Daniel Mumbere

Ethiopia announced the closure of a notorious detention and investigation center, commonly known as Maekelawi, which is located in the capital Addis Ababa.

State-linked Fana Broadcasting reported that the last detainees in the center have been transferred to another correctional facility.

The closure was part of the commitment made by the ruling EPRDF coalition last December as it tried to end anti-government protests.

The prime minister at the time, Hailemariam Desalegn announced that the Maekelawi prison would be converted into a museum, and that a new center compliant with the national parliament’s guidelines on human rights and international standards would replace it.

Human rights groups have consistently described Maekelawi as a torture chamber.

The closure comes just days after Abiy Ahmed took over as Ethiopia’s new prime minister following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor.

In his inaugural speech, Abiy pledged to champion democratic reforms, a message that was well received by Ethiopians whose government has for a long time been accused of gross human rights violations.

Ethiopia is currently under a second state of emergency in just two years, imposed to quell nearly three years of anti-government protests.

Internet restored

Meanwhile, mobile internet services that had been blocked for months in many areas of Ethiopia outside the capital were restored on Friday.

The internet blockade had recently been extended to to include wifi connections in hotels and universities, which were not affected by previous shutdowns.

The areas that had been mostly affected by the internet blockade were Oromiya, Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Regions which have seen some of the biggest anti government protests.

The government has in the past shut down internet to to contain widespread protests that are partly organised online, arguing that opposition activists based in the diaspora incite violence and hate speech through popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

Internet and telephone services are controlled by only one provider, state-owned Ethio Telecom.

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Ethiopia is at a crossroads. On Monday, April 2, a new Prime Minister, selected from within the ruling coalition, delivered a speech about planned reforms while the country was under another State of Emergency. At such a juncture, amid mounting pressures, the role of the US, Ethiopia’s longstanding international ally to encourage critically-needed reforms and human rights protections, should not be underestimated in urging the country toward a new era of stability.

The undersigned human rights and diaspora groups fully support the passage of House Resolution 128 for the positive contribution it can make toward respecting basic human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia. The resolution has strong bipartisan support and more than 100 co-sponsors. In addition, H. Res. 128 has significant grassroots support among constituents across the US who have ties to Ethiopia. It calls on the government of Ethiopia to open up civic space, ensure accountability for human rights abuses and promote inclusive governance.

For the past three years, Ethiopia has faced largely peaceful and sustained protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions of the country. These protests were led by youth seeking opportunity, political reform and more participatory development strategies. The government responded with excessive force. More than a thousand protesters have been killed by Ethiopian security forces, a greater number injured, tens of thousands imprisoned and many tortured for expressing grievances. Over a million, mostly from Oromia, were uprooted due to government-instigated conflict in the Eastern part of the country.

However, a combination of forces has accumulated in support of the protesters – diaspora groups and international human rights organizations helped publicize the protest movement in Ethiopia and the government’s violent response; the US Congress rallied behind H.Res. 128; international news outlets gave frequent coverage of the protests. At the dawn of this new year, the EPRDF coalition announced reforms and some changes began to occur. Close to 7000 political prisoners were released in January and February of 2018, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn stepped down within days, and Dr. Abiy Ahmed, a man with ties to the region most impacted by the protests, was put forward by the coalition as Ethiopia’s newest prime minister.

In light of these beginnings, now more than ever, it is imperative that the United States Congress take a stand that reiterates the need for Ethiopia to take further steps in a democratic direction by passing H.Res. 128. Ethiopia’s previous transfers of power indicate that leadership change is often followed by unfulfilled promises, a culling of opponents and power consolidation. If Prime Minister Abiy is truly committed to breaking that pattern, this resolution will encourage Ethiopia to lift the State of Emergency, ensuring freedoms of expression and assembly and opening up democratic space, all prerequisites for political and economic reform.

1) H. Res. 128 is a signal of support for the youth in the country who have organized to peacefully demand justice and democracy and have paid a terrible price in terms of loss of life, injury and arbitrary detention. Accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred over the last 3 years will be an essential step towards genuine reconciliation and is a key demand from the protesters.

2) H.Res. 128 contains clauses that could strengthen the hand of the Prime Minister vis-a-vis less responsive segments within the EPRDF party coalition structure, requiring negotiation with the forces that control the country’s security apparatus, intelligence and the economic sectors.

3) H. Res. 128 contains clauses that call on the State Department and USAID to develop a comprehensive strategy to support improved democracy and governance in Ethiopia.

4) H. Res. 128 contains clauses that call on the Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury to apply appropriate sanctions on individuals and organizations responsible for gross human rights.

We support passage of H.Res. 128 as a means to send a strong, unambiguous signal that the United States Congress requires concrete reforms. Such reforms are needed to create a path toward improved respect and protection of human and civil rights, political stability and sustainable regional security.

We urge members of the House to pass the resolution.

– Amhara Association of America
– Coalition of Oromos for Human Rights and Democracy
– Ethiopian Advocacy Network
– Ethiopian Human Rights Project
– Human Rights Watch
– Oromo Advocacy Alliance

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By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all – never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another, and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. – President Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Address, 1994

April 8, 2018

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
Office of the Prime Minister
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dear Prime Minister Abiy:

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on your inauguration as prime minister. I am supremely pleased to see an illustrious member of Ethiopia’s New Generation take leadership of the highest office in Ethiopia.

In the past I have called the New Generation Ethiopia’s “Cheetahs” (Abo Shemane), a metaphor popularized by my colleague and Ghanaian economist Prof. George Ayittey. Today, they are known as Qeerooss, Fannos, Zermas and Nebros. Does it matter what’s in a name? “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

I have a special place in my heart and mind for Ethiopia’s Abo Shemanes.

For almost thirteen years now, I have felt a voice in the wilderness championing, defending and promoting the cause of Ethiopia’s youth. Perhaps you could understand why I derive such boundless personal satisfaction from witnessing your installation as prime minister. Above all, I regard your rise to the highest office in the land as the spark that will unleash fission chain reaction in Ethiopia’s youth. They too can rise from “Bowed heads and lowered eyes/ Shoulders falling down like teardrops, /Weakened by [their] soulful cries”, to borrow a few lines from Maya Angelou.

Let me say that I have a habit of writing (“speaking truth to”) presidents and other high government officials including Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and other world leaders. I have “written” to officials in Ethiopia every Monday for the past nearly 13 years. But they have pretended not to hear me, though they read me assiduously.

I write this letter as my own personal expression, but I humbly believe my words and thoughts speak for many millions of Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia who have followed my weekly commentaries for the past almost 13 years and the millions more who have heard me on radio and other electronic media in Ethiopia.

I write this letter for several reasons.

First, I wish to pledge my principled support for all your efforts to uplift Ethiopia’s youth from despair. I have always believed Ethiopia’s salvation and resurrection (Tinsae) can only come through her youth. The youth are discouraged, disheartened and disobedient from repeatedly dashed hopes and expectations.  Today, they rise in rebellion because they decided to end the long train of abuses, neglect and indifference under despotism. Like others from history, they have found out it is “their right, it is their duty, to throw off such despotic Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Above all, I regard you as the leader of Ethiopia’s youth. That said, know that I am in your corner and got your back.

Second, I wish to respond positively to a number of issues, though not all, you raised or touched upon in your inaugural speech. Let me say that on so many, many issues you were talking my language in that speech. We see eye to eye on many things.

Third, I wish to acknowledge your sincere gesture to Diaspora Ethiopians. You offered open arms welcome to all Ethiopians who seek to bring knowledge, resources and experience to help develop their country and make it easier to those who want to help from a distance. I very much appreciate your attitude of charity towards all malice to none. It is a mark of true leadership.

Fourth, I wish to clarify my own position as an opinion maker as we go forward. I want to assure you that my message will focus on the future. We shall leave the trash bin of history alone.

Please pardon the discursive nature of this letter. Given the variety of issues I will be addressing, I have organized my thought along key issues and topics. This will indeed be my first and not last letter.

You have an appointment with destiny… Walk in Mandela’s shoes!

In my humble view, you have one and only one mission as prime minister.

Your mission is to fulfill Nelson Mandela’s pledge in his inaugural speech for South Africa in Ethiopia:

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

In 1964, during the Rivonia Trial, Nelson Mandela declined to testify at the kangaroo apartheid court choosing to deliver a speech which saved South Africa 30 years later.  Mandela said:

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

When Mandela said these words facing a life sentence, he was only 5 years older than you.

I urge you to read and heed these words every day and reflect on them. You must fight against Amhara, Tigray, Oromo… domination. That is what the young people rightly expect of you, demand of you and are counting on you to do. They want their beautiful land never again to experience the oppression of one by another.

Do not miss your rendezvous with history!

On Ethiopiawinet

Ethiopiawinet is not something that is near and dear to my heart.

It is my heart, mind and soul.

You mentioned “Ethiopia” and Ethiopiawinet” so many times in your speech, I stopped counting, and not because I was tired but because I was filled with ecstasy. I have no recollection of such celebration of Ethiopia in a public speech of any person claiming national leadership in Ethiopia. For quite some time now, the word “Ethiopia” has meant shame; but you have made it a word of pride and fame.

I smiled with quiet wonderment when I heard you say in your inaugural speech addressing Diaspora Ethiopians, “You can take an Ethiopian out of Ethiopia but you cannot take Ethiopia out of the heart of an Ethiopian.”

That reminded me of my own very first speech, my personal manifesto announcing my engagement in the struggle for human rights in Ethiopia, on July 2, 2006:

“But I assure you that I may have left Ethiopia, but Ethiopia has never left me. My case is a simple one. To adapt an old saying: ‘You can take the kid out of Ethiopia, but you cannot take Ethiopia out of the kid!’ That is exactly how I feel.”

