A six-member high-level delegation of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) headed by Ato Hailu Shawel will depart Ethiopia for the United States on August 20, according to Ethiopian Review sources.
The delegates include Ato Hailu Shawel (president), Wzr Bertukan Mideksa (vice president), Dr Hailu Araya (spokesperson), Dr Berhanu Nega (Mayor of Addis Ababa), Ato Gizachew Shiferraw (executive committee member), and Ato Brook Kebede (executive committee member).
The Kinijit executive committee has also decided that the initial receiving of the delegation will be coordinated by a three-member team including Dr Alemayehu G. Mariam, Ato Tamagn Beyene, and Ato Solomon Alemu, with the collaboration and assistance of Kinijit North America.
The executive committee, in a letter sent out today (በአማርኛ, pdf), asked the Kinijit North America support groups to assist the three individuals in organizing Kinijit supporters and the Ethiopian community to provide a warm reception for the delegates when they arrive in Washington DC.
The delegation plans to visit several cities in the United States. Kinijit North America support groups are expected to take over the coordination of the tour following their initial arrival at the United States.
(Reuters) The Woyanne regime in Ethiopia said it had killed more than 500 rebels and captured 170 in the past two months during an offensive in the volatile but energy-rich Ogaden region bordering Somalia.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) dismissed the statement as an attempt by the Government to lull oil companies interested in the region into a “false sense of security”, and urged foreign firms to stay away.
The local president of Ogaden, Abdullahi Hassan Mohammed, said Ethiopian security forces had killed 502 ONLF fighters in a two-month military campaign against the “terrorists.”
“Rebel activities in the region have been eliminated,” he added.
But the ONLF said the Government was trying to hide the fact that it had lost control of Ogaden.
“Pursuing oil and natural gas exploration activities in Ogaden at this stage can only be characterised as gross corporate irresponsibility,” the rebels said.
“Recent claims that the Government has been able to realise military gains are designed to give a false sense of security to oil companies,” the ONLF added.
Also, an Ogaden-based rights group urged the US and the European Union to intervene to stop what it said were killings, rapes, torture and starvation carried out or caused by Ethiopian troops.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee, which calls itself independent, urged the UN to censure Addis Ababa and to designate a safe haven for those fleeing “senseless carnage.”
“The Ethiopian Government should be held responsible for mass killings, disappearances, rape, arbitrary arrests, torture,” the group said.
Citing victims’ accounts, the group said it had documented 2395 extrajudicial killings, 1945 rapes and 3091 forced disappearances in the region since 1991, when the current government came to power.
“The government encourages, decorates and promotes violators to higher ranks,” the report said.
The Ethiopian Somali Advocacy Council (ESAC)
Washington, Dc
Press Release
The inhuman attack on a market and religious place, a church, in Jigjiga, in the capital of Somali Region shows that the authoritarian regime of Meles Zenawi is on his last leg. History has showed that the last resort of dictator is to use a tactic to diverting the attention from his horrendous and barbaric act. Meles Zenawi, who imposed Gestapo style of ruling on Ethiopian Somalis, is employed all kind of tactic to export his own internal crisis to another dimension of an ephemeral political element, terrorism.
A reliable resource from the capital of Somali Region has allegly indicated that the Ethiopian regime is the primary culprit of this barbaric acts. The Federal government of Ethiopia is blocking food and other basic necessities that the ordinary people are badly needed. Ethiopian TV has showed many innocent and poor young Ethiopian Somali rounded up in the name of fighting terrorism and destabilizing factors, but Meles Zenawi’s long repressive arm will not stop the aspiration of Ethiopian Somali.
As Boston Globe simply put in its editorial of this week, THE UNITED STATES is expanding its military presence in the Horn of Africa in an attempt to counteract terrorist groups in the region. But military activity is not the way to achieve that goal. Instead, the United States needs to put more effort into solving the outstanding political dispute there: the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, involving all Somalis clan in peace and reconciliation in Somalia, and allowing freedom of speech of all Ethiopian political organizations.
As one Somali elderly eloquently sum up, “we thought that the demise of cold war will herald a new democracy and rule of law in Horn of Africa, but we, Somalis, are condemned to live in constant war by simply being a neighbor of Ethiopia that is ruled by Meles Zenawi.”
