BTW, I have contacted an employee of the World Bank who told me that the
Gas and Oil project is not yet operational, but all it really needs is
stability and security. This brings me to Abdirashid Caydiid's point that
we should make sure we know what we are doing, and if need be to ascertain
that Tigreans do not get away with our resources.
March 14, 1997
ADDIS ABABA - A two-man Swiss mission left Monday 10 March after conducting a preliminary evaluation into ways their government could assist Ethiopia in its ongoing decentralization process.
During their two-week stay, Luc Vodoz from the Swiss based C.E.A.T, a firm engaged mostly with urban and country planning ("anything to do with territory") in connection with local economy, transport, energy and conflict management.
Dr. Valentin Zellweger from the foreign ministry of Switzerland met with bilateral donors, various officials including those from the prime minister's office, as well as the speaker of the federal council. Switzerland being a federal country-- and conceding that while in its case it was a bottom up approach, for Ethiopia it is the reverse-- Dr. Zellweger noted, "we have a particular interest in knowing your experience, in knowing if there is a way for Switzerland to try to assist you to think about our experience with decentralization." According to the mission, the Swiss government will, at the latest, make its decision on their recommendation by September. The mission visited Jijiga in the Somali region where they concentrated on the judiciary and administration. "We wanted to concentrate on an emerging region," they said in an explanation as to why that particular region will act as the 'testing ground'. The two were suitably impressed by what they encountered in the region and found themselves, "very suprised to find so many people who are convinced that they need to look into the future." What the region needed, Dr. Zellweger said, was financial assistance. "It is impressive," he remarked, everything is there. But it is like a mould, you have to put in the funds the infrastructure needs and the capacity building."
Switzerland has assisted several countries such as Bolivia, Madagascar and Burkina Faso when they were undergoing federalism.
_________________________________________
Addis Tribune
(cut)...
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Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tamrat's fall raises doubts about EPRDF cohesion: Shock-waves from the abrupt dismissal and public humiliation of the defence minister, Tamrat layne, on Oct 24 will ripple through political life for some months. A series of business figures for whom he allegedly brokered corrupt deals will face trial, although his own fate remains unclear. Yet the scandal does not, as many in Addis Ababa speculate, reflect deeper divisions within the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF-the ruling coalition), along the ideological or ethnic lines.
Rather it is timely reminder that the principal decision-making and power structures remain firmly hidden within the front. The underlying political consequences are likely to rest on two issues, the first being the degree to which **rank-and-file EPRDF** members accept that Tamrat is a rogue apple in an otherwise incorruptible and principled movement.
Many find this argument difficult to swallow since he was, for 15 years, a leading figure first in the Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement(EPDM) and then in the EPRDF. Doubts over the probity of senior officials will inevitably corrode **cohesion*** and **moral** among the front's ordinary membership.
The increasing convergence of views between the US and Ethiopian government on regional questions is set to strengthen. On his visit to Addis in October, the US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, obtained an Ethiopian pledge to contribute two brigades to its proposed pan-African military intervention force.......
US logistical and financial support for the Ethiopian military is likely to increase, as Ethiopian with Eritrea benefits from its US classification as a front-line state in the struggle against Sudan. Just as the USA has backed both governments against alleged destabilisation from Sudan, it ***implicitly supports Ethiopia in its military campaign to crush ontensibly Islamist militia group operating out of Somalia.***............
Tamrat, then deputy prime minister, met the Djiboutian premier, Barkat Gourad Hamadou, in mid-Sep in Addis. The focus was reportedly on economic matters. The Ethiopian delegation stressed that improved coordination over "international terrorism" emanating from Somalia was vital. In practice ***this meant stricter attempts to control the movement of Ogadeni Somalis from Ethiopia to Djibouti and arrested there in August.***
These included leading Afar and Ogadeni-Somalis, notably leaders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, as well as veteran members of the TPLF, Girmai Mogus Neway who left the organization in 1981.
Mr Christopher arrived in Addis for a two day official visit on Oct 9. Ethiopian is the largest recipient of US financial aid to Sub-Saharan Africa, and is **central to the State Department's somewhat nebulous Greater Horn of Africa initiative. His discussion in Addis focused on three distinct spheres, the most important of which is bilateral relations. Second, the USA is ***keen to promote the "potential" regional role in Ethiopia in the diplomatic and military spheres, notably in Sudan and the Great Lakes regions.
Third, issues of African peacekeeping were raised by Mr Christopher in talks with diplomatics from throughout the continent in sessions at the Organization of African Unity(OAU).
In essence, the document reveals that the foreign policy thrust of the
military regime known as the Derg was a continuation of the previous
regime, particularly in their pre-occupation with securing political and
diplomatic support as well as armaments from external partners for the
purpose of executing domestic policies by brute force, suppressing the
Eritrean movement for the right to self-determination, and to defend the
countrys territorial integrity against Somalias claim to the eastern part
of Ethiopia.
A few points from the document are translated and given hereunder as
examples to illustrate the general character of the foreign policy
objectives pursued by the Derg regime which professed in the same text to
adhere to the well-known international principles including respect for the
sovereignty of states, non-interference in the internal affairs of others,
peaceful coexistence of states, equality of states, non-use or abstaining
from threat of force in international relations.
In connection with the conflict with Somalia, the document says: It would
be useful to organize and arm the opposition in Somalia through better
coordination of efforts so that their struggle would be crowned with
success. Since it is impossible to cover the entire Ogaden border with
military posts, one must encourage inter-clan rivalries and support
volunteers to promote inter-clan rivalries and support volunteers to promote
inter-clan tensions so as to reduce the extent of pro-Somali activities (in
the region).
On Djibouti, the policy guideline outlines the aims of preventing Djibouti
from becoming a staging ground for incursions by the Arabs and American
imperialism, in expressions that paint a picture of a country that can be
easily used by agents of external subversion as if it had no sovereign
independence. Citizens of Djibouti must be given free military training,
the document says. Towards this end, they should be given special resident
visas through the Ministry of Public Security.
On Sudan, the point made in the section dealing with the policy vis-à-vis.
the situation at the time in that country stresses the option of taking
advantage of the civil war to weaken the Sudanese government. Without
taking into consideration the possible repercussions of its unfriendly
policy on Ethiopia itself, the Derg dictated: The situation prevailing in
Southern Sudan is very propitious for Ethiopia to use as a means of applying
pressure on Sudan and should be augmented with training, arms supplies and
as much logistical support as possible to the movement in order to further
escalate the (guerrilla) activity.
It is necessary to conduct an intensified propaganda campaign in order to
maximize awareness about the Southern Sudan struggle at the international
level, particularly among the self-professed defenders of Christianity.
This analysis does not indicate whether the movement in Southern Sudan was
justified enough to merit recognition and support. At the same time, the
issue was at one time portrayed as a religious war and at another the policy
vacillates between religious and sectarian political causes in its
characterisations depending on the perceived advantages of each for
achieving short-term, limited objectives.
On Kenya, the policy guideline attributes the prevalence of normal
relations between Ethiopia and Kenya to the existence of a common enemy in
Somalia. Ideologically speaking, however, Kenya finds itself in the same
camp as the Western World which is using it as a springboard for subverting
the Ethiopian Revolution,: the guideline states.
Among the measures suggested for strengthening friendly relationships
between the two countries was to find friends among Kenyan officials, and
retain their favours by means that do not compromise us. No concrete
measures were recommended for consolidating common economic and social
cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.
On Africa in general, the policy strategy considers the continent as the
next most important region after the socialist countries where Ethiopian
foreign policy should be more active. It suggests that promoting friendly
relations with African governments would have advantage in securing support
for Ethiopias policies on the Eritrean question and the Ogaden problem.
These immediate concerns dominated the Dergs African policy to the
exclusion of other fundamental issues such as promoting political, economic,
social and cultural cooperation for the mutual benefits of the peoples of
the African continent. Priority was given to achieving the means to
dominate and to dictate terms to counterparts on the conduct of foreign
relations.
On the relationships with Middle-Eastern countries, the policy reads, inter
alia:-
It is to be noted that Ethiopia is the only country in the region which is
not a member of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference.
For this reason, the Islamic countries of the Middle East regard Ethiopia as
the main obstacle to their campaign of arabization objectives in Africa.
There is nothing new in this Arab attitude towards Ethiopia. It is a continuation of the age-old contradiction that has caused a great deal of bloodshed in the past. Since the emergence of the Ethiopian Revolution and, in particular, since we adopted Marxism-Leninism as our ideology and made this known to the whole world, the contradiction has sharpened. Therefore, it has become clear that the Arabs have rallied themselves behind reactionary secessionists and expansionist Somalia. This analysis excludes the possibilities for Ethiopia to initiate peaceful relationships of cooperation with these countries. In fact, it invites hostile counter-measures with dangerous implications for Ethiopia.
EHRCO said that 212 students out of the 500 who demonstrated failed
to evade the riot police waiting for them as they entered the main
road towards Arat Kilo. They were taken away to Shogele Meda ( a
former arms depot) where they were detained "for six days in two
houses, with nothing to wear during the night except the clothes
they had worn on the day of their arrest, "and made to endure
'physical torture'. EHRCO stated that on the day of their arrest the
students were 'punished' three times by being forced to run, "bare
foot on rough ground, rising up and lying down in quick successions,
rolling down, crawling on all fours, walking on knees, and crouching
and hopping.
From Saturday until Tuesday the students were made to perform these
acts three times a day. EHRCO has said it will disclose in its next
regular report the names of students who suffered injuries.
"They were not brought to court, but the police took their
statements and finger prints," the report stated, adding that, the
students had only been given a small loaf of bread on their first
night, but from then on had two pieces of bread for lunch and dinner
and from 24 March onwards had injera.
EHRCO noted that, "the act of torture committed against the students
Tis a violation of the provisions of Article 5 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by
Ethiopia. These Articles provide that 'No one shall be subject to
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' It
is also a violation of Article 18(1) of the FDRE Constitution, whi
provides that : 'Everyone has the right to protection against cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
"At 7:00 p.m. on March 25, 1997, the Deputy Administrator of Addis
Ababa, Ato Kalid Abduraman, told the detained students to admit in
writing that they were wrong in taking part in the demonstration,
and advised them to write a petition asking the government to pardon
them," the report said.
The police released Wednesday 26 March 171 of the students after
they had signed a statement that read, "It was wrong of us to
participate in the demonstration with the knowledge that it was
illegal. We agree that legal action should be taken against us if we
are found taking part in an illegal demonstration henceforth. We ask
for a pardon for what we have done." Of the remaining, 27 students
refused to sign the petition on the grounds that it was a legal
demonstration, while 14 are still being held--even though they
signed--because they were said to be the coordinators.
The police claim that the demonstration was illegal since the
students had received no permission from the Addis Ababa
Administration. The government media has conveyed this message and
has since giving much coverage to 'legal' demonstrations in favour
of the land redistribution. However, EHRCO explains that all that
was asked of the students by law was to submit an application--
which they did 18 March. "Nevertheless," the report said, "without
following the law and informing the students in writing within 12
hours of the reason why it thinks the venue and time of the
demonstration should be changed, the Administration made the law-
abiding students to suffer above by claiming that it did not give
permission."
EHRCO has called for all concerned individuals, organisations, and governments to call for the immediate release of the university students.
DIRE DAWA -- A massive demonstration is expected to be held here today in
support of the decisions reached by the Dire Dawa, peace development and
democracy confrence which was conducted from March 22-26 at the
administrative council assembly hall.
Breifings were being given yesterday to the residents of 23 kebeles of 4
woredas in the city and 29 farmers kebele associations in its environs by
representatives of the people who took part in the confrence. They dwelt at
length on the main objectives of the confrence and the contents of the final
communique.
The essential purpose of yesterday's gatherings at four main points - the
municipality hall, the sports stadium, the Christos Mission School and the
Legehare School was to prepare the people for the tasks and challenges ahead
through the implementation of decisions, it was noted.
"The question as the where Dire Dawa belongs - to Somali Regional State of
Oromia Regional State - emanated solely from ethnic chauvinism and was
therfore rejected", it was observed by many representatives who briefed
kebele residents.
If the inhabitants of Dire Dawa and its environs get coherent and integrated
guidance, they will no doubt be able to overcome their differences and
problems and work together for the rapid development of their region, the
representatives and those other
participants and those who volunteered opinions and views asserted.
According to Ato Fuad Ibrahim, Chairman of Kebele 13 and coordinator of the
meeting at the Christos Mission School, the turnout was more than expected.
It is to be recalled that the confrence participants vowed to make concerted efforts for the implementation of the EPRDF's five-year peace, development and democracy programme by mobilizing the masses to that end and abide by the confrence decisions. They also agreed, the communique indicated, to strengthen the relations, mutual collaboration and harmonious coexistance of the region's people by fighting against narrow nationalism and other obstructive tendencies and activities. _______________________________________________ Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)
The Ogaden is a semi desert region that occupies the south eastern
part of our country (the lowlands of Bale, Sidamo and Harerghe).
The major drainage systems in the area are the Ghenale, Wabi
Shebelle and Dawa rivers but there exist numerous seasonal streams
that feed the major systems. The majority inhabitants are the
Somali followed by the Oromos. Now who does this sound like ?
Teacher Feleke Shibikom !!
I spent nearly four years in the Ogaden participating in the
hydrocarbon (petroleum/gas) search conducted during the Mengistu's
era. Though it was a time full of adventures (being chased by wild
LIONS !!! (2X), walking for 27 hours straight to a nearest
civilized location, discovering surface oil seep, nearly being
punished by Mengistu H/M and the Soviets, colleagues being
kidnapped and executed, experiencing 2 flat tires in hostile
environment where the local inhabitants are Shiftas, the God, the
THIRST, the excitment of smuggling Chat to Somalia, losing friends
in helicopter accident...etc, etc). It was a time of hardship and
a time of learning and fun. (at least that's what I call it
sometimes when I start wondering what the hell I am doing there
!!)
My stay there has given me the rare opportunity to live, talk to
and share life experiences of the average Ethiopian. More
importantly it has taught me how lucky we are (to be where we are
and to have the kind of upbringing that we had) and to cherish it.
After graduation, from the A/A University I worked for the
Ethiopian Institute of Geological Survey: in the Petroleum
Exploration and Promotion Project (PEPP). The objective of the
project was to enhance the petroleum data that our country have
and promote it in the world Petroleum industry. It was a new
project (coincidentally formed just as I joined the Institute)
and our boss reported directly to the Prime Minister. Four young
graduates (all with MSc from England) were called directly by the
P. Minster to form the core of the project. I was a fresh graduate
from AAU and was assigned to do the dog work of one of the guys
from England. I am proud to say what a privilege it was!!! His
name is Tamrat Worku. He is a born geologist. His duty was to
invite foreign oil companies to the country and take them to the
field. Before he came to Ethiopia he used to work for BP in the
north sea.
Well this is what happened once. The Russki's had an exclusive
right to the concession that once TENNECO (the US company that
discovered the gas field made) held. They held that area (approx.
50,000 sq.km) for nearly 15 years and did not do much. They
drilled about 23 wells (all major discoveries according to them!).
: But actually what they were doing was drill the same target
reservoir at a certain constant radius, hit the same gas holding
rock formation and call it a discovery!!! Ha Ha Ha! One Ethiopian
geologist noticed this and notified the P. Minister and a week
later he had an unfortunate car accident in Dire Dawa. Another
tried and was sent to the northern front to look for water for the
soldiers there. Another was sent on a scholarship to Russia and
nobody knows his whereabouts. It looked like whenever one tried to
inform the government as to what the Russki's were doing with the
generous soft loan (as they want to call it) something happens to
that person in a week or two. Naturally, everybody was scared and
so kept quiet.
Soon after Sudan and Yemen made their major gaint oil discoveries,
Mengistu confronted the Russki's as to "what's up with you guys,
everybody seems to find oil except me !?! " It was rumored that
they thretened him by telling him that they will put sanction on
the arms supply if he do not stop asking this STUPID question !!!
Later they told him they made a major discovery of oil (actually
it was condensate i.e., a partly liquid/gas hydrocarbon) and he
came to the Calub field; washed his hand with the condensate
(thinking that it was oil) then left to Kenya and told the
Ethiopian community there that we will be major exporter of oil in
the very near future. For us who worked there: 2 plane loads of
cattle and whisky was shipped to us from Harar to celebrate. Most
of us got drunk to sooth the anger for they tricked him and gave
false hope to the poor Ethiopians.
Well, once this Soviet expedition party was flying over their
concession area and their chopper had some kind of mechanical
problem so they had to make an emergency landing in the middle of
no-where. There were about 6 Russki's and 2 Ethiopians. While the
Russki's were fixing the chopper the local nomad Somalis saw the
chopper landing and approached them. They started talking with the
Ethiopian geologists and the latter told the Somali's that they
were members of a hydrocarbon exploring expedition. The Somali's
told them that there is a greasy looking, smelling, burning muddy
liquid in the gorge that comes from the ground not very far from
where they were. They said they use it as medicine. The Ethiopians
looked at each other and ask how long will it take before the
chopper is fixed. Six hrs was the reply. So they started climbing
down the gorge and to there surprise OIL was seeping to the
surface!!!!!!!!!
They promised each other not to tell a soul except Mengistu H/M
himself or somebody in a very high position. Of the 2 Ethiopians 1
was AAU graduate and hated the Russki's while the other was a
Russia graduate and was their puppy. Both took leave without pay
and flew to Addis immediately. The AAU graduate was my classmate
:in college and he learned that his partner had double crossed him
and claimed that he himself only found the seep. Not knowing what
to do the AAU guy called me and told me everything. And since I
myself did not know what to do I told Tamrat. Tamrat said lets go
and check it out. We got our field equipment (tents, hammer,
compass, canteen, maps... etc) and sent our Land Cruiser to be
tuned up and applied for security clearance. Usually we got the
security clearance in a couple of days but this one took 3 weeks.
After we got the clearance we took off for the Ogaden.
It is customary for geologists in the Ogaden to drink like hell in
the last town where the is civilization (i.e., a town with light,
tap water and road) before you hit the real wild jungle/desert. So
not too long before me Tamrat and our driver Gebre started
observing our rituals with the the 1st rounds of toasts, that we
heard shots and yelling. Soon the only bar which had light until
10:00 in the town of Filtu was filled by drunk Russki's. And to
our surprise the Russki graduate was with them. He noticed us,
approached us and told us that they have already mapped the oil
seep and that it was deliberate action by the Russki's that we
were made late (by holding our security clearance). He was dead
drunk.
So Tamrat said you are too drunk, lets take you to your tent and
we did. Once we threw him on his bed Tamrat started searching for
the maps in this guys belongings. We did find them. And to our
surprise the oil seep is located in the Bale side of the river
Genale but we were told it was in the Sidamo side, so we had the
wrong maps!!!! We took his maps and told Gebre to steal their gas
in barrels. They had 4 barrels of benzine. So we loaded 1 barrel
on our Cruiser dumped the 3 and left the town at around 12:00
midnight. The Ruskki's were drinking and did not know what
happened until the next morning. By that time we were a few kms in
the desert.
We followed a faint trail that the tanks used during the Ethio-
Somali war. We had an old man called Sheik Hussien to guide us.
This guy knows the desert like the palm of his hands. He directed
the Somali guerilla during the war against Ethiopia. That area is
mine infested. And Sheik Hussien knows where they are. The problem
was since it was dark he could not see. So we just drove 10-15 kms
in the desert and slept in the truck until sun rise. I was scared
to death. Very early in the morning we drove deep in the desert
and nobody could find us. We kept radio silence. (In the Ogaden
you have to always report daily to the 12th mechanized brigade
stationed at Gode).
So the four of us (Sheik Hussien, Tamrat, Gebre and me) stayed
there for 2 weeks, sampling and seep and mapping in great detail
and bathing in the Genale. We had real fun. Meanwhile the matter
had reached to the highest level was reported to the P. Minister
by the Russian ambassador, and since we did not communicate with
the military the air force at Gode dispatched a search party. I
was told later that the air force was told to eliminate us (I do
not think that this was true but made me shudder when I heard it).
I was naive at that time because I did not understand why we
always had to cover our Land Cruiser with shrubs and leaves (I
thought it was to protect it from the blazing sun) and we did not
camp near the seep. We were about 10 kms away. I always told
Tamrat to move our camp closer so we won't walk everyday but he
somehow managed to keep us there.
Well we finished our job and went back to Addis. We were told to
IMMEDIATELY report to the G/Manager who told us to go to the Chief
geologist who sent us to the Minister who kept me there and sent
Tamrat to the P. Minister office. The only thing I know is Tamrat
came back v.v.v.v. mad. He was ordered to submit all his maps and
notes and samples. They forgot I had copies.
So Tamrat took my samples and smuggled it out to England for
geochemical test. The test result came after about 2 weeks. It was
a mildly biodegraded, low sulfur content crude oil very similar to
that of Iraq. We were excited and Tamrat at his own discretion
invited Hunt Oil Company to get concession and they did. But as a
result he lost his job, got death threat so was forced to leave
the country. Now he is Exploration manager for a British Company
in Cairo. I worked for Hunt for 2 adventurous years and came to
the US for further study.
This is a true story which I have proof of (pictures). If you enjoyed this I will continue with the adventures that I had with the Geologits of HUNT Oil and Maxus Energy (Americans). How they nearly died of thirst, fell of a cliff and broke both legs and got kidnapped and ended in Mogadisho just because they thought they knew better how to survive in the desert and ignore our advise to the as to how to function in the Ogaden if you want to survive.
TEXT: HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WERE AT THE TANA GEBEYA SHOPPING COMPLEX INSIDE AFRICA'S LARGEST OPEN-AIR MARKET, THE MERKATO, WHEN UNIDENTIFIED ASSAILANTS THREW WHAT IS THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN A GRENADE INTO THE CROWD AROUND FIVE P-M, LOCAL TIME.
POLICE BLOCKED ALL ROADS LEADING TO THE SHOPPING CENTER, AS AMBULANCES FERRIED THE VICTIMS TO LOCAL HOSPITALS.
THIS IS THE THIRD SUCH ATTACK IN AS MANY DAYS. SATURDAY EVENING, GRENADES WERE LOBBED INTO THE TIGRAY HOTEL, AND THE BLUE TOPS RESTAURANT DOWNTOWN. ONE WOMAN WAS KILLED AND 42 OTHERS WERE INJURED IN THOSE BLASTS.
POLICE HAVE NO LEADS YET ON THE ATTACKERS, BUT THERE IS STRONG SPECULATION THAT THEY MAY BE MEMBERS OF A MILITANT MUSLIM GROUP KNOWN AS "AL-ITIHAD," MADE UP OF ETHNIC SOMALIS LIVING IN ETHIOPIA WHO HAVE STAGED OTHER VIOLENT ATTACKS.
RESIDENTS OF ADDIS ABABA DESCRIBED THE MOOD IN THE CITY AS "PANICKED AND SAD." MOST OF THE SHOPPERS CAUGHT IN THE BLAST WERE OUT BUYING THINGS FOR THEIR BIGGEST YEARLY HOLIDAY, THE COPTIC ORTHODOX EASTER, WHICH MARKS THE END OF 55 DAYS OF FASTING. (SIGNED)
NEB/SLG/PCF/MMK 14-Apr-97 2:58 PM EDT (1858 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America
- An Ethiopian barmaid was killed and 42 other people, including four Britons and two French, were injured when grenades were thrown into two restaurants in the Ethiopian capital on Saturday night, diplomats said Sunday.
The first blast occurred in the Tigray Hotel in the city centre at 7:45 p.m. (1645 GMT) killing the barmaid and injuring 34 other people.
