TONY EASTLEY: Almost a quarter of a century after Ethiopia’s last major famine the country is again in deep trouble.
The failure of recent harvests and rising food prices have left eight million people in need of aid.
Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan visited some of the worst affected areas of Ethiopia and met an Australian woman trying to help those in dire need.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: A three hour drive south of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa is the town of Shashamane.
Recent rain has turned the land green, but it’s too little, too late, food is scarce.
(Baby cries)
This baby is severely malnourished.
“I cannot feed my family,” says her mother. “Even if I try by all the energy I have.”
Sophia Husein and her family are among the eight million Ethiopians who are in desperate need of food aid.
VALERIE BROWNING: The baby’s born small from the mothers’ malnutrition probably, so basically we’ll have to treat the little girl with antibiotics now.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Australian Valerie Browning has an intimate understanding of the plight of Ethiopians.
VALERIE BROWNING: Just very recently we hit the worst, we hit literally death by hunger of little children and I hadn’t seen that in 19 years.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Valerie Browning works for a local aid group. She settled here two decades ago after falling in love with the land and its people; people who are now suffering.
VALERIE BROWNING: If we don’t work now, right now then we’ve lost the day. I really believe that.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: A quarter of a century ago Ethiopia became a byword for famine.
(Bob Geldof song plays)
Images of children dying of starvation prompted Bob Geldof to launch Live Aid. Since then Ethiopia’s population has doubled and now world food prices are soaring. Opposition politician Gebru Asrat says Ethiopia has failed to learn from the past.
GEBRU ASRAT: To see another famine in this country after 24 years is a sad thing where millions are starving.
VALERIE BROWNING: Most families are down to two meals a day. Some are down to one.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Valerie Browning.
VALERIE BROWNING: I’ve seen them mixing tiny bits of grain with huge amounts of water, boiling it up and calling it porridge and drinking that as a meal. And they are desperately hungry people.
TONY EASTLEY: Australian Valerie Browning ending that report from Andrew Geoghegan in Ethiopia. And there’ll be more on the Ethiopian story on Foreign Correspondent at 9.30 tonight on ABC1.
Ethiopian Review’s List of Top 10 Things President Barack Obama should do during his first 100 days in office
1. Give the genocidal regime in Ethiopia 6 months to release all political prisoners, lift all restrictions on the press, allow the formation of an independent elections committee that is composed of representatives of opposition parties, and hold a new election within one year. Or else, cut all financial and military support, impose travel ban on Woyanne officials, and freeze their assets in the U.S.
2. Issue an executive order allowing immigrant families in the U.S. who are separated from their loved ones in foreign countries to unite immediately. Some families have been separated for over 5 years for no reason other than bureaucratic backlogs.
3. Introduce a legislation to the U.S. Congress that will eliminate the current tax code (thousands of pages) and replace it with a one page law that sets a 15 percent tax for every one who makes $30,000 or more. Those who make less than $30,000 per year will pay no federal income tax. They will pay only local sales taxes. This will help stimulate the economy, generate more tax revenue, and reduce the size of the government.
4. Introduce a program that will retrofit all federal buildings with solar panels.
5. Release from prison those who are incarcerated for non-violent (also known as victimless) crimes such as insider trading. Instead, make those convicts work certain hour per week to pay the society for the crimes they committed. This will help reduce the 2 million U.S. prison population by a significant number, without letting those who violate the law go unpunished.
6. Authorize NASA to launch a mission to land man on the planet Mars. Invite the private sector to help fund the mission.
7. Reaffirm citizen’s the right to bear arm by encouraging states to abolish gun permits. Only those who are convicted criminals should lose their right to bear arm.
8. Reaffirm that the Internet will remain a tax free zone by signing a pledge.
9. Organize a White House-sponsored annual science fair, in collaboration with the private sector, where top 10 inventors will receive up to $100 million.
10. Eliminate visa requirements for Ethiopians for helping Obama win Virginia (wishful thinking).
Behind the stench of flowing sewage and the smell of disease is a country that is beyond collapse. Yet, nowhere are there more signs of bustling activity than the countries graveyards. On a bright day, in Unit L graveyard in Chitungwiza, the staff opens up 50 new graves for burials. Those allocated graves will be used up far before Sunset. The increases in burials in this cemetery are up 150 percent. Every few minutes families take turns burying their loved ones. They dig; they grieve and then depart; perhaps wondering if the will be able to afford the next funeral.
The rich soil of this previously prosperous country is once again at the heart of its activities; at one time famous for its rich harvests and abundant food the soil is now providing the country’s blanket of death. The blanket needs to expand.
When I stayed with a friend in a residential area of Bulawayo last August, there was no water. Fifteen months later, there is still no water in their home. In many parts of Zimbabwe there is no water. According to a source yesterday, the government utilities turned off water when it ran out of money for treatment chemicals. Shovels have become as familiar an item as walking sticks as desperate families search the ground until they find water. People fill pots and pans, as they drink from this untreated sewage water.
In addition to the AIDS epidemic, the mass starvation and increase of rape and abuse, Cholera has reared its’ head. Still, nothing is done by the rest of the world.
The situation in Zimbabwe is desperate. Most world news this weekend discussed President Mugabe’s refusal to let a humanitarian team in the country. This team included former United States President, Jimmy Carter and former head of the United Nations, Kofi Anon and human rights activist, Graca Machel, who is also Nelson Mandela’s wife. This was a diversion. So much more needs to be done immediately. If I hear one more President or Chancellor talk about the illegitimate regime or make a statement, I am going to scream.
The United Nations and The Red Cross push into war torn countries like Rwanda and the Congo, yet Zimbabwe is left on its own. True, there is not a typical war in this country, but there is systematic genocide. Isn’t that a situation worth the world community’s response?
The country has virtually shut down. Many schools, stores and government offices are closed. Last I read, inflation hovered somewhere near 230 million percent. Zimbabwean currency has been abandoned and replaced by the American Dollar.
Last week a group of men who supported the opposition party disappeared in the dark of night from their homes. The locals know these men will never be seen alive again. Families are separating out of desperation, traveling to other parts of Africa or globally, so they can send money back to family stranded in Zimbabwe. These people are the lucky ones. The families who have never traveled outside of Zimbabwe are the ones dying. They have no alternative.
Rapes have doubled, if not tripled. The women who had been raped by the youth militia are nowhere to be found. There is no medical treatment available, so most of these women are developing full blown AIDS. HIV/AIDS treatment medication is inaccessible; there is not a single hospital or clinic with its doors open.
A woman pregnant in Zimbabwe right now, is anything but joyful; most are certain to die. If a woman is unlucky enough to be in need of a caesarean for birth, she has two choices. She must pay the $400 dollars to get this procedure done, or her family creates a vigil as she dies. Death in these cases is almost imminent.
In the LA Times on Friday, Robyn Dixon interviewed a member of the Central Intelligence office, the CIA of Zimbabwe.
The CIO agent speaking anonymously and “Estimates that 60% to 70% of CIO officers — all but the hard-line ideologues — no longer back Mugabe.” Even with Mugabe’s support deteriorating it is not likely to change the outcome in Zimbabwe. Conformity is a prerequisite to those in Mugabe’s regime. No matter what your personal feelings, conform or risk death. This is why change cannot happen from inside Zimbabwe.
My friend recently pleaded with her husband to get their three children to a neighboring country. All their friends beg for food as they watch their children starve to death. Some of the Zimbabweans have had to bring food in by bus to feed their families. They cannot bring in enough food to feed everyone. She has struggled to help many to stay alive, but her life has been threatened, so she is now in hiding. Her husband drove all night to visit with her. She almost did not recognize him as he drove up; he had not had a bath in months. His skin was very dry and much darker than she remembered. He smelled as if he had “all the sewage of Gaborone on him”, she said.
I often wonder if the rumor of Mugabe’s Syphilis is true — has this disease ravaged this man’s mind or do I use that as an excuse? ” It is hard for me to imagine a man turned so rotten from the inside out. His thirst for power and insatiable greed has destroyed this incredible country. Perhaps we can learn from the destruction of Zimbabwe that the actions of power and greed can destroy us all.
