nazret.com Merkato Blog

The Struggle for Democracy in Ethiopia
A talk by Dr. Berhanu Nega

Mayor-elect of Addis Ababa and recently released political prisoner

Thursday, September 6th at 7:30 pm

New School for Social Research

Swayduck Auditorium

65 Fifth Ave. , between 13th St. and 14th St .

www.freenega.org/talk

Join us for a talk by Dr. Berhanu Nega, New School alumnus and mayor-elect of Addis Ababa . Dr. Nega was held as a political prisoner in Ethiopia for almost two years, along with thousands of others in the current government's crackdown on dissent. Recently released from prison, he is in New York to share his experiences at his alma mater, The New School for Social Research on Thursday, September 6th at 7:30 pm. at Swayduck Auditorium at 65 Fifth Ave.

The international community has largely condemned the state of affairs in Ethiopia . United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour strongly criticized Ethiopia 's human rights situation, calling it "worrying." The recent release of 38 high-profile prisoners came just two days after a Congressional subcommittee approved legislation to end U.S. support for Ethiopia 's human rights violations. Still many are held in jail, the media is censored, and the politically unstable Ogaden region in the East threatens to slip into humanitarian disaster as the government blocks aid workers and supplies from entering.

Dr. Nega will address his experiences working for democracy in Ethiopia in the face of a government that has repressed all opposition. He will also address the role of the United States in the support of the Ethiopian government and the war in Somalia and what U.S. citizens can do to help.

Please join us on September 6, 2007 as we welcome Dr. Nega to New York ! The talk is free and open to the public.

Can't make it to New York? The talk will also be webcast live on the internet. More details on accessing the webcast will be made available closer to the date of the talk at www.freenega.org/talk

Join us:

Thursday, September 6, 2007

7:30 pm

New School for Social Research

Swayduck Auditorium

65 Fifth Ave. , between 13th St. and 14th St .

Take any subway to Union Square and then walk west one block to Fifth Ave.



For more information, please see www.freenega.org/talk

Ethiopia - What in the World is the World’s Oldest Woman Doing in Houston?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

8/31/07


Artist’s life-size model of Dinkenesh

Dinkenesh (Lucy) 1 in Houston with Diamonds?

We call her Dinkenesh2. They call her “Lucy”. But what’s in a name? “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” said Shakespeare. But Lucy is one of a kind. She is unlike any other hominid fossil ever found. She is the most complete hominid skeleton of the Pliocene
Epoch [1.8-5.3 million years ago]. And she is in terrible danger in Houston, if you believe the foremost paleontologists in the world.

But what in the world is she doing in Houston, Texas?

Officials of the ruling regime “made no bones” about Lucy’s reasons for coming to America. (No pun intended.) National Public Radio quoting these officials reported that Old Lucy is in America to squeeze a few bucks out of American pockets for the folks back home, and snag some tourists: “Officials there [Addis Ababa] have said there are two reasons for sending Lucy on an American tour. The first is to raise the profile of Ethiopia and attract international tourists. The second reason is to raise money for the impoverished African country.”3

The Houston Museum has dubbed the exhibition “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia”. It is not an accurate caption. A more appropriate caption would have been:
“Lucy’s Legacy: Hidden Deals Over the Treasures of Ethiopia”.4 Everything about the deal that brought Lucy to Houston remains hidden, from public view. Like the pirates of old, only Houston Museum and regime officials know the value of the treasures and where they are
hidden. If you think they will share the loot, abandon all hope, now.

Museum from August 31, 2007 – April 20, 2008. If you
want to lay your eyes on her tiny brittle bones, be prepared to shell out a cool 20 bucks.

The negotiations to sneak Lucy into America were done in classic cloak-and-dagger style, with scheming museum officials strutting in the foreground, and nameless and faceless “Ethiopian government officials” skulking in the background. The details of the financial arrangements around Lucy are shrouded in more secrecy than the Holy Mysteries. Mum is the word for both Houston Museum and regime officials. They are sticking by the old Code of Silence. Just like in the Godfather movies. Except Don Corleone’s boys from Sicily call it Omerta. Houston calls it “confidential”. It’s all the same, ain’t nobody talking!

Get a load of this! Few in Ethiopia knew Lucy was splitting town. There was no official public announcement, discussion or information on her U.S. trip. She was whisked away stealthily under cover of darkness. The usual M.O. (modus operandi), snatched in the middle of the night. That’s what the reports said. MSNBC quoted a young lawyer in Addis who was thunderstruck at the news that Lucy has been spirited to America for 6 years, as a guest worker.

He was appalled: “This is a national treasure. How come the [Ethiopian] public has no inkling about this? It’s amazing that we didn’t even get to say goodbye.”5 He is going to be dumbstruck when he finds out what kind of work Lucy will be doing for the next 6 years.

The whole deal is disgusting. I’d like to say, “Houston, we’ve got a problem!” Just like Apollo 13 said when its oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon. I’d like to add, “Houston, your attitude about the Lucy affair stinks!”

“Lucy’s Legacy” or no, Professor Richard Leaky, the famed African paleoanthropologist, is pissed off and hopping mad about the whole deal that delivered Lucy to the grubby hands of Houston Museum curators. He does not disagree that Lucy was brought to America to make money. He just objects to the fact that she is being used to make money like a prostitute makes money for her pimp. An irate Leakey protested in the international media that the Mother of All Humanity was being forced into white slavery: “Dispatching of the Lucy skeleton on a six-year-tour of the United States is akin to prostituting the fragile, 3.2 million year-old fossil.

It's a form of prostitution, its gross exploitation of the ancestors of humanity and it should not be permitted,” fumed Leakey.

How tragically ironic! The world’s oldest woman working in the world’s oldest profession! What a low-down crying shame!

But if Leaky is right about his prostitution accusation, then we would have to put out an APB (all points bulletin) for her pimps. We’ve got to nab the “Superfly” in this prostitution racket? Track down Lucy’s Iceberg Slim. If Leaky is right, we’d have to wonder if the Houston
Museum is a cultural center or a brothel.

But the outrage expressed over this “fossilxploitation” is not limited to Leaky. A large number of the world’s leading paleontologists and many of the top-tier American museums have also blasted the “Legacy Tour”. They share Leakey’s concern that “these specimens will
get damaged no matter how careful you are and every time she is moved there is a risk. The point is what is the benefit of taking one of the most iconic examples of the human story from Africa to parade it around in second-level museums in the United States?”

The Smithsonian Institution has declined to exhibit Lucy, and publicly condemned the underhanded vulgarity of the secret deal that brought Lucy out of Ethiopia. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has also declined. So has the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Lucy’s first home. The Field Museum in Chicago, aware of the international condemnation, has expressed deep reservations about exhibiting Lucy.

Rick Potts, one of the foremost researchers on East African fossils and director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian pointed an accusatory finger at the Houston Museum and the Ethiopian “government” for flagrantly disregarding a 1988 Resolution passed by the UNESCO-affiliated International Association for the Study of Human Paleontology. In that Resolution, Ethiopia agreed not to move fossils outside of its territory, and display replicas only in public exhibitions. Rick is missing the point. Outlaws don’t give a damn about
international agreements or law.

Prof. Bernard Wood of George Washington University, who has extensive experience working with fossils, says it is irresponsible to rent out the “extremely fragile” fossil: “If Lucy is removed from a box and then put on display, and put back in a box and then put on display again, as sure as night follows day, it will be damaged. It's not something that might happen. It's something that most certainly will happen.” If Wood is right, it’s time to say “So long, Lucy. It’s been nice knowing you, almost.”

Perhaps few can speak on Lucy more authoritatively than Yohannes Haile Selassie, anthropology curator at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History: "There is a lot of damage you can't see with the naked eyes, caused just by touching her and handling her. I'm just sitting and praying that she comes back safe."6 Amen! That kind of damage is not difficult to imagine.

If you pack and unpack her dozens of times as she is shuttled between bush-league museums for six years, it is not rocket science to figure out that her brittle bones could be damaged beyond repair. Haile Selassie knows what he talking about. After all, it was the Cleveland team that studied Lucy for 6 years back in 1974 and put her together.

But Joel Bartsch, the president of the “second-level” Houston Museum of Natural Science, says phooey to the outcry in the scientific community. He does not give a hoot about the concerns of scientists who have spent their entire professional lives excavating, analyzing, restoring and curating such fossils. He says: “The fossil [Lucy] was examined by a group of curators who pronounced her hardy and robust, he says. Is she rare? Is she unique? Is she important to all mankind? Absolutely. But she's not too fragile to travel.”

Bartsch attitude is that Lucy has been stuck in the mud for the last 3.2 years. She needs to get out and get around.

Dirk Van Tuerenhout, one of Bartsch’s lieutenants says: “If you are able to showcase an original fossil, then you have a story, then you have a point of attraction that will bring in the most number of people, and then you can tell them that story.”

Nonsense! Whatever story you can tell with the real fossil, you can tell the replica. It’s not like Lucy can talk and tell us how her life has been for the past 3.2. million years. Her replica will do just fine. Of course, you won’t be able to snag $20 a pop if you use the replica.

What can I say? That’s the way the world’s oldest profession is practiced in Houston, I reckon.

World’s Oldest “Hardy and Robust” Woman Forced to Work in the World’s Oldest Profession for Six Years?

According to reports, Lucy has been viewed by the Ethiopian public only twice since her discovery in 1974. A replica is said to be on display at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum in Addis Ababa. For the last 34 years, she was kept away from public view in a climate-controlled vault. “Too fragile”, they said, for those big prying Ethiopian eyes. May be they were afraid she will be seen by the “evil eye” (buda).

Now Lucy is unchained from her vault to satisfy the scientific and cultural curiosities of “good ole” Houstonians. But Leaky and his colleagues say, “scientific and cultural curiosities, my foot!” Her ladyship has been shanghaied into indentured servitude for prostitution for 6 years. Just get a load of that!

But is the Houston Museum pimping Lucy, or using her to tell a “story” as Bartsch and Van Tuerenhout claim? The Houston duo’s story about retailing Lucy is as audacious as it is knavish. It is not unlike the rap a pimp would lay on his lady to get her to go out into the street
and ply her trade. “You are strong and tough, baby. You can handle it. There ain’t nobody like you. You are the only one I care about. Now, go out and bring me my money!” Bartsch, Van Tuerenhout and Iceberg Slim, they are all the same!

So, Old Lucy will be turning $20 “tricks” for the Houston Museum and all of the other third-rate wannbe museums for the next six years. Like the gaudy prostitute in the red light district beckoning her customers to come in, Lucy’s fossilized remains will be splattered all
over the billboards by the side of Texas highways. She will beckon “all them Texan cowboys and cowgirls to come to the museum for a little bit o’ culture and learnin’”, for $20 a pop, that is. Yeah, Houston patricians will be squeezed for few more bucks to support this “once-inhuman-history” event. Everybody will make beaucoup bucks. There will be NO ACCOUNTABILITY for the money collected on Lucy’s skin, or more appropriately, her fossilized bones. What a sweet deal! What a low-down dirty shame!

Could Lucy be in America on a Secret Mission?

According to National Public Radio, one of the two reasons for Lucy’s trip to America is “to raise the profile of Ethiopia and attract international tourists.” Perhaps Old Lucy is here on a
special secret mission, code named: “Raise the Profile: Mission Distraction!” Naturally, she’d make for a perfect foil. She does not have to say anything, just look pretty while her handlers
adorn her showcased fossil with “over 100 artifacts such as ancient manuscripts and royal artifacts” dating back to the “biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba”. And museum spin doctors will yak about Ethiopia “as the origin of mankind… the cradle of civilization… the
birthplace of coffee…the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant…the first Christian African nation in the 4th century A.D…” Blah, blah, blah!

Stop! Why is it necessary to “raise the profile of Ethiopia and attract international tourists” now? Would it have anything to do with the recent conclusions of the U.S. State Department?

The [Ethiopian] government's human rights record remained poor in many areas. Human rights abuses reported during the year included the following: unlawful killings; beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of those
suspected of sympathizing with or being members of the opposition; detention of thousands without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; infringement on citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of the press; arrest, detention, and harassment of journalists for publishing articles critical of the government; restrictions on freedom of assembly and of association; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation; exploitation of children for economic and sexual purposes; trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities and against religious and ethnic minorities; and government interference in union activities.7

Well, if the aim is to “put a spotlight on Ethiopia as the cradle of civilization,” as the Houston Museum claimed, and spruce up the regime’s image along the way, I am afraid there are just too many blood spots on that image for Lucy’s skirt to cover. Nothing can overwrite the indelible facts of gross human rights abuses seared into the consciences of all freedom-loving people. Please, don’t insult the intelligence of the American people. No amount of hoopla around Lucy’s “diminutive bag of bones” can beguile the American tourist into visiting Orwellian (Zenawian) Ethiopia.

Is Dinkenesh’s (Lucy’s) Story an Allegory of “Modern” Ethiopia?

So, what is the lesson to be learned from the sordid Lucy deal? Sell the most priceless fossil of the human origin for the best offer! Rent out Lucy to an escort service? Everything has a price on it, just bring me the money!

Some say this is the standard way of doing business is done in Ethiopia today. Everything is for sale. Sell me your honor, and I will give you a scrap of land. Bow before me, and I will give you an office and title. Incriminate your neighbor, I will let you go free. Everybody has a price; you just have to find out the right price point. It all sounds so Mephistophelian: “Give me your soul in exchange for riches and power.”

Well, there are some things that money just can’t buy, such as rare, priceless and irreplaceable objects -- Dinkenesh (Lucy) of Ethiopia. There are other simple things that you can’t buy either, for any amount of money. One is Love of Country. It comes bundled with such things as pride in your cultural heritage and the sacrifices of your ancestors, uncompromising allegiance to individual liberty, tenacious commitment to truth, compassion for the poor and downtrodden, self-dignity, honor and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and most of all, enduring faith in the Almighty.

But without Love of Country, everything is up for sale, just like the prostitute your soul, honor, dignity, heritage, country…. Everything! So, where can one buy this “Love of Country”? Like I said, you don’t. You’ve got to be born with it. Either you got it, or you ain’t. But how do you know when you ain’t got it? For starters, if you start prostituting your cultural heritage, you know you ain’t got it!

Can Lucy be Rescued From White Slavery?

Can we save Lucy from white slavery? I don’t know, but we can try a few things. First, we must speak out and plead her cause before the American people, every chance we get. In the newspapers. On TV. On radio. We need to have chats with those Houston Museum patrons.
We’ve got to tell them what’s happening to Lucy. Give them a flyer to take home. Ask them to help you send Lucy home. Like Speilberg’s E.T., Lucy has got to go home!

We must inform American policy makers -- federal, state, local-- that Lucy has been smuggled into America for an illicit purpose by panderers, and demand that she be returned back to her country, pronto. We’ve got to tell them what Prof. Leakey, Dr. Haile Selassie and
all of the other scientists have said. They will understand.

But it is not enough to condemn the pimps and argue Lucy’s cause in the court of American public opinion. We must also praise and thank those scientists who exposed the truth about the secret deal that now threatens Lucy, and the museums that refused to join the prostitution ring. A special debt of gratitude should go to Prof. Richard Leakey, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Prof. Bernard Wood of George Washington University, Dr. Rick Potts of the Smithsonian Institution, and many others scientists. We should express our special appreciation and thanks to the Smithsonian Institution, the American
Museum of Natural History in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and all of the other museums that have declined to be part of the this sleazy museum escort service.

But there is more to be done. We should register our profound disappointment and disapproval of the actions of those corporations and institutions in Houston that funded this disgraceful enterprise: The Smith Foundation, METRORail, British Petroleum, The Hamill
Foundation, the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation and Texas Monthly. They need to be told that they did the wrong thing by bankrolling the deal that brought Lucy to Houston. Now, they should now do the right thing and get Lucy back home, ASAP.

I have heard Ethiopians in Houston are planning to boycott the exhibit. Ain’t it great to live in a country where you have a constitutional right to boycott whatever you want. There is a
lesson Lucy can take home for the folks, in six years. That is if she can “hang in there” (no pun intended) that long!

I Love Lucy, But I Don’t Like Her Pimps

There is ample evidence to support Prof. Leakey’s “fossil prostitution” accusations. Both Houston Museum and Ethiopian officials have confirmed Lucy is here to make a few bucks. All the other cultural stuff is just fluff around her “employment contract”.

But pimping fossils should be a concern not only to Ethiopians, but also Americans and all peoples of the world. Fossils are part of the world culture heritage. That is why they are protected by international law: The 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage8, and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. These Conventions were designed to prevent endangerment and impoverishment of world cultural heritage through illicit import, export and transfer of
ownership. Ethiopia has ratified both conventions. But neither the Houston Museum nor regime officials seem to care much for international law. Big surprise there!

The Houston deal really sets a bad precedent. Now, other countries with priceless fossil collections can use the Houston example to engage a little bit of “prostitution” themselves.

They will likely argue, “Ethiopia cut a deal with the Houston Museum, why can’t we do the same with Po Dunk Museum on the left bank of the Rio Grande? What’s good for Ethiopia is good for us too. Now, hurry up! Show me the money, and you can have whatever bone collection you want.” It’s all downhill from there.

So, what’s next for Lucy, Joel Bartsch? Dirk Van Tuerenhout? How about “The Lucy Fossil Freak Show,” in Barnum and Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth”? May be Lucy can join up with other snake oil salesmen and travel the back country in a wagon trail. Hey, can you “hook” her up at the Grand Ole Opry for a one night stand with an Elvis look-alike. (No pun intended.) America is a land of opportunity; and the possibilities are endless in the world’s oldest profession.

But Why Do We Love Lucy?

We love Lucy because she gives us a chance to talk about Ethiopia not as a land of famine, pestilence, poverty, HIV infections, political prisoners, human rights abuses and brutal dictators, but as the place where humankind could have originated. She gives us a chance to brag a little bit about the homeland. We can hold our heads up high and engage our friends in good conversation about human origins. May be chat about “baby Lucy” (the 3.3-million-yearold fossilized remains of a human-like child unearthed in the same region in 2000), and the trailblazing work of Cleveland Museum’s Dr. Haile Selassie, and paleoanthropologist Dr.
Zeresenay Alemseged at the world renowned Max Plank Institute10. Yes, Lucy could offer a welcome distraction from all of the gloom and doom that envelopes Ethiopia today. But for God’s sake, keep her home and send her replica on tour.

Lucy is fundamentally about what it means to be human, and preserving the fossil records of the origins of humanity. That’s the reason for the massive outcry from the scientific community. But a fossil does not a human make. There is another deafening outcry for humans
in Ethiopia today. It is an outcry for human rights. It is an outcry for official accountability. It is an outcry for democracy and freedom. After all, it would not make much sense to worry about human origins 3.2 million years ago if we are not concerned about human rights today!

“I Love Lucy. Let’s pitch in and get her a plane ticket home.”11

“Help pass H.R. 2003 “Ethiopia Freedom and Accountability Act of 2007.”

1 I offer some comments on Lucy in America because I was asked to do so by various individuals and groups who felt strongly that Ethiopians should not stand idly by while others are passionately defending Ethiopia’s cultural heritage. It should be acknowledged that a number of Ethiopians in Houston have made passionate public statements decrying the decision to bring Lucy to Houston. But it has been the chorus of condemnation by the world’s foremost paleontologists and museum curators that has commanded the world’s attention on the dangers of trafficking in the rarest fossil of all. I write not only to express my shared concern with the scientists and all Ethiopians who care about their heritage.

1 The fossil’s name comes from the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”, which was playing during the party celebrating
the discovery in 1974 by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray.

2 Dinkenesh is said to be “only three and a half feet tall, resembles a chimpanzee from the neck up and a modern human from the neck
down. She could walk upright like modern humans.”

3 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13864812

4 The super-hyped Lucy “World Premiere” exhibit will run at the Houston
5 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20153408/
10 See, e.g., the video stream of Dr. Zeresenay at: http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/hominiddevelopment/video/index.html
11 According to unconfirmed reports, Lucy made a press statement upon arrival in Houston. In response to a reporter’s question about
the Ethiopian Millennium, Lucy said: “Look, I have seen 3,200 Millennia in my day. But this is the most depressing Millennium I
have ever had. Man, they bagged me up in the middle of the night and kicked my behind out of the country. What’s up with that? I
want to go home. Help…” The interview was immediately terminated, and Lucy whisked away by Houston Museum officials.

False Choice on the Border Dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea

Mulugeta Alemu

31 August 2007

The Eritrean Ethiopian Border Commission (EEBC), established pursuant to the Agreement signed in Algiers on 12 December 2000, held its hearings and made its demarcation decision in 2002. Last November, the commission gave Ethiopia and Eritrea a year to demarcate their 620-mile (1,000-km) border. This decision was both dramatic and surprising since it was the Commission, not the parties, which were mandated to facilitate the demarcation of the border. The EEBC also consequerntly released a series of large scale maps in November 2006 that identified the positions where boundary pillars should be erected.

There is little possiblity that any breakthrough will be achived during the upcoming Commission’s meeting. The reasons are obvious. Eritea is not ready to engage in a constructuve dialogue which will ensure that the demarcation is undertaken in accordance with widely accepted principles and norms of international law. Eritrea has also created new facts on the ground and violated the Algiers Agreement which makes any positive outcome within the embrace of the Commission impossible. As it increasingly become instituionally, politically and legally difficult for the Commission to fulfill its mandate, there is a need for all concerned to adress old questions in a much broader and yet legally permissible manner.

Ethiopia’s Call

It is so unfortunate that despite Ethiopia’s clearest signal that it has accepted the border delimitation decision, a barrage of criticism is thrown against the Government of Ethiopia for failing to accept the decision. Some experts underline the fact that no statement was issued from the Ethiopian side giving an impression that the country favours al carte application of the ruling. Even Ethiopia’s five point’s peace plan issued on November 2004 clearly stated that Ethiopia accepts the decision. Ethiopia still continues to state that it has accepted the ruling without any precondition.

Ethiopia’s stance is that accepting the decision does not exclude the possibility of undertaking some necessary fixes. Ethiopia consistently argued that such arrangements are both required and are acceptable under international law. The fixes are required so that the demarcation does not unnecessary and negatively affect populations and communities living in the border area. But not only that Eritrea continued to show its typical intransigence and rejected these possibilities, it even went on taking measures that denied the possibility for the minimum conditions to exist for any demarcation to take place.

The Commission does not seem to be disturbed by these flagrant violations committed by the Government of Eritrea. The numerous pronouncements of the Security Council and the United Nations in general did not result in any concrete results. Legal experts say that whereas the UN Security Council can not take action to enforce what is essentially an award given by the Commission, it is granted by the provisions of the Algiers agreement to take measures it deems appropriate to address violations such as Eritrea’s incursion into the TSZ. This is so because the Agreement has explicit provisions dealing with the matter.

