BBC: Ethiopia troops 'back in Somalia'

Ethiopian military forces have crossed back into Somalia, four months after leaving, witnesses told the BBC.
Their reported return comes as Islamist militants continue to seize towns from the fragile Western-backed government. One resident said he saw Ethiopian troops digging trenches in Kalabeyr, a town 22km (14 miles) from the Somali-Ethiopian border. An Ethiopian spokesman denied the reports. Its troops left Somalia in January after two years in the country.
They entered Somalia in 2006 to help oust Islamist forces from the capital Mogadishu but withdrew under a UN-backed peace deal.
When its troops left, Ethiopia made it clear it did still reserve the right to intervene in Somalia if its interests were directly threatened. There have been several reports of the Ethiopian military crossing into Somali territory for hot-pursuit operations, or to check vehicles moving in the border area.
The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says the latest reported troop movements may well be part of a similar, limited operation. But Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon told our correspondent the reports were "fabricated". He said at the moment they believed events in Somalia presented no immediate threat to Ethiopia and their troops were not contemplating going back there at this point.
Language

However, Kalabeyr resident Fadumo Du'ale told the BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan on Tuesday: "They have crossed the border late last night and they are here now. They look to be stationing here." Another resident, Tabane Abdi Ali, told the BBC: "We recognise them because of their military uniform and the language they were speaking."
Bus driver Farah Ahmed Adaan told our correspondent he had spotted "a lot" of Ethiopian troops with 12 military vehicles.
"Some of them were digging trenches while others were guarding the whole area," he said.
"They stopped me and checked my car and then ordered me to move."
On Sunday, fighters from the al-Shabab group, which is linked to al-Qaeda, took the key town of Jowhar from government forces. This is the home town of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and now that the country's rainy season has arrived, Jowhar is the only passable route into central Somalia from the capital. Since withdrawing at the beginning of the year, Ethiopian troops have kept up a strong presence along the Somali border.
Ethiopia, a US ally, invaded its war-torn neighbour in December 2006 to prop up the transitional government and initially everything went according to plan. Rebel resistance melted away before the 3,000-strong Ethiopian advance and the Somali government was able to set up in Mogadishu. But the government did not extend its control and the Islamists continued to launch deadly attacks on both Ethiopian and Somali government forces. About 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers from the African Union have arrived in Mogadishu, where they have taken up positions vacated by the Ethiopians in January.
But analysts say they are only in effective control of the presidential palace, airport and seaport in Mogadishu, while the Islamist guerrillas control chunks of the capital, along with swathes of central and southern Somalia.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8057115.stmPublished: 2009/05/19 11:47:05 GMT© BBC MMIX

Yahoo International Fellow Abebe Gellaw slams Zenawi for keeping nation in darkness - By H Daniel

By H Daniel

Silicon Valley, CA, May 6, 2009: Yahoo International Fellow Abebe Gellaw has criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for putting the nation in darkness in the information age by closing down newspapers, jailing journalists, filtering the Internet and jamming shortwave radio broadcasts. Speaking at Yahoo Business and Human Rights Summit held yesterday at the company’s corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, Abebe, highlighted the efforts of the “one-man” government to block the free flow of information in Ethiopia.

“They are trying to make information inaccessible to the people they love to abuse. There is no freedom of expression in Ethiopia. Anyone who criticizes the ruling elite is considered enemy of the state and faces risks of being jailed, tortured or killed,” Abebe said.

Abebe, also a Knight Fellow at Stanford University, told the gathering that the tyrannical regime still monopolizes the state media funded by poor Ethiopian taxpayers only to disseminate its propaganda. According to Abebe, the ruling party controls “the only national TV station, the only national radio station, the only two daily newspapers and the only Internet and telephony service provider in the country.” The state owned Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation enjoys an absolute monopoly in Internet and telephone service provision. Abebe indicated that the telecom industry is protected from free market competition in a bid to control the flow of information in the country.

He said that Ethiopians were losing their voices as the repressions were getting worse with each passing day. “Freedom is worth sacrificing for and so many Ethiopians have been paying a heavy price for standing up for the truth. The rulers, who feel that the truth will eventually indict them, are on the wrong side of history making futile efforts to hide the reality. People who make sacrifices to tell the truth are on the right side of history and should be supported to keep critical voices alive.”

