Leaked: ANDM members confront Demeke Mekonnen about his failure to stand up to TPLF

QILINTO FIRE: EYEWITNESS – “THEY WERE INDISCRIMINATELY SHOOTING AT PRISONERS”

Mahlet Fasil

In a disturbing e-mail message received by Addis Standard, an eyewitness who said he was on guard the morning of Saturday Sep 3, says that armed prison guards were indiscriminately shooting at prisoners” most of whom were running “frantically to extinguish the fire” that broke at Ethiopia’s notorious prison ward known as Qilinto, in Aqaqi, on the outskirts south of the capital.

The government has not released the extent of the fire, not the cause of it, but several social media accounts allege the death toll reaching above 20.

Until this morning families of prisoners who want to know the safety of their loved ones are not allowed to pass the Tirunesh Beijing Hospital, located at about three km before the prison.   Some families said the prison administration told them information on the safety and whereabouts of the prisoners will only be available on Wednesday this week.

In the e-mail, the person who also attached his work ID but said he wishes to remain anonymous wrote many prisoners were “kept at gun point” from approaching the area where the fire was destroying parts of the prison in the “southern end of the ward.” “I have seen about five prisoners gunned down in the spot by armed security guards from two different towers during the first 20 minutes only,” the email said. It added: “unarmed guards at the gate, including myself, were told by the prison admiration to instruct family members who were already at the gate and who came to visit their loved ones to return back.”

The maximum security prison is administered by the Addis Abeba Prison administration but since Saturday morning the “federal army has taken over the security and most of the prison guards, including myself, are not allowed inside since then.”

The fire broke at around 8:10 AM in the morning and lasted a good “two hours” before the fire brigade from the Addis Abeba Fire and Emergency Prevention and Rescue Agency arrived at the scene.  The state-affiliated news portal FBC reported that three firefighters were treated at a hospital for smoke related breathing problems while it maintained only one person was killed in the accident.

However, in the email received by Addis Standard, the security guard revealed that he has helped “18 bodies being taken out of the prison in the late afternoon. As far as I know none of the dead were due to the fire. They all died of gunshot wounds.”

Abusive prison

Qilinto is known for the harsh treatment of its prisoners, many of who are prisoners of conscious including the prominent opposition leader Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), and 21 others with him facing charges of terrorism.  It is also where Yonatan Tesfaye, the young senior opposition Blue Party member, and prominent rights activist is held.

Recently Bekele Gerba and others with him were mobilizing activists from their cell by sending letters which were secretly smuggled out of the maximum security prison. One such letter called for peaceful resistance as part of the ongoing #AmharaProtests and #OromoProtests and asked supporters of the protests to shave their heads and wear black, to which supporters responded in numbers.

Three days after the tragic incident exact figures of causalities (both death and injuries, as well as property damages) are still hard to come by. The prison itself is not accessible to anyone and is being guarded by heavily armed federal police officers who are also conducting rigorous searching of residents living nearby.

Eyewitnesses say the remaining prisoners were taken on Saturday afternoon to Ziway prison, located some 200km south of the capital. However, due to the inaccessibility of the prison and unavailability of official information, Addis Standard is unable to verify both the e-mailed information and other eyewitness accounts.

---

Source:http://addisstandard.com/qilinto-fire-eyewitness-indiscriminately-shooting-prisoners/

Konso strikes, Bodi blocks roads in protest in Southern Ethiopia

By Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (September 2, 2016)

Government offices and businesses were shut down on Thursday in Konso, south Ethiopia following announcement by the regional council that the petition by the people of Konso for self-administration has been scrapped.

The people of Konso submitted a petition signed by 50,000 people to the regional council demanding self-administration in their affairs but the council on Thursday announced that their demand has been thrown out of the window.

Protesting the decision by the regional council, government and other service employees have not reported to work for several days. Their salaries were also frozen, it was learnt.

The people of Bodi and Mursi meanwhile blocked main roads protesting the transfer of their land to companies for sugar plantation. Cadres and cronies of the TPLF have seized vast areas of land for investment in the south displacing the indigenous people.

Over 40 visitors to the plantation were unable to get out as the roads were blocked by the locals in protest.

