ASMARA, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki accused the United States of fuelling conflicts in the Horn of Africa and urged Washington to change its policies in the latest round of finger-pointing between the two nations.
The comments, published on Monday, came days after Washington said it was considering placing Eritrea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism for allegedly aiding Islamists battling the Ethiopian-backed Somali government.
“The U.S. attempt to put into effect its strategy of monopoly and dominance through fomenting confrontation among peoples is leading the world to a dangerous path,” the Ministry of Information Web site, shabait.com, quoted Isaias as saying.
“U.S. Administration officials need to change their frame of thinking and put an end to their acts of adventurism, as well as weaving conspiracies to undermine our national interests.”
Asmara’s ties with Washington steadily worsened after an Ethiopian-backed Somali government offensive over the New Year ousted Islamists from Mogadishu. Diplomats said Washington tacitly backed Ethiopia, while Eritrea supported the Islamists.
The United Nations accused Asmara last month of sending large amounts of arms to the Islamists, echoing a similar report by the U.N. arms body last year. Eritrea denies this.
“The latest developments witnessed in Eritrea-U.S. relations emanated on the one hand from the existing situation in Somalia, and (are) connected with the Eritrean people’s steadfastness and resistance on the other,” Isaias said.
After its 30-year independence war with Ethiopia ended in 1991, Eritrea initially had blossoming ties with Washington. But relations quickly soured after a 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia, the top U.S. counter-terrorism ally in the region.
Asmara says the United States has done little to force Ethiopia to accept a 5-year-old border ruling marking the nations’ shared frontier.
Over the last year in Asmara, a tit-for-tat diplomatic battle has been raging.
Washington says Eritrea is holding up diplomatic pouches, denying visas for U.S. diplomats and supporting the Islamists in Mogadishu whom, the United States says, have links to terrorists. Eritrea denies these claims.
Heightening tensions, Washington said early last week it was shutting down an Eritrean consulate in Oakland, California.
And U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said last week Washington could make a case to put Eritrea on the terrorism list with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Syria.
ASMARA, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki accused the United States of fuelling conflicts in the Horn of Africa and urged Washington to change its policies in the latest round of finger-pointing between the two nations.
The comments, published on Monday, came days after Washington said it was considering placing Eritrea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism for allegedly aiding Islamists battling the Ethiopian-backed Somali government.
“The U.S. attempt to put into effect its strategy of monopoly and dominance through fomenting confrontation among peoples is leading the world to a dangerous path,” the Ministry of Information Web site, shabait.com, quoted Isaias as saying.
“U.S. Administration officials need to change their frame of thinking and put an end to their acts of adventurism, as well as weaving conspiracies to undermine our national interests.”
Asmara’s ties with Washington steadily worsened after an Ethiopian-backed Somali government offensive over the New Year ousted Islamists from Mogadishu. Diplomats said Washington tacitly backed Ethiopia, while Eritrea supported the Islamists.
The United Nations accused Asmara last month of sending large amounts of arms to the Islamists, echoing a similar report by the U.N. arms body last year. Eritrea denies this.
“The latest developments witnessed in Eritrea-U.S. relations emanated on the one hand from the existing situation in Somalia, and (are) connected with the Eritrean people’s steadfastness and resistance on the other,” Isaias said.
After its 30-year independence war with Ethiopia ended in 1991, Eritrea initially had blossoming ties with Washington. But relations quickly soured after a 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia, the top U.S. counter-terrorism ally in the region.
Asmara says the United States has done little to force Ethiopia to accept a 5-year-old border ruling marking the nations’ shared frontier.
Over the last year in Asmara, a tit-for-tat diplomatic battle has been raging.
Washington says Eritrea is holding up diplomatic pouches, denying visas for U.S. diplomats and supporting the Islamists in Mogadishu whom, the United States says, have links to terrorists. Eritrea denies these claims.
Heightening tensions, Washington said early last week it was shutting down an Eritrean consulate in Oakland, California.
