Ethiopia: Human rights group says government accountable for the death of a political prisoner at an Ethiopian jail

Ethiopia: Human rights group says government accountable for the death of a political prisoner at an Ethiopian jail

August 27, 2013 at 12:33 am · Gadaa.com

The following is a statement from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) on the killing of an Oromo political prisoner, Eng. Tesfahun Chemeda, at the Abyssinian/Ethiopian prison of Qaallittii on Aug. 24, 2013. HRLHA is a nonpolitical organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council – (ECOSOC) Consultative Status), which attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia: The Government is accountable for the death of a political prisoner at an Ethiopian jail

HRLHA Statement
August 2013
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa strongly condemns the atrocious torture and inhuman treatment by the Ethiopian government against its citizens, and holds it accountable for the death of a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience Engineer Tesfahun Chemeda on August 24, 2013 in Kaliti prison.

HRLHA informants confirmed that Engineer Chemeda died in Kaliti Penitentiary due to the severe torture inflicted on him while he was in different detentions centers from 2007 until the day he died. We also protest the fact that he was denied medical treatment by the government.
Engineer Tesfahun Chemeda, an Oromo national, was handed over by Kenyan authorities to Ethiopian Security agents in April 2007 from where he had granted a refugee status from UNHCR in Kenya after he had fled to Kenya to escape persecution by the EPRDF government of Ethiopia.
Engineer Tasfahun Chemeda was one of the 15 Oromo nationals who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 by the Ethiopian court (http://humanrightsleague.com/2010/07/a-call-for-the-reversal-of-theracial-politically-motivated-and-discriminatory-sentence-by-a-court-in-ethiopia/) for his activism and political beliefs that were different from the ruling EPRDF government of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Government is accountable for:

1. Torturing Mr. Chemeda in prison, thereby violating the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, an agreement which Ethiopia signed and ratified in 1994.
2. For denying Engineer Tesfahun medical treatment, violating the rights of prisoners – which are clearly stated in international laws and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 10(1): “All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.” and the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Rights of Persons Held in Custody and Convicted Prisoners, Article 21 (1): “All persons held in custody and persons imprisoned upon conviction and sentencing have the right to treatments respecting their human dignity.”

By handing over the Oromo refugees and others, the Kenyan Government is also breaching its obligations under international treaties as well as customary laws.

1. Under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1465 U.N.T.S. 185), the Kenyan Government has the obligation not to return a person to a place where they will face torture or ill-treatment.
2. Article 3 of the Convention against Torture provides: No state party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds to believe that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa calls upon the Ethiopian authorities to immediately carry out an independent investigation into Engineer Tesfahun’s death, including whether torture played a part in his death, and disclose to the public anyone found responsible and bring that person to justice. The HRLHA also calls upon the Western political allies of the TPLF/EPRDF Government of Ethiopia to exert pressures so that it is forced to turn around, and start working on the genuine democratization of the country, halting the systematic elimination of citizens who demand basic rights and fundamental freedoms.
Finally we extend our condolences to Tesfahun’s family and friends in their time of grief as well as all Ethiopians who have been falsely accused, illegally detained or wrongly killed, at the hands of the brutal and hypocritical regime. Engineer Tesfahun is just one of thousands of victims of the EPRDF government’s campaign of violence, repression and efforts to curtail basic freedoms and fundamental rights of Ethiopians at all costs.
- HRLHA

Ethiopia - next stop for textile industry?

Labor Market

Ethiopia - next stop for textile industry?

Swedish clothing retailer H&M wants to set up shop in Ethiopia, since production costs there are cheaper than in the Far East. Other clothing manufacturers are hesitating. Could Ethiopia become the next Bangladesh?

