The 2010 Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom has ranked Ethiopia’s economy the 136th freest out of 179 countries in the world with a score of 51.2. Its overall score fell 1.8 points when compared to 2009 as a result of deteriorating trade freedom, monetary freedom, and investment freedom. Ethiopia is ranked 28th out of 46 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is just below the regional average.

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Tirunesh Dibaba, the 25-year-old Olympic double champion in 5km and 10km – the first woman ever to do so at the Olympic Games, hails from Arsi, Oromia. At the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on February 6, 2010, she won at the 5km women’s race in 14:44.53 – a world-leading mark for this year; she also the record-holder for this event (14:27.42) in Boston.

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Looking at the following World Bank data, it’s false to say that Ethiopia’s GDP became better than that of Kenya for the first time in 2010 (a misleading story on Nazret.com). During the dictatorial Derg regime, Ethiopia’s GDP was much larger than that of Kenya (and also growing at a much faster rate than that of Kenya) – all throughout 1980’s while Ethiopia was waging bloody internal wars, in the mist of a biblical famine and under extreme socialist system. Ethiopia’s GDP made a nose dive downwards in 1992 when TPLF took power in Addis Ababa – the downward trend during TPLF’s reign gave Kenya the advantage to be the biggest economy in east Africa. Therefore, even though Ethiopia’s GDP was much better than that of Kenya during the Derg regime, that alone had not made Derg democratic. In other words, GDP size has no relation to whether a regime is repressive or democratic; it is possible for undemocratic regimes, such as Derg and Woyane, to have a bigger GDP size than any relatively democratic country.

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A blogger at the International Rivers, Peter Bosshard, broke the news (citing an African Confidential news alert) that part of the main tunnel of the Gilgel Gibe II dam collapsed merely two weeks after its inauguration. The blogger also charges “the Gilgel Gibe deal was awarded without a feasibility study, and construction started without the legally required environmental permit.”

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Chinese Cement Worker in Mekelle, Tigray – Ethiopia

Here’s a report from the Voice of America (VOA) Horn of African Service. Read here also about a link between this labor dispute and U.S. taxpayers’ money, which funds activities of Mesebo’s sister company – Almeda Textile; both Mesebo and Almeda are companies of EFFORT, the business wing of the repressive regime in Ethiopia.

By Girmay Gebru
Washington DC
February 05, 2010

An estimated 400 Chinese employees on strike for the past two weeks at the Mesebo* cement factory in Mekelle charge some have suffered physical injuries in clashes with company officials over wages.

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This video shows two persons (Mr. Abebe Beri and Major Mekonnen Geleta) in an altercation over each others’ candidacy for a parliamentarian seat representing the Kombolcha electoral district. The scene unfolds inside the district’s candidate registration office. According to the report, each of the gentlemen claims to be the “legal” candidate for a single parliamentarian seat being contested by MEDREK – the Forum, the major opposition coalition challenging the Zenawi-TPLF government in the upcoming election in Ethiopia. As the debate rages on, the altercation turns physical.

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By Jalene Gemeda
Washington DC
04/02/2010

Habtamu Benti was at the controls when the Ethiopian Airlines plane plunged into the Mediterranean Sea last week.

Habtamu Benti, the pilot of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, is believed to have died along with six other crew and 83 passengers when the plane plunged into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lebanon. Only a few bodies have been recovered from the sea. Most are believed to remain more than 1,300 meters below the sea’s surface in the fuselage of the plane that mysteriously veered off course after take-off from the Rafiki Hariri International Airport in Beirut in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, January 25.

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MELES ZENAWI – THE “INTERNAL BUTCHER” WHO IS ALSO AN “EXTERNAL BACKSTABBER”

This is an attempt to set the record straight on the recent propaganda released by TPLF about its Supreme Dear Leader and the praises showered on him by fellow African dictators in the Supreme Dear Leader’s home turf. Speaking of praises, even Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam was praised by none other than the Supreme Dear Leader. The Supreme Dear Leader lauded Mengistu’s “solid” African policy. Dictators praising each other; one “INTERNAL BUTCHER”, using the Supreme Dear Leader’s own phrase, praising another “INTERNAL BUTCHER” – nothing new. Watch the video:

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Click Here to Listen to the Tribute (VOA Afan Oromo)

By Barry Malone

Local journalists, who did not want to be named, told Reuters they are experiencing more harassment from officials as the elections approach.

