Ethiopia: Donor Aid Supports Repression

Contributors Should Review Development Programs, Monitor Use of Funds

(London) - The Ethiopian government is using development aid to suppress political dissent by conditioning access to essential government programs on support for the ruling party, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged foreign donors to ensure that their aid is used in an accountable and transparent manner and does not support political repression.

The 105-page report, "Development without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia," documents the ways in which the Ethiopian government uses donor-supported resources and aid as a tool to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

"The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent," said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "If you don't play the ruling party's game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behavior with ever-larger sums of development aid."

Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of development aid, more than US$3 billion in 2008 alone. The World Bank and donor nations provide direct support to district governments in Ethiopia for basic services such as health, education, agriculture, and water, and support a "food-for-work" program for some of the country's poorest people. The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are the largest bilateral donors.

Local officials routinely deny government support to opposition supporters and civil society activists, including rural residents in desperate need of food aid. Foreign aid-funded "capacity-building" programs to improve skills that would aid the country's development are used by the government to indoctrinate school children in party ideology, intimidate teachers, and purge the civil service of people with independent political views.

Political repression was particularly pronounced during the period leading up to parliamentary elections in May 2010, in which the ruling party won 99.6 percent of the seats.

Despite government restrictions that make independent research difficult, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 people in 53 villages across three regions of the country during a six-month investigation in 2009. The problems Human Rights Watch found were widespread: residents reported discrimination in many locations.

Farmers described being denied access to agricultural assistance, micro-loans, seeds, and fertilizers because they did not support the ruling party. As one farmer in Amhara region told Human Rights Watch, "[Village] leaders have publicly declared that they will single out opposition members, and those identified as such will be denied ‘privileges.' By that they mean that access to fertilizers, ‘safety net' and even emergency aid will be denied."

Rural villagers reported that many families of opposition members were barred from participation in the food-for-work or "safety net" program, which supports 7 million of Ethiopia's most vulnerable citizens. Scores of opposition members who were denied services by local officials throughout the country reported the same response from ruling party and government officials when they complained: "Ask your own party for help."

Human Rights Watch also documented how high school students, teachers, and civil servants were forced to attend indoctrination sessions on ruling party ideology as part of the capacity-building program funded by foreign governments. Attendees at training sessions reported that they were intimidated and threatened if they did not join the ruling party. Superiors told teachers that ruling party membership was a condition for promotion and training opportunities. Education, especially schools and teacher training, is also heavily supported by donor funds.

"By dominating government at all levels, the ruling party controls all the aid programs," Peligal said. "Without effective, independent monitoring, international aid will continue to be abused to consolidate a repressive single-party state."

In 2005, the World Bank and other donors suspended direct budget support to the Ethiopian government following a post-election crackdown on demonstrators that left 200 people dead, 30,000 detained, and dozens of opposition leaders in jail. At the time, donors expressed fears of "political capture" of donor funds by the ruling party.

Yet aid was soon resumed under a new program, "Protection of Basic Services," that channeled money directly to district governments. These district governments, like the federal administration, are under ruling party control, yet are harder to monitor and more directly involved in day-to-day repression of the population.

During this period the Ethiopian government has steadily closed political space, harassed independent journalists and civil society activists into silence or exile, and violated the rights to freedom of association and expression. A new law on civil society activity, passed in 2009, bars nongovernmental organizations from working on issues related to human rights, good governance, and conflict resolution if they receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources.

"The few independent organizations that monitored human rights have been eviscerated by government harassment and a pernicious new civil society law," Peligal said. "But these groups are badly needed to ensure aid is not misused."

As Ethiopia's human rights situation has worsened, donors have ramped up assistance. Between 2004 and 2008, international development aid to Ethiopia doubled. According to Ethiopian government data, the country is making strong progress on reducing poverty, and donors are pleased to support Ethiopia's progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Yet the price of that progress has been high.

When Human Rights Watch presented its findings to donor officials, many privately acknowledged the worsening human rights situation and the ruling party's growing authoritarian rule. Donor officials from a dozen Western government agencies told Human Rights Watch that they were aware of allegations that donor-supported programs were being used for political repression, but they had no way of knowing the extent of such abuse. In Ethiopia, most monitoring of donor programs is a joint effort alongside Ethiopian government officials.

Yet few donors have been willing to raise their concerns publicly over the possible misuse of their taxpayers' funds. In a desk study and an official response to Human Rights Watch, the donor consortium Development Assistance Group stated that their monitoring mechanisms showed that their programs were working well and that aid was not being "distorted." But no donors have carried out credible, independent investigations into the problem.

Human Rights Watch called on donor country legislatures and audit institutions to examine development aid to Ethiopia to ensure that it is not supporting political repression.

"In their eagerness to show progress in Ethiopia, aid officials are shutting their eyes to the repression lurking behind the official statistics," Peligal said. "Donors who finance the Ethiopian state need to wake up to the fact that some of their aid is contributing to human rights abuses."

Background
Led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party is a coalition of ethnic-based groups that came to power in 1991 after ousting the military government of Mengistu Haile Mariam. The government passed a new constitution in 1994 that incorporated fundamental human rights standards, but in practice many of these freedoms have been increasingly restricted during its 19 years in power.

Although the ruling party introduced multiparty elections soon after it came to power in 1991, opposition political parties have faced serious obstruction to their efforts to establish offices, organize, and campaign in national and local elections.

Eight-five percent of Ethiopia's population live in rural areas and, each year, 10 to 20 percent rely on international food relief to survive. Foreign development assistance to Ethiopia has steadily increased since the 1990s, with a temporary plateau during the two-year border war with Eritrea (1998-2000). Ethiopia is now the largest recipient of World Bank funds and foreign aid in Africa.

In 2008, total aid was US$3.3 billion. Of that, the United States contributes around $800 million, much of it in humanitarian and food aid; the European Union contributes $400 million; and the United Kingdom provides $300 million. Ethiopia is widely considered to be making good progress toward some of the UN Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty, but much of the data originates with the government and is not independently verified.

Quotes from the Report

"There are micro-loans, which everybody goes to take out, but it is very difficult for us, [opposition] members. They say, ‘This is not from your government, it is from the government you hate. Why do you expect something from the government that you hate?'"

- A farmer from southern Ethiopia

"Yesterday in fact the kebele [village] chairman said to me, ‘You are suffering so many problems, why don't you write a letter of regret and join the ruling party?'"

- A farmer with a starving child from southern Ethiopia, denied participation in the safety net food-for-work program

"The safety net is used to buy loyalty to the ruling party. That is money that comes from abroad. Democracy is being compromised by money that comes from abroad. Do those people who send the money know what it is being used for? Let them know that it is being used against democracy."

- A farmer from Amhara region

"It is clear that our money is being moved into political brainwashing."

- Consultant to a major donor, Addis Ababa

"Intimidation is all over, in every area. There is politicization of housing, business, education, agriculture. Many of the people are forced or compromised to join the party because of safety net and so on, many do not have a choice - it is imposed."

- Western donor official, Addis Ababa

"Every tool at their disposal - fertilizer, loans, safety net - is being used to crush the opposition. We know this."

- Senior Western donor official, Addis Ababa

"Which state are we building and how? It could be that we are building the capacity of the state to control and repress."

- World Bank staff member, Addis Ababa

Ethiopia Opposition Denies Government Claim of Eritrea Alliance

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia’s main opposition grouping disputed a government claim that political opponents of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party are colluding with the country’s arch-enemy, Eritrea.

State radio reported yesterday that the opposition is “covertly and overtly” collaborating with neighboring Eritrea ahead of elections on May 23. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 border war that left as many as 70,000 people dead and the two countries’ armies remain deployed along their border.

Such allegations are “dangerous,” Negasso Gidada, a leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party, said in a phone interview today in the capital, Addis Ababa. The party forms part of an opposition alliance known as Medrek. “We are clearly a peaceful organization and we stick to the constitution and the rule of law.”

A 2005 crackdown on opposition supporters protesting the results of that year’s elections left 193 people. Birtukan Mideksa, the leader of the UDJ, has been jailed under a life sentence since December 2008, after she said an earlier release from prison was part of a political deal.

Yesterday’s report on government radio said opposition parties plan to claim human rights violations in order to raise questions about the credibility of the elections.

“What is surprising is they are not ashamed of the baseless allegations they make in partnership with the Eritrean government,” the broadcaster said, according to a transcript distributed by the British Broadcasting Corp.’s monitoring service.

UN Sanctions

The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Eritrea in December for its alleged support of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists who are aiming to topple the Somali government. Islamist groups including al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, previously based in Eritrea, have gained control of most of southern and central Somalia in their bid to oust President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s UN-backed transitional government.

Ethiopia says its two main domestic rebel groups, the ethnic-Somali Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front, are backed by Eritrea.

Ethiopian opposition parties have complained that government media, which controls virtually all of the country’s broadcasters, is being used for pro-Meles propaganda.

The opposition is seeking to foment violence after the elections in the hope of winning an internationally brokered power-sharing agreement with the ruling party along the lines of deals in Kenya and Zimbabwe, Hailemariam Desalegn, parliamentary whip for Meles’ ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, said on Jan. 29.

“If it comes to violence or anything it will come from the government itself,” said Negasso, adding that a power-sharing agreement would be unlikely in Ethiopia because of the U.S. and U.K.’s strong support for Meles.


--Editors: Paul Richardson, Vernon Wessels.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at +27-11-286-1999 or pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at +27-11-286-1934 or asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

Shirkadda Lundin Petroleum oo lagu eedeeyay lugtay ku lahayd xasuuq ka dhacay Ogaden

Shirkadda Lundin Petroleum oo laga leeyahay dalka Sweden ayaa lagu eedeeyay inay ku lug lahayd xad gudubyo banii'aadannimo oo laga kala gaystay goobo shidaal laga baadho oo kala ah Sudan iyo Ogaden.

Warkaas oo kusoo baxay buug loogu magac daray "Ka ganacsiga Dhiigga iyo Saliidda" oo ay qortay gabadh wariye ah oo magaceeda la yidhaahdo Kerstin Lundell taasoo in badan ku raad joogtay howlaha shirkaddaas, gaar ahaan Ogaden.

Kerstin waxay si faahfaahsan uga faallootay heerka la gaadhsiiyay tacaddiga lagu hayo dadka dulman ee Ogaden, kadib markii la dardar galiyay baadhitaanka shidaalka Ogaden iyadoo awalba dadkaas hagardaamooyinka lagu hayo ay jooto ahaayeen inkastoo adduunku iska door biday inuu indhaha ka daboosho.

Waxaa xusid mudan inay sidoo kale soo bandhigtay siday shirkadda Lundin shaqadeeda ugu jahaysay meelaha dhibaatadu ka aloosantahay sida bay tidhi Ciraaq, Liibya, Soomaaliya, Koonfur Afrika xilliigii midab-takoorka. Waxay kaloo xustay sida shirkado kale oo Lundin la mid ahaa dadyaowga dalalkoodu cadaadis u saareen kadib markii la ogaaday lugta ay ku leeyihiin mashaakil badan oo haysta dad sida Ogaden godkoodii biyo ugu galeen.

Saafi Labafidhin

Baird jets to Ethiopia in bid to free jailed Canadian

OTTAWA — Transport Minister John Baird made a whirlwind visit to Addis Ababa on Wednesday in a bid to secure the release of Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian citizen who's spent three years languishing in Ethiopian jails.

The minister flew to the Ethiopian capital from Israel, where he'd been on other government business.

He was scheduled to meet with officials in the Canadian embassy and Ethiopia's foreign minister and planned to visit Makhtal in prison before jetting back to Israel late Wednesday night.

Baird's office, which had not been able to contact the minister during the day, was unable to say if any progress was made toward freeing Makhtal.

Makhtal, an ethnic Somali born in Ethiopia, came to Canada as a refugee in 1991 and became a Canadian citizen three years later.

He was in Somalia in December 2006 on business when Ethiopian troops invaded the country. He was arrested on terrorism charges as he tried to flee across the border to Kenya.

Makhtal was sentenced to life imprisonment last year following a questionable trial that was denounced by Amnesty International.

His family believe Makhtal is paying the price for the fact that his grandfather was one of the founders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian separatist group.

Source: The Canadian Press

Ethiopia law forces journalists to reveal sources

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia's new anti-terror law strips journalists of the right to protect the identity of their sources, a top official said in a statement carried Saturday by the national news agency ENA.

"The anti-terrorism law revoked the rights of journalists not to disclose their information sources when they report on terrorism," the agency quoted State Minister for Communication Shimeles Kemal as saying.

"The new law revoked this right taking into consideration the magnitude of disasters caused by terrorism," he added.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, only one other African country has jailed more journalists than Ethiopia and only last week it imprisoned a columnist for criticising the prime minister.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch voiced concern before the bill was passed last year that some of its provisions were targeted at the nation's media.

"A journalist interviewing an opposition politician or a supporter of an armed opposition group could be deemed to be 'encouraging' terrorism merely by publicising the views of the interviewee," it said.

The Ethiopian government describes as terrorism the rebellions it has been trying to stamp out for years in the Oromo and Ogaden regions.

Source: AFP

Ethiopian journalist jailed for criticising leader

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - An Ethiopian journalist has been jailed for a year for criticising the prime minister, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) said Tuesday.
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"An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists," the New York-based press rights watchdog said.

It identified the journalist as Ezedin Mohamed, editor of Al-Quds, which it described as a "Muslim-orientated newspaper".

The Al-Quds column is said to have challenged Meles's characterisation of his country as "Orthodox Christian Ethiopia," CPJ said.

The editor has begun serving his sentence at Kality Prison outside the capital Addis Ababa, the watchdog said.

"The jailing of Ezedin Mohamed is another example of Ethiopia's intolerance of independent and critical voices," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "It is high time for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to demonstrate his commitment to democratic values by ending the practice of imprisoning journalists."

Mohamed is the fifth journalist to be imprisoned in Ethiopia, which is the second worst jailer of journalists in Africa, CPJ said, adding that only neighbouring Eritrea jails more.

Bringing to the Fore the Hidden Genocide in Ogaden

Source: Ogaden Online
A one day gathering to discuss and analyze the genocide taking place in Ogaden was held yesterday at one of the Toronto offices of the Canadian Center for Torture Victims (CCTV). The gathering was part of the monthly volunteer spotlight where a guest speaker is invited by the CCTV to present a topic of interest to the CCTV and those associated with it.

This month’s spotlight was about the Ogaden. Specifically, the discussions, analysis, and the presentations of the day revolved around the hidden genocide that has and continues to take place in Ogaden.
Although the guest speaker admitted that he was not a professional human rights activist, he appeared well versed with the topic. He also presented the topic in a manner that elucidated the genocidal events that continue to take place in Ogaden.

He presented a thoughtful analysis that covered the Ogaden issue in detail. He first provided a brief geography of Ogaden for those in the audience who may not have been familiar with the topic. He then proceeded to highlight the tragic 126 years history of both Ogaden and its Somali inhabitants.

To complete the background information about Ogaden and the perpetrators, the Ethiopian regime in this case, of the Ogaden genocide, the speaker then presented highlights from three separate human rights reports. The first one was from the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor country report dated March 11, 2008 which showed the poor human rights record of the current Ethiopian regime.

The second report quoted by the speaker was the 2010 human rights report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) which clearly showed a pattern of poor Ethiopian human rights record. The report noted “[the] deteriorating human rights trajectory [that Ethiopia is currently on] as parliamentary elections approach in 2010.”

The third report which also complemented the other two reports was that of the Amnesty International country report for the year 2009. The speaker highlighted how this report also noted how “Restrictions on humanitarian assistance to the Somali Region (known as the Ogaden) continued.”

The speaker provided specific examples of the genocidal events that have taken place in Ogaden throughout its long, tragic history. He used the events that took place in Cobole and the Ethiopian’s ‘collective punishment’ response of total economic blockade, rape, extrajudicial killings to this incident as graphic examples of the type of genocide that has taken place in Ogaden.

Having explained the Ogaden genocide in depth, the speaker attempted to answer the question as to why the Ogaden genocide is hidden while that of Darfur is widely publicized. Although the speaker did not indulge in finger pointing and naming of one individual country, he did however agreed with HRW’s assessment that “Ethiopia’s major donors, Washington, London and Brussels, seem to be maintaining a conspiracy of silence around the [Ogaden genocidal] crimes."

To lighten the mood in the presentation room, the speaker showed a cartoon by one of Somalia’s most well known cartoonists, Mr. Amin Amir, showing a purported conversation that the Sudan’s president, Mr. Omar al-Bashir who was recently indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, have had with the Ethiopian premier, Mr. Meles Zenawi.

In the cartoon, Mr. al-Bashir having come across Mr. Zenawi killing Ethiopian civilians and then painting the corpses with an ONLF insignia asked him this question: “Are you not concerned about being indicted as a war criminal for your actions?” Mr. Zenawi responds with the quip that “had he chosen Somalis as his genocidal victims, he would not have been
indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

In his concluding remarks, the speaker urged those in attendance to first and foremost educate themselves about the plight of the Ogaden genocide victims. He reminded the audience that everyone had a moral and human obligation to help put a stop to the Ogaden genocide. He also urged them to start a grassroots movement to publicize the Ogaden genocide.

