Telegraph News -- If Indiana Jones had done his homework, he would have found the Ark of the Covenant by raiding a church in the barren mountains of northern Ethiopia.
Many Ethiopians believe that the Ark, containing the stone tablets inscribed with God's Ten Commandments, rests in the church of St Mary of Zion, at the town of Axum, and some western scholars have endorsed this national myth as true.
The story underpins the country's sense of identity. Ethiopia believes itself to be a unique nation with an ancient Christian tradition. This fervent patriotism has led Ethiopia into a perilous military confrontation with neighbouring Eritrea.
An international boundary commission ruled three years ago that Ethiopia must relinquish to Eritrea some isolated patches of arid land. But Ethiopia spurned the verdict. If the two countries go to war, Ethiopia's national pride will be the cause.
The supposed presence in Axum of Christendom's holiest relic helps to explain the country's resolve. Beside the high, 17th-century walls of St Mary's church, local priests point to a small, suspiciously modern side chapel where, they say, the Ark lies behind seven red curtains. Only one priest - the Guardian of the Ark - is allowed to see it. This grey-haired figure, clutching an Orthodox cross, permanently inhabits the Ark's chapel and is forbidden to talk to strangers.
Amha Taklamaryam, 20, a deacon of St Mary's, has been his assistant since the age of 10. But he has never felt tempted to look upon the Ark. He said: "If you see the Ark and you are not the guardian, you go blind and terrible things happen to your body."
Yet he does not doubt the presence of something he has never seen. "Of course the Ark is here. I believe it because that is what everyone here believes. That is what my father and mother taught me to believe," he said.
According to Ethiopia's national epic, the Kebra Negast, which describes how the country's emperors were descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, their son, Menelik I, travelled from Ethiopia to visit Solomon in Jerusalem. His aides supposedly stole the Ark, which then made its way to Axum, then Ethiopia's royal capital.
Despite the questions over whether Sheba and Menelik actually existed and the chronological problems of the story, some western scholars believe the Ark probably is in Axum. Graham Hancock, who specialises in unravelling ancient mysteries, examined the evidence in his book The Sign and the Seal. He has attempted to explain the missing centuries between the supposed theft of the Ark and the appearance of Axum's civilisation. He thinks it was kept on an island in Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, until Axum emerged.
Richard Pankhurst, the professor of Ethiopian studies at Addis Ababa University, does not fault Hancock's scholarship and believes the Kebra Negast is right about Sheba.
As for the Ark's presence in Axum, Prof Pankhurst is keeping an open mind.
Related News: Yemen Offers to Mediate Between Ethiopia, Eritrea
Thursday, December 29, 2005
129 Opposition Activists Remanded in Custody
allAfrica via IRIN -- A Federal High Court judge remanded 129 opposition leaders, journalists, civil society members and a 15-year-old boy into custody on Wednesday, pending a ruling on their bail applications for charges ranging from treason to genocide.
The charges are related to violent demonstrations in Ethiopia in November when crowds took to the streets to protest against the alleged rigging of elections held on 15 May. At least 46 people died in fighting between security forces and the demonstrators.
Chief Judge Adil Ahmed said the defendants, who could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted, would be held for a further seven days while their bail applications were considered.
Another defendant, 14, will undergo a medical test to determine his age before he can be charged. Under Ethiopian law someone 14 years old is a juvenal.
Almost all defence lawyers boycotted the court hearing to protest against the refusal by prison authorities to let them meet their clients.
Prosecutors told the court that the protests caused damages worth US $110 million and that opposition leaders were responsible for the deaths of 34 people. Prosecutors added that Tigranians, who form an ethnic minority group and perceived to be the holders of power in the country, were victims of stoning and arson.
"It is unacceptable to release them on bail because the majority of the charges include 15 years imprisonment, the death penalty or life sentence," Abraham Tetemke, a prosecutor, said.
However, the defendants have maintained they are political prisoners. They have also been charged with attempting to subvert the constitution, an offence punishable by life imprisonment or death.
Ninety-four of the accused, including the two teenage boys, face genocide charges while 42 are charged with high treason. Other offences include conspiracy and armed uprising. Two of the original 131 defendants were released by the court to face separate charges. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said some 3,000 people will face charges for the disturbances.
About 80 defendants were present in the packed courtroom, including Hailu Shawel, a top leader of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy, and human rights activist Mesfin Woldemariam.
Former judges, teachers, lawyers, hairdressers and students were among those charged. Some 32 people who are living in exile will be tried in absentia.
Mass arrests occurred during political unrest that claimed the lives of at least 46 people in November. Another 42 died people in June in similar demonstrations. Nearly 9,000 people were freed without charge.
A crackdown against the independent media, opposition politicians and civil and human rights activists began on 1 November as demonstrations raged.
The main opposition party has accused authorities of rigging the polls that returned the ruling party to power.
Related News: 'Lawyers Denied' in Ethiopia case
The charges are related to violent demonstrations in Ethiopia in November when crowds took to the streets to protest against the alleged rigging of elections held on 15 May. At least 46 people died in fighting between security forces and the demonstrators.
Chief Judge Adil Ahmed said the defendants, who could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted, would be held for a further seven days while their bail applications were considered.
Another defendant, 14, will undergo a medical test to determine his age before he can be charged. Under Ethiopian law someone 14 years old is a juvenal.
Almost all defence lawyers boycotted the court hearing to protest against the refusal by prison authorities to let them meet their clients.
Prosecutors told the court that the protests caused damages worth US $110 million and that opposition leaders were responsible for the deaths of 34 people. Prosecutors added that Tigranians, who form an ethnic minority group and perceived to be the holders of power in the country, were victims of stoning and arson.
"It is unacceptable to release them on bail because the majority of the charges include 15 years imprisonment, the death penalty or life sentence," Abraham Tetemke, a prosecutor, said.
However, the defendants have maintained they are political prisoners. They have also been charged with attempting to subvert the constitution, an offence punishable by life imprisonment or death.
Ninety-four of the accused, including the two teenage boys, face genocide charges while 42 are charged with high treason. Other offences include conspiracy and armed uprising. Two of the original 131 defendants were released by the court to face separate charges. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said some 3,000 people will face charges for the disturbances.
About 80 defendants were present in the packed courtroom, including Hailu Shawel, a top leader of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy, and human rights activist Mesfin Woldemariam.
Former judges, teachers, lawyers, hairdressers and students were among those charged. Some 32 people who are living in exile will be tried in absentia.
Mass arrests occurred during political unrest that claimed the lives of at least 46 people in November. Another 42 died people in June in similar demonstrations. Nearly 9,000 people were freed without charge.
A crackdown against the independent media, opposition politicians and civil and human rights activists began on 1 November as demonstrations raged.
The main opposition party has accused authorities of rigging the polls that returned the ruling party to power.
Related News: 'Lawyers Denied' in Ethiopia case
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Another School Barrier for African Girls: No Toilet
New York Times -- BALIZENDA, Ethiopia - Fatimah Bamun dropped out of Balizenda Primary School in first grade, more than three years ago, when her father refused to buy her pencils and paper. Only after teachers convinced him that his daughter showed unusual promise did he relent. Today Fatimah, 14, tall and slender, studies math and Amharic, Ethiopia's official language, in a dirt-floored fourth-grade classroom.
Whether she will reach fifth grade is another matter. Fatimah is facing the onset of puberty, and with it the realities of menstruation in a school with no latrine, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to commiserate. Fatimah is the only girl of the 23 students in her class. In fact, in a school of 178 students, she is one of only three girls who has made it past third grade.
Even the women among the school's teachers say they have no choice but to use the thorny scrub, in plain sight of classrooms, as a toilet.
"It is really too difficult," said Azeb Beyene, who arrived here in September to teach fifth grade. Here and throughout sub-Saharan Africa, schoolgirls can only empathize. In a region where poverty, tradition and ignorance deprive an estimated 24 million girls even of an elementary school education, the lack of school toilets and water is one of many obstacles to girls' attendance, and until recently was considered unfit for discussion. In some rural communities in the region, menstruation itself is so taboo that girls are prohibited from cooking or even banished to the countryside during their periods.
But that impact is substantial. Researchers throughout sub-Saharan Africa have documented that lack of sanitary pads, a clean, girls-only latrine and water for washing hands drives a significant number of girls from school. The United Nations Children's Fund, for example, estimates that one in 10 school-age African girls either skips school during menstruation or drops out entirely because of lack of sanitation.
The average schoolgirl's struggle for privacy is emblematic of the uphill battle for public education in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among girls. With slightly more than 6 in 10 eligible children enrolled in primary school, the region's enrollment rates are the lowest in the world.
Beyond that, enrollment among primary school-aged girls is 8 percent lower than among boys, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef. And of those girls who enroll, 9 percent more drop out before the end of sixth grade than boys.
African girls in poor, rural areas like Balizenda are even more likely to lose out. The World Bank estimated in 1999 that only one in four of them was enrolled in primary school.
The issue, advocates for children say, is not merely fairness. The World Bank contends that if women in sub-Saharan Africa had equal access to education, land, credit and other assets like fertilizer, the region's gross national product could increase by almost one additional percentage point annually. Mark Blackden, one of the bank's lead analysts, said Africa's progress was inextricably linked to the fate of girls.
"There is a connection between growth in Africa and gender equality," he said. "It is of great importance but still ignored by so many."
The pressure on girls to drop out peaks with the advent of puberty and the problems that accompany maturity, like sexual harassment by male teachers, ever growing responsibilities at home and parental pressure to marry. Female teachers who could act as role models are also in short supply in sub-Saharan Africa: they make up a quarter or less of the primary school teachers in 12 nations, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Florence Kanyike, the Uganda coordinator for the Forum of Women Educationalists, a Nairobi-based organization that lobbies for education for girls, said the harsh inconvenience of menstruation in schools without sanitation was just one more reason for girls to stay home.
"They miss three or four days of school," she said. "They find themselves lagging behind, and because they don't perform well, their interest fails. They start to think, 'What are we doing here?' The biggest number of them drop out in year five or six."
Increasingly, international organizations, African education ministries and the continent's fledgling women's rights movements are rallying behind the notion of a "girl friendly" school, one that is more secure and closer to home, with a healthy share of female teachers and a clean toilet with a door and water for washing hands.
In Guinea, enrollment rates for girls from 1997 to 2002 jumped 17 percent after improvements in school sanitation, according to a recent Unicef report. The dropout rate among girls fell by an even bigger percentage. Schools in northeastern Nigeria showed substantial gains after Unicef and donors built thousands of latrines, trained thousands of teachers and established school health clubs, the agency contends.
Ethiopia has also made strides. More than 6 in 10 girls of primary-school age are enrolled in school this year, compared with fewer than 4 in 10 girls in 1999. Still, boys are far ahead, with nearly 8 in 10 of them enrolled in primary school.
Unicef is building latrines and bringing clean water to 300 Ethiopian schools. But more than half of the nation's 13,181 primary schools lack water, more than half lack latrines and some lack both. Moreover, those with latrines may have just one for 300 students, Therese Dooley, Unicef's sanitation project officer, said.
In theory, at least, outfitting Ethiopia's schools with basic facilities can be cheap and simple, she said. Toilets need be little more than pits and concrete slabs with walls and a door; rain can be trapped on a school's roof and strained through sand.
Still, she said, toilets for boys and girls must be clearly separate and students who may have never seen a latrine must be taught the importance of using one. And the toilets must be kept clean, a task that frequently falls to the very schoolgirls who were supposed to benefit most.
In Benishangul Gumuz Province in western Ethiopia, where low mountains rise over brilliant yellow fields of oilseeds, such amenities are rare indeed. Guma, a town of 13,000 about an hour's drive from Balizenda over a viciously rutted road, has water only sporadically. The town's main street is dotted with shops, but not one sells sanitary pads. Few residents could afford them anyway. Women make do with folded rags.
Balizenda primary school, with 178 students, is a long, litter-strewn building in a dirt clearing surrounded by brush. Two lopsided reed-walled huts pass for fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. On the playground soccer field, three tree limbs lashed together form the goal.
With the exception of the first grade, where girls are more than a third of the pupils, Balizenda could be mistaken for an all-boys' school. Only 13 girls are enrolled in grades two through six, and even that is an improvement over three months ago.
"When I came here in September, there was not a single female student" in the entire school, said Tisge Tsegaw, 22, the first-grade teacher. "We went to the homes and motivated the parents, and then they came."
But in many cases, not for long. "The parents prioritize. They figure if the girls stay home, they can do the grinding, help with the harvesting, fetch the water and collect the firewood," Ms. Tsegaw said. "They agree to enroll them. Then after two months, they take them back."
The school's latrine, a hovel of thatch and reeds, fell down last year. Yehwala Mesfin, the school's director, said neither the villagers nor the Education Ministry would help build a new one. Parents viewed their annual rebuilding of the reed-walled fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms as a sufficient contribution, he said.
Ms. Beyene, the fifth-grade teacher who arrived here in September, said she agreed to stay at Balizenda only after Mr. Mesfin promised that she could use a toilet at a health center nearby. But since then, the health center has been closed for lack of staff.
"The majority of time I use the open field," she said. "There is no privacy. Everybody comes, even the students. So we try to restrict ourselves to urinate before school and at nighttime. I already have a kidney infection because of this. My situation is getting worse."
The school's only sixth-grade girls, Mesert Mesfin, 17, and Worknesh Anteneh, 15, said that when they could not resist nature's call, they stood guard for each other in the field. When her period began one recent Thursday morning, Mesert said, she had no choice but to run home. Worknesh said she sometimes avoided school during her period.
"It is really a shame," she said. "I am really bothered by this."
Fatimah Bamun, who started school so late that at 14 she is only in fourth grade, said she did not want to miss a single class because she wanted to be a teacher. But, she added, she does not have a lot of backing from her friends.
"I have no friend in the class," she said. "Most of my friends have dropped out to get married. So during the break, I just sit in the classroom and read."
Her father, however, now says he is fully behind her. "The people from the government are all the time telling us to send our daughters to school, and I am listening to these people," he said.
Neither Fatimah's older sister nor mother went to school. And Fatimah is all too familiar with the alternatives for illiterate girls. When she returns home after school each day, she is greeted by another girl, named Eko, who lives in her hut. Thin and poorly dressed, 12 years old at most, Eko is literally a wedding present, given to the Bamuns when Fatimah's sister married Eko's brother.
Before the wedding, Eko was an avid second grader. "I liked school very much; it would have been better to stay in school," she said quietly, picking at her callused hands. Now she is the Bamun family servant, up at sunrise to pound sorghum with a stone for the breakfast porridge. Her education is vicarious.
"She always asks me, 'When are you going to school?' " Fatimah said. " 'What do you do there? What subjects do you study?' "
Whether she will reach fifth grade is another matter. Fatimah is facing the onset of puberty, and with it the realities of menstruation in a school with no latrine, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to commiserate. Fatimah is the only girl of the 23 students in her class. In fact, in a school of 178 students, she is one of only three girls who has made it past third grade.
Even the women among the school's teachers say they have no choice but to use the thorny scrub, in plain sight of classrooms, as a toilet.
"It is really too difficult," said Azeb Beyene, who arrived here in September to teach fifth grade. Here and throughout sub-Saharan Africa, schoolgirls can only empathize. In a region where poverty, tradition and ignorance deprive an estimated 24 million girls even of an elementary school education, the lack of school toilets and water is one of many obstacles to girls' attendance, and until recently was considered unfit for discussion. In some rural communities in the region, menstruation itself is so taboo that girls are prohibited from cooking or even banished to the countryside during their periods.
But that impact is substantial. Researchers throughout sub-Saharan Africa have documented that lack of sanitary pads, a clean, girls-only latrine and water for washing hands drives a significant number of girls from school. The United Nations Children's Fund, for example, estimates that one in 10 school-age African girls either skips school during menstruation or drops out entirely because of lack of sanitation.
The average schoolgirl's struggle for privacy is emblematic of the uphill battle for public education in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among girls. With slightly more than 6 in 10 eligible children enrolled in primary school, the region's enrollment rates are the lowest in the world.
Beyond that, enrollment among primary school-aged girls is 8 percent lower than among boys, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef. And of those girls who enroll, 9 percent more drop out before the end of sixth grade than boys.
African girls in poor, rural areas like Balizenda are even more likely to lose out. The World Bank estimated in 1999 that only one in four of them was enrolled in primary school.
The issue, advocates for children say, is not merely fairness. The World Bank contends that if women in sub-Saharan Africa had equal access to education, land, credit and other assets like fertilizer, the region's gross national product could increase by almost one additional percentage point annually. Mark Blackden, one of the bank's lead analysts, said Africa's progress was inextricably linked to the fate of girls.
"There is a connection between growth in Africa and gender equality," he said. "It is of great importance but still ignored by so many."
The pressure on girls to drop out peaks with the advent of puberty and the problems that accompany maturity, like sexual harassment by male teachers, ever growing responsibilities at home and parental pressure to marry. Female teachers who could act as role models are also in short supply in sub-Saharan Africa: they make up a quarter or less of the primary school teachers in 12 nations, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Florence Kanyike, the Uganda coordinator for the Forum of Women Educationalists, a Nairobi-based organization that lobbies for education for girls, said the harsh inconvenience of menstruation in schools without sanitation was just one more reason for girls to stay home.
"They miss three or four days of school," she said. "They find themselves lagging behind, and because they don't perform well, their interest fails. They start to think, 'What are we doing here?' The biggest number of them drop out in year five or six."
Increasingly, international organizations, African education ministries and the continent's fledgling women's rights movements are rallying behind the notion of a "girl friendly" school, one that is more secure and closer to home, with a healthy share of female teachers and a clean toilet with a door and water for washing hands.
In Guinea, enrollment rates for girls from 1997 to 2002 jumped 17 percent after improvements in school sanitation, according to a recent Unicef report. The dropout rate among girls fell by an even bigger percentage. Schools in northeastern Nigeria showed substantial gains after Unicef and donors built thousands of latrines, trained thousands of teachers and established school health clubs, the agency contends.