Heavily Armed ENDF Soldiers Deployed In Amhara Region To Crash Protesters: Radio, Activists

According to sources in Addis Abeba and Amhara Regional cities, and Addis Abeba based Sheger Radio, thousands of heavily armed members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) along with the special squad of Agazi Force, have been deployed to the Gojjam and Gonder provinces of the Amhara regional state.

Images also appeared on social media showing heavy army vehicles being transported, in what appears to be the two regional towns.

Several protesters have also reportedly been killed today. ESAT reported that farmers freed hundreds of protesters, who were detained in the Sabatamit prison in the outskirts of Bahir Dar city.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn said the current level of protest in Ethiopia is containable but blamed foreign countries that do not want Ethiopia to benefit using its resources, who are now “funding extreme Diaspora forces.”

Hailemariam said he ordered security forces to take “any & all” forms of measures against protesters across Ethiopia.

The Amhara Regional Administration today announced on the regional television that it has started arresting key figures suspected of leading the ant-government protests

Source:http://debirhan.com/?p=10342

Ethiopia : Amhara region intensifies uprising against TPLF, several killed by regime forces

By Engidu Woldie
ESAT News
August 30, 2016

The blue skies over the city of Bahir Dar were covered in smokes on Monday, on this deadly day of protest against TPLF oligarchy, as people in the Amhara region of Gondar and Gojam intensified their defiance against the Tigrayan minority rule. Trails of smokes were rising all day into the skies of the city of Bahir Dar as protesters burnt tires on the streets and set ablaze businesses affiliated with the regime as well as houses of officials and spies of the regime.

Several towns and localities in the Amhara region were declared free of the control of the TPLF regime and the people in these areas have established their interim administration and security led by religious figures and elders.

In Gondar, between Hamusit and Wereta, on a bridge called Gumara, 7 members of the federal police and 4 farmers were killed in a gun battle on Monday. Four people were also reportedly killed by regime forces in Simada.

The stay-at-home protest in Bahir Dar turned into a street protest when regime forces attacked a group of vigilante youth who were raising funds and helping the poor in the city. The residents then took to the streets and burned tires and attacked businesses affiliated with the regime. At least four people were shot and killed by regime forces in Bahir Dar on Monday and several others were wounded.

Main roads connecting Bahir Dar, the political and business hub of northern Ethiopia and the seat of the Amhara regional government, were closed on Monday and gunfire could be heard all day, according to sources who spoke to ESAT. High ranking officials of the region and their families flew to Addis Ababa on Monday, according to a source who spoke to ESAT.

Details are scanty but in Tis Abay, in a place called Genji, 30 kms from Bahir Dar, armed farmers have engaged regime forces in gun battle.

In Meshenti town, two horticultural farms were set on fire by protesters, turning the flower fields into ashes. One
person is feared dead in Meshaenti in Monday’s protest. The town of Merawi declared itself free from the TPLF rule as local officials and police have left the town. Protesters burnt the houses of the officials and police as well as businesses affiliated with the TPLF.

Similarily, in Dangla, protesters burnt houses and businesses belonging to the local administrators and search by the protesters into the house of a notorious police known for his cruelty found that he has hidden 50 quintals of sugar, 50 containers of edible oil as well as 4 weapons. Residents set the officer’s house and vehicle on fire. Also burnt to the ground was a house belonging to a member of the TPLF who shot and injured several people.

In Gondar, Amba Giorgis, residents stopped a truck loaded with 500 cases of beer, dump the beer and used the plastic cases to block the highway. Two trucks carrying 32 cattle were also stopped at Amba Giorgis. The trucks were let go after the residents confiscated the cattle. The beer and cattle trucks were targeted by the protesters as the businesses belong to the regime business empire.

In Belesa, armed farmers in 11 buses were heading to Maksegnit to back up the residents of the town who were under attack by regime forces. A standoff ensued and continued for hours on Monday when regime forces stopped the buses.
North Gondar, South Gondar, West Gojam, Awi and East Gojam are areas in the Amhara region that were freed from TPLF control over the weekend. Protesters in theses towns and localities have replaced the regime flag with the Ethiopian flag.

