Ethiopia Woyanne has expelled an Australian and a Briton working for Save the Children UK on accusations of diverting food aid to rebels in the troubled Ogaden region, officials and aid sources said today.
The Ethiopian Woyanne army has this year been carrying out an offensive against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel movement in the remote eastern region bordering Somalia.
Several aid organisations were ordered out in July, but the Ethiopian Woyanne government has since then relaxed restrictions, and licensed the United Nations and 19 agencies to work there amid fears of a humanitarian crisis fuelled by the fighting.
Government sources said the pair had abused their position.
“The two foreigners were expelled because they were involved in an attempt to divert food aid to rebels,” one told Reuters.
The worst-hit areas in the conflict have been the most difficult for aid workers to access.
Save the Children – which has been working in Ethiopia since 1932, and runs education, livestock and sanitation projects in Ogaden – gave no version of events today.
But aid workers in Addis Ababa confirmed the pair’s exit.
“They have been working in Ogaden on business visas, but were then refused additional work permits and asked to leave,” said one humanitarian worker, who asked not to be named.
‘A Walk to Beautiful’ wins IDA’s top doc award
Los Angeles Times
Spike Lee, Michael Moore and Christiane Amanpour honored by International Documentary Association.
Staff Report
A documentary about young Ethiopian women who walk miles in seek of medical attention after traumatic childbirth injuries won the feature length competition at the 2007 International Documentary Association awards on Friday night.
Directed and produced by Mary Olive Smith, “A Walk to Beautiful,” focuses on five women who have been shunned by their family and villages but find assistance in a distant women’s hospital.
The doc’s filmmakers accepted the honor at the IDA annual awards gala at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles.
Smith’s film beat out Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” Dan Klores’ “Crazy Love,” Richard Robbins’ “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” and Alex Gibney’s “Taxi to the Dark Side.”
In the short doc competition “A Son’s Sacrifice,” from director Yoni Brook, won the top prize. The film follows Imran, a young American Muslim who confronts his roots at his father’s slaughterhouse in New York City.
The inaugural Alan Ett Music documentary award for exemplary creative use of music was given to director-producer Paul Taylor for “We Are Together.”
Previously announced honors included the presentation of the IDA career achievement award to Michael Moore who did not plan to attend the ceremony.
The Pare Lorentz award, given to the film that best represents the activist spirit went to director-producer Spike Lee for “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.”
The IDA outstanding documentary cinematography award went to Ken Burns’ longtime cameraman Buddy Squires.
Other honorees included CNN’s Christiane Amanpour who received the ‘Courage Under Fire’ award, reserved for individuals who put themselves in harm’s way in order to bring important stories to the public.
The the preservation and scholarship award was presented to National Geographic Digital Motion; “Darfur Now” director Ted Braun received the Jacqueline Donnet ‘Emerging Documentary Filmmaker’ award.
Showtime’s “This American Life,” created by Ira Glass, captured the IDA Award for a continuing series. The limited series winner went to the PBS program “The Supreme Court,” directed by Thomas Lennon.
(DPA) NAIROBI – Sexual violence against women in the Somali capital Mogadishu has reached an unprecedented level, with women raped at checkpoints and during the day in front of bystanders by all parties to the vicious conflict, the United Nations said Friday.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said rape was becoming an “instrument” used by Ethiopian Woyanne- and Condoleezza-backed government troops and insurgents, a new trend in the 17-year conflict, which has worsened dramatically since the New Year.
“Sexual violence and rape are part of conflicts in most parts of the world but we have not seen it on the level as we are seeing it now in Mogadishu,” said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UNICEF representative for Somalia.
“Sexual violence and rape is part of the game.”
An aid worker based in the bullet-scarred capital Ethiopian Woyanne troops, in Mogadishu since the New Year and so embroiled in the conflict they cannot withdraw, cordon off areas after an attack, loot whatever they can and rape women left behind.
Women attempting to flee the violent capital, part of the exodus of 400,000 since the start of the year, are being raped at checkpoints and roadblocks run by the government or pro-government militias.