Ethiopia has also made strides. More than 6 in 10 girls of primary-school age are enrolled in school this year, compared with fewer than 4 in 10 girls in 1999. Still, boys are far ahead, with nearly 8 in 10 of them enrolled in primary school.
Unicef is building latrines and bringing clean water to 300 Ethiopian schools. But more than half of the nation's 13,181 primary schools lack water, more than half lack latrines and some lack both. Moreover, those with latrines may have just one for 300 students, Therese Dooley, Unicef's sanitation project officer, said.
In theory, at least, outfitting Ethiopia's schools with basic facilities can be cheap and simple, she said. Toilets need be little more than pits and concrete slabs with walls and a door; rain can be trapped on a school's roof and strained through sand.
Still, she said, toilets for boys and girls must be clearly separate and students who may have never seen a latrine must be taught the importance of using one. And the toilets must be kept clean, a task that frequently falls to the very schoolgirls who were supposed to benefit most.
In Benishangul Gumuz Province in western Ethiopia, where low mountains rise over brilliant yellow fields of oilseeds, such amenities are rare indeed. Guma, a town of 13,000 about an hour's drive from Balizenda over a viciously rutted road, has water only sporadically. The town's main street is dotted with shops, but not one sells sanitary pads. Few residents could afford them anyway. Women make do with folded rags.
Balizenda primary school, with 178 students, is a long, litter-strewn building in a dirt clearing surrounded by brush. Two lopsided reed-walled huts pass for fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. On the playground soccer field, three tree limbs lashed together form the goal.
With the exception of the first grade, where girls are more than a third of the pupils, Balizenda could be mistaken for an all-boys' school. Only 13 girls are enrolled in grades two through six, and even that is an improvement over three months ago.
"When I came here in September, there was not a single female student" in the entire school, said Tisge Tsegaw, 22, the first-grade teacher. "We went to the homes and motivated the parents, and then they came."
But in many cases, not for long. "The parents prioritize. They figure if the girls stay home, they can do the grinding, help with the harvesting, fetch the water and collect the firewood," Ms. Tsegaw said. "They agree to enroll them. Then after two months, they take them back."
The school's latrine, a hovel of thatch and reeds, fell down last year. Yehwala Mesfin, the school's director, said neither the villagers nor the Education Ministry would help build a new one. Parents viewed their annual rebuilding of the reed-walled fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms as a sufficient contribution, he said.
Ms. Beyene, the fifth-grade teacher who arrived here in September, said she agreed to stay at Balizenda only after Mr. Mesfin promised that she could use a toilet at a health center nearby. But since then, the health center has been closed for lack of staff.
"The majority of time I use the open field," she said. "There is no privacy. Everybody comes, even the students. So we try to restrict ourselves to urinate before school and at nighttime. I already have a kidney infection because of this. My situation is getting worse."
The school's only sixth-grade girls, Mesert Mesfin, 17, and Worknesh Anteneh, 15, said that when they could not resist nature's call, they stood guard for each other in the field. When her period began one recent Thursday morning, Mesert said, she had no choice but to run home. Worknesh said she sometimes avoided school during her period.
"It is really a shame," she said. "I am really bothered by this."
Fatimah Bamun, who started school so late that at 14 she is only in fourth grade, said she did not want to miss a single class because she wanted to be a teacher. But, she added, she does not have a lot of backing from her friends.
"I have no friend in the class," she said. "Most of my friends have dropped out to get married. So during the break, I just sit in the classroom and read."
Her father, however, now says he is fully behind her. "The people from the government are all the time telling us to send our daughters to school, and I am listening to these people," he said.
Neither Fatimah's older sister nor mother went to school. And Fatimah is all too familiar with the alternatives for illiterate girls. When she returns home after school each day, she is greeted by another girl, named Eko, who lives in her hut. Thin and poorly dressed, 12 years old at most, Eko is literally a wedding present, given to the Bamuns when Fatimah's sister married Eko's brother.
Before the wedding, Eko was an avid second grader. "I liked school very much; it would have been better to stay in school," she said quietly, picking at her callused hands. Now she is the Bamun family servant, up at sunrise to pound sorghum with a stone for the breakfast porridge. Her education is vicarious.
"She always asks me, 'When are you going to school?' " Fatimah said. " 'What do you do there? What subjects do you study?' "
U.S. About to Awaken to a Nightmare in Ethiopia
Houston Chronicle -- While the West celebrates the joys of Christmas, Africa's oldest independent nation, Ethiopia, is submerged in apocalyptic violence sponsored by the regime.
The Daily Telegraph of London recently described repression of the opposition and the media as exceeding anything in the recent history of the continent of Africa, including that of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the apartheid era of South Africa.
According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, paramilitary units continue to use random searches, beatings, mass arrests and lethal force against peaceful protesters. In Ethiopia, a crime against humanity is unfolding while the world either vacillates or lacks the will to stop it.
In the face of threats, escalating violence by government forces — and without the protection of coalition forces — 26 million Ethiopians voted for the candidates of their choice last May. Unfortunately, many if not most of these duly elected representatives are in jail charged with treason, primarily for running in opposition to the regime.
The charge is nothing more than an attempt to silence the opposition that won more than 80 percent of the popular vote in May.
The regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has launched what the Daily Telegeraph correspondent describes as "a systematic onslaught against the majority of the Ethiopian people," save his Tigrean minority tribe in the north, after the Ethiopian people overwhelmingly rejected his regime in the last election.
U.S. policy toward Africa is paradoxical. This country wants Africa's mineral resources and huge market potential, but ignores serious human rights abuses. It harbors dictators like Meles of Ethiopia to the detriment of its long-term interests. These interests include more than 100,000 U.S. jobs and an emerging market of 700 million consumers.
The Bush administration's rhetoric about democracy is confined to the sands of Iraq and to the mountains of Afghanistan. In Africa, even the rhetoric for democracy is subdued.
Like the Clinton administrations before it, the Bush administration has failed to see that lack of human rights and democracy endanger Africa's economic potential and world stability. Clinton tried to wine and dine Africa's dictators to nudge them to move toward democracy, but he was disappointed. The Bush approach is worse; there is a near-total disregard for human rights and crime against humanity in Africa. Washington's response is lukewarm compared to that in Europe.
The lack of a comprehensive global policy to fight terrorism and to foster democracy bedevils U.S. foreign policy, forcing it to turn a blind eye to tremendous crimes against humanity in Darfur, Ethiopia and other places in Africa and Asia.
Since the May election Ethiopia — once a stable U.S. ally — has been racked with violence and turmoil. According to European Union research and investigation, the ruling Ethiopian Revolutionary Democratic Front lost the May election but decided to cling to power at any cost. The resulting cost to the Ethiopian people has been tremendous suffering. As random killings, beatings, lootings and mass arrests continue, the country is gripped in fear. The joy of a 90 percent voter turnout last May is turning into a nightmare.
To add insult to injury, the independent media have been banned; state-owned television has shown pictures of journalists on the air as criminals wanted for treason for pieces they wrote against the regime's excess and oppressive conditions.
So far, 89 people have been shot at point blank range for participating in peaceful street demonstrations and close to 70,000 have been arrested as possible foes and put in remote prisons, where the death toll is mounting. According to the British newspaper The Observer, a number of people have died while in custody of government forces.
Ethiopia, with more than 70 million people, has become a prison camp while the world has turned a blind eye. Prior to the recent crackdown and election fraud, Meles was even touted as one of Africa's rising leaders. His nemesis, Isias Afeworki of Eritrea, has also been listed as one of them. The United States recently placed sanctions on Eritrea.
Both Isias of Eritrea and Meles were the one-time darlings of Jimmy Carter and other well-known Western leaders. This has given way to inertia in the West in stopping this crime against humanity from unfolding.
If left untended, Ethiopia will implode, and the result will be a nightmare for the United States in its efforts to fight terrorism in the region, as well as for U.S. economic interests across Africa.
The Bush administration needs to rein in Meles — not only for the sake of human rights, or democracy — but also to preserve its own strategic interest and to stop terrorism from spiraling out of control in the Middle East and in Africa.
Abdu, originally from Africa, is a Houston-based writer on foreign policy.
The Daily Telegraph of London recently described repression of the opposition and the media as exceeding anything in the recent history of the continent of Africa, including that of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the apartheid era of South Africa.
According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, paramilitary units continue to use random searches, beatings, mass arrests and lethal force against peaceful protesters. In Ethiopia, a crime against humanity is unfolding while the world either vacillates or lacks the will to stop it.
In the face of threats, escalating violence by government forces — and without the protection of coalition forces — 26 million Ethiopians voted for the candidates of their choice last May. Unfortunately, many if not most of these duly elected representatives are in jail charged with treason, primarily for running in opposition to the regime.
The charge is nothing more than an attempt to silence the opposition that won more than 80 percent of the popular vote in May.
The regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has launched what the Daily Telegeraph correspondent describes as "a systematic onslaught against the majority of the Ethiopian people," save his Tigrean minority tribe in the north, after the Ethiopian people overwhelmingly rejected his regime in the last election.
U.S. policy toward Africa is paradoxical. This country wants Africa's mineral resources and huge market potential, but ignores serious human rights abuses. It harbors dictators like Meles of Ethiopia to the detriment of its long-term interests. These interests include more than 100,000 U.S. jobs and an emerging market of 700 million consumers.
The Bush administration's rhetoric about democracy is confined to the sands of Iraq and to the mountains of Afghanistan. In Africa, even the rhetoric for democracy is subdued.
Like the Clinton administrations before it, the Bush administration has failed to see that lack of human rights and democracy endanger Africa's economic potential and world stability. Clinton tried to wine and dine Africa's dictators to nudge them to move toward democracy, but he was disappointed. The Bush approach is worse; there is a near-total disregard for human rights and crime against humanity in Africa. Washington's response is lukewarm compared to that in Europe.
The lack of a comprehensive global policy to fight terrorism and to foster democracy bedevils U.S. foreign policy, forcing it to turn a blind eye to tremendous crimes against humanity in Darfur, Ethiopia and other places in Africa and Asia.
Since the May election Ethiopia — once a stable U.S. ally — has been racked with violence and turmoil. According to European Union research and investigation, the ruling Ethiopian Revolutionary Democratic Front lost the May election but decided to cling to power at any cost. The resulting cost to the Ethiopian people has been tremendous suffering. As random killings, beatings, lootings and mass arrests continue, the country is gripped in fear. The joy of a 90 percent voter turnout last May is turning into a nightmare.
To add insult to injury, the independent media have been banned; state-owned television has shown pictures of journalists on the air as criminals wanted for treason for pieces they wrote against the regime's excess and oppressive conditions.
So far, 89 people have been shot at point blank range for participating in peaceful street demonstrations and close to 70,000 have been arrested as possible foes and put in remote prisons, where the death toll is mounting. According to the British newspaper The Observer, a number of people have died while in custody of government forces.
Ethiopia, with more than 70 million people, has become a prison camp while the world has turned a blind eye. Prior to the recent crackdown and election fraud, Meles was even touted as one of Africa's rising leaders. His nemesis, Isias Afeworki of Eritrea, has also been listed as one of them. The United States recently placed sanctions on Eritrea.
Both Isias of Eritrea and Meles were the one-time darlings of Jimmy Carter and other well-known Western leaders. This has given way to inertia in the West in stopping this crime against humanity from unfolding.
If left untended, Ethiopia will implode, and the result will be a nightmare for the United States in its efforts to fight terrorism in the region, as well as for U.S. economic interests across Africa.
The Bush administration needs to rein in Meles — not only for the sake of human rights, or democracy — but also to preserve its own strategic interest and to stop terrorism from spiraling out of control in the Middle East and in Africa.
Abdu, originally from Africa, is a Houston-based writer on foreign policy.
Yearender: Brain Drain, Serious Impact on Africa's Development
People's Daily Online -- In the early 1970s, very few Ethiopians chose to emigrate to other states, however, in three decades, Ethiopia has become a nation of emigrants, losing thousands of well-educated scientists, doctors, and other professional elite every year.
The Ethiopian story is not individual. It is only one example reflecting the growing alarm over Africa's increasing exodus of human capital. It is an episode which shows Africa is losing the very people it needs most for economic, social, scientific, and technological progress.
Actually, the issue of Africa's brain drain has both internal and external causes, and needs the efforts of the whole international community. For the future of Africa, the governments of developed countries should not evade their responsibilities for the issue, while African countries should do their best to encourage overseas professionals to return.
HUGE LOSSES FOR AFRICA
As a result of the human capital flight, or brain drain, Africa has incurred tremendous losses.
According to a study by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM), Africa has been losing 20,000 professionals each year since 1990. Another study by the World Bank says that some 70,000 highly qualified African scholars and experts leave their home countries every year in order to work abroad, often in more developed countries.
"Today if you visit universities in this country you will not find any lecturers who have been there for more than seven or eight years," said Professor Haile Tilahun of the Addis Ababa University. Haile is a researcher on international migration of highly qualified personnel.
According to the IOM, there are currently just 200,000 scientists and engineers in Africa, servicing a population of about 860 million. Africa would need at least 1 million scientists and engineers to sustain the continent's development prospects. While, at least one-third of science and technology professionals from African countries are currently working in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.
In light of a dwindling professional sector, African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise. To fill the human resource gap created by brain drain, Africa employs up to 100,000 expatriate professionals at a cost of 4 billion US dollars a year.
"In the 21st century, science and technology is a country's capital and the key to its economic growth. Nations without a skilled and technologically savvy workforce are doomed," he said.
Haile said emigration of African professionals to the West is one of the greatest obstacles to Africa's development.
"Africa is dying a slow death from brain drain," he alarmed.
CAUSE OF BRAIN DRAIN
"There are a number of pull and push factors that facilitate the flow of best brains out of Africa," said Professor Tadesse Mengesha of the semi-official Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development.
Some of the pushing factors include poor working conditions, limited career opportunities, limited educational opportunities and low pay and economic instability, said Tadesse.
He added that the pooling factors include higher pay, better working conditions, career opportunities, so on and so forth.
However, the primary cause of brain drain is unreasonably low wages paid to African professionals. Africans living in the West obtain much higher salaries than they get at home.
"It's hard to blame a trained and educated person for leaving her country because of the many obstacles in the path to success," said Tadelech Hailu, a young doctor with a master of medicine working at Addis Ababa's Black Lion Hospital.
Tadelech each month earns 1,300 birr (150 US dollars) from the hospital. She believed that higher wages act as a magnet to professionals.
"If we take the case of Ethiopia, someone with a master's degree makes 150 dollars a month whereas that same person would make 30 times more if hired with a similar kind of job in the West, " she said.
The contradiction is that Africa spends 4 billion dollars annually to recruit and pay 100,000 expatriates to work in Africa but it fails to spend a proportional amount to recruit the 250,000 African professionals now working outside Africa. African professionals working in Africa are paid considerably less than similarly qualified expatriates.
At Tadelech's hospital, Cuban and Russian doctors are paid 15 times more than Ethiopian colleagues.
"My country is willing to hire expatriates and pay them lots of money but it will not pay us studying abroad and willing to come back home the same amount of money. What do these expatriates have that I don't have?" asked Tadelech.
IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS
As long as Africa's brain drain phenomenon continues, its ongoing development efforts will continue to be undermined.
The solution to the problem, according to Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, is that Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest and informed man. A man who submerges himself in service to the nation and mankind.
At the headquarters of Ethiopia's Ministry of Mines and Energy, Asfaw Shuba, an geological engineer, did his PhD in Canada and came back home three years ago.
"I remember the toil of our coffee farmers that kept us in school. I don't think we the young ones have any excuse not to return and contribute," he said.
"I returned to Ethiopia after my studies in Canada. I am happy although not rich. Patriotism, that is all that Africa needs to reverse this brain drain."
Besides the individuals themselves, African governments can do more to help reverse the trend.
"Botswana has almost no brain drain at all, actually it has one of the highest rates of returns of overseas students in the world. If Botswana could do it with respect for professionals, then why can't the rest of Africa follow suit?" asked Fikru Desalegne, state minister of capacity building.
In Ethiopia, the government is now providing such incentives as reduced import duties, foreign exchange accounts and stronger private ownership laws to encourage professionals to stay in the Horn of Africa country, and attract those abroad to return, invest and share their expertise.
The aim is to reverse the country's brain drain and promote development led by Ethiopians with vital technical and professional skills.
According to official data, Ethiopia trained 2,491 general practitioners between 1988 and 2001, but in recent years one-third have already left the country seeking better employment opportunities in North America, Europe and South Africa.
Fikru said Ethiopia should learn from China and India to recruit and retain professionals. He added that the two Asian giants often provide recruitment incentives, such as relocation expenses, loans for housing and for starting businesses, salary supplement for the first few years.
"However, a more permanent solution will be to pay wages that are competitive," he said.
The Ethiopian story is not individual. It is only one example reflecting the growing alarm over Africa's increasing exodus of human capital. It is an episode which shows Africa is losing the very people it needs most for economic, social, scientific, and technological progress.
Actually, the issue of Africa's brain drain has both internal and external causes, and needs the efforts of the whole international community. For the future of Africa, the governments of developed countries should not evade their responsibilities for the issue, while African countries should do their best to encourage overseas professionals to return.
HUGE LOSSES FOR AFRICA
As a result of the human capital flight, or brain drain, Africa has incurred tremendous losses.
According to a study by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM), Africa has been losing 20,000 professionals each year since 1990. Another study by the World Bank says that some 70,000 highly qualified African scholars and experts leave their home countries every year in order to work abroad, often in more developed countries.
"Today if you visit universities in this country you will not find any lecturers who have been there for more than seven or eight years," said Professor Haile Tilahun of the Addis Ababa University. Haile is a researcher on international migration of highly qualified personnel.
According to the IOM, there are currently just 200,000 scientists and engineers in Africa, servicing a population of about 860 million. Africa would need at least 1 million scientists and engineers to sustain the continent's development prospects. While, at least one-third of science and technology professionals from African countries are currently working in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.
In light of a dwindling professional sector, African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise. To fill the human resource gap created by brain drain, Africa employs up to 100,000 expatriate professionals at a cost of 4 billion US dollars a year.
