September 10/2011
LET US HELP JOURNALIST ARAYA TESFAMARIAM
SOCEPP had in the past reported on the suffering of journalist Araya who had beaten and harassed not only in Ethiopia but also in India where he had sought asylum. Here below is the letter he has penned to all human rights organizations and to Ethiopian in the Diaspora.
From oil to water, water-boarding to arms and from gas to reconstruction the war in Libya will rake in billions of dollars for the West. Just how much will trickle down to the people of Libya remains to be seen.
People who think that the West's intervention in Libya is just another oil grab are mistaken. Broadly speaking, for Britain military intervention is mainly about arms, Italy its natural gas, France its water and for the US its counter-terrorism and reconstruction contracts. Spreading democracy and saving the people of Benghazi form merely tangential benefits used to justify these ends.
I AM ALWAYS ALWAYS GREEN,YELLOW AND RED
(A poem by Henoke Yeshetlla)
In Ethiopia, terrorism charges against five journalists
New York, September 7, 2011--Ethiopia filed terrorism charges on Tuesday against four independent journalists detained in the country since June and July, along with the editor of a U.S.-based news forum critical of the Addis Ababa government, according to local sources and news reports.
To. H.E. Mr. Mustafa Abddel Jalil Chairman
Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths
As many as 750,000 people could die as Somalia's drought worsens in the coming months, the UN has warned, declaring a famine in a new area.
Wikileaks: Ethiopia PM tells US that removing Bashir regime is “preferred option”
September 3, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi told the US administration that toppling the government led by Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir would be the ideal scenario for Washington, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.
September 1/2011
ETHIOPIANS IN LIBYA STILL FACING DANGER
The situation concerns not only Ethiopians but many sub Saharan refugees who are still stranded in Tripoli and other Libyan towns. Most of these refugees are in hiding afraid that they would be identified as “mercenaries” and brutalized or killed by the rebels.
REPRESSION AGAINST POLITICAL DISSIDENTS ON THE RISE
Amidst reports that political prisoners and jailed journalists have been tortured, the regime of Meles Zenawi has now jailed two political leaders accusing at least one of them belonging to a terrorist group.
Shweyga Mullah the new face of Ethiopia.
By Yilma Bekele
It looks like we are all upset. All our independent Web sites are headlining the news. It is the main conversation among our people outside of the country. Mere language is not enough to describe our profound displeasure with the Libyan ruling class. Our anger knows no bounds.
Grievance letter from the Ethiopian refugees in Egypt
Ethiopian Refugee Community in Egypt: We the Ethiopian Refugee Community in Egypt are enforced to write our grievances against the erroneous appeal written by the so called Oromo community Association in Egypt on the web site called
Hannibal's horrors: Others tell stories similar to burned nanny's
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Shweyga Mullah gestures a greeting to her visitors at Tripoli's burn hospital. Her head wrapped in fresh bandages, her frail body under a red fleece blanket, Mullah is slowly regaining her dignity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJskCu3jTH4&feature=player_detailpage
Shweyga Mullah's Fundraising Page
This fundraising page has been set up by Anti-Slavery International, in conjunction with CNN, to raise money for the treatment and care of Shweyga Mullah, a domestic worker for Hannibal Gaddafi in Libya who was found severely scalded by boiling water.
Drought in Eritrea: hunger despite government denials
By Martin Plaut Africa editor, BBC World ServiceThe drought and famine that is devastating the Horn of Africa is affecting more than 12 million people.
Yet one country in the region, Eritrea, says it has escaped the crisis, reaping a bumper harvest earlier this year
6th Year Memorial Day for “Red Terror” victims
@ Assimba PalTalk Room will be observed
Come and let us honor the martyrs together and say thank you for giving us life sacrificing theirs, hold up high their history and most of all promise them to continue the fight to bring about Democracy and Rule of Law in Ethiopia.
Their fight was nothing but to empower our people. Let us come together as a community and condemn what went on then and what is going on now! Let us say “Never Again!” and vow not to let political prosecutions and killings continue unchecked in Ethiopia starting today!
