Translate

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

ጠቅላይ ሚኒስትር ሀይለማርያም ደሳለኝ በወቅታዊ ጉዳዮች ላይ የሰጡት መግለጫ ነሃሴ 24 2008

Protesters demand Canada take action against Ethiopian government - Manitoba - CBC News



The Ethiopian government was the target of harsh words from protesters in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
The activists accuse government forces of limiting human rights and cracking down on dissent. They are demanding Canada institute economic sanctions on the East African nation, similar to those placed on South Africa during apartheid.
Protester Shegitu Aredo said Ethiopia takes the millions of dollars it receives in aid from the United States and Canada and uses it "as a weapon against its own people."
"In Ethiopia, a lot of people are being marginalized and murdered for standing up for their human rights," she said.
Fellow protester Fetno Kemo said the world needs to see and understand the abuses happening in his home country.
"We are here to show solidarity with our people … and be a voice for our people who are dying," said Kemo.
According to Human Rights Watch, government forces have killed at least 100 anti-government protestors in recent weeks and hundreds more since November.
During the country's election in 2015, Ethiopia's ruling coalition party won all the parliament seats, effectively cutting out critical voices, said the organization.
Human Rights Watch also alleges Ethiopia has conducted arbitrary arrests and passed laws to limit non-governmental activity.
Canada remains one of the largest humanitarian aid contributors to Ethiopia.
Between 2014 and 2015 Canada sent $108 million to the African nation, according to Global Affairs Canada.

Ethiopia's Oromo People and the Italian Mafia-The Newsmakers

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Anger still boils in northern Ethiopia after protest crackdown

Anger still boils in northern Ethiopia after protest crackdown
Anger still boils in northern Ethiopia after protest crackdown
Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) (AFP) - The demonstrations were crushed but anger remains in Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, where a fortnight ago security forces killed at least 30 protesters, according to a human rights group.
"I would say at least 50 people!" said Getachew, a protester who saw bodies arrive at the city hospital on August 7.
Dressed in black, Getachew is mourning his younger brother Abebe, 28, who he says was shot twice ?- once in the back of the head and once in his side -? as Ethiopian security broke up the protests with gunfire and teargas.
"The 'Agazi' were on the rooftops. They started to shoot in the crowd. The police was launching tear gas," Getachew said, referring to Ethiopia's feared special forces with their distinctive red berets who were deployed to help crush the protests in Bahir Dar.
As he spoke Getachew scrolled through photographs of victims -? including his brother -- on his mobile phone.
Like many of the protesters, Abebe was wrapped in an old green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag, but without the central star imposed on the flag by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when it took power in 1991. The wearing of the old flag is a patriotic rebuke of EPRDF rule.
Getachew was one of the few willing to speak following the protests in Bahir Dar, and even he would not give his full name.
- Fear and mistrust -
This small, pretty town on the edge of Lake Tana and close to the source of the Blue Nile is still in shock after the killings. The tourist hotels are deserted, the tour guides idle and the fear of government reprisals is palpable.
"If I start talking in a café, the Kebele [local government officials] will know it. We cannot trust our neighbours or our friends," said one tour guide who did not want to be identified.
Since the demonstrations, arrests have multiplied, said Getachew. "Five friends of Abebe were arrested after they went to his funeral. We don't know where they are," he said.
In the village of Dangla, just south of Bahir Dar, resident Andualem said there had been security sweeps and stark warnings.
"They go door to door to give extreme warning not to go out to demonstrate otherwise you will be killed," said Andualem. "They say: Keep your children and your life."
Mobile internet and social networks have been blocked to prevent the predominantly young activists from the decentralised protest movement from organising further demonstrations.
Many of the young protesters are angry at a government that has been in charge for almost their whole lives and that is seen to favour the minority Tigrean community who occupy key positions in government, the security services and public companies.
"There is a tangible development. You can't deny the roads, the buildings, the power supply but the VIPs are all from Tigray. Tigreans dominate economically and socially. All the industries are in Tigray," said Ashenafi, a young Amhara protester.
- Ethnic federalism failing -
The government's decision to join the northern province of Welkait to the Tigray region was the immediate trigger for the Amhara protests, but they have occurred at the same time as others in the Oromo region where regular, sometimes deadly, demonstrations have happened since November over land rights.
Together, Oromo and Amhara people make up over 60 percent of the population.
The demonstrations are a challenge to the EPRDF's model of "ethnic federalism" intended to give representation and a degree of self-determination to the multitude of ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
"Ethnic federalism is not working because it is not implemented equally," said Molla Wasie of the opposition Agaw Democratic Party. "Things are getting more and more tense. The government and the opposition should come together and find a solution."
The Bahir Dar demonstrators are still angry. Following the protests, the authorities gave a low figure of just seven dead, while human rights group Amnesty International said 30 had been killed. Locals say the number was higher still.
"They did not apologise for the people killed. They do not feel guilty. All they say is that if somebody comes out, they will take action," said Ashenafi. "I do not see any sign that they will change."

