In Somalia (175th, -11) 18 journalists were killed, caught up in bomb attacks or the direct targets of murder, making 2012 the deadliest in history for the country’s media. The Horn of Africa state was the second most dangerous country in the world for those working in news and information, behind Syria. In Eritrea (in last place in the index for the sixth successive year), no journalists were killed but some were left to die, which amounts to the same thing. With at least 30 behind bars, it is Africa’s biggest prison for journalists. Of 11 incarcerated since 2001, seven have died as a result of prison conditions or have killed themselves. Since the independent media were abolished more than 10 years ago, there are no independent Eritrean news outlets, other than outside the country, and terror prevails.
Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. The Oromo, Amhara and Tigreans make up more than three-quarters (¾) of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members. English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is taught in all secondary schools. Amharic was the language of primary school instruction but has been replaced in many areas by local languages such as Oromifa and Tigrinya.
Genocide Watch, the Global coalition to end genocide and mass atrocities, says that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is well aware of the fact that the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) is a terrorist organization that the United States should label as such.
In an exclusive interview with ESAT, President of Genocide Watch, Prof. Gregory Stanton, said any specific threats from TPLF agents and operatives in the United States should be reported to the FBI right away. "The FBI has got the TPLF already in its sights. It knows very well that the TPLF is a terrorist organization," he said
GARSEN, Kenya — Eritrea, a sliver of a nation in the Horn of Africa that is one of the most secretive and repressive countries in the world, was cast into confusion on Monday after mutinous soldiers stormed the Ministry of Information and took over the state-run television service, apparently in a coup
According to several people with close contacts inside Eritrea, the coup attempt failed, with government troops quelling the would-be rebellion and no one rising up in the streets. But many analysts said it was only a matter of time before President Isaias Afwerki, Eritrea’s brash and steely leader for the past 20 years, is confronted again — and most likely from within.
“There’s a lot of dissatisfaction within the armed forces,” said Dan Connell, a professor at Simmons College in Boston and the author of several books on Eritrea. “If this is suppressed, it won’t be the end.”
Eritrea is often called the North Korea of Africa because it is so isolated and authoritarian, with few friends and thousands of defectors in recent years as Mr. Isaias tightens his grip and the economy teeters on the brink of ruin.
In the early 1990s, when Mr. Isaias first took power, Eritrea was hailed as a beacon of hope in Africa, a country of low crime, ethnic harmony and can-do spirit along the Red Sea. The Eritreans fought for years in trenches and from craggy mountaintops to defeat a Soviet-backed Ethiopian government and win their independence.
But the euphoria did not last. In the late 1990s, Eritrea and Ethiopia waged a costly war over their shared border, in which tens of thousands of people died. Shortly afterward, Mr. Isaias rounded up political dissidents and journalists, dooming them to years in prison, often in sweltering, underground shipping containers.
Thousands of young Eritreans have been drafted into the army and then required to work indefinitely for the government for pittance wages in what is called “national service.” Each year, many young people risk their lives to escape. Eritrea has waged war with just about all of its neighbors, and the United Nations has imposed sanctions on Eritrea over what is suspected to be its support of Somali militants.
By nightfall on Monday, it seemed that the government had beaten back the mutineers, with some analysts saying that the government broadcaster, Eri-TV, was back on the air.
The rebel soldiers, believed to number around 100, made it as far as the director’s office in the Ministry of Information, forcing him to read a statement on air calling for the release of political prisoners. Then the broadcast abruptly cut out. They also may have briefly taken hostage Mr. Isaias’s daughter, Elsa, who is said to work in the ministry.
It was not clear what happened to the renegade soldiers; analysts said that troops loyal to the government had surrounded the Ministry of Information and that the mutineers would most likely be captured and imprisoned.
The State Department said that the situation remained fluid, and the small embassy in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, sent out a warning on Monday to the few American citizens living there. “The U.S. Embassy has been made aware of increased military presence in some sections of Asmara,” the warning said. “Employees of the U.S. government have been advised to limit their movements within the city, avoid large gatherings and exercise caution. We strongly recommend that private U.S. citizens do likewise.”
Ethiopia, back at the Africa Cup of Nations after a three-decade absence, overcame a red card to hold champions Zambia to a 1-1 draw in an explosive Group C encounter Monday.
Ethiopia, one of the founding fathers of African football who had fallen on hard times before enjoying a recent revival, had keeper Jemal Tassew sent off in the first half of a game that also featured a missed penalty and disgruntled vuvuzela-throwing fans.
There is probably no reporter in VOA Amharic service’s history, save Mimi Sibhatu, whose dubious and deliberately
manipulative reporting skills has raised eyebrows and controversies as
much as those of Henok Semaegzer Fente. Some of Ethiopia’s well-known
dissidents and rights defenders such as Tamagn Beyene, Obang Metho, Dr.
Berhanu Nega, Abebe Belew, Neamin Zeleke and Abebe Gellaw, among others,
have complained at various times on his dubious reports that are mostly
borderline misrepresentation and over-edited or censored broadcasts
that reflect a burning desire to do spin on sensitive political issues.
The recent Addis Ababa University student unrest in which Oromo and
Tigrian students clashed is a case in point. One can say that he killed
the story by focusing on non-issues and giving little air to those who
were the victims of the repressive measures.
In an absorbing book “The Devil in History” Romanian-American political scientist Vladimir Ismaneau embarks on a comparative analysis of two seemingly contradictory ideologies of the 20th
century – Communism (far left) and Fascism (far right) – and finds
striking similarity between these systems of political totalitarianism.
With
polymathic virtuosity, Ismaneau illuminates communism’s close affinity
with fascism by examining the “intellectual origins, political passions,
radicalism, utopian ideals, and the visions of salvation and
revolution” these two radical movements espoused and pursued.
