(EMF) – Ethiopians residing in Oslo, Norway, held a rally on Dec. 10, 2008, demanding the release of the popular artist Teddy Afro. The demonstration was held in front of a city hall where the 2008 Noble peace prize was awarded.
Demonstrators chanted: “Free Teddy Afro!” “Free all political prisoners in Ethiopia!” “Justice and democracy in Ethiopia!” They denounced the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi and the unjustified arrest and of Teddy Afro.
Government officials and diplomats from different countries, journalists, and guests of the Noble prize ceremony observed the demonstration. Leaflets describing the politically motivated court drama against Teddy Afro, and the injustice in Ethiopia were distributed to the public.
The protest rally was organized by Kinijit Support and Development Organization in Norway
(BBC) – More than 80% of Somalia’s soldiers and police – about 15,000 members – have deserted, some taking weapons, uniforms and vehicles, the UN says.
The head of the UN monitoring group on Somalia, Dumisani Kumalo, said Islamist insurgents got many of their weapons and ammunition from the deserters.
The head of the Somali police rejected the UN’s report.
Meanwhile, the African Union wants peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda to stay when Ethiopian troops leave soon.
In the UN report, Mr Kumalo, the South African ambassador, also said most of the Somali government’s security budget – supposedly 70% of its total budget – disappeared through corruption.
The Somali police chief, Abdi Awale, said all the money had been properly spent, and only a few soldiers and police officers had deserted.
Peacekeeper pledge
With Somalia’s fragile transitional government facing a growing insurgency, the African Union’s top diplomat said he hoped the 3,400 peacekeepers currently stationed in Mogadishu would stay – despite claims by the Ethiopian prime minister that they would leave.
“We have asked the African countries to increase their participation in Somalia, asked the UNSC (UN Security Council) to join us there, and to the AU partners to help us financing this force,” Jean Ping said.
“A withdrawal from Somalia is something we cannot accept, not only the AU, but also the rest of the world,” he said, according to AFP news agency.
Mr Ping’s comments come in response to a statement in the Ethiopian parliament by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that African Union peacekeepers wanted to leave Somalia.
The AU force, from Uganda and Burundi, had been expected to stay and even beef up its presence to make up for the planned Ethiopian pull-out at the end of the month.
Ethiopia has said Burundi and Uganda have asked its army to help their peacekeepers pull-out, but Burundi and Uganda have denied this.
The United Nations Security Council is due to consider a US proposal to send a full UN peacekeeping force to Somalia – something the AU has been pressing for.
Ethiopia troops intervened two years ago to oust Islamist forces from the capital, Mogadishu.
But different Islamist factions are again in control of much of southern Somalia.
Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy has launched a worldwide fund raising campaign today. In a statement released to the media, Ginbot 7 said that the fund will be used to carry out an all inclusive strategy that it has devised to remove the Woyanne tribal dictatorship in Ethiopia. Read the full statement below in Amharic:
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi has declared “mission accomplished” in Somalia, and told parliament Ethiopian Woyanne troops will be home from their controversial two-year military mission within weeks. Mr. Meles also pledged Ethiopia Woyanne would guarantee the safety of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, should they choose to withdraw. [The dumb Woyanne cannot even guarantee the safety of his own troops.]
The Ethiopian Woyanne leader admitted it has been impossible to crush the Islamist extremist al-Shabab forces and establish a stable government in the two years since he dispatched troops to neighboring Somalia. But he said that was not Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s objective.
That, he said, is the job of the United Nations, which gave legitimacy to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government; the African Union, which initially pledged to send 8,000 peacekeepers that he thought would quickly replace Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers; and the international community.
But in answering questions in parliament, Mr. Meles said he was bringing the troops home confident they had accomplished the twin missions of preventing the establishment of a militant Islamic regime, and giving the international community time to intervene. [Woyanne is getting out of Somalia with its tail between its legs.]
“Our main mission was to defuse the plan orchestrated by Eritrea, accompanied by al-Shabab, and anti-peace elements in Ethiopia, he said. “We have defused it in a way that it cannot come again. That is, if we feel there are signs it is coming back again, we can take action. We did that in the first two weeks. Our second mission was to give the international community and Somali peace forces time to accomplish their mission of bringing lasting peace to Somalia. We consider two years enough time. So we have accomplished both our missions. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to bring lasting peace to Somalia.” [What a clown!]
