ADDIS ABABA, Aug 10 (AFP) — The Ethiopian government on Wednesday warned the opposition over its threat to fight the results of disputed May elections, saying any move to “undermine” legal institutions would be punished.
Information Minister Berekat Simon said the government would not tolerate any action that could destabilize the country after Tuesday’s long-delayed release of official returns from the May 15 polls showing a ruling party victory.
Following protests and deadly clashes that erupted after the release of similar preliminary results in June, Berekat said the opposition was free to pursue complaints of massive electoral fraud in court but not outside legal boundaries.
“As long as they don’t try to undermine the judiciary, it is within their constitutional right to do so,” he told AFP. “Those who want to do otherwise had better refer to the constitution wisely before they make any move.
“The constitution does not allow any act that will undermine any institution established by law and the constitution has no room for disobedience or similar activities as they are illegal,” Berekat said.
His comments followed the opposition’s rejection of the official results and vows to challenge them in court and possibly through protests, strikes and a campaign of civil disobediance.
Hailu Shewal, chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), accused Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the national election board of “burglary” in the “most illegitimate process ever.”
“It is the most illegitimate process I have ever seen in my life, even in a beginning democracy, where the winner is declared the loser and the absolute loser is declared the winner,” he told AFP.
“It is not rigging as some call it, it is simple burglary,” Hailu said. “Meles’ government has lost the election and we are not going to accept the results declared by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.”
On Tuesday, the board released official election results giving the EPRDF an absolute majority in the 547-seat parliament, confirming the preliminary returns that led to the violence.
At least 36 and as many as 40 people were killed in Addis Ababa in June when police opened fire on crowds during demonstrations against alleged electoral malfeasance.
The violence was followed by a widespread crackdown on alleged troublemakers in which thousands of people, many of them opposition members and supporters, were rounded up.
Authorities have said they regret the loss of life but have defended the tactics of the police saying they were necessary to keep the peace.
Hailu said the opposition was committed to non-violence and that any action it took would respect the constitution but stressed he could not speak for the government.
“Our action will be within the limits of our constitutional rights,” he said. “If the ruling party wants to turn it violent, it could be, but as far as we are concerned it will be a peaceful one to protest against injustice.”
Ethiopian Free Press Journalists in Exile (Amsterdam)
August 9, 2005
As part of its harsh campaign against independent journalists and producers in and outside the country, the EPRDF regime has just announced suing of four Ethiopians in USA for alleged labeling. The EPRDF-controlled media said on 8 august 2005 the accused are Ato Goshu Habte, Ato Yonas Habte, and Ato Dawit Kebede who live in the United States and Ato Lishan Gizaw who resides in Germany.
This is not the first move of the regime in power trying to sue journalists who fled from its brutal attack. Two former independent journalists, who reside in the Netherlands, were also charged with yet another “crime of drug dealers” simply for exposing the imminent danger of the life of journalists in the country. Unsuccessful attempt, however, it was an obvious fabrication of crime to silence the media abroad.
One other example is the recent case of radio-journalist Mirchaw Sinishaw, who was actively campaigning for a demo in the US against Meles’ act of terror. Finally he is compelled to close his radio by Sheik Al Amudi allegedly for disseminating defamation.
Background
It is unfolded by several international human right and media groups that since the inception of the free press in Ethiopia, dozens of independent journalists and publishers are regularly charged in flimsy indictments of fomenting dissension. The courts sentence journalists to politically prescribed long-term jail time and heavy fines.
Along with the frequent harassment, intimidation, threats of torture and killings, other attacks have been made against the media. The burning down of free press offices, robbing of their office equipments, burn copies of the news papers by armed agents are some of cases in point.
Amnesty international has reported that seven journalists of the free press are killed by TPLF soldiers simply for exposing government corruptions.
According to the New York based committee to protect journalists, one of the most glaring instances of the intensity of the EPRDF-driven persecutions of the free-press journalists is the large number of those who have fled the country in exile to save their lives. The exodus of the 51 journalists manifests the ever-increasing intensity of the ordeals faced by the press in Ethiopia. Although hindered by their exile, these journalists are working from abroad and throwing their human resources together to continue their work toward freedom of expression.