"In the 21st century, science and technology is a country's capital and the key to its economic growth. Nations without a skilled and technologically savvy workforce are doomed," he said.
Haile said emigration of African professionals to the West is one of the greatest obstacles to Africa's development.
"Africa is dying a slow death from brain drain," he alarmed.
CAUSE OF BRAIN DRAIN
"There are a number of pull and push factors that facilitate the flow of best brains out of Africa," said Professor Tadesse Mengesha of the semi-official Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development.
Some of the pushing factors include poor working conditions, limited career opportunities, limited educational opportunities and low pay and economic instability, said Tadesse.
He added that the pooling factors include higher pay, better working conditions, career opportunities, so on and so forth.
However, the primary cause of brain drain is unreasonably low wages paid to African professionals. Africans living in the West obtain much higher salaries than they get at home.
"It's hard to blame a trained and educated person for leaving her country because of the many obstacles in the path to success," said Tadelech Hailu, a young doctor with a master of medicine working at Addis Ababa's Black Lion Hospital.
Tadelech each month earns 1,300 birr (150 US dollars) from the hospital. She believed that higher wages act as a magnet to professionals.
"If we take the case of Ethiopia, someone with a master's degree makes 150 dollars a month whereas that same person would make 30 times more if hired with a similar kind of job in the West, " she said.
The contradiction is that Africa spends 4 billion dollars annually to recruit and pay 100,000 expatriates to work in Africa but it fails to spend a proportional amount to recruit the 250,000 African professionals now working outside Africa. African professionals working in Africa are paid considerably less than similarly qualified expatriates.
At Tadelech's hospital, Cuban and Russian doctors are paid 15 times more than Ethiopian colleagues.
"My country is willing to hire expatriates and pay them lots of money but it will not pay us studying abroad and willing to come back home the same amount of money. What do these expatriates have that I don't have?" asked Tadelech.
IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS
As long as Africa's brain drain phenomenon continues, its ongoing development efforts will continue to be undermined.
The solution to the problem, according to Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, is that Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest and informed man. A man who submerges himself in service to the nation and mankind.
At the headquarters of Ethiopia's Ministry of Mines and Energy, Asfaw Shuba, an geological engineer, did his PhD in Canada and came back home three years ago.
"I remember the toil of our coffee farmers that kept us in school. I don't think we the young ones have any excuse not to return and contribute," he said.
"I returned to Ethiopia after my studies in Canada. I am happy although not rich. Patriotism, that is all that Africa needs to reverse this brain drain."
Besides the individuals themselves, African governments can do more to help reverse the trend.
"Botswana has almost no brain drain at all, actually it has one of the highest rates of returns of overseas students in the world. If Botswana could do it with respect for professionals, then why can't the rest of Africa follow suit?" asked Fikru Desalegne, state minister of capacity building.
In Ethiopia, the government is now providing such incentives as reduced import duties, foreign exchange accounts and stronger private ownership laws to encourage professionals to stay in the Horn of Africa country, and attract those abroad to return, invest and share their expertise.
The aim is to reverse the country's brain drain and promote development led by Ethiopians with vital technical and professional skills.
According to official data, Ethiopia trained 2,491 general practitioners between 1988 and 2001, but in recent years one-third have already left the country seeking better employment opportunities in North America, Europe and South Africa.
Fikru said Ethiopia should learn from China and India to recruit and retain professionals. He added that the two Asian giants often provide recruitment incentives, such as relocation expenses, loans for housing and for starting businesses, salary supplement for the first few years.
"However, a more permanent solution will be to pay wages that are competitive," he said.
Myrrh Finds a New Role in Fending Off Ship Barnacles
icWales -- A GIFT given to the baby Jesus by one of the three kings is being developed by Welsh scientists to keep barnacles off ships.
Myrrh was one of the presents given to Jesus by Balthazar, the King of Ethiopia.
In ancient times it was valued more highly than gold. Myrrh and frankincense were considered to have had spiritual and medical significance.
Myrrh is a plant resin derived from the thorny desert shrub Commiphora molmol which grows wild in the Horn of Africa.
Somali tribesmen cut the bark of the tree which then exudes a protective resin like a teardrop of amber.
These harden and are periodically harvested as granules by the natives. Not all the trees are harvested at the same time and some are periodically allowed to rest in a cyclical manner following strict traditional tribal rules.
A team of scientists at the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, led by Professor Delme Bowen of the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, is researching the plant's qualities for modern uses.
They are already developing slug repellents made from the resin of myrrh, now they are looking at making paints for ships to keep off barnacles.
Prof Bowen said, "Myrrh is renowned as an ancient medicine. The Greeks used to carry myrrh with them into battle and if injured would smear the wounds with myrrh.
"We now know it has strong antibiotic properties. It was used by natives as an incense to repel flies, insect pests and ticks and is used to this day as a rub for horses.
"In medieval times Arab ship builders would seal their boats with myrrh which appeared to prevent wood-boring molluscs from making holes in the wooden hull.
"Even in Victorian times the resin formed part of a recipe used by the Navy to paint and preserve wooden decks.
"From a biological point of view the myrrh tree has evolved the resin over millions of years as a sap or exudate to protect itself if injured.
"It is not surprising that the mixture contains many chemicals of a defensive nature.
"The plant uses these to seal or plug any wounds made in the bark. Many of the natural chemicals in the resin will repel insect pests and attract others to eat the pests in a subtle chemical warfare. Some of the chemicals defend the tree from bacterial and fungal attack and modern chemical analysis shows the mixture to contain antibiotic and antifungal compounds many of which are new to science.
"Research work has shown the resin and some of its extracted chemicals can be used in an anti-fouling paint to protect ships and marine installations and international collaboration is producing significant new formulations.
"These formulations prevent the settlement and growth of barnacles, limpets and other molluscs and hopefully may eventually replace the current toxic products that are based on organo-tin.
"Myrrh also has a golden future in the field of medicine. It is already widely used in herbal prescriptions in Arab, Chinese and Indian medicine."
Previous Post: Monks, Myrrh & Mystery
Myrrh was one of the presents given to Jesus by Balthazar, the King of Ethiopia.
In ancient times it was valued more highly than gold. Myrrh and frankincense were considered to have had spiritual and medical significance.
Myrrh is a plant resin derived from the thorny desert shrub Commiphora molmol which grows wild in the Horn of Africa.
Somali tribesmen cut the bark of the tree which then exudes a protective resin like a teardrop of amber.
These harden and are periodically harvested as granules by the natives. Not all the trees are harvested at the same time and some are periodically allowed to rest in a cyclical manner following strict traditional tribal rules.
A team of scientists at the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, led by Professor Delme Bowen of the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, is researching the plant's qualities for modern uses.
They are already developing slug repellents made from the resin of myrrh, now they are looking at making paints for ships to keep off barnacles.
Prof Bowen said, "Myrrh is renowned as an ancient medicine. The Greeks used to carry myrrh with them into battle and if injured would smear the wounds with myrrh.
"We now know it has strong antibiotic properties. It was used by natives as an incense to repel flies, insect pests and ticks and is used to this day as a rub for horses.
"In medieval times Arab ship builders would seal their boats with myrrh which appeared to prevent wood-boring molluscs from making holes in the wooden hull.
"Even in Victorian times the resin formed part of a recipe used by the Navy to paint and preserve wooden decks.
"From a biological point of view the myrrh tree has evolved the resin over millions of years as a sap or exudate to protect itself if injured.
"It is not surprising that the mixture contains many chemicals of a defensive nature.
"The plant uses these to seal or plug any wounds made in the bark. Many of the natural chemicals in the resin will repel insect pests and attract others to eat the pests in a subtle chemical warfare. Some of the chemicals defend the tree from bacterial and fungal attack and modern chemical analysis shows the mixture to contain antibiotic and antifungal compounds many of which are new to science.
"Research work has shown the resin and some of its extracted chemicals can be used in an anti-fouling paint to protect ships and marine installations and international collaboration is producing significant new formulations.
"These formulations prevent the settlement and growth of barnacles, limpets and other molluscs and hopefully may eventually replace the current toxic products that are based on organo-tin.
"Myrrh also has a golden future in the field of medicine. It is already widely used in herbal prescriptions in Arab, Chinese and Indian medicine."
Previous Post: Monks, Myrrh & Mystery
Buildup Brings Ethiopia, Eritrea Back to the Brink
Washington Post -- As an orange sun sank over the tin shacks of a new military base at this border city's airport last week, dozens of Ethiopian soldiers killed time playing soccer. They were waiting to be called to service as their country edged toward another conflict with Eritrea, just a short drive away.
The two countries fought a grisly, trench-style war between 1998 and 2000 over disputed slivers of the mountainous border. The fighting ended in a truce, but only after more than 70,000 lives were lost.
Eritreans in the town of Shambuko walk past a tank abandoned during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia. Diplomats in the Horn of Africa estimate there are hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the 570-mile border between the two countries.
Now, there is a new standoff and a new buildup of forces. The troops in Aksum, diplomats said, are part of larger contingents positioned in freshly dug trenches along both sides of the 570-mile frontier. They estimated that there are about 130,000 on the Ethiopian side and 250,000 on the Eritrean side.
Officials in both countries have spoken on state television and radio, each presenting their country as the victim of aggression and making blustery threats of retaliation. Analysts said the growing confrontation is distracting attention from internal problems in both impoverished countries and renewing fears of a rekindled war that would threaten regional stability.
In a report released this week, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said foreign organizations must "urgently re-engage if a disastrous new war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is to be averted." A resumption of conflict, the report said, would destabilize and rearm the entire Horn of Africa, "rekindling a proxy war in Somalia and undermining the fragile peace process in southern and eastern Sudan."
In an interview Monday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi charged that Eritrean leaders "will not hesitate for a moment to start another war if they think they will profit from it. Our military balance has to be such to dissuade them."
In Eritrea, President Isaias Afwerki has recently restricted helicopter flights by U.N. monitors along the border and expelled 180 U.N. peacekeepers sent to help maintain a cease-fire. He also refused to meet with a delegation sent by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
In a recent interview with state media representatives in Asmara, the capital, Isaias accused Ethiopia's leaders of rushing to war to cement power at a time when Meles and his ruling party have been criticized for crushing political dissent.
"They are trying to escape forward from the crisis by any means," Isaias said, according to the Eritrean government Web site. "They are deflecting and drawing attention away from the crisis present now in Ethiopia. . . . The intention of igniting the war comes from the Ethiopia regime's crisis and its despair."
Civic leaders from both countries say a return to war would be mutual suicide. In the previous conflict, each side suffered high casualties among both fighters and civilians. And the war cost each country an estimated $1 million a day.
Although largely confined to several border towns, the conflict was particularly bitter because of ties between the two countries. They have a common culture and have high rates of cross-migration and intermarriage.
A decade ago, Meles and Isaias were hailed by U.S. officials as part of a new generation of progressive and democratic African leaders. Today, both are increasingly unpopular at home, where they are criticized for failing to reduce desperate poverty and high unemployment.
To curb unrest, both leaders have jailed opposition leaders and sent riot police with live bullets to quell protests. And both have used the prospect of another deadly border war as a way to unite the populace against a foreign foe.
"The fear of war makes people forget all these other problems. . . . But the truth is these leaders are playing with our lives," said Firdi Mekonen, 41, a historian in Aksum. During the last conflict, it was a staging ground for Ethiopian troops and a refuge for wounded fighters and civilians fleeing fighting.
Last month, political tension in Ethiopia intensified as opposition party supporters filled the streets of Addis Ababa to protest disputed elections in May. Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed when security forces fired into crowds.
In the following weeks, police jailed at least 15,000 protesters and 130 senior opposition figures, including professors, judges and the city's elected mayor, Berhanu Nega. Most were charged with treason, but some are being prosecuted for calling for genocide against Meles's ethnic group, the Tigrayans.
On Monday, Meles said that only about 3,000 of those arrested remained in jail. However, diplomats and political leaders estimate the number to be four times higher. Meles blamed the main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, for inciting violence and trying to overthrow his government.
He said that when the opposition leaders failed to rally support through civil disobedience, they resorted to violence. Officials said rioters burned 110 city buses and attacked police officers, eight of whom were killed.
"Their Phase Two wasn't peaceful protest. It was insurrection, and in my view that's treason. . . . Democracy is about having the rule of law," Meles said.
Meles once enjoyed a reputation abroad as a progressive reformer, especially compared with the brutal communist regime he helped overthrow in 1991. Now, Meles's image has been tarnished by the recent violence, and Western governments have become more critical.
"The international community was happy with the economic reforms, and people felt the democratic process was moving forward, but there still seems to be some command-and-control mentality," said Tim Clarke, the European Union ambassador in Addis Ababa. "There also still seem to be significant human rights abuses and arrests for protests."
But some observers think Meles's strategy of raising alarms about the threat from Eritrea may work at home, at least temporarily.
"It's a smart tactic," said Abdul Mohammed, an Ethiopian political scientist and analyst. "It has helped leaders on shaky ground around the world."
This is not the first time that both Ethiopia and Eritrea have used the threat of a border war to deflect internal problems. In Ethiopia, the ethnic minority government was politically unpopular until Eritrea attacked in 1998. Radio stations played folk songs about the sacrifices of war and national pride.
In Eritrea, the drums beat louder, drowning out internal complaints that the economy was in tatters, the free press a distant memory and unemployment rampant. The tiny country of 4.5 million people has one of the largest armies in Africa, according to diplomats and human rights groups.
These days, Isaias often appears on government-run television to incite Eritreans against Ethiopia. In recent months, analysts estimated that nearly 250,000 Eritrean troops had edged toward the border, and Ethiopia reportedly responded by beefing up its defenses. Threatened with U.N. sanctions, Ethiopia has started to pull back some troops, but Eritrea has remained defiant. The United Nations says Ethiopia has not taken steps to begin demarcation of its contested boundary, and the Security Council will debate the issue over the next month.
"Never has there been such a great crisis for the mission,'' said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations. "Brinkmanship has been tried by countries many times in history, and very often it fails and leads to unintended consequences.''
Meles, in the interview, said his government would not respond to Eritrean aggression "short of a full invasion of our country." He said the first war with Eritrea "should have never happened. But if they invade our country, we have no choice."
Eritrea, in turn, is frustrated by Ethiopia's refusal to implement the 2002 ruling by an international boundary commission, set up as part of the peace agreement. Three years later, Ethiopian forces still occupy territory awarded to Eritrea.
Yet the international community has been reluctant to pressure Ethiopia to give up its border claim, or to halt the abuses of domestic opponents, because of its importance as a strategic ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. American soldiers are stationed along its border with Somalia to the southeast, a perceived haven for terrorist cells with possible links to al Qaeda.
That seems a flimsy rationale to Bomer Nega, 84, the father of jailed mayor Berhanu Nega. The elder Nega, who survived the harshest days of the communist regime, said Ethiopia's current ruling party is only interested in maintaining power. He said the protests began peacefully and only became violent when police used aggressive force.
"The opposition doesn't even have a spokesperson. They are all in jail," said Nega. "There's no democracy here. They allow leaders to be elected, but then put them behind bars. I think this country is being led back into the corner."
The two countries fought a grisly, trench-style war between 1998 and 2000 over disputed slivers of the mountainous border. The fighting ended in a truce, but only after more than 70,000 lives were lost.
Eritreans in the town of Shambuko walk past a tank abandoned during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia. Diplomats in the Horn of Africa estimate there are hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the 570-mile border between the two countries.
Now, there is a new standoff and a new buildup of forces. The troops in Aksum, diplomats said, are part of larger contingents positioned in freshly dug trenches along both sides of the 570-mile frontier. They estimated that there are about 130,000 on the Ethiopian side and 250,000 on the Eritrean side.
Officials in both countries have spoken on state television and radio, each presenting their country as the victim of aggression and making blustery threats of retaliation. Analysts said the growing confrontation is distracting attention from internal problems in both impoverished countries and renewing fears of a rekindled war that would threaten regional stability.
In a report released this week, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said foreign organizations must "urgently re-engage if a disastrous new war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is to be averted." A resumption of conflict, the report said, would destabilize and rearm the entire Horn of Africa, "rekindling a proxy war in Somalia and undermining the fragile peace process in southern and eastern Sudan."
In an interview Monday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi charged that Eritrean leaders "will not hesitate for a moment to start another war if they think they will profit from it. Our military balance has to be such to dissuade them."
In Eritrea, President Isaias Afwerki has recently restricted helicopter flights by U.N. monitors along the border and expelled 180 U.N. peacekeepers sent to help maintain a cease-fire. He also refused to meet with a delegation sent by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
In a recent interview with state media representatives in Asmara, the capital, Isaias accused Ethiopia's leaders of rushing to war to cement power at a time when Meles and his ruling party have been criticized for crushing political dissent.
"They are trying to escape forward from the crisis by any means," Isaias said, according to the Eritrean government Web site. "They are deflecting and drawing attention away from the crisis present now in Ethiopia. . . . The intention of igniting the war comes from the Ethiopia regime's crisis and its despair."
Civic leaders from both countries say a return to war would be mutual suicide. In the previous conflict, each side suffered high casualties among both fighters and civilians. And the war cost each country an estimated $1 million a day.
Although largely confined to several border towns, the conflict was particularly bitter because of ties between the two countries. They have a common culture and have high rates of cross-migration and intermarriage.
A decade ago, Meles and Isaias were hailed by U.S. officials as part of a new generation of progressive and democratic African leaders. Today, both are increasingly unpopular at home, where they are criticized for failing to reduce desperate poverty and high unemployment.
To curb unrest, both leaders have jailed opposition leaders and sent riot police with live bullets to quell protests. And both have used the prospect of another deadly border war as a way to unite the populace against a foreign foe.
"The fear of war makes people forget all these other problems. . . . But the truth is these leaders are playing with our lives," said Firdi Mekonen, 41, a historian in Aksum. During the last conflict, it was a staging ground for Ethiopian troops and a refuge for wounded fighters and civilians fleeing fighting.
Last month, political tension in Ethiopia intensified as opposition party supporters filled the streets of Addis Ababa to protest disputed elections in May. Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed when security forces fired into crowds.