And U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said last week Washington could make a case to put Eritrea on the terrorism list with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Syria.
PRESS RELEASE
Ethiopian Community Association in Ottawa, Canada
Celebrate Ethiopia’s journey of 2000 Years with love and unity
On several occasions Ethiopia’s prominence reached its climax. It inspired the world as a pioneer of early civilization. The discovery of the first humanoid — Lucy (Dinknesh) — speaks volumes that Ethiopia is the cradle ofmankind. Like others its good and bad dayshave come and gone. Despite all odds Ethiopia has survived two thousands years. Today Ethiopians are on the eve startinga new journey to the 3rd millennium.
The Ethiopian CommunityAssociation in Ottawa (ECAO) in collaboration with Ethiopian civic organizations and community groups are organizing a celebration to mark this once in a lifetime yet historic event.
The millennium celebration organizing committee of ECAO has approached various individuals, local and national government officials, and friends of Ethiopia to join the event.
ECAO requests the residents ofthe city of Ottawa and Montreal to join the Ethiopian community in celebrating this historic occasion on September 15, 2007 at the Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa.
It is a celebration that will be glorified with cultural shows, music and art festivals, social activities, traditional food and drinks.
On this day Ethiopians of all religions and ethnic backgrounds will join hands to demand that the new millennium be one where human rights violations against our people will not be tolerated, where love, tolerance and reconciliation will prevail. It would be an occasion where each one ofus pledges for Ethiopia in the new millennium. We will make this celebration an event to express our hope and promise to create a renovated Ethiopia where democracy, good governance, and rule oflaw would be the benchmark for Ethiopia’s future development.
The organizing committee requests your earnest participation to make the millennium celebration memorable. We call on all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia in Ottawa and Montreal to come together and reflect to our past where we as a nation and people have traversed for 1000 years. On this date,together,we herald the beginningofa new journey of 1000 years with hope and optimism for Ethiopia’s progress. Let us celebrate
this great historic moment by joining hands with love, unity, understanding and reconciliation in the political heartland of Canada, Ottawa.
Contact
Ethiopian Community Association in Ottawa
1364 Richmond Road, 2nd Floor
Ottawa, ONK2B6G7
We, the undersigned, as members of Ethiopian human rights organizations, Ethiopian civic organizations and in the Ethiopian religious community, call for immediate action to stop the outrageous human rights abuses going on in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that is causing wide-scale humanitarian disaster to the civilian population due to the fighting between the Ethiopian regime of Meles Zenawi and the Ogaden National Liberation Forces (ONLF).
We appeal to the Meles regime and the ONLF to call an immediate ceasefire so as to allow all humanitarian organizations, including the International Red Cross, the Ogaden Human Rights organizations and other such groups to gain access to the area in order to help the people who are suffering due to displacement, lack of food, lack of clean water, lack of shelter, lack of medical care and lack of any semblance of normal life necessary to their survival and well being. This crisis is worsening by the moment and will result in many more lives being lost, especially the lives of the most vulnerable — the young and the elders.
We call on those in the international community — the United Nations, the African Union, the United States as a key ally to Ethiopia, the European Union and other concerned entities and citizens to take a stand for the innocent who are dying as a result of this crisis. We call on you and all media to not be silent on this appalling human catastrophe before it worsens. Inaction and apathy will only bring about another example of shame to the international community if the Ogaden becomes another Darfur as good people fail to act with moral conviction, urgency and effectiveness.
To the regime of Meles Zenawi and to the ONLF, we recommend the following actions:
1. agree to comply with an immediate ceasefire, something that requires the total cooperation of both parties if it is going to be effective
2. provide for safe and unrestricted access into the region by all humanitarian groups in order to meet the needs of the civilian population
3. organize a dialogue with the goal of finding a peaceful resolution to this crisis and one that respects the universal human rights of all civilians and compliance with the Ethiopian Constitution and International Law.
