By Carly Lagrotteria and Sarah Scire | The GW Hatchet
A George Washington University alumnus working for the State Department was found dead in Ethiopia this week and U.S. government officials say his death is being investigated as a homicide.
Brian Adkins, who graduated in 2007, worked for the State Department as a Foreign Service officer stationed in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Representatives from the State Department said Wednesday that Adkins died on Saturday, but would not give further details because it was an ongoing homicide investigation.
Adkins, who would have turned 26 on Feb. 2, completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at GW, graduating summa cum laude as an international affairs major from the Elliott School of International Affairs in 2005. He joined the State Department after receiving his master’s degree in 2007 and was assigned to Ethiopia.
After studying the indigenous language and culture for nearly a year, Adkins moved to Ethiopia as part of a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship.
John Wysham, head of the Ethiopia desk at the State Department, said he was unable to provide details about Adkins’ death or the homicide investigation.
“The trouble here is that it is a crime scene we are talking about,” Wysham said. “It wasn’t like he fell off a rock and hit his head.”
He added, “We’d love to talk about it and stop some of these rumors but we cannot.”
Wysham said that he has been in contact with the Ethiopian embassy and Ethopian police forces about the ongoing investigation.
A Foreign Service officer also stationed in Africa is planning to accompany Adkins’ body from Ethiopia to the United States, Wysham said. The casket will be transported by military aircraft.
Ginny Boncy, a member of the State Department’s casualty assistance department, said Adkins was in the first year of his assignment and performing consular work for the State Department.
Consular work typically includes providing services like assisting Americans in distress and handling visas and passports.
Though Adkins’ father could not be reached for comment, senior Michael Geremia, one of Adkins’ best friends, described the Ohio native as “selfless, hardworking, confident, funny, charming, articulate, a scholar and a gentleman.”
“The world has lost someone who had so much to offer. I miss him tremendously,” Geremia said. “When I received word of his death on Monday, which would have been his 26th birthday, a piece of me died in Ethiopia.”
Geremia said that he last spoke to Adkins on Sunday, Jan. 25, when the two friends started to plan Adkins’ summer vacation in D.C.
“He was so excited to be in Africa serving his country as a diplomat, promoting American values,” Geremia said. “As much as he loved his career, he missed the U.S.”
Geremia said that despite the trials of living abroad, Adkins was optimistic about his future as a diplomat.
“Whenever I would urge him to be safe, he would reassure me that Ethiopia was safer than D.C.,” Geremia said.
As a student in Foggy Bottom, Adkins was a leader at the Knights of Columbus and the Newman Center, two organizations devoted to the Catholic faith.
He served as a trustee and held several officer positions with the Knights, including chancellor in charge of membership. After graduating, Adkins served as state ceremonial chairman and district warren for the Knights. In 2007, he was named Knight of the Year in D.C.
“He was friendly to everyone, incredibly devoted to his faith, and always willing to volunteer and give of himself,” said senior Conrad Murphy, a former grand knight. “When he left for Ethiopia, we found that it took at least three of us just to fill his shoes.”
Friends and fellow members of the Knights of Columbus, including Murphy, said Adkins will be remembered as incredibly intelligent and always working to master a new language. He spoke French, Arabic and Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia.
Tom Saccoccia, a fellow 2007 alumnus and close friend, said Adkins will also be remembered for his humility.
“He just wasn’t a credit grabber, even though he did everything,” Saccoccia said. “He was just an all-around good guy.”
Adkins was a native of Columbus, Ohio. A Rite of Christian Burial is planned in his honor at St. Mary’s Church in his hometown.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The just completed African Union summit in Addis Ababa was partly a celebration of the continent’s achievements, and partly a reminder of how deeply it remains troubled by wars, poverty and flawed leadership.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the African Union summit, as did the heads of international financial institutions and as many as 25 other heads of state and government. But they were all upstaged by the golden-robed Libyan leader Moamar Gadhafi, hailed by supporters as ‘the king of kings’ as he was sworn in as AU chairman for the coming year.
