Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

Saturday, May 26, 2007
Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

What have we Ethiopian achieved that we are rushing to celebrate the ‘Ethiopian new millennium’-2000? Whose millennium is it any way? These are questions that inquisitive minds are likely to ask when observing the rushes and the extraordinary government preparation to celebrate the new millennium in September 2007 Gregorian calendar or known to ‘Ethiopian’ as September 2000, ‘the new millennium’. That comes almost eight years later than the millennium that was celebrated on most of the world’s continents. It is the odd one out I guess. This is perhaps the only millennium of its kind in Africa to be celebrated at this time.


Let us come to the meat of the argument to attempt to answer the questions. The facts scream that Ethiopia’s 76,511,887 population according to CIA (2007) are leaving in abject poverty, major epidemic diseases such HIV/AID are spreading at alarming rates with diverse consequences, the country is involved in major wars and conflicts both internally and externally. Economy-wise there is no story worth telling; those notorious adjectives and pictures which describe the economy are still there - ‘poverty-stricken’ for instance. There is nothing false about the description because it is fact that more than 80 % of its population are unemployed. But sometimes statistics is generous; it takes from the ruling party companies and some people who can afford and says that the per capita GDP is $ 100 ‘giving’ the money to the 80 % unemployed people who do not even have that $ 100. The cause for all major cause for all these appears to be the unending wars and conflicts within and neighbouring countries because of lack of freedom and democracy to mobilise it people. Government’s war spending has even devastated the non- exiting economy for most of its people, BBC. Over 10 big rebel movements are active including the Oromo liberation front and the Ogaden Liberation Front are struggling for freedom because the government has proved that peaceful dialogues is not possible as long as it there.


To me as person who has observed and experienced the pains of this country, most people have more reason to mourn, to cry, and to curse the millennium, 2000, than celebrate it. The government has started the campaign for the celebration at the beginning of this year. A so called ‘millennium celebration secretariat’ (the whole millennium plan is found in the ruling party’s press) has offices in every region and cities in the country to coordinate the effort. EPRDF’s surrogates parties are rushing to spend ‘donors’ money and to achieve publicity internationally. That is because the government wants the world to forget the massacres on all the three de facto elections that took place from 1992-2005 where tanks and helicopters were deployed on protesting civilians to silence them from speaking against injustices of immeasurable magnitude.


Will thousands of families who lost someone to conflicts, wars, hunger even put smile, to the maximum, let alone celebrate the so called ‘Ethiopian millennium-2000’? That is impossible when everyone is aware that the government is trying to project a positive image about itself regardless of the screaming facts about what they have made that country to be. There seem to be many more reasons to mourn than celebrate. My attempt is not to finish all of them but to show that the Ethiopian government is using the millennium propaganda to campaign for acceptance amongst world leaders. The millennium is planned with a ‘great run’ event on which they want to force 30, 000 people out to run to attract the attention said.


Deconstructed, the Ethiopian millennium will be, as the preparations show, celebration of a minority ruling class and affiliates who have amassed the wealth of the poor unjustly. On the millennium date, stories will be told that ‘Ethiopia has never been colonised’. This is completely controversial areas where all people of the country have not yet formed the country by their consent that is agreed to be ‘Ethiopia’. The cultural and linguistic expression of the ruling group has been imposed on rest of the country. Excuse me if you think this is outrageous and not true. Of course I’m a lot patriotic than you think I may not be. May be I love my country better than you do. I am only describing that there is not yet a national identity or a just national state formed since the nations 100 years history by the consent of its people. Ethiopian is an empire which was born and we opened our eyes to see it clamp down on us. Yet, we are ‘Ethiopians’. The year does not matter, it can be 3000 thousand as some historians would flippantly love to write. But where are we in those hundred or 3000 thousand years pretending that history is true. It is painful to and violent to physically fight, but I am only talking, just conversation so that you can question what there really is to celebrate. As rational beings thinking is what precedes doing. Let us think and do something…


Without achieving any freedom and democracy, and as we daily see the all-rounded meltdown of the Empire (oh sorry, I forgot it is now called the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia), it is hard to celebrate but mourn, but cry, but sob, but think that our own land is not ours. What millennium with a pack of 77 million dying people. Ok, I have forgotten the ruling tyranny is not amongst the dying. It leverages the millennium celebration to cover up the stinks in its backyards to stay in power for some more years. This government off people to itself, by itself, and against people is never tired of duping donors to convince them to vote for the cancellation of its debts. The debts were used on military spending not on the bread that people desperately need as the facts suggest. And it will use the new millennium whistles for the same attraction.



