New York (Human Rights Watch) — The Ethiopian regime should urgently initiate an independent investigation into the murder of an opposition candidate for parliament and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
Aregawi Gebreyohannes, the victim, was a candidate for the Arena-Tigray opposition party for the May 23, 2010, elections. He was stabbed to death by five men at his home in Shire, in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, on the evening of March 1, press reports and witnesses said.
“This attack demands an urgent, credible, and independent investigation given Ethiopia’s highly charged pre-election environment,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Getting to the truth of this incident will help build confidence in the electoral process.”
Opposition officials contend that the attack was politically motivated and followed months of intimidation and harassment of Aregawi and other opposition candidates. The government told international journalists that the killing was a personal dispute, not political, and that Aregawi had tried to break up a fight in his restaurant. The government also said that one of the men who attacked Aregawi has been taken into custody. Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the others have been released.
The Arena-Tigray party is a member of the largest opposition coalition, known as the Forum for Democratic Dialogue (FDD, or Medrek). The leader of Arena-Tigray, Gebru Asrat, told Voice of America radio that the killing of Aregawi and the beating of another Arena-Tigray candidate, Ayelew Beyene, by armed men on March 1 were part of a campaign of intimidation by the ruling party.
The May 23 elections will be the first parliamentary elections in Ethiopia since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in bloodshed. Up to 200 people were killed by government security forces responding to street protests in June and November 2005. Tens of thousands of people were arrested in the course of the political crisis over disputed election results, including dozens of opposition leaders, journalists, and several civil society activists.
Since 2005, Ethiopia’s human rights situation has worsened, marked by a harsh intolerance for independent civil society activity, criticism of government actions, or opposition political activity. Government critics continue to be subjected to harassment, arrest, and even torture. Repressive new legislation passed in 2009 makes most forms of independent human rights activity impossible and provides an overbroad definition of terrorism that could be applied to acts of peaceful protest or to media reporting on security-related topics.
Opposition parties contend that government officials regularly harass, intimidate, and assault opposition supporters to repress political dissent. The government routinely denies the allegations. A prominent opposition leader, Birtukan Midekssa, is serving a life sentence after the government revoked a pardon it issued for alleged acts of treason connected to post-election protests in 2005. UN experts said in 2009 that her detention was arbitrary.
I read a successive of recent articles by Mr. Tibebe Samuel Ferenji on Ethiomedia raising objections to Ethiopian opposition parties’ relationship with Eritrea. I have found the latest article, his third on this subject, to be particularly misleading and laden with fabricated and recycled assertions. Aside from the writer’s sudden appearance and zealous effort to enlighten us as to the “real” nature of EPLF and its past deeds, I find the writer’s persistent focus on this particular topic very curious.
Several points raised by the writer beg for a response lest we allow historical facts to be nothing more than products of a fertile imagination of any one who chooses to post an article online. First, let me focus on the main and glaring misstatement of fact. It should be obvious to anyone familiar with the book written by Major Seleshi that any reference to the factual assertions in the book cannot go beyond a limited scope due to limitations of his sources and his admitted lack of access to major players inside Ethiopia. Additionally, even the author of the book himself would not share the sentiment of the Mr. Tibebe relative to the alleged relationship between the EPLF and the Ethiopian Army leadership involved in the attempted coup of 1989. I assert this because I happen to know and have talked to Maj. Seleshi on several occasions on this and related matters.
The most glaring of all fabrications is the assertion that EPLF somehow orchestrated the aborted coup against the former President Mengistu HaileMariam. This is utterly false. Even Mengistu himself had never made such a bogus claim. If there was any indication of evidence to support this claim, the former president would have been the first to make it. I say that not to give credibility to Mengistu, but it would be so obvious to anyone that he would have been the first to tarnish his enemies with such a claim. Contrary to Mr. Tibebe’s corrosive description, the leaders of the coup were Ethiopians who spent 30-38 years defending their country and struggling to maintain its unity. Many of its leaders such as Gen. Merid Negussie and Gen. Kumilachew Dejene, carried battlefield scars from bullet and explosive wounds they received in battles in Eritrea. Gen. Demissie and the other generals and officers stood their ground to the end to liberate their country from Mengistu’s stranglehold.
