Garoma B. Wakessa - Oromo Person of the Year 2011 (Gadaa.com)

Garoma B. Wakessa - Oromo Person of the Year 2011

For being the leading voice of the voiceless in the human rights movement in the Horn of Africa, for educating the public about human rights, and for being the unyielding advocate for justice and freedom.

Born in 1958 in the then Wollega Province in western Oromia, Mr. (Obbo) Garoma B. Wakessa's life is a testament for the endurance of the human spirit in the face of atrocities and injustice.

He had been a high school teacher, and had later become a science professional after earning a Master's degree in the U.S.S.R. in 1989. But, soon after his graduation, the rest of his life would change from that of a scientist to that of a newspaper editor-in-chief, and then a human rights advocate.

READ THE FULL STORY @ Gadaa.com

TPLF/EPRDF's Cangaroo Court Sentences 2 Sewidish Journalists to 11 Years in Prison

Ethiopia jails two Swedish journalists for aiding rebels

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA | Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:22am EST

(Reuters) - An Ethiopian court sentenced two Swedish journalists Tuesday to 11 years in prison for helping and promoting the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group and entering the country illegally.

Last week's guilty verdicts had provoked anger in Swedish media and accusations the case had taken on a political dimension.

Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were arrested in July after they entered the Ogaden province from Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region with ONLF fighters.

"The court has sentenced both defendants to 11 years. We have heard both cases ... and we believe this is an appropriate sentence," Judge Shemsu Sirgaga told the court.

Shemsu said the convictions warranted a sentence of up to 14 and a half years, but noted the freelance journalists' good behavior. The prosecution had asked for 18 and a half years.

"It wasn't an entirely unexpected sentence. It is regrettable in light of their journalistic assignment," Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said. "The Swedish government's view is known, among other things through the prime minister's statement last week."

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said last week Sweden was seriously concerned about the judgment and the journalists should be freed as soon as possible.

The two Swedes had also been charged with terrorism but were acquitted in November on that count, as the court did not believe they were involved in carrying out any attacks. They did admit to crossing the border without a permit.

Schibbye and Persson both looked at the judge without expression as the sentence was read out and then translated by their lawyer. No family members were present.

One of the journalists' lawyers said his clients were weighing the option of an appeal, but that for now there was no talk of pleading for clemency.

"We are only talking about the possibility of appealing for the time being, which follows judicial procedure," defense lawyer Sileshi Ketsela told Reuters.

STRAINED RELATIONS

Schibbye and Petersson's Swedish lawyer told Sweden's SVT television channel that the pair were innocent reporters doing their job in a "closed area" and denounced the sentence as "completely unacceptable."

"This is judgment that represents a threat against foreign correspondents, against journalists who are trying to do their job," Thomas Olsson told the public channel in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

This year, Ethiopia has detained more than 150 people, including reporters, in a crackdown the opposition says is designed to stifle moves toward more democracy. The government vehemently denies such accusations.

Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Sweden have become increasingly strained in the last couple of years, analysts say.

Ethiopia's opposition leader Birtukan Mideska, who was convicted of treason after violence broke out following a presidential poll in 2005 and then pardoned, was thrown back in prison in 2008 after flying to Stockholm and publicly disputing Addis Ababa's version of the pardon.

Birtukan was released in 2010, four months after presidential elections, and is now in the United States.

"The authorities in Addis Ababa seemed to have been rankled with the perceived backing of Ethiopia's opposition by Stockholm," A Western diplomat, who declined to be named, said.

Sweden has also been critical of Ethiopia's human rights track record. Addis Ababa said in 2010 it planned to shut its mission in Stockholm as there was no significant development cooperation or trade ties between the two countries.

A spokesman for Ethiopia's justice ministry said claims the trial had been politicized were unfounded.

"How can there be a political motive when prosecutors provided evidence throughout the trial and the defendants themselves admitted to entering the country illegally with rebels?" spokesman Desalegn Deressa told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Mia Shanley in Stockholm; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by David Clarke)

Source: Reuters

TPLF/EPRDF's Cangaroo Court Sentences 2 Sewidish Journalists to 11 Years in Prison

Ethiopia jails two Swedish journalists for aiding rebels

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA | Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:22am EST

(Reuters) - An Ethiopian court sentenced two Swedish journalists Tuesday to 11 years in prison for helping and promoting the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group and entering the country illegally.

Last week's guilty verdicts had provoked anger in Swedish media and accusations the case had taken on a political dimension.

Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were arrested in July after they entered the Ogaden province from Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region with ONLF fighters.

"The court has sentenced both defendants to 11 years. We have heard both cases ... and we believe this is an appropriate sentence," Judge Shemsu Sirgaga told the court.

Shemsu said the convictions warranted a sentence of up to 14 and a half years, but noted the freelance journalists' good behavior. The prosecution had asked for 18 and a half years.

"It wasn't an entirely unexpected sentence. It is regrettable in light of their journalistic assignment," Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said. "The Swedish government's view is known, among other things through the prime minister's statement last week."

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said last week Sweden was seriously concerned about the judgment and the journalists should be freed as soon as possible.

The two Swedes had also been charged with terrorism but were acquitted in November on that count, as the court did not believe they were involved in carrying out any attacks. They did admit to crossing the border without a permit.

Schibbye and Persson both looked at the judge without expression as the sentence was read out and then translated by their lawyer. No family members were present.

One of the journalists' lawyers said his clients were weighing the option of an appeal, but that for now there was no talk of pleading for clemency.

"We are only talking about the possibility of appealing for the time being, which follows judicial procedure," defense lawyer Sileshi Ketsela told Reuters.

