Two Swedish journalists who entered Ethiopia with Somali rebel group are jailed for 11 years

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Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye found guilty of supporting terrorism

Accused of making journey into Ethiopia from London

Lawyer says they are considering an appeal

EU raises concerns about freedom of media in Ethiopia

Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye found guilty of supporting terrorism

Two Swedish journalists have been jailed for 11 years after illegally entering Ethiopia with a Somali rebel group.
A judge ruled that the two freelances - Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye - must serve 'rigorous imprisonment' following their convictions for supporting terrorism last week.
Ethiopian troops captured them six months ago during a clash with rebels in eastern Ethiopia's troubled Somali region, a no-go area for reporters.
And here is the rest of it.

Opposition Leader Labels Ethiopian Government 'Dictatorship'

Peter Heinlein, VOA

The newly elected leader of Ethiopia's largest opposition group says his party faces a monumental task in trying to unseat what he calls "dictators" bent on silencing dissent. The party held leadership elections even as some of its top officials are being tried on terrorism charges. Hundreds of regional party leaders clapped in approval as former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada was elected head of Unity for Democracy and Justice, the largest faction of the Medrek (Forum) opposition coalition. The election was the first since former UDJ leader Birtukan Mideksa fled into exile earlier this year after being freed from prison, where she had been serving a life sentence. Negasso's acceptance speech was sober, free of the celebration that often accompanies victory. He called for the release of Andualem Arage and Natnael Mekonnen, two rising stars in the party who are on trial in federal court on terrorism charges. They, along with journalist Eskinder Nega, face the death penalty if convicted. Negasso called on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party to open up political space for opposition parties to operate freely. In a VOA interview, he charged that while publicly advocating democracy, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front, the EPRDF, is intent on suppressing dissent and creating a one-party state. “The system is from the old communist, it is the Marxist-Leninist way of thinking, and that is why we see, for example, that it is working with the Chinese Communist Party, because they have the same kind of belief. Therefore, it's a character of EPRDF to say it is the only one which is correct and it has to lead.” Negasso said the current system makes it impossible for the opposition to win elections. He said the only hope for changing the government is through peaceful struggle. “We have seen dictators cannot exist forever. We have seen that," said Negasso. "At one time, the people will say no. It may not happen this year, or after two years or so, but at some time the people will be angry and will stand up. That's what is going to happen.” Negasso expressed particular concern about what he called a trend to use the state-run media to demonize opposition groups. He pointed to a recent three-part series on state television called Akeldama, or Land of Blood. The program suggested that UDJ leaders such as Andualem and Natnael were using their political work as a cover for terrorist activities linked to the outlawed Ginbot Seven party. “Even if they had connection with Ginbot Seven, which the government thinks is terrorist, what the program did was accuse people as criminals and then try to prove what it says by bringing fake evidences, and giving judgment," he said. "People who are accused are innocent until proven by the court. What the program did is a big violation of the constitution.” Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal, a former prosecutor, said the purpose of the Akeldama series was to warn citizens about the threat of terrorism. In a phone interview, Shimeles said opposition groups have been warned to guard against terrorist infiltrators. “Medrek and some of its member party organizations have made themselves vulnerable to get infiltrated by terrorist elements," he said. "And the police have time and again advised these organizations to check through their own internal recruiting criteria as well as internal mechanisms so as to sift out infiltrators from their local members.” Shimeles defended the decision to air Akeldama at a time when Andualem, Natnael and Eskinder are on trial, facing the death penalty. He said the government's Anti-Terrorism Task Force has a duty to disclose its activities to the public, adding “This is perfectly in accord with any democratic practice, including in the United States."

A climate of corruption, Ethiopian edition

By Janice Winter, Daily Maverick
COP17 is being hailed as “groundbreaking” as a deal was agreed after 14 days of difficult and, at times, deadlocked talks. One of the most contentious issues for Africa was the Green Climate Fund, which will go ahead despite anger at the overall failure of developed countries to commit investments. JANICE WINTER explains why this compromise is the best possible scenario.

Headlines last week declared: “Meles Zenawi cries foul over climate money pledges”. Well, that’s rich.

Leading Africa’s heads of state and government panel at the COP17 climate talks in Durban, the Ethiopian prime minister’s biggest emphasis was on the Green Climate Fund. Not only did he complain that funds pledged at Copenhagen COP15 in 2009 had failed to materialise, but also that, rather than being “new” money, much of it seems set to be recycled from existing aid budgets. He warned that such disingenuousness risked undoing the modest gains made towards the Millennium Development Goals and undermining the credibility of the entire process “in the eyes of the people of our whole continent”.

His position seemed reasonable enough: there was compelling scientific evidence that climate change will have a disproportionate impact on socio-economic development in Africa and that considerable financial investments were required from developed countries to assist Africa to adapt to the impact of climate change. But I am “of this continent” and something else risks undermining the credibility of the process in my view: that a corrupt dictator is provided with such an influential platform from which to hijack a critical cause for his own, probably illicit, interests. Coming from Meles, statements about credibility are hypocrisy at its most nauseating.

The Green Climate Fund is aiming for about $100-billion a year by 2020. The man clamouring for this considerable fund is regarded as one of the most repressive leaders on the continent. His government claims to have won a ludicrous 99.6% in the 2010 elections, jails the highest number of journalists in Africa using a law that criminalises dissent as terrorism and brutally tortures critics and opposition figures. Most crucial for this discussion, his government faces widespread, credible and sustained allegations of abusing Ethiopia’s enormous $3-billion of annual developmental aid as a tool of political repression and as a co-option mechanism to bolster his 20-year rule. Detailed and robust investigations include those by Human Rights Watch, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and Newsnight.

According to a report to be published by Global Financial Integrity later this month, Ethiopia has lost $11.7-billion to outflows of illicit funds in the last decade. In 2009 alone, the figure was $3.26-billion, exceeding both the value of its total annual exports and the total development aid it received that year. And it is on the increase. The candid finding: “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”

Yet despite these exposés and a significant deterioration in the country’s human rights situation since the brutal post-election crackdown of 2005 (in which 199 people were killed in just four days), international development aid to Ethiopia has doubled since 2005. Something as critical as the Green Climate Fund should not repeat the serious failures of developmental aid in this regard.

Meles Zenawi’s international credibility lies largely in Ethiopia’s official double-digit annual growth rates since the questionable 2005 elections and its asserted progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. As exiled Ethiopian journalist Abiye Teklemariam writes, Meles has forged an image as “a technocratic, if dictatorial, leader who had been able to crack the code of east Asia’s rise and download it into an Ethiopian hardware.”

Conveniently for Meles, no independent institutions in Ethiopia exist to check the veracity of his government’s figures, despite the credible scepticism by some international economists and substantial discrepancies in conclusions about Ethiopia’s performance and progress toward the MDGs. Indeed, the average growth rate for Meles’ entire 20-year rule (including the purported fast-paced period of the past few years) is less than 5% (below the African average of 6%) and that the country only overtook its 1975 GDP in 2006. Even if we take his spectacular recent figures at face value, which would be very generous, these are not representative of his rule. And despite these impressive, if contentious, figures, the Ethiopian economy is characterised by very high inflation, widespread unemployment, a stagnant private sector and corruption.

