Hiber Radio – May 14, 2017

 

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Dr Tedros

By Muluken Gebeyew

Dr Tedros is one of the nine executive member (politburo ) of TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) who has been making decisions on the fate of Ethiopians. TPLF is a minority regime ruling Ethiopia under the cover name of EPRDF (Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front) with fake elections disputed by international organisations. TPLF is a political organisation which came to power under armed struggle in 1991. As its name indicate, the people it “represents” (Tigre) is 6% of the population in Ethiopia. This minority political organisation has ruled Ethiopia under Iron fist for the last 26 years.  TPLF uses “divide and rule” policy to rule as minority while dividing majority  by fermenting & inciting one ethnic and nationalities  against others and one religion against other to sustain its brutal regime. It uses fake anti-terrorisms  laws to stiffen any dissent or opposite opinion. The  regime is known for its brutal crackdown of opposition parties, mass killing, imprisonment, displacement, forced immigration, unemployment and human right abuse documented by Amnesty International and  Human Right Watch and to Ethiopian public following disclosure in audiovisual testimonies from those survived the atrocities and ex members of its security and espionage services.
Dr Tedros who served on high profile position as Ministry of Health  (2005-2012) and Ministry of Foreign Affair ( 2012-2016) has been campaigning to be the next Director – General ( DG) of WHO (World  Health Organisation). This is mission given to him by the highest decision makers in TPLF. The purpose is not he would serve WHO as the best candidate with knowhow, TPLF knows he is not. Let  alone for World population, they don’t care about Ethiopian people (except the ethnicity  they claim to “represent”, Tigray ). They are not attracted personally for Dr Tedros to earn  the annual salary as DG of WHO $ 260,000 annually (which is huge sum by Ethiopian standard). They don’t care he will be the face of Africa at world stage. They ignored  his lack of knowledge and skill which will harm WHO to fulfil its mission. They never give damn if he is fit or not. Their central mission is one of their trusted top member of TPLF to be in leadership position in international global level in Geneva where he will be in position to have direct and indirect link with major international organisation to influence and dilute any future attempt of exposure, bringing to justice to the International Criminal Court for  the atrocities committed by TPLF in the last 26 years.

TPLF, under the barrel of gun, has been able to silence Ethiopians  with help of Western donors and China by playing pretexts of as major partner on fighting extreme Islamists in the Horn of Africa. The West  have given deaf ears to the plight of Ethiopians from atrocities of TPLF as their national interest is fulfilled by TPLF by sending poor Ethiopian soldiers to fight the extreme Islamists on behalf of the West. TPLF never disclosed how many Ethiopian soldiers died since invasion of Somalia by the late dictator Meles Zenawi despite the parliament request.

In recent years, the plight of Ethiopian people has reached to its pinnacle. The serious peaceful  popular uprising in Oromia, Amhara and Southern Ethiopia in 2015/16 met by deadly response by TPLF causing the death of thousands, hundred thousands imprisonment and millions of people displacement.  The minority TPLF regime committed gross human right abuse to the extent of genocide which one day the international world would bring it to International  Criminal Court. Currently TPLF is ruling Ethiopia under State of Emergency which Dr Tedros is one of the main architect.

Some international organisation started to expose the  horrible crimes which is unsettling top brass TPLF leaders causing them insomnia. They used millions of public fund to pay international lobbies as PR to paint them to global audience as rapidly growing, stable, developing and developmental democratic country. Although these have enabled to trick their donors for years, in recent years their cruel work started to be exposed. TPLF is unsettled by these and no longer containing these facts by the usual Western lobby firms. TPLF decided one of their top brass member to intermingle in international organisation based in Geneva to make formal and informal link to dilute any future attempt of bring to justice of all atrocities committed by TPLF on Ethiopian People.

In order to fulfil this mission, TPLF invested millions  dollars of public fund to campaign for Dr Tedros. Under the disguise of East Africa Fund, millions  of dollars spent to pay for lobby firm in USA to do the PR job for Dr Tedros. Dr Tedros cris-crossed most part of the world unlike the other candidates to earn support for his candidacy. His Information on Campaign Activities didn’t reveal the actual financial figures unlike the other two candidates.

He is able to get the  African Union backing mainly for  his claim of “it is time for Africa to lead WHO” despite the merit the post requires. If elected/ appointed, Dr Tedros will be the first non medical doctor DG ( political appoint) the organisation ever had since 1948. Although he  qualified as public health official, he never had the doctor-patient dynamic or therapeutic relationship to understand some illnesses that WHO would like to address. He may need medical experts (mentors) unlike former DGs with medical dictionaries so that he can understand some medical terminologies and pathologies.

Dr Tedros lacks the moral qualification to be the DG for WHO. He lacks transparency as noted on his CV  published by WHO  as he omitted the important political position he has held in ruling TPLF junta in order to avoid any questions. Intentional omission is equivalent to lying. Dr Tedros is accused of hiding to the international world three cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia by brand naming as acute watery diarrhoea and caused epidemic outbreaks that cost human life just to safe the name of his political party and the tourism income his party earns for.

He is controversial person, when he was Minster of Health, the candidate has treated his own citizens differently based on their ethnicity contrary to WHO’s goal of building a better, healthier future for all people throughout the world. The ‘Achievement’ he was credited to won in health service delivery in Ethiopia need thorough scrutiny as the regime is famous for cooking data numbers /statistics. Under his tenure of Federal Ministry of Health, the other regions of Ethiopia hadn’t  shown the rate of improvement in health service delivery unlike Tigray region which he hails from.

Dr.Tedros’s Ministry of Health played great role in “population reduction” using chemical/ injectable contraceptives against  Amahra People which TPLF considers it as “enemy of Tigray”. There was estimated 2.5 million people reduction  in Amhara region of Ethiopia using this means. The Ethiopian parliament couldn’t figure out for the official National Statistics Census Commission’s report on this “unexpected” reduction of Amahra people. The Commission had reported in 2008 that the Amhara state’s population stood at 17.2 million, coming well short of the 19.6 million projection estimated for the region. There was aggressive use of depo provera  in Amhara region with  ” intention” to reduce Amhara population. Many young ladies remain childless. The prevalence of HIV was also high in Amhara region (despite the use of protective means unlike other regions) with less treatment which led to increased morality. Was it intentional neglect by his ministry which he headed?

As conclusion Dr Tedros is not morally qualified to be DG of WHO for reason mentioned above. He is political candidate and will tarnish WHO’s reputation and noble mission if appointed as  his dirty political work will be revealed in due time. The purpose of his mission is to safe TPLF, not the world from poor health or illness.

Sources

–   WHO:   http://www.who.int/en/

–   http://www.who.int/dg/election/tedros/en/

–   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/health/candidate-who-director-general-ethiopia-cholera-outbreaks.html?_r=0

–   https://ecadforum.com/2017/04/23/dr-tedros-adhanom-is-an-individual-suspected-of-a-crime-against-humanity/

–   http://debirhan.com/2013/06/latest-census-report-on-amhara-people-sparks-controversy-for-the-second-time/

–    https://www.dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR179/FR179%5B23June2011%5D.pdf

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Fresh tension in a disputed area has reopened old wounds between the Oromia and Somali states, as ethnic federalism fails to contain violence

Three different flags flutter in the breeze along the road that runs through Moyale in southern Ethiopia. The first is green, yellow and red: the colours of the Ethiopian federal state. Then, on the side of the road: red, black and white, with a tree in the centre, the colours of the Oromo. And a third: the green, white and red, with a camel in one corner, of Somali state.

Moyale, deep in Ethiopia’s dusty south-eastern drylands and straddling the border with Kenya, is split sharply down the middle. The fresh tarmac of the road that divides it marks the long-contested frontier between Oromia and Somali regional states.

These flags fly side-by-side in Moyale as a testament to the success of Ethiopia’s distinct model of ethnically based federalism, established in 1994.

But it is also a measure of its failings: Moyale has two separate administrations; segregated schools; parallel court systems; rivalrous police forces, and adversarial local militia. More than 20 years after ethnic federalism was introduced, tensions between the two sides – Borana Oromo and Garri Somalis – are as fraught as ever.

“There is a serious problem emerging,” said Ibrahim, an elderly Somali man in the courtyard of a hotel on the Oromo side of the road. As a clan elder, he has freedom to sit in places that younger Garri men would avoid, he said. Ill feeling between the two communities stretches back decades, but recent events have reopened old wounds.

A clash between two armed groups near Moyale in April resulted in tit-for-tat killings, with at least one Garri and one Borana reported dead (both groups claim more), and injuries on either side. Locals reported similar deadly flare-ups early this year.

Yet violence in Moyale has remained fairly contained, in part due to the town’s bloody recent past. In 2012, fighting over land between the pastoralists in the surrounding area led to 18 deaths and forced tens of thousands of Moyale’s residents to flee across the border into Kenya.

Memory of this has helped to maintain the peace since, and a community accord struck between clan elders has kept the younger generation in check. But with the latest outbreak of what he calls “revenge killings”, Ibrahim said he was worried that the accord could be broken.

Ethnic tensions here are part of a wider confrontation that stretches all along the border from Moyale in the south to Dire Dawa, some 1,000km (620 miles) north. Ethiopia’s government, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), imposed a state-of-emergency in October following widespread protests against the regime in Addis Ababa, the capital, which resulted in at least 669 deaths.

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But while stability returned to the rest of the country in the following months, the Somali-Oromo regional border saw an outburst of violence on a scale that many said was unprecedented. According to residents in Oromo districts along there, violent incursions by Somali militia began in December and continued sporadically over the next three months. Human Rights Watch, which received reports of dozens of casualties, said these clashes were of a different order to the pastoralist struggles over water points and farmland that have long afflicted the region in times of drought.

Instead, the clashes involved heavily armed men on both sides in locations all along the border. Schools were looted and civil servants shot in their offices, said Fekadu Adugna, an academic at Addis Ababa University, who specialises in Oromo-Somali relations.

Residents on the Oromo side also reported widespread rapes and said they had found ID cards belonging to members of the controversial Somali special police, know as the “Liyu”, among the remains of the dead. The worst of the violence took place in the area around Negele, another frontier town about 500km from Moyale.

There has been no official investigation into the events and there are no exact figures for the numbers killed. According to Ibrahim Adam, a conflict-resolution field officer for Igad, an east African regional bloc, more than 100 people died and thousands were displaced in February and March in the Negele area alone. Oromo activists have claimed much higher numbers.

Few now dare take the road from Moyale to Negele, which runs through both Garri and Borona districts. Residents of Moyale claim that young men at roadblocks have been threatening travellers from a different ethnic group.

An indication of the scale of the conflict came in March when the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, referred to it in a speech to parliament. For the first time, it was framed not as a dispute over resources but as a battle between two regional militias and police forces. “The problems have no relation to ethnic conflicts,” Desalegn said. “It is our lower political leadership that commands these actions.”

This surprisingly candid explanation tallies with those given by Moyale residents, who see the conflict as one waged by local officials with expansionist agendas. Both regional governments have claimed contested territories in the past couple of years. “This is no longer just between two communities but between two governments,” said Fugicha, a Borana. “It serves their interests.”

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Last month, the federal government stepped in to administer a peace agreement between the two sides. It promises to enforce the border that was demarcated following a referendum in 2004, and settle the status of Moyale, which was excluded from that referendum because its ethnic politics were deemed too complex.

Moyale’s Oromo, in particular, have expressed concern about the outcome of the peace agreement. Rumours of a second referendum, and Somali encroachment in a town regarded as historically Oromo, were behind last month’s revenge killings, they said.

Somalis, on the other hand, have pointed to the assertiveness of the new Oromo regional government that came to power in the wake of last year’s protests. It recently issued an extensive list of claims on Addis Ababa, which activists regard as rightfully Oromo too. “The Oromo have never accepted the division of Moyale,” said Ibrahim, the clan elder.

Both sides are pessimistic. One widespread theory is that the federal government’s failure to step in early to end the violence was politically motivated. “People here think the TPLF [the Tigrayan ethnically based political party] initiated this to weaken Oromo resistance to the central government,” said Fugicha. Others have suggested that flashes of ethnic violence suit a regime that defends its heavy-handedness as necessary to prevent the country unravelling.

Whatever the truth, the wider problem is more intractable. Ethiopia’s ethnic-federal model has helped ensure the recognition of minority groups – and kept the peace, many say – but it has also aggravated regional tensions by binding once-fluid ethnic identity to administrative control over territory.

“Federalism brought this problem,” said Adam, the Igad officer. “People now think no one else can live in their area.”

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By Aklog Birara (Dr)

“For 60 years, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy here in the Middle East-and we have achieved neither…Now we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.” Cairo, Egypt

Condoleezza Rice, Former National Security Advisor under George Bush 

The same is true for Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. Western donors and the diplomatic community have achieved “neither democracy nor stability” in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. Nor have these pillars of support that bank roll repressive regimes helped African societies establish sustainable and equitable growth. This is especially the case in Ethiopia, a darling of the donor community for more than a quarter of a century. It is illusory for the EU and other donors to think that Ethiopia is stable and prospering. I wish both were true and real. You don’t need to declare a 6 month State of Emergency and extend it by 4 months unless you figure that you are incapable of addressing the root causes of popular revolts in Oromia, Oromo and Konso that emboldened and mobilized millions. 

The EU is among Ethiopia’s largest multilateral donors and thus possesses ample leverage to advance the democratization process. However, leverage requires political will and a steadfast commitment to fundamental democratic values. So far, the EU has failed in critical areas that matter most to the lives of Ethiopia’s 104 million people.

My thesis is this. After 26 years of massive Western bilateral and multilateral aid that now exceeds $40 billion; and tens of billions more in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Diaspora remittances, Ethiopia is still among the poorest and least developed countries on the planet. It is also food aid dependent. This reality on the ground is not because of the notion that the country is not endowed with enormous natural and human resources capital. It is. It is not because Ethiopians are lazy and unwilling to change their lives for the better. Ethiopians are among the hardest working people in the world. It is not because of climate change and the vagaries of weather. Most countries are affected by climate change and seasonal and periodic environmental changes in rainfall etc. It is primarily because democratic institutions that empower people to prosper do not exist. Ethiopia’s politics and economics are essentially captured by ethnic elites. The cost of entry into this club is high and unattainable. The population is among the most repressed, crushed and dispirited in the world.

In development, what matters in creating resiliency that can withstand the quirks and vagaries of natural phenomenon is freedom and empowerment; and a competent, nationally-oriented, people-centered, pro-poor, pro-youth, pro-women, pro-indigenous private sector and empowering government and leadership that do not crush, steal or waste human and financial capital. Such governance creates a regulatory framework that enables rather than crushes freedom; and debilitates human potential, creativity and innovation.

Following the 2005 flawed elections that crushed the democratic hopes and aspirations of the vast majority of the Ethiopian people, the late Prime Minster Meles Zenawi gave a “Millennium” speech worth repeating even if we do not agree with the many things he and his party stood for including the establishment of an ethnic and linguistic based federal system that works against national cohesion and shared prosperity. In 2007, Meles offered a national rather than an ethnic narrative in political economy.

“While we can justly be proud of the fact that every generation of Ethiopians during those centuries have paid in blood to maintain our independence, we cannot but feel deeply insulted that at the dawn of the new millennium ours is one of the poorest countries in the world. Over the course of our second millennium we have gone from being one of the most advanced nations on earth to that of being one of the poorest. Throughout this process we have not been colonized by any foreign nations and hence we have always been the authors of our destiny, both our successes and failures.”

This subscription to a “proud” and glorious past; and rebuke of a miserable, poverty ridden, technologically and materially crushing, demoralizing and dependency prone present begs a rational explanation. Did Ethiopia follow a developmental model that empowers the population and expands employment opportunities and stimulates sustainable and equitable growth or did Ethiopia’s rulers follow a top-down or trickle down developmental state model that transfers wealth from the poor to the new political elite? It followed the later. So did donors. A country that prides itself in not “being colonized by any foreign nations” is now facing hurdles that deter Ethiopians from being, to use Meles’ term, the “authors of their own destiny.” You can’t control your own destiny if you beg for food aid.

I say this because Ethiopia is more dependent on foreign aid today than at any other time in its long and distinguished, albeit, poverty-ridden history. The development model is exclusionary rather than participatory. The donor community, especially the EU does not seem to care. The reason is this. Its primary community and national interests and goals are well served. For example, the EU was persuaded that the avalanche of migration from the Horn of Africa to Europe can and must be reduced if not stopped by financing the Addis Ababa regime that hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia. By definition, a country that can’t feed itself cannot feed hundreds of thousands of refugees unless there is a political and diplomatic reason behind the generosity. The EU failed to recognize that each year, thousands of Ethiopians are pushed out of Ethiopia because of repression and lack of employment opportunities. Thousands are housed in refugee camps in Yemen, Kenya and other locations.

The trade-off the EU has in mind lacks human concern and development logic. Why should Ethiopians pay an enormous price to stem the tide of migration from the Horn to the EU while the EU leaves policy and structural governance hurdles untouched in Ethiopia?