Ethiopia - Human Rights Watch Report 2010

Source: HRW

Ethiopia is on a deteriorating human rights trajectory as parliamentary elections approach in 2010. These will be the first national elections since 2005, when post-election protests resulted in the deaths of at least 200 protesters, many of them victims of excessive use of force by the police. Broad patterns of government repression have prevented the emergence of organized opposition in most of the country. In December 2008 the government re-imprisoned opposition leader Birtukan Midekssa for life after she made remarks that allegedly violated the terms of an earlier pardon.

In 2009 the government passed two pieces of legislation that codify some of the worst aspects of the slide towards deeper repression and political intolerance. A civil society law passed in January is one of the most restrictive of its kind, and its provisions will make most independent human rights work impossible. A new counterterrorism law passed in July permits the government and security forces to prosecute political protesters and non-violent expressions of dissent as acts of terrorism.

Political Repression and the 2010 Elections

As Ethiopia heads toward nationwide elections, the government continues to clamp down on the already limited space for dissent or independent political activity. Ordinary citizens who criticize government policies or officials frequently face arrest on trumped-up accusations of belonging to illegal "anti-peace" groups, including armed opposition movements. Officials sometimes bring criminal cases in a manner that appears to selectively target government critics, as when in June 2009 prominent human rights activist Abebe Worke was charged with illegal importation of radio equipment and ultimately fled the country. In the countryside government-supplied (and donor-funded) agricultural assistance and other resources are often used as leverage to punish and prevent dissent, or to compel individuals into joining the ruling party.

The opposition is in disarray, but the government has shown little willingness to tolerate potential challengers. In December 2008 the security forces re-arrested Birtukan Midekssa, leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, which had begun to build a grassroots following in the capital. The government announced that Birtukan would be jailed for life because she had made public remarks that violated the terms of an earlier pardon for alleged acts of treason surrounding the 2005 elections. The authorities stated that there was no need for a trial as the move was a mere legal technicality.

In July the Ethiopian government passed a new anti-terrorism law. The law provides broad powers to the police, and harsh criminal penalties can be applied to political protesters and others who engage in acts of nonviolent political dissent. Some of its provisions appear tailored less toward addressing terrorism and more toward allowing for a heavy-handed response to mass public unrest, like that which followed Ethiopia's 2005 elections.

Civil Society Activism and Media Freedom

The space for independent civil society activity in Ethiopia, already extremely narrow, shrank dramatically in 2009. In January the government passed a new civil society law whose provisions are among the most restrictive of any comparable law anywhere in the world. The law makes any work that touches on human rights or governance issues illegal if carried out by foreign non-governmental organizations, and labels any Ethiopian organization that receives more than 10 percent of its funding from sources outside of Ethiopia as "foreign." The law makes most independent human rights work virtually impossible, and human rights work deemed illegal under the law is punishable as a criminal offense.

Ethiopia passed a new media law in 2008 that improved upon several repressive aspects of the previous legal regime. The space for independent media activity in Ethiopia remains severely constrained, however. In August two journalists were jailed on charges derived partly from Ethiopia's old, and now defunct, press proclamation. Ethiopia's new anti-terror law contains provisions that will impact the media by making journalists and editors potential accomplices in acts of terrorism if they publish statements seen as encouraging or supporting terrorist acts, or even, simply, political protest.

Pretrial Detention and Torture

The Ethiopian government continues its longstanding practice of using lengthy periods of pretrial and pre-charge detention to punish critics and opposition activists, even where no criminal charges are ultimately pursued. Numerous prominent ethnic Oromo Ethiopians have been detained in recent years on charges of providing support to the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); in almost none of these cases have charges been pursued, but the accused, including opposition activists, have remained in detention for long periods. Canadian national Bashir Makhtal was convicted on charges of supporting the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in July, after a trial that was widely criticized as unfair; he was in detention for two-and-a-half years before his sentence was handed down, and he was unable to access legal counsel and consular representatives for much of that period.

Not only are periods of pretrial detention punitively long, but detainees and convicted prisoners alike face torture and other ill-treatment. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented consistent patterns of torture in police and military custody for many years. The Ethiopian government regularly responds that these abuses do not exist, but even the government's own Human Rights Commission acknowledged in its 2009 annual report that torture and other abuses had taken place in several detention facilities, including in Ambo and Nekemte.

Impunity for Military Abuses

The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) has committed serious abuses, in some cases amounting to war crimes or crimes against humanity, in several different conflicts in recent years. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any meaningful efforts to hold the officers or government officials most responsible for those abuses to account. The only government response to crimes against humanity and other serious abuses committed by the military during a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in Gambella in late 2003 and 2004 was an inquiry that prosecuted a handful of junior personnel for deliberate and widespread patterns of abuse. No one has been investigated or held to account for war crimes and other widespread violations of the laws of war during Ethiopia's bloody military intervention in neighboring Somalia from 2006 to 2008.

In August 2008 the Ethiopian government did purport to launch an inquiry into allegations of serious crimes in Somali Regional State, where the armed forces have been fighting a campaign against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front for many years. The inquiry was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lacked independence, and concluded that no serious abuses took place. To date the government continues to restrict access of independent investigators into the area.

Relations in the Horn of Africa

In August the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission issued its final rulings on monetary damages stemming from the bloody 1998-2000 border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nonetheless the two countries remain locked in an intractable dispute about the demarcation of the heavily militarized frontier. Eritrea continues to play a destabilizing role throughout the Horn of Africa through its efforts to undermine and attack the government of Ethiopia wherever possible. The government of President Isayas Afewerki hosts and materially supports fighters from Ethiopian rebel movements, including the Oromo Liberation Front. Eritrea has also pursued a policy of supporting armed opposition groups in Somalia as a way of undermining Ethiopia's support for the country's weak Transitional Federal Government.

Key International Actors

Ethiopia is one of the most aid-dependant countries in the world and received more than US$2 billion in 2009, but its major donors have been unwilling to confront the government over its worsening human rights record. Even as the country slides deeper into repression, the Ethiopian government uses development aid funding as leverage against the donors who provide it-many donors fear that the government would discontinue or scale back their aid programs should they speak out on human rights concerns. This trend is perhaps best exemplified by the United Kingdom, whose government has consistently chosen to remain silent in order to protect its annual £130 million worth of bilateral aid and development programs.

Donors are also fearful of jeopardizing access for humanitarian organizations to respond to the drought and worsening food crisis. Millions of Ethiopians depend on food aid, and the government has sought to minimize the scale of the crisis and restrict access for independent surveys and response.

While Ethiopia's government puts in place measures to control the elections in 2010, many donors have ignored the larger trends and focused instead on negotiating with the government to allow them to send election observers.

A significant shift in donor policy toward Ethiopia would likely have to be led by the US government, Ethiopia's largest donor and most important political ally on the world stage. But President Barack Obama's administration has yet to depart from the policies of the Bush administration, which consistently refused to speak out against abuses in Ethiopia. While the reasons may be different-the current government is not as narrowly focused on security cooperation with Ethiopia as was the Bush administration- thus far the practical results have been the same. The events described above attracted little public protest from the US government in 2009.

Ethiopia Commits Genocide, Eritrea Gets Sanctioned

By Thomas C. Mountain

The UN inSecurity Council has done it again in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia has been committing genocide in the Ethiopian Ogaden and in response the UN Security Council, in a closed door meeting, passed sanctions against...Eritrea?

In the bizarre world of the UN Security Council, black is white, up is down and right is wrong. Ethiopia can invade its neighbors (Eritrea in 2000, Somalia in 2006) steal an election (2005, in the process of which Ethiopian troops gunned down over 500 protestors and locked up another 50,000) and commit crimes against humanity against its own people, including ethnic cleansing in western Ethiopia and outright genocide in the Ogaden, and remain untouched..

Eritrea can help bring peace to Sudan, including eastern Sudan, the North-South civil war and now in Dafur and in reward be sanctioned by the UN Security Council. What were the charges against Eritrea? Supporting terrorism in Somalia ie providing arms to the Al Shabab Somali resistance.

As one who spent many hours sharing cuppucinos with the Somali resistance in the lobby of the former Imperial Hotel here in Asmara (I have renamed it the Peace Hotel for it seems all of the peace deals brokered here in the Horn of Africa were born there) I can speak from first hand experience that the one Somali resistance organization that I have never been introduced to is the Al Shabab leadership. Of course the evidence for such charges is pretty non-existent or even laughable. For example, the UN “Monitoring Committee” for Somalia is the main source of charges that Eritrea has provided weapons to Al Shabab. Never mind that this same “Committee” also issued a widely ridiculed report that Somali Jihadists fought along side Hezbollah in the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. Even Israeli intelligence officers had a good laugh at this one.

In contrast, Dumusani Khumalo, South Africa’s Ambassador to the UN and the chair of the UN special committee on Somalia has just issued a report that said that at least 80% of the arms available in Somalia came from Ethiopia or were arms “donated” by the USA and other western countries to the so called “Somalia Transitional Government” and then sold on the black market, often times to the resistance. So much for enforcing the UN arms embargo for Somalia. Just another case of acquired amnesia for the “distorters” working for the western media here in east Africa.

