UN Urges Lebanon to investigate Ethiopian Maid's Death-A Call for human rights
The UN special rapporteur on slavery has urged the Lebanese government to carry out a full investigation into the death of an Ethiopian domestic worker.
Alem Dechasa, 33, killed herself on 14 March, a few days after she was filmed being beaten by men and dragged into a car in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Gulnara Shahinian said the “cruel” images reminded her of the many migrant workers she met in Lebanon last year.
She urged the country to uncover the truth about such rights violations.
Last month, eight civil society groups called on the Lebanese authorities to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labour law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant workers.
As she tries to resist, he and another man drag her into a car.
LBCI later identified the man beating her as the brother of the head of the recruiting agency that brought her to Lebanon.
He alleged that his brother’s agency had been trying to return her to Ethiopia because she had mental health problems.
Police later found Ms Alem and took her to a detention centre.
Following a request by the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, they transferred her to the Deir al-Saleeb psychiatric hospital two days later, but did not arrest those alleged to have carried out the beatings.
Ms Dechasa killed herself at the hospital on the morning of 14 March.
After the beating video was circulated, the labour and justice ministries began investigations, but their outcomes have not been made public.
On Tuesday, Ms Shahinian issued a statement strongly urging the Lebanese authorities to investigate the circumstances leading to Ms Alem’s death and make public their findings.
“There are a number of reports circulating about the human rights violations Alem Dechasa experienced as a migrant domestic worker in Lebanon and the facts surrounding her death,” she said.
“States are under an obligation to ensure the realisation of the right to truth about violations in order to end impunity and promote and protect human rights and provide redress to victims and their families.”
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh along with some family members are going to live in exile in Ethiopia as he[Saleh] came under immense pressure from the international community to leave the country as soon as possible and let the new leadership attends its duties. Saleh is under a mounting pressure from GCC states, western nations, and UN t o leave the country. If he did not leave, they threatened they would freeze his and his family’s assets, media outlets reported on Monday, citing unidentified top aides and diplomats. The sources confirmed that the arrangements and preparations have been already been taken for his departure for the African state, where he would spend the rest of his life. On Monday, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the new Yemeni President, was inaugurated officially as the President of the Republic of Yemen and moved to the Presidential Palace. USA , where Saleh has received further medical treatment for wounds and burns sustained in an assassination attempt at the Presidential Palace last year, has suggested two weeks ago that Saleh should not return to Yemen, but he insisted that he should attend the inauguration ceremony of his successor. Saleh presence in the country has become a source of tension and unrest . We believe that he would use his aides and relatives, who hold top posts in the government and military institutions, to influence the political scene and direct it to serve his own agenda and interests, an opposition figure told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Saleh, a man who has always put his and his family interests above his countrys’ and people’s, said on Monday that he is glad that he handed “the banner of the republic, freedom, security and stability to safe hands”[apparently referring to Hadi. Earlier the day, thousands of protesters marched through some streets in the capital, Sana’a, demanding that Saleh be prosecuted and held accountable for his crimes against peaceful protesters. Yemen witnessed on Monday a new inaugurated President after it was led by the same leader for more than 33 years. Saleh’s era was, in many experts’ and political analysts’ prospective, an era of mishandling issues and misrule.
Mengistu Haile Mariam is (as in still alive) a politician who presided over Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. The way he got into power was by smothering the previous president Haile Selassie although he has denied those rumors. His biggest claim to fame is the Ethiopian Red Terror which was a campaign of repression led by the Derg (communist militia in Ethiopia). In his introductory speech Mengitsu yelled, “Death to counter revolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!” Then he took three bottles filled with blood and threw them to the ground. It was an auspicious beginning to say the least. Thousands were killed and found dead on the streets in the years that followed. Much of the murdering can be attributed to the friendly neighborhood watch their known as “Kebeles”. As if killing innocents wasn’t enough they would then charge the family a tax to return the dead body to them. The tax was aptly named “the wasted bullet”! Are you serious Mengitsu? However there was an even more gruesome fate of being left on the street where wild hyenas would fight over the dead. The campaign has been described as one of the worst mass murders ever in Africa in the 21st century.
