IOYA Organizes a Peaceful 10,000 People March for July 26, 2007
St. Paul, MN - June 11, 2007
The International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) has announced a peaceful 10,000 People March for Oromia to be held on July 26, 2007 in St. Paul, MN. The demonstration is to express concerns about human rights abuses in Oromia (for more details on the March - click here).
At the end of May, Amnesty International outlined in its Annual Report of 2007 that there were large-scale arrests and detentions with no due process of law in different areas of Oromia.
Another watchdog, Human Rights Watch, has also expressed concerns (in a letter addressed to the Ethiopian regime's officials) over human rights violations allegedly committed by federal police officers against students in the towns of Dembi Dollo and Ghimbi in January 2007 ...

Ethiopian capital's home wreckers
BBC, UK - June 11, 2007
Twenty-four-year-old Osman Redwan woke up one morning to find his shack in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, sliced in two.
City planners had drawn a line through his neighbourhood to make way for a huge road expansion programme.
And stunned onlookers watched as diggers came in to demolish everything along that line - one person's front porch, another's back garden, the front third of a traditional wooden house, half a shop.
The work was quick and clinical. Demolition teams stripped away plaster and partitions, leaving a series of bizarre cross sections behind them.
Walls were torn down, exposing bedrooms and pink-tiled bathrooms to the outside world, while families retreated into what was left of their houses ...

Ethiopia Convicts At Least 38 Opposition Activists
Voice of America - June 11, 2007
An Ethiopian court has convicted at least 38 opposition activists in a trial stemming from deadly post-election violence in 2005.
The court Monday, found the activists guilty of breaching Ethiopia's constitution and organizing an armed rebellion against the government.
Most of the defendants had refused to recognize the trial and did not present a defense. The trial was widely condemned by human rights groups as an attempt to stifle dissent.
The activists now face a possible death penalty. Judge Adil Ahmed said today that sentencing in the case will begin July eighth ...

Some immigrants want Canada to legalize khat
CBC News, Canada - June 11, 2007
A mild stimulant popular at social gatherings in Africa and the Arabian peninsula should be made legal in Canada, say members of some immigrant communities in Ottawa.
The herb is a controlled substance in Canada, but increasing quantities are being smuggled in from countries such as Britain, where it is not prohibited.
Abdikadir Guled hosts an Ottawa radio show called Voice of Somalia where he said the topic of khat comes up often.
Guled, who immigrated from Somalia 18 years ago, has heard from many people who want the herb legalized in Canada and who are upset about the stigma against it in this country ...

Gelete Burka of Ethiopia won the women's 1500 in 4:00.48
940 News, Canada - June 10, 2007
Gelete Burka of Ethiopia won the women's 1,500 in 4:00.48, with Yuliya Chizhenko-Fomenko of Russia at 4:02.98. They were the world's two fastest times in this young season. Malindi Elmore of Calgary was fifth in 4:08.13.
American Christian Cantwell finished first in the shot put with a toss of 21.83 metres. Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, B.C., finished fifth with a throw of 20.44 metres.
Kenyan Daniel Komen ran the fastest mile ever in the U.S., winning in 3:48.28. Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat, now running for the U.S., was second in 3:50.56. Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont., placed fifth in 3:56.21, while Ryan McKenzie of Windsor, Ont., wound up 10th in 4:00.07.
The previous fastest mile in the U.S. was 3:49.92 by Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj at Hayward Field in 2001.
Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang ignored a crashing Dominique Arnold in the next lane to win the 110 hurdles in 13.23, well off his world record of 12.88 ...

Bekele withdraws from Prefontaine classic
Yahoo! Eurosport, UK - June 8, 2007
Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele has withdrawn from the Prefontaine Classic grand prix meeting as he struggles to achieve full fitness.
"He's not coming," manager Jos Hermans said.
"He feels like he is only 90 percent fit and not ready to compete at the high level he would need here."
The meet was supposed to be the first between the 5000m and 10,000m world champion and Zersenay Tadesse, since the latter had ended Bekele's string of five consecutive world cross country championships in March.
Hermens said Bekele was still feeling the effects of the cross country race, which he did not finish after becoming exhausted in the heat and humidity in Mombasa, Kenya ...

