Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine Tasty Ethiopian fare in downtown SLC

By Ted Scheffler

Posted // June 1,2012 - Anybody remember People Express? Back in the 1980s, when I was living in New York City, the budget airline People Express offered flights to Washington, D.C., and Boston for a mere $19 each way. You simply got on the plane and paid cash. Ah, those were the days! I’d fly up to Boston for games at Fenway Park, and down to D.C. to, ostensibly, spend a weekend with a college pal who lived in Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, home to a large Ethiopian population. In reality, though, I was flying down to the nation’s capital to feed my addiction to Ethiopian food. There was then, and still are, an abundance of fantastic—and fantastically cheap—Ethiopian restaurants in D.C.; some estimates place the Ethiopian population of D.C. at a quarter-million. Those unique East African flavors quickly became among my favorites.
Well, for many years after moving to Utah, I pined for Ethiopian fare, but none was to be had. And now—in just the past year, amazingly—three different restaurants offering Ethiopian food have opened: Mahider Ethiopian Restaurant, Red Sea Cafe and Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine. Am I in heaven, or what? The focus this week is on the latter—Blue Nile—which is also the newest of the trio, having opened in early May.
Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine is located in the State Street space that was the home of Evergreen House Cafe, a longtime favorite of vegan and vegetarian diners. When you visit, you’ll be given a choice of seating options. There are standard, American-style restaurant tables and seating on the right side of the restaurant or, in a room on the left, you can choose to dine at one of three traditional Ethiopian tables: colorful, hourglass-shaped straw tables called messobs, which look sort of like African drums. They’re perfect for couples, although you can squeeze a third diner into your messob. Whichever dining option you choose, you’ll be eating with your hands, like in Ethiopia (although utensils are available by request). Ethiopian food is typically shared using the spongy, traditional “bread” called injera to scoop up meats, veggies, legumes and such. Yes, it’s a bit messy, but no more so than eating tacos, pizza and such with your mitts. It’s breaking bread together, literally.
I recommend starting with an appetizer called yemisir sambusa ($4.99). It’s a pair of triangle-shaped puff pastries stuffed with a delicious blend of brown lentils, onions, scallions, peppers, subtle spices and herbs. Ethiopian sambusa is very similar to the Indian samosa, and the yesiga sambusa ($5.99), which features minced beef instead of lentils, is also quite appealing.
The easiest and most economical way to sample a range of Ethiopian flavors and textures at Blue Nile is to select the value-priced combo plates. There is a vegetable combo ($9.99), which features five items from the vegetable menu, and a meat combo ($12.99), which offers three meat items. We ordered both. Each combo easily serves two people, and you’ll probably have leftovers. Since we chose to try both the meat and veggie combos, they came served together on one gigantic piece of injera, with more injera on the side.
Ethiopians are some of the friendliest, most generous people I’ve ever met. That’s true as well of Blue Nile, where the service was nothing short of loving. When I asked if they made their own injera (they do), co-owner Seyoum Abebe came to our table with a framed teff plant to show us. Teff (also called tef) is a species of lovegrass native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands. Similar to buckwheat flour, its grains are used to make injera, which anchors virtually every Ethiopian meal. However, teff is very expensive to import from Africa, and Abebe found an Ethiopian immigrant who raises teff in Idaho. Due to Utah’s arid climate, at Blue Nile they add a little brown-rice flour to achieve the spongy, airy consistency you’d find in Africa, and the bread takes an entire day to rise.
So, most dishes you order at Blue Nile will come served upon big rounds of injera. The meat portion of our combo plate included kay wat, yesiga alicha and doro wot. These are small cubes of tender prime beef that are sauteed in Ethiopian clarified butter and served in a tangy sauce (kay wat); chicken legs simmered in a spicy sauce similar to Indian curry and served, traditionally, with a hard-boiled egg (doro wot); and more beef chunks served in a mild sauce tasting of coriander (yesiga alicha). Although a lot of Ethiopian food is infused with curry-style flavors, I find it to be milder, overall, than Indian versions.
Lentils and split peas are cornerstones of Ethiopian cooking, as you’ll discover with the Blue Nile vegetable combo plate, which includes tegabino shiro, yemisir wot, ater alicha, gomen and atkilt alicha. Of these, we especially liked the pureed split peas with spices, onions and garlic (tegabino shiro); gomen—which was fresh, crunchy collard greens simmered in a very mild sauce; and especially yemisir wot, which is split lentils simmered in a zippy, curry-style hot sauce. The only item that missed the mark was tepid, limp green beans with carrots (atkilt alicha).
Navigating the Blue Nile’s beverage choices is … interesting. There are sodas and tea, Ethiopian coffee, juice (mango and pineapple), along with a few domestic and imported beers and wine—well, sort of. They were temporarily out of Tej Ethiopian honey wine, which we’d hoped to try. So, I asked about regular wine. The only option was “red,” so I ordered a glass ($5). It came ice cold—not just the glass, but the red wine itself. If you’d like to drink wine at Blue Nile, I recommend bringing your own and paying the $5 corkage fee.
Personally, I’m thrilled that Ethiopian cuisine has finally made its way to Salt Lake City. For a warm and delightful introduction to Ethiopian food and culture, I strongly suggest the Blue Nile adventure.
BLUE NILE ETHIOPIAN CUISINE
755 S. State
801-364-4042http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-15986-blue-nile-ethiopian-.html

