“The armed conflicts that so often roil Africa rarely engage U.S. interests except in a humanitarian sense.”
– The Somali Stakes, Wall Street Journal, 28 December 2006
I can nearly imagine the WSJ editor who wrote it chuckling openly whilst typing that sentence. The U.S. has been jockeying for military and economic preeminence in Africa since the Cold War era, including arming Somalians against a Soviet-backed, Marxist regime in Ethiopia during the Carter years. Alliances are redefined but strategies, propaganda, and the resultant devastation of people and land remain the same.
“It is the height of a nation’s tragedy when those who pillaged and therefore destroyed a city’s way of life are allowed to turn murder into profit. Militarised capitalism is on the ascendancy, and the idea of cosmopolitanism is dead and buried.”
Ethiopians in Europe protest against tyrant Meles Zenawi | (hat tip)
Meles Zenawi: A Terrorist Fighting War on Terror???
Anuak Justice Council, 27 December 2006, [.pdf]
Who is Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia? Is he the free world’s partner in the War on Terror or is he a terrorist? The answer might depend upon whom you ask. To his own people of Ethiopia, you might hear stories of human rights abuses, political prisoners, Internet censorship and suppression of freedom, but he is representing himself quite differently to outsiders, especially now that he has diverted the attention of the international community from his own serious political problems to his new war with Somalia, assisted by the United States.
As he publicly is presented as being pro-Christian, pro-democracy and a legitimate anti-terrorist partner, his record in his own country defies these descriptions and instead places him on the opposite side of each. [More -.pdf]
13 DEC 2006: PRESS RELEASE ON ANUAK SITUATION
This Press Release Accompanies the Release of the United Nations Report
On the third anniversary of the state-orchestrated massacres in Gambella Ethiopia, indigenous Anuak people are again under threat of massive violence.
(Please Read the Press Release. )
download pdf | read the html page
LIVELIHOODS AND VULNERABILITIES STUDY, GAMBELLA REGION OF ETHIOPIA
UNITED NATIONS REPORT
POSTED 13 DEC 2006, in recognition of the third anniversary of the state-sponsored terorism of 13-15 December 2003 in Gambella Ethiopia. (On 13 December 2006 the Government of Ethiopia initiated a fresh campaign to terrorize innocent and unarmed Anuak people. Read the press release (above) and report. )
download pdf | read the html page
Ethiopian women leading the struggle against tyranny
Radical Journeys | (hat tip)
In a country where politics is regarded as man’s domain, Ethiopian women are leading the struggle against tyranny, writes KE’s Women’s Affairs correspondent Rachel Lewis
A woman in her twenties walks on a muddy path sporadically speckled with red sand and reaches her destination. The way she respires betrays excitement. She wears black gown and carries a cake, giftwrapped with greaseproof paper and ribbons. A group of people follows her, their faces knotted with utter exhilaration.
It is Lidya’s graduation day and family members have gathered to celebrate the achievements of their beloved daughter, niece and sister. There is food, and smiles and laughter all around. As her mother looks on, beaming tearfully with pride, the new graduate excitedly discusses her plans for the future amidst the well-meaning interjections of her gathered relatives and friends. This scene should ring familiar to anyone who has ever attended a graduation celebration. What makes this a rather unique and remarkable celebration is that it is being held in Kaliti Federal Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the strict one-hour visitation period allotted the nation’s political prisoners.
Kaliti prison is a collection of wide hovels made of corrugated iron and concrete. The celebration is taking place at the stand where prisoners meet their relatives during the visitation hours. It is unbearably hot by the sweltering midday sun, which followed the morning drizzle. There are no decorations and music is prohibited, though a few defiant relatives absently hum quiet refrains, while wild mice scurry underfoot in fierce competition for the leftover crumbs of the modest graduation feast.
In a few moments time, the `10-minute warning’ will be announced by the head guard over a crackling loud-speaker and the celebrations will immediately come to a close—dishes and leftovers are hurriedly stuffed back into bags, goodbyes exchanged, and palms pressed. Mother and daughter stand face to face, in a final private moment—the mother bravely smiles, her repeated congratulations punctuated by the sobs that rack her small frame, while the daughter nods and whispers words of comfort as she turns to leave, masking the pain of goodbye with a maturity far beyond her years.
The unexpected festivities came as a wonderful surprise to federal prisoner Nigist Gebrehiwot, 48, who was unable to attend the graduation ceremony of her only daughter in July 2006. This high school arts teacher and mother of three remains one of the political prisoners who languish here, arrested in November 2005 during the sweeping government crackdown following last year’s contested elections. For thirteen months she has been confined to a cell occupied by 70 other women, accused of treason and `attempts to incite genocide’—charges which, if upheld, carry sentences of life-imprisonment and even the death penalty. The human-rights organization Amnesty International calls Nigist and fellow treason defendants “prisoners of conscience…imprisoned solely on account of their non-violent opinions and activities”. Yet they continue to await sentencing in a political trial widely condemned for its `failure to observe internationally recognized standards of fair trial before impartial and independent judges.’ [More]
Soviet school
From The Economist print edition, 26 October 2006
The government promised a speedy trial but has reneged, dragging out the process while keeping it far from view. Most of those arrested are still languishing in Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa. The cells there are baking hot by day, freezing by night, infested with roaches and mice, and thick with mud in the rainy season. The government has so far used a mix of spin and harassment of journalists (local more than foreign) to avoid international condemnation. But that may be changing.
An independent commission into the June and November killings has become an embarrassment. The government had stacked the commission with its supporters but eight out of ten of them still decided that the government had used excessive force. The commission members claim Mr Zenawi tried to get them to reverse their decision earlier this year; when that failed the government sought to bury the findings. The head of the commission and his deputy fled to Europe, fearing for their safety. Their investigation says at least 193 people were killed, nearly all by the security forces, including 40 teenagers, some shot at close range, others strangled. Some 20,000 young Ethiopians were said to be imprisoned in labour camps, though a government spokesman calls this “absolute rubbish”.
The government is spending more on its secret police as well as on state media. Well-placed sources claim an Israeli-trained unit now monitors e-mail and blocks opposition websites. Yet there is also disloyalty in the security apparatus. Berhanu Nega, the imprisoned mayor-elect of Addis Ababa, managed to write a book in Kaliti entitled “Dawn of Freedom” that is now being widely distributed in samizdat. Some people say 200,000 of the opposition calendars have been sold, often for several times their cover price.
The government could claw back some credibility by releasing the political prisoners, but this is unlikely. And that credibility took another knock last week when Mr Zenawi was forced to admit, after months of denial, that Ethiopian troops had indeed been sent to intervene in the growing civil war in neighbouring Somalia. Donor countries are disgusted by the treason trial, but equally terrified that the country could once again fall miserably apart if they dare to stop their aid. [More]