Ethiopia: Ethnic Tigrayans flee to avoid anti-government protesters

Ethiopia Travel Alert US State Department August 16, 2016

The State Department alerts U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling in certain regions of Ethiopia due to anti-government protests, some of which have involved violence. Associated disruptions in telephone and internet services have hampered the U.S. Embassy’s ability to communicate with U.S. citizens in Ethiopia. This Travel Alert expires on February 18, 2017.
Since November 2015, anti-government protests, mainly in the regional states of Amhara and Oromia, have resulted in violent clashes between demonstrators and government security forces. Internet, cellular data, and phone service have been sporadically restricted or completely cut off prior to and during some of the protests, impeding the U.S. Embassy's ability to communicate with U.S. citizens.
Protests are likely to continue, and could spread to other parts of the country, including the capital, Addis Ababa. U.S. citizens in Ethiopia should increase their level of situational awareness, continuously assess their surroundings, evaluate their personal level of safety, and avoid demonstrations and large gatherings.
For further information:

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Anger still boils in northern Ethiopia after protests


AFP . Bahir Dar | Update: 


Oromo and Amhara region of Ethiopia-afp


The demonstrations are crushed but anger remains in Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, where a fortnight ago security forces killed at least 30 protesters, according to a human rights group.
"I would say at least 50 people!" said Getachew, a protester who saw bodies arrive at the city hospital on 7 August.
Dressed in black, Getachew is mourning his younger brother Abebe, 28, who he says was shot twice -- once in the back of the head and once in his side -- as Ethiopian security broke up the protests with gunfire and gas.
"The 'Agazi' were on the rooftops. They started to shoot in the crowd. The police was launching tear gas," Getachew said, referring to Ethiopia's feared special forces with their distinctive red berets who were deployed to help crush the protests in Bahir Dar.
As he spoke Getachew scrolled through photographs of victims - including his brother -- on his mobile phone.
Like many of the protesters, Abebe was wrapped in an old green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag, but without the central star imposed on the flag by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when it took power in 1991. The wearing of the old flag is a patriotic rebuke of EPRDF rule.
Getachew was one of the few willing to speak following the protests in Bahir Dar, and even he would not give his full name.
- Fear and mistrust -
This small, pretty town on the edge of Lake Tana and close to the source of the Blue Nile is still in shock after the killings. The tourist hotels are deserted, the tour guides idle and the fear of government reprisals is palpable.
"If I start talking in a café, the Kebele [local government officials] will know it. We cannot trust our neighbours or our friends," said one tour guide who did not want to be identified.
Since the demonstrations, arrests have multiplied, said Getachew. "Five friends of Abebe were arrested after they went to his funeral. We don't know where they are," he said.
In the village of Dangla, just south of Bahir Dar, resident Andualem said there had been security sweeps and stark warnings.
"They go door to door to give extreme warning not to go out to demonstrate otherwise you will be killed," said Andualem. "They say: Keep your children and your life."
Mobile internet and social networks have been blocked to prevent the predominantly young activists from the decentralised protest movement from organising further demonstrations.
Many of the young protesters are angry at a government that has been in charge for almost their whole lives and that is seen to favour the minority Tigrean community who occupy key positions in government, the security services and public companies.
"There is a tangible development. You can't deny the roads, the buildings, the power supply but the VIPs are all from Tigray. Tigreans dominate economically and socially. All the industries are in Tigray," said Ashenafi, a young Amhara protester.
- Ethnic federalism failing -
The government's decision to join the northern province of Welkait to the Tigray region was the immediate trigger for the Amhara protests, but they have occurred at the same time as others in the Oromo region where regular, sometimes deadly, demonstrations have happened since November over land rights.
Together, Oromo and Amhara people make up over 60 percent of the population.
The demonstrations are a challenge to the EPRDF's model of "ethnic federalism" intended to give representation and a degree of self-determination to the multitude of ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
"Ethnic federalism is not working because it is not implemented equally," said Molla Wasie of the opposition Agaw Democratic Party. "Things are getting more and more tense. The government and the opposition should come together and find a solution."
The Bahir Dar demonstrators are still angry. Following the protests, the authorities gave a low figure of just seven dead, while human rights group Amnesty International said 30 had been killed. Locals say the number was higher still.
"They did not apologise for the people killed. They do not feel guilty. All they say is that if somebody comes out, they will take action," said Ashenafi. "I do not see any sign that they will change."

