Sunday, April 27, 2014
Teen Hitches Ride to Hawaii in Jet's Landing Gear | Teen Stowaway Surviv...
Stowaway's mom: Is she why teen snuck aboard Hawaii flight?
Stowaway's mom says her son was told that his Somali mother was dead. The teen stowaway was trying to go home back to Africa to see his mom.
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters / April 26, 2014
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San Jose Airport Teen Stowaway Revealed, Woman Claiming To Be Mother Speaks Out
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The Somali mother of a teen stowaway who survived a flight from California to Hawaii in the plane's wheel well said in a radio interview from a refugee camp in Ethiopia that she had not been able to speak to her son for years before his risky adventure.
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The boy sneaked into the wheel compartment of a Boeing 767 that took off on Sunday from San Jose International Airport, becoming one of only a fraction of stowaways to emerge alive after such a treacherous trip. He told investigators he wanted to go to Africa to see his mother, according to CNN.
The mother, Ubah Mohamed Abdulle, fled Somalia and lives in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, where she told Voice of America that she was divorced from the boy's father, who lives in Santa Clara with the teenager and two of his siblings.
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Abdulle said she has been completely cut off from her children since 2006 and wants to be reunited with them in the United States.
"They were even told that I was dead, but they recently found out that I was alive," she told the broadcast service in a report published on Friday.
"I felt bad that he risked his life," she said. "I was told that he did this because of me."
In a Voice of America interview this week, the boy's father identified him as Yahya Abdi, and said his son was longing for his native Africa.
FBI special agent Tom Simon earlier this week declined to comment on the possibility the teenager was trying to reach Africa. He said the boy randomly chose a Maui-bound Hawaiian Airlines jet and climbed into its wheel well, passing out soon after take-off in freezing temperatures and with low oxygen levels during the five-and-a-half hour flight.
The teen remained in a Hawaii hospital on Friday in protective custody of child welfare authorities, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Human Services, Kayla Rosenfeld, said in an email. She did not release details on his condition.
As The Christian Science Monitor reported, most attempts at hitching a ride in aircraft wheel wells don't end well. Out of 105 known stowaway attempts since 1947, only 25 people have survived, according to the Federal Aviation Administration
The boy's father, Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi, told Voice of America on Wednesday the family anticipated that the boy would soon be returned home to California.
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Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi could not be reached for comment. (Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Gunna Dickson)
Related stories
How safe is flying? Take the aviation safety quiz
USA Update Teen stowaway's adventure raises questions about airport security (+video)
USA Update How did stowaway teen go unnoticed for seven hours on San José airfield? (+video)
USA Update How did teen stowaway survive 5-1/2 hour flight to Hawaii in wheel well? (+video)
Friday, April 25, 2014
Iran sweeps coveted UN rights posts - Press Release
Also elected: Russia, China, genocidal Sudan, Cuba, Pakistan, Turkey, slave-holding Mauritania
NGOs protest "Black Day for Human Rights"
Iranian brought to the gallows in the northern city of Nowshahr on April 15, 2014. Iran put to death at least 369 people and likely several hundreds of others — more people than any country in the world except China. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently rebuked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for failing to improve human rights, including its high level of executions. |
GENEVA, April 23 - The United Nations today elected the Islamic Republic of Iran and more than a dozen other repressive regimes to top committees charged with protecting women's rights and with overseeing the work of human rights organizations, according to an exclusive report by UN Watch, a non-governmental Geneva-based human rights group.
Human rights activists are expressing outrage.
“Today is a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. "By empowering the perpetrators over the victims, the UN harms the cause of human rights, betrays its founding principles, and undermines its own credibility."
"Civil society loses as repressive states win election," said the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
Despite the sharp condemnation of Iran's human rights record by UN chief Ban Ki-moon -- who recently reported how women in Iran are "subject to discrimination, entrenched both in law and in practice" and how "women’s rights activists continue to face arrest and persecution" -- the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York today elected Iran to a four-year term on its 45-nation Commission on the Status of Women, the principal intergovernmental body dedicated to protecting women's rights. Equitorial Guineawas among other dictatorships also named to the global gender equality panel.
Meanwhile, in a separate vote today, the UN additionally rewarded Iran by making the regime a member of its powerful 19-nation Committee on NGOs, a coveted position because it allows governments to silence criticism by acting as the gatekeeper and overseer of all human rights groups that seek to work inside the world body.