I have repeated that aphorism many times over the past nearly 13 years. I hope you can imagine how good that made me feel to hear you say that.

A few months ago, some people announced to the world that they have “doubts about my Ethiopiawinet” because of the content of my weekly commentaries. They produced no proof, not a single word, to support their claim of doubt. They mistook my relentless opposition to their rule with lack of Ethiopiawinet. But my response to them was quintessentially this: “You can take the boy out of Ethiopia but you cannot take the EthiopiaWINet out of the boy.”

I don’t want to sound fussy, but I demanded proof of my lack of Ethiopiawinet or an apology. I got neither. True this: Hope springs eternal in the human breast for an apology.

For me, speaking and writing about Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people is a passion, a sacred duty for which I have been divinely blessed. I write not only for the present generation but also generations to come. These are my chronicles of the time of pain and suffering of the Ethiopian people as I have observed them from a very long distance.

But my brothers Lemma Megerssa and Teodros (Teddy Afro) Kassahun, Gedu Andargachew, yourself and so many young people, including those who participated in the recent “Peace Festival” have articulated Ethiopiawinet better than I ever could.

Lemma said Ethiopiawinet is an addiction [deep passion]. It is in the heart of each and every Ethiopian. He said if there was a way to open the hearts and minds of Ethiopians, what will be found is our unity in Ethiopiawinet. He said, “Ethiopians are like sergena teff gathered together, milled together and eaten together.

Gedu Andargachew said, “Ethiopiawinet is unity, togetherness and respect for each other.”

Teddy Afro sang Ethiopiawinet: “Before [I] finish paying her [Ethiopia] for all her favors/ Should not people say [shout out] “Unity” when they hear [the name] Ethiopia/ Ethiopia! Ethiopia! My country!/ Isn’t my honor because of you?

Even little children today are singing the joys of Ethiopiawinet. They chant, “Ethiopia existed yesterday. Ethiopia exists today. Ethiopia will exist tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Ethiopia shall exist forever.” It brought tears to my eyes when I saw these little children barely 7 or 8 years old singing in church, “Selam (Peace) for Ethiopia. Peace for our country. May our merciful God send us peace.”

To me Ethiopiawinet is simply the humanity of the people of Ethiopia.

In my very first speech in 2006, I defined our Ethiopiawinet as a condition ordained by God: “We are first and foremost Ethiopians, one people, woven by the hand of the Almighty into the most beautiful ethnic mosaic in the world. Look in the Holy Bible. Look in the Holy Q’uran. The learned scholars tell us that Ethiopia and Ethiopians are mentioned in the Holy Bible no less than thirty-three times, and as many times in the Holy Q’uran.”

Following your speech, you said, “Ethiopians living abroad and Ethiopians living here, we need to forgive each other from the bottom of our hearts.”

I accept your counsel. I no longer hold grudges against those who tried to de-Ethiopianize me and delegitimize my unrelenting human rights advocacy in Ethiopia by claiming they have “doubts” about my Ethiopiawinet. I forgive them from the bottom of my heart for doubting my Ethiopiawinet and apologize to them from the bottom of my heart if they feel I doubted theirs.

Ethiopia’s youth united can never be defeated

You have the hopes, aspirations and dreams of the youth in your hands.  They are looking to you to rescue them.

I am proud to say I have always been concerned and very vocal about the pain and suffering of Ethiopia’s youth.

For the past nearly 13 years, I have declared my absolute confidence in Ethiopia’s youth. In my September 17, 2016 Amharic interview with Reeyot Alemu  (begin clip at 14 minutes), I defended my view unapologetically.

I have always considered myself  a “Chee-Hippo”.

In June 2010, this was how I described the situation of Ethiopia’s youth:

The wretched conditions of Ethiopia’s youth point to the fact that they are a ticking demographic time bomb. The evidence of youth frustration, discontent, disillusionment and discouragement by the protracted economic crisis, lack of economic opportunities and political repression is manifest, overwhelming and irrefutable. The yearning of youth for freedom and change is self-evident. The only question is whether the country’s youth will seek change through increased militancy or by other peaceful means.

In 2018, I am relieved that they have chosen the path of nonviolence and peaceful resistance.

In my February 2011 commentary, I declared Africa’s youth united can never be defeated. As Gandhi said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity”, nor does it come from guns, tanks and planes. “It comes from an indomitable will.”

In 2013, I declared, “My slogan has always been and remains, ‘Ethiopia’s youth united can never be defeated. Power to Ethiopia’s youth!’”

I have never, ever doubted that Ethiopia’s youth united can never be defeated.

I declared 2013 “Year of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation” and urged that Ethiopia’s youth to lead the national dialogue in search of a path to peaceful change and reconciliation.

In my January 2014 commentary, I wrote, “In my view, the problem of 21st Century Ethiopia is quintessentially the problem of Ethiopian youth.”

I have on numerous occasions professed my abiding faith in the power of Ethiopia’s youth to transform their country and take charge of their destiny.

I have sent Ethiopia’s Cheetahs a special “Message in a Bottle” from  thousands of miles across the oceans, “You are born free! You must live free! You are condemned to be free!”

I declared Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation is the only generation that could rescue Ethiopia from the steel claws of T-TPLF tyranny and dictatorship.

I believe recent history has vindicated my total faith in Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

Nelson Mandela observed, “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.”

I have always believed Ethiopia’s youth are Ethiopia’s greatest treasure, but they were always at extreme risk, and so has been the future of the country. Ethiopia’s greatest treasures have been neglected, abused, squandered and wasted.

Having said all that, I must also confess that I have despaired about Ethiopia’s future given the state of political and social facts. Hearing and reading reports of college graduates without jobs or technically trained young people working to arrange cobblestones has been depressing to me. It is painful to learn about young people falling prey to all sorts of vice, drugs and other forms of moral corruption. Through all this fog, it was difficult to see the sparkling pints of light – the Lemma Megerssas, Abiy Ahmeds, Eskinder Negas, Andualem Aragies, Emawayish Alemu and Reeyot Alemus and so many others.

Today, I am more hopeful than ever that Ethiopia’s best days are yet to come. I have made such a statement many times before but more as a metaphor than a statement of reality. Today, I know it Ethiopia’s best days are upon us.  There are tens of thousands of young leaders like you and the others mentioned above who are willing, able and ready to make it happen.

I urge you, plead with you, to the stay the course with my Cheetahs.

On nonviolent change

As I indicated above, we think alike on so many issues. Nonviolent change is certainly one of them.

I have always believed in the practice and theory of nonviolent struggle against tyranny and oppression.

In my very first speech (“Awakening Giant: Can Ethiopians Living in America Make a Difference in their Homeland.” ) marking my involvement in the Ethiopian human rights struggle and pleading for Diaspora Ethiopians to join me, I declared the struggle for human rights in Ethiopia is a struggle to be won “not in battlefields soaked in blood and filled with corpses, but in the living hearts and thinking minds of men and women of goodwill.”

For nearly 13 years, I waged my personal struggle to win the hearts and minds of Ethiopians and people of good will throughout the world in my weekly commentaries, which some affectionately call “sermons”. Those of us who have always promoted nonviolent change, particularly Ethiopia’s youth who did all of the heavy lifting, dying and going to jail, today remain confident that we can change Ethiopia without bloodshed.

In my very first speech, I announced that I am a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., two great leaders who were deeply inspired by the teachings of Christ. I believe in the ways of nonviolence, truth and love. I also believe that mere declaration of faith in these principles is not enough. Gandhi and King taught the highest expression of love for mankind is to love justice, the highest virtue to stand for truth, and the highest value, compassion for our fellow man and woman. There is no place for violence where justice stands tall. No place for oppression where law reigns supreme.

On Leadership:

Mandela in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, wrote a true “leader stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”

I say, let your nimble Cheetahs go out ahead and leave the rest of us Hippos watching from the sidelines.

In my very first speech, I asked the following questions:

Can we cultivate leaders who are able to subordinate their personal ambitions to the common good? Leadership is the flip side of vision. We need to cultivate leaders who want to lead not out of personal ambition or selfish interest, but out of a desire to serve the common good. We have many such leaders amongst us today, but they need to come forward and join the march, lead the march, follow the march!

In the not too distant past, Ethiopia has had what I call “lone ranger leaders” who had convinced themselves that they can do it alone and dreamt up things in their minds trapped in solitary brooding which proved to be nightmares for the people. They sought to carve out a path for personal glory and success, so they could be worshipped as “The Great Visionary Leader”.

My review of the leadership literature suggests to me that there are a few elements that distinguish a good leader from a great one. Jim Collins, the well-known “leadership guru”, talks about “Level 5 leaders” who demonstrate “a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves.” Collins also says team work is necessary, which means you have to get the “right people of the bus”. You will not be able to go far carrying dead wood on your back.

You can’t do it alone but there are types of people who could help you get the job done and are critical to your success and must seek them out. There are those with special knowledge and skills that can help you avoid failure. They are likely to have insights into your challenges and can offer solutions and alternatives. They can help you be a better leader and grow in your position.

I can imagine you will face some leadership and team-building issues. You will no doubt have the “dead wood” problem and what to do with those who are in leaderships positions without merit but because of nepotism and cronyism. They got their positions because they passed a loyalty litmus test and serve as echo chambers.

There will be those who seek leadership because they wish you well and support you out of pride. You are an inspiration to them.

There will also be the doubting Thomases, skeptics, critics and others watching from sidelines because they lack courage, conviction and creativity to be real leaders.

There will be many others who will work day and night to make sure you fail. They will smile to your face but can’t wait to stab you in the back.

So, you will have a challenge constituting your leadership team.

Follow in Mandela’s footsteps and you will be a great leader:

Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to  serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life.

