Saturday, February 2, 2013

The International Alliance to End Genocide


FBI foils TPLF assassination plot against Ethiopian journalist in Boston
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Addis Voice—The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has foiled a plot to shoot and kill Ethiopian journalist Abebe Gellaw in Boston, Massachusetts.

The plot was allegedly orchestrated by a man named Guesh Abera, a Boston resident and parking lot attendant in hismid-thirties. Guesh and his three accomplices, who are suspected of being spies and fanatic members of the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia, were determined to “eliminate” the journalist and press freedom activist, sources say. (read more)
Ethiopia: Government continues to target peaceful Muslim protest movement 
Amnesty International 
2 November 2012

The Ethiopian authorities are committing human rights violations in response to the ongoing Muslim protest movement in the country. Large numbers of protestors have been arrested, many of whom remain in detention. There are also numerous reports of police using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. Key figures within the movement have been charged with terrorism offences. Most of those arrested and charged appear to have been targeted solely because of their participation in a peaceful protest movement.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have participated in regular peaceful protests throughout 2012, opposing alleged government interference in Islamic affairs. Protestors accuse the government of attempting to impose the teachings of the Al Ahbash sect of Islam on the Muslim community and of interference in elections for the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs. (read more)
Ethiopia charges 29 Muslims under anti-terror law 
AFP
29 October 2012

ADDIS ABABA — Twenty-nine Ethiopian Muslims were charged Monday with plotting acts of "terrorism", the majority arrested after protests accusing the government of interference in religious affairs.

According to court documents, the group is accused of "intending to advance a political, religious or ideological cause" by force and the "planning, preparation, conspiracy, incitement and attempt of terrorist acts."

The 29 accused -- including nine prominent Muslim leaders -- were jailed following protests in July staged by Muslims against the government. (read more)
South Sudan plans mediation between Ethiopia and Eritrea 
Aaron Maasho 
Reuters 
October 24, 2012

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Newly independent South Sudan plans to help resolve the long-running border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a senior official said on Wednesday.

South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, said Addis Ababa and Asmara had given the green light for mediation talks on the border, which could start as early as November.

"We have close ties with both countries so we are planning to mediate and solve the problems that they have between them," Deng Alor, South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, told Reuters. (read more)
Ethiopia surprises itself with peaceful transition after Meles 
MinnPost 
18 October 2012

When Ethiopia's leader of 21 years Meles Zenawi died in August, citizens were on edge with memories of violent transfers of power.

"A lot of people expected conflict after his death was announced," says a top young civil servant about Prime Minister Meles's secrecy-shrouded death. His mother asked him to remain at home to stay safe as "the head of government had died, and this was Africa– and particularly Ethiopia, which has no history of peaceful transitions."

Yet the appointment of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn by parliament last month was conducted without arms, marking a democratic milestone and relative stability for a key partner of the West in the volatile Horn of Africa. (read more)
Ethiopia frees Eritrean PoWs 
Tesfa-Alem Tekle 
Sudan Tribune 
10 October 2012

(ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopia has released a total of 75 Eritrean prisoners of war who were captured by the Ethiopian army during cross border attacks it carried out in March 2011.

However Ethiopia said that the move does not necessarily imply a restoration of relation between the two rival neighbours whose relation remain at odds following the 1998-2000 border conflict which left an estimated 70,000 dead.

Ethiopian military attacked an army base inside Eritrea, where Addis Ababa said rebels were training; an allegation Asmara rejects.

In mid-January, gunmen alleged to be members of the Eritrea-based Ethiopian Afar separatists group (ARDUF) attacked a group of western tourists in Ethiopia’s remote Afar region near the Eritrean border and killed five people from German, Hungary and Austria. ARDUF also denied Eritrea’s involvement in the attacks. (read more)
ETHIOPIA: A wave of atrocities against villages in Ogaden 
Johan Ripås 
Somaliland Press 
September 26, 2012

Refugee women and children in Somaliland who fled their homes in Ethiopia as a result of a "Liyu police" operation, April 2012.

ADDIS ABABA – “No proper evidence has reached the world until now” The task force that arrested and wounded the Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson in Ethiopia are now accused of widespread abuses in the Ogaden province.

Swedish Television’s Africa correspondent Johan Ripås has become privy to further documentation, smuggled out of Ethiopia. The video evidence shows that whole villages have been emptied of inhabitants through executions and mass flight from terror. (read more)
Ethiopia to swear in new prime minister, a hand-picked successor to Meles Zenawi, on Friday 

The Washington Post, Associated Press
18 September, 2012 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s new prime minister is to be sworn into office on Friday. 

Hailemariam Desalegn is the hand-picked successor of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who died Aug. 20 after ruling Ethiopia for more than two decades. Hailemariam is a former deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister under Meles. 

Hailemariam’s ascension to prime minister has been delayed for at least a month after an emergency meeting of parliament was canceled last month. 

Shimeles Kemal, communications state minister, said Tuesday that Hailemariam will take the oath Friday morning. 

The extraordinary parliament session follows a meeting by the leadership of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, which on Saturday named Hailemariam its leader. The party controls 545 of the country’s 547 parliament seats, ensuring Hailemariam will be approved Friday. 

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