Speculations about Meles Zenawis health have exposed the instability of the brutal Ethiopian regime. It will not be far fetched to expect their tradition of power struggle when a leader is displaced to consume and emasculate the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). Assisted by its external supporters, the TPLF may reorganize its capacities and survive for a little while. Be that as it may, Oromo freedom fighters and the entire Oromo nation must push the struggle forward with a renewed vigor and determination. The urgency the situation poses calls for the mobilization of our forces, and requires the consolidation of our resources in a common front.
Therefore, we call for unity of all individuals and organizations that have their objective as the liberation of Oromia within the shortest possible time. We reaffirm our total commitment in working to reunite the OLF around the national objective of liberation of Oromia.
We urge the Oromo diaspora to rally behind the OLF and provide sustained support to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), to allow it carry out its core duty of liberating and defending the Oromo national territory as well as protecting Oromo institutions, Oromo property and human lives. We request the Oromo communities around the world to set up a special fund for the restoration and strengthening of the Oromo national struggle for the liberation of Oromia immediately.
We reaffirm that the objective of liberation of Oromia, the secularity of the OLF and religious freedom in its political program are non-negotiable. We call on all social and political stakeholders in Oromia, including true Oromo nationals working with the Ethiopian regime, to reject divisive enemy propaganda, to work together to protect the social cohesion of Oromo communities and preserve national unity. We reassure that the protections of human rights for all that live in Oromia irrespective of ethnicity, faith and race is our inherited tradition.
We are aware that anti-liberation forces, and their Oromo collaborators, whose undying dream is to bring back the old system, are working tirelessly to divide our people along regional and religious lines to occupy power in Finfinnee. We call upon Oromos everywhere to join hands, form a common front, and vigilantly protect the unity of our people.
Those who are engaged in working against national unity and the reversal of historical gains of the struggle should also immediately halt their deceptive activities.
We call for the unity of the liberation forces behind a single red line, against which we should unite ourselves under fire. It is obvious that from the opposite side we are dealing with powerful local and foreign forces, which we must oppose by the unity and cooperation of our liberation forces, who express the aspirations of our people for secured and blessed life in liberated Oromia, and inspire and motivate them to strengthen their multi-dimensional resistance against the forces of occupation. Given a united, informed, determined and organized people victory will be ours.
July 31, 2012 (Oromo Press) – Reading news about Western media reports of the ethnic clashes in Moyale, a border area between southern Oromia-Ethiopia and Kenya, one cannot avoid noticing the conspicuous wrong framing of the “Ethiopian National Defense Forces” as ‘containers and peacemakers.’ These kinds of narrative projections of a strong Ethiopia plays and replays the age-old predominant, but flawed Western views of the Ethiopian state and ruling elites as dependable champions of stability, counter-terrorism and so forth in Ethiopia and the Horn.
Media outlets such as the BBC, CBS, and the VOA have rushed to giving all sorts of dangerous credits to the ENDF as a stabilizing force. This is problematic not only for ignoring the composition of the ENDF, as a military force dominated by ethnic Tigire officers and commanders, but also because it makes it difficult for groups suffering massive human rights violations under the current ethno-apartheid regime such as the Oromo and Ogaden to tell their stories. It makes it an uphill battle for us to prove our just causes for freedom, self-rule, democracy and all other basic human needs. Our Ethiopianist friends opposed to the regime will be happy to see such international headlines on ethnic clashes since they affirm their “one-Ethiopia” narrative that the current ethnic federalism is not working. Yes, federalism is not working currently. But, the reason clashes happen is not inherently because of ethnic federalism, but because the regime follows an outdated colonial policy of divide and conquer in Ethiopia–this has nothing to do with federalism or the sacred article 39 and why they are not working.
What is shocking in this coverage is how the reports are hardly victim-centered. The reports portray the Ethiopian forces as “containers” and “stabilizers”, while most people in the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia know that this is not true at all. In fact, many of the Horn and the Oromian-Ethiopian populations groups know that Ethiopia is behind every major wars (or inter-state) or ethnic clashes such as the one that just caused the deaths of tens of peoples and the displacement of 30,000 members of the affected communities. The framing of the ENDF as “the stabilizing force” hides the fact that the very same force is a force of instability engineered to uphold the mono-ethnic apartheid system in Ethiopia.
Have you ever seen reports in major international news media about the massive human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that have been committed by these forces over the last twenty-one years in major Western media such as CBS, BBC, the VOA, where the West has sided with the peoples/civilians who suffer the most? The story of the civilians who suffer the most are reduced to nothing more than numbers here. In contrast, the ENDF forces are qualified and elaborately described to the levels of saintly ”containers” of the so-called ethnic clashes! Oops!
The reality is that the regime wants instability at any cost in order to thrive by depicting itself or by getting depicted by the West as a “peacekeeper” nationally and regionally. Instability and terrorism will never go way from the Horn unless the current authoritarian regime is dismantled or unless serious changes are bought about by any means possible. How can a authoritarian-terrorist regime stamp out terrorism where it does not exist? Isn’t terrorism the regime’s main money-legitimacy maker even in places like Somalia?
By Katy Migiro
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies workers and displaced people at the Kenya’s border with Ethiopia.
NAIROBI, July 30 (Reuters) – At least 18 people have been killed in fierce fighting between two communities over land in southern Ethiopia and 20,000 refugees have fled to Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Monday.