Ethiopia's economy just keeps growing - since 2007 at times with double-digit leaps and bounds. "The Economist" projects that the country will experience annual growth of 7 to 8 percent through 2016.
Ethiopia's government is apparently placing special emphasis on the textile industry - by 2016, the country aims to export more than a billion dollars worth of apparel. Factories established by the likes of H&M are more than welcome.
According to a supplier, the Swedish chain wants to produce more than a million items of clothing per month in the East African nation. A company spokesperson confirmed that test runs have already been ordered from Ethiopian producers.
Cheaper than China
Many producers have in the past relocated production to countries that offered cheap labor, like Bangladesh or China. But in such countries, social standards have risen along with wages - while the world seems to be examining production conditions increasingly critically. So producers have started considering new options for cheap labor.
On the African continent, Morocco and Tunisia are known as clothing production countries, mostly for discount apparel. Other African countries, like Ghana or Kenya, don't play much of a role in the fashion industry, according to GermanFashion, a German industry association.

Ballweg says Ethiopian textile production is just a drop in the bucket

Ethiopia offers a number of advantages, said Thomas Ballweg, a procurement and technical consultant at GermanFashion. "On the one hand are the lower costs - much lower than in China - with 80 million people living there. And, it's near the sea - and quick to get to Europe via the Suez Canal," Ballweg said.
This could shorten delivery time by a third compared with coming from the Far East. In addition, Ethiopia's climate and that of neighboring countries is well-suited for the cultivation of cotton, Ballweg emphasized. As long as the cotton was of high enough quality, clothing producers could save on expensive import by using local materials.
No new Bangladesh
Apart from H&M, British supermarket chain Tesco and Ireland-based discount textile company Primark also produce in Ethiopia, according to GermanFashion. Observers warn that Ethiopia could become another Bangladesh, with textile factory workers laboring under scandalous conditions. Reports recur of Bengali factories burning down and causing numerous deaths. In April the textile factory collapsed, killing more than a thousand people.

Companies are concerned about their brands' reputation, Kannengiesser thinks

Christoph Kannengiesser of the German-African Business Association told DW he can't imagine such a fate for Ethiopia - even discount apparel companies like H&M or Primark are concerned about their reputation.
"For a company with a brand name that relies on its clientele's approval, it would be a disaster for it to become known that social or environmental standards are not being kept," Kannengiesser said.
He said standards set by the International Labor Organization and World Trade Organization are high enough, adding that that numerous non-governmental organizations and other independent groups monitor production conditions in countries with cheap labor.
Chance for society

World Bank Sees Ethiopia GDP Grow at 7 Percent for Medium Term

Men prepare bars of salt to be sold in the main market of the city of Mekele, northern Ethiopia, in this April 24, 2013, file 

               

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia's economy is likely to grow seven percent a year over the next three to five years, below its average of the last decade, and to push that rate higher, the government needs to change policy to encourage private investment, the World Bank said.

While seven percent GDP growth would be the envy of finance ministers in Western economies, it would fall short of an average rate of 10.6 percent that Ethiopia said it achieved in the last 10 years with its state-interventionist policies.

It would also be insufficient to meet Ethiopia's target of reaching middle-income status by 2025. The bank says that goal is still within reach, however, if the government shifts the balance from public to more private investment.

”We still think growth could be robust - in the order of seven percent in the medium term would not be unexpected,” said Lars Christian Moller, the bank's lead economist in Ethiopia, in an interview on Monday.

The World Bank estimates Ethiopia's economy grew seven percent in the fiscal year July 8, 2012 to July 7, 2013, below the government's 10 percent estimate.

Moller said Ethiopia's $43 billion economy would need to repeat its performance of the last decade to become a middle income country - defined by the bank as one with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of around $1,430 - in 12 years.

The World Bank put Ethiopia's GNI at $410 in 2012.

Ethiopia is banking on massive state-supported energy and transport projects to help transform its agrarian economy.

Infrastructure spending required financing equivalent to 19 percent of Ethiopia's GDP in fiscal 2011-2012, the World Bank estimates.

But while public investment in Ethiopia is the third highest in the world as a percentage of GDP, private investment is the sixth lowest.

Major sectors including retail, transport, banking and telecoms are closed to foreign investors.

Double-digit inflation again?

