GCAP, CIVICUS: Bring Ethiopian campaigners home for the holidays

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Also:
- Today's Top HEADLINES
- INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
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-Somalia descends into Africa's worst crisis (McClatchy)
-HRW's Letter to US Secretary of Defense on Somalia
-Somali Islamists Said to Be Regrouping
-At least 17 killed in Somalia attacks

Bring Ethiopian campaigners home for the holidays

For Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie, This could be their third holiday season behind bars and away from their loved ones. Join GCAP and CIVICUS by:

1) sending a message of hope to Daniel and Netsanet and their families;
2) sending a letter of appeal to the Ethiopian authorities, urging them to bring Daniel and Netsanet home for the holidays.
3) sending a greeting card by post to Daniel and Netsanet, via the Ministry of Justice (MORE...)

REMEMBERING DECEMBER 13TH: ANUAK JUSTICE COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE

Our World: Condi's African holiday

...THE CONFLICTS in the Horn of Africa have regional and global dimensions. Regionally, Egypt has played a central role in sponsoring and fomenting conflicts. Egypt's meddling advances its interest of preventing the African nations from mounting a unified challenge to Egypt's colonial legacy of extraordinary rights to the waters of the Nile River which flows through all countries of the region.(More...)

12 December 2007: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION UPDATE

11 December 2007: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION

PINR Analysis: ''Somalia Completes its Devolutionary Cycle''

As a political community, Somalia has disintegrated. The country has now reached the limit of its devolutionary cycle, which began in December 2006, when Ethiopia mounted a military intervention that ousted the Islamic Courts Council (I.C.C.) from control over most of southern and central Somalia.(More...)

Rights Group Accuses Sudan of Deporting Eritrean Refugees

(Audio Report)

An Eritrean human rights group is accusing the governments of Sudan and Eritrea of working together to round up and deport Eritreans who have sought refuge from Eritrea's authoritarian government. Nick Wadhams has the story from Nairobi.(More...)

EHRCO: Press Release on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December to honor and commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly on this date in 1948. This year on Human Rights Day, the United Nations launches a year-long campaign in the lead up to the 60th anniversary of the UDHR under the theme ‘Dignity and Justice for all of us’.(More...)

PM Olmert promises to fight racism in Israel

The Israeli prime minister opened Sunday's Cabinet meeting with grave remarks in response to a newspaper expose last week about a religious school in Petah Tikva at which girls of Ethiopian descent are segregated from their peers.(More...)

Somali Islamists seize town from government troops

Masked fighters occupied a key business district and residential neighborhood in the Somali capital Saturday, saying they had forced Ethiopian troops to withdraw and urging locals to return home.(More...)

UK, Australian aid staff ordered out of Ogaden

Australian and a Briton working for Save the Children UK have been ordered out of Ethiopia's troubled Ogaden region, aid sources said on Friday. "They have been working in Ogaden on business visas, but were then refused additional work permits and asked to leave," said an aid worker in Addis Ababa, who asked not to be named.(More...)

Press Release: ETHIOPIAN-AMERICANS and FRIENDS of ETHIOPIA in OKLAHOMA for H.R. 2003

December 7, 2007

...The vast majority of Ethiopian-Americans who support the bill have been asking us; his constituents, how Senator Inhofe can, in clear conscience, oppose the bill after refusing to meet with the gross human rights abuses victims to whom H.R. 2003, the “Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007” is directed to?(More...)

Somalia's leader leaves hospital

Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has been discharged from hospital in Kenya after three days' treatment for respiratory problems. A frail-looking Mr Yusuf, 72, who had a liver transplant 13 years ago, said he would now be travelling to London for a routine check-up.(More...)

Ethiopian-American wins Guardian First Book Award

A novel that tackles fraught questions of identity, dislocation and loneliness through the life of an Ethiopian émigré in the US has taken this year's Guardian First Book Award. Dinaw Mengestu's Children of the Revolution tells the story of a man who fled to America to escape the violence of Ethiopia's communist revolution.(More...)

