Valkenwaard, The Netherlands – Last night (26) on what was a cool (13 degrees CT) low windy evening Ethiopia’s Mestewat Tufa ran the fastest 10.000 metres for women of the season at Valkenswaard in the south of The Netherlands with a time of 31:00:27.
Holland seems to be a good country for women’s races over 25 laps on the track. On 17 June, Florence Jehwat Kiplagat of Kenya also ran a then season’s best in Utrecht with 31:06:20.
In the local meet at Valkenswaard, seven Ethiopian women tried to qualify for the Osaka World Championships in August. The women went for the qualifying time of 31:10:00 set by the Ethiopian Federation.
Mestewat Tufa (23) was the only one to reach the fast standard asked by her federation.
In the beginning of the race the group stayed together but after four kilometres the Tufa broke away. She ran a steady pace of 73 seconds per lap and finally won by over a half minute on Etalemahu Kidane who finished second in 31:33:49.
Gete Wami, the 1999 World 10,000m champion, who was the pre-race favourite lost contact with the leaders quickly at the beginning and did not finish the race just as Moroccan Zhor el Kamch.
Tufa knows what winning is all about in The Netherlands. In 2003 (49:06) and last year (47:22) she has won the Zeuvelenloop (15 kms) at Nijmegen.
Wim van Hemert for the IAAF
Results
Women
1. Mestewat Tufa (Eth) 31:00:27
2. Etalemahu Kidane (Eth) 31:33:49
3. Bizunesh Bekele (Eth) 31:45:98
4. Alemu Deriba (Eth) 31:58:44
5. Genet Getaneh (Eth) 32:09:50
6. Rian van de Burgt (Ned) 37:31:86
d.n.f: Gete Wami (Eth) and Zhor el Kamch (Mar)
Justice is like fire; even if one covers it with a veil, it still burns. (Malagasy Proverb)
One of our strongest weapons is dialogue, sit down with a man, if you have prepared your case very well, that man, after he has sat down to talk to you, will never be the same again. It has been a very powerful weapon. – Nelson Mandela
Introduction
All those who desire to see a democratic, free, stable, peaceful, secure and prosperous Ethiopia can only wish all the divisions, rifts, squabbles, mistrusts and hatred borne of the many real and imagined difficulties and history come to an end through a moratorium freely entered out of respect of the important historic moment that September 11, 2007 provides as Ethiopia’s 2000 year old 2nd Millennium!
Such a historic milestone is rare. It should not pass with the messy and ugly quarrels that our nation is currently lumbered with. Our church is divided. The nation’s moral and material needs are not fully satisfied. Our politics is cantankerous and brutal. The mistrust amongst opposition and government is high. Even the mistrust within opposition groups is unforgivably destructive and often childish. Meanwhile the clock is ticking to the Millennium Day. It will be our generational and collective failure if we fail to create a grand moratorium where for a change and just for once we ignore the things that agitate each of us and reach out to each other and enter the next 1000 years with hope, justice and the will to triumph over cruelty and adversity together as one.
Leadership
Here is a challenge to leadership. The first move to prepare a new environment that can bring all together in a moratorium for the grand entry into the millennium and beyond must come from the sitting Government. If this Government fails to live up to the call of history and rise above its own worries and pre-occupations and call on all to join, it is hard to expect those who are imprisoned and feel persecuted to join in spite of the Government. So there is thus a call to national leadership. The big question is whether this Government can rise to the challenge and create the conditions for the moratorium to be created. For once it must learn to be humble before history, before the millennium and the people and lead to initiate a moratorium by releasing the prisoners immediately and unconditionally.
Release all Prisoners
There is a national conversation that the prisoners of conscience will be released. Equally confusing and mixed signals continue to appear that the prisoners may or may not be released. This speculation is unnerving if not cruel. Will the prisoners of conscience be released or not? What is the Government thinking? Why keep spouting out doubts to a population anxious to celebrate the release of those the people elected believing in a rule of the game that seemed to launch a democratic era in this ancient of ancient nations? It is impermissible to bring in irrelevant concerns such as what happens in the USA or Europe to keep the prisoners hostage in exchange to what legislators and parliamentarians do or not do elsewhere in other lands. Frankly it is not good to use it to keep them in jail, as the reports tell it. If the agreement has been reached through mediators to release the prisoners, the Government side must honour this agreement and release the prisoners unconditionally. There must not be any prevarication. The longer the prisoners remain in jail, the harder it becomes to prepare the ground for a grand and united entry into the millennium and beyond by securing a collective pause to enter into a moratorium for the millennium: united, together by suspending group interests and preoccupations and setting them aside at least for one month- the month of September! This is not much to ask, neither anything to lose, but much to be gained!!!