The regime meanwhile sent over 2000 Agazi Special Forces to the Amhara region over the weekend to squash the ongoing protest. The people in the Amhara region were alerted on the coming of the forces and they have blocked main highways reaching several towns in the region.

What began few weeks ago as a protest against the forceful incorporation of the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt, and their land into the Tigray region has now grown into a demand for the removal of the brutal regime in Addis Ababa, where Tigrayans control every aspect of the lives of the people. Protesters in Amhara and Oromo regions demand for the end of a complete domination of the country by one ethnic group that represents only 5% of the population.

At least 700 people in the Oromo region and 200 in the Amhara have been brutally murdered by TPLF forces.

From: http://www.borkena.com/2016/08/30/ethiopia-amhara-region-intensifies-uprising-against-tplf-several-killed-by-regime-forces/

Ethiopia on the Precipice: The Regime’s Armor Has Been Pierced

by HASSEN HUSSEIN

As Feyisa Lilesa crossed the finish line to win silver for Ethiopia in the men’s marathon on Sunday, he crossed his arms above his head in solidarity with the protests currently rocking his home country. This is only the most visible act on world stage of the anti-government movement gaining steam in Ethiopia and one that has kept Lilesa from returning home after the Rio Olympic games for fear of official retaliation.

Lilesa’s ethnic group and the largest in Ethiopia, the Oromo, have been protesting for more than a year against the government. Attempts to contain them with police has backfired. On August 6 thousands took to the streets in defiance of a government ban and threats of crackdown. In an unprecedented event, Amhara protesters—members of the country’s second biggest ethnic group—joined the protests shattering the regime’s divide-and-rule tactics.

For the first time in a quarter century Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), feels threatened and the backlash has been harsh. In two days of anti-government protests, the security forces killed 105, pushing the death toll from the nine-month old unrest to more than 600.

To assuage the condemnation, EPRDF points to its record in toppling Mengistu Hailemariam’s military junta known as the Dergue in 1991, introducing a federal constitution in 1994, and registering double-digit economic growth since 2001. Opponents respond that it has been 25 years since the Dergue was deposed; federalism and the constitution exist only on paper; and the fruits of the country’s much-touted economic growth go only to regime cronies.

Maintaining total stranglehold on such a vast and diverse country is proving untenable, especially by a group constituting a mere 6 percent of the population.

While the constitution is supposed to confer autonomy to states, it’s in name only. During civil unrest, the army wrests policing duties from the local police, whose sympathy to the protesters is unmistakable. The army’s takeover of civilian administration, particularly in the Oromia and Amhara regions—home to two-thirds of the country’s population—speaks to the severity of the situation.

But despite brutal crack downs, the protests are gaining momentum.

The demands of the protesters are far from radical: They are simply asking the ruling party to make good on the constitution’s promise of self-government; end Tigrean domination of the county’s political and economic life; and open up the political space to allow the opposition, civil society, and the media to freely operate.

This requires decoupling the National Election Board from the ruling party, without which it will continue to rule forever—with a margin of 98-100 percent that even Stalin would envy. Opponents have no recourse to the courts as the courts are not independent.

If all fails, the regime can always rely on the military and security forces, whose top brass is systematically dominated by Tigreans. Maintaining total stranglehold on such a vast and diverse country is proving untenable, especially by a group constituting a mere 6 percent of the population.

The Protesters have already poked gaping holes in the regime’s armor: they laid bare Tigrean domination by showing that it is the Tigrean Liberation Front (TPLF) that rules the country and the regions. For instance, while the rank and file in both the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), which supposedly govern the restive Oromia and Amhara regional states, respectively, favor reform, TPLF continues to forestall any attempt at reform by hand picking their top leaderships.

After Lelisa’s display of solidarity at the Rio Olympics the protests could no longer be dismissed as the handiwork of a handful of extremist saboteurs in the diaspora.

