argumentum ad hominem

By Ankober

I just listened to Lidetu Ayalew's interview on the recent speech that Dr.Berhanu made in remark of those killed in 2005 election. Leaving the basic cause of their disagreement aside-let me delve on the replay that Lidetu just gave.Lidetu started out by fully rejecting Dr.Berhanu's claim about the '' irresponsibility and unethical statements'' that Lidetu spoke of post the 2005 election.He then continued by putting forward four reasonings on why Dr.Berhanu was making those claims.Hearing those points convinced me that Lidetu agumentation qualities must have gone out with him from the parliament since late 2002.Viewed from the logical arguments of fallacy ,Lidetu's arguments fulfilled , argumentum ad hominem, at least for me.

Argument Number 1.Lidetu stated that Dr.Berhanu grew up with an Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) mentality since the age of 17 thus ending up now with a politics of ''sneaking'' and ''crookedness''. Such a fallacy and weak argument is called circumstantial ad hominem meaning instead of attacking an assertion the author points to the relationship between the person making the assertion and the person's circumstances.

Arguemnt Number 2. Lidetu argued that Dr.Berhanu has openly said ''God doesn't exist'' thus for him ''believing any claim from such a person to be true is fetching the air''.This is also another case of circumstantial ad hominem where Lidetu focuses on Dr.Berhanu's circumstances (religion, political affiliation, etc.) which all do not affect the truth or falsity of the claim.

Argument Number 3.Lidetu said that Dr.Berhanu gave a ''false witness'' eight years ago on the case involving his wife and his sister in law. ''if a man of such an act accuses me , it won't surprise me at all''.This type of argument is a typical case of abusive ad hominem where the arguer(Lidetu) instead of attacking an assertion attacks the person who made the assertion.

Argument Number 4. Lidetu's final propositional premises is that as Dr.Berhanu has been sentenced to death in absentia and that it is easy to assume his words and intuition would be highly affected by the sentence thus pushing him to tarnish other's image.And that in most circumstances he was a 'hypocrite''.Logic calls such a fallacy tu quoque ad hominem which is a form of attack on the person noting that a person does not practise what he preaches and that all his claims should be disregarded.

An ad hominem (Latin: "to the man"), also known as argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to link the validity of a premise to a characteristic or belief of the person advocating the premise.Such sorts of arguments are practiced in everyday life either by people with low-moral threshold and logical knowhow and hopeless arguers as in this case Lidetu.

In the case of Ethiopian politics as far as i know most oldies politics and politicians apply rgumentum ad hominem as a means of obliterating their opponents or winning their case.

In toady's world where logical argument and rationalizations are the orders of the day,arguing as Lidetu did or as the Ethiopian regime did to refute the Human Rights Watch and European Union recent reports is nothing but just filthy.

You can listen to Lidetu's interview by clicking here //www.ethiotube.net/video/11468/%E1%88%8D%E1%8B%B0%E1%89%B1-%E1%8A%A0%E1%8A%95%E1%89%A0%E1%88%B3%E1%8B%8D-%E1%89%A5%E1%88%AD%E1%88%BD-%E1%8A%A0%E1%8C%AD%E1%89%A4%E1%8B%8D-%E1%88%8B%E1%8B%AD-%E1%8B%88%E1%88%A8%E1%8B%B0%E1%89%A0%E1%89%B5--Ledetus-explosive-response-to-Berhanu-Nega

Why Are We Supporting Repression in Ethiopia?

William Easterly and Laura Freschi

November 15, 2010 11:20 a.m.

Mike Goldwater/Getty Images

Farmer Makaba Wasu planting a grain crop. He lost part of his one hectare field due to river erosion. Jaffa Village, Wolayita Zone, Ethiopia, August 19, 2008

Foreign aid observers have often worried that Western aid to Africa is propping up autocratic regimes. Yet seldom has such a direct link from aid to political repression been demonstrated as in “Development without Freedom,” anextensively documented new report on Ethiopia by Human Rights Watch. Based on interviews with 200 people in 53 villages and cities throughout the country, the report concludes that the Ethiopian government, headed by prime minister Meles Zenawi, uses aid as a political weapon to discriminate against non-party members and punish dissenters, sending the population the draconian message that “survival depends on political loyalty to the state and the ruling party.”

