NAIROBI, July 1 (Reuters) – Eritrea scoffed on Sunday at comments by dictator Meles Zenawi that his neighbour and arch-foe might be considering an invasion, saying such talk was a smokescreen to cover “domestic chaos”.
A short but withering editorial from Asmara also criticised Meles’ “boot-licking” foreign policy in Somalia where he has sent troops to back the government against Islamists.
At odds since a devastating 1998-2000 border war, Ethiopia and Eritrea’s unremitting enmity is seen as a major destabilising factor across the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden zones.
Meles ratcheted up tensions earlier this week by saying Ethiopia was making the necessary military preparations to deter “a possible Eritrean invasion”.
While he gave no specific new information, the United Nations has chided both sides this year for moving several thousand troops towards the disputed border area.
Their unresolved territorial dispute has been exacerbated by the Somalia conflict, where Meles openly backs the government and Eritrea is perceived by many to support the Islamists.
Addis Ababa also accuses Asmara of increasing support to anti-Meles rebel groups within Ethiopia.
“As to what he is referring to as ‘tension’ from the Eritrean side and the so-called military preparations, it is but meant to set terror and use the occasion as an excuse to raise a smokescreen so as to hide from the present domestic chaos,” Eritrea said in an editorial on its shabait.com Web site.
“It is nothing but a lament born out of disturbance.”
Ethiopia is engaged in a bloody offensive against Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels in its remote east, and also faces threats from insurgents in other corners. Futhermore, it is under intense pressure from the West over the detention and trial of scores of opposition activists.
“As to what he has said about Somalia, it is totally a meaningless meandering,” the Eritrean editorial added of Meles’ references in the same speech to his Somalia policy.
Meles said he was slowing down the planned exit of his troops from Somalia until a national reconciliation conference had proven successful, the government was stabilised, and an Africa peacekeeping mission was up to strength.
“The clique doesn’t surely know yet what kind of order it will need to perform tomorrow, after it has wilfully carried out the invasion licking the boots of foreign forces,” the editorial said, implying Ethiopia was under U.S. instructions when it entered Somalia last year.
Asmara routinely refers to Meles’ government as a “clique” in reference to the former guerrilla leader’s ethnic background from the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Some 70,000 people died in the 1998-2000 war over a border of barren plains and dusty villages.
Accra/Nairobi (dpa) – Leaders from around Africa met in the Ghanaian capital Accra Sunday as part of a three-day summit to discuss a United States of Africa, which would see a shared foreign and defence policy across the continent.
Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi has spearheaded the push for a greater federation amongst the 53 nations of the African Union (AU), holding its ninth summit since its creation five years ago, in order to exercise greater clout in the global arena.
“For Africa, the matter is to be or not to be,” Gaddafi told students at the University of Ghana on the eve of the summit. “My vision is to wake up the African leaders to unify our continent,” he said.
AU summits have ordinarily tackled individual state’s armed conflicts but the body was set to devote most of the Accra meeting to the idea of a united Africa.
African leaders seem divided on the issue, especially in wealthier states like South Africa and Nigeria, which often foot the bill and deploy the most soldiers for peacekeeping missions around the continent.
Others believe focusing on the pan-African government may push conflicts in Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia off the agenda.
At its last summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in January, AU leaders failed to make any breakthrough on the ongoing crises in Sudan’s Darfur region and the simmering insurgency in Somalia, which is a daily threat to the interim government.
Meanwhile on Saturday, the AU was briefed on a report that showed only seven of 53 member states had paid their dues on time.
Houston – Probably the most famous fossil of all time — Lucy the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton — will be there in August. Lucy, about 3 1/2 feet tall, was found in Ethiopia 1974 and belonged to an ape-man species.
“Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia,” will be at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from Aug. 31 to April 20, 2008. The exhibition also will include more than 100 Ethiopian artifacts. According to a museum announcement, Ethiopians believe that a dynasty of emperors that ruled the country until 1974 were descendants of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
Admission: $20 for adults; $12 for children ages 3 to 11, seniors (62 and older), and college students with a valid ID; $9 for museum members; $6 for school groups; and $10 for groups of 20 or more. For tickets, or more information, visit www.hmns.org or call 713- 639-4629.
Ato Andargachew Tsige, a senior official of the Kinijit International Leadership, is currently in Accra, Ghana, to attend the annual African Union Summit. Ato Andargachew is carrying the following message from Kinijit to be delivered at the 3-day summit which will convene today:
______________________ Statement on the Union Government of Africa
The Coalition for Unity & Democracy (Kinijit)
The Heads of States and Governments of the African Union (AU), at their forthcoming Summit in Accra (Ghana), are expected to put another milestone in the political history of the Continent. At this Summit, the modalities of transforming the AU into the Union Government of Africa; popularly referred to as the United States of Africa, will be at the centre of the negotiation. The International Political Committee of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP-Kinijit) has the honour and the privilege to forward the compliments of our jailed leaders to the Head of States and Governments of Africa, and express our party’s support for the unity of Africa through peaceful and democratic means.
