The Obama administration is signaling its intention to keep Ethiopia as a key strategic partner, despite concerns about the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. The United States is seeking to expand development assistance to the Ethiopian government.
Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew is making his first trip to East Africa at a time of increasing regional instability.
The United States last week announced it had sent a $10-million shipment of weapons to help shore up the besieged government of Somalia, while accusing neighboring Eritrea of being behind violence aimed at undermining the Somali peace process.
Regional power Ethiopia sent troops in 2006 to prop up the fragile government in Mogadishu, but pulled them out earlier this year, and has expressed a reluctance to return without strong backing from the international community.
Secretary Lew’s stop in Addis Ababa included an hour-long talk with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Afterward, he told reporters the United States sees Ethiopia as an important strategic ally.
“The deep relationship between the United States and Ethiopia is based on a number of shared values, shared concerns,” said Lew. “The strategic relationship remains a very important one, and we value it. I think it is mutually valued by the government of Ethiopia and the government of the United States.”
“So I think we look to a future where we will be able to continue to work together not on just fighting common forces in the world that we think are a threat to each of us, but on a broader agenda where we can make a lasting difference in the quality of life in the life of the Ethiopian people, and by analogy people in many other countries to which we provide foreign assistance,” he added.
The United States last year gave more than $1 billion in aid to Ethiopia, most of it in emergency food assistance, and practically all the rest in programs to fight HIV/AIDS and Malaria. Lew says the Obama administration is looking to broaden the program to include development aid.
“The form assistance that has become the predominant form of assistance is provision of emergency food supplies,” he said. “We think there need to be increased resources available and an increased share of resources going into sustainable development.”
While maintaining the deep bilateral relationship, Secretary Lew says the Obama administration is worried about what is seen as a “closing of political space” in Ethiopia since the controversial 2005 elections. During his talk with Prime Minister Meles, Lew says he made a point of raising the issue of imprisoned Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.
“I reinforced our concern that the matter be resolved quickly and finally,” he said.
Lew says he also expressed concern about two laws recently passed by Ethiopia’s parliament, one restricting activities of foreign-funded non-governmental organizations, the other limiting press freedom.
“The concerns we raised were the issues of openness that relate to NGOs and freedom of expression remain concerns to us,” he said. “We made that point clear again.”
Lew said his discussions with Prime Minister Meles also touched on a proposed new anti-terrorism law. The group Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday saying the draft law could define criticism of the government as a “terrorist act” and be used to crack down on the opposition.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Former defense minister of Ethiopia’s tribal junta, Ato Siye Abrha, has reportedly disclosed his intention to join the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), according to Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa.
According to the sources, Ato Siye is waiting to make a formal request to be a member of UDJ until the party finalizes its discussion with the other opposition parties that are in the process of forming a coalition.
Ato Siye was the guest of honor at a UDJ event at Addis Ababa’s Imperial Hotel on Saturday that was held to light candles for Birtukan Mideksa, the jailed leader of the party.
This week marks the 6th month since the Woyanne tribal junta threw Birtukan in jail.
Siye himself was jailed for 6 years after he had a fallout with his former comrade Meles Zenawi.
Ethiopian Review considers Siye an unrepentant Woyanne, but if he is able to peel away Tigrean support from the Meles mafia, his involvement in UDJ could be a plus for the opposition, as long as he doesn’t start to attack Ethiopian freedom fighters such as EPPF and our best ally, the Government of Eritrea.
(WorldNetDaily) –The [fake patriarch] leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Friday backed off on a much-anticipated announcement about the Ark of the Covenant — the ancient container holding the Ten Commandment — which he claims to have seen. But no other evidence or, indeed, even any announcement, was made public today when word had been expected.
Ark hunters and Bible enthusiasts have been buzzing for two days on the report from the Italian news agency Adnkronos that Patriarch Abuna Pauolos Mr. Gebremedhin, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI last week, said, “Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries.”
He had suggested the possibility the artifact might be viewable in a planned museum.
“I repeat (the Ark of the Covenant) is in Ethiopia and nobody … knows for how much time. Only God knows,” he said in the Adnkronos report available online.
The report said Pauolos Gebremedhin reported the artifact “is described perfectly in the Bible” and is in good condition.
