Michael's Blog

Michael Chebud ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 2009 (IPS)  - African governments have rallied behind Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in rejecting a possible international arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Sudan’s volatile western region of Darfur. African peacekeepers in Darfur - the AU regards the Sudanese president as vital to achieving peace in the region; the ICC alleges he's a war criminal. Credit: Derk Segaar/IRIN “The continent, through the African Union, has requested the UN Peace and Security Council to suspend the indictment of President Omar Al-Bashir,” chairperson of the African Union Commission Jean Ping told IPS on the sidelines of a high-level meeting of African foreign ministers in Addis Ababa on Jan. 29. Following a three-year investigation at the behest of the U.N. Security Council, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Bashir bears criminal respo...

Michael Chebud ADDIS ABABA, Jan 27 (IPS)  – The Ethiopian parliament has voted into law a controversial bill which bars any civil society organisation receiving more than 10 percent of its funding from foreign sources from engaging in human rights issues. The new law, passed on Jan. 6, affects the majority of the 4,677 registered Ethiopian NGOs. They are now prohibited from work touching in any way on the subject of human rights, governance, criminal justice issues and others. Out of the 547 lawmakers in parliament, 79 opposition politicians raised their hands to veto the bill in vain. Opposition politicians are not the only ones fuming at the latest bill. Humanitarian groups are also strongly dismayed, considering it an attempt by the government to undermine the ailing political space. “Those are the rights of Ethiopian citizens. Foreign groups cannot simply meddle in such affairs any more,” says Berhanu Adelo, head of the Prime Minister’s office. The government consi...

Michael Chebud ADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 2009 (IPS)  - Bertukan Mideksa has a reputation in Ethiopia as a competent politician, but voters will not be able to cast ballots for her in the next national election. The revocation of her 2007 pardon has sent a chill through Ethiopia's opposition parties. After the 2005 elections, opposition protests against irregularities in the polls were followed by violent clashes in the streets. More than 100 opposition leaders were arrested. Mideksa was charged with treason, outrage against the constitution, inciting armed rebellion and more. She spent two years in jail before being convicted and sentenced to life in prison in July 2007 along with 34 others. They were immediately pardoned by President Girma W. Giorgis; the government announced that they had requested a pardon and expressed remorse for their wrongdoings. But while on tour in Europe in November 2008, Mideksa denied making a request for state pardon for the post-election...