VOA’s Peter Heinlein from Addis Ababa is reporting that Meles Zenawi’s regime in Ethiopia has changed its policy toward Eritrean to “actively advocate the overthrow of the government in Eritrea.”
News agencies quoted Ethiopean Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi as telling an Eritrean opposition radio station his government would work in a ‘diplomatic and military capacity’ to oust the regime in Asmara, the Eritrean capital. The reports gave no further details.”
In an interview Sunday with VOA, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dina Mufti said the decision to take a tougher stance was made after the international community turned a deaf ear to pleas for more pressure on Eritrea.
“We have been hoping the international community will put pressure on it. However, we do not see that, therefore time has come for us to make sure that our sovereignty is protected and our people, our country, is saved. So these are the situations that have forced us to revisit our position,” he said.
This is obviously a desperate attempt by Meles to divert attention from the various opposition voices who are demanding an end to his regime. Some Ethiopian groups are using Facebook to call for the launching of protests on May 28, 2011, the 20th anniversary of Meles Zenawi’s coming to power. – VOA
The country’s United Nations ambassador, Abdullah Alsaidi, has resigned, Reuters reports. Alsaidi is the latest member of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government who has stepped down from their positions, in protest of the violence and killing of pro-democracy protesters. On Friday, both the country’s tourism minister and the head of the party’s foreign affairs committee quit. On Saturday, Nasr Taha Mustafa, head of the state news agency and a leading ruling party member, resigned from both his position and his party. Party member Mohamed Saleh Qara’a also quit over what he referred to as ‘”completely unacceptable”‘ violence.
SYRIA — Protesters in the city of Deraa burned the house of the ousted district governmor as well as the ruling party’s HQ and a local culture ministry office. Al-Arabiya also reported that Syrian army tanks arrived in the city on Sunday.
VIDEO
On Sunday, at least five people were killed and 60 were injured after Syrian officers used live ammunition to disperse protests.
Tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets as a governmental delegation arrived in Deraa to console families mourning for loved ones killed in previous demonstrations.
The officials promised to release 15 detainees but the protestors remained undeterred. The mourners later gathered at the al-Omari mosque in the old quarter of Deraa near the border with Jordan.
In Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh has suffered a political setback, with his ambassador to Syria resigning and three top generals expressing their support for the anti-Government protesters.
Tanks took up positions around the capital Sana’a today as tens of thousands of people gathered for funerals for 50 demonstrators shot dead by loyalist forces. It’s been described as the biggest gathering of protesters against president Saleh’s 32 years of autocratic rule.
BENGHAZI, Libya (NBC) — The United States launched its first missile attack on Libyan air defenses on Saturday, NBC News confirmed, as America and its allies began military action to enforce a no-fly zone.
A senior U.S. military official said the missile strikes were aimed at sites along the Libyan coast. The missiles were launched from U.S. Navy vessels in the Mediterranean.
The official said the assault would unfold in stages and strike at air defense installations around the capital, Tripoli, and a coastal area south of Benghazi. That’s the rebel stronghold under attack by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
Earlier, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said allied air forces had gone into action on over Libya and were preventing Moammar Gadhafi’s forces from attacking the rebel city of Benghazi.
A French official said a French fighter jet had fired on a Libyan military vehicle, in the first reported strike in the international campaign to enforce a no-fly zone. Overall, at least four Libyan tanks were destroyed in French attack, Al Jazeera reported.
(Bloomberg) — French military jets flew over Libya, ready to enforce an air-exclusion zone to halt Muammar Qaddafi’s attacks on rebels, as Western leaders met in Paris to consider their next steps.
The planes were in the air not far from Libya this afternoon and were ready to carry out air strikes if there are orders from President Nicolas Sarkozy, a military official with knowledge of the preparations said on condition of anonymity.
Qaddafi’s forces attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi today in defiance of international demands for a cease-fire, television stations reported. Al Jazeera cited the head of the rebel council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, as saying bombing raids took place in the eastern port city of 1 million people.
Pro-Qaddafi forces entered parts of Benghazi, Al Arabiya TV reported. Forces advancing included tanks, it said, adding that 11 fighters loyal to Qaddafi were killed. A BBC correspondent reported seeing government tanks on a bridge. TV channels showed footage of a fighter jet being shot down.
(AP) — Six Danish F-16 fighter jets landed Saturday at the U.S. air base in Sigonella, Sicily, and a half-dozen U.S. aircraft arrived elsewhere as the military buildup mounted in Italy for possible action against Libya.
Danish air force spokesman Lars Skjoldan said the six F-16s would be ready for operation in Libya by Sunday.
Italy has offered the use of seven military bases to enforce the U.N.-authorized no-fly zone over Libya and protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi’s troops.
In addition to the aircraft already in Italy, Norway said it was prepared to send six F-16 fighter jets to enforce the no-fly zone, but that they wouldn’t be operational for five to six days.
One of the two British bases in Cyprus, meanwhile, will be supporting AWACS surveillance aircraft assigned to monitor the no-fly zone over Libya, said spokesman Kristian Gray.
The aircraft are already at the Royal Air Force’s Akrotiri base on the south coast of the island, he told The Associated Press on Saturday. Also deployed to the base is a team of British personnel to coordinate movement of British aircraft.
German Foreign Minister criticized by domestic media
(Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle came under domestic fire on Saturday for opting out of any military involvement in Libya, drawing accusations of siding with dictators rather than Berlin’s NATO allies.
Foreign policy experts, the opposition and media commentators expressed everything from puzzlement to scorn at Berlin’s abstention on Thursday in a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising a no-fly zone over Libya.
The centre-left daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung made one of the strongest attacks on Westerwelle and Chancellor Angela Merkel for deciding to take no part in any military effort to protect Libyan civilians from leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. “For the first time since its inception, the Federal Republic has pulled up the anchor that secures it to the West,” wrote commentator Daniel Broessler.
Broessler equated the abstention with a direct vote against Germany’s NATO allies on the United Nations Security Council which supported the resolution.
“Now Merkel and Westerwelle are responsible for Germany voting against Americans, British and French, but with the Chinese, Russians, Brazilians and Indians — against our most important allies in the West and on the side of dictators, autocrats and two distant democracies.”
Since World War Two, Germans have been traditionally hostile to foreign military interventions and Merkel’s coalition faces a series of difficult regional elections this weekend and next.
Westerwelle, who leads the liberal Free Democrats in the coalition, attracted criticism of his performance after becoming foreign minister in 2009 but this had eased recently.
On Saturday he defended his position. “I see myself coming from a tradition of moderation when it comes to military deployments,” he told Spiegel magazine.
Meles Zenawi’s regime in Ethiopia has so far this week rounded up and thrown in jail over 200 members of Medrek, a coalition of eight opposition parties.
Most of the detainees are from the Oromo People’s Congress (OPC) and the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM).
According to Medrek secretary general, 217 OFDM and 40 OPC members have been arrested this week. The whereabouts of many of the detainees are not known.
The Meles regime is rounding up opposition members in a preemptive action to prevent the popular uprising that is sweeping through northern Africa and the Middle East from erupting in Ethiopia.
Meles is also purging some of his own officials in the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), a member of the ruling Woyanne coalition. It’s reported that over 150 high- and mid-ranking OPDO officials have been arrested in during the past few days and charged with corruption.
Meanwhile, at least two youth groups, Ethiopian Revolution May 2011 and YeDil Qen, are preparing for nationwide protests to be launched on May 28, 2011. Their Facebook sites are attracting thousands of members.
In Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, food prices are increasing by the day, and sugar and oil are in scarce supply.
