“There are no good dictators. But some are better than others. The best dictators permit freedom of expression, rule of law and economic growth, creating a democratic minded middle class that eventually pushes them aside. The worst dictators, by contrast, grind down civil society, breeding poverty and sectarian hatred and pulverizing all the institutions from which liberalism might grow. The worst dictators eventually leave too, but when they do, all hell breaks loose.”
So said one called Peter Beinart on 6 August 2007 in a piece he wrote to Time Magazine under the title “How to deal with dictators.” At the time, he was outlining his ideas for the US administration on what is the best course to deal with one of Washington’s friendliest dictator, Pervez Musharraf, by drawing historical parallels between South Korea which evolved from a benevolent dictatorship into a democracy and Iraq which degenerated from a fully blown dictatorship into a killing field for sectarian violence to the point of abdicating its sovereignty to a superpower. After having read the writings on the wall, Musharraf, as we know it today, has left from the political landscape of Pakistan gracefully thereby prompting the ever prolific pen of Prof. Alemayehu G.Mariam to wonder as to whether dictators somehow become statesmen; also whether Musharraf had been a closet statesman all these years? (Read “Gotta know when to fold’em” 25 August 2008)
In Africa too, we have seen these kinds of dictators who got transformed from a military dictatorship into a statesmanship ranging from Lt. Jerry Rawlings of Ghana to General Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Others currently in power in most African nations too, manifest this positive signs of transforming themselves into statesmanship whenever their respective country requires it. They show the wisdom on how to blow with the wind of governance by consent. That’s why right after the Kenyan election debacle, the incumbent led by Mwai Kibaki got back to its senses and sat down with the opposition to form the coalition government for the good of Kenya. Even that octogenarian dictator of Zimbabwe who has been the object of unabashed vilification by the western media didn’t mess that much with the independence of the judiciary, nor the press.
On the contrary, where so-called judges and prosecutors in Ethiopia take blind orders from Meles Zenawi, Judges in Harare grant bail and also turn in a not guilty verdict for the adversaries of the Mugabe government. While you see gruesome pictures of Zimbabwean victims of “cholera” on CNN, you’ll be told in a hushed tone by a BBC Correspondent in Addis that the Ethiopian government/regime in my lexicon/prevented them from taking pictures and the matter rests at that.
In Uganda, where this writer has taken refuge since 2007, people complain vociferously that their president is a dictator.Indeed, according to my observation; he has the inclinations of a dictator. Unlike Ethiopia, though, let alone Ugandans, I the refugee suffer no consequence for saying so. People in Kampala get away everyday with obnoxious expressions on the numerous FM Stations and TV channels on any topic. Of course, abuses take place but not with impunity.And, when they do, those behind them will be made answerable for it.Recently, for instance, Human Rights Watch grilled the Ugandan government for the disappearance and torture of a couple guys in a secret detention centre run by the army. The American lady who did the research presented her findings right here in Kampala. Later, she was put on a talk show on FM and TV with the army spokesperson. The spokesperson, Major Felix Kulaigye was humble when defending the position of his government. I can go citing incidents like this from the Ugandan political landscape. The bottom line is; can any Ethiopian imagine such a scenario under the regime of Meles Zenawi?
The bare fact is, the Ethiopian regime even by African standards, is a relic of history belonging to barbarism. Being barbaric with zero tolerance for dialogue, rule of law or any civility, it views the whole world through its archaic lens.Thus,because of some exchange of diplomatic niceties between Meles Zenawi and Yoweri Museveni,TPLF’s lieutenants such as Girma T/sion here in Kampala expect their counterparts to hand them over some Ethiopian exiles. Little did their dense ‘intelligence’ allow them to understand how strong the political will in Uganda is when it comes to respecting human rights, including the sacred rights of refugees. Just because their bribery worked in the highly corrupted Kenyan society, they think they can do the same with Ugandan officials.However, it’s not the first time, nor would it be the last for Meles Zenawi’s regime to behave in this sort of asinine manner. During the height of its incursion in Somalia where it received a humiliating defeat, Aljazeera exposed the brutality committed by Zenawi’s henchmen on Somali civilians. Unable to stifle Aljazeera by invoking its partnership in the fight against terrorism to the White House so that it bears upon the Kuwaiti sheikdom, it broke diplomatic relationship with the Kuwaiti government with a manifestation of egregious infantile politics.
