Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Ethiopia: The 16th Most Failed State in the World

Gadaa.com

According to the Failed States Index 2009, Ethiopia is the 16th most failed state in the world; Ethiopia’s rank is worse than that of North Korea, where a tyrant rules with unflinching military dictatorship. The Index is a collaboration between Foreign Policy and The Fund for Peace; the Index is intended to highlight states that pose global security threats or bring tragedies for their own people. In March 2009 Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was ranked as the 16th World’s Worst Dictator by Parade magazine...full report

Ethiopia: Proposed Counterterrorism Legislation Violates Human Rights


June 30, 2009

(Nairobi) - Ethiopia's draft counterterrorism law could punish political speech and peaceful protest as terrorist acts and encourage unfair trials if enacted,comittees of woyane Members vote to kill prominent Oromo Nationalists Human Rights Watch said today. The government and members of parliament should amend the draft law, which may otherwise be imminently passed as-is by parliament, to meet international human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch's detailed analysis of the draft Anti-Terrorism Proclamation concludes that the bill violates fundamental freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly, and strips defendants of important due-process protections. As drafted, the law could provide a new and potent tool for suppressing political opposition and independent criticism of government policy, Human Rights Watch said.....read more

As drafted, this law could encourage serious abuses against political protesters and provide legal cover for repression of free speech and due-process rights.

Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director at Human Rights Watch

Monday, June 29, 2009

Rakkoo rimsama tokkummaa: keenyaa fi kan saanii

Oromoo tahuu yk Oromiyaa ofiin bultu tahuun abjummaa yk fakkeessummaa hin qabu, mirkanii seenati. Hunda caalaammoo ofiin bulmaata akka barbaadan Oromoon shakkii malee agarsiisaniiru. Sunuu hiree mirga sabummaa ofii hanga ofiin bulumaataatt murteeffachuu argamsiisaaf. Sana dhugoomsuufi kan sochiin bilisummaa oofamee addi bilisummaa sabaa gara jaarraa walakkaan dura kan ijaarame. Hireen saani isanuma harka jira. Xurree bilisummaa yeros filatan irra eenyuu isaan hin dhaabu. read more

Friday, June 26, 2009

Somali Islamists cut off hands, feet of thieves

The Associated Press

The Associated Press
Kenya has said it will not send troops, while Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he has not ruled out sending forces back into the country, ...
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Opinion: Let us foster Tokummaa for Bilisummaa


We are a big nation with 40 million people. But yet, we are colonized. One of the many factors which hinder us from success is the fragmentation of our political organizations. We do now have seven mini-Liberation Fronts (LFs) roaring like baby lions against one BIG Woyane. The well experienced Woyane is laughing at our mini-lions for they are not dangerous to it. It even pretends to take one or two of them seriously and try to negotiate with them. But, the baby lions can not gain in the negotiation since Woyane despises them. In order to gain in negotiation, the mini-lions aka our fragmented LFs need to be strong in the battle field. That is why all the MINI Liberation Fronts (3 OLFs, COPLF, FIDO, FIO and UOPLF) have to come under one structure and build one strong OLF. No one in life fears 100 baby lions, but everyone is scared of confronting one strong ADULT lion! ...read more

US Sends Weapons to Help Somali Government



Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 25, 2009

The United States has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition to the government of Somalia, according to a U.S. official who said the move signals the Obama administration's desire to thwart a takeover of the Horn of Africa nation by Islamist rebels with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. ..read more

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ethiopian PM says ready to step down: FT

AFP

AFP
LONDON (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has had "enough" after 18 years in power and would be willing to leave office to make way for a new ...
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Related articles

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Controversy over Oromo treatment in Kenya UN refugee agency

Jimma Times
  • "Somalis who work for UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Dadaab camp (Kenya) are abusing non-Somalis"

Concerns Rises As Refugees Crowd Dadaab Camps

(Jalene Gemeda/VOA)Spokesman for UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya Emanuel Nyabera express concern as refugee population in the northwestern Kenya's Dadaab camp climbs to more than 272,000, triple the number the camps were designed to handle.

Amidst reports that Oromo refugees are not being given adequate food, shelter and protection from violence, Mr. Nyabera told Jalene Gemeda of the Afan Oromo service that such problems are inevitable in over-crowded conditions.They investigate all cases of abuse and rape that are reported to them.

Three Oromos described conditions in the camp and said more attention is given only to Somali refugees, who are the largest population in the camps. They also claimed that Somalis who work for UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Dadaab camp are abusing non-Somalis. Somali refugees often harass, beat and rape other refugees, the interviewees added. The sources asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

UNHCR has asked the Kenyan government to build another camp. - VOA

Source: Jimma Times

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Rapprochement between OLF factions: evidence of progress or cause for concern?

