EDITOR’S NOTE: Mugabe is just another blood thirsty vampire like Meles. At the same time, the U.S. Administration has no moral authority to criticize Mugabe while completely ignoring the atrocities of its puppet, the Meles regime, in Ethiopia and Somalia, including throat slashing, rape, indiscriminate firing at civilians, and other types of crimes against humanity as reported by Amnesty International and other international organizations. The hypocrisy and double standard of the U.S. Administration in regards to Mugabe and Meles shameful.
Zimbabwe attacks ‘out of control’
(BBC) — The US ambassador to Zimbabwe warned post-election violence is “spinning out of control”, as the government set a date for a second-round run-off.
James McGee told the BBC he had found evidence of “politically-inspired” violence against hundreds of people.
The diplomat warned the situation made it impossible for the second vote, set for 27 June, to be fair.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round, but not by enough to avoid a run-off with President Robert Mugabe.
The US ambassador said he had uncovered “firm evidence” of state-sponsored political bloodshed against supporters of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the aftermath of the elections on 29 March.
He told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “Violence is spinning out of control.
“Too many people have been killed, too many people have been maimed, too many people have been dislocated from their homes.”
He said the attacks involved “mainly beatings to the back and buttocks, we’ve seen quite a few broken limbs, we’ve seen cuts to the head”.
He also said he had met an elderly woman who had been struck with a hatchet.
“Her two grand-sons were activists with the MDC party,” said Mr McGee.
“They were beaten up and then the people who beat them up found their grandmother and hit this 80-year-old woman in the head with an axe.”
‘Unadulterated violence’
Mr McGee said he had met the victims on a fact-finding trip with British, Japanese, EU, Dutch and Tanzanian diplomats, during which he said they were harassed by police.
Along with so-called war veterans, he said they had evidence “police and military are involved in these attacks”.
It was “pure unadulterated violence designed to intimidate people from voting in the next election”, he said.
But the state-owned Herald newspaper poured scorn on the US ambassador’s claims in an editorial, accusing the US of trying to demonise Zimbabwe.
And Zanu-PF spokesman Bright Matonga told the BBC: “Let me make it very clear that the Zimbabwe government does not support any violence – whether by MDC or Zanu-PF.”
Mr Mugabe told a Zanu-PF meeting on Friday the party should have been more prepared for the election.
‘Disastrous’
“Although the presidential result did not yield an outright winner, it was indeed disastrous,” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai told the BBC’s Orla Guerin Zanu-PF had made “overtures” to the MDC about the possibility of a national unity government.
He has said he will contest the second-round vote, after originally threatening to boycott it.
Mr Tsvangirai has also accused Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party of a campaign of violence and torture against opposition activists, as well as vote-rigging.
The opposition leader has been out of Zimbabwe since the first-round vote because of alleged threats to his life.
But the MDC says he will return to address a rally in Bulawayo on Sunday.
(BBC) — Peace talks on Somalia have broken up without any face-to-face discussions between the government and the main opposition alliance.
After four days meeting UN diplomats in Djibouti, the two sides agreed to attend further talks in two weeks time.
The opposition insists it will not engage in direct negotiations until the government agrees a timetable for Ethiopian Woyanne troops to leave Somalia.
The two sides did, however, issue a joint appeal to improve aid access.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops are in Somalia supporting a transitional government, but an insurgency has led hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
The parties decided to meet again in Djibouti for further talks on 31 May.
The communique, announced by UN envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, called on all Somalis “to put aside their differences to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access and the delivery of assistance to the people with immediate effect.”
Mr Abdallah organised the peace talks, which started on Monday, between the government and the Asmara-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which includes leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).
The UIC ruled much of Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian Woyanne forces backed by Somali government troops, who have been struggling to exert their control over the country ever since.
Al-Shabab, the militant wing of the UIC, did not attend the talks.
The talks were held against a backdrop of daily clashes between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed Somali government troops.
EDITOR’S NOTE: There is a food shortage in the south, the most fertile region of Ethiopia, because most of the food that is produced there is shipped to the northern region of Tigray and stored in grain silos and food warehouses. As a result, food prices in Tigray are up to 50% less than in other regions of the country. For example, how is it possible that there is food shortage in Wolaita, a region with some of the most fertile lands in Ethiopia, and at the same time we do not hear about food shortages or price hikes in Tigray, a dry region? So instead of begging for money, the Red Cross may want to ask the Meles regime to distribute the stored food in Tigray.
Red Cross seeks $1.7 million for food aid in Ethiopia
(DPA) — Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Geneva – An appeal for 1.7 million dollars to provide emergency food aid to around 40,000 Ethiopians was launched Friday by the Red Cross.
A series of poor rains resulting in under-nourished cattle had sent livestock prices plummeting.
