“Opposition UDJ party president Birtukan Mideksa, whose pardon was revoked and life sentence reinstated in December 2008, remained in prison throughout the year. She was held in solitary confinement until June, despite a court ruling that indicated it was a violation of her constitutional rights. She was also denied access to visitors except for a few close family members, despite a court order granting visitor access without restrictions. There were credible reports that Birtukan’s mental health deteriorated significantly during the year.”
The above is taken from the US Department of State report on Human Rights in Ethiopia. It is a very depressing document full of verifiable facts with names and places detailing the atrocities committed by the Meles regime against its own people. It is not news to the Ethiopian people. Seeing it in black and white confirms the nightmare is real. I am sure you have all heard of Meakelwi. What do you think they do there? I know I would rather not think about that, but here it is:
Numerous reliable sources confirmed that in Meakelwi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, police investigators often used physical abuse to extract confessions….. Abuses reportedly include being blindfolded and hung by the wrists for several hours, bound by chains and beaten, held in solitary confinement for several days to weeks or months, subjected to mental torture such as harassment and humiliation, forced to stand for more than 16 hours, and having heavy objects hung from the genitalia.
Ato Meles and his militia are nothing but sick gangsters. He has surrounded himself with mentally unstable people that get their fix by inflicting pain on civilians. The Woyane regime has built up an elaborate system to bully the population and have raised the rule by terror into a science. The whole country is one gigantic prison. You don’t think so. Go ahead read what it says in the State Dept. report:
The country has three federal and 117 regional prisons. There are several unofficial detention centers operating throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele. Most are located at military camps and were allegedly used as overflow detention centers following mass arrests.
Do you notice we have more concentration camps than Universities, factories or research institutions? And the concept of ‘unofficial detention center escapes me. This is Woyane’s Ethiopia. Prison inside a prison.
This past week the Prime Minister gave interviews to both foreign and local reporters. The room is arranged in a horseshoe shape with a little dais for the PM. They always place five or six microphones to give the illusion that there are that many outlets. The fact of the matter is one is enough since there is no independent TV or Radio in the country. I believe one microphone is enough to give one version of the story. Foreign reporters question is handled one at a time. Local press gets no respect. They ask there or four question and our fearless leaders answers the ones he wants. No follow up is allowed.
I am thankful to Jason(?) of Bloomberg news for his question. The sound system is bad but this is what I understood his question to be.
… I just want to ask you about one point from the report because I know you want to give a response to that …Bertukan Mideksa is a political prisoner they mention in that report her mental health have been deteriorating in prison. I want you to respond to that if you have any information about her health status.’
Here is what the Honorable Ato Meles Zenawi, Prime Minster has to say about that:
I am not surprised that they have characterized Bertukan as a political prisoner because I understand they have also characterized the ONLF and OLF terrorists that have been taken to court and sentenced by the court as political prisoners (pause) it may sound strange but terrorists who have been taken to court of law have been characterized as political prisoners by the US which was a country that introduced the world to concept of ‘enemy combatants’ who are expected to live in legal limbo in perpetuity but that is life eh. I think the French say ‘C’est la vie” and that is how we characterize it ..uh.. the health situation of Bertukan the latest I heard she is in perfect health. She may have added some a few kilos but other than that and that may be for lack of exercise other that that I understand she is in perfect health ..’
How callous can one be? How cruel do you have to be to speak of a fellow human being like this? It is a very disturbing way of thinking to dismiss the agony of person with such indifference. Why Ato Meles is a good question? What turned your heart into stone is a valid question. Being entrusted with the welfare of eighty million human beings is a major responsibility. Eighty million starts with one. It is sad to think an elected leader of a party, hope to many mother to one is discussed as an ordinary criminal. Judge Bertukan is no ordinary criminal. She is a highly educated and carrying person with a deep sense of right and wrong.
From his answers it is clear the Prime Minster follows her situation closely. There is no reason to believe that he does not know she is kept in solitary confinement. He also knows despite his own court ordering that she be allowed to have visitors that his prison officials have refused to abide by the ruling. He also knows that she is in bad health and she requires medical attention.
Solitary confinement is torture. It is considered a form of psychological torture. It is illegal and it is a criminal act. It is inhuman. Senator John McCain knows about solitary confinement, here is what he wrote:
“It’s an awful thing, solitary,” John McCain wrote of his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam—more than two years of it spent in isolation in a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cell, unable to communicate with other P.O.W.s except by tap code, secreted notes, or by speaking into an enamel cup pressed against the wall. “It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”
Terry Anderson the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press was kidnapped by Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1985. He was released in 1991. In his memoir ‘Den of Lions” he recounts his bitter experience and ‘solitary confinement’ is a bitter chapter he would rather forget. He wrote ‘“The mind is a blank. Jesus, I always thought I was smart. Where are all the things I learned, the books I read, the poems I memorized? There’s nothing there, just a formless, gray-black misery. My mind’s gone dead. God, help me.”