“Ethiopia Is Not Oromia; Oromia Is Not Ethiopia” – Oromo Community @ Africa Day 2012 in Ireland

May 30, 2012 at 10:28 pm · Gadaa.com

The Africa Day was celebrated colourfully on 26 and 27 of May 2012 in Dublin, Ireland. Many African embassies and communities across the country came together in open space to show their culture, identity and the best of their communities, their countries and their continent at large. The Association of Oromo Community in Ireland was, not only one of these communities on the event, but also the shining star of Africa and its people. Starting from the first day of the event, the community’s members and leaders were there at the event and were very busy explaining, demonstrating the Oromo heritage, as well as participating in different competitions at the event.
The Oromo community’s pavilion was just beside that of the Ethiopian Embassy. The Oromo community displayed beautiful Oromo artifacts, including cultural costumes. Most of the Oromo gents and ladies, including leaders, were in their attractive costumes. The visitors had to wait in turns to see our artifacts, to try them and to take pictures wearing the Oromo customs, jeweleries, and ornaments. The Oromo community’s pavilion was full of Oromo culture. We had a live Oromo coffee ceremony during the event, where many enjoyed the fresh aroma and taste of Oromo coffee. We had the pictorial display of the world famous runners from Oromia, such as Abebe Bikila (Ababa Biqilaa), Derartu Tullu (Daraartuu Tulluu) and Kenenisa Bekele (Qananiisaa Baqqalaa), whom many recognized, but did not know that they are children of the Oromo nation.
The members of the Oromo community used this big opportunity to inform every visitor that the Oromo people had been subjugated people under the tyranny of successive Abyssinian regimes for more than a century. Since most of them, even our African brothers and sisters do not know that we, Oromos, have been under colonial rule, we explained that why Ethiopia is said to be a country that has never been colonised. We used the analogy of why Britain has never been colonised because it had been a coloniser. By doing this, we, the Community members, sent many to read more about the Oromo. Many visitors promised to continue to be the friends of the Oromo and left their contacts to be in touch with our community.
Our community and our people became the focus of discussions even after our beautifully dressed lady Aaddee Ayyaantuu Bantii won the award of “The Best Dressed Woman” competition on Africa Day 2012. To everyone’s surprise, Aaddee Ayyaantuu, Aaddee Seenaa and Aaddee Makkiyaa – all three from the Oromo community – were the top three “Best Dressed” ladies. All of them were in our well-decorated and beautiful Oromo dresses. Then came questions – like who are Oromos? Where are they from, etc?
We, the Oromo community members, used the opportunity to inform Kenyan, Sudanese, Ugandan, Somali, South African, etc. communities, nationals and diplomats to support and understand Oromo refugees in their countries. We explained that Oromos left, and will leave their country, to run away from colonial persecutions, and they never migrate for economic reasons as Oromia is naturally a rich country.
While this trend continued into the second day of the event – keeping the Oromo members overwhelming busy, no one had visited the pavilion of Wayane, which was just metres away from Oromo’s pavilion. To our surprise, their pavilion was mostly without supervision, and only occasionally, an Irish lady came into and went out of it, no other members of the Wayane Embassy in Ireland came except at the beginning and end of the show.
The first day we observed that there was one Oromo item in their show, but the next day there was no items that showed Oromo in there exhibition. We exhibited that we are not Ethiopian, and the Ethiopian Embassy exhibited that Oromo is not Ethiopia, too. Actually, their pavilion had nothing to do with other peoples in Ethiopia at all. There were some pictures from the northern part of the empire, and a picture of the Ethiopian Airlines. The Irish, who occasionally went in and out of the pavilion, was in Tigrean costume. We informed the Irish lady, who claimed that she was the former Irish Ambassador to Ethiopia, that Oromo is a great nation suffering by the oppression of the Ethiopian government and the Irish government has been deaf-ear to their cause for many years. She sympathized with us saying that, if real democracy exists in Ethiopia, things would have been better. The lady informed us though that the Ethiopian Embassy was busy in politics of Somalia – where she said “the Ethiopian diplomats are in meeting with Somali community.”
The Africa Day was a great success for the Oromo Community in Ireland, where the Community clearly and precisely provided information for many African and European nationals and diplomats that Oromo is a great peace-loving nation, which is denied of freedom of any sort and being subject to incessant oppression.
The Oromo awareness has just started two weeks before the Africa Day by running Oromo cultural exhibition in Fingal County Council public library in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. The exhibition continues until 15 June 2012 in Dublin City Council public library in the ILAC Shopping Centre, which will start on Friday 1st of June 2012. The exhibition so far attracted a large number of visitors.
Association of Oromo Community in Ireland
oromocommunityireland@yahoo.ie
www.oromocommunityireland.com 