Rice tells Ethiopia to ease tensions with Eritrea

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Ethiopia on Wednesday to avoid acts that would raise tensions with Eritrea but got new promises from Africa's Great Lakes nations to end fighting in eastern Congo.(More...)

Reporters Without Borders names Eritrean Seyoum Tsehaye journalist of 2007

An Eritrean who has never been allowed a family visit or a lawyer and has never been charged during six years of imprisonment was named "Journalist of the Year" by Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday.(More...)

Somali Leader Reportedly Has Bronchitis

Somalia's president is suffering from bronchitis and is using an oxygen mask, an official said Wednesday as the African leader spent a second day in the hospital in Kenya.(More...)

Rice's visit to Ethiopia puts focus on ally accused of human rights abuses

McClatchy Newspapers



Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Ethiopia this week puts a spotlight on the tight but troubled relationship between the United States and the volatile Horn of Africa nation.

Rice's arrival Wednesday comes as Ethiopian troops are bogged down against Islamist-led insurgents in Somalia and face a growing outcry over alleged human rights abuses against Muslims in the restive Ogaden region — two conflicts that experts believe could serve as a rallying cry for Islamic fundamentalists.(More...)

CPJ asks Rice to discuss Ethiopian press freedom

CPJ's letter to Secretary Rice

Dear Secretary Rice:

In advance of your meeting with Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa , the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw your attention to our concerns regarding press freedom conditions there.

You may know that 15 Ethiopian journalists were recently released from prison, but this development belies the country’s sustained record of contempt for independent media, which manifests itself in a variety of legal and administrative restraints. The 15 jailed journalists were sentenced on trumped-up charges such as genocide in connection with the media’s coverage of Ethopia’s 2005 post-election unrest.(More...)

BBC: SOMALI LEADER RUSHED TO HOSPITAL IN SERIOUS CONDITION - Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has been taken to hospital in the Kenyan capital, the BBC has learnt. His condition is said to be "serious".(More...)

Also see: Somali gov't denies president in serious condition

U.S. DEBATING SHIFT OF SUPPORT IN SOMALI CONFLICT

The escalating conflict in Somalia is generating debate inside the Bush administration over whether the United States should continue to back the shaky transitional government in Mogadishu or shift support to Somaliland.(More...)


Ethiopian govt. says world disinterest in Somalia peace

Ethiopia has warned that the world's disinterest in sending peacekeepers to Somalia was dampening hopes of achieving peace in the country.(More...)

PETITION FOR DANIEL AND NETSANET (Family and Friends)

PRESS RELEASE ON SENATOR INHOFE’S ETHIOPIA VISIT
(Ethiopian-Americans and Friends of Ethiopia in Oklahoma for H.R.2003)

...Senator Inhofe, despite his 6-day stay in Ethiopia, chose to meet with only 2 individuals (20 minutes each) out of the 28 he was requested to meet by us, his constituents, in order to enable him to reach an informed decision on H.R. 2003.(More...)

EU Annual Report on Human Rights 2007: ETHIOPIA

The EU has called on the government (Ethiopia) to stop the harassment of the opposition and civil society organizations, and to carry out a permanent and inclusive dialogue with the opposition to implement democratic provisions in practice.(More...)

Today's Top HEADLINES

-'Humanitarian crisis' facing Ethiopia, says UN
-UN Should Press Ethiopia and Somali (human rights watch)
-Five killed in Mogadishu violence
-Somali PM unveils new cabinet
-US official Gates in Djibouti to discuss Africa operations

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

-Sudanese President Pardons British Teacher
-CHAVEZ DEFEATED OVER PROPOSED REFORMS
-Monitors say Russian vote unfair
-Sharif's candidacy papers rejected
-Israel Releases 429 Palestinian Captives
-Dinosaur mummy tells secrets




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