By Gumaa Guddaa
Gumaa Guddaa can be reached via e-mail: gumaguda@yahoo.com

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."~ Samuel Beckett

The group that succumbed to the relentless demand from the TPLF, it would appear, had come to the conclusion that their time was running out. It became clear that they had been somehow ambivalent towards the objective of the Oromo struggle for some time even before they came public as they later attested to. It would appear the collapse of any hope of peaceful resolution of the conflict between the OLF and TPLF was a tipping point for them. In order to justify their abandonment of Oromia the Asmara Group had to come up with a list of excuses. They said “Liberation in the era of globalization is impossible”. They also said “To insist upon the right to fight for freedom and self-determination will categorize the OLF to the list of terrorist”. They also preached “We cannot liberate our self”. Instead of liberation of Oromia they made the objective of “democratization” of Ethiopia a fundamental and central mission of their organization.....read more

Official Says Ethiopian Troops Back in Somalia



15 June 2009

Somalia

A local official in Somalia says Ethiopian troops are now staying at a military base near a town in the central part of the country. The reported sighting of Ethiopian troops in central Somalia is just one of several from around the country.

In an interview with local reporters, the district commissioner of Balanbale town in the central Galgadud region says several truck loads of Ethiopian troops are staying at the military base set up on the outskirts of the town....read more

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Trouble with Concept of Unity: theirs vis-à-vis ours.

Ibsaa Guutama is a member of the generation that drew the first Political program of the OLF

We are now at a time when politico-economic tsunamis from west and east are threatening African freedom and social life. These demand to think differently and progressively from the old ways. Instead of releasing the people of Africa from age old fuedo-imperialist prison, to try to keep them there further, amounts to leaving them to havoc and destruction that the tsunamis are going to bring. The tsunamis do not distinguish those who imprisoned and the prisoners. The prisoners, the guards and their bosses would be wiped out without mercy. Those who add fuel to conflicts between siblings will at the end be consumed by the flame that flares from their own makings...read more

US Democrats reject Terror label on Eritrea for its Somalia role

(JT) The Democratic Party dominated US government rejected a move by Republican party officials to designate Eritrea as "State Sponsor of Terrorism." The amendment was forwarded by California Republican Ed Royce after the African Union (AU) and the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) asked the UN to sanction the Eritrean government for its support for insurgents in Somalia.

Eritrea says it is being unfairly targetted and false accusations are made up by the CIA and by the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) led Ethiopian government .

The US labeling of Eritrea as "State Sponsor of Terrorism" would have brought further isolation, economic and other sanctions on Asmara. But the new Obama administration has pushed for a moderate position and for dialogue, with the new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson asking Eritrea to stop its support for radical islamists in Somalia. Several US officials including Congressman Donald Payne have also been supportive of Eritrea's policies in Somalia. read more

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Ethiopian troops cross deeper into Somalia: residents


Reuters - USA
By Abdi Guled MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Heavily-armed Ethiopian soldiers crossed into central Somalia on Friday and entered a town controlled by a ...
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Friday, June 12, 2009

The Oromo People’s National Struggle for Freedom is Not Against the Rights of Any Other People


By Falmataa T.
Like the Oromo people, several other peoples in the empire state of Ethiopia have been under the yoke of Abyssinian colonialism since the creation of that empire in its present form. With ideological and material support of its allies, the Abyssinian regime conquered the southern peoples one after another, targeting one nation at a time. This sequential conquer helped them to re-enforce their colonial army with the resources and manpower of the already conquered people in their subsequent attacks on the remaining southern nations. This shows that the defeat of one people have facilitated the defeat of the rest of the southern people. In this regard, with its vast human and natural wealth, the occupation of Oromia had created a perfect opportunity for colonial army and opened a door for the occupation of the remaining southern nations. Such type of divide and attack strategy was a standard tactic used by all colonial powers, and as such, was not a unique Abyssinian tactic

After southerners were all conquered in such a way, our fate has been one and the same. The magnitude and type of colonial segregation the Oromos have experienced are very similar with the ones used on Somalis, Afars, Gedi’os, Gambelas and Bani-shanguls. We are all equally looted, brutally massacred, denied our human and democratic rights and all together are reduced to a secondary citizen. All these facts demonstrate that we southerners are linked by history and fate. Our common misfortune calls for our joint action to reverse it. We are colonized together and therefore we must be liberated together. This is the firm belief of the OLF and the Oromo people.

The truth being this, successive Abyssinian colonial regimes have been trying everything in their capacities to bury this fact. They did everything they could to apply the old colonial game of divide and rule and sow the seed of permanent animosity between the colonized peoples in the south. They designed several tactics that induce conflicts between colonized peoples. In places where they were successful, they have inflicted countless bloodsheds between neighbouring peoples. They did so between Oromos and Somalis, Oromos and Afars, Oromos and Isas, Oromos and Gedi’os etc. Their fear is obvious, if the oppressed nations unite, their joint action will crash their colonial regime in no time. More than the oppressed, the oppressors know the might of the united oppressed people. To eliminate that potential the oppressors have left no stone unturned.

