In a recent interview with Dimtsi Woyanne Radio, Sebehat Nega, Woyanne moneyman and senior member of the politburo, said that if all Eritrean organizations combine, their effort would not add up to what the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne/TPLF) did for the independence of Eritrea. According to Sebehat, the position taken by the Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF/Shabia) had been weak in regards to the question of independence. What he was saying in effect is that EPLF has a soft heart for Ethiopia, as it demanded only limited autonomy from the central government–not full secession as demanded by Woyanne. What an astonishing statement coming from some one who is a top leader of the party that is ruling Ethiopia, albeit illegitimately.
This is not a hyperbole on the part of Sebehat. His statement is, in fact, not new to those who have been closely watching the Woyannes for a while. It would also not be a surprise to participants and observers of the negotiations between EPLF, Woyanne, and Derg before the downfall of the Derg regime in May 1991.
One of these observers is distinguished Ethiopian scholar Professor Ephraim Isaac, who had been mediating between EPLF and the Derg. According to Prof. Ephraim, the TPLF leadership had been a major obstacle to a negotiated settlement between the Derg and the Eritreans. Limited autonomy for Eritrea was NOT acceptable to the top TPLF leaders.
Professor Ephraim revealed this fact to me and other representatives of the media at a conference held in Bonn, Germany, just before the Woyanne-Eritrea war of 2000 broke out. The media conference was organized by the German-based Bol Foundation that had invited media representatives from Ethiopia and Eritrea for a discussion on the role journalists can play to minimize the risk of war. I was invited by Professor Ephraim to attended the conference representing Ethiopian Review.
During one of the informal discussions we had during break times, Professor Isaac told us that before and during the 1991 London Conference, he pleaded with the EPLF leadership to keep Eritrea within Ethiopia if the central government allows self-rule for Eritrea. He gave Quebec, Canada, as a model. Later on, as the Derg regime started to fall apart, the professor proposed that Issayas become the president of Ethiopia and Meles, the prime minister, until an election is held. According to Prof. Isaac, the Quebec model was acceptable to the EPLF leadership.
The U.S. and British governments also pushed for a coalition government that would include EPLF, TPLF/EPRDF, OLF and the other opposition groups, so that Ethiopia will remain intact.
The proposal was outrightly rejected by Meles, Sebehat, & Co. They took an uncompromising stand in demanding a full secession for Eritrea, as Sebehat Nega explained to Dimtsi Woyanne in his recent interview. (He went on to say in this interview that Woyanne will fight any group that intends to reunite Eritrea with Ethiopia in any form or shape!)
Worried that the idea of TPLF-EPLF power sharing might spread among the rank-and-file members of the TPLF, the Adwa mafia (Meles, Sebehat and close family members who make up the top echelon of TPLF), started to hurriedly push the process of Eritrea’s secession. They expedited the process of giving recognition to Eritrea as an independent country–amazingly even before the EPLF leadership asked for it. They had also fervently lobbied the United Nations to recognize Eritrea as an independent country.
Professor Isaac recounted this story in front of several journalists. Some of them said that they had heard about it from other sources. I myself have been able to verify the story from more than one source. But that did not lessen the shock of hearing it from the mouth of a top TPLF leader.
But why?
Apparently, the Woyannes felt inferior to Eritreans and that if they share power with the EPLF in Addis Ababa, they feared that they can easily be upstaged. On top of that, Woyanne by its nature doesn’t like to share any thing with those it considers outsiders–non-Tigreans. Woyanne is the embodiment of greed. It is a tribal cult organization with a sinister urge to control and dominate every thing at any cost.
To ensure their unchallenged rule over Ethiopia, Woyanne leaders, as they prepared to take over power from the Derg, gathered a group of individuals from different ethnic groups whom they call “adghis” (donkeys)–the likes of Addisu Legesse, Kuma Demeksa and other opportunists–and created a fake “multi-ethnic” alliance called “Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front” (EPRDF). The Woyanne leaders did not want EPLF any where near the seat of power in Addis Ababa.
