala and funded by Col. Gaddafi, saying the leaders had discussed politics.
The Ugandan Constitution bars traditional leaders from participating in partisan politics. In Col. Gaddafi’s proposal for the single government, Africa is to have a president, a vice-president and secretaries handling various portfolios such as foreign affairs, research and the battle against pandemics.
However, with much opposition from the other African leaders, Col. Gaddafi stormed out of the meeting at about 2am and a few minutes later, all the leaders filed out.
Asked why Col. Gaddafi had stormed out, Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe said Gaddafi ‘’may have felt unwell”.
The summit ended yesterday with no concrete agreement on the way forward over a single government.
Col. Gaddafi said a special meeting of the group’s Council of Ministers would meet in three months’ time to iron out what powers its newly created African Union Authority should have.
This came after the 53-member group’s marathon talks that failed to agree on ways to transform the current Africa Union Commission into an authority, a process that will end with the creation of the “United States of Africa.”
Yesterday, at a meeting with journalists, Col. Gaddafi struck a conciliatory figure, talking of his vision for a “continent that relies on itself and which is a key player in world affairs.’’
He added that the continent has adopted a “step by step’’ approach to “this historic effort’’ on a single government. But, AU Commission chairman Jean Ping said ‘the whole process may take years.’’
According to Mr Ping, amending the AU Charter is not a simple task and two thirds of the 53 states must accept to proceed with the amendment.(Henry Owour & Argaw Ashine, Daily Monitor Correspondents)
US Diplomat found dead in Ethiopia
A GW alumnus working for the State Department was found dead in Ethiopia this week and U.S. government officials say his death is being investigated as a homicide.
Brian Adkins, who graduated in 2007, worked for the State Department as a Foreign Service officer stationed in Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa. Representatives from the State Department said Wednesday that Adkins died on Saturday, but would not give further details because it was an ongoing homicide investigation. Click here to read more.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Rally for Policy Change Towards Ethiopia
Tedla Asfaw
The new Obama administration acting Secretary of African Affairs, Mark Philips , is currently travelling to Ethiopia. Mrs. Clinton, the Secretary of State will officially be to State Department next Monday and we would like to welcome her. On Monday February 9 Ethiopians will come together to denounce the last eighteen years of failed USA policy and call for the resignation of Meles Zenawi and his racist party TPLF immediately.
The protest in front of the State department in D.C. at 10 am is our first in the new Obama administration and all Ethiopians are welcome. The mobilization of Ethiopians in the diaspora is the only option available to help our people realize the May 2005 hope that was squashed by the Meles killing squads.
Moreover, our people are currently living under military decree and can not come out and show their disgust to the ruling mafia for its financiers, Europe and America. We would like the new Obama administration help our people exercise their God given rights of free speech and assembly to be respected and not to listen to our tormentors in power for the last eighteen years..
If we do not see tangible policy of change immediately we will expose this administration like we did in the past by organizing continuous protests until change comes and we are ready for that. Some who discourage us not to participate in anti- TPLF rally by bringing flimsy excuses about who organized the protest and nothing will come out from protest, I will remind them that such excuses are not accepted especially this time when the grass movement of Americans succeeded in putting African American for the first time while many including myself were thinking otherwise.
Yes we can influence Obama's policy towards mother Ethiopia and what we need is mobilization taking example from Obama himself, yes our people have shown their readiness like Americans. We would like to remind also President Obama that if he had to run in office in Ethiopia by now he would have been in jail or killed. We hope he will be with the Ethiopian people not with the unelected killers.
The new Obama administration acting Secretary of African Affairs, Mark Philips , is currently travelling to Ethiopia. Mrs. Clinton, the Secretary of State will officially be to State Department next Monday and we would like to welcome her. On Monday February 9 Ethiopians will come together to denounce the last eighteen years of failed USA policy and call for the resignation of Meles Zenawi and his racist party TPLF immediately.
The protest in front of the State department in D.C. at 10 am is our first in the new Obama administration and all Ethiopians are welcome. The mobilization of Ethiopians in the diaspora is the only option available to help our people realize the May 2005 hope that was squashed by the Meles killing squads.
Moreover, our people are currently living under military decree and can not come out and show their disgust to the ruling mafia for its financiers, Europe and America. We would like the new Obama administration help our people exercise their God given rights of free speech and assembly to be respected and not to listen to our tormentors in power for the last eighteen years..
If we do not see tangible policy of change immediately we will expose this administration like we did in the past by organizing continuous protests until change comes and we are ready for that. Some who discourage us not to participate in anti- TPLF rally by bringing flimsy excuses about who organized the protest and nothing will come out from protest, I will remind them that such excuses are not accepted especially this time when the grass movement of Americans succeeded in putting African American for the first time while many including myself were thinking otherwise.
Yes we can influence Obama's policy towards mother Ethiopia and what we need is mobilization taking example from Obama himself, yes our people have shown their readiness like Americans. We would like to remind also President Obama that if he had to run in office in Ethiopia by now he would have been in jail or killed. We hope he will be with the Ethiopian people not with the unelected killers.
Celebrations at Lalibela
As part of a series looking at religious pilgrimagesaround the world, photographer Karoki Lewis recorded the all night ceremony at Bet Maryam (Church of the Virgin Mary) in Lalibela, Ethiopia, as they celebrated Orthodox Christmas in early January. Click here for the audio slideshow.
Mengistu's Extradition Likely- Times
Times online reported that the former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Hailemariam's extradition will be among the first on the to-do list of the soon-to-be-formed administration in Zimbabwe. Click on 'Read More' for the full version of the story.