Explaining Eritrea’s bad faith

Eritrea’s insistence on a literal implementation of the border commission’s ruling is a concrete evidence of bad faith on its part. As the years pass on and the government’s political and economic standing is incrementally undermined by series of political and economic crisis, the price tag on the border ruling soared. The Eritrean Government staked on being on the right side of the ruling. It considers the ruling as a weighty political card. This became even more important given that the Boundary Commission’s “sister body”, the Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Commission, had ruled on 19 December 2005 that it was Eritrea which unjustifiably and illegally used force in the first place. From the perspective of legality and historical accounts, Eritrea’s culpability is sealed. The Eritrean government is vainly trying to emerge as a winner in the political battlefield.

There are all the indications that the Eritrean government wants the tense relationship with Ethiopia to continue as long as it can. It knows very well that the demarcation of the border by itself will not solve the various outstanding issues which were the root causes of the conflict in the first place. Peace does not serve the short term interest of the regime. In the past, the problem with Ethiopia has served it very well by externalising its domestic woes and problems. This point was well underlined when James Swan recently stated “The Eritrean Government has fabricated a national mythology by demonizing neighbouring Ethiopia, for the central purpose of garnering complete compliance with his autocratic domestic policies. By channelling Eritrean' patriotism into hostility toward Ethiopia, the government ensures that [it] can rule as it likes, without public opposition.”

Another clear rationale for Eritrea’s stance is interestingly similar with the one that Ethiopia has been pronouncing for years i.e. that the demarcation of the border without dialogue will results in egregious forms of injustice. The Eritrean leadership is well aware of the fact that the literal implementation of the border ruling will not go down very well particularly for communities that are directly affected by the demarcation. It simply wishes to see the Ethiopian government face the ensuing public backlash which may be attendant to any ill-considered demarcation. This also goes well, according to the Eritrean thinking, with Eritrea’s subversive dealing with some Ethiopian groups where it wanted to sell its stance on ‘one unified Ethiopia.’

Eritrea has breached its international obligations

The Government of Eritrea has consciously created facts on the ground. By deploying its massively armed military personnel and civilians, the Eritrean Government has obliterated the TSZ. It has amassed its troops in the area. It has also severely limited and restricted the capacity of UNMEE to monitor these breaches. In his report presented to the Security General on 18 July 2007, the Secretary General pointed out the following,
Eritrea has continued the induction of forces into the Zone in Sector West, where, according to every approximate estimates by UNMEE, at least 400 additional troops were employed over the reporting period. In addition to troop rotations in Sector Centre, as well as in Sub sector East, Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) were observed actively constructing new defences in the Zone, including in close proximity to Badme and other areas. UNMEE also observed that, through rotations, the militia manning the posts in the Zone were increasingly being replaced by regular EDF troops, in direct violation of the Protocol Agreement and the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities of 18 June 2000

In a broader context of the relationship, Eritrea is also the party that has actively taken illegal and criminal measures affecting Ethiopia. It has involved in the kidnapping of Ethiopians and foreigners. It has armed and trained groups which committed and attempted to commit terrorist acts within Ethiopia. Several armed opposition groups are stationed in Eritrea. These actions in one way or another have effectively transformed the post-ruling relationships or lack of it between the two countries.

Eritrea, which has always felt it is on the right side of the ruling for the wrong reasons, invariably took the position that it is justified to take uncensored measures. It either ignored or consciously violated resolutions passed by the Security Council including Resolution 1640 which requested it to violate The international community and particularly the United Nations have encouraged such behaviour by ignoring its serious breaches and violations.

Eritrea’s refusal to cooperate with the UN and other actors has a long history. It has effectively undermined the role of the UN envoy through the person of the Canadian Prime Minster Lloyd Axworthy. "If the organization (UN) is intending to initiate another round of shuttle diplomacy, and seeking mechanisms to replace the rule of law ... it would be advisable to save exhaustion," was the official response from Eritrea to any possible attempt by the world body.

Eritrea does not speak the language of dialogue

The implementation of the ruling should be judged in broader context. A number of questions need to be answered. Will the demarcation of the border as demanded by Eritrea help the two countries to see eye to eye in many other areas? Will it create the confidence and trust required for lasting rapprochement and peace?

The Commission and some of its venerated international jurists often argue that their role is not political and as such it is left for the parties to determine how they wish to solve their problems which are not associated directly with the border. But the problem with this argument is that it ignores the clear and manifest risk that if the measures the Commission decides to undertake are not supported by the parties, they will be recipe for disaster.

Norway’s fall out

Norway is not an important player in the peace process. But its activities are a clear example of how wrongly conceived plan can be a problem than a solution. It is not a member of the group of witnesses to the Algiers agreements. But since lately it has invigorated its role with the attempt to bring a breakthrough. Norway’s overzealousness and lack of focus in its diplomacy in the region should be evaluated from yet another perspective. It is an active member of the Contact Group on Somalia and is its current chair. It has publicly criticized what it called the presence of foreign troops in Somalia. With a strong historical relationship with Eritrea even during the long-drown civil war, Norway’s conducts and dealings with countries in the Horn not only created the impression of bias but did actually undermined the trust and confidence some countries have towards it.

There are three important reasons why Norway has behaved the way it did. The Norwegians’ public pronouncements on the issue have been all over the place. Norway’s State Secretary Raymond Johansen interstingly outlined the Governmnt’s thinking in his lecture delivered at an event organized by the Institue of Strategic Studies in South Africa on May 21, 2007. Firstly, Norway belives and has made it know that it considers Ethiopia’s “refusal” is the main source of the stalmate between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Secondly, it has argued that the international community has sent inconsistent message to Ethiopia, insunuitaing that countries such as United States onply favour Ethiopia on issues including on the demarcation of the border. Thirdly, it argues that Eritrea’s violation of the TSZ is a direct result of Ethiopia’s unwillingness to accept the ruling. Fourthly, it has publicly claimed that there is a direct relationship between the border problem between Ethioppia and Eritrea and the situation in Somalia.

Let us look at these points separatly. It is simply nonsensical to suggest that Ethiopia’s stance, which according to experts in the area of internaational law is quite permissible even under a strict interpretation of international law, justifies Eritrea’s violation of the Algiers Agreement. Secondly the US more or less have promoted simlimar policies like the Norwegians. They have, in a number of occassions and to the chargin of Ethiopian officials, taken position which criticised Ethiopia. No one can interpretate Jendayi Frazer’s view that both Eritrea and Ethiopia violated their commitments as America’s blind support for Ethiopia. Norwegian position is obviously imbued with European anti-Americanism. Norwegians have gravely conflated matters when they connected the border problem between Ethiopia and Eritrea with what is going on in Somalia. Ethiopia has gone into Somalia not to fight Eritrea whereas Eritrea is is in Somalia hoping that it can engage in undertakings that may undermine the interest of Ethiopia. So when Norwegian diplomats make such connection, it becomes clear from which perspective they are looking at the matter. This complicates the mater for them since Norway also chairs the International Contact Group on Somalia. One thing which the Norwegians can not legitimately do is to single out Ethiopia and take it to task on human rights. How come that Norway’s human rights concerns have never been directed at a country which has never held election, which has never had any constitution, which does not have a parliament, which does not even have a single private media?

What has become clear from the official press statement released by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that, Ethiopian authorities do not want to escalate the matter. That is probably why they have not publicized the matter till the Norwegians have announced it.

How can the international community help?

The United State, the European Union and others need to ensure that they play their role as true peace guarantors. They can only so by supporting a mechanism which ensures a last peaceful solution to the crisis. It is disconcerting to see the issue being presented as if Ethiopia and Eritrea are faced with the choice between the implementation of the ruling and dialogue. What Ethiopia is asking is the need to implement the decision based on a dialogue which itself is based on international norms and principles. Isn’t that a reasonable demand?

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Ban Ki-Moon
United Nations Secretary General
The United Nations
New York, NY 10017


Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,

We write you to express our sincere appreciation for your decision to send a fact-finding mission to the Ogaden Region in Ethiopia, and ask you to extend this mission to other parts of the country to gain a more complete view on various atrocities committed by the Ethiopian Government against innocent civilians.

As reported by the international media and human rights organisations, government forces have been conducting gross human rights violations, including the killing of civilians, torture, rape, and destruction of the livelihoods of poor pastoralists in the Ogaden region in Eastern Ethiopia. Many of these actions amount to crimes under international law. Unfortunately, the troubling recent developments in the Ogaden do not stand alone. As reported over the last several years by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Genocide Watch, and the human rights reports of the U.S. Department of State, there have been many similar circumstances in which the government of Ethiopia was involved in the massacre of civilians in other parts of the country, such as Gambella, Awassa, Jimma, Wollega, to name a few.

We therefore urge you to demand the immediate halt to the atrocious and gross human rights abuses currently taking place against civilians in Eastern Ethiopia, but also extend the fact-finding mission to investigate similar massacres in other regions of Ethiopia which have been well documented by established institutions. We also urge you to indict the members of the Ethiopian government who will be found responsible for committing widespread atrocities against civilians in the country.

We thank you in advance for your careful and diligent consideration of this serious matter. We also look forward to further information regarding the measures taken and the findings made by the UN fact-finding mission.

Sincerely,

Kassa Ayalew, M.D., M.P.H., Chair
Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA)
Phone: (703) 665-4042
PO.Box 1292
Lorton, Virginia 22199-1292, USA
www.eacamoveon.org
eacadvocacy@gmail.com

The Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA) is a US based, non-profit, non-partisan civic organization striving to empower Ethiopian-Americans and Ethiopians to fight for the respect of human rights, promote democratic governance, and demand donor accountability in Ethiopia. For more information about EACA, please visit the website: www.eacamoveon.org.

Ethiopia - Washington Update

Posted August 30, 2007

1. URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED to secure co-sponsors for
H.R.2003, The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability
Act of 2007. Representative Donald Payne introduced
the bill so there is no need to contact his office. We
urge you to contact Tom Lantos, chairman of the
International Relations Committee, and ask him to move
forward to markup H.R. 2003 in September.

We also urge that you contact members of the
committee, asking that they support the bill.
To get the names and telephone numbers of committee
members, go to
http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/fullmem.htm.
Click on the name of a member of Congress and you will
see how to contact them. You can also call the Capitol
switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to
a particular representative's office.

H.R. 2003 includes language condemning two incidents
in which peaceful demonstrators were shot by
government forces. It also includes a ban on travel to
the United States by government officials and forces
involved in the shooting of demonstrators.

When you call to urge support of the bill, explain why
it is important to you. Use your own words. You might
want to mention your concern for human rights,
democratic principles, freedom of expression and
freedom of the press. You should also point out that
the bill will assist the effort to make Ethiopia a
free and prosperous country that can be a reliable
ally of the United States.

After House co-sponsors have been lined up, it will be
necessary to find a Senate sponsor and co-sponsors.
So our effort will need to continue in the Senate.

The Meles regime will try to convince Congress that
legislation like H.R. 2003 could limit its ability to
fight America’s war on terrorism.
Members of Congress need to understand, however, that
a regime that imprisons its most talented political
and civic leaders, that steals elections and represses
the news media, that pursues economic policies that
impoverish the nation, is creating conditions that
breed more terrorism.

We had a good meeting with Senator Barak Obama's
staff. We gave them detailed accounts of the present
human rights situation in Ethiopia. We were pleased to
see that the staff knows lot about the Ethiopian
situation and were sympathetic to our goals.

In attendance at the meeting were Ethiopian Parliament
members Dr. Bezabhe and Major Admasu as well as
Mesfin Mekonen of the the Kinijit International
Council. We requested that Senator Obama introduce
legislation in the Senate in support of H.R. 2003. We
also asked that he contact the State Department to
express concern about the delay in granting vistas to
Engineer Hailu Shawel and other Kinijit leaders.We
have also been in close contact with Donald Yamamoto,
U.S. Ambassador to Eathiopia on the delayed visa
issue.
In a related issue, Senator Obama's staff has informed
us that they have talked with the State Department
about the urgent need for visas to be issued for the
scheduled visit to Washington of Kinijit chairman,
Hailu Shawel and other leaders of Kinijit. The
senator's staff said the State Department has given
the visas a high priority.

We will keep you posted on developments.

Sen. Obama's staff urged us to remind the Ethiopian
community that it is essential that we work together
to encourage Congress to pass this crucial
legislation. When we speak together, clearly and
strongly, our voice will be heard.

Mesfin Mekonen, Kinijit International Council Foreign Relations

NES COMMENTARY. No.10

Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES)
August 23, 2007


Title: UNITE THE PEOPLE FROM THE RED SEA TO THE INDIAN OCEAN: DIVISION AND FRAGMENTATION HAS NOT AND WILL NEVER WORK!!

I. Inspiration:
“As long as boundaries inherited... drawn arbitrarily with no heed to the ethnic, economic and social realities of Africa (continue), so long shall we be plagued by the political refugee problem… (Thus) the fault is in ours, not in our stars!” K. Nkrumah, October, 1965, Accra

“Where there has been racial hatred, it must be ended. Where there has been tribal animosity, it will be finished. Let us not dwell upon the bitterness of the past. I would rather look to the future, to the good new Kenya, not to the bad old days. If we can create this sense of national direction and identity, we shall have gone a long way toward solving our economic problems.”
Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding President

“This is my plea to the new generation of African leaders and African peoples: work for unity with firm conviction that without unity there is no future for Africa…I reject the glorification of the nation-state, which we have inherited from colonialism, and the artificial nations we are trying to forge from that inheritance. We are all Africans trying to be Ghanaians or Tanzanians. Fortunately for Africa we have not been completely successful…Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated. And it will therefore increase the effectiveness of the decisions we make and try to implement for our development. My generation led Africa to political freedom. The current generation of leaders and peoples of Africa must pick up the flickering torch of African freedom, refuel it with their enthusiasm and determination, and carry it forward.”

Julius Nyerere, First president of Tanzania

“Deal with the enemy of today without ever forgetting that he could become the friend of tomorrow” Habib Bourguiba, First president of Tunisia

“...Constructing a nation from scratch: We know we don’t have the knowledge. We know we do not have the resources. We know we do not have the experience. Our conclusion is: let’s face it.”

Isaias Afewerki, current president of Eritrea (quoted from National Geographic, June 1996, p.87)

2. Introduction

The Horn of Africa Conference was held for the sixth time in Lund University, Sweden between 23 August and 26 August, 2007. It is guided by a wonderful concept of generating constructive dialogue amongst civil society groups, scholars, political leaders and business communities from the Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti

The theme of the conference was on post-conflict peace-building with the objective of identifying key characteristics and contentious issues with a view to facilitate a communicative rationality to encourage consensus by enabling networking and possible undertaking of future activities by the stakeholders drawn across the regions. Indeed such a venture to bring the relevant and significant actors from the region to learn to cooperate and not continue to fight and hate is commendable. In this conference attendance was full, the arguments were lively and at times heated and the issues urgent and very compelling. Not only were all the ambassadors from the region represented and participated, (except Eritrea represented by a Counsellor serving as the ambassador), but also scholars from the region as well as from Scandinavia participated. There was a lot of information and opportunities for networking in the conference. The conference was to come up with recommendations to facilitate a post-conflict era in the wider region from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. The question we ask is the following: will such a useful forum be helpful in advancing the cause of building trust and moving into a higher level of unity amongst the relevant forces in the region? Can it be useful to create dialogue and communication by refocusing thought and action to solve the real problems of real people? Can it bring the communities, intellectuals, civil societies, the state and society together? If nothing else this conference concentrates our thoughts to ask many pertinent questions.

3. Special Relationship

The people residing from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean have a special relationship. The Ethiopian ambassador made this point very clearly and in several occasions in the two days I attended on the 25th and 26th. The people and the region can either move forward by acting together “like a great body that refuses mutilation” (Fanon) and works for enduring composition or they can also remain trapped in fighting, spreading hate and confusion by trying to pursue misguided missions to form nations without knowledge, resources and experience as Isias boasts. In Africa the post- colonial states have not been successful to bring about a tolerable and acceptable level of well being of the people nor bring fully yet the dignity and respect of Africa from marginalisation and constant state of conflict and warfare. The countries of the Horn of Africa by now should have learned the bitter lesson from the way they mutilated each other by joining the cold war and dying for an agenda which has nothing to do with their own welfare. Having failed to learn from the Cold War debacle, they seem to fall in once again for being victims of global agendas and global politics they have absolutely no part in manufacturing. Some of them fight on the side of one set of global actors that fight another set of global actors. As long as they continue to do so and behave with such subservience to other powers greater than them, they may have a geographical proximity, but may not be able to realise and cement their special relationship to construct a shared present and future free from war and misery. A special relationship means a unity of purpose and approach to develop a shared goal, direction and strategy on how to deal with the external forces and internal challenges in the region itself. How can” one Africa that fights against colonialism and another that attempts to make arrangements with it” (Fanon) ever unite to pursue shared goals either as good neighbours or as entities that need to share a common approach in relation to outside forces that come with their own exclusive agenda and/or internal challenges that can be overcome by deploying unity borne of the special historical, cultural and spatial connections of the region and the people in it?

4. Myth of Origin

Looking back far ahead at the possible birthdates of the names Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia, one finds a remarkable history that they more or less originated in the same area and the forces that shaped each one has shaped the other. If we look back thus to the myth of origin of these entities, we find that it argues for their unity and composition rather than their division and fragmentation.

If we take the Pre-Judaic, Pre- Christian and pre-Islamic phases of historical evolution, again the same thing transpires: the same forces that shaped each have shaped the others.

If we take the Judaic, Christian and Islamic periods respectively, we see a history of interaction, communication, migrations, wars, and a shared civilisation and extensive contact through trade with the outside world of Europe, India and China. We see not only did these entities from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean communicate through mutual subjugation and the brutalities, injustices and oppressions recorded in history from the outside medieval and ancient worlds, but also through the migration of their own civilisations through the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, even the Atlantic and other outlets. (Shihan de S Jayasuriya & R. Pankhurst (eds.) The African Diaspora in The Indian Ocean, 2003)

The division of these entities into the states as we know them as they are arranged now came during the notorious period of the European Scramble for Africa. During this period in the 19th century the people of this region were divided or mutilated and their determined resistance against the colonial encounter was largely and on the whole, though heroic, was unsuccessful. Even the Ethiopian kings that appeared to have been able to snatch and retain a territorially carved Ethiopian state formation that waxed and waned territorially over time from the jaws of the European scramble only were able to maintain and retain on the whole a tenuous grip. Their states have been constantly threatened by perfidious imperial humiliations through unequal treaties and unrealistic and unfair border demarcations that imbedded the seeds of all sorts of conflicts and antagonisms that have undermined state and unification in Ethiopia. The imperial- colonial pressure was victimising rather than building. Ethiopia emerged scathed with the scars and threats of the imperial agenda of the time falling prey to it once more by those it defeated, for example, at Adwa in 1896 and falling under fascist occupation between 1936 and 1941 under the Italians colonial adventures.

Whilst it is very clear to any sober person that Ethiopia suffered as an oppressed country, and whatever it managed to recover from the imperialist onslaught is gained through huge sacrifice and resistance, a particularly sinister reading and twist was given to its role during the Scramble for Africa, as if it was part and parcel of the Great Powers, and indeed a great power itself!! Nothing can be furthest from the truth than this preposterous claim that Ethiopia was part and parcel of the imperial and colonial system. Ethiopia was a victim of the colonial-imperial order and cannot be considered as part and parcel of the imperial system even if it were to have allied with one sort or group of imperial powers locked in rivalries with each other to retain a partially carved state from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea.

In the Conference in Lund some delegates who should know better tried to spread some unusual tales claiming that the current Somali invasion by the Ethiopian Government was a continuation of the imperial colonial project of the Scramble for Africa where they alleged Ethiopia participated by sending a delegation to the Berlin 1885 infamous meeting. Even if Ethiopia sent an observer, it is a far cry from exaggerating such a presence into a role that Ethiopia was part of the forces that carved the African continent.

Conceptually such a claim is outrageous and bankrupt. The Ethiopian emperor was clear that the people from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean are historically and culturally connected. But he lamented the fact that the imperial project disrupted their unity and appealed to God to restore their unity at some possible time in the future. That prescient insight by emperor Menelik has nothing to do with a colonial project. It has everything to do with redressing great power imperial and colonial injustice visited upon not only on the people from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, but also Africa from the Mediterranean to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

In Ethiopia those who have legitimate demands to decentralise the states of the region particularly in Ethiopia by localising authority at the grassroots by devolving power and empowering ordinary citizens went overboard and created false ideologies of Ethiopia as a’ colonial’ power. This thesis has been loosely spread by books such as Addis Hiwot’s From Autocracy to Revolution, London, published by the Review of African Political Economy group, 1975, Bereket Habte Selassie, Conflict and Intervention in the Horn of Africa, MRP, New York, 1980, A. Jalata, Oromia and Ethiopia: State Formation and Ethnonational Conflict 1868-1992, Lynne Reinner, 1992, Sisay Ibsa et al The Invention of Ethiopia, Trenton, Red Sea press 1991. There are many articles and pamphleteering from the various fronts from the TPLF to OLF, ONLF, Sidama Liberation Front and others that spread loosely the false conception of Ethiopia’s relations with the various communities both inside and outside the region as a colonial relation. This sinister anti- intellectual and devious misconstruction must be rejected and the precise concept that truly characterises relations of oppressions involving the peoples of the region re- formulated by mounting an unsparing criticism of so much of the propaganda masquerading as science. Ethiopia’s relations with Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti or Sudan has never been colonial and is not colonial in the sense of a relationship that Britain, Italy or France had with these various states including Ethiopia.

5. Build the Unity of the People from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean

The people of the region must enter into an overriding project to unite and reject colonial boundaries. It is a scandal that in 1998-2000 nearly 100, 000 people died to defend borders drawn by others for their own reasons against the interest of the grassroots population by the elites that chose to split Eritrea from Ethiopia and bring both regions to the brink. This is indeed a historic wrong that continues to amaze all justice and humane people throughout the world. Not only has a war being fought, but to this day a no war and no peace state prevails affecting negatively the people who live on both sides of the Mereb River.

The elites have created refugees from each side and it looks the refugees have turned into a breeding ground to destabilise each regime. In recent weeks a new rhetoric has been launched by both the rulers in Ethiopia and those in Eritrea. Isias has given an interview in a glossy magazine in three languages about his undying and unchanging commitment to a ‘one Ethiopia—andit or hanti Ethiopia’!!! He declared in the front cover: “It’s our persistent stance to strive for a united Ethiopia.” Isias utters such a statement, according to the Ethiopian ambassador in Stockholm, whilst hosting forces that have an explicit agenda to break away and create splinter states from Ethiopia in Asmara!

It is also the case that Isias has been instrumental in the support given to the TPLF during its early formation. It is no exaggeration that the formulation of Eritrea’s relation with Ethiopia as a relation between colonized Eritrea and colonizer Ethiopia has given impetus to the tactics and strategy of using and exacerbating ethnic division in order to facilitate Ethiopia’s separation from Ethiopia. This strategy has been used by the EPLF and now it looks rhetorically Isias wishes to join the forces of unity rather than the forces of fragmentation. Curiously in the back cover of this glossy magazine which was distributed at the Lund conference, it has a picture of engineer Hailu Shawl of CUD and Siye Abraha of the TPLF!! Siye has been credited for refusing to be bullied by Isias and urging to re-arrange fair settlement of the Eritrea and Ethiopian problem.