To sully these heroes and reduce them to nothing more than agents of the EPLF does violence to the proud legacy of Ethiopian patriotism, courage and sacrifice that they left behind for posterity. Our national character and the fabric of the future generation depend on the preservation of our history. This chapter of our history is full of heroic sacrifices as much as it is a tragic one. That is why it becomes vital to set the record straight.
Among the most offensive and flatly wrong assertions the writer made is the following: “Mr. Issaias orchestrated the Ethiopian elite Military force that was stationed in Asmara led by the late General Kumlachew Dejene to leave Asmara and to go to Addis Ababa in order to secure the palace should the coup succeed. Issaias’ motive was to leave a vacuum and eliminate this elite military presence in Asmara in order for the EPLF to march in and control the city of Asmara. The plan was “when hell breaks loose” in Addis Ababa, he thought, EPLF would have full control of Eritrea…”
Let me start by pointing out that Gen. Kumilachew was not the leader the of the Army in Eritrea. It was Gen. Demissie Bulto who was in charge. He was the commander of what was then known as the 2nd Revolutionary Army and led the coup in Asmara until its tragic conclusion. He was the one who sent Gen. Kumilachew to Addis Ababa as reinforcement force to help the coup leaders in Addis Ababa. Gen. Kumilachew’s absence from Asmara with some 400 troops could hardly create a vacuum given the fact that the leader of the army, his two other deputies–General Worku Cherinet, and Gen Hussien Ahmed–all of the corps commanders, and over 250 thousand troops remained in Eritrea. Only a person without a cursory knowledge of military affairs would believe the absence of 400 troops would create a vacuum under such circumstances.
Moreover, at the time of the attempted coup, EPLF forces were never near Keren let alone Asmara and even the port of Massawa was under the control of the Ethiopian Army. The bold assertion that Mr. Issayas Afeworki planned to march to Asmara because 400 soldiers were sent to Addis Ababa flies in the face of the attendant facts and defies logic. This careless revision of history is indicative of the quality of the information with which Mr. Tibebe arrives at his dramatic conclusions. Our country’s history has been much abused by Westerners and some of our own citizens who treat historical facts as no more than spices prone to improvisation to cook the meal they choose to serve us. We cannot allow this to continue.
Before one ventures to rob many of Ethiopia’s true patriots of the dignity and honor they earned with their blood and sacrifice of life, one should dig a little deeper into history. The tacit assertion that EPLF was the mastermind of the attempted coup of 1989, that Gen Kumlachew was sent by the EPLF to Addis Ababa, etc. are preposterous claims that do not hold water for any person who has done the most rudimentary reading of the available literature on the subject.
Recently, Derege Demissie has published a book full of row historical facts about the coup attempt of May 1989. I have written a review of the book, Abate Yachin Seat. The book has been widely read and received accolades for its thorough and fair presentation. One of the individuals Derege interviewed was Col. Girma Tesema, who was the highest ranking prisoner of war at Nakfa at the time. The 15-day ceasefire Gen. Demissie Bulto negotiated during the coup attempt was negotiated through Col. Girma. The ceasefire was negotiated only after the coup began and EPLF did not even have information that there was going to be a coup attempt let alone orchestrate it.
This is corroborated by the account of one of those who participated in defeating the coup. In his article published in Tobia and cited by Derege in his book, the captain described sitting in a meeting in Gen. Demissie’s office along with other officers. He wrote that during a meeting a tall officer from the operations department came in to the office and reported that EPLF has accepted the 15-day ceasefire offer. This was on the second day of the coup; obviously, if EPLF orchestrated the coup, there would not have been the need to make the ceasefire offer.
Other sources predate the genesis of the coup to early 1980s. The report of the officer who conducted the interrogation of coup participants cited a document ceased from Gen. Abera Abebe’s hideout. According to this source, the plot began in early 1980s while the general was a deputy commander of the 1st Revolutionary Army in Harar and worked with the then commanding officer Gen. Demissie Bulto.
