Fans say the reggae star was framed because his music was seen as anti-government. ‘You don’t know where the line is — until you’ve crossed it,’ says one Ethiopian.

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Sequestered in a dank prison cell here, Ethiopia’s biggest reggae star awaits trial in a deadly hit-and-run case that has galvanized the nation.

Federal prosecutors say Tewodros Kassahun, dubbed the Bob Marley of Ethiopia, fled after striking a homeless boy with his BMW. They call it a case of celebrity bad behavior.

Fans say the singer, also known as Teddy Afro, is being framed because of his music’s perceived anti-government message. In one song, he accuses Ethiopia’s leaders of promising change, but bringing only “a new king.”

Fans also ask why Kassahun was not charged until April, though the boy was killed in 2006.

Kassahun’s controversial incarceration has spurred small protests, a rarity in this tightly controlled Horn of Africa country, and is fast becoming a national symbol of what some call Ethiopia’s latest democratic backsliding.

After a 2005 post-election crackdown, Ethiopia’s government tried to ease tensions last fall by pardoning thousands of jailed opposition supporters and allowing some independent newspapers to reopen.

“We’d hoped that was the beginning of an opening in the democratic space,” said Hailu Araaya, deputy chairman of the recently formed Unity for Democracy and Justice party. He spent 20 months in jail before his release in July 2007. “But the political space is contracting again. It’s clear the ruling party is determined to stay in power by any means.”

Government critics point to a string of new laws targeting political parties, journalists and humanitarian agencies.

Under one new law, political parties can no longer accept foreign donations and must disclose the names of domestic contributors. Opposition groups say that restriction has dried up their financial support because potential contributors fear government retaliation.

A draft bill would ban private aid agencies and civic groups from “political” activities, such as advocating human rights, if they receive more than 10% of their funding from foreigners.

A new media law permits government censorship and jail terms for journalists.

Prime Minister Dictator Meles Zenawi said the reforms were an attempt to bring Ethiopia’s laws up to international standards, noting that U.S. rules also ban foreign campaign contributions.

“We are institutionalizing democracy and getting the law right,” he said. “I don’t think the political space is in any way being constrained.”

But critics said restrictions on foreign funding and political activism were particularly galling considering that nearly 40% of Ethiopia’s government budget comes from international donors and that the ruling party has hired a Washington lobbyist to attack U.S. legislation seeking to tie aid to Ethiopia’s human rights record.

“This is a nationalist charade,” Human Rights Watch attorney Reed Brody said. Opposition leaders and some Western diplomats say the new laws appear to be an attempt to consolidate power before the 2010 presidential election.

Ethiopia is eager to avoid a repetition of the 2005 election, when opposition parties won in many cities, including Addis Ababa, the capital. Postelection wrangling led to the government crackdown in which nearly 200 people were killed and more than 30,000 opposition candidates and supporters were imprisoned.

In local elections this spring, the ruling coalition won handily in most locations. Opposition parties boycotted the poll after complaining that the government prevented them from fielding candidates in many districts.

Negasso Gidada, a former president who quit the ruling coalition in 2001, blamed its members’ roots as former Marxist rebels for the government’s heavy-handed approach.

“They don’t claim they want a socialist state, but the ideology is still there,” he said. “They don’t tolerate other ideologies.”

Meles dismissed as “hogwash” claims that his government is ideologically driven.

His government is under heavy pressure from Western donors to improve Ethiopia’s democratic record.

Over the last two years, Ethiopian soldiers have been accused of killing, torturing and raping civilians in their battle against an insurgency in the restive Ogaden region and of similar abuses in neighboring Somalia, where thousands of Ethiopian troops are propping up Somalia’s weak transitional government.

Meles denied any systematic rights abuses in either region.

Opposition parties and rights groups are calling upon Western nations, including the United States, to use their leverage to push harder for reforms. The Bush administration, which sees Ethiopia as a key anti-terrorism partner in Africa, has dramatically increased aid to the country in the last two years.

“The international community espouses ideas about good governance, transparency and human rights, but then they help a regime that flouts and violates those fundamental rights,” said Araaya, the opposition official.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto defended Washington’s support, noting that most of the $800 million in Ethiopian aid this year is for emergency food and AIDS drugs. About $13 million is budgeted for military assistance.

“I don’t think the American people or the Congress are going to accept decreasing food when there are photographs from Ethiopia of starving children,” he said. “They are going to ask, ‘Why aren’t you helping these starving kids?’ ”

On the streets of Addis Ababa, some Ethiopians say they’ve noticed political improvements. But fear of government intimidation remains strong and many have interpreted the arrest of Kassahun as a warning against speaking out. Two Ethiopian journalists have been arrested for writing sympathetically about the singer’s case.

“Before, when we were operating in a full-fledged dictatorship, you knew what you could and couldn’t do,” said one Ethiopian, who was afraid to be identified. “Now there is more openness, but you don’t know where the line is — until you’ve crossed it.”
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]

This is not the Ethiopian army. It is a gang of murderers, torturers and rapists who are currently terrorizing the people of Ethiopia, Somalia and the Horn of Africa under rule of Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne). This army’s only purpose is to protect the Meles crime family from the people of Ethiopia.

