Prisoners of Conscience Month

Marking one year in Prison

journalists flee abroad

An Amharic-language weekly known for being outspoken and critical of the government, Addis Neger announced today that its latest issue (28 November) would be last one until further notice. The management said it had been forced to take this decision because of the government’s intention – confirmed by various sources – to prosecute the newspaper and its staff under an anti-terrorism law that was adopted last summer.

Source:

Marking one year in Prison

FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSA!
Marking one year in Prison
(join the free Birtukan Mideksa campaign)
Birtukan Mideksa, an opposition party leader, is serving a life sentence in Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is a prisoner of conscience. Birtukan Mideksa was arrested in November 2005 after the Coalition for Unity and Democracy party, of which she was a leader, contested disputed local and parliamentary elections. Subsequent demonstrations turned violent, resulting in the deaths of almost 200 people. She was charged with treason in one of several trials, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Local elders negotiated a pardon with the Ethiopian authorities, and Birtukan Mideksa and others were released in June 2007 after serving more than 18 months in prison. The terms of the pardon remain unclear. In November 2008 she spoke about her pardon at a public meeting in Sweden. When she returned to Ethiopia, the authorities asked her to retract her statement; she refused and was rearrested in December 2008. The Ministry of Justice revoked her pardon and re-imposed her life sentence.

Source: Amnesty International

prisoner’s account of the abyss

Omot feared for his life every moment in prison.

‘“You will die like a dog now there is no one to defend you,”’ Omot recalls his jailers in Dimma taunting him. “They said, ‘In America, black people are treated like slaves and there are no white people who will come from America to save your life.’ I told them, ‘Did you see that in America we now have a black president?’ They said ‘Shut up!’”

“One night a group of soldiers came to me and said ‘We are going to teach you something,’” Omot recalls. “They blindfolded me and shoved me into a pickup truck. When they took off my blindfold they pushed me to the ground and I was surrounded by dead bodies. They were mostly skeletons but with pieces of clothing still stuck on.

‘The soldiers told me, ‘Unless you confess you will look like those bodies. You will die just like they did. We will kill you right now.’”

Source: Daily Planet

appeal for food aid

Now 25 years after [the tragic Ethiopian famine] the tribal junta has managed to institute ethnic apartheid policies to discriminate against the Oromos, Amharas and other Ethiopians. In so doing it shifted the famine from Northern Ethiopia to Central, Southern, Eastern and Western Ethiopia—making Ethiopa yet again the closest thing to hell on Earth.
The Western Countries and International Financial Institutions must stop providing financial, political and above all military aid to the minority ethnic regime of Meles Zenawi in order to end famine and continuing humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia.

emergency appeal for food aid

Sign this petition, PLEASE!

Amnesty International launches’ campaign for Birtukan













The Dutch chapter of Amnesty International has launched a campaign for the release of Birtukan Mideksa. Members of Amnesty Netherlands are campaigning to get as many petitions as possible before the dead line (1 December 2009).
Birtukan Mideksa, the charismatic leader of UDJ, is being held in solitary confinement serving a life sentence. Please sign a petition to Mr. Louis Michel European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid to use all diplomatic means for the freedom of Birtukan Mideksa.

Download a sample letter here and send it to Louis.Michel@ec.europa.eu
Source: EMF

our AUNG SAN SUU KUI!

Free Birtukan Mideksa (our AUNG SAN SUU KUI)!

Birtukan Mideksa, Ethiopia’s pro-democracy leader, symbolizes peaceful struggle for more democracy, the respect for human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia.

She is the leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party as formerly known as Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), which achieved a decisive victory in the last Ethiopian national election, held in 2005. The tyrant TPLF regime has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of that vote.
More: Nothing but the truth

more of the same

The 2005 Ethiopian election is remembered by all Ethiopians because it was the year that the people rejected the tyrant regime with Ballots. On the Election Day all Ethiopians said NO to tyranny and dictatorial rule by voting to oppositions. But, the will of the people administered by the result of the Ballots were refuted by the tyrant regime`s Bullets.
Five years after this election, in 2010, Ethiopians will go to the polls again. The tyrant regime has and is closing all avenues for a peaceful democratic change and it’s already predicted that the outcome will be ‘more of the same” as it was in the last election, in 2005.
Here is how the election will be run:It will be run by the regime “only” to self claim that it has won; to try to impress the International community’s mainly lying to them with what is already known and by wasting their money.
Here is what really will happen in 2010 Election:- Harassment, imprisonments, closure of offices throughout the country
- No opposition (political) party, no civil society organizations, no free press, no justice
- Arrests, disappearances, mass killings of citizen without due process of law
- Self-serving polices
- Misusing poverty
- Vote repression/Voter intimidation
- Barring of foreign monitors from polls
- Voter suppression and corruption, etc…