A few years back the “Special Monitoring Committee for Somalia” aka the CIA, issued a report that arms shipments were arriving in Somalia via Asmara Airport here in Eritrea and even provided a registration number for the aircraft. But when a little research was done it turned out that the aircraft in question was registered to a well known Russian arms dealer with a long history of working for...the CIA!

No one has bothered trying to explain how Eritrea was able to sneak arms shipments past all the naval task forces assembled in the Indian Ocean to try and prevent piracy. No one has been able to explain how Eritrea was able to sneak arms past both the French and USA military in Djibouti, with all their satellite technology and around the clock intell systems. No has been able to explain how no arms shipments from Eritrea to Al Shabab have ever been captured. But then the western media doesnt have to explain anything, just report whatever the CIA tells them and move on to the next story.

As someone with a long background in the history of the Horn of Africa this latest distortion of reality by the UN Security Council comes as no suprise. The UN has violated its own charter so many times in matters concerning Africa’s Horn we have lost count. This latest shameful act is just another in a long, disgraceful history going back to the UN/USA handing over the former Italian colony of Eritrea to the USA cop on the beat at the time, the Haile Sellasie regime in Ethiopia and Eritrean independence be damned.

We here in Eritrea have come to expect that no good deed goes unpunished and bringing peace to the Horn of Africa is in opposition to USA imperial policy. The USA does NOT want peace in Africa, just the opposite. With peace could come strong, nationalistic governments and how is the USA and its western partners in crime going to be able to rape and pillage Africa’s raw materials at will if this is the case?

A good example is how the Anglo-American Mining company operates one of the largest gold mines in the world in Tanzania, for which the Tanzanian people recieve a whopping 5% royalty. Thats right, for every $1000 per ounce of Tanzanian gold sold, Anglo-American recieves $950 with Tanzania recieving just $50. This isnt partnership, this is theft.

Compare this to Eritrea where the Canadian company Nevsun will be opening the Bisha Gold Mine later this year. Eritrea will be recieving 40% of the profits and Nevsun 60%. This should give you pretty good idea of why the USA and its western capos are hell bent on destroying Eritrea, or at least bringing us to heal, you know, kneel down and kiss the masters feet? Africa remains about the only place in the world that the west is able to exploit without restriction and without Africa’s wealth is will be increasingly impossible for the western countries to maintain their bloated standard of living.

Forgotten crises to watch in 2010 (Reuters)

LONDON (AlertNet) - Amid frequent headlines about conflict-ridden Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan, it is easy to overlook less well publicised emergencies in other parts the world. Yet some of these forgotten crises are likely to intensify in 2010, aggravating human suffering.

Here is a selection of some of the under-reported humanitarian emergencies at risk of deteriorating this year. The list is by no means exhaustive nor is it any kind of ranking.

THAILAND'S RESTIVE SOUTH

Drive-by shootings, a gun battle and three bomb blasts have ushered in another year of a violent and intractable - yet little-reported - conflict in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, where Muslim insurgents are fighting for autonomy in the predominantly Buddhist country.

Since violence flared up in early 2004, close to 4,000 people - most of them civilians of both faiths - have died in the provinces, just a few hours' drive from Thailand's popular beaches.

The number of attacks increased in 2009, unabated by martial law and an emergency decree which has in fact fuelled abuses by security forces, analysts say. Violence, such as last year's deadly raid on a mosque during evening prayers, has become more brutal and bomb-making more advanced, the International Crisis Group said in a recent report.

"For nearly six years, no security officials involved in human rights abuses have faced criminal prosecution," the group added.

Observers see no solution to the crisis in the near future, especially in the light of protracted political instability in the country, and expect relations between Buddhists and Muslims in Thailand to deteriorate, propelling the conflict.

More background

VIOLENCE IN THE PHILIPPINE MINDANAO

A push by the Philippines government and the country's biggest Muslim rebel group to sign a deal by April to end four decades of conflict is unlikely to bring immediate peace to the Mindanao region where feuding clans, rampant corruption and easy access to arms have also fuelled a cycle of violence and displacement.

Violence is likely to rise in the resource-rich southern island ahead of presidential, parliamentary and local elections in May - as prominent clans, backed in some cases by civilian militia, vie for some of the 17,500 local positions up for grabs, observers say.

The outlook, therefore, for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by violence in Mindanao is still precarious. Aid workers say that since peace talks resumed last month, the government has started closing some evacuation centres, moving displaced to areas that lack water, sanitation and proper shelter. They say the government is keen to show it has a handle on the situation and has delivered some results from the drawn-out peace process.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee, grouping U.N. agencies and international aid groups, said in its November 2009 to February 2010 outlook that the conflict in Mindanao would continue to lead to high levels of hunger and malnutrition with more than 1 million people needing food aid. It said continued humanitarian assistance would be required for more than 230,000 internally displaced and members of host communities.

More background

FOOD SHORTAGES IN NEPAL

In 2010 millions of people in Nepal are likely to face serious food shortages as a result of poor harvests last year, high food prices and political turmoil, aid workers say.

The impoverished Himalayan nation is emerging from a decade-long civil war between government forces and Maoist rebels that killed 16,000 people and devastated the economy. The conflict ended in 2006 but the number of people at risk of hunger has tripled since then to more than 3.7 million.

Sustained high food prices, erratic monsoons and a 400,000-tonne cereal deficit have already forced poor families in the Mid- and Far-Western Regions of the country to skip meals, borrow money and sell off assets in order to survive.

Political turmoil - played out in almost daily strikes by former Maoist rebels - often paralyses parts of the country, blocking roads and preventing supplies reaching areas where food is scarce or stopping people getting to markets.

Aid workers say the crisis is a "silent emergency" where most of those threatened by hunger are poor or landless farming communities in remote, inaccessible areas. They warn that the number of people living with hunger is likely to rise further this year.

"With prices for food staples like lentils and potatoes more than 60 to 100 percent higher than 18 months ago and a lack of economic opportunities, household food stocks in many areas are dwindling," the Office of the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator (OCHA) in Nepal said in a statement.

More background

INDIA'S MAOIST REBELLION

In India, tens of thousands of tribesmen and women living in areas occupied by Maoist rebels in central and eastern parts of the country are likely to face increased persecution and violence as security forces step up an assault against the rebels.

The insurgency, waged mostly from dense forest areas, has increased dramatically since early 2005 leaving tens of thousands of villagers displaced and hundreds killed, tortured or persecuted by both sides.

The leftist guerrillas, who say they represent the poor and landless and want to build a Communist state, are accused of forcibly recruiting children, of widespread extortion and of using landmines and improvised explosive devices.

But rights groups say there are also "widespread abuses" by government-backed vigilantes and security forces, who in previous anti-Maoist drives, have conducted arbitrary arrests, torture and killings.

In late 2009, security forces began "Operation Green Hunt" - a targeted offensive against the leftist guerrillas in states such as West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. As this offensive gets fully underway in 2010 and a security assault spreads to other Maoist-occupied states, arbitrary arrests, persecution and increased violence against women are all likely, analysts and activists say.

"The Maoist insurgency and the government counter-insurgency efforts can place civilians at serious risk if there is escalation of violence," said Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.

More background

HUNGER IN GUATEMALA

Guatemala is struggling to feed its citizens. It is a country with the fourth-highest child malnutrition rate in the world and almost half of its children chronically malnourished.

The crisis shows little signs of abating in 2010. A prolonged severe drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, rising unemployment and persistent high food prices, combined with a decline in money sent by Guatemalans working abroad, mean that more people in the country are likely to face hunger this year.

"The continuing fall in remittances means many families are not receiving the $100 to $200 dollars they used to receive every month, which is an important factor affecting the amount of food the poorest families have," said Alejandro Lopez, a spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP).

The situation is "critical" in the worst-affected area known as the dry corridor of Guatemala bordering Honduras and El Salvador, the European Commission humanitarian aid department said in a recent statement.

Around 2.5 million Guatemalans are at high or very high risk of running out of food, according to government figures. Aid agencies warn this figure could rise if harvests fail this year.

Families living in impoverished rural farming communities, already struggling to feed their children, face a knock-on effect from the previous poor harvests.

"The last harvests were very poor with some farmers losing up to 90 percent of their production. This means thousands of families don't have food stocks, a buffer, or any back-up to see them through to the next harvests in May," said WFP's Lopez.

"If the next harvests fail, then people will face even worse food shortages and a very difficult situation indeed."

More background

OGADEN CRISIS IN ETHIOPIA

The humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's Ogaden region is worsening, yet the Ethiopian government continues to deny aid agencies access. Ogaden is mainly populated by Muslim Somali-speakers. The area does most of its trade with Somaliland, Somalia and the Middle East, rather than the rest of Ethiopia.

