The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s (EOTC) Holy Synod has called on the people of Ethiopia to stay away from any millennium celebration unless the elected leaders of Ethiopia are released from prison.
The Holy Synod warned the Woyanne regime that its decision to harm and do injustice against the elected representatives of the people of Ethiopia will have grave consequences.
ER obtained this email regarding postponement of the planned events at the Woyanne embassy in Washington DC
From: The Whitaker Group, [email protected]
Date: Jun 19, 2007 1:11 PM
Subject: Postponement of Ethiopia and Starbucks Events – June 20, 2007 events
To: x
This is to inform you that the press event at the Ethiopian Embassy as well as the reception at the Ambassador’s residence, which were scheduled for this Wednesday, 20th June 2007, are postponed until later this summer due to scheduling difficulties.
The Embassy, along with the Whitaker Group, would like to express sincere apologies for any inconvenience. We will keep you informed of any upcoming events.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement, June 19, 2007
An Ethiopian court on 11 June convicted 38 defendants part-way through the long-running trial of leaders of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party, journalists and civil society activists. The 38 had refused to submit a defence, as they considered they would not receive a fair trial. Following the completion of the prosecution case, the judges declared the 38 “guilty as charged,” as well as five people abroad who were tried in their absence, and three publishing companies. The trial continues for nine defendants who will submit their defence.
The 38 were convicted of political offences which carry a possible death penalty or long prison terms. The prosecution is due to propose sentences on 9 July but no date has been given for the judges’ subsequent sentencing.
All were convicted of “outrages against the constitution”, some for “obstruction of the constitutional process” and “impairing the defensive power of the state”, and five for “inciting, organising or leading armed rebellion”.
Those convicted, in prison for 18 months already, include Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, aged 76, founder and former president of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council; Dr Berhanu Negga, elected Mayor of Addis Ababa and an economics professor; Dr Yakob Hailemariam, law professor and former UN prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; Ms Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge; and Andualem Ayele, editor of Etiop newspaper. They are among others on trial whom Amnesty International considers to be prisoners of conscience, imprisoned on account of peacefully exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and association.
The trial continues for nine other defendants and a publishing company facing similar charges, who are due to present their defence on 12 July. They include civil society activists Daniel Bekele of the international development agency ActionAid, Netsanet Demissie of the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia, two journalists and an elected opposition member of parliament. Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience.
This major political trial, which opened in May 2006, relates to demonstrations in June and November 2005 protesting against alleged election fraud. The demonstrations began peacefully but ended with government forces shooting dead a total of 193 people, and wounding 765 men, women and children.
Earlier on 10 April 2007, 28 defendants had been freed when the judges ruled they had no case to answer after the prosecution had presented its case. Four other trials of CUD members and supporters are also continuing in Addis Ababa. The trial of Kifle Tigeneh, a prisoner of conscience and one of 10 opposition party members who were elected to parliament in May 2005, is adjourned until 29 October.
Amnesty International reiterates its call for the unconditional release of the prisoners of conscience still on trial. It also expresses its concern at the possibility that the prosecution may call for death sentences and that the judges may impose the death penalty, although the organization notes the reported statement made by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that there would be no death sentences.
Amnesty International is also continuing to monitor the trial to assess whether it is conducted in accordance with international standards of fair trial.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre today signed the contract with Lattanzi SRL construction company to begin the re-erection of the Aksum obelisk. Also known as Stela 2, it is the second largest stela on the Aksum World Heritage site in Ethiopia. Transported to Rome by the troops of Mussolini in 1937, it was returned by the Italian Government in April 2005. Weighing 150 tons and 24 meters high, the obelisk was cut into three pieces and transported by Antonov airplanes to Aksum. The obelisk was deposited in the stelae field, near its original location.
The obelisk is around 1,700 years old and has become a symbol of the Ethiopian people’s identity. The significance of its return after 68 years, and the technical feat of transporting the obelisk and re-erecting it on site are on a par with other historic UNESCO projects, such as Abu Simbel, where entire Egyptian temples were removed from their original location to protect them from rising water due to the construction of the Aswan dam.
The total budget for the project is USD$2,833,985, funded by the Italian Government who also financed the transportation of the obelisk and the related studies undertaken by UNESCO in collaboration with the Ethiopian authorities and experts. Lattanzi has begun mobilizing its staff and equipment, and shall start the works as of mid July. The works will take place in two segments throughout a period of 18 months. During the first segment, a foundation for the obelisk will be built as well as a temporary steel tower for lifting the separate parts of the obelisk. In the second phase, the steel structure will be put in place and the obelisk lifted and placed in position. Finally, the surface of the obelisk will be cleaned and restored, and the steel support structure dismantled and removed.
The ruins of the ancient city of Aksum in the North East of Ethiopia mark the location of the Kingdom of Aksum, the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. The massive ruins of Aksum date from between the 1st and the 13th century A.D. The monolithic stelae were erected during the third and fourth centuries A.D. as funerary markers for deceased members of its elite. Aksum was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1980.
