Ethiopia’s dictator swears by 10 percent
… facts on the ground tell a different story, as the video below shows.
Ethiopia
U.S. State Department reverses course on Eritrea
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first positive step on the part of the U.S. Department of State after a decade of failed policy by the previous officials who had contributed to the chaos in the Horn of Africa by financing Meles Zenawi’s tribal junta that has turned the whole region into a war zone. The best thing for the U.S. State Department to do is to stay out of the Horn of Africa and allow the people of the region to sort things out for themselves. All the current wars and conflicts in the Horn have the U.S. finger prints on them. Stop fueling the Woyanne killing machine and Meles Zenawi and his tribal warlords will have no option but to sit down and negotiate on equal terms with all the political players in the region for the sake of their own survival.
The United States Seeks to Engage Eritrea
By Tizita Belachew | VOA
The U.S. Secretary of State’s assistant for African affairs told VOA’s Tizita Belachew today “the door is open” to improving relations between the United States and Eritrea.
In his second month on the job, Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson today discussed issues confronting several African countries including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Carson has previously accused the State of Eritrea of shipping arms and fighters to Somalia to support the insurgency of al-Shabab. Today, the assistant secretary revealed a surprising twist in his efforts to engage Eritrea.
Carson, who has served as a U.S. diplomat in six African countries, told Tizita, “I met with the Eritrean ambassador and asked to meet with President Isaias Afwerki. If he will give me a visa, I will be there.” However, after Carson left his passport with the Eritrean embassy “for an extended period” he was surprised to find it returned “without a visa in it.”
“If relations are not improved it will not be because we’re not trying to act as a respected partner.”
Carson said the Obama administration seeks to normalize strained relations. “This administration seeks a better relationship with Eritrea,” Carson said. The most recent difference is over Eritrea’s support for the insurgency against the Transitional Government of Somalia.
President Afewerki told VOA’s Tigrigna service in Asmara two weeks ago that he looks forward to meeting Carson, but Afewerki repeatedly denies flying weapons to al-Shabab in Somalia.
“There is a growing volume of real and circumstantial evidence of continuing relations between Asmara and al-Shabab,” Carson said today. “We encourage Eritrea to cut off relations” with the insurgents, he said. “There should be no transit for foreign fighters through Eritrea.”
“The door is open if they are transparent on Somalia.”
Result of Woyanne’s 10 percent economic growth – video
After receiving over $1 billion from donors and claiming an annual growth rate of over 10 percent, Ethiopians are growing more poor by the day. The most vulnerable victims of Ethiopia’s tribal junta are the children, as you see in the video below.
President Obama's restraint on Iran
By Jeff Jacoby | Boston Globe
TWENTY YEARS ago this month, the first President Bush refused to condemn China’s communist rulers when they unleashed a violent assault on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.
For weeks Bush had refrained from encouraging the student-led reform movement that had blossomed around the country. “Clearly we support democracy,” he said, adding that it wouldn’t be appropriate for an American president to endorse the protesters’ pleas for more freedom. “Exactly what their course of action should be,” he demurred, “is for them to determine.” Even after the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Bush – unwavering in his commitment to engagement with Beijing – would say nothing that might offend the Chinese government. “Not the time for an emotional response,” he told reporters. He even spoke respectfully of the Chinese troops. “The army did show restraint. . . They showed restraint for a long time.”
In reacting to the recent Iranian election and to the protests that erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway victor, the Obama White House seems to be taking a page from the elder Bush’s 1989 playbook.
“The administration has remained as quiet as possible,” the Washington Post reported on Monday, even as images streaming out of Iran showed the mullahs’ basij thugs bloodying unarmed protesters. Vice President Joseph Biden told “Meet the Press” on Sunday that while there were “doubts” about the election’s fairness, the administration was “going to withhold comment” until a more thorough analysis could take place. But even if the election results were fraudulent, engagement with Iran’s theocratic government would go forward, he said.
Not until Monday evening did Obama himself finally address the crisis in Iran, and when he did it was Bush-on-Tiananmen all over again – halting, mealy-mouthed, passive. “I want to start off by being very clear that it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be,” he said, as if that isn’t precisely what the mullahs rigged the election to prevent. “I am deeply troubled by the violence that I’ve been seeing on television,” he continued, without a word of censure for the despotic regime committing that violence, let alone a demand that it stop.
Like Bush Sr. in 1989, Obama made it clear that he was not going to lift a finger for the courageous throngs in the streets – and that he was keen to engage the junta, no matter how vicious its behavior. “We will continue,” he said, “to pursue a tough, direct dialogue between our two countries.” He repeated yesterday that he does not like to see “violence directed at peaceful protesters,” but that it would not be “productive” for the president of the United States “to be seen as meddling” in Iranian affairs.
But neutrality is not an option. By not supporting the Iranian protesters, Obama is aiding their oppressors. Reporting from Tehran, CNN’s Samson Desta noted that Iranian students have repeatedly approached him with an “appeal to President Obama. They say, ‘Is he going to accept this result? Because if he does, then we are doomed.’ ”
Should it really be so difficult for a president who campaigned on the themes of hope and change to raise his voice on behalf of the brave Iranians who are risking their lives to bring hope and change to their country? Obama proclaimed on his first day in office that those “who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent . . . are on the wrong side of history.” If he could say it at his inauguration, why can’t he say it today?
