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Monday, February 05, 2007

AI's report put the government on defensive

The Meles government is having hard time with Amnesty International, the human rights organizations which may consider as the conscience of the world.

AI's report on torture at Maekelawi(which was first reported on this blog) has left the EPRDF machine confused and utterly discombobulated. The federal police flip-flopped twice in four hours over the issue. On the Saturday morning, they told local journalists that they had none of the Prisoners mentioned on the AI report in custody. Four hours letter Federal Police spokesman Cmr. Demesash Hailu admitted to the Associated Press that the persons had been jailed by them.

Bereket Simon, the neurotic Media adviser to the prime Minister was, however, oblivious to the police admission, calling Amnesty's report fictitious.

Meanwhile one of TPLF's staunch supporters, Aigaforum, had kept silent on the issue. It tried to cover up the first reports of the tortures on this blog by alluding the fact that some websites which quoted this blogger's news were using silly fake photos to support the report. The truth, however, had come out streaming and left Aiga speechless. The dirt cleaning was left to one Gemeda Humnasa, a known apologist of the Meles dictatorship. He came up with the tried and failed "Amnesty International is biased" banter to discredit the report on American Chronicle.

....and finally, the federal police has released four of the prisoners who had been in detention in relation to their support to the CUD. Although none of the four were mentioned on the AI report, police sources said that they were released on Sunday after the Amnesty controversy.

We have to thank Amnesty for being the voice of the tortured and the illegally detained.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Violence,
The main target of EPRDF is to squash any uprising before it starts. I'm sure they have money can buy intelligence. It has always been up to the Ethiopian people. It is up to everyone of us fellows.I'm sure most of us might agree with, what needs to be done, but it is just finding the coordination's. I will list very small portion of the things we could do, to let them know that we are still here in their face. Please lets brain storm, add your thoughts and lists.
What are the things we could do:-

I don't believe being more evil than the Woyane, I can't see how it could be achieved. How do we fight the evil government without any blood shed? I don't think it is possible but we need to accept there will be some casualties.

I still believe a peaceful struggle is the way forward. However we need to be more united, organised and effective. One of the problem we have had so far is luck of coordination.

1. Do not associate with any WAYANE organisations or personnel in your social as well as business life unless you really have too. It is time to isolate and corner
them. It should be shameful to work and support this government politically. If we examine the current relationship between Woyane cadres (including the higher
officials) with Ethiopian people. During the day they harass , torture and kill innocent civilians. In the evening , they socialise with the same people they
have been harassing all day. This needs to stop. We need to make a stand and say we don't belong together . We need to tell them they have crossed the line.We need to be careful on identifying who is Woyane and who is not.... Please don't generalise using ethnicity.

2. Tabled political solutions should always include EPRDF, this will corner Meles( please be aware that Melese and Woyane are two different entities.) I could be in the
minority thinking this way but the debate should include EPRDF. Otherwise we will have a lasting peace.

3. Do not return violence with violence, this would give them justification to be more violent.

4. The best way to win this battle is politically, we should attack his home base. Please show your true colour of ethiopianness and stop putting people into
boxes according to their ethnicity. The victims of Meles regime are the whole of Ethiopian people. The support for him comes from every part of Ethiopian society
where there is poverty there is greed.

5. Let us always remember that Non-violence is a means of laying siege to the conscience or the heart of the evil doer.

6. Mass prayers to the imprisoned in a protesting way.For instance announcing there will be prayers for the imprisoned opposition leaders and attending it.

7. Assigning a date of silence in the country for initially for an hour and prolonging the time according to the success of the protest.

8. Staying at home on the first Sunday of the month to mark protest as this will not hit the poor on their pockets.

Please add your own list....
Regards
Laynut

Anonymous said...

i have to admit, kinijit international might have been caught lying this time around. it is kind of obvious because amnesty used the same wrong evidence to accuse woyane. anyway the best way to move forward is for KIL to appologize to all of us kinijit supporters because KIL is ruining our name. anyway we should not worry too much about KIL, because we know woyane is dangerous to ethiopian society and we have to find a way to get rid of it.

Anonymous said...

I love EPRDF! The more I read Ethi Zegol's make-believe stories, the more I admire EPRDF. I would like to see EPRDF lead Ethiopia for another 100 years.

Anonymous said...