Agaw-Midir-Ethiopia: Renaissance of Agaw People’s Priori Identity As a Support for the Oromo National Liberation Struggle

May 28, 2012 at 1:51 am · Gadaa.com 


By Fayyis Oromia

As far as the information I do have till now is concerned, in the ancient and modern history of the Cushitic Ethiopians, it is almost becoming clear that the Oromo nation is the root and the stalk of all the other Cushites, including the Agaw. The Oromo being initially the Waaqeffataa nation, the Agaw started to have a new orientation towards Judaism, being influenced by the Jewish immigrants (the Falaashaa), who came to the Cush kingdom about 3000 years ago. Despite such small differences, not only the Agaw, but all the Cushitic nations in the Horn of Africa seem to be the further derivations from the Oromo and yet having certain conflicts in some areas. Here, it is enough to look at the common history and/or the conflict history of the Agaw and the Oromo nations because of the fact that Agaw-Midir is the north-western neighbour of Biyya-Oromo with the worse experience of being a victim in the Abyssinization process (which is sometimes seen as the method of being converted from the Waaqeffannaa of Oromo and the Judaism of Agaw to the Orthodox Christianity of Abyssinians). As it had been already well recorded, the Abyssinized parts of the Agaw have got a conflict for many years specially with the non-Abyssinized parts of the Oromo.