“The state of conservation is good because it is not made from man’s hand, but is something that God has made,” Pauolos Gebremedhin said, according to the report.
The agency had reported an announcement would be made at the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome, and a hotel spokeswoman told WND Pauolos Gebremedhin had been in residence there, but no news conference or event was scheduled.
“The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries,” said Pauolos Gebremedhin in the report. “As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now.”
Bob Cornuke, biblical investigator, international explorer and best-selling author, has participated in more than 27 expeditions around the world searching for lost locations described in the Bible. A man some consider a real-life Indiana Jones, he has written a book titled “Relic Quest” about the Ark of the Covenant and participated in History Channel production called “Digging for Truth.”
Next week, Cornuke will travel to Ethiopia for the 13th time since he began his search for the Ark. He told WND he believes it is possible Ethiopia could have the real artifact.
“They either have the Ark of the Covenant or they have a replica that they have believed to be the Ark of the Covenant for 2,000 years,” he said.
Cornuke said, if it is genuine, there’s a plausible explanation of how the Ark may have come to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia.
“The Ark could have been taken out of the temple during the time of the atrocities of Manasseh,” he said. “We have kind of a bread crumb trail that appears to go to Egypt, and it stayed on an island there for a couple hundred years called Elephantine Island. The Ark then was transferred over to Lake Tana in Ethiopia where it stayed on Tana Qirqos Island for 800 years. Then it was taken to Axum, where it is enshrined in a temple today where they don’t let anybody see it.”
Cornuke said he traveled to Tana Qirqos Island and lived with monks who remain there even today.
“They unlocked this big, four-inch thick wood door,” he said. “It opened up to a treasure room, and they showed me meat forks and bowls and things that they say are from Solomon’s temple. When the History Channel did this show, they said it was one of the largest viewed shows. People were fascinated.”
He said Ethiopians consider the Ark to be the ultimate holy object, and the church guards the suspected artifact from the “eyes and pollution of man.”
“In Ethiopia, their whole culture is centered around worshipping this object,” Cornuke said. “Could they have the actual Ark? I think I could make a case that they actually could.”
But according to a statement delivered to WND by the webmaster for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, there is no chance that the religious leaders and people in the nation will give up their custody of what they believe is the Ark.
“I think Abba Pauolos Gebremedhin must be out of his mind. … An (artifact) should not be shown or touched other than the clergies but to put it on display is a reckless comment let alone doing it,” the statement said. “Not only the local clergies but the people of Ethiopia won’t allow it and it is not going to happen.”
The webmaster noted there were artifacts moved from Ethiopia to Britain over the years, and even those are not allowed to be displayed.
Pauolos Gebremedhin in the Adnkronos report said any display would need the approval of the supreme court of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
“It is news for us just as it is for you,” he said.
Cornuke explained that a special guardian lives inside the church which reportedly holds the Ark and never leaves. Once a guardian is appointed, he stays until he dies and another man replaces him.
“We know for a fact that there have been 30 guardians in history who have never left that enclosure,” Cornuke said. “I know the guardian. When CNN and BBC went over there, he wouldn’t see anybody but me. So I went and talked to him, and he’s getting very aged. He told me they have the real Ark and he worships 13 hours a day in front of it. When he gets through, he is covered in sweat and he’s exhausted.”
He said he met a 105-year-old man who claimed to have seen the Ark 50 years ago when he was training a replacement guardian.
“It frightened him to death when he got a glimpse of it.”
Cornuke said he also met with the president of Ethiopia nearly nine years ago and had a one-on-one conversation with him in his palace. He asked if Ethiopia had the Ark of the Covenant.
According to Cornuke, the president responded: “Yes, we do. I am the president, and I know. It’s not a copy. It’s the real thing.”
However, Grant Jeffrey, host of TBN’s Bible Prophecy Revealed and well-known author of “Armageddon: Appointment With Destiny,” does not believe claims that the Ark is in Ethiopia. He told WND he spoke extensively with Robert Thompson, former adviser to former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.
Jeffrey said Thompson told him the Ark of the Covenant had been taken to Ethiopia by Menelik, purported son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. When Menelik became emperor, he claims royal priests entrusted him with the Ark of the Covenant because King Solomon was slipping into apostasy. A replica was then left behind in Israel.
