Finote Democracy: Voice of Ethiopian Unity Radio Fundraising. ..IEWO Radio (27 April 2008)

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Release all the May – June 2005 Prisoners in Labor Camps
SOCEPP

May-June 2005, the EPRDF regime massacred more than 200 peaceful protesters who had said no to its vote rigging and blunt fraud. More than 50,000 Ethiopians were rounded up and taken to Zwai, Dedesa, Bir Sheleko, Shoa Robit and other horrible detention centres. More than 35,000 are still languishing there and dozens have been disappeared.  Read More.....

AGM of Kinijit Support Organisation UK to be held on 01 June 2008 >>> Read More.....

Open Letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain: Stop Giving Aid to the Repressive Regime in Ethiopia
EPRP

The Situation in the Ethiopian Somali Region
Debteraw Associate Reporter

The DFID report also states that 20 NGO's have been approved to work in the field but from what our sources have heard, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been ejected from the country and only Médecins du Monde (MDM) are there. Our sources appeal to all Ethiopians living in the UK to inform their respective MPs about the situations and  to ask them to put pressure on the government of Meles to respond to the September 2007 UN report, investigate allegations and address any human rights issues. Read More.....

CALL ME BY MY NAME: Solutions with Debteraw, XXVII
Obo Arada Shawl alias Wolde Tewolde, May 13, 2008

Let me be an apologist for a moment for EPRP’s hidden agendas and time bomb. Many opponents of EPRP claim that EPRP practice hidden agendas and wait for time bomb. But this is not true. It seems true because politics is about controlling the message. While EPRP was struggling to bring change for all Ethiopians, the people who were in power were using the propaganda (Yabiyen Ekek wede Emye L’kk) of hidden agendas and time bomb propaganda against EPRP. Read More.....

Seattle Kinijit's May 15 candle light vigil to be held on 17 May 2008

Kinijit Support Toronto Chapter - Public Meeting on May 18, 2008

 

EPRDF Allows Sudan to Violate Rights of Ethiopians
SOCEPP Press Release

It is now confirmed that the EPRDF has ceded Ethiopian territory to the Sudan and Sudan has subsequently occupied Ethiopian land and violated the rights of Ethiopian farmers especially in the border regions of Gondar. Sudanese soldiers occupying Ethiopian land have abducted more than 34 Ethiopians from several farms and taken them to the Sudan where they are still being held. These same soldiers have burnt dozens of huts and destroyed farm property. Read More.....

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Opposition must united: Tigray Liberation Front/Ethiopian peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) & Ethiopian Sovereignty
The Voice of Ethiopiawinet Radio Statement

 

IEWO Radio Reacts to Sudan's Occupation of Ethiopian Territory [Audio report]

Statement of Our Position
EPRP Norway Section

On the basis of what has come to light, EPRP Norway Section, with its vibrant support group, in its today’s (03.05.08) meeting, has after all due deliberation taken the decision to resume officially and formally its former activities with and relationship to the main organization, EPRP.  Read More…..

Weyane Shamed in Melbourne/Australia/
Debteraw Associate Reporter

Woyane's Ambassador planned meeting for Ethiopians in Melbourne was disrupted and called off by Victorian police and authorities; after a successful protest. Read more...

Update on the imprisoned journalists
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -06/05/2008

The imprisoned journalists have appeared before court today. No outside party was allowed to follow the proceedings, but we know that the court ruled that they should remain in prison for fourteen more days until the police wind up its investigation. The ruling came as a surprise since it is quite plain that the police have no need for further investigation after impounding what it has determined to be incriminating evidence.

Musicians at Risk for Speaking Out
IFEX Communiqué, Vol.17, No.18, 6 May 2008

A magazine with a cover story about the imprisonment of Ethiopia pop singer Teddy Afro was seized on 2 May and its editor and three support staff were themselves jailed, a move coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, says the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA). Read More.....

KIC statement and Kinijit court documents

Open Letter to Senator Inhofe  
From Mesfin Mekonen, KinijitInternational Foreign Relations

I urge you to reconsider your position.  Speak with distinguished persons such as Representative Chris Smith (R- NJ) who have been crucial in drafting and enacting this legislation.  If the regime is so good for Ethiopia how can they be afraid of fair elections?  Read More…..

