Ethiopia holds reporter covering evictions in dam region

(CPJ) New York, May 30, 2012–Ethiopian authorities have detained since Friday a reporter who sought to interview people evicted from their homes in a region where the government is building a contentious hydro-electric dam on the Blue Nile, according to a news report and the reporter’s editor. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today that the case highlights authorities’ disregard for the rule of law and its systematic efforts to suppress news critical of government officials.

Muluken Tesfahun, a reporter for the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar, is being held in a prison in the town of Asosa, capital of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Getachew Worku, the paper’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ. Muluken has not been formally charged or presented in court, Getachew said. The detention appears to run counter to constitutional guarantees that a person be brought to court within 48 hours of arrest.
“By arresting journalist Muluken Tesfahun for gathering information from the victims of forced relocation, Ethiopia is once again criminalizing independent journalism,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Ethiopia should make good on its obligation as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council to uphold citizens’ rights by releasing Muluken immediately.”
Local security forces picked up Muluken on Friday in the village of Dobi and confiscated his reporting equipment, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America reported, citing Getachew and members of the journalist’s family. Ethio-Mehedar assigned Muluken to report on the return of thousands of ethnic Amhara, Oromo, and Agew farmers who had been forcibly evicted from their land in mid-March, Getachew said.
Ethiopian state media have not reported in detail on the evictions, despite local testimony reported by VOA and accusations of ethnic cleansing made by opposition parties, according to local journalists. After weeks of silence, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn acknowledged the evictions in an April speech in the House of Peoples Representatives. The prime minister called the action “illegal,” blaming it on lower-level officials and inviting the displaced to return. This month, Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam announced the arrests of 35 Benishangul officials in connection with the evictions.
Neither federal or local authorities have provided an official explanation for the evictions, and it’s not immediately clear they were directly related to construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam, which the government says will be Africa’s biggest power plant. The dam’s impact on water supply has renewed international tensions between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.
The Ethiopian government has denied allegations of coercion, abuse, and violence in unrelated resettlement programs, in which authorities have displaced small-scale farmers in order to lease large tracts of land to foreign commercial farmers, according to international news reports.
With eight journalists behind bars, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea among Africa’s worst jailers of journalists, CPJ research shows.

ሰበር ዜና: በካይሮ ኢትዮጵያ ኤምባሲ በር ላይ ከፍተኛ ተቃውሞ ተቀሰቀሰ

Protest outside Ethiopia’s Cairo embassy about Blue Nile dam move
Limited demonstration erupts outside Ethiopian embassy in Cairo as activists protest perceived infringement on Egypt’s traditional share of Nile water
Dozens of Egyptian protesters gathered outside the Ethiopian embassy in Cairo on Friday to protest Addis Ababa’s decision earlier this week to temporarily divert the course of the Blue Nile as part of a project to build a series of dams on the river.
Protesters held banners aloft reading, “We reject attempts to take our Nile Water.” Others chanted: “We are the source of the Nile Basin.”
“After Ethiopia’s surprising decision, bilateral relations have now been put to the test,” according to a statement by the ‘Copts without Borders’ group, one of the protests’ main organisers.
The statement added: “Any agreement between President Mohamed Morsi’s government and its Ethiopian counterpart will not be recognised, since Morsi has lost all legitimacy before the Egyptian people.”
The statement went on to call on Egyptians to take part in a planned anti-Mors rally on 30 June to call for snap presidential elections.
Other participants at Friday’s protest included members of the ‘Lawyers Union for the Nile Basin’ and the ‘Egyptians against Injustice’ movement.
Within the context of a plan to build a series of new dams for electricity production, Ethiopia on Tuesday began diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s two main tributaries. Most Nile water that reaches Egypt and Sudan originates from the Blue Nile.
Ethiopia’s ‘Renaissance Dam’ project – one of four planned hydro-electric power projects – has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government, amid ongoing sensitivities regarding the project’s possible effects on Egypt’s traditional share of Nile water.
According to the state-run National Planning Institute, Egypt will need an additional 21 billion cubic metres of water per year by 2050 – on top of its current quota of 55 billion metres – to meet the needs of a projected population of some 150 million.
Source:www. Sodere.com

Meles Zenawi and our money

 

