Heavy fighting broke out between Somali Regional State of Ethiopia forces and pastoralists in small towns in central Somalia, leaving At least 10 people dead and injured 10 others.
The battle erupted after forces from Somali Regional State of Ethiopia invaded in small towns in central Somalia and clashed with pastoralists over pasturelands and domestic animals.
A local resident told Shabelle Media in Mogadishu that heavily Somalia-Ethiopian forces clashed with pastoralists in small towns border with Ethiopia, adding that 10 died in the battle.
Tension mounts between both warring sides have been running high. All injured people are reported to have been rushed to Guriel hospital in central Somalia’s Galgadud region.
Neither Somalia government nor Somali Regional State of Ethiopia officials have not yet commented on the battle.
Press Statement by Marie Harf Deputy U.S. Department of State Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
The United States commends the people of Ethiopia for their civic participation in generally peaceful parliamentary and regional elections on May 24. We acknowledge the National Electoral Board’s organizational efforts and the African Union’s role as the only international observer mission on the ground. We also note the importance of the nine televised party debates as progress in fostering open public discussion of the challenges facing the country. We encourage all candidates, political parties and their supporters to resolve any outstanding differences or concerns peacefully in accordance with Ethiopia’s constitution and laws.
The United States remains deeply concerned by continued restrictions on civil society, media, opposition parties, and independent voices and views. We regret that U.S. diplomats were denied accreditation as election observers and prohibited from formally observing Ethiopia’s electoral process. Apart from the election observation mission fielded by the African Union, there were no international observer missions on the ground in Ethiopia. We are also troubled that opposition party observers were reportedly prevented from observing the electoral process in some locations.
A free and vibrant media, space for civil society organizations to work on democracy and human rights concerns, opposition parties able to operate without impediment, and a diversity of international and domestic election observers are essential components for free and fair elections. The imprisonment and intimidation of journalists, restrictions on NGO activities, interference with peaceful opposition party activities, and government actions to restrict political space in the lead-up to election day are inconsistent with these democratic processes and norms.
The United States has a broad and strong partnership with Ethiopia and its people. We remain committed to working with the Ethiopian Government and its people to strengthen Ethiopia’s democratic institutions, improve press freedom, and promote a more open political environment consistent with Ethiopia’s international human rights obligations. sourse ecadef
Ethiopia Election Met With Silence From Ordinary Voters
(VOA News) Ethiopia will hold a major election Sunday, but critics of the longtime ruling party say systematic repression has made this vote a nonevent. Outside of the country, Ethiopians who say they are political refugees have even harsher words for the government.
On the streets of Ethiopia’s capital, it’s hard to ignore that an election is coming. But banners and blaring songs aside, this is an oddly quiet election in a nation of some 90 million people.
The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front is virtually guaranteed victory. In the last election in 2010, opposition parties won only a single seat in parliament.
Inside Ethiopia, very few ordinary voters are willing to speak about politics, which seems to support rights groups’ claims that Ethiopia, in the words of Human Rights Watch, “has created a bleak landscape for free expression.”
A spokesman for the EPRDF denies this.
“Most of the time, oppositions raised claims, complaints, and then after we established the complaint committee when it come to the result most of them will be false allegations. But some, very few, may be happened in reality,” said Desta Tesfaw, head of public and foreign relations for EPRDF.
However, the Blue Party, Ethiopia’s newest opposition party, said it has faced harassment, arrests and an unfair playing field.
“Oppositions are not getting a fair proportion of time and location, financing, things like that. Not only that, there are tremendous repression, we have about 50 people arrested only in Addis, about 50,” said Yonatan Tesfaye, Blue Party spokesman.
In South Africa, Ethiopian immigrants said they are able to voice the thoughts they could not share at home. Many said they fled persecution from the ruling EPRDF.
“If you don’t follow them and if you don’t join them and if you don’t do what they need, you can’t do what you need. And you need to follow them, each and every thing they are telling you, because there is no democra(cy) at all in our country,” Ethiopian immigrant Abdurahim Jemal Araya said.
