KHARTOUM, Sudan: The secretary general of a Sudanese opposition party was killed in a car crash Saturday on a highway outside the capital, dealing a blow to the party as it prepares for elections expected next year.
Abdel Nabi Ahmed, of the Umma party, was driving with his two sons south of Khartoum when the accident occurred. His sons survived.
Party officials said his death comes at a critical time for the party, with national and presidential elections expected in 2009.
Originally from Darfur, Ahmed, 58, was seen as a figure capable of rallying the people of the vast western region of Sudan, where rebels have been at war with government forces and allied militiamen since 2003.
The party has captured Darfur votes in past national elections. The party’s leader, al-Sadek al-Mahdi, was the last democratically elected prime minister. He was unseated in 1989 by current President Omar al-Bashir in a military coup.
The Umma party has since splintered into a number of factions.
Party leader al-Mahdi was not in Sudan Saturday, but was expected to return for Ahmed’s funeral Sunday, said Sara Nugdallah, a senior party member.
Mourners began to gather Saturday outside the party’s headquarters in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital.
By Gurraacho Silgaa
Ali Bira and Kemer Yousuf need no introduction to Oromo communities around the world. Living in exile for over two decades, they have both been compared to Maria Makeba of South Africa for stirring hopes of freedom with their music among millions in Oromia and beyond. Music being a central part of the Oromo struggle against past and current oppressive Ethiopian regimes, Ali and Kemer acted as constant reminders of the events in their homeland.
But unlike Maria Makeba, these icons of the Oromo nation have decided to reconcile with their people’s enemy – the Ethiopian regime – before the freedom they once sung for and raised hope about among the Oromo arrived.
Ali decided to reconcile with the TPLF government in September 2005 following Ethiopian elections in the same year and while the world was in the middle of condemning the TPLF government for stealing elections by intimidating, detaining and murdering hundreds Oromos and others.
Kemer followed suite three years later and flew back to perform in Addis Abeba a couple of days ago (November 2008) hot on the heels of mass arrests, “disappearances” and mistreatment of Oromo nationals (Read Amnesty Intenational Urgent Action Request Here) including his popular fellow singer Zerhun Wedajo whose where about is unknown.
Much has been said on and off the Internet about Ali Bira’s and Kemer Yousuf’s visits to Ethiopia to perform there. To my knowledge, not since Leencoo Lataa’s visit to Ethiopia (purportedly to have Ibsa Gutema released from TPLF dungeon) has any Oromo’s visit there generated such a heated debate among our people. Opponents have painted them as traitors and sell-outs. The old adage “everyone can be bought” is heard a lot in reference to the two singers. Supporters, on the other hand, see no issues or concerns with what they have done and argue that their critics’ concerns are misplaced.
Why such a controversy over two singers’ visits to, and performance in, their home land?
No serious person can dispute Ali’s quasi-legendary status when it comes to Oromo music. That he got Oromo music going when the going was tough needs no reminding for any serious observer of Oromo cultural renaissance. Neither is Kemer’s stature as a popular and very much loved Oromo singer is contested by anyone I know. Ali’s and Kemer’s love for the Oromo language and music is beyond dispute. That much is known and beyond debate as far as I am concerned.
Ali Bira had won some ethnic music award, along with other African singers in Canada, in or around 1996. The awards were given out to the winners by ambassadors (to Canada) of their respective native countries. Ali is said to have refused to receive it from the then Ethiopian ambassador, and was given the award by the then mayor of Toronto. I have checked out this story with brothers living in Toronto who confirmed it as accurate.
Rumor has it that Kemer Yousuf was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars by the TPLF government on various occasions to return to, and perform in, Ethiopia which he rebuffed bluntly, often disdainfully. It is said that he refused to succumb to financial enticements by the powers that be in Ethiopia mindful of the political benefit the current rulers of the country would rip from his appearance there.
That was then and this is now.
Inconsistent with their prior abhorrence for the current rulers of the country (and their cronies – the OPDO), Ali and Kemer decided to return to Ethiopia and perform for their former enemies. After having successfully resisted TPLF advances for many years, Ali succumbed in 2005 and Kemer in November 2008.