To his credit Isias now seems to oppose ethnic inequalities under the guise of equalising ethnic communities in his concept of ‘hanti Ethiopia’: He said:” The people of Tigray have suffered and have become victims of the hostility created by the TPLF regime’s apparent favour towards the people of Tigray over other ethnic groups.” (p.56)What prompted this commentary in a glossy magazine projecting an austere and modest Isias? If indeed there is a profound change in the way Isias understands Ethiopia, his call for ‘hanti Ethiopia’ can be welcomed. The real problem is what does Isias understand by it and even more does his word and deed match or go in opposite directions as the Ethiopian ambassador to Stockholm pointed out at the conference? The true reasons for this latest posturing by both sides, i.e., Isias swearing for Ethiopian unity on the one hand, and Meles and Sebhat swearing to preserve Eritrean sovereignty on the other, may be revealed when something in terms of actions ensue.

The only way that the recent rhetoric from Isias can be taken seriously is if it stops him from reacting with knee jerk logic and continues to support forces that keep mis-formulating relations between Ethiopia and others in the region with concepts of colonialism and such like. Any colonial formulation is not aimed at a fight against the regime in Ethiopia now. It becomes a fight against Ethiopia’s existence: it is thus, above all, a fighting of the very survival and ontology of Ethiopia as an entity and country itself.

The TPLF leaders now in power too believe in such loose concepts as Ethiopia being a ‘colonial power in Eritrea’ and they too are putting at risk the very survival of Ethiopia both by the clumsiness of ethnicsing the country’s politics and by insisting Ethiopia has been a ‘colonial’ power over Eritrea until they took over the helm of state and found they have to deal with their own idiotic games on Ethiopia’s future. Such self-serving formulation has deeply hurt Ethiopia’s prospects and future. The worry that Ethiopia may be harmed by them is shared by all those who understand Ethiopians having a project of unification of the people who share a long history and fate from the Red sea to the Indian Ocean.

6. Searching for a Constuitive Foundation to unite the people in the Region

Looking back to the long duree, one sees the origin of each of the states we now call Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan is shared and similar. And if we, for example, take the origin of Ethiopia we see two myths of origin: one is Atiopik, grandson of Noah who created the Ethiopian nation and his son Aksumai who formed the Axumite civilisation. In this sense Ethiopia which included not only the states of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somali and Sudan, but also southern Egypt, Yemen east of Aden, Southern Saudi Arabia can be seen like what Scandinavia is to Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden today. The other version is Ethiopia as in the Greek term for sun- burnt faces, in this latter sense-making, Ethiopia can mean ´the whole of Africa’ today.

If we take each of the states and play back history we see the organic connections that existed amongst them throughout history until the 19th century Scramble for Africa. This brings us to an important theorem. How have we tried to understand the past? How should we understand it now? Should we derive positive possibilities from our past or condemn it? Should we dialogue with the past or reject it? Can we back-cast to look far ahead in the future and shape the future together with rules and procedures for full rights of all the grassroots whilst finding workable arrangements for living together peacefully and with security and stability? What constitutive foundation will bring the people from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean to live together in peace, stability, security and unity by doing away with the hurts, hatreds, fights and various unhealthy interventions by outsiders owing to the chronic mistrust, fragmentation and divisions amongst the people that has made it possible for such negative and destructive interventions to occur so frequently and so unnecessarily? How can we heal the divisions and create trust to go beyond the innumerable tragedies, hatreds and fights that have accumulated over years and years of wrongs and internal oppressions backed by external divisive interests?

Moreover should we look back to our past to learn from it or justify the current fragmentation? Should we look at the past to justify division rather than overcome it? Should we look at the past to set new standards rather than accept the ineffective post- colonial states that have earned the ignominy of fragile, collapsed and failed states varied status? How can we derive positive and constructive spirit and energy from the past to create a positive and constructive spirit and energy capable of generating a national direction for transforming the individual, society, and economy, polity with shared democratic systems, rule of law, human rights and governance in the region as a whole?

The 19th century division mutilated the body of our region as indeed it did mutilate the whole of Africa to use Fanon’s words. As the distinguished thinker Prof. Kwesi Prah put it: “We had nothing to do with the creation of these states (say from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean in our case).They were created for us, not with the intent of serving our interests, but rather with the object of benefiting the European powers, which carried out this carve-up, so painfully, and with ruthless determination. Ironically, while we often bemoan colonialism and the legacies of the colonialists, we appear to want to defend, most tenaciously, the most detrimental legacy of colonialism, the colonial borders.”(The Africa Nation: the State of the Nation, CASAS, Cape Town, 2006, pp.289-290). Wars have been fought between Ethiopia and Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea to defend colonial borders drawn by others for their own purposes. People have died in hundreds and thousands for something that must be rejected and not defended. Eritrea and Ethiopian ruling elites tell us they are in a ‘no war and no peace’ state situation because they are fighting over the issue of making sure one of the borders drawn by Italy that divides families and parishes must be honoured. Such is the utter bankruptcy, myopia, lack of self-respect, and criminality of the elites that rule over with crude power and putting at risk our region and not having any positive hope to offer a way out.

9. Concluding Remark: The Only Way out is Unity not fighting and spreading hate and lies!

This commentary was prompted by the Conference on the Horn of Africa in Lund. I found the emotional temperature of this conference very high. It was difficult sometimes to see a constructive way out when people who should behave as organic intellectuals and see deeper and with greater vision feel hurt and communicate that hurt. I write this to urge us to go beyond the hurt and find a resourceful way to deal with the many problems and conflicts that complicate the emergence of a bright future for our region.

I think we can only ignore or side step the variegated history of communication of the peoples through migration, civilisation, wars and injustices at our peril. The past must be dealt with moral intelligence and we must be prepared to deploy and construct the present and shape the future. The 19th century burden must be lifted from the backs of our region by only rejecting it and not defending it. Unity of the region must be a priority of priorities. The people must be allowed to come together. The elites must stop using various stratagems to obstruct the crystallisation of people’s unity in the region. The people’s transactions must be increased systematically and not discouraged. The architecture of peace and stability must be built not partially but regionally. There must be legitimate and agreed rules and procedures to bring us together. Without building a common perspective of the region in relation to external and internal challenges, it would be difficult to create enduring institutions that can valorise the power, rights and freedoms of the people of the region by constructive a flexible , sustainable and workable democratic arrangements.

The current destructive expressions of elite nationalisms would not bring the region together too. Religion would not bring us together either. Only sustained commitment to democratisation and liberty to realise and consolidate the unity of the region and the people from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean will bring us to the promise land of unity and development in freedom. And once we unite, we can create the model for the next important project: the unification of Africa starting from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and culminating with from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. When we become more Africans, we become even stronger Ethiopians, Somalis and Sudanese by embedding our security, stability, peace, freedom, democracy, rule of law, freedoms of association and speech and governance in our region on a sustainable pedigree.

References

1. Kwesi Prah, State of The African Nation : the state of the Nation, Casas, Cape Town, 2006
2. Shihan de s Jayasuriya & Richard Pankhurst (Eds.) The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean, Africa World Press, Trenton NJ and Asmara, 2003
3. Isias Afeworki, (Interview) One Ethiopia, Andit or Hanti Ethiopia, Ministry of Information, Eritrean Government, August,2007:
4. A. Osman, Mammo Muchie & Joakim Gundel(eds.), Somalia: Diaspora and State Reconstitution in the Horn of Africa, Adonis-Abbey Publishers, London, 2007-08-28
5. Milkias & Metaferia et al, The battle of Adwa, Algora Publishing, New York, 2005
6. SIRC, Horn of Africa Conference VI: Post- Conflict Peace- Building in the Horn of Africa, Lund University, Sweden

By Mammo Muchie, Chair, on behalf of Network of Ethiopian Scholars, Scandinavian Chapter

Mammo Muchie, DPhil
Professor
Director of DIR
Research Centre on Development&IR
Aalborg University
Fibigertraede 2
9220-Aalborg East
Aalborg, Denmark
Tel.no. 00-45 9635 9813
fax.no. 00 45-98153298
http://www.ihis.aau.dk/development/
http://www.ihis.aau.dk/ccis/

Ethiopia - Man of the Millennium

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia

A king not in power but one that is still feared by political figures as if he still were.

More than 30 years have passed since he was last seen, that is not considering the sitings by Rastafarian believers who claim he will return for the judgment day sometime in the new millennium. That is not my argument however, because faith has the power to move mountain.

For me its a question of history, dignity and the respect of one self. I never knew him since I was born late after his time, in 1980. However this extraordinary character, a great diplomat and political leader, the one considered as the Father of Africa and one of the many Ethiopian Kings who truly dignified Ethiopia is still being despised.

Why are we so much afraid of his history? Why can't we speak of him? I'm not saying he was perfect or that we should undo what has been done. All I'm saying is that he deserves at least to be mentioned. At least to be know by the new generation. At least be given the
chance to prove what his intentions were.

I have waited too long...and I believe the time has come for what I know is right. The right to know who His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie was. I am not a historian. I am just a simple film maker eager
to know about this king. I am inviting you to accompany me in my journey to discover history. Man of the Millennium is a feature documentary that tries to link the past and the present. A film about a King and of the new generation trying to figure out what went
wrong. A film in which figures from the past talk about what they witnessed. Man of the Millennium is not just a biographical documentary. It is a film were you see the new generation struggling to catch up with their past. In Man of the Millennium you will witness
true life experience of artists trying to make songs and films about issues that are were politically undignified but issues I consider are history, history that must be told.

from the director - Tikher Teferra

Ethiopia - Norway: Shock' belongs to the wrong doer!


By Leoul Mekonen

This article is a response to the news in the most popular Norwegian newspaper ‘Aftenposten’ about the expulsion of Norwegian diplomats under the title "Norway 'shocked' over diplomatic expulsion".

It was so amazing and surprising for many Ethiopians why Meles's reaction shocked the Norwegian authorities. "Why is that the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs got shocked?" was a popular and spontaneous question among thousands of Ethiopians. Why would a rich country like Norway get shocked when a brutal and oppressive regime expelled diplomats? Isn't it the nature of dictators to attack, accuse and insult those who oppose them or have different ideas and attitudes? Wasn't it clear for the Norwegian authorities all these years that the Meles Zenawi regime has been constantly attacking opposition groups? Haven't they seen or heard how the European Union election observers were rudely insulted for telling the truth about the election regularities? What has amazed many of us Ethiopians in exile is the short memory of Norwegian authorities when it comes to their cooperation and collaboration with dictatorial regimes like Meles Zenawi. I as a refugee who got the opportunity to save my life and my freedom in Norway, I consider Norway as my own country and I am worried by the Norwegian foreign policy when the authorities don't take adequate measures to sanction dictatorial regimes. It was countless times Ethiopians all over the world cried out for the injustices they suffer in the hands of brutal security forces. A reaction which didn't come at the right time will always jeopardise the accountability and the image of my beloved second country, Norway.

Norway's reaction was too smooth towards the Ethiopian government even after 193 peaceful demonstrators were massacred following the may 2005 election. Then, the Norwegian ministry was neither amazed nor shocked when unarmed citizens were gunned down in a broad daylight. Writing reports about the political condition in Ethiopia was not enough, there was a very high expectation and dismay among Ethiopians all over the world when the Norwegian government wasn't willing or unable to denounce the brutal actions of security forces. The massacre and the brutality didn't happen only that time. Since Meles Zenawi came to power in may 1991, opposition groups suffered a lot due to his rule with the rod of iron. Meles Zenawi crushed mercilessly both nationalist groups who support the idea of unity and separatists who claim secession and independence. Playing the ethnic card, he was able to practise the old and popular "divide and rule" policy. The hilarious part of this story is that, the Norwegian authorities weren't amazed or shocked all these years the way they do now. The magnitude of the shock was supposed to be higher when human beings die like flies rather than the expulsion of six healthy diplomats. What will Norway lose by stopping cooperation with the Meles Zenawi oppressive government and what will Norway achieve by regretting and maintaining cooperation? What is the interest of Norway in a country ravaged by war, poverty and internal conflicts?

When such shameful reactions came from the brutal dictator, we Ethiopians have expected bold and strong reaction from the Norwegian government to quit the diplomatic relation at once. But what is displayed in the tone of Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs is "regret". Where does that regret come from? Is it from the wrong and unethical cooperation they had with the dictator or from what? "Regret " belongs to the wrong doers, murderess, human right violators, oppressors etc. So it is a puzzle for many Ethiopians to hear the word "regret " from Norwegian authorities. The context of that "regret" is blur and unclear. "what does darkness has to do with light?" says Bible. A wonderful democratic and prosperous country like Norway shouldn't have any cooperation with Meles Zenawi regime in the first place. A war lord who came to power by Gun shouldn't get a single penny from the Norwegian tax payers. While the dispute is a shock to the Norwegian authorities, many Ethiopians are pleased by the event and we will pray hard until that unpleasant cooperation crumbles. The donation given to the Meles oppressive regime emboldens him to strengthen his military power and use all means to squash his opponents. As long as the Norwegian money flows to his party and government, why would a dictator like Meles Zenawi give up his power through ballot, instead he will maintain it by bullet.

Regret is good and productive only when one learns from its mistakes and plan to do something good in the future. It is Ethiopians hope and wish that the Norwegian authorities regret come from their unethical cooperation with the dictatorial regime and their reluctance to denounce and act in favour of the oppressed Ethiopian people.

30 August 2007

Oslo

Mr. Obang Metho Addresses Ogadenis in Minnesota: “Let us Break Down the Invisible Fences of Ethiopia!”

August 27, 2007

It is an honor to be here in front of you to talk about human rights in Ethiopia. Human rights abuses are going on all over the country, but right now, the people of the Ogaden are paying the heaviest price. What is happening in the Ogaden is a silent Darfur.

I am here with you today as a brother who knows what you are going through. I am here to grieve with you as part of your Ethiopian family. I am here as a fellow worker in a battle against the same injustice that is killing all of our people—the people of Gambella, the Ogaden and in all of Ethiopia!

I want to thank the Ogaden Youth Network for inviting me to first Annual International Ogaden Youth Committee and for all the excellent work you have done in organizing this conference. I thank the Ogaden Human Rights Committee, the University of St. Thomas who is hosting this conference and the many others who assisted in bringing this about.

I am glad to be in this great state of Minnesota. Minnesota has become my second home. Since 2004, I have been coming here many times to speak, starting with the Anuak. You may not know that most of the Anuak in the United States live in Minnesota, as do my family members, friends and some of my work colleagues. More recently, I have been here to speak at the University of Minnesota and just two weeks ago to speak to the Oromo.

More Oromo live in Minnesota than anywhere else in the country, but I have just learned from some of my hostesses that there are 15,000 to 18,000 Ogadenis here in Minnesota as well—again, more than in any other place in the country!

I now feel all the more strongly that Minnesota is my second home because I feel so at home with not only the Anuak, but now also because it is the largest US home of Ogadenis and the Oromo. You all are my new brothers and sisters and we have much in common, but the Anuak and the Ogadenis have had little chance to meet in the past.

I first met some of you in January of this year when we were in Atlanta at a meeting about the human rights abuses in Ethiopia that was organized by African Americans. During our stay, some of us met informally in a hotel room and talked for hours.

There were four Ogadenis, one Amhara, one Oromo and me, an Anuak. While we were there, Abdulhakim, an Ogadeni, commented that it was unbelievable that we were all there together in the same room. He went on to say that previously there had been an invisible fence that had blocked us from each other that had been set in place by the Dergue and now was reinforced by the Woyane government.

Then another Ogadeni, named Yassin Kiassim, said jokingly, “That’s why we don’t even have the name “Baria” to call you—because we’ve never met you before!” We all laughed about this and then agreed that we had to break this invisible fence so the people of Ogaden could settle in Gambella if they wanted to and so the people of Gambella could do the same in the Ogaden, just like in the United States where US citizens did not have to go through a check point to move from state to state!
Why can’t we do the same in Ethiopia?

As we talked more, we were very encouraged as we were all able to envision such a new Ethiopia! This is one thing for which we Ethiopians can thank Meles—through our pain and suffering at the hands of this regime, we have found the threads to bind together those of us from the southwestern region of Gambella with those of you from the southeastern region of the Ogaden, forming a new friendship and partnership. These friendships and resulting partnerships have now stretched across the country to bring us together as one family of Ethiopians.

We should continue to reach out until we are all under the shade of one tent. As your faith of Islam states, we were created and shaped out of the same clay making us all equal. As we realize this, it should help us build friendships based on respect and appreciation of each other, regardless of our differences. This is the way to break down the invisible fences that have needlessly separated us for so many years. As I learn more about the people of the Ogaden, I realize how much we have in common, but unfortunately, we also have suffered at the hands of our government in similar ways.

This is where I would like to start today—by first comparing what happened to the Anuak of Gambella with what is now going on with those in the Ogaden. Secondly, I will discuss the impact of human rights abuses on the country as a whole and how we have become part of a system where many factions have been vying for ethnic dominance—a dominance that can also later be used to oppress others, even those of one’s own ethnicity—lasting only until the next group takes over and repeats the cycle.

Thirdly, I will speak about what we can do to stop this cycle that is causing us to self-destruct and how to replace it with an alternative that could lead to living in cooperation, peace and harmony. The burden to change is on our shoulders now. We must seize this opportunity so we leave a different legacy for our children and grandchildren.

The first step is for all Ethiopians to get to know each other as unique people and as fellow human beings, then to acknowledge whatever pain and suffering we have might have caused to each other and then reconcile. In the case of the Anuak and the Ogedenis, we have few, if any, conflicts or hard feelings between us since we were so unaware of the others’ existence!

Even a day before I came to meet with you, as I told an Anuak friend that I would be speaking to the people of the Ogaden, he asked, “Are those the people with an Afro and who always have an AK-47 in their hands?” I said, “No, I think those are the people of Afar!” In fact, I have also been invited to speak to the people of Afar sometime in the next month and also to the people of Sidamo. I am very excited to get to meet with my Afar and Sidamo brothers and sisters! It is exciting to meet other members of our Ethiopian family—just like you!

However, this lack of knowledge we have about each other shows that we have much more to do in order to reach out to our fellow Ethiopians who have been separated by the invisible fences of all over our country. As fellow Ethiopians, we are supposed to not only know about each other, but we are supposed to protect each other and each others’ interests like a good neighbor who watches over your home while you are away. But this is hard to do if we remain divided. But again, our shared pain and tragedy has had one unexpected reward that Meles never intended, we have been introduced to each other!

Over a year ago, I had heard about your (Ogadenis) suffering and wanted to include your stories in my address to the European Parliament last May of 2006. You responded to my call and you told me about the widespread human rights crimes in your region.

I heard about years of neglect by the last two regimes and that life was actually easier for you under Haile Selassie. In 1991 when Meles overthrew Mengistu, both the Gambella Peoples’ Liberation Movement, the Ogaden Peoples’ Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front and many others were fighting along side of the TPLF.

When the Woyane or EPRDF developed the new Ethiopian Constitution, both Gambellans, and Ogadenis, Oromo and many others were supposed to have the right to govern themselves and to benefit equally in the country with everyone else, but the Woyane did not really mean that for us or anyone else but themselves. They simply used these words to manipulate us as they proceeded to take over all the power from the Ethiopian people.

From the start of their administration, there were Tigrayan cadre in the Gambella and Ogaden regions who were called “advisors,” but instead of simply “advising,” they were actually the puppets of the EPRDF, used to enforce federal agendas and to suppress any who attempted to advance regional goals. Their intent was exposed in the 1995 election when the local people from Gambella and from the Ogaden challenged the government with actions meant to lead to greater self-determination.

For instance, in Gambella, the local people formed the Gambella People’s Democratic Congress party in opposition to the ruling EPRDF, primarily to challenge consistent violations of the human rights of Anuaks. In 2000 national election, the Gambella People’s Democratic Congress party ran against the TPLF-imposed party candidates in Gambella.

In the Ogaden, the Ogaden Liberation Front ran against the Woyane endorsed party in your region. When the results came out in Gambella, nearly 90% did not vote for the Woyane, but for the Democratic Congress party, their own indigenous party. The Democratic Congress party won a majority of seats in the government of Gambella State.

The arrests of Anuak men became increasingly prevalent and in October 2002 the President of Gambella region and 44 Anuak leaders were arrested and sent to jail in Addis Ababa and they were held without trial until the end of 2006 and more than 400 Anuak men are still held in Gambella jails since December 2003.

In the Ogaden, 85% voted for the Ogaden Liberation Front, instead of the TPLF-backed party. Regardless of the people’s choices, the TPLF central government claimed they were winners in Gambella and arrested those candidates who had actually won the popular vote. The same manipulation of the election occurred in the Ogaden where the winners were also arrested. At that time, the TPLF took further action and started killing the leaders in both areas, arresting any challengers.

Does this remind you of what recently occurred in the Ethiopian National election of 2005? What happened in 2005 should not have come as a surprise to us as this was not a new tactic, but one the EPRDF had been able to get away with in the past, especially in the rural areas like in Gambella and in the Ogaden where there was little transparency.

This was when the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) finally declared they had no other choice but to fight to defend themselves. In the case of Gambella, it was not until the 2000 election that the Gambella Liberation Front was formed after the same thing happened a second time. Again, it was to defend themselves, just like was the case in the Ogaden.

To make the situation even worse, while the federal government of Ethiopia exerted increasingly greater control over both our regions, the development of the areas was totally neglected leading to significant marginalization—among the worst in the country.

Even when I formed the Gambella Development Agency in 2001 and as an NGO, was required to first register at the Office of the Minister of Justice in Addis Ababa in order to work in Ethiopia, I faced resistance to working in Gambella. The man that processed my information asked me why I wanted to go to the Gambella are and told me that there was greater need in the northern part of Ethiopia in the Tigray region. It probably was no coincidence that he was Tigrayan.

I explained to him that I had never been to the northern part of Ethiopia and there may be need there, but that I wanted to work in Gambella. He then asked me why I wanted to go to Gambella so much. Let me first say, the interview was conducted in English and it became apparent that he did suspect I was an Ethiopian, but that I was from some other country in Africa like Kenya.

I then told him I was an Anuak from Gambella. His reply was, “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you can go to Gambella.” My white Canadian colleague who was there with me at the time expressed his shock at how such gatekeepers to development in the country can so easily control the distribution of services, humanitarian aid and development from those coming from the outside! I am certain the same has happened in the Ogaden.

I have heard about your lack of schools, health clinics, clean water and any infrastructure in the Ogaden. You do not even have a road leading from the Ogaden to Addis Ababa, the capital city! I heard about the countless numbers of Ogadeni political prisoners, the extreme oppression of the people and the infiltration of Meles supporters into most every key position in your government, preventing the people of the Ogaden from having any real voice in your own regional affairs. Unfortunately, following Ethiopia’s invasion into Somalia and the killing of the Chinese in the Ogaden by the ONLF, your situation has dramatically worsened.

