Aden, August 26 (UNHCR) – Eighteen Somali and Ethiopian refugees are currently being treated in southern Yemen after they were forced to jump off a boat into the Gulf of Aden. At least 12 others are believed to have drowned in the incident, which UNHCR has called “an act of barbarity at sea”.
According to the 18 survivors, they had set sail last week from Marer, a village near Bossaso in north-eastern Somalia, on a boat bound for Yemen with more than 80 people on board. Before they reached their destination, the boat’s captain and crew beat them and forced them at gunpoint to jump into the sea. At least 30 people obeyed, though many reportedly could not swim.
Those who survived were found on the beach at the Mayfa’a Hajer coast in Hadhramout governorate, southern Yemen, last Tuesday. They were taken to the UN refugee agency’s reception centre at Mayfa’a before being moved to Aden.
The plight of the 50 others who refused to jump ship remains unknown. They could have been taken back to Somalia or forced into the sea elsewhere along Yemen’s coast.
The survivors told UNHCR that there are more than 1,500 people, many of them Ethiopians, waiting in north-eastern Somalia for boats to take them to Yemen.
Since the fall of Somalia’s central government in 1991, thousands of asylum seekers and migrants have sought to leave the country every year for a better life in Yemen, which grants prima facie refugee status to all Somali refugees. Along the way, these desperate people often fall prey to unscrupulous boat captains who force them into the sea while still far offshore, so as to evade Yemeni coast guards.
Other boats set sail without adequate equipment and supplies of food, water and fuel. In February this year, a Somali boat carrying some 130 people sank near the Mayfa’a coast; leaving only 84 confirmed survivors. Just a few weeks before, more than 80 people had died when their boat’s engine exploded, forcing the passengers to jump into the sea to escape the fire.
The Yemeni government estimates that up to 10,000 Somalis arrive every year. Most of them live in urban areas, where they are self-supporting. Some 10,000 are being cared for in UNHCR’s Al Kharaz camp near Aden.
Yemen hosts the Arab world’s largest population of non-Palestinian refugees. UNHCR estimates that there are more than 70,000 refugees in the country, but government figures put it at more than 165,000 refugees. The Somalis make up the majority – numbering some 64,000 – but there are 11 other nationalities among the refugee population.
WASHINGTON DC – US lawmakers were stunned on Monday when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned that he would not set free the opposition leaders if the US Congress went ahead and marked up an Ethiopia Human Rights Bill on Tuesday.
The mark-up of HR 2003 was set for June 26, 2007 but US lobbyists representing Zenawi rushed the warning to Congressman Donald Payne, chairman of the House Africa Sub-committee, and Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, who decided to postpose the date so that the prime minister would release the political prisoners.
On the eve of the mark-up date, a steady stream of State Department officials, lobbyists and others visited Capitol Hill or called to tell Chairmen Payne and Lantos that the fate of the Kaliti prisoners depends on the committee’s decision to mark-up H.R. 2003.
State Department officials have sought to persuade the two committee chairmen and other members that Zenawi is in the final stages of releasing the Kality prisoners, and that marking up the bill at this time would cause him unspeakable embarrassment. Members were told that by marking-up the bill at this critical time, Zenawi will “lose face” among Ethiopians and the international community. To help him “save face,” members were asked to delay the mark-up for at least two weeks.
A Zenawi intermediary who has been recently shuttling messages between Zenawi and the political prisoners reportedly called particular members of Congress several times yesterday to assure them that this time around Zenawi will surely release the prisoners. Members were further assured that Zenawi was not up to his usual delaying tactics or tricks.
Zenawi’s threats to take the Kaliti prisoners hostage has caused considerable concern and consternation among the two chairmen and other members of the Foreign Affairs committee.
The members are particularly concerned that they do not want to be responsible for the continued and needless suffering of the Kaliti prisoners by going forward with the mark-up of the bill at this time. They want to make sure that the Kaliti prisoners and all other political prisoners are set free and allowed to join their families. They were willing to delay the mark-up for a few weeks if that will help in getting them released.
Zenawi’s Hostage-taking Strategy
Zenawi’s threat to take the Kality prisoners hostage is a transparent strategy calculated to delay and ultimately thwart legislative action on H.R. 2003. His strategy is based on one or more of the following:
* By releasing the Kality prisoners in the next few days, he expects his monstrous crimes will be overlooked or forgotten by Ethiopians and the international community excited over the release of the political prisoners.
* By releasing the political prisoners and delaying mark-up action, Zenawi expects that Congressional interest in H.R. 2003 will wane and decline because members of Congress will be satisfied by the release of the prisoners and not insist on passage of H.R. 2003 or other sanctions;
* By delaying the mark-up of H.R. 2003 until the Congressional summer recess, Zenawi hopes opposition in Congress and in the Diaspora will weaken, and the bill will not see floor action.
* By delaying the mark-up of H.R. 2003 Zenawi hopes that he could trick the two chairmen and other committee members that the bill is not necessary because he is doing whatever Congress wishes to achieve in the bill.