At the same time, inflation had soared and cereal prices rocketed by more than a fifth two years running, the Geneva-based International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.
“Thousands of people may face starvation in the coming months in the worst-case scenario but the situation is already critical for some 40,000 people,” IFRC’s food security officer in the region Kiflemariam Amdemariam said.
The money would provide food aid for severely-affected people in the Wolaita, Sidama, Moyale and Bale areas south of Addis Ababa for four months until the October harvest.
Further north, the Ethiopian Red Cross had also been distributing millions of litres of water and purification tablets in emergency drought preparedness programmes in East Harage and Afar.
(IPP) TANZANIA — A total of 362 aliens from Ethiopia and Somalia were arrested between April 1 and May 8, this year, for entering the country contrary to immigration law.
According to Coast Region Immigration Officer Omari Kipande, the aliens had told immigration officers that they entered Tanzania after fleeing clan and tribal wars in their countries.
Kipande said that the illegal immigrants were arrested at different times and in different groups and places in the region by immigration officers in cooperation with the police.
The Regional Immigration Officer said that most of the aliens were arrested in Bagamoyo and Kibaha districts after disembarking from a boat in which they were travelling through Mombasa, Kenya from their home countries, Ethiopia and Somalia.
“It seems there is a syndicate that harbours them and provides them with transport and food when they arrive in the country, but when they are arrested most of their hosts manage to escape,” he said.
He said 128 aliens were arrested in April this year in Kibaha District and 120 of them were Ethiopians while 234 were also arrested in April, this year and 61 out of them were Somali nationals.
Kipande said that 51 illegal immigrants both Somali and Ethiopia nationals were arrested between May 1 and 8, this year, 13 of whom were Somali nationals.
The official said that the recent 51 aliens were arrested by the villagers at Lazaba Village and took them to Makurunge Village in Bagamoyo District.
However, he said that the villagers could not arrest the people who assisted them to enter the country.
In April, 90 Ethiopian immigrants were arrested by Tanzanian authorities
Ninety Ethiopians are each serving a six-month sentence after they failed to pay 50,000/-, being the fine ordered by Kibaha Resident Magistrate`s Court in Coast Region for illegal stay in the country.
The sentence was issued by Resident Magistrate, Hamisi Ali Salum, after the accused pleaded guilty to entering Tanzania contrary to immigration rules.
The Coast Regional Immigration Officer (RIO), Omari Kipande, told PST on Wednesday that the driver of the vehicle that carried them, John Mabena (43), and his assistant, Ayub Uhagile (27), were also sentenced to go to jail for three years in default of paying the fine of 100,000/-.
They had earlier pleaded guilty to assisting the aliens by ferrying them from Mlandizi, in Coast Region to Iringa from where the convicted were proceeding to Malawi.
The driver and his assistant were also still facing another charge of conspiracy to assist ferrying the aliens aboard a Scania truck with registration number T990 ACJ.
Kipande said that in the case of immigration prosecuted by an immigration officer, Mwajuma Mfaume, the 90 illegal immigrants would be deported to their home country after completion of their sentence.
He said that the aliens, all males and aged between 18 and 38 years, were arrested on April 4, this year at Mlandizi area in the region.
The illegal immigrants who hailed from Ethiopia had gone through Mombasa, Kenya before they entered Tanzania by boat and later boarded the truck that would have taken them to Malawi, he said.
Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum (ECADF) will host a press conference with Ato Andargachew Tsige and other Ginbot 7 officials on Sunday, at 3:30 PM Washington DC time. The press conference will be aired live via Ethiopian Review Radio Network. Click here to listen.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the Ethiopian authorities to drop charges against Alemayehu Mahtemework, the editor of monthly entertainment magazine Enku, and three others who were arrested with him after the publication of a cover story about a jailed popular singer.
Mahtemework and three others, who have not been identified, appeared in court on May 6. The trial will resume on May 19. The charges are still not clear but local sources say the four are accused of publishing “stirring articles that could incite people.” The defendants were held for five days before being released on bail.
“There is no need to hold a trial when there is no offence,” said Gabriel Baglo, the Director of the IFJ Africa Office. “We call on the authorities to drop all the legal proceedings against Mahtemework and the three people arrested with him and to allow the magazine to work in total freedom.”
The case stems from Enku’s cover story for its latest edition on Ethiopia’s most famous pop singer Tewodros Kassahun. Kassahun, known as Teddy Afro, is on trial for murder for a hit-and-run incident in 2006. He is well-known for his songs critical of the government and his fans have protested his trial.
Mahtemework and his three co-defendants were arrested by police on the evening of 2 May in a van carrying 10,000 copies of the magazine for distribution. All the copies were seized. After their first court appearance this week, the judge gave police 14 more days to finalize evidence against the defendants and other journalists who worked on the Teddy Afro story.
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The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries
