The executive committee of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) has opened a new office in Addis Ababa. The address of the new office has not been disclosed yet for security purposes, but the Kinijit Central Council will meet there soon, according to the officials. Read more in Amharic from zikkir News Service here.

By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Mekelle, Ethiopia

The mountains of eastern Tigray in Ethiopia are bare and brown just three months after the end of the rains.

The people in the region are skilled farmers and hard workers but even they struggle to support their families from their tiny patches of worn-out land.

The answer used to lie across the border in Eritrea – more developed and industrialised and with two good ports, Ethiopia’s outlets to the sea.

The older farmers remember the days when they used to work on their farms until the harvest was in and then go as seasonal migrant labour to Eritrea.

It was an easy journey to make. The people on the other side of the border were like themselves, Christian highlanders, speaking a similar language.

The Eritrean capital, Asmara, was far easier to get to and more familiar than the distant Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa.

Families intermarried.

Even today, many Tigrayans have friends and family in Eritrea, relatives they no longer see, cannot phone and can write to only courtesy of the Red Cross.

Barrier of steel

In a continent of notoriously porous borders, an impenetrable barrier has come down between Ethiopia and Eritrea and nowhere is this felt more acutely than in Tigray.

Its history, its economy – everything in Tigray is intertwined with and affected by what lies on the other side of the border.

The last war with Eritrea hit the region hard.

Not only was the war fought on the edge of its territory but Tigrayans suffered heavy casualties.

Its regional militia was involved as a well as the national army and the authorities here reckon that a third of those killed and wounded in the fighting came from their region.

Economically the war was a disaster.

The overthrow of Ethiopia’s Marxist military government had brought peace to Tigray in the early 1990s after a long guerrilla war.

New businesses opened and new hotels were built, only to close their doors from lack of business as soon as the war broke out.

Trade barrier

Worse still, even after the war was over the border stayed closed.

The region’s Vice-President, Abadi Zemo, says this makes promoting economic development very difficult.

“Tigray is located up in the north. We have an advantage – we are located much closer to the sea than other towns.

“But having this situation between us and Eritrea, it has put us in a very odd situation,” he says.

“An investor, when he comes to Tigray, he sees there is no war and there is no peace – that investor prefers to invest in the south.

“Had it been normal, Tigray might have been the best region in Ethiopia for investment.”

“It’s hard”, he says, “to persuade investors to come in, when the border is still closed and there is always, hanging over Tigray, the threat of another war.”

Despite this, the regional capital, Mekelle, is a busy little town and its own businessmen have had the confidence to come together and begin building a massive new shopping and office complex.

Old fighter

From inside Mekelle it is almost possible to forget the military situation along the border.

A substantial part of Ethiopia’s very large standing army is stationed in Tigray but those camps are well away from the town.

The United Nations has a peacekeeping force here too – but that is up on the border.

In Mekelle itself there is just a small liaison office, a few white-painted UN vehicles in the streets, occasionally a white-painted helicopter circling overhead.

The fact that the UN peacekeepers are still in place – at least until their mandate is next reviewed at the end of January – makes Tigrayans feel a little safer.

But still they worry about the future.

Abadi Zemo was a fighter himself once, before the government in Addis Ababa was overthrown and he became Tigray’s vice-president.

He knows the range of an AK-47 down to the nearest metre.

And he knows that on some parts of the border the two armies are so close that one slipped safety-catch, one stray bullet, one single soldier, could spark a new conflict.

“Imagine – 500m,” he says.

“Just, you know a Kalashnikov, and a soldier, a simple soldier. The range of a Kalashnikov? That would be 900m, perhaps 1,000m.”

The vice-president laughs at having given himself away as an old fighter, but he knows that one slipped safety catch, one stray bullet, and that simple soldier could start a new conflict.

Woyannes in Sweden disguising themselves as Eritreans have announced that they have created an alliance against the Government of Eritrea. Read the following news posted on Walta, a Woyanne news agency.

_________________
Eritrean political, civic organizations in Sweden form united front for democratic Eritrea

Addis Ababa, December 18, 2007 (WIC) – Eritrean political and civic organizations in Sweden have agreed to form a united front ”to fight the dictator and its supporters in Sweden.”

According to a press release sent to WIC, the Eritrean civic and political organizations in Sweden have conducted a series of meetings under the banner ”In support of our oppressed people, unite our efforts against the dictatorship.”

The meeting ” discussed deeply the plight of the Eritrean people and confirmed that Eritrea is now in a downward spiral of poverty and unrest. The politics in Eritrea is poisoned and need urgent cure and be transformed for the wider health of the Eritrean people, ”the release said.

After evaluating the past campaign and peaceful demonstrations they realized that the best option to fight the dictator and its supporters in Sweden is to build a common united broad front, it further noted.

The meeting finally formulated a comprehensive plan of action capable of strengthening the suffering people, weakening and then destroying the dictatorship and building a durable democracy in Eritrea, according to the press release.

