The British government rewards its blood thirsty puppet Meles Zenawi with hundreds of millions of dollars for continuing to terrorize the peoples of Ethiopia and Somalia. We all know that malaria prevention, etc. is all lie. The money will be used to keep the dying regime of Woyanne alive.
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) — Britain said on Thursday it will give Ethiopia 2.5 billion birr this year to help the Horn of Africa country try to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Some of the money will be used to send 1 million children to school and buy three million mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest killers.
British High Commissioner (ambassador) to Ethiopia Norman Ling said the assistance was the biggest Britain has offered to any African country, adding the aid would be provided through the UK’s Department for International Development.
“The UK is fully committed to helping Ethiopia achieve the MDGs as the assistance of the 2.5 billion birr for this year shows,” Paul Ackroyd, the head of DFID, told a news conference.
DFID has spent some 2.7 billion birr on programmes in Ethiopia over the past four years, Ackroyd said.
One of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at halving global poverty by 2015 is reversing the trend toward a constant increase in the incidence of malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
It was a show trial by a hastily formed local Tigrean court that took only a couple of months to hear the case and sentence the suspects to death. More likely all the accused were innocent individuals.
(ST) HUMORA, Tigray — The Tigray regional high court on Thursday passed a death and life sentences over 6 Ethiopian accused of bombing a passenger bus at the northern Ethiopian Tigray regions Humora town on March 13.
Nine civilians were killed and another 31 wounded at the bombing of a bus travelling from Humera to Shira town in northern Ethiopia.
The Temporary High Court which was set up by the regional government for this specific case in its hearing today has found all the defendants guilty. The court sentenced three of death penalty and two others to life imprisonment.
The open court, crowded with some 1000 residents of Humora town sank quiet when the central judge, Abraha Meles, cleared his throat to announce the final sentence over criminals.
“Listening to all the witnesses brought from left and right we have found all the defendants guilty” the central judge, Abraha Meles said. After a short pause he continued “accordingly we have passed a death sentence over 3 defendants namely Birhanu Tesfay, Berihu Legesse and Gebretsadkan Bahta.”
“While the court has passed life sentences to Tesfay Kahsay and Birhanu Welday” judge Abraha added.
Among the defendants Birhanu Kahsay pleaded guilty of masterminding the attacks.
The court has also passed 20 years of prison terms over a town police who cooperated with the perpetrators in negligence to his duty and responsibility.
The defendants were charged with terror acts, treason, plotting attacks, arms smuggling, cross-border attacks, and spying.
The temporary court has earlier sat four times to hear the case.
The court also found that the accused had been in contact to commit more attacks with Eritrean officials.
According to a document read at the court, all the “terrorists” have been receiving orders from Eritrean authorities for attacks and had further plans to destroy 26 electric transformers of Humora town and to carry out attacks over government officials.
Abrehet Belay, relative of a victim and resident of the town after the court closed says that the quick legal reaction Ethiopia took is exemplary.
“The legal action taken in no time over the anti-societies by government is exemplary others should follow against anti-peace bodies and it is a clear warning for other terrorists to refrain from such attacks or face the consequences,” Abrehet told Sudan Tribune.
Eritrea has denied that it has any problems with Djibouti, which accuses it of amassing troops on their border.
Earlier this week, Djibouti appealed to the UN Security Council to intervene in order to prevent a conflict over the border village of Doumeira.
In a letter to the UN, Djibouti alleged Eritrea had published new maps showing Doumeira as Eritrean territory.
Grirma Asmerom, Eritrea’s ambassador to the European Union, told the BBC he knew nothing about the letter.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.
‘Real threat’
BBC Somali Service editor Yusuf Garaad Omar says Djibouti’s interpretation of events is alarming.
He said Doumeira is a small border village of little strategic importance home to ethnic Afar people.
“The sudden growth of troops calls for real intervention by the international community because we see it as a real threat,” Djibouti’s ambassador to the UN Roble Olhaye told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“We wanted to urge the Security Council to take all necessary measures to prevent any kind of conflagration because the prospect of a real war is there.”
