Oromo Studies Association announces workshop on the Oromo concept of peace and receives grant - Gadaa.com - March 14, 2008
In its latest Newsletter, the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) has announced that the topic of its mid-year conference would be "Toward Understanding and Interpreting the Oromo Concept of Peace (Nagaa)" and the format would be 'workshop.' The Association has indicated that prominent scholars would present their research works on the topic at the workshop. The workshop is open to all and is scheduled for March 22nd at Howard University in Washington, DC. Similarly, the Newsletter states that the topic for this year's OSA Annual Conference will be "Oromo and the Horn of Africa: The Search for Freedom, Peace and Democracy."
The Newsletter also reports that OSA has received a grant of $5,000 from the Oliqaa Foundation for the publication of the Journal of Oromo Studies. The Oliqaa Foundation is an Oromo non-profit organization with a vision of creating strong Oromo communities around the world. It is important to note that the Oliqaa Foundation provides financial support to many annual events of the Oromo summer Fest (also known as the Oromo Mega Fest) in the Twin Cities.
Other topics covered by the OSA March 2008 Newsletter are: an appeal letter from the Jimma University Oromo Folklore and Literature Department, asking for material support needed to achieve the department's objectives, and a report on the Australian Oromo community coming together, despite regional, religious, political, gender and age differences, to celebrate the educational achievements of Oromos who graduated from high schools and universities in 2007.
Read the OSA March '08 Newsletter here.
Oromo students are subjected to discrimination even in the freest country on Earth - Oromo Affairs - March 14, 2008
But why are Oromos being despised for being themselves? Why is the Seattle Ethiopian Community (or anybody for that matter) offended by the mere sight of Oromos on stage? Why do some Ethiopians feel they have the right to tell Oromos what is good for them? And why do, of all the people, these smart young guys find themselves deep into this stinky trench? A lot of why's come to my mind with no answer. I am sure some Ethiopians will give me a sound answer sometime. Should Oromos be blamed for not wanting to be associated with Ethiopia? Not at all, under such circumstances, who, in his right mind, would want to be associated with someone who despises even his mere existence on this earth? READ MORE.
Land theft in Ethiopia - Nazret.com - March 13, 2008
There is a stream of foreign investors coming to Ethiopia who can acquire land to start a business in the horticulture sector. All they have to do is request the land from the government and buy out the farmers who are using the land. And many farmers are glad to make a career move from being the slaves of the TPLF/EPRDF system of agriculture to becoming laborers for a foreign investor. And the current rulers are happy because the population stays poor and dependent.
There are, of course, Ethiopian investors, too, taking over land from the local communities; many times with huge loans from the Development Bank of Ethiopia. With some lubricant, which this Bank is famous for, and preferable connections with the right political officials, it is easy to become a landowner (well at least for the lease period) ...
Eight killed in Ethiopian landmine blast: state TV - AFP - March 13, 2008
A bus hit a landmine near the disputed Ethiopian-Eritrean border on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding 27 others, state media reported.
"Eight people died when a landmine planted by Eritrean government-backed elements blew up a public bus in Humera," Ethiopian Television reported, although there was no claim of responsibility for planting the device.
"Another eleven people suffered light injuries while sixteen others suffered heavy injuries from the blast," the report added.
The explosion occurred at 7:15 am (1015 GMT) in a road near Humera, which lies in the northwestern tip of Ethiopia along the border with Eritrea and Sudan.
Ethiopia and Eritrea remain deadlocked in a border standoff following their 1998-2000 war that left 70,000 people dead ...
Ethiopia is named as the worst enemy to Internet freedom in the sub-Saharan Africa, along with Zimbabwe - Gadaa.com - March 12, 2008
The Paris-based press freedom agency, Reporters Without Borders, has denounced Ethiopia as one of the two worst enemies to Internet freedom in the sub-Saharan Africa; the other is Zimbabwe. Overall, there are 15 countries that have been identified as the worst Internet enemies in the world by Reporters Without Borders: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Having only 164,000 Internet users, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation/Agency has monopoly over all Internet services besides being regulatory authority over online surfing behavior. Being caught surfing Woyane-prohibited websites (most of which deal with defending human rights) could land in jail.