The AU-CIVIL Society Pre-Summit
I went to Accra to participate to the AU-Civil Society Summit. My main goal in making this journey was exactly the same as I did a similar journey to go to Ottawa to appeal and plead for the release of the prisoners of conscience.
My motion stated:
“We call upon the Heads of States in Africa assembled in Accra, Ghana marking the 50th anniversary of the independence of Ghana to accelerate the implementation of the African peer review mechanism without doctoring the evidence and interfering with the process by maintaining integrity and ethics at the highest level possible; call for a strict adherence and implementation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights- as a sure guarantee to facilitating the grand debate to accelerate African integration, self-reliance, renaissance, unity and freedom.
In this connection we call on the assembled Heads of States to treat the African democratic opposition with democratic toleration so that all can enter into a public arena where the rule of the game allows democratic debate, conflict avoidance and security commitment. There is no worthier shared value than creating the conditions for democratic opposition to express voice without threat and intimidation obviating the need for the opposition to resort to strategies that contravene peaceful methods of struggles.
In the end as Dr. Nkrumah said the Independence of Ghana is incomplete without the total liberation of Africa, today in the 21st century the overriding value is the democratisation of each African country as a necessary condition for the democratisation of all others. This is the value that we Africans must share to evolve a collective strategy in dealing with a difficult world and communicate better and with openness with each other.
Finally we call upon the Heads of States to call upon their Ethiopian colleagues to release without any condition the prisoners of concience in Ethiopia that have been put into jail for the crime of expressing fine citizenship of the highest quality and standard.”
The Summit accepted the substance of my motion to release the prisoners of conscience, although it did not include it in the final communiqué. The main reason for that was the fact that the issue of prisoners release did not fit directly with the main topic of the pre- Summit conference : The AFRICAN UNION GOVERNMENT: Towards the United States of Africa by ACCELERATING AFRICA’S INTEGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
The Struggle Continues in the Summit and beyond
Codesria has put a fine statement and appeal to the Summit. This is an important statement of solidarity and NES encourages all to heed the Codesria call and join their appeal:
“CODESRIA invites all its members and other researchers and persons concerned about the freedom of the intellectual and the principles of justice and fair play to join in the protests which the Council is mobilising for the attention of the Ethiopian authorities and the African Union. The expressions of concern should be addressed to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi and copied to the Chair of the Commission of the African Union, Mr. Alpha Omar Konare, and sent directly to CODESRIA at the following e-mail address: [email protected]. The Council intends to collate all letters of expression of concern and solidarity and forward these to the appropriate quarters in Addis Ababa. The letters will also be distributed for campaigning purposes at the upcoming summit of the African Union holding in Accra, Ghana, in July 2007 where, in concert with other organisations and networks, CODESRIA is determined to make the fate of the Ethiopia 38 an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the only viable way available: Their total and unconditional freedom.
The Council invites a full and enthusiastic response to this call for solidarity with the Ethiopia 38 and for an expression of outrage at the behaviour of the Ethiopian authorities. In acting, let us all be reminded that at this critical point in time, silence and/or indifference are not options to be exercised and duty demands that we muster our collective solidarity to make a difference in the fate of colleagues, courageous men and women from the academy and civil society who dared, in accordance with the spirit of the 1990 Kampala Declaration, to be socially engaged, won an uncommon victory, and are being persecuted by a ruling oligarchy that is unwilling, no matter the cost, to accept the popular verdict returned by the people of Ethiopia”
There are also other teach-ins and a number of other activities those civil society groups, parliamentarians that have put the case of the prisoners of conscience in the African agenda in Accra. Andargatchew Tsige and others are expected to join this effort. Not only are other Africans concerned about the prisoners of conscience, but they are deeply worried also with the danger of ‘the politicisation of ethnicity and the ethnicisation of politics’ pauses for Ethiopia and more widely for a pan-African project in Africa. Far from Ethiopia being a symbol and example of African unity and renaissance, the particular ethnic politicisation is perceived as a matter of concern for all of Africa. Whilst in Accra I was struck by how much Ethiopia meant to the first generation of independent Ghana. Even the flag of Ghana in substance if not in form is borrowed from Ethiopia. A number of names from Ethiopia are used to name the streets of Ghana. The respect of Ghanaian intellectuals to Ethiopia as a symbol of freedom is still current. I felt proud to see this wonderful connection of Ethiopia with Ghana, Africa’s first free star from colonialism. Ghana appears to enjoy not only Ghananian but also Pan-African organic intellectuals
Concluding Remark: Call for Ethiopian Intellectuals!