Ten years later, in 2000, Woyanne and Shabia fought a devastating war over small barren lands on the border of Tigray and Eritrea. The Badme/Shiraro war was fought not to defend Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, contrary to what the Woyannes would like to have us believe. It was to assert Woyanne’s dominance over Shabia, and establish itself as a dominant power in the Horn of Africa.
Looking forward, defeating or destroying this menace called Woyanne is imperative for peace and development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. After a long streak of successes, Woyannes are now on a downward spiral. It started with the 2005 elections. Woyannes were defeated in the ballot box, and in reaction to that, they slaughtered hundreds of civilians, women and children. Tens of thousands of innocent Ethiopian were thrown in concentration camp-like detention centers.
To divert attention from the crisis they are facing internally, Woyannes persuaded naive U.S. State Department officials into supporting their illegal invasion of Somalia the false pretext of fighting against Islamic extremists.
Woyannes are currently committing war crimes in Somalia, as pointed out by a senior European Union official and human rights organizations.
Meles and gang have made a disastrous miscalculation about the determination of Somalis to keep invaders out of their country. Somalis are fighting back and making Mogadishu Woyanne’s grave yard.
Ethiopian freedom fighters, such as EPPF, OLF, OLF, and TPDM are also intensifying their military offensives against Woyanne forces.
The downfall of Woyanne is near. If it were not for some corrupt individuals in the Kinijit leadership abroad who have temporarily derailed Kinijit’s, and by extension AFD’s, movement, presently we could be witnessing Woyanne’s last grasp.
Recommendation
In order to expedite Woyanne’s inevitable demise, Ethiopian Review would like to recommend to the AFD leadership the establishment of a Horn of Africa alliance against Woyanne.
The alliance would include every major political and civic group in the region, including EPLF (the government of Eritrea).
Woyanne is currently being supported by supper power nations–the U.S. and China. Woyanne is also in control of Ethiopia’s abundant resources, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and donations from the World Bank and other. This makes an all-inclusive Horn of Africa alliance all the more necessary.
The main functions of the alliance could be:
1) Coordinate the military, diplomatic, and political actions of all anti-Woyanne forces in the region.
2) Through intense diplomatic effort try to persuade the foreign policy makers of the United States, and Europe–the main financial and military backers of the Woyanne tribal junta–to withdraw their support for the sake of their own long term interest.
3) Help facilitate the formation of an all-inclusive conference to set up a transitional government in Ethiopia.
International Christian Concern has published its first ever “Hall of Shame,” an annual list of the ten nations with the worst records of persecution against Christians. The 2007 edition includes the following:
Number 10: Pakistan While the gospel first arrived in India with the Apostle Thomas, it seems to have missed arriving in Pakistan until the 18th century. Pakistan became a Muslim stronghold in A.D. 711, but Christianity gained a foothold with the Hindu “outcasts” between 1890 and 1930. Pakistan has adopted two sets of law that make life very difficult for Christians. The first is the Blasphemy Law, which makes it a crime to say or do anything deemed offensive to Islam. The second is the Hudood Ordinances, which declares women to be guilty of adultery if they have been raped and are unable to produce four male Muslim witnesses. These ordinances have resulted in making Christian women targets for rape and being converted forcibly to Islam.
Number 9: Vietnam Christians in Vietnam, especially the mostly-Christian ethnic groups in the Central Highland provinces, face brutal persecution. They face imprisonment, abduction, rape, and torture. Church buildings are burned, Bibles are confiscated, homes are raided, property is confiscated, and worship services are disturbed. The government often charges believers with “causing public disorder,” “disrupting the unity of the people,” or “anti-government activity” to mask its religious discrimination.