For those remaining in the Ogaden, life has become intolerable—a daily struggle simply to survive—due to the massive human rights abuses going on right now in the region being perpetrated on civilians by Woyane National Defense Forces. Yet, surprisingly, for the Anuak of Gambella, some semblance of normal life is returning. The Anuak women can go unescorted to gather firewood or to obtain water without the previous very real prospect of being raped, harassed or even killed.

Anuak men can travel on the roads without fear of the military spotting them and shooting them for simply “looking suspicious.” Some children are returning to school, as they are less fearful of the trip back and forth, as are the teachers. This is not to say that the schools, health clinics, homes and most of the infrastructure of the area was not seriously damaged or destroyed by Meles’ military, but at least, the security issues that turned the daily tasks of life into possible encounters with death from the ENDF, have mostly disappeared. What accounts for this improvement in Gambella and for the worsening crisis in the Ogaden?

As you may already suspect, the same Ethiopian National Defense Forces that killed, raped, tortured and imprisoned the Anuak in Gambella for the last two to three years, have now been moved, by the thousands, to the Ogaden. This includes two of the same Commanders. These commanders are Major Tsegaye Beyene and Captain Amare. None of these men has yet been held accountable for their actions in Gambella and now they are going on to the Ogaden.

Reports coming out of the Ogaden testify to the unfortunate fact that Meles’ defense forces are committing the same crimes again with the same impunity. Instead of being defenders of the Ethiopian people, they remain the foremost perpetrators of crimes against Ethiopians. They say they are fighting insurgents, but they are only inciting more Ogadeni to pick up arms to defend their people.

Meles, as he did in the past, is adamantly denying the veracity of these reports, but too much evidence contradicts his assertions of innocence. Instead he is increasing his attempts to block access to the area to outsiders like the International Red Cross and reporters like Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times so more information does not get out.

What is driving it all? Again, the similarities between Gambella and the Ogaden are painfully striking. Both are closely linked to natural resources—oil in Gambella and natural gas in the Ogaden. Even the companies are the same—Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a subsidiary of the Malaysian company, Petronas, the latter which has been given the rights to develop the natural gas in the area by the Ethiopian government, without representation from people of the Ogaden. This is the same thing that happened in Gambella with the Anuak.

Every day, more Ogadenis who come into the vicinity, are being killed, harassed or imprisoned for only looking suspicious. Countless innocent civilians—children, women, elders and non-insurgents—who are simply struggling to maintain their lives in an already difficult environment—are the victims.

If most really knew the real stories they would be horrified—for example, the story that was told today of how one Ogadeni mother was held back by Woyane troops and was forced to watch while her four-year-old son was stomped to death by another in the ENDF.

If it were known how your cows, essential to your survival, are being shot and killed, most life-respecting people would be outraged. This same tactic was used against the Anuak when the ENDF burned down homes, crops, granaries and destroyed water wells, schools and health clinics.

If it were made known how many Ogadeni and Anuak women have been raped by HIV-carrying or STD-infected troops, most would again be shocked, especially as the government makes a plea for more funding to fight HIV/AIDS! Despite all these reports, Meles supporters are still denying these occurrences because the truth is too shameful to be admitted.

We in the AJC reported on these occurrences in Gambella as far back as early 2004 and saw little response from the media or from the international community. However, the mood and times are different now and we in the AJC are willing to work with you in getting out your story—something that is more possible now than it was several years ago when Meles was still “the darling of the west.”

This is no longer the case as more and more documentation points to him as being a terrorist of his own people despite his request to the US State Department to put the ONLF on the list of terrorist locations. But you and I know clearly who the real terrorists are—they are Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his murderous regime!

It is critical that the dominant Ethiopian groups, who have louder voices, better representation and more numbers, speak up for the people of the Ogaden and others across the country who are suffering. Just because the CUD leaders and some journalists have been released from prison, we should not sit back.

We must recognize that our prisoners are not only found in Addis Ababa. We need to raise the level of the rallying and protest to even exceed that which was done in the past after the election and for the release of the CUD political leaders.

Those of us outside of Addis Ababa and outside the dominant ethnic groups have mostly felt in the past that we did not count as true Ethiopians; but yet, Ethiopia does not exclusively belong to them—it belongs to all of us, including them!

For years, Ethiopian culture has been typified as the culture of the Amhara, the Tigrayan or the Oromo. Educational and economic opportunities as well as the development of the infrastructure usually favored these regions.

Our largest ethnic group, the Oromo, have been repressed, but if they finally emerge as a powerful group because of their size, what are the prospects for the futures of the other many medium-sized or even tiny ethnic group who may only number .01% like the Anuak or like the Ogadenis?

For instance, the people of the Ogaden were essentially left out of the last election. It is absurd that Ogadenis did not even have the opportunity to vote in the Ethiopian National Election of May 15, 2005 until six months later! Even if the election had not been rigged, it is obvious that your votes would not have been counted. This must change.

Ethiopian government must not only be for the people of Addis Ababa or for the dominant groups in the country. The government of Ethiopia should be for all of the people of Ethiopia. This includes those who have been marginalized and neglected for years—not only the Ogadenis and the Anuak, but those from the Southern Nations, the Afar and Etc.

What is required today, is a new movement where our rich cultures and collective wisdom can benefit each other. Our dominant Ethiopian ethnic groups have a beautiful cultural practice of how everyone joins together in support when someone dies. At such a time, a tent is set up and all are invited to come under the tent to mourn the passing of a human life, one which was very dear to the family, friends and community of the deceased. Many people bring food and gifts to the tent as then settle down to support those who have lost their loved one. Even strangers and passersby are invited into this tent where everyone is welcome. No one is left out, segregated or marginalized because of their ethnicity. Everyone comes in as an equal.

This is a wonderful part of the culture of our dominant groups that can be an image of a new Ethiopia! It can be put into practice right now by erecting a tent for the Ogadeni in your present time of need. If our dominant groups join with our minorities in coming together to grieve together now, we may be able to have reason to hope for a new Ethiopia. It will start in such a tent.

As we seek these new beginnings, we find they are wonderful opportunities to meet each other! I have been privileged to meet the Ogadeni and now can see what great people you are—very caring, hardworking and generous. I have learned how you value giving help to those who are struggling or weak and how you don’t complain about those who are stronger or better at something; instead, you challenge yourself to do the same. You don’t believe in being held down by sitting by, wishing and complaining for change, but instead you try to overcome your obstacles.

This is an admirable characteristic of nomadic people that helps you survive in a difficult environment. You have much to share, but instead of others benefiting from you and you benefiting from others, government policy has encouraged our separation and alienation from each other.

I am comparing these two regions with each other, but if you look closely at most any other region in the country, you will find the same thing has happened, frequently resulting in the formation of many liberation or “breakaway” fronts.

People are often confused by the name “liberation front”, but we need to look deeply as to why these liberation fronts were created in the first place. Invariably, they arose out of the suppression of the people and their rights.

I believe that some of these liberation fronts do not really want to break away, but are doing it because their rights are being rampantly violated and because they have been denied countless opportunities that are reserved for those few in power. If we understand this, we should not be afraid of reaching out to these liberation fronts because they not only have legitimate complaints, but they are important segments of our population that cannot be ignored.

If we want to create a more stable Ethiopia, we must instead work together to correct and resolve the wrongs going on now and in the past so that we can live together in harmony in the future. This means justice, respect and equality for the Anuak, the Ogadeni, the Hamar, the Hawadle, the Welayta, the Guji, the Nure, the Shekicho and for all Ethiopians!

I believe if these groups who are fighting one another can come together in a genuine spirit of reconciliation—expecting to give and receive justice, we will succeed in finding a sustainable solution, even if it calls for some compromise on all of our parts. As these issues are adequately addressed, many, if not all of these liberation groups may no longer have any reason or desire to separate themselves from Ethiopia, especially as the trend in the world is increasingly one of coming together.

After all, consider who would be left in Ethiopia if every one of us who has been abused split off into our own groups, forming our own countries! What would Ethiopia look like then? Who would be left? Yes, the more dominant ethnic groups might be the only ones wanting to maintain Ethiopia as their own, but they have much to lose if we are not among them!

We, and many other minorities who are still unknown to the mainstream of Ethiopians, have many things to share and to contribute to in a future Ethiopia. All of that would be lost without our presence and active participation.

However, if we are really talking about a new Ethiopia where everyone is included, there is a group of excluded people that need to join us on the frontlines. These marginalized people are actually the backbone of our Afar, Anuak, Ogadeni and Ethiopian society, yet their voices are often not heard. Their voices are those of our own mothers, our wives, our sisters and our daughters.

Now, I must first say how encouraged I was to see so many women here today, nearly half of those in attendance! I have not seen this at any other Ethiopian meetings. Instead in this case, it was young Ogadeni women who actually invited me today and were some of the chief organizers of the event. I applaud this achievement. We need to encourage more of this because if we do not include women in all aspects of this movement, we will lose a perspective that is critical to our survival as a people.

Women have been the backbone of Ethiopian society as well as of African society, helping us to survive very difficult circumstances. Wherever you go you see them holding us together. In fact, if we continue to marginalize our women, the new Ethiopia for which we are fighting, may die well before its birth.

If it even succeeds in being born, it may end up scrawny and under-developed for lack of nourishment. If it grows up, it may end up unruly and disorderly for lack of discipline and guidance. Let us not underestimate how the hard labor, nourishment and sustenance from our women, can give great strength and sustainability to our futures.

During many hard times, men may be fighting among themselves for the power or the control while the women end up in charge of the practical aspects of life. Within their families, mothers learn to be peacemakers and negotiators who can discipline without favoring, who can listen to both sides and find common ground and who can sacrifice for the good of their loved ones. These are all the same skills that are necessary to better the future of the next generation of Ethiopians and Africans.

Additionally, if mothers were in charge, they may not be so quick to resort to settling conflict through aggression and violence. Yet, they are often the recipients of such violence at the hands of men. The government must create and enforce laws that protect our mothers, wives and children from us men.

For instance, those in the ENDF who have raped our Ethiopian women must be brought to accountability. We need to give our women an equal opportunity in their futures to participate like any other women in the world. In other words, our women are not only there to cook for us, to bear our children and to maintain our homes for us, but they are also competent to govern, to make decisions of importance and to influence our society at every level.

I have seen a young Anuak woman in Gambella not go to school so she could gather firewood and cook food so that her male brother could go to school. I remember seeing fifteen years old girl on the streets of Addis Ababa begging for money while she was holding her newborn child, alone without any help from anyone.

I have seen nine years old girl in Awassa, carrying over ten pounds of charcoal on her head for 12 kilometers in order to sell it so the money could be used to sustain her family so her brother could go to school.

I have heard that the same thing is going on in the Ogaden where a young girl will spend her whole day taking care of the cattle so her younger brother can go to school. This has to stop. We need to invest in our women at the same time as we continue to invest in our men.

The Anuak, the Ogadeni’s and other minorities are marginalized by their ethnicity, region and also by their gender. In order to change, we must change our thinking and be transformed into people who follow God’s principles of putting others first and consider them equal to ourselves. It should not be about “ME” or “US”.

Our women are the most marginalized and if we want to change our society they need to be included and we can only do this by changing our thinking and putting it into practice! This is the same kind of fundamental change of thinking that must take place before there is any hope that the dominant groups will include the minorities and before the minorities will effectively trust and embrace the dominant groups, yet it must be our focus if we want Ethiopia to change and it must include all women!

Even now in this struggle for unity, freedom and justice, those in the dominant groups and those in the minority groups must recognize that we need each other—whether we all like to admit it or not! If we treat each other as equal, fellow-human beings, we can be stronger and better as we learn how to willingly share power, resources and opportunity. This is what has been lacking in the past.

As we change, we will begin to see the depth of our commonality and we may learn we love each other more than we hate each other! After all, we are all Ethiopian. After all, we are all African. After all, we are all human beings!

May we fully commit ourselves to follow God’s principles that He set up when He created us in His own image out of the clay of the earth. Our Maker calls us to Himself because we are each precious and loved! He created us 100% human, not 95% or 99.9%! This is what lays the foundation for all of human rights!

I am told that the name, Ogaden, means “people who know.” The name, Anuak, means “people who share.” It is time for “people who know” and for “people who share” to work together as fellow Ethiopians! More than that, we need the help of all Ethiopians.

Again, anyone who lives within the borders of Ethiopia is part of this group as they are all 100% Ethiopian. There is no one ethnic group or dominant groups who is more Ethiopian than others. We must tell the majority and those in power that they have an obligation towards all Ethiopians.

If we are really going to change the country, this is where real change must begin—with how we value and include our neighbors, even the ones we don’t know very well or who might be culturally different from us. If those with the “upper-hand” are unable to understand this, they will stand in the way of a new Ethiopia.

This is at the heart of freeing us as a society from the prison in which we all now live. Without it, there is little to offer to these break-away groups that will convince them to stay for such inclusion is the groundwork of liberation for all of Ethiopia. Repressing large portions of our society for the benefit of others is like a vessel with cracks. It will eventually break and disintegrate into pieces like the regime of Mengistu and like the regime of Meles will soon do as well!

However, equally important, if we in the minority groups are offered new opportunities, but yet choose to refuse to give up our past resentments, preferring to continue to complain about past offences by the majority, we leave no room for forgiveness, healing and restoration and we will be stuck in a cycle of hate, bitterness and blaming. None of these lead anywhere but downward to destruction!

Equally important, we must see ourselves as equal, valuable and contributing members of Ethiopia regardless of how we have been viewed in the past. Those views came out of ignorance and societal dysfunction. Instead, we must consider how God views us as precious. Because he values us, He urges us to seek Him and as we do, He will show us the purposes He has for our lives that will bring the greatest satisfaction. Remember, those who devalue God’s children, are themselves in need of help.

We must stop a cycle that defeats us by devaluing ourselves or others. This is not just directed towards those who have been in power and privilege. It goes for the minorities and the “dis-empowered” as well. Sometimes those who have been offended or abused, hold on to a victim mentality or a bitter grudge of resentment that goes back many years.

If you do this, you will never see your own contribution to your problems! Instead, we must know who we are in God’s eyes and reach out with grace, forgiveness, humility and love to others. This is the only way we are going to see Ethiopia freed from the grips of tyranny. God will find a way out where no way is seen by human eyes.

Our Ethiopian or African leaders continue indeed to use the power of the State both to enrich themselves and their ethnic communities and to repress any opposition or criticism. The politics of privileging ethnicity for those in power and diminishing ethnicity for those out of power has continued to dominate the African political landscape. The question then is what is to be done in the face of this ethnically-based politics? How can we move forward?

The answer is simple yet profoundly difficult to implement. Ethiopia and Africa must move away from the politicization of ethnicity. Celebrate the ethnic and cultural mosaic of Ethiopia or Africa but at the same time create an `a – ethnic’ or non-ethnic politics. Ethiopians or Africans must surrender their ethnic clothes when they move into the political arena and assume positions of power.

It is time for a Movement for a New Ethiopia or Africa, one shorn of ethnic chauvinism in the world of politics. Unless this happens then political leaders will play one ethnic group off against another for political advantage parallel to the past colonial practice of `divide and rule’ and the current neo-colonial practice of foreign intervention in ethically-based strife; mounting the war on terror; and, driving for control over valued resources.

The Ethiopians or Africans have been divided for too long and separated from their common heritage by artificial boundaries and the ethnic and regional and religious divides. Ethiopia or Africa must re-discover its soul and celebrate its African-ness. The soil of Ethiopia or African continues to be stained by the blood of its sons and daughters all in the name of mindless ethnic power struggles.

A politics of collaboration and consensus must be re-asserted drawing on Ethiopian or African tradition within the local community. That community must be expanded to become inclusive of all Africans. Otherwise, Ethiopia or Africa will continue to be in disarray, in decline, and incur more death and suffering.

In this weakened condition, rapacious leaders can prey on their people and foreign interests can continue to exploit and manipulate for both profit and power. The time has come for a new Ethiopia or Africa, one where its people can see each other as one, as sharing the soul and soil of the continent for their mutual benefit and development. The cloak of ethnicity must be removed in the realm of African politics. Until that day arrives, Ethiopian or Africans all suffer for their loss of humanity.

We must think beyond our ethnicity, our Ethiopian-ness, our African-ness and see ourselves as children created in the image of God. Our Ethiopian leaders have not seen the way out of this because they may not be able to see the bigger commonality of our shared humanity.

Instead, they may have made decisions based on short-term worldly goals of pleasure, luxury and power at the expense of others rather than realizing they are only refugees on this earth until they are reunited someday with their Creator. These are two very contrasting views of life with very different outcomes. It is for each of us to choose between them.

As my Ogadeni sister cited in her beautiful poem at the opening of this conference, I believe that God is rising up to help us and that He is using some of our young people to do it. Let each of us take part in this. May He help the Ogadenis to rise up.

May He help the Ethiopians to rise up with other Africans and light up this Dark Continent that is overcome with man-caused suffering, misery and death! May He help us rise up as human beings who are His children, ready to generously spread his love around!

It is our duty to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives while we are on this earth. These purposes will differ, but our value as people will not. As an Anuak, or as a Canadian Ethiopian or as a follower of Jesus Christ, I may be different from you in these ways, but I am still connected to you, respect you and love you as a fellow human being. You are my people and God tells us to love, protect and uphold each other.

As we seek to work together in our mutual struggle for freedom, justice, equality, peace and reconciliation, let us become ambassadors to others in Ethiopia, fearlessly revolutionary in reaching out in love.

If movement for a new Ethiopia is to rise up, let us be the seeds planted in fertile soil that will bring a great harvest that reaches all the way from the educated and more privileged to the average people of our nation and of our continent—the hardworking, the poor, the undereducated, the oppressed and the devalued!

May God give us the strength, guidance and resources to nurture such a movement! May He give us the means to break down the invisible fences separating us so that we can join together in unity of purpose, with respect for each other and with the moral courage to stand firm for what is right!

Thank you.

You can get in touch with Obang O. Metho by email at: advocacy@anuakjustice.org

Mr. Obang Metho Addresses Ogadenis in Minnesota: “Let us Break Down the Invisible Fences of Ethiopia!”

August 27, 2007

It is an honor to be here in front of you to talk about human rights in Ethiopia. Human rights abuses are going on all over the country, but right now, the people of the Ogaden are paying the heaviest price. What is happening in the Ogaden is a silent Darfur.

I am here with you today as a brother who knows what you are going through. I am here to grieve with you as part of your Ethiopian family. I am here as a fellow worker in a battle against the same injustice that is killing all of our people—the people of Gambella, the Ogaden and in all of Ethiopia!

I want to thank the Ogaden Youth Network for inviting me to first Annual International Ogaden Youth Committee and for all the excellent work you have done in organizing this conference. I thank the Ogaden Human Rights Committee, the University of St. Thomas who is hosting this conference and the many others who assisted in bringing this about.

I am glad to be in this great state of Minnesota. Minnesota has become my second home. Since 2004, I have been coming here many times to speak, starting with the Anuak. You may not know that most of the Anuak in the United States live in Minnesota, as do my family members, friends and some of my work colleagues. More recently, I have been here to speak at the University of Minnesota and just two weeks ago to speak to the Oromo.

More Oromo live in Minnesota than anywhere else in the country, but I have just learned from some of my hostesses that there are 15,000 to 18,000 Ogadenis here in Minnesota as well—again, more than in any other place in the country!

I now feel all the more strongly that Minnesota is my second home because I feel so at home with not only the Anuak, but now also because it is the largest US home of Ogadenis and the Oromo. You all are my new brothers and sisters and we have much in common, but the Anuak and the Ogadenis have had little chance to meet in the past.

I first met some of you in January of this year when we were in Atlanta at a meeting about the human rights abuses in Ethiopia that was organized by African Americans. During our stay, some of us met informally in a hotel room and talked for hours.

There were four Ogadenis, one Amhara, one Oromo and me, an Anuak. While we were there, Abdulhakim, an Ogadeni, commented that it was unbelievable that we were all there together in the same room. He went on to say that previously there had been an invisible fence that had blocked us from each other that had been set in place by the Dergue and now was reinforced by the Woyane government.

Then another Ogadeni, named Yassin Kiassim, said jokingly, “That’s why we don’t even have the name “Baria” to call you—because we’ve never met you before!” We all laughed about this and then agreed that we had to break this invisible fence so the people of Ogaden could settle in Gambella if they wanted to and so the people of Gambella could do the same in the Ogaden, just like in the United States where US citizens did not have to go through a check point to move from state to state!
Why can’t we do the same in Ethiopia?

As we talked more, we were very encouraged as we were all able to envision such a new Ethiopia! This is one thing for which we Ethiopians can thank Meles—through our pain and suffering at the hands of this regime, we have found the threads to bind together those of us from the southwestern region of Gambella with those of you from the southeastern region of the Ogaden, forming a new friendship and partnership. These friendships and resulting partnerships have now stretched across the country to bring us together as one family of Ethiopians.

We should continue to reach out until we are all under the shade of one tent. As your faith of Islam states, we were created and shaped out of the same clay making us all equal. As we realize this, it should help us build friendships based on respect and appreciation of each other, regardless of our differences. This is the way to break down the invisible fences that have needlessly separated us for so many years. As I learn more about the people of the Ogaden, I realize how much we have in common, but unfortunately, we also have suffered at the hands of our government in similar ways.

This is where I would like to start today—by first comparing what happened to the Anuak of Gambella with what is now going on with those in the Ogaden. Secondly, I will discuss the impact of human rights abuses on the country as a whole and how we have become part of a system where many factions have been vying for ethnic dominance—a dominance that can also later be used to oppress others, even those of one’s own ethnicity—lasting only until the next group takes over and repeats the cycle.

Thirdly, I will speak about what we can do to stop this cycle that is causing us to self-destruct and how to replace it with an alternative that could lead to living in cooperation, peace and harmony. The burden to change is on our shoulders now. We must seize this opportunity so we leave a different legacy for our children and grandchildren.

The first step is for all Ethiopians to get to know each other as unique people and as fellow human beings, then to acknowledge whatever pain and suffering we have might have caused to each other and then reconcile. In the case of the Anuak and the Ogedenis, we have few, if any, conflicts or hard feelings between us since we were so unaware of the others’ existence!

Even a day before I came to meet with you, as I told an Anuak friend that I would be speaking to the people of the Ogaden, he asked, “Are those the people with an Afro and who always have an AK-47 in their hands?” I said, “No, I think those are the people of Afar!” In fact, I have also been invited to speak to the people of Afar sometime in the next month and also to the people of Sidamo. I am very excited to get to meet with my Afar and Sidamo brothers and sisters! It is exciting to meet other members of our Ethiopian family—just like you!

However, this lack of knowledge we have about each other shows that we have much more to do in order to reach out to our fellow Ethiopians who have been separated by the invisible fences of all over our country. As fellow Ethiopians, we are supposed to not only know about each other, but we are supposed to protect each other and each others’ interests like a good neighbor who watches over your home while you are away. But this is hard to do if we remain divided. But again, our shared pain and tragedy has had one unexpected reward that Meles never intended, we have been introduced to each other!