Seyoum Hameso and the Sidama Diaspora Intellectuals
American Chronicle, CA - Jun 5, 2007
Although small in numbers, the African Nation of the Sidamas features some of the most perspicacious and sagacious intellectuals of the Black Continent. Either close to the authentic source of Wisdom, the Old Sidama Land that currently bears evidence to the barbaric Abyssinian cruelty, or dispersed in the four corners of the planet, among their Diaspora, Sidama Intellectuals through books, websites, articles, speeches and conferences remind to all of us that in the southernmost confines of the Abyssinian Hell, we can still find a Shelter of Humanity and Noblesse. The landlocked nation, confined among the Oromos, Kenya and Sudan, outnumbers many European countries in terms of population.
The entire world will be a richer and fairer place, if the Sidamas have their own representative in the African Union and the United Nations. To rediscover the most original noblesse of Africa and the Sidama world that livs among us in the West, we should go through the excellent paper of the illustrious Sidama intellectual, Mr. Seyoum Hameso, and encounter the Sidama Diaspora and their peaceful national and cultural endeavours. We reproduce here Mr. Hameso’s paper integrally ...

Surge in Adoptions Raises Concern in Ethiopia
BlueRidgeNow.com, NC - June 4, 2007
Ethiopia was not on Mark and Vera Westrum-Ostrom’s list when they first visited Children’s Home Society & Family Services here to explore an international adoption.
Ukraine was first, because of their family heritage, until the couple discovered that the adoption system there was chaotic, with inaccurate information about orphans’ health and availability.
Vietnam was second, after they saw videos of well-run orphanages. But the wait would be at least a year and a half.
Then they learned about Ethiopia’s model centers for orphans, run by American agencies, with an efficient adoption system that made it possible for them to file paperwork on Labor Day and claim 2-year-old Tariku, a boy with almond eyes and a halo of ringlets, at Christmas.
From Addis Ababa, the capital city, they traveled to the countryside to meet the boy’s birth mother, an opportunity rare in international adoption. And at roughly $20,000, the process was affordable compared with other foreign adoptions, and free of the bribes that are common in some countries ...

Ethiopia's Next Prime Minister?
Oduu.com - June 4, 2007
To watch the Big Interview with Jonathan Dimbleby - Click Here
In the recent interview with Jonathan Dimbleby of the Teachers.tv, the prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, has reaffirmed that he would not seek office during the next election. Meles had made similar statements in the past but had never been materialized. What makes this round of statement more likely to be true is the fact that Meles has faced increasing pressure from his own ruling party, the Tigrean People Libration Front (TPLF), to step down. Inside information has conformed to this writer that several members of the Politburo of TPLF have advised Meles that he must step down for the sake of reviving the party’s image as a democratic organization.
This recent announcement by the Mr. Zenawi has led many people to speculate about who his successor is going to be. The speculation and rumor has created intense debate among supporters of the Zenawi’s government. The Tigrean community in particular is divided along two lines in this debate. Hardliner Tigrean nationalists have insisted that the next prime minster must be a member of TPLF while moderates have continued to advocate for appointing a non-Tigrean in order to give credibility to the administration and to silence the opposition group that are protesting against Tigrean domination of Ethiopian politics ...

Wake up and Smell the Coffee
Times Online, UK - June 2, 2007
Watching Black Gold, a documentary about inequities in the global coffee market, you can’t help, albeit perversely, feeling a twinge of sympathy for Starbucks. It’s not even one of the big four, the über-corporations charged with bilking Third World farmers, but there it is, as ever, an emblem of sinister Amero-capitalism.
“We do not consider Black Gold an antiStarbucks film at all,” protests Marc Francis, who, along with his brother, Nick, made the 77-minute documentary that has been a hit at the Sundance and London film festivals. “It centres on the struggle of the coffee farmer, set against the backdrop of our consumer lifestyle. The problem is that the average person on the street can’t see Nestlé or Kraft – they’re not as in your face.”
Coffee drinking, at Starbucks or otherwise, is no idle diversion, it illustrates. It’s a business worth $80 billion a year, as coffee is now the second-biggest traded commodity after oil. “Coffee is such a cultural reference point,” adds Nick Francis. “That’s why, from the start, we realised this was going to be something big" ...

Ethiopian elephants, lions at risk as forest cut
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - May 31, 2007
A thousand rare black-mane lions -- an Ethiopian national symbol -- and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of forest in their sanctuary was cut down, a wildlife expert said on Thursday.
The land was cleared from a conservation area at Midiga Tola, adjacent to the Babile Elephant Sanctuary located 560 km (350 miles) east of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Wildlife Association President Yirmed Demeke said.
Flora EcoPower Holding AG, a German biodiesel producer based in Munich, cleared the forest after it was granted 10,000 hectares of land by the government, Yirmed said.
"The company has continued to clear the forested land without any concern for the wild animals threatened by the destruction of an internationally recognised conservation area," Yirmed said.
Flora EcoPower's Chief Operations Officer for Ethiopia Alon Hovev said the company had met wildlife experts and government officials over the past few days to solve the problem ...