In the following weeks, police jailed at least 15,000 protesters and 130 senior opposition figures, including professors, judges and the city's elected mayor, Berhanu Nega. Most were charged with treason, but some are being prosecuted for calling for genocide against Meles's ethnic group, the Tigrayans.
On Monday, Meles said that only about 3,000 of those arrested remained in jail. However, diplomats and political leaders estimate the number to be four times higher. Meles blamed the main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, for inciting violence and trying to overthrow his government.
He said that when the opposition leaders failed to rally support through civil disobedience, they resorted to violence. Officials said rioters burned 110 city buses and attacked police officers, eight of whom were killed.
"Their Phase Two wasn't peaceful protest. It was insurrection, and in my view that's treason. . . . Democracy is about having the rule of law," Meles said.
Meles once enjoyed a reputation abroad as a progressive reformer, especially compared with the brutal communist regime he helped overthrow in 1991. Now, Meles's image has been tarnished by the recent violence, and Western governments have become more critical.
"The international community was happy with the economic reforms, and people felt the democratic process was moving forward, but there still seems to be some command-and-control mentality," said Tim Clarke, the European Union ambassador in Addis Ababa. "There also still seem to be significant human rights abuses and arrests for protests."
But some observers think Meles's strategy of raising alarms about the threat from Eritrea may work at home, at least temporarily.
"It's a smart tactic," said Abdul Mohammed, an Ethiopian political scientist and analyst. "It has helped leaders on shaky ground around the world."
This is not the first time that both Ethiopia and Eritrea have used the threat of a border war to deflect internal problems. In Ethiopia, the ethnic minority government was politically unpopular until Eritrea attacked in 1998. Radio stations played folk songs about the sacrifices of war and national pride.
In Eritrea, the drums beat louder, drowning out internal complaints that the economy was in tatters, the free press a distant memory and unemployment rampant. The tiny country of 4.5 million people has one of the largest armies in Africa, according to diplomats and human rights groups.
These days, Isaias often appears on government-run television to incite Eritreans against Ethiopia. In recent months, analysts estimated that nearly 250,000 Eritrean troops had edged toward the border, and Ethiopia reportedly responded by beefing up its defenses. Threatened with U.N. sanctions, Ethiopia has started to pull back some troops, but Eritrea has remained defiant. The United Nations says Ethiopia has not taken steps to begin demarcation of its contested boundary, and the Security Council will debate the issue over the next month.
"Never has there been such a great crisis for the mission,'' said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations. "Brinkmanship has been tried by countries many times in history, and very often it fails and leads to unintended consequences.''
Meles, in the interview, said his government would not respond to Eritrean aggression "short of a full invasion of our country." He said the first war with Eritrea "should have never happened. But if they invade our country, we have no choice."
Eritrea, in turn, is frustrated by Ethiopia's refusal to implement the 2002 ruling by an international boundary commission, set up as part of the peace agreement. Three years later, Ethiopian forces still occupy territory awarded to Eritrea.
Yet the international community has been reluctant to pressure Ethiopia to give up its border claim, or to halt the abuses of domestic opponents, because of its importance as a strategic ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. American soldiers are stationed along its border with Somalia to the southeast, a perceived haven for terrorist cells with possible links to al Qaeda.
That seems a flimsy rationale to Bomer Nega, 84, the father of jailed mayor Berhanu Nega. The elder Nega, who survived the harshest days of the communist regime, said Ethiopia's current ruling party is only interested in maintaining power. He said the protests began peacefully and only became violent when police used aggressive force.
"The opposition doesn't even have a spokesperson. They are all in jail," said Nega. "There's no democracy here. They allow leaders to be elected, but then put them behind bars. I think this country is being led back into the corner."
Iranian Aluminum Plant Operational in Ethiopia
Iran Mania -- Iran?s largest investment project in Ethiopia has become operational in the eastern African country.
According to Moj news agency, the aluminum factory constructed by Iranian companies in Ethiopia will make the African country self-sufficient in aluminum and do away with the need for imports.
The factory?s production capacity stands at 1,500 tons at present. This figure is expected to double by the end of 2006. Materials and equipment needed to make the aluminum factory operational would come from Iran, he said.
The inauguration ceremony of the biggest ever investment by an Iranian company in Ethiopia was launched at the Sheraton Addis on December 17.
According to Ethiopian sources, the partnership will enable Ethiopia to compete both in the domestic and global markets by providing new technology that Ethiopia can take advantage of. The Ethio-Iran Aluminum Factory was established in 2003 with an initial capital investment of $25 mln in Sululta, some 25 kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa.
According to Moj news agency, the aluminum factory constructed by Iranian companies in Ethiopia will make the African country self-sufficient in aluminum and do away with the need for imports.
The factory?s production capacity stands at 1,500 tons at present. This figure is expected to double by the end of 2006. Materials and equipment needed to make the aluminum factory operational would come from Iran, he said.
The inauguration ceremony of the biggest ever investment by an Iranian company in Ethiopia was launched at the Sheraton Addis on December 17.
According to Ethiopian sources, the partnership will enable Ethiopia to compete both in the domestic and global markets by providing new technology that Ethiopia can take advantage of. The Ethio-Iran Aluminum Factory was established in 2003 with an initial capital investment of $25 mln in Sululta, some 25 kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
White Nile Loses £0.4m
Growth Company -- Phil Edmonds' Southern Sudan-focused oil and gas play White Nile lost £394,000 last year and expects to drill soon.
Controversial White Nile raised £9 million at 10p from RAB Capital, Artemis and others ahead of last February's AIM float and later tapped the market in July for £7 million at £1, ten times the price of the earlier fundraising. Attracting the attentions of super-bear Simon 'Evil Knievel' Cawkwell, the shares hit 147.5p in June before slumping back to 58.5p by September.
White Nile has 60 per cent of Southern Sudan's 67,000 sq km Block Ba project, paid for by issuing shares equivalent to half of its own enlarged equity to Southern Sudan's state oil company, Nile Petroleum. Edmonds and development chief Andrew Groves contend that previous research and mapping by other groups shows the western part of Block Ba lies on an extension of the 'production fairway' of the Mugland Basin, an area whose hitherto explored portion contains proven oil reserves of 1.2 billion barrels and estimated oil-in-place of more than 10 billion barrels.
Unfortunately, French oil giant Total has a competing claim to Block Ba, awarded by the Sudan government in Khartoum before the then Southern Sudan rebels won their present autonomy. White Nile argues it has security of tenure and is supported by the Southern Sudan government, while friends of Edmonds have suggested a handsome bid from the French could solve the dispute.
In July, White Nile clinched a two-year joint study agreement with the government of neighbouring Ethiopia to study 70,000 sq km in the 'Southern Rift Basins', next to a large block awarded to Malaysia's Petronas. The company had £15 million cash at year end.
At 99p, valuing the company at £314 million, White Nile shares offer potentially exciting prospects if everything goes to plan, but these are coupled with significant risks on several fronts: geological, commercial, legal and political.
Controversial White Nile raised £9 million at 10p from RAB Capital, Artemis and others ahead of last February's AIM float and later tapped the market in July for £7 million at £1, ten times the price of the earlier fundraising. Attracting the attentions of super-bear Simon 'Evil Knievel' Cawkwell, the shares hit 147.5p in June before slumping back to 58.5p by September.
White Nile has 60 per cent of Southern Sudan's 67,000 sq km Block Ba project, paid for by issuing shares equivalent to half of its own enlarged equity to Southern Sudan's state oil company, Nile Petroleum. Edmonds and development chief Andrew Groves contend that previous research and mapping by other groups shows the western part of Block Ba lies on an extension of the 'production fairway' of the Mugland Basin, an area whose hitherto explored portion contains proven oil reserves of 1.2 billion barrels and estimated oil-in-place of more than 10 billion barrels.
Unfortunately, French oil giant Total has a competing claim to Block Ba, awarded by the Sudan government in Khartoum before the then Southern Sudan rebels won their present autonomy. White Nile argues it has security of tenure and is supported by the Southern Sudan government, while friends of Edmonds have suggested a handsome bid from the French could solve the dispute.
In July, White Nile clinched a two-year joint study agreement with the government of neighbouring Ethiopia to study 70,000 sq km in the 'Southern Rift Basins', next to a large block awarded to Malaysia's Petronas. The company had £15 million cash at year end.
At 99p, valuing the company at £314 million, White Nile shares offer potentially exciting prospects if everything goes to plan, but these are coupled with significant risks on several fronts: geological, commercial, legal and political.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Ethiopia Opposition Genocide Charges
Herald Sun -- ETHIOPIA has charged 131 opposition members with treason, inciting violence and planning to commit genocide during deadly clashes that followed a disputed parliamentary election.
Senior political figures from the opposition CUD coalition and 13 journalists were among those charged at an Addis Ababa court, where only 43 were present when the charges were presented. The rest were out of the country or otherwise free.
Under a section entitled "genocide", the charge sheet specifically accused the CUD of trying to isolate the Tigrayan people of Ethiopia, who are largely supporters of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's victorious Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
"The accused organised under the CUD umbrella and conspired with the intent to cause physical and mental harm to the people of Tigraya region and the attempt to isolate members of the EPRDF from society," the charges presented in court read.
The genocide charge carries a penalty of death or life in prison upon conviction.
The court denied those under arrest bail and ordered them to make a plea by next Wednesday.
The opposition have rejected the charges and said they are politically motivated.
The Ethiopian government arrested thousands of opposition members and others after two spasms of violence struck the capital Addis Ababa, in July and November, over the results of the May 15 election.
At least 82 people were killed in clashes with police and soldiers, and Mr Zenawi accused the CUD of fomenting the violence. The CUD and other opposition parties, who gained parliamentary seats in the vote, had accused the government of vote fraud and intimidation.
Related News:
Reporters without Borders urges fair trial for Ethiopia's reporters
Claims body rules Eritrea started 1998 war
Senior political figures from the opposition CUD coalition and 13 journalists were among those charged at an Addis Ababa court, where only 43 were present when the charges were presented. The rest were out of the country or otherwise free.
Under a section entitled "genocide", the charge sheet specifically accused the CUD of trying to isolate the Tigrayan people of Ethiopia, who are largely supporters of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's victorious Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
"The accused organised under the CUD umbrella and conspired with the intent to cause physical and mental harm to the people of Tigraya region and the attempt to isolate members of the EPRDF from society," the charges presented in court read.
The genocide charge carries a penalty of death or life in prison upon conviction.
The court denied those under arrest bail and ordered them to make a plea by next Wednesday.
The opposition have rejected the charges and said they are politically motivated.
The Ethiopian government arrested thousands of opposition members and others after two spasms of violence struck the capital Addis Ababa, in July and November, over the results of the May 15 election.
At least 82 people were killed in clashes with police and soldiers, and Mr Zenawi accused the CUD of fomenting the violence. The CUD and other opposition parties, who gained parliamentary seats in the vote, had accused the government of vote fraud and intimidation.
Related News:
Reporters without Borders urges fair trial for Ethiopia's reporters
Claims body rules Eritrea started 1998 war
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
For Bolivian Victor, A Powerful Mandate
Washington Post -- The sweeping if unofficial victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia's presidential election Sunday has made the former coca farmer and grass-roots activist the nation's strongest elected leader since the end of the last military dictatorship in 1982 and has given him an unprecedented opportunity to transform the impoverished Andean country.
The question, say both Bolivian and U.S. observers, is whether the socialist candidate will use that mandate to follow through on pledges for radical economic and political change -- pledges that won him support among indigenous and poor voters -- or whether he can demonstrate enough pragmatism to reassure foreign governments and investors, whose support he needs for economic development.
Morales, 46, is a fiery politician and an Aymara Indian who electrified Bolivia's poor but struck fear into the business elite and irritated officials in Washington by opposing U.S. anti-drug programs and spouting anti-imperialist rhetoric. Whichever path he chooses, his victory stands to resonate far beyond the small, landlocked nation with a history of military coups and wobbly civilian governments.
"Morales faces a very difficult balancing act," said Michael Shifter, an analyst with Inter-American Dialog, a nonprofit institute in Washington. "There is a lot of rage and resentment in Bolivia, and as a candidate he has capitalized on that. But now, in order to govern successfully and keep the country economically viable, he has to reach out to all sectors and show signs of moderation, while convincing his supporters he hasn't sold them out."
As Morales joins a growing list of elected Latin American presidents generally described as leftist or populist, he has two basic models from which to choose. One is that of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who has gleefully defied the Bush administration, formed a warm alliance with Cuba's Fidel Castro and cracked down on domestic opponents in the name of social change. The other is that of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has developed disciplined fiscal policies, left democratic institutions intact and avoided alienating the United States, all while forwarding broad social programs to help the poor.
"The old threat in Latin America was that of military coups. The new threat is that of authoritarian democracies -- leaders who get elected and then use the state to repress opponents, push through social change and stay in power," said Bernard Aronson, an international consultant in Washington and a former State Department official. "That is what Chavez is doing, and what Lula is not doing," he said. "The big question is, which way will Evo Morales go?"
Morales defeated pro-business candidate Jorge Quiroga, a former president who conceded the election late Sunday after unofficial returns showed Morales with 45 percent of the vote. Officially he needed more than 50 percent to win, and the ultimate decision still rests with Congress, but Quiroga's concession appeared to cement the results.
Until now, Morales has cultivated an image that is far closer to Chavez than Lula. He has promised to nationalize Bolivia's largely untapped natural gas reserves, has ardently opposed U.S. drug eradication programs that have relied heavily on aerial herbicide-spraying, and invoked the populist rhetoric of anti-imperialism. During a recent economic conference in Argentina, he joined Chavez in a protest rally outside while President Bush met with other Latin American leaders inside.
On Sunday, he repeated some of his more provocative assertions, saying he would never accept a relationship of "submission" with Washington. Yesterday, he stepped up his criticism of U.S. anti-drug programs, telling reporters in the city of Cochabamba that "the fight against drug trafficking is a false pretext for the United States to install military bases, and we are not in agreement."
Morales, who gained recognition as an indigenous leader of coca farmers in Bolivia's Chapare region, has insisted on the distinction between the traditional farming and use of coca leaf, and the processing and trafficking of cocaine and other illegal drugs. American anti-drug officials seek to continue programs to destroy coca crops and have pushed for a closer relationship with security forces.
There was no immediate comment from the Bush administration on Morales's apparent victory, but one official who requested anonymity said: "We're keeping an open mind about it. We want to make it work, but it depends on what decisions they make, what policies they decide." A statement issued by the State Department Sunday said relations would depend on the "convergence of our interests, and that includes counter-narcotics issues."
In Venezuela, officials said yesterday that they were "very pleased and satisfied" with Morales's victory but would "not get involved" in Bolivian affairs. "We do not intend to manipulate Evo Morales or any other person" in Bolivia, said Jose Vicente Rangel, Venezuela's vice president.
Some observers said the Bush administration could serve U.S. and regional interests best by seeking compromise with Morales rather than responding harshly to his anti-U.S. pronouncements and inadvertently shoving him toward the embrace of Chavez and Castro. They noted that he will face demands from his grass-roots constituents to deliver on social promises, and that U.S. ostracism could make it harder for him to appease them.
One Bolivian business leader, Carlos Kempff, noted worriedly yesterday that some of Morales's radical supporters were already threatening to defect if he did not make major policy changes within 90 days. If that happens, the businessman said, Morales could face the same destabilizing pressures that have brought down Bolivia's past three elected presidents.
"Morales's major policies give the U.S. pause, but he has a tightrope to walk, and it would be unwise to isolate and push him," said John M. Walsh, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit advocacy group. "If the U.S. wants to play rough, he has other options for aid and patronage." But if good relations develop, Walsh suggested, the United States could help Bolivia develop from a poor, coca-dependent economy to a gas-exporting one.
Several analysts said Morales will also come under pressure from such Latin American democracies as Brazil and Argentina to adopt more practical approaches to issues such as natural gas development. They noted that Bolivia is far poorer and has less infrastructure than Venezuela, where record oil revenues have allowed Chavez to fund social programs.
"Foreign investment in Bolivia has diminished significantly, and I suspect Morales's election will further deter it until the rules of the game have been established," said Aronson. "But he has already backed off a little on the rhetoric suggesting he would nationalize everything, and he will discover that without foreign investment, he won't be able to build the infrastructure to move the gas. This will really be a test of his pragmatism."
Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington and special correspondent Bill Faries in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.
Previous Post: China to Explore Oil in Western Ethiopia Near Sudanese Border
A Dream Defiled
Washington Post -- The Addis Ababa airport I used to know was shabby and neglected, an overgrown shack of wood, concrete and tin. It smelled of incense mingled with the dank, sweet odor of sewage. But the old airport had been torn down since my last visit; in its place was a sparkling, high-ceilinged structure of metal and glass into which light poured from every direction.
Now, as I rode into the city, traffic stopped for a herd of goats and beggars were sleeping on the traffic islands that divided the road. But people were also bustling around with cell phones stuck to their ears, and brightly lit Internet cafes were filled with young people. Things were changing for the better, it seemed when I arrived last month. There was no reason to suspect that Ethiopia was poised to plunge headlong into darkness -- that within a week, dozens of street protesters would be dead, and tens of thousands of young people arrested.
Like many in the West who follow Africa, I was prepared to think well of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's engaging prime minister. After all, in 1991 he had toppled Mengistu Haile Mariam, the communist dictator. Under Mengistu, fear used to be palpable. Hulking members of the secret police patrolled the streets at night, their weapons hidden under long dark coats. I had been in Addis Ababa 14 years ago when Zenawi's Tigrean People's Liberation Front had freed the city, ending 15 years of civil war. The young TPLF fighters, dressed in frayed, unmatched combat fatigues, had seemed incorruptible as they moved through the city, stealing nothing, as though still in the countryside where they had lived for years.
