Prominent Ethiopian lawyer Shakespear Feyissa had confronted U.S. top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, with tough questions about her support for Africa’s dictators at a public meeting in Seattle last week.
Ato Shakespear asked the ambassador about her close friendship with and strong support for mass murderers like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia who are terrorizing their people. Watch the video below.
Dr Berhanu Nega, former senior leader of Ethiopia’s major opposition party, Kinijit, and Mayor-Elect of Addis Ababa, is heading to the U.K. today to meet with Ethiopians in London.
The public meeting, which is being organized by Kinijit supporters in the U.K., will be held on Sunday at Priory Community Center starting at 2:00 PM local time.
Dr Admassu Gebeyehu, former vice chairman of Kinijit, who is currently residing in Sweden, will join Dr Berhanu at the meeting.
Dr Berhanu Nega is currently leading a newly formed political organization named ‘Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice and Democracy.’
Ginbot 7 was formed on May 15 last month by Dr Berhanu, Ato Andargachew Tsege and other former senior leaders of Kinijit who have reached the conclusion that it is impossible to wage a peaceful political struggle inside Ethiopia against the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front led by Meles Zenawi, who is also known as the Butcher of Addis Ababa and Mogadishu.
Place: Priory Community Centre, Acton Lane, London W3
Date/Time: Sunday, June 8, 2007, from 1400-1900 PM
Fore more info click here
Concerned Ethiopians in Washington DC have written an open letter to Aba Kewstos asking him to provide report about the funds he had collected for repairing Ethiopian monasteries in Jerusalem, Israel, that are said to be falling apart.
A few months ago, Aba Kewstos had been collecting money from Ethiopian Orthodox Christians residing in the Washington DC area saying that the monasteries are in need of urgent repair, or else they would be permanently lost.
However, many of those who had contributed money for the purpose of repairing these monasteries are now asking questions after hearing that the monasteries are still not being repaired. In fact, not a penny has been spent so far for repair.
The Ethiopian monasteries in Jerusalem are Ethiopia’s national treasures, on top of their religious significance, but they are totally neglected by the so-called “patriarch” in Ethiopia who has just finished building another rental property for his personal use in Addis Ababa. A few years ago he had built a golden palace for his residence.
Aba Kewstos is said to have been sent to Washington DC from Ethiopia by this fake patriarch, Aba Gebremedhin (formerly Aba Paulos), a Woyanne cadre and a thief who should be in jail for numerous crimes, including the murder of innocent civilians.
Read the open letter to Aba Kewstos here [pdf, Amharic]
The Ethiopian community in northern Virginia is in shock today after learning about the killing of Metsihet Belete, a resident of Arlington, Virginia, who is originally from Ethiopia.
Arlington Police have arrested Metsihet’s husband, Sirak Gebeyehu, 27, who is suspected of choking her to death.
Metsihet was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon after the effort by doctors to revive her for the past two days has failed.
Metsihet, 24, had been in the U.S. for the past two years. Six months ago, she had succeeded in bringing to the U.S. her husband, Sirak, and their 3-year old son Ezra, from Ethiopia, after saving enough money working as a waitress.
Metsihet had been working at Lalibela Restaurant in Arlington VA ever since she came to the U.S.
Police are investigating the motive for her killing.
Residents and community leaders in western Ethiopia say thousands of people in several border regions have been displaced by Sudanese troops in recent weeks, following what they describe as a secret, illegal deal between the governments in Addis Ababa and Khartoum. Critics say the secret deal to demarcate the border gives Sudan the right to occupy areas Ethiopians historically consider sacrosanct. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
A former regional official in the southwestern Gambella region, Omod Oman Obono, tells VOA that as many as 2,000 people have been displaced there in recent weeks in on-going clashes between residents and Sudanese soldiers.
Omod says troops from Sudan have built military camps in Gambella and in other areas north to protect territory handed over to Khartoum by the Ethiopian government sometime last year. He says Sudanese soldiers in Gambella are chasing away local people and inviting people on the Sudanese side of the border to settle in Ethiopian villages.
Last month in the Gondar region of western Ethiopia, the Sudanese army reportedly set fire to two dozen Ethiopian farms and imprisoned 34 people. Residents say 28 are still being held in Sudan.
