By Yilma Bekele

This expression normally refers to clumsy or reckless people who should not be allowed near expensive and delicate items or to insensitive individuals. That saying came to mind when I read the big headline “Ethiopia severs ties with Qatar’. I know that Qatar is located by the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and that it is miles away from Ethiopia. How or why did we clash with the good people of Qatar?

Qatar has a population of slightly less than a million people and has been ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-1800s. Oil and Gas have made Qatar one of the richest countries in the world. Revenues from these natural resources account for 85% of their export earnings. In 2007 their GDP was $57.69 Billion dollars (Ethiopia has a population of 80 million people and a GDP of $55.07 Billion) Qatar has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world.

Qatar is not resting on it laurels due to the high income it enjoys from its resources. A far-sighted move by the government Qatar can be illustrated by its investment in developing a ‘knowledge economy’. In 2004 Qatar established the Qatar Science & Technology Park to attract and serve technology-based companies and entrepreneurs, from overseas and from within Qatar. Qatar also established Education City, which consists of international colleges.

There are over 800,000 guest workers in Qatar, 12,000 of them are Ethiopians. Our brothers and sisters are mainly employed in the domestic service industry, with a small minority working in white-collar jobs.

According to the TPLF government their conflict with Qatar began because of a TV news program presented by the famous Al-jazeera network and something about financing Eritrea. As you know there is no such thing as free press in Ethiopia. The regime decides what is news and how the news should be presented. Al-jazeera, by presenting the news from Ogaden and Somalia without going thru the normal censorship process somehow offended the sensibilities of our esteemed leaders. The Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying that “Qatar’s attempts to destabilize the sub-region and is hostile towards Ethiopia itself”.

I have no idea why Qatar will do that. It is sitting in the middle of a powder keg in the Gulf and no one has accused it of being such a force. It is enjoying a good neighborly relationship with all parties. It is not at war with anyone. Its celebrated financial center is giving a world-class service and is growing at a great pace.

You cannot say that about the accuser. The TPLF regime in Ethiopia is celebrating its 2nd year of invasion of a neighboring sovereign state without provocation, over six years of no war no peace situation with a former province which has resulted in the death of thousands of citizens and is facing civil disturbance in most of the country. Is this the case of the pot calling the kettle black?

What is also odd about the announcement is the reaction of the unfortunate Ethiopian guest workers living in Qatar. Apparently they were as surprised as the rest of the Ethiopian people not to mention the government of Qatar by this reckless act. We are not even going to ask if the Ethiopian Parliament was told about it. No we do not want to go there. It is too important to trust the people’s representatives about such an issue. They can watch the evening news and find out. Of course it will be approved unanimously after the customary two minutes discussion.

Now regarding the consequences of this moronic decision. The twelve thousand Ethiopians are economic migrants. They left in search of work to be able to help their family back home. If there were jobs available in Ethiopia, they wouldn’t get caught dead in Qatar. But they are there. If we assume about 80 percent love their family and send about $200 a month back home, it will be a net income of $1.9 million or Eth.$19 million Bir. Thus when our fearless leaders go around accusing a country of being a negative force, with no regard to the welfare of their own citizens that are bearing so much hardship, abuse and disrespect it makes you sick. It is not just the twelve thousand compatriots but the more than thirty to forty thousand back home who depend on their largesse. But on the other hand when you consider the minority regime has made habit of tormenting its own citizens at will, this just another chapter in this sordid story.

My suggestion to the Qatar government is to ask the IMF and World Bank to justify the loans and grants going to this police state and also publish all audited findings regarding previous dealings. Qatr as the contributing member to these international organizations can do that. That ism what I call most destabilizing to the TPLF.

To come back to my earlier impression, thus letting the TPLF government loose in the International arena is the same as letting a bull in a china shop. You don’t know what is coming next.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]

Four prominent leaders of Kinijit have issued a joint statement today announcing their resignation from the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit). Read their joint press release here >> Press release [pdf, Amharic]

This is a necessary and important step by Dr Berhanu Nega, Ato Andargachew Tsige and colleagues. Now they can focus on building a new movement with people who share similar views on how to get rid of the fascist Woyanne regime using any and every means available.