After sharing a cell with other hostages he was thrown into solitary confinement and after a few weeks he recalled in his memoir “I find myself trembling sometimes for no reason,” he wrote. “I’m afraid I’m beginning to lose my mind, to lose control completely.”
Mr. McCain was an enemy prisoner and Mr. Anderson was a kidnapping victim. On the other hand Judge Bertukan is neither an enemy nor hostage. Judge Bertukan is in jail because the Prime Minister is afraid of her. She is one person in Ethiopia that followed the letter of the law when she was a judge. She took her oath of office very seriously. She refused to bend to the wishes of the Prime Minister.
Now we hear that the confinement and the psychological warfare waged against our sister is having its effects. She is only human and can only resist as much and no more. Last Sunday during a the weekly few minutes visit with her mother Judge Bertukan was trying to alert her visitor about her condition when the ever present female guard whisked her away cruelly. We heard Judge Bertukan was seen crying. That must be a very strange display of weakness for a strong lady like Bertukan. We are all sad to hear such a monstrous story.
We demand the Prime Minster release Judge Bertukan now. That is the right thing to do. We know he is not going to do that. We demand his enablers, the British and US government to use their influence on the rogue regime to allow Red Cross and independent doctors to visit and treat Judge Bertukan.
We put the Prime Minster and his underlings on notice that the Ethiopian people are watching their criminal acts. We might not have the power and resource to stop this insane tragedy at this time but we know in the long run good will triumph over evil. Today’s jailers are tomorrow’s prisoners. We have seen that in our country. Right now our concern is our courageous sister and we will do anything to set her free.
We urge women of Ethiopia to rally to save our strong sister. They should be in the forefront of the struggle to bring about the release of a mother, political leader and future prime minister of Ethiopia.
We urge Ethiopians friends of Ethiopia and all peace and justice loving people to contact their Senators and representative and urge them to demand the release of our leader. Use the following web address to locate the number to your elected official:
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
House of representative: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Ethiopia’s regime has tightened media control, stifled opposition and civil society in recent years, and ramped up restrictions ahead of May elections, a rights group said Wednesday.
Since the violent aftermath of the 2005 elections, the regime has arrested and detained several opposition members and threatened and harassed opponents, Human Rights Watch said in a report.
“Ethiopia’s citizens are unable to speak freely, organise political activities and challenge their government’s policies… without fear of reprisals,” said the report.
The New York-based watchdog said the measures had been undertaken to avoid a repeat of the 2005 post-poll violence sparked by opposition claims of irregularities, in which some 200 people were killed.
“Expressing dissent is very dangerous in Ethiopia,” said Georgette Gagnon said, the HRW Africa director.
“The ruling party and the state are becoming one and the government is using the full weight of its power to eliminate opposition and intimidate people into silence.”
Several activists and journalists have fled the country in recent months due to government repression, HRW said.
The country’s most prominent newspaper was closed in December and last week Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he was ready to censure the Voice of America’s Amharic language service for its “destabilising propaganda.”
Other than limiting political and media freedoms, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) embarked on a strategy in rural Ethiopia to prevent dissent.
Access to fertiliser, food assistance, health care and schools are conditional on membership of the ruling party, said the report entitled “One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure: Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in Ethiopia.”
Local administration leaders wielding huge powers determine eligibility for the services in rural areas, home to 85 percent of Ethiopia’s 80 million people.
“These broad powers have been consistently used to punish and ostracise those perceived to support political opposition,” said the watchdog.
Between 2005 and 2008 EPRDF’s membership has quadrupled from 760,000 to more than four million in the rural areas.
“People are told that if they don’t vote EPRDF, then no fertilisers, no clinics,” Bulcha Demeksa, a leading opposition figure, told the rights group.
However, the HRW said Zenawi’s government denied the restrictions.
Opposition groups have accused the ruling party of repeated harassment in the run-up to the May 23 polls.
Gagnon also criticised Ethiopia’s donors for inaction on the alleged abuses.
“Ethiopia’s foreign backers should break their silence and condemn the climate of fear in Ethiopia,” she said.
“Donors should use their considerable financial leverage to press for an end to the harassment of the opposition and to oppressive laws on activists and the media.”
Around a third of Ethiopia’s government budget is foreign funded.
On World Water Day 2010, Jane Beesley looks back on her experiences of communities struggling with — and overcoming — difficult access to safe water.
Hawa Omar Kahin working as 10th woman whilst nine others collect water from within a cave. Photo: Jane Beesley/Oxfam
Looking back over the year since last World Water Day, it’s easy for me to remember people, images and stories relating to water — for many reasons.
