by Betre Yacob

Independent human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international, and the Anti-TortureCommittee of the United Nations have several times reported of systematic persecution as well as use of violence and torture against Ethiopian journalists, opposition political leaders and members as well as anyone who are critical of the tyrannical regime. Amnesty International, for instance, says in its press release issued on 28 August 2012 that it regularly received several information about the use of torture in pre-trial and arbitrary detention.

However, despite the fact that there are so many reports about the use of torture in pre-trial and arbitrary detention in Ethiopia, none of them give clear and detail information on the subject matter. So that the issue has remained to be doughfull, for many people living abroad. Now, thanks to WikiLeaks, a marvellous report that is said to be extraordinary has been released. “INSIDE ETHIOPIA’S JAILS”, the report of Mr. Donald Yamamoto, the late ambassador of USA in Ethiopia, clearly shows what the atrocious crime the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia commit against journalists and political prisoners in its dark prisons and detention centers. The report, which referenced different in-depth interviews with victims, gives most explosive information on the subject matter.

Mr. Donald Yamamoto wrote “INSIDE ETHIOPIA’S JAILS” to the Washingtone government, while he was in charge of US mission in Ethiopia. The report was intended to make the Washingtone aware of what is happening in Ethiopia, and in turn to take an approperate measure against the regime.

“INSIDE ETHIOPIA’S JAILS”

According to the report, political and other prisoners in Ethiopia are subjected to dis-speakable torture in detention centers in attempts by police and security officials to elicit confessions before cases go to trial. According to the report, the torture includes being blindfolded and hung by the wrists for several hours, bound by chains and beaten, held in solitary confinement for several days to weeks or months, subjected to mental torture such as harassment and humiliation, forced to stand for over 16 hours, and having heavy objects hung from one’s genitalia.

The report also indicates that prohibiting detains from food, to taking shower, and to change clothes are also another form of torture. Regarding this the report says: “two political prisoners who were arrested for “inciting violence” following the 2005 elections told him that they had been given just one meal every two days, and had been prohibited to take shower as well as change clothes.” The report further indicates that prisoners are also subjected to mental torture.

The report, which says such kinds of tortures are most common practice at the dark prisons and detention centers, says that the government detains prisoners for many years without any charge and trial. It further indicates that prisoners are also held in such prisons despite having been officially released by the courts.

According to the report, some prisoners die having failed to resist the endless tortures while others left the prisons with permanent physical injuries related to their ears, heads, hands, legs, and genitals. In this regard, the report says: “sources told the Embassy that three prisoners with whom they were detained (Tsegaye Ayele Yigzaw, Gedlu Ayele Hulu-Ante, and Argata Gobena Maru) died in jail as a result of the beatings and absence of medical treatment, and one pregnant woman (Webit Lengamo) miscarried after being severely beaten.”

According to the report, one opposition official told the Embassy that he had spent one month and 18 days in a detention center named “Ma-ekelawi” in a small, dark, 4×4 meter room with 12 other prisoners. He told to the Embassy that medical treatment had not been available, and prisoners had not been allowed any visitors. He also told to the Embassy that the younger prisoners had been beaten most severely, and then denied medical treatment.

According to the report, the opposition official mentioned here above reported to the Embassy that some prisoners had told him that they had been detained for several years without being charged and without trial.

The report says: “for example, he spoke with four people who were arrested in Hargeisa, Somaliland two years ago and accused of being members of the Oromo Liberation Front, a banned insurgent movement. They have been held for two years without trial, and their families do not know of their whereabouts. Also, he spoke with one of four people who were arrested 14 years ago following the assassination attempt against Egyptian President Mubarak and held incommunicado without trial. Of the four, two have already died in prison and the two others are in very bad condition.”

In addition, the report indicates the presence of corruption around detention centers. It states that the higher officials of the detention centers force prisoners’ family members to pay bribes to speed up the investigation process as well as to get prisoners released. For instance, the report says: “one person told our source that her brother was in jail and had to stay there until they could figure out to whom they should pay the bribe. In another case a foreigner told our source that he was asked for a USD 50 bribe from the investigator.”

Ma-ekelawi: The Dark Detention Centre

There are so many darken detention centers in Ethiopia. Some of them are known by the public whereas the others are hidden. Ma-ekelawi is one of those detention centers known by the public.

Regarding this detention center, the report states the following. “According to a British national recently released from Ma-ekelawi, the jail is divided into two sections, the “open” side and the “underground” side. In the “open” side, there are 12 cells, six on each side of an open courtyard about two meters wide. There are eight toilets and two showers, for an average of 100 prisoners at a time. In the “underground” side, there are two types of solitary confinement cells. One type of cell is reportedly not physically uncomfortable, while the other type of cell is extremely small and prisoners are forced to stand.”