Number 8: China Christianity arrived in China during the seventh century. The Holy Bible was translated into Chinese by the order of the emperor and the gospel spread peacefully in the nation until A.D. 845. At that time, Emperor Wu-tsung initiated persecution against Christians. In A.D. 1368, the Ming Dynasty came to power and sought the extermination of Christianity in China. The first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrisoin, came to China in 1807, and many other missionaries followed him. Christianity began to spread rapidly again in China. When Communists seized power in 1949, tens of thousands of churches were eliminated. Pastors were tortured and/or put to death. The Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 brought about one of the worst recorded persecutions of Christians in history. Christians in China still suffer persecution and are forced to worship in secret. Number 7: Eritrea Evangelical congregations were banned by the Eritrean government in 2002. Lutheran, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches, approved previously by the government, have had their activities restricted. Abune Antonios, Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, was forced to abdicate his see last year and the government has since demanded that all of the Orthodox Church’s tithes and offerings be deposited directly into a federal account. Evangelical church buildings have been closed, property has been confiscated, and many Christians have been imprisoned and/or tortured. Approximately 2,000 Christians, including about fifty children, are currently imprisoned. Many Christians have been placed in metal shipping containers in the desert, facing extreme temperatures and starvation, as a way of bringing them to recant the faith. Number 6: Iran According to Christian tradition, and early records, St. Peter and St. Thomas spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Parthians and others within Mesopotamia and Persia. By the end of the third century, approximately 360 churches existed in Persian territories. With the arrival of Islam, Christians lived under a state of subjection (dhimmitude). While able to worship Christ, they were forced to live under discriminatory laws and forced to pay a religious tax (jizya). Oppression has continued ever since, but the Ayatollah’s revolution in the 1970’s brought increased persecution. The 1990’s were especially turbulent for Christians as church buildings were seized and seven Christian leaders were murdered. Christians now face unremitting pressure from the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.
Ironically, the last three decades of anti-Western / anti-Christian propaganda has caused many Muslims to seek alternatives to Islam. Iranians are open to the gospel. Prior to the revolution there were approximately 500 Muslim background believes (MBB), but now there are between 4,000 and 20,000. There are also 222,000 to 250,000 ethnic and evangelical Christians in Iran despite the massive emigration of Christians from the nation. Despite the openness to the gospel and the growth of the Church, Christians in Iran face harassment, imprisonment, torture and murder. Number 5: Somalia Somalia, which is 99.5% Muslim, is the worst persecutor of Christians on the Dark Continent. Confessing Christ openly results in death. Estimates reveal that at least 500 Christians have been murdered in this east African since United Nations and U. S. forces departed in 1995. Warlords have been battling each other for the last decade to establish their own authority in Mogadishu. Last year (June 2006) the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) gained control of the capital and began to establish and enforce Shari’ah law. Those not praying to Allah five times per day received capital punishment. Christians came under fierce persecution and murder, especially in the border refugee camps. Although an interim government has since been established, the UIC has threatened an insurgence and continues to attack believers. Number 4: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia considers itself the guardian of Islam. It has a zero tolerance policy towards other religions within its borders, despite being a signatory of the United Nations Charter. Christians are persecuted severely. While being listed as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the U. S. State Department, leniency is granted to Saudi Arabia because it is the world’s largest oil exporter. The tremendous wealth flowing into Saudi Arabia is poured out across the globe to fund mosques, clerics, maddrassas and movements that center upon Wahabbi Islam. Number 3: Ethiopia
Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian nation in the world, having the gospel brought to it during the first century by Queen Candace’s eunuch (Acts 8:26-39). Islamists view Ethiopia as the key to controlling Africa. In the past decade they have increased their efforts to dominate the nation. At least twenty new Jihad training centers have been built, though they are disguised as humanitarian service centers, schools, and orphanages. The centers are even active in the northern city of Gonder, which is almost exclusively Christian.
Violence against Christians has increased exponentially, particularly in southern and southwestern Ethiopia. During September of last year, Muslims approached Christian households in Jimma to force residents to convert to Islam. At least a dozen people were killed. 850 homes were burned, displacing 2,000 Christians. In Beshasha, located in the same region, a mob attacked a Christian worship service. The church building was burned and six Christians were murdered.