The opening sessions were all business, presided over by the outgoing chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in his finely tailored suit. He was the third consecutive AU leader from a country where the government is chosen through elections.
Lukewarm reception for Colonel Gadhafi
The tone changed half way through the second day, when President Kikwete gave way to Libya’s ruler. In contrast to the packed hall during the earlier business sessions, the room was half empty, with only a handful of heads of state on hand as Mr. Gadhafi turned the floor over to the tribal kings in native dress he had brought with him.
Delegates at this summit reacted cautiously to Mr. Gadhafi’s election. When asked for her reaction, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said , ‘I have accepted it”. Other leaders made a silent statement by staying home, making this one of the most poorly attended summits since the organization began.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Gadhafi sharply criticized racism in the United States, America’s role in creating the world financial crisis, the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the failure of democracy in Africa, which he blamed for the recent rise in military coups.
Speaking in Arabic through an interpreter, Mr. Gadhafi said in his Green Book, a collection of thoughts published in 1988, he had predicted the election of a black president in the United States.
“But the Green Book says after analysis, after all various conditions that black people will prevail over the world, and today Obama, the Kenyan son has imposed himself in the United States of America, defying openly. It was a kind of challenge against this despicable attitude toward the black population, the looting of African wealth and the looting and pillaging of the continent,” he said.
Later, in answer to a reporter’s question, the Libyan leader railed against multi-party democracy, calling it an imported system that has brought nothing but chaos to Africa.
“Finally there was multi-partyism, but this new method, which is imported, is now faced with many challenges. Unfortunately we have seen coup d’etats and rebellions are showing back their ugly heads. After elections, there are massacres as it happened in Kenya. Also results of elections are made public then followed by rebellion, a president is elected and a revolt follows and a coup d’etat takes place, a rebellion and so on,” said the Libyan leader.
AU cautious on continental government
There were few heads of state in the room to hear Mr. Gadhafi’s speech. The summit had been extended an extra day because of a standoff between the Libyan leader and most other delegations over his plan to create a union government, and most presidents and prime ministers had gone home by the time the closing ceremonies were held.
In the end, this was Mr. Gadhafi’s summit, and he insisted he is pushing ahead with his plans. It was left to Africa’s chief diplomat, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping to explain to reporters that, despite what Mr. Gadhafi may say, his dream of a continent-wide government will not be coming true any time soon.
The following is a letter from Bereket Simon, the propaganda chief of Meles Zenawi’s brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia, to the author of “Journalist’s Memoir,” Tesfaye Gebreab. Seiko Toure is Bereket’s nom de guerre.
Hi! I have read your recent book. I don’t want to comment on what you have written about me. What I want to tell you is that I was consistent on my belief regarding you. Finally you have admitted that you were not in our domain, starting the first day!
This country had given you more than you have contributed. The EPRDF was so generous to accommodate you and give you the authority and wealth you abused it. Hiwot, Tsigereda, Zufan… loved you, though you were pretending that you loved them. Finally you lost everyone! You betrayed all!
Now you are coming back with a story to resurrect desperately your fatally damaged identity. You are opting for a struggle for which you are not created. I tell you, for the rest of your life, you will fight to abandon the pursuit of your guilt. But you will not be able to escape. You will remain unsatisfied and in a continuous and desperate act of insulting those who are making history, at least to satisfy your ill fated mind.
For us, regardless our weaknesses, we have got an objective which is changing the whole of Ethiopia, including the Yerer and Kereyu Oromo peasants you pretend loving them. We are writing history which can’t be destroyed by any kind of force; forget your testimony of betrayal. Though we don’t have the right to be remembered positively in history, I think, we may have a dignified share of appreciation for our heroic struggle for the betterment of this great nation.
The African heads of states held a meeting in Ethiopia. When it was established in 1963 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) as it was then named was a time of hope and a new beginning for Africa. The 1960’s ushered in a period of decolonization of the continent. There were two contending ideas being debated by the new leaders. The ‘Casablanca Group’ led by Kwame Nkrumah advocated a Federation of all African States while ‘The Monrovia Group’ as led by Leopold Senghor of Senegal envisioned economic cooperation as a spring board towards the eventual goal of a united Africa.