Mengistu Haile Mariam, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Ethiopian Army, led a coup which ousted Emperor Haile Selassie from power in 1974. Mengistu took control of the government and served as its Communist head of state in Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991. He formally assumed power as chair of the Worker’s Party, head of state and Derg (military junta) chairman in 1977. In fact Mengistu had wielded behind-the-scenes power since the coup of 1974.
Opposition against Mengistu’s regime emerged with a rebellion against the new government between 1977 and 1978. The government suppressed the rebellion and in the process generated thousands of casualties, estimated at 100,000 killed or disappeared. In response the anti-Mengistu Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) launched a guerilla struggle that would last until the overthrow of Mengistu’s regime in 1991.
On September 10, 1987, Mengistu became a civilian president under a new constitution, and the country was renamed the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Mengistu’s government was faced with enormous difficulties throughout the 1980s in the form of droughts, widespread famine (notably the Ethiopian famine of 1984-1985), and insurrections, particularly in the northern regions of Tigre and Eritrea. In 1989, the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front merged with other ethnically based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa. The EPRDF forces successful toppling of the Mengistu government coincided with the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union. The new Russian government ended aid to Ethiopia.
Mengistu fled the country with 50 family and Derg members and was granted asylum in Zimbabwe as an official “guest” of Robert Mugabe, the president of that country. Mengistu left behind almost the entire membership of the original Derg and the Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE) leadership, which was promptly arrested and put on trial upon the assumption of power by the EPRDF. Mengistu still
resides in Zimbabwe, despite attempts by Ethiopia to extradite him to face trial. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death in absentia by the new regime. The trial against Mengistu started in 1994, and in January 2007 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide. He remains in exile in Zimbabwe. This war criminal military junta killed more than half a million Ethiopians. Bring him to justice to close this case. Here is a partial list of Ethiopians who sacrifices their life, and murdered by this criminal military junta: http://www.dergu.shutterfly.com/
More than 30 percent of all auto accident fatalities in the Ethiopia involve drivers impaired by alcohol and Chat. These accidents led to more than 800 deaths in 2010 alone Most of those deaths could’ve been avoided if the drivers involved simply hadn’t gotten behind the wheel while drunk Alcohol. Causes a number of impairments that lead to car accidents. Even at low blood-alcohol levels, intoxication reduces reaction time and coordination and lowers inhibitions, which can cause drivers to make foolish choices. At higher levels, alcohol causes blurred or double vision and even loss of consciousness. Drunk driving isn’t just a terrible idea — it’s a crime. In the U.S, getting caught behind the wheel with blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 or higher will probably earn you a trip to jail but not in Ethiopia. It’s easy to avoid driving drunk. If you’ve been drinking, don’t drive your taxi/cab.
2: Don’t Speed The old public service campaign so succinctly put it, “Speed kills.” Research has shown that for every mile per hour you drive the likelihood of your being in an accident increases by four to five percent at higher speeds, the risk increases much more quickly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) explains the consequences of fast driving quite simply: “Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes in Ethiopia. The economic cost to society of speeding-related crashes is estimated by NHTSA to be $40.4 billion per year. In 2008, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, and 11,674 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes”
For your average drive across town, driving even 10 mph faster is only going to save you a few minutes — while increasing your crash risk by as much as 50 percent. Even on long trips, the time you’ll save is inconsequential compared to the risks associated with speeding. Take your time and obey posted speed limits.
3: Avoid Distractions
Many states in the U.S. have passed laws that ban the use of cell phones while driving. The reason is the number of deaths attributed to this seemingly harmless activity: 2,600 deaths nationwide every year, by some estimates In fact, those numbers may actually be too low, due to the continued rise cell phone use behind the wheel. If you think that talking and texting while driving isn’t a big deal, consider this: One researcher compared the reaction time of a 20-year-old driver talking on a cell phone to that of a 70-year-old driver. What’s more, working a cell phone behind the wheel can delay reaction times by as much as 20 percent. It isn’t just cell phones that cause distractions, however. Eating, chewing chat, loud music, fiddling with electronic devices or interacting with passengers also diverts a driver’s attention in potentially deadly ways. Perhaps the best advice on driving distractions came from rocker Jim Morrison: “Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel.”