Moreover, EPRDF’s claim that it built roads, bridges, and dams and placed Ethiopia on the global economic map is also running out of potency. Even when not contesting the rate at which the economy grew, protesters wonder if such statistics, even if true, gave EPRDF the license to kill, maim, and jail dissenters. Some even go as far as comparing Tigrean dominance to Italy’s occupation of the country from 1936 to 1941, which underscores the huge gulf that has opened between the rulers and the ruled.

Surprisingly, Ethiopia’s regime is not seeing that it has hit a dead end, perhaps blinded by past successes at suppressing numerous challenges to its tight hold on power.

One thing is for sure: It is sensing that it is losing the media war. After Lelisa’s display of solidarity for the protests at the Rio Olympics, after winning a silver for his country in a marathon, it could not longer dismiss the troubles as the handiwork of what it likes to call a handful extremist saboteurs in the diaspora. That is why it is going out of its way to state and restate that it is and has been holding discussions with the public, a claim which its western backers readily highlight to undermine calls for policy change. The fact is that the government’s notion of dialogue does not entail listening but rather insisting that everyone fall in line with its position.

As the regime finds itself stuck in an impasse of its own making and increasingly unable to veer even slightly from its standard talking points, the ranks of the protesters keeps swelling. The average protester views the regime’s verbal assaults against this or that enemy as a blatant refusal to accept any responsibility for mounting tensions in the country, not to mention an insult to his/her intelligence.

Defections from the security forces could grow from trickle into torrents.

The pitfalls of clinging on to power for so long are showing. In fact, one feels as if EPRDF is speaking a totally new language of its own unintelligible to the public. The government believes that the protesters are duped by diaspora social media activists. The protesters believe what Marara Gudina, chairman of the only legally operating Oromo opposition party in Ethiopia, once said about the ruling party: EPRDF has a big mouth to speak but has no ears to hear. Under such a situation, a correct remedy is to progressively adopt a higher viewpoint, which in turn requires a genuine intellectual, moral, and affective conversion. Unfortunately, EPRDF is in no mood for any such genuine conversions or conversations.

Rather than stepping out of its paradigm, a feat recently achieved by General Tsadkan, former chief of staff of the Ethiopian army, EPRDF is simply digging in and rather boxing itself. The protesters on the other hand have proven highly resilient. Barred by bullets to venture on to the streets, frustrated protesters at many localities have torched regime symbols.

Anti-government work stoppages, strikes, boycotts, and sabotages in the urban areas and hit and run attacks in the countryside may multiply. Defections from the security forces could grow from trickle into torrents. Passive resistance among members of the security forces of Amhara and Oromo origin could coalesce into the nuclei of future guerrilla units. Production, especially agricultural production, could plummet. As the chaos worsens, moderate voices could be discredited and replaced by hardline elements. In short, continued instability will reduce to dust everything the regime claims to have built over the years. Worse still, continuing repression risks destroying whatever remained of the social fabric that holds society together.

As Ethiopia’s three giant elephants—the Amhara, Oromo, and Tigraway—rehearse a dangerous dance on the precipice, it is worth remembering that the last time the three battled each other, in what is known in history as the Era of the Princes, the country suffered decades of turmoil followed by foreign invasions. This time around, the invasions could be preceded by deadly incursions by nefarious non-state actors.

As the specter of prolonged instability looms large in Ethiopia’s front mirror, the US and its European allies, the ruling party’s foreign backers, kept churning out hollow statements of concern. Rather than pressing EPRDF to seek a peaceful political way out of a growing crisis, they kept bankrolling it. Their rationale: Their leverage is limited and the EPRDF may totally shun the west and turn its face to China. False bravado aside, EPRDF cannot afford losing the life-support extended to it by its global benefactors. Should Ethiopia, home to 100 million, falter, the floodgates to hell will open up in the Horn of Africa, already a vortex of instability.

The time of reckoning has arrived for Ethiopia’s rulers and its western allies. As evident from an op-Ed by Tom Malowniski, the state department’s top official on Africa, the US seems to have finally mustered the courage to advise its ally, the EPRDF, that business as usual is a recipe for disaster. If Malowniski and his bosses are serious about their reading that the challenges Ethiopia is facing are of a critical nature, needing changes in paradigm on the part of Ethiopia’s ruling party, Lelisa’s uncommon courage will not be all in vain. As an Ethiopia that has solved the Oromo problem and dealt with its acute democracy and human rights deficits will be a stronger Ethiopia. If not, Ethiopia could very well go the way of its failed and failing neighbors.