Dawit Kebede
Among the accused, Ato Dawit Kebede is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of the bi-weekly newspaper, Fiameta. He had also served in the EFJA executive committee as head of the public relations. He is one of the 51 journalists who fled their country from persistent persecutions by the incumbent TPLF regime. He had to face more than 15 arbitrary charges and detention for alleged “crimes of defamation” against the government. He had 12 cases pending while he left his country. Along with colleague producers of TENSAE radio, he has continued his work toward freedom of _expression from abroad. The current charge is nothing but the extension of the harassment in Ethiopia.
TENSAE Ethiopia.Inc is a registered organization under the US law. It is governed by its editorial board members. There is no person called Ato Goshu Habte in its board. If the accuser meant Dr. Gashu Habte, he is not chair-person of UEDP-MEDHIN support group in USA. Ato Yonas habte is a brother and has nothing to do with TENSAE radio. Strong enough, Ato Lishan Gizaw is not known by TENSAE radio at all.
Paranoia
After the election-crisis in Ethiopia , various media groups are unfolding that journalists are being used as scapegoats for the country’s instability and chaos.
“Beneath a facade of democracy, the government of Meles Zenawi is riddled with taboos,” said the Paris based Reporters without Borders. “Once again journalists are paying the price for an unhealthy political climate, under the easy pretext of defamation.”
As victims of terror by the Meles regime, two journalists of the US news agency, the Associated Press, photographer Boris Heger and reporter Anthony Mitchell, were arrested together with eight editors of the free-press journalists in the aftermath of the election. The credentials of five journalists working for the Amharic-language services of the German public radio, Deutsche Welle (DW), and the US government’s Voice of America (VOA) were revoked. These moves clearly show how paranoid the regime is and it would not be a surprising if it went further to sues the journalists abroad.
A warning message
Although desperate and rhetoric, the lawsuit dream, it is a warning message for all of us to be silent about the crimes of TPLF in its recent election fraud, arrest, and killings of innocent civilians.
It could, instead, be used as backfire against the accuser. It is time for the international community to resist the regime in power. The lawsuit would be a good begin for us in Diaspora to expose the corruption of the TPLF. Using its power, TPLF has amassing billions of Ethiopian funds in the name of privatization. With its 70 illegal companies, the TPLF has stolen multi-billion birr from the poor, the money that was supposed for the development of the country.
We would not allow the accused became accuser. The move would rather awaken us not only compiling and digging a list of the companies abroad that are linked to the TPLF, it shall also be the awakening of the international community to come together, organize and file crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Meles regime.
Furthermore, we have to expose the regime of using the free-press for its diplomatic consumption and to manipulate international donors and financial institutions.
Finally, the nervous and paranoid regimes seem confused with the legal suit. It accused the four Ethiopians of defamation of individuals and at the same time sued them via its ministry of foreign affairs. According to legal analysts, defamation is personal. That means that each individual should have brought his case personally and not via government authority. In this case we wonder if the TPLF is going to use the hard-earned public money for private cases. Let us wait and see.
By the Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES) – Scandinavian Chapter
August 9, 2005
“The question of sharing power through negotiation will not be acceptable, as EPRDF had won the election democratically.” (EPRDF, Ethiopian News Agency, 9 August 2005)
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…. None can stop the time” Bob Marley
The national election board of Ethiopia announced today that EPDRF could form a government as it has won majority seats in the house of people’s representatives. Let us take how the parties fared in NEBE’s first announcement. On June 6,2005, the NEBE announced that EPRDF won 268 seats, CUD alone won 115 seats, and UEDF also won 57 seats. After CUD and UEDF mainly complained about the unfairness and irregularities in the election, NEBE claimed to have undertaken an investigation that brought the following numbers. On August 9, 2005, EPDRF won 296 seats that are up 28 seats, CUD 109 seats, reduced 8 seats and UEDF 52 seats, reduced 5 seats. In other words it means after their complaints CUD lost 8 seats, UEDF lost 5 seats, and EPDRF increased 28 seats. Given that CUD and UEDF are the major parties that complained of voting irregularities, the NEBE seems to have gone for punishing the complainers and the complaint by decreasing even the seats NEBE acknowledged to them in the first place, and increasing the seats for EPDRF, its chief ally. CUD and UEDF complained not to lose the seats they won, but to recover the loss they were certain to reclaim. The NEBE seems to have gone for total acceptance of anything asked by EPDRF and total rejection of anything related to irregularities presented by the opposition parties. It does not make intuitive sense that in all the areas that the opposition parties complained they lost, including even in the areas where they secured victories, as duly acknowledged by NEBE by its June 6,2005 announcement. It is the best demonstration to show that the NEBE’s investigation is thoroughly soiled by partisanship and subservience to the power perpetuating need of the current incumbents in Ethiopia.