The downfall of TPLF means thedemise of ethnocentric dictatorship in Ethiopia
Yelfiwos Wondaya

“How Do We Believe?”
Alemayehu Tadesse

These are evidence for Ethiopians not to rely on Woyane Court (kangaroo Court) and to raise a doubt about the accident.  These are also evidence to see how much Woyane hate Teddy Afro.  Read More …..

Ethiopians March in May Day Procession
EPRP Norway Section

Ethiopians in Oslo took to the streets on the 1st of May (International Labor Day) and participated in Labor Day procession, in answer to the call by the EPRP Norway Section and the Ethiopian Common Forum in Norway for Ethiopians to unite against tyranny and oppression, and to reaffirm and express our solidarity with Ethiopian workers.  Read More…..

Meles Zenawi Back to His Main Business
By Seifu Tsegaye Demmissie

Dismembering,fragmenting and awarding Ethiopian territory to his former backers and financiers are parts of the mission of Meles Zenawi. He has not hidden his agenda and intention in this regard and is getting enough time and resources to carry them through. Therefore, it is far fetched and reckless to expect this avowed enemy of Ethiopia to abandon his prime mission and join the mainstream Ethiopian society to build a democratic, prosperous and united country. Read More.....

TEDDY AFRO SITE

Repression of Free Press in Ethiopia Continues
SOCEPP: May 3/2008 - World Press Freedom Day

"World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1991 as a day "to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession."Read more...

EPRDF strikes against the private press on World Press Freedom Day
By Eskinder Nega, Addis Ababa

In a move that is widely believed to have been deliberately chosen to coincide with World Press Freedom day, the Ethiopian government has struck against the private press yesterday. This is part of the erstwhile slide to naked tyranny following the brutal crackdown after the 2005 election. 10,000 copies of a non political monthly magazine ,Enku, has been impounded by the police and its publisher and deputy editor, Alemayehu Mahtemework, imprisoned. The magazine was impounded last night just before it was set to hit the market early today, Saturday. Along with the publisher, three other persons in no way connected to the Magazine but who were in the van carrying the magazine out of the printing press were also imprisoned. The magazine's cover story is about the imprisonment of Ethiopia's pop icon and critic of the government ,Tewdros Kasahun, which is stirring political passions in the country. The imprisoned are due to appear before court on Tuesday.

Vengeance against the last “Goodwill Ambassador” of Ethiopia
Aklilu Demissie

A regime that is swimming in an all time destruction ofthe motherland has now unleashed it vindictive rage against the most popular king of Ethiopian pop music. Theodros Kassahun’s (Teddy Afro) songs have transcended all barriers of language, ethnicity, race and creed in our world that has become increasingly small, thanks to all tools of present day communication.  Read More.....

Woyane High Court Denies Bail for Teddy Afro (Addis Fortune)

Ethiopian bloggers defend pop  star
By Andrew Heavens

Ethiopian bloggers rushed to the defence of their country's top pop singer Teddy Afro, after he appeared in court charged with the hit-and-run killing of a youth in capital Addis Ababa.  Many writers were convinced Afro was being framed by Ethiopian authorities who, they said, resented the singer's huge popularity and veiled anti-government lyrics.  Read More…..

April 25: Ethiopia Still Awaits Apology from the Vatican
....EPRP Press Release

Laughing at Africa
By Hama Tuma

Laughing at Africa has been a favorite pastime of many people in the West since time immemorial. The "dark continent" as some chose to call it was the target of derision by self declared experts who had little credentials other than their mountain high prejudice against black people. Aristotle defined wit as an educated insult but Africa often got coarse buffoonery, cruel, cutting, demeaning, exclusive and more than often racist. Read More.....

Read Washington Update, Easter 2008, from Mesfin Mekonen of Kinijit International

EPRP Condemns Meles Army Atrocities in Somalia (Click & read the statement)

Why Teddy Afro and why now?
By Tedla Asfaw

The release of ”Ha Le Luia’” in this holy month of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers is also a cry for justice which is going to be on every Ethiopians mind while we celebrate Easter this Sunday and we should speak our mind in churches without any fear and call for immediate release of Teddy Afro.  Read More…..

