This posting has two concerns that if taken together can be construed as being interdependent. First of All Lets Discuss One of the Most Serious Problems currently occurring in Africa. That is the Rampant Use of Sexual Assaults by Insurgents and Government Forces in Several Countries.
The List of such occurrences is lengthy and troubling.
In Recent Days a UN Fact-finding Mission Sent to Zimbabwe found that Groups such as WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise) Members of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) and Other Members of Civil Society have been attacked. The Allegations have been around since 2002 when the Political Crisis Began. So will the perpetrators be brought to justice?
Second is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We all have Heard the reports regarding the use of Rape as a weapon in the Kivu Provinces. Also MONUC is suspending contacts with One Unit Operating in the East. The United States has announced that it will assist Kinshasa with this large problem. What Happens if the UN Pull out its Peacekeepers are reports over the weekend are suggesting?
Its nice to see that the crises in Zimbabwe and Congo are being noticed. But what about Darfur? Khartoum has announced that It will close some IDP camps early next year. So what happens to those being treated for their attacks? And who will protect them?
Or will Impunity be the rule of the day such as what has occured in Guniea after the Massacre after the Opposition Rally?
PART II
There are Two New Areas to be concerned with:
First Reports indicate that Militants from the Niger Delta have travelled to the Oil Producing Western Region of Ghana. Links have been established and lessons have been learned. Already Land Grabs have occured and there are reports of Arms being moved into the Region. Now the question is will ExxonMobil make the same mistakes that Chevron and Shell made in the Niger Delta?
Second area of concern is the Dar Tama Region of T’Chad. According to reports over the weekend the Chadian Security Forces have launched an Operation near the town of Tchowtchow. At least 6 People have been killed, 10 other Tortured or Castrated and one person remains missing. Now the Chadian Islamic Front has called for Jihad and the Sudanese Government would like a change in the Government of Chad. All we can say is that the devil is in the details in this situation. More to follow on this topic and check out ramadji.com for more information regarding Chad.
The LRA launched an Attack in Southern Sudan which killed 4 Men. However 56 members reportedly surrendered to the Southern Sudan Military. A Report Last week stated that an Estimated 100 Fighters remained in the DRC and the majority of the rest were in either Southern Sudan or the Central African Republic. The US Senate will discuss the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act on November 17th. It is expected to be marked up.
Finally the Rebels in the Ogaden Region in Ethiopia launched an Offensive over the weekend reportedly capturing 7 towns. On Monday the Zenawi Regime Denied this. Resolving this conflict could be a viable part of resolving the Somalia Fiasco.
(Scott Morgan is a regular contributor for EthiopianReview.com and writes extensively about Africa on his own blog, Confused Eagle.)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Six months before a crucial election, one of Ethiopia’s small band of opposition MPs has a simple question: How can he campaign for votes when he cannot even hold a public meeting or meet voters freely?
Negaso Gidada, a former president of Ethiopia and now an independent MP, tried to visit his constituents in southern Ethiopia recently. It was an arduous journey.
He was not permitted to hold any meetings in public places. He was kept under surveillance, and his hosts were interrogated. Those who met him were questioned by police. He was given no coverage in the media.
“People are so intimidated that they are afraid even to speak to me on the phone,” he says. “Campaigning is totally impossible. How can it be a fair election?”
Four years ago, foreign election observers concluded that the last Ethiopian election had been rigged. Opposition supporters took to the streets, and an estimated 30,000 people were arrested in a crackdown on dissent. Nearly 200 people were killed when Ethiopia’s police opened fire on the protesters. Dozens of opposition leaders and activists were jailed.
This time, with an election scheduled for May, the ruling party is taking no chances. Ethiopia is sliding deeper into authoritarian controls. Police agents and informers are keeping a close eye on the population, with harsh restrictions imposed on opposition leaders and civil society groups.
The election matters because Ethiopia is strategically important. It is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan African, and a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, where Ethiopian troops have repeatedly intervened in Somalia. And it is one of the biggest recipients of Canadian foreign aid, with $90-million donated by Canada in 2007 alone.
