ESAT News (December 29, 2015)

Ethiopian religious, political, civic and media organizations have sent a petition to the UN secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, denouncing the decision by the Ethiopian government to cede vast tracts of Ethiopian lands to the Sudan and declaring the border deal between the two countries null and void.

The petitioners rejected the decision by the Ethiopian government to cede Ethiopia’s land without the knowledge and consent of the millions of people who depend on these lands for their livelihoods.

The petition recalled that “Ethiopia and the Great Britain, the then colonial administrator of the Sudan, signed a border agreement called the Anglo-Ethiopian Border Treaty in 1902 to demarcate the common borders of Ethiopia and the Sudan. However, contrary to both the spirit and letter of the provisions of the treaty, Great Britain unilaterally and arbitrarily demarcated the boundary without the knowledge and the participation of Ethiopian boundary commission by deflecting the line towards Ethiopia, ranging from 20 – 60 km, and took a great deal of land from Ethiopia.”

“No previous Ethiopian government has ever accepted this ill-conceived border deal,” the petition said.

The petitioners warned that, if implemented, the illegal border deal will be “a major source of friction and tension between the brotherly peoples of Ethiopia and the Sudan.”

The land in question is “a large Ethiopian territory spanning 1600 kilo meters in length and 20 to 60 kilo meters in depth consisting of huge swathes of our ancestral lands,” and the decision to cede it to the Sudan “will have disastrous consequences on Ethiopia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and long term development,” according to the petition.

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ESAT News (December 28, 2015)

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Ethiopian authorities to release Getachew Shiferaw, editor-in-chief of Negere Ethiopia and Fikadu Mirkana, a news anchor at the Oromia Radio and TV. Getachew Shiferaw, was detained on Friday December 25, 2015. Fekadu Mirkana, was arrested a week earlier on December 19, 2015. The two journalists have widely covered the ongoing anti-government protest in Oromia region against government’s plan to extend city limits to farming communities around the capital.

CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Sue Valentine said, “Authorities should immediately release Getachew Shiferaw, drop all charges against him, and allow journalists to do their jobs.”

CPJ also said Getachew is held at Maekelawi “where political detainees have been tortured or ill-treated.”

Getachew appeared in court on Saturday December 26, 2015. CPJ said Getachew may be charged under antiterrorism law which “criminalizes any reporting that authorities deem encouraging to groups and causes the government labels as terrorists, including banned political opposition groups.”

In a related development, Ethiopian authorities have summoned five members of the Zone 9 bloggers Soleyana Shimeles, Abel Wabella, Natnail Feleke, Atnaf Berhane,and Befekadu Hailu to appear in court on December 30. CPJ citing Soleyana Simeles said the government seems appealing their acquittal.

The Ethiopian government introduced draconian Anti-terrorism and Societies Proclamation laws in 2009 to silence the media and independent civil society. The Media Law criminalizes independent journalists who criticize the maladministration and corruption in Ethiopia. The Charities Proclamation prohibits all non-governmental organizations who receive more than 10% funds from foreign sources not to work on human rights, good governance, conflict resolution, women advocacy, children and disabilities. Ethiopia also introduced the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) Law in 2013 which states that “the social media outlets, blogs and other internet related media had great capabilities to instigate dispute and war, to damage the country’s image and create havoc in the economic atmosphere of the country.”

Several prominent journalists were arrested or fled Ethiopia since 2005 for merely criticizing the government and its administration, and exposing the government’s ill-advised strategy on press freedom, state-level corruption and ethnic politics.

Currently, Temesgen Dessalegn, Eskinder Nega, Wubshet Taye, and several other journalists are languishing in Ethiopian gulags following charges concocted by the regime.

Several international human rights organizations including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association have requested the Ethiopian government to drop Anti-terrorism and Societies proclamation laws that target civil society groups and journalists.

CPJ’s 2015 report indicate that at least 10 journalists are behind bars, making Ethiopia the 3^rd largest jailers of journalists in Africa.

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