New Yorker Fears For Jailed Ethiopian Brother
N E W Y O R K, June 1 -- Yalem Nega is like so many young people hustling to make it in New York.
She's got a job as a senior financial analyst at a prominent firm. Shecommutes from Riverdale, N.Y., and has dreams that have taken her far from her birthplace in Ethiopia.
But like many who have fled their homelands for opportunities and security elsewhere — every once in a while, Yalem is reminded of her homeland's instability.
"About three weeks ago my brother came to Maryland for a relative's funeraland to see his wife and children for three days. At that time, thegovernment declared that my brother and Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam wereresponsible for instigating the April Addis Ababa university studentprotest," Yalem told ABCNEWS.com."My mother called to beg my brother not to return back home. My brotherreplied that he had done nothing wrong and insisted on going back toEthiopia. A week after his return they informed us that he had beenarrested."
Today, her brother Berhanu Nega sits in an Ethiopian jail, along withProfessor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, a Senior Fulbright Scholar. Both are accusedof inciting student riots. The riots, which took place in April, left 30dead, according to police estimates. Both men lectured at Addis AbabaUniversity, and paneled a student discussion on basic rights. Reportedly,the riots broke out in the days following the panel discussion.
Both men deny they advocated violence for change and have been protestingtheir arrests with a hunger strike.
Finding Out what Happened
The day they were arrested was like any other: Berhanu was working at hisoffice in Addis Ababa. Wolde-Mariam, who is in his 70s, was at a café nearhis home.
Makonnen Bishaw, of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council— an organizationWolde-Mariam helped found — is concerned the men are not getting dueprocess. Held without bail, without formal charge, they have only recentlybeen formally informed of the case being assembled against them.
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