www.andnet.de

May 23rd, 2010

Widespread fraud and harassment of opposition supporters, candidates, and observers are being reported through out Ethiopia in today's parliamentary elections.

Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa, Gonder, Gojjam, Tigray, Awassa, Ambo and other cities are reporting that Woyanne cadres and security agents are stealing votes in the open after chasing away observers. One observer described the scene in the town of Debere Markos as "day light robbery" of votes.

In Addis Ababa, trigger happy Federal Police have been observed detaining any one who makes complaints about voting related issues at polling stations. In Woreda 17, election monitors have observed unauthorized individuals inside voting rooms where only voter should have been allowed to enter.

In Adwa, where Meles Zenawi is competing against Medrek's Aregash Adane, gross intimidation is being reported. Heading up to Sunday, Meles Zenawi's supporters had disrupted a rally organized by Medrek where Aregash Adane appeared to speak. Meles' supporters stoned Aregash's car and chased her away.

In hundreds of districts through out the country, election observers were chased away by Woyanne gunmen, in some cases at gun point.

Am Sonntag, 25. April 2010, hat der sog. Länderrat (Kleiner Parteitag) der BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN in Köln stattgefunden. Der Tagungsort war die Vulkanhalle in Köln-Ehrenfeld, Lichtstraße 43.

Der Länderrat von BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN war u.a. mit Claudia Roth und Cem Özdemir, Bundesvorsitzende, Renate Künast und Jürgen Trittin, Fraktionsvorsitzende, Steffi Lemke, Politische Bundesgeschäftsführerin  hochkarätig besetzt.

Aktivisten der äthiopischen Menschenrechtsgruppen und Mitglieder der Unity for Democracy and Justice e.V. in Köln haben vor der Versammlungshalle demonstriert und mit den Parteifunktionären über die Menschenrechtslage in Äthiopien im Allgemeinen und über die Inhaftierung der Vorsitzende des größten Oppositionspartei Äthiopiens, UDJP,  Frau Birtukan Midekssa und andere Politische Gefangene und Gefangene des Gewissens im Besonderen gesprochen. Sie haben dabei die Politikerinnen und Politiker der BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN Partei gebeten sich für die Achtung der Menschenrechte in Äthiopien einzusetzen.

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Note: Except for elements inserted in the nature of narrative license, syntax and independently established facts, this “interview” is based on English or Amharic translations of  public statements, hearing testimony, speeches and other declarations of Birtukan Midekssa, the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history and that country’s  most famous political prisoner. Her re-imprisonment in December 2008 on allegations of denying a pardon was a tactical move by dictator Meles Zenawi to incapacitate and eliminate his only serious and formidable challenger in the May 2010 “elections”. In March 2010, the U.S. State Department declared Birtukan a political prisoner. In January 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council listed her as a victim of arbitrary detention. Amnesty International named Birtukan a prisoner of conscience in 2009.

By Yilma Bekele | May 11, 2010

It is election season in California. Two positions are open. The governorship and Federal Senate positions are up for grabs. Both parties, that is the Democrats and Republicans are going thru the primary process to nominate their strongest candidates for the November elections. November is Six months away but the contest is becoming hot.

Television and radio are the two preferred medias to reach the electorate. We are being inundated by sleek commercials costing millions of dollars. The candidates are spending their own money, their supporter’s money and their friend’s money as if it grows on trees. There is no such thing as ordinary elections. It is both art and a science. Nothing is left to chance. Commercials are prepared after a lengthy process of focus groups, pools, psychological impact, sociological studies and good old ‘makes me feel good’ assessments.

13 May 2010– ESAT, the new Ethiopian satellite television has successfully launched its trial broadcast to Ethiopia and other countries on Tuesday, the managing editor said.

According to ESAT’s source, hundreds of calls and email messages are coming from all corners of the country as feed backs on the success of the transmission. “It is a very amazing expereience,” says the managing editor, “We haven’t even released the channel frequency. It looks that people couldn’t wait for tuning on their satellite channel ever since the news was spread on the media.” he added.

ESAT is now on air for 24 hrs on Arabsat /Badr 6/ Ku band channel: Frequency is 11.785 GHz; symbol rate is 27.500 MSym/s; polarization is Vertical.

ESAT is proud to offer its viewers in Ethiopia on Satellite channel of getting the best of Ethiopian news, views and entertainment programes.

All programs of ESAT will be available soon on the web for Ethiopian Diaspora.

Happy Mother’s Day, Birtukan  Midekssa !

As Mother’s Day is celebrated in Ethiopia on the second Sunday in May, I feel privileged to share with my readers a testimonial tribute honoring Birtukan Midekssa, the first female political party leader in Ethiopian history and the most famous political prisoner in that country. Let me say up front that Birtukan needs no tribute or praise from me or any other person.

Eskinder Nega (Addis Ababa.)| May 8th, 2010

The title of the most famous book about the First World War says it all: All is calm on the Western Front.

And so it is in Addis these days as the election season comes to a close: All calm. Not even the nudge at Addis Ababa University’s sidist kilo’s campus, where a scuffle between two students escalated in to group fights that shut down the campus was able to alter the broader setting: too eerily calm for many; no less, confirm sources, for the increasingly restless(and thus dangerous) EPRDF executive committee.

The EPRDF executive committee is now a shadow of its former self, when in its heyday it had multitude of heavyweights sitting at the same table, but still remains crucial in implementing the party’s decisions. When it sat down for a hyped meeting at the beginning of this week to deliberate on, according to an official statement, “issues related to replacement of leaders,” recent events in distant Kyrgyzstan preoccupied the attention of many of its members, sources say.