Ethiopian PM warns South Sudan's warring leaders

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn

The Ethiopian prime minister, who mediates peace talks between South Sudan's warring leaders, has warned them to resume negotiations.

Hailemariam Desalegn said on Friday that time was running out for a lasting deal in the violence-hit country.

"For every negotiation there is a limit, you cannot continue forever. When we believe it has come to a dead end then we have to do something else," Desalegn noted.

The latest round of peace talks between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa came to a halt in June as both sides refused to attend.

"We are giving them a chance to go for a negotiated settlement and if that doesn't happen, then obviously the region will not sit tight to see the process continue as people are killed," Desalegn warned.

South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to Kiir and defectors led by Machar around the capital Juba.
The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.
The conflict has left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.5 million people to flee their homes in the world’s youngest nation.
South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 after its people overwhelmingly voted in a referendum for a split from the North.
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ጅምላ ጨራሽ ተውሳክ (Biological Weapons) በድብቅ ወደ ትግራይ ተወሰደ

(ኢ.ኤም.ኤፍ) በመሰረቱ ጅምላ ጨራሽ ተውሳክ ወይም ባዮሎጂካል መርዝ በሰው ልጅ ላይ መጠቀም በተባበሩት መንግስታት የተከለከለ ነው። ሆኖም ይህንን የሰውን ልጅ በጅምላ የሚጨርስ ተውሳክ በህወሃት ጄነራሎች የሚመራው የኢትዮጵያ መከላከያ ሚንስትር በድብቅ ወደ አገር ውስጥ አስገብቶ ነበር። “ለምን እና በማን ላይ ግድያውን ለመፈጸም ነው?” የሚለው ጥያቄ እንዳለ ሆኖ፤ የተባበሩት መንግስታት የጸጥታ ክፍልም ቢሆን እንደዚህ አይነት ጥቆማ ቢደርሰው እርምጃ ለመውሰድ ይችላልና ኢትዮጵያውያን አክቲቪስቶችን ይህንን ጉዳይ ልብ ሊሉት ይገባል። እናም ዛሬ የደረሰን ዘገባ እንዳመለከተው ከሆነ፤የዛሬ ዓመት በድብቅ ተጭነው ወደ አገር ቤት ውስጥ የገቡትን አንትራክስ ስፓርስ (anthrax spores )፥ ብሩሲሎሲስ (brucellosis)፣ እና ቦቱሊስም (botulism) የሚባሉ ጅምላ ጨራሽ ባዮሎጂካል መርዞች ታሽገው ከተቀመጡበት ደብረዘይት መከላከያ ኮሌጅ ላቦራቶሪ ውስጥ ወደ መቀሌ ዛሬ ሌሊት በኮንቴነር ተጭነው እንደተወሰዱ ለማወቅ ተችሏል።

ጥቆማውን ያቀረበው እና አባ ኮስትር በሚል ስም መጠራት የመረጠው ግለሰብ ከሙያውም አንጻር ይህንን ጥቆማ መሰረት በማድረግ ለግንዛቤ እንዲሆን ከዚህ በታች ያለውን የግንዛቤ ጽሁፍ አዘጋጅቶ አቅርቧል።

ሥነህይወታዊ በሽታ አምጭ(Biological Ethiologic Agents ) ተዉሳክን እንደ ጦር መሳርያ (Biological Weapons )የሰዉ ልጅ መጠቀም የጀመረዉ ከክርስቶስ ልደት በፊት በ 400 አ.አ የጦር ቀስትን በሞቱ እንስሳ ፈሳሽ ደምና የደም ተዋጾች መዘፍዘፍና ባላንጣን በመዉጋት ፤የኩሬ መጠጥ ዉሀን በመበከል እንደተጀመረ ከጤና ነክ መረጃወች መረዳት ይቻላል።የምራባዊያን ታሪካዊ ድርሳናትም ይህንኑ ያረጋግጣሉ።