On the contrary in Ethiopia, I feel we have intellectuals that may be linked to the people but who do not share an African and indeed even an Ethiopian project. There may be intellectuals with a project but who are not linked to the moral and well being of the people. There is a need in Ethiopia to create organic intellectuals with both a shared project and rooted in the lives and well being of the people and the country.
I am struck by how much there is a failure to create such organic Ethiopian intellectuals that combine project specially a pan- African project with rooted-ness in the peoples life, needs and moral and material welfare. Ethiopia desperately needs large minded, open and powerful intellectuals who share a value, vision and mission to undertake a project that unite the people and not divide them, that anchor them morally and not disperse them, that inspires them to improve their well being and their lives and not kill them and expose them to risk and danger. We need a community of organic intellectuals to support the people in their democratisation and enlightenment. But first thing first we need to unite and get the prisoners released and vow to make sure the opportunity of the millennium is not lost to march in unity even if this is only for one month to start with.
The organic intellectuals are needed to think big, to think deep and act with commitment to create democratic toleration, democratic institutions where transitions are lawful, predictable, irreversible and sustainable. There must be an opportunity for those who wish to run for public life to circulate and for each set of people to come to Government, make their mistakes and go out allowing others to make their mistakes and pass on the baton to others within a rule of law and rule of the game that is open, transparent, non-deceptive, legal and moral producing justice and development in the process. Only when the society is able to circulate argument like commodities can real organic intellectuals emerge to generate a vibrant public sphere. Let us hope the Millennium will be a moment where we all reflect how to bring about this civilisation for this oldest of the old countries in the world. Millennium times are rare and come once in a thousand years. Let us not regret latter by missing the moment. Seize the moment now. Tomorrow is too late! First thing first let the prisoners free without delay and confusion.
Aden, August 26 (UNHCR) – Eighteen Somali and Ethiopian refugees are currently being treated in southern Yemen after they were forced to jump off a boat into the Gulf of Aden. At least 12 others are believed to have drowned in the incident, which UNHCR has called “an act of barbarity at sea”.
According to the 18 survivors, they had set sail last week from Marer, a village near Bossaso in north-eastern Somalia, on a boat bound for Yemen with more than 80 people on board. Before they reached their destination, the boat’s captain and crew beat them and forced them at gunpoint to jump into the sea. At least 30 people obeyed, though many reportedly could not swim.
Those who survived were found on the beach at the Mayfa’a Hajer coast in Hadhramout governorate, southern Yemen, last Tuesday. They were taken to the UN refugee agency’s reception centre at Mayfa’a before being moved to Aden.
The plight of the 50 others who refused to jump ship remains unknown. They could have been taken back to Somalia or forced into the sea elsewhere along Yemen’s coast.
The survivors told UNHCR that there are more than 1,500 people, many of them Ethiopians, waiting in north-eastern Somalia for boats to take them to Yemen.
Since the fall of Somalia’s central government in 1991, thousands of asylum seekers and migrants have sought to leave the country every year for a better life in Yemen, which grants prima facie refugee status to all Somali refugees. Along the way, these desperate people often fall prey to unscrupulous boat captains who force them into the sea while still far offshore, so as to evade Yemeni coast guards.
Other boats set sail without adequate equipment and supplies of food, water and fuel. In February this year, a Somali boat carrying some 130 people sank near the Mayfa’a coast; leaving only 84 confirmed survivors. Just a few weeks before, more than 80 people had died when their boat’s engine exploded, forcing the passengers to jump into the sea to escape the fire.
The Yemeni government estimates that up to 10,000 Somalis arrive every year. Most of them live in urban areas, where they are self-supporting. Some 10,000 are being cared for in UNHCR’s Al Kharaz camp near Aden.
Yemen hosts the Arab world’s largest population of non-Palestinian refugees. UNHCR estimates that there are more than 70,000 refugees in the country, but government figures put it at more than 165,000 refugees. The Somalis make up the majority – numbering some 64,000 – but there are 11 other nationalities among the refugee population.
