John Mohawk, Iroquois Leader and Scholar, Dead at 61

Rest in Peace, John Mohawk.

I was fortunate enough to see John Mohawk at the Bioneers conference, at a "Kitchen Table Conversation" entitled Race, Class and Power, where he spoke alongside Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, and Akaya Windwood. This was a powerful workshop, which was so packed full there were people crammed in, sitting on the floor (You can buy a copy of the CD or MP3 from this session. It's worth a listen). I always have soft spots for historians, since history is one of my passions, but I have to tell you John Mohawk gave off such an aura of wisdom and gentleness. He also had very important things to say.

The 20th century saw the rise of Stalinism, of Hitlerism, of Fascisms of all kind all over, I mean not just Europe but in many places has led to holocausts, exterminations, extinctions.

In each and every case it was started by a people who felt like the Germans did, that they were somehow left out, somehow not given their due. People who took a conscious effort to reform their culture, and in so doing gave themselves permission to commit murder. That has been accelerating in this century and I think it will continue to accelerate into the next century.

That is going to be a result of the side effects of the combination of the globalisation of economy and all the social changes that have diminished the value of human labour and diminished the value of people's relationships and their symbiotic relationships with land.

Read or listen to the rest of this interview with him regarding the future.

Yesterday's Democracy Now also featured an excerpt from a talk he gave at a teach-in last month.

the American civilization has a rationalization for a lot of bad things, things like the removal policy and things like the Indian war thing, and things like the forced assimilation policy.

All of those flow from an ideology of white supremacy, which was the dominant ideology of race theory in the United States in the 19th century. I point this out, because it seems to me that the moment we're looking at is a proposal that peoples of the world, distinct peoples of the world have a right to a continued existence as distinct peoples. And I point to you that the white supremacy argument offers no such rights. It doesn't offer any rights to a distinct existence -- a continued existence of other species, of birds, animals, plants and whatever, fishes. It is a theory that says that one group has the absolute unhindered right to do what they need to do to get what they want.

Listen, read, or watch the whole thing

Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia

Also in the news: [Many in Ethiopia See Premier's Talk of War As Ploy to Tighten Grip] - [EU Envoy makes bid to avoid war in Somalia ] - [In response to the Interview With Meles Zenawi]

International: [Libya Sentences 6 to Die in H.I.V. Case] - [Cheney to testify at CIA leak trial] - [Al-Zawahri: U.S. Should Talk to al-Qaida] and more of today's top stories




European Commissioner Louis Michel with UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. 20 Dec,06 (more on this story below)

Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia

Heavy fighting has broken out close to the base of the weak Somali interim government in Baidoa. A deadline from Islamists for Ethiopia to withdraw troops from Somalia or face "major attacks" expired on Tuesday.

Residents say pro-government forces and the Islamic militia exchanged mortar shells at Daynunay, 20km from Baidoa. A European Union envoy was in Baidoa to meet officials. There are fears an all-out war would plunge the entire Horn of Africa region into crisis.

On a mission to get peace talks to resume, the EU's development commissioner, Louis Michel, has now travelled on to the capital, Mogadishu, and met Union of Islamic Court (UIC) leaders. (More...)

Many in Ethiopia See Premier's Talk of War As Ploy to Tighten Grip
Washington Post
Stephanie McCrummen

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- War or no war with Somalia, Mulunesh Abebayhu wants out. Out of her teaching job, where Ethiopian security forces constantly harass her because of her political views.



Out of this city, where hundreds of protesters were killed by police bullets after disputed elections last year. And, if she can manage, out of this country that she believes has plunged into the abyss of dictatorship at the hands of its prime minister, Meles Zenawi, a staunch ally of the United States in the vulnerable Horn of Africa.

"He confuses the Westerners so that he can keep ruling," said Abebayhu, 54, an opposition member arrested along with an estimated 30,000 others in the sweeping post-election crackdown last year. "Our party does not believe in this war. Our priority is to eradicate poverty, not go to war. Meles knows this war is a way for his system to survive."

