By JANET KELLEY and CINDY STAUFFER
Lancaster New Era
Lancaster, Pa – The plan was to pick a house, push the homeowner inside and help themselves to the “merchandise” inside, 16-year-old Emru Kebede (a native of Ethiopia) testified this morning.
On the night of May 2, when they approached Ray Diener’s home in West Donegal Township, Kebede said, they knocked and asked Diener if they could borrow his phone.
Their car had broken down, they told him.
When Diener agreed, handing his phone to Lorenzo Schrijver, Kebede recalled, Abraham Sanchez Jr. “rushes up and points the gun in the face of the man and says, ‘Don’t move! Don’t move!'”
The homeowner started to argue and struggle, Kebede recalled, telling the Sanchez, “‘Come on, don’t do this.”‘
The gun went off. Kebede said he and Robert Baker ran.
“I looked back and heard Lorenzo say, ‘Shoot him again! Shoot him again!’ I heard two more shots,” Kebede said. “…. I heard a woman scream.”
As the four got in the car and drove away, Kebede testified, “Lorenzo said, ‘At least we got his cell phone.”‘
Diener, 65, described as a well-liked and well-respected person, lay dead on the doorstep of his own home, with his wife, Barbara, hovering over him, screaming for help.
The testimony was heard this morning in a preliminary hearing before District Judge Jayne Duncan for the young men charged with criminal homicide, robbery and criminal conspiracy.
When the testimony concluded, all four were ordered to stand trial.
Kebede, of 715 Pink Alley, Mount Joy, who has been charged as an adult, testified this morning against the others: Sanchez, 18, and Schrijver, 21 both of Mount Gretna Road, Elizabethtown, and Baker, 20, of 337 Cedar Lane, Mount Joy.
All four are being held in Lancaster County Prison without bail.
At first, Kebede told Sanchez’s attorney, Anthony E. Stefanski of Philadelphia, he gave police a different version of the events, because he was scared.
But then, Kebede said he told police the truth because his attorney, Chris Patterson, told him police wanted him to cooperate.
Baker is represented by defense attorney Doug Conrad and Schrijver is represented by defense attorney Chris Lyden.
Assistant District Attorney K. Kenneth Brown prompted Kebede this morning with questions about the sequence of events that night.
Kebede testified in a quiet, flat voice, describing how the foursome had met up around 8 p.m. on May 2.
Sanchez and Schrijver had picked him up in their car, Kedebe said, asking him if he “wanted to get into something…. I took that to mean breaking and entering.”
Prosecutors said the group would commit crimes to get money to buy drugs.
Kebede said he agreed and, after stopping to get something to eat, they went to Baker’s house, found gloves and pulled a box of bullets out from under his bed, before heading out to drive around and find a victim.
They first looked at another house, Kebede said, but Sanchez decided against it because there appeared to be children inside.
When they drove along the 1000 block of West Ridge Road, around 10:45 p.m., they saw only one man, Diener, and decided his house would be the target.
After the shooting, Kebede said, they drove out into the country, stopping at one point so they could bury the gun.
Some of Diener’s family members sat in the front row of the spectator section this morning, crying and holding hands as they listened to the graphic testimony.
Northwest Regional Police Officer Harry Cleland also testified this morning about receiving the initial call to the home.
When he pulled up to the house, Cleland said, he saw “a person laying on the ground, face-down, with another person hovering over him, crying, ‘Help me! Help me! Please, help me!'”
Cleland said he rolled the man over and saw the bullet wound in his chest and thigh, and believed he was already dead.
Earlier that evening, Diener had gone to watch a Conestoga Valley High School baseball game. On the way home, he had stopped to close up his business, Crystal Pure Water, at 1644 S. Market St., Elizabethtown.
His wife, Barbara, later told police she was asleep when her husband came home, but was awakened by yelling.
She ran to the front door, pulled it open and found her husband slumped on the front doorstep.
She heard a voice say, “There’s the wife.”
Looking up, she saw two men standing 10 to 20 feet away.
She got only a quick glimpse of them before she slammed the door and ran to call for help.
For weeks police struggled to find who had done it and why such a well-liked, well-respected man had been shot.
Rewards were posted by the Diener family and friends, as well as the local Lancaster County Crime Stoppers.
