“We are not against their doctrine; what they are doing by organizing themselves underground is a crime against the constitution,” said Shiferaw Teklemariam, Minister of Federal Affairs.

The minister made the remark at a daylong workshop prepared for local journalists and public relation officers of the government at the Federal Police Headquarter here in Addis Ababa over the weekend.

Wahabi Muslim extremists have been invading mosques in the country with causing violence that resulted in death and injuries of other non- Wahabi Muslims sect followers, according to the minister, who mentioned the crisis witnessed in Harar, Gimma, Wellega, Illubabor and Bale areas of the country over the past years.

The group have been working in secrete to make Ethiopia a Muslim nation that will be ruled by Shriya law by abusing the rights of religion stated in the constitution of the country. “As such acts of Wahabi Muslim extremists will lead the country in chaos, the government is forced to intervene,” the minister said.

According to the Ethiopian constitution government and religion are separate and one will not interfere into business of the other. While people are free to choose the religion they want to follow. In addition it also states that there will be no state religion in Ethiopia and all religions are equal.

Contrary to this, the government has now found that the Wahabi Muslim extremists have been working underground to make Ethiopia a Muslim nation by violating the rights of other people to believe in what ever they want.

“We have found evidences and pamphlets were publicly distributed during the month of Ramadan calling on the Muslim community to stand up against all non- Wahabi Muslims and other religion followers,” he said.

Wahabi sect is a member of a strictly orthodox Sunni Muslim sect from Saudi Arabia. The doctrine strives to purify Islamic beliefs and rejects any innovation occurring after the 3rd century of Islam; “Osama bin Laden is said to be a Wahhabi Muslim”.

Religion and Faith Director General at the Ministry, Meressa Reda on his part said: “At the moment our main duty is to save the innocent Muslims who being led to the traps of religious conflict in Ethiopia orchestrated by these Wahabi Muslim extremists”.

Implementing Constitution without Rules
From the public transport to streets, from government offices to universities, different religion extremists have been abusing the rights of people who also have the right not to follow any of these religions.

The fact that Ethiopia has not yet put in place proclamations, rules and manuals on how to use freedom of religion and faith written on the constitution is mentioned as one of the reasons that allowed people to abuse these rights.

[Local media journalists and PR from government institutions attending the workshop, October 7, 2011- Photo newbusinessethiopia.com] At the moment one there is no clear rule which areas are for preaching religion and what kinds of precautions has to be taken in order to avoid the peace of other citizens who do not belong to that specific religion.

There is no clear demarcation between residence areas and noisy religious practices at any time of the day and night. If one generous person of a certain religion gives his home to the followers, they can automatically convert it to worshiping institutions violating the rights of other people who used to live peacefully.

As a result most of the dominant religions in the country are engaged in underground zero sum intra and inter religion war. If one religion follower put a giant speaker on a four wheel drive car and disturbs the city with limitless volume, its competitor comes with a larger truck and speaker to annoy the city.

There is no rule in place that will protect the peace and health of the people who are not interested in any religion.

Some of the participants of the workshop also described most of these religious institutions as the most corrupt and failed institutions to serve even their followers properly. Many agree that if the institutions were properly managed at least the lives of the poor Ethiopians from whom they collect money could have been better today.

Some people suggest that government has to approach these institutions and assist them in preparing and implementing transparent and accountable institution running guidelines by specifying clearly their role in poverty reduction in addition to the usual spiritual services they have been busy for centuries.

As a result of conflicts within or between or among these religion extremists is resulting in unnecessary bloodsheds and burning of mosques and churches. Some people advice that the government has to use early warning and protection mechanisms before such conflicts manifest.

External Interference

Arab Wahabi missionaries, mainly from Saudi Arabia, continue to make inroads into the Ethiopian Muslim community, but are meeting increasing resistance in doing so, according to a recent US cable released by Wikileaks. The indigenous Muslim culture (mainly Sufi Muslim community) has come under attack since 9/11 by Wahabi missionaries engaging in what amounts to cultural imperialism against Ethiopian Islam.

“Prior to 9/11, there was little Wahabi proselytizing in Ethiopia. As a result, Ethiopia’s delicate Muslim/Christian balance and historic attitudes between the faith communities regarding tolerance and mutual respect are being challenged, thereby undermining U.S. interests in the region. Sufi Muslim leaders want support from the U.S. to counter this pressure,” according to wikileaks.

The other part of US cable released August 30, 2011 stated that as part of the strategy of countering Wahabi influence through cultural programming the United States government has been doing different things in Ethiopia since 2006 to present.
The report indicated that the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) of the US government has granted to restore the Sheikh Hussein Shrine in Bale.

“In addition, AFCP grant to restore the Teferi Mekonnen Palace in Harar (although the childhood home of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Palace now houses the City Museum, which is heavily focused on Muslim life in Harar,” stated the cable entitled ‘Countering Wahabi Influences in Ethiopia Through Cultural Programs’.

Besides, AFCP grant to restore the Muhammad Ali House in Addis Ababa, the home of a prominent Muslim merchant that reflects the heavy influence of Muslim merchants and trade with the Middle and Far East in the 19th century, according to Wikileaks.

“When well-considered and executed creatively, cultural programming can make a real difference in turning back Islamic extremism and turning public opinion against activists who seek to overturn the existing order and import a brand of Islam that breeds conflict through its corrosive teachings that run counter to more orthodox interpretations of the Koran,” Ambassador Yamamato concludes in his July 2009 report.

“The international community should make long-term investments in agriculture, as the main source of food and income in the region, and in building sustainable infrastructure,” MEPs said in a resolution passed on Thursday. “Equally important is for small farmers to be given access to land, so as to bolster the local market and provide acceptable everyday food for people in the Horn of Africa, adds the resolution.”

MEPs say extra funds are needed to pay for food aid, healthcare, clean water and sanitation for 13 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Djibouti hit by conflict and the worst famine in 60 years.

Emergency aid should be rapidly scaled up to prevent any further worsening of humanitarian conditions in the Horn of Africa, according to the press statement newbusinessethiopia.com received from the Brussels-based communication department of European Parliament.

Humanitarian aid organizations should have “unhindered access” to those in need and humanitarian corridors should be opened up so that food and aid can get deeper into the affected areas, says the resolution, noting that the government of Eritrea, for example, denies access to any humanitarian aid for its people.

Somalia – Start Reconciliation
MEPs strongly condemn the actions of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, the hardest-hit country, where this organization obstructs the work of aid agencies. More than half of Somalia’s population depends on food aid, with 1.4 million internally-displaced persons and more than 700,000 acutely malnourished children in South Somalia.

MEPs call on foreign policy High Representative Catherine Ashton “to critically assess the Djibouti Peace Process”. They stress the need to involve all people affected by the conflict and stress the need to put in place a national reconciliation regime.

Donors Urged to Do More
Welcoming the commitments of the EU and its Member States, MEPs recall that the UN emergency appeal is still US$ 1 billion short of what is needed. Given the inadequacy of the funding available, MEPs appeal to the international community “to redouble its efforts to tackle this emergency, in order to meet the growing humanitarian needs and prevent a further deterioration of the situation”

The statement noted that the EU has so far, committed nearly 160 million Euros in humanitarian relief to the region in 2011, in addition, to 440 million Euros from Member States and more than 680 million Euros in long-term aid in the areas of agriculture, rural development and food security until 2013.

Guterres pointed to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, describing it as the worst situation he had seen in his time as high commissioner. He spoke of a visit he had made in July to Dollo Ado, in south-east Ethiopia, where he met a woman refugee named Musleema who had lost three of her six children in the flight from Somalia.

Humanitarian organizations, prevented from working in many areas of Somalia, were in little position to help, according to Guterres who Spoke at the opening of the annual meeting in Geneva of UNHCR’sgoverning Executive Committee.

“All of us could see this escalation coming from a long way away. Nonetheless, we, the international community, were slow to react tosigns that things were starting to deteriorate,” he said. “What is worse, we also didn’t have the capacity to prevent them from gettingthis bad in the first place.” Guterres said the international community needed to up its collective game to prevent conflict, to adapt to climate change and to better manage natural disasters.

“Unpredictability has become the name of the game. Crises are multiplying. Conflicts are becoming more complex. And solutions are proving to be more and more elusive,” he said. “In such challenging circumstances, we must recognize our shared responsibility. And we must exercise our shared commitment.”

This year has seen a succession of full-blown displacement and refugee crises, from Côte d’Ivoire, to uprisings in the Arab region, to theflight of hundreds of thousands of people from and within famine-stricken Somalia. Guterres paid tribute to all countries neighbouring this year’s crisis zones – in Africa, Europe and the Middle East – including for keeping their borders open, even under the pressure of large-scale refugee or migrant-related influxes.

But he also warned of the dangers of rising xenophobia, which he said was threatening the protection space available to refugees, according to the press statement newbusinessethiopia.com received from UNHCR.

“In my view, multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious societies are not only a good thing, they are inevitable,” he said. “Building tolerant and open communities is a slow and delicate process. But non-discrimination is a core human rights principle, and it
is the duty of all states to acknowledge and give effect to it. Refugees cannot become collateral damage of anti-immigrant attitudes and
policies.”

UNHCR relies on voluntary contributions for its work. In 2010, donors provided a record US$1.86 billion in contributions, and this amount is expected to be exceeded in 2011. Guterres acknowledged that the funding environment was nonetheless becoming more difficult and said UNHCR would be intensifying its efforts to broaden its income base, including by reaching out even more to the private sector for support.

He also appealed to the Executive Committee for better understanding of UNHCR’s need for flexibly earmarked funding to help the organization manage the many refugee crises it deals with in locations that receive few international headlines. Last year, 82 per cent of donor funding was partly or tightly restricted to specific situations or issues.

Guterres devoted much of his speech to the drive at UNHCR to improve efficiencies, and of efforts to strengthen the organization’s capacity to respond quickly and in a more structured way to fast-breaking crises and their aftermath. Since 2006, he said, UNHCR, had reduced its headquarters costs from 14 to 9 per cent of overall expenditure and staff costs from 41 per cent to 27 per cent.

The statement also noted that UNHCR aims to be able to respond, within 72 hours, to simultaneous emergencies affecting up to 600,000 people. To support this, the organization increased its emergency stockpiles in 2011 by 20 per cent, reinforced its capacity to deliver aid, increased the number of senior staff on standby for rapid deployment, and created new posts to help refugee protection. Guterres promised a new drive, over the next two years, to complement these measures with strengthened accountability and oversight.

“FDI can not be a foundation for a national economy. African countries have to give proper attention and incentives for domestic investment and capital formation,” said Professor Said Adejumobi, African Governance Report (AGR) Coordinator at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA’s).

He made the statement at experience sharing workshop organized over the weekend for journalists from different African countries for the upcoming AGR III in Nairobi, Kenya in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Quoting the findings the second edition of AGR II of 2009, he also noted that even though economic growth has been witnessed in many African countries; it has not been broad-based and inclusive. As a result, the number of people living under extreme poverty in Africa has increased.

Corruption and respect for constitution remain major challenges while opposition parties are muzzled in almost all African countries, according to the findings of AGR II of 2009. Parliaments in most of African countries remain week, while implementation of human rights is also a major challenge in almost all African countries even though most of them are signatory to global and regional human rights treaties.

According to most of the journalists who shared experiences of their respective countries at the workshop, except Zambia, which somehow made a peaceful power transfer to the opposition party through democratic election a few weeks ago, elections in many African countries are concluded with bloodshed and violence.

The upcoming third edition of African Governance Report (AGR III), UNECA publication, is expected to monitor the progress African countries have made in implementing democracy since 2009.

According to Professor Said, unlike the 2009 second edition of AGR, the third report will evaluate each African countries progress on political, economic and social aspects.

“The report will have a continental report with national report and country profile,” said Professor Said who works at the Governance and Public Administration Division of UNECA.

Except for South and North Sudan, the countries which will not be included in the report, there will be a survey covering 3000 households in each African country to finalize AGR III. In addition, experts’ panel and desk research will also be done at country level to complete the report, according Professor Said.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 has to ban the use of Genetically Modified foods (GMO), which will cost poor farmers billions of dollars every year for purchasing GMO seeds, urges civil society organizations (CSOs).

Ethiopia needs to invest 66 million US dollars every year to purchase and grow genetically modified wheat seed if the country decides to introduce GMO. While Brazilian soybean growers who now save and re-use soybean seeds would be forced to spend an estimated 407 million US dollars per year if the Brazilian ban on Terminator seeds were lifted, according to the document prepared for the upcoming RIO+20 Summit by a group of international civil society organizations.

Further explaining the dangers of using GMO, the document also noted that in the Philippines, an estimated 59 percent of the rice crop is planted with peasant-saved seeds. If these rice growers were forced to buy new seed every time they planted – they would spend an estimated 172 million US dollars per annum.

In addition, If Canadian wheat growers (who now grow wheat on 8.36 million hectares with peasant-saved seed) were forced to buy Terminator wheat seed, the total cost per annum would be 85 million US dollars, according to the document.

In Ethiopia, approximately 90 percent of the total wheat area is planted in farm-saved seed. “If Terminator seeds (GMO) were commercialized and Ethiopian wheat growers were forced to buy new seed every time they planted, it would cost an estimated 66 million US dollars per year,” the document stated.

The document stressed that industrial food systems and other unsustainable practices are causing dramatic environmental damage, including reduction of biodiversity and soil fertility, overuse and pollution of water, and are substantially contributing to climate change.

“…this kind of food systems and food production systems should be banned by the UN because it undermines the possibilities for producing enough and healthy food for actual and future generations. At the same time these industrial food systems impoverish millions of small-scale food producers, are creating increasingly bigger waves of poverty, hunger and migration, and are causing health problems at a large scale.”

Food Insecurity
Studies show that globally there are one billion people food insecure but at the same time abundant unhealthy foods and diets are affecting at least 2 billion people, causing obesity, heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and other diseases, and serious pandemics are likely to occur in the near future.

The small scale farming systems such as, saving and using seeds from previous harvest seasons have evolved and adapted over millennia in traditional forms of agriculture and are now more relevant than ever, argue the CSOs and environmentalists.

“They can be combined, if appropriate, with latest science on agro ecology and other forms of sustainable production. Small scale food producers provide the food for about 70 percent of the population today, and small scale agroecological and other forms of sustainable agriculture and food production, developed in the framework of food sovereignty,” the document states.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 has a historical opportunity to make important decisions and agree on actions that actually do eradicate hunger and poverty, and save the environment, according to the document.

Oligopoly in Agribusiness
In addition, oligopoly in agricultural inputs reduces efficiency and discourages the resiliency necessary to respond to new health and environmental challenges.

“Today, six corporations (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Dow, Bayer, and BASF) control 71 percent of crop chemicals, 58 percent of commercial seed sales; and (with their biotech partners) control 77 percent of the world’s so-called ‘climate-ready’ crop patent claims. The 6-company oligopoly stifles innovation, encourages energy waste and promotes their polluting chemicals. Competition policies must break up the food chain.”

New policies must encourage market diversity and research support for agro-ecological systems. Market diversification, for seeds alone, could reduce prices by at least 30 percent saving the world’s peasants more than 9 billion US dollars per annum, according to the CSOs.

Continued Argument
In 1996, the first genetically modified seeds were planted in the United States for commercial use. In the meanwhile, genetically modified crops were grown on 134 million hectares worldwide. For over a decade the issue of GMO has been debatable.

Recent reports from South Africa shows that farmers are being negatively affected by growing GMO wheat and soybeans. A research by the Grahamstown-based Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust, together with Rhodes University’s faculty of humanities and department of sociology, has found that the South Africa’s government program of introducing farmers with GMOs has had disastrous results for farmers in the Amathole district municipality.

“We saw a deepening of poverty and people returning to the land for survival,” one of the researchers attached to Masifunde, Mercia Andrews, said.

Contrary to the critic of environmentalists and civil society organizations, some scientists argue that it is the best way to end food insecurity.

“This really isn’t about science. The rejection of GMOs is about politics, about ideology, about trade. It’s lots of things, but it’s not science. The science is pretty clear,” argued Professor Bruce Chassy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an expert in food safety in an interview with National Catholic Reporter in May 2009.

“First, there has never been a safety assessment of organic products of any kind, as is true of many of the conventional foods we have. Second, conceptually, making a GM food is actually less invasive than conventional breeding. It’s less likely to produce unintended effects. Third, the claim that organic farming is better for the environment is based on an ideological belief that using natural materials to amend the soil is better than using chemicals. There’s actually no evidence of that. There is a fairly overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety of GMOs,” he argued.

According to the World Health organization, while theoretical discussions have covered a broad range of aspects, the three main issues debated are tendencies to provoke allergic reaction (allergenicity), gene transfer and outcrossing.

“As a matter of principle, the transfer of genes from commonly allergenic foods is discouraged unless it can be demonstrated that the protein product of the transferred gene is not allergenic. While traditionally developed foods are not generally tested for allergenicity, protocols for tests for GM foods have been evaluated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO. No allergic effects have been found relative to GM foods currently on the market,” stated WHO.

Representatives of different political parties of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday (September 26, 2011) to discuss security issues related to the upcoming national election.

The meeting which is organized by the African Union and Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of the Addis Ababa University has brought together some of the major political parties, independent presidential candidates and the national electoral board representatives.

Most of the opposition party candidates have expressed their concern on the security of the country after the November 28, 2011 election, while other candidates worry that the election may not take place on schedule due to delay in providing all the necessary logistics and equipments.

Responding to the security concerns, some participants of the discussion and representatives from the national electoral board, stressed that both the candidates of the ruling and opposition parties have the responsibility of avoiding conflicts during the election, after and pre election period by properly managing their respective supporters.

According to external observers, the ongoing armed conflict in the Northern and Eastern part of the country could be spread to other parts if the election is not managed properly.

Briefing journalists at the Hilton Addis, officials of the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission said more than 31 million people about 6 million more than in 2006 are registered to vote, while over 400 political party representatives are running for the election.

After armed supporters of President Joseph Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy attacked headquarters of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress in Kinshasa a few weeks ago, the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the DRC has called on all parties to sit down at the negotiation table.

According to latest media reports, Kabila, president since 2001, was nominated by his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) as its presidential candidate in August but he will register as an independent.

DRC Journey to Democratization
After the successful general election of 2006 and indirect elections of senators and governors in 2007, all parties agreed that local elections, as part of the decentralisation process agreed in the peace deal, needed to be organised in order to ensure that the full electoral cycle was completed in the DRC.

However, for a combination of political and technical reasons, local elections have been postponed until February 2011.

After gaining independence in 1960, DRC, formerly known as Zaire, began a stretch of instability and thirty years of authoritarian rule by Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko. In the early 1990s, the country experienced internal instability and the beginnings of a movement toward democratic politics.

However, in May 1997 the consequences of the Rwandan genocide spilled over into the DRC and Laurent Kabila and his (primarily Rwandan) allies defeated Mobutu’s undisciplined and poorly paid troops and installed Kabila in the presidency.

When conflict developed among his allies, however, the country slipped into a nasty civil war involving neighboring states and various internal factions. After years of warfare, Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and replaced by his son, Joseph Kabila, who began to attempt reconciliation between the opposing sides.

This led to the inter-Congolese dialogue in Sun City, South Africa, in 2002 and the Pretoria Accord signed by former belligerent parties, as well as the establishment of transitional institutions (such as a national assembly, senate, and a coalition government co-chaired by the president and four oppositional vice-presidents), ultimately leading to elections in 2006.

Kabila, now 40 years old came to power after the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila in January 2001. He won the 2006 election run-off against Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice-president who is now being held at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges.

This was indicated at a half-day meeting held at the Sheraton Addis this morning (September 19, 2011). Directors of Indian Central Leather Researchers Institute (CLRI) and Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) have promised ELIDI to provide all the trainings and necessary support and make Ethiopia one of the top ten country in the world in shoes and leather manufacturing.

“If we can’t transform the sector in the coming three to five years, then we never do it,” said Dr. Asit Baran, Director of CLRI of India. By the support and training of FDDI and CLRI, Indian leather industry at the moment has created job for 3.5 million people generating 3.4 billion US dollars every years.

Mentioning the example of Vietnam, which is able to attract many globally known brands shoe and leather manufacturers in a short time, the Director expressed his hope that it is also possible for Ethiopia to follow the suit by taking advantage of its very, very cheep labor and raw materials from its abundance animals.

The Obstacles
Ethiopia, which stands at the top Africa with some 50 million a cattle, 25 million sheep and 23 million goat populations, has not been earning much from the sector in terms of export earnings.

Due to various reasons only 1.5 million hides and 15 million skins per annum reaches the tanneries, according to Solomon Getu, president of Ethiopian Leather Industries Association and former Director of ELIDI.

“Low off-take rates, natural and manmade defects and downgrading of quality of skins has been critical challenges for the development of the sector,” said Solomon.

He also mentioned backward technology, poor managerial, technical and marketing skills as well as lack of trained man power in the sector as additional challenges.

The country expects an annual income of 500 million US dollars per year from leather and leather products after four years (end of the five years ambitious growth and transformation plan).
Currently, the country is earning some 104 million US dollars per annum from export of the products. The income was growing only at an average of 4 percent over the past five years.

According to industry observers, the fact that some foreign companies, which began operation to export finished leather products, are exporting semi-processed products is also among the reasons for sluggish growth in foreign currency earnings from the sector.

Incentives to Local Cottage Industries like Foreign Companies?
Some industry players suggest that in addition to attracting foreign investors and channeling unskilled-hands to the sector, Ethiopia can generate a huge amount of foreign currency by supporting and transforming thousands of small shoes manufactures which have been supplying to local market for several decades.

They advice that the government needs to approach the thousands of local shoes and leather cottage industries found mainly around Merkato areas and give them tax breaks as it is doing for foreign investors and all the necessary trainings to enable them produce exportable products.

Many of us around Merkato who are engaged in shoe making at cottage industry level work mostly work during holidays because we get buyers during this period,” says Endashw Mullugeta, who produces a few dozens of shoes per day during holiday seasons employing up to ten people.

“We are happy if government assists us to produce shoes for export. Unfortunately, being frightened of government tax in unstable and unsustainable business, many people are shifting to other businesses,” he said in a telephone interview with newbusinessethiopia.com.

Net profits (after taxes) were 84 million birr (around 4.9 million US dollars), double the level of the previous year, and equivalent to an earnings per share of 58 percent. Zemen is one of the youngest and the only single-branch bank in Ethiopia.

Last year was a very challenging period for the bank which clashed with the financial sector regulatory body (National Bank of Ethiopia) and split among shareholders over the election of a Board Chairman.

Supporting the Bank’s financial results was the rapid growth in all key operational measures. Deposits rose by close to 70 percent during the year, rising from Birr 688 million to birr 1.162 billion, while loans reached birr 633 million as of June 2011 compared to Birr 377 million a year earlier. According to the bank, foreign exchange inflows to the bank rose to USD 12 million per month and showed a 50 percent increase from the previous year.

Zemen Bank attributes its exceptional financial and operational performance in part to its unique business model which relies mainly on a single branch whose activities are supplemented by multiple service points such as ATMs, Internet Banking, Foreign Exchange Bureaus, and Banking Kiosks.

“This distinctive business model has allowed for low overhead costs without impacting the Bank’s deposit-taking, lending, and international banking activities,” the bank noted in its press statement sent to newbusinessethiopia.com.

The bank among other mentioned three notable accomplishments in the fiscal year ended July 7, 2011:

-Contrary to the common misconception that Ethiopia’s private banks focus their lending almost exclusively on sectors such as importers and domestic traders, Zemen Bank devotes 40 percent of its loan book to two key sectors widely recognized as national priorities.

“Indeed, the sectors to which we devoted the highest share of our loans were to exporters (23 percent of all loans) and to manufacturers (17 percent of all loans), areas which we believe can have transformative effects on Ethiopia’s economy,” the statement noted.

-More than 53 percent of our loans are devoted to medium- and long-term loans, a share that is higher than what is seen at most banks. “Through the delivery of such extended financing, the bank is making its own small contribution to addressing the scarcity of long-term faced by Ethiopia’s entrepreneurs.”

-The rapid growth in our lending operations has been achieved while simultaneously maintaining a low non-performing loan ratio of just 1.5 percent and a very high provision rate (including recoveries) of over 100 percent.

“Such prudent results are a result of our strict system of loan follow-up and monitoring and our rigorous use of modern risk management techniques, both of which will continue to safeguard the bank’s performance in the years ahead,” the bank said in its statement.

PM Meles at the AU Heds of States summit January 2011- Photo newbusinessethiopia.com

“…despite the haste displayed by the former US Ambassador to submit such a report to his superiors, Ethiopia has never proposed to any foreign country to act as a substitute to that of the Sudanese or any other neighboring peoples to bring about regime change,” said Ethiopian government in its press statement dispatched via Government Communications Affairs Office Thursday afternoon (September 15, 2011).

“…As cited in wikileaks, in his July 9 discussion, Prime Minster Meles has emphasized that “the Western paradigm of democracy and development can not be imported abroad and applied to the other countries”. In the said wikileaks the Prime Minster has pointed out that “the ‘old paradigm’ of the US is wrong and closes of the emergence of organic democracy in Africa”. Ethiopia, therefore, clarifies its position that it never and nowhere supports any external pressure for regime change.”

According to the statement, the government of Ethiopia neither interferes with the internal affairs of its neighbors, nor does it cooperate with any external force that meddles in the domestic affairs of any of the regional states.

“In fact, to the contrary the full wikileaks’ release shows that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has advised the Americans on the inappropriateness of ‘removing the Beshir regime’’, and of his suggestion that the US layout ‘clear bench marks of actions expected of the government of Sudan on both Darfur and South Sudan which would go a long way in addressing the ‘continued challenges,” the statement noted.

“In addition to stressing that the US can not substitute itself for the people of Sudan, on whom alone rests the right to change their respective government, and in this connection the Prime Minster has repeatedly pointed out that Ethiopia opposes any regime change policy.”

A recent living illustration of Ethiopia’s commitment to this democratic stance is the Prime Minister’s repeated disagreement with those foreign powers who tried to prosecute President Al Beshir through the International Criminal Court, the statement noted.

Among others, Prime Minister Meles was quoted in the wikileaks cable as saying: “If Bashir remains in power, either because no such coup attempt is made or an attempt fails, the indictment will leave the Bashir regime a wounded animal that is more desperate than ever.”Ethiopia Refutes Advising US to Overthrow Al Beshir

Argaw Ashine, who used to work as a correspondent for the Daily Nation newspaper of Kenya from Addis Ababa, has left the country this week after police interrogated him over the source’s identity, according to CPJ.

“Argaw was summoned because he had been cited in an October 26, 2009, cable from the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia regarding purported government Communications Affairs office (GCAO) plans in 2009 to silence the now-defunct Addis Neger, then one of the top private newspapers of the country,” CPJ noted in its press statement.

Argaw is also the chairman of the Ethiopian Environment Journalists Association, the deputy chair of Ethiopia’s Foreign Correspondents’ Association. He has written extensively on current issues in Ethiopia, including on regional trade, the local economy, the environment, and laws regulating civil-society organizations. One of his last stories, published last month by the Kenya-based Africa Review, reported on the far-reaching scope of Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law.

On September 5 and 6, officials from Ethiopia’s Government Communication Affairs Office summoned journalist Argaw Ashine to their offices in the capital, Addis Ababa, with his press accreditation, Argaw told CPJ on Tuesday (September 13 2011).

On September 8, Argaw was summoned again, this time by police, who interrogated him and gave him 24 hours to either reveal the identity of his source at the GCAO office or face unspecified consequences, the journalist told CPJ. It is the first instance CPJ has confirmed in which a citation in one of the cables has caused direct repercussions for a journalist.

He has requested that his current location not be disclosed for safety reasons. “The threat we sought to avert through redactions of initial WikiLeaks cables has now become real. A citation in one of these cables can easily provide repressive governments with the perfect opportunity to persecute or punish journalists and activists,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

“WikiLeaks must take responsibility for its actions and do whatever it can to reduce the risk to journalists named in its cables. It must put in place systems to ensure that such disclosures do not reoccur.”

The 2009 U.S. embassy cable, written by former information officer Michael Gonzalez, reports Ashine citing an official source from GCAO as saying that authorities “had drawn up a list” of six top Addis Neger journalists “who they plan to target in order to silence the newspaper’s analysis.” Ethiopian officials have consistently denied any plans to censor Addis Neger, according to news reports.

Addis Neger’s editors ceased publication and fled the country in late November 2009, citing fears of being silenced or prosecuted under a far-reaching antiterrorism law, local journalists said. Columns in the state daily Addis Zemen also labeled Addis Neger’s coverage as antistate, according to CPJ research.

During one of his press briefings after the Addis Neger newspaper ceased publication, Meles Zenawi said: “I don’t read the newspaper; I do not either read Addis Zemen [the state-owned daily]. Journalists should not leave the country because of a critical article published on another newspaper.”

“If that it is the case there were many who would have left the country a long time ago and should reach Mars by now. What surprised me most are the statements issued by the international press institutions. They just accepted the allegations without verifying them. Their statements are akin to those made by opposition parties and human rights activists,” Meles said.