The Paper Tigers

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It is what the universal declaration of human rights (UDHR), to which Ethiopia is a signatory, states under Article 5. Article 9 of the declaration also stats: “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” Likewise, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) adapted in 1966 and the African Charter on Human and People’s Right (ACHPR) incorporate similar articles.

When we come to the constitution of Ethiopia, Article 17 and 18 of the constitution says: “no person may be subjected to arbitrary arrest, and no person may be detained without a charge or conviction against him; everyone has the right to protection against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

However, sadly, none of the legal documents are practically protecting Ethiopians. Many Ethiopian are suffering from being subjected to torture or inhuman treatment as well as arbitrary detention, particularly journalists, opposition political leaders and anyone who are critical of the regime. This is also clearly revealed by “INSIDE ETHIOPIA’S JAILS”.

The World Bank (WB) in its report on the status of corruption in Ethiopia advised the government to audit Ethio Telecom’s large agreements. 

According to the report launched this morning at the Hilton Addis, focusing on the level of corruption in the country in different sector sectors, the government needs to apply standards to Ethio Telecom that are in line with Ethiopia’s Public Procurement Proclamation.

The report, “Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia”, in its subtopic that assessed the level of corruption in the telecom sector also stated that absence of uniform procurement standards is one of the major causes of corruption, among others.

The report highlighted that the vendor financing contract entered into by the then ETC (Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation now named Ethio Telecom) in 2006 appears to be highly unusual. “...This brief study should not be seen as an investigation or interpreted as alleging in itself that corruption has necessarily occurred. However, the circumstances as perceived both by stakeholders and by independent observers do raise serious questions about the control of risks in this sector.”

The stakeholders of the then 1.5 billion US dollars vendor financing argue that ETC’s financial requirements were not provided in detail to those suppliers (other than possibly the winning supplier –China’s ZTE) that had been approached to consider providing such financing. The report also stated that there is no evidence of a formal tender procedure for the finance package.

“The supplier selected by the ETC to supply the finance package that suited the ETC’s purposes. The equipment supply element of the vendor financing contract was not put out to competitive tender.”
The report stated that generally the contract was not in accordance with the ETC’s procurement procedure and no competitive tender for the contract and subcontracts.

“Difficulty in measuring technical compliance: By appointing one supplier without competitive tender, the ETC has no opportunity to assess the degree of technical compliance of the supplier’s equipment. The contract was also inappropriate and went through unclear procedures for ensuring technical quality and competitive pricing,” according to the report.

In addition, the report further mentioned that Ethio Telecom is vulnerable to corruption because it is under government monopoly.

Health, education, water, justice, construction, land and mining are also the sectors surveyed by the report sponsored by the World Bank, Canada International Development Agency, UK Aid and the government of the Netherlands.

“Some of the recommendations of the report are under implementation,” said Ali Suleman, Commissioner of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC).  While the report also recalled that in January 2008, the FEACC 2008 brought charges against a former ETC CEO and 26 former ETC executives for allegedly “procuring low-quality equipment from companies that were supposed to be rejected on the basis of procurement regulations.”

World Bank country Director, Guang Zhe Chen, on his part stressed that the purpose of the study is conducted to support evidence-based policy formation.

11, January 2013

New Business Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s late PM Meles Zenawi died convinced of a no relationship between democracy and development. He was wrong

Bisrat Teshome, Special to Addis Standard

The famous Economist and Nobel Prize winner of 1998, Amartya Sen, on his bestselling book “Development as Freedom” unwaveringly argues that development has to be seen as a process of expanding real freedom that people enjoy at different places and time.

Literature defines “freedom” as “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint”. Put differently, freedom grants individuals to act according to their will and decide on their choices without obstacles. Development, on the other hand, is perceived by many developing countries as just a mere translation of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Per Capita Income or Gross National Product (GNP). This can be assumed as one of the means towards development, but it can only be considered full-fledged when it includes other forms of human freedoms such as political freedom (the liberty to elect or be elected, the liberty to assemble and the liberty to speak freely among others), and social freedom (the chance of having alternative health care services, and educational facilities, for example).
Part of an indicator for a democratic system is therefore putting in place a system that guarantees development through peoples’ freedom to choose and participate in economic activities.

Free choice vs development
In Ethiopia the level of human freedom as seen from the angle of economic freedom does simply not exist. A deeper look into this dynamism reveals how lack of economic freedom is severely affecting competitiveness and growth in the economy. Ethiopia’s late PM Meles Zenawi, in one of his appearances during the May 2012 World Economic Forum for Africa held here in Addis Ababa, said, “my view is that there is no direct relationship between growth and democracy historically and theoretically.” He may have tried to prove his point when he added, “democracy is a good thing in and of itself irrespective of its impact on economic growth,” but in actual cases, we cannot separate development and freedom; but conceptualize development through freedom.

