NAIROBI, Kenya, July 21 — The Ethiopian government is blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to large swaths of a remote region in the eastern part of the country that is home to a rebel force, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation, Western diplomats and humanitarian officials say.
Ethiopia rebels 'agree UN truce'
BBC NEWS Sunday, 2 September 2007, 14:57 GMT 15:57 UK
Rebels in south-eastern Ethiopia say they will observe a ceasefire for the week-long visit of a UN delegation.
The team is probing rights violations and humanitarian issues in the conflict between troops and the Ogaden National Liberation Front in the Somali region.
The ONLF has been fighting for independence for ethnic Somalis in the region for more than 20 years.
The conflict flared in April when the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run exploration team, killing 74 people.
Ethiopia 'blocking MSF in Ogaden'
By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa editor
International aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers has accused Ethiopia of denying it access to the country's eastern Ogaden region.
The barren region has recently been the scene of a fierce conflict between government troops and rebel forces.
The exclusion follows an order to the Red Cross to stop operations in Ogaden.
The rebels accuse the government of imposing a blockade and creating what they described as a man-made famine. Ethiopia denies imposing no-go zones.
Ethiopia: Jailed Anti-Poverty Campaigners Face Two-Month Wait for Verdict
ActionAid (London)
PRESS RELEASE
3 August 2007
Posted to the web 3 August 2007
Judges trying the case of two anti-poverty campaigners in Ethiopia yesterday (Thursday 2 August) adjourned the trial until 8 October, when the court will give judgement.
Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region
Ethiopia's freed leader defiant
Ethiopia's opposition leader has hit out at the government just hours after being pardoned and released from a life sentence in jail.
Hailu Shawel said he had signed a document admitting to organising violent election protests in 2005 and asking for clemency "under duress".
Ethiopia life jail terms attacked
(BBC NEWS)
The head of the European Union 2005 election observers in Ethiopia has said she is "appalled" at the life sentences given to 30 opposition leaders.
Ana Gomes told the BBC the sentences were "farcical" and "inhumane" and urged the EU to seek their release.
Another eight people were given shorter jail terms, while five were tried in absentia for their role in violent protests at alleged poll-rigging.
Ethiopian opposition leaders get life sentence
By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison on Monday, rebuffing a prosecution request that they be executed for trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence.
The remaining eight defendants, including four journalists, were ordered to serve terms of between 18 months and 18 years in a case rights groups and some donor governments criticized as an attempt to cripple the opposition after it made election gains.
Yalemzewd faces the courts -- and this time the international media is not shining the light on her case
Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA)
Dear friends of the pro-democracy movement!
Yalemzewd was hauled before the court a few days ago, to face the usual ridiculous charges. She was dragged into prison last year as well, but there is a big difference between now and then. Last year, the international media was all over her case. This time they remained completely mum. The huge media coverage is likely to have contributed to her being freed on bail. The silence this time could mean she will be imprisoned again, this time away from the media limelight. Please make sure the light is shone on her case! EACA composed the below letter to the editor, sent to The Economist magazine. Please contact all other media outlets which reported on Yalemzewd’s case in October but were silent this time. Feel free to use this letter and adapt and personalise it.
Off with their heads, maybe
Jul 12th 2007 | NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition
Will the political dissidents be spared?
EARLIER this year, Ethiopian courts released many of the country's most important political dissidents from the grim Kaliti jail on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. They had been there since they were rounded up by police following opposition protests (in which 193 people were killed) against flawed presidential elections in 2005. In another promising sign of reconciliation, charges against the 38 remaining defendants were reduced from treason and genocide to “outrage against the constitution” and “incitement to armed rebellion”.
Ethiopia's democracy on trial
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
As they turned up in court, expecting to hear their fate, Ethiopia's 38 detained opposition leaders put on a show of bravado. The CUD leader and principal accused, Hailu Shewal, flaunted a scarf in the colours of the Ethiopian national flag.
One of his colleagues had a ribbon in the national colours tucked into his hatband.