Before the enormous intended investments are endowed to the Green Climate Fund, far closer interrogation is needed of the ways in which this money might be spent and by whom – whether, in fact, there would be effective guarantees that the funds would be spent on projects to counteract the impacts of climate change, or would instead risk being used by undemocratic leaders such as Meles to counteract the challenges of political opposition and dissent.

The figures for the Green Climate Fund have been calculated by the African Climate Policy Centre, based in Addis Ababa. As it currently stands, African countries and institutions would be eligible for direct access to the fund. Oh, and some of these countries would also be part of the governing structures ensuring their own transparency and accountability.

Before the Green Climate Fund becomes operational and offers developing countries direct access to significant sums of money, it is vital to establish firm eligibility criteria of countries based on an independent corruption index and a strong accountability mechanism to ensure funds are spent transparently. This is necessary to prevent the situation of other aid endeavours where direct access to funding and weak accountability procedures enable corrupt and undemocratic governments to augment their rule through the politicisation of foreign funding.

If the Arab Spring has taught democratic leaders and donor nations anything, it is surely the need for far greater caution before financially assisting – and inadvertently bolstering – repressive leaders and a climate of corruption. DM

As winter begins, an African Spring heats up

By John Lloyd, Reuters

The Arab Spring’s effects continue to ripple outward. As Tahrir Square fills once more, it gains new momentum. For months now, the autocrats of Africa have feared it would move south, infecting their youth in often-unemployed, restless areas.

That fear has come to the ancient civilization of Ethiopia, the second-most populous state (after Nigeria) in Africa. There, since June, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has cracked down hard on dissidents, opposition groups and, above all, journalists, imprisoning some and forcing others into exile.

The latest refugee is Dawit Kebede, managing editor of one of the few remaining independent papers, the Awramba Times. Kebede, who won an award for freedom from the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists last year, fled to the U.S. last month after he received a tip off that he was about to be arrested.

Also in the past month, apparently reliable reports have circulated of a teacher in his late twenties, Yenesew Gebre, who burnt himself alive in protest against political repression in his home town of Dawra, in the south of the country. It has also been reported, by sources who spoke to the opposition satellite station, ESAT, based in the US, that Gebre had been dismissed from his teaching post because of his political views.

The move recalls the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi – another young man in his twenties – in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia in January this year, a catalyst for the protests there and elsewhere in the spring. The parallel is being widely made in oppositionist sites and media.

One of the oppositionists in exile is a journalist who, with others, founded a newspaper in October 2007, named Addis Neger. It was tolerated for two years, then closed down in December 2009. The founders, fearing arrest, left the country: Abiye Teklemariam came to the UK, where I spoke with him.

“The self immolation of Yenesew Gebre is an extraordinary thing,” he said. “The more so since it’s absolutely not in the tradition of Ethiopia to take one’s own life like this. It is an expression of how far people are prepared to go, how frustrated they are. Part of the problem is that the foreign states who give aid – like the United States and the United Kingdom – don’t seem to care. The government now says that because it has strong growth, civil rights must suffer. And the foreign donors have accepted that: so there is no pressure on the regime.”

Ethiopia isn’t, for the most part, like the Arab states who rose in different kind of revolts this past year. It’s bigger than most – with a population of some 82 million it’s slightly bigger than Egypt – and though still poor, it’s been growing strongly in the past decade. It also has a parliament with elections and opposition parties, which have had seats in the parliament.

In the 2005 elections, the opposition groups won about one third of the parliament’s 546 seats. After that, however, oppositionists say there was a massive crackdown on the opposition, who engaged in widespread protests against what they saw as rigged elections. Some 200 people died in these protests, mostly at the hands of the security forces.

Among the biggest political victims of the crackdown was Dr. Berhanu Nega, an academic and businessman, who was elected mayor of the capital, Addis Ababa, and whose party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, achieved just under 20 percent of the vote in the national election. With other leaders of his party, he was imprisoned, released in 2007 and fled to the US. There he has created an opposition party in exile, Ginbot 7, which calls for a revolutionary overthrow of the government of Prime Minister Zenawi, who has led the country since August 1995.

In the last elections, in May 2010, the government claimed over 99 percent of the parliamentary seats for its main party, the Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, and its allies. Zenawi, in a public address after the poll, said any repeat of the 2005 protests would not be tolerated. Ginbot 7, and other oppositionist groups, have been labeled as terrorists: Nega has been sentenced to death in absentia.

The Ethiopian government was asked, through its embassy in London, for a response to charges of repression, but they declined to comment.

I called Ephraim Madebo, spokesman for Ginbot 7, who is based in New York, to ask him if there was any possibility of a rapprochement between the many oppositionist groups and the government, so that open elections might take place. He said that “there is no chance whatsoever. They are using laws, especially the media law and the anti-terrorist law introduced after 2005 to put their enemies in jail or drive them to exile. You cannot win democratically against the government. People must rise against it. And the government knows something is coming. They just don’t know when”.

One of the outstanding opponents of the regime is Eskinder Nega (no relation to Dr. Nega), a US-educated journalist and newspaper publisher, who was imprisoned with his wife after the 2005 elections. His wife gave birth to his son in prison, though she and the child were later released. Eskinder, however, remains in prison. According to Madebo in New York, he has issued calls for Ethiopians to “fight like the people have done in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya”.

In London, Teklemariam has also been labeled as a terrorist – though unlike Ginbot 7, he opposes any use of violence against the regime – and he has been told that Ethiopia will ask the UK to extradite him (the two countries have no extradition treaty, so that is unlikely to happen). He’s less optimistic than Madebo: he says that “the space for collective action is very limited – even though it is growing, if slowly.”

Teklemariam thinks that, as in the Arab states, the internet and the social media networks are crucial to the development of a widespread movement – but Ethiopia lacks both. The net is largely confined to the capital, and social media users are few: in large part, he says, because the government ensures that connections are very slow and often dysfunctional.

The Ethiopian elite is small and badly served by communication, but Teklemariam says that “it really matters in Ethiopia. So the government has to make it hard for them to communicate. There was very little access to news about the Arab Spring.”

You can see why some African governments want to suppress news of the revolts in the north. Their transplantation south, and their even partial success, means loss of power, loss of wealth – or even, if it comes to outright conflict, loss of life (the jerky videos of the last minutes of Gadaffi’s life are a hideous toxin for all autocrats). Ethiopia’s rulers have sought a prophylactic against such radicalism in preventative arrests, seeking to neutralize all those who might lead or give shape to dissent.

But Gaddaffi’s end spells a lesson other than suppression. It is to allow and encourage the growth of democratic habits and freer speech. For one of the few hopeful signs in this doom-laden world is that suppression now works badly, for shorter periods, and that a democratic opening may find men and women willing to make it work. As we enter winter, spring may come again.
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Photo: The shadow of a supporter of Ethiopia’s Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ) is seen through an Ethiopian flag during a demonstration in the capital Addis Ababa, April 16, 2009. REUTERS/Irada Humbatova
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Ethiopian Court Mulls Journalists' Role in Conflict Zones

By Peter Heinlein, VOA
The trial of two Swedish journalists charged with supporting terrorism in Ethiopia has ended with a discussion of the role of reporters in conflict zones.

The defense wrapped up its case by calling two veteran foreign correspondents as witnesses.

A three-judge Ethiopian federal court panel is to hand down a verdict December 21 in the case of freelance journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. The pair are charged with offering support to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a rebel group Ethiopia has labeled a terrorist organization.

