https://youtu.be/Z_KinSLVj0Q
TPLF in the Atlanta Kidist Mariam Church
By A Concerned Patriotic Ethiopian
https://youtu.be/7DBC0iuJROA
Kidist Mariam Orthodox Church of Atlanta is one of the oldest and largest Ethiopian churches in the US. In a letter posted on Ethiomedia on October 14, 2016, I read that a leadership crisis that was methodically installed by Woyanne/TPLF in the Church a while ago, has now reached a breaking point. This letter was written by concerned members of the Church who expressed to have witnessed first-hand the usual malicious “divide and rule” tactic of Woyanne at work. They reported that violating the established rules of the Church, some members of the administrative board in their recent meeting decided to unlawfully remove the legitimately appointed bishop, His Holiness Abune Yaekob, from his leadership position to pave the way to work in cooperation with the illegal Holy Synod in Ethiopia, most likely under the new leadership of the outspoken conspirator Aba Haile Michael. As a follower and interested person in the affairs of this Church, prior to reading the letter posted on Ethiomedia, I have also observed some alarming signals from other members of the Church with whom I have personal relationships. From what I have been able to gather from various sources, the expressed concern about the problem in Atlanta’s Kidist Mariam Church was/is real and legitimate. In this crisis, what matters most for me is not the internal struggle in the church per se, but the involvement of Woyanne and the inclination of some members to let this happen. This tendency becomes more obvious given the unfailing dedication of Abune Yaekob to the words of God and standing firm in defense of the defenseless, irrespective of Woyanne politics, and the hidden agendas of some members of the Church to bow to the will of Woyanne.
As a responsible and devoted man of God, His Holiness Abune Yaekob has served the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for more than four decades both in Ethiopia and abroad. He has been in exile for a long time, mostly in leadership positions, with utmost dedication to the original guiding principles of the Church unadulterated by divisive politics mired with sinful acts against the teachings of Christ and, for that matter, any other known religion. Abune Yaekob is highly conscious and in opposition of what is going on in Ethiopia under the tyrannical rule of Woyanne. On several occasions, I have personally seen His Holiness condemning publicly the fascistic acts of the regime against its own people who have done nothing but only peacefully expressing/demanding their God-given rights. Accordingly, he does not shy away from expressing his views, among others, against ethnic and institutional fracturing, corruptions and killings of innocent citizens carried out and actively promoted by the Ethiopian government. His teachings and messages in the Kidist Mariam Church I occasionally attend and in gatherings of Ethiopians elsewhere are thoughtful and highly inspirational and healing. He is a well-received father by anyone who has good intentions for his/her personal life, institutions, community and country. The speeches and blessings he delivered in the Ethiopian Community Day and Food Festival held in Atlanta on September 3 and October 8, 2016 can be mentioned as testimony for his beliefs and devotion to serve God and mankind (these speeches are available on the Internet).
At this very critical and difficult time of our Ethiopian history, we need leaders like Abune Yaekob in our churches and community everywhere. It is a sheer act of ignorance, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, self-interest, as well as “un-Ethiopian” on the part of some board/church members of Kidist Mariam to remove him from his position of leadership, in preparation to submit the Church to Woyanne and subject it to its subsequent destruction, along with the supporting community. I hope the concerned members of the Church (both the board and ordinary members) will come to this realization and reverse the decision made with regarding to the change of leadership direction for the good of all. At this very moment, Woyanne and the Ethiopian people are in clash more than ever and the entire free world is aware of this, largely being sympathetic to the cause of the people. As the people are determined to remove this evil regime from power, its leaders are getting more and more desperate with time and some of them are even reported to be on the run more than ever. It is, therefore, high time to focus on the bigger picture of our Ethiopian problem and contribute to the process of regime change by being on the side of the people and history. Tilting towards Woyanne at this defining moment is an inexcusable mistake, not only by the Ethiopian people, but also by the Almighty Himself, in my humble opinion.
Unity and fairness are the way to go.
Long live Ethiopia, the birthplace of mankind on planet earth.
Ethiopia Travel Warning
The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Ethiopia due to ongoing unrest that has led to hundreds of deaths, thousands of arrests, as well as injuries and extensive property damage, especially in Amhara and Oromia States. The U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide consular services in many parts of the country is limited by the current security situation.
The Government of Ethiopia declared a State of Emergency effective October 8, 2016. An October 15 decree states that individuals may be arrested without a court order for activities they may otherwise consider routine, such as communication, consumption of media, attending gatherings, engaging with certain foreign governments or organizations, and violating curfews. The decree prohibits U.S. and other foreign diplomats from traveling farther than 40 kilometers outside of Addis Ababa without prior approval from the Government of Ethiopia, which severely affects the U.S. Embassy’s ability to assist U.S. citizens. The full text of the decree implementing the State of Emergency is available on the U.S. Embassy’s website.