In Addis Ababa, VOA News repeatedly asked gathered crowds if anyone would share their thoughts on the election, either in English or in Amharic. No one volunteered. sourse ecadf
We are very much saddened and shocked by inhuman and barbaric act of terror on innocent Ethiopians committed by ISIS in Libya. First of all, we would like to express our deeply felt condolences to all the families affected by this barbaric terrorist action. The evil act of ISIS represents neither the faith of Islam that the Afar People practice and the Allah we worship nor the human values that we share with entire human race. Slaying innocent Ethiopians who left their beloved ones and country to seek a better future can’t be justified by any religious motivation or political ideology. It is simply a cruel and barbaric act of terror that every human being should denounce and prevent from happening again.
Our Ethiopian compatriots are facing the traps of xenophobia in South Africa, exposed to war crimes in Yemen, inhuman treatment and deportation in Saud Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East; and now a raw slaughter in Libya.
The root causes for amassed exodus and our national degradation are emanating from an increasing social- and economic inequality and violation of human rights and dignity. It is merely the outcome of cumulative dysfunctional policies of the current EPRDF/TPLF regime that outplayed the legal framework of its own constitution. About 64% of Ethiopia’s population is under the ages of 24 year. The increasing youth unemployment rate, the shrinking democratic space in the country, and losing the hope on future are the main driving factors for youth to leave their country for unknown future. In contrast, the regime is bragging over the double digit economic growth; while suffocating non-economic requirements for economic growth and human development such as independent public institutions, the rights of civil society organization, human rights and freedom of expression and others aspects of accountabilities related to biased policy implementations.
The current biased policy which is based on ruling in the interest few elites with rampant corruption and promoting political and economic exclusion of the majority cannot be considered as sustainable development. Those who praise what is going on in Ethiopia as democratic improvement should revisit their sources as well as should be held accountable for prolonging the agony of the Ethiopian people.
The coming 2015 election is nothing more than a showcase for international political consumption. However, in reality is about to consolidate more economic- and political power; narrowing the political space and crashing the political opposition groups. Thus a chance for national reconciliation, inclusive political dialog and public participation on future direction of our country seems to be utterly unlikely.
The APP, condemns not only the terrorists outside our country but also state run terrorism carried out in Ethiopia which contributes to the suffering of our people inside and outside by the negligence and bigotry of the ruling party.
We believe that our destiny and our better future is in our hands and we need to unify our struggle more than ever to fight injustice until our social values and our national dignity is restored.
We call on all international community to take the case of Ethiopia seriously, before an intensified civil war and collapse. The conflict and collapse of Ethiopia undoubtedly will cause a huge turmoil internally and beyond its borders.
Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Church Priest, Bishop Father Gebremariam Asefa Hailu in Charlotte banned from church as members challenge leaders in lawsuit
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A dispute at a Charlotte church has led to members being banned from church property, the firing of the church’s priest and a lawsuit in state court.
At issue in the lawsuit is whether or not the head of the parish council at Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Dr. Solomon Gugsa, improperly changed the church’s bylaws to extend his term and alter membership requirements to exclude those who disagree with him.
The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2014. An amended complaint was filed in November 2014.
There are 20 plaintiffs in the lawsuit; each plaintiff is a member of the church and some of them served as officers on the church’s parish council.
In addition to challenging Gugsa’s actions as head of the parish council, the plaintiffs are also seeking access to the church’s membership list and financial documents.
Documents obtained by On Your Side Investigates show members of the church made repeated requests for complete access to the church’s membership list and financial documents before the lawsuit was filed to no avail.
North Carolina state law requires membership lists and financial records of all incorporated non-profits to be made available to its membership upon request.
An attorney for Holy Trinity, Julian Wright, said church leaders have complied with the law.
“Anybody who has ask for those records, that I’m aware of, has not been denied those records,” Wright said.
Wright agreed to sit down with On Your Side Investigates after Gugsa refused multiple requests for an interview.
Priest fired, bishop banned
According to Wright, the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Holy Trinity did so because the Gugsa-led parish council voted to fire the church’s priest in February 2014.
Father Gebremariam Asefa Hailu had been the church’s priest for two years at the time of his firing.
“They emailed me, they didn’t even come talk to me face to face, they just emailed me,” Father Hailu said. “They said ‘You’re fired. You’re terminated.’”
Like most members of the church, Father Hailu is an Ethiopian immigrant. The church was sponsoring his R-1 visa, which is provided to religious leaders who come to the United States to work for a non-profit church.
