(CNN) — Some athletes earn the right to be considered a sporting legend. Few, in truth, are truly deserving of such an honor. But there can be no quarrel over the greatness of Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie who, in a career spanning 16 years, has redefined the art of long-distance running.
Born in the rural town of Asela in the central province of Arsi, Haile Gebrselassie was seven years old when the Ethiopian Miruts Yifter triumphed in the 10,000 meters final at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Listening to the victory on the family radio the feat implanted not only a desire to run, but also a belief that it was possible for Ethiopian athletes to succeed at the highest level.
Gebrselassie soon took up running. Poor transport services in Ethiopia necessitated that he regularly run 10 kilometers to school and back with his books tucked under his left arm.
When he began to run competitively — he won his first 1500 meter race at primary school when he was eight years old — he ran with a crooked arm, as if the books were still there. But the bent arm didn’t hinder him and it has remained a distinctive feature of his running style ever since.
Spurred on by his physical education teacher, Gebrselassie started training after school. Extra sessions running around his father’s farm soon reaped rewards as he began to win not only local but regional races. When he was 15 years old, he and his brother joined an athletics club in Addis Ababa and tried to make the national team.
The young Gebrselassie’s devotion to running initially annoyed his father, who implored his son to forge a career as a doctor or a teacher, but he kept up his training schedule and the more he practiced, the faster he got.
In 1992, the same year he met his future wife Alem, a 19 year-old Gebrselassie won the 5,000 and 10,000 meter finals at the World Junior Athletic Championships. The following season his senior career would take off in spectacular fashion.
At the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany he claimed the 10,000 meter title. The following year he broke his first world record — 5,000 meters at a meet in Hengelo, Holland — surpassing the time set by the Moroccan Said Aouita seven years earlier.
1995 produced further extraordinary success. Not only did Gebrselassie retain his World 10,000 meter crown — he would eventually win four — but he clocked three world records in just 71 days.
Still only 23 years old, his fledgling career reached its pinnacle when he won the 10,000 meter Olympic gold at Atlanta in 1996. In doing so, Gebrselassie had emulated his boyhood hero Miruts Yifter.
The next four years saw Gebrselassie go unbeaten over 5,000 and 10,000 meters, smash records indoors and out — taking his career world record tally to 15 — and star in the 1999 Disney movie “Endurance” which chronicled his life.
His triumph over his great rival, Kenyan Paul Tergat at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 is perhaps his most famous race. Gebrselassie — who had spent the weeks prior to the games struggling with an Achilles tendon injury — piped Tergat on the line by 0.09 seconds to retain his 10,000 meter Olympic title in dramatic fashion.
The victory secured him national hero status at home in Ethiopia, and hundreds of thousands of fans cheered him through the streets of Addis Ababa in a homecoming parade.
His attempts to win an unprecedented third Olympic title in Athens in 2004 were dashed by a recurrence of the Achilles tendon injury. Any sense of personal disappointment — it is difficult to tell as Gebrselassie has always worn a smile in triumph or defeat — was replaced with elation as his protégé and countryman Kenenisa Bekele took the gold medal. The previous year Gebrselassie had finished runner-up to Bekele in the World Championship 10,000 meters in Paris.
Gebrselassie soon turned his attentions away from the track and began to focus on road running, in particular the half-marathon and the marathon. In 2006, he duly added the half-marathon world record to his collection and in September 2007 he broke the marathon world record in Berlin to register his 25th world record mark.
Now 34 years old, his body shows no signs of fatigue — physical or mental — and he retains a hunger to achieve. Whatever happens in the future, his performances merit a permanent place in the pantheon of truly great sportsmen.
Off the track, Gebrselassie has maintained his links with Ethiopia, choosing to live and work in Addis Ababa. He remains committed to promoting the Ethiopian cause, not always through charity — although he lends his vigorous support to numerous projects — but by repeating the mantra of reward through hard work. There can be few better role models for sport and life than he.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Friday urged “maximum restraint” by Ethiopia and Eritrea amid concern over a new border war between the two east African foes.