“The Ethiopian royal chronicles suggest that for 3,000 years, they had been guarding the ark, knowing that it had to go back to Israel eventually,” Jeffrey said.
He claims that after the Ethiopian civil war, Israel sent in a group of commandos from the tribe of Levi and the carried the Ark onto a plane and back to Israel in 1991.
“It is being held there secretly, waiting in the eyes of the religious leaders of Israel, for a supernatural signal from God to rebuild the temple,” he said. “They are not going to do it before that. When that happens, they will bring the Ark into that temple.”
But author and Bible teacher Chuck Missler, founder of Koinonia House, told WND the theory of Menelik obtaining the Ark is not biblical, though he believes there is a possibility that the Ethiopians may have the real deal.
“The fact that the Ethiopians may have been guarding the Ark of the Bible is very possible,” he said. “They cling to a belief that is clearly not biblical in terms of how the Ark got down there. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have it.”
Missler said there is no biblical basis for the Menelik account, and he believes there was a reason for that version of events.
“What everybody overlooks is that there’s a reason that particular story was cooked up in early times,” he said. “It was to give their kings Solomonic descent. There’s reason why they would try to sell that. But just because the official belief in how it got down there is not biblical, doesn’t mean they don’t have it.”
Tennessee historian and “Time is the Ally of Deceit” author Richard Rives, searched for the Ark and participated in excavations beneath Mount Moriah outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem. His group was trying to verify claims by relic hunter Ron Wyatt that he actually saw the Ark there several decades ago after tunneling through a small passageway.
While they found Roman ruins from the first century, Rives told WND they were unsuccessful in confirming Wyatt’s account. Nonetheless, Rives does not believe the story of Menelik obtaining the artifact or that Ethiopia ever had the real Ark.
“God’s presence was on the mercy seat. That was the throne of God,” he said.
If the account were accurate, Rives said God would have been dwelling on an Ark replica in Jerusalem.
“I just don’t believe they could have persuaded him to sit on a fake Ark of the Covenant,” he said.
Many theories exist about the ultimate fate of the Ark, including that it has been hidden in a still unknown location, it was destroyed by enemies of the Israelites, taken by Egyptian invaders to Egypt or removed by divine intervention.
The quest for the artifact received additional publicity in 1981 when actor Harrison Ford searched for it in Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Cornuke said Ethiopians claim their purported Ark is kept in a large stone sarcophagus lined in ornately hammered silver. The Ark itself is made of acacia wood and laminated with a thin veneer of gold. The mercy seat sits atop the Ark and is made of pure, hammered gold and includes two cherubim facing one another.
Whether the artifact is real or simply a copy, Cornuke said an unveiling might leave the world with more questions than answers.
“We have only typology to go on,” he said. “We could probably have some people analyze the wood samples and come up with some kind of dating protocol on it because it is acacia wood to see if that is it.”
Rives said a close inspection of the Ten Commandments would be necessary to ensure they are in accordance with true text and not later versions of the Ten Commandments.
Cornuke said experts would also need to determine whether the artifact itself fits biblical description and trace its path to Ethiopia.
“We are peeking behind the veil of history,” he said. “We’re taking a glimpse of an artifact that could be a very holy object.”
Lake Abijata is dying, although the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is boasting that it is the country’s sanctuary for a colony of exciting birds. Oddly enough, the Environmental Protection Authority has indexed the lake in its recently published green book, presenting it to parliament as a proof its effort in environmental protection when Abijata Soda Ash Enterprise (ASAE) is diligently harvesting sodium carbonate (soda ash), destroying plants, chasing away birds and depleting the volume of water.
The situation is encouraging NGOs to draw big funds. But they spend the funds mainly for publicity. As usual, the Prime Minister is turning a blind eye to the grave problem facing the lake.
A few years ago, I had participated in a training course on “Environmental Impact Assessment” organized by the Heinrich Boll Foundation. The training was “cooked with fluidly program”, as it was graphically described by its energetic organizers.
In fact, it was generous with stipend, and, since then, I was veritably exposed to the “art of wandering.” Among others, the program constituted a visit to Lake Abijata and its bug, ASAE. Welcome to the dying lake!
