Dear Global Citizens and Friends of Africa/Ethiopia
I could not help but appreciate the courage of a 34 years old Ethiopian female, Birtukan Mideksa, to change the culture of violence in the Horn. This courageous woman looks meek but has strong will and imagination, especially after so much of male dominated terror and famine ravaging the continent for so long.
At the bottom of the power, terror and famine food chain are women and children, who make up the majority of the population. Is is high time that women stand up and take their fair share of decision making roles. Women in Africa are taking their future in their hands and demanding a share in the world of governance and leadership at this crucial time in history.
Just imagine, the Somali Shabab and AlQaeda operatives paying attention to a woman leader like Birtukan Mediqsa. They just managed to ston a young woman of 23 to her death for alleged sexual activity outside their perceived norms. Liberia in the West Africa was run by a criminal who ran away from the legal system in the New York area and managed to terrorize Liberia and the neighboring region for decades. Today, Liberia is being led to constructive development by the new popular woman president. So, it is possible, like Liberia women have to say enough of this none sense of displace male ego and incompetence.
Imagine, the women of the Horn standing up to all terrorists (Al-shabia, Al-shabab, AlQaeda and all searies of liberation fronts masquerading as religious/ideology zealots and Sheiks. These self declared people of the law (Sharia) are nothing but criminals posing as keepers of the evil system they worship; and want to give it dignity by calling it Sharia law. There is no law but death and destruction as the rest of the world has observed for the last few decades.
It is in this highly volatile environment that a former Judge demands attention. She has experience of leading coalitions not so successful in the first round, but women learn from their mistakes and we all hope she will surpass every ones expectations.
I am impressed and I do pay attention and trust against all odds that she will make it.
All the same, the world should pay attention to the plight of young women being stoned to death under the pretext of sex, imagine men who have ten raped wives claiming that a young woman needs to pay with her life for the simple life functions of sex. Sex, when they have it with ten or more people with or without their consent. It is such a tragedy, and I wish Mideksa all the best as she tries to change the paradigm of hopelessness once for all
Women of Africa, the Horn and Ethiopia, rise up, you have nothing to fear but foolish men stoning you after they consume their passion. You do count and Mideksa is showing the way. Do stand up for your rights and the rights of your fellow human beings.
Who, knows the greedy men of the west collapsing under their own greed might pay attention and even support you.
Please read this sad saga in the Horn that is taking place with no attention from the world, even when the Pirates are stealing and asking for ransom from over 60 ships owned by the richest and most powerful nation on earth.
You have potential allies in all decent humans across the world.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44491 IPS October 29, 2008 POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: A Career In Dissent
Michael Chebsi
Mideksa -- "The values that guide me are truth and fairness"
Credit: Michael Chebsi/IPS
ADDIS ABABA - Frozen in disbelief on the steps of the courthouse where she presided as a federal judge, Bertukan Mideksa watched as a man she had just ordered released on bail was detained by plain-clothes police with no warrant and no apparent regard for the law.
That was in 2001. She next saw that man when she became a fellow inmate at Kaliti Federal Prison in 2004, charged with crimes serious enough to have her imprisoned for life: treason, outrage against the constitution, inciting, organising or leading armed rebellion, obstruction of the exercise of constitutional powers, impairing the defensive power of the state and attempted genocide.
She claims her only true transgression was dissent.
"I couldn't stand the lack of human dignity," said Mideksa, seated behind her desk at her poorly furnished office in central Addis Ababa.
Mideksa is unique among Ethiopia's politicians. At 34 years old, she is exceptionally young; she was still in high school when rebels toppled the country's brutal military regime in 1991. And she is a woman, the first ever to head a political party in this notoriously patriarchal country.
Fewer than 22 percent of the country's 547 lawmakers are women. The only female cabinet member -- predictably -- is in charge of women's affairs. Mideksa became the exception to the rule in September, when she was elected to head Ethiopia's newest political party, the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party. She has since become the leading spokesperson for the opposition.
At a press conference on Oct. 10, Mideksa, flanked by her fellow party leaders, announced her party's plan to open 117 regional offices in a bid to mobilise the public across the country. Her party has also joined a forum of other opposition parties to forge a joint platform ahead of the 2010 elections, where the coalition hopes it will fare better than in the past.
In November 2004, leaders of two long-standing opposition groups and two newly-formed political parties formed an electoral coalition. The strategy helped the opposition to win significant gains in the parliament, but fell short of a majority.
Pointing to reports by international observers of irregularities at the polls, the opposition claimed that there were significant instances of expulsion and harassment of poll workers, incidents of intimidation, multiple voting and ballot stuffing.
The political conflict turned into violent clashes on the streets, and when some of the coalition members refused to assume their elected posts, the coalition fractured acrimoniously.
The newly-constituted administration of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi detained over 100 leaders of the opposition and jailed tens of thousands of their supporters in the ensuing crackdown. Mideksa, then vice president of the coalition, was among the detainees. She was convicted on July 16, 2007 by the Federal High Court.
Mideksa and 34 others were sentenced to life imprisonment while three others were handed jail sentences that range 18 months to 18 years. The same day, they appealed for amnesty, which was later accepted by the pardon board and endorsed by President Girma W. Giorgis.
"It was the greatest challenge of my life," Mideksa told IPS. "It's strengthened me though."
Mideksa was not discouraged by the experience. She cites as one of her inspirations the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma (Myanmar). "I marvel at her courage and determination," she says.
Her party, however, will need more than mere determination to prevail.
