BLOCK…BLOCK, JAM BABY JAM!
Note: This blurb here is not new, nor do I pretend it to be original, but only decent observations and reflections.
By Joseph M (PHD)
The dictators of our time live by preaching dogmas such as religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, revolutionary democracy etc interwoven with practiced kleptocracy (rampant greed & corruption), misinformation, deceptions, intimidation, scare mongering, repression, extra-judicial killings etc.
Religious fundamentalism, for example, is a fertile ground for some dictators as it is for Al-Qaida. Dictators like Meles Zenawi however come to power having as their cause (illegitimate) liberation of a single ethnic group, but then pave their way to the peak of political power using all known techniques and methods that other evil dictators have been using around the world.
There are plenty of experiences to coach; such as the methods used by J Stalin-Former Soviet Union, Mao and Hu Jintao-Communist Party of China, Milosevic -Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda’s genocide, Omar al-Bashir-Sudan, Kim Jong-il-North Korea, Than Shwe-Burma, Robert Mugabe-Zimbabwe, Ahmedin Ahmadinejad-Iran etc.
History has recorded that thousands and millions of innocent people have been killed by self-imposed ruthless dictators in order to stay in the front seat of power forever. Behind the façade of their power they hide their evil acts by using ethnic differences, deceptions and all other means.
In our time, we also witness the role information technology and media has been playing (as if it is God-given gift from heaven for their manipulations), enormously helping those dictators to pursue their objectives; to misinform, fabricate, lie, intimidate, demoralize and harass the innocent population that they rule, making them helpless creatures.
With the run-up to the Election 2010 in Ethiopia, Meles negotiated a lion-share of the radio and TV air time to dominate and defeat his “enemy” (the opposition parties). Those of us who watched the pre-recorded and so called “national election debates”, have wondered how on earth radio and TV air time was distributed on the basis of current number of seats in parliament that parties hold, while the election is for a future parliament. It begs questions as to what has been the logic behind the saga and why the debates has to be held in the caged studios of the TPLF/government owned Ethiopian Television and Radio? Why free speech and freedom of expression of ideas have been harnessed, censored, controlled etc in this way? Why TPLF needed to enact laws to restrict the media? Why the debates have been full of fear and uncertainty? Where does this type of model exist in the world in the 21st Century? Why people (the electorate), I would rather call them “enslaved voters”, are deprived of knowing the truth about TPLF/EPRDF candidates’ crimes? Why the army commander has to come out with warning to name and shame and also implicate Seye’s presentation at the debates? In all these, the Ethiopian Television and Radio Organization has been the weapon that Meles needed to have absolute monopoly on, control and kill voices of the opposition groups as he wished. Meles has also showed on the ETV his predecessor’s (Mengistu’s) crimes to refresh the memories of the enslaved voters, likening the opposition groups with Mengistu. If I may ask, is this not a criminal act that Meles has committed using the ETV, the only TV channel in the country? More…
Dr. M Joseph is an expert in Applied Distributed Programming & VSAT
The writer of this piece, M. Joseph, can be reached at sofomore@googlemail.com
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
EU chief observer says Ethiopian poll was not fair
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Tens of thousands of ruling party supporters rallied Tuesday in Ethiopia's capital to celebrate victory in the national election, while the chief EU observer said the poll had been marred by an uneven playing field. A top opposition leader denounced the provisional results released by the Ethiopian elections board, but did not indicate what action his party would take.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi arrived midmorning at the main square in Addis Ababa and addressed the crowd as hundreds of blue-uniformed federal police stood guard.
"We'll not boast about our victory, but we'll add to the burden of work that we have to deliver for the next five years," said Meles, who seized power in a 1991 coup
Read Full Story≫
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi arrived midmorning at the main square in Addis Ababa and addressed the crowd as hundreds of blue-uniformed federal police stood guard.
"We'll not boast about our victory, but we'll add to the burden of work that we have to deliver for the next five years," said Meles, who seized power in a 1991 coup
Read Full Story≫
Ethiopia: Government Repression Undermines Poll
(Nairobi) - Ethiopian government and ruling party officials intimidated voters and unlawfully restricted the media ahead of the May 23, 2010 parliamentary elections, Human Rights Watch said today.
In assessing the polls, international election observers should address the repressive legal and administrative measures that the Ethiopian ruling party used to restrict freedom of expression during the election campaign, Human Rights Watch said.