There is no need to audit the statistics, much as it embarrasses us, we have to admit that the NEBE is a national disgrace. We do not even have to think of justice will be redressed in relation to this gross robbery of the votes and voices of the Ethiopian people, because any attempt to go through court and legal route is likely to confront the chairman of the election board, who is president of the Supreme Court and also president of the Constitutional Inquiry Commission. Meles thrust all these multiple powers upon one person. Under the circumstances, it would be easier to get a lump of meat from the jaws of a lion than to get electoral justice through such a tampered legal process, as it has been recommended time and time again by foreign observers who take the role of advising the opposition parties to accept such injustice employing double standard on the way they treat regime and opposition.
We find NEBE a complete embarrassment and we are clear now that the Ethiopian people and their aspiration to democracy have been cruelly abused. Even though we know all along that NEBE and the EPDRF work closely, we did not want to believe that together they will descend to this depth of depraved robbery, completely oblivious to the long-term harm that their childish game will impart to Ethiopia’s aspiration to create, a free, democratic and open society.
The politics of blackmail and diktat so characteristic of Meles & Co has always had exclusive and non-reconciliatory consequences. This has been clear from 1975 when they formed the nucleus that eventually managed to come to power in 1991. They fought the TLF who had a similar idea and who also was fighting the same enemy they were fighting. They fought the EDU and the EPRP, who were fighting the same forces they were fighting. They fought the EPLF even when they had a strategic alliance with them by fighting with EPLF to make Eritrea a separate state. They also fought with EPLF to remove the ELF, its competitor in Eritrea. In 1991 they dismissed all those elements and groups they invited to form a transitional Government that did not fully obey their line, (e.g., the OLF, the Southern Unity Coalition led by Dr. Beyene Petros, and various individuals’ representing different groups.) They have now split the TPLF and nearly half of the leadership is either in jail, in exile or living in the country without any substantial public role. Related to the split in the TPLF, they dismissed the former president and a number of other regional leaders. So if one traces the short political history of Meles & Co, one sees that they are ‘democracy-talking but authoritarian- practising’ liars, while at the same time remaining arrogant, inhumane, full of devious intrigues, unscrupulous, immoral, intolerant, anti-democratic and a violent. It is difficult to imagine they will change, even though almost all who wish the country to put behind the violent past wish them to change and join and share the national thirst for imbuing the country with democratic imagination.
The key relationship that fosters a democratic energy is the development of state-society relations. When it comes to the way the state relates, under the Meles & Co dictatorship, to society, one sees nothing but the imposition of crude power and knee-jerk reaction of quick ‘shoot to kill’ citizens without giving any chance to the right to dissent. Over 3,500 people have been killed as part of the violation of human rights in the last ten years according to human right reports on Ethiopia. This figure does not include the displaced or the death toll related to the recent Ethiopian-Eritrean war.
For the first time May 15,2005 looked as if that Meles & Co may be changing the paradigm, habit and routine of violent engagement with an electoral and democratic alternative. The pre-election debates and the peaceful demonstrations, despite reports in the countryside of various abuses, looked on the whole that there was a flicker of hope, that something different has emerged in the way politics unfolds in Ethiopia. Alas this was to be rudely aborted by the way Meles & Co’s usual habit and reflex of violence took over reason and the window of opportunity to see a democratic possibility in the country. They announced immediately that they had won before the counting is finalised. They took a number of measures through the military, militia, media and the NEBE to change the opposition’s claim of victory into defeat. Eventually they set in motion a process that will have secured them a majority that will kill any sense of a embedding an intelligent and vibrant democratic public culture and debate in the country. They chose to pursue an illegitimate route to ‘legitimise’ their own exclusive electoral ascendancy.