It is not altogether difficult to understand those who rhapsodize on democracy as the preferred form of government in the contemporary world. The collapse of the ‘totalitarian’ regimes in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s thereby heralding ballot-box democracy, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, the right to be different and all the other appurtenances of democratic praxis, would seem to have confirmed Churchill’s euphoria.
If for the better part of the 20th century, we had lived in a divided world of competing ideologies, we were henceforth to be treated to a monochromatic diet of liberal democracy and human rights, symbolized by periodic elections based on free enterprise capitalism. But, the new component, terrorism has ushered a hot war in this era of globalization and the dictator regime of Meles Zenawi is using its utmost this component in Horn of Africa.
Meles regime has been ruling for 17 years. It is about time that he relinquishes the power peacefully. In 2005, Kinijit has defeated Meles political accolade in Addis Ababa and his new chieftain of kilil will not silence the genuine struggle of Ethiopian Somalis, Oromos, Afar and Gambelas. A real federal system that allows regional autonomy is badly needed, not the one party system ruling of EPRDF.
The Western world and particularly the United States can help by putting more pressure on Ethiopia, a de facto ally and the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. We, Ethiopian Somali Advocacy Council urge our call to all international peace loving people that Meles Regime has to stop harassing innocent people in the regional Somali State.
The Ethiopian Somali Advocacy Council (ESAC) is a non-partisan organization that promotes democracy, good governance and human rights in the Horn of Africa region. 1340 W Street, NW, Washington, Dc 20009, Telephone 202-204-2758, Fax number 202-588-0559 www.galbeed.com
Recent sensational claims by the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia that it has been able to realize military gains in Ogaden have no basis in reality and are designed to give a false sense of security to oil companies being urged
by the regime not to abandon their exploration plans in Ogaden.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) would like to make clear that our forces are largely intact,
operational and effective. We also wish to confirm that the regime of Melez Zenawi does not have effective
control of Ogaden, a factor which has contributed to their policy of denying entry to international journalists and expulsion of the ICRC.
Pursuing oil and natural gas exploration activities in Ogaden at this stage can only be characterized as
gross corporate irresponsibility given the war crimes being committed against our civilian population.
The ONLF will continue to uphold the principle of justice, democracy and respect for human rights before oil exploration in Ogaden and as such, we will not allow this regime to benefit from our peoples natural resources.
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Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia earned more than $1.3 billion from exports in 2006/07, missing its $1.5 billion target owing to price fluctuations in international markets, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Tuesday. [How much of it went to EFFORT (Woyanne’s business conglomerate) and Al Amoudi?]
Africa’s leading coffee exporter also paid a total of $4.7 billion for imports ranging from industrial machines to fuel during the same period, the ministry’s Export Promotion Department said in a report.
Ethiopia generated $1.1 billion from exports and paid $3.6 billion for imported goods in 2005/06.
“The country’s major export commodities in 2006/07 fell far short of anticipated revenue, thus generating less than the planned $1.5 billion,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Ethiopia exported 176,390 tonnes of coffee earning $424 million in 2006/07, up from the 153,155 tonnes that grossed $365.8 million in 2005/6, but lower than a projected $488 million, the ministry said.
Oil seeds and spices fetched $267.5 million, below a forecast income of $343.7 million.
“Most commodities underperformed, causing the country’s annual foreign currency revenue to be less than anticipated,” it said.
Africa’s second most populous country is the one of the world’s poorest, with millions of its 81 million people dependent on food aid.
The government is keen to tackle poverty by boosting the agricultural sector upon which most of its citizens depend, particularly exports.
Meat and live animal exports were hurt by a ban slapped on Ethiopia from its major traditional buyer United Arab Emirates last November, following scares over an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in neighbouring Kenya, the ministry said.
But gold and coffee exceeded government expectations. The country exported 5.58 tonnes of gold, about a third more than anticipated.
Export earnings from 11.7 tonnes of cotton fetched $14.3 million, compared with a projected $8.9 million.
A six-member high-level delegation of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) headed by Ato Hailu Shawel will depart Ethiopia for the United States on August 20, according to Ethiopian Review sources.