Ethiopian journalists must choose between being locked up or locked out

By Nicole Schilit/Journalist Assistance Associate

Journalists who fled to Nairobi over security fears perform a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony in one of the cramped apartments they share. (CPJ/Nicole Schilit)

A sharp increase in the number of Ethiopian journalists fleeing into exile has been recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in the past 12 months. More than 30–twice the number of exiles CPJ documented in 2012 and 2013 combined–were forced to leave after the government began a campaign of arrests. In October, Nicole Schilit of CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program and Martial Tourneur of partner group Reporters Without Borders traveled to Nairobi in Kenya to meet some of those forced to flee.

The group of reporters, photographers, and editors we met had all been forced to make a tough decision that has affected them and their families–a life in exile or prison. All of the journalists spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, out of concern for their safety. During meetings to discuss their cases, one of them told us: “I hope one day I can bring my family. Maybe in the future. I want to secure myself first. Now is not secure.”

Since July, a large number of Ethiopian journalists have left behind their families, homes, and a steady income to seek safety. The reason for this sharp increase is a government crackdown on the independent media. In January, the state-controlled Ethiopian Press Agency and Ethiopian News Agency carried out a study to “assess the role of [seven] magazines in the nation’s peace, democracy and development.” The results were illustrated in two charts that claimed the magazines were promoting terrorism and damaging the economy.

One of the exiled journalists CPJ met in Nairobi holds up a newspaper report on a study criticizing independent publications. (CPJ/Nicole Schilit)

The study was followed by a series of arrests and charges of journalists from a range of publications, as well as those associated with the Zone 9 blogging collective. In July six bloggers and three journalists were charged with terrorism. On June 25, 20 journalists at the state-run Oromia Radio and Television Organization were dismissed without explanation. In August, the Ministry of Justice announced that six publications were being charged with publishing false information, inciting violence, and undermining public confidence in the government. Managers at three publications were sentenced in absentia to three-year jail terms for “inciting the public by spreading false information.” And in October, Temesghen Desalegn of Feteh (Justice) magazine was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for defamation and incitement.

With the threat of imprisonment hanging over Ethiopia’s press, many journalists decided to flee. Most left without much notice. Some knew Ethiopians who had moved to Nairobi months or even years earlier, and were able to contact them before leaving their homes. Others arrived without having any basic knowledge of the city, and had to find help with everything from registering as a refugee with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to finding a place to stay.

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CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program has had a steady flow of requests from journalists in Ethiopia and other parts of East Africa since the program began in 2001, but we have never seen numbers like this. With so many journalists displaced, it was important that CPJ identified their most urgent needs and challenges before deciding how best to support them.

The exiled journalists that CPJ and its partner group met included journalists who worked for several independent publications, as well as freelancers and founding members of the Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF). Not all of the journalists were facing charges, but they said they had experienced harassment, intimidation, and threats of imprisonment over their reporting.

One of the journalists said he had been in Angola for a conference in April when he was advised by friends not to return to Ethiopia. While he was away, six Zone 9 bloggers had been arrested. The journalist was not part of the Zone 9 group, but he said friends convinced him to come to Nairobi instead of returning to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Despite the warnings he was insistent on returning to Ethiopia. “I did not prepare to not return,” he said. His wife begged him to stay in Nairobi and told him security officials had visited their home and threatened her. She joined him in Nairobi one month later.

All of the journalists told us they needed financial support for basic living expenses. Despite being crammed into homes that feel temporary, and where up to three people share a room, the journalists struggle to afford rent and food. They have lost their incomes and, with the desire to keep a low profile and no means to start a publication, they do not know when they will be able to work again.

Conditions for those fleeing into exile are hard. Up to four journalists share a bedroom but they still struggle to pay for food and rent. (CPJ/Nicole Schilit)

In one apartment, four journalists from a single outlet were living together. They described how in Addis Ababa they had been financially secure. “Most of us have no economic problems back home. I had my own TV show and the payment from our employment was good… but that charge. We know the meaning of that charge,” one of the journalists said, referring to accusations that they had spread false information intended to undermine public trust in the government.