One of Ethiopia’s most popular newspapers — political weekly Addis Neger — closed in December and six of its senior editors fled the country saying they were regularly harassed and feared they were about to be jailed.

The government said the journalists had no reason to close the newspaper.

An Ethiopia-based American journalist working for Bloomberg news agency was detained for two days the same month after interviewing opposition members.

– Full Story (Reuters)

Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee;

It is an honor to appear before you today as President Obama’s nominee to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. I greatly appreciate the trust and confidence the President and Secretary Clinton have placed in me. I am also grateful for the steadfast support of my wife Anita, a retired Foreign Service Officer who is in Zambia, where I have had the honor of serving as ambassador since 2008. With me today for support are my daughter Alison and my sons Peter and David.

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By Qeerransoo Biyyaa*

* How are key internal actors in Ethiopia big factors in denying freedom and democracy in Ethiopia?
* Will the ruling EPRDF/TPLF government use the upcoming elections to further legitimize its stranglehold on 93% of Ethiopians?

Five years, hundreds of dead bodies, thousands of imprisonments, disappearances, evictions and land confiscations later after the 2005 parliamentary elections, Ethiopia is yet to stage other sham elections for its total seats of 547 in the House People’s Representative – commonly known as the “national parliament” – in May 210.

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In a rare admission TPLF’s abuse of food aid during the 1984-5 famine in Tigray, Mr. Seye Abraha, the then commander of TPLF rebels and now a prominent opposition leader against his previous political party – TPLF, discloses that TPLF had diverted food aid to purchase ammunition and other weaponry in the 1980’s, obviously while millions of people in Tigray, whom TPLF claims to represent, were dying of famine and starvation. Would this constitute crime against humanity by TPLF?

To quote Mr. Seye Abraha from his article posted on EthioMedia.com (The Politicization of Food Aid under One-Party Rule in Ethiopia):

“As a veteran politician and an ex-commander of an insurgent army that brought down the Derg military regime, I know relief aid could be misused to purchase ammunition, weapons, spare parts, fuel and other materials.”

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Mr. Debela Amante, a linguistics PhD student at the University of Oslo, is planning an academic conference on the Oromo language to take place in Addis Ababa/Finfinne later this year.

Escaping the Norwegian winter for a while, Debela Amante is back in his native Ethiopia doing fieldwork for his dissertation on “The Semantics of Omoro Adpositions”, as well as lecturing at the University of Addis Ababa and preparing an academic conference on the Oromo language. He takes time to share his vision with the Norwegian Embassy.

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Mr. Melaku Tefera

Amnesty International has called on Ethiopian authorities not to execute Melaku Tefera, the only one of five men sentenced to death on 22 December 2009 who remains in Ethiopia. The other four sentenced to death in absentiaare exiled Ginbot 7 party leaders Berhanu Nega, Andargachew Tsige, Muluneh Eyouel and Mesfin Aman. On the same day 33 others, including one woman, received life sentences.

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Article 73 of the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution states:

Appointment of the Prime Minister
1. The Prime Minister shall be elected from among members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives.
2. Power of Government shall be assumed by the political party or a coalition of political parties that constitutes a majority in the House of Peoples’ Representatives.

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By Fayyis Oromia*

Few days back, one “breaking news” from Oromia came out telling the world that the beginning of 2010 is “the end for the armed struggle of the Oromo liberation movement, i.e. the OLF is almost dead.” Is this fact or fancy? Are the news makers deceiving themselves or are they devoid of the sense for reality? Did the consumers of the news fall into the trap of buying the reason for the merrymaking in the Weyane camp in the last few days? Here, I do try to show how almost all stakeholders are living in self-deception as far as the Oromo liberation movement is concerned. I think the following groups do live under such self-made “reality” about Oromo, Oromia and the Oromo liberation struggle:

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Mr. Dr. Bayyan Hasooba

VOA News carried a story about the recent defection of former OLF members. Here’s an excerpt of that story.

