The Great Ethiopian Run to Freedom (Huffingtonpost)

In the annual "Great Ethiopian Run" that was held last week in Addis Abeba, one can see a fitting metaphor for a long and hard run for freedom in Ethiopia. The organizers and sponsors may have seen a clever money making gimmick in the event, but for the Ethiopian runners it was their one and only chance a year to collectively breathe the fresh air of freedom. It was their annual festival and gathering of peaceful mass protest for freedom and justice, and against tyranny and dictatorship in Ethiopia. On the day of the Great Run, Ethiopians who could afford to pay at least 50 birr got to say out loud what has been burdening their hearts, distressing their minds, agonizing their souls and searing every fiber in their bodies for the past year. The assembled crowd of 35,000 runners did not mind paying. Each one of them knew the fresh air of freedom, however fleeting and momentary, is priceless....more..

መልካም ኢድ !!!

EID MUBARAK !!!

Bege nagan gessan !!!

Ethiopian Opposition Slates U.S. Help for Ruling Party Company (Bloomberg)

“The American government is using public money to support a dictatorial government,” Beyene Petros, an opposition lawmaker from the Forum for Democratic Dialogue, said in a phone interview on Nov. 23. “This is simply crazy. I don’t know who is advising them or why they are doing this.”

As part of the deal, Almeda will produce restaurant uniforms and other garments for Atlas, which specializes in importing textiles to the U.S. from African countries eligible under AGOA. Ethiopian textile exports under AGOA were $18 million in 2008, lagging countries such as Lesotho, which exported $340 million in goods under the trade pact....more..

Africorruption, Inc. (Nazret)

Corruption persists in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa because the people who cling to power benefit from it enormously. Having FEAC investigate the architects and beneficiaries of corruption in Ethiopia is like having Tweedle Dee investigate Tweedle Dum. It is an exercise in futility and absurdity. FEAC’s claims of saving or thwarting the loss of billions of public birr by vigilant corruption detection and prosecution are laughable cock and bull stories. Most Ethiopians do not find corruption a laughing matter; but they do feel powerless and resigned to it. They view the whole anti-corruption effort with a jaded eye. At best, corruption control in Ethiopia today is a matter of triage: Does one start investigating corruption at the very top of the regime leadership, survey the bureaucratic middle and selectively prosecute, or focus on the petty local official and the street cop for dramatic effect?...more..

የታላቁ ሩጫ ተሳታፊዎች ወ/ት ብርቱካን እንድፈታ ጠየቁ፣ ተቃውሟቸውን ገለጹ (Ethiopia Zare)

ሯጩ ተሳታፊ ቤተመንግሥት በር ላይ ሲደርስ እየቆመ፤ “መሰናበቻ መሰናበቻ፣ ስድስት ወር ብቻ፣ … እንደፈራችሁ ደረስንባችሁ” በማለት በከፍተኛ ጩኸት ተቃውሞን ሲገልጽ ነበር። ፍትህ ሚኒስቴር በር ላይ ሲደርስ ደግሞ “ፍትህ የሌለው፣ ፍትህ ሚኒስቴር ነው” በማለት ሯጩ ህዝብ ሚኒስቴር መስሪያ ቤቱን አጣጥሎታል። ..read more...

Ethiopian election a campaign of intimidation (Globe and Mail)

The International Crisis Group, an independent think tank based in Brussels, says the Ethiopian government is controlling its population with neighbourhood committees, informers, media controls and high-tech surveillance.

“Thanks to Chinese electronic monitoring-and-control software, the government is able to block most opposition electronic communications when it desires,” the group said in a recent report.

“Few journalists, academics, human-rights advocates and intellectuals dare to publicly criticize the government. While self-censorship existed before the 2005 elections, it has now become widespread.”..more...

Ethiopia should probe political food aid claim: UK (Reuters)

Ethiopia should investigate allegations that local officials are keeping food aid from opposition members to force them to join the ruling party ahead of national elections, a British aid minister said on Tuesday....more..

