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The growing child prostitution and human trafficking in Ethiopia should put all Ethiopians to shame

EDITOR’S NOTE: While Ethiopia’s regime cooks up fantastic numbers to show double digit growth, the realities on the ground are more sobering and depressing.  The political elite is addicted to foreign handouts and human trafficking. In an economy where unemployment runs as high as 50% and foreign exchange is continuously in short supply, the regime has embarked on a major initiative to export young women for profit. Within Ethiopia itself, poverty, bad cultural practices and the presence of so many alms givers in a destitute country is exposing poor and vulnerable children to exploitation.

Stolen Childhoods: Child Prostitution And Trafficking In Ethiopia

By Graham Peebles

Prostitution, perhaps the most distressing form of child abuse, is an epidemic throughout Ethiopia. The innocence of a childhood shattered, causing a deep feeling of shame, poisoning the sense of self and excluding the child from education, friends and the broader society. A society, which stands idly by whilst children suffer, speaking not in the face of extreme exploitation, denying the truth of extensive child exploitation and acts not, is a society in collusion.

In the capital, prostitution abounds, “It is difficult to give an exact figure for the prevalence of child prostitution in Addis Ababa but observation reveals that the numbers are increasing at an alarming rate in the city”1 The joint Save the Children Denmark and Addis Ababa City administration (SCD) study states: “Interviewing children revealed that over 50% started engaging in prostitution below 16 years of age. The majority work more than six hours per day”

There are many grades or levels of prostitution, “Some children engage in commercial sex in nightclubs, bars and brothels, while others simply stand on street corners waiting for men to pick them up.” (CPAA)

The SCD study “identified types of child prostitution: working on the streets; working in small bars; working in local arki or alcohol houses; working in rented houses/beds and; working in rent places for khat/drugs use. Each location exposes the children to different risks and hazards.”

“The major problems that have been faced by children engaged in prostitution include: rape, beating, hunger, etc. Based on the responses of children engaged in prostitution, about 45% of them have been raped before they engaged in the activity”. (CPAA)

The dangers associated with child prostitution affect the girls physical and mental/emotional health. Violent physical abuse, being hit and raped is common, Birtuken a 17 year old child sex worker (CSW), “prostitution is disastrous to the physical and social wellbeing of a person.” (CPAA)

The impact on the long-term mental health of a child working in prostitution, can often cause chronic psychological problems, “the emotional health consequences of prostitution include severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self-medication through alcohol and drug abuse; and eating disorders.2

The risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and HIV/Aids is great, so too the chances of unwanted pregnancies, as men, immersed in selfishness and ignorance, refuse to wear condoms. Their arrogance and macho bravado is a major cause in the spread of HIV/Aids in Ethiopia USAID3 suggests, “1.3million people are now living with the virus in the country”. It is estimated that “70 per cent of female infertility is caused by sexually transmitted diseases that can be traced back to their husbands or partners.”4 “Women in prostitution have been blamed for this epidemic of STDs when, in reality, studies confirm that it is men who buy sex in the process of migration who carry the disease from one prostituted woman to another and ultimately back to their wives and girlfriends.” (EoP)

There are various causes for the growth in child prostitution in urban and rural areas as well as Addis Ababa, arranged marriages, illegal under Federal Law is cited as a key factor, “Research carried out in 2005 established that most victims of commercial sexual exploitation found in the streets of Addis Ababa had been married when they were below 15 years of age” (SAACSEC) In highlighting the factors that drive children away from their homes and into commercial sex work, the CPAA study found that “Most of the child prostitutes came from regions to look for a job, due to conflicts at home, early marriage and divorce.

Poverty, death of one or both parents, child trafficking, high repetition rates and drop out from school and lack of awareness about the consequence of being engaged in prostitution are key factors that push young girls to be involved in commercial sex work”. (CPAA)

In addition to arranged marriage, which is a significant cause, the study found that “the major reasons identified by the children themselves for engaging in commercial sex work are: poverty (34%), dispute in family (35%), and death of mother and/or father. 40% joined prostitution either to support themselves or their parents. Quite a large number of girls (35%) have joined prostitution due to violence within the home. Thus violence within the family is the main cause for children fleeing from home.”