የቅርቦችን ክንዉን ሰናስታዉስ በአንደኛዉ የአለም ጦርነት ጀርመን አንትራክስ (Anthrax)የተባለዉን በባክቴርያ በሶስት መንገዶች የሚዛመት ራሱን አካባቢዉ ሁኔታጋር በቀላሉ ሊቋቋም የሚችል(Spore former) እና በአፈር ላይ እስከ ፵ አመታት በላይ መቆየት የሚችል በተለይም ሳር የሚግጡ የቤት እንሰሳን የሚያጥቃ እና ከነሱ ጋር በሚደረግ ንክኪ ማለትም ቆዳቸዉ ሲነካ :-
1. በብነት መልክ በአየር(Aerosols )
2. ሰዉነታችን ላይ ቀላል ጭረት ካለ በንክኪ (Cutaneous) እንዲሁም
3. ሰጋቸዉንበመመገብ (Gastrointestinal) ወደ ሰወች የሚተላለፍ ሲሆን በተመሳሳይም ይህንኑ አንትራክስ በሁለተኛዉ የአለም ጦርነት በጃፓን በሚስጥር በእስረኞች ላይ ተሞክሮ እስከ ሶስት ሺህ የሚሆኑ ሰወች ሰለባ ሆነወል።አሜሪካም ጀርመን በሁለተኛዉ የአለም ጦርነት ባዮሎጂካል መሳሪያን የምትጠቀም ከሆነ ምላሽ የሚሆናትን ለህክምናም ሆነ ለመከላከል አዳጋች የሆነዉን ለስጋ ዉጤቶች መመረዝ መንስኤ የሆነዉን ቦቱሊዝም የሚያመጣ (clostridium botulinum bacteria)የተሰኘ ባክቴሪያ ማዘጋጀትዋ ይታወሳል።በተጨማሪም ኤራቅ፤ ብሪታንያ፤ራሽያ ቬትናም የመሳሰሉ ሀገሮች የባዮሎጂካል ጦር መሳርያን የሚጠቀሙ ሲሆን በዉጤታማነቱም ሆነ በአቅርቦት ከኒውክሌር የተሻለና እጅግ ርካሽ መሆኑንም የተለያዩ የዘርፉ ምርምሮች ያመላክታሉ።
በዚህም መሰረት አንድ ግራም ባዮሎጂካል ቶክሲን (ቦቶሊዝም)አስር ሚሊዮን ያህል ሰዎችን በአንዴ ይገላል።ለምሳሌ ይሄዉ በላቦራቶሪ የተጣራ የቦቶሊዝም ቶክሲን የሰዉን ልጅ መተንፈሻ ና ነርቭ በማጥቃት ከሚታወቀዉ ሳሪን ኬሚካል ጦር መሳርያ(sarin chemical weapon ) ይልቅ ሶስት ሚሊዮን ጊዜ እጅግ ሲበዛ መርዛማ(potent) ነዉ።ቦቱሊዝም ሳሪን ኬሚካል ከሚሸፍነዉ የቆዳ ስፋት አንጻርም አንድ ግራም ቦቱሊዝም የሚባለዉን አደገኛ ገዳይ ቶክሲን አስራ ስድስት እጥፍ ማለትም ሶስት ሺህ ሰባት መቶ ያህል(3700) ስኩየር ካሬ ሜትር ቦታ ይሽፍናል።
ሌላ ጊዜ በሰፊዉ የምመለስበት ሆኖ ለጥፋት የተዘጋጀዉ አፍሪካዊ ናዚ ወያኔ እነዚህን በተባበሩት መንግስታት ጠቅላላ ጉባኤ የተከለከሉ የባዮሎጂካል የጦር መሳሪያወች(Biological Weapons) አከማችቶ መገኘቱ እንደምታ ሊጤን ፤ ሊታወቅ ና መረጃዉ ተጣርቶ አለም አቅፍ ትኩርት ሊሰጠዉና ወንጀለኛዉ ትግራይ መራሹ የወንበዴ ቡድን እጅከፈጅ (Redhanded) ተይዘዉ ለፍርደ እንዲቀርቡ ሁላችንም የድርሻችንን እንወጣ።