The Union Government of Africa will be successful, if and only, if the source of political power is the ballot box; through free and fair elections; and its governance structure is unambiguously founded on the principles of separations of powers; with an independent and transparent judiciary and the rule of law; a vibrant press that harnesses democracy, traditions and value systems; and an academia whose mission is to advance new knowledge and provide the education and skills required for the new economy. These key enabling features of good governance and development should be enshrined in an overarching Continental Constitution that should be ratified by a referendum.
The Union Government of Africa, if formed under the above solid grounds, brings nightmares to anti democratic regimes in the Continent; whose hands and minds have been the cause of bloodsheds and misery to millions of Africans. They will object and sabotage its formation as it will expose not only their maladministration, but their horrendous crimes against humanity. One such regime is unfortunately found in Ethiopia.
The details of the illegitimate Prime Minister’s misrule of Ethiopia are too many to be detailed in this statement. Inspecting the December 15, 2005 resolution of the European Parliament and the draft bill of the United States Congress and the reports of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council provides a glimpse of the atrocities committed by the regime. In other words, there is overwhelming evidence that allows the AU to invoke the instruments of international law and its own conventions against such regimes, including the minority regime in Ethiopia and its cabal.
Meles Zenawi is not only dangerous to Ethiopians. His venom has started to spread to the rest of the Continent. We therefore call upon the Heads of States and Governments of the AU to first and foremost save NEPAD and the APRM. These programmes and institutions are too important to be left to rot in the hands of a charlatan. It is indeed ridiculous and ironic to find Meles at the helm of these institutions. Hence, we call upon President John Kufuor, the current President of the AU to officially raise these concerns at the Summit, and address the plight of political prisoners in the continent.
The annual African Union summit is to start in Accra, Ghana, today. The summit, which will last for three days, is to discuss the prospects for greater unity and help boost the fight against poverty on the world’s poorest continent.
The summit stands as a symbol of Africa’s freedom from slavery, colonialism and apartheid. Libya and its allies want to force through a United States of Africa with no borders, a single state with one president and one passport.
On the margins of this summit are the Darfur crisis and the deployment of the hybrid force in Sudan will also be discussed.
South Africa and Algeria will also come under the peer review spotlight. President Thabo Mbeki is among leaders of the 53 African countries attending the summit.
EAST GRAND RAPIDS — Alene Reta knew nothing about the LaSalle Bank Reeds Lake Run until he made a visit to the area Thursday to spend time with a friend. Now the area knows Reta.
The 25-year-old Ethiopian from Manhattan took home a pair of $550 checks by taking the 5K and 10K titles Saturday morning as part of a record-setting field for the Reeds Lake Run.
Reta posted a time of 14 minutes and 12.05 seconds to hold off Ryan Sheehan (14:18.65) of the Rochester Hills-based Hansons-Brooks Distance Project race team. Kyle Baker (14:24) of Grand Rapids took third.
Reta and Baker then double-dipped, with the former winning the 10K in 31:08.90, while Baker (31:17.95) settled for runner-up status worth $350.
Lansing’s Nathan Usher ran 32:32.70 for third place and $250.
In the women’s competition, Novi’s Denisa Costescu, 31, continued her success this year at local road runs with a winning time of 37:29.15 in the 10K, and a third-place showing in the 5K (16:57.90), behind champion Melissa White (16:20.10) and Desiree Davila (16:27.25), both of Royal Oak.
A record 2,314 participants combined to take part in the 3.1- and 6.2-mile events on a favorable morning for running. The 8 a.m. 5K was greeted by blue skies, a 54-degree temperature and a five mph northeast wind.
The old record of 2,223 was established last year.
“I really didn’t want to run the 10K, because I have an 8K race this Saturday. I was concentrating on the 5K, and was going to use the 10K as just a training run. But I’ll take two wins,” Reta said.
Baker, Reta and Sheehan broke away from the 5K pack at the halfway point. The three were no more than 10 meters apart until Reta took off at two miles.
In the 10K, Reta separated himself from Baker at the three-mile point.
“I’ve had nagging injuries and my training has been all over the place, so I never know how I’m going to feel. But I felt good today,” said Baker, 31, a former All-American and assistant coach at Michigan State. “Despite my ups and downs, I’m in good shape, but not in great enough shape to be able to catch (Reta).”
Baker will use the remainder of the summer and fall training for November’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials. Reta is hoping to earn a spot as a 5,000-meter runner on the 2008 Ethiopian team.
Costescu has won March’s Spectrum Health Irish Jig 5K, May’s Fifth Third River Bank Run 5K and the Reeds Lake 10K. She was second in June’s Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K and third in Saturday’s 5K.
Not bad for a 31-year-old mother who gave birth to daughter Alisia Olteaner 14 months ago.
“I’ve had a lot of success in this area, and I even felt pretty good in the 5K,” said Costescu, a Romania native. “(White and Davila) just stayed behind me enough to (draft) and then fly past me at the end, which was good race strategy on their part.
“I’m stronger with my running than before having Alisia. She’s my motivation.”
Costescu will spend the rest of the year traveling the country competing in 5K and 10K runs. Her hope is to make the Romanian Olympic team in the 5,000, which she said would mean dropping her 5K time to around 15:20.