The causes listed are complex and interrelated. At the epicenter of these diverse reasons though sits the family. Conflict at home is for many girls (and boys) the force driving them away from family and onto the streets of Addis Ababa, or one of the provincial towns and cities. Division and conflict grow from many seeds, repeated physical abuse at the hands of a parent or stepparent, rape at the hands of a Father, stepfather or extended family member, physical and verbal abuse, all are factors that force girls to leave the home and seek release from what has become a prison like existence of servitude, intimidation and fear. “When physical and psychological punishment becomes intolerable, it may lead to the child running away from home. Girls tend to become prostitutes when they run away from home.” (VACE2)

Another burgeoning group from which many children fall into the net of prostitution is that resulting from HIV-orphans who have lost their parents to the virus. “Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 per cent of Ethiopian children have lost one or both parents…the number of children orphaned solely by HIV/AIDS has reached over 1.2 million. These children find themselves at a very high risk of entering commercial sex to survive, yet there is very limited support available for them either from government [emphasis mine}.”(AACSE)

Coherent or dysfunctional, the social fabric is a tapestry of interrelated, interconnected strands. Neglect by the Ethiopian Government in areas diverse, and fundamental is the glue that is binding together a polluted stream of suffering and pain.

Bussed in Married off

In 2006/7, I worked with the Forum for Street Children Ethiopia (FSCE), running education projects for the children in their care. Girls living and working on the streets, mainly the hectic cobbled broken pathways around the Mercato Bus station. “This extremely poor neighborhood in the city has become ‘the epicentre of the capital’s illegal [emphasis mine] industry of child prostitution’5

The children at FSCE ranged in age, although many did not even know their date of birth; most the children do not have documentation “the problem is further aggravated by a widespread lack of birth registration” (CPAA). Some were as young as 11 years old, “over 50% started engaging in prostitution below 16 years of age” the study states. “In almost every case the girls come to the city from the countryside, their families cast many out, others sent to Addis to work”.

Arriving at the city’s main bus-station, shrouded in naivety and fear, with little or no education, the girls make easy pickings for the men that greet them, with a warm smile, and a cunning mind only to mistreat, use and exploit them. With nowhere else to go, and no alternatives, the girls find themselves working the street and the journey into the painful, destructive prison of prostitution has begun.

Many, according to Save the Children Denmark (STCD), come from the Amhara region, the second most populated region, with a population of over 20 million. These children arrive in the capital knowing nobody, with (probably) no money and no contacts.”Enforced child marriages, abuse, and the prospects of ending their days in the grip of poverty are factors pushing Ethiopian girls as young as nine years of age’” (VACE), to risk their childhood and their lives in the city.

According to (CPAA) “There are many factors pushing the girls away from the region, (Amhara) including poverty, peer pressure and abuse. But child marriage is one of the most common explanations we hear when interviewing the girls,” Arranged marriages are widespread in the (Amhara) region in the north of Ethiopia, where young girls, children are forced to marry adult men, all too often this ‘union’ results in rape, abuse and violence, from which the innocent child is forced to flee, only into the clutches of exploitation, violence and abuse. And do they recover, is there healing and release, is a childhood stolen, a childhood lost, let us pray it is not so.

Marriages entered into unwillingly by extremely young girls, some as young as seven years old usually in exchange for reparations of some kind, money, cattle, land, lead all too often to abuse and violence, “traditional practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage, are causes for the increased violence against children.” 14-year-old boy 6 “in Wolmera Woreda, the practice of FGM is nearly universal since girls must be circumcised before marriage.” (VACE2) Once committed to a marriage, by parents who often regard the child as no more than an object to be traded, the girl is frequently raped and mistreated and treated as a servant. “Abduction, rape and early marriage may ultimately lead many girls to prostitution. Early marriage and abduction seldom produce successful marriages. In fact, such relationships are short-lived. As a result, most of these young girls run far away from their husbands in an attempt to start a new and happier life elsewhere. Unfortunately, many of them end up as prostitutes.’ (VACE2)

“Early marriage is illegal (except under particular circumstances), weak law enforcement [Emphasis mine] allows this practice to be widely followed throughout Ethiopia; the phenomenon is reported in almost every region of the country.

Nationwide, 19 per cent of girls were married by the age of 15 and about half were married by the age of 19; in Amhara region, 50 per cent of girls were married by the age of 15. “When the marriage finally collapses, the girls usually migrate to urban areas since breaking a marriage arranged by their relatives is considered a shameful act and they are no longer welcome within their families and communities.