The Zenawi-Shawel Handshake – the Anti-Thesis of Liberty & Democracy (Oromoindex)

Weyane is now under immense pressure from Medrek at home, from pro-democracy forces in Diaspora, from famine in Ethiopia, from the international community and, of course, from the Eritrean government. Being under such dire situation, the hegemonist Meles now got a saving handshake from the unitarist Hailu Shawel, who seems to have obsolete mentality. It is a fact that Hailu Shawel does have a support of a lot of Amharas, who are emotionally attached to him, not based on reason, but just based on the false Ethiopian patriotism. I hope they will slowly and surely get the true color of this dictator, and that they will opt for the genuine and lasting solution as pro-democracy Amharas in UDJ and G-7 are trying to do. The only lasting solution is union of all nations in the empire based on self-determination...more..

Ethiopia asks for urgent food aid (BBC)

The drought, brought on by four years of bad harvests, has been made worse by conflict, climate change and population growth.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says Ethiopian government policy banning land sales to keep people out of urban areas has also contributed.
All these other factors combined are at least as important as lack of rainfall, he says. ...more...

Ethiopia 2010: Here Comes Africa’s Festival of Electoral Fraud (New America Media)

Elections in Ethiopia under Zenawi’s dictatorship, now spanning two decades, have manifested two recurrent patterns. First, Zenawi has spared no effort to eliminate his opposition. He has used intimidation, threats, arbitrary arrests and detentions, bogus prosecutions, extreme violence, fraud and trickery to wipe out his opposition. Recently, Zenawi invited the opposition for 2010 election talks, but promptly demanded that they sign a “code of conduct” before discussions could be held. Leaders of an alliance of opposition parties under an umbrella organization known as Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia walked out of the talks, plainly sensing a trap. Zenawi retaliated by initiating a campaign of harassment and intimidation that sent nearly 500 opposition members to detention....more...

Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Its Discontents (Crisis Group)

...Furthermore, ethnic federalism has failed to resolve the “national question”. The EPRDF’s ethnic policy has empowered some groups but has not been accompanied by dialogue and reconciliation. For Amhara and national elites, ethnic federalism impedes a strong, unitary nation-state. For ethno-national rebel groups like the ONLF (Ogaden National Liberation Front; Somalis in the Oga­den) and OLF (Oromo Liberation Front; the Oromo), ethnic federalism remains artificial. While the concept has failed to accommodate grievances, it has powerfully promoted ethnic self-awareness among all groups. The international community has ignored or downplayed all these problems. Some donors appear to consider food security more important than democracy in Ethiopia, but they neglect the increased ethnic awareness and tensions created by the regionalisation policy and their potentially explosive consequences....click here to read more in PDF format..

Human rights violations and conflicts continue to cause displacement (IDMC)

he ongoing conflicts in Somali Region between the army and the Ogaden National Liberation Front, and in the south and south-west of the country with the Oromo Liberation Front, both pose serious security, humanitarian and protection challenges. The impact on civilians of the conflict in Somali Region has been likened to that of Darfur. Meanwhile, there are also conflicts in at least five of the country’s nine regions with causes ranging from competition over scarce water and pasture resources to disputes over administrative boundaries. In February 2009 alone, some 160,000 people were driven from their homes by conflict between the Garre of the Somali region and the Boran of the Oromiya region over a contested piece of land. ...more..

Africa’s problem is corruption and leaders’ insatiable greed (New Vision)

We all know that very few African countries are in the business of manufacturing arms of any kind save for South Africa. We are all net importers of military armaments we deploy in our conflicts. We don’t even manufacture gas masks, teargas, bullet-proof vests and helmets. All we export to industrialised Europe, America and China are raw materials like oil, diamonds, gold, uranium, tea and coffee, most of which they extract themselves and pay us peanuts for! In exchange, our countries have huge and secretive military budgets that we must spend year in year out whether we are at war or not. ...more..

Movement of jah people (Economist)

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, says there are no political prisoners in his country. Human-rights activists and diplomats say there are thousands—and a lot of Ethiopians believe Mr Afro was one of them....more..

