Ethiopia’s best-known political prisoner, opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, is said to be in poor physical and mental health in a jail outside Addis Ababa where she is serving a life sentence. But as Prison authorities have denied visitation requests from friends and colleagues seeking to check on her condition.
A tense confrontation developed outside Kaliti prison Saturday between the facility’s director Abebe Zemichael and a man who was both his former commander and his former prisoner.
Several top officials of Ethiopia’s Unity for Democracy and Justice Party had gone to the prison demanding to see their jailed leader Birtukan Mideksa. Among them, Seye Abraha, a well-known political and military figure who is also a former Kaliti inmate.
Siye says he and prison director Abebe argued over visitation rules.
“The chief of the prison showed up and said it is only blood relatives who are allowed to visit her, we challenged him, as we are ex-prisoners we know family and friends visit relatives in prison,” said Siye.
Siye and the prison chief have a long history. Twenty years ago, Siye was military commander of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Abebe was a TPLF guerrilla fighter. After the TPLF seized power in 1991, Siye became Ethiopia’s defense minister in the government led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
But the TPLF split in a bitter 2001 dispute. Siye was on the losing side. After being ousted, he was charged with corruption and imprisoned for six years.
He is now free and campaigning for a seat in parliament.
Siye says UDJ officials went to Kaliti to check reports Birtukan’s physical and mental health have deteriorated during her 15 months behind bars.
“Since the government has blocked any information about Birtukan we do not know what precipitated this problem about her health, so we are asking the government to give her access to an independent medical inquiry,” he added.
Birtukan was among dozens of opposition leaders sentenced to life in prison for their part in violent protests against what they said was vote-rigging by the ruling party in the 2005 parliamentary election. All were subsequently pardoned. But Birtukan was returned to jail and ordered to serve out her term after she refused to apologize for publicly stating she had not asked for the pardon.
Amnesty International describes her as a prisoner of conscience, the U.N. Human Rights Council lists her as a victim of arbitrary detention.
The U.S. State Department calls her a political prisoner, and describes as ‘credible’ reports her mental health is deteriorating.
The 35-year-old single mother and former judge was held in solitary confinement for five months after being re-arrested. Since then, her mother and five-year-old daughter have been the only ones allowed to see her.
In an interview Friday, Almaz Gebregziabher, 74, said her daughter seems mentally sound, though they are not able to talk freely during their twice weekly visits. Speaking through an interpreter, she said Birtukan’s physical health is the greater worry.
“Saturday Birtukan complained that she was sick, and on Sunday she said ‘would you please deliver this message to authorities’, that she was severely sick,” she said. “As soon as Birtukan said she was sick, she was almost in tears, and immediately the female guard that was listening to their conversation interfered and told her to leave the premises.”
Officials flatly deny Birtukan is either physically or mentally ill. At a recent news conference, Prime Minister Meles suggested reports about Birtukan’s condition are politically motivated.
“She may have added a few kilos. That may be for lack of exercise,” said Prime Minister Meles. “Other than that, I understand she is in perfect health. Where are they getting it, these reports? The usual suspects.”
He rejected a reporter’s suggestion that outside doctors, diplomats or journalists be allowed to see Birtukan to verify her condition.
“Birtukan is an ordinary prisoner of law. She will be treated like an ordinary prisoner of law. And we will keep her in prison like every other prisoner. No more rights, no less rights,” added Prime Minister Meles.
Birtukan supporter Siye Abraha counters that if Birtukan is treated like any other prisoner, she should be allowed to see friends and relatives.
Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal this week expressed surprise the issue of Birtukan’s health is being raised. He said if she is sick, she can go to the prison infirmary. If her problems are more serious, she would be referred to a hospital, like every other prisoner.
Shimelis said the timing of the issue suggests it might have less to do with Birtukan’s health and more to do with the next election, which is less than two months away.
We are all accustomed to hearing political figures, especially from authoritarian countries, make outrageous statements.
But I think Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi may have uttered the most outrageous statement of all this past month when he compared Voice of America broadcasts to Ethiopia to the broadcasts of Radio Milles Collines, the infamous “hate radio” blamed for inciting the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Here is what Ethiopia’s state-run news agency quoted Meles as saying:
“We have been convinced for many years and that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as the Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda, in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism, and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.”
Meles’ opposition to VOA broadcasts is being used as justification for Ethiopian jamming of VOA broadcasts. It now appears his government is expanding its censorship effort by blocking VOA’s website.
The U.S. government recently fired back at the Ethiopian leader. Acting State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid says Meles may disagree with the news carried by VOA but jamming VOA signals contradicts Ethiopia’s public commitment to freedom of the press. He says it also is in conflict with the country’s constitutional statement that all citizens have the right to freedom of expression “without any interference” and that this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, “regardless of frontiers.”
