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Tuesday 09 March 2010 Ethiopia: Corruption and TPLF By Azmera Tesfay Recent reports of corruption and embezzlement by the Meles & Co. and the ensuing spin on the news seems to have come as a surprise for some innocents. However, Ethiopians who are living under a regime that controls land 100% under its own ownership and runs as a tax collector and as a tax payer simultaneously by running hundreds of companies owned by the political party TPLF, have no illusion that Meles’s TPLF is rotten corrupt and runs on by swindling public money, then as well as now. You can have an example of how Meles & Co. run their “kleptocracy” as follows. This is a glimpse into the inner workings of the TPLF Plc. - how the machinery has increasingly evolved into a business empire, corrupted by the convenience of power; lubricated by the decadent slogan that this is our historic moment to prosper and the reckless greed that breeds more insatiable and bottomless want. What is sad is that the TPLF Plc. Is engaged in entrenching itself as the next class of Ethiopian capitalist at the catastrophic expense of the poor Ethiopian people in a manner only a colonial conqueror sabotages its subject’s wellbeing and wealth. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: A futile attempt at outsourcing-the Ethiopian dilemma By Yilma Bekele I was proud. I was walking tall. I was happy to see my friend. That day the usual two minutes greetings took forever. I was in a hurry to share the source of my joy and pride. If only I knew how wrong I was. I announced that I was on my way back from a celebration. She asked what about. And I was proud to say the commemoration of the battle of Adwa. You know where the African beat a European power, that Adwa, I said. She just looked at me. She sighed ‘I see’ and was unmoved by my news. Well I was surprised. That is not the response I expected. I thought she might not be aware of the significance of the Victory at Adwa. There was no question that she must have heard of Adwa. I doubt there is an Ethiopian that is not familiar with the battle of Adwa and its significance in our history. I felt I should enlighten her. Give her a piece of my mind, scold her a little for not paying attention to her history and explain the glorious battle at Adwa. She hushed me. She looked at me with pity and mocked me with her cruel laugh. She said ‘I know all about Adwa, my question to you is what business have you got celebrating other people’s accomplishment?’ What a curious turn of events I found my self in? I did not understand her statement. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’ I shouted. ‘Aren’t the Adwa heroes my ancestors? I have every right to celebrate their victory! What you talking about?’ I retorted. [ Read the rest... ]
Monday 08 March 2010 Ethiopia: BBC holds firm over Ethiopia famine funds report By Sam Jones, guardian.co.ukThe BBC is standing by a report that 95% of the $100m aid raised to fight famine in northern Ethiopia in 1985 was diverted by rebels and spent on weapons, despite denials by Bob Geldof and leading charities. A programme broadcast last week by the BBC World Service's Africa editor, Martin Plaut, suggested that rebels in the province of Tigray tricked aid workers into giving them the money, which was meant to buy food for the starving. The Assignment documentary is expected to find itself the subject of a formal complaint next week when Geldof and several charities send a letter to the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom and the BBC Trust. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Woyanne says British criticism is 'Neo-Colonial' By Jason McLure | Bloomberg [the Woyanne regime in] Ethiopia criticized a British official’s call for the release of an Ethiopian opposition leader, saying it displayed “warped symptoms of a neo-colonial disposition.” In a statement published on March 6 in the Addis Ababa-based Reporter newspaper, British Minister of State for Africa Baroness Glenys Kinnock said Ethiopia’s imprisonment of opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa “undermines” trust in the Horn of Africa country. A copy of the statement was e-mailed to Bloomberg today by the British embassy in Addis Ababa. Kinnock also urged Meles Zenawi’s government to probe “serious allegations” that the distribution of foreign aid in Ethiopia was being used to win votes for the ruling party in elections scheduled for May 23. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Licensed to Steal By Alemayehu G. MariamIf democracy is a government of the people, kleptocracy is a government of thieves. Last week the secret world of Meles Zenawi’s kleptocracy, famine aid-sharking and money laundering in Ethiopia was exposed by two of his former comrades-in-arms in the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Gebremedhin Araya, a former treasurer and TPLF co-founder Dr. Aregawi Berhe, detailed the scam used to swindle, hustle and con millions of dollars from international famine relief organizations in the mid-1980s. The two former top leaders accused the TPLF leadership, including Zenawi, for taking tens of millions of dollars earmarked for famine relief in the Tigrai region to buy weapons and enrich themselves. Gebremedhin said he personally handed cash payments and checks in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to Zenawi and Sebhat Nega, the top two TPLF leaders who controlled the cash flow of the organization. Although Gebremedhin was the treasurer, he said he was not privileged to know what happened to the money after he delivered it to Zenawi or Nega. The incriminatory evidence, (including a candid photograph of TPLF cadres counting and recording wads of cash handed over to them by a foreign aid worker from a large satchel on the floor), is shocking as it is damning and irrefutable. In 1984/5, at the height of the catastrophic famine, nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were raised internationally for famine relief in Ethiopia. Michael Buerek of the BBC who visited the Tigrai region at the height of the famine in 1984 described the situation as “a biblical famine in the 20th Century” and “the closest thing to hell on Earth” (See video[1]). [ Read the rest... ]
Sunday 07 March 2010 Ethiopia:‘The Democracy Paradox’: Electoral Preparations Hint Gearing up Towards Known Outcome By Genet Mersha, The stage for this article was set by two events. Firstly, at the forefront triggering the writing was the second round inter-party debate of March 2nd in preparation for the May 23rd national election. Secondly, coincidentally in the background was The Democracy Paradox (Project Syndicate Sept 14, 2009), an article by Dominique Moisi, a respected French commentator on international issues and visiting professor at Harvard University that I read moments before watching the debate on video. Prof. Moisi engages his readers in a conversation with a view to enabling them see the potential divorce between elections and democracy that is assuming a new dimension in a globalized world. Much as he has made reference to improved techniques in election rigging and stealing that despots employ these days, he also admonishes “the West to reassess its policies in a fundamental way.” He urges Western countries to see that they cannot switch as they like “from ‘activism’ at one moment to abstention the next.” [ Read the rest... ]
Saturday 06 March 2010 Ethiopia: Politicizing Food Aid, the Unabated Behavior of the TPLF Leaders  By Ginbot7Press Release On March 3, 2010, the BBC broke to the world the news that millions of dollars in international aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by the TPLF leaders to buy weapons to overthrow the military regime in power. Though it is unclear why it took the resourceful BBC twenty-five long years to investigate a scandal of this magnitude, its recent headline news was familiar to the Ethiopian people. Unfortunately, this criminal behavior of the TPLF leaders remains unabated to this day. Three former high ranking TPLF officials, Seye Abraha, the man who led the TPLF army to Addis Ababa, Ghebremedhin Araya head of Finance, and Aregawe Berehe founding member of the TPLF, have corroborated BBC’s expose. According to Ghebremedhin Araya and Aregawe Berhe, up to 95% of the food aid was used to purchase arms. In his recent article titled “Politicization of Food Aid under One-Party Rule in Ethiopia”, Seye Abraha acknowledged, “As a veteran politician and an ex-commander of an insurgent army that brought down the Derg military regime, I know relief aid could be misused to purchase ammunition, weapons, spare parts, fuel and other materials.” [ Read the rest... ]