Qeerransoo Biyyaa

Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

Saturday, May 26, 2007
Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

What have we Ethiopian achieved that we are rushing to celebrate the ‘Ethiopian new millennium’-2000? Whose millennium is it any way? These are questions that inquisitive minds are likely to ask when observing the rushes and the extraordinary government preparation to celebrate the new millennium in September 2007 Gregorian calendar or known to ‘Ethiopian’ as September 2000, ‘the new millennium’. That comes almost eight years later than the millennium that was celebrated on most of the world’s continents. It is the odd one out I guess. This is perhaps the only millennium of its kind in Africa to be celebrated at this time.


Let us come to the meat of the argument to attempt to answer the questions. The facts scream that Ethiopia’s 76,511,887 population according to CIA (2007) are leaving in abject poverty, major epidemic diseases such HIV/AID are spreading at alarming rates with diverse consequences, the country is involved in major wars and conflicts both internally and externally. Economy-wise there is no story worth telling; those notorious adjectives and pictures which describe the economy are still there - ‘poverty-stricken’ for instance. There is nothing false about the description because it is fact that more than 80 % of its population are unemployed. But sometimes statistics is generous; it takes from the ruling party companies and some people who can afford and says that the per capita GDP is $ 100 ‘giving’ the money to the 80 % unemployed people who do not even have that $ 100. The cause for all major cause for all these appears to be the unending wars and conflicts within and neighbouring countries because of lack of freedom and democracy to mobilise it people. Government’s war spending has even devastated the non- exiting economy for most of its people, BBC. Over 10 big rebel movements are active including the Oromo liberation front and the Ogaden Liberation Front are struggling for freedom because the government has proved that peaceful dialogues is not possible as long as it there.


To me as person who has observed and experienced the pains of this country, most people have more reason to mourn, to cry, and to curse the millennium, 2000, than celebrate it. The government has started the campaign for the celebration at the beginning of this year. A so called ‘millennium celebration secretariat’ (the whole millennium plan is found in the ruling party’s press) has offices in every region and cities in the country to coordinate the effort. EPRDF’s surrogates parties are rushing to spend ‘donors’ money and to achieve publicity internationally. That is because the government wants the world to forget the massacres on all the three de facto elections that took place from 1992-2005 where tanks and helicopters were deployed on protesting civilians to silence them from speaking against injustices of immeasurable magnitude.


Will thousands of families who lost someone to conflicts, wars, hunger even put smile, to the maximum, let alone celebrate the so called ‘Ethiopian millennium-2000’? That is impossible when everyone is aware that the government is trying to project a positive image about itself regardless of the screaming facts about what they have made that country to be. There seem to be many more reasons to mourn than celebrate. My attempt is not to finish all of them but to show that the Ethiopian government is using the millennium propaganda to campaign for acceptance amongst world leaders. The millennium is planned with a ‘great run’ event on which they want to force 30, 000 people out to run to attract the attention said.


Deconstructed, the Ethiopian millennium will be, as the preparations show, celebration of a minority ruling class and affiliates who have amassed the wealth of the poor unjustly. On the millennium date, stories will be told that ‘Ethiopia has never been colonised’. This is completely controversial areas where all people of the country have not yet formed the country by their consent that is agreed to be ‘Ethiopia’. The cultural and linguistic expression of the ruling group has been imposed on rest of the country. Excuse me if you think this is outrageous and not true. Of course I’m a lot patriotic than you think I may not be. May be I love my country better than you do. I am only describing that there is not yet a national identity or a just national state formed since the nations 100 years history by the consent of its people. Ethiopian is an empire which was born and we opened our eyes to see it clamp down on us. Yet, we are ‘Ethiopians’. The year does not matter, it can be 3000 thousand as some historians would flippantly love to write. But where are we in those hundred or 3000 thousand years pretending that history is true. It is painful to and violent to physically fight, but I am only talking, just conversation so that you can question what there really is to celebrate. As rational beings thinking is what precedes doing. Let us think and do something…


Without achieving any freedom and democracy, and as we daily see the all-rounded meltdown of the Empire (oh sorry, I forgot it is now called the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia), it is hard to celebrate but mourn, but cry, but sob, but think that our own land is not ours. What millennium with a pack of 77 million dying people. Ok, I have forgotten the ruling tyranny is not amongst the dying. It leverages the millennium celebration to cover up the stinks in its backyards to stay in power for some more years. This government off people to itself, by itself, and against people is never tired of duping donors to convince them to vote for the cancellation of its debts. The debts were used on military spending not on the bread that people desperately need as the facts suggest. And it will use the new millennium whistles for the same attraction.



