The Associated Press

NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND – Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia led all the way to win the Great North Run half marathon on Sunday, and Gete Wami earned the title in a closer women’s race.

Kebede, who won the Olympic bronze medal in the marathon at the Beijing Games, won the annual road race in 59 minutes, 45 seconds. He was the only runner to complete the 13.1-mile race in less than an hour.

Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia finished second in 1:01:29, and American runner Abdi Abdirahman was third in 1:01:33.

Wami, a two-time Berlin Marathon champion, held off Magdalene Mukunzi of Kenya by a second to complete an Ethiopian double in 1:08.51.

EDITOR’S NOTE: What about Woyanne officials who murdered unarmed pro-democracy protectors in Ethiopia following the 2005 elections? Why doesn’t the U.S. impose travel ban on them? Head of the notorious Federal Police, Gebeyehu Workneh, who had carried the June and November 2005 massacres, was in Washington DC just a few months ago.

By TOM ODULA

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A diplomatic dispute was brewing Friday between America and Kenya over a potential visa ban for Kenyan officials who oversaw last year’s catastrophic elections.

More than 1,000 died in clashes following Dec 27’s disputed vote, which returned the incumbent president to power by a narrow margin after the opposition’s wide lead suddenly evaporated.

Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula says Kenya’s 22 electoral commissioners have been threatened with a visa ban after they refused to resign as recommended by a government commission.

“The government will not tolerate what seems now to be a pattern of activism being practiced in Nairobi by a few ambassadors under the guise of conducting their normal diplomatic engagements,” Wetangula said.

The U.S. embassy issued a statement Friday saying it did not comment on visa applications. However, the same statement said Kenyans had lost confidence in the commissioners and urged the government to replace the entire electoral board as recommended by a commission of inquiry chaired by a South African judge. The commission was set up as part of a peace deal that brought former opposition leader Raila Odinga into President Mwai Kibaki’s government.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya announced Kibaki had won the polls after riot police forcibly ejected journalists from the tallying center. He was hurriedly sworn in less than an hour later as flames and gunfire erupted from angry opposition supporters protesting in the slums. By the time the smoke cleared two month later, over 1,000 people were dead and 600,000 displaced.

“The ECK was responsible for oversight of this process and therefore bear responsibility for way in which it was handled,” said the embassy’s statement. “Fundamental changes, in every respect, are necessary.”

But Wetangula accused the foreign missions of using “shameless blackmail” and having a “colonial mind-set.”

Despite the diplomatic spat, Kenya is a strong ally of the U.S., which provides counter terrorism training for its military. American troops are stationed in northern Kenya near the border with Somalia and Kenya is a major recipient of U.S. aid.

… related story

U.S. urges Kenyan gov’t to implement recommendations in polls report

NAIROBI (Xinhua) — The United States on Friday called on the Kenyan government to speed up the implementation of recommendations of the Kriegler report, particularly the reforms in the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).

In a statement from the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Washington insisted that the electoral commissioners have lost the confidence of the Kenyan people following the manner in which they conducted the December 2007 presidential elections and must be held accountable.

The United States said the ECK was responsible for the electoral process and therefore bears responsibility for the way in which the whole exercise was handled.

“The U.S. government reiterates that lack of transparency and accountability in the 2007 election vote tallying process seriously compromised the credibility of the results,” the statement said.

“The U.S. notes that Kenyans have lost confidence in the ECK Commissioners, who must now be held accountable,” it said a day after Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula accused some western ambassadors of practicing activism under the guise of conducting diplomatic business..

Kenyans, including the Kriegler Commission, have blamed the ECK for bungling the results of last December’s general elections, which left over 1,000 people dead and about 350,000 displaced.

“It is unacceptable for an ambassador accredited to Kenya to physically walk into an office of a holder of a constitutional office and directly confront him with the aim of attempting to force his resignation,” Wetangula said.

“Such shameless blackmail, applied through open disregard of established norms of conduct of diplomats, in favour of a style and tone reminiscent of colonial mindset, is an insult to the Kenyan public.”

Pressure has been mounting for the overhaul of the ECK, with the latest calls coming from the European Commission.

French Ambassador to Kenya Elisabeth Barbier said the public, according to the Kriegler report, had lost confidence in the electoral body and its staff, and therefore, the need for urgent reforms.

But in a statement issued late Thursday, all the 21 members of ECK said they will not resign despite local and international pressure for them to step down. The commissioners said their fate should be decided by the president of Kenya who appointed them.

The United States has reportedly imposed a travel ban on the commissioners. But a statement from the embassy declined to comment on the saga, saying “as a matter of policy the embassy does not discuss visa applications.”

This followed reports by a section of the press that the ECK officials have been banned from visiting the United States and some EU countries.

“The focus now is to fully implement as quickly as possible the recommendations of the Kriegler report. The report speaks for itself and makes clear that fundamental changes, in every respect, are necessary,” the statement said.

ECK chief Samuel Kivuitu indicated that he may soon leave office due to enormous pressure that has been coming from Kenyans including senior government officials who accuse him of mismanaging the elections.

He said he will not run the next general elections neither will he preside over the constitutional referendum expected next year.