Internet, cellular data, and phone services have been periodically restricted or shut down throughout the country, impeding the U.S. Embassy’s ability to communicate with U.S. citizens in Ethiopia. You should have alternate communication plans in place, and let your family and friends know this may be an issue while you are in Ethiopia. See the information below on how to register with the U.S. Embassy to receive security messages.
Avoid demonstrations and large gatherings, continuously assess your surroundings, and evaluate your personal level of safety. Remember that the government may use force and live fire in response to demonstrations, and that even gatherings intended to be peaceful can be met with a violent response or turn violent without warning. U.S. citizens in Ethiopia should monitor their security situation and have contingency plans in place in case you need to depart suddenly.
U.S. government personnel are restricted from personal travel to many regions in Ethiopia, including Oromia, Amhara, Somali and Gambella states, southern Ethiopia near the Ethiopian/Kenyan border, and the area near the Ethiopia/Eritrea border. Work-related travel is being approved on a case-by-case basis. U.S. government personnel may travel to and within Addis Ababa without restrictions. For additional information related to the regional al-Shabaab threat, banditry, and other security concerns, see the Safety and Security section of the Country Specific Information for Ethiopia.
Due to the unpredictability of communication in the country, the Department of State strongly advises U.S. citizens to register your mobile number with the U.S. Embassy to receive security information via text or SMS, in addition to enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).
For further information:
- See the State Department’s travel website for the Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and Country Specific Information for Ethiopia.
- Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security messages and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
- Contact the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia, located on Entoto Street in Addis Ababa, at +251-11-130-6000from 7:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday. After-hours emergency number for U.S. citizens is+251-11-130-6911 or 011-130-6000.
- Call 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 from other countries from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).
- Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Why African states have started leaving the ICC
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Until this week, no country had withdrawn from the International Criminal Court. Now two African states, South Africa and Burundi, have made official decisions to leave. Concerns are high that more African countries now will act on years of threats to pull out amid accusations that the court unfairly focuses on the continent. Here’s a look at what it all means.
SOMEONE TO TAKE ON GENOCIDE
Many in the international community cheered when the treaty to create the ICC, the Rome Statute, was adopted in 1998 as a way to pursue some of the world’s worst atrocities: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Not all countries signed on, and before this week’s decisions by Burundi and South Africa, the treaty had 124 states parties. Notable countries that have not become states parties include the United States, China, Russia and India. Some countries are wary of The Hague, Netherlands-based court’s powers, seeing it as potential interference.
THE TRAVELS OF AL-BASHIR
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has become a symbol of the limitations facing the ICC, which does not have a police force and relies on the cooperation of member states. Al-Bashir has been wanted by the tribunal for alleged genocide and other crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region after the U.N. Security Council first referred the case to the ICC in 2005. Since then, however, al-Bashir has visited a number of ICC member states, including Malawi, Kenya, Chad and Congo. His visit to South Africa in June 2015 caused uproar, and he quickly left as a court there ordered his arrest. The ICC has no power to compel countries to arrest people and can only tell them they have a legal obligation to do it.
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AFRICAN FRUSTRATIONS, AND THREATS
Only Africans have been charged in the six ICC cases that are ongoing or about to begin, though preliminary ICC investigations have been opened elsewhere in the world, in places like Colombia and Afghanistan. One case that caused considerable anger among African leaders was the ICC’s pursuit of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for his alleged role in the deadly violence that erupted after his country’s 2007 presidential election. The case later collapsed amid prosecution claims of interference with witnesses and non-cooperation by Kenyan authorities. The African Union has called for immunity from prosecution for heads of state, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his inauguration in May — with al-Bashir in attendance — declared the ICC to be “useless.”
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HEADING OUT
Burundi kicked off the ICC departures this month when lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to leave the tribunal, just months after the court announced it would investigate recent political violence there. President Pierre Nkurunziza signed the bill on Tuesday. Now South Africa is deciding to leave as well, saying that handing a leader over to the ICC would amount to interference in another country’s affairs. It’s a dramatic turnaround for a country that was an early supporter of the court’s creation in the years after South Africa emerged from white minority rule and near-global isolation. With one of Africa’s most developed countries now pulling out, observers are waiting to see whether more states follow.
Why African states have started leaving the ICC
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Until this week, no country had withdrawn from the International Criminal Court. Now two African states, South Africa and Burundi, have made official decisions to leave. Concerns are high that more African countries now will act on years of threats to pull out amid accusations that the court unfairly focuses on the continent. Here’s a look at what it all means.