The Ethiopian People Patriotic Front (EPPF) has launched a new web site, eppfonline.org, on Sunday, Nov. 23. The official launching of the web site was announced by the organizational affairs head of EPPF’s International Committee, Ato Sileshi Tilahun, in an interview with Ethiopian Review.
Ato Sileshi has also announced that EPPF will launch a radio program shortly, which will be run by Ato Demis Belete, head of the EPPF International Committee’s press office.
Earlier this month, EPPF has started a campaign to organize Ethiopians around the world to support its cause of liberating Ethiopia from the fascist tribal junta of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne). To that end, the EPPF chairman Meazaw Getu and the general executive committee had sent to Europe former Ethiopian parliamentarians Ato Leul Qeskis and Ato Assefa Hailu with an assignment to reorganize the Front’s international committee.
The newly reorganized EPPF International Committee is currently building its grassroot structure in several countries, says to Ato Sileshi, who is heading the effort. In the coming few weeks, EPPF chapters in Washington DC, London and other major cities will officially start their operations.
Through the International Committee, EPPF has also started to counter the massive propaganda campaign that was launched by the Woyanne regime against freedom fighters that are engaged in an armed resistance. The Woyanne propaganda is intended to create fear and confusion among Ethiopians about EPPF and its allies, including the Government of Eritrea, says Ato Zewdalem Kebede, an executive committee member of the EPPF International Committee who is in charge of public relations.
The EPPF press office, through its web site and radio program, and in collaboration with independent media such as Ethiopian Review, will campaign to educate Ethiopians and the international community about EPPF’s mission and objectives. EPPF’s military and other actions will also start to get adequate media coverage.
EPPF is an armed resistance group that is currently fighting with the brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia at several locations, but mostly in the norther part of the country. As EPPF gains strength, it is trying to widen its area of operations. Last years it signed an agreement with the Tigrean People Democratic Front and other armed group to create an alliance and coordinate their anti-Woyanne campaign.
A native of Ethiopia gets $305k verdict against Maryland Transportation Authority
By Brendan Kearney | Daily Record
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – A Baltimore jury has awarded $305,000 to a former Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) taxi driver who was arrested — and later unsuccessfully prosecuted — after complaining to Maryland Transportation Authority police about a shuttle bus that was blocking his exit.
In the course of the April 2005 incident, Dawit Seyoum, a native of Ethiopia who currently resides in Hyattsville, Maryland, suffered tears to his right bicep and tendons in that arm, leading to an impingement in that shoulder, according to his attorney, Cary J. Hansel III. The judgment, including economic, non-economic and punitive damages against the two officers involved, will allow him to undergo the required surgery, Hansel said.
“He’s very happy to have the determination that what happened to him was wrong,” said Hansel, of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake P.A. “The emotional benefit of that ruling for people in those situations is incalculable.”
Seyoum, an Ethiopian immigrant with a doctoral degree, worked at the state Department of Human Resources and taught at Baltimore universities before joining the BWI Taxi Companay at in 1999, according to Hansel.
“It’s a ‘Don’t judge the book by its cover’ story. You never know who your cab driver’s going to be,” Hansel said. “His nickname was The Professor … and that’s sort of his demeanor, which makes what happened so shocking.”
According to court papers, Seyoum, 61, picked up three passengers around midnight and was about to take them to their downtown Baltimore hotel when he found himself boxed in. He honked his horn, then got out of his minivan and walked over to Officer James Meyers, who was managing traffic on the loop’s lower level in light of ongoing construction.
After that, accounts diverge.
Assistant Attorney General Glenn T. Marrow declined to comment for this story, citing the possibility of post-trial motions. But in court documents, he argued Seyoum repeatedly disregarded Meyers’ orders to return to his cab and instead carried on clamoring; and that Corporal Jeffrey Sheriff arrived on the scene and, despite resistance from Seyoum, arrested him.
