Renowned Ethiopian pianist and composer Girma Yefrashewa will perform at Howard University, Washington DC, on March 1st, 2008. Click to enlarge the poster below.
Africans cannot live and work in their own continent because of the vampire leaders like Meles Zenawi.
(Associated Press) – Police on Monday detained about 200 Africans who infiltrated the country through the porous border with Egypt in recent months, a police official said, a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a crackdown on illegal migrants.
Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about 200 illegal migrants, mostly from Sudan, were arrested in a raid near the old bus station in Tel Aviv, where many of the immigrants live.
Rosenfeld said the arrests would continue this week.
The shelters that home migrants in southern Tel Aviv were nearly empty after the raid, with hundreds of barren mattresses laid side by side in smelly underground dwellings, as illegals kept a low profile to avoid arrest.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said those with permits would be released, and those whose refugee status is being reviewed by the UN would get a limited stay, while the others would be deported.
Solomon Mangstie-Dayan, a 40-year-old migrant from Ethiopia who crossed into Israel nine days ago, said police officers raided his shelter, seizing fellow African migrants and hurrying them onto three buses. He said he was spared only because of the cries of his 3-year-old daughter, Sunight.
Sigal Rozen, of the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv, who represents the migrants, said authorities were shipping some of the arrested migrants to a prison in southern Israel.
Government statistics show about 100,000 legal foreign workers in Israel. At least 100,000 others, many from Africa, work in Israel without permits, according to experts.
Africans have been sneaking into Israel in increasing numbers over the past year. More than 7,000 have entered the country illegally through its border with Egypt in just over a year, including more than 2,000 so far in 2008, said Michael Bavly, a representative in Israel of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Most are from Sudan – including southern Sudan, where a 22-year conflict left 2.5 million people dead, as well as Darfur, where a rebellion has cost more than 200,000 civilian lives and made 2.5 million homeless and Eritrea, where they fled forced conscription into the army for life.
This year, Israel granted temporary residency status to 600 refugees from Darfur. It also recognized about 2,000 infiltrators from Eritrea whose lives would be endangered if sent home.
Israel plans to deport the other 4,500, many of whom came from countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.
Their route has been treacherous. Egyptian border police on Monday shot and wounded a Sudanese and a man from Ivory Coast in separate incidents as they tried to cross into Israel. On Sunday, Egyptian forces shot and killed an African woman who was trying to cross the border into Israel, a medical official said.
On Sunday, Olmert instructed the Public Security Ministry and the Interior Ministry to deport thousands of African asylum seekers who have sneaked into Israel though the Egyptian border.
He ordered security officials to tighten supervision of the Egyptian border and directed officials to expedite the processing of those seeking asylum, to decide which were just seeking work and could be deported.
(DPA) – Mogadishu – At least 18 [Woyanne-backed] Somali troops were killed in an attack by Somali insurgents when they seized the southern town of Dinsoor and then retreated, witnesses said Monday.
“Early Monday, we heard explosions and machine gun fire between the rebels and the government troops,” said resident Ahmadey Sidow. “Al-Shabab took over the district after a while, killing more than a dozen troops. Then, they went back to the hills.”
The al-Shabab, along with other factions, are blamed for the persistent insurgency plaguing the capital Mogadishu which has killed thousands and displaced 600,000 from the seaside city.
Residents in Dinsoor, about 300 kilometres west of Mogadishu, said some 18 bodies of government troops had been found since the incursion Sunday.
Al-Shabab spokesman, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, said the militias retreated because they had achieved their aim of chasing away Ethiopian troops, who assisted the Somali troops in battling the Islamist group.
“Our aim isn’t to capture a place but to kill Somali troops and Ethiopians Woyannes who have invaded our homeland,” he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Union of Islamic Courts ruled much of Somalia for the last half of 2006 and managed to restore stability to the anarchic nation.
The [Woyanne] government is accused of a reign of terror similar to what is happening in Darfur.
