New Yorker Fears For Jailed Ethiopian Brother
N E W Y O R K, June 1, 2001 -- 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.
Yalem is not apologetic for her brother's activism. At the time of hisarrest, he was teaching pro-bono at the Addis Ababa University economicsdepartment. He served as president of the Ethiopian Economic Association. Hefounded the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute and was alsoserving as consultant for the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
And when he was just a student and the country was under Marxist rule,Berhanu advocated for progress. "During his freshman year at Addis AbabaUniversity, he and two of my sisters participated in a student movementopenly advocating for democracy and human rights," says Yalem. Berhanu wasjust 17 then, and the ensuing military crackdown forced him to fleeEthiopia, first to Sudan and then the United States to escape arrest.
After being granted asylum in the United States, he earned his BA ineconomics at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. Then hegot his economics Masters at SUNY Binghamton; followed by a Ph.D. ineconomics from the New School for Social Research in New York City. Ph.D. inhand, he decided to teach economics at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.
Sticking Your Neck Out
Yalem says that while in the States, Berhanu helped put together a yearlyconference called the "Horn of Africa," to talk about development in EastAfrica. He also founded a magazine discussing Ethiopian current events.
"A wonderful person, a wonderful colleague," says Bucknell professor ofEconomics Jean Shackelford, she remembers the "legendary book drive" Berhanuorganized to send books to Addis Ababa University students.Besides "the wonderful thank you's" sent back from the Ethiopian universitystudents, Shackelford recalled Berhanu as a "considerate, open-minded andbright" teacher.
"Our faculty are particularly concerned," says Bucknell English departmentchair, John Rickard.
"It was inconceivable that Berhanu was fomenting a riot," adds Dean BakerPh.D., now co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research inWashington, D.C. He says that when he worked on the search committee thathired Berhanu at Bucknell, and in the years that they taught together andbecame friends, "it wasn't the way he thought."
Yalem came to the United States in 1994, the same year Berhanu returned toEthiopia with his wife Nardos Minasse, who is an optometrist.
"He was delighted about the change of power [in Ethiopia]" and was"committed to democracy," Baker says."He understood, there's been a lot of violence, he understood the risks, hewent back with hopes that there was a qualitative difference."
Their new life in Ethiopia worked for a while, but for Minasse, theobstacles and security concerns became too much so she returned to theUnited States with their two children. But Berhanu stayed.
Blood Ties
Human rights observers see some progress in Ethiopia. Journalists imprisonedsince 1997 have been freed. But Yalem has already lost a sister, "I don'tthink my mother will be able to cope with the loss of another child," shesays. "At age 19, she was murdered by the previous military regime inEthiopia."
However, thanks to the Internet, family and friends are supporting eachother. And they're doing it over two continents. Her four brothers arehelping back home in Ethiopia, and her five surviving sisters are pushingthe issue in the United States, petitioning congressmen and UN officials.
Jose Diaz, U.N. spokesman for Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson,speaking from Geneva, says complaints filed on behalf of the two men are nowpart of a "Confidential Complaints Procedure" for which he "cannot divulgeany more details" while the cases are under consideration.
The European Parliament albeit in committee — passed a resolution callingfor their release. Action by the full parliament is pending.
In the end, Yalem says, slicing through diplomatic doubletalk, "I want himto know that I love him very much. His whole family loves him. I also wanthim to know that his family and friends are on his side and supports [sic]him totally, and that we are committed to securing his quick release fromprison."