Many writers were convinced Afro was being framed by Ethiopian authorities who, they said, resented the singer's huge popularity and veiled anti-government lyrics.

Afro was first questioned by police in November 2006 after a homeless 18-year-old was killed by a car in the centre of Addis Ababa. Officers reportedly claimed Afro's BMW had been spotted at the scene by a taxi driver.

His fans were taken by surprise when Afro was arrested, charged and remanded in custody last week, two years after the original incident. The mainstream media described how fans staged protests outside the court room where a judge decided to postpone a bail hearing.

Teddy Afro - real name Tewodros Kassahun - is hugely popular among Ethiopians in and outside the country. His hit song Yasteseryal (hear a clip on his official site teddyafro.com) - which many say criticises a line of Ethiopian leaders including current prime minister Meles Zenawi - was reportedly banned on state controlled radio.

Merkato published an entry by Golto Aila titled Ethiopia - “My Solidarity Forum” for Teddy Afro - An Ethiopian Hero & a Prisoner of Conscience which stated:

This advocate of justice for our people; this voice for the voiceless; this champion of the oppressed; this ultimate entertainer could have lived in luxury abroad and enjoyed life as most of us do, but knowing the risk to his own life, he returned home to continue the mission he has set for himself! Today he sits in the notorious Kaliti Prison, precisely because of what he does for his down-trodden compatriots! The humiliation he has suffered so far and will continue to suffer hence will be the most poignant symbol of our peoples' suffering for the last two decades!

Debteraw Blog mentioned Afro in a list of “political prisoners” in the entry Tensae Le-Ethiopia.

Addis Tibeb wrote in Teddy Afro arrested:

Many fans believe that Teddy is set up for the charge by the government that is supposed to resent Teddy’s public acceptance in his political reprimands by some of his songs

Arefe of Addis Journal stopped short of describing his own opinion of the case, but described the scenes outside the court in Court adjourns Teddy's hearing:

hundreds of cheering and chanting fans had greeted Teddy's arrival. Wearing a T-shirt and sunglasses, Teddy waved as he slowly made his way into the courthouse. As he left the court, the ‘free him' shout became more intense and police surrounded and arrested some of them. A journalist for Hamrawai magazine and another newspaper reporter were among the arrested. It's unclear why police arrested them. It was said they are all detained in the police station in front of the court…
Teddy's arrest weeks ago has generated much interest and anxiety in the city and his songs have enjoyed sudden popularity in the bars, taxis and public places.

freeteddyafro left a message on esai the forum run by The Ethiopian Students Association International:

It is hard to know if Teddy's (imprisonment) is motivated by politics or it is a following judicial process. Teddy is the symbol of Ethiopian new and future generation. He is a bridge for the past, present and future. He is an idol for young generation. Let us bring Teddy to daylight before he disappears forever.

esai commenter Ethiopia said he was convinced Afro was innocent and feared for his chances of a fair trial:

I DONT believe Teddy IS BOTH INHUMAN to leave a dead street kid laying on the ground AND DUMB enough to stay in the country for two years.

Samuel Gebru sounded a lone voice of caution, calling on people not to politicise Afro's case in Ethiopia: Teddy Afro's imprisonment:

Some Ethiopians abroad have tried to capitalize his imprisonment, pending a bail hearing, as the Government's bid to silence the iconic singer…there's a long way ahead before the verdict, so whatever is said abroad is mere speculation. Nevertheless, the politicization of his arrest is not only false but unhealthy in our developing political climate in Ethiopia.

Many Ethiopians bloggers rallied to the cause, pledging cash and votes for the Democratic candidate whose father came from Kenya, a country that neighbours Ethiopia.

But others raised questions about the campaign, asking whether it was right to expect Ethiopian-Americans to vote en masse for any candidate.

At the head of the Obama pack was the new blog Ethiopians for Obama which, in Ethiopians Journey for Hope, said:

Most Ethiopians immigrated to America searching for the American dream—a dream for a better life and a new opportunity. Most arrived in America with the determination to fulfil the promise that America embodies; destined to realize this dream armed with little more than hope on their side. Ethiopians—like all Americans–embrace the message of Barack Obama, a message that our lives are intertwined with our infinite commonalities.

Ethiounited pointed to a YouTube video of Ethio-Americans speaking at an Obama campaign launch.

I have given a lot of money to the [Obama] campaign since I was not able to take time of from work and go volunteer at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, although I have made phone calls on behalf of the campaign for every primary.

wrote Bernos in An Obama Minute. Bernos has also been busy translating the Obama ‘Yes we can' slogan into Amharic, one of Ethiopia's main languages, for a range of targeted campaign posters.

Ethioblog talked about its growing disillusion with the Clinton camp in Falling for Clinton and Clinton’s Doubletalk. Ethiopian Politics Blog pointed to another YouTube video describing Obama as the “embodiment of the American dream”.

But Abesha Bunna Bet sounded a strong note of caution in Even Ethiopians Are Crazy About Obama:

Ethiopians. We are not a bunch of herds that needs direction. We can not be told by any group (Ethiopians or not) who to vote for with out being told why. And the ‘why’ should be answered by our individual research, and not by folks who wish to take advantage of us based on heritage.

Tobian ThinkTank's email inbox was flooded with ‘Obamaganda' by friends and relatives. When the blogger replied to them, saying he was backing Hilary Clinton, he got some hostile emails in response. In Surely, it must be that lesbian school … he wrote:

In Conspiracy Brother he wrote:

Seriously though someone please put your hands on me and tell me it's OK to be black and not vote for Obama…I think that's what I'm fighting with deep inside. Either that or it's a case of OCD :-0

Ethiopians living in the US, Europe and Asia came up with a series of emotional posts, exploring childhood memories, local food, music and the broader subject of national identity.

Tobian started by reflecting on The Namesake, a film about an American-born son of Indian immigrants to the US.

Tobian found many parallels with his own experience in the US which he set out in the post Namesake:

Sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities. One that I have with Americans, another one that I have with immigrants in America and finally my personality with Ethiopians, the last one being the closest to the real me. I'm not deceiving nor fabricating, it's just that I know limitations of my interaction with these different groups, and that's OK by me. But sometimes I realize that my interactions almost seem like work, like I have to actively monitor my boundaries, I am acutely aware of what fits in their world views and not.

Yemi, the writer behind the blog Don't eat my Buchela is an Ethiopian woman living with her family in China. She described her efforts to get her baby son into traditional Ethiopian music in My Son, My Ethiopian Music, Myself:

Traditional Ethiopian music is an acquired taste.

If you didn't grow up with it, the first time you hear it, you are not going to say “wow, I gotta get me some of that!”

With that in mind, I am on a mission to ensure that Buchela acquires the taste for Ethiopian music through daily brainwashing sessions of videos via You Tube.