The former Ethiopian dictator who slaughtered opponents on an industrial scale in the so-called "Red Terror" is to face justice after 17 years being sheltered by Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.
With the country's opposition Movement for Democratic Change due to enter a unity government with Zanu-PF next week, The Times has learnt that the extradition of Mengistu Haile Mariam is to be given priority. He faces the death penalty in his home country for his crimes.
Today Nelson Chamisa, the MDC’s chief spokesman, told The Times that Mengistu’s case would be “high on the agenda” of the new administration. “Zimbabwe should not be a safe haven or resting place for serial human rights violators like Mr Mengistu. We can’t shelter purveyors of injustice,” he said.
Last year an Ethiopian court sentenced the "Butcher of Addis" to be executed after convicting him of genocide in absentia, but Mr Mugabe flatly refused to extradite the man who helped to arm Zanu-PF’s guerrillas during Zimbabwe’s 1970s liberation war
Instead Mengistu continued to live in Zimbabwe as Mr Mugabe’s honoured guest, dividing his time between a heavily guarded villa in a comfortable Harare suburb, a farm near the capital and a retreat on glorious Lake Kariba.
Suddenly, the future of one of Africa’s worst tyrants looks rather less assured. The MDC plans to use its Cabinet ministers, parliamentary majority and popular support to fight President Mugabe’s inevitable resistance. At stake was “the image and integrity of our country. We have to restore our glory and our dignity among the family of nations,” Mr Chamisa said.
Few Zimbabweans would shed tears if Mengistu, 71, was sent home to the gallows. Mr Mugabe has spent millions of dollars providing his fellow dictator with a government villa in a barricaded cul-de-sac in the suburb of Gun Hill, with round-the-clock protection by armed soldiers and any number of other benefits including the payment of substantial telephone bills — $15,000 in one instance.
In return Mengistu has advised the President on security issues and was allegedly the mastermind of Operation Murambatsvina in 2006 when security forces and Zanu-PF thugs razed the homes of 700,000 slum-dwellers regarded as MDC supporters.
Mengistu has plenty of experience in that field. He seized power after a military coup in 1974 that ended Emperor Haile Selassie’s 44-year rule and ushered in one of the bloodiest regimes Africa has known. In 1976 he mounted the "Red Terror" campaign against opponents of his Derg regime by standing in the centre of Addis Ababa, shouting: “Death to the counter-revolutionaries”, and smashing bottles filled with pigs’ blood to demonstrate the fate that awaited them.
Over the next few years more than half a million people are thought to have been killed in what Human Rights Watch called “one of the most systematic uses of mass murder ever witnessed in Africa”. Hit squads carried out summary executions. Militias strung opponents up from lampposts. Relatives had to pay a tax called “the wasted bullet” to retrieve the bodies of the dead. The victims included the former Emperor and numerous members of the Royal Family and Mengistu is said to have executed some of them himself.
He turned Ethiopia into a Marxist state, backed by the Soviet Union, and earned the sobriquet the "Black Stalin". He created giant collective farms that had the same ruinous effect on agricultural production as Mr Mugabe’s land seizures in Zimbabwe and that helped to cause terrible famine.
His Soviet-armed military sought to crush an independence war in Eritrea and an uprising in Tigray province, but when the Soviet Union collapsed Mengistu lost his sponsors. In 1991 he fled to Zimbabwe as the Tigre People’s Liberation Front and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front surrounded Addis.
Washington asked Mr Mugabe to accept him to end the bloodshed.
In 1995 Mengistu narrowly survived an assassination attempt by two Eritreans as he took an afternoon stroll with his wife near Garvin Close, his Harare home. In court the men showed the scars of their torture by Mengistu’s henchmen, but both were imprisoned.
Otherwise Mengistu has maintained a low profile. Early on he was occasionally spotted in a shopping centre or restaurant, surrounded by guards and armed with a pistol. In 1998 he told a reporter who reached him by telephone that he was a “political refugee” who spent his time reading, writing and watching television.
In 1999, using a Zimbabwean diplomatic passport, he flew to Johannesburg for medical treatment and gave a rare interview to a South African newspaper in which he claimed that his socialist revolution had been necessary to remove Selassie’s “backward, archaic and feudalist system” and that millions of peasants had benefitted. More recently he has vanished from sight.
Mengistu’s armed guards were nowhere to be seen in Garvin Close today and The Times was able to drive past the barrier and right up the cul-de-sac before the soldiers suddenly appeared from behind a wall and ordered the intruder to leave. The half-dozen villas all looked abandoned.
As Mr Mugabe’s popularity has plunged in recent years, Mengistu was rumoured to have made contingency plans to move to North Korea. Now might be the time to dust them off — if he has not done so already.
AU summit extended amid divisions
BBC NEWS
An African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia has been extended to a fourth day amid disagreements on the issue of creating a United States of Africa.
Many leaders said the proposal by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi would add a layer of bureaucracy that the continent does not need.
But they did agree on changing the name of the AU Commission to AU Authority.
Col Gaddafi had used his inaugural address as rotating head of the AU to push his long-cherished unity project.
The Libyan leader said closer integration between African states should start immediately.
In the long grass?
He envisages a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent. But other African heads of state said the Libyan leader's plan was not practical.
African leaders said they would study the legal implications of the unity proposal, make a report and meet again in three months time.
In other words, says BBC's Mark Doyle in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they are kicking the ball into the long grass to slow it down.
He says the outcome is a political fudge, as no member wishes to alienate the leader of oil-rich Libya. Click on 'Read More.'
One participant in the closed-door meeting of the 53-country union said the Libyan leader appeared to admit defeat and laid his head on the table in despair.