The deal to demarcate the 1,600-kilometer-long border was not announced. But rumors that a deal had been struck began to spread early last month after high-level officials in Khartoum confirmed that farmers in eastern Sudan were reclaiming disputed lands from Ethiopia. On May 21, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly denied that any Ethiopian had been displaced as a result of what he termed the acquisition of a portion of Ethiopian land by Sudan.
The news of a boundary settlement shocked many Ethiopians, who consider the ceded Ethiopian land to be historically and culturally theirs. The existing border between the two countries was drawn up more than a century ago when Sudan was under British colonial rule.
A U.S.-based advocacy group called the Ethiopia and Sudan Border Issue Committee accuses Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of illegally ceding territory without the consent of the Ethiopian people.
Ethiopia and Sudan Border Issue Committee chairman Fiseha Abebe tells VOA that his group will try to nullify the boundary settlement through the courts. He warns that Ethiopians will never accept what Mr. Meles has done.
“He did not even mention what he was doing until we exposed him,” said
Abebe. “In some places, they have given up about 50 miles inside Ethiopia and in other places, about 30 miles. There is going to be a big backlash. This is going to be impossible for any Ethiopian to accept this type of situation.”
The Ethiopian government has not said why it decided to demarcate the border with Sudan at this time.
Both governments in Ethiopia and Sudan are embroiled in complicated domestic and regional conflicts, stretching from Sudan’s western Darfur region to Somalia.
Until he started making news as a possible contender for the US presidency, Barack Obama, who this week won the Democratic ticket in the White House race, was almost unknown in Ethiopia. Now, he has a huge fan club in the country, with one of his greatest fans being Ms Birtukan Mideksa, former deputy chair of Ethiopia’s opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party.
Mideksa, who was jailed by the government of Meles Zenawi for two years for “treason and inciting genocide” said that George W. Bush’s administration backed the Zenawi government despite its “betrayal of Ethiopia’s democratisation effort in 2005”.
Mideksa is inspired by Obama’s promise of change and hopes that, if Obama becomes president, the US will be more willing to nudge Mr Zenawi in a more liberal political direction.
“Senator Obama is an agent of change. I am sure he would restore basic civil rights, which many are being denied in the name of war on terror all over the world,” she said. “I am highly impressed by his determination, courage and wisdom. He is my role model and I have fallen in love with his philosophy of change.”
She said she hoped African leaders would learn from Obama how to win the hearts of their people and also respect their rivals instead of fomenting hatred and confrontation.
Meanwhile, Abreham Kumela, a young NGO worker, has been nicknamed “Obama” because of his strong support for the Illinois senator.
“He is not a politician; he advocates tolerance. He teaches us all how to effect change,” Kumela said, explaining his admiration for Obama.
He pointed out that, although Ethiopians at home will not vote in the American elections, he is campaigning among the thousands of Ethiopians in the US, who are also raising funds for Obama, to vote for Obama.
“Obama is bigger than just an politician with African roots; he is a symbol of tolerance and multiculturalism,” Kumela said.
Equally hopeful, but on for different reasons, was Dr Costentinos Berhe, former UN adviser to Nigeria. He believes that, if elected president, Obama might just solve the complex situation in the Horn of Africa.
“The war on terror should not just be a military project,” said Berhe. “It should also address the cultural, social and political changes in this part of the world. “I hope that, because of his African heritage, Senator Obama realises that this change is necessary.”
Human rights
When Obama spent a day in Ethiopia during his African tour in 2006, many Ethiopians realised that he did not support the actions of the current Ethiopian regime. His support for the Bill accusing Ethiopia of having a poor human rights record and proposing serious sanctions, including aid cuts, helped strengthen that view.
Indeed, Dr Rewodros Kiros, an Ethiopian lecturer at Harvard University, US, argues that Obama’s victory might be disastrous for régimes like Ethiopia’s, which do not respect human rights.
Evne in Uganda, where the British Premier football league is a must-watch for many, Obama is as recognisable as the premiership superstars.
“I support Obama for ethnic reasons,” said a university lecturer. He is a black man doing something extraordinary.
In the capital, Kampala, Obama merchandise is highly visible, from locally made T-shirts bearing the senator’s picture and the words “Change you can believe in”, to bumper stickers.
Masaka town, 130 kilometres Kampala, has even named a road after the US Presidential candidate.
“Obama Boulevard”, though not a boulevard in the ordinary sense of the word, was the brainchild of a local businessman, Frank Gashumba, who together with his neighbours, decided to bestow the honour on the Illinois senator.