Our human compassion binds us to one another – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.”

Lead from the front, but don’t leave your base behind.

Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front.

On the politics of personal destruction

This is a topic I do not want to talk about, but must.

From what I gather, in certain quarters, you are getting no honeymoon.

Barely two weeks into the job, there are those who have unsheathed their long knives and are apparently coordinating a campaign to wage a scorched earth, take no prisoners, mean-spirited campaign of personal destruction. They heap blame on you. They say you for being too young for the office. They criticize you for your political inexperience. They demonize you for your military service. They proclaim you are just another puppet. They diminish your extraordinary eloquence as “just talk, no action”. Some even said, you got the job because they did not want it. They can take it away from you any time they wish. They have set a long list of things you should have done today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year… They say you can neither walk on water nor soar like an eagle. They don’t want to give you a chance to prove yourself. They want you to fix the festering decay of 27 years in 7 days.

Who are “they”?

They are the “nattering nabobs of negativism, the members of the 4-H club—the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history”.

Their aim is to distract, to demoralize, to denigrate, to demonize, to dehumanize, to spread rumors, and to deprive the Ethiopian people, that is Ethiopia’s youth, of any sense of optimism and hope and keep them languishing in the politics of despair.

In my very first speech, I cautioned against the nattering nabobs. “We malign and defame those individuals who strive to offer leadership and build organizations, and spread rumors about their individual and leadership integrity, often with little evidence.”

Do not lose sleep over the chatter of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

They want you to drive forward looking into the rear view mirror so that you can crash and burn.

That is not going to happen because your supporters are legion, in the tens of millions. Ethiopia’s Abo Shemanes (Cheetahs) got your back, and front and sides.

I suggest your stock answer to the nattering nabobs should be, “Pardon my youth. I’ve got to take care of the business of 75 million young people.”

Do not underestimate the power of 75 million Abo Shemanes. That can change the world!

Of course, I am not suggesting that you are above criticism or reproach. No one in public office should expect a free ride. But fairness requires that you should be criticized for things you have done, undone or for having shown indifference.

To be sure, when Hailemariam was nominated to become prime minister in 2012, I was fair to him. I did not write him off as many did. I cut him a whole lot of slack. I gave him the full benefit of the doubt! I wanted him to succeed as prime minister, not fail.

Truth be told, you should be given maximum credit for what has occurred in the first week of your primeministership. We have seen reports that Maekelawi Prison (a/k/a) torture central is closed, the Internet is open throughout the country and the recently released and rearrested political prisoners are released again and the meeting with leaders in the Somali region went very well. I say, Kudos!

I will admit that few practice the art of acrimonious political criticism more than myself. But I believe there is a distinction to be made between fair and unfair criticism. In nearly 13 years of uninterrupted weekly critical commentaries, now exceeding a thousand, not once has the regime in Ethiopia responded to me on the merits on anything I have said or written. That’s is because I speak truth to them, undoubtedly, often in harsh terms. I have learned that those in power can’t handle the bitter truth, but I keep on feeding them every week.

What saddens me is that I don’t see or hear the pitiful 4-H club giving you any credit, nor do they want to give you a chance to prove yourself.

There is nothing you can do to persuade the pitiful 4-H club members except to teach them by high moral example.

I have two simple pieces of unsolicited advice for you.

First, raise the bar for public discourse, which you did wonderfully in your speech. Respond to those waging a war of negativity with an all-out campaign of civility. Follow Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s maxim, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” In other words, drive out despair with messages of hope; plant optimism in the arid landscape of pessimism; chase out bad ideas with good ones and let good triumph over evil.

Second, believe it is all about mind over matter. If you don’t mind, they don’t matter. In the words of that old African proverb, “When the dogs bark, the camels just keep walking.” Keep walking the long road to freedom and lead from behind.

Why I do what I do…

Recently, a friend jokingly asked me, “You got one of your Cheetahs in place. Is that mission accomplished for you?”

But that has been a question asked of me by my family members for over a decade. “When is it mission accomplished for you and walk away?”

But I never give them a straight answer. I waffle and equivocate reciting to myself the poetic words of Robert Burns: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep,/ But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.”

Yes, miles and miles to walk the long road to freedom with Ethiopia’s Cheetahs before I sleep.

For the past nearly 13 years, many people have wondered why I do what I do.

What I have been doing is speaking truth to power.

I “speak truth to power” because I believe in the Scriptural wisdom that “The truth shall set you free.” I take my inspiration in my “truth-speaking mission” from Prof. Edward Said and Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, both peerless intellectual giants.

Prof. Said observed that in the 21^st century, the intellectual has taken the mission of advancing human freedom and knowledge by “speaking the truth to power, being a witness to persecution and suffering, and supplying a dissenting voice in conflicts with authority.”

Prof. Mesfin took upon the cross of speaking truth to power in Ethiopia in the second half of the last century.

I am an equal opportunity truth speaker. I speak truth not only to those in power and abusers of power but also to the power-hungry, power-thirsty, the power abusers, the power misusers and the plain powerless.

When I began my human rights advocacy in Ethiopia following the massacres that took place in the aftermath of the 2005 election, I resolved to become a witness for the victims in the Meles Massacres.

There are many who regard my relentless human rights advocacy beyond extraordinary.

There are also those who think it is all a waste of my time because I have nothing to show for it.

There are some who find my relentless opposition to the TPLF obsessive. A few regard my opposition as “hateful” and “mean-spirited”.

They are all entitled to their opinions.

I have declared on numerous occasions that I have no political ambition whatsoever. I have also said many times that I have nothing but contempt for those who crave power, for those hungry and thirsty for power. Love of power without the power of love for those who are oppressed, without deep concern for the pain and suffering of the powerless, voiceless and defenseless is the height of hypocrisy. It would be the height of absurdity and irony for a man who stumbled into a career of speaking truth to power to aspire power.

The theologian Martin Luther, the father of Protestanism, said, “If you want to change the world, pick up a pen and write.” I am not a Protestant but I picked up a pen nearly 13 years ago and am still going strong.

Paraphrasing the late music artist Tu Pac Shakur, “I never said I was gonna change Ethiopia, but I guaranteed from the beginning that I will spark the minds that will change Ethiopia.” I think I have done a little bit of that.

I can say without reservation that the past ten years have been the best years of my life. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to fight for human rights, democracy, the rule of law and freedom in Ethiopia and elsewhere with nothing more than my pen every single week.

My efforts to help build Beloved Community in Ethiopia is a never-ending labor of love. It must go on without pause or rest.

In his book “Stride Towards Freedom”, Dr. King wrote, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.  Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels inevitability.  Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals…”

As a dedicated and passionate individual, I ask myself, “If I don’t do it, who will?”

I gladly bear the cross of Ethiopian human rights advocacy. It is a blessing.

I am not a complicated man. With me, what you see and hear is what you get. I like blunt talk and do not beat around bush. I say what I mean, and mean what I say. I do not speak or write in sem-na-worq, except in jest.

There is nothing that I have done or said over the past nearly 13 years that I did not promise in my very first speech in July 2006. Nothing at all. I charted my course in 2006 and I have been walking, my critics say alone, on the long road to freedom for our people. Now, I am boundlessly comforted by the fact that I have been on the road following behind millions of Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

Those who say I am “hateful” and harbor ill-will to those in power because of their ethnicity have long called me a leading Diaspora “extremist”.

Of course, I wear that label with pride. I subscribe to the maxim, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

I confess my defense of liberty for all Ethiopians has been unrelenting, uncompromising, unflagging, unrepentant and unapologetic. I do not believe justice can ever be pursued in moderation. That does not mean justice cannot be tempered with mercy.

I admit the tone of my speech and writings have often been accusatory and prosecutorial. That is one of the hazards of American legal education that thrives on the adversarial system.

Some say in my human rights advocacy, I treat the court of public opinion like a court of law. I shall plead guilty to that charge only until I can make my arguments for justice in a court of law.

My opposition has never been against personalities of the TPLF but their odious and atrocious acts. I have never said or done that shows ethnic bias. In nearly 13 years of commentary and speech, no one can produce any evidence proving ethnic bias on my part. I have always aspired to the highest standards of humanity (human-unity) and ethical conduct and never pandered to the politics of ethnicity. I harbor no personal ill-will against any of them because I don’t know them. But I know their crimes against humanity. In fact, I joined the Ethiopian human rights movement because of the Meles Massacres of 2005 and remained in the struggle because there was no end to the crimes they perpetuated.

I very much appreciated the sincere apology you offered in your inaugural speech concerning the extrajudicial killings by security forces. Indeed, others have offered crocodile tears.

I have always said that I would be glad to support them if they conformed their conduct to the rule of law. As recently as October 2017, I said, “I have no personal animus against the T-TPLF or any of its leaders or members. I have often said that I could be their number 1 fan if they conformed their conduct to the rule of law, practiced good governance and respected the human rights of all Ethiopians. That pledge still stands.”

I passionately defended Meles Zenawi’s right to speak at Columbia University in September 2010 and was widely condemned for it. It was agonizingly heartbreaking for me to break rank with my personal hero and heroine Eskinder Nega and Serkalem Fasil who wrote a passionate and moving  letter asking Columbia University president Lee Bollinger to disinvite Meles. To put principle above people one loves and admires as generational heroes and heroines is painful beyond description. But “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”

There is a time for everything…

The Good Book says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”. There is a “time to kill and a time to heal.” No more killing, it is time to heal Ethiopia. There is a “time to tear down and a time to build.” It is time to build up Ethiopia and tear down the kilils. There is a “time to weep and mourn and a time to laugh and dance.” It is our time to embrace and laugh at ourselves and dance the night away. There is a “time to tear and a time to mend.” We have been torn up by ethnicity, religion, language. It is time to mend and heal our wounds with the balm of Ethiopiawinet. There is a “time to love and a time to hate”. The time to hate is over. It is high time for love.