One of the journalists said he wanted to bring his wife and two-year-old son to Nairobi, but couldn’t afford their travel, or to support them. “There is no money. And I am the breadwinner,” he said.

Nairobi has offered little solace for these journalists. We met the majority of those we spoke to in the barely furnished homes they were living in, which are spread out across the city. Several of the journalists said they still did not feel safe, and were scared of being taken back to Ethiopia. The fear that authorities have the ability to reach over borders is common among those who have fledinto exile.

Exile and security fears have taken a psychological toll on these journalists. They repeatedly told us their daily movements were limited because they worry what could happen while they are outside. “In the morning, I find myself without any plan to do. We feel lost here,” one said during meetings to assess their needs. Another added: “It is very boring. I feel desperate.”

One of the apartment buildings where some of the journalists are living. Many say the fear that drove them to flee still lingers. (CPJ/Nicole Schilit)

One of the journalists told us: “It’s a kind of traumatizing experience. At night, what if someone comes and is banging on the door looking for us? Whenever someone is shouting we think it is a security officer who [has] come to look for us. So it is very difficult at night. It is very scary.”

Respected journalists who had successful careers in Ethiopia are now refugees in a foreign country. Despite being in exile because of their reporting, they all expressed a commitment to continue working in journalism once their financial and security needs had been fixed.

Since speaking to the exiled journalists and assessing their needs, CPJ has been working with partner organizations to coordinate assistance for them. In addition to providing small grants to help cover basic living expenses, CPJ has continued to advocate on behalf of the journalists with the UNHCR. Exiled journalists have to register as a refugee with the organization, or other authorities, to begin the often lengthy process of applying for refugee status or waiting for resettlement to a third country.

The Journalist Assistance program is funded entirely through charitable donations. More details on how you can help, and how donations are used by the Gene Roberts Fund for Emergency Assistance are available here.

Nicole Schilit is CPJ’s Journalist Assistance Associate. She has a master’s in public administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a bachelor’s in documentary photography from Oberlin College in Ohio.

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http://ethioforum.org/ethiopian-journalists-must-choose-between-being-locked-up-or-locked-out/

Eritrea: Cohen, “Port of Assab, Ethiopia Have a Right to Use it”

Asmara (HAN)  – Public diplomacy and Regional Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Church News for regional Partnership and Cooperation. By. Herman Cohn – The Port of Assab is Eritrean Land, but Ethiopia Should Have Right to Use it for regional transport and commodities access.  Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen said he wanted to set the record straight about his recommendation during the 1991 London Conference on Ethiopia, Eritrea and Port of Assab of Eritrean Red Sea Coast.

After being part of Ethiopia for forty years, the people of Eritrea held a referendum in April 1993 and decided to establish an independent state. The referendum took place in the aftermath of a thirty-year insurgency against two successive Ethiopian regimes waged by the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF). At the same time, an allied insurgent group, the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), took over power in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, after the military collapse of the Soviet-supported regime headed by President Mengistu Haile Mariam.

FORMER U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen  said he did not say the port belongs to Ethiopia, contrary to what some in Ethiopia had attributed to him, and that he only recommended Ethiopia and Eritrea maintain a common economic union after Eritrea’s independence allowing Ethiopia to use the port.

“There are some people in Ethiopia who said that during the London Conference of 1991 I recommended that the Port of Assab belonged to Ethiopia. This is not correct. What I recommended was Ethiopia and Eritrea maintain a common economic union after Eritrea’s independence and, in that way, Ethiopia could use the Port of Assab,” he said.

FORMER U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen  said that before the war of 1998, Ethiopia used a section of the port for their imports and exports, which means that Assab did not belong to Ethiopia, but it had access to an exclusive zone.