Schibbye and Persson were arrested June 30 in the company of ONLF fighters, after a gunbattle between the rebels and Ethiopian troops, who are engaged in a counter-insurgency operation in the region. A video recorded a day after the clash and played in court Wednesday shows the two men wearing bandages from minor wounds suffered in the exchange of fire.

ONLF communiques sent by email tell of frequent clashes in the mostly Muslim region, which borders Somalia. The claims cannot be independently confirmed because the region is off-limits to most outsiders, but government officials have described the reports as “exaggerated."

The case of the two Swedes gained notoriety after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly commented on the charges against them. In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper, Meles said they were “at the least messenger boys for a terrorist organization."

At the trial, Schibbye and Persson admitted illegally crossing the border from Somalia into Ethiopia, but denied supporting the ONLF. They said they were in the Ogaden to investigate the activities of a Swedish oil firm with interests in the region.

As they closed their case Wednesday, defense attorneys called two veteran foreign correspondents to testify about how journalists operate in conflict zones.

Adrian Blomfield, the Middle East correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, said reporters must sometimes travel to off-limits areas and meet what some would call unsavory characters in search of stories that governments would prefer are not told. He summarized his testimony for VOA.

"People who have reported in conflict zones often for various reasons may cross a border unofficially or with a particular group, and I just wanted to get across the point there is nothing untoward, there is nothing sinister about this. This is just how journalists operate, and sometimes we get caught, but we don't expect to be charged with terrorism as a result," said Blomfield.

Blomfield said he explained to the court that what Schibbye and Persson did is standard procedure for reporters covering conflicts.

"This is not an unusual case. This is what journalists do all over the world for whatever reasons," said Blomfield.

Schibbye and Persson were charged under a recently enacted anti-terrorism law criticized as “overly vague” by human rights and press freedom groups. The statute criminalizes any reporting deemed to encourage or provide moral support to groups that the government considers terrorists.

If convicted, the two Swedes could face up to 15 years in prison.

Sweden's ambassador to Ethiopia, Jens Odlander, told reporters after the trial the Stockholm government remains steadfast in its contention that Schibbye and Persson are bona fide journalists. He expressed optimism for a favorable verdict.

"I'm expecting a good outcome. I don't want to elaborate too much on it, but I expect a very good outcome from this," said Odlander.

Attorneys say final arguments in the case are to be submitted in writing within the week. The court is scheduled to hand down its verdict in the final 10 days of the year.

Intimidation or imprisonment by 'democratic instruments'

By Mesfin Negash/CPJ Guest Blogger
Three years ago, I met Minister Bereket Simon at his office at the center of Addis Ababa. I was with my colleague Abiye Teklemariam -- who was recently charged with terrorism, treason and espionage along with five other journalists, including myself.

Our purpose in meeting Bereket was to make our position clear regarding the government's wasteful animosity toward us, and express our concerns surrounding press freedom in Ethiopia.  The period was a tense and confrontational one for staff members of our newspaper, Addis Neger. Many observers had begun to predict the imminentclosure of Addis Neger and our inevitable arrest. As became evident later, the government was suspicious of us and had already decided our fate. Of what were they suspicious? That depends on whether you want the public version of their suspicion, or the other version, relating to politics and power. The public version is a cover up for the latter version.

The biggest worry for any autocrat stems from individuals and institutions that appear to be independent and attractive to one or more sections of society. The Ethiopian government's real suspicion -- more appropriate to call it fear -- was that Addis Neger or people gathering around its ideals could be turned into a political force. This may have taken different forms, the government assumed -- including forming a new political party as a solid group; joining one of the oppositions; endorsing or actively supporting opposition parties; or challenging the legitimacy of the regime by forming critical opinions.
No intelligent leader can declare this panic in public. The creative capacity of any autocrat reveals itself in his ability to formulate a public suspicion that can conceal the primary concern, which is to stay in power.
Bereket is the right-hand man of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and has handled the government's media affairs for 20 years. In our meeting with him, we highlighted the public's fear of a sudden and blanket closure of independent newspapers, as had happened in 2005. Bereket was articulate in addressing our concern: "Have no worry about that; we won't repeat that kind of measure. Instead, the government is determined to handle both the media and journalists using democratic instruments."
By "democratic instruments," Bereket meant lawsand government organs - each being an appendix of the ruling party. Instead of closing a newspaper by ordering the printing house not to print, the law made the printer responsible for the content of what he is printing. Instead of telling reporters to stop writing about a particular political group or view, such reporting is criminalized by the outlawing of the party (as well as any discussion regarding its view). The government no more issues an order to arrest activists or close an independent NGO working to empower citizens or expose human rights abuses. It simply makes life impossible for such groups by requiring them by law to cover 90% of their budget from local sources.
Thus, the public suspicion is aimed at sensitizing the public, or at least ruling party members, about the legal action the government is going to take using "democratic instruments." It is often based on fabricated or half-baked conspiracy plots. Some of the allegations against independent newspapers and journalists in Ethiopia paint them as dangerous elements posing a threat to the country: the agents of foreign forces or enemy states; operatives of the CIA; members or supporters of opposition or extremist groups; advocates of anti-ethnic or religious groups; advocates of anti-state ideas, and more.
Such allegations are used the world over to silence and intimidate independent voices. Such instruments are used to jail journalists, not just by the Ethiopian government but also by the worst offenders, the governments of Iran and China.
When my colleague Abiye and I met with Bereket, we were bold enough to explain our fundamental positions as an independent media institution and responsible journalists. He was also honest enough to admit the government's fear, saying, "You have a political agenda." What does this mean, where anything from an editorial to a cartoon can be considered political and entail an agenda?
Today, my colleague, journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega, has been imprisoned since September 14 in Maekelawi Federal Detention Center. Note that the government is holding him using a "democratic instrument" called the "Anti-Terrorism Law." The same instrument put journalists Woubshet Taye and Re'eyot Alemu behind bars. The two Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, are also in prison defending their professional activities, which are criminalizedin Ethiopia..

The journalist as terrorist: an Ethiopian story

By Abiye Teklemariam Megenta (Open Democracy)
The Ethiopian government led by prime minister Meles Zenawi uses charges of terrorism to silence and intimidate its domestic critics. The political technique is now being extended by accusing independent journalists of conspiracy. One of his targets, Abiye Teklemariam Megenta, responds.  

I couldn't say that nothing prepared me for the morning of 8 November 2011. Over the past year, Ethiopians have become accustomed to our country's prime minister's ex-cathedra declarations that most of his opponents and dissidents are "terrorists" who belong in prison - and are saved from only by his benignity and patience. Meles Zenawi's declarations, to be fair to him, were also given a legal basis in 2009, when the Ethiopian parliament passed a law that criminalises almost all acts of dissent as terrorism. If that law had been implemented to its fullest extent, no critic of Zenawi would have been left standing. It is that stifling.

But even Zenawi's kindness has its limits. Since June 2011, terrorism trials have increased steadily. Human Rights Watch reports that in these five months, the Ethiopian government has charged at least thirty-three people under the 2009 proclamation. Even during the Ethiopian new year, which falls in September, Ethiopian dissidents were given no respite from these attacks.   