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Ethiopian Orthodox church members in Israel defend the real Ethiopia Fl...

What is behind Ethiopia's Oromo protests? - CNN.com




Story highlights



  • Ethiopia is facing a mounting crisis over treatment of Oromo people
  • More than 100 people died on Saturday following clashes
  • Country could be thrown into chaos, says Awol Allo
Awol K. Allo is LSE Fellow in Human Rights at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights. He writes on the issues behind several months of protests by Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromos. Around 100 people died following clashes with security forces and demonstrators at the weekend, according to Amnesty International. 
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
London (CNN)Ethiopia is facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude, yet its government and Western enablers refuse to acknowledge and recognize the depth of the crisis.
The nationwide protest held on Saturday by the Oromo people, the single largest ethnic group both in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, is clear evidence of a crisis that is threatening to degenerate into a full-scale social explosion.
    The protests are the most unprecedented and absolutely extraordinary display of defiance by the Oromo people and it is by far the most significant political developments in the country since the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the strongman who ruled the country for over two decades.
    The protests took place in more than 200 towns and villages across Oromia, Ethiopia's largest region, and were attended by hundreds of thousands of people. According to Oromia media Network, security forces used live bullets against peaceful protestors, killing over 100 protestors.

    Annexation



    Oromos have been staging protest rallies across the country since April of 2014 against systematic marginalization and persecution of ethnic Oromos. The immediate trigger of the protest was a development plan that sought to expand the territorial limits of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, into neighbouring Oromo villages and towns.
    Dr. Awol Allo

    Oromos saw the proposed master plan as a blueprint for annexation which would further accelerate the eviction of Oromo farmers from their ancestral lands.
    When the protest resumed in November of 2015, the government dismissed the protestors as anti-peace elements and accused them of acting in unison with terrorist groups -- a common tactic used by the government to crackdown on dissent and opposition.
    The government used overwhelming force to crush the protest, killing hundreds of protestors and arresting thousands. In its recent report titled "Such a Brutal Crack Down", Human Rights Watch criticized the "excessive and lethal force" used by security forces against "largely peaceful protestors" and puts the number of deaths at over 400.
    The figure from the activist group is considerably higher.