Even if the Agaw may not be the further differentiation from the Oromo, it is becoming a historical fact that the Agaw nation is a main priori identity of most Amhara and Tegaru in Abyssinia. Different versions of history, legend and story do tell us that Agaw people in the northeastern Africa have been influenced, both biologically and culturally, by the Jewish and by certain other immigrants from southern Arabia, particularly from Yemen. I think the cultural influence by these few Semites is stronger than their biological impact on the indigenous Agaw nation. That is why most of the Abyssinians do physically look like African Cushites, rather than being like those from the Middle East, despite the claim of their monarchs that they are from the Solomonic dynasty. Certain historians do describe this phenomenon as a cultural Semitization of the Cushites, and they do call the Abyssinian people as ‘the Semitic speaking Cushites.’ Some writers even assert that the Agaw people are the only indigenous inhabitants of most areas now occupied by the Amharinya and Tigrinya speakers.
One of the facts to verify this theory is the linguistic studies done by some specialists. These experts do narrate that Agawinya is a main substratum for the Ethio-Semitic languages. The assertion holds water because of the reality that the languages of Abyssinia have got the same grammatical structure to that of the Agaw, but enriched by different terms and vocabularies from the Hebrew, Arab and Yemenite Hebrew. This fact is the basic ground for the recent argument regarding, specially Amharinya, in clarifying the question whether it is a Cushitic or a Semitic language. The answer is already given by some linguists, who tried to designate Amharinya as a ‘Semitized Cushitic language.’ It was stated in literature that Amharinya was the creation of the Abyssinian ruling class around 1270. It seems that the monarchs in Ankober started to use this language just for the sake of distancing themselves from the common people they did rule (from the Agaw and the Oromo). It is similar to the truly historical process of creating a French language and its usage by the monarchs of the old Germans (e.g. by the Franken) just to have a privileged position vis-à-vis the common people, who used to speak Deutsch (German language). German monarchs used to speak French, which could be seen as parallel to the Oromo monarchs, who preferred Amharinya as their working language. That means Amharinya was equivalent to French (as a language of the ruling class), and Afaan Oromo was the same to Deutsch (as a language of the common citizens).
Amharinya getting this privileged position became the superstratum on the substratum of either Agawinya or Afaan Oromo. Amharinya significantly influenced both substrata to the extent that most Agawinya speakers lost their own Cushitic language, whereas the Oromo tried to defend their language against such influence. The main mechanism used to destroy the Agawinya was the discrimination and the stigmatization of its speakers so that they felt inferior to the Amharinya speakers. To be privileged as a ruling class, the common citizens had to give up their language of the common and strive to learn the language of the monarchs. Also in practice, those who assimilated themselves into the Amharinya-speaking community have gotten the expected privilege and profit, which the ruling class reserved for its own group. This same method was also applied to the Oromo, so that the assimilated Oromo always could be treated as part of the Abyssinian ruling class and got the powerful positions, even to the extent of being kings and presidents of the Ethiopian empire.
Despite such mechanism of assimilation, the Oromo people resisted and preserved our culture and language to some extent. Even though almost all Oromo nationals living in the north part of Oromia, as an immediate neighbors to the Abyssinianized Agaw, lost their priori language, they could save their Oromo culture from being extinct. This is what we have already observed among the Raayya-, Wallo- and Yejju-Oromo. For the sake of resisting the Abyssinianization process, which is mostly considered to be equivalent to the Christianization through the Orthodox church, these part of the Oromo people accepted Islam as their own religion and with that distanced themselves from the classical Abyssinians. Because of this step, they had to pay the sacrifice of being massacred by the Abyssinian warlord, Yohannes, and being discriminated by the other Abyssinian kings and rulers. This same process was applied in the whole Oromia after the invasion by the Abyssinian warlord, Minilk from Ankober, the town which was part and parcel of Oromia for it was the birth place of Obbo Guddisa, the grandfather of Haile-Sillasie.
It was such discrimination, Abyssinianization and stigmatization of the common citizens, which led to the start of the coordinated national liberation movement of the Oromo people. In fact, the Oromo people have been in liberation struggle since the beginning of the cultural and political influence by the immigrants from Yemen calling themselves Habashat. The 16th century Oromo “migration” being part of the liberation movement, the Oromo did fight against the Abyssinian invaders, especially since the end of the 19th century. The Oromo leaders, who declared Afaan Oromo be the working language of the monarchy in Gondar palace, were part of this Oromo national resistance against the Abyssinianization process. The movements, like that of Raayya, Bale, Macaa and Tullama, Afran Qallo, Me’ison, Ici’at, and the well formulated as well as organized liberation movement led, especially by the OLF, can also be given as an example of the resistance. These movements could help the Oromo to cope better than the Agaw people, who could not survive as such, but now need to revive their priori identity.
Interestingly, the politically conscious Agaw nationals have already started this revival movement. The sub-groups, like Bilen, Awi and Waag-Xamta, have already started to use their own language and to be proud of being part of the Agaw nation, despite all pressures and subjugation from their Abyssinianized neighbors. The Qemant/Kemant around Gondar are now demanding the same self-determination to develop and use their own language as well as to rule themselves, being free from the Abyssinian oppressors. Those who already lost their priori identity, like the Lasta-Lalibela of western Wallo, the Wayixo around Bahirdar, the Gafat of the whole eastern Gojjam and southern Gondar, the Kunfal of western Gojjam, the Bejjaa-Midir (Begemidir), the Quara and the Semien of the western and northern Gondar, the Axumites and the Abergele of western Tigrai, are now trying to come back to their true self and resurrect their lost language, instead of being seen as Amhara and Tegaru, which is actually their false self. They have now started to assert like the famous South African freedom fighter, Steve Biko, once said: “you can beat or jail or even kill me, but I am not going to be what you want me to be.” Here, he rejected the false self imposed on him and he was determined to keep and maintain his true self.