Moreover, if the writer had met Gen. Kumilachew and spent some time with him, like I did even during his last few weeks suffering from a terminal illness, he would have met a person with utter disgust for what the EPLF stood for and its deeds. Gen. Kumilachew and others who participated in the Coup served in the Ethiopian army for over 30 years. They lost friends and countless troops fighting heroically against the EPLF. To suggest that they risked their lives to give the EPLF the victory they fought for so long to prevent is ludicrous.
Furthermore, contrary to the writer’s claims, Maj. Dawit did not play a direct role in the May 1989 coup. Maj. Dawit was the one who initiated contact with EPLF. Not the other way around. His was an attempt to explore the possibility of arriving at a peaceful settlement. He did not have a direct contact or access to the generals in Ethiopia. It is true that he had communication with General Fanta Belay, Minister of Industry at the time of the coup and previously commander of the air force, through a third party. The statements given by General Fanta to interrogators while in prison corroborate this fact. As opposed to being coordinated events, the movement to get rid of Col. Mengistu inside Ethiopia and efforts of Maj. Dawit were separate and parallel actions. None of the literature, interviews of participants, or books published on the subject makes the direct link the writer so carelessly makes in his article.
At several instances, not only Maj. Dawit, but also other former top officials handling Ethiopia’s foreign affairs during the Derg/PDRE regime, had meetings with the EPLF leadership in Italy and other places. These Ethiopians have either told the story to others or documented the fact that the EPLF was willing to accept a federal arrangement and was even considering participation in an all inclusive transitional government. Col. Mengistu was the one who categorically refused to accept a federal solution for Eritrea.
At later stages, it was also the treasonous TPLF leadership that refused to accept a proposal made by Maj. Dawit and others for the formation of an all inclusive transitional government that included the EPLF. While the EPLF was willing to accept even when things were starting to fall apart for Derg regime at the 11th hour, it was the same TPLF which refused. It was also the same TPLF that refused a ceasefire during the coup of 1989 while the EPLF agreed. After some 19 years it is now clear to all that TPLF did not want its senior and most powerful partner that supported it to ascend to power to be an impediment to its dream of creating a minority domination of Ethiopia in all spheres of national life. Even junior partners like the OLF were kicked out within mere two years. It did not want any rival or impediment to TPLF’s agenda of monopoly over state power, domination and an all pervasive hegemony of Ethiopia. This was the fact yesterday as it is today.
We have also heard it from the horse’s mouth, from Sibehat Nega, the godfather of the mercenary and treasonous TPLF. Barely two years ago, Sibehat Nega, in an interview, told the Ethiopian people that his organization, TPLF, was the one that did not accept any compromise and that the TPLF fought more for “Eritrea’s independence” than the EPLF and that “EPLF was willing to negotiate with the Derg to settle for federation where it not for the push and steadfast position of the TPLF to the contrary…” Although the statement was made as a self serving aggrandizement from a person who has no qualms to declare even after 18 years the treasonous and anti-Ethiopia acts of his organization, there is a grain of truth in his statement. I suggest the writer do his homework by reading such works including Maj. Dawit’s book and that of many others recently published both in Ethiopia and abroad.
To clear up any residual misconception on this topic, I want to pose some rhetorical questions. What political and military conditions of the war in the north in particular the policies of the Derg/PDRE regime served to force the generals to plot a coup? Who started the idea and where? And how it came about? What were its stated goals? How and in what manner the communication with the EPLF was made? And most importantly why it also failed? These are some of the pertinent questions that need further reading and research before making reckless assertions. It would not serve both the current regime and posterity to twist facts and rewrite history in order to fit one’s political caprice in a futile pursuit of trying to convince Ethiopian liberation groups not to engage with the government of Eritrea.