We have now reached a moment when the EPDRF has finally declared a Government. It has been given the green light by the NEBE to form a Government. It seems to us that they will have no incentive to enter into any arrangement that will bring about national reconciliation for a long-term reversal of the politics that can enable Ethiopia to move out of the vicious circle of poverty and conflict. For myopic rulers, poverty and conflict remain fertile grounds for keeping themselves in power by exploiting real and imagined differences, in some cases even manufacturing and exaggerating those differences like in the case of playing up the Rwanda genocide to silence dissent in Ethiopia.
Is it to Govern or to misgovern: that is the question
It is clear that in Ethiopia that people will not believe that the regime had won in an honest, fair and just election. There will be millions of Ethiopians across the nation and the world, who now justifiably feel not only is the Meles & Co cabal a prisoner of its violent history, but also it is now a wholly lying, and cheating group that can go any length to stay in power. The people have lost trust and confidence. They feel doubly cheated, and ask why did they accept in the first place an election to go this far and cheat when the people threaten through voting to reject their rule? The people now believe the election was not carried out to make them decide on who should govern them. It was made by Meles & Co. because of the particular policy of this group to allow the extraordinary flow of foreign aid, and grant into the economy. The donors have insisted that regimes that would like to scale up the share of foreign assistance have to also accept multiparty election. So in order to appear that they are doing what donors wanted, they have to go through the motion of undertaking election that they do not believe in and are not part of their style or way of their usual politicking. This brings to mind what Addisu Legesse asked in a donor conference. He said Ethiopia needs 122 billion dollars over a decade to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. If they can ask so much, and they get a lot as it is, though poverty is not growing less, they have to accept the ‘good goverance’ conditionality. Unfortunately for them, the May 15,2005 election just went beyond their plan and expectation. They expected to be returned. But the people wanted to intern them into oblivion. They made their coup against the will of the people, and NEBE helped to do so being the chief instrument to carry out the work that deflated the moral and trust of the people. This election has been mismanaged. The consequence of this management remains costly. There is now a crises of confidence, crises of credibility, loss of trust, crises of perception, crises of impression that can easily create a situation where those who have forced themselves over the people thwarting their will may not be able to govern, and those in the opposition who refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the NEBE manipulated result may not have the capability to control the anger of the people… such a development creates the classic situation of a crises of the old cannot continue in the old way and the new is having many barriers to be born and assert its new democratic objectives. It will come as no surprise, therefore, if the people refuse to be governed by the old rulers.
Something critically important has taken place in Ethiopia. A people that have been cheated will not forget or forgive such injustice. To govern with misgovernment will not be easy. To govern a people who trust the governors will be easy. The Ethiopian people know in their heart that this Government has cheated them of the priceless belief they must have in government. This makes the years to come very difficult under the rule of Meles and his friends. The regime can attract donor money, but it will not solve the poverty question in the country simply because the people have no trust in those who govern them. This difficult situation could have been avoided had there been honesty and integrity and a sense of responsibility to people, country and nation. We do not know how the people may respond. What we know is that the response will not submit or surrender to the current regime. The regime probably would resort, true to form, to the use of illegitimate force and violence to impose its diktat. This will not help to create trust. It will deepen the mistrust. Under such conditions, the governance will be self-serving rather than public serving. All the donor money too will not be helpful but hurtful to the people and the country by ending up possibly in the web of corruption and equally possibly also in financing the regimes’ weapons of repressions.