"Behind an orderly façade, the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters," said Rona Peligal, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Whatever the results, the most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it."
In the weeks leading up to the polls, Human Rights Watch documented new methods used by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to intimidate voters in the capital, Addis Ababa, apparently because of government concerns of a low electoral turnout.
During April and May, officials and militia (known as tataqi in Amharic) from the local administration went house to house telling citizens to register to vote and to vote for the ruling party or face reprisals from local party officials such as bureaucratic harassment or even losing their homes or jobs.
The May poll was the first national parliamentary election in Ethiopia since the government violently suppressed post-election protests in 2005; almost 200 people, including several police officers, died after the 2005 poll and tens of thousands of people were arrested, including opposition leaders, journalists and civil society activists.
Read Full Story≫
In assessing the polls, international election observers should address the repressive legal and administrative measures that the Ethiopian ruling party used to restrict freedom of expression during the election campaign, Human Rights Watch said.
"Behind an orderly façade, the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters," said Rona Peligal, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Whatever the results, the most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it."
In the weeks leading up to the polls, Human Rights Watch documented new methods used by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to intimidate voters in the capital, Addis Ababa, apparently because of government concerns of a low electoral turnout.
During April and May, officials and militia (known as tataqi in Amharic) from the local administration went house to house telling citizens to register to vote and to vote for the ruling party or face reprisals from local party officials such as bureaucratic harassment or even losing their homes or jobs.
The May poll was the first national parliamentary election in Ethiopia since the government violently suppressed post-election protests in 2005; almost 200 people, including several police officers, died after the 2005 poll and tens of thousands of people were arrested, including opposition leaders, journalists and civil society activists.
Read Full Story≫
Monday, May 24, 2010
Ethiopia Ruling Party Leads Vote Marred by Intimidation Reports
By Jason McLure
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party headed for victory in the Horn of Africa nation’s first national elections since 2005 after a campaign that was marred by allegations of intimidation.
With about 7.3 million votes tallied of an estimated 29 million cast yesterday, Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front had 6.8 million, compared with 458,242 for the opposition Medrek alliance, Mergera Bekana, chairman of the National Electoral Board, said today.
The EPRDF was ahead in 20 of 23 seats in the capital, Addis Ababa, with Medrek leading for one parliamentary seat and two constituencies not yet reporting, he said.
“In all regional states, EPRDF is leading,” Mergera said in the capital.
Government and ruling party official used a combination of harassment and arrests and withholding food aid and jobs to thwart Medrek in the weeks running up to the polls, New York- based Human Rights Watch said in a statement today. The government has denied the allegations, saying economic growth in Ethiopia of more than 7 percent annually over the past five years has bolstered its support.
About 31.9 million registered voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect 547 members of parliament and representatives to regional councils.
A former Marxist guerrilla leader who has ruled Africa’s second-most populous nation since 1991, Meles, 55, has been a key ally in the fight against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia. Under Meles, Ethiopia, Africa’s top coffee producer, has pursued an economic model that mixes a large state role with foreign investment in roads, dams and power.
The government controls the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp., a state-run monopoly, and owns all the land, while companies owned by the state or the ruling party dominate banking and trucking. Almost a sixth of its 85 million people depend on food aid.
Medrek is a coalition that includes jailed opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa’s Unity for Democracy and Justice party and a number of ethnic-based parties.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party headed for victory in the Horn of Africa nation’s first national elections since 2005 after a campaign that was marred by allegations of intimidation.
With about 7.3 million votes tallied of an estimated 29 million cast yesterday, Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front had 6.8 million, compared with 458,242 for the opposition Medrek alliance, Mergera Bekana, chairman of the National Electoral Board, said today.
The EPRDF was ahead in 20 of 23 seats in the capital, Addis Ababa, with Medrek leading for one parliamentary seat and two constituencies not yet reporting, he said.
“In all regional states, EPRDF is leading,” Mergera said in the capital.
Government and ruling party official used a combination of harassment and arrests and withholding food aid and jobs to thwart Medrek in the weeks running up to the polls, New York- based Human Rights Watch said in a statement today. The government has denied the allegations, saying economic growth in Ethiopia of more than 7 percent annually over the past five years has bolstered its support.
About 31.9 million registered voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect 547 members of parliament and representatives to regional councils.