For some people, the daily struggle for water continues — like the group of women in Ethiopia who, in teams of ten, collect water from deep inside a hillside. Often it takes them all day — every day. They described being down the hole as like being in a grave. I have a short film of one woman ascending from the hole, reaching up and passing a heavy jerry can to someone at the surface, before turning back to descend into darkness again.
Safe water means a huge difference to people’s lives
Elsewhere, where Oxfam has been able to work with communities, I am constantly struck by the huge difference having access to safe water makes to people’s lives, and the positive effects of having a borehole, or any of the water systems we’ve been able to help with. In southern Sudan a community worked together to clear through dense bush a road where none had existed before, so Oxfam could construct a borehole. Now, despite the roughness of the road, other organisations can find the community and further development is on its way. The road and the borehole meant that more people were returning home from camps that they’d fled to because of conflict.
In another part of southern Sudan the boreholes were having other effects, often unexpected — like more girls attending school. With Oxfam buckets the girls can go to school, held under trees, and have something to sit on during lessons before going to the nearby borehole to collect water on their way home.
Women on the water committee
But it’s across the border in northern Kenya, in Turkana and in Wajir, where I’ve had the privilege to meet the same people five or six times, that I’ve seen real progress made. There are so many stories to tell, but those that stand out are the stories where women, through being involved in managing their water systems (often new, sometimes rehabilitated) has given them some standing in their communities. One woman, Mumina Ali Amin, on recognising me in a town in Wajir rushed up and said, “We are no longer in the kitchen!” Eighteen months earlier I had been at a meeting where several men had spoken about women not being strong enough to be on a water committee, and belonging in the kitchen. Women were now on the water committee, and Mumina told me how this had made a difference and improved women’s access to water.
Down the road in another community, where Oxfam no longer works, the committee reported back how they were not struggling during the current water shortage; how they had raised money to extend their water system and purchase solar panels to pump water instead of having to buy expensive fuel, and were even in a position to provide water for others and their livestock.
Pastoralists bring their animals to the waterpoint at Kaikor. Photo: Jane Beesley
Over in Turkana, there’s a place called Kaikor. It’s one of my favourite places in the world – at night there are more stars than can be imagined. But the real stars are the water committee members. Over the years they have had — and continue to have — problems and challenges that they have worked together to solve. Recently a friend went to carry out an assessment and reported back that when a new policeman had tried to get water without paying the small charge, he was challenged by the kiosk operator, Lydia. Lydia explained the system and the reason for the charges, to which the policeman responded, “I didn’t know I was talking to someone in authority,” and handed over the money. Lydia was delighted to be seen as a person of authority.
I hope that the women who have to descend into darkness will soon have easy access to safe water.
Meles Zenawi seems to have a morbid fascination with genocide. Whenever the going gets tough — bad news, tightening election campaigns, stiffening political opposition — he whips out the specter of Rwandan-style “interhamwe” (which in Kinyarwanda or Rwanda means “those who stand, work, fight, attack together”) in Ethiopia to change the subject. Predictably, as recent news of his rebel group’s use of famine aid money in 1984 for weapons purchases received massive international coverage, the opposition stepped up its campaign for the so-called May elections, the U.S. State Department issued its condemnatory human rights report on his regime and Bob Geldof went bananas, Zenawi resurrected his favorite “interhamwe” bogeyman to justify his decision to jam the Voice of America:
We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.[1]
The last time Zenawi pulled the same “interhamwe” cock-and-bull story, he was smacked down by the European Union Election Observation Mission for engaging in “unacceptable and extremist rhetoric”. The EU Final Mission Report on Ethiopia’s Legislative Elections (2005) stated[2]:
The end of the campaign became more heated, with parties accusing each other of numerous violations of campaign rules. Campaign rhetoric became insulting. The most extreme example of this came from the Deputy Prime Minister, Addisu Legesse, who, in a public debate on 15 April, compared the opposition parties with the Interhamwe militia, which perpetrated the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Prime Minister made the same comparison on 5 May in relation to the CUD. The EPRDF made the same associations during its free slots on radio and TV… Such rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic election.
Welcome back to the future. We are still living in 2005, except in 2010 Zenawi is trying sneak into the political arena the ghosts of Rwanda using a new spiritual medium, the Voice of America’s Amharic Radio Service. Nice try, but nothing doing. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
What is this “interhamwe” Zenawi is talking about?
In 1993, a year before the Rwandan genocide, a notorious “privately-owned” radio station calling itself Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines began broadcasting hate messages to incite Hutus to commit violent acts against Tutsis. It also broadcast racist and hateful messages against moderate Hutus, Belgians and the U.N. mission in the country. When President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed after his plane was shot down in April, 1994, Mille Collines began calling for a “final war” to “exterminate the (Tutsi) cockroaches.” The station read on the air the names of people to be killed, and helped direct the murderous militias to different locations where victims could be found. It also emboldened and encouraged the killers by providing them updates on their genocidal activities: “In truth, all Tutsis will perish. They will vanish from this country … They are disappearing little by little thanks to the weapons hitting them, but also because they are being killed like rats.”
