The Nation: Bush's Somalia Strategy Enables an Ethiopian Despot

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news: [panel discussion on Human Rights in Ethiopia held at Harvard University] - [30 Ethiopian and Somali migrants drown] - [Somali minister survives bomb attack] - [BBC: Residents flee Mogadishu]

International: [Guinea put under martial law] - [Algeria Bomb Attacks Leave 6 Dead] - [House debates resolution on Iraq plan] - [North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament] - [China Seeks Talks on Space Weapons Treaty] and more of today's top stories!

Prayer and candle light vigil at Debre Selam Medhane Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Minneapolis

On Sunday, Feb 11 several cities in North America and all over the world held Prayer and candle Light Vigil services for Ethiopia’s Prisoners of Conscience (visit kinijitna.org for full coverage)

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Visit:

'Free Ethiopia’s Prisoners of Conscience'

[Action Center] - [Resource Center]

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Panel Discusses Human Rights in Ethiopia at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

PRESS RELEASE, Qaliti Qal Kidan

The panel discussion on human rights in Ethiopia co-sponsored by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Amnesty International and Qaliti Qal Kidan (Qaliti Covenant) was warmly received by a capacity crowd in attendance.

Josh Rubenstein, the Northeastern director of the Amnesty International USA, Northeast Region, was the moderator for the event dubbed: " Ethiopia: Peaceful Resistance and Civil Disobedience as Dissent."

Dr. Meqdes Mesfin, the first panel speaker, set the parameters of the discussions by discussing the major events that took place after the May 2005 elections. She described the changing patterns in the Ethiopians government's explanation of what happened during the protest.(More...)

Bush's Somalia Strategy Enables an Ethiopian Despot (dictator)

The Nation

It may be too early to tell what, if anything, has been accomplished by the recent US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, but at least on the streets of Addis Ababa one thing has become clear. Here in the Horn of Africa, as elsewhere, Washington is all too happy to overlook the undemocratic excesses of a dictator who will do its bidding in the "war on terror."

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, when his minority ethnic guerrilla group, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, overthrew the country's postimperial Communist regime, the Dergue, which had murdered, tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands during its brutal seventeen years in power.

Like most contemporary resistance groups in Ethiopia, the TPLF began as a Marxist-Leninist party. But by the time its fighters marched into Addis Ababa, Meles had realized the global political winds had changed and that he would be better off with patronage from Washington and London.

"So Meles started talking about free elections and free markets--anything that was sweet to American ears," said Merera Gudina, an opposition parliamentarian and political scientist at Addis Ababa University. (More...)

UN: At least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants drown off the coast of Yemen

GENEVA (Reuters) - At least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants drowned when a smuggler's boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday, adding it was checking reports the death toll was as high as 78.

Yemeni armed forces told the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees they had rescued 40 people from the vessel, which migrants on other boats said had carried some 120 people.

"Once again the Gulf of Aden has claimed the lives of at least 30 Somalis and Ethiopians when the boat smuggling them from Somalia to Yemen capsized on approach to the Yemeni coast on Monday," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a briefing. (More...)

BBC: Residents flee Mogadishu blasts

People are fleeing areas in the Somalia capital, Mogadishu, that came under attack overnight fearing more violence.
A BBC correspondent says the port, presidential villa and a minister's house came under fire and two civilians were wounded in a gun battle.

The government says it suspects the attacks were carried out by remnants of the defeated Islamist militia.

In Uganda, MPs have approved sending 1,500 troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force. (More...)

Somali minister survives bomb attack

Mogadishu - A grenade was thrown at a Somali government minister's house overnight and mortar bombs hit areas near Mogadishu's port in the latest spate of post-war violence, witnesses said on Tuesday.

Gunmen also attacked a police station in the Somali capital, as insecurity rises in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation which has endured almost daily violence since Ethiopian and government forces ousted an Islamist movement over the New Year.(More...)

Today's Top Stories

-Guinea put under martial law (Residents banned from leaving their homes)
-Algeria Bomb Attacks Leave 6 Dead (30 Others Injured After Wave Of At Least 7 Bombings Ravage Nation)
-House debates resolution criticizing Bush Iraq plan
-North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament
-At least 3 killed in bombings in Lebanon
-China Seeks Talks on Space Weapons Treaty
-Russian soldiers 'used for sex'
-Wide open Oscar race highlights range of favorites







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