ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s dictatorial regime will disregard the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, the government chief propagandist Bereket Simon said on Wednesday.
Bereket said his regime supported the African Union’s call to have proceedings against Bashir deferred.
“We have always upheld that position and we have promoted the decision of deferring this indictment from the start,” Bereket said.
The AU, headquartered in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, said the arrest warrant threatened peace efforts in Sudan.
Asked whether Ethiopia, Sudan’s southern neighbour, would ignore the warrant if Beshir visited, Bereket said: “Absolutely.”
AU opens emergency talks on Bashir warrant
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – The African Union opened an emergency meeting over the arrest warrant on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir which it says will hurt an ailing peace process in the troubled country.
The bloc’s Peace and Security Council members began the closed door meeting at its Addis Ababa headquarters a day after the International Criminal Court issued the warrants.
The 53-member body had called for the deferment of the court’s action against Beshir and on Wednesday expressed concern at the decision to issue the warrant.
In a statement, the AU Commission chief Jean Ping said he was “deeply concerned at the far-reaching consequences of this decision, which comes at a critical juncture in the process to promote lating peace… in the Sudan.”
Meanwhile in Khartoum Bashir joined a mass rally in protest at the international arrest warrant, an AFP correspondent said.
More than 5,000 people attended the rally in Khartoum’s Martyrs Square shouting support for Sudan’s veteran leader and denouncing ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
The rally followed a similar show of support on Wednesday for Beshir, who is accused by the International Criminal Court of masterminding a campaign of extermination, rape and pillage during the six-year conflict in Darfur.
Kharoum has vowed not to cooperate with court and received backing from its southern neighbour Ethiopia which said it would disregard the warrant.
China called Thursday for the case against Beshir to be suspended, as it expressed concern over the arrest warrant.
The reaction to the historic warrant issued on Wednesday for alleged war crimes was in line with China’s longtime support for Beshir’s government that has drawn much criticism in the West.
“China expresses its regretfulness and worry over the arrest warrant for the Sudan president issued by the International Criminal Court,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
Qin called on the UN Security Council to “respect calls by the African Union, Arab League and Non-Aligned Movement… and urged the International Criminal Court not to hear this case for the time being.”
Beshir, 65, became the first sitting president to be issued with an ICC arrest warrant and faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes.
The UN says up to 300,000 people have died and displaced some 2.5 million from their villages since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003. The Sudanese government puts the death toll at 10,000.
Asmara (allAfrica.com) – A defecting Ethiopian police officer who arrived here recently said that the {www:Woyanne} (Tigray People Liberation Front) regime is stepping up its divisive ploy aimed at instigating conflict among various ethnic groups to prolong its stay in power.
Chief inspector of the south western Jimma federal police, Hussein Osman, stated that the regime is fomenting animosities among the ethnic groups under various guises so as to suppress any opposition of the Ethiopian people. It is particularly committing grave atrocities against members of the Afar ethnic group, he added.
The chief inspector pointed out that a number of TPLF regime soldiers, including high-ranking officials, are abandoning the regime opposing its divisive and racist policy.
Indicating that the budget allocated for the Afar zone is being robbed by the regime’s officials for their own personal interests, the defecting officer explained that members of the ethnic group who raise questions regarding the issue are being subjected to inhumane atrocities.
Hussein Osman who joined the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front in 1978 and rose the ran of officer arrived in Eritrea opposing the TPLF regime’s divisive ethnic policy and the atrocities it commits against the Ethiopian people.
Lake Turkana is a miraculous anomaly of life-giving water in a parched and unforgiving land. Formed millions of years ago in the tectonic upheavals that created East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Turkana is the largest permanent desert lake in the world. Extinct volcanoes enclose the horizon, and the heat is so intense that when the blustery wind from Mount Kulal on the eastern shore temporarily ceases and clouds gather overhead, raindrops sometimes evaporate before they even reach the lake. It is called “ghost rain.”
Areas affected by Gibe III
This other-worldly scene is bolstered by the world’s largest population of Nile crocodiles which survive on another Nilotic ancestor, the giant perch, which in turn feeds on a profusion of blue-green algae. This prehistoric lake has also long been a focus for humans: its shores have revealed the oldest-known fossil remains of Homo habilis. Today, more than a quarter million residents from at least ten tribes have become masters of wresting sustenance from the harsh landscape. Without the lake, life here would be virtually impossible.