Our correspondent says waiting reporters next saw the Libyan leader sweep out of the room accompanied by his protocol man, who had a uniform like that of an airline pilot - but with more gold braid.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said: "He didn't walk out, he just got tired."
She denied to the BBC that the outcome was a fudge and said it was a step on the path to a United States of Africa.
Legal implications
Leaving the talks in the early hours of Wednesday, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said leaders had had a "very rich" discussion that they would resume later in the day.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe appeared upbeat, telling AFP news agency: "A day will be arrived at where there will be a single authority in charge of Africa." The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says changing the name of the AU Commission - which is the administrative branch of the organisation - to the AU Authority sounds like a mere formality and a change of notepaper.
But, she says, it has legal implications as the commission is written into the constitution of the AU.
Our correspondent understands that any amendment to that charter would have to be agreed by two thirds of AU leaders and ratified by their national parliaments.
Before arriving at the summit, Col Gaddafi circulated a letter saying he was coming as the king of the traditional kings of Africa.
Last August, he had a group of 200 traditional leaders name him the "king of kings" of Africa.
The summit's main agenda - to boost Africa's energy and transport networks - has been pushed largely to the fringes, weighed down by the grim realities of the global economic downturn.
An African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia has been extended to a fourth day amid disagreements on the issue of creating a United States of Africa.
Many leaders said the proposal by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi would add a layer of bureaucracy that the continent does not need.
But they did agree on changing the name of the AU Commission to AU Authority.
Col Gaddafi had used his inaugural address as rotating head of the AU to push his long-cherished unity project.
The Libyan leader said closer integration between African states should start immediately.
In the long grass?
He envisages a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent. But other African heads of state said the Libyan leader's plan was not practical.
African leaders said they would study the legal implications of the unity proposal, make a report and meet again in three months time.
In other words, says BBC's Mark Doyle in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they are kicking the ball into the long grass to slow it down.
He says the outcome is a political fudge, as no member wishes to alienate the leader of oil-rich Libya. Click on 'Read More.'
One participant in the closed-door meeting of the 53-country union said the Libyan leader appeared to admit defeat and laid his head on the table in despair.
Our correspondent says waiting reporters next saw the Libyan leader sweep out of the room accompanied by his protocol man, who had a uniform like that of an airline pilot - but with more gold braid.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said: "He didn't walk out, he just got tired."
She denied to the BBC that the outcome was a fudge and said it was a step on the path to a United States of Africa.
Legal implications
Leaving the talks in the early hours of Wednesday, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said leaders had had a "very rich" discussion that they would resume later in the day.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe appeared upbeat, telling AFP news agency: "A day will be arrived at where there will be a single authority in charge of Africa." The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says changing the name of the AU Commission - which is the administrative branch of the organisation - to the AU Authority sounds like a mere formality and a change of notepaper.
But, she says, it has legal implications as the commission is written into the constitution of the AU.
Our correspondent understands that any amendment to that charter would have to be agreed by two thirds of AU leaders and ratified by their national parliaments.
Before arriving at the summit, Col Gaddafi circulated a letter saying he was coming as the king of the traditional kings of Africa.
Last August, he had a group of 200 traditional leaders name him the "king of kings" of Africa.
The summit's main agenda - to boost Africa's energy and transport networks - has been pushed largely to the fringes, weighed down by the grim realities of the global economic downturn.
Ethiopian opposition leader Bekele freed on bail
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A leading Ethiopian opposition politician was freed on bail on Wednesday after he was jailed last November when the government accused him of working with rebels, his party said.
Bekele Jirate, 54, a top official with the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), was accused by the authorities of working "hand-in-glove" with insurgents like the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
"I am very happy because not only is he important for our party, he is innocent," OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told Reuters. He said no date had been set for Bekele's trial. The OFDM said another leading opposition politician remains in solitary confinement.
The OLF is one of several rebel groups in the Horn of Africa nation and has been fighting for independence for the southern Oromo region since 1993.
Opposition groups accuse Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government of harassment, and the OFDM says the security forces have jailed hundreds of ethnic Oromos in recent months. The government denies it.
Bulcha called for the immediate release of Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who heads the newly created Unity for Democracy and Justice party. She has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days last month. Click on 'Read More'.
Regional analysts consider the 34-year-old to be the country's foremost opposition figure.
"She has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles," Bulcha said.
Birtukan was first jailed after elections in 2005 ended in street violence that killed 199 civilians. She was pardoned in 2007 after she agreed, along with other opposition leaders, to take responsibility for the unrest.
She was rearrested after refusing to retract a speech made in Sweden last year in which she denied she was involved in the talks that led to her release.
The OFDM accused the government of intimidation as voters went to the polls last April for the first time since the 2005 bloodshed. It said almost all its nominees for the local elections had been threatened and forced to pull out of the race. Ethiopia will hold parliamentary elections next year. (Editing by Daniel Wallis and Matthew Jones)
Bekele Jirate, 54, a top official with the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), was accused by the authorities of working "hand-in-glove" with insurgents like the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
"I am very happy because not only is he important for our party, he is innocent," OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told Reuters. He said no date had been set for Bekele's trial. The OFDM said another leading opposition politician remains in solitary confinement.
The OLF is one of several rebel groups in the Horn of Africa nation and has been fighting for independence for the southern Oromo region since 1993.
Opposition groups accuse Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government of harassment, and the OFDM says the security forces have jailed hundreds of ethnic Oromos in recent months. The government denies it.
Bulcha called for the immediate release of Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who heads the newly created Unity for Democracy and Justice party. She has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days last month. Click on 'Read More'.