As for that vicious comparison between VOA and Radio Milles Collines, Duguid said this: “Comparing a respected and professional news service to a group that called for genocide in Rwanda is a baseless and inflammatory accusation…”
I only wish Duguid could have been even stronger in his response.
(The writer is Acting Director of VOA’s Persian News Network)
Hot Bird 8 may be Europe’s largest and most powerful television satellite, but it still has little chance when the Iranian regime decides to block its signals. When that happens, the Farsi services of the BBC and Voice of America instantly disappear from television screens — and not just in Iran, but also throughout the satellite’s entire coverage area.
Tehran has targeted the satellite in an effort to prevent critical foreign media coverage from reaching domestic viewers. Even though the United Nations has condemned it as an act of sabotage, the international community can do little to stop it.
The Arabic service of the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle was also affected by the attacks on Hot Bird 8. “We experienced disruptions in December and February,” Deutsche Welle spokesman Johannes Hoffmann told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “A total of over 30 hours of programming was affected.”
Hoffmann believes the attacks were a “targeted act to block news coverage” on Iran. For example, he noted , there were problems in February during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Iranian revolution.
No Accident
France-based satellite provider Eutelsat, which operates Hot Bird 8, also believes the jamming attempts are deliberate. “This is not happening by accident,” says Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O’Connor. The latest attempt to block the satellite occurred on March 20, according to the BBC and Voice of America.
Indeed, it would seem that it is often surprisingly easy for the regime in Tehran to suppress information from abroad. Although Hot Bird 8 is in geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers (22,400 miles) above the Earth, it can be easy to sabotage, something which is also true for many other satellites. The Iranians only need to transmit a strong signal in the satellite’s direction using the same frequency with which programs are transmitted from the original ground transmission station.
In the case of Deutsche Welle, the so-called uplink is sent from a ground station in Usingen, in the German state of Hesse. “The satellite cannot, however, determine whether the signal is coming from Usingen or from Tehran,” says Deutsche Welle chief engineer Horst Scholz. If in doubt, he explains, the satellite chooses the stronger signal, which allows it to be deceived by the interference coming from Iran.
Signals from Tehran
That is apparently exactly what happened to Hot Bird 8. Eutelsat’s employees were easily able to detect the jamming signals — with their constant amplitude, constant frequency and high power — on their monitors, but they could not do anything about them. Using a special software package called SatID, they were also able to identify the source of the signals: Tehran.
The satellite operator then informed the French telecommunication regulator Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR) about the signals. The ANFR sent a four-page fax, which has been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, to the Iranians regarding the issue. A copy of the complaint was also sent to the Radio Regulations Board of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The 12-member board meets regularly in Geneva. Its meetings typically focus on highly technical issues, with the experts discussing problems related to frequency interference. In fact, given the paucity of free frequences these days, incidents of interference are not uncommon. Still, targeted disruptions are rare, though there had already been complaints about Iran in the summer of 2009.
This time around, the UN experts were unusually outspoken, at least by their standards. In a statement issued last Friday, the board “urged” Tehran to “continue its effort in locating the source of interference (of the Eutelsat satellite) and to eliminate it as a matter of the highest priority.” The Iranians had previously protested their innocence, saying they knew nothing about any jamming attempts, and they assured the board that they would look into the matter as quickly as possible.
Appeal to Goodwill
The issue is also likely to play a role at the next meetings of the International Telecommunication Union. But, in practice, the UN can do little against the jammers. “In such cases, the ITU Radio Regulations Board appeals to the goodwill and mutual assistance of its member states to find a solution and prevent the occurrence of harmful interference of radio signals,” ITU spokesman Sanjay Acharya told SPIEGEL ONLINE. But it is doubtful whether Tehran is interested in cooperating.
Likewise, since the European Union lacks the political will to block Iranian TV broadcasts as a countermeasure, there is no speedy solution to the problem in sight. “These things take time,” says Eutelsat’s Vanessa O’Connor. “We have the patience to accept that.”
In the meantime, the satellite operator has changed how some of its services are distributed. The channels affected thusfar are now transmitted via other satellites that can broadcast to the entire Gulf region, but without being reachable by uplinks from Iran.
Not all the channels on Hot Bird 8 have been affected by the electronic sabotage, however. The state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting also transmits its Press TV foreign service from Hot Bird 8. So far, it has not experienced any problems.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopian Airlines officials are closely following a report that a captured terrorism suspect has told of a bomb aboard a plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon in January. Investigators have not determined the cause more than two months after the crash.
A report on a U.S. Internet Web site says British intelligence agents have reopened their investigation into the mysterious crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet January 25. The Boeing 737 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport, killing all 90 people aboard.
News reports initially quoted witnesses as saying the plane had broken up in the air and fallen into the sea in a ball of flames. But Lebanese officials immediately ruled out terrorism, and suggested pilot error was to blame.