The world barely noticed these politico-criminal dramas in one of the west's closest African allies - until the unfortunate arrest and trial of two Swedish journalists. Good news? Well, a useful rule of thumb is that if the Ethiopian government treats foreigners from donor countries badly, it treats locals even worse. And the calculated anti-west outbursts of Ethiopian officials, which are usually interpreted by some hapless foreign journalists and diplomats in Addis Ababa as a general hostility to westerners, are less than they seem: reminiscent of Hamid Karzai's grandstanding. To paraphrase the senior United States military commander Peter Fuller, who resigned following his criticism of Afghan leaders, Ethiopian officials have a fit when they want to replace cod with swordfish in the menu.

But with all this in mind, the charges were still upsetting. They allege, first, that I have promoted the views of diverse Ethiopian "terrorist groups", both on the online newspaper I co-founded and on some (unnamed) social-media networks. In fact, these groups have only one thing in common, namely the overthrow of Meles Zenawi's rule and the establishment of a democratic system in Ethiopia. My "promotion" of them in various reports consisted in nothing more than quoting their statements: the sort of thing that journalists do every day, and for which many journalists in Ethiopia are already in jail.

The second, graver, charge alleges that I am a member of a conspiracy network that has caused or tried to cause acts of terrorism in Ethiopia with the help of foreign governments. So bereft of details is the accusation that it might as well have been copied from a Muammar Gaddafi speech. Indeed, to the misfortune of his victims, Zenawi shares with Gaddafi (at least in the penultimate phase of the latter's career) the experience of being feted by many of these foreign governments as a transformative leader and worthy ally.

Behind the image
Meles Zenawi’s greatest trick has been to convince a lot of people in the west that he is an intelligent and prudent leader. The basis for such an image is ever-shifting. In the 1990s, it was based on his ability to stabilise a war-ravaged country. When the Ethiopia-Eritrea war undermined his claim to be a peacemaker, he adopted the guise of a pro-western and pro-democracy reformer, advising Tony Blair on how to nurture civil society and free media in Africa and using Bushisms such as "enemy of freedom" to attack "jihadists". During the Iraq war, he quickly joined the "coalition of the willing". Yet his status among some prominent members of the anti-war intelligentsia was unaffected; leading American economists Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and Dani Rodrik were among the regular travellers to Addis Ababa.

It took the controversial elections of 2005, and the brutal crackdown of dissent that followed, to begin to erode the illusion of Meles Zenawi's democratic credentials. Yet even from the ashes of that debacle a new image emerged: of the leader as a technocratic, if dictatorial, leader who had been able to crack the code of east Asia's rise and download it into an Ethiopian hardware. This latest identity cohered well with the emerging discourse about the gap between responsible and responsive government, and the paralysis of decision-making in democracies. It was also fuelled by the World Bank’s unquestioning endorsement - against the well-founded scepticism of some economists - of Ethiopia's official, spectacular growth numbers. There is not even a single independent institution in Ethiopia able to assess and verify the government's claims.

It is not difficult to comprehend why many intellectuals and policymakers in the west find Meles Zenawi alluring. He is an articulate and fluent man known to to read the books of scholars he is about to meet and convey the impression that he finds their work profound. This eloquent mirroring of the ideas of visitors, including wonkish politicians and policy-makers, is a sure route to the latter's servility. Some of this effect is owed to a contrast made by western observers between Zenawi and other African leaders, which leads to the conclusion that he is "different": the soft bigotry of lowered expectations.

A matter of justice
There is nothing intrinsically deplorable about admiring the intellect of a tyrant. The grievous mistake is to let such a judgment cloud the imperative of evaluating fairly the regime's nature and designing policy on the ground of solid evidence. If the mountain of well-documented reports of international human-rights groups and the experiences of people like me are to be believed, Zenawi’s Ethiopia has become one of the most despotic places in the world. Dissent is criminalised. Most members of the non-state media have either left the country or are locked in the country's abusive prisons. Opposition parties operate in an extremely constrained political space.

The tactics of divide and rule, co-option and repression have eviscerated Ethiopia's social trust, destroyed political institutions and decimated independent voices - and it seems that Zenawi is intent on intensifying such tactics rather than reversing them. The economy is beset by very high inflation, high unemployment and a foreign-exchange crunch; the private sector, dominated by rentier cronies of the prime minister's ruling party, is one of the least competitive and the most stagnant in Africa. There is precious little here that justifies the respect that the architect of this system is internationally accorded.

As I await my extradition hearing, Meles Zenawi continues to hobnob with the world's most powerful politicians in meetings which are organised to solve our planet's major problems. Neither his very long tyrannical rule nor my life as a liberal journalist with an unwavering commitment to justice and non-violent struggle suggests that we deserve our respective places. Real life can indeed be stranger than fiction..

Ethiopian Illicit Outflows Doubled In 2009, New Report Says

By Christopher Matthews
Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009, according to a coming report by Global Financial Integrity.

That’s a lot of money to lose to corruption for a country that has a per-capita GDP of just $365. In 2009, illicit money leaving the country totaled $3.26 billion, double the amount in each of the two previous years. The capital flight is also disturbing because the country received $829 million in development aid in 2008.

According to GFI economist Sarah Freitas, who co-authored the report, corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounted for the vast majority of the increase in illicit outflows.

“The scope of Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009,” Freitas wrote in a blog post on the website of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development.

The report, titled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009,” drew on data from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on external debt and trade mis-pricing to calculate illicit capital leakage. The study, which will be released later this month, measures the illicit financial flows out of 160 different developing nations.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth as 38.9% of Ethiopians live in poverty, and life expectancy in 2009 was just 58 years.

“The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry,” Freitas wrote. “No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”

Addis Neger's Abiye Teklemariam on Charges of Terrorism

 

Mesfin Negash: “We shouldn’t give the dictators what they want, which is our silence at home and abroad.”

By Joseph Edgar- Sampsonia Way

Mesfin Negash calls himself a journalist and refuses to be tagged political, activist, or opponent. Since 2001 he has written and edited in-depth analysis, interviews, features, and essays that have criticized Ethiopia’s government as well as its opposition. In 2007 along with five colleagues, he founded the newspaper Addis Neger (New Affairs), which under his direction grew to be one of Ethiopia’s leading newspapers.

Two years after its opening, Addis Neger, as any other independent media outlet in Ethiopia, faced intimidation and harassment as a consequence of Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law. This law criminalizes any reporting that directly or indirectly “encourages” or provides “moral support” to “terrorist groups.” It has become the biggest threat for the country’s journalists as the government deems what is “encouraging” and labels what a “terrorist group” is.

Despite the law, Addis Neger maintained its policy of covering all the actors of its society, including the opposition, and scrutinized official documents of the ruling party and policies. That was the tipping point for the government to charge the Addis Neger staff with terrorism and force them into exile. Negash was officially charged by the government for “terrorism, treason, and espionage” in early November with another twenty-three defendants, six of them journalists.

Negash was recommended to Sampsonia Way by the staff of Committee to Protect Journalists. Now living in exile in Sweden, and after several technical problems with Skype, he talked with us about the effect of the anti-terrorism law on Ethiopian journalism, the law’s hand in the exile of Addis Neger’s staff, and denies the validity of the government’s charges against him. Negash also talked about his difficulties living and publishing in exile, and analyzes the Wikileaks cables that exposed his colleague to persecution.


Why did you decide it was time to leave Ethiopia?

