MARCH 7/2008
ACTING CHAIRMAN OF ETHIOPIAN REFUGEES BODY DISAPPEARED IN THE SUDAN
Reports reaching SOCEPP reveal that the acting chairman of The Ethiopian Refugees Association in the Sudan, Wendimagegn Getaneh, was picked up by the Sudanese police in the afternoon of March 5 and has disappeared since.
Open Letter to Ethiopians: Concerning the discouragement that has taken such a huge toll on our movement for freedom, justice and equality.
March 8, 2008.
Dear Fellow Ethiopian,
I am writing this letter to you to address the problem of discouragement that has taken such a huge toll on our movement for freedom, justice, equality and democracy. What I am hearing in most every recent phone call, email and communication is that many Ethiopians are just too hurt, disappointed and discouraged over the failure of all political organizations to unite and move forward to bring freedom, justice, peace, stability and prosperity to Ethiopia and because of that, no one should expect them to do anything more at this time. Instead, they are giving up and have decided instead to just carry on with their own lives.
Fifty-three-year-old Ali Saeed has been a member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party since the age of 17. Fifteen years ago his fellow party member Aberash Berta was arrested by the Ethiopian security police, and hasn’t been heard from since.
Saeed, who is the owner of the 7/16 store on the corner of Sargent and Spence, is now paying over $3,000 dollars out of his own pocket for travel to New York to petition in front of the United Nations building for the release of female political prisoners in his home country of Ethiopia.
IEWO will launch their newly opened Paltalk Room “International Ethiopian Women's Organization Forum†coinciding with international women's day which will be celebrated this weekend March 8 & 9 in Washington D.C.
The IEWO will be celebrating international women's day on the 8th and 9th of March through a two day event with discussion and festivity. In this celebration, a discussion forum is organized to address the current issues and situations that are affecting the people of Africa at large and women and children in particular directly and indirectly by the violence and oppression perpetuated by the male dominated political and economic systems.
CULTURAL CREATIVITY IN THE ETHIOPIAN AMERICAN DIASPORA
EVENT: Conference, World Music, Africa, Ethio-Jazz
Sunday April 13, 8pm (keynote)
Monday April 14, 9-5:45 (conference) , 8pm (concert)
ADMISSION to all events is FREE
http://www.music. fas.harvard. edu/ethiopia. html
BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt untold election story in Ethiopia
Tedla Asfaw
I read Elizabeth Blunt piece today (BBC March 3) on the absence of the recently released Kinijit/CUDP leaders from the local election set for spring in Ethiopia. I wonder why she ignored those who were not jailed and have good time in the so called parliament still considered to be as opposition by West and could not be able to go to their constituencies for this so called by-election she is reporting by blatant intimidation and harassment of their supporters by the regime armed thugs.
Key leaders absent in Ethiopia polls
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Ethiopians will soon be getting their first chance to vote since the general election in 2005, which ended with violent protests and the jailing of most of the leaders of the opposition.
The opposition CUD coalition won far more seats than any opposition party had ever won before, but they were convinced that the true result should have been even more in their favor.
At last, the right question is being asked! An open letter to professor MWM (mesfin wolde mariam) By EthioLion website.
CALL ME BY MY NAME: A commentary Obo Arada Shawl alias Wolde Tewolde
March 3, 1983Â
“As one of the reigning heavy heavyweight in Ethiopian political arena, we know the power of your punch,†writes the editorial. Twenty questions (EthioLion.com) were posed to the professor and we all are too naive if we expect a single reply by the professor. It will be reasonable for all readers to ponder over the questions and respond if possible. I would volunteer to start to answer the first question to be followed subsequently.
OF THE « DISEASED » NATION
By Hama Tuma
The “avoided†dictators still enjoy the praise of America and its institutions. For the World Bank and the IMF, economic progress in Ethiopia is dazzling. This is a country where hidden and unacknowledged famine is affecting hundreds of thousands even in the capital city. A kilo of meat costs 45 Birr, one chicken 60 Birr and let us not talk of sheep, pity please (the average Ethiopian earns one US dollar per day and a dollar is worth almost ten Birr). A friend who recently was in Addis Ababa told me that city dwellers stand for long minutes outside butcher shops and fondly stare at the meat to deal with their yearnings and this brought to my mind the poem by Robert Pinsky ( Samurai Song) in which he wrote:
“When I had no roof / I made Audacity my roof
When I had no food / My eyes dined.â€
CORRECTION ON THE FEBRUARY 27 STATEMENT ON THE DEPORTEEES FROM THE SUDAN
February 29/2007
SOCEPP APOLOGIZES FOR THE ERROR CONTAINED IN ITS FEBRUARY 27 UPDTAE ON THE DEPORTEES FROM THE SUDAN. THE FOUR NAMES CITED DO NOT BELONG TO KALITI PRISONERS BUT TO FOUR ETHIOPIAN REFUGESS WHO WERE APPREHENDED AND JAILED IN THE SUDAN ALONG WITH ELDER ATNAW WASSIE AND OTHERS LATER DEPORTED TO ETHIOPIA.
IEOW Radio 02/24/2008 - Interview with W/O Yeharerwork Gashaw 2nd part, poem and preparation for March 8
UPDATE ON THE DEPORTEEES FROM THE SUDAN - February 27/2007
Four of the Ethiopian refugees deported from the Sudan along with elder (Shaleka) Atanaw Wassie have been released and instructed to appear in court to follow their case. They were held in Kailiti and are accused of fomenting an armed rebellion against the regime in place. The released are: Anteneh, Shebabaw Assefa, Mamaye Abebe and Abebe Yigletu.
