Ethiopia: Uniquely African Millennium

The Reporter (Addis Ababa)

Fred Oluoch

While the rest of the world celebrated the turn of the millennium seven years ago, Ethiopia will mark the year 2000 on September 12. Both the UN and the African Union have recognized the Ethiopian millennium as a unique African occasion, dubbing it an "African Millennium."

Ethiopia, known for its ancient history and rich heritage, is the only country in the world that has preserved the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox faith-based Julian calendar, which is seven years behind the Gregorian calendar that is commonly used by the rest of the world.

Äthiopien am Puls der Zeit ;-)

Is Somalia a Proxy War Between Ethiopia and Eritrea?

By Joe De Capua
Washington
27 July 2007
Quelle

The tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia may be playing themselves out in part in Somalia. Some observers say the violence in Somalia may be a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Timothy Othieno is a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Midrand, South Africa. He spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about whether he thinks Somalia is a proxy war. “Yes, it can be construed as that based on the fact that if one goes with the allegations that Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia were being funded, armed and also had the political support of the Eritrean government in its fight against the Ethiopian-backed TFG (Transitional Federal Government) government. So in that case, yes, I could argue it is an extended confrontation Ethiopia and Eritrea…but to go into more detail…the unresolved border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia actually can be explained and one can argue that what we’re seeing today in Somalia is actually an extension of that. Because a UN boundary commission ruling in favor of Eritrea has not been implemented to date in favor of Eritrea. Ethiopia has refused to give back the (border town) of Badme to Eritrea as the boundary commission had decided…and that is actually an extension of the current problem that we’re seeing today,” he says.

Eritrea’s information minister, Ali Abdu, is quoted as saying the allegations are a “smear campaign.” He describes them as a “fabricated pretext for an Ethiopian invasion and to cover up the failures made by the United States and the United Nations.”

Othieno says, “To a certain extent I would agree with the Eritrean minister in the sense

that the onus was on the United Nations to enforce, to implement its own ruling. I mean you cannot have a UN ruling being ignored, if I may use that word, by a government such as Ethiopia.” He says that the United States and other nations “should have impressed upon Ethiopia to abide by that ruling.”

He says Eritrea and the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia currently have a common enemy in Ethiopia. He says that he doubts there will be peace in Somalia until tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia are resolved and that includes the border dispute.

Zensur

Wie die meisten ja schon mitbekommen haben bin ich seit längerem wieder in Österreich. Ich hab in einem früheren post einmal erwähnt, dass ich meine Blog-Seite in Äthiopien nicht öffnen konnte. Durch Zufall habe ich auf einer regierungskritischen Website, natürlich von Österreich zugegriffen, gelesen dass kritische websites geblockt werden, also innerhalb Äthiopiens nicht zugänglich sind. Finde das eigentlich sehr bedenklich dass sich ein Staat der sich Demokratie nennt solche autokratischen Maßnahme ergreift um kritische Stimmen mundtot zu machen. Noch dazu habe ich nur versucht ein differenziertes Bild dieses Landes zu zeichnen.

Da ich ja jetzt wieder hier bin werde ich meine Ankündigung wahr machen und die Reiseerzählung die ich vor einem Jahr begonnen habe fortsetzen und zum Abschluss zu bringen um mein bild von diesem extrem widersprüchlichen Land abzuschließen. Meine äthiopische geschichte ist damit vermutlich aber noch nicht abgeschlossen, möglicherweise folgt im Herbst ein weiteres Kapitel

lg DominiK