In a telephone interview from the group’s Washington office, spokesman Beyan Asoba acknowledged splits among three OLF factions, but denied there had been any letup in rebel military activity. He said more strikes against Ethiopia are being planned. “The OLF is active and is engaged in struggle in eastern, western and southern part of Oromia. If they did not hear from the OLF up to now, they will hear soon,” he said.

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An urgent action press release from Oromo Human Right and Relief Organisation (OHRRO).

Urgent Action

As the Ethiopian national election is approaching, another wave of mass arrests is intensifying in various parts of Oromia region. According to OHRRO’s correspondents, right from Oromia, the scale of the mass arrests is an all-out action all over the region. But, first, precisely because of the widely spread nature of the mass arrests and, secondly, because of the extremely tight control and monopoly of information by the regime, OHRRO’s sources of information could not come up even with a reasonably partial lists of the arrested.

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The 2010 Human Rights Watch’s annual “World Report” was released on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. The chapter on ETHIOPIA details the heightened political repression ahead of the 2010 elections, the ever-shrinking space for independent civil society activity, the severely constrained independent media, the continuation of the longstanding practice of punitively long pretrial and pre-charge detention, torture and other ill-treatment, the war crimes and crimes against humanity of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), the strained relationship with Eritrea, and the unwillingness of major donors to confront the Ethiopian government over its worsening human rights record. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter on ETHIOPIA.

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In a Statement posted on its website, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has questioned the impartiality of Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper that broke the news of the defection of what the OLF Statement called “traitors”, who surrendered to “the tyrannical TPLF regime in Ethiopia” a week ago. The OLF Statement accuses Daily Nation of reporting the “erroneous information” from one side; OLF was allegedly not approached by Daily Nation reporters before the story was sent for publication.

In the same Statement, OLF maintains that “traitors shall not determine the future of the Oromo Liberation Front or the destiny of the Oromo nation.” According to the Statement, Licho Bukhura, Abdataa Baasiree and the other defectors were expelled from the organization on October 31, 2008.

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Do you agree that the recent event that unfolded in WBOZK will reenergize the Oromo liberation camp?

• Yes (63%, 185 Votes)
• No (30%, 87 Votes)
• Don't Know (7%, 21 Votes)

Total Voters: 293

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The Oromo Forum for Dialogue and Reconciliation (OFDR) releases this document to extend its best wishes for the New Year and to send a message of peace and harmony to all stakeholders in the Oromo liberation camp so that they realise the consequences of disharmony, factionalism and fragmentation, and embrace a fundamental change in their attitude and political culture that can benefit the liberation movement immediately.

At the beginning of the New Millennium, i.e. long before the establishment of the OFDR, the then existing five Oromo liberation organisations came together to form the United Liberation Forces of Oromia (ULFO) with a great sense of jubilation and hope among all Oromo nationals, including those that had already lost faith in these organisations.

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The Reporter online newspaper has reported that the organization set up to facilitate for the legal recognition of Waaqeffannaa, a monolithic religion of the Oromo people, has submitted applications to the Oromia Culture and Tourism Bureau to receive a legal status for Waaqeffannaa. The religion was banned in Oromia by Ethiopian regimes of the last hundred years despite it being a monolithic formal religion practiced by Oromos for thousands of years. Waaqeffannaa was an integral part of the Gadaa System of Governance.

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The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) Shane group has posted a communiqué on its website claiming putting “8 invading troops out of action in Harargee”, in eastern Oromia, and taking one military commander prisoner on January 10, 2010. This comes days after news broke of the desertion of some members and military leaders from the OLF Change group. It is to be recalled that Ethiopian authorities claimed “annihilating” the Eastern Command of OLA in August 1999 (read this BBC report) while OLF denied that claim as “a wild dream.” The Ethiopian government has not denied or confirmed the latest military engagement.

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LONDON – Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) Chairman General Kemal Galchu and OLF Army Commander, General Hailu Gonfa, can move about where ever they want in Eritrea and are not under house arrest as reported, OLF insiders told Ethiomedia late Friday.

Earlier an OLF source said Eritrea has rejeced OLF requests to launch military operations in Ethiopia, a report which was not denied by the second OLF source either.

The OLF source, who was speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the individuals who surrendered to the TPLF regime were not active OLF fighters.

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