Family Demands Justice after 28-year Ethiopian Engineer was Shot and Killed by Police in Los Angeles

Family of Zelalem Eshetun Ewnetu, a 28-year old Ethiopian engineer who was shot and killed by police in Los Angeles is asking for answers concerning the events that led to his death.

Los Angeles Times had reported that the county sheriff’s deputies were responding to a vehicle burglary call about 1:15AM on Wednesday April 12, 2017, around 91st Street and Compton Avenue when they spotted his car with its trunk open.

According to Deputy Guillermina Saldaña, as officers approached the vehicle, they could smell marijuana, and when they asked the person in it (Zelalem) to come out he refused.

Saldaña said when an officer held Zelalem’s hand in order to escort him out of the vehicle, he pulled away and reached for his gun. That was when officers shot him in the torso and he died.

The family has said that the story from the police does not convey the full story, adding that a detective had told them that the gun was recovered from the trunk of his car and there were two bullet holes in the back of the car. Read more here

ETHIOPIAN OFFICIALS HIT BACK AT OLYMPIC ATHLETE PLANNING LONDON MARATHON PROTEST

The Ethiopian Embassy in London has hit back at exiled Ethiopian athlete Feyisa Lilesa, who vowed to protest against his country’s government at the London marathon on Sunday.

Olympic silver medallist Lilesa made headlines last year after he crossed his arms over his head at the Rio de Janeiro marathon—a symbol of resistance Oromo people widely used during anti-government protests last year—as he passed the finish line in the marathon race at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The 27-year-old told BBC's Sport Today on Thursday that “blood is flowing” in Ethiopia.

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Rio Olympic marathon silver medal winner Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia arrives at a news conference in Washington, DC, on September 13, 2016.GARY CAMERON/REUTERS

Speaking to Newsweek, an Embassy spokesperson dismissed Lilesa’s remarks as “fairy tales.”

“The blood is not flowing,” the spokesperson said. “These are, as usual, unsubstantiated claims, a way to romanticize what happened.

“He [Lilesa] is entitled to express his opinion, he can say anything. He can return to Ethiopia and no-one would touch him. But the problem is that there are radical people behind this and the diaspora is using him for their own political agenda.”

Demonstrations broke out in the Oromia region of Ethiopia in November 2015 and later spread to the Amhara region, growing into what has been considered the biggest anti-government unrest in Ethiopia’s recent history. Protesters argued for a greater inclusion in the political process, claiming they had been marginalized, as the government is dominated by the Tigray minority, and called for the release of political prisoners.

The protests resulted in the deaths of 669 people, including 63 policemen, according to a report released by Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission earlier in April. Rights groups have accused security forces of killing hundreds, opening fire on unarmed protesters and arbitrarily arresting  protesters, journalists and human rights defenders during the unrest.

While the country’s Human Rights Commission recommended prosecution of some police officers, it maintained that the overall response by security forces was adequate.   

The commission said the protests were caused by a lack of good governance, but claimed organizations such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and Oromia Media Network called for illegal demonstrations and caused ethnic-based attacks.

Rights groups have voiced concerns about the commission’s report, suggesting it fails to give an accurate picture of the security forces’ responsibility for the casualties.

“The conclusion that security forces used appropriate levels of force in most situations is in stark contrast to what every other organization who has investigated has found,” Felix Horne, Ethiopia and Eritrea Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch told Newsweek.

“They should immediately release a full version of their report to see how they arrived at what seems like another politically-motivated conclusion.”   

The United Nations and the European Union have expressed the will to conduct investigations into the violent unrest, but Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn rejected such calls.

“The Ethiopian government historically has avoided scrutiny of its human rights record at all levels—from courtrooms to the national commission to international mechanisms,” Horne said.

“[The country’s government] has regularly stated that it can investigate itself through the Human Right Commission, but it has consistently failed to do so and Commission-led investigations have not met basic standards of impartiality.”

Earlier this month, Desalegn told the BBC that Ethiopian sovereignty should be respected and that the Human Rights Commission’s investigation was the only way of dealing with the issue.

Following his protest in Rio de Janeiro last year, Lilesa sought asylum in the U.S., claiming his life would be at risk if he returned to his homeland. The Ethiopian government has always denied such allegations Read more here

State enterprises can be efficient – Ethiopian minister

Dr. Arkebe Oqubay, a minister and special advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, has dismissed the argument that state enterprises are inefficient and corrupt.
 
Oqubay was speaking at the recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) public dialogue on promoting green growth and sustainable industrialisation in Uganda at Imperial Royale Hotel. He was the keynote speaker at the event.

He noted that the government in Ethiopia is disciplined and ensures that state enterprises run efficiently without corruption.

He cited the mobile telecommunications sector as a cash cow which the Ethiopian government refused to privatise. 

He revealed that the money generated from telecoms in Ethiopia is being used to build the standard gauge railway. 

He also attributed Ethiopia's low power tariffs to the government's ownership of the utility companies considered strategic and priority sectors.

The trade minister, Amelia Kyambadde said mistakes were made during Uganda’s liberalisation when telecoms and power companies were privatised. 

The minister said the privatization of power companies has made power tariffs expensive. 

She asked for more incentives to be given to domestic industries to spur growth and not to depend on foreign direct investment, because it has not transformed Uganda. - See more at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1451680/enterprises-efficient-ethiopian-minister#sthash.mIKhJizP.dpuf 

Take a look at the plans for the new Ethiopian cultural garden

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cultural Garden Federation approved plans for a new Ethiopian cultural garden to take root along Martin Luther King Dr., the first of the gardens to pay tribute to an African nation. 

The design features a wall with designs by an Ethiopian artist and a replica of a stele, a structure used as a memorial in ancient Ethiopia. The garden's goal is to pay tribute to Ethiopia as a birthplace of civilization, said Scott Embacher, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Cultural Garden Committee.

Blueprints for the Ethiopian Cultural Gardens (Ethiopian Cultural Garden Committee) 

The garden also will include a replica of a rock-hewn Lalibelan church door. The 11 churches in Lailibela mark the pilgrimage site for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Both the stele and the doorway will be sandstone, according to designs. 

The Menelik Hall Foundation, an Ethiopian history and culture educational group, also worked on getting the garden established. The process began two years ago, and organizers were vying for one of two plots left in the cultural gardens, where there are more than 30 members. 

Now the group has to raise money for the garden. The approximate cost will be $250,000 and construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2017, Embacher said. 

The gardens also include a African-American cultural garden, which completed its first phase in June of last year. 

Embacher said the gardens skew Euro-centric, and that the Ethiopian cultural garden is the first tribute of its kind. It will appeal to Ethiopian communities across the country as well as Cleveland's active Ethiopian community, he added.

The garden will be located south of the Irish cultural gardens, before the Chinese cultural gardens. 

(Ethiopian Cultural Garden Committee) 

Plants planned to be included in the garden are catnip, seven sons tree, prickly pear cactus, Japanese Blood Grass, Tupelo Tower Block Gum and Montauk Daisy.

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Renderings of the new Ethiopian Cultural Gardens (Ethiopian Cultural Garden Committee)

Trade Is Moving Ethiopia Forward

Old wisdom was that foreign aid was a great strategy to help move Africa forward. This seems to have changed. Trade is the new foreign aid to the continent, one blessed with young population, ample resources and a better investment environment.

Ethiopia, once a place for the world's pity, is now transforming itself to an investment hub. That is a good thing. There are many foreign investors venturing in to the country looking for investment opportunities, complementing the diaspora and the locals that are taking advantage of a better investment environment in the country.

The foreign investors. The Indians and textiles. The Japanese and road construction. The Europeans and fresh-cut flowers. The Chinese and mega-building construction -- including airports and air technology. The Turks and the railroads linking the country from coast to coast.

Africa is surely moving in the right direction.

The contribution of the Turkish industry, in particular Yapi Merkezi, was recently noted and celebrated by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in Addis Ababa earlier this month. They are doing important work in Ethiopia.

It has been involved in the construction of Awash, in particular the Kombolcha and Hara Gebaya Railway, and employs more than 4,500 people in Ethiopia alone. The inception of the railway system was celebrated two years ago in the presence of Ethiopia's prime minister, Haile Mariam Desalegn.

These are good developments in a continent that is seeing brighter days.

This was the first time Yapi Merkezi had undertaken such a mega project in Africa, though it had taken similar projects in Dubai, Istanbul, Ankara and Casablanca. The Ethiopian ambassador in Turkey, Ayalew Gobezi, publicly acknowledged how Turkey is an agent of change and progress in the continent.

In bestowing the honour, the assembly noted the 52-year-old company's "significant contributions in knowledge and technology transfer to Ethiopia." The project is valued at $1.7 billion and it is 400km long. It is to complement Ethiopia's desire to fulfill its strategic vision of Growth and Transformation Plan.

This is to be a joint project of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation, funded by Turkish EX-IM Bank and Credit Suisse and the government of Ethiopia. The long-term vision of the project is to help transform Ethiopia's agriculture sector, connecting the nation's agricultural producers in the northern and central regions and to port facilities.

The company was also recently awarded with a major contract to help transform theDar es Salaam - Morogoro Railway this week. This is to build the fastest train in the region, costing just over US$1 billion. It is said to be about 1,300km long and will connect Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, and provide access to the Indian Ocean from East Africa. This is expected to help promote exchanges of goods move faster and make it easier to do business among the countries.

These are good developments in a continent that is seeing brighter days, despite noted challenges and difficulties.