More on the Encroachment on the Babile Elephant Santuary
In March 2007, the Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA) issued Flora with the investment license, referring it to the Oromia Investment Commission, which granted the company 10,000ht adjacent to the Babile Elephant Sanctuary.
Flora was established 43 years ago by brothers Alan, Eran, and Ayal Hovev. It now provides a steady supply of oil to the biodiesel market. The company’s five-year plan targets an annual production of 700,000tn of oil by 2011. It has invested 671 million Br in Ethiopia.
In a letter MoARD wrote to Abadula Gemeda, Oromia Regional State president, last week, it urged for a reconsideration of the plots dimensions since the proposed land for investment infringes upon the boundaries of the sanctuary. Yirmed Demeke said about 150ht of land that was given to the German company falls within the Sanctuary’s territory.
“We are responsible for Babile, but the land was given without our knowledge,” said an official with MoARD ...

Oromo migrants fear deportation
Reuters AlertNet, UK - May 30, 2007
The Oromo people in Yemen have called on international organisations and rights groups to guarantee their rights and ensure their security in the country. Their representatives told IRIN they lead miserable lives in Yemen and live in fear of deportation.
Mohammed Mousa, 27, an Oromo who has an ID card from the Somali community, is able to work in a sewage plant in Sana'a. He told IRIN that in April a group of young Yemeni men attacked him after he received his salary.
"They beat me harshly until my head bled. They took all my salary [about US $50] and fled. Had I run away and refused to give them the money, I would have been accused of theft. And if I'd gone to the police station, they would have arrested me as I don't have a card. It's a life of degradation," he said ...

US to slap new sanctions on Sudan
Reuters - May 29, 2007

Listen to Stories on Darfur: Part 1
Visit the International Rescue Committee @ theIRC.org for more.

The United States plans to announce tough new sanctions against Sudan on Tuesday before working out a resolution in the United Nations in an effort to end the bloodshed in Darfur.
President George W. Bush will announce the sanctions in a speech, imposing unilateral punitive action against 31 companies and four individuals.
"(Sudanese) President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction," Bush will say, according to a draft of his speech.
The new U.S. action is being launched in parallel to a broader effort by United Nations officials to pressure Sudan's government to end the violence that has devastated Darfur since 2003 ...

Ethiopia re-buries victims of Mengistu's Red Terror
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - May 27, 2007
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched on Sunday to re-bury victims of the Mengistu regime's "Red Terror" purge who were dumped in mass graves after being left on street corners as a warning to others.
The crowds joined a funeral cortege of 27 caskets carried by black-draped vehicles and a military band playing sombre songs, as it rolled down the main avenues of the capital Addis Ababa to the city's main Meskel Square.
Church bells tolled and the city observed a minute's silence to remember the victims of a slaughter carried out on the orders of Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1977-78 in which as many as 100,000 of his potential opponents were murdered ...

Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression
Sudan Tribune, Sudan - May 25, 2007
What have we Ethiopian achieved that we are rushing to celebrate the ‘Ethiopian new millennium’-2000? Whose millennium is it any way? These are questions that inquisitive minds are likely to ask when observing the rushes and the extraordinary government preparation to celebrate the new millennium in September 2007 Gregorian calendar or known to ‘Ethiopian’ as September 2000, ‘the new millennium’. That comes almost eight years later than the millennium that was celebrated on most of the world’s continents. It is the odd one out I guess. This is perhaps the only millennium of its kind in Africa to be celebrated at this time.
Let us come to the meat of the argument to attempt to answer the questions. The facts scream that Ethiopia’s 76,511,887 population according to CIA (2007) are leaving in abject poverty, major epidemic diseases such HIV/AID are spreading at alarming rates with diverse consequences, the country is involved in major wars and conflicts both internally and externally ...

Amnesty Report Says Rights Situation in Africa Remains Dire
Voice of America - May 23, 2007
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International launched its annual report for 2007 in London. The group says the 12 months covered again show gross human rights abuses on the African continent. Tendai Maphosa has more in this report from London ...

More on the Annual Report (Excerpts):
Detentions and killings in the regions
In the Oromia region, there were large-scale arrests in different areas during anti-government demonstrations, particularly by school and college students. Some protesters called for the release of Diribi Demissie, a Mecha Tulema Association community leader on trial since 2004. He and his codefendants were charged with supporting the OLF, but AI considered them prisoners of conscience. Hundreds of Oromo people detained in November 2005 were reportedly still held during 2006 without charge or trial, as well as others detained in previous years for alleged OLF connections ...