Drought and Famine: Ethiopia's Vicious Cycle Continues (Times)

Earlier this year, Ethiopia's parliament passed a tough new law seeking to regulate charities and foreign humanitarian groups in the country. The law, which labels as foreign any local organization that gets more than 10% of its funding from abroad, restricts charity work on issues related to gender, ethnicity, children's rights and conflict resolution, and bars advocacy activities. The government says the law is meant to ensure that charities focus on development, but many fear it will deter those working in the field from taking bold actions like advocating for the hungry....more..

Pop Star Teddy Afro Freed From Jail in Ethiopia (ABC)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's most popular singer, Teddy Afro, was freed early from prison on Thursday after serving 18 months of a two-year sentence for hit-and-run manslaughter....read more...

The two sides of Meles Zenawi (Economist)

But then there is the harsher side of Mr Meles, the Marxist fighter turned political strongman with a dismal human-rights record who is intolerant of dissent. In 2005, after a disputed general election, his police shot dead some 200 civilians. An independent inquiry ended up with several of its judges fleeing the country. Mr Meles sprinkles spies through the universities to intimidate and control the students; he was once a student agitator himself. He closes down independent newspapers and meddles in aid projects, banning agencies that annoy him. Last month he suspended the activities of about 40 of them from the Somali-populated parts of the country....more...

U.S. Policy Shift Needed in the Horn of Africa (CFR)

Change is needed to ensure the sustainability of the U.S.-Ethiopia partnership and U.S. counterterrorism goals in the region at a time when Somalia continues to flounder as a failed state. The United States should consider adopting a more assertive approach that makes use of two primary points of leverage:

First, the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) should refuse direct funding to the many known "GONGOS" (governmental nongovernmental organizations) that pose as legitimate civil society development organizations, but are in practice political and social agents of the ruling party. The recognition of GONGOs as legitimate civil society organizations abets the Ethiopian strategy of marginalizing nongovernmental actors, and allows the government to continue a "business as usual" approach to the delivery of international support.

Second, the United States should publicly express its concern over the shrinking democratic space, the crisis in the Ogaden, and Ethiopia's refusal to uphold the findings of the independent border commission. Ethiopian officials are extremely sensitive to public opinion and likely to respond to threats to their country's international standing and participation in international fora such as the African Union and the United Nations.

Relations with Ethiopia are likely to become strained, and the United States can expect, at least initially, to receive very limited support from its European partner nations. These countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, lack the political leverage necessary to lead a collective shift in donor policy and have been hesitant to alienate the Ethiopian government. This reluctance may require a diplomatic version of the "good cop/bad cop" approach, in which the United States agrees to take an isolated, leadership role in demanding change, while European donor nations persist in a strategy of quiet diplomacy. This has the advantage of ensuring that some constructive dialogue will continue.

In a worst-case scenario, the United States may have to threaten to suspend foreign and military aid to Ethiopia. U.S. humanitarian and development assistance to Ethiopia was upwards of $650 million in 2008, and the U.S. has contributed significant, though less transparent, financial and tactical support to Ethiopia’s attempts to modernize its armed forces. Such an action has rightly been perceived as unthinkable in the past, as the cessation of aid would certainly risk destabilizing the Ethiopian government and may precipitate widespread public disorder. At the same time, Ethiopian certainty that U.S. aid is inviolate has allowed the Ethiopian government to effectively tune out demands for reform. Ethiopian dependence on U.S. assistance is a card that policymakers must learn to play to provoke meaningful change. This is another reason to consider developing a good cop/bad cop arrangement with the European donors--if the United States is forced to suspend aid, other donors may mitigate the shortfall while quietly reinforcing demands for democratic reform. ...more...

Now is the time to end tyranny (Ethiomunich)

We must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long…

The dictators in Ethiopia have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are clueless about good governance; and their idea of development is ripping off the people to enrich their relatives and friends. “Concentrat[ion] of wealth in the hands of the few [that] leaves people too vulnerable to downturns” is not development.

