ሐሙስ 6 ጁን 2013
Breaking News: Armoured Vehicles Surround Ethiopian Embassy In Cairo
The Ethiopian embassy in Cairo is surrounded by heavily armed personnel and armoured vehicles. Ethiopian citizens, both refugees and Ethiopian-passport holders, are savagely harassed and beaten by ordinary Egyptians and the police everywhere they move.
According to our sources, it is very difficult for Ethiopians to move around and many people are starving as they fear for their life to go out and buy foodstuff and drinking water. Egyptians are preparing a massive demonstration against Ethiopia to be held next Friday.
:Awramba Times
ረቡዕ 5 ጁን 2013
Ethiopian human rights protesters take to streets in Addis Ababa
Around 10,000 Ethiopians staged an anti-government demonstration on Sunday in the first large-scale protest since a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 200 people.
The demonstrators marched through Addis Ababa's northern Arat Kilo and Piazza districts before gathering at Churchill Avenue in front of a obelisk with a giant red star perched on top, a relic of Ethiopia's violent communist past.
Some protesters carried banners reading "Justice! Justice! Justice!" or pictures of imprisoned opposition figures. Others chanted: "We call for respect of the constitution."
A few police officers watched the demonstration, for which the authorities had granted permission.
"We have repeatedly asked the government to release political leaders, journalists and those who asked the government not to intervene in religious affairs," said Yilekal Getachew, chairman of the Semayawi (Blue) party, which organised the protests.
He said the demonstrators also wanted action to tackle unemployment, inflation and corruption.
"If these questions are not resolved and no progress is made in the next three months, we will organise more protests. It is the beginning of our struggle," he said.
Ethiopian opposition parties regularly accuse the government of harassment and say their candidates are often intimidated in polls. The 547-seat legislature has only one opposition member.
Though its economy is one of the fastest-growing in Africa, Ethiopia is often criticised by human rights groups for clamping down on opposition and the media on national security grounds, a charge the government denies.
A 2009 anti-terrorism law makes anyone caught publishing information that could induce readers into acts of terrorism liable to jail terms of 10 to 20 years.
Last year, an Ethiopian court sentenced 20 journalists, opposition figures and others to long sentences for conspiring with rebels to topple the government.
At least 10 journalists have been charged under the anti-terrorism law, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which says Ethiopia has the highest number of exiled journalists in the world.
Muslims, who form about a third of Ethiopia's mostly Christian population, staged mosque sit-ins in 2012, accusing the government of meddling in religious affairs and jailing their leaders.
Ethiopia, long seen by the west as a bulwark against radical Islamists in neighbouring Somalia, denies interfering, but says it fears militant Islam is taking root in the country.
ሰኞ 3 ጁን 2013
Thousands hold peaceful demonstration calling for the release of political detainees
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Thousands of Ethiopian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Sunday demanding the immediate release of jailed journalists and activists in a rare show of public opposition to the ruling party which maintains strict control over the East African nation.
The protest is the first show of disapproval against Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s government. Hailemariam succeeded former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who died Aug. 20.
Communications Minister Bereket Simon responded to the demonstration by denying, to The Associated Press, that Ethiopia is holding political prisoners.
But demonstrators held pictures of jailed journalists, activists, political leaders and even covers of banned newspapers.
The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists in a December report listed Ethiopia as the eighth worst jailer of journalists in the world with six journalists in prison. Last year 49 Ethiopian journalists were in exile and 72 newspapers had been closed under Meles, said the committee. Muluken Tesfahun of the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar has been detained since May 4 for covering evictions near the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam that is raising tensions with Nile-dependent Egypt, said the CPJ.
After Meles died, the International Crisis Group had cautioned that the new government would find it difficult to contain public discontent in the absence of “any meaningful domestic political opposition.”
In 2012 polls, the ruling party won over 99 percent of all regional and federal parliament seats. There is only a single opposition member in the 547 seat federal parliament.
Yacob Hailemariam, a former United Nations prosecutor, was among those who addressed the protesters at the close of the rally.
“In the 21st century when the rest of the world is freely exercising its rights . here in Ethiopia the daily news is ‘this person got arrested’. ‘that person received a life sentence’.this has to end,” said Yacob in his speech.
Yacob was among scholars who led a popular opposition grouping in 2005 election when the ruling party lost key cities including the capital’s city council. The country’s electoral board declared the ruling party Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front as a winner on national poll tally. Protests broke out across the country and Yacob and his colleagues were jailed for several months before he was pardoned in 2007.
“They say the youth has worn out . I disagree. Once again the youth has to be a force change and it should take over to lead (an) opposition group to end the ruling party’s dictatorship that has turned the country into a hell for us ... we can repeat 2005,” shouted Yacob.
Many of the protesters on Sunday were Muslims who have been protesting alleged government interference in their religion.
Some Muslims activists who had been leading criticism of the government are currently in prison on terrorism charges.
“I don’t care about politics . I don’t care if they (the ruling party) rule forever but I would die for my religion,” said a young protester who would only identify himself as Ahmed. “I am here to demand the release of our representatives . we won’t stop until they are free,” said Ahmed.
Protesters vowed to return to the streets in three months’ time “unless the government releases journalists, activists, and Muslim leaders and annul unconstitutional legislations.”
But Communications Minister Bereket denied that the government is holding political prisoners. “There are no political prisoners. There are only people who have been charged with criminal offenses,” said Bereket to AP.
“We don’t have any qualms about the protesters exercising their rights but when you see the character of the demands, calls to give up the trials and release persons who are behind bars, convicted of criminal offenses . it is both unethical and unacceptable. Also, the government cannot interfere and release people suspected of criminal offenses . we will have to wait until the courts give verdicts,” added Bereket.
The minister said the government will not have “any problem” with future demonstrations. He however expressed concerns about what he called a fusion of politics and religion.
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