Mr. Negaso, who was president of Ethiopia from 1995 to 2001 but later split from the ruling party of autocratic Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has managed to hold only a few public meetings as he travelled around the country in the past year.
One meeting in August was broken up by dozens of thugs, including some whom he recognized from the ranks of the ruling party. They shouted, whistled, grabbed the microphone and prevented people from speaking. “We were chased out,” Mr. Negaso said.
In another district, he said, the police told opposition leaders that they needed a special permit if they wanted to use a megaphone.
Even his e-mail messages and phone calls are monitored, he said. But he refuses to be intimidated. “If you are afraid,” he says, “you can’t do anything.”
Another opposition leader, Seye Abraha, is a former close ally of Mr. Meles from the early 1970s when they were both young revolutionaries fighting the military junta known as the Derg, which they finally overthrew in 1991. He became the defence minister but was jailed for six years on corruption allegations after a falling out with Mr. Meles. Now he says he is under constant surveillance, his phones and e-mails monitored, his movements constantly followed by security agents.
“In restaurants, spies sit close to me, and you can’t ask them to leave,” he says. “There is no private life, no private property. And there is nowhere you can complain. You can go to the police, but they will do nothing.”
In a desperate effort to communicate with voters, the opposition sometimes tries to distribute cellphones to its supporters. If it sends campaign letters to voters, the letters must be kept hidden from security agents. “Families are afraid to pass the letters from one to another,” said Bulcha Demeksa, an MP who heads an opposition party.
Earlier this year, eight of Ethiopia’s opposition parties formed a coalition with Mr. Negaso and Mr. Seeye in a bid to defeat the ruling party, but the move has been little help. “If tomorrow I go to my constituency and speak to people under a tree, the police will disrupt it,” Mr. Bulcha said.
The International Crisis Group, an independent think tank based in Brussels, says the Ethiopian government is controlling its population with neighbourhood committees, informers, media controls and high-tech surveillance.
“Thanks to Chinese electronic monitoring-and-control software, the government is able to block most opposition electronic communications when it desires,” the group said in a recent report.
“Few journalists, academics, human-rights advocates and intellectuals dare to publicly criticize the government. While self-censorship existed before the 2005 elections, it has now become widespread.”
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — It wasn’t famine that killed Jamal Ali’s mother. She died in a cholera outbreak that swept through their Ethiopian village when at last the rains came. Twenty-five years later Jamal, now a parent himself, is lining up for handouts in a food distribution centre in Harbu, Amhara, His prematurely aged face, hollow with hunger, creases further when asked about this unwelcome return. “It is a very bitter feeling. No one likes this begging. I am ashamed,” he said.
Up a steep, dusty track from Harbu to Chorisa village the tiny, duncoloured terraced fields bare witness to the third poor harvest in a row. This village is supposed to be an aid showpiece but even here fields of failed cereal crops are being turned over to lean-looking cattle.
A villager strips an ear of the cereal crop tef and cups the inedible seed in her hand for a moment before casting into a relentlessly sky. It’s not that the rains didn’t come, she said — they came just at the wrong time. The field was supposed to yield 500 kilograms of cash crop; now it might just save a few cows from starvation.
The UN warns that 6.2 million Ethiopians will need some sort of food aid in the coming months. The Government also seems highly sensitive to the idea that it needs help. Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister, would rather the world took notice of his position representing Africa in the climate change negotiations next month than his country’s never-ending dependency on food aid.
In Addis Ababa Ethiopian and Western officials voice disapproval of doom-laden reports that fail to acknowledge the progress being made, or the differences in scale between the famine of 1984, which killed a million people, and the situation today.
In private they acknowledge that Mr Meles and his Government are deliberately frustrating and delaying official assessments of the scale of the country’s humanitarian needs and blocking access to some areas where the situation is worst.
The latest UN estimate, to be released this Friday, is due to revise its figure upwards to nine million for those who will need help. Arguing that the definition of those in need is too broad — it includes those who are in a position to sell assets to buy food — the Government wants to change the way the figures are calculated to reduce that figure to 5 million.
Donor countries and the UN fear that counting only the truly desperate is a ploy that risks understating the true scale of the crisis. There are also allegations that food aid is being withheld from the regime’s opponents.