As Ethiopia and Somalia's Islamic Courts movement inch closer each day to all-out conflict, a widespread view among people here in the capital is that Meles is using the conflict to distract people from a vast array of internal problems and to justify further repression of opposition groups, including ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia.

In particular, opponents of war say he is playing up the claim that there are al-Qaeda operatives within the Islamic Courts in order to maintain the support of the U.S. government, which relies on a steady flow of Ethiopian intelligence that some regional analysts say is of dubious value.

A recent attempt by Congress to sanction the Ethiopian government for widespread human rights violations failed after former Republican House leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.), lobbying on behalf of the Ethiopian government, argued that the United States needs Ethiopia in order to fight terrorism.(More...)

In response to the Interview With Meles Zenawi

For almost a week now I have been trying to make peace with the interview given bZenawi to a reporter from the Washington Post. I have re-read it several times, alternately cursed and laughed, yet each time I pass the pages lying on my coffee table it makes my blood boil.

I just can’t seem to digest the dispicable irony of this man publicly claiming support for the transitional government of Somalia (TGS) solely on the grounds that “it represents all the clans in Somalia” (as reported in the Ethiopian Herald, July 2006)—a bold claim from a dictator whose entire leadership has been fashioned from the divide-and-rule tactics of a minotrity clique!

There has not, as of yet, been significant evidence to suggest that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has any intention of establishing Taliban-style rule and the threats of “jihadist attack’ on Ethiopian soil remain greatly exaggerated--despite his cunning attempts to ridicule the “intelligent people in the 21st century” who correctly assume that unprovoked invasion could eventually push the Courts (10 out of 15 of which are currently considered moderate) to retreat into extremism, resorting to terrorist methods in response to the unprovoked attacks. (More...)

EU Envoy makes bid to avoid war in Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya - A European Union envoy plans to fly to Somalia to promote peace talks after weeks of saber rattling by the besieged government and an advancing Islamic movement.

But with troops on the move, suspected terrorists emerging as leaders and foreign fighters pouring into the country, only masterful diplomacy and some arm twisting will get both sides to back away from the brink of war for very long.

Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development and aid, will try to get the two sides to stop fighting and commit to high-level peace talks, according to an EU statement released Tuesday.

Fears of a full-blown civil war have intensified in recent weeks as both the government and Muslim leaders dismissed efforts to schedule peace talks and threatened military action. Both sides have moved fighters, fuel and ammunition to the front lines.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991. The current government, supported by troops from neighboring Ethiopia, holds only a small area around the central town of Baidoa. The Islamic militias control the capital, Mogadishu, but have also fanned out across most of southern Somalia.(More...)

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-One Last Time, Rocky!

Mass detentions in Addis

Also in the news: [ION: Somalia as a backdrop] - [Internet Anti-Jamming Technology Companies Reach Milestone Agreement] - [In the Name of...Justice?] - [Guns silent as Somali Islamists' deadline passes]

International: [Europe Condemns Libya's Death Penalty for Foreign Medics] - [Pentagon: Al-Sadr more dangerous than al Qaeda] - [Israeli PM Makes Surprise Trip To Jordan] - [Scientists find over 50 new species in Borneo]

Somalia as a backdrop
Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1204 16/12/2006

Meles Zenawi is trying to moderate his internal opposition so as to have his hands free to handle the inevitable armed conflict with Somalian Islamists.

Several initiatives are currently under way to find a way out of the internal political crisis in Ethiopia. Thus, Ephraim Isaac (seen here), a Falasha living in the United States where he heads the Institute of Semitic Studies at Princeton University and is chairman of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia and the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, last month visited the leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) in prison in Addis-Ababa.

He presented himself to them as a “non-partisan” emissary, sent by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to ask them to dissociate themselves officially from the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, armed opposition). In return they would be freed before the end of the year.

Furthermore, also according to our sources, discreet negotiations are under way between pro and anti-government Ethiopian intellectuals. These informal discussions have set the members of the Citizens’ Charter Group (CCG) against the intellectuals with ties to the regime in place, such as Professor Bahru Zewde in Addis Ababa.