Ethiopia is Africa’s largest recipient of foreign aid (at $3.3 billion in 2008 and rising), and is frequently described as a country where western assistance is providing a safety net for the poor and laying the groundwork for country-wide economic growth. Donors working in Ethiopia, citing progress on six out of the eight Millennium Development Goals, claim that aid has “had a significant impact on improving the lives of the poorest families.” A predominantly Christian country bordering two unstable Islamic states (Somalia, and Sudan), Ethiopia is also seen as a crucial ally in the “war on terror.”

Yet Human Rights Watch contends that the government abuses aid funds for political purposes—in programs intended to help Ethiopia’s most poor and vulnerable. For example, more than fifty farmers in three different regions said that village leaders withheld government-provided seeds and fertilizer, and even micro-loans because they didn’t belong to the ruling party; some were asked to renounce their views and join the party to receive assistance. Investigating one program that gives food and cash in exchange for work on public projects, the report documents farmers who have never been paid for their work and entire families who have been barred from participating because they were thought to belong to the opposition. Still more chilling, local officials have been denying emergency food aid to women, children, and the elderly as punishment for refusing to join the party.

Nor should any of this come as a surprise. Meles has for many years managed to charm and win the trust of Western leaders even as his government becomes increasingly repressive. As Helen Epstein recently reported in the New York Review, “countless journalists, editors, judges, academics, and human rights defenders have fled the country or languish behind bars, at risk of torture. New laws passed in 2005 have made political activity more difficult than ever.”

Indeed, many aid officials interviewed in the Human Rights Watch report admit that they were aware of these abuses. As one western donor official said, “Every tool at [the government’s] disposal—fertilizer, loans, safety net—is being used to crush the opposition. We know this.” Yet the umbrella group representing 26 donors in Ethiopia (the Donors Assistance Group, or DAG), suggests that aid agencies intend to continue more or less with business as usual. Their overall response has been to reject the conclusions of the Human Rights Watch report, noting that, in their own research, they have not found “any evidence of systematic or widespread distortion.”

A study of aid recipients over the past three decades shows that the failure of western aid donors to separate themselves from autocratic rulers is not confined to Ethiopia—or even to Africa. In fact, despite growing awareness in the aid community of how foreign development support has sustained anti-democratic regimes, little has changed: dictators continue to receive a third of all international aid expenditures, and much of the remaining portion goes to countries that are only “partly free.”

One reason for this inertia is a genuine concern for the poor, hungry and sick who might suffer or die if the government stopped providing vital social services as a result of aid cuts. Another, less sympathetic, reason is that aid agencies literally exist to give aid; organizational incentives push aid bureaucrats to keep the money flowing, to keep their field offices open, and secure their own jobs.

In the case of Ethiopia, a violent government crackdown on the opposition that left 200 dead in 2005 embarrassed the donor community into an unusually frank reconsideration of their strategy. Until that point, many donors had been giving aid through the mechanism known as “direct budget support,” in which money goes directly into the federal government’s budget (as opposed to, say, going to specific projects to improve public services). Seemingly alarmed by the Ethiopian government’s repressive turn, the World Bank in 2006 resolved to “move away” from this system by channeling aid through local government instead, in order to protect its funding from “political capture.” It also said it would decrease aid to Ethiopia if governance did not improve.

But these threats have proved empty. Even before the Human Rights Watch report came out, observers had pointed out how hollow the World Bank’s move was, since local governments are also under control of the ruling party. And now, donors have been reversing even this feeble step, arguing for a quick return to direct budget support. The donors cite illusory “progress in long-term institution-building and gradual improvements in governance.”

This blatant indifference to democratic values is particularly tragic since there are many ways the aid community might help Ethiopians rather than their rulers. First and foremost, donors could insist that investigations into aid abuse be credible, independent and free from government interference, and then cut off support to programs they find are being used as weapons against the opposition. They could speak out forcefully against recent legislation that smothers Ethiopian civil society. They could also seek to bypass the government altogether, channeling funds through NGOs instead, or giving direct transfers or scholarships to individuals.

As a last resort, if the government prevents all attempts by donors to reach beneficiaries, then aid to Ethiopia could be suspended altogether. An aid cutoff under these circumstances does not hurt the intended beneficiaries if aid was not reaching them in the first place. Above all, though, donors must recognize that the current status quo is unacceptable. For not only is foreign aid to Ethiopia not improving the lives of those most in need, by financing their oppressors, it is making them worse.

Holla To my Sululta Homies

Residents of Sululta town have become beckons of freedom and dissent against repression by conducting a protest that culminated in the obliteration of unlawfully held land and corrupt administration.