In Addis Ababa, the capital, where the population is 80% Christian and 17% Muslim, the ratio of churches to mosques is 120 to 150. Mosques are being built in front of churches to hide them from view. Islamists want to eradicate the idea that Ethiopia is a Christian nation by crippling the Christian leadership in local and central governments and by bringing Ethiopia into the Arab League. Number 2: Iraq
The Apostle Thomas brought the gospel to Iraq in the first century. There has been a native Church within the nation since that time, the Assyrian Church of the East. The largest Christian group in Iraq is the Chaldean Church, which broke from the Assyrian Church of the East in order to reestablish communion with the Roman Catholic Church in 1553. Iraqi Christians have lived under Islamic rule since the seventh century.
The overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the Iraq War have resulted in Muslims associating Iraqi Christians with the “Christian” armies of the United States and Great Britain. This has led to an increase of persecution. Many clergy members have been targeted for kidnapping and decapitation and other Christians have faced murder as well. Iraqi Christians have fled as a result. In 1980 there were 1.4 million Christians in Iraq, but that number had decreased to 800,000 in 2003. Today there are only 250,000-500,000 Christians remaining. Number 1: North Korea
Korea persecuted Christians aggressively from 1863 until 1881, when access was granted to Western nations. With permission, Protestant missionaries entered the country and were embraced warmly. North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, was nicknamed “Jerusalem of the East” because one-sixth of its citizens followed Christ Jesus.
Kim Il Sung, who ascended to power in 1948, demanded absolute loyalty. He commanded his fellow citizens to worship him and to bow at his statue. Those who refused to do so were sent to prison camps where they endured torture and often death. When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, he was succeeded by his son, Kim-Jong Il. Kim-Jong Il has continued to persecute and execute Christians, often having them tied to poles or attached to crucifixes before being shot to death.
Soon Ok Lee, a Christian who suffered in one of the prison camps, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in June 2002 that she witnessed the murder of Christians by prison guards:
“The cast iron factory was considered the most difficult place to work in the entire prison. Christians were usually sent there to work. I was carrying a work order to the cast iron factory in the male prison. Five or six elderly Christians were lined up and forced to deny their Christianity and accept the Juche Ideology of the State. The selected prisoners all remained silent at the repeated command for conversion. The security officers became furious by this and killed them by pouring molten iron on them one by one.”
NEW YORK CITY — Rebecca Haile finally returned home after 25 years.
Haile, now 42, captured in a book the emotion of her return to Ethiopia years after her parents, Getatchew Haile and Misrak Amare Haile, fled with their family to Collegeville. Her father is an outspoken critic of his homeland’s communist government, and he was shot by the government and paralyzed in 1975.
Rebecca Haile just released the book, “Held at a Distance,” a collection of essays about her return. She made the monthlong trip in 2001, visiting family members and historical sites.
The book is available online and at bookstores.
“It’s where I’m from, said Rebecca Haile, who now lives in New York City with her husband and two children. “It’s part of who I am.”
She didn’t plan on writing a book.
But once she started her travels, she jotted down notes to keep her memories fresh. She wrote about seeing her childhood home where her father was shot. She described visiting her grandmother for the first time in years.
She started writing her book when she realized her experiences weren’t limited to her.
People haven’t told their stories, Rebecca Haile said. “If more stories come to light … that would be a great prospect.”
She hopes the book will humanize Ethiopia’s struggles and encourage empathy for the country’s citizens.
Her father read the book and the essay, “A Solid Foundation,” touched him, he said. In it, Rebecca Haile describes visiting her childhood home.
“It’s very much involved and personal for me,” Getatchew Haile said. “I never knew she was so attached to our house … I shed tears. I’m very sorry for her.”
Rebecca Haile had the first of many readings from the book recently in New York.
She said she hopes to have readings this fall in Central Minnesota.
By JAMES W. CRAWLEY
WASHINGTON – Africa is a hot topic at the Pentagon.
The military is setting up Africa Command, a high-level headquarters akin to Tampa-based Central Command, to oversee military operations, planning, intelligence, humanitarian missions and training foreign armies in Africa.
This month, President Bush is expected to nominate a general or admiral to lead the command, which will begin initial operations in October and full operations in late 2008.
