Elections, Qatar, Commodity Exchange and Teddy Afro –(Quatero)

....When there is too much noise from the regime, you know something is up. You have to be alert to separate the chaff from the grain. They just throw everything at you. This time their main aim was to deflect attention from the sham ‘election’ they were orchestrating. It was considered to be a non-event by everybody except the regime....more..

Solve Ethiopia’s governance crises (Business Daily Afrivca)

Why the regime prefers to go through the motion of an election, when it has literally zero interest or commitment to honour the choices and voices of the people particularly when they vote for opposition party candidates, strikes any impartial observer as nothing else but activities that are supremely diversionary, opportunistic, cynical and immoral. It is the regime’s indulgence which appears to be a cruel joke on the people....more

Somali children freed from mosque (BBC)

...Among the dead were religious leaders from the Tabliq Sufi sect, which had stayed out of the conflict.

The UN emergency relief co-ordinator John Holmes has called for action against those involved in the attack....more..

Amnesty urges Ethiopia to probe Mogadishu mosque executions (AFP)

...Seven of the 21 killed at the mosque were reported to have had their throats cut, a form of illegal execution practised by Ethiopian troops in Somalia," it said...more..

Somalia/Ethiopia: Deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime (African Press Organization)

“Deliberately killing civilians is a war crime,” said Amnesty International. “We call on the Ethiopian government to ensure an independent investigation is carried out into the raid on the mosque and the subsequent treatment of those detained by its forces.”..more..

Ethiopia denies Amnesty’s accusation of killings at mosque (The Peninsula

Some moderate Islamist leaders in Somalia have postponed plans to attend UN-sponsored peace talks after the mosque incident and an escalation of fighting in Mogadishu...more..

Army slit throats in mosque, says Amnesty (Herald sun)

"Eye-witnesses report that those killed inside the mosque were unarmed civilians taking no active part in hostilities," Amnesty said.

"Seven of the 21 were reported to have died after their throats were cut - a form of extra-judicial execution practiced by Ethiopian forces in Somalia.". ...more..

Internet Enemies (Reporter Without boarder)

The government in May 2006 blocked access to opposition websites and the most read blogs. The information ministry said at the time that “technical problems do occur from time to time (...) but [that its] intention was not to censor". The blog platform, Blogspot.com, was blocked preventing Internet-users from communicating and getting out information about the situation in the country. The Ethiopian blog and news portal Nazret.com, was also blocked....more..

Berhanu, Andargachew and others resign from Kinijit(Ethipian Review)

PRESS RELEASE

Elections and desiganted losers (Ethiomedia)

..I have seen people in democratic countries as they walk out of election booths with their heads held high and walking majestically knowing full well that their votes count towards the ownership of their governments. For God's sake, how can you have elections when you don’t have choices to make and even if you choose you are not sure what the authorities do with your vote? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Paradoxically, Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s Comical Ali, is in full gear telling everyone left and right that all problems of the elections are caused by the opposition, the designated losers. I am always flabbergasted by the density of this man’s head and the boldness with which he speaks. It is like a raPublish Postpist accusing his victim of making noise....more..

The “Sleeping Giant” is half awakened (Addis Voice)

... “Election results will be quicker than in Zimbabwe” Bereket Semon, Chief of the Political Bureau of the EPRDF. I guess Mr. Bereket is right, and in deed election results are much quicker in Ethiopia than in Zimbabwe because Bereket’s party new super-computer has the capability to accurately forecast election results weeks ahead of the election....more..

Locusts storm Ethiopia (afrol)

afrol News, 18 April - Locust breeding and swarms have been reported near Konso and the Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia, despite the increased rainfall over the last week across the country, Food Emergency Warning System alerted...more..

A brother and sister from Ethiopia found a home with Sask. parents desperate for their own family (Canada)

One of the oldest countries in the world - Ethiopian dynastic history is traced back to 1,000 BC - it's also one of the most destitute. More than 80 per cent of the population lives on less than $2 US a day. Nearly two million people have either HIV or AIDS. The life expectancy is just 49.23 years, 194th out of 217 countries and barely ahead of Afghanistan, Rwanda and Sierra Leone....more..

Ethiopia's Election Panel, Opposition Trade Accusations (VOA)

"Our hopes and aspirations for democracy have been dashed, and at this moment we appeal to our members, supporters and the people of Ethiopia in general to support us in our peaceful struggle against this emerging absolutism and disregard for the supremacy of the law," said Bulcha Demeksa...more..

Ethiopia: Gov’t blames rebels backed by Eritrea for deadly city blasts (Somainet)l

The ONLF has got nothing to do with this at all," spokesman Abdirahman Mahdi said by telephone from London. "These attacks happened in Addis, far from our area of operations. And besides, it is not our policy to harm civilians....more..