“The lack of respect for basic humanitarian principles is alarming and horrific,” Balslev-Olesen said, adding that wounded women and children are often left to die in the streets.
Balslev-Olesen said gathering figures on the number of rapes in the capital was difficult, with few international staff based there and many local aid agencies fearing repercussions from the government should they report such numbers.
He said figures collated from different relief agencies showed at least 50 women were raped in the last month.
Children meanwhile are being recruited into militias, with 80 per cent of schools in Mogadishu closed down because of the violence. Some 31 children have been killed on their way to school this year.
Ethiopian Woyanne- and Condoleezza-backed government troops swooped into Mogadishu at the New Year, ousting a popular Islamist group and sparking a persistent insurgency that has killed thousands.
Editor’s Note:
Condoleezza Rice sounds completely ignorant of the issues at hand in this interview with Ethiopian Woyanne TV. It seems that she did not even read H.R. 2003, which was passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives. She would do Ethiopians and all the people of Africa a big favor by staying out of African politics and focus on her area of expertise — the “Soviet Union.” As a former admirer of Dr Rice, I am shocked by her shallowness and cold-bloodedness (lack of compassion) toward the victims of Woyanne. Read the embarrassing interview below:
_______________________________________
Interview With Tefera Gedamu of Ethiopia Woyanne TV
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
December 5, 2007
QUESTION: Thank you, Madame Secretary, for offering to sit for this interview. It’s a pleasure.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, pleasure to be with you.
QUESTION: You had a fairly busy day.
SECRETARY RICE: Yeah.
QUESTION: You came this morning and you’re leaving tonight.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: And — but you’re basically running into very big issues in the Horn of Africa and in Somalia. Does it concern you? Do you know —
SECRETARY RICE: Well, yes, of course. Somalia is very concerning. Of course, Ethiopia has troops deployed in Somalia to try and help bring stability, but the real answers to Somalia will lie in a peaceful resolution, the broadening of the government base. I plan later to meet with the Prime Minister to talk about the need to broaden the basis for leadership in Somalia. And of course, Ethiopian forces need to be relieved by peacekeeping forces. And so I have just had a chance to meet with Chairman Konare and with others to talk about — and I’ll have a ministerial in a little bit — to help talk about the need to get peacekeeping forces into Somalia.
QUESTION: But we had the issue of peacekeeping force — it was a very serious issue a year ago and a year since, nothing is happening.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: Yes, indeed, Ban Ki-moon said this very clearly to deploy international peacekeeping force. What is happening? I mean, the Ethiopians are there and the Prime Minister said he already told him many times —
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: — we’d rather be replaced by any multinational force.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: It wasn’t happening.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, and I fully understand that Ethiopia needs and wants to redeploy and it should be able to redeploy. We appreciate very much the Ugandan forces who are there. We appreciate that Burundi has said that it will deploy and we have tried to help — the United States is trying to help with the Burundi deployment. But I am working hard, we’re all working hard to find other forces to supplement the Ugandan and Burundi forces.
QUESTION: Who are going to be those forces?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I’m talking to a number of countries. I think there are a number of possibilities, but it’s going to help if there’s also a sense of growing stability for the Somali Transitional Government, because after all, no one really wants to be in a circumstance in which the violence is increasing. And so there’s a lot of work to do, but we are — that’s one reason that I’m here, is to raise awareness of it and to see if we can come to some solutions.
QUESTION: Are there any green lights out there?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do think we have to solve this problem. I felt in talking with Ban Ki-moon earlier and now in talking with Chairman Konare, that people know that there’s a problem to be solved; we just have to — we have to find a way to actually — to actually implement the solution.
QUESTION: But the new prime minister is for it, just that he wants to —
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, he does, and by all accounts, he is a good man. By all accounts, he is a respected man. This is going to be an issue, though, of not just one person. It’s going to be an issue of finding a base for the government in Somalia that can bring the widest group of people into governance, people who are not in any way tainted by terrorism.
