|
Landgrabbing in Ethiopia: legal lease or stolen soil? |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by IHOO
|
|
Tuesday, 08 November 2011 21:35 |
|
Farmer Turu Omod (kneeing, in white shirt) with her three children and two male family members behind the left over of her burned down storage.Photo: Philipp Hedemann
November 8, 2011 (SNS) – Kneeling in the middle of a sugar-cane field in blistering 40 degree heat, a young boy is digging up weeds while an Indian worker stands over him to make sure he does not miss any. Red is eight years old and earns 73 pence for one day’s work – less than the cost of using pesticides. By exporting food produced by child labour in Ethiopia, an Indian tenant farmer hopes to earn millions within three years. (1119 Words) – By Philipp Hedemann
“It’s still total wilderness here, but we will soon start growing sugar cane and palm oil and everything will look tidy,” explains Karmjeet Singh Sekhon as he drives in a Toyota 4×4 through the burning bushland on his farm. The 68-year-old Indian is the manager of a huge farm, which covers an area of 100,000 hectares in Western Ethiopia. Soon he wants to farm 300,000 hectares, an area bigger than Luxembourg.
Read more… |
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 November 2011 21:40 )
|
|
Ethiopia: Government Crackdown in Omo Region Intensifies |
|
|
|
|
Written by IHOO
|
|
Saturday, 05 November 2011 00:45 |
|
|
|
Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 November 2011 00:48 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
The Current Banning of the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association |
|
|
|
|
Written by IHOO
|
|
Thursday, 03 November 2011 23:52 |
|
October 29, 2011 at 9:59 pm ·
Gadaa.com
The following is a press release from the Macha-Tulama Cooperative and Development Association, USA, Inc. on the banning of the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association (MTSHA).
The Current Banning of the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association
Continuing the repressive colonial policies of the regimes of Haile-Selassie and Mengistu Haile-Mariam, and violating international and its own laws, the Meles Zenawi government banned the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association (MTSHA) on October 14, 2011. The parent of almost all Oromo organizations and associations, the MTSHA was formed on January 22, 1963 by prominent Oromo professionals, who were committed to reduce or eliminate some socio-economic ills, such as poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, and diseases by promoting self-reliant social, economic and cultural development of their people and other oppressed peoples in the Ethiopian Empire. Realizing the potential and accepting the motto of this association, more than three million Oromos and others joined the association within four years. Recognizing that the association was attracting millions of members, and hating and opposing the objectives of the association, the racist Haile-Selassie government banned the MTSHA on December 28, 1967, and imprisoned, tortured, and hanged or assassinated its famous leaders. The replacement of the Haile-Selassie government by that of Mengistu Haile-Mariam in 1974 did not allow the Oromo leaders to recreate this civic association.
The efforts of the Oromo national struggle and the overthrow of the Amhara-led military government of Mengistu Haile-Mariam in 1991 by the Oromo, Eritrean and Tigrayan liberation fronts enabled some Oromo civic leaders to initiate the rebirth of the MTSHA in the early 1990s. As the MTSHA reopened its office in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) on August 12, 1993, because of its fame and objectives, it attracted the brightest elements from all sectors of Oromo society and started to articulate the interest of the Oromo and other oppressed peoples. In 2004, the government of Meles Zenawi transferred the capital city of Oromia from Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) to Adama in order to marginalize and increase the invisibility of the Oromo nation and to diminish the sovereignty of the Oromo people in the capital city of Finfinnee. The leaders of the association and its members opposed this unlawful and evil decision. On May 18, 2004, to muzzle the voice of MTSHA, the Zenawi government banned the association. Furthermore, on July 2, 2004, the kangaroo court of Zenawi ruled the confiscation of the property of the association by the security of the Ethiopian regime.
Members of the MTSHA took the cases of the association to the higher court, and after three years the court renewed the license of the association for three years. Consequently, on January 13, 2008, the MTSHA reopened its office and started its work in Finfinnee. Although its leaders were under persistent intimidation of the security agents of the regime until 2011, the association taught some young Oromos about Oromo history, culture, the gada system, and Oromo philosophy. Like its predecessors, the Meles regime considers teaching of Oromo history and culture as a crime that cannot be tolerated. As a result, on October 14, 2011 by letter no. 01/chsA-10, 241, the colonial regime of zenawi banned the association again in order to totally silence the voice of the Oromo nation.
The Macha-Tulama Cooperative and Development Association, USA, Inc. appeals to the US government, European governments, the UN, and the international community to urge the Meles Zenawi government to immediately release recently imprisoned members of the association and to retract the banning of the association.
M/Abebe G/Mariam
President of Board of Directors,
Macha-Tulama Cooperative and Cooperative Association, USA, Inc. |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 04 November 2011 00:02 )
|
|
Written by IHOO
|
|
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:23 |
ANALYSIS-Ethiopian detentions target weak oppositionBy Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - When Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party was re-elected in 2010, analysts said he could take two paths: give the opposition scope to grow and secure a legacy of progress, or sideline them once and for all and tarnish his record. With a crushing parliamentary majority and Washington's staunch backing in the fight against Islamist militancy in the Horn of Africa, the government's hold on power is firm. Continued... |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 November 2011 02:02 )
|
|
|
