Birtukan arrested for telling truth: According to US state department report

On December 5,a popular singer known as Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kassahun) was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 18,000 birr ($1,755) for the hit-and-run death of a homeless man in 2006. Some of Teddy Afro's songs were seen as opposition anthems during the violent aftermath of the 2005 elections. While it is unclear whether the conviction was politically motivated, the expeditious incarceration and prosecution of Afro's case 18 months after the alleged incident suggest political interference rather than solely delays in pursuing the case.
On December 29, Unity for Democracy and Justice Party president Birtukan Mideksa was rearrested for accurately telling European media organizations that she had not requested from the government a pardon leading to her release from jail in July 2007. President Girma Wolde-Giorgis revoked her pardon and reinstated her life sentence.
At year's end, many other political detainees, including CUD, ONLF, and OLF members, remained in prison.
In July and August 2007, the government pardoned 71 individuals arrested following demonstrations in 2005. The pardons permitted the defendants' future political participation, but in practice the government continued to limit that right.
The trial continued for most of the 52 individuals arrested in 2006-07 for alleged membership in the EPF, although two prominent ETA members reportedly disappeared
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Tory ministers weigh in to support Canadian jailed in Ethiopia

Canadian Press
22/02/2009
OTTAWA — Two high-profile Conservative cabinet ministers are voicing support for Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian imprisoned for over two years in Ethiopia.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Transport Minister John Baird both declared Sunday that they've seen no credible proof Makhtal is a criminal or a security risk.
"There's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that he's committed any crime," Baird told reporters as he prepared to address a meeting of about 200 Somali-Canadians.
"What we have here is a Canadian citizen whose civil liberties have been egregiously violated."
Kenney later told the meeting in an Ottawa banquet hall that Canada can't simply barge into a foreign country and "remove" a person facing a judicial process there.
But he said the government has successfully pressed Ethiopian authorities to allow visits by Canadian consular officials, to transfer Makhtal's case from a military tribunal to a civilian court, and to grant him access to legal counsel.
"We want to ensure that, one way or another, this matter is brought to a quick resolution," Kenney said. "And of course we, as Canadians, hope that resolution will see him come home to Canada as soon as possible."
The comments - by far the strongest public statements by the Tory government since the case came to light - were welcomed by Lorne Waldman, the Toronto lawyer hired by Makhtal's family to represent his interests.
"I think we've learned in the past that quiet diplomacy doesn't always work, so we're thrilled to have the ministers here," said Waldman.
"I think we're at a critical juncture (in the case.) We hope the Canadian government will take this up at the highest levels."
Ethiopia has laid charges accusing Makhtal of involvement in the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist group whose founders included his grandfather.
But friends and family say he has never been active in the group. And Canada, unlike Ethiopia, doesn't classify the ONLF as a terrorist organization.
Makhtal, though born in Ethiopia, grew up in neighbouring Somalia and came to Canada in 1991. He studied computer programming, became a Canadian citizen and held jobs at two banks over the next 10 years, before deciding to return to East Africa to start a used-clothing business.
He was in Somalia, travelling on a Canadian passport, when Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006 and was detained by Kenyan police in December of that year as he tried to cross the border into their country.
He was held at first in Nairobi, then transferred to Somalia and eventually to Ethiopia, apparently as part of a multi-country roundup of suspects as part of the U.S.-led war on terror.
Waldman said it appeared Makhtal was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Neither the Canadian Security Intelligence Service nor the RCMP had expressed interest in him during his years in Canada, said the lawyer. And neither the FBI nor the CIA have interrogated him in Ethiopia, although U.S. anti-terrorism officials have questioned others imprisoned there.
The case has been compared by some to that of Maher Arar, the Ottawa engineer who was detained by U.S. officials in New York and spirited to Syria to face torture.
A public inquiry later cleared his name and found the Americans had acted on the basis of erroneous allegations by the RCMP that Arar had ties to al-Qaida.
Baird went out of this way to rebut any comparison with the current case, saying the Canadian government was "in no way" involved in the arrest or detention of Makhtal.
Kenney, for his part, said Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has written to Ethiopian authorities on behalf of Makhtal. Former minister Peter MacKay, who has since moved to the defence portfolio, also intervened behind the scenes.
In addition, Tory MP Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, visited Ethiopia last year and took up the case directly with the prime minister.
The slow pace of developments since then has been frustrating, Kenney acknowledged, but the government remains optimistic that "we're making progress."