Regional analysts consider the 34-year-old to be the country's foremost opposition figure.
"She has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles," Bulcha said.
Birtukan was first jailed after elections in 2005 ended in street violence that killed 199 civilians. She was pardoned in 2007 after she agreed, along with other opposition leaders, to take responsibility for the unrest.
She was rearrested after refusing to retract a speech made in Sweden last year in which she denied she was involved in the talks that led to her release.
The OFDM accused the government of intimidation as voters went to the polls last April for the first time since the 2005 bloodshed. It said almost all its nominees for the local elections had been threatened and forced to pull out of the race. Ethiopia will hold parliamentary elections next year. (Editing by Daniel Wallis and Matthew Jones)
Jailed – judge who refused to say sorry
Since being feted by Tony Blair, Ethiopia's government has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent – and the leader of its main opposition party is paying the price.
By Daniel Howden -The Independent
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Birtukan Mideksa has been sentenced to life in prison. She spends her days and nights in solitary confinement in a two-metre by two-metre cell. She cannot leave it to see daylight or even to receive visitors. Previous inmates say the prison is often unbearably hot.
Her crime: refusing to say sorry. The judge, aged 34, is the head of Ethiopia's most popular political party, the only female leader of a main opposition party in Africa.
The government in Addis Ababa had her arrested on 28 December, claiming she had violated the terms of an earlier pardon.
Her previous release in 2007, which came after serving two years in prison, was conditional on her signing an apology for taking part in protests against fixed elections.
In November, the woman who is becoming a democratic icon in Ethiopia told an audience in Sweden that she had not asked for a pardon. On returning to Ethiopia it was demanded that she sign further apologies and, when she refused, she was re-arrested. The Ministry of Justice then issued a statement reimposing her life sentence.
Mesfin Woldemariam, an award-winning Ethiopian human rights campaigner, is clear about what she says is going on: "She refuses to bow to them. They want her to submit, but she didn't submit when she was a judge. That's why she left the bar. And she won't now. She's a tough cookie." She won national acclaim by defying government control of the courts and resigning the bar to practice law after high-profile decisions were overturned.
The charges against her go to the heart of Ethiopia's experiment with democracy in 2005 and the violent backlash that followed the country's flawed first attempt at a multi-party election. Click on 'Read More'.
When demonstrators, including Ms Mideksa, took to the streets to protest at the skewed results which returned the ruling party, the police opened fire, killing at least 187 people. The opposition leadership, along with thousands of others, were rounded up and jailed.
"In 2005, we expected the results of the national parliamentary elections as a strong foundation for building a temple of democracy in Ethiopia," she told a US Senate hearing in 2007. "Our hopes were dashed, and we found ourselves trapped in a burning house of tyranny."
Her response since being released has been to unite the fragments of opposition into a single party committed to non-violence, democratic reform and an independent judiciary.
A mother who has missed much of her five-year-old daughter's life so far, she has shown remarkable courage. "I'm not afraid of going to jail," she said last year after founding the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party. "Not because that is not a possibility. I know that could happen."
Professor Woldemariam was with her when it did happen. Five cars pulled up and the pair were confronted violently by police while on a street in the capital city. "They behaved as if there was a prize for the first person who got her," the former Fulbright scholar and now professor of geography recalls.
When he asked why they had not issued a warrant and asked her to give herself into custody, one of the men turned on him. "He hit me with the butt of his gun and they pushed her into a car and took her."
Her destination was a cell in the notorious Kaliti prison outside the capital Addis Ababa. It's a place with which she is already intimately acquainted, where prisoners are kept in conditions she once described as "dehumanising", "atrocious" and "barbarous".
The UK director of Amnesty International, Kate Allen, said: "There appears to be no lawful reason why Birtukan Mideksa was arrested or remains in detention. She has now been held for a month in solitary confinement and still has not been charged. This is unacceptable."
Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has been in power since 1995. He was formerly feted as a progressive voice by Tony Blair but he has become markedly dictatorial during his years in power. One regional analyst said the government was becoming increasingly paranoid.
"This came in the context of an election that the government lost control of in 2005, and ahead of 2010 elections that it fully intends to keep from going the same way."
Recently, laws have been passed to heavily restrict the work of international non-government organisations, despite an ongoing famine in areas of the country. "Much of the government's behaviour stems from security concerns, and a lack of understanding that improving human rights will actually help to mitigate many of their concerns," said the analyst.
Professor Woldemariam, one of a few people still prepared to speak out in a country he describes as a "police state", says the regime had become frightened of Ms Mideksa. "They are looking for any excuse to get her because she's a dynamic girl who is getting increasingly popular. They want to cut her short."
But it will not be easy to intimidate her, he believes. "She has such faith in the law. She says to me, 'the law says this, the law says that ...'. I said to her: 'What law are you talking about? You were locked up for two years with no due process.'"
Described as an "Ethiopian Obama" and a brilliant speaker and organiser, she has become a symbol of democracy in her own country, compared with figures like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.
There is reported to be deep disquiet among the general population at her arrest and conditions of detention, even though their dissent is not tolerated. Ethiopia, largely Orthodox Christian, has been a staunch ally of the American-led war on terror and a partner in its disastrous policy on Somalia.
The arrest of Ms Mideksa has sparked criticism from some American senators and the hope that the Obama administration might change Washington's relationship with the Zenawi government.
"There is no democracy in Ethiopia today, despite empty claims of 'recent bold democratic initiatives' taken by our government," Ms Mideksa told US senators.
Many in Ethiopia and its large diaspora are hoping that Mr Obama's offer to "extend a hand" to dictatorships who would unclench their fists included a message to Addis Ababa.
Ms Mideksa has already given Washington her advice: "Ethiopia has many problems, including a legacy of repression, corruption and mismanagement. The US can help by using its considerable influence to encourage the government to negotiate with the opposition. It will not be easy to confront the past.
"We must start at the right point by embracing the rule of law, human rights and democracy."
Views from cyberspace: What the blogs say
*There is an old Ethiopian proverb which in translation says, "Oh, Mr Hyena, don't give me excuse to eat me". (Aya jibo sata mehagne blagne). Why is Zenawi resorting to such thuggish tactics against Birtukan? And Professor Mesfin? And the [Unity for Democracy and Justice Party]? Is he trying to create a convenient distraction from his devastating defeat in Somalia? - Quatero News and Views
*Birtukan has modelled courage and conviction. I do not think she is asking the Ethiopian people to personally rescue her; but instead, on behalf of others. - Anyuak Media
* Birtukan Mideksa continues to impress millions of her fellow compatriots to promote the struggle forthe triumph of democracy over tyranny. - Ethiomedia
*In fact, the Ethiopian tyrant has killed far more innocent people than the Zimbabwean tyrant. The Ethiopian tyrant also has rigged national elections for three times like the Zimbabwean tyrant. I hope and I believe democrats as well as President Obama will restore respect for the US by supporting people who aspire for their democratic rights. - Shemolo
By Daniel Howden -The Independent
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Birtukan Mideksa has been sentenced to life in prison. She spends her days and nights in solitary confinement in a two-metre by two-metre cell. She cannot leave it to see daylight or even to receive visitors. Previous inmates say the prison is often unbearably hot.
Her crime: refusing to say sorry. The judge, aged 34, is the head of Ethiopia's most popular political party, the only female leader of a main opposition party in Africa.
The government in Addis Ababa had her arrested on 28 December, claiming she had violated the terms of an earlier pardon.
Her previous release in 2007, which came after serving two years in prison, was conditional on her signing an apology for taking part in protests against fixed elections.
In November, the woman who is becoming a democratic icon in Ethiopia told an audience in Sweden that she had not asked for a pardon. On returning to Ethiopia it was demanded that she sign further apologies and, when she refused, she was re-arrested. The Ministry of Justice then issued a statement reimposing her life sentence.
Mesfin Woldemariam, an award-winning Ethiopian human rights campaigner, is clear about what she says is going on: "She refuses to bow to them. They want her to submit, but she didn't submit when she was a judge. That's why she left the bar. And she won't now. She's a tough cookie." She won national acclaim by defying government control of the courts and resigning the bar to practice law after high-profile decisions were overturned.
The charges against her go to the heart of Ethiopia's experiment with democracy in 2005 and the violent backlash that followed the country's flawed first attempt at a multi-party election. Click on 'Read More'.
When demonstrators, including Ms Mideksa, took to the streets to protest at the skewed results which returned the ruling party, the police opened fire, killing at least 187 people. The opposition leadership, along with thousands of others, were rounded up and jailed.
"In 2005, we expected the results of the national parliamentary elections as a strong foundation for building a temple of democracy in Ethiopia," she told a US Senate hearing in 2007. "Our hopes were dashed, and we found ourselves trapped in a burning house of tyranny."
Her response since being released has been to unite the fragments of opposition into a single party committed to non-violence, democratic reform and an independent judiciary.
A mother who has missed much of her five-year-old daughter's life so far, she has shown remarkable courage. "I'm not afraid of going to jail," she said last year after founding the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party. "Not because that is not a possibility. I know that could happen."
Professor Woldemariam was with her when it did happen. Five cars pulled up and the pair were confronted violently by police while on a street in the capital city. "They behaved as if there was a prize for the first person who got her," the former Fulbright scholar and now professor of geography recalls.
When he asked why they had not issued a warrant and asked her to give herself into custody, one of the men turned on him. "He hit me with the butt of his gun and they pushed her into a car and took her."
Her destination was a cell in the notorious Kaliti prison outside the capital Addis Ababa. It's a place with which she is already intimately acquainted, where prisoners are kept in conditions she once described as "dehumanising", "atrocious" and "barbarous".
The UK director of Amnesty International, Kate Allen, said: "There appears to be no lawful reason why Birtukan Mideksa was arrested or remains in detention. She has now been held for a month in solitary confinement and still has not been charged. This is unacceptable."
Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has been in power since 1995. He was formerly feted as a progressive voice by Tony Blair but he has become markedly dictatorial during his years in power. One regional analyst said the government was becoming increasingly paranoid.
"This came in the context of an election that the government lost control of in 2005, and ahead of 2010 elections that it fully intends to keep from going the same way."
Recently, laws have been passed to heavily restrict the work of international non-government organisations, despite an ongoing famine in areas of the country. "Much of the government's behaviour stems from security concerns, and a lack of understanding that improving human rights will actually help to mitigate many of their concerns," said the analyst.
Professor Woldemariam, one of a few people still prepared to speak out in a country he describes as a "police state", says the regime had become frightened of Ms Mideksa. "They are looking for any excuse to get her because she's a dynamic girl who is getting increasingly popular. They want to cut her short."
But it will not be easy to intimidate her, he believes. "She has such faith in the law. She says to me, 'the law says this, the law says that ...'. I said to her: 'What law are you talking about? You were locked up for two years with no due process.'"
Described as an "Ethiopian Obama" and a brilliant speaker and organiser, she has become a symbol of democracy in her own country, compared with figures like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.
There is reported to be deep disquiet among the general population at her arrest and conditions of detention, even though their dissent is not tolerated. Ethiopia, largely Orthodox Christian, has been a staunch ally of the American-led war on terror and a partner in its disastrous policy on Somalia.