Growth has been driven by an expansion in services, now the largest economic sector, and agriculture. Ethiopia's main exports include coffee and horticulture products, and it is also a big aid recipient.

Two thirds of Ethiopia's 8.5 percent GDP growth in 2011-2012 could be ascribed to public investment, the World Bank said.
Even though the public investments are intended to benefit the private sector in the long run, they are depriving the private sector of finances in the short term, Moller said. “And that is where a deliberate choice is being made,” he added.
”Maybe there are some really good private investment projects out there that could deserve to get that credit, that could actually make the economy grow even faster,” Moller said.
He added that Ethiopia should keep monetary policy tight to head off inflation, which could quickly return to double digits.
The annual inflation rate accelerated to eight percent in July from a 2013 low of 6.1 percent in April. It exceeded 40 percent in 2011.

A loose fiscal stance and periodic external price shocks have left Ethiopia vulnerable to price spikes.Its public investment program has injected liquidity into the market, fueling inflationary pressures.
”We are a little bit wary that inflation is going up and perhaps could hit double-digit levels again,” within the next six to 12 months, Moller said.
So far, Ethiopia has managed to keep down inflation by using its foreign exchange reserves to mop up liquidity.That has raised questions within Ethiopia's private sector over how easily the government can sustain its spending program and keep inflation in single digits at the same time.

”The fiscal stance is loose, and so that is contributing to inflationary pressures,” Moller said. “So that would be another benefit of slowing down on public investment; you could maintain a lower level of inflation.”

Ethiopia: Military plane crashed in Dire Dawa three days before another plane crashed in Mogadisho

The Reporter Ethiopia
Army aviation investigates Ethiopian air force aircraft accidents

The Ethiopian Army Aviation and the Ethiopian Air Force are investigating the two aircraft accidents that occurred two weeks ago in Dire Dawa and Mogadishu, Somalia.
Reliable sources told The Reporter that an accident investigation team comprising experts drawn from the Ethiopian Air Force and the Ethiopian Army Aviation has been formed. Sources said the accident investigation team has been deployed to the crash sites to collect data.
The first accident that involved a military transport aircraft, C130 (L100), occurred on August 6 at Dire Dawa International Airport. The aircraft was commanded by a chief pilot, Col. Solomon. There were no fatal injuries. The two crew members who survived the accident are being treated at the military hospital in Addis Ababa, Tor Hayloch Hospital.
The US government donated two Hercules C130 military transport aircraft to the Ethiopian Air Force in 1998. The American government was to confer four of this aircraft but after delivering the two the Ethio-Eritrea boarder war broke out in May 1998 and the US government changed its mind because of the conflict and denied the two more aircraft.
The second aircraft, Antonov 12, crashed and caught fire on landing at Mogadishu airport in Somalia on the morning of August 9. Four of the six crew members on board the aircraft were killed and two survivors were taken to a hospital in Mogadishu. The plane was carrying equipment for international forces fighting Islamist militants in Somalia.
The Ethiopian government confirmed the accident. The military cargo aircraft, Antonov 12, flew from Dire Dawa ( Ethiopian town in Eastern part of the country) to Mogadishu on August 9 at 6:00 AM and the accident occurred at 8:00 AM.
Reliable sources told The Reporter that experts of the Ethiopian Army Aviation, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Air Force, are investigating the cause of the two crashes that occurred the same week. Sources said the experts have been collecting data. The cause is yet to be established. “Two accidents in a week means a lot. The causes of the accidents could be technical or sabotage,” sources said. According to sources, the collected data are now being analysed by the aviation experts.
Aviation experts told The Reporter that Antonov aircraft has poor safety record. Many aircraft accidents that involve the ageing Antonov aircraft occur in Africa and other parts of the world. According to the experts the C130 aircraft is relatively a reliable aircraft. However, they said, if an aircraft is poorly maintained it could crash regardless of the type of the aircraft. “Old aircraft are more prone to accidents,” the experts said.

