“We Shall Persevere, Ethiopia!”

December 28, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”, decreed Maya Angelou, the great African American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer.

“I shall persevere!” wrote Eskinder Nega, the imprisoned and preeminent defender andhero of press freedom in Ethiopia, in a letter smuggled out of the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality, a few kilometers outside the Ethiopian capital  Addis Ababa.

Eskinder was not merely writing about himself when he declared, “I shall persevere!”. He was also writing on behalf of his fellow imprisoned journalists, bloggers, human rights advocates and other political prisoners.  After all, no prisoner of conscience,

Ethiopian pilot defects to Eritrea in helicopter (Reuters)

December 23, 2014

(Reuters) – An Ethiopian air force pilot has defected to Eritrea, flying a helicopter across the border with his co-pilot and a technician, Ethiopian state-run media said on Tuesday.

The three men had been missing since Friday morning soon after leaving their base on a routine training session, Ethiopian Television reported.

Eritrea and Ethiopia have been locked in a border dispute for years and routinely accuse each other of backing rebels trying to destabilize and topple the other’s government – a legacy from the two-year war they fought in the late 1990s.

“The military helicopter landed in Eritrea, flown by a traitor pilot who forced both his co-pilot and a technician while they took part in a training exercise,” the report said, citing a defense ministry statement.

It did not give further details.

“Freedom for Free and Fair Election!” is About Breaking the Vicious Cycle

December 27, 2014

by T.Goshu

1. We are about five months away from the “national election” expected to take place in May of this year. Whether we

 will keep doing the same way of doing politics and oddly wait for things to happen by themselves (if there is such happening in real life), or we should play a dynamic political game and make things happen in favor of freedom and justice is still a very tough challenge to face. I do not think the issue is really our shortcomings in theorizing – explaining the importance of election and how to do it. For that matter, the current constitution (“the supreme law of the country”) does not have serious deficiency in out lining the basic values and principles in this regard. The very deep and serious

Saving the ICC from African Thugtators

December 15, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

International Criminal Court Prosecutor throws in the towel

It is a dark and gloomy month on the “Dark Continent”! It is the worst of times in Africa when a man in the highest political office accused of egregious crimes against humanity waltzes out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) grinning like a Cheshire cat and flipping the bird to Lady Justice. It’s a good thing she is blindfolded!

On March 8, 2011, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding father and first president, was charged by the ICC Prosecutor with five counts of crimes against humanity in connection with the post-election violence that occurred in Kenya in late December 2007. According to the ICC indictment, Kenyatta, at the time a government minister, planned, financed, and coordinated the violence perpetrated against ethnic opponents of his ruling party.  Kenyatta is accused of using the “Mungiki organization” (“Kenyan mafia”)

11 Year Anniversary of Anuak Massacre of 2003 will be Remembered by Many Ethiopian Anuak Living in Refugee Camps After Being Forcibly Uprooted from their Indigenous Land

December 15, 2014

PRESS RELEASE. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Vancouver, BC, Canada) December 13, 2014 will mark the 11-year anniversary of the horrific massacre of 424 Ethiopians of Anuak ethnicity in Gambella, Ethiopia. Even though it has been over a decade, it still seems like yesterday to the Anuak, especially to those who lost members of their families. Some of the victims remain in unmarked mass graves. The Anuak as well as the other people in the region have never really recovered from this traumatic tragedy, let alone the fact that no justice has been done.

Part of the reason for this is that the lives and livelihoods of the people surviving the tragedy have been in turmoil ever since. Seventy-eight thousand Anuak and others in Gambella have been forcibly evicted from their ancestral land in order to lease the land to foreign investors and TPLF/EPRDF regime cronies. The Anuak have never been consulted or compensated as would be done in a country where there was a rule of law.

Ethiopia: Heroes of the Storm that is Coming

December 16, 2014

by Masresha Tilahun

I once met Laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin during a 3 days and closed door meeting between top opposition leaders of 15 political organizations from inside and outside of Ethiopia in Alexandria, Virginia. Despite his deteriorating health, Laureate Tsegaye attended the most anticipated meeting of the opposition group as an observer. Representing the youth, I was also in the meeting as an observer.

I was also observing Laureate Tsegaye across the boardroom while he was quietly listening to the discussions and rhetoric of the so called leaders of the opposition.