Advocacy for Ethiopia hosts Conference on Good Governance, Peace, Security, and Sustainable Development in the Horn of Africa in Washington DC, from April 9 – 11, 2010.
Announcement and call for papers:
The Horn of Africa continues to be extremely fragile. The sub-region’s volatility has increased significantly in the post 9/11 period. The total collapse of Somalia and the irresponsible and imprudent intervention of outsiders in the affairs of Somalia have created fertile ground for the rise of radical Islam in the region. Hence, the complex ethnic, religious and inter-state tensions make the Horn of Africa one of the most volatile places in the world. The Ethio-Eritrea boundary conflict remains unresolved. The absence of democratic institutions in the Horn of Africa and the new tension in the Sudan further makes the sub-region one of the most conflict-ridden and with a potential for more explosive scenarios ahead.
The purpose of this conference is, therefore, to bring together scholars, civil society leaders, activists, diplomats, journalists of the free press and representatives of the international community to one forum to highlight potential tragic conflicts that have escaped the minds of many in the past. The focus of the discussion will be on how to democratize Ethiopia, the biggest entity, in the Horn of Africa. The democratization of Ethiopia will certainly pave the way for peace, security, democracy, good governance, and sustainable development in the region at large.
The conference is sponsored by a number of civil society networks and advocacy organizations. In many respects this conference will be a unique and historical forum. At the end of the conference, a public meeting will be held where distinguished personalities will address the participants and the community at large. The viability of bringing change through the ballot box will be examined and how to clip the wings of the dictatorship will be outlined. Participants will make commitment to a roadmap for democratizing Ethiopia. Focus will be given to the state of the free press in Ethiopia and the plight of journalists who faced extreme difficulties, persecution and exile for doing their jobs. The conference will also hold a special program to honor those who have made notable sacrifices in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Civil society leaders and academics from the US and rest of Africa will share their experiences.
The three-day long conference will be in Washington DC. It is scheduled to be held from April 9 to 11, 2010. We are expecting it to be the biggest conference that has ever been organized to exclusively focus on Ethiopia within the context of the Horn of Africa.
The State of Governance in Ethiopia:
Past and present elections, post election scenarios; the state of governance, the state of human rights, freedom of the press, ethnic relations in today’s Ethiopia; the quest for a lasting democracy and good governance, etc.;
The role of civil societies, independent judiciary, independent security, freedom of the press in democratizing Ethiopia, etc.;
The State of the Ethiopian Economy:
Poverty, dependence, debt and foreign investment; the role of the TPLF as a Business Empire and a political party; economic inequality and the lack of equitable and sustainable development ; opaque land grab deals with foreign companies and implications for food self –sufficiency , national security and the environment; etc;
Peace and Security Challenges and Prospects in the Horn Africa:
Mr. Meles Zenawi’s policies in the region, the policies of foreign powers in the Horn of Africa, border issues; Prospects and Solutions for the Future of Ethio-Eritrea relations;
The threat of terrorism in the region; absence of good governance, ethnic politics, environmental degradation, climate change, consequences of being landlocked, etc. as causes for interstate and intrastate conflicts, instability, and insecurity in the Horn of Africa sub-region; Conflict prevention and resolution.
The papers must be short and presentable in 20 minutes or less. They must also be in either Amharic or English. Other Horn of Africa indigenous languages are acceptable provided there is translation and an interpreter is available at the cost of the presenter. Tables and annexes must be kept to the minimum.
This is an independent forum that does not advocate the political view of any single party or organization. Papers should be sent to the e-mail address below by March 26, 2010. The organizing committee calls upon all concerned to support and attend this historic conference.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Any investigation conducted by the regimes in Lebanon and Ethiopia cannot be taken seriously. Both of them seem to have some thing to hide. The Lebanese, in particular, are acting in a highly suspicious manner.
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Pilot error caused the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane off the coast of Lebanon last month which killed all 90 people on board, a source familiar with the investigation into the accident said on Tuesday.
“The investigation team has reached an early conclusion that it was pilot error, based on the information from the black box,” the source told Reuters.
An investigation team involving Lebanese, French and Ethiopian officials had headed to France on Monday with the flight recorders, commonly known as “black boxes”, for analysis.
The Boeing 737-800 plane crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather on January 25, plunging in a ball of fire into the sea.