The Ethiopian government says it has been registering a GDP growth rate of more than 10% for the past eight consecutive years. A recent report by the World Bank vindicates this claim. But, is this phenomenon considered as development? Are we actually seeing increase in economic freedom to choose among alternative services? Is there enough competition in the private sector to ensure availability of various products in the market for the willing consumers?

To answer the above questions, one need not look beyond the laughable financial sector in Ethiopian economy. An Ethiopian economic update which was published in November 2012 by the World Bank argues that Ethiopia is the least competitive place for banks and other financial institutions from other countries surveyed in Africa. Clearly, this attributes to stringent policies of the government that prevents foreign banks and other financial institutions from operating in the country. The repercussions of this stringent policy is that many firms in the country end up not having sufficient access to finance and not been able to register growth as much as they could otherwise do.

Price cap and all that  
If the financial sector proves to be weaker to draw a stronger argument against Ethiopia’s adamant and inexplicably severe polices in opening the sector and hence leaving businesses in the sector with limited or no choice, (the government maintains it is doing so to protect the young financial sector), the general business atmosphere will not provide any comfort either. A 2012 business competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum places the country, the third largest populated in Africa, at the bottom of the table out of some 150 countries surveyed.

In January 2011 Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade had introduced an unholy “price cap” on a number of consumable goods to control the ever increasing prices of consumable products in the market. The attempt has failed to calm the soaring prices because many businesses refused to sell products at state-fixed prices, stalling the market flow and import activities. Answering to questions by exacerbated MPs, including from his own party, the late PM Meles claimed that an increase in the nation’s export, which was never seen before, had resulted in an unusually large amount of foreign currency reserve, which forced the National Bank to print the birr. But the truth was the National Bank had printed, against rudimentary economic policy measures, a large amount of the birr and pumped it into the local market hoping to fill the birr’s circulation hole created by the price cap. This is further evidence that the government in Ethiopia is not focusing on facilitating competition in the market to increase the range of products to choose from, but rather fiddles on controlling the market.

Add to that in the past few years Ethiopia has been witnessing a galloping inflation unseen in any part of the continent except for Zimbabwe. In the year 2011, the average inflation rate was well above 30% largely for consumable products. The government has been giving many superficial reasons to explain the inexplicable; it blamed factors from imported inflation to excess supply of foreign currency in the market to rogue traders. On the other hand, senior economists counter argue that in a predominantly agrarian economy such as that of Ethiopia, it is rare to have such inflation rates unless there is severe shortage of supply of food and agricultural products. Bar for unproductive agricultural sector – which is the country’s endemic problem in the first place (and for obvious reasons) – indirectly this scenario shows that the economy frequently suffers from lack of freedom to choose the types of goods and agricultural items producers and traders can supply the market with and citizens can pick from.

Solution, solution and solution
The most pressing issue right now is to find the right doze of solutions that have the capacity to create a healthy competition in the domestic market and increase competitiveness of products of Ethiopia in the international markets. Competition is the main tool for ensuring product quality, cost efficiency and increasing the range of products for sale. It goes without saying that a healthy competition also promotes innovation, research and development across all sectors that are aiming for product excellence.

But for that to happen it is crucial that the government in Ethiopia begins to respect the freedom of choice by those who are doing business and those who are consuming, and work towards achieving a market system that can comfortably accommodate varieties of products that survive the pure interest of consumers. When consumers get the right to choose what to reject and what to accept, and when producers and traders get the right to choose on where and how to invest their hard earned money, then it is safe for one to argue that the country is developing and the development is in the consent of its citizens. That, for all intents and purposes, is the sacred relationship between the freedom to choose, which  a democratic system provides,  and development.

04, January 2013
Addis standard.

East Africa's “Aral Sea” in the Making?

“If Ethiopia completes the Gibe III Dam and continues to press ahead with large-scale irrigation developments, the result will be a cascade of hydrological, ecological and socio-economic impacts that will generate a region-wide crisis for indigenous livelihoods and biodiversity and thoroughly destabilize the Ethiopia-Kenyan borderlands around Lake Turkana. The long-term effect could parallel what has happened to Central Asia’s Aral Sea, one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters.”

So begins a paper that describes how hydrological changes from the Gibe III Dam and irrigation projects now under construction in the Omo River Basin could devastate Lake Turkana in Kenya. The environmental impacts, which include a huge drop in the lake’s level, could lead to a collapse of local livelihoods, and foment insecurity in an already conflict-ridden region. 

Lake Turkana gets 90% of its water from the Omo. Filling the Gibe III dam’s reservoir could significantly reduce the lake’s inflow over a number of years (the dam is more than half complete at this writing). The added impact of water diversions for large irrigated plantations now being developed in the Lower Omo Valley could lead to the lake level dropping by as much as 22 meters (the average depth is just 30 meters). The dam will also reduce the flow of sediments that, according to the author, will “lead to the loss of the ecologically productive floodplain used by wild species, fish, domestic stock and agriculture.”