In order to hasten attaining our freedom and dignity from the bondage of the fascistic mafia murderers and tugs in power, one will explore any and all options including dealing with any and all forces to advance the objective. Even those who ceaselessly preach about freedom and democracy will deal with anyone as long as its serves to promote their interest. The minority regime in Addis Ababa has far worst records of human rights abuse, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and accused of genocide in Gambela and the Ogaden, not to mention the plethora of crimes it has perpetrated against the people of Ethiopia. But they support and prop it so long as it is “their dog.”
Let me wrap up with the following. Serious debates are welcome with all those who recognize that in politics there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Several Ethiopian groups have made the liberation of Ethiopia from the ethnocentric minority mafia group in power their paramount objective. Indeed the liberation of Ethiopia from the apartheid-like anti-Ethiopia minority dictatorship that has imposed a quasi-internal colonialism with its political, economic, and military domination over the rest of the Ethiopian people has become the prime and overriding task of our times. Those groups will do that by any means necessary within the bounds of international law and democratic principles including respect for each other’s views. Freedom and democracy are our rights. If we need to struggle for it, we will. If we need to find allies who will help us gain our freedom, we will form alliances. Throughout history all alliances were formed to promote mutual interests. Alliances were formed out of pragmatic necessity as opposed to based on moral Puritanism.
Adele-in one of the Kebeles of Aysha woreda at-a food-fair. Oxfam has organized food fairs, where local traders brought the food items to the kebeles and people claimed the food items using food vouchers. Oxfam paid the traders after getting the vouchers back.
Twenty five years ago I listened for the first time to Bono singing the words “Well, tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you” . Those words captured the mood of the time and before long the Band Aid single “Do they know it’s Christmas?” was number one in the charts and raising cash in a unique way. The following summer I joined the millions who stayed up all night to watch some of the biggest bands in the World perform back to back. I really felt like I was watching something – if only from a distance – that was special. It was a bit like an armchair Glastonbury. I donated less than a fiver I think (I was a teenager after all) by calling the free phone number – no online or text donations then – and sat back feeling good about myself and fully deserving of some free Madonna and Sting.Now I work as a Campaigner for Oxfam, and this week I’ve seen the BBC story about how some of that money allegedly found its way into the hands of rebel forces in Ethiopia. Of course the story jumps on Live Aid to grab our attention, although the money was from different sources.
Getting money to the people who need it and for whom it was intended, must always be the priority for organisations involved in overseas development. Not just ‘more’ but also ‘better’ aid has become the mantra for groups delivering that service. However, reaching people in poor countries where civil conflict exists is even harder. Money like this is most often intended for things like schools and hospitals – essential services – and these are usually the first to go during unrest. People in need in conflict zones are the ones who need aid money the most. Can we turn our backs on them?
As I see it, and I’m not an aid worker, when you have decided which country to work in, you have to be realistic about routes for delivering aid. You have to reduce the risk by working with established groups, ones that the locals know and trust. Then you need to be able to see results. It’s not easy but its necessary.
Today, millions in Ethiopia and across East Africa are facing severe food and water shortages after years of poor rains. It is estimated that drought costs Ethiopia $1.1bn a year – almost eclipsing the total annual overseas assistance to the country. You could be tempted to say that aid doesn’t work. But this is simply not true.The aid provided over the past 25 years has saved countless people from starvation and chronic hunger. In the recent Global Hunger Index of all developing countries, Ethiopia was shown to be in the top five performers in alleviating hunger since 1990 in absolute terms. The proportion of children completing primary school has more than doubled since 2000. Of course this can be further improved. A lot has been learned in the last 25 years; there are great programmes going on in Ethiopia right now that help communities prepare for years when the rains fail.
Change can happen and does happen. What we need to do is learn from what really works and see donors and agencies like the World Food Programme shifting the weight of their support to back these kinds of initiatives. What we can’t forget is that in developing countries loopholes in the arms trade, unfair trade rules, climate change and lack of government investment in healthcare and education services are huge real issues that stampede on communties fighting to get back on their own feet in developing countries . For me stories like the Live Aid money one prove once again that long lasting change requires hard campaigning work on all these issues.