But Mr Asmerom said he was bemused by such accusations.
“There is no such problem with Djibouti; we have never had a problem with Djibouti,” he said.
In 1995, Eritrea clashed with Yemen over the Hanish islands in the Red Sea – one of the world’s major shipping lanes.
Three years later, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-year war over the border town of Badme, in which tens of thousands of people died.
Djibouti and Eritrea clashed twice over their mutual border in the 1990s and nearly went to war.
Both US and France have military bases in Djibouti.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine guns, Somali fighters seized the police headquarters at the heart of the government’s stronghold in Mogadishu on Thursday, in a bold attack that witnesses said killed two soldiers and two policemen.
The insurgents have tried many times to attack the heavily guarded K4 district but Thursday’s raid was their first major success.
It came a day after a bloody Wednesday in the Horn of Africa nation. Insurgents attacked Ethiopian Woyanne military convoys in two rural areas Wednesday, and the soldiers responded by opening fire on civilians, killing at least 17 villagers, witnesses said.
It was not known how many Ethiopians Woyannes died in that fighting. The insurgents said one of their regional commanders was killed.
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed three Somali soldiers Wednesday, a military officer said. A separate attack on a World Food Program convoy in central Somalia killed one of the organization’s drivers, U.N. officials said.
In Mogadishu on Thursday, witnesses said, an explosion rocked Makalal Mukrama Road outside the police headquarters in K4 district and plumes of black smoke rose into the night air after fighters set ablaze a captured «technical» — a pickup truck with a submachine gun fixed to its bed.
The blast came after the insurgents seized the police station, yelling «God is great,» witnesses said.
«The fighting was hideous, terrifying,» said resident Hawa Abdi. The gunfire was so heavy that «I thought it would smash the walls of my concrete home.
Elmi Osman, another resident of the area, said bullets crashed through the window of the house where he lives, killing his aunt and a nephew.
Street hawker Abisaq Mohamed said he saw the bodies of two police officers sprawled in the middle of Makalal Mukrama Road, where he lives. He said he also saw two government soldiers killed in the fighting, and one insurgent being carried away.
Insurgents’ spokesman Abdirahim Issa Adow told The Associated Press that his fighters had killed eight policemen. He said one rebel fighter was killed and two were wounded in the attack.
He said the insurgents also fired mortars into two Ethiopian Woyanne military bases in the capital — a claim that could not be verified.
By 8 p.m., the witnesses said, the attackers had disappeared, abandoning the police station as they have other targets, using the guerrilla tactics that have kept alive their insurgency.
On Wednesday, in the central province of Hiran, suspected insurgents attacked an Ethiopian Woyanne convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, witnesses said. «I saw two Ethiopian Woyanne military vehicles burning and several soldiers underneath them, but I cannot confirm whether they were dead,» Ahmedey Farah Hilowle told The Associated Press by telephone from his village 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the provincial capital, Beletweyne.
The Ethiopian Woyanne troops retaliated by opening fire, killing eight civilians including a woman who was collecting water from a well, villager Abdisalan Muxsim said. Residents said they found the bodies of six insurgents lying in nearby bush.
But Adow, the insurgents’ spokesman, said only two insurgents were killed, including regional commander Amin Barqadle Daad.
Their accounts could not be verified Thursday by Somali authorities. Ethiopia Woyanne, which sent troops into Somalia to back up soldiers fighting insurgents, does not make public its troops’ fatalities.
International human rights groups have accused Ethiopian Woyanne troops of targeting civilians out of frustration over their failure to halt insurgents.
«We inflicted a great loss of lives on them (Ethiopians Woyannes) and destroyed their vehicles, but in retaliation the enemy troops mercilessly killed civilians,» Adow said.
Also Wednesday, in the Lower Shabelle region, Ethiopian Woyanne troops killed nine civilians after suspected insurgents ambushed a military convoy between Yaqberiweyne and Belidogle, 65 miles (110 kilometers) south of Mogadishu, witnesses said.