The arrest of Ms Mideksa has sparked criticism from some American senators and the hope that the Obama administration might change Washington's relationship with the Zenawi government.
"There is no democracy in Ethiopia today, despite empty claims of 'recent bold democratic initiatives' taken by our government," Ms Mideksa told US senators.
Many in Ethiopia and its large diaspora are hoping that Mr Obama's offer to "extend a hand" to dictatorships who would unclench their fists included a message to Addis Ababa.
Ms Mideksa has already given Washington her advice: "Ethiopia has many problems, including a legacy of repression, corruption and mismanagement. The US can help by using its considerable influence to encourage the government to negotiate with the opposition. It will not be easy to confront the past.
"We must start at the right point by embracing the rule of law, human rights and democracy."
Views from cyberspace: What the blogs say
*There is an old Ethiopian proverb which in translation says, "Oh, Mr Hyena, don't give me excuse to eat me". (Aya jibo sata mehagne blagne). Why is Zenawi resorting to such thuggish tactics against Birtukan? And Professor Mesfin? And the [Unity for Democracy and Justice Party]? Is he trying to create a convenient distraction from his devastating defeat in Somalia? - Quatero News and Views
*Birtukan has modelled courage and conviction. I do not think she is asking the Ethiopian people to personally rescue her; but instead, on behalf of others. - Anyuak Media
* Birtukan Mideksa continues to impress millions of her fellow compatriots to promote the struggle forthe triumph of democracy over tyranny. - Ethiomedia
*In fact, the Ethiopian tyrant has killed far more innocent people than the Zimbabwean tyrant. The Ethiopian tyrant also has rigged national elections for three times like the Zimbabwean tyrant. I hope and I believe democrats as well as President Obama will restore respect for the US by supporting people who aspire for their democratic rights. - Shemolo
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Ethiopia denies re-entering Somalia
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia denied on Tuesday that its troops had re-entered Somalia to counter the militant Islamist group al Shabaab.
"This is absolutely false. The army is within the Ethiopian border. There is no intention to go back," minister and chief government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.
He described the version of an Ethiopian incursion, given by locals in the area, as a "wicked" attempt to detract from positive developments in Somalia.
And here is the rest of it.
"This is absolutely false. The army is within the Ethiopian border. There is no intention to go back," minister and chief government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.
He described the version of an Ethiopian incursion, given by locals in the area, as a "wicked" attempt to detract from positive developments in Somalia.
And here is the rest of it.
Somalia: Islamists give out deadline time to Ethiopian troops
Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”
The officials of the Islamic Courts Union in Baladweyn town the headquarters of Hiran region in central Somalia has sent warning message to the Ethiopian troops stationed at Kalaberyka intersection which is geographically situated on the northern direction of Baladweyn and some 25KM from the town.
The message says that the Ethiopian troops should abandoned in the area which they have arrived some 2 nights ago within 24hours or will see the consequence.
“We cannot endure ourselves more than this the Ethiopian troops are dealing badly with the people who are traveling, and the are as well as nomad people living around the vicinity of Kalabeyrka intersection, we are going to raid them, if they remain there in the coming 24hours, this strong statement we are sending to the Ethiopian troops, we are an inch in their country, and we consider this as provocation” said Ahmed Osman (Inji) the security commander of the Islamic Courts Union in Hiran region speaking to Somaliweyn radio correspondent on the ground.
On the other hand the officer accused the Ethiopian troops of taking huge sum of money from the drivers traveling between south and central Somalia.
The Ethiopian troops have earlier invaded in Somalia supporting the fragile government of Somalia, and have pulled out from the country after 2 years of not achieving its goal in Somalia, and it is not manifest the main objective these Ethiopian troops in some parts of Hiran region in central Somalia.
And here is the rest of it.
The officials of the Islamic Courts Union in Baladweyn town the headquarters of Hiran region in central Somalia has sent warning message to the Ethiopian troops stationed at Kalaberyka intersection which is geographically situated on the northern direction of Baladweyn and some 25KM from the town.
The message says that the Ethiopian troops should abandoned in the area which they have arrived some 2 nights ago within 24hours or will see the consequence.
“We cannot endure ourselves more than this the Ethiopian troops are dealing badly with the people who are traveling, and the are as well as nomad people living around the vicinity of Kalabeyrka intersection, we are going to raid them, if they remain there in the coming 24hours, this strong statement we are sending to the Ethiopian troops, we are an inch in their country, and we consider this as provocation” said Ahmed Osman (Inji) the security commander of the Islamic Courts Union in Hiran region speaking to Somaliweyn radio correspondent on the ground.
On the other hand the officer accused the Ethiopian troops of taking huge sum of money from the drivers traveling between south and central Somalia.
The Ethiopian troops have earlier invaded in Somalia supporting the fragile government of Somalia, and have pulled out from the country after 2 years of not achieving its goal in Somalia, and it is not manifest the main objective these Ethiopian troops in some parts of Hiran region in central Somalia.
And here is the rest of it.
AU Peacekeepers Accused of Firing on Civilians in Somalia
By Derek Kilner
Nairobi
03 February 2009
Local officials in Somalia have accused African Union peacekeepers of firing on civilians in the capital, Mogadishu, killing as many as 39 people after a roadside explosion. A spokesman for the AU force has denied that the troops shot at civilians.The deputy mayor of Mogadishu, Abdifatah Shaweye, says Ugandan peacekeepers opened fire on public buses, after a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy. He describes the event as a massacre, saying AU troops killed 39 civilians.