SOMEONE TO TAKE ON GENOCIDE
Many in the international community cheered when the treaty to create the ICC, the Rome Statute, was adopted in 1998 as a way to pursue some of the world’s worst atrocities: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Not all countries signed on, and before this week’s decisions by Burundi and South Africa, the treaty had 124 states parties. Notable countries that have not become states parties include the United States, China, Russia and India. Some countries are wary of The Hague, Netherlands-based court’s powers, seeing it as potential interference.
THE TRAVELS OF AL-BASHIR
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has become a symbol of the limitations facing the ICC, which does not have a police force and relies on the cooperation of member states. Al-Bashir has been wanted by the tribunal for alleged genocide and other crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region after the U.N. Security Council first referred the case to the ICC in 2005. Since then, however, al-Bashir has visited a number of ICC member states, including Malawi, Kenya, Chad and Congo. His visit to South Africa in June 2015 caused uproar, and he quickly left as a court there ordered his arrest. The ICC has no power to compel countries to arrest people and can only tell them they have a legal obligation to do it.
___
AFRICAN FRUSTRATIONS, AND THREATS
Only Africans have been charged in the six ICC cases that are ongoing or about to begin, though preliminary ICC investigations have been opened elsewhere in the world, in places like Colombia and Afghanistan. One case that caused considerable anger among African leaders was the ICC’s pursuit of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for his alleged role in the deadly violence that erupted after his country’s 2007 presidential election. The case later collapsed amid prosecution claims of interference with witnesses and non-cooperation by Kenyan authorities. The African Union has called for immunity from prosecution for heads of state, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his inauguration in May — with al-Bashir in attendance — declared the ICC to be “useless.”
___
HEADING OUT
Burundi kicked off the ICC departures this month when lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to leave the tribunal, just months after the court announced it would investigate recent political violence there. President Pierre Nkurunziza signed the bill on Tuesday. Now South Africa is deciding to leave as well, saying that handing a leader over to the ICC would amount to interference in another country’s affairs. It’s a dramatic turnaround for a country that was an early supporter of the court’s creation in the years after South Africa emerged from white minority rule and near-global isolation. With one of Africa’s most developed countries now pulling out, observers are waiting to see whether more states follow.
Ethiopia’s state of emergency: Angela Merkel urges protests to be allowed
“Egypt does not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs”, Egypt’s ambassador toEthiopia Abu Bakr Hefny told the East African country’s state minister for foreign affairs Taye Atske-Selassie, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs.
Hailemariam said the state of emergency was effective from Oct.8.
Jiangsu Sunshine Group, a Chinese textiles company, demonstrated that confidence by signing a “final agreement” to invest $500 million over four years at a factory in an industrial park in Adama city in Oromia region, Fitsum said.
Getachew said the “extraordinary situation” demanded the state of emergency but insisted it did not amount to a “blanket ban on civilian life”.
The protests of Oromo citizens started in November 2015, when the government planned to expand the boundaries of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Rights advocate, Felix Horne, said as more people were killed in protests this year, the government should urgently change course to prevent more bloodshed.
Getachew Reda said the foreign elements are arming and financing opposition groups, but not necessarily with the formal backing of their governments.
The state of emergency allows the government to detain suspects without court authorization and also prohibits the distribution of material that is likely to incite more “chaos”, Reuters reported. The most recent protests started on October 2 after dozens of people died in clashes with government security forces during a holy festival celebrated by the country’s Oromo people.
Multiples sources told Sudan Tribune that protesters have so far attacked 11 factories, destroyed public and government properties since attacks in the region began. “They want total control on everything”, said Beyene Petros, chairman of the Medrek opposition coalition.
Protesters say violence by the security forces led to the stampede, but the PM denied security forces had opened fire.
The Oromo and the Amhara make up about 60% of the population.
Frustrations about mistreatment by central government have long festered in Oromiya and Amhara, where new industries and foreign flower farms have sprung up.
Since the protests by these two major ethnic groups broke out a year ago, the government has done little or nothing to attend to the yearnings of the Oromo and Amhara people. That’s where many in a massive crowd that had gathered to celebrate the annual Irreecha thanksgiving festival chanted slogans and crossed their fists over their heads, an increasingly familiar gesture that protests oppression and calls for more rights for the people of Oromia.
Revolutionary Islam and Regime Change in Ethiopia
With ethnic uprisings spreading across an Ethiopia now ruled by martial law there is only one nationally based organization in place to lead the eventual regime change in the country and that is the revolutionary Islamic movement.