Even if we find logic to the trade-off on containing African migrants to Europe, there are two other critical areas on which the EU has failed:

1. It has failed to help deepen and broaden sustainable and equitable development using its largesse. The famous Provision of Public Basic Services (PBS) multi-donor program initiated by the World Bank following the 2005 elections has done little to change the structure of the rural economy. PBS is another form of transfer from tax payers to the regime. It does not empower the poor. It has done little to make the country food self-sufficient and resilient.

2. It has abandoned to commit itself to the fundamental values that distinguish Western democracies from dictatorships: freedom of the press, association and assembly, the rule of law, fair and free elections, a vibrant civil society and a competitive indigenous private sector.

The policy argument that donors cannot apply conditionality is no longer credible. The notion that Ethiopia is more stable than its neighbors and that the repressive regime in power is an ally of the West against terrorism and extremism had outlived its utility function. By all accounts, Ethiopia is more repressive, conflict-ridden, corrupt and unstable today than it was when Meles spoke almost ten years ago. When Forbes Magazine chastises both the ruling elite in Ethiopia and the government of the United States whose entire aid of “$30 billion was stolen and taken out of the country illicitly” by thieves of state and non-state allies, both the US and the EU fail to exercise moral authority by not asking themselves if their largesse is making a difference to the lives of the vast majority of Ethiopians?

Where there is no accountability, aid is not effective.

Is there any form of political accountability on the part of the EU leadership or is accountability less important because Ethiopian lives matter less than the lives of others? Or is the EU telling the Ethiopian people that it has no power to exercise conditionality? Let me accept that it cannot impose conditions on the regime even if it wants to do so. Certainly, the regime cannot force the EU to provide aid. Allocation of aid is the prerogative of the EU leadership and not of elites in Addis Ababa.

As a consequence of non-accountability and no transparency on how aid is used, billions of tax payer monies have ended-up in the pockets of a narrow band of political elites who have become instant millionaires. Billions of dollars have been siphoned-off and deposited or invested abroad by a band of state and non-state thieves abroad. The EU and other donors cannot make a compelling argument that a bulk of their tax payer monies do not contribute to this massive theft and illicit outflow of funds from one of the poorest countries in the world; while shoring one party dictatorship for a quarter of a century.

The EU and other donors cannot make a meaningful argument against the truth on the ground that their tax-payer monies serve as one of the pillars of a brutal regime that kills, maims, imprisons, forcibly evicts, pits one ethnic group against anther to prolong its own life; and impoverishes millions of Ethiopians by grabbing their lands and dispossessing them. It is this same regime they bankroll that rejects a request from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate massive killings in the Oromia and Amhara regions. How low a threshold does the EU want?

The EU and other donors fail to pose at least one critical question to a regime that takes their monies but refuses to hold any public official accountable for theft and repression. Why does Ethiopia continue to suffer from recurrent debilitating droughts? Is this not inexplicable?

On May 4, 2017, the Washington Post wrote “Ethiopia is facing a killer drought. But, it is going almost unnoticed.” The UN had earlier reported that 20 million people faced the prospect of starvation in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen but did not mention Ethiopia. “Yet, as donors struggle to meet the severe needs in the war-torn nations of Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, another crisis, more environmental in nature, is taking place nearby—nearly unnoticed.”

No donor agency that I know of including the EU asked the question of why Ethiopia’s looming catastrophe went “unnoticed? Ethiopians abroad have been mobilizing funds in support of famine-victims in the Ogaden and other localities. The reason the drought induced famine goes “unnoticed” by the global community is because of Ethiopia’s State of Emergency proclamation and severe restrictions on independent reporting. The donor community has a huge presence in Ethiopia; but fails to look.

The problem is donor representatives do not go out to the rural areas where human suffering is most pronounced. In Chad and Cameroon and other countries where I had the privilege of working, I had observed that the donor community lived a sheltered and privileged life often distancing itself from the poor it was supposed to understand and help. It is tragic that the poor are the reason for this opulence and luxury.

As the Post article confirmed, the number of victims of the “killer drought” in Ethiopia keeps rising, from “5.5 million to 7.7 million. The figure is expected to rise further as Southeast Ethiopia confronts another fierce drought….There could eventually be as many people in Ethiopia needing emergency food assistance as in Somalia and South Sudan combined.” The best estimate is that Ethiopia needs $1 billion “to confront the crisis.” To its credit, the government of Ethiopia has allocated $400 million to the famine effort.

However, the bottom line is this. After 26 years of massive EU, the World Bank and other multilateral and bilateral aid later, Ethiopia is unable to feed itself. The donor community failed to anticipate recurrent famine, push for substantial investments in land reform and rehabilitation, investments in smallholder ownership and productivity, irrigated farming, alternative employment generating activities etc.

While I subscribe to the notion that humanitarian aid saves lives, aid is not the panacea or medicine that changes the structure of any economy in a meaningful and substantial way.

As Human Rights Watch put it succinctly and boldly, unconditional aid granted to a repressive and corrupt regime serves as a critical pillar to repress rather than to advance human development. In “Ethiopia: Donor Aid Supports Repression | Human Rights Watch confirmed that EU and other foreign aid is used by the Ethiopian regime to suppress and exclude the political opposition including farmers and pastoralists.

The EU’s continued support to the Addis Ababa regime is self-serving. It is therefore time for the EU leadership to question the moral and or value compass that guides it to support a command economy that serves a narrow band of elites or thieves of state and non-state actors while maintaining an economic structure that keeps the poorest of the poor trapped in a cycle of poverty.  Ethiopians deserve better than platitudes.

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by Reeyot Alemu

My name is Reeyot Alemu. I am a journalist and former prisoner of conscience in Ethiopia. I was a columnist for Feteh (Justice) newspaper, editor for Addis Press and was also the founder and columnist of Lewt, (Change), a monthly magazine. Like the fate of any media outlets critical of the repressive government, all the aforementioned publications were forced to close down and most of the journalists who worked for them have been jailed, tortured or exiled.

The reason why I am writing to you today is not to express self-pity. It is because I strongly believe that the World Health Organization (WHO), an important global institution, is on the verge of falling into the abyss of scandal. I fear that WHO’s reputation will be tarnished and credibility questioned if it elects Dr. Tedros Adhanom. The fact that Dr. Adhanom, one of the top human rights violators making life miserable to the people of Ethiopia, has managed to be the last three candidates, bidding to take over the position of Director-General, is very troubling and alarming.

I was arbitrarily detained on June 21, 2011 until I was freed without explanation in July 2015, a few days before former U.S. President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia. Abused, tortured and mistreated, I spent over four years or 1480 days of my life in the notorious Kalati jail. Like most journalists thrown in jails, I was charged with “terrorism” offenses and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

During my unjust incarceration and solitary confinement, I became gravely ill from an excruciating breast malignancy, which was feared to grow into cancer. But I was denied painkillers let alone getting medical care. They clearly wanted to break me both physically and mentally. Even if I was asked repeatedly to admit the crimes I didn’t commit and beg for forgiveness, I refused to compromise my convictions for freedom of expression.

As a result of the injustice I had faced for writing articles critical of human rights violations and abuse of power, I counted and calculated the 2,131,200 minutes I was forced to spend in the dungeons of injustice. With the burden of injustice and unimaginable pains I had to endure, each minute was like a long day.

As someone who deeply cares not only about the present generation but the generations to come, I believe that we need visionary leaders that truly care about the wellbeing, rights, peace and security of every human being on earth.

The facts I, a victim of Adhanom’s regime, know about him and the polished “visionary” that well-paid PR firms like Mercury Public Affairs are trying to sell at a global stage are totally different. The man I know is a human rights violator who is still a member of the Executive Committee of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The nine-member executive committee is the most powerful group in the country that makes terrible decisions like mass detentions, extrajudicial killings, land grab and even who to label a “terrorist”, like most journalists in jail. As it is widely known, TPLF imposed highly discriminatory and destructive policies to implement its divide and rule policies in Ethiopia.

Dr. Adhanom was also a cabinet minister of the ruthless dictator Meles Zenawi for nearly a decade. Zenawi was not alone but used accomplices and enablers like Dr. Adhanom. After jailing opponents and crippled civil society, Dr. Adhanom has defended everything the regime has done as the foreign minister of this ruthless regime besides being accused of hiding cholera outbreaks during his ministerial tenures.

He is still a member of parliament. The 547-seat parliament is totally controlled by Dr. Adhanom’s oppressive ruling party. During the last election in 2015, the ruling junta claimed to have “won” by 100 percent of the stage-managed elections.

Dr. Adhanom, in tandem with Zenawi and other top members of the incumbent tyranny, played a key role in the promulgation and imposition of the so-called Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No. 652/2009 and Charities and Societies Proclamation No. 621/2009. The former was deviously crafted to punish dissidents and journalists and the latter has been effectively used to destroy civil society organizations including nonprofits that had growing influence in areas of human rights, accountability and justice.

Under Dr. Adhanom’s “anti-terrorism law”, no terrorist has been convicted. But thousands of activists, dissidents and journalists have been victimized by the unjust draconian law. I too was convicted of being a terrorist. The evidence they presented in their Kangaroo court was nothing but the pictures I took for the purpose of reporting and the crtical commentaries I published in newspapers. The fate of so many courageous journalists such as Eskinder Nega, Wubishet Taye, my friend and colleague, former editor of Fitih newspaper and publisher Temesgen Desalegn, who are still languishing in jail, is all the same.

I believe that appointing Dr. Adhanom, who is an active participant in human rights violations and crimes against humanity, is ignoring the pains and suffering of the oppressed people of Ethiopia. As you know, political violence has been one of the primary causes of illness, disability and death to people around the world. I know from my own painful experience that Dr. Adhanom, as a core member of the ruling tyranny, is responsible for the crimes being perpetrated against innocent and defenseless civilians. I do hope that he will be held to account to the crimes he has committed as key member of a tyrannical regime.

I now live in the United States as an exile. I am haunted by the flashback of the hellish experience I went through under Dr. Adhanom’s tyranny. I also feel the pain and suffering of my people enduring mass detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and all sorts of crimes against humanity by a regime that Dr. Adhanom is serving with unflinching commitment. All the crimes they are perpetrating are well documented by many global human rights organizations such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists. He does not represent anyone but a repressive regime. I am certain that this fact is unmissable to any responsible person.

The Constitution of WHO declares: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”

As an active and willing participant of crimes against humanity, Dr. Adhanom’s record speaks for itself in that he has neither the commitment, integrity, heart nor moral compass to uphold such a high standard constitution. Entrusting a human rights violator to lead the WHO is like putting a stamp of approval to those who abuse their power and influence in the pursuit of their narcissistic and parochial interests.

I, hereby, appeal the World Health Assembly and leadership of the WHO to reject the candidacy of Dr. Adhanom. Someone like Adhanom, who played a key role in causing the suffering and abuse of fellow human beings can never have the caliber and integrity needed to lead a global institution whose mission is the attainment of the highest possible level of health by every human being.

After all, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We cannot overlook not only the injustices across the world but also the perpetrators and their enablers that cause so much pains and suffering.

I thank you so much for your attention!

With highest regards Reeyot Alemu

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Addis Standard

Addis Abeba, May 16, 2017 – The Federal High court fourth criminal bench has today passed a guilty verdict against Yonatan Tesfaye, former opposition Blue Party public relations head.

Yonatan was first arrested in December 2015, barely a month after the first wave of a year-long #Oromoprotests erupted.  He was held incommunicado during the pre-trial weeks and was subsequently charged in May 2016 under Ethiopia’s infamous anti-terrorism proclamation (ATP).

Yonatan has been defending the charges against him since then. The charges of ‘encouragement of terrorism’, stipulated under article six of the ATP, were largely drawn from his Facebook activism during the protests. According to article six of the ATP, “Whosoever publishes or causes the publication of a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom it is published as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducements to them to the commission or preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism…” is subject to terrorism charges.

He had presented several defense witnesses, including prominent opposition party leaders from the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Bekele Gerba and Dr. Merera Gudina, who are in jail at the time of their testimony fighting charges of terrorism and multiple criminal charges respectively, and journalist Eskendir Nega, who is serving 18 years in prison for terrorism-related charges.

In addition, Yonatan’s close friend Ephrem Tayachew, his father Tesfaye Regassa, and his sister Gedamnesh Tesfaye as well as academicians from the Addis Abeba University (AAU), including the outspoken philosopher Dr. Dagnachew Assefa and Dr. Yaqob Hailemariam have all appeared in court to testify in defense of Yonatan’s innocence.

However, this morning the court in its verdict overruled all defense testimonials by upholding prosecutors’ accusations. Yonatan’s sentencing is adjourned to May 25.

Yonatan could face from ten to 20 years rigorous prison term in a federal prison; however, the court ruled that he can appeal for a minimum sentence.

***According to new information Addis Standard received, after the sentencing is handed over, Yonatan’s defense team, led by his lawyer Shibiru Belete, is planning to object to the verdict and appeal for the charges to be reduced to criminal charges.

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(IRIN) — A woman with a pink cloth wrapped around her head climbs out of a window on the fourth floor of a residential building. She peers at the ground far below, clutching onto the window ledge as voices in the background yell at her to come inside. Instead, she jumps, her scream lingering for four seconds before she hits the ground.

The video was broadcast on Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV in March, with a voiceover explaining that the woman was an Ethiopian domestic worker in Khalde, an area south of Beirut.

According to statistics obtained by IRIN from General Security, Lebanon’s intelligence agency, migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are dying at a rate of two per week. Many of the deaths are suicides or botched escape attempts in which migrant women choose to jump off buildings rather than continue working in abusive and exploitative situations.

Human Rights Watch reported on the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon in a 2008 report that put the death rate at one per week. Since then, heightened activism and advocacy on the issue seems to have had little impact. The bodies of 138 migrant domestic workers were repatriated between January 2016 and April this year.

Rights groups have been advocating for better protections of migrant workers in Lebanon for years and in 2014 domestic workers managed to found their own union – the first of its kind in the region. Yet little has changed. Women coming from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Kenya, and other developing countries are still bound by the kefala (sponsorship) system, which gives employers total control over their lives.

Beaten and sexually abused

Yorda*, a 37-year-old from Eritrea, escaped after five years as a domestic worker for a wealthy family in Tripoli. She received no salary, no days off, and slept on the kitchen floor. She suffered beatings from her “madam” and sexual harassment from the woman’s husband. “It was hell,” said Yorda, who was not allowed to contact her family in Eritrea. Now she’s a registered refugee and is informally leading an Ethiopian migrant workers’ church in Beirut. She told IRIN that many of the women who come to her church feel trapped by the conditions of live-in domestic work. “Many are going crazy. Even when they run away, they live in rooms with six or seven people stuck together. That makes you crazy too,” Yorda said.

The increase in migrant workers’ deaths coincides with a decrease in public reporting and enquiry. The only NGO actively tallying migrant domestic workers’ deaths is KAFA, a Lebanese women’s rights group, which relies on local news reports to mapcases. They have found only 10 to 12 cases a year on average since 2010, and hadn’t detected the recent increase.

At a migrant community centre in Beirut, 37-year-old Ethiopian Rahel Zegeye, a volunteer with the pro-migrant rights Anti-Racism Movement, said that suicides are difficult to document because many women who die never left their employers’ homes. Zegeye has tried to follow up on several suicide cases but said: “I don’t have power to ask the government anything here.” She swiped through photos of injured Ethiopian domestic workers on her phone: some unconscious and bruised, others pregnant, sick, or bleeding on the floor – all of them women, many of whom Zegeye said had since died.

A hidden crisis

Ethiopia has banned labour migration to the Middle East, but migrant women continue to arrive illegally from there every day. Unseen and unrecorded, they are locked into work situations that often end in abuse, imprisonment, deportation or even death.

“So many Ethiopians come here… Why doesn’t the Lebanese government stop them?” said Zegeye. “Our young generation is dying here.”

KAFA communications coordinator Maya Ammar said her organisation had tried to gather more information about migrant deaths reported in the media from General Security, “but the file is closed after 24 hours, with no further investigation. We don’t know the girl, her name, her family or how to reach them. We ask the Ethiopian embassy, and they don’t cooperate much. No one is following up.”

General Security declined to comment on the causes of death and the Ministry of Labour could not be reached for comment.

Halima Mohamed, Ethiopia’s Consul General in Lebanon, refused to discuss details of deaths, saying there were only a few each year and that the embassy cannot pressure Lebanese authorities to investigate or prosecute. “If the girl dies, we are always looking for a report. But in a country where there is no rule of law or accountability, how do you trust [it]? You cannot verify anything,” Mohamed told IRIN. “These girls are locked into homes for years. They are young ladies with no knowledge who cannot protect themselves.”

Ineffective travel bans

Ethiopia’s approach of banning citizens from going to work in Lebanon has been tried by Nepal, the Philippines, and Madagascar at different times, and yet the number of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon rose from just under 130,000 in 2014 to nearly 170,000 in 2016, according to the Ministry of Labour – and that is excluding those who arrive without formal work permits. “We banned sending working girls to all of the Middle East years ago, but unofficially, there is trafficking,” Mohamed said. She explained that Ethiopians can easily come as tourists, or via third countries, and then obtain a work visa after arriving in Lebanon.

Zeina Mezher of the International Labor Organization said travel bans actually increase migrant workers’ vulnerability. “We’re not at all supportive of bans in countries of origin. They put migrants at more risk of exploitation and trafficking,” she told IRIN.

Instead, ILO advocates for comprehensive bilateral agreements between origin and destination countries to regulate recruitment, migration, and working conditions. Such agreements “should have the migrants’ rights at their heart”, said Mezher.

No legal standing

Farah Salka, executive director of the Anti-Racism Movement, said the Lebanese government has little interest or capacity to change its migrant labour system. “There is nothing called law for migrant domestic workers here. It’s not that there is bad law; there is no law,” Salka explained.

Domestic workers are excluded from Lebanon’s labour law, which means they have no guarantees to a minimum wage, days off, or recourse in cases of withheld salaries, sexual, verbal or physical abuse. Instead, they have the kefala system, which stipulates that migrant workers must live with their employers, and cannot change workplaces without their employers’ consent.

Workers often try seeking help from their agencies, only to be ignored or further exploited. After being beaten and locked inside by her employer, 22-year-old Kenyan Tenesia* asked her agency to help her. Instead, they confiscated her passport and sent her to work for other families without pay. “The agent told me to wait and work, and he will get money for my ticket to go home,” Tenesia said. She worked another year and four months before getting in touch with the Kenyan embassy, which helped her escape to a women’s shelter run by Caritas. She still doesn’t have her passport or money for a flight home.

NGOs provide some assistance to migrant workers, but real changes to their conditions would require top-down policy change, which is not a priority for the Lebanese government according to Ammar of KAFA. “There’s no intention at all to reconsider any of the kefala system. The government and public security are convinced that it protects the worker by controlling them,” she commented. “There are lots of racist assumptions – that these women are weak and need to be kept with a family, for example.”

Speaking up

The domestic workers’ union was set up in late 2014 under the wings of the National Federation of Worker and Employee Trade Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL) with the aim of empowering domestic workers to protect and advocate for themselves, said Farah Abdallah, a FENASOL representative. But as migrants are not allowed to unionise under Lebanese law, the union’s president is Lebanese and it has primarily provided migrant domestic workers only with access to Lebanese people who can speak up on their behalf.

“We report problems to FENASOL, and they talk to the employers,” said 44-year-old Filipina Idan Tejano, president of the union’s general assembly. She came to Lebanon in 2012 as a migrant worker, but left her employer after six months because she wasn’t receiving her salary or any days off. Under the kefala system, she is now considered an illegal runaway. “We don’t have papers, so we cannot go to report our problems. If we tell the police that the employers did not give us salaries, they will arrest us,” Tejano said.

Last December, Lebanese authorities deported Nepalese migrant domestic worker and activist Sujana Raja on International Human Rights Day, expelling another Nepalese migrant domestic worker, Roja Limbu, a few days later. Both had legal status and work visas, but were also known union members and community organisers, which Human Rights Watch suggested was the reason for their deportation.

Fear of arbitrary detention and deportation has limited migrant workers’ ability to advocate for legal reforms and better working conditions. “No one wants to take risks in any kind of organising,” Salka said. Most migrant domestic workers who are still with their employers can’t leave the house, so those who can attend events like marches are mostly illegal “runaways”, and thus at risk. “What if we have a candlelight vigil with 20 workers, then police show up and take them? What can we do for them?” Salka asked. “Nothing.”

[TOP PHOTO: An Ethiopian migrant domestic worker holds a child during the annual Migrant Workers’ March, held in Beirut every year on Workers’ Day to advocate for better working conditions and accountability for migrant abuse and deaths. Credit: Anti-Racism Movement]

*Full names withheld for the source’s own safety 

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Lobbying Firms in the US are known to represent big corporations like oil, construction, food manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries, trying to persuade lawmakers to support business friendly legislations. As this is a controversial practice, politicians running for office do not want to be associated with Lobbying firms. In fact, it was a major discussion topic during the 2016 presidential election season for both candidates.

The main reason for politicians to discredit lobbying firms when they run for office is because most of the public considers lobbying as a form of legal bribery. While there is a difference between buying, and influencing votes, the truth is it may be very difficult to differentiate and the public has legitimate questions on why Lobby firms can organize fundraisers for elected officials and provide lucrative job offers to members of congress.

When thinking of lobbying firms, often, highly educated, and well paid lawyers come to mind. Some have graduated from respected educational institutions, having connections to senators, congressmen, and even the President’s office. Number of Lobby firms are led by former lawmakers or Presidential advisors who have proficient knowledge on the US government.

The former top aide to President Trump was at the helm of the so called “tortures lobby” who defended murderous dictators like Jonas Savimbi of Angola, Mobuto Sese Seko of former Zaire, Sani Abacha of Nigeria.  The fact that those leaders could buy US lobbying firms with blood money is a disgrace to this great nation as those dictators are known to have caused unbelievable suffering to their people.

A 1992 report from the center for Public Integrity listed the firm Manafort and associates own, as one of the lobbying firms that profited most by doing business with governments that violated their people’s human rights. Would it be a stretch to assume those business deals at the expense of millions of people may have elevated Mr. Manafort’s profile?

The dictionary definition of Lobbyist, is someone “employed to persuade legislators to pass legislation that will help the lobbyist’s employer”.  Therefore, by signing a contract with a corrupt and unethical government, a Lobby firm is entitled to be an employee of that regime.

At the center of this story is H. Res 128, a bill sponsored by congressman Bill Smith (R-NJ) and currently co-sponsored by more than twenty representatives who care about Ethiopia and Ethiopians.  The bill states, “supporting respect for human Rights and encouraging inclusive governance” calls for accountability, good governance, and encourages democratic elections in Ethiopia.

Ethiopians are not waiting or expecting for the United States of America to free them from a ruthless regime–– rather, they are truly fighting for their democratic rights as they sacrifice their lives every day.  Passage of H. Res 128 does not mean the urgent change that most Ethiopians want is going to happen immediately, however it does mean when US taxpayers money is going to be given to the current torturous government, the US should have a moral obligation to ensure that the aid money it provides is not being used for crimes committed on Ethiopians by their own government.

In trying to stop this bill, and in a desire to continue business as usual, the ethnocentric Ethiopian government found a friend in SGR lobbying firm and the TPLF ambassador recently signed a contract with the firm paying 1.8 million dollars. For most Ethiopian Americans who live in admiration of the political culture of this great country, the fact that a big lobbying firm in the US can be hired to defend interests of a tyrant regime is an extreme shock.  The sad reality is the same method was exploited well by the same regime in the recent past.  In 2008, another big lobby firms, DLA piper, and its partner and former house majority leader Dick Armey, did try to kill a similar bill entitled “Ethiopian Democracy and accountability act of 2007” which was on the floor after the same dictatorial regime stole legitimate votes and killed close to hundred student demonstrators.

The question most Ethiopians were asking at the time was how could Dick Armey, a respected legislator who served in house of representatives for eighteen years and who claims to be an engineer of the republican revolution in this great country, defend such a ruthless regime for money, or was he ok with the killings of student demonstrators as far as it is far away from the US.

The irony is, most of those highly educated, articulate and well-dressed lobbyists including former legislator Dick Armey grew in a country that protects individual freedom.  Those lawyers have grown up expressing their stand on issues, devoting their time and effort in demonstrations. A stark contrast in Ethiopia is the heinous torture story told by an opposition leader spokesperson, Mr. Habtamu Ayalew who was recently interviewed by the Voice of America Amharic program. According to Mr. Habtamu and International Human Rights Organization Accounts, torture is routinely practiced by the TPLF regime.

Discussions consisting of politicians getting rid of lobbying to fight corruption within the US government usually dies down after an election season.  While there may be a lot of work to do in that area, US lawmakers should at least consider banning lobbying firms from representing corrupt governments. They should inform those leaders that our lobbying firms may be for sale for big corporations that function within the US jurisdiction, but they are not for sale for leaders who abuse their power, labelled as such by well-respected institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and even the US State Department.

Regarding tyrants like the TPLF, we believe that SGR lobbying firm has sold its soul for a few million dollars, money that is stolen from the mouths of destitute children who are calling for food, and taken from communities that were forced to live in dreadful conditions under city garbage and buried by it. The 1.8 million dollars in the SGR account is money obtained via corruption and extortion. It is an aid money given by western countries to help poor farmers.

The question is, why would SGR lawyers knowingly accept money stained with blood of peaceful demonstrators?  How could they go home and think, “I was busy at work, defending a government that only killed 800 peaceful demonstrators, and tortures its opponents”.  How could they in good conscious say they stand and defend the US constitution that declares and asserts, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” When they take money from a government that exercises extreme cruelty by killing a young boy and beat his mom on his dead body in Dembi Dolo, south-western Ethiopia.  Again, those places may be very far away but don’t we share the same humanity?