Ethiopian Rebels Clash With Government Forces; at Least 45 Dead

By Jason McLure
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- At least 45 people died in clashes between Ethiopia’s army and the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front in the east of the country, government and rebel spokesmen said.

The ONLF said its ethnic Somali fighters killed 140 Ethiopian soldiers and allied militia members in battles over the past five days near the towns of Fik and Degehebur, according to an e-mailed statement from the group. In addition, 29 ONLF members died in the fighting, it said.

“The area around Degehebur is now completely in the hands of the ONLF, as is the area around the city of Fik,” it said.
Ethnic Somali rebels from the ONLF are seeking autonomy for Ethiopia’s Somali region, an arid tract of land twice the size of England, which is also known as the Ogaden. In June, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian government of burning villages, executing civilians and raping women in an effort to quell the ONLF’s insurgency. Ethiopia denied the allegations.

Ethiopia’s government disputed the ONLF’s version of the latest fighting.

“This is completely wrong,” Ermias Legesse, Ethiopia’s state minister for communications, said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital. “The regional peoples fought with the ONLF and they killed more than 45 ONLF soldiers.”
Legesse said three or four innocent people died in the fighting. He said he couldn’t respond to an ONLF claim that Ethiopian attack helicopters have been active in the region.
Opposition
Ethiopia claimed the Ogaden region in the late 19th century through a series of agreements with Italy and the U.K., which colonized much of modern-day Somalia. Ethnic Somalis from the Ogaden clan have opposed Ethiopian rule, and fighting in the region surged after the ONLF killed 73 Chinese and Ethiopian workers at an oil exploration site in the region in April 2007.
Ethiopia accuses neighboring Eritrea of backing the ONLF and has in turn backed Somali militias from rival clans to fight the rebel group.
Ethiopia has banned journalists from traveling independently in the region and rejected a United Nations call for an independent assessment of human rights atrocities.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

MEP Ana Gomes asked the Speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament “not to leave a stone unturned until Birtukan Midekssa is released”.

The request was put forward during a meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, on 12 February, in Brussels, Belgium.
In reaction to the request, Mr. Teshome Toga argued that Ms. Midekssa has questioned the Ethiopian authorities, by publicly stating that she did not voluntarily ask for the governmental pardon that lead to the release of several political prisoners, in 2007.
“In which civilized country is someone sentenced to life imprisonment only for speaking publicly about the negotiations preceding her release from prison?!”, added Ms. Gomes, during the discussion.
The European Parliament passed last January a Resolution on the Horn of Africa, which asks for the immediate and unconditional release of Birtukan Midekssa, leader of the opposition party Unity for Democracy Justice (UDJ).
Background:
In 2006 Birtukan Midekssa was charged with treason, alongside other CUD leaders, parliamentarians, journalists and human rights defenders, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment. The majority of those found guilty were released by a negotiated pardon which took 18 month between Mr. Meles Zenawi and traditional elders in 2007.
In November 2008, Burtukan Midekssa spoke at a public meeting in Sweden about the process leading to her release. Ethiopian government officials responded by accusing her of denying that she had asked for a pardon. On 28 December she was rearrested. Shortly afterwords, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement revoking her pardon and re-imposing her original life sentence.
Amnesty International considers her a prisoner of conscience, at risk of torture, who was arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression and association.

