Kenenisa Bekele at the Weltklasse Zürich,
ÅF Golden League press conference on
Thu 28 Aug 2008 [Photo:Chris Turner]
(IAAF) Zürich, Switzerland – In Beijing last week, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele achieved a feat that even his great compatriot Haile Gebrselassie was unable to match in his illustrious track career. Joining Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN), Emil Zatopek (CZE), Vladimir Kuts (URS), Lasse Viren (FIN) and Miruts Yifter (ETH), Bekele is now one of only six men to win the 5000m and 10,000m double at the Olympic Games since those metric distances were introduced to the Olympic programme in 1912.
But Bekele’s historic achievement in China, as that of his female compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba over the same distances which was unique in women’s Olympic distance running history, was largely overlooked by the world because of one man, Jamaican Usain Bolt, whose phenomenal sprint successes transcended Athletics to make him the overall star of Beijing 2008, along with swimmer Michael Phelps.
Bekele, the World record holder for 5000 and 10,000m, was at a press conference in Zürich this afternoon ahead of tomorrow night’s Weltklasse Zürich,ÅF Golden League meeting (Fri 29) where he’ll run the 5000m. Was he upset that the 22-year-old Jamaican had upstaged the rest of the athletics programme which had produced so many other outstanding results including his own?
“No, I’m not upset (that Bolt’s success took all the headlines).”
“We cannot compare Bolt with myself. Sprinting and distance running, it is not possible to compare.”
“Bolt is very strong, very special,” said Bekele. “To break two World records (three with the sprint relay) in an Olympic Games is very special.”
The phrase ‘very special’ was constantly on Bekele’s lips this afternoon, and is how he also summed up his own Olympic double. The magnitude of his successes left him searching for an adequate description, and eventually to concede – “there are no words to describe how I feel…what can I say, its so very special for me.”
A very famous place to race
After a total of three races and Olympic records in both the 5000m (12:57.82) and 10,000m (27:01.17) finals, Bekele could be excused for wanting to take a holiday before competing again.
It’s been a busy few days of travel since his 5000m victory on Saturday (23). With the rest of the Ethiopian team Bekele has already made the trip back home to receive the expected rapturous welcome in the capital Addis Ababa.
“People at home expect success, they are waiting to celebrate after each Games. Yes, there were a million or more on the streets to welcome us, and the Prime Minister and President were there to greet us.”
Zürich Meeting Director Patrick Magyar revealed today that it took a great effort to persuade the Ethiopian Federation to let Bekele leave Addis Ababa early during the celebrations so that he could compete here on Friday.
“IAAF President Lamine Diack greatly supported us on this and convinced the Federation to allow Kenenisa to compete in Zürich,” confirmed Magyar.
But the matter was always clear in Bekele’s mind at least.
“Yes, I always intended to run in Zürich,” said the three-time World and two-time Olympic 10,000m champion. “It is a good place, with good organisation, a very famous place to race.”
I just come here to win
But what of his hopes for Friday’s race?
“I’m a little tired, as it is very close to the Olympic Games. I can’t push for a World record anymore (this season).”
“So I don’t talk of records for this race. After my successes in Beijing, I just come here to win.”
Many more years on the track
What of the longer term future, and following Haile Gebrselassie to the marathon?
“The Marathon? It’s too early for me to think of this yet. I still have time to run many more 5000 and 10,000m races, with faster times and breaking records. I want to keep running these distances at World Championships and Olympic Games for many more years,” confirmed Bekele.
It’s a statement which should concern anyone with Olympic aspirations in 2012, and as Bekele only turned 26-years-old in June, perhaps even in 2016!
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — Kenenisa Bekele was philosophical about the lack of publicity given to his own brilliant Olympic double compared to the exploits of Usain Bolt.
Bekele 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres victories in the Bird Nest’s stadium in Beijing, both in Olympic record times, saw him become the first athlete to achieve the feat since fellow Ethiopian Miruts Yifter 28 years ago in Moscow.