Because we, the three founding editors that were still living in the country (Girma Tesfaw, Masresha Mamo and myself), confirmed that the government was preparing to charge us for promoting terrorism and supporting terrorist organizations. The government had a grudge against us and they decided to do something to silence us before the election in May 2010. We had very credible sources within the government and the diplomatic community for this information.

Before we decided to leave, the government tried to take us to court and started a smear campaign against our newspaper so that the public would associate us with so-called “terrorist organizations.” There were a series of articles and programs on government media outlets designed to sensitize the public so that when they finally arrested us it wouldn’t come as a surprise.

Can you give me an example of something that Addis Neger published that the government was not pleased with?

It was a cumulative effect, not a single article, that put us in danger. Addis Neger was more analytical than the other media outlets. We didn’t use the tabloid style of reporting. We wrote in-depth analysis, interviews and so on. Our paper focused on hardcore national issues.

We questioned the constitutionality of the laws approved by parliament that worked to weaken independent voices; the illegitimate, but calculated, confusion between party and government structures; the abuse of government policies and resources for personal and party benefit; the repression of independent political parties, citizen societies, journalists, and human rights activists. We also focused on diplomatic relations, given the fact that Ethiopia has a strategic importance for both the west and the east, including China.

We wrote heavily about the economic impact of these policies and diplomatic relations on the public and the education system. These topics were our main focus, contrary to most Ethiopian papers. We were very honest! We tried to give credit to the government when it performed something positive, but in most cases the articles were very damaging for them.

Even though the newspaper was critical of the ruling party, we were also courageous and balanced enough to give a regular column to one active member of the party. We gave him a full page every week to write whatever he liked, supporting or justifying his party and criticizing the opposition, et cetera. He was a regular contributor since the launch of our paper. Addis Neger was the first independent newspaper to bring in a member of the ruling party as a regular contributor. Because we were committed to have the ruling party’s view for the benefit of our readers, when the first contributor stopped writing we found another party member to write the column.

Another point of focus at Addis Neger was covering the most significant opposition groups at home and abroad. This includes the opposition coalition forum MEDREK and its members, Ginbot 7 and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), two of the organizations designated as terrorist by the government…

The major political opposition parties in Ethiopia.

Right. The leader of Ginbot 7, Dr. Berhanu Nega, is now in exile in the United States. We wrote a feature about his organization. To the government, we were promoting them, but we hadn’t endorsed them. Actually, we have every right to write whatever we like—it’s normal in any civilized nation for a newspaper to endorse this party or that party on its editorial page. We didn’t do that, we only covered them. We were even critical of Ginbot 7 in some of those editorials. That didn’t protect us from being associated with a “terrorist” organization and the allegations of promoting “terrorists.” The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the OLF were other groups deemed off-limits by the government. We published stories about all of these organizations, but I never considered it a crime.

We also reported on the repression and systematic infiltration of labor unions, professional associations, NGOs, and the indoctrination of students and civil servants—something that was only common in former Soviet Bloc countries. We focused on how the ruling TPLF [Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front] manipulates ethnic politics at the cost of Ethiopian nationalism. Of course, we also had a number of very critical articles against the opposition. It is there, anyone can read that.

The other very important topic, which aggravated relations with the government and our newspaper, is that we began to expose the inherent totalitarian nature of the regime. In most cases they wanted to cover it up with rhetoric. We uncovered their old documents—that in most cases are not accessible to the public—to understand how they see Ethiopian politics, society, and history. It was surprising, even for us. It became definitive that the Prime Minister and the cronies around him are not in power to bring democracy to Ethiopia. This became a kind of second-revelation for the opposition later on, and made the government very angry.

Another concern of the government was the symbolic significance of Addis Neger and its staff. Addis Neger created a solid readership among many educated young Ethiopians. The elite from different sections of society became our regular readers, informants, and supporters. We were only one embodiment of the demand for true political reform. There were readers who started regular group discussions inspired by our writings. There were incidents where members of the ruling party questioned their leaders based on what they read in our newspaper. In short, Addis Neger began to inspire people to think, discuss, debate and demand change in different forms. To be honest, this has never been our goal in doing journalism, but I am proud of it. What better gift can you give than inspiration? So the government decided to do something with us.

How you were able to get out of Ethiopia? Who helped you and where did you go? How about your family?

I can only say that I was in Uganda before I came to Sweden because that is already in public domain. I had people facilitate my safe exit from Ethiopia and travel to Uganda. I must keep their names for now. My wife and mother are still in Ethiopia.

How was your stay in Uganda before you ended up in Sweden?

During my stay in Uganda I was imprisoned and harassed by the police. It was no safer for me in Uganda than it was in Ethiopia. Since the July 2010 terrorist attack in Kampala, the situation has become very difficult for Ethiopians. At the time the Ugandans had invited the Ethiopian government into the investigation of that attack and Ethiopian security agents were in full force in Uganda. It became very simple for the Ethiopian forces to arrest, and in some cases torture, Ethiopian refugees in Uganda under the guise of “investigation” and combating “terrorism.”

IGAD [Intergovernmental Authority on Development in the Horn of Africa] had also signed regional conventions on extradition and mutual legal assistance in line with the United Nations’ Global Terrorism Strategy. This means Uganda and Ethiopia now exchange criminals and terrorists. Given Ethiopia’s track record of charging journalists as terrorists, it was very likely that I would be sent back to Ethiopia once I was in Uganda. I was taken in many times and questioned, but none of the questions were about the July terrorist attack. The questions were about whether or not I was working as a journalist in Uganda and who gave me permission to do so. The Ugandan Law of Refugees prohibits refugees from participating in any “political activity” that affects their county of origin. The police told me during the “interrogation” that my activity as a journalist can be considered unlawful and I should stop it or face the consequences. The Ugandan police force is very corrupt and since that second arrest I was repeatedly harassed by police. There was no choice but to give them a bribe so that I didn’t have to spend the night in the police station.

Uganda was not a safe place for me to stay and continue to work as a journalist. I gave notification about these worrisome developments to the United Nations High Commission for refugees and other regulating bodies in Kampala, but they couldn’t help me in any meaningful way. When I had the chance to come to Sweden to attend an international conference on exiled media, I decided to ask for asylum here.

Does Sweden have a system in place for refugees seeking asylum? Is the Swedish community supportive of writers in your position?

So far my asylum case is not yet finalized. I have been waiting for one year. The paradox of the situation is that the Swedish government issued the first statement against the closing of Addis Neger and the editorial staff going into exile, and called for an investigation. The reality, I found after I came here, is disappointing. I cannot apply to bring my family here until my application is approved. They have put me in a remote village far from the nearest city or the capital where many Ethiopians are living. I haven’t found any system here that treats writers, journalists, and human rights activists in any different manner than other refugees. I think greater support from the Swedish community for writers and journalists only happens once you are granted asylum.

However, Swedish chapters of PEN International and RSF wrote letters of support. International and regional organizations such CPJ, HRW, IPI, Front Line, IREX and others also wrote me letters and have given me moral support since I came here.

The authorities here don’t understand the reality in Ethiopia. Either they are indifferent to the plight of Ethiopians or they are deceived by the propaganda, willingly or not. The arrest of two Swedish journalists, rather, shows them a glimpse into the true nature of the Ethiopian government’s regard for journalists and freedom of speech.

Is it possible to publish in Ethiopia while in exile?