Africa Command — or, Africom — will be unlike the other military headquarters that oversee world regions.
“We needed to look at the continent fundamentally different,” said Rear Adm. Robert Moeller, executive director of the command transition team.
Civilians will take an unprecedented role, filling up to half the positions normally held by uniformed personnel. The State Department and the Agency for International Development also will contribute staffers.
With headquarters likely on the African continent, Africom will be only the second combatant command outside the United States.
For decades, Americans have largely ignored Africa, said David Shinn, former ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
“I’m surprised (Africa Command) took this long to come to fruition,” Shinn said.
The Pentagon currently splits Africa among the Central, European and Pacific commands.
But, trouble doesn’t stop at borders inked on a map — especially, in Africa.
The Darfur crisis involves Sudan, in Central Command’s area, and Chad, in European Command’s area. Under the new scheme, Africom will be responsible for both Sudan and Chad.
The entire continent, except for Egypt, will be the new command’s responsibility. Officials decided Egypt, because of its place in Mideast politics, should remain under the Central Command.
Africa is on the front burner with its humanitarian crises, caused by nature and man. Drought, famine, disease and violence are its four seasons. But Africa increasingly is a major source of U.S. oil imports.
China has become a major player in Africa, seeing it as a source of oil and minerals and a market for Chinese goods. It has supported Sudan’s treatment of the Darfur region.
The continent has become fertile ground for terrorist organizations.
Al-Qaida’s 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 are examples of terrorists at work in Africa. Hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, for counter-terrorism missions.
The new command will give America a stronger foothold on the continent, said Brent Schaefer, an Africa specialist at the Heritage Foundation.
“Regarding U.S. policy, I can only see the upside,” he said.
Currently, Moeller and other military officials are looking for a country to host the command’s headquarters.
That’s not an easy task.
They need a place in a friendly country that can support a base for up to 1,000 American personnel. Living conditions and access to dependable transportation, communications, electricity and healthcare will be important.
Already, several nations have rebuffed American efforts, according to a Congressional Research Service report last month.
Some Africans fear that a large American presence is a first step toward the recolonization of Africa.
“This is not about bringing forces to Africa,” Moeller said. “This is to support U.S. forces working with African (governments).”
While he favors a regional command, ambassador Shinn warned against locating the headquarters in Africa.
“They are heading for a horrific mistake,” he said.
The Pentagon needs to have a location that will be usable for at least 25 years, Shinn said. Few African nations have a history of stable governments and economies. .
“There’s hardly a country I could identify that would be a good place for (Africom) headquarters,” he added.
Plus, locating a military headquarters in Africa could serve as a magnet for terrorists bent on hurting American interests, he added.
Shinn prefers placing Africom headquarters on the East Coast.
“If I was a senator or congressman with a base about to close down, I would be saying ‘Why not here?'” Shinn said. “I think it would be cheaper.”
E-mail James W. Crawley, national correspondent for Media General News Service, at [email protected].
MOGADISHU, Somalia: Hundreds of Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops trying to protect this country’s fragile [puppet] government went house-to-house searching for weapons Wednesday, a daunting task in a city teeming with firearms.
Several people were arrested and accused of being linked to an insurgency blamed for a string of deadly suicide bombs and other attacks.
“These operations are part of the routine security tasks carried out with the help of our friends, the Ethiopians,” Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said.
The troops also arrested Abdi Iman, a leading member of Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye clan, a spokesman for the clan said. There was no word on why Iman was arrested, said the spokesman, Ahmed Diriye.
Later on Wednesday, the government ordered three Mogadishu-based radio stations — Shabelle, HornAfrik, Radio of the Holy Quran — to close.
“They have been confusing the public, violating freedom of the press and supporting terrorists,” said Information Minister Madobe Nunow Mohamed in a statement.
Ahmed Abdi Salam, the owner of HornAfrik, protested.
“It is unfortunate to shut down this radio station, which is one of the independent radio stations in the country,” he said.
All three stations have now gone off air.
In January the government issued a one-day closure order against the three stations.