As to our source,the problem rose after the Mayor of Sululta,Seyoum Hailu, was aware that he would be removed from his position as a result of which he started selling land illegally. The residents of the area whose land was being illegally sold took action against the Mayor ( he was badly beaten) & those who bought the land illegally.

The looters and administrators were hugely attacked by the rioters who owned the land for decades .The federal police was brought form addis to help the regional police force.The situation is calm now & half of the federal police,around 1000 but half of them are still there, had been returning to Addis since Wednesday 9/11/10. They returnee Federal police members were seen with military vehicles( ayfa, open vehicles).

Sululta, in the Oromia Special Zone, is located 25km north of Addis Abeba. It boasts 320 investors with a capital of 3.7 billion Br. Among the large investors in the area are Great Abyssinia Plc, Yanfon Tex Plc, Allied Chemical Plc, Nile Petroleum, China-Africa Overseas Leather Products, and a number of flower farms.The land sale, investment and developmental transactions in Sululta have been highly criticized for being highly corrupt and anti-poor.The town had seen changes of over half a dozen of Mayors in the past five years.

Three months ago, the Sululta Town Administration plans to reclaim 84,609sqm of land that has been leased to 19 developers.

Girma Biru new ambassador to USA,Seyoum to China

Editors Note: AddisFortune's Fine Line gossips that Girma Biru,former Minister of Trade and Industry is going to be EPRDF's ambasador to the United States of America while Seyoum Mesfin is heading to China.Read the rest here:

Girma Birru, former minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI), called a meeting of all his staff at the ministry a few weeks after the announcement of cabinet members. To the disbelief of many, perhaps including himself, he was not on that list, gossip claimed.

Nonetheless, he called the meeting to introduce Abdurhaman Sheik Ahmed, the new minister, to the staff and to bid them farewell himself. Girma tried to comfort his colleagues of at least 10 years; he informed them that he would not be away from them as he would remain in the industry, according to gossip.

He might have thought that he would remain as a special advisor to the Prime Minister (PM) on trade and industry related matters and be based at Arat Kilo. In fact, that was exactly what many others had considered, even after he was named a special envoy to the PM; many were of the view that he would be given the portfolio of multilateral trade affairs.

Gossip has now established that not only will he be far from the ministry and the sector, he will be dispatched to a city 11,537.5km away from Addis Abeba. Girma will be Ethiopia’s ambassador to the United States (US), following in the footsteps of his predecessor at MoTI a decade ago.

Kassahun Ayele, now serving as Ethiopia’s ambassador to Germany, was a trade minister before he moved to Washington DC, replacing Brehane G. Kiristos, the all too influential diplomat who is now state minister of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

The US is in the know about Girma’s appointment, gossip disclosed. To his luck, though, politicians on Capitol Hill like him, for they believe he is a little more liberal than many of his comrades, and, most importantly, he is perceived by Washington as the most private sector friendly Ethiopian senior minister during his years at Marshal Tito Street, gossip claimed.

Kassahun could probably retire, gossip anticipates. In Berlin, he will be replaced by Fisseha Asgedom, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Israel for several years.

Another surprising appointment of the past few weeks, which has been the subject of intense interest in the gossip corridors - with the exception of Arkebe Oqubay and Abay Tsehaye - was the ambassadorship of Seyoum Mesfin, the most experienced diplomat the country has right now. He will be dispatched to Beijing, for China is one of the four countries on which the administration of Meles Zenawi has placed a huge emphasis, alongside India, Turkey, and Brazil. However, whether he will report to the PM directly or to the ministers at the foreign office is not clear, according to gossip.

Another stormy front for Ethiopia’s diplomats is Sudan, with the referendum on the fate of the Southern region coming closer and the consequences of the results being very unpredictable. Despite dissatisfaction from the administration, Ali Abdo has been there for close to a decade now, gossip claimed. It appears to be time for a change in Khartoum; Hailekiros Gessese, currently ambassador to Beijing, will hand his position over to Seyoum and move to Sudan as Ethiopia’s ambassador, gossip disclosed.

Replacing Brehane in Brussels will be Kassu Illala (PhD), the longest serving minister in Meles’s cabinet, gossip claimed. Kassu is known to be one of the two men for whom the PM has soft spots; the other is Dawit Yohannes, until very recently Ethiopia’s representative at the United Nations (UN), claimed gossip. Dawit’s place will be filled by Tekeda Alemu (PhD), the longest serving state minister of MoFA. Mohammed Dirir, former Minister of Culture and Tourism will be placed in Cairo while Teshome Toga, former Speaker of the House is set to head to Paris, according to Gossip.

