Dagmawit Geshen Mariam church of Denver has been chosen to host this year’s North America Meskel Demera celebration. Tens of thousands of Christians throughout the U.S. and Canada are expected to attend the 3-day celebration that will start October 3.
The Meskel Demera celebration will be led by his Holiness Abuna Merkorios, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as many Archbishops and priests.
Dagmawit Geshen Mariam St Mary Church will host this annual event at its the newly completed building, which is the largest Ethiopian Orthodox Church outside of Ethiopia.
The three day celebration starts on Friday October 3 and concludes on Sunday October 5, 2008.
Program includes Gospel teaching, Meskel Demera and the Coronation of the Ark of the covenant of Geshen Mariam.
For Further information contact:
Deacon Yoseph Tafari
720-329-6764
www.gishenmariam.org
EDITOR’S NOTE: Woyannes are now into the pimping business.
JEDDAH – Housemaids from Ethiopia will start arriving in the Kingdom soon. This follows the go-ahead given by the government in Addis Ababa for the recruitment of housemaids to work in the Kingdom.
Recruitment offices across the Kingdom have already begun to make contacts with manpower agencies in the Horn of African country.
The arrival of the first batch of housemaids within a fortnight will ameliorate the shortage in house help especially after the recruitment of Indonesian housemaids has become problematic, Al-Madina Arabic daily said.
Owners of local recruitment agencies said the memorandum of understanding signed by the National Recruitment Committee in the Kingdom and the Ethiopian authorities had defined the procedures that should be followed in case a housemaid abandons her employer or differs with him.
They said the Saudi embassy in Ethiopia will be responsible for authenticating medical tests ensuring that the recruits are AIDS-free before stamping the visas. The shortage of housemaids has caused an astronomical increase in the salaries of these workers especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
A member of the National Recruitment Committee, who declined to give his name, said the Ethiopians will be good substitutes to the Indonesian maids in case the local recruitment agencies succeed in selecting efficient manpower exporting agencies in Ethiopia.
The Coalition for HR 2003 has learned that Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, introduced a bill entitled “Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Ethiopia Act of 2008”. We are grateful to Senator Feingold and his staff for introducing this legislation in the Senate.
On October 2, 2007, H.R. 2003, “Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007” passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously. On October 3, 2007, the Senate received the bill and referred it to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
The Feingold bill is substantially similar in legislative intent and appraisal of the poor human rights conditions in Ethiopia. The “findings” in the bill document a slew of human rights violations committed by the “Government of Ethiopia” in the aftermath of the 2005 elections, including the injury of “763 civilians,” the murder of 193 persons and detention of “thousands more opposition party leaders and their followers, “widespread violations of human rights and international law by the Ethiopian military in Mogadishu and other areas of Somalia, as well as in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.” The bill describes the use of “unjustifiably brutal tactics [by the government of Ethiopia] against its own citizens in Oromiya, Amhara and Gambella regions.” The bill finds the recent civil society law has the effect of “creat[ing] a complex web of onerous bureaucratic hurdles, draconian criminal penalties and intrusive powers of surveillance that would further decrease the political space available for civil society institutions.”
Section 5 of the bill requires the President to take “additional steps to support the implementation of democracy and governance institutions and organizations in Ethiopia,” including support for civil society organizations, fundamental freedoms, bolstering the independence of the judiciary and full international access to the Ogaden, among other things. The bill provides $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 to carry out its purposes.
In contrast to the Feingold bill, H.R. 2003 imposes stricter limitations on security assistance and travel restrictions on any official of the Government of Ethiopia involved in human rights violations. It also requires certification by the president that “quantifiable” efforts are being made in the human rights area, including release of political prisoners, independent operation of the judiciary, free operation of the print and broadcast media and restructuring of the national elections board to reflect the political diversity ion the country. H.R. 2003 also provides support for economic development.
The Coalition for H.R. 20003 will provide further analysis of the Feingold bill and possibilities for reconciling the House and Senate version in the coming day. For now, we ask all supporters of human rights in Ethiopia to express their gratitude and appreciation to Senator Feingold.
The Tigray People’s Democratic Movement (TPDM) has killed 11 Woyanne soldiers and wounded five others in an attack on weyane soldiers stationed in Mereb Lekhe District (northern Ethiopia), said the TPDM’s military committee.