We launched our website, www.addisnegeronline.com in May 2010 just before the election in Ethiopia. I am still writing and managing the website along with my colleagues who are in exile all over the world. We are determined not to give what the Ethiopian government wants most from us, which is our silence at home and abroad.

Despite our effort to make it a vibrant media outlet, the website was blocked in Ethiopia, and we have gotten very little support so far. Additionally, the repression at home has a direct bearing on our day-to-day journalistic activity. Our informants at home are afraid because the government is tapping phones and hacking email accounts. This constitutes some of the evidence used to charge the Ethiopian journalists who have been imprisoned recently – we have official reports indicating this.

These days it is very difficult to call someone in Ethiopia and talk freely; they are very afraid! They will say, “We are fine, we are fine. How are you? Ok, goodnight.” You can imagine the effect of these factors on our reporting from exile. We need help so that we can establish a vibrant independent media outlet that will inform Ethiopians and provide anyone abroad with credible information.

As you mentioned, the trial of Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye began several weeks ago. They were arrested in July and charged with terrorism. They entered Ethiopia illegally through the eastern Ogaden region. Prime Minister Zenawi spoke to a Norwegian newspaper recently, condemning the men as messengers for a terrorist organization. What is your response to the arrest of these men and to Zenawi’s comments?

They entered the country illegally, according to government reports. Entering a country illegally is illegal, no matter the country. The region of Ogaden is closed to all independent journalists, whether they are Ethiopian or not. However, we don’t know which side of the border they were on when they were arrested, whether it was in Somalia or Ethiopia. The journalists admitted that they crossed the border without permit, but it is difficult for me to buy this admission at face value. We must wait for their release to hear their side of the story.

This is another international incident that shows the world the true nature of the Ethiopian regime in Addis Ababa. The regime is manipulating this anti-terrorism mantra to silence dissident voices and reporting.

As for Meles Zenawi’s comment, it is normal for Ethiopians to hear such incriminating comments from him. It is Zenawi who decides the outcome of any politically significant trial in Ethiopia. This was not the first time he has done it, not the last for sure. He is above the courts and rule of law.

Swedish Journalists have rallied to demand the release of their colleagues. Did you participate in that demonstration? Have you been active with the Swedish media in any other way?

I attended the demonstration and added my voice there, demanding their release. I also worked with electronic and print journalists, explaining the reality on the ground in Ethiopia and the possible scenarios involving the fates of Persson and Schibbye.

In June, Woubeshet Taye, the deputy editor of the Amharic-language weekly Awramba Times, and Reyot Alemu, a reporter for the Amharic-language weekly Fitih, were arrested and tried under the anti-terrorism law. Eskinder Neger and Sileshi Hagos were arrested in September. Others were held: Haileyesus Worku, the editor of the state-owned Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency and one of his reporters, Abdulsemed Mohammed, were just released after being held for fifteen months. How can an Ethiopian reporter cover the activities of Ethiopia’s leading opposition figure, Berhanu Nega, or an attack by the ONLF rebels without risking prosecution and imprisonment?

I’d like to explain the intonation of the articles and the anti-terrorism law, regarding freedom of speech. In addition to the official mantra of controlling and preventing terrorism, another sub-text of this anti-terrorism law is silencing dissenting views.

By criminalizing opposition groups, they are also criminalizing any exchange of ideas about these groups. It is a double trap. On the one hand they are criminalizing being a member of said groups and their existence; on the other hand, you can’t even discuss what these organizations stand for, whether their political strategy is bad or not. This is one of the instruments that the government is using to control the flow of information within the country. If an Ethiopian reporter writes about Ginbot 7, OLF, ONLF, or its leaders, he is intentionally taking the risk of being associated with these organizations.

These are Cold War Communist tactics or tactics similar to those used by North Korea. They want to have full control over what the public hears and sees, and ultimately thinks. This is not limited to the media. The government, for example, distributed a guideline for public theaters to influence the content of their plays. The guideline specifically outlines what issues the plays should focus on. We published a feature story regarding this typically communist strategy.

We hear how Gaddafi was a dictator, how Mugabe is a dictator. The Ethiopian regime, in some instances, is worse than them! However, the Ethiopian dictator has one unique quality: He knows what the international community wants to hear and he uses their language. Furthermore, he must be pleased to have a stateless Somalia next door, as the West has become dependent on him to wage the so called “war on terrorism.” They close their eyes to everything happening on the ground.

In September a colleague of yours, Argaw Arshine, fled Ethiopia after Wikileaks released a 2009 U.S. Embassy post that indicated him and an unnamed government official of providing information to the staff at your paper. This incident is what propelled you to close Addis Neger and leave Ethiopia. Have you had contact with him since he left Ethiopia and if so, where is he now?

I do have information about Arshines’ present condition, but I must keep it to myself. It is complicated.

When this information was released Arshine was repeatedly interrogated and forced by police to name his contact in the government. The government claims that questioning of this kind is illegal and he had no reason to flee, but clearly he felt some imminent threat or he wouldn’t have left the country. Is he safe?

He is very safe in an undisclosed location. While still in Ethiopia, he was summoned by the commander of the federal police and was given twenty-four hours to release the name of his government informant. If he had released that person’s name, that person would be in great danger. The government would be very harsh on them to teach a lesson to other potential whistle blowers.

If Arshine had stayed in Ethiopia and refused to give the name, he would have been charged with spying on the government, which is a sentence of potentially ten years or more, not to mention the possibility of being tortured.

Wikileaks has gone on the defense and feigned responsibility for leaking Argaw Ashine’s name. They want the focus to be put back on the repressive Zenawi regime. This has spurred a debate about Wikileaks’ responsibility versus people’s right to information and government transparency. Do you think Wikileaks should be held accountable for failing to protect the names of individuals?

I believe both sides should take their share of the responsibility. The regime in Ethiopia wants to control every source of information. What matters for the government is not whether the report is true or not, but who leaked it.

Wikileaks wants to transfer the blame to The Guardian or the nature of the regime in Ethiopia. No, not at all! One can argue that, in this case, Ashine was acting as a whistle blower, not as a journalist. Therefore Wikileaks is exposing whistle blowers, which is very dangerous; it’s very easy to prosecute whistle blowers in many countries. Thus it is very regrettable that Wikileaks published the cable without editing Ashine’s name. He left his family, his life, his career in Ethiopia and had to start over from zero. He didn’t even have enough time to prepare. After Wikileaks published the cables, Ashine had to be out of the country within a week. After two days he was summoned by the federal police, interrogated, and given an ultimatum. I wonder how the people at Wikileaks can excuse themselves so easily.

We are hoping for a positive outcome for you and your family, and the continuation of your writing.

Thank you. As I said before, we shouldn’t give the dictators what they want, which is our silence whether at home or abroad. Therefore, I will continue writing and inspiring people as much as possible.

Ethiopians in Germany Rally in Frankfurt Against the Meles Regime

By Abinet Belay

Ethiopians living in Germany held a demonstration in Frankfurt on November 29, 2011 against the dictatorial regime of Ethiopia. The rally was organised in rememberance of the massacre of innocent Ethiopians who fall victim in June and November 2005 to the unbridled acts of the terrorist government of Meles.

The protesters demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisioners languishing in the notorious prisons of Ethiopia. Standing before the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt, they also burned Meles Zenawi's photo and called for the removal of his government.

