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. She commutes from Riverdale, N.Y., and has pursued dreams that have taken her far from her birthplace in Ethiopia.

But the memories of her days in Ethiopia are now haunted by the fear she may never see her 43-year-old brother Berhanu again.

Berhanu fled Ethiopia in the political upheaval of the 1970s. He settled and was schooled in the United States, earning his Ph.D. in economics. Yalem came to the United States in 1994, the same year Berhanu returned to Ethiopia with his wife Nardos Minasse.

He took a a job at Addis Ababa University as a professor. Minasse, 38, worked as an optometrist.

Their new life in Ethiopia worked for a while, but for Minasse, the obstacles and security concerns became too much so she returned to the United States with their two children.

Finding Out what Happened

Today, Berhanu Nega sits in an Ethiopian jail charged with inciting a riot and forming a secret, anti-government party last month.

Yalem acknowledges her brother was once a student activist but believes he is innocent of the charges.

"About three weeks ago my brother came to Maryland for a relative's funeral and to see his wife and children for three days. At that time, the government declared that my brother and Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam were responsible for instigating the April Addis Ababa university student protest," Yalem told ABCNEWS.com.

"My mother called to beg my brother not to return back home. My brother replied that he had done nothing wrong and insisted on going back to Ethiopia. A week after his return they informed us that he had been arrested."

The family learned that Nega and Wolde-Mariam, a Senior Fulbright Scholar, were picked up by police on what had begun like any other day: Wolde-Mariam, who is in his 70s, was at a café near his home; Nega was working at his office in Addis Ababa.

The pair were charged in relation to student riots in April which left 30 dead.

Both men lectured at Addis Ababa University, and had 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 protesting their arrests with a hunger strike.

Berhanu was teaching pro-bono at the economics department. From 1996-2000 he served as president of the Ethiopian Economic Association. And then, he founded the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute and was also serving as consultant for the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa.

After their arrests, the men were brought before court, denied bail, and jailed until May 18.

On May 18 and again on May 25, the men were denied bail.

Makonnen Bishaw, of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council said he was concerned the men were not getting a fair deal.

Sticking Your Neck Out

Their detention comes in the wake of two journalists being released last week after being jailed since 1997 for "fabricating false news."

Yalem says her brother was just 17 when a military crackdown forced him to flee Ethiopia, first to Sudan and then the United States to escape arrest: "During his freshman year at Addis Ababa University, he and two of my sisters participated in a student movement openly advocating for democracy and human rights."

She says, her brother after being granted asylum in the United States, earned his BA in economics at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. Then he got his economics Masters at SUNY Binghamton; followed by a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Ph.D. in hand, he decided to teach economics at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

Yalem said that while in the States, Berhanu helped put together a yearly conference called the "Horn of Africa," to talk about development in East Africa. He also founded a magazine discussing Ethiopian current events.

"A wonderful person, a wonderful colleague," says Bucknell professor of Economics Jean Shackelford, she remembers the "legendary book drive" Berhanu organized to send books to Addis Ababa University students.

Besides "the wonderful thank you's" sent back from the Ethiopian university students, Shackelford recalled Berhanu as a "considerate, open-minded and bright" teacher.

"Our faculty are particularly concerned," says Bucknell English department chair, John Rickard.

"It was inconceivable that Berhanu was fomenting a riot," adds Dean Baker Ph.D., now co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He says that when he worked on the search committee that hired Berhanu at Bucknell, and in the years that they taught together and became friends, "it wasn't the way he thought."

"He was delighted about the change of power [in Ethiopia]" and was "committed to democracy," Baker said.

"He understood, there's been a lot of violence, he understood the risks, he went back with hopes that there was a qualitative difference," Baker said.

Bloodties

Sadly, this isn't the first time Yalem's the family has feared and faced the worst:

"My parents lost a daughter who was an advocate of democracy and human rights. At age 19, she was murdered by the previous military regime in Ethiopia," says Yalem, "I don't think my mother will be able to cope with the loss of another child."

But thanks to the Internet, family and friends are supporting each other. And they're doing it over two continents.

Her four brothers are helping back home in Ethiopia, and her five sisters are pushing the issue in the United States.

Jose Diaz, U.N. spokesman for Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, speaking from Geneva, says complaints filed on behalf of the two men are now part of a "Confidential Complaints Procedure" for which he "cannot divulge any more details" while the cases are under consideration.

The European Parliament passed a resolution calling for — among other things — "…the immediate release of the arrested politicians and activists from the human rights organisations [sic], particularly Mesfin Woldmariam [sic], Dr Berhanu Nega."

In the end, Yalem says, "I want him to know that I love him very much. His whole family loves him. I also want him 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 from prison."