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Church leaders call for economic boycott of the TPLF junta

Posted on , Updated on by Elias Kifle

Secretary of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Holy Synod in exile, Archbishop Abune Melketsekik, and other church leaders have called on the people of Ethiopia to boycott all businesses that are affiliated with dictator Meles Zenawi’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The economy boycott includes profitable enterprises such as Ethiopian Airlines that are serving the genocidal junta as cash cows, and food exports from Ethiopia. Listen below.

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24 thoughts on “Church leaders call for economic boycott of the TPLF junta”

  1. You are religious people do not mess up with politics.Try to find a common middle ground to creat peace amonge people.I think that is what BIBLE says

    Jegnaw replies:
    June 5th, 2012 at 8:20 PM

    IIula Lemma
    our fight is not against man but weekends in high places.therefor it is just and wright to fight this wrecked Woyanne spiritually and materially.

    Anonymous replies:
    June 5th, 2012 at 10:39 PM

    Ofcourse religion and politics are separet , but both live in a single state. They are independent of each other does not mean that they donot communicate. If the government do some bad deeds whic are hated by God and the people, religous fathers and mothers can advise for peace and harmoney. If the people are humilated and killed the church can niot stand by itself. Religious branch helped in Ethiopian war againest Italy.If their is a healthy system, politics can give answer to the problems created by itself. However, if the problem progress and no one reacts, the curch ghas the responsibility to safeguard its people in its ownway.

    Anonymous replies:
    June 6th, 2012 at 8:13 AM

    The religious leaders job is to fight the Devil by every means of necessary and to speak for the voiceless and defenseless people; and they are doing just that! It is inhumane to sit and watch quietly while the historical religious monasteries, Churches and mosques intentionally set on fire by the brutal government, innocent people thrown in prison, evicted, tortured, slaughtered, millions of Ethiopian young women being sold as slaves, small children used as profit and the country our great and grand parents spilled their blood for being given and sold to foreigners, etc.

    Adera replies:
    June 6th, 2012 at 3:59 AM

    llula Lema
    Tell that bullshit to your fake Aba Paulo’s

    Ilula lemma replies:
    June 6th, 2012 at 8:30 AM

    Dear Adera
    please,forward your opinion in a civilized manner.I respect your opinion i expect you to do the same.My opinion is mine and does not aim to please any one.Cursing and naming oneself for his opinion does not have a place what so ever.

    Ilila Lemma replies:
    June 6th, 2012 at 1:05 PM

    Dear Adera

    ever one in his blog expect you to forward your opinion in a civilized manned.I respect any one’s opinion in return i expect the same. Cursing and bad manner does not have a place what so ever. Please,keep your temper down.

    I. Lemma replies:
    June 7th, 2012 at 9:50 AM

    Dear Adera

    ever one in his blog expect you to forward your opinion in a civilized manned.I respect any one’s opinion in return i expect the same. Cursing and bad manner does not have a place what so ever. Please,keep your temper down.

    Anonymous replies:
    June 7th, 2012 at 3:55 AM

    Illula: Have you heard of Bishop Desmond Tutu & his role in ending Aprtheid in South Africa? Obviously, not.

    ilula replies:
    June 8th, 2012 at 8:50 AM

    I quote two of Tutu’s quote

    1.“Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back.”

    2.If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
    ― Desmond Tutu

    It is clear religion has a role to struggle against TPLF Junta but need to be clear no to inflict suffering to ordinary Ethiopian people and to not harm the follower of that particular religion.