A few minutes later an explosion went off in the Italian-owned Blue Tops Restaurant, frequented by diplomats, tourists and wealthy Ethiopians, injuring the six foreigners.
Three of the foreign casualties were said to be seriously injured and were still in hospital. The rest were treated for minor injuries and discharged.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. In London, the Foreign Office said two of the Britons injured in the second blast were involved in training the Ethiopian police.
"The men were part of a police training team which Britain sometimes sends to help train officers in other countries. At this stage it is not known whether they were serving police officers, former officers or consultants," a spokesman said.
The two were seriously injured in the attack and were taken to Black Lion Hospital.
The men's wives, with whom they were dining at the time, were less seriously injured and received treatment at a clinic in the British embassy. Earlier reports said six Britons were hurt, but a spokesman for the British embassy here said two British citizens previously thought to be among the injured in fact escaped unharmed.
A Frenchwoman sustained serious head injuries and a Frenchman was hurt in the leg. Both are believed to be teachers at the Alliance Francaise cultural centre in Addis Ababa.
The Blue Tops restaurant is on the same street as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's official palace and the US embassy.
The Tigray Hotel is owned by ethnic Tigreans who inhabit the northeastern region of Tigray where Meles also comes from.
The former Tigray-based rebel group the Tigray Liberation Front joined with other opposition organisations to form the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which overthrew the regime of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991.
Political observers here said the attack on the Italian restaurant could have been an attempt to mar Ethiopia's image in Italy, pointing out that Meles returned from an official visit to Rome on Saturday.
He was in the country to woo Italian investors, and the Italian government is reported to have pledged some 70 million dollars in aid to Addis Ababa. Italy also agreed to return the so-called Aksum obelisk to Ethiopia before the end of the year, more than 40 years after initially conceding to so.
The obelisk, a monument from the ancient Abyssinian capital Aksum, in Tigray province, was brought to the Italian capital from its then colony on the orders of Mussolini in 1937 to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Italian dictator's march on Rome.
In January last year, three people were killed and a score of others wounded, 10 of them seriously, when a bomb exploded in the luxury Ghion hotel in Addis Ababa.
An ethnic Somali Moslem extremist group known as Al-Itihad Al-Islam which is fighting for the secession of southeastern Ethiopia's Ogaden region said it planted that bomb.
The following month, a bomb which exploded in the luxury Ras Hotel in the northeastern city of Dire Dawa killed one person and injured four others.
Ethiopian troops attacked and occupied the Somali border towns of Dolow, Luq, Bulohawo and Bohol Garas for several days in August last year accusing
Al-Itihad Al-Islam of carrying out hit-and-run guerrilla raids inside Ethiopia.
In July last year, Transport Minister Abdul Medjid Hussein, an ethnic Somali from Ogaden, was shot and wounded as he arrived at his office in Addis Ababa. A police officer and a bodyguard were killed that attack, for which Al-Itihad Al-Islam claimed responsibility. --------------------------------------------------------- Agence France Presse (AFP)
PARSONS HELPS ETHIOPIA DEVELOP ITS 'FIRST-EVER' NATURAL GAS FIELD
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Feb. 6, 1996) Parsons Process Group Inc.'s London unit was selected by Calub Gas Share Company to provide design, and project and construction management services for development of Ethiopia's first-ever natural gas field development project.
When completed in 1998, the $50 million gas condensate plant will produce petroleum-based products that will decrease the use of firewood for fuel a natural resource that is being depleted rapidly. The plant's production of liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, diesel and gasoline also will reduce the country's dependency on imported petroleum products.
This grass-roots gas field development project will have important benefits for local energy markets here, said Parsons Project Manager Nigel Glover. The project, a starting point for Ethiopia's long-term development of fossil fuel resources, is funded by World Bank. The gas field is located in the Ogaden basin, a remote area with limited indigenous resources, near Somalia.
Parsons Process Group Inc. is a global business unit of The Parsons Corporation. Parsons, headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., is one of the world's largest, full-service engineering and construction organizations, and is a recognized leader in the chemical and petroleum processing, environmental, water resources, ground transportation, aviation, power, and pulp & paper industries; as well as infrastructure, government, industrial and community development projects. Parsons was rated the top revenue-producing U.S. design firm in 1995 by Engineering News-Record, the industry's leading trade publication.
Addis Ababa - A total of 2,264 Ethiopian refugees were flown back to Gode and Dire Dawa, in eastern Ethiopia, from Dadaab,Kenya, between 13 Feburary and 8 March 1997.
The Ethiopian refugees who opted to return voluntarily to their respective villages in and around Gode and Jijiga areas of the Somali National Regional State were flown from Dadaab by Southern Air Transport (SAT) and Ethiopian Airlines (EAL).
The flights were organized and paid for by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), under those auspices the repatriation of the refugees has been carried out.
Upon arrival, the returnees were provided assistance by UNHCR to reach their final destinations and be able to re-integrate in their homes. The provision of additional community-based assistance through small-scale projects is being given consideration.
Since 1991, some 72,700 Ethiopian refugees have repatriated from Kenya and close to 870,000 from Djibouti,Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, by air and land. __________________________________ The Addis Tribune
Ghion Hagos PANA Staff Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - Former Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Tamrat Layne, who was fired in 1996, has been charged with abuse of power along with eight other alleged accomplices, the ministry of justice said Wednesday.
It said that he was due to appear in the Federal Supreme Court next week in Addis Ababa on three counts of abuse of power.
The alleged accomplices include a government official believed to be one-time aide and secretary to Tamrat, and seven alleged business associates. No names were given.
The announcement also gave no further details.
Tamrat was fired Oct. 24 from his post of deputy prime minister and minister of defence. He was also stripped of his seat in the federal parliament and his post as secretary-general of his party, the Amhara National Democratic Movement, and as deputy chairman of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Revolutionary Front coalition.
The night he was sacked, Tamrat appeared on state television admitting to fellow parliamentarians that he was guilty of gross misconduct.
He said he was resigning his post for acting contrary to the principles for which his party, the ANDM, had stood for over a decade and a half.
At the time, the party informed the ruling coaltion of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to inform the federal parliament of Tamrat's sacking.
Tamrat's party, one of the four ethnic-based parties in the coalition, played a key role in the armed struggle, spearheaded by Meles' Tigray People's Liberation Front, to oust former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991. Tamrat was named Ethiopia's prime minister during the country's transition period from 1991 to 1995.
With a new federal constitution and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections in 1995, he was named deputy prime minister and minister of defence.
- We saw last week how Mussolini's entry into the European war, on 10 June 1941, led directly to Ethiopia's Liberation, and to the country's occupation by British troops. Now read on:
The collapse of fascist rule, the termination of Italian investment, upon which the Italian East African empire had hitherto been based, the demobilisation of colonial soldiers, many still in possession of their weapons, the disruption of the economy, the consequent drying-up of trade, and hence of government revenue, created major problems for newly liberated Ethiopia, in 1941.
Neither the Emperor, whose pre-war administration had been disbanded five years earlier, nor the British, who lacked any experience of the country, were well equipped to run an efficient post-liberation state. Ethiopian administration was further handicapped by the fact that a significant section of the educated class had died, in some cases been massacred, during the occupation, and because education of "natives" during that period occupation had largely ceased.
Post-liberation problems were compounded by the Ethiopian Government's virtual inability to raise taxes, as well as by the presence in the country of 40,000 Italian civilians. The latter were enemy nationals, and hence a security risk, but were expected, in accordance with then contemporary racial values, to be provided, as Europeans, with food, and medical facilities, at the level to which they were accustomed.
The politics of the immediate post-liberation era were further complicated by the widespread diffusion of Italian arms, many in the possession of former colonial troops, and by the fragmentation of the Ethiopian elite into three different groups: the Returnees, who had been in exile with the Emperor, and were therefore to some extent out of touch with the situation in Ethiopia; the Collaborators, who had worked with the invaders, and were therefore better informed, but held in disrepute in patriotic circles; and the Patriots, who had played a major role in the liberation, but were in many cases unfamiliar with modern administration. All three groups expected, and to some extent received, posts in government service, as a reward for past services, or in recognition of their influence, or loyalty to the monarch.
Tensions between the central government and the provinces had to some extent been acerbated by fascist policy, which had tried to divide the "native" population on both ethnic and religious lines. This disintegrative tendency had, however, been largely counter-balanced by other developments of the occupation period. These included the improvement of roads, and the installatio n of a public radio address system in the principal towns, as wel as an awakened sense of Ethiopian patriotism. The political power of the centre was likewise much strengthened by the triumphant return of the Emperor, and by the visible support he received from the British, who in the immediate post-war period enjoyed a virtual monopoly of military power. Like previous rulers he also exercised many forms of patronage, not only, as in the past, in respect of land and political appointment, but now also in the allocation of school places, and scholarships abroad.
A not-insignificant rebellion was, however, soon to flare in Tegray. The Emperor, after his return to Ethiopia, was largely preoccupied with relations with the British. The latter, who had entered the country as liberators, had in fact replaced the Italians as an occupying power. Relations between the Ethiopians and the British were from the outset ambiguous. British policy towards Ethiopia was first enunciated, in general terms, by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who told the British House of Commons, on 4 February 1941, that his government "would welcome the re-appearance of an independent Ethiopian State and recognise the claim of Emperor Haile Sellassie to the throne". Official British policy was further clarified in high-level talks, held shortly afterwards in February and March. These were based, in accordance with Eden's statement, on the "rejection of any idea of a protectorate", or of "the provision of a strong western administration of the country".
After the Emperor's return to Addis Ababa, in May, there was, however, considerable tension between the Ethiopians and the British. The two parties differed greatly in their views on the country's future government. The Ethiopians expected to assume full sovereignty without delay, whereas the British considered the country's independence only as a long distance objective. A first clash on this question occurred as early as 11 May 1941, when the Emperor appointed his first post-war cabinet. The British representative, Brigadier Maurice Lush, sternly informed him that such appointments could not be made "until a peace treaty has been effected with Italy" Haile Sellassie was, not surprisingly, indignant. A compromise was, however, duly effected, whereby the British accepted the appointment of the ministers, but "chose to regard them as merely advisers" to the British military administration of the country.
It was symptomatic that the Emperor's private mail was for a time subject to British censorship, and opened by British censors. His Imperial Majesty, we are informed, was not amused.
Tension was further increased by the decision of the British military authorities to appropriate, and take out of the country, some of the principal factories earlier installed by the Italians, as well as weapons, and military and other transport. Ethiopia was thus very visibly empoverished by its liberators, who soon came to be popularly regarded as its looters. Friction was also created by the presence, in the Ethiopian capital, of white South African troops, who attempted to perpetuate the strict colour bar earlier instituted by : the Italians.
British opinion in relation to Ethiopia's independence varied greatly. Sir Philip Mitchell, the chief British Political Officer in the Middle East, sought to impose particularly strong control over Ethiopia, but others in London took the view that Great Britain should demonstrate to the world that it could liberate a country without imposing political strings. Sir Philip, because of his official position, was nevertheless able to press the Emperor to abide by British "advice" in "all important matters, internal and external, touching the government of the country"; to levy taxes and allocate expenditure only with "prior approval" of the British Government; to grant British courts jurisdiction over foreigners; "to raise no objection" if the British Commander-in-Chief "found it necessary to resume military control over any part of Ethiopia"; and not to raise armed forces, or undertake military operations, "except as agreed by His Majesty's Government's representative". Taxation, expenditure, communications, and the jurisdiction of foreigners were to be under British control. In return for this extensive control he proposed that the Emperor be offered a subsidy, British advisers, and the opportunity of discussing proposals for a treaty.
British Economic Controls
Ethiopia, as a result of its liberation by the British troops, was at this time firmly under British economic as well as political control. The country was incorporated into the British-based Sterling Area, used British East African Shillings, was dependent on a British bank, Barclay's, and was served exclusively by the British Overseas Aviation Corporation, B.O.A.C. Virtually all political power was likewise in the hands of the British military, who went so far as to censor the Emperor's private correspondence. The local British officials were so bent on perpetuating that paramountcy that an American Government memorandum of June 1941 bluntly asserted that Britain was seeking to "establish a protectorate over Abyssinia".
Some British officials at this period, and for the next few years, moreover sought to partition the country. In the north there were plans to unite parts of Tegray with the adjacent highlands of Eritrea, to form a new state under British protection. In the south-east the British Government proposed incorporating the already British-occupied Ogaden with British- occupied Somalia, to create a Greater Somalia, under British trusteeship. British official thinking also for a time envisaged the partition of Eritrea, with the western portion annexed to the then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
For all the above reasons, the fund of Ethiopian good-will towards Britain, the Country's Liberator, was steadily dissipated, giving way to fear, suspicion, mistrust, and even anger.
Next Week: Post-War Problems with the British. by Dr Richard Pankhurst Copyright 1997 Addis Tribune. Distributed via Africa News Online. -0-
A millitary exercise by the Ethiopian army and elements of the US armed forces took place recently in Ethiopia close to the Kenyan and Sudanese frontiers in the southern part of Ethiopia.
This joint exercise occurred on the east bank of the river omo, near the town of Jimma.
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Indian Ocean Newsletter
Sitting in a restaurant run by the ex-cook of the former Somali head of state, Siad Barre, listening to the distorted sounds of Radio Aideed from Mogadishu, and paying the bill in Somali Shilling to believe that you are not in Somalia. Add some fresh mangoes from the Somali town Beletwein, newspapers from Singapore torn into neat squares on which to wipe your hands, and batik cloth from Indonesia wrapped around the hips of every dinner and you feel even more confused.
This is Ethiopias Region Five, a vast area in the East of the country, predominantly inhabited by ethnic Somalis.
So tenacious are Somali traders here that although access by road is limited, you can buy almost anything: from Chinese torches to Arabian shampoo. And if the strength of a countrys currency is a mark of international confidence in its government, then you would be forgiven for believing that all was well next door in Somalia, because as you travel deeper into Region Five towards the Somali border its no longer possible to pay for goods in Ethiopian birr.
Seredo Siad Mohammed is one a group of women that sells milk in Gode market. She has five children and earns the equivalent of 15 cents a day. We prefer you pay in Somali shillings, thats what goes around here, she said.
Gathered in domed huts called akals in a depressing suburb of Gode town are 30,000 returnees from Somalia. Many are extremely poor and spend long years in refugee camps in Somalia before returning to Ethiopia in 1991. I come from here, said Berni Malan Khalif, a mother of six, but I still feel like a refugee.
This is a common story in Region Five and it helps explain the difficulty that these Somalis have in seeing themselves as Ethiopians.
In 1977, Somalia invaded the Ogaden region - the southern part of Region Five - as part of a plan to gain control of all of Ethiopias Solid areas. The intense fighting led thousands of Ethiopian Somalis to flee across the border into Somalia. Despite the end of the Ogaden war in 1978, many stayed on for work and education. But with the fall of Somali President Siad Barre in 1991, thousands streamed back across the border, resettling in their towns of origin. They were joined by more than 300,000 Somali nationals, eager to leave the chaos and fighting back home.
Many returnees had picked up valuable skills during their absence. Nemah Aboukah Ahmed, for example, is the only trained midwife in Mustahill, an oasis-like town with palm trees nodding along the banks of the Wabshebelle river. She was born here, but left as a young girl. Now with a stitching kit including medical scissors given to her when she was working in the Beletwein Hospital in Somalia, she is a woman of some standing. Mothers are very grateful for my services but they dont pay me anything she told me. In the past they simply had to put up with the knives of birth attendants.
Others with skills acquired in Somalia are the members of the town band. Huriel Mustahill, meaning Front-runners of Mustahill, who performs tunes traditional Somali style on a miniature keyboard, two drums and a car stereo speaker re-wired `microphone . We sing songs about love and to encourage people, said Abdi Aziz Ibrahim, the band leader. We are fully booked in Mustahill.
With its regional capital at JigJiga , the administration of Region Five is trying to bring moderation to an area susceptible to anarchy. The legacy of the Ogedan War, coupled with the activities of secessionist groups such as the more radical elements of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), have created what observers described as a regional of low intensity war. Only a few local development a agencies such as the Ogaden Welfare Society and the South Rangelands Project are prepared to work in isolated areas in the region to improve roads access to water. As one development worker explained. There is a vacuum with development But it remains difficult to convince outside investors to move into region Five. The recent announcement by the Calub Gas Share company that major work would begin shortly on the construction of an extraction and processing plant at the site of significant petroleum deposits near Shilaabo town is an important indicator of peace returning to the region. Many hope that the development will bring with it an improved road network, linking the region more firmly with the centre of Ethiopia.
On the political front, the recent alliance between the government-sponsored Ethiopian Somali Democratic League (ESDL) and an important and more moderate wing of the factionalised Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is considered a significant step towards peace and reconciliation. It even has the backing of the Only Somali minister in government, DR Abdul Majid Hussein. As chairman of the ESDL and Minister for Transport and Telecommunications, he is known to have worked hard behind the scenes to bring about agreement.
At Gode, in the heart of Ogaden, the zonal administrator apologised for not being able to accompany me on my journey south. There has been a shooting at a nearby village and I must see that the dispute is settled, he explained. He was not hiding the fact that fighting still flares up easily, the openness of his remark suggested a managerial confidence that is new to the area.
Since 1991, regionalisation has brought Somalia a strong measure of autonomy and they are building up local government structures and with them the stability of the region. However, I Was asked not to photograph anyone with a gun. We want to change our image, one of my Somali companions explained. We are talking policemen on our journey in case of trouble, but please dont photograph them.
Although there are joint security committees made up of local administrators, police and army officers, many of the local view military as little more than an occupying force. There is the police who work with the administration and then there is military, one man commented., Frankly, we avoid them. Troop presence is especially high in the Dolo area where the borders of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia meet and where extremist groups like Al-Itihad have flourished in the absence of recognised government is Somalia.
Al-Itihad are believed to be supported with money from Arab states and are militant followers of Islam. The Ethiopian government holds them responsible for many of the terrorist attacks that have targeted tourist and government hotels, tarnishing Ethiopias image abroad. As a consequence, the Ethiopian military have carried out reprisals against Al-Itihad inside Somalia, and Somalis crossing into Region Five are routinely arrested. Anyone with a hint of involvement with Al Itihiad or belligerent wing of the ONLF are faced with investigation by security forces. Many are officially `registered by the police and are checked over, but there are also reports of hundreds that have disappeared. Hard to prove perhaps, but widely believed. When I met two military commanders at border town of Ferfer and asked them about some of the cases of missing people, they visibly closed ranks and refused even to accept my calling card.
The Ethiopian government is pursuing a double-handed strategy in its Somali relations. Whilst publicly encouraging ethnic Somalis on Ethiopian soil to talk peace, the Ethiopian military is, as one observer put it, continuing to wage war next door. Its carrot and stick policy that gives moderate Somalis a voice, but wraps opponents hard across the knuckles.
For the last six or so years I have been studying the current appalling and intolerable conditions our people were imposed upon. This has been brought about by a combination of our admittedly blatant negligence on the welfare and affairs of our people on the one hand and of the unashamed beastly actions and human rights abuses of EPRDF.
Who speaks for our people ? I am sure most of the people would, after mature consideration, say that we are the only people who could truly speak for our people. The facts on the ground, however, show us that Somalis in the Ogaden, the Haud and the Reserve Area in the Somali Ethiopian region, renamed currently by the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi as "Zone Five" [sic], seem to have been left, unfortunately again after centuries of neglect and abuse, voiceless and on their own. True, there are political organizations that claim to represent the interests of Somalis in the most inefficiently managed empire state of Ethiopia. Politics as it is, however, can not be the sole speaker of an oppressed nation's yearning desire for equality, for justice and for the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
In this short note, I do not intend to be comprehensive, but it is my aim here to point out that in fact we, in the diaspora, particularly those of us who are exiled in Western Europe and North America, could do wonders for our people. First and foremost, it must be remembered that it is not a crime to act on behalf of oppressed people. If, for instance, Amnesty International could speak out against world injustices, slavery, and colonialism, it makes sense, does it not, that those who are from a particular society that have been traditionally, and continues to be, subjugated and subjected to inhumane treatments to organize themselves in the most effective way to present to the peoples of the world any such events where violence is perpetuated against innocent children, the aged, the sick and the weak.
It seems to me that all of us wish to speak out. However, speaking out, in and by itself, is a laborious work. Collection of first-hand information, analysis of such information, presentation of the now processed data, and protocols of such things of who takes the responsibility of position statements, or protests against the Ethiopian government, or of the integrity of the human rights reports generated from the activities of the wild rulers of Ethiopia is an integral part of people speaking for their people. This, I suppose, need not wait for the political leaders, whether imprisoned in the Ethiopian excruciating prisons of torture or in hiding somewhere. Those of us who are privileged to have the liberty to live without fear of persecution for speaking out against the Ethiopian dictatorial rulers, those who live in North America or in Western Europe must be able to carry out such activities. This undoubtedly requires contemporary ideas of how to organize ourselves in the diaspora, an abandonment of petty misunderstandings among ourselves, and to stay focused that, after all, Somalis in Western Somalia need a big help in anyway possible.
In my humble opinion, we have to pool our meager resources and wake up from our deep sleepy/sleeping bad habits of assuming that someone else is going to speak for our people. If you do not contribute to the process of seeking justice for your people, who do you expect to ? Let us do some simple arithmetic. In North America alone, there is an estimated 100,000 Somalis. Suppose only ten thousand of these contribute a dollar a month into multi-purpose non-governmental, non-political, not-for-profit humanitarian organizations, then there you have about $10,000.00 dollars a month to use as an operating budget. Moreover, many international humanitarian and philanthropic organizations would be more than happy to match those kind of public donations if the target organization is truly beneficent and humane in nature. Now, does it not make sense to hire some of our skilled people on a permanent basis to carry out all those novel activities I have alluded to in the previous paragraph ? I think so. Then, what are we waiting for ?
I realize that to organize is not an easy matter. But I truly believe that we could do it. Many of our equals have done it before, and we have no less creative and skilled people than other people who did it. So, my humble suggestion to you, dear countrymen and women, is that we shed the heavy self-imposed "Heeryo" that dangles on our shoulders. If you have any other suggestions or ideas, please contribute and get active for the sake of our people. (wrote: Scholar)
ADDIS ABABA (ENA) - Construction materials purchased for the building of the 571km Harar-Shilabo road have arrived home, the acting chief engineer of the Ethiopian Roads Authority reported.
Engineer Fekade Haile said the construction has lagged behind schedule because the materials purchased for 54 million birr allotted by the government and obtained from the World Bank arrived home late.
He said the road construction has four different projects, of which the 102km Harar-Jijiga project has so far built about 14km.
The engineer also said the Jijiga-Degehabur project, covering 156km whose work was planned to begin in January this year, has lagged behind the timetable because of the delay in the purchase of construction materials.
The remaining Degahabur-Shekosh project covering 156km and the 157km Shekosh-Shilabo project are expected to begin by next Ethiopian year according to schedule, he added.
Of the four projects, the Harar-Jijiga project is expected to end in 1991 E.C while the rest are planned to provide services after three years, the acting chief engineer explained.
He said 278 million birr is required for the execution of the total work. It is to be recalled that the 68 billion cubic metres gas deposit found around Kalub in Ogaden, eastern Ethiopia, is ready for development according to a recent announcement by an expert with the petroleum department of the Ministry of Mines and energy.
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Ethiopian News Agency
Ghion Hagos PANA Staff Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - Another explosion in a crowded bar in the eastern Ethiopian railway city of Dire Dawa injured 11 persons, state radio reported Sunday.
Addis Ababa Radio said the hand grenade explosion occurred at about 1800 p.m. (1500 gmt) on Saturday at Makonnen bar, near the Dire Dawa railway terminal, about 500 kms east of the Ethiopian capital.