The meeting also elected a five-person interim board leading the process of common understanding and its implementation, it was learnt.

Shawel Consulting, Hailu Shawel’s family business based in Addis Ababa, is one of the few thriving companies in Ethiopia that are successfully competing with Sebhat Nega’s EFFORT and Al Amoudi’s Midrock.

ER Research Unit in Addis Ababa has learned that recently, the Woyanne regime’s deputy prime minister, Addisu Legesse, has helped Hailu Shawel’s company, Shawel Consulting Firm, land a lucrative contract in the ‘Amhara Killil’ to upgrade Bahr Dar Airport.

Shawel’s Consulting Firm started to get lucrative government contract particularly since 2006, according to ER Research Unit.

Prior to 2006, the company and Hailu Shawel’s family were on a downward spiral financially, sources told ER Research Unit. Until the Summer of 2006, the Shawel family could not even keep up with the mortgage of their $600,000 house in Edina, Minnesota. Ato Hailu’s close family friend in Los Angeles, Ato Moges Brook, had to pay over $15,000 mortgage from Kinijit’s account that he and Shaleqa Yoseph Yazew control.

Hailu Shawel’s $600,000 house in Edina, Minnesota

Recently, however, the family business is thriving. On top of the airport upgrade contract in the “Amhara Killil,” Hailu Shawel’s firm is currently working on another multimillion dollar construction project to build a large shopping mall. ER Research Unit is working to get more details and photos of this project.

Ato Hailu Shawel and Company have also been promised by Woyanne that they can freely operate in any part of Ethiopia and prepare for the next election as long as they do not use the name Kinijit. Ato Hailu has accepted the offer, but had to find a pretext to withdraw from Kinijit without causing himself and his group a public backlash. Before he departed for the U.S., he held meetings with former AEUP officials and created various committees that are assigned the task of reorganizing AEUP.

Asked by Kinijit officials Bertukan Mideksa and others why a bank account was opened under AEUP and the office rental contract was also renewed under AEUP, Ato Abayneh Berhanu and other colleagues of Hailu Shawel answered that Woyanne would not allow them to operate under Kinijit. When making such a decision, Ato Abayneh did not bother to consult with the Kinijit executive committee.

Currently, Ato Hailu Shawel and Company are busy preparing to participate in the upcoming local elections in April 2008 under the AEUP banner. Several teams have been dispatched to various woredas (districts) through out the country to re-open AEUP offices. Even the exiled Dr Taye Woldesemayat is returning to Ethiopia to help with preparations for the upcoming elections. He told Hailu Shawel’s supporters at the Paltalk’s Diaspora Room on Sunday that he is planning to go to Ethiopia soon.

All this is done by Hailu Shawel and gang while lying to the public that Kinijit is united. What these fools don’t know is that, after they help Woyanne destroy Kinijit, Woyanne will turn on them. Woyannes have promised themselves never again to allow the 2005 type of election where international observers will be present.

All Hailu Shawel’s corruption, business dealings with Addisu Legesse and other Woaynnes, reorganizing of AEUP, the campaign to dismantle Kinijit, etc. are not secret to Wzt. Bertukan and her friends. It is just that they are too timid to expose them. Wzt. Bertukan and crew are too nice to be politicians. Why don’t they open a book store and smile all day? They have turned out to be ragdolls in the face of an all out assault by the AEUP feudalists-Woyanne-EPRP unholy alliance. As far as ER is concerned, they are toast — unless they clean up their act and start fighting back.

By Emmanuel Goujon

Ethiopian Woyanne troops must leave Somalia for the country’s ailing transitional institutions to garner any legitimacy and a political solution to emerge, leaders from Somalia’s top clan said Thursday.

The presence in Somalia of the US-backed Ethiopian Woyanne regime’s troops will continue fueling violence that has already killed thousands and displaced close to a million in recent months, Hawiye elders said.

On Thursday alone, 13 civilians were killed in Mogadishu, including 11 when two mortar shells smashed into a market area.

“The problem of Somalia can only be solved by Somalis, we have to meet with the TFG (transitional federal government), the group of Asmara (opposition) and find a solution the Somali way,” said Abdulaye Hassan, a Hawiye spokesman.

“That is possible only if the Ethiopians Woyannes leave,” he added.

The Hawiye clan is the largest in Somalia and is dominant in the capital Mogadishu, although some divisions exist amongst its numerous sub-clans.

Ethiopian Woyanne troops, with the United States’ blessing, came to the rescue of the transitional government’s embattled forces in late 2006 after an Islamist militia took control of large parts of the country.

The Islamists, accused by Washington of ties to Al-Qaeda, were swiftly defeated but have since reverted to guerrilla tactics, carrying out daily attacks in Mogadishu.

Hassan condemned what he said were systematic arrests of Hawiye clan members who speak out against the TFG.

“We are sleeping in a different house every night because the TFG is after us,” he said.