Ethiopia's child brides see marriage as key to jobs abroad, says thinktank

By David Smith in Hara, The Guardian 
Up a bumpy, winding dirt track in the mountains of northern Ethiopia, past two bulls chewing pasture and a rondavel built from sticks and cow dung, is the modest home of Lubaba Abdella, its mudbrick walls reinforced by eucalyptus bark and topped by a corrugated roof.
Abdella has lived a lifetime, yet she is still in her teens. She dropped out of school, married, divorced three months later and emigrated illegally so she could cook and clean for a family in Saudi Arabia, earning money to support her parents and eight siblings. Now she is home and back to square one.
Three-quarters of girls in the Ethiopian region of Amhara become child brides like Abdella, according to the London-based Overseas Development Institute. Many also join the so-called "maid trade": up to 1,500 girls and women leave the east African country each day to become domestic workers in the Middle East. A study has shown for the first time how these pernicious trends feed off each other.
In Ethiopia's Muslim communities it is often deeply shameful or "sinful" for girls to remain unmarried after they begin menstruating, notes the ODI. But once girls are married and sexually initiated, parents consider their social and religious obligations complete.

The thinktank's researchers in Amhara found it was therefore becoming common for parents to insist on marriage followed by a swift divorce so that their daughter was free to migrate and send 

her earnings home to her parents, rather than her husband. The fact a girl had already been "deflowered" meant she was seen as less likely to be disgraced by foreign men. "It's a question of virtue and virginity," one local researcher said. "Better to lose it in a dignified way."

The findings are being released before the first Girl Summit, hosted by the British government and Unicef on Tuesday with the aim of ending female genital mutilation and child marriage within a generation. The ODI will warn that parents who see their daughters as commodities are pushing record numbers of girls into abusive early marriages. Some 39,000 child brides marry every day – 14 million a year – often against their will. Amhara has Ethiopia's lowest average marriage age – 14.7 years – and one of its highest illiteracy rates.
Abdella, now 19, illustrates the constrained choices and warped pragmatism that many here face. She was 16 when she dropped out of school for an arranged marriage to a 22-year-old. It lasted only three months. "He used to hit her," said Abdella's mother, Zeyneba Seid. "They didn't like each other so divorce was inevitable."
It was hastened when Abdella's husband wanted to seek work abroad. Speaking Amharic through an interpreter, she recalled: "If a man migrates alone to the Middle East, he will cheat on you. But it's difficult to migrate with your husband and still support your family. That's why I wanted a divorce."
Nevertheless, Abdella believed even her short-lived marriage would be an advantage overseas. "I was told I'm young and it's better if I know what marriage is before migrating. People in the Middle East might force us to sleep with them. If a girl has been married and goes to Saudi and is raped, it's not as bad as for one who's single. If she's single and bears a child, it's really difficult to come back here. But if she's been married, it's OK."
The ODI found that some girls also choose to migrate, against their parents' wishes, out of a sense of filial piety that tends to be weaker in boys. Abdella says it was her own decision because her family was in poverty, farming just one hectare of land. Notably she has an elder brother who is still at school. "He was asked to migrate but he wanted to continue his education, so I had to go and earn. I wanted my family to be better off."
For the residents of Hara, a remote mountain village where the air fills with birdsong, cocks crowing and the Muslim call to prayer, and the streets with Bajajs (motorised three-wheeled rickshaws), camels and boys herding goats, Saudi Arabia offers an alluring promise of riches just as America once did to Europe's huddled masses. The results can be seen in a series of neat concrete houses with colourful paintwork, barred windows and a sprinkling of satellite dishes that have sprung up in the past five years, funded by wages from the east. Owning a corrugated roof is a status symbol here. For those still living in older houses made from mud and thatch there is the perpetual struggle of keeping up with the Joneses.

New wealth v old in Hara, Ethiopia, funded by wages from the Middle East. Photograph: Clare Price/ODI

"Seeing the houses that were built makes you wish you'd migrated," said Abdella, who sleeps with her family on the floor of two cramped rooms. "We have a lot of needs: clothes, shoes. Most of the time we cannot afford them, whereas people in Saudi had money."