It quoted police in Dire Dawa as saying five of the injured were employees of the bar. The rest were customers relaxing in the bar, on the eve of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Easter.
The report did not say if any of the injured were in serious conditions, nor did it say whether the hand grenade was hurled into the bar or had been planted before hand.
Police had appealed to the residents of the town to come forward with information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
This was the fourth explosion in a public place in Ethiopia within a fortnight, for which no one has yet claimed responsiblity.
All the previous three occurred in Addis Ababa. Two of them on April 12, at a popular restuarant in the center of the city and a restuarant frequented by foreigners, killed a waitress and injured 41 persons, five of them seriously.
The third explosion rocked the Tana supermarket, the city's largest, on April 14, injuring 33 persons, six of them seriously.
A year ago, explosions at two government-run hotels in the capital, and two others in Dire Dawa and the nearby city of Harar, in which three persons died and scores were injured, were claimed by a fundamentalist group, Al Itihad.
The group, who say they are fighting for the seccesion of the Ogaden region from Ethiopia, also claimed responsibility on an attempt on the life of Ethiopian's minister of transport and communications, Abdul-Megid Hussein, in July as he was going to office.
That attempt on Hussein, who is of Somali origin, left two security personnel dead and several passersby injured.
Ghion Hagos PANA Staff Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - Another explosion in a crowded bar in the eastern Ethiopian railway city of Dire Dawa injured 11 persons, state radio reported Sunday.
Addis Ababa Radio said the hand grenade explosion occurred at about 1800 p.m. (1500 gmt) on Saturday at Makonnen bar, near the Dire Dawa railway terminal, about 500 kms east of the Ethiopian capital.
It quoted police in Dire Dawa as saying five of the injured were employees of the bar. The rest were customers relaxing in the bar, on the eve of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Easter.
The report did not say if any of the injured were in serious conditions, nor did it say whether the hand grenade was hurled into the bar or had been planted before hand.
Police had appealed to the residents of the town to come forward with information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
This was the fourth explosion in a public place in Ethiopia within a fortnight, for which no one has yet claimed responsiblity.
All the previous three occurred in Addis Ababa. Two of them on April 12, at a popular restuarant in the center of the city and a restuarant
Ethiopian embassy or consulate.
Areas of Instability: A February 1997 grenade attack at a hotel in Harar in east central Ethiopia wounded five foreign nationals. In early October 1996, two foreign nationals were killed and one wounded in daylight shooting incidents in the nearby city of Dire Dawa. In both cities, the attacks appear to have targeted foreigners. U.S. citizens are advised to defer travel to Harer and Dire Dawa.
Americans throughout Ethiopia are advised to exercise caution, especially when visiting bars, hotels, and other public places.
Reports of banditry are not uncommon in the southernmost areas of Ethiopia, along the Kenyan border and as far north as Woleyita (former Sidamo province). Isolated incidents of violence have recently occurred in other regions as well, including the Lake Tana, Lake Langano, Awassa, and Arbaminch areas. There have also been sporadic reports of armed clashes between various opposition elements and government forces in the Somalia border area of Region 5 (Somali Regional State). Military, police and regional authorities have temporarily detained some American citizens traveling in Region 5.
In addition, Ethiopian military units have skirmished with forces alleged to be of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in the western area of Nekemte (former Wollega Province) and in the east, around Harar. Road Safety and Travel Hazards: Land mines and other anti-personnel devices can be encountered frequently in areas which suffered fighting during the war. Many persons, including foreign travelers have been injured by these devices. Travel on paved roads generally is safer than travel on unpaved roads. Areas off the pavement around bridges or water crossings may also be hazardous.
The route to Asebeteferi, the vicinity of Harar, the Ogaden region, and the sides of the roads north from Addis Ababa to Tigray province are known mined areas. Many persons, including foreigners, have been injured by these devices. Overland travel is especially dangerous in areas east and south of Harar, in Region 5 (Somali Regional State), due to land mines on the main road between Harar and Jijiga.
JIJIGA (ENA) - Drought affected people in Somali Regional State have faced food shortage as the 90,000 quintals of relief food has not reached the area in time, the regional social and labour affairs and disaster prevention and preparedness bureau said. Bureau head Ato Abubakar Abdi
said although the problem has been reported to the National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness commission, only 3,500 quintals of the stated amount was dispatched and distributed among drought affected people in Shinele Zone.
He said 110,000 quintals of grain and over 5 million litters of cooking oil have been distributed among the victims in Liben, Shinele Jijiga, Degahabur and Warder Zones during the first and second round food distribution since mid-December.
However, Ato Abubakar said, the unavailability of the 90,000 quintals of relief food allowed for distribution among drought affected people in Shinele zone has created shortage of food.
Ato Goitom Woldu, head of the central store of the commission in dire Dawa, said on his part the region did not request for the supply of 90,000 quintals, but only for 9,200 quintals.
Only 9,200 quintals of relief food is prepared for Shinele zone of which 5,600 quintals has already been dispatched and distributed among the victims, according to Ato Workneh Ayalew, zonal office head of the commission.
He further said 3,600 quintals of relief food is being transported to the zone affected by drought.
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Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)
Ethiopian embassy or consulate.
Areas of Instability: A February 1997 grenade attack at a hotel in Harar in east central Ethiopia wounded five foreign nationals. In early October 1996, two foreign nationals were killed and one wounded in daylight shooting incidents in the nearby city of Dire Dawa. In both cities, the attacks appear to have targeted foreigners. U.S. citizens are advised to defer travel to Harer and Dire Dawa.
Americans throughout Ethiopia are advised to exercise caution, especially when visiting bars, hotels, and other public places.
Reports of banditry are not uncommon in the southernmost areas of Ethiopia, along the Kenyan border and as far north as Woleyita (former Sidamo province). Isolated incidents of violence have recently occurred in other regions as well, including the Lake Tana, Lake Langano, Awassa, and Arbaminch areas. There have also been sporadic reports of armed clashes between various opposition elements and government forces in the Somalia border area of Region 5 (Somali Regional State). Military, police and regional authorities have temporarily detained some American citizens traveling in Region 5.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - The Organization of African Unity is to give a grant of 430,000 U.S dollars to back the Somali national reconciliation agreement that was signed last year.
The agreement was signed by 26 Somalian faction leaders at Sodere, an Ethiopian resort centre, in December 1996.
O.A.U officials said the money is to be drawn from the O.A.U Peace Fund, and was earmarked for the Somalia Reconciliation Project . Request for the disbursement of the grant was submitted in Addis Ababa on Thursday by Ethiopia at a meeting of the OAU's Central organ on conflict prevention, management and resolution.
After due consideration of the project proposal, the central organ of the O.A.U mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution at the level of ambassadors, expressed strong support for the Sodere peace process, according to an official in the O.A.U information division.
The peace accord concluded at Sodere, 125 km East of Addis Ababa, was sponsored by Ethiopia, which was mandated by the O.A.U. and countries in the Horn of Africa, grouped under the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to forge national reconciliation among the Somali factions.
The agreement was endorsed on January 3 by 26 Somalia faction leaders at the end of consultations, which lasted eight weeks.
The leaders also announced the formation of a National Salvation Council entrusted with the task of forming a provisional central government in Mogadishu within six months.
The council's major task was the restoration of peace, stability and law and order in Somalia which has been without government since the fall of ex-President Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991.
The members of the council, representing 26 Somali political movements, also signed a declaration endorsing efforts for an all-inclusive national reconciliation conference.
Informed sources said the O.A.U. grant is to assist the Somalia National Salvation Council implement the provisions of the Sodore accord.
In another development, the O.A.U on Thursday also donated 50,000 U.S dollars to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regional liaison office for Africa, based in Addis Ababa.
The money is to be used for the purchase of non-food items such as blankets, water containers, plastic sheets and cooking utensils for Somali refugees based in eastern Ethiopia, the O.A.U Information division official said.
DIRE DAWA(ENA) - Residents of Dire Dawa town have denounced the recent bomb blasts in Addis Ababa which resulted in the death of innocent citizens and property damage.
Heads of private and government enterprises and residents of the town said at a meeting they held with members of the administration, justice, police and security that , "they felt sorrow over the terror committed by anti-people elements at a time when serious attention is given to speed up development."
They have also pledged to be vigilant against similar terrorist attacks in their area.
Participants of the meeting have urged the general public to contribute its share in preventing terrorist acts for the task should not be left to the government alone.
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Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)
AI Index: AFR 04/02/96
17 September 1996
Further information on UA 211/96 (AFR 04/01/96, 23 August 1996) - Fear for safety / Refoulement and new concern: "Disappearance" ETHIOPIA / DJIBOUTI
Girmay Moges Newaye-Mariam, aged 38 new names: Muhyadin Muftah Aydrus Hussein and six others
Girmay Moges Newaye-Mariam, an Ethiopian refugee, is still "disappeared" in Ethiopia after being sent back against his will from Djibouti.
Eight more Ethiopian government opponents have also been detained in Djibouti and sent back to Ethiopia, according to Amnesty International's information. This appears to follow a new security agreement between the two governments. Muhyadin Muftah, deputy general secretary of the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF), an armed opposition group in Ethiopia's Afar region in the northeast, was arrested in Djibouti on 23 August 1996 and "disappeared" some days later. According to unofficial sources in Djibouti he was handed over to the Ethiopian authorities and has since "disappeared" while apparently in secret detention in Ethiopia.
Aydrus Hussein, a former member of the Somali Regional Assembly in Ethiopia and a former regional commissioner in Degabur town, was arrested in Djibouti with six Ethiopian Somali businessmen on 1 September 1996. After about a week in detention, they were reportedly handed over to the Ethiopian authorities and have since "disappeared" while in secret detention in Ethiopia. All seven are said to be supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting the Ethiopian government in the Ogaden area in the southeast. Other alleged ONLF supporters in Djibouti are said to be at risk of arrest and expulsion to Ethiopia.
Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of all those listed above after they were handed over to the Ethiopian authorities, and that they were arbitrarily detained and forcibly returned to Ethiopia by the Djibouti authorities.
They said news from Washington on Monday that creditor nations agreed to increase assistance to the world's poorest debtor countries in a multibillion-dollar international plan was good for those committed to growth.
But they argued that debt relief had to go along with good and viable economic policies for the full benefits to be felt. ``If they can be relieved of the debt, it means foreign debt servicing will be eliminated and (resources) can be used to stimulate development and growth,'' Jimnah Mbaru, chairman of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), told Reuters. ``There can be a new focus on the domestic market with more resources available,'' he added.
An official at the Tanzania-based secretariat of the East African Cooperation, which groups Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, said how the countries used the reources was the key problem. ``If they use (resources) to liquidate domestic debt, that will be good. Interest rates could come down. But if the countries think they have been given a good reason to borrow heavily again from abroad, that could spell chaos,'' he said. But the official, who declined to be named, said East African countries could now borrow cheaply from global sources.
He added low interest rates meant that capital markets could also be lifted to vibrancy. Kenya has a stock exchange and Uganda and Tanzania plan their own bourses by mid-December. Uganda's external debt stands at $3.8 billion. Tanzania's outstanding debt is $6.5 billion while Kenya's is $6.3 billion. Under the new initiative launched by international finance ministers meeting in Washington up to 80 percent of debts would be forgiven, compared with a 67 percent ceiling now. The debt-relief initiative -- involving actions by the Paris Club of creditor countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank -- is aimed at putting debt-ridden poor nations, many of them in Africa, back on their feet.
Uganda was listed as one of the first countries to benefit. Economists said debt relief for Ethiopia would also help in reviving an economy which was brought to its knees under Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was ousted in 1991. Ethiopia's foreign debt stands at $4.4 billion and pays up to 47 percent in export earnings to service its external debt. Ethiopia earned $476 million from its export trade in 1994/95.
French and EU officials said a 12-person delegation, including a representative of Washington's National Security Council, met an adviser to President Jacques Chirac last month but EU powers judged the plan to be too vague.
The U.S. Embassy confirmed that Chirac's African affairs adviser, Michel Dupuch, received an inter-agency American delegation Sept. 17 and the group also visited London and Brussels, among other European capitals.
``Both sides (the United States and France) agreed it would be useful to refine our thinking further and to stay in touch,'' an embassy spokeswoman said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State George Moose, briefing reporters in Washington ahead of Secretary of State Warren Christopher's first trip to sub-Saharan Africa next week, said Thursday he hoped the force could be put in place fairly quickly.
In the event of a crisis on the continent, its role would be to establish safe havens for civilians, not to engage in fighting or separate warring factions.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt, reacting cautiously, said it ``should be compared to the various ideas being debated. The recent American ideas will contribute to these discussions and should be studied very closely.''
He was referring to plans being studied by the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, the French and British governments and the Western European Union (WEU).
President Clinton has approved the plan to organize, train, equip and help deploy the all-African force, which could include 10,000 troops.
Cash-poor African governments have long talked about such a force and over the past two years both France and Britain have been seeking to breathe life into it in bilateral consultations and through the Western European Union.
But African experts in Paris say that France's eagerness has been tempered by budgetary belt-tightening. Paris is also wary of losing its status as the only former African colonial power with troops permanently stationed on the continent.
``France's stand is ambivalent,'' said Antoine Glaser, editor of the specialist Lettre du Continent. ``It hesitates between bilateral solutions within a French framework, and suggesting to the British and the Germans that they cooperate,'' he said.
One Western European official who declined to be named said, ``The Americans did not come here to Europe and then go on to Africa with fully worked out proposals. As the proposals stand now they are a little vague.''
``They were looking for constructive responses to enable them to develop their thinking. We would like to see that happening in the United Nations,'' he added.
Moose has said such a force should be authorized by the U.N. Security Council, and funded in the same way as other similar U.N. operations. But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, said no U.N. involvement was anticipated.
``Basically we believe that because of lack of resources in the U.N. and some reluctance frankly in the secretariat of the U.N. to take this on, that we couldn't sit around and wait .... What needed to be done was for us to take the lead in trying to get an African force pulled together,'' she said recently.
Other U.S. officials have said privately in the past week that the intention was to go around the United Nations, possibly by linking the force to the OAU, headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and headed by a former Tanzanian defense minister.
The African Crisis Response Force would be sent to countries where civil war, insurrection or campaigns of genocide threaten to cause massive civilian casualties.
It is one of the issues Christopher will discuss when he visits Africa, beginning Oct. 7-8 with a stop in Mali. Other stops are Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Angola.
Moose toured Africa recently to solicit troop commitments from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique.
``He should make a clear demonstration that he believes in the concept that the free press ... should be allowed to cover his visit,'' Josh Friedman, a CPJ Board member, told a news conference at which the group released its report on Ethiopia. State Department officials said Christopher was due to arrive in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Wednesday from Mali on the second stop of a sub-Saharan Africa tour that will also take him to Tanzania, South Africa and Angola. Ethiopia bars reporters from independent news organizations at government news conferences, including joint events with visiting foreign dignitaries, such as those held at Addis airport, said the New York-based watchdog group that promotes press freedom worldwide.
Friedman, U.N. bureau chief for Newsday and a former CPJ chairman who won a 1985 Pulitzer prize for his reporting on the famine in Ethiopia, urged Christopher to demand unrestricted access for reporters to any news conference he held and, if necessary to achieve this, refuse to address an airport news conference.
Kakuna Kerina, the CPJ Africa program coordinator who wrote the report, accused the United States embassy in Addis of being ``somewhat complicit'' by failing to open its own joint news events to Ethiopian reporters from privately owned news organizations.
The report, ``Clampdown in Addis: Ethiopia's Journalists at Risk,'' said more than 50 Ethiopian journalists had been imprisoned from 1993 to 1995, with nine still in detention, down from 31 at the end of last year. Of Christopher's other sub-Saharan African stops, Kerina said Angola was another country where it was ``virtually impossible'' to report critically on the government. President William Mkapa of Tanzania, in the United States for talks with World Bank and U.S. officials before flying home to meet Christopher later this week, said Monday debt relief was critical for African development.
``Debt relief is really key to a proper process of sustainable reform,'' he said at a forum organized by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington-based public policy research group.
Geberyesus Kilfe, a former driver in the police force, was testifying during the trial of 71 members of the Dergue -- the junta that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and ruled until 1991.
A total of 46 former officials of the Dergue were in the dock Tuesday. Twenty-five others, including former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, are on trial in absentia. Geberyesus said the victims were made to believe they were being driven to the central prison in Addis Ababa but the van instead went to a firing range in a suburb outside the city. ``It was in 1977, I could not remember the date exactly. I was asked to escort a prison van from the palace, the former headquarters of the Dergue, to the central prison,'' Geberyesus told the court.
``But the van proceeded past the prison compound and reached Sebeta town in the suburb of Addis Ababa where a police firing range existed,'' he said. He said shortly after the van entered the firing range, the most senior officer present by the name of Colonel Seleshi Mekuria ordered him and others to guard the approaches to the range.
``After a while, we heard gun shots and a scream by a woman among those who were being executed, he said. ``She was screaming and had said her name was Tadelech Isaiyas until she was silenced,'' he added. The government says it is holding 1,700 prisoners for alleged crimes under the Dergue. The only ones so far charged are those now on trial, and the 46 present have all pleaded not guilty. The rest have been held for up to five years without charge.
The trial was adjourned to Thursday.
Dr. Abdul Mejid who is also Minister of Transport and Communications was quoted by Abiotawi Democracy, Organ of the EPRDF as saying the stage of development the country is at calls the consolidation of peoples' unity targeted at creating a new, democratic Ethiopia. The Somali nationality whose right to administer itself has been ensured by the Federal Constitution desires to work in cooperation and close relation with other democratic forces in the country, he added.
The chairman said the Somali Regional State which covers 1\3 rd of the total area of the country with an estimated population of 5-6 million should live in conformity and cooperation with the rest of the democratic forces in order to benefit from the fruits of the democratic changes taking place in the country.
This, he said, is a guarantee for the peace and development of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
The merger with EPRDF, according to Minister Abdul Mejid is a pillar for the new Ethiopia and a guarantor for the peace of both the country and the Somali Regional State.
The paper wrote quoting Dr. Abdul Mejid that the Somali people have been working in close cooperation with members of the Defence Force to resist the possible threats from neighbouring Somalia, a country with out a recognised government.
ADDIS ABABA, April 28 (AFP) - The Ethiopian government has called on soldiers from the former Mengistu regime to reintegrate into the army to help the country overcome "foreign aggression," several sources said here Monday.
The call comes amid an upsurge in terrorist attacks in the east of the country blamed on outside Islamist groups and amid accusations by Sudan that Ethiopia is backing opposition Sudanese forces.
One Ethiopian taxi driver who was part of the armed forces before Mengistu stepped down in 1991, said local government officials two weeks ago met with former soldiers and asked them to reintegrate into the army "to defend the country from foreign aggression."
He said the former soldiers were told that they would be paid a salary beginning this month.
"The former soldiers asked that they be paid in advance six years in back pay corresponding to the time they were demobilized," he said.
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Agence France Presse (AFP)
ADDIS ABABA, April 28 (AFP) - Eleven people were injured in explosions in a bar in Dire-Dawa, Ethiopia's second biggest city, on Saturday, national radio reported.
The blast was the fourth such attack in Ethiopia in two weeks. The other three took place in the capital Addis Ababa, killing one person and injuring around 30 -- including six foreigners.
No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks. However last year, a Moslem fundamentalist movement, Al-Itihad al-Islam, said it had carried out a series of bomb attacks on government buildings in Addis Ababa and Dire-Dawa that left at least four people dead and dozens injured.
Al-Itihad al-Islam is fighting for the independence of Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden region.
The recent spate of attacks prompted a security crackdown in Addis Ababa, with police carrying out vehicle searches and the military setting up checkpoints. Private newspapers say police have made a number of arrests.
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Agence France Presse (AFP)
TEXT: POLICE IN THE EASTERN CITY OF DAWA SAY THE EXPLOSION SATURDAY AT THE MAKONEN HOTEL INJURED SIX EMPLOYEES AND FIVE CUSTOMERS.
NO ONE HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATTACK. SECURITY OFFICIALS BELIEVE IT IS THE WORK OF THE SOMALIA-BASED AL-ITIHAD AL-ISLAMIA FACTION THAT HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR EARLIER GRENADE ATTACKS IN DIRE DAWA AND THE CAPITAL, ADDIS ABABA.
THOSE ATTACKS ON A HOTEL, A RESTAURANT, AND A SHOPPING CENTER INJURED 80 PEOPLE AND LEFT THREE DEAD. AL-ITIHAD SAYS IT WAS ALSO BEHIND LAST YEAR'S ASSASSINATLON ATTEMPT ON ETHIOPIA'S MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS.
THE LATEST EXPLOSION CAME ON THE EVE OF ETHIOPIAN EASTER, AS SECURITY FORCES IN THE CAPITAL SEARCHED CARS AND HOUSES. NEWSPAPER REPORTS SAY A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED AND AUTOMATIC WEAPONS SEIZED.
AL-ITIHAD SAYS IT IS FIGHTING TO RECLAIM ETHIOPIA'S EASTERN OGADEN REGION, A VAST, DRY TERRITORY IT SAYS BELONGS TO SOMALIA.
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Voice Of America (VOA)
The Somalis were routed from Jijiga in a text book -perfect assault that employed massive airlifts and bombing air raids along with pinpoint barrages of artillery to clear the way for columns of tanks backed by battalions of Cuban troops in armored personnel carriers "It was over almost before it started" said an awed Arab military attache in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. "It was the kind of maneuver that up to now has been done only on paper maps in staff colleges"
Shock Troops: That was an overstatement; Israel had dealt the Arabs an even worse humiliation in 1967. But the Soviets used their Cuban shock troops to make short work of a Somali army that they themselves had trained and equipped. Moscow was enraged last November when Siad Barre broke relations with Havana, expelled some 2,000 Russian advisers and technicians and barred the Soviet Navy from its best Indian Ocean bases, Berbera and Kismayu.
After a billion-dollar transfusion of arms to Ethiopia__including heavy weight PT-76 and medium T-62 tanks, at least 50 Mig-21 and Mig-23 jets and a flotilla Mi-6 helicopters__the Soviet-Cuban juggernaut began to move about six weeks ago. Apparently under the over-all command of Gen. Vasily Ivanovich Petrov a combat hardened veteran who is first deputy commander of Soviet ground forces, the Cubans launched a series of short, sharp thrusts against the main Somali lines near the key Ethiopian cities of Harer and Dire- Dawa. The object was to clear the area for the concentration of petrov's attack forces and to suck more Somali troops into Jijiga so that they could be destroyed in one decisive engagement . The Somalis fell neatly into the trap; they were still sending reinforcements to Jijiga when the final assault began.
Instead of trying to dislodge the main Somali force in Ahmar range west of Jijiga, Petrov chose to flank it with an impressive end round around__and over__ the mountains(map). while his infantry kept Somali attention focused to the west with a series of bitter but meaningless skirmishes, Petrov sent a full armored brigade with 90 T-62 tanks looping around the northeastern end of the range. rains briefly bogged down some of the tanks, leaving them vulnerable to a Somali counterattack that destroyed eleven of the 38-tonners. but when the weather cleared, Petrov used his MI-6s, which can lift 15 tons, to carry men, enormous stockpiles of fuel and ammunition_and by some accounts, 14-ton PT-76 tanks__ to a staging area on a plateau northwest of Jijiga. when the two forces linked up late in February, the stage was set for the final assault.