New York (CPJ) —Voice of America (VOA) reported today that its transmissions to Ethiopia are being electronic jammed. The Ethiopian government denied responsibility.
VOA cited “international shortwave radio monitors” and complaints from listeners in Ethiopia since February 22 about static the U.S. government-funded station’s daily, hour-long shortwave broadcast from Washington in Amharic—the country’s main official language. CPJ independently collected widespread local accounts of interference exclusively on the Amharic service. VOA’s half-hour broadcasts in the other two local languages, Afan Oromo and Tigrigna, were broadcasting normally, the sources said. David Borgida, a VOA spokesman told Bloomberg News the station had not identified the source of the interference.
“The Ethiopian government has long had a hostile relationship with VOA and that is why we view their denial of responsibility with some skepticism,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We note that the Ethiopian government has neither offered to investigate nor fix the problem.”
In media interviews today, government spokesman Shimelis Kemal denied any government involvement. “This is absolutely a sham,” he told CPJ, adding that “the Ethiopian government does not support the policy of restricting foreign broadcasting services in the country. Such practices are prohibited in our constitution.”
Kemal was the government prosecutor who charged 21 journalists, including five Washington-based VOA journalists, with anti-state crimes over their coverage of the aftermath of disputed elections in May 2005. Under his leadership, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, the governmental authority responsible for issuing print and broadcast licenses, in 2009 ordered private station Radio Sheger to drop VOA newscasts and briefly revoked the accreditations of two VOA stringers, according to CPJ research.
Kemal told CPJ the allegations were part of a “smear campaign” by “opposition Web sites in the diaspora” ahead of general elections in May.
VOA is one of a handful of foreign-based independent stations, including Deutsche Welle and AddisDimts Radio, a station operated by the banned opposition movement Ginbot 7, that have reported ongoing or recurring interference of their broadcasts, according to CPJ research. Also in 2009, Meleskachew Amaha, a VOA stringer, was thrown into prison for three weeks on false tax charges that were later dismissed.
It was a charity appeal on a global scale. In 1985, an unprecedented array of performers took part in two marathon, televised concerts in Britain and the United States – all to raise money for a terrible famine in Ethiopia. And it worked. It’s thought the concerts eventually generated about two hundred and fifty million dollars in donations from the public. But now, evidence has emerged that the aid agencies charged with distributing that money, were hoodwinked: that millions of dollars were diverted to buy weapons for rebels in Ethiopia – and that the United States knew this was going on. For Assignment, Martin Plaut of BBC investigates. Click below to listen:
ADDIS ABABA (Bloomberg) — News broadcasts to Ethiopia by the Voice of America’s Amharic-language service are being electronically jammed, the Washington-based broadcaster said.
“VOA deplores jamming and any other form of censorship of the media,” Danforth Austin, director of the U.S. government-owned news service, said in a statement read to Bloomberg News by spokesman David Borgida. The broadcaster hasn’t been able to identify the source of the interference, Borgida said.
Shimeles Kemal, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government Woyanne regime in Ethiopia, said it was not responsible.
“Ethiopia has a constitution which outlaws any act by any official organ to restrict the dissemination of broadcast material from abroad,” he said in an interview today from the capital, Addis Ababa.
VOA along with Germany’s Deutsche Welle provide the only two news broadcasts in the local language not controlled by Ethiopia’s government or Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Ethiopian opposition parties have complained that the government is using the media for pro-Meles propaganda ahead of elections on May 23. In December, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia said it was concerned that private media in the country face alleged “harassment and intimidation” by the government.
Last year the state suspended the press accreditation of two Ethiopian VOA reporters for three days. One of them was later jailed for 17 days on tax charges and was released after being acquitted.
Last month, a reporter for an Ethiopian publication was jailed for criticizing Meles in a newspaper column, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least a dozen Ethiopian journalists fled the country in 2009 citing government harassment, the New York-based organization said in a statement last month.
A September study by the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between Harvard University and two Canadian laboratories, found Ethiopia’s state-owned phone company blocked domestic Internet access to Web sites about human rights and political reform.