But Lake Turkana and its inhabitants now face an environmental catastrophe – and an avoidable one. The lake could start drying up when its main source, the Omo River, is depleted by a huge dam across the border in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government is planning a series of upstream dams on the Omo River; the most imminent is the Gibe III hydroelectric dam, already two years into construction.
There is no question that Ethiopia needs power. But the irony of the Gibe III dam is that while it threatens the economy of the Turkana region, a large share of its electricity will be sold to consumers in other parts of Kenya. For Ethiopia, the project is a commercial one: they want to make money selling the power elsewhere, not provide power to their own people. For Kenya, it’s a matter of allowing one part of the country to be devastated so that others may get a little more power.
The assault on the Omo River and Lake Turkana by the Gibe dam is projected to result in a drop of seven to ten meters in the lake’s depth in the first five years alone (the lake has already receded by about five to eight meters because of climate change). Resulting changes in the chemical balance of the water threatens the region’s tremendous biodiversity, including large populations of Nile crocodiles, hippopotamus, and over 40 different species of fish and snakes. The riparian forest, one of the last pristine dryland forests in Africa, would also be in grave danger.
The saga of Gibe III Dam is just the latest episode of human pressures contributing to the dying of Africa’s biggest lakes. Lake Chad has nearly disappeared from diversions that stopped its flow, and Lake Victoria has seen major drops in its water levels from dams that let too much water out. Climate change could add several more to the list of dead or dying lakes and depleted rivers across the continent. Losing our precious water resources will make us less able to adapt to climate change.
Endangered People
Turkana’s indigenous communities are highly dependent on the lake for their food crops, livestock grazing and watering, and fishing. Any impacts to the lake’s ecosystem would disrupt the economy, leading to an increase in conflicts in the area. Considering the unstable state of peace in Northern Kenya, such damage to the local economies would invoke a threat to regional stability.
While a power purchase agreement outlining the terms of electricity sales was reportedly signed between Ethiopia and Kenya in 2006, no bilateral agreements on the use of the Omo-Turkana waterway and the dam’s downstream effects to Kenya are publicly known. The 300,000 people who live around Lake Turkana in Kenya were neither informed of the project’s impacts nor consulted on their priorities. Their situation mirrors that in Ethiopia, where the traditional economy of the Lower Omo Valley supports up to half a million people. The Ethiopian dam-affected people – who, like those on the Kenyan side, are largely indigenous peoples leading traditional lifestyles – have heard little or nothing about the project and their options, even though the changes to the Omo will upset the fragile balance of river bank cultivation and herding they maintain, unraveling the valley’s best strategy against food insecurity. Resulting scarcity could quickly lead to violent conflict in one of the most culturally diverse areas of Africa.
Even if Ethiopia’s affected communities organize to object to the plans, the government is notoriously unsympathetic to citizen concerns. In Ethiopia, civil society activists who might normally help raise awareness about such projects or advocate for affected people have been hesitant to join the fray, given their government’s restrictive policies and repressive tendencies regarding NGOs.
The financial backers of the Gibe III Dam may include the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Italian Government and JP Morgan Chase. While the World Bank has refused to consider project funding, they may still consider financial support through loan guarantees. Agence Francaise de Dévelopement, Germany’s aid agency KFW, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa may support the costly transmission line from the Gibe III Dam to Kenya’s national grid.
While such funders require an Environmental Impact Assessment, the one that has been submitted is incredibly sloppy and hopelessly incomplete. Shockingly it does not even mention that the Omo River supplies almost 80 percent of the Lake Turkana waters. It suggests that the dam will regulate the natural flooding cycle of the Omo River, eliminating the seasonal floods critical to downstream farmers. The truncated, artificial flood suggested in the EIA is ill-designed to achieve its purpose. The minimum, environmental flow is based on the single, lowest monthly flow recorded in the driest month, since 1964. There is no mention of how long it may take to fill Gibe III’s massive reservoir, during which time dam operators may only release 25m3/ sec, creating a prolonged dry season up to several years long. Ironically, while the filling of the reservoir alone could drive Lake Turkana to the brink of ecological collapse, the EIA argues that the dam will help restore Lake Turkana, not deplete it. So far, the project has continued despite the huge deficiencies in this official study, but those concerned about the impacts on Lake Turkana intend to bring their case to these agencies.