THE NATO COUP
Hama Tuma
Libya has now another new Ethiopian image—the sad face of the Ethiopian born nanny burnt by boiling water by the wife of Kaddafi’s son (Hannibal), the same one who was accused in Genève of beating his servants and in London of punching his wife (alas, she being the same one who never paid her Ethiopian nanny but burnt her whole body with boiling water).
AUGUST 25/2011
POLITICAL PRISONERS TORTURED BRUTALLY
The Meles Zenawi regime has often been accused of systematic and widespread torture of all political prisoners and present reports have confirmed this as true.
Open Letter to the Editor of Ethiomedia
Dear editor:
At this time, compatriots who are fighting for social justice in Ethiopia know very well, that no matter in what colors and hues they come, all opportunists hate EPRP because it has always been in the forefront to expose their deceptive behavior and unpatriotic nature in relation to the unity and wellbeing of our people and the territorial integrity of our country.
(Ethiopian) Writing System
Baye Yimam, Ph.D. (Translated by Samuel Kinde and Minga Negash):
In general, if the origin and growth of Feedel (Ethiopics) is as indicated above from Sabean to Geez; from Geez to Amarigna, Oromigna, Tigrigna etc and in the future, to Wolaitgna, Afargna etc, then what brought the question of replacing it by Latin for some of Ethiopia’s languages Read More…
OLF’S INCONSISTENCIES, LIES AND FABRICATIONS OF HISTORY–Part II
Dr. Mankelklot Haile Selassie - August 22, 2011
The Oromo Liberation Front was created in 1973 and made official in 1974. Within the last 38 years it tried to form at least four united fronts, to the extent of forming tactical and strategic union to fight as one body, with one of them. It was not able to hold on to none of them. Since it failed to hold on to the Oromo organizations and lead them, it resorted to form fronts with multi national opposition forces, other wise it was facing a complete isolation.
Global Land Grab
Fear of unrest and hunger for profit are sparking massive acquisitions of farmland. By Terry J. AllenA 21st-century land rush is on. Driven by fear and lured by promises of high profits, foreign investors are scooping up vast tracts of farmland in some of the world’s hungriest countries to grow crops for export.
Ethiopia – In search of a common ground
By Yilma Bekele
How to manage and resolve conflict has always been our Achilles Heel. That is part of the reason why we stumble from one crisis to another. Last week was a perfect example of an attempt to try to find out a reasonable solution to a problem that arose in our region here in Northern California
OLF’S INCONSISTENCIES, LIES AND FABRICATIONS OF HISTORY–Part I.
Mankelklot Haile Selassie
August 17, 2011
The question of Oromo people is neither a colony nor a
question of freedom. It is a question of democracy.
Lieutenant Gezahegn Hailu of Oromo National Congress, Tobia Vol. 5, No. 7, 1989 EC
Aid From Democracies Stifles Ethiopian Democracy
Re-examining Structural Adjustment Programs! - Theoretical Reflections-
Fekadu Bekele
The author can be reached at fekadubekele@gmx.de
Introduction
It is now almost 30 years that the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) were introduced, and implemented as a new approach to deal with the economic crises of many Sub-Saharan African countries.
The Signs of the Time: A Call for Reconciliation
Obo Arada Shawl - August 13, 2011
ድር ቢያብር፤ አንበሳ ያስር the unity of webs can tie a lion Ethiopian proverb
Books on EPRP
Revival of politicization of ethnicity
By Yared
This commentary is the edited version of an offline discussion with Dr. Getachew Begashaw. It was triggered when G7 and OLF had a meeting in Arlington, VA, on July 10, 2011. The speakers of the meeting were Dr. Berhanu Nega of G7, Dr Nuro Dedefo of OLF and Dr. Getachew Begashaw (as an independent).