During the attack on 5 September on members of the 1st Brigade 14 Division, stationed near Rama town, the TPDM forces killed the town’s deputy police commissioner and his allies who were harassing residents in the town, the military committee added.
The military committee also said that the TPDM combatants foiled a counterattack, which the weyane regime tried to carry out against its forces.
Meanwhile, on 5 September, the TPDM forces distributed leaflets and magazines to residents of Aksum town detailing the group’s objectives.
It will be recalled that the TPDM forces had put out of action some 35 weyane soldiers during ambush it carried out on 27 August at Medri Felasi, in Laelay Adiyabo [all places in northern Ethiopia].
Source: Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara, in Tigrinya
DENVER (CBS4) ― Denver police say a suspected drunk driver ran a stop sign and killed a cab driver Saturday.
The accident happened at 18th Avenue and Williams Street. The victim was an Ethiopian immigrant who left behind a wife and two young children.
Solomon Abraham was a driver for Yellow Cab who risked his life just to get to this country to be granted political asylum. Among other things, he was a deacon at his church and a leader in the Ethiopian community.
Abraham, 33, was a teacher and lawyer in his native country and a cab driver who worked a minimum 16-hour day in Denver.
“He was such a wonderful, humble person that we ever had,” friend Teklu Abraha said.
Abraham’s wife and two young children were among grieving family members who gathered Tuesday. Abraha says are lost without him.
“She was dependent on him. She has these small, two kids, so she’s like blind to the whole world for her, it’s so sad,” Abraha said.
Darian Blackwell, 21, is charged with crashing into Abraham’s cab while driving drunk. Police say Blackwell was traveling at a high rate of speed when he ran a stop sign.
“Solomon for me is my cousin, nice person, he’s a hard worker,” cousin DJ said.
DJ said he still stunned Abraham’s life was cut short so suddenly and wonders how his family will make it.
“She can’t survive right now, maybe somebody will help her,” DJ said.
Church members said Abraham had risked his life just to get to America, fleeing Ethiopia and then passing, even walking through several countries before he got to South America and finally got political asylum in the United States.
“He believed that America had the best democracy in the world, and so that’s why he came here and he was hoping to raise his children in peace,” Abraha said.
Yellow Cab has now set up a donation fund where they will match donations coming from his fellow drivers. Many of the drivers also came to Denver from Ethiopia.
Blackwell is being held in jail with a $75,000 bond, charged with two counts of vehicular homicide.
A benefit fund has also been set up in the name of Solomon Abraham through U.S. Bank.
MOGADISHU (AFP) — At least eight people were killed in the Somali capital on Wednesday in fighting that erupted after Ethiopia Woyanne-backed government troops raided a suspected rebel hideout, residents said.
Government troops and insurgents clashed using machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Mogadishu near a military camp, they said.
“I saw four civilians and two Somali soldiers who were killed by mortar shells,” said Hassan Abdullahi Abdulle, a resident.
The Somali army said it killed two insurgents while three of its men were wounded in the clashes.
“Two insurgents who were killed in the fighting were carried by their colleagues for burial after fighting stopped,” Somali army spokesman Dahir Mohamed Hirsi told AFP.
Residents said stray shells wounded at least 13 civilians — many of them children — in Huriwa, one of the most volatile districts in the seaside capital.
Several residents confirmed the clashes that came after days of calm in a city that is contested between the UN-backed government and Islamists accused of links to Al-Qaeda.
In Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Woyanne defence ministry said at least 15 insurgents died.
“Fifteen Shebab (Islamist) insurgents were killed by the transitional government troops this afternoon in defensive measures taken after an attack on their military barracks in Mogadishu,” it said in a statement.
“Scores of others were injured while a number of weapons were captured during the attack,” it added, but the veracity of the statement could not be confirmed.
In Nairobi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki pleaded with the world to help Somalia end nearly two decades of suffering that has been worsened by chronic food shortage.
“Indeed, the recent developments in that country will require a new impetus in bringing all the parties in the conflict to a process of dialogue that will guarantee the people of Somalia peace and security that they so much desire,” Kibaki said in a statement.
Kenya chaired a regional peace panel that helped reach a peace accord that brought Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to power in 1994, but the aging ex-warlord has failed to restore stability in his nation.
