Chairman of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Ato Abebe Workie, has been arrested, according to Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa.
Ato Abebe is a renowned Ethiopian attorney and one of the founding members of EHRCO, along with Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam.
The reason for Ato Abebe’s arrest has not been made public yet.
Meanwhile, the Woyanne regime propaganda chief Bereket Simon and his assistant, Ermias Legesse, are on their way to Washington DC to meet with the Voice of America officials and lodge a complaint about VOA’s Amharic program, which they deem is too critical of the tribal junta in Ethiopia.
It’s estimated that China will send 1 million farm workers to Ethiopia and other countries in Africa this year. It’s part of a growing trend of countries outsourcing their food production. On this week’s Underreported, John Parker, Globalization Correspondent for the Economist and Dr. Joachim von Braun, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, look at the impact on the countries where the food is grown, and on the countries where that food is eaten. John Parker’s article Outsourcing’s Third Wave appeared in the May 21 issue of the Economist. Click here to listen.
The following is a set of photos showing the life style of Woyanne kids in Ethiopia. It includes Meles Zenawi’s 23-year-old daughter Semehal getting wild, biting some one’s tongue, and shooting a machine gun, among other things. Photo is compiled by Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unit. Click here for more photos.
Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi’s daughter Semehal Meles shooting automatic rifle in Debre Zeit
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The organizational affairs head of EPPF’s International Committee, Ato Sileshi Tilahun, was a guest at the Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum’s paltalk room this afternoon.
Ato Sileshi answered several questions that were posed to him from the host and the audience.
The interview had focused on Ato Sileshi’s recent trip to Eritrea, interview with President Isaias Afwerki, and meetings with EPPF leaders.
Ato Sileshi said the interview with President Isaias has helped change the attitude of many Ethiopians toward the Government of Eritrea, and expressed his hope that other Ethiopians will travel to Eritrea and see things for themselves.
Regarding EPPF, Ato Sileshi said that it was his 5th trip to Eritrea in the past 4 years and at this particular trip he has observed significant improvements, including the opening of the organization’s headquarters in Asmara, the opening of a press office, and the launching of a radio program that is heard through out Ethiopia and eastern Africa.
In the military sphere, several hundred new recruits are currently completing their training, and the EPPF continues to engage Woyanne in the battlefield, Ato Sileshi said.
EPPF representatives arrive in Asmara for consultation
Representatives of the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF), Ato Leul Keskis and Ato Assefa Hailu, have arrived in Asmara yesterday from Europe.
The representatives traveled to Asmara for consultation with the EPPF top leadership and to present report about their mission abroad.
By Desalegn Sisay | Afrik.com
Foreign buyers of Ethiopian special coffee beans have expressed their concern over the introduction of a new auctioning system related to the trading of coffee beans at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). The system was introduced in December 2008.
Prior to the introduction of the new trading system by the Ethiopian regime, exporters had the right to buy their preferred beans from any supplier of their choice. However, they now have to compete with other exporters to get their beans. A recent delinkage of exporters with their buyers in Europe and United States has been blamed on this factor.
Exporters are now expressing their discontentment over the new trading system.
In the month of may this year the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) in a letter to Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi, expressed the difficulty in obtaining its usual special brands of coffee due to the new trading system. It stated that it had a strong interest in preserving the value and brand equity already established for Ethiopian coffees in the higher value specialty sector.
SCAA believes that there is market demand for some 7,200tn with a total value in excess of 30 million dollars for specialty coffee qualities.
To keep the mutual interests of both the Ethiopian coffee sector and specialty coffee buyers, SCAA has proposed a working group that will strive towards developing a specialty coffee trading strategy, sources at ECX have revealed.
Reacting to the buyers’ concern, which is communicated through the Prime Minster’s Office, ECX has scheduled a discussion with SCAA and other Specialty Coffee Associations including local exporters. The discussion, they claim, will focus on how specialty coffee needs to be traded in the ECX and other related issues.
Official figures estimate that specialty coffee, which is high-end coffee and sells at a premium, represents about 3.7 per cent of the country’s coffee exports.
The potential of coffee production in Ethiopia is very high as a result of suitable altitude, ample rainfall, favourable temperature, suitable planting materials and a fertile soil. A genetic pool of the country’s coffee contains more than 6000 varieties, giving Ethiopia a huge specialty coffee capacity.
In Ethiopia, the total area covered by coffee is 700,000 hectares, with a total production of roughly 250,000 tons per annum. Around 20 million people make a living out of the commodity. Forest coffee accounts for about 10 per cent of the total.
Gen. Asaminew Tsige is one of the 46 suspects charged by Ethiopia’s tribal junta
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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopia’s tribal junta on Thursday charged 46 people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate government officials, a government spokesman said.
“The charges can be summed up as conspiring to kill different government officials and conspiring to demolish public utilities,” Communications Minister Bereket Simon told reporters.
“The prosecution presented the charges to the court today,” he said, more than a month after their arrest.
Authorities are holding 32 out of the 46 suspects with the rest believed to have fled to the United States, Europe, Eritrea and Sudan.
Ethiopian authorities in April said they had unearthed a plot by senior serving and former military officers aligned with the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) to kill top government officials and attack key infrastructure.
The group has been detained and held in communicado for more than a month.
Bereket denied accusations that detaining the men for over a month without charge violated regulations, saying national anti-terrorism laws allowed police to hold suspects without charge for as long as in necessary.
“No constitutional right was abrogated,” he said.