    Historic Injustices



    The Oromo make up well over a third of Ethiopia's 100 million people. Historically, Oromos have been pushed to the margin of the country's political and social life and rendered unworthy of respect and consideration.
    Oromo culture and language have been banned and their identity stigmatized, becoming invisible and unnoticeable within mainstream perspectives.
    Ethiopians from Oromo group marching a road after protesters were shot dead by security forces in Wolenkomi, Addis Ababa, December 15, 2015

    Oromos saw themselves as parts of no part -- those who belong to the country but have no say in it, those who can speak but whose voices are heard as a noise, not a discourse.
    When the current government came into power a quarter of a century ago, it pursued a strategy of divide and rule in which the Oromos and Amharas, the two largest ethnic groups in the country, are presented as eternal adversaries.
    Oromos are blamed as secessionists to justify the continued monitoring, control, and policing of Oromo intellectuals, politicians, artists and activists.
    By depicting Oromo demands for equal representation and autonomy as extremist and exclusionary, it tried to drive a wedge between them and other ethnic groups, particularly the Amharas.
    This allowed the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and Tigrayan elites to present themselves as the only political movement in the country that could provide the stability and continuity sought by regional and global powers with vested interest in the region.
    Although these protests are triggered by more recent events, they are microcosms [of] a more enduring and deeper crisis of political representation and systematic marginalization suffered by the Oromo people.
    In its 2015 comprehensive country report titled "Because I am Oromo", Amnesty International found evidence of systematic and widespread patterns of indiscriminate and disproportionate attack against the Oromo simply because they are Oromos.

    US Influence



    The United States see the Ethiopian government as a critical partner on the Global War on Terror.
    This led administration officials to go out of their way to create fantasy stories which cast Ethiopia as democratic and its leaders as progressive. In 2012, then US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, described Meles Zenawi, the architect of the current system, as "uncommonly wise" and someone "able to see the big picture and the long game, even when others would allow immediate pressures to overwhelm sound judgment."
    In 2015, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman praised Ethiopia as "a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair, credible, open and inclusive." She further added, ""Every time there is an election, it gets better and better." That election ended with the ruling party winning 100% of the seats in parliament by wiping out the one opposition in the previous parliament.
    In 2016, President Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Ethiopia amid widespread opposition by human rights groups. Obama doubled down on previous endorsements by administration officials by describing the government as 'democratically-elected."

    A police state



    However, consistent reports by the US government itself and other human rights organizations depict an image of a police state whose apparatus of surveillance and control permeates the entire society down to household levels.
    The US led 'war on terror', started by President George Bush, provided the government with a political and legal instrument with which the government justified severe restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, and association.
    The 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, one of the most draconian pieces of anti-terrorism legislations in the world, enabled the government to stretch its power of prosecution and punishment beyond what is permissible under standard criminal and constitutional law rules.
    In recent years, terrorism trials have become the most significant legal instrument frequently used by the authorities to secure and consolidate the prevailing relationship of power between the ruling ethnic Tigrayan elites and other ethnic groups in the country.
    Under the pretext of 'fighting terrorism', the regime exiled, prosecuted and convicted several opposition leaders, community leaders, journalists, bloggers, and activists; paralyzing criticisms of any type.
    In its 2015 report titled Ethiopia's Anti-Terrorism Law: A Tool to Stifle Dissent, the Oakland Institute details the ways in which Ethiopian authorities systematically appropriate the anti-terrorism law to annihilate dissent and opposition to the policies of the ruling party.

    Denial



    As of July, the protests have been spreading into the Amhara region, home to the second largest ethnic group in the country.
    The Amharas and Oromos, which constitute well over two-third of the country's population, are seen as 'historical antagonists'. The ruling party transformed this antagonism between the two ethnic groups into a productive political tool.
    According to the governing narrative, Oromos are narrow-minded and exclusionary people who seek to disintegrate Ethiopia into smaller republics while Amharas are chauvinists who seek to restore the old feudal order, leaving the ruling party as the only political force that can rescue Ethiopia from both threats.
    These governing narratives are being exposed as the two groups begun to see how these narratives were crafted and are expressing solidarity towards each other as victims of the same system.
    The Ethiopian government is in denial and making the same promises of restoring 'law and order' through further repression and crackdown.
    However, this can only exacerbate the situation and throws the country into chaos in an already volatile region.