Over a year ago, I had heard about your (Ogadenis) suffering and wanted to include your stories in my address to the European Parliament last May of 2006. You responded to my call and you told me about the widespread human rights crimes in your region.

I heard about years of neglect by the last two regimes and that life was actually easier for you under Haile Selassie. In 1991 when Meles overthrew Mengistu, both the Gambella Peoples’ Liberation Movement, the Ogaden Peoples’ Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front and many others were fighting along side of the TPLF.

When the Woyane or EPRDF developed the new Ethiopian Constitution, both Gambellans, and Ogadenis, Oromo and many others were supposed to have the right to govern themselves and to benefit equally in the country with everyone else, but the Woyane did not really mean that for us or anyone else but themselves. They simply used these words to manipulate us as they proceeded to take over all the power from the Ethiopian people.

From the start of their administration, there were Tigrayan cadre in the Gambella and Ogaden regions who were called “advisors,” but instead of simply “advising,” they were actually the puppets of the EPRDF, used to enforce federal agendas and to suppress any who attempted to advance regional goals. Their intent was exposed in the 1995 election when the local people from Gambella and from the Ogaden challenged the government with actions meant to lead to greater self-determination.

For instance, in Gambella, the local people formed the Gambella People’s Democratic Congress party in opposition to the ruling EPRDF, primarily to challenge consistent violations of the human rights of Anuaks. In 2000 national election, the Gambella People’s Democratic Congress party ran against the TPLF-imposed party candidates in Gambella.

In the Ogaden, the Ogaden Liberation Front ran against the Woyane endorsed party in your region. When the results came out in Gambella, nearly 90% did not vote for the Woyane, but for the Democratic Congress party, their own indigenous party. The Democratic Congress party won a majority of seats in the government of Gambella State.

The arrests of Anuak men became increasingly prevalent and in October 2002 the President of Gambella region and 44 Anuak leaders were arrested and sent to jail in Addis Ababa and they were held without trial until the end of 2006 and more than 400 Anuak men are still held in Gambella jails since December 2003.

In the Ogaden, 85% voted for the Ogaden Liberation Front, instead of the TPLF-backed party. Regardless of the people’s choices, the TPLF central government claimed they were winners in Gambella and arrested those candidates who had actually won the popular vote. The same manipulation of the election occurred in the Ogaden where the winners were also arrested. At that time, the TPLF took further action and started killing the leaders in both areas, arresting any challengers.

Does this remind you of what recently occurred in the Ethiopian National election of 2005? What happened in 2005 should not have come as a surprise to us as this was not a new tactic, but one the EPRDF had been able to get away with in the past, especially in the rural areas like in Gambella and in the Ogaden where there was little transparency.

This was when the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) finally declared they had no other choice but to fight to defend themselves. In the case of Gambella, it was not until the 2000 election that the Gambella Liberation Front was formed after the same thing happened a second time. Again, it was to defend themselves, just like was the case in the Ogaden.

To make the situation even worse, while the federal government of Ethiopia exerted increasingly greater control over both our regions, the development of the areas was totally neglected leading to significant marginalization—among the worst in the country.

Even when I formed the Gambella Development Agency in 2001 and as an NGO, was required to first register at the Office of the Minister of Justice in Addis Ababa in order to work in Ethiopia, I faced resistance to working in Gambella. The man that processed my information asked me why I wanted to go to the Gambella are and told me that there was greater need in the northern part of Ethiopia in the Tigray region. It probably was no coincidence that he was Tigrayan.

I explained to him that I had never been to the northern part of Ethiopia and there may be need there, but that I wanted to work in Gambella. He then asked me why I wanted to go to Gambella so much. Let me first say, the interview was conducted in English and it became apparent that he did suspect I was an Ethiopian, but that I was from some other country in Africa like Kenya.

I then told him I was an Anuak from Gambella. His reply was, “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you can go to Gambella.” My white Canadian colleague who was there with me at the time expressed his shock at how such gatekeepers to development in the country can so easily control the distribution of services, humanitarian aid and development from those coming from the outside! I am certain the same has happened in the Ogaden.

I have heard about your lack of schools, health clinics, clean water and any infrastructure in the Ogaden. You do not even have a road leading from the Ogaden to Addis Ababa, the capital city! I heard about the countless numbers of Ogadeni political prisoners, the extreme oppression of the people and the infiltration of Meles supporters into most every key position in your government, preventing the people of the Ogaden from having any real voice in your own regional affairs. Unfortunately, following Ethiopia’s invasion into Somalia and the killing of the Chinese in the Ogaden by the ONLF, your situation has dramatically worsened.

For those remaining in the Ogaden, life has become intolerable—a daily struggle simply to survive—due to the massive human rights abuses going on right now in the region being perpetrated on civilians by Woyane National Defense Forces. Yet, surprisingly, for the Anuak of Gambella, some semblance of normal life is returning. The Anuak women can go unescorted to gather firewood or to obtain water without the previous very real prospect of being raped, harassed or even killed.

Anuak men can travel on the roads without fear of the military spotting them and shooting them for simply “looking suspicious.” Some children are returning to school, as they are less fearful of the trip back and forth, as are the teachers. This is not to say that the schools, health clinics, homes and most of the infrastructure of the area was not seriously damaged or destroyed by Meles’ military, but at least, the security issues that turned the daily tasks of life into possible encounters with death from the ENDF, have mostly disappeared. What accounts for this improvement in Gambella and for the worsening crisis in the Ogaden?

As you may already suspect, the same Ethiopian National Defense Forces that killed, raped, tortured and imprisoned the Anuak in Gambella for the last two to three years, have now been moved, by the thousands, to the Ogaden. This includes two of the same Commanders. These commanders are Major Tsegaye Beyene and Captain Amare. None of these men has yet been held accountable for their actions in Gambella and now they are going on to the Ogaden.

Reports coming out of the Ogaden testify to the unfortunate fact that Meles’ defense forces are committing the same crimes again with the same impunity. Instead of being defenders of the Ethiopian people, they remain the foremost perpetrators of crimes against Ethiopians. They say they are fighting insurgents, but they are only inciting more Ogadeni to pick up arms to defend their people.

Meles, as he did in the past, is adamantly denying the veracity of these reports, but too much evidence contradicts his assertions of innocence. Instead he is increasing his attempts to block access to the area to outsiders like the International Red Cross and reporters like Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times so more information does not get out.

What is driving it all? Again, the similarities between Gambella and the Ogaden are painfully striking. Both are closely linked to natural resources—oil in Gambella and natural gas in the Ogaden. Even the companies are the same—Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a subsidiary of the Malaysian company, Petronas, the latter which has been given the rights to develop the natural gas in the area by the Ethiopian government, without representation from people of the Ogaden. This is the same thing that happened in Gambella with the Anuak.

Every day, more Ogadenis who come into the vicinity, are being killed, harassed or imprisoned for only looking suspicious. Countless innocent civilians—children, women, elders and non-insurgents—who are simply struggling to maintain their lives in an already difficult environment—are the victims.

If most really knew the real stories they would be horrified—for example, the story that was told today of how one Ogadeni mother was held back by Woyane troops and was forced to watch while her four-year-old son was stomped to death by another in the ENDF.

If it were known how your cows, essential to your survival, are being shot and killed, most life-respecting people would be outraged. This same tactic was used against the Anuak when the ENDF burned down homes, crops, granaries and destroyed water wells, schools and health clinics.

If it were made known how many Ogadeni and Anuak women have been raped by HIV-carrying or STD-infected troops, most would again be shocked, especially as the government makes a plea for more funding to fight HIV/AIDS! Despite all these reports, Meles supporters are still denying these occurrences because the truth is too shameful to be admitted.

We in the AJC reported on these occurrences in Gambella as far back as early 2004 and saw little response from the media or from the international community. However, the mood and times are different now and we in the AJC are willing to work with you in getting out your story—something that is more possible now than it was several years ago when Meles was still “the darling of the west.”

This is no longer the case as more and more documentation points to him as being a terrorist of his own people despite his request to the US State Department to put the ONLF on the list of terrorist locations. But you and I know clearly who the real terrorists are—they are Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his murderous regime!

It is critical that the dominant Ethiopian groups, who have louder voices, better representation and more numbers, speak up for the people of the Ogaden and others across the country who are suffering. Just because the CUD leaders and some journalists have been released from prison, we should not sit back.

We must recognize that our prisoners are not only found in Addis Ababa. We need to raise the level of the rallying and protest to even exceed that which was done in the past after the election and for the release of the CUD political leaders.

Those of us outside of Addis Ababa and outside the dominant ethnic groups have mostly felt in the past that we did not count as true Ethiopians; but yet, Ethiopia does not exclusively belong to them—it belongs to all of us, including them!

For years, Ethiopian culture has been typified as the culture of the Amhara, the Tigrayan or the Oromo. Educational and economic opportunities as well as the development of the infrastructure usually favored these regions.

Our largest ethnic group, the Oromo, have been repressed, but if they finally emerge as a powerful group because of their size, what are the prospects for the futures of the other many medium-sized or even tiny ethnic group who may only number .01% like the Anuak or like the Ogadenis?

For instance, the people of the Ogaden were essentially left out of the last election. It is absurd that Ogadenis did not even have the opportunity to vote in the Ethiopian National Election of May 15, 2005 until six months later! Even if the election had not been rigged, it is obvious that your votes would not have been counted. This must change.

Ethiopian government must not only be for the people of Addis Ababa or for the dominant groups in the country. The government of Ethiopia should be for all of the people of Ethiopia. This includes those who have been marginalized and neglected for years—not only the Ogadenis and the Anuak, but those from the Southern Nations, the Afar and Etc.

What is required today, is a new movement where our rich cultures and collective wisdom can benefit each other. Our dominant Ethiopian ethnic groups have a beautiful cultural practice of how everyone joins together in support when someone dies. At such a time, a tent is set up and all are invited to come under the tent to mourn the passing of a human life, one which was very dear to the family, friends and community of the deceased. Many people bring food and gifts to the tent as then settle down to support those who have lost their loved one. Even strangers and passersby are invited into this tent where everyone is welcome. No one is left out, segregated or marginalized because of their ethnicity. Everyone comes in as an equal.

This is a wonderful part of the culture of our dominant groups that can be an image of a new Ethiopia! It can be put into practice right now by erecting a tent for the Ogadeni in your present time of need. If our dominant groups join with our minorities in coming together to grieve together now, we may be able to have reason to hope for a new Ethiopia. It will start in such a tent.

As we seek these new beginnings, we find they are wonderful opportunities to meet each other! I have been privileged to meet the Ogadeni and now can see what great people you are—very caring, hardworking and generous. I have learned how you value giving help to those who are struggling or weak and how you don’t complain about those who are stronger or better at something; instead, you challenge yourself to do the same. You don’t believe in being held down by sitting by, wishing and complaining for change, but instead you try to overcome your obstacles.

This is an admirable characteristic of nomadic people that helps you survive in a difficult environment. You have much to share, but instead of others benefiting from you and you benefiting from others, government policy has encouraged our separation and alienation from each other.

I am comparing these two regions with each other, but if you look closely at most any other region in the country, you will find the same thing has happened, frequently resulting in the formation of many liberation or “breakaway” fronts.

People are often confused by the name “liberation front”, but we need to look deeply as to why these liberation fronts were created in the first place. Invariably, they arose out of the suppression of the people and their rights.

I believe that some of these liberation fronts do not really want to break away, but are doing it because their rights are being rampantly violated and because they have been denied countless opportunities that are reserved for those few in power. If we understand this, we should not be afraid of reaching out to these liberation fronts because they not only have legitimate complaints, but they are important segments of our population that cannot be ignored.

If we want to create a more stable Ethiopia, we must instead work together to correct and resolve the wrongs going on now and in the past so that we can live together in harmony in the future. This means justice, respect and equality for the Anuak, the Ogadeni, the Hamar, the Hawadle, the Welayta, the Guji, the Nure, the Shekicho and for all Ethiopians!

I believe if these groups who are fighting one another can come together in a genuine spirit of reconciliation—expecting to give and receive justice, we will succeed in finding a sustainable solution, even if it calls for some compromise on all of our parts. As these issues are adequately addressed, many, if not all of these liberation groups may no longer have any reason or desire to separate themselves from Ethiopia, especially as the trend in the world is increasingly one of coming together.

After all, consider who would be left in Ethiopia if every one of us who has been abused split off into our own groups, forming our own countries! What would Ethiopia look like then? Who would be left? Yes, the more dominant ethnic groups might be the only ones wanting to maintain Ethiopia as their own, but they have much to lose if we are not among them!

We, and many other minorities who are still unknown to the mainstream of Ethiopians, have many things to share and to contribute to in a future Ethiopia. All of that would be lost without our presence and active participation.

However, if we are really talking about a new Ethiopia where everyone is included, there is a group of excluded people that need to join us on the frontlines. These marginalized people are actually the backbone of our Afar, Anuak, Ogadeni and Ethiopian society, yet their voices are often not heard. Their voices are those of our own mothers, our wives, our sisters and our daughters.

Now, I must first say how encouraged I was to see so many women here today, nearly half of those in attendance! I have not seen this at any other Ethiopian meetings. Instead in this case, it was young Ogadeni women who actually invited me today and were some of the chief organizers of the event. I applaud this achievement. We need to encourage more of this because if we do not include women in all aspects of this movement, we will lose a perspective that is critical to our survival as a people.

Women have been the backbone of Ethiopian society as well as of African society, helping us to survive very difficult circumstances. Wherever you go you see them holding us together. In fact, if we continue to marginalize our women, the new Ethiopia for which we are fighting, may die well before its birth.

If it even succeeds in being born, it may end up scrawny and under-developed for lack of nourishment. If it grows up, it may end up unruly and disorderly for lack of discipline and guidance. Let us not underestimate how the hard labor, nourishment and sustenance from our women, can give great strength and sustainability to our futures.

During many hard times, men may be fighting among themselves for the power or the control while the women end up in charge of the practical aspects of life. Within their families, mothers learn to be peacemakers and negotiators who can discipline without favoring, who can listen to both sides and find common ground and who can sacrifice for the good of their loved ones. These are all the same skills that are necessary to better the future of the next generation of Ethiopians and Africans.

Additionally, if mothers were in charge, they may not be so quick to resort to settling conflict through aggression and violence. Yet, they are often the recipients of such violence at the hands of men. The government must create and enforce laws that protect our mothers, wives and children from us men.

For instance, those in the ENDF who have raped our Ethiopian women must be brought to accountability. We need to give our women an equal opportunity in their futures to participate like any other women in the world. In other words, our women are not only there to cook for us, to bear our children and to maintain our homes for us, but they are also competent to govern, to make decisions of importance and to influence our society at every level.

I have seen a young Anuak woman in Gambella not go to school so she could gather firewood and cook food so that her male brother could go to school. I remember seeing fifteen years old girl on the streets of Addis Ababa begging for money while she was holding her newborn child, alone without any help from anyone.

I have seen nine years old girl in Awassa, carrying over ten pounds of charcoal on her head for 12 kilometers in order to sell it so the money could be used to sustain her family so her brother could go to school.

I have heard that the same thing is going on in the Ogaden where a young girl will spend her whole day taking care of the cattle so her younger brother can go to school. This has to stop. We need to invest in our women at the same time as we continue to invest in our men.

The Anuak, the Ogadeni’s and other minorities are marginalized by their ethnicity, region and also by their gender. In order to change, we must change our thinking and be transformed into people who follow God’s principles of putting others first and consider them equal to ourselves. It should not be about “ME” or “US”.

Our women are the most marginalized and if we want to change our society they need to be included and we can only do this by changing our thinking and putting it into practice! This is the same kind of fundamental change of thinking that must take place before there is any hope that the dominant groups will include the minorities and before the minorities will effectively trust and embrace the dominant groups, yet it must be our focus if we want Ethiopia to change and it must include all women!

Even now in this struggle for unity, freedom and justice, those in the dominant groups and those in the minority groups must recognize that we need each other—whether we all like to admit it or not! If we treat each other as equal, fellow-human beings, we can be stronger and better as we learn how to willingly share power, resources and opportunity. This is what has been lacking in the past.

As we change, we will begin to see the depth of our commonality and we may learn we love each other more than we hate each other! After all, we are all Ethiopian. After all, we are all African. After all, we are all human beings!

May we fully commit ourselves to follow God’s principles that He set up when He created us in His own image out of the clay of the earth. Our Maker calls us to Himself because we are each precious and loved! He created us 100% human, not 95% or 99.9%! This is what lays the foundation for all of human rights!

I am told that the name, Ogaden, means “people who know.” The name, Anuak, means “people who share.” It is time for “people who know” and for “people who share” to work together as fellow Ethiopians! More than that, we need the help of all Ethiopians.

Again, anyone who lives within the borders of Ethiopia is part of this group as they are all 100% Ethiopian. There is no one ethnic group or dominant groups who is more Ethiopian than others. We must tell the majority and those in power that they have an obligation towards all Ethiopians.

If we are really going to change the country, this is where real change must begin—with how we value and include our neighbors, even the ones we don’t know very well or who might be culturally different from us. If those with the “upper-hand” are unable to understand this, they will stand in the way of a new Ethiopia.

This is at the heart of freeing us as a society from the prison in which we all now live. Without it, there is little to offer to these break-away groups that will convince them to stay for such inclusion is the groundwork of liberation for all of Ethiopia. Repressing large portions of our society for the benefit of others is like a vessel with cracks. It will eventually break and disintegrate into pieces like the regime of Mengistu and like the regime of Meles will soon do as well!

However, equally important, if we in the minority groups are offered new opportunities, but yet choose to refuse to give up our past resentments, preferring to continue to complain about past offences by the majority, we leave no room for forgiveness, healing and restoration and we will be stuck in a cycle of hate, bitterness and blaming. None of these lead anywhere but downward to destruction!

Equally important, we must see ourselves as equal, valuable and contributing members of Ethiopia regardless of how we have been viewed in the past. Those views came out of ignorance and societal dysfunction. Instead, we must consider how God views us as precious. Because he values us, He urges us to seek Him and as we do, He will show us the purposes He has for our lives that will bring the greatest satisfaction. Remember, those who devalue God’s children, are themselves in need of help.

We must stop a cycle that defeats us by devaluing ourselves or others. This is not just directed towards those who have been in power and privilege. It goes for the minorities and the “dis-empowered” as well. Sometimes those who have been offended or abused, hold on to a victim mentality or a bitter grudge of resentment that goes back many years.

If you do this, you will never see your own contribution to your problems! Instead, we must know who we are in God’s eyes and reach out with grace, forgiveness, humility and love to others. This is the only way we are going to see Ethiopia freed from the grips of tyranny. God will find a way out where no way is seen by human eyes.

Our Ethiopian or African leaders continue indeed to use the power of the State both to enrich themselves and their ethnic communities and to repress any opposition or criticism. The politics of privileging ethnicity for those in power and diminishing ethnicity for those out of power has continued to dominate the African political landscape. The question then is what is to be done in the face of this ethnically-based politics? How can we move forward?

The answer is simple yet profoundly difficult to implement. Ethiopia and Africa must move away from the politicization of ethnicity. Celebrate the ethnic and cultural mosaic of Ethiopia or Africa but at the same time create an `a – ethnic’ or non-ethnic politics. Ethiopians or Africans must surrender their ethnic clothes when they move into the political arena and assume positions of power.

It is time for a Movement for a New Ethiopia or Africa, one shorn of ethnic chauvinism in the world of politics. Unless this happens then political leaders will play one ethnic group off against another for political advantage parallel to the past colonial practice of `divide and rule’ and the current neo-colonial practice of foreign intervention in ethically-based strife; mounting the war on terror; and, driving for control over valued resources.

The Ethiopians or Africans have been divided for too long and separated from their common heritage by artificial boundaries and the ethnic and regional and religious divides. Ethiopia or Africa must re-discover its soul and celebrate its African-ness. The soil of Ethiopia or African continues to be stained by the blood of its sons and daughters all in the name of mindless ethnic power struggles.

A politics of collaboration and consensus must be re-asserted drawing on Ethiopian or African tradition within the local community. That community must be expanded to become inclusive of all Africans. Otherwise, Ethiopia or Africa will continue to be in disarray, in decline, and incur more death and suffering.

In this weakened condition, rapacious leaders can prey on their people and foreign interests can continue to exploit and manipulate for both profit and power. The time has come for a new Ethiopia or Africa, one where its people can see each other as one, as sharing the soul and soil of the continent for their mutual benefit and development. The cloak of ethnicity must be removed in the realm of African politics. Until that day arrives, Ethiopian or Africans all suffer for their loss of humanity.

We must think beyond our ethnicity, our Ethiopian-ness, our African-ness and see ourselves as children created in the image of God. Our Ethiopian leaders have not seen the way out of this because they may not be able to see the bigger commonality of our shared humanity.

Instead, they may have made decisions based on short-term worldly goals of pleasure, luxury and power at the expense of others rather than realizing they are only refugees on this earth until they are reunited someday with their Creator. These are two very contrasting views of life with very different outcomes. It is for each of us to choose between them.

As my Ogadeni sister cited in her beautiful poem at the opening of this conference, I believe that God is rising up to help us and that He is using some of our young people to do it. Let each of us take part in this. May He help the Ogadenis to rise up.

May He help the Ethiopians to rise up with other Africans and light up this Dark Continent that is overcome with man-caused suffering, misery and death! May He help us rise up as human beings who are His children, ready to generously spread his love around!

It is our duty to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives while we are on this earth. These purposes will differ, but our value as people will not. As an Anuak, or as a Canadian Ethiopian or as a follower of Jesus Christ, I may be different from you in these ways, but I am still connected to you, respect you and love you as a fellow human being. You are my people and God tells us to love, protect and uphold each other.

As we seek to work together in our mutual struggle for freedom, justice, equality, peace and reconciliation, let us become ambassadors to others in Ethiopia, fearlessly revolutionary in reaching out in love.

If movement for a new Ethiopia is to rise up, let us be the seeds planted in fertile soil that will bring a great harvest that reaches all the way from the educated and more privileged to the average people of our nation and of our continent—the hardworking, the poor, the undereducated, the oppressed and the devalued!

May God give us the strength, guidance and resources to nurture such a movement! May He give us the means to break down the invisible fences separating us so that we can join together in unity of purpose, with respect for each other and with the moral courage to stand firm for what is right!

Thank you.

You can get in touch with Obang O. Metho by email at: advocacy@anuakjustice.org

Ethiopia - Emergency Aid Must Reach Its Intended Beneficiaries

Date: 27th August 2007 Ref: OHRC/PRO5/0807

PRESS RELEASE

ETHIOPIA: EMERGENCY AID MUST REACH ITS INTENDED BENEFICIARIES IN THE OGADEN

In Ethiopia, drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium.

For the last twelve years the Ogaden was a country ravaged by war and haunted by drought and man-made-famine. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee has frequently warned the massive looming famine in the Ogaden in its reports and press releases.

