ADDIS ABABA — The wife of a cabinet minister in the Ethiopian regime, Ato Tefera Walwa, was arrested and later released.
Wzr. Ayne Tsige was taken to jail when she tried to stop the police from taking away her 80-year-old father, Ato Tsige HabteMariam, who went through a heart bypass surgery recently.
Ato Tsige was arrested, along with 40 other individuals, after being suspected of plotting to assassinate Meles Zenawi.
Ato Tsige HabteMariam is the father of {www:Ginbot 7} secretary general Ato Andargachew Tsige.
Ato Tefera Walwa, Minister of Capacity Building, was in a meeting when his wife was taken to jail. When he heard about his wife’s arrest, he interrupted the meeting and walked out, according to The Reporter… [MORE]
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office is identifying the woman found stabbed to death in a Richfield parking lot. She’s 22-year-old Tobista Beyena Mokonnen of Richfield.
Hennepin County prosecutors charged her 24-year-old brother, Guuci Beyena Mokonnen, with first-degree murder in her death on Tuesday. He remained in the county jail Wednesday, with bail set at $2 million.
Both the victim and the killer are natives of Ethiopia.
The medical examiner says Tobista was found about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Buena Vista apartments.
The criminal complaint filed in the case says she was holding an eight-month-old child, who wasn’t harmed in the attack.
Her brother allegedly confessed, telling investigators that he was angry his sister wouldn’t allow him to live with her, which led him to become homeless.
If convicted, Mokonnen faces life in prison.
Wanted to kill sister for 3 Years
A man who said he has been thinking about killing his sister for three years was charged with first-degree murder for her death.
Prosecutors charged Guuci Beyena Mokonnen, 24, with the stabbing death of his sister in a parking lot of the Buena Vista Apartments on East 78th Street in Richfield on May 2.
According to the criminal complaint, two people found the victim, lying in a parking lot, holding an 8-month-old child. The witnesses said they called police after they saw the woman’s eyes moving back and forth and heard her make gurgling noises. The child was crying.
When police arrived, the woman was surrounded by a pool of blood and was bleeding from the head and neck. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.
Officers took the child, who was not injured, to Hennepin County Medical Center. The child has since been released to family members.
A short time after the victim was found, police said Mokonnen phoned them from the Mall of America in Bloomington, saying he had killed his sister. When officers picked him up, they noticed what appeared to be dried blood on his hands, coat and pants.
Mokonnen told police he was angry with his sister because she wouldn’t let him live with her. He said that because of that, he became homeless and unemployed. He had been staying with his brother, and he took a knife from his brother’s apartment, the criminal complaint said.
Police found a knife that appeared to have blood on it in a storm sewer on East 77th Street. Mokonnen told police he walked to 77th Street and then to Portland and threw the knife down a storm drain.
A plot is defined as “a plan made in secret”, but even by the usual shadowy nature of such matters around Africa, the recent conspiracy to overthrow the Ethiopian government has been hard to see clearly.
The story broke two weeks ago when the government of Prime Minister Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi said 40 men had been arrested for planning a coup after police found guns, bombs and “written strategies” at their homes. But a few days later the government communication office was asking journalists not to use the word coup anymore. The “desperados”, they said, had planned to “overthrow” the government by using assassinations and bombings to create enough chaos to get supporters on the streets to topple the government.
The sensitivity surrounding the language and the details of what was actually going on highlight the caution that still exists in sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous country after a disputed 2005 election ended with police and soldiers killing about 200 opposition street protesters who were marching on government buildings.
Understandably, many Ethiopians are sceptical that people would take to the streets again. And others question whether the will is still there to march against a government that most analysts consider the most effective the desperately poor nation Horn of Africa has ever had.
The suspected involvement of an Ethiopian economic professor who teaches at an American university was a detail that caught the interest of the international media. {www:Berhanu Nega}, who called the accusation “baseless”, was elected mayor of Addis Ababa after the 2005 poll but was imprisoned along with about 100 other opposition members when the government accused them of orchestrating the street protests.
He was released in 2007 after a pardon deal and soon fled to America, where he teaches economics at Bucknell University in Philadelphia. Another leader released as part of that pardon, 36-year-old former judge {www:Birtukan Mideksa}, was rearrested last year after the government said she violated the terms of the pardon. She remains in prison.
Ethiopians love to talk politics in the bars and cafes of capital Addis Ababa — often in very hushed tones, which is perhaps a hangover from 17 years of brutally repressive communist rule that ended when the rebel group led by Meles Zenawi came to power in 1991.
And the “coup” is now the subject of those whispered chats. Some say there was a real threat to the government that came from Berhanu and his allies in the sizeable and vocal diaspora. Some say there was dissent in the military and Berhanu simply provided a convenient excuse for the government to move against that in its early stages.