Criticism of Ethiopia has been muted by its success in improving local healthcare and expanding education, alongside its strategic importance in the fight against Islamic extremism in the Horn of Africa. Britain, which gives the country £200 million a year, and is Ethiopia’s second-largest bilateral donor, is stepping up the pressure on what was once regarded as its showpiece partner in Africa, amid growing concerns about what could happen in the coming months.
“The Government has just got to embrace the crisis and not be frightened of the statistics,” Gareth Thomas, a minister with the Department for International Development, said yesterday. “It is different from 1984 but there’s still huge need. There’s got to be a recognition that if we are going to stop children from being malnourished and keep people alive we have got to have accurate information and we’ve got to have it in a timely manner.”
Speaking before a meeting with Mr Meles, Mr Thomas said that he also intended to raise credible reports that aid was being withheld from opponents, but insisted he was satisfied that British aid was getting through. His main message, however, was that the Government had not yet grasped the urgent need for reform. The population, about 35 million in 1984, is now about 80 million and will have doubled again by 2050. At the same time, according to some estimates, most Ethiopian agriculture is still less productive than that of medieval England.
Mr Meles blames climate change for the erratic rainfall that has led to three successive poor harvests. The state’s ownership of land and its failure to provide seeds and fertiliser is at least as a big a factor, according to observers.
Similarly, the Government has overseen the building of an impressive road network — but in the absence of a thriving private sector and a more liberalised economy the traffic, other than convoys of aid vehicles, is light.
Two million Ethiopians a year are moving into cities as pressure on the land and education increase, a movement that threatens to overwhelm the state’s efforts to provide housing and jobs.
More than half of Britain’s annual aid budget of £117 million goes on helping to fund work schemes that keep 7.5 million Ethiopians out of the food distribution centres. With less than 5 per cent of the population becoming fully self-reliant in most areas each year, the dependency on foreign aid threatens to increase not diminish.
WASHINGTON DC — Ethiopian Yellow Pages of the Washington Metro Area estimates there are more than 45 dining rooms serving doro wot and injera. So how does Yehune Belay, who just added the title of restaurateur to his résumé, hope to distinguish his place in Shaw from the pack?
By re-creating the atmosphere of an Ethiopian home, he says.
Little Ethiopia Restaurant (1924 Ninth St. NW; 202-319-1924) is underground, beneath the office of those Yellow Pages where Belay works with his wife, Tutu. The low-ceilinged space is unlike its competitors. Here, patrons congregate on rustic wooden stools beneath what look like umbrellas made of twigs, each cluster of seats and tables separated by a see-through shade. A small gallery’s worth of imported arts and crafts practically warrants a guide.
Tutu Belay’s sister, Nunu Tesfaye, presides over the kitchen, where she dishes out all the traditional Ethiopian fare, from the mild, beef-filled turnovers known as sambusas to cubed lamb zipped up with berbere, the fiery spice blend. The platter I’m most drawn to is the vegetarian sampler: dollops of grassy collard greens, jalapeno-ignited tomato salad, sauteed cabbage, spicy beets and faintly sweet lentil purees in three different shades. Like every main course, this one is served on (and with) injera, the slightly sour bread that doubles as a floppy utensil for the rest of the food.
Throughout the day, Belay makes his way down to greet customers. Nice touch. He’s also responsible for the late-night weekend entertainment at Little Ethiopia. “I’ve been singing since I was 9,” says the man with half a dozen CDs to his credit. (Washington Post)
Addressed to Senator John Kerry, Chairman, The Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.
As an esteemed member of the Senate, as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as an advocate for human rights and democracy, we in the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) and on behalf of many like-minded Ethiopians, want to call into question the current United States partnership with one of the most repressive dictators and violators of human rights in Africa—Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.
The “free pass” he has enjoyed because of this partnership with the US may no longer be justifiable in light of the increasing repression, deteriorating conditions and worsening tensions in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Looming starvation, the closure of all political space, the warnings by the Washington DC based International Crisis Group of possible ethnic violence, continuing human rights crimes and the increasing radicalization of some in response to these crimes are all warning signs; any one of them a serious risk factor, but together, all the more worrisome.
