ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – The head of the National Election Board (NEB) on 24 June urged government and opposition parties in Ethiopia to ensure “free and fair” elections next year.

Asefa Biru, the NEB executive secretary, told IRIN that his …

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Zewdie v. Ashcroft

Petition for review from the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the petitioner was Phillip F. Fishman of Minneapolis, MN.

Counsel who presented …

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Gemechu v. Ashcroft

1
Taddese Lencho Gemechu (“Gemechu”) seeks review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). The BIA affirmed the decision of the …

Constitution of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Adopted: 8 Dec 1994

Preamble

We, the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia:
Strongly committed, in full and free exercise of our right to self-determination, to building a political community founded on …

Photo: IRIN/Anthony Mitchell

Meaza Ashenafi

ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – Meaza Ashenafi founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) in 1995, of which she is still the executive director. After returning to Ethiopia from the US, where she received the Hunger …

ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – The European Commission (EC) has pledged over € 500,000 to help ensure democratic and fair elections in Ethiopia in 2005.

The funding is part of a worldwide initiative for developing countries worth around € 31 million …

Harold G. Marcus, founding editor of H-Africa, died Wednesday, January 15, 2003, of cardiac arrest following complications from an ongoing heart condition. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Cressida Marcus, and a daughter, Emma Rose Marcus (from a previous …

By Negussay Ayele

Background to Deir Sultan at a glance

Unknown by much of the world, monks and nuns of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, have for centuries quietly maintained the only presence by black people in one of Christianity’s holiest …

Elias Kifle
August 2002

The strategy of forming a “united front” to free our country from the TPLF/EPRDF tyranny needs to be reviewed and adjusted. I believe the current strategy has miserably failed. It’s about time we must admit that …

By Siegfried Pausewang

“We have the right to vote. We have registered, we have voting cards. But we can not make use of our right, because our candidates are not there. We demand our right to vote.”

It is voting …

By Donald N. Levine
April 2002

Radical politics and civil strife have transformed the face of the Ethiopian nation over the past quarter of a century. Besides drastic changes at home, refugees to more than a dozen countries have formed …

By Adugnaw Worku

A year ago this month, I was in Ethiopia enjoying the company of friends and loved ones. And now a year later, I am reliving the experience and wishing that I could still be there. On the …

By Jonathan Steele

I WAS LYING gravely ill in the flat of a Royal Air Force doctor in Addis Ababa when I first heard someone mention the name of Asrat Woldeyes, or simply Asrat as he was always known. Even …

By Lee Nichols

Ten thousand meters is a pretty long distance to run (6.2 miles, for us Americans). But it’s nothing compared to the distance, both figurative and literal, that separates the lives of Haile Gebreselassie and Leslie Woodhead.

The …

By David Hirst in Tsorona, on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border
Guardian

Six weeks after the battle of Tsorona, the bloodiest yet of this desert ‘border’ war, Ethiopian soldiers still lie unburied on the baking plain, just yards from Eritrean trenches; an …

Dr. Richard Pankhurst
First published as an article in the Addis Tribune newspaper in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 19 February 1999.

1 Ancient Times

Since time immemorial the area which is now called Eritrea played an important role within the …

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report, based on findings from two missions to Ethiopia during 1996 and 1997, was written by staff of Human Rights Watch. The report was edited by Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, …

Ethiopian Human Rights Council
Special Report – May 13, 1997

EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING

Ato Assefa Maru was killed on May 8, 1997 at 8:20 a.m. while he was walking from his home in Woreda 12 Kebele 06 to his office. He …

By Richard Greenfield

The death of Asfa Wossen, Crown Prince of Ethiopia since 1930, almost certainly marks the final demise of thousands of years of Ethiopian monarchic tradition.

He was born in 1916 in the ancient Adare walled city of …

On Monday 27 June, the Central High Court in Addis Ababa sentenced a medical professor and four other members of an opposition group, the All-Amhara People’s Organization (AAPO), to two years’ imprisonment.

“The five convicted prisoners appear to have been …

By Abebe Zegeye and Siegfried Pausewang

Ethiopia made a new start in 1991, but it is yet too early to give an objective assessment of the direction in which it is likely to move. The provisional government is facing a …

Amidst prayers, and religious ceremony, Mo Anbessa, Ethiopians for Constitutional Monarchy, held its first public meeting in Addis Ababa on November 18 at the former Haile Selassie I Theater (renamed National Theater by the Derg). The playing of the old …

The Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) is actively seeking diplomatic recognition. It also made it clear by preventing the German Ambassador to Ethiopian from visiting Asmara that it wants foreign relations directly and not through embassies in Addis Ababa.