Urgent efforts are underway to bolster the 3,400-member AU force known as AMISOM, and possibly transform it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission. If that fails, however, and the international community abandons Somalia, Mr. Meles said he has assured Burundi and Uganda, the two AMISOM troop contributors, that Ethiopia Woyanne will guarantee safe departure of the peacekeepers.
“When we intervened in Somalia, there were forces that stood by our side,” he saidi. “So when we think of withdrawing from Somalia, we also think about how those countries will withdraw their troops. When we withdraw, the Burundi and Uganda forces have told us that if we withdraw, they might like to withdraw. They have told us they would need our assistance to withdraw form Somalia. They say it would be better if we escort them first, then we withdraw.”
AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra is in New York for talks with U.N. secretary-general and Security Council ambassadors about ways of preventing a collapse of Somalia’s transitional government after Ethiopia Woyanne leaves.
African Union diplomats in Addis Ababa said the international community is showing a heightened awareness of the severity of Somalia’s crisis. The U.N. Security Council is said to be preparing a ministerial-level meeting on Somalia next week. The African Union Peace and Security Council will hold a similar session the following week.
Even so, diplomats said it would take months to replace the several-thousand Ethiopian Woyanne troops who are going home, much less to bring the AMISOM force up to its authorized strength of 8,000, or to transform it to a more robust U.N. peacekeeping mission.
In what are seen as significant political developments, the leader of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia returned to Mogadishu this week after a two-year absence, and the transitional government’s parliament is assembling for a meeting Saturday aimed at affirming a power-sharing deal.
Major Tzion Shenker, who currently serves as the operations officer of the northern Gaza brigade, will soon be promoted to lt.-colonel, thereby becoming the army’s first-ever Ethiopian battalion commander.
Commander of IDF Ground Forces Major-General Avi Mizrachi already approved the appointment, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is expected to sign off without any objections. Shenker is expected to serve in the army’s Kfir infantry brigade, where he spent most of his career.
Shenker came to Israel with his parents when he was four. He walked with his family from Ethiopia to Sudan, and from there they were air-lifted to Eretz Yisrael. He began his life in Israel in Beersheva and later attended a dati school.
After being promoted he will be the highest ranking Ethiopian officer in the IDF, and he has already signaled he plans to continue, hoping to become the army’s first major-general.
IDF officials report that enlistment among the Ethiopian community is higher than in most other sectors of society, but the numbers entering elite combat units and officers school are relatively low.
One after another, people began calling police yesterday, telling them a suspicious man was running through their neighborhoods in McLean and Arlington County. Their 911 calls led three Fairfax County police officers to a man suspected of robbing a bank minutes earlier, and when he disobeyed their commands to drop his gun, the officers shot and killed him, police said.
This morning, Arlington police identified the dead man as Hailu Brook, 19, of McLean.
The suspect had started running when his getaway car skidded off wet pavement in McLean, police said. He crossed into Arlington and was shot behind Williamsburg Middle School, they said.
“It was a good collaborative effort by everybody,” said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer, who arrived at the scene after the shooting. He lauded residents who kept police informed about the suspect’s whereabouts and cited “great work by the officers in locating the suspect.”
Because the fatal shooting occurred outside Fairfax, Arlington police will investigate and present their findings to Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard E. Trodden, who will decide whether the shooting was justified. Fairfax police will do an internal investigation. The Fairfax officers, who had not been identified, were placed on routine administrative leave with pay.
Police said the man walked into the BB&T Bank branch at 6620 Old Dominion Dr. in McLean, in the Chesterbrook Shopping Center, about 11:20 a.m. He brandished a gun and demanded cash. After getting some money, he left the bank, climbed in a car and drove down Old Dominion Drive toward Arlington, Fairfax Officer Don Gotthardt said.
But before he could reach Arlington, the man’s gold Honda sedan skidded off the wet road and into a ditch at Valley Wood Road, Gotthardt said. The man then ran away, first through the Franklin Park neighborhood in McLean and then into the Rock Spring neighborhood in Arlington. Police declined to say whether money or evidence from the robbery was recovered from the car.