As many from the Horn perceive that it is US support that is prolonging this regime, we urge you in significant positions of leadership to make swift adjustments to failing past policies that favor the dictator and increasingly alienate the people of the Horn from donor countries like the US. It may be the only way to salvage a deteriorating relationship and to avert the increasing likelihood of large-scale consequences. It is also highly imperative that the US policy makers seek consultation and assistance from those Ethiopians and others from the Horn who are most invested in peace, stability and prosperity in the Horn—not government promulgators of propaganda. In light of this, we are formally requesting a Senate hearing on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa focused on seeking solutions.
I am writing to you as a representative of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia. Before informing you of a recent outrageous example of the lack of justice in Ethiopia, permit me to provide some background on the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia. The SMNE is not an opposition group, but a non-political, grassroots social justice movement of Ethiopians who have come together in coalition across ethnic, regional, political, religious and cultural lines to bring about a more open, liberal and prosperous Ethiopia where “humanity comes before ethnicity” and where freedom, justice and the respect for human rights is available for all for “no one will be free until all are free.”
We represent Ethiopians who are not asking the US to do the work for us, but are requesting that the US and other outsiders who are supporting this totalitarian regime to stop creating obstacles to our freedom. US support is now shoring up a “strong man” instead of “strong institutions, “ in opposition to what President Obama stated would be our position in his speech in Ghana. In fact, evidence of this “strong man’s” complicity in the perpetration of widespread human rights crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, has led to Prime Minister Meles’ referral to the International Criminal Court.
As Ethiopians face a food crisis, potentially affecting more than the food crisis in 1984-1985, Meles is blaming the US for climate change rather than taking any responsibility for his repressive agricultural policies that deny land-ownership as well as access to such supports as fertilizer, seed, agricultural experts and other resources unless one is a party member. Will the US provide food aid without looking at the root problem or the politically and ethnically based distribution of our aid?
You and others may not be fully aware of the evil underside to this illiberal government due to the repression or distortion of information coming in and out of the country; however, even the US media has been strangely silent, partially due to countless restrictions to journalists and other media. Regardless, Ethiopian Americans maintain strong informational pipelines to the country, often gaining first hand information from relatives and friends who are sometimes victims and witnesses.
In closing, allow us to recount an incident of “Orwellian Ethiopian justice” from this past week. Earlier this year, on April 25th, over 46 Ethiopians from inside the country were arrested, charged and detained for attempting to overthrow the government. Those arrested in relationship to the suspected coup plot are said to be working in partnership with the Ginbot-7 Movement for Justice and Democracy, a political opposition group led by Dr. Berhana Nega and Mr. Andargachew Tsige, both currently living in exile outside of the country. Among those arrested include family members of Ginbot-7 leaders, including the 80-year-old father of Andargachew Tsige, (known to be diabetic and to be recovering from recent heart bypass surgery) and at least one member from Nega’s family, who were reportedly taken to Maekelawi Prison.
Another, Mr. Asaminew Tsige Tebeje, had been a former Ethiopian Air force general in the Meles-controlled military whose loyalties became “suspect,” possibly a casualty of the “ethnically-based cleansing” of non-Tigrayans from the military that occurred earlier in the year. Mr. Asaminew was first demoted then fired from his job prior to his arrest. Currently, there are said to be 61 leadership positions within the EPRDF military of which 57 are held by Tigrayans, who only make up only 6% of the total population. The second general Mr. Mekonnen Worku had been retired from the military.
After many months, these two prisoners along with two other were brought into court on Friday, November 13, 2009, for a hearing. Family members, many other Ethiopians as well as some reporters were present for that hearing and witnessed the opening statement by the prosecution where a postponement was requested, citing the need to compile further evidence. Mr. Asaminew, fearing that he would again being locked up for an indefinite period of time, bluntly spoke out telling all present that he had been tortured by security agents in the prison. The other general Mr. Mekonnen, then also spoke out, alleging the same.