Formed in 1984 amid a resurgence of separatist sentiment in the Ogaden region, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is rebelling against the central government in a sporadic armed conflict. The true picture of the humanitarian crisis in Ogaden is faint but according to Amnesty International's 2009 report, both government forces and ONLF fighters perpetrated human rights abuses against civilians.

Last year's drought destroyed crops and pastures, and water became scarce for the mainly pastoral communities there.

"The aid community in Ethiopia is deeply concerned (by) the denial of access to the people affected by the conflict and the worst drought in the region," said an aid worker who declined to be named. The aid worker said the Ogaden crisis is not only forgotten but "hidden by the government".

Analysts say Ogaden's fate is tied with the situation in neighbouring Somalia, largely controlled by Islamist and extremist rebels, and Eritrea's border dispute with Ethiopia - both crises that seem far from over.

More background

MALNUTRITION IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA

High malnutrition rates in West and Central Africa will likely worsen in 2010 due to drought, poverty and poor nutrition policies, aid agencies say.

They say late and insufficient rainfall in West Africa's Sahel belt may lead to food shortages, which would increase hunger in Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and northern Nigeria.

"We may not have situations in which whole countries are hit but we shall face sharp (food) crises in specific parts," said Herve Ludovic de Lys, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in West Africa.

The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF estimates that in West and Central Africa, 6.6 million children under five suffer from life-threatening acute malnutrition and 23.9 million from chronic malnutrition which stunts growth.

"We have areas in West Africa with high rates of malnutrition although they are actually bread baskets," de Lys said.

More background

CONFLICT IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The humanitarian outlook for conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR) in 2010 is bleak but the country will continue to struggle to get the attention that its troubled neighbours receive, relief organisations say. Armed groups freely cross CAR's borders from Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Fighting is likely to continue between the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and Ugandan Special Forces charged with hunting them down on CAR's soil.

Parliamentary and presidential elections set for this year could lead to more violence over ethnicity and politics. Relief workers are also finding it increasingly difficult to access people affected by the conflict and have become targets themselves.

"The recent kidnapping of two aid workers in the east of the country (last November) will further restrict the areas where humanitarian workers can or are prepared to work," Muriel Cornelis, of the European Commission's humanitarian aid department (ECHO), said on the organisation's website.

CAR's economy has been further weakened by the global financial crisis, which has contributed to a decline in humanitarian assistance. This could undermine any collective response to CAR's needs, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the population this year, a United Nations report said.

"CAR remains comparatively neglected on the international agenda, receiving less funding per head than any country in the region," said Nick Willson, the Regional Programmes Manager for Central Africa at medical relief organisation Merlin.

"Countries in crisis, such as CAR, need adequate levels of sustained support from donors and international stakeholders," he added.

More background

CHAD'S WILD EAST

The security situation for aid workers in Chad's volatile northeast could worsen in 2010. The number of attacks on humanitarians in the area doubled last year, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA).

Two Medecins Sans Frontieres workers were kidnapped and released in 2009 while an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) remains hostage. Aid groups and security analysts fear kidnappings could become a trend.

Security will be stepped up with the arrival of additional troops for the U.N. Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT).

Some relief agencies, however, believe the extra troops will be insufficient since bandits also target escorted convoys. In December, they opened fire on a U.N. protected convoy and injured an officer of the local U.N. trained police force.

With parliamentary elections due in November and presidential elections planned for early 2011, some humanitarians fear an onslaught by rebels. The last major rebel incursion was in February 2008 when rebels nearly took over the capital N'Djamena and caused over 30,000 people to flee across the border into Cameroon.

"We all think there is going to be a rebel attack in the next few months," an aid worker who did not want to be named told AlertNet.

Spillover from the conflicts in Darfur and the Central African Republic (CAR), armed opposition to the Chadian government, inter-communal and inter-ethnic tensions all contribute to the insecurity.

Banditry also flourishes, thanks to the availability of weapons from renegade rebels. Aid work is vital to provide relief to tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and internally displaced Chadians.

More background

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Somali Warriors Deliver

Source: Strategypage.com
December 16, 2009: The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been threatening to launch another series of assaults on oil exploration crews and oil production companies in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. The rebels are specifically threatening a Malaysian oil company and a Canadian firm. The threats get immediate attention because everyone remembers the big ONLF raid in April 2007 on a Chinese oil project. That attack got the ONLF almost everything it wanted: headlines and a withdrawal from oil operations in the region by China's Sinopec petroleum company. Over the past two months the ONLF has also come out and fought the Ethiopian Army, though there is an on-going propaganda battle over just how significant the firefights with Ethiopian main forces have been. Still, the ambushes, small-scale hit-and-run actions, and a series of attacks on towns in the Ogaden (executed in November) are another political signal. The Ethiopian Army contends it months-long offensive damaged the ONLF. Now the ONLF wants to signal it still has strength. Much of that strength comes across the border from Somalia, from fellow ethnic Somalis the ONLF. But the Ethiopian government claims the ONLF operates from bases in Eritrea. The ONLF is largely an ethnic Somali organization. Its charter demands independence for the Ogaden. In fact one reason it took up arms was because a referendum on Ogaden independence was supposed to be held by Ethiopia –way back in 1994.

December 11, 2009: The Ethiopian government disputed claims by the ONLF that the rebel group had taken control of seven towns in the Ogaden region during fighting in November. The rebels also claimed they engaged a large Ethiopian Army force and killed a thousand soldiers. The government called this claim false. NGOs in the region reported that the ONLF had launched a couple of dozen attacks, but that the claims of taking towns was exaggerated. In an earlier statement, made at the end of November, the Ethiopian government said local militia forces had killed 245 ONLF rebel fighters launched several “desperate” attacks throughout the Ogaden.

November 20, 2009: The Ethiopian government said a court had convicted 27 people –including two former generals-- accused of trying overthrow the government. Several of the defendants accused the government of physical abuse while in jail. This has been a highly sensitive case in Ethiopia, since several of the defendants are regarded as war heroes for their service in the Ethiopia-Eritrea War.

November 19, 2009: The UN Security Council is preparing to take further action against Eritrea. Ethiopia has been lobbying for a complete arms embargo against Eritrea and it may well get it. Uganda has taken the political lead and is pushing for the embargo because it has peacekeepers in Somalia. Ethiopia and a number of other East African and European nations accuse Eritrea of supplying the Somali Islamist al Shabaab with weapons and money. It is a slam dunk certainty that Eritrea believes this. The U.S. is involved and wants a very broad definition of military equipment in the embargo. A draft of the embargo resolution supposedly includes a ban on providing Eritrea with ammo and weapons, but also specifies spare parts. A tight sanctions regimen might include all motor vehicle spare parts, since Eritrea's “mobilized nation” (“total resistance”) strategy makes no difference between military and civilian assets. Military training assistance and financing assistance will also be embargoed.

November 14, 2009: The government of Eritrea denied international claims that the nation will suffer from food shortages in 2010. essentially the government said that the rest of the Horn of Africa might had food shortages and face starvation, but Eritrea would not. A recent UN agricultural and nutrition study reported that two out of three Eritreans are malnourished.

How the UN failed Human Rights and How Africa failed itself

Many people are convinced that countries must voluntarily agree on cutting the emissions of CO2 in order to minimize the impact of climate change. One of the biggest dilemmas of climate change is that the problem of global warming being a universal one and therefore it emerges to be very difficult to monitor the actions of all nations across the globe. Therefore, the United Nations –which sees itself the global police –wants all concerned parties to agree on predetermined targets. Their argument is simply to save the world from itself. But I have a problem with the United Nations, on the one hand and the African Leaders on the other hand.

My dissatisfaction with the UN stems from its lack of willingness and/or inability to safeguard the basic human rights of citizens of the World they want to save. What is the use of this globe without the Human Race? One can cite a great number of different people living in dire situation throughout the globe. Be it Uighurs oppressed in their own land, Palestinians evicted from their own homes or Ogadens terrorized by TPLF of Meles Zenawi, and many more in all continents of the world oppressed by dictators.

Or is it that, as the common sense tells me, UN only represents the interests of some people. Why is it only active when the Washington Administration wants it to act and silent when Washington wants it to be passive? Why don’t they ring a bell when they know the tyrant Meles Zenawi is coming to attend Copenhagen Climate Conference? If they are honest why do they bark when the Danish government sends, as part of its host obligations, an invitation to the president of Sudan, Umar Al-Bashir. Why all these discrimination. Is the UN only for some? Then why talk about in the name of the whole world. All these will only lead to many questions than answers.