But Bekele, despite his delight at winning the 5,000m title for the first time and retaining his 10,000m crown, insisted today Bolt fully deserved all of the accolades that made him the Games’ track and field golden boy.
Talking about Bolt’s 100m and 200m successes, both in world record times, Bekele said: “Ours were different races and we can’t be compared.
“(But) he’s very strong and he really ran special races in Beijing. To break two world records that is very special. (They) were very tough to make, but he did it.”
Bolt, not surprisingly, is grabbing the headlines again before tomorrow night’s AF Golden League meeting in Zurich, where over 100m he will meet six of the opponents he thrashed in Beijing when roaring to the world’s quickest time ever of 9.69seconds.
Whether the 22-year-old Jamaican can, for the third occasion this year, lower the record even further cannot be ruled out despite his strenuous Olympic schedule, where he was also in Jamaica’s world record-breaking 4x100m relay team.
“It was a long trip to get here, but I’m not tired at all,” said Bolt. “I’ve done a little training since I got here.
“I’m trying to get the blood pumping again in preparation for Friday evening.”
Bekele revealed chasing his four-year-old 5,000m world record does not figure in his plans because of tiredness.
After arriving back home early yesterday morning, he and other Ethiopian medallists celebrated with their fans – more than a million turned out for the trip from Addis Ababa airport to the capital’s city centre.
“It’s very different,” said Bekele, who then rushed off to Zurich. “I don’t think about world records. After Beijing I’m too tired for a fast race. Maybe I will just go for winning.”
However, teenager Pamela Jelimo, the 800m gold medallist, plans to have a shot at Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 25-year-old world record of 1min 53.28sec.
“I’m going to try for the world record here, I’m not feeling tired after the Olympics,” said the 18-year-old Kenyan, who in Beijing set a third world junior record of 1:54.87sec.
Jelimo, who along with Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic is the only contender to win the IAAF Golden League US dollars 1million jackpot, will be paced in the early stages of the attempt by the experienced Russian Svetlana Klyuka, who finished fourth in China.
Vlasic, who lost her unbeaten streak of 34 victories and the Olympic gold medal to Tia Hellebaut, will renew her rivalry with the surprise Belgian winner.
Cuba’s Olympic 110m hurdles champion, Dayron Robles, also insisting he is in top shape, could make an attack on the world record of 12.87sec he achieved in mid-June.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This seems to be a drama orchestrated by Amare Aregawi’s own party, Woyanne. The company, Dashen Brewery, that sued Amare is owned by the ruling party, Woyanne. Even the car that transported him to Gondar is not a police car. He was taken bay a car owned by the company that sued him. But if any thing, this incident exposes how repressive the new press law is. Any individual or company can cause the arrest of a newspaper editor.
AFP — Ethiopian authorities Woyanne released a newspaper editor detained last week after it reported on a labour dispute at a local brewery, a media watchdog says.
Amare Aregawi was held for five days in a prison 750 kilometres north of Addis Ababa, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement.
He was released yesterday on bail of 300-birr (around 31-dollars).
RSF urged Ethiopian government to “amend the newly-adopted media law in order to eliminate prison sentences for press offences.”
Aregawi’s private Amharic language weekly Reporter published an article last month citing two former employees of the brewery as saying they were wrongfully dismissed.
The brewery company had sued the paper for libel.
Ethiopia was only removed from RSF’s blacklist of media offenders in May, having been labelled “an enemy of the internet” along with Zimbabwe.
(Bloomberg) — Rebel fighters in Darfur said they’re planning a new attack on Sudan’s capital because the government isn’t committed to peace in the war-torn region.
The rebel faction known as the Justice and Equity Movement, led by Khalil Ibrahim, also welcomed the International Criminal Court’s announcement yesterday that it plans to indict Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir on war crimes charges. “It’s a great moment for the people of Darfur,” Tahir el Faki, the movement’s legislative commander, said in a phone interview from Darfur.