The Inhuman ill-treatment of Ms Mideksa Persists in Ethiopian Prison

February 16, 2009
The Association of Andinet Support Organizations in North America has learnt disturbing developments in the prison conditions of Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, Chairwoman of UDJ.
According to our sources, Ms. Mideksa still continues to be held in solitary confinement- nearly two months now. Her lawyer is once again prohibited from contacting her after he was allowed to meet with her only once following an international outcry. Ms. Mideksa’s niece, who was allowed to visit her in order to relieve her 72 year old frail mother from the burden of carrying food and other essentials on a long trip, is no more permitted to show up at the gates of the prison. As of today, it is only her elderly mother and her four year old daughter who have a weekly visitation rights.
More disturbing and alarming is the information we are receiving from credible sources inside the prison about the government security operatives’ physical and psychological torture against Ms. Mideksa.
Ms. Mideksa is held in a small unhygienic cell infested with bugs. She is not allowed to read books or listen to radio or watch television like the other prisoners. Prison sources have informed us that Ms. Mideksa is subjected to sleep deprivation for days at a time. It is apparent that the government security operatives are putting inhuman and illegal means to break her will. The physical and mental ill-treatment that Birtukan is subjected to is corroborated by her mother who told relatives and friends that she observed an unusual behavior from Ms. Mideksa emanating from distress. Ms. Mideksa’s mother said recently that her daughter has told her, “the ill-treatment is getting beyond she could bear as a human being”. The regime has blocked access to Ms. Mideksa and her condition in prison by all independent observers including human rights organizations.
We call upon all freedom loving governments to protest against this barbaric violation of the basic rights of Ms. Birtukan Mideksa. We particularly urge the donor community to release that their financial support to Meles without a strong demand for change in his regime’s behavior has been an enabler for repression against Birtukan and other political opponents. We want to also to remind these donors that Ethiopians are truly baffled by the contradictory stances of the donor countries’ laudable stand and action against Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the absence of any meaningful actions against the human rights abuses of Ethiopia’s Meles.
Finally, we call on the new US administration to use every influence to exert pressure on the Ethiopian dictators to unconditionally release Ms. Birtukan Mideksa who is in prison for the last two months in blatant violation of all laws of the country and international covenants to which Ethiopia is a signatory.

ANDINET NORTH AMERICA ASSOCIATION OF SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS (ANAASO)
1334 9th Street, NW. Suite # 1 Washington DC. 20001.
Tel: (202) 462 0556 Fax: (202) 462 0557 Email: info@andinetusa.org