“Engagement” with the foul Ahmadinejad and the turbaned dictators he answers to has always been a chimera; if that wasn’t clear before last week’s brazenly rigged election results, surely it is clear now. Iran’s ruling clerics, headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, didn’t just endorse the Ahmadinejad approach – the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the vile anti-Semitism, the demonization of America, the partnership with terrorists, the trampling of human rights. They unreservedly embraced it. Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent reelection was hailed by Khamenei as “a divine blessing” and “a glittering event.” With such a regime, no compromise is possible. Neither is impartiality. Like it or not, the White House must choose: Will America stand with the mullahs and their goons, or with the endangered people of Iran?
(Jeff Jacoby can be reached at [email protected])>
Ethiopian rights lawyer, VOA reporter face prison
By Peter Heinlein | VOA
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — A prominent Ethiopian attorney and a Voice of America journalist face stiff prison terms in a case linked to an exiled opposition leader accused of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi’s government. The accused are free on bail, pending trial.
The Chairman of Ethiopia’s independent Human Rights Council and former Supreme Court justice Abebe Worke is scheduled to appear for pre-trial hearings on Wednesday in an Addis Ababa court along with VOA Amharic service reporter Meleskachew Ameha. The two men are charged with trying to sell illegal radio broadcasting equipment that was imported without paying taxes.
Defense attorney Atnafu Bogale says the pair face long prison terms, if convicted.
“One charge carries a sentence of seven to 15 years and the other charge carries a sentence of three to five years,” said Atnafu Bogale. “Both charges are serious, rigorous imprisonment.”
The suspected contraband was seized by customs agents at the Addis Broadcasting Company, ABC – a firm founded by a shareholders group that includes Meleskachew, Abebe and opposition leader Berhanu Nega.
The company obtained studio equipment in 2002 through a grant from the Norwegian government intended to foster independent media in Ethiopia. But subsequently, the firm was unable to obtain a broadcasting license.
Attorneys says ABC’s link to Berhanu Nega is a complicating factor in the case. He was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005, but was later jailed in connection with post election violence. After being freed in 2007, he went to the United States, where he heads Ginbot Seven, an opposition group committed to ousting the Ethiopian government.
Police recently arrested 32 suspected Ginbot Seven members and accused them of hatching a plot to assassinate public officials.
Fourteen others were charged in absentia, including Berhanu Nega. Berhanu denies the charges.
Law professor and co-founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council Mesfin Woldemariam says Berhanu’s involvement in ABC makes it a target.
“They are definitely going at Berhanu Nega with ABC,” said Mesfin Woldemariam. “[If] they wanted Berhanu Nega, they don’t have to arrest so many individuals who have shares. So it is irrational, perhaps motivated by fear.”
The arrest of Meleskachew Ameha comes at a time of tense relations between the government and the Voice of America, which broadcasts in four of Ethiopia’s main languages. The government temporarily suspended Meleskachew’s reporting license earlier this year to underscore its displeasure with VOA’s news coverage.
Ethiopia’s Communications Minister, Bereket Simon, told journalists it is no secret that the government has qualms about VOA’s reporting. But he denied that the ABC case is aimed at silencing reporter Meleskachew.
“Absolutely not,” said Bereket Simon. “The arrest of Meleskachew is related only to tax evasion and doing illicit activities in terms of bringing in radio equipment without prior knowledge of the government. So it has nothing to do with content.”
In a related development, the government last week ordered a local FM radio station in Addis Ababa to immediately stop all rebroadcasts of VOA programs. The popular Sheger FM station had been broadcasting several hours daily of mostly music programming in English, including brief international news bulletins.
Mogadishu police chief killed in gun battle
By Mohamed Olad Hassan | AP
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali government forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu on Wednesday, triggering battles that killed at least 11 people, including the capital’s police chief, witnesses and officials said.
Residents cowered in their homes or took cover behind buildings as mortars slammed into the city. Islamist fighters wearing headscarves and ammunition belts draped over their shoulders were seen arriving from the outskirts of the capital to join the battle.
“A mortar landed on a neighbor’s house and killed two people and injured four others,” said Abdiwali Dahir.
Police spokesman Col. Abdullahi Hassan Barise confirmed the death of police chief Col. Ali Said, but had no further details.
Another witness said he saw five corpses lying in the capital’s battle-scarred streets. Farah Abdi told The Associated Press on the phone as the sound of heavy gunfire echoed in the background that three were civilians. Abdi said that residents identified the other two as the bodies of an Islamist fighter and a government soldier.
An administrator at Medina Hospital, Ali Ade, said the hospital received 39 wounded people. Ade said three of them died from their wounds.
Abdulqadir Haji of Amin Voluntary Ambulance services said his team ferried 20 wounded people to hospitals.
Mogadishu resident Hanad Abdi Garun, who was huddled up in his house in Hodan district in the capital’s south, said government forces brought in more reinforcements overnight before they started the offensive against Islamist bases.
“This is the strongest fighting we have seen in recent months,” said resident Asha Moalim. “We are ducking inside our rooms.”
A surge of violence in Somalia’s capital since last month has killed about 200 people as insurgents battle the government and its allies. Insurgents want to topple the Western-backed government and install a strict Islamic state.
The government only controls a few blocks of Mogadishu with the help of an African Union peacekeeping force that guards the air and sea ports and other key government installations. Different Islamic insurgent groups control the rest of Mogadishu.
The U.N. says the conflict between the government forces and Islamist fighters has displaced more than 122,000 people since the start of the latest fighting on 7 May.
Somalia has had no effective central government for nearly two decades. The lawlessness on land has also allowed piracy to thrive off the Somali coast, making Somalia the world’s top piracy hotspot.