From the Ethiopian Fire Into the Saudi Arabian Frying Pan

By Alemayehu G Mariam

November 25, 2013

 Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have voted with their feet to escape one of the most ruthless and brutal dictatorships in Africa. According to Ethiopia's “Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs”, approximately  200,000 women sought employment abroad in 2012, the vast majority of them in the Middle East.  Many of these workers believed they were jumping out of the fire of dictatorship in Ethiopia, but found  themselves smack in the  middle of the Saudi Arabian frying pan.
It is no exaggeration to say it is open season on Ethiopian migrant workers and others seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia. Every day this month, Saudi police, security officials, mobs and vigilantes have been hunting Ethiopians in the streets, beating, torturing and in some cases killing them. The Youtube video clips of Saudi police torturing Ethiopians are shocking to the conscience. The video clips of Saudi mobs and vigilantes chasing, attacking and lynching Ethiopians in the streets requires no explanation. The photographic evidence of crimes against humanity committed against Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia today are surreal and beyond civilized comprehension.


Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia: Two sides of the same coin


Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia are two sides of the same coin. The Saudi and Ethiopian regimes are soul mates. The Saudi regime is infamous for its human rights record; the regime in Ethiopia has an equally atrocious record. The Saudi regime follows a policy of forcible deportation of Ethiopians from its territory using the most inhuman methods. The regime in Ethiopia follows a ghastly policy of forcible internal deportation (“resettlement”) of  Ethiopians from one part of their  country to  another. The Saudi regime persecutes religious minorities; so does the regime in Ethiopia. The Saudi regime widely practices arbitrary arrests, detentions,  torture and ill-treatment in their prisons; the regime in Ethiopia has perfected such practices in its prisons. The Saudi regime ended slavery in 1962 and continued to perpetuate it by calling it kafala (sponsored migrant workers who work in slave like conditions). In 2009, Bahrain's Labour Minister Majeed al-Alawi likened kefala to slavery. The 2013 Global Slavery Index reports that Ethiopia  is among the top ten countries that account for three quarters of the world’s slaves with 651,000 people held in bondage. Human Rights Watch in its 2013 World Report described the human rights records of Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia in nearly identical terms:

Ethiopian authorities continued to severely restrict basic rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly in 2012… Human Rights Watch continues to document torture at the federal police investigation center known as Maekelawi in Addis Ababa, as well as at regional detention centers and military barracks in Somali Region, Oromia, and Gambella.

The security forces responded to protests by the Muslim community in Oromia and Addis Ababa, the capital, with arbitrary arrests, detentions, and beatings…  Federal police used excessive force, including beatings, to disperse largely Muslim protesters opposing the government’s interference with the country’s Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs… The Ethiopian government continues to implement its “villagization” program: the resettlement of 1.5 million rural villagers in five regions of Ethiopia ostensibly to increase their access to basic services. Many villagers in Gambella region have been forcibly displaced, causing considerable hardship… The government is also forcibly displacing indigenous pastoral communities in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley to make way for state-run sugar plantations… In South Omo, around 200,000 indigenous peoples are being relocated and their land expropriated to make way for state-run sugar plantations.


With respect to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch reports that


in 2012 stepped up arrests and trials of peaceful dissidents, and responded with force to demonstrations by citizens… As in past years, thousands of people have received unfair trials or been subject to arbitrary detention… Detainees, including children, commonly face systematic violations of due process and fair trial rights, including arbitrary arrest and torture and ill-treatment in detention… Authorities continue to suppress or fail to protect the rights of 9 million Saudi women and girls and 9 million foreign workers…

Some 1.5 million migrant domestic workers remain excluded from the 2005 Labor Law. In years past, Asian embassies reported thousands of complaints from domestic workers forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and denied their salaries. Domestic workers, most of them women, frequently endure forced confinement, food deprivation, and severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.

Saudi Arabia does not tolerate public worship by adherents of religions other than Islam…  The chief mufti in March called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula…

What “foreign minister” Adhanom said and did not even know he said it

The response of the regime in Ethiopia to the horrendous situation of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia simply boggles the mind.  Tedros Adhanom, the malaria researcher-turned-instant-foreign-minster and the man being  groomed to become prime minister after the 2015 “election”, was befuddled, rambling, incoherent and virtually unintelligible when he spoke before the 3rd International Conference on Family Planning Conference held in Addis Ababa in mid-November.  He brimmed with empty promises and hollow reassurances. He was grandiloquent about his readiness to “receive our fellow citizens home” and  “global solidarity” :

 As you know, from Saudi Arabia, you know, although it is just deporting  Ethiopians only, we know, it is deporting other citizens…

I had the last 10 days, because in family planning, as we have been saying, we care for girls and women. I had calls straight from the camps, from women who are crying for help… We have already received hundreds. We are expecting tens of thousands and I would like to assure you that we are ready to receive our fellow citizens home.

I am so saddened and really depressed. That’s why I was not going to actually come here asking  Dr. Kesete if he could excuse me because it is almost around the clock crisis management since this issue started. But in the name of global solidarity, even if we are going to deport illegals, we can do it smoothly because this is not  war situation. It is maybe accepted when nations are at war to deport like this, in a very rapid fashion, people may understand, but not in peaceful situation.

…  So I am sorry to start with this, it is something that has been bugging me for some time now.

Of course we have been working a lot on long term and short term solutions for long time in Ethiopia now because there are structural problems that we need to address  to solve the problem once and for all. And you know Ethiopia is making progress and growing in double digits, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we know we can make it, and we know we can eliminate poverty. We are in the right direction but still we believe in global solidarity. But we never expected that this would happen.

For those who don’t know, I will share you one thing. When Prophet Mohammed was being chased immediately after he started Islam, the great religion, he sent his followers to Ethiopia…

… So, sorry I will stop here, but I am glad to share what I feel, to share with you my disappointment, to share with you how the last 10 days have been the most tragic in my life, which we never expected, a complete surprise…

It was truly sad to see Ethiopia’s “top diplomat” delivering  such an incoherent, disjointed and muddled analysis and explanation about the monstrous crimes being committed against Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia. Foreign policy becomes a cruel joke in the hands (mouth) of a malaria researcher-turned-instant- foreign minister. To the extent anyone can reasonably make out Adhanom’s gobbledygook, the following strands can be discerned:

I.  Adhanom said the indescribable tragedy of Ethiopians  in Saudi  Arabia has been “bugging him for some time now”; and he is currently “saddened” and “depressed” by the circumstances of the Ethiopian “ women in the (Saudi Arabian) camps crying for help.” That must be the understatement of the century!

Perhaps Adhanom does not appreciate nuances in the use of English words, particularly colloquialisms. But as a top diplomat, he cannot be excused for his ignorant misuse of words (unless of course his choice of words and phrasing   accurately express his views and feelings). To say what’s happening to the Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia has been “bugging me for some time now” is to say that their situation has been a source of annoyance and minor irritation. It is not a big deal. No top diplomat of any  country on earth would react to the absolutely inhuman and barbaric treatment of  its citizens in another country by saying  the issue has been “bugging him for some time now.”

Adhanom may not understand but words mean everything in the diplomatic world. Words are the stock-in-trade of diplomats. Diplomats make the world stop and go by the choice of their words and their use and sometimes intentional misuse of language. For diplomats, words have artful connotation and denotation. The diplomat’s words are laden with open and hidden messages and encrusted with meaning signaling manifest and latent intentions.  Wars have been fought and peace secured over semantics and the grammatical arrangement of words in diplomatic language. Above all, the words of a diplomat carry not only his personal feelings of “sadness” and “depression” but also the ethos (moral disposition), pathos (the depth of suffering) and even the bathos (sentimentality) of their nation.

When Adhanom says the situation of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia “has been bugging him for a long time”, he is conveying the most damaging message to the Saudis. He is telling them that the “race hunting” (to borrow a phrase from Ethiopia’s ceremonial prime minster) of Ethiopian migrant workers by Saudi police and vigilantes in the streets of Saudi Arabia is just a tempest in a tea pot. It will blow over.

The dehumanization and abuse of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia is a big, very big deal. Rush hour traffic “bugs” the hell out of me. Students who come to class without completing the assigned readings  “bug” me to no end.  What the Saudis are doing to Ethiopians does not “bug” me. It makes my blood boil. I am inflamed at the sight of the inhumanity and barbarity of the Saudi Police. I am outraged by the cruelty and brutality of Saudi mobs and vigilantes. I am shocked and appalled by the depraved indifference of the Saudi regime to the many acts of crimes against humanity committed against Ethiopian migrant workers. I am bitter and enraged about what the Saudi regime is not doing  to ensure humane treatment of Ethiopian migrant workers as required by international law. I am outraged that the suffering of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia merely “bugs” Adhanom.

In the world of diplomacy, there is time to use soft and conciliatory diplomatic language and  time to use strong and confrontational language. It is a great national tragedy that Adhanom does not seem to know the difference!

II.  Adhanom said what is happening to Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia “may be accepted when nations are at war to deport like this in a very rapid fashion people may understand, but not in peaceful situation.” Adhanom is ignorant of the most elementary principles, rules and conventions of international law.  He is clueless that the laws and customs of war prohibit deportation during war time, which are almost always undertaken for purposes of ethnic cleansing. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, large numbers of Bosnian Muslims, Croats, Serbs and Bosnians were removed from their traditional homes in a systematic campaign of deportation. That was a war crime. It is not something “people may understand”.  The only exception to the prohibition on deportation and forcible transfers during war time is the evacuation of protected persons on grounds of security of the population or military imperative as defined and circumscribed under Article 49 of the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949). It is also noteworthy that those Ethiopians in the “migrant  population” who may seek asylum in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere are protected from deportation (“refoulement”) under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and Article  3 of the 1984 Torture Convention. It is a great national tragedy that Adhanom is untutored on the most elementary rules and principles of international law.

III. Adhanom believes the most urgent problem today in the Ethiopian tragedy in Saudi Arabia is facilitation of their exit out of that country. Stopping the violence, the rape, the murder and torture of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia today is the most urgent, critical, pressing, vital and weighty problem. Adhanom tried to be reassuring by declaring, “Of course we have been working on long-term and short-term solutions for a long time in Ethiopia now because there are structural problems  we need to address for once and all.”  The long and short-term solutions can wait. The daily abuse, mistreatment, injustice and crimes inflicted by the Saudi police, mobs and vigilantes cannot. What is happening to Ethiopians today in Saudi Arabia is a crises of epic proportions. It is a great national tragedy that Adhanom has no ideas, proposals or solutions to stop the violence immediately.

Adhanom said  “we never expected that this would happen”  to Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia  He said the whole thing was “a complete surprise” to him. He also said, “we have been working on long-term and short-term solutions for a long time”. This is not only self-contradictory but also an incredibly deceptive statement, and at best a manifestation of Adhanom’s  naivite or ignorance.

It is impossible that the situation of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia could be a “complete surprise” to him because by April of 2013 Adhanom and his regime knew of the Saudi regime’s order notifying undocumented foreign workers to legalize their status or return to countries of origin and avoid deportation, imprisonment and prosecution. Adhanom’s regime, by its own admission, knew that there were large numbers of “illegal migrants” in Saudi Arabia. Adhanom was also aware that in July 2013 the Saudi regime had granted a grace period to undocumented workers and extended the effective date of its initial order to November 2013. Yet Adhanom’s regime did nothing to anticipate and plan for reasonably foreseeable events, including the need for potential mass evacuation of its citizens and confrontational actions by the Saudi police and mobs. How is it possible that Adhanom could not reasonable foresee the humanitarian disaster that befell Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia in November 2013?

It is obvious that Adhanom is clueless about proactive policy making.  He has yet to learn that as the “top diplomat” he has to anticipate and act in advance to prevent and deal with reasonably foreseeable problems and issues.  Goethe is right: “There is nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.


What Adhanom did not say or do


Adhanom did not say what his regime is doing to stop the violence that is inflicted on Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia even though his regime has “been working on long-term and short-term solutions for a long time”. What is manifest is that Adhanom and his regime are standing by the sidelines twiddling their fingers and scratching their heads as their citizens are hunted down in Saudi streets like wild animals. Not only has Adhanom done nothing to stop the violence, he has not even taken the simplest (symbolic)  actions to bring external pressure on the Saudi regime.  Here are a few of the things Adhanom did not say or do:

Issue a strongly worded statement of condemnation.  Adhanom said his regime has “has condemned Saudi Arabia for its brutal crackdown on migrant workers in the kingdom. This is unacceptable. We call on the Saudi government to investigate this issue seriously. We are also happy to take our citizens, who should be treated with dignity while they are there.” “Unacceptable” is the most condemnatory language Adhanom could muster in the face of the monstrous cruelty, unspeakable barbarism and horrendous brutality and criminality of the Saudi regime, its police force and mobs.  “Investigation” is the most robust action Adhanom would like to see the Saudi regime take in the face of such horrifying crimes.

Adhanom is clueless that “unacceptable” in diplomatic language is a hollow and pointless word used by diplomats to suggest they are saying something when they are saying nothing at all.  It is also a word that means everything: “There will be no consequences”. Such is the nature of diplomatic language. A single sentence can convey two mutually exclusive intentions.  By telling the Saudi ambassador that what is happening to Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia is “unacceptable”,  Adhanom is basically telling him that he is just window dressing the issue until it blows over and they will be able to continue with business as usual.  Suffice it to say that “unacceptable” is  “a word used by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” and everything!

Summon the ambassador of the host country and read him the riot act and demand an immediate stop to the police and vigilante violence.  Adhanom summoned the Saudi Arabian ambassador and told him, “Ethiopia would like to express its respect for the decision of the Saudi Authorities and the policy of deporting illegal migrants. At the same time, it condemns the killing of an Ethiopian and mistreatment of its citizens residing in Saudi Arabia.” How servile and bootlicking can one become?! No country on earth that cares for its citizens would say it “respects” the policy of another state that victimizes its citizens.  Adhanom is clueless that the issue is not about Saudi sovereignty over its territory or implementation of its immigration policy; it is about the Saudi regime’s actions and lack of actions that have made possible commission of crimes against humanity against large numbers of Ethiopian migrant workers.

Moreover, neither Adhanom nor his foreign ministry have publicly indicated that a diplomatic protest has been lodged with the Saudi foreign ministry.  A “letter of protest” or “diplomatic note” is often presented  by one state's foreign ministry to another unapologetically taking a stand against the foreign government's policy deemed offensive.  A letter of protest would never use the word “unacceptable”.  It would minimally mention something about “serious consequences” and “damaging relations” if things are not improved. Adhanom should make public the letter of protest he lodged with the Saudis, assuming he has done so.

Seek a resolution from the African Union condemning the human rights abuses of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia. Hailemariam Desalegn, the ceremonial prime minster of Ethiopia and the man keeping the seat warm for Adhanom until the 2015 “election”, is the current rotational chairman of the African Union. Hailemariam  went through hell and high water trying to mobilize the African Union to stop the “race hunting” of  African leaders by the International Criminal Court and engineer the withdrawal of African countries from the Rome Statute. When hundreds of thousands of his citizens are being “race hunted” in the streets of Saudi Arabia by police, mobs and vigilantes, he says nothing, does nothing. (By the way, where the hell is “prime minister” Hailemariam? Has anyone heard him talk about the "race hunting" of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia?)

Notify the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to immediately begin an investigation. The UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to “lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems.”  It has investigative powers to look into the abuse and mistreatment of refugees. Adhanom did not say he has requested a UNHCR investigation, and there is no evidence he has made such a request. Moreover, the UNHCR has the logistical capability to help move migrant workers from conflict zones. For instance, in 2011 when violent anti-government protests erupted in Libya, the UNHCR facilitated the exit of tens of thousands of migrant workers into neighboring countries.

Lodge a complaint and request an investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Among the core purposes of the OHCHR is to “respond to serious violations of human rights” and “undertaking of preventive human rights actions”.  Instead of asking the Saudi regime to initiate an investigation, Adhanom should have requested an investigation and intervention by the OHCHR and UNHRC.

Allow Ethiopians citizens to peacefully protest in front of the Saudi Embassy. The people of Ethiopia are humiliated and shamed by the crimes committed and continue to be committed against their brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia. Adhanom spoke of the Prophet Mohamed sending his followers to Ethiopia to seek refuge. It is true Ethiopia was once hallowed ground where people sought refuge, comfort and assistance. Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders came to Ethiopia in 1962 to receive training. Mandela was given an Ethiopian passport by order of H.I.M. Haile Selassie so he could travel throughout the world freely. Ethiopians were once respected and honored the world over. Today, they are victimized and enslaved. They are beaten and jailed when they speak their minds. When they went to protest in front of the Saudi Embassy in Addis Ababa, they were treated in the same way as the Saudi police treated the Ethiopians in that country. They were humiliated, beaten mercilessly and arrested. The spokesman for the regime,  Shimelis Kemal, said the regime had to take action against the peaceful demonstrators because “many of the demonstrators carried anti-Arab messages that sought to distort strong relations between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.”

I guess no one can get in the middle of a tiff between soul mates. Let Adhanom and his regime take note:  “Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.”

No special task force assembled to deal with the emergency. When a crisis of the type facing Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia occurs, any regime that cares for its citizens will institute an emergency task force to coordinate the response.  Civil society groups would be mobilized to help in the re-absorption of the returning migrant workers.  International humanitarian organizations would be contacted to lend assistance.  Adhanom and his regime are calculating that the situation of the Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia shall soon pass and they will continue business as usual handing over many more millions of hectares of land to Saudi investors.


What Adhanom will say


Adhanom and his regime have issued public assurances that they have set aside 50 million birr to repatriate and rehabilitate the returnees from Saudi Arabia. That is a drop in the bucket. That’s barely USD$2 million. There is no way they can transport, transition and relocate 200 thousand or so returnees on a measly $USD2 million. There is also no evidence that the regime has that kind of money to spare for the particular task.  According to the July 2013 International Monetary Fund Staff Mission Statement, Ethiopia has foreign exchange reserves to barely cover 3 months of imports.

It is inevitable that Adhanom and his regime will soon be out in the international diplomatic streets with their begging bowls asking for aid to bring back the returnees and relocate them. Of course, they will have established  their own non-profit organizations in advance to suck up any aid money that will be provided.  Adhanom will be panhandling, “We need  money, more money, mo’ money for our migrant workers coming from Saudi Arabia.” His flunkies will be all over the Diaspora panhandling for nickels and dimes just as they have done to “build” the Great Nile Dam or whether it is they call it. It will be a windfall for the regime’s NGOs. They are rubbing their palms and drooling at the prospects of millions of dollars in handout. Not so fast; they will probably not get much in handouts. That’s why I would not be surprised to see them standing in the streets of Saudi Arabia stretching out their hands and soliciting alms, “baksheesh, baba! baksheesh!"

I cry for our Ethiopia, the beloved country, but “there is a light at the end of the tunnel”

Adhanom said “there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we know we can make it, and we know we can eliminate poverty.” I say there is a light at the end of the tunnel of tyranny and dictatorship in Ethiopia. There is a new day on the horizon. We must hold on, hold hands together and march straight out of the tunnel of two decades plus of oppression and denial of basic human rights.

Those who have read my analysis of the dire situation of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia might say I am too legalistic and overly analytical.  They may even accuse me of “over-intellectualizing ” a great human tragedy.  They may say that because they don’t know how much I despair and cry for our beloved Ethiopia. In 1948, the same year Apartheid became law in South Africa, Alan Paton wrote in “Cry, the Beloved Country”, and expressed the deep despair he felt over the fate of South Africa. My own deep despair over the fate of Ethiopia parallels Paton’s.

Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart.”

I cry for the “broken tribe” of Ethiopia. I cry in silence for our brothers and sisters who are held in subhuman bondage in Saudi Arabia. I cry for our sisters who are raped, beaten and thrown out of windows to their deaths and hanged from ceiling and tree tops and scalded with hot water all over the Middle East. I cry for the young man whose head was sliced open by a Saudi thug.  I cry for those young men and women who feel compelled to leave their country because they do not feel free; they do not feel they have rights. I cry for those Ethiopians who died crossing the deserts of Yemen and Saudi Arabia seeking to improve their lives. I cry for those precious young ladies who take daily flights on Ethiopian Airlines into the Saudi Arabian Hell.

I cry for those young men and women, father and mothers who were murdered in cold blood in the streets in Ethiopia after the 2005 election. I cry for my sister Reeyot Alemu and for my brothers Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Woubshet Taye, Bekele Gerba, Abubekar Ahmed and the many thousands of Ethiopian political prisoners. I cry for Ethiopians who suffer under the heavy boots of corrupt thugs and empty suits who pretend to be leaders.

Yes, I cry and cry and “trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries.” I cry for our beloved Ethiopia. But our cries shall not go unheard. South Africa emerged from the tunnel of apartheid tyranny; and Mandela promised, “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.”  Ethiopians shall soon regain their dignity and honor at home and abroad. They shall no longer be the “skunks of the world”; and deep in my heart I do believe Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God and we shall rejoice and cry no more!

Saudi Arabia Doubles Down on Abuse (Dawit Giorgis)

November 22, 2013

Dawit Giorgis, David Andrew Weinberg
The National Interest

This past week,three Ethiopians were killed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, as well asone foreign worker from Sudan. They died amidvigilanteviolence and reports ofpolice brutalityafter illegal immigrants in the slum of Manfouha protested against a massive campaign of deportations that the government launched this month. Asimilar demonstration was broken up in the city of Jeddah, and its organizers arrested.

Meanwhile, large groups of Ethiopians have been gathering for protests this week at Saudi diplomatic institutions across the United States, including in front of the Saudi Embassy inWashington, as well as the Kingdom’s consulates inAtlanta andLos Angeles.

What is this big controversy about?

Saudi officials claim that the Ethiopians instigated this episode by throwing stones at cars without any provocation, but a reporter for the Wall Street Journaltalked to locals who had a different view. They said “Saudi security forces had come to the neighborhood the night before to declare that all illegal African migrants had to leave… immediately. Pakistani laborers began trying to help police by catching African workers, and clashes began”.

This harsh crackdown comes as part of a longstanding Saudi effort aimed at increasing the proportion of citizens employed in productive sectors of the economy. However, it is also the result of a pervasive legacy of racism and religious discrimination experienced by African Christians in the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962, under heavy pressure by Washington and the UN. The best estimates suggest that the Kingdom held approximately thirty thousand slaves at the time.

But the Wahhabi religious establishment was reluctant to see the institution go. Just a decade ago, a member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body wascaught on tape preachingthat “slavery is a part of Islam”. He elaborated that “slavery is a part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam”.

In this insidious mindset—which, of course, is rejected by many Muslims—a hierarchy of races could be seen as a religious obligation. Due to what Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmed calls a “culture of slavery” that “pervades the country,” even dark-skinned men and women who are Saudi citizens have beenblocked from positions in a range of prestigious professions.

There are an estimated nine million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, mostly doing jobs that Saudis themselves do not want to take. And so far, the sudden crackdown is mainly just causing disruptions to Saudi Arabia’s national economy. According to a story in theSaudi Gazette, twenty thousand schools in the country are now short of janitors, and 40 percent of small construction firms have stopped operations. One observer even counted thirteen facilities for the religious ritual of washing dead bodies that had been shuttered in Jeddah because the workers responsible for this thankless task had been forced to flee.

Many illegal immigrants have wanted to go home but were unable to do so. Hundreds of Filipinos have been camping out in front of their country’s consulate in Jeddah because they needed official support to get exit visas and purchase expensive airplane tickets home.

Saudi Arabia’s kefala labor systemfacilitates human rights abuses, “sometimes amounting to slavery-like conditions.” The system gives companies enormous power over their foreign employees, including the ability to block employees from flying home if they are unhappy with their work conditions. That is why such rights groups and theEconomisthave called on Riyadh to abolish the kefala system.

Overlaid with this system of discrimination and exploitation is Saudi Arabia’s chauvinistic repression of Christian residents. Many African workers in the country are Christians, but absolutely no churches are officially allowed. As recently as this April, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Muftideclared that all churches in the Arabian Peninsula must be destroyed.

In February, Saudi Arabia’s religious policeraided a private religious gathering of fifty-three Ethiopian Christians, shutting down their prayer group and making mass arrests. Just half a year earlier, authorities deported thirty-five others for participating in a similar Ethiopian prayer group. And in 1997 two foreign workers werebeheaded for conducting Bible study meetings and prayer groups in prison.

But no aspect of these abuses is more chilling than the examples of bodily harm experienced by some foreign workers in the Kingdom. Many of the individuals returning to Ethiopia have scars or fresh woundsfrom beatings by employers or police, and one man claims the officer who beat himeven stole the shoes from off of his feet. According to theUAE paperEmirates 24/7, “scores of Asian and African domestic workers have been reported to have committed a suicide in Saudi Arabia over the past years because of mistreatment and other factors”. Chillingimages keep surfacing on the web of Ethiopian maids who were so desperate with their circumstances in Saudi Arabia that they hanged themselves.

Over the years,numerousvideoshavesurfacedshowing angry, entitled Saudis beating and verbally abusing foreign workers—although to their credit,many Saudi citizens called out for a criminal investigation in one recent case. Astudy by the Committee on Filipinos Overseas found that 70 percent of Filipino domestic workers in Saudi Arabia reported instances of physical or psychological abuse.

Ethiopia’s ambassador to Riyadh, who obviously wishes to maintain good relations with his Saudi hosts, actuallyclaimed that twenty-three thousand of his countrymen “handed themselves in” after Manfouha. They are beingdeported in large numbers at this very moment.

How bad must it become for economic migrants when suddenly tens of thousands of them are allegedly begging for a way out? And at what point does the international community have a responsibility to say loudly and emphatically enough is enough?

Dawit Giorgis is a Visiting Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former senior official in the Government of Ethiopia. David Andrew Weinberg is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation.

Open Letter to Ethiopian Foreign Minister (CREW

November 20, 2013

Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW)

Re: Abuse of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia

Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) is concerned about the recent abuse of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, especially the reported torture, abuse and rape of Ethiopian women. CREW is a non-government, non-profit, non-partisan, human rights and peace organization established to promote the social, economic and legal rights of Ethiopian women in Ethiopia and worldwide. One of the objectives of the organization is to assist and represent abused Ethiopian women living and working abroad.

As documented through various media outlets, Saudi authorities launched a crackdown on undocumented migrant workers following the expiry of amnesty linked to a new employment rules. As results of this crackdown, migrant workers, particularly Ethiopians, have faced beatings, abuse, torture, and in some instances, even death. The videos and photos showed Ethiopians being thrown out in the streets with no shelter and food. There were also some reports of women being gang raped. Some of these women also shared their experiences and fears in the various media outlets posted online.

As you are aware of, thousands of Ethiopian women and young girls head to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern Arab countries each year to seek work opportunities. It is also known that many of them migrate to the Middle Eastern countries due to the extreme poverty in Ethiopia and the high rate of unemployment among the youth group and absence of opportunities to fulfill the basic needs of their families.

Through the years, various reports have documented that Ethiopian migrant workers in the Middle Eastern countries have been treated like slaves.  They are deprived of their sleep and they work under unacceptable working conditions.  They often don’t get their salaries and their passports are confiscated as soon as they enter the countries. The Ethiopian government knows these inhuman treatments of Ethiopian migrant workers in the Middle Eastern countries.  The embassies and consulates of Ethiopia, however, did nothing to help their citizens unlike embassies and consulates from other countries; for example, the Philippine and Bangladesh.   Many Ethiopians are in prison and detention centers in Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Lebanon, but their government did not protect them or send them back to their homeland. The absence of protection coupled with the inhuman treatment they face, the number of Ethiopian migrant workers who took their own lives is considerably high.

The current law passed by Saudi government should have only resulted in deporting undocumented migrants through appropriate channels, but what have been witnessed in the last few days are gross human right violations. These violations of rights are committed by Saudi police and civilians who were acting as vigilantes. The Ethiopian government should urge the Saudi government to undertake appropriate investigations into the deaths of the reported Ethiopians as well as the rapes of women and to hold those who have been involved accountable to their actions. Even though, at this time, the safety of those who may be still trying to return to their homeland is very important, we also urge the Ethiopian government to ensure that returnees, especially women, are afforded the appropriate care and assistance once they arrive in their country.

Although a bit late, CREW acknowledges the recent efforts of the Ethiopian government to repatriate Ethiopians from Saudi Arabia, but this action is only being undertaken after the reports of the current horrible situations of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia. Ethiopians should not be subjected to inhuman treatment abroad. We, therefore, call upon the Ethiopian embassy in Saudi Arabia to take up responsibility to assist Ethiopian citizens — as other nations have for their people — in adjusting their status and repatriating them in a timely manner so that they don’t continue to languish in detention.

As an organization working for the protection and promotion of the rights of Ethiopian women, we have obligations to seek justice for our sisters. Hence, the writing of this open letter to the Ethiopian government.

CREW is a non-government, non-profit, non-partisan, human rights and peace organization established to promote the social, economic and legal rights of Ethiopian women in Ethiopia and worldwide.  We can be reached at ethiowomen@gmail.com

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Saudi police in Riyadh clash with migrant workers - BBC

Two people have been killed and scores wounded as Saudi police clashed with protesting foreign workers in a district of the capital, Riyadh. A police statement said hundreds of people were arrested in the Manfuhah neighbourhood. Video on social media websites showed security forces in riot gear using truncheons to disperse large crowds. Last week police rounded up thousands of migrant workers after an amnesty linked to new employment rules expired. Police said they intervened on Saturday after foreign workers in the Manfuhah district rioted, attacking Saudi and other foreign residents with rocks and knives. Manfuhah is home to many migrants, mostly from east Africa. One of the two people killed was a Saudi while the other was unidentified, police said. About 70 others were injured and there were some 560 arrests, officials added. On Sunday, witnesses said police were surrounding the district while units from the National Guard and special forces were sent in. Nearby, hundreds of men, women and children lined up with their belongings to board police buses taking them to an assembly centre before their deportation, AFP news agency reported. Images showed other foreign workers leaving the Manfuhah area in taxis. Last Monday, the authorities began rounding up thousands of illegal foreign workers following the expiry of a seven-month amnesty for them to formalise their status. An Ethiopian was reported killed on Wednesday as Saudi police began moving illegal immigrants into camps. The government in Addis Ababa has said it is providing support for Ethiopian workers and is helping to repatriate its citizens. Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis are estimated to have left the country in the past three months. Four million others obtained work permits before last Sunday's deadline. Saudi Arabia has the Arab world's largest economy, but authorities are trying to reduce the 12% unemployment rate among native Saudis. An estimated nine million migrant workers are in Saudi Arabia - more than half the workforce - filling manual, clerical, and service jobs.

STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST ETHIOPIANS IN SAUDI ARABIA

What is going on to our people in Saudi Arabia is heartbreaking. We are sending out a strong press releases to the world leaders. We are also calling on human rights organization leaders of all persuasions to stand up against the Saudi Arabia brutalities of the Ethiopian people. We come to these n human rights organization not only as a social justice group who cares about stopping oppression, or as Africans or as Ethiopians, but we come to you as human beings whose survival depends on each other for no one will be free until all are free.

Will the human rights organizations bring these concerns to the attention of their own government, their membership, other organizations or decision-makers that could help? Please join with us in exposing and stopping the violent against the Ethiopians.

Federalism or Internal Colonialism-the Ethiopian situation.

By Yilma Bekele

“The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.“  Ai Weiwei – Chinese dissident.

As a concept there is nothing wrong with Federalism as a system of government. There are plenty of examples of such arrangement like as in the USA, Canada, Germany, Mexico and India among others where it has shown to work. That is the system TPLF under Meles and company told the Ethiopian people that they are attempting to construct. It has been over twenty years now since the work has started and the question in front of us is, how is it going?

How is Federalism working in our country? I will tell you about a specific powerful institution in Ethiopian and you the reader, be the judge. The governmental body I have in mind is one of the most important and key sector of our economy and it is currently named Ethio Telecom. Here is a brief description of the history of the telephone in Ethiopia.

The first telegraph line was between Harar and Addis Abeba in 1889. Emperor Haile Sellasie established the Imperial Board of Telecommunications of Ethiopia in 1952. Derge reorganized it as Ethiopian Telecommunication Service and later on as Ethiopian Telecommunications Authority (ETA) in 1976 and 1981. In 1996 TPLF replaced that with Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. It was born again as Ethio Telecom in 1910. The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation is the oldest Public Telecommunications Operator (PTO) in Africa.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Ethiopia)

In our country Ethiopia the Federal Government owns the country including resources, land and most of the vital economy. Communication tools such as television, radio, telephone and Internet are fully owned and operated by the Federal Government. The Ethiopian government is the number one employee in the country. Controlling all this assets give the Federal Government total power on every aspect of the people and country. For the Woyane regime Ethio Telecom is a weapon to amass large amount of money, spy, control, create anxiety and bully the citizen. How TPLF was able to control ETC is the story of what happened to our country. The group known to us as TPLF organized as an ethnic based party took over the political, economic, security sectors of the country called Ethiopia in a very systematic and deliberate way.  This assertion can be proved in more ways than one cares to count. Please read Ginbot7 publication on the domination of the military by Tigrean ethnic group. (http://www.ginbot7.org/the-ethiopian-military-leadership-under-haile-selassie-and-derg-regimes/)

Ethio Telecom is another key sector of the economy and a very powerful weapon that was targeted by TPLF for complete take over. How they were able to do that is the history of what happened to the rest of the country. Ethio Telecom encompasses the trial and tribulations of our country and people. In my opinion Ethio Telecom is where Weyane’s star shined.

It took TPLF for years (1991 -1995) to figure out the inner workings of such a large and old organization. In 1996 they restructured it as a Corporation and were able to get rid of ‘trouble makers’ and install their own people in key positions. Its importance did not manifest until around 2000 with the advent of the World Wide Web.  Before that TPLF was content collecting spare change. The Internet changed the whole ball game. Communication became the driving force of change. As a totalitarian regime highly motivated to control the flow of information the TPLF saw the dangers of unrestricted access to information and knowledge.

In 2010 Ethio Telecom emerged. The birth of Ethio Telecom was a painful moment in the history of our country. People were played upon, dangled around, set against each other and humiliated. Such a powerful and modern organization in the life of our country was made to look like a failed and useless outfit. The twelve thousand strong body was completely dismantled by the TPLF. Guess who was in charge of this tragedy. None other than current Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Debretsion. He was the architect and enforcer of this desecration of an Ethiopian home grown building block.

To avoid doing the dirty job TPLF gave management services to a subsidiary of French Telecom – Orange (telecommunications). Orange is a third rate multi- national corporation and an easy prey for TPLF to push around. Without input from the workers, without consulting those affected Orange and the TPLF Politburo said ‘we got a deal you cannot refuse.’  They created five categories named N1-N5. N1 included the French team and Ethiopian management personnel. Over half of the twelve thousand employees were dumped on the road side. There was no explanation, no discussion and no review. One of those that was found to be superfluous was the head of the Union Ato Adisse Bore. You see the beauty of Woyane justice? There was no one left to speak for the workers! You can tell the whole idea was nothing but a naked assault on our people when you see that among the personnel the new organization is purported to keep the list included some dead and some on exile.  This is how Ethio Telecom was born.

Why do you think Ethio Telecom is a prized asset of the minority TPLF regime? It is because communications is the key to the future. The media opens our eyes to situations and places we will not even dream of. The media is the first causality of a repressive regime. Do you notice the first target of any coup d’état is the control of the radio and television transmission sites?  Ethio Telecom is the gate keeper. Ethio Telecom sustains the dictatorship.

Thus they got rid of half of the employees of ETC and made it in their own image. They trained a few, they imported a few of their own from the Diaspora and they either blackmailed or bought the rest. Today Ethio Telecom is a cash cow to the dictatorship and a very powerful security apparatus to safeguard a few while abusing the many.  Here is the composition of the N 1 Group managing the enterprise they established.

Please let us keep it real here. This is not some one’s imagination gone haywire, nor a just made up figure. It is real and we treat it as such until proven otherwise. Is this what federalism is all about? Ethnicity is the corner stone of Woyane rule. The above chart is based on Woyanes’ own classification of our people.

This investigative study at its best came out two weeks ago. Fellow Ethiopians took time and effort to find and compile such information so we can have a clear view of the actual situation in our homeland. As they say talk is cheap but facts speak for themselves.  After all is said and done the above picture does not lie. It is based on the TPLF’s definition of who is who in today’s Ethiopia.

Why do you think the TPLF regime under Debretsion finds communications important enough to control as a monopoly? It is because communications is the key. Leaders like Meles and now Debretsion are aware of the value of information. They are spin doctors. When it comes to a closed society like ours they make sure they are the only source of information. Our country Ethiopia is the last in any measure of technological advancement, why do you think that is so? They don’t allow it, they don’t foster it, and they don’t encourage it because the more we know the less we think of them.

The Federalism TPLF is building in our country is Apartheid. In the former South Africa the 9.6% white ruled over the 79% black population. In Ethiopia, today the 6.1% from Tigrai region are dominating the economic political and military life of the country. This is a very difficult statement to make and it is a very ugly thought to cross one’s mind. But it is also unfair and being a coward not to face reality. The situation in the military, the situation in Ethio Telecom is not something to ignore. It did not happen by accident. The TPLF party in a deliberate and callous manner created this Apartheid system in our country. The above pie chart showed the so called N 1 group in higher management what do you think N 2 looks like?

Knowledge is power. Knowing what the TPLF party is doing to our country and people helps us realize the problem, discuss the ramifications if left to continue and find a lasting solution so we can all move forward as one people. Uncovering such crime is not ethnic bating. Discussing such unfair and ugly reality is not hating on individuals or groups. It is real and it has to be dealt with. Dr. Debretsion and his friends have to answer why there is such naked discrepancy in the organization they are entrusted to administer in the name of the people. They have to explain to us the people why there are more from their own ethnic group in position of real power and influence than the rest. Is it because they couldn’t find a Gambelan, a Sidama, a Kenbatan, an Oromo or an Amhara to fill such slots? If there is a reasonable explanation we are all ears but changing the subject or accusing one of ethnic bating is not the way to go.

Now they have inserted their own people in key positions what do you think they are doing with the new and improved Ethio Telecom? Are they using it to connect the country, use the new found digital technology to jump start our economy and education system and usher an era of peace and prosperity? I am afraid a mind that relies on ethnicity and village mentality to get ahead cannot be expected to soar like an eagle but slither like a snake biting all that crosses its path. That is exactly what Ethio Telecom is, a venomous snake attacking our people and country every chance it gets. Check out our double digit growing economy.

Country   Population          MobilePhone Internet users %population

Ethiopia   : 90 M 18 Million _ 960,000          _       1.1

Kenya : 43 M 28.08 Million     _     12 Million                28

Ghana     : 24.6 M 21.1 Million         _    3.5 Million       _  14.1

Sudan    : 34.2 M 25 Million           _     6.4 Million 19

It is clear the regime is not interested in using the new technology to help our country join the community of nations. No question ethnic mentality and government monopoly stifles innovation, kills individual initiative and keeps our people in darkness. Here is a finding by Reporters Without Borders (RWB).

“Ethiopia’s only ISP, State owned Ethio Telecom has just installed a system for blocking access to the Tor network, which lets users browse anonymously and access blocked websites. In order to achieve such selective blocking Ethio Telecom must be using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) an advanced network filtering system.”

Think about it, the ruling junta is willing to invest such huge amounts of money to spy on its citizens instead of using the money to wire schools and libraries. They use Chines technology to block any and all Internet, radio and our ESAT news broadcast. The few decide what is good for the many. It is not healthy. It does not end well. We have seen what a single ethnic domination does to people and country. Rwanda was just yesterday and South Africa will suffer the legacy of Apartheid for decades to come. The current arrangement in our country will not ensure a strong and vibrant Ethiopia where her children will prosper under one roof but rather a weak and divided Ethiopia that one day will fall prey to outsiders that will exploit the division.

At the beginning of this article I quoted the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei speaking about the character of his people suffering under the totalitarian system. We in Ethiopia should know exactly what he is talking about. Under the weight of TPLF abuse we harbor deep seated animosity towards each other, instead of fighting the common enemy we point fingers at each other. There is no association, organization club where we Ethiopians relate to each other with respect and dignity. Our political organizations have become places of division. Even our church is not immune from this sickness. We see our Muslim brother resisting and we learn the power of steadfastness and unity of purpose. That is one group of citizen with anti Woyane virus shot.

One fact that should be made clear is that the TPLF party is not practicing this criminal behavior all by itself. We have to look at the enablers that grease the wheels to hurt our own people and destroy our country. Those Amharas’, Oromos’, Wolaitas’, Tigreans’, Hararis’ and others in position of marginal power and the willing Diaspora that invests on stolen land and fake buildings are part of this national degraedation. What are you going to tell your children when Ethiopia becomes another Somalia, the future Iraq or a dying Syria? When they ask you why didn’t you do something daddy or mommy how are you going to answer? You cannot say I did not know because that would be a lie. You cannot claim I tried because that would not be true. No one would say I did not stand up straight because I am spineless. When you go to sleep tonight think about it, please?

TPLF planted a seed of hate on me

November 9, 2013
by Surafel (Mamushe)

Yes……as a proud Ethiopian young man, I never thought for a second that I am crying a story over heard from the news outlets. In our culture, we, men, are usually hiding our heartfelt emotions inside on our heart, however, the despicable and indefensible crime committed against our people by the very small click of TPLF angered me more than ever before in my entire lifetime. Cultural implications and impacts are a pinpoint of societal behavioral reflections. We, Ethiopians, are well known for our cultural values; nevertheless, what’s happening in Ethiopia right now is far from our cultural norms. The devilish TPLF security agents compromise the decency of our cultural values.

Recently, when I noticed what’s happening in a TPLF torture camp against one of the central committee members of UDJ (Andenet), my anger reached on a climax. Beyond my extreme anger, my tears fall on my face like a rain.

Here the shocking story…..as always I do, I logged in on my face-book page to check the daily newsfeed. As soon as I scrolled down on my page, one of the news links surprisingly caught my attention. Eagerly, I clicked on the link and listening the interview conducted by Ethiopian Satellite Television a.k.a ESAT with the victim and highest-ranking member of UDJ (Andent), Ato Abebe Akalue. As Ato Abebe narrating the untold and shameful act of TPLF agents against him, I couldn’t believe what I have just heard from him. Since torture and heinous crime against our people is a normal routine in a TPLF torture camp, it doesn’t surprise me at all. However; what shocked me the most is the sexual harassment against Ato Abebe by the TPLF security agents. Forget about as a very conservative nation such as Ethiopians, I never saw anywhere in the world that security agents sexually harassed someone because he has different political views than the government.

Right after listen this horrific interview, I turned the audio off and sighed deeply. And then, I was numbed for a while, and confused, sad, mad and finally I felt those TPLF agents and their masters are planted a seed of hate on me. Yes a seed of hate that can cultivate revenge in my heart. Whether you are a supporter or against the TPLF lead government, in this specific case, the RED line was passed. They broke the core value of our cultural identity. We all know that sexually harassing a father and married man is an absolute taboo and insane.

I was one of the people who strongly believed that the only avenue to rid off any dictatorial regime is only through peaceful struggle, however, after this inhuman and monstrous act of TPLF, I convinced myself that peaceful struggle against these evils are a nightmare. As a result, now on, I am onboard for using anything to take back our country from TPLF and replanting the seed of peace, respect and unity among our great people.

Not a political, a moral question for Ethio-Tigrians in Diaspora.

To all Diaspora Tigria origin brothers and sisters….for how long and what cost, you will say “enough is enough” to this small group of merciless TPLF?

My and your forefathers were fought and died together as one nation to protect our country from domestic and foreign enemies. Their ultimate precondition to defend the country and its people from domestic and foreign enemy was simply “right or wrong” not demographical or geographical resemblance. I am not trying to challenge your right to affiliate with any political groups but I am challenging your reasoning to support the TPLF.

Today, for the sake of argument, I will set aside the political argument against you (Diaspora Ethio-Tigrians) but I will present to you a moral argument. I bet you all have heard what the TPLF security agents did against the ranking member of UDJ, an opposition political party. Recently, the TPLF Security agents abducted the victim from the street and took him some unknown place. Right after they got him in this unknown torture camp, they forced the kind of alcohol down into his throat and water boarding him consistently. Because this was not enough for the TPLF ruthless agents, they are sexually “molested” him. How this happened in Ethiopia?

My brother and sisters; what is the moral equivalency for this unusual and immoral satanic behavior of TPLF? This is beyond anybody’s imagination. I don’t know which world the Diaspora Tigrians lives in, but most of Ethiopians are outraged and angered by the sodomization of our God fearing people. Whether or not you are a TPLF sympathizer, this act of evil violates the universal code of conduct and our moral values.

Finally, I am very disappointed that I didn’t see any statement and hear any condemnation from the Diaspora Tigrians against this TPLF shameful act. It’s best for the good of the country to come together as one nation and people and say enough for these TPLF parasites spew hate and division among our people. Otherwise, I can assure you that our country will be the land of vengeance, retaliations and avenging.

Aiding and Abetting: UK and US Complicity in Ethiopia's Mass Displacement

In the face of evidence, the UK and US continue to deny systematic human rights abuses are occurring in the Lower Omo as thousands are displaced for an irrigation scheme.

ARTICLE | 4 NOVEMBER 2013 - 1:23PM |

BY DAVID TURTON

Members of the Nyangatom, one of the communities affected by the project, loading donkeys by the river. Photograph by William Davison.
The US-based think tank, the Oakland Institute, recently accused the UK and US governments of aiding and abetting the eviction of thousands of people from their land in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley.

The accusation was not new – it had been made before by Survival International and Human Rights Watch amongst others. What was new about this report was that it made use of transcripts of interviews conducted by officials from the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), during a field visit to the lower Omo in January 2012.

The interviews were recorded by the report’s author, Will Hurd, who accompanied the officials and acted as their interpreter. The recordings contain vivid first-hand accounts of the abuses suffered by local people at the hands of the government, the police and the army.

Hurd, an American human rights activist who speaks one of the local languages, decided to release the recordings to journalists when both agencies claimed publicly, months after their visit, that they had found no evidence of the ‘systematic’ abuse of human rights. Having spent 40 years working as an anthropologist in the area myself, I am confident of the accuracy and authenticity of the report and of the interviews on which it is based.

The abuses being carried out by the Ethiopian government in the Lower Omo are incontrovertible. Thousands of agro-pastoralists are being evicted by government fiat and without compensation from their most valuable agricultural land along the banks of the Omo in order to make way for large-scale commercial irrigation schemes. By far the largest of these schemes is being set up by the state-owned Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. The evictions are being accompanied by a resettlement or ‘villagisation’ programme which, although described by administrators as ‘voluntary’, is forced in the sense that those affected have no reasonable alternative but to comply.

This is a glaring example of how not to do river-basin development. No impact assessments, feasibility studies or resettlement plans have been published. No plans have been announced for compensation, benefit sharing or livelihood reconstruction. And no attempt has been made to give the affected people a genuine say in decision making. In short, the project appears to have been conceived as a quasi-military operation, with the police and army acting as an occupying force amongst a recalcitrant and ‘backward’ civilian population. Not surprisingly in these circumstances, there have been reports of beatings, arrests and sexual violence by military personnel.

We know from 50 years of academic research on ‘development-forced displacement and resettlement’ as well as from countless reports by NGOs and development agencies that, if the project continues in this way, it will have a devastating impact on the economic, physical, psychological and social wellbeing of the displaced population. To use an expression from Michael Cernea, formerly the World Bank’s Senior Adviser on Social Policy and Resettlement, river-basin development in the lower Omo looks like its becoming yet another “disgracing stain on development itself.”


Aiding and abetting


Ethiopia receives $3.5 billion a year from international donors, which amounts to approximately half its annual budget. In March 2011, it was announced that the UK would be giving $2 billion in development aid to Ethiopia over the following four years, making Ethiopia the biggest single recipient of British aid money. The UK is also the biggest state contributor to the World Bank’s ‘Promoting Basic Services’ (PBS) programme for Ethiopia. PBS funds provide budget support for local government expenditure on education, health, agricultural extension and road construction. Since resettlement in the Lower Omo is the responsibility of the local administration, it would be stretching credulity beyond reasonable bounds to believe DfID’s claim that no UK money is being used to finance this activity.

Over the past two years I have tried to alert both the Ethiopian government and DfID to what I believe is a disaster in the making. The Ethiopian officials I have spoken to simply denied that there was any basis for my concerns. I have learnt that critics of Ethiopian government policies are liable to be treated either as ‘enemies’ of Ethiopia or as well meaning friends in need of remedial education. DfID staff were interested in what I had to say but the official line is that the British Government takes a ‘robust stand’ on human rights and, ‘where it has concerns’ it raises them ‘at the very highest level’ – to which the only answer, if you’ve had to stand by and watch your fields and grain stores flattened by a sugar corporation bulldozer, is ‘Yeah, right’.

Whatever is going on behind closed doors, public statements made by British officials about allegations of human rights abuses in the lower Omo have been consistently supportive of the Ethiopian government. On 5 November 2012, the Minister for International Development, Justine Greening, announced in reply to a question in Parliament that DfID had not been able to “substantiate” the allegations made to it during its visit to the lower Omo in January that year. She promised that another visit to the area would be made “to examine these further.”

Another visit was indeed made, by DfID and USAID staff, a week after the Minister’s reply. But no report of this visit has been released despite a Freedom of Information request from Survival International. Meanwhile, Sir Malcolm Bruce, Chairman of the International Development Committee of the UK’s House of Commons, repeated the Minister’s line on a visit to Addis Ababa in March 2013. Speaking to a local newspaper, he said “we cannot make decisions based on allegations….what we have now is mostly allegations, many of which the government has already addressed”.


A robust stand with Ethiopia


On this showing, DfID’s proud boast that it takes a ‘robust stand’ on human rights looks like empty rhetoric – cynical, politically expedient and morally bankrupt. Nor would one have to be a great cynic oneself to at least wonder whether the allegations made to DfID and USAID staff by lower Omo residents in January 2012 would have seen the light of day if they had not been tape-recorded and published by Will Hurd.

It needs to be stressed that the allegations were not principally about rapes, arrests and beatings. These have certainly occurred, but they may or may not have been part of a systematic campaign of intimidation. What is undeniable is the forced, large-scale, ongoing and systematic eviction of whole communities from their land by their own government, without consultation and without compensation. And it is clear from the interview transcripts, published along with the Oakland Institute report, that this was the most deeply felt, vehemently expressed and frequently repeated allegation of human rights abuse made to DfID and USAID staff during their January 2012 field visit. Any “further examination” of this allegation, if indeed it is necessary, should not take long to complete.

The British government is helping to sustain, with its financial, moral and political support, a project which, if it continues without change, will lead to the needless suffering of thousands of people. This is not a technical problem. We know very well what practical steps should be taken, now, to prevent or at least mitigate the worst consequences of the project. But the UK’s politicians are not only “turning a blind eye” to the problem, as the Oakland Institute’s report puts it, but repeatedly denying it exists. We must conclude that they will only have second thoughts about this policy if they come to doubt its political expediency. Or, as a colleague of mine once put it, more colourfully, if it “comes back to bite them in the bum”.

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U.N. must stop Saudi Arabia’s abuse of Ethiopian domestic workers,

By Aie Zi Guo

The Middle East is the epicenter of the world’s great religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Great mathematicians, scientist and engineers originated from this part of the world. The pyramids of Egypt, the Walls of Babylon, the lamps of Aladdin, the great pharaohs etc are historical testaments of the ancient civilizations of the Arabian Peninsula. Jesus and Mohammed were born, raised and resurrected in this part of the world.

In literature the Bible (written 1600 years ago) and Koran (632 AD) both demonstrated the intellectual genius of the ancient people of the Mediterranean. These literatures continue to influence our social, economic and spiritual lives as well as shape our spiritual and moral behaviour to eternity. Both have influenced society for millennia.

However, as we go back in the twilight zone of time as good deeds originated from the followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, horrific stories and evil deeds also originated out of them. Adam and Eve cursed mankind because they betrayed the words of God. Jewish conspiracy and betrayal led to crucifying Jesus Christ. Mohammed diminished women’s status and their treatment under Islamic jurisprudence. In Saudi Arabia unimaginable types of evil and barbarism are fabricated in the name of Islam. Mistreatment of women, the proliferation of int’l terrorism, the outsourcing of evil doers i.e. Osama Bin Laden, Al Shebabe and Wehabi fanatics originate from Saudi Arabia. It is a country bent to spread Islam at the expense of the lives of innocent people that it calls ‘Infidels” or non believers.

Mohammed borne in Mecca was believed to have had a humble, tolerant, compassionate and GOD fearing personality. His marriage was multi ethnic including Khadija of Ethiopia. He never discriminated. He created a tolerant and honest religion. Unfortunately, what is coming out of the Saudi Empire is evil and barbarism of gargantuan proportions. This Empire which reaps billions of dollars from the oil fields has despised modern education. Anything under the universe including technology, labour, land, sex and education are commodities that Saudi money has to buy. Hence these commodities have to be treated in Saudi’s terms. Being damn proud of their riches they even don’t dare to wash their own plates. To do their household chores they import maids from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. One source of this cheap labour is Ethiopia where importations of Ethiopian maids and concubines have increased exponentially. About 45,000 Ethiopians are imported by Saudi Arabia on monthly bases to work as maids often at cheap wage rates ($1000/month). This wage is equivalent to the amount that a Saudi billionaire pays to a brothel for an hour’s pleasure in Europe.

Are Ethiopian women wrong to seeking employment in Saudi Arabia -for God’s sake “NO”. In a country like Ethiopia where unemployment is a staggering 50%+, it is natural for these women to seek employment in Saudi Arabia. If Ethiopia’s economy had functioned well they would not have set their feet on unknown land. Desperate as they are the women go extra mile to changing their given names to Islamic names and camouflage their dressing code to resemble their employer’s culture. Prior to their departure these women were full of dreams and hopes of getting money to build houses to their parents, support their sibling’s education and send money to their parents. Instead what they earn from the promised land of Arabia is not money but rape, torture, beating, starvation and death. Their parents and families back home receive body bags instead of the promised cash.

A few weeks ago a young Ethiopian women called Alem Dechassa was forcefully taken and beaten in broad day light at the door steps of the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut. Then she was taken to an unknown prison where she was reported to have committed suicide. Only the prophets of the great religions would know how Alem died and what type of torture, rape and beating she endured before her death. The horrific images of Alem Dechassa’s abduction shocked Ethiopians and the international community. That is why the United Nations has requested the government of Lebanon to make a through investigation of her case.

Before this incident evaporated from our mind another gross human right violation of innocent Ethiopian women took place in Saudi Arabia. These women whose hands and legs are tied to beds and walls are found tortured at the nerve centre of the holy land of Mecca Median. No one knows why the Saudi’s commit such barbaric acts against these defenceless and powerless Ethiopian women. It neither correspondence to the teachings of Mohammed nor to the tenets of human decency. Even animals in the wilderness do not have this level of cruelty. Animals attack other animals if they are hungry or feel threatened, usually as an act of self defence. When animals know that they have won the enemy they refrain from aggression. If Animals have this level of intelligence and wisdom then why the Homo Sapiens of Saudi Arabia are deficient of this common sense. The act of the Saudis, Lebanese and other Middle Eastern countries against Ethiopian maids is beyond one’s comprehension. No religion gives divine right to bully and torture others. It is indeed not Islamic. If Mohammed rises from grave HE would certainly curse the evil empire of HIS holy land.

During the Hijera (Migration of Islam) Mohammed advised his followers to migrate to Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). Mohammed acknowledged that the humble and decent Ethiopian Orthodox Christians would give his followers sanctuary and protection. True to his words Ethiopians not only received His followers but also treated them with at most humanity and curtsy. Bound by Abyssinian kindness HE openly declared that Islam under no circumstances should attack Ethiopia and Ethiopians. This fact is found registered in the Koran a thousand years ago. Then one begs to question the current motive of Islamic barbarism unleashed on Ethiopian Women in the heart land of Mecca against. Emirates women pour hot water on Ethiopian maids; throw acids on the innocent and beautiful faces of their women employees. The world has witnessed what the wife of the late Mohammed Ghaddafi did to her Ethiopian maid. We know for fact that these Muslim women in the Middle East are themselves victims of forced marriages, torture, sodomy and bullying. Evidently a bullied person is more likely to end up a bully himself or herself. What is interesting is that Muslim Clerics who are fond of passing Fatwa for every little un-Islamic issue gave a deaf ear to the torture and abuse of Ethiopian maids by their followers. The choice is one either Islam condones this type of barbarism or the mullah’s/clerics are ignorant of the teachings of Mohammed.

Moreover rich Saudi Sheiks travel to Ethiopia to prostitute and fornicate with beautiful and young Ethiopians daily. They sleep with multiple women (< age girls) at the Sheraton Ethiopia Hotel built by their agent Mohammed Ala Moudihn. Ethiopians tolerate this because they are poor and helpless.

It is incomprehensible how the Saudi Empire allows such gross violation of innocent women. Ethiopians keep wondering whether the Saudi men intoxicated with their oil money have mothers, sisters and daughters. Many assume that these men are borne of inanimate objects. If indeed they are humans then they have to come out of their Stone Age mentality and prove to us that they are members of the true Homo Sapiens of the 21st century. They need to start and think as human beings and not as the Scorpions of the Desert of Arabia.

Someone with power, intelligence have to tell Saudis other Middle Eastern Countries that it is time to stop this madness and behave as real human creatures. That power rest with the United Nations which has a moral and institutional responsibility to stop this barbarism, slavery and gross human rights abuses against poor Ethiopian women in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. UNICEF, the watchdog of women and children right must break its silence against this gross abuse of Ethiopian Women. As the late Emperor Haile Selassie I said “throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph”.