On July 20th, the Ethiopian government announced the pardons of 38 opposition leaders and activists, many of whom had been sentenced to life in prison. They had been convicted in connection with political violence that erupted after the 2005 parliamentary elections. The pardons may be an example of African solutions to African problems. Ethiopian elders were at the heart of negotiations.
Dr. Ephraim Isaac – an expert on Ethiopian history, near eastern studies and religion – is the leader of the elders.
“I belong to a coalition of elders, whose roots go back to around 1988, 1989, during the period of the civil war in Ethiopia. A group of elders at that time had been assembled to try to create some kind of forum for the various conflicting parties,” he says.
The elders’ coalition eventually became the Peace and Development Committee of which Ephraim is now chairman of the board. He says elders were involved early on in the cases of those arrested.
“We are watching to see if there’s any conflict arising between any groups or government. So, whenever there’s such a problem we approach. We write a letter or we’ll call and say we would like to be helpful. So it was our own initiative,” he says.
He says about five months ago, there was a chance to settle all the cases before anyone went to trial.
“Before the courts were at all involved, the government did come to a position where they would be willing to withdraw the case. There would be no court process. But while we were trying to mediate and facilitate the agreement time passed and then the judge felt they had to keep moving forward. So then the judge got involved in it, and then once the judge got involved in it then the government could no longer do what was originally promised to us, which is to withdraw the case,” says Ephraim.
Once the defendants were sentenced, he says, the elders were free to once again negotiate with the government about releasing the detainees. The detainees eventually signed a document accepting some of the blame for the post-election violence.
During the trials, many of the defendants called the case against them a politically motivated charade. As a result, many refused to present a legal defense despite court orders to do so.
“No document is acceptable to both sides. We had to shuttle back and forth to look at the document and see what words are acceptable to the government and what words are acceptable to the detainees. And that really required a lot of skill and a lot of elders participating<’ he says.
Dr. Hailesslassie Belay is another of the elders who took part in the negotiations.
“The wording was very, very difficult because what the detainees wanted the government did not want. This was a very big problem,” he says.
The former UN official and first director of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia says outside pressure did not help matters.
“The United States, the Europeans, especially the Europeans, were trying to use pressure and force to press the government to release them altogether. The government did not want to accept this kind of thing. They considered it a sort of colonialism,” says Belay.
Ephraim Isaac says the pardons stem from Ethiopian tradition.
“We were operating, you see, on the basis that in our tradition, we have many, many examples of people in conflict coming to some agreement because they respect the concept of spiritual forgiveness. Ethiopians are a very spiritual people,” he says.
He says that most Ethiopians feel that people who ask for forgiveness are heroes and those who forgive are saints.
The US State Department praised the work of the elders. It also commended the Ethiopian government for its statesmanship and the detainees for their commitment to advancing democracy.
In the early morning hours of July 29, Ashenafi Mekonnen and Getenet Abate lost their lives to a drunk driver. But a few hours earlier, we were together in a church community hall talking and laughing about the ordinary pleasures of life.
We also talked a about politics and commiserated over the misfortunes that have afflicted our country. We talked about hope, our optimism and faith in the future, about peace and brotherhood, and above all, the coming of that day in Ethiopia when strife will be replaced by harmony, conflict with peace and discord with understanding. But the joy of that evening in Boston was turned bitter before the new day was born. Little did we know that evening Ashenafi and Getenet had indeed completed their mission on earth and were poised for eternal life… [click here to read more at abugidainfo.com]
ADDIS ABABA, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) – The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia’s Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties were enforced, an NGO leader said.
“Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo,” said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women’s Self-Help Centre, a local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones.
According to official statistics, FGM/C prevalence in the state decreased from 80 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in 2005. Bogaletch said this could improve with legal reform.
“The law in our country is very weak and not a deterrent,” she said. “When this happens, people are not afraid of breaking it. My life as a woman is not worth more than 500 Birr [US$55].”
Under the Ethiopian Penal Code, FGM/C carries a punishment of imprisonment of not less than three months or a fine of not less than 500 Birr.
“Ethiopia is a signatory to many international laws, but has not yet ratified the Maputo protocol,” she told IRIN in the capital, Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of an African consultative meeting on FGM/C.
The Maputo Protocol came into force in November 2005 and is an African initiative that prohibits and condemns FGM/C. As a result, 16 African countries have banned the practice.
The consultative meeting heard that the occurrence of FGM has reduced in several other African countries.
“Prevalence decline is visible in countries like Kenya, Eritrea, Mali and Nigeria where anti-FGM/C interventions have been going for some years,” said Fama Hane Ba, African Division Director at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). “This is good news.”
FGM/C, which involves the partial or total removal or injury to the female genitalia, is practised as a deterrent to promiscuity in some African communities.
”Prevalence decline is visible in countries like Kenya, Eritrea, Mali and Nigeria where anti-FGM/C interventions have been going on for some years”
Hane Ba said the majority of women at risk are in 28 African countries. “An estimated 120 to 140 million women and girls have also been subjected to the FGM/C practice throughout the world,” she said.
She added: “It is encouraging to note that many organisations are implementing innovative programmatic strategies combining law enforcement and culturally sensitive approaches to sustain behavioural change.”
Community dialogue, alternative rites of passage ceremonies, role modelling by families and consensus-building among communities were cited as achieving positive results in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Egypt.
“Community dialogue uses a wide range of participatory methodologies and culturally sensitive advocacy strategies, such as story-telling, active listening and strategic questioning to generate a deep and complex understanding of the nature of FGM/C,” Hane Ba said. “Through this process, many communities are saying ‘no’ to FGM/C.”