You can comment on the above article by posting your comments on the space provided below . Feel free to express your views regarding the security issues of the Article.

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Background Story of 2014: Ethiopia’s Right to Sea,  an Article 125 of Geneva Convention

RIGHT OF ACCESS OF LAND-LOCKED STATES TO AND FROM THE SEA AND FREEDOM OF TRANSIT

1. Land-locked States [Ethiopia] shall have the right of access to and from the sea for the purpose of exercising the rights provided for in this Convention including those relating to the freedom of the high seas and the common heritage of mankind. To this end, land-locked States shall enjoy freedom of transit through the territory of transit States [Eritrea] by all means of transport.
2. The terms and modality for exercising freedom of transit shall be agreed between the land-locked States [Ethiopia] and transit States [Eritrea] concerned through bilateral, sub-regional or regional agreements.
3. Transit States [Eritrea], in the exercise of their full sovereignty over their territory, shall have the right to take all measures necessary to ensure that the rights and facilities provided for in this Part for land-locked States [Ethiopia] shall in no way infringe their legitimate interests.  tesfa news

Photo: Herman Jay Cohen is a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

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– See more at: http://www.geeskaafrika.com/eritrea-cohen-port-of-assab-ethiopia-have-a-right-to-use-it/7415/#sthash.JuZZcLZN.dpuf

http://ethioforum.org/eritrea-cohen-port-of-assab-ethiopia-have-a-right-to-use-it/

The tale of TPLF fairytale regime of Ethiopia: From ethnic liberation to Federal banditry

November 21, 2014

It is rather baffling TPLF’s crimes are all around us but yet barrage of books, articles and news pieces are written and bogus institutions and Medias created to make the fairytale TPLF led regime looks real and acceptable. Whether they do it because they believe TPLF is a legitimate entity or simply to take advantage of the chaos it was empowered to create to divide-exploit the people and the nation is not clear. But one thing is abundantly clear for all; Ethiopians are under occupation of a confused mercenary like ethnic regime led by TPLF. If institutions, including Medias can’t see this reality, either they are as bogus as the fairytale regime –tangled up with their own petty interest or part-and-partial of TPLF willingly conspiring to commit crimes.

by Teshome Debalke

A strange phenomenon is happening with Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF). It appears the inevitable identity crisis of to be-or-not-to-be a Tigray Chiefdom it claimed to fight for or a Federal bandit it turned out to be in Nations and Nationality it created and occupied is coming home to roost. That is not all; it still agonizing whether to stick with the Marxism ideology it was baptized to control and brutalize the population or the crony capitalism it adapted along the way to extort and robe the people and the nation.

Intoxicated by political power and daylight robbery its enablers afforded it, it is having difficulty to choose between the empty bravado it pumps up its juveniles in the imaginary ethnic ‘Tigray’ people it liberated (use and abuse) in an imaginary Region (open air prison) and the Nations and Nationalities of Ethiopia it crafted to divide and exploit as a make-believe Federal government.

To make matter worst, the self-professed ‘Tigray’ liberators turn bandits actually believe they duped Ethiopians and the world –telling their fairytale over-and-over again with crafty propaganda—aimlessly drifting away from reality to believe it themselves. In fact, it is amazing how many fairytale story tellers mushroomed in the last decade alone around the fairytale regime in order to sustain its rule and unprecedented corruption.

It all started in one unfaithful day four decades ago when a half-dozen Ethiopian `juvenile armed with Marxist books sat around a table in a tearoom in Addis Ababa and decided to start a revolution to ‘free’ the ‘oppressed people’ of Ethiopia from ‘Feudalism’ as many of their contemporaries did. With too many ‘revolutionaries’ competing to free the same people in the name of the same ideology, the sorry juveniles with too much time on their hand figured out the only chance they got in the competition was to curved out an imaginary ethnic group called Tigray and made their newly minted identity a rallying cause for liberation-leaving the rest of the ‘oppressed people’ Ethiopia behind.