Residents began calling 911 to notify police of the man’s whereabouts, Gotthardt said. Shortly after 11:30 a.m., several Fairfax officers spotted him in the 5300 block of North 36th Street, about 300 yards from the back of Williamsburg Middle School.
The officers — with three, nine and 22 years’ experience, Gotthardt said — saw the man holding a weapon. Gotthardt said he could not verify whether he pointed it at the officers.
But the man “disregarded commands, and that’s when the officers fired,” Gotthardt said. The man, shot in the upper body, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they did not know how many times he had been shot or whether any shots reached the school.
The school was locked down for about an hour after police considered using its athletic fields as a landing spot for a helicopter to fly the suspect to a hospital. But the man died before a helicopter could reach the area, and the school went back to its normal schedule.
Gotthardt said the officers’ proximity to the school was “an obvious concern” before they opened fire. “I don’t know the officers’ mind-set, but the area behind the target is always considered,” he said. There is no official policy on withholding fire in a school area, he said.
Michael McDermott, 19, a student at Northern Virginia Community College, was working on a paper about the death penalty in his home when he said he heard gunshots. He looked out the window, saw a police officer running down the street and across his front yard, and grabbed a camera. When he popped his head out his front door, police yelled at him to get back inside, he said.
When he emerged several minutes later, dozens of officers had descended on the scene, and he saw them covering a body with a tarp.
A block away, Nancy Nakhleh, 45, was with her two children who were home sick from school. At first, she said, she thought the gunfire was bubble wrap being popped, but then she thought, “We don’t have any bubble wrap in the house.”
Or perhaps firecrackers? When she saw police swarming the street and lights flashing and heard a helicopter overhead, she knew it was gunfire, she said. Immediately, she feared something had happened at the school.
“I’m really grateful that this was totally random,” she said. “The biggest excitement around here is that someone gets egged or TP’d. It’s the kind of neighborhood where neighbors call and say, ‘Your son’s not wearing his bike helmet.’ ”
She was also thankful, she said, that with so many kids nearby at the school, no one else was hurt. “There are a ton of kids around here,” she said.
(Staff writer Jerry Markon contributed to this report.)
ይህ በጎ የህዝብ ምኞት እንዲሰምር ብዙ ኢትዮጵያውያን ህይወታቸው፣ ሃብት ንብረታቸውን፣ የተረጋጋ ኑሮዋቸውን፣ የቤተሰቦቻቸውን ደህንነት ገብረዋል። እስከ ዛሬ ድረስ ኢትዮጵያን ከተከመረባት ዘረኛና አምባገነናዊ ጸረ-ኢትዮጵያ ሃይል ለመገላገል ቆርጬ ተነስቻለሁ ለሚል ድርጅት የሃገራችን ዜጎች ያላበረከቱት ድጋፍ፣ ያልተመኙት በጎ ምኞት የለም። በተለያዩ ምክንያቶች ድርጅቶች ሲነሱ ሲወድቁ፣ ገበናቸው ሲጋለጥ፣ እንኳን ህዝብና ሃገርን የሚያክሉ ታላላቅ ነገሮች ነጻ የሚያደርግ ትግል እንቅስቃሴ ማደራጀት ቀርቶ እርስ በርሳቸው ተስማምተው መሄድ የማይችሉ ስብስቦች መሆናቸው ሲታይ፣ የህዝብ ስሜት በሃዘን ሬት ሲበከል አይተናል። አደራና ቃል የማያከብሩ፣ ለኢትዮጵያ ትንሳኤና ለህዝቧ የመከራ ቀን ማሳጠሪያ፣ ህዝብ ተቸግሮ በአመኔታ የሰጣቸውን ጥሪት ቀኑ መሽቶ የሚበላ የማይገኝ እንደሚመስለው ጅብ ተስገብግበው ውጠው፣ ያለምንም ሃፍረት አይናቸውን እያጉረጠረጡ በህዝብ ውስጥ ሲሹለኮሉ በማየት አንጀቱ የበገነው ብዙ እንደሆነ እናውቃለን።