Internet intrusion and increased repression in Ethiopia
By Graham Peebles | Redress.cc
19 June 2012
Graham Peebles views the Meles Zenawi regime’s chronic suppression of the internet and media freedoms in Ethiopia and asks how long will Addis Ababa’s allies in the US, Britain and the European Union tolerate the regime’s flagrant violations of rights enshrined in domestic and international law.
Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are basic human rights and are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is not for a government – whose function is to serve the people – to decide who or indeed if these freedoms should be allowed. Although etched into the Ethiopian constitution, freedom in its various democratic manifestations remains a fantasy for the people, who are increasingly controlled, inhibited and impoverished. The Ethiopian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is imposing ever more stringent and repressive measures of subjugation. If it could it would control and restrict the very air the people breath.
Internet control and privacy
In its latest assault on the human rights of the people, the governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) decreed certain activities on the internet to be illegal. Access to the internet inside Ethiopia is very poor. According to Open Net Initiative (ONI) Ethiopia “has the second lowest internet penetration rate in sub-Saharan Africa (only Sierra Leone’s is lower)… Only 360,000 people had internet access in June 2009, a penetration rate of 0.4 per cent.”
The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), a government owned and run body, and the Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETA) have exclusive control over internet access in the country. According to the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB) on 7 June, “Ethiopia’s only ISP [Internet Service Provider], state-owned Ethio-Telecom, has just installed a system for blocking access to the Tor network, which lets users browse anonymously and access blocked websites”. In order to achieve such selective blocking, according to RWB, “Ethio-Telecom must be using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), an advanced network filtering method” that is used by repressive states, such as China and Iran. This sophisticated system, RWB says, “allows governments to easily target politically sensitive websites and quickly censor any expression of opposition views”.
Internet filtering in Ethiopia has been in place for some years, according to Freedom House. Its report, “Freedom on the Net 2011”, states: “Tests conducted by Freedom House found that in mid-2010 the websites of Freedom House, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were inaccessible. In March 2010, Voice of America reported that its website was blocked in Ethiopia.” The BBC reported that in June 2010 emails sent from Ethiopia to the Committee to Protect Journalists were also blocked.
This latest invasion of privacy and restriction of freedoms comes on the back of a new law passed on 24 May which, among other things, bans the use of Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) hardware and software, such as Skype, which enables people to use the internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls, and imposes a penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment for the heinous crime of making a telephone call to a family member or friend.
Internet access, and national and international calls, which have to be made through the state telecommunications provider, the ETC, are extremely expensive. A 2010 study by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that Ethiopia’s broadband internet connections were among the most expensive in the world when compared with monthly income, and come second only to those in the Central African Republic.
The new legislation also allows the government to inspect any imports of voice communication equipment and accessories, and to ban such imported shipments without prior notification. One suspects this may well simply be the first step in establishing total government control over access and use of the internet, leading to monitoring of emails, social network sites, chat platforms and so on, all of which could now be targeted and monitored. Indeed, RWB has already voiced its fears that the DPI “will be misused for surveillance purposes by a government that already subjects the political opposition and privately-owned media to a great deal of harassment”.
Up until now government acts of repression have been mainly targeted at independent journalists, political activists and opposition supporters living and working outside the country. Journalists working abroad and publishing online find themselves attacked in print by comments from government stooges, as Freedom House states in its report. It said: “In addition to censorship, the authorities use regime apologists, paid commentators and pro-government websites to proactively manipulate the online news and information landscape.” This new move, however, throws a noose around all internet users. As ONI states, “Ethiopia is increasingly jailing journalists, and the government has shown a growing propensity toward repressive behaviour both off- and online. It seems likely that censorship will become more extensive as internet access expands across the country.” Such is democracy under Meles Zenawi.
Unlawful laws of control
The reasons offered for the new legislation by the regime are the well-trodden justifications of the unjust, made by the unlawful. RWB quotes the authorities, as saying that “the ban was needed on national security grounds and because VoIP posed a threat to the state’s monopoly of telephone communications”. Duplicitous at best, such actions of extreme repression are born out of paranoia. And let us point out there should be no such state telecommunications monopoly anyway.
These measures fit into a broader pattern of restrictions of freedom, all of which violate human rights laws. The Anti Terrorist Proclamation that came into effect in 2009, to a chorus of international criticism and fury, set the tone of repression and is being followed with ever-greater ferocity. The Ethiopian constitution, a legally binding document, of course proclaims universally recognized freedoms – all of which the government contravenes. As ONI states, “The Ethiopian government maintains strict control over access to the internet and online media, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press and free access to information.”