He loves sitting on my lap and watching the singers and dancers on my computer.

Today, I am putting up our current favorite “Alem Alemye”. There are days when this song puts knots in my stomach.

Bernos, another Ethiopian in America, talked about his deep attachment to sound of the Washint, a traditional wooden flute, in A Washint Melody!:

I love the Washint, because it reminds me the green mountainous pastured grounds of south western Ethiopia… The zema of the Washint, I have always associated with the highlands of Ethiopia, it’s a deep mystical soothing sound. It gives me the sensation of calmness; it reminds me of Ethiopia’s Arbegnoch. Now that I think about it, I think I must somehow have associated it as the background music of those old documentary videos I saw on ETV.

Bernos was back again, describing a moving encounter with a fellow countryman working in Zurich airport in A friend anywhere:

He was very sweet. He was so happy to see another Ethiopian and so proud. He told me about his wife and kids and how he's planning on moving back to Addis for good; how he used to be a runner and about life in Switzerland and the Ethiopian community there. After awhile he said he had to get back to work so he left me to finish my coffee and pointed out where I can use the internet. I sat there for awhile thinking about the kindness of our people and our culture. More often than not I make a note of how my culture conflicts with my lifestyle rather than what it adds to it.

Ethiopia Encyclopedia completed the circle by describing the feeling of returning to Ethiopia from the US in Good Morning Addis!:

I am finally here. Good morning Gunfo! Good morning Addis Ababa! Good morning the best tasting coffee in the world! Good morning the biggest baked bread in the world!

Ahhhhhh! I can finally exhale; and my breathe can mix with Addis Ababa's air. It was such a struggle, making the decision to move here for a personal informal education, school (MA in Ethiopian Studies at AAU) and work. The process of convincing my family and myself at times (a two year process) that the risk (of being robbed in Merkato, dying of Malaria, receiving a poor education, being arrested by the government, having my hand eaten off by a lion, etc.) was worth my time exhausted my eagerness to come. I was falling into indifference; and how dangerous is the feeling of indifference. It wasn't until my flight to Ethiopia that my spirit was renewed.

Mainstream journalists and observers were caught unawares by the guilty verdict handed down against prominent members of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), including its leader Hailu Shawel and the mayor elect of the capital Addis Ababa Berhanu Nega.

But bloggers – some of whom were in court - had the first posts online within an hour of the judges' announcement.

The politicians were arrested in the aftermath of violence and street protests that erupted following Ethiopia's controversial 2005 national elections. Authorities accused them of provoking the violence and planning to overthrow the government.

The CUD members have long dismissed the trial as a political sham – and most of them have refused to defend themselves. They are due to be sentenced in early July. Many of them could face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Seminawork was the first with Breaking news:Court finds kinijit leaders guilty [kinijit being the Amharic abbreviation for CUD]. MeskelSquare followed with Guilty.

The second the news [of the verdict] came in over my mobile, a huge thunder and hail storm broke over Addis.

The ominous weather echoed the fears of many bloggers, who initially thought the decision would lead to further clashes on the streets. In the end, there were no protests, but the disquiet remained. Just Thinking summed up many people's feelings in Damaged beyond repair?:

The sun wan’t shining in Addis today. As if to match the mood in the city, it was a cloudy and gloomy day. Not that people were not going about thier business. In fact, I was stunned by the normalcy of the day around me. But most people I’ve talked to, friends and acquaintances, said they found the verdict a rude awakening. Most of us foolishly thought EPRDF [the ruling government coalition] might want to fix things up and would let people like Dr. Birhanu Nega go free.

The Other Side was also surprised by the lack of public protest, but set out to explain it in In the wake of the verdict.

I was wondering why there hasn’t yet been any visible reaction to the verdict here in Addis. Some say that the post-election momentum is gone and most have forgotten, but I know otherwise. I know that people still care, and will say so as often as they think it safe.

Tobian Thinktank expressed his dismay at the move in Another Step Backwards:

Sometimes I try hard, very hard, to convince myself that our current leaders are good meaning co-Ethio citizens who care about our country… in their own ways which I am unable to understand. They're just embittered by the long struggle experience coupled with infantile Ethiopian politics (not to imply that they're any better at it). Then they do shit like this and my little theory crumbles.

Enset struggled to find a positive note in Freedom on Trial!:

To all peace loving people of Ethiopia, yesterday June 11, 2007 was both a day of sorrow and a day of jubilation. It was a day of sorrow because, at least temporally, freedom itself was on trial in the Ethiopian justice system. Yet it is a day of joy because we have heroes who gave us their yesterday so that we all can live for today.

Anthony worked as a journalist in Ethiopia for five years and led the reporting of violence that broke out after the country's controversial national elections in May 2005.

He was thrown out of the country in January 2006 after the Ethiopian Government accused him of engaging in “hostile” reporting. But he remained something of a hero to many Ethiopians, including many of the country's highly politicised bloggers.

For me, he was the best foreign journalist to be stationed in Ethiopia for the last decade. Apart from his journalistic philosophy, he would also be remembered as incredibly courageous correspondent. I don't think AP reports about Ethiopia would have been the same, had he not been directly and indirectly responsible for those stories - In Ethiopia as a reporter and in Kenya, as an editor,

wrote Seminawork in Anthony Mitchell, courageous journalist.

“The Death of Anthony Mitchell,AP’s Ethiopia reporter…is really a big loss to Ethiopia and Africa in General,” wrote 4kilo in May God bless his soul!

“Associated Press correspondent Anthony Mitchell was a true friend of Ethiopia,” wrote Addis Voice in Tribute to a true journalist. “During the height of the post-election repressions, Anthony Mitchell wrote nothing but the truth, the whole truth.”

“Anthony Mitchell was a true friend of Ethiopia and Ethiopians,” according to Carpe Diem Ethiopia in Anthony Mitchell: Keeping the Tormentors Honest, a “local hero” according to The Other Side in Plane crash in Cameroon, “a brilliant journalist” according to Global Voices' own Ethan Zuckerman in Reactions to the crash of KQ 507 and “a respected and prominent journalist” according to Just Thinking in Anthony Mitchell.

There is no one - with an eye on Ethiopia - who does not know Anthony! His deeper understanding of the politics in Ethiopia and consequently his reportings of the things that were going on in the country led to his expulsion from Ethiopia in 2006. But based in Nairobi, Anthony continued to keep an eye on Ethiopia and he kept all of us - Ethiopians - and the whole world informed of our country!

wrote FilwehaPundit in We Missed a Great Man!

Anthony Mitchell was also widely admired by his fellow reporters, especially his colleagues in Associated Press' Nairobi office where he worked after his expulsion.