Fighting broke out last Thursday because of a dispute over the Ethiopian government’s decision to settle the Garri community on land which the Borana claim to own, KRCS said in a statement on its website.
Thousands of refugees, segregated by ethnicity, are camped out in schools and a mosque around the Kenyan town of Moyale. Others are being given refuge by local Kenyan residents.
“Most of the families are in the open cold with their children for lack of shelter,” KRCS said.
“The humanitarian situation is dire bearing in mind that the effects of the HOA drought on the populations in the conflict areas are also still being felt,” it said.
The Garri and Borana communities straddle the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders.
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies workers and displaced people at the Kenya’s border with Ethiopia.
Life in arid northern Kenya is precarious, with millions still reliant upon food aid following a severe drought in 2011. Heavily armed pastoralist communities regularly clash over land, water and cattle in the remote borderlands.
Some refugees started to return to Ethiopia on Monday after Ethiopia’s federal government intervened in the clash-hit areas, Abbas Gullet, the secretary general of KRCS, told AlertNet.
“The federal security forces are taking control of the security situation from regional security officials and they are looking for an amicable solution to the disputes,” Gullet said.
At least 12 people have been injured, but they are reluctant to seek medical help at facilities thought to belong to rival communities, KRCS said.
“The reported injuries include gun wounds, fractures, bleeding, and internal bleeding,” it said.
The KRCS Moyale Branch response team is waiting for more casualties to reach the Kenyan border from the Ethiopian interior where the fighting is taking place, KRCS said.
We ask you as Ethiopians and Americans please stop supporting tyranny in Ethiopia and corruption in America by Ethiopians.
July 29, 2012 (Brown Condor) – September 11th did not occur on September 11th 2001. Rather, the day of monumental mourning and the death of thousands of Americans was decades in the making. September 11th occurred the moment America decided to coddle a supposed “freedom fighter” by the name of Osama bin Laden and armed him to the teeth with weapons and knowledge. September 11th was a blowback, a result of unexpected yet foreseen set of events that led ultimately to the Twin Towers being reduced to rubble and the Pentagon morphed into a hollowed out testament to US foreign policy. I am not a conspiracy theorist; I put all blame for September 11th on Osama bin Laden and his band of blood thirsty terrorists. However, it would be ludicrous if we as Americans do not realize that the Clinton and Bush administration—and prior administrations —do not bear the responsibility for creating a monster who would eventually murder over 3,500 innocent Americans.
It is with this reminder that I am about to take you on a journey of another blood thirsty terrorist that the current administration is coddling by the name of Meles Zenawi—the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi is no different than most African dictators, he is a ruthless tyrant who has butchered and terrorized his way to power and consolidates his grip on power by endlessly silencing dissidence. He has shuttered free speech by killing hundreds of college students in the run up of the Ethiopian elections in 2005. He has silenced the press by jailing and murdering journalists like Eskinder Nega. Meles Zenawi is the African Osama bin Laden, yet here we are again replaying September 11th as the Obama administration coddles this ruthless dictator by welcoming him as a role model for Africa and inviting him to Camp David asAmerica’s guest of honor.
The fact that Obama treats a war criminal and a man, who is at this exact moment enacting ethnic cleaning in Gonder Ethiopia, like a welcome hero is sad enough on its own; add on top of this insult that Barack Obama is a son of a Kenyan and this story morph from tragedy to an all-out heartbreak. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians registered for the first time in 2008 and voted for Barack Obama thinking that Obama would reset the Bush policy of embracing tyrants in Africa and set a course of liberating Africa. The result has been downright depressing; instead of liberating Africa from tyranny and oppression, Obama has hugged Meles Zenawi even closer and showered him with weapons and cash. This is not what Ethiopian-Americans expected, this should not be what Americans as a whole should expect.
Abetted by a feckless media in America, lawmakers in the pocket of dictators in Africa, and high priced law firms like DLA Piper—where former Congressmen and Senators like Dick Gephardt and Dick Armey are employed—Meles Zenawi is pillaging Ethiopia to the hilt with the help of billionaire Al Amoudi as he doles out millions of dollars in America to influence US foreign policy and purchase law makers and media outlets as though he was purchasing Ethiopian coffee at Starbucks. This is America, we are a land of the free and the home of the brave; we are have a long and proud history of backing the small guy and standing against tyranny wherever it exists. America is the shining city on the hill that has for decades thwarted dictators and spoke on behalf of oppressed people throughout the world.
This is why Ethiopians and countless millions of Africans, Europeans, Asians and Latin-Americans immigrate to the United States. We come here in hopes of a life unencumbered by repression and rank corruption. We expect better from America, we expect more from President Obama—we demand a foreign policy that is just and a politics that is able to speak out against torture, rape, abuse, and ethnic cleaning. Instead, what we are getting is a US government apparatus that is enabling tyrants in Africa and giving leeway to ethnic cleaning and mass killings while turning a blind eye to children dying of hopelessness and malnutrition on a minute by minute basis.
I guess we should be thankful that America spends billions a year in AID money in Ethiopia and other impoverished countries throughout the world. But we as Ethiopians do not want a hand out, we want a hand up. We don’t want a beggar Ethiopia, we want a better Ethiopia. Besides, most of the money that the United States and the Obama administration spends goes directly into the Ethiopian military and into the pockets of fat cats like Al Amoudi and Addis Alemayehu while children are left drinking from sewer systems that drip out of the mansions and posh hotels of these very same fat cats. Ethiopia does not want AID money; we simply want you to stop investing in tyrants and instead invest the money in giving us tools we can use to farm our lands. We don’t need another AK47 that will only entrench Meles Zenawi for another decade, give us tractors and plows and Ethiopia herself can feed the entire continent.