Corruption in the Ethiopian JUST US Sector

by Alemayehu G. Mariam
For the past several months, I have been commenting on the findings of the World Bank’s “Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia”, a 448-page report covering eight sectors (health, education, rural water supply, justice, construction, land, telecommunications and mining). In this my sixth commentary, I focus on “corruption in the justice sector”. The other five commentaries are available at my blog site.
Talking about corruption in the Ethiopian “justice sector” is like talking about truth in Orwell’s 1984 Ministry of Truth (“Minitrue”).  The purpose of Minitrue is to create and maintain the illusion that the Party is absolute, all knowing, all-powerful and infallible. The purpose of the Ministry of Justice in Ethiopia is to create the illusion that the ruling regime under the command and control of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) masquerading as the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front (EPDRF) is absolute, all knowing, all-powerful and infallible.
I have long caricatured the “justice sector” of the TPLF/EPDRF as a kangaroo justice system founded on a sham, corrupt and whimsical legal process. What passes off as a “justice system” in Ethiopia is little more than a marketplace where “justice” is bought and sold in a monopoly controlled by one man supported by a few nameless, faceless and clueless men who skulk in the shadows of power. It is a justice system in which universal principles of law and justice are disregarded, subverted, perverted and mocked. It is a system where the poor, the marginalized, the audacious journalists, dissidents, opposition and civic society leaders are legally lynched despite the criticism and bootless cries of the international community. It is a system in which regime leaders, their families, friends and cronies are above the law and spell justice “JUST US”.
My first critique of the TPLF/EPDRF “justice system” appeared in 2006 when I wrote a 32-page analysis titled, “Keystone Cops, Prosecutors and Judges in a Police State.” It was written in the first year of what has become my long day’s journey into the dark night of advocacy against human rights violations in Ethiopia and Africa. The piece was intended to be a critical analysis of the trial of the so-called Kality defendants consisting of some 130 or so major opposition leaders, human rights advocates, civic society activists, journalists and others in the aftermath of the 2005 election. I tried to demonstrate that the show trial of those defendants was little more than a third-rate theatrical production staged to dupe the international community. I also tried to show how a dysfunctional and bankrupt judicial system was used to destroy political opposition and dissent. I described the “judicial proceedings” of the Kality defendants as “an elaborate hoax, a make-believe tribunal complete with hand-picked judges, trumped up charges, witless prosecutors, no procedures and predetermined outcomes set up to produce only one thing: a  monumental miscarriage of justice.”
A glossy “diagnosis” of corruption in the Ethiopian justice sector
The WB’s “diagnosis” of corruption in “Ethiopia’s justice sector” is based on “interviews of 60 individuals” including “federal judges and prosecutors”, police, private attorneys, etc. in the capital and at another location. No ordinary citizens were included in the interview panel or the smaller focus groups. The study is intended to “explore the incidence of corruption in Ethiopia’s justice sector (including not only the courts but also several other organizations).” The “justice sector” includes, among others, “courts, police, prosecutors, administrative agencies with quasi-judicial powers, and public and private attorneys, prisons, and those in the executive and legislative branches responsible for enacting the laws and regulations governing their operations”.
The report begins with unusual disclaimers and apologia. The author proclaims that “this report begins from an agnostic standpoint—attempting only to document reality in Ethiopia’s justice sector and to compare it… with the situation elsewhere in African and other countries…” It is not clear what she means by “an agnostic standpoint”, but her analysis is frontloaded with servilely apologetic language manifestly intended not to offend or appear to point an accusatory finger at the ruling regime in Ethiopia. The report appears to have been written with some trepidation; perhaps the author was afraid of a backlash (tongue-lash) from the regime. The author timorously tiptoes around well-established and notorious facts about corruption in the regime’s justice sector. In light of the many disclaimers, reservations and contingencies in the report, it is obvious that the author does not want to call a spade a spade, so she calls the spade a bucket. But corruption by any disclaimer is still corruption; and Ethiopia’s justice sectors reeks of corruption.
The author claims an examination of  “corruption in the justice sector is important because it undermines the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the control of corruption in other sectors, the strengthening of the normative framework underlying private and public actions (the rule of law), and the creation of a predictable environment for public and private transactions.” According to the study, corruption in the Ethiopian justice sector “takes one of two forms: (a) political interference with the independent actions of courts or other sector agencies, or (b) payment or solicitation of bribes or other considerations to alter a decision or action.” The study claims the “most common form of corruption involves bribes solicited by or offered to police to ignore a criminal offense, not make an arrest, or not bring witnesses or suspects to court (which can cause a provisional adjournment of the case). Traffic police are the worst offenders.” Another “common form of corruption” involves “payment of court staff to misplace case files or evidence” (a practice that has nearly disappeared because of new judicial policies on archive management introduced under a Canadian International Development Agency program”.