Immoral fund flow to the evil powerhouse of TPLF

By Robele Ababya,

The name Obama has now become a universal household word or idea synonymous to respect for human rights, rule of law, and democracy. The following quotation is striking in that respect particularly in the case of Ethiopia where thousands of political prisoners, including the icon Judge Birtukan Mideksa and artist Theodros Kassahun, are languishing in congested jails:
“Described as an 'Ethiopian Obama' and a brilliant speaker and organiser, she [Birtukan] has become a symbol of democracy in her own country, compared with figures like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi." - The Independent
The Independent said nothing but the truth in the above quotation. Ethiopians are right in seeing Birtukan as their symbol of democracy in their bitter struggle with the crisis-ridden powerhouse of TPLF kept afloat by the support of the EU and IMF among others. Ethiopians have long come to the point of losing confidence and trust in the ruling regime because of rampant leadership crisis in their country under the misrule of Meles.
There are indeed four easily discernible crises in our country in terms of eroded moral authority, anachronistic ideology being secretly practiced, lack of confidence due to absence transparency, and mistrust in the integrity of the pathological liar, Meles
Yes, Birtukan is paying priceless sacrifice on behalf of her fellow citizens to put an end to these crises.
Irony of rewarding a tyrant
The tyrant Meles is now wealthier by the amount he can siphon from the US$ 320 million plus US$ 50 million given to his brutal regime by the EU and the IMF in that order. We know the lion’s portion of the donation will find its way back to the pockets of some corrupt officials of these two institutions and as well end up as salaries and allowances of experts recruited by these officials. Little will be left for poor Ethiopia to do any worthwhile project. The question is who will hold these institutions to account when they extract money from taxpayers and channel it to the tyrant despite his internationally known heinous crimes.
The propaganda value of the announcing in the media of these two amounts given in the name of Ethiopia is far greater, politically in enhancing his image, than the monetary share that Meles will get. The tyrant knows that the lion’s portion reverts to the givers as a price for their vote of confidence cast in his favor. We know how this money will evaporate in financing costs such as project identification, project document preparation, project appraisal trips, salary and emoluments of experts, ad infinitum. Imagine how much money per capita remains for poor Ethiopia after deductions for all these!
This support from the EU and IMF to the leader of the repressive regime came in the wake of hundreds being thrown into jail including the imprisonments of the iconic Judge Birtukan Mideksa, for exercising her right of freedom of expression, and the star artist Theodros Kassahun for his clarion call for love, unity, peace and reconciliation enshrined in the famous ballades of his songs. This reward is not surprising given the fact that the tyrant was given a red carpet reception to the G8 summit hosted by the former Prime Minister Tony Blair in Scotland, shamefully only a few days after the slaughtering by his security forces under his direct command of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators protesting his day light robbery of votes cast at the polls at the historic election of 2005.
Given the current crisis mainly attributable to World Bank, IMF and the Wall Street among others, it seems some leaders in the IMF exercised their last rites in rewarding their accomplices (in the act of embezzlement) before their impending demise by the tsunami of angry calls of the peoples of the world demanding basic changes in the way these institutions operate. Their demise is surely inevitable in view of the assurance uttered by none other than Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the Davos debate in Switzerland hosted by Farid Zacharia (Global Public Square), Prime Minister Gordon Brown assured the world that the present financial institutions will be radically overhauled to fit the emerging worldwide demand for effective
There seems no end to the double standard of some Western leaders. They preach democracy on one hand and deliver hefty rewards to internationally known grave violators of basic human rights on the other hand. In the context of the current worldwide economic down turn, one wonders if this double standard is not a crisis of leadership and moral bankruptcy then what is.
The following recent passage taken from http://www.ethiopundit.com/ is an apt description of the regime that the EU and IMF are keeping alive:
”The rulers no matter the hat they wear are actually the same people. Ethiopia's ruling party is actually a party no democrat would recognize. It is a bloody minded terrorist organization built on greed, fear, and deceit. It owns businesses, runs government monopolies, and regulates all of them. The whole rule is enforced by armies of tribal militias, espionage agents, spies, agents provocateurs, torturers, and gulag managers.”
Gratitude to the EU Parliament
EU Parliament has consistently played positive roles to assist the development of democracy and respect for human rights in Ethiopia; whereas the EU Commission has dealt a heavy blow to thwart these fundamental imperatives.
What the Honorable Members of the EU did in calling for the immediate release of Judge Birtukan is commendable.
Certainly, the Honorable Anna Gometz shall be eternally remembered as a principled and true friend of the oppressed people of Ethiopia. The validity of her words that there will be no democracy in Ethiopia as long as Meles is in power, is vividly manifest in the increasingly evil deeds of the tyrant. .
Lesson from Davos debates
I am sure most readers have watched the Davos debate in Switzerland on the current economic crisis battering the entire world. In particular one of the debates aired on the television on 31 January 2009 caught my attention. This is so because the crisis enumerated in the title to this piece was time and again articulated in the debate hosted by Nik Gowing of the BBC. The panelists included President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana, Professor Laura Tyson (Professor of Global Management at the University of California, Berkeley) and three others whose names I did not catch – a Professor of Economics at New York University, a CEO of Global Economics and a Vice President of AIG. For the sake of brevity I will mention three points among those of relevance to this piece:
The era of unbridled free-market economy is dead, according to the Professor from the University of New York who earned the reputation of being called Dr. Doomsday for predicting the onset of the present crisis years in advance.