‘Imaginary ethnic group to liberate out of the way, they had to come up with an imaginary territory to match their newly minted identity and began drawing and redrawing territories to fit a fairytale history out of their back pockets. Short of the Fascist Italian occupied territory their Arabs led ‘Eritrean’ Liberation Front comrades declared their own, they started slicing and dicing wherever their juveniles mind took them to curve out a territory called Tigray and became a fairytale Liberation Front and found out they were conspiring in a territory they declared an enemy they no longer belong. Read more…

(Left to right), Professor Ephraim Isaac , Director of the Institute of Semitic Studies at Princeton University, Dr. Haile Selassie Belay, Former governor of Tigray Province and former Dean of Alemaya University, Dr. Tilahun Beyene, Associate Dean of the University of Maryland Dr. Ahmed Moen, Associate Professor and Interim Director Health Management Sciences of Howard University Dr. Mulugeta Eteffa, Former Ambassador of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Permanent Mission in New York Source: Peace and Development Center-
Dr. Astair GM Amante, Associate Professor at Arizona State University and one of the Founder of HAPDC picture `not found.

http://ecadforum.com/2014/11/21/the-tale-of-tplf-fairytale-regime-of-ethiopia/

Eritrea blames UN refugee agency for thousands fleeing

AFP  |  Nairobi 

November 21, 2014

Eritrea said today the reason thousands of its youth are fleeing the hardline regime is because the UN refugee agency and countries with “sinister” motives are tempting them to leave.

Tens of thousands have now run away from the autocratic Horn of Africacountry, escaping open-ended conscription and the iron-grip rule of President Issaias Afeworki, with many continuing northwards to brave the often harrowing journey towards Europe.

Asmara’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the youth were fleeing the county because of “deliberate policies of certain governments and agencies” who have chosen to “encourage for sinister political purpose the youth to defect from the national military service through various inducements.”

Eritreans are second only to Syria as the largest number of asylum seekers inEurope this year, totalling some 37,000 so far in 2014, according to UNHCR, a three-fold rise from 2013. The vast majority are aged between 18 and 24.

But Eritrea said UNHCR was “part of the problem” for automatically granting asylum to those who survived the escape out the country, and dismissed its warnings of rising numbers as “crocodile tears.”

It said the reports that over 6,200 had arrived in Ethiopia in the past six weeks were part of a “smear campaign”.

Hundreds cross the heavily fortified and dangerous border into arch-foe Ethiopia daily, with reports by rights groups saying people are struggling under Asmara’s repressive government. The entire national football team has defected twice.

Asmara said the labelling of its conscription that stretches for years as “slave or forced labour” was “slanderous”. It said the officially 18-month long service is “prolonged only because of Ethiopia’s occupation of sovereign Eritrea territories and its continued belligerence in breach of international law.”

Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after three decades of war, but returned to battle in 1998-2000. They remain bitter enemies, with their troops still eyeing each other along the fortified frontier.

The two countries remain at odds over the flashpoint town of Badme, awarded to Eritrea by a UN-backed boundary commission but still controlled by Ethiopia.

Eritrea, about the size of England, has a population of some five million people.

Sudan hosts over 1,09,000 Eritrean refugees while Ethiopia hosts over 1,06,000, with thousands more arriving each month.

In the past Issaias has said those fleeing are only going for “picnic” and would return.

http://ethioforum.org/eritrea-blames-un-refugee-agency-for-thousands-fleeing/

London man Andy Tsege faces death penalty in Ethiopia (BBC video)

Click here for BBC Video

Andy Tsege, from Islington, who opposes the Ethiopian authorities, was seized in June and has been in solitary confinement ever since, his family says.

The Foreign Office says he is not being held “illegally”.