It is extraordinary to witness how leaders of the opposition parties behaved with statesmen like vision and how Meles misbehaved as a small-minded village tyrant. He is reported to give the opposition the ultimatum, saying you must decide whether you are in or out.’ In’-means to surrender to his whim. ‘Out’- means to oppose his whim. The opposition has been in the process, and it is Meles & Co by killing students, declaring state of emergency and all other misdoings that can disqualify them, by having chosen to be out of the democratic process preferring authoritarian methods to deal with the people and the opposition parties. But to use such childish tactics- such as are you ‘in’ or ‘out’- for a supposed leader of a country is simply incredible. Supposing they applied the same to him and say to him are you in the democratic process, do you respect the democratic process, why do you tamper with the democratic process? Why fail to undertake investigation properly? Why use our legitimate complaint into an opportunity to return your cadres by killing and intimidating our witnesses and using the NEBE for such jobs including some of their members serving openly partisan interests? All these actions suggest that the claim by the EPDRF that it is in the democratic process is tenuous. It may have been until May 15,2005 just, but after that its actions belie any submission to democratic authority.
It is not only you are in or out, but also you cannot be in and out, that Meles has chosen to dictate to the opposition as well. In addition he has been reported to retort that the opposition if they do not accept what Meles and others have incubated have a few other options. Meles spelt out the options as follows: They can remain inside the country bowing to the rulers all the time, they can go into exile, and they can try armed struggle, they can be like the OLF and go to the political wilderness and so on. How anyone can wish Ethiopia that has gone through armed hell for so many years, yet another bout of armed struggle is beyond comprehension! Meles speaking with such childish and simple-minded notions is simply a curse and not a blessing for our country. He is completely reckless and cruel in the way he is so casual and superficial in providing as an option another cycle of armed violence for the country. Knowing what Ethiopia has been through, it is condemnable and criminal to recommend armed struggle as an option.
Given the context of Meles’s response described above, we commend highly the way the opposition showed patience and vision to avoid any harm to the people of Ethiopia. . We in the NES appreciate the opposition representatives attempt to present the case for restoring public trust with civility, humility and far-sighted vision and a sense of great historical responsibility. The fact that they invited the EPDRF to conceptualise its relations with other parties, the people, society and the country with national reconciliation has been indeed noble. That the ruling group declined their invitation shows more the myopia of Meles & Co than anything else. Unfortunately the choices of re-run of a national re-election or a national reconciliation conception of governance do not seem to be accepted by the regime. The regime has declared victory and called the outcome ‘democratic and legitimate.’ Where force and fraud were involved, it is not credible to declare the election is ‘democratic and legitimate’ and expect the people to believe it. It can believe its own lies, but it must not force those lies on the people, nor should it expect the people to believe it.
Ethiopia has now moved from hard choice to one choice only to show to the regime that the people do not have to accept any stealing of their voice and their votes by anyone. They must not be bullied to surrender to accept a broad day light robbery of their votes. They have a right to show peacefully their protest against this injustice by using all peaceful, popular and democratic expressions and avenues open to them. There is a need for a worldwide peaceful movement to respect voice and vote. This movement must be developed both inside and outside the country. All those who stand genuinely for human rights, democracy and democratic governance, the rule of law, and those who oppose all forms of officially sanctioned abuse must support it. The international community that claims to stand for human rights and democracy should support it. Any attempt to suppress this popular movement by the regime must be recognised that it will have the sole responsibility for any harm done to people who resist injustice. Any use of extra- judicial killing, harassment of the millions of people that supported and voted for the opposition parties, and did not vote for the ruling group must be protected. The attempt to abuse them that has started apparently by denying them fertilisers and other agricultural inputs must be resisted.
Concluding Remark
In a series of press releases, we have tried to strive, seek and discover a way that will bring the best possible climate to facilitate the production of a future that rehabilitates rather than a future of violence and poverty that kill in our ancient country. We have shown an unyielding determination to the argument that, what the people achieved must not be stolen or lost. We have tried to unmask the abuse of power and dismissed the arrogance of the high office holders as wholly unbefitting to the challenges of building a free and open society in Ethiopia.