Immediately, the judge stopped them as the government prosecutors said it would taint the image of the Ethiopian justice system due to the presence of foreign journalists in the courtroom.; postponing it until the next hearing. At this, the former general Mr. Asaminew, broke into tears, triggering an emotional reaction by the audience, the press and most everyone present. Before it could be controlled, many were loudly sobbing and the judge ordered the spectators to be removed from the courtroom.
While others were leaving, the judge then allowed the two men to proceed. Mr. Asaminew reported having lost his left eye, his hearing in one ear and that he had sustained unknown internal injuries from severe blows to his body. He testified that an ankle bracelet had been ripped off, tearing away flesh. He said he had been repeatedly insulted and called names because of his ethnicity (Amhara). He wanted the court to do four things: 1) provide medical treatment, 2) allow visitors from the International Red Cross and Amnesty International, 3) end his solitary confinement and 4) arrest those who tortured him; all of whom he said he could name. He denied the basis for all charges saying he had done nothing wrong.
The other retired general showed the court physical evidence of a broken arm, injury to his leg and other injuries. As a result, the judge said to put their testimony in writing and to come back Monday of the following week.
This event, as reported by eyewitnesses and Voice of America, provides an example of the many incidents of torture and injustice being carried out by a government who is supposed to be our ally.
Another case involves four Anuak men, Mr. Obang Oluch Achew, Mr. Omot Okomu, Mr. Okwiia Akway Omot and Mr. Obang Ogom, who fled the Gambella region of Ethiopia in 2003 after their family members and over 400 others were killed in the government perpetrated massacre of the Anuak. No one has yet been brought to justice for these crimes, which forms part of the basis for the referral of Meles Zenawi to the ICC for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
Two months ago, these Anuak were trying to return to Ethiopia from Sudan and were arrested and accused of being insurgents. While being detained, they were tortured in the Gambella region and then disappeared. Relatives were told they had been taken to a military prison in Addis Ababa, but no one seems to know their location. There are many other cases like this in the regions of Oromiya, Afar, the Ogaden, Amhara and throughout the entire country where the situation is similar.
The one and only viable human rights institution in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), who used to document this, has been blocked in its efforts by the same government which has also passed a bill making human rights work—as well as advocacy for children’s rights, women’s rights, rights for the disabled and ethnic or religious conflict resolution—punishable by up to 15 years for any organizations receiving more than 10% of its funding from foreign sources. Please see the link of the law in its entirety (Click here: Anti-terrorism Law). This ill-defined law could be tailored to justify what are actually politically-motivated charges and the innocent could be targeted with trumped up charges while government-supported perpetrators went free.
An Ethiopian judge, whose name is being withheld, sums up the lack of justice in the following testimony: “You ask if there is justice in Ethiopia and my answer to you is, none. Even in the wild jungle there is more justice than what we have here! The bylaws and articles we have in the Constitution are meaningless. We have been ordered like dogs, to go do one thing, and then we are ordered to do the opposite—all the time. If I speak up or refuse to do what I am instructed, I will end up behind bars like those imprisoned across the country. The federal system interferes all the way, even to the district level…Justice only applies to those who have a political position… what I am saying may cost me my own life, but it may enrich other people’s lives who will not be haunted by their own thoughts as I am… I will leave it to God! My only hope is that the end is not far away and that justice will come to Ethiopia!”
Is this the kind of government you and other supporters of democracy in the Senate, House and
administration intended to support with US tax dollars? Such a government cannot be a trustworthy partner and will play us against other donors and the people. In other countries of similar nature we have suspended aid, revoked visas, barred entrance to human rights perpetrators, called elections illegitimate, given sanctions, exerted diplomatic pressure and in a few cases, intervened militarily. Why are Meles and his corrupt regime getting special treatment?
No longer can we simply excuse our position by blaming Ethiopians for not having “a viable alternative” when Meles makes sure there is none or contrives look-alike ones to his favor, which is not a problem if all others are able to openly compete for offices. However, this is not the case; instead, he is arresting any of those who present as a threat, like the leader of the Unity for Justice and Democracy (UDJ) party, Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge and the first woman ever to lead a major Ethiopian political party.