Continued on page 2 >>

On May 10, 2008, Dr Berhanu Nega will be in Vancouver, Canada, for a town hall meeting. The meeting is organized by former students of Dr Berhanu who are now students of University of British Colombia (UBC).

ethiopiansforbarackobama.com

The phone-banking effort we completed in Pennsylvania last month made a difference in Pennsylvania. Although our numbers in Pennsylvania was not significant enough to deliver a victory to Senator Obama, our collective efforts to collect a database of Ethiopian-American phone numbers did not go unnoticed. We were able to reach a multitude of Ethiopian-American voters in Pennsylvania, our efforts contributed to galvanizing the Ethiopian-American community as they voted overwhelmingly for Senator Obama.

Now that we have concluded our effort in Pennsylvania, it is time to duplicate the effort in Indiana. There is a large Ethiopian community in Indiana, so we will conduct another phone-banking effort. Because the Indiana primary is less than two weeks away, we have to quickly collect the phone numbers and start making phone calls by Monday, April 29th.

Please email me at [email protected] if you plan on volunteering to collect phone numbers and contact information from the Ethiopian community in the state of Indiana.

I cannot tell you how heartening it is to hear an Ethiopian-American on the other end of the line and how happy they are to be called by a fellow Ethiopian. It is a special feeling for both parties involved. Please forward this to your friends and family, we have a tight knit and committed core of E4O volunteers, but we need to expand our numbers in order to be more effective at what we are doing.

(BBC) – Amnesty International has accused Ethiopian Woyanne troops of capturing 40 Somali children during a raid on a mosque last week, and called for their release.

The rights group condemned the killing of more than 20 people, including some religious scholars, during the raid.

It quoted witnesses as saying that many of the dead were unarmed civilians, and that some had had their throats cut.

Ethiopia Woyanne denied its troops were involved in the killings, which came during fierce clashes with insurgents.

“The safety and welfare of the children must be paramount for all parties,” said Amnesty’s UK Director Kate Allen.

“The UN Security Council must endeavour to investigate human rights violations committed during the armed conflict.”

Throats cut

Somalia’s Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said his government was defending itself, with the support of Ethiopian Woyanne troops, during the weekend’s clashes in the capital.

But Amnesty said the throat-cuttings were a form of extra-judicial execution practised by Ethiopian Woyanne forces in Somalia.

The Ethiopian Woyanne forces said they would only release the children from their military base in north Mogadishu “once they had been investigated” and “if they were not terrorists”, witnesses told Amnesty.

Some 80 people were killed during the weekend, local residents say, including at least six religious leaders from the Tabliq Sufi sect, which is not involved in the conflict.

Ghanim Alnajjar, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Somalia, denounced the killing of civilians and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Locals have accused the Ethiopian Woyanne troops of shelling residential areas of the capital.

“The use of heavy weaponry in areas where civilians are concentrated left reportedly 81 civilians dead and more than 100 wounded,” said Mr Alnajjar.

The UN says more than half of Mogadishu’s population has fled recent fighting in the city, and has warned that Somalia faces the possible twin catastrophes of war and famine.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) – Egyptian police have arrested 109 African migrants hoping to cross illegally into Israel from Egypt, an Egyptian security official said Wednesday.

95 migrants from Eritrea and 14 from Ethiopia were caught Wednesday in the city of Aswan, 685 kilometers (425 miles) south of Cairo, after crossing the border from Sudan on foot, said the official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

During questioning, the arrested said they wanted to go to Israel for jobs and a better life. Before sneaking into Aswan, they said they had lived briefly in refugee camps in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

Other migrants have said they pay about US$500 to human traffickers for shelter in the Egyptian desert and a ride to the Israeli border.