Having said that, we in the NES would like to make it clear that our involvement in the current struggle is driven by the highest ethical imagination to see good done to the much abused Ethiopian people, the country and the nation. We may not say all that needs saying in temperate or acceptable expressions. Our language may bite, but our paramount desire is to see good prevail in one of the three oldest nations on this earth, that has unfortunately not made it yet to the promise land. We think and feel that Ethiopians can learn to unite, organise and develop, and thus finally convert the country’s current disadvantage into an advantage. It is this optimism that fires our imagination and fuels our engagement. We are fired by the burning desire to see that our country achieves an irreversible civilisation-transition, to make it the civilisation-nation that it ought to be, given its old history, by mounting and engineering a paradigm shift through the sharpening of our collective handiwork, and the reinvigoration of our collective national self-esteem—a national self-esteem that has been dented and even battered by those who have chosen to express their solidarity only after making sure that they have taken much in terms of a particularly an uncongenial casting of the country as the premier symbol of hopelessness and tragedy in the world. We believe a country that has disadvantages can turn that disadvantage into an advantage. Equally important, a country that has advantages may not realise the fullness of what it has. Whether it has advantages or disadvantages, the ultimate yardstick resides in the ability and capability of that nation to turn advantage or disadvantage into freedom as development.
We have read politically that May 15,2005 is a clarion call to make an irreversible change and move away from the earlier rule by monarchy deriving legitimacy from the transcendental mysteries of divine election and providence, and any of the varieties of authoritarian autocracy and dictatorship that came afterwards such as that of the military, the current ethnic entrepreneurial minority rule, and the agitation to whip up regressive racial, vernacular, and narrow ideological species and dominations. We would like to see a recrudescence in, to and of democratic governance, that is derived and legitimated by the free voices and votes of free Ethiopian citizens achieved vibrantly with full of interest, freshness, industry, and vitality. We would like to see civic expression, civic identity and civic engagement across the land. We would like the people to be answerable only to the authority that emanates from their own conscience, choices, preferences, moral ideas and fellowship to their fellow human beings, and in addition also, from their sense of dedication, commitment, responsibility to people, nation and country. We believe the time is now to undertake the transition from rule by providence, dictatorship and autocracy to government by the people, for the people and of the people. We want this government to be borne not from the barrel of the gun but from the free will of the people who express civic political rights unhindered by any intimidation, threat and childish bullying that has been a trademark of the politics of the last fourteen years. We believe the opportunity is open to make the desirable transition to democracy possible, even as we recognise the dangers posed by the regime to abort this noble outcome by privileging selfish sectarian concerns over the good and accomplishment of the larger national purpose. Regime acolytes tend cut and paste intellectually dishonest views to justify the illegitimate as legitimate, the anti-democratic as democratic. They remove the context of the regime’s action for derailing the democratic process by its negative engagement through the use and violence and provide a sanitised role to it as if it were completely innocent. That is totally disingenuous and possibly such a dishonest defence is motivated by lucrative business, personal and other benefits that flow to the acolytes. It is very difficult for any sensible person not to see the enormous value of undergoing genuine reconciliation for the healthy political evolution of Ethiopia. They also play with the widely recognised fact that the turnout of the election was unprecedented while the election management and handling of result has been wholly inadequate. The acolytes try to confuse by a particularly pernicious intellectually dishonest and context-less pick up phrases and quotes as a way of helping the regime. It shows the regime has no serious intellectual backbone except for the childish pinpricks of the acolyte types.
It has been said, but time can be guilty as well, as witnessed by the convulsions that our country experienced from May 15,2005 onwards. Did we not observe dramatic rising of emotions where at one moment the nation was thrown into the ecstasy of millions of people voting, the next moment the emotions dropping with the tragedy of people being massacred by the forces that stood to damn the democratic resurgence that the people themselves so demonstrably created. The rising and ebbing tides and swings of sudden emotion from happiness to sadness is indeed a cruel irony experienced by arguably one of the gentlest peoples on this planet. The people, the country and the nation have been exposed to what turned out in the end to be an expectant exuberant celebration followed quickly by the sheer frustrations of not realising it in addition to the feeling of sorrow not only for the sake of the people killed, arrested, beaten and bullied, but also for the danger that the moment of democratic transition that arrived so manifestly may be dimmed or even lost.