(Addis Journal) ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — After an appeal to the Federal Higher Court, Teddy Afro’s lawyer, Million Assefa was released yesterday afternoon.

The lawyer was sent to Kaliti prison on Wednesday with 50 days’ sentence for contempt of court. The Federal Higher Court suspended the sentence.

While in prison, Million met Teddy Afro who was said to have wept when he saw him.

Addis Neger this morning reported that Teddy who was in a solitary confinement has now moved to what is called Zone 5 where there are other inmates

BEIJING (AFP) — Ethiopian star Tirunesh Dibaba tends to dominate most discussions when it comes to women’s long-distance running. But Dibaba’s team-mate Meseret Defar, the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 5,000 metres and triple world indoor champion in the 3,000m, comes to Beijing determined to tip the scales in her favour.

Defar saw Dibaba smash her world record over 5,000m this season at the Bislett Games in Oslo, but the 24-year-old fired back in Stockholm with a time just one second slower than the new mark.

“Those who thought I had disappeared should watch my performance in Stockholm,” said Defar, who has a 13-9 lead in head-to-head races with Dibaba.

“When I finished the race and saw the time, I was so disappointed. I was very depressed and cried. It is very painful to miss a world record by just one second.”

Defar’s performance in Stockholm ensured she will attend the Beijing Games as a potential major thorn in the side of Dibaba in her quest for a 5,000 and 10,000m double.

“I am happy with improving my personal best and using the race to get ready for Beijing,” said Defar, who has not raced against Dibaba since the World Athletics Final in September 2006.

Despite losing to compatriot Meselech Melkamu in the African Games for her first 5,000m defeat since September 2006, Defar otherwise enjoyed an outstanding season in 2007.

“My focus this year was always going to Beijing,” she said in reference to her time out from international competition this year.

“I just had two bad races this year in Addis Ababa (in the African Games) and Eugene (Oregon in the Prefontaine Classic),” Defar said, quoted by the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body.

“It was not a bad year at all, but I am happy to go the Olympics in good form after illness earlier in the year.”

In anticipation of some withering weather conditions in Beijing, Defar and her long-distance running team-mates have changed their training routines to include warm-weather sessions in Debrezeit, 45 kilometres from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

And Defar, who won gold in the 2004 Games despite being giving a starting spot only when Berhane Adere was dropped for disciplinary reasons, acknowledged a second Olympic title would not come easy.

“Nothing I have achieved so far compares to my victory in Athens four years ago,” she said. “It has changed my career and my life. It has also inspired many girls from Addis Ababa to take up the sport.

“But it is as difficult to win it for the second time. I know the world will be watching and everyone will be preparing to peak in these Games.”

However, Defar added she had not tired of top-class athletics.

“I want to win these titles over and over again. I want to win everything that is on offer and break every record there is to break.”

The Beijing Olympics was opened with an extravagant ceremony yesterday. It was indeed the mother of all shows. Athletes from a record 204 countries marched proudly through the stadium carrying flags of their respective countries. Of course we eagerly awaited our Ethiopian athletes to do the same. Instead, when Ethiopia’s turn came, what we saw is reflective of the current ethnic politics in Ethiopia dominated by the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne).

Ethiopia’s superstar athletes such as Haile Gebreselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and others were no where to be found among the Ethiopian delegation. Instead, the flag (with that ugly Woyanne logo in the middle) was carried by Miruts Yifter, a great Ethiopian athlete from the 1970s, followed by Ato Seyoum Bereded, a Woyanne cadre who has never done any sport in his life, and some individuals from Tigray whom we have never seen compete in any international athletic event. It is obvious that the only reason Miruts, who had retired from athletics some 25 years ago, was selected to carry the flag is that he is a Tigrean. In short, the so-called ‘Ethiopian delegation’ at the opening ceremony did not reflect Ethiopia at all. It was a delegation from one ethnic group where the ruling party claims to come from.

Under the Woyanne minority rule, ethnic politics is injected in every part of life in the country — politics, business, arts, religion, and yes even the Olympics.

(firstcoastnews.com) JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — Doctors at Wolfson Children’s Hospital are working to save the life of an infant girl from Ethiopia.

Baby ‘Rute’ arrived in Jacksonville Thursday night after a 17-hour flight from Africa into New York, followed by the flight to the First Coast.

She was accompanied by Hilda Ettedgui, the wife of Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon Jose Ettedgui, and co-founder of the children’s foundation, “Patrons of the Hearts.”

Baby Rute has a heart condition that would likely take her life in the coming months or years. Despite her 15-month age, the child weighs just 15-pounds.

Doctors at Wolfson were scheduled to do a thorough examination of the child Friday to determine if she needs heart surgery, or if the condition can be repaired through catheterization.

Her stay in the United States could last anywhere from four weeks to two months, depending on the prescribed course of treatment.

The girl’s parents were not able to accompany her on the journey.