Other egregious human rights abusers elected to the influential panel include Azerbaijan, China, Cuba,slave-holding Mauritania, Russia, and Sudan, whose leader, President Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the ICC for genocide. All were deemed "not free" in the 2014 annual survey by Freedom House.
Burundi, Guinea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Turkey, Venezuela, flagged as problematic and only "partly free" by Freedom House, were also elected.
Impact of Today's Election: What This Means for NGOs
ISHR had warned earlier this month that the failure of democracies to throw their hat in the ring would mean that "the Committee's membership will worsen considerably during the next term" and severely harm the freedom of NGOs -- even as it praised the election of Greece, Israel, South Africa, Uruguay, and the U.S., countries ranked by the ISHR as "strong, pro civil society candidates," but who now constitute a tiny opposition.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that NGOs within the UN are now increasingly under threat, citing an incident from last month, as reported in a series of New York Times articles, of how UN security officers protected a UN Watch delegate, daughter of jailed Chinese dissident Wang Bingzhang, from a spying attempt by a Beijing-backed organization bearing NGO credentials.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that NGOs within the UN are now increasingly under threat, citing an incident from last month, as reported in a series of New York Times articles, of how UN security officers protected a UN Watch delegate, daughter of jailed Chinese dissident Wang Bingzhang, from a spying attempt by a Beijing-backed organization bearing NGO credentials.
"The very UN committee that is meant to judge our complaint against this dangerous front group is now stacked more than ever before by China, Sudan and their non-democratic allies, who control some 70 percent of the seats. When the criminals are made the judges -- the arsonists named as fire-fighters -- it's a travesty of justice. The crucial role of civil society within the world body is being eroded, its voice at risk of being silenced," said Neuer.
"Tragically, the UN's election today of regimes such as Iran, Sudan and Mauritania -- governments that rape and torture political prisoners, subjugate women, and commit crimes against humanity from slavery to genocide -- sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Neuer.
www.unwatch.org
UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Ethiopia: Government drops plans to make homosexuality non-pardonable offence · PinkNews.co.uk
The Ethiopian government has backed away from plans to further criminalise homosexuality, saying that it is “not a serious crime”.
Government spokesman Redwan Hussein confirmed that homosexuality would no longer be added to a list of serious crimes that are non-pardonable, a move that had been threatened last month.
He told Associated Press: “It is not a serious crime. Plus, it is not as widespread as some people suggest. It is already a crime and a certain amount of punishment is prescribed for it. The government thinks the current jail term in enough.”
Hussein also backed away from an anti-gay demonstration that was due to be held by religious groups on April 26.
Dereje Negash, the organiser of the rally, which has now been cancelled, said: “Currently I’m being threatened by the gay community for organizing the rally. Despite the threat, I will continue to pursue my struggle against the gay community.
“I believe I have been given a task by God to do this. I will do this even if it means life or death.
Homosexuality is already criminalised in Ethiopia, and same-sex sexual acts can lead to 15 years in prison, or 25 years if HIV was transmitted.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Ethiopia: Where conscience is constantly on trial - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Currently 29 Muslim leaders are on trial in Ethiopia charged under its anti-terrorism law [AFP/Getty Images] | |||
A high profile trial against protest leaders - intellectuals, activists and elected members of "The Ethiopian Muslim Arbitration Committee" - is shaking the Ethiopian political landscape. The government argues that the accused harbour "extreme" Islamic ideologies. It accuses them of conspiracy with terrorist groups to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia. The accused have professed their innocence and denied the charges. In the courtroom, they present the prosecution's case as the continuation of repression by legal means, which resembles the totalitarian perversion of truth and justice of Stalinist and Apartheid regimes.While letting the legal process take its course, the accused are exposing the agonising and ultimately insoluble contradiction between the government and its laws. They protest the complicity of the court in the ultimate travesty, daring to speak truth to power, a la Daniel Berrigan: "You cannot set up a court in the kingdom of the blind, to condemn those who see, a court presided over by those who would pluck out the eyes of men and call it rehabilitation." The indictment In December 2011, Muslim activists began a peaceful protest against what they saw as a coerciveimposition of a little known sect of Islam called al-Ahbash and its teachings on Ethiopian Muslims and their leaders. In the following months, protesters elected a 17-member "Arbitration Committee" to lead the protest. This protest was unique in many ways: It was innovative and playful. It was a renegade movement that refused to be threatened by prosecution or persecution and appealed to ideals and values more profound than "crime and punishment".