We think that today in Ethiopia democracy has manifested through the expression of voice and vote by the people. What is threatened is the realisation and fulfilment of this democratic expression. The significance of this massive expression of voice and vote is that any ruler that threatens to abuse this public revolt against dictatorship would be rudely shocked. Rulers cannot govern by resorting to cheating and force. The people will resist in many forms. The society will sooner or later transform into an ungovernable situation. These myopic rulers who throw childish tantrums will not know what will hit them when an irate population rises and goes for them. There is a classic situation where those who would like to govern through dictatorship cannot. The sooner they fathom the significance of May 15,205, the better for all.
Power does not concede without demand. It never has and it never will, said Frederick Douglas. There is no freedom without striving for it. The struggle for democracy is thus in front of us. This is a struggle to make sure that the voice and vote of the people are respected and not infringed by arrogant power. As the people turned up to vote, they must be led to turn up to protest any attempt at a theft of their votes and voice. Neither fear nor appeasement/surrender to the regimes’ relentless insistence to accept theft must be condoned. People must resist theft. It is in their rights to resist and not surrender to any form of abuse. The right to resist is borne in relation to the power of abuse that they experience. Ultimately the responsibility lies in those who did wrong and not those who try to rectify wrong.
Professor Mammo Muchie, Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Berhanu G. Balcha, Vice- Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Tekola Worku, Secretary of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Contact address:
Fibigerstraede 2
9220- Aalborg East
Denmark
Tel. + 45 96 359 813 or +45 96 358 331
Fax + 45 98 153 298
Cell: +45 3112 5507
Email: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed that a number of senior government officials, including other citizens, filed suit in a U.S. court against four Ethiopians for making false and defamatory statements.
The Ministry told ENA on Monday that the plaintiffs include PM Meles Zenawi, D/ Prime Minister Addisu Legesse, Information Minister Bereket Simon, Federal Affairs Minister Abay Tsehaye, Capacity Building Minister Tefera Waluwa, Education Minister Genet Zewdie and Capacity Building State Minister Kuma Demeksa.
The Ministry said Mayor of the Addis Ababa City Government Arkebe Equbay, President of the Addis Ababa University Prof. Andreas Eshete, TPLF Central Committee member Sibhat Nega and Shimelis Kidane are also among the plaintiffs.
The Ministry added Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also filed a separate suit against the same persons for defamation.
The Ministry said the defendants are Goshu Habte, Yonas Habte, and Dawit Kebede who live in the United States and Lishan Gizaw who resides in Germany.
Defendant Goshu Habte is the Chairman of the North American Support Committee Joint Forum for the United Ethiopian Democratic Party-Medhin (UEDP-Medhin), which is member of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).
According to the Ministry, the lawsuits are in response to recent false statements made by the named defendants and others through the use of the so-called Tensae Ethiopia Voice of Unity Radio and postings on the internet.
These statements included, among others, false and defamatory allegations, the assertion that some plaintiffs had transferred money from the national treasury of Ethiopia into personal bank accounts in foreign countries, the ministry said.
Such defamatory statements were made with malice, without any factual basis and are wholly false, the Ministry said. The intent was to injure the reputations of plaintiffs and hinder their abilities to carry out their duties in their respective public and private capacities.
The ministry stressed that not only are the defendants fabricated statement damaging to the personal reputations of the plaintiffs, but also seriously risk and undermine Ethiopias important international relations, including with its economic development partners.
Because of the damaging nature of the defendants false statements, the Ministry has disclosed that the plaintiffs retained a U.S counsel and instructed the counsel to take appropriate legal action.
We were shocked to learn that a proposal that calls for power sharing with the EPRDF murderous regime has been released in the name of CUD and UEDF a few days ago (August 4, 2005). The proposal bears the signature of Dr Berhanu Nega of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), and Dr Beyene Petros of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF). Later on, we learned from other CUD leaders that the proposal has not been authorized by the CUD leadership. Although it was a relief to hear that, there remains a troubling question as to why Dr Berhanu Nega, who’s the election campaign manager of CUD, has presented such a traitorous proposal in the name CUD. It is also troubling that CUD has yet to release any official statement denouncing or distancing itself from the proposal that has been released in its name.