Once in larger towns they end up living in the streets given their lack of skills to find employment. Such dire circumstances lead many girls to be exploited in commercial sex.” (CPAA)

To break free of a forced marriage entered into against the child’s will, and be punished by banishment from the family home, is a form of social injustice based on traditions, which have long failed to serve the children, the family or the community at large. It is time long since past that these practice’s where changed. Education, cultivating tolerance and understanding of the Human Rights of the Child are keys to undoing such outdated destructive sociological patterns, together with the enforcement of the law to deter parents and prospective ‘husbands’.

No options, no hope

No child enters into prostitution when they have a choice, “prostitution is seen as a social ill that is unaccepted, prohibited and fought in most parts of our continent. Prostitution is not only a question of morality but a human problem, a problem of human exploitation, a problem of societal failure in providing equal opportunities.” (CPAA) “At the end (of the interview) Belaynesh said that no girl/woman would like to be a prostitute but the problems force them to be in such a situation.” The circumstances that lead a young girl away from the games and innocence of childhood and what should be, the love and gentle kindness of her family, into the shadows of prostitution, may vary and circumstances differ, suffering though is common to all those forced into such a lifestyle, the impact long lasting and severe, the consequences dire, destroying many lives.

The children at FSCE in Mercato told us their stories, often with shame, through tears and embarrassment, always with pain. A thread connected them all, yes poverty, was a major issue, so too poor education however, the stream that united the group of wonderful 11 to 18 year olds, was a breakdown in human relationships, of one kind or another.

Once outside the family, and society, young girls desperate to survive have little choice but to work as CSW. For those recruiting and selling girls It is a business, for the children on the streets it a torture. “Almost all respondents do not like prostitution (99%). Almost all the girls are involved in prostitution not because they like what they are doing but due to other factors, to support themselves or their families.” (CPAA) “Child prostitution [is] a big business involving a whole series of actors from abductors at bus stations, to blue taxis and bar/hotel owners who tend to see children as the spices of their trade. The business actors, oblivious to pervasive taboos, have long abandoned recruiting adult prostitutes.” (CPAA)

Trafficking lives

Child prostitution and trafficking of children are inextricably linked. They are of course both illegal. All international conventions, from The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to International Labor Organisation (IL0), as one would expect, outlaw them. So too do Ethiopia’s Federal laws, “The 1993 Labor Proclamation forbids employment of young persons under the age of 14 years.

Employment in hazardous work is also forbidden for those under 18. The Penal Code provides means for prosecuting persons sexually or physically abusing children and persons engaging in child trafficking including juveniles into prostitution. Federal Proclamation no.42/93 protects children less than 14 years not to engage in any kind of formal employment.” (CPAA) And yet both child prostitution and the trafficking of minors goes on, and on and on. “The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that girls are trafficked both within the country and abroad to countries in the Middle East and to South Africa.”7

Children are brought from rural areas of Ethiopia to the capital city by brokers, “ttraffickers, who feed on parent’s low awareness with false promises of work and education for their offspring.” The numbers are staggering, the money tiny, the damage unimaginable “up to 20,000 children, some 10 years old, are sold each year [for around $1.20 to $2.40] by their parents and trafficked by unscrupulous brokers to work in cities across Ethiopia.”8 And who would do such a thing. Who would ‘sell’ an innocent child; condemn a child to slavery and brutal exploitation, pain and acute distress? “These traffickers are ‘typically local brokers, relatives, family members or friends of the victims. Many returnees are also involved in trafficking by working in collaboration with tour operators and travel agencies.”9

“The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism has not been signed by any travel and tourism company in Ethiopia.” (CPAA) The Ethiopian Government acting in the interest of the children upon their homeland, and their responsibilities under international law, should rightly and immediately make all tour operators sign the afore mentioned treaty, or face closure, and criminal prosecution.