It is now illegal under Ethiopian law for anyone under 18 to migrate to work but Abdella, like thousands of others, got a passport by using a fake ID and telling the authorities she was 27. The entire process cost 15,000 birr (£445). She cooked, cleaned and washed clothes for a Saudi couple and their three children and was paid 800 riyals (£125) a month, paying off the debt and earning enough for her family to be connected to electricity and water and cover food bills.
The job came to an end after 20 months when Saudi Arabia carried out a mass deportation of illegal foreign workers. "I'm doing nothing at the moment," sighed Abdella as two chickens scampered across the house's dirt floor. "Seeing my family suffering here, I don't want to remarry, I just want to support my family. I want to go back to the Middle East. There's no other option because the wage is really low here.
"My younger sister, who's 15, is planning to go. I advise her to because she can earn more and do whatever she wants. But she would have to marry first – it's our custom."
The pattern of marriage and divorce is becoming increasingly common. Aesha Mohammed, 16, recently married a man six years her senior, only to divorce after two months because she refused to quit school. Her elder sister also married and divorced, then migrated to work in Saudi Arabia. Mohammed, who wants to become a doctor, said: "Sometimes when I joke with her, 'I want to drop out of school and come to Saudi', she says no, stay in school because it's hard there. There is a lot of work and it's a burden."
The journey to get there can also be treacherous. For some it involves more than a week on foot to Djibouti, then a six-hour boat ride to Yemen after dark, followed by 15 to 20 days travelling by road to Saudi Arabia. Habtam Yiman, 24, who married aged 12 and has married twice since, said she was detained in Yemen because officials did not believe she had a sponsor. "They check your blood type and take some of it for the hospital," she said. "I saw a man whose blood was completely drained out of him and he was left to die."
Yet still thousands are pouring in for the sake of their families. The ODI, which hosted a field visit by the Guardian last week, reports that some girls go because they "feel inferiority" and have been "seduced by the glamorous stories" told by illegal brokers. The fate that awaits them can include overwork, non-payment, social isolation and abuse.
When Zemzem Damene set off to work in Kuwait, she was a normal girl who wanted to earn money and be like her friends. Today she is confused, withdrawn and virtually mute, a stranger to her own family. Something happened to Damene in Kuwait and no one knows exactly what.
As the 20-year-old peered nervously from under her veil and picked at her hand, her mother, Engocha Sete, recalled: "She wanted to go and I couldn't stop her. She said her friends went to the Middle East and brought home shiny objects. She wanted that and she had to have what she wished for."
Her father, Damene Alemu, added: "I was sad she wanted to go. I asked her to marry here but she said: 'You don't have a lot of money to marry me off, it's not logical.' Marriage is an expensive thing for the father, with buying clothes, organising a party, paying two months of utilities. She said it's best that she go off to the Middle East."
But the plan backfired and Damene lost more money than she made, forcing the family to sell cattle. According to Alemu, his daughter's first employer took all the money she had and even the clothes she brought from home, and that was the start of her decline. "She went to a hospital in Addis Ababa but they didn't tell us what the problem was, only that it's a mental illness."

Damene's mother added pensively: "She doesn't do anything now. She doesn't speak much. Most of the time she sleeps. Now she's sick, there's nobody wants to marry her. If she gets better, we'd like her to get married. But because she's lost so much, the only thing she talks about is money."

When a little boy grows up to speak the language of Woyane what do you do?

by Teshome Debalke

Turkish playwright and novelist Mehmet Murat ildan said:

Small minds just like small stones can never create giant waves.

When I came across an article titled ‘Why do Ethiopia’s terrorists hold British passports?’ I can’t help wonder who would write such rubbish. To my surprise I found the author to be young man by the name Fetsum Berhane of a little known online blog by the name HornAffairs run by what appears the regime operatives in Addis Ababa.

To his credit, Fetsum alike the old operatives is out in the open with his picture and name willing to take responsibility in a cover-up for the regime’s crime in a name of journalism.

As expected, what bothered Fetstum was not the regime crime of kidnaping, injustice … but, foreign medias’ refereeing the popular Ginbot 7 Movement leader Andargachew Tsige as ‘opposition leader or activist’. He argues why these foreign Medias ‘bothered to sympathize with a terrorist whose record is full of foiled plots’.

He wrote;

“The news headline of The Guardian calls Andargachew “opposition leader” and Al Jazeeera even dared to call him “opposition activist”. The only thing wrong with these expressions is that they are false and the writers know it. The question is why they bothered to sympathize with a terrorist whose record is full of foiled plots.”