"Sitting Ducks": the task force struck toward Jijiga behind massive artillery barrages and, by Somali count, 130 separate air strikes. simultaneously, a second Cuban armored birgade knifed straight up the main road to the Kara Marda pass, the last Somali strongpoint on the road to Jijiga. The Somalis fought bravely, but they had little armor of their own, no air cover and dwindling stocks of ammunition. "They were sitting ducks. They didn't have a chance" explained one military expert close to the high command in Mogadishu. by early last week, Somali killed, wounded and missing numbered in the thousands, and resistance has collapsed. The Cuban tanks rumbled into Jijiga and rumbled out again just as quickly, heading east and south in pursuit of the broken Somali forces. Behind them, two Ethiopian divisions began mopping--up operations, and by last weekend most of the Ogaden had been reoccupied.
When word of the debacle reached Mogadishu, Siad Barre plunged into a twenty-hour meeting with his central committee to hash over Somalia's meager options. finally, he decided to abandon the war. Wary of public reactions however, Siad barre then spent three days softening his people for the blow. When it came there was some grumpling, and for a time some grumbling, and for a time rumors spread that the president might resign or be forced out by fellow officers who blamed him for miscalculating both Russia's response and the prospects for support from the west. But most Somali reacted with resignation, and the general consensus was that Siad Barre would ride out the storm. "We don't know what will happen to us now" shrugged on bureaucrat. "We can only sit and wait." Finally, Siad Barre informed U.S. Ambassador John Loughran of the withdrawal, and then announced in a communique' that it came in response to "the proposal of the big powers to settle the crises of it came in response to "the proposal of the big powers to settle the crises of the Horn of Africa peacefully and to withdraw all foreign forces from the region."
Observer: the Carter Administration was elated by Siad Barre's decision. United States officials called the Soviet Embassy at midnight to relay the news, and the next day Secretary of state Cyrus Vance phoned Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin__who by then had some news of his own. If the Somalis actually pulled out , he indicated , Moscow would trim its forces in Ethiopia, agree to a neutral observer force and start withdrawing a large but unspecified number of Cubans.
There was no guarantee that the Russians and Cubans would make good on the promise. " They didn't pull out of Angola, and that didn't mean half as much to them as the Horn of Africa," said a worried Third World ambassador in Mogadishu. In addition the West Somali Libration Front, after charging that Ethiopia was committing "genocide" against ethnic Somalis who inhabit in the Ogaden vowed to fight on . Although the guerrillas appeared to be no great threat without Somalia backing, Ethiopia said there would be no cease fire until Somalia formally renounced its territorial clams on the Ogaden__ and on neighboring Djibouti and northern Kenya.
New Targets: Ethiopia's strongman, Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, also was counting on his Soviet and Cuban friends to help him defeat rebels in the province of Eritrea. And many pro-Western diplomats worried that once that battle was over, Russians and Cubans would seek new targets of opportunity in Africa. " Moscow now has the logistics base and experience in Africa to give the Cubans almost unlimited support" warned an Egyptian diplomat last week. "If it was the Ogaden today, it will certainly be Zambia and Rhodhesia tomorrow" it may not come to that . But with Russians and Cubans strongly entrenched in the Horn, President Carter said last week that, if Siad Barre remains on good behavior, the U.S. would discuss giving Somalia "economic aid or defensive arms."
Newsweek, March 20, 1978
Over 20 elders and traditional leaders were in Addis Ababa this week by the request of the EPRDF led regime to discus the current situation in the region. My source believe that remooving Tamirat could have an impact over the political afairs of the Somalis in the Ogaden region but, into what digree is not yet known.
Out of the total amount, 14 million U.S. Dollars is allocated to improve primary education systems, 9.6 million U.S. Dollars will be used for mproving the health services, 4.9 million U.S. Dollars for enhancing food security, nd the remaining 1.2 million U.S. Dollars for building democratic nstitutions and civil service reforms.
"This represents the last of the assistance provided by the United tates to Ethiopia during our fiscal year 1996. Total U.S. assistance for this year is about 90 million U.S. Dollars, including development assistance and food aid," said a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa today. Enditem
"........................... Menelik II, emperor of Abyssinia, the land that is now Ethiopia, had a suprise in store. Italy wooed him and even supplied him with weapons, thinking it could get dominion over his country. But Menelik turned on the Italians, defeating them in the battle in 1896. The important point is not the humiliation of Italy but that, in sebsequently negotiations, the British let Menelik have control of the Ogaden, a huge area populetd by Somalis. This decision was to trigger further wars right up to the present, and is the principle reason FOR THE EXTENT OF THE CURRENT BLOODSHED"
............. "The SNM was based on Isaaq clans of northern Somalia, the former British protectorate, where Siad's forces were becoming increasingly oppressive and discriminatory. The north was rent by grazing disputes between the local Isaaq and refugees from the Ogaden, who were also being illegally recruited into Siad'forces and INCOURAGED TO TAKE OVER THE ISAAQ BUSINESS. The point was that the Isaaq were heavily involved in livestock exports to the Gulf, where a large number of their clansmen were also established as migrant labour, known locally "brawn drain". Taken together, these activities earned luctrive remmittances for the northerners, but were not passed through the official Somali banking system". ............Siad and his clansmen, the Darods, progressively tried to harass and replace the Isaaq enterprenuers, and the military brutaly suppressed the local people. The SNM, with Ethiopian support, begun retaliatory raids, and repression increased accordingly"
Written by Loan Lewis.
Note, how despite Adan Cadde clear statement that Somalia is mainly
interested in the self- determination of the Somali people and not "territorial
aggrandizement" for itself , the Ethiopian envoy seems to evade what he heard
and answers him as if he said the opposite.........................
President Nkrumah's solution to the problem was the reverse. Rather than accept colonial frontiers, the artificial barriers should be swept away so that Africa could unite. With unity all boundaries would be superfluous. "The people of Africa" he proclaimed, "call for the breaking down of boundaries that keep them apart."
In certain quarters, however, the debate was less academic. The king of Morocco stayed away from the conference because his country wouldn't recognize the independent existence of Mauritania. And, the only real break in the serenity of the debates arose over the question of frontiers. The president of Somalia, Aden Abdulla Osman Saar, insisted that silence wouldn't eliminate the problem. Not quite unexpectedly he spoke of self -determination for the Somali nation and pleaded the cause of the Somalis in French Somaliland, Ethiopia and Kenya's Northern Frontier District. He charged that "Ethiopia has taken possession of a large portion of a Somali territory without consent and against the wishes of the inhabitants." He stressed that although " the Somali Government has no ambitions or claims for territorial aggrandizement.... the people of the republic can not be expected to remain indifferent to the appeal of its brethren."
The rebuttal came from the Ethiopian prime Minister Ato Habte- Wold. Intimating that this was only the start, he warned that " .......it is in the interest of all Africans now to respect the frontiers drawn on the maps, whether they are good or bad, by the former colonizers, and that is in the interest of Somalia, too, because if we are going to move in this direction , then we too, the Ethiopians will have claims to make; on the same basis as Somalia, and for more on historical and geographical reasons."
With this, the debate was closed...at the conference. For the Heads of State were unable to reach a consensus on all the matters that threatened the peace and security of the continent. no one denied the need to ban intervention, subversion or assassinations. but, despite the majority in favor of maintaining colonial frontiers , no hard and fast rule could be laid down.
Stockholm, Nov. 5, 1996
I have decided to terminate my service as a diplomat for the Ethiopian Government. The reason for my decision is of course well known to anyone who views the Ethiopian political scene with a modicum of objectivity.
When the dictatorship of the military government was brought to an end in 1991, we all hoped that the long suffering peoples of Ethiopia were at long last on the threshold of a democratic era for the first time in their history. But that was not to be. As subsequent events were to demonstrate, the party in power, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), chose to install itself as a one party, mono-ethnic dictatorship rather than open the way for a genuine democratic process. All the sham elections since held have only helped the EPRDF to acquire absolute monopoly over political power in Ethiopia.
The EPRDF government has restructured the country in a manner that would enable it to exercise absolute political control and domination and plunder its vast resources. Ethiopia is now slipping back into the cycle of violence, oppression, resistance, etc. reminscent of the days of the military dictatorship, even worse in many respects.
Arbitrary detentions, political killings and the general lack of respect for human rights have become the rule rather than the exception in today's Ethiopia. The brunt of these human rights violation and systematic political persecution has fallen on the Oromo people, who constitute the largest nationality group in Ethiopia. In spite of their demographic preponderance and immense economic potential, the Oromos have always been denied their due place in the Ethiopian polity.
The Oromo people are challenging the status quo that has relegated them to a secondary position. As a result Oromos - young and old, women and children, including pregnant women, intellectuals and farmers - have all become today targets of indiscriminate gross human rights violation by the Tigrean dominated EPRDF government. They are incarcerated, killed, or simply "disappeared" merely because they are Oromos. What is going on is a sheer campaign of hate and hysteria directed against a particular national group.
It is not difficult to see the explosive situation developing in Ethiopia as a result of the myopic policies of the EPRDF government. The international community should act now before Ethiopia explodes into the likes of Burundi or Rhwanda.
The true friends of the country have the duty and responsibility to refrain from doing business with the present regime as if everything is normal. The policy of cooperation has not only prolonged the reign of tyranny in Ethiopia, but could also harm the long term interests of the West and the search for lasting peace in the country.
The most dangerous trend observable is the tendency, on the part of governments in the West, to apply double standards when dealing with the Ethiopian regime and neglect observation of universally accepted democratic principles. The regime has failed the democratic test and thus deserves not the support but the sanction of the international community.
Adnew Wakjira
Counsellor, Ethiopian Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden
The Tigrean militias summarily executed thousands of Somalis in broad daylight. What justification could anyone find for the murder of the elected mayor of Qabridaharre infront of his own people some ten or so months ago ? How could people who speak for Melez justify the deliberate poisoning of primitive watering wells of Somali nomads whose lifestyles are in constant desperate search of water for their animals ? Would this not remind us of the millions of Ethiopians starved to death by former butcher Mengistu ? It sure does. But, how could any right thinking Ethiopian or Somali be silent about the massacre of the Somali people ? Is it not a humanity pre-requisite to **SPEAK OUT** against injustice ?
Instead of demanding to know from the current occupiers of Ethiopia (EPRDF doesn't deserve to be called rulers) where they took the Somali shares of the Ethiopian pie, how could the international community justify the huge military procuerments used against the oppressed Somali people ? Perhaps some of us care more for the positions some stupid cronies of Melez may hold in the Ethiopian government than for the thousands of Somalis languishing in Dire Dewa and Addis Jails. Wouldn't this, however, remind us the ages-old Somali adage: "Kii qayrkii loo xiirayow soo qoyso adiguna" ? It sure does, but I suppose it is wise "In ay dadku wax iskula haraan". I could not help but notice some of us, in the name of a defense for a regime that hurts us all, accuse the Somali victims who ran away from their families in search of personal safety. That, in my judgement, is adding insult to injury.
Sure it is convenient to repeat the propoganda the Ethiopian government and its sponsors spread against victims of its inhumane treatments, that is that there is a growing "Fundumental movement" in the Horn of Africa, but nothing is thicker than a blood. Somalis are known to adhere to the Moslim faith and are rationale in their practice of their religion. The Somali people would Insha Allah leave no stone unturned to air their voices. Truth will, in the end, prevail and the struggle for justice will not be diminshed an iota. Did any of you ever believed apartheid would be dismantled in our lifetime ?
The agreement establishing formal ties was signed at the United Nations in New York Friday by Cuba's ambassador to the U.N., Bruno Rodriguez, and his Eritrean counterpart Amdemicael Kahsai, the Communist Party daily reported.
The document included a commitment to accredit ambassadors in Havana and Asmara and a pledge to respect the principles of independence and non-intervention in internal affairs.
Cuba sent troops to Ethiopia in 1977 to help the left-wing government expel Somali invaders from the Ogaden, but the Cubans avoided intervening in the independence war fought by Eritrean separatists against the Ethiopian government.
Throughout the eastern Horn the empirical properties of states are especially variable with boundaries as rigid as they are artificial. Rather than promoting stability,"frontier fetishism" in this region has only provoked constant Somali opposition, particularly over the Ogaden where the correlation of ethnicity and class sustains one of the oldest irredentist movements in Africa. African states are reluctant to consider postcolonial boundary adjustments anywhere, fearing the dire consequences from a multiplicity of claims stimulated by such a precedent. Such changes in the Horn, however,(their implicit "demonstration effect" aside)would fundamentally alter- some would say "dismember"- the empire-state of Ethiopia, the polity at the heart of this volatile region and yet one which enjoys a mystique unique among African states.
With its ancient written languages, Solomon and Sheba mythology, early state systems begining with Aksum(250 B.C), court conversion to christianity after 350 A.D., victory over Italian imperialism in 1896, invasion by fascist forces in 1935, the triumphant restoration of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1941 as the "first to be freed from fascism," and headquarters for the Oraganization of African Unity since 1963 making Adiss Ababa the unofficial "capital of Africa," Ethiopia was long considered a progressive symbol of African independence, "a prestige and recognition which gives[it] a special place in the contemporary African scene." Recent scholarship, however, has delineated a dialectic of modern Ethiopian history to explain how the state's expansive policies and colonial practices towards the various nationalities(including the Ogaden Somalis) have provoked furious internal struggles throughout the country. Indeed, the central paradox of contemporary Ethiopia is the simultaneous search for self-determination by both the Ogaden (its most undeveloped, unintegrated, and unincorporated territorial sector) and Eritrea, its most politically advantaged and economically intergrated province.
Until the 1950s, at least according to the writings of many politically conscious Caribbeans, black Americans and Africans living far from the Horn, Ethiopia enjoyed symbolic significance as "a solid island of freedom in the stormy waters of colonial aggression". The novelist Daniel Thwaite rhapsodized that Ethiopia was the "shrine enclosing the last sacred spark of African political freedom, the impregnable rock of black resistance against white invasion, a living symbol, and incarnation of African independence." West Indians saw its invasion by Italian fascists and their eventual expulsion in apocalyptic terms, another indication that the world was divided into good and bad, black and white, in which a black state had survived the onslaught of evil. Issac Wallac-Johnson, the Sierra Leonean nationalist who led the West African Youth League, acknowledged that "the long resistance of the Ethiopians to Italian imperialists[was] a source of inspiration and hope for a West African struggle for emancipation." Edward Roux cited a similar impact which the Italian- Ethiopian war had in South Africa when Africans "realized for the first time that there existed still in Africa, an independent country where the black man was master and had his own king. They were inspired by the idea of balck men defending their own country against white aggressors." Traditional Ethiopian chroniclers also depicted wars of attempted conquest as struggles between good and evil, light and darkness, attributing their victories to the might of God and describing Ethiopia's enemies as guided by Satan.
Although the image of Ethiopia as "the only oasis in a desert of rank subjugation from the avaricious hands of foreign domination" contributed to anti-colonialist, nationalist, and pan-Africanist sentiments, there is little indication that Africans on the continent or throughout the diaspora actually knew(or perhaps even cared) much about the inner workings of the Ethiopian state. Yet an analysis of Somali nationalism and its anti-colonialist component is incomplete without an examination of the manner whereby Somalis experienced Ethiopian state institutions since the late nineteenth century. Somalis in the Ogaden and neighbouring British Somaliland had no illusions about a symbolic or abstract Ethiopia. As will be shown, to them identification of Ethiopia as a "bastion of prestige and hope to thousands of Africans" was appallingly absurd, contradicted by their adversarial relations with the "real" Ethiopians.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) conducted discasions covering bilateral relations, the state of their respective peoples and stuggles, other regional issues as well as the international relation and agreed as follows.
The two organisations have a commonalty of views regarding the Oromo and Ogaden peoples' misfortune of being victims of the 19th century colonialism both of whom suffered unparalleled oppression under tyrannical Ethipian colonial domination and the lack of a political alternative which compelled them to wage armed resistance to regain their legitimate national rights. They further underline that the domination by the Ethiopian ruling classes would not have been possible without the collusion with big powers of the whom they were willing surrogates to the detriment of the inhabitants of the region.
The ONLF and the OLF are cognisant of the tremendous role the struggles the Oromo and the Ogaden peoples played which at times were intertwined, that, couple with other democratic and national liberation struggles within the empire-state of Ethiopia, inbringing about the historic demise of both the Emperor and the Derg's regimes in 1974 and in 1991 respectively.
The organisations played a constractive role in the implementation of the 1991 Finfinne (addis Ababa) charter aimed to effect a peaceful transition to the democracy which guarantied respect for human rights including the right to frely organise and freedom of expression and the right of self determination of the peoples. They recall with indication the machinations of the TPLF/EPRDF, though primary signatory of the Charter, which continously achemed to the undermine the fundamental tenets of the Charter and to reinstata single nationality based one part tyranny all over again. The much hoped-for tansition to democracy (in 1991) become no more than a Tigrigna military occupation of the Ogaden, Oromia and the rest of the empire-state of Ethiopia.
Furthermore the two organisations sternly condem TPLF/EPRDF,s political delicuency in converting its politica programme to a constitution for Ethiopia to the excution of the genuine aspirations of their respective peoples as well as other population groups and political opinions. They are at one about the negative cotribution of the TPLF tailor-made constitution to Ethiopia's problems and hence deelare it irrelevant to both Ogadeni and Oromo peoples.
They further underline that efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the continued conflict has been answered with aggretion on the Oromo and Ogadenin peoples, and all attempts engage in meaningful talks on any of the underling issues bloched by the intransigence of the TPLF/EPRDF regime.
In the circomstances, the two organisation see no alternative othe than the Ogadeni and Oromo peoples exercising their legitimate self-defence to resist the oppressors by all means at their disposal. In this sacred struggle, the ONLF and the OLF, therefore, pledge to co-ordinate their activities in the diplomatic, political and military fields. Detailed machanism of the cooperation shall be drawn up and put into effect following this statment.
The OLF and the ONLF further agree to resolve all misunderstanding and disputes between their respective peoples and their two organisations by peaceful means. To that end they shall soon install appropriate mechanisms at all necessary levels.
The two organisation vehemently deplore abuse of human rights and the state terrorism pursued by the TPLF/EPRDF the primary victms of which are the Ogadenian and the Oromo peoples. They agree to cooprate in compiling data on the regime's abuse of human rights, the degradation of the environment and the looting of the resources from both the Ogaden and the Oromia by the Tigrigna occupation forces, and to work together to ensure the perpetrators are held legally accountable.
The ONLF and the OLF indignantly deplore the divisive policies of the TPLF/EPRDF regime, its fomenting mistrust and friction among each and between neighbouring peoples and pladge to work in unison to thwart the negative consequences and to actively promote mutuale understading brotherhood and co-operation among peoples
The two oranisations resolutely condemn the re-deployment by the TPLF/EPRDF regime of the ant-democratic and anti national liberation outfits that were employed by the previous regime against the Tigray, Oromo and Ogadenian peoples. The use of these scum crearly indicates the unprincipled, opportunist nature of the TPLF/EPRDF.
They call on other political forces in Ethiopia stuggling for genuine democracy, self-determination,respect for human rights and the rule of law and for peaceful settlement of the conflict to join them in the struggle to speed up victory against the forces of tyranny in all there manifestations. In particular, the OLF and the ONLF call on the Tigrean people and democrats to more actively support and join the ranks of resistance against tyranny perpetrated in their name. Besides, they jointly call on the Tigrigna militia in Ogadn and Oromia to repudiate being turned to instruments in the TPLF/EPRDF's futile venture to suppress other peoples aspiration for human dignity, freedom, democracy and peace.
The ONLF and the OLF callon the intenational community to refrain from acts likely to prolong the suffering of the Ogadeni Oromo as well as the suffering of other peoples, to use their influences to bring about a democratic change including by making both deplomatic and economic contact with the TPLF/EPRDF regime conditional on the respect for human rights and the practical steps the regime takes to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict as matter of priority.
For the ONLF
1) A. M Mahadi 2) M. S Dolal
For the OLF
1)T. Abdi 2)M. K Melki
In the Berlin conference of 1884, European colonialists partitioned Africa among themselves, and the Ogaden people had the misfortune of falling under the British occupation. Later on in 1897, Emperor Menilik of Ethiopia helped the British government crush the Mahdi revolution in the Sudan, and, as a reward, Britain secretly without consulting the Ogaden people transferred the Ogaden territory to Ethiopia.
Ever since, the Ogaden issue became a thorn in the stability of the Horn of Africa. When Somalia became independent in 1960, the Ogaden issue escalated into a severe conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia, and it precipitated into two major wars (1964, 1977) between the two governments; the latter one was so devastating that it consumed the lives of more than one-half million people from both sides, and it turned the economies of the two countries into shambles. The so-called 1977 Ogaden even almost drew the then superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, into a major conflict.
Ogaden is very rich in natural resources particularly it has large reserves of oil and natural gas; however, unfortunately, these resources have not, and they will never be utilized until a just settlement is reached for the Ogaden cause. The vehicle of liberation started on different times for different peoples: for the Americans, it started with the American Revolution; for the South Africans it started with the establishment of the ANC; for the Algerians, it started with the creation of National Liberation Front.
For quite a long time, the Ogaden issue had been tossed around like football between Ethiopia and Somalia, but that chapter is over: we, only, speak for our cause, no one else will. Today our people, the Ogaden people, are living under extreme terror: arrests without reason, torture of prisoners including women, random and targeted execution of intellectuals and community leaders are common place in our country, and these atrocities have been documented by reputable human rights organizations such as Amnesty International.
The irony is that our people are being massacred by a regime which claims to be a democratic one; nevertheless, it is an African democracy. Don't get me wrong; we are proud of being Africans, yet, it is those ruthless African regimes which misused the meaning of every dignified word, and democracy is one of their victims!