“The International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated that Ethiopian children are being sold for as little as US$ 1.20 to work as domestic servants or to be exploited in prostitution.” The Middle East is the major international destination of choice for traffickers, “Many Ethiopian women working in domestic service in the Middle East face severe abuses indicative of forced labor, including physical and sexual assault, denial of salary, sleep deprivation, and confinement. Many are driven to despair and mental illness, with some committing suicide. Ethiopian women are also exploited in the sex trade after migrating for labour purposes – particularly in brothels, mining camps, and near oil fields in Sudan – or after escaping abusive employers in the Middle East.”10 “At least 10,000 have been sent to the Gulf States to work as prostitutes.”(CTE)

Let us not even begin to look at the complicity of such states in the destruction of the lives of these children and women, the ‘little ones’ that dance upon the waters of life, seeking only a gentle heart to trust, finding the dark days of Rome, and in despair we cry “Men’s wretchedness in soothe I so deplore,”11

Meles Zenawi loves to ‘talk the talk’ to his western allies, the US, Britain, the European Union and the like, whilst turning a blind eye, a deaf ear to the cries of the child being beaten, the young girl being raped and traded for sex and the teenager separated from her family, her friends and her childhood, sold into servitude and abuse within Ethiopia and across the Red Sea in the oil rich ‘Gulf States’.

(This article is part of a series).

Notes:
1. Addis Ababa City Admin Social & NGO Affairs Office (SNGOA), Save the Children Denmark (SCD) and ANNPPCAN-Ethiopian. Child Labor in Ethiopia with special focus on Child Prostitution Study. ‘Child Prostitution in Addis Ababa 2006 (CPAA)
2. Health Effects of Prostitution (EOP), Janice G. Raymond
3. http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/aids/Countries/africa/ethiopia.html
4. Jodi L. Jacobson, The Other Epidemic
5. Sofie Loumann Nielsen. The Reporter 10 September 2010
6. Violence against children in Ethiopia (VACE). Africa Child Policy Forum
7. http://www.childtrafficking.org/cgi-bin/ct/main.sql?ID=2067&file=view_document.sql
8. ILO. http://www.childtrafficking.org/cgi-bin/ct/main.sql?file=view_document.sql&TITLE=-1&AUTHOR=-1&THESAURO=-1&ORGANIZATION=-1&TOPIC=-1&GEOG=-1&YEAR=-1&LISTA=No&COUNTRY=-1&FULL_DETAIL=Yes&ID=2067. (CTE)
9. Ecpat Global Monitoring report status of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children, Ethiopia. (AACSE)
10. http://ovcs.blogspot.com/2008/01/ethiopia-is-source-country-for-human.html
11. Faust Part One, Mephistopheles.

(About the author: Graham Peebles is Director of The Create Trust, a UK registered charity, supporting fundamental social change and the human rights of individuals in acute need. He may be reached at [email protected])

31 thoughts on “The growing child prostitution and human trafficking in Ethiopia should put all Ethiopians to shame

  1. What do you think the west will tink if they red ur news.u ilias are bitter wich make u tink retarded who have no better and important and relevant to write. ..to me you are ethiopian enemy. When u know you come from the poorst country on the planet saying dont give unedicated sisters a chance to make some money working in the mideleast to me nive.but you can say their agensis have to have better follow up.so they dont end up like our libanon sis….how is esayas doing kkkkk

    Jegnaw Ethiopiawe replies:

    Sami
    Dos your sister work in the street of Addis?
    dos your mother work in the street of Addis?
    dos your daughter work the street of Addis?
    dos your wife work the street of Addis or do you Owen prostitute as a pimp in the street of Addis or do you work as a slave treader to the Arabs,or you just heartless little prick devoid of humanity i don’t know?
    but one thing i know we will over com TPLF and Rat like you…

    keba replies:

    Hi there! listen have you ever heared gentility with out ability if not it’s you. any way just to advice you. if you don’t mind you better to go to school and learn how to write proper english pls.

    keba replies:

    Hi there! brother sami have you ever heared the word gentility with out ability if not it’s you. listen if you don’t mind you better to go to school learn how to write proper english.

    Anonymous replies:

    Sami, first of all learn how to use proper English language. You aren’t texting but writing so, use-YOUR instead of UR. Second, unless you came from the animal kingdom you shouldn’t advocate to support prostitution. shame on you i wonder why let u write in the first place.

  2. Hello Elias the GREAT (Keep it up!),

    We, me and my wife, have cried as we read this article. The Woyane beggars are killing us. What are we waiting for? Dear Ethiopians (especially youngsters), the time for peaceful protests is over. We need an ETHIOPIAN-INTIFADA everywhere.

    A Peaceful Ethiopia will prevail.