“Obama has shown us all that you can come from a humble background and give the entire world hope. He makes you proud [to be] black,” the businessman said.
Meteoric rise
Younger educated Ugandans have formed an Obama fan club. And their name, Ugandans for Obama, gives a notable ring to the senator’s meteoric rise in American politics. The founder, Bernard Sabiti, said he was inspired to form the group when he found people in a bar asking, “How is a Kenyan going to rule America?” The group mainly comprises university students with access to the Internet, where they campaign for him.
Another group, the Obama Support Group, says it admires Obama because of his oratorical skills and inspiration. Their aim is to lobby Ugandan-Americans as well as US citizens in Uganda to vote for Obama. Excitement about Obama’s candidature is also evident in neighbouring Tanzania, where many people view him as one of their own. After all, his father was a Luo from Kenya, but Luos are also found in Tanzania, some argue. The Obama-mania cuts across the different sectors of society, with many city commuter taxis now having the name “Obama” emblazoned on them.
As news of Obama’s victory in the Democratic party nomination spread in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, a local fan, Ave-Maria given remarked: “At least America can have a president who is one of our own!”
Peter Tumaini-Mungu, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, gave a somewhat philosophical explanation for his support for Obama.
“Being a person of African origin might not be that important,” he said. “Obama’s policies towards Africa are ambitious, and he has a keen interest in the continent. That is something a person of any origin can have.”
The lecturer, who has attended several Obama campaign in the US, says Obama is a passionate and visionary whom the world needs to make it a better place.
“Obama articulates his policies in favour of the poor and the marginalised, something both Africa and Tanzania need,” he said.
And in West Africa, The Lagos State House of Assembly in Nigeria in April this year launched a website to popularise the Illinois senator and campaign for his White House bid.
During the launch, Lagos was turned into an “Obama state”, with taxis draped with banners bearing the senator’s pictures. Their Vote Obama Initiative website explains their stand thus: “Though without a voting right in the ongoing party primaries of the Democrats in the USA, like everybody around the world, we are very much involved because of the global implications the outcome of the elections would have on the world.
“We are particularly thrilled by Obama’s feat because, for the very first time in the history of the US, he has successfully broken the colour bar. We are even more thrilled that white voters can rally forcefully behind this charismatic black man in his quest to become the first black president in the most powerful nation on earth.
Like Martin Luther King Jr said, today he is no longer being judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character, which has propelled him from near obscurity to international limelight.
In Barack Obama, the agitations of early black nationalists such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and so many others found concrete expressions as he attains leverage in the political calculation of the US that would no longer ignore Afro-Americans and their electoral strength. To us, this is a feat worthy of celebration as the dawn of a new era.”
Obama spell
So potent is the Obama spell that a group of militant youths in Nigeria’s Niger Delta were taken in by the tricks of a creative-minded security agent who, left with no answer to the fire power of the militiamen, decided to send them a message they could not ignore. He simply sent an e-mail purportedly from Obama, in which he asked that the militants stop the war in the area.
Surprisingly, the militants agreed and announced to the world that Obama had been requested to observe a ceasefire by a person they could not defy!
World oil prices were just starting to fall when the real Obama denied that he was the one who asked for a ceasefire. The young men of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta returned to their trenches immediately.
Obama also enjoys huge support in Ghana, where Godwin Yaw Agboka, a columnist, tried to explain his appeal thus: “Obama appears to have a magic wand that appeals to the youth, independents, and liberals. For the first tim, in many decades, the expectations among voters, are reaching boiling point — call it a crescendo. Voters seem to want things to change in Washington. Obama represents the change they want. Forget about the fact that he is black. Obama has transcended race. He talks about hope, and believes that ‘there is nothing false about hope’. He knows how to say the right things at the right time”.
African initiative
With Obama now the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, one can expect the African Initiative for Obama group to swing into action – selling posters, caps, and other merchandise, all to support him.
The group has affiliates across West Africa, and plans to spread throughout the continent.
On Tuesday, its chairman and continental coordinator, Elvis Agukwe, told Daily Nation in Abuja that in about a week, they will approach church leaders and Imams to ask their congregations to begin special prayers for God to guide Americans in their choice of president.
Beyond the buzz, however, Obama has clearly touched something profound among many Africans. As Patricia Jebbah Wesley, a Liberian poet, puts it, “It is a good thing that I am alive to see all of this, and it is a good thing that you are reading this ,and you too, are alive to record this for your children”.
Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network Project