The United States has now referred to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda as "front-line states" as they border Sudan and are regarded by Washington as instrumental in containing the Khartoum government. Enditem
The Ethiopian occupied, Ogaden, is once again in turmoil. For the past five years, the Ethiopian Government has conducted inhumane actions which amounted to gross violations of the basic human and political rights of the Ogaden Somalis. In November 1993, the Ethiopian Government has deliberately created a state of confusion and chaos by dissolving the democratically elected parliament of the Ogaden. Before its ultimate dissolvement the regional parliament endured pressure and intimidation from the Ethiopian leadership in the hands of the Tigre People's Liberation Front(TPLF). In light of the above mentioned Ethiopian government policy of undermining democracy in the Ogaden, the first elected leader Mr, Abdullahi Mohamed Sadi and two other top officials were arrested by the Regime. The Somali region was coerced to elect new executive of the parliament. In order to give peace and stability a chance, the Somali people of the region elected new executive body with Hassan Jire Kalinle as its head. Unfortunately, the new excutive members was not again favoured by the current administration in Addis Ababa. Eventually the new executive body of the region too was toppled by the EPRDF. The executive body including its president and vice president were subsequently detained and tortured. On May 12, 1994, massive troops and military hardware were deployed in the region to crash any mass rallies and protests against the brutal policies of the Ethiopian regime. All the dignitaries, tribal leaders, elected councillors,etc fled the cities for fear of their safety. Thousands more are in prisons without court of justice. As it did to all the other regions, the (Ethiopian Government led) by EPRDF created it's own satellite political parties that does not enjoy the support of the people of the Region, while suppressing the popular political organizations such as the Ogaden National Liberation front (party) and Western Somali Democratic party. This part has no grass root support in the Ogaden Region and it's supporters are drawn mainly from a non-indegnious clan, outside the defacto boundary of the Ogaden region. The Chairman, of this pseads party dAbdulmajid Hussein, also an Ethiopian federal minister of Transportation, enjoys an absolute power to put his voise in the region's day to day affairs, appointing pro-Government individuals to power, to insure complete monopoly of the regions political and economic power in the same token undermining the popular politicians who have the total support of the people. Not surprisingly, the elections held last year, the Mr Abdulmajid's party, using the regime's apparatus, rigged the elections. Despite, that the satellite party failed to form a Government, after apparently the minister sheepishly, appointed his, cousin Eid, a non indigenous from Northern Somalia and was a member and decision making body of the Somali National Movement (SNM), which claims the control of the Northwestern Somalia to the highest elected office of the region. The minister also illegally awards Government contracts, appoints public offices, create business opportunities and gives security protection to his non Ogadenian Somali clan of Northwestern Somalia who are not even Ogadenian\ Somali Citizens. He does all these at the expenses of the Ogaden Somalis. The Neo-patrimonial policy of the Ethiopian leadership led by the EPRDF, consequently exacerbated the political sutuation and civil war in the region. The Ogaden Somali Region and it's people have suffered in the notorious hands, of the successive Ethiopian regimes from Menelik to the current of EPRDF and never have been treated as Citizens of Ethiopia. not even as equal human beings. Everything from Education, health care, security, economy, water supplies, Telecommunication, electricity and all kinds of infrastructures are non existent in the Ogaden Somali region. In addition to that, arbitrary detention, extrajudiciary excution, looting and all forms of atrocities are daily occurrences in the region. In the recent weeks and months the notorious gangs of the so-called Ethiopian army who have no bassic training as a national army and were formerly the guerilla fighters of the Tigre People's Liberation Front (TPLF) have started a new campaign of terror and raided many Villages and nomadic water centres killing hundreds of unarmed and innocent Civilians and looted their properties. To mention a few of the hardest hit villages and towns where casualties were in the thousands according to eye witnesses are Kabridaharre, Babile, Biyo-ade, Marsin, Elhar, Godey, Gerigo'an, Hara-diged, Aado, Waylo-lagu-hid, Landeer, and many others. The EPRDF notorious gangs have also poisoned the nomadic water wheles (holes and hundreds of thousands of livstocks which were the economic base for the Ogaden Somali region were killed . Furthermore, the time when the international community has finally understood the devastation and impact of anti-personnel mines on the human being and started the ban of it's production and use; the Ethiopian Government recently shipped over 400.000 anti-personal mines and planted them in the Ogaden region. Reliable sources confirmed that thousands of people and livestock were killed or wounded in recent months by land mines. The Ethiopian Government has literally abandoned all it's so called reform policies and decided to exterminate any group which voice its opposition to the regime's brutal and inhuman policies. The region is in a state of chaos which can only be resolved by the intervention of the international community. The indifference of the international community in the plight of the Ogaden Somalis is lending to full scale genocide of the Ogaden \Somalis.
The Roots of the Current Crisis I would like to present here, a brief background to the crisis to help you understand the causes of the current turmoil. Deep in the trouble rieden Africa there are many crisis. One of the most complex is the plight of the Somalis in the Ogaden, under Ethiopia.
The question of the Ogaden Somali region, as part of the divided Somali nation that remained under Ethiopian rule, had been the source of sporadic wars and human tragedy for the past fourty years. It is a colonial legacy, a result of partition of Africa by the colonialists one of the major factors that constantly threatens the stability of the countries in the Horn of Africa, specifically Somalia and Ethiopia. The Somali people in this region aspire their rights to self-determination and independence. The past successive in Ethiopian regimes had suppressed that demand, through the rule of sword and under the thin guise of the inviolability of the colonial borders as inherited from the colonial powers (a key charter of the OAU which is the result of many conflicts in Africa). But the Ogaden people never quit their quest for justice and human dignity, they struggle against a malignant Abysinian colonialism, which has lasted nearly one hundred years and which have deneid all the rights, including right to life, liberty and security to the people of Ogaden Somalis. Like some vile pestilence, this occupation has brought only torture, mutilation and death; from it, flows an anguished stream of refugees who leave behind, the bodies of their loved relatives which are hidden from both local and international media. We can only flashback on the disastrous consequences, in both human and material terms, of the Ogaden war of 1976-1979.
The undeniable fact is that the people in this area have every right as any other people, like South Africans, the Palestinians, etc., to aspire for self-rule and the right to self-determination, the realisation of which is the duty of nations to ensure. Despite the U.N. principles of which we hear so much, that duty has been neglected. This is the nucleus of the problem in Ogaden. During the oppressive rule of the Amhara dominated Ethiopia, successive regimes from Emperor Menelik II's era in the late half of the 19th century to the end of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam's downfall in 1991, to the curent gangs of EPRDF, the Ogaden Somali people have never been given the opportunity to enjoy any of the rights declared in the U.N.human rights declaratin and were always subjected to torture,cruel, and inhuman treatment.
OGADEN UNDER EPRDF RULE 1991 - 1996: Empty Promises The centuries-old Amhara dominance of Ethiopian nationalities and politics ended with the collapse of the dictatorial military regime of Col. Mengistu H. Mariam. A new era began when the Tigrians dominated of Ethiopian Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) win the military strugle for power. People hoped for real change; and EPRDF promised to institute fundamental changes and specifically stated its commitment to promote and ensure the rights of all nationalities within Ethiopia to exercise their right for self-determination. This kind of declarations, as manifested in its July 1991 Charter, and nation wide approved constitution have raised the hopes of oppressed peoples, most notably Somalis. The political organizations of the region such as Ogaden National Liberation Front, Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) have welcomed the EPRDF rule and supported its political programs. They adopted a reasonable stand: instead of pursuing their aspiration for self-determination and self-rule through destructive armed struggle, the Ogaden Somali people opted to shape through peaceful means what their future political status would be. Clearly this stand drives from and concurs with the EPRDF's declaration and political program in regard to the solution of the question of ethnic nationalities. The Ogaden Somali people trusted the EPRDF's rhetoric and wanted to collaborate with them. For the first time in the modern history of the region, in late 1992, the people openly and democratically elected Regional Administrative Council Representatives (regional parliament), a president, vice president and a secretary. In a report released by the National Election Committee in February 1993, of the 110 regional parliament seats contested, the ONLF won 65, WSLF took 11, and the remainder were won by eight other parties and independent candidates. But the results did not please the ruling EPRDF, why not? Well, the fact was that unlike other regions of Ethiopia, the dominant EPRDF had no satellite party organized to defend its agenda in the Somali region. Two factors contributed to the EPRDF's dissatisfaction of the turn of events in Ogaden region. First, the Central Government (EPRDF) get alarmed about the prospects as the elections for national Constituent Assembly (June 5, 1994) and constitutional referendum approached. Second, tension and suspicion arises from the debate on the draft constitution especially on the issue of Self-determination and the right to secede from the union. EPRDF's interpretations at that time failed to instill confidence in the hearts of the people. Consensus within ONLF, WSLF and other parties and their constituents concluded that their rights to exercise their self determination is systematically and subtly undermined by the proposed concepts. Furthermore, they saw that proposed articles are in violation of the spirit and the letter of the Charter of the Transitional Government which explicitly guaranteed the rights of the nationalities for "self determination up to and including cession". But the most important factor that exacerbated the situation is how the Ethiopian Government handled the tensions. Instead of engaging in dialogue and debate started to influence events and thus resorted to well known tactics typical of any occupying or colonizing regime. EPRDF authorities and military apparatus in the Region embarked on political suppression, massacre, and wanton detention of anyone suspected of voicing dissident opinion without due process. This reminded the Ogaden people that in reality things have not changed but, have worsened and that they are still under oppressive foreign rule. Any one visiting Ogaden would not fail to notice that the Central Government's presence is only in the form of ligalized gangs and looters confined to barracks. There are no significant numbers of non-Somali civilian population in Ogaden. In light of these circumstances the Central Committee of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has passed Resolution number JWXO/XD/0005/94 on November 22, 1993 which strongly affirms the right of Ogaden people for self determination and calls for the Ethiopian Government to respect it as described in the Transitional Charter. The Resolution further proposed, in accordance with the ideals of the National Charter, an open referendum to be administered in Region 5 in order to ensure the will of the people. Similarly, the Regional Parliament has unanimously supported the stand of the ONLF in February 24, 1994. Again, in January 28, 1994 nine political parties that represent the various constituents in the Region jointly supported the position of ONLF in a press conference held in Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Moreover, the united position of the legislative bodies and political parties of the Region is also supported by the Community, Tribal, and Religious leaders who explicitly stated, in a open town meeting organized and chaired by the President of the Ethiopia Government Melese Zinawe, that the people of Ogaden unwaveringly aspire to exercise their self determination through referendum. This meeting was broadcasted live over Radio Ethiopia. The outcome of the meeting frustrated the expectation of the Ethiopian Government to find support for their policies among the rank and file of the people of Ogaden.
What was the Ethiopian Government's response? Unfortunately, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which heads the Government, instead of respecting the rights for freedom of expression and dissent has resorted to suppression and gross violation of basic human rights. In order to confuse the international community, the Government have also setup a custom made Somali party, the so-called Ethiopian Somali Democratic League (ESDL). This party is headed by Abdul Majid, the public Transport minister of Ethiopian Government. The Ethiopian authorities in the region have carred out an open campaign of intimidation and coercion to recruit constituents for ESDL and to undermine the popular parties of the Region. The highlights of the atrocities of the Ethiopian Government against the people and the elected political leaders of Ogaden Somali Region cannot be summarized in a paper:
The Ogaden Human Rights' Commission in N/America and Western Europe is hereby present you a tragedy which is unfolding in our homeland Ogaden(Samakeen). When the former Marxist regime in Ethiopia was overthrown in 1991, the new regime headed by Mr. Males Zenawi promised for the Ogaden people to respect human life, tolerate political descent, and to strive for the democratization of the country.
However, it seems, the regime's earlier favorable promises were tactical rather than genuine policies to instill democracy and respect for human life in Ogaden. The insincerity of the regime's agenda is manifested by the fact that in less than two years, the regime had rescinded all of its previous promises, dismissed the freely elected Ogaden regional parliament, sacked the popularly elected Ogaden regional government in March 1993, and threw our political leaders in jail!!
>From that day on, the Ogaden people are living in terror: arbitrary detentions, extra judiciary executions, rape, looting, and all forms of atrocities are daily occurrences in the Ogaden region. As a preliminary measure for its horrific campaign against the Ogaden people, the Ethiopian regime had confiscated all portable communication equipments from the civilian and from the aid agencies in the region in order to prevent the leakage of its atrocities to the International Community and to the media(except three towns in the north, the region has no telephone system).
This blackout tactic has worked superbly for the regime, and it is the reason why no one in the international community knows anything about the silent genocide which the Ethiopian regime is conducting against the Ogaden people. For instance, to cite one specific example, when the Ethiopian army massacred (43) forty three men, women, and children during a day light in the center of the town of Warder in April 1994, no one in the International Community would have known that massacre had it not been for a portable phone belonged to the African Development Bank. When the news of that massacre leaked, the representative of The African Development Bank was thrown in Jail instantly , for allowing the leakage to happen, and his phone confiscated. That was the last communication equipment in the entire region which is the home of more than five million people, and the terror continued. Despite this deliberate blackout, Amnesty International was able to document some of these atrocities though what it documented is a drop in an ocean.
The Ethiopian regime has developed a unique way of physically eliminating Ogaden intellectuals, and political leaders, and committing a large scale massacres against our civilians under the guise of fighting against secessionists, terrorists, and religious fundamentalists. Mr. Zenawi is considered a master in this art! By hunting down and murdering sixty-year-old Ogaden village women for the mere suspicion that their sons belong to an opposition group, the Ethiopian regime has taken the whole issue of oppression and brutality into unthinkable territory! It is truly amazing how Mr. Males Zenawi evolved overnight from a so-called freedom fighter to a ruthless dictator who cut the throats of thousands of Ogaden nomads and villagers!
The irony is that while Mr. Zenawi has kept butchering Ogaden civilians, his regime's representatives in Washington and in other Western cities are busy selling him and his regime as true democrats! Nevertheless, it is an African democracy. Don't get us wrong; we are proud of being Africans, yet, it is those ruthless African regimes which misused the meaning of every dignified term, and democracy is one of their victims!
Like all the notorious, oppressive regimes in history, the Ethiopian regime has setup a puppet administration in Ogaden which is headed by Dr. Abdul Majid Hussein. Dr. Hussein and his cronies are there for the sole purpose of twisting facts, rationalizing the regime's atrocities against Ogaden civilians, and at the same time, misinforming the international community about what is going on in Ogaden.
In the beginning of this month, Nov.1996, less a month from the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State of Warren Christover to Ethiopia, the regime has staged yet another terror campaign against the Ogaden civilians who live in the major cities Addis Ababa, Diredawa, Harar, and Jigjiga, and rounded up hundreds of innocent civilians, and taken them to unknown destinations. The rational given by the regime for the latest terror campaign was the familiar, never failing pretext of fighting against terrorists and religious fundamentalists! Due to the fact that all telephone lines which belong to the Ogaden Somalis in the major cities are tabbed and strictly monitored, our people are, understandably, scared for their lives to say anything about what is going on. Yet, we have thus far obtained the names of certain detainees. Some of them are executive Board of the Ogaden Welfare Sociaty (OWS).
1-Dr. Mohamed Gani, chairman of (OWS), detained at Addis
2- Moahmed Abdi, Administrator of (OWS)
3-Mubarak A. Odawa, Accountant of the (OWS)
4-Abdi Sheikh Ismail, Student Visitor from Sweden
5-Muse Abdullahi Saleman, Bihi Trading, detained at Diredaw
6-Hussein Ahmed Saleman,Bihi Trading, detained at Addis-Abiba
Mr. President, the Ogaden(Samakeen) people, though Africans, are your brothers and sisters in humanity; and they are defenseless, victims of cruel regime and they need your voice. There are times in history when the difference between life and death for an entire ethnic group depends on one stand. To our people, today is that day. A phone call, or a letter of protest from your office will not only alleviate the mistreatment and the torture from those are incarcerated, but it will indeed save the lives of thousands and thousands of Ogaden nomads and villagers.
You can never imagine how much difference your action can make in the lives of our people.
Very Sincerely Yours,
Ogaden Human Rights Commission of N/America and Western Europe
Amin, 53, was on an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 seized by three hijackers on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi Saturday. The airliner ran out of fuel, went down in the sea just off the Comoro Islands and only 52 out of 175 passengers and crew on board were reported to have survived.
Amin, who worked for Reuters Television and lived in Nairobi, was regarded as one of Africa's top photojournalists. He won numerous awards in a career that spanned four decades since he started out with a camera as a 13-year-old schoolboy covering the East African car rally.
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Mark Wood said: ``We are deeply saddened by his death. ``Mohamed Amin was one of the outstanding newsmen of his time. He was known everywhere, hugely respected, an extraordinary and forceful person. ``He transformed television coverage of Africa and, by focusing the world's attention on famine and suffering, helped to save many lives.''
Amin relished being in the thick of the action, recording history and covering wars. He reported conflicts across the African continent from Ethiopia and Somalia in the east to Congo and Biafra in the west and also filmed fighting further afield in Beirut, Aden, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent. Amin had half his left arm blown off by a rocket when filming an exploding ammunition dump in Addis Ababa soon after the Ethiopian capital fell to anti-Marxist rebels in June 1991. His soundman John Mathai was killed.
Amin -- widely known as ``Mo'' in the media world -- had an artificial limb made in the United States and a television camera adapted so he could carry on his television work. Recalling the shock when he saw the scale of the Ethiopian famine, which claimed an estimated 1.2 million lives, Amin told Reuters of entering a refugee camp at Makelle crammed with 80,000 people: ``There hadn't been any food for two weeks ... everywhere I pointed my camera there were people dying.'' Of the impact his film footage had: ``It was moving pictures, in color, with sound, being brought into your living room, possibly at the time you're having lunch or dinner. I don't think there is anybody who could sit there and watch these pictures and not do something about it.''
Amin was honored by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in 1992 when made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
Amin, who often started work at 2 a.m. so he could get things done in the quiet part of the day, once told a biographer he did not want to spend his life lying on a beach. ``You must achieve something with your life ... I just feel that I don't need to rest in this life. I can rest later when I die. Then nobody's going to bother me.''
Amin started as a freelance cameraman for Visnews, the world's largest television film agency, in 1966 and joined the staff in 1969.
After Visnews was taken over by Reuters in 1993, Amin launched its ``Africa Journal'' news magazine program and became Reuters Television's business manager for Africa. He was also an author, book publisher and documentary-maker. Born in Nairobi, he married in 1968 and leaves a widow Dolly and son Salim, 26.
We all know now where we are heading, send this letter to Clinton, build a homepage, new idea from one of us which is the best, to discuss each other to get one conclusion, motivation, now look here we can teach each other anything else, but the motivation is inside you and depends how you act. (Biyo meel godan bay isugu yimaadaan) Ujeedadeenu waxay tahay hadii waan waan wax lagu waayo in ay lagama maar maan noqon doonto in aynu dagaalano oo aan fadhiga ka kacno waana in aynu u sii tabaabushaysano in aynu dadkeena ku caawino dhinac walba ama xag daawo ha ahaato ama xag dhaqaale iyo hub intaba. waan ogahay in dadku inta badan ay ka cabaadaan xag dhaqaale, but that's not true sababtoo ah sidaan hore idiinku soo sheegayba waynu ka badanahay carrada inta dibadaha joogta isla markaana aan u arkayo in aynu ku filaan karno hadii figrad wanaagsan iyo qorshe wadajir ah aynu ku dhaqaaqno. Waamaxay wadani? wadanigu waa ninka u hura naftiisa iyo wax alaale wuxuu hayaba dhulkiisa hooyo iyo dadkiisa kaasaana aakhirka guulaysta.
We all need to have common understanding.
In a statement it issued here yesterday the bureau said the detainees, some among those at large, were apprehended with ammunition and plenty of explosives readied for yet another crime.
Some among the arrested, the bureau said, were individuals who masterminded the plot to kill the minister and bomb explosions at state owned hotels in the capital and in Dire Dawa.
Nefarious activities of the alleged criminals, have not caused damage only to properties, but also claimed the lives of innocent citizens, the statement said.
The crime was committed months ago, the bureau said, adding, the result testified to the fact that police have seriously been tracking down culprits.
It said in addition to the support of the Ethiopian public in the hunt for the criminals, the collaboration with the police of peace loving Somalis deserved praise.
Members of the gang under police detention include Mohammed (pseudo name Mustafa) who masterminded the attempted murder and the explosion in Addis Ababa, Mohammed Dolu (pseudo name Bare), leader of the explosion in Dire Dawa as well as Mohammed (pseudo name Dolin) and Mohammed Abadir, Ibrahim Hussien, Abdi Nur, Umer Yuselle, Mussie Abdullahi, Abdi Shkur (false Name Farah).
Dr. Abdulmejid Hussien was wounded and two guards were killed when murder was attempted on July 8,1996. it is also to be recalled that properties were damaged and lives claimed by bomb explosions occurred at hotels in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.
During talks with the elders and the tribal chiefs, Ato Gebru Asrat, President of the Tigray National regional State, said such an exchange of development experiences would continue in the future.
Woizerit Tamirat Belay, a representative of the Tigray women, on her part urged the visitors from Somali National Regional State to pave the way for women in their region to take part in development activities as it is difficult to bring about development without the participation of women.
The elders and tribal chiefs visited water and solid conservation works, irrigation projects, historical sites, the Negash Mosque, the Agbe Youth Training Centre as well as construction of dams.
But, this is a different story. I think they are liars.
The talks with Meles centred on bilateral ties between the two countries, particularly on some 25 bilateral agreements covering various, which were signed between 1993 and 1996.
The talks between Aptidon and Meles also dwelt at length on the situation in Somalia and the recently revitalised six-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Gouled, who has been president of Djibouti since the country attained independence from France in 1977, was welcomed and later seen off at Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport by Gidada and other senior government officials.
______
Agence France Presse (AFP)
It is unfortunate that many Muslims of this area are unaware of the reason that led them to their current situation. Many Muslims are also not aware of how long the Ethiopian Christians have been trying to remove their presence from Ethiopia/Somalia (these are new names - Ethiopia was previously no more than the central highland area) for centuries. From what I understand, Islam posed a big problem for the Christians. They tried for a long time to resolve the religious issue, by attempting, and sometimes succeeding in converting the Muslims (and others) to Christianity. Now in modern times, Ethiopia is perceived to be a majority Christian nation. In fact, just the other day I was talking with an American over the net, and he was shocked when I revealed to him the large Islamic presence in Ethiopia. All most people know is about Solomon (pbuh) and Queen Sheba--the far fetched Ethiopian fables. Other than that, Islam is not even recognized; only as a "terrorist" threat. On other networks I have encountered Ethiopians who claim that Islam has equal respect and "love" in the hearts of all Ethiopians. We know this is not true. Nonetheless, not one single Ethiopian came forward to defend Islam.
Recently, Jamal Schreuder made similar attempts and found himself in the same situation I was in: on the defensive. Have you ever met a person who claimed to believe in "equal opportunity" yet who directly referred to Muslims as fundamentalists? The people on this email network were attacking Jamal, and Islam directly, claiming that Muslims and Christians have lived peacefully side-by-side for centuries, and that they both shared a common love: Ethiopia. This love is stronger than the love for the house of Allah (Swt) right? Our love should continue after forced conversion, and sometimes explusion from our homelands.
Last month, at least one person was killed and dozens were injured in four attacks on bars and hotels in Ethiopia. A similar wave of attacks last year was blamed on the Islamic fundamentalist Al-Itihad movement, which has bases in neighbouring Somalia. The rights organisation charged that the ethnic policies of the mainly Tigrean ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) were leading to xenophobia and said it was concerned that such policies had support from western countries.
"The material and moral support (...) extended by the west to EPRDF is giving rise to a dangerous attitude in which foreigners from the West are regarded as being responsible for the problems prevailing in Ethiopia," the statement said.
In a reference to the bloodstained regime of Marxist military ruler Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, toppled in 1991, the rights group said that "we recall that the DERG's 'red terrorA was a vindicative response to such acts of violence."
The EHRCO condemned the bomb attacks and said it called on "all committed to the establishment of a democratic system to press the government and its opponents to resolve any outstanding problems through dialogue."
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopian Police said Thursday they shot and killed the leader of a clandestine organization and arrested a number of his followers.
Police said they shot Assefa Maru, the leader of Ethiopian Patriotic Front, while he resisted arrest. Reporting this, the Ethiopian News Agency gave no details of when and where the shooting took place.
The agency quoted the Federal Police Investigation unit as saying that Assefa and his group were found making preparations to destroy economic establishments and assassinate individuals holding public offices.
His accomplices, Lt. Tegenu Jinka and privates Bogale Tessema, Tesfaye Getachew, Shimelis Ayele, Solomon Tekle Wolde, Yibeltal Simegne and Mengistu Kibret, all ex-servicemen, were arrested. Three assault rifles, seven hand grenades and a pair of binoculars were seized.
Police has mounted a crackdown to hunt members of the group still at large.
Some 50 Ethiopian Jews were recruited by the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, and worked for much of the 1980s to set up escape routes, mainly through Sudan, the weekly Kol Ha'Ir reported.
Aharon Taichu, now a youth worker in the north Israel town of Kiryat Yam, began leading the first secret channel in 1980 when he was 28 and helped thousands escape over the following four years.
An English teacher in his home country, he smuggled fellow Jews either to the coast, where they were met by Israeli ships, or to the Sudanese desert where they were picked up by Israeli Hercules helicopters.
"I was arrested and tortured half a dozen times by the Sudanese army. I finally had to flee because the escape route was discovered," he told Kol Ha'Ir.
Eyal Aharon was 17 years old when he and three colleagues set up a second route in 1984. They too smuggled out thousands of Ethiopians before being arrested and tortured by Sudan in 1989. He escaped to Israel in 1990.
