Ethiopian/Saudi billionaire Al Amoudi is unleashing his lawyers at Ethiopian Review. He has the audacity to threaten ER with a lawsuit for associating him with Meles Zenawi’s terrorist regime.
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DLA PIPER US LLP
1200 19th Street NW
Washington DC 20036
202 861 3900
Mr Elias Kifle
Publisher, Ethiopian Review
PO Box 1153
Annandale VA 22003
Re: April 27, 2007 On-Line Article Entitled “ONLF said the Chinese were caught in a crossfire with Woyanne soldiers”
Dear Mr. Kifle:
This firm represents Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi.
We are writing to you regarding the content of your article entitled “ONLF said the Chinese were caught in a crossfire with Woyanne soldiers,” appearing on-line in the April 27, 2007 edition of Ethiopian Review. Your article refers to a certain incident in which more than 70 people, including 8 Chinese workers, were killed in a raid on an oil field in Ethiopia, and then the article contains the following statement: “ONLF and OLF might also want to consider carrying out similar operations on Al Amoudi’s gold mines that are cash cows for the Woyanne terrorist regime.” The article then urges the readers to “do it” in a retribution for various actions attributed to Woyanne soldiers.
The suggestion that profits from our client’s gold mine in Ethiopia are used to support terrorism is a highly inflammatory, false and, in our view, defamatory statement. Moreover, the suggestion in your article that acts of violence should be carried out on innocent workers at our client’s mine is simply outrageous. If you have evidence to support the quoted statement referenced above, we expect that you will provide it to us at once for examination. Otherwise, we expect that Ethiopian Review will immediately correct the situation by publishing a formal statement disclaiming the accuracy of this serious allegation and apologize to Mr. Al Amoudi.
If you are represented by counsel, please have your counsel contact us immediately to discuss this very serious matter. If you are not represented, you may contact us directly to confirm arrangements for the retraction and apology.
Innocent civilians in Mogadishu are being killed and maimed by Ethiopian security forces and the militia of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The atrocities being committed against innocent civilians in Mogadishu are war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is shameful and criminal to use tanks and heavy artillery against civilians.
Mogadishu is another Darfur in the making. It is sad to see that no one seems to care about the untold suffering of the helpless in Somalia. Unfortunately and sadly, the people of Mogadishu are not even allowed to bury their dead relatives and neighbors. We must not turn a blind eye to the suffering of innocent civilians.
Since the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, thousands of civilians have been killed and maimed and more than 320,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. The abuses that are being carried out by the TFG and the Ethiopian security forces are worse than during the dreadful days of the warlords. Instead of working towards peace and reconciliation, the TFG and the Ethiopian forces are engaged in collective punishment of innocent civilians.
In Darfur, despite the failure to end the genocide, the international community continues to speak out against the suffering forcefully. Unfortunately, the people of Somalia continue to suffer while the international community turns the other way.
It is critical that the African Union expedite the deployment of the proposed peacekeeping force in Somalia. The presence of Ethiopian troops is the single major source of the violence in Mogadishu.
Ethiopia must withdraw from Somalia and allow the deployment of a peacekeeping force.
Congressman Donald Payne
Tenth District – New Jersey
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kerry McKenney
(202) 225-3436
Warnings for holidaymakers visiting Ethiopia were stepped up by the British government today.
The Foreign Office now advises holidaymakers against all travel within 50 kilometres of all of Ethiopia’s borders.
“We advise against all travel to areas off the principal roads/towns within 50 kilometres of the border areas with Eritrea because of the risk of landmines. The Ethiopia/Eritrea border remains closed and the situation is very tense and could deteriorate extremely rapidly,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It also advises against all travel to the Danakil desert area that is bounded by the Dessie-Adigrat road, the Dessie-Djibouti road and the Ethiopian/Eritrean border, following the kidnapping of tourists that took place in March of this year.
Additionally, all travel to the Gambella Region is advised against as “the situation remains volatile”, and border areas off principal roads and towns towards the Sudan and Kenyan border where banditry has increased.
“Armed groups hostile to the government of Ethiopia operate in several areas near the border with Kenya,” the Foreign Office warned.
For the latest Foreign Office travel advice on visiting Ethiopia see www.fco.gov.uk
Addis Ababa University students expressed outrage and anger on Tuesday after doctors at Menelik II hospital allegedly took out some parts from the body of a student. Daily Monitor reports as follows:
The deceased Ahmed Abdurrahman, a 3rd year physics student from Harar, fainted in class while he was doing a presentation, before he died later.