Conversely, in his September 2007 amended complaint, Seyoum claimed Meyers “began ‘yelling’ at him without provocation” and that Sheriff “appeared suddenly and of his own accord,” “pinned” Seyoum against his own cab, and then “slammed” him onto the hood of a nearby cab. In the process, Seyoum’s glasses were broken and his concerns about his injured shoulder went unheeded, the complaint alleged.
Seyoum briefly returned to work but the limited mobility of his injured arm interfered with his ability to drive. He is now unemployed, Hansel said.
In September 2005, Seyoum, represented by one of Hansel’s law partners, stood trial in Anne Arundel County District Court on charges of failure to obey an order, disorderly conduct, hindering and obstructing a public place, and resisting arrest, as well as horn-blowing and parking violations. The judge found Seyoum not guilty of all charges, and testimony in that case from the officers and three cab company employees who witnessed the arrest had a direct bearing on the civil trial before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Althea M. Handy late last month.
The police did not testify — the state put on no case at all — but Hansel compared their story from the criminal case with their deposition testimony in the civil case, highlighting inconsistencies in the accounts. In support of Seyoum’s punitive damages claims, Hansel also pointed the jury to other instances, including a January 2003 incident near the Fort McHenry Tunnel, in which Sheriff “kind of inserted himself into a situation and escalated it.”
The same three employees of BWI Taxi Co. testified again on behalf of Seyoum. (The three women in Seyoum’s cab that night could not be located.)
After a four-day trial, the jury found Meyers and Sheriff had maliciously violated Seyoum’s constitutional rights; battered, falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned him; and maliciously prosecuted him. The panel awarded $25,000 in economic damages, $250,000 in non-economic damages and $30,000 in punitive damages. Hansel said the state made a pretrial settlement offer that was “much, much, much lower than the verdict.”
Hansel said the $200,000 cap on non-economic damages against the state, which did not apply here because of the finding of malice, has made such behavior by law enforcement a public policy concern because lawyers are often hesitant to take a case with limited damages and fees.
“There’s nobody policing the police, and it leads to things like what happened to my client,” said Hansel.
Dawit Seyoum v. Officer Meyers, et al.
Court: Baltimore City Circuit
Case No: 24-C-07-005048
Proceedings: Jury trial
Judge: Althea M. Handy
Outcome: Plaintiff
Dates: Incident: April 1, 2005; Suit filed: July 12, 2007; Disposition: Oct. 30, 2008
Plaintiff’s Attorney: Cary J. Hansel III of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake P.A.
Defense Attorney: Assistant Attorney General Glenn T. Marrow
Counts: State constitutional violations, false arrest, false imprisonment, battery, malicious prosecution
Award: $305,000
ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA – A mediation team said that the government of Woyanne regime Ethiopia has agreed to hold talks with the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) without any pre-conditions.
In January, a group of mediators drawn from 3 Oromo ethnic elders met OLF leaders, namely Dawd Ebsa and Temam Yosuf, in Amsterdam and signed with the rebel leaders a pact of agreement to come for peace talks under which the rebels agreed to accept Ethiopia’s constitution in principle.
“Meles Zenawi called us and told us in person that his country his junta is ready to hold talks with OLF” Ambassador Birhanu Dinka, one of the elders and also former UN envoy to the great lakes region said.
“Ethiopia agreed to come to negotiating table after the prime minister’s office looked deep into the Amsterdam’s pact of agreement reached between the three of us(elders) and the rebels last January” he added.
After both parties agreed to start talks, the third party has been holding meetings with different influential people abroad and at home.
Recently the elders group has held a two-day discussion with 125 influential elders drawn from different zones of the Oromiya region under which they urged the rebels to listen to their people and come to peace talks without any delay.
Ethiopia Woyanne has long designated the rebel group as a “terrorist” group and holds it responsible for a number of bomb blasts in the capital and in other southern towns.
Recently Ethiopia Woyanne has arrested a number of Oromos including an opposition leader for an alleged links to OLF “terror ring”.
The elders on a declaration called on both sides to show a genuine commitment to narrow their political difference which put the rebel group into nearly two decades of insurgency.
The Ethiopian People Patriotic Front (EPPF) has launched a new web site, 
ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA – A mediation team said that the