Stop British complicity in human rights abuses in Somalia (Respect)

This Government are never done talking about the shortcomings of African leaders. Just last week in Rome, the Secretary of State for International Development was roaring at Robert Mugabe, yet there has not been a squeak out of him, or any other Minister, about the much bigger crime in which we are ourselves deeply complicit. Is it any wonder that African opinion considers so much of what we have to say about misgovernance in Africa to be the deepest, most cynical hypocrisy?

Two weeks ago, Channel 4’s “Dispatches” team took terrifying risks to bring us the latest from occupied Mogadishu. That was undoubtedly an award-winning documentary. It was memorable for many reasons, not least the scene in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when the Minister of State, Lord Malloch-Brown, his face frozen in horror, was confronted by Aidan Hartley with the central case of the documentary makers. For the benefit of Members who did not see the programme—the Minister will certainly have seen it; she would hardly be sent out to bat on this wicket without being shown it—that central case was that, in the grim prison state of occupied Somalia, the fingerprints of our country and our Government were all over the scene of the crime....more..

British law maker blasts Meles regime (Addisvoice)

British lawmaker blasts Meles regime

June 14, 2008 (AV) British Member of Parliament George Galloway has criticised the Meles regime for its continued aggression against Somalia while the people of Ethiopia are starving. He said that immediately after television viewers across the world watched shocking pictures of starving children, the Meles regime increased its military budget. "The US and Britain immediately pledged $90 million in famine relief. Just one week after its appeal to the international community for famine relief, the Ethiopian Government increased their military budget by $50 million to $400 million. The regime in Addis Ababa—when I knew them in the 1980s, they were pro-Albanian Maoists—are the most militarised and heavily armed in Africa." Mr Galloway also slammed the Ethiopian embassy in London which is to hold a grand party to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the coming to power of the TPLF. "The Ethiopian Government are having a beano in the Ethiopian embassy in London to celebrate the 17th anniversary of their coming to power, and it is going to be a very grand event. That event comes at a time when the Ethiopian Government’s own people are starving to death," he said. more..

UDJ UPDATE

UDJ CONGRESS BANNED ! Source Unity for Democracy and Justice

At about 4 o'clock pm today, the police told Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ)—former CUDP---that it cannot hold its Founding Congress which was scheduled to be held at the Imperial Hotel, tomorrow, Saturday, June 14, 2008. Their excuse is that we do not have prior permission for holding a public gathering. Peaceful assembly is guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution. There is no law that requires obtaining prior permission for indoor gathering. The hotel reservation was made over two weeks ago. The Hotel Management had informed the relevant authorities on the details of the gathering – a usual practice – over a week ago and were told that it could go ahead as scheduled. Then, suddenly, there came this ban on a Friday, at the end of the day's working hours, followed by a weekend. We believe that this was a deliberate measure calculated to prevent the Congress from taking place. It is an illegal measure that violated our constitutional right. Over 400 delegates were to attend the Congress at the Imperial Hotel. Two-thirds of these delegates have come from the Regions. The rest are from Addis. UDJ had spent over four months painstakingly preparing for this Congress. The preparation started with the gathering of founding-members signatures from throughout the country, the preparation of documents such as the Programme and Bylaw and the selection of delegates. We started our preparations with the full knowledge of the National Electoral Board. We have invested about 300,000 birr on this Congress and on various preparations leading to it. We are examining several options on what to do next. One of the options is to hold the Congress in-house: on the premises of our office. The space available is very limited, weather condition is not favorable. We may have to make drastic adjustments in our programme such as limiting activities, without affecting vital ones, and extending the meeting by a half day. We see the present obstacle before us as a challenge. The Congress will be held, if not tomorrow, then soon.

Unity for Democracy and Justice June 13, 2008 Addis Ababa

UN Security Council condemns Eritrean attack on Djibouti (IHT)

A statement approved by the 15 council members and read by its president at a formal meeting urged the nations to commit to a cease-fire and called on Djibouti and, in particular, its northern neighbor Eritrea, to show "maximum restraint" and withdraw forces from the border along Red Sea shipping lanes.....more..

Éthiopiques: sounds of Ethiopia the generals could not crush (Times Online)

It wasn’t always this way. In the late 1960s, Ethiopia was home to some of the funkiest big bands on the continent, long before the country was pegged as a drought-stricken hell by Band Aid. Forty years on, a concert at the Barbican in London on June 27 brings together for the first time the era’s greatest stars: the singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Alè-mayèhu Eshèté, the saxophonist Gétatchèw Mèkurya and pianist Mulatu Astatqé. Musically and emotionally, it promises to be among the gigs of the year. The following night they headline at Glastonbury, an inspired alternative to Jay-Z....more..

Somalia loosing identity: will Ethiopia alter the demography? (American Chrinicle)

One of the Ethiopian immigrants, Genet Mengesha, a 24-year-old mother of one and former university student, told Reuters News Agency at Port City of Bosasso, Somalia that she lost her brother and sister during public uprising against Meleze Sanawi in 2005. "It was not save for me to continue living in Ethiopia, because of the authorities were hunting those participated in the upraising." She added we are living in Somalia and there is no plan to go back to our homeland until Meleze regime is active....more..

Yacob Hailemariam removes himself from UDJ leadership (Ethiopian Review)

This coming weekend, UDJ will hold its general assembly meeting to decide how the party should move forward and to also elect new leaders. So far, five of the party’s most senior leaders, Ato Muluneh Eyoel, Dr Befikadu Degife, Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, Dr Yacob Hailemariam, and Ato Seleshi Tena, have made their intention clear not be part of the leadership, citing the extremely hostile political climate in the country created by the U.S.-financed dictatorship of Meles Zenawi...more..