On May 10, JEM rebels entered the town of Omdurman, across the Nile river from Khartoum. Sudan’s official news agency said more than 200 people were killed in the assault, the Associated Press reported on May 13. At least 100 people were arrested after the attack, including Islamist opposition leader Hassan al- Turabi, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“We are going to pursue this criminal government militarily,” El Faki said today. “We are in Darfur right now. The commanders are here with Khalil Ibrahim discussing. We are coming back to Omdurman to finish the job.”
The war in Darfur, a region in western Sudan almost the size of France, has killed as many as 300,000 people and forced 2 million to flee their homes. The conflict began when rebels seeking a larger role in Sudan’s political life and bigger slice of the country’s expanding oil wealth attacked the government. The authorities in Khartoum responded by dispatching military forces and arming militias, commonly known as the Janjaweed, to attack areas accused of supporting the rebels.
UN Staff Relocated
Yesterday, the United Nations began relocating non-essential staff from Darfur to neighboring countries following an attack on a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force last week in which 7 soldiers died and 22 were injured.
The relocation “is due to the deteriorating security situation of the past month,” Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the force, known as Unamid, said in a telephone interview today from Khartoum. “All critical Unamid operations are ongoing and the forces are on the ground.”
The World Food Program has already relocated about 140 staff members from Darfur, said Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the UN agency.
“The vast majority of staff will remain to continue with the delivery of food to the people,” she said, adding that in June alone, WFP had delivered food aid to 3.3 million people, a figure she said will increase this month.
`Carry Out Mission’
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged “Sudan and the president to ensure that UN peacekeeping operations are able to carry out their mission.” Speaking in Berlin today at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ban added, “Peace and justice are both very important principles and they should go hand in hand.”
Al-Bashir’s indictment on any of the 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes would be the ICC’s first involving a sitting head of state. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court in The Hague yesterday to issue a warrant for al- Bashir, 64, whose government vowed to oppose attempts to arrest him. It may take up to two months before the court decides on Moreno-Ocampo’s request, his spokeswoman, Florence Olara, said by phone today.
The African Union criticized the ICC’s announcement, saying an indictment won’t help resolve the crisis in Darfur.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council “expressed its strong conviction that the search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardize efforts aimed at promoting lasting peace,” the Addis Ababa-based organization said in an e- mailed statement late yesterday.
`Fragile Peace’
AU Peace and Security Council Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra was due to arrive in Khartoum last night for consultations with al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials. Jean Ping, chairman of the AU commission, has held talks with the UN and the Arab League and called for an urgent meeting of African foreign ministers to discuss al-Bashir’s possible indictment.
An ICC indictment would pose “major risks for the fragile peace and security environment in Sudan, with a real chance of greatly increasing the suffering of very large numbers of its people,” the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based human rights group, said in an e-mailed statement.
Though the ICC was acting well within its mandate, its move could risk damaging the fragile peace agreement between north and south Sudan and hinder the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur, the group said.
Yasir Arman, a spokesman for Southern Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said a negotiated settlement between Bashir and rebels in Darfur may prevent the ICC from issuing the indictment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Benedict Moran in Khartoum via Johannesburg at [email protected]; Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at [email protected].
The top leadership of Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), including the chairperson, Wzt. Birtukan Mideksa, went to the resort town of Sodore (130km southeast of Addis Ababa) on Monday to relax and also try bring harmony among the different factions of the leadership that are currently at loggerheads.
The Sodore retreat had often turned into series of heated debates particularly between those who believe that Kinijit made the right decision NOT to enter the rubber-stump parliament, and those who violated the party’s decision and resent that they are being looked down on by the others as untrustworthy.
Meanwhile, the top leaders of UDJ are currently being courted by the American Ambassador Donald Yamamoto and other Western ambassadors to take part in the 2010 elections without any preconditions.
