Ethiopian Activists Opposed to Meles Claim Power-Cable Sabotage Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/23/bloomberg1376-

Tinsae said it and other groups are planning a cam paign of "peaceful civil resistance" to bring about "multiparty Western- style democracy where government exists to serve the people" in Ethiopia. A Facebook group calling for protests on May 28 against the rule of Meles's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front said 3,112 people had confirmed they would attend. The date is the 20th anniversary of when rebels marched into Addis Ababa to remove Mengistu Haile Mariam's Marxist military junta from power.read more

Jailed journalist: 'I will never hesitate from criticizing'(CNN)

"It's my belief that getting outside or preferring exile and living under such repressive situations are the same form, because as far as I go in exercising my professional duty abroad, that doesn't replace the ultimate freedom that I need in my entire life," says Kebede. Read more.

ደርግ የተወገደበት ሃያኛ ዓመት (DW)

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ESAT interview dr Getachew Begashaw may 2011

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በአዲስ አበባ የታክሲዎች ከፊል የስራ ማቆም አድማ (DW)

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An Imaginary Conversation with Nelson Mandela – Alemayehu G. Mariam (ANAASO)

Q. Do you believe an election is a contract between Africa’s iron-fisted rulers and the people?

A. “Only free men can negotiate, prisoners can’t enter in contracts.” .. read more

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Ethiopia censors UNESCO World Press Freedom Day event (CPJ)

New York, May 5, 2011--Officials in Ethiopia hijacked a local UNESCO-sponsored World Press Freedom Day event, installing government-backed journalists as speakers and nixing independent journalists slated to speak. There was no discussion, as originally planned, of this year's global theme on new media and the Internet at the Tuesday forum, according to local sources and news reports...more...

The Mega Nile Dam and the Millennium Bond: Redemption or Deception of the TPLF Government? (Ethiomedia)

Many Ethiopians are wondering why Zenawi’s regime decided to embark on this huge project that could have serious impact on peace, stability, and development of the country and the region. The general sentiment is captured in a paragraph of an article by an anonymous writer that appeared on Ethiomedia, May April 26, 2001:

Undoubtedly, given the topography of the Blue Nile valley, constructing a hydroelectric dam on it requires a high-level engineering technology not to speak of the billions of Birr it requires. Has Meles acquired donor funding for it? We know he hasn’t and in the deputy prime minister’s own admission they have not secured any funding; and it is highly unlikely that donors will ever fund it because of political reasons that can trigger the wrath of Egypt thereby affecting the Middle East peace process. Why choosing this risky business at this time? No funding, political risks: why risk it now? Is it really possible to build a dam of such scale without donors’ grants or loans from them but with contributions from the most impoverished people in the world and by selling bonds to them? We can discern from this that the purpose of the millennium project rhetoric is not development as it is neither serious nor feasible. By now, we can see the dominant feature of the political aspect in this project. It is indeed a political project aimed at deceiving the public and diverting their attention from a possible uprising....more..

TPLF and the art of reverse engineering (Zikkir)

By Yilma Bekele

When you take an object apart to see how it works, or take software and disassemble it to locate the source code it is referred to as reverse engineering. Basically what you are doing is inverting the system by going back wards the developmental cycle all the way to conception. Reverse engineering begins with a final product and works backwards...read more..

Journalists: Ethiopia Hijacked Press Freedom Day Conference (VOA)

Conference co-organizer Argaw Ashine called the incident "embarrassing” "The problem is mistrust between the media and the government. It’s very sad because we had a lot of issues to be discussed during this event," Argaw said....more..

The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors (CJP)

The world’s worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old-school techniques. From China’s high-level malware attacks to Syria’s brute-force imprisonments, this may be only the dawn of online oppression. A CPJ special report by Danny O’Brien. ...Read more

Uganda unrest gathers pace despite bloody government crackdown (Guardian.co.uk)

"We know they are going to arrest many people and put them in torture chambers. We know this regime has expired. These are the signs." ...read more..