More worse than the silence of the UN is the African Union who failed the good ones among us (and all of us) when they chose the tyrant Meles to represent the whole African Continent in the high profile conference where Africa is one of the top agendas. How can one of Africans worst dictators speak on behalf of Africa’s more than one billion people in 52 countries? Obviously, those who decided Meles to be the spokesperson of the continent either do not know him or are worse than him; I think for most of them the later is true! This is a dictator who believes, by his own words, in bullets rather the ballot. He is the one who ordered the massacre of thousands Somalis in the Ogaden. He is the butcher of Addis Ababa, Gambella, Dhagaxbuur, Lebiga, Awasa, and Mogadishu. He is the main reason of instability in the horn of Africa. He is the obstacle of the Hague court decision on Ethio-Eretrea case. Yet Africa rewards him to be their model in the eyes of the world. That is a slap in the face to all of us Africans, as if there is no better than him. May be they were listening the likes of David Shinn whom I suspect is employed by TPLF. I wonder why they did not choose Robert Mogabe because at least Mogabe has not killed as many people as Meles despite being longer time in office.

No matter what the outcome of the COP15 conference will be, there is one fact that I want the UN and African leaders to know: the people of Ogaden and the many others terrorized by Meles and his TPLF feel that you already let them down by ignoring this thug’s serious criminal against humanity and instead letting him represent Africa. However, you can still undo your mistakes by distancing yourselves from this criminal and sending him to the international tribunal court in The Hague. Otherwise your inaction will only prove how untrue you are to your own word.

SAAFI LABAFIDHIN.

Ethiopia's top court upholds Canadian's terror conviction

Supreme court confirms lower court's life sentence (Source: TheStar)

Ethiopia's top court has rejected an appeal by a former Torontonian serving a life sentence in an Addis Ababa prison to have his conviction for crimes against the country overturned.

According to an email from the lawyer for Bashir Makhtal, the Ethiopian Federal Supreme Court upheld Friday a lower court's decision that found the Canadian citizen guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to life in prison.

According to Gebreamlak Tekle, Makhtal was "calm" when he heard the court's decision and was not surprised at all. He was in "good health and has gotten used to the situation in prison," he added.

There are, however, a number of legal options remaining, according to Tekle.

One is to appeal to the Ethiopian Court of Cassation, which reviews errors of law. It may also be possible to put in an official request for pardon under the country's laws. But those options still have to be discussed with Makhtal.

Makhtal, a fortysomething former employee with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, lived in Toronto for close to a decade before leaving in 2001 to set up a used clothing business with a friend in Djibouti.

An ethnic Somali born in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, Makhtal was convicted earlier this year of being a member of a separatist group, engaging in an armed struggle against the government, and of aiding and abetting the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a religious alliance that seized control of Somalia before it was ousted by U.S. and Ethiopian forces in 2006. Makhtal was arrested in December 2006, a time when the U.S., Ethiopia and Somalia were battling for power in the Horn of Africa.

Makhtal had been in Somalia selling used clothes and fled the capital once war broke out and was arrested along with dozens of other foreign nationals on the border of Kenya. He taken to jail in Nairobi.

Just before he was to appear in court he was whisked out of the country – one of about 150 people who were secretly rendered to Ethiopia, some questioned by the CIA. Eventually all the other foreign nationals were let go because of pressure from their respective governments, but Makhtal languished in jail despite his protestations of innocence. He was held incommunicado for 18 months before being allowed to see a lawyer and Canadian officials. At first, Ethiopian officials denied they even had him in jail.

Makhtal was sentenced to life in prison in August on all four charges. Tekle, his lawyer, argued in an appeal in November before the Ethiopian Supreme Court that the charges against Makhtal were fabricated and all the witnesses gave false testimony. He also argued there should have been only one charge, that the prosecutor had not proven his case and, perhaps most importantly, Makhtal did not get a fair trial.

Tekle asked the court to reverse the convictions and release Makhtal, or alternatively, give him "a fair sentence," which in Tekle's mind meant sentencing him to time already served and then releasing him.

Makhtal supporters say that he was of interest to the Ethiopians because his grandfather was a co-founder of the Ogaden National Liberal Front (ONLF), an ethnic Somali group formed to fight for independence in the oil-rich region.

But Makhtal's family says he has never met his grandfather and that he left Somalia when he was 11. Family and supporters say Makhtal is innocent. During his trial he told the court: "I am a victim of the ONLF."

After his sentencing, Makhtal's Canadian lawyer called the decision a "travesty of justice," adding that Makhtal didn't get a fair trial. Lorne Waldman called the Ethiopian justice system "a kangaroo court."

Waldman said Makhtal's Canadian supporters should lobby members of Parliament to demanding his repatriation, and to stop doing business with Ethiopia until that happens.

"It's not acceptable and we cannot continue to operate as business as usual when an innocent Canadian man is languishing in prison for life," Waldman told the Star Friday. "We've waited patiently for the Ethiopian justice system to dispense justice and it hasn't, so the (Canadian) government has to act."

Makhtal's cousin Said Maktal, who lives in the Hamilton area, has led a campaign for close to three years to get his cousin freed.

He has staged demonstrations, lobbied Canadian politicians, talked to officials at Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. All along he has asked that Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get involved.

Federal Transport Minister John Baird has taken up the cause in recent months and has promised on several occasions to go to Ethiopia to try to secure Makhtal's release. Baird is on record saying that the Canadian government remains "committed at the highest levels" to doing everything it can to help Makhtal, but so far has not gone to Ethiopia.

Other government officials have said that they are awaiting the final appeal process before taking any other action. There have been repeated calls by Makhtal's family and lawyer to review Ottawa's aid and assistance money to Ethiopia.

Ethiopian (Ogaden-Somali) family struggles to escape a lethal legacy

(Source:The Globe and Mail)

A Canadian sibling is in jail, and the rest say they are on the run from persecution for the sins of their forefather

During the first month of her imprisonment in Ethiopia, Rukiya Ahmed Makhtal was blindfolded and beaten. “You are Makhtal's family,” she recalled her persecutor saying. “If you are Makhtal's family, that means you are one of the problems.”

Ms. Makhtal, 53, is the older sister of Ethiopian-born Bashir Ahmed Makhtal, the Canadian citizen and former Toronto information technologist who has spent the past three years in Ethiopian prisons. Convicted of terrorism-related charges, he was sentenced in August to life in prison, but is scheduled to appear before an appeal court today. His family, who maintain his innocence, say they have been persecuted because of the actions of his grandfather.

After spending 14 months in various Ethiopian prisons where she says she was bound, blindfolded and badly beaten, thrown in isolation, raped and told she would be executed, Ms. Makhtal was at last transferred to a crowded low-security prison where family scrounged for 1,000 birr (roughly $80) and paid the guards to look the other way while she walked through the prison gates and, like so many of her kin, away from Ethiopia for good.

For two days, she trudged across the Ethiopian desert, struggling from poor health and the wounds on her body, trying to blend in with a train of nomads and fearful she might be spotted before reaching the border.

During the past year, others in Bashir Makhtal's family have trickled into Hagadera, a notoriously squalid and overcrowded refugee camp at Dadaab in Kenya's North Eastern Province.

Ms. Makhtal, who is asking for resettlement in Canada as a refugee and whose case is being followed by Amnesty International, is now among 16 people sleeping in the sand under scant shelter, all of whom say they are related to Bashir Makhtal and the victims of persecution in Ethiopia.

Bashir Makhtal and his sister, Rukiya, are the grandchildren of a founding member of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist movement in the ethnic Somali region of eastern Ethiopia, though both deny having been involved in the group.

“He was my grandfather,” Ms. Makhtal says. “We didn't even know him.”

After an April, 2007, ONLF attack on a Chinese oil field at Abole in eastern Ethiopia that left 70 Chinese and Ethiopian workers dead, Ethiopia drastically stepped up a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the region.

A 2008 Human Rights Watch report accuses Ethiopian soldiers of burning down entire villages, mass detentions and even demonstration killings, “with Ethiopian soldiers singling out relatives of suspected ONLF members,” and of conducting widespread “military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Abdi Mohamed Ahmed, 29, who says Ms. Makhtal is his aunt and who denies ever being involved with the ONLF, remembers the night in late 2007 the Ethiopian National Defence Forces came for his family, circling his house before dragging out his entire family, beating them and hauling them off to different jails.

“They used to tie our eyes, torturing and beating. They used to tie our hands and legs together and they hang us up from the ceiling. And everybody was alone.”

This was when Bashir Makhtal's sister, his older brother Hassan Ahmed, and several of their children were also arrested.

Last Thursday, Hassan Ahmed Makhtal, who had been imprisoned for 22 months and was serving a life sentence, died in the Ethiopian capital after being released early to receive medical attention. A press release issued by the Ogaden Human Rights Commission claims he “died from wounds sustained during his detention,” though the cause of his death could not be independently verified.

According to several family members, two of Hassan Makhtal's children – a 27-year-old son and a 25-year-old daughter – were beaten to death in military prisons less than a month after their arrest in 2008.