Organisers of the rally have informed the gathering that similar demonstrations will take place in different parts of Germany in the near future.

Ethiopian man burns himself to death in protest

 Angus Stickler, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

 

Events in Ethiopia have taken a disturbing turn following reports that a teacher in his late 20s burnt himself alive last week in protest against the ongoing brutal clampdown on dissent in the country. According to reports Yenesew Gebre made an impassioned plea at a protest gathering before dowsing himself in petrol and setting himself on fire.

Addressing fellow protestors he is reported to have said: ’I want to show to all that death is preferable than a life without justice and liberty and I call upon my fellow compatriots to fear nothing and rise up to wrench their freedom and rights from the hands of the local and national tyrants.’
It is understood that Gebre died from his injuries three days later at the Tercha city local hospital.  

Renewed crackdownAccording to sources who spoke to the satellite TV station, ESAT, Yenesew had been campaigning against injustice at the hands of ruling party officials. It also appears that he had been fired from his teaching position because of his political views.
The event happened at a public meetng on November 11, aimed at resolving a series of local protests.
It was during the meeting that Yenesew Gebre reportedly spoke out against President Meles Zenawi’s regime. When security agents tried to stop him, Yeneneh walked out of the meeting hall and set himself alight infront of the other protesters gathered in the compound.
‘While fire was engulfing his whole body, he was calling for justice, freedom and democracy and urged people to rise up against the oppressors. He wanted martyrdom … he chose to sacrifice his life for the sake of liberty and justice,’ a local source who witnessed the shocking incident told ESAT.
According to close friends, Yenesew Gebre was widely respected and well known for raising serious issues and challenging authorities.
In a bid to quash any further protests in the area, the federal police and the security services have reportedly sealed off the town. The regime has cut telephone lines to prevent the news of Yenesew’s death from spreading across Ethiopia, according to ESAT.
Zelalem Tessema, spokesman from Mass Advocacy of Communities, Ethiopia (MACE) a Diaspora group based in the UK, told the Bureau: ‘This unprecedented form of self-sacrifice has caused shock and anger amongst his compatriots both at home and abroad. Gebre’s action demonstrates the high level of despair prevailing amongst the public at large that is firmly under the brutal rule of Meles Zenawi.’

Concerted CrackdownYenesew Gebre’s death follows a recent investigation by the Bureau and BBC Newsnight into allegations of torture, repression and the political manipulation of foreign aid. The report was strongly denied by representatives of President Meles Zenawi.

Read the full investigation Ethiopia Aid Exposed here.
The Bureau has been told of a concerted crackdown following the broadcast, particularly in the southern region. ‘Sadly there has been a crackdown by the security forces on people who have suspected to have cooperated with the programme,’ said Zelalem Tessema. ‘And certainly we’ve got reports that people have been arrested, some people have been questioned by security forces and some people have left the area in fear of what would follow.’

Widespread OppressionThe crackdown has intensified and spread to other areas of the country, according to members of the Ethiopian community in the UK. The Bureau has learned that at least 40 opposition politicians, their supporters and journalists have been arrested by security forces in recent months. Many are being held in the Central Investigation Centre in Maikelawi where allegations of torture are rife.
The most prominent are Bekele Gerba and Olbana Lelisa, opposition leaders in Oromia, Andualaem Arage the vice chairman of Unity Democracy and Justice Party and the prominent journalist Eskinder Nega.

Related article: Reign of terror in Maikelawi detention centre
The government has been accused of using sweeping anti-terror legislation passed in 2009 to crush dissent. The definitions of terrorist activity under the law are broad and ambiguous. It permits a clamp down on political demonstrations and public criticisms of government policy. The law criminalises any reporting that authorities deem to ‘encourage’ or ‘provide moral support’ to groups the government has labelled ‘terrorists.’

Media TargetedThe legislation is also being used to stifle Ethiopia’s media. Last week a judge in Ethiopia’s federal high court charged six journalists with terrorism. According to the New York based campaign group – the Committee to Protect Journalists, (CPJ), 10 journalists have now been charged with terrorism related offences since June.
‘Ethiopia’s terrorism charges against journalists critical of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government are becoming vague and ludicrous,’ said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. ‘The authorities have failed to provide any hard evidence and should drop these charges immediately.’
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, government spokesman Shimelis Kemal accused the journalists of ‘abetting, aiding, and supporting a terrorist group.’
And the crack-down is not confined to Ethiopian nationals. Earlier this month an Ethiopian court said two Swedish journalists must face charges of helping a terrorist group and entering the country illegally. Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were charged with terrorism after they were arrested crossing from Puntland into Ethiopia’s troubled Ogaden region with members of the banned Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in July.
If found guilty, they could face a maximum of 15 years in jail.

Related article: Ethiopian media gagged by anti-terror laws
In August, a delegation from Amnesty International was expelled from Ethiopia. Speaking shortly after her expulsion from the country, Amnesty’s Claire Beston told the Bureau: ‘Civil society activists have said the situation is rapidly deteriorating – to use their words. Journalists are more afraid even than they were before, and we are even talking about a significant climate of fear – all those groups are already operating in a climate of fear.’

Foreign Tourists under SurveillanceIn a separate move it has also been reported that the government is targeting tour operators to monitor the movements of foreign nationals on holiday following the Bureau’s original investigation. The Bureau/Newsnight team entered the country on tourist visas posing as holidaymakers.
According to the Indian Ocean Newsletter, representatives of the tour operators active in the country were summoned to a meeting at the ministry of transport in Addis Ababa last month. It says that during the meeting the tour operators were blatantly asked to include an Ethiopian intelligence officer from now on.
It says: ‘According to one source present at the meeting, the instructions from the government official specified that the tour operators should meet the agent’s expenses. The agent’s job will be to keep a watch on all the movements of the visitors and determine their reason for going to Ethiopia.
‘This measure follows on a recent BBC report criticising the situation in the Ogaden region and the political use the Ethiopian government made of international aid,’ states the Newsletter. ‘It would appear that from now on the Ethiopian authorities want to prevent foreign journalists from entering the country with tourist visas and travelling around the country.’
The Bureau asked the Ethiopian Embassy in London for a response to the death of Yenesew Gebre and the allegations concerning the current government crack-down. It is yet to respond.

Karuturi to outsource Ethiopian land to Indian farmers

Raghuvir Badrinath / Bangalore October 12, 2011, 1:03 IST

Karuturi Global, the city-based publicly-held floriculture major and one of the world’s largest exporter of roses which is aggressively rolling out an agriculture business venture in Ethiopia, is looking at outsourcing 20,000 hectares of farm land in the African nation to Indian farmers on a revenue-sharing basis.

The company has leased 300,000 hectares in Gambela, in the western corner of Ethiopia. It has been looking to develop a bouquet of crops such as paddy, maize, cereals, palm oil, and sugarcane, among others, to cater to the huge demand in Africa and also look at the export market. According to senior officials of Karuturi, they have taken possession of 100,000 hectares, and after the completion of this, they will be able to take possession of another 200,000 hectares. And here is the rest of it.

Meles met by protests

Norwegian News

A chorus of critics demonstrated outside the Oslo hotel where Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was attending an international energy conference this week. He brushed off the criticism, while Norwegian leaders say they took up some of it with him.