What the constitution says
Relevant constitutional statements of intent specifically relating to the media; include Article 29on the “Right of Freedom of Thought, Opinion and Expression”. This states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression without any interference. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any media of his choice.
It also says: “Freedom of the press and other mass media, and freedom of artistic creativity, is guaranteed.”
Regarding the right to privacy, Article 26 makes plain that “Everyone has the right to the inviolability of his notes and correspondence, including postal letters, and communications made by means of telephone, telecommunications and electronic devices. It adds that “Public officials shall respect and protect these rights.”
Censorship by the printing presses
In tandem with the current illegal attacks on internet freedom, the state-owned printing presses are tightening the screws of suppression and are, according to RWB, “demanding the right to censor the newspapers they print”.
Not only is there a state monopoly on telecommunications, but the press are also state owned. There is only one Amharic-language daily national paper, with around 32,000 readers, in a country of 85 million people.
Both television and radio are firmly under the control of the Meles regime.
Berhanena Selam is the main state printer, and has a virtual monopoly on newspaper and magazine printing. Along with other state-owned printers, it is trying to impose political censorship on media content before publication. According to RWB, “In a proposed ‘standard contract for printing’ recently circulated by state printers, they [the printers] assume the right to vet and reject articles prior to printing.” Article 10 of the proposed contract, entitled “Declining to print content violating the law”, states “the printer has the right to refuse to print any text if he has ‘adequate reason’ to think it breaks the law”. This in itself breaks the law as it contravenes Article 29 of the constitution, which prohibits any form of press censorship.
Not only do the actions of the Meles regime – a centralist government in the extreme – contravene the Ethiopian constitution, but the the grave breaches of human rights contravene numerous legally binding international treaties signed by the government. Internet access is a human right and is covered by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This has been clearly emphasized by the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, who has reminded “all states of their positive obligation to promote or to facilitate the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression and the means necessary to exercise this right, including the internet”. He also stresses that “there should be as little restriction as possible to the flow of information via the internet”.
Complete control of the media pertains inside Ethiopia, and these controls are becoming ever more intense with greater disinformation and manipulation of the press and the primary source of news, television.
The Meles regime exercises a brutal and deeply repressive dictatorship. How long will the West, whose dollars, pounds and euros support the needy throughout Ethiopia, continue to turn a blind eye to the myriad human rights violations and a deaf ear to the cries of the people for justice and freedom? Sit not in silence America and Britain as your strategic, undemocratic “ally” in the Horn of Africa suppresses and controls the people of Ethiopia while claiming to act in their interest. Demand that international law is observed, federal law honoured and human rights upheld.
Ethiopia ‘forcibly displacing’ for sugar plantations
By BBC News
18 June 2012 . The sugar plantations will be irrigated in part by the Gibe III hydropower project, HRW says
The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing tens of thousands from their land to make way for state-run sugar plantations, a campaign group has said.
The displacements are happening in the country’s Omo Valley, according to a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The valley, a World Heritage site, is also the site of a controversial dam.
The Ethiopian government has denied forcing anyone from their homes and says the project will create jobs.
HRW says that in order to make space for the plantations, government security forces are compelling communities to relocate from their traditional lands, using violence and intimidation.
In its report, the campaign group says that at the time of its visit to the area – in June 2011 – “military units regularly visited villages to intimidate residents and suppress dissent related to the sugar plantation development”. It added that “soldiers regularly stole or killed cattle”.
These allegations were denied by government spokesman Bereket Simon.
“There is no forcing out of people from their residence, if there is any reason to relocate people, then it is based on… open communication,” he told the AFP news agency.
‘No shortcut’
The sugar plantations will be irrigated in part by the Gibe III hydropower project, the group says.
The dam, which would become Africa’s largest and the fourth-biggest in the world, has provoked much controversy.
The Ethiopian government says that the project must be completed in order to bring energy and development to the country.
But campaigners fear it will fuel conflict over already scarce water resources, and rob communities of their livelihoods.
According to the report, previously unpublished Ethiopian government maps show plans for sugar plantations covering nearly a quarter of a million hectares.
The maps, HRW says, also show processing factories, irrigation channels and large tracts of land reserved for other forms of commercial agriculture.
