Professionals bowing for despotism is the primary cause of lawlessness in Ethiopia

September 20, 2014

Ethiopians, particular the youth would be advised to learn from the old and insist the rule of law from all to save our people and country and the future. We must reject the old servitude model and chart new, free and transparent governance based on respect of the rule of law and individual freedom to save the next generation from antiquated regime that attracts the wrong crowed to undermine our people’s long term interests of Democracy.

by Teshome Debalke

Poor governance in Africa is often blamed on the ruling despots’ incompetency, corruptions and brutalities. In the eyes of the world Africa in general is synonymous with repression, corruption and lawlessness that comes with it.

Unfortunately every despot in Africa and elsewhere sustain its rule on foreign Aid and income from few extractive industries with the help of ‘professionals’ that facilitate the transactions.

Unlike foreign professionals that manage the funds, indigenous professionals, especially expats hired as facilitators play important role between the despots and the International Community with the least scrutiny and accountability to anyone. They lobby both side to justify the transaction to take place regardless of the merits of the project they promote and the damage it cause on the people’s rights and livelihood and the distraction on the environment.

Therefore, expat professionals are instrument to maintain the flow of fund from the international community and help sustain the status qua in the name of… They come as managers, consultant, experts, and adviser–shuttling back-and-forth between the funders and the recipient despots. They put up conferences and presentations to justify their action on behalf of the funders or the depots in the name of helping… the poor, development, resolving conflicts, empowerment on and on.

Protecting Freedom of Expression, in Ethiopia and Beyond

September 15, 2014

by Lindsay Church

In July 2012, Eskinder Nega was sentenced to 18 years in prison. In June 2011, Reeyot Alemu was arrested and convicted to 14 years of imprisonment, reduced to five on appeal.

Their crimes? Practicing journalism in Ethiopia.

Nega and Alemu are award-winning journalists who shared the prestigious Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett Award in 2012. For Nega, whose first child was born while he and his wife were in custody for treason , the arrest came days after publishing a column that criticized the Ethiopian government’s detainment of journalists as suspected terrorists. ForAlemu, a former high school English teacher, the arrest came days after she critiqued the ruling political party in an independent newspaper later shut down by the government.

From left Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega

The basis for the charges against these journalists is Ethiopia’s 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which contains overly vague provisions that have been used by the government to silence its critics. Since the Proclamation was adopted, more than 30 journalists have been convicted on terrorism-related charges.

Earlier this summer, I had the privilege of working on behalf of Nega and Alemu as a fellow with the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI). The small London-based non-profit works directly with journalists and bloggers who have been prosecuted for exercising their protected right to freedom of expression. With the help of partner organizations, MLDI’s staff are currently working on 107 cases in 41 countries; the organization’s success rate in receiving favorable decisions hovers around 70 percent.

Suppression of the Innocent Inside Ethiopia

By Graham Peebles

Wrapped in dishonesty, arrogance and paranoia, Ethiopia’s ruling regime is following a nationwide policy of violent suppression and constitutional vandalism.

Andargachew ‘Andy’ Tsege

It was the 24th June – midsummer’s day – in the adopted homeland of Andargachew Tsige, when he was detained by ‘Yemeni officials’ (State heavies in suits) whilst transiting through Sana’a to Eritrea. The British citizen and leading Ethiopian political activist was quickly and quietly extradited to Addis Ababa where he was imprisoned on spurious charges of treason or some such trumped up, paranoid twaddle. He had been unfairly tried in absentia in 2009, when Amnesty report he was “sentenced to death for an alleged coup attempt. He was prosecuted in absentia again in 2012 on terrorism charges, alongside other prisoners of conscience, and sentenced to life imprisonment.”

Incarcerated he remains, hidden, abused and tortured by Ethiopian military thugs; his “detention in Ethiopia means that his life and physical integrity are in great danger…his incommunicado detention in an unknown location increases this risk.” says MEP Anna Gomez in a letter to British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond. In keeping with Britain’s consistent abdication of donor duty in the face of the Ethiopian government’s unbridled abuse of its people, the new Secretary of State at the FCO and his lieutenants have done nothing of substance to support Andargachew.

The false arrest, imprisonment and mis-treatment of Andargachew Tsige is but the most high profile recent example of a strategic policy of control and suppression enforced by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A range of weapons are employed by the regime to stifle dissent and create an atmosphere of fear, including extrajudicial executions, arrest, imprisonment and torture. HRW state the government “regularly use abuse to gather information…. Ethiopian authorities have subjected political detainees to torture and other ill treatment at the main detention center [Maekelawi Police Station] in Addis Ababa.” Journalists who challenge the government are intimidated (so too their families) and silenced. Many have been arrested, and as the Committee to Protect Journalists reports, “are languishing in Ethiopia’s prisons on trumped-up terrorism charges for doing their jobs.” In their thorough report “They Want A Confession”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents “serious rights abuses, unlawful interrogation tactics, and poor detention conditions in Maekelawi since 2010. Those detained …include scores of opposition politicians, journalists, protest organizers, and alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies.” Public assembly, whilst not being outwardly criminalized is effectively banned, despite the fact that it is a right enshrined like all such liberal freedoms in the legally binding constitution. A dusty document which has no influence over the ruling party, or indeed the judiciary, which functions as a docile enforcer of government criminality.