The …

The EPLF has systematically stripped Eritrea of any trace of the former regime. The battlefields around Dekemhare, Ghinda and Keren have been meticulously cleaned of debris. The word `Ethiopia’ has been effaced from every public building. Ethiopian Airlines, whose daily …

Thousands of people carrying banners and placards in Amharic, Oromigna, Tigrinya, English, and Arabic demonstrated in Addis Ababa Meskal Square to give moral support to EPRDF and its government’s Charter in early November.

Mulualem Abebe, administrator of Addis Ababa and …

If one looks for troops in their usual encampments in Addis Ababa today, one does not find them. The old 4th division military camp is empty. So are other military garrisons in the city. THE EPRDF chose to house all …

By Lemma W. Senbet

After twenty years of departure, I visited my home country on a two-week trip in August. The trip was filled with excitement, sadness, and at times hopelessness. My remarks focus on my observations of the current …

By Dr. Araya D. Negash and Dr. Afrasa M. Zamanel

In his sour and vile commentary (Ethiopian Review, August 1991) projecting his parochialism and ethnocentric resonances, Ato G.E. Gorfu displayed his difficulty in distinguishing between fact and fantasy. He accused …

By Herman J. Cohen

The thirty years of civil war, including seventeen years of brutal Communist dictatorship have ended in Ethiopia. At last, Ethiopia has the opportunity to concentrate on forming a government that will enable its people to earn …

By Getachew Mekasha

It all seems unreal. Four months into the Transitional Government’s administration, Addis Ababa still remains an enigma. Apart from the removal of the disgraced top echelons of the former Derg regime, and the wholesale incarceration of the …

By Paul B. Henze

A New Beginning
On May 29 Meles Zenawi telephoned me in Washington with an invitation to come to Addis Ababa to observe the transition to a new political system. With the support of RAND and the …

By Alemayehu Gebre Mariam

The July Conference Objectives
Just three months ago few would have predicted the downfall of the Derg or the sneaky departure of its brutal chieftain to Zimbabwe. The suggestion that Ethiopia’s warring factions would assemble for …

By Samuel W. Yohannes

Power and Legitimacy
One of the main issues that were never addressed properly is the legitimacy of government power in Ethiopia. This article attempts to clear the confusions that have arisen around this fundamental issue throughout …

By Getachew Mekasha

These are extraordinary times for Ethiopia, and times like these need to be approached in an extraordinary way. The unceremonious departure of Mengistu Haile Mariam from Addis Ababa, while a welcome event in itself, raises all sorts …

In less than a month Mengistu HaileMariam and his Derg have been swept from the Ethiopian political landscape. Victory for the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPDRF) came quickly and Addis Ababa was captured with minimum resistance.

The political implications …

By Getachew Mekasha

March 1st, 1991 was the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of Adowa. In the short space available, it is impossible to do justice to Menelik II and his times. Many books and monograms have been written (mostly …

By Chris Prouty

The demonstrators holding placards outside the Royal Court Theater in London on 16 March 1987 were made up of Ethiopians and Ras Tafarians (the sect originating in Jamaica that reveres Haile Sellasie I.) They were protesting the …

As opposition forces ringed Addis Ababa, Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam boarded an Ethiopian Airlines plane on May 22 and fled Ethiopia for a ranch in Zimbabwe. State-run radio announced Mengistu’s unceremonious departure without comment. After 14 years of iron-fisted rule, …

For the past decade Western political analysts have been predicting Mengistu’s downfall. Many Ethiopians also anticipated Mengistu’s regime to come to a quick and violent end. Now, all signs point to a slow and agonizing death for Mengistu’s regime.

The …

By Getachew Mekasha

The 4 point plan calls for the following:

1. A council of elders will be elected by the people from every region and they will be authorized to appoint a trusteeship government under their control.

2. The …

Emperor Haile Selassie (July 23, 1892 – August 26/27, 1975), born Tafari Makonnen, held power for some 50 years, and ruled as emperor from 1930-74. During the Italian invasion and occupation from 1935-41, when he was driven into exile, he …

6 October 1963

Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates:

Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against …