These environmental impacts could affect up to half a million people, lead to a collapse of local livelihoods, and foment further insecurity in an already conflict-ridden region. The author notes: “The disruptions to the lands, waters, ecology and livelihoods of the peoples in this region will have immediate and substantial political consequences. These will in turn end up having regional consequences that will ultimately be of global importance, given the wider situation in the Horn of Africa.” Those who lose their livelihoods and homelands in the process are “likely to seek out resources on their neighbors’ lands in the Kenya-Ethiopia-Sudan borderlands. Well armed, primed by past grudges, and often divided by support from different state and local governments, these conflicts can be expected to be bloody and persistent.”

The impoverishment of the wetland and lake ecosystems of Turkana and Lower Omo will impact the region’s biodiversity and

Fish drying racks, Lake Turkana.

Jane Baldwin

ecosystem services. Of special concern are the lake’s fisheries, which are the main source of protein for local people (dried fish are also sold, and are a major source of income).  Large mammal populations will lose habitat, food sources and migration corridors.

The report describes political interventions that could hold off or reverse this tragedy in the making. For example, although most international funders have stayed out of the Gibe III project, China’s biggest bank,ICBC, has said it will fund the dam’s turbines. China could withdraw from the project to avoid driving a wedge between Kenya and Ethiopia. Donor governments that support Ethiopia (whose budget is substantially underwritten by the US and EU) could intervene over the projects’ human rights violations and environmental destruction.

The author of the report, a natural scientist with many years of field experience in the region, has requested anonymity. Sixteen prominent academics and experts have endorsed the paper’s findings  (the endorsers' list is at the end of the full paper). Here are some of their comments.

• Dr. William Oweke Ojwang, assistant director of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute: “The Omo–Lake Turkana ecosystem is a gift to our heritage. Lake Turkana fisheries have immense socio-economic importance to the country and the region. It would be suicidal for Kenya to ignore the impacts of these developments on this rich ecosystem.”
• David Turton, a forced-migration expert with the University of Oxford with 40 years’ experience studying the people of the Omo Valley: “This is the most effective statement I've yet seen of the full extent of the disaster looming in the basin.”
• Alex Awiti, an ecosystems ecologist at Aga Khan University in Nairobi: “This paper offers dispassionate evidence against wrongheaded investments that discount and undermine the ecological basis for sustainable development. I hope its findings will rouse a global conscience to address the fate of the Turkana basin.”
• David Hales, President of Second Nature and former Chair, UNESCO World Heritage Committee: “This paper raises fundamental issues that must be addressed urgently. It is time for the international community to pay serious attention to the impact on indigenous people in both Ethiopia and Kenya, and the potential loss of irreplaceable components of natural systems whose richness and uniqueness have been recognized as part of the common heritage of mankind through the World Heritage Convention.”

Download the report

10,January 2013

International Rivers

Exclusive: documents seen by the Guardian detail £13 – £15m government funding for 'special police' in Ogaden region.

The Ethiopian army withdrew from teh Ogaden region after compalints againts soldiers'' conduct - to be replaced by the 'special police'. Photograph: Peter Delarue/AFP/Getty Images

Millions of pounds of Britain's foreign aid budget are to be spent on training an Ethiopian paramilitary security force which stands accused of numerous human rights abuses and summary executions.

The Guardian has seen an internal Department for International Development document forming part of a tender to train security forces in the Somali region of Ogaden, which lies within Ethiopia, as part of a five-year £13 – 15m "peace-building" programme. The document notes the "reputational risks of working alongside actors frequently cited in human rights violation allegations".

Dfid insists that the training will be managed by NGOs and private companies with the goal of improving security, professionalism and accountability of the force but Human Rights Watch has documented countless allegations of human rights abuses.

The Ethiopian government's counter-insurgency campaign in Ogaden is spearheaded by the "special police", also known as the "Liyu police", which was created after federal security institutions effectively withdrew from the region following strong condemnation of the Ethiopian army's conduct. The force is commanded by Abdullahi Werar, vice-president of eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden region, who visited London this week.

The document says of the Liyu police: "The special police is a force of some 10-14,000 young Somalis mostly recruited from within the conflict zone (aka the Ogaden sub-region) using recruitment methods similar to those of insurgent groups.

"Training is minimal and loyalty within the force closely linked to personalities in leadership positions, of whom the president is paramount. Human rights abuses committed by the special police are believed to be more widespread and severe than those committed during the military campaign. However, having a Somali paramilitary force lead operations in the region is convenient for the federal government, who have been able to frame the conflict as internal regional politics rather than a government-led crackdown."

