The end of TPLF (EPRDF) seems nearer than ever

January 26, 2015

by Zekarias Ezra

After having watched what has befallen on the innocent and peaceful marchers in Addis streets on January 25, 2015, it would only be the cynical or the sycophantic who would deny the fact that Ethiopia is on the verge of witnessing a repeat of 2005 atrocities. The brutality we witnessed is but a function of the criminal conduct of perhaps the most callous and cowardly regime in the history of the nation.

It is worth reiterating that TPLF’s corrupt and dangerous ways are bringing the country to the brink. The brutality, the TPLF’s mouth piece tried to justify, is disgusting. The list of the regime’s atrocities is too many to enumerate but no doubt just keeps expanding. Consider the unjust imprisonment of Reyoot, Eskinder, Temesegen and many gallant sons and daughters of Ethiopia.

Mark this prophetic word. The Lord has seen it all soon, very soon, He will repay the just due to each and every one who was involved in the shading of innocent blood. In fact, the January 25, 2015 brutality, heralds the pathetic end of TPLF regime. History is replete with examples of regimes that in the end unceremoniously fell and crushed as a direct result of their brutal treatment of their fellow humans.

For over 23 years, we are living under the total subjugation of TPLF and their associates. Oh, yes, they talk of democracy, economic development, roads, and infrastructure and so on while the average Ethiopian (perhaps 99% of the population) is sinking deeper in the pit of despair. Even in the face of hard evidence, TPLF has refused to change course. I guess, since they have socked deep in the pool of innocent blood, they must have decided ‘going back is as good as proceeding’, and chose to keep marching and in that shows that they are incapable of self-redemption.

Once again, TPLF has clearly shown its single-minded determination and obsession to hang on power in perpetuity. The desperation to hang on power has taken the form of a multi-pronged attack on many fronts: on the media, on the civic society, on political parties and activists. This attack is aided by the divide-and-rule strategy (ethnic based politics) and these days by the corrupt and immoral use of the country’s resources in the promotion of a perverse personal ambition.

The pertinent question we should ask ourselves at this critical moment is this: how can we effectively respond to despotic bunches that have shown they have no qualms whatsoever to resorting to the most shameful of tactics in the pursuit of their selfish aims? History has taught us that there are options available to us in our desire to rid ourselves of profligate and shameful tyrants such as the TPLF.

The lesson is that no dictator should be allowed to hold a nation to ransom without a purposeful challenge by the people. The recent past regimes’ sad and pathetic fall is but a testament to this truth. So, Ethiopians of all walks of life should come out in a concerted peaceful effort to once and for all confront TPLF and its associates and take back their country.

ESAT Radio Tue 27 Jan 2015

January 27, 2015 | Filed under: News & Views | Posted by: Zehabesha

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ESAT Radio Tue 27 Jan 2015

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UK diplomats clash over Briton on death row in Ethiopia

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UK diplomats clash over Briton on death row in Ethiopia: Officials’ fury after Foreign Secretary claims he couldn’t ‘find time’ to help father-of-three facing execution

• Andargachew Tsege was snatched by officials at Yemen airport last June
• The 59-year-old was transferred to Ethiopia where he is thought to remain
• Father-of-three moved to London in 1979 from native African country
• He was dubbed ‘Ethiopian Mandela’ after exposing government corruption
• Leaked emails revealed British officials’ frustration at political inaction
• Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for phone call on issue 

By Ian Birrell for The Mail on Sunday

An explosive row has erupted between diplomats and Ministers over their reluctance to help a British man on death row in Ethiopia.

A series of extraordinary emails, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, reveal officials’ increasing frustration at political inaction over Andargachew Tsege.

Tsege, 59, a father-of-three from London, was snatched at an airport in Yemen last June and illegally rendered to Ethiopia. There are concerns he may have been tortured.

Yet Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for a phone call to raise the issue and did not want to send a ‘negative’ letter.
In one email, an exasperated official asks: ‘Don’t we need to do more than give them a stern talking to?’

Tsege, who has lived in the UK since 1979, has been called Ethiopia’s Nelson Mandela. Tsege fell out with his university friend ex-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, after he exposed government corruption and helped establish a pro-democracy party.

In 2009, he was sentenced to death in his absence for allegedly plotting a coup and planning to kill Ethiopian officials – claims he denies.

He was abducted on June 23 while en route to Eritrea, emerging two weeks later in Ethiopia, where he has since been paraded on TV. It is not known where he is being held.
The diplomatic exchanges disclose how officials were dismayed when British Ministers rejected requests to raise the case with Ethiopia.

‘I feel so shocked and let down,’ said Tsege’s wife Yemi Hailemariam. ‘I thought Britain was a nation driven by fairness but it seems my husband’s life is simply not valued.’
The series of emails begins on July 1, with Foreign Office officials confirming his capture: ‘His detention in Yemen is significant news, and could get complicated for the UK.’

Diplomats noted that neither Yemen nor Ethiopia informed Britain about the rendition of its citizen. ‘It feels a bit like I’m throwing the kitchen sink at the Yemenis but I want them to think twice before they do this again,’ wrote one senior figure at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa.
He also noted that a prominent Ethiopian minister had given assurances over Tsege’s treatment –‘but I wouldn’t take them with complete confidence’.

Ethiopia has claimed Tsege tried to recruit other Britons to become involved in terrorism. But the regime has used anti-terror laws to jail journalists and silence political rivals, and UK officials had not seen credible evidence.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for a phone call to raise the issue and did not want to send a ‘negative’ letter.

One diplomatic cable says: ‘All we have seen are a few pictures of him standing in an Eritrean village – hardly proof that he was engaged in terrorist training.’