by Yilma Bekele
The last seven years or so I have been writing opinion pieces on the political situation in our homeland. Naturally I have discussed the late Prime Minter Meles Zenawi and his central role in charting the direction our country should follow on the road he envisioned to improve the life of our people. Prime Minter Zenawi ruled over our country for twenty one years. One can say from 1991 when the TPLF took over to 2001 when the split within the party took place in the aftermath of the Eritrean Conflict the TPLF operated in a primitive semi democratic group type of leadership which they brought over from their days fighting the Derg.
The split that took place in 2001 changed the dynamic of the ethnic based outfit. It did not take long for Meles Zenawi to assert his position as the Capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) in the Mafia outfit that was masquerading as a political party until his death in 2013. The 2005 General election was another defining moment in the relationship between the TPLF Party and Meles Zenawi on one hand and the people of Ethiopia on the other.
From 1992 to 2004 Meles Zenawi and his party were busy redrawing the map, rewriting our history, granting independence and redefining our national priorities and felt comfortable in their accomplishments. In fact they were so sure that they have constructed a solid foundation that will withstand any and all challenge by what they thought to be a desperate amalgamation of discredited and demoralized opposition that they allowed an open semi free election. Meles called the move “a calculated risk.” Obviously it exploded and back fired on his face.
The election changed the whole dynamics of the relationship between Meles Zenawi as a leader and the Ethiopian Nation as his responsibility. His earlier misgivings about Ethiopia as a nation, his deep seated hatred towards the rest of Ethiopia in general and the Amhara in particular, his always nagging feeling that people did not give him credit for being an Ethiopian was validated by the complete rejection of his party in every village, town and city all over the country. The election was a watershed moment in the life of Meles (Legesse) Zenawi Asres.
I brought this all up because in order to understand the latest news regarding the personal wealth of Ato Meles it is important we have a good perspective on what drove the individual to engage in such massive crime of the first kind that the whole idea boggles the ordinary mind. Because of the many atrocities visited on us we have taken the news in many peculiar Ethiopian fashion which I am sure is difficult for others to comprehend. We have become desensitized to the crimes of the Government and we do not react in a rational or normal manner like the rest of humanity. I believe this situation is a glaring example of that strange Ethiopian behavior towards crime, the criminal and the victim. It is not nice to say but I am afraid we have a long way to go before we learn to assert our human right and dignity and demand respect as a citizen endowed with certain unalienable Rights
The richest.org an internet site that publishes the net worth of rich and famous people in the world in its recent publication included none other than our own Meles Zenawi in the company of other billionaires in its ranking. I am certain we all looked twice to make sure someone is not playing tricks on us. I am afraid it is true. There is no reason to doubt why the folks at richest.org would pick on our guy unless they have verifiable facts in order to splash his name and picture on the front page. Of course they are aware his wife and family will sue the hell out of them if there was no truth to their assertion and pay dearly for it too. Up until now no one has come forward to set the record straight if mistake was made.
What they publically splashed across their front page was Meles Zenawi is worth $3 Billion US dollars. His profession is given as a politician and included details about his length in office and marital status. As an Ethiopian this for me is a very troubling question that I must answer to myself to satisfy the many questions twirling in my head. To be frank with you I have no concept of a billion dollar and I am afraid even a million is beyond my pay scale. How did Meles Zenawi do it?

Kenya: Police Abuse Nairobi’s Refugees

Torture, Rape, Extortion, and Arbitrary Detention Near the Heart of Kenya’s Capital
(Nairobi); Kenyan police in Nairobi tortured, raped, and otherwise abused and arbitrarily detained at least 1,000 refugees between mid-November 2012 and late January 2013, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Kenyan authorities should immediately open an independent public investigation, and the United Nations refugee agency – which has not spoken publicly about the abuses – should document and publicly report on any future abuses against refugees, Human Rights Watch said.

The 68-page report, “‘You are All Terrorists:’ Kenyan Police Abuse of Refugees in Nairobi,”is based on interviews with 101 refugees, asylum seekers, and Kenyans of Somali ethnicity. The report documents how police used grenade and other attacks by unknown people in Nairobi’s mainly Somali suburb of Eastleigh and a government order to relocate urban refugees to refugee camps as an excuse to rape, beat, extort money from, and arbitrarily detain, at least 1,000 people. The police described their victims as “terrorists,” and demanded payments to free them. Human Rights Watch also documented 50 cases in which the abuses would amount to torture.

“Refugees told us how hundreds of Kenyan police unleashed 10 weeks of hell on communities close to the heart of Nairobi, torturing, abusing, and stealing from some of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Randomly attacking men, women, and children in their homes and in the streets is hardly an effective way to protect Kenya’s national security.”

In January, Kenya’s High Court ordered the authorities to suspend the refugee relocation plan –under which 55,000 refugees and asylum seekers are supposed to leave Kenya’s cities and move to squalid, overcrowded, and closed refugee camps – until the court decides whether it is lawful. The court is due to rule on the matter within weeks of a May 22 hearing of the case.Refugees told us how hundreds of Kenyan police unleashed 10 weeks of hell on communities close to the heart of Nairobi, torturing, abusing, and stealing from some of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Randomly attacking men, women, and children in their homes and in the streets is hardly an effective way to protect Kenya’s national security.Somali and Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers who had lived for many years with their families in Eastleigh told Human Rights Watch that police rampaged through the suburb beginning on November 19, 2012, a day after unidentified people attacked a minibus, killing 7 people and injuring 30. Interviewees said officers from four of Kenya’s police forces – the General Services Unit (GSU), the Regular Police (RP), the Administration Police (AP), and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) – abused them, with the GSU committing the majority of the documented abuses.Seven women described how police raped them in their homes, on side streets, and on wasteland, in some cases with children close by. One of the women who was raped said police also raped three other women in the same attack. Forty refugees, including many women, described how police beat, kicked, and punched them and their children in their homes, in the street, and in police vehicles, causing serious injury and long-term pain. Dozens of people spoke about how police entered businesses and homes, often in the middle of the night, stole large amounts of money and other personal belongings, and extorted money to let them go free.