Human Rights Watch has said that the Liyu police have been implicated in serious abuses against civilians throughout the Somali region of Ethiopia. It also reports one case in which 10 men were summarily executed by the force in march last year.

Amnesty International's Ethiopia researcher Claire Beston said it was highly concerning that the UK was planning to engage with the special police. "There have been repeated allegations against the Liyu police of extrajudicial killings, rape, torture and other violations including destruction of villages and there is no doubt that the special police have become a significant source of fear in the region."

The army also stands accused of orchestrating a mock execution of one of two Swedish journalists jailed in Ethiopia in 2011.

DFID's assistance for Ethiopia, geopolitically a crucial ally for the UK and others against islamic militancy in east Africa, is the aid body's largest country programme, with a spend of £390m per year by 2014/15

The DFID document sets out the terms and reference of a "security and justice component" for Ethiopia's Somali region. It states that the goal of the programme, which will be managed by a DFID team, is "to build a more peaceful and inclusive Somali region".

It adds: "The primary recipients of the services will be DFID for the design element and for the implementation the regional government of the Somali Regional State, specifically state and non-state security and justice service providers."

A DFID spokesperson said: "The peace and development programme will be delivered in partnership with NGOs and UN organisations and no funding will go through the government of Ethiopia."

Martin Schibbye, one of the two Swedish journalists jailed after illegally entering Ethiopia and meeting with ethnic Somali rebels, told the Guardian about his encounter with the army. "We were shot and arrested in June 2011 and then we were first kept in the desert for two days ," said Schibbye, who was freed along with his colleague, Johan Persson, after serving more than 400 days of an 11-year sentence."

He described being subjected to a mock execution in which soldiers walked him into the desert. "They raised their rifiles and … said that if you don't tell the truth we will shoot you here and blame it on the rebels."

The Ethiopian embassy did not respond to queries about the special police and the alleged treatment of Schibbye and Persson. Instead, a spokesperson referred to a briefing that rejected allegations by Human Rights Watch of abuses in the Ogaden region.

"Investigations by the Donor Assistance Group, as well as repeated visits by embassies including several members of the European community, the UK and the US, and by a raft of NGOs working in the area have all failed to substantiate Human Rights Watch claims – which are as usual drawn largely, if not exclusively, from people outside the country, members of externally based armed opposition movements and other dissidents," it said.

It added that the Ethiopian government was actively engaged in discussions with the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a rebel group in the region, "to encourage it to lay down its arms".

10,January 2013

theguardian.

Ethiopia coach Sewnet Bishaw has included Swedish-born midfielder Yusuf Salah, 28, in his final squad for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Salah, on loan with Swedish top-flight side Syrianska, is one of three foreign-based players in the squad.

Saladin Said, who plays for Egypt’s Wadi Degla, and United States-based winger Fuad Ibrahim are also included.

Said is set to be Ethiopia’s danger man, having scored key goals in Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers last year.

Meanwhile, Salah forced his way into the squad after being trialled at November’s East and Central African Cecafa Challenge Cup.

Bishaw’s 23-man selection is mainly composed of players from two clubs in Ethiopia: with nine coming from 2012 champions Saint George and eight from league runners-up Dedebit.

Ethiopia qualified for the Nations Cup after going through on away goals following their 5-5 aggregate draw with East African rivals Sudan.

A founder member of the Confederation of African Football, Ethiopia contested the very first Nations Cup in 1957, won the tournament in 1962 but had failed to qualify for the finals since 1982 – until last year.

They will contest Group C in South Africa, taking on Burkina Faso, Nigeria and reigning African champions Zambia in a tournament which starts on 19 January.

In a ruling that lasted five minutes, a new judge appointed to the Ethiopian Court of Cassation in the capital, Addis Ababa, rejected on January 8, 2012, an appeal filed on behalf of award-winning journalist Reeyot Alemu, according to local journalists. 

Reeyot, who wrote columns critical of the government for the now-defunct independent weekly Feteh, has been imprisoned since June 2011on terrorism charges in a case that has aroused international indignation. In January 2012, she was sentenced to 14 years in prison and a fine of 33,000 birrs (US$1,500) under Ethiopia's vague anti-terrorism law. The charges--planning and conspiring a terrorist act; possessing property for terrorist acts; participating in the promotion or communication of a terrorist act--were based on emails the journalist received from pro-opposition discussion groups; reports and photos she sent to the U.S.-based opposition news site Ethiopian Review; unspecified money transfers from her bank account; and photos of anti-government graffiti taken in Addis Ababa, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ.

In August, an appeals court acquitted the journalist of the first two charges, but upheld the third, reducing her 14-year sentence to five years.

Judge Abdulkader Mohammed said he did not find any error of law in Reeyot's previous convictions and upheld the five-year sentence, according to local journalists.