Thursday 04 March 2010 Ethiopia: EPLF and the '89 coup: Setting the record straight  By Neamin ZelekI read successive recent articles by Mr. Tibebe Samuel Ferenji on Ethiomedia, raising objections to the opposition’s relationship with Eritrea. I have found the latest article, his third on this subject, to be particularly misleading and laden with fabricated and recycled assertions. Aside from the writer's sudden appearance and zealous effort to enlighten us on the “real” nature of EPLF and its past deeds, I find the writer’ persistent focus on this particular topic very curious. Several points raised by the writer beg for a prompt response lest we allow historical facts to be nothing more than products of a fertile imagination of any one who chooses to post an article on-line. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Ethnic Oromos Say They Flee Persecution in Ethiopia By Heather Murdock In recent months, thousands of Ethiopians living in Yemen, have been returned to Africa. Members of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, say they are systematically abused in Ethiopia and they travel to Yemen out of fear for their lives. But Yemeni and Ethiopian officials say they are in search of better jobs, not in fear of political persecution. In Yemen, tens of thousands of Africans arrive on the beaches every year. Some come half-alive after being dumped off-shore by smugglers, fleeing gunfire from Yemeni troops. Many do not survive the journey. The Yemeni government calls many of those coming from Ethiopia, "infiltrators" and "sneakers" and regularly announces mass arrests, and plans for deportations. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: VOA Amharic Broadcasts Jammed in Ethiopia By Peter Heinlein, VOA International shortwave radio monitors have confirmed that VOA broadcasts in the Amharic language are being jammed. Amharic is the main official language and the language of commerce in Ethiopia. VOA representatives in Ethiopia have been received complaints from listeners about noise drowning out its Amharic Service broadcasts. People trying to tune in can hear occasional snippets of the VOA broadcast covered by a loud crackle. The static began February 22 on all five VOA shortwave frequencies aimed at East Africa in the 25 and 31-meter shortwave bands. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Ethiopian aid allegedly used for guns  By BBCImages of the famine in Ethiopia moved millions of people around the world to reach in to their pockets and donate to international aid efforts. But as Martin Plaut has been discovering, there is a disturbing allegation few would choose to confront. Roughly one million Ethiopians died from results of famine It was the early 1980s. The famine, which would soon devastate much of northern Ethiopia, was already evident. I had gone on the long, difficult journey through Sudan and into Eritrea with rebels who had been fighting the government for more than 20 years. My wife, Gill, had come with me. As a nurse she was fascinated by the way the rebels were treating their injured, carrying out difficult operations in makeshift wards dug into the mountains. [ Read the rest... ]
Wednesday 03 March 2010 Ethiopia: Aid money was spent on arms   BY KONYE OBAJI ORIA recent document released by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has revealed that millions of dollars, allocated for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85, went into buying weapons for rebellions. However, Robert Gates - President Obama’s Secretary of Defense said the suggestion cannot be ruled out that the CIA not only knew about, but supported, the diversion of aid funds to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The document printed by CIAs Michael Burke’s in 1984, dated April 1985, and entitled: Ethiopia: Political and Security Impact of the Drought, concluded that: "Some funds that insurgent organizations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes." According to the BBC, this report is also supported by former senior US diplomat in Ethiopia, chargé d’affaires Robert Houdek. In his account, Houdek said rebels of the TPLF and the Eritrean rebel movement - the EPLF - had told him of aid being diverted in Sudan. Most of the aid money was made available by Christian aid group, and delivered to the rebel’s relief organization, Relief Society of Tigray. [ Read the rest... ]
Tuesday 02 March 2010 Ethiopia: U.S. State Department issues Travel Warning for Eritrea By U.S. State Department WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) – The U.S. Department of State issued a new Travel Warning to Eritrea on Tuesday, recommending U.S. citizens to defer all travel the African country. U.S. citizens are strongly advised to avoid travel near the Eritrean-Ethiopian border and to the Southern Red Sea region, including the port of Assab. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Ethiopia Opposition Rethinks Election Campaign After Candidate Killed By Peter Heinlein Ethiopia's main opposition bloc is reconsidering whether to contest the May parliamentary elections following brutal attacks on two candidates, one of them fatal. Opposition leaders are blaming Ethiopia's ruling party for inflaming passions in the tense Tigray region, where the attacks occurred. Arena-Tigray Party leader Gebru Asrat says candidate for parliament Aregawi Gebreyohannes was stabbed to death by intruders in his home in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Gebru says another Arena-Tigray candidate was badly beaten Monday by armed men in another part of the northern Ethiopian region. He says both men had recently been arrested in connection with their political activities. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Ethiopian Opposition Candidate Stabbed to Death By JASON McLURE ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An opposition candidate for Ethiopia’s Parliament was stabbed to death early Tuesday in what opposition leaders said was part of a widening campaign of repression ahead of May elections. The candidate, Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes, was killed at a restaurant he owned near the town of Shire in Ethiopia’s Tigray region by a group of six men who had shadowed his movements for the previous two days, said Gebru Asrat, a leader of the Arena party, a member of an alliance of opposition parties. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: Election candidate murdered: Ethiopian opposition By Reuters, (Reuters) Mar 2, 2010 - Six men stabbed to death an Ethiopian opposition election candidate on Tuesday and the murder may have been provoked by his anti-government campaign, the main opposition coalition said. The eight-party coalition, Medrek, said another of its candidates was beaten on Monday by armed men believed by locals to be from the Ethiopian army. “Our candidate Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes was attacked this morning by six people and he was stabbed to death,” former Ethiopian president Negaso Gidada, who joined the opposition after falling out with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said. [ Read the rest... ]
Monday 01 March 2010 Ethiopia: Waiting for Godot to Leave?  By Alemayehu G. Mariam*Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled “Letter from Ethiopia,” by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s “Letter” sought to make sense of the power jockeying that is apparently taking place backstage to replace dictator Meles Zenawi. The other was a bombastic speech given by Zenawi to a captive audience in Mekele in observance of the 35th anniversary of the founding of his liberation movement. In that speech, Zenawi unleashed a torrent of vitriol against his opponents and critics to rival Hugo Chavez’s, and indulged in a little bit of megalomaniacal braggadocio and self-glorification for democratizing Ethiopia and inundating it with prosperity. Using the so-called election scheduled for May, 2010 as a backdrop, Eskinder crystal-balled the inevitable implosion of the ruling “EPDRF” party, and sketched out the qualifications of the motley crew of droll characters standing in line as heirs-apparent to succeed Zenawi on the “throne”. [ Read the rest... ]
Ethiopia: BBC 4 Radio reports on Ethiopia’s rights abuse By BBCBBC 4 Radio report covers the human rights abuse and attack on free press by the ruling TPLF regime. The report also questions the fairness of Ethiopia’s upcoming elections and the blame put forward on the British government aiding a dictatorial regime. Fast forward to 32:00 minutes.[ Read the rest... ]
Thursday 25 February 2010 Ethiopia: ‘Open the dam and let the water flow’ – desperate plea from Omo Valley Many tribal people in the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia are starving as the region is in the grip of a drought and the river’s annual flood has failed.The Kwegu, a small hunter-gatherer tribe, have been badly hit. Survival has received reports that two Kwegu children and four adults died from hunger in November. A Kwegu man sent this message: ‘Go and give this news to your elders, we Kwegu people are hungry. Other tribes have cattle, they can drink milk and blood. We don’t have cattle; we eat from the Omo River. We depend on the fish, they are like our cattle. If the Omo floods are gone we will die.’ [ Read the rest... ]
Eritrea: Eritrea's president declares me 'insane'  By Jane DuttonWe hadn't even arrived in Eritrea when I started to get a sense of the man I had been sent to interview. Our flight from Dubai airport was delayed. Nobody told us for how long or why. Four hours later, when the plane finally arrived, we found out the president had decided to borrow it for the morning, on a whim. We were on our way to one of Africa's most secretive regimes. Granted a rare interview with the Eritrean president, Isaias Afewerki, a man constantly ranked in the top 10 of the world's worst dictators and accused of helping turn the Horn of Africa into one of the most volatile regions on the planet. [ Read the rest... ]
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