One of his class mates told The Daily Monitor on conditions of anonymity that, after he died , Ahmed’s body was taken to the hospital for autopsy and the doctors there [b]”took his brain, his eyes and his kidneys.” [/b]”The students demanded that was outrageous, that it was inhuman, and that they wanted those who did this to be brought to justice,” the student said.
According to the same source, the University’s student community went to the University President’s office the same day to demand that those responsible for the inhuman act on their colleague be named and brought to justice.
The students also demanded a guarantee to be given to them that this would not happen again.
One student said he wondered if the same thing happened to the student who died in a shower room two weeks ago, the source said.
Responding to the students’ plea, Professor Andreas Eshete, the University’s President said, the doctors didn’t have any right that allows them to do what they did on the student’s body.
Only his parents had the right to decide on their child’s body, Andreas told the students adding he heard reports that the doctors had permission from the police,according to the source.
Professor Andreas Said, some food had been sent for examination.
The students have decided to cut classes and not to go to their cafés for a few days.
The source said that from the University President’s office, after they with screams and shouting slogans: “You have to replace his body parts!”; “We don’t want to bury his skin!” and “We want our rights to be respected!
The students marched down to Arat Kilo intending to submit their complaints to the Prime Minister’s Office.
But then, they though to have a film off the body, believing that could serve a strong evidence to file a lawsuit against the “evil acts” on the part of the Medical Doctors at the Menilik Hospital.
In a meeting they held there afterwards, they elected representatives to film the corpse with Dr. Araya, the source said was a lecturer who shared the students’ anger over the incidence.
Meanwhile about 90 students of the Sidist Killo Main campus have been admitted to the Black Lion hospital as a result of a supposed food poisoning, another student who also did not want to be named told The Daily Monitor.
He said some students assert that the major symptom was “acute diarrhea”.
Our people have been subjected to persecution including, killings, torture, arbitrary arrest and other forms of abuse by successive governments in Ethiopia. The current regime in power in Ethiopia led by the Prime Minister Melez Zenawi and his TPLF clique have continued this policy without hesitation. As a result, the Ogaden today is one of the most underdeveloped and repressed areas in the world.
Despite our public declarations that the ONLF stands ready for dialogue with the regime of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in a neutral country and in the presence of a third party arbiter, the regime has refused. It is because this regime has chosen to pursue a futile military solution in Ogaden that our people have been forced to defend themselves.
In the midst of this struggle, the TPLF regime, hungry for resources, has engaged in efforts to entice foreign oil companies to come and operate in Ogaden. They did this giving assurances of security which were false. In short, they misled many oil companies into believing that they were in effective control of Ogaden. The fact is and has been that they are not.
China is a great world power and with power comes responsibility. China has recognized the struggles of peoples throughout the world, but in the case of Ogaden, it appears that this did not happen. Despite our clear statements that the Ogaden is a battle zone where the torture, killing and arbitrary arrest of our citizens have become commonplace, a Chinese oil company chose to begin oil exploration activities in Ogaden.
We urge the government of China to recognize the plight of our people and cease all cooperation with the TPLF regime in the area of oil exploration until such time that there is a legitimate form of self-government in Ogaden.
Meles Zenawi’s TPLF regime is not a popular regime. It has executed civilians in the streets of the capital following rigged elections, it has detained political prisoners in Ogaden, Oromia, Sidama and in many other areas including leaders of one of the member organizations of the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD), of which we are a member along with the Oromo Liberaton Front (OLF), Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD), Sidama Liberation Front (SLF)and the Ethiopian Peoples Patriotic Front (EPPF). It has silenced much of the free press and has persecuted human rights activities. In short, the TPLF regime should be shunned, not partnered with by the government of China.
The people of Ogaden will not benefit from oil exploration. Instead, the revenues will be used to enrich the elite members of the TPLF who will in turn use it to continue to persecute our people and many others. The ONLF would like to assure the people of China that your citizens are safe, healthy and well treated. Our primary concern is their security and it was necessary to remove them from the battlefield for their own safety. Chinese citizens were not the target of our attack and their deaths resulted from munitions exploding during the battle. The TPLF regime troops we fought with took no steps to protect them during the battle and instead some troops treated them as human shields. The death of Chinese citizens in the battle was an unfortunate and unintentional result of of the battle.