“They are not targeting ONLF. Our army is very strong now,” said Abdirahman Mahdi, a central committee member of the separatist group, who spoke during a recent interview in Toronto. “What they do is they target the weak spot, the civilians, the women and children.”

“This isn't just something personal with respect to Bashir Makhtal, although he clearly is one of the figures at the centre of this drama,” said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, which has monitored Mr. Makhtal's case since his arrest. “It's family-based persecution, and I think that also underscores the nature and the severity of the repression the Ogadeni population is experiencing in Ethiopia.”

Mr. Makhtal was arrested by Kenyan authorities in December, 2006, as he attempted to flee the suddenly rising violence in neighbouring Somalia, where friends and family say he had travelled for business.

He was among 90 prisoners, including American, British and Kenyan nationals, who were forcibly deported, in violation of both Kenyan and international law, first to Mogadishu and then to Ethiopia. While every other Western country managed to secure the release of its citizens, Mr. Makhtal, the only Canadian arrested, alone remains in Ethiopian custody.

Said Makhtal, Mr. Makhtal's cousin in Hamilton, Ont., says he's optimistic about tomorrow's outcome, but added: “I don't know how much more I can count on the Ethiopian court system.”

In the meantime, many of Mr. Makhtal's family are left to wait in the refugee camp while Amnesty International Canada puts forward their case to the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi.

“The life of Hagadera is too difficult,” Mr. Ahmed said. “There is no life, there is no health. There is not even enough water, the air of that place is not even good.”

“And still this moment we live under fear because there may be Ethiopian security,” he added, pointing out that Kenya already delivered his uncle, Mr. Makhtal, to Ethiopian authorities.

“Obviously, Canada continues to face difficulties in ensuring the safety of Mr. Makhtal himself,” Mr. Neve said. “At least we do have the opportunity to try and ensure safety for these other family members.”

Special to The Globe and Mail

Said Maktal's long campaign to clear cousin

He's spent 3 years and $60,000 to get government to help Bashir Makhtal – serving a life sentence in Ethiopia for terrorism – return home to Canada

It has been a tough road for Said Maktal.

For almost three years, he has faced emotional and financial difficulties as he has championed the cause of his cousin, Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian serving a life sentence in Ethiopia for terrorist activities.

But, along the way, Said Maktal – who spells his surname differently from his cousin – has learned how to talk to cabinet ministers, meet with foreign affairs officials, hold press conferences, meet with human-rights activists and organize protests.

With an appeal of his cousin's case pending, Maktal remains optimistic that one day his cousin, who he insists is innocent, will be released and returned to Canada.His cousin was convicted earlier this year in Ethiopia of being a member of a separatist group, engaging in an armed struggle against the Ethiopian government, and aiding and abetting the Islamic Courts Union, a religious alliance that seized control of Somalia before it was toppled by U.S. and Ethiopian forces.

Bashir Makhtal, an ethnic Somali born in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, was a resident of Toronto until 2001, when he left Canada to start a used-clothing business. If his appeal is denied, he faces life in prison. His only possible chance of freedom is a pardon one day from the Ethiopian government or expulsion to Canada in an attempt to buy favour in Ottawa.

For Maktal, the past three years have been all about doing what's right for his cousin, a man he admired and who was like an older brother to him.

The 37-year-old Maktal, who came to Canada in 1996, is a very different person from the eager young lab technician who was first alerted to his cousin's plight by calls from his family in December 2006 and January 2007.

They informed Maktal his cousin had been arrested by Kenyan authorities in late December 2006 as he tried to cross the border from Somalia – where he had been in Mogadishu on business – to be reunited with his wife in Nairobi. He was subsequently sent to Ethiopia. These events occurred after the Ethiopians and Americans invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union.

Supporters and family members say Bashir Makhtal's only apparent crime seems to be that he is the grandson of the founder of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a group dedicated to winning independence for the oil-rich region of Ethiopia.

Federal Transport Minister John Baird, who had been working on the case, has expressed disappointment in Makhtal's conviction, and said in August the government was looking at several options to help.

Maktal began the campaign to free his cousin with complete naïveté about the Canadian political system, foreign policy or international human rights.

"To be honest, when I started this case, I didn't know what to do," Maktal said in an interview. "I was so frustrated. ... I ended up going to my local MP, Wayne Marston. When I went there, I didn't know how to approach it, what to say. My biggest dilemma was always, are they going to believe me?"

Back in 2007, Maktal met with foreign affairs officials for the first time and he was nervous, he recalls. He didn't know how to approach them or how to prove his cousin's case. He didn't know what to say; nor did he know very well the political landscape or the effectiveness of lobbying. These were all lessons he would quickly learn.

"You never know what to say," he recalls. "You haven't been trained. Obviously, you're dealing with government people. You have to address the case in a certain way. ... Every time I got those goose bumps, I'm thinking `okay, what's going to happen?'"

With the help of some politicians, activists from Amnesty International, members of the Somali community and human-rights lawyer Lorne Waldman, Maktal has managed to keep his cousin's name and case alive when many others have gone by the wayside.

And the battle continues. As long as his cousin remains in an Ethiopian prison, Maktal will continue to champion his case.

He has spent close to $60,000 on legal fees for his cousin, both here and in Ethiopia. Some of it was his own or his family's money, or money borrowed from the bank; some of it came from fundraising efforts. The most recent fundraiser was held last weekend in Toronto.

Maktal, who is married and has three young children, has lived and breathed the case, giving up work days to stage protests in Ottawa or to meet with foreign affairs officials. He has had to suffer the sidelong glances of some who still doubt his cousin's innocence.

"Even today, it's hard for me to convince people (Bashir) is innocent," he said.

Maktal has lost income and time with his children and wife (whom he credits with helping him get through the ordeal) to help draw attention to the case and push Ottawa to act to free his cousin.

"I'm a poor man struggling to raise a family. But I don't see those difficulties 'cause I see him sitting there (in jail). I know what he had to go through. I was the only hope he had."

Source: Thestar.com

Ethiopia rebels capture towns

Ethnic-Somali rebels in the south-east of Ethiopia say they have launched an offensive against government forces and captured several towns.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said it began attacking on several fronts on Tuesday.

The separatists said a "significant number" of Ethiopian troops had been killed and their equipment captured.

The reports could not be verified and Ethiopia has in the past dismissed rebel accounts of military gains.

"The operation involved thousands of ONLF troops and resulted in two days of heavy fighting," an ONLF statement said.

The group added that its forces had been "warmly welcomed" in the towns it claimed to have captured - Obolka, Hamaro, Higlaaley, Yucub, Galadiid, Boodhaano and Gunogabo.

The ONLF, formed in 1984, is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in the oil-rich Ogaden region.

It says the Somali-speaking population has been marginalised by Addis Ababa.

Fighting has escalated over the past two years following an ONLF attack on a Chinese-run oil exploration field.

More than 70 people died in the attack, including Ethiopian guards and Chinese workers.

Addis Ababa calls the rebels "terrorists" and has cut off all access to the region.

However, watchdogs have accused the Ethiopian government of human rights violations.

Source: BBC

Not Again has Become Not Another One: Genocide in Ethiopia

(Source: OpEdNews: David Model)

Rwanda and Darfur have received at least some attention in the media although the invisible culprits from Western countries, hiding their benighted insouciance behind a veil of humanitarian concern and distractions elsewhere, have managed to normatively escape public censure. But Rwanda and Darfur egregiously pale compared to the atrocities which erupted in the Congo when the CIA assassinated the new, democratically-elected leader, Patrice Lumumba in 1960 and are still being inflicted on the people of the Congo today. Although the conflict in the Congo has variously been referred to as the first world war in Africa or the worst human rights disaster since the end of World War II, the public knows very little about the iniquitous atrocities there which has resulted in over four million dead and millions of refugees.

Those responsible for the above atrocities are complicit in crimes against humanity which are either genocidal or bordering on genocidal. “Not another one” applies to the ongoing destruction of a people in the SomaliRegionalState of Ethiopia where Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been perpetrating crimes against humanity against the people of Ogaden, a region of Ethiopia. Exempting Western leaders, and in particular, the United States, from scrutiny for their role in supporting the Ethiopian government is the absence of media coverage, the expulsion of the International Red Cross in 2007, and the nonattendance of Amnesty International.

There has been a long history of disputes over land in the former Abyssinia culminating in a decision by the British to restore Ethiopian sovereignty over the Ogaden region in 1948. Ogaden was a territory populated to a large extent by the Somali people. The Italian military had invaded Abyssinia in 1936 but were ousted by the allied forces in 1941 when Britain established military rule over the territory. Opinion was split in the Ogaden region with some Somalis preferring to remain part of Ethiopia while Somali nationalists objected.