The group says that if the plans go ahead they could affect at least 200,000 people in the Omo Valley and another 300,000 Kenyans living across the border around Lake Turkana, which derives up to 90% of its water from the Omo River.
The Ethiopian government has said that the dam’s impact on Lake Turkana will be negligible.
HRW describes the region as among the most ecologically and culturally diverse areas on the planet and says it is currently home to eight different agro-pastoral communities.
“Ethiopia’s ambitious plans for the Omo Valley appear to ignore the rights of the people who live there,” said Ben Rawlence, of Human Rights Watch.
“There is no shortcut to development; the people who have long relied on that land for their livelihood need to have their property rights respected, including on consultation and compensation.”
Many other African countries are reserving huge tracts of land for commercial agriculture – often leased by foreigners in order to export the crops cultivated there abroad.
Gibe III would be one of the biggest dams in the world, dwarfing its neighbours
US senator condemns Ethiopia’s persecution of the press
By Mohamed Keita | Committee to Protect Journalists
June 15, 2012.
On Wednesday, the same day the White House announced a strategic plan committing the United States to elevating its efforts in “challenging leaders whose actions threaten the credibility of democratic processes” in sub-Saharan Africa, a senior member of the U.S. Congress challenged the erosion of press freedom in a key U.S. strategic partner in the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia.
Underscoring the importance of Ethiopia asan important partner for the United States in containing terrorism and ending poverty and famine in the region, Senator Patrick Leahy, a democrat from Vermont, published on Thursday a statement in TheCongressional Record, the official daily journal of U.S. Congress, in which he condemned the assault on the freedom of the Ethiopian press under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The senator argued that success for the Obama administration’s new partnership with Meles on food security depends on “broad national consultation, transparency, and accountability,” values, he said, that “depend in no small part on a free press.”
Leahy highlighted the emblematic case of Ethiopia’s most prominent imprisoned journalist and blogger, Eskinder Nega. Eskinder, whom PEN American Center honored this year with the Freedom to Write Award, could be convicted on June 21 on vague terrorism charges that carry a life sentence “simply for refusing to remain silent about the Ethiopian government’s increasingly authoritarian drift.” Five days prior to his arrest in September 2011, Eskinder had published an article criticizing the Meles administration “for misusing a vaguely-worded 2009 antiterrorism law to jail journalists and political opponents,” Leahy said.
In public statements and state media, Ethiopian government officials have sought to discredit Eskinder and the other 10 journalists, calling them terrorist accomplices involved in anti-state activities.
The evidence offered against the journalist in court, Leahy said, included “a video of a town hall meeting in which Eskinder discusses the Arab Spring and speculates on whether similar protests were possible in Ethiopia.” The journalist also consistently highlighted “the government’s denial of human rights, and call[ed] for an end to political repression and corruption” despite being jailed seven times, his wife imprisoned, and his newspapers repeatedly banned over two decades, Leahy said.
Leahy was the third member of Congress, after Alaska Senator Mark Begich and California Representative Edward Royce, to publicly voice concern over the persecution of 11 Ethiopian journalists “for questioning government actions and policies–activities that you and I and people around the world would recognize as fundamental to any free press,” he wrote. He added, “Ironically, by trying to silence those who do not toe the official line, the government is only helping to underscore the concerns that many inside and outside of Ethiopia share about the deterioration of democracy and human rights in that country.”
In the statement, Leahy, the chairman of a sub-committee responsible for funding portions of U.S. assistance to foreign countries, said the “importance of respecting freedom of the press cannot be overstated” in the disbursement of aid to the government.
The Ethiopian government has clamped down on Internet-based voice-calling services, making their use a criminal offence.
Ethiopia’s state-owned Internet service provider, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (Ethio-Telcom), has begun performing deep-packet inspection of all Internet traffic in the country. The country’s government recently ushered in new legislation that criminalises the use of services such as Skype, Google Talk and other forms of Internet phone calling.
The new law, which came into effect on 24 May, makes use of Internet voice services punishable by hefty fines and up to 15 years in prison.
The official line from the government is that the move is intended to protect national security and protect the national, state-owned telecoms carrier from losing revenue to Skype and similar services; this, despite the fact that Ethiopia’s fixed-line penetration rate is the second worst in Africa (after Sierra Leone) at an estimated 1% of its 85m strong population.