STRAINED RELATIONS

Schibbye and Petersson's Swedish lawyer told Sweden's SVT television channel that the pair were innocent reporters doing their job in a "closed area" and denounced the sentence as "completely unacceptable."

"This is judgment that represents a threat against foreign correspondents, against journalists who are trying to do their job," Thomas Olsson told the public channel in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

This year, Ethiopia has detained more than 150 people, including reporters, in a crackdown the opposition says is designed to stifle moves toward more democracy. The government vehemently denies such accusations.

Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Sweden have become increasingly strained in the last couple of years, analysts say.

Ethiopia's opposition leader Birtukan Mideska, who was convicted of treason after violence broke out following a presidential poll in 2005 and then pardoned, was thrown back in prison in 2008 after flying to Stockholm and publicly disputing Addis Ababa's version of the pardon.

Birtukan was released in 2010, four months after presidential elections, and is now in the United States.

"The authorities in Addis Ababa seemed to have been rankled with the perceived backing of Ethiopia's opposition by Stockholm," A Western diplomat, who declined to be named, said.

Sweden has also been critical of Ethiopia's human rights track record. Addis Ababa said in 2010 it planned to shut its mission in Stockholm as there was no significant development cooperation or trade ties between the two countries.

A spokesman for Ethiopia's justice ministry said claims the trial had been politicized were unfounded.

"How can there be a political motive when prosecutors provided evidence throughout the trial and the defendants themselves admitted to entering the country illegally with rebels?" spokesman Desalegn Deressa told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Mia Shanley in Stockholm; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by David Clarke)

Source: Reuters

Frankincense threatened by conditions in Ethiopia (USA Today)

Frankincense threatened by conditions in Ethiopia

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The world may still have gold and myrrh, but it's quite possible that frankincense could become a thing of the past, given ecological pressures on the arid lands where it grows in Ethiopia.

The storied resin, known to millions as one of the three gifts of the Magi, the wise men who visited Jesus after his birth, is made from gum produced by the boswellia papyrifera tree. Its "bitter perfume" is used as incense in religious rituals in many cultures, as well as an ingredient in perfume and Chinese traditional medicine.

Dutch and Ethiopian researchers studying populations of the scraggly, scrub-like trees in northern Ethiopia found that as many as 7% of the trees are dying each year, and seedlings are not surviving into saplings.

Their paper in today's edition of the Journal of Applied Ecology finds that the Ethiopian trees that produce much of the world's frankincense are declining so dramatically that production could be halved over the next 15 years and the trees themselves could decline by 90% in the next 50 years

Frankincense has been harvested in the wild in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa since ancient times.

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Oromo Family Reunited after 10 Years apart

Ethiopian family reunited after 10 years apart

CBC News

Posted: Dec 15, 2011 1:06 PM NT

Last Updated: Dec 15, 2011 12:58 PM NT

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It was a day that was a decade in the waiting.

After 10 years apart, Wakwaya Seda was finally reunited with his wife and son Wednesday.

Seda and his family are from Ethiopia. The father was with a group of political refugees who fled to Canada.

Seda and his friends are Oromo, an oppressed ethnic group in Ethiopia. They spent seven years in asylum in Kenya before immigrating to Canada. It took another three years for his family to make the journey.

Last week, Seda got his own apartment in St. John's. He wanted to have a home waiting for his wife and son, who arrived at St. John's International Airport on Wednesday.

But for his friends, the wait continues.

Their families are still in Ethiopia, working their way through the lengthy immigration process.

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The Rarely Implemented Commitments (63 Years with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

The Rarely Implemented Commitments

(63 Years with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Today, we are celebrating the 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have learnt from history that the evolution of the essence of human rights stretches back more than 2500 years, when men and women fought and died for basic human freedoms. Beginning from those days, the idea of human rights was perceived differently by different nations; until it was recognized as a universal notion of"International Human Rights", which belongs to all human beings by the virtue of being born as humans.

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Oromiyaan Ni Bilisoomti!

Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression (Albert Einstein Institution)

Self-Liberation
A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression

by Gene Sharp, with the assistance of Jamila Raqib

First Edition, November 2009

Self-Liberation (Download PDF)

(You may also order hard copies. Also available for download in Vietnamese.)

This strategic planning guide is intended to assist people who wish themselves to plan a grand strategy, or super plan, to achieve their liberation from oppression and to build a more free and democratic system. This document is not only relevant to people facing internal dictatorships. It is also meant to be useful to people facing any kind of oppression.

This short document cannot include adequate in-depth presentations of all the knowledge and ideas needed for strategic planning of a nonviolent struggle for liberation. Therefore, interspersed in this text are references to selected published readings covering those important topics. Careful study of these selected readings, available for download below, in the sequence recommended is essential. They contain much of the understandings, knowledge, and insights that may be useful in the preparation of strategies of liberation.

All of the readings recommended in Self Liberation may be downloaded as PDF files, here:

	On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict by Robert L. Helvey (2004) [1]
	The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins (2003) [1]
	From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation by Gene Sharp (1993) [2] and (2003, 2008, 2010) [1]
	Social Power and Political Freedom (excerpts) by Gene Sharp (1980) [3]
	The Politics of Nonviolent Action (excerpts) by Gene Sharp (1973) [3]
	There Are Realistic Alternatives by Gene Sharp (2003) [1]
	Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (excerpts) by Gene Sharp (2005) [3]

[1] Boston: Albert Einstein Institution
[2] Bangkok: Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Burma
[3] Boston: Extending Horizons Books, Porter Sargent Publishers