When Somalia gained independence in 1960, it embarked on a campaign to unite all Somali territories including Ogaden. Over the next decades, the Somalia government supported insurgencies inside Ethiopia and embarked on military incursions across the border. In 1976, with the overthrow of Haile Selassie, Somalia's President Sid Barre began supporting rebel groups in Ogaden ultimately leading to the formation of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). ONLF's aggressive efforts to establish self-determination in the Ogaden Region was met by strong measures by the Ethiopian government to maintain tight security in the SomaliRegionalState over the people and the local government.

Inevitably, both sides resorted to armed warfare with ONLF guerrillas pitted against the Ethiopian army. Pursuant to an American-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, warfare between the ONLF and Ethiopian forces escalated to the point where Prime Minister Zenawi announced on June 9, 2007, that he was mounting a major counter-insurgency to suppress the ONLF rebellion.

The counterinsurgency dramatically escalated when the ONLF attacked a Chinese oil installation in the Somali Region in April 2007, killing more than 70 Chinese. In justifying their actions, the rebels accused the oil companies of destroying the livelihood of the local population, causing massive starvation, and clearing their land preventing them from growing crops.

In addition, Zenawi's counterinsurgency strategy was not only to destroy the insurgents but to destroy their base of support, the nationalist Somalis living in Ogaden. To accomplish these objectives, Zenawi cut off economic resources to the region, forced massive relocations, destroyed villages, killed civilians on a large scale, and engaged in torture and rape. Over 170,000 Ogaden refugees fled to Daadaab, a massive camp in Kenya.

Human Rights Watch have documented the atrocities in a major study which reports that:

Tens of thousands of ethnic Somali civilians living in eastern Ethiopia's SomaliRegional State are experiencing serious abuses and a looming humanitarian crisis in the context of a little-known conflict between the Ethiopian government and an Ethiopian Somali rebel movement. The situation is critical. Since the mid-2007 thousands of people have fled, seeking refuge in neighboring Somalia and Kenya from widespread Ethiopian military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These atrocities are bordering on genocide, a crime against humanity defined in the Genocide Convention originating with Raphael Lemkin, who was intrigued by the Armenian genocide as a student and horrified by the Nazi holocaust against the Jews and others.

Lemkin's ideals for a world free of genocide, as expressed in the rallying cry “never again”, would not be realized because of the nature of the nation-state. Nation-states almost exclusively pursue their own interests and are indifferent to the damage and suffering that arise out of exploiting a people or nation. History is littered with victims of atrocities that have been committed in the name of amelioration, security, humanitarianism, development and defense.

Today, the salient examples are Iraq and Afghanistan. But if you look over the barricades of public discourse and media coverage, you will discover that the same countries are quietly perpetrating a myriad of atrocities elsewhere as in Ethiopia.

Somalia: Puntland arrests Prominent Traditional Elder (RBC)

BOSASSO, (RBC Radio) The authorities of Somalia’s semi autonomous region of Puntland have captured and arrested a prominent traditional elder in the port town of Bosasso on Wednesday, RBC Radio reports.

Suldan Mohammed Yusuf, an other traditional elder in Bosasso told RBC Radio that Chief elder Abdulaziz Yusuf, known as “Afgudud” was arrested today morning by Bosasso police.

“Today, at 8:00 am five policemen came to us while we were in the office of the elders in Bosasso and they asked the elder to go with them, and then they arrested him”, Suldan Mohamed Yusuf said.

He added that he does not know what the purpose of the elder’s arrest is, “We do not know what this arrest means, but we are now in a continuing efforts towards this case”.

Mr. Abdulasis Afgudud is now in police custody where he is questioned. The police officials declined to comment on this issue.

Independent sources told RBC Radio that Mr. Afgudud has criticized Puntland authorities deeply for capturing 5 Somali youth men originally from Ogaden region in Ethiopia and handed over to Ethiopia security officials.

nabd_afgudud_rbc12The arrest of the traditional elder comes as other people such as religious men in Puntland have condemned Puntland’s action of handing Ogaden citizens to Ethiopia.

Puntland accuses Ogaden citizens of supporting ONLF, an Ethiopian rebel group fighting for self-determination in the Ogaden region.

Five private citizens have reportedly been arrested throughout Puntland last week and one of them handed to Ethiopia. Already Dozens of Ogaden Citizens have been handed over to Ethiopian security officials after being arrested in Puntland.

The ONLF has so far condemned the arrest and transfering its citizens to Ethiopia.

Source: RBC Radio

Busting the Darfur Myth

By TOM MOUNTAIN

Asmara, Eritrea.

The Real Genocide is Playing Out in Ethiopia--And the West is Funding It

As one of the first to write about the problems in West Sudan/Darfur, in mid 2003, and living side by side here in Asmara for three years with representatives of the Darfur, and other Sudanese resistance, my investigation has found no evidence of genocide. Of course, genocide has and is being committed by Ethiopia against the Somalis in Ethiopia, but there has been no genocide in Darfur.

Let us start by comparing the two situations, the first being Darfur and the second the Ethiopian Ogaden.

The refugees of the Darfur conflict were and are the beneficiaries of one of the largest, and most effective relief works in history.

In contrast, relief aid to the Somalis living in the Ethiopian Ogaden, what little there was to begin with, has been effectively shut down now in almost all of the Ogaden for several years, despite one of the worst droughts in history.

Darfur has had an international police force in place for years, who work along side Sudanese security forces and most of the violence has ended.

In the Ogaden, Ethiopian death squads, funded by western “aid” have spent the better part of the past decade spreading murder and mayhem across the countryside. With almost everyone from the International Committee of the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders being expelled, there has been miniscule coverage of this genocide in the western media let alone any exposure of the western role in funding the Ethiopian regime. Compare this to the saturation of the western media with the “Save Darfur” propaganda campaign and the tried and true golden rule of “show me the money” needs to be applied to explain what is really going on.

The Darfur genocide myth has been promoted by western “human rights” NGOs who have collected tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars under the rubric of “Enough” and “Preventing Genocide”. The claims of genocide are based on estimates of the number of deaths that were rapidly inflated as the dollars started rolling in. First it was 100,000, then 200,000, then 300,000 and finally, in a claim so ludicrous that even the British government media watchdog yanked it off the air, 400,000 people were supposed to have been victims of genocide in Darfur. None of the Darfur reps I have heard here in Asmara ever gave any credibility to the western figures. In fact, most everyone here in the Horn, at least those not on the western payroll, all agree the real number of those lost in the violence in west Sudan is in the tens of thousands, a tragic number but far surpassed by what has befallen those suffering in Somalia and the Ogaden where a real genocide has been taking place.

Today, the humanitarian situation in Somalia, where aid workers still operate, has been declared the worst in the world (and with what is happening to the Tamils in the concentration camps in Sri Lanka that is saying a lot). Next door in the Ethiopian Ogaden, conveniently there are almost no aid agencies, other than in a few towns, to witness what is as bad or more likely worse than in Somalia. Yet what do we hear from those who are collecting so much loot on behalf of suffering Africans about the real genocide going on in the Ogaden?

As I mentioned earlier, I first wrote about what I believed was happening in Sudan and Ethiopia back in mid 2003. Sudan is estimated to have suffered some two million deaths during its decades long civil war between the north and the south. After many years of hard work, peace has slowly, almost tortuously, been nurtured in Sudan, with the major ground work laid during negotiations held here in Asmara. In contrast to this what is the program of action demanded by the “Save Darfur” lot? A western-led military invasion and occupation a la Iraq and Afghanistan! With half a million or more dead in Iraq and Afghanistan thanks to western military “intervention” who in their right mind could think that sending western soldiers to Sudan will do anything other than destroy the peace so painfully built these past few years and cause even more suffering?

While peace has been slowing taking hold in Darfur, in the Ogaden peace is a long lost memory. War, famine and disease are spreading across the Ogaden and is becoming a situation that is increasingly the norm in growing areas of Ethiopia. While the western hucksters rake in beaucoup millions of dollars while peddling their “Save Darfur” bunkum , Sudanese have seen peace break out. In contrast, Ethiopians, suffering under a regime that is the largest recipient of western aid in Africa see only a future of growing ethnic and religious conflict and worse, active programs of genocide.

The problems developing in Ethiopia can invariably be traced back to the west, mainly the USA. The west, in particular the USA are hell bent on keeping Africa in a state of crisis, the better to exploit. And the “Save Darfur” lobby is all for bringing more violence to Africa under the guise of “humanitarian intervention”, while little of the tens of millions they collect ever reaches the Sudanese who it was intended for.

Busting the Darfur genocide myth is long overdue. If people in the west really want to help Africa they should stop donating to the Save Darfur fraudsters and start demanding accountability for the tens of billions of western aid that is paying for a real genocide in the Ethiopian Ogaden.

Tom Mountain lives in Eritrea and can be reached at thomascmountain@yahoo.com