And, now accompanied by his new found lackey, Bereket Simon reportedly went to the United States to request for the umpteenth time so that VOA Amharic service is taken off the air. Probably too, to ask for the extradition of that “terrorist”Dr.Berhanu Nega.”All these farcical and frantic effort to stifle dissent not only reminds you of that age old saying “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It also shows you how a fully blown dictatorship inching by the day towards its demise becomes so out of touch with reality. Due to the highest level of intoxication that the Meles-Bereket clique suffers from controlling and undermining everything in Ethiopia ranging from SMS to the airwaves, they think it easy to do the same with Aljazeera and VOA. Because,they managed to bribe some Kenyan officials for the abduction of Ethiopian exiles or because of their previous success with Sudan and Djibouti in having Ethiopian asylum seekers extradited in a scratch-my-back-I-will-scratch-yours understanding of barbaric regimes, they assume that this is how things are done in international relations.Well,I’ve news for them. Uganda is different with many strong institutions notable among them is the judiciary. The police and the army too is not a force that panders to the whim of officials like its counterpart in Ethiopia.
Therefore, TPLF’s current effort to paint Ginbot 7 as a terrorist group thereby attempting to link Ethiopian exiles in Uganda with terrorism is in vain. Ugandans are too informed to be tricked by this sort of deviousness. They know very well to what extent the Meles-Bereket clique have narrowed the political space in Ethiopia and that no recourse is left to a people under such a tyranny except rebellion as laid down in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights/UDHR/.Encouraged by their understanding, we on our part tell to our Ugandan friends in the intelligence service to take any bribe offered to them by Zenawi’s agents here in Kampala.Though, it’s sad that the Meles-Bereket clique squanders the country’s meager resource in this way too, we should be consoled that our African brothers and sisters would benefit something, even if it’s not anything like the hefty payment made to the already rich American lobbyist DLA Piper. As the Meles-Bereket clique is a company of fools that says history repeats itself instead of learning from history not to repeat the same folly, it’s proper to throw some platitudes before parting as platitudes are befitting to people who try to turn the clock back.
The Cross of Saint Yared, the famed father of Ethiopian church music, was returned to Ethiopia after it was looted from the church of Tana Tcherkos at gun point in the early 1990s.
The cross which has belonged to the treasury of the church was identified by Jaques Mercier, art historian and researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, in a private collection.
Recognizing the cross, Mercier informed the collector of the holiness and importance of the cross. The latter agreed to return the cross upon reimbursement of cost and provision of an indemnity from a British Charity, the Committee for the Preservation and Promotion of Ethiopian Heritage which raised the funds necessary for the return.
During a ceremony held to celebrate the return of the cross, a book entitled Ethiopian Church, Treasures and Faith. The book describes the history and devotional practices of six large monasteries and details the symbolism of the liturgical objects.
The book aims at identifying and publishing the most liturgical objects still extant in Ethiopian churches.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( Reporter ) — The “One Laptop per Child” (OLPC) scheme, which has sent over a million US$100 laptops to children in the developing world, has been criticised by researchers who found that, unless they are introduced with care, they become little more than distracting toys in the classroom.
The study, conducted in Ethiopia, revealed that students wanted more content on the laptops and teachers were not adequately trained on how to make use of them.
The OLPC scheme was launched in 2005 to provide each child in the developing world with a low-cost laptop to encourage “self-empowered” learning. More than one million laptops have been distributed.
David Hollow of the UK-based ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London, and his team evaluated the OLPC initiative in Ethiopia by observing classroom sessions and interviewing students and teachers.
They told Africa Gathering – an information and communication technology and social networking conference organised by the London International Development Centre in April – that students tended to play with the machines, largely for taking pictures with the built-in digital camera.
Teachers were left frustrated because the students were better at using the laptops and played on them during lessons instead of listening to the teachers, Hollow told the conference.
“If I had the money, I would not spend it on laptops,” Hollow told SciDev.Net. “It will cost about US$3 billion dollars to give every [Ethiopian] child a laptop. And as a proportion of the national budget for education, that’s just ridiculous.”
The approach “doesn’t actually empower people in the way that we’d like. It just undermines the teacher … It’s impossible to integrate it”.
The ICT4D team worked with Swiss educational software provider BlankPage to develop Akili, a textbook reader that was used to download books and increase the educational content on the laptops.
“We felt that Akili was something of a bridge because it enabled the children to explore and engage with their own learning but, at the same time, they were still based within the national curriculum and the teacher’s authority was not undermined.”
Hollow said that in Ethiopia many children only attend school for a year or two so the priority is to give them good basic literacy and numeracy skills.
He suggested that introducing laptops in secondary schools would be more appropriate “because you’ve got a smaller group of people, which is far cheaper, and you’ve got a group of people who are actually more likely to be the decision-makers of the future”.
But Matt Keller, OLPC’s director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, rejects the criticisms. He says that when children take the laptops home they extend the school day. “When a child uses a laptop, he constructs and engages with it in a way that is far more dynamic and interactive than anything that he does at school.”
Relevant Links
He disputed Hollow’s recommendation to focus on secondary schools: “By the time most kids [are older], they’ve lost complete interest in school … And that’s partly because school is rote, you sit there and you’re taught to memorise what [you ought] to know”.