The project’s lack of transparency in other areas borders on the corrupt. The US$1.7 billion project is the single largest infrastructural work being undertaken in Ethiopia, yet its lucrative contract was handed to Italian construction giant, Salini, based on a questionable exception to Ethiopia’s own procurement rules. The uncompetitive awarding of the contract also contradicts World Bank and African Development Bank procurement guidelines, The World Bank has declared the project ineligible for project lending, unlike the African Development Bank which plans to consider the project despite the contract violation.
But this case is not just the responsibility of outside agencies and the Ethiopian dam planners. The Kenyan government must first and foremost do more to protect the interests of the peoples of northwest Kenya, and the ecosystems upon which they depend. The power purchase agreement with the Ethiopian government needs to be made public. We need to know if the impact on Lake Turkana was even considered before the power purchase agreement was signed. The ministries of Energy, Water, and Northern Kenya must account for their plans to preserve the environment and livelihoods of the region. The members of parliament representing Northern Kenya need to know what is planned, and have a chance to voice their communities’ concerns. The peoples of Lake Turkana must be heard.
EDITOR’S NOTE: What better is expected from the dumbest government in the world? Even monkeys know how to get food out of a warehouse.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (IRIN) – Beneficiaries of food aid in Ethiopia could face tougher times unless supplies that are stuck in Djibouti port arrive quickly in the country, sources said.
Officials blamed congestion at Djibouti port, land-locked Ethiopia’s main access to the sea, but insisted the situation was improving.
“It was a problem during October and December,” Mitku Kassa, Ethiopia’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, said. “Through negotiation and discussions with the officials, especially Dubai Port World, which manages the port, and STDV, the port agency, the [situation] is improving.”
A recent joint assessment by the Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners found that 4.9 million people would require humanitarian assistance over the next six months. The government and donors have appealed for US$389.3 million worth of food to alleviate the situation.
“A large quantity of WFP’s [UN World Food Programme] food is at the port,” Paulette Jones, WFP spokeswoman in Addis Ababa, said. “These [food] commodities are needed urgently to assist beneficiaries who are still suffering from the impact of the drought, high food prices and [low] global food stocks.”
Rations
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), January food allocations have been affected by limited resources.
Only the worst-affected areas would receive full cereal and blended food rations, based on the agreement reached by a prioritisation committee. Other beneficiaries would receive full pulse and vegetable oil rations reduced by two-thirds.
WFP said it was exploring the options of using Port Sudan and Berebera in Somaliland – which would also make it easier to deliver food to the Somali region of Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned that livestock owned by southern pastoralist families have reduced drastically over the past two decades after animals died from diseases induced by climate change and severe drought.
In a report prepared by Ethiopian and Dutch researchers, published on 26 February, the IFRC said average livestock numbers owned by households had declined from 10 to three oxen, 35 to seven cows, and 33 to six goats in Borena zone of Oromiya region.
“For families entirely dependent on their animals for income and as a food source, losses on this scale would be disastrous,” it noted.
As animals died, people became dependent on aid while dry seasons triggered local “resource conflicts” over water and pasture, the study found. “About a quarter of all households in Borena and Guji zones suffered from cattle-raiding related to conflict in the period 2004–2008,” IFRC said.
Journalists in Ethiopia informed CPJ over the weekend that our Web site, which was blocked to Internet users in the capital, Addis Ababa, since August, was accessible again.
Independent Ethiopian online news forums and blogs based outside the country also reported that sites discussing political dissent and human rights were also suddenly accessible. The editors of the sites linked the development to the February 25 release of the U.S. State Department’s “2008 Human Rights Report” on Ethiopia. The report accused the government of restricting Internet access to its citizens and of “blocking opposition Web sites.”
Ethiopian authorities have consistently denied the accusation despite documented evidence gathered by OpenNet Initiative, an academic partnership that studies Internet censorship.
There has not been any public reaction from the government about this development, according to local journalists. However, a local editor who spoke to me on Tuesday on condition of anonymity told me that a temporary lifting of Internet filtering has been a common occurrence in recent years.
Following a brutal crackdown on free media and political dissent in 2005, Internet users attempting to access sites and blogs critical of the government on the network of the state-controlled national provider Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation have seen “the page cannot be displayed” messages. In February, when CPJ launched its 2008 report on worldwide press freedom, which included a critical analysis of conditions in Ethiopia, local journalists reported that they could not access our Web site. In recent months, some local journalists have also reported their inability to send e-mails to a CPJ e-mail address.
We’ll have to wait and see whether, as international attention turns away from Ethiopia, the sites yet again disappear from view.
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s dictatorial regime will disregard the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, the government chief propagandist Bereket Simon said on Wednesday.