(EMF) በመጪው እሁድ መጋቢት 28 ቀን፣ 2006 ዓ.ም. መነሻውን፤  ቀበና የሚገኘውን የአንድነት ፓርቲ ጽ/ቤት ያደረገው ሰላማዊ ሰልፍ፤ ተቀባይነት የሌለው መሆኑን የአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር በደብዳቤ ማሳወቁ ይታወሳል። ሆኖም የአንድነት ፓርቲ በሰላማዊ ሰልፉ የሚቀጥልበት መሆኑን በመግለጹ የአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር የከንቲባው ጽ/ቤት ስብስባ አድርጎ ነበር። ከብዙ ውይይት በኋላ የአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር፤ ሰላማዊ ሰልፉን ተቀብሎ ነገር ግን ቀኑ እና “ሰላማዊ ሰልፈኛው የሚሄድበት መንገድ ይቀየር” የሚል ይዘት ያለው ደብዳቤ – ለአንድነት ፓርቲ ልኳል።

በዚህ ደብዳቤ… ቀደም ሲል “በባቡር ስራው ምክንያት” የሚለው ቀርቶ፤ “በህዳሴውን ግድብ ምክንያት”፤ የሚል ማሳሳቻ ሃሳብ ቀርቧል። ቀኑ እሁድ መሆኑ እና ት/ቤት እና ስራ ዝግ በመሆኑ መንገዱ ጭር የሚል መሆኑ ቢታወቅም የአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር ግን… “ትምህርት ቤቶች እና የመንግስት መስሪያ ቤቶች በመንገዱ ላይ ስላሉ” የሚል ሌላ ምክንያት በማቅረብ የሰላማዊ ሰልፉ ቀን እንዲራዘም እና ቦታው እንዲቀየር በደብዳቤ ጠይቋል። በአሁኑ  ሰአት የአንድነት ፓርቲ አባላት በጉዳዩ ላይ ምላሽ ለመስጠት ውይይት ላይ ናቸው። አዲስ ነገር ካለ ይዘን እንቀርባለን።

ፓይለት ሃይለመድህን አበራን ለማስመለስ ጄኔቭ የመጣው የኢህአዴግ ልኡካን

(EMF) ረዳት ፓይለት ሃይለመድህን አበራን ወደ ኢትዮጵያ ለማስመለስ በአቶ አስመላሽ ወልደ-ስላሴ የተመራ ከፍተኛ የኢህአዴግ ልኡካን ቡድን ጄኔቭ፣ ስዊዘርላንድ ከርሞ ባለፈው ሳምንት ተመልሷል።
በፓርላማው የህግ እና የአስተዳደር ጉዳይ ቋሚ ኮሚቴ ሊቀ-መንበር የሆኑት አቶ አስመላሽ ወልደ-ስላሴ የተመራው ይህ ቡድን ከ march 13፣ 2014 ጀምሮ የስዊዘርላንድ መንግስት አካላት ጋር በሃይለመድህን ጉዳይ ላይ ለቀናት ተወያይቷል።  ስዊዘርላንድ ረዳት ፓይለቱን አሳልፋ እንድትሰጥም ቡድኑ ብዙ ሙከራ አድርጎ እንደነበርና ሙካራው ሁሉ ሳይሳካ መቅረቱንም ለማወቅ ችለናል።
ቡድኑ የስዊስ ፌዴሬሽን የህግ አካላትን ለማሳመን ካቀረበው ምክንያት ዋነኛው፣ ረዳት ፓይለት ሃይለመድህን አበራ የአእምሮ በሽተኛ መሆኑን እና ይህንንም ከራሱ ቤተሰብ አባላት እንዳረጋገጡላቸው ገልጸዋል።  የስዊዝ መንግስት ግን ሙከራውን በሙሉ ውድቅ አድርጎታል። ለዚህም የሰጠው ዋነኛ ምክንያት፤ የሞት ፍርድን ተግባራዊ ለሚይደርግ መንግስት ማንንም አሳልፌ አልሰጥም የሚል ሲሆን ይህ ባይሆንም፣  በስዊዘርላንድ እና በኢትዮጵያ መሃል ተጠርጣሪ እስረኛን የማስመለስ ውል የለም ብለዋል። Continue reading–>>

How Ethiopia Spies on Its Diaspora Abroad (Wall Street Journal‎)

Wall Street Journal ‎- By FELIX HORNE, 

March 31, 2014 - Many Europeans are upset over revelations that the United States government spies on them. But European companies are selling surveillance tools and know-how to other governments, allowing them to spy abroad. Their customers include some of the world’s most abusive governments and at least one of them—Ethiopia—is targeting its diaspora population in Europe. The results extend beyond outrage over privacy violations: They put people in danger.The global trade in this powerful “spyware” is virtually unregulated and that needs to change. Using digital technology to monitor the Ethiopian diaspora in Europe, the regime in Addis Ababa has brought its abuses right into Europe’s midst. The EU needs to regulate the sale of such technology, at least to governments with such questionable human-rights records.

