Update on Wiki attacks

A lot of changes have been made by Ethiopians on the distorted Wikipedia entries about Ethiopia. That is great. I will update my readers when the EPRDFites make new entries and changes.

Wiki attacks

The EPRDF has assembled a team of people with a task to edit and change wikipedia entries regarding Ethiopia, sources told Ethio-Zagol Post. The first target was Amnesty International. The EPRDF introduced an entry about Amnesty international's involvement in helping the "extremist" private media in Ethiopia in Wikipedia. It was, however, re-edited by other contributors immediately. See  here   a very favourable entry about Meles Zenawi. Read it through; and Here  is EPRDF's entry about VOA on Wikipedia.

We have to step up our efforts and correct the distorted information.

A friend of the Ethiopian pro-democracy movement dies

Representative Tom Lantos who led US House of Representatives' International Affairs committee has said yesterday. It is a sad day for the Ethiopian pro-democracy camp. The California congressman has contributed a lot towards the passing of HR 2003.  Rest in Peace.

Miscellaneous

Tame reports aren't stopping foreign correspondents from facing threats of expulsion by the Ethiopian government. Last week, some of them travelled to Jijiga with government minders and translators to "investigate" the Ogaden crisis. The journalists were only able to interview people with the permission of the minders.  When  Nicholas Benquista, a reporter for Christan Science Monitor, tried to dig more information independently, the Ethiopian immigration authorities asked him to leave the country within forty eight hours. After intense negotiation the order  of expulsion was changed to final warning  and the journalist was allowed to stay in Ethiopia.

.....

 

The latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine is rich with articles dealing with cyber censorship. You can find it here. I have contributed to the magazine.

 

I have boundless regard to Andargachew Tsge. I have already expressed why in previous posts. Yesterday Andargachew puts a two years performance report card on Kinijit, and suggests the way ahead. Reading the first eight or so pages, I thought he had hit the nail right on its head. If Kinijit had been as disorganized as he put it; if some of the leaders were as suspect as he portrayed them; if the movement was based on a fragile coalition as he suggested, the logical conclusion is that part of the reason for for what happened after November 2005 is Kinijit itself. 

The rest of the article steers clear of this important truth. We know that EPRDF isn't democratic. We know EPRDF doesn't want independent institutions. We know these facts. We know  them long, long before the election. The reason Kinijit generated so much excitement among people like me was its stance that even when we know all these we still keep on fighting peacefully; that there will be a lot of battles before the war is won; that the battles demand us huge sacrifices for the values we hold dear; that means is no less worthy that end. I thought the battle was moral as well as political. Should we forgo these lofty ideals because we lost some battles here and there partly due to our own disorganization?

One group of kinijit faces serious intimidation from EPRDF

A Kinijit group led by Birtukan Mideksa is facing intimidation from EPRDF. One of the groups field organizers Alemayehu Yeneneh was detained this morning by the Woreda 20 police. This is Alemayehu's second detention in two weeks. The police claim Birtukan's group is operating in the country illegally as the election board has conferred the party's license to Ayele Chamiso and his group.  In an interview with a new local newspaper called Embilta, Birtukan has indicated that her group which includes a lot of major personalities in Kinijit may change the name of the party for the sake of operating lawfully in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, sources close to Hailu Shawel here told EZ Post that the chairman of Kinijit will arrive in Addis within the next week.

 

Meles claims Ethiopia is Orthodox Christian

This is an absolute shocker even for gaffe prone Meles. On the Guardian he said this:

Meles also repeated claims that Qatar and other un-named Arab Sunni Muslim states were financing Eritrea's covert operations against Orthodox Christian Ethiopia.

 

Was he misquoted? Misrepresented? Or misinterpreted? Orthodox Christian Ethiopia? When did we hear this the last time?

 

They never had it so good

A disorganized opposition, leaders who change positions in the time it takes to say "change", the Americans in pocket, the free press almost non-existent and the underground movement dead, the EPRDFites never had it this good. On Aiga Forum Zeru Hagos declared " Mission Accomplished!"

But this may be the time when a new, disciplined and mature movement for democracy will emerge from the ashes of a failed movement. Remember Serbia at the end of the 1990s. It seemed the People's Movement was dead and buried then. Few years latter, we know what happened.