* By releasing the prisoners and delaying the mark-up, Zenawi hopes to hoodwink the Diaspora into believing that he is a is really a good guy.
* By delaying action on H.R. 2003, Zenawi thinks his old trick of DELAY, DELAY, DELAY will get him through another Congressional session!
The Truth About H.R. 2003 or What Zenawi should Know About H.R. 2003
Zenawi appears to believe that H.R. 2003 is exclusively about the release of the Kality prisoners. IT IS NOT. The Kality prisoners issue is a paramount issue, but only one of many other issues. If Zenawi is not aware of the objectives of H.R. 2003 in Ethiopia, here is a short primer for him:
H.R. 2003 is about:
* gaining the unconditional release of ALL political prisoners of conscience.
* instituting democratic reform and accountability.
* restoration of the democratic rights of the people.
* strengthening human rights and civic society organizations.
* establishing permanent human rights monitoring and reporting processes.
* increasing the independence of the judiciary.
* creating and supporting a judicial monitoring process, with special focus on unwarranted government intervention in strictly judicial matters.
* arresting and prosecuting human rights abusers, torturers and murderers, and bringing to justice the killers of 193 innocent men, women and children and wounding of 763 others.
* improving election procedures and insuring fraud free elections, and restoration of the CUD leaders to their elected positions.
* removing press censorship and full freedom of the press.
* repealing restrictive press laws.
* establishing a program to strengthen private media in Ethiopia.
* training programs for democratic participation.
* limitations of the use of U.S. security assistance to peacekeeping and counter-terrorism and NOT against the civilian population.
* fostering stability, democracy and economic development in the region.
* establishing a program to provide legal support for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience
* providing assistance to strengthen local, regional, and national parliaments and governments, political parties, and civil society groups;
* strengthening training for political parties such as organization building and campaign management;
* providing training for civil society groups in election monitoring in Ethiopia; and
* professionalizing the National Election Board in order to address issues such as delimitation of constituencies, voter registration, political party registration and candidate registration, and it is quintessentially about
Over a hundred young Ethiopian women will be be spending the next three months working with UNESCO under a pilot project launched today.
The project, coinciding with the upcoming Ethiopian Millennium in September 2007, will draw timely attention to the diverse voices and concerns of Ethiopian women, and contribute effectively to the creation of an open and honest space for dialogue and social participation on the country’s development challenges.
Young athletes, housewives, professional women, students, and job seekers as well as other women from diverse backgrounds will be provided with basic training in working with digital cameras and spend two days brainstorming and developing their communication skills before going away to work on their projects individually and in groups.
The photos and multimedia products developed by the women will be accessible online and on exhibit at different locations in Addis Ababa during the Ethiopian new millennium.
The Ethiopian Digital Stories project falls within the larger UNESCO goal of promoting the development of ICT skills among various sectors, particularly vulnerable groups such as women, as well as the creation of multilingual local content for the web.
With a population of around 71.3 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. Women make up 49,85 per cent of the population.
Rumors are all over about the imminent release of the leaders of Ethiopia’s pro-democracy party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). Whether the prisoners are released at all and under what terms is entirely dependent upon secret deals being struck between the United States and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.
A campaign to divide and conquer the prisoners also appears to be underway.
The prisoners are essentially hostages of Meles Zenawi. They are being forced to “negotiate” with guns to their heads. The American Embassy in Addis Ababa has been applying tremendous pressure on the opposition leaders to admit “guilt” in order to gain their freedom from Zenawi’s dungeons.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Parliament have declared the CUD leaders prisoners of conscience.
The Bush Administration too knows full well that these people are innocent. But instead of calling for the unconditional release of those who stood for democracy and won at the polls, the US is leaning on the prisoners and their families to admit guilt. Why?
Because the administration and the Pentagon hold the shortsighted view that a repressive Zenawi is their best bet given the so-called war on terror.
This is the scenario: A top US allies rounds up political opponents who beat him at the polls and throws them in jail. He orders his troops to shoot those demonstrating against the stealing of elections. Government soldiers shoot and kill over 193 civilians and wound some 763. The government also arrests upwards of 30,000. According to Georgette Gagne of Human Rights watch, the actions of Prime Minister Zenawi “may amount to crimes against humanity.”
The initial response of the Bush administration was to look the other way. This was followed by attempts at dividing and dismantling the legitimate opposition.
So, for Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia, the current situation raises questions of principle, fairness and trust.
Can a big power that has a stake in keeping the current regime in power be an impartial mediator in Ethiopia’s domestic politics?
Past US mediation in Ethiopia was not always in the best interest of the country.
The 1991 London peace conference, under the oversight of Herman Cohen, former Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, brought the current unrepresentative regime to power. In the years leading to the London conference, the US had secret dealings with the Tigrai Liberation Front and Meles Zenawi. So the London negotiations reflected US interests and the interests of some regional powers and not those of the people of Ethiopia.