Lake Abijata is found in southern Ethiopia along with other Rift Valley lakes: Zeway, Langano and Shalla. It had covered an area of 204 sq. km. in 1984, at 1,578 m. above sea level. It had hosted a variety of colorful birds, which I had never seen in Kenya. It was said that when the training group arrived at the lake, a significant number of bird species migrated abroad for good, probably to Kenya.
As several studies have shown, the birds’ colony continued to diminish day by day as the bio-chemistry of the lake and its holdings continued to be obliterated by ASAE. The factory is using heavy water pumps to suck the lake’s water and spray it on PVC plastic lined ponds with a total area of 150 ha at a depth 25 centimeters. They are like a hot pan in an area where the temperature is over 300 C. The water can be seen with the naked eye as it changes into vapor, leaving its sediments in the ponds.
But each liter of the waste is yielding only about 15 grams on half a spoonful of crude soda ash (trona). Considering the annual capacity of ASAE, 20-30 thousand tonnes, its corresponding quantity of soda ash water demand might be on a par with the content of the controversial would-be hydroelectric dam – Gibe III. Therefore, it must be with God’s grace that the life of the lake is extended to this date. Thanks be, indeed, to God!
Evidently, as you approach the lake, you can trace a layer of water marks circumscribing the lake, formed as the water recedes to the center of the lake. I was probably moving as far as the 10th or 11th chapter of the trajectory. According to the studies, the lake was reduced to 108 sq. km in the 1990s, down from its previous size of 204 sq. km. in 1984. And it keeps shrinking probably to a quarter of the latter because ASAE continues to supply its ill-produced output to the local factories.
Of these, the major one is Caustic Soda Factory (CSF), operating near ASAE. Incidentally, before both factories were installed, caustic soda, chemically known as sodium hydroxide, was produced at the household level in various parts of the country. I saw a number of households using it to boil soda ash with lime powder to yield caustic soda for the purpose of making soaps from animal fat and vegetable oil.
It was this same public technology that scaled itself up to create CSF. Unlike ASAE, CSF has a discharge known as calcium carbonate. It had been idly piled up forming a white mountain in front of CSF’s main gate, though it would have some useful application. Does it have any environmental impact?
The visit was winding up by exploring ASAE’s processing complex, which consists of mainly crushers and packing units, segregated from the ponds. And, under the sunlight, I was forced to hide my head in my coat while following the group like a shepherd. It was then that I discovered blue colored crystals spreading at the doorsteps of the plant’s store.
I was stunned because the same crystal, known as copper sulfate, is used for impregnating wooden poles to protect them from being damaged by termites. To satiate my curiosity I had asked one of the factory’s employees, “What is that blue crystal supposed to do?” He laughed and said, ‘It is used to clean the water pumps.”
This possibly put copper sulfate under the pump’s legs to prevent their blockage by planktons or minced fish. However, in water there is no such local action and hence any soluble matter should lend itself to the law of dissolving. Therefore, the blue crystal must be uniformly distributed in the lake. That is why, as many had claimed, the birds are disappearing. Copper sulfate is harmful to any form of genetic material. Hence, if there is no plankton, there is no fish; if there is no fish, there are no fishing birds. Of course, depletion of the water is the main problem of the lake.
Apparently, ASAE is a living proof of a problem of ignoring environmental impact assessment of a certain economic activity, and it costs an irreversibly damaged environment, perhaps like Lake Abijata.
However, possibilities are not yet exhausted in that the same products of the factories could be produced with a number of alternative technologies, and our chalk and talk chemists would recount them to the fantasy of their counterparts: the timid chemical engineers. Or our trade experts could smartly exploit opportunities in the comparative advantage region.
This might cause inconvenience for the factories’ employees and stakeholders. But, the notorious BPR, which is extravagantly orchestrated by the seemingly parasite institutes, the Capacity Building and Ethiopian Management Institute, would help to generate a host of solutions perhaps in converting the factories into tourist lodges. Just an idea!
In spite of such pros and cons, some have attributed the lake’s problem to be beyond the bounds of human control. They attempt to advance a theory that assumes that the water of the lake seeps into the earth once and for all. It seems a subverting act or taming the shrew to deny this reality. Is really the lake sinking?
