There is no doubt in mind that the Swedish jounalists, (Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson)sentenced by the TPLF kangaroo court to 11 years in prison will soon be released. I am sure they or their government will never plead for celmency. These journalists have the international community (their own government and other democratic nations) behind them to defend their rights as free journalists. We are already witnessing the position of US's Department of State aginst this ruling and that of the Swedish media demanding their government to advocate for the unconditional release of the two journalists.
I am glad that by proxy, this sentencing on the Swedish jounrnalists, will help all those TPLF enabler western governments to reflect on how arbitrarly the TPLF junta was handling the case of justice for multitudes of Ethiopians that were detained en-masse in TPLF detention camps since the junta came into power.
I am sure, it should be our duty to push for the release of Ethioipan journalists and other prisiners of conscience, as the west puts pressure on TPLF for the release of these two Swedish jounrnalists.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Why Ethiopia should be singled out: An Answer to Professor David Shinn
I read a commentary by professor David Shinn, the former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and currently, adjunct professor of international affairs at the George Washington University, titled, "Ethiopia and 2011 Global Financial Integrity Report".
In his commentary, while he admits that there are problems of illicit financial flows from Ethiopia, he questioned the integrity of one of the authors, Sarah Freitas, for "singling out" Ethiopia while there are many other African countries who have higher Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) than Ethiopia.
As to me none of those African countries mentioned by the professor (Nigeria, Egypt, Sounth Africa, Libya, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia) with high IFF values, are comparable to Ethiopia by most standards, except being located in Africa. To mention a few, the economies of these countries are not as dependent on foreign aid as is Ethiopia, none of these are noted for an annual begging of food from the international community, none of these countries are ruled by closely knit kleptocratic junta of one ethnic group.
If I had to coin a word to express the level of IFF in Ethiopia, it would certainly be even more stronger than "bleeding the country dry".
In his commentary, while he admits that there are problems of illicit financial flows from Ethiopia, he questioned the integrity of one of the authors, Sarah Freitas, for "singling out" Ethiopia while there are many other African countries who have higher Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) than Ethiopia.
As to me none of those African countries mentioned by the professor (Nigeria, Egypt, Sounth Africa, Libya, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia) with high IFF values, are comparable to Ethiopia by most standards, except being located in Africa. To mention a few, the economies of these countries are not as dependent on foreign aid as is Ethiopia, none of these are noted for an annual begging of food from the international community, none of these countries are ruled by closely knit kleptocratic junta of one ethnic group.
If I had to coin a word to express the level of IFF in Ethiopia, it would certainly be even more stronger than "bleeding the country dry".
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