Good governance is based on a set of objective measures. We subscribe to the 8 benchmark parameters of good governance set by the U.N.: Participation (men and women participate equally in political and civil society institutions); rule of law (an independent judiciary and impartial law enforcement agencies administer the justice system with strict adherence to the law of the land); transparency (public decisions are made and implemented according to established rules and regulations); responsiveness (public needs are met in a timely manner); consensus-building (the different interests of groups in society are harmonized in formulating policy); equity and inclusiveness (individuals and groups feel they have a stake in society and do not feel excluded); effectiveness and efficiency (scarce resources are used for maximum public benefit and service); accountability (leaders and institutions are accountable to the public and under law). In sum, good governance is to development as water is to a bountiful harvest. No water, no harvest!mpre..more...

No rest for the wicked! (Abbay Media)

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Bored?
There has been much talk recently about the possible “retirement” of the über-boss in Ethiopia. Reuters reported that “… Meles Zenawi wants to step down after 18 years running sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous country.” Apparently, the dictator is “bored” with the racket he has been running for the past 18 years, or at least nagging questions about when he will be calling it quits. The dictator says he needs the permission of La Famiglia, “his ruling party before he can leave.” Reuters rhetorically asked: “So when might he go? And what will happen if he does?”

According to Reuters’ guessing game, the dictator could “get permission to leave” at the party congress in September, but that is unlikely “a year before Ethiopia has its next national election due in June 2010.” He could be ousted as a result of an opposition win, but that “would be a shock. The 2005 elections ended in violence when Meles claimed victory, the opposition shouted fraud and about 200 protestors were killed by police and soldiers.” He “wins in 2010 and the opposition cries foul… But despite Ethiopia’s close relations with the West, allegations of fraud or violence would be more difficult for the international community to take a second time and the country could see its aid slashed, plunging it deeper into poverty.” The dictator’s party “wins the election, there is no violence and Meles will probably resign within two years and be replaced by a party loyalist who will continue his domestic, economic and foreign policies.” Or the dictator “serves another 5-year term and runs again.”

The dictator is dismissive of these speculations. He says he wants to relinquish power, go into retirement and “have a long good rest.”

To Chuckle or to Guffaw?

We have listened to the amusing blather about staying or leaving office for the past several years. We are never sure whether to chuckle or guffaw every time we hear it recycled through the propaganda machine: “I will resign. I will leave office at the end of my term, but only if my party allows me to. I will stay in office as long as my party demands it of me. I will leave office, but I won’t tell you when. I will leave office when I leave office. Oh! Questions about when I will leave office bore me.” Indeed, the whole affair has become a recurrent farcical comic opera. International journalists ask the dictator when he plans to leave, and he feeds them the same crock of ambiguous, opaque and enigmatic answers in his usual doublespeak and pretentious phraseology. The journalists draw up their own fanciful speculations about what he will do, and the charade goes on and on. But the climax of this bizarre jabber is always the same: “May be I will go. May be I won’t. It’s for me to know, and for the rest of you to speculate about and play guessing games.”

The Solipsistic Logic of Dictators

The question is never whether any dictator will stay or go. We know from Gandhi’s axiom that all dictators eventually go: “There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, ALWAYS.” The question about when a tyrant will fall is solipsistic (has special meaning only to the tyrant) and reveals much about the tyrant’s egoistic self-absorption and self-indulgence with power. The tyrant’s choice of the word “boring” to dismissively respond to questions about the timing of his departure is quite curious. Boredom and anxiety are states of mind on a psychological continuum. Could it be that giving a date certain for leaving office creates in the mind of the tyrant deep angst about unclinging from power and the potential consequences that could follow?