The Court of Cassation is the last resort for legal appeals in Ethiopia, according to legal experts.

Reeyot is a 2012 winner of the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. 

Cpj

8,January 2013

Satellite photo over Kality prison. In one of the roofs in the upper right corner of the picture you will see a white text. That was our zone, zone 6. In this hangar of corrugated steel we lived for more than a year. In the security zone, zone 1, the male Ethiopian journalists are held. In the women’s zone along the lower-right corner of the picture the female journalist Reeyot Alemu will be found. 

It has started now. Collections among the prisoners to pay for this year’s Ethiopian Christmas known as Ganna which is celebrated on January 7th. One birr here. 10 birr there. Enthusiastic Prison Committee members who arrange open scenes, betting rackets and auctions to pull together the funds to pay for soft drinks, popcorn and bread head up the fundraising.

Being locked up you do not really celebrate a new year but rather that a year has passed and that another 365 days can be added to your past. The first question is always: how long have you been here? Not: When will you be released?

Throughout the week I have been thinking that I should write about Christmas in Kality. That I should write about the rays of hope during incarceration in order to remember all the people there and to give you who read the blog a small Christmas gift.

I had in mind to write about how, in the morning, Johan walked around with a red jar of gingerbread cookies. To write about how our neighbours hungrily took the cookies with both hands: “Prison Rules!” To say something about how Rihanna’s song ”Man Down” echoed from the zone’s loudspeakers during count-in.  To tell about the communal singing of the chorus while waiting in line in the mornings: “I just shot a man down. I am a criminal, criminal, criminal, judge please give me minimum, minimum, minimum.”

To write about the service held a few hours later in the small steel shed that some prisoners had turned into a church. A room without an altar, Saints or candles, but with a sign written by hand on the wall which said: “the trials here are nothing compared to the one in the last day.”

I was going to tell you about wooden pews packed with criminals. About “oil man”, “Aspirinman”, “the mad Arab”, “F”, “S”, “Bantu”, “K”, “G”, “Burundi”, “Jack-ass”, “Trafficker”, “Liberia”, “Fool”, “Cameroon”, “J”, “Somalia” and “Nigeria”. Killer paedophiles, bank robbers, con artists and pickpockets. The guilty and the innocent. Christians and Muslims. From Cairo to Cape Town. On each seat a short story. On each bench a novel. Good people. Some with bullets left in their bodies. The cream of African youth.

I was going to tell you about the sermon from a self-taught priest that started with the words:

– I have sinned more than anyone else here. If you knew what I have done, you would all rise and walk away.

About the silence that followed.

I was going to recount the story of the priest’s life that made the congregation’s eyes wet with tears.

And tell you about those who actually stood up and walked away.

I was going to write about his message to us in the pews that morning. That the most important thing was to maintain our dignity as human beings, that we should start cooking for our enemies in prison, invite them to lunch and to wash their clothes. But above all, I had in mind to write about his philosophy in life: to refuse to accept that we were locked up and that we would die here: jamais!

– You should be glad that you got this chance. Had you not ended up in Kality, you would have been dead. Believe me. It is quite a lethal world out there.

I was going to tell you about the former child soldiers from the Rwandan genocide, who nodded in agreement.

But I won’t, now.

I will keep the story of Christmas in Kality for the coming book.

I just want, with the help of a few lines, to wish all blog- and future book readers a Merry Christmas in freedom.

If there will be a happy new year depends on what we decide to make of it.

Because there are still flies in the ointment.

2012 was a terrible year for the freedom of the press in the world with 141 journalists killed, a thousand arrested and more than 2,000 physically attacked and threatened members of the free media. In the light of the fact that the freedom of the press is vital for democracy and thus the development of society, these figures are nothing short of alarming.

On New Year’s Eve of 2012, 232 journalists celebrated the new year in prisons around the world. This is the highest figure ever, according to a report by the CPJ. Among them journalist and father of three, Dawit Isaak, who has been held for more than 4 000 days in an Eritrean prison, will be found.

Several of the imprisoned journalists will celebrate New Year’s Eve in Addis Abeba’s kality prison. We have been accused of the same things, we have been to the same prison and had the same sentences – but that is where the parallel ends: Eskinder Nega, Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu are still there.

Me and Johan are free.

All these young Ethiopian journalists faced a choice. They are intelligent and well educated, they could have chosen an easy life, they could have chosen another profession, but the love for the truth, to their country, for their fellow human beings and to Ethiopia made them into journalists.

They stayed and continued to write.

That decision brought them to Kality.

For their courage, working methods and articles they have been forced to pay with their freedom.

With six detained journalists left in Kality, Ethiopia today is one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to imprisoning members of the press. Repression of the media has also made the country a world leader when it comes to running journalists out of the country.