    Jegnaw replies:
    June 8th, 2012 at 9:05 PM

    @ilula
    Coting Desmond Tutu it dos not make you spiritual person or knowledgeable about spiritual matter.or understand the spiritual struggle against this evil Woyanne junta.in fact the Bible tell us that our fight is not against man,but against principality’s and spiritual wickedness in high places.
    So our spiritual leaders are fighting a just and spiritual warfare for all the voiceless Ethiopian christian and our Muslim brothers.
    so there is no infection with our religion.the infection is people like you and the woyaann parasite for the last 21 years.so know the difference between religion and spirituality.our spiritual fathers are fighting a spiritual war fer.not religious warfare.
    and our orthodox christianity always fought against Evil throughout heir history.
    and go tell that to the fee-ck patriarch Paulos not us.

    ilula replies:
    June 11th, 2012 at 2:42 PM

    Jegnaw

    The question here not about sprituality but to idenity the way of the stuggle should it be.If you are one of those who identify Ethiopian and other prestigious Ehiopian’s companies to be part of the JUNTA and make them a candidate for boycott, i have one thing to say you are on the wrong side of history.You are one of those who make big noise but do not contibute nothing for real change.We have those enough.

  3. The church should not be involved in politics despite the fact that Meles is doing many dad stuffs!

    Anonymous replies:
    June 7th, 2012 at 6:49 PM

    Mamush
    You obviously don’t know Ethiopian history or Ethiopian Orthodoxy.there is no difference in fighting Evil Ethiopian Orthodox all ways has been in front fighting evil throughout it is history.weather it is fighting the dervish,Grange Mohamed,the ottoman empire or the Roman empire.so it is not any different today in fighting this evil woyanne.
    So Ethiopian Orthodox has and will continue to fight for all Ethiopian.
    one example ABONE PETROS give his life for Ethiopia during the Italian occupation…

  4. ክቡራን የሃይማኖት አባቶቻችን መጀመርያ እንደምን አላቻሁ። እግዚአብሄር አምላክ ከእናንተ ጋር ይሁን አሜን።

    ከዚህ ቀጥሎ የማቀርበው ሃሳብ፤ ሲኖዶሱ በአገር ቤትም ሆነ በውጭ ያለው ምእመናን ሁሉ ዘወትር እሁድ እሁድ በየቤተ ክርስቲያኑ ለውልድባ ገዳም ህልውና የጸሎት ስነ ስራዓት እንዲያካሂድ መመርያ መስጠት አለበት እላልሁ። በተጨማሪም ሁኔታውን በመቃወም በየቤተ ክርስቲይኑ የተቃውሞ ድምጽ እንዲያሰማ ጥሪ መደረግ አለበት ባይ ነኝ።

    እግዚአብሄር አምላክ ለኢትዮጵያ በፅድቅ ይፍረድ!

    አሜን።

  6. Ethiopian people need to be seriouse with this brtual government is now became quiet long, people have been waiting thinking that woyanen government might change their work environment in the end they don’t want to change anything so now is came to where every living thing in ethiopia need to fight this government.people of ethiopia are desparate for change meles zenawi must go thank you

  8. At a time where Ethiopia is in great difficulty the least all her people can do is avoid all business dealings with the enemy. For this to succeed church leaders play a significant role to rally the public around. Boycott and economic sanctions are proven form of struggle to bring repressive regime to its knee. It brought down the Nuclear armed South African partied regime to the knee.U.S unilateral actions and boycott might have helped the Myanmar or formerly Burma military regime to consider reform, although at the moment the relationship between the military junta and the popular opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi might begin to have some strain due to the latter’s oversees tour and the nervous junta desire to restrict her freedom of expression. Something Ethiopian’s need to learn: no compromise with evil weyane in the first place.

    Some have said religious leaders need to stay out of politics. Under normal circumstances, where a legitimate government were to take office we can anticipate it to rule by public consent. In lieu of this we had weyane running the nation as an occupying force. The question to be asked is this, what do the Ethiopian people have in common with weyane?

    In order to answer my own question I just want to highlight some of the most horrible and heinous crimes the weyane chief and his inner clique has committed acting unilaterally.

    1-Weyane sold Ethiopia’s big chunk of land to the Sudan.

    2-Weyane is depopulating Ethiopia by arranging to export 45,000 Ethiopian females to the Middle East that is about half a million a year.
    3-Weyane has displaced the very weak and fragile of Ethiopian society such as the Anuaks and the Amhara peasants.
    4- The frequently occurring phenomena of burning of churches, monasteries, and blundering and desecration of these national resources and landmarks.
    5-The decision to turn the natural habitat of Waldba Monks land in to agro business are some of them.