Right now, we who are calling for this action have information from the ground on what is going on, but the Meles regime appears to be diverting the attention of both other Ethiopians and of those in the international community away from the tragedy going on in the Ogaden. Meles has called the ONLF a terrorist group, even while the regime is reportedly perpetrating crimes against humanity against the civilian population in the Ogaden and in other regions of the country. The Meles regime may believe that classifying the ONLF as terrorists would open up a means to legitimize the killing of Ogadeni civilians. However, according to representatives from the ONLF, they believe they must defend the Ogadeni people and call on the Meles regime to cease committing human rights atrocities against their people.
This past week, Meles was on Ethiopian television warning Ethiopians to not speak up for the ONLF as they are terrorists and that his government intends to “crack down” on these “terrorists.” He went on to say that those who supported the ONLF would be supporting a terrorist group. Some would say that any support of the EPRDF/TPLF that is responsible for crimes against humanity should be considered a terrorist.
Additionally Meles seemed to want to focus the attention of the international community and Ethiopians inside and outside of the country on the upcoming Ethiopian Millennium celebration as well as to infer that the majority of Ethiopians should be happy that he had released the CUDP leaders and that their minds should be on these things instead of what was going on in the Ogaden.
Instead, Ethiopians should say a loud “NO” and speak out for Ethiopian Ogadenis like we spoke out in protest of the student protesters in Addis Ababa in June and November of 2005 and for the Opposition leaders who were just released.
We speak laud with one voice for our brothers and sisters of the Ogaden as well as for those left in the prisons throughout our country and use the same volume we did for these groups until we all are free! We must continue to rally, protest and advocate for all Ethiopians until the killing, torture, rape, detention and man-made humanitarian crises, causing untold suffering to our people, stop.
We call on the international community and all peace-loving people to stand up, in real life and in practical actions, for the principles you have established based on universal values of humanity and justice.
For additional information, please contact: Mr. Girma Kassa
E-mail: [email protected]
Abugida Info
Addis voice
Anuak Justice Council
Ethiopian Media Forum (EMF)
Ethiopian American Association of Portland
Ethiopian Review
Kaliti Peace Advocacy Group
Network of Ethiopian Scholars Scandinavian Chapter
Ogaden Human Rights Committee
Ogaden Voice for Peace
Ogaden Empowerment Initiatives
Ogaden Youth Network
Peacewithkinijit Blog
Tegbar League
[Lawyer Ruta Ghebremichael receives a war damage claims from a woman in her office in Asmara in this file photo from July 30, 2007. REUTERS/Jack Kimball]
By Jack Kimball
ASMARA (Reuters) – Standing in a muddy courtyard, 65-year-old Letezai Tewolde-Bahta’s eyes dart back and forth as she stares at a doorway leading to Eritrea’s legal office.
One of thousands of Eritreans deported from Ethiopia during the two countries’ border war of 1998-2000, she opens up a green identity card and points to the granddaughter she says she carried across the front lines.
“The Ethiopians came in the middle of the night and they took us to prison for three days. Then I was deported along with the rest of my family,” said Letezai, who had lived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for 40 years.
“They took everything from us. Then they took us to the border. There must have been 30 buses,” the Eritrean housewife said.
In her weathered hands she holds papers from her past life in Ethiopia — proof, Eritrean lawyers argue, that she was one of 70,000 dual national Eritreans expelled during the war, in which a similar number of people died.
In a peace deal signed in Algiers in 2000, the two countries agreed to submit to binding arbitration by a claims commission and a boundary commission in The Hague.
While the independent boundary commission has made its final decision, the claims commission — set up to assess war damages — has yet to make a final ruling.
In the last few weeks, thousands of Eritreans who lived in Ethiopia before the conflict have lined the streets outside the legal office in Asmara and in other cities across the Horn of Africa nation.
They hope the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission will give them back what they say was stolen by Ethiopia. Many say they have lost all they had — money, homes and businesses — but so far no compensation has been forthcoming.