4: Don’t Drive Drowsy
A study conducted by researchers at Virginia Tech reported that 20 percent of all accidents have sleepiness as a contributing factor if a driver is tired enough to actually fall asleep while driving, the results are predictable. Even on a relatively straight highway, a sleeping driver will eventually drift off the road. Trees, utility poles, ravines and bridge abutments turn this into a deadly scenario — and that doesn’t even take other cars into account. You might think a few yawns are nothing to worry about, but just being a little drowsy is enough to increase your risk of getting in an accident. Responses can range from dozing off for a few seconds at a time to simply “zoning out” and losing all focus on the road. At highway speeds, one or two seconds of inattention can lead to disaster. The solution is simple: Get a better night’s sleep! Make sure you get a solid eight hours of sleep, not just on the night before a long drive, but on a regular basis. Failure to get enough sleep every night builds a sleep deficit that can leave you drowsy and unable to focus. If you’re driving and feel the least bit groggy, take action immediately. Don’t think you’ll get any kind of warning before you fall asleep, or that you can fight it off. People can move from drowsy to sound asleep without warning. If this happens to you, find a rest area where you can catch a few hours of sleep or take a break until you’re feeling more alert.
5: Wear Your Seat Belt
Seat belts save lives. Worn properly, they prevent you from being thrown around the inside of a crashing vehicle or, worse, thrown through the windshield and flung completely out of the vehicle. NHTSA statistics reveal that more than half of all accident fatalities were people who weren’t using seat belts. The numbers are much scarier for young drivers and passengers: Everyone has heard horror stories about people who were killed in bizarre freak accidents in which they’d have lived if only they hadn’t been wearing a seat belt. Even if these stories are true — many of them are exaggerations or urban legends — they’re also anomalies. In the overwhelming majority of car crashes, you have a greater chance of surviving if you’re wearing a seat belt. Even a low-speed crash can send an unbelted person careening into the dashboard or side window, resulting in severe head injuries or broken bones. At higher speeds, the possible fates of the unbelted occupant are gruesome: severe lacerations from being propelled through the windshield; struck by other cars because you landed on the road; slammed into a tree or a house at 50 mph. Sound scary? Then buckle up.
6: Be Extra Careful in Bad Weather
If you’re driving through fog, heavy rain, a road constriction or storm, be extra cautious. Take all of the other tips presented here and make full use of them: Drive below the speed limit if necessary, maintain extra space between you and the car ahead, and be especially careful around curves. If you’re driving through weather conditions you don’t know well, consider delegating driving duties to someone who does, if possible. If the weather worsens, just find a safe place to wait out the storm. If you’re experiencing bad visibility, either from fog or rain, and you end up off the side of the road (intentionally or otherwise), turn off your lights. Drivers who can’t see the road will be looking for other cars to follow along the highway. When they see your lights, they’ll drive toward you and may not realize you’re not moving in time to avoid a collision.
7: Don’t Follow Too Closely
Safe driving guidelines advise drivers to keep a safe distance between themselves and the car ahead. Drivers need enough time to react if that car makes a sudden turn or stop. It can be too difficult to estimate the recommended distances while driving and the exact distance would have to be adjusted for speed, so most experts recommend a “three-second rule.” The three-second rule is simple. Find a stationary object on the side of the road. When the car ahead of you passes it, start counting seconds. At least three seconds should pass before your car passes the same object. Once you have some driving experience and have practiced keeping this minimum distance, you’ll develop an instinct for it and know how close to follow without having to count. However, even experienced drivers should count off the three-second rule now and then to make sure. At night or in inclement weather, double the recommended time to six seconds. In Ethiopia, Taxi drivers drive pumper to pumper until accident happens
8: Watch Out for the Other Guy
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how safely you drive. You could be driving the speed limit and obeying all traffic rules and someone else can crash into you. One good rule of thumb to use is, “Assume everyone else on the road is an idiot.” In other words, be prepared for unpredictable lane changes, sudden stops, unsignaled turns, swerving, tailgating and every other bad driving behavior imaginable. Chances are, you’ll eventually encounter someone like this — and it pays to be ready when you do. It’s impossible to list all the possible things another driver might do, but there are a few common examples. If you’re pulling out of a driveway into traffic and an oncoming car has its turn signal on, don’t assume it’s actually turning. You might pull out only to find that turn signal has been blinking. If you’re approaching an intersection where you have the right of way, and another approaching car has the stop sign, don’t assume it will actually stop. As you approach, take your foot off the gas and be prepared to break. Of course, being prepared requires awareness, so make sure you check your mirrors and keep an eye on side streets so you’ll know which other cars are around you and how they’re driving. Don’t focus only on the road in front of your car — look ahead so you can see what’s happening 50 to 100 yards (46 to 91 meters) up the road.