There have also been reports that AU troops confiscated the video camera of a journalist who was filming at the scene.
A spokesman for the AU mission, Bahoku Barigye, confirms a roadside bomb had exploded near an AU convoy. But, speaking to VOA from Mogadishu, he criticized the deputy mayor's comments as irresponsible.
"I am positively not at liberty to discuss some of the details we have about what transpired," he said. "For someone to stand up and say that AMISOM has murdered innocent civilians, it's unfortunate. I think the people of Somalia are not stupid, I know they are intelligent enough to look at these bodies and tell whether the death that was occasioned was from a roadside bomb or from bullets."
The nearly 3,000 Ugandan and Burundian AU peacekeepers have become an increasing target of Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu, particularly since Ethiopian troops withdrew from the country, last month. The AU has approved another 5,000 troops, but Nigeria and other countries have yet to follow through on their pledged contributions. Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised the possibility of incorporating the AU troops into a larger U.N. peacekeeping force.
Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia last month, after spending two years battling Islamist insurgents. However, Ethiopia has retained large forces along the border. The Reuters news agency has reported claims that Ethiopian troops have crossed back into Somalia, in recent days, setting up a checkpoint near Baladwayne, which is controlled by the radical Islamist Al-Shabaab militia. Ethiopia denies this.
On Saturday, moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Shaif Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in as Somalia's new president. He was chosen by members of Somalia's parliament as part of an U.N.-backed agreement with the country's transitional government. The choice of Sheikh Sharif, who heads the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, has been greeted with measured optimism. On Monday Ban Ki-moon praised his selection.
But the Shabaab, which was formerly allied with Sheikh Sharif in the Islamic Courts Union that briefly took control of Mogadishu in 2006, has vowed to continue its insurgency. Somalia's Radio Garowe reports that a spokesman for the group has accused Sheikh Sharif of siding with the United States over Islam. The group has organized demonstrations against Sheikh Sharif in the towns under its control, including Baidoa, site of Somalia's parliament. Sheikh Sharif's selection has also been rejected by a hard-line faction of the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and based in Asmara.
Nairobi
03 February 2009
Local officials in Somalia have accused African Union peacekeepers of firing on civilians in the capital, Mogadishu, killing as many as 39 people after a roadside explosion. A spokesman for the AU force has denied that the troops shot at civilians.The deputy mayor of Mogadishu, Abdifatah Shaweye, says Ugandan peacekeepers opened fire on public buses, after a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy. He describes the event as a massacre, saying AU troops killed 39 civilians.
There have also been reports that AU troops confiscated the video camera of a journalist who was filming at the scene.
A spokesman for the AU mission, Bahoku Barigye, confirms a roadside bomb had exploded near an AU convoy. But, speaking to VOA from Mogadishu, he criticized the deputy mayor's comments as irresponsible.
"I am positively not at liberty to discuss some of the details we have about what transpired," he said. "For someone to stand up and say that AMISOM has murdered innocent civilians, it's unfortunate. I think the people of Somalia are not stupid, I know they are intelligent enough to look at these bodies and tell whether the death that was occasioned was from a roadside bomb or from bullets."
The nearly 3,000 Ugandan and Burundian AU peacekeepers have become an increasing target of Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu, particularly since Ethiopian troops withdrew from the country, last month. The AU has approved another 5,000 troops, but Nigeria and other countries have yet to follow through on their pledged contributions. Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised the possibility of incorporating the AU troops into a larger U.N. peacekeeping force.
Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia last month, after spending two years battling Islamist insurgents. However, Ethiopia has retained large forces along the border. The Reuters news agency has reported claims that Ethiopian troops have crossed back into Somalia, in recent days, setting up a checkpoint near Baladwayne, which is controlled by the radical Islamist Al-Shabaab militia. Ethiopia denies this.
On Saturday, moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Shaif Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in as Somalia's new president. He was chosen by members of Somalia's parliament as part of an U.N.-backed agreement with the country's transitional government. The choice of Sheikh Sharif, who heads the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, has been greeted with measured optimism. On Monday Ban Ki-moon praised his selection.
But the Shabaab, which was formerly allied with Sheikh Sharif in the Islamic Courts Union that briefly took control of Mogadishu in 2006, has vowed to continue its insurgency. Somalia's Radio Garowe reports that a spokesman for the group has accused Sheikh Sharif of siding with the United States over Islam. The group has organized demonstrations against Sheikh Sharif in the towns under its control, including Baidoa, site of Somalia's parliament. Sheikh Sharif's selection has also been rejected by a hard-line faction of the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and based in Asmara.
Witnesses says Ethiopians are back in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Witnesses on Tuesday reported that Ethiopian troops have returned to Somalia, just over a week after pulling out of the country. The Ethiopian government denied the claim.
At the same time, the newly elected Somali president told fellow African leaders he wants to improve relations with Ethiopia, a significant change in approach for a man who has in the past characterized the neighboring country as an enemy of Somalia.
Farhan Dheere, a resident of the Somali town of Kalabeyrka, a few miles (kilometers) from the border, said Ethiopian troops in 17 military vehicles arrived on Monday and set up a checkpoint.
Truck driver Botan Ali said his vehicle was searched by Ethiopian troops in Kalabeyrka on Tuesday and Somali militiamen working with the Ethiopians demanded he pay some money that they described as "tax."
Ethiopian Communication Affairs Minister Bereket Simon denied there are any Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Click on 'Read More'.
"We're within the bounds of Ethiopian territory and we have no intention of crossing" the border, Bereket told The Associated Press.