If we divide the 1.8 million dollars SGR lawyers are getting paid by close to eight hundred dead Ethiopians brutally executed while peacefully demonstrating that will be ~2250 dollars per dead body.  If we consider the massacre perpetrated by TPLF over the years a total of the value may even go down to 10’s of dollars per body.  If we divide it to the five million Ethiopians currently starving while TPLF is bragging double digit growth, that may even be less than a dollar per starved body.  How much is an Ethiopian life, a life of a starving child, the lives of tortured and raped bodies in Africa worth for rich lobby firms like SGR in the US?  That is a disconcerting question and we will leave the answer to the SGR lobbying group. Maybe the smart, highly educated, articulate, well dressed and big school lawyers in SGR have an answer to that question.

Prepared by Ethiopian Task Force of NY/NJ

May 2017

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Yonatan Tesfaye now faces a sentence of up to 20 years

Ethiopian opposition politician Yonatan Tesfaye has been found guilty of encouraging terrorism for comments he made on Facebook.

He was arrested in December 2015 as a wave of anti-government protests in the Oromia region was gathering momentum.

The authorities objected to several posts including one in which he said the government used “force against the people instead of peaceful discussion”.

Ethiopia has been criticised for using anti-terror laws to silence dissent.

Amnesty International described the charges as “trumped up“, when they were confirmed in May 2016.

A section of Ethiopia’s anti-terror law says that anyone who makes a statement that could be seen as encouraging people to commit an act of terror can be prosecuted.

In a translation of the charge sheet by the Ethiopian Human Rights Project that details the Facebook comments, Mr Yonatan allegedly said: “I am telling you to destroy [the ruling party’s] oppressive materials… Now is the time to make our killers lame.”

Mr Yonatan, who was a spokesperson for the opposition Blue Party, is due to be sentenced later this month and faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Image copyrightREUTERS

The government faced unprecedented protests from November 2015 as people in the Oromia region complained of political and economic marginalisation.

The protests also spread to other parts of the country.

More than 600 people died in clashes between security forces and the demonstrators as the authorities tried to deal with the unrest, according to the state-affiliated Human Rights Commission.

The government introduced a state of emergency last October to bring the situation under control.

Opposition leader Merera Gudina was arrested last December for criticising the state of emergency and he is still being held.

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Russian president accuses Microsoft billionaire of NWO acts

By: Jay Greenberg  
NeonNettle on 13th May 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused tech billionaire Bill Gates of starting an Ebola epidemic in The Congo by “experimenting” on poor African villagers.Mr. Putin claims that the Microsoft founder has Congolese tribes with a rare strain of the Ebola virus as part of a research and development project into “bioweapons”.News reports from Western media are claiming that between one and three people have died since the outbreak of the Ebola virus was confirmed by the World Health Organization on Thursday, whilst doctors are confirming that victims were killed by the rare “Zaire strain” of the virus.YNW reports: While medical staff remain puzzled by the appearance of the deadly disease in Bas-Uele province, a previously unaffected and remote part of the Congo, a Kremlin report claims the Ebola virus is a “bioweapon” being tweaked as part of an elite global eugenics plan.

And the finger of blame is being pointed squarely at Bill Gates. It is understood the bioweapon is being developed by Gates, the richest man in the world, to achieve his self-confessed Illuminati goal of depopulating the globe.

According to the leaked confidential Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) report that has been read by sources in the Kremlin, it has been revealed that the virus was created by “world governments and non-government organizations.” It is understood the chief non-government organization behind the Ebola virus is Bill Gates’ own Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

President Putin is said to be “disturbed by the potential for worldwide harm.” There have been meetings in the past 24 hours regarding further sanctions on Bill Gates and his front companies, as well as plans to protect humanity from the “one man eugenics movement.”

In 2016 President Putin banned Gates and his company Microsoft from Russia, citing security and privacy fears. Though dismissed as “paranoid” and “weird” by Western media at the time, WikiLeaks revelations in 2017 regarding collusion between the CIA, Microsoft and Silicon Valley tech companies have proved Putin was one step ahead of the game.

In 2015 Bill Gates teamed up with Hollywood star Ben Affleck to request more money and freedom for the Gates Foundation to perform experiments in the Congo and other developing nations.

Since then, Gates has continued rolling out his biological and vaccination experiments around the developing world. But the world is slowly waking up to Gates’s sinister agenda.

India has shut down the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation’s operations and kicked its management out of the country after grave concerns were raised about the foundation’s no-consent vaccination experiments on village girls.

Devastating health effects affecting 30,000 village girls led the Indian government to sue Bill Gates, a case that is still ongoing. But it was far from the first time Gates was exposed.In 2010, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Australian research scientists to release GMO mosquitoes infected with a bacterium.That same year, Bill Gates confessed he wanted to depopulate the world – a key Illuminati goal.“The world today has 6.8 billion people; that’s headed up to about 9 billion,” he said during the invitation-only 2010 TED Conference. “Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”

Now those bacterium-infected GMO mosquitoes created by Bill Gates in 2010 are causing havoc in the Americas – with the whole globe at risk, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).The WHO is now convening an Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations concerning the ‘explosive’ spread of the Zika virus throughout the Americas. The virus reportedly has the potential to reach pandemic proportions — possibly around the globe.But understanding why the Zika outbreak occurred, and why the Ebola outbreak in the Congo is happening now, is vital to stopping these viruses being used as bioweapons.The finger of blame is pointing squarely at the richest man in the world. What are they going to do about it?

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The Bank has prioritized agriculture for its role in poverty reduction, overcoming hunger and food insecurity.

The 52^nd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group will be held on the 22^nd to 26^th of May 2017 in Ahmedabad, India. The Meetings will be held on the theme: “Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa” reflecting the significance of agriculture in Africa and in the Bank’s development work. The Annual Meetings are the Bank’s largest annual event.

Agriculture has a fundamental place in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Reflecting the global and continental agenda, the Bank has prioritized agriculture transformation by designating it as one of its High 5s: Feed Africa. Agriculture is an important economic sector in Africa given its significance to poverty alleviation, food security and economic transformation.

Africa spends about $35 billion per year on food imports and this figure could rise to $110 billion by 2025. The potential of the continent is not fully realized, resulting in under performance and chronic food shortages. Climate change also poses a serious threat to traditional production methods which are widely used in Africa by small scale farmers.

Africa has the potential to become a global agriculture powerhouse and the setting of the next Green Revolution. Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal and Burkina Faso provide valuable examples of successful agriculture transformation towards this goal spearheaded by the Bank.

“The Bank has committed to invest $24 billion towards agriculture in the next 10 years, with sharp focus on food self-sufficiency and agricultural industrialization. The Bank has also launched a $500 million Fund for Energy Inclusion with $100 million seed capital, to provide affordable finance for companies investing in renewable energy,” says Mr. Gabriel Negatu, AfDB Regional Director for the East Africa Regional Resource Centre.

The Annual Meetings will bring together thousands of delegates and participants, and will feature a number of official, knowledge and side events. The Governors of the Bank are from the 54 regional member countries and 26 non-regional member countries. The Annual Meetings provide a unique forum for representatives of government, business, civil society, think-tanks, academia and the media from Africa and beyond to debate key issues on Africa’s development, and to discuss the Bank’s performance in delivering on its mandate.

India agreed to host the 2017 Annual Meetings last year and a Memorandum of understanding was signed in September 2016. Delhi joined the African Development Bank in 1982 making the country a key member of AfDB’s 24 Non-Regional Member Countries which support the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional resource window of the Bank. Bilateral trade between Africa and India stands at USD 57b per year as of 2016, and this is expected to double by 2018.

African Development Bank

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is a multilateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries. The AfDB was founded in 1964 and comprises three entities: The African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. The bank’s mission is to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries (RMC).

AfDB developed the High 5s as accelerators for Africa to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. The African Development Bank intends to scale up operations in the High 5 priority areas, consistent with the objectives of the Bank’s Ten Years Strategy. They are:

1. Light up and power Africa,
2. Feed Africa,
3. Industrialize Africa,
4. Integrate Africa and
5. Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

AfDB achievements in 2016

– 3.3 million Africans benefitted from new electricity connections

– 3.7 million Africans benefited from improved access to water and sanitation

– 5.7 million Africans benefitted from improvements to agriculture

– 9.3 million Africans benefitted from access to better health care services

– 7 million Africans benefitted from improved access to transport

Kind regards

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Tesfaye, arrested in 2015 over social media posts, faces up to 20 years in jail under 2009 anti-terrorism law.