    Such is the record of this regime, and what have the cadres of these regime done to stop such acts except justfy,and defend the regime’s crimes.Finally,this regime could have not lingered this long if it were not for the fact that it has been unusually favored with unprecedented prevailing international conditions. One such condition is the fact that both the west led by U.S and the East represented by China found their interest intersected in Ethiopia. The one financed the rogue regime with hard currency the other abets it with its security and sensorship.Beside the sectarian nature of Ethiopian opposition also has been great hurdle.

    Thank God currently the tide is turning to our favor; largely due to weyane’s recluse policy every segment of our society is coming together.ESAT is constantly exposing the regime’s act had has become a terror. Far being strong weyane is acting more and more vicious because of her lack of confidence. It is clear now weyane has sensed public support (both at home and abroad) is irretrievably lost forever. Everywhere it turns it is experiencing humiliation and confrontation U.S, South Africa, and this new surge of resistance will likely increase with great intensity until the rouge regime is removed from power. And its invasion of Eretria soil does not speak of her strength but weakness and fickle mindedness of its leaders.

  9. dictatorship
    Form of government in which one person or an oligarchy possesses absolute power without effective constitutional checks. With constitutional democracy, it is one of the two chief forms of government in use today. Modern dictators usually use force or fraud to gain power and then keep it through intimidation, terror, suppression of civil liberties, and control of the mass media. In 20th-century Latin America, nationalist leaders often achieved power through the military and attempted either to maintain the privileged elite or to institute far-reaching social reform, depending on their class sympathies. In Europe’s communist and fascist dictatorships, a charismatic leader of a mass party used an official ideology to maintain his regime, and terror and propaganda to suppress opposition. In postcolonial Africa and Asia, dictators have often retained power by establishing one-party rule after a military takeover.

  10. for those who comment church leaders should not involve in poletics, when the so called Abune Paulos the woyane machine who warship devil not God involve in poletics you did not say nothing, your comments in here shows nothing but you are a woyane supporters who do not have any religious believe. The church has a responsibility to look after its citizen the church leaders can not sit and wait to bring a peaceful solution for all its followers which is divided by this devil woyane. so If you have to advice advice your devil paulos not abune melketesdik.

  11. Elias, you didn’t post my comment. Thank you, Mr You are just like woyanes who believe in no media freedom. You are just one arrogant regular guy like your opponents. No wonder you dump people comments because you are the other side of Shabia and Woyane. Also, you are not a true journalist, all you know is attacking your own enemy woyane. I never read of any writings on different issues. You know that. You are just “sera bet or wott bet” self appointed journalist. Yoy and the likes are the one you highjacked Ethiopian struggle against Woyane.

  12. Greetings, we should never forget the history of our beloved Ethiopia when we make statements condemning one group or the other in these times. Ethiopia has a history dating back thousands of years. Church and state has been separate since the early 70’s and it will take more time before the dust settles and the people come to appreciate their right to participate in the affairs of government. The Emperor Haile Selassie granted the first constitution to the people of Ethiopia with a strategy of slow but gradual progress to political independence after thousands of years of theocratic governance. We should ask ourselves if any of the bishops spoke out during the bloody rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam? Did Abune Makorious and members of the Synod in exile condemn the atrocities that went on in Ethiopia during the Marxist governments dictatorship? Why speak out now and not before? Despite the alleged wrong doings of President Meles and his government some good works are being carried out in Ethiopia which is fast becoming one of Africa economic success stories even though we have a long way to go. Why not acknowledge this also? Why don’t both Synods mediate with each other and solve their problems as they teach the laity to forgive and pray for one another even our enemies? Is Christ divided? The call to boycott will bring more division than unity. Abune Paulos and the Synod in Ethiopia have a better ground to speak out against injustice in Ethiopia and they should do so. It seems both parties are too preoccupied in politics of the day than spirituality which is their supposed calling.

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