9: Practice Defensive Driving
This tip is pretty simple to understand if we just put the proverbial shoe on the other foot. Remember that one time when that jerk came flying down the street out of nowhere, totally cut you off and almost caused a huge accident? Don’t be that jerk. Aggressive driving is hard to quantify, but it definitely increases the risk of accidents. Studies show that young male drivers are more likely to drive aggressively. An aggressive driver does more than just violate the tips in this article — they may intentionally aggravate other drivers, initiate conflict, use rude gestures or language, tailgate or impede other cars, or flash their headlights out of frustration. These behaviors aren’t just annoying, they’re dangerous. Defensive driving incorporates the other tips shown here, such as maintaining a safe distance and not speeding, but remaining calm in the face of frustrating traffic issues is another major part of the concept. Accept small delays, such as staying in line behind a slower car instead of abruptly changing lanes. Yield to other cars, even if you technically have the right of way. Defensive driving is not only safer, it can save you money. Many insurance companies offer discounts to drivers who complete defensive driving courses.
10: Keep Your Vehicle Safe Regular tune-ups will keep you and your car safe out on the road. This is not a common practice in Ethiopia. Vehicle maintenance isn’t just an important way to extent your car’s life — it’s a major safety issue. Many maintenance issues are addressed by your government mandated vehicle inspections. If your car is unsafe, the inspecting mechanic will let you know what you need to do to fix it. However, there could be a year or more between inspections, so Taxi drivers need to be aware of any potential safety issues and get them repaired before they lead to an accident. One of the most common maintenance problems that can lead to a crash is improper tire pressure. Uneven tire pressure, or pressure that is too high or low, can impact performance or lead to a blowout — especially in high-performance cars. You can buy a cheap pressure gauge at any auto parts store and check the pressure against the recommendation in your owner’s manual. While you’re at it, you might want to rotate your tires to promote even wear and consistent performance. Another key area is the car’s brakes. If you notice some “softness” in the brake pedal, or feel a vibration when the brakes are applied, get them checked out by a professional mechanic. The brakes could be wearing out or you could have a problem with the car’s hydraulic system. Finally, respect pedestrians on the road, and respect the law. Understand what the sign means. Take full responsibility for your action. Participate to save life, not to destroy.
Ethiopia’s government has begun selling some basic food items directly to consumers after imposing price controls that created shortages in the marketplace. Long lines are becoming a regular sight in Addis Ababa as people queue at government shops for sugar and edible oil.
Tesfanesh Zewde stood in line for more than an hour in the hot sun this week to buy a liter of cooking oil and two kilograms of sugar for her family.
Tesfanesh says she was forced to leave her office during work hours and queue at a government-operated fruit stand for items that until recently had been easily available in neighborhood shops.
Sugar, cooking oil and other items disappeared from store shelves in January, after Ethiopia imposed price ceilings on 18 basic commodities. The controls were ordered about the time food riots in Tunisia triggered the political unrest that spread across North Africa and the Middle East.
Local media hailed state intervention in the market as a bold move to help cash-strapped consumers cope with soaring global food prices.
But shop owners rebelled. They complained the ceilings were too low to allow them a fair profit, and refused to sell at what they said was a loss.