It is not clear whether he is accusing the foreign Medias; why they didn’t accept the Woyane’s Kangaroo court’s verdict known to dispense justice over a phone or accusing the British government for not arresting the journalist under British terrorist law that is’ identical’ with the Woyane regime’s, as the sorry Prime Minster declared.

Further down in his piece, he wrote;

‘Many expect better journalistic standards from at least The Guardian and BBC even though they are not surprised by AlJazeera. The sympathetic reporting of AlJazeera provided to groups that are violent or/and Qatar friendly is now a common knowledge. Some believed that early on when the channel delivered exclusive videos of Bin Laden.’

Here again it is hard to tell who he refers as ‘many’ that ‘expect better journalistic standard’. It appears he is referring to Woyane apologists that couldn’t be able to arrest the journalists overseas like they do under terrorism proclamation at home.

It is amazing what 23 years of growing up in the bubble of the Woyane ethnic Apartheid can do to young mind. It is a good reminder of what they call ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’.

Regardless, the self-professed ‘agriculture economist’ turn terrorism analyst and journalism expert have one good thing going for him. He started from killil politics and graduated to regional analyst and expert in terrorism and journalism.

Could it be a sign the new generation is coming out of the cage (Killil) Woyane fenced them into regional and international affairs? One can only say Kudos to finally grow out of Apartheid cage. But, looking at the content of the blog it looks like in what they refer as ‘you can get the man out of his Killil but you can’t get the killil out of him’.

Fetsum that refers himself as ‘an Ethiopian resident, economist researcher and a blogger on Horn Affairs’ doesn’t say which Killil he belongs in the Nations and Nationality of Ethiopia the regime prizes as its biggest accomplishment. But he is bold enough to admit he is functionally illiterate i.e. a researcher without a research and a lawyer without the law; not to mention expert in terrorism and journalism.

How could a promising young man with so much life ahead of him reduced into a complete bubblehead?

Before he order a terrorist charge against me over the phone, let me see if I can help him reeducate himself to be a productive citizen than an assassin of the rotten ruling regime as he appears to be now. By the way, the offer extends to all functionally illiterate Woyane apologists that wouldn’t tell the difference between the law and their wish list.

First, as ‘educated’ man you don’t make a statement or accusation straight out of a regime like Woyane. It makes you look like a common cadre in a cover of a diploma and journalism. Second, you don’t accuse credible Medias when your only source of information is Woyane. It makes you look illiterate that can’t tell the difference between independent and tainted information. Third, if you claim to be educated you stick with what you know and don’t wonder around. Being educated means knowing what you know as well as what you don’t know.

Otherwise, your education would be only good to keep people ignorant as you do it voluntarily. Finally, if you get paid to write you are an agent for whoever pays you. If you don’t disclose it to the public you are not any better than an assassin that terrorizes people, except you do it with the pen instead of a gun.

Remember, education/knowledge is a transition from darkness to enlightenment. It won’t happen under a regime like Woyane. Finding out why that is so will make you enlightened enough to call Woyane terrorist than the other way around.

The question is, to be or not to be enlightened. Twenty three years journey in the darkness is way too long to say if the head on your shoulder is yours or someone else. No one proved it better the Prime Disaster Hailemariam Desalegn.

Ethiopia in the Twilight Zone (9) of Fear

by Alemayehu G. Mariam*

(Author’s note: In this commentary, I take a literary approach to reflect on the counter-productive and self-defeating actions the regime in Ethiopia has taken recently to punish its perceived opponents and critics. I am both amused and perplexed by the regime’s comedy of errors (bungling and incompetence) and tragedy of commons (scrapping the greater good for short-term selfish interests). Why did the regime jail a handful of twenty-something bloggers and a few mildly critical journalists on trumped up charges of “terrorism”? Why do they criminalize journalism? Why are they panic-stricken by the words, thoughts and ideas of a tiny group of  bloggers and journalists when they have chokehold on the economy and a viselike grip on the military with its vast arsenal of guns, tanks and war planes? Why does the regime fear its own shadow?

Because of the regime’s ruthless suppression of press and expressive freedoms and jailing and exiling of hundreds of independent journalists, Ethiopia is no longer known as the “Land of 13 Months of Sunshine” but rather as the “Land of 13 Months of Darkness” on the Dark Continent. I wonder! Does that regime exist in a parallel universe, a self-contained political bubble and an echo chamber that is all its own?  I have come to the conclusion that the blokes running the regime in Ethiopia are characters straight out of the twilight zone; better yet, trapped in the twilight zone (9) of fear.)