My message as we go forward shall be of inclusion, brotherhood, sisterhood. No more rancor and acrimony. No more finger wagging, teeth gnashing and belly aching.

When others talk war, we shall talk peace. We owe it to Ethiopia’s Abo Shemanes. They need a message of healing and unity and assurances that Ethiopia’s best days are yet to come.

Gandhi taught, “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”

It is time to change beliefs and thoughts and help Ethiopia’s youth change their country and take charge of their destiny.

Opening your arms to Diaspora Ethiopians

In your inaugural speech, you reached out to Ethiopians in the Diaspora “with open arms” and invited them to bring their knowledge, resources and experiences and help develop the country and pledged to return to your country and develop and facilitate others who want to help from a distance.

That is an important gesture of peace and reconciliation with the Diaspora Ethiopian community. I appreciate that. I remember the old days when elaborate war plans were drawn to deal with “Diaspora extremists” and propagandize the rest.

I cannot speak for all Diaspora Ethiopians, but I do speak for quite a few who have regarded me as their voice for over a decade.

There are many of us in the Diaspora who have reached points in our personal and professional lives that we find it more blessed to give than to receive. There are many among us to whom much is given, and much should be expected. We will give back much in return for the simple satisfaction that our young people will have a better future.

Lemma Megerssa said, “To be educated and to be in service of country does not mean just to produce academic research papers. It also means to save your country, to contribute by finding ways of saving our country, coming up with creative ideas, to spread such ideas around. That is something expected more from our intellectuals than anyone else. That is what I think.”

Lemma hit the nail on the head. I have the greatest respect and admiration for Lemma.

Lemma made a special request to Ethiopian intellectuals to join the struggle and make their contributions, not just sit around smugly self-congratulating themselves for their academic publications.

Of course, I immediately reported for duty. I am afraid not too many did report for duty.

It is a great challenge. The ball is in the Diaspora’s court. We are challenged to walk the talk.

Failure is not an option for you: The Ethiopian Abo Shemane (Cheetah) Clock

The prophets of doom and gloom have declared that you are destined to fail. They say “they” will put you on a short leash and won’t let you do anything more than cosmetic changes. Methinks they look through their old crystal ball darkly.

I am filled with optimism as I observe recent developments. But I also question if we are completely out of the woods. The danger of reactionary convulsion is present.

I have long learned to listen to the wisdom of traditional elders who have their fingers on the pulse of the people.

Recently, the amazing Aba Geda Beyene Senbeto preached the truth to all of us about the price of  failure:

Let me tell you something. Lately there was this thing about selecting the prime minister. The transition to the Prime Minister had not happened, let me speak the truth, let the whole country hear it, this country would have been in a whole lot of hurt. God is my witness. Everybody was ready with their sharp knives. They were all saying, ‘We’ll see what will happen?’ But God protects Ethiopia. And the government bodies did the right thing and were saved from deep anxiety [about ominous things]. If that had not happened, you think a thousand command post soldiers can suppress one hundred million people? No they can’t…

Aba Geda Beyene is right. God protects Ethiopia.

That is why failure is not an option for you.

That is why failure is not an option for all of us.

All of us are invested heavily in your success because if you lose, we will be the biggest losers – of life, liberty and property.

We must get it right this time!

In America, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board operates something called the “Doomsday Clock” which represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, particularly from global nuclear war.  The clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as “midnight” and measures how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of “minutes” to midnight.

I have set my own imaginary “Ethiopian Cheetah Doomsday Clock”. I say the clock is at 11 p.m. now. We need to turn back the clock 12 hours.

I know you cannot fail because over 70 million young people (71% of the population was under age 30 as of 2014) got your back!

Weathering the storm

Mark Twain, the great American writer and humorist said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” That is how David defeated Goliath. You too can prevail.

There is an old saying about the devil and the storm which I shall paraphrase. To those who say you are not strong enough to weather the storm, I want you to tell them, “I am the storm”. To those who do not believe you are the storm, tell them, “I am the calm in the eye of the storm.” To those who do not believe that, tell them, “Just wait and see Cheetahs raining down on you.”

You have made a rendezvous with history. Walk in Mandela’s shoes to your appointment.

Until next time, wishing you the very best,

Al

Ethiopia today, Ethiopia tomorrow, Ethiopia forever…

The post My Personal Letter to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Date: 8/04/2018

Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) on behave of Gambelia People congratulate PM Abiy Ahmed for being appointment as Prime Minister of Federal democratic Republic of Ethiopia and appreciated the people of Oromo who had produced a talented person like him to be a saviour of future New Ethiopia.  Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) would pass a heartfelt gratitude to Dr Abiy Ahmed and Oromo Regional’s parliament who had nominated him for the position and won it gloriously for the first time in history of the nation.

Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) is an opposition party struggling to bring a change to New Ethiopia in terms of justice, human right, democratic values such as freedom of speech and demonstration in general and in particular to free Gambella people from oppression, marginalisation, exclusion, imprisonment, massacre, land grabbing, intimidation, discrimination, displacement and force exile to vacate the land for the so-call investors.

Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) did appreciate PM Dr Abiy Ahmed inauguration speech when he mention Gambella participation in defending Ethiopia during dark periods it has passed through. It is first time for a leader in Ethiopia to mention Gambella People’s participation in history making.

Always, when you talk about Gambella as a region, the burden lay on one tribe (Anuak tribe). It was the Anuaks who participated in WWII against Italy, Ogaden war against Somalia, both Eritrea wars, and struggle against Fascist Derg to topple communist regime. In all these wars none of Ethiopia leaders has given us any acknowledgement as PM Dr Abiy Ahmed has done and none of the heroes who had scarified in these wars have been rewarded a medal or a military ranks (even a Sergeant rank. Nowhere in history of Ethiopia have our participation in history making and heroes’ names been mentioned. Even PM Dr Abiy Ahmed’s predecessors (TPLF/EPDRF leaders) has ignored scarifies paid by Gambella People Liberation Movement (GPLM) who had been struggling alongside TPLF/EPDRE to bring the current regime PM Dr Abiy Ahmed is going to lead.

TPLF/EPDRF had destroyed GPLM as it did to Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in hatred and disempowered the Anuaks who fought for the change by neutralizing Nuer’s refugees from South Sudan purposely to hand over regional government power to them.

Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) has appreciated PM Dr Abiy Ahmed bold speech when said, “Gambella, Somalia, Afar and Benishangul regions are marginalised and excluded from participating in central government policies making that run the country’s affairs”. How shameful it was for Ethiopia governments who have treated theses group of society as a trash of garbage when it comes to their needs and take them as silver-bullet when our sovereignty is challenged by enemies.

We have been deprived of meaningful development and suffered with damaging economy policies that ruin our culture and values imposed on us without our participation in designing those policies. Again we would thank PM Dr Abiy Ahmed for his concern for the so-call undeveloped regions development. Our being undeveloped or uncivilised as it used to be sang or chatted as a slogan in Ethiopia parliament for decades, is an intentional act of the ruling regimes. If the governments knew we are undeveloped or uncivilised what would have been the solution?

Currently, we are seeing a divide and rule development policy in Gambella. In another word, it is irresponsible way of administration intended to bring ethnic’s conflict or a preparatory exercise for cession of Gambella to South Sudan. TPLF/EPDRF’s government is favouring Nuer tribe than any tribe in the region. Even it has grown Nuer population exponentially and neutralised South Sudan’s refugees illegally to overwhelm the population of Anuak tribe who occupies the large land mass and population. It wasn’t a crime for the Anuaks to host South Sudanese’s refugees in their land. It is a pride to the nation of hosting South Sudanese’s refugees for six decades at the expense of the Anuaks. Anuaks should have been glorify for their generosity rather than being discriminated and disempower in their own land and country.

However, Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) is struggling to stop all issues mentioned above. It became an opposition party because of lack of democracy, good governance, mistreatment and genocide to Anuaks tribe who is the backbone of Ethiopia in any issues concerning national’s obligation and accountability.

Therefore, for new administration lead by PM Dr Abiy Ahmed to reconcile with the oppressed, marginalised and discriminated people of Gambella, Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) is requesting his authority to change and improve the following GRM’s concerns:

• Reconsideration for political power distribution. The current Gambella regional power is not hold citizens, but migrants’ refugees of South Sudan who have double stand or dangerous secret plan which will test the sovereignty of the nation in the future.
• As PM Dr Abiy Ahmed has mentioned in his speech to fight corruption, he need to work hard to stop corruption in Gambella region. Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) is demanding anti-corruption commission to investigate corruption in Gambella region. Our tax payers’ money has been use by regional authority inappropriately to the point where Gambella regional development’s budget has been shifted to South Sudan to train South Sudan’s opposition SPLM IO guerrilla fighter to fight against South Sudan’s government.
• GRM is haunted by the massacre of the Anuaks on 13 December 2003. It doesn’t want to see citizens in Oromia and Amhara region being massacre daily for demanding their democratic rights. To bring the peace and reconciliation GRM would request PM Dr Abiy Ahmed new administration to left up the state of emergence immediately.
• Gambella region has been levelled as undeveloped region for years. A solution to development is to give a development a chance in the region. As PM Dr Abiy Ahmed is concern about the development in the backwards regions such as Gambella, Gambella Regional Movement (GRM) is demanding a fair development policy in terms of health centres, schools, roads and others social services. For example, the Anuaks zone which levy more tax to federal government than any zone in the region has no asphalted road that links districts with Gambella’s capital town “Gambella”.
• South Sudan’s refugees has been causing series damages to indigenous population of Gambella region for the last 63 years in particular to the Anuak tribe. Refugees has been destroying our culture, environment, wildlife, water, fish and human lives. Hundreds of Anuaks has been killed by refugees in Pinyudo, Itang and Jor villages and many children have been abducted. None of the perpetrators have not been held accountable for the crime they had committed. South Sudan’s refugees have undermined the sovereign of the country and killed prisoners in government’s prison and lower the national flag and raise South Sudan’s flag declaring that Gambella is a South Sudan state while we’ve defence force in town watching the event and remained silent for unknown reason.

