NEW YORK – An Ethiopian editor is facing criminal charges today because she accidentally misidentified a judge in a high-profile trial, according to local journalists. Two other journalists have been in police custody since Monday because of the same story.
While covering this month’s resumption of the trial of Ethiopian pop musician {www:Tewodros Kassahun}, jailed since April over a fatal car accident in 2006, Enbilta’s October 3 edition mistakenly identified the judge overseeing the case as Judge Mohamed Amin Sani, Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girma told CPJ. The paper did not publish a correction, but used the right name in the subsequent edition, which is Judge Mohamed Umer, she said.
Launched in January 2008, Enbilta is one of a handful of independent media outlets authorities have allowed to operate in the country since a crackdown on critical media and political dissidents in the aftermath of disputed elections in 2005. That year, Kassahun’s popular song, “Jah Yasteseryal,” was a popular anthem of antigovernment protesters.
“This is nothing but a flimsy pretext to crack down on a critical paper,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on Ethiopian authorities to release Habte Tadesse and Atenafu Alemayehu immediately and drop these bogus charges against Tsion Girma.”
Ethiopian Federal High Court Abraha Tetemke today charged Girma of Enbilta, an Amharic-language weekly, with “inciting the public through false rumors,” under Article 486 of Ethiopia’s penal code, she told CPJ. Girma, Deputy Editor Habte Tadesse, and editor Atenafu Alemayehu were arrested on Wednesday morning after reporting to police for questioning, according to local journalists. She was released today on bail of 2,000 birr (US$200) and ordered to court for trial on Monday. Tadesse and Alemayehu are still being held.
Girma was the second journalist to face criminal charges this year over coverage of the popular singer’s trial. Editor Mesfin Negash of the leading weekly Addis Neger was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for publishing an interview of the singer’s lawyer that was critical of the former judge overseeing the trial.
KHARTOUM, SUDAN – Sudanese security agents stormed the home of an Ethiopian Woyanne diplomat in Khartoum and detained some of the attendees, a newspaper reported today.
The daily Al-Hayat newspaper published in London quoting unidentified diplomatic sources said that the incident happened this week at the home of the Ethiopian Woyanne military attaché during a party he was holding.
Security officials justified their action as saying that some of the people in the party violated the laws because of liquor that was being served.
The diplomats said the incident is the latest of series of recent setbacks in Sudanese-Ethiopian relations. They further said that Khartoum is angry at Addis Ababa Woyanne for allegedly supplying arms to the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).
Earlier this month it was reported that an Ethiopian Woyanne military plane arrived at Juba airport with weapons to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassadors of Ethiopia Woyanne and Kenya to protest the shipment. However the Ethiopian Woyanne government said the weapons were for a military show.
The Ethiopian Woyanne government is also reported to be dissatisfied with the close relations between Eritrea and Sudan. Moreover, some circles in Addis Ababa Woyanne accuse Khartoum of backing Ethiopian Woyanne Oromo rebels and Islamist militants in Somalia.
Last July Sudan’s army accused Ethiopian Woyanne troops of attacking a military camp inside their borders killing 19 soldiers.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The publisher of Inbilta weekly newspaper in Addis Ababa, Wzt. Tsion Girma, and two journalists, Ato Habte Derese and Ato Atnafu Alemayehu, have been arrested yesterday for misidentifying the last name of the judge who is hearing Teddy Afro’s sham trial.
Inbilta newspaper wrote down the judge’s name as Mohammed Umer. His correct name is Mohammed Amin Sani.
The dumb judge took that as an insult and ordered the publisher and her two journalists to be arrested immediately.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This must be Joke of the Week. Djibouti’s government is run by khat-addict whores. They have no respect for international law. They have demonstrated their lawlessness by handing over 8 Ethiopian helicopter pilots — who sought political asylum — to the Woyanne dictatorship in Ethiopia where, according to some reports, were executed.
(BBC) – Djibouti’s president has said his country will have to go to war with Eritrea unless the UN acts to resolve growing tension over a border dispute.
Djibouti has accused Eritrea of invading its territory.
The Eritrean ambassador to the UN denied that his country had taken any land from Djibouti.
Both France and the US have troops in Djibouti, and its border with Eritrea lies at a key strategic point at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Eritrea’s ambassador instead accused Ethiopia of moving troops to the border of the three countries.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the Horn of Africa country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.
Clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti earlier this year left nine Djiboutian troops dead and 60 injured.
On Thursday, Djibouti’s President Omah Guellah appealed to the UN Security Council to help resolve the dispute.
“Continued inaction in whatever form not only will encourage but will benefit Eritrea’s attitude,” he said.
“This would only give my country one option, the option of war.”
In June the UN Security Council called on Eritrea and Djibouti to agree to a ceasefire, stressing that Eritrea should pull its forces back, the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan reports from the United Nations.