QUESTION: That, you’re sure, is not going to include the Islamic Courts, even the liberal element of the —
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it can include, I think, people who can be a part of Somalia’s future who have not been compromised by terror and that means anyone who hasn’t and isn’t still committed to terror. And so I will talk with the Prime Minister about how he plans to do that.
QUESTION: Well, so does it mean that — is there any possibility that the — some of the elements who have participated in a conference in Asmara, Eritrea, was it two — two months ago?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, yes.
QUESTION: Is there any —
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, I would hope that we could bring those elements back. That conference was, frankly, not very successful and we have to analyze why it was not successful. We have to bring more elements to the table. But I think it starts with a commitment by the Somali leadership to be inclusive and that’s what I want to gauge and to assure with the Prime Minister today.
QUESTION: But it had several elements in (inaudible) Asmara, Eritrea (inaudible) and they have — they seem to have a very strong voice.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: Is that a concern to the peace processes (inaudible)?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, this is not going to be easy. Somalia has not had stability for almost two decades. And it’s not going to be easy to find the right political formula. It’s not going to be easy to deploy peacekeepers. It’s not going to be easy for Ethiopian forces to redeploy and not leave a vacuum, but that’s the task before us, is to achieve those elements. And so I hope by having the ministerial here today with the concerned parties, I hope by going back and working hard on our troop contributors and as the United States has done in helping Burundi, also helping to — at the end, that we can make some progress.
QUESTION: Interesting. Where do you stand on the issue of Eritrea? Secretary Frazer several months ago said that you are planning — that the U.S. Government is planning to put Eritrea on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. What are you —
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we are looking at exactly that because we are very concerned about the efforts of Eritrea and what it is doing. And in fact, we have taken some steps because the support for irregular forces, for terrorist forces is simply unacceptable. We hope, at the same time, that there can be efforts for Eritrea and Ethiopia to keep open dialogue or, I should say, to open dialogue about their problems. But the support of Eritrea for forces that are destabilizing is problematic and we’ve made that very clear.
QUESTION: And so do you have a timetable to —
SECRETARY RICE: We are working. We don’t put these things on timetables, but I think it’s just extremely important.
QUESTION: But was that before your government (inaudible) office?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, before my — we only have the time until we are out of office. And so we will take as many steps as we can while we’re in office.
QUESTION: It’s very interesting. Let me bring you down here to Ethiopia. Apparently, there is the H.R. 2003 in the pipeline and it’s going to — soon it’s going to be on the table in the Senate?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: How would that —
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the Administration is against this proposal, this resolution,
and we’ve made that very clear. We don’t think this is the way to solve the problem.
Look, it would help and I will say to the Ethiopian leaders with whom I meet, it will help if there is attention to humanitarian circumstances and conditions in the Ogaden and in other regions on the borders. It — there really does need to be support for people who are caught in the most difficult circumstances, displaced people, refugees. And humanitarian quarters really do need to be maintained.
I understand the security concerns, but we can’t allow this to get in the way of helping innocent people who have just been caught in the basis of the conflict. And that will help the Administration to make very clear that the — we are resolving these problems with Ethiopia voluntarily and that there is no need for something like this particular House resolution.
QUESTION: So if this bill passes, some critics of the bill say that – the United States is going to repeat the same mistake, indeed, way back in 1979, (inaudible).
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it is why we — one of the reasons that we are close to it. We don’t think that separation from the Ethiopian Government, we don’t think that isolation from the Ethiopian Government is going to help at this point. We do think that good, honest, candid discussion and action about what can be done about some of the problems that have arisen do — admittedly, due to conflicts, but there are innocent people who are involved here and the humanitarian situation needs to be dealt with.
QUESTION: Let me take you to the Ogaden. Have you had reports coming from out there?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, we have had — we have had reports and we’ve been very clear that we believe that the opening of humanitarian corridors is absolutely essential and the maintenance of those humanitarian corridors is absolutely essential. I understand, again, the security threat and concern. I understand the concern. But we’ve worked very, very diligently to try and help relief agencies, nongovernmental agencies to be able to deal with the humanitarian situation there and we need the cooperation of the Ethiopian Government.