For the past two months, CUD has been discussing with and lobbying the international community to help solve the election crisis in Ethiopia. While CUD has been pursuing solutions through foreign diplomats, it has completely ignored the people who voted for it. Last week, CUD has adjusted course and started to convene meetings with its members and the public. After two months of diplomatic efforts by Dr Berhanu Nega, running from one embassy to another and traveling to European capitals, there is no result to show for. The effort has been a disastrous failure. So much so that, last week, the head of the European Union delegation in Ethiopia, Ambassador Tim Clarke, openly began telling the opposition parties to give up, be satisfied with what they got and enter parliament, in total disregard for the choice the people made on May 15.
The chief architect and executioner of this failed strategy is Dr Berhanu Nega. As if his utter failure in the diplomatic field is not enough, now Dr Berhanu proposes a power sharing arrangement with the Meles regime — a brutal dictatorship that has just recently massacred over 40 unarmed civilians and severely tortured thousands of others, a regime that is trying to steal the people’s vote in a day light robbery. Instead of demanding Meles & Co. to resign, Dr Berhanu wants to share power with them. This is the most obscene opportunistic act by a political leader. This also demonstrates Dr Berhanu’s disdain for those Ethiopians who sacrificed their lives, those who have been tortured, and those who are languishing in disease infested jails for striving to bring about a genuine democratic governance in Ethiopia. Dr Berhanu’s proposal demonstrates his contempt for the 25 million Ethiopians who voted on May 25. By presenting such a proposal, without consulting his colleagues in the CUD leadership, Dr Berhanu demonstrates his lack of respect for his own party’s rules and procedures.
Because of these reasons, we don’t see how the CUD leadership can allow Dr Berhanu Nega to remain in the CUD executive committee. If Dr Berhanu is allowed to remain in the CUD leadership, it will be the end of CUD as a serious political entity that has the support of the people.
Taking all these into consideration, we trust the CUD leadership will take immediate corrective actions soon and show Dr Berhanu the door.
Addis Ababa – For decades, Ethiopia has been plagued by cyclical drought and chronic hunger with children worst hit.
Preventable diseases and malnutrition on average kill up to half a million Ethiopian children a year, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) country office.
A recent survey, the results of which were released in May, Unicef found acute malnutrition rates among children under five years was rising at an alarming rate and ranged in parts from 7.5% to nearly 20%.
Many children could die
Following an additional surge in cases of severe malnutrition cases among children, Unicef updated the findings of its survey carried out between January and April this year, and disclosed in early July that up to 170 000 children would die from this condition alone by the end of the year, if not treated.
Unicef’s representative in Ethiopia, Bjorn Ljungquist, issued an urgent appeal to donors requesting them to fill a gap of $42m gap to fund “a package of life-saving treatments, screenings and other interventions”.
Ljungquist pointed out that seven million Ethiopian children suffer from some form of malnutrition every year, with serious consequences for their development.
Poor rainfall, failed crops and delays in the roll-out of a government safety-net programme were identified by the survey as the main causes. The crisis has been compounded by health and hygiene risks among people already weakened by a lack of food.
Severe malnutrition
Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition and includes children “who are 70% or less of the median in terms of weight and height measurements”.
The symptoms are severely wasted or marasmic children with oedema or swelling of both feet caused by fluid and sodium retention. This is also called oedematous malnutrition or kwashiorkor, the survey said.
The survey identified 26 nutrition critical areas in Ethiopia where children with severe acute malnutrition could die, if they did not receive medical support including antibiotics and intensive, enriched foods for therapeutic feeding.
The stunting rate among Ethiopia’s 12 million children under five years is 52% – an indication of inadequate nutrition over an extended period, according to Unicef.
Stunting is particularly dangerous for women “as they are likely to experience obstructed labour and are thus at greater risk of dying in childbirth”.
Unicef is currently trying to reduce the risk of children becoming malnourished through a joint initiative called the Enhanced Outreach Survey (EOS) with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ethiopian government’s relief agency the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC). – Sapa-dpa