BBC London’s Charlotte Franks spoke to Mr Tsege’s partner Yemi Hailemariam, Maya Foa from human rights organisation Reprieve, and Andy’s sister Bezu Tsege.

http://ethioforum.org/london-man-andy-tsege-faces-death-penalty-in-ethiopia-bbc-video/

Time for Opposition Parties to join hands

November 

by Belay Manaye

There are about 75 political parties in Ethiopia, according to the National Electoral Board. This is a huge number. And I think Ethiopia doesn’t require such a huge number of parties. It requires few genuine political parties that could change its politics for the better. Fair enough, the people of Ethiopia want to see few political parties with best political alternatives.

Thus, this number should be reduced, not simply by dissolving them but by bringing them together. I know it is not an easy task. It is a tough one. But it is time to be done, I believe.

For the last years, we have seen different coalitions, fronts, alliances and unions of political parties. However, none lasts long, I can say. The problem of such coalitions, fronts, alliances and unions to break up again is mostly due to the ego of individuals. It is not because of ideology or political programs difference. Besides, most parties are seen lacking internal democracy which cause for further split up.

Now, the present political parties should draw lessons from previous experiences and strive to form better ones, most importantly unions. Whether we believe it or not EPRDF is a strong party. The present opposition parties are not strong enough to compete with it separately. Even for election contests, none of the parties stretched its structure throughout the country. And to lead Ethiopia, a party (parties) should secure the majority vote of Ethiopians. To do this, among other things, it is time for opposition parties to join hands together.

October 22/2014, nine national and region-based opposition parties have agreed to cooperate in selected areas such as election. Such cooperation could be considered as a good initiative. However this cooperation did not include major opposition parties except Semayawi Party. We don’t find other relatively strong political parties such as UDJ and Medrek. I know these parties have been in the process. And at the end, they didn’t sign the agreement. (May be in the future…)

In fact, as I said earlier, political parties better to form unions than mere cooperation and bla bla. Yes, some parties should be ceased through unions. I cannot see any strong reason for their separate existence. Sure, some parties are almost the same in many aspects. For example, what are the major differences among Semayawi, UDJ and AEUP parties, which could be hindrances for forming union? I think, it is only individuals’ self interest (ego) that could hinder the move towards forming union.

Some are arguing that coalitions, fronts, alliances and unions have been tried and it failed. True, many of such attempts were failed. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work anymore! It is a tough task; but it can really work if integrity is there among leaders. And the time is now.
I believe it is really time for political parties to communicate with the public. Yes, it is time to come up with best political alternatives; and in unison. It is not the duty of political parties to sell IDs to those who seek to get visa and collecting money by renting their ‘office’. Such parties should not exist anymore. Hence, genuine parties should not only struggle the ruling party but also such ‘business oriented opposition parties’ too.

The People of Ethiopia are still looking for best alternative political party (parties). And yet, there isn’t any strong alternative party. For example, which party has introduced its alternative political programs to the public? Opposing for the sake of opposing never benefits the people. Opposition parties should come up with their alternatives. Party leaders should defeat their ego and work for the people with other parties that have similar programs and ideology.

Needless to say, this regime is a despot. People have anger at EPRDF’s maladministration. Yes, there is anger at the growth of corruption. EPRDF is arresting journalists, politicians, and bloggers, among others. Citizens are fleeing the country. There is extremely poor service provision of electricity, potable water and telecom etc. People would say no to this regime anytime. Yes, riot or protest would happen anytime. In that time, at least there should be a single strong party to manage that revolution or protest. Thus, it is time for opposition parties to join hands together.

Remember that united you stand, divided you fall.

http://ecadforum.com/2014/11/03/time-for-opposition-parties-to-join-hands/

Nightmare’ for Ethiopian pastoralists as foreign investors buy up land

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Suri boys with water gourds herd cattle along a road in Tulgit, Omo valley, Ethiopia. Photograph: Danita Delimont/Alamy

David Smith, Africa correspondent, theguardian.com, Monday  November 2014

— Ethiopia’s policy of leasing millions of hectares of land to foreign investors is encouraging human rights violations, ruining livelihoods and disturbing a delicate political balance between ethnic groups, a thinktank report has found.