Ethiopia has instituted numerous restrictions on its digital community in recent years. The government has previously closed down Internet cafes offering voice-over-Internet protocol services and, in December 2006, made it obligatory for Internet cafes to keep records of the names and addresses of their customers in an effort to clamp down on bloggers and other users critical of the regime.
The new law prohibits all VoIP traffic along with audio and video data traffic via social media. The Africa Review reports that the law also gives the government the right to inspect any imports of voice communication equipment and accessories.
The OpenNet Initiative, which tracks Internet filtering and surveillance, says in a report on Ethiopia that the country already blocks all blogs hosted at blogspot.com and at nazret.com, a site that aggregates Ethiopian news and has space for blogs and forums.
The new legislation is no doubt also motivated by the events of the Arab Spring that saw mass protests organised via social media. With many bloggers critical of Ethiopia’s current government, censorship by the state looks likely to increase.
Protestors demand end of Ethiopian politican’s visit
By Jason Warick | The Star Phoenix (Canada)
The University of Saskatchewan should not be hosting an Ethiopian politician implicated in corruption scandals and the forcible removal of tens of thousands of peasant farmers from their homes, human rights groups say.
A group of 30 protesters from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta stood outside the U of S Administration building Tuesday at noon with placards and flags demanding the removal of Shiferaw Shigute.
“Saskatchewan university, send him back!” chanted the group. “Saskatchewan university, shame on you!”
Tom Wishart, the U of S special adviser on international initiatives, said he was not familiar with the allegations against Shigute, as the delegation arrived just a few days ago. He said the university takes such concerns seriously and the matter is being researched.
Shigute, a minister in the Meles Zenawi national government and chief of Ethiopia’s Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR), arrived in Saskatoon Sunday and has been in private meetings with U of S officials. He is part of a delegation discussing a longtime education and agriculture partnership between the two regions.
Protesters and human rights groups say the partnership has produced many benefits for Ethiopian people, but Shigute’s involvement will raise many questions.
“The university is keeping him hidden,” said Taye Maulugeta of Regina. “We have a right to see him. This guy should not be here.”
Fellow protester Ali Saeed drove overnight from Winnipeg to participate.
“We heard Shigute was invited here. He is responsible for pushing thousands of people off their farms to places where there is no water, no food,” said Saeed, winner of the government of Manitoba’s recent Human Rights Commitment award.
“Why are we in Canada associating with this man?”
According to U.S., European and Ethiopian media reports, legal experts and human rights organizations, Shigute is leading the removal of peasant farmers from southern Ethiopia. Many of these families are allegedly being sent back to the region where the world saw shocking images of famine in the mid-1980s.
Shigute could not be contacted for comment, but he has denied the allegation in media reports from Ethiopia.
“We should not be doing business with this man,” said Obang Metho, a U of S graduate and executive director of Washington D.C.-based Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia.
Metho penned a letter to U of S president Peter MacKinnon, as did officials with other human rights groups in advance of Shigute’s arrival.
“I would like to highly commend the University of Saskatchewan for their laudable efforts in reaching out beyond the borders of our great province and nation to meaningfully address the long-standing issues in Ethiopia of chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, lack of agricultural development and inadequate health care,” Metho wrote.
However, Metho lists the concerns over Shigute’s involvement, including the forced removals, a citation for corruption surrounding his time with the national coffee growers’ association and other allegations. He said the U of S should take a stand for the people of Ethiopia and demand Shigute be removed.
“Truth, academic freedom, freedom of expression and the respect for the basic dignity and rights of all people do not exist in Ethiopia. The U of S, the people of Saskatchewan and the government of Canada can all help create an environment most conducive to success by unflinchingly addressing these issues,” Metho wrote.
Wishart said he’s heard from about one dozen people expressing opposition to Shigute’s presence. Wishart said the university receives 150 different delegations every year and he wasn’t aware of the allegations against Shigute.
“I’m not in a position to make any judgment,” he said.
Wishart said university officials are consulting with the Canadian government and others on the issue, but no conclusions have been reached yet.
Wishart said the 15-year partnership has been of great benefit to both Ethiopia and Saskatchewan, providing valuable education and knowledge exchanges.
Officials with the Canadian government’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade department said they would look into the matter, but had not responded by press time Tuesday.
Ethiopian girls as young as thirteen are being trafficked to the Middle East. The situation is so out of control that an otherwise pro-government publication has felt compelled to speak up.