The official reason for Ali’s performance there was for inauguration of “Gada Convention Center” in Adaamaa, Oromia. Kemer’s official reason for doing so, according to the Toronto Star, is “The system changed, the people changed, I changed,” However, no mention of whether the system he condemned for the last seventeen years changed for better or for worse. As Oromo politicians in the country, the likes of Bulcha Damaksa and Marara Gudina attest, the Oromo situation has worsened even further over the last decade under the current Ethiopian regime. Regardless, “the central government [of Ethiopia] is helping to arrange a six-concert homecoming tour [for Kemer] that opens Dec. 7 at the East African country’s largest indoor venue – Addis Ababa’s 20,000-seat Millennium Hall.” And Kemer is taking advantage of it to make some bucks. Read Here.
The central issue, however, is whether Ali’s and Kemer’s performances there, particularly at these critical times for the rulers of that country, impacts (positively or negatively) on the Oromo struggle for liberation and/or life expectance of the regime. It is this issue that needs to be addressed. This is not without reason. It is because of Ali’s prominence, reputation and the legendary status conferred on him by many. Although he is not considered a legend, the same goes for Kemer Yousuf. As a consequence, their fans hold them to a higher standard. Needless to say, it is fair to scrutinize public figures more closely than the average person.
This is not about Ali or Kemer the person per se. It is about Ali Bira or Kemer Yousuf the public figures and the role models for many. It is about all Oromo public figures – politicians and non-politicians alike – and how their association with enemies of the Oromo people impacts on the Oromo struggle for liberation.
After having rebuffed Wayyannee’s approach for many years, why have Ali and Kemer changed their minds at these particular times – in 2005 when TPLF and OPDO were fighting for their very lives and today when mass arrests of Oromo nationals is a daily occurrences? Why have they stopped feeling their people’s pain and suffering? In the case of Kemer, where is the solidarity with his “disappeared” fellow Oromo singer Zerhun Wedajo and the many Oromo nationals suffering in TPLF prisons at the present time? If they were so desperate to see their aging parents, as they both claim, why did they not slip in and out of the country quietly? In fact, Kemer was offered an all expenses paid rendezvous with his parents in the Middle East by Oromo nationalists which he refused to accept. Were they so desperate for money that they decided to perform for enemies of their people, or do they not consider OPDO and TPLF enemies of their people anymore? If the later, what has changed? Why would OPDO (TPLF) pay so much to have Ali and Kemer perform for them? Will their performance there contribute to prolonging or shortening the life of this regime which has wrecked havoc on the Oromo people for the last seventeen years? How much Oromo support will their popularity gain (lose) the TPLF government? What message does their performing for OPDO/TPLF send to our people back home and in the Diaspora – particularly to those who view them as role models? Will it encourage them to carry on the fight, or it will give them that “things are changing for the better” feeling and fool them in to relaxing their guards? It is these and other similar legitimate questions that propelled many compatriots in to this debate. I don’t believe any of their critics hate them but would like to know whether these larger than life personalities in Oromo music have sold their people’s struggle for liberation for a few bucks.
Their critics are concerned that (1) Their onetime heroes appear to have sold their souls to enemies of their people for the opportunity to earn some bucks (2) Their performing for OPDO/Wayyaanee will contribute to prolonging the life of the regime (3) Their association with OPDO/Wayyaanee will send the wrong message to those who look up to them as their role model – if it is ok for Ali and Kemer to perform for the enemy of our people then why is it wrong to support OPDO/TPLF? (4) Their performing for OPDO/Wayyanee has the potential of demoralizing, or setting a bad example for, other Oromo artists – inside and outside the country – engaged in agitating our people to fight to the end through their music.
I share these concerns with their critics. (Oromo Affairs)
By RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC | Irish Times
A TRADE mission of 40 Irish lawyers and business people left for Ethiopia yesterday to develop links between the two countries and encourage investment in the African state.