The “G2 Bulletin” Web site, which calls itself an independent online intelligence newsletter reports an operative of the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula told interrogators the aircraft was destroyed by a suicide bomber trained in Yemen.
The operative is said to be among more than 100 terrorism suspects recently arrested in Saudi Arabia. He is reported to have told his captors the Beirut bomber trained in the same camp as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off a bomb in his underwear on a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Ethiopian Airlines chief Girma Wake has been critical of what he called premature and misleading speculation about the cause of the Beirut crash. In a telephone interview, he cautioned that this latest report must be checked thoroughly. But he said it raises questions about why Lebanese politicians were so quick to rule out foul play and blame pilot error.
“The very fact the Lebanese authorities were saying the aircraft exploded in the air, or when they say there was a trace of fire as it was coming down. All this leads you to check it. I’m not saying that is the cause, but it leads you to check this,” said Girma.
Girma declined to say what he thinks the cause may have been. He said, ‘if you rush to conclusions, they will be the wrong conclusions.’
News reports from Saudi Arabia say the recently arrested terrorism suspects were part of a network of al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that included two suicide bombing cells.
Mahboub Maalim, head of the six-nation East African regional economic group known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), says al-Qaida-linked terror cells in the Arabian Peninsula are working with like-minded groups in the Horn of Africa.
“We’re almost certain in Somalia the group al-Shabab is not a Somali group any more, and we think a lot of other nationalities are there in the name of that cell, the al-Qaida cell, and definitely we feel there is also a link with the group in Yemen,” note Maalim.
A statement from the Saudi interior ministry last week said the recently arrested terrorism suspects were plotting attacks on oil and security installations. Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter.
There has been little speculation about any terrorism motive in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines crash. But experts have noted that the crash occurred almost exactly five years after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after whom Beirut’s airport is named.
A Special Tribunal into the Hariri killing is reported nearing a conclusion that would bring the perpetrators to justice. An earlier United Nations backed probe said it had found evidence implicating senior officials of the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA (WPLF) — A suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with the stabbings of two women in South Beach.
Leigh-Ann Martinez, 21, was having a girls’ night out with Belkin Gutierrez, 20, and three other friends. The women finished dinner at TGI Friday’s at Fifth and Ocean just after 9 p.m. and headed for their car.
Martinez said a man followed them for five blocks until they reached First Street, where he attacked them.
An arrest report identified the man as 24-year-old Kidane Mengesha. The report said Mengesha grabbed Martinez and hit her in the face. Investigators said Martinez hit Mengesha back, and a fight broke out. Gutierrez tried to help her friend by hitting Mengesha, who then pulled out a knife, according to the arrest report.
Police said Mengesha stabbed Gutierrez five times, in the head, torso and arm, and stabbed Martinez once in the leg. According to the report, two men intervened, hitting Mengesha, and he ran away.
“It was a big cut — a really big cut. I freaked out and passed out on the sidewalk,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the cut was about 7 inches long. It took 25 stitches to sew up.
Gutierrez is still being treated at a hospital.
Police said they took Mengesha into custody shortly after the attack at South Pointe Park. He faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery. A judge set his bond at $50,000.
Martinez said she and her friends did nothing to provoke the attack and that Mengesha said nothing to them before he pulled the knife.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Reuters) — U.S. funded-broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) said on Monday that [the Woyanne regime in] Ethiopia may have blocked its website in a move which may lead to further U.S. criticism of its closest ally in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia holds national elections on May 23 and international press freedom advocacy groups say the government is intimidating and harassing journalists ahead of the vote. The government Woyanne denies that.
“We have received reports that VOA’s website is unavailable inside Ethiopia, and we are investigating the causes,” VOA Director Danforth Austin said in a statement.
Government Woyanne spokesmen were not immediately available to comment.
Prime Minister Genocidal dictator Meles Zenawi this month accused VOA’s radio service in Ethiopia’s dominant Amharic language of broadcasting “destabilising propaganda” and said his government was testing its ability to jam it.
Meles compared VOA to Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts are blamed by many for sparking the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He said he would order the service jammed if testing succeeded.
Residents of the capital, Addis Ababa, told Reuters they had not been able to access the VOA website since early on Sunday.
Rights groups accuse [the Woyanne regime in] Ethiopia of routine Internet censorship.
VOA says listeners in Ethiopia have been unable to hear its Amharic-language broadcasts for more than four weeks.
Meles’ comments were sharply criticised from the U.S. State Department. Ethiopia — reliant on foreign aid — is the key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa.
VOA launched satellite broadcasts into Ethiopia a few days after Meles’ remarks and said it was exploring other methods of overcoming the jamming.
The broadcaster was set up during World War Two to counter anti-U.S. propaganda and operates in 45 languages.
Analysts expect the Meles government dictatorship to win steal the election. The opposition says that is because the government Woyanne scares people into voting for it. The government Woyanne says the opposition is divided and trying to discredit the poll.
