ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Six [fake] Ethiopian opposition parties formed an alliance on Thursday and accused the government of clamping down on dissent ahead of parliamentary elections next year.
[All this is orchestrated by the American embassy in Addis Ababa to give legitimacy to the Meles dictatorship.]
The alliance parties hold only 80 of parliament’s 547 seats, but still represent the most significant opposition to a government that is a close ally of Washington.
The new alliance includes the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) and the Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ), whose jailed 34-year-old leader Birtukan Mideksa is seen by regional analysts as the foremost opposition figure.
“Violations of democratic rights come … at a time when the general election is only a few months away,” UEDF leader Beyene Petros told reporters in the capital Addis Ababa. “The political space (should be) made conducive for free and fair elections.”
[It is laughable to call Dr Beyene Petros an “opposition politician.”]
Analysts say the government of Prime Minister dictator Meles Zanawi is likely to win next year’s poll as the opposition has been weakened since a 2005 parliamentary election ended in violence that killed 199 civilians.
Bereket Simon, the government’s head of information propaganda, rejected opposition claims the scope for political activity in Ethiopia was too restricted as “baseless accusations”.
“The political space is continually widening. We welcome the forming of this alliance. We believe it is good for Ethiopian democracy to see parties with the same programmes forming together,” he told Reuters.
Ethiopian opposition parties routinely accuse the government of harassment and say their candidates were intimidated when Ethiopians went to the polls last April for local elections.
The six parties will contest next year’s election under the banner of the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia (FDEE), while maintaining their independent structure and leadership.
The FDEE called on Thursday for Birtukan to be freed from prison, along with “several other Ethiopians incarcerated on political grounds”. They did not name the other prisoners.
Birtukan has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days last month. She was jailed after the 2005 poll, pardoned in 2007, and rearrested last year.
Gebru Asrat, leader of the Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty Party, will serve as chairman of the alliance.
The other parties are the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Movement (EDUM) and the Somali Democratic Alliance Forces (SDAF).
I am Kenyan-born and was raised in Tanzania, which is — with a population of about 35 million — the thirdlargest country in the world at risk of malaria. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, is the leading cause of death in Africa, killing almost 1 million people a year. Tanzania has 18 million cases of malaria and more than 100,000 deaths yearly — mostly children and pregnant women — meaning every five minutes a person dies from this preventable disease that can be treated at a cost of $10.
Despite the depressing reality of this forgotten disease, today Tanzania and other African nations can be optimistic that malaria can be controlled and may be virtually eliminated due to President Bush’s humanitarian initiative.
In 2005, Bush created the President’s Malaria Initiative, committing $1.2 billion, which started with Tanzania, Uganda, and Angola, and then targeted eight additional African countries. As a malaria survivor with family, classmates, and neighbors who died of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS in Tanzania and Kenya, I am especially thankful for the president’s aggressive humanitarian program that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
The malaria rate has dropped significantly more than the 50 percent benchmark in each country. For example, in Pemba and Zanzibar, Tanzania, the malaria rate dropped 87 percent — proving malaria can be controlled.
Since 2001, President Bush has been committed to supporting various causes in Africa. U.S. aid to Africa quadrupled from $1.3 billion to more than $5 billion in 2005 and to almost $9 billion for 2010, representing the largest increase since the Truman administration. The President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief has touched millions of Africans — making PEPFAR perhaps one of his greatest humanitarian successes. Today, the United States and the Bill Gates Foundation are the largest contributors toward fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Additionally, the president’s Millennium Challenge Corp. identified nine African countries to receive $3.8 billion for infrastructure and agriculture. The president also implemented an African Education Initiative training almost 1 million teachers, providing more than 10 million textbooks, and giving hundreds of thousands of scholarships for girls’ education.
President Bush strongly pressed the nations being assisted to address the scourge of government corruption, asserting that Americans “expect countries that we help to fight corruption and to govern justly. There is nothing more pitiful than to have people’s hopes robbed by corrupt government officials.”
In 1977 as a child on a crowded street in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, I was among thousands of people cheering on a hot day as Fidel Castro’s motorcade passed. Now as a U. S. citizen who supports democratic principles, I watched and cheered President Bush’s visit last year to several African countries, including now democratic Tanzania, as thousands of people lined the streets cheering, singing, dancing, waving American flags, throwing flowers in his path, and some hugging him with excitement.
Even though millions of people watched President Bush’s visit to Africa on television, few were aware of the significance and substance of the trip. The media seemed more interested in the festive events and the president’s dancing and joking than in the thousands of lives saved due to his novel humanitarian approach that has benefited African nations.
The Bush administration also played various other humanitarian roles and was a mediator that saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Thus, it is no surprise that many newborn boys in Sudan are named “George Bush” and a day has been named George W. Bush Malaria Day in Benin.
Today, President Bush and the U. S. enjoy an 80 percent approval rating in Africa — including countries with a large Muslim population. Africa will remain a positive accomplishment of his administration. While some may not give President Bush full recognition, Africans throughout the world will long remember him and tell many success stories about George and Laura Bush’s extraordinary humanitarian legacy in Africa.
(Zarina Fazaldin, a local real estate developer, can be reached at 804 310-5051 or [email protected])
Troops from the Islamic Courts Union, a former insurgent group that now backs Somalia’s new president, have taken over {www:control} of checkpoints in the capital Mogadishu from government soldiers. The {www:development} comes as Ethiopian Woyanne troops, who patrolled the city for much of the past two years and began withdrawing from the country earlier this year, were reported crossing the {www:border} into Somalia again.
With much of southern and central Somalia under the control of hard-line Islamist insurgents opposed to the government, the immediate task for the country’s new moderate Islamist president, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is to re-establish {www:security} in the capital, Mogadishu.
On Thursday, the government took one step toward this goal, replacing the government forces manning checkpoints in the city, who had had been accused of attacking and stealing from civilians – with fighters belonging to the Islamic Courts Union, an insurgent group that has thrown its backing to President Sharif, a former insurgent leader.
A spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union, Isse Adow, said the group’s soldiers had taken over early in the day.
He said the president, earlier in the month, had established a committee to look into security issues, which found that government forces at security checkpoints often held people up, seeking to {www:extract} money. The committee recommended removing the government forces from the checkpoints.
Security remains an immense challenge in the capital. On Wednesday, an explosion in the city killed at least two people.
But the challenge of exerting government control over the rest of the country is even greater. The new prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, repeated the government’s appeals for negotiations with the radical insurgent group al-Shabab, which controls much of the country’s central and southern regions.
There are some hopes that President Sharif can bring on board or marginalize the more radical Shabab. Both split from the same Islamist movement that briefly took control of the country in 2006.
A group of Islamic clerics who had been {www:meeting} in the capital issued a series of pronouncements Thursday, including that Muslims should not kill one another, and that Islamists opposed to the government should not use violence. But while other Islamist factions have entered discussions with the government, the Shabab has vowed to continue fighting.
The clerics also called for armed factions to stop targeting aid groups operating in the country; for foreign soldiers – most likely a reference to African Union peacekeepers – to leave the country by the beginning of July; and for a form of Islamic law to be established.
Meanwhile, Somali media has reported that Ethiopian Woyanne troops have crossed the border into southern Somalia, along with dozens of vehicles. Since withdrawing from the country earlier this year, Ethiopian Woyanne troops have remained deployed along the border, and Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator has indicated that soldiers could return if the threat of insecurity increases. But Ethiopia has denied any renewed incursions.
Organizers of the Boston Marathon announced today that they have completed their elite fields for the 113th edition of the race scheduled for Monday, April 20.
In addition to defending champions, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya and Dire Tune of Ethiopia, and key USA challengers, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher, who had been previously announced, elite athlete coordinator Pat Lynch has signed an additional group of strong challengers.
On the men’s side, 2008 Bank of America Chicago Marathon champion Evans Cheruiyot of Kenya (2:06:25 PB), has been added along with Beijing Olympics fourth-placer and 2009 Chevron Houston Marathon champion Deribe Merga of Ethiopia (2:06:38). Other men who will toe the race’s famous starting line in Hopkinton include Kenyans Daniel Rono (2:06:58), Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot (2:07:21), Timothy Cherigat (2:09:34), and Stephen Kiogora (2:08:24). Ethiopians Gashaw Melese Asfaw (2:08:03), Solomon Molla (2:08:46) and Abebe Dinkesa (debut) are also in the field.
In addition to Hall, another American Olympian, Brian Sell, has decided to run Boston again. Sell, who has a 2:10:47 personal best, was fourth at Boston in 2006, clocking 2:10:55. He was third at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in New York City in 2007, and finished 22nd in the Olympic Games in 2:16:07. Jason Lehmkuhle, fifth at those same Olympic Trials in a personal best 2:12:54, also plans to run.
On the women’s side, two Russian stars, Lidia Grigoryeva and Galina Bogomolova, should offer Tune a strong challenge. Grigoryeva won Chicago in 2008 and Boston in 2007, and has a personal best time of 2:25:10. The tiny Bogomolova is the Russian record holder with a 2:20:47 to her credit.
The 2009 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon champion, Bezunesh Bekele of Ethiopia (2:23:09 PB) is definitely a contender for victory, and so is veteran Salina Kosgei of Kenya (2:23:22) who finished 10th in the Beijing Olympics. Helena Loshanyang Kirop of Kenya (2:25:01 PB), Atsede Habtamu of Ethiopia (2:25:17) and Alice Timbilili of Kenya (2:26:45) are also in the field.
Two-time American Olympian Elva Dryer, 37, has also been contracted for the race. Her marathon personal best is 2:31:48 from Chicago in 2006.
John Hancock Financial, the principal sponsor of the race, provides the funding for Boston’s elite fields.
The genuine version of YeGazetegnaw Mastawesha (The Journalist’s Memoir) by Tesfaye Gebreab is now available online. To order, write to Selama Distribution at [email protected] or click here here.
In Atlanta, it is available at Merkato Ethiopian Grocery.
MERKATO MARKET, 3300 BUFORD HWY, SUITE B, ATLANTA, GA 30329
Tel: 404-320-9777
A forged version of the book with several chapters removed is being circulated online. The purpose of this thievery is to deny the author from earning money which he could use to write more investigative books that will expose the ruling party’s (Woyanne) secrets.
Don’t be party to this act of sabotage. Get the genuine book from the book’s official distributors.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Harambe Newspaper editor Wosenseged GebreKidan has been taken to the notorious Kality prison today after he told the court that he doesn’t have 3,000 birr to pay for bail.
The U.S.-financed regime in Ethiopia has brought charges against Wosenseged for publishing a report about lack of participation in the April 2007 local elections, which, according to the prosecutor, violates the “press law.”
Wosenseged is one of the journalists who were released from jail in July 2007 along with the top leadership of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (Kinijit) after signing a pardon request letter that was prepared by mediators.
Many of the journalists who were released in July 2007 have fled Ethiopia fearing further persecution. Several members of Kinijit are also forced into exile.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Harambe Newspaper editor Wosenseged GebreKidan has been taken to the notorious Kality prison today after he told the court that he doesn’t have 3,000 birr to pay for bail.