The Ethiopian authorities plan to mark the end of their Ethiopian calendar year 2000 celebrations, held on 11 September 2008, by inaugurating the standing obelisk.
For more detailed information on the technical aspects and planning of the works, please see the attached file below.
Sponsored by Senator DECKERT; Senator GORDLY, Representative HUNT (at the request of Ethiopian-American Association of Portland)
To the President of the United States, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas the noble people of Ethiopia have developed and nourished a proud and distinguished culture that has endured for three millennia; and
Whereas Ethiopia has had a long and productive friendship with the United States of America; and
Whereas over the past three decades, the brave and gentle people of Ethiopia have been devastated by famine and wars; and
Whereas the people of the United States have responded generously to the plight of the Ethiopian famine victims through the provision of humanitarian aid; and
Whereas Ethiopia, poised at a crucial juncture in its history, is making a dramatic effort to replace tyranny with democracy; and
Whereas the people of Ethiopia are aspiring to resolve their political problems through the formation and utilization of democratic institutions; and
Whereas the basic underpinnings of democratic institutions in the new Ethiopia should be the supremacy of the will of the people and the guarantee of the rule of law; and
Whereas the Ethiopian government should adhere to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that encourages freedom of speech, assembly, religion and press, guarantees all basic human rights, and discourages ethnocentric politics; and
Whereas it is crucial that the diverse voices, opinions and philosophies of the Ethiopian people be expressed in the promotion of political, economic and social progress and justice in Ethiopia; and
Whereas a democratic, multiparty government may be the most egalitarian, feasible and productive political arrangement in providing universal suffrage and overcoming monumental obstacles; and
Whereas the President of the United States and Congress will play a crucial role in promoting the peaceful resolution of the immense problems of war-ravaged Ethiopia; and
Whereas the implementation of a democratic, multiparty government in Ethiopia should be a long-range foreign policy goal of the United States government; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
(1) The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Oregon:
a) Encourage the formation of democratic institutions, multiparty participation, progressive social change and respect for human rights in Ethiopia.
(b) Condemn the ongoing, state-sponsored violence against the opposition in Ethiopia and are outraged that the ruling party’s security forces killed 199 unarmed and defenseless protesters on June 6 to 8, 2005, and that to this date an investigation into those killings has not been conducted.
(c) Respectfully urge the President of the United States and Congress to reexamine the foreign policy toward Ethiopia and to promote an active foreign policy that declares that the United States does not tolerate dictators that oppress and abuse their citizens.
(d) Respectfully urge the President of the United States to encourage the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to guarantee the safety and security of elected opposition leaders, to release from prison all students, journalists and members and supporters of the opposition parties, and to respect the democratic opposition’s right to public assembly and access to publicly owned media.
(e) Respectfully urge the President of the United States and Congress to help avert the potentially explosive situation in Ethiopia by supporting a peaceful transitional arrangement.
(2) A copy of this memorial shall be forwarded to President George W. Bush, the leadership of the United States Congress, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and His Excellency the
Ethiopian Ambassador Samuel Assefa.
PRESS RELEASE FROM MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, IN ADDIS ABABA, REGARDING THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORT ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE OGADEN REGION OF ETHIOPIA
PRESS RELEASE
On Jeffery Gettleman and the New York Times
19.6.2007
In May, Jeffery Gettleman, a journalist from the New York Times with two colleagues, was expelled from Ethiopia. The group had specifically asked to visit Ethiopia as tourists, not as journalists, and had requested assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain tourist visas. It was given. Mr. Gettleman also contacted the Ministry for assistance when there was a query over his camera equipment at the airport. Again, it was given. His subsequent behavior then mimicked that of an intelligence officer, or even a secret agent, rather than that of a reporter. He even crossed the international border into Somalia and then returned to Ethiopia clandestinely. Indeed, as his report makes it clear he had an agenda, not the aim of producing the sort of balanced and fair report that readers of the New York Times might expect. Mr. Gettleman is clearly angry that he was arrested and detained by security forces even though he was hardly behaving in a way that New York Times journalists normally behave outside Africa. His writing reflects this.
The most offensive, and unacceptable, element in Mr. Gettleman’s reporting is the way in which he embellishes claims of terrorists. Indeed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs finds it intolerable that Mr. Gettleman is prepared to try to make terrorists appear to look like rebels with a cause, to make heroes out of a terrorist group whose latest exploit in April was to slaughter indiscriminately dozens of civilian workers at the Adole oil exploration site. Most of the 65 Ethiopians and 9 Chinese technicians massacred there were killed while they slept. This was a straightforward terrorist atrocity. For the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) to justify this with a claim that warnings had been given against oil exploration in the region is simply unacceptable. There can be no justification for the deliberate and indiscriminate killing of civilian workers; the dead included a three year old child. Such comments are particularly outrageous when families of those
murdered are still in mourning.