Professor Tyson said that chief executive officers of corporations and their respective board of directors are not to blame for the current crisis because they were operating within the management structure in which they found themselves. A “risk management model”, mathematically contrived for one corporation and well understood at micro level was sold to and adopted by other corporations; this micro model is to blame in that it was applied at macro level causing unnoticed systemic problems leading to the current crisis. The Professor admitted there were law breakers with the structure like the now infamous Bernard Maddoff who swindled US$ 50 million from charity organizations and families including that of the Professor.
The President of Guyana served on the Boards of the World Bank and IMF before he retired to become President. He was paid tribute by the host for his advance warning of the present crisis. In the debate the President underlined that gone are the days when developing countries will be lectured by gurus of the industrialized countries on how to deal with their economic problems
I would hope that my fellow citizens will agree that the doctrine of absolute free-market economy is critically sick.; that the President of Guyana is so right that people of the developing world should rely on the advices of their own gurus in shaping their own destiny without succumbing to the diktat of Western powers; that Meles, like Maddoff, is a swindler to be caught and brought to justice.
Storm of anger & positive paradigm shift in the making
The storm of anger against gross violation of human rights and sellout of vital national interests is gathering. TPLF can not stop the momentum by force because time is on the side of democratic forces both at home and globally. I would like to cite the following encouraging examples:
(a)EWHRA says – “Enough”
The Ethiopian Women Human Rights Alliance (EWHRA) recently blessed us with their exhilarating Press Release demanding in no uncertain terms the immediate and unconditional release of Judge Birtukan Mideksa. This is a reassuring sign that the Ethiopian women reputed for their valor in fighting invaders have joined the foray in the bitter struggle to ensure the supremacy of the rule of law in Ethiopia and the development of democratic civil societies with no government interference. The Release ends with the stern warning “Enough” to the abuses of the TPLF regime.
I salute EWHRA sure that their resolve is unstoppable. Their own Birtukan has torn down the iron curtain of FEAR to let us into the train of HOPE in our journey to reclaim our right to unity, democracy and justice.
(b) Release Birtukan, says Dr, Bulcha Demeksa
This is a demand from a seasoned and highly educated gentleman with considerable in-depth knowledge of Ethiopian politics. It is my fervent prayer and ardent hope that Meles would respond to the call of this noble man of wisdom and release Judge Birtukan immediately.
Positive voice of Tigreans at home and Diaspora
The paradigm shift expressed in the communiqué by the Association of Tigreans in the Diaspora is a significant breakthrough in our struggle to save our Motherland on the course of disintegration due to the evil policy of TPLF contradicting the principles of democracy in all dimensions. The resolve to organize under a national emblem is commendable. Arena Tigrai is also moving in that positive direction. So, our struggle is moving in the right direction gathering momentum everyday.
I should add that the statement by Mr. Siye Abraha (in his interview with the VOA) giving credit to the Amharas for their contribution in the preservation of the territorial integrity of Ethiopia is wonderful. After all, as I will explain in the following paragraph all ethnic groups of Ethiopia share a common history bound by blood and a mosaic culture.
Urgent need for unity
The theme today is common humanity. Dissent must be based on well established historical facts. The ethnic-conflict exacerbated by the ruling regime as a matter of policy is a case in point for the regime does not take the uniqueness of the relationship of the various ethnic groups over centuries. It does so deliberately.. I wish to advance this argument further.
As an individual born to Oromo parents not by choice, I submit that my forebears were part and parcel of the Ethiopian politics in the past; I take pride for their countless achievements as much as I share the blame for their mistakes. The Oromos came to the corridor of power in the Solomon Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Iyasu in Gonder. Ras Gugssa, descendant of the first Ras Ali of Yejju Oromos, ruled Ethiopia for twenty eight years. Great patriotic leaders like Ras Gobena Dacthe, Fitawrari Haptegiorgis Dinegde, Dejazmatch Balcha Abanebsso, et al played noble and patriotic roles for the preservation of the unity of Ethiopia. Oromos were in the corridor of power during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie and the Derg. But it is TPLF that has downgraded the Oromos to the level of stooges by excluding them from holding real political power., Thank God, the Amharas, Oromos, Guraghes, all Tigreans opposed to TPLF policy, Kembatas, Hadeyas et al are now wide awake to the treachery of TPLF and Shaebia (EPLF). Thank God, Ethiopians, including Birtukan Mideksa, born out of mixed ethnicity constitute the overwhelming majority of the present Ethiopian population.
True love knows no ethnic boundary. Marriage between the Anuaks and Nuers as well as with members of other ethnic groups in Ethiopia is undeniable, for we have friends to prove it. The same is true of other ethnic groups I did not mention. Tigreans may have been married to Oromos and Amharas, otherwise where did Ras Araya Gugssa, Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugssa and Hailemarriam Gugssa (the leader of the first Woyanne) get their second name. Centuries ago, Basha Dori was the administrator of Bahr Negash later called Massawa. Dori is an Oromo name. There are the Raya Oromos in Tigrai.
There is no question that this majority will increasingly hold its commanding numerical superiority eventually shaming hypocrites in the TPLF regime playing the ethnicity game in our politics. I say Amen to the inevitable trend. Dissent based on wrong premise should not impede our unity so indispensable to our victory over tyranny.
Counting of the number of people in a society begins with one individual. Therefore the right to life, liberty and prosperity of an individual translates to all members of that society as a whole.
The great people of the USA elected Barrak Obama as their President not because he is African American. They elected him for the content of his character. I believe we Ethiopians should borrow a leaf from this example and ensure the fundamental right of the individual regardless of his/her ethnic origin. This must be the starting point to secure the unity that most of us crave.
We need to create a political space that lets the individual to climb to the zenith of power on merit by consent of the people in a fair and free election.
Jails for prisoners of conscience must soon be a thing of the past in our Ethiopia! This must be achieved by us for ourselves. Let us say “Enough” to the abuses of TPLF and demand the immediate and unconditional release of Birtukan Mideksa and all political prisoners.
Let us admit that it is the fault of opposition forces due to lack of unity that foreign fund is flowing to the divisive evil powerhouse of the repressive regime encouraging it to continue its gross violation of human rights acknowledged by the international community.
LONG LIVE ETHIOPIA!