Meles' Ethiopia denies EU poll team entry

By ARGAW ASHINE in Addis Ababa (email the author)
Posted Friday, November 5 2010 at 11:20

The European Union election observer mission has been barred from returning to Ethiopia.

The mission was expected in the country to announce its final report.

Ethiopia held national elections last May.

Mr Thijs Berman, a member of the European Parliament and head of Ethiopian election observer mission from Belgium, said his team was denied a visa by ‘unhappy’ Ethiopian authorities.

The mission was supposed to officially submit its report to Ethiopian Government in Addis Ababa. However, Addis authorities are furious about the report.

Ethiopian ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on the issue when approached by the Africa Review.

His disappointment

The EU mission will now announce its long delayed report from the Brussels headquarters on November 8.

The report said the elections failed to meet international standards. But the African Union observers said the elections were free and fair.

The ruling party; Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led by Mr Meles, won 99.6 per cent.

The opposition Medrek deputy chairman, Mr Gizachew Shiferaw, said the EU report was coming too late in the day to be of any relevance.

According to Mr Gizachew, the report cannot help anyone at this time, as the ruling party had already formed a new government.

The opposition politicians had sought a fresh election but their request was not granted by the supreme court.

BBC apologizes Bob Geldof not the Ethiopian regime

ECU Ruling: Claims that aid intended for famine relief in Ethiopia had been diverted to buy arms

Publication date: 4 November 2010

Last March, in reports about aid money donated to Ethiopia in the mid-1980s, a number of BBC programmes and online items implied or stated that large amounts of money raised by Band Aid and Live Aid for famine relief in Ethiopia had been diverted by a rebel group to buy weapons. Following a complaint from the Band Aid Trust the BBC has investigated these statements and concluded that there was no evidence for them, and they should not have been broadcast. The BBC wishes to apologise unreservedly to the Band Aid Trust for the misleading and unfair impression which was created.

The detailed findings on the Band Aid Trust's complaint are set out below.

Assignment, World Service, 4 March 2010

This edition of Assignment consisted of an investigation by Martin Plaut, the BBC's Africa Editor, into claims that aid intended for famine relief in Tigray during the Ethiopian famine of 1984-5 had been subject to large-scale and systematic diversion by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and its relief agency REST, to buy arms and for other political purposes. The Band Aid Trust ("the Trust") complained that the programme and coverage generated by it had given the inaccurate and unfair impression that much or most of the money raised under the Band Aid banner had been diverted, whereas Band Aid was noted for the effectiveness of its monitoring of funds, and there was no evidence that funds raised by Band Aid had in fact been used to buy arms. This impression was damaging to the Trustees personally (implying negligence on their part) and to the good repute of the Trust as a custodian of charitable funds.

The Trust complained that the programme

1. gave an impression that Band Aid money was diverted to rebels of the TPLF and used to buy weapons when there was insufficient evidence to support the claim;
2. claimed that there was evidence of "the systematic diversion of aid received by REST to buy arms for the TPLF" when there was not;
3. included Band Aid in the allegations being made in order to sensationalise the story when there was insufficient evidence to justify doing so;
4. gave an inaccurate impression that, when an agent of Christian Aid was allegedly swindled out of aid money by rebels, Band Aid money may have been involved;
5. placed undue reliance on two witnesses, Aregawi Behre and Gebremehdin Araya, whose credentials, credibility and veracity were open to question;
6. presented, as evidence of the allegations being made, CIA reports which did not in fact support the allegations and in which Band Aid was not mentioned;
7. presented the testimony of former Ambassador Robert Houdek as corroborating the allegations being made when this was not so;
8. failed to provide adequate opportunity for Bob Geldof or any of the other Band Aid trustees to respond to the allegations;
9. included the claim that 95% of the aid which went to REST was diverted for other purposes when this was inaccurate and not supported by the evidence;
10. gave "a false and dangerously misleading and unwarranted impression ...and left an overall impression that the vast majority of resources raised by aid efforts in the mid 1980s largely went on buying arms".

The Trust also complained about related items, including

From Our Own Correspondent, bbc.co.uk

• The article unfairly suggested that the fact that Bob Geldof had declined to be interviewed showed that "the subject is too sensitive to be discussed openly" and was further proof that the allegations being made were correct.
• The article inaccurately and unfairly suggested that "the worst" may not have been averted in the Ethiopian famine crisis of the mid-1980s.