  3. That is Sick. No Dignity of being an ethiopian when a mother/father sell His 10 Yrs old kid to be Molested for $1.20, What is Next?? Peodophiles Ordering Kids from Ethiopia Through the internet and The woyane shipping Them within a week for $10?? Or maybe Buy 2 Kids and get the third for free woyane special, Maybe add the sell of the kids to the stock Exchange to see how the woyane is doing with their New Commodity, and people wonders why the arabs Treat Ethiopians Like Animals, you need to respect yourself first before expecting others to respect you.

    Semhar

    Semhar replies:

    You are opening your stupid and uneducated mouth again and again just to score your stupid and ignorant none point once again. At least in Ethiopia, we acknowledge the problems and issues that are at hand. In the neighbouring shit holes which i am sure you are from, the same crimes are being committed but everything is burried under the carpet so that little morons like you continue to feel partriotic even if you cannot afford a loaf of bread a day. Why do you continue to reveal your ignorance by continueously talking absolute rubbish? Why not use that time to learn somthing useful and helpful to your very narrow mind? instead of spitting venom, little idot. Part of the problem in the Arab world is your fellow nationals claiming to be Ethiopians when they are in shit, did you know that fool? am sure you do, I bet you are one to do the same kind of stuff judging by your hatred to Ethiopian!!! And yet you spend all your time brousing our websites, we must be very interesting. you hate us but cannot stay away from us. Typical! open your eyes and mind instead of your stinking mouth from which you talk endless shit. illitrate fool!!!!

  4. I,am sure there are TPLF members and there hodam stooges will say prostitution and enslaving Ethiopians is investment too.?
    Yes,the philosophy of of our TPLF masters,sell the land,sell the children’s,sell the women.i wonder how they sleep at night….

  5. This is the other “hidden” policy & agenda of the Meles mafia group designed to weaken the moral of the patrotic Ethiopians & paricularly the ethnic Amhara culture which for some reason he feels inferior to. The plan is copied from the fascist Mosolline who targated the ethnic Amhara & the orthodox Christians who were referred as the “glue” which kept the country independent from the foreign superpowers of that historical period.

    Folks, as the picture looks as bad as it is, it is a temperory set back which will not extend the life span of the Meles mafia group. If any thing it will help speed up its down fall as there is no alternative left except to fight back by any means necessary.

    The Meles group has no back bone, they are a group of thieves & day light robbers of the national treasure. They don’t care for Ethiopia nor do they care for the people & the state of Tigray. All they care is for their pocket books/$dollars & if the money comes from child trafficing or prostitutions that is not in their DNA to care for…in their hearts & mind the mighty dollar is what they live for & so do their cadres at large.

    The time for debate & meetings should soon lead to some kind of joint action on the ground. Btw, If any other groups want to form a supoort group to their ethinc group who is singled out for the current attack that does not decrease their Ethiopianness. Let us get everyone involved to get rid of the mafia Meles aparathid system and bring forth the rule of law in Ethiopia.

    May God/Allah Bless Ethiopia & please put an end to its suffering children in the Middle-East & beyond.

    Yashenefal replies:

    Amien to that!!

  6. Dear Elias,

    I like this one. This the type of targets you should have focus on. Attacking the Meles regime its wicked and beggarism policy. Meles has never helped Ethiopians and will never help Ethiopians. Reason, he is a man who believe in alms and begging. He is a professional international beggar who have no any coscience or hilna or dignity who never get ashamed of begging and selling anything one can imagine that country has,its land, its people, its asset. Such ideally bankrupt self-imposed leader who 100% percent works and stays on power by promoting hate and demoting his citizen can never play a positive role in Ethiopia.

    This is a reality the staying of Meles on power for 25 years is a testament of that the man has never had or will never have any good intention.

    He is actually a liability to the Ethiopians people because he landlocked the Ethiopian and he has imposed a heavy levy on the poor people. While our ports are sitting idle, our poor people are forced by him to pay 2 billion dollar a year to Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya to buy ports. A man who has been hell bent for the past 25 years to landlock Ethiopia will never be a good man for Ethiopia.

    Down to Meles Zenawi whose policy is against Ethiopia morally, culturally, economically. By the way how can a man who educates his chidren in western countries liberate Ethiopians? he is very poor himself spiritually. A person who is spiritually rich is never poor. But this materialist is making peope not only poor materially, but also spiritually.