The pilot had failed to respond to the control tower’s request to change direction even though he acknowledged their demands. The plane made a sharp turn before disappearing off the radar, the Lebanese transport minister said at the time.
The eight-year-old plane, carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers, last had a maintenance check on December 25 and no technical problems had been found. It was bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Since retrieving the flight recorders from the Mediterranean on Sunday, Lebanese and international search teams have also located parts of the plane’s fuselage, where most of the victims’ bodies are believed trapped.
The bodies of at least 23 victims have been recovered so far.
ADDIS ABABA (PANA) — Lebanon will hand over the recovered Flight Data Recorder (Black Box) of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines jet, ET 409, to the French authorities for investigations, Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Girma Wake said on Sunday.
‘The flight data recorder has been recovered. The search crews are in the process of retrieving the cockpit voice recorder. Once they are retrieved, they will be sealed and taken to France for decoding,’ the Ethiopian Airlines CEO told PANA by phone.
The Ethiopian Airlines plane with 90 people on board crashed off the coast of Lebanon on 25 January, shortly after take-off. The search crews located the main parts of the aircraft’s rear wings on Sunday.
Mr Wake said the Lebanese authorities had decided the flight data recorder would be handed over to the French authorities for â~decoding.’
‘It will be read in the presence of the Ethiopian authorities, the Lebanese and the representatives of the Boeing Corporation of US,’ Mr Wake said.
The flight data recorder will tell the investigators the possible causes of the crash.
It will indicate the exact speed at which the jet went down and could also tell if any instruments malfunctioned after take-off.
The cockpit voice recorder, which has not been retrieved, will tell the investigators the exact details of the conversations between the pilot and the airport control tower.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, was last checked in December, 2009 and proved to be fit to fly.
France and Canada have been best known for the decoding of flight data and cockpit data recorders. The French are known to have pioneered the introduction of the flight data recorders in air accident investigations.
Navy commandos have recovered the flight recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed off the coast of Lebanon last month, killing all 90 people on board.
The Lebanese military says navy commandos retrieved the jet’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder on Sunday.
The recorders were taken to a Beirut naval base, where they were given to investigators. The two “black boxes” will be flown to France for analysis.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said searchers also located the cockpit and parts of the fuselage Sunday. Eight more bodies from the crash were recovered, bringing the total to 23.
The Boeing 737 went down January 25 just minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a heavy thunderstorm. The plane was headed for Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
The plane abruptly changed direction shortly after take-off, and officials have said the pilot was unresponsive to appeals to correct its course. But Lebanese and Ethiopian officials have cautioned against blaming the pilot until the flight recorders are reviewed.
The jet broke apart in mid-air, erupted into flames and crashed into the sea.
Ethiopian Airlines is considered one of Africa’s best carriers. It operates regular flights to Lebanon, where thousands of Ethiopians work.
Searchers located the black boxes of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea off Lebanon last month killing 90 people, Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said on Saturday.
“The boxes have been found under the rear part of the fuselage” which was found on Saturday morning, the Lebanese minister told AFP.
“Lebanese army divers have gone down to retrieve them, but this operation will take time,” said Aridi.
“We have to be cautious because we must preserve the data contained in the boxes,” he added.
Aridi stressed special measures would be taken to bring to the surface the flight recorders in a way to avoid any damage that could be detrimental to the information they contain.
The minister also said he had been informed by the Syrian authorities that debris from the plane had been found in the Mediterranean Sea off the western city of Lattakia.
He said earlier that the search vessel, Ocean Alert, had located the rear sections of the aircraft’s cabin.
The sections found were between 10 and 12 metres (33 and 40 feet) long, and at a depth of 45 metres (150 feet) off Naameh, 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of Beirut, Aridi said.
The Boeing 737-800 went down before dawn on January 25, just minutes after take-off during stormy weather from Beirut airport. It was bound for Addis Ababa with 83 passengers and seven crew on board.
No survivors were found from Flight 409, and only 15 bodies have so far been recovered.
Aridi said he hoped other sections of the plane would soon be found, along with bodies of the remaining victims still thought to be strapped to their seats.
Of the 15 bodies found, nine were Lebanese, five Ethiopian and one Iraqi. Fifty-four Lebanese were on board the aircraft.
The Lebanese military said on Saturday that “pictures are being taken” of the located section of fuselage with a view to raising it.
Flight recorders are usually placed in the rear of commercial airliners.