The trial A criminal trial "is an indictment of individual behaviour". The trial expresses and represents the normative idea of "calling to account". It marks a moment at which a body-politic calls one or more of its members to account for a violation of its norms. In "calling to account" the body politic names the accused as a party to a dispute. This act of naming signifies something central to the legitimacy of the trial: It gives the accused a "speaking position". The accused should be entitled to give an account of themselves and the dispute in which they are named; the right to contest the allegation. The notion of "calling to account" imposes a great responsibility. It means that the government must treat the suspects as responsible moral agents, and must allowed them "a voice in the interpretation of those norms". The accusers must submit themselves to the same rules they apply to the accused - even more so when the accused is a public adversary. In a proper trial, "those who conduct the trial are also on trial themselves". This trial, however, is the complete negation of these principles. In fact, it is the most outrageous fraud imaginable. It is a fraud that best represents the vile baseness and moral bankruptcy of those in power who use the authority of the law and the devices of justice to mute peoples' cries for truth and dignity. In the course of this trial, the government trampled on every facet of their fair trial rights, including their right topresumption of innocence, the right to open and public trial, the right to examine witnesses and contest evidence. It produced and broadcasted a fictitious thriller movie - Jihadawi Harekat - complete with tortured confessions, hearsays, and a nest of vile gossips - all in the name of fighting terrorism.
Courting conscience For the accused, this is a trial of conscience - the purely moral act of dissent against the regime's outrageous attempt to convert the entire communityinto a new religious sect. As defendants in a show trial, they know that they could not be found innocent without the government being guilty and they insist on using the moment of the trial to proclaim, defend, and espouse those notions and ideas that compelled them to act in the face of jail and torture; to expose the indelible filth that sullied the Ethiopian justice system. They want to assume the role of prosecutor and judge, and communicate this sorry state of affairs to the public gallery - a strategy reminiscent of black liberationist movements of the last century. They insisted that their trial be held in the Millennium Hall, the largest hall in Addis Ababa, so that they would turn the event into a "repertoire of resistance". While they expect neither mercy nor decency from the court, they know that the spectre of its violence will continue to unsettle it from within and precipitate its normative renewal. As two of the prisoners, Abubaker Ahmed and Ahmedin Jebel, told the court, "We stand before the court not because we expect justice but because we wanted to bear witness to history." They know that law produces a determinate effect but its meaning and content cannot be exhausted in one single determination. They may be found guilty and condemned but they know that the conscientious subject is not totally exhausted or absorbed in this single condemnation. They know that some of the most revered individuals in the history of enlightened thought, whether historical figures such as Jesus of Nazareth and Socrates, or those who changed history in our own time such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, have been accused and condemned under the law. For subjects that are torn between obeying unjust laws and following their conscience, for those who encounter dehumanising and death-dealing legislations and institutions, dissent is an absolute calling that comes from the inner most sanctum of the spirit. When the state mobilises unjust laws to condemn the innocent, disobedience becomes an absolute responsibility that transcend all manners of private calculations. Finally, if we look beyond the surreptitious violence of adjudication; if we attend to that which escapes the innocence of courts and their symbolic personification of power; we will discern the promise of a transformative renewal made possible by these renegade claims. Awol K Allo is a Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. |
Ethiopia Christian group to stage anti-gay demo | GlobalPost
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An Ethiopian religious group on Thursday announced plans to stage an anti-gay rally this month to protest what it called "rising incidents" of homosexuality in the conservative Horn of Africa nation.
The initiative comes after Uganda and Nigeria recently passed tough anti-gay laws, although Ethiopian authorities said they were "indifferent" to the demonstration.
"The country has seen an increase in gay-related activities and this has reached an alarming stage," said Dereje Negash, the head of a Christian Association, Woyniye Abune Teklehaimanot.
The demonstration is set to take place in the Ethiopian capital on April 26, the first mass rally against homosexual rights in the country. It is jointly organised with the Addis Ababa Youth Forum, a civil society organisation, and has been given the green light by city authorities.
The Ethiopian government, however, insisted that any group had the right to freedom of expression and that it was not for or against the rally.
Homosexuality is already illegal in the country like in most of Africa's 54 nations, and punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
"We are indifferent, we just see it as the right to have a demonstration, otherwise we don't support or oppose," Information Minister Redwan Hussein told AFP.
Ethiopia is a deeply religious society, with over 60 percent of the population practising Orthodox Christianity, according to official figures.
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Monday, April 7, 2014
Ethiopia’s borderless cyberespionage | Al Jazeera America
Chinese- and European-made spyware is enabling Addis Ababa to silence dissent
April 7, 2014 9:00AM ET
I met Abdi (not his real name), a 32-year-old primary school teacher from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, last July while in Nairobi. Abdi had been arrested a year earlier in his hometown for organizing a protest against local government corruption. He was already under the eye of Ethiopian security officials because he refused to provide information on the activities of his students to local authorities.
Over the course of two weeks in detention, Abdi was repeatedly beaten and accused of belonging to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which originated in nationalist movements fighting for increased autonomy in the 1960s. The Ethiopian government considers the OLF a terrorist organization and uses the threat of an armed struggle to justify repression of ordinary Oromos, who constitute Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.
The harassment continued after Abdi was released. Eventually, like thousands of other Ethiopians, he felt compelled to flee to Kenya, leaving behind his wife and two children. After some time in Kenya he called home and spoke to his wife, who told him that security officials had been harassing her since he left. That was the last time he spoke to her.
Abdi later learned from neighbors that security officials came to their house hours after his call, demanding to know who was calling her from Kenya and accusing her of being in contact with rebel operatives there. He no longer calls Ethiopia and does not know the whereabouts of his family.
Abdi’s story is not unique. In the last two decades, tens of thousands of Ethiopians have fled their country because of government repression or limited economic opportunities. Most of these migrants, especially those living in neighboring African countries, fear that if they communicate with their families back home, their calls will be traced and their relatives will face repercussions. As new research by Human Rights Watch shows, their fears are well founded. The fear that permeates the lives of many inside Ethiopia has been successfully exported to other countries.
Ethiopian expats, including those living in the United States, have become targets of Addis Ababa's global espionage.
The state-run Ethio Telecom is the sole provider of phone and Internet services in Ethiopia. The Chinese telecom equipment and systems company ZTE is helping Ethiopia modernize its telecommunications infrastructure. The Ethiopian government uses a Chinese-developed telecom system to monitor and control the communications of its citizens and to silence dissenters both in Ethiopia and abroad. Security officials have unlimited access to the phone records of everyone in the country who owns a phone. During abusive interrogations, security officials often play back recorded phone calls to people in their custody. Those calling or receiving calls from foreign numbers are particularly at risk of reprisals by a government keen to punish those it considers a threat.
But Ethiopia goes even further to monitor dissenting voices outside its borders. The government has acquired and is using commercially available European-made spyware — namely the U.K.- and Germany-based Gamma International’s FinFisher and the Italy-based Hacking Team’s Remote Control System — to monitor dissenters in other countries, effectively extending its surveillance capabilities far beyond its borders. These tools provide security and intelligence agencies with full access to files and activity on an infected target’s computer. They can log keystrokes and passwords and switch on a device’s webcam and microphone, turning a computer anywhere in the world into a listening device. Ethiopian expats, including those living in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, have become targets of this global espionage.
In late 2012, security officials detained the wife of Yohannes Alemu, a Norwegian citizen and member of a banned opposition group, as she was visiting family in Addis Ababa. They questioned her about her husband’s political connections. Then the security officials demanded information from Yohannes via phone and email about his opposition party colleagues. He refused; after 20 days his wife was finally released and returned to Norway.
But the incident did not end there.
One of the emails he received contained an attachment infected with FinFisher spyware. Once he had downloaded this spyware, the Ethiopian security agencies had unfettered access to all the information on his computer.
While people around the world are right to be shocked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance by the U.S. government, they should also be concerned that repressive governments such as Ethiopia’s are purchasing and using advanced technologies to target independent voices beyond their borders. The export and use of these European-made commercial products remains virtually unregulated. This is particularly worrying given that evidence exists that similar technologies may be in the hands of authoritarian regimes throughout the world.
These technologies enable repressive governments to monitor dissenting voices in other countries — even in countries where privacy rights are stronger and legal protections are in place to limit state-sponsored surveillance.
The United States, European Union and other donors that together provide an estimated $4 billion in annual aid to Ethiopia should take concerted steps to stop this abuse. They should support global efforts to regulate the export and use of such technologies to governments with poor human rights records. African governments should also speak out and make it clear to Ethiopia that it is an infringement on basic rights to use these technologies to spy on citizens outside of Ethiopia’s borders — people who are all too often seeking protection from repression back home.
Felix Horne is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of a new report, “‘They Know Everything We Do’: Telecom and Internet Surveillance in Ethiopia.”
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.
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