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009 - Ethiopia,

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009 - Ethiopia,
The Ethiopian government's human rights record remains poor, marked by an ever-hardening intolerance towards meaningful political dissent or independent criticism. Ethiopian military forces have continued to commit war crimes and other serious abuses with impunity in the course of counterinsurgency campaigns in Ethiopia's eastern Somali Region and in neighboring Somalia.
Political Repression
The limited opening of political space that preceded Ethiopia's 2005 elections has been entirely reversed. Government opponents and ordinary citizens alike face repression that discourages and punishes free expression and political activity. Ethiopian government officials regularly subject government critics or perceived opponents to harassment, arrest, and even torture, often reflexively accusing them of membership in "anti-peace" or "anti-people" organizations. Farmers who criticize local leaders face threats of losing vital agricultural inputs such as fertilizer or the selective enforcement of debts owed to the state. The net result is that in most of Ethiopia, and especially in the rural areas where the overwhelming majority of the population lives, there is no organized opposition to the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
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CANADIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS CRITIC OF THE LIBERAL PARTY THE HONORABLE BOB RAE WRITES A STRONG LETTER TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINSTER

CANADIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS CRITIC OF THE LIBERAL PARTY THE HONORABLE BOB RAE WRITES A STRONG LETTER TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINSTER LAWRENCE CANNON REGARDING BERUKAN MIDEKSSA'S IMPRISONMENT
FEBRUARY6,2009
I write to you in support of the Kinijit Organization for Human Rights and Democracy, along with many other organizations, in calling for the safe release of Mrs. Birtukan Mideksa, chairwoman of the United for Democracy and Justice Party in Ethiopia.
According to UN sources, Ms. Mideksa was arrested on December 29, 2008 by security forces and is still held without charge and in solitary confinement in a prison outside Addis Ababa. In your letter response to an email dated January 7th, you wrote “Canada continues to closely monitor the situation in Ethiopia, and maintains a commitment to the development of a strong democracy.`` Minister Cannon, that is not enough.
I ask you as Canada’s Foreign Minister, and the official Canadian voice to the international community, to call for her immediate release. Ethiopia is signatory to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a commitment which clearly prohibits torture and other cruel, and degrading treatment.
In this case, the Ethiopian government has shown disregard for their commitments to international law. The Ethiopian government’s continued practice of detainment without, trial and harsh domestic repression is both illegal and immoral.
I urge you to take action on this issue and speak out on behalf of all Canadians.