«During the battle, we ran away from our village to the bush,» resident Said Abukar Ganey said. «This morning, we came back and we found the bodies of nine of our villagers.
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb hit a truck carrying Somali soldiers, killing three troops and wounding six, military officer Madey Hassan Nur said late Wednesday by telephone. He said the explosion occurred just outside Baidoa, the seat of the interim parliament, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Mogadishu.
«An explosion sent us into the air. When we fell back to the ground, three of my colleagues were lying there dead and six others were screaming from their wounds,» Nur said.
In the Mudug region, militiamen demanding money opened fire on a 12-truck convoy transporting food into central Somalia, the U.N. World Food Program said. The driver died of his wounds, officials said.
Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers have died in Somalia, Ethiopian Woyanne Foreign Affairs spokesman Wahide Belay said from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, earlier in the week. About 3,000 Ethiopian troops are deployed in Somalia, he said. [This is a lie. The fact is that there are over 20,000 Woyanne soldiers in Somalia currently.]
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Associated Press writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report from Mogadishu.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Ethiopian athletes pulled out of Friday’s Doha Super Grand Prix meet because of political tension between the two countries, organizers said.
«We had prepared everything for them: the visa, the tickets and everything,» said Dahlan Al-Hamad, the president of the Qatar athletics federation. «Unfortunately politics got into sports.
Last month, Ethiopia broke off diplomatic relations with Qatar, saying the energy-rich Gulf state had become a source of instability in the Horn of Africa. It cited Qatar’s relations with Eritrea, which is involved in a long-standing feud with Ethiopia over their border.
Qatar said it was astonished by the diplomatic action and denied the accusations that it is hurting Ethiopia’s security.
Seven Ethiopian athlete were on the starting list of Friday’s meeting, including indoor world champions Deresse Mekonnen in the 1,500 meters and Tariku Bekele in the 3,000.
Al-Hamad said the IAAF world athletics federation would look into the matter.
The Oromo American Citizen Council joins the Worldwide March for Freedom, Justice and Human Rights in Ethiopia, starting on May 15, 2008 and ending on March 18
Press release May 7, 2008
We in the Oromo American Citizen Council are writing this letter to declare that we are joining our sisters and brothers of Ethiopia in the March for Freedom, Justice and Human Rights to be held on May 15 – 18, 2008, especially remembering those who fought and died for human rights, freedom, and democracy in Ethiopia.
We are not only commemorating the abortive elections of May 2005, but the event will also serve as a reminder and commemoration of all the atrocities against Ethiopia and its people throughout Ethiopia since 1992.
The Oromo, as well as countless other Ethiopians, have suffered. We have often worked independently to stop these abuses, but it is clear that as we continue our endeavor, we must stand shoulder to shoulder to work together to further this cause if we are to succeed.
The 2005 massacre in the Ethiopian capital is only symptomatic of a much bigger political problem. Even though the May 2005 election in Ethiopia was hailed as a step forward in many corners, the current government is ruling over Ethiopians against their consent.
Our major worry at this time is, unless this is resolved, and resolved to the satisfaction of all the major contending forces, is that the crisis could spin out of control and lead to a full-blown civil war, something which could destabilize the whole of the Horn of Africa.
The continuation of human rights violations in Ethiopia has been partly made possible because the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Ethiopia. This problem was exacerbated since Ethiopia jumped on the bandwagon of anti-terrorism.
It is our firm belief that Ethiopia supported the anti-terrorism coalition, precisely to get soft treatment from other coalition forces regarding her human rights violation issues. We believe human rights issues should not be traded off for the fake support one gives to anti-terrorism forces.
The international community should in an unequivocal manner tell the Ethiopian government that it should stop the killings and hold free and fair elections in the future. This is a great opportunity for all of us Ethiopians to show our solidarity. So, let us stand together and make our voices heard! It is up to all of us to make these efforts succeed. We call on all other Oromo to come out, wherever you are throughout the world and support this effort.
Oromo American Citizen Council
1821 University Avenue, Suite 336
St. Paul, MN 55104