Inside Ethiopia, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s government abuses mobile and Internet networks to monitor opposition groups and journalists, and to silence dissenting voices. Using Chinese-made telecom equipment, the Ethiopian security agencies have nearly unfettered access to civilians’ phone records and recorded calls. Taped calls have been played back to people being interrogated by security officials and used against them in trials under the government’s deeply flawed antiterrorism law.
For mobile or Internet users in Ethiopia, the violation of the right to privacy is not an abstract harm. One Ethiopian man, who asked only to be identified as “Jirata,” was once a member of a registered political party; he now struggles to survive as a refugee in Kenya.
“I was becoming well known and respected in my political party and one day security officials came and arrested me and showed me list of phone calls I had made,” Jirata recalled to me in a recent interview. “They demanded to know who the foreign numbers were. I told them everything—I had nothing to hide. They began to beat me with a rubber whip, demanding I confess to belonging to the [banned] Oromo Liberation Front. I was kept in solitary confinement for three months and pulled out each night to be beaten.”
His story is too common. Thousands of Ethiopians have fled threats to their lives and security, and many have found asylum in Europe. Now Ethiopian spy agencies are trying to silence any independent criticism of government policy by extending their reach abroad, with the aid of advanced surveillance tools designed and sold by several European companies. These tools give intelligence officials access to files, emails and activity on a target’s computer. They can log keystrokes and passwords and remotely turn on a device’s webcam and microphone—effectively turning a computer into a listening device.
Yohannes Alemu, a former refugee and now a Norwegian citizen who supports an Ethiopian opposition party that the government has banned, found out too late about the spyware. In late 2012, when Mr. Alemu’s wife and two children were visiting family in Ethiopia, security officials detained and questioned her about her husband’s political connections. They sent Mr. Alemu emails demanding more information about his opposition-party associates. He refused, and after 20 days his wife was finally released and returned to Norway.
That was not the end of the incident.
One of the government emails Mr. Alemu received contained an attachment infected with spyware known as FinFisher. FinFisher GmbH, based in Munich, did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s requests for comment regarding the use of its product by Ethiopian authorities.
Once Mr. Alamu’s computer was secretly infected, the Ethiopian security agencies had unfettered access to it. After Mr. Alemu unwittingly forwarded the infected emails to other people, the spyware gave Ethiopian security agencies potentially unfettered access to their computers, too. Researchers at Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based center focused on security and human rights online, confirms that at least one of Mr. Alamu’s contacts&88217; computers was monitored as a result. Different spyware developed in Italy has been used to target the computers of others in the diaspora.
Such sales are currently perfectly legal, but European companies nonetheless risk complicity in human-rights abuses when they provide products and services that facilitate Ethiopia’s surveillance. Ethiopians living in the U.K., the U.S., Norway, and Switzerland are among those known to have been targeted with Addis Ababa’s spyware. Citizen Lab has documented evidence of use of these tools in over 25 countries.
In December, the 41 member states participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement—a multilateral export-control regime for dual-use technologies—agreed to regulate the export of “intrusion software” and “IP network surveillance systems.” This development signals growing consensus that the trade in powerful surveillance tools being used to violate rights should be reined in.
But much more is needed. The European Commission should lead efforts to regulate the export of such technology to governments with poor human rights records, and to implement the new Wassenaar controls without delay. Until then, Yohannes Alemu will not be the last victim of Ethiopian cyber-surveillance.
Mr. Horne is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of a new report, “‘They Know Everything We Do’: Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia.”