But the Ethiopian agents said the historic operation had been largely ignored both by the Israeli public and the authorities.
"They are ungrateful. No one thanked us or gave us medals or more importantly provided us with any rewards," said Eyal, who now works as a contruction worker in the south Israel city of Ashkelon.
The mission heroes have now turned to a team of lawyers in an attempt to win recognition as former Mossad agents and receive pensions.
More than 60,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, most of whom came to Israel in major airlifts conducted by the army in 1985 and 1991.
But after arrival in Israel, they faced high rates of unemployment and complained of racism and discrimination.
bilateral relations between the two countries and regional issues. Ethiopia and Djibouti signed close to 25 bilateral agreements in various fields between 1993 and 1996. Two joint ministerial meetings were also held. President Aptidon and Prime Minsiter Meles also dwelt at length on the situation in Somalia and the recently revitalized Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the announcement added. The Djibouti president was welcomed and seen off at the Bole international airport by President Negasso. enditem
Vladmir Novikow told reporters Russia saw Africa as a continent with huge potential for the Russian arms market.
``We see Africa as a region which provides a huge potential for development of military-technical cooperation,'' he said.
``Russia possesses effective, simple and reliable armaments including heavily upgraded MiG-21-93s it could offer to the world,'' said Novikow, adding East African countries including Ethiopia had about 200 Russian-made MiG-21 combat planes. He said the former Soviet Union had delivered arms worth an estimated $30 billion to African countries since the 1960s.
He said the delegation including plane and tank experts had met Ethiopian military officers, apparently to discuss how to maintain and renovate the country's vast amount of Soviet-made military hardware.
Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam obtained a large arsenal of weapons and equipment from the former Soviet Union before he was overthrown in 1991. Much of the equipment is now out of service.
Novikow said he was not in Ethiopia to discuss the country's debt of more than three billion roubles owed to Russia. He said that problem would be handled by foreign and finance ministries.
Ghion Hagos, PANA Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - A Chinese firm, Zhongyun Exploration Bureau (ZPEB) has won a contract for the production of condensate gas from a vast natural gas reserve in the Ogaden area of eastern Ethiopia at a cost of over 5.6 million U.S. dollars.
Under an agreement signed with a local firm, Kalub Gas Share Company, in Addis Ababa over the weekend, ZPEB is to produce condensate gas within a year.
ZEPB will undertake work on eight of the 10 natural gas wells at Kalub, about 1,200 km east of Addis Ababa in the Ogaden area of the Ethiopian Somali regional state, according to reports Sunday in the government press.
Some 45 Chinese professionals are to be deployed in the field to produce for the first time condensate gas at Kalub, along with unspecified number of Ethiopian workers.
The Kalub gas project was launched in September 1996 with a 66.6-million-dollar loan obtained from the World Bank, and another 102 million birr (about 16.3 million dollars) allocated by the Ethiopian government and private shareholders.
Fifty-five percent of the 5.631 million dollars expenditure of the project to be carried out by the Chinese firm is to be covered by the Ethiopian government, and the balance by the private shareholders, Aklilou Belete, technical manager of the Kalub Gas Co., was quoted as saying.
It is during the second phase of the project, involving another agreement with either the same Chinese firm or another company altogether, that in addition to condensate gas, diesel, petroleum and kerosene will be produced from the vast natural gas reserve at Kalub.
Although no estimate of the volume of gas in the eight wells at Kalub has been disclosed, the natural gas reserve in the Kalub area is estimated to be over 35 billion cubic metres. The figure was provided over a decade ago by Russian experts who conducted exploration in the Ogaden area under a technical assistance programme of the former Soviet Union to Ethiopia.
The production of condensate gas within a year is expected to alleviate the problem of firewood in Ethiopia as a whole, and in particular in the vast semi-arid Ogaden area where the inhabitants have virtually cut all the trees and vegetation over the years for firewood.
2) Brings China and Ethiopia closer together. This could have millitary
significance as well. As we know China would not look at a human rights
record in Ethiopia to conduct business. It would also be willing to take away
that arms market from Europe and the United States.
Ethiopia is strengthening itself Economically, Politically and millitarily.
The latest economic indicators published by the Economic Intelligence Unit show increadible growth in Ethiopia 10% with a negative 6 % inflation.
They have also send a high level delegation to South Africa recently and
negotiated mining contracts.
Ethiopia is doing everything that an African country should do. They will be strengthened and as they increase in Economic and millitary might, they will be less tolerant of our seccessionist actions.
The answer is to strengthen ourselves more than cooperate with them.
For the last six or so years I have been studying the current appalling and intolerable conditions our people were imposed upon. This has been brought about by a combination of our admittedly blatant negligence on the welfare and affairs of our people on the one hand and of the unashamed beastly actions and human rights abuses of EPRDF.
Who speaks for our people ? I am sure most of the people would, after mature consideration, say that we are the only people who could truly speak for our people. The facts on the ground, however, show us that Somalis in the Ogaden, the Haud and the Reserve Area in the Somali Ethiopian region, renamed currently by the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi as "Zone Five" [sic], seem to have been left, unfortunately again after centuries of neglect and abuse, voiceless and on their own. True, there are political organizations that claim to represent the interests of Somalis in the most inefficiently managed empire state of Ethiopia. Politics as it is, however, can not be the sole speaker of an oppressed nation's yearning desire for equality, for justice and for the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
In this short note, I do not intend to be comprehensive, but it is my aim here to point out that in fact we, in the diaspora, particularly those of us who are exiled in Western Europe and North America, could do wonders for our people. First and foremost, it must be remembered that it is not a crime to act on behalf of oppressed people. If, for instance, Amnesty International could speak out against world injustices, slavery, and colonialism, it makes sense, does it not, that those who are from a particular society that have been traditionally, and continues to be, subjugated and subjected to inhumane treatments to organize themselves in the most effective way to present to the peoples of the world any such events where violence is perpetuated against innocent children, the aged, the sick and the weak.
It seems to me that all of us wish to speak out. However, speaking out, in and by itself, is a laborious work. Collection of first-hand information, analysis of such information, presentation of the now processed data, and protocols of such things of who takes the responsibility of position statements, or protests against the Ethiopian government, or of the integrity of the human rights reports generated from the activities of the wild rulers of Ethiopia is an integral part of people speaking for their people. This, I suppose, need not wait for the political leaders, whether imprisoned in the Ethiopian excruciating prisons of torture or in hiding somewhere. Those of us who are privileged to have the liberty to live without fear of persecution for speaking out against the Ethiopian dictatorial rulers, those who live in North America or in Western Europe must be able to carry out such activities. This undoubtedly requires contemporary ideas of how to organize ourselves in the diaspora, an abandonment of petty misunderstandings among ourselves, and to stay focused that, after all, Somalis in Western Somalia need a big help in anyway possible.
In my humble opinion, we have to pool our meager resources and wake up from our deep sleepy/sleeping bad habits of assuming that someone else is going to speak for our people. If you do not contribute to the process of seeking justice for your people, who do you expect to ? Let us do some simple arithmetic. In North America alone, there is an estimated 100,000 Somalis. Suppose only ten thousand of these contribute a dollar a month into multi-purpose non-governmental, non-political, not-for-profit humanitarian organizations, then there you have about $10,000.00 dollars a month to use as an operating budget. Moreover, many international humanitarian and philanthropic organizations would be more than happy to match those kind of public donations if the target organization is truly beneficent and humane in nature. Now, does it not make sense to hire some of our skilled people on a permanent basis to carry out all those novel activities I have alluded to in the previous paragraph ? I think so. Then, what are we waiting for ?
I realize that to organize is not an easy matter. But I truly believe that we could do it. Many of our equals have done it before, and we have no less creative and skilled people than other people who did it. So, my humble suggestion to you, dear countrymen and women, is that we shed the heavy self-imposed "Heeryo" that dangles on our shoulders. If you have any other suggestions or ideas, please contribute and get active for the sake of our people.
The youth are always the fastest to be changed by development.
The Ethiopians seem to be taking the same route as the European colonialists when they first came to Africa. They wish to develop ONLY the infrastructure neccessary for EXTRACTION of natural resources.
They wish to educate ONLY those that are neccessary to accomplish their goals. That is why they wish to develop the administration of Ogaden. They want it to be manned by administrators that they educate.
They want to fast transform us from an occupied territory to a colony. The differece is that the colony has more self-administration but is their for the extraction of natural wealth only.
We have one weapon however. As you have read the people of Ogaden use Somali Shillings. As long as that is the case, it will mean that their livelyhood is tied more to Somalia then to Ethiopia. A common currency with Somalia suggest a common market. This must never change.
That is why it is imperative that we have a Lobby in Somalia always. Whether it is political factions or generals or whatever else. We must always have influence over Somali politics to ensure that our region is not forgotton.
The Tigray rulers of Ethiopia only intended that principle to apply to thier Eritrean cousins to the north. Though I applaud thier independence, I feel that there seccesion should not be misinterpreted to mean that all ethnic groups in Ethiopia have the same right.
The Somalis in the South have just as much if not more of a desire than the Eritreans had. For them thier is no referendom. Quite to the contrary. Any attempt at exercising thier right under Ethiopias own constitution is squashed by the EPRDF.
Ethiopia is not a democratic nation nor is it one in which the constitution is respected. A new Dergue has replaced the old one and for the Somalis, the story is still the same.
It is just so sad that many more Somalis and Ethiopians have to die in future conflict which are sure to erupt when Somalia emerges from it's civil war.
Make no mistake. There will be future conflicts for the simple reason that the Somalis have so little to lose and so much to gain.
The general manager said according to a survey carried out by a foreign company 23 years ago, the area has a deposit of 74bn cu.m. natural gas. He indicated [that] the Kalu gas development project, [which is] to be undertaken with a 74m-dollar loan obtained from the World Bank and an additional budget by the share company, will provide job opportunities for 300 residents of the area. He said [that] from the sale of the petroleum products, the country will annually obtain 17-20m birr in revenue. He added [that] the project has also a prospect to supply electric power to towns around the site.
Source: Radio Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, in English 1030 gmt 24 Feb 97
Two people died instantly and nine sustained minor and major injuries after a bomb was thrown by unidentified men at the Belayneh hotel in Harer town [eastern Ethiopia] yesterday at around 1915 [local time]. Investigations are under way, the Harer police public relations department has said.
Source: Radio Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, in Amharic 1000 gmt 11 Feb 97
[The] deputy head of the Somali Regional State [southeastern Ethiopia] has announced the setting up of five teams overseeing the distribution of relief aid among the over 200,000 people affected by drought in that part of the country. Ato [Mr] Mahdi Ayyub Gouled told newsmen yesterday that the decision to establish the teams came following reports indicating flaws in the distribution of the aid package. He said the teams comprise members drawn from the regional council, various bureaus and other offices. Ato Mahdi described as satisfactory the response of the federal government and aid organizations to assist the regional administration in its bid to contain the predicament. He added that the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission has already dispatched to the region 4,000 metric t of food grains. Source: Radio Ethiopia external service, Addis Ababa, in English 1630 gmt 13 Feb 97
Ethiopian television quoted the general manager of the Kalub Gas Development Share Company,Jehad Abakoyas, as saying that work will begin shortly for sinking wells at a site 25 kilometers west of the town of Shilabo in central Ogaden.
On completion after two years, the Kalub Gas Extraction and Processing Plant will produce Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Gasoline,kerosine and diesel oil that will initialy save the country up to 20 million birr (6.50 birr to one dollar) in foreign currency annually.
In addition to providing employment to 300 people during its construction stage, the Kalub gas development project will help reduce substantially the depletion of scarce trees and shrubs in the semi-arid Ogaden area that are cut for firewood by providing cooking gas at relatively cheap prices, Jehad said.
Kalub has a confirmed deposit of 74 billion cubic meters of natural gas that were discovered by experts from the former Soviet Union while exploring for crude oil in the Ogaden in the 1970's.
The Kalub gas company was established two-and-a-half years ago with a capital of 102 million birr (18 million dollars at the time), with the Ethiopian central government as the major shareholder. The minority share belongs to some 400 individuals five of the nine regional states making up the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, including the Ethiopian Somali regional state. -
(USC/SNA), told reporters here that Ethiopia had invaded Somalia twice in the last four months. The second invasion began December 17 and Ethiopian forces still occupied 30-40 square kilometres (12-16 square miles) of Somali territory, including the border town of Dolo and its vicinities. Ghalib said many lives had been lost. The conflict remained unresolved despite appeals to the UN Security Council, the Organisation of African Unity and the European Union (EU). Aidid arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday for a one-week visit to Kenya for talks on the Somali situation with President Daniel arap Moi and the EU external relations commissioner for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries, Joao De Deus Pinheiro. Aidid wanted to set the record straight with Pinheiro about the situation on the ground in Somali and also to appeal for relief aid for victims of a severe drought that has gripped Somalia since last year. Aidid is due to return to Mogadishu on Monday. Ghalib dismiseed a recent "so-called peace conference" held in the Ethiopian town of Sodere. He said it was merely a "facade orchestrated and manipulated by the government of Ethiopia to confuse international opinion." "Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia disqualifies its mediation role in the Somali conflict," said Ghalib referring to fighting between Ethiopian forces and the fundamentalist Islamic Al-Itihad Al-Islam group in Somalia's southwest Gedo region which borders Ethiopia . On January 3, Somali clan factions agreed, after more than four weeks of tough negotiations in Sodere, a tourist complex 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Addis Ababa, to set up a national salvation council aimed at paving the way for a transitional government and end years of bloodshed. But Aidid's faction and another warlord Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, who heads a self-declared government in Somaliland in northern Somalia, were absent and claim those at Sodere were "non-existent" leaders. Among those at the negotiations, however, were Ali Mahdi Mohamed, a bitter rival of Aidid, whose forces control north Mogadishu, and another south Mogadishu warlord, Osman Hassan Ali Atto. Ghalib said his faction only recognised a Nairobi accord brokered by president Moi last year, under which the main three warring factions agreed to a ceasefire -- subsequently broken by all factions -- to enable further peace negotiations to continue.
Jehad Abakoyas, general manager of the Calub Gas Development Share Co. said in late February that work would soon begin on drilling wells at a site 25km west of Shilabo in central Ogaden. Abakoyas added that a gas extraction and processing plant would be built alongside to produce LPG, gasoline, kerosene and diesel oil. Once the facility is fully operational in two years' time, he said, it could earn up to $4.6 million annually and supply electricity to towns around the site.
The World Bank put up $74 million towards the scheme and the Calub Gas Development Share Co. is adding an unspecified amount of its own. Calub Gas was set up two and a half years ago with a $18 million capital and the central Ethiopian government as its main shareholder. Some 400 private investors and five of Ethiopia's nine regional states also hold stakes.
Ethiopia says a survey carried out by a foreign oil company 23 years ago pinpointed gas reserves of 74 billion cubic meters. Recently, Ethiopia's energy and mines ministry signed a contract with BEICIP-Franlab, the consultancy and international engineering unit of Institut Francais du Petrole, to examine possible outlets for gas from Calub as well as assess the country's oil potential in general (AEM 198). In the past, BEICIP conducted a study on the potential of Calub's reservoir. It is not clear whether Ethiopia's claim pf gas reserves of 74 billion c.m. stemmed from that survey. The new BEICIP study is being bankrolled by the World Bank.
The television said late on Thursday the Somali region had declared a state of emergency, with 600,000 people affected.
"People and animals have died due to acute shortages of drinking water and many have started evacuating their villages," the state said in a statement read on television.
The state blamed the crisis on a failure of rains due in September and appealed to international donors for urgent supplies. It said major Somali towns, including the regional capital Jijiga,Gode,Deghabour and Kebir Dehar, were affected.
On Wednesday, the U.N. food agency FAO said despite an increase of 20 percent in 1996 cereal and pulse production, some 1.9 million Ethiopians would need food assistance in 1997. FAO said a number of Ethiopian regions faced food shortages.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported Wednesday that almost two million Ethiopians would need food assistance this year, but many parts of this Horn of Africa nation had a bumper crop this season and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that it has an overall surplus of cereals.
The WFP acknowledged in a statement that "a number of food deficit pockets remain in Ethiopia", and said a team made of Ethiopian government officials, donors, and UN and other relief agencies would start a tour of the Ogaden region on Sunday.
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Agence France Presse (AFP)
In a statement it issued yesterday, the public relations office said ambassadors and representatives of donor countries and welfare organizations were briefed on measures so far taken to address the natural disasters in those areas.
The call was made as the relief aid dispatched to the area was insufficient to address existing problems owing to the extent of the natural disaster in the drought affected areas, the statement said.
The commission said that so far it has dispatched relief food, water tanked trucks, tankers, twenty heavy duty trucks in addition to financial assistance in a move to alleviate the problem.
A team has been deployed to the areas to study the magnitude of the problem, particularly the shortage of water, it said.
The commission called on humanitarian organizations to support efforts being made by pertinent government bodies in addressing health problems in these areas. Representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations following briefings and consultations have pledged efforts to assist the drought victims.
Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Department of the Somali Regional State said it has distributed among drought victims of two woredas in Liban zone some 4,350 quintals of grain.
Ato Mohammed Yero said water is also being transported to the areas by tank-trucks. Some 2,650 quintals of grain planned to be distributed to people in two other woredas is expected to reach the area soon, he said
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Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)
A UNHCR chartered flight will leave Amsterdam on Friday for Addis Ababa, from where goods will be transported 645 kilometres (403 miles) east to Jijiga, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Pamela O'Toole said.
Drought in Ethiopia is said to be threatening three million people, despite a bumper harvest this season.
The eastern Ethiopian state of Ogaden declared a drought emergency affecting 600,000 people at the beginning of this month.
The UNHCR is caring for some 280,000 Somali refugees and a high percentage of the 500,000 Ethiopians who returned from refuge in Somalia, in drought-affected areas, the spokeswoman said.
Three out of eight camps in the region -- Daror, Rabasso and Camaboker -- are completely dry and the situation has been described as catastrophic, O'Toole said.
Refugees have started to treck towards Somalia, itself suffering from drought, in search of water.
The UNHCR aid includes water tanks and chlorination tablets and will take two to three days to reach its destination.
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Agence France Presse (AFP)
U-N-H-C-R SPOKESWOMAN PAM O'TOOLE SAYS THE SITUATION IS PARTICULARLY CRITICAL IN THREE CAMPS NEAR THE ETHIOPIAN TOWN OF JIJIGA.
THE CAMPS ARE COMPLETELY DRY. THE SITUATION HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS CATASTROPHIC. SOME REFUGEES HAVE STARTED TO MOVE TOWARDS SOMALIA IN SEARCH OF WATER, BUT OF COURSE THERE IS A DROUGHT ON THERE AS WELL, SO IT IS NOT LIKELY THAT THEY ARE GOING TO FIND MUCH SUCCOR THERE.
U-N OFFICIALS SAY DROUGHT CONDITIONS NOW PREVAIL THROUGHOUT SOMALIA, WITH THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE COUNTRY THE HARDEST HIT.
DOMINIC LANDERBACHER, THE U-N'S RESIDENT COORDINATOR IN MOGADISCIO, SAYS CONDITIONS ARE NOT AS GRAVE AS DURING THE 1992 DROUGHT, WHICH SPARKED WIDESPREAD FAMINE IN THE COUNTRY. BUT HE SAYS MALNUTRITION IS DEFINITELY ON THE RISE, WITH SOME CASES OF STARVATION REPORTED.
THE U-N'S RELIEF AGENCIES HAVE ISSUED A COMBINED APPEAL FOR 46-MILLION DOLLARS IN AID FOR SOMALIA THIS YEAR. TWO-MILLION DOLLARS OF THAT AMOUNT IS EARMARKED FOR DROUGHT RELIEF.
BUT MR. LANDERBACHER SAYS THE RESPONSE FROM THE DONOR COMMUNITY SO FAR HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING, WITH ONLY 100-THOUSAND DOLLARS PLEDGED.
HE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE CONTINUED ANARCHY AND VIOLENCE IN SOMALIA IS PARTLY TO BLAME FOR THE RELUCTANCE OF DONOR STATES, BUT HE SAYS THERE ARE SIGNS THAT THE COUNTRY'S FACTIONAL LEADERS ARE BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION.
TWO OF SOMALIA'S MOST POWERFUL FACTION LEADERS, HUSSEIN AIDID AND ALI MAHDI MOHAMMED, HAVE ISSUED A RARE JOINT APPEAL FOR RELIEF AID. ACCORDING TO U-N SOURCES, HOWEVER, THOSE SAME TWO MILITIA LEADERS HAVE ALSO JUST PURCHASED LARGE SUPPLIES OF AMMUNITION. U-N OFFICIALS NOTE THAT THE CRISIS IN AFRICA'S GREAT LAKES REGION CONTINUES TO PREOCCUPY THE DONOR COMMUNITY. BUT THEY SAY THE HUMANITARIAN NEEDS ELSEWHERE ON THE CONTINENT SHOULD NOT BE NEGLECTED.
THEY ARGUE THAT BY ALLOCATING A RELATIVELY SMALL AMOUNT OF AID FOR SOMALIA AND THE OTHER DROUGHT-AFFECTED COUNTRIES NOW, THE DONOR COMMUNITY COULD HELP PREVENT A MUCH-COSTLIER HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE FUTURE.
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Voice of America (VOA)
a long time ago, and which had a few last-minute hiccups over an affaire of visitors' visa, is therefore not directly linked with the political and militarysituation prevailing in the Horn of Africa. Nor to the presence of French army contingents in Djibouti where French military firepower is not expected to see any major changes in the near future.
I.O.N. - With the chief of military security Kinfe Gebre Medhin, major-general Tsadkan is one of the last senior army officers of Tigray People'sLiberation Front to hold a post of very high responsibility in the Ethiopian army. Although many officers of lower rank are Tigreans, the Ethiopian authorities have sought to spread the military directorate posts among generals of several tribal origins. Apart from general Tsadkan, the air force chief of staff general Abebe Takle Haimanot, and the head of the training directorate general Samora Yuni, the other Ethiopian army generals promoted last year are not Tigreans. General Kassa Damae (commanding the Second Army Corps), general Balcha Debele (commanding the Western Region), and general Abdula Gemea (head ofmilitary intelligence) are Oromos. General Abebaw Tadesse (commanding the Northern and Central Regions) and general Alem Eshete Degefe (engineering chief)are Amharas.
2. Every nation, nationality and people shall have the right to speak, write
and
develop its language and to promote its culture, help it grow and
flourish, and
preserve its historical heritage.
3. Every nation, nationality or people in Ethiopia shall have the
unrestricted right to
administer itself; and this shall include the right to establish
government
institutions within the territory it inhabits and the right to fair
representation in the
federal and state governments.
4. The right to self determination up to secession of nation, nationality and
peoples
may be exercised:-
(a) where the demand for secession is approved by a two thirds (2/3rds)
majority of
the legislature of the nation, nationality or people concerned.
(b) where the Federal Government within three years upon receipt of the
decision of
the legislature of the nation, nationality or people demanding
secession,
organises a referendum for the nation, nationality or people demanding
secession.
(c) where the demand for secession is supported by a simple majority vote in
the
referendum.
(d) where the Federal Government transfers power to the parliament of the nation, nationality or people which has opted for secession.
(e) where property is partitioned in accordance with the law.
1 Every nationality in Ethiopia shall have the right to speak and write in
its own
language, and express, promote and develop it.
2. Every nationality in Ethiopia shall have the full right to administer
itself .This right
shall include the right to establish government institutions within the
territory it
inhabits and the right to fair representation in the federal and state
governments.