Of course, Ethiopians saying this will be ignored by the mass-media, lawmakers, policy experts and President Barack Obama. We are nobodies in the eyes of the elite in America, we are given token letters and the occasional photo op because we are not as powerful as Jewish-Americans, Gay Americans, or Latino Americans. Thus I ask the various powerful constituencies in America to please join our cause, you know how it feels to be oppressed and subjugated. Jewish-Americans know the sting of being tormented by a Pharaoh—meet our Pharaoh by the name of Meles Zenawi. Gay-Americans know full well how it feels to be subjugated by bigots who would deny you the right to exist—meet our bigots by the name of Woyanes (TPLF) who have implemented a systematic program to make all but one ethnic group in Ethiopia permanent third-class citizens as they market Apartheid by another name called “Federalism”. Latin-Americans know full well how it feels to have the home of your forefathers become an exclusive club for non-Hispanics only and being told to show your papers on a daily basis—meet our version of “papers please” as the TPLF government literally asks children for their ethnicity before giving them jobs.
But it is not enough for us to plead to do the right thing; the media and the policy elite in America only pays attention when a non-minority is damaged the same way hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have been damaged and driven to depression. It is with that fact in mind that I am going to introduce you to a Jewish-American—a blue blood New Yorker—who has been victimized and abused to such a cruel extend that he too was driven to depression at the hands of Meles Zenawi, Lily Bertu, Addis Alemayehu, and ultimately USAID. This man is an avowed philanthropist and a humanitarian who has given to the less fortunate for half his life because he too knows how it felt to be hopeless. He gives as he is given; he has invested his personal fortune so that children in China and Ethiopia have a hope for a better life. He is a man who believes in the best of people, he has a pure heart and a successful businessman—he has the rare ability to mix enterprise with altruism. His life story leading up to Ethiopia is awe-inspiring; his life after vising Ethiopia is depressing and the essence of melancholy.
In the 21st century, any third-world country is but a microwave button away from being transformed into an oasis of prosperity. That is unless that third-world country happens to reside in Africa; only in this content will one find permanent poverty and endless cycles of violence. Some of the blame can be put squarely on African tyrants like Meles Zenawi who would rather suffocate Ethiopia with tribal warfare instead of investing in his people. In Ethiopia, more than 14% of the GDP is wasted on purchasing arms and “national defense” while less than 4% is invested in healthcare sector (in America, health care accounts for over 30% of the US GDP). As hundreds of thousands of people are dying from lack of potable water and food, Meles Zenawi kills thousands more with the very same arms he purchases from America to start wars with neighboring countries. But I don’t blame Meles as much as I blame countries like America, Great Britain, and France for ignoring this calamity while giving billions of dollars in “AID money” as that same money is laundered to purchase mansions with gold faucets and private airplanes. Do you know some of the food that is dropped from UN helicopters meant to feed starving children in Ethiopia is at this exact moment behind gated mansion and is feeding fat cats in Addis Ababa instead? You don’t have to take my word, take it from Victor, the very man who resided in Ethiopia for years as he tried in vain to transform Ethiopia from an impoverished country to a thriving nation.
With that I transition to Victor. After Victor made his millions in China, he became passionate about repeating the same outcome for other third-world countries. Upon his completion of his “China phase”, he fixed his aims on Ethiopia. He traveled to Ethiopia and adopted a girl who had less than one year to live. He brought her back to America, took a dying girl and restored her to health. From that moment on, he fell in love with Ethiopia. Victor witnessed all the misery and hopelessness in Ethiopia—especially in Addis Ababa—and trained his passion into making a difference any way that he could. He reached out to his network of entrepreneurs and convinced them to invest in Ethiopia so that Ethiopia could develop the same way that China did only a few decades prior. He disregarded the counsel of his friends and advisers and made plans to move to Ethiopia.
It was at this juncture that fate intersected with the cruel realities of Ethiopia. You see, in Ethiopia, kindhearted souls attract the bottom feeders and jackals. Shortly thereafter, a man by the name of Addis Alemayehu reached out to Victor under the auspices of USAID and convinced him to “invest” in Ethiopia and open up a “borsa (handbag) factory”. Inspired to make a difference and believing in the kindness of Addis Alemayehu, Victor moved to Ethiopia to open up the factory. Shortly thereafter, Victor partnered up with a lady by the name of Lily Bertu and they opened up a handbag factory. Things were going smoothly for a year or so, Victor trained more than 20 kids on how to be mechanics and paid good wages to lift them out of hopelessness. Victor was promptly the man of the hour, he met Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb and he had access to Menelik Palace as through he was a head of state. Lily Bertu is a powerful mover and shaker in Ethiopia; she introduced him to heads of agencies and provided him the credibility to move about Ethiopia freely in order to open up factories and convince other companies like Guess to invest $1.3 million dollars of seed money. In Ethiopia, nothing is accomplished without a government handler, Lily Bertu was his handler and with Lily by his side Victor was accomplishing exactly what he envisioned.