The delegation is travelling as part of an initiative led by lawyer Philip Lee and businessman Brody Sweeney. It includes Minister for Food Trevor Sargent and former attorney general Harry Whelehan.
Connect Ethiopia, the group founded by Mr Lee and Mr Sweeney in 2005, sends biannual missions from Ireland to exchange expertise and harness the knowledge of Irish professionals.
This week, a group of 10 lawyers will hold training workshops for judges and anti-corruption officials, while business representatives will host an insurance seminar and attend a joint taskforce to develop tourism in Ethiopia.
Mr Sweeney, founder of O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bars, said Connect Ethiopia was attempting to help remedy one of the main causes of poverty – a lack of business activity. “There’s very little business being done and, because of that, there’s very little wealth being created, very few jobs being created and very little taxes being paid to the government,” he said before departing.
“We’re trying to help the business community there to upskill. We’re trying to introduce them to western ways of doing business, we’re trying to give them contacts in Ireland or Europe that they can use to help sell their products. We’re trying to encourage Irish investment there.”
Mr Sargent and Philip Lynch of One51 Charitable Foundation, an offshoot of the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society Co-op, will tomorrow launch the Hamara Digital Hub near capital Addis Ababa.
The hub is a partnership between Camara, an Irish charity that sends second-hand computers to schools and colleges in Africa, and Harambee College, an Ethiopian private third-level college. It will provide teacher-training courses and support for the schools receiving the computers.
More than 100 Irish and Ethiopians will have travelled between the two countries under the initiative by the end of the year. Last week, a group of senior Ethiopian bankers visited Dublin as guests of the Irish Bankers Federation and the Institute of Bankers.
Mr Sweeney said Connect Ethiopia would be relatively insulated from the recession because it asked donors for time rather than money.
MALTA- Ismael Obassa Husseina, a 26-year-old Ethiopian resident at Marsa open centre, was arraigned before Magistrate Myriam Hayman this evening and accused of resisting the police, slightly injuring a police constable, damaging a car belonging to a resident of Marsa and on two occasions threatening the same police constable, telling him that he knew where he lived and who his family was.
The police said he was also accused of disturbing the public peace at the hospital emergency department, Hamrun police station and a number of shops in Marsa, attacking a police constable while he was driving a police vehicle and damaging the vehicle.
The accused pleaded not guilty but was refused bail.
– Times of Malta
By Marjorie Kehe | CS Monitor
CNN has chosen Gebregeorgis Yohannes as one of its heroes (picked as one of 10 out of 10,000 nominations) and it was an excellent choice. Yohannes has devoted himself for much of the past decade to getting books into the hands of Ethiopian children.
His goals are ambitious. Not only does he want to bring books to a country where they are are scarce (in Ethiopia 99 percent of schools have no library and more than 57 percent of people over 15 years old are illiterate) but he wants to change the world.
“This is really my way of changing society, starting with children, who connect to other cultures, to other ways of thinking,” Yohannes said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “Books have changed me, have changed my world view.”
Yohannes knows first-hand what books can mean to Ethiopian children. He grew up in Ethiopia and before the age of 19 he’d read so few books that he remembered each one he’d ever seen with great clarity. Finally, at the age of 19, he read his first book for pleasure outside of school.
It was a love story. It made an enormous impression.
Yohannes eventually sought political refuge in the United States and there became a school librarian in San Francisco. But he never forgot his home country or its children.
Eventually he founded the non-profit Ethiopia Reads and now he dedicates himself to bringing books to young Ethiopians.
He is currently touring the US to personally thanks groups and individuals who have donated to his cause.
SOUTH AFRICA: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he and others have been refused entry to Zimbabwe for a humanitarian mission.
Carter says he and other members of The Elders group were informed Friday night by former South African President Thabo Mbeki that efforts to secure travel visas had failed.
The Elders group was formed by Nelson Mandela and includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mandela’s wife Graca Machel, an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights.
The group said last week it planned to visit Zimbabwe. Mbeki is mediating the country’s political crisis.
Zimbabwe’s government had no immediate comment Saturday.
– AFP
