I just received this email from the Young Ethiopian Diasporans relating the declining situation in Ethiopia following the brutal murders of dozens of protestors by the authorities. Here is the latest, as Jimmy Carter looks on calmly:

When all else fails, beat up reporters and take 3000 prisoners.

Last Friday, Ethiopian PM Meles stated that: ???????There is no turning back from democracy???????

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050610/wl_nm/ethiopia_meles_dc_1

And how does a ???????Capitalist on the outside, Marxist on the Inside??????? prime minister not ???????turn back from democracy???????? Here are four simple steps:

1) For starters you need to start kicking out western media. Start with the VOA and Deutsche Welle.

http://www.voanews.com/english/VOA-Condemns-Ethiopia-for-Treatment-of-Reporters.cfm
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1609467,00.html

2) Then make sure that the other western press is duly intimidated:
???????Italian journalist in Ethiopia seeks refuge in embassy???????

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=10081

???????I can now only think of a handful of journalists out here who have not been detained or harassed in some way over the past week.???????

A photographer and reporter were arrested during student protests on Monday; five journalists had their accreditation removed on Wednesday; I was briefly detained on Friday and the other photographers were roughed up on Saturday. Another European freelance photographer told me he had been arrested three times last week – detained for up to three hours at a time in police stations before his embassy could free him.

http://www.meskelsquare.com

3) That????????s not working?

Ethiopia: Crackdown Spreads Beyond Capital

In the wake of last week’s election-related protests, the Ethiopian government’s crackdown on potential sources of unrest has spread throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said today. While international attention has focused on events in Addis Ababa, opposition members and students in other cities are increasingly at risk of arbitrary arrest and torture.

Given the Ethiopian security forces’ long record of detainee abuse, there is every reason to worry that those arrested are being mistreated,

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/11c6d81c630f238dbe5b67219b8d6014.htm

But??????? last Friday Meles had proclaimed: My guess is that the worst is behind us, both in terms of the scale of disturbances and most certainly in terms of deaths involved.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050610/wl_nm/ethiopia_meles_dc_1

4) Shucks. Massive arrests and terrorizing not working? How about arresting people from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) CONDUCTING the investigations into the atrocities outside of the city?

??????? EHCRO researcher Chernet Taddesse had been arrested when he tried to investigate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4087158.stm

And the government responds: ???????As for the Ethiopian Human Rights Council,??????? Mr. Bereket (Information Minister and EPRDF spokesperson) says, ???????the EHRCO is an arm of the opposition, and its members will be arrested like anyone else if they are suspected of illegally aiding recent protests.???????

First it was the opposition that made the government kill 36 people. Now its the EHRCO. Tomorrow it????????ll be ??????? the doctors who treated those shot at gunpoint? All this happened AFTER the government signed a pact with the opposition that states : ???????pledges to condemn all violence and exercise restraint.???????

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1720513,00.html

(For details see: ???????Prelude to a Kiss of Death??????? http://www.weichegud.blogspot.com/ )

Can you imagine what the government would be going if it HADN????????T signed that treaty?

This is democracy in Ethiopia today. Maybe someone redefined ???????democracy??????? when we weren????????t looking.