The Ethiopian government refers to members of the ONLF as terrorists because that is exactly what they are. Their activity cannot be justified as Mr. Gettleman tries to do, by quoting ONLF claims of government atrocities, real or imagined. The ONLF have, over several years, been responsible for a succession of bombings, assassinations, and the laying of land-mines, frequently aimed at civilians and targeting members of rival clans. Traditional leaders and clan elders critical of the ONLF have been particular targets. This cannot, by any stretch of imagination be identified as a liberation struggle. It is terrorism, pure and simple.
Mr. Gettleman’s article makes no effort to provide any understanding of the political situation in the self-administering Somali Regional State of Ethiopia. He totally ignores government’s efforts to talk to the ONLF, and makes no reference to the delegation of Ogaden clan elders who unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the ONLF leadership abroad last year, in the UK, Sweden and Denmark – in fact, the ONLF has never been interested in participating in the political process. Mr. Gettleman fails to comment on the ONLF’s membership of the opposition “Alliance for Freedom and Democracy”, set up under the auspices of Eritrea last year. It was then the ONLF leadership removed itself from London to Eritrea. Hundreds of ONLF fighters were trained and armed in Eritrea before being sent to the Ogaden via the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu in October and November last year.
Mr. Gettleman shows no interest in Eritrean involvement with, and support for, the ONLF, or in what the Eritrean government is trying to do in its attempts to destabilize Ethiopia. All this is surely relevant to his supposed story. Instead, Mr. Gettleman quotes US Congressman Donald Payne whose recent pronouncements about Ethiopia and Somalia have demonstrated a serious lack of up-to-date information about Ethiopia. Indeed, it is far from clear that facts matter much for Congressman Payne. He knows very well that to describe Ethiopia as a country which has no respect for democracy is completely fallacious. [abet wushet!] Ethiopia has gradually moved through various stages of democracy in the last 16 years, culminating in the first real competitive multi-party elections in 2005. Despite some controversial elements, including the deeply regretted riots and deaths in June and November 2005, these were largely successful. We now have a functional, indeed, lively, opposition in parliament, and a parliamentary body to which the administration is now answerable.
In his continuing efforts to defame Ethiopia, Mr. Gettleman quotes ONLF fighters on the situation of the region through which he was traveling. He repeats their claims there is no education, no development in the Somali Regional State, and talks of “huddles of bubble-shaped huts” passing for towns. We would certainly accept the level of development in the Somali state remains low, but even Mr. Gettleman’s brief visits to Jigjiga and Deghabur, should have given the lie to such nonsense. Towns in the region like Jigjiga, Deghabur, Kebridar, Gode and others are certainly not collections of huts. They have substantially built schools, mosques, health centers, administrative buildings. There is a university in Jigjiga which currently has nearly 1000 students; as of 2005 there were 23 secondary schools in the region, and some 700 primary schools.
Ethiopian troops have not been gang-raping women, burning down huts or killing civilians at will. [It is the Woyanne soldiers who are doing that]. Ideed, given the ONLF’s recent actions at Adole, the latter is a particularly outrageous claim. The Ethiopian army takes very seriously any such claims and investigates any and all accusations that are made against its troops.
Mr. Gettleman’s failure even to attempt to produce a balanced picture of recent events in the Somali regional state, and the clandestine nature of his visit, makes clear he remains angry that he was arrested and detained. He should not be. He was not on any legitimate news-gathering assignment. He had requested a visa to visit tourist sites in the north of the country, and gave no indication he wished to travel into the Somali regional state. His sudden appearance in Deghabur, close to the site of the terrorist massacre at Adole a few weeks earlier, was a surprise to local authorities, all the more so as Mr. Gettleman had left Ethiopia, crossing into Somalia, and then re-entered Ethiopia illegally. Given the state of alert following the atrocity at Adole, the arrival of three journalists pretending to be tourists, inevitably led to suspicion. Since Mr. Gettleman and his group were planning to make contact with the terrorists responsible for those killings, it is hardly surprising that the group were arrested.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is always ready to welcome journalists on legitimate news gathering assignments, journalists who are prepared to display the responsibility, integrity and truthfulness we would expect from employees of a newspaper with the reputation of the New York Times, though this has had to admit to a number of serious errors on occasions. Four years ago, one journalist was forced to resign following the discovery that he had committed a whole series of journalistic frauds. Mr. Gettleman’s reporting has seriously tarnished the reputation of himself and of the New York Times. It will certainly make it harder for Ethiopia to believe in the integrity of western news outlets. It leads to suspicion that the New York Times, like others, has double standards with regard to reporting about Africa, and the way their reporters behave in Africa.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, 19 June 2007
; "Ethiopian priest in front of stela N° 2 Aksum archaeological site")