Gambella Regional (GRM) is sick and tired of all these abuses committed by South Sudanese and their refugees to Gambella indigenous. GRM would demand the new government to formulate a strict law that prevent refugees from committing crimes and devastating our natural resources and most important is to repatriate them to their country since there is no  war for independence of South Sudan anymore.

My God Bless Ethiopia!

Peoples’ struggle will win!

Gambella Regional Movement’s Executive Committee

The post Gambella Regional Movement Press Release appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

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ABDUL MOHAMMED

New Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Ethiopia needs debate, diversity, pluralism. Photo: Facebook

[Africa: Commentary]

It takes an exceptional reform minded party and a real leader to lead a people into a new political life and era.
Our new Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, has set exactly the right tone to achieve this remarkably difficult feat during his address to the nation: expressing at the same time resolve and humility; making it clear that he is proud to be an Ethiopian while asking for forgiveness for the errors and violations of the recent past; affirming continuity through embracing the rule of law and the constitution, while welcoming a robust democracy and the change that it will undoubtedly bring.

In speaking about his mother and his wife, Abiy Ahmed has given us perhaps a glimpse of the ethics that guide his life. That must have also brought home one fundamental truth in politics which is nonetheless usually ignored: That human touch has an amazing resonance here as well.

For generations, the mothers of Ethiopia have silently and uncomplainingly borne the burdens of the ambitions of their husbands and sons. During the years of revolution and war, they were ready to sacrifice everything, to gain nothing for themselves. Our mothers must finally win the recognition they never sought but have always deserved. I bear witness to the truth that I proudly and humbly include my mother among these noble souls. Their prize should take the form of a simple normality in which they can see their families enjoy stability, in which progress can be achieved without destruction and mayhem, and in which children and grandchildren can grow up safely without political leaders demanding that they risk their lives.

The young people of Ethiopia have been at the forefront of every change that our country has undergone. By force of ideas and ideals, by bearing arms , stones and placards they have been our vanguards. Today’s political dispensation was induced yet again by our youth. Now the torch passes to the rising generation. They must take us forward guided by Patriotic Wisdom.

Every patriotic Ethiopian must wish PM Abiy well. If he succeeds, then we all do.

How should a wise patriot understand the situation in our country today? Our axiom, I believe, is that we have learned many painful but important lessons over the last two generations. We need equally to recognize our successes and admit our shortcomings—and those triumphs and failings can’t be missed for they are ubiquitous.

The most important lesson is that public affairs is not a zero sum game. For some of us to gain, it’s not necessary for others to lose. On the contrary, all Ethiopians will rise together, or fall together. We should never trust a political agenda that begins with wrecking what we have so that something better may come. The way ahead lies through respectful dialogue, building consensus, and reform. That reform may be rapid and far-reaching—but it should never be the brute application of dogma, but should instead be creating the space where diversity and pluralism can flourish.

For another lesson that we have learned is that there is no monolithic single formula for our country. Nor is there a ruling formula which justifies hubris on the part of those who have practiced it, in some cases for centuries. Recent development on the global level are making this all too apparent.

The EPRDF was conceived as a revolutionary party with an ideology and organizing principle which gave it self confidence that gradually developed into what many felt was an overbearing attitude. It is impossible to ignore this, nor is it an unjustified calumny. What recent developments have made self-evident is how much public opinion matters and that political parties would ignore this at their own peril. A fundamental truth in politics is being validated in Ethiopia today – people can be governed only by consent. This should in no way be alien to the EPRDF whose success right from the beginning was owed to the support of the people.

There is an underlying solidity to Ethiopia’s social contract of rule only by consent. This was one of the most important values that were validated by the success of the EPRDF’s armed struggle. For sixteen years of struggle, the fighters of the EPRDF were ready to sacrifice everything for the victory . Most liberation movements that win power come to see that power, and all the privileges that go with it, as their entitlement forever. Reformers in the EPRDF should recognize their ultimate victory in the triumph of human rights and democracy. This is a nobility of spirit that must be honored and if it has somewhat atrophied through time, should be regenerated.

With every passing day, it is getting more plausible that Ethiopian politics is entering a new era, of tolerant pluralism. For sure, some social media is dominated by polarizing voices and the official media remain unsatisfactory. Public Politics has, for now, been confined to the debates within the EPDRF, which is far from satisfactory. As institutions, our political parties—in government and opposition—are uneven, in transition or work in progress. But our social capital is strong, and for now that is compensating. It is impossible to quarrel with the notion that we have a people that any country would be proud of having. Our luck starts from there. They need a government they deserve – The best.

PM Abiy Ahmed in his speech has shown a keen sense of where Ethiopia’s societal strength lies. This is important: this transition cannot be squandered. If Ethiopia were to follow the path of most Arab Spring countries—Egypt falling back to authoritarianism, Yemen, Syria and Libya collapsing into chaos—that would be a historic cataclysm. Today, the trajectory is promising. The army and security must play their constitutional role and staying out of politics. Extremists with populist, exclusionary agendas should be kept on the margins. Our new PM has gravitated towards the political center, aware that the mechanism for change is political reform, and that the reform agenda must be managed through consensus building.

Our country lies in a troubled region, and in recent years more and more countries have been meddling in the affairs of the Horn. Remarkably, despite our internal difficulties, Ethiopia has remained a bastion of stability in a turbulent region. We still contribute peacekeepers and diplomats to help resolve the conflicts in neighbouring states; we still play a constructive role at the African Union and United Nations. For twenty years, some have predicted that we will fall apart like a rotten log. That hasn’t happened so far and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen in the future.

PM Abiy extended the hand of peace to Eritrea: our friends in Asmara would be well advised to take that offer, not just because the strategy of waiting for Ethiopia to fail is as mistaken today as it has ever been, but also because neither of us can afford to remain divided by conflict and mistrust, when we collectively face far bigger problems that we must overcome together. But it is déjà vu all over again – Sadly, the preliminary indications are far from encouraging.

The challenge of political reform in Ethiopia is that we have so little experience of managing it. Our elites and commentators range from the cynical and fatalistic to the aggressively arrogant and self-righteous. Too few of our political class have the experience for the kinds of bargaining and compromise, reaching across the aisle to make a pact with a political rival, working with others whom they disagree with, for the common good.

Fortunately, there has been enough of that working experience of everyday politics within the EPRDF for the party to work through its crises, up to now. But the many years in which all others were excluded from the workings of public administration, and shut out of debates on matters of public interest, have taken their toll. The social capital of trust, of community ties to those who exercise public authority, have been strained.

Our new PM has a very difficult challenge. The public has high expectations for change—and some of those expectations require time or are mutually incompatible. There will surely be disappointments. There are many ready to ignite an agenda based on fear, should he falter.

But PM Abiy has a huge asset. His party has committed itself to reform and his state institutions are functional, our society has proven its mettle. Fifty years of upheaval have not weakened Ethiopia’s social capital, but to the contrary have strengthened it: Ethiopian women and men have a deep appreciation of the gains of stability, coexistence and respect for one another and for order, and a profound understanding of the perils of charging down the wrong path. Our society is bigger, stronger, and wiser than our politics, and the wise patriot will respect that.

This is too important a moment for Ethiopians to be spectators in their country’s turning point for the better. It is a moment to welcome the new order and to talk constructively about how we can contribute to a balanced, moderate, patriotic new political dispensation. We should not risk our transition by making maximalist demands, or threatening to burn the country should our ultimatums not be met.

We need to cultivate a political culture of respect, compromise, patience and give-and-take. That can start with a robust national political dialogue: what kind of Ethiopia do we want, and how can we safely get there? But at least one thing can be settled with no need for an extended discourse: Ethiopia should be prepared, sooner than later, for a political landscape when the EPRDF would be just one of the parties in the country with the capacity to govern, the consent for that privilege to be conferred by the Ethiopian electorate.

That is when we would say this ancient country – a beacon of hope for the Black race – has achieved sustainable peace, democracy and economic development.

The post ETHIOPIAN IMPERATIVE: WE RISE TOGETHER, OR WE FALL TOGETHER appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

From left, journalist Zelalem Workagegnehu, blogger and rights activist Mahlet Fatahun and blogger/journalist/rights activist Befeqadu Hailu as pictured next to the police station where the eleven of them were detained for eleven days 

Befeqadu Hailu, for Addis Standard

Addis Abeba, April 09/2018 – Have you ever lived in a square meter room? I did, but not in a literal way. It happened in Nifas-silk police detention center in the last 11 days. Forty people have been sleeping, eating and even urinating in a 32 square meters’ room. A person has been sleeping in less than a square meter. Of these 40 people, the renowned politician Andualem Aragie as well as journalists Eskinder Nega and Temesgen Desalegn were included.

On Sunday, the 25^th of March, Blue Party had a luncheon to thank former political prisoners the Ethiopian state has recently released. After the luncheon, some of the guests, including myself, who attended the event as a an activist-reporter, went to Temesgen Desalegn’s family house. Journalist Temesgen was also released 5 months ago from Ziway/Batu federal prison after serving three years of sentence  with bogus charges of ‘incitement’. At Temesgen’s place around Jomo condominium, in western part of the city of Addis Abeba, there was a mini event where some activists and friends of the former political prisoners prepared to honor the latter. The event was an informal gathering in a compound. By the time most guests have left, two policemen came in and took off the flag that was hanging on the wall inside the compound. The flag didn’t have the official emblem on it, and it is not lawful to display it in public. In our defense, the event wasn’t formal nor public; and, it is a global culture to hang civil flags on civilian spaces.