Zenawi, an avowed Marxist Leninist during the civil war, adroitly changed ideologies after taking charge of Ethiopia in May 1991. With the Soviet Union collapsing, Zenawi vowed to bring democracy and Western-style economic growth to Ethiopia. Since then, Ethiopian democracy had been far from perfect -- Zenawi's party had won suspiciously resounding victories in two consecutive elections and was suspected of fudging poll results in parliamentary races in May that were initially seen as fairer. But I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hadn't a free press been allowed to flourish in the capital? Hadn't I seen, in visits over the past decade, that people were no longer afraid to speak their minds? And didn't the cell phones and Internet cafes indicate that part of the population was emerging from poverty?
All too often encouraging signs of change have proven false in African nations, but Zenawi's mastery of the language and symbols of liberal democracy had raised hopes that Ethiopia would be an exception. Figures such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz praised Zenawi as a wise leader. Contributions from Western donor countries covered almost a third of Ethiopia's annual budget. And Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center had sent hundreds of observers, declared the May campaign this year basically free and fair. Yet democracy, like beauty, is sometimes only skin-deep -- and elections are of only cosmetic value when the army, the media and the justice system are all controlled by the ruling party.
Ethiopians came out in the cold Minnesota weather to protest Jimmy Carter last night at his book signing, November 2005 (photo courtesy: Gateway Pundit)
As I drove into Addis Ababa, the police were stopping buses, seemingly at random, and searching all male passengers. This was the first sign, for me, that something was amiss. The next day I sat in the attic of a small restaurant, with 20 young men, most well educated yet unemployed. They were chewing mildly narcotic leaves of qat and talking politics, green paste dripping occasionally from the corners of their mouths. All of them had been stopped and searched over the previous 24 hours, and all were angry.
The May 15 elections had been rigged, they told me. When the government realized it was losing in the rural areas, its traditional power base, as well as in the cities, it had stolen ballots and stuffed boxes in the swaths of countryside where no observers were posted. After the elections, Zenawi imposed a state of emergency, outlawing public protest and lambasting the opposition over state-controlled television and radio. In June, students at Addis Ababa University who had shouted protest slogans had been arrested. When a high school girl lay down in front of the trucks that came to take the students away, she was shot by a sniper. Then all hell broke loose and at least 35 people were shot dead when security forces opened fire.
Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, a leading intellectual and one of the architects of the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), had championed human rights and been jailed by both Haile Selassie's and Mengistu's regimes. Now, at age 75, he was at odds with a new regime.
White-haired, frail and coughing as he chain-smoked Marlboros, Mesfin expressed both hope and outrage when I interviewed him in his cluttered apartment. "The opposition is engaged in peaceful political struggle, but the government is using brute force. Yesterday, the police entered the CUD offices, beat people and carted them off. Hundreds are in prison." Mesfin lit another cigarette. "For the Ethiopian people, the masses, there is a new awakening. They once believed that God gave you rulers. Now they are beginning to realize that they have sovereign rights."
The CUD had called for a general strike to be held Nov. 4, but on Nov. 1, the day after I spoke to Mesfin, violence began. Several hundred high school students joined by children in the sprawling Merkato market confronted police and red-bereted army special forces, blocking streets, burning tires and throwing stones. Across the city, stores closed their metal gates; the minivan taxis disappeared, city buses were pelted with stones. By nightfall, eight people were dead, including two police officers, and most opposition leaders -- including Mesfin -- had been arrested and charged with treason, an offense punishable by death. Independent newspapers had been closed, and journalists were in prison or hiding.
There had been warning signs about the repressive nature of the Zenawi regime 14 years ago. Ethiopia has some 70 ethnic groups, including the Amhara, the Oromo and the Tigreans. The Amhara tribe, whose members included Haile Selassie and Mengistu, had ruled Ethiopia for a hundred years, conquering lands and creating a nation out of disparate parts. The Oromo, the largest ethnic group, were largely disempowered. The Tigreans, though fewer in number, were the Amhara's historic rivals.
The day after the Tigrean fighters ousted Mengistu, Amhara demonstrators carrying long green branches had protested Zenawi's plan to allow Eritrea, Ethiopia's northernmost region, which had been fighting for independence for 30 years, to secede. "Ethiopia must stay united," the agitated demonstrators had cried. I was standing with Tigrean soldiers, who were still dressed in their ragtag rebel clothes, when they singled out one demonstrator and cornered him in front of the exterior brick wall of a church. He was a middle-aged man with a paunch and I watched him raise his hands in a gesture of submission before the soldiers shot him at close range -- once, twice, until he collapsed.
My natural sympathy was not with the protesters. I saw them as Amhara supremacists who did not appreciate that the Tigreans had liberated them from a brutal dictatorship. Because of this, perhaps, I didn't judge the incident harshly enough.
I thought of that shooting again as accounts of police and army excesses started pouring in last month. A French journalist I met on the street had seen army troops firing at the backs of retreating demonstrators. A young woman ran up to us breathlessly and said she had seen soldiers burst into a house a block away and start shooting. Soldiers roared through the now empty streets by the truckload. By afternoon, most of the shooting had subsided. But not all of it.
In the morning, in one of the thousands of dirt alleyways that form grids between Addis Ababa's broad avenues, I was led into a mud-brick home, where mourners wept and danced in a frenzy of sorrow. A 17-year-old named Tsegahun had been standing with friends in the alleyway at dusk the day before when soldiers arrived. One of the friends said, "They called him over, told him to kneel down, and shot him twice in the midsection."
After that, hundreds of young men had taken refuge in a nearby river gorge to escape soldiers who had come knocking on doors at midnight. I heard the same story in neighborhood after neighborhood. Arrests continued every night for a week, until thousands were taken, human rights groups said. Many were hauled 220 miles away, to the malaria-infected lowlands near Sudan.
After a week, Addis Ababa returned to a semblance of normalcy. Shops reopened -- though only after the government had begun to revoke the licenses of businesses that remained closed. Parents wandered from police station to police station, trying to get information about their arrested children. The opposition leaders, Mesfin among them, were shown on TV shuffling, handcuffed and bent, toward a courtroom.
Suspicion simmered, as though the Mengistu era had returned. People in cafes shot furtive glances at neighboring tables.
As we approached the terminal, he finally had his say. "The donor countries can twist Meles's arm and make him compromise -- release the prisoners, allow the newspapers to reopen," he said about Zenawi. "That's if they care about democracy as much as they say."
Democracy had been the focus of the people's disappointment -- yet that disappointment had not killed their desire for it. Zenawi, undoubtedly, already knows this.
Author's e-mail:mzo@netvision.net.il
Micha Odenheimer is a writer and rabbi based in Jerusalem.
Previous Post: Is Ethiopia Another Ukraine?
Now, as I rode into the city, traffic stopped for a herd of goats and beggars were sleeping on the traffic islands that divided the road. But people were also bustling around with cell phones stuck to their ears, and brightly lit Internet cafes were filled with young people. Things were changing for the better, it seemed when I arrived last month. There was no reason to suspect that Ethiopia was poised to plunge headlong into darkness -- that within a week, dozens of street protesters would be dead, and tens of thousands of young people arrested.
Like many in the West who follow Africa, I was prepared to think well of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's engaging prime minister. After all, in 1991 he had toppled Mengistu Haile Mariam, the communist dictator. Under Mengistu, fear used to be palpable. Hulking members of the secret police patrolled the streets at night, their weapons hidden under long dark coats. I had been in Addis Ababa 14 years ago when Zenawi's Tigrean People's Liberation Front had freed the city, ending 15 years of civil war. The young TPLF fighters, dressed in frayed, unmatched combat fatigues, had seemed incorruptible as they moved through the city, stealing nothing, as though still in the countryside where they had lived for years.
Zenawi, an avowed Marxist Leninist during the civil war, adroitly changed ideologies after taking charge of Ethiopia in May 1991. With the Soviet Union collapsing, Zenawi vowed to bring democracy and Western-style economic growth to Ethiopia. Since then, Ethiopian democracy had been far from perfect -- Zenawi's party had won suspiciously resounding victories in two consecutive elections and was suspected of fudging poll results in parliamentary races in May that were initially seen as fairer. But I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hadn't a free press been allowed to flourish in the capital? Hadn't I seen, in visits over the past decade, that people were no longer afraid to speak their minds? And didn't the cell phones and Internet cafes indicate that part of the population was emerging from poverty?
All too often encouraging signs of change have proven false in African nations, but Zenawi's mastery of the language and symbols of liberal democracy had raised hopes that Ethiopia would be an exception. Figures such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz praised Zenawi as a wise leader. Contributions from Western donor countries covered almost a third of Ethiopia's annual budget. And Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center had sent hundreds of observers, declared the May campaign this year basically free and fair. Yet democracy, like beauty, is sometimes only skin-deep -- and elections are of only cosmetic value when the army, the media and the justice system are all controlled by the ruling party.
Ethiopians came out in the cold Minnesota weather to protest Jimmy Carter last night at his book signing, November 2005 (photo courtesy: Gateway Pundit)
As I drove into Addis Ababa, the police were stopping buses, seemingly at random, and searching all male passengers. This was the first sign, for me, that something was amiss. The next day I sat in the attic of a small restaurant, with 20 young men, most well educated yet unemployed. They were chewing mildly narcotic leaves of qat and talking politics, green paste dripping occasionally from the corners of their mouths. All of them had been stopped and searched over the previous 24 hours, and all were angry.
The May 15 elections had been rigged, they told me. When the government realized it was losing in the rural areas, its traditional power base, as well as in the cities, it had stolen ballots and stuffed boxes in the swaths of countryside where no observers were posted. After the elections, Zenawi imposed a state of emergency, outlawing public protest and lambasting the opposition over state-controlled television and radio. In June, students at Addis Ababa University who had shouted protest slogans had been arrested. When a high school girl lay down in front of the trucks that came to take the students away, she was shot by a sniper. Then all hell broke loose and at least 35 people were shot dead when security forces opened fire.
Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, a leading intellectual and one of the architects of the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), had championed human rights and been jailed by both Haile Selassie's and Mengistu's regimes. Now, at age 75, he was at odds with a new regime.
White-haired, frail and coughing as he chain-smoked Marlboros, Mesfin expressed both hope and outrage when I interviewed him in his cluttered apartment. "The opposition is engaged in peaceful political struggle, but the government is using brute force. Yesterday, the police entered the CUD offices, beat people and carted them off. Hundreds are in prison." Mesfin lit another cigarette. "For the Ethiopian people, the masses, there is a new awakening. They once believed that God gave you rulers. Now they are beginning to realize that they have sovereign rights."
The CUD had called for a general strike to be held Nov. 4, but on Nov. 1, the day after I spoke to Mesfin, violence began. Several hundred high school students joined by children in the sprawling Merkato market confronted police and red-bereted army special forces, blocking streets, burning tires and throwing stones. Across the city, stores closed their metal gates; the minivan taxis disappeared, city buses were pelted with stones. By nightfall, eight people were dead, including two police officers, and most opposition leaders -- including Mesfin -- had been arrested and charged with treason, an offense punishable by death. Independent newspapers had been closed, and journalists were in prison or hiding.
There had been warning signs about the repressive nature of the Zenawi regime 14 years ago. Ethiopia has some 70 ethnic groups, including the Amhara, the Oromo and the Tigreans. The Amhara tribe, whose members included Haile Selassie and Mengistu, had ruled Ethiopia for a hundred years, conquering lands and creating a nation out of disparate parts. The Oromo, the largest ethnic group, were largely disempowered. The Tigreans, though fewer in number, were the Amhara's historic rivals.
The day after the Tigrean fighters ousted Mengistu, Amhara demonstrators carrying long green branches had protested Zenawi's plan to allow Eritrea, Ethiopia's northernmost region, which had been fighting for independence for 30 years, to secede. "Ethiopia must stay united," the agitated demonstrators had cried. I was standing with Tigrean soldiers, who were still dressed in their ragtag rebel clothes, when they singled out one demonstrator and cornered him in front of the exterior brick wall of a church. He was a middle-aged man with a paunch and I watched him raise his hands in a gesture of submission before the soldiers shot him at close range -- once, twice, until he collapsed.
My natural sympathy was not with the protesters. I saw them as Amhara supremacists who did not appreciate that the Tigreans had liberated them from a brutal dictatorship. Because of this, perhaps, I didn't judge the incident harshly enough.
I thought of that shooting again as accounts of police and army excesses started pouring in last month. A French journalist I met on the street had seen army troops firing at the backs of retreating demonstrators. A young woman ran up to us breathlessly and said she had seen soldiers burst into a house a block away and start shooting. Soldiers roared through the now empty streets by the truckload. By afternoon, most of the shooting had subsided. But not all of it.
In the morning, in one of the thousands of dirt alleyways that form grids between Addis Ababa's broad avenues, I was led into a mud-brick home, where mourners wept and danced in a frenzy of sorrow. A 17-year-old named Tsegahun had been standing with friends in the alleyway at dusk the day before when soldiers arrived. One of the friends said, "They called him over, told him to kneel down, and shot him twice in the midsection."
After that, hundreds of young men had taken refuge in a nearby river gorge to escape soldiers who had come knocking on doors at midnight. I heard the same story in neighborhood after neighborhood. Arrests continued every night for a week, until thousands were taken, human rights groups said. Many were hauled 220 miles away, to the malaria-infected lowlands near Sudan.
After a week, Addis Ababa returned to a semblance of normalcy. Shops reopened -- though only after the government had begun to revoke the licenses of businesses that remained closed. Parents wandered from police station to police station, trying to get information about their arrested children. The opposition leaders, Mesfin among them, were shown on TV shuffling, handcuffed and bent, toward a courtroom.
Suspicion simmered, as though the Mengistu era had returned. People in cafes shot furtive glances at neighboring tables.
"We feel betrayed by democracy," said a journalist who said he has been in hiding since the Nov. 1 crackdown. "It's as if the government encouraged us to speak our minds so that it would know who to grab when the time came."Yet many Ethiopians believe that the Western democracies could still help. The driver who took me to the airport, a friend from previous visits, had carefully avoided talking politics during my trip.
As we approached the terminal, he finally had his say. "The donor countries can twist Meles's arm and make him compromise -- release the prisoners, allow the newspapers to reopen," he said about Zenawi. "That's if they care about democracy as much as they say."
Democracy had been the focus of the people's disappointment -- yet that disappointment had not killed their desire for it. Zenawi, undoubtedly, already knows this.
Author's e-mail:mzo@netvision.net.il
Micha Odenheimer is a writer and rabbi based in Jerusalem.
Previous Post: Is Ethiopia Another Ukraine?
Monday, December 19, 2005
New Company to Prospect for Oil in the Ogaden Basin
Ethiopian Reporter -- South West Energy, a new company registered in Hong Kong, is to prospect for petroleum in the Ogaden basin, in East Ethiopia.
Last Monday, South West Energy and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) signed a petroleum exploration and development agreement. The Ministry granted a license that enables the company to explore and develop petroleum reserves. The exploration area covers 21,187 sq. km. of land in Degahabur locality in the Ogaden basin. The Ogaden basin, one of the most promising areas for petroleum development, is found in the Somali Regional State. The sedimentary basin covers an area of 350,000 sq. km.
According to the agreement, South West Energy will have an exclusive right that allows it to explore and develop petroleum reserves in the exploration area. The agreement is valid for the next 25 years and the initial exploration period will be four years. The company will spend a minimum capital of 3.5 million dollars for the exploration studies to be undertaken in the next four years.
The company presented a financial guarantee worth two million dollars to the MoME. The Ministry usually asks a company that intends to sign petroleum exploration and development agreement for a five million-dollar financial guarantee. South West Energy will pay 250,000 dollars signature bonus payment to the Ministry. The Ministry will use the money to collect geological data, to upgrade the existing data and to enhance its capacity in monitoring petroleum exploration activities.
Tewodros Ashenafi, chairman of South West Energy told The Reporter that the company was established last year with an initial capital of five million dollars. Tewodros, an Ethiopian by birth and an American by naturalization, said that the company was established by seven individuals envisioned to invest in oil and natural gas development. "Previously we invested on oil and gas stock markets. Since we wanted to engage in oil and gas exploration and development, we established our new company in 2004, Tewodros said.
Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister in the MoME, said that the fact that the chairman of the company was an Ethiopian by birth made the signing ceremony unique. Alemayehu praised Tewodros for his effort to bring foreign investment to Ethiopia. Alemayehu said the Ogaden basin was a prospective area for petroleum discovery. "The mining sector could play an important role in alleviating poverty. We believe that South West will properly undertake the exploration activities," Alemayehu said. "Signing an agreement is not an end by itself. The company should implement the exploration project and bring a fruitful result that will benefit the Ethiopian people," he said. He noted that the Ministry will supervise the company's exploration activity. "We will check out whether or not the company would discharge its responsibility," he added.
Tewodros Ashenafi, on his part, said the company had a firm commitment to invest in Ethiopia. "We will do everything we can to realize the project," he assured officials of the MoME. In an exclusive interview with The Reporter, Tewodros said the company would bring the expertise required for the exploration activity. According to him, the company could bring a contractor that will undertake the geophysical survey. "We have two options. The first option is to hire petroleum experts. The second option is to contract a petroleum company that will undertake the seismic survey in our concession," he added. The company anticipates to be operational within five months.
Last August, the Malaysian company, Petronas, took three concessions in the Ogaden basin. Petrona's exploration areas cover an of 36,796 sq. km. at Wal-Wal and Warder, 30,611 sq. km. at Kelafo and 25,571 sq. km at Genale. The company, which made three million dollars signature bonus payment, allocated 15 million dollars for the exploration activity to be undertaken in the three areas. In 2003 Petronas took the Gambella concession in West Ethiopia and it has been undertaking petroleum exploration activity in the Gambella basin.
Another company called Pexco Exploration, a company registered in the Netherlands and based in Malaysia, last October took a concession in the Ogaden basin. The exploration areas cover an area of 29,865 sq. km in Ferfer and Abred localities. Pexco Exploration allocated five million dollars for the initial exploration period (four years) and it effected a one million-dollar signature bonus payment. Both companies, Petronas and Pexco, hope to commence work on the exploration projects by next year.