ያልዘሩትን ማጨድ ከቶ አይቻልም! (ግንቦት7)

የወያኔ መንግስት የኢትዮጵያን ብሄር ብሄረሰቦች አጋጭቶ በመካከላቸው ጥርጣሬና መፈራራት አንግሶና የታሪክ ጠባሳዎችን እንደ አዲስ በመጓጐጥ እያደማ ከፋፍሎ ለመግዛት ካለመታከት ያደረጋቸው ሙከራዎች ገና ፍሬ ባያፈሩም ቁጥቋጦዎቹ መብቀል ጀምረዋል። እዚህም እዚያም በካድሬዎች የውስጥ ለውስጥ ተልእኮ የሚለኮሱ እሳቶች መብለጭለጭ ጀምረዋል። ሌላው ቀርቶ በአንድ ብሄረሰብ መሃል ሳይቀር በከባቢ ልዩነቶች ብቻ መናቆሮችና መጋደሎች እያስተዋልን ነው። ሰሞኑን በጉጂና በቦረና ኦሮሞዎች መካከል የወያኔ ሎሌዎች በሚያበረታቱት አተካሮ የብዙ ወገኖቻችን ህይወት ጠፍቷል። ሰዎች ከኑሮአቸው ተፈናቅለዋል። ወያኔ እንደኳስ ጨዋታ ተመልካች ዳር ሆኖ ይመለከታል፣ ያጨብጭባል።
ሰሞኑን ባህርዳር ከተማ ውስጥ በተካሄደ የስፖርት ውድድር ላይ አሳፋሪ ክስተት ነበር። ለሰሚው የሚቀፍ ብልግና የተቀላቀለበት ስድብና ቁርቋሶ አይተናል። ከበስተጀርባ ሆነው ይህንን ለፍቅር ብቻ ሊውል የሚገባ የስፖርት ዝግጅት መርዝ ረጭተውበታል። ከዚህ ላቅ ያሉ የተንኮል ድግሶችም ተደግሰው ህዝብ ውስጥ በወያኔ ከተነዙ የመርዝ ቢልቃቶች ውስጥ ስራ ላይ ሳይውሉ ቀርተዋል።
ይህ በታሪካችን ታይቶ የማይታወቅ ዘር የሚዘራው ወያኔ ያልተከፋፈለ ህዝብ አይገዛልኝም በሚል ፍልስፍና እንደሆነ በተደጋጋሚ እያየን ነው። ሶማሌ ክልል ውስጥ በተቋቋሙ ልዩ ፖሊስ በሚል ስያሜ በሚጠሩ የመንግስት ሃይሎች ጥቃት ቁጥሩ እጅግ በርካታ የሆነ የኦሮሞ ማህበረሰብ ከኖረበት መሬት ተጠራርጎ እንዲወጣ ተደርጓል። ብዙዎቹ ተገድለዋል። ብዙ ደም መቃበት ተፈጥሯል። በየክልሉ ምስኪን የአማራ ገበሬዎችን መሬት ንብረት በመንጠቅ አከባቢውን ለቀው እንዲሄዱ አድርገዋል። መሄጃ የለንም ያሉትንም ቀጥቅጠው እንደገደሏቸው ሰሞኑን ከጅባትና ሜጫ አካባቢ ያሉ መረጃዎችን አይተናል።
እነዚህ በየቦታው የሚብለጨለጩ እሳቶች በዚህ ከቀጠሉ ሁላችንም ወደ ሚያቃጥልና የሚለበልብ የሰደድ እሳት ማደጉ አይቀርም። የወያኔ ባለሟሎች ካለምንም ይሉኝታና ማሰላሰል ይህንን እሳት እያራገቡ ይገኛሉ።
ይህንን አደገኛ አዝማሚያ በንጭጩ ማስወገድ የሚችለው ራሱ ህዝቡና የኢትዮጵያ ዲሞክራሲያዊ የነጻነት ሃይሎች ድምጽና ህብረት እንጂ የወያኔ መንግስት አይደለም። ስለዚህ ህዝቡ በተለይም ወጣቶች ከዚህ ወጥመድ ሰብረው እንዲወጡ ግንቦት 7 የነጻነት፣ የፍትህና የዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ አጥብቆ ያሳስባል። ተመሳሳይ ተንኮሎችንም ማጋለጡን ይቀጥላል። የብሄርሰብ ልሂቃንም ይህንን መርዝ እንዲቋቋሙ፣ ይልቁንም ወያኔ እንዳይመቸው ይበልጥ መቀራረብና ፈተናውን በጋራ እንድንቋቋም ጥሪያችን በድጋሜ እናቀርባለን።
ያልተዘራ አይታጨድም። ወያኔ የዘራልን መርዝ የሚያፈራው መርዝን እንጂ ሌላ አይደለም። ልዩነቶቻችን እንደዘመኑ በሰለጠነ ዲሞክራሲያዊ መንገድ እንጂ በተያዘው መንገድ ማስወገድ አይቻልም።
ዞሮ ዞሮ በዚህ ሳይጣናዊ የወያኔ መሰሪ ሴራ ለምትፈስ ለእያንዳንዶ የደም ጠብታ ተጠያቂው የወያኔ ጉጅሌ መሆኑን አጥብቀን እናሳስባለን። በመሆኑም ለመከፋፈል ከመመቻቸት ይልቅ አንድነታችን በማጥበቅ የነጻነት ሃይሎችን በመቀላቀል ራሳችን እና የሀገራችንን ህልውና ከዚህ ከወያኔ የመከፋፈል መርዝ እንታደግ።
ድል ለኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ!!!