At the urging of Emperor Haile Sellasie of Ethiopia the two groups met and formed the OAU in May of 1963. There were 32 founding members present to sign the Charter. The OAU served its purpose very well. Among its many accomplishments; the most notable were firm a firm stand against colonialism and its eventual eradication, support and training of freedom fighters from Southern Africa, including South Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, closing of African sky’s to South African Airways and denying African Ports to South African ships. It should also be noted that the combined African vote was instrumental in ejecting the Apartheid regime from World Health Organization (WHO).
Organization of African Unity was replaced by African Union (AU) in 2002 and again renamed to African Authority (AA) at the urging of Mohamed Gaddafi this last meeting. I have no idea what the reasons are for this constant change of name, but the following chart will give you an idea of who these distinguished leaders of Africa are and how they got to weld such power.
Name Country Date in Power Method
El Hadj Omar BONGO Gabon 1967 Coup
Muammar Guaddfi Libya 1969 Coup/for ever
OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO Equatorial Guinea 1979 Coup
Eduardo De Santos Angola 1979 Liberation war
Joao VIEIRA Guinea-Bissau 1980 Coup/sham elections
Hosni MUBARAK Egypt 1981 Sham elections
Paul Biya Cameroon 1983 Sham election
Idriss DEBY Chad 1990 Sham elections
Meles Zenawi Ethiopia 1991/2005 War/sham elections
Umar Al bashir Sudan 1993 Coup/sham election
Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH Gambia 1994 Coup/sham election
Denis Sassou-NGUESSO Congo 1997 Coup
Francois Bozize Central African Republic 2003 Coup
The above are but the most egregious serial violators of the peoples trust. The rest not mentioned here, with the exception of a handful do not fare any better. Killing, torture, imprisoning without due process, deportation of citizens, a robust security and the presence of border conflict or civil war are the hallmark of our all-knowing ‘strong men’ leaders bestowed on Africa. The individuals being murdered, tortured, denied basic human rights by these despots are real people. They have families, a wife a husband, children, mother, father, uncles and neighbors that love them. Where their voices are silenced we speak for them. Thus it will be correct to say that there were plenty of scavengers in Addis this last weekend. I am sure Hugo Chavez will smell burning human flesh instead of sulfur if he was in that hall. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=binMjEiS8AY)
Lots of words were spoken regarding Africa. The speech by the Ethiopian Prime minister was a tour de force. He did not speak about Ethiopia. In fact he did not even mention Ethiopia. Ato Meles was focused on higher matters. Little Ethiopia was too inconsequential or very provincial. He used the forum to expound his knowledge of economics and confrontational politics.
The first half was all about doom and gloom. After thanking the conference official regarding ‘strict adherence to rules and regulations’ (a curious statement from some one who has his Kaliti dungeon full to capacity without regard to the law and his own Constitution) went on to warn us about the coming global economic crisis. He lamented about the rising unemployment (40%+ in Ethiopia without any safety net) and predicted low growth and volatility. This is how he foresaw the near future:
“… the fate of countries and continents is likely to be determined by how well and how fast they adjust to the transition and unavoidable structural change. Those who have the financial and technological resources to adjust and the necessary leadership with the appropriate insight and implementation capability are likely to succeed. On the other hand those who lack these resources and capabilities are likely to suffer and may even fail to adjust.”
As an African I am glad to hear that we meet one of the two requirements set by the PM. Finance and technology are out of our reach, but we are blessed by ‘strong’ leaders with plenty of capability to make their wish be the law. We are talking muscle here.
With the prediction of global warming, falling commodity prices, reduction in remittances and a drastic cut in foreign aid Ato Meles laid down his solutions to save Africa. He asserted that all our problems are due to the lack of ‘adequate policy autonomy’ given to African leaders by donor nations. He went on to lecture his captive audience the following words of wisdom:
“We have to demand that Africans should be given real voice not the token one we currently have and that to me this is very important that the institutions should be reformed to limit conditionality based on dogmas and to limit arbitrary exercise of power in determining resources flows. Voice and vote without such change in the modus operandi of this institutions is not going to be good enough.”
