US Representative, Chris Smith Calls on Ethiopian Government - End Political Crisis, Respect Human Rights
2007-04-23 00:38:00
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the one-year anniversary of Ethiopia’s general elections, Rep. Chris
Smith
– Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights
and International Operations – said it is imperative that the Government
of Ethiopia release all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Smith also noted the importance negotiating with the two main political party coalitions to end the stalemate on the limited rights of opposition members of Parliament and investigating killings of protestors by government forces. “Prime Minister Meles Zenawi played down the government shooting of protesters in June 2005 and despite having enough to arrest those responsible,” said Smith, who went to Ethiopia last summer. “Now, one year after the election that could have brought so much hope to Ethiopia, the shootings remain uninvestigated and political party leaders are still held without trial on spurious charges.” The May, 2005 elections were widely acknowled
Read more: Representative
, Ethiopian
, Crisis
The Role of Women in Ethiopia
2007-04-17 02:29:00
There have been few studies concerning women in Ethiopia
, but many observers have commented on the physical hardship that Ethiopian women experience throughout their lives. Such hardship involves carrying loads over long distances, grinding corn manually, working in the homestead, raising children, and cooking. Ethiopian women traditionally have suffered sociocultural and economic discrimination and have had fewer opportunities than men for personal growth, education, and employment. Even the civil code affirmed the woman's inferior position, and such rights as ownership of property and inheritance varied from one ethnic group to another. As in other traditional societies, a woman's worth is measured in terms of her role as a mother and wife. Over 85 percent of Ethiopian women reside in rural areas, where peasant families are engaged primarily in subsistence agriculture. Rural women are integrated into the rural economy, which is basically labor intensive and which exacts a heavy phy
Read more: Women
Meles Zenawi's Interesting Interview with The Washington Post
2007-04-16 09:53:00
The Washington
Post's Stephanie McCrummen sat down this week with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to discuss rising tensions with Somalia's Islamic Courts, and the state of democracy inside the country.On the issue of Somalia: Ethiopia is inching closer to war with the Islamic Courts, who have taken over large swaths the country, including its capital, and who have in the past called for creation of a "Greater Somalia," including portions of ethnically Somali Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Diplomats estimate that Ethiopia has at least 8,000 troops in Somalia bolstering the fragile, but internationally recognized transitional government, a claim that Ethiopia has repeatedly denied.Q: First, your reaction to the call by the Islamic Courts for Ethiopia to withdraw its forces in seven days?A: They have issued an ultimatum. This does not come as a surprise to me. The declaration is based on falsehoods. It is true we have troops in Baidoa, the capital, who are there to train forces of
Read more: Washington Post
Heavy Fighting in Mogadishu Leads to Mutilation of Troops
2007-04-07 03:17:00
By Stephanie McCrummenWashington Post Foreign ServiceNAIROBI, March 21 -- Somali civilians and masked insurgents burned the bodies of four soldiers, kicked them, pelted them with rocks and dragged the bloodied and half-naked corpses through Mogadishu on Wednesday, witnesses said. It was one of the most violent days since Somalia's Ethiopian-backed transitional government ousted a relatively popular Islamic movement in December.At least 16 people were killed in several hours of heavy fighting in the Somali capital, including at least four government troops and two Ethiopian soldiers, the witnesses said. Several dozen civilians were wounded.The bodies of two government soldiers and two Ethiopian soldiers were then hauled like grotesque trophies through the streets, a ritualistic expression of hatred for an increasingly unpopular government and the neighboring country supporting it. Ethiopian officials denied their soldiers were among those mutilated."The situation has reached this point
Read more: Heavy
, Fighting
, Leads
, Troops
Getting Ethiopia out of Somalia
2007-05-02 00:53:00
by Afyare Abdi ElmiTuesday, May 01, 2007THE UNITED Nations' Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia
reported that the recent clashes between Ethiopia
n troops and Somali resistance groups killed more than 1,000 civilians and displaced more than 350,000 residents of Mogadishu. The European Union has reacted to this carnage and it is investigating whether war crimes were committed by the Ethiopian forces and Somali government militias. The EU argues that forces intentionally targeted civilian areas.The United States, however, is on a different page. When the Union of Islamic Courts defeated the US-backed warlords, the Bush administration -- using the war on terrorism as justiciation -- supported the Ethiopian occupation, arguing that the Islamists were an emerging threat to the US interests.But approaching the complex and multilayered Somali conflict in this simplistic way and linking it to the war on terror was a mistake.The United States inadvertently stepped into a loc
Ethiopia blocks opposition Web sites - watchdog
2007-05-01 23:42:00
By Andrew Heavens ADDIS ABABA, May 1 (Reuters) - An Internet watchdog on Tuesday accused Ethiopia
of blocking scores of anti-government Web sites and millions of Weblogs in one of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest cases of cyber-censorship. Web monitor, the OpenNet Initiative, said the Horn of Africa country was stopping citizens from viewing opposition-linked Web sites, and blogs hosted by Blogger, an online journal community owned by Internet search engine Google Inc. Ethiopia dismissed the report as "a baseless allegation". "We may have technical problems from time to time," Information Ministry spokesman Zemedkun Tekle. "But we have not done anything like that and we have no intention of doing anything like that." The OpenNet Initiative -- a partnership between Harvard Law School, and universities of Toronto and Cambridge and Oxford -- said it had gathered proof of interference. "We have run diagnostic tests using volunteers in Ethiopia which indicate that they are blocking IP addresse
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