‘Whispers’ Wahome Mutahi’s Son Now Detained at Ethiopia’s Bole International Airport

The son of the late Wahome Mutahi “Whispers,” Patrick Mutahi Wahome was last night arrested and detained in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Patrick was to attend a conference in the country controlled by dictators. He never made an entry into the country as the intelligence of the regime already knew that he was someone who might give them trouble. He was arrested at the Bole International Airport over unspecified charges.
Patrick is an author a fact which might have alerted the radars of the Addis Ababa despots to detain him. There is no free media in Ethiopia with any independent thinker will always find himself arrested and detained for just speaking his mind.
Patrick’s passport was confiscated in the process. Ministry of Foreign Affairs is silent on this matter as the despots in Ethiopia now illegally hold a Kenyan.
Source: SureTrader

Summary of 3rd Annual International Conference of Ethiopian Women in the Diaspora

Conference Held on March 22, 2014
Silver Spring Sheraton, Silver Spring, Maryland
The program started with CREW member, Hiwote Mekonnen, introducing the objectives of the conference and introducing Dr. Maigenet Shiferraw, President of CREW. Dr. Maigent gave a brief preview of the short history of CREW  and outlined the theme of the conference.  Dr. Maigenet thanked the sponsors of the Conference: Tadias Magazne, Tsehay Publishers, ESAT Television & Radio, Sankofa Café and Gebeta Restaurant.
The opening speaker, Chereace Richards. is a successful business woman and a motivational speaker. She is the author of Faith, Focus, Action: The Journey to Becoming Who you are.  Chereace captured the mission and vision of CREW and spoke on how members of CREW should focus and take actions to fulfill their dreams.
The first session was moderated by CREW member, Tizita Belachew. Drs. Minga Negash and Seid Hassan spoke via Skype from Colorado and Kentucky, respectively. Dr. Minga Negash and Dr. Seid Hassan’s presentation was very educational.  Their presentation set the framework for the conference by explaining the push and pull factors of migration in general and Ethiopian outmigration in particular. The third speaker on the same session was Tadella Fanta, gender specialist and member of CREW. Tadella has done research in Yemen and Sudan about migrant workers. She spoke on the gendered nature of migration.
The second session was on the current situation of Ethiopian women migrant workers in the Middle East and the returnees from Saudi Arabia.  The moderator was Dr. Menna Demissie, senior policy analyst for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.  The speakers were Dagmawi Yimer, a film maker; Jomo Tariku, a designer and who works at the World Bank; researcher, Helen Afework, and CREW member Genet Derbe, a social worker.
A clip of Dagmawi’s, film titled “Like a Man on Earth,” a moving story of Ethiopian migrant workers in Libya was shown.  After the showing of the clip, Dagmawi spoke about his personal journey and experience in Libya. Jomo’s presentation was on using the digital/social media to do effective advocacy work. Jomo created a website in 2012 after learning what had happened to Alem Dechasa in Beirut . The website is designed to document the number of Ethiopian migrant workers and their conditions in the Gulf countries.

CREW’s 2014 scholarship recipient Helen Afework — at 3rd Annual Ethiopian Women Conference in the Diaspora.

Helen Afework, a young researcher and a graduate student at the European Masters in Migration Studies in Germany was the next speaker.  Helen is currently in New York on a fellowship program at the National Domestic Workers Association to study domestic workers in the United States.  Her extensive work on domestic workers in the Middle East gave a clear depiction of the condition of migrant workers in the Middle East. Helen Afework is a recipient of the 2014 CREW scholarship. Amsale Aberra a young scholar from the University of Washington was the 2013 CREW scholarship recipient.
The last presenter for the second session was CREW’s treasurer and project manager of CREW’s pilot program, Genet Derebe.  CREW has started a pilot program with a non-governmental organization, Integrated Family services Organization (IFSO), to settle four returnees from Saudi Arabia.  A video of the project was shown. The pilot project was sponsored by the donation CREW received from ESFNA at their 30^th annual soccer game in Washington, DC. As more Ethiopians are and will be repatriated from different parts of the world, both IFSO and CREW are willing and hopeful to continue this project to serve more returnees with the support of Ethiopians in the Diaspora.
The third session was moderated by CREW’s member, Aleme Feyisa, a social worker. The session was on conflict transformation.   Solomon Tilahun, a specialist in conflict resolution, was the presenter.  This was Solomon’s second time to present at CREW’s meetings.  Solomon’s presentation was excellent. The presentation focused on the culture of tolerance, dialogue, and conflict transformation.
The last session was moderated by CREW member Mahdere Paulos, a Lawyer and former Executive Director of the Ethiopian Women’s Lawyers’ Association in Ethiopia.
The last session was very powerful with all the young researchers and presenters together on the same panel.