By Ronan Farrow, Los Angeles Times
DADAAB, KENYA — The bullet tore through Ibrahim Hamad’s torso and lodged in his hip. The 26-year-old teacher was at home with his elderly father when government forces swept through his town in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, burning huts and killing civilians. “The young girls were the first to die. The soldiers shot them and gathered the bodies and burned them,” he said. The troops demanded that surviving men join their ranks, threatening those who refused with torture, imprisonment and death.
“When they came to my home, I told them, ‘I am just a schoolteacher, I will not leave my family,’ ” said Hamad. In a bleak whisper, he recounted the ordeal that followed. “They strangled my father with a wire and hung his body in a tree. Then they shot me and left me for dead.”
Hamad now struggles to survive in this remote refugee camp in northern Kenya, joining thousands who have fled a reign of terror by the Ethiopian Woyanne army. Little noticed by the world, Ethiopia Woyanne is waging war against its own people in the Ogaden desert. Long-simmering tensions erupted last April when separatist rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field. The Ethiopian Woyanne government responded by ejecting humanitarian agencies and launching a scorched-earth campaign in the region.
The targeting of the predominantly ethnic-Somali Ogaden population has led to accusations of ethnic cleansing. In October, Human Rights Watch warned that events in Ogaden were following a “frighteningly familiar pattern” to those in Somalia’s Darfur region, noting “ethnic overtones” to attacks and accusing Ethiopia of “displac[ing] large populations” and “deliberately attack[ing] civilians.” Government forces have been implicated in escalating looting, burnings and atrocities. Recently, soldiers have begun a brutal campaign of forced conscription, often torturing or killing those who refuse to join.
The Ethiopian Woyanne government has suppressed most news from the region, sealing Ogaden’s borders and denying access to the media. Last May, three New York Times reporters researching the crisis were held for five days and had their equipment confiscated. Ethiopian Woyanne officials have been quick to dismiss mounting reports of bloodshed as propaganda. But in this camp, refugees fleeing Ogaden tell stories of rape, torture and mass murder perpetrated against civilian villages by Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s military.
However, it is the U.S. government, not Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s, that elicits the most anger from Hamad and the other Ogadenis seeking shelter in Dadaab. The bullet that shattered Hamad’s hip, and the gun that fired it, were likely supplied by the United States. The soldier who pulled the trigger was almost certainly compensated with U.S. military aid.
The U.S. has historically provided Ethiopian forces with arms, funding and training. In recent years, the bond has deepened, with Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s military serving as a proxy for American interests in a region increasingly viewed as a crucial front in the war on terrorism. Since 9/11, military aid to Ethiopia Woyanne has soared, growing at least 2 1/2 times by 2006. A close intelligence-sharing relationship between the governments has burgeoned.
In the face of mounting evidence of atrocities, some U.S. officials are questioning the no-strings-attached backing of Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s army. “This is a country that is abusing its own people,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, accusing the Bush administration of “look[ing] the other way” as Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s abuses worsen. Last fall, the House passed the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act, sponsored by Payne, to limit military aid to Ethiopia. It awaits action by the Senate. “The United States cannot afford to allow cooperation on the war on terror,” Payne said, “to prevent us from taking a principled stance on democracy and human rights issues.”
Ironically, unbridled support of Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s army in the interest of combating terrorism may serve as a powerful catalyst for anti-U.S. sentiment. “We hate the U.S.A. more than the Ethiopians,” one Ogadeni told me. “It is guns and money from the U.S.A. that are killing our people.”
If Washington wants to fight the rising tide of terrorism in the Horn of Africa, it cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the abuses of its closest ally in the region. The U.S. wields unique influence over Ethiopia; how it uses that influence will determine Ogaden’s future. Legislators should continue to press the Bush administration to help stop the bloodshed. Current levels of U.S. aid should be made contingent on Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s halting its attacks on civilians. That might sacrifice some goodwill with Ethiopian Woyanne officials — but it could save the people of the Ogaden.