Victims of Bossasso grenade attack assisted home from Somalia - ReliefWeb - March 12, 2008
A group of 33 Ethiopians, victims of a grenade attack in Somalia's port town of Bossasso in early February as well as close relatives have been safely returned home today by IOM ...
Obama Wins in Miss. Primary - TIME - March 11, 2008
Barack Obama coasted to victory in Mississippi's Democratic primary Tuesday, latest in a string of racially polarized presidential contests across the Deep South and a final tune-up before next month's high-stakes race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania.
Obama was winning roughly 90 percent of the black vote but only about one-quarter of the white vote, extending a pattern that carried him to victory in earlier primaries in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.
He picked up at least six Mississippi delegates to the Democratic National Convention, with 27 more to be awarded. He hoped for a win sizable enough to erase most if not all of Clinton's 11-delegate gain from last week, when she won three primaries ...
US Policy in Horn of Africa Questioned - VOA News - March 11, 2008
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold Tuesday delivered a scathing criticism of the U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa. At a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, he called on the Bush administration to do more to address the worsening security, political and humanitarian conditions in the region, especially in Somalia ...
Abbas confirmed the stability of the situation of Ethiopian nationals in the country. He further reiterated the strength of relations between the two countries and two peoples. He described bilateral ties as witnessing breakthrough as result of joint efforts to achieve common interests between the two peoples ...
Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT), earlier in January of this year expressed concern over the situation of Ethiopian refugees in the country. The right group accused the Sudanese authorities of arresting Ethiopians who had held refugee status in the country since 2004. According to SOAT, they have since been detained by the Ethiopian authorities and held in an unknown location. All of those arrested are Muslims belonging to the Oromo ethnic group.
Ethiopia ranks 169th among 177 countries in human development Gadaa.com - March 10, 2008
According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, Ethiopia has ranked 169th, out of 177 countries, with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.406. The HDI is calculated by taking into consideration the life expectancy at birth, the adult literacy rate and the GDP per capita. Iceland tops the list with an HDI of 0.968.
In 1991 Ethiopia's HDI ranking was 141st out of 160 countries; back then, it was the 20th least developed country in the world. In 2007 Ethiopia is the 9th least developed country in the world. Compared to the rest of the world, Ethiopia is less developed now than it was in 1991, when Woyane took power in Finfinne. In other words, the health and economic conditions in Ethiopia changed very slowly (almost at stagnant level) while these conditions improved at a higher rate for the rest of the world. To mention a few countries that were behind Ethiopia in HDI in 1991, but now ahead of Ethiopia: Djibouti, Angola, Sudan, and the Gambia.
For the Woyane regime that consistently boosts by contrasting itself to the past, this must serve as a reminder that benchmarking should be done against the rest of the world at the present, not against the known bad performance of the Derg regime. There is also no doubt that the less than 1% rich has gotten richer in the past 17 years - this is the segment that can build sky-creepers in downtown Finfinne; unfortunately, for the rest of the population (almost 99.9% of them), their health and economic conditions have plummeted down in the last 17 years when compared to the rest of the world.
Other countries in the Horn of Africa have the following HDI rankings:
147) Sudan
148) Kenya
149) Djibouti
157) Eritrea
UN Troops Getting Sent Home From Eritrea Voice of America - March 9, 2008
Most of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Eritrea have been told to temporarily return to their home countries.
In a report dated March 3, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon directed troops monitoring the border situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia to relocate until a review of the situation is completed.
Eritrea began a fuel blockade of the U.N. troops months ago that eventually made it impossible for the force to function. U.N. officials say the Eritreans also cut off the supply of food at one point. Eritrea denies the allegation.
Eritrea says the United Nations has not upheld the rulings of an independent commission that awarded a disputed border town to Eritrea ...
IAAF - March 8, 2008
Meseret Defar added yet another chapter in her remarkable journal of athletics success by matching the achievements of Gabriela Szabo and completing a hat-trick of World Indoor 3000m titles.
The gold-laden Ethiopian remains head and shoulders clear of the world's best and extended her five-year unbeaten indoor record to 17 consecutive victories with yet another masterful performance.