For the critical observer, the question of when the tyrant will leave office is a rhetorical tautology (that is, the question is incapable of producing a truthful answer that can not be verified or falsified). In other words, any response by the dictator to the question is unlikely to produce or convey truthful or useful information regardless of how many times it is asked. The response will always be hedged and interwoven in a fabric of deceit and absurd contingencies such as obtaining permission from the party, new leaders taking over, democracy being institutionalized and so on. Consider the following muddled and transparently evasive response:

My personal position is that I have had enough. I am arguing my case and the others are also arguing their case. I hope we will come up with some common understanding on the way forward that would not require me to resign from my party that I have fought for all my life. We are not talking about Meles only. We are talking about the old generation. The party needs to have new leadership that does not have the experience of the armed struggle…. It would be very important for everybody, particularly for the fledgling democratic institutions of this country…. The party is in the process of dialogue, and sooner or later it will make its decision, and that will be it… We have a large leadership pool, any one of whom could take the mantle… [The ethnic background of his replacement] is not a prime consideration. The party has gone beyond that…”

It is not clear from the foregoing statement why the dictator can not leave office immediately or on a date certain, or what argument he is presenting for or against leaving office. But the dictator’s uncompromising conclusory statement “I have had enough.” objectively indicates that he has reached a final and irreversible psychological state on his tenure in office. Simply stated, the dictator is completely disgusted and bored with what he is doing. He does not want to do the job anymore. But he quickly qualifies his expression of disgust by pleading to stay in power so that he “would not [be] require[d] to resign from my party that I have fought for all my life”. He feigns humility by claiming that his staying or leaving office is not about him at all. It is really about the old guards passing the baton to the new generation of leaders and so on. He hedges by implying that he can not leave office until the generational transfer of power is complete. The whole self-contradictory response reflects the solipsistic narcissism of a megalomaniacal dictator who seeks to tether not only the fate of his party to himself, but also the country’s destiny.

But the dictator’s definitive statement invites further query: He has “had enough” of what exactly? Massive violations of human rights? Kangaroo court justice? Systemic corruption? Lies? Perhaps, he has had enough of THE TRUTH!?

All of this farcical talk about leaving office does have a not-so-hidden strategic purpose. It is intended as a trial balloon to divert attention from the already-won 2010 election. The dictator hopes to fool, confuse and confound the opposition and international donors by titillating them with the possibility of his leaving office. We will predict that the dictator and his gang will be shoveling loads of propaganda between now and the already-won election of 2010 in a futile effort to distract public attention and convince donors that they are the only viable democratic alternative.

We should refrain from playing a guessing game of who will replace the dictator. We know for a fact that replacing Tweedledee with Tweedledum from another ethnic group (or replacing the old guard from the days of the armed struggle with a newer generation of their clones) will not amount to a hill of beans. The problems that have been festering in Ethiopia for the past two decades can not be cured by the departure of a bored, jaded, dispirited and weary dictator, or by his replacement clone. The problems are structural and viral in the system of dictatorial mis-governance over the past 18 years. Let’s be crystal clear: The dictator’s “retirement”, “resignation” or whatever nonsense he is talking about will not mean the beginning of the rule of law and it will not mean the end of massive human rights violations. His retirement will not end arbitrary arrests and imprisonments; the independent media will not function freely because he goes; the bantustans of ethnic federalism he created to divide and rule will not vanish immediately, and corruption will not stop. There is only one way to bring about fundamental change: Replace the one-man, one-party dictatorship with a genuine multiparty system.

No Rest for the Wicked!

There is not a single instance in the history of modern dictatorships where dictators voluntarily packed up and left power one fine morning. Dictators are to power as bloodsucking ticks are to a cow. Neither can survive without its life-giving force. There are many reasons why dictators will not leave power voluntarily. In Ethiopia, the reason is that the dictators will never outplay themselves at their own zero sum game. For them leaving power means losing everything. EVERYTHING! It means being held accountable for their monstrous crimes; losing their privileged positions in society; giving up their ill- gotten gains and the absolute power they wielded for nearly two decades.

Old dictators never fade away; they just cling to power like bloodsucking tics on a cow, until they inevitably fall. Sometimes they do run, but they can never hide. As for a “long good rest,” it is written in the Book of Isaiah (57:20, 21), that “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

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The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. He can be reached at almariam@gmail.com Source: Abbay Media