Abiy Hunegnaw, head of the Petroleum Operations Department with the MoME, told The Reporter that the Ogaden basin was the most prospective sedimentary basin for oil discovery. Abiy said the fact that the geological formation of the Ogaden basin was similar with the basins in the Middle East made Ogaden a very promising area. "Since the second world War several companies had undertaken geological surveys in Ogaden. And the gas discovery in Calub and Hillala localities confirms the oil prospectivity of the Ogaden basin," Abiy said. "The number of companies coming to Ethiopia for petroleum development projects is increasing. And the ministry encourages these companies to undertake exhaustive geological surveys in the exploration areas," he said.
Regarding South West Energy, Abiy said that the company could outsource the expertise and technology required for the exploration project. "The most important thing is finance. If the company has adequate financial resource it could hire experts. But we will make sure that the company hires qualified contractors," he added.
Last Monday, South West Energy and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) signed a petroleum exploration and development agreement. The Ministry granted a license that enables the company to explore and develop petroleum reserves. The exploration area covers 21,187 sq. km. of land in Degahabur locality in the Ogaden basin. The Ogaden basin, one of the most promising areas for petroleum development, is found in the Somali Regional State. The sedimentary basin covers an area of 350,000 sq. km.
According to the agreement, South West Energy will have an exclusive right that allows it to explore and develop petroleum reserves in the exploration area. The agreement is valid for the next 25 years and the initial exploration period will be four years. The company will spend a minimum capital of 3.5 million dollars for the exploration studies to be undertaken in the next four years.
The company presented a financial guarantee worth two million dollars to the MoME. The Ministry usually asks a company that intends to sign petroleum exploration and development agreement for a five million-dollar financial guarantee. South West Energy will pay 250,000 dollars signature bonus payment to the Ministry. The Ministry will use the money to collect geological data, to upgrade the existing data and to enhance its capacity in monitoring petroleum exploration activities.
Tewodros Ashenafi, chairman of South West Energy told The Reporter that the company was established last year with an initial capital of five million dollars. Tewodros, an Ethiopian by birth and an American by naturalization, said that the company was established by seven individuals envisioned to invest in oil and natural gas development. "Previously we invested on oil and gas stock markets. Since we wanted to engage in oil and gas exploration and development, we established our new company in 2004, Tewodros said.
Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister in the MoME, said that the fact that the chairman of the company was an Ethiopian by birth made the signing ceremony unique. Alemayehu praised Tewodros for his effort to bring foreign investment to Ethiopia. Alemayehu said the Ogaden basin was a prospective area for petroleum discovery. "The mining sector could play an important role in alleviating poverty. We believe that South West will properly undertake the exploration activities," Alemayehu said. "Signing an agreement is not an end by itself. The company should implement the exploration project and bring a fruitful result that will benefit the Ethiopian people," he said. He noted that the Ministry will supervise the company's exploration activity. "We will check out whether or not the company would discharge its responsibility," he added.
Tewodros Ashenafi, on his part, said the company had a firm commitment to invest in Ethiopia. "We will do everything we can to realize the project," he assured officials of the MoME. In an exclusive interview with The Reporter, Tewodros said the company would bring the expertise required for the exploration activity. According to him, the company could bring a contractor that will undertake the geophysical survey. "We have two options. The first option is to hire petroleum experts. The second option is to contract a petroleum company that will undertake the seismic survey in our concession," he added. The company anticipates to be operational within five months.
Last August, the Malaysian company, Petronas, took three concessions in the Ogaden basin. Petrona's exploration areas cover an of 36,796 sq. km. at Wal-Wal and Warder, 30,611 sq. km. at Kelafo and 25,571 sq. km at Genale. The company, which made three million dollars signature bonus payment, allocated 15 million dollars for the exploration activity to be undertaken in the three areas. In 2003 Petronas took the Gambella concession in West Ethiopia and it has been undertaking petroleum exploration activity in the Gambella basin.
Another company called Pexco Exploration, a company registered in the Netherlands and based in Malaysia, last October took a concession in the Ogaden basin. The exploration areas cover an area of 29,865 sq. km in Ferfer and Abred localities. Pexco Exploration allocated five million dollars for the initial exploration period (four years) and it effected a one million-dollar signature bonus payment. Both companies, Petronas and Pexco, hope to commence work on the exploration projects by next year.
Abiy Hunegnaw, head of the Petroleum Operations Department with the MoME, told The Reporter that the Ogaden basin was the most prospective sedimentary basin for oil discovery. Abiy said the fact that the geological formation of the Ogaden basin was similar with the basins in the Middle East made Ogaden a very promising area. "Since the second world War several companies had undertaken geological surveys in Ogaden. And the gas discovery in Calub and Hillala localities confirms the oil prospectivity of the Ogaden basin," Abiy said. "The number of companies coming to Ethiopia for petroleum development projects is increasing. And the ministry encourages these companies to undertake exhaustive geological surveys in the exploration areas," he said.
Regarding South West Energy, Abiy said that the company could outsource the expertise and technology required for the exploration project. "The most important thing is finance. If the company has adequate financial resource it could hire experts. But we will make sure that the company hires qualified contractors," he added.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Britain Calls for National Reconciliation in Ethiopia
Sudan Tribune -- Britain has called for national reconciliation to restore Ethiopia’s international reputation damaged this year by the killing of more than 80 people in politically motivated demonstrations.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been feted by the West as one of a "new generation" of African leaders. But his democratic credentials have come into question over the deaths, the arrest of thousands of protesters, and disputed May elections.
"I told the prime minister, as I have told all parties, of the deep concern in the UK and in Europe about the unrest in June and November and its aftermath," British African Affairs Minister David Triesman said after meeting Meles on Saturday.
"Ethiopia’s international reputation has not been helped by recent events. I believe it is possible to find a way forward to redress this and give Ethiopians hope for a better future."
Britain froze a planned 20 million pound ($35.36 million) increase in aid to Ethiopia after the first wave of police shootings during a June crackdown on protests over alleged fraud in elections that returned Meles to power.
Meles said rioters and looters were to blame, with the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) deliberately stirring up trouble in a bid to topple the government.
UK AID STILL COMING
During a briefing with reporters late on Saturday, Triesman explained that British aid was, however, still flowing.
"There has been no cutting of aid to Ethiopia. The decision to suspend future packages of aid was because we are reviewing development aid programmes to Ethiopia," he said.
"We remain completely committed to provide aid to some of the poorest people in Ethiopia."
British sources said annual development assistance to Ethiopia was currently around 50 million pounds ($88.40 million), and despite the June freeze there was a plan to hike it to 90 million in 2006.
Triesman met opposition CUD legislators as well as relatives of detained party leaders during his one-day visit.
The government has charged about 131 people — including top CUD members, media representatives and some NGO workers — with treason and insurrection. They are due in court on Wednesday.
"There is a need for a spirit of national reconciliation, magnanimity and political consensus in dealing with each other," Triesman added. "All parties should avoid violence."
Referring to Ethiopia’s border tensions with neighbour Eritrea, the British official said Asmara’s decision to expel some Western peacekeepers from a U.N. monitoring mission was wrong.
"The decision to remove some detachment of UNMEE and preventing helicopter flights by UNMEE personnel raises tension and I think it is a mistake," he said.
Eritrea first banned U.N. helicopter flights over its territory then ordered out 180 American, Canadian and European staff from the border monitoring mission. The move was attributed to resentment over the international body’s failure to force Ethiopia to comply with a border demarcation.
"I had hoped to visit Eritrea and hold talks about what we believe is necessary for peace and security in the region. But I got a red light. It seems (President) Isaias (Afwerki) is not willing to see all representatives of the international community," he said.
A 1998-2000 border war killed 70,000 people.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been feted by the West as one of a "new generation" of African leaders. But his democratic credentials have come into question over the deaths, the arrest of thousands of protesters, and disputed May elections.
"I told the prime minister, as I have told all parties, of the deep concern in the UK and in Europe about the unrest in June and November and its aftermath," British African Affairs Minister David Triesman said after meeting Meles on Saturday.
"Ethiopia’s international reputation has not been helped by recent events. I believe it is possible to find a way forward to redress this and give Ethiopians hope for a better future."
Britain froze a planned 20 million pound ($35.36 million) increase in aid to Ethiopia after the first wave of police shootings during a June crackdown on protests over alleged fraud in elections that returned Meles to power.
Meles said rioters and looters were to blame, with the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) deliberately stirring up trouble in a bid to topple the government.
UK AID STILL COMING
During a briefing with reporters late on Saturday, Triesman explained that British aid was, however, still flowing.
"There has been no cutting of aid to Ethiopia. The decision to suspend future packages of aid was because we are reviewing development aid programmes to Ethiopia," he said.
"We remain completely committed to provide aid to some of the poorest people in Ethiopia."
British sources said annual development assistance to Ethiopia was currently around 50 million pounds ($88.40 million), and despite the June freeze there was a plan to hike it to 90 million in 2006.
Triesman met opposition CUD legislators as well as relatives of detained party leaders during his one-day visit.
The government has charged about 131 people — including top CUD members, media representatives and some NGO workers — with treason and insurrection. They are due in court on Wednesday.
"There is a need for a spirit of national reconciliation, magnanimity and political consensus in dealing with each other," Triesman added. "All parties should avoid violence."
Referring to Ethiopia’s border tensions with neighbour Eritrea, the British official said Asmara’s decision to expel some Western peacekeepers from a U.N. monitoring mission was wrong.
"The decision to remove some detachment of UNMEE and preventing helicopter flights by UNMEE personnel raises tension and I think it is a mistake," he said.
Eritrea first banned U.N. helicopter flights over its territory then ordered out 180 American, Canadian and European staff from the border monitoring mission. The move was attributed to resentment over the international body’s failure to force Ethiopia to comply with a border demarcation.
"I had hoped to visit Eritrea and hold talks about what we believe is necessary for peace and security in the region. But I got a red light. It seems (President) Isaias (Afwerki) is not willing to see all representatives of the international community," he said.
A 1998-2000 border war killed 70,000 people.
A Losing Bet in Ethiopia
Los Angeles Times -- ETHIOPIA IS edging toward renewed conflict with Eritrea that could result in tens of thousands of deaths and spark a civil war that would claim many more lives. But the Bush administration, a strong supporter of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, appears to have neither the vision nor the will to avert catastrophe.
It would not be the first time Africans died because U.S. policymakers failed to recognize the dangers of backing a ruthless, doomed regime.
In the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the U.S. supported former President Mobutu Sese Seko's tyrannical rule almost to its bitter end — and more than 2 million people died in the internal wars that followed. In Liberia, the U.S. looked the other way as Samuel Doe, an illiterate thug without popular support, brutalized his population and stole the 1985 election — and tens of thousands subsequently died. And in Sudan, the U.S. continued to give economic and military aid to then-President Gaafar Nimeiri as he fought a long civil war in which more than 2 million eventually died.
In all these cases, U.S. policymakers, despite clear evidence to the contrary, insisted that continued aid and support — and quiet diplomacy — were the best ways to reform a troubled client. Then, when that lie became untenable, the U.S. walked away, leaving Africans to pay the consequences.
Ethiopia is not yet Zaire, Liberia or Sudan, but the situation is dangerous because not only is unrest inside Ethiopia growing, military tensions on Ethiopia's border with Eritrea are increasing. The two countries fought a war in the late 1990s.
Meles has been a U.S. client since 1991, when his rebel movement seized power. He is good at talking the language of democracy and development — and even more adept at manipulating Western fears of terrorism.
Parliamentary elections held in May were supposed to cement Meles' claim to be a democratic reformer. Instead, they revealed his lack of national support. According to official tabulations, disputed by opposition parties, Meles' ruling party won a majority of seats. But as Human Rights Watch reported on the eve of the May elections, Meles squashed political dissent in Oromia, the country's largest region, thus denying voters there a real choice in the elections.
Most experts on Ethiopia believe that if the Oromo Liberation Front, which was forced to leave the country in 1992, had participated, it would have won a majority of votes in the region. That would have left Meles and his party with only a minority of parliamentary seats. Since the elections, there have been two waves of protest in the Ethiopian capital. Both times government forces shot scores of protesters and locked up opposition figures.
The government is now planning to put opposition leaders who have refused to take their parliamentary seats on trial for treason. It has also arrested many independent journalists. There are also reports of growing restiveness in the countryside, especially in Oromia.
Meles will be unable to maintain his monopoly on political power. His base, the Tigrean ethnic community, makes up less than 10% of the population. As the demand for democratization grows, he will have to either share power or increase repression. Given that most Ethiopian soldiers are drawn from disaffected ethnic groups, Meles can't count on security forces to stifle opposition.
Eritrea's intentions complicate the situation. It may decide the moment is right to launch a war to take back disputed territory it lost in the last war.
In the past, Meles has wagged the Eritrean dog to rally Ethiopians behind him. But if war breaks out, his opponents might move against him, perhaps causing the Ethiopian army to disintegrate.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's unwillingness to talk to the Ethiopian opposition and pressure Meles to permit real democratization has undercut opposition moderates and greatly increased the prospects of war. After the elections, the Oromo Liberation Front abandoned its sporadic and ineffective struggle against Meles and sought a peaceful accommodation. In October, it asked Rice to support Norwegian efforts to get the negotiations going. But the Bush administration rebuffed its entreaties and instead dispatched a mid-level State Department official to persuade Meles to avoid war with Eritrea and make some internal conciliatory gestures.
Washington's refusal to deal with the Oromo Liberation Front is bewildering. The party is one of the few in the Horn of Africa to bridge the Christian-Muslim divide, and there is a strong democratic tradition in Oromo civil society. It has never adopted terrorism as a tactic.
If the Bush administration continues to bet on Meles, it shouldn't forget that the lives of millions of Africans were lost in the Congo, Liberia and Sudan because of similar misjudgments.
Previous Post: Ethiopia's Opposition Leaders Face Treason Charges
It would not be the first time Africans died because U.S. policymakers failed to recognize the dangers of backing a ruthless, doomed regime.
In the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the U.S. supported former President Mobutu Sese Seko's tyrannical rule almost to its bitter end — and more than 2 million people died in the internal wars that followed. In Liberia, the U.S. looked the other way as Samuel Doe, an illiterate thug without popular support, brutalized his population and stole the 1985 election — and tens of thousands subsequently died. And in Sudan, the U.S. continued to give economic and military aid to then-President Gaafar Nimeiri as he fought a long civil war in which more than 2 million eventually died.
In all these cases, U.S. policymakers, despite clear evidence to the contrary, insisted that continued aid and support — and quiet diplomacy — were the best ways to reform a troubled client. Then, when that lie became untenable, the U.S. walked away, leaving Africans to pay the consequences.
Ethiopia is not yet Zaire, Liberia or Sudan, but the situation is dangerous because not only is unrest inside Ethiopia growing, military tensions on Ethiopia's border with Eritrea are increasing. The two countries fought a war in the late 1990s.
Meles has been a U.S. client since 1991, when his rebel movement seized power. He is good at talking the language of democracy and development — and even more adept at manipulating Western fears of terrorism.
Parliamentary elections held in May were supposed to cement Meles' claim to be a democratic reformer. Instead, they revealed his lack of national support. According to official tabulations, disputed by opposition parties, Meles' ruling party won a majority of seats. But as Human Rights Watch reported on the eve of the May elections, Meles squashed political dissent in Oromia, the country's largest region, thus denying voters there a real choice in the elections.
Most experts on Ethiopia believe that if the Oromo Liberation Front, which was forced to leave the country in 1992, had participated, it would have won a majority of votes in the region. That would have left Meles and his party with only a minority of parliamentary seats. Since the elections, there have been two waves of protest in the Ethiopian capital. Both times government forces shot scores of protesters and locked up opposition figures.
The government is now planning to put opposition leaders who have refused to take their parliamentary seats on trial for treason. It has also arrested many independent journalists. There are also reports of growing restiveness in the countryside, especially in Oromia.
Meles will be unable to maintain his monopoly on political power. His base, the Tigrean ethnic community, makes up less than 10% of the population. As the demand for democratization grows, he will have to either share power or increase repression. Given that most Ethiopian soldiers are drawn from disaffected ethnic groups, Meles can't count on security forces to stifle opposition.
Eritrea's intentions complicate the situation. It may decide the moment is right to launch a war to take back disputed territory it lost in the last war.
In the past, Meles has wagged the Eritrean dog to rally Ethiopians behind him. But if war breaks out, his opponents might move against him, perhaps causing the Ethiopian army to disintegrate.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's unwillingness to talk to the Ethiopian opposition and pressure Meles to permit real democratization has undercut opposition moderates and greatly increased the prospects of war. After the elections, the Oromo Liberation Front abandoned its sporadic and ineffective struggle against Meles and sought a peaceful accommodation. In October, it asked Rice to support Norwegian efforts to get the negotiations going. But the Bush administration rebuffed its entreaties and instead dispatched a mid-level State Department official to persuade Meles to avoid war with Eritrea and make some internal conciliatory gestures.
Washington's refusal to deal with the Oromo Liberation Front is bewildering. The party is one of the few in the Horn of Africa to bridge the Christian-Muslim divide, and there is a strong democratic tradition in Oromo civil society. It has never adopted terrorism as a tactic.
If the Bush administration continues to bet on Meles, it shouldn't forget that the lives of millions of Africans were lost in the Congo, Liberia and Sudan because of similar misjudgments.
Previous Post: Ethiopia's Opposition Leaders Face Treason Charges
Saturday, December 17, 2005
ActionAid Appeals for Release of Two Anti-Poverty Campaigners Detained in Ethiopia
ActionAid is appealing for the immediate and unconditional release of two anti-poverty activists, one a staff member and one a close partner of ActionAid, who are being held without charge in Ethiopia.
The two men, Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demessie, were among a number of civil society activists arrested in early November. ActionAid insists that Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demessie have done nothing illegal, nor were they involved in any unconstitutional activities. They have been brought to court twice but never charged. Their next court appearance is on Friday 16 December.
On a visit to London, Fikre Zewdie, director of ActionAid Ethiopia, said: "Daniel, who works for ActionAid, and Netsanet, who heads one of our closest partner organisations, are dedicated to eradicating poverty and injustice through non-violent social change. They have worked to improve the lives of Ethiopia’s poorest people through legitimate social activism. This kind of activity is protected by the constitution and cannot be characterised as anti-state."