Revealed: Mushe Semu writes as Yedemocracy Goh Siked

UEDP's second man, Mushe Semu, had targeted Dr. Birhanu Nega in articles published by the EPRDF leaning Ethio-channel. Writing with the alias, Yedemocracy Goh Siked, Mushie had written what he described as his "notes on Birhanu Nega".  His articles attacked Birhanu's integrity and his "wishy washy" politics.  

 

EZ's verdict: Mushie is an utterly discredited politician. If he wants to engage Birhanu Nega, as a politician he should do it publicly with accountability. Birhanu Nega may not be the holiest of persons but attacking him using the veil of pseudoname is unfair for a politician who is competing against him. 

Still breathing

I thank fans and critics for the loads of e-mail which enquired about this site's lack of activity for nearly two months. The concern for most had been the possibility of me switching sides. And some hoped that I hadn't fallen prey to the EPRDF's security machine. An emphatic no is the answer for both.

Here is EZ Post gathering its breath to roar. Your reliable bloggers will soon be back with the "hot stuff" you are addicted to. 

The coolest thing in town right now is memorising the provisions of HR 2003. ETV as usual did a great job of advertising it when it tried to present the bill as anti-Ethiopia. Yesterday at the Great Run which has become a routine protest march in the past few years, some runners clearly and loudly said what they thought of the bill.

HR Yemanew

Yegna

Meles Yemanew

Anwkewim

HRin Enfeligalen

 

Vicki on a mission

Vicki Huddlestone and another former US diplomat in Addis wrote this today on the NY Times. This is one of the most bizzare and outwardly dim-witted comment I have ever read from former US diplomata.

Third Para:

Sadly, Congress is poised to fuel the march toward war by passing a bill that threatens to cut off technical assistance to Ethiopia, one of our closest allies, if it does not, among other things, release political prisoners, ensure that the judiciary operates independently and permit the news media to operate freely. Ethiopia has already freed opposition leaders, reformed parliamentary rules to give opposition parties greater legislative responsibility and approved a new media law that meets international standards.

Are the writers implying cutting off assistance to Ethiopia could cause the border war? Or Is there something the Times editors erroneously left out which would have made this piece more rational than it appears to be?

Fourth Para:

A far better approach would be to buttress Ethiopia against threats to its survival — by helping it resolve its border conflict and ensuring that it reopens negotiations with insurgents and traditional leaders and permits international investigation of reported military abuses (including allegations of rape and murder). Ethiopia has begun this process by allowing the United Nations and humanitarian aid agencies to assist civilians in the Ogaden.

A far better approach to what? To ensuring the respect of human rights? How incoherent, fallacious and pure non sense this article is is quite flabbergasting.

On the Brink of War

Members of the central committee of TPLF has been in a meeting for the last couple of days to discuss the possibility of war with Eritrea. According to EZ Post sources, Meles Zenawi who was in India has skipped the meeting. Eye witnesses in Tigray report that there is a massive movement of Ethiopian troops to the border area.Some foreign diplomats in Addis Ababa also claim that the war may start very soon.

ETV on HR Offensive.

Al Amoudi's Friend and advisor to campaign against the bill

 

Enraged Meles government has embarked an all out attack on HR 2003. After Siyum Mesfin's particularly dim-witted interview against the bill last Thursday, the state media have been brodcasting long running programmes which insult the bill's two foremost proponents, Congressmen Payne and Smith. Some of the private media here are also presenting their take on the bill. The weekly fortune wrote in its gossip corridor that Al Amoudi's friend and advisor, Irvin Hicks, who was formerly a US Ambassador in Addis would write on the OP-ED pages of major American papers criticizing the bill. Another newspaper, Addis Neger, which started publishing last week had a blow by blow coverage of the bill's progress in the American congress.

Back

After two weeks break, I am back. As usual you can count on the blog for delivering insider information. The most important development in the past week relates to the Ethio-Eritrean conflict. A month ago, EZ sources warned of the possibility of Ethio-Eritrean war in November. According to new information from American embassy sources, the war could start within weeks. I will have more information in the subsequent days.

Birtukan's Sista Soljah Moment

What she said should have been said by the Kinijit leaders long time ago. But it takes courage to take on some Kinijit people who have no idea what the U in the CUD stands for. Kinijit will strengthen not weaken if it is inclusive and if it is not beholden to some of its extremist elements. 

What does the EPRDF's Beyonce mania tell you about the state of the party?  This is a party which governs a poor country with countless problems and at the brink of yet another war. And yet all the state media and party's outlets are talking  is about the sensational singer. Shameless!