The question now to be asked should be: is such renaissance of the Agaw identity possible? The answer is in short, ‘yes,’ but to be successful, this traumatized nation is now in a desperate need of help from its brotherly Cushitic nations, like the Oromo, the Somali, the Sidama and the Afar. Speaking Amharinya and Tigrinya does not make these people other than being Agaw. Just like the Brazilians are not Portuguese by speaking the language of their colonizer, the Agaw people can not be non-Agaw for not speaking their priori language. If they want to revive their true identity, all the Agaw nationals first need to be politically conscious. I personally think and believe that people in Abyssinia are the Abyssinianized parts of the Cushitic Afar, Beja, Agaw, Saho and Oromo (ABASO), who denied their true self. To mention as further examples, the southern part of Tigrai (the Raayya) are Oromo, the eastern part are Afar, the north-eastern part are Saho and the rest are Agaw. Regarding Eritrea, the western part are mostly the Abyssinianized Bejjaa, the center as well as the southern part are the Abyssinianized Agaw and the eastern part are the Abyssinianized as well as the non-Abyssinianized Saho and Afar.
If, especially the Agaw nation, starts to resurrect and revive its true self, this is what we can call as part of the true Cushitic Ethiopian renaissance or in short Cush renaissance. Some Abyssinians mistakenly do talk about this renaissance by making it to be the same as a continuation and strengthening of the Abyssinianization process. Meles Zenawi’s rhetoric about the Ethiopian renaissance is such a classical misconception. If he really is serious, then he had to promote and support the Agaw people of Abyssinia come back to their true self. Such de-Abyssinianization (giving up the false self) or re-Cushitization (coming back to the true self) is what we can accept and respect as the genuine Ethiopian renaissance. This phenomenon must be coupled with a revival of the Agaw cultural and national identity. Actually all Abyssinians, including the Abyssinianized Oromo, should have entertained this attempt of finding true self by putting their false self in question.
Here, I must stress that, not only the Abyssinianized Agaw, but also the Abyssinianized Oromo of the north Shoa in Amhara region, east Wallo, south Tigrai and south Gojjam, should try to resurrect their true identity. I know that most of them did not lose their Cushitic culture, but surely they had already lost their Afaan Oromo. Now, it is the right time for them to try to find their priori identity, and say ‘no’ to the ongoing entertainment of the false self. I am sure, if they count back seven generation of their ancestors, they all can find who they really are, instead of just looking at the language they do now speak and identify themselves as Amhara or Tegaru. Also, this lost part of the Oromo community need the necessary help of the politically conscious Oromo nationalists.
The movements of the Agaw and the Oromo people against the hitherto and the ongoing Abyssinianization process can synergize each other, if the two brotherly nations try to work together. It is a good sign that the Abyssinianized Agaw and the Abyssinianized Oromo nowadays started to call themselves as Amhara – instead of hiding behind the already contaminated identity called ‘Ethiopian.’ But now, they have to move further and ask: who is Abesha/Abyssinian in general, and who is Amhara in particular? Till now I read two authors writing on such question and topic regarding the Amhara. Both versions are diametrically opposite, yet the attempt of the authors to answer this question is good. I encourage every Amhara and Tegaru to ask her-/himself: ‘who is my true self’? Surely, the majority of them can find the reality of being a descendant of Agaw or Oromo, or that of the other Cushitic nations.
If this process of finding and getting one’s true self will continue, definitely in the future, both Agaw-Midir (which is wrongly designated as the Axum empire, Abyssinia, Ethiopia or Amhara-Tigrai) and Biyya-Oromo, can be a very good peaceful neighboring states under the common home – the African Union (the future African Federation). This can be a common vision for both the Agaw people and the Oromo nationals, if they want to struggle together and get rid of the currently ruling Abyssinian tormentors, who are still promoting the de-Agawianization and the de-Oromonization towards the false self of being an Ethiopian, the code name for the Abyssinianization process. I think both Agawinnet and Oromummaa, as the respective true self of the two brotherly nations and as an anti-dote against Abyssinianism, must be further developed and promoted in order to get rid of being Abyssinian (the false self of the Abyssinianized Cushites).
All the Cushitic nations of the region in general, and the Abyssinianized Agaw in particular, need to rally behind the common vision of a future good neighborhood. Only a sort of supra-national union of independent nations, like the free Agaw-Midir, Oromia, Afar-Saho, Somalia and Sidama, under certain common name, call it Cush Community, Ethiopian union, or Horn Confederation can be the lasting and optimal solution for the complicated political situation of the region. That is why Oromian independence is indispensable and even Agaw-Midir’s independence is possible. Oromo nationalists need to work on this process and project. All the Cushites, including the Agaw people, need to come back to their priori identity in order to galvanize the national liberation movement against the rule of the elites with such false self, who are the worst servants of alien forces as we do still see in case of the Woyane. If all the stakeholders in the region will agree in having a sort of independent nations’ union (Cush Community); surely, both Agaw-Midir and Biyya-Oromo will be the strongest pillars of the union, just as France and Germany are to the European Union.
By getting victory over these servants of the alien forces, who have already denied their true nature, all the brotherly Cushitic nations and all the members of Cush Community in the Horn, including the non-Cushitic minor nationalities in the region can live in the future with all the necessary harmony and peace. To this effect, what is important above all things is the renaissance of the lost good values, like the Gadaa democracy of the Oromo and the true national identity of the Agaw. This approach of helping Agaw’s identity resurrection is one way of tackling the dictatorial culture of the Abyssinian elites. That is why Oromo nationalists have to promote the national revival struggle of the Agaw people, because of the fact that Agaw’s renaissance in turn will be the best support for the Oromo national liberation movement. We just ought to start this virtuous cycle, which really can have a positive feedback for the Oromo struggle. May Rabbi/Waaqa help the Agaw nation resurrect its priori identity and revive its own national culture and language.
Galatooma!
* Fayyis Oromia can be reached at fayyis@yahoo.de. http://gadaa.com/oduu/13869/2012/05/28/agaw-midir-ethiopia-renaissance-of-agaw-peoples-priori-identity-as-a-support-for-the-oromo-national-liberation-struggle/