ADDIS ABABA — The Export and Import (EXIM) Bank of India is in negotiations with Ethiopian officials about the opening of an East African office in Addis Ababa.
Board directors of the bank have already decided to open their East African office in Addis Ababa so as to support Indian companies’ growing investment in eastern Africa, Indian embassy officials told IANS..
It will be the third office of EXIM Bank in Africa, if it goes ahead.
The bank has two offices in Johannesburg and Dakar, responsible for southern and western Africa respectively.
This week’s humanitarian situation update by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that standard nutrition surveys are needed in the affected areas in different regions to assess the scope of the situation.
Reports from some zones in Amhara Region revealed that the nutritional condition of children shows signs of decline. Water shortages in Somali Region are affecting both humans and livestock. The mid-year joint belg/pastoral area national needs assessment began on June 8 in belg-cropping areas and is scheduled to begin on June 22 in pastoral areas. The finding of the assessment will be used to revise identified needs in the humanitarian requirements document.
The food and nutritional security situation remains a source of concern in parts of Amhara, Oromia, Afar, SNNP, Somali and Tigray regions in the wake of the poor performance of belg rains. In Amhara Region, initial reports indicate that the nutritional condition of children in North Wollo and Waghemra zones shows signs of decline.
Standard nutrition surveys are needed in the affected areas to assess the scope of the situation. Meanwhile, Save the Children UK in Bugna and Delanta woredas in North Wollo zone, CONCERN in Werababo and Dessie Zuria woredas in South Wollo zone and World Vision in Efrata and Geramider woredas in North Shoa zone are implementing community-based therapeutic centers (CTC), with support from the Humanitarian Response Fund.
In Somali Region, the approaching close of the gu rains and their poor performance as well as early cessation in several areas raises the potential for water shortages affecting both livestock and humans in pastoralist and agro pastoralist communities, which could exacerbate food insecurity in the region.
In Afar Region, Afar Pastoralist Development Association reports that a number of woredas, including Erebti, Kori and Bidu, Northern, Eli Dar, Afdera, Awra, Gawwaani, Dubti and parts of Mille are experiencing extreme dry conditions, indicating that continued water tankering will be needed.
According to the latest Ethiopia Market Watch issued by the World Food Programme (WFP), general inflation based on the monthly moving average stood at 44.3 percent in April 2009, with food inflation at 57.2 percent and non-food inflation at 24.6 percent. This represents a slight decrease since March 2009, when the general inflation rate stood at 45.2 percent.
While the April 2009 rate remains 24.4 percent higher than in April 2008, the overall trend for the past year has been declining.
Food aid pipeline
With WFP reporting that its relief food pipeline is facing shortages, the prioritization committee comprising government, donor, and UN and NGO representatives working on delivery of relief food met to review the availability of relief food in the country and recommend a course of action for further distributions given limited stocks.
WFP reports that it has approximately 29,000 MT of cereals left in its relief pipeline, while the NGOs’ Joint Emergency Operation Programme has about 70,000 MT arriving in July. The targeted supplementary food pipeline dedicated for addressing moderate malnutrition cases will break in July 2009.
National needs assessment
The mid-year joint belg/pastoral area national needs assessment began on June 8 in belg-cropping areas and is scheduled to begin on June 22 in pastoral areas. The finding of the assessment will be used to revise identified needs in the humanitarian requirements document.
AWD update
According to official reports from the Ministry of Health (MoH), 90 new cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) were reported in 14 woredas of Oromia, SNNP and Harari regions from May 18 to 24. Risk factors including poor hygiene and sanitation practices impede complete containment of the disease.
In response, the Oromia Regional Health Bureau, with technical support from UNICEF and WHO, conducted training on AWD response for 48 health and water personnel from the 12 woredas of West Arsi zone at which a preparedness and response action plan was prepared and presented for discussion.
UNICEF will provide a CTC kit to West Arsi in the coming days, in addition to the three CTC kits and drugs provided in the beginning of May. UNICEF has also provided five CTC kits to SNNPR and dispatched 21,400 bottles of Water-Guard water treatment chemicals, (enough to some 31,860 people for one month) to Konso special woreda.
Meanwhile, WHO continues to provide technical support to affected regions, including Somali, through provision of emergency drug kits, support for assessments and strengthening of surveillance activities.