We must not forget that the bottom line of what has made journalism such a dangerous job in Ethiopia is not the callous ways of the regime, but the indifference of the rest of the world.

In addition to the lack of freedom, Reeyot Alemu has had a lot of medical problems in prison. She used to be plagued by gastric catarrh and sinusitis. She has also had heavy pains in her left breast after her arrest. Woubshet Taye, accused of having taken a picture of a demonstration, was beaten until he fell ill before he was arrested and taken to Kality prison. Now he is feeling better but still suffers by not having any access to books, newspapers or the radio.

Not being able to write or read is double punishment.

I hope that media outlets continue to follow their cases just as they followed ours. As a prisoner of conscience the thing you fear most is to be forgotten and the support from the outside is what keeps you going. Columns, articles and letters of support are more important than food and medicine. And international recognition in the news does provide a certain level of protection. Prison guards and administrators will think twice because they know the world is watching.

On January 8, 2013, the next trial for Reejot Alemo is set. Follow the hashtag#ReeyotAlemu that day. Almost always there will be someone courageous that reports live on site during the trial with a presence and straight forwardness that will give you goose bumps. Twitter – at its finest moments — in service of democracy and the freedom of  the press.

The process against Eskinder Nega is also under way. His case one can easily follow via twitter on #EskinderNega or Voice of America.

We must also never forget the story we failed to make and at the same time continue to follow developments in the underreported Ogaden region.

In the year that passed it became evident that the protection of and respect for journalism is inadequate internationally. Therein lays the challenge. What happened to me and Johan changed our lives – the question we all must ask ourselves in the coming year is how all of us together can change the conditions for journalism and for those who are still imprisoned.

Clearly it feels liberating to celebrate New Year’s Eve and Christmas in freedom.

When you look back and think of those who are left behind in the chaos, left on the concrete floor, between walls of corrugated steel celebrating the New Year in captivity, I feel sick to the stomach.

But then I remember their smiles and their strength and think that it’s not us that are fighting for their freedom, but rather the imprisoned journalists, who are fighting for ours.

04,January 2013

MARTIN OCH JOHAN-BLOGGEN

As Ethiopia joins the UN Human Rights Council, Laetitia Bader hopes its own rights abuses will be put under the international spotlight.

An item from the Agenda section of the magazine, where we look beyond the news curve with reports and comment on breaking stories.

On 1 January 2013, Ethiopia took up its seat on the United Nations Human rights Council. The uncontested election – Africa put forward five countries for five seats – has raised some eyebrows, given the country’s own poor rights record. Elected member countries are obliged to ‘uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights’. Yet, in Ethiopia, hundreds of political prisoners languish in jails where torture is common and a crackdown on the media and civil society is in full swing.

The blogger Eskinder Nega exemplifies the fate of those who dare to speak out. Eskinder was arbitrarily arrested and jailed following the controversial 2005 elections. After his release from prison two years later, he was placed under ongoing surveillance and banned from publishing. Then, in 2011, he was rearrested, convicted in an unfair trial under Ethiopia’s broad terrorism law, and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Since the 2005 elections, the human rights situation in Ethiopia has progressively deteriorated: the government has shut down legitimate political avenues for peaceful protest; and opposition leaders, civil society activists and independent journalists have been jailed or forced to flee. Furthermore, state-driven development policies, including large-scale agricultural development and ‘villagization’ programmes, have seen communities forcibly relocated from their traditional lands, without adequate consultation or compensation, to villages that lack basic services.

The ruling party has passed a host of laws attacking the media and civil society, including the Charities and Societies Proclamation that has made independent human rights work in the country almost impossible. The state has frozen the assets of the last two remaining groups – the leading women’s rights organization, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association EWLA) – which has provided free legal aid to over 17,000 women – and the Human Rights Council (HRCO).

Ethiopia’s security forces have in recent years been implicated in crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Somali and Gambella regions. But Ethiopia has not only succeeded in stemming criticism at the national level but also internationally. And the worsening human rights situation has not dampened donors’ enthusiasm, even when their assistance has harmed democratic institutions or minority populations. Ethiopia’s friends and partners in the region should use its three-year term on the Council to put its rights abuses under the international spotlight. They should use debates to urge the Ethiopian government to release all political prisoners, lift unlawful restrictions on civil society and the media, and stop blocking visit requests by UNhuman rights experts.

New Interanationalist Magazine.

02, January 2013.

ADDIS ABABA – At least 24 students were injured on Thursday when ethnic-based clashes erupted among university students on Arat Kilo campus of Addis Ababa University.



The fights broke out when students heading to the cafeteria in the morning saw the walls of the main library on campus and other places covered with graffiti that denigrate the Oromo people.

The violent clashes included window smashings and physical fights continued into the middle of the day, though police tried to quell the unrest several times. Police also threw into custody a handful of students suspected of playing leading roles in the unrest.