When the church fired Father Hailu, it also pulled its sponsorship for his visa. As a result, Father Hailu was at danger of being sent back to Ethiopia, where he risked being persecuted for coming to the United States and speaking out against the government.
Father Hailu has since been granted asylum.
The Sunday after being fired from Holy Trinity, Father Hailu learned he had also been banned from the church.
“It was about six o’clock in the morning. I come (sic) to the church and I was barred by some of the parish council members and an off duty police officer,” Father Hailu said.
Police reports show Gugsa had Father Hailu trespassed from the church’s property. Similarly, the bishop, who oversees Holy Trinity’s spiritual practice, was banned from the church’s property a week later when he came to discuss Father Hailu’s firing with the parish council.
Julian Wright, the church’s lawyer, said the bishop was told he could only come and pray at the church. He was not allowed to come on church property, Wright said, unless he promised that he would not discuss Father Hailu’s firing. “We advised the bishop that if you’re coming from an improper purpose you’ll be trespassing,” Wright explained. “You’re not invited to come and do that.”
Church dispute in court
Wright has challenged the lawsuit against Holy Trinity in legal filings. In December, he filed a motion on behalf of the church asking a judge to throw the lawsuit out because it dealt with an internal church dispute.
“The lawsuit impermissibly entangles the Court in ecclesiastical matters, in contravention of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 13 of the North Carolina Constitution,” Wright’s motion read. The motion also said Father Hailu’s firing was the basis for the entire lawsuit.
A judge denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in early January. The church is appealing that decision but it is not yet clear whether or not the North Carolina Court of Appeals will hear the church’s appeal before the matter is completely resolved at the trial court level.
Extreme measures
In his interview with On Your Side Investigates, Wright agreed that filing a lawsuit over, essentially, access to church records is an extreme measure. But he challenged the plaintiffs’ claims that they had repeatedly requested the documents before turning to litigation.
“You seem to be making the assumption that people are making the request and they’re just beating down the door to do that and that’s just false,” Wright said in response to a question about why the church doesn’t just provide the documents to the plaintiffs. “Now, apparently, somebody is suggesting they’ve been denied access to the financial records and that’s just false.”
But records obtained by On Your Side Investigates show church members, who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, requested the records on at least three separate occasions.
Zebene Mesele was the church’s elected internal auditor. Emails show he tried to begin auditing the church’s financial records for the 2013 fiscal year, to no avail, starting in November 2013.
Mesele’s frustration was captured in a February 9, 2014 email.
“I was trying to get start my auditing process at the church since November, 2013,” Mesele said. “They keep promising me to submit needy (sic) documents but not yet delivered. They gave me different reasons as such that the documents are with the outside auditors, they were busy and Panthers game and so on.”
Gugsa, the head of the church’s parish council, would later email Mesele to tell him he could have access to necessary financial records one afternoon at the church. Mesele would later write that Gugsa refused to provide copies of paperwork to be reviewed outside of the church.
A second request for the church’s membership list and financial documents was made by a different church member in a February 7, 2014 email.
“As a church member: I am asking again, Please provide the church Bi-law (sic) and financial statements “P&L, Balance Sheet” to any members who have requested before our February 23 meeting,” Rahel Gashaw wrote to Gugsa and another church leader.
The February 23, 2014 meeting Gashaw referred to was the church’s annual meeting. Wright said that meeting is open to all church members.
“There’s a financial summary provided to the church every year at its annual meeting and anyone who wants to come look at the full audited records of the church can do so,” Wright said.
According to documents obtained by On Your Side Investigates and conversations with multiple church members who were present for the meeting, the only financial information provided was a one-page document that summarized money that came into the church and money that was spent. Members were told they could not remove the document from the meeting.
Bylaws change
The bylaws of Holy Trinity have been amended by the Gugsa-led parish council twice in the past two years. The first time in April 2013.
Included in the amendments in 2013 were changes to the requirements for membership in the church.
The changes required church members to “[contribute] the minimum required monthly membership fee without interruptions.” It also requires church members to work as volunteers at a concession stand at home games for the Carolina Panthers “more than five times” a year.
Dr. Joe Brown, who pastored Hickory Grove Baptist Church–the largest Southern Baptist church in North Carolina–for 26 years, said requirements like that are not good for a church.