SOCEPP Condemns Illegal Detention of Popular Singer

The EPRDF regime has illegally detained popular singer Tedros Kassahun (a.k.a Teddy Afro) and has started railroading him. Officially Tedros is accused of an alleged fatal hit and run (he was detained for this in November 2006 and released on bail) but it is an ascertained fact that the regime is engaged in a political vendetta to punish the singer for one of his famous songs/Yasteseryal/ that criticizes the ruling group.  Read More of the Press Release….. // listen to his music reviews on NPR

Protests over Ethiopia Pop Singer
By Elizabeth Blunt

Thousands of young people mounted an impromptu protest after the High Court hearing, running through the streets, shouting, "Teddy is innocent". Read More.....

The New House Negroes: Loyal Opposition (a.k.a. Kestedemena Bandas)

"Back during slavery, when Black people like me talked to the slaves, they didn't kill 'em. They sent some House Negro ("like Kestedemena") along behind him to undo what he said.  You have to read the history of slavery to understand this. Read More.....

Deportees from the Sudan Held in Inhumane Condition
SOCEPP

14 of those deported from the Sudan ( the fifteenth,elder Atanaw Wassie, is being held in a secret location) are suffering cruel and inhuman treatment in cell 07 of kaliti prison, Addis Ababa. Reliabel reports reaching SOCEPP reveal that these deportees are being held incommunicado and have been denied medical care. All of them are still dressed in the jellabiya dress given to them by their Sudanese jailers in Khartoum. These same reports also reveal that the 15 deportees were taken back to Ethiopia by EPRDF top official Adisu Legese who was in the Sudan to finalize the deal to hand over Ethiopian land to the Sudanese. Read More...

Somalis flee after Mogadishu battle
Al Jazeera

Hundreds of people have fled Mogadishu after heavy clashes between anti-government fighters and Somali and Ethiopian troops reportedly killed more than 80 people over the weekend.  The Somali capital was largely quiet on Monday as residents ventured out onto the streets to collect the bodies of the dead or escape the city. "We have left our homes for the first time in days to find the dead bodies of our neighbours and bury them," Aden Haji Yusuf, a clan elder, told the Associated Press news agency. Read More.....

Somalia’s Warlord President Belongs in a Courtroom at The Hague not at UN Security Council [Somali Diaspora Network (SDN) Press Release]

Afar pastoralists face a humanitarian crisis
Afar Human Rights Organisation Press release (April 20, 2008)

Afar pastoralists inhabit the most arid landscape in the Horn African states, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. Environmental degradation and desertification has made the livelihood of the pastoralist society more fragile and insecure. Additionally, the border conflicts between the Horn states discriminate the mobility of the pastoralists in search of water, pasture, and access to market places. Read More.....

To the subjugated community of uncertainty.THE GENESIS CURSE!
By Fretsidiq Fekade

We were told the story
Of the beginning of time,
A slice of eternity,
And its tantalizing mystery.
strained in the realm of uncertainty;
Man equivocated,
Yet, define the indefinable,
Obscure the unknown Eternal. ( G.I AM )
Semantic and science omitted essence.
Religions besieged by a leap of faith. Read More Poem .....

Vengeful Regime Condemns Dead Man to Death
SOCEPP, 15 April 2008

In Ethiopia, the judiciary is controlled by the ruling front /TPLF-EPRDF/ and what the Front orders becomes the verdict of the courts. In this vein, a number of Air Force officers of the former regime have been condemend to death on the alleged grounds that they have bombed villages in Tigrai region /the home region of the present rulers of Ethiopia/. Read More.....

Washington Update (Mesfin Mekonen, 15 April 2008) 

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Engineer Gizachew and Dr. Hailu Araya on VOA Amharic Services
Tedla Asfaw

Engineer Gizachew and Dr. Hailu Araya on VOA Amharic(April 17) informed us that their signature drive  has now reached five thousands much more than the requirement put by TPLF and are working to legalize their party to participate in the 2010 election. Read More…..