Zone 9 bloggers in the Twilight Zone

Is it the “Federal Republic of Ethiopia” or the “Republic of Dystopia” (police state)?

Has Ethiopia crossed into the Twilight Zone, the Fifth Dimension?

I ask these questions in earnest.

Ethiopia today might as well be called the “Republic of Dystopia”. Young men and women barely in their 20s are arrested and jailed for “terrorism” merely for blogging on Facebook and speaking their minds on other social media. Last week, the regime in Ethiopia charged six bloggers and three journalists (who have come to be affectionately known as “Zone 9 Bloggers”, named after a cell block holding political prisoners at the infamous Meles Zenawi Kality Prison just outside of the capital), with terrorism after illegally detaining them for some  80 days.

The bloggers include Abel Wabella (an engineer employed at Ethiopian Airlines), Atnaf Berhane (an Information Technology professional employed by Kefele Ketema), Mahlet Fantahun (a statistician working for the Ministry of Health), Natnael Feleke (an economist employed as a manager by the Construction and Business Bank; see picture with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry below), Zelalem Kibret (a lecturer in law at Ambo University), and Befekadu Hailu (an Information Technology professional at St. Mary University College and later served as Editor-in-Chief for Enku Magazine). The other detainees include journalists Asmamaw Hailegeorgis (Addis Guday newspaper) and freelancers Tesfalem Waldyes (Addis Standard magazine) and Edom Kassaye (former Addis Zemen employee). (To listen to an illuminating interview of Ethiopian journalists and bloggers (including some of those mentioned above) posted by “Article 19”, a U.K.-based human rights group, click here.)

The gravamen of the terrorism charges is that the bloggers “working with foreign organizations claiming to be human rights activists acted to destabilize the nation” and “received funding to incite the public to violence via social media.”

(To review the official charging document in Amharic, click here. (Notice that the word “Ethiopia” in the printed official stationary letterhead of the charging document is misspelled as “Ethioia”. If they cannot get the spelling of the country right on the printed official charging letterhead, could they possibly get the charges against the bloggers right!? What a crying shame!!! )

The specific counts of “terrorism” allegations cover a wide range of activities including, among others, conspiracy to commit terrorism, incitement to subversion using communications (social) media, reporting on ESAT radio and television, serving as coordinators for Ginbot 7 to recruit members, receiving terrorist training to make explosives, developing strategy for terrorist forces and spreading OLF propaganda. The list of alleged evidence includes mainly digital documents seized on various electronic media possessed by the defendants.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement expressing “concern” over the charges levelled against the Zone 9 Bloggers and urged “Ethiopia to refrain from using anti-terrorism laws as a mechanism to curb the free exchange of ideas.” The Statement declared, “Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fundamental elections of a democratic society. The arrest of journalists and bloggers, and their prosecution under terrorism laws, has a chilling effect on the media and all Ethiopians’ right to freedom of expression.” Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other human rights organizations also issued statements demanding the immediate release of the Zone 9 Bloggers.

In the Republic of Dystopia…

In the Republic of Dystopia, journalists are herded into prisons and jails for practicing their profession. Eskinder Nega who was recently awarded the 2014 Golden Pen of Freedom, the prestigious annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (and winner of numerous other international press awards) is serving an 18-year sentence for blogging. Reeyot Alemu, the 34 year-old undisputed Ethiopian heroine of press freedom and internationally recognized as  “Ethiopia’s Jailed Truth Teller” (and recipient of various international press awards) was sentenced to 14 years for writing a  “scathing critique of the ruling political party’s fundraising methods for a national dam project” and for drawing “parallels between the late Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi and Meles Zenawi.” Journalist Woubshet Taye, another international press award winner, is serving 14 years for using his newspaper as a watchdog on the regime’s corruption and abuses of power. There are many other journalists in the same situation.