Ethiopia punishes civilians in rebel crackdown-group
NAIROBI, July 4 (Reuters) - A U.S.-based human rights group accused the Ethiopian military on Wednesday of burning homes and forcibly displacing thousands of villagers in a campaign against separatist rebels in the southeastern Ogaden region.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced a crackdown last month on insurgents in Ogaden who raided a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April, killing 74 people.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is seeking more autonomy for its ethnically Somali region, bordering Somalia. Addis Ababa says it is a terrorist group bankrolled by arch-foe Eritrea.
Eastern Sudan farmers get back disputed lands from Ethiopia
Wednesday 4 July 2007 05:00.
July 3, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A joint Sudanese-Ethiopian committee would start today to hand over agricultural lands to residents of more than 17 Sudanese villages located in eastern Atbara River along the Ethiopia-Sudan border.
The agricultural lands remained a source of dispute for more than 100 years.
A CALL FOR ACTION AND A CRY FOR JUSTICE: July 6 @ 10 a.m. DALLAS, TX, USA
Please join us to demand the release of elected leaders and all political prisoners in ETHIOPIA, and to condemn the sham WOYANE false trail.
"HAND IN HAND ECHOING FOR ETHIOPIA"
DEMONSTRATION IN DALLAS, TEXAS
DATE: Friday, July 6, 2007
TIME: 10:00a.m.
PLACE: Starts at Federal Building, commerce Street and marches to CHANNEL 8 TV and CITY HALL, Downtown DALLAS. OUR STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN ETHIOPIA WILL CONTINUE!!!
Please help spread the word to all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia coming to DALLAS, TX.
ORGANIZERS: CONSTITUENTS FOR DEMOCRACY, CUD, UEDF AND PATRIOTIC ETHIOPIANS
For information, please call @ (214) 682 3929
Ethiopian Premier Admits Errors on Somalia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 29, 2007; Page A16
NAIROBI, June 28 -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Thursday that his government "made a wrong political calculation" when it intervened in Somalia, where Ethiopian troops are bogged down in a fight against a growing insurgency.
Ethiopia calls West's appeals for prisoners "shameful"
Source: Reuters
In an address to parliament, Meles lambasted the Addis Ababa-based Western ambassadors, some of whom were listening to his speech in the gallery, and accused them of pressuring him.
"In Ethiopia there is nothing that can be resolved as a result of external pressure," he said.
The officials were convicted this month of charges relating to violent protests over disputed 2005 polls that altered the political landscape in the country of 81 million by handing the opposition a vastly increased share of parliament.
Ethiopia 'ready for Eritrea war'
BBC NEWS
Ethiopia's prime minister says he is strengthening his army in preparation for an attack by long-time foe Eritrea.
"Our defence forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred," Meles Zenawi told MPs.
An Eritrean minister said Mr Meles was "paranoid" and trying to divert attention from his domestic problems. He denied backing Ethiopian rebels
Dr. Getachew Begashaw’s paper “Is it really Lessons learned and the Way Forward?”
LA UEDF Support Committee - June 23, 2007
Why are our lessons learned from the May 2005 elections and its aftermath so different from that of Dr. Getachew Begashaw’s as presented to the Canadian Peace-building Coordinating Committee in Toronto – entitled “Lessons from the May 2005 Ethiopian Elections: The Way Forward” . Before we address the topic, we would like to say this is written in the hope of starting a healthy and constructive dialogue from which we believe refined positions and clearer directions will ensue. We hope our modest contribution will foster a democratic culture that will contribute towards building a democratic system. It is not meant to score points and engage in a “win/lose” discourse.
Ethiopia verdict 'not political' (BBC NEWS)
Ethiopia's government has denied accusations that the conviction of 38 opposition leaders was intended to stifle political dissent.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon told the BBC the court was independent and had based its verdict on hard evidence.
But an opposition leader said it was "a very tragic day for the rule of law and for democracy in Ethiopia".
Read More>>>
Ethiopian protest leaders guilty (BBC NEWS)
A court in Ethiopia has found 38 senior opposition figures guilty of charges connected to mass protests after disputed elections two years ago.
The charges ranged from armed rebellion to "outrage against the constitution".
Sentencing is next month and they could face the death penalty, says the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Ethiopia.