Indeed, the last time Defar tasted defeat on an indoor track it was back at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, when she had to settle for the bronze medal then aged 19 behind her countrywoman Berhane Adere.
It was somewhat inevitable the multi-talented Defar would prevail, and so it proved as she simply destroyed the field by winding up the pace from 400m out and unleashing her legendary kick-finish over the final lap.
And even Defar herself conceded in a post-race interview victory here at the Palau Velodromo Luis Puig was not the most testing of her career. "Today it was an easy race for me, because of that I didn't have to run too fast," she explained. "I feel that I'm ready for Beijing (Olympic Games) now" ...
Viewpoint: The TPLF/EPRDF Constitution: The reasons and dangers behind it
by Mulugeta Mossissa
... In terms of human rights protection, the constitution of the TPLF/EPRDF regime, the current ruling mono-ethnic clique in Ethiopia, appears more progressive than its two predecessors. Judging at face value, one can say that it is a great breakthrough in the history of Ethiopian constitutional history. Many elements of human and democratic rights are enshrined in the current constitution. Many of these democratic rights were what the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) had put forward during its partnership with the TPLF in the Transitional Government of Ethiopia between 1991 and 1992. The TPLF/EPRDF has adopted some of the proposals of the OLF in its constitution although for reasons totally different than envisaged by the OLF. Subsequent events have clearly shown that provisions of the TPLF constitution were merely devised to mask the massive human rights violations committed against particularly the Oromo people. No doubt it was also meant as a dilatory tactic against the struggle of the Oromo people for their natural rights for self-determination ...
Read More - Click Here
Oromo Youth to hold a Peaceful Demonstration in Washington DC
Ayyaantuu - March 5, 2008
Deeply concerned about the turmoil in the Horn of Africa, the gross human rights violations and incalculable material destruction inflicted by the Ethiopian government, Oromo Youth from across the nation in collaboration with other youth associations from the Horn of Africa are organizing a protest rally in Washington D.C on Monday March 31st, 2008. The demonstrators are calling upon the American government to reorient its policy approach in the region towards the respect for human rights, rule of law and democracy in the region and for American media outlets to expose this inhumane nature of the Ethiopian government ...
The 2nd Annual RUN FOR Oromia Events Announced
Gadaa.com News - March 3, 2008
"Run For Oromia" has announced that the highly anticipated 2nd annual 5km and 10km road races will be held on Saturday August 2nd, 2008 at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, MN. The "Run for Oromia" races were established to represent and promote Oromo culture, values and friendship, and the events are sponsored yearly by the Oliqaa Foundation, an Oromo non-profit organization with a vision of creating strong Oromo communities around the world.
According to Anderson Race Management, about 350 runners crossed the finishing lines in both the 5km and 10km races in last year's first ever Oromo-sponsored road races in North America. Since the organizers anticipate a lot more runners this year, the event has moved to the Lake Nokomis park, which is more convenient and spacious.
Also drawing hundreds of Oromos from across the globe to the Twin Cities this summer is the annual Oromo Soccer Tournament, organized by the Oromo Sports Federation in North America. The 2008 Oromo Soccer Tournament will be held for a week starting July 26th, and it is expected to attract close to 15 football clubs from major cities in U.S. and Canada.
Kenyan Rivals Reach Power-Sharing Deal
NPR -
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Kenya's government and opposition party leaders signed a power-sharing deal on Thursday in an effort to end post-election violence that has left more than 1,000 people dead.
In a televised ceremony, President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed the pact, which created a prime minister post demanded by the opposition.
Kibaki's re-election in December set off a dispute, as both men claimed victory in a vote that international observers said was rigged by both sides.
New Post Has Powers
"This process has reminded us that as a nation there are more issues that unite than that divide us," Kibaki said.
Under the agreement, the opposition leader will become prime minister and have the power to "coordinate and supervise" the government - more authority than Kibaki wanted to yield. Odinga was upbeat about the agreement.
"The new partnership will strengthen the government in addressing the challenges facing our country more comprehensively. It is important that, in particular, we deal with problem of negative ethnicity, national cohesion and unity," Odinga said ...
