Horn of Africa Headlines Briefing
Jimma Times
- Peaceful demonstration for Birtukan planned by UDJ
The opposition party Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) is planning to hold a nationwide demonstration for its imprisoned leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa. According to a Jimma Times source in the capital, the rally may face pressure and it could be cancelled due to the government’s firm position that a demonstration should not be allowed since the final court decision can not be challenged.
However, UDJ officials say the pardon should not have been revoked and Birtukan’s detainment is illegal. They have notified the government authorities about the demonstration, which is scheduled for April 9.
Birtukan has been in prison for more than three months.
- OLF leaving Eritrea?
According to Eritrean opposition sources, most of the leadership of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) are leaving Eritrea. OLF had maintained a significant presense in Eritrea, particularly since the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998.
Other opposition and insurgent leaders who were living inside Eritrea have also left the country either due to the expensive financial cost of keeping them for the Eritrean government or due to the reduction in their usefulness for Asmara. The UN-wanted Somali hardliner Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has reportedly "escaped" from Eritrea and is planning to reconcile with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia. Out of the various groups based in Eritrea, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been the most effective against the Ethiopian government.
While the most senior OLF leaders remain outside the country in the Diaspora, some members and previous officials of OLF have reportedly went to Ethiopia. However, the OLF and the EPRDF ruling party of Ethiopia remain opposed to each other.
- Gilgel Gibe III dam and the Richard Leakey controversy
While the Gilgel Gibe III dam dispute raised environmental concerns, paleoanthropologist and politician Richard Leakey and his organizations have also been broiled in controversies. Several competing scientists have shown worry about the domination of the Richard Leakey family on the excavation rights and the politics of the region. The group leading a campaign against Ethiopia's dam, Friends of Lake Turkana (FLT), is more a branch of Leakey's Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), rather than an indigenious organization. TBI has been building multi-million dollar field stations while the local population continues to suffer from underdevelopment. And critics have often condemned Leakey's moves to fire hundreds of local Kenyan professionals in order to employ highly paid white expatriates. Leakey's connections with international lending institutions helped him to receive millions in funds for his projects but also to block World Bank and other finances for the Ethiopian dam.
Meanwhile, most of the concerns expressed by groups opposed to Gilgel Gibe III dam are not new. Lake Turkana has suffered from prolonged droughts and a declining volume for many decades. Since the lake lacks an outlet, evaporating water keeps the increasing salt concentration and lake Turkana already has the highest salinity of any large lake in Africa.
Scientists with interests in the region have long complained about damages to their fossils caused by Kenyan herders seeking grazing land and by destructive battles between tribes who face resource scarcity due to marginalization by the Kenyan government. According to critics, the local people have been greatly disadvantaged and the region is deeply remote that most of the people of Lake Turkana did not know "whether they are Kenyans or Ethiopians."
- AAU Oromo students protest against "offensive" book
The book by Prof. Getachew Haile that compliments the historical accounts by the controversial Abyssinian Monk Abba Bahrey has triggered protests by Oromo students in Addis Ababa University. Hundreds of Oromos demonstrated this week against the distribution of the book in the university campus.
Though the books by the historian Bahrey provided one of the earliest recorded accounts of Oromo society, some of its highly charged statements that vilified Oromos are criticized by many Oromo nationalists.
After the protests in Sidist Kilo AAU campus, the University President and Professor Andreas Eshete met to discuss with the representatives of the Oromo student groups. The President reportedly apologized to Oromo students about the mistake and he promised to remove the book from the university. Meanwhile, the dispute has raised questions about academic freedom and censorship as well as concerns about political and federal interference against diverse interpretations of Ethiopia's history.
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