Sincerely,

Hon Bob Rae

Ethiopia: OFDM’s Bekele Jirata freed on bail, Bulcha Calls for Birtukan’s release

Birtukan has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles - Bulcha Demeksa, OFDM Leader

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A leading Ethiopian opposition politician was freed on bail on Wednesday after he was jailed last November after the government accused him of working with rebels, his party said.

Bekele Jirate, 54, a top official with the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), was accused by the authorities of working “hand-in-glove” with insurgents like the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

“I am very happy because not only is he important for our party, he is innocent,” OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa told Reuters. He said no date had been set for Bekele’s trial. The OFDM said another leading opposition politician remains in solitary confinement.

The OLF is one of several rebel groups in the Horn of Africa nation and has been fighting for independence for the southern Oromo region since 1993.

Opposition groups accuse Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government of harassment, and the OFDM says the security forces have jailed hundreds of ethnic Oromos in recent months. The government denies it.

Bulcha called for the immediate release of Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who heads the newly created Unity for Democracy and Justice party. She has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days last month.

Regional analysts consider the 34-year-old to be the country’s foremost opposition figure.

“She has been jailed because she is a very strong and serious contender to Prime Minister Meles,” Bulcha said.

Birtukan was first jailed after elections in 2005 ended in street violence that killed 199 civilians. She was pardoned in 2007 after she agreed, along with other opposition leaders, to take responsibility for the unrest.

She was rearrested after refusing to retract a speech made in Sweden last year in which she denied she was involved in the talks that led to her release.

The OFDM accused the government of intimidation as voters went to the polls last April for the first time since the 2005 bloodshed. It said almost all its nominees for the local elections had been threatened and forced to pull out of the race. Ethiopia will hold parliamentary elections next year.

Jailed – judge who refused to say sorry

Since being feted by Tony Blair, Ethiopia's government has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent – and the leader of its main opposition party is paying the price.
By Daniel Howden
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Birtukan Mideksa has been sentenced to life in prison. She spends her days and nights in solitary confinement in a two-metre by two-metre cell. She cannot leave it to see daylight or even to receive visitors. Previous inmates say the prison is often unbearably hot.

Her crime: refusing to say sorry. The judge, aged 34, is the head of Ethiopia's most popular political party, the only female leader of a main opposition party in Africa.

The government in Addis Ababa had her arrested on 28 December, claiming she had violated the terms of an earlier pardon.

Her previous release in 2007, which came after serving two years in prison, was conditional on her signing an apology for taking part in protests against fixed elections.

In November, the woman who is becoming a democratic icon in Ethiopia told an audience in Sweden that she had not asked for a pardon. On returning to Ethiopia it was demanded that she sign further apologies and, when she refused, she was re-arrested. The Ministry of Justice then issued a statement reimposing her life sentence.

Mesfin Woldemariam, an award-winning Ethiopian human rights campaigner, is clear about what she says is going on: "She refuses to bow to them. They want her to submit, but she didn't submit when she was a judge. That's why she left the bar. And she won't now. She's a tough cookie." She won national acclaim by defying government control of the courts and resigning the bar to practice law after high-profile decisions were overturned.

The charges against her go to the heart of Ethiopia's experiment with democracy in 2005 and the violent backlash that followed the country's flawed first attempt at a multi-party election.

When demonstrators, including Ms Mideksa, took to the streets to protest at the skewed results which returned the ruling party, the police opened fire, killing at least 187 people. The opposition leadership, along with thousands of others, were rounded up and jailed.

"In 2005, we expected the results of the national parliamentary elections as a strong foundation for building a temple of democracy in Ethiopia," she told a US Senate hearing in 2007. "Our hopes were dashed, and we found ourselves trapped in a burning house of tyranny."

Her response since being released has been to unite the fragments of opposition into a single party committed to non-violence, democratic reform and an independent judiciary.

A mother who has missed much of her five-year-old daughter's life so far, she has shown remarkable courage. "I'm not afraid of going to jail," she said last year after founding the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party. "Not because that is not a possibility. I know that could happen."