Ethiopia is also preparing claims for damages against Eritrea at the commission.
While no figures have been released, Eritrea estimated in 2005 its claims could exceed $500 million, or half the country’s gross domestic product for that year.
Eritrean lawyers say deportee claims will be the largest.
“It’s important, because so many lost so much. Some of these people lost millions of U.S. dollars,” said lawyer Ruta Ghebremichael, 23.
The Commission has yet to receive all the financial claims from either side and is not expected to rule on how much should be paid until some time next year.
“WE LOST EVERYTHING”
Wearing an Adidas jacket and U.S. college basketball hat, Melake Yhidego, 40, enters a tiny office in a run-down one-storey building next to Eritrea’s legal office.
After waiting in line for most of the morning, Melake sits down in a chair facing one of a team of Eritrean lawyers working on the claim forms.
Like many expellees, he said he was arrested before being deported from Ethiopia, where he had lived for 30 years.
“My wife and child were deported one month before I was. We only met in Asmara,” the former driver said.
“This is our money. This is what we worked for so it’s a must that Ethiopia pays. We’re not begging, this is ours.”
The Commission — part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration set up to settle international disputes — angered Eritrea when in 2005 it blamed Asmara for triggering the war by attacking Badme town on May 12, 1998.
The small, dusty town was awarded to Asmara by the boundary commission, set up by the Algiers peace deal to mark the Eritrea-Ethiopia border.
Ethiopia initially rejected the decision. Addis Ababa now accepts the frontier ruling, but wants more discussion — a move Eritrea vehemently rejects.
The border stalemate has ratcheted up tensions along the 1000-km (600-mile) border and Eritrean lawyers said the dispute may affect the claims decision.
“It’s hard to see how the claims commission’s final judgment can be implemented when one of the parties is still refusing to comply with the boundary commission,” said Lea Brilmayer, a U.S. lawyer advising the government.
In the crowded corridor, housewife Letezai shared the scepticism, echoing the concerns of many expellees.
“We lost everything, and we want it to be known,” she said.
“The Ethiopians deported us from our houses so why should we believe that they’ll pay us,” she added before turning her attention back to the slow-moving line.
Hundreds of Ethiopians residing in the Washington DC Metro Area gathered on Saturday at the Unification Church to say thank you to former members of the Kinijit International Leadership (K.I.L.).
The event was organized by Netsanet LeEthiopia Radio, Addis Dimts Radio, Mebt Radio, Ethiopian Review, and Tegbar League in collaboration with the Kinijit DC Metro Chapter.
The program was opened with a prayer and brief welcoming remarks by Kinijit DC Metro Chapter Chairman Ato Yilma Adamu, Treasurer Dr Abraham Bekele, and Secretary General Ato Sisay Dimamu.
The organizers, Ato Alem Fekade (Netsanet LeEthiopia Radio), Wzr Amakelech Seyoum (Tegbar League), Ato Abebe Belew (Addis Dimts Radio), Ato Meshesha Biru (Mebt Radio), and Ato Fekade Shewakena (Kinijit Radio) took turns to speak and express their appreciation to the K.I.L. members for keeping the Kinijit movement going under extremely difficult conditions.
K.I.L. members Dr Moges Gebremariam, Ato Berhan Mewa, Ato Andargachew Tsige, Dr Gebreye Wolde-Rufael, Ato Dawit Kebede and Ato Daniel Assefa each received specially made plaques from organizers of the event as an expression of appreciation for their tireless effort.
Lastly, Ato Tefera Mekonnen, chairman of the event, invited the former K.I.L. members to take speak.
The audience received the K.I.L. members with standing ovations. Some participants were observed crying as the former K.I.L. officials recounted the difficulties they had faced and what they were able to accomplish during the 21 months they led Kinijit on behalf of the jailed leaders.
[Lawyer Ruta Ghebremichael receives a war damage claims from a woman in her office in Asmara in this file photo from July 30, 2007. REUTERS/Jack Kimball]