“What technology can do is pique a child’s curiosity and engage them at an interest level that’s far greater than what a bricks and mortar school can do.”
With regards to integration, Keller said that teachers in Ethiopia had been a “little bit slow to come around” in comparison to other countries. “But from what I’ve seen already, after a few months they’ve adapted quite nicely.”
Hollow told the meeting that, for ICT4D projects to work, it is essential to take a long-term view and assess the impact of the project afterwards. This should involving talking to beneficiaries to discover their perceived needs. (Naomi Antony, SciDev.net)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Addis Fortune) — British Council Ethiopia’s new two story building on Comoros Street around the British Embassy has been officially opened in the presence of over 300 invited guests and members, on June 4, 2009.
This year marks the 75th year of the council’s work in cultural relations. The move in to the new building, within the premise of the Embassy, is being made to expand the service of the council and to commemorate the anniversary.
To celebrate the opening of the building along with the 75th anniversary, it organized a series of events from last Friday May 29, 2009 to next Saturday June 6, 2009, according to a press release the council sent to Fortune. The council has been in Ethiopia since 1943.
To celebrate UK’s contribution to modern education, a workshop was organized on higher education. Participants included members of the Ministry of Education, Educational institutions and civil society organizations. From May 30, 2009 to June 2, 2009, the council planned to broadcast a prize winning quiz on UK-Ethiopia relations on Radio Fana (May 30 and 31, 2009), nationally and on Sheger 102.1 on June 1 and 2, 2009.
The British Council National Archives and Library Agency (NALA) Partnership Library, located in the new NALA building, is expected to be officially opened on June 1, 2009, while on Tuesday June 2, 2009, the council plans to hold professional development sessions on leadership and communication skills expected to be attended by over a 100 people.
A panel discussion on the current status of English language instruction in Ethiopia, on June 6, 2009, will be broadcasted nationally on Radio Fana.
(BBC) — The global economic crisis is exacerbating human rights abuses, Amnesty International has warned.
In its annual report, the group said the downturn had distracted attention from abuses and created new problems.
Rising prices meant millions were struggling to meet basic needs in Africa and Asia, it said, and protests were being met with repression.
Political conflict meant people were suffering in DR Congo, North Korea, Gaza and Darfur, among others, it said.
‘Time-bomb’
The 400-page report, compiled in 157 countries, said that human rights were being relegated to the back seat in pursuit of global economic recovery.
The world’s poorest people were bearing the brunt of the economic downturn, Amnesty said, and millions of people were facing insecurity and indignity.
Migrant workers in China, indigenous groups in Latin America and those who struggled to meet basic needs in Africa had all been hit hard, it said.
Where people had tried to protest, their actions had in many cases been met with repression and violence.
The group warned that rising poverty could lead to instability and mass violence.
“The underlying global economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis: a combination of social, economic and political problems has created a time-bomb of human rights abuses,” said Amnesty’s Secretary General, Irene Khan.
The group is launching a new campaign called Demand Dignity aimed at tackling the marginalisation of millions through poverty.
World leaders should set an example and invest in human rights as purposefully as they invest in economic growth, Ms Khan said.
“Economic recovery will be neither sustainable nor equitable if governments fail to tackle abuses that drive and deepen poverty, or armed conflicts that generate new violations,” she said.
See below for highlights of the report by region
AFRICA
Amnesty says the economic crisis has had a direct impact on human rights abuses on the continent.
“People came into the streets to protest against the high cost of living,” Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty’s Africa programme director, told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“The reaction we saw from the authorities was very repressive. For example, in Cameroon about 100 people were killed in February last year.”
But the bulk of Amnesty’s report concentrated on the continent’s three main conflict zones: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan.
In DR Congo, the focus was on the east where it said civilians had suffered terribly at the hands of government soldiers and rebel groups. The Hutu FDLR movement, for example, was accused of raping women and burning people alive in their homes.
Amnesty said it was also the civilians in Somalia who bore the brunt of conflict, with tens of thousands fleeing violence and hundreds killed by ferocious fighting in the capital, Mogadishu. It also highlighted the killing and abduction of journalists and aid workers.
In Sudan, Amnesty catalogued a series of abuses including the sentencing to death of members of a rebel group, a clampdown on human rights activists and the expulsion of several aid groups following the issuing of an international arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir.
A number of countries, including Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, were criticised for intimidating and imprisoning members of the opposition.
And Nigeria came under fire for the forced evictions of thousands of people in the eastern city of Port Harcourt.
ASIA
Across the region, millions fell further into poverty as the cost of basic necessities rose, Amnesty said.
In Burma, the military government rejected international aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and punished those who tried to help victims of the disaster. It continued campaigns against minority groups which involved forced labour, torture and murder, Amnesty said.
