Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, sir.

Foreign Affairs committee  Maybe my friend can help me. Thank you for articulating some of the history. There is a lot of good history in the country and with the people, just as there is in any other country, very honestly. There are very good things, so we have to acknowledge that. At the same time, con

Foreign Affairs committee  Very honestly, I don't want to mislead this committee in any way. I'm not very versed with that, but I would say there's a lot of going back and forth. I have read some articles about Wahabism and things like that, the possible spread of Islam in that part of the world and fundam

Foreign Affairs committee  Those are Somalians.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, there is a risk. Am I putting myself at risk? Yes, I am. Yet I know someone has to take risks to secure freedom. That has to be done. I promised myself when I came to this country 23 years ago that I would continue to do that regardless of the consequences. I came to Canada

Foreign Affairs committee  No, it's not the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, which is independent; it's almost getting paralyzed. There is another group called the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission that's working under the government.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. There is also the ombudsman's office, which is also getting all kinds of things. I understand Meles has said he will carry these reforms through the ombudsman's office and things like that. Very honestly, that's another joke. Ethiopian civil servants are being politicized

Foreign Affairs committee  That was in 2005. The current number of political prisoners is in the thousands--thousands.

Foreign Affairs committee  I heard the statements also in Geneva a couple of months ago. There was mention of the repressive law and a demand for its repeal. I guess you know the aid issue is a very difficult situation. I'm not saying it should be completely pulled out. I know Ethiopia needs a lot, but i

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I really have to say, we've enjoyed bipartisan support around the Parliament of Canada. In 2005, when we had the massive killing of demonstrators and the continued unrest, the foreign affairs critic then, Mr. Stockwell Day, issued about five or six statements. In one

Foreign Affairs committee  No. Religious extremism is a completely different thing, in my opinion. The government tries to use extremism to suppress rights. For example, in Ogaden, most of the people are Somalis and Muslims. The government talks about terrorism and all kinds of things in connection with So

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. You can just pronounce my name as is. It's phonetic, so you just pronounce it as it is written. If you say Aklilu, that should be good enough. In terms of the Human Rights Watch report, that's one of the reports I quoted earlier. Georgette Gagnon, a Canadi

Foreign Affairs committee  That's right, Mr. Rae. I think it's a big concern how China is really emerging throughout Africa. The development in terms of the relationship between Meles and China is worrisome, to say the least, because a repression would intensify.... It's worrisome because China will start

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I think it's a very interesting situation that's developing in Ethiopia. Ethiopia suffered huge repression under Mengistu Haile Mariam, the previous military ruler. At that point, of course, Mengistu and his government proclaimed that they were socialists an