The first presenter at the last session was Pastor Mekibeb Tilahun who is living and helping Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia.  He discussed the current situation of Ethiopians in Saudi prisons. The second presenter was Rima Kalush a senior researcher at Migrant-workers.org, a Bahrain-based organization.  She participated via Skype from California. Dr. Menna Demissie was the third presenter and spoke on networking with other community organizations and advocacy.
After the last presentation the floor was opened for Q&A and it allowed excellent participation by the audience. Recommendations were given by the participants.
Recommendation by conference presenters and participants

• The Ethiopian government needs to recognize the current cross border migration situation from the country as a “Crisis” in order to be able to respond accordingly.
• The Ethiopian government needs to adopt clear policy and legal framework that responds to the current migration crisis in par with the international laws and principles.
• Interventions to alleviate the plight of migrant workers should be carefully designed to avoid perpetual farming of Ethiopian migrants as helpless victims.
• There is a need to see beyond CREW’s organizational capacity and start to network with other societal groups, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Protestant churches and the Ethiopian Mosques.
• Engaging the US Congress, Congressional Black Caucus and Hilary Clinton at Clinton foundation on the issues with the aim of having congressional hearing on the plight of Ethiopian migrant women in the Middle East.
• Set up a task force entrusted with the responsibility to follow-up with recommended actions

Special Recommendations by Drs. Minga Negash and Seid Hassan
(These recommendations are obtained directly from commentaries on outmigration written by Professor Minga and Professor Hassan. They were the main speakers at the conference on the push/pull factors of migration in general and Ethiopian outmigration in particular and they discussed the following recommendations in their speech)

• Outmigration requires reforming the [Ethiopian] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor. Like other nations, Ethiopia, on behalf of its citizens, needs to promote cooperation and negotiate minimum labor standards in host countries.
• It [the government of Ethiopia] must push migrant recipient countries the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families (ICRMW), one of the core international human rights treaties.
• For immigrants who go to specific destinations, the government can create incentives for minimum level of skills certifications. It needs to provide coping mechanisms and establish a desk in the embassies for handling physical, emotional and sexual abuses and cultural prejudices faced by immigrants, in general, and women in particular. The remittance obtained from destination countries could justify the additional costs of providing the above services.
• The country [ Ethiopia] must be able to pass and implement effective regulation against “agents” and human smugglers. The government also needs to re-examine the de facto policy of using remittances (i.e. exporting people) as developmental instrument, for the macroeconomic effects are ambiguous at best
• Unlike out-migrants of other countries, Ethiopian out-migrants seem to have failed to pay attention to the ongoing politics of their respective destination countries. The use of immigrants as political punch bags by the Saudi authorities could have been minimized if Ethiopian migrants were paying attention to the upcoming of large scale and politically-motivated deportations

• Finally, Ethiopian immigrants must take lessons from the recent deportations and establish strong centers in their respective destination countries and create a global network that supports the community in times of crisis.

Specific Recommendations from the audience

• Organize solidarity march in the USA with the migrant workers in Beirut who held such a rallies every year to popularize the cause
• Adopt a strategy of appealing to the oppressor: pleading to the “Madams” in the ME countries who themselves are victims of oppressive culture to stop abusing their fellow women

Special thank you to Kumera Genet, an activist and a columinist for the Huffington Post. Kebadu Belachew,Matt Andrea, Konjit Taye of VOA, Alem Fekade of Netsanet LeEthiopia radio, Abebe Belew of Addis Dimit radio and ECADF Forum website. Thank you to all the speakers for the excellent and educational presentations. Thank you to the moderators for an excellent job in facilitating the panels. A very special thank you to all the participants who made the 3^rd Annual Conference of Ethiopian Women in the Diaspora a success. We hope to see you all at CREW’s next event.

The Center for Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) 3rd Annual International Conference participants