Les Neuhaus, the reporter who replaced him in Ethiopia, left a comment at the end of Seminawork's above-mentioned entry, stating:

Anthony Mitchell made me a better reporter…If it is true that he is gone, it is a severe blow to journalism in Africa, and the world at large. He perfected his craft in Ethiopia and Ethiopians should be proud of his contribution to news reporting from that troubled country. It is a blow to me as I read this heavy, heavy news.

Beirut-based journalist-blogger Christopher Allbritton met Anthony on a press trip in Djibouti just a few weeks before the crash. In AP’s Anthony Mitchell on plane that crashed on his blog Back to Iraq, he wrote:

I met Anthony, who is 39, in March in Djibouti, when we both were onboard the FGS Bremen, a German frigate, for a story on maritime security operations in the area. Anthony was full of funny, self-deprecating stories about himself and Africa, stories that contained no small amount of hard-won wisdom, too. He talked about the clans of Somalia, the US military’s actions in the Horn of Africa and constantly took the piss out of our military escort in the most good-natured way possible.

The writers behind the Pulitzer Center's Ethiopia Blog got to know Anthony in Nairobi, where he moved after being expelled. In Anthony Mitchell they wrote:

When we were in Ethiopia, more than a year after Anthony left, people were still talking about his reporting. Those with ties to the government were critical, of course; everyone else said he had done more to publicize Meles’ abuses than any other journalist in his years there. Testimony to the quality of his work comes from Ethiopia’s many bloggers, who are mourning his death.

I worked along side Anthony for almost two years in Ethiopia and described my feelings about his death in Anthony Mitchell on my blog Meskel Square. The entry concluded:

It is difficult to think of a note to end on. Anthony would have found any attempt at sentimentality or grand-sounding sentiment ridiculous. The best I can say it that he was a very good man and a very good journalist. And to state the obvious - that everyone who knew him in Addis Ababa is absolutely devastated today.

Ethiopian bloggers responded to the news with a string of defiant posts, vowing to continue writing and beat the blockages.

But the announcement also sparked a debate over the dangers of free speech after one of the blocked websites published an article applauding separatist rebels for slaughtering 65 Ethiopians in an attack on an oilfield (see Reuters story) – and urging the fighters to keep on killing.

OpenNet told Reuters that it had gathered technical proof that Ethiopian authorities were filtering out the IP addresses of political websites – and had blocked Blogger's entire Blogspot domain, home to millions of blogs across the world.

A spokesman for Ethiopia's Ministry of Information dismissed the claim as a “complete fabrication”. But Rob Faris, US-based research director for OpenNet, said the evidence of the blockage was “overwhelming”.

According to a longer version of the Reuters article posted in OpenNet says Ethiopian blogs really blocked on MeskelSquare:

“We are very interested in Ethiopia because it is a very recent entry into this field. Its internet penetration is very low but it is still going to the trouble of blocking the internet. That shows the lengths that the regime is willing to go to,” said Faris…

Ethiopian bloggers have started displaying ‘Blocked in Ethiopia' badges on their websites and swapping technical tips on how to get round the filters. Other sites currently inaccessible in Ethiopia include the home page for the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy and 39 out of the 61 Ethiopian weblogs tracked by GlobalVoices, a website that reports on weblogs outside the West part-funded by Reuters…

OpenNet said it found evidence of the blockage by recruiting volunteers who ran programs on their computers inside Ethiopia scanning the network run by the state monopoly provider Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. The results were then emailed back to OpenNet for analysis.

The scans followed the individual units or “packets” of digital data that get sent out whenever an internet user types a web address into a browser's address box. “We found that the packets were dropped at the same place…Any packet associated with a particular IP address was dropped. You get a ‘time out' message when you try to access the site. Your request never leaves the country…It is the simplest and bluntest way of blocking,” said Mr Faris.

The Other Side responded with two defiant posts Unless it is just a temporary glitch, it seems that… and Ethiopia Tops CPJ’s Dishonor Roll saying:

For the record—I don’t take kindly to being silenced. My days of sporadic blogging have come to an end and I will be back in full force. Bring it on!

Seminawork matched her post for post with Finally! and Zemedkun Tekle and Internet Blockage saying:

The government should and will know (after this post) that it can't block us from writing, whatever technology it uses.

But there was also disquiet over an article published by Ethiopian Review, a hugely-popular anti-government website that regularly comments on breaking news. The article in question commented on news of an attack by the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on a Chinese-managed oil field in Ethiopia's remote Somali region in which nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopian workers were killed. Ethiopian Review commented:

[It's unfortunate that the Chinese workers lost their lives in the crossfire. Their government failed them by not heeding ONLF's warnings. Over all, the brave ONLF fighters should be congratulated for a job well done. ONLF and OLF might also want to consider carrying out similar operations on Al Amoudi's gold mines that are cash cows for the Woyanne terrorist regime. Need a reminder? Do it for Messeret Tadesse who was shot by Woyanne soldiers in the back. Do it for Shibire Desalegn who was gunned down by Woyanne gunmen. Do it for the countless other civilians who were brutally tortured and murdered by Woyanne thugs.]

The comment sparked immediate outrage from bloggers and commenters alike.

Commenter tk responded to the original post about the blockages on MeskelSquare by asking whether it was so wrong to use technology to stop the spreading of such views:

none of us don't approve of any censorship, but for a diverse and politically fragile country like ethiopia, do you support such devilish messages from websites and blogs to be heard by the innocent ethiopians citizens in africa????
we need your public answer to this important question.
you keep saying, the blocked sites are those critical of government. is asking for more bombings and more massacres being “critical”????

Blocked blogger 4kilo laid into the Ethiopian Review post in Going against the country or Opposing a government?:

trying to oppose or criticize or condemn a brutal regime is one thing but going against the very country that we love and trying to protect is totally different thing.

Filweha Pundit expressed his own disgust at the Ethiopian Review entry in Misguided opposition - ER goes Mad!:

There are a number of opposition websites and blogs struggling for a political change in Ethiopia - so that the law prevails and democracy functions in a meaningful way in Ethiopia - and that is a healthy thing. But asking for violence and bloodshed in the country (while you are sitting in Virginia or anywhere else) and telling insurgents to come and attack the nation, justifying killings of foreigners, professionals and citizens who have done nothing but do their jobs, is I think a misguided and blind opposition.

Leading opposition figures were arrested and charged with attempted genocide, treason and a range of other serious offences in the months following the country's last general elections in 2005.

The trial has stretched on for more than a year, with numerous adjournments and breaks and statements from scores of witnesses. Mainstream journalists have concentrated on covering the main developments in the proceedings – the arraignments, the bail hearings and the major legal statements.

But the resulting gaps in the reporting have been filled by some of Ethiopia's most prolific and politicised bloggers who managed to secure seats in the court.

Seminawork led the way over the past few weeks with a string of posts marking every twist and turn and delay in the case. His entries came thick and fast. Court adjourned for tomorrow, was followed by Postponed again, followed by Breaking news:court ruled defendants to defend their case followed by Death sentence beckons our heroes.