The ONLF would like to assure the people and the government of China that your citizens will be reunited with their families as soon and as safely as possible. We have no conditions on this pledge. We are not in the business of taking hostages as the TPLF regime would have you believe and as we indicated, your citizens were removed from the battlefield for their own safety. The ONLF is currently engaged in discussions with the ICRC to facilitate their safe passage back to their families. However, Meles Zenawi’s TPLF regime is currently engaged in military operations which endanger your citizens. They would like nothing more than for your citizens to lose their lives in our custody and before they are transferred to the ICRC.
The struggle of our people will continue after your citizens are reunited with their families. Many of our citizens will continue to be separated from their
families and held in dark prison cells. We hope that the government of China will consider the plight of our people as it engages with the TPLF regime in Ethiopia and show the world that it is a great power which will not invest in areas where there is clear, deliberate and systematic repression of civilians.
As Mogadishu endures an eighth day of fighting, one sombre conclusion is unmistakable. A new regional war is now being fought in the Horn of Africa.
The latest clashes are probably among the bloodiest in Somalia since America’s disastrous intervention ended 13 years ago. Ethiopia’s army – one of Africa’s best equipped – has used heavy artillery to raze large areas of the capital.
This direct involvement by a foreign power has transformed the situation. Sporadic fighting has taken place across southern Somalia since the central government was destroyed in 1991. But Ethiopia’s [Woyanne] intervention means that Somalia’s chaos has sucked in its largest neighbour and become a cross-border war.
When Ethiopia’s [Woyanne] incursion into southern Somalia began in earnest four months ago, it appeared an unqualified success. At a stroke, the lightning military offensive launched by Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian dictator, threw an extremist Islamic regime out of Mogadishu.
Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops installed Somalia’s internationally recognised government in the country’s capital for the first time. Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalia’s official president, was able to move into his Mogadishu residence, the Villa Somalia.
But this success was deceptive. The Islamic militias were disorganised and easily defeated by Ethiopian [Woyanne] forces. Yet they were not destroyed. Instead, they melted away only to reappear as insurgents and carry out hit-and-run attacks.
President Yusuf’s arrival in Mogadishu was inherently provocative in a country torn by bitter clan rivalries. Mr Yusuf, a 72-year-old warlord, comes from the Darod clan and is a long-standing ally of Ethiopia.
Most people in Mogadishu are from the Hawiye clan, the traditional enemies of the Darod. Moreover, the capital’s people loath the old warlords – like Mr Yusuf – who destroyed their city before the Islamic extremists imposed a measure of order. They also harbour an abiding hatred of Ethiopia, dating from the brutal war the two neighbours fought over the Ogaden region in 1977. [At that time Meles was in Somalia assisting the Siad Bare regime in its invasion of Ethiopia]
So the arrival of Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops and a Darod president was a recipe for chaos. The violence which has now displaced about 350,000 should have come as no surprise. Ripples of chaos are now spreading outwards from Mogadishu. Ethiopia [the Woyanne regime] is already at war, not only on the streets of its neighbour’s capital but also in its home provinces. Rebels drawn from Ethiopia’s Somali minority have been especially active recently, striking an oil installation in the Ogaden on Tuesday, killing 74 people including nine Chinese.
Kenya already hosts about 160,000 refugees from Somalia. It has been forced to close its north-eastern border in an effort to protect its territory from its neighbour’s chaos. But Kenya is awash with illegal weapons, thanks largely to its neighbour’s anarchy. Moreover, there is no doubt that Islamic terrorists based in Somalia have crossed into Kenya.
The bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in 1998 and the destruction of a hotel in Mombasa in 2002 – accompanied by a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner with a missile – were all organised from across the border. President Mwai Kibaki’s government is all too aware of the damage a terrorist attack would do to the country’s vital tourist trade. Many of Kenya’s most popular attractions are within easy reach of Somalia. So the fighting in Mogadishu threatens East Africa as a whole. Ethiopia [Woyanne] wants to withdraw its troops and hand over to a stabilisation force commanded by the African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent.
But this is utterly fanciful. Hardly any African governments are willing to risk sending troops to an AU force.
Ethiopia [Woyanne] will have to fight on – and its fire power may temporarily subdue the city. But Somalia’s tragedy will continue to unfold.