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Ronan Farrow, a student at Yale Law School, has worked on human rights issues for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and recently accompanied a congressional delegation to the Horn of Africa.
እስካሁን በነበረውና ወደፊት ሊከናወኑ በሚገባቸው ወሳኝ የትግል እንቅስቃሴዎች ላይ አሳሪ ውሳኔዎችን ለማሳለፍ የቅንጅት ለአንድነትና ለዴሞክራሲ ፓርቲ የላእላይ ም/ቤት በቀጣዩ ሳምንት ስብሰባ ያደርጋል፡፡
ምርጫ 97ትን ተከትሎ በተፈጠረው ቀውስ የታሰሩ የፓርቲው አባላትን በማስፈታት፤ አደጋ ላይ ወድቆ የነበረውንና በራሱ ሊቀመንበር የማፍረስ ሙከራ የተደረገበትን ህዝባዊ ፓርቲ በማዳን፤ በክልሎች ያሉ አባላትን በማነጋገር፤ በማደራጀትና በመሳሰሉት ግዜ የማይሰጡ ተግባራት ተጠምዶ የነበረው የአመራር አካል በቀጣዩ ሳምንት በሚያደርገው ስብሰባ ለህዝቡ በቀጣዩ ሂደት ላይ የሚያደርጋቸውን እንቅስቃሴዎችና የአካሄድ ስልቱ ምን ሊሆን እንደሚችል ይጠቁማል ተብሎ ይጠበቃል፡፡
የስራ አስፈጻሚ አካሉ ለቀጣዩ ሳምንት ወሳኝ ስብሰባ ዝግጅት በማድረግ ላይ ሲሆን ስብሰባው በህዝቡ አእምሮ ለሚመላለሱት በርካታ ጥያቄዎች አጥጋቢ ምላሽ ይሰጣል ተብሎ ይጠበቃል
በጋሞጎፋ ዞን ዛላ ወረዳ የቅንጅት አስተባባሪ የሆኑት አቶ አየለ አርብ እለት ከሰአት በኋላ በወያኔ ካድሬዎች ከስራ ቦታቸው ታፍነው ከተወሰዱ በኋላ እስካሁን በእስር ላይ እንደሚገኙ ምንጮቻችን ገለጹ፡፡
የቅንጅት የስራ አስፈጻሚ ቡድን በደቡብ ክልል ደጋፊዎቹንና አባላቱን አነጋግሮ ከተመለሰ በኋላ በደጋፊዎቹና በአስተባባሪዎቹ ላይ ከፍተኛ የማንገላታትና ተደጋጋሚ እስሮች ያጋጠሙ ሲሆን የዛላ ወረዳ አስተባባሪ የሆኑት አቶ አየለ ያለምንም ጥፋት ከስራ ቦታቸው በፖሊች አባላት ታፍነው መወሰዳቸው የወረዳዋን ነዋሪ ቁጣ ቀስቅሷል፡፡የዛላ ወረዳ ነዋሪ ሆኑ አንድ ግለሰብ በስልክ በሰጡን አስተያየት የወረዳዋ ህዝብ ለዘመናት የተፈራረቁ ገዢዎች የግፍ በትራቸውን ሲያሳርፉባት ኖረዋል በማለት በአስተባባሪው ላይ የተፈጸመው እስር ሆን ተብሎ ህዝቡን ለማሳቀቅ የተወሰደ እርምጃ ነው ብለዋል፡፡
በአባሉ ላይ የተወሰደውን እርምጃ አስመልክቶ ምን የህግ እንቅስቃሴ ጀምራችኋል በማለት ለቅንጅቱ አመራሮች ጥያቄ ያቀረብንላቸው ሲሆን ጉዳዩን በቅርብ እየተካታተሉት መሆኑን ገልጸው እንዲህ አይነት ግብታዊ እርምጃዎች የስርአቱን አምባገነናዊነት ከማረጋገጥ የዘለለ ትግሉን ወደኋላ የሚስብበት ምንም እድል አይኖርም በማለት ገልጸዋል፡፡