US based international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, last week issued a statement entitled "Ethiopia: Hidden Crackdown in Rural Areas". The statement said that the Ethiopian government has been using intimidation, arbitrary detention and excessive force in rural Ethiopia to suppress post-election protests and all potential dissent. The organization spoke of the condition in Ethiopia after a field trip to some parts of the country.

The UK secretary of state for international development, Hilary Benn, on Wednesday asked the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for an independent investigation into the alleged human rights violations in the Oromia Regional State. Speaking after his meeting with Meles, Mr. Benn said that complaints had been raised about the current situation in the Oromia region. "I think there should be an independent investigation into the alleged human rights violations in the region," he said. Mr. Benn said Meles accepted his proposal.

The Ministry of Information announced that it had decided that the IRIN and Associated Press correspondent in Ethiopia should leave the country in 24 hours for tarnishing the image of the nation and repeatedly contravening journalism ethics. The Press License and Control Department together with the Ministry decided that the AP correspondent, Antony Michel, be expelled from the country for disseminating information far from the truth about Ethiopia.

A high level mediation team from the United States has arrived in Ethiopia to try and break the border dispute with neighbouring Eritrea, according to the US embassy in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Eritrea insists that Ethiopia should accept a 2002 ruling by an independent border commission that demarcated the border following a peace deal that ended a bloody two-year war between the two neighbours.

Ethiopian government is using intimidation, arbitrary detentions and excessive force in rural areas of Ethiopia to suppress post-election protests and all potential dissent, Human Rights Watch said today (January 13) after a research trip to Addis Ababa and the Oromia and Amhara regions. “The Ethiopian government is violently suppressing any form of protest and punishing suspected opposition supporters,” said Peter Takirambudde, director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. “Donor governments should insist on an independent, credible investigation into abuses by federal police and local officials in rural as well as urban areas.” 

The international development agency ActionAid has expressed its deep disappointment after an Ethiopian court on January 08 refused bail to two anti-poverty activists who were arrested in early November. ActionAid Ethiopia’s policy head Daniel Bekele, and close partner Netsanet Demessie of the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE), were held for more than a month before they were charged with conspiring to overthrow the Ethiopian constitution. 125 other people, and four organisations, face this charge and up to six additional charges.

This report from the European Centre for Development Policy Management examines capacity building for decentralised education service delivery in Ethiopia. Main key findings on devolution and education services in Ethiopia include: the devolution of service delivery was included in the 1995 Constitution, which provides an unusual degree of autonomy to Ethiopia's 11 regional states. However, the administration appears to be more aligned to deconcentration below the regional level.

“I entered parliament having been elected as an independent candidate. I thought and hoped there would be a chance to raise and debate substantive issues that matter most to the people. I expected to air them fully in the parliament and transmit my concerns to the public through the media. But currently what is happening in parliament is that we, non-EPRDF parliament members, are blocked. We are not allowed to propose motions and raise issues for discussion. We cannot put issues on the agenda. We are not given enough time to make our different voices and opinions to be heard. We have no opportunity to transmit our views to the people through mass media. Taken together, the parliamentary working procedure is wholly non-accommodative and uninviting”.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, with Ethiopia's major October to December rains having failed, an additional 1.75 million people will require food aid up to June, bringing the number of people receiving food assistance in the Horn of Africa country to 7.25 million. Drought has devastated the economies of many pastoralist groups in East African countries this year, especially Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya, leaving 11 million people at risk of food shortages.

eLearning Africa intends to become an eLearning capacity-building event for the entire African continent and a forum for all stakeholders engaged in the planning and implementation of technology-supported learning and training. The event is supported by the United Nations Commission for Africa and the European Commission's DG Information Society. The Ethiopian Ministry of Capacity Building has taken the patronage over the conference. The event will be accompanied by an exhibition.

Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufyan Ahmed has said the poor in his country would suffer if aid donors carried out their plan to withhold US $375 million in budget support because of the government's recent crackdown on opposition supporters.

A group of Ethiopian opposition leaders, aid workers and journalists - facing treason, conspiracy and genocide charges have been denied bail. The High Court judge said the severity of the accusations against the group of 131 precluded their release. The group, including all the leaders of the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party, are refusing to recognise the court's legitimacy.

Ethiopia and Eritrea's dangerous stalemate over their disputed border, could force the United Nations to withdraw its peacekeeping mission, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said. "As a result of the restrictions imposed on UNMEE [the UN's Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea], the present position of the Mission is becoming increasingly untenable," Annan said in a report to the UN Security Council on Tuesday. "The time may be fast approaching to take difficult decisions on the future of the Mission."
Related Link:
Latest report from Crisis Group on border dispute
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3850&l=1

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is deeply concerned about the charges held against 129 persons including 2 minors, opposition activists, human rights defenders and journalists. Since May 15, 2005 and the Ethiopian parliamentary elections, repression has come down in Ethiopia. In June and November 2005, two waves of repression of the elections protests led to the death of almost 100 people including unarmed protesters, students and children. Thousands of people have been arrested.

International donors will freeze $375m (?316m) in aid to Ethiopia’s government following its recent crackdown on the main opposition party and the independent press, Western diplomats said today (December 29). The money, however, will be reallocated to the UN and aid agencies working to combat poverty among the bulk of Ethiopia’s estimated 77 million people who live on less than a dollar a day. Some of the money could also finance programs intended to strengthen democracy, the diplomats said.

Since the May 15, 2005 election, there has been a historic clash between the yearning by the Ethiopian people to found a democratic order, and the derailment of this democratic process by the incumbent regime in order to perpetuate its tyrannical rule through large-scale repression in Ethiopia. The world must take a stand on this clash between the aspiration of the Ethiopian people to make a new history of democracy or be forced by repression to remain in the old history of dictatorship. The stakes are so high, the decision is so urgent, and the risk of letting repression decide the destiny of this old country to slide into a tyrannical order so great, that all in the whole wide world that have power to contribute to name, shame and expel the Meles dictatorship must do it by acting right now. Tomorrow is too late. Words are not enough. Empathy is not enough. Only action and deed count to make a difference.

Three opposition leaders and a human rights activist in Ethiopia say they will go on hunger strike from Monday (November 28) in protest against their detention. The four were arrested at the beginning of this month during violent protests over May's disputed election results. They have not been formally charged but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says they could be tried for treason. CUD leader Hailu Shawel and two top party officials say their detention is politically-motivated.

Ethiopia and Eritrea traded blame for the rising tensions along their shared border on Friday, but vowed not to ignite another war, the United Nations said on Saturday. Military commanders from the two countries met in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at UN-hosted talks amid growing concern that their border stalemate could lead to renewed conflict. The closed-door talks were held two days after the UN Security Council threatened to impose sanctions against the two countries if they continued to engage in activities that aggravated the border standoff.

Ethiopian authorities have arrested two more journalists, bringing the total number seized since bloody political protests erupted early this month to 12, a media watchdog agency reported on Monday. Private newspapers have been prevented from printing, and journalists had gone into hiding after the crackdown, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

An Ethiopian court denied bail on Monday to 23 opponents of the government accused of inciting violence in Addis Ababa in early November. At least 42 people were shot dead when police confronted demonstrators in the capital after the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) called for new protests against May polls it says the government manipulated. Four more people were killed in clashes elsewhere in subsequent days. The government denies ballot fraud.