3. Nationalities shall have, on the basis of the free choice of their
peoples, the right to
organise on a larger territory a self- administrative structure for
running their
internal affairs and establish governmental institutions for common self-
administration.
4. Nationalities shall also have, on the basis of the free choice of their
peoples, the
right to establish regional self-administration, and such regional
self-administrative
unit shall be a member of the Federation.
5. For the purposes of this constitution, the term "nationality" shall mean a
community having the following characteristics: people with a common
culture
reflecting considerable uniformity and a similarity of custom, a common
language
(minority) languages of communication, a belief in a common bond and
identity,
the majority of whom live in a common territory.
6. Affiliated nationalities who share common characteristics but exhibiting
varying
cultures, common political and economic interests and believe in
establishing, on
the basis of the free choice of their peoples, a common administration
may
together decide to be recognized as a single nation or as one people.
7. In the event where the rights enumerated in this Article are violated, or by virtue of an unjust distribution of social wealth or an unfair distribution of the products of development, a sector of the population which has obtained recognition as a nation in accordance with Sub-Article (6) of this Article raises the demand for secession, the causes for which the demand was made shall be made to find solutions.
(a) any question arising out of the causes indicated herein above shall be
submitted
to the Constitutional Court for its consideration. Where the
Constitutional Court
subsequently finds that these causes reflect the views of the majority
of the
population, it may further investigate the causes and decide upon
various
solutions, including that of compensation or submit other
recommendations for
conciliation.
(b) The decision made, or the recommendation for conciliation made by the
Constitutional Court shall be submitted to a joint meeting of the two
Chambers of
the Council, and the joint meeting may accept, reject or amend the
decision or
recommendation for conciliation.
(c) The decision passed by the joint meeting shall be submitted to the
parliament of
the self-administration of the nation concerned.
(d) Where the parliament of the nation concerned rejects the joint meeting's
decision,
it may, by two-thirds majority vote submit an alternative recommendation
for
conciliation to the Council of the Federation or decide for a referendum
on the
secession issue to be conducted.
(e) The referendum shall be held three years after the nation's parliaments
approval of
the demand for secession in accordance with Sub-Article 1(d) of this
Article.
(f) The decision for secession shall come into effect where it is supported by two- thirds majority vote of the population of the nation concerned.
In recounting the chain of events leading up to the Grand Anwar Mosque
massacre, we must go back to the summer of 1994. It was during this time
that Mr. Muhammad Awel Reja, the vice-chairperson of the Supreme Council
of Islamic Affairs of Ethiopia (SCIA) was caught red-handed embezzling
funds from the SCIA treasury earmarked for the construction and renovation
of Mosques and other projects meant to facilitate the development of
Ethiopia's Muslim Community. Mr. Reja had gotten so brazen with his
activities of theft that he purchased about twenty transport vehicles with
stolen SCIA funds, apparently for the purpose of developing his own
personal commercial enterprise.
Upon Mr. Reja's nefarious activities coming to light, he was ordered to
appear in Ethiopia's Islamic Shari'a Court to face charges. Mr. Reja
refused to show. He was nevertheless, tried on charges of embezzlement and
mismanagement of SCIA funds. He was ordered to cease all of his duties and
activities as vice-chairperson of SCIA. His documents were ordered sealed
and turned over to the court and his personal assets were ordered frozen.
For not showing up to face charges leveled against him by the Muslim
Community, the Qadi ordered that Mr. Reja be apprehended and imprisoned
for three months.
Realizing that the wheels of Islamic Justice were turning against him, Mr.
Reja ran to seek refuge and relief among some of his cronies in position
of power in Ethiopia's Transitional Government. Mr. Reja's friends came
through with flying colors. They secured an official decree to have the
Shari'a court's judgement against Mr. Reja annulled; they then had the
Qadi himself arrested.
The Muslim Community quite rightfully, was outraged. First of all, they
organized the Provisional Organizing Committee of Islamic Affairs (POCIA)
as a means to divert the funds of the Muslim Community away from the
corrupt SCIA. The Muslims appointed Hajj Muhammad Wali chairperson of the
POCIA. Hajj Muhammad Wali is a highly respected Muslim Alim (scholar) and
the Imam of Al-Nur Mosque. He has fearlessly stood up and publicly debated
President Meles Zenawi on the necessity for including aspects of Islamic
law in the new constitution of Ethiopia. Hajj Siraj Musa Obsse was
appointed treasurer. Hajj Siraj Musa Obsse was a highly respected
activist who was one of the founding fathers of Selamawi Mahber, and
Islamic peace movement organization formed in the mid-60's that challenged
the hegemony of the Christian dominated minority government that was the
monarchy of Emperor Haile Selassie. With the POCIA in place with duly
appointed new leaders, the Muslims moved to organize a major demonstration
against those who mishandled the Muhammad Awel Reja case in particular and
the ongoing discriminatory practices against Muslims in general.
No doubt to the surprise--and indeed anxiety--of the government, about
500,000 Muslims responded to the call of the POCIA to demonstrate and
present a list of demands. The demonstration took place on 28 November
1994. Among the list of nine demands, the Muslims called for the immediate
recognition of the Islamic Shari'a court as a legal entity, - the
immediate cessation of the harassment of Muslim women in public schools
and government offices because of their wearing Islamic Hijab (proper
Islamic dress for women), - the immediate cessation of harassment and
intimidation of Muslims who attempt to make mandatory prayers in school
buildings and government offices, and - the inclusion of the legitimate
interest of the Muslims when developing government policy.
Inspite of a cordial acceptance of the list of demands by the government
officials, little has been done thus far to respond to the Muslim
community. Instead, while grinning in the face of the Muslim community,
the government has moved to continue to stab the community in the back!
The government's thinly veiled indifference to the legitimate concerns of
the Muslims became ever-clearer when the representatives from the POCIA
went to city hall to secure the required permits to hold Eid-Ul Fitr
activities. Of course, Eid-Ul Fitr is a great day of pious celebration
that all conscientious Muslims eagerly anticipate after having willingly
submitted themselves--for Allah's pleasure and their won purification--to
the pleasantly rigorous month-long fasting of Ramadhan. The Muslim
representatives of the POCIA were told that since they were not officially
recognized, they could not secure permits unless they team up with Mr.
Reja's group. The representatives of the POCIA aware, of course,
despondent and disgusted at the Municipal governments thwarting the
people's efforts at preparing for Eid.
Then, on Tuesday 21 February 1995 (22 Ramadhan 1415) the personal
secretary of Mr. Reja entered the Grand Anwar Mosque with three other
companions. Worshipers were finishing Zuhr (noon) prayers. The four
individuals from the now thoroughly disgraced SCIA began passing out
flyers announcing the program for the SCIA's sponsored Eid-Ul Fitr prayer
and festivities. This brazen act of arrogance and impiety greatly
infuriated the vast majority of the worshippers who had by now terminated
any continued interaction with the SCIA. The worshipers asked the SCIA
secretary and his three companions to leave. Then to everyone's complete
shock and utter horror, the secretary pulled out a hand gun and began
firing toward the ceiling of the Mosque. He ran out of the Mosque, firing
his pistol skyward.
Almost as if those shots were a signal, a contingent of uniformed police
and plainclothed security personnel suddenly appeared and began firing
into the gathering of Muslims who had come outside the Mosque to try to
somehow contain the SCIA secretary who had apparently gone mad. The scene
of carnage was horrible. Muslims fell dead, martyred on the spot. More
Muslims were severely wounded. In the overwhelming confusion and horror of
a massacre in progress, many Muslims tried to seek refuge from the barrage
of automatic weapon fire by trying to hurry back inside the Mosque. Many
were crushed in the process. Others, in righteous defiance, picked up
rocks and began throwing them tat the police and security personnel. When
it was all over, 34 Muslims had been martyred; more than 150 were wounded.
In the immediate aftermath of its act of terrorism, the government continued to behave as if operating by a preconceived plan to punish the Muslims: the government quickly moved to shut down all of the Masjids (Mosques) in Addis Ababa for the next three days. By so doing the government clearly sent the message that it has absolutely no respect for the religious rights of the Muslims and devotional requirements of Islam. In addition to these closures, hundreds of Muslims were arrested. Highly respected elder and youth Muslim leaders were hunted down and incarcerated.
Hajj Muhammad Wali, the POCIA chairperson, was not present at the Grand
Anwar Mosque on the day of the government massacre. Nevertheless, he was
among those arrested and incarcerated. He and 34 other Muslims leaders
have been falsely and maliciously charged with sedition and conspiracy to
riot.
Even more alarming is the case of Hajj Siraj Musa Obsse, the treasurer of
POCIA. On February 21, 1995, in the middle of the night, the governments
secret police abducted Hajj Siraj from his home. The government shot him
dead, claiming he was trying to escape custody. However, it was learned
that Hajj Siraj was savagely beaten and murdered by being shot in the
forehead and the chest at point blank range.
Anatomy of Conspiracy
According eye witness accounts, security forces had been gathering at
Cinema Ras--an area not far away from the Grand Anwar Mosque--during the
late morning hours of 21 February. So, when the shots rang out from the
Mosque in the early afternoon, the already assembled security forces moved
out toward the Mosque as if by cue. Clearly, the assault on the Mosque was
a quasi-military operation carefully planned beforehand by the despicable
accomplices in the government.
After the massacre, the second phase of the operation included the
round-up of more than 750 Muslims--respected elders as well as several
young people. The planning behind this phase of operation was clearly
intended to break the back of the growing Islamic movement in Ethiopia.
Elders and scholars were targeted for arrest because they are the
movement's leaders; young people were targeted because of their field work
activity in giving Dawah--information about the basic beliefs of Islam--to
Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Now, highly learned and dedicated leaders
like Hajj Muhammad Wali incarcerated and Hajj Siraj Musa Obsse dead;
scores of young, dedicated workers in the way of Allah, are being
detained. Clearly, all of this points to a major conspiracy hatched by the
Ethiopian government against the Muslims.
the Ethiopians Muslims, lie, Muslims all over the world are under
tremendous pressure. Every attempt to organize ourselves politically,
economically, or socially, is branded as an act of "Islamic
Fundamentalism," "Islamic Militancy," or "Islamic radicalism" all of
which are code words for "terrorism," "backwardness," and
"anti-Westernism." These code words are used by the Western media in a
vicious global crusade against Islam. Remember, this crusade is being
carried out not only by the West but also by governments in sympathy with
the West for the sake of a few dollars. The present Ethiopian government
is on its way of becoming a full-fledged member of this crusade.
For the Muslims in Ethiopia it is time for maintaining prayers, tightening
ranks, and remaining stead-fast in their quest for equality, justice, and
freedom of worship. In time, the believers will win. This is the eternal
promise of Allah!!!!!!!
Reprinted with permission from the monthly newsletter "READ"
by the The Foundation of Ethiopian Muslims in North America
PO Box 50324
Washington, D.C. 20019-0324
Ato Abiy Hunegnaw, head of the petroleum works department with the ministry, said the companies expressed their interest on untapped petroleum deposit in Ethiopia at a recent conference of American Association of Petroleum Geologists in Dallas, USA
Maps and pamphlets listing geological data and explored areas, as well as oil regulations and agreements in Ethiopia were distributed to various companies during the conference, the official added.
Ato Abiy said "Al Conslut", a Canadian company, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has also publicized the data and analysis of the Ethiopian petroleum potential.
According to the official certain companies who took part at the conference have agreed to come to Ethiopia in a bid to reach joint venture contracts with the government of petroleum exploration and development.
He said reliable results are expected from the exploration studies conducted in Ogaden, Gambella, Makale and Abay Valley areas.
A French company has signed a contract to analyze studies conducted in Ethiopia, pertaining to petroleum, the official said adding that two American companies, including Hunt Oil, have compiled petroleum exploration data in Ogaden, while another company, I.P. has completed studies in Gambella area.
Ato Abiy said Ethiopia is preparing to participate at a three-day conference which will take place in Mauritius starting from 17 June. Sub-Sahara African countries are expected to take part at the African Oil and Mine conference.
Fund launches 24 projects in Somali Region
The schools, upon completion will have the capacity to admit 2,600 students while the health posts could render service to about 80,000 people, the general manager said adding that the office is also carrying out the digging of two water-wells in the region.
There will be deliberations on existing problems and exchange of experience during the meeting in which 36 coordinators drawn from Jijiga, warder, Degehabour, Shinile and Fike zones take part.
The court said the chairman of chat packing workers union Abdu Shash and the chief accountant Mohammed Sheikh embezzled over 94,000 and 21,000 birr respective in just less than nine months.
The court ruled out that the culprits are accountable for the misappropriation and should be sued in accordance with the civil code. Court convicts 15 tree fellers
News Analysis
Early this month (May 7), jailed former Defence and Deputy Prime Minister
Tamrat Layne appeared before the Federal Supreme Court for the third
time. The government last March indicated the leading Amhara
revolutionary leader, his former chief of staff and six business persons
on charges of "illegal accumulation of wealth."
According to the indictment, Tamrat and his group made some $31 million
through extortion, illegal equipment purchase, sale of coffee beans and
road construction contracts during the transitional government, July 1991
August, 1995.
The indictment was supposed to be a show case of justice, but somehow is
turning out to be more of an embarrassment for the government. First,
there was assistant attorney general Mesfin Girma's seven-page charges
that read more like an expose of corruption in the government than an
indictment. then there was his move to join Tamrat's and the business
persons' cases and bring it before the Supreme Court.
The Constitution in question
The move dwarfed Tamra't case and pushed the two-year-old constitution of
the centre stage. Defense attorneys cried foul about joining the cases
and opposed the appearance of the business persons before the Supreme
Court. They claimed the constitution restricts the Federal Supreme Court
to hear only cases of executive, legislative and judicial members of the
government.
The court has no constitutional power to hear the case of ordinary
citizens, a lawyer representing one of the defendants told TamAsmar News.
The move denies their rights to be freed on bail.
Last March, upon request of the prosecutor, the five-man Supreme Court
denied the release on bail of the business persons that included Tamrat's
woman-friend Woizero Shadia Kassim. Shadia, whose romance with the
former guerrilla leader had made her a household name, was accused of
playing safe-house for Tamrat's wealth.
Defense attorneys are pleading the Court to dismiss the case or send it
to the lower court where the group could be released on bail. The basic
rights that the Constitution guarantees to all its citizens have been
violated, a lawyer representing Shadia told the justices.
Note: before the hearing started, Tamrat, 42, and Shadia hugged and
kissed when they met face to face at the entrance of the make shift
Federal Supreme Court.
Moral Issues
The three counts of charges contained in the indictment raised questions
about the moral standard of the ruling revolutionary democrats of which
Tamrat was one. According to one count of indictment, Tamrat's "illegal
wealth" included $16 million that he allege took from Saudi investor
Sheikh Mohammed Hussien Al-Amoudi. That revelation triggered allegations
that the money was a bride for Tamrat to protect the Sheikh's estimated
half a billion dollar investments that include the Sheraton luxury
collection (under construction), Pepsi Cola, National Motors and the
Daletti Marble plant.
It's all part of an ongoing corruption within our government, says one
housing contractor.
Officials vehemently reject the allegations, saying Tamrat simply
swindled out Al-Amoudi. the Sheikh, who the government values as its key
link with Saudi and Kuwaiti investors, gave the money to then Prime
Minister Tamrat to help "run government operations." Al-Amoudi didn't
even realize that Tamrat had swindled him out until he claimed for his
money through EPRDF politburo member Seye Abraha, says a source familiar
with Tamrat's affair.
Extorting minorities
The case also revealed for the first time how Federal officials can
easily extort developments funds slated for minority regions-Gambella,
Bene Shangul/Gumz, Afar and Somali. Tamrat denies but he is accused of
dispensing some $10 million construction funds "on their behalf."
In Afar Region road project, Tamrat reversed the result of a World Bank
funded Mile-Assab road construction bid after allegedly receiving one
million-dollar bribe. according to the indictment, the French company of
Dumez had won the bid, but was later given out to a rival French company,
SOGEA which bided eight million dollars more than DUMEZ. the indictment
did not reveal the contract value.
Tamrat would never have done this to Amhara, Tegrai or Oromo Regions,
said a teacher in Gambella.
The prosecutor is seeking sentences of 3 to 15 years, a punishment some
officials believe too light particularly for Tamrat's alleged breach of
trust. But what appears lying before Deputy Chief Justice Menbere-Tsehay
Tadesse are constitutional issues. On one side is the case of the
business persons, whose appearance before the Supreme Court, according to
defense attorneys, violates their rights to be released on bail. On
another is the government's push to keep the case with the Court, denying
then bail rights while seeking maximum sentences. Whether the Court
sends the case to a lower court or sides with the government remains to
be seen.
--Tamene Asmare--
Soon afterwards, on 10 August, the Ethiopian army launched attack on three cities in the Gedo region in Southwestern Somalia within the US supplied arms, including tanks, helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles. The Ethiopian operation across boarders was supposedly carried out to stamp out `terrorist attacks from Somalia. Hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands of people were made homeless with the destruction of their property, livestock and essential services. Before Ethiopian forces withdrew from Somalia , they burned agricultural fields and crops.
Al-Itihihad Al-Islami (Islamic Union) had been actively neutralised as fighting force back in 1990 and 1992 in confrontation with General Aydeed's USC and general Abshar's Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SDF). And the upsurge of Islamic Fervour among Somali youths has become a sporadic affair. But Ethiopia blaming the Islamic Union for the unrest and attacks on targets in the occupied western Somalia - what is now Ogaden, in Eastern Ethiopia - carried out their recent invasion of Somalia.
Though Addis Ababa has been at pains to disclaim any territorial ambition in Somalia, claiming that the invasion was carried out to destroy `terrorist bases. Ethiopias action is seen differently in Mogadishu. Somalis believe the Islamic Union poses no threat to Ethiopias existing as it does in the name only, and the Ethiopians are taking advantage of Somalis crisis. Only two of the faction leaders supported the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia: General Omar Hajji Musali, president of the SNF who felt the Islamic Union had reduced his influence in occupied western Somalia; and the president of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland.
Muhammad Ibrahin Egal not only endorsed the Ethiopian invasion but was also was willing to extend logistical support to strike at the `Islamic Union bases in Somalia. He pointed out that the Union had military camps in Burma city in Awdal province and Las Anud in Sool, a claim rejected by local leaders there.
Eastern Ethiopia, the Ogaden region, came within an ace of being freed from Ethipian rule when Somalia fought in 1964 and late 1970s. Since then the issue of independence of the Somali terriroty become a hot political issue. 1991 has strengthened Ethiopian stand vis-a vas its neighbour and its grip over the historic Somali territory. The overthrow of the Mengistu regme gave ethnic Ethiopians the right of secession, which only the Eritreans could exercise.
That reconciliation conferences have been held in Kenya and Ethiopia (two neigbouring Christian-ruled states which have annexed Somali territories), and the mediatory initiative has been entrusted to Ethiopia, should sound alarm bells ringing not merely in somalia but in the regional Arab countries too. These are the states which have also close tie s with the US and its strategic ally, Israel. The developing ties between Ethiopia and Israel have also implications for the Red sea shipping lanes, evoking fear that Ethiopia is being fitted out to be the overload on the Horn of Africa.
Impact International. March 1997.
Yigzaw said his company had already signed an agreement with the French company, Total Mere Rouge, for importing refined products through Djibouti in the interim period.
The agency said Ethiopia annually spends two billion birr on importing crude oil.
______
REUTERS
Ethiopia's expenditure in the 1996/97 financial year (July-June) was posted at 9.75 billion birr. The finance ministry has not said what was expected in revenues in that period. It also did not say what the budget deficit in the 1996/97 financial year would be.
In the next section from a reuters report it says that Ethiopia spends 2 Billion Birr on petroleum annually.
This means that ethiopia spends about 20% of it annual budget on petroleum
It seems that this simple statistic can show how much exploitation of natural gas and petroleum in the Ogaden can benefit Ethiopia. Transforming Ethiopia from an importing fuel country to a net exporting one can not only free up that 20% they currently use on fuel for other purposes, but also create a situation where all of a sudden other provinces who may benifit from the oil revenue at the expense of the Somali province would also join the Tigrays into being less willing to part with Ogaden.
These are the kinds of situations cooperation for development of our region with the Ethiopian government brings.
PARIS (AP) - The question of how to bring about growth and stability in Africa will be featured during the summit of the world's wealthiest nations this week. And so will the differing prescriptions offered by Paris and Washington.
France, which at one time controlled a third of the continent and is committed to propping up its former colonies, will be seeking to convince the eight nations at the summit of the importance of increasing aid to African nations. Washington, however, which has played a growing role on the impoverished continent, believes that expanded trade and investment is the proper course.
President Jacques Chirac's spokeswoman sought Thursday to play down any tension with President Clinton over an African strategy, but acknowledged their divergent views. ``There will be a joint communique, but that doesn't keep each country from expressing its own sensibilities,'' Catherine Colonna said.
African countries must make efforts to reform, she said, ``but we're in a partnership, so the developed countries must keep a high level of aid.'' Colonna said Chirac will make a presentation on Africa at the summit.
In 1995, France was tops in aid to sub-Saharan Africa, with more than $2.3 billion, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Paris has pressed countries like the United States, which the OECD says trailed in 1995 with a little more than $1 billion, to open their wallets a little further.
But Clinton is touting a different plan. He has offered a package of proposals to stimulate trade and investment in Africa. It includes reductions in U.S. tariffs on African products, support for accelerated debt relief and offers of loan guarantees to spur investment in 48 sub-Saharan nations, home to 650 million people. Germany was avoiding taking sides, supporting both aid and private investment for Africa.
Government spokesman Leo Kreuz said Germany will ``continue to provide development assistance.'' But he added: ``We would be pleased if more investment flowed'' into Africa because ``in the final analysis, lasting progress is possible only with the flow of private capital.''
The Italian foreign ministry said it expected a general discussion on Africa at the Denver summit but nothing concrete. Britain's new Labor government has pledged to halt a decline in its foreign aid budget. But the Foreign Office said Britain has a keen interest in writing off African debt and opening Western markets to African goods.
France has been increasingly nervous about a rising African receptivity to U.S.-style reforms. On Thursday, the leftist Paris daily Liberation said there was a ``new generation of African leaders, warlords, Anglophones, anticolonialists, more open to economic liberalism and to the ``American model.''
Those leaders, it said, have taken power in Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo, ``where the United States played a role, at least of passive connivance, in the victory of Laurent Kabila,'' the new ruler of Congo. It also noted the rising influence of Anglophone South Africa.
France has also been nervous about losing Africa as a source of oil and a customer for French defense, construction and water companies.
In October, French Cooperation Minister Jacques Godfrain called an African tour by then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher a political ploy keyed to the U.S. presidential election in November. During his trip, Christopher said ``the time had passed'' when former colonial rulers could treat countries as their ``private domain.''
------
Associated Press
By Jimmy Carter
I made a brief visit to East Africa from April 18 to 21, and had a
chance to consult with Presidents Moi and Museveni and with Prime
Minister Meles.
I also visited Khartoum, where I had extensive meetings with President
Omer al Bashir, Foreign Minister Taha, Peace Minister Khalifa, Dr. Turabi,
and some rebel leaders who, I understand, signed a Peace Agreement (PA)
with the government yesterday.
They all seem quite satisfied with the agreement, and claim that
it transcends the mutual accommodations proposed in IGAD's Declaration of
Principles (DOP). I have examined the text closely, and find that there
are some encouraging points. The most important are:
The recognition that the Sudan is a multi-racial, ethnic, cultural,
and religious community within which all men and women are to be treated
equally and share in all aspects of life and political responsibilities.
(As you know, these commitments are contrary to strict Shari'a law.)