Ms. Mideksa, was elected in 2005 national election. Mr. Meles Zenawi is an individual responsible for the rigging of the Ethiopian National election where he declared himself the winner. He was complicit in the repression and shooting of 200 unarmed election protestors and in the arrest and 20-month imprisonment of Ms. Mideksa and other opposition leaders.
In October 2, 2007, Ms. Mideksa, testified in the US Congress, after she was released. In late 2008, she was again arrested and given a life sentence for refusing to recant a statement made in Sweden regarding the terms of her pardon, leaving her young child in the care of her mother.
In summary, we are hoping you will take leadership in setting up a Senate hearing to re-configure the US policy towards Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa now that the true nature of this regime has been revealed.
This request was informally made just two weeks ago, when I and some of my colleagues were in your office in Washington DC and had a very good conversation with your Assistant at Foreign Relations on Africa. We also made the same request to Donald Payne, the Chair of the House Sub-committee on Africa, who is also considering this request.
We would also respectfully ask that you send a letter to the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, requesting that she and the State Department clarify their position on how they are responding to the worsening conditions in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa. We hope to be part of that solution.
(Obang Metho, executive director of Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, can be reached at [email protected])
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Addis Fortune) — For a change, and after several months of political doldrums, the landscape has begun to churn. Not surprisingly, the recent deal signed at the Sheraton Addis in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa between leaders of the four political parties, including the incumbent’s, has struck up the debate at the various gossip corridors across the city.
However, none of the political leaders is facing the sizzle of frying pan more so than Hailu Shawel. It is fast becoming a trying task just to find defenders of his, these days.
It seems apparent that the coming national election will hardly be harvest time for Hailu and party. The situation makes it painfully obvious that he will need to employ an abundance of damage control exercises in the few months ahead – all the while paying a huge price, much more so than any of the parties in the deal.
Negotiators from his party, the All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), did not surrender easily after what was an exhaustive, two-month long inter-party dialogue.
Negotiators from the ruling party [in large part] and those from the other opposition parties [to a certain extent] have demonstrated unusual patience in keeping AEUP’s negotiators at the roundtable held inside Parliament. The latter were proven to be extremely wooly, with all the list of questions they would bring the following day, purportedly from Hailu.
The chief negotiator for AEUP was Yacob Leekie, brother of Senay Leekie, a Soviet trained Marxist. He was killed in the mid-1970s inside Menelik’s Palace, during a shoot-out between those who had supported Mengistu Hailemariam and others stood against him. Senay was a prominent personality in the early years of bloody political struggle within the junior military officers and the leftist politicians around them.
Yacob is also known to have been raised with the family of Kassa WoldeMariam, president of the Addis Abeba University, during the Emperor’s rule. His daughter, Yeshi, also a great granddaughter of the Emperor’s, is married to Hailu Shawel’s son, Shawel Hailu.
Nevertheless, none of the four negotiators of AEUP were as forceful and close to Hailu as Mamushet Amare. Once a captain in the Derg army, he was calling the shots during the negotiations.
Revealing the identities of those on the negotiating front on behalf of the ruling EPRDF is proved especially relevant: Bereket Simon, Hailemariam Desalegn, Sekuture Getachew and Muktar Kedir.
The Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) had been represented by its president, Lidetu Ayalew, as well as Mushie Semu and Mesfin.
There was a huge uncertainty, down to the very last day, as to whether or not Hailu’s party would actually sign the deal. They had threatened to drop out of the deal on several occasions. Reason being that they had wanted to talk about broader issues, they had felt would affect the coming election, and not simply the code of conduct. It came as a surprise to all when Yacob Leekie came around to agreeing to the signing at the end.
The final point of concern among negotiators was the supposed unpredictability of Hailu fearing he would go for a microphone in the presence of Meles Zenawi. Negotiators from the ruling party had gambled, too. They were not to be disappointed as they watched Hailu say what has earned him onslaught from his supporters and appreciation from his opponents across the aisle.
Praised, he was, at a dinner party which the ruling party, Woyanne, hosted. The party was hosted inside the Addis Top View Hotel, near Ras Amba Hotel at Arat Kilo. It was held to celebrate the deal on the electoral code of conduct the very night it was signed. Several political leaders from all the four parties were seated mingled at tables which looked designed to let them feel one another out.