    This athiest must go away

  7. First, came the undisciplined power hungry coldblooded Mengestu who never had respect for human life that slaughtered Ethiopians left and right. And then, there comes another heartless, hodam, balegae who is worse than Mengestu that has no respect for the people and the country. How can we expect from the ruthless, Godless TPLF mafia group who came to make many in every way possible, illegally and immorally and even at the cost of human life? We are witnessing the legacy of Meles and his TPLF thugs. The money hungry Meles and his servants have changed our respected and graceful country to a desperate society that will do anything to get a meal a day and simply to survive. Sad indeed!

  8. When families are broken up,children will have no one to take care of them and will be forced to live in the streets;homeless and helpless,they then become volunarable to anything that is harmful to themselves and to the society.Epidemic is difficult to contain and control;it can only be managed if and only if there is nation wide program,taking it as important issue and campaign for the safety of the children.

    Our childreen are victims of the enemy that has put its devious plan into practice to deliberately incurr a huge cost on us and Ethiopia.This cost is in billions of dollars and the loss of productive generation which will keep our country going down and down to the final end of social bankruptcy and disintegration.

    Time favored the enemy and invaded Ethiopia.When the enemy came into Ethiopia,it had a lot of guns and bullets to loot and murder Ethiopians.It was a cruel act;the enemy then quickly moved into villages,towns,cities,and neighbourhoods and broke into homes and vandalized the lives of families.It was a cruel move and act;families became disintgerated and children became homeless.

    The policy of the current regime is anti-Ethiopia,and this the same policy has been used systematically on the society focused on harming our children.Today,the number one public enemy is Zinawi and its anti-Ethiopia policy.This man is not alone;he has men and women who surround him to protect the system that he and his organized criminal group built an run at the cost of our people and country.

    At its heart,Zinawi hates Ethiopians;he is angry and cruel;he enjoyes seeing his victims die twice.First,our children became helpless,then homeless and hungry;fighting,daily fighting for survival;fighting with dogs,cats,mice,and bugs for food.At the core of Zinawi’s plan,generating income and building wealth from the selling of our children,farmlands,resources,and sttealing and fatening his bank account with billions of dollars stolen from Ethiopians are the chief reason that he is in Ethiopia.Instead of making our childreen a workingforce,he deprived our children of becoming a healthy and educated citizens by catering a policy of creating two ecnomic systems- one for himself and his regime and another one,unproductive and weak for our children.Look where our childreen are today,maids and prostitues they are.

    We have talked removing Zinawi and demolishing the regime that he built and ran for 21 years.This man has quite a lot of criminal records;he began his criminal career,first as a bandit,then as a robber;now a terror on the country and the citizens.This man,the man you know for his cruelity and vengiance,never had grown up in a helthy home;he was taught hatred and cruelity at the age of 9;he rarerly mingled with little girls and boys in the village,and talked nothing of his feelings.He then became an adult with little or no understanding of the importance of family and community building,and social justice or law;it was with this mindest he became anti-Ethiopia.He never worked and earned income;actually, he broke laws by holding bank employees at gun point and ran away with a big heist.

    Today,everything and anything that is available above and below the lands,in Ehtiopia is owned,controlled,and run by Zinawi,his family,and men and women.Manufacturing and sevice sectors are completely owned by the robbers who invaded Ethiopia in 1991.

    We seriously started the struggle aginst the enemy with full understanding of the problem it created and its threat to the current and future of our children and the existence of our country.Zinawi and his regime are the main problem a thereat to keeping the society intact and our children safe.Ethiopians,renew your committment and build a new energy,and crush the enemy to its eternal defeat.

  9. While every body is fighting over their ethnic backgrounds, the innocent little children of Ethiopia are paying a heavy price. The economic hardships and poverty faced by many Ethiopian families destroyed the structure of our society. Cowards,ignorantes, greeedy and selfish leaders and political figures of the country and their followers got what they wanted. To destroy Ethiopia. And keep arguing over who is Amhara, Oromo, gurage, etc and the whole country will be leased to who ever has money, What are you going to do about it? isn’t it enough already? How much pain can a country take? How much suffering is too much? And those doctors who are trying to build referral clinics, why don’t you help these children of your country? why don’t you use your money and social status to go to international media, the United Nations and where ever it takes you to save these kids? I will do my part all alone. I do not want any thanks and credit from any body. I will arm my self with God’s power and help what ever I can. It does not matter any more whether I am Amhara, Oromo or Tigre.