When price-controlled items became scarce, the government accused suppliers of creating artificial shortages. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last month announced that the market had effectively failed. He said the government would bypass retailers and sell directly to consumers until the business community accepted the lower prices.
“We plan to flood the market to overcome artificial shortages that have been created through inefficiencies in the market system. This includes artificial shortages in edible oil and sugar. We intend to import lots of edible oil and sugar and flood the market to ensure it is stabilized,” Zenawi said.
Ethiopia’s Trade and Industry Ministry was assigned the job of setting fair prices and profits for controlled items.
Efrem Woldesellassie, head of the ministry’s regulatory affairs department, says a government survey determined that the market failure was due to excessive profits charged by wholesalers and retailers. He said the ministry decided to limit profits to 4-6 percent on sugar and cooking oil.
“These people. They used to get big profits, even without paying any tax to the government, but this time they got a profit [of] 6 percent for sugar, 4 percent for palm oil. To my understanding, covering all costs, this profit margin is sufficient for them to survive,” Woldesellassie said.
Efrem says price controls and government sales outlets are a temporary measure until the market stabilizes. But market economists and business people argue any state interference in the buyer-seller relationship is ultimately counterproductive.
Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce President Eyessus Work Zafu says the price ceilings are another step in a long-term trend in Ethiopia toward greater state control over the economy.
“The government is becoming more and more preponderant in the economy in recent years, more than even 10 years ago. The long-term solution is not working on the assumption that government alone could bring about the balanced and rapid sustainable econ growth and development. It cannot. That paradigm has been tried for many years and failed.” Eyessus said.
Eyessus says he sees great danger in the state’s increasing tendency, when economic policies don’t work, to demonize the private sector.
“When the first price control measures were announced, we started reading in the paper a very serious malignant hate campaign, letters, articles in the papers, and many have been engaged in widening the split between consumers and merchants or business people. [The] government will have to take the initiative to normalize things, because if the government does not, the differences will widen, and the ultimate consequences could be serious,” Eyessus said.
Economists also question whether the price caps are helping to keep down rising costs. The government statistics agency reports an inflation rate of 14 percent in February, the first full month the caps were in effect.
And when the controls are inevitably removed, experts say prices are bound to jump to where they would have been anyway.
People waiting to purchase cooking oil and sugar this week wondered whether, given the rapid rise of global prices, Ethiopia might again see the day when local governments distribute food, as they did during the Communist era.
March 14 (Bloomberg) — Church burnings in southwestern Ethiopia that left at least one person dead were incited by an extremist Islamic group, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
Evangelical churches in Assendabo, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa, and other towns in the Jimma region were torched earlier this month. At least 46 of the churches belonged to the Kale Heywot faith and 23 more to other groups, according to Kale Heywot Church General Secretary Tesfaye Abadura. A Kale Heywot bible school and office have been destroyed and as many as 7,000 people have been displaced, Tesfaye said in a phone interview on March 12.
Those responsible for inciting the attacks are believed to be preachers from the Islamist Kawarja group, Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa on March 12.
“We believe there are elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists who have been preaching religious intolerance in the area,” Meles said. “In previous times, we have cracked down on Kawarja because they were involved in violence. Since then they have changed their tactics and they have been able to camouflage their activities through legal channels.”
The attacks began when Christians were arrested after an unidentified Muslim individual accusing them of flushing a Koran down a church toilet, Tesfaye said.
“After that Muslims came together and burned the churches, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he said.
Seid Asmare, spokesman for the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, said he couldn’t immediately comment because he was in a meeting when called on his mobile phone today.
Incidents of religious strife in Ethiopia are rare, though there have been fatal sectarian clashes in the southwest in recent years. Ethiopia’s population includes 34 percent Muslims and 63 percent Christians, according to the CIA World Factbook.
A report on the church burnings by the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia will be delivered on March 16, Zerihun Degu, general secretary of the council, said by phone today.
–Editors: Paul Richardson, Karl Maier.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
Violence in Libya and Bahrain has claimed scores of lives and left many more injured as the two Arab countries were united by popular protests that continue to shake the status quo and sound alarm bells across the region and the world.