Ethiopians see consolidated Stalinism in latest elections (Ethipmedia)

When Stephen Sacker of the BBC's Hardtalk questioned the impartiality of the National Electoral Board following the deadliest 2005 elections, Meles Zenawi said he had no influence on Board members who were elected by a certain president about 10 years ago.

The journalist followed up his question with: "who was the president a decade ago?" "I was," came the surprise response, which prompted Sacker to stare Meles in the eye, and said, "You have been in power for 14 years?"..read more for the answer.

Another Ethiopia opposition party pulls out of polls (Reuters)

OFDM election observers were callously mistreated. They were refused entry to polling stations. Our observers were pushed like they were intruders," Bulcha told reporters. "Under these circumstances, the OFDM has decided to withdraw from the local election of April 20, 2008.... more..

Power Politics Trumps Democracy in U.S.-backed Ethiopia (The indypendent )

“I was in an isolation cell at that time. They came for me in the middle of the night,” Nega recalls, calmly explaining how one night he was blindfolded and dragged by his armpits into another room he can only refer to as the “torture chamber.”

“They flip you over onto your back with your feet in the air, and then hit you on the bottom of your feet, and everywhere with an electrical cord. I couldn’t move for weeks afterward.”

Nega’s story echoes accounts of intimidation, arrests and beatings recounted by journalists in many parts of the world. Alarmingly, these accounts of iron-fisted censorship emerge not only from the notoriously repressive regimes that often make the news such as North Korea, Burma or Iran. Just as often they come from the political darlings of the United States’ foreign policy; places like Pakistan, Egypt and more recently Ethiopia....more..

Ethiopia: The one hundred years homework (africanpath)

Here is where the "Fire and Straw/Esatina Chid" that worried Meles Zenawi and made him speak in animated mode in his parliament. He knows that coming together of all political groups without preconditions is going to shorten the one hundred years homework we were given by Isayas by many years...more

Ethiopia opposition alleges intimidation at polls (Herald Tribune)

This week, a report on the current polls by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said its researchers noted "systemic patterns of repression and abuse that have rendered the elections meaningless in many areas". More..

Unrest simmers in Ethiopia's Ogaden (Aljazeera)

Human Rights Watch says that civilians have borne the brunt of the military response, with whole villages razed to the ground as well as public executions, rapes and torture...more..

UNICEF urges birth registration as kids' right in Ethiopia( afriquenligne)

.."These children are deprived of their basic rights, and with no documentary evidence to prove how old they are or even who they are, they are likely to join the millions facing discrimination and the lack of access to basic services such as health and education," said UNICEF Country Representative Bjorn Ljungqvist...More..

Rights group says it is 'too late to salvage' upcoming Ethiopian elections (iht)

..."It is too late to salvage these elections, which will simply be a rubber stamp on the (the ruling party's) near-monopoly on power at the local level," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Still, officials must at least allow the voters to decide how and whether to cast their ballots without intimidation."...More...

Second Opposition Faction Preparing Boycott of Ethiopia Vote (VOA)

"We went in for the sake of peace and stability in our country," said Bulcha Demeksa. "We did not want to be the cause of any crisis. But when the government shows no willingness to cooperate, and wants to be the only party which governs ethiopia, then we have no hope. We cannot work with this kind of party. We have to quit and show the world we are not able to work with them."..More..

Land clashes kill 18 in Ethiopia(Reuter)

ADDIS ABABA, April 9 (Reuters) - Clashes over grazing and farm land killed 18 people last week near the southern Ethiopian town of Wondo-Genet, police said....more...

Ethiopia's Inflation Accelerates to 22.4% in February on Food (Bloonburg)

..Inflation expanded from 19.4 percent in January, the Addis Ababa-based agency said in a report today. Food prices climbed 30.2 percent on an annual basis, from 28 percent in January, according to the report...More..

Ending Ethiopia's U.S.-Backed Somalia Occupation (black star news)

Many Human Rights groups have also documented the impunity with which Ethiopian troops have operated in Somalia in the past year. In August 2007, Human Rights Watch released a major report titled Shell-Shocked: Civilians under Siege in Mogadishu documenting the crimes against civilians committed by all the warring factions during March and April of 2007.
The report specifically documented the deliberate shelling by Ethiopian troops of densely populated areas including hospitals, the looting of private property and the mass arrests and detentions of civilians. ..more..

Who is Birtukan? (Ethiopolitics)

By Addis Admass Magazine - Amharic interview ...Click here to read more