Daniel Bekele is a lawyer and heads ActionAid’s policy team in Ethiopia. Netsanet Demessie is executive director of Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE). The two activists appear to have attracted the attention of the Ethiopian authorities by campaigning for civil society monitoring of the national elections in May, demanding amendments to a new Ethiopian law on non-governmental organisations, and helping to organise Ethiopia’s part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty, a worldwide movement supported by the UN Millennium Campaign, of which MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is a part.
***
Ethiopian Americans and friends of Ethiopia will hold a protest in front of the US State Department and the World Bank on Monday, December 19, 2005.
The two men, Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demessie, were among a number of civil society activists arrested in early November. ActionAid insists that Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demessie have done nothing illegal, nor were they involved in any unconstitutional activities. They have been brought to court twice but never charged. Their next court appearance is on Friday 16 December.
On a visit to London, Fikre Zewdie, director of ActionAid Ethiopia, said: "Daniel, who works for ActionAid, and Netsanet, who heads one of our closest partner organisations, are dedicated to eradicating poverty and injustice through non-violent social change. They have worked to improve the lives of Ethiopia’s poorest people through legitimate social activism. This kind of activity is protected by the constitution and cannot be characterised as anti-state."
Daniel Bekele is a lawyer and heads ActionAid’s policy team in Ethiopia. Netsanet Demessie is executive director of Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE). The two activists appear to have attracted the attention of the Ethiopian authorities by campaigning for civil society monitoring of the national elections in May, demanding amendments to a new Ethiopian law on non-governmental organisations, and helping to organise Ethiopia’s part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty, a worldwide movement supported by the UN Millennium Campaign, of which MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is a part.
***
Ethiopian Americans and friends of Ethiopia will hold a protest in front of the US State Department and the World Bank on Monday, December 19, 2005.
China to Explore Oil in Western Ethiopia Near Sudanese Border
Sudan Tribune -- The Chinese petroleum company, Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPAEB), will start drilling the first exploratory well in the Gambela basin, in western Ethiopia.
The Gambela concession is an area covering 19,300 sq km near the Sudanese border.The Gambela basin is the southern tip of the Melut basin, one of the most prospective areas in the Sudan.
ZPAEB is contracted by Petronas, the Malaysian company which signed an agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) to explore and develop oil reserve in the Gambela concession.
Abiy Hunegnaw, head of the Petroleum Operations Department with the MoME, told The Reporter that ZPAEB will soon import well-drilling rig and other equipment to Ethiopia. Abiy said the road that will be used to transport the machines to the Gambela concession was paved.
"We are working on the shipment documents of the machinery," he said.
According to Abiy, the company will commence work on the drilling project next February.
"Petronas is discharging its responsibilities properly. The company is implementing the programme according to schedule. It is even beyond our expectation," he added.
The dry season in Gambela is only four month-long and the contractor anticipates to finalize the drilling work on the first exploratory well within the dry season. The cost of the drilling is estimated at 15 to 16m dollars.
The American oil company, Chevron, conducted gravity and magnetic surveys in the Gambela basin in 1983.
(The Reporter/ST)
ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ETHIOPIA: TIP OF THE "GOLDEN SPEAR"?
ww4report.com -- Talk privately to any Anuak people in the Ethiopian state of Gambella and it won't be long before they speak about "the problem." Others are terrified into silence. To Anuak and other indigenous minorities of southwestern Ethiopia, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a ruthless military dictatorship. And almost everyone links "the problem" to Gambella's oil.
"Since the problem, we are not able to farm or to fish," said one Anuak survivor who was shot three times. He is shy, but he will show you where one bullet entered and exited his wrist. He was shot December 13, 2003--the day the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Defense Forces (EPRDF) and local "highlander" militias launched their genocidal war on the Anuaks. "Highlanders" are Ethiopians who are neither Anuak nor Nuer--the indigenous peoples of the region--but predominantly Tigray and Amhara people resettled into Anuak territory from their lands in the central highlands since 1974.
Ten months after the massacres of December, 2003, the EPRDF government of Ethiopia continues to downplay the violence in southwestern Ethiopia. At the same time, the government has been rewarded with new loans, debt restructuring and debt forgiveness by the international development community. The EPRDF continues to benefit from its tight military relationship with the United States.
The region is home to guerillas of the Gambella People's Liberation Front (GPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other forces hostile to the Meles Zenawi regime. However, the EPRDF government has used the pretext of "terrorism" and "national security" to punish rural populations, and it continues to wage low-intensity warfare against innocent civilians.
Today, Gambella state is under total military occupation. Estimates place between 30,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops deployed here, carrying out scorched-earth campaigns under the cover of "counter-terrorism." One recent attack occurred in early September, when EPRDF soldiers reportedly pillaged the rural village of Powatalam. Some 43 people were killed, and the village was burned.
At least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500 Anuak civilians have died in the fighting--most of these being intellectuals, leaders, and members of the educated and student classes, who have been intentionally targeted. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many are believed to have been "disappeared."
Numerous rural villages where Anuaks and other ethnic minorities generally hover in the margins of existence at the best of times have been similarly attacked, looted, and torched. Thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Anuak homes have reportedly been burned.
Anuak women and girls are routinely raped, gang-raped and kept as sexual slaves by EPRDF forces. Girls have been shot for resisting rape, and summary executions of girls held captive for prolonged periods as sexual slaves have been reported. In the absence of Anuak men--killed, jailed or driven into exile--Anuak women and girls have been left vulnerable to such sexual atrocities. Due to the isolation of women and girls in rural areas, rapes remain substantially under-reported.
Some 6,000 to 8,000 Anuak remain at refugee camps in Pochalla, Sudan; and there are an estimated 1,000 Anuak refugees in Kenya. The Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Bureau (DPPB), a regional body that works closely with international aid groups, estimated in August 2004 that approximately 25% (roughly 50,000 people) of Gambella's population had been displaced.
"Many, many men have been killed since the problem began," says one witness. "Many men ran away into the bush and have been hunted by the soldiers. Women and girls are left undefended in their homes. They are raping many girls. They keep some women by force."
The violence has almost completely disrupted this year's planting season, and people see famine in the coming winter months (October-March)--exacerbated by the destruction of milling machines and food stores.
According to Anuak sources relying on sympathetic oppositionists within the regime, the EPRDF plans to access the petroleum of Gambella were laid out at a top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa in September 2003. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi chaired the meeting, at which the military cleansing of the Anuaks was reportedly openly discussed. Also present were Gen. Abdullah Gamada, head of the EPRDF military, Vice-Prime Minister Adisu Lagesse, and Omot Obang Olom, security chief for the Gambella region, an ethnic Anuak. Petroleum operations--heavily guarded by EPRDF troops--are rapidly moving forward.
THE "RWANDA MODEL" IN GAMBELLA
While there is a history of communal violence between indigenous minorities in the Gambella region, evidence attests to patterns of EPRDF government provocation, pitting tribe against tribe and neighbor against neighbor. There is no evidence to support claims of communal violence between Anuaks and the local Nuer ethic group, as has been reported by the New York Times and other media, and by the EPRDF government.
Ethnic cleansing appears to be sanctioned at the highest levels of the EPRDF government, and there is evidence that the violence initiated by last December's massacres in Gambella may have been deliberately instrumented to justify a campaign against the Anuaks.
December 13, 2003 marked the start of a coordinated military operation to systematically eliminate Anuaks. Sources from inside the military government's police and intelligence network say that the code name of the military operation was: "OPERATION SUNNY MOUNTAIN."
In a pattern reminiscent of the Interahamwe civilian militia involved in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, operations by government troops were apparently coordinated with local Highlanders, who set upon Anuak civilians with rocks, sticks, hoes, machetes, knives, axes and pangas (clubs). Witnesses described Highlanders chanting slogans as they hunted down and killed Anuaks.
Some 425 Anuak people were reported killed in the initial outburst of violence, with over 200 more wounded and some 85 people unaccounted for. Since December 2003, sporadic murders and widespread rapes have continued in Gambella town, but the rural countryside is awash in blood.
In February 2004, Genocide Watch and Survivors' Rights International called for an independent inquiry into the Gambella situation. That call was ignored.
Ten months after the pivotal massacres, there is no indication that the United Nations or any other formal body has undertaken an official investigation of the killings of eight UN personnel on the morning of December 13, 2003. The attack was blamed on Anuak guerillas, and precipitated the wave of violence.
The killings reportedly occurred on the road from Gambella to Itang town. Sources report that Anuak policeman Ojo Akway was amongst the first group of responders to the site of the ambush on the morning. Akway reportedly found tracks that he wanted to immediately pursue to attempt to discover those responsible for the UN killings - it was winter and the ground was amenable to tracking. The Police Commander in Gambella, Tadese Haile Selassie, is said to have ordered Akway's execution in order to remove the problem of identifying the actual killers. Sources report that Akway was detained later that day, driven out of Gambella town, tied to a tree along the road to Abueal village, and shot in the head seven times. An informant sympathetic to Anuaks provided the information to relatives, noting that Akway's body was disappeared, his gun was brought back to town, and no report was filed.
A federal police investigator from Addis Ababa dispatched to Gambella in July was also reportedly shot and killed. Charged with determining the extent and nature of involvement of Gambella police in the December massacres, the investigator was said to have identified many Highlander police who were "fully involved" in the killing.
International and Ethiopian human rights organizations say that the killings in Gambella constituted acts of genocide, as defined by the Genocide Convention. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and torture are occurring throughout Ethiopia. Arbitrary arrests and detentions of Anuak people have occurred for years prior to the recent massacres. Reports coming out of the Gambella region indicate that hundreds of people have been arbitrary arrested and illegally detained, and that these people remain under detention, subject to torture.
"GOLDEN SPEAR"
Ethiopia remains a pivotal ally in the US "war against terror" in the Horn of Africa, maintaining both covert and overt military operations and programs.
Beginning July 2003, forces from Pentagon's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) held a three-month bilateral training exercise with Ethiopian forces at the Hurso Training Camp, northwest of Dire Dawa. The US Army's 10th Mountain Division recently completed a three-month program to train an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism tactics. Operations are coordinated through the CJTF-HOA regional base in Djibouti, where the Halliburton subsidiary KBR is the prime contractor.
The CJTF-HOA region includes the total airspace and land areas of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya, and the coastal waters of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. In May 2004, US Brigadier General Samuel T. Helland assumed command of the CJTF-HOA region.
On January 21, 2004 special operations soldiers from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment--"The Old Guard," Bravo Company--replaced the 10th Mountain Division forces at a new base established at Hurso, Ethiopia, to be used for launching local joint missions with the Ethiopian military. A new forward base named "Camp United" has also been established in the area--a "temporary training facility in rural Ethiopia" used "as a launching ground for local missions, predominately training with the Ethiopian military."
From 1995-2000, the US provided some $1,835,000 in International Military and Education Training (IMET) deliveries to Ethiopia. Some 115 Ethiopian officers were trained under the IMET program from 1991-2001. Approximately 4,000 Ethiopian soldiers have participated in IMET since 1950.
For 2002 and 2003, Ethiopia received some $2,817,000 through the IMET and Foreign Military Sales and Deliveries programs. The US also equipped, trained and supported Ethiopian troops under the Africa Regional Peacekeeping Program. Ethiopia has remained a participant of the IMET program in 2000-2004.
In August 2003, the U.S. committed $28 million for international trade enhancements with Ethiopia.
In 2003, US AID, working with Africare and Catholic Relief Services, was providing disaster relief to "combat famine in the drought-stricken Gambella region of Ethiopia." The US State Department was informed about unfolding violence in the Gambella region as early as December 16, 2003, through communications to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Overseas Citizens Division, and the US Embassy in Ethiopia.
Immediately following the February 16, 2004, release of a report by Genocide Watch and Survivor's Rights International ("Today is the Day of Killing Anuaks") the United States issued a formal call for "an independent investigation" into the events in Gambella. The State Department and the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) condemned the ongoing violence in Gambella. Each agency called for "[f]ully transparent and independent investigations by the government" that would "encourage restoration of peace in the troubled region," and called on the Ethiopian government to investigate allegations of EPRDF involvement in atrocities.
In the spring, the EPRDF government launched an "independent inquiry" into the Gambella violence. The Independent Inquiry Commission, established by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives, reported that few members of the Ethiopian armed forces were involved in the Gambella killings.
In April 1, 2004, testimony before a House of Representatives appropriations panel, US AID representatives asked Congress to approve some $80 million in funding for Ethiopia programs in FY 2005. Ethiopia was described as a "top priority" of the Bush administration. US AID boasted of programs "that lay the groundwork to establish a market-based economy hospitable to investment..."
In a letter of August 6, twelve members of the US Congress called on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to protect citizens from harm and ensure humanitarian access to the Gambella region. Asking the Meles government to hold officials accountable for any involvement in the violence, the letter also asked for an English version of the Independent Inquiry Commission findings on situation in Gambella.
On September 16, US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a bill to the House Committee on Appropriations calling for substantive attention to the Anuak problem.
The US Department of Defense Central Command (CENTCOM) and European Command (EUCOM) are the pivotal forces behind the "Golden Spear" anti-terrorism program initiated in 2000 to "address issues of terrorism, humanitarian crises, natural disasters, drugs trafficking and refugees in the greater horn of Africa."
"Golden Spear" members include Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Djibouti, Seychelles and Egypt. Ethiopia sponsored the July 28-30, 2003 "Golden Spear" symposium (held at Addis Ababa), designed by the DoD "to provide a forum for strategic-level dialogue on current security issues" in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "the consensus reached at the meeting was a major achievement towards the enhancement of national capacities as well as collaborative efforts to deal with disasters, thus protecting development gains the region has attained over the years."
Meetings of the Golden Spear military group occurred in June in the Seychelles, and July in Tampa, FLA. Participants in July included Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Seychelles.
GAMBELLA OIL RUSH
Sources report ten military camps in the immediate vicinity of Gambella town, with an estimated 60 to 100 troops at each. The three major camps are Terfshalaka, about seven kilometers from Gambella town on the Addis Ababa road; Mekod, at the Gambella airport; and a base in the middle of Gambella town. An estimated 60 to 75 troops can be seen at the Gambella airport. Troops are everywhere in the town.
Witnesses report trucks of soldiers perpetually coming and going from Gambella along the roads into rural areas. Soldiers were seen to openly extort money and goods from civilians. Vehicles traveling along the roads are expected to stop and pick up any soldiers waiting for rides. Rights workers reportedly witnessed a church building that had been expropriated by soldiers and turned into a semi-permanent barracks. A nearby school was also expropriated and occupied.
On June 13, 2003, Malaysia's state-owned petroleum corporation, PETRONAS, announced the signing of an exclusive 25-year oil exploration and production sharing agreement with the EPRDF government to exploit the Ogaden Basin and the "Gambella Block" or "Block G" concession. On February 17, 2004, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines announced that Malaysia's PETRONAS will launch a natural gas exploration project in the Gambella region. Block G covers an area of 15,356 square kilometers within the Gambella Basin.
According to Anuak sources, the Ethiopian government held a public meeting in Gambella in February, even as violence against Anuak in rural areas was continuing to rise. One witness testified:
"They told people about the oil and how it would benefit everyone. But the Anuak said: 'How can you talk to us about oil when people are still being killed? We don't want to talk about the oil.' But the government said, 'No, we want to talk about the oil now.'"
The Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful subsidiary of China's second largest national petroleum consortium, the China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the principal oil firm operating in Gambella at present, under subcontract to Malaysia's national oil company PETRONAS.
The base camp for ZPEB equipment and petroleum explorations is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the center of Gambella town on the Abobo-Gambella road. The Ethiopian site manager, Mr. Degefe, is a highlander who tersely describes himself as "responsible for making all operations and security." The base camp is under tight security and heavily guarded by EPRDF troops.
PETRONAS and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently operate in Sudan. A recent report by Human Rights Watch raises charges that the Asian oil giants have provided cover for their respective governments to ship arms and military equipment to Sudan in exchange for oil concessions granted by Khartoum.
While not cited in the above Human Rights Watch report, ZPEB operates a concession for oil and gas exploration in Block 6 in the Republic of Sudan. ZPEB also operates in petroleum extraction in the Yli Basin of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an area noted for egregious human rights violations and systematic state terror against the indigenous Uighur people. According to Human Rights Watch: "Much like Tibetans, the Uighurs in Xinjiang (western China) have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a government- supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or peaceful, of their distinct identity."
On September 18, 2004, a notice was posted around Gambella town indicating that the Southwest Development Company (a new Highlander-owned venture) would be accepting applications for new hires to fill some 117 positions in support of "construction and petroleum related operations in Gambella region." On September 19, 2004 another notice seeking an additional 70 workers was posted around Gambella town. The posters were stamped with the official seal of the office of the Gambella People's National Regional State.
Anuak sources in Gambella state: "The Anuak people have not been involved in the discussions about the oil, our leaders have not agreed to these projects, and they will not hire any Anuaks for these jobs. If any Anuak says anything about the oil he will be arrested."
CROCODILES AND RATS
The few reports about the situation that have appeared in the international press have misrepresented and distorted the nature of the violence. Reporters traveling to the region have relied upon the EPRDF for security and information, and attempts by Anuaks to make the truth known have largely been ignored. National Public Radio last spring described Anuaks as primitives "once went naked and ate rats."
Marc Lacey reported from Gambella for the New York Times (June 15, 2004) simultaneous to the Ethiopian military's ongoing scorched earth campaign against rural villages. Lacey, who arrived with a government escort--including an Ethiopian intelligence and security team comprised of perpetrators of "the problem"--related no first-hand accounts from Anuaks of the summary executions, massacres and mass rape by EPRDF soldiers. Instead, the Times opted for a picturesque story of pastoral harmony, mentioning the violence almost in passing and even noting the threat to local bathers from crocodiles.
"Bath time here is a communal affair," read Lacey's lead. "Everyone grabs a bar of soap and heads down to the river. As they stand naked in the water a few feet from one another, lathering and rinsing in unison, people from Gambella's various ethnic groups appear at ease. The Anuak, the Nuer and the highlanders all use the Baro River as their tub."