And one opposition leader even told me that the government may have invented the coup plot so it could arrest potential politicians ahead of national elections due in 2010.
“Without third party verification I can’t believe there was a plot,” said Bulcha Demeksa, leader of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement.
Amnesty International now says the government is arresting more people in secret.
This intriguing story will surely develop over the weeks to come as the Ethiopian government has said it is preparing evidence that will be presented before “an independent judiciary” and has promised the 40 accused will appear in an Addis Ababa court next week.
Each month, we highlight a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This month we speak with supermodel, actress, WHO ambassador and mother, {www:Liya Kebede}, about her work on health issues related to childbirth. You may recognize Kebede as the former face of Estee Lauder or from the cover of magazines including Vogue’s May 2009 issue. Kebede, who is Ethiopian, founded her own organization to reduce mortality among mothers, newborns and young children and well as to help mothers and children stay healthy. The Liya Kebede Foundation promotes the use of low-cost technology and accessible medical care to help save lives during and after childbearing. The foundation also educates health-care workers and community members on children’s health. Kebede also is a World Heath Organization ambassador, a position given to celebrities who advocate for health causes. In 2005, Kebede was named “Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.” Kebede also has a clothing line for children and women called “Lemlem,” which means to bloom or flourish in Amharic, the language of the Amhara people of Ethiopia. She hopes that the handwoven clothing from Ethiopia will continue native traditions as well as support local businesses and economies.
Kebede: Right now, we have about one woman every minute of the day dying from childbirth and pregnancy complications in the world, and this is sort of very unheard of in the West. This happens a lot in the developing world. The reason is because women don’t really have access to very basic medical care, so most of these women are dying from very preventable or treatable conditions — simple things like an infection during childbirth will just kill the mother.
What we do in the foundation is we try to raise awareness of this issue because a lot of people don’t really realize that the number one killer of women in the world, in the developing world, is childbirth. You know, childbirth is something that is supposed to be this really beautiful and joyous moment in your life. For a lot women in the developing world, instead being this joyous moment that we experience here, it’s filled with pain and it’s filled with fear that they might actually lose their lives giving birth. So, that is why we created this foundation. We really want to raise awareness and help programs that support these causes.
Q: What made you become interested in the topic of children’s health and mortality rates among mothers and children?
Kebede: I am a mom I have two wonderful children and I am also from Ethiopia. Growing up there, it was really very normal to see and to hear about women dying in childbirth. It was very, very common. At the time, I actually thought it was a normal thing. Later, I came here and I was lucky enough to have my children in New York and I had the best medical care. The gap is ridiculous. Here, you’re not only in the best care, you get to have sonograms and you get to see if the baby is a boy or a girl. In a developing country, women deliver in a hut by themselves, a lot of times with nobody around. They might not even have clean water by them so any little thing might jeopardize their life or the baby’s life. This is something that I thought any mom, any woman who would hear this story, would feel the importance of it. So, that’s kind of how I got involved.
Q: Please describe your role as the Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Heath.
Kebede: I’ve been with the WHO since 2005. I’ve been their Goodwill Ambassador and we’ve been working a lot on raising awareness of this issue so that more and more people can actually hear about it and put pressure on governments to put a lot of budget earmarks on maternal health, because one of the other problems that we have is this one area is completely underfunded. One of the other problems that we have is this one area is completely underfunded and mothers dying is not something that can be put on the backburner. It’s something that’s completely important not just for her life but her children’s life, for her family’s life, for the community, for the whole country.
With the WHO we try to get international communities — the West, for instance — to really allocate more funding specifically for maternal health and also the local governments to allocate more funding for maternal health. That’s the kind of work that we want to do and help promote programs that are already existing that help women and children around the world.
Q: How does your clothing line, “Lemlem,” relate to your work with health and mortality?
Kebede:Lemlem is a different kind of aid. It’s kind of a social entrepreneurship. The reason why Lemlem was created is I really wanted to help our local artisans, give them economic empowerment, give them jobs, give them money they can earn for themselves so they take care of themselves, instead of just handing out money. This is something that they’re actually earning so its makes it more sustainable. The Lemlem is made from handwoven materials. It’s kind of an incredible art. I saw that that art was dying and all these artisans were sitting around not having a market for their beautiful work.
At the same time I think it’s kind of beautiful to infuse the West with these beautiful hand-crafted garments. It’s kind of a new thing for the West to get used to and also to give trust to the West as well that they can eventually go to places like Ethiopia and all these other different African countries and start manufacturing there so that we can really then boost the economy of the country. I’ve been lucky enough because in a way Lemlem becomes this perfect balance that brings the level of fashion that I have as a model [and] at the same time this possibility to improve the lives of other people. It’s kind of a great bridge for me.