The last post read:

The court in charge of the treason and genocide trial of kinijit [the main opposition coalition] leaders, civil society members and independent journalists has today ruled that all council members of kinijit including Hailu Shawel, Berhanu Nega and Birtukan Mideksa should defend their case in the treason charge.

The court ruled that the council’s decision has a direct cause and effect relationship with the June 8 and November one disturbances. It also ruled that the prosecutor has produced sufficient evidence to prove that they have committed treason.

The leaders have previously decided not to defend the case. If they stick to their previous decision, it means they will be sentenced for committing treason soon. The crime of treason carries a death sentence or severe imprisonment in Ethiopian law.

The Other Side described the drama of the moment when the legal decision was made in The Ruling:

With his last word—before it was even clear that he had finished his sentence–Judge Adil turned abruptly and rushed out the back exit, with the other two following closely.

It was obvious that no one, least of all the defendants, expected such an outcome. The family members received the news with a mixture of anger, fatigue and sadness. “Ayzuachehu! Ayzuachehu!” [Courage! Courage!] rang out from both sides of the room as the prisoners, with their unwavering courage, tried to reassure their loved ones and encourage them to be strong. Court resumes tommorrow.

The government has accused the opposition politicians of trying to overthrow the state by provoking two periods of violent civil unrest in the country. More than 200 people died in June and November 2005 when anti-government protesters who claimed the elections were rigged clashed with armed police and soldiers on the streets of the capital Addis Ababa and other cities. Opposition supporters – including almost all of Ethiopia's political bloggers - have dismissed the charges and described the prolonged trial as a political farce.

Carpe Diem Ethiopia spoke for many anti-government bloggers in his post An Ethiop Office Rant

Ethiopian democracy continues to be on a standstill: Predictably, the treason and attempted genocide trials have met repeated courtroom delays and the unwillingness (and/or inability) of High Court judges to proceed with deliberations on the underlying alleged offenses signals continued governmental repression. The 2006 U.S. Country Report on Human Rights Practices recounts a laundry list of abuses

Elsewhere in the Ethiopian blogosphere, several writers focused on the story of an Ethiopian woman called Kamilat Mehdi who had acid thrown in her face by a stalker. Meskel Square told the story in Ethiopia acid victim shows many women are at risk. Seminawork's new offshoot community blog Ethio-Zagol Post Diaries described a vigil held outside the woman's hospital in In the shadow of Kamilat's vigil. Weblog Ethiopia expressed his/her anger in Evils of man. The Concoction was so moved that she launched a whole new blog focusing on violence against women called VAW – Do Something!.

Things We Should Have Written Down came up with the most moving post of the fortnight when he described coming across a crash in An Accident:

All five of us were laughing when our car rounded the corner and we saw the truck lying on its side in the middle of the road. The smell of gasoline filled my nostrils and the back of my throat. There were a handful of people standing beside the truck and one man sitting in the grass with his head in his hands. We stopped, and I saw an arm sticking out of the now-vertical passenger cab. Someone whispered, “This just happened.”

The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia is ending freedom of speech in Somalia.

That was the blunt conclusion of undercover Ethiopian blogger Seminawork in his post Somali media under attack, as news came through that Somalia's Ethiopia-backed Transitional Government had shut down independent radio stations and even closed the offices of the international news station, Al Jazeera.

Somalia had some of the freest media in Africa. The Islamists who were labelled as enemies of freedom hadn't tried to close the radio stations which are under attack from the [Transitional Government] now.

Seminawork was one of many Ethiopian bloggers to cast a critical eye on the aftermath of the Ethiopian Government's decision to send its soldiers into Somalia to drive out Islamist forces and restore the Somali Transitional Government to power. (Here is the BBC timeline of the conflict.)

Lela Tensae painted a pessimistic picture of the months and years ahead in The thorn in the Horn:

Unfortunately, the blowback to this irresponsible and senseless war will be felt for years to come. And who will be the on the receiving end of this reckless act that was done in the name of self defense? Once again, it is the innocent people of Ethiopia, whose only desire is to live in a peaceful democratic country, which respects the rights and sovereignty of its neighbors.

The US-based Ethiopundit looked into the implications of America's backing of Ethiopia's military venture against the “terrorist” Islamists in Our man in Africa:

From the American point of view this is win-win. [Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's Prime Minister] is our SOB for now, kicking ass & taking names while the rest of the War on Terror proves to be more frustrating than predicted. For Republicans and Democrats that remains true. The administration wants a clear win somewhere, anywhere and the new Congressional leadership doesn't want to rock the boat lest they do something that actually has ultimate electoral responsibility associated with it.

The Meles endgame in Somalia as in Ethiopia, is eternal rule, riches and that dubious position of international respect that thugs get for killing their way to the top of their personal heap of bodies. However, Ethiopia is now in a war now with no endgame in sight or even planned for besides more political support and cash in the pipeline for its dictatorship.

Eleni Agiz of Ethiopia Encyclopedia gave her take on how relationships between Somalia and Ethiopia had changed since the military confrontation in Somalia-Ethiopia Relations: Then, Now, and in the Future:

Then

Shaky relationship: Somali region of Ethiopia wanted to separate and join its culturally, religiously, physically, linguistically similar neighbor Somalia; and Ethiopia crushed the separatists movement.

Now

BAD relationship: Holy War between Ethiopia and Somalia. Ethiopia does not want crazy terrorists as neighbors - Ethiopia didn't mind having pirates and poor people as neighbors, but terrorists are unacceptable…not because America says so. Ethiopia is totally independent of the US…totally.

The Ameche Rant provided an indepth analysis of where the conflict left each of its main players. Unusually, it was broadly supportive of the military venture, saying that everyone was better off without the Union of Islamic Courts in power, and concluding that the victory was Ethiopia's, not the USA's.

But his post Ethiopia's War in Somalia and its Regional Implications was still cautious:

If Meles keeps his word and bring home the bulk of the troops within the next month or two; Ethiopia can keep its victory and cement its place as the dominant power in the neighbourhood regardless of what happens in Somalia, bar UIC restoring the pre-Christmas status quo…The only way Addis Abeba can squander the victory is if it tries to play peacekeeper thereby becoming a standing target for hit & runners as the Americans have become in Iraq or if it decides to keep on waiting for peacekeepers for more than, let’s say, four to six weeks.

Meanwhile, not everyone in the Ethiopian blogosphere wanted to talk about the conflict. Enset probably spoke for many in This Music is Really Good for You!:

I am in the mood for some respite from the crazy world of Ethiopian politics. I suspect some of you are, too. So please sit back, relax and enjoy these two videos from YouTube. The first one is an amazing guitar rendition of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major by a South Korean who goes by the name FunTwo. The second one is from an equally impressive spoon sliding guitar virtuoso, the South African Hannes Coetzee. Enjoy!