A week after Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, was forced to stand down, dozens of Libyans were reported killed by Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces. Meanwhile, Bahraini troops shot dead at least one protester and wounded 50 others after mourners buried four people who were killed on Thursday in the worst mass unrest the western-backed Gulf state has ever seen.
“We don’t care if they kill 5,000 of us,” a protester screamed inside Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain’s raging youth. “The regime must fall and we will make sure it does.”
Last night footage was posted on YouTube apparently showing Bahraini security forces shooting protesters.
Western nations have been struggling to adjust their policies in response to the security crackdowns in Arab countries.
But Britain announced that it was revoking 44 licences for the export of arms to Bahrain amid concern over the violent suppression of protests in the Gulf state. The Foreign Office also said that eight arms export licences to Libya had been withdrawn, while a review of arms exports to the wider region continues.
Bahrain’s crown prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa went on television to promise a national dialogue once calm has returned. But the country’s most senior Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, condemned attacks on protesters as a “massacre” and said the government had shut the door to such dialogue.
While the unrest in Bahrain was broadcast instantly around the world, the unprecedented bloodshed in the remote towns of eastern Libya was far harder for global media to cover.
Amid an official news blackout in Libya, there were opposition claims of 60 dead as diplomats reported the use of heavy weapons in Benghazi, the country’s second city, and “a rapidly deteriorating situation” in the latest – and the most repressive – Arab country to be hit by serious unrest.
Libyans said a “massacre” had been perpetrated in Benghazi, al-Bayda and elsewhere in the region. Crowds in the port city of Tobruk were shown destroying a statue of Gaddafi’s Green Book and chanting, “We want the regime to fall,” echoing the slogan of the uprising in Egypt.
Umm Muhammad, a political activist in Benghazi, told the Guardian that 38 people had died in the city. “They [security forces] were using live fire here, not just teargas. This is a bloody massacre – in Benghazi, in al-Bayda, all over Libya. They are releasing prisoners from the jails to attack the demonstrators.” Benghazi’s al-Jala hospital was appealing for emergency blood supplies to help treat the injured.
News and rumours spread rapidly via social media websites including Twitter and Facebook, but information remained fragmentary and difficult to confirm.
In Yemen at least five people were reported killed when security forces and anti-government protesters clashed for a seventh consecutive day in the capital, Sana’a, Aden and other cities, with crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule.
Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” about the reports of violence from Bahrain, a close ally and the base of the US fifth fleet, as well as those from Libya and Yemen, and he urged their rulers to show restraint with protesters.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, also condemned the killings of protesters in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. “The Middle East and North Africa region is boiling with anger,” he said. “At the root of this anger is decades of neglect of people’s aspirations to realise not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights.”
In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the influential Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi said the Arab world had changed and said Egypt’s new military leaders should listen to their people “to liberate us from the government that Mubarak formed”.
It has also emerged that the Ministry of Defence has helped train more than 100 Bahraini army officers in the past five years at Sandhurst and other top UK colleges.
Now that Egyptian protesters have pushed Hosni Mubarak into relinquishing power, they want him to return the fortune he and his family allegedly amassed during his 30-year reign. “If we can get back some of the billions stolen, I will be satisfied with our revolution,” one 29-year-old Egyptian told The Washington Post. How much money does Mubarak have — and do the Egyptian people really have a shot at getting it back? Here, a quick guide to the fight over Mubarak’s money:
How much money are we talking about?
Nobody knows for sure. Estimates of the Mubarak family’s wealth go as high as $70 billion — more than Microsoft founder Bill Gates is worth. The breakdown, according to ABC News, includes $17 billion for Mubarak, $10 billion for his second son, Gamal, and $40 billion for the rest of the family. (Watch a Bloomberg report about Mubarak’s great wealth)
Where’s the loot?
Some of it’s tied up in real estate. Mubarak and his sons own property not only in Egypt, but also London, Los Angeles and New York, according to reports cited in The Washington Post. In London, Gamal Mubarak, 47, owns a house in a neighborhood where homes sell for as much as $20 million. As for the rest of the fortune, the family reportedly has billions stashed in foreign banks and offshore accounts.