VIVA MELES!
VIVA EPRDF!
VIVA WOYANE!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ethio-Zegol for your hard work. You are doing it for those poor people and by doing that I know you are very happy because you are contributing your part as a citizen of your country. Do not pay attention to ignorant comment. If they are a human being with a feeling they should have understand when other people suffering. What goes around come around? We know EPRDF is Melese and Melese is EPRDF. The people are like a Robot. They do not have their own mind. They have to do what he told them to do. Whatever comments they write on your Blog just laugh and ignore. We know they can not even speak for themselves. We know there is time for everything. Everyone now aware of the hostile and cruel part of Melese (EPRDF) after the election. However, Meles (EPRDF) has been like this since he took power in the central party after he created division inside the party and after so many mislead. He has been killing so many innocent people who the thought they were fighting for their country. Tigrian mother and father left without their children and now without freedom. I always feel bad when people think everything is fine in Tigria because we know Tigria is one of the suppressed region of the country. No one will say a word against Melese or his robots. Even if when we actively opposed them in US they try to harass our people at home doing the same tactic they used to do for the past 32 years. They are still walks with rebel mentality in a free world. They are walking with fear that is why they act with weapon or torture those children when they stand for their right. Ethiopian people now learn to stand for their right. It is to late for Melese to stop the people struggle for their freedom. Ethio-Zagol we are part of our people we need to continue supporting them. I was mislead once by Melese once but not again. I have a mind to think what is right and what is wrong as a human being. I would rather stand for the truth and pay the price it will cost me to support my people. There is time for everything. Our people will NOT be fooled again by anyone.

Anonymous said...

my buddy seminawork, you said, "AI's report put the government on defensive "

but it seems like kinijit is being attacked for the fake photos and lies. so maybe you were drunk when you wrote this article because the government seems to be on offense this time.

maybe it is time you come out clean and say sorry for all the false reportings.

i doubt you will do that but, in general, this sucks for me as a CUD supporter because i used to believe in CUD as a honest organization.

i guess everyone has their issues.


just an honest observation.

Anonymous said...

Sad to notice; but they (Woyane agents) have finnaly made it to this page. Last year, it was thse same paid agents of The Woyane regime that destroyed what was once a very good and popular medium of information... ie Medrek. They did it to The Ethiopian Review Forum, and now they are raining on the Comments section of SeminaWork. Thank God they have no say on what Zagol writes. The truth reaveled to the public must have been very painful to them. The good thing is, the comments section can always be turned off to the public by Zagol if they continue raiding it as they are doing now.

Anonymous said...

Thanks EZ! For exposing Meles & Weyannes crime against humanity! You did a good job by exposing for AI and international community. I know Meles & TPLFites are trying to be smart by diverting the world attention to Somalias problem to elminate all those who challenge them in the struggle against injustice and tyranny. At the end the Melles and Weyanne facist's plan is to finish all the remaining brave sons and daughters before the court date for the jailed CUD leaders. Please, keep exposing this barbarians sub humans until justice prevail and freedom bell rang! God bless you! keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

a more tormenting news for me this week is Abay Tsehaye's appoitment as the Board Chair of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia(CBE)-that controls over 80% of the country's money. This is not any less than torturing the poor. How can this good for nothing guy happen to lead as giant a financil institution as CBE? This time, I can sense that they are planning the biggest of plunders that they want to commit on the country's economy, and run!

Gash, even much more surprising is that the international airport in Tigray is close to completion, which means that they are going to have direct flight from the region, and marginalize the centre of the country. It is a pity that the money-around 122 Million Birr-has been allocated from the federal budget. Isn't this inhumanity committed against the rural poor who still walks on a sandy ground bare-foot? Who is dying of malaria? who is sufferring out of lack of clean water?

I am so sorry for being so much emotional. I can't help crying! Let God be with us. We really need to pray, ask for forgiveness!

Anon

Anonymous said...

To the above Anon,

Be as much emotional as you want, the solution is told to you several times in the past. Crying about it or kneeling down in DC is not going to help. Standing up to the enemy is the only solution to the problem in Ethiopia. TPLF is doing what has come to do, lets not blame her for all wrongs in Ethiopia. She can appoint her key man in any of the position she wants to. The problem is what is the response of Ethiopians to such open violation? If all opt out to crying like you, then I say let TPLF continue to do what she does best, loot mother ethiopia bone dry. By the way did you hear about the intention of TPLF? she wants to break up at the end of 2000 E.C. She is now fasilitating all the necessary things to make sure that when she breaks apart from Ethiopia she has a country that is just as good as Eritrea. That is the plan, in case should they merge down the road.

Now she has appointed her best man to the chief of ECB (Ethiopian Commercial Bank), the move is to smooth the transition of funds between ECB and WOGAGEN (Tigrai only bank). Right after the election they realized they are not going to last in Ethiopia, so they have began collecting their assets in American Dollar, and European Euro hard currencies.