Finally, after three weeks, a tip to the Crime Stoppers led police to the four young men.
Diener had been a star pitcher while a student at Elizabethtown College and went on to play professional baseball for three years.
When he and his wife returned to Lancaster County to work and raise their family, which included three children and five grandchildren, his attention turned to other matters.
In addition to his business and work in their church, he enjoyed organizing his own sporting events with friends and family members.
Diener was involved in various charity work, including the Water for the World program at Messiah College and Habitat for Humanity
By JULIUS A. KARASH
The Kansas City Star
Downtown health care is slated to get a boost come October.
That’s when Research Medical Center plans to open a new doctors’ office in the 10 Main Center building at 920 Main St.
The new practice will be called “Downtown Physicians: A Service of Research Medical Center.”
“Just like grocery stores and clothing shops, a doctor’s office lends a sense of community to a place,” Mayor Mark Funkhouser said in a release.
“I’m grateful to Research Medical Center for its plans to locate this practice downtown and the role that might play in helping to rebuild the fabric of the neighborhood.”
The practice will operate at least from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday initially. Plans are being made for early morning, late afternoon and Saturday hours, with more specifics to be announced later. Patients will be able to make same-day appointments or be seen without an appointment.
The practice will be staffed by physicians Girma Assefa and Melvin McFarlin.
Dr Girma Assefa earned his medical degree from Jimma University in Jimma, Ethiopia, and McFarlin received his medical degree from the Finch University of Health Sciences in Chicago. Both completed their residencies with the Research Family Medicine Residency program.
“Downtown Physicians will be a great benefit to the people who live and work there,” Kevin Hicks, president and chief executive of Research Medical Center, said in a statement.
Research Medical Center, located at 2316 E. Meyer Blvd., is part of HCA Midwest.
For more information
Call 816-737-1037 or go to www.downtownphysicians .ehcmd.com.
To reach Julius A. Karash, call 816-234-4918 or send e-mail to [email protected].
Press Release
The United States House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Relations
Washington, DC – To correct erroneous reports about the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Accountability Act (H.R. 2003), Chairman Tom Lantos of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued this statement today:
“The full committee did not consider the measure at today’s markup because I wanted to give Ethiopia’s elders, government officials, courts and opposition leaders an opportunity to work out a pardon arrangement for the more than 30 remaining political detainees. Late last week I notified other members of Congress, including the House leadership, of my decision. I continue to be concerned about the detainees, and hope for their release soon.
“This bill will not be considered by the full committee for now, but this does not mean the matter of progress in political and other rights in Ethiopia is closed. The United States relationship with Ethiopia will continue to be conditioned on Ethiopian support for human rights and the rule of law. We will continue to hold the Ethiopian government accountable for the way it treats its citizens.”
Lantos is the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
By Dean Jacobs/Letters to America
Freemont Tribune
Our conversation stops as silent eyes glance to the knock that came from the door, a student appears to ask a question and leaves.
Talking about politics is a dangerous undertaking in Ethiopia.
Those who are willing to speak about such things, only do so under the agreement of remaining anonymous. Stories of people being harassed by the federal police are common. It generally starts with a warning phone call about a comment or activity that they call into question.
A newspaper publisher tells me about an opinion column he runs in his business newspaper. He heard once on a BBC TV interview with the current Ethiopia ruler that he doesn’t plan to run again, and he shared that statement in his newspaper. He was called about it, and warned to write only about business, not politics, even though that decision would affect business.
After the student leaves, my office companion, whom I will call David says: “Did you see the marks on his eyebrows, that means he comes from the Tigrai region where the president is from.”
This communicates a potential loyalty to the current government.
Elections in 2005 were marked with irregularities, according to international officials observing the process. The irregularities are thought to be changed ballots or switched ballot boxes.
After the election, the word got out that the sitting government rigged the election.
“It was so obvious that everyone knew,” so students began to demonstrate peacefully, David says.
Another knock on the door, and our conversation once again stops. This time it is a student David wants me to meet.
“She’s very clever and understands what is happening,” he says.
This student, whom I will call Tigist, shares some of her thoughts about the current situation.
“The people are frustrated, and because it is not safe to express one’s opinion, they continue to swallow those frustrations. But one day, people will not be able to swallow any more, and we will explode like a volcano,” Tigist says.