Ethiopian Famine Aid 'Spent On Weapons', bbc.co.uk

• The article reported unchallenged the claim that "$95m (£63m) from western governments and charities, including Band Aid, was channelled into the rebel fight" when there was insufficient evidence to support it. This was inaccurate and unfair to Band Aid and its trustees.

BBC News (6.00pm), BBC One, 3 March 2010

• The bulletin's report of the story was inaccurate and unfair to Band Aid and its trustees.

Bob, Band Aid and how the rebels bought their arms, The Editors, bbc.co.uk

• By using phrases such as "key figures", "compelling evidence", "uncomfortable facts", "uncovers systematic diversion of aid" and "credible voices" the article gave unwarranted support to allegations which were not sufficiently corroborated.
• The article gave support to the allegation that "95% of the money received by REST was spent on military and political campaigns" when this allegation was not sufficiently corroborated.

Outcome
The ECU found as follows:

Assignment

• The programme gave the impression that the claims of diversion related, inter alia, to Band Aid/Live Aid money (and the programme-makers acknowledge that such an impression, though unintended, might have been formed by a fair-minded listener). However, the programme's evidence did not relate to Band Aid/Live Aid money, and the impression given by the programme in this respect was therefore unfair to the Trust. [1, 2]
• There was no evidence that the programme's allusions to Band Aid were motivated by a desire to sensationalise the story. [3]
• In the section of the programme dealing with the alleged swindling of an agent of Christian Aid, it was made clear that the allegation concerned Christian Aid money, and it was not suggested that Band Aid money might have been involved. [4]
• The programme was not clear about the extent to which the evidence of Aregawi Behre (who was the source of the claim that REST had, at a certain point, decided to divert 95% of aid money to the purchase of arms and other political purposes) was open to question. [5, 9]
• The evidence of Gebremehdin Araya (who claimed to have swindled the Christian Aid agent) rested on a somewhat different basis, and the programme had not placed undue reliance on it. [5]
• The inclusion of evidence from a CIA report and from Robert Houdek contributed to the impression that the programme's allegations of diversion included Band Aid money, whereas those items of evidence did not apply directly to Band Aid (and, in the case of the CIA report, could not have applied to Band Aid). [6, 7]
• As the allegations were not deployed in the programme as criticism of Band Aid, there was no requirement under the BBC's Editorial Guidelines to offer the Trust a "right of reply". There were, however, strong editorial reasons for seeking comments from the Trust, and the programme-makers' requests for an interview with Bob Geldof or another representative of the Trust did not give enough information about the gravity of the allegation of diversion of funds to enable an informed decision about whether to provide a speaker to be made. [8]
• The programme made clear that the allegations of diversion replied to aid reaching Tigray, not to the Ethiopian relief effort as a whole, and that much aid had served its intended purpose. [10]
  Partly upheld

From Our Own Correspondent, bbc.co.uk

• The article's reference to the fact that Bob Geldof had not agreed to an interview ("Bob Geldof, who is not usually reluctant to talk, turned me down. It became clear that 25 years on, this was still a subject too sensitive to be discussed openly") invited an unfair inference about his motive.
• The article did not give the impression that the relief effort in Ethiopia had failed to prevent "the worst" from occurring. One phrase, read in isolation, could have been taken in that sense, but overall the article made clear that the relief effort had saved many lives.
  Partly upheld

Ethiopian Famine Aid 'Spent On Weapons', bbc.co.uk

• The sentence "One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63 m) - from western governments and charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight" was inaccurate in suggesting that the witness in question (Aregawi Behre) had referred to Band Aid, and there was no evidence for associating this claim with Band Aid funds.
  Upheld

BBC News (6.00pm), BBC One, 3 March 2010

• Though the body of the report was fair and accurate, the suggestion in the studio introduction that millions of pounds of Band Aid money had been "siphoned off by rebel groups to buy weapons" was inaccurate and unfair.
  Upheld

Bob, Band Aid and how the rebels bought their arms, The Editors, bbc.co.uk

• The article gave a misleading impression that there was evidence of large-scale diversion of Band Aid money.
• The article was not clear about the extent to which the credibility of the claim of 95% diversion of aid by REST was open to question.
  Upheld

The Trust's complaints about the following items were not upheld.
PM, Radio 4, 3 March 2010
The Andrew Marr Show, BBC One, 7 March 2010
The Media Show, Radio 4, 10 March 2010

Further action

Apologies to the Band Aid Trust will be broadcast on BBC One, the News Channel, Radio 4 and World Service. Appropriate steps will be taken to guard against visitors to any relevant BBC online items being given the impression that the evidence of diversion applied to Band Aid money.