For the last 16 years, the US has continued to back the same unrepresentative minority regime in spite of systematic and egregious human rights violations.
The Bush administration has invested a lot in Zenawi and it feels duty-bound to prop him up at any cost. After all, Zenawi was the paragon African subcontractor who carried out the Somali invasion on the cheap. But history tells us that American support too has its limits. It had its limits for the likes of the Shah of Iran and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.
We should watch the current negotiations with a great deal of care; especially making sure they are not used as a ploy to divide the opposition leaders and to break the will of the resistance. Justice demands that the CUD leaders be released without any preconditions.
Any effort to gain the release of the prisoners is most welcome. They and their families have suffered immensely. The nation too has been traumatized by the post-election reign of terror. But justice has to prevail for the healing to start. There can be no justice if the victims are called upon to atone for the crimes of their tormentors.
What is at stake is the freedom of 78 million Ethiopians. Let us not forget the tens of thousand of other Ethiopians political prisoners. For any healing to begin, we need first and foremost, a full accounting of all those jailed, tortured and killed under Zenawi. Those responsible must be brought to justice.
An impartial, independent international investigation is a good place to start the reconciliation process for a much-tormented nation.
Sem-inna worq yiqir! Dubbi qarumman dubbatani miti!
Andenat kala agar yebarekal; Andenet kelela yaweredal.
Reports of the signing of a mediated consensus document by political prisoners at Qaliti brings a fresh blast of hope to all who care for human rights and for the future of Ethiopia. It offers a chance to get the country’s progress toward democratization and development back on track.
It makes me feel like saying Ethiopia, you are coming home! You are returning to your honorable traditions: of hig makeber, of gaaddisa nagayaa, of shemgilna, of gurabet mekebabir, of beherawi andenet. You may be saying goodby to outmoded customs such as hamet, mesedadeb, political sem-inna worq, and politik be-temenja.
The timing is of course perfect. It opens the way to a genuinely joyous celebration in Maskaram of the Ethiopian millennium. It enables all concerned to face the future instead rather than continuing to obsess over past grievances, even though a future agenda will include efforts to redress those grievances. I am delighted to learn that my good friend and great Ethiopian patriot Zeleke Gessesse, of One Love Africa, is in Ethiopia preparing a special musical celebration of this supreme moment of peaceful reconciliation.
I hope all concerned will seize this moment as an opportunity to make renewed progress toward a genuinely democratic system. This means:the return of the CUD prisoners to a full and respected place as members of one of the opposition parties in the country; the release of all Oromos, Tigrayans, and any others who are being held as political prisoners; the creation of an independent structure to manage and ensure the independence of government-controlled media; open use of electronic media; institutional capacity-building in the judicial system to ensure that it is kept free from interference from political pressures stemming from any quarter; institutional capacity-building in the Election Commission to ensure that future elections will be free and fair; and a pledge by ALL parties inside and outside Ethiopia to renounce the kind of hate propaganda and violence that flourished around the time of the May 2005 election and since, and to engage in the kinds of peaceful communication that has characterized Ethiopians at their finest.
These changes will take time, but I urge everyone to do what can be done to ensure that irreversible steps toward them are put in place over the next few months.
NAIROBI, June 25 (Reuters) – Rebels in Ethiopia’s remote eastern Somali region accused the government on Monday of using warplanes to bomb three villages, killing around 40 people, in an escalating offensive against the insurgents.
The government said it had the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) “on the run”, but denied using planes during fighting in the poor and arid region on the border of Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.
An ONLF spokesman said as well as the victims of air raids, 57 more civilians had died in the past 10 days or so of battles.
“This is a big offensive, mostly targeting the population because they cannot beat us,” Abdirahman Mahdi, an ONLF founder member and now its UK-based spokesman, told Reuters.
“We hear from our commanders that they carpet-bombed three villages — Abaaqorow, Dar es Salaam, and Ayun — with MiG jets last Thursday. About 40 civilians died. Another 57 died in other incidents.”
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced a crackdown against the ONLF, one of several guerrilla groups fighting his government from remote corners of the vast nation.
The ONLF drew international attention with an April raid on a Chinese-run oil exploration field that killed 74 people.
That was one of the bloodiest attacks in a sporadic but long-running conflict between government forces and the ONLF, which seeks more autonomy for the underdeveloped region.
The government calls them terrorists and says they are supported by neighbour and arch-foe Eritrea.
Mahdi said the Ethiopian army had lost between 200 and 300 soldiers in the last 10 days or so, compared with 20 to 30 deaths on the rebel side. “That is very high casualties for us,” he said.
A senior Ethiopian official said the ONLF information was false and meant to disguise its own oppression of locals.
“The terrorists are on the run and the allegation that Ethiopia’s government uses war planes to carpet-bomb civilians is unfounded. Ethiopia does not have any policy to use war planes for internal conflicts,” Zenawi’s special adviser Bereket Simon said. “The claim by the ONLF is to cover its own crimes inflicted upon civilians.”