Nonetheless, the policemen asked us to pick two persons so they will take them to police station and talk to them about the incident. We resisted not to do that and eleven of us were all taken accompanied by many other policemen who were called in for help by the first arrivals. At the police station, things got serious than we had expected them to be. The police officers first accused us of displaying unlawful flag, and after hearing our defense they later brought accusations related to violation of the current state of emergency that prohibits a public gathering – which the event was not.

That night, when we were sent to three of the detention rooms at the Nifas-silk sub-city police detention center, the rooms were too congested to add a single person. I was with blogger Zelalem Workagegnehu, who was released from prison two months ago, in the first room. We bribed the room’s ‘capo’ and he managed to find the two of us a place in between sleeping guys so we can rest our body without movement – like a statue. Then, I asked the ‘capo’ if there were any prisoner held by the Command Post. He pointed to a row of people laying on the floor and told me they were all held by the Command Post and added, “theirs is different; they were not even taken to court”. In the following days we would learn 81 people were detained under the state of emergency (SOE) Ethiopia declared for the second time.

In the detention center, there are only three rooms and they are all filled beyond their capacity. Previously, I was told, the rooms were a bit relaxed than this. They are now overfilled with prisoners of the SOE.  Almost half of the inmates are held by the Command Post. The 32 square-meters’ room (they call it ‘3^rd room’) used to have a maximum of 27 people in normal days. The room has only one square meter window. It is filthy and hot. The other two are relatively big rooms with two windows each but contained more than their capacity. During the night, inmates are locked in the rooms and have to use a barrel in need of urinating.

Before our arrest, none of us had a clue that there was a mass arrest under the current SOE. As a victim of the past SOE that lasted 10 months from October 2016, I was scared. I was afraid our case might get very complicated and we might stay jailed for long. I was even more scared for Andualem and Eskinder who had only been free for a month after six years and six months in jail.

The next morning, we got out of our rooms and gathered in the small compound of the detention center. There, many prisoners of SOE came in and introduced themselves to us. Most of them were jailed three weeks earlier during the market strike in Sebeta, a city located in Oromia special zone in the outskirt of Addis Abeba. One of these prisoners is Alemu, (whose family name I forgot), a police commander in the town of Sebeta. Alemu told me he was detained because he resisted against the Addis Abeba’s police intervention in his town during the market strike.

Commander Hailemariam Abraha, chief of the police station we were held in, called on the eleven of us to his office and explained to us, very politely, that our case should be seen by higher officials. He then moved us to an office-space where it was very convenient to stay; we spent two nights ‘enjoying the privileged’ room than the rest of the prisoners in the other rooms. He looked certain that we will spend very short time. However, after we told the news about the detention of more than 80 prisoners by the Command Post in that place to our visitors and after they informed the news to the media, we were back to the detention rooms which Eskinder perfectly called as ‘inhuman’. When we were returned all the men were sent back to the same room, 3^rd room. Commander Hailemariam Abraha didn’t even dare to see us in the face since then.

I was happy we were back there because it was better to suffer with all the victims than to be ‘fairly’ treated alone only because we have media contacts to report about our conditions. Even back in the detention room, with the help of other SoE detainees such as Felmeta Amenu, we were privileged because all the inmates cooperated to leave us the best place out of respect. However, the privilege we were given couldn’t save Temesgen’s back pain from worsening.

In the middle of all these, the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was elected and sworn in. Our visitors told us his speech turned them all optimist. All of us, the detainees of the Command Post in that place, hoped the SOE will be uplifted very soon. That night, eleven of us were singled out and taken to an office. We were asked to fill bail forms and were returned back to our rooms. We hoped that we would be released the next morning and also that the rest of SOE detainees will follow us. It didn’t happen the next morning and not in the following day too. It was mind boggling but we were ready for all. We have already established a culture of picking topics, discussing them, and sharing our experiences to one another. We had also started to enjoy the evening time talent shows of the prisoners. The talent shows included jokes and songs. Felmeta was a star in playing resistance songs while our ‘capo’ has specialized in playing songs changing lyrics of famous songs into prisoners’ terms. After all, we were all experienced in making the best out of a miserable situation.

Suddenly, in the evening of Thursday April 6, we were again called out of our rooms and were told we would be released by calling bail for each of us. Our friends, who have been waiting outside for the past few days in case we were lucky to be released during or after working hours, came in and signed to bail us out. The toughest part of our release was to leave those detainees of the Command Post, who didn’t get as much publicity as we did, behind us.

Alemu, the Police Commander from Sebeta told me, with his eyes full of tears, “I had recently had surgery; I’m barely sleeping. Please be our voice”. It was also painful to leave behind Felmeta among others who were worried about our comfort more than theirs. I hope to meet them soon. I hope the SOE will be lifted sooner than later. AS

The post Detention Memoir: Eleven detainees, eleven days. What really happened appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Mahlet Fasil
Addis Standard

Addis Abeba, April 09/2018 – A military officer has shot dead Ayantu Mohammed Sa’idoo, a 20 year old, mother of a four year girl, last night in Qobo town, east Hararghe zone of the Oromia regional state, her neighbors told Addis Standard. She was also three months pregnant.

Ayantu’s body was discovered after it was dumped in an area called ‘Shambel house’ this morning, according to sources. She was “abducted” by a group of security forces at around 11: 30 PM local time last night and was killed after “being severely assaulted”.

Chala Ibrahim Bakaree,  a military officer suspected of killing Ayantu, has been disarmed and placed under the town’s police custody,  according to a local police officer. “He is being investigated,” the officer said.

It is not clear why the security forces have approached Ayantu, who was a ‘chat’ trader, the green narcotic leaf widely used in the area. She was walking home from a late night’s work; “she was abducted and taken away when she resisted”, a source who wants to remain anonymous told Addis Standard by phone.

Her funeral is planned to take place tomorrow at 1: 30 PM local time in an area called Ganda Tucha. However, locals are wary of increased security presence in the town and fear her funeral may trigger anger. “The federal police have been roaming to town since early in the morning today and we fear this may trigger more violence,” said our source.

A picture of Ayantu’s bloodied body has been circulating on Ethiopian social media. Our source also sent what appears to be an empty firearm bullet found near her  body and was allegedly used to kill her.

Ethiopia is under a six month state of emergency, which gave security forces a sweeping mandate to stop, search and detain civilians without court warrants.

AS

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Hiber Radio Daily Ethiopian News April 9, 2018

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By Achamyeleh Tameru

Let’s get the facts straight on who ruled Ethiopia!

The post Dr Abiy is not the first PM. to rule Ethiopia as an Oromo Ethiopian appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

The Maqdala artefacts were seized in an imperial war that wasn’t about plunder or annexation. Still, they may not be in the right place

A group of Ethiopian treasures, now on special display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, have rekindled an old debate about whether such artefacts should be returned to their country of origin. Ethiopia would like them back. The V&A’s director, Tristram Hunt, has suggested a long-term loan. The Ethiopian government has welcomed Hunt’s offer. And there, for now, the matter rests.

The treasures, which include an 18th-century gold crown and a royal wedding dress, are part of a fascinating and beautiful collection with a tragic and little-known history. They were seized by the British in 1868 and have been in the V&A ever since. But the circumstances of their seizure, and the consequences, deserve to be much better known.

Even most of those who know something of British imperial history are unlikely to know much about the 1868 invasion of Abyssinia which lies at the root of the current debate about the future of these treasures. That’s because the Abyssinia campaign barely features in the dominant historical narratives about British imperial power. The discredited heroic narrative of imperial Britain had prominent places for the conquest of north America, India and even South Africa. The critical big post-colonial narrative that replaced it concentrated on India, the Middle East, the Atlantic slave trade and even Ireland. But the Abyssinia campaign has remained on the margins of both.

The 1868 war gets a passing ironic mention as one of the “justifiable wars” of the 19th century in 1066 and All That. The tragic and poignant fate of the Abyssinian Prince Alemayehu, who was brought to Britain with the treasure in 1868, is possibly marginally better known than the events that gave rise to it. Alemayehu met Queen Victoria and was sent to Rugby school. He died in Headingley, Leeds, at the age of 18 while staying under the care of his former tutor Cyril Ransome, father of the children’s author (and Guardian journalist) Arthur Ransome, and is buried in Windsor Castle. Alemayehu’s exile has recently been the subject of a film and a radio programme. But the wider truth is that this is a forgotten story – except in Ethiopia.

Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, was on the wrong side of Africa to be caught up in the Atlantic slave trade, though always vulnerable to the Arab slave trade. It was too mountainous and isolated to be routinely involved in the struggles between Britain, France and Turkey to control the Red Sea and the route to India. And when the European colonial “rush for Africa” began in earnest in the mid-19th century, it offered too few easy pickings in terms of minerals, cash crops and settlement.

Nineteenth-century Abyssinia, with its ancient culture and its dominant Coptic Christian religion, was both a place apart for the European powers and a place with real, if uneasy, connections to the neighbouring Ottoman Turkish world that dominated north-east Africa and the Middle East. When, in 1855, a remarkable local ruler called Kassa unified Abyssinia’s many provinces and crowned himself the Emperor Tewodros, the outside world began to be aware of one of the great African leaders of the 19th century.