Ethiopia: ‘Special Police’ Execute 10

Investigate Paramilitary Abuses, Permit Access to Closed-Off Somali Region 

Refugee women and children in Somaliland who  fled thier
homes in Ethiopia as a result of a "Liyu police" operation,
April 2012. Ben Rawlence/Human Rights Watch

May 28, 2012 (Nairobi) – An Ethiopian government-backed paramilitary force summarily executed 10 men during a March 2012 operation in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region. Detailed information on the killings and other abuses by the force known as the “Liyu police” only came to light after a Human Rights Watch fact-finding mission to neighboring Somaliland in April.

On March 16 a Liyu police member fatally shot a resident of Raqda village, in the Gashaamo district of Somali region, who was trying to protect a fellow villager. That day, men from Raqda retaliated by killing seven Liyu police members, prompting a reprisal operation by dozens of Liyu police in four villages on March 16 and 17. During this operation the Liyu police force summarily executed at least 10 men who were in their custody, killed at least 9 residents in ensuing gunfights, abducted at least 24 men, and looted dozens of shops and houses.

“The killing of several Liyu police members doesn’t justify the force’s brutal retaliation against the local population,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Liyu police abuses in Somali region show the urgent need for the Ethiopian government to rein in this lawless force.”

The Ethiopian government should hold those responsible for the killings and other abuses to account and prevent future abuses by the force.

Ethiopian authorities created the Liyu (“special” in Amharic) police in the Somali region in 2007 when an armed conflict between the insurgent Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the government escalated. By 2008 the Liyu police became a prominent counterinsurgency force recruited and led by the regional security chief at that time, Abdi Mohammed Omar (known as “Abdi Illey”), who is now the president of Somali Regional State.

The Liyu police have been implicated in numerous serious abuses against civilians throughout the Somali region in the context of counterinsurgency operations. The legal status of the force is unclear, but credible sources have informed Human Rights Watch that members have received training, uniforms, arms, and salaries from the Ethiopian government via the regional authorities.

Human Rights Watch spoke to 30 victims, relatives of victims, and witnesses to the March incidents from four villages who had fled across the border to Somaliland and who gave detailed accounts of the events.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that on the evening of March 16 the Liyu police returned to Raqda following the clashes with the community earlier in the day that left seven police force members dead. The next morning, March 17, the Liyu police rounded up 23 men in Raqda and put them into a truck heading towards Galka, a neighboringvillage. Along the way the Liyu police stopped the truck, ordered five randomly selected men to descend, and shot them by the roadside. “It was three police who shot them,” a detainee told Human Rights Watch. “They shot them in the forehead and shoulder: three bullets per person.”

Also on March 17, at about 6 a.m., Liyu police in two vehicles opened an assault on the nearby village of Adaada. Survivors of the attack and victims’ relatives described Liyu police members going house to house searching for firearms and dragging men from their homes. The Liyu police also started shooting in the air. Local residents with arms and the Liyu police began fighting and at least four villagers were killed. Many civilians fled the village.

After several hours the Liyu police left but later returned when villagers came back to the village to bury those killed earlier that day. Fighting resumed in the afternoon and at least another five villagers were killed. The Liyu police took another four men from their homes and summarily executed them. A woman whose brother was a veterinarian told Human Rights Watch: “They caught my brother and took him outside. They shot him in the head and then slit his throat.”

For five days Liyu police also deployed outside Langeita, another village in the district, and restricted people’s movement. The Liyu police carried out widespread looting of shops and houses in at least two of the villages, residents said.

Human Rights Watch received an unconfirmed report that following the incidents local authorities arrested three Liyu police members. However it is unclear whether the members have been charged or whether further investigations have taken place.

The Ethiopian government’s response to reports of abuses in the Somali region has been to severely restrict or control access for journalists, aid organizations, human rights groups, and other independent monitors. Ethiopia’s regional and federal government should urgently facilitate access for independent investigations of the events by independent media and human rights investigators, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial and summary executions.

“For years the Ethiopian government has jailed and deported journalists for reporting on the Somali region,” Lefkow said. “Donor countries should call on Ethiopia to allow access to the media and rights groups so abuses can’t be hidden away.”

Liyu Police Abuses, March 2012

Summary Executions and Killings
Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses and relatives of the victims who described witnessing at least 10 summary executions by the Liyu police on March 16 and 17. The actual number may be higher.

On March 16 in Raqda, a Liyu police member shot dead Abdiqani Abdillahi Abdi after he intervened to stop the paramilitary from harassing and beating another villager. Several villagers heard the Liyu police member saying to Abdiqani, “What can you do for him?” and then heard the shot.

The shooting ignited a confrontation between the Liyu police and the local community. The nine Liyu police who were deployed in Raqda then left via the road to the neighboring village of Adaada. A number of Raqda residents, including members of Abdiqani’s family, took their weapons, went after the Liyu police, and reportedly killed seven of them in a confrontation that followed.

The next morning, on March 17 at around 11 a.m., the Liyu police selected five men from a group of 23 men they had detained in Raqda and were taking towards Galka village in a truck. The Liyu police forced the five men to sit by the roadside and then shot them. Another detainee described what happened:

In between Galka and Raqda they stopped the truck. There were four other Liyu police vehicles accompanying the truck. This was around 11 a.m. They told five of us to get out of the lorry. They [randomly] ordered five out – none in particular. The man standing near the lorry ordered them to “Kill them, shoot them.” It was three police who shot them. They shot them in the forehead and shoulder: three bullets per person.

Another detainee saw the five being shot in the head and said the Liyu police threatened the remaining detainees, saying, “We will kill you all like this.”

The same day the Liyu police summarily executed four men in Adaada, where they had carried out house-to-house searches that morning. In all four cases multiple witnesses described the victims as unarmed and in custody when they were shot, either in the neck or head, shortly after having been dragged from their homes.

Witnesses described the summary execution of a veterinarian. The Liyu police dragged him from his home and shot him in the head, but when they realized that he was not dead, they slit his throat. The veterinarian’s middle-aged sister told Human Rights Watch:

They entered the home and asked where the man responsible for the home was. There were seven of them. They caught my brother and took him outside. They shot him in the head and then slit his throat. After killing him, they asked my niece where her father’s rifle was, but she could not find the keys and they hit her on the back of the shoulder with the butt of a gun.

