A spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ato Lencho Bati, told Ethiopian Review that the report about Gen. Kemal Gelchu being under a virtual house arrest is incorrect and that the general can travel any where he wishes.
Ato Lencho has also said that OLF troops have not been immobilized and that his organization appreciates the Eritrean government for giving shelter to OLF members and supporters while Oromos are being mistreated and brutalized in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and other countries in the region.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian Review has been informed yesterday that another well-known Ethiopian patriot named Shambel Zewdu has disappeared over a week ago in Eritrea and his current whereabouts remain unknown. Shambel Zewdu was elected to parliament in Ethiopia from the Gonder region at the 2005 election but when Woyanne stole the vote, he decided to join the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF). Earlier this year, he submitted his resignation after Col. Fitsum (the so-called Eritrean adviser to Ethiopian opposition groups) had tried to arrest him and for the past 11 months he had been living in Asmara as a refugee. Many of the rank-and-file members of EPPF looked upon Shambel Zewdu as a father figure. More details about him later.
In a radio broadcast to Ethiopia yesterday, the Asmara-based EPPF radio that is under the control of the rogue Eritrean colonel has blasted Ethiopian Review editor and 4 others as destructive individuals who are trying to hijack the organization. This is the same corrupt colonel who made EPPF his personal piggy-bank.
Several Ethiopians from around the world held a meeting Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010, and discussed the disappearance of Col. Tadesse Muluneh and other Ethiopian patriots in Eritrea. The meeting also discussed other on going issues concerning the struggle to liberate Ethiopia from the Woyanne ethnic apartheid regime. Read details of the meeting here [Amharic].
The Chief Medical Examiner of Washington DC has ruled today that the death of Ethiopian immigrant Ali Mohammed on Oct. 15 was a homicide. Pending the Medical Examiner’s decision, a court in DC had released on bail the DC9 Club owner and employees who beat up Ali to death. The court also allowed DC9 to reopen. More from 103.5 FM Radio:
WASHINGTON (WTOP 103.5 FM) — The Washington DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has ruled the death of a man outside a city nightclub two months ago a homicide.
Ali Mohammed, 27, died Oct. 15 after he reportedly threw a brick through the window of DC9 in Northwest and was chased by the club’s owner and four employees.
The medical examiner’s office Tuesday said its forensics examination concluded Mohammed’s death was a homicide caused by “excited delirium associated with arrhythmogenic cardiac anomalies, alcohol intoxication and physical exertion with restraint.”
The five DC9 employees initially had been charged with second-degree murder, but those charges were reduced to aggravated assault after the medical examiner’s office said the cause of his death could not be established through a physical autopsy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office later dropped the assault charges after saying there was “an insufficient basis to sustain” them. It is not known whether prosecutors plan to revisit charges against the five club employees, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office says in a statement officials plan to review the findings of the forensics report.
“The Medical Examiner’s forensics examination has concluded that a variety of factors led to the death of Mr. Mohammed, and we intend to carefully study these conclusions as part of our legal analysis of this tragic incident,” the office’s statement says.
In a statement Tuesday, Mohammed’s family says they are confident the medical examiner’s findings are “a step toward justice for Ali.”
“The Medical Examiner¹s findings, however, also reminds us that Ali suffered a cruel and senseless death,” the family’s statement says. “Ali did not deserve to die for allegedly breaking a window. The family remains heartbroken and cannot have peace until those responsible for Ali¹s death are brought to justice.”
DC9 was allowed to reopen last week after a hearing before the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. The club currently is only open on Fridays and Saturdays.
ABRA spokeswoman Cynthia Simms tells WTOP Tuesday that DC9 will be allowed to remain open for the time being. A follow-up hearing had been scheduled for Jan. 19, at which the board will review the new information, Simms says.
She says the board also will consider whether DC9 has been following new security guidelines agreed to by the club following Mohammed’s death.
WTOP’s Mark Segraves contributed to this report.
As hard currency reserve dwindles in Ethiopia, experts predict that exchange rate could soon reach 20 birr per 1 U.S. dollar in the black market.
The current official exchange rate is 16.76 per $1, but in the black market the rate is 17.50 and in some places it goes as high as 18.50 birr per one dollar.
The primary cause of the hard currency supply shortage in Ethiopia is said to be capital flight, and the biggest culprits are the mega corporations that are owned by the ruling Woyanne junta who are depositing a significant portion of their profits in foreign banks.
Most private businessmen in Ethiopia have little trust in the stability of the financial system and that many of them also take their money out of the country as much as they can.
The finance committee chairman of Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA), Ato Abework Abay, has announced his resignation today citing financial irregularities, lack of transparency, and ineptness on the part of the chairman and many of the executive committee members.
Abework explained in a letter of resignation today that payments were made without proper approval and documents. In one instance, an individual was given a $2,000 tip in cash.
The vice-chairman, Ato Abiye Nurelign, has told his colleagues that he is also considering resignation.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian community in Atlanta is organizing a boycott campaign against the ESFNA annual event that is scheduled for July 2011.
ESFNA has been on a downward spiral ever since it was hijacked by the agents of the Woyanne junta who have made the organization a political tool for Ethiopia’s despot Meles Zenawi.
