'Our silence in the face of outrageous lies may give the misimpression that we are ignorant, witless, fainthearted and without much sense or sensibility. But we know the simple truth; and that truth is human rights in Ethiopia is an afterthought for the Obama Administration'

The rulers in Ethiopia continue to use higher educational institutions not as places of learning, inquiry and research but as diploma mills for a new breed of party hacks and zombie ideologues doomed to blind and unquestioning servility

Last weekend thousands of young people poured out into the streets of Addis Ababa demanding democratic reforms. The security forces did not attack them as in the past. Peaceful change is possible in Ethiopia

In what classifies as modern day slavery, Ethiopian women sent to work in the Middle East have few rights and are subject to widespread abuse.

Two weeks ago, Ethiopia’s last independent weekly stopped publication after its managing editor was ‘forced to flee the country’. Zenawi has ‘finally succeeded in smashing and trashing Ethiopia’s free press,’ writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.

The recent self-immolation of an Ethiopian human rights activist ‘illuminates not only the serious and widespread human rights abuses by Zenawi’s regime but also Zenawi’s hubris and depraved indifference to the demands of the people at the local and regional levels,’ writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.

Following the Ethiopian elections of 2005, scores of unarmed men, women and children were massacred by state security personnel. Alemayehu G Mariam pays tribute to these martyrs for freedom and calls on all Ethiopians to reflect on their sacrifice.

The Ethiopian government has accused two freelance Swedish journalists of ‘terrorism’, after they entered the country with insurgents from the Ogaden National Liberation Front. With Prime Minister Meles Zenawi backing the charges against them, they have little chance of a fair trial, writes Alemayehu G Mariam.

According to Alemayehu G. Mariam, Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi has no qualms about backstabbing his professed friend, President Omar Bashir of Sudan, which is nothing strange. Dictators are in power for themselves and their cronies.

Why does Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi refuse to make public the details of a ‘large chunk’ of Ethiopian land given to Sudan, asks Alemayehu G. Mariam.