This is not a small rogue operation. It is human trafficking on an industrial scale, with a wink and a nod from the Ethiopian government. According to various news reports, up to 45,000 Ethiopian women are trafficked each month to Saudi Arabia alone.
Ethiopia’s ruling group is only interested in the foreign exchange earnings generated on the backs of these vulnerable women. The Obama administration remains silent on this issue because the war on terror and alliance with an African tyrant is deemed more important than the lives of millions of poor Ethiopian women.
A blind date with destiny
By Ethiopianreporter.com
June 9, 2012
Presently thousands of Ethiopians in their youth are flocking to the Middle East. A person who happens to be at the immigration authority or at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs here in Addis Ababa is bound to be surprised by the throng of young women they witness teeming in and around the offices of these institutions.
For an onlooker the women seem to be gathered to stage a protest or to celebrate some kind of event, and not to obtain the documents needed to leave the country for work.
Nobody, including us, is arguing that Ethiopians should not be allowed to go abroad and earn their living by selling their labour. This is a right they enjoy.
This said, we are of the firm belief that when Ethiopian citizens travel overseas in search of a job they must do so in compliance with all requirements and their rights and dignity must be protected; they should not be subjected to any degrading treatment that brings shame and dishonor both on themselves and their country. It’s only when the benefits far outweigh the downsides that they should work abroad.
The reality, however, is far from this. The majority of the young women that embark on completing the formalities required to go overseas for work are underage girls recruited by crooked dealers from the rural parts of the country who lie about their ages to obtain a passport. Some are as young as thirteen or fourteen. This is disheartening, to say the least.
Though these young women are informed that they will work as maids in Middle Eastern countries, most of them have no knowledge about the cultures and traditions of the countries they will travel to and are unskilled in the tasks they are expected to perform; they do not receive any training or orientation. This compounds the problem.
Given that they have no clue about urban life, they encounter all sorts of difficulties from the moment they arrive at the capital. They do not know what time to come to the airport for departure or where to go to once they get there, making them liable to various forms of ill-treatment. They begin to experience humiliation right at home.
The indignity does not end there, though. It follows them to their country of destination as well. They are not provided with adequate shelter upon arrival. And as they are compelled to surrender their passports, they cannot return home whenever they wish. Aside from this they endure both physical and mental abuse, which result in the untimely death of some and forces others to resort to crime.
To make matters worse there are reports that Ethiopian workers are being abducted and threatened with death if their families do not pay a ransom. Families that expect their daughters to send some money are on the contrary selling their cattle and other prized possessions to save the lives of their beloved ones and becoming even poorer than they already are.
Reports also abound of Ethiopian refuges being misled about where they are migrating to and ending up as forced labourers, prostitutes or victims of organ harvesting. As a result they are suffering from a nervous breakdown, committing suicide or turning to crime.
All in all Ethiopian workers overseas or refugees who flee in search of a better life are subjected to egregious abuses that have terrible consequences and are a source of utter shame for them, their families and their country.
Why is this happening to us? Isn’t there something we can do about it?
There is and there should be. The responsibility of finding a holistic and prompt solution, understandably, rests on the shoulders of the government. This calls for it to conduct an in-depth analysis of the nature and cause of the problem as well as the policies and procedures currently in place and come up with a comprehensive solution.
On our part we believe the centerpiece of the government’s obligation in this regard should be to formulate and execute policies and plans aimed at enabling the youth in Ethiopia to improve their livelihood right at home without having to go abroad.
Alongside this the government needs to ensure that when it is determined that citizens and the country stand to benefit from the migration of labour it properly regulates the whole process so that unscrupulous human traffickers do not cause the harm they are inflicting on citizens and the nation. Issuing a statement declaring that such and such number of Ethiopians have left the country for work does not amount to discharging one’s duties as a government. Accordingly it is important to establish in addition to and independent of the immigration authority and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs a government agency tasked with ascertaining that citizens desirous to go abroad for work have attained minimum age, are healthy and receive the requisite training as well as with monitoring whether their rights and benefits are respected and, when necessary, facilitating their return home in a dignified manner.
Generally speaking we should not be blinded by the hard currency Ethiopian workers or refugees remit. We need to remind ourselves of the physical, emotional and financial toll it takes on the workers/refugees and their families as well as the humiliation and indignity it subjects Ethiopians and their country to.
Let’s not sell out our citizens’ dignity for the sake of the income derived from selling their labour.