Sheik Abdurrahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, the chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts in the central Somali region of Hiran, said the Ethiopians have moved further inland. Kalabeyrka is in the Hiran region.
"We, the authorities in the region, will not accept it. If they do not leave within 24 hours we will fight with them," Ma'ow told the AP by phone.
In his first speech to his fellow African leaders, Somalia's new president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said his country will lay aside its decades-long animosity for Ethiopia. It is unclear if he was aware of reports of Ethiopian troops being in his country.
"I have a commitment to create a peaceful life for my people," Ahmed said, speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "I will do my best to create a good relationship between Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti. I think all of them, they are doing well to create a peaceful life in the Horn of Africa. And we have to respect each other and to respect our sovereignty."
Ahmed also said his government will play a role in combating piracy off the coast of Somalia. The coastline of the lawless Horn of Africa nation has become a haven for pirates, who last year seized more than 40 vessels.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 after Somalia's weak government asked for help to oust an Islamic group. Ahmed was a key leader of that group but since his election Saturday as president he has vowed to part with his former extremist allies and pursue a moderate Islamic policy.
On Jan. 25, the last Ethiopian troops withdrew after an unpopular two-year deployment.
Somalia and Ethiopia have been rivals for decades, and fought in the late 1970s over a southeastern region of Ethiopia populated principally by people of Somali origin.
Arid, impoverished Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other.
Associated Press writer Anita Powell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.
At the same time, the newly elected Somali president told fellow African leaders he wants to improve relations with Ethiopia, a significant change in approach for a man who has in the past characterized the neighboring country as an enemy of Somalia.
Farhan Dheere, a resident of the Somali town of Kalabeyrka, a few miles (kilometers) from the border, said Ethiopian troops in 17 military vehicles arrived on Monday and set up a checkpoint.
Truck driver Botan Ali said his vehicle was searched by Ethiopian troops in Kalabeyrka on Tuesday and Somali militiamen working with the Ethiopians demanded he pay some money that they described as "tax."
Ethiopian Communication Affairs Minister Bereket Simon denied there are any Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Click on 'Read More'.
"We're within the bounds of Ethiopian territory and we have no intention of crossing" the border, Bereket told The Associated Press.
Sheik Abdurrahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, the chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts in the central Somali region of Hiran, said the Ethiopians have moved further inland. Kalabeyrka is in the Hiran region.
"We, the authorities in the region, will not accept it. If they do not leave within 24 hours we will fight with them," Ma'ow told the AP by phone.
In his first speech to his fellow African leaders, Somalia's new president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said his country will lay aside its decades-long animosity for Ethiopia. It is unclear if he was aware of reports of Ethiopian troops being in his country.
"I have a commitment to create a peaceful life for my people," Ahmed said, speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "I will do my best to create a good relationship between Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti. I think all of them, they are doing well to create a peaceful life in the Horn of Africa. And we have to respect each other and to respect our sovereignty."
Ahmed also said his government will play a role in combating piracy off the coast of Somalia. The coastline of the lawless Horn of Africa nation has become a haven for pirates, who last year seized more than 40 vessels.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 after Somalia's weak government asked for help to oust an Islamic group. Ahmed was a key leader of that group but since his election Saturday as president he has vowed to part with his former extremist allies and pursue a moderate Islamic policy.
On Jan. 25, the last Ethiopian troops withdrew after an unpopular two-year deployment.
Somalia and Ethiopia have been rivals for decades, and fought in the late 1970s over a southeastern region of Ethiopia populated principally by people of Somali origin.
Arid, impoverished Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other.
Associated Press writer Anita Powell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ethiopia releases two Yemeni traders
SANA'A, Feb. 01 (Saba) - Ethiopian ambassador to Yemen Tawfik Abdullah has confirmed the release of two Yemeni livestock traders the Ethiopian authorities arrested in Addis Ababa in November.
In an interview with the Alsiyasiah newspaper, Abdullah confirmed his country freed on Thursday Hussein Ahmed al-Junaidi and Ali Hadi al-Rafeek who were arrested in connection with having large sums of money.
However, Abdullah affirmed the bilateral relationship between Yemen an Ethiopia can not be affected by arrests of violators of each country's rules.
Having large sums of money is not a crime but foreigners in any country have to have large sums through this country's Central Bank but not through the black market or smuggling, he said, adding violators must be punished.
MD/FR
And here is the rest of it.
In an interview with the Alsiyasiah newspaper, Abdullah confirmed his country freed on Thursday Hussein Ahmed al-Junaidi and Ali Hadi al-Rafeek who were arrested in connection with having large sums of money.
However, Abdullah affirmed the bilateral relationship between Yemen an Ethiopia can not be affected by arrests of violators of each country's rules.
Having large sums of money is not a crime but foreigners in any country have to have large sums through this country's Central Bank but not through the black market or smuggling, he said, adding violators must be punished.
MD/FR
And here is the rest of it.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Ethiopian activists staged protest in Tübingen, Germany
by Tsegaye TekleOn 31 January 2009, a protest was staged in Tübingen, Germany to put pressure on the Ethiopian government on a number of issues. The demonstration was attended by groups of Ethiopian activists from different parts of Germany as well as German government officials, and human rights representatives. The demonstraters demanded the release of Birtukan Mideksa, leader of the opposition political party Unity for Democracy and Justice and all other political prisoners. The protest also reflected different issues ranging from sexual violence against women to ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Anuak in Gambela. Click on 'Read More' for more pictures.
Women protesting the re-arrest of the first female opposition leader
A government official showing support.
No partnership with a torture state.
Free Teddy Afro and all political prisoners.
Click here to read what the Schwäbisches Tagblatt reported about the demonstration.
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