The apparently easy victory, however, did little to appease the region's bloggers, many of whom have been against the confrontation since the start.

What has [Ethiopian] Prime Minister Meles Zenawi gotten the soldiers of the Ethiopian defence forces into with his irresponsible and aggressive foray in Somalia? Are they going to be facing an insurgency similar to the type in Iraq as some Somali pundits are suggesting?

worried Zenobia of Ewenet Means Truth in Ethiopia in her post Ethiopian Soldiers in Somalia.

The Head Heeb fleshed out the fears in The apocalypse begins. He was writing a few days earlier when the Ethiopian-backed forces of Somalia's Transitional Government were forcing troops loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts back into Somalia's capital Mogadishu:

Somalia is an easy country to overrun but a hard one to occupy, and the Ethiopian intervention will turn into a counterinsurgency very quickly. It's pure fantasy to believe that the foreign fighters will simply leave or that the people will accept an Ethiopian-installed transitional government, and if Addis Ababa really intends to crush the SICC [Somalia Islamic Courts Council] as a fighting force, it will face a long, brutal asymmetric conflict. The likely humanitarian cost of such a regional war is incalculable. The Ethiopian air strikes have already made thousands of people into refugees, and a continued war would disrupt regional food security and send still more thousands to the uncertain shelter of neighboring countries.

Others said that the easiness of the victory undermined Ethiopia's whole reason for going to war in the first place. Ethiopia's prime minister claimed he had been forced on to the offensive because his country was threatened by the Islamic Court forces:

The fact that they seem to be able to conquer two important cities in two days only proves that the Militia of the Union of Islamic Courts never were a serious threat to Ethiopia. So because of this useless brutality thousands of Somali are without aid because the World Food Program of the United Nations had to withdraw from the battle fields. The fact that they are dependent on aid has everything to do with the behavior of the warlords that now call themselves the legitimate Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.

wrote Urael in Ethiopia proves the uselessness of the Somali war.

Enset was equally critical in A Reckless War Borne of Bad Choices:

This time around Ethiopians are told by Meles Zenawi that the nation's “defence forces were forced to enter into war to protect the sovereignty of the nation and to blunt repeated attacks by Islamic courts terrorists and anti-Ethiopian elements they are supporting.” This is hogwash!

The truth of the matter is that Ethiopia was not forced to enter this war; rather, it is the bad policy choices that the Meles regime has made with regard to Somalia and domestically combined with the reckless decision of the lunatic Eritrean regime to engage in a proxy war with Ethiopia that has made this war inevitable.

[It is widely believed that Ethiopia's old enemy Eritrea has been stoking the conflict by sending troops and weapons to the Somali Islamists.]

One of the bloggers' major gripes was the lack of reliable news filtering back from the front through the region's state-controlled newspapers and radio stations:

I was just thinking spoke for many in Angry at the war and at the media:

A newspaper vendor at Arat Kilo that I was talking to this morning was telling me that how his customers are disappointed and annoyed at the papers that are available now which are full of propaganda, diabolizing ‘the fundamentalist group comprising elements that have hidden agenda.’

For middle-class Adissers who could afford satellite dishes and Internet, update about the war come into their living rooms. (The BBC TV is doing wonderful job with its constant update, apparently convinced that this has a potential to turn into crises). For the majority that is not the case. They have to depend on the information they get from their transistor radio and state TV that is full of puffery.

The few ‘private’ papers that are in the market never offend the government and sound as if they are enlisted in what the government calls in ‘the battle for development’. Information remains a government monopoly.

Accounts of the conflict from the mainstream media have so far been fragmentary and often contradictory.

GlobalVoices' own Ethan Zuckerman summed up the confusion in a post on his blog …My Heart's in Accra:

The situation in Somalia is, as it always is, extremely confusing. Headlines yesterday alternated between reports of fierce battles and reports that both sides were returning to the negotiating table.

Ethiopia's government was today still insisting that their troops were not involved in the fighting – the official position is that they don't even have any soldiers in Somalia. This approach was faithfully echoed in the country's official state news outlets.

But the claims were contradicted by the BBC which yesterday claimed one of its correspondents had been stopped close to the besieged town of Baidoa by “a huge convoy of Ethiopian military armour”. Meanwhile, journalist Mike Pflanz gave glimpses of life in Somalia in his blog-style Diary from Somalia in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Ethiopia's highly politicised bloggers got round all this editorial uncertainty by staying away from the hard facts. Instead they concentrated on pouring scorn on the Ethiopian government and what they saw as its misguided military strategies.

The whole world knows that it's [Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's] unprovoked military maneuver in and around Somalia that prompted the Jihadists to declare war on Ethiopia. Just like the French and the Brits opposed the war on Iraq, we Ethiopians should oppose the unprovoked war on a country that doesn't even have a working government system,

wrote Ephrem Madebo of the blog Enset in Four big mouths, four big lies.

How about a militant leader interfering in the internal affairs of a neighboring country (that has finally, according to international reports, ‘admittedly’ experienced a level of stability and security under the [Union of Islamic Courts] unprecedented for over a decade) to appease Western powers that seem “less than pleased’ over recent reports of internal human rights abuses?

wrote Mengedegna in his post on The Other Side.

Don't eat my Buchela! took a bitterly ironic tone in her post By God, Let the Games Begin!:

According to rumors from Ethiopia, the war with Somalia has “sort of” started. Soldiers are also being sent up north to the border with Eritrea. This is good, good news for all of us for many, many reasons including the five below:

1. I am a mom now. Yaaaaaay for all those mothers whose sons are going to surely die. And die they will in thousands. There will be sooo many new heroes! Such a lucky nation Ethiopia is, blessed with so many chances to make new heroes.

2. The little bit of “economic growth” Ethiopia seems to have accidentally achieved will now be stripped bare. We have to spend millions to get Ethiopian mothers' sons ammunition to create heroes for Somali mothers. They are going to be so happy happy! …

Zenobia of Ewenet Means Truth in Ethiopia warned against making simplistic analyses of the conflict in The Minefield of Somali Clan Politics:

It is very easy to view the unfolding events in Somalia as one between the Eritrean supported “Islamists” of the Union Islamic Courts versus the Ethiopian supported “secularists” of the Transitional National Government of Somalia.

This article in Somaliland Times from the point of view of a Somalilander Ahmed Ali Ibrahim clarifies what the conflict in Somalia really is about -a battle between various embittered clan factions for supremacy and power.