Tigrai Online’s hatemonger Mikael Abai unmasked

by Abebe Gellaw

Many have wondered who the publisher behind the divisive and hatemongering website called Tigrai Online is. In fact, it is important for anyone who ventures into the publishing business to have an established identity so that people would be able to hold him or her accountable for what he or she does. So the question has been legitimate.
Addis Voice can now reveal that the supremacist hatemonger hiding behind computer screens and spreading the tyranny and venoms of the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). He is none other than Mikael Abai, a resident of Denver, Colorado. Mikael Abai is a devout foot soldier of the TPLF, the ethno-fascist tyrannical group that is robbing, abusing, killing, jailing and torturing Ethiopians.
Like Aiga Forum’s Isayas Abaye, the supremacist Mikael Abai has one narration. “Ethiopia is progressing under the TPLF. Democracy and freedom is abundant but those who complain are ungrateful to TPLF’s “martyrs” of liberation. There are no human rights violations, but only criminals and terrorists are jailed and punished. Corruption? What corruption? There is none! Some junior officials are the culprits, not the high priests of the TPLF. Anyone who writes and speaks out against the brutal tyranny of the TPLF must be out of his senses….
“Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Oakland Institute, the Committee to Protest Journalists, the U.S. State Department, Genocide Watch…are all liars and racists that cannot see the reality on the ground. Those journalists, activists and dissidents in jails or in exile are all terrorists and criminals. Ethiopian Muslims that demand respect for religious rights are extremists and fanatic followers of Osama Bin Laden. Everyone must keep quite.” Such are the naked lies and propaganda that the supremacist hatemongers at Aiga Forum and Tigrai Online are trying to feed their online customers daily.
The lead article Mikael Abai posted this week is titled: “The Danger of Multi-Party Democracy and Free Elections in Plural [sic] Societies.” The message is that Ethiopia is not ready for democracy yet. That is fair enough. The author is none other than the serial plagiarist Tesfaye Habisso, whose plagiarism was exposed as bad as TPLF’s 99.6 percent election fraud. Mikael’s Tigrai Online serves as a clearing house for TPLF’s lies and propaganda and bogus writers like Habisso. In fact, the writers that grace the pages of Tigrai Online rarely use their real names, save the Tesfaye Habisso and a few others. The majority don’t even have the confidence to stand up defend what they publish in public.
Mikael and Isayas Abaye are currently preoccupied with three visible tasks. The first and the most important one is still selling the late dictator Meles Zenawi as the “great visionary” leader. His brutality and ruthless must have been his angelic qualities. The second task is campaigning against Congressman Christopher Chris. They are asking Tigrians to sign a ridiculous petition demanding the Honorable Congressman to stop the “anti-Ethiopian” bill that never exists.
“Honorable Congressman,” the petition says. “Democracy and human rights in Ethiopia, or anywhere else, can only be nurtured and strengthened through constructive dialogue between political parties, civil society and the participation of all citizens of the country. It cannot be imposed by violence and terrorism, nor [sic] by imposition from outside,” it says in a bid to deceptively teach the Congressman on issues he is very familiar with.
The third campaign is selling another hatemonger called Gebrekidan Desta, who is trying to distort history in a bid to justify the “superiority” and domination of the TPLF on the rest of Ethiopia.
We will have more to say on these TPLF’s purveyors of tyranny and criminality. Stay tuned!