ANALYSIS : Ethiopia’s usefulness eclipses its repressiveness (The New age)

This close relationship with Ethiopia is coming under the spotlight as the wave of people power in North Africa and the Middle East has inspired Ethiopian opposition movements to follow suit. In March, the Ethiopian Americans Council wrote to US President Barak Obama about the political situation in Ethiopia and the growing political suppression by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). They claim the punitive legislation such as the Civil Society Law, Anti-Terror Law and Press Law hamper the ability to organise public meetings and rallies, and to raise funds. They have warned that Ethiopians are organizing strikes and demonstrations for the coming months, and claim that an uprising has already begun in the southern region. It is alleged that security forces used deadly force against peaceful protestors on March 7 and 9 in the Gamgofa zone. The Council is seeking US support for the opposition’s campaign.....

Compared to Egypt and Tunisia, Ethiopia has a much smaller, less educated middle class, with less access to the internet. Internet connection in Ethiopia is 0.5% compared to 21.2% in Egypt. Somalia, which has not had a stable government for more than 20 years, has a higher internet connection rate than Ethiopia.....read more.

Ethiopia Declines to Respond to US Rights Charges (VOA)

It depicts a state with a widespread system of paid informants reporting on people’s activities, where criminal courts are subject to significant political intervention and influence, and where non-governmental organizations say hundreds of political prisoners are being held.
The 56-page report documents restrictions on academic and press freedoms, including intimidation and detention of journalists, jamming foreign broadcasts, blocking internet websites, and prohibiting political activity on college campuses. ...more..

Click here to read USA State Department Human right report.
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Tamagn & Woyene Representative (VOA)

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ANALYSIS : Ethiopia’s usefulness eclipses its repressiveness (The New Age)

Zenawi presided over what were regarded as fraudulent elections in both 2005 and 2010, and in an attempt to maintain his regime’s grip on power, detained tens of thousands of opposition supporters, imprisoned opposition leaders and executed demonstrators. The US State Department acknowledged in its human rights reports the “numerous credible reports of unlawful detention of opposition candidates in Ethiopia, and the politically motivated killings committed by the security forces”. Despite this, Ethiopia remains a top US client state in the East African region and has not been subjected to official public criticism for the ruthlessness with which it deals with its detractors...read more

Ethiopia : Open letter to Ambassador Girma Birru ( Nazret)

I was formally invited by an embassy staffer, a decent Ethiopian, who happens to know me and my views and who, on more than one occasion, had a civil discussion and debate with me. When I drove 20 miles from my home that morning to Howard University, the only preparation I made was read the 158-page document entitled: “The Growth and Transformation Plan.” I was not prepared for what I was going to face at the entrance of the hall. I believed the messages you put out on the media that all of us, irrespective of our views, were welcome to the meeting. How can I suspect that a person of your position could give out a false public announcement? First, I faced the wrath of the protestors as I was crossing their picket lines. Then I met the people who were deployed by the embassy to man the gate, and do the sad job of screening participants and deciding what type of Ethiopian should be let in and what type should be kept out. I was told I was ineligible to enter and saw many people being returned from entering. One screener told me in the face that he reads my writings on the Internet and that the meeting is not for my kind of people. I asked him if this was the policy of the embassy and he told me yes. He further told me, and I quote him verbatim: “ante Tigre Titela Yelem ende min litisera Metah” (አንተ ትግሬ ትጠላ የለም እንዴ? ምን ልትሰራ መጣህ?)...read more..

Ethioipan Oppositon protest against Woyane in USA & Canada (Updated)

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The Poverty of Dictatorship (Project syndicate)

Despite the economic advances they registered, Tunisia, Egypt, and many other Middle Eastern countries remained authoritarian countries ruled by a narrow group of cronies, with corruption, clientelism, and nepotism running rife. These countries’ rankings on political freedoms and corruption stand in glaring contrast to their rankings on development indicators. Read more...