Source:http://www.okayafrica.com/op-ed-2/ethiopia-on-the-precipice-oromo-protest/

Ethiopian anti-government protests set to continue

Since November 2015, Ethiopia has been experiencing a wave of anti-government protests unleashed by fears by the Oromo people that the government was planning to seize their land. Hundreds of people have been killed.

In early August, anti-government demonstrations rocked the Oromia and Amhara regional states of Ethiopia. Thousands of demonstrators went on to the streets calling on the government to stop killing protesters, release those arrested, implement political reform, and respect justice and the rule of law. However, the response from government security forces, which used live ammunition against protesters, led to the death of about 100 unarmed people.

Although the government security apparatus reported that the demonstrations had been contained, "the current political situation has become volatile. Things are fast changing and developments have become increasingly unpredictable," according to analyst Tsegaye R. Ararssa. Activists are said to be busy devising alternative methods of protest that range from weakening government institutions through staying at home and not operating businesses to organizing a Diaspora-based "grand solidarity rally."

Change of tactics

In the town of Gondar in the state of Amhara, where the first demonstration took place, residents resorted to a new mode of protest - staying at home. A resident of the town, talking on condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Welle that from last Sunday to Tuesday the streets were deserted. Workers stayed at home and stores remained closed.

Asked why the public had opted for this type of protest, the man said "it is clear that society has demanded an answer from the government, but the response was one of bullets in return, so the public decided to launch a stay-at-home strike."

For Tsegaye, this peaceful method of protest demonstrates "a complete rejection of the regime by the people. It also blunts the regime's false claims that the protests were violent. The stay-at-home protest is an indication of the increasing maturity of civil disobedience in Ethiopia."

Protesters are now leaving the streets and staying at home

Internet restrictions

Residents in both the Oromia and Amhara regions say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get an internet connection and access to social media tools has been blocked. "The only way to get through is by using proxy servers," one resident of Gondar told DW.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Ethiopia's Communications Affairs Minister Getachew Reda claimed that that social media had been used "to churn out false information after false information, mostly seditious remarks, trying to agitate people against security forces and also against fellow brothers and sisters." The administration therefore decided to gag "the kind of vitriol running over social media," he said.

However, political pundits argue that the state move to censor the internet places a strain on political discourse and the sharing of information. Despite the fact that the country has less than three percent of internet access, there are growing numbers of news and opposition websites which the regime is notorious for blocking.

Aid from the West

The Ethiopian government receives some 3.5 billion dollars (3 billion euros) annually from international donors and has remained a key strategic partner of the West, particularly the US and the EU, in the 'war against terror.' However, analysts argue this financial support has been toughening the regime's resolve to silence dissenting voices. The western approach of tiptoeing around human right violations in the country and its continued support for the regime has been stirring up anger among sections of the public.

Tsegaye says that US and EU "support of the regime - which they know is clearly undemocratic - is the very cause of the state terrorism we observe in the region."

A recent editorial in The Washington Post argues that the Obama administration, beyond releasing their "deeply concerned” statements, should put pressure on the regime to allow for “credible investigation into the killings." Following the demonstrations in the two regions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, urged the Ethiopian government to "give access to international observers in the affected areas to establish what really happened."

In an interview with DW, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the commissioner, said restrictions on internet access, the blocking of social media and lack of civil society organizations in the country have made it difficult to verify reports of deaths and casualties.

Oromo activists took to the streets of Berlin in November 2015

Mohammed Said, public relations officer with Ethiopia's Communications Affairs Office, told DW that the government had its own system of checks and balances and the country's own Human Rights Commission was doing its job in investigating and publicizing the human rights situation in the country.

For analyst Tsegaye, this shows that the regime "is still in denial of the injustice its policies have resulted in." The Ethiopian government now has the opportunity to change its approach - otherwise, Ravina said, "if the situation is left to fester, there will be more outbursts, more unrest, more protests and perhaps more violence."