More of the same:
It will be more of the same as it was in the last election - stealing the election as the tyrant regime did in 2005 election. The donor countries, both East and West governments will keep continue recognizing and cooperating with the tyrant regime. What is left for Ethiopian people is to continue to live with the increasing repression.

FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSA!

PLEASE JOIN THE CAMPAIGN

FREEBIRTUKAN

Nothing but the truth

May 15th 2005 Election - the day

Remembering May 15th 2005 Election

This was the day 26 million Ethiopians cast ballots at 35,000 polling stations across the country.

This was the day Ethiopians showed their faith in democracy.

This was the day the election was greatly rigged followed by a state of emergency and human right abuse which was impossible to comprehend.

This was the day the hopes of the people had been dashed by the regime in power.

Until now, the tyrannical regime is still committing murder and human right abuses all over the country. Ethiopians know what stands between their aspiration and its realization – the tyrannical regime which is gratified and flattered by the donor countries.

Arrests ahead of Ethiopian poll

Can’t handle the truth? We can!

“Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

click to enlarge

Opposition says anti-govt. plot invented
Opposition Demands Probe of Anti-Government Plots
Government must reveal fate of political prisoners

Nothing but the truth

Repression and poverty have demoralized Ethiopians and made them subjects to dictators. The people seem to accept the brutality of the TPLF/EPRDF (the ruling party - a regime which is terrorizing the people). The current regime is preparing to rule the country for life. 18 years have passed since the regime came to power and it has become more and more dominant. The TPLF/EPRDF still rules today with its divisive politics and wants to victimize the Ethiopian people.

The TPLF/EPRDF jails its citizens simply because they have different political views or because they criticize the regime. Ms. Bertukan, a peaceful opposition leader was jailed for not saying sorry for a statement she made about the controversial pardon that was facilitated by the local elders.

All prisoners of conscience including Ms. Bertukan Mideksa could have bowed to the demands of the TPLF/EPRDF. She could have abandoned her party and supporters and joined the regime. She could have simply gone home to her mother and her daughter Hale but chose to stand up for her rights.

To give in would be exactly what the regime wants which is to continue to humiliate any opposition to its rule by forcing others to join their repressive group, the TPLF/EPRDF.

By imprisoning Ms. Bertukan and others like her, it shows that the regime uses force on its citizens instead of cherishing and protecting them.

Free Bertukan and all prisoners of conscience! NOW!

Tilahun Gessesse - 'The Voice'

Ethiopian singing legend mourned

Bertukan Mideksa

A former judge who was charged with treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005, is just one of many people jailed for exercising their fundamental rights, in this case the freedom of speech.










Why No-One Speaks Out: Politics and Human Rights in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has no independent judiciary, no free press, no civil society, and individual liberties have been severely curtailed, so why isn’t Meles Zenawi a persona non grata in the international community, asks human rights activist Mitmita. Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who was charged with treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005, is just one of many people jailed for exercising their fundamental rights, in this case the freedom of speech, says Mitmita.

Mideksa is in solitary confinement in Kaliti Prison for allegedly violating the terms of a government pardon granted to her in 2007. The accusations are based on her failure to retract statements made in a speech that she was released from prison through a politically negotiated settlement rather than a formal legal pardon. Western failure to condemn abuses by Zenawi’s government for the sake of their own strategic interests, says Mitmita, comes at the expense of the rights of ordinary Ethiopians.

http://www.mitmitaye.com/

New Law Ratchets up Repression

Government Outlaws Most Human Rights Work, Imprisons Opposition Leaders
January 8, 2009

In the space of just eight days, the Ethiopian government has outlawed independent human rights work and jailed one of the country's most prominent opposition leaders for life.

New Law Ratchets up Repression