Ethiopia blast toll climbs
News24

Addis Ababa - The death toll from blasts that rocked the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa climbed to three after another person succumbed to his injuries, police said on Tuesday. The blasts occurred late on Monday in two petrol pumps in the city's south, wounding 18 people. Read More.....

Violence VS self-defense
By Yelfiwos Wondaya

Quite the opposite, the allegedly ideological agenda of peaceful and legal movement promoted by some quarters is nothing more than an elite-centered analysis of conflict. It has nothing to do with the mainstream of the popular movement rising in protest to do away with the current dictatorial regime.  In reality, the secret admirers of such approach have already made it difficult for themselves to gain legitimacy as leaders endeavoring in the current political environment. Afterward, the so-called nonviolent and peace studies stressing on such notions as pacifism, mercy, reconciliation, constructive engagement, and forgiveness had been primarily concerned not with the current reality of Ethiopia but with nuclear disarmament, the avoidance of international conflict on an international scale to resolve the then cold world war with the soviets.  Read More…..

 

Ethiopia: Repression Sets Stage for Non-Competitive Elections
HRW

(New York, April 11, 2008) – The Ethiopian government’s repression of registered opposition parties and ordinary voters has largely prevented political competition ahead of local elections that begin on April 13, Human Rights Watch said today. These widespread acts of violence, arbitrary detention and intimidation mirror long-term patterns of abuse designed to suppress political dissent in Ethiopia. Read More…..

Meles Zenawi Regime Heightens Environmental Disaster
EPRP Press Release

05 April 2008:  Some 45,000 hectares of trees near and around two historical monasteries, Ziquala and Asebot, have been burnt down by arsonists who are said to be linked to the ruling front TPLF/EPRDF.  On the other hand, the feverish drive for cash has led to the eviction of thousands of farmers from their lands and the handing over of such land to foreign flower-growing firms that are using fertilizers that have proved toxic to the soil and to the populace at large.  Read More…..

Ethiopian Enemy #1 Mesquite colonizing the bread basket of Ethiopia PERMANENTLY
Earthbeat

Mesquite, or Prosopis, or Woyane, it was introduced by a British guy for soil erosion control when Weyane seized power.  It is currently "destroying PERMANENTLY the most fertile land of Ethiopia" the Awash valley, the BREAD BASKET of Ethiopia. Once in there it can never be destroyed. When I saw it last, in 2005, it was galloping towards the Awash Park, chasing away the wild animals, and closing in on Debre Zeit. When you drive from or to Asayta & Semera of Afar towns this innocent looking picture is what you see along the highway. Click here and read an interview where Jackie May caught up with Andy Kenyon from Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, who’s just back from the Afar region of Ethiopia, an area choking on Mesquite.

CALL ME BY MY NAME: A commentary on a death of a fallen hero
Obo Arada Shawl alias Wolde Tewolde, 9 April 2008

He was saying there is still two Ethiopia, one for the privileged class and the other for the underclass. He chose to side with the underclass. Retta recognized that he came from a privileged class but he abandoned it for the sake of the majority of Ethiopians. Nonetheless he lived in both worlds fighting tooth and nail. Read More.....

Letter of condolences written by Dr. Taye Woldesmiate to the National Union of Teachers in England & Wales at the sudden loss of their leader, Steve Sinnott

April 1972 – April 2008
EPRP: 36 Years of Struggle for Democracy

The founding Congress of the EPRP was held from April 2 to April 9 in 1972 by militants determined to struggle against the autocratic regime of the time.  Thirty six years later and after most of the founding delegates had paid the ultimate sacrifice the EPRP is still engaged in the noble fight to establish a democratic system in Ethiopia.  Read More…..

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Weyane Court passes down sentences on Ex-Officers

Short Documentary about Serkalem Fasil Released

The IWMF has just released a very short documentary (watch the video) about Serkalem Fasil that was used during the ceremony for the courage award. The EPRDF continues to deny the former editor of ETHIOP, Sisay Agena, Serkalem Fasil and her husband Eskinder Nega press licenses that is their due by virtue of rights and law. The free press is no more in Ethiopia, which has adversely affected the resurgence of a viable opposition to Meles and his revile