Hundreds of thousands took part in demonstrations complaining of fraud and vote-rigging by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government in the 2005 polls
Africa: Ethiopian, Zimbabwean Women Journalists Honored
1 June 2007
Posted to the web 1 June 2007
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) has honoured an Ethiopian publisher for her courage and a Zimbabwean reporter for her achievements in journalism over a period of 35 years.
The IWMF announced in Washington, DC today that Serkalem Fasil, former co-owner and publisher of the weekly Ethiopian newspapers Asqual, Menilik and Satenaw, was among the winners of its 2007 Courage in Journalism Award.
Fasil was one of a number of editors and reporters arrested after publishing material critical of the Ethiopian government during parliamentary elections in 2005.
Kenya: 96 in Ethiopian Jails, Says Lawyer
The Nation (Nairobi)
1 June 2007
Posted to the web 1 June 2007
Ngumbao Kithi
Nairobi
Ninety six Kenyans are in Ethiopian jails after the Government stripped them of their citizenship on allegations that they were linked to terrorism, a human rights lawyer has said.
The whereabouts of 46 of them was unknown because Kenyan authorities were not willing to discuss the issue, lawyer Harun Ndubi claimed.
Read More>>>
Boy Dies From Pool Accident That Claimed Sister
Yacob Gezaee Removed From Life Support Thursday
DENVER -- A 10-year-old boy who had been on life support since he was found in an Aurora condo complex pool has died.
Yacob Gezaee was taken off life support Thursday at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where he had been since Monday.Gezaee's 16-year-old sister, Bethlehem Gezaee, died Monday while apparently trying to rescue him from the pool.
3 Times Journalists Detained in Ethiopia
Associated Press 05.22.07, 7:10 PM ET
Three journalists for The New York Times were arrested by the Ethiopian military and held for five days before being released, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
The journalists, including Nairobi bureau chief Jeffrey Gettleman, were detained May 16 in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, near the Somali border, the paper said.
They were interrogated at gunpoint and released Monday without being charged, the paper said. The journalists were not told why they had been picked up; one was kicked in the back, and all three were threatened repeatedly.
Ethiopia - A DESPERATE APPEAL FOR UNITY AND WORKING TOGETHER
By Bizualem Beza
”Those who deny freedom to others Deserve it not for themselves,and Under a just God,cannot long retain it.”
Abraham Lincoln,the 16th USA president
No repressive regime can give up power willingly unless pressurised.As the long history of mankind vindicates ,regimes who have absolute control of power in a given country are comfortable with all what they do irrespective of the will of the generall public they govern.Whether it is mass killing,incarceration of innocent citizens,displacement of people,injustice, it does not concern them because it is done in line with their own short-sighted interests and ordered by themseleves.Once, they committe all kinds of attrocities on their subjugates,then,it will be unthinkable for them to leave power peacefully rather they prefer to strenghten their gripe on power by all possible means regardless of what it takes …..because they are well aware of the consequences of their actions and what it means for them to be out of power.
Why our beloved country continues to bleed and be so poor for so long?
NILE STREAMS EDITORIAL:
Read the profound question and reckoning.
Opposition mulls defense in treason trial.
Tsegaye Tadesse, Reuters 04/30/2007l 30
ADDIS ABABA; Ethiopian opposition members accused of treason for their role in protests after 2005 elections said they were mulling a defense, after boycotting participation in a case they say is politically motivated.
Twenty-one defendants, who have been in jail for more than a year, said they wanted to review the evidence against them....
Travel Advice For Ethiopia
Attacks could be against civilian targets...
UK Foreign Office 04/27/207
The Foreign Office today revised its travel advice for Ethiopia. We now advise against all travel within 50 kms of all Ethiopia’s borders.
The reverent summary points now read: ...
AAU Students decided to cut classes not to go to their cafés
AAU Students expressed anger on Tuesday after doctors of the Menelik II hospital allegedly took out some parts from the body of a student.
The deceased Ahmed Abdurrahman, a third year physics student from Harar, fainted in class while he was doing a presentation, before he died later.
One of his class mates told The Daily Monitor on conditions of anonymity that, ...
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