Dr. Taye told the first-day session of an international Ethio-Dutch Journalists Conference in Amsterdam that the courageous members of the Ethiopian Free Press Association (EFJA) played a key role in raising the awareness and exposing the designs of the Meles regime to turn Ethiopia into the dreaded situation of Rwanda under Interhamwe militias.
Dr. Taye is living in exile as he is one of those Ethiopians who are being tried in absentia over fabricated charges of treason. The other defendants include leaders of the popular Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit-CUDP), the opposition widely believed to have won the 2005 polls by a landslide majority as sweeping the entire 23 parliamentary seats of Addis Ababa could be any evidence, members of the free press, and human rights workers, as well as civil society advocates.
EFJA Chairman Kifle Mulat, a courageous journalist also forced to remain in exile as he is one of the 111 defendants facing treasonous charges, travelled half around the globe from Uganda to address the opening session of the conference. Kifle, who spoke wearing symbolic handicuffs as a demonstration to the state of press freedom and journalists in Ethiopia, reminded the conference that the fight for human rights was inseparable from the fight for the respect of press freedom, which has now been abolished under the draconian laws of the tyrannical regime of Meles Zenawi.
Kefale Mamo, a former EFJA chairman, also addressed the audience on the paramount importance of consolidating the struggle being waged by Ethiopian journalists and other rights activists until freedom and democracy are materialized in Ethiopia. Kefale said the fight being put up by Ethiopian journalists anywhere in the world was praise worthy given that they were facing extremely stressful conditions in their host countries.
Speaking on his part, Assefa Negash, a medical doctor based in Holland, also cited the threat the current regime poses to the peace and stability of the country, and called for heightened vigilance. Another Holland-based academic,
Dr. Maru Gubena, also availed himself of the opportunity to present his personal award to Dr. Taye for the latter’s selfless sacrifices he paid during his years as a political prisoner in the dungeons of Addis Ababa, and there after for the respect of the rights of Ethiopian teachers, and as well as for the reign of the rule of law, democracy and justice in Ethiopia.
The conference also handed out certificates of merit to various individuals and organizations, including the New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ), Addis Ferenji, a noted blogger who used to blog daily developments in the violent aftermath of the 2005 polls in Ethiopia, Seattle-based attorney Shakespear Feyissa for his courage and resolve in defending the interests of the Ethiopian journalists as opposed to the brutal criminal charges the government was lodging even with courts in the host countries of the exiled journalists, as well as Wondimu Mekonnen, a steadfast Ethiopian human rights campaigner based in London, just a few among many.
Today at least 16 journalists face fabricated charges of treason and genocide from their prison cells. The rest have fled into exile, and live under extremely appalling living conditions in neighboring countries, where the threat of becoming one on the list of disappearances is common. All pro-democracy websites and blogs are blocked in Ethiopia, a measure the increasingly repressive Zenawi regime has taken as a show of utter defiance to the rights of the Ethiopian people to news and information.
Highlighting how life has been precarious for free press journalists in Ethiopia, Kinfu Assefa, editor of the Ethiopian Media Forum (EMF), told the audience that when one day undercover securityman came to take him to the notorious Makelawi Prison in Addis, he asked one question: “Would you show me your photo ID so as I would know the government is taking me to prison?”
“The man pulled out a gun,” said Kinfu, and added: “This is my ID.”
When the government launched its merciless attacks and virtually destroyed press freedom in Ethiopia, Reporters Without Borders made an urged appeal on November 2005 to United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan for “urgent mediation in Ethiopia, where editors of privately-owned newspapers have been imprisoned, forced underground or charged with treason since an outbreak of rioting and a violent crackdown by the police.”
The press watchdog said: “As long as it does not advocate murder or hatred, Ethiopia’s privately-owned press has an absolute right to express its views without having to face extravagant charges. We appeal to the judicial authorities to release the detained journalists at once, announce any charges they may still face and, if necessary, let them defend themselves in a climate of fairness and independence.”
The calls RSF made in earnest fell on deaf ears of course, and today Ethiopia faces an uncertain future as it reels under a rule whose features of long detentions without trial, disappearances, forced exiles, extra-judicial killings qualify it as fascistic rule.
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Jointly organized by the Foundation for Ethiopian Information and Documentation in the Netherlands, Dutch Journalists Union, and PRESS NOW (a Dutch organization supporting independent media and the free press in Ethiopia), the conference continues deliberations on Sunday June 11, 2006. (Report: Ethiomedia; photo: Kinfu Assefa of EMF)