Qeerransoo Biyyaa

Amnesty International Report 2007

News


Amnesty International Report 2007
ETHIOPIA

FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

Head of state: Girma Wolde-Giorgis
Head of government: Meles Zenawi
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: not ratified
There were a number of political trials of opposition party leaders, journalists and human rights defenders. A parliamentary commission reported that the security forces did not use excessive force when they killed 193 demonstrators in 2005, but defecting commission leaders said there had been excessive use of force but that their findings had been changed by the government. Scores of people were detained and some reportedly tortured for opposition activities. Civilians were detained and some were tortured or killed in the armed conflicts in the Oromia and Somali regions, and also in Gambella region. Thousands of political detainees arrested in late 2005 were released but several thousand others still remained in detention without charge or trial. The "genocide" trial of the former Dergue government (1974-1991) ended in December after 12 years with convictions of 33 members in court and 25 others in their absence, including former President Mengistu Hailemariam. Several death sentences were passed by courts but there were no executions.

Background
Five million people were dependent on emergency food aid, especially in the drought-affected Somali region.

The government continued to face armed opposition from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), both based in Eritrea. Ethiopia supported the armed Sudan-based Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA).

Ethiopia sent military assistance to Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), contravening a UN arms embargo, to support it against the forces of the "Islamic Courts", which captured the capital, Mogadishu, in June and extended control over most of central and southern Somalia. In October, Ethiopia increased military assistance to the TFG after the Council of Somali Islamic Courts (COSIC) declared jihad (holy war) against Ethiopia. After increasing clashes with COSIC forces, the large Ethiopian force defeated COSIC in several days of fighting in December, and took control of Mogadishu. It placed the TFG force in power and pursued fleeing COSIC fighters to southwestern Somalia.

The UN Security Council extended until January 2007 the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) but criticized the stalemate in negotiations over the contested border. Ethiopia said it accepted the International Boundary Commission's judgment following the 1998-2000 armed conflict, but refused to implement it.

The National Human Rights Commission, legally established in 2004, held a first workshop for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in mid-2006. It had not started operating by the end of the year.

Political trials
Following the disputed May 2005 elections and mass arrests of opposition party activists, leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), journalists and civil society activists were brought to trial in May. They faced charges including treason, outrage against the Constitution and other capital charges. The 76 defendants included Hailu Shawel, the CUD president, Berhanu Negga, an economics professor, and Mesfin Woldemariam, a retired geography professor. In addition, 34 prominent Ethiopians in exile were charged in their absence. Five Voice of America radio journalists who were US citizens were among nine defendants discharged before the trial started.

All but three defendants refused to defend themselves on the ground that they did not expect a fair trial. The trial had not concluded by the end of 2006. AI considered they were prisoners of conscience and sent a trial observer in October.

Four other CUD-related trials on similar charges were not completed at the end of the year. In the trial of Kifle Tigeneh, an elected member of parliament, and 32 other people, some defendants complained in court that they had been tortured to make false confessions. Berhane Mogese, a lawyer, was on trial with 22 others.

A separate trial of Mesfin Woldemariam and Berhanu Negga continued. They were accused of instigating violence during demonstrations at Addis Ababa University in 2000.

Journalists
Fourteen independent press journalists arrested in November 2005 were tried with the CUD leaders. Kifle Mulat, president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, was charged in his absence and sought asylum abroad. Two other journalists, Solomon Aregawi and Goshu Moges, were tried in separate capital cases.

All private newspapers which had criticized the government in connection with the elections remained shut down. Many journalists fled the country.

• Frezer Negash, a reporter for a US-based website, was arrested in February when three months pregnant, but released on bail two weeks later.

At least four journalists were charged under the Press Law in connection with alleged offences committed some years previously.

• In March, Abraham Gebrekidan of Politika magazine was jailed for a year for allegedly publishing false information.

A new Press Law, proposed by the government in 2003 to replace the 1992 Press Law, was still under debate. Combined with provisions in the new Criminal Code of May 2005, it could lead to further legal restrictions on the freedom of the media and imprisonment of journalists.

Human rights defenders
Among defendants in the CUD trial were four human rights defenders: Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, former president of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council; Daniel Bekelle, a lawyer and staff member of ActionAid; Netsanet Demissie, chair of the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia; and Kassahun Kebede, an Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA) official.

Two ETA officials were arrested in October without explanation but released on bail after some days. Three other officials were arrested in December and allegedly tortured. The ETA, Ethiopia's longest-established trade union, continued to contest court actions by the Ministry of Justice to ban it and replace it by a pro-government organization bearing the same name.

Political arrests
Dozens of people were arrested in Addis Ababa in late 2006 for possession of a book secretly written in prison by Berhanu Negga or a calendar containing images of the CUD prisoners and calling for civil disobedience.

• Yealemzawde Bekelle, a lawyer working for the European Commission in Addis Ababa, was arrested in October, reportedly after being named by a tortured prisoner. She was released on bail after eight days' incommunicado detention.

Several thousand opposition supporters detained in different parts of the country after the November 2005 demonstration were released on bail after some weeks or months in detention without charge. However, some thousands were believed to be still detained without charge or trial during 2006.

Detentions and killings in the regions
In the Oromia region, there were large-scale arrests in different areas during anti-government demonstrations, particularly by school and college students. Some protesters called for the release of Diribi Demissie, a Mecha Tulema Association community leader on trial since 2004. He and his co-defendants were charged with supporting the OLF, but AI considered them prisoners of conscience. Hundreds of Oromo people detained in November 2005 were reportedly still held during 2006 without charge or trial, as well as others detained in previous years for alleged OLF connections.

Numerous people accused of ONLF connections were reportedly detained in the Somali region, and many political prisoners arrested in previous years were still held without charge or trial. Extrajudicial executions were also reported.

In Gambela region in the southwest, there were scores of arrests of members of the Anuak ethnic group. Hundreds of people arrested during mass killings in Gambela town in December 2003 were still detained without charge or trial.

Some 60 peaceful demonstrators belonging to the Sidama ethnic group in the southern region were arrested in Awassa and other southern towns in March. They were all released on bail by May.

Commission of inquiry
In March parliament established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings during the 2005 demonstrations. The Commission, headed by a judge, took evidence from the public and NGOs and interviewed CUD leaders in prison. In July, the Commission's chairperson fled the country and his replacement did the same in September. They alleged that the Prime Minister had instructed them to change their finding - that the security forces had committed excessive force - which they were not willing to do.

In November the report presented to parliament stated that the Commission had found no evidence of excessive use of force by the security forces. The list of people killed numbered 193, including six police officers, far more than the 78 reported by police. The Commission found that 765 people, including 99 women and several children, had been wounded, almost four times the police figure.

Victims had been shot by army or police bullets, some in the back while escaping and others possibly targeted by snipers. At least 17 people imprisoned earlier in Kaliti prison, mostly on remand for ordinary criminal offences but also some political prisoners, were shot dead in their cells at the same time on suspicion of supporting the demonstrations and trying to escape.

Torture and ill-treatment
Torture was reported by methods including electric shocks and beatings on the feet while tied upside down. The victims were political prisoners, particularly those detained on suspicion of supporting armed political groups such as the OLF and ONLF.

• Alemayehu Fantu, an engineer and supermarket owner in Addis Ababa, was reportedly tortured in October to make him admit to publishing or distributing the CUD calendar, and to name others. He was taken to court with visible injuries, which the judges did not investigate, but released on bail on November.

Several of the CUD leaders held in Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa were at first denied medical treatment for illnesses contracted as a result of harsh and unhygienic prison conditions. Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, aged 76, was refused physiotherapy for back and leg complaints. There were fears for his health as a result of his hunger strikes in December 2005 and February 2006. He recovered quickly, however, after being treated in hospital for pneumonia in September. There were serious delays in provision of medical treatment for Hailu Shawel for eye surgery, and Berhanu Negga for a heart complaint.

• Serkalem Fasil, a journalist who was seven months pregnant, was taken to hospital to give birth, but denied intensive care treatment for her baby son. She was returned to prison soon after the birth, taking the baby with her.

Four prisoners of conscience were moved as punishment to the Central Prison (Karchele), which was in the process of demolition. CUD leaders Muluneh Eyuel and Amanuel Araya and journalists Eskinder Negga and Sissay Agena were kept for over two months in dark underground cells in solitary confinement.

Dergue trial
The trial of members of the 1974 military government known as the Dergue ended in December after 12 years. Of the 72 people originally charged, 33 had been in custody since 1991, 14 others had died in custody and 25 were tried in their absence, including former President Mengistu Hailemariam, who had asylum in Zimbabwe. All were found guilty of capital offences including genocide and mass killings, with sentencing due in 2007. The long series of other trials of officials of the former government for killings during the "Red Terror" campaign against "anti-revolutionaries" in 1977-79 was nearly completed. Many defendants were jailed for long periods (which most had already served, leading to their release) and several death sentences were imposed. Many convictions went to appeal.

Violence against women
According to Ethiopian women's organizations, violence against women through domestic violence, rape and harmful traditional practices, including female genital mutilation and early marriage, remained widespread. Female genital mutilation was prevalent among many ethnic groups of different faiths in remote rural areas and abductions of girls were associated with early marriages.

Death penalty
Ten death sentences for ordinary crimes were commuted by presidential clemency in September. Several other death sentences for alleged politically related violent crimes were still in force. There were no executions.

AI country reports/visits
Report
• Ethiopia: Prisoners of conscience on trial for treason - opposition party leaders, human rights defenders and journalists (AI Index: AFR 25/013/2006)

TPLF and Tigrean Identity politics

TPLF and Tigrean Identity politics
Kallacha Dubbi



The TPLF dominated Ethiopian leadership holds the view that the Eritrean government plays the most destabilizing role in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian opposition forces and Eritrea on the other hand believe that it is the TPLF led Ethiopian government that is severely destabilizing the region. And yet the US foreign office is concerned by a "rising extremism of Islam", accusation which rests pointedly at Somalia and perhaps somehow at the Sudan.

I argue that the TPLF's politics has been a source of material, political, community, and intellectual development of the Tigrean ethnic class over the last 16 years, and thus created an identity which has been the primary source of instability in the region. The genesis and consequences of this identity politics vis-à-vis the rest of Ethiopia have been bashed repeatedly but not put in an argued perspective of a short format.

On Eritrea's role: Eritrea's role in the region has often been grossly exaggerated by promoting the human rights abuse in Eritrea into the forefront of the regional politics. Given that Eritrea's human rights records are inherent results of the perpetual state of war in which it is forcedly placed by Meles, and given that there is no ethnic cleansing in that country, Meles' has clearly tipped the scale of human rights abuse for the region if not for the world. No matter how intensely human rights are abused in Eritrea, these abuses simply do not constitute a regional agenda capable of destabilizing the Horn. This is by no means to argue that Eritrea does not have its share of human rights burden in satisfying the mood of an emerging middle class and rewarding aspirations of a population that may be growing impatient of life under perpetual cloud of war, anticipating the unknown. While legitimately critiquing Eritrea's human rights records, one must bare in mind Eritrea's unruly neighbor who has vested interest in making things go wrong in Eritrea. Simply stated, the Eritrean has to temporarily choose either a full blown human rights or compromise its hard-earned freedom. Here, I am sure I am opening a Pandora's Box - a tired debate of the Eritrean community in the hope that a complete stranger may offer un-invested view point. But I know for sure, that Eritrea's friendship with the majority of the Ethiopian population including the oppressed carries a strategic weight for peace and prosperity in the region, including the oppressor.

On Extreme Islam: In the past many writers have argued that the rise of extreme Islam in the Horn was a designed panic or a bogus goat for Ethiopia's venture into Somalia, and even more likely, a scheme to facilitate the US's recoup in the region. This seems consistent with the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command headquarters, AFRICOM, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent. Although there were extreme Islamic attacks to US establishments in the Horn, it is simply not known if these attacks could have precipitated into a powerhouse capable of overtaking Somalia and launching precipitous attacks to US interests there or anywhere. The US simply chose not to take a risk, no matter what the cost of siding with an unpopular regime in Ethiopia would be. So, there is a funny logic to the US interest in the Horn - it doesn't want to place the Ethiopian opposition on a hopeless bench, but it also doesn't want to demote Meles in which case it would have to deal with Somalia in person. Thus, the current US policy in east Africa is a result of the mishmash of its disapproval of Meles' abuse of human rights and its desire to guard what it perceives as US strategic interest in the Horn. In this policy, one can clearly read into the level of neglect the US demonstrates towards the genesis and potential impact of the Tigrean hegemony, the potential destruction of the Ethiopian state as a consequence, and the critical role of the TPLF towards this precarious end. The cost of this destruction could be much higher than the feared rise of Islamists in Somalia, which many believe had orderly manifestations and localized tendencies.

