Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (U.S. Embassy) – Minister of Trade and Industry Girma Birru and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto today joined the board of the newly established American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia for the organization’s official launch. The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Ethiopia aims to promote economic development by strengthening Ethiopian-American business partnerships and trade and investment between the two countries.
At the launch, AmCham President Getachew Ayele, said, “AmCham Ethiopia is committed to supporting Ethiopia’s development ambitions by promoting two-way trade and investment relations between Ethiopia and the United States.” He pledged that AmCham would foster a positive environment for the business communities in both countries, and work to bring commercial relations to their full potential.
U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto praised the newly formed organization, saying, “The establishment of an American Chamber will create a new paradigm for how we do business in Ethiopia. This is a milestone in our two countries’ partnership, and it shows our commitment to a more prosperous tomorrow for all Ethiopian citizens.”
American Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AmChams) are voluntary associations of American companies and individuals doing business in a particular country, as well as firms and individuals of that country who operate in the United States.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia is the fourth AmCham in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ambassador Yamamoto noted at the launch, “The fact that AmCham Ethiopia is only the fourth of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa shows the importance that the United States places on its relationship with Ethiopia.”
AmCham Ethiopia is a not-for-profit, non-political, independent and voluntary business membership organization registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and affiliated with the U.S Chamber of Commerce. It will focus on increasing bilateral trade and investment activity, providing support and services to members businesses, and fostering a favorable business environment. As AmCham President Getachew stated today, “We will work diligently to encourage American investment of all kinds in Ethiopia, while promoting a positive image of our country in the United States.”
Following its official launch, AmCham Ethiopia is actively recruiting new members. Interested parties should contact the AmCham headquarters at 011-553-1990 or [email protected].
By Peter Heinlein | VOA
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The leader of Ethiopia’s Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, Birtukan Mideksa, who was imprisoned for life last month after a dispute with the government, has ended a hunger strike and told relatives she wants to begin legal proceedings to win her freedom.
Birtukan has called off the fast she began December 29, when she was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in Addis Ababa’s Kaliti prison.
Birtukan’s mother Almaz Gebregziabher told VOA her daughter had eaten the soup and Ethiopian bread (injera) she had brought to the prison Saturday and Sunday.
In an interview at her home, Almaz said Birtukan told her she had decided to fight the court ‘s move to revoke the pardon she received in 2007 – nearly two years after she and dozens of other opposition politicians were arrested in the wake of Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 election, and convicted of treason. They had been given life terms, then pardoned after signing a document effectively admitting their guilt and apologizing.
But during a visit to Sweden late last year, Birtukan denied having asked for a pardon, then refused a demand by the government to retract her statement.
Speaking in Amharic, Almaz expressed tearful frustration at her daughter’s action, which leaves her to care for Birtukan’s three-year old daughter.
Almaz also had strong words for government officials, whom she said had violated her daughter’s constitutional rights.
She said the government promised freedom of speech, democracy – she talked and ended up in jail.
Birtukan, a lawyer and former judge, is the first woman to head a major Ethiopian political party.
Her imprisonment changes Ethiopia’s political landscape a year and a half before the next scheduled parliamentary elections. Her Unity for Democracy and Justice is an outgrowth of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, which was a major force in the disputed 2005 elections.
She was widely seen as the party’s most charismatic figure and a prime minister hopeful, with potential for wide support among members of Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups, Oromos and Amharas.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon earlier told VOA politics had nothing to do with the court order sending Birtukan back to prison. He said it was a simple matter of the judge in the case enforcing the law, and suggested the government has no interest in any further legal proceedings on the issue.
Washington, DC – Congressman Donald M. Payne, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, issued the following statement January 9, 2009:
“I am concerned over the continued targeting and imprisonment of innocent civilians by the Ethiopian government.
Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, one of the most prominent political leaders and a staunch human rights advocate, has been imprisoned for the second time by the Ethiopian government. Ms. Mideksa, a freedom fighter and a courageous leader, has faced untold suffering over the past several years.
I first met Ms. Mideksa in Kality prison in 2006. Ms. Birtukan Mideksa is on a hunger strike and unfortunately has been separated from her young child. “
In October 2007, shortly after her release from prison, Ms. “Mideksa stated in a testimony before my subcommittee that, ‘The period immediately preceding the May 2005 elections was an extraordinary time in Ethiopia’s history. For the first time in Ethiopia’s history, the seeds of democracy were planted throughout the land, and on May 15th, Ethiopians came out by the millions to harvest a bounty of democracy.