A former Marxist guerrilla leader who has ruled Africa’s second-most populous nation since 1991, Meles, 55, has been a key ally in the fight against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia. Under Meles, Ethiopia, Africa’s top coffee producer, has pursued an economic model that mixes a large state role with foreign investment in roads, dams and power.
The government controls the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp., a state-run monopoly, and owns all the land, while companies owned by the state or the ruling party dominate banking and trucking. Almost a sixth of its 85 million people depend on food aid.
Medrek is a coalition that includes jailed opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa’s Unity for Democracy and Justice party and a number of ethnic-based parties.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Experts Say There Will Be No Contest in Ethiopia's Upcoming Vote
Horn of Africa experts in the United States say there will be no contest in Ethiopia's parliamentary election Sunday. They say it will be unlike the volatile vote in 2005, due to a diminished opposition and a ruling party totally in control.
The last election in Ethiopia in 2005 was fiercely contested, and when the opposition alleged there had been cheating in vote counting, riots broke out and about 200 people, most of them opposition activists, were reported killed.
Africa experts say the ruling party in Ethiopia made sure Sunday's upcoming election will not repeat that pattern.
Oberlin College International Studies Professor Eve Sandberg says the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front has made sure its message has been heard by would-be voters. "The current government has been using the media, which they control in a non-stop way to broadcast programs, which talk about how much better this regime is than the previous one and the fact that at least they have built roads, and at least they have painted some buildings, and at least people are not experiencing famine," she said.
Sandberg who recently worked as a political consultant in Ethiopia says, on the other side of the political equation, the opposition has nearly disappeared. "Their leaders are either in jail, in exile, or have resigned because they cannot see any way forward. If they show they are in opposition many of them find that police show up and they are either shot, or detained or harassed," she said.
A series of campaign-related killings in Ethiopia has raised tensions and sparked counter allegations between the government and opposition.
Examples of opposition leaders excluded from the process include Birtukan Mideksa, who heads the Unity for Democracy and Justice. She is in jail under a life sentence after an initial pardon for treason was revoked.
Berhanu Nega, who was elected as mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005, was also imprisoned during the post-election riots. He has since become a professor in the United States and was sentenced to life in prison in absentia for alleged coup plotting.
An expert on U.S.-Africa relations, who was in Ethiopia for the 2005 vote, J. Peter Pham, says major figures of the opposition remaining in the race are divided. "Hailu Shawul who led the opposition coalition the last time around is being opposed by the deputy head of the old opposition, Hailu Araya. They are facing off against each other for the same constituency," he said.
Terrence Lyons from George Mason University says he is disappointed, but not surprised by current political conditions. He says competition is still taking place within the ruling party. "Some of the folks who have been in power for almost 20 years are retiring and a younger generation, some perhaps more technocratic or more professional is coming up. There are endless speculations about what might happen when and if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi were to step down and who might be the successor. So, there are a lot of those kinds of questions that are percolating now," he said.
A former rebel leader, Mr. Meles has been prime minister since 1995. All of the experts interviewed for this report expect his party to win much more easily than in the 2005 election.
The prime minister's supporters say he has done much more than recent Ethiopian leaders in building up the country's economy, health and school system, while also keeping a vast multi-ethnic society stable, even as neighboring countries experienced repeated strife.
The last election in Ethiopia in 2005 was fiercely contested, and when the opposition alleged there had been cheating in vote counting, riots broke out and about 200 people, most of them opposition activists, were reported killed.
Africa experts say the ruling party in Ethiopia made sure Sunday's upcoming election will not repeat that pattern.
Oberlin College International Studies Professor Eve Sandberg says the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front has made sure its message has been heard by would-be voters. "The current government has been using the media, which they control in a non-stop way to broadcast programs, which talk about how much better this regime is than the previous one and the fact that at least they have built roads, and at least they have painted some buildings, and at least people are not experiencing famine," she said.
Sandberg who recently worked as a political consultant in Ethiopia says, on the other side of the political equation, the opposition has nearly disappeared. "Their leaders are either in jail, in exile, or have resigned because they cannot see any way forward. If they show they are in opposition many of them find that police show up and they are either shot, or detained or harassed," she said.
A series of campaign-related killings in Ethiopia has raised tensions and sparked counter allegations between the government and opposition.
Examples of opposition leaders excluded from the process include Birtukan Mideksa, who heads the Unity for Democracy and Justice. She is in jail under a life sentence after an initial pardon for treason was revoked.