Just across the Baro River are Anuak villages with scars attesting to the huts that were torched--some with people inside. But these went unmentioned by the New York Times. The EPRDF military has been said to routinely dump the bodies of the disappeared in Gambella's rivers.
***
The Baro River near Gambela (photo courtesy: aheavens) *look closely*
STATS
Gambella National Regional State
Home of the oldest gold mine in the country
A place for the only navigable river in Ethiopia - Baro river
- Location Western
- Temperature range 21.10°C\35.90°C
- Area 25, 274 km2
- Population 206,000
- Rainfall average 615.9mm
- Altitude range 300mt-2350mt above sea level
Major Resources and Potential Development Schemes
- Mining - vast potential for gold and petroleum exploration
- Mineral water - production
- Irrigation -vast area of irrigable land suitable for cotton and oilseeds production
- Tourism -park development at the lowland areas
Info Courtesy: The Embassy of Ethiopia in China
The Gambela concession is an area covering 19,300 sq km near the Sudanese border.The Gambela basin is the southern tip of the Melut basin, one of the most prospective areas in the Sudan.
ZPAEB is contracted by Petronas, the Malaysian company which signed an agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) to explore and develop oil reserve in the Gambela concession.
Abiy Hunegnaw, head of the Petroleum Operations Department with the MoME, told The Reporter that ZPAEB will soon import well-drilling rig and other equipment to Ethiopia. Abiy said the road that will be used to transport the machines to the Gambela concession was paved.
"We are working on the shipment documents of the machinery," he said.
According to Abiy, the company will commence work on the drilling project next February.
"Petronas is discharging its responsibilities properly. The company is implementing the programme according to schedule. It is even beyond our expectation," he added.
The dry season in Gambela is only four month-long and the contractor anticipates to finalize the drilling work on the first exploratory well within the dry season. The cost of the drilling is estimated at 15 to 16m dollars.
The American oil company, Chevron, conducted gravity and magnetic surveys in the Gambela basin in 1983.
(The Reporter/ST)
***
ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ETHIOPIA: TIP OF THE "GOLDEN SPEAR"?
ww4report.com -- Talk privately to any Anuak people in the Ethiopian state of Gambella and it won't be long before they speak about "the problem." Others are terrified into silence. To Anuak and other indigenous minorities of southwestern Ethiopia, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a ruthless military dictatorship. And almost everyone links "the problem" to Gambella's oil.
"Since the problem, we are not able to farm or to fish," said one Anuak survivor who was shot three times. He is shy, but he will show you where one bullet entered and exited his wrist. He was shot December 13, 2003--the day the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Defense Forces (EPRDF) and local "highlander" militias launched their genocidal war on the Anuaks. "Highlanders" are Ethiopians who are neither Anuak nor Nuer--the indigenous peoples of the region--but predominantly Tigray and Amhara people resettled into Anuak territory from their lands in the central highlands since 1974.
Ten months after the massacres of December, 2003, the EPRDF government of Ethiopia continues to downplay the violence in southwestern Ethiopia. At the same time, the government has been rewarded with new loans, debt restructuring and debt forgiveness by the international development community. The EPRDF continues to benefit from its tight military relationship with the United States.
The region is home to guerillas of the Gambella People's Liberation Front (GPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other forces hostile to the Meles Zenawi regime. However, the EPRDF government has used the pretext of "terrorism" and "national security" to punish rural populations, and it continues to wage low-intensity warfare against innocent civilians.
Today, Gambella state is under total military occupation. Estimates place between 30,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops deployed here, carrying out scorched-earth campaigns under the cover of "counter-terrorism." One recent attack occurred in early September, when EPRDF soldiers reportedly pillaged the rural village of Powatalam. Some 43 people were killed, and the village was burned.
At least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500 Anuak civilians have died in the fighting--most of these being intellectuals, leaders, and members of the educated and student classes, who have been intentionally targeted. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many are believed to have been "disappeared."
Numerous rural villages where Anuaks and other ethnic minorities generally hover in the margins of existence at the best of times have been similarly attacked, looted, and torched. Thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Anuak homes have reportedly been burned.
Anuak women and girls are routinely raped, gang-raped and kept as sexual slaves by EPRDF forces. Girls have been shot for resisting rape, and summary executions of girls held captive for prolonged periods as sexual slaves have been reported. In the absence of Anuak men--killed, jailed or driven into exile--Anuak women and girls have been left vulnerable to such sexual atrocities. Due to the isolation of women and girls in rural areas, rapes remain substantially under-reported.
Some 6,000 to 8,000 Anuak remain at refugee camps in Pochalla, Sudan; and there are an estimated 1,000 Anuak refugees in Kenya. The Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Bureau (DPPB), a regional body that works closely with international aid groups, estimated in August 2004 that approximately 25% (roughly 50,000 people) of Gambella's population had been displaced.
"Many, many men have been killed since the problem began," says one witness. "Many men ran away into the bush and have been hunted by the soldiers. Women and girls are left undefended in their homes. They are raping many girls. They keep some women by force."
The violence has almost completely disrupted this year's planting season, and people see famine in the coming winter months (October-March)--exacerbated by the destruction of milling machines and food stores.
According to Anuak sources relying on sympathetic oppositionists within the regime, the EPRDF plans to access the petroleum of Gambella were laid out at a top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa in September 2003. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi chaired the meeting, at which the military cleansing of the Anuaks was reportedly openly discussed. Also present were Gen. Abdullah Gamada, head of the EPRDF military, Vice-Prime Minister Adisu Lagesse, and Omot Obang Olom, security chief for the Gambella region, an ethnic Anuak. Petroleum operations--heavily guarded by EPRDF troops--are rapidly moving forward.
THE "RWANDA MODEL" IN GAMBELLA
While there is a history of communal violence between indigenous minorities in the Gambella region, evidence attests to patterns of EPRDF government provocation, pitting tribe against tribe and neighbor against neighbor. There is no evidence to support claims of communal violence between Anuaks and the local Nuer ethic group, as has been reported by the New York Times and other media, and by the EPRDF government.
Ethnic cleansing appears to be sanctioned at the highest levels of the EPRDF government, and there is evidence that the violence initiated by last December's massacres in Gambella may have been deliberately instrumented to justify a campaign against the Anuaks.
December 13, 2003 marked the start of a coordinated military operation to systematically eliminate Anuaks. Sources from inside the military government's police and intelligence network say that the code name of the military operation was: "OPERATION SUNNY MOUNTAIN."
In a pattern reminiscent of the Interahamwe civilian militia involved in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, operations by government troops were apparently coordinated with local Highlanders, who set upon Anuak civilians with rocks, sticks, hoes, machetes, knives, axes and pangas (clubs). Witnesses described Highlanders chanting slogans as they hunted down and killed Anuaks.
Some 425 Anuak people were reported killed in the initial outburst of violence, with over 200 more wounded and some 85 people unaccounted for. Since December 2003, sporadic murders and widespread rapes have continued in Gambella town, but the rural countryside is awash in blood.
In February 2004, Genocide Watch and Survivors' Rights International called for an independent inquiry into the Gambella situation. That call was ignored.
Ten months after the pivotal massacres, there is no indication that the United Nations or any other formal body has undertaken an official investigation of the killings of eight UN personnel on the morning of December 13, 2003. The attack was blamed on Anuak guerillas, and precipitated the wave of violence.
The killings reportedly occurred on the road from Gambella to Itang town. Sources report that Anuak policeman Ojo Akway was amongst the first group of responders to the site of the ambush on the morning. Akway reportedly found tracks that he wanted to immediately pursue to attempt to discover those responsible for the UN killings - it was winter and the ground was amenable to tracking. The Police Commander in Gambella, Tadese Haile Selassie, is said to have ordered Akway's execution in order to remove the problem of identifying the actual killers. Sources report that Akway was detained later that day, driven out of Gambella town, tied to a tree along the road to Abueal village, and shot in the head seven times. An informant sympathetic to Anuaks provided the information to relatives, noting that Akway's body was disappeared, his gun was brought back to town, and no report was filed.
A federal police investigator from Addis Ababa dispatched to Gambella in July was also reportedly shot and killed. Charged with determining the extent and nature of involvement of Gambella police in the December massacres, the investigator was said to have identified many Highlander police who were "fully involved" in the killing.
International and Ethiopian human rights organizations say that the killings in Gambella constituted acts of genocide, as defined by the Genocide Convention. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and torture are occurring throughout Ethiopia. Arbitrary arrests and detentions of Anuak people have occurred for years prior to the recent massacres. Reports coming out of the Gambella region indicate that hundreds of people have been arbitrary arrested and illegally detained, and that these people remain under detention, subject to torture.
"GOLDEN SPEAR"
Ethiopia remains a pivotal ally in the US "war against terror" in the Horn of Africa, maintaining both covert and overt military operations and programs.
Beginning July 2003, forces from Pentagon's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) held a three-month bilateral training exercise with Ethiopian forces at the Hurso Training Camp, northwest of Dire Dawa. The US Army's 10th Mountain Division recently completed a three-month program to train an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism tactics. Operations are coordinated through the CJTF-HOA regional base in Djibouti, where the Halliburton subsidiary KBR is the prime contractor.
The CJTF-HOA region includes the total airspace and land areas of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya, and the coastal waters of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. In May 2004, US Brigadier General Samuel T. Helland assumed command of the CJTF-HOA region.
On January 21, 2004 special operations soldiers from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment--"The Old Guard," Bravo Company--replaced the 10th Mountain Division forces at a new base established at Hurso, Ethiopia, to be used for launching local joint missions with the Ethiopian military. A new forward base named "Camp United" has also been established in the area--a "temporary training facility in rural Ethiopia" used "as a launching ground for local missions, predominately training with the Ethiopian military."
From 1995-2000, the US provided some $1,835,000 in International Military and Education Training (IMET) deliveries to Ethiopia. Some 115 Ethiopian officers were trained under the IMET program from 1991-2001. Approximately 4,000 Ethiopian soldiers have participated in IMET since 1950.
For 2002 and 2003, Ethiopia received some $2,817,000 through the IMET and Foreign Military Sales and Deliveries programs. The US also equipped, trained and supported Ethiopian troops under the Africa Regional Peacekeeping Program. Ethiopia has remained a participant of the IMET program in 2000-2004.
In August 2003, the U.S. committed $28 million for international trade enhancements with Ethiopia.
In 2003, US AID, working with Africare and Catholic Relief Services, was providing disaster relief to "combat famine in the drought-stricken Gambella region of Ethiopia." The US State Department was informed about unfolding violence in the Gambella region as early as December 16, 2003, through communications to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Overseas Citizens Division, and the US Embassy in Ethiopia.
Immediately following the February 16, 2004, release of a report by Genocide Watch and Survivor's Rights International ("Today is the Day of Killing Anuaks") the United States issued a formal call for "an independent investigation" into the events in Gambella. The State Department and the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) condemned the ongoing violence in Gambella. Each agency called for "[f]ully transparent and independent investigations by the government" that would "encourage restoration of peace in the troubled region," and called on the Ethiopian government to investigate allegations of EPRDF involvement in atrocities.
In the spring, the EPRDF government launched an "independent inquiry" into the Gambella violence. The Independent Inquiry Commission, established by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives, reported that few members of the Ethiopian armed forces were involved in the Gambella killings.
In April 1, 2004, testimony before a House of Representatives appropriations panel, US AID representatives asked Congress to approve some $80 million in funding for Ethiopia programs in FY 2005. Ethiopia was described as a "top priority" of the Bush administration. US AID boasted of programs "that lay the groundwork to establish a market-based economy hospitable to investment..."
In a letter of August 6, twelve members of the US Congress called on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to protect citizens from harm and ensure humanitarian access to the Gambella region. Asking the Meles government to hold officials accountable for any involvement in the violence, the letter also asked for an English version of the Independent Inquiry Commission findings on situation in Gambella.
On September 16, US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a bill to the House Committee on Appropriations calling for substantive attention to the Anuak problem.
The US Department of Defense Central Command (CENTCOM) and European Command (EUCOM) are the pivotal forces behind the "Golden Spear" anti-terrorism program initiated in 2000 to "address issues of terrorism, humanitarian crises, natural disasters, drugs trafficking and refugees in the greater horn of Africa."
"Golden Spear" members include Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Djibouti, Seychelles and Egypt. Ethiopia sponsored the July 28-30, 2003 "Golden Spear" symposium (held at Addis Ababa), designed by the DoD "to provide a forum for strategic-level dialogue on current security issues" in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "the consensus reached at the meeting was a major achievement towards the enhancement of national capacities as well as collaborative efforts to deal with disasters, thus protecting development gains the region has attained over the years."
Meetings of the Golden Spear military group occurred in June in the Seychelles, and July in Tampa, FLA. Participants in July included Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Seychelles.
GAMBELLA OIL RUSH
Sources report ten military camps in the immediate vicinity of Gambella town, with an estimated 60 to 100 troops at each. The three major camps are Terfshalaka, about seven kilometers from Gambella town on the Addis Ababa road; Mekod, at the Gambella airport; and a base in the middle of Gambella town. An estimated 60 to 75 troops can be seen at the Gambella airport. Troops are everywhere in the town.
Witnesses report trucks of soldiers perpetually coming and going from Gambella along the roads into rural areas. Soldiers were seen to openly extort money and goods from civilians. Vehicles traveling along the roads are expected to stop and pick up any soldiers waiting for rides. Rights workers reportedly witnessed a church building that had been expropriated by soldiers and turned into a semi-permanent barracks. A nearby school was also expropriated and occupied.
On June 13, 2003, Malaysia's state-owned petroleum corporation, PETRONAS, announced the signing of an exclusive 25-year oil exploration and production sharing agreement with the EPRDF government to exploit the Ogaden Basin and the "Gambella Block" or "Block G" concession. On February 17, 2004, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines announced that Malaysia's PETRONAS will launch a natural gas exploration project in the Gambella region. Block G covers an area of 15,356 square kilometers within the Gambella Basin.
According to Anuak sources, the Ethiopian government held a public meeting in Gambella in February, even as violence against Anuak in rural areas was continuing to rise. One witness testified:
"They told people about the oil and how it would benefit everyone. But the Anuak said: 'How can you talk to us about oil when people are still being killed? We don't want to talk about the oil.' But the government said, 'No, we want to talk about the oil now.'"
The Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful subsidiary of China's second largest national petroleum consortium, the China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the principal oil firm operating in Gambella at present, under subcontract to Malaysia's national oil company PETRONAS.
The base camp for ZPEB equipment and petroleum explorations is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the center of Gambella town on the Abobo-Gambella road. The Ethiopian site manager, Mr. Degefe, is a highlander who tersely describes himself as "responsible for making all operations and security." The base camp is under tight security and heavily guarded by EPRDF troops.
PETRONAS and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently operate in Sudan. A recent report by Human Rights Watch raises charges that the Asian oil giants have provided cover for their respective governments to ship arms and military equipment to Sudan in exchange for oil concessions granted by Khartoum.
While not cited in the above Human Rights Watch report, ZPEB operates a concession for oil and gas exploration in Block 6 in the Republic of Sudan. ZPEB also operates in petroleum extraction in the Yli Basin of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an area noted for egregious human rights violations and systematic state terror against the indigenous Uighur people. According to Human Rights Watch: "Much like Tibetans, the Uighurs in Xinjiang (western China) have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a government- supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or peaceful, of their distinct identity."
On September 18, 2004, a notice was posted around Gambella town indicating that the Southwest Development Company (a new Highlander-owned venture) would be accepting applications for new hires to fill some 117 positions in support of "construction and petroleum related operations in Gambella region." On September 19, 2004 another notice seeking an additional 70 workers was posted around Gambella town. The posters were stamped with the official seal of the office of the Gambella People's National Regional State.
Anuak sources in Gambella state: "The Anuak people have not been involved in the discussions about the oil, our leaders have not agreed to these projects, and they will not hire any Anuaks for these jobs. If any Anuak says anything about the oil he will be arrested."
CROCODILES AND RATS
The few reports about the situation that have appeared in the international press have misrepresented and distorted the nature of the violence. Reporters traveling to the region have relied upon the EPRDF for security and information, and attempts by Anuaks to make the truth known have largely been ignored. National Public Radio last spring described Anuaks as primitives "once went naked and ate rats."
Marc Lacey reported from Gambella for the New York Times (June 15, 2004) simultaneous to the Ethiopian military's ongoing scorched earth campaign against rural villages. Lacey, who arrived with a government escort--including an Ethiopian intelligence and security team comprised of perpetrators of "the problem"--related no first-hand accounts from Anuaks of the summary executions, massacres and mass rape by EPRDF soldiers. Instead, the Times opted for a picturesque story of pastoral harmony, mentioning the violence almost in passing and even noting the threat to local bathers from crocodiles.
"Bath time here is a communal affair," read Lacey's lead. "Everyone grabs a bar of soap and heads down to the river. As they stand naked in the water a few feet from one another, lathering and rinsing in unison, people from Gambella's various ethnic groups appear at ease. The Anuak, the Nuer and the highlanders all use the Baro River as their tub."
Just across the Baro River are Anuak villages with scars attesting to the huts that were torched--some with people inside. But these went unmentioned by the New York Times. The EPRDF military has been said to routinely dump the bodies of the disappeared in Gambella's rivers.
***
The Baro River near Gambela (photo courtesy: aheavens) *look closely*
STATS
Gambella National Regional State
Home of the oldest gold mine in the country
A place for the only navigable river in Ethiopia - Baro river
- Location Western
- Temperature range 21.10°C\35.90°C
- Area 25, 274 km2
- Population 206,000
- Rainfall average 615.9mm
- Altitude range 300mt-2350mt above sea level
Major Resources and Potential Development Schemes
- Mining - vast potential for gold and petroleum exploration
- Mineral water - production
- Irrigation -vast area of irrigable land suitable for cotton and oilseeds production
- Tourism -park development at the lowland areas
Info Courtesy: The Embassy of Ethiopia in China
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)