‘Editorials’ Archive

Ethiopia Included On CPJ’s First Ever ‘Risk List’

An international media advocacy group has identified 10 countries where press freedom has suffered in 2012. Risk List 2012 from Committee to Protect Journalists on Vimeo. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), on Thursday released its annual “Attacks on the Press” assessment of global press freedom, revealing a rise in attacks, which it attributes to a trend of repressive press laws as well as governments’ intolerance of dissent.

CPJ has for the first time compiled what it described as a “risk list” of countries that have shown the most significant “downward trends” on press freedom in 2012. Ethiopia was one among the countries listed in the new group, with its inclusion following the imprisonment of large numbers of journalists on anti-state or “terrorism” charges to thwart critical reporting, the group said. According to CPJ, Ethiopia is one of the leading jailers of journalists in Africa, with seven journalists currently behind bars. Only neighbouring Eritrea has more journalists in jail in Africa.

Other worrisome “downward trends” include high murder rates and “entrenched impunity”, as well as restrictive laws targeted at silencing dissent. Other countries on the risk list are Somalia, Pakistan, Brazil, Ecuador, Turkey, Russia, Vietnam, Iran and Syria. “Attacks on the press exposes the aggressive efforts of state and non-state actors to silence journalists, particularly those covering crime, corruption, politics and conflict,” said CPJ deputy director Robert Mahoney.

“The right to receive and impart information transcends borders, and international and regional bodies have a key role to play in upholding these principles, which are under attack,” he said. CPJ’s survey revealed an unprecedented rise in the number of journalists killed and imprisoned during 2012. According to the figures, 70 journalists have been killed in the course of their duty in 2012, a 43% increase over the previous year, while at least 35 journalists have disappeared. The group identified that a record 232 journalists were behind bars because of their work in 2012, an increase of 53 from 2011 and the highest since CPJ began surveys in 1990, indicating a deteriorating environment for global press freedom.

“We have seen whole newspapers brought down in countries like Ethiopia because there’s been an attack,” Mahoney said.

Some 79 Ethiopian journalists have fled their home country since 2001. According to the 2013 World Press Freedom Index report produced by Reporters Without Borders (RWR), Ethiopia dropped to 137th position in 2012, down from 127 the previous year.

Source: allafrica.

Category Editorials, News, News Briefs, News Stories, Opinions/Comments |

Ethiopia: Changes without Improvements

The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has issued a statement regarding the ever deteriorating human rights situations in Ethiopia, despite some fundamental changes out of which Ethiopians and the world peoples have been expecting improvements. Below is the full text of the statement by the human rights agency:

Ethiopians and the friends of Ethiopia have recently witnessed two major changes taking place in the country particularly in relation to honouring and protecting human rights. One is the replacement of Mr. Meles Zenawi, whose government tightly restricted fundamental human rights and severely punished those who attempted to exercise some of their basic freedoms, by another prime minister. The other change is Ethiopia’s election to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.

Following those changes, again Ethiopians and their friends expected some kinds of improvements in terms of human rights situations in the country. There have been reasons why improvements were expected in both cases. Firstly, the new prime minster, Mr. Hailemariam Dessalegn, was believed to be much more and well educated person than Mr. Meles Zenawi, who was just a rebel leader and a first-year university drop-out before coming to power. Besides, contrary to Mr. Meles’ underlying political principles of racism and regionalism, Mr. Hailemariam was expected to be far from racial partiality, discriminations and political biases. Secondly, membership to the UN Human Rights Council comes with such obligations as holding   the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe (UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251). Unfortunately, the expected improvements haven’t happened. Instead, we are witnessing the worsening of the human rights situations in the country. Good most recent cases in point are the Suri massacre in the Omo Valley, south-western Ethiopia, and racially motivated brutal crackdown against the students of Addis Ababa, Arat Kilo University, almost all of whom were Oromo nationals.

The massacre of members of the Suri tribe took place in December 2012, when a heavily armed national army was sent to the area to silence the Suri people’s protest against evictions and displacements from their ancestral land, properties, and all forms of livelihoods against their will and out of their consent. According to the report obtained from a Human Rights researcher called Doglas Burji[1], 147 Suris were killed in a one time attack by the national army at an area called Beyahola in Suri village; and their dead bodies were buried in a mass grave deep in the Dibdib forest not far from the village.

