I think the military is a bit busy at the moment.
"Ethiopia ratifies disputed pact on Nile" by Kirubel Tadesse | Associated Press, June 14, 2013
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s Parliament on Thursday ratified an accord that replaces colonial-era deals that awarded Egypt and Sudan the majority of the world’s longest river.
The vote comes amid a bout of verbal jousting between Ethiopia and Egypt after Ethiopia last month started to divert Nile waters for a massive hydroelectric dam.
Ethiopia’s growing economy frequently suffers from power outages and needs more capacity. But Egypt fears the dam will mean a diminished share of the Nile.
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Related:
Ethiopia's big Nile dam is compared to Hoover Dam
Egyptian politicians: Sabotage Ethiopia's new dam
Don't worry; the invasion will be on humanitarian grounds:
"Thousands demand activists be freed in Ethiopia; Demonstration a rare display of opposition" by Kirubel Tadesse | Associated Press, June 03, 2013
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Thousands of Ethiopian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital on Sunday demanding the immediate release of jailed activists and journalists in a rare show of public opposition to the ruling party that maintains strict control over the East African nation.
Protesters marched along major streets in the capital, Addis Ababa, shouting ‘‘we need freedom,’’ and ‘‘we need justice.’’ The peaceful rally was the first major demonstration since 2005 postelection unrest when security forces killed hundreds of protesters.
The protest is the first show of disapproval against Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s government. Hailemariam succeeded Meles Zenawi, former prime minister, who died Aug. 20.
Related: Eulogizing Ethiopia's Prime Minister
An ally and U.S. proxy, and thus the woeful lack of coverage regarding the rights abuses.
Communications Minister Bereket Simon responded to the demonstration by denying that Ethiopia is holding political prisoners. Well, there are denials and then there are denials.
When some lying government denies, well, that's a he said, she said. When someone denies certain conventional myths that have been seared into our brains by education and media that's different. Question those as described by the orthodoxy from on high and you are evil.
But demonstrators held pictures of jailed activists, political leaders, journalists, and covers of banned newspapers.
You would think this plight might catch on with the AmeriKan media?
In December, the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report listing Ethiopia as the eighth-worst jailer of journalists in the world, with six in prison.
Gee, I wonder who the other seven are above (I know US imperial forces lead in killing them).
Last year, 49 Ethiopian journalists were in exile and 72 newspapers had been closed under Meles, said the committee. Muluken Tesfahun of the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar has been detained since May 4 for covering evictions near the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam that is raising tensions with Nile-dependent Egypt, said the committee.
(Blog editor nodding in acknowledgment that it had something to do with this. So it's not just the Egyptians and Sudanese who are pissed off)
After Meles died, the International Crisis Group had cautioned that the new government would find it difficult to contain public discontent in the absence of ‘‘any meaningful domestic political opposition.’’
In 2012 polls, the ruling party won more than 99 percent of all regional and federal Parliament seats. There is only a single opposition member in the 547-seat federal Parliament.
Gee, and not ONE PEEP of criticism from the U.S.?
I mean, THAT is a SOVIET-STYLE STATE!
Even IRAN, EGYPT, and SYRIA have MORE OPPOSITION!
Yacob Hailemariam, a former United Nations prosecutor, was among those who addressed the protesters at the close of the rally.
‘‘In the 21st century when the rest of the world is freely exercising its rights, here in Ethiopia the daily news is ‘this person got arrested,’ ‘that person received a life sentence.’ This has to end,’’ Yacob said in his speech.
I didn't know they got the Boston Globe in Ethiopia!
Yacob was among scholars who led a popular opposition grouping in the 2005 election when the ruling party lost key cities, including the capital’s city council.
The country’s electoral board declared the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, as the winner in the national poll tally. Protests broke out across the country and Yacob and his colleagues were jailed for several months before he was pardoned in 2007.
‘‘They say the youth has worn out. I disagree. Once again the youth has to be a force change and it should take over to lead [an] opposition group to end the ruling party’s dictatorship that has turned the country into a hell for us . . . we can repeat 2005,’’ shouted Yacob.
I so agree! We need their ENERGY and IDEAS!
Then I look around at AmeriKa's doped-up, drug-addled, ipoded generation and.... (sigh).
Many of the protesters on Sunday were Muslims who have been protesting alleged government interference in their religion.
Yeah, what this article doesn't tell you is Ethiopia is mostly Christian, like 80-90% -- a rarity in Africa.
Some Muslim activists who had been leading criticism of the government are in prison on terrorism charges.
U.S has no problem there.
Protesters vowed to return to the streets in three months’ time ‘‘unless the government releases journalists, activists, and Muslim leaders and annuls unconstitutional legislations.’’
I'll keep an eye on the Globe.
But Bereket denied that the government is holding political prisoners.
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