Semayawi (Blue) Party’s second successful demonstration

One of this year plans was to awake the public at large into participating in politics without a fear. Of all the methods we engaged in demonstration was one of it. On April 27, 2014, we decided to have the protest. Our enquiries are very clear: TPLF/EPRDF is incapable of ruling so it has to leave power and religious interference by the ruling party has to stop, forcing citizens to leave their neighborhood because of their ethnic group is a crime and that has to stop and forcing citizen to leave and demolishing their houses without any compensation because of ‘development’ is unlawful and negligent. Those are the issues we mainly raised in the protest.

When the day and place first decided, we wrote a letter for Addis Ababa City administration office to let them know about it. Within few hours they sent us a letter that suggests a change of date for a vague reason which is stated as “because there will be international meetings in the city” which is as well far from the truth. Then we had to send another letter to inform them that their reply was unacceptable for it lacks clarity and that conflict with the 1987’s proclamation of public gatherings. While three of the demonstration organizing committee delegates went to give the letter, the officer at desk snubbed and left them at the office with the letter. “He,” they said, “was scared and unconfident to receive the letter. Finally they counted witnesses and left the letter and returned back.

Ethiopia: UN condemns crackdown on journalists, increasing restrictions on freedom of expression

GENEVA (2 May 2014) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday expressed concerns about the increasing restrictions placed on freedom of opinion and expression in Ethiopia, following the recent arrest and detention of six bloggers and three journalists.

“I am deeply concerned by this recent wave of arrests and the increasing climate of intimidation against journalists and bloggers prevailing in Ethiopia,” Pillay said.

On 25 and 26 April, six members of the blogging collective Zone Nine and three journalists were arrested by police in Addis Ababa. They were later taken to the Maekelawi federal police station, where they remain in custody.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Ethiopia

On 27 April 2014, they appeared before the Arada Court of First Instance in Addis Ababa. Although the exact charges against each of them remain unclear, the UN Human Rights Office has received information that they were arrested for “working with foreign human rights organizations and inciting violence through social media to create instability in the country.”

The nine detainees are reportedly held incommunicado and some of their family members who tried to bring them food over the weekend were denied access.

TPLF/EPRDF charges nine bloggers and journalists with inciting violence

(Reuters) – Ethiopia has charged six bloggers and three journalists with attempting to incite violence, their supporters said on Monday, prompting accusations from rights groups that the government is cracking down on its critics.

All nine defendants, including freelance journalists Tesfalem Waldyes and Edom Kassaye, appeared in court on Sunday after they were rounded up by police on April 25 and April 26, their colleagues told Reuters.

On Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who visits Ethiopia on Tuesday, to press the government to “unconditionally release” all the defendants, but Addis Ababa dismissed the criticism of the case.

“The nine arrests signal, once again, that anyone who criticizes the Ethiopian government will be silenced,” said Leslie Lefkow, HRW’s deputy Africa director.

“The timing of the arrests – just days before the U.S. secretary of state’s visit – speaks volumes about Ethiopia’s disregard for free speech,” she said in a statement.

In 2012, Addis Ababa sentenced a prominent blogger and five other exiled journalists to between eight years to life on charges of conspiring with rebels to topple the government.

In the new case, a colleague of Tesfalem said security officials in plain clothes searched his house and confiscated several materials before taking him to a detention center.

An Ethiopian government official defended the case against the nine, saying it had nothing to do with muzzling the media.

“CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES”

“These are not journalists. Their arrest has nothing to do with journalism but with serious criminal activities,” Getachew Reda, an adviser to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, said.

“We don’t crack down on journalism or freedom of speech. But if someone tries to use his or her profession to engage in criminal activities, then there is a distinction there,” Getachew told Reuters.

Critics say Ethiopia – sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan – regularly uses security concerns as an excuse to stifle dissent and clamp down on media freedoms.