In August 1999, the Ethiopian government, which spent more than a million dollars a day on the war with Eritrea, internal wars in the Ogaden and Oromia and its invasions into Southern Somalia, asked the international community for an urgent humanitarian aid to feed five million Ethiopians facing starvation mainly in Northern Ethiopia (in Tigray the homeland of the ruling party in Ethiopia).

On 30th March 2000, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, asked the international community for an urgent humanitarian aid and a long term aid to feed and rehabilitate eight million Ethiopians facing starvation in different parts of the empire-state of Ethiopia.

In 2000, the Ogaden region was hit by the worst drought in a decade. The prolonged drought caused a mass starvation and breakout of epidemics related to malnutrition and bad sanitation. In the worst drought-stricken areas, thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of animals starved to death. The Ethiopian government, which was in war with Eritrea, did nothing to save the lives of the drought victims and their animals, which are the main source of the livelihood for millions of the Ogaden people. (See Press Release: Ogaden: Dozens of People and Thousands of Animals Starve to Death on a Daily Basis amid International Lack of Attention ref: OHRC/05/00).

In April 2002 and in May 2003, torrential rains in the Ogaden washed away entire communities and submerged many villages in many areas such as, Godey, Mustaxiil, and Qalaafo. In Jigjiga, Dhagaxbuur, Qabridaharre, Wardheer, Shiniile and Liiban, roads have been cut off by the rains, which destroyed temporary shelters, houses, and killed livestock.

The response of the Ethiopian government was too late, too little and inadequate, and as is usual it accused international community and donor countries of having failed to respond in time to safe lives and property.

On September 05th 2003, in an international appeal launched through Ethiopian government’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), the Ethiopian government appealed for US $40 million to help fight the devastating crisis which has affected 13.2 million people in the drought-stricken areas.

In fact international donor community has helped the victims of the drought generously. But as is usual with Ethiopian government, the aid donated by the international community to the victims of the drought through the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (ERRC), renamed as the Disaster Prevention and preparedness Commission (DPPC), which is in effect run by the Tigray Relief Society (TRS), never reached its intended beneficiaries in the Ogaden, because the Ethiopian government has misused it by diverting it to the army.

As a part of the Ethiopian government’s policy of starving out the civilian population in the Ogaden to submission, its army has imposed an economic blockade on many towns and villages in the region. This blockade has caused an enormous human suffering. The most affected areas by the military siege are: the regions of Dhagaxbuur, Fiiq, Qabridaharre, Wardheer, Godey, Afdheer and some parts of Jigjiga, where many villages were depopulated and razed to the ground by the government troops.

On August 24th 2007, the United States said it is providing nearly $19 million in emergency aid for Ethiopia's volatile Ogaden region.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee, which warned repeatedly the looming human tragedy in the Ogaden welcomes wholeheartedly, the United States Government’s humanitarian gesture and generosity and calls upon the international community and donor countries to take similar actions in order to avert the loss of human life by a man- made-starvation.

According to reliable reports received by the OHRC, last week’s emergency aid consignment, which was handed over for distribution to the Disaster Prevention and preparedness Commission (DPPC) by the World Food Programme (WFP) was not reached famine victims in the Dhagaxbuur region. The DPPC is not a neutral body and it is run by Ethiopian armed and security forces in the Ogaden.

Therefore, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee calls upon the USA Government and other donor countries to put in place an effective and verifiable monitoring mechanism to assure the reach of the emergency aid to its intended beneficiaries in the Ogaden..

In order to assure the reach of the food aid to its intended beneficiaries and to resolve the protracted conflict in the region, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee recommends and requests the following:

To: the International Community, Donor Countries, United Nations, Ethiopian Government and Ogaden National Liberation Front:

1. The international donor community helps the Ogaden people generously and directly through international NGOs in order to assure the reach of the food aid to the victims of the famine; otherwise the relief will end up in military barracks as usual.

2. The Ethiopian government and the Ogaden National Liberation Front, declare immediate, comprehensive and unconditional cease-fire in the Ogaden in order to aid famine and war victims in the Ogaden.

3. The international community exert more pressure on all the parties to the conflict in the Ogaden in order to reach a peaceful negotiated settlement.

4. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee urges the Ethiopian government, the Ogaden National Liberation Front to allow all humanitarian and relief organisations to operate freely in the Ogaden as well as international and local human rights organisations and the international press.

5. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee deplores the Ethiopian government’s decision to expel ICRC’s staff in the Ogaden and demands its reversal as well as allowing more humanitarian and relief organisations to operate in the Ogaden without restrictions, regardless of nationality or religion.

6. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee reiterates its condemnation and disapproval of imposing restrictions on humanitarian organisations’ movements as well as killing, intimidation and abduction of aid workers in the Ogaden.

7. United Nations Security Council form an independent inquiry commission to investigate recent massacres and atrocities in the Ogaden.

8. The United Nations appoint a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Ogaden.

Ogaden Human Rights Committee
www.ogadenrights.org
E-mail: ohrc@ogadenrights.org

Ethiopia - Ethiopian Millennium Symposium Announcement

Council for the Celebration of the Ethiopian Millennium

August 28, 2007

Ethiopia in the dawn of the third Millennium: Reflections on our Country’s Past and its Future – Challenges & Opportunities.

As part of the events organized by the Council for Ethiopian Millennium Celebration Council in Washington DC, USA, from September 7 to September 12, 2007, several prominent scholars, professionals, and experts, both Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia--from Europe, Canada, and various states of the US-- will gather in Washington DC to participate in a Symposium: “Ethiopia in the dawn of the 3rd Millennium: Reflections on our Country’s Past and its Future”. The Symposium will be held from September 8-9, 2007 at Howard University in Washington, DC.

The closure of the 2nd Ethiopian millennium and the beginning of the new one is not a mere marker of transition between two epochs in a wall calendar. It goes without saying that it carries the baggage of history, with all its ups and downs of thousands of years, a civilization that has its unique features and a diverse population with a colorful culture and heritage. What is already passing represents a rich mosaic of religious, economic, social and political systems that have fascinated scholars, baffled would be colonialists, thrilled potential trade partners and challenged politicians who wish to lead the nation.

On the dawn of the new millennium, it is incumbent on all Ethiopians to explore ways of building and enhancing our capacity to sustain both our rich heritages and a proud history of an ancient and unique civilization. Current and future generations of Ethiopians have a huge responsibility to carry-on this golden heritage and proud history, which has been for decades, if not for centuries a hallmark of great contribution, inspiration and a leading star for the entire African continent and for the black people of African descent world-wide.

The symposium has a double-pronged purpose:

a)To highlight the heritages of an ancient civilization that sustained an exemplary and untarnished independence, and

b)To explore and formulate the innovative contributions of the contemporary Ethiopian generations to explore a course and set an agenda for brightening our country’s future

These perspectives are complementary: highlighting Ethiopia’s proud legacy will set the stage for the nation’s future in all fields of knowledge, thus enabling the new generation to carry the torch of that legacy to the distant future. Tapping on the great reservoirs of unyielding and renowned Ethiopian spirits of the past generations, we aspire in this Symposium to critically look at ways for re-establishing our country’s great image and prestige in the world platform, by helping her to institute forward-looking policies in all walks of life today and for the coming decades.

Themes of the symposium reflect the 2000 years of achievements, frustrations and challenges as well as the new directions of civil and political lives of Ethiopians in the context of our diversity, modernity and globalization. The invited presenters are expected to highlight the achievements, frustrations and challenges of the current generation of Ethiopians, as they face the future and struggle to recognize their roots in an ancient civilization, lift their heads and spirits high and assert their great potentials, resources and innovative qualities.

The symposium also hopes to open a dialogue over innovative approaches to help enable our country, first and foremost be self-reliant as it strives to control its future. The sub-themes will encompass the overwhelming social, economic and political difficulties the country has been undergoing over the centuries, particularly the last century. These will be used for exploring and bringing forth the underlying strategies for overcoming them.

CCEM
Washington, DC

THE ETHIOPIAN MILLENNIUM: REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST, PRESENT CHALLENGES,
AND LIGHT INTO THE FUTURE

SYMPOSIUM
September 8 – 9, 2007

Howard University Washington, DC

A. Ethiopian History, Language, and Culture in the past Millennium

Moderator: Ato Alemayehu Gebre Hiwot

Speakers:

Professor Getatchew Haile, St. Johns University
Ethiopia Ena Yekerew Alem

Ato Assefa Gebremariam Tesema, Author and Poet
Ye Ethiopia Huletegnaw Millennium BeGetami (Poet) Ayin

Dr. Fikre Tolossa, Writer, Poet & Playwright
Ethiopian History and Literature

Dr. Ayele Bekeri, Cornnel University
The Ethiopian Millennium as a Signifier of Long Historical Journey

Dr. Aberra Molla The Ethiopian Calender

Dr. Meseret Chekol Reta, University of Wisconsin - River Falls.

Hoping for a Free and Vibrant Press in Ethiopia: A Bird's Eye view of the Development of Modern Media over the Last One Hundred Years.

B. The State of Education and the Youth in Ethiopia

Moderator: Dr. Mena Aklilu, University of Michigan

Speakers: Dr. Paulos Milkias, Concordia University Modernity, the Ethiopian Youth and the Challenge of the Third Millennium

Dr. Aklilu Habte, Former President of Addis Ababa University
Timhert Be Ethiopia: Tinanet Ena Zare

Dr. Abraham Bekele
Ethiopia's Beleaguered Youth: Can It Meet the Challenges of the New Millennium?

C. Prospects and Challenges of Health and Women issues in Ethiopia

Moderator: Dr. Abeba Fekade

Speakers: Dr. Kassa Ayalew
Health and Good Governance: The Challenges in the New Millennium

Dr. Abeba Fekade
The Health Crisis in Ethiopia: The Challenges in the New Millennium

Wro Lemlem Tsegaw
Health and Women In Ethiopia

Dr. Ashenafi Waktola
HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

D. Ethiopians in the Diaspora: Prospects, Challenges, and opportunities

Moderator: Ato Abdul Aziz Kamus, African Resource Center, Washington DC

Speakers:
Dr. Solomon Addis Getahun, Michigan State University, MI

The History of Ethiopian Immigrants in the US, a Profile
.
Ethiopian Musicians at the Diaspora Crossroads
Dr. Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Harvard University

Dr. Gabe Hamda, ICATT Consulting, Inc, Jacksonville, Florida.
Success in Business & Entrepreneurship:
Lessons for Ethiopians in Diaspora

Mr. Abdulaziz Kamus, African Resource Center
Standing Up and Speaking Up for your community

E. Ethiopia’s Millennium Challenges: Economic Development and the Environment.

Moderator: Dr.Gezhaegen Bekele,

Speakers: Professor Lemma Wolde Senbet, University of Maryland
Ethiopia's Command Financial Economy: Measures for Transforming the Financial Sector in Next Millennium.


Dr. Getachew Begashaw, Harper College,
The Ethiopian Economy in the New Millennium:
A Despoiled Economy in Perspective.

Dr. Sisay Assefa, Western Michigan University,
The Challenge of Economic Development:
Can Ethiopian Claim the 21st Century or its Coming Millennium

Ato Mersie Ejigu, Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability,
Sustainable Development and Peace in Ethiopia: Possibilities of Our Time?

Dr. Brook Lakew, NASA
Global warming: the challenges and business opportunities

Ato Fekade Shewakena, National Institute of Health (NIH)
Desertification in Ethiopia: Causes and Consequences.

F. The Quest for Democracy in the New Millennium Co-organized with Support group for Democracy in Ethiopia

Moderator: Ato Negussie Mengesha (Voice of America, VOA)

Speakers: Dr. Mesfin Araya, City University of New York, NY
The Quest for Democracy under TPLF: Lessons from 2005 Elections

Dr. Messai Kebede, University of Dayton
Millennium Beliefs and Radicalization

Dr. Getachew Metaferia, Morgan State University,
Ethiopia and United State Relations:
Its Impact on the Quest for Democracy in Ethiopia

Mr. Dima N. Sarbo, University of Tennessee,
The Challenges of Balancing Collective and Individual Rights in the New Millennium.

Ato Ephrem Madebo, Systems Engineer, FAA
Democratic Response to National Question in Ethiopia.

G. The Essentials of Peace and Reconciliation in Ethiopia in the New
Millennium

Co-Organized by the Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development (EWPD)

Moderator: Dr. Maigenet Shifferraw, (University of the District of Columbia)

Speakers:

Dr. Berhanu Mengistu, Old Dominion University
The Role of Civil Society in the Transformation of Governance and Peace Building in Ethiopia

Dr. Kogila Adam-Moodley, University of British Columbia and Director of Research and Development at the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa
What Made the South African Reconciliation Possible?

Dr. Heribert Adam, Simon Fraser University and University of Cape Town
Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies: Lessons from South Africa for Ethiopia

Ms Agerie Tefera, Arlington Diocese Office of Migration and Refugee Services
The Role of Women in Peace and Reconciliation: A Case of Women in the Southern Region of Ethiopia

Mr. Elias Wondimu, EINEPS & Tsehai Publishers
Institutional Formation as an Instrument for Conflict Prevention and Positive Change in Ethiopia: The Case of the Ethiopian Institute for Nonviolence Education and Peace Studies (EINEPS)

H. Building Democratic Institutions, & Civil Society
Co-organized with Ethiopian National Congress (ENC)

Moderator:
Speakers: Dr. Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, Mary Immaculate College,
University of Limerick
Way Out of Seven Deaths: Ethiopian Prospects for the New Millennium.'

Dr. Teshome Tadesse, Michigan State University
Peace and wartime shifts in the behaviours of the state and civil society
and socioeconomic and political change in Ethiopia.

Dr. Erqu Yimer, Ethiopian Community Center, Chicago, IL
Building Democratic Institutions of Governance & Civil Institutions

Dr. Berhanu Abegaz, College of William and Mary, VA
Citizens Charter: The Vital Role of a Strong Civic Movement

Ato Derje Demisse, Law Offices of Dereje and Church, Boston, MA
Targeted Legal Reform To Promote Democracy in the New Millennium: Building an independent judiciary and reform in criminal justice

I. The Ethiopian State, Ethno-nationalism, and Security Issues: Past, Present, and Future Challenges

Moderator: Ambassador Ayalew Mandefro, former Ambassador
& Minister of Defence

Speakers: Dr. Mamo Muchie, Aalborg University, Denmark
Millennium Hopes for creating a Security Community from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean: Confronting the Challenges with Courage and Wisdom.

Dr. Negede Gobzie, Author and Political Activist, Belgium
Be Haya Andegnaw Kifele Zemen Be Ethiopia Yetedergu Ye Lewit Mukerawoch: Tahisas, Yekatit Ena Ginbot.

Dr. Shumet Sishagne, University of Newport News, VA
Whither Ethio-Eritrean Relation in the Next Millennium?
A Time for Reflection."

Dr. Assefa Negash, De Geestgronden Institute of Mental Health,
Dutch city of Harlem, The Netherlands
Ethno-nationalism as a Hindrance to the Democratization of the Ethiopian State

To contact the Council for the Celebration of Ethiopian Millennium, regarding the Symposium you can write to: Neaminz@aol.com, or symposium@ethiopianmillennium2000.com ; phone: 202-386-3037 or 301-681-1201

Phone: 240-460-3579 202-386-3037
Fax: 952-746-1982
Web Address: http://www.ethiopianmillennium2000.com
Adders: 1115 U street N.W
Washington DC, 20009

E-mail: info@ethiopianmillennium2000.com

Ethiopia - Misinformation Leads Somali-Ethiopian Diaspora in disarray

Due to the lack of proper connection between Somali-Ethiopian Diaspora and both the Regional and Federal governments of Ethiopia, several self-nominated groups under the shirt of civil society/human rights are trying to fill up the fissure, using unprecedented lies and deceits.

This little known, but dreadfully dangerous tactic, which I term “a campaign of misinformation,” is leading the less informed Somali-Ethiopian Diaspora in hysteria. In human toll, it is difficult to assess the damage and or the carnage that might be attributed to this campaign of misinformation. That fact notwithstanding, it would be reckless to ignore or refuse to acknowledge the important role it played in successfully creating confusion within this large community. It would be doubly more reckless to deny that this tactic is very much working for these groups. They are using this tactic to baffle, scare and prevent any investment project plan intended for the Somali Regional State (also known Ogaden region).

As they are the mouthpiece of so-called ONLF and its partner, UWSLF, a combination of the remnants of UIC and other foreign elements, these groups had begun a decidedly direct campaign of misinformation against the situation in the region. They are spreading unfounded propaganda aimed to not only confuse the Somali-Ethiopian Diaspora, but also the international community as well. Returning from this region few weeks ago, I know the true facts on the ground. Massive infrastructure development through-out the region, the completion of Jigjiga University (the first university that this region has ever had), Jigjiga tarmac airport, Godey Agricultural Institute (first two year college), Bodh-cano dam (also known Mira Godey), the largest dam ever built in the region, which if managed appropriately could alleviate the food shortage in the region, electrifying more towns and villages than ever, and many other investment projects such as latest telephone services, roads, schools and hospitals, all intended to enhance the livelihood of the people in the region.

As mentioned by Katie Nguyen (analyst), “Moreover Addis Ababa ploughs significantly more money into Ogaden for roads and other services than it receives in taxes.” Besides the federal government, United States of America is taking part in helping the people of this region; US Ambassador, Donald Yamamoto, announced last Friday that his country will provide 18.7 million U.S. dollars in humanitarian assistance for needs in this region.

Somali Regional State is moving forward into the right direction and its people are looking ahead into the future rather than the past, they join hands with both the Regional and Federal governments to fight poverty. Despite the misinformation campaign of these groups hiding under the fake names, the Somali-Ethiopian Diaspora needs to understand that this is the truth and that any statement to the contrary is a lie and must be exposed for what it really is, a ploy designed to create chaos, generate discord and divert the people of this region from achieving their ultimate goal, eliminating the poverty.

Abdullahi Khalif-Gariile
shabeele15@hotmail.com

--------------------

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Ethiopia through the Looking Glass of Failed States Diarist

Mulugeta Alemu

26 August 2007

When columns of highly armed Ethiopian soldiers descended into the city of Addis Ababa fleeing from the fast advancing EPRDF fighters in early 1991, many predicted that Addis Ababa and the country in general would vanish like a house of cards. Some had pointed to the experience of the neighbouring Mogadishu of Somalia where Siad Barre’s government was overthrown by a mighty wave of inter-clan fighting and anarchy. Addis Ababa residents, however, quietly received the fall of the Derg as an inevitable and an enormously reliving outcome of seventeen years of mayhem. The ones impregnable façade of the state dissipated in a blink of an eye. Ethiopia political itinerary from an era of a criminal state to a state whose continued survival and legitimacy is contingent on its ability to provide core social services is illuminating.

The 1990s have seen series of governments and state institutions collapsing in many countries particularly in Africa. Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan became show cases of protracted civil wars with worrying level of regional dimensions. The 1998-2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea had been the only conventional inter-state conflict. Unprepared to properly make sense of this new dynamic, pseudo-academic institutions and think tanks enthusiastically adopted failed state theory which they used to categorize states. The US based think tank, the Fund for Peace, started to produce an index of failed states in the Foreign Policy magazine. According to this fuzzy concept, all sorts of states have been included in the category of failed state. A nuclear power Pakistan is camped together with countries like Afghanistan and the DRC.

The concept of failed states does not have any relevance to the way in which states conduct their international relations. Neither does it affect their rights and obligations under international law.

Is Ethiopia a failed state? The Ethiopian government initiated a constitutional dispensation through the adoption of a new constitution in which a daring political engineering was envisaged. Many saw and accepted the new writings on the wall. These daring and yet highly contested constitutional provisions became the modus operandi of the state. Through them, the state itself was reconfigured and redefined. Subjects became citizens. New regional states were created and given significant powers. Nations, nationalities and peoples became beneficiaries of myriads of entitlements which were unthinkable decades ago. Young Ethiopians became able to speak and learn in their own languages. Eritreans won their independence, which also relived Ethiopia from a war that has wasted its youth and resources. Previously marginalized religious groups started enjoying their freedoms of religious practice without restrictions. Ethiopians started exercising greater freedom of speech than any time in their history. The state’s preoccupation translated into ensuring the provision of social services.

The pragmatic utility of Ethiopia’s federalism became profound. As its relation with citizens gets reconfigured, the legitimacy of the state is achieved. Social fragmentation and divides are bridged. Despite ongoing ups and downs in its implementations and the fact that individuals and few groups still exist who question the relevance of federalism, Ethiopia’s new forms of federal governance has indeed become an irreversible modicum of state-citizen interaction.

Conflicts have not disappeared from Ethiopia. Among pastoral and agro-pastoral areas, groups often contest, violently at times, over increasingly depleting resources. Political mismanagement and tense relationships resulted in a deadly crisis in Gambella regional state in 2003. Readiness of neighbouring countries such as Eritrea to arm and support ONLF largely contributed to the recent tension in Somali regional state. There are armed groups which from time to time attempt to settle scores with the government. But it will be one huge error to use this as an indictment of federalism in Ethiopia. These groups do not have an agenda which rally grass root support.

The human rights situation in the country is not rosy. Ethiopia is a country where its institutions and citizens have not fully internalised human rights values and norms. This state of affair meant that a lot has to be done if the ideals of civil and political freedoms are to be achieved. The government has instituted mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights. It is shameful that many including Ethiopians have joined a campaign of dehumanising and demonising members of Ethiopian armed forces. Such unjustified diatribe belies a deliberate choice not to notice what the Government has done to make the military accountable, professional and well-trained. One can simply read the decision of the Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Decision on POWs to see how internationally renowned jurists evaluated the performance of the Ethiopian military during armed conflicts. The fact that human rights are violated, as they do in many other countries, does not make one country in which they occur a failed state.

In the past, for people particularly those in the rural areas, the state meant the taxman who occasionally arrives in the villages with his armed entourage. There were many areas where citizens even confused the state with NGOs operating in their locality. The Derg had undertaken what is now considered as a massive and highly successful attempt in enhancing the control of the state. This was achieved through the establishment and operationalization of associations. The significant problem with this massive state undertaking, however, was that these institutions have no other significant social function other than serving the state as a tool of oppression and recruitment ground for soldiers. Not only did they lack any social function, they were illegitimate. They were often run by individuals who were unconnected to the locals. Local institutions and forums under the new federal arrangements on the contrary are run and managed in a way that seeks the fullest implementation of the right of the people to self-determination.

The functional vitality of the state is clearly strengthened and become meaningful when one looks at how the state, both at the federal and regional level, has effectively reclaimed its role as an important focal point for the provision of social services. Currently, more than 90 percent of primary-school aged children go to school, a staggering achievement compared to what the figure has been a decade ago. The number of educational institutions including at the tertiary level has shown a phenomenal increase. Massive array of health providing centers and units are established in all corners of the world. Child mortality has shown a significant decrease. More women have now access to reproductive health services than ever. Private educational and health institutions have mushroomed. Roads are developed, bridges built and other massive infrastructural development programs undertaken.