The US-based Oakland Institute says that while the east African country is now lauded as an economic success story, the report, Engineering Ethnic Conflict, “highlights the unreported nightmare experienced by Ethiopia’s traditionally pastoralist communities”.

A controversial “villagisation” programme has seen tens of thousands of people forcibly moved to purpose-built communes that have inadequate food and lack health and education facilities, according to human rights watchdogs, to make way for commercial agriculture. Ethiopia is one of the biggest recipients of UK development aid, receiving around £300m a year.

The Oakland Institute’s research, conducted in 2012 and 2013, focused on 34,000 Suri pastoralists who have lived in south-west Ethiopia for up to three centuries. Suri livelihoods consist of herding cattle, goats and sheep, shifting cultivation, and hunting and gathering.

But the recent introduction of large-scale plantations “has not only made important grazing lands unavailable to the Suri and devastated their livelihoods, but disturbed political order between the Suri and other local ethnic groups, escalating violent conflicts”, the report says.

The investigation was prompted by 2012 reports of violence at Koka, a foreign-owned 30,000 hectare (74,000 acres) plantation established two years earlier to produce palm oil, although it has since expanded to grow moringa trees and maize, with plans for rubber trees.

According to a Kenyan NGO, Friends of Lake Turkana, the government cleared grass and trees to allow Malaysian investors to establish the plantation. Water was diverted from the Koka river to these plantations, leaving the Suri without water for their cattle.

In response, the Suri took up arms and battled government forces, Friends of Lake Turkana said. Government forces killed 54 unarmed Suri in a marketplace in retaliation. There have been more killings and arrests since.

Based on interviews with victims’ families, officials and other witnesses, the Oakland Institute found that the plantation exacerbated tensions between the Suri and another ethnic group, the Dizi, seen as collaborating with the government. The first episode of violence in February 2012, in which three Dizi police officers were killed, occurred over police marking land for expansions of the plantation.

The institute accuses the Ethiopian government of manipulating these tensions, for example, by favouring the Dizi in employment. “According to field research, the increase in violent clashes between the Suri and Dizi can be linked to the intrusion of the Koka plantation and displacement of Suri from lands vital for cattle raising, one of their most important livelihood resources.”

A generation after the famine that was screened around the world, Ethiopia claims it is on track to meet most of the millennium development goals and become a middle-income country by 2025. But the report contends that the government puts foreign and political interests above the rights and needs of local populations, especially historically marginalised and neglected ethnic groups.

It also argues that the World Bank’s support of three phases of Ethiopia’s pastoral community development project implicates western funds in the coerced settlement of pastoral communities and the conditional – and coercive – distribution of food aid.

“The dramatic reconfiguration of land for foreign investment in the Koka plantation, as well as its alleged failure, illustrates the haphazard manner in which the government of Ethiopia implements its development strategy,” it says.

“While there have been reports of Suri returning to the plantation lands to take corn and sweet potatoes, the palm tree-lined land is no longer suitable for grazing. Although, presumably, investors are unhappy with the failure of their cheaply-leased land, the local impact has been the increase of local ethnic conflicts and the drastic altering of local livelihoods.

“As such, the Koka plantation is representative of the Ethiopian strategy of pursuing foreign investor-led development at the expense of local inhabitants.”

Felix Horne, Ethiopia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Unfortunately, the Suri and other marginalised groups have no ability to voice their concerns over these developments on their land.

“There is little in the way of an independent media in Ethiopia that is permitted to cover this story, civil society that could advocate on these issues have been decimated by repressive laws, any criticism of government is met with harassment and detention. So what options are left for the Suri?”

http://ethioforum.org/nightmare-for-ethiopian-pastoralists-as-foreign-investors-buy-up-land/