WASHINGTON DC – US lawmakers were stunned on Monday when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned that he would not set free the opposition leaders if the US Congress went ahead and marked up an Ethiopia Human Rights Bill on Tuesday.
The mark-up of HR 2003 was set for June 26, 2007 but US lobbyists representing Zenawi rushed the warning to Congressman Donald Payne, chairman of the House Africa Sub-committee, and Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, who decided to postpose the date so that the prime minister would release the political prisoners.
On the eve of the mark-up date, a steady stream of State Department officials, lobbyists and others visited Capitol Hill or called to tell Chairmen Payne and Lantos that the fate of the Kaliti prisoners depends on the committee’s decision to mark-up H.R. 2003.
State Department officials have sought to persuade the two committee chairmen and other members that Zenawi is in the final stages of releasing the Kality prisoners, and that marking up the bill at this time would cause him unspeakable embarrassment. Members were told that by marking-up the bill at this critical time, Zenawi will “lose face” among Ethiopians and the international community. To help him “save face,” members were asked to delay the mark-up for at least two weeks.
A Zenawi intermediary who has been recently shuttling messages between Zenawi and the political prisoners reportedly called particular members of Congress several times yesterday to assure them that this time around Zenawi will surely release the prisoners. Members were further assured that Zenawi was not up to his usual delaying tactics or tricks.
Zenawi’s threats to take the Kaliti prisoners hostage has caused considerable concern and consternation among the two chairmen and other members of the Foreign Affairs committee.
The members are particularly concerned that they do not want to be responsible for the continued and needless suffering of the Kaliti prisoners by going forward with the mark-up of the bill at this time. They want to make sure that the Kaliti prisoners and all other political prisoners are set free and allowed to join their families. They were willing to delay the mark-up for a few weeks if that will help in getting them released.
Zenawi’s Hostage-taking Strategy
Zenawi’s threat to take the Kality prisoners hostage is a transparent strategy calculated to delay and ultimately thwart legislative action on H.R. 2003. His strategy is based on one or more of the following:
* By releasing the Kality prisoners in the next few days, he expects his monstrous crimes will be overlooked or forgotten by Ethiopians and the international community excited over the release of the political prisoners.
* By releasing the political prisoners and delaying mark-up action, Zenawi expects that Congressional interest in H.R. 2003 will wane and decline because members of Congress will be satisfied by the release of the prisoners and not insist on passage of H.R. 2003 or other sanctions;
* By delaying the mark-up of H.R. 2003 until the Congressional summer recess, Zenawi hopes opposition in Congress and in the Diaspora will weaken, and the bill will not see floor action.
* By delaying the mark-up of H.R. 2003 Zenawi hopes that he could trick the two chairmen and other committee members that the bill is not necessary because he is doing whatever Congress wishes to achieve in the bill.
* By releasing the prisoners and delaying the mark-up, Zenawi hopes to hoodwink the Diaspora into believing that he is a is really a good guy.
* By delaying action on H.R. 2003, Zenawi thinks his old trick of DELAY, DELAY, DELAY will get him through another Congressional session!
The Truth About H.R. 2003 or What Zenawi should Know About H.R. 2003
Zenawi appears to believe that H.R. 2003 is exclusively about the release of the Kality prisoners. IT IS NOT. The Kality prisoners issue is a paramount issue, but only one of many other issues. If Zenawi is not aware of the objectives of H.R. 2003 in Ethiopia, here is a short primer for him:
H.R. 2003 is about:
* gaining the unconditional release of ALL political prisoners of conscience.
* instituting democratic reform and accountability.
* restoration of the democratic rights of the people.
* strengthening human rights and civic society organizations.
* establishing permanent human rights monitoring and reporting processes.
* increasing the independence of the judiciary.
* creating and supporting a judicial monitoring process, with special focus on unwarranted government intervention in strictly judicial matters.
* arresting and prosecuting human rights abusers, torturers and murderers, and bringing to justice the killers of 193 innocent men, women and children and wounding of 763 others.
* improving election procedures and insuring fraud free elections, and restoration of the CUD leaders to their elected positions.
* removing press censorship and full freedom of the press.
* repealing restrictive press laws.
* establishing a program to strengthen private media in Ethiopia.
* training programs for democratic participation.
* limitations of the use of U.S. security assistance to peacekeeping and counter-terrorism and NOT against the civilian population.
* fostering stability, democracy and economic development in the region.