Witnesses also told Human Rights Watch that a teenage boy was dragged from his uncle’s home, taken nearby, momentarily interrogated, and then shot. One witness heard him reciting a prayer before being killed. His body was left on the ground near a trash dump. A third victim, an elderly man, was taken from outside his home, interrogated for a short time, and then shot while standing. Several witnesses heard him pleading with the police to spare his life. The fourth victim was also taken from his home and shot shortly after.

At least nine other men were killed by the Liyu police in Adaada, but the circumstances of their deaths are unclear. There was armed resistance to the Liyu police attack, and some of the nine may have been armed. However, according to witnesses, the Liyu police shot several men, in the upper body and head, who were trying to escape. Two men fleeing were reportedly run over by Liyu police vehicles.

Abductions, Torture, and Ill-Treatment
During the house searches in Adaada, the Liyu police abducted a number of village men and tortured and mistreated several people, including at least three women.

An Adaada resident, one of the first to be taken from his home on the morning of March 17, described to Human Rights Watch his treatment by the Liyu police:

They entered and told my wife to shut up. Four men entered the house with four waiting outside. They came over to me and took me. They also took the gun from my house. They hit me with the butt of a gun and took me to a small river near my home. They tied a belt around my neck. I lost consciousness. They threw me in a berket [small water hole] that was 15 meters deep and then they threw branches over me. There was mud in the berket. I managed to climb up when I woke up.

The Liyu police seriously beat at least three women during house searches in Adaada. A young woman said that Liyu police members who had entered her home beat her after she told them that her husband was absent: “They said I was lying, they kicked me and crushed my head with the back of the gun. I had some injuries in my kidney. I lost a tooth.”

Three men who had been abducted in Raqda on March 17 told Human Rights Watch they were each detained for nine days. During the first 24 hours they were without water. For four days the Liyu police drove them around in an open truck between villages and towns in an apparent attempt to hide them from local residents, and possibly also from federal authorities.

During the first four days of their detention they were beaten by the police with sticks and gun butts. On at least two occasions the paramilitaries guarding them threatened to execute them. However, disagreements among the Liyu police on how to proceed apparently saved the men’s lives. One former detainee told Human Rights Watch:

We were driving around different villages and some of the police said they should release us because the federal government will give them problems, they will discipline us, as we have committed a crime. Others said, “Let us kill all 24.” There were different ideas among the police.

After four days in the truck they were detained for at least another four days out in the sun near the village of Langeita, where they received only minimal food and water. After that the Liyu police took them to Gashaamo, where they were released on March 25 as a result of negotiations between the regional government and clan elders.

Looting
Residents of Adaada and Langeita described widespread looting of property, food, and money from shops and houses by the Liyu police. Six villagers who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that their own houses, belongings, and property had been looted on March 17.

A 45-year-old woman from Langeita said that the Liyu police moved around the village in groups of five to seven and entered 10 stores. Two or three would enter a shop and steal shoes, clothes, drinks, and food. Two women said they could not return to their villages because they had lost all their property.

Reports from local authorities in neighbouring Somaliland suggest that discussions have taken place between clan elders from the affected villages and the regional authorities to negotiate a solution to the situation. None of the local residents who spoke with Human Rights Watch had current plans to return to their homes.

Background
Ethiopia’s Somali region has been the site of a low-level insurgency by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) for more than a decade. The ONLF, an ethnic Somali armed movement largely supported by members of the Ogaden clan, has sought greater political autonomy for the region. Following the ONLF’s April 2007 attack on the oil installation in Obole, which resulted in the deaths of 70 civilians and the capture of several Chinese oil workers, the Ethiopian government carried out a major counterinsurgency campaign in the five zones of the region primarily affected by the conflict.

Human Rights Watch’s June 2008 report of its investigation into abuses in the conflict found that the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the ONLF had committed war crimes between mid-2007 and early 2008, and that the Ethiopian armed forces could be responsible for crimes against humanity based on the patterns of executions, torture, rape, and forced displacement.

These abuses have never been independently investigated. Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry initiated an inquiry in late 2008 in response to the Human Rights Watch report, but that inquiry failed to meet the basic requirements of independence, timeliness, and confidentiality that credible investigations require. The government has repeatedly ignored calls for an independent inquiry into the abuses in the region.

Since the escalation of fighting in 2007 the Ethiopian government has imposed tight controls on access to Somali region for independent journalists and human rights monitors. In July 2011 two Swedish journalists who entered the region to report on the conflict were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 11 years in prison under Ethiopia’s vague and overbroad anti-terrorism law.