France, the former colonial power in Djibouti, is working on presenting a plan to the Security Council reiterating demands for Eritrea to withdraw its forces, she says.
France also wants the two sides to talk to each other about their disputed border.
In light of the development of several critical issues that include U.S. economic volatility and the new political direction it’s likely to turn towards, it’s not farfetched to predict that Washington-supported Ethiopian Woyanne occupation of Somalia will soon come to an end.
However, what ensues might not provide comfort to some who erroneously bought into the mindset that politics and Islam cannot and should not mix. But, unfortunately, their reaction would be the element that would tip the scale.
Evidently, Ethiopia’s regime is unable to feed its own people and thus could not feasibly sustain this occupation without Washington ’s financial, political and technical support. In fiscal year 2007, U.S. awarded the Ethiopian regime approximately $300 million dollars in a non-humanitarian aid, and it was supposed to award double that amount in fiscal year 2008 in order to “fight against Islamists in neighboring Somalia ”. Be as it may, today, Ethiopian regime is on a political slippery slope that unless it takes drastic measures (and soon) it can become the next epicenter of violence in the Horn of Africa.
The cruel occupation and the violent insurgency that it inspired have paved the way for the creation of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. According to the UN estimate, 3.5 million Somalis are now on the verge of starvation, and about 1.5 million are IDPs (internally displaced persons). This coupled with the widely documented brutal oppression against ethnically Somali people of Ogadenia have profoundly contributed to the rapid erosion of Ethiopia ’s international image. Ethiopia has become Africa ’s hegemonic brute with a long record of gross human rights abuses and war crimes violations.
Last year, ten U.S. Senators have sent a joint, bi-partisan letter to the Secretary of State expressing their grave concern over Ethiopian regime’s (Woyanne) mounting human rights violation record. Likewise, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that became known as The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act.
Compounding the pressure is the insurgency getting much fiercer and more popular every day, and the utter erosion of public trust of the TFG (Transitional Federal Government.) So, however one assesses this situation, there is no escaping the writing on the wall: the lethal debacle that led to the worst misery in Somali history is coming to an end.
Now, the question is: Would that establish peace and order in Somalia ? Would that set the stage for Somalia to become, as some have been saying, a breeding ground or a safe haven for fugitive terrorists? Would that ensure security for Somalia’s neighbors and respect their territorial integrity?
Of course, it would be naïve to think that the Somali political problem, as intertwined set of complex issues as it is, could be solved the day after the Ethiopian Woyanne troops vacate Somalia . It will take a process, a painful one at that; but certainly nothing like the current nightmare.
Naturally, the insurgents will declare victory. But, they are not monolithic; neither in ideology nor in identity. They are a mixture of what’s left of the ICU (Islamic Courts Union) and its radical wing Al-Shabaab, secularist nationalists, victims of the occupation, and clan loyalists. However, it’s highly plausible for an inter-factional power struggle to ignite. One that is reminiscent of the May 2006 when ICU was fighting for its survival against a CIA-backed gang of most abhorred warlords in Mogadishu who called themselves the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.
In due course, there will be peaceful surrenders, amnesty, and disarmaments.
How soon will this come to pass; and, whether or not the triumphant entity will be willing to share power; and, how susceptible would they be to radicalization depends mainly on how Washington reacts. And the last thing that Washington wants to do is to repeat the same ill-advised reaction that led to the current catastrophe in the first place.
For almost a decade, the mention of the word “Islamist” has virtually blurred the West’s sense of perspective. Everything was seen through the biased prism of “global war on terrorism” hence a blanket rejection was thrown over any form of “political Islam”- a phrase loaded that connotes something sinister and evil.
However, even in this landscape of predisposed negative attitude toward anything that mixes Islam with politics, the Islamists have an unmatched record of public service; even against the internationally recognized TFG. The former operates schools, hospitals, and for six months before the occupation removed every checkpoint in Mogadishu and brought semblance of peace.
Of course, the Islamists have made many reckless mistakes. Certain hardliners within the courts have haphazardly restricted certain liberties such as the right to watch movies and the right of women to opt out to wear hijab.
Even against this backdrop, Islamists still ride high when it comes to sincerity of action. However, they would be welcomed with vigilant skepticism and self-confidence that the will of the masses will ultimately prevail.
People look forward to a new, consensus-building leadership who puts law and order first. Leadership that would bring an end to the kidnapping, rape, human-trafficking, and indeed piracy. Leadership that would subscribes to enlightened nationalism devoid of irredentist aspiration. People will embrace pluralistic, non-puritanical Islamic governance.
Lastly, people are yearning for a visionary and a charismatic leader who would articulate a new vision and inspires the masses to dream a new Somalia.