How did Mubarak get so rich?
He didn’t do it by squirreling away his salary. As president, Mubarak made just $808 per month in 2007 and 2008, according to a Cairo think tank. Mubarak reportedly made his first millions through military contracts during his earlier career as an air force officer. Later his sons allegedly took huge cuts from businesses investing in Egypt, giving favored entrepreneurs virtual monopolies in return, according to The Sunday Telegraph. Other possible sources of wealth: Government corruption and the sale of state companies and land.
Will Egypt be able to get the money back?
Maybe. Switzerland has frozen whatever assets the Mubaraks and their associates still have there, and other countries are under pressure to do the same. Anti-corruption watchdogs are calling for criminal charges against the Mubaraks. A conviction would help banks return the cash. But, according to Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Mubarak scrambled in his last days in office to hide his assets. “We think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around,” a senior Western intelligence source told the Telegraph. “If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now.”
Mubarak is out — but he may take unimaginable wealth out with him. Estimates of his stolen fortune range as high as $70 billion, more than a third of the entire Egyptian economy.
Time is running out for world governments to freeze Mubarak’s assets before they disappear into a maze of obscure bank accounts — like so many other dictator’s stolen fortunes. Switzerland has already frozen his finances, and some EU ministers have offered help — but without an immediate global outcry, action may come too slowly to stop the Mubarak billions from vanishing.
Let’s call on leaders of all nations to ensure that Egypt’s money is returned to the people.
Millions of Egyptians live on less than $2 per day — yet experts say that corruption costs Egypt more than $6 billion in public money per year. The Mubaraks themselves have benefited massively from a web of business deals, crony-capitalist privatization schemes, and state-guaranteed investments throughout Mubarak’s 30 years as president. Estimates of their wealth run from a “mere” $2-3 billion to the staggering $70 billion figure, which would make Hosni Mubarak the world’s richest man. And 25 senior government officials are already under investigation for amassing fortunes above $1 billion while serving under him.
But the days may finally be over when corrupt rulers can escape with their fortunes intact. The new United Nations Convention Against Corruption explicitly calls for the return of corruptly gained assets to the countries of origin, and Egypt’s military government has already asked European Union governments to freeze Mubarak’s fortune. The key question now is whether action will come fast enough: all the laws in the world won’t help if the Mubarak billions are shuffled out of sight before authorities can seize them.
Our voices as citizens can help the people of Egypt make good on the promise of their revolution. Join the call for Egyptian wealth to go back to the people of Egypt:
As millions of Egyptians risked — and even gave — their lives for democracy, there was little that we around the world could do beyond send our hopes and solidarity. But now we have a special responsibility: to do our utmost to restore the national property stolen by a dictatorship that our own governments tolerated for far too long.
The people of Egypt are ready now to build a new nation. Let’s ensure that they regain the resources that were taken from them, as they create the future that few dared to dream possible.
An Egged bus driver is being sued for NIS 200,000 after allegedly slandering, insulting, and verbally and physically assaulting an Ethiopian passenger, according to a statement released by Tebeka, an advocacy organization for Ethiopian Israelis.
The Ethiopian college student waited at a bus stop in Rishon Leziyyon, and tried to board the bus, but the driver closed the door in her face, refusing to let her on. She managed to get on the bus anyway, and the driver yelled at her, saying “I don’t let black Ethiopians on my bus,” and “these blacks – who let you into Israel?”
The driver added: “All of these kushim [a derogatory term for Africans] should be sent back to Ethiopia. You are a stupid nation, and you damage our land.”
The passenger asked the driver not to speak to her, and in response, the driver grabbed her skirt, not allowing her to proceed onto the bus.
At a hearing conducted by Egged, the driver did not express regret and did not apologize. He said he stands by his opinios about Ethiopians. Egged fined the driver with one and a half months’ salary. The Ministry of Transportation also pressed charges against the driver and Egged.
Tomer Reif and Hila Ben Harosh, the lawyers representing the student, are part of a Project “My Brother’s Keeper,” in which lawyers represent Ethiopians that turn to Tebeka pro bono.