When asked about the timing of that explosion, she pauses and says, “the economic situation is not good in Ethiopia. The inflation is running high, and if it continues, people will no longer be able to afford basic food. I feel it will happen sooner rather than later.”
Those peaceful demonstrations turned deadly as federal police opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing 22. People do demonstrate now, but only when the international press is around because the demonstrators know the federal police will not take action in front of international media, at gatherings like major football matches or running races where large groups make it hard to single out one person.
The opposition has a symbol, the peace sign that people in the U.S. would recognize from the 1960s.
“Once I was waving down a taxi using the same two fingers to let the taxi know there was two of us,” says David, “a federal policeman saw me, ran over and started beating me. I had a hard time explaining I was just trying to wave down a taxi.”
The people of Ethiopia are frustrated with the U.S. government. Many have family or friends in the United States, so it is hard to be critical of a place they feel connected to.
“But the U.S. government is supporting the corrupt government of Ethiopia, and that is bringing a larger suffering to the majority of the Ethiopian people as a whole,” David says.
People are just surviving, according to Tigist, and waiting for the next elections.
“I don’t think there will be an election. Those who want to run are in prison. What ever you call the opposite of Democracy, that is what we currently have in Ethiopia,” David says.
__________
Dean Jacobs is a former Fremont Tribune photographer and a world traveler. Follow his latest journey each Monday in the Tribune.
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By Stephanie Hanson
Council on Foreign Relations
After Ethiopia’s December invasion of Somalia to vanquish Islamic militants, many observers labeled Addis Ababa a proxy of the United States, and a few even called it a “puppet.” Both labels implied the United States was an unseemly ally. Now, after the Ethiopian government’s recent attempt to put dozens of opposition politicians to death and reports of military abuse of civilians (HRW), Washington may be starting to balk at its close relationship with Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia receives nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. aid each year as well as military assistance. Yet the Ethiopian government has shown little inclination to improve a dismal record on human rights, as well as a history of unresponsiveness to international pressure on its domestic policies. When Ethiopian prosecutors jailed over one hundred opposition politicians and journalists after 2005 parliamentary elections, international donors—including the United States—put $375 million in aid on hold. By mid-2006, Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi still refused to release the prisoners. “U.S. concerns about terrorism in Somalia led diplomats to accept a status quo they concluded would not change and to get on with business,” writes Terrence Lyons in a Council Special Report on the Horn of Africa.
Since then, Ethiopian authorities have been accused of further harsh measures. Last month, Zenawi announced a crackdown on the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist movement in the country’s eastern Ogaden region. Some aid officials and diplomats now claim the government is blocking emergency food aid (Reuters) to the region. Ethiopia’s military—one of the largest and best-trained in Africa—has been accused of widespread domestic abuses (NYT)in villages in the Ogaden, including civilian executions and gang rape.
Ethiopia is an “important partner for the United States,” writes Horn of Africa expert John W. Harbeson, but “joint counter-terrorism initiatives must be kept separate from Ethiopia’s struggles with democracy and its continuing pursuit of a post-imperial political identity.” The U.S. Congress clearly agrees—it recently passed an amendment cutting $3 million in assistance, and pending legislation would put strict conditions on remaining aid. Yet the Pentagon is “dead keento boost [Zenawi’s] armed forces,” writes the Economist.
Some in the U.S. government may have qualms about Ethiopia’s undemocratic behavior, but it has been a reliable ally in the tumultuous Horn of Africa. While tensions simmer between Ethiopia and Eritrea over a disputed border, rebels wage regular attacks in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. The Ethiopian military had hoped to withdraw months ago, but it remains mired (WashPost) in the city battling insurgents on behalf of Somalia’s weak transitional government. In an Online Debate, Sadia Ali Aden of the Somalia Diaspora Network and Terrence Lyons agree that Ethiopia must withdraw from Somalia. Lyons argues that the U.S. relationship with Ethiopia could help promote peace in the region, but Aden calls it “a grave impediment to lasting peace in Somalia,” arguing that Washington’s partnership choice “may further radicalize the region.”
Some 40 forty heavily armed fighters have attacked an Ethiopian [Woyanne] base close to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.