In the April local elections, the Ethiopia People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) scored an overwhelming victory, with pro-government candidates outnumbering opposition candidates by 500 to 1. Irregularities in voter registration and difficulties in the result and complaints processes combined to reduce the legitimacy of the election. Recent legislation affecting political parties, the press and civil societies threatens to narrow the political space even more.
Mideksa believes she can help broaden the political space through a series of public dialogues with the media. Her party has also announced that it has allocated close to 750,000 dollars to mobilise supporters from the four corners of the country in the run-up to the election.
But observers doubt that Mideksa has the leadership skills to bring together the fractious opposition.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, Mideksa went to public schools for her primary and secondary educations. She joined the law school at Addis Ababa University, and graduated with an LLB degree in 1996.
Prior to her entry into politics, she served as a Judge at the Federal First Instance Court for close to seven years, before she resigned, claiming that there is government interference in the judiciary.
"The values that guide me are truth and fairness," she says.
She first entered politics running as an independent parliamentary candidate back in 2000. Neither her friends nor her mother supported the decision, warning her against the dangers of politics. After eight years, however, she is content with her decision.
"It is a great success for me personally," says Mideksa, adding with a shrug and a smile, "and I guess for Ethiopian women too." __________________________ http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE49S0AZ.htmlSuicide bombers kill at least 28 in Somalia
Wed 29 Oct 2008 Hussein Ali Noor
HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - A wave of suicide bombings killed at least 28 people across northern Somalia on Wednesday in attacks that snatched attention from political crisis talks taking place in neighbouring Kenya.
The five synchronised blasts killed some 25 people in Hargeisa and another three in Bosasso.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. But in recent months, Islamist insurgents fighting Somalia's Western-backed interim government and its Ethiopian allies have launched attacks to coincide with international efforts to end turmoil in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.
The bombers hit as leaders of the interim government met regional heads of state for talks in Nairobi. The four-year-old administration is under pressure to solve the chaos and share some power with moderate opposition figures.
Washington, and its closest ally in the region Ethiopia, say Somalia's Islamists are linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
"It is the work of the usual terrorists who try to create instability. I assure you they will not be left to get away with it. They will be brought to justice," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told reporters at the meeting.
In Hargeisa, in the breakaway Somaliland region, witnesses said three bombers attacked the president's office, a U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) compound and the Ethiopian embassy.
Journalist Ali Jama Mohamed was walking past the presidency when a car crashed into its doors.
"There was a big explosion and I saw many people, mostly pedestrians and some security guards, thrown to the floor. Some were dead and others wounded," Mohamed told Reuters.
Witnesses said three people were killed at the presidency, while at least 20 died at the shattered Ethiopian mission. Two people were killed at the UNDP building.
"BLOWN TO PIECES"
In Bosasso, in neighbouring semi-autonomous Puntland, two suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden cars inside the Intelligence Service compound, killing two soldiers and a woman and wounding several other people.
"The two cars and their drivers were blown to pieces," Muse Gelle, the governor of Bari region, told Reuters. "It is too early to know all the casualties. Tensions are high and Puntland soldiers have surrounded all government institutions."
Puntland and Somaliland had been relatively quiet compared to southern Somalia, where the government and its Ethiopian military allies have been battling rebels waging a campaign of roadside bombs, artillery strikes and assassinations.
The violence has killed nearly 10,000 civilians and an unknown number of combatants since the start of last year. More than a million people have been driven from their homes.
The rebels have previously launched big attacks during mediation efforts in a move analysts say is calculated to show the interim administration who is in control on the ground.
When government officials and some opposition figures signed a peace pact at U.N.-led negotiations in Djibouti in August, hardline al Shabaab insurgents seized the strategic southern port of Kismayu in fighting that killed at least 70 people.
The Shabaab have since consolidated their control of the area, and on Monday they stoned to death a 23-year-old woman accused of adultery -- the first such public killing by the Islamists for about two years.
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8oEwaa2OUE3WZup6BJj9hr-XImQ
EU envisages year-long anti-piracy operation
Tue 28 Oct 2008BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Reuters) - An EU air and sea operation against pirates off Somalia is expected to last a year from its planned December launch and will aim to coordinate its role with other international forces, EU officials said on Tuesday.
Somali pirates have been causing havoc in one of the world's busiest shipping areas connecting Europe to Asia and the Middle East, taking millions of dollars in ransoms, raising insurance costs, and threatening humanitarian supplies.
Ten EU nations have said they will contribute to the EU operation, which is expected to involve four to six ships at any given time as well as several maritime surveillance aircraft.
"It will involve five to 10 assets (planes and ships), naval and aerial, four to six ships," one of the officials told a briefing, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the operation was planned to last for a year.
The EU force is expected to get the final green light from the 27 EU states at a meeting of foreign ministers next month and to be officially launched in December. It will have its headquarters in Northwood in Britain and British Vice Admiral Philip Jones has been proposed as its commander.
The EU officials said the force could include European ships that have been taking part in a NATO anti-piracy operation already underway off the Somali coast.
It would aim to coordinate its work with third-country warships, including from Russia, Asia and the Gulf states to avoid duplication of efforts, the officials said.
Several EU ships are already taking part in the NATO operation. Two French frigates, a Dutch warship and a Spanish aircraft have also been involved in anti-piracy duties.
NATO said on Monday alliance ships had begun anti-piracy operations off Somalia.
Some European politicians have criticised the push by the French EU presidency to deploy the EU force, saying it would draw on the same ships as NATO and was politically motivated to press a French drive for a stronger EU military role.
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