“I call that legalism at the least,” Brown said.
But Wright defended the changes as being no different from what many churches do.
“I don’t see what’s going on at Holy Trinity that’s remarkably different from expecting all the disciples to contribute what they have and what is precious to them to the greater glory of God and the greater working of His church,” Wright said.
The church’s bylaws were amended a second time in March 2014. The second batch of changes extended the length of time Gugsa could stay at the helm of the parish council.
The lawsuit filed by church members claim the amendment was improper in accordance with church rules. Plaintiffs painted the move as a power grab.
Brown, the long-time pastor, said making disputed changes like the ones at issue at Holy Trinity are bad for the health of a church.
“Any time any church gets to where the leadership is behind closed doors and they’re shut off from the people–there’s not a touching of the people–there’s going to be a problem,” Brown said.
Continuing to pray
Father Hailu, who was fired and banned from the church more than a year ago, stands outside of Holy Trinity every Sunday.
In the past year, he said, the church has erected a fence and covered it with black cloth to block its view.
“This is unheard of, banning from church,” Father Hailu said. “This is not just a building, this is God’s house. Everyone should come and pray peacefully. This is a forgiveness place.”
On one Sunday in April, the banned priest was flanked by several members of the church. The men stood silently on a public sidewalk outside of the gate.
Occasionally, church members would stop to be blessed by Father Hailu on their way in or out of the church’s parking lot.
“I’m not going anywhere. I have to stand for this church. I have to show to the people, we have to stand for our faith.”
Scores are hurt in weekend protests in Tel Aviv as Ethiopian-Israelis rally against what they say is long-running racism
(TIME) Masses of protesters gathering in the streets, some throwing rocks and bottles at the police. In full riot gear, the police respond in force, shooting tear gas canisters, percussion bombs and water guns. By the end of the evening, 46 injured people are sent to area hospitals.
Scenes of violent protest are something that people in Israel are used to seeing periodically, though it is usually in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This time, though, the rage involves youth Israelis of Ethiopian descent who are angry at their own government.
Complaints of discrimination in all sectors of society—including housing, education and the workplace—are common from Ethiopian-Israelis. But the issue of police brutality towards the group came to the forefront in the past week when a video surfaced last Thursday showing police beating a young Ethiopian-Israeli soldier in uniform. A protest against police brutality spilled over into violence in Jerusalem last Thursday night. Those protests continued over the weekend, and on Sunday evening, Rabin Square in the heart of Tel Aviv began to look like an intifada-era conflict zone.
What are Ethiopian-Israelis angry about? Since they began immigrating to Israel in the 1980s, Ethiopians have struggled to integrate into Israeli society. There are more than 135,00 Israelis of Ethiopian origin, according to the most recent figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. Some came to escape famine and persecution, and all grew up on the idea of Israel as their ultimate homeland. By now, a new generation is Israeli-born, but they still face discrimination that, in the words of one activist, “is more latent than official.” In addition, some of Israel’s Orthodox rabbinical establishment question their Jewishness, which makes it difficult for them to get married in a country where civil marriage doesn’t exist.
But what touched off the current rage, so strikingly similar to the street protests over police brutality that have taken place over the past few months in the U.S., was a CCTV video. It captured an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier being thrown to the ground and beaten by two white policeman. In the video we see the policeman accost the soldier and push him, who then pushes back, and then the two men throw him to the ground and kick him.
“After being beaten up, after being violated again and again and being discriminated against, many Ethiopians wind up in jails,” says activist Fentahun Assefa-Dawit. He notes that 40% of minors in the Israeli correction system are of Ethiopian descent. “What’s different this time is the footage. And all the youngsters who might have been through this something like this, now they have proof that it occurs.”
Assefa-Dawit is the executive director of Tebeka—Advocacy for Equality and Justice for Ethiopian-Israelis—an organization that receives more than 1,000 complaints of discrimination and abuse a year. It takes up the strongest cases of Ethiopians who have suffered discrimination, some of which have gone to Israel’s Supreme Court. But for young people outraged by what they’ve experienced, change is coming far too slowly.