In North Korea, millions are said to have experienced hunger not seen in a decade and thousands tried to flee, only to be caught and returned to detention, forced labour and torture. In both North Korea and Burma, freedom of expression was non-existent.
In China, the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games was marred by a clamp-down on activists and journalists, and the forcible evictions of thousands from their homes, the report said. Ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet continued to suffer from systematic discrimination, witnessing unrest followed by government suppression.
Millions of Afghans faced persistent insecurity at the hands of Taliban militants. The Afghan government failed to maintain the rule of law or to provide basic services to many. Girls and women particularly suffered a lack of access to health and education services.
In Sri Lanka, the government prevented international aid workers or journalists from reaching the conflict zone to assist or witness the plight of those caught up in fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Israel’s military operation in Gaza in December 2008 caused a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, Amnesty said. Its blockade of the territory “exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, health and sanitation problems, poverty and malnutrition for the 1.5 million residents”, according to the report.
On the Palestinian side, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were accused of repressing dissent and detaining political opponents.
The death penalty was used extensively in Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Across the region, women faced discrimination both under the law and in practice, Amnesty said, and many faced violence at the hands of spouses or male relatives.
Governments that included Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen are said to have used often sweeping counter-terrorism laws to clamp down on their political opponents and to stifle legitimate criticism.
AMERICAS
Indigenous communities across Central and South America were disproportionately affected by poverty while their land rights are ignored, Amnesty said. Development projects on indigenous land were often accompanied by harassment and violence.
Women and girls faced violence and sexual abuse, particularly in Haiti and Nicaragua. The stigma associated with the abuse condemned many to silence, the report said, while laws in some nations meant that abortion was not available to those who became pregnant as a result of abuse or assault.
Gang violence worsened in some nations; in Guatemala and Brazil evidence emerged of police involvement in the killings of suspected criminals, the report found.
America continued to employ the death penalty, the report noted, and concern persisted over foreign nationals held at America’s Guantanamo Bay detention centre, although the report acknowledged the commitment by US President Barack Obama to close it down.
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Civilians paid a high price for last year’s conflict between Russia and Georgia, Amnesty said. Hundreds of people died and 200,000 were displaced. In many cases, civilians’ homes and lives were devastated.
Many nations continued to deny fair treatment to asylum seekers, with some deporting individuals or groups to countries where they faced the possibility of harm.
Roma (gypsies) faced systematic discrimination across the region and were largely excluded from public life in all countries.
Freedom of expression remained poor in countries such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other Central Asian nations.
The U.S. government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and ammunition to shore up the besieged government of Somalia in the past six weeks and has sent funding to train Somali soldiers, a senior State Department official said yesterday, in the most complete accounting to date of the new American efforts in the strife-torn country.
The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military aid was worth less than $10 million and had been approved by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the National Security Council.
“We do not want to see Somalia become a safe haven for foreign terrorists,” the official said.
Hard-line Islamist rebels allegedly linked to al-Qaeda have launched an offensive to topple Somalia’s relatively moderate government, which has appealed to the United States and other African countries for help. The fighting has killed 250 civilians and forced more than 160,000 people out of their homes in the past month, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In an indication of the rebels’ growing power, they held a ceremony Thursday in the capital, Mogadishu, in which they chopped off a hand and foot from each of four men convicted of stealing cellphones and other items, according to news reports from the region. The punishment was in line with the rebels’ harsh version of Islam. The United States considers the rebel group, al-Shabab, a terrorist organization.
Somalia has been racked by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. U.S. officials say the bloodshed and lawlessness in the country have caused a massive outflow of refugees and contributed to an upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The country has also become a haven for al-Qaeda operatives alleged to have carried out attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, U.S. officials say.
The African Union has sent troops from Uganda and Burundi to help Somalia’s fragile government keep order.
The U.S. aid does not involve the deployment of any troops to Somalia, where 18 American soldiers were killed in the 1993 raid depicted in the movie “Black Hawk Down.”
In order to strengthen Somalia’s military, the U.S. government is providing cash to its government to buy weapons, and has asked Ugandan military forces there to give Somali soldiers small arms and ammunition, the official said. The U.S. government is then resupplying the Ugandans, he said.
The U.S. government will also help pay for the Kenyan, Burundi and Ugandan militaries to train Somali soldiers, and is providing logistical support for the African Union troops, the official said.
Clinton called Somalia’s president, Sharif Ahmed, in recent weeks to consult on the crisis, according to another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.
He said the U.S. aid would likely encourage other African countries to do more to help Somalia’s government.
U.S. officials accuse Eritrea of supporting the Somali rebels as part of a proxy war with its rival, Ethiopia’s [tribal junta]. But efforts by State Department officials to meet with the Eritrean government have been fruitless so far, the official said.