Gashaamo district, where the March 2012 events took place, is in Dhagabhur zone, one of the five affected by the conflict. However, it was not an area directly affected by fighting in previous years, and is largely populated by members of the ethnic Somali Isaaq clan, who are not generally perceived to be a source of support for the ONLF. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/28/ethiopia-special-police-execute-10

Marching to the Same Beat: The Uniformity of Thought in Ethiopia

By Seble Teweldebirhan

Addis Ababa, May 24, 2012 (Ezega.com) - It is amusing to observe what constitutes valuable information in Ethiopian public media. Those who follow the media closely might be compelled to think nothing bad ever happens in the country or in the world for that matter.  If one fails to follow other news outlets, it might come as a surprise how a country growing on a daily basis can have on absolute consensus of the society that is getting tougher to live in everyday.

What qualifies as news appears to have a direct relationship with whatever policy the country is trying to implement. However, what qualifies as foreign news worthy of covering in Ethiopian public media is still unclear. ETV and other news agencies broadcast news about Chinese car accident or a Malaysian farmer success story. While people are expecting some update on what is going on in Greece or Syria, the media may congratulate a mother who gave birth to the biggest baby or talk about a man who can’t stop growing.

Some suggest that the public media is using the same criteria for foreign news as it does to home news. It is trying to be ‘developmental’ and follow ‘positive journalism’. However, for the majority who rely on public media to update their perception of the world, it is deprivation of information.

There is not much agreement among scholars about the basic elements of the right to information. From the outset, the understanding is that the right to information includes freedoms like free expression and access to information by the public upon request. Accordingly, these rights are simple rights, which means all states have to do is refrain from interfering in the exercise of these rights. Therefore, whether the right to information includes duties on government to provide timely information without a specific request is a topic for a debate.

However, in this age of globalization, information is a necessity element to live a minimally good life. People should have not only mere information, but also quality information including accuracy, and completeness. Naturally, as Aristotle tried to articulate centuries ago, people have a strong desire to know. Individuals, deliberately or not, enjoy knowing new things and discover the unknown. That is the reason for the continual progress of humanity.

Leaders, including PM Meles Zenawi, refer to the global situations understood only by limited number of the society to justify most of their actions. Inflation, climate change, extremism and many other contemporary issues are defended based on international norms or legitimacy. Government also employ several imported theories like democracy, capitalism, neo-liberalism, economic growth with a double-digit and so many other confusing concepts even for those who came up with them.

In addition, notions like transformation and renaissance are used as a logo with no briefing or explanation to their effect. The media uses these terms sometimes without bothering to translate them to local languages let alone put them in context. People do understand these terms relate to the celebrated economic growth. However, since the growth lacks visibility to many, the terms mostly fail to be understood seriously.

The academic curriculum in the country does not address critical matters properly. For that matter, the majority of the audiences are illiterate. Accordingly, the policies government is trying to implement remain strange concepts. People are just repeating what it has been said without understanding the real meanings. Indeed, those who repeat these things are considered pro-development and benefit from their actions. For the rest of the society, this may give the impression they know what they are talking.

Unfortunately, in Ethiopia, pursuing solid knowledge like politics has always been seen as the enemy. The religion, government, and culture all stand against decisive awareness and understanding of alternatives. The pursuit of new insight and keen perception face a challenge of condemnation. People are appreciated only when they know what is already determined as something they should know. Following, instead of thinking ahead, is the basis for societal approval. Deep analysis and prediction are sometimes considered superstitious.

Of course, basic institutions of the nation have their own selfish interests to lead a campaign for new knowledge. Religion fears that if people know certain thing is unreasonable and unjustified myth in societal map, it will be rejected. Politicians are suspicious of those who realize better ways of leadership since the only guarantee for their power is if people do not have other alternatives. Keeping people in the dark is the best strategy to win elections every time.  Cultural leaders and elders enjoy extensive power by controlling what ever goes on in individual lives of their members. They would not want to lose their control by letting their youth know they have a choice.

As a result, in Ethiopia, most people do not speak their mind, or have the required capacity even if they want too. Especially in the political sphere, officials are spoon-fed words and concepts, and they give ready-made answers for whatever question. The worst part is the media picks up these answers and present them in the form of news. Sometimes, it is difficult whether the official or the reporter came up with these answers, since they both seem to say the same thing.

Media, mainly controlled by government, culture and indirectly by religious viewpoints, appears to be incapable of coming out of these illusions and provide the society with useful and comprehensive information.

Indeed, engaging in world events and analyzing them has its own risk in the current setup of public media. Since most theories are interpreted in a manner that fits the politics, media might be scared of inconsistency. In order to escape this contradiction, when it comes to foreign news, the media takes the safe road and stick to soft news. The attitude is that explaining what is happening in other nations politically, economically and socially, might jeopardize one’s business or even safety. Therefore, it is better to leave imported theories in the box unexplained to the very people who are told to live by them.

In a country where the schooling is a little more than learning basic alphabets and only a limited percentage of people attend higher education, the media should have been involved in spreading knowledge and indicate the real alternatives. Unfortunately, the public media reflects the known insecurity of basic institutions in the country that say ‘what will happen if people are informed?’ http://www.ezega.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?Page=heads&NewsID=3298