On the Tigrean hegemony: There is a thesis among Ethiopian historians that Tigrean nationalism has been historically belligerent and more intolerant than the rest. The Ethiopian historian Bahiru Zewde writes about the last Tigrean emperor, Yohannes, as follows: "The Muslims of Wallo were told to renounce their faith and embrace Christianity or face confiscation of their land and property. Thus, two prominent converts were Muhammad Ali, baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as Mikael, and Abba Wataw, who became Hayle-Maryam. Others confirmed outwardly, praying to the Christian God in the daytime and to the Muslim Allah at night. . There was no room for Islam in his (Yohannes) ideological world. The thrust of his repression directed against Wallo forced some of them to flee to other areas. an Argobba Muslim leader by the name Sheik Talha fled to the Sudan with his followers."

Coming from Tigrean leaders, there is a parallel to be drawn between Yohannes' attempt to exterminate Islam from Ethiopia and Meles' decision to invade Somalia to suppress unarmed Islamists emerging in a country where international embargo has virtually dried any war machinery.

The TPLF started its guerilla resistance with a simple motto: initially to create independent Tigray, but later to free Tigray/Ethiopia from invidious governance of the Derg, by running a political ideology that openly claimed to be more Marxist than the Marxists who then ruled the country with a vicious duty to kill. The combination of its leftist claim through and by which the current Tigrean-based Ethiopian leadership usurped power, with its ethnic identity which it used to galvanize mass support and cleanse out the EPRP from the Asimba hills of Tigrean territory, give the TPLF its ethno-political distinctiveness.

The TPLF's distinctiveness sharply contrasted the ethno-political composition of the Derg; the somewhat inclusive but Amhara dominated Derg army was suddenly replaced by an exclusively Tigrean army, reigning over the entire country. This unexpected collapse of the sense of Amhara polity, though camouflaged as Ethiopian, created a retreated void in the military role of the rest of Ethiopia, especially the south whose modest share was in the rise. Within a growing Tigrean ruling class, this void was marked by diacritic presence of the xPDOs whose role simply legitimized Tigrean supremacy than dilute its pronounced exclusivity as intended. It was clear Meles and the TPLF have fussily calculated that Tigray elites will be assured and guaranteed of continued rule of Ethiopia so long as this new army remained exclusively Tigrean, or so long as its command is not challenged militarily. The exclusivity of the TPLF army now turned into "Ethiopian army" has been morphed the same way as the civic landscape was morphed - unchallenging and obedient members of the southern societies were recruited into the army and kept at low ranks and also at bay. A few handpicked non-Tigrean military personnel with little capacity were appointed as Generals but they were controlled by Tigrean captains operating from the same office as the General. The level of mistrust and the unconventionality of this military hierarchy are similar to that of racist South Africa where an ordinary white soldier gave orders to black army officers. For this reason, the non-Tigrean Ethiopian army has low moral, and it can be safely argued, that there is indeed no Ethiopian army but Tigrean. A recent opposition report states that 90% of the Ethiopian Generals are Tigreans, 80% for the Colonels. For a Tigrean population constituting only about 6% of Ethiopia's population, this ratio offers a grim reality of the Ethiopian political perspective.

This passed November the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense suspended three generals: Maj-Gen Alemshet Degefe, ex-Ethiopian air force commander, Brig-Gen Kumer Asfaw and Brig-Gen Asamenew Tsege. This suspension comes after the defection of several high ranking officers including Gen. Kemal Gelchu who joined the OLF. This has effectively rid the top army echelon of non-Tigreans unless the very few left whose loyalty is assured through their excessive brutality or shared racketeering.

The TPLF has therefore plainly demonstrated that it uses Tigrean identity politics as a tactic - to manipulate the Ethiopian political power blocks based on self-identification as an eminent supra-ethnic group that shall enjoy the innate of being and becoming above the crowd. With such manipulation, the TPLF has effectively marginalized the Tigrean people who are now perceived to be outside of the mainstream society. The Tigreo-ethiopian common basis has broken down, and there seem to be no real opportunities in the near sight for peacefully ending this marginalization.

In a recent brave political gesture, the OLF created a political platform, the AFD, partly to facilitate a means by which this Tigrean marginalization can be put to an end, and all political forces of the country be integrated into a mainstream constructive policy without sabotaging discrete ethnic cultures or identities. The idea was born from an authentic concern that Tigrean intolerance is primarily responsible for this marginalization, and that the OLF should take a leading role to change the mainstream politics of the country to create a safe bridge of communication or even a forbearing pluralism, without recourse to the Tigrean oppressive homogeneity now at play. Ironically, this constructive proposal was cause for a split among some Ethiopian long-distance nationalists, and the TPLF completely rejected the initiative opting for a beefed up military offensive against the OLF instead. The initiative put the political ideologies of Ethiopia that thrive with and for a passion to dominate, in the defensive. It also exposed the tenacity of some Ethiopian elites to their passion for ethnic domination.