‘Unfortunately, instead of democracy, 193 Ethiopian civilians were killed and many more injured by Ethiopian security forces in demonstrations following the May 2005 elections. Additionally, more than 10,000 people were detained in the aftermath of the elections. According to the Independent Commission of Inquiry, the government used excessive force against civilians.
Ms. Birtukan also said in her testimony that, ‘…the most basic agreement we reached with the Elders to secure our release was nullified and used by the government for mind–numbing propaganda to isolate the CUDP [the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party] from the public and to instill fear in the public so that it will refrain from supporting the party.’ In her concluding remarks, Ms. Birtukan powerfully stated,’It will not be easy for all of us to confront the past. We must try embracing the rule of law and respect for human rights and democracy. The time is ripe for democratization in Ethiopia.’
I strongly urge the Government of Ethiopia to immediately release Ms. Birtukan Mideksa and other political prisoners, open the political space, and respect the rule of law. I will work closely with the incoming Obama Administration to ensure respect for human rights, regional stability, and the promotion of democracy in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government must realize that brutality and repression will never succeed in crushing the aspiration for democracy and freedom. Either one must embrace democracy and rule of law or face the same fate of the Mengistu’s of this world.”
By Jack Broom | The Seattle Times
A lot of people would have given up by now. Many would have surrendered to the hassles of coordinating a project 11 time zones from home, or been choked by the red tape of dealing with a foreign government.
Still others would have succumbed to the difficulty of raising money for something most donors will never see.
But Selamawit Kifle, a South Seattle woman who grew up in Ethiopia, does not give up.
And because she does not, a clinic is rising from the red clay soil of her native land. Later this year, some of the poorest residents in one of the world’s poorest countries may be receiving treatment for malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, complications of HIV/AIDS and other ailments.
“When I started, I had no idea what it would take,” said Kifle. “I just knew I had to help.”
Already, 63 Ethiopian orphans are receiving the basic necessities of life, along with school supplies and a chance at a better future, thanks to donors — nearly all in the Seattle area — who give $30 a month to sponsor a child through the Blue Nile Children’s Organization, which Kifle created in 2001.
“She is a very quiet, unassuming woman, but she is just a lion in terms of what she can accomplish. It’s amazing,” said Deacon Mary Shehane of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, which made Blue Nile one of its “Church in the World Ministries.” Next month, St. Mark’s will host a dinner and auction for the group; a similar event last year raised $20,000 toward the clinic construction.
The desperately poor Ethiopia which Kifle, 48, sees on her twice-yearly trips these days is not the country she remembers from childhood, when her upper-middle-class family had homes and property under Emperor Haile Selassie.
But a Marxist military regime that toppled Selassie in 1974 confiscated privately held property, including her family’s. In subsequent years, thousands of people were killed or simply disappeared, including a teenage brother and sister of Kifle’s. “The government took them away and we never saw them again.”
Kifle left Ethiopia in 1982 at age 22, following an older sister first to Germany and then to the United States.
Thirteen years later, Kifle, who then operated an import-export company, made her first trip back to Ethiopia, and was heartbroken by the plight of the country’s children.
“When you walk down the street, they follow you, begging for bread. If you go out early in the morning to church, you see them sleeping outside, piling up with each other to be warm,” she said. “I know I can’t help all of them, but if I can help even 100 kids, I’ll know I’ve done something.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than 1 million children in Ethiopia alone have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic sweeping through sub-Saharan Africa, and that total is expected to rise.
Setback alters goal
Kifle, with a growing core of supporters, proposed to create an orphan village in Bahir Dar in northwest Ethiopia. The local government granted the group five acres of land in 2001, and assigned it responsibility for 28 orphans.
Wherever they could find an audience, Kifle and her backers spoke of their dream to house up to 150 children in family-style cottages, with a school, a clinic and a farm that eventually could earn most its revenue through selling crops and goods produced there.
The entire project would cost about $1 million, but a first phase, they figured, could be done for about $250,000.