Three weeks after Tsege’s kidnap, the Foreign Office’s Africa director wrote that Ministers ‘have so far shied away from talking about consequences… their tone has been relatively comfortable’.
On July 21, Hammond’s office was still reluctant to talk to his Ethiopian counterpart on the phone.
‘I don’t think we are going to be able to find time for that at the moment,’ wrote his private secretary. He also turned down sending a ‘negative’ letter, asking for it to be rewritten ‘setting out areas of co-operation. It can end with a paragraph on the Tsege case.’

Despite concerns over Ethiopia’s human rights record, the nation receives £376 million a year in UK aid. One farmer there is suing Britain, claiming the money was used to usurp him from his land.
Hammond is believed to have finally called his counterpart at the end of July, one month after the kidnap. It is understood he focused on requesting consular access rather than condemning the capture.

Reprieve, which campaigns against the death penalty said: ‘These shocking emails show the Foreign Secretary appears to have blocked any meaningful action that could potentially bring this British father home to his family, unharmed.’
The Foreign Office said they were ‘deeply concerned’ by Tsege’s detention and were lobbying for further consular access as well as seeking confirmation the death penalty would not be carried out.

Source: Daily Mail

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Ethiopia: Media being decimate

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Human Rights Watch

(Nairobi) – The Ethiopian government’s systematic repression of independent media has created a bleak landscape for free expression ahead of the May 2015 general elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the past year, six privately owned publications closed after government harassment; at least 22 journalists, bloggers, and publishers were criminally charged, and more than 30 journalists fled the country in fear of being arrested under repressive laws.

The 76-page report, “‘Journalism is Not a Crime’: Violations of Media Freedom in Ethiopia ,” details how the Ethiopian government has curtailed independent reporting since 2010. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 current and exiled journalists between May 2013 and December 2014, and found patterns of government abuses against journalists that resulted in 19 being imprisoned for exercising their right to free expression, and that have forced at least 60 others into exile since 2010.

“Ethiopia’s government has systematically assaulted the country’s independent voices, treating the media as a threat rather than a valued source of information and analysis,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director. “Ethiopia’s media should be playing a crucial role in the May elections, but instead many journalists fear that their next article could get them thrown in jail.”

Most of Ethiopia’s print, television, and radio outlets are state-controlled, and the few private print media often self-censor their coverage of politically sensitive issues for fear of being shut down.

The six independent print publications that closed in 2014 did so after a lengthy campaign of intimidation that included documentaries on state-run television that alleged the publications were linked to terrorist groups. The intimidation also included harassment and threats against staff, pressure on printers and distributors, regulatory delays, and eventually criminal charges against the editors. Dozens of staff members went into exile. Three of the owners were convicted under the criminal code and sentenced in absentia to more than three years in prison. The evidence the prosecution presented against them consisted of articles that criticized government policies.

While the plight of a few high-profile Ethiopian journalists has become widely known, dozens more in Addis Ababa and in rural regions have suffered systematic abuses at the hands of security officials.

The threats against journalists often take a similar course. Journalists who publish a critical article might receive threatening telephone calls, text messages, and visits from security officials and ruling party cadres. Some said they received hundreds of these threats. If this does not silence them or intimidate them into self-censorship, then the threats intensify and arrests often follow. The courts have shown little or no independence in criminal cases against journalists who have been convicted after unfair trials and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, often on terrorism-related charges.

“Muzzling independent voices through trumped-up criminal charges and harassment is making Ethiopia one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists,” Lefkow said. “The government should immediately release those wrongly imprisoned and reform laws to protect media freedom.”

Most radio and television stations in Ethiopia are government-affiliated, rarely stray from the government position, and tend to promote government policies and tout development successes. Control of radio is crucial politically given that more than 80 percent of Ethiopia’s population lives in rural areas, where the radio is still the main medium for news and information. The few private radio stations that cover political events are subjected to editing and approval requirements by local government officials. Broadcasters who deviate from approved content have been harassed, detained, and in many cases forced into exile.

The government has also frequently jammed broadcasts and blocked the websites of foreign and diaspora-based radio and television stations. Staff working for broadcasters face repeated threats and harassment, as well as intimidation of their sources or people interviewed on international media outlets. Even people watching or listening to these services have been arrested.

The government has also used a variety of more subtle but effective administrative and regulatory restrictions such as hampering efforts to form journalist associations, delaying permits and renewals of private publications, putting pressure on the few printing presses and distributors, and linking employment in state media to ruling party membership.

Social media are also heavily restricted, and many blog sites and websites run by Ethiopians in the diaspora are blocked inside Ethiopia . In April, the authorities arrested six people from Zone 9, a blogging collective that provides commentary on social, political, and other events of interest to young Ethiopians, and charged them under the country’s counterterrorism law and criminal code. Their trial, along with other media figures, has been fraught with various due process concerns. On January 14, 2015, it was adjourned for the 16th time and they have now been jailed for over 260 days. The arrest and prosecution of the Zone 9 bloggers has had a wider chilling effect on freedom of expression in Ethiopia, especially among critically minded bloggers and online activists.

The increased media repression will clearly affect the media landscape for the May elections,.

“The government still has time to make significant reforms that would improve media freedoms before the May elections,” Lefkow said. “Amending oppressive laws and freeing jailed journalists do not require significant time or resources, but only the political will for reform.”

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UDJ’s Abebe Akalu on The Atrocities of TPLF Against UDJ Protesters (Must Listen)

January 25, 2015 | Filed under: News,News Feature | Posted by: Zehabesha

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UDJ’S ABEBE AKALU ON THE ATROCITIES OF TPLF AGAINST UDJ PROTESTERS

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