Berhanu Nega, who was elected as mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005, was also imprisoned during the post-election riots. He has since become a professor in the United States and was sentenced to life in prison in absentia for alleged coup plotting.
An expert on U.S.-Africa relations, who was in Ethiopia for the 2005 vote, J. Peter Pham, says major figures of the opposition remaining in the race are divided. "Hailu Shawul who led the opposition coalition the last time around is being opposed by the deputy head of the old opposition, Hailu Araya. They are facing off against each other for the same constituency," he said.
Terrence Lyons from George Mason University says he is disappointed, but not surprised by current political conditions. He says competition is still taking place within the ruling party. "Some of the folks who have been in power for almost 20 years are retiring and a younger generation, some perhaps more technocratic or more professional is coming up. There are endless speculations about what might happen when and if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi were to step down and who might be the successor. So, there are a lot of those kinds of questions that are percolating now," he said.
A former rebel leader, Mr. Meles has been prime minister since 1995. All of the experts interviewed for this report expect his party to win much more easily than in the 2005 election.
The prime minister's supporters say he has done much more than recent Ethiopian leaders in building up the country's economy, health and school system, while also keeping a vast multi-ethnic society stable, even as neighboring countries experienced repeated strife.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Ethiopia Will Keep Opposition Leader in Prison Beyond Elections
May 13, 2010, 7:52 AM EDT
By Jason McLure
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia’s government will ignore foreign and domestic pressure to free opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa from prison and keep her incarcerated beyond this month’s elections, Communications Minister Bereket Simon said.
“We are not in a position to intervene in any legal affair,” Bereket told reporters yesterday in Addis Ababa, the capital, in response to a question about the jailed leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party. “The government has repeatedly declared its position is not to budge to any foreign or local pressure.”
Birtukan, 35, has spent 500 days in prison since she was arrested on Dec. 29, 2008, after the government accused her of violating the terms of a pardon under which she was released in 2007. She was originally jailed on treason charges following protests after Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 elections. Her continued imprisonment comes amid claims by government critics that the May 23 vote won’t be free and fair.
“The best evidence that these elections cannot be genuine democratic elections is that this woman, who should be running, is unable to do so because she is jailed for life,” Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the European parliament who headed the EU’s electoral mission to Ethiopia in 2005, said in a May 11 phone interview.
Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department labeled Birtukan a political prisoner, and the United Nations Human Rights Council listed her as a victim of arbitrary detention.
Her supporters say the former federal judge was jailed because she was the opposition leader most likely to organize a successful nationwide challenge to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the country since 1991.
“Had she been part of the election, not only the people here but the whole country would have voted for her,” Leulseged Wubeshet, a 23-year-old Birtukan supporter, said from her home neighborhood in northern Addis Ababa. “She’s more popular than the others.”
--Editors: Paul Richardson, Philip Sanders.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
By Jason McLure
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia’s government will ignore foreign and domestic pressure to free opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa from prison and keep her incarcerated beyond this month’s elections, Communications Minister Bereket Simon said.
“We are not in a position to intervene in any legal affair,” Bereket told reporters yesterday in Addis Ababa, the capital, in response to a question about the jailed leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party. “The government has repeatedly declared its position is not to budge to any foreign or local pressure.”
Birtukan, 35, has spent 500 days in prison since she was arrested on Dec. 29, 2008, after the government accused her of violating the terms of a pardon under which she was released in 2007. She was originally jailed on treason charges following protests after Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 elections. Her continued imprisonment comes amid claims by government critics that the May 23 vote won’t be free and fair.
“The best evidence that these elections cannot be genuine democratic elections is that this woman, who should be running, is unable to do so because she is jailed for life,” Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the European parliament who headed the EU’s electoral mission to Ethiopia in 2005, said in a May 11 phone interview.
Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department labeled Birtukan a political prisoner, and the United Nations Human Rights Council listed her as a victim of arbitrary detention.
Her supporters say the former federal judge was jailed because she was the opposition leader most likely to organize a successful nationwide challenge to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the country since 1991.
“Had she been part of the election, not only the people here but the whole country would have voted for her,” Leulseged Wubeshet, a 23-year-old Birtukan supporter, said from her home neighborhood in northern Addis Ababa. “She’s more popular than the others.”