  10. Shame to those of you who have an evil thought. YOU GREW UP WITHOUT THE FEAR OF GOD. YOU ARE IN HUMAN. YOUR CONSCIENCE IS BLINDED WITH POLITICS AND SELFISHNESS.Please, try to examine your thoughts, deeds, words, etc.
    Try to be a good human being-one who humane, one who stands for justice and truth as much as you can.

  11. Ethiopian women in diaspora must organize to battle the problems of maid trafficking and prostitution. If you pray over these issues, God would give you the inspiration, guidance and sustainance that would last long after the Woeyanes are gone. Say, about three patriot Ethiopian women set up an office in Washington, D.C., or New York, and another in Europe and get to work at once. Contact the various international organizations, hire a few professionals who worked at IMF, World Bank, WHO or similar places,and mobilize the rest of us afterwards. Maid trafficking is not an Ethiopian problem alone. The Philiphines, Bangladishes and others are subjected to it as well, therefore, the support is plenty afterwards. Bad guys win when the good ones sit idle. Some of the heroes that were featured on CNN’s Heroes were not even educated, yet they have made big differences. A noble Ethiopian woman who is concerned for her country can kill a big Woeyane a day by her prayer alone. How big a difference if she put herself at task?

  12. Maid agency boss jailed six years for trafficking two women

    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The owner of a maid agency was sentenced to a total of six years jail after he was found guilty on two counts of trafficking two Filipino women four years ago. Sessions judge Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain handed down a three-year jail sentence on each of the two charges and ordered Singaporean Eugene Lim Beng Huat to serve the jail terms concurrently. Lim, 40, was charged with trafficking Marivic Relon Capistrano, 35, and Marilou de la Cruz Bagsit, 37, at No. 18, Jalan Metro Perdana Barat 15, Kepong, at 5am on June 30, 2008. The charges under Section 12 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 provides for a maximum jail term of 15 years and a fine, The judge allowed an application by Lim’s counsel for a stay of the execution of sentence pending appeal to the High Court. He ordered that bail of RM40,000 in one surety be raised to RM50,000 and that Lim surrender his passport to the court and report to the nearest police station once a month pending settlement of the appeal.

  13. Yes, millions of Ethiopians had been massacred during Italian war, but even Mussolini didn’t cause these much damage to the land of Ethiopia, as much as what Meles and his thugs are doing to Ethiopia. Ethiopia is being destroyed by TPLF mafia who came to rob the country, sell her land, destroy her culture and abuse and kill the citizens of Ethiopia. The Tigrea province is being build at the back of eighty million Ethiopians. There is no brothel, child prostitution, Khat bar, human and sex trafficking, not a single acre of land of Tigrea has been given to Sudan or sold to foreigners. The master of hate and the TPLF leader, Meles and his gangsters have kicked out the people of Gondar and Wollo and have expanded the Tigrea province. Additional thousands of acres of Gondor land have been given to Sudan for free. It is hard to comprehend why the country’s leader would kick out the citizens of the country and give it to foreigners. Even the rest of the world are puzzled why hundreds of thousands of Gambelans have been kicked out and killed, and sell their thousands and thousands of acres of virgin fertile land to foreign investors and the southern people are being enslaved for fifty cents for the whole day of work. The pure hate of Meles towards Ethiopia and Ethiopians is in the open. The process of dismantling Ethiopia by creating hate and division among Ethiopians, selling the country’s thousands acres of its fertile land at a time, has been going on for the last 20 years. WE ARE WITNESSING A SIGN OF PURE HATE TO WORDS THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE!

  14. I feel like crying after I finished reading this. As a parent,it is not hard to imagine that this is the worst thing that can happen to children. Here in the USA if any one touches the kids inappropriately we know how severe the punishement is for the offender, but in our Ethiopia all those people who are abusing millions of children are getting by daily. The children are not to be blamed, because it is the responsibility of the parents and the government to protect them until they read adulthood age. Most of the kids may not have parents to protect them or the parents are too poor to do any thing.

    How about the law and the government ? are they doing any thing ? Building tall buildings and roads is not the sign of any improvement. It is the safetey and health of the Citizens that should come first.

    This is so sick and disgusting.