These programs are undertaken based on clearly articulated national development programs. Ethiopia’s civil service program is one of the oldest and the most comprehensive reform program in the country. Government institutions both at the federal and local level are undertaking reform programs whose benefits are trickling slowly but surely. Development partners trust the capacity of the government to implement these programs. They see in Ethiopian government a serious, willing and able administration which can deliver its developmental promises.

Ethiopia is a poor country. This means that its government and institutions suffer from sever lack of resources. The countries also find it self in rough neighborhood where political and economic crisis in neighboring countries have a vivid spill over effect. It is a diverse and large country. But probably Ethiopia is one of the best governed of Africa’s poor, big states. The government and its institutions are the manifestation of the state itself whose efficacy and constitution survival can only be ensured through a continuing measurable economic progress. My take is that, the Government is just doing that.

----------------
Is Ethiopia a failed state? Katherine Wheeler of Foreign Policy Magazine sits down with the Ethiopian ambassador to the United States to get his reaction.

According to the latest statistics from International Telecommunication Union, Ethiopia has just 25,700 Internet subscribers, the country lags behind many countries in Africa in ICT. In April 2005, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia promised a universal internet access in Ethiopia in 2-3 years, yet Ethiopia remains at the bottom of almost all surveys in ICT. In a recent World Economic Forum Global Technology Study, Ethiopia is ranked number 119 in its ability to exploit information and communication technology out of 122 countries surveyed.

Here is a FactBox from ITU.

ICT Statistics Ethiopia Vs Kenya

• Ethiopia - Mobile Phone 866,700
• Kenya - Mobile Phone 6,484,800
• Ethiopia - Fixed Line 725,000
• Kenya - Fixed Line 293,400
• Ethiopia - Internet Subscribers 25,700
• Kenya - Internet Subscribers 186,800
• Ethiopia - Total Telephone Subscribers 1,591,700
• Ethiopia - 2.01 Telephones per 100 inhabitants
• Kenya - 7,778,200 Total Telephone
• Kenya 19.31 Telephones per 100 inhabitants

All Data As of 2006
Source International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Ethiopia - A Good Political Culture

A good researcher of any kind first completes his experiment on paper and executes it to get a good result. If experienced enough, will be able to see or determine the result from they way it is planned. Good planning, good result, bad planning bad result. If enough care is not taken, the experimental work can be arrested in the middle due to a number of reasons. The same is with politics.

A good political culture is seeded, not in the way the political program is crafted but in the way it is executed. No political party will like to appear unattractive in its program and as a matter of reality most craft their programs in good articulation to achieve their goals. Some will remain on paper, some drop out in the middle and some reach their goals. Not all are expected to succeed in their struggle. This is the reality and we have seen all kinds in our past history.

Our political culture is deep rooted in the past. Wherever we go, our past history follows us. Time changes, so does everything including political programs. A political group/organization/party which doesn’t fit the demand of the time goes out of the picture gradually. The way it goes out of the picture is determined in the way it handles the challenges of the time. This small note is not meant to address the vast history of our past politics, rather to address a small, but an important point.

Some one has to say something about our current political culture and the trends we follow. Our past political culture is filled with turmoil. From the philosophical background to the way discussions are conducted, there is one notable fact, relentlessness.

It is evident that everything we say and do have their consequences. It is time that we examine where we are, where we are going and how we are going.

No one expects all political organizations to have the same program, the same level of understanding, the same number of members, the same background, achievement etc, etc. Differences exist, otherwise all would have been under one political organization. This is basic. At this time, when one is in dire need of the other, besides the differences in their programs, small seemingly irrelevant trends have contributed very much to the current situation.

All can feel that there is something in the air. The system by its own is working hard to create gaps and differences. This is expected. What is not clear is, knowingly or unknowingly created, within the opposition, some trends are observed.

The good political culture we have is, most, you can say almost all political organizations are founded based on the love of the people, the love of country and the deep desire to establish a Democratic, stable, peaceful, prosperous country where all live equally as human beings with their National and International Human rights respected. Indeed, very heavy price have been paid for this. This is a noble Good Political Culture we have, i.e. love of country, tenacity in ones believe, daring to pay sacrifices when needed etc. All in the opposition should be proud of this culture. Not every dream is achievable instantly though, so time has come to be a factor.

The past has taught us so much, now we are experienced enough not to repeat our past mistakes. If this is the case, when the desire to work together is so overdue and timely, why are we witnessing what we see, hear and read?

It has been mentioned above that everything has a beginning, a consequence and an end. One should not be reserved to point out some of the obstacles on the way of working together. It is unwise to wait until the train misses its rail.

As a matter of fact we expect perfection from our side. It is natural, but there is no political organization or group or individual who is blessed enough to meet this demand. It as well is difficult to meet all demands. Mistake happen for a number of reasons. Why are we smart enough to criticize relentlessly to the extent of politically massacring individuals and not wise enough to resolve them? There is penalty for every mistake, but for every minor, major mistake why politically assassinate the character who makes the mistake?? If it comes from the other side, it is expected but why from the oppositions themselves?? To be critical of this issue, we are as well responsible for the creations of the defectives, from all groups. Relentlessness and lack of mature resolution of conflicts. The point is made clear here.

It is good to have WebPages, news bulletins, radio program, group discussions (Paltalks). In fact we need more of them. However, it is not good to have them without an agenda, a goal set to achieve and, of course an input to help bring the much desired unity of thought and action amongst individuals or groups. Serving as the source of the misunderstandings, talking to create mistrust among individuals or groups, political or social, is destructive, to say the least. What started in the small group/corridors tends or turns out to be more obstacle to work together. What starts between two individuals grows to be a big fissure. For this the reader is the judge. One has to realize the impact of what one is saying, writing and propagating. There has to be an end to the unwise frictions which doesn’t bear any substance to the suffering of the poor of the country, in their name we talk, organize, and/or struggle.

• Today, Ethiopia needs her children to be one, for a better future. When some are restlessly working for unity of purpose and action, these small areas of the origins of friction and conflicts have to be taken care of. There are two defined territories, the opposition and the system. There is no middle ground. One is either with the system or with the opposition. If one fails to realize this, big time mistake is committed. To create confusions, gaps and splits among or within the opposition is strictly the work of the system. If one does this knowingly or otherwise, he/she is saving the system, not the people. In the future Ethiopia, no organization/group is to be left out or remain subordinate to any political group. This being one point, it is time the opposition focus on the agenda of the people and rescues them from the system which has proved itself to be the danger for the people and the country. It is time to say goodbye to smaller differenced and create a much better political culture of understanding each other, tolerance to ideas forwarded from each, respect and love to and from each, commitment to the common good and much important of all, pulling the resources, abilities and manpower to work together. If we do these, we will have clear conscience at the end of the day. And if one is not rewarded now, the people will bless and History will remember.

TIME FOR GOOD POLITICAL CULTURE!!!!

Frew Anteneh.

Ethiopia's Bid for a Well lit Future

Mulugeta Alemu

24 August 2007

A silent revolution is underway in Ethiopia. Where both supporters and detractors alike see the Government’s sure legacy in myriad aspects of the country’s infrastructure development, little is being said on what can be considered as Ethiopia’s boldest and ambitious public program. The Ethiopian Government has been putting a massive investment into the generation, expansion and development of electric power. In a country believed to have one of the biggest hydroelectric and geothermal power potentials in Africa, the stakes are indeed high. The Government wants to take full advantage of this immense potential not only to ensure greater access to the country’s ever growing population but also start exporting electricity to neighbouring countries.

So far the major setbacks for the effective utilisation of the country’s immense natural resources for the generation of power have been lack of adequate strategic plan and the fact that such projects require massive investment. Now the Government is in confident mood that both are in place. The Government has developed an elaborate national plan and implementation strategy. It has also allocated substantial amount of financial resources into this project.

Hydro power forms the vital part of the Government’s drive to improve access to electric power to its citizens and drive benefit from a possible export to neighbouring countries. In 2002, construction of the giant Tekeze dam began by China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation (CWHEC). This $224m worth hydroelectric dam, dubbed as China’s largest African venture, is ten meters higher than even the famous Three Gorgeous Dams. A larger dam expansion project is undertaken through Geligele Gibe II project which is expected to raise the electric power capacity of 420 MW. The massive project Belesse hydro power dam with a capacity of 435 MW has also started. This hydropower plant at the Beles River will be installed in a cavern located in the north-west of Ethiopia near to the Lake Tana.

These projects are to be completed by 2010. Interestingly, these massive projects are being undertaken without scaring Ethiopia’s traditionally hostile and critical neighbouring. In fact some of the projects are even supported by Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), which is a platform for cooperation among riparian of the Nile. This development has silenced the water-wars pundits.

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Of course reliance on hydropower has its own limitations. Invariable rainfall presents one major set-back. This is indeed why the government is working hard to diversify its electric power by investing on the utilisation of geothermal energy with which the country is enormously gifted. Another challenge also comes from the increasing antipathy to existing enthusiasm for big dams. Sobering level of concerns have been levelled at big dams. But these partially justifiable concerns don’t take into account the tremendous public good attendant to these massive projects to the poorest of the poor. The report of the World Commission on Dams in 2000 does not contradict with those who have long held that if the rights of all stakeholders are properly recognized and all the risks are assessed, the full benefits of big dams can be secured.

The benefit of Ethiopia’s hugely ambitious program is trickling. The Ethiopian Electric Power Cooperation has electrified 758 towns and villages in 2007. Its Universal Electrification Access Program aims to electrify 6000 towns and villages up to 2010. The multipurpose of these dams means that provision of drinking water will be made easier in large chunk of the rural areas where the dams are constructed. Currently the cooperation has more than 170 district offices which are facilitating a full rolling out of its project.

The Government seeks to export to energy hungry countries in the sub- region. The foundation for Ethiopia’s export of electricity to Djibouti, Sudan and Kenya are being laid down. The ongoing project between Ethiopia and the Sudan seeks to interconnect the power grid between the two countries. The Ethio-Sudan Interconnection System Project office is now open and operational in Ethiopia.

The impact of electricity to the rural population will be massive. The current reliance on wood as a source of energy will be unsustainable in the long run. The Northern area of the country is already deficient in this traditional form of fuel. The completion of the Tekeye dam will not only help the irrigation of this increasingly dry area but also provide alternative energy for the local population. But ensuring accelerated access in countries where the rate of population access to electric power is a daunting task.

The country’s multifaceted projects are even praised by its development partners. “These projects will establish a sustainable program to expand access to electricity in rural communities that have long been disadvantaged and marginalized by the low levels of connection,” said Luiz Maurer, the World Bank task team leader of the project. This is much welcome given that Ethiopia has one of the lowest levels of energy consumption per capita in the world, which is 28 kWh. Only about 14.41% of the population has access to electricity.

Critics have often highlighted the sluggish government monopoly being part of the problem than the solution. The Government hasten to react to those criticisms by taking various measures with the view to making the cooperation more efficient and effective. This comes as a part of the government’s comprehensive reform programs which seek to address entrenched bureaucratic bottlenecks in government institutions and public utilities. In its soon to be constructed 34 storey headquarters, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is set to work for a rather well-lit future for the country.

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Projects Underway

Beles 435 MW
Gigel Gibe II 420 MW
Tekeze 300 MW
Total Cost $1.4 Billion USD
Source: *African Business January 2007

Gilgel Gibe III 1870 MW
Cost $1.7 - $2 Billion USD
Source: *The Africa Report January 2007

Source: From Print editions of African Business and The Africa Report magazines January 2007 (Quarterly)

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Ethiopia - In the Guise of Ethnocentrism

Chaltu Negasso

chaltunegasso@hotmail.com

A recent paper by K. Dubbi that appeared in some of the popular Internet sites and chat rooms introduced the extent of the TPLF’s domination and penetration of all the vital economic and military establishments of Ethiopia, and persuasively dubbed the practice illegal, greedy and counter-productive, even by the lowly standard one judges the corrupt and oppressive regime of Meles Zenawi.

The paper brought to light the secretive and exclusionary nature of the regime, the vastness of the power and property it has amassed in total segregation of the large majority of the populace, and, most importantly, the shortsightedness of members of the leadership, who have not yet parted with the killer instincts they sharpened in their guerrilla days not too long ago.

As one tries to comprehend and fathom, through that well-composed paper, the depth of the greediness and brutality of those in power, one is also left with an ambivalence about the motivation of the conflicted writer, who consciously or unconsciously sidetracks and reveals much hatred and antipathy that he has harbored against a generation, who should only be left alone, to be judged by history, and not be a focus of unworthy diatribe at these difficult times, when the enemies of the Ethiopian people are in excess, and their true friends few and far in between.

Not so many in human history have palpably used the instruments of a government − its laws, armed forces and functionaries − for the sole purpose of controlling all aspects of economic and political activities, effecting immeasurable pain and hardship to the majority of the citizenry, to such an extent as the current regime in Ethiopia has insolently done so. As a proud Oromo, I do not presume to be an apologetic for the EPRP or the OLF or any other marginalized group or individuals. But, the writer gave the appearance of lacking balance in judgment when he or she makes assertions that reveal malice and intention to inflict pain, rather than build bridges. Why waste this opportunity to play blame games, attacking other groups, when the target, a vicious dictator, is causing irreparable damage to a people, a history, a civilization?

As a practicing Christian, I take to heart some words of the Scriptures: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” When the writer, who I suspect may be an Oromo, like myself, or an OLF sympathizer, as I am, condemns the now almost-dormant EPRP as “the weakest link”, does he realize he is exposing a major weakness in his own organization, our organization? In truth, is it not the case that the OLF is and has been, at least in the eyes of impartial Oromos and other observers, “a primary spoiler of all efforts for a united front”? This is the organization with which the writer and I both sympathize, but perhaps with a different degree of involvement. The writer’s comparison of the EPRP, of which again I am not a member, with the TPLF, is a cause of considerable embarrassment to genuine Oromos, at least to those of us who are making tireless efforts to steer the OLF away from blindly following Afewerki to apply a failed formula of ethnic politics which the TPLF and EPLF experimented with, and culminated in a disastrous outcome.

One would be hard pressed to defend any political organization, including the EPRP, which, just like any organization of its kind, has had its share of mistakes and blunders; and I have no intention or motivation to do so. Reasonable people can engage in intellectual discourse and can level seasoned arguments for or against the weaknesses of this or that organization. That is a sign of maturity and civility. On the other hand, to blindly dub a group "infantile children" is to express one's pusillanimity and lack of common decency. No doubt the writer was a participant in those days, as were most members of his/her generation, in the general upheaval that swept the globe. And so were the vicious dictators, Zenawi and Afewerki, who are now terrorizing, using ethnic propaganda as a tool, the very people the "infantile children" died for. The writer's attempt to give a human face to the oppressive machinery of Zenawi by drawing imagined similarities with the EPRP, is contemptible and a disservice to the ongoing campaign to free our oppressed people from tyranny. Those who live in a glass house should not be the first to throw stones, the saying goes. If comparisons are to be made, then the TPLF and OLF may have a lot more in common: they are ethnic-based organizations, both run on a platform of ethnic agendas, and have served or are serving as tools of Afewerki for the purpose of weakening a united Ethiopia. Again, this is not to come to the defense of the EPRP, or to take a cheap shot at the OLF, either of which is of no relevance in its own right, but to underscore the lack of balance in that writer's frame of mind.

Perhaps the central issue is the concept of a united Ethiopia, one in which democracy and rule of law are the order of the day. Afewerki loathes a strong united Ethiopia that he cannot control. Zenawi loses sleep over the idea of an Ethiopia in which the diverse ethnic groups live in unity, where the people choose their government through the ballot box, and where the government is not an instrument of oppression but at the service of the people. It is an enigma then why we still have some Oromo brothers and sisters, like the writer, who cannot come to terms with the concept of a united and democratic Ethiopia, since as the largest ethnic group, we, the Oromo people, have nothing to fear in a rule by popular vote!

The writer’s lamentation about the alleged role of the EPRP in the collapse of the now defunct AFD (Alliance for Freedom and Democracy) is an expression of paranoia of clinical proportion. If, as the writer asserts, the conception of AFD was an attempt to integrate groups who had nothing in common but the experience of the oppression imposed on them by the vicious dictator, Meles Zenawi, then one need go no farther to seek a cause for its instant demise. The success and longevity of an alliance is not determined by the degree of hatred that unites its members, but by the strength of the common lofty goals that bind them together. The unholy alliance between the EPLF and TPLF unraveled as soon as they toppled their nemesis, the equally vicious regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

To most OLF sympathizers, including myself, there is nothing that is more irritating and dehumanizing than to see the OLF perceived as a tool of a tyrant (Afewerki) whose goal has always been to use one ethnic group to weaken another. If any group naively had wished that the AFD would be a mirror image of the EPRDF, through which Afewerki would control the south, manipulating a puppet he had unsuccessfully envisioned in the TPLF, that was a miserable failure to learn from history – a lack of imagination on the part of Afewerki and sheer foolhardiness on the part his creations.

The past 17 years have taught the people of Ethiopia a thing or two. When the guerrilla army marched on Addis, the people received them with open arms and open hearts, unaware of the hidden ethnic agenda Zenawi and Afewrki had mapped out in the guise of the EPRDF. The word in the streets of Addis then was, “nothing could be worse than the vicious Derg.” When the ethnic-based alliance overthrew the dictator, the outcome immediately became uglier, creating conditions far worse than was the case with the ousted.

Today, Afewrki and Zenawi have continued playing their ethnic cards, toward the same goal, but using different tactics. As a people, we, the Oromos, shall refuse to serve as instruments of tyranny. We shall stand shoulder to shoulder with the other ethnic groups and fight to bring an end to dictatorship in Ethiopia.

No movement can succeed in stamping out despotism in our country without the active participation and constructive role of our people, the Oromo people, who embrace a united Ethiopia. Only those who want us to submit to the subjugation of tyrants and ethnocentric dictators oppose our efforts to see beyond the narrow scope of ethnicity− the stale propaganda of Zenawi and Afewerki that equates the concept of a “united Ethiopia” to a bye-gone era of “Amhara chauvinism”.

The opposition certainly needs a viable alliance – a united front composed of all oppressed groups, irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds, religious affiliations and political tilts, with the common goal of replacing tyranny with genuine democracy and social justice in the spirit of a united Ethiopia. An alliance built on a shared belief of the ideals of democracy, social justice and Ethiopian unity is an alliance that will defeat Zenawi’s tyrannical and corrupt regime, and replace it is with a just system.

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Ethiopia - Washington Update

August 22, 2007

The newest item for your attention is the report on our meeting with the Staff of Congress’ House African Affairs Sub-Committee last week on August 16th. We had a good meeting as the staffers knew a lot about the Ethiopian situation and were sympathetic to our goals.

In attendance were Dr. Bezabhe, Major Admasu, and myself representing the Kinijit International Council. We tried to strategize with them the best way to proceed to move forward enactment of the legislation HR 2003, commonly known as the Ethiopian Democracy, Development, and Human Rights bill.

The staffers urged us to remind the Ethiopian community to work together in unity for the passage of HR 2003. Chairman, Donald Payne (D-NJ) and ranking Member Chris Smith (R-NJ) are working with their colleagues to bring this legislation to the full International Relations Committee and then to the floor of the House for a vote.

Ethiopians all over the USA need to contact their Congressmen and Congresswomen to explain just how important this legislation is to our community. This is a “human rights” bill and needs to be identified by the Ethiopian community as such when speaking with Congress.

Just today in the
Washington Post’s Stephanie McCrummen wrote a piece from Nairobi Kenya in which newly exiled Ethiopian journalists were interviewed by her about death threats received after finally being released as political prisoners in Addis Ababa.


Kinijit international Council is very happy for the release of these leaders and thank you and sent letters of Appreciation's to Congress, State Department, and the International community at large. Our struggle continues for peace, democracy, justices for all, human rights and development in Ethiopia. As you know these leaders has been incarcerated in disease infected jail almost for two years. There crime is only for speaking out for lack of injustices, respect for the people vote, human rights and development in Ethiopia.

We are still waiting for the visa from the United States Department of State for the scheduled visit to Washington of Engineer Hailu Shawel. We will keep you posted for developments on this.

In conclusion we need to keep on putting our point of view in front of congress and the American people as Meles regime has a lot of money to buy slick K Street lobby shops to push his agenda. We need a untied effort to help America resist them and to push on to passage of HR 2003.

Mesfin Mekonen

Why did Ethiopia sign an agreement critics say is favoring Starbucks? Wondwossen Mezlekia, an Ethiopian working and living in Seattle, Washington - where Starbucks is also headquartered - has been following the trademark dispute through his well-read blog, www.poorfarmer.blogspot.com. In his contribution to a series of articles that appeared on this newspaper, Wondwossen sheds some light on the issue.

Ethiopia's Loss in the Starbucks Affair

Addis Fortune

Ethiopia, one of the ancient civilisations in the world, collided with a symbol of globalisation and, to some extent, challenged the status-quo without success. The outcome should serve third-world countries as a reminder of the harsh reality that they have a long way to go to get control of their intellectual property rights.

Although Ethiopian coffees command a premium price in foreign markets, particularly the United States (US), farmers who grow the beans often live in extreme poverty. The Ethiopian coffee sector's strategy to trademark the famous coffee brands in all major international markets was an eye-opener for many of the coffee growing nations in Africa. But that effort hit a dead end in the US, home of Starbucks Corporation and this led to several months of conflict between the two.

On June 20, 2007, Starbucks and Ethiopia declared that they have both emerged as winners. But analyses of documented facts suggest that there is more to the affair than what either side claims. The bizarre and mysterious ending of the dispute warrants further scrutiny of the accord.

Whether and how the terms of the truce will benefit the Ethiopian coffee sector and the trademark project remains to be seen. What is unquestionable is that, because of Starbucks and the National Coffee Association (NCA), Ethiopia has lost the trademark for Sidamo in the US. Sadly, Ethiopia has also surrendered the moral high ground that had won it support all over the globe; it has very little to show for it. Besides, all the windfall economic opportunities that might have changed the lives of the poor farmers, who, for centuries, have been taken advantage of, have vanished into thin air.

The conflict began in March 2005, when Ethiopia filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to trademark the country's most valued brands Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe. Starbucks had filed an application to trademark "Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo" in 2004, making it impossible for Ethiopia to go forward with its own application until the two applicants reached an agreement to drop one. The Ethiopian government asked Starbucks to drop its claim.

Kassahun Ayele, the former Ethiopian Ambassador to the US, now serving in the same position in Berlin, made the initial effort to engage Starbucks in discussions to resolve the matter. But his letter to Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks, went unanswered for over a month. When it did get answered, Starbucks' response was condescending.

He received on April 21, 2005, a short and dismissive reply from a company lawyer, and a short time later, a note from a Corporate Vice President inviting him to attend the award event for Mr. Schultz, and to contribute 600 dollars for the 'privilege.', according to the Embassy.

In October 2006, Oxfam launched an international campaign to force Starbucks to come to the table and discuss with Ethiopia for resolution. The campaign was framed to depict Starbucks as a company exploiting its coffee producers. The theme, "For every cup of Ethiopian coffee Starbucks sells, Ethiopian farmers earn 3¢", proved to be Starbucks' irritant.