Human Rights Watch also documented almost 1,000 cases in which police arbitrarily detained refugees and asylum seekers in their homes, in the street, in police vehicles, and inpolice stations. The police held the detainees – sometimes for many days in inhuman and degrading conditions – while threatening to charge them, without any evidence, with terrorism or public order offenses. In one case, police charged almost 100 people without evidence only to have the courts throw the case out months later for lack of evidence.

Kenyan authorities have not responded to Human Rights Watch’s request for comment on the report’s findings and have not announced any steps to investigate the abuses. The inaction deepens Kenya’s long record of impunity for law enforcement officers, who for many years have abused Somali Kenyans and Somali refugees in the country’s North Eastern region, including in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on the border with Somalia. Donor countries should not support any of the four police forces implicated in the abuses, particularly the GSU, Human Rights Watch said.

Article 1 of the United Nations Convention against Torture, by which Kenya is bound, defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person [to]… punish him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him… when such pain or suffering is inflicted by… a public official.”

Police in Eastleigh who raped and seriously assaulted refugees and asylum seekers, while calling them terrorists or extorting money from them, intentionally inflicted severe physical and mental pain and suffering as punishment for attacks other people committed in Eastleigh and to coerce them into paying money, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations Convention against Torture obliges the Kenyan government to carry out prompt and fair investigations into officers and commanding officers responsible for torture, and to prosecute those found responsible.

“International law requires Kenya to ensure that officers who tortured refugees – who raped women and beat children and men into unconsciousness while branding them terrorists – are investigated and held to account,” said Simpson.

The role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to advocate publicly for an end to such abuses is especially important given the lack of action by the government to hold anyone responsible for the abuses, Human Rights Watch said. UNHCR has failed to adequately document and speak out about the abuses, and should improve its monitoring of abuses against refugees and record and publicly condemn any further abuses.

“There has been a deafening silence from UNHCR on these abuses, even though they happened within a half-hour drive from their Nairobi offices,” Simpson said. “For 10 weeks, police were free to rape, assault, and steal from over 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers without a single public word from the one international agency legally mandated to protect refugees.”

UNHCR’s role in documenting and responding to police abuses is all the more important given the risk of further abuses during possible future attempts to relocate urban refugees to camps, Human Rights Watch said.

On December 13, Kenya’s Department of Refugee Affairs announced that a spate of grenade and other attacks in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya since October 2011 meant that all 55,000 refugees and asylum seekers living in Nairobi should move to the country’s closed, overcrowded refugee camps near the Somali and Sudanese borders or face forced relocation there, and that all registration of, and services for, urban refugees would end immediately.

Kenyan authorities should abandon their relocation plan, Human Rights Watch said. The government’s December 13 announcement fails to show, as required by international law, that the plan to force tens of thousands of refugees living in Kenya’s cities into closed camps is necessary to achieve enhanced national security and the least restrictive measure possible to address Kenya’s genuine national security concerns. Only one person – a Kenyan not of Somali ethnicity – has been prosecuted and convicted for one of at least 30 attacks in Kenya since October 2011, when Kenya deployed troops in Somalia.

The relocation plan also unlawfully discriminates between Kenyan citizens and refugees, because the policy allows Kenyans to move freely and denies refugees that right. Further, transferring tens of thousands of refugees from the cities to closed refugee camps that face a funding shortfall of over US$100 million would violate a range of their other rights. Those rights include the right to free movement, the right not to be forcibly evicted from their homes, and the right not to have reduced their access to basic rights – to food, livelihoods, health care, and education.

The report also documents the on-going humanitarian and security crisis in Kenya’s Somali refugee camps, near the town of Dadaab in the country’s northeast, and the continued insecurity throughout most of Somalia. Senior Kenyan officials have repeatedly called on Somali refugees to return to their country, and have said that relocating urban refugees to the camps would be swiftly followed by repatriation to Somalia.

Most of south-central Somalia remains extremely insecure, with ongoing conflict, killings, indiscriminate violence against civilians, and limited access for humanitarian agencies.

Human Rights Watch said Kenyan authorities should not press refugees to return to Somalia. Such pressure would violate Kenya’s obligations not to forcibly return – or refoule – refugees to situations of persecution or generalized violence. Donor countries should continue to fund groups working with Somali refugees in Kenya and should urge the Kenyan authorities to stop pushing for premature refugee return to Somalia.

“The Kenyan authorities should not pressure Somalis to risk their lives by returning home too soon,” Simpson said. “Donor countries should generously support agencies helping Somalis in Kenya.”