Miles away from the fighting, Alex Russell of Addis Calling talked about how the new conflict was affecting ethnic Somalis living in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. in Addis Ababa Somalis Lay Low he wrote:

Last Friday a police officer came to our house. He was conducting a last minute census of the neighborhood, an area filled with Somali families who escaped pre-Islamic Court Mogadishu and are waiting to get their refugee visas to Western countries. Most have been here for years and want nothing else than to get as far away from Somalia (and Ethiopia) as possible. “I'll be in Norway in a month,” one young man hopefully told me. The owner of the Somali café fifty meters up the road just let it be known he'll be in the US in a month (after eight years here). If true, hello Khat withdrawal.

But these Somalis were the hustle and bustle of my dusty street, but since the Police officer came through they've retreated behind their gates. At night I keep on listening out for some sort of round-up, not really sure what I'm listening for. The fear, captured by the silence in the streets and the sudden lack of Somalis in the satellite-TV cafes, is palpable.

All sites hosted by the popular Blogspot platform stalled when internet users tried to log on to them through their Ethiopian Telecom Corp dial-up connections.

The small stable of anti-government blogs hosted on the Nazret.com platform - including Urael and EthioBlog - also remained inaccessible (they have been unreadable inside Ethiopia since May).

Some of the bloggers themselves were quick to point the finger of blame:

This attempt by the government to completely censor all information in and out of Ethiopia is a desperate effort to keep citizens ignorant and unaware

wrote Ethiopian Politics in ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS BLOGS AGAIN!!

It can hardly come as a shock that the likes of Seminawork have been blocked again in Ethiopia. What is frustrating is that journalists will mitigate the block because authorities here will lie about it when asked. Memo to hacks: They're blocked. Period. It's not “mysterious”

wrote Addis Calling in Ethiopia Websites are Blocked.

It apparently didn't come as a shock to Seminawork. He simply added a postscript to his post about this weekend's Great Ethiopian Run, stating:

PS: All pro-democracy websites are now blocked in Ethiopia. Blogs which were unblocked for the last three months are blocked again including this blog.

Markmedia noticed the disappearances in his post Ethiopian government blocks bloggers:

…there is a blocking action against a large number of Ethiopian blog sites [both on and from]. I can not access any of the internationally hosted blogs from here in Addis. This is a strangulation of the freedom of speech and an obvious attempt to stop the flow of information on and about Ethiopia to its citizens.
It is not the first time this tactic has been used.

An interesting perspective came from Don't Eat My Buchela!, a new blog written by an “Ethiopian American Stay at Home Mom in Dalian, China”.

She described her frustrations at the widespread internet censorship going on in China in Information Highway… Detour Please!. And she noted some parallels:

I was googling recipes for injera and several pages I wanted to look at did not come up. Most interestingly, all the pages (political ones) that are blocked in Ethiopia don't come up here either. I was really looking forward to catching up on those once I got here. Little did I know some stuff about Ethiopia is blocked. I know the Ethiopian Telecommunication used Chinese experts to block undesirable political websites from the sensitive eyes of the public… may be the same experts that do the deed in China just extended their services to the Ethiopian Government blocking the websites both in China and Ethiopia?

Ethiopia's blogspot blogs first disappeared from Ethiopian computer screens in May (see GlobalVoices reports here and here). They reappeared three months later, only to disappear again this week.

The Ethiopian Government and its monopoly operator Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation have always denied any involvement.

The sudden interest was sparked by news that an Ethiopian man had been jailed for 10 years in the US for aggravated battery and cruelty to children after prosecutors claimed he had used a pair of scissors to cut off his daughter’s clitoris.

The central accusation was that he had been engaging in the traditional practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) that is common in some African cultures including Ethiopia.

It is a subject that rarely appears in the mainstream media – and is seen as too taboo for general discussion.

But Ethiopia's bloggers rose above the embarrassment and squeamishness that often surrounds FGM and came up with a series of passionately thought-out posts and arguments. Their readers also did their bit. The comment-count under each substantial entry was well into double figures.

Almost everyone who wrote about it went out of their way to condemn the practice.

Female Genital Mutilation is barbaric. The quicker everyone is made to understand that fact and to stop making polite excuses for it, the quicker shame and fear of the law will save millions of girls and women from a perverse worldview centered on their own essential 'sin'
of being born female.

wrote ethiopundit in Fear of a female planet.

Living even in the most civilized country, Ethiopians seems to have problems escaping from the tight hold of tradition. The father who was jailed for the genital mutilation of his two-year-old daughter is a case in point. Is this a desperate attempt of a father to shelter
his daughter from the permissiveness of American culture?

wondered I Was Just Thinking in The tight hold of tradition.

The “traditional” practice of Female Genital Mutilation (or ‘cutting' for the squeamish or ‘circumcision' for those in denial) is the most shocking thing I have come across since moving to Ethiopia

wrote Meskel Square in Ten years for genital mutilation.

Unsurprisingly, Ethiopia's female bloggers came up with some of the most pointed criticism of FGM as a tradition.

But almost all of them then went on to mount passionate defenses of the man whose conviction had sparked off the whole discussion.

Khalid Adem is Innocent wrote Ewenet Ethiopia, one of a steady stream of new names on the Ethiopian blogging scene ('ewenet' means truth).

Khalid simply does not fit the profile of an Ethiopian who would
insist that his daughter be circumcised. He is not a nomad or peasant
who immigrated from rural Ethiopia. He grew up in metropolitan Addis
Ababa and came to the US at the age of sixteen. He is an educated,
urban and modern African man who became an adult in America. It is
extremely unlikely that a person like him would even think of having
his daughter circumcised- let alone do it himself.

In Ethiopian, men never ever get involved in the actual ritual of
female circumcision. FMC is a female ritual, and it is always the
women (especially the grandmothers) that insist on and arrange for the
circumcision ritual by a traditional practitioner.

Ethiopia Encyclopedia, another new blogger on the block, took issue with commentary on CNN that implied that most Ethiopian immigrants would cut their daughters. She also questioned the evidence given in the court case in Ethiopian man circumcises 2 year old daughter?

I just have one question and I think it can reflect the question of anyone with COMMON SENSE. How can any child or human remember an event that occured when they were the age of two? Furthermore, how could she have remembered that it was specifically her father who circumcised her?

Weichegud! ET Politics was also far from convinced. In “Ethiopian Man Convicted of Female Circumcision”… Uhh…?, she wrote:

I've spent a few hours reading about this case and … folks, as much as I am a feminist-in-stilettos, there is a lot wrong with this case, not that you would know it by reading a totally hysterical article that is dependably posted on CNN. The man, Ato Kahlid Adem, was going through an exceptionally nasty divorce and custody case from a South African woman who only noticed that her daughter was circumcised after the separation? And the vivid details with which the seven-year-old girl remembers what happened when she was two unsettles me.

The last word goes to Free Khalid Adem yet another new Ethiopian blog set up specifically to fight for the convicted man. In Khalid Adem Is Innocent! it concluded:

Khalid Adem is innocent. This is a false accusation. He is decent, hard working ,and law abiding person. He couldn't have done such a
thing.