Sirraj Sheikh Hassan, another Hawiye representative, insisted his clan — frequently accused of supporting radical Islamic insurgents — was not seeking confrontation.

“We are not armed people but elders who are not happy with the Ethiopian presence. We are fighting them verbally,” he told AFP in Mogadishu.

“The main conflict is now between the group of Asmara and the TFG. It can only be solved if the Ethiopians leave. There is no other solution than negotiation,” he added.

The government and allied foreign mediators have so far not engaged in serious consultations with an opposition movement formed in Asmara in September.

The group, which calls itself the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, is led by key political figures from the country’s short-lived Islamist rule and is hosted by Eritrea, which faces growing international isolation.

The Hawiye say they feel alienated from the country’s centre of power. Although the new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, is one of theirs, the nation’s strongman remains more than ever President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Yusuf is from the Darod clan, the country’s second-largest, and cracks have formed along clanic lines in the fragile government.

“The Ethiopians Woyannes have been invited by the legitimate government of Somalia, that is the TFG, to restore peace, law and order in Somalia. So no other authority can ask them to leave,” said Interior Minister Mohamed Mahmud Guled.

“The so-called Hawiye representatives don’t represent the Hawiye people and they are not in a position to stop the fighting because the Shebab (the Islamist movement’s armed wing) are not under their authority,” he added.

Addis Ababa has said it wants to pull out as soon as possible but argues that this cannot be done before a robust international peacekeeping force is deployed.

In the meantime, violence continues to make Mogadishu one of the most dangerous capitals in the world and aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.

“The insurgents are standing against the new colonisation of Somalia by Ethiopians. Once the Ethiopians pull out, there will be no more fighting,” said Nur Jamah Karshe, another Hawiye elder.

By Emmanuel Goujon

Ethiopian Woyanne troops must leave Somalia for the country’s ailing transitional institutions to garner any legitimacy and a political solution to emerge, leaders from Somalia’s top clan said Thursday.

The presence in Somalia of the US-backed Ethiopian Woyanne regime’s troops will continue fueling violence that has already killed thousands and displaced close to a million in recent months, Hawiye elders said.

On Thursday alone, 13 civilians were killed in Mogadishu, including 11 when two mortar shells smashed into a market area.

“The problem of Somalia can only be solved by Somalis, we have to meet with the TFG (transitional federal government), the group of Asmara (opposition) and find a solution the Somali way,” said Abdulaye Hassan, a Hawiye spokesman.

“That is possible only if the Ethiopians Woyannes leave,” he added.

The Hawiye clan is the largest in Somalia and is dominant in the capital Mogadishu, although some divisions exist amongst its numerous sub-clans.

Ethiopian Woyanne troops, with the United States’ blessing, came to the rescue of the transitional government’s embattled forces in late 2006 after an Islamist militia took control of large parts of the country.

The Islamists, accused by Washington of ties to Al-Qaeda, were swiftly defeated but have since reverted to guerrilla tactics, carrying out daily attacks in Mogadishu.

Hassan condemned what he said were systematic arrests of Hawiye clan members who speak out against the TFG.

“We are sleeping in a different house every night because the TFG is after us,” he said.

Sirraj Sheikh Hassan, another Hawiye representative, insisted his clan — frequently accused of supporting radical Islamic insurgents — was not seeking confrontation.

“We are not armed people but elders who are not happy with the Ethiopian presence. We are fighting them verbally,” he told AFP in Mogadishu.

“The main conflict is now between the group of Asmara and the TFG. It can only be solved if the Ethiopians leave. There is no other solution than negotiation,” he added.

The government and allied foreign mediators have so far not engaged in serious consultations with an opposition movement formed in Asmara in September.

The group, which calls itself the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, is led by key political figures from the country’s short-lived Islamist rule and is hosted by Eritrea, which faces growing international isolation.

The Hawiye say they feel alienated from the country’s centre of power. Although the new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, is one of theirs, the nation’s strongman remains more than ever President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Yusuf is from the Darod clan, the country’s second-largest, and cracks have formed along clanic lines in the fragile government.

“The Ethiopians Woyannes have been invited by the legitimate government of Somalia, that is the TFG, to restore peace, law and order in Somalia. So no other authority can ask them to leave,” said Interior Minister Mohamed Mahmud Guled.

“The so-called Hawiye representatives don’t represent the Hawiye people and they are not in a position to stop the fighting because the Shebab (the Islamist movement’s armed wing) are not under their authority,” he added.

Addis Ababa has said it wants to pull out as soon as possible but argues that this cannot be done before a robust international peacekeeping force is deployed.

In the meantime, violence continues to make Mogadishu one of the most dangerous capitals in the world and aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.

“The insurgents are standing against the new colonisation of Somalia by Ethiopians. Once the Ethiopians pull out, there will be no more fighting,” said Nur Jamah Karshe, another Hawiye elder.