As a apart of this general picture, the wayane have recently embarked on another wave of campaign of blackmailing the Oromo national movement. The effort is to turn other peoples, residing in Oromia, against the just cause of Oromos. They are disseminating a baseless fabricated cheap propaganda campaign telling the people that: if Oromos get to power they will swallow you, will expel you from Oromia etc. The fact that the current Tigray regime and the old Amara regime have both used the same propaganda shows that they are all the same when it comes to the Oromo question. They all know what they did to the Oromo people and so that they all fear from the Oromo people and its just cause. They want to depict its struggle as a monster to deny it any sympathy and support.

However, the aim of the Oromo struggle is very far from what they think. The aim of the Oromo struggle led by the OLF is only to gain back our country that was taken away from us by force. It is not, in any way, against the rights of any other people. The OLF believes that the Oromo people win the right to self-determination and open up a venue for other peoples to achieve the same rights. After winning the right to self-determination, the Oromo people will live side by side with its neighbours in peace, equality and respect. The OLF believes that peace and security in the region is possible only when oppressions of any sort are eliminated and peoples live together through mutual understanding, equality and respect for each other’s rights. The fact of the matter being this, we believe that baseless propaganda blown by the Wayane regime to divide us should not get the ears of the oppressed peoples. We are colonized together and thus we must be liberated together. Therefore, to defeat their cheap disinformation we must act together.
Source: Yahoo

Oromo: Gabbisaa Ejjetaa wins World Food Prize

Radio Iowa
Radio Iowa - Des Moines,IA,USA
By Pat Curtis A native of Ethiopia, who's now a professor at Purdue University, will be awarded with the 2009 World Food Prize. Gebisa Ejeta has developed ...
Full report

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Ethiopia: Woyane is in the middle of crisis

Shitaye, 12, looks after her family's crop in southern Ethiopia, 10 Oct 2008
Shitaye, 12, looks after her family's crop in southern Ethiopia, 10 Oct 200
VOA...Ethiopia, already among the poorest countries, has suffered a series of recent economic setbacks, forcing officials to take drastic countermeasures to avoid a financial meltdown. Economic growth projections have been slashed amid shortages of critical items, including foreign exchange, electricity and food.

The roar of generators echoes through the streets of Addis Ababa's fashionable Bole district. It is another "power out" day, an energy saving scheme that leaves people without electricity for as much as 14 hours, three days a week...read more

Woyane admits reconnaisance missions in Somalia

AFP

AFP
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopia has undertaken military reconnaisance operations in violence-wracked nearby Somalia, but is not planning to re-deploy, ...
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Ethiopia:Wayane charges 46 with 'assassination plot'

AFP
AFP
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopia on Thursday charged 46 people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate government officials, a government spokesman said.

"The charges can be summed up as conspiring to kill different government officials and conspiring to demolish public utilities," Communications Minister Bereket Simon told reporters.

"The prosecution presented the charges to the court today," he said, more than a month after their arrest....read more

Ethiopian:ONLF threaten foreign oil companies


By Barry Malone ADDIS ABABA, June 3 (Reuters) - An Ethiopian rebel group on Wednesday warned international oil companies against exploring in a region of the Horn of Africa nation where the rebels attacked a Chinese-run field in 2007 killing 74 people....read more

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Ethiopia was hit by hyperinflation of 41 per cent


By Argaw Ashine, Citizen Correspondent, Addis Ababa

Poverty is back to the level of the 1980s in Sub-Saharan Africa, a report reveals.

The document by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Africa Union forecasts harder times for the continent as the economic performance and food security are deteriorating......

The report names five poorest performers in the past five years as Chad, the Comoros, Eritrea, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Ethiopia was hit by hyperinflation of 41 per cent in 2008 while Zimbabwe had higher and the trend remains unstable. Read full report

Monday, June 01, 2009

The Life of Borana Oromo Gada Councilors: The Legacy of the Late Abba Gadaa Hiddoo Galgaloo

A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE ABBA GADAA HIDDOO GALGALOO

Gadaa.com

The former Oromo traditional leader, Abba Gadaa Hiddoo Galgaloo of the Hawattu Assembly, was killed in a car accident on May 27th, 2009.

By Ibrahim A. Elemo (M.D., MPH)*

The Borana Oromo has a very prominent traditional system of governance-the Gada System. This system is not only well developed and well preserved among the Borana Oromo but also a viable socio-political system to date, comparable to no other region in Oromiya. It is an indigenous system of government where leaders are elected to position of authority through the will and active participation of the people they represent. For people who have studied the system and worked with the Gada Councilors, it is absolutely clear that Gada is a functioning democracy. Leaders are not only elected to position of authority to maintain the laws and the rules of the land but also made accountable for every decision they make during their tenure as councilors of their own constituency and leaders of the society. I had the opportunity to work with Gada leaders of the Borana, Guji, and Gabra Oromo during my years of service as a community physician and coordinator of HIV/AIDS Programs and Projects some five years ago. Because of inadvertent interest in understanding the functions of the system to effectively mainstream HIV prevention programs through traditional Oromo institutions, I had to develop a very close working relationship with some of the Gada leaders from regions of Oromiya, where Gada is still an active system with commanding respect and loyalty from traditional Oromo communities...Read More » » »