Surprised yet? well they are making sure that all businesses are being transfer their head offices to Tigrai, while a fraction of the capacity remains in Ethiopia. Now that all commodity prices have shot thru the roof, they are preparing an exit strategy. In case the Ethiopian people wins over TPLF minority regime they are hopping to exchange whaever they have into the coming Ethiopian currency whatever it may be.

Ethiopians are affraid of fighting this corruption, and TPLF is well aware that no Ethiopian have the guts to fight back. OLF have been fighting their fight, EPPF is expanding her fight, ONLFis doing a fantastic job in the outh east. what is needed now is underground struggle in Addis to liberate the country.

By the way TPLF has said that they created Ethiopian economy so if they are removed by force they plan to destroy Ethiopian economy. Just like Mengistu Hailemariam did.

Anonymous said...

Laynut,

Then what? On one hand you say we shouldn't fear (meaning we should fight back) on the other hand you say we don't have to resort to violence (meaning we should submit to violence against us but not rspond in the same manner). Do you know that your message is confusing?

I say fight fire with fire, they are minority, we are majority. They have been killing our people for the last 16 years, the killing continue unabbated. I say this is time to respond in the same way as the enemy, be vicious like the enemy so the enemy will know there are people responding to its force. If we have a few more people killed we can attain freedom, but if we do what you (Lynut) suggest then we will die slowly and disappeare. That is what the enemy wants, the enemy wants to slowly and brutally scare us to submission by taking the few brave ones.

Anonymous said...

EZ – you are so on the mark! In an earlier post you had informed your readers of a recently created network of EPRDF agents who pose as independent and balanced journalists and scholars and criticize the government to foreign diplomats and journalists. Then in the same critique they reserve their wildest criticism for those they perceive as being against the EPRDF. This propaganda strategy was applied by Gemeda Hamnasa to attack Amnesty International’s (AI) recent Urgent Action “Fear of Torture or Ill-treatment/Incommunicado Detention”. Hamnasa’s deception went so far as to connect the pictures of East Timor’s torture chambers with his diatribe on AI’s impeccable reporting of human rights abuses. Not satisfied with his rant against AI, Hamnasa, while he is at it, had to throw in some disparaging remarks about Human Rights Watch (HRW) and its Africa Division Executive Director. I do not think that we are under any illusion that Woyane’s intense dislike of AI and HRW was also shared by the Derg government. What Humnasa neglected to tell his readers is that urgent actions from Amnesty would not have been necessary, if his government had obeyed its own Constitution, if there was human rights, justice and transparency in Ethiopia and if there were no Kalitis, Maekelawis, Dedessas, Denkoro Chakas, Shewa Robits and Zeways. A quick glance at his website the ”Ethio-American Trade & Investment Council” (EATIC) which says that it is a “nonprofit nonpartisan, membership organization dedicated to strengthening and facilitating trade & investment between Ethiopia and the United States of America” belies the claim of non-partisanship. The President of EATIC is also the Ethiopian Honorary Consul based in Texas. EATIC has close collaboration with the Embassy in DC. High level delegations of Texas State officials visit Ethiopia on business. This would indicate that his business is most likely government owned or at the minimum has government backing. Mr. Humnasa’s bio and experience is also somewhat confusing. He claims he “left Ethiopia as refugee after persecution and crack down during Derg government” and yet he lived as “ writer and journalist in south and central Ethiopia (1987-1989)”. If my recollection serves me right the Derg’s rule was from 1974 to mid-1991. What never ceases to amaze me is that the EPRDF and its Woyane agents have a low esteem of everyone else and that they alone are blessed with some sheer God-given intelligence and can get away by fooling everyone else.

Anonymous said...

We have always known that TPLF and their small yet effective dis-informers live in a bubble. One of their dis-informer writes here on AddisVoice.com, he has so many names; but the style of his writings I can identify him from the first two sentences. They try to deflect our attantion from the day-to-day hardship they impose on our people. They may deflect some gullable people's attention, but NOT mine. I knw what TPLF is doing my country. Lets all focus our attention on TPLF and her daily killing and looting. A while back, some one tried to tell me looting is okay we should focus on the human right abuse, the thing he didn't understand is that with the money they will buy everything, including writers and dis-informers like they are doing right now. So we have to focus on the money flow as well as the killings.

Anonymous said...

The main difference between Meles now and Meles 35 years ago is that Meles 35 years ago, as a young person, had the dream and the ambition to disintegrate Ethiopia. Today's Meles has already realized his dream; he doesn't dream anymore because there isn't much evil left to dream for. The jailing, the killing, and his recent hard-to-come-back journey to Somalia are not new dreams; they are all the spillover effects of his original dream

http://www.mahder.com/News/article/sid=644.html