The government in Ethiopia has a history of sparking unrest among various ethnic groups. University students are no exception because, traditionally, political changes that resulted in the overthrow of previous governments trace their roots to student activism on campus.


The tradition of university students initiating political unrest in the country came to an end when the current government seized power in 1991, and decreed “ethnic federalism” which in reality fragmented the unity of the Ethiopian people as well as university students.

Students have little interest in starting clashes among themselves, and the truth that each student is search beforing campus makes the government the number one suspect in the crime that has landed at least 24 students in nearby hospitals for their injuries.

By 2:00 pm Addis Ababa time, Police had cordoned off the area, and students were neither allowed to enter nor leave Arat Kilo Campus, which houses building of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA | Wed Jan 2, 2013 8:01am EST

(Reuters) - Ethiopian police have arrested 15 suspected militants allegedly trained by Islamist rebels in neighboring Somalia and who were plotting attacks in Ethiopia, the country's intelligence agency said on Wednesday.

The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on what senior officials say is a growing threat from militant Islam in Ethiopia, a Horn of Africa nation predominantly comprised of Orthodox Christians and a large minority of Muslims.

The would-be militants were caught following a 20-day sting operation while they plotted to set up cells in the eastern town of Harar and in Kemise in the northeast, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said.

"Members of the group were recruited, trained and armed by Somalia's al Shabaab and their aim was to wage Jihad (holy war) and stage attacks inside the country," an NISS statement said, aired by the state-run Ethiopian Television.

Addis Ababa has sent troops to Somalia to help other African countries battling to crush al Shabaab's six-year insurgency.

The suspects, whose nationalities were not disclosed, were said to have crossed into Ethiopia from Somalia and Kenya.

Wednesday's TV report showed police displaying large amounts of arms including rifles and grenades, as well as black flags with Arabic inscriptions. The report said CDs and video tapes of "jihadist messages" were also seized during the operation.

On Tuesday, an Ethiopian court convicted 10 other militants of preparing strikes on political and economic targets in Ethiopia with the help of Somalia's al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab.

Muslims in Ethiopia staged several mass protests last year against perceived interference in Islamic affairs. Several leaders of a committee that led the protests now face trial.

Ethiopia fought Islamist rebels in Somalia in 2006-2009 and sent troops back in 2011 to fight al Shabaab, opening a third front alongside Kenyan troops and an African Union mission.

The onslaught on rebels in Somalia has gained ground in the past two years. Al Shabaab withdrew from the southern port of Kismayu in September, its last major urban stronghold, heralding its demise as a quasi-conventional military force.

(Editing by Richard Lough and Alistair Lyon)

2, January 2013

Reuters

by Christiane Amanpour and Cynthia McFadden

A few weeks ago, we had the honor of hosting the 2012 Courage in Journalism Award for the International Women's Media Foundation. It was a moving, even glittering event. But there was one striking absence. Journalist Reeyot Alemu could not come to New York to receive her award because she is languishing in an Ethiopian prison. On January 4th, an Ethiopian court will decide Alemu’s final appeal. It is her last hope of freedom.

Alemu was arrested last year and thrown into jail for criticizing the Ethiopian government. She was well aware of the risk she was taking. “I was preparing articles that oppose injustice. When I did it, I knew that I would pay the price for my courage and I was ready to accept that price,” she told us.

The price was a 14-year sentence in Ethiopia's notoriously ill-maintained Kaliti prison where prisoners of conscience share quarters with violent criminals. Because she has refused to testify against fellow journalists, Alemu has been put in solitary confinement. All this, simply for writing articles.

After her arrest, Alemu was held without charge or access to legal counsel for three months. Using its controversial 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, the Ethiopian government accused Alemu of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and participation in a terrorist organization. What has happened to Alemu is a powerful reminder that the freedom on which we built our careers can still not be taken for granted in other parts of the world.

Feteh (“Justice”), the independent newspaper Alemu wrote for, has since been shut down.

Under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who ruled the country for 21 years until his death in August, Ethiopia jailed more journalists than any other country in Africa (except for Eritrea.) For a country which had courageously liberated itself from the yoke of terrifying dictatorship, it is a sad legacy.

Last month, the new Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, made a move to greater political openness in appointing members of the four main ethnic-based parties to key cabinet positions. It is a good first step.

Whether Desalegn's effort to build a more ethnically diverse cabinet is an honest attempt to democratize the Ethiopian political process or simply a move to consolidate his power will hinge on allowing Ethiopia's independent media to exercise its press freedom without fear of government harassment. The release of imprisoned columnist Reeyot Alemu would be a good start.

Christiane Amanpour is a news anchor of CNN and ABC News. Cynthia McFadden is a news anchor of ABC News.