In the Republic of Dystopia, criminalizing, demonizing and dehumanizing journalists, bloggers, opposition leaders and dissidents as “terrorists”, “insurrectionists”, “criminals”, etc. is an art form. When the late regime leader Meles Zenawi jailed editors of several newspapers following the 2005 election and declared war on the independent press, he stated, “For us, these are not just journalists. They will not be charged for violating the press laws. They will be charged, like the CUD leaders, for treason.” After jailing Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye in 2011, he called them “messenger boys of a terrorist organization” and proclaimed that “if  [what they were doing] is journalism, I don’t know what terrorism is.”

In the Republic of Dystopia, journalism is terrorism. Journalists are enemies of the State. Blogging is treason. Bloggers are enemies of the state.

In the Republic of Dystopia, an opposition leader with British citizenship is snatched from a plane in Yemen while in transit, subjected to extraordinary rendition and jailed without due process of law in flagrant violation of international law.

In the Republic of Dystopia, humans are dehumanized, civilization is barbarized, justice corrupted, ethnic cleansing practiced, people impoverished and hungry, the youth gagged, bound and canned, the environment destroyed, dams used to damn indigenous peoples and society on the brink of cataclysmic destruction.

In the Republic of Dystopia, poverty is prosperity; famine is feast; government wrongs are human rights; repression is expression and thugocracy is democracy.

In the Republic of Dystopia, ignorance is illuminance. The purpose of the State is to twist, stretch and massage the truth to keep the people ignorant, dumb and mindlessly compliant.

In the Republic of Dystopia, thugs rule! Fear of thugs is the rule of law!

In the Twilight Zone (9) of Fear

In the 1960s pioneering television anthology series “The Twilight Zone”, the incomparable Rod Serling presented stories containing drama of horror, suspense and mind-bending science fiction with fiendish twists and turns. In one episode, “The Obsolete Man” [click here to see the video of the episode on line], a librarian is prosecuted by the Chancellor of the State who pompously argues before the judicial “Board” that  the accused librarian should be given the death penalty for being “obsolete”. At “trial”, the Chancellor and the librarian engage in a vigorous argument over human dignity:

Chancellor (to librarian): “You are obsolete!

Librarian: I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages!

Chancellor: You’re a bug. A crawling insect. An ugly, misformed, little creature, that has no purpose here, no meaning! You have no function…”

Librarian: “I am a human being…”

Chancellor: “You’re a dealer in books and two cent finds and pamphlets in closed stacks in the musty finds of a language factory that spews meaningless words on an assembly line. Words that have no substance, no dimension, like air, like the wind. Like a vacuum, that you make believe have an existence, by scribbling index numbers on little cards.”

Librarian: “I don’t care. I tell you: I don’t care. I’m a human being, I exist….and if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I’m shoveled into my grave.

Chancellor: DELUSIONS!! That you inject into your veins with printer’s ink, the narcotics you call literature: The Bible, poetry, essays, all kinds, all of it are opiate to make you think you have a strength, when you have no strength at all!!! You are nothing, but spindly limbs and a dream, and The State has no use for your kind!!!! You waste our time, and you’re not worth the waste.

…

The Board imposes the death penalty.

The librarian courageously accepts his fate. Instead of begging for mercy, he resolves to stand up to the mighty State and assert his basic human dignity and  liberty. He makes two special requests: 1) to be allowed to select his executioner to whom he will disclose his preferred method of death, and 2) that his execution and last few hours on earth be publicly televised.  After arrangements are made, the librarian invites the prosecuting Chancellor to come to his room for the last time. The Chancellor shows up a few minutes before the appointed time for the execution. They chat for a few minutes:

Librarian: Thank you for coming.
Chancellor: You know why I’ve come, do you?
Librarian: Well, I invited you.
Chancellor: I’ll tell you why I came here. Perhaps to prove something to you.
Librarian: And that is…?
Chancellor: To prove to you that The State has no fears, none whatsoever…
Librarian: Forgive me Chancellor, that has the elements of a joke….I mean you come to MY room to prove that The State…isn’t afraid of me!? Why what an incredible burden I must be! For The State to have to prove that isn’t afraid of an obsolete librarian like myself. No, I’ll tell you the reason you came…I tell you the reason even though you won’t admit it to yourself.
Chancellor: Now, it’s my turn to ask, what might that be?
Librarian: I don’t fit your formuli. Your state has everything categorized…indexed, TAGGED. People like you are the strength, people like me are the weakness. You control order and dictate and my kind…merely follow and obey. But something has gone wrong hasn’t it? I don’t fit, do I?
…

The librarian tells the Chancellor that he wants to show the nation how a man of dignity faces death and begins to read verses from Psalms 23 and 53. On television, the people watch the librarian and Chancellor arguing. As the appointed time draws near, the Chancellor tries to leave the room but finds out that the door is locked.