Negligence and Denial of Human Rights – the Case of the Afar Refugees in the Horn of Africa
Press Release - February 28, 2008
The Afars, the people who inhabit parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea, are the least known outside the Horn of Africa. The Afar Human Rights Organization (AHRO) would like to bring to the World attention the concern of Afar refugees in the Horn of Africa.
Keep quiet about atrocities, Ethiopia warns aid workers
Aid workers in Ethiopia's remote Ogaden region are currently facing an impossible dilemma. In order to carry on helping people in the east of the country, the government has warned them that they better keep quiet about allegations of army atrocities in the area.
SOLIDARITY FORUM OF ETHIOPIA
The Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia emerged as a result of Ethiopians realizing the desperate need for dialogue regarding the interests of their country and people as a nation. The compounding economic, political and social difficulties, and the lack of respect for human rights, are screaming for solutions. The negative use of our diversities has made us incapable of building on the valuable linguistic, religious.....
The Mother Of All Humiliations
Marking the 33th anniversary of the founding of their narrow nationalist organization, the TPLF , the woyane gang, had a huge celebration last Sunday Yekatit 11, 2000 in Shire, a town in Tigray . During this occasion, Meles Zenawi and his accursed entourage enjoyed themselves by humiliating our national flag. They laughed at our Nation. The Woyane
Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia - Ethiopian Press Release
Dear Fellow Ethiopians and Friends of Ethiopia:
After working behind the scene and contacting various distinguished and ordinary individuals in our community (both for support and ideas) we, the coordinating committee of concerned Ethiopians, are pleased to formally announce the birth of the Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia. Although not finalized yet, the Forum’s Mission and its Bylaws are being drafted and nearing completion.
Remembering Reverend, James Edward Orange: The Dream for Justice Lives On in Us!
February 23, 2008
On February 16, 2008, Reverend, James Orange, a great civil rights leader and a top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., died in Atlanta, Georgia. Rev. James Orange, chair of the Africa/African American Renaissance Festival. Hired by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the first field staffers, Orange was instrumental in mobilizing youth throughout the civil rights movement, making a significant impact on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
IEWO Radio- February 17 2008 -
Interview of W/0 Yeharerwork Gashaw
US 'is not seeking African bases'
US President George Bush has said the creation of a US military command for Africa does not mean he wants to expand US military presence on the continent.
The Generation that Moved the Mountain is Rotten With Racism
By: Getachew Reda (February 19, 2008)
My dear Tigrayans; - I am writing this piece of message to address to you to look the ethnic issue seriously. The dangerous trend that is leading our people, in particular, the young generation of Tigrayan community is affected and transformed dangerously into ethnocentric thinker in the last sixteen years. When I write this communication with you, I have had both to remember and forget that I am Tigrayan or for that matter an Ethiopian.
The Roosters are Crowing: It’s Time for Africans to Sweep Our Huts Clean of Dirty Politics
February 18, 2008
The African roosters are crowing from the north to the south to the east and to the west as the first rays of dawn’s light are cracking through the darkness hanging over Africa. From all over the continent, Africans are awakening to a new understanding of their God-given rights, their democratic rights and with them, to the desire to rule themselves. No longer are they willing to put up with a legacy of corrupt, greedy and power-hungry dictators, no different from t
FORGOTTEN POLITICAL PRISONERS RELEASE ABERA YEMANEAB AND TAMRAT LAYNE
February 15/2008
Abera Yemaneab flew to Addis Ababa from his exile home, Washington DC, to take part in a Peace and Reconciliation Conference. It was December 1993 and he was arrested at the airport and taken to prison. In April of the same year, a court ordered that he should be released but the EPRDF regime kept him in prison and after 12 years of detention sentenced him to a ten years term. He was released, denied the right to join his family in America, rearrested and sentenced to a 25 years prison term.
UN troops 'trapped' in Eritrea
(BBC NEWS)
The United Nations has condemned Eritrea, accusing it of preventing hundreds of peacekeepers from crossing from Eritrea into Ethiopia.
The UN ordered its regional force to withdraw to Ethiopia after the Eritrean government cut off its fuel supplies.
Saturday February 16, 2008 @ Assimba PalTalk Room:
Dr. Tsehai Berhane-Selassie of Ethiopian National Congress (ENC) will be the room’s special guest. We will discuss what ENC is all about, and their recent article “CALLING FOR INTERNAL PEACE AND RECONCILIATIONâ€.
We will try to understand the dynamics of factionalism as witnessed lately in various Ethiopian political parties. Is it by design? Or catastrophic leadership failures? What should the masses do?
Negarit Radio, an Independent and Alternative Media for Ethiopia
Foundation for Independent Media for Ethiopia (FIME), Press Releas e
Very recently, the FIME Board has learnt that one of its members, Mr Kinfu Assefa has founded another organization, “Task Force on Promoting Ethiopian Democracy & Human Rights” (TEDH), and submitted to the European Commission a radio project, which is very similar to FIME’s proposal for Negarit radio, called “Voice of Ethiopia”. ... The Board has therefore; found that Mr. Kinfu Assefa has abused his privilege and responsibilities as a board member to advance a conflicting interest by founding another organization and submitting similar project proposal to one of our potential funding organizations.
ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS - CALLING FOR INTERNAL PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
The recent division within the opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP), is putting barriers on the future of everybody’s struggle. The Ethiopian public is greatly disappointed and frustrated to see the endless intra-party amoebic splits and factions. The popular democratic movement that began more than three decades ago is set to be frustrated and the untold misery and despair to our people resulting from the socioeconomic havoc to the country is likely to continue for many years to come.
Africa, China's new frontier
Jon Swain
Chinese entrepreneurs are invading Africa and reviving the fortunes of the world’s poorest continent. Are they just stripping it of its resources — or have they finally found the answer to a problem the West has been unable to solve?
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Voice of Ethiopian Unity
