The Ethiopian Government arrested:
1. Befekadu Moreda, Tomar newspaper
2. Zelalem Gebre, Menilik newspaper
3. Dawit Fassil, Asqual newspaper
4. Tamrat Serbesa, Satenaw newspaper
today, 28 June 2005 at 11:00 local time.
The Ethiopian Free press Journalists’ Association (EFJA) has been
quite worried about these recent unwelcome development.
We call on all the Ethiopian people, International press institutions
and International friends of the free press to closely follow the great danger hovering over the free press and the measures that could be taken to challenge its very existence.
The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ato Aschalew’s friends told ER associate in Addis Ababa today that the EPRDF cadres kidnapped him on June 24. His body was found three days later outside the town of Debre Sina, Wollo. He was killed with a gun shot to the head.
The EPRDF cadres have also burned the homes of several people in Debre Sina, Ambassel, and other rural towns whom they suspect as CUD supporters. As a result, thousands of people from these areas are now taking refuge in Dessie. The refugees say that they were chased out of their homes by angry EPRDF cadres.
Addis Ababa – Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said on Tuesday via telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560km west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.
News of the rescue on June 9 was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.
Fate could have been much worse
“If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,” he said.
“Everyone in thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people,” Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said it was likely the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn’t eat her,” Williams said. “Otherwise they probably would have done.”
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was “shocked and terrified” and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.
He said police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others.
In Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky.
The United Nations (UN) estimates more than 70% of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where the majority of the country’s 71 million people live.
Lions are a dying breed
Ethiopia’s lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country’s national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Former emperor Haile Selassie kept a pride in the royal palace in Addis Ababa.
Despite their integral place in Ethiopia culture, their numbers have been falling, according to experts, as farmers encroach on bush land.
Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1 000, despite a recent crackdown against illegal animal trading across the country. Williams said at most only 1 000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.
Students at Gonder University’s main campus have been on hunger strike since Friday. The students decided to go on a hunger strike to protest the arrest of six of the student association’s leaders and members.
Eyewitnesses told ER that the chairman of the student association, Ato Temesgen, and two of his deputies, Ato Berhanu and Ato Abraham are in jail accused of organizing students protests.
Meanwhile, the local EPRDF office gave AK-47s and handguns to some students at the university who are EPRDF cadres and members, violating the university’s rules, and further aggravating the tension. The cadre-students are carrying their guns from class to class.
The university students said they will continue to protest and refuse to take exams until EPRDF troops leave the university campus and the cadre-students are disarmed.
Right now, the university is surrounded by heavily armed troops and police.
Fearing that other schools will join the protest, EPRDF security forces are rounding up students in the Gonder area schools. Prisons are now crowded with students, the local people told ER.
The administrator of Lay Armacho, Ato Getnet, in particular, has become notorious in arresting and abusing students.
This is a story about the murder of Ato Yihenew Hunegnaw and the disappearance of six of his friends in the City of Bahr Dar.
Yihenew was a student at St. Mary College in Bahr Dar. He also attended Pedagogic College previously. He was looking forward to graduating with a degree in management and supporting himself and his extended family. Yihenew was a conscientious young man who cared about the people around him and the community
On June 4, students at Bahr Dar schools were deciding to join the protest that was planned by Addis Ababa University. Later in the afternoon, Yihenew and six of his friends sat at a hotel and engaged in a long conversation. Across the street, a pick up truck with some individuals inside was parked. According to eyewitnesses, the truck looked similar to other pick up trucks that EPRDF cadres normally drive.
After the sun set, the unidentified individuals from the pick up truck approached Yihenew and his friends. Some exchange of words took place. The individuals then led Yihenew and friends to the truck and drove off.
Around 1 AM (local time) Yihenew called home to tell his family that he will not be home until later on. Arguments can be heard in the background.
Just before dawn, security guards who were guarding construction equipments at a road construction site hear gun shots nearby. At dawn, the guards went towards the direction where they heard shots. After some search of the area, they found Yihenew’s body at the side of a road. It seems that Yihenew was shot as he tried to escape.
The guards called the police, who came and took pictures. They also video taped Yihenew’s body. Since Yihenew’s identity cards are taken by his captors, the police could not identify him and notify his family.
Fifteen days later, words reached Yihenew’s family that construction site security guards at the outskirt of the city had found a dead person who fits Yihenew’s profile. There may also be some who saw the actual shooting.
With this information, the family went to the police. Some time later, the police were able to confirm Yihenew’s death to the family. The police also showed the family the pictures they took, which indicate that Yihenew died of gun shot wounds.
The police are not willing to discuss or give any information about Yihenew’s friends. But when asked to take Yihenew’s body, the police told the family that he is buried with other people, and cannot identify which one is his body.
ER spoke with Yihenew’s sisters who reside in Arlington, Virginia. They are, of course, devastated by their brother’s death.
Hearing the news of Yihenew’s death and the disappearance of his friends, several families in Bahr Dar whose sons have also disappeared are now expecting the worse. The news reaching ER is that there are several young men in Bahr Dar who have disappeared without a trace. Many of these young men are from poor families who do not have the means to search the whereabouts of their missing sons, except to just agonize and wait for them to come back some day. Yihenew would also have disappeared without a trace had he not tried to escape and his body found by a construction site security guards.
How many times such terrible incidents are repeated through out the country? What’s the justification for the police to burry bodies of a bunch of young people in a mass grave without any serious attempt to find out their identities and notify their families?!?
While talking with different people in the course of reporting on Yihenew’s case, one story that keeps coming is about individuals with pick up trucks. We are told about similar cases where unknown individuals with government issued trucks approach young men and take them away, never to be seen again.
In this age of deception, intrigue and greed, politics, especially Ethiopia politics, really makes strange bedfellows. In a not so surprising but unexpected turn of events, Sheik Al Amoudi, who was held with high regard by many people in and outside the country, suddenly made a miscalculated move to openly support the party that has made the destruction of Ethiopia its main goal.
The Sheik’s assertion that it is his inalienable right to support any party he chooses is basically acceptable and it should be encouraged in a balanced democratic environment.
But the right to choose what he wants based on his self-interest cannot be equated with choosing what is right for the country. If he really thinks that he has allied himself with the party thinking that the current government is right for Ethiopia, he must be oblivious to the reality around him. On the other hand, if he thinks that the government is right for a few like him, and if that is really what matters the most to him, then he certainly has made the right decision.
In a letter he sent to his friends in the United States, he tried to defend his choice by claiming that he is participating in a democratic exercise. One truth that he and many others, especially foreigners, are missing is that this was not and is not a contest between different political parties with a shared aim of serving Ethiopia’s best interest. What we have is, on one hand the TPLF/EPRDF, which has openly subverted Ethiopia’s interest to realize its hidden agenda, and on the other, an opposition that is trying to deflect this subversion. It is not a contest between groups that present different ways of accomplishing a common goal, but a struggle between those who are destroying the country and those who are resisting this destruction.
It is common knowledge that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Sheik and the ruling party. His alliance with the government has been tolerated for years with the assumption that his heart is with the people. To openly flaunt this relationship in front of Ethiopians at this critical moment in the nation’s political struggle and to conspire with the people’s sworn enemies, as if their voices and desires don’t matter is a cardinal sin.
It doesn’t take much to figure out that Al Amoudi’s financial interest could be at stake if there is a change in government. He may even have been coerced into submitting to the wishes of the ruling party. Whatever the case may be, as a person of fortune and high standing who claims to have a vision of peace and prosperity for Ethiopia, he should have considered the country’s well being and the people’s welfare before making a decision that helps undermine the quest for true democracy. No matter how democratically justified his action is as presented by many of his obedient supporters, his alliance with uncaring rulers who are widely despised by the population has seriously damaged his reputation and credibility. His tremendous influence has been shrewdly manipulated to facilitate the imposition of yet another dictatorship on the Ethiopian people. Knowingly or naively, he has endorsed the ruling party’s negative actions and he has allowed himself to be used for the fulfillment of anti-Ethiopian goals. If nothing else, out of respect for the Ethiopian people and for the sake of truth and fair competition, he should have maintained a “neutral” stand. By carelessly exercising his democratic right to choose, he has emboldened the enemies of the people and he has clearly indicated to the Ethiopian people that his wants are much more important than their needs.
One public relations lesson the Sheik should learn is that however he wants to look at it, common people matter. He may never feel their pain, he may never be as hungry as they are, he may never experience their misery and he may never feel their sadness. There is not much that he can share with them except their hopes and dreams. Without having to go through their painful experiences he could have silently stood with them to share their vision. The one most important thing that the Ethiopian people want from him and others like him is to refrain from standing in the way of democracy by enabling a greedy regime continue destroying their lives.
There is no need to condemn or slander the Sheik for making this unpopular decision.
We should leave the judgment to history. What he is doing for the country and his contribution for economic development is sincerely appreciated. Ethiopians should still feel indebted to him and we should respect his position.
As enduring, patient, and forgiving as they are, Ethiopians never forget those who betray them in their time of desperation. Today and in the future his financial power will get him anything he wants. He will be feared and many people will still grovel for him. To his future regret, however, he has denied himself the opportunity to be admired and loved by the common people who will one day make their voices heard with or without his help. Then he will find it difficult to enjoy life alongside the people whose voices he deliberately tried to ignore by helping a government that tried to steal their freedom.
The letter sent out to friends may convince some, but I doubt if the Sheik is going to have many real Ethiopian friends left in the US or any place else unless he changes his position. Those who are after his money or influence will remain pretending to be his friends giving him the wrong advice until…
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