Presently all the liberation resistance movements in Ethiopia are ethnically based with their senior leadership in exile, mainly in neighboring Eritrea. The only organization with a national presence is the revolutionary Islamic religious community, whose recently freed leaders have sworn to liberate Ethiopia from the western backed Tigrayan ethnic minority regime presently ruling the country.
The revolutionary Islamic community in Ethiopia has a nationwide network of mosques and religious schools, with very respected locally based leaders and can provide the only legal point of assembly in the country.
Just as in the Iranian revolution in the late 1970’s where the only place revolutionaries could gather without being attacked by the police is the mosques, especially for large gatherings for Friday Prayers, the Islamic community in Ethiopia can provide the only place for the opposition to meet especially now that any and all gatherings are banned under Martial Law and the State of Emergency.
The regimes Agazi death squads have shoot to kill orders and the only place of safety for meetings is in the mosques, though how long the regime will tolerate this is not certain.
Having attacked the Islamic community four years ago, gunning down many and locking up the recently released leadership, the Ethiopia regime may be planning on cracking down on Muslims in a new wave of terror.
The maxim is oppression breeds resistance and even the Washington Post’s Editorial Board knows this, having pointed out how martial law and an iron fist will only lead to further protests and the eventual explosion that will drive the regime into exile and leave Ethiopia without any leadership.
The ensuing power vacuum could see the revolutionary Islamic community taking leadership and bringing unity to Ethiopia, for even if the country is divided along ethnic lines all Muslims no matter what tribe worship together in their mosques.
Most Ethiopians are muslims and their religious practices for centuries past forbid them from discriminating by ethnicity when it comes to their worship. The very idea is foreign to the country.
And Ethiopia’s Muslims practice a very tolerant Sunni variant and have lived side by side with their Christian brothers and sisters for over a millennia, sitting together to break bread and even intermarrying. Thank god the wahabi virus has not yet taken root in the country.
Even the CIA via its execrable media front Freedom House a few months ago insinuated that regime change maybe necessary in Ethiopia and with the recent massacres and growing protests matters may come to a head more quickly than expected. It maybe sooner rather than later that revolutionary Islam finds itself leading regime change in Ethiopia.
AFTER BURUNDI, WHICH OTHER AFRICAN STATES COULD ABANDON THE ICC?
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza took another step towards becoming a global outlier on Tuesday.
The controversial leader signed a decree to quit the International Criminal Court (ICC), following a parliamentary vote to that effect earlier in October. The decree retracted Burundi’s participation in the Rome Statute, on which the court’s authority is founded. The Burundian presidency announced on Tuesday that it would come into immediate effect, although the Rome Statute states that any decision to withdraw becomes active a year after giving notice to the United Nations secretary general.
The move makes Burundi the first country ever to pull out of the court, which is based in The Hague and was established in 1998 to deal with high-level crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Burundi in April. Bensouda said she was investigating events since April 2015, when Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term as president. The decision sparked widespread violence, a failed coup, and a brutal crackdown on opposition. The chief prosecutor said when opening the investigation that more than 430 people had been reportedly killed. More than 300,000 Burundians have also fled the country since the violence began, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
The decision irked Nkurunziza, and the Burundian government has been further infuriated by a U.N. report in September that claimed to have verified 564 executions in Burundi since April 2015, mostly carried out by security forces on people perceived to be opposition supporters. The Burundian government rejected the report and has since banned three U.N. investigators from the country.
But while Burundi may be the first country to leave the ICC, it may not be the last. Other African leaders have also railed against a perceived bias in the court. All four of the suspects convicted for crimes against humanity and/or war crimes by the ICC are African—most recently Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi , a Malian jihadi sentenced to nine years imprisonment in September for destroying historic shrines during the northern Mali uprising in 2012. Another, Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba—sentenced to 18 years in prison in June for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Central African Republic—is appealing his sentence. All three of the court’s ongoing trials involve Africans, and nine of the 10 situations currently being investigated by the court prior to a possible trial involve African states.
So after Burundi, who could be next to abandon the ICC?
Sudan
The highest profile suspect on the ICC’s agenda is Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president. The court first issued an arrest warrant against Bashir in March 2009, the first time it had indicted a sitting head of state. Along with several other suspects, the ICC charged Bashir with being indirectly responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. The conflict in Darfur, which began with a rebellion of ethnic Africans against the Arab-led government in 2003, is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands, with Amnesty International alleging recently that government forces had used chemical weapons against civilians, something the Sudanese mission to the U.N. denied.