Will it ever be able to stave off starvation? ( Economist )

Mr Zenawi is particularly sensitive about famine talk. He has denied that pastoralists in the south are losing livestock to the drought or that the rates of malnutrition elsewhere are at all close to what foreign aid workers claim. The government has banned photographs of the starving and has told field workers not to give information to foreign journalists....more..

Rights group's report fabricated, says Ethiopia (Reuters)

he government said the U.S.-based group's "groundless" report was based on information provided by sympathisers of the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)....more..

Somali President attacked at Mogadishu airport agai( xinhuanet)n

MOGADISHU, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Islamist insurgents attacked the Mogadishu airport and the motorcade of Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf, for the third time in a month, as the president was to fly for Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, presidential spokesman confirmed to Xinhua on Thursday....more..

UK 'complicit in Ethiopian war crimes' (Telegraph)

Britain is "complicit" in war crimes in Ethiopia because it is "turning a blind eye" to sustained human rights abuses carried out on civilians by the country's armed forces, Human Rights Watch said today.

Women were raped until they were unconsciousness, children were tortured and tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes in a "scorched earth" campaign ordered by one of Britain's closest allies in Africa, Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi....more...

Ethiopia military accused of rape and torture in fight against rebels (Guadian)

Ethiopia's government has committed extensive war crimes and crimes against humanity during a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the remote Ogaden region, a report says today.

Human Rights Watch accuses the Ethiopian military of extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, forcibly displacing thousands of civilians and using food as a weapon of war in its attempts to defeat the Ogaden National Liberation Front over the past year. Satellite images in the report show how villages have been razed to deny the rebels a support base. The images have been corroborated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science....more...

Also click here to get full report in pdf file

US denies it ignored rights abuse in Ethiopia (LA Times)

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is aware of allegations of human rights abuses by Ethiopia's military but is continuing a military aid program in hopes the troops become more professional.

The country in the Horn of Africa is an ally in President Bush's fight against terrorism....more..

US Denies Silence on Rights Abuses in Ethiopia (VOA)

The United States said Thursday it has "persistently" expressed concern about human rights in Ethiopia with top officials in Addis Ababa, including alleged abuses in the Ogaden region. The comments follow an assertion by the monitoring group Human Rights Watch that the United States and key European countries have been silent on Ogaden rights violations. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department....more..

Ethiopian sets world record in one-hour run (CBC)

Ethiopia's Dire Tune set a new world record in the one-hour run during the Golden Spike Grand Prix meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Thursday....more..

Images back Ethiopia abuse claim (BBC)

US scientists say satellite images confirm reports that the Ethiopian military have burnt towns and villages in Ethiopia's Somali region.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science says the images back up a Human Rights Watch's report...more..

Group accuses Ethiopia of war crimes in Ogaden (Victoria Advocate)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDYAssociated Press Writer

June 12, 2008 - 5:23 a.m.

Ethiopia's government is committing war crimes in its military campaign against rebels in the Ogaden region, a rights group charged Thursday in a report that complained the U.S. and other Western governments willfully ignored abuses....more..

West fails to condemn Ethiopia rights abuses: rights group (Reuters)

By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Western donors have failed to condemn war crimes by Ethiopian forces during a year-old campaign against separatist fighters in the country's eastern Ogaden region, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday...more..

Cry for mother Ethiopia (Ethiopian Review)

We are hungry and destitute for variety of reasons. The single most important cause of hunger is ‘lack of sovereignty’. We are not in charge anymore. This trend did not start yesterday. We have been sliding towards this hellhole of ‘neo-colonial’ camp the last forty years or so. After assuming power the TPLF minority regime was too happy to facilitate the eventual take over of our country by the industrialized west and international bankers.

The mafia clique in charge is doing this not because they are evil, nor because they have a hidden agenda to destroy Ethiopia and liberate Tigrai. That is just a smoke screen. The people of Tigrai are made to feel insecure by waving Amhara Nationalism. The Amhara are made hostile towards all of Tigrains by overplaying the non-existent over development of the region at the expense of others. Meles and company are doing this because that is the only way they can stay in power. TPLF is not a mass based organization. In today’s Ethiopia they have no single interest group they can count on. Their main constituents are the foreigners.

On planet Earth the most vital resource is food. We all get sidetracked by this talk of oil, gold and other rare natural resources. If you think about it without food all others lose their value. Without human being the Earth will be another ball among billions in this vast wonderful universe we call home. At the moment this is the only place where life is known to exist. Without food to sustain us we will not exist. This is exactly our problem in Ethiopia. We do not have enough food to sustain us. But what happened to our food?

We are but just another victim of globalization and the new international order. The military regime, which assumed power after the ‘74 famine, was in the words of our beautiful son Teddy Afro ‘le lewte yalfeterew seltan lai seweta’ situation. The world was polarized between the West and the East and the Derg gravitated towards the Soviet Union. It was a time Russia’s power and influence was ascending and the US was on a retreat mode. The Soviets poured in arms and Cuban solders to reel us into their orbit. The illiterate and cruel Derg mowed down the most experienced older generation and the most educated new generation of our country. We became an empty shell of our former self...more..

Djibouti says clashes with Eritrean troops at border ( Reuters)

10 Jun 2008 19:57:41 GMT

Source: Reuters

DJIBOUTI, June 10 (Reuters) - Djiboutian soldiers clashed with Eritrean troops for the first time in a nearly two-month old standoff, Djiboutian state media reported on Tuesday. The Eritrean government was not immediately available for comment, and no independent confirmation of the clash was immediately available....more..