--Editors: Paul Richardson, Philip Sanders.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
Friday, May 7, 2010
American Goes on Hunger Strike to Support Ethiopian Opposition Leader
By Alula Kebede
washington, DC
06/05/2010
American documentary filmmaker and activist Chris Flaherty is on a hunger strike at the front gates of the White House in Washington, D.C. to support Birtukan Mideksa, an Ethiopian lawyer and major opposition party leader serving a life sentence in Ethiopia.
Birtukan, leader of the largest opposition group in Ethiopia, Unity for Democracy and Justice, has been held at the Kaliti prison for the past 16 months on a treason conviction.
Flaherty became interested in Birtukan's case while doing research for his film about Ethiopian politics and the 2005 election. He is convinced that the Ethiopian government claims about her are inaccurate. He is using his strike to bring her case to the attention of the Obama administration. He is calling on the President to identify her as a prisoner of conscience.
"This is important to me as she was jailed simply because she stands by what she believes. To me that is a strong character. She believes in the same values that I believe in as far as democracy and freedom are concerned. I would hunger-strike for anyone like that," Chris said. "She shouldn't have been in jail in the first place."
Kebadu Belachew, an Ethiopian-American, took three days off from work to join Flaherty on the hunger strike in front of the White House.
Birtukan was arrested in December 2008 for allegedly violating the terms of an earlier pardon. She and several fellow opposition leaders previously served two years in prison on government charges.
Flaherty's film, Migration of Beauty, will broadcast in the United States this month.
Listen to the Amharic report on Flaherty's strike.
washington, DC
06/05/2010
American documentary filmmaker and activist Chris Flaherty is on a hunger strike at the front gates of the White House in Washington, D.C. to support Birtukan Mideksa, an Ethiopian lawyer and major opposition party leader serving a life sentence in Ethiopia.
Birtukan, leader of the largest opposition group in Ethiopia, Unity for Democracy and Justice, has been held at the Kaliti prison for the past 16 months on a treason conviction.
Flaherty became interested in Birtukan's case while doing research for his film about Ethiopian politics and the 2005 election. He is convinced that the Ethiopian government claims about her are inaccurate. He is using his strike to bring her case to the attention of the Obama administration. He is calling on the President to identify her as a prisoner of conscience.
"This is important to me as she was jailed simply because she stands by what she believes. To me that is a strong character. She believes in the same values that I believe in as far as democracy and freedom are concerned. I would hunger-strike for anyone like that," Chris said. "She shouldn't have been in jail in the first place."
Kebadu Belachew, an Ethiopian-American, took three days off from work to join Flaherty on the hunger strike in front of the White House.
Birtukan was arrested in December 2008 for allegedly violating the terms of an earlier pardon. She and several fellow opposition leaders previously served two years in prison on government charges.
Flaherty's film, Migration of Beauty, will broadcast in the United States this month.
Listen to the Amharic report on Flaherty's strike.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Press Group Concerned by Detention of 2 Ethiopian Journalists
A U.S.-based rights group has expressed concern about the detentions of two Ethiopian television journalists being held by the government since last week.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that editor Haileyesus Worku and reporter Abdulsemed Mohammed, who were working for the government-run Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency, have not been formally charged since their arrests.
The men were arrested April 22 for allegedly misusing state property. A government spokesman told CPJ that that journalists had been caught "red-handed" smuggling property belonging to their workplace with the intent to sell it.
CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Tom Rhodes, said his group is skeptical of the charges because Ethiopia has a long history of arresting journalists under politically motivated charges.
CPJ noted that in 2009, VOA reporter Meleskachew Amaha was imprisoned for three weeks for old tax charges that were later dismissed, among other similar cases.
The group says it is calling for due process and transparency in the case.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that editor Haileyesus Worku and reporter Abdulsemed Mohammed, who were working for the government-run Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency, have not been formally charged since their arrests.
The men were arrested April 22 for allegedly misusing state property. A government spokesman told CPJ that that journalists had been caught "red-handed" smuggling property belonging to their workplace with the intent to sell it.
CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Tom Rhodes, said his group is skeptical of the charges because Ethiopia has a long history of arresting journalists under politically motivated charges.
CPJ noted that in 2009, VOA reporter Meleskachew Amaha was imprisoned for three weeks for old tax charges that were later dismissed, among other similar cases.
The group says it is calling for due process and transparency in the case.