In other words what Ato Meles is saying is just give us the money and we will decide what to do. As the rest of the world comes to a universal conclusion that ‘institutions’ without adequate supervision are a recipe for disaster, our esteemed ‘strong African leader’ is telling us to give him the key to the vault and trust his judgment. The new international catch phrases are transparency, accountability and robust regulation. Isn’t the PM standing the solution on its head when he demands blind faith in the ability of African leaders to do the right thing? It is surely strange to hear him decrying ‘arbitrary exercise of power’ by his benefactors when he has single handily squashed all opposition in the country and is currently using torture and denying the human right of the Chairman of the opposition party Judge Birtukan Mideksa among other victims.
Next on his plate of complaints is the unfairness of the ‘bailout of banks and major industries’ by the developed countries. He tells us that the bailout proves that the meager amount of aid to Africa is not due to budget and resources constraints. He found this insight to be a ‘eureka moment.’ The conclusion is a little puzzling. The understanding in all circles is that the ‘bailout’ is not a gift rather the governments are investing in the companies until they return to healthy status. Some even call it creeping socialism. When Ato Meles demands Africa to be treated as important as the banks, is he asking for the West to buy stocks in our government? Do we give them sits in parliament or have them serve as Ministers? It does not seem to be a well thought idea. I fail to see the wisdom of increasing aid handouts without accountability when their own economies are a crisis mode.
Last but not least the PM presented a typical TPLF philosophy of coercion and Kilil mentality. It was vintage Meles. He theories that the coming UN sponsored ‘global carbon exchange’ conference to be a good opportunity to lay a guilt trip on the industrialized west and wrestle some real cash. He said:
“Africa has contributed virtually nothing to global warming but is going to suffer ….it is only fair that those who have created the problem pay us to mange the consequences of the problem that they have created … we should ask to be paid compensation for the damage to our economy”
Thus we can even leverage our backwardness to demand unfettered aid. Where over eight million citizens need food aid, where the vast majority of the youth is uneducated and unemployed, where thousands risk their lives trying to flee poverty and hopelessness by drowning, or being eaten by wild animals, abused and enslaved by degenerate oil rich neighbors, instead of mia culpa (my fault) by our leader we are conniving with other worthless despots to finagle spare change. The question what exactly did you accomplish in the last eighteen years you have ruled without opposition can not be answered with any credible statistics.
It is easy to see the quality of leadership and mindset if you compare the plan for action envisioned by leaders such as Mr. Obama and Ato Meles. Obama used his podium to ask the American people and humanity to think outside the box. He urged all of us to use this economic and social calamity to re embark on the search for new knowledge and new social contract and emerge leaner and stronger. Ato Meles sees it as a new opportunity to brazenly demand more handout and unfettered power to decide the fate of millions. Instead of rallying his people and Africans to reach higher and go further, he ignored his own population as irrelevant and spoke of forming a ‘single voice’ representing dictators, usurpers and garden variety thieves to demand ransom.
The only positive things that keep the country afloat are remittances from those forced out of their motherland, aid by donor countries and loans and grants by the IMF that must be paid back. We are still a commodity exporting country, we have no industrial base, and our population is growing faster than our capacity to feed and house and the repression is continuing unabated.
All land is owned by the regime and used for control and bribe. The government is the number one employer in the country. Employment is used to control and intimidate the citizen. Citizens are not allowed to own and operate Television and radio transmission. Internet is regulated and the government is the only service provider. Content is censored and Diaspora Ethiopian sites are blocked. Private newspapers are constantly playing a game of hide and seek with the government. Printing paper, ink and distribution network is used to discourage circulation. Editors and reporters are mysteriously found dead, forced to flee the country or co-opted. Individual imitative is frowned upon and the only enterprise allowed is that which benefits those in power.