• By Ludovica Iaccino

  May 17, 2017

Rights group Amnesty International has criticised the decision of an Ethiopian court to charge an ex-opposition member with encouraging terrorism. Yonatan Tesfaye, former spokesman for the opposition Blue Party, was arrested in December 2015 after posting comments on social media in which he criticised the government.

Tesfaye claimed authorities had used force to quell anti-government protests that rocked Oromiaregion in 2015 and 2016.

In one of his posts, he claimed authorities had used “force against the people instead of using peaceful discussion”, according to AFP.

Tesfaye’s defence team argued he was excercising his right of freedom of expression. However, judge Belayhun Awol ruled on Tuesday (16 May) the comments “exceeded freedom of expression” and amounted to encouraging terrorism.

Tesfaye has pleaded non guilty and plans to appeal the verdict. He will be sentenced on 25 May.

He faces between 10 and 20 years in prison under the country’s anti-terrorism law. The legislation, implemented in 2009, was criticised by rights groups, which claimed it was used to silence critics and journalists, something the government denies.

“This is not a crime, yet he now faces up to 20 years in jail under this draconian and deeply-flawed law,” Michelle Kagari, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said in a statement.

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Kagari deemed the verdict as “a miscarriage of justice” and added: “This ruling is a shameful affront to people’s right to express themselves and further entrenches repression in Ethiopia,” she said.

Demonstrations broke out in Oromia in November 2015 and later spread to the Amhara region, northwestern Ethiopia, growing into what has been considered the biggest anti-government unrest in Ethiopia’s recent history and prompting the country to declare a state of emergency – still in place today – that put an end to the protests.

People initially protested over government plans to expand the territory of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, with farmers fearing that increasing the size of the city would lead to forced evictions and loss of farming land.

The government later scrapped the plans, but protests continued. Many Oromo people argued for a greater inclusion in the political process, saying they had been marginalised. Protesters also called for the release of political prisoners.

Oromo protesters further claimed the government is dominated by the Tigray minority, who make up 6.2% of the total population. The country is ruled by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of four political parties that includes the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization.

In 2016, in a substantial cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn appointed 21 new cabinet ministers, giving prominent ministerial roles to two members of the Oromo ethnic group.

Since November 2015, the unrest in Ethiopia has resulted in the deaths of 669 people, including 63 policemen, according to a report released by Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission in April.

Rights groups have accused security forces of killing hundreds of people, opening fire on unarmed protesters and arbitrarily arresting protesters, journalists and human rights defenders during the demonstrations.

While the country’s Human Rights Commission recommended prosecution of some police officers, it maintained that the overall response by security forces was adequate.

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By: Asress M.

In today’s Ethiopia, the Oromos and Amharas feel they are treated like second-class citizens. The ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), with its core, the Tigrayan People liberation Front, (TPLF) controls all 547 parliamentary seats. Currently, the country is still under state of emergency rule which was imposed in October 2016 during the worst ethnic violence in 25 years that Ethiopia has seen. No one is yet sure how long the country will stay in state of emergency

The Oromiya and Amhara regions of Ethiopia were war zones since protests began in November 2015. The Oromo and Amhara communities together make up more than 60 percent of Ethiopia’s 100 million populations. However, ethnic Tigrayans, who comprise less that 6 percent, dominate an authoritarian government while the Oromos and Amharas have been excluded from the country’s political process and the economic development. . From October 2015 till January 2017 more than 3000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have been arrested by security forces of the minority ruling party.

The brutal reality that has been observed during the biggest protests in 25 years is that people have been humiliated based on race. The security forces who were mostly Tigrayans have been killing the Amharas and Oromos mercilessly simply because they are not from their ethnic group. The Amhara and Oromo protesters have been also attacking the Tigrayans businesses. If the Tigrayan elites continue abusing the power; it is quite possible that people from other regions of the country unite themselves under a banner which claims the bankruptcy of ethnic federalism and fight for their freedom.

The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, with its core, the Tigrayan People liberation Front, (TPLF) has been too stubborn in reforming the country’s political system. It is unlikely that TPLF will change it’s the ethnic federal system and its iron feast rule strategy. Because it fears reforms would encourage even more radical protests aiming to overthrow the minority regime. This may lead Ethiopia to eventually implode of conflict, popular uprising that looks like the Syrian situation.

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Published May 17, 2017

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INQUIRER / YG/JE

Situated in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has emerged as one of the top global tourist destinations in the past few years. But Filipinos have little knowledge of the diverse cultural treasures that this tropical country has to offer.

Ethiopia was recognized by the European Council Tourism and Trade as the “Best Tourism Destination” in 2015, and earlier this year by the Lonely Planet as among the top 10 world tourist destinations for 2017.

To increase Filipinos’ knowledge and appreciation of this hidden African gem, here are top 3 must-see historical destinations and beautiful sceneries to visit in Ethiopia, which are recognized UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as listed by a top African airline:

1. The northern town of Lalibela in this 13^th century “New Jerusalem” is famous for its 11 medieval rock-hewn churches in the mountainous region. Up to this day, it remains to be a highly respected place of pilgrimage and devotion in Ethiopian Christianity.

   Lalibela. Photo by Ethiopia Airlines

   Lalibela

Fasilides. Photo by Ethiopia Airlines

2. Gondar

Dubbed as the “Camelot” of Africa, the historical city of Gondar, composed of structures built by kings during the 17^th century, is an iconic remnant of the once strong African empire. It is known for the Royal Enclosure or the Fasil Ghebbi, which is composed of beautiful stone castles and banquet halls where princes and princesses once strolled. Other components include the Castle of Emperor Fasilides, the Castle of Emperor Iyasu, the Library of Tzadich Yohannes, the Chancellery of Tzadich Yohannes, the Castle of Emperor David, the Palace of Mentuab, and the Banqueting Hall of the Emperor Bekaffa.

Axum. Photo by Ethiopia Airlines

3. Axum

Regarded as one of the most sacred destinations in the world, Axum is said to house the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the Ten Commandments or Tablets of Law, a significant biblical symbols in Christian religion. It is known to be the historical and religious heart of Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Airlines flies from Manila to Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa three times a week. YG/JE

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Delegates from Patriotic Ginbot 7 and ONLF met in Frankfurt, Germany from 15 to 17 `May, 2017.  The delegates held a through discussion and assessment of the prevailing political, economic, and social conditions in Ethiopia and the crimes being committed by the TPLF/EPRDF dictatorial regime against the Ethiopian people.

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Tsegaye Tegenu, (PhD)

2017-05-18

Although still a majority rural country, Ethiopia has been rapidly urbanizing in the past few decades. The urban centres have increased both in size and number. In the 1960s there were about 384 towns with a total population of 1.5 million, which increased to 925 in 1994 with the urban population of 8.5 million. Currently, the urban population has more than doubled reaching at 19 million. Over the past 30 years, Ethiopia’s annual urban population growth rate has been higher than the average in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report released by the World Bank Group in 2015.

The multiplication and concentration of urban centres in Ethiopia coincided with rapid population growth in the country. Total population doubled in twenty five years from 46 million (1995 size) to 92 million in 2015. Since natural increase in urban population was not greater than the rural population, the explosion of urban population was due to the migration of people from rural to urban areas.

When looking at the urban age structure, the proportions and numbers of young adults, the youth bulge, is increasing. In the 1960s and 1970s, the youth bulge in urban centres was about 30Pct of the urban working age population and in 2007 this number increased to 53Pct, according to the latest national census. The number of young adults is projected to increase as a result of continued rapid urbanization. According to official figures, the urban population is projected to increase to 42.3 million in 2037, growing at 3.8Pct per year. That would mean doubling of the current urban population by the early 2030s.

For many years to come, youth bulge is and will be the dominant age group in the urban centres. The life domains of this age group include education, employment, health, housing and infrastructure services (transportation) as well as participation. Growth in the relative number of the youthful population means the intensity of these needs, roles and livelihood positions affecting their wellbeing.

Now, the questions are do urban centres have the resources to meet the needs and demands of a rapidly growing youthful population? What can urban centres do to mitigate the youth bulge challenges? What are the policy strategies, practical tools, policy actors, governance structure and financial methods that can be used by city and urban governments?

I have not come across studies that assess the effects and challenges of youth bulge trend on sustainable urban development in Ethiopia. Researches such as the one that was published by Ethiopian Development Research Institute entitled ‘Unlocking the Power of Ethiopia’s Cities’ indicate that even in developed countries, the study of urban development from the perspective of age transition is very recent. Traditionally, both in developed countries and developing countries like Ethiopia, the problems and challenges of urban development is studied from the perspectives of sectoral specialization and silo approaches in which each stakeholders prioritizes their own special interest

For instance, a study on the housing sector and associated infrastructure facilities (such as water, electricity, waste disposal) discusses the inadequacy of the social amenities and the slum environments in the urban areas. Likewise, land use planning maps the economic sectors, efficiency of transportation system, and intra-city mobility. Sectoral approaches address mainly the life quality issues of the community and they are relevant in design options. The negative side of this approach is that under conditions where system of accountability lacks, ‘sectorisation’ can give special interest precedence over others and those powerful actors with resources can advance their own interest.