ADDIS ABABA, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) – The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia’s Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties were enforced, an NGO leader said.
“Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo,” said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women’s Self-Help Centre, a local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones.
According to official statistics, FGM/C prevalence in the state decreased from 80 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in 2005. Bogaletch said this could improve with legal reform.
“The law in our country is very weak and not a deterrent,” she said. “When this happens, people are not afraid of breaking it. My life as a woman is not worth more than 500 Birr [US$55].”
Under the Ethiopian Penal Code, FGM/C carries a punishment of imprisonment of not less than three months or a fine of not less than 500 Birr.
“Ethiopia is a signatory to many international laws, but has not yet ratified the Maputo protocol,” she told IRIN in the capital, Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of an African consultative meeting on FGM/C.
The Maputo Protocol came into force in November 2005 and is an African initiative that prohibits and condemns FGM/C. As a result, 16 African countries have banned the practice.
The consultative meeting heard that the occurrence of FGM has reduced in several other African countries.
“Prevalence decline is visible in countries like Kenya, Eritrea, Mali and Nigeria where anti-FGM/C interventions have been going for some years,” said Fama Hane Ba, African Division Director at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). “This is good news.”
FGM/C, which involves the partial or total removal or injury to the female genitalia, is practised as a deterrent to promiscuity in some African communities.
”Prevalence decline is visible in countries like Kenya, Eritrea, Mali and Nigeria where anti-FGM/C interventions have been going on for some years”
Hane Ba said the majority of women at risk are in 28 African countries. “An estimated 120 to 140 million women and girls have also been subjected to the FGM/C practice throughout the world,” she said.
She added: “It is encouraging to note that many organisations are implementing innovative programmatic strategies combining law enforcement and culturally sensitive approaches to sustain behavioural change.”
Community dialogue, alternative rites of passage ceremonies, role modelling by families and consensus-building among communities were cited as achieving positive results in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Egypt.
“Community dialogue uses a wide range of participatory methodologies and culturally sensitive advocacy strategies, such as story-telling, active listening and strategic questioning to generate a deep and complex understanding of the nature of FGM/C,” Hane Ba said. “Through this process, many communities are saying ‘no’ to FGM/C.”
New York, July 10, 2007—For the first time in his illustrious career, Ethiopian distance legend Haile Gebrselassie will race in the bright lights of New York City. He will run the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE on Sunday, August 5, it was announced today by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg.
“Haile is an all-time great, combining those rare abilities of being a champion on the road and track and off as a goodwill ambassador for our sport,” Wittenberg said. “His running in New York is as historic as when soccer legend Pelé came to New York to play in the final stages of his fabulous career.”
In just its second year, the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE has immediately established itself as a must-run event for the world’s leading men and women professionals, and the 2007 race will have a sold-out field of more than 10,000 runners from around the world.
“Haile’s running here serves notice to the world that the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE is the half to run—similar to our city’s great marathon,” Wittenberg said.
Widely considered the greatest distance runner of all time, Gebrselassie, 34, has won all seven of his previous 13.1-mile races, including a world-record 58 minutes, 55 seconds in 2006 in Tempe, AZ, the last time he competed in the United States. (The record was later broken by Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya.) The 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000-meter gold medalist has won 107 races in 55 different cities, only three of which (Atlanta, Boston, and Tempe) have been in the United States.
Gebrselassie is fresh off a double-world-record effort on June 27, having established world bests for the one-hour run and 20,000 meters on the track at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic. He has now set 24 world records in his career.
“I’m so happy to run my first half-marathon in the Big Apple next month. I’m sure I will like the race and the atmosphere,” said Gebrselassie, who has resumed training at home in Ethiopia. “Who knows which races in New York might follow in the future?”
Gebrselassie is the first professional athlete announced for the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE, which will serve as a tune-up for many of the international runners also competing at the IAAF Track & Field World Championships, to be held August 25–September 1 in Osaka, Japan. Athletes will be racing in New York for a prize purse of more than $70,000, with the male and female winners each receiving $10,000.
A nine-time world champion, Gebrselassie has focused on road racing and the marathon since the 2004 Olympic Games, and he captured his first title in a World Marathon Majors race in Berlin in 2006. He has also claimed marathon victories in Fukuoka, Japan (2006), and Amsterdam (2005).
On a course designed to celebrate New York City, the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE will take runners on a loop through Central Park, down Seventh Avenue through Times Square, across 42nd Street, and along the expansive West Side Highway to Battery Park in the heart of the city’s financial district, finishing with a view of the Statue of Liberty.
New York Road Runners is working in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, City of New York Parks & Recreation, NYC & Company, New York City Sports Commission, New York City Police Department, Department of Transportation, Department of Sanitation, New York City Fire Department, and all the other city agencies that help throughout the year to produce its world-class events.
New York Road Runners
New York Road Runners, soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary, is dedicated to promoting the sport of distance running, enhancing health and fitness for all, and responding to community needs. Our road races and other fitness programs draw upwards of 300,000 runners annually, and together with our magazine and website support and promote professional and recreational running. A staff of more than 100, assisted by thousands of volunteers, stages the ING New York City Marathon, as well as a road race nearly every weekend plus many track and cross country events. NYRR’s home base in New York, and its lifelong identification with Central Park, have given many of its events iconic status, attracting the world’s top professional runners. Our youth programs provide running to 25,000 schoolchildren in New York City and around the country who would otherwise have few or no fitness opportunities.
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