Kenyatta at the ICC: Is Justice Deferred, Justice Denied?

January 27, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam*

I am getting a little jittery over the repeated delays, postponements and all the backpedalling talk about “false evidence” and “lying witnesses”  in the Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta International Criminal court trial. I don’t want to say I smell a rat but I feel like I am getting a whiff. Is the stage being set to let Kenyatta off the ICC hook?

There has been feverish efforts to defer, delay and dismiss Kenyatta’s prosecution as a sitting head of state since  January 2012 when the International Criminal Court’s  (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber confirmed charges against him.  In May 2013, Kenya’s Ambassador to the U.N. Macharia Kamau filed a 13-page “Confidential” letter with the President of the UN Security Council seeking to take the Kenyatta case out of ICC hands and directing it to relinquish  jurisdiction to Kenyan courts. In the same month, Hailemariam

On Behalf of Semayawi Party, Thanks!

January 20, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Thank you one and all who came out to the town hall meetings in the U.S. and Europe over the past several  weeks and supported Semayawi Party!

In a report last week, Ethiomedia.com described Semayawi Party (SP) as the “newest opposition sensation” which “raises new hopes” for nonviolent change in Ethiopia. Yilikal Getnet, Semayawi Party’s young and dynamic chairman, presented Ethiopians in various U.S. and European cities his party’s vision of the Beloved New Ethiopia founded on hope, peace and unity.

Beginning with the first North American town hall meeting in Arlington, VA on December 15, 2013, Yilikal told his audiences that he did not come to the U.S. to solicit financial support or to beg for money. His primary mission was to introduce his party to Ethiopians living abroad, share with them his Party’s vision, positions and programs, review some of its humble accomplishment

Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans to Celebrate King Menelik and His Victory at the Battle of Adwa January 18, 2014

 

ETHIOPIAN HERITAGE  SOCIETY IN NORTH AMERICA

Washington, DC – One-hundred and eighteen years ago, a well-organized army under the command and leadership of Emperor Menelik II and Empress Taytu, decimated the Italian force that was seeking to colonize one of Africa’s most ancient nations – Ethiopia. As a leader beyond his time, Emperor Menelik II was able to organize and structure an army within a short period of time to confront the Italians at Adwa. With his swift victory over the Italians, Minilik II solidified Ethiopia’s independence by putting Ethiopia among the very few states in the world that have never been colonized.

The Ethiopian Heritage Society of North America (EHSNA) will be celebrating the leadership of King Menelik  and Empress Taytu in their struggle for independence. Last month marks the 100th anniversary of Menelik’s death, nearly 18 years after defeating the Italian colonial force. The commemoration of Minilik and Tyatu, and the victory at Adwa,

IPI and partners call for immediate release of five imprisoned journalists

IPI is urging Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, pictured here in October 2013, to release imprisoned journalists and to reform the country’s anti-terrorism law. Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

VIENNA, Jan 14, 2014 – Ethiopia’s use of sweeping anti-terrorism law to imprison journalists and other legislative restrictions are hindering the development of free and independent media in Africa’s second largest country, according to a report published today by the International Press Institute (IPI).

Dozens of journalists and political activists have been arrested or sentenced under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation of 2009, including five journalists who are serving prison sentences and who at times have been denied access to visitors and legal counsel. The report, “Press Freedom in Ethiopia”, is based on a mission to the country carried out in November by IPI and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Demonizing Ethiopian History by Prof. Al Mariam

The regime in power in Ethiopia today is orchestrating a full-court press demonization and vilification campaign against Atse Menelik II, the Nineteenth Century Ethiopian emperor whose centennial is being celebrated this year (Ethiopian calendar). The campaign is conducted largely through regime lackey-proxies, stooges and puppets. Through its minions, the regime has used the most loathsome words, inflammatory rhetoric and repugnant imagery to describe Menelik’s alleged brutality in his quest for territorial conquest. The regime’s servile drones have been all over social media parroting historical lies, distortions, fabrications, disinformation and falsehoods. The agitators have tried to whip up a propaganda frenzy in an attempt to caricature, demean and demonize the great Ethiopian leader. One hundred years after his death, they have tried to resurrect him as the devil incarnate. Barely two years after Meles Zenawi’s death they want to resurrect him as the savior of Ethiopia.

One need not be surprised by the volume or vehemence of the propaganda attack on Atse Menelik or the regime’s methodical and organized campaign to incite hatred and ill-will by trotting out Menelik’s Ghost.

Woyane’s jungle justices: Guilty until the evidence is manufactured?

January 11, 2014

When people get drunk on beer they become obnoxious but, by lust for power and money they become deadly. Playing zero-sum games of ‘us against them’ and ‘guilty until proven innocent by trumping on the rights and freedoms of our people is crude joke of diversions.

by Teshome Debalke

Ethiopia became a comedy club of TPLF‘s crude jokes In the last two decades but, nobody is laughing. It is another tragedy we as people are going through in our history where our rights became a commodity bought-and-sold by ethnic warlords.