Following a cessation of hostilities and a general amnesty, there
is proposed a four-year transition period during which a joint military
committee and a political coordinating council will maintain peace and
evolve a permanent constitution, independent judiciary system, and
national laws. (At best, this can encompass a multi-party system.)
At the end of this period, citizens of the 10 Southern states will
have an internationally monitored referendum to decide whether they prefer
national unity (if harmonious agreements can be achieved) or secession
(if the Southerners are not satisfied).
A brief summary of the Peace Agreement is outlined below.
Although the text is promising, the devil is always in the details.
Intensive negotiations will be necessary before satisfactory
agreements
can be reached between the Government of Sudan and those with whom
differences still exist. For example, it is not clear whether final
political authority will rest with interpreters of Islamic law or with
democratically based institutions. (The Sudanese claim the latter, but
their enemies suspect the former.)
I was not able to meet personally with Dr. John Garang because
of military activity near his location at Yei. However, his foreign
minister, Deng Alor, assured me in Lokichokio, Kenya, that the SPLA/M
will be willing to join in these negotiations, based on the texts of
the Peace Agreement and the Declaration of Principles. President Bashir
had given me the same general assurances. Everyone seems to agree that
such efforts can be conducted only under the auspices of IGAD and the
chairmanship of President Daniel arap Moi.
The alternative to peace talks will be a continuation and likely
escalation of military activities in Southern Sudan and along the borders
with Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. While Sudanese exiles and southern
rebels pursue military victory, this scenario is unlikely without a
massive conflict.
Summary of Peace Agreement Text: Between the Government of Sudan and
rebel groups SSIM, SPLM, EDF, SSIG, and a separate one with the Nuba
Mountain groups.
. An organic law, with effect of a constitutional decree.
. After 4 years, a referendum in the 10 southern states to decide
unity of secession. OAU and other observers will be invited to
monitor the referendum.
. Although Sharia and custom are the original sources of legislation,
states may develop their own customary law and enact other laws
peculiar to the needs of their citizens.
. Cultural diversity is recognized, and freedom of religion and belief
guaranteed. All personal matters such as marriage, divorce,
inheritance, etc. shall be governed by the customs of those involved.
. Power and wealth shall be shared equitably.
. A Coordinating Council shall implement the Peace Agreement.
. As a multi-racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious community, all
Sudanese men and women shall share equally in all aspects of life
and political responsibilities.
. The judiciary of Sudan shall be independent and decentralized.
Every state may compose its own court system.
. Federal and state powers are enumerated. For instance, the states
shall control missionary activities.
. There will be a free market economy. Oil and other resources will
be shared equitably.
. Southern citizens shall participate in an equitable way in all
national activities.
. A general amnesty shall be declared.
. The President in consultation with other peace faction leaders,
shall form the Coordinating Council. Governors of states will be
members. The Council may choose its own site.
. Southern defense forces shall remain separate and under their own
command. National forces will be reduced to peacetime levels.
. A joint Technical Military Committee, with equal members from the national and southern forces, will devise and enforce peace agreements.
Ethiopia's needs are stated as 1,6 million tons, valued at $294 million. It would start importing directly from its main suppliers from August 1, said Yigzaw Mekonnen, the general manager of Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise.
He said the cost of oil refined at Assab was rising yearly, whereas world market prices were decreasing. Petrol from Assab cost $268 a ton compared with $224 a ton for direct imports, Yigzaw said.
Yigzaw did not explain the rising costs at Assab. He said Ethiopia would issue an international tender for a supplier. The origins of Ethiopia's petrol imports are not immediately known. Direct imports will reach Ethiopia through the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab and also via Djibouti.
Yigzaw said the decision to import refined oil directly was made after an agreement between the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments regarding "the cost-effectiveness of importing (refined) rather than using the refinery at Assab".
Under previous agreements between the two countries, Ethiopia imported crude oil that was then refined at Assab. Ethiopia's needs accounted for 80 percent of the oil refined at Assab and 20 percent went to Eritrea.
Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia until 1993 when it won its independence. The refinery was built for Ethiopia with aid from the then Soviet Union, and Eritrea took it over in 1993.
``We have never declared war on the Sudan. We have never launched a propaganda offensive against the Sudan government. They were the ones who declared war and launched a propaganda offensive against us,'' Meles told a news conference.
But relations between Ethiopia and Sudan would be strained unless the government in Khartoum returned three gunmen involved in an assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Meles said.
Ethiopia blames Sudan for helping plot an assassination attempt against Mubarak at the start of an Organisation of African Unity summit in June 1995.
Meles said regional initiatives on solving crises in Sudan and Somalia were the key to peace in the Horn of Africa. ``We are encouraging them (Somalia's warring factions) to do so (talk). We are trying our very best to make all factions to have their conference inside Somalia,'' he said.
A ``just and sustainable peace'' could also be achieved in Sudan if the protaganists behaved reasonably, he said.
In a written statement announcing the award, US State Department Acting Spokesman John Dinger said 10 million US dollars of the award will be earmarked for refugee assistance world-wide, with the remaining 5.5 million dollars going to the repatriation of Somali refugees from Ethiopia, where the majority of the refugees are located.
The statement noted as many as 450,000 of the 800,000 Somalis who fled the civil war and the subsequent fall of the Siad Barre regime remain in camps in neighbouring countries. ______ Addis Tribune
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton Tuesday announced an economic
development plan for Africa that cuts tariffs for
countries reforming their economies and said he wants the G7 nations to
join his effort.
``This is a moment of tremendous promise for the people of
Africa,'' Clinton said, announcing his strategy for
encouraging reform throughout Africa.
Clinton said he would use this week's summit in Denver of the seven
leading industrialized nations to seek a coordinated international effort
-- including urging the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to
provide debt relief for poor countries.
``I will ask our partners to join us in urging the international financial
institutions ... as well as the United Nations to create innovative new
programs so that reforming African nations can succeed in integrating
themselves into the global economy,'' Clinton said.
Under the Clinton plan, the poorest countries in Africa
would receive duty-free access for some 1,800 additional products, while
nations ``undertaking concerted reforms'' for their economies would
benefit from reduced tariffs.
The White House was working with congressional leaders on legislation
needed to carry out the plan -- with influential conservatives, like
Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, and staunch liberals, like New York
Democrat Rep. Charles Rangel -- joining in the effort.
The plan also would better focus U.S. foreign aid to the continent, to
ensure that it was fostering reform. In the past, when the Cold War was at
its height, most aid was directed at backing any government friendly to
Washington, without regard to its policies.
``We look at Africa today as a continent full of bright
hopes and persistent problems,'' Clinton said. ``Everyone knows about the
conflicts ... but somehow we have to find a way to highlight and celebrate
Africa's successes.''
Administration officials said some 30 countries in Africa
grew at more than 5 percent last year and a few at around 10 percent. The
IMF forecasts 4.7 percent growth for Africa as a whole
this year.
The World Bank says that 37 out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries were
undertaking serious economic reforms, including liberalizing trade
barriers, privatizing state enterprises and easing investment laws.
Boosting trade with Africa, which currently accounts for
less than 2 percent of U.S. imports, is politically a fairly
uncontroversial aim at a time when administration trade policy with China
and Latin America is in trouble in Congress.
Many U.S. officials see Africa as a last frontier for
investors that, if economic reforms work out, could present major
opportunities for American businessleaders who currently shy away from the
continent.
Difficulties remain, however, as was underscored during Clinton's
announcement. As he spoke, the State Department disclosed that it was
temporarily closing its embassy in Brazzaville. Fighting in the Congo
Republic has derailed plans for a July 27 presidential election.
Reuters News Service
A lot of young Westerners who once supported Tigray People's Liberation Front during its long fight against the regime of ex-president Mengistu Haile Mariam, notably by working for its satellite organizations such as Relief Society of Tigray (REST) and Tigray Development Association (TDA), have now recycled themselves into various activities in Ethiopia, with some of the ferengi (foreigners) going into business after TPLF came to power in 1991. Irish national Tony Hickey is running a tour operator in Addis Ababa called Ethiopia Experience Travel, with TDA boss Araya Zerihun as board chairman and deputy transport minister Ayenew Biteweligu as a board member. Hickey is also working out a tourism programme for the Ethiopian government. Other Westerners playing an active role in the region include US citizen Gayle Smith, whom the American charity USAID named in 1994 as special representative for the Horn of Africa. Smith is one of the best-informed Westerners on TPLF; she has written many books and articles on the subject and worked with former US president Jimmy Carter and later as a consultant before her USAID appointment. Her husband, former journalist Dan Connell, is a prolific author too, particularly on Eritrea, and now heads his own NGO in Washington.
Some other Westerners who didn't have a past history as militants have joined the regime in Addis, such as the Briton Peter Sutton, former United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Addis and his Canadian assistant Shawn Houlihan. Today, both are members of the cabinet of prime minister Meles Zenawi. Two young British women who earlier worked for Tigray Transport Consortium (another association with links to TPLF) are expected back in Ethiopia shortly: Sarah Vaughan, who is studying at Edinburgh University for the moment, and Vanessa Sayres, who is at Harvard, in the USA.
I.O.N. - There are ferengi who were once members of TPLF satellite NGOs and had very different track records, such as Jon Bennett and Kathy Wright, whilst university lecturer Jill Hammond, who carried out several surveys on women living in territory "liberated" by TPLF, is now doing research for Oxford University in Tigre. Alex De Waal, today working for the London-based NGO Africa Rights, once accompanied TPLF and Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas, and James Firebrace, working with the British NGO War on Want, had been closely associated with the information campaign run from London by the British support committee for REST.
June 28, 1997
SECTION: WHO'S WHO; N. 771
Daniel Yohannes (Ethiopia/United States)
Born in the historic Tigrean city of Axum, in northern Ethiopia,
Colorado National Bank CEO Daniel Yohannes was a member of the
organizing committee which laid on preparations for last week's
G8 summit of industrialized nations, in Denver (Colorado), at
the same time as Colorado state governor Ms. Gail Schoettner
and Bill Coors, founder of the Coors Beer Co brewery.
Yohannes emigrated to the United States after graduating and
today heads the largest bank in Denver. His contacts with
Ethiopia are frequent. Close to Seye Abraha, chairman of the
holding company EFFORT and a member of the political bureau
of Tigray People's Liberation Front(in power), Yohannes is
believed to have played a special role as financial adviser to
the government of prime minister Meles Zenawi. In the past he
headed a delegation to Ethiopia which included the mayor of
Denver, the governor of the state of Colorado, the VP of
United Airlines, and the president of Colorado National Bank.
2. Every nation, nationality and people shall have the right to speak, write
and
develop its language and to promote its culture, help it grow and
flourish, and
preserve its historical heritage.
3. Every nation, nationality or people in Ethiopia shall have the
unrestricted right to
administer itself; and this shall include the right to establish
government
institutions within the territory it inhabits and the right to fair
representation in the
federal and state governments.
4. The right to self determination up to secession of nation, nationality and
peoples
may be exercised:-
(a) where the demand for secession is approved by a two thirds (2/3rds)
majority of
the legislature of the nation, nationality or people concerned.
(b) where the Federal Government within three years upon receipt of the
decision of
the legislature of the nation, nationality or people demanding
secession,
organises a referendum for the nation, nationality or people demanding
secession.
(c) where the demand for secession is supported by a simple majority vote in
the
referendum.
(d) where the Federal Government transfers power to the parliament of the
nation,
nationality or people which has opted for secession.
(e) where property is partitioned in accordance with the law.
1 Every nationality in Ethiopia shall have the right to speak and write in
its own
language, and express, promote and develop it.
2. Every nationality in Ethiopia shall have the full right to administer
itself .This right
shall include the right to establish government institutions within the
territory it
inhabits and the right to fair representation in the federal and state
governments.
3. Nationalities shall have, on the basis of the free choice of their
peoples, the right to
organise on a larger territory a self- administrative structure for
running their
internal affairs and establish governmental institutions for common self-
administration.
4. Nationalities shall also have, on the basis of the free choice of their
peoples, the
right to establish regional self-administration, and such regional
self-administrative
unit shall be a member of the Federation.
5. For the purposes of this constitution, the term "nationality" shall mean a
community having the following characteristics: people with a common
culture
reflecting considerable uniformity and a similarity of custom, a common
language
(minority) languages of communication, a belief in a common bond and
identity,
the majority of whom live in a common territory.
6. Affiliated nationalities who share common characteristics but exhibiting
varying
cultures, common political and economic interests and believe in
establishing, on
the basis of the free choice of their peoples, a common administration
may
together decide to be recognized as a single nation or as one people.
7. In the event where the rights enumerated in this Article are violated, or
by virtue of
an unjust distribution of social wealth or an unfair distribution of the
products of
development, a sector of the population which has obtained recognition as
a
nation in accordance with Sub-Article (6) of this Article raises the
demand for
secession, the causes for which the demand was made shall be
made to find solutions.
(a) any question arising out of the causes indicated herein above shall be
submitted
to the Constitutional Court for its consideration. Where the
Constitutional Court
subsequently finds that these causes reflect the views of the majority
of the
population, it may further investigate the causes and decide upon
various
solutions, including that of compensation or submit other
recommendations for
conciliation.
(b) The decision made, or the recommendation for conciliation made by the
Constitutional Court shall be submitted to a joint meeting of the two
Chambers of
the Council, and the joint meeting may accept, reject or amend the
decision or
recommendation for conciliation.
(c) The decision passed by the joint meeting shall be submitted to the
parliament of
the self-administration of the nation concerned.
(d) Where the parliament of the nation concerned rejects the joint meeting's
decision,
it may, by two-thirds majority vote submit an alternative recommendation
for
conciliation to the Council of the Federation or decide for a referendum
on the
secession issue to be conducted.
(e) The referendum shall be held three years after the nation's parliaments
approval of
the demand for secession in accordance with Sub-Article 1(d) of this
Article.
(f) The decision for secession shall come into effect where it is supported
by two-
thirds majority vote of the population of the nation concerned.
For those of us who doubt, whether it was Haile Sellasie, Mengistu or Melez, The enemy will never GIVE us our freedom. Integration and working within the system is not the answer. There is no justice for us by working within the framework of the constitution. If there was, we would have had our freedom a long time ago.
The Ministry of Defense has announced that it is going to move completley out
of Addis Ababa. All plots of land used by the ministry in various parts of
the city, including the old airport, will be sold.
Teferi Legese has details......
As can be recalled, the Ministry of Defense agreed to move to the old
airport after handing over its eight plots, including its headquarters which
were in front of the national bank to the Addis Ababa regional state
administration. However, the ministry later on asked the Addis Ababa
Administration Council if it could move out of the city completely and its
request was unanimously accepted at the council's extraordinary meeting held
yesterday.
_______
Addis Ababa Radio 1700GMT
Around 18,000 inhabitants of the eastern Ethiopian city of Harar
gathered last week at the main stadium and the police football field to
enjoy performances of Circus Dire Dawa, one of five groups composing the
"Circus in Ethiopia" movement, reported the ICRC. The event also
featured the circus of a youth group of the Harar branch of the
Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS). The promotion and dissemination
events were organised by the local ERCS and supported by the ICRC.
The circus programmes offered a unique combination of artistic
performances underlined with traditional music and dances and jointly
designed humanitarian messages. For this particular occasion, Circus
Dire Dawa prepared, in cooperation with the ERCS and the ICRC's
dissemination department, a short play on the evacuation of wounded in
conflict and assistance to displaced civilians as well as a sketch on
dependency on outside aid and the struggle for selfreliance. The show
was said to reflect the expression of young generation emerging from
years of war and disaster.
____
The Addis Tribune
Bureau head Ato Abdi Mohammed said, the employees were dismissed after
their 'degrees' and 'diplomas' were confirmed to be fake by the Ministry
of Education.
Some 48 of the 96 qualification papers sent to the Ministry of Education
were reported to be fake, according to the bureau head.
He further said seven other contractual employees employed with forged
documents have also been dismissed, while the case of two has been
referred to regional administration as it is beyond the authority of the
bureau.
Zone sacks chairman
The deputy head said Sheikh Aden Osman Harsi was dismissed following an
assessment meeting at which he was accused of employing uncertified
individuals and failure to seek timely solutions to administrative
problems.
According to the deputy head, chairman of the zone was also found guilty
of misappropriating food aid consignment.
Asked to comment on the allegation, Sheikh Aden admitted committing the
said misdeeds.
TDA raises over 1.1 million birr
August 12,1997
Ali Delali, PANA Correspondent
TRIPOLI, Libya (PANA) - Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadhafi has called on
Africans to redraw their boundaries inherited at independence from the
colonial powers of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain.
We should draw our map again on the basis of our own conception and not
according to the wishes of the colonial powers, he said.
Kadhafi made the suggestion Saturday in a nationwide radio and
television broadcast during the passing out parade of cadets from the
Libyan military training schools.
He said the colonial arrangements were meant solely to serve the
post-independence interests of the former metropols. He added that the
colonialists only withdrew from Africa after they had imposed on its
peoples foreign cultures intended to serve foreign interests.
Kadhafi made his speech in the presence Presidents Blaise Compaore of
Burkina Faso, Idriss Deby of Chad, Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali and
Ibrahim Mainassara Bare of Niger.
They arrived in Tripoli Thursday for a mini-summit aimed at reviewing
procedures for the creation of a Sahel-Saharan entity for social,
economic and political relations.
Kadhafi told them that the populations of the Sahel and Saharan regions
of Africa had the same origins and populated by the same Arab race.
The populations of Mali, Burkina, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, the Horn
of Africa and North Africa constitute an extension of the Arab race, he
said.
They form part of the same Yemenite arab tribes which immigrated several
thousands of years ago to settle in the region between the North African
coast and threshold of the African forest zone, he added.
Kadhafi cited the example of the Ethiopia's jews, sometimes known
derogatorily as Falashas.
These people, he said, lived in the Horn of Africa for thousands of
years before they were moved to Israel a few years ago by an airlift
organized by Israel.
Kadhafi said the countries of the Sahel and the Horn of Africa were
inhabited by Arab peoples and tribes who immigrated several years ago
and united with black Africans through intermarriage. The result, he
said, was the emergence of the people with light copper coloured skins
currently found between the North African coast and the threshold of the
African forest zone.
We are not saying that the black peoples are Arabs; what we mean is that
the black communities are neighbours of the Arabs who mingled with this
population through intermarriage, he said.
In another connection, the Libyan leader reiterated his country's
innocence in the Lockerbie affair pitting Libya against Britain, France
and the United States.
The three Western countries have accused two Libyan nationals of
responsibility for the bomb on a Pan American jetliner that exploded
above the Scottish city of Lockerbie in 1988. France has accused Libya
of a similar attack against the UTA D.C.10 plane that crashed in Niger's
Tenere desert in 1989.
These countries have demanded that the accused stand trial in British or
American counts. Libya has said they can only be tried in a neutral
country.
Khadafi accused the United States and its allies of violating
international resolutions and of ignoring the international
organizations demanding an end to the 1992 United Nations Security
Council sanctions on Libya, particularly that affecting air transport,
the military diplomacy.
We are ready to confront the Americans at any moment not with planes or
tanks but through popular resistance, he said.
Addis Ababa - A bomb exploded in the post office in Harar, the eastern
region of Ethiopia, last week, injuring two people.
According to informed reports, the explosion occurred after working
hours at around 6.10 p.m. local time, wounding seriously an employee and
a watchman of the post office.
The post office faced serious property damage with the normal
functioning of postal services coming to a standstill well into the
present week. The regional Information and Culture Bureau, which shares
the building with the post office, also faced extensive property damage.
No detailed information was made available from the regional police, who
are still investigating the case.
____
The Addis Tribune
In Garbo (a town 120km south-west Dhagahbour), for instance, 3500 students
have been enrolled last year. Only less than 100 of then now attend the
school. The problem being that the classrooms (2 in total) became full to
their capacity. The government is prepared, as I was told by a senior
officer in the ministry, to build four classrooms given that the existing
two classrooms will be unusable once the four rooms have been built as they
are on a different sight from the proposed sight for the new classrooms.
The potential number of school-age children in the town and villages
surrounding is believed to be over 6000. If then the four glass rooms are
going to accommodate about 400 students as a maximum the remaining 5600
students will be without class rooms and teachers. The government in
building 4 glass rooms in Garbo, for example, is doing its utmost.
Who is going to educate 5600 students in Garbo or indeed the hundreds of
thousand elsewhere in the region? The gap between what the government can
offer and what is required is indeed very vast.
The local and international GO's and NGO's offer some help but is both
limited and unreliable.
In the light of what we have mentioned so far, I am fully convinced that
self-help schemes in which the whole community is involved are the only
solutions feasible.
The Kenya experience in this regard is a success story. There are four
types of school in primary education in Kenya.
1. The first being the private schools where students are charged for the
tuition etc. These private schools, however, fully implement the national
curriculum with some additions in some cases.
2, The government owned, funded and ran schools where education is free.
3, The religious schools. In this category the curriculum is mainly
different and schools have their own independent systems even though some
Catholic Mission schools implement the national curriculum in addition to
their own programs.
4, The fourth type is the Harambee (self-help) schools where again the
curriculum is the national one and the education is free.
These harambee schools are communal where a selected committee is formed
to organize fund raising meetings along with some government officials. In
such meetings large number of people from all walks of life gather and a
large sum of money is raised in this wary. The money is then used in school
construction, maintenance, employing teachers, purchasing desks, chalk,
etc.
The Kenyan government encourages this self-reliance scheme in various
ways. The president of the state frequently visits towns and villages often
along with large delegation including some members of the house of
parliament, senior civil servants, high ranking millitary and police
officers and business people.
With the president himself initiating the process by donating some money
from his own resources the rest would follow suit. It has been found,
however, that the Harambee schools in Kenya have performed poorly compared
with the state schools. This has been attributed to the tendency by the
Harambee schools to employ untrained teachers known her as Ut teacher.
If the government in Region 5 is to reduce the imbalance between the
community needs and resources available it should consider and mobilize
all potential resources.
The private sector is one of these resources. There is no (to my
knowledge) a single privetly owned school in the region which implements
(fully) the national curriculum.
The government should, therefore, encourage the privately owned (by one
person or more) schools in both literacy and primacy education. The only
private schools currently exist in few numbers in the region are those
language evening classes mostly owned by the government teachers.
The Kenya experience can be applicable anywhere in the world and in the
poor nations in particular. I strongly believe that what is possible in
Kenya is also possible in Ethiopia. It should be appreciated, however,
that the level of human development and social awareness in the Kenyan
society is comparatively higher. It's advisable, therefore, that the
government in Region 5 carries out some preliminary research into the
programme before the implementation phase starts and the best ways to
minimise time
and effort be explored. Finally, I would like to point out here that this
proposal-like opinion has not been intended to be a complete solution to
our educational problems but rather to draw the government's attention to
the importance of the private sector in education and to highlight some
possible answers to our difficulties.
Please comment on this opinion!
____________________
Circus Held In Dire Dawa
August 8 1997
Jigjiga and Dhagahbuur
Only nine degrees have been confirmed as authentic by the ministry.
the committee in charge of adjusting the incorrect assignment of workers
in the Somali Regional State was established early this year, it was
learnt.
chairman of Degehabour Zone has been sacked from his office
Jijiga (ENA) - chairman of Degehabour Zone in the Somali Regional State
has been sacked from his office for failure to discharge
responsibilities, the regional deputy head disclosed.
Kadhafi Calls On Africans To Redraw Continent's Map
Bomb Injures Two Persons in Harar Post Office
HARAMBEE SCHOOLS IN REGION 5 (ETHIOPIA)
A. A. ALI (BUREIDA)