Last week Zewde went to Paris for a meeting with, among others, Pr Mammo Muchie and Tecle Zerihun from Unesco. Some of these intellectuals have ties with Ephraim Isaac.

At the end of the 1999s, Ephraim Isaac had founded an Elders Peace Committee and undertook mediation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, without being able to prevent an armed border conflict from breaking out.

Internet Anti-Jamming Technology Companies Reach Milestone Agreement

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Four world-leading companies in Internet anti-jamming technologies reached an agreement today that starts full-scale cooperation in their technology and business operations. The four companies are the World’s Gate, Inc., the Dynamic Internet Technology, Inc., the UltraReach Internet Corp, and the Garden Networks for Freedom of Information Inc.

Internet users in China are unable to access blocked overseas web sites without outside help from the free world. Several companies, including the above four, have successfully developed and implemented technologies (anti-jamming services, also known as anti-blockade services) to enable Chinese users to break through the blockade and access overseas web sites.

The companies’ technologies will help users not only in mainland China, but also other authoritarian regimes, including Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Tunisia, and Vietnam -- thanks to the borderless nature of Internet.

At the same time, these tools also effectively protect user privacy and online safety by providing a secure Internet access mechanism for the users. (More...)

Guns silent as Somali Islamists' deadline passes

BAIDOA, Somalia, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Guns were silent in the sole stronghold of Somalia's interim government on Tuesday as an Islamist deadline to Ethiopian troops to leave or face holy war passed with conciliatory signs.

Around the dusty agricultural trading post where Somalia's shaky government conducts business from a converted warehouse, residents reported calm despite the threat by the country's Islamist movement.

Nonetheless, the Islamists and Ethiopian-backed government troops remained dug in along a tense frontline just kilometres (miles) apart.

Baidoa is a potential ground zero in what many fear will become a regional war, sucking in Horn of Africa rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea and spawning suicide bombings in east Africa.

The Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) said they wanted peace talks, and backed off a threat by defence chief Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Inda'ade" that gave the Ethiopians a week to leave -- thrusting war fears into overdrive. (More...)

In the Name of...Justice?

Amidst reports of war and attempted negotiation with the political prisoners, life in Ethiopia is becoming far more confusing for this ferenj!



It seems that everyone has a different opinion regarding the outcome of the political trial these days, as the next court session (February 19, 2007) draws closer by the day. Some say that Meles must be under pressure from the international community to release the prisoners immediately, while others argue that the Americans need them to remain behind bars in order to successfully wage this proxy “War on Terror”.

There are also those who suggest that, due to mounting civil dissent, the Prime Minister is left with no choice but to release the leaders (in hopes of rallying support for the war and preventing armed struggle); still others insist it cannot be that simple—and fear this dictator has something far more sinister up his sleeve.

Regardless, should the trial actually reach February’s scheduled hearing, a handful of men will be of particular interest; as much has already been disclosed about head Prosecutor Shemiels Kemal by far more competant bloggers here, I will stick with the three High Court Judges--Mohammad Abdulsani, Leul Gebremariam and Adil Ahmed.

Judge Mohammad seems to have the least suspicious CV of the three and is generally considered apolitical. Currently in is his late-30s, he graduated in law from the Civil Service College in Addis Ababa and practiced as a prosecutor in the SNNPR region for years before being appointed as a federal high court judge.(More...)

Mass detentions in Addis Abeba

Police is rounding up young men from the streets of Addis.

In what some think parallels the Derg's "Affesa era", hundreds had been detained while walking on the streets of the city, standing in their neighborhood or watching European football in little sports bars on Saturday and Monday.

Some were released from detention on Monday after they presented ID cards which proved that either they were students or government workers. Those who worked for private employers were told that their status would be further investigated.

"We didn't know what crime we committed. We were returning to out neighborhood after watching the Manchester United game on Sunday. They encircled us and ordered us to jump onto a truck. We were taken to woreda 10 police station," a teenager who was released the next day said.

He claims that hundreds still remain there. Some eye witnesses said street kids were being beaten by police men while they were rounded up. (More...)

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