Q: What was your most memorable experience working with either your foundation, as an ambassador, or with your clothing line?
Kebede: There is this one story that I think says it all in a way. I was in Ethiopia visiting this town in Bahir Dar. We went to visit this woman who lives in her little hut with her five kids. She also had a granddaughter. She was about 30 years old but she looked like she was about 50. She was carrying her granddaughter with her and her daughter was away working. She had all these little kids at home who were hers. Her village was under a program that the Ministry of Health had started [where] they have two young girls who have graduated from high school and who had two years of intensive study and basic medical care take care of the village.
They come to the houses and talk to the women. They help them with prenatal and postnatal care. They make sure that if there’s a pregnancy at risk, they refer them to a hospital. So they’ve been doing this program with this woman and she’s not literate. She’s never gone to school. I was sitting and talking to her and I asked her what was happening with her daughters and if they were attending school. She said yes, absolutely, they’re going to school.
The daughters were about 11 or 12 years old. There’s a lot of early marriage issues in some of those areas. She said to me, “Absolutely not. I’m not going to have my daughter marry anybody. I want her to finish school and if she wants to marry then it’s her choice to marry.” I was stunned to hear this coming from her, this woman who in her life was married early and had her children young. She really had no choice. It was the most unbelievable moment.
Then I asked her, “Are you going to have any more children?” She said, “Absolutely not.” So I said, “Well, how are you going about not having children anymore?” She said, “I’m going to take my pill.” She said to me, “All my life, you know, I thought I was there to give birth and now all of the sudden I have this choice and this power to not have a child if I don’t want to because I can’t afford to.” For her it was an incredible thing. I was just sitting there and thinking, “Oh my God, this is amazing.” I always think about that story.
Q: How can people become involved?
Kebede: The biggest thing that people can do is let their governments know that saving mothers’ lives should be a priority. Governments aren’t going to invest unless we let them know that we care about this issue. There is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives right now, H.R. 1410, that would make saving mothers’ and children’s lives a priority for U.S. foreign aid. Call or write your representative and tell them that you expect them to support this bill. If politicians know their constituents care about this issue, they will care too. Or people can visit the Web site of the Mothers Day Every Day campaign and see how they can take action in their communities.
So it turns out that the popular Flip video camera is good for more than just capturing YouTube stunts or your son’s soccer game. And the virtual world of Second Life is more than a place to hook up. Try using those technologies to advance human rights.
These were just a couple of examples mentioned at The Soul of the New Machine, a conference hosted by UC Berkeley to showcase how technology and new media are being used to promote justice and human rights around the world.
Of course, exposure of abuses — be it in the form of video, photos, virtual reality, etc. — is just the first step.
“Often, people think that just showing the video is enough, but what is important … is that actions can be taken toward an objective,” said panelist Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive director of Witness, an international human rights organization. Those actions could include providing an online petition for viewers to sign or ways for people to organize.
Witness’ strategy is to use video and online technologies to turn personal stories of abuse into tools for pushing policy change. The group trains activists in countries such as Ethiopia to use the Flip camcorder and other devices (but Flip provides both the portability and immediacy of distribution necessary in dangerous situations). The organization has 3,000 hours of archived human rights footage.
The conference, hosted by UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, brought together more than 250 thinkers and practitioners to explore the most effective ways to use tech to address human rights abuses. The sessions covered everything from data sharing to social networking to satellite imagery and mapping. The two-day conference ends today.
During a session titled “Animating Human Rights: Games, Animation and Multimedia,” digital media artist Peggy Weil, who is a visiting assistant professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, began her talk by reminding the audience that “animate” means “to give life to” or “breathing life into a topic.”
A prime example of that would be “Gone Gitmo,” a re-creation of Guantanamo Bay in the virtual world Second Life, a project she and Nonny de la Pena launched in 2007 as part of a Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) program. In this virtual installation, visitors are shackled to the floor of a C-17 military transport plane, hooded, berated, given an orange jumpsuit and placed in a cell (but your avatar is spared any torture).
The inaccessible location of Guantanamo Bay made it “justifiable to build an accessible version in virtual reality,” she explained. “It’s a powerful experience, an interesting place to think of human rights.” Much of that has to do with the connection people feel with their avatars. (Bernhard Drax did a virtual report on “Gone Gitmo” earlier this year, which you can view above.)
Weil and La Pena’s latest interactive project is Walljumpers, where users leap over the world’s separation border fences.
One of the more interesting speakers on Monday was Trevor Paglen, author of “Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World.” Paglen, an artist, writer and experimental geographer, is known as an independent investigator of government malfeasance, particularly off-the-books operations such as the kidnapping and “extraordinary rendition” of suspected terrorists.