Tewodros was a man of enormous energy and ambition. His aim, never fulfilled, was to create a modern nation state. Though he always struggled to maintain control, he abolished feudal dues, paid salaries to judges and local governors, outlawed bribery, confiscated firearms, forbade the slave trade and abolished polygamy. His growing power attracted foreign governments. A British diplomat visited him in 1855. And in 1862, after receiving a present of two pistols from Britain, Tewodros wrote to Queen Victoria with an audacious proposal. As the great Christian emperor of the south, he proposed an alliance with the great Christian empress of the north. Together, their armies would unite – and drive the Muslim Ottomans from the holy places in Jerusalem.

It was a fateful letter. Lord Palmerston’s government in London had no intention of getting involved. The letter was ignored. Tewodros responded by taking hostage the handful of Europeans in the country, including a British emissary. For years, efforts were made to negotiate the hostages’ release. But Britain’s refusal to send aid workers or to join in the Jerusalem adventure made that impossible. The situation festered and Tewodros’s power began to decline. In 1868, in an operation costing £9m – the equivalent of more than £1bn today – Britain sent an army of 13,000 troops. In April of that year, the British overwhelmed Tewodros’s army at the fortress of Maqdala. In a scene worthy of the climax of a Verdi opera, Tewodros committed suicide with one of the pistols from Queen Victoria.

With Tewodros dead, the British withdrew. The troops went back to India. The freed hostages went home. The railways that had been built to carry military equipment up from the Red Sea coast was pulled up. The Maqdala treasures, along with Tewodros’s son, were taken to Britain. The prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, told MPs that “We are about to vacate the country in a manner which will prove to the world the purity of our purpose.”

The Abyssinia war is an unusual episode in the British imperial story. It was not a war of plunder, of imperial rivalry or annexation. Politicians at the time thought it was a war about prestige. The British did it because they could. They had the wealth and the weapons; the Ethiopians had neither. Though Tewodros never ruled a stable Abyssinia, his overthrow weakened the fragile state at great human cost. Tewodros was unquestionably a tragic victim of British imperial might.

Abyssinia would be invaded twice more, defeating the Italians in their historic victory at Adowa in 1896, and then being brutally attacked by Mussolini in 1935. Today, Disraeli’s claims of moral purity are not words that anyone would use. And nor should they rule out the return of the Maqdala treasures.

• Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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African News Agency/ANA

Johannesburg – New Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has visited Somali and Oromiya regions, where clashes since 2016 have displaced nearly a million people.

The weekend trip to the volatile regions was his first since being sworn in as premier seven days ago.

Ahmed comes to power – after the sudden resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn in February – during a tumultuous time in the Horn of Africa country’s history.

Clashes along the border of the country’s Somali and Oromiya provinces in September last year left hundreds dead and both regions blaming the other for the unrest.

The protests had begun over land rights but later morphed into protests calling for greater political freedom and representation, and despite Desalegn releasing political prisoners at the beginning of the year the tense atmosphere remained.

Now high hopes rest on Ahmed’s shoulders to lead the country forward in a more progressive way.

But it’s not only Ethiopians who are depending on Ahmed for a better future – so is the African Union (AU).

Earlier in the year AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat offered his services to the government of Ethiopia as it sought to “address the challenges that necessarily arise in any endeavour to deepen democracy and advance development”.

“Ethiopia occupies a strategic position as host of the AU and is a strong power in an unstable part of Africa. The European Union also sees Ethiopia as a major ally in its attempt to keep African migrants from fleeing to Europe,” said Liesl Louw-Vaudran, a consultant at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, in a recent report.

The AU has around 2 000 people working at its commission in the capital Addis Ababa, where its headquarters are and where it regularly hosts AU conferences.

Apart from the many offices of the United Nations (UN) – including the UN Economic Commission for Africa headquarters – there are more than 100 embassies in the city.

International leaders regularly visit the AU in Addis and there is also a large international presence there which creates thousands of jobs for locals.

“Ethiopia is also a major player in the Horn of Africa due to its strong military role in the region and as host to almost 850,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea,” said Louw-Vaudran.

The country is also one of the largest contributors to UN and AU peacekeeping missions in the world, notably in Abyei (bordering Sudan and South Sudan), Darfur, South Sudan and Somalia.

Louw-Vaudran explained that Ethiopia’s status on the continent had increased in the past two decades, especially during the government of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, due to its strong economic growth rates and development-oriented policies.

“Yet with its massive population of 102 million, most of whom are young people, the threat of political instability has been on the cards for some time,” she added.

But the analyst said it appeared not much could be done by the AU to help mitigate the risks of instability for itself and for its host country.

Analysts agree that Ethiopia is traditionally far less susceptible to outside influence in its internal affairs than many other African countries.

“AU involvement in Ethiopia’s internal political situation doesn’t seem likely. A discussion of the situation in the 15-member AU Peace and Security Council that deals with conflicts on the continent has also never taken place,” said Louw-Vaudran.

However, the AU is also important for Ethiopia, given its contribution in terms of job creation and economic opportunities in Addis Ababa.

“In this sense, and as a bare minimum, the presence of the AU could serve as a stabilising factor in a very complex situation,” said Louw-Vaudran.

African News Agency/ANA

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Between the years of 2016 and 2017 Ethiopia was under a state of emergency for 10 months. This research which was undertaken by the Ethiopian Human Rights Project (EHRP) examines the State of Emergency proclamation and explores the Impact the proclamation had on the enforcement of civil and political rights in the country. In undertaking the research purposive sampling of interviewees, field investigations as well as document analysis were carried out. The report is prepared in a descriptive format.

As discussed in the research the main reason behind the adoption of the state of emergency was to control and arrest the popular uprisings which began in 2016. The protests covered the major regions in Ethiopia including Amhara region, Oromia region and some parts of the SNNPR. However, the immediate cause for the declaration of a state of emergency was the increased protests in Oromia towns surrounding Addis Ababa following the killings by security forces of protesters during the Erecha celebrations which took place in Bishoftu.

Despite the ability of the government to control the difficulties faced by the state through the operation of the ordinary law enforcement mechanism, the government used the state of emergency to suppress legal and peaceful protests. The state of emergency proclamation included provisions which clearly contradict the international conventions ratified by Ethiopia.

The research has also ascertained that the restrictions imposed by the state of emergency and the sweeping powers given to the command post by the proclamation as well as the command post’s enforcement directive had a temporal coverage extending from the time before to the time after the state of emergency. The proclamation had the intention of legitimizing illegal acts committed prior to the enactment of the state of emergency and as a result relieving the security forces of liability. The findings of the research also show that the aim of the proclamation was to spread fear in attempt to arrest the popular protests which didn’t show signs of cooling despite the arbitrary killings, mass arrests and cutting of communication mediums.

The major highlights of the state of emergency were arbitrary killings and mass arrests that were carried out indiscriminately in both peaceful and protest prone areas. The detainees were detained without charges in mass detention facilities that lacked adequate food, water and toilets. As a result of the forceful investigations the detainees were victims of temporary and long-term psychological and physical harm. Even after their release the detainees were compelled to live under economic troubles and fear. Many of the detainees were forced to take the so called “Tehadeso”/ ”Reformation” trainings while others were simply released on bail after counselling; among those that were charged some were released while others were sentenced to imprisonment. Despite an inquiry board being named by the House of Peoples Representatives to investigate the human rights violations that occurred during state of emergency, the board didn’t report a single violation nor attempt to take any corrective measures. With regards to the arbitrary killings, despite their pervasiveness before, during and after the state of emergency no responsibility was attributed on the security forces.

The state of emergency proclamation has served as an impediment to the media, civil societies and opposition parties. The operations of medias and civil societies have been severely restricted by the proclamation. The closing of the internet space through which most human rights activists operate coupled with the fear evoked by the proclamation has restricted the publication of human right reports and political discussions.

The research finds that the 2016 state of emergency was primarily targeted at arresting dissent rather than maintaining peace and stability. This was done through violations of the civil and political rights and the sweeping powers given to security forces with no corresponding responsibilities.

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Neamin Zeleke on Hardtalk

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Condemns: (1) the killing of peaceful protesters and excessive use of force by Ethiopian security forces; (2) the detention of journalists, students, activists and political leaders who exercise their constitutional rightsto freedom of assembly and expression through peaceful protests; and (3) the abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic freedoms.

Urges: (1) protesters in Ethiopia to refrain from violence and from encouragement or acceptance of violence in demonstrations, and (2) all armed factions to cease their conflict with the Ethiopian government andengage in peaceful negotiations.

Calls on the government of Ethiopia to:

• lift the state of emergency;
• end the use of excessive force by security forces;
• investigate the killings and excessive use of force that took place as a result of protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions;
• release dissidents, activists, and journalists who have been imprisoned for exercising constitutional rights;
• respect the right to peaceful assembly and guarantee freedom of the press;
• engage in open consultations with citizens regarding its development strategy;
• allow a United Nations rapporteur to conduct an independent examination of the state of human rights in Ethiopia;
• address the grievances brought forward by representatives of registered opposition parties;
• hold accountable those responsible for killing, torturing, and detaining innocent civilians who exercised their constitutional rights; and
• investigate and report on the circumstances surrounding the September 3, 2016, shootings and fire at Qilinto Prison, the deaths of persons in attendance at the annual Irreecha festivities at Lake Hora nearBishoftu on October 2, 2016, and the ongoing killings of civilians over several years in the Somali Regional State by police.
• Calls on such government to repeal proclamations that:
• can be used to harass or prohibit funding for organizations that investigate human rights violations, engage in peaceful political dissent, or advocate for greater political freedoms;
• prohibit those displaced from their land from seeking judicial redress;
• permit the detention of peaceful protesters and political opponents who legally exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association; and
• limit peaceful nonprofit operations in Ethiopia.