  15. Boycotting woyane affiliated business is a good idea. But we have to be realistic and practical about all of these. How realistic is not flying EAL? How about not riding city buses or not drinking Pepsi when you are in Ethiopia? I say, let’s start first focusing on what hurts woyane’s the most. We all know woyane can’t live without the support and handout of western aids. To expose woyane’s apartheid rule we at Ethiopian review need to sponsor and organize the mother of all demonstrations at the state department. Folks, this time is election time and there are plenty of ears that could listen; if the demonstrations can be organized to include 20,000 or more Ethiopians. Heck! We can even add Somalia’s, Kenyans and Eritrean if we organize it right.

  16. Yes, Ethiopia and Ethiopians have never seen such level of vicious hatred, attack, and assault directed against them as done by Mellesse and his Woyane/TPLF thugs. Ethiopians and their children are being molested, raped, sold, purchased, their families destroyed every day and this is because Ethiopia does not have a government that work and fight for the rights and interests of its people. Our children are tortured, citizens terrorized, and parents relegated to hunger and death and this is because Ethiopia does not have a government that respects the rule of law and obey the wills of its people. Our forests are burned, cities bulldozed, and communities destroyed every day and this is because Ethiopia does not have a government that believe in and work for the betterment and development of its people.

    Yes, Ethiopia and Ethiopians are under the yoke of the most debilitating, crashing, and destructive force of Mellesse and his Woyane/TPLF mafia for the last twenty one years. Yes, Ethiopia and Ethiopians are under the yoke of slavery by the sworn enemies of our country and our people. Not even the Italian Fascists or the murderous Military junta, Derg brought such havoc and devastation to our country and its people. Yes, Ethiopia is ruled by the most deadly enemy of the people that commits treasons, treachery, genocide, state sponsored terror, and high crimes every day for more than twenty years.

    And, it seems that there is no end to the kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, murder, destruction, genocide, state sponsored terror, and disintegration imposed on our people and our country by our enemies Mellesse and his Woyane/TPLF hordes.

    My questions are:-
    How much should we suffer and die before we fight and get our freedom?
    When can we end our patience? When can we say enough is enough?
    When are we going to get up from our slumber?
    When can we say give me liberty or death?
    When can we say no to kidnapping, no to imprisonment, no to torture, and no to murder?
    When can we say no to ethnic cleansing, no to genocide, and no to state sponsored terrorism?
    When can we say no to ceding our territories, no to destroying our land and country?
    When can we say no ethnic divisions, no to ethnic infightings, and no to disintegration?

    If not today and if not now, when?????????

    Matt replies:

    Yes, I agree with you; WHEN? Is the magic word.

    When are our PhD. Holders going to end writing endless article on the web? And not on New York and LA Times or the Post, Etc. where it count the most?

    When are our politicians going to stop holding meetings on cities across America and UK and not in front of State department or 10 downing st.?

    When are we going stop buying woyane“DAM Bonds” and not stock on our people, country?

  17. Zinawi is not certain about the exact houre that he came to this world;but he is dead sure that there is tormorrow that Ethiopians will capture him and bring him to a trial.This,we don’t doubt it,too.Most people have forgotten Gadaffi but never have forgiven him because he was a waste on on Libyans.Zinawi is constantly worrying about his fate;the fate that confronts him face to face.Zinawi can not defeat his own fate,as Gadaffi could not his;Mubarak too would never be able to run away from his fate.Mubarak,by his own request has witnessed Gadaffi’s fate,to the very end on TV,alone,both in his bed and bedroom.Zinawi did too while taking his daily dose.Could be khat,could be blood,or vodka.But,but on his fateful day,he will cry green or red tears.

  18. It’s surprising to me that the present day Ethiopians never know the very existing law of nature-action & reaction.As a human being,if some do some thing bad on some body,the one who is attcked should respond.Animals even do that.If i try to attack my dog unfairly,which i cared and raised,it will bite me.Many countless horrible things have been done by the so called government against the country and it’s citizens.But the people prefer to die with out reaction.How could some one die doing nothing while his death is inevitable?.Why is every body needing a freedom fighter?.Why an Ethiopian women die in the middle east with out burning and killing her alleged killer if she knows that he will kill her.Does she need a weapon?.She is not cooking with a fire wood.The gas & benzine is there.The same is true with the whole population geverned by iron feast.The solution is on the hand of every body at least to defend him self individually.Come on guys don’t complain.The oppressed and the oprassors are living together.React!!!!

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