“When an Ethiopian applies for a job, as qualified as he might be, as impressive as his CV might be, he is not going to be invited for the interview because he has an Ethiopian name,” Assefa-Dawit told journalists on Monday in a conference call before heading to a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is conferring with Ethiopian community leaders in an effort to calm the outrage. “When a local rabbinate office refuses to register a couple who wants to get married because they’re Ethiopian, when you see a school that says we cannot take more children because they have a quota of how many Ethiopians they will enroll, you can imagine what the feeling of young people will be,” he says.
Shimon Solomon, who came to Israel from Ethiopia in 1980 at the age of 12, was a member of the Israeli parliament in the last government with the Yesh Atid party. He says that although he has repeatedly brought the issue of police brutality towards Ethiopians to the authorities for several years, nothing has been done.
“What we saw in the video is nothing compared to what goes on, in fact it was less shocking that what happens to people in our community at the hands of police,” Solomon tells TIME. “When we speak to people in their neighborhoods, we hear that it’s happening all the time, that the police allow themselves to act brutally and take people aside and beat them for no reason. We turned to the police and ask them to fix this situation, but it just continued like nothing happened.”
Solomon says that the protest on Sunday started with peaceful intentions, but a small group of “anarchists—some Ethiopian and some not” wanted to push things in a more radical direction. “We wanted an aggressive demonstration, not a violent one,” says Solomon. “The point of a protest is to bring attention to a situation, not to make the situation worse.” Solomon said he was disappointed that as the anger across the Ethiopian community grew, there was silence from Israel’s leaders. “It’s too bad that he didn’t come out immediately to decry the violence and hatred.”
Netanyahu met on Monday with Ethiopian leaders in an attempt to douse the flames amid reports that there would be further protests this week. The prime minister is moving closer to forming a government but has still not presented one since his re-election on March 17. On Monday he decried racism and violence, and arranged a meeting with Damas Pakedeh, the soldier who was filmed being beaten by two policemen.
“I was shocked by the pictures that I saw,” Netanyahu said in comments released by his office. “We cannot accept this and the police are dealing with it. We need to change things.”
ETHIOPIA’S ELECTIONS, scheduled for May 24, are shaping up to be anything but democratic. A country that has often been held up as a poster child for development has been stifling civic freedoms and systematically cracking down on independent journalism for several years.
It was consequently startling to hear the State Department’s undersecretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, declare during a visit to Addis Ababa on April 16 that “Ethiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair and credible.” The ensuing backlash from Ethiopians and human rights advocates was deserved.
Ms. Sherman’s lavish praise was particularly unjustified given Ethiopia’s record on press freedom: It has imprisoned 19 journalists, more than any other country in Africa. According to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the country ranks fourth on its list of the top 10 most censored countries in the world. At least 16 journalists have been forced into exile, and a number of independent publications have shut down due to official pressure.
Last weekend marked one year since six bloggers were arrested and jailed without trial. The “Zone 9” bloggers, who used their online platforms to write about human rights and social justice and to agitate for a democracy in Ethiopia, were charged with terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which has been used to clamp down on numerous journalists critical of the regime. Today, the bloggers remain imprisoned, awaiting what will likely be a trial by farce.
As for the elections, opposition parties say the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front , led by Hailemariam Desalegn, has undermined their efforts to register candidates for the May vote. Since last year, members of opposition parties and their supporters have been arrested and harassed. In March, the sole opposition leader in Parliament said he would not run for reelection due to state interference with his party’s affairs. The EPRDF, which has been in power since 1991, was reported to have won the last elections in 2010 with 99.6 percent of the vote.
The State Department released a statement last week urging Ethiopia to release journalists who have been imprisoned for doing their jobs. But as the considerably more high-profile statement by Ms. Sherman indicated, the Obama administration has been reluctant to criticize what it regards as a key security ally in the Horn of Africa. A State Department spokeswoman confirmed this week that Ms. Sherman’s comments “fully reflect the U.S. government’s positions on these issues.”
With its ancient culture, strategic location and population of 94 million, Ethiopia is indeed key to the future of eastern Africa. But that does not justify make-believe statements or a go-softly approach that is not working. The United States should stop funneling millions of aid dollars to a regime that has continued to choke off the media, hamper the participation of opposition parties and silence its critics. If the election is not judged by independent observers to live up to Ms. Sherman’s billing, the administration should swallow her words — and change its approach.
by MINILIK SALSAWI » 19 minutes ago