Two rebel groups carry out joint military action in eastern ethiopia
Sudan Tribune, Sudan - May 20, 2007
Two Ethiopian rebel groups carried out a joint military operation against the Ethiopian army in the eastern part of the country. A rebel statement alleged 157 soldiers were killed during the attack.
In a joint military operation, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA) have killed 157 soldiers of the Ethiopian army in various places in the Warder zone of the Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia.
According to Voice of Oromo Liberation, between 10 and 15 May 2007, commando units of the OLA and ONLA conducted attacks in various places in the zone of Warder killing over 82 Ethiopian soldiers and wounding over 75 others.
“The regular troops particularly badly suffered in a battle that occurred at a place called Biyo Daye. Following this battle various types of materiel and many hand grenades and ammunition were captured from the enemy.” The rebel radio said ...
Related News:
Ethiopia denies eastern losses
BBC News, UK - May 21, 2007
The two main rebel groups in eastern Ethiopia say their forces have killed dozens of Ethiopian soldiers in joint operations in May in the Ogaden region.
But senior Ethiopian official Bereket Simon said their claims were untrue and just an attempt to get media attention.
A statement from the Oromo Liberation Front said several separate attacks had led to more than 150 soldiers killed.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Addis Ababa says there is high tension in the area since an attack on a Chinese oilfield ...

G8 ministers put Africa in focus
BBC - May 21, 2007
G8 finance ministers have warned against giving African countries cheap loans that they will struggle to repay.
But in statements issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Germany, the group stressed African countries must manage their own finances responsibly.
Attendees included Britain's next prime minister Gordon Brown and Robert Kimmitt, US Deputy Treasury Secretary ...

Somalia looks to include Islamists in reconciliation
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa - May 20, 2007
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf will allow members of his country's ousted Islamic movement to participate in the country's upcoming reconciliation conference -- as long as they are selected by their clans and renounce violence, an Italian official said on Saturday.
Italian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Patrizia Sentinelli -- the latest Western diplomat to visit Africa to push for peace in Somalia -- called his decision an "important opening" and urged him to follow through on his promise.
She spoke in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after meeting earlier on Saturday with Yusuf in the Somali capital, Mogadishu ...

Democrats’ first debate is void of Africa
FinalCall.com, IL - May 18, 2007
We cannot overestimate the importance of the Presidential Campaign for 2008. The world is in a big mess. China throws all the rules to the wind as they develop into a massive economic monster. Russia is yearning for the days of old, The Cold War. Genocide and suffering is bigger now then ever before, while a corrupt United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank seem to be useless.
The United States leadership role in the world is being questioned like never before. Now is the time for a true leader to step forward. We need someone to present a vision that addresses all the major problems, with solutions that can quickly turn around fear, death, and horror with hope, progress and prosperity.
On the evening of April 26, at the HBCU campus of South Carolina State University, the Democratic Party held its first debate involving eight declared candidates. In essence, it was quite cordial. All the candidates held mutual respect for each other and there were no personal attacks. They concentrated on various issues. The biggest issue was, naturally, the Iraq civil war ...

Eritrea hosts regional rebels
Sunday Times, South Africa - May 11, 2007
They sip cappuccinos and gesture in debates, their papers and satellite telephones strewn on tables of hotels in Asmara, a refuge for the Horn of Africa’s dissidents and self-imposed opposition leaders.
For a diverse group of people, from Ethiopian opposition groups and deserting soldiers to Somali politicians and Sudanese rebel leaders, the Eritrean capital is a popular stopping point.
"We are the free opposition," said Sharif Saleh Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for 42 former lawmakers who fled Somalia when Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted an Islamist movement at the start of the year.
"We are now engaged in finding alternative solutions for Somalia," said Ali, who met here with top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Surrounded by colleagues wearing sharp suits and embroidered pillbox hats, Ali sits on the same couches in the state-run Embasoira Hotel that previously hosted Eastern Sudanese rebels ...

PC, Ethiopian team in security meeting
Standard, Kenya - May 10, 2007
An Ethiopian Government delegation met their Kenyan counterpart to discuss security along the shared porous border, amid fears of renewed raids.
The meeting in Embu, came as the Red Cross claimed that the number of deaths during a raid in northern Kenya had risen to 11, but the police insisted they were 10.
Mr. Ahmed Mohammed, the Red Cross disaster coordinator, who led his team in assisting the victims, told The Standard 11 people had been killed, and 27 families displaced.
In Embu, the Ethiopian delegation, consisting of four members of the country’s provincial administration, were holed up in a meeting at the Eastern Provincial headquarters for several hours to discuss ways of curbing insecurity ...