No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No.4 No.5
August 9,2011
EPRDF AND THE ALMOST HIDDEN FAMINE
As a concerned world rushes to bring help to millions of famine victims in the Horn of Africa, the brutal regime of Meles Zenawi, which is more to blame than the drought for the dire situation, has opted to keep silent or to minimize the impact of the tragedy in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Food Prices Up Nearly 50 Percent
Ethiopians awoke Tuesday to news that food prices had increased nearly 50 percent over the past year. They didn’t need to be told. Even middle-class Ethiopians are finding it more difficult to feed their families.
Ethiopia and its self-Inflicted wounds.
By Yilma Bekele
Some of our independent Web sites have put me in a quandary. That is not a good place to be. A certain amount of certainty is a must for rational existence. There have to be stuff that we all have to take for granted. Some things like a mother’s love for her child or the fact of gravity are not open for discussion. I include Shale Mengistu in this category. His crime against my country is not a talking point or something to bargain with. He was evil and he did evil things to us.
ኣግራሞት!!!
ኣስገደ ገ/ስላሴ ወ/ሚካኤል
Britain and EU increase aid to Ethiopia while ignoring human rights warnings
Britain and the EU have increased aid to Ethiopia while ignoring repeated diplomatic warnings of human rights abuse and concerns that Western funding is being used as a tool of repression by the country's regime.
August 4, 2011
EPRDF REGIME ARRESTS,TORTURES AND DEPORTS DJIBOUTIANS
Soldiers of the Meles Zenawi army arrested ten civilians within Djiboutian territory between Gawah and Bahlo (in the District of Tadjoura) while they had come from Moussa Ali region in search of a watering point on the 18th of July 2011.
Punjab farmers to grow multiple crops in Ethiopia (They are bringing in their own farmers on top of it all!)
New Delhi/ Chandigarh - Karuturi Global Ltd, the largest rose producer in the world, has acquired about 7,70,000 acres of land in Ethiopia for cultivation of cereal crops.
Human Rights and the War on Terror in Ethiopia
It is not entirely out of the ordinary to hear of the arrest of political dissidents in Ethiopia, but a recent cluster of arrests has drawn attention from the international human rights community. Over the last few weeks, a group of at least nine journalists, Ethiopian National Democratic Party members and others, have been arrested and detained under Ethiopia's Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No. 652.
Ethiopia at centre of global farmland rush
John Vidal: Locals move out as international contractors seize opportunities offered by government to lease farmland at knockdown rates.
Fears that Eritrea may be hiding its famine victims from the world
By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent
Concerns are mounting of a possible hidden famine in Eritrea while international aid agencies scramble to fill a "black hole" in information coming out of the isolated Horn of Africa nation.
Exposed: Ethiopia gives farmland to foreigners while thousands starve
Eritrea behind AU summit attack plot: UN report
By David Clarke
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Eritrea was behind a plot to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and is bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Somali rebels through its embassy in Kenya, according to a U.N. report.
THE DECONSTRUCTION OF ETHIOPIA
A letter to the people of tomorrow (an uneducated view)
Ambassador Imru Zelleke
You are in your twenties and thirties, you have grown up in one of the most painful era of Ethiopian history, you have been traumatized by the violence and misery that you have endured and seen since your birth. All you have learned and viewed from your unhappy experience is the ever increasing poverty and wretched existence of your people, including you family and kin. All this spirit and physical flagellation has certainly left you with some bitter view of your country, especially that it is a home grown calamity that started with good intention and end up into a catastrophic cataclysm.
Famine and abundance rub shoulders in Ethiopia
by Philipp Hedemann in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Infosud/swissinfo.ch
While millions of people in the Horn of Africa suffer a terrible drought, foreign investors are harvesting tonnes of cereals to be exported to Asia and the Gulf states.
በማይጨው ጦርነት ያፈርከውስ አንተና ባንዳዎች! (ለዶ/ር ብርሀኑ ነጋ መልስ) ጌታቸው ረዳ
Hundreds of Ethiopian Refugees Flock Through Zimbabwe
By Ngoni Chanakira, Juru Growth Point, July 18, 2011 - More than 25 shabbily dressed and visibly hungry refugees from Ethiopia are passing through Zimbabwe almost daily using the Juru Growth Point Highway.
