“Nineteen Eighty-Four” in 2014 Ethiopiana

March 31, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

“Big Brother is Watching You!” secretly: The snooping thug state in 2014 Ethiopiana

The secrecy-obsessed regime in Ethiopia has a huge creepy dragnet of secret electronic surveillance programs to sniff out the deeply-buried secrets of the people of Ethiopia. They spend sleepless nights interrogating  themselves about what the people could do to them. Who do they talk to secretly? What do they secretly say about them? Do the people secretly despise them as much as they think they do? (That’s an open secret.) Are the people secretly

Ethiopian gets legal aid from UK – to sue us for giving aid to Ethiopia – Dailymail

• The farmer claims aid is funding a despotic one-party state in his country
• Alleges regime is forcing thousands from their land using murder and rape
• Prime Minister David Cameron says donations are a mark of compassion
• If farmer is successful, Ministers might have to review overseas donations

By IAN BIRRELL, 30 March 2014 |

An Ethiopian farmer has been given legal aid in the UK to sue Britain – because he claims millions of pounds sent by the UK to his country is supporting a brutal regime that has ruined his life.

He says UK taxpayers’ money –  £1.3 billion over the five years of the coalition Government – is funding a despotic one-party state in his country that is forcing thousands of villagers such as him from their land using murder, torture and rape.

The landmark case is highly embarrassing for the Government, which has poured vast amounts of extra cash into foreign aid despite belt-tightening austerity measures at home.

Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF) warns leaders of three Journalists Associations

March 28, 2014

by Betre Yacob

Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF), the newly established journalists association in Ethiopia, warned leaders of three journalists associations operating in the country.

In a statement issued yesterday, the association accused the officials of Ethiopian journalists Association (EJA), Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU), and Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA) of fabricating false accusations against the association and members of media organizations.

HRW: Foreign Technology Used to Spy on Ethiopian Opposition inside Country, Abroad

Ethiopia: Telecom Surveillance Chills Rights

Foreign Technology Used to Spy on Opposition inside Country, Abroad

(Berlin, March 25, 2014) – The Ethiopian government is using foreign technology to bolster its widespread telecom surveillance of opposition activists and journalists both in Ethiopia and abroad, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 100-page report, “‘They Know Everything We Do’: Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia,” details the technologies the Ethiopian government has acquired from several countries and uses to facilitate surveillance of perceived political opponents inside the country and among the diaspora. The government’s surveillance practices violate the rights to freedom of expression, association, and access to information. The government’s monopoly over all mobile and Internet services through its sole, state-owned telecom operator, Ethio Telecom, facilitates abuse of surveillance powers.

Who is who in the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Tewodros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign
Afaairs (Tigre)

March 24, 2014

by Muse Abebe

Despite the claim of TPLF that the federal system has equally protected the rights of ‘nations and nationalities’, the political and economic power is fundamentally controlled by Tigayans who use the cultural differences in the country to their divide and rule strategy.  In the past, Ghinbot 7 and Esat Television were exposing the Tigrean monopoly of almost all positions in the Ministry of Defence, security apparatus and foreign diplomatic missions. Exposing the people who are in control of real power in the country helps to increase the awareness of the public about the nature of the apartheid like regime in Ethiopia. Ghnbot 7 and Esat as well as other democratic organizations need to continue working on this important issue. One of the federal institutions that are entirely controlled by the Tigay elites is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among the top fifteen departments of the ministry,

EITI or Clare’s Corruption Club?

March 23, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Clare Short has won! Congratulations, Clare! Brava!

Last week, Clare Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), succeeded in bullying the EITI Board members into voting to admit the ruling regime in Ethiopia into her Club.  She did it the old-fashioned way— arm-twisting, browbeating, bulldozing, rear-end kicking, a little bit of jawboning and sweet-talkin’ and a whole lot of temper tantrum throwing. She had learned her lessons well. In 2003, when Short ripped into Tony Blair and threatened to resign her position as Secretary of State for International Development over the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, she fulminated defiantly, “But they were going to war anyway and they were going to bully and pressure countries to vote for it.”