Arrogance combined with a desire to counteract Oxfam's unexpected campaign actions might have blinded Starbucks' management into making several ridiculous assertions.

First, the company claimed that Ethiopia's coffee brands cannot be trademarked because they are generic terms for coffee, rather than distinctive marks. They then asserted that the trademarks are against the interests of Ethiopian farmers. At the peak of its charges, the company went on to say that Ethiopia's attempt to trademark the coffee brands was illegal. They exhausted all their fabricated allegations before running out of charges to publicly discredit Ethiopia's trademark project.

Ultimately, forced by mounting public pressure, Starbucks senior management resorted to a different strategy without losing sight of their goals. They hired the Washington-based lobbying firm, The Whitaker Group, and travelled to Ethiopia to convince government authorities by employing alternative negotiating tricks.

On the lead-up to the company executives' second trip to Ethiopia in February 2007 - first trip was in November 2006 - Starbucks announced its donation of half a million dollars to CARE International, a US-based charity organisation, for its social work in the coffee growing regions of Ethiopia. In addition, the company issued a press release with promises to build a farmer support centre and to double the volume of coffee the company buys from East Africa.

During their meetings held in Addis Abeba, Starbucks succeeded in convincing Ethiopian authorities to divert their attention to what they called a "value-added" process. Empty promises, such as the possibility of cooperation with the country's tea and textile sector, and implied support through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), were used to entice state ministers from ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Trade and Industry, Finance and Economic Development, and others, including Getachew Mengistie, director general of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO).

None of those sectors are as vital as the most exploited coffee sector, which continues to be the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. In spite of that, the authorities were swayed and subsequently signed on Starbucks' press release announcing their agreement to "work together". Four months after that agreement and deafening secret negotiations, the government representatives and Starbucks declared their signing of a "marketing, licensing, and distribution" agreement on June 20, 2007.

The devil, however, is in the details.

As a global company that fights to secure its grip over the sources of its coffee, it is evident that Starbucks' opposition to Ethiopia's trademark initiative stems from three basic elements: Royalty fees, monopoly over the brands and traceability.

As long as Starbucks will not be expected to pay royalty fees, and so long as Ethiopia does not legally own the Sidamo brand, which is the most important brand to Starbucks - Starbucks does not hold Harar and Yirgacheffe coffees in many of its stores - signing some sort of weak licensing agreement, with secret details that do not mention financial resources to help promote Ethiopian coffee, offers a safe exit. Therefore, a negotiated settlement outside of administrative rights to own the trademarks is a viable option for Starbucks.

Starbucks' concern about Ethiopia monopolising the brands is already non-existent, at least in the US, as Sidamo is not a registered mark. Also, because Starbucks buys most of its coffees through third parties, the concern about tracing the beans to the origin is automatically taken care of.

Starbucks' obligations in the agreement, if any, are confidential. The signatories imply that Ethiopia's obligations are uncomplicated and the benefits flowery.

Getachew Mengistie said Ethiopia's obligation is not to impose a royalty fee of any nature during the contract period whereas its benefits include a contractual provision, which recognises Ethiopia's common law rights where applicable.

According to available information, however, Ethiopia's benefits are not as impressive as the words. Although common law is a valid form of trademark rights in the US as rights stem from use rather than registration in this country, not all countries have the same system as the US. In some countries, Ethiopia does not have any rights at all unless the mark is registered.

In addition, enforcement of trademarks is expensive and probably not practical in every instance of infringement. That is why the conventional rights of registration are important - they help prevent infringement and consequently avoid expensive enforcement before it occurs.

Strikingly, the negotiation process did not fully address the promises made by Starbucks during the February 2007 meeting, which Getachew proudly refers to as the turning point that led to the resolution. Only the promotion of the output of other sectors is mentioned in the contract. Even that is not listed as enforceable.

The government representatives failed to follow through on the rest of the promises, such as building a farmers support centre and doubling the amount of coffee Starbucks would buy from Ethiopia, which is believed to be only two per cent. The centre was not even a negotiating point, if we go by what Samuel Assefa (PhD), Ethiopia's ambassador to the US, said.

"Starbucks is a private company; we cannot ask them to open a farmer support centre in Ethiopia," he told the media.

But another African country leader did just that: reached out to private companies such as Starbucks, Google and Costco to attract business investment. His name is Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda.

Starbucks invited Mr. Kagame to deliver a corporate endorsement at the company's annual shareholder meeting on March 21, 2007, - a key moment when Starbucks executives needed an African leader to paint a picture different from what the shareholders have come to read in the media as a result of the trademark dispute.

Recent reports indicate that Starbucks eyes Rwanda for setting up the Farmer Support Centre.

Another widely publicised promise was that Starbucks would increase its Ethiopian coffee purchases. As of this day, there is no indication that Starbucks bought more Ethiopian coffee; nor is there any way to substantiate this claim in the future as Starbucks buys most of its coffee through third parties, mainly from Germany.

How else Ethiopia benefits from the agreement is either not defined, or undisclosed.

"Having the commitment and support of Starbucks will help enhance the quality of Ethiopian fine coffees and improve the income of farmers and traders," Getachew, told the media.

But Starbucks' executives do not acknowledge any such commitment.

In an interview with the Seattle PI, Sandra Taylor, Starbucks senior vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility, said that the deal was not intended to set prices.

"Starbucks pays based on the quality and marketplace," she said. "If this works right, it will lead to better pricing for high quality . . . For Starbucks, we have long paid premium prices."

Starbucks would work with Ethiopian farmers to improve quality and crop yield, but not dedicating any new financial resources, according to the paper's report. The status-quo is conserved.

What did Ethiopia lose? Everything it tried to gain, and then some.

Starbucks succeeded in preventing Ethiopia from gaining permanent control of the mark Sidamo in the US market, effectively eliminating Ethiopia's opportunity to move beyond its cycle of poverty.

In addition, the long fought battle to this ruinous end was exasperated by Ethiopia's loss of dignity in the process. Oxfam's approach of using images of poor farmers, the victims of Starbucks' insensitivity, was meant to coerce the company into changing the way they do business; but instead, Ethiopia once again garnered a reputation reminiscent of 1984. The country was dishonoured in front of the world while its Ambassador was disrespected. The trademark initiative was discredited and the project was delayed by over two years. As if that was not enough, Ethiopia was deceived by empty promises.

Starbucks has still not admitted any of its wrong doings: its misleading statements, which unlawfully undermined the people's rights, and its disrespect to a sovereign country's Ambassador, much less apologise for trying to publicly discredit the country's efforts. To this day, the company has not expressed regret for its opposition that cost Ethiopia the opportunity to trademark Sidamo.

The trademark dispute which carried the hopes of over 15 million people was concluded with a reprehensible remark by Ambassador Samuel: "Ethiopia salutes Starbucks for its exemplary display of global corporate citizenship. This alliance highlights the significance of visionary entrepreneurs in creating space for win-win engagements between corporations that operate globally and developing countries such as ours."

And Oxfam celebrated "resolution" of the dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopia.

Starbucks recently increased its coffee prices in the US by nine cents a cup, which further widens the income gap between Starbucks and coffee farmers. But, the equation still remains the same: "For every cup of Ethiopian coffee Starbucks sells, Ethiopian farmers earn three cents."

Explaining Eritrea’s Anger over the US


Mulugeta Alemu

20 August 2007

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on" reads the US Embassy Webpage in Asmara, Eritrea. Those were encouraging words of Franklin D. Roosevelt often quoted during difficult times. The relationship between the US and Eritrea is truly in tatters. The American embassy’s website is full of reports on Eritrea which accuse the Government of Eritrea systematically violating religious and press freedoms. It also prominently displays the briefing given by America’s top diplomat on African affairs who pointedly said that Eritrea “is creating a lot of problem for Africa.”

President Isaias Afeworki of the little red-sea state of Eritrea has finally reacted. Pro-government websites and blogs had earlier announced his much awaited briefing. His press briefing follows Jendayi Frazer’s in which she had threatened Eritrea over its unlawful support to terrorists and insurgents in Somalia. President Isaias`s scathing criticism of the US dumps expectation that the Eritrean leader may play the ball carefully.

His two hours interview, which comes within the context of a fast deteriorating bilateral relation between the two countries, manipulates a high pitched anti-American sentiment aimed at shoring up his new image as the tough little African prince saying no to a superpower.

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As Eritrea gives the US an awkward Choice, a new dynamic is set to unravel (By Mulugeta Alemu)

President Isaias accused the US of fuelling conflicts in the Horn of Africa and attempting to promote “a strategy of dominance and monopoly.” He also charged that the Bush administration is weaving conspiracy to undermine Eritrea’s national interests. The current stalemate between the two countries is a result of situation in Somalia and the resistance of the Eritrean people, he further stated.

Eritrea’s handling or mishandling of the crisis with the US is indicative of the characters of the regime. Some commentators are even amused by Eritrea’s rather crude and naïve reactions. Rainer Chr. Henning calls it “loony policies” where the Government continues to write Soviet-Style protest communiqués each time some one criticizes it. Its Ministry of Information even tried to publish a sort of human rights report on the US. In its editorial on 4 August 2007, it said,
The US Government as a result of its misguided policy is unable to have the trust even of its own subjects. The government is denying its people the right to privacy by bugging every house with sophisticated transmitters and listening to every telephone and other electronic communications between individuals and even between spouses. Hence, the Administration has dragged the American people into an abominable life full of frustration and uncertainty.
Every one, save the Human Rights Watch ironically, has publicly spoken against Eritrean intervention in Somalia. Eritrea’s continued and massive provision of military support to extremists and terrorist groups in Somalia was identified in the July 2007 report of the UN Independent Monitoring Experts on Arms Embargo in Somali. Eritrean armed groups are daily terrorising innocent civilians and are attacking government officials and institutions.

Eritrea is also mishandling the outstanding border issue with Ethiopia. The 18 July 2007 report of the UN Secretary General made it abundantly clear that Eritrea has massively violated the Temporary Security Zone established as a buffer zone between the two countries following the 1998-2000 war which Eritrea sacrificed the lives of so many of its youth to lose. Ethiopia’s authorities can hardly be happy with Jendayi Frazer’s view that both Eritrea and Ethiopia violated their commitments. As the resport of the Secretary General clearly attests, it was Eritrea which violated its commitments. But the Eritrean president still castigates the US for its “blind support” for Ethiopia’s stand on the border. So the reason for his angst should be sought somewhere else.

Eritrea’s current emotional volcano is a carefully crafted policy of demonising the US and its perceived allies in the region in order to shore up the regime’s fast decreasing support base from within and abroad. It is a means of manipulating the Eritrean population with fear. It is simply a foreign policy based on manipulation of fear. It is designed to project to Eritrean that the great superpower is conspiring with Ethiopia to undermine their country’s territorial integrity and its regional influence. This belies the assumption of the Government that it is only when Eritreans are continuously controlled in fear of the fabricated designs of Ethiopia, and when Eritrea’s new middle Easter allies are reassured that a new anti-American establishment is on the making can the increasingly beleaguered regime’s survival is guaranteed.

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Forget about eating Berbere and better learn how to hate Berbere using some pseudo food experts because according to the news I heard from German Amharic service the price of kilo Berbere in Ethiopia is now 60 birr jumping from 25 birr a year ago.

Buyers and sellers not see eye to eye and many disappointed buyers went home by buying a medical quantity of Berbere like gram and prepare a medicine home for their families.

It is not only Berbere, spices and food oil price is almost tripled and our people are going to celebrate our "Huleteshe Zemen" without their hot dish and that is indeed sad.

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Berbere price doubles in a month

What happen to the demand and supply of hot Berbere in Ethiopia.
Can we believe that in one year the demand for Berbere shot up because many people all of a sudden switched to eating berbere, not at all.

Our hot paper is now in great demand in cosmetic industries and is exported by our rich government connected merchants to increase their dollar investment and care less about our ordinary people who is surviving by eating Injera with hot wet.

Are we going to hear from our "prime minister" similar deliberation to the previous shortage of cement in Ethiopia or our people have to forget Berber and it only "Alic ha".

Or Berber might be a catalyst for change in Ethiopia like car oil price did in the 1974 revolution and that is my wish for our "Huleteshe Ammete".

Yechalal,

Tedla Asfaw

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As Eritrea gives the US an awkward Choice, a new dynamic is set to unravel

By Mulugeta Alemu

18 August 2007

The US has officially threatened to designate Eritrea as a terrorism sponsoring state. Those who are not accustomed to the world of diplomacy are often mesmerized by the length of time it takes to name countries what they truly are. US threat of calling Eritrea a terror sponsoring state is indeed long overdue. This is a remarkable victory for many of those who have exposed Eritrea’s disregard to peaceful co-existence in the region and its direct involvement in acts that claimed and continue to claim the lives of innumerable number of innocent civilians.

It is interesting that the US announcement follows the press release by Ethiopian officials that they have unravelled a massive plot by local rebel groups supported and sponsored by Eritrea to undertake terrorist activities in the country. But US’s announcement has not made any indication that these possible measures are related to what Eritrea is doing in Ethiopia. The Nazareth plot is not the first time where Eritrea’s involvement was clearly identified. The country’s rougeness knows no bound. Previously it has kidnapped foreign tourists and Ethiopian guides. It has supplied ammunitions and training for groups such as ONLF and OLF promoting their terror infested undertakings. The US and UK are yet to announce these groups as terrorist organisations.

So far Ethiopia’s call for the international community about Eritrea’s actions has largely fallen into deaf ears. There are some sinister assumptions which belie such inertia. Some governments and their so called think thanks consciously promoted the view that after all Eritrea is the victim of Ethiopia’s unwillingness to accept the ruling of Eritrea Ethiopia boundary Commission. This is in fact one massive white lie. Ethiopia has continued to make its announcements that it accepts the decision without any condition. Equally important is also the fact that even the UN Secretary General, in his latest report, has elaborated how Eritrea irreparably damaged and violated the TSZ which was established as a buffer zone between the two countries following the 1998-2000 war which Eritrea has spectacularly lost.

Eritrea’s adventure in Somalia has so far been an embarrassing state of affairs for the international community which wanted to support the TFG. The new government there is being challenged by the daily barrage of attacks by those who are generously sponsored by Eritrea. No one warned Eritrea. The impoverished small state of Eritrea has even declared its plan of calling a conference in September with the aim of establishing a parallel government in Somalia. Eritrea is doing the unknown. For some this is a result of Eritrea’s lack of skill in how to use diplomacy as a tool of promoting its interests. For others it is a height of maximum nervousness. However, there is a darker element to Eritrea’s design. This is a country that has done in the Sudan and even in Darfur what it has now done in Somalia. The reaction of the international community to Eritrea’s involvement in the Sudan never ending crisis was baffling. It continued to invite Eritrea in the high tables regarding the Sudan. We all remember how officials of the EU in Brussels, often immeasurably crude in their diplomacy, declared the president of Eritrea as an important peace maker in the region. Presient Issayas has always been the Horn’s pacemaker for all its woes. He was a good student of how the world is emerging and wanted to copy his moves in the Sudan to Somalia.

US’s threat of measure may never materialize. But it speaks mightily to the view that Eritrea’s unruly character is being checked. It has also brought to an end Eritrea’s game of playing the victim. So many things follow in US designation of terrorism. It makes it illegal for the US and other companies to sell arms. It forces the US Government to axe or terminate economic assistance even through the IMF and World Bank.

So much depends on how Eritrea conducts itself both in the short term and long term. Especially we need to see if it continues to supply arms to Somali terrorist and insurgents, which often happen while the American intelligence community is looking. The US will also focus whether the September meeting in Asmara will take place. But we know very well that Eritrea will publish one of those pitiful and infamous editorials in the website of its Ministry of Information castigating the US. This is very consistent with Eritrea’s patter of behaviour. The Eritrean government always believes that Eritrea’s future is in the hands of its mighty leader who had defined its independence against all odds. Eritrea establishment always believed that it had defeated the USSR in the Eritrean soil during the fight for independence. Another super-power is yet to beat.

In the grand scheme of things, Eritrea will probably play the ball carefully and may even use this to its advantage. The economically pressed regime continues to use its anti-American sentiment to rally support from its Middle East allies. In the global battle against terrorism and fundamental Islam, Eritrea is hesitantly slipping away while its population looks on unaware of what is happening. That should be a concern to all even while small victories are being won.

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Ethiopia - To all Concerned Citizens and those in the International Community:


For Immediate Release: August 18, 2007.

We, the undersigned, as members of Ethiopian human rights organizations, Ethiopian civic organizations and in the Ethiopian religious community, call for immediate action to stop the outrageous human rights abuses going on in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that is causing related wide scale humanitarian disaster to the civilian population due to the fighting between the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Ogaden National Liberation Forces (ONLF).

We appeal to Prime Minister Meles and the ONLF to call an immediate ceasefire on this conflict so as to allow all humanitarian organizations, including the International Red Cross, the Ogaden Human Rights organizations and other such groups to gain access to the area in order to help the people who are suffering due to displacement, lack of food, lack of clean water, lack of shelter, lack of medical care and lack of any semblance of normal life necessary to their survival and well being. This crisis is worsening by the moment and will result in many more lives being lost, especially the lives of the most vulnerable—the young and the elders.

We call on those in the international community—the United Nations, the African Union, the United States as a key ally to Ethiopia, the European Union and other concerned entities and citizens to take a stand for the innocent who are dying as a result of this crisis. We call you and all media to not be silent on this appalling human catastrophe before it worsens. Inaction and apathy will only bring about another example of shame to the international community if the Ogaden becomes another Darfur as good people fail to act with moral conviction, urgency and effectiveness!

To the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and to the ONLF, we recommend the following actions by the EPRDF and the ONLF:

(1) agree to comply with an immediate ceasefire, something that requires the total cooperation of both parties if it is going to be effective

(2) provide for safe and unrestricted access into the region by all humanitarian groups in order to meet the needs of the civilian population

(3) organize a dialogue between the EPRDF government and the ONLF and Ogaden community, including the Ogaden Human Rights Committee, with the goal of finding a peaceful resolution to this crisis and one that respects the universal human rights of all civilians and compliance with the Ethiopian Constitution and International Law.

Right now, we who are calling for this action have information from the ground on what is going on, but the Ethiopian government appears to be diverting the attention of both other Ethiopians and of those in the international community away from the tragedy going on in the Ogaden. PM Meles has called the ONLF, a terrorist group, even while the EPRDF are reportedly perpetrating crimes against humanity against the civilian population in the Ogaden and in other regions of the country such as Oromia, Gambella and Afar. The prime minister may believe that classifying the ONLF as terrorists would open up a means to legitimize the killing of Ogadeni civilians who are caught between. However, according to representatives from the ONLF, they believe they must defend the Ogadeni people and call on the EPRDF to cease committing human rights atrocities against their people.
This past week, PM Meles was on Ethiopian television warning Ethiopians to not speak up for the ONLF as they are terrorists and that his government intends to “crack down” on these terrorists. He went on to say that those who supported the ONLF would be supporting a terrorist group. Some would say that any support of the EPRDF who is responsible for crimes against humanity should be considered a terrorist.

Additionally PM Meles seemed to want to refocus the attention of the international community and Ethiopians inside and outside of the country on the upcoming Ethiopian Millennium celebration as well as to infer that the majority of Ethiopians should be happy that he had released the CUD leaders and that their minds should be on these things instead of what was going on in the Ogaden.

Instead, Ethiopians should say a loud “NO” and speak out for Ethiopian Ogadenis like we spoke out in protest of the student protesters in Addis Ababa in June and November of 2005 and for the Opposition leaders who were just released.

We should shout with one voice for our brothers and sisters of the Ogaden as well as for those left in the prisons throughout our country and use the same volume we did for these groups until we all are free! We must continue to rally, protest and advocate for all Ethiopians until the killing, torture, rape, detention and manmade humanitarian crises, causing untold suffering to our people, stop.

We call on the international community and all peace-loving people to stand up, in real life and in practical action, for the principles you have established based on universal values of humanity and justice.

For additional information, please contact: Mr. Girma Kassa
E-mail: girmakassa@sbcglobal.net

Abugida Info
Addis voice
Anuak Justice Council
Ethiopian Media Forum (EMF)
Ethiopian American Association of Portland
Ethiopian Review
Kaliti Peace Advocacy Group
Network of Ethiopian Scholars Scandinavian Chapter
Ogaden Human Rights Committee
Ogaden Voice for Peace
Ogaden Empowerment Initiatives
Ogaden Youth Network
Peacewithkinijit Blog
Tegbar League

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Ethiopia : Washington Update

August 17, 2007

Mesfin Mekonen


The highest priority in Washington remains enactment of HR 2003, the Ethiopia Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2007. We have received some favorable attention in the media, including an article that was posted to a website that is read by over 6 million Americans (http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,104784,00.html).

There has been progress this week, with more new co-sponsors signing on and an announcement from Rep. Chris Smith that he will co-sponsor and actively campaign for enactment of the legislation. The most recent list of co-sponsors follows.

If your member of Congress is not on this list, contact him or her. Especially Tom Lantos, chairman of the House International Relations. Reports have it that there is a possibility Lantos might not put forward the legislation (HR 2003)for a markup in September, Lantos is getting a lot of pressure from both sides State Department and the regime lobbist. Lantos, a survivor of the European Holocaust, normally champions of human rights. He should understand that the State Department is support for Ethiopian regime does not advance the cause of human rights. So we need to ask him politely to move the bill forward so that the House of Representatives could vote on it. To contact your member of Congress go to http://www.house.gov/writerep/ And follow the directions. Members of Congress have a huge number of issues to think about and there is little chance that they will know about or support HR 2003 unless someone brings it to their attention. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Donald Payne (R-N.J.) has done his part to publicize it and to convince his colleagues. Now it is our turn.

Write your member of Congress, send and e-mail or fax, and if possible meet them in person when they hold public meetings. Tell them in your own words by HR 2003 is important to you and why they should support legislation that will promote human rights and democracy in Ethiopia. You can mention this bill is not a partisan issue, its goals should be embraced by every American: the released of political prisoners who have committed no crimes and were held in deplorable conditions; support for democratic institutions and an independent judiciary; and economic policies that will break the cycle of poverty and famine.
Much of the hard work will have to be done by Ethiopians. It is important for Ethiopians, especially those living abroad, to focus on what can be done, to propose positive steps. And it is the responsibility of anyone advocating specific measures to announce what they personally are willing to do. Too much time and attention is being wasted on people who contribute nothing
beyond their opinions and criticism. Anyone can sit in the comfort of their home and type criticisms and blast them out over the Internet. This doesn't help anyone, all it does is help the regime by creating dissension within the opposition and divert precious time and resources from positive action.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vermont) have written very strong statement summarizing the present situation in Ethiopia and spoke on the senate floor asking President Bush to intervene.

Please let us concentrate on the big picture, on helping to save the live of many Ethiopians by pushing this legislation that will commit the U.S. to fight for democracy, justice, development, freedom and the immediate release of political prisoners in Ethiopia.

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