Note

In earlier correspondence with the Trust, BBC News had identified a number of other items arising from the Assignment story in which an inaccurate or potentially misleading impression had been given.

• A headline on the News Channel and the BBC One One O'clock News to the effect that millions of pounds given to Live Aid was used by rebels to buy guns.
• Text on a website page which gave the impression that only a small amount of money raised by the charities involved in the Ethiopian famine reached the hungry.
• A caption on News Channel during a guest interview which read "It's claimed 5% donations spent on Ethiopians".
• An introduction to a report by Martin Plaut on the BBC One One O'Clock News, the News Channel and BBC World which associated Live Aid money with the claim that only 5% of the aid money reaching Tigray was used to feed the hungry.

The action to be taken by the BBC is addressed to the breaches of editorial standards already acknowledged by BBC News, as well as to those found by the ECU.

Kenya and Ethiopia to wipe out militias

Written By:Carol Gakii, Posted: Thu, Nov 04, 2010 The Kenyan government in conjunction with Ethiopian authorities has launched an operation in Moyale County to flash out the Oromo Liberation Front militias following the killing of an administration Police officer on Tuesday. Two other security officers who were injured during the attack by the militia are undergoing treatment at the Forces Memorial hospital in Nairobi. The attack took place at Bandarero area of Moyale district where a fierce fire exchange between the bandits and the security personnel ensued. Eastern Provincial Commissioner Claire Omolo says so far six members of the militia group have been arrested. In a telephone interview with KBC, the PC said an assortment of firearms which include four AK.47 assault rifles, 90 rounds of ammunition and 17 grenades have been recovered from the suspected bandits. She said the operation will continue until all the members of OLF are arrested. Elsewhere, the Minister of state for provincial Administration and internal security Prof. George Saitoti has said the government is in the process of reviewing its security strategies to address emerging issues from the advancement of information and communication technology. The Minister said that the strategies will develop the best approach based on four pillars of, preventing, disrupting, protecting and defending Kenya from terrorist attacks and other external aggressors. In a speech read on his behalf by assistant Minister Simeon Lesirma during the opening of the African security and advanced technology summit, Prof. Saitoti said that the country is facing diverse security challenges due to its strategic location in the region. He said regional security, Maritime, border, counter terrorism and internet security are the main security challenges that Kenya is facing and called on the summit participants to focus on them. "Kenya has been playing a major role under the auspices of AU and IGAD, and it continues to facilitate security efforts, geared towards restoring law and order in neighboring countries that have been in conflicts" he said Addressing the same summit, the Head of Liaison, The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) Mr. Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed said that its vision is to contribute to regional and continental peace through a regional approach. "By embracing technology in security management, governments will improve the efficiency and on cost of security incurred under the traditional security management strategies" he said. He added that the regions involved like the East, North South and West should consider sharing security technologies for better management of cross border crime. The aim of the summit is to exchange ideas and share best practices on how to deal with unique security challenges in the continent which would enable the concerned countries to reduce their expenditure on security and enable them compliment each other's capacity on border security management. The summit has participants drawn from Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon and Djibouti and organizations like African Union (AU), Africom C4 systems, US naval forces Africa, Africa development bank, Africa center for strategic studies and Eastern Africa standby force.

War criminals bonanza

Bashir of Sudan
By ARGAW ASHINE in Addis Ababa , Posted Friday, October 29 2010 at 19:12

The regional bloc Igad meeting that was to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia over the weekend, has been postponed.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development ministerial and heads of state meeting was initially scheduled for Nairobi, but was shifted over the controversy surrounding the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Pressure from the international community and the local civil society on Kenya to arrest President Bashir forced Nairobi to surrender the meeting to Addis Ababa, the African Union headquarters.

War crimes

Ethiopia is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and is therefore not under any obligation to arrest President Bashir, who is wanted by ICC to answer for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in his country’s Darfur region.

According to diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa, there was opposition to the Addis venue and Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki was being urged to stick to the initial plan of hosting the meeting.

An Ethiopian Government official, who wished not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, told the Africa Reviewthat the Bashir issue did not concern Kenya only, but the entire

AU membership, which has taken a united position not to cooperate with ICC.