The perspective of youth bulge, on the other hand, focuses on the life quality of the individual and on the opportunity structures that influence the development as well as life chances of individuals, which should be the basis of urban development planning and policy choices. The problems and challenges of youth bulge cities and towns require holistic view that crosses the border of sectors. As pointed out, youth bulge effects cover different life domains (health, education, employment, housing and transportation). Youthful population life moves between the different sectors and spheres which by their very nature require an integrated approach.

The fundamental of urban sector study and planning is difficult to move away from. ‘Sectorization’ and specialization are old phenomenon related to the society’s division of labour and need for accountability. The drawback is that a too far driven sectoral approach impedes actors to cooperate on holistic solutions to youth bulge effects.

Sustainability of youth bulge cities and towns requires holistic view in addition to the traditional sectoral approaches to urban development. Holistic view explores ways of developing good governance structure that enhance co-operation between key stakeholders from the public and private sector, youth and professionals in building sustainable youth bulge urban centres. The question is do; we have now an attempt to break the sectoral approach and initiate long term and integrated vision that crosses the border of sectors?

Another important policy strategy question concerning youth bulge cities/towns is on measures aimed at controlling and stemming rural-urban migration, which is the main source of youth bulge explosion in urban centres. The pattern, trend and characteristics of migration-led urbanization in Ethiopia, calls for program and strategy that are focused on rural industrialization. To absorb the surplus rural labour into a wage based productive economy and to avoid uneven and unbalanced growth of towns, there is a need for rural industrialization in Ethiopia.

Rural industrialization is concerned with the spread and growth of small-scale and cottage industries in rural areas. Bramall. C in his study entitled ‘The Industrialization of Rural China’ reveal that the experiences of high population density countries such as China and India shows that small scale industrial sector has vast potential in terms of creating employment and output. Small-scale manufacturing industries have the capacity to absorb the surplus labour and provide productive employment owing to their growth character.

There are two approaches to rural industrialization. The first approach defines rural industrialization as the spread of manufacturing employment and enterprise management from major cities to rural towns. This is called “exogenous model of rural industrialization”. The second approach emphasises setting up of industries based on rural local resources and skills since economic capacities of a given country may not ensure the expansion of urban industries to rural areas. This model, which emphasises the unique rural character, is called “endogenous model of rural industrialization”.

To me, it doesn’t matter whether industries spread from urban to rural areas or be based on rural local resources catering local demands. What matters is the creation of productive employment for the surplus rural labour in the nearby towns and supply of consumption goods to the rural households.

The conditions of youth bulge cities and towns in the country require industrial decentralization (relocation of manufacturing industries to medium and small towns) to bring about balanced growth and absorb the rural surplus labour in its own proximate location (to curb long distance migration).

There are two policy strategies and tools that matter most for sustainable urban development of youth bulge cities and towns. First, thinking for a holistic view that crosses the border of urban sectors, there need to be a plan that enhance co-operation between stakeholders including the youth. Second, there need to be a program for the promotion of rural-town based small-scale manufacturing industries, which are not only more labour intensive but also more productive per unit of scarce capital than their large-scale counterparts in capital cities.

Source: Ethiopian Business Review, 5^th Year, May 2017, No. 50.

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By Paul Schemm
May 18 at 5:00 AM

Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is a candidate for director general of the World Health Organization. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Despite warnings from its own experts, the World Health Organization took two months to declare the devastating Ebola outbreak in 2014 an emergency, during which time 1,000 people died in West Africa. Leaked emails later revealed that officials were loath to call it an epidemic for fear of angering the African countries involved and hurting their economies.

The WHO’s handling of the outbreak, which went on to kill more than 11,000 people, has been seen as a sign of the desperate need to reform this global organization, which is responsible for marshaling the global response to epidemics.

On May 22, member state will choose among three candidates — all of whom have pledged deep changes to the organization — vying for the post of WHO director general. One of the candidates, however, has been accused of the same kind of emergency-related minimization of crises that marred the WHO’s response to the Ebola outbreak.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 52, Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to 2012 and foreign minister until 2016, is a strong candidate for the post, backed by the African Union as well as countries in the Pacific and the Caribbean. He has an impressive track record in Ethiopia. The country also covered up cholera outbreaks under his watch.

The candidate, who goes by his first name and campaigns as Dr. Tedros, presided over a dramatic expansion of Ethiopia’s health system and reductions in infant and maternal mortality as well as deaths from malaria. He also extended the reach of the health system deep into remote rural areas.

In the past 10 years, Ethiopia is also the only country in the Horn of Africa that has not been touched by cholera — according to the government. Critics disagree.

Since a cholera outbreak in 2006 in the Oromia region, Ethiopia has referred to the disease as “acute watery diarrhea” (AWD), essentially a symptom of the deadly waterborne cholera, which is caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. Tests at the time by the United Nations confirmed that it was actually cholera.

The likely rationale for not calling the disease cholera is the same one that delayed the labeling of the Ebola outbreak an emergency in 2014 — it would make Ethiopia look bad, hurt tourism and could result in some countries banning food exports from Ethiopia.

It is not clear whether Tedros had any input in the government’s decision to stop using the term “cholera,” but the change occurred during his tenure as health minister.

Since then, there have been several AWD outbreaks, including in Addis Ababa in 2016 and in the drought-hit Somali region, where more than 16,000 have been diagnosed since January and 3,500 new cases are being declared every month. None have been identified as cholera.

Yet under the rules of the WHO, countries are supposed to report outbreaks of such diseases.

“In the aftermath of the unconscionable WHO response to Ebola, perhaps the most important global health norm is to accurately and rapidly detect, report and respond to disease outbreaks,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

The Ethiopian government is fighting the outbreak, regardless of what it is called. The Health Ministry sent 1,200 health professionals, including 500 nurses and 68 doctors, to affected areas this year and set up 100 treatment centers.

On Tuesday, the ministry issued a statement carried on Tedros’s website that said: “We are working to establish robust surveillance systems for critical diseases … acute watery diarrheal diseases including cholera is of course included in this effort.” The statement went on to praise Tedros’s tenure as health minister and noted that “despite hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa, Ethiopia has a lower rate of childhood deaths from diarrheal diseases than Africa as a whole.”

But international aid organizations have privately expressed frustration at Ethiopia’s refusal to call the disease cholera; such a move would trigger an international response.

Human Rights Watch says local health workers are under pressure not to refer to the disease as cholera.

“We have interviewed a number of health professionals who have been pressured by government officials not to refer to cholera outbreaks as such, instead referring to outbreaks as ‘diarrhea’ or AWD,” said Felix Horne, the organization’s researcher for Ethiopia. “This is emblematic of the control that government exerts over some of its health professionals — there is little space to question health policies or to challenge the government’s success narratives.”

So while neighboring Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya have cholera outbreaks, Ethiopia just has diarrhea outbreaks.

The Ethiopian Medical Association has endorsed Tedros’s candidacy, saying Wednesday that he would bring a fresh perspective to the WHO. “One that is rooted in the reality of what it takes to design and implement change in a country that is resource-constrained with a high disease burden,” said the association’s president, Gemechis Mamo. He would not comment on the cholera-denial accusations.

“We have been informed that it was acute watery diarrhea,” he said.

Critics say the lack of transparency is part of the repressive nature of the state. Much of the opposition to Tedros’s candidacy emanates from the Ethiopian diaspora, which has taken to social media to criticize his ties (he is a member of the ruling party political bureau) to a government known for its poor human rights record and for suppressing debate. Their campaign even has its own hashtag.

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The opposition, though, is increasingly mixed up in the bitter ethnic politics of Ethiopia. Tedros, like many influential people in government and business, is from the northern Tigray region, home of the rebel group that overthrew the socialist regime in 1991.

Some from the larger Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, which together make up nearly two-thirds of the country’s population, allege favoritism by the government for the Tigrayans — leading Tedros supporters to dismiss their complaints as ethnically driven.

In interviews, Tedros says he has the practical and managerial experience to deal with global health challenges.

“I was born in Africa, I was brought up in Africa, and I have seen firsthand how actually, the scourge of diseases — it has affected communities, my own village and also communities, and even myself as a victim,” he said in a January interview.

At the same time, it is an open question whether he would be able to heed the desires and demands of the WHO’s many members, some of which, like the Ethiopian government, might want to play down the effect or presence of some of these diseases.

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