Ethiopia, the region’s military powerhouse, was vital in helping the Somali government drive out Islamic radicals who ruled much of the country for six months last year. But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent having troops from Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.
Residents of Mogadishu said the operation had been going on since Tuesday, causing tension and fear.
“I am not a member of the insurgents, I am an independent businessman who runs a shop, but I am afraid of being arrested because I look Islamic, with my long beard and the way I dress,” said Sheik Abdulqadir.
Another resident, Shamsa Mohamed Ilmi, said her 16-year-old son was shot and killed by Ethiopian troops last week.
“These troops are very suspicious, they shot him as he was trying to take his mobile phone from his pocket,” she said.
The Ethiopian troops here come under regular insurgent attacks. This week, Ethiopian troops fired at a would-be suicide bomber speeding toward their base, blowing up the car and killing the bomber and a civilian standing nearby.
On Tuesday, an aid worker was wounded and his driver killed in the capital, said Susan Sandars, a regional spokeswoman for Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. Officials were investigating the circumstances of the shooting. The two were not in a marked MSF car, Sandars said.
Somalia descended into chaos in 1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. The government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert any real control throughout the country.
Elsewhere, fighting between two clans vying for control of Berhani village in southern Somalia have killed about 35 people since Saturday, clan elders said. Berhani is about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of the port town of Kismayo.
___
AP writer Nasteex Dahir Farah contributed to this report from Kismayo, Somalia.
The lack of democracy and the large-scale human rights violations in Ethiopia were condemned by MEPs on Tuesday at a hearing held by the EP’s Development Committee and the Human Rights Subcommittee. The Ethiopian Government’s refusal to send a representative to speak to MEPs was also criticised.
“The human rights situation has deteriorated since 2005 with the imprisonment of members of the opposition and human rights defenders who still await trial”, said Josep Borrell (PES, ES), chair of the Development Committee, at the start of the meeting.
The former President of the European Parliament expressed disappointment at the refusal to attend the meeting by the ambassador of Ethiopia to the EU, Ato Berhane Gebre-Christos. In a letter addressed to MEPs, the Ethiopian foreign minister stated that the invitation could not be accepted, partly because “the list of invited speakers to this hearing does not indicate any intention to try and reach a balanced or accurate assessment of the stage of democratisation in Ethiopia today”.
Referring to the parliamentary elections of May 2005, which were marred by fraud, the chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee, Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR), emphasised “the importance of envisaging follow-ups to election observations”. “By acting as if there was nothing wrong, we strip the European Union’s policy in this area of all credibility”, she said.
Judge Woldemichael Meshesha Damtto, former vice-chair of the commission of inquiry set up following the protests which took place in June and October 2005 against the election results, said the members of the commission had been pressed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to alter their findings. “The civilians used no weapons, the forces used excessive violence, 193 people were killed, 760 were injured and 20,000 were arrested and held in military camps”, he said. These claims were backed up by Mulualem Tarekegn, an opposition figure and former member of the Ethiopian Parliament, who today lives under international protection in Sweden.
In an urgent resolution adopted in November 2006 in Strasbourg, the EP called on the Ethiopian Government “to publish unamended and in its entirety, and without any further delay, the final report of the Commission of Inquiry”.
Ana Gomes (PES, PT), who led the EP election monitoring mission for the 2005 parliamentary elections and is attacked by name in the letter from the Ethiopian foreign ministry, said she was accustomed to the attitude of the Ethiopian authorities, who attacked her personally instead of taking notice of the EU observers’ findings. “The attitude of the present government, which is violating the human rights and the aspirations to democracy of its people, and the behaviour of the Ethiopians in Somalia, who are committing atrocities, are a disgrace”, she said.
“Droits de l’homme et démocratisation en Ethiopie: situation actuelle et perspectives “, audition conjointe de la commission du développement et de la sous-commission des droits de l’homme
05/06/2007
Committee on Development
Chair : Josep Borrell Fontelles (PES, ES)
05/06/2007
Subcommittee on Human Rights
Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR)