Abebe also criticized the Bush Administration for making a “bloody tyrant” a key ally in the war on terror. The administration turned blind eyes to the repressions and terrorism unleashed by the regime in Ethiopia especially in the aftermath of the stolen national elections. “The US should act responsibly when it comes to forming alliances because bloody tyrants can make matters worse as proven in Somalia,” he said.
The exiled journalist feels that HR2003, which was unanimously endorsed by Congress, was a lost opportunity. He blamed DLA Piper, which takes $50000 a month to lobby for the Ethiopian government, for making a concerted effort to kill the bill in the US Senate. He expressed hope that the Obama administration would rectify the blunders of its predecessor by seriously rethinking its policies toward Ethiopia and the entire Horn of Africa sub-region.

Moderated by Rebecca Mackinnon, co-founder of Global Voices and former CNN Bureau Chief in Beijing, the panel also highlighted the threats posed by repressive regimes against the free flow of Information, which is the basic concept behind the World Wide Web.

Co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi and Harvard law school graduate, Ory Okolloh, told the conference that ordinary citizens have been making an impact on the Internet. Volunteers for Ushahidi, which has developed an open source software, have been using the Internet in creative ways to raise awareness on crisis situations around the most volatile parts of the world, according to her.

Bahraini journalist Amiral Al Hussaini also spoke on Internet censorship in the Middle East while popular Indian blogger Gaurav Mishra, who is the Yahoo Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology and Global Internet at Georgetown University, dealt with issues related the role of citizen journalists in the face of current trends.

Panellists representing the Global Network Initiative, formed by Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and other stake holders, to press for rights of freedom of expression in the face of pressures from repressive governments have discussed ways of making the Internet more open.

Lesly Harris, President and CEO of Center for Democracy and Technology, underlined the need to reach out to more stake holders to have a real impact in promoting freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet throughout the world.

Terminal Paranoia!

By Alemayehu G. Mariam May 4, 2009

April, 2009. “The ‘desperadoes’ are here! They are going to ‘assassinate high ranking government officials and destroy public facilities and utilities!’” Some forty individuals are officially said to be arrested for “terrorism” (but the real number may be at least five times as many). December, 2006. “The jihadists are coming! The Al-Shabaab terrorists are coming!” They never came but nearly 20,000 Somali civilians were killed, 29,000 wounded and 1.7 million displaced. May 2005. “Kinijit is plotting to ‘overthrow the constitutional order’! Kinijit is agitating an insurrection in the streets!” Nearly 200 unarmed protesters were massacred in the streets, 763 wounded and 30,000 jailed by official Inquiry Commission accounts. Top Kinijit leaders and dozens of human rights activists, journalists and civic society leaders were also jailed. The pretext of mysterious plots has proven to be a worn-out trick used by the dictatorship in Ethiopia to hammer down opponents, ratchet up the repression and divert public attention from its crimes and poor governance. more