As we reported last week, Ambassador Yamamoto invited Wzt. Birtukan and four other top leaders of UDJ to a lunch on July 8 to discuss elections.
According to Ethiopian Review sources, Yamamoto told the UDJ leaders that he will stay as ambassador until after the 2010 elections and has tried to assure them that the road will be paved for them to freely participate in the elections.
The ambassador admitted that there is a one-party system in Ethiopia, and the U.S. Government wants to movement toward a multi-party system, according to ER sources.
The American ambassador also told the UDJ officials that the U.S. policy towards Ethiopia is being transformed, in that terrorism is no longer a dominant factor in the decision making process. He advised Wzt. Birtukan and friends that the U.S. will start focusing on good governance and human rights, and that UDJ needs to take advantage of this transformation of U.S. policy.
The UDJ officials also met with French diplomats and held similar talks.
In all of this, the party seems to have forgotten about the people as if they have no say. Currently, UDJ is completely detached from the people of Ethiopia.
Mr Bashir served in the army and rose to power in the 1990s
The unprecedented decision by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek charges against President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity has thrown a sharp light on his part in the conflict in Darfur.
Some 250,000 people have died and two million fled their homes since 2003.
But Mr Bashir has always accused the international community of exaggerating the scale of the crisis.
Speaking in 2004, he said the Darfur issue was a “traditional conflict over resources… coated with claims of marginalisation”.
“Strangely the Darfur crisis, according to them [the UN], has become the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. The report about the crisis occupies the best part of the influential media by those who have a hidden agenda,” he added.
Accusations
However, organisations like Human Rights Watch have documented atrocities in the western Sudanese region.
[African Union] troops… are completely capable of playing their role without international intervention
Omar al-Bashir, 2006
Three years ago, Human Rights Watch described the Sudanese government as pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing said to be “strategic and well-planned”.
“Khartoum has relied on the civilian administration, the Sudanese military and Janjaweed militias to implement a counter-insurgency policy that deliberately and systematically targeted civilians in violation of international law,” it said.
And these allegations were renewed earlier in 2008, when the government was accused of aerial bombardment and ground attacks that drove thousands from their homes.
Human rights organisations accuse President Bashir of overseeing these atrocities – allegations that have now resulted in the current indictment.
Noose tightening
Mr Bashir is first and foremost an army man.
After joining the Sudanese armed forces in 1960, he served with the Egyptian army during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
In June 1989, he led a group of officers who overthrew the government of Sadiq al-Mahdi, appearing on TV to say that the coup was designed to save Sudan from rotten politicians.
The joint UN/AU peacekeeping mission to Darfur was much-delayed
As chairman of a Revolutionary Command Council, he led the country, making links with radical Islamists, including Hassan al-Turabi.
The relationship did not last, though, and Mr Turabi was purged and jailed.
Critics of President Bashir say that he has ruled Sudan in the interests of those northern Sudanese who live along the River Nile.
Anyone from the south of the country, or from a peripheral area like Darfur, has had little say in the running of the country.
The uprising in Darfur has been ruthlessly repressed. And suggestions that the United Nations might send international forces to the region were strongly resisted.
Instead, Mr Bashir has insisted that only African forces be deployed to try to Darfur.
“The AU [African Union] troops, after their experience and real practice in resolving conflict in Africa, are completely capable of playing their role without international intervention,” he said in 2006.
“We renew our call to the international community, as well as our Arab and African brothers, to provide the necessary financial support to these troops and to increase the participation of Arab and African troops in the mission by the required numbers, so that the AU can continue playing its role.”
The United States has been at the forefront of pressing for action on Darfur. But – strange as it might seem – it has also maintained close intelligence links with the Sudanese government.
In 2005, for example, the head of Sudanese intelligence was flown in a CIA jet to Washington. And US officials have worked closely with Sudan on anti-terrorism issues.