Communism
and fascism share a dogmatic vision of social re-engineering to be
achieved through a “scientific” political formula. Communism’s ultimate
destiny was the attainment of the dictatorship of the proletariat which
supposedly emancipates mankind from all forms of exploitation. Fascism
envisioned an epoch of racial purity (Hitler) or national splendor
(Mussolini). Both ideologies dehumanized their adversaries. Both are
founded on the premise that certain groups or ideas must be deservedly
excluded or obliterated. In Bolshevik Russia, functionaries of the
Tsarist regime, the clergy and rich people were categorized as “byvshie liudi”
(the former people) and were excluded from the “new” Socialist order.
Stalin killed 20 million people in the name of Communism. Nazi Germany
systematically slaughtered or deported Jews and other “subhuman” races.
The UK government is providing financial aid to human rights abusers in Ethiopia through funding training paramilitaries, who perpetrate summary killings, rape and torture in the impoverished African country, local media reported.
Through its foreign aid budget, the UK government provides financial support to an Ethiopian government security force known as the “special police” as part of its “peace and development programme”, which would cost up to £15 million in five years, The Guardian reported.
The Department for International Development warned in a leaked document of the “reputational risks” of working with organisations that are “frequently cited in human rights violation allegations”, according to the report.
SMNE is a non-political and non-violent social justice movement of diverse Ethiopians that seeks to unite the many Ethiopian ethnic groups into a solidarity movement that stands together to call the current Ethiopian government to account for myriad allegations of human rights violations.
Mr. Obang Metho has become a spokesperson for justice, freedom, the respect for human rights, reconciliation, good government and ethical economic development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
His work and speaking engagements include the following venues:
Mr. Obang Metho has testified before the United Nations, the British House of Commons, the European Parliament and the US House Sub-committee on Africa, Human Rights and International Affairs.
He was the opening keynote speaker at the major annual Canadian foreign policy conference of top government policy makers held in Ottawa in 2006, addressing the subject of “Security Concerns in Africa” while utilizing the case of the Anuak as an example of what is going wrong on the continent.
In January of 2007, he was a speaker at the Martin Luther King, Jr Day rally in Atlanta.
Mr. Metho has briefed and met with leaders and officials at the US Department of State, the US Senate, the US House of Representatives and the World Bank. He has also met with their counterparts in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany and in the European Union.
He has spoken at colleges and universities such as New York University, Columbia University,University of California (UCLA), Yeshiva University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Saskatchewan and Bethel University, along with others.
In 2008, Mr. Metho began speaking about putting “humanity before ethnicity” or any other distinction, in order to heal the deep ethnic divisions in the country and bring reconciliation.
The formation of the SMNE is an attempt to organize a diverse solidarity movement around these principles. These principles are: “humanity before ethnicity” and “no one will be free until all are free.”
(UK Daily Mail) - British taxpayers could be used to fund a group of Ethiopian paramilitaries who stand accused of murder, rape and torture.
The
Department for International Development will dole out up to £15
million in foreign aid to train security forces in Ogaden, a Somali
region within Ethiopia.
But human rights groups have warned that
the money could fall into the hands of a thuggish security force that
has been accused of executions and other crimes. Official
documents invite bids to train security forces as part of the five-year
¿peace building¿ programme in the war torn country. A girl is pictured
in front of a rusted old Russian tank lying in a field near Aksum,
Ethiopia
Official documents invite bids to train security forces
as part of the five-year ¿peace building¿ programme in the war torn
country. A girl is pictured in front of a rusted old Russian tank lying
in a field near Aksum, Ethiopia
According to ESAT the FBI has foiled an attempt by the Ethiopian government to assassinate Ato Abebe Gelaw. Goosh
Abera and his accomplices are under custody. Please note here I said
the Ethiopian government since there seems to be no thin line between
the TPLF party and the government. Why am I not surprised? I am not
surprised because for the TPLF violence is sanctioned by the party
leaders as a legitimate tool to achieve political, economic and military
dominance.
The following weeks as we look closely at Goosh Abera
and his criminal friends and the FBI presents a psychological profile of
the alleged conspirators we are sure to find out certain telltale signs
about TPLF and their bizarre psychopathic behavior. Individuals like
Goosh are most probably equipped with basic rudimentary education if any
and survive by their wit and ethnic fueled bravado. In Ethiopia they
are known for carrying weapons conspicuously, brandishing them at will
and revealing in their thuggish behavior. They are the kind that
administers summary judgment on street corners, bars and clubs.
How
was TPLF Chairman, the recently departed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi able to achieve this goal in Ethiopia? The simple truth is by
using violence to silence, intimidate, and eliminate his and the party’s
actual or perceived enemies using any means necessary. You do not need
to be a Sherlock Holmes to detect this pungent smell of gun powder
around most Woyanes.
The New York overcast sky did not deter brave New Yorkers to gather in front of Woyane’s Mission to United Nations at
mid day today in Manhattan, New York. “I care for my religion”, “Woyane
is the enemy of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo”, “Sibaht Nega, Abaye
Tsehaye and Shiferaw Teklemariam stay away from our church business”,
“One Church One Leader”, “Holy Fathers continue reconciliation before
any Woyane imposed selection” were the major slogans of the day.
In
fact we display our slogans at close range for Woyane cadre who was
going up and down on the street to spy on the protesters. We have his
picture taken at close range. We challenged him to take out his pistol
to scare us. The picture of Bishop Merkorios had attracted many passers
by and we gladly distribute the leaflets. The message was clear and
simple. Ethiopian Orthodox is at critical juncture and the voice of the
believers must be heard.