When Zenawi says, “the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines,” he is asserting that the Amharic service has called for a “final war” and the “extermination” of certain groups of Ethiopians like “cockroaches”, “vermins” and “rats”. He is also saying that the Amharic service is directing and coordinating murderous militias and groups for genocidal activities to make sure that some Ethiopians “will perish and vanish from the country.”
Has the VOA Amharic service in its history ever called for such genocidal and criminal actions?
Since Zenawi is accusing the VOA of the “worst practices” of genocidal radio, we challenge him to produce a single word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, story, analysis, commentary, editorial or any other broadcast whatsoever in audio, written or symbolic form to back up his reckless and irresponsible charges. We pledge to bring to the bar of American justice the VOA or any individual in that organization and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law if Zenawi could produce a single molecule or speck of evidence, or a single example of the “worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines” committed by the VOA!
The U.S. response to Zenawi’s bizarre allegations was uncharacteristically bold, and gave Zenawi a much needed introductory lesson in his own constitution.
The United States opposes Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles’ decision to jam Voice of America’s Amharic Service and condemns his comparison of their programming to Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda. Comparing a respected and professional news service to a group that called for genocide in Rwanda is a baseless and inflammatory accusation that seeks only to deflect attention away from the core issue… The Minister may disagree with news carried in Voice of America’s Amharic Service broadcasts; however, a decision to jam VOA broadcasts contradicts the Government of Ethiopia’s frequent public commitments to freedom of the press. We note that the Ethiopian Constitution states 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.’ The Constitution further notes that freedom of the press shall specifically include ‘prohibition of any form of censorship.’ We look to the Government of Ethiopia to abide by its constitution.[3]
But while we are on the subject of “interhamwe”, who gave the following speech recently?[4]:
There are those who maintain an eagle eye on the regime with bitter animosity and sully it by painting and drenching it in soot. Regardless, our country has marched into democracy confidently and irreversibly. Anti-democratic and anti-people forces have so much contempt that they badger our uneducated people telling them chaff is wheat. However, our people are used to winnowing the chaff in the wind and keeping the wheat. Our enemies are peddling chaff to the people and trying to find holes to sabotage our peoples’ democracy, peace and development. But since our organization knows that our operation is airtight, we are not concerned. The chaff hope to provoke the people into anger and incite them to undemocratically resort to violence. Although they (the ‘chaff’) can not dirty up the people like themselves, they may try to smear the people with mud in the hope of inciting them into lawlessness.
Could it be that “dirty chaff”, “anti-democratic and anti-people forces”, “enemies”, “saboteurs of the peoples’ democracy”, “inciters of violence” and “mud smearers” are kinder and gentler words for Radio Mille Collines’ “cockroaches, rats and vermins” who need to be “exterminated”?
The U.S. should demand proof of the allegations against the VOA or a prompt apology and a solemn promise never to pull this loony “interhamwe” hoax again. In the alternative, it is time for the U.S. to take decisive action against Zenawi’s dictatorship.
Zenawi can try to jam the VOA Amharic broadcast at the cost of tens of millions of dollars, resources that could be used to aid famine victims and provide health care and education. But we know the whole thing is a futile attempt to distract public attention from the recent stories about the millions of dollars stolen from famine aid to buy guns in 1984, the fantastic reception Medrek candidates are getting in Tigray, the murder of Aregawi Gebreyohannes in Tigray, the fact that no credible international observers will be coming to observe the “elections” in May, the damning U.S. State Department human rights report, the soaring inflation, corruption and on and on. Suffice it to say that Zenawi can fool some of the Ethiopian people all of the time, and all of the Ethiopian people some of the time, but it is unlikely that he will be able to fool the VOA, the BBC, Deutche Welle, Bloomberg News, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Associated Press, ABC, CBS, The Huffington Post….
In the name of decency, those of us who have listened to VOA’s Amharic service broadcasts over the years offer the VOA and its Amharic service our profound apologies for the deeply offensive and scurrilous remarks. Though we may have had reasonable differences of opinion with the Amharic service, we have never had cause to doubt the professionalism of the service’s reporters, editors and management, their commitment to fairness and accuracy in reporting and their strict adherence to the principle of fair play. For these qualities demonstrated consistently over the years, we express our deepest appreciation, gratitude and respect to the VOA and its Amharic service.
Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. He writes a regular blog onThe Huffington Post, and his commentaries appear regularly on pambazuka.org, allafrica.com, newamericamedia.org and other sites.