But the judicial noose has been gradually tightening around Mr Bashir.
In June, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo briefed the UN Security Council on Sudan’s refusal to arrest two government officials for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Now the court has decided it will go higher – and indicted President Omar al-Bashir himself.
Sudan ‘will block genocide case’
Sudan has said it will do all it can to block the work of the International Criminal Court, which has accused the nation’s leader of genocide in Darfur.
President Omar al-Bashir’s most senior adviser told the BBC the allegations were designed to generate hostility between tribal groups in Darfur.
Ghazi Salaheddin said that if the ICC pursued the case it could jeopardise relations between Sudan and the UN.
Meanwhile, the UN is withdrawing about 200 non-essential staff from Darfur.
The UN said the decision to pull back staff from the joint UN-African Union Darfur mission, Unamid, came after recent violence and as a precaution after the genocide accusation.
In the capital, Khartoum, the UN told its staff to stay at home as thousands of Sudanese took to the streets rallying in support of their president.
Mr Bashir, who says the accusations are lies, is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Judges at the ICC, an independent body, are yet to decide if there are reasonable grounds to issue an arrest warrant against Mr Bashir.
Some 300,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur since 2003, while more than two million people have fled their homes, the UN estimates.
Sudan’s government denies mobilising Arab Janjaweed militias to attack black African civilians in Darfur since rebels took up arms in 2003.
‘No jurisdiction’
In a BBC interview, Ghazi Salaheddin said Sudan did not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction and it would be rallying support among its allies to try to block proceedings.
Efforts to indict a sitting head of state would set a dangerous precedent, he said.
Allegations of genocide by the ICC’s chief prosecutor were designed to generate hostility between tribal groups in Darfur, Mr Salaheddin said.
“On the allegation of genocide, an international commission sanctioned by the United Nations has come and investigated the situation in Sudan and has concluded that there was no genocide. So genocide is out of the question,” he said.
Mr Salaheddin denied the government of Sudan was blackmailing the international community by failing to provide security guarantees for peacekeepers and humanitarian staff.
He said that Sudan would be seeking support from its allies in the Arab League, which is meeting on Saturday to discuss how to respond to the ICC’s accusations.
The UN runs large-scale humanitarian operations in the region and has thousands of peacekeepers in Darfur as part of a joint mission with the African Union (AU).
African Union dilemma
In its first reaction, China expressed grave concern over the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek the arrest of Omar al-Bashir.
A foreign ministry spokesman said the court should try to help bring stability to Sudan and not to undermine it.
He said China would continue to consult with other members of the UN Security Council about whether to block the ICC but would not speculate on possible results of talks.
Meanwhile Russia called for “restraint” from all sides.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN said Sudan and the UN must “exercise restraint and find solutions that will help the people of Sudan and resolve the crisis in Darfur”.
The US, which is not part of the ICC, offered some praise on Monday for prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s charge.
“In our view, recognition of the humanitarian disaster and the atrocities that have gone on there is a positive thing,” state department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
But the African Union urged caution. Speaking on behalf of the AU chairman, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said the ICC should suspend its decision on whether to seek Mr Bashir’s arrest until problems in Darfur were resolved.
The Peace and Security Commissioner for the AU, Ramtane Lamamra, has flown to Sudan for a meeting with Mr Bashir and other members of the government.
The AU Commission expressed concern that “hard-won gains made in the search for peace and reconciliation in the Sudan” could be jeopardised.
Foreign ministers of the 15 countries currently serving on the AU’s Peace and Security Council are expected to meet in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital where the AU is based, next week.
The charges against President Bashir put African countries in an acutely difficult position, says the BBC’s Liz Blunt in Addis Ababa.
They supply almost all the troops for the joint AU/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, and are also the countries most likely to be called upon to carry out any arrest warrant, she says.
[African Union] troops… are completely capable of playing their role without international intervention 