In a general sense, Tigrean nationalism has manifested itself as a carrier of the official state ideology of Ethiopia expressed along economic, ethnic, or cultural lines. In fact, it now seems obvious, that the Tigrean domination of Ethiopia has intoxicated the Tigrean upper and middle class transforming its ethnicity to xenophobic.

The TPLF derives its political legitimacy from the active participation of Tigreans, matched by the will of the TPLF to represent the will of the Tigreans above and beyond that of the rest. Simply stated, the TPLF is openly discriminatory in its policy. In the long run, this discrimination is as destructive to the Tigrean identity as it is to the non-Tigreans, a recipe for a collective demise. The hitherto failure of the Tigrean scholars and political elites to see this self-destruction and side with the ultimate good of the Tigrean population, should be taken as an inconceivably ill-bred and short-sighted politics, unfortunately so common in Ethiopia.

The TPLF has implied and manifested that the country is a community of Tigreans who contribute to the maintenance and strength of the TPLF, and that other ethnic groups or even the individual exist to contribute to this Tigrean goal. In the words of Mussolini: "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato", meaning "everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" - and of course here the state is the TPLF.

It is also likely that the TPLF will revive irredentist claims to Eritrea to boost Ethiopian nationalism and draw aggressive attention from orthodox Ethiopia to defend against a perceived Eritrean threat or simply reclaim a sea outlet for the country. This will be driven by a will to buy more political life than a legitimate concern for Ethiopia. But in the eyes of conservative Ethiopians, the entire Eritrea, or at least Asab remains the irredenta, offering a pool of political backup. The TPLF has sufficiently proven that it indeed manifests aggressive irredentist traits by annexing parts of Gondar and Wallo to Tigrean territory, and attempting to cut a piece of Eritrean land which resulted in the death of 70,000 people.

In conclusion, given the extreme nature of the blatant ethnic inequity perpetuated by Meles in favor of Tigray, which has put Tigray and Tigreans in a presently reviled and potentially liable position, it defies logic that we do not see mass defiance of Tigrean elites to the TPLF domination. Furthermore, the cruel stance of past Tigrean leadership to Islam should have demanded caution from Meles in his venture to Somalia to squash Islam. It also defies conventional logic that the level of dislike for the TPLF which is now rampant in and among Ethiopians goes on virtually ignored and unnoticed by the TPLF. The widespread psychological rejection of TPLF as a bad thing that happened to the country, the level of popular resistance that seems to be curing into hate for Tigray, is not sensed by Tigrean elites - for the sake of Tigreans if not peace. It is mind-boggling to know that Meles spends millions of dollars to buy the support of the US government through highly placed lobbyists while doing everything to loose the respect and support of the entire Ethiopian population. This Tigrean identity politics, selfish in its value, vicious in its extent, and shortsited in its vision, is the primary destabilizing force in the Horn of Africa.

May 25, 2007

KD

Somalia: Four Somali government officials kidnapped

Somalia: Four Somali government officials kidnapped
Aweys Osman Yusuf


Mogadishu 27, May.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Four Somali government officials based in Hamar Jajab district, south of the capital, have been abducted by unknown gunmen overnight, according to relatives.

Ahmed Sheik Mohamoud, the district commissioner, revealed to the press on Sunday that the four officials in the division were forcibly taken with gun point by unknown armed men in a small car with no plate number.

“These men were among the local administrators assigned for the district by the federal government and until now we did not hear from their captors, neither do we know why they have been kidnapped,” he said.

He stressed the report has been submitted to the mayor, Mohammed Dheere, who promised restoring peace and security in the gun-infested city, Mogadishu.

This is the first time that unidentified gun men took government officials hostage No group has yet claimed responsibility for the seizure of these officials.

Meanwhile Ethiopia reopens its embassy in the Somali capital Mogadishu for the first time in 16 years. Ethiopian foreign minister, Seum Mesfin, erected the Ethiopian flag inside the newly opened embassy near the presidential palace (Villa Somalia) at the center of the capital.

Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Celebrating the Ethiopian millennium under poverty, war and oppression

What have we Ethiopian achieved that we are rushing to celebrate the ‘Ethiopian new millennium’-2000? Whose millennium is it any way? These are questions that inquisitive minds are likely to ask when observing the rushes and the extraordinary government preparation to celebrate the new millennium in September 2007 Gregorian calendar or known to ‘Ethiopian’ as September 2000, ‘the new millennium’. That comes almost eight years later than the millennium that was celebrated on most of the world’s continents. It is the odd one out I guess. This is perhaps the only millennium of its kind in Africa to be celebrated at this time.

Let us come to the meat of the argument to attempt to answer the questions. The facts scream that Ethiopia’s 76,511,887 population according to CIA (2007) are leaving in abject poverty, major epidemic diseases such HIV/AID are spreading at alarming rates with diverse consequences, the country is involved in major wars and conflicts both internally and externally. Economy-wise there is no story worth telling; those notorious adjectives and pictures which describe the economy are still there - ‘poverty-stricken’ for instance. There is nothing false about the description because it is fact that more than 80 % of its population are unemployed. But sometimes statistics is generous; it takes from the ruling party companies and some people who can afford and says that the per capita GDP is $ 100 ‘giving’ the money to the 80 % unemployed people who do not even have that $ 100. The cause for all major cause for all these appears to be the unending wars and conflicts within and neighbouring countries because of lack of freedom and democracy to mobilise it people. Government’s war spending has even devastated the non- exiting economy for most of its people, BBC. Over 10 big rebel movements are active including the Oromo liberation front and the Ogaden Liberation Front are struggling for freedom because the government has proved that peaceful dialogues is not possible as long as it there.

To me as person who has observed and experienced the pains of this country, most people have more reason to mourn, to cry, and to curse the millennium, 2000, than celebrate it. The government has started the campaign for the celebration at the beginning of this year. A so called ‘millennium celebration secretariat’ (the whole millennium plan is found in the ruling party’s press) has offices in every region and cities in the country to coordinate the effort. EPRDF’s surrogates parties are rushing to spend ‘donors’ money and to achieve publicity internationally. That is because the government wants the world to forget the massacres on all the three de facto elections that took place from 1992-2005 where tanks and helicopters were deployed on protesting civilians to silence them from speaking against injustices of immeasurable magnitude.

Will thousands of families who lost someone to conflicts, wars, hunger even put smile, to the maximum, let alone celebrate the so called ‘Ethiopian millennium-2000’? That is impossible when everyone is aware that the government is trying to project a positive image about itself regardless of the screaming facts about what they have made that country to be. There seem to be many more reasons to mourn than celebrate. My attempt is not to finish all of them but to show that the Ethiopian government is using the millennium propaganda to campaign for acceptance amongst world leaders. The millennium is planned with a ‘great run’ event on which they want to force 30, 000 people out to run to attract the attention said.

Deconstructed, the Ethiopian millennium will be, as the preparations show, celebration of a minority ruling class and affiliates who have amassed the wealth of the poor unjustly. On the millennium date, stories will be told that ‘Ethiopia has never been colonised’. This is completely controversial areas where all people of the country have not yet formed the country by their consent that is agreed to be ‘Ethiopia’. The cultural and linguistic expression of the ruling group has been imposed on rest of the country. Excuse me if you think this is outrageous and not true. Of course I’m a lot patriotic than you think I may not be. May be I love my country better than you do. I am only describing that there is not yet a national identity or a just national state formed since the nations 100 years history by the consent of its people. Ethiopian is an empire which was born and we opened our eyes to see it clamp down on us. Yet, we are ‘Ethiopians’. The year does not matter, it can be 3000 thousand as some historians would flippantly love to write. But where are we in those hundred or 3000 thousand years pretending that history is true. It is painful to and violent to physically fight, but I am only talking, just conversation so that you can question what there really is to celebrate. As rational beings thinking is what precedes doing. Let us think and do something…

Without achieving any freedom and democracy, and as we daily see the all-rounded meltdown of the Empire (oh sorry, I forgot it is now called the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia), it is hard to celebrate but mourn, but cry, but sob, but think that our own land is not ours. What millennium with a pack of 77 million dying people. Ok, I have forgotten the ruling tyranny is not amongst the dying. It leverages the millennium celebration to cover up the stinks in its backyards to stay in power for some more years. This government off people to itself, by itself, and against people is never tired of duping donors to convince them to vote for the cancellation of its debts. The debts were used on military spending not on the bread that people desperately need as the facts suggest. And it will use the new millennium whistles for the same attraction.

Qeerransoo Biyyaa