The Oromo students of Addis Ababa University were severely attacked, apprehended, and sent to detentions simply because they attempted to express their anger and opposition to racial attacks. In the incident, more than 130 students (most of them Oromos) were arrested[2]. Among the detainees, one student was severely beaten by security forces and died in a hospital where he was taken to for a pretentious treatment. From among the 130 detained students, many were released during the first week of their detention; while 35 Oromo students are still in prison. Both cases were not the first of their kinds to happen. They were exact duplications of previous similar incidents that took place for the same purposes of promoting political and economic interests of the group in power.

Not only the international documents and/or treaties that Ethiopia has so far ratified, but also a lot of legal and constitutional documents issued at different times by different regimes of Ethiopia, including the ones currently in power talk a lot about the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights. But, all remained on paper. As a result, Ethiopians from all walks of life, age, and gender, religious and ethnic groups have been paying so dearly including in their lives.

It is still not too late to reverse the current harmful approach to human rights in Ethiopia and, by so doing, to prevent the worst from happening. Therefore, the HRLHA calls up on all local, regional, and international human rights and diplomatic agencies to renew, under the new leadership, their commitment to encouraging and supporting the protection and promotion of fundamental rights in Ethiopia. We also call up on those agencies to put all necessary pressures on the Ethiopian Government so that it abides by all laws and constitutional provisions of the country that apply to human rights as well as the international human rights instruments it has adopted.

Category Editorials, News, News Stories, Opinions/Comments |

Democratization in Ethiopia: a Complete Failure

URJII, August 30, 2010

From the results of Ethiopia’s May 2010 elections, the fourth since the fall of the Dergue Regime, both the Ethiopian peoples and that of the world have undoubtedly learnt that absolute authoritarianism is back in place in Ethiopia with Mr. Zenawi’s ruling EPRDF party fully controlling a 547-seat parliament by clearing it off the opposition party members. Although Ethiopia’s May 2010 elections results came not as a surprise, given the pre-election harassments and intimidations of members and supporters of opposition parties as well as the silencing of media and advocacy groups by the ruling EPRDF party, it was surprising that Mr. Meles Zenawi this time didn’t care even about what some observers call “Donors’ Democracy”, which he used to maintain by allowing a few candidates of opposition parties to win seats in the Parliament.

For those of us who have been trying to echo the grievances of the ordinary Ethiopian citizens, it is worth reminding each other that what the world has now witnessed is the result of gross human rights violations: suppression of press freedom, the banning and dismantling of independent trade unions, restrictions of the activities of civil society organizations, denials of the right to organize, harassments and intimidations of journalists, publishers, human rights activists and leaders, members as well as supporters of opposition political parties through mass arrests and imprisonments, extrajudicial killings, etc. These manifestations of absolute authoritarianism were in turn the results of the top-to-bottom control mechanism established and executed through party apparatus which was implicitly extended from state to the ‘kebele’ level along the governmental federal structure. A well-organized party network that has been in place, which some critics describe as Maoist-style neighbourhood committee and in which an informant is appointed for every five or so family members to watch over all activities, has been used during the elections to snatch the citizens’ votes and paralyze the oppositions. The judicial system and the Election Board’s lack of independence, too, have played a role in the ruling party’s becoming both a player and a referee; denying the opposition parties the opportunity to go to court in the presence of widespread election frauds and vote riggings.

More destructive is that the very scare public resources such as money, manpower and public facilities are used to make this system operational and effective; as almost all public offices are held by party cadres who were given organizational responsibilities, along the public duties, to maintain the ruling party’s cling to power. In other words, the ruling party exploited its monopoly on political power to misuse the scare public resources as a force to silence the voices of the Ethiopian peoples and the oppositions; and consequently severely hampered the democratization process. Besides, this kind of system has resulted in the existence of two socially, economically and politically opposing groups – the most privileged and the deprived, widening the gap of inequality. What is more, this same scare resource is selfishly used to bribe and win or buy the support of influencial   Another extension of this extremely biased political system is the EPRDF’s philosophy of “If you are not with us, you are against us”, from which almost all forms of harassments and intimidations have been originating. All that we could say, based on the experience during the past eighteen years, is that, due to the mutual distrust between the government on one hand and the general public and the opposition on the other hand, the expected outcomes from the well-written Constitution have been counterproductive. Democratic institutions, which were built at both the grassroots and upper levels following the provision in the Constitution and the federal structure, have failed to function according to the spirit of democracy.