Paglen delved into that topic, going into detail how he got this photo (on the right) of what he believes is a “black site,” or secret prison. It wasn’t easy — it took a fair amount of both online and on-the-ground sleuthing.
You can catch live video of the remaining sessions or catch replays at a later date.
Amnesty International today called on the Ethiopian government to immediately disclose the names and fate of more than 35 people believed to be held by its security forces on political grounds since 24 April.
Additional arrests have reportedly been carried out over the past several days and sources in the country have told Amnesty International that further arrests are expected.
Many are believed to have been arrested for their alleged involvement in planning a thwarted attack on the government, but others appear to have been arrested for their own or family members’ peaceful political opposition to the government. Amongst the 35 is an 80-year-old grandfather in urgent need of medical care.
“We are very concerned about the fate of those arrested,” said Michelle Kagari, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme.
“Several may have been detained solely for their family ties to men who have expressed political opposition to the government. They should be released immediately. Any others should be charged with a recognizable criminal offense or released. All should have immediate access to their families, lawyers and any medical care they may require.”
Amnesty International said that while protection of national security is a responsibility to which governments rightfully attach high priority, it cannot be used to justify human rights violations.
The organization Amnesty International believes that several of those detained have been arrested solely on the basis of family ties with members of Ginbot 7, an opposition group established in the aftermath of the disputed 2005 elections.
In addition to General Tefera Mamo and other former military officers who have recently been detained, Amnesty International has confirmed that at least one opposition party member and family members of opposition party leaders have also been detained. These include Getu Worku, the cousin of opposition figure Berhanu Nega.
Also detained is Tsige Habte-Mariam, the 80-year-old father of another well-known opposition figure and former prisoner of conscience, now in exile, Andargachew Tsige. Tsige Habte-Mariam is diabetic and has recently had heart surgery. He is in need of urgent medical care.
Ato Melaku Teferra has also been detained. He is a former CUD (Coalition for Unity and Democracy) prisoner who served 20 months in Kaliti prison, and is currently a member of the UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) party, led by Birtukan Mideksa, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.
Many or all of those recently arrested are believed to be held in Maekalawi Prison in Addis Ababa, though the government has not yet confirmed this. Amnesty International is not aware that the government has provided any specific information to family members about the whereabouts of their relatives or their conditions of detention.
Amnesty International said that due to the secret nature of their detention, they are at significant risk of torture or other forms of ill-treatment.
After an initial court appearance last week, those detained were remanded into custody for 14 additional days to allow for further investigation and charges to be filed. Amnesty International expects their next court appearance to take place on or about 12 May 2009.
“Peaceful opposition to the government is not a crime – and being related to someone who opposes the government is not a crime. The Ethiopian government must not detain, harass or intimidate opposition party members or their family members in the course of ongoing security operations. This will only serve to exacerbate an already tense political climate pervading the country,” said Michelle Kagari.
Note to editors:
Ethiopia’s human rights record deteriorated after the disputed 2005 elections, when at least 187 demonstrators were killed and members of the political opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), journalists and civil society activists were arrested and tried for treason. While some of these defendants were acquitted, others were released and pardoned in 2007 and 2008, after signing a letter of apology. In December 2008, Birtukan Mideksa, leader of the UDJ Party was re-arrested and her life sentence reinstated after she discussed details of the pardon process at a meeting in Sweden.
ADDIS ABABA — The wife of a cabinet minister in the Ethiopian regime, Ato Tefera Walwa, was arrested and later released.
MINNEAPOLIS (
Each month, we highlight a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This month we speak with supermodel, actress, WHO ambassador and mother, {www:Liya Kebede}, about her work on health issues related to childbirth. You may recognize Kebede as the former face of Estee Lauder or from the cover of magazines including Vogue’s May 2009 issue. Kebede, who is Ethiopian, founded her own organization to reduce mortality among mothers, newborns and young children and well as to help mothers and children stay healthy. The Liya Kebede Foundation promotes the use of low-cost technology and accessible medical care to help save lives during and after childbearing. The foundation also educates health-care workers and community members on children’s health. Kebede also is a World Heath Organization ambassador, a position given to celebrities who advocate for health causes. In 2005, Kebede was named “Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.” Kebede also has a clothing line for children and women called “Lemlem,” which means to bloom or flourish in Amharic, the language of the Amhara people of Ethiopia. She hopes that the handwoven clothing from Ethiopia will continue native traditions as well as support local businesses and economies.
Amnesty International today called on the Ethiopian government to immediately disclose the names and fate of more than 35 people believed to be held by its security forces on political grounds since 24 April.