Elsewhere, Ethiopian bloggers remembered the first anniversary of post-election unrest in their capital Addis Ababa that left just short of 200 people dead.

Carpe Diem Ethipoia described the traditional mourning of the family of one of the victims in When parents bury their children: A story I've been dying to tell. Weichegud! ET Politics expressed her anguish in Burnt by Tears and Blood.

Things We Should Have Written Down came up with the most evocative post of the fortnight in Midnight in the Mini-Bus of Good and Evil, a description of a long bus ride from the ancient city of Harar to Addis Ababa:

A sharply dressed, neatly groomed young man shared his bundle with the teenage DVD-wielding girl, and there bloomed a romance that seemed to progress through every stage of a relationship during the twelve hour trip. First, timid conversation and flirting: they exchanged names and examined each other’s cell phones. Second, an act of kindness: he shared some of his chat with her. Third, deep conversation: they spoke of their families and their lives in Addis and Harar. Fourth, a move is made: he gently put a strand of her hair back beneath her tightly drawn shawl. Fifth, intimacy: she took of her head covering and laid her head on his shoulder. Sixth, comfort: they slept together for some time, intertwined like seasoned lovers. Seventh, discord: he gives her shoulder one caress too many, she retreats to the window, they stop speaking. Eight, separation: she leaves the bus at her stop without a final word or glance in his direction.

The report from Ethiopian blogger Ethio-Zagol named the activist as Yalemzewd Bekele and the two European officials as:

Bjorn Jonsson, Head of Finance and Contract department of the delegation in Ethiopia, and Enrico Sborgi, who works at the good governance department.

The post, A prominent human rights campaigner arrested, on Ethio-Zagol's blog Seminawork said that police had been trying to arrest Yalemzewd Bekele for a week, in connection with anti-government activities. The two EC officials, it added, were arrested: “for trying to help Yalemzewd escape”.

It was a whole day before the mainstream media woke up to the story at the end of last week. (Here's the BBC version from Friday October 20.) It was another six hours after that journalists managed to confirm the names of the people involved. When the names and other details of the case finally did come out through official channels over the next couple of days, it emerged that almost everything in the original blog post had been accurate.

Ethio-Zagol, one of the most mysterious and well-connected writers in the Ethiopian blogosphere, had scored an old-fashioned scoop over the rest of the mainstream press.

Over the past few days, Seminawork has kept up a steady stream of updates on the story, with the regularity of a well-oiled news wire. There was Alert and Breaking News: Ethiopian Government's biggest conspiracy and espionage exposed with more alleged details on the locations of the arrests and how the police tracked every one down.

After that there was More on EC espionage, Latest on Yalemzewd Bekele and, most recently, Family denied access to jailed Ethiopian human rights lawyer.

Ethiopia's other bloggers were quick to recognize the achievement. You've got to hand it to him,” wrote Meskel Square in Blog name scoop. “Ethio-Zagol has very good contacts. He had the names hours before anyone else.”

Weichegud! ET politics traced the story back to Seminawork before commenting on the case in When the fleas start biting:

The Ethiopian government is claiming the two Ethiopians had warrants for their arrest for… well, “serious crimes.” If you are new to the Ethiopian government’s sense of judiciary, “serious crimes” could mean anything from “you breathed with the wrong nostril” to “you exercised your constitutionally guaranteed right to speak freely.” Pick anything in between.

The mysterious European arrests were only one of a string of sensational political stories in Ethiopia over the past fortnight.

The country's bloggers also chewed over the leak and then the official release of a report that confirmed that 199 people were killed in post-election clashes last year (four times the size of the official death estimates released immediately after the violence).

On top of that came the statement from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that Ethiopia was now “technically at war” with Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia. And then there were the thousands of Eritrean troops massing on the country's northern border.

The turbulent times prompted a number of long and reflective posts from some of the country's stalwart bloggers.

Enset came up with a thesis on the country's current political situation, focused on the health of its once-burgeoning opposition parties in Skepticism and delusion, shunning from reality:

The pre-election political process, the post-election political turbulence, and in general, the May 2005 election has radically revolutionized the concept of democracy in Ethiopia. For many generations, Ethiopians thought that political power is a gift from above; today, most Ethiopians believe that this gift [political power] is intended for them.

Today, the opposition camp is plagued by self made problems, lacks visionary leaders, and moves haphazardly with no clear line of attack. Every party, or political organization is entangled with contradictory personal agendas.

Weichegud! ET Politics poured out her anger in How ugly is politics? and How do you ask another generation to heal?

But her post of the fortnight was a warmer reflection on politics told through the tale of how her grandmother-in-law first discovered the concept of democracy. She wrote in AmlakE… feTariyE:

The grandmother-in-law just became a registered voter, goaded, by the way, by one of the great-grand children who came home from first grade after participating in mock mid-term elections.

Grandmother-in-law asked the grown-ups why they never told her about this thing– this voting thing. Grown-ups slinked away murmuring something about cleaning the gutters. Grandmother-in-law now thinks the fruits of her loins are rotten.

Grandmother-in-law now adds this line to her morning prayers: “AmlakE, feTariyE… dehnawun sew asmeriTeN…” Her nimble fingers speed through her rosary beads with assembly line efficiency. Rat-tat-ta-ta-ta…. “AmlakE feTariyE, ke erkuss sew sewireN. Antew ijEn yizeh asmeriTeN… Mela’ktoch, Emiye Mariyam.. ke innE gar teselefu.” (“My Lord, my Creator… save me from electing a heretic. Angels, Our Mother, line up with me as I vote.”)

For once there was no unifying theme – because there was just so much to catch up on as the sun came up after four months of torrential rain and dark grey skies.

Coffeechillisun got in early with a description of the new season's new police recruits, parading up and down the streets of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa in their new uniforms. In From zero to hero she wrote:

The fresh batch of graduates of the new Federal Police officers are out and about in dapper fresh khaki; the joke being that they are so young and skinny they have to sling their belts twice around their waists and get a muscle strain from having to lift their boots.

Seattle teen's opinion on Ethiopia, a welcome newcomer to the scene, gave us a rundown on the history of the sacred Ethiopian festival of Meskel, a celebration of the discovery of the true cross involving lots of daisies and bonfires which roughly coincides with the end of the rainy season.

Things We Should Have Written Down, part-written by an American in Addis, described a typical working day in the capital in A Day in the Life, One Year On:

8:12. Walking towards 22 Mazoria junction, banana and orange packed snugly in my bag. Old man drunk on tej (honey wine) from the night before stumbles in front of me, his harsh breath the final push I need to fully wake. “Hey, white!” Who, me? “Yes!” Hello. “I like fuck American bitches!” That’s nice. I’m happy for you, Drunk Tej Man…

11:45. To lunch with three friends. We order the usual, tibs firfir and tibs. Basically, a lot of meat. And some injera. For the second time today, a drunk man starts yelling at me. This time I can’t understand what he’s saying and so plow deeper into my meal. My companions laugh. What'd he say? I ask. “He's so drunk, we couldn’t even understand him. But you were white, and that pissed him off.”