Haile Sellassie, the Dergue, and then the EPRDF/TPLF; there have been changes from one regime to another. But, one thing always remains the same in Ethiopia: politics is run from the centre with a top-down control. Because, those who come to power are self-anointed rulers, who, once in power like the current regime, never give the Ethiopian peoples an opportunity to change the government by means of ballot through genuine democracy. As a result, public discontent and revolt, civil unrest, internal conflict and war, social and economic crises continue to exist. In spite of those facts, some critics blindly accuse the Ethiopian peoples of lacking the necessary political culture for the realization of democracy. Such unfitting conclusions come either from lack of knowledge of the realities on the ground or from political biases. They are pretexts intended to be justifications for the political repressions, authoritarianism, dictatorship, and the stifling of public voices that are taking place. It is really no less than explicit insult to say that Ethiopian are so ignorant, even in the 21st century and during the information era, that they are not able to know, identify and vote for someone who knows them as well as their political desires and accordingly represent them. Such remarks might have been  reasonable and fair had Ethiopians had misused or abused their democratic rights such as organizing, demonstrating, speaking openly and publicly, voting, supporting and/or protesting in an environment free of any direct or indirect political or economic influences, etc. But, they were not given even the opportunity to exercise those democratic rights; and, therefore, their ability to adapt to and possess the so called democratic culture was not tested. After all, the various nations and nationalities in Ethiopia already have a lot of rich and accommodative traditional democratic cultures such as the Gadaa System of the Oromos, the Seera of the Sidamas, Xeer of the Ethiopian Somalis, and that of the Gurages and Kambatas, as well as the council of elders common in various ethnic groups, unless the argument is that the said political or democratic cultures should be foreign and imported. What is undeniable is that the Ethiopian peoples, due to an endless negative experience under dictatorial and authoritarian regimes, have to some extent developed the feeling that they are always passive subjects of those who come to power; and not active participants and partners in the political processes. We should not forget that, if those of us who are acting as experts of political science and democracy and making those comments are Ethiopian; the rest of Ethiopians, the ordinary Ethiopians, are no different from us; and as clever enough as we do to understand and implement democracy if they are given the opportunity. If there is a lesson that could not be learnt or a human experience that could not be shared even after eighteen years (the age of the EPRDF in power), the stupidity must be, not with the pupils/learners, but with the educators themselves.

Plagued with lack of freedom, denials of political choices and alternatives through almost the whole of the twentieth century, and then into the twenty-first century, due to persistent authoritarianism resulting from self and group interest, the country and its peoples could not dissociate themselves from the cycle and the ugly images of recurring famine and chronic poverty, despite the availability of adequate natural resources. With denial of freedoms and choices, the peoples of Ethiopia have become powerless and more vulnerable to further human rights violations as well as economic and political deprivations. The repeating failures of democratization processes and the re-occurrences of authoritarian regimes are resulting in frustrations and despair. This cycle of political deficits needs to come to an end. To this end, the most immediate and the most determinant is the coming to their senses of those who are holding power and engage themselves in political consultations, dialogues and partnerships with both the general public and the opposition parties by abiding by democratic principles.

Category Editorials |

Citizens’ Security Remains a Serious Concern in “Democratic” Ethiopia

URJII, August 26, 2010.

According to a report from Diredawa, a city in eastern province of Hararge, in the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia, a mother and her teenage son have been missing since the beginning of this month of Aughust.

Mrs. Asha Mohammad Galmo and her son Milkessa Abdusalam Juhar, both of them residents of the Badessa Town in the same province of Eastern Hararge, were on a business trip to Deredawa when they were abducted on the 4^th of August, 2010. Unconfirmed reports from close relatives and friends of the two abductees indicate that the abductors were members of government security agents. The same sources disclose that Mrs. Asha Mohammad Galmo in particular has been a victim of persistent harassments and intimidations by the ruling EPRDF party. She has repeatedly been apprehended and imprisoned at different times for different lengths of time merely due to her political beliefs, which is said to have been different from that of the ruling party.

Family members and friends say that they have been searching for and seeking information as to what has happened to Mrs. Asha and her son, Milkessa, ever since the two disappeared. But, their efforts so far have been fruitless. Mrs. Asha Galmo, a forty-year old business person, is a mother of nine; and her abducted son, Milkessa Abdusalam Juhar is 15 years old.

Fifteen and sixteen years ago, when Urjii Newspaper was in publication, the same stories of political abductions and disappearances of ordinary citizens, extra-judicial killings, arrests and imprisonments without warrant, charge and/or trail, and the resultant feelings of insecurity used to dominate the news stories and editorials of the Newspaper. Political instabilities and democratic immaturity were mentioned as reasons for those illegitimate actions at that time. Unfortunately, even after nineteen years of democratization, citizens’ safety, security and political freedom remains a serious concern and differing political beliefs are not tolerated in Ethiopia, a country claims to be a democracy.

Category Commentaries/Analyses, Editorials, News, News Stories |