* establishing a program to provide legal support for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience
* providing assistance to strengthen local, regional, and national parliaments and governments, political parties, and civil society groups;
* strengthening training for political parties such as organization building and campaign management;
* providing training for civil society groups in election monitoring in Ethiopia; and
* professionalizing the National Election Board in order to address issues such as delimitation of constituencies, voter registration, political party registration and candidate registration, and it is quintessentially about
Over a hundred young Ethiopian women will be be spending the next three months working with UNESCO under a pilot project launched today.
The project, coinciding with the upcoming Ethiopian Millennium in September 2007, will draw timely attention to the diverse voices and concerns of Ethiopian women, and contribute effectively to the creation of an open and honest space for dialogue and social participation on the country’s development challenges.
Young athletes, housewives, professional women, students, and job seekers as well as other women from diverse backgrounds will be provided with basic training in working with digital cameras and spend two days brainstorming and developing their communication skills before going away to work on their projects individually and in groups.
The photos and multimedia products developed by the women will be accessible online and on exhibit at different locations in Addis Ababa during the Ethiopian new millennium.
The Ethiopian Digital Stories project falls within the larger UNESCO goal of promoting the development of ICT skills among various sectors, particularly vulnerable groups such as women, as well as the creation of multilingual local content for the web.
With a population of around 71.3 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. Women make up 49,85 per cent of the population.
Rumors are all over about the imminent release of the leaders of Ethiopia’s pro-democracy party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). Whether the prisoners are released at all and under what terms is entirely dependent upon secret deals being struck between the United States and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.
A campaign to divide and conquer the prisoners also appears to be underway.
The prisoners are essentially hostages of Meles Zenawi. They are being forced to “negotiate” with guns to their heads. The American Embassy in Addis Ababa has been applying tremendous pressure on the opposition leaders to admit “guilt” in order to gain their freedom from Zenawi’s dungeons.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Parliament have declared the CUD leaders prisoners of conscience.
The Bush Administration too knows full well that these people are innocent. But instead of calling for the unconditional release of those who stood for democracy and won at the polls, the US is leaning on the prisoners and their families to admit guilt. Why?
Because the administration and the Pentagon hold the shortsighted view that a repressive Zenawi is their best bet given the so-called war on terror.
This is the scenario: A top US allies rounds up political opponents who beat him at the polls and throws them in jail. He orders his troops to shoot those demonstrating against the stealing of elections. Government soldiers shoot and kill over 193 civilians and wound some 763. The government also arrests upwards of 30,000. According to Georgette Gagne of Human Rights watch, the actions of Prime Minister Zenawi “may amount to crimes against humanity.”
The initial response of the Bush administration was to look the other way. This was followed by attempts at dividing and dismantling the legitimate opposition.
So, for Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia, the current situation raises questions of principle, fairness and trust.
Can a big power that has a stake in keeping the current regime in power be an impartial mediator in Ethiopia’s domestic politics?
Past US mediation in Ethiopia was not always in the best interest of the country.
The 1991 London peace conference, under the oversight of Herman Cohen, former Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, brought the current unrepresentative regime to power. In the years leading to the London conference, the US had secret dealings with the Tigrai Liberation Front and Meles Zenawi. So the London negotiations reflected US interests and the interests of some regional powers and not those of the people of Ethiopia.
For the last 16 years, the US has continued to back the same unrepresentative minority regime in spite of systematic and egregious human rights violations.
The Bush administration has invested a lot in Zenawi and it feels duty-bound to prop him up at any cost. After all, Zenawi was the paragon African subcontractor who carried out the Somali invasion on the cheap. But history tells us that American support too has its limits. It had its limits for the likes of the Shah of Iran and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.
We should watch the current negotiations with a great deal of care; especially making sure they are not used as a ploy to divide the opposition leaders and to break the will of the resistance. Justice demands that the CUD leaders be released without any preconditions.
Any effort to gain the release of the prisoners is most welcome. They and their families have suffered immensely. The nation too has been traumatized by the post-election reign of terror. But justice has to prevail for the healing to start. There can be no justice if the victims are called upon to atone for the crimes of their tormentors.
What is at stake is the freedom of 78 million Ethiopians. Let us not forget the tens of thousand of other Ethiopians political prisoners. For any healing to begin, we need first and foremost, a full accounting of all those jailed, tortured and killed under Zenawi. Those responsible must be brought to justice.
An impartial, independent international investigation is a good place to start the reconciliation process for a much-tormented nation.