By Alex Perry Friday, TIME

Pirates aren’t picky. Armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers and using skiffs mounted with high-powered engines launched from “motherships” disguised as fishing boats, the buccaneers who prowl the waters off the Somali coast pick their prey from the passing shipping traffic like lions selecting a kill: the slower and more defenseless, the better. “We hijack every ship we can,” Sugule Ali, a pirate captain, told TIME by satellite phone this week.

The MV Faina fitted the bill. Slow, low-sided and sailing under a Belize flag, the freighter seemed no different from any of the 60 other ships attacked by pirates this year in the same waters. And Ali and his men had no reason to believe the outcome of this hijacking would be any different. In a well-established routine, a vessel is typically held for a few days or weeks while the pirates negotiate a ransom with the ship’s owners, usually netting between $500,000 and $2 million. Then ship and crew are then released unharmed. This year, according to a new report by the British think tank Chatham House, the Somali pirate industry has raked in as much as $30 million.

But the Faina’s cargo surprised Ali and his men and sent alarm bells ringing around the world — the unprepossessing freighter was carrying 33 Russian T-72 tanks and a host of other armaments that had originated in Ukraine. By the end of this week, U.S. frigates and a Russian warship were bearing down on the pirates, the European Union had decided to launch a multinational antipiracy patrol, and Ukraine and Kenya found themselves embroiled in an arms scandal.

The U.S. — together with allies such as France — has taken the lead in providing security in a vital shipping lane leading to and from the Suez Canal. Somalia has been convulsed by civil war since 1991, and as an attendant humanitarian disaster involving millions of refugees has spread chaos and lawlessness across the land, piracy at sea has rocketed. The primary strategic concern of the U.S. in the region appears to be rooting out al-Qaeda, which is why the U.S. military backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia to prevent a popular Islamist movement from taking power. But the Islamists remain powerful, and the still violent stalemate clouds any prospect of restoring law and order onshore. Although the pirates lack the quays to take the tanks ashore, and their clan affiliations make connections to the Islamists unlikely, the U.S.S. Howard sailed to within three miles of the Faina to ensure that the tanks did not fall into Islamist hands.

The fate of the cargo is also rapidly becoming a hot potato for other reasons. Russia responded to the hijacking by announcing it was sending a warship to the area — three of the crew being held hostage are Russian, and Sudan’s government has called on Moscow to attack the pirates. That’s because while the government of Kenya claims to be the intended recipient of the tanks, many — like Andrew Mwangura, the Mombasa-based coordinator for the Seafarers Assistance Programme, and Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, press liaison of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain — believe the weapons were headed elsewhere. “We are aware that the actual cargo was destined for Sudan, not Kenya,” Christensen told the Associated Press. Christenen’s press releases have since dried up, and Mwangura has been arrested by Kenyan police for issuing “alarmist statements.”

Diplomats in Nairobi, speaking on condition of anonymity, made clear that they shared the suspicion that the tanks were destined for south Sudan, where Kenya has supported a secessionist resistance movement oppossed to the northern Sudanese–dominated government in Khartoum. The fact that such a shipment might contravene international arms embargoes might help explain why the Faina, traveling with minimal security on board, presented itself as an unremarkable cargo freighter — to fool officials along its route as well as pirates. Of more concern to East Africa’s regional security, recent reports from north and south Sudan have suggested both sides are currently re-equipping their militaries. A revival of the decades-long north-south civil war would reopen one of Africa’s bloodiest and most intractable wars — 2 million died in the fighting between 1972 and 2005 — and jeopardize hopes for a solution to the crisis in Darfur.

For Ali and his men, piracy is a business: realizing the value of the Faina’s cargo, he demanded $35 million, although that figure was later reduced to $20 million. But he likes to cast it as also a protest. “We were forced into this work,” he argues, speaking from the Faina’s bridge at anchor off the village of Hobyo. “We were fishermen. I used to work in the sea every day. But ships from other countries fish our coasts illegally, destroy our nets and fire on whoever approaches them. We were refused the right to fish. They even dump toxic waste. We couldn’t work. So we decided to defend ourselves.” Ali insists that piracy would stop if the pirates’ fundamental grievances were addressed. “If the world stops stealing our property and harming us, we have a solution,” he said. “We will stop the piracy and go back to our normal jobs.”

That seems unlikely. On Thursday, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced that at least eight European countries had agreed to contribute to an international naval antipiracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden, in addition to the U.S. and Russian naval presence already there. Faced with such overwhelming force, Ali said his men would fight to the last. “If someone attacks you in your home, you need to defend yourself,” he said. “Whatever weapons they have, you must fight. A person in his home cannot be afraid. Whoever attacks, we will defend ourselves.”

— With reporting by Abdiaziz Hassan Ahmed Dhoore / Nairobi

The ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) is being aided and abetted by thousands of opportunist individuals who are not members of the party. Some such as Addisu Legesse and Kuma Demeksa claim to represent the Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups in the fake coalition named EPRDF that is created by Woyanne. But let alone stand for the interest of Amharas and Oromos, these opportunist individuals are helping Woyanne in making Ethiopia a large prison camp for all ethnic groups, including the majority of Tigreans — an ethnic group Woyanne claims to represent. Their only use for the Woyanne regime is to help it gain legitimacy as a multi-ethnic regime, when the fact is that they have no say in how the government functions. They are simply decoys for Woyanne. To help expose these opportunists (hodams) further, Ethiopian Review conducts the following poll. Who among them is the most loyal Woyanne servants?

VOTE HERE

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