I Was Just Thinking reflected on the moral dilemma facing lovers of secondhand books in Ethiopia in Of buying stolen books:

Recently, I visited a ‘legal' bookshop, which normally doesn’t sell used books. As I was searching for any newly published books, my eyes fell on several voluminous academic reference tomes. Amazed as to where they got them from and while leafing through I found that they were stolen from the reference section of the Kennedy Library.

ET Wonqette of Weichegud ET Politics announced she was launching the Ethiopian blogosphere's first book club – dedicated to the discussion of the country's No. 1 underground bestseller The Dawn of Freedom by imprisoned opposition leader Berhanu Nega. (GlobalVoices covered the excitement around the launch of the book back in August.)

In The Wonqville Book Club she wrote:

I have not found a place that is discussing “The Dawn of Freedom” so here goes a proposal: Starting in two weeks, this blog will attempt a discussion of Berhanu's book, chapter by chapter… Two weeks will give people who have not yet gotten the book yet to skedaddle to www.berhanunega.com and get a copy. Then join in. It is perhaps the book that will define a generation… set a new standard for political discourse, and maybe, hopefully be what helps us heal.

Hopefully, for all us non-Amharic speakers, the discussion will be liberally sprinkled with passages of the book translated into English.

Elsewhere, Ethiopia's growing band of outspoken political bloggers kept up their verbal assault on the ruling regime in Addis Ababa.

Urael reflected on his role as a blogger in Bloggers in Ethiopia, reminding us that a large number of anti-government websites still appear to be inaccessible in Addis Ababa:

I wished I was better informed about what’s going on. But that’s Ethiopian reality. I remember calling abroad to hear what was going on when the munitions depot exploded in 1991. But let me try to remain a pain in the ass for the Mafia Gang and their servants. Ethiomedia.com, Ethiolion.com, EthioDenhaag.com, Ethioforum.org, Debteraw.com, Nazret.com and others are all blocked because they bring more than news. They openly support the democratic movement and encourage the organization of resistance.

On the international front, the growing tension along Ethiopia's southern border with Somalia attracted many a link. …My Heart's in Accra summed up the latest developments in Neglected conflicts, counterbalanced (?) by more hopeful thoughts.

The highly-politicised groups of Ethiopian writers living in the USA published a flurry of posts over the past week to persuade Congress to pass House Resolution 5680 - the ‘Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006′ (see the full list of H.R. 5680 posts on Technorati).

HR 5680 is, in its own words, designed “to encourage and facilitate the consolidation of security, human rights, democracy, and economic freedom in Ethiopia”. It amounts to a condemnation of Ethiopia's current government and a series of punitive actions - everything from “[prohibiting] security assistance to Ethiopia” (with exceptions for peacekeeping or counter-terrorism assistance) and a ban on “U.S. entry of any Ethiopian official involved in giving orders to use lethal force against peaceful demonstrators or accused of gross human rights violations, government security personnel involved in shootings of demonstrators, and Ethiopian civilians involved in killings of Ethiopian policemen”. The latter prohibition is a reference to bloody clashes between protesters and armed police that left more than 80 dead after Ethiopia's national elections last year.

Ethiopian diaspora supporters of the bill, which was proposed by New Jersey representative Chris Smith, recently claimed that the legislation had stalled in Congress after the Ethiopian government hired a lobbying company to argue their case.

For The Defense gave an account of the history of the bill in his lengthy Open Letter to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert which started:

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I write this letter on behalf of hundreds of thousands of proud and loyal Ethiopian Americans who have placed their trust in the United States Congress to spread the blessings of freedom, democracy and human rights to our birthplace of Ethiopia.

Weichegud ET Politics! was among a number of campaigners who went one further by pubishing the Speaker's email address and encouraging people to write to him themselves. In the posts The Ethiopian Diaspora comes of age and Update: HR 5680 she said that the campaign was a key moment for the USA's growing Ethiopian community:

To be sure, the Diaspora (the vocal one that Ato Meles’ government feels a need to, um, shut up [Meles Zenawi is Ethiopia's Prime Minister]) has come a long way. There are Ethiopian-American “get out the vote” initiatives happening. People are meeting with their representatives and senators. Even at a very ad hoc level, there is significant movement. Eventually, there will be one big gynormous PAC [People's Action Committee]. But until then, there is an impressive, educated grass roots movement planting strong seeds.

She warned that it would still take time to achieve their aims:

People have to be methodical and calm. Fighting for democracy is not a “quick result” game where we think if we do X then Y must follow or the entire equation is wrecked. Sometimes you have to go through V to get to Y.

Carpe Diem Ethiopia took a more emotional tack by posting photographs that allegedly showed victims of human rights abuse in the post Support H.R. 5680. He wrote:

All DLA Piper lobbyists and lawyers googleing around for information on Ethiopia should see are images of our mothers and our children crushed under the weight of tyranny. Carry these images in your minds during your cab ride to Capitol Hill.

Bloggers swapped tips on how to campaign for the bill. Others pointed to the new website of the Coalition for H.R. 5860. Enset published an article from Fikru Helebo in the post Let's Give HR 5680 the Support it Deserve which read:

compatriots, let's roll and give HR 5680 the support it deserves and let the chips fall where they may…Here is how to contact your representatives: http://www.house.gov/writerep/. All you need to do is enter your state and your zip code and the web site tells you who your represetative is…

Enset went on to pointed readers to articles about political lobbying in Congress in his post Supporting HR 5680 this Saturday. He concluded:

Realistically speaking, it looks like that the chances of HR 5680 being brought to the house floor for a vote next week are very slim. But, whatever happens next week, it will not be the end of the road for Ethiopian Human Rights and democracy advocacy. The spirit of HR 5680 will live on

ethiopundit reflected on what Ethiopian-American campaigners had achieved so far - and looked forward to even more influential days to come in the post Ethiopian-American:

We have absolutely no doubt that there will be at least one Ethiopian-American Congressmen within the next decade and that a decade later there will be at least one Senator. In the meantime in every walk of American life they will strive, work and achieve.

Like all other immigrant groups it is natural and singularly American that they are concerned with their place of origin…

As far as Ethiopian-American political activism goes, this is just the beginning - success and help for Ethiopia will come long before the first kid who ate shiro and hamburgers from birth sits on the Supreme Court.

The political debate in Ethiopia's blogosphere is dominated by anti-government voices. No posts arguing the government's case turned up in a search of Technorati and other sources.