Calls on: (1) the Department of State to review security assistance and improve oversight of U.S. assistance to Ethiopia; (2) the U.S. Agency for International Development to lead efforts to develop a strategy tosupport improved democracy and governance in Ethiopia; and (3) the State Department, in cooperation with the Department of the Treasury, to apply appropriate sanctions on foreign persons or entities responsiblefor extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against any nationals in Ethiopia;.

Supports the peaceful efforts of the Ethiopian people to exercise their constitutional rights.

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Resolution Calls for Commitment to Human Rights, Democracy, Rule of Law

Felix Horne

Senior Researcher, Horn of Africa

Today, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution encouraging Ethiopia’s government to increase respect for human rights, rule of law, and democracy. This non-binding resolution, combined with recent statements from the US Embassy in Addis, sends a strong signal to Ethiopia’s new prime minister that the US expects significant reforms ahead.Resolution 128 was passed in large part because of Ethiopian-American voters concerned with the Ethiopian government’s rights record, who worked together to make themselves an important constituency. Their persistent efforts despite the efforts of the Ethiopian embassy and their Washington lobbyists led to an impressive 108 Congressional representatives from 32 states co-sponsoring this resolution. Hopefully they can build on this success and advocate for binding legislation on Ethiopia.Amongst other things, the resolution calls for Ethiopia’s government “to allow an independent examination of the state of human rights in Ethiopia by a rapporteur appointed by the United Nations.” Ethiopia has repeatedly rebuffed efforts to investigate allegations of serious crimes by government forces and has not let in any UN Special Rapporteur to investigate allegations of abuse since 2007. With a new prime minister, now is the time for Ethiopia to change course and allow independent experts to investigate, including the Special Rapporteurs on torture and freedom of assembly.

Over the past two years, Ethiopia’s government security forces have arrested tens of thousands of people protesting government policies and have killed over 1,000 demonstrators. Torture in detention is rife, and independent media, civil society, and opposition parties are severely limited.

The United States, like many of Ethiopia’s international partners, is focused on collaborating with the country on counterterrorism efforts, peacekeeping, and economic growth. Yet for the partnerships to be effective, Ethiopia needs to be stable. And in light of the past two years’ sweeping protests, the question of stability is inextricably linked to Ethiopia’s harsh response to dissent and political opposition.

This resolution not only encourages the government to implement key reforms, but says that future US cooperation should be tied to Ethiopia’s “demonstrated commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.” Encouraging those reforms with measurable, specific, and transparent benchmarks in exchange for future cooperation is critical. It is also important that other countries follow the US Congress’ lead on tying support to tangible progress.

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Etenesh Abera
Addis Stanadrd

Addis Abeba, April 11/2018 – A statement released by the office of the spokesperson of Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs strongly condemned the decision by the US House of Representatives to pass Resolution 128, saying it “disrespected its sovereignty”. It also said the resolution was  “untimely and inappropriate.”

The statement came after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a critical Ethiopia resolution 128 (HRes128) yesterday. HRes128 calls for respect for human rights and encourages inclusive governance in Ethiopia. But it also contains sections that condemn “the killing of peaceful protesters and excessive use of force by Ethiopian security forces; the detention of journalists, students, activists and political leaders who exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression through peaceful protests; and  the abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic freedoms.”

But according to the statement from the ministry, the resolution failed to understand the longstanding bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and the United States of America and disregarded the changes that were happening on the ground, including the recent release of thousands of political prisoners and the orderly transition that saw the current Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed replace former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who resigned on Feb. 15.  The statement further said that the decision to pass the resolution disregarded the promises of change made by the new PM Dr. Abiy to further undertake deeper reforms.

However, the statement said Ethiopia would continue maintaining its diplomatic relationships and its cooperation in peace and security areas with the US and thanked members of the congress who voted against the resolution.

Yesterday, an official from Ethiopia’s ministry of justice told Addis Standard that Ethiopian authorities were “anxiously waiting for the result,” and said “the timing of the resolution is unhelpful given all the positive changes the country is undertaking currently including the appointment of a reformist Prime Minister.”

AS

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
11 April 2018

Following news that Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has released at least 56 opposition activists after they spent up to 84 days in arbitrary detention for protesting against the escalating cost of food and healthcare, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Joan Nyanyuki said:

“We welcome the news of their release, but there is no place to treat the release of arbitrarily detained activists as a gift from the government. These detentions should never have happened at all in the first place and the government does not deserve congratulations.

“For close to three months, the lives, families and livelihoods of each of the detainees had come to a standstill – just because they peacefully exercised their right to freedom of expression.

“The Sudanese authorities should ensure that all those still arbitrarily detained are released and no such detentions should happen in the future. Sudan should further ensure that torture and all other forms of ill-treatment also do not happen. Several of these detainees were subjected to ill-treatment in detention.”

Background

In January 2018, the Government of Sudan cracked down on activists protesting against escalating living costs. Hundreds were arrested and detained, mainly in the capital Khartoum, without charge or access to lawyers.

They were subsequently held in inhumane, cramped conditions, with more than 20 detainees kept in 5m by 7m cells, or smaller.

Public Document
****************************************
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Catherine Mgendi on: +254 20 428 3020 or Cell: +254 737 197 614; email:catherine.mgendi@amnesty.org

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Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the epicenter of protests that riled the country between 2015 and last year with a call for the people to rally behind government efforts aimed at deepening democracy.

Ambo, located in the west Shoa zone of Oromia regional state, was the scene of heavy protests that led to security crackdown and deaths.

There was intense preparations ahead of his visit whiles thousands poured out at the Ambo stadium to listen to his message.

According to the state-affiliated FANA Broadcasting Corporate, he tasked citizens to join hands and make history by focusing their attentions towards peace and development. He also highlighted the importance of resolving differences through dialogue.

‘‘The Premier also pledged utmost efforts by the government to ensure benefits of all Ethiopians, including women, and urged scholars to conduct problem-solving researches,’‘ the report added.

Abiy was accompanied by his deputy Demeke Mekonnen who hailed the efforts of the youth in the sustainability of reforms currently underway.

Other high-profile officials included Shiferaw Shigute, head of the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and Foreign Affairs chief, Workneh Ghebeyehu.

Lemma Megerssa, President of the Oromia regional state in his comments stressed that the occasion unlike in the past was a time to announce good news and hope contrary to the past when they have had to quell protests.

People came out in their traditional attires to welcome the Premier and his entourage. Women in their traditional attires and men clad in Oromo robes and riding horses attended the event.

Addis Standard@addisstandard

Replying to @addisstandard

These pictures posted on Facebook by the BBC Afaan Oromoo program show a gathering of the people from #Ambo and its environs who came out dressed in their traditional dresses (and men on horseback) to attend the speech being delivered by PM #AbiyAhmed.

12:56 AM – Apr 11, 2018

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emmanuel Igunza

@EmmanuelIgunza

The scenes in Ambo town during #Ethiopia PM Dr Abiy Ahmed visit today! Thousands turned up.

4:15 AM – Apr 11, 2018

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By AFP

PUBLISHED: 11:57 EDT, 11 April 2018 | UPDATED: 11:57 EDT, 11 April 2018

Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed paid a visit to a hotbed of anti-government protests Wednesday, asking residents for patience as he works to bring change to the Horn of Africa country.

Abiy is the first prime minister to come from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group the Oromo, who spearheaded more than two years of unprecedented protests against the country’s one-party government that left hundreds dead.

In the university town of Ambo — a flashpoint for the protest movement — Abiy was welcomed by dozens of horsemen adorned in traditional Oromo attire and cheering crowds, composed of the same young people who made up the ranks of the protesters.

Speaking just over a week after his inauguration to a surging crowd of thousands that police struggled to restrain, Abiy hailed the protesters, known as Qeerroo, as the “shield of the Oromo people”.

“We are now on the path of change and love,” Abiy said, appealing for patience from the residents of Ambo, 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa.

“I ask you to give us time … to take organised action,” he said.

“We want to work hand-in-hand with you. What we say and what we do must match.”

– Breaking tradition –

The direct appeal to protesters stood in stark contrast to the situation in Ambo a year ago, when protesting students so feared voicing their opinions in public that they would only meet with journalists in an empty field outside of town.

“This is the first time the most powerful person in Ethiopia visited Ambo. The other leaders didn’t like to visit because they were afraid. He broke that tradition,” said Ambo resident Almaz Bulcha.

A 42-year-old former minister of science and technology, Abiy rose to prominence as part of a group of Oromo politicians within the all-powerful Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), who reached out to the protesters.

He was chosen to lead the party, which has been in power for 27 years, after former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced in February that he would step down, a surprise move that analysts believe was partially driven by his inability to quell the anti-government sentiment.

Under Hailemariam, the government imposed a 10-month state of emergency to halt the violence in Oromia and the neighbouring Amhara region.

But anti-government sentiment remained strong among both ethnic groups, which together comprise 60 percent of Ethiopia’s population and resent what they see as the over-representation of the Tigrayan minority within the ruling regime.

It is unclear how much of a factor Abiy’s entreaties to the protesters and his Oromo ethnicity played in his appointment as prime minister.

– High hopes –

Since Abiy’s inauguration, 11 high-profile dissidents arrested last month have been released from jail and internet service has been restored in the countryside after a months-long shutdown.

Last week, he paid a fence-mending visit to the southeastern Somali region, which saw clashes last year between Oromos and Somalis along their shared regional border that killed hundreds and displaced a million people.

However a state of emergency imposed after Hailemariam’s resignation has yet to be lifted and all eyes are on the new premier’s next moves.

“As a young man, I’ve never heard of an Oromo being leader of Ethiopia,” said university student Dejenu Taye. “Being a leader is not enough. I’m now looking forward to him keeping his promises.”

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