Woyanne’s Bogus Charges and Zero-Sum Games - Zeinab Amde

The recent charges Meles and Bereket are fabricating against opponents are merely intended to hit two clusters of political opponents with one stone – that is fighting the growing discontent in the patched up army while at the same time using the crackdown to attempt to implicate the Ginbot Sebat movement. Although I am not willing to fabricate any evidence as Meles is doing, no one denies that the army and security machinery are becoming assertive and ballooning beyond the control of Meles.
Meles gave too much money and power to the army and the security to silence dissent, but now they are coming back to ask questions and claim their dues. This effect is accentuated by the emergence of different power groups in the government structure that start to ask the big question –“What if?” What if popular movement pulls the ground from under our feet and Meles leaves just as Mengistu did? What if the need arise to sideline Meles to save the EPRDF when Meles becomes a target of charges of Genocide or Crime against Humanity? Well, the Inquiry Commission sanctioned by the Ethiopian parliament had found that Meles, who took effective control of the security apparatus beginning from May 16, 2005, has authorized excessive force that resulted in the deaths of 200 innocent lives and the maiming of 750 people! What about the countless Amharas, Oromos, Anuaks, Sidamas, who were massacred over the years? What about the rest who were killed in Addis Ababa, Awassa, Tepi,…? These questions beg for answers when a dictatorial machinery heads to its eventual cliff and the leadership submerges in decadence and the need for a replacement shrills sharp.
So the recent charges leveled against army officials, and of course the Ginbot Sebat, is symptomatic of a far graver problem for Meles in the army and the security machinery. Meles surly is growingly being surrounded by enemies from within and without. First and foremost, the people affirmed that they are under a tyranny as this status was cemented in the day light robbery of the May 2005 elections. Next, the fact that the EPRDF is paranoid is evident in the manner it is foring the population in party membership. The membership has evolved from the first 15 years of “bastardization” (recruiting members by other members based on kinship) to “blackmail recruitment” (forcing candidates by blackmailing them with grant or denial of jobs, land, security, and other benefits). Now Meles is bragging like Mengistu claiming that membership has skyrocketed by 4 million in a matter of 1 year after 17 years inability to recruit members. Keep the irony in mind - that the 4 million came to be EPRDFits after EPRDF LOST elections. This astronomical blackmail recruitment is reminiscent of Issepa’s last days and shows how the EPRDF is desperate.
EPRDF’s recent attempt is similar to that of the changes it orchestrated against Professor Asrat Woldeyes, Defence Minister Siye Abraha and Dr. Taye Woldesemayat. But this latest attempt is futile and destined for a crash as the Ethiopian people have grown out of Meles’s shrinking wisdom and baseless tricks. What is more, the international setting has shifted since May 2005 as he is certified to be an illegitimate leader only recognized for filling the vacuum. In the country, Meles has lost his bearing as the times are changing and no one seriously believes that he has the mandate as he seized power by reversing the verdict of the Ethiopian people who told him that they have decided to change his government. Meles’s charges could have held some water if he was a democratically elected leader, but we all know that he is here with blood dripping from his hands, recently from the June and November 2005 brazen killings. Plus, Meles has no credibility as he has shown his contempt to the people of Ethiopia and the Constitution by killing citizens and staying in power after voted out of office. So Meles’s dream that the Ethiopian people would take him seriously by acting like a legitimate government is a futile attempt that is going to fall into pieces.
This completely futile exercise by Meles and Bereket is a zero sum game for the EPRDF. To the contrary, there are two significant outcomes out of this. The first is that Meles and Bereket have planted the seed of mutiny in the army and security machineries opening the door for the army to intervene when dictators hijack and reverse popular will and elections. Although most who read this discount this point as the army is dominated by one ethnicity, no one denies the fact that the declaration of an attempted coup (even a mutiny by army) has erected the notion and possibility that the army can act independently in certain eventualities. When we read the statements of Bereket and Meles backwards, their fear is that the army could and would intervene when street demonstrations begin in the future.
The second outcome of the coup charges lays bare the fragility of the patched up Meles army, which is being held together with favoritism, corruption, and discrimination. The army is not cohesively held by conviction of truth or even an appearance of an ideology. The army is held together by lies, corruption, benefits, which could be affected by changes in the economy, the overpowering of convicting truths and the popular thrust. Thus, when these changes come, this opens the way for re-alignment inside the ranks of the army and to be affected by the views of ordinary people thereby tilting the tyrants to thinks twice before pursing their undemocratic ways.
That is why this whole circus is a zero sum game for Meles and Bereket further isolating them and narrowing the diminishing ground of credibility. This constant shrinking of their ground always leaves them fighting to stay in power – a fight that has been going on for 18 years now. An unelected and illegitimate regime always lives under paranoia and struggling to survive and not out of mandate and legitimacy given by it from the people. Additionally, this absolutely desperate act would expose the lies that Meles endlessly fabricates only to trap opponents whose only crime is fighting for democracy and to change the illegitimate government that clings to power through killings and vote fraud.
All Ethiopians shall prepare and work for the democratization of the country as whatever support Meles had is being extinguished (do not even count as true followers those outwardly EPRDF members who seek temporary benefits as “members”). The inside walls of the regime are rotting and it is not far before Meles and Bereket would pay for the killings and harm they perpetrated against countless innocents before an international or domestic court. The Ethiopian people be it in the army, the security or government apparatus shall understand that their accountability is for their country and their people and not for individuals who shall face the law. Everybody is equal before the law and we shall all perform our legitimate duties and responsibilities.