Alas, that $1.3 million in seed money became too much of a target. Once Victor started to make progress on his endeavors and he attracted the money to follow, people like Lily and her cabal soon set out to defraud him and his non-profit. You can hear the Brown Condor Radio interview I conducted with Victor this morning to hear the full story by clicking on the Youtube link below, but in short order Lily set Victor up and landed him in jail under the false pretense of “child endangerment”. Without a trial or habeas corpus, Victor was imprisoned against his will and soon found himself isolated in a third-world country. His own United States government did not lift a finger to help Victor, he had to feign a heart-attack in order to flee back to America. A man who traveled to Ethiopia to help street children had his image tarnished and his reputation besmirched. Moreover, Victor lost a fortune as he was banned from traveling back to Ethiopia. Lily Bertu made off like a bandit—enabled by her son Mickey—and is currently living in a posh mansion in Ethiopia while children that Victor could have helped are dying one by one on the streets of Addis.
Victor was dejected and soon enough entered into a state of depression. This is a rite of passage of Ethiopians, most Ethiopians suffer depression after being repressed and pillaged for over two decades even if most deny the very existence of depression. Victor was helpless to right a wrong, he reached out to the US Embassy to recount his horrors and was told promptly that USAID does this all the time—that USAID enables Ethiopians to pillage Americans—and that there was nothing that could be done for him. He reached out to Addis Alemayehu for some type of relief since Addis was the man who partnered him up with Lily only to see Addis disavow him and slither away into the darkness. This is the way of Addis Alemaeyhu, there is a cabal of Ethiopians who profit at the expense of dying children in Ethiopia by luring hopeful investors only to leave them hopeless and depressed. Victor though was not left without his hope, he was able to secure two Ethiopian children he adopted and took them back to America. He lost his hope in Ethiopia, but he still has his love of Ethiopians each time he sees his two adopted Ethiopian children that he takes care of.
This is the game; this is how Ethiopia is savaged and bled dry. People like Meles Zenawi, his wife Azeb Mesfin, Lily Bertu, Addis Alemayehu, and Manny Amera enabled by USAID and aided and abated by their US handlers are killing hope in Ethiopia and seeping the blood of Ethiopian children as they go around America espousing investment in Ethiopia. All of these people named above are wealthy beyond recognition—some are millionaires—as they pillage and ransack Ethiopia one block at a time. This week alone, Addis Alemayehu, Henok Assefa, and Yohannes Assefa are having an “Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum” right in Washington DC at George Washington University to pluck new victims and identify the next American to brainwash into seeing hope for Ethiopia only to find themselves locked up in prison a year later and swindled out of their hard earned money.
Barack Obama and US policy makers espouse “development” in Ethiopia as a sign of progress. But that is all a chimera, development does not mean progress. The only people that are developing in Ethiopia are a tiny sliver of the society—most from only one tribe—while the rest suffer in despair and dejection. Development is not felt equally nor is prosperity enjoyed by all, what we have in Ethiopia is a sectarian enrichment plan. It is said often that the first person to use a Hitler analogy is the first person to lose, but in this case, what Meles is creating in Ethiopia is akin to a Nazi super race—an African version of Aryans—and leaving the rest of the population to fend for themselves as they hear their children crying from empty bellies and even emptier hope.
Meles Zenawi, please get to know him well, he is the man that Barack Obama embraces as the visionary leader of Ethiopia. And I say this without any axe to grind against our President Barack Obama, I was myself an Obama supporter in 2008, I traveled to over 14 states on his behalf, and was invited to Chicago in 2008 for an “organizer” convention because of the hard work that I did in 2008 on his behalf. However, I am an Obama supporter but I am not an Obama loyalist. I will not stay silent as Obama supports a dictator in Ethiopia that is destroying hope and thwarting investment in Ethiopia as his henchmen lock up investors and make off with their money in the dark of the night assisted by USAID and US policy makers.
So this weekend, when you see the “Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum” at George Washington University, realize what is taking place is a Ponzi scheme that even Bernie Madoff would be ashamed of. Right in the heart of our capital, a useless media ignores it, bought out politicians clap for it, and duplicitous policy makers laud it. This is not a business forum, this is a swindlers’ conclave and it is a shame that an everyday citizen like me is the one to shine the light on the nefarious intentions of Addis Alemayehu, Henok Assefa, Manny Amera, Yohannes Assefa and the rest of the bandits as USAID gives them more seed money so they can steal the seeds of hope for Ethiopia. Most likely, this article will draw a law suit from DLA Piper—Meles Zenawi’s lobbyist in DC—which I welcome with opens arms and an even more open heart. Moreover, if anything happens to me in the next couple of days—if you stop hearing from me on Facebook and twitter—I want you to understand that my health and well-being, or lack thereof,is tied directly to the people I exposed in this article.
It is my hope that US law makers, policy analysts, media outlets, and most especially President Barack Obama pays attention to this injustice and promptly cleans house to restore hope to Ethiopia and give assurance to Americans that our tax money is not being used to enrich Ethiopians in DC and back in Ethiopia as folks like Addis Alemayehou go around peddling change while destroying hope. It is my hope that the United States reverses years of coddling dictators in Africa and promptly ties AID money to Ethiopia based on investment in the people. I hope American tax payers notice the waste, fraud and abuse as Meles Zenawi and his cohorts travel the world in expensive private jets while the rest of Ethiopia languishes in despair. Most important, it is my hope that Americans of conscience who care deeply about the plight of improvised children in Ethiopia specifically and Africa as a whole—people like Victor Ozeri—pressure lawmakers and President Obama to do the right thing by Ethiopia and the rest of Africa and plead with them to stop sponsoring state terrorists like Meles Zenawi as guests of honor in America.
September 11th should have taught us all a lesson. We are not disconnected from the ways of the world. The actions, or inaction, of the United States will emanate from America and arrive back in America in the time it took me to write this article. Refugees flow to America by the thousands from Ethiopia because they are denied relief in Ethiopia. All Ethiopians love being in America, however, if opportunity was available in Ethiopia without regard to tribe, a large swath would gladly return to Ethiopia to start life again—especially the Ethiopians who are struggling to make ends meet in America. This outcome would be a net-net win for America and Ethiopia; Ethiopians would prosper in their homeland instead of struggling in America as some Ethiopians who might be otherwise taxing the United States social safety net would go back to Ethiopia and start a new life back home. Moreover, besides saving American tax dollars, you would help to restore hope and life in a country that is dying on a minute by minute basis.
We need your help America, we do not need a hand out, and we just need a hand up. None of us want a beggar Ethiopia; we all want a better Ethiopia. This hope—our collective aspirations—cannot be fulfilled as long as tyrants like Meles Zenawi are showered with AID money and welcomed in America as enlightened Africans. Ethiopia will never change as long as events like “Ethiopians Diaspora Business Forum” are allowed to operate at George Washing University this weekend. It is high time to stop the pillaging of Ethiopia by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, billionaire Al Amoudi, scoundrels like Addis Alemayehu and his cohorts at the “Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum” and handlers like Lily Bertu. Moreover, we need you—decent Americans—to put pressure on USAID and other government entities to stop blessing nefarious individuals while they suck the hope right out of Ethiopia and her children.
I ask you, the Ethiopian people ask you, more importantly, helpless Ethiopian children beg you—please don’t let another child die in the name of naked greed and wonton pursuit of self-enrichment. Please stop using American tax dollars to enrich Ethiopian fat cats in Ethiopia and in America, please pay attention to the plight of Victor Ozeri, and most importantly, heed your mind and your heart as children drop like flies while some Ethiopians eat from their graves. We ask you as Ethiopians and Americans please stop supporting tyranny in Ethiopia and corruption in America by Ethiopians. We ask you to live up to the spirit of America—we ask you simply to be that shining city on a hill.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s government says that federal security forces have stopped a clash between two tribes in the country’s south after fighting killed nearly two dozen people.
Mesfin Assefa, an official in the Oromia region, said Sunday that federal and local forces restored order and that fighting has stopped. Fighting between the Borana and Garri tribes has broken out over the last week.
Local authorities say about two dozen people were killed, including two police, after fighting started Wednesday. More people were injured when thousands fled to Kenya. Armed men also set ablaze a number of houses.
Tribal clashes over land disputes are common in the region.
(OLF, ONLF, SLF and some candidates of AFD)
July 26, 2012 (oromoliberationfront.org) – The aforementioned peoples’ alliances of Ogaden Somalis, Oromo, Sidama and the new candidates of AFD:
After deliberating on the current situation in Ethiopia and carefully observing the level of struggle against the current regime and the apparent confusion created by the sudden disappearance of Meles Zenawi, the “strong man” ruling Ethiopia for the past twenty one years;
Being apprehensive of the current regimes attempts to delude the peoples in Ethiopia regarding Zenawi’s fate and their attempt to maintain the status quo in order to continue their ruthless suppression of all peoples in Ethiopia;
After considering, the current disarray and lack of political will of some opposition groups to embrace the political and social changes that Ethiopia has undergone in the last forty years and their archaic adherence to political precepts that are no longer tenable in the 21 century such as negating the rights of nations in Ethiopia to self-determination;
–Read Full Statement in English
–Read Full Statement in Afaan Oromo
–Read Full Statement in Amharic
President John Atta Mills (left) was seating next to Meles Zenawi last May in Washington DC when Dictator Zenawi was humiliated by Ethiopian journalist. Mills’ death made public within an hour, while the death of a ‘popular’ PM elected by ’99.6%’ is unknown for over a month.
Jul 24, 2012 2, ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s President John Atta Mills, who won international praise as leader of a stable model democracy in Africa, died suddenly on Tuesday and will be succeeded by his vice-president in the West African oil, gold and cocoa producer, officials said.
Mills was 68. The unexpected death of the leader of the world’s No. 2 cocoa grower comes months before he was due to stand for re-election in December.
Ghana, also a major African gold producer, started pumping oil in 2010 and posted double-digit growth in 2011, burnishing its image as an increasingly attractive investment destination on the continent. It was praised for its healthy democracy.
“It is with a heavy heart … that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana,” a statement sent to Reuters by the president’s office said.
Vice President John Dramani Mahama would be sworn in to replace Mills under Ghana’s constitution, officials said.
The president’s office said that Mills, who celebrated his 68th birthday on Saturday, died a few hours after being taken ill, but no further details were given.
A presidential aide, who asked not to be named, said the president had complained of pains on Monday evening and died early on Tuesday afternoon when his condition worsened.
Mills had returned from medical checks in the United States a few weeks ago.
Ghana’s election commission said December’s presidential and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned.
“The election calendar remains unchanged – it’s purely a party matter,” election chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told Reuters, explaining that it was up to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to find a candidate to replace Mills.
PRAISE FROM OBAMA
Trained as a lawyer and taxation expert, Mills had overseen Ghana’s emergence as one of Africa’s newest oil producers two years ago, winning plaudits both at home and abroad for his sound economic policies and commitment to democracy and good governance.
In March, U.S. President Barack Obama received the Ghanaian president in the Oval Office and praised him and his country as “a good-news story” in Africa.
Previous rumors about Mills’s possible ill health had swirled in the last few weeks and he traveled last month to the United States for medical treatment.
On that occasion, he had joked with reporters on his departure from the capital Accra about rumors of his death, asking them: “Are you seeing a person who has died?”
Mills, who won a close-fought, two-round election in 2008 by beating off rival Nana Akufo-Addo of the then-ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), was preparing to bid for a second term in polls set for December, once again against arch-foe Akufo-Addo.
Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party have had to manage high expectations among ordinary Ghanaians awaiting benefits from the country’s oil production.
But he had always made a point of stressing the need for political stability in an often turbulent region – coups in Mali and Guinea-Bissau this year have blotted the continent’s advances in democracy and governance.
“We are going to ensure that there is peace before, during, after the (December) election, because when there is no peace, it’s not the elitists who will suffer, it’s the ordinary people who have elected us into office,” Mills told Obama in March.
Neighbor Ivory Coast has not been so peaceful, suffering months of violence last year after a disputed election. Near-neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered years of war.
Ghana has seen democratic elections decide its leadership no fewer than four times since the last military coup in 1981, a rare feat in a region where power is still just as often determined by the bullet as by the ballot.
Mills had served as vice-president to President Jerry Rawlings, a fiery former coup leader, who stood down in 2000 after two elected terms under the democratic constitution Rawlings himself had introduced.
Mills’s 2008 victory was his third attempt at the presidency. He had lost twice to John Kufuor in elections in 2000 and 2004.
July 22 (ayyaantuu) – According to the insider’s information reached Ayyaantuu, Getachew Assefa, Head of Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service, leaked to Amare Aregawi, the Ethiopian Reporter’s Editor, the death of Meles Zenawi. But warned him that they will firstly prepare psychologically TPLF members before the announcement. Some group have already taken the video of the dead body of Meles from Brussels and will air it soon-most probably by the next week.
The regime’s supporter website Ezega started preparing members of the TPLF almost two weeks ago. One of the articles posted on July 22, 2012, Ethiopians Concerned with Absence of PM Meles Zenawi, says: “If the PM fails to attend the opening of the summit of AU, we thought it was an indication that there was something seriously wrong with his health condition”.
Bereket is running up and down to have more momentum to bring Sheikh Mohammed Alamouldi into Ethiopian Politics.
Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from Adwa, Ethiopia, and a mother from Adi Quala, Eritrea. He graduated from the General Wingate high school in Addis Ababa, then studied medicine at Addis Ababa University (at the time known as Haile Selassie University) for two years before interrupting his studies in 1975 to join the TPLF. While a member of the TPLF, he founded the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray. His first name at birth was “Legesse” (thus Legesse Zenawi) but he is better known by his nom de guerre Meles. He later changed his first name to “Meles” in honor of a University student and a revolutionary radical who was executed by the previous government in 1975.
Reposted articles:
The Zenawi Paradox: An Ethiopian Leader’s Good and Terrible Legacy
Shrewd, brutal, and a master at soliciting and spending aid money, Prime Minister Zenawi’s 20 years of rule could be nearing its end.
Haile Mariam Desalegn, Vice Prime Minister, is worried for his life at his chief’s absence, let alone to be a PM.
July 20, 2012 (The Atlantic) – Following the news of the past few years, you might get the impression that flamboyance and bellicosity are signature traits of any long-tenured dictator. But for every Muammar Qaddafi there’s a Meles Zenawi, the shrewd, technocratic Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Inside of the country, he’s known for imprisoning his political opponents, withholding development assistance from restive areas, stealing elections, and cracking down on civil society NGOs. In the rest of the world, he’s often praised for his impressive economic record, though not for his human rights. Zenawi has attracted Western support by being a responsible steward of aid money, a security partner in a rough region, and a G20 summit invitee.
Now, both his supporters and his detractors may have to contemplate a future without him. Zenawi is in a Brussels hospital with an unspecified stomach ailment that may or may not be fatal, depending upon what news reports you believe. Today, a government spokesperson announced that Zenawi would be taking a leave of absence from running the country, which he’s led since 1991.
From a human rights perspective, Zenawi’s rule has been abusive, heavy-handed, and self-interested.. Still, his apparently earnest dedication to sustainable development has long attracted international donors, whose money has benefited Ethiopia while propping up his regime. Zenawi, has fostered a friendlier environment for foreign investment. Between 2000 and 2010, Ethiopia’s GDP enjoyed a staggering average annual growth rate of 8.8 percent — China-like numbers. The country’s public sector is hardly clean of corruption, but the Ethiopian state isn’t as mismanaged or as predatory as others in the region. It ranks 120th out of 183 governments on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions index, not exactly Scandinavian but still ahead of such regional leaders as Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.
Under his leadership, Ethiopians have suffered from a lack of human, civil, and political rights. At the same time, their country has earned a reputation as a place where aid money can be responsibly and effectively spent. “The U.S. assistance portfolio in Ethiopia remains one of the United States’ largest and most complex in Africa” according to an online U.S. government profile of the roughly $2.1 billion in aid the U.S. has sent to Ethiopia since 2010. The World Bank helps fund over $ 4.4 billion worth of projects in the country.
This is the paradox of Zenawi’s legacy. He has done much to simultaneously help and hurt his people, with just the kind of quiet skill that you hope to see in a benign leader and dread in a malevolent one. If he never returns to office, should he be remembered as the technocrat behind Ethiopia’s amazing economic rise, or the brutal strongman who resisted democracy as much of Africa adopted it? Though one did not necessarily require the other — a kinder, gentler Zenawi might have overseen even better growth — the same character might inform both sides of his rule.
“When I meet with Prime Minister Meles and [Ugandan] President [Yoweri] Museveni, I feel like I am attending development seminar,” rockstar development economist Jeffrey Sachssaid in a 2004 speech. “They are ingenious, deeply knowledgeable, and bold.” Magnus Taylor, the managing editor of the Royal African Society’s renowned African Arguments blog, wrote about Zenawi’s ability to dazzle foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa this past May, while challenging the democratic world’s seemingly dogmatic belief in the causal relationship between political freedom and economic dynamism:
Sitting astride this economic growth, and taking pride of place at this year’s WEF, was Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. In an event that boasted such political heavyweights as former British PM Gordon Brown, and private sector luminaries like the Ivorian boss of The Prudential, Tidjane Thiam, whose $600 billion worth of assets makes Ethiopia look like a minnow, I was surprised by how much Meles came out as the dominant figure. A fiercely intelligent man, with a grasp of figures redolent of Brown (whom Meles referred to as ‘Prime Minister’ throughout) he seemed totally in his element. Perhaps it was the nature of the audience. He was never going to have to field too many tricky questions about Ethiopia’s political space, (un)free press or tight government control over telecommunications and banking in front of a room full of CEOs and fellow technocrats.One senses that in certain crowds his statement that “there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy” would have got him in to trouble – important players were gnashing their teeth at this but Meles, kingpin of Western policy in the Horn of Africa, knows exactly how much he can loosen his Marxist instincts without upsetting his donors.
The World Economic Forum was one of Zenawi’s last public appearances. Even if he survives his illness, there is currently no public timetable for his return to Addis Ababa. As dictators across North Africa and the Middle East can no longer take their survival for granted, it’s worth wondering whether Zenawi will be the model for the next generation of enlightened, western-coddled autocrats — or one of the last of a literally dying breed.
July 21, 2012 (european voice) -The EU should be paying more attention to the abusive policies being pursued by Ethiopia’s ailing president.
The cancellation of a scheduled press conference this week, to discuss the health of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi – currently in Belgium for treatment – started rumours flying. Belgians might be interested to know why Ethiopians are watching events in Brussels so keenly.
Claiming to follow the Chinese model of development – economic growth first, rights later – is a tempting fig-leaf for despots around the world eager to justify their suppression of dissent at home. Ethiopia has praised the Chinese approach while insisting that it conforms to human-rights principles in its own constitution and respects the rule of law. Donors, keen to support Ethiopia’s growth and attempts at reducing poverty, have been willing to tolerate its rights abuses in exchange for security partnerships and healthy statistics showing progress on the Millennium Development Goals.
Meanwhile, the Zenawi government has allowed serious human-rights abuses committed by security forces – including war crimes and crimes against humanity – to go unpunished. It has used a raft of repressive legislation to jail critical voices in the media and civil society, shut down or paralyse independent human-rights activity, and send a chilling message to Ethiopian citizens that any step out of line will meet with harsh consequences.
Last week, the trial of 24 journalists, opposition leaders and others charged with terrorism-related offences – which had been marred by due process violations, lack of access to counsel and allegations of torture by defendants – ended in life sentences and one of 18 years for the renowned writer Eskinder Nega. On the same day, ongoing mass protests by Muslims at state attempts to control mosques were shut down by police with dozens arrested.
In December 2011 Ethiopia sentenced two Swedish journalists to 11 years in jail for the same offence. The pair were attempting to report on the closed Ogaden region where rights abuses against the indigenous Somali population are rampant.
You might think that such behaviour would make Zenawi and his government a pariah. But not at all: Ethiopia receives more EU and US aid than any other African country.
The European Union’s current country strategy on Ethiopia states: “The promotion of sustainable security, the rule of law and inclusive, accountable governance ultimately depend on a conducive political climate.” The climate in Ethiopia is now one where democracy is dead and dissent carries the highest penalty. Moreover, the price of Ethiopia’s rush towards economic growth at any cost is increasingly being paid in the well-being and livelihoods of the very citizens the government claims to represent.
In Gambella, the ‘villagisation’ programme is in its second year. The government has already removed thousands of indigenous people from their homes against their will and re-settled them in new areas which are often unfertile and lack schools and clinics.
And now, in southern Ethiopia, an ambitious new sugar project makes no pretence of consulting local indigenous communities before removing them from their land and destroying their way of life. A new Human Rights Watch report describes how 245,000 hectares of state-run sugar plantations are being developed without the environmental and social impact assessments that are required by Ethiopian law. Instead, the government is clearing the land, telling residents that it is time to leave, and constructing hundreds of kilometres of irrigation canals and sugar plantations, with plans for six sugar-processing factories.
The place where this is happening is the Lower Omo valley in southern Ethiopia, a UNESCO world heritage zone. The Mursi, Bodi, Suri, Hamer and other groups make the area among the most culturally distinctive and biologically diverse valleys in the world. The 200,000 people who live along the banks of the Omo River rely on the river to plant crops and graze their cattle, and their livelihoods, way of life and identity are under threat.
Under international law, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the African Charter, not to mention the Ethiopian constitution, indigenous communities cannot be displaced from their ancestral land without their free prior and informed consent, and even then, only as a last resort and with appropriate compensation.
The European Union is one of several donors that provide budget support to Ethiopia’s district governments under the ‘protection of basic services’ programme, including those where people are being displaced in South Omo and Gambella. It is likely that the EU and others are paying the salaries of the district officials overseeing the plans.
For now, all Ethiopian eyes are on Brussels. But many in Ethiopia wish that Brussels were paying more attention to what Zenawi is up to back home.
Ben Rawlence is senior researcher on Africa at Human Rights Watch.
Shrewd, brutal, and a master at soliciting and spending aid money, Prime Minister Zenawi’s 20 years of rule could be nearing its end.
Zenawi at the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa.(Reuters)
July 20, 2012 (The Atlantic) – Following the news of the past few years, you might get the impression that flamboyance and bellicosity are signature traits of any long-tenured dictator. But for every Muammar Qaddafi there’s a Meles Zenawi, the shrewd, technocratic Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Inside of the country, he’s known for imprisoning his political opponents, withholding development assistance from restive areas, stealing elections, and cracking down on civil society NGOs. In the rest of the world, he’s often praised for his impressive economic record, though not for his human rights. Zenawi has attracted Western support by being a responsible steward of aid money, a security partner in a rough region, and a G20 summit invitee.
Now, both his supporters and his detractors may have to contemplate a future without him. Zenawi is in a Brussels hospital with an unspecified stomach ailment that may or may not be fatal, depending upon what news reports you believe. Today, a government spokesperson announced that Zenawi would be taking a leave of absence from running the country, which he’s led since 1991.
From a human rights perspective, Zenawi’s rule has been abusive, heavy-handed, and self-interested.. Still, his apparently earnest dedication to sustainable development has long attracted international donors, whose money has benefited Ethiopia while propping up his regime. Zenawi, has fostered a friendlier environment for foreign investment. Between 2000 and 2010, Ethiopia’s GDP enjoyed a staggering average annual growth rate of 8.8 percent — China-like numbers. The country’s public sector is hardly clean of corruption, but the Ethiopian state isn’t as mismanaged or as predatory as others in the region. It ranks 120th out of 183 governments on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions index, not exactly Scandinavian but still ahead of such regional leaders as Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.
Under his leadership, Ethiopians have suffered from a lack of human, civil, and political rights. At the same time, their country has earned a reputation as a place where aid money can be responsibly and effectively spent. “The U.S. assistance portfolio in Ethiopia remains one of the United States’ largest and most complex in Africa” according to an online U.S. government profile of the roughly $2.1 billion in aid the U.S. has sent to Ethiopia since 2010. The World Bank helps fund over $ 4.4 billion worth of projects in the country.
This is the paradox of Zenawi’s legacy. He has done much to simultaneously help and hurt his people, with just the kind of quiet skill that you hope to see in a benign leader and dread in a malevolent one. If he never returns to office, should he be remembered as the technocrat behind Ethiopia’s amazing economic rise, or the brutal strongman who resisted democracy as much of Africa adopted it? Though one did not necessarily require the other — a kinder, gentler Zenawi might have overseen even better growth — the same character might inform both sides of his rule.
“When I meet with Prime Minister Meles and [Ugandan] President [Yoweri] Museveni, I feel like I am attending development seminar,” rockstar development economist Jeffrey Sachssaid in a 2004 speech. “They are ingenious, deeply knowledgeable, and bold.” Magnus Taylor, the managing editor of the Royal African Society’s renowned African Arguments blog, wrote about Zenawi’s ability to dazzle foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa this past May, while challenging the democratic world’s seemingly dogmatic belief in the causal relationship between political freedom and economic dynamism:
Sitting astride this economic growth, and taking pride of place at this year’s WEF, was Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. In an event that boasted such political heavyweights as former British PM Gordon Brown, and private sector luminaries like the Ivorian boss of The Prudential, Tidjane Thiam, whose $600 billion worth of assets makes Ethiopia look like a minnow, I was surprised by how much Meles came out as the dominant figure. A fiercely intelligent man, with a grasp of figures redolent of Brown (whom Meles referred to as ‘Prime Minister’ throughout) he seemed totally in his element. Perhaps it was the nature of the audience. He was never going to have to field too many tricky questions about Ethiopia’s political space, (un)free press or tight government control over telecommunications and banking in front of a room full of CEOs and fellow technocrats.One senses that in certain crowds his statement that “there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy” would have got him in to trouble – important players were gnashing their teeth at this but Meles, kingpin of Western policy in the Horn of Africa, knows exactly how much he can loosen his Marxist instincts without upsetting his donors.
The World Economic Forum was one of Zenawi’s last public appearances. Even if he survives his illness, there is currently no public timetable for his return to Addis Ababa. As dictators across North Africa and the Middle East can no longer take their survival for granted, it’s worth wondering whether Zenawi will be the model for the next generation of enlightened, western-coddled autocrats — or one of the last of a literally dying breed.
Speculations about Meles Zenawis health have exposed the instability of the brutal Ethiopian regime. It will not be far fetched to expect their tradition of power struggle when a leader is displaced to consume and emasculate the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). Assisted by its external supporters, the TPLF may reorganize its capacities and survive for a little while. Be that as it may, Oromo freedom fighters and the entire Oromo nation must push the struggle forward with a renewed vigor and determination. The urgency the situation poses calls for the mobilization of our forces, and requires the consolidation of our resources in a common front.
Oromia & Oromo Affairs 