And that’s where reality stepped in. Although Blue Nile gradually increased its number of sponsors, allowing it to assist more orphans, it was unable to raise the additional funds needed to keep the village project alive.
“We tried so hard and so long, but we just couldn’t get the money,” said Kifle. In 2004, with Blue Nile unable to make sufficient progress, the government took the land back, though Blue Nile continues to sponsor the children.
Despite the setback, Kifle persisted, trusting that God has a reason for everything, and buoyed by the words of a friend who reminded her, “You only fail if you stop trying.”
She draws encouragement from the fact that eight of the group’s sponsored children have made it into college or technical school, and one has graduated from nursing school. Ultimately, Kifle said, Ethiopia’s best hope for the future lies in its next generation, not in dependence on outsiders.
In 2005, a Blue Nile board member and one of its first proponents, Richard Oslund of Seattle, died, leaving the organization $47,000 in his will.
With the orphan village still out of reach, Blue Nile backers chose a more realistic project, construction of a clinic in Ethiopia’s capitol, Addis Ababa, which will be named in Oslund’s honor.
Plans call for the 3,550-square-foot clinic, which will cost about $75,000 to build, to be staffed by an Ethiopian physician and two assistants, whose work would be supplemented by doctors and other health-care workers visiting from the U.S.
Maegan Ashworth, a Blue Nile project coordinator, is currently recruiting up to 15 medical professionals and trainees for a 10-day mission in November.
Kifle, who now operates a service in Seattle sending health-care and chore-service workers to people’s homes, anticipates that about a third of the Ethiopia clinic’s patients will be able to pay for medical services, helping subsidize the care of the less fortunate.
Admittedly, the clinic, which will serve patients of all ages, is a smaller project than Kifle originally conceived, but it’s desperately needed, she said, in a country with one physician for 100,000 residents.
A captivating smile
Most important, it is actually happening. “It’s coming out of the ground like a mushroom. It’s wonderful to see,” said David Hornett, the Blue Nile board member directing the project.
Hornett, a contractor from the Vancouver, B.C. area, was in Ethiopia last month as trenches for the clinic’s foundation were filled with rocks and mortar. He keeps in touch via e-mail with an African foreman on the job.
It was a chance encounter outside an African airport in 2004 led to Hornett’s volunteer work with Blue Nile. At the time, he was backpacking through Africa on his own, making his first visit to Ethiopia.
At the Bahir Dar airport, Hornett was boarding a hotel van when he noticed a woman who was catching the same van loading package after package into the vehicle.
“I had never seen anyone with so much stuff in my life,” said Hornett. The woman was Kifle, taking school supplies and gifts to Blue Nile’s sponsored children. On the ride to town, she told him about Blue Nile and invited him to stop by its office the following day and help hand out the gifts.
He went, largely out of curiosity. But as the session broke up, a young girl with polio, who needed the help of two friends just to walk, flashed him a smile he’ll never forget.
“To see that she could smile, while so many of us in the Western world find more things to grimace about every day, that did it for me,” said Hornett. “I knew I had to get involved.”
(Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or [email protected])
(AFP) – Sweden’s government on Friday expressed deep concern over the arrest of an Ethiopian opposition leader last week after her pardon from a life sentence was revoked.
Authorities arrested and sentenced Birtukan Midekssa, the head of the Unity for Democracy Justice party, to life in prison last week after she reportedly said she had not expressed remorse to obtain a pardon in 2007.
The 35-year-old woman, who was detained with dozens of opposition figures and supporters in the aftermath of disputed 2005 elections, was at the end of December given a three-day ultimatum by the authorities to confirm or deny the reports.
The justice ministry announced on December 30 that she had resumed serving her life term.
“The Scope for democracy and pluralism is shrinking in {www:Ethiopia},” Carlsson said.
“The imprisonment of Mrs Midekssa and the recently adopted law regulating the activities and funding of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are examples of this negative development,” she said.
She was referring to a law adopted by the Ethiopian parliament on Tuesday barring organisations that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad from working in such fields as human rights.
Birtukan’s party made its most spectacular electoral gains ever in the 2005 polls and cried foul over reported fraud, claiming it was robbed of victory by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party.
The ensuing unrest left close to 200 people dead and drew international condemnation.
Ethiopia’s next general elections are expected to be held in 2010.