Fairtrade branded unfair by UK think tank
ConfectioneryNews.com, France - February 28, 2008
A UK-based policy institute this week slammed Fairtrade, saying that the practice distorts the market and traps some of the world's poorest farmers in a cycle of poverty.
According to the report 'Unfair Trade' issued by the Adam Smith Institute, the fair trade movement, which allows consumers to buy ethically-sourced products such as coffee and chocolate, does little to drive the momentum of the global food chain.
The report's author Marc Sidwell claims that consumers who buy Fairtrade products end up spending more money on poorer quality goods, due to the fact that the Fairtrade system pays farmers a fixed price.
This leads to farmers not being pushed financially to improve the quality of their products, and they may even hold the best of the crop back to sell on the open market.
"Fairtrade is not a reliable mark of delicious coffee or food," Sidwell said.
The only solution to market distortion is therefore global trade, he added, and countries in Africa should instead remove the restrictive trade barriers currently keeping their economies in chains.
The report also accuses Fairtrade of trying to unfairly dominate the market for ethical products, "quite aggressively competing with alternative schemes with their own merits and demerits" ...
RELATED NEWS
Why we made Black Gold
The Observer, UK - Feb 27, 2008
Desperate Africans seek unlikely refuge in Yemen
Reuters - February 27, 2008
Mohammed Assanali, 35, an ethnic Oromo, reflected on his 10 years in the camp after fleeing his homeland in Ethiopia, where he was suspected of backing the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front.
"Look at me," he laughed bitterly in a courtyard where he has planted saplings in the dirt. "Just I am playing with my children. It's a meaningless life. Sometimes it's darkness."
"NO FUTURE"
Assanali, like many of the 650 Ethiopians in Kharaz, dares not leave the camp for fear he might be caught and deported.
Refugees in Kharaz are marooned in futility, unable to go back to their insecure homelands or to find work in Yemen.
The Basateen slum -- which resembles a miniature Mogadishu minus the gunmen -- is more squalid, but Somalis there are less isolated and can at least seek casual work in Aden.
"I couldn't stand camp life," said a woman in a black scarf with orange flowers who gave her name as Fawzia. The 23-year-old has seven children and a runaway husband. She survives on casual domestic work, but has failed to pay her rent for six months.
"I hate myself, I hate my children, I have no future," she said vacantly. Beside her, a baby lay untended in its own vomit on the grubby blue carpet of her trash-filled shack ...
Eritrea blocking passage of UN peacekeepers as regrouping efforts continue
UN News Centre -
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Eritrean soldiers have blocked the passage of eight United Nations vehicles in the past 24 hours as the world body’s peacekeeping mission in the region continued to regroup staff and assets in the capital, Asmara, ahead of its planned temporary relocation across the border to Ethiopia.
According to the mission, known as UNMEE, the incidents occurred at a checkpoint near Senafe, inside the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) that divides the neighbouring East African nations which fought a bloody border war that ended in 2000.
The vehicles were en route to collect equipment for the regrouping that is currently taking place in Asmara, while the UN awaits Eritrea’s cooperation to temporary relocate to Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, other movements by peacekeepers and vehicles have proceeded without incident, the mission reports.
Top UN officials and the Security Council have urged Eritrea to stop obstructing the temporary relocation of the mission to Ethiopia amid growing concern over rapidly dwindling food and fuel supplies for the blue helmets ...
Ethiopia's War on its Own
Huffington Post, NY -
The bullet tore through Ibrahim Hamad's torso and lodged in his hip. The 26-year-old teacher was at home with his elderly father when government forces swept through his town in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, burning huts and killing civilians. "The young girls were the first to die. The soldiers shot them and gathered the bodies and burned them," he said. The troops demanded that surviving men join their ranks, threatening those who refused with torture, imprisonment and death.
"When they came to my home, I told them, 'I am just a schoolteacher, I will not leave my family,' " said Hamad. In a bleak whisper, he recounted the ordeal that followed. "They strangled my father with a wire and hung his body in a tree. Then they shot me and left me for dead."
