ECADF: Open Letter to Mr. Umar Hassen Ahmad al-Bashir

February 8, 2014

Mr. Umar Hassen Ahmad al-Bashir, President

The Republic of the Sudan

Khartoum, Sudan

Dear: Mr. al-Bashir

The Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum (ECADF) is a non-for–profit organization where concerned Ethiopians from all over the world discuss matters that affect Ethiopia and Ethiopians.

It is a recorded history that Ethiopia is the only country in African that has never been colonized and pioneered an anti-colonization movement.

Saving Ethiopia From the Chopping Block

February 3, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam*

WE live in a time that gives new meaning to Shakespeare’s line in Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them…” Today we come face to face with the evil Meles Zenawi has done when he lived. A piece of Ethiopia is retailed once again to the Sudan. They call it “border demarcation.” I call it call it border slicing, dicing and pricing — all for thirty pieces of silver!

In July 2008, I gave an impassioned speech in defense of the territorial integrity of the Ethiopian motherland at a conference called by a North American civic society group known as “Gasha for Ethiopia”:

We are here today to help stop Meles Zenawi

US House Bill Requires Accountability From Ethiopia (Press Release)

January 28, 2014

US House Appropriation Bill Requires Increased Accountability from Ethiopia as Prerequisite for Funding

PRESS RELEASE

Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia

Washington, DC – Is United States policy towards Ethiopia shifting? For years Ethiopians, social justice groups, human rights organizations and civic groups have been calling on donor countries to demand greater accountability from the Government of Ethiopia for funds received, citing the lack of political space, endemic injustice, the repression of basic freedoms and widespread human rights crimes; however, now, the people of Ethiopia have reason to expect that the climate of impunity is changing.

The United States House Appropriations Committee has included stringent new requirements of accountability from the Government of Ethiopia in a section of the new 2014 bill that directly addresses Ethiopia. (Please refer to the sub-section of the bill below.)

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,