Lebanese officials have said the captain was instructed by the control tower to change to a certain heading, but that the aircraft then took a different course.
Experts have told AFP that the stormy weather may not have been the only reason for the crash, and that the aircraft may have had engine or hydraulics problems.
On Januar 13, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister [genocidal dictator] Meles Zenawi inaugurated the Gilgel Gibe 2 scheme, the country’s biggest hydropower project. “It is possible to speed up development without polluting the environment,” Zenawi proudly declared as he cut the ceremonial ribbon. Yet this was wishful thinking.
Due to shoddy preparation, the project had already been delayed by more than two years. And less than two weeks after the inauguration, the project’s core component, a 26 kilometer-long tunnel, collapsed partly. Power generation had to be stopped for several months. Ethiopia’s hydro sector demonstrates that there are not shortcuts to sound infrastructure development. Cutting corners does not “speed up development,” but produces costly mistakes.
Gilgel Gibe 2 has a price tag of 374 million Euros and a capacity of 420 megawatts. The project works without a reservoir, but channels the water discharged from the Gilgel Gibe 1 Dam through a long tunnel and a steep drop directly to the valley of the Omo River. The undertaking was plagued by shoddy management from the beginning. In violation of Ethiopian law, the government negotiated the project contract with the Italian construction company Salini without competitive bidding. No-bid contracts for public works projects are a big red flag of corruption. The Gilgel Gibe deal was awarded without a feasibility study, and construction started without the legally required environmental permit.
In violation of Italian law and against the recommendation of its own evaluators, Italy’s Ministry of Development Cooperation awarded 220 million Euros of aid money for Salini’s no-bid contract. Gilgel Gibe 2 was “the biggest development fund released to a single project in the history of the Italian Cooperation,” the Ministry says proudly. The European Investment Bank, which is notoriously weak in appraising power projects, contributed another 50 million Euros, and the Ethiopian government funded the remaining 104 million Euros.
Gilgel Gibe 2 was supposed to be completed in Dec. 2007. Yet the poor preparation soon took its toll. Deficient geological studies had overlooked sandy soils and aquifers in the rock. The tunnel boring equipment got stuck in the mud, and the engineers had to redesign the tunnel’s path. As we heard, the aqueduct collapsed only 12 days after its inauguration, nine kilometers inside the mountain.
Who pays the price for such development failures? The dubiously negotiated contract for Gilgel Gibe 2 exempts Salini from geological risks, so the Ethiopian electricity consumers and tax payers ended up paying for the cost-overruns. Salini will certainly try to shift the blame for the tunnel collapse to Ethiopia once again. In the meantime, the country’s poor remain without electricity, and the environment gets spoilt for nothing.
Italy’s Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale has documented the numerous legal problems and shortcuts of the Gilgel Gibe 2 project in detail. The Campagna’s Caterina Amicucci comments that aid projects like Gilgel Gibe 2 “not so much address a country’s urgent development needs, but subsidizes a major Italian company.” The Campagna and International Rivers have asked that the bill for the latest disaster be paid by Salini and not Ethiopia’s taxpayers.
Gilgel Gibe 2’s dodgy deal is the rule, not the exception in Ethiopia’s hydropower sector. The contract for the slightly smaller Tekeze Dam was awarded in 2002, and power generation was supposed to start in 2007. Yet in this case, the ground on which the dam was being built was too weak — a fact which a proper feasibility study would have found in advance. Landslides caused further delays, and the project was commissioned two years late in 2009.
The story doesn’t end with Gilgel Gibe 2 and Tekeze. In July 2006, the government awarded a $2.1 billion contract for the Gibe 3 Dam — its biggest infrastructure project ever — to Salini through direct negotiations. Again there was no competitive bidding. Again project construction started without an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Economic, Financial and Technical Assessment. If built, the Gibe 3 Dam will devastate the fragile ecosystems of the Lower Omo Valley and Lake Turkana, on which 500,000 poor farmers, herders and fisherfolk rely for their livelihoods. Even though the project violates Ethiopian law and their own safeguard policies, the African Development Bank and the World Bank are currently considering support for the project.
Will the collapse of the Gilgel Gibe 2 be a wake-up call for the World Bank and the African Development Bank? Latest news indicates that the financiers, who refused to get involved in Gilgel Gibe 2, may yet shy away from the dodgy Gibe 3 deal. They know that their credibility is on the line.