QUESTION: One last question. Do you think that the ONLF is a terrorist organization?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, certainly a — what we’d call a negative force and these organizations need to be dealt with. I had a very good discussion this morning about this kind of problem in the — and the problem of irregular forces that are causing instability. But in all these cases, the real answer is that we’ve got to, in all of these areas where we have a post-conflict situation, we’ve got to establish credible, political, and peace processes so that those who wish to be a part of the future can be a part of the future and those who do not can be dealt with.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Source: State Department
UN NEWS CENTER
The grave humanitarian conditions in south-eastern Ethiopia, the Darfur region of Sudan and Somalia could substantially worsen in the months ahead, the top United Nations relief official told the Security Council today as he briefed members on his recent visit to Africa.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said the situations in the three countries “are a reflection of the huge political and security challenges which this region now faces” and he urged the international community to ensure it steps up to protect the welfare of civilians.
In Ethiopia’s impoverished Somali region, where the conflict between Government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front has intensified this year, he noted that fears are growing that up to 4.5 million people could soon face famine-like conditions.
“There are strong reasons to believe such a catastrophe could occur in the next few months if all the necessary action to avert it is not taken,” Mr. Holmes said, adding that insecurity and Government restrictions are making it difficult for aid workers to even reach those in need.
UN relief agencies estimate that about 950,000 people in the Somali region will need about 53,000 tons of food aid for the next three months, but the continuing insecurity has meant that only about 9,000 tons has been dispatched so far to district capitals.
“A poor recent rainy season and evidence of worrying health and nutrition situations” are exacerbating the crisis, said Mr. Holmes, who called for full humanitarian access to the region during talks with Ethiopian leaders.
“The commitments of the Ethiopian Government, at the most senior level, to do everything necessary to make sure there is no famine give me a measure of hope. But I repeat that, if all the steps I have talked about are not taken, a disaster could unfold with frightening speed.”
In war-wracked Darfur in western Sudan, where more than 200,000 people have been killed since fighting erupted between rebels, Government forces and allied militia in 2003, Mr. Holmes said aid operations have also become increasingly fragile because of the violence, including “unprecedented levels” of attacks targeted at aid workers.
“Since the start of the year, 128 humanitarian vehicles have been hijacked, 118 staff temporarily taken hostage, more than 59 humanitarian personnel physically or sexually assaulted, and 74 convoys ambushed and looted. Tragically, 12 relief workers have been killed.”
Mr. Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Council that despite some improvements this year the Sudanese authorities continue to provide bureaucratic obstacles to relief agencies conducting their work, such as in issuing entry visas and releasing equipment from customs.
He stressed that the return or resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur must be voluntary and only happen after consultations with local communities.
“The necessary conditions for large-scale returns across Darfur do not yet exist, in my view and in the view of most outside observers, and to encourage return without security would endanger the lives of those who have already suffered too much.”
Turning to Somalia, Mr. Holmes said he witnessed first-hand the many rudimentary IDP camps that have been emerging along roadsides as hundreds of thousands of residents of Mogadishu flee deadly violence in the capital.
“All the people I spoke to in the camps had fled the violence and intimidation that have made life in Mogadishu so unliveable. Some spoke of snipers fuelling panic in the streets. Many left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”
The Under-Secretary-General paid tribute to the courage of relief workers who continue to provide humanitarian support despite the personal dangers in a country that has not had a functioning national government since 1991.
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has described the humanitarian crisis, security and political reconciliation as its top three priorities, and Mr. Holmes today called for action on those pledges.
He also urged donors to boost their support of aid efforts and on the wider world to step up pressure on a political resolution to the conflict between the TFG and the Islamists.
“The international community has the responsibility not to abandon the Somali people to their fate but to help all concerned to find a way out of the traps they find themselves in. There is no simple solution, certainly not a military one.”