The TPLF regime used Dedebit as a primary level school to practice the art of control. Tigrai can be considered their secondary level education where villages were used to sharpen the level of coercion. Taking state power was definitely college level work. Legitimacy was achieved. The new maze included eighty millions subjects closely monitored. Invading Somalia was graduate work and definitely a specialized study under the mentorship of Professor Dick Cheney. This new endeavor of ganging up with other African dictators to demand aid with no need of regulatory agency is surely a PHD level attempt. TPLF have come a long way indeed. What a shame to graduate with such honor but to have nothing to show for it.
I see the glass half full instead of half empty as the PM sees it. I see a bright future where its own contradictions is causing the demise of the TPLF entity and a united front called by Professor Al
Mariam (http://www.ethiomedia.com/aurora/9724.html) and Obang Metho (http://www.ethiomedia.com/aurora/9566.html) stirring the sleeping giant Diaspora into action. There is Ginbot7 laying the groundwork for a sustainable and smart organization, and Andenet is exposing the hollowness of the minority regime’s Constitution.
What do you say my friends, are you going to answer the call of your country and your people? Are you going to have your words matching your action? Love for Ethiopia should not only be expressed by flying a big flag, a bumper sticker on back of a car, a once a week visit to the church or mosque and an endless war of words while sipping latté at Starbucks. Loving Ethiopia is protecting her from those that harm her and saying no to brutal, self-centered dictators that use tribal allegiance, personal greed and our good old stupidity to co-opt our weak nature.
Remember our eternal hero Abune Petros who uttered this fateful words facing the fascist firing squad “… May God give the people of Ethiopia the strength to resist and never bow down to the fascist army and its violence. May the Ethiopian earth never accept the invading army’s rule.” They murdered him but he lives forever in our hearts and minds.
ISRAEL – Ethiopian rights groups spoke out this week against a government-Jewish Agency decision to close the main immigrant absorption center in Tiberias in the coming weeks due to budget difficulties faced by both bodies.
The 380 residents of the Recital Absorption Center – all immigrants from Ethiopia who have been here less than two years – received notices in late December telling them that the center would be closing and that alternative accommodation would be found for them.
“As a person involved in social welfare issues who has personally been exposed to many cases of discrimination and racism, I’m still shocked that two organizations charged with the welfare of new immigrants would become the instigators of such problems for them,” said Danny Admasu, director of the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews.
The association, together with Tebeka (“advocates for justice” in Amharic), urged the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, which works in partnership with the Jewish Agency at the center, to hold off on the closure at least until the current school year is complete and to allow those immigrants who are working nearby to part from their employers on good terms.
“I’ve been living in the absorption center for the past year and three months and work nearby as a dish washer,” said Adis Avka, 35. “To come to us without warning and tell us we have to move, especially when my children are in the middle of the school year, is not fair.”
“To close down an absorption center in the middle of the year and completely ignore the needs of the people living there is unacceptable,” said Yitzhak Desse, the director of Tebeka.
Community representatives, who last week petitioned Jewish Agency and ministry officials on the issue, said the closure would cause significant and irreversible damage to the absorption and integration of the immigrants, who already struggle to adjust to their new lives in Israel.
In response, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry and the agency issued a joint statement pointing out that the move was purely a financial decision made due to recent cutbacks to the sector.
“After a series of discussions with the residents of Recital, we have agreed to move them to another absorption center not far from Tiberias and to provide the children with transport to their schools, so as to minimize the disturbance to their current routine,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Jewish Agency spokesman told The Jerusalem Post the move was part of ongoing cutbacks faced by the quasi-governmental organization and was not specifically aimed at the Ethiopian immigrant community but rather part of wider phenomenon.
He pointed out that Ulpan Etzion, a popular absorption center in Jerusalem for single immigrants under 35 from Western countries, was also scaled back earlier this year, and absorption programs in Lod and Arad were also cut.
In October, the Jewish Agency – which also receives donations from international Jewry – had its 2009 budget slashed by some $45 million, forcing it to lay off employees around the world.
Brian Adkins, who graduated in 2007, worked for the State Department as a Foreign Service officer stationed in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Representatives from the State Department said Wednesday that Adkins died on Saturday, but would not give further details because it was an ongoing homicide investigation.