Hamad now struggles to survive in this remote refugee camp in northern Kenya, joining thousands who have fled a reign of terror by the Ethiopian army. Little noticed by the world, Ethiopia is waging war against its own people in the Ogaden desert. Long-simmering tensions erupted last April when separatist rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field. The Ethiopian government responded by ejecting humanitarian agencies and launching a scorched-earth campaign in the region. The targeting of the predominantly ethnic-Somali Ogaden population has led to accusations of ethnic cleansing.
In October, Human Rights Watch warned that events in Ogaden were following a "frighteningly familiar pattern" to those in Sudan's Darfur region, noting "ethnic overtones" to attacks and accusing Ethiopia of "displac[ing] large populations" and "deliberately attack[ing] civilians." Government forces have been implicated in escalating looting, burnings and atrocities. Recently, soldiers have begun a brutal campaign of forced conscription, often torturing or killing those who refuse to join ....
Ethiopia dethrones Russia at Yokohama Women’s Ekiden
International Association of Athletics Foundation, Monaco - February 24, 2008
Running away from Japan in the third of six stages and never relinquishing their lead again, Ethiopia won the 2008 Yokohama Women’s Ekiden, a Marathon distance ekiden on Sunday (24 Feb).
For Ethiopia, it was their second victory in the Yokohama Ekiden, having won the event previously in 2004. The day was very windy but their winning time, 2:14:47, was one second faster than the winning time of the Russian team from the last year. Finishing second, one place higher but more than 30 seconds slower than last year, was the host nation Japan. The defending champions Russia finished third, their worst finish since 2003 ...
Eritrea - Annual Report 2008
Reporters without borders (press release), France - February 22, 2008
... Paulos Kidane was one of the most popular journalists in Asmara but he chose to leave the country after he was arrested along with eight other state media staff from 12 November 2006 onwards after public defections by several other renowned journalists. The authorities arrested them because they were suspected of still being in touch with the fugitives or of planning to leave themselves. After his release he told Reporters Without Borders that he had and his colleagues had been “beaten and tortured in prison after refusing to give the passwords for our emails”. “We finally cracked because the pain was too much,” he added. After their release on bail the “November prisoners” were followed and their phones tapped. They were forced to go back to work and were banned from leaving Asmara. Out of the nine journalists arrested, only seven were later freed. A young woman presenter on the Arabic service of Eri-TV, Fethia Khaled, was reportedly conscripted into the army, while Daniel Mussie, of the Oromo service of Dimtsi Hafash never left prison ...
Ethiopia - Annual Report 2008
Reporters without borders (press release), France - February 22, 2008
... Shiferraw Insermu, a journalist on the Oromo service of state-run ETV suspected of being an informer for the separatist Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), is still languishing in prison after he and his colleague Dhabassa Wakjira were arrested for the first time at their homes in Addis Ababa, on 22 April 2004. The federal high court ordered their release on bail on the following 9 August, but only Shiferraw Insermu was set free. The journalist was rearrested on 17 August and released on order of the federal high court in mid-October. ETV refused to allow him to resume his job and he was trying to find other work when he was arrested for a third time, on 11 January 2005. He has remained in custody since that date, most likely at the central prison known as “Kerchiele”. Dhabassa Wakjira was held without interruption until 2006, as the prison authorities failed to comply with various court orders to release him on bail. He was finally released and has since fled Ethiopia and sought asylum abroad ...
Eritrea continues obstructing relocation, UN mission says
UN News Centre - February 21, 2008
Eritrea is still blocking the temporary move of the United Nations peacekeeping mission across the border to Ethiopia, the mission to the neighbouring Horn of Africa countries reported today, as UN blue helmets and other personnel continued to regroup in Asmara to facilitate the relocation.
The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said that Eritrean militiamen have held back a vehicle carrying two peacekeepers attempting to travel to Asmara from the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), and they could not proceed until Asmara had given instructions.
Four armoured personnel carriers that had been held up by Eritrea since 17 February in Om Hajer, a border post in the country’s far west, were allowed to travel to Asmara today.
These developments come as Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), briefed the Security Council today in a closed meeting on UNMEE’s temporary relocation efforts.
In comments to the press following the briefing, Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama, which holds the rotating Council presidency, said the 15-member panel “condemned Eritrea’s systematic violations of successive Security Council resolutions” ...