Bashir has dismissed the charges against him and described the ICC as a “politicized tribunal” in April. Other African countries have appeared to disregard the ICC’s arrest warrant and welcome Bashir as a visitor. Most notably, Bashir went to South Africa in June 2015 for an AU conference and was allowed to leave freely, despite a South African court ruling that he should be detained.
Kenya
Besides Bashir, the court’s other high-profile suspects have included the current president and deputy president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto. The court issued summonses for six prominent Kenyans in 2010, including Kenyatta and Ruto—then the deputy prime minister and minister of higher education respectively—on grounds of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during violence that followed Kenya’s elections in December 2007. More than 1,200 Kenyans were killed during two months of inter-ethnic violence following the vote, which was criticized as not free and fair by the international community.
The ICC prosecutors withdrew the charges against Kenyatta in December 2014, saying that the Kenyan government had refused to hand over vital evidence. The court also threw out the case against Ruto in April, but the decisions have not ended Kenyan animosity to the court. Kenya made a proposal at an AU summit in January for the continental body to “develop a roadmap for the withdrawal of African nations,” which received widespread support among other states party to the Rome Statute.
Uganda
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of the continent’s elder statesman, has been a vocal advocate for abandoning the Netherlands court. Following the withdrawal of the case against Kenyatta, the 72-year-old president—who has held power in Uganda since 1980—said that the ICC was a “tool to target” Africa by Western leaders. Museveni pledged to bring a proposal to leave the institution. “Then they can be left alone with their court,” he said in December 2014. The mass withdrawal of African countries would leave the ICC diminished—34 of the countries party to the Rome Statute are African, the largest continental bloc out of a total of 124 states.
While he has not been successful in his mission so far, Museveni prompted outrage among Western diplomats by branding the court “useless” in May, during his inauguration for a fifth consecutive term as president. The statement prompted officials from the European Union, United States and Canada to walk out of the ceremony.
Donald Trump and ሰላምነሽ
Why is Ethiopia in a state of emergency?
EPRDF’s list of banned activities for Ethiopians
(CNN)Ethiopia has imposed severe regulations under a new six-month “state of emergency” as it faces unprecedented levels of unrest across the country, a first in the government’s 25-year rule.
The government says the state of emergency was put in place to prevent further loss of life and property, but many activists worry the new rules serve as a way to limit criticism and allow the government to use a heavy-handed approach to opposition.
The measures, announced October 16, cut across rights of communication and assembly, and have been criticized by human rights activists. Amnesty International said they “are so broad they threaten basic human rights that must not be curtailed.”
In the last month, 1,000 people have been arrested, said a mayor of a town close to Addis Ababa, according to state-affiliated media outlet FBC.
Unrest began in Ethiopia as two of the country’s largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amhara, demonstrated against sustained marginalization.
The tension hit a peak earlier this month, when at least 52 people were killed in a stampede at a religious festival in the Oromo-dominated area of Bishoftu. The government disputed opposition reports that police fired live rounds into the crowd, saying all deaths stemmed from a stampede caused by “troublemakers.”
These are some things that are now illegal in Ethiopia:
Posting on social media
The new rules ban the use of social media, mobile devices or any means of communication to send messages the government deems will “create chaos, suspicion or discord among people.”
While the Internet and social media have often been blocked across the country throughout the unrest, people within Oromia have used social media during the protests to share videos and coordinate activities, and discuss new information.
Crossing wrists above one’s head
In what has become a symbol of solidarity with the Oromo people, crossing wrists above one’s head as if in handcuffs is now banned in the country.
The symbol became internationally recognizable after Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa made the gesture while crossing the finish line at the Rio Olympics.
Diplomatic travel
Diplomats are prohibited from traveling more than 40 kilometers outside the capital Addis Ababa without authorization.
Addis Ababa is home to many international organizations, including the African Union, United Nations offices and embassies.
Curfew
After a series of attacks on foreign-owned firms, including a textile firm and a cement factory, the government has enforced a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew around “economic pillars, infrastructural projects and investments.”
Ethiopia has touted itself as a site of foreign investment and boasted of double-digit economic growth, growth that advocates say has not spread equally across the population.
Watching ‘terrorist media’
Foreign-based television stations, Ethiopia Satellite Television and Oromia Media Network, were forbidden after being defined by the government as “terrorist organizations.”
Ethiopia ranks low on the World Press Freedom Index (at 142 out of 180 nations) for “using terrorism charges to silence the media.”
“Government continually uses the ‘terrorism’ narrative to stifle independent voices, as many of the dozens of journalists, opposition politicians, and activists convicted under the anti-terrorism law can attest to,” said Felix Horne Ethiopia, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Too often those that are associated with the ‘opposition’ are labeled as ‘terrorists.'”