They also point to an anti-terrorism law, passed in 2009, which stipulates that anyone caught publishing information that could incite readers to commit acts of terrorism can be jailed for between 10 and 20 years.

Addis Ababa says the law aims to prevent “terrorist attacks” as it is fighting separatist rebel movements and armed groups.

A court in Addis Ababa adjourned the hearing for the group of bloggers and journalists until May 7 and 8.

Kerry will meet Prime Minister Desalegn and Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom in Addis Ababa to discuss peace efforts in the region and to strengthen ties with Ethiopia, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

The State Department says the aim of Kerry’s African tour – which will also take in Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola – is to promote democracy and human rights.

(Editing by James Macharia and Gareth Jones)

Ethiopia’s ‘villagisation’ scheme fails to bear fruit

Residents say government has not delivered on resettlement promise of land, clean water and livestock

by William Davison, from Gambella

The orderly village of Agulodiek in Ethiopia’s western Gambella region stands in stark contrast to Elay, a settlement 5km west of Gambella town, where collapsed straw huts strewn with cracked clay pots lie among a tangle of bushes.

In the village of Elay, people are defying the government and returning home. Photograph: William Davison

Agulodiek is a patch of land where families gradually gathered of their own accord, while Elay is part of the Ethiopian government’s contentious “villagisation” scheme that ended last year. The plan in Gambella was to relocate almost the entire rural population of the state over three years. Evidence from districts surrounding Gambella town suggest the policy is failing.

Two years ago people from Agulodiek moved to Elay after officials enticed them with promises of land, livestock, clean water, a corn grinder, education and a health clinic. Instead they found dense vegetation they were unable to cultivate. After one year of selling firewood to survive, they walked back home.

“Is there any hope for Africa?”

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Should we despair over Africa?

In March 2004, Nicholas Kristof, the noted columnist for the New York Times declared in frustration,  “Africa is a mess. It is the only continent that has gotten poorer over the last four decades and its  famous for civil wars, genocide and mindboggling corruption. Is there any hope for Africa?” Kristof was commiserating over the fate of Chad, at the time the “the site of Africa’s latest heartbreak.”

In March 2014, just a hop and a skip on Chad’s southern border is the Central African Republic (CAR), the site of Africa’s latest heartbreak. Chad 2004 is CAR 2014. For the past year, the people of CAR have been facing a nightmare of unspeakable horror. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was so disheartened by the ongoing “ethno-religious cleansing” in CAR that he recently declared, “The international community failed the people of Rwanda 20 years ago… And we are at risk of not doing enough for the people of the CAR today… Ethno-religious cleansing is a reality. Most members of the Muslim minority have fled. We cannot just continue to say ‘never again’. This, we have said so many times…” A year ago, in the town of Yaloke, less than 150 miles from CAR’s capital Bangui, there were an estimated 30,000 Muslims with 8 mosques. Today, according to Human Rights Watch, there are fewer than 500 Muslims and one mosque left.  Is there any hope for (Central) Africa?

In March 2014, just a hop and a skip on Central African Republic’s eastern border is the world’s newest country of South Sudan, which is in the throes of communal warfare.  The conflict that erupted four months ago in South Sudan when President Salva Kir dismissed his vice president Riek Machar and accused him of treason has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and displacement of one million, a fifth of which are refugees in neighboring countries. UNICEF reports that among the displaced population nearly 380,000 are children.

In April 2014, according to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), a massacre occurred in Bentiu in the north of the country when  “the anti-government [Machar’s] forces entered the mosque, separated individuals of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and escorted them to safety, while the others were killed. More than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and over 400 wounded. At the Catholic church, SPLA in Opposition soldiers similarly asked civilians who had taken refuge there to identify their ethnic origins and nationalities and proceeded to target and kill several individuals.”  UNMISS also reported that some rebels took to local radio to “broadcast hate messages declaring that certain ethnic groups should not stay in Bentiu, and even calling on men from one community to commit vengeful sexual violence against women from another community.”