Just before the clock strikes midnight, the Chancellor goes into total panic. The  librarian remains calm and unafraid. The  Chancellor begs the librarian to let him go: “In the name of God, let me out!” The librarian gladly opens the door to let him out but not without repeating the name of God whom the State had “proven not to exist”. As the Chancellor runs out of the room and down the stairs the room bursts into fire with the librarian inside. In the final scene, the Chancellor returns to the judicial Board which informs him that he had been branded a criminal and declared obsolete. An assembled crowd grabs the Chancellor and drags him across a table kicking and screaming to his demise.

The regime in Ethiopia by ruthlessly prosecuting and persecuting journalists and bloggers as terrorists is in effect saying they are “obsolete. They are a bug. Crawling insects. Ugly, misformed, little creatures, that have no purpose, no meaning!” The regime is telling them that they are “dealers in two cent newspapers, magazines and web logs in cyberspace spewing meaningless words on an assembly line. Words that have no substance, no dimension, like air, like the wind. Like a vacuum, the journalists and bloggers make believe they have an existence by scribbling words on newspapers, websites and blog sites.”

Like the librarian in Serling’s story, the Zone 9 Bloggers and jailed journalists calmly assert, “We are human beings… We don’t care what the regime says or says not. We exist… and if we speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after we are shoveled into our grave.” The regime may “control order and dictate” but the Zone 9 Bloggers and journalists will not “merely follow and obey”. Something has gone radically wrong in the Republic of Dystopia! The jailed journalists and bloggers do not fit the formuli.

The Obsolete Men and Women of Dystopia or the Obsolete State of the Republic of Dystopia?

Were Rod Serling alive, he might have written a script for one of his episodes entitled, “The Republic of Dystopia”. His introductory narration might have sounded something like this:

(Voice of narrator.) A present day African police state in which a regime of thugs rules with an iron fist. To be precise, it is an African “thugocracy”. Its motto, “If opposition groups resort to violence in an attempt to discredit [our] election, we will crush them with our full force; they will all vegetate  in jail forever.” In this thugocracy, having a conscience is a crime. Speaking truth to those in power is a crime. Peaceful protest is a crime. Refusing to sell out one’s soul is a crime. Standing up for democracy and human rights is a crime. Defending the rule of law is a crime. Peaceful resistance of state terrorism is a crime.

In this African thugocracy, journalism is a crime punishable by death. Blogging is a crime punishable by death. Anyone who criticizes the regime is abducted, detained, tortured, made to disappear and executed. Protesting university students are shot on sight. Dissidents protesting elections are gunned down in the streets. The thugocracy maintains its power exclusively through handouts and the financial support of outsiders.

(Camera pans to Narrator.) You walk into this African country at your own risk, because it is not a future that will be, but one that is. This is not a new regime: It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advancements, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the regimes that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace. (Camera switches to the convicted defendants.) These are the Zone 9 bloggers, and journalists, reporters, publishers and editors accused of the crime of “terrorism” by the thugocracy and languishing in prison. They are citizens of a state who will soon be eliminated because they are built out of flesh and because they have minds to think and hearts to feel pain…

E H R for Ethiopian Human Rights

In the Obsolete Man, the Narrator concludes: “The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete, but so is the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under “M” for mankind—in the Twilight Zone.”

The late Chancellor of the Republic of Dystopia and the State he created and worshipped are obsolete! A case to be filed under E H R for Ethiopian Human Rights – in the Twilight Zone (9) of Fear.

=======

P.S. The imaginary “narration” for the “Republic of Dystopia” is a variation on the narration in the script for the “The Obsolete Man”.

Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino and is a practicing defense lawyer.

Previous commentaries by the author are available at:

• http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/

Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:

• http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic