The Great Ethiopian Run (Nationalism)

by Tedla Asfaw

In less than 24 hours some 37,000 will participate on the 13th Great Ethiopian Run (GER) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Out of which there are 500 elite runners from Ethiopia and another 500 from overseas. As always this platform will be used for denouncing the ruling regime for its crimes.

Tomorrow’s run which I rename it as The Great Ethiopian Rise (GER) is “historical” because it is on the weekend where the Ethiopian Diaspora staged in more than 35 cities all over the world protest rallies denouncing Saudi Arabia for killing, raping, beating and jailing Ethiopians close to the number that are now participating on the 13th GER.

The organizers of the GER rejected the call by the Blue Party of Ethiopia for all to put a black ribbon on their hands to remember those that are killed and are now suffering in Saudi at this moment. Unfortunately, the organizers rejected the call.

The good thing is the organizers have no control of the crowd “mouth”. They can remove from the race anyone with black ribbon in his or her pocket but they can not control the “brain” of the participants and the crowd who is watching the run.

The Ethiopian people protested in front of Saudi Embassy on Nov. 15 and were beaten and chased that is reported by world media the likes of Al Jazeera, Washington Posts and others. Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT) has followed the humanitarian crisis day by day by putting eye witness accounts from Riyadh.

The Ethiopian people are aware of what has been going on in Saudi Arabia and are very much proud of fellow Ethiopians for staging successful rallies ashamed Saudi and the ruling Woyane.

It is now time for Addis Ababa residents shaming Saudi and Woyane in the GER tomorrow. First we start with the Woyane security who beat the Saudi victims for the second time in their own soil. Woyane security has proven to the world that they are protecting Woyane and their foreign masters like that of Saudi regime to continue the modern slavery that profited both of them the slave trader and slave master. Shame on Woyane thugs.

Shimeles Kemal the spokesperson for “Arab League” attacked the Addis Ababa protesters by accusing them of as “Anti Arab”. Ethiopians have shown him and his masters that We Are Proud Ethiopians never to be enslaved by anyone including ARABS. Shame on Shimeles Kemal.

Tedros Adhanom the darling of the Woyane Supporters in the Diaspora should be ashamed of himself for using this humanitarian crisis to promote himself. His crocodile tear is an empty gesture shaming Hailemariam who said not a single word as a father of three daughters against the Rapist in Saudi Arabia. Shame on both of them.

It is a total shame for Woyane and their Saudi Masters who are now worried about their business in Ethiopia. The Arab media asked another Shameful Ethiopian so called Ambassador Mohammed Hassen what will be the future of Saudi business in Ethiopia which is close to 15 billion dollars. The shameful Ambassador promised it will be OK !!! Shame on Mohammed Hassen for his incompetency. He is accountable for the crimes committed against our people under his watch.

The bridge of Saudi Kingdom of Shame with Ethiopian Mafia is Al Amoudi. For him the rape, killing and beating of Ethiopians is not his “business” until his mafia business is OK. Saudi Business in no more OK in Ethiopia. That slavery bridge between us and Saudi is broken beyond repair. Never Again.

The GER is indeed will be turned into the “Great Ethiopian Rise “. Such humiliation has united Ethiopians more than ever in the last 22 years.This unity will bring the end of slavery in Ethiopia for good.

The successful rally in the Diaspora is the result of Ethiopians humiliation. Ethiopian Pride suffered a major bow. Each and every one of us are angry and should be angry by what our people endured in Saudi Arabia. Such humiliation will accelerate the Regime Change in Ethiopia, the Rise of Ethiopian Nationalism!

Chinese has a great lesson form their humiliation by West and Japan that brought the best out of them, Chinese Nationalism. Ethiopia which is quoted on Chairman Mao s book as example of fighting aggression will rise up soon fighting both home and foreign anti Ethiopia forces. Ethiopia’s Great Rise is Certain!

Ethiopian Migrants Victimized in Saudi Arabia (GRAHAM PEEBLES)

Counter Punch

In the last 10 days persecution of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia has escalated. Men and women are forced from their homes by mobs of civilians and dragged through the streets of Riyadh and Jeddah. Distressing videos of Ethiopian men being mercilessly beaten, kicked and punched have circulated the Internet and triggered worldwide protests by members of the Ethiopian diaspora as well as outraged civilians in Ethiopia. Women report being raped, many repeatedly, by vigilantes and Saudi police. Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), has received reports of fifty deaths and states that thousands living with or without visas have been detained awaiting repatriation. Imprisoned, many relay experiences of torture and violent beatings.

Earlier this year the Saudi authorities announced plans to purge the kingdom of illegal migrants. In July, King Abdullah extended the deadline for them to “regularize their residency and employment status [from 3 rd July] to November 4th. Obtain the correct visa documentation, or risk arrest, imprisonment and/or repatriation. On 6th November, Inter Press Service (IPS) reports, Saudi police, “rounded up more than 4,000 illegal foreign workers at the start of a nationwide crackdown,“ undertaken in an attempt (the authorities say), to reduce the 12% unemployment rate “creating more jobs for locals”.

Leading up to the “crackdown” many visa-less migrants left the country: nearly a million Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis are estimated to have left the country in the past three months. More than 30,000 Yemenis have reportedly crossed to their home country in the past two weeks,” and around 23,000 Ethiopian men and women have “surrendered to Saudi authorities” [BBC].

The police and civilian vigilante gangs are victimizing Ethiopian migrants, residing with and without visas; the “crackdown” has provided the police and certain sectors of the civilian population with an excuse to attack Ethiopians. Press TV reports that “Saudi police killed three Ethiopian migrant workers in the impoverished neighborhood of Manfuhah in the capital, Riyadh, where thousands of African workers, mostly Ethiopians, were waiting for buses to take them to deportation centers.” Hundreds have been arrested and report being tortured: “we are kept in a concentration camp, we do not get enough food and drink, when we defend our sisters from being raped, they beat and kill us,” a migrant named Kedir, told ESAT TV. Women seeking refuge within the Ethiopian consulate tell of being abducted from the building by Saudi men and raped. ESAT, reports that several thousand migrants have been transported by trucks to unknown destinations outside the cities.

Whilst the repatriation of illegal migrants is lawful, the Saudi authorities do not have the right to act violently; beating, torturing and raping vulnerable, frightened people: people, who wish simply to work in order to support their families. The abuse that has overflowed from the homes where domestic workers are employed onto the streets of the capital reflects the wide-ranging abuse suffered by migrant workers of all nationalities in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Gulf States.

Trail of Abuse

This explosion of state sponsored violence against Ethiopians highlights the plight of thousands of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. They tell of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of employers, agents and family members. The draconian Kafala sponsorship system, (which grants ownership of migrants to their sponsor), together with poor or non-existent labour laws, endemic racism and gender prejudice, creates an environment in which extreme mistreatment has become commonplace in the oil-rich kingdom.

There are over nine million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, that’s 30% of the population. They come from poor backgrounds in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia and Ethiopia and make up “more than half the work force. The country would grind to an embarrassing stand still without their daily toil. “Many suffer multiple abuses and labor exploitation [including withholding of wages, excessive working hours and confinement], sometimes amounting to slavery-like conditions”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) states.

The level of abuse of domestic workers is hard to judge: their isolation combined with total control exerted by employers, together with government indifference, means the vast majority of cases go unreported. Until August this year there was no law covering domestic abuse. Legislation has been passed: however, the authorities, HRW reports “are yet to make clear which agencies will police the new law…without effective mechanisms to punish domestic abuse, this law is merely ink on paper.” All pressure needs to be exerted on the rulers of Saudi Arabia to ensure the law is implemented and enforced so victims of domestic violence feel it is safe to come forward.

Ethiopian Governments Negligence

Whilst thousands of its nationals are detained, beaten, killed and raped, the Ethiopian government hangs its negligent head in silence in Addis Ababa, does not act to protect or swiftly repatriate their nationals, and criminalises those protesting in Addis Ababa against the Saudi actions.

Although freedom to protest is enshrined within the Ethiopian constitution (a liberal minded, largely ignored document written by the incumbent party), dissent and public demonstrations, if not publicly outlawed, are actively discouraged by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime. In response to the brutal treatment meted out by the Saudi police and gangs of vigilantes in Riyadh and Jeddah, outraged civilians in Addis Ababa staged a protest outside the Saudi Embassy, only to be confronted by their own police force, wielding batons and beating demonstrators. Al Jazeera reports that police “arrested dozens of people outside the Saudi embassy [in Addis Ababa] in a crackdown on demonstrators protesting against targeted attacks on Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia.” A senior member of The Blue Party, Getaneh Balcha was one of over 100 people arrested for peacefully protesting.

The government’s justification, rolled out to defend yet another suppressive response to a democratic display, was to assert that the protest “was an illegal demonstration, they had not got a permit from the appropriate office”: petty bureaucratic nonsense, hiding the undemocratic truth that the government does not want public protests of any kind on the streets of its cities: effectively, freedom of assembly is banned in Ethiopia. The protestors, he said, “were fomenting anti-Arab sentiments here among Ethiopians.” Given the brutal treatment of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia, anger and anti-Saudi sentiment (not anti Arab) is, one would imagine understandable, and should be shared by the Ethiopian government.

The people of Ethiopia are living under a duplicitous highly repressive regime. The EPRDF consistently demonstrates it’s total indifference to the needs and human rights of the people. Freedom of expression, political dissent and public assembly is denied by a regime that is committing a plethora f human rights violations in various parts of the country, atrocities constituting in certain regions crimes against humanity. In fact, according to Genocide Watch, the Ethiopian government is committing genocide in the Somali region, as well as on the “Anuak, Oromo and Omo” ethnic groups (or tribes).Freedom of expression, political dissent and public assembly is denied by a regime that is committing a plethora f human rights violations in various parts of the country, atrocities constituting in certain regions crimes against humanity.

The recent appalling events in Saudi Arabia have brought thousands of impassioned Ethiopians living inside the country and overseas onto the streets. This powerful worldwide action presents a tremendous opportunity for the people to unite, to demand their rights through peaceful demonstrations and to call with one voice for change within their beloved country. The time to act is now, as a wise man has rightly said, “nothing happens by itself, man must act and implement his will”.

Graham Peebles is director of the Create Trust. He can be reached at: graham@thecreatetrust.org

Kafala” Persian Gulf Countries Enslavement Syste

by Geletaw Zeleke

The absolutist monarchy of Saudi Arabia has been stubborn about accepting the advice of human rights organizations for long time.  Year after year the terrible conditions of human rights have persisted to be among the worst of our planet. The violation of rights of women and foreign workers characterizes the country. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. To this extent Saudi is far off from rights issues. Such oppression cannot continue on in this way for obvious reasons. As we have learned from human development there will be change sooner or later. The Arab spring will most likely pass through Saudi Arabia and respect for human rights might then be able to be heard from that region.The absolutist monarchy of Saudi Arabia

A country rich from oil, Saudi Arabia, has a high demand for foreign workers especially those from poor countries.  The main system that Saudi employees to invite workers to its land is known as the “Kafala” system. In fact, the same system is employed not only in Saudi Arabia but throughout the majority of Persian Gulf countries or the so called (GCC- Gulf Countries Council).

The Kafala system takes away workers rights and puts them in the hands of their sponsor. A person going to work in Saudi Arabian or other Persian Gulf countries through the Kafala system has no right to alter his workplace. He also has no right to leave the country without the permission of the sponsor. The Kafala visa system is more appropriately named the Twenty-first Century Persian Gulf Countries Enslavement System.

As many victims have witnessed, sponsors take possession of passports and other important documents upon their arrival to Saudi Arabia. The fate of such foreign workers falls to their sponsors. When sponsors abuse the rights of these foreign workers, some workers try to escape and have lost their lives in the process.  Tragically, many domestic workers in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have been known to jump from high-rise buildings trying to escape from their sponsors. Millions of immigrant workers in Saudi Arabia do not have a system that provides them with security or gives them confidence in institutions. Foreign workers who do escape then become undocumented. Is it fair to label these people as illegal? Even if they want to go back home since their sponsor has to provide them with an exit visa and in fear of arrest they are forced to live a life of fear with no immediate escape in sight. Who is the real criminal in this situation? Those people who are labeled “illegal “are not but instead the system that has exposed them to such circumstances has violated the international law through exploitation and abuse.

GCC countries know that the Kafala sponsorship program is an illegal system as when they ratified the Universal Human Rights Declaration.    Article 13 of the universal human right declaration states that,

1. “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of  each state.”

2. “Everyone has the right to leave any country including his own, and return to his country”.

The Kafala system at minimum violates Article 13 so, those countries who employee this system including countries that sell their citizens under the Kafala sponsorship system clearly violate this international law. This system also violates their constitutional laws at the same time. What is more, Sharia law promises pay before your sweat dries. Still a number of domestic workers of Ethiopian decent living in Saudi Arabia are yet to be paid their promised salaries.

We might ask why GCC countries employ this system while they know that it is illegal under international labor law. It seems that the Gulf Countries Council has employed this calculating system for economic exploitation of foreign workers. Under this insecure system cheap labor is imported and then used for advantage at the overall expense of workers. According to sources there are about 15 million immigrant workers in the GCC and most of them are in Saudi Arabia.

In countries where millions of workers are foriegners we can easily see how the Kafala sponsorship system exposes them to massive human right violations. Since the focus of these countries is economic gain by manuplating a foreign worker force the responsibility to protect these workers falls to the employers. One sponsor may have a number of workers under him and their fate is determined by his skill, relative good will and ability to control and manage.  Further, in countries where the culture of democracy is not well developed the problems with this kind of sponsorship grow worse and worse by manipulation of greedy employers.

There is also another illegal visa system which Saudi Arabia uses to exploit foreign workers. The name of this illegal visa is called “Free Visa”. This kind of visa allows the foreign worker to find his own job with only a nominal sponsor. This kind of visa allows Saudi Arabians to bring foreign workers from abroad in the name of businesses organization that do not exist.  People who were brought to Saudi Arabia in this visa system have to pay a lot of money every month for their sponsor who controls their visa permits.

In recent years Indonesia and the Philippines have attempted to negotiate labor agreements concerning the minimum wage and other human right issues of their citizens. However, because of the resistance of the Saudi Arabian government these two countries have prohibited their citizens from entering into employment agreements with Saudi Arabian employers. It appears that the Saudi government which has set out to gather an unprotected cheap labor force has found just that in Ethiopia, a country with a government that is not concerned with protecting its citizens. The Ethiopian government has sold its citizen into the Kafala system to benefit from the remittances of foreign currency by migrant workers. The Ethiopian government does not worry for the livelihood of its citizens instead it only concerns itself with the revenues and guarantees of revenue they build. Sources reveal that the Ethiopian government agreed to regularly recruit 45,000 women to fill the need for cheap labor in Saudi Arabia. Would a competent government who boasts growth sell its own citizens into unsafe working agreements? No, the reality is that this is the manifestation of huge internal problems.

Although there has always been a problem in this region the recent crackdown and abuse in Saudi Arabia especially against Ethiopians has angered Ethiopians all over the world.  Those who were exploited, abused or undocumented are now again being attacked by government security officers and police. This action is unfair and a crime. Ethiopians will seek justice from the international justice bodies.

After unregulated exploitation of foreign workers Saudi Arabia is in a state of heightened crackdown to deport Ethiopian migrant workers. Due to the nationwide crackdown brutal attacks have been committed against unprotected workers by security forces and the police. This action has caused an outcry of Ethiopians around the world angered by the inhumane practices of the Saudi Arabian government on the one hand and the uncaring attitudes of the Ethiopian government on the other. Both buyers and sellers of labor under the Kafala system are to be held accountable for the current humanitarian crises.

Ethiopians, we have never before been so embarrassed by such failures of our government. Let all political parties and civic organizations stand together to help protect our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia and to renew our struggle to overthrow the current failed Ethiopian government which is at the root of our problems.

Stranded Ethiopian migrant women crying for help from Saudi Arabia

Stranded Ethiopian migrant women crying for help from Saudi Arabia

Following the Saudi’s crackdown against illegal immigrants thousands of Ethiopians are languishing inside concentration camp style temporary jails in Saudi Arabia.

The truth is the best propaganda: Ethiopian Embassy and Mouthpiece Teshaye Debalkew’s Photoshop Fail

by Kassahubn Addis

The regime in Addis Ababa and its diplomatic missions around the globe spend more time bedeviling members of the Diaspora opposed to the lack of democracy in Ethiopia. While they should be working to promote the interest and safety of citizens abroad, they spend resources spying on individuals, dividing communities and fundraising. This is on top of unofficial import export business most embassy officials are engaged in.

This short piece is to put further light on how low these embassies go to achieve their goals.   A picture caption of a story published on Tigraionline.com by the Public Relation head, Tsehaye Debalkew, of the  Ethiopian Embassy ask “What evidence do you want more than a picture?” (See http://tigraionline.com/articles/extimist-diaspora-in-dc.html )

Here is a snapshot of the story as it appears on the website:

It actually doesn’t take a computer savvy genius to tell what has been done to the original pictures

Ato Tsehaye Debalkew accuses what he calls the “few Diaspora” of “character assassination.” The irony is that he, and the office he represents, manipulated a picture, or used manipulated picture, to assassinate the characters of the “few Diaspora” Then to add insult to our intelligence, he captioned it “What evidence do you want more than a picture?”

I wouldn’t have been surprised if sharing of this fake picture was only circulated in social media. Apparently there were already 50+ shares of this picture. Well, that is unregulated sphere and anyone can do anything. But coming from an official, spokesperson, of the embassy and carried by tigraionline, a semi official website, I felt obliged to put this together.