“Norwegian and other countries’ organizations think they have a right to involve themselves in African countries’ politics,” Meles Zenawi told newspaperAftenposten. “At the same time, I, as an Ethiopian, have no right to involve myself in Norwegian affairs. We have never accepted this double standard.”

He said that Norway can gladly “help us” in economic issues, “and say what you think.” But he warned outsiders from meddling in Ethiopia’s political processes.

Norway has donated around NOK 1.4 billion in aid to Ethiopia over the past six years, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has worked closely with Meles Zenawi on a UN-backed effort to raise funds for measures to halt climate change. That’s at least partly why Meles Zenawi was in Oslo this week, to take part in the latest conference involving energy and climate issues. While he was welcomed by his Norwegian hosts, Aftenposten reported how demonstrators outside the Radisson Blu Hotel in downtown Oslo were chanting “shame, shame, shame.” Most of the demonstrators were Ethiopian-Norwegians who are not at all happy with Meles Zenawi’s rule back home.

“This is a man who imprisons journalists and opposition groups,” Adam Mulualem Zerikun, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Aftenposten. He accused Meles Zenawi of gathering all political power in an ethnic group that makes up only a small percentage of the population, of prohibiting aid organizations and impartial observerser into southern portions of the country and of turning Ethiopia into a dictatorship.

Meles Zenawi was unmoved. “If they don’t agree with the government’s politics, it’s natural they protest,” he told Aftenposten. He also stressed that Ethiopia has never been a colony and that’s why aid organizations aren’t allowed to get involved in political activities, including promotion of human rights.

After 20 years of rule, he has won international acclaim for boosting Ethiopia’s economy, but he’s also attracted criticism for a lack of progress on human rights and democracy. Most recently his government reportedly has used an anti-terror law to imprison hundreds of journalists and political opponents, including two Swedish journalists. Meles Zenawi insisted they were messengers for a terrorist organization.

Stoltenberg said he took up the issue of the imprisoned Swedes with Meles Zenawi on Monday, along with reports of murder and abuse of civilians in Ogaden. Yet he and government minister Erik Solheim also hailed the Ethiopian leader for promoting stability and growth in Africa.

“We’re working with Ethiopia to fight poverty,” Stoltenberg said. “Trade and investment are closely tied to improvement of human rights.”

Zenawi calls jailed Swedish journalists terror accomplices

(CPJ) New York, October 11, 2011--Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's public accusations on Monday against two imprisoned Swedish journalists compromise the presumption of their innocence and predetermine the outcome of their case, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The journalists were arrested in Ethiopia in July and charged with terrorism for associating with armed separatists. In July, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, contributors to the Sweden-based photo agency Kontinent, were arrested after they crossed with rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) into Ogaden, an oil-rich province where the media is barred independent access. Earlier this year, the Ethiopian government formally designated the ONLF a terrorist group under an anti-terrorism law. Under this 2009 law, journalists risk up to 20 years in prison if the government deems their reporting favorable to groups designated as terrorists. Both journalists were charged without their lawyers present, CPJ research shows.

In a Monday interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Zenawi said Persson and Schibbye were accomplices to terrorists. "They are, at the very least, messenger boys of a terrorist organization. They are not journalists," the prime minister said. "Why would a journalist be involved with a terrorist organization and enter a country with that terrorist organization, escorted by armed terrorists, and participate in a fighting in which this terrorist organization was involved? If that is journalism, I don't know what terrorism is."
Zenawi then singled out Persson, citing footage in a government-produced video released by authorities in July in which the journalist is seen handling a weapon. "We have video clippings of this journalist training with the rebels," the prime minister said. In the same video, Schibbye is heard being told by Ethiopian security to say to the camera, "We came to the Ogaden region to do interviews with the ONLF," according to CPJ research.
"Since arresting Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, the Ethiopian government has compromised their fundamental rights of defense--chiefly, the presumption of innocence--by portraying them in the media as accomplices to terrorists, charging them with terrorism without the presence of their lawyers, and making accusatory statements against them, like those by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which appear to predetermine the outcome of their trial before it even starts," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on the Ethiopian judiciary to guarantee both journalists a fair trial in what has become a politicized case."
In the interview, Zenawi called the journalists' case "an issue of crime, an ordinary criminal issue," and said, "Those who want to enter Ethiopia legally are not being prevented from entering the country legally, including journalists." However, media in Sweden reported on Monday that not one Swedish journalist who had applied for a visa to attend the journalists' October 18 trial had been approved yet.
With eight journalists behind bars, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea as the foremost jailer of journalists in Africa, according to CPJ research. Ethiopia's repression of the independent press has also driven into exile the largest number of journalists in the world, according to a CPJ study. Yet Zenawi told Aftenposten that Ethiopia was "moving in the right direction" in terms of human rights. "We have reached a very advanced stage of rule of law and respect for human rights," he said. "Fundamentally, this is a country where democratic rights of people are respected."

Arrests of journalists show Ethiopia's sterner side

The Christian Science Monitor


The arrests of two Swedish journalists – captured by security forces in early July after a firefight with ethnic Somali rebels – and the detention of a long stream of local journalists with critical views of the Ethiopian government is showing once again the ruthless streak of America’s biggest friend in the Horn of Africa.


Prime Minister Meles Zenawi – president of Ethiopiafrom 1991 to 1995, and premier of Ethiopia ever since – is praised for his economic vision in steering the country toward a path of economic growth and foreign investment, as well as his cooperation with the US’s counterterrorism efforts in Africa. But Mr. Meles’ decisiveness and vision is matched by an intolerance of dissent, critics say.



Over the past year, more than 100 opposition activists, local journalists and others have been detained under a catch-all anti-terror law that can mean up to 20-year jail terms for those who merely publish a statement that prosecutors believe could indirectly encourage terrorism.  

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Former president of the republic Negasso Gidada, who left the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 2001 to join the opposition, says that Meles and his followers still hold a belief agreed a decade ago that they are the only ones capable of leading the historically impoverished nation to prosperity.

"They decided then it is only the EPRDF which can lead the country to middle-income level in 20 to 30 years' time," he says. "All other organizations should to be brought on board or eliminated."

Little room for dissent

Meles' proven track record in overseeing economic growth and stability lead some to praise his rule. Human rights groups and journalist organizations complain that the government targets those who simply disagree with the ruling party.

Senior government spokesman Shimeles Kemal rejects rights groups’ claims that the pattern of arrests reveals an intolerance of dissent. He says that those arrested for terrorism – including the two Swedish journalists – have left behind evidence of links with banned militant groups. Ethiopia’s concerns over terrorist threats were bolstered recently by a recent UN report detailing an Eritrea-backed plot by rebels aiming to cause carnage in downtown Addis Ababa during an African Unionsummit in January this year.

Connections of some sort between opposition politicians and outlawed organizations such as Ginbot 7 are possible. Ginbot 7’s exiled leader, Berhanu Nega – sentenced to death in-absentia for his role in a tumultuous 2005 election – was a former colleague in the defunct Coalition for Unity and Democracy.

But while exploiting such connections to crush the opposition is a predictable maneuver, the prosecution of the Swedish journalists Johann Persson and Martin Schibbye is a departure for the government.

The arrests of two Swedish journalists – captured by security forces in early July after a firefight with ethnic Somali rebels – and the detention of a long stream of local journalists with critical views of the Ethiopian government is showing once again the ruthless streak of America’s biggest friend in the Horn of Africa.