Professor Woldemariam was with her when it did happen. Five cars pulled up and the pair were confronted violently by police while on a street in the capital city. "They behaved as if there was a prize for the first person who got her," the former Fulbright scholar and now professor of geography recalls.

When he asked why they had not issued a warrant and asked her to give herself into custody, one of the men turned on him. "He hit me with the butt of his gun and they pushed her into a car and took her."

Her destination was a cell in the notorious Kaliti prison outside the capital Addis Ababa. It's a place with which she is already intimately acquainted, where prisoners are kept in conditions she once described as "dehumanising", "atrocious" and "barbarous".

The UK director of Amnesty International, Kate Allen, said: "There appears to be no lawful reason why Birtukan Mideksa was arrested or remains in detention. She has now been held for a month in solitary confinement and still has not been charged. This is unacceptable."

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has been in power since 1995. He was formerly feted as a progressive voice by Tony Blair but he has become markedly dictatorial during his years in power. One regional analyst said the government was becoming increasingly paranoid.

"This came in the context of an election that the government lost control of in 2005, and ahead of 2010 elections that it fully intends to keep from going the same way."

Recently, laws have been passed to heavily restrict the work of international non-government organisations, despite an ongoing famine in areas of the country. "Much of the government's behaviour stems from security concerns, and a lack of understanding that improving human rights will actually help to mitigate many of their concerns," said the analyst.

Professor Woldemariam, one of a few people still prepared to speak out in a country he describes as a "police state", says the regime had become frightened of Ms Mideksa. "They are looking for any excuse to get her because she's a dynamic girl who is getting increasingly popular. They want to cut her short."

But it will not be easy to intimidate her, he believes. "She has such faith in the law. She says to me, 'the law says this, the law says that ...'. I said to her: 'What law are you talking about? You were locked up for two years with no due process.'"

Described as an "Ethiopian Obama" and a brilliant speaker and organiser, she has become a symbol of democracy in her own country, compared with figures like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.

There is reported to be deep disquiet among the general population at her arrest and conditions of detention, even though their dissent is not tolerated. Ethiopia, largely Orthodox Christian, has been a staunch ally of the American-led war on terror and a partner in its disastrous policy on Somalia.

The arrest of Ms Mideksa has sparked criticism from some American senators and the hope that the Obama administration might change Washington's relationship with the Zenawi government.

"There is no democracy in Ethiopia today, despite empty claims of 'recent bold democratic initiatives' taken by our government," Ms Mideksa told US senators.

Many in Ethiopia and its large diaspora are hoping that Mr Obama's offer to "extend a hand" to dictatorships who would unclench their fists included a message to Addis Ababa.

Ms Mideksa has already given Washington her advice: "Ethiopia has many problems, including a legacy of repression, corruption and mismanagement. The US can help by using its considerable influence to encourage the government to negotiate with the opposition. It will not be easy to confront the past.

"We must start at the right point by embracing the rule of law, human rights and democracy."

Views from cyberspace: What the blogs say

*There is an old Ethiopian proverb which in translation says, "Oh, Mr Hyena, don't give me excuse to eat me". (Aya jibo sata mehagne blagne). Why is Zenawi resorting to such thuggish tactics against Birtukan? And Professor Mesfin? And the [Unity for Democracy and Justice Party]? Is he trying to create a convenient distraction from his devastating defeat in Somalia? - Quatero News and Views

*Birtukan has modelled courage and conviction. I do not think she is asking the Ethiopian people to personally rescue her; but instead, on behalf of others. - Anyuak Media

* Birtukan Mideksa continues to impress millions of her fellow compatriots to promote the struggle forthe triumph of democracy over tyranny. - Ethiomedia

*In fact, the Ethiopian tyrant has killed far more innocent people than the Zimbabwean tyrant. The Ethiopian tyrant also has rigged national elections for three times like the Zimbabwean tyrant. I hope and I believe democrats as well as President Obama will restore respect for the US by supporting people who aspire for their democratic rights. - Shemolo