The secret war in Somalia
The Defector is intentionally denying the Claim of OLF Victims
By Getachew Reda
July 9, 2011
OPEN LETTER TO THE UNHCR: STOP HARASSING ETHIOPIAN REFUGEES IN YEMEN
The expected would be to call on the UNHCR to protect refugees and asylum seekers but the strange behavior and acts of the UNHCR office in Yemen has forced us to call upon you to protect the refugees from it.
Please nominate Hirut Gedlu for CNN hero...self initiated cyclist to Combat HIV/ AIDS in Ethiopia
South Sudan becomes world's newest nation
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudanese citizens, international dignitaries and the world's newest president are convening in the new country capital of Juba to celebrate the birth of a nation.
What Lifts a Thermometer High
(Poem By Henoke Yeshetlla)
As the temperature rises
The height of the thermometer too
As the heat turns out to be hotter...
Then before all the instrument...
The thermometer speaks in rising first.
That is the greatest action of its existence....
To rise up as the temperature rises...
So what rises in us is our anger...
When savagery hits his land...
The true man rises up with a sword.
Dictators' Mentality, Clouded Minds
(By Elias Mengesha - Heppenheim, Germany)
10 million at risk from East Africa drought
East Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in more than 60 years, with as many as 10 million people at risk.
The drought has led to crop failures and food shortages in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia, and now a refugee crisis looms as people leave their homes to escape hunger.
Global Media Turns a Blind Eye
Ethiopia Buys Arms as Millions Starve
By THOMAS MOUNTAIN
Ethiopia is on another arms buying spree as millions of Ethiopians starve due to the worst drought in 60 years. According to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Ethiopia is purchasing 200 battle tanks from Ukraine for over $100 million.
Was it a coincidence that the day before Meles' announcement, the British foreign aid office announced a $60 million "emergency food aid donation" to Ethiopia?
GILGEL GIBE III—NUISIANCE OR BENEFICIAL?
AMANUEL DAGIM
We come now to the crux of the matter. Is Gilgel Gibe III a nuisance and an ecological disaster as its detractors claim or is it beneficial both to Ethiopia and Kenya? The dice is cast, the pros and cons are many and we need to distinguish between the grain and the chaff, between the emotion and hard facts.
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Thousands need aid after volcano eruption
Horn of Africa tested by severe drought
Millions of people in the Horn of Africa are facing severe shortages of food as the worst drought in the region for six decades withers crops and kills livestock, as the BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge reports.
FAMINE AND PREYING VULTURES
Hama Tuma
In the Horn of Africa, History repeats itself always as a tragedy. Famine has come around, the guilty regimes point their fingers at the usual “culprit” drought and the preying vultures that call themselves NGOs and charity organization rear their heads in anticipation and glee much like the cruel vulture in that famous photos of a starving South Sudanese child. We have seen it all before and the tragedy continues, the charade is on as the vultures we knew so well warn the world help or else the Africans in the east and the Horn are going to perish!
Africa Drought Endangers Millions
UNITED NATIONS -- Aid agencies are calling it the worst drought in 60 years.
Emergency relief workers are getting increasingly alarmed at the scale of a slow-moving disaster in the Horn of Africa, where months of dry weather is said to be threatening famine and a new humanitarian crisis.
Ethiopia Detains Two Swedish Journalists After Attack on Rebels
Ethiopian security forces detained two Swedish journalists for illegally entering the country after a raid on a rebel group in the eastern Somali region that killed 15, State Minister of Communications Shimeles Kemal said.
Ethiopia kills ONLF fighters, Swedish newsmen wounded
* Rebels tried to enter via Somalia
* Journalists wounded in operation against ONLF
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, July 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops have killed 15 fighters in the country's Somali region in an operation that also led to the wounding of two Swedish journalists accompanying the rebels, an official said on Sunday.