“We are concerned about the military build-up and tension on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“We call on the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any actions that might further heighten tension or reignite conflict,” he said.
Ethiopia, which Washington sees as one of its closest allies in the region, said on Friday it had no plans to invade Eritrea, even as Asmara claimed for the fourth time in two weeks that Addis Ababa was preparing to launch an assault.
The United States has difficult relations with Eritrea, which it accuses of backing Somali Islamists. Eritrea, for its part, accuses the United States of fueling conflicts in the Horn of Africa region.
A 1998-2000 war on the border between the two neighbors killed 70,000 people and both sides accuse the other of preparing for a new war by moving troops closer to their disputed frontier area.
“We urge both governments to disengage militarily from the most critical locations along the border and to cooperate with the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea,” said McCormack.
McCormack said both governments must respect commitments made in a 2000 cease-fire deal, adding that they must embrace efforts by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resolve their boundary impasse and normalize relations.
The United Nations has a peacekeeping force of 1,700 people charged with monitoring a security buffer zone on Eritrea’s side of the 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier. Under the terms of a June 2000 cease-fire, the zone is meant to be demilitarized.
(Reporting by Sue Pleming; editing by Todd Eastham)
Woyanne is currently engaged in a shooting war on multiple fronts. The worst fighting is going on in Ogaden with ONLF and in neighboring Somalia with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The news coming from these fronts are encouraging — the Woyanne military is getting its nose bloodied by the ICU and the ONLF freedom fighters. Woyanne is now about to open another front in the north — Badme. Woyanne and Shabia are amassing hundreds of thousands of troops in the area. According to various sources, a major war could start any time. The question for Ethiopians, particularly those of us who wish to see a united Ethiopia free from the Woyanne tribal junta, is what should be our stand?
There are two options:
1) Do not take side in the absolutely senseless war, or
2) Take an active stand against Woyanne by helping Eritrean, ONLF, OLF, and all the other anti-Woyanne forces. An active stand against Woyanne includes agitating troops not to fight, causing damages to Woyanne supply lines, etc. Blockading the road from Addis Ababa to Tigray alone would cripple the Woyanne military machine.
Ethiopian Review encourages the second option. Here is why:
1) Woyanne is the real enemy of Ethiopia that has left us land-locked. On top of that, it has been committing one atrocity after another against the people of Ethiopia for the past 17 years. In several parts of Ethiopia, such as Ogaden and Gambella, Woyanne forces annihilated whole villages of people. What is going on currently in Ogaden is a genocide by any standard. Not looking at the pictures of dead women and children whose heads are splattered by high caliber bullets from Woyanne helicopter gunships, whose bodies pulverized by Woyanne rockets does not lessen the horror of Woyanne atrocities. Woyanne must be stopped from carrying out these atrocities by any means necessary.
2) It is not the Eritrean regime, not the ONLF, not the OLF, not the ICU that had thrown over 100,000 Ethiopians in Zeway, Shoa Robit, Donkoro Chaka and other disease-infested concentration camps after stealing the May 2005 elections. It is Woyanne that ignored the will of the people and enslaved 70 million Ethiopians through its blood thirsty military machine that is currently busy wreaking havoc in Ogaden and Somalia. Woyanne has no mandate to govern Ethiopia, has no right to enslave us and must be removed by any means necessary.
3) As Woyanne moneyman Sebhat Nega himself said a few months ago on a Woyanne radio station, Woyanne has done more than Shabia for the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia, leaving 70 million people landlocked. Notwithstanding the Woyanne propaganda, the impending Woyanne-Shabia war does not advance the national interest of Ethiopia an iota. It is war over a small plot of land that has no strategic significance for Ethiopia. It is a war that is intended to divert attention from Woyanne’s internal political crisis and the Somalia quagmire. Ethiopia can get back her sea outlet through a negotiated, mutually beneficial settlement with Eritreans. The only obstacle to such a negotiated settlement with Eritreans is the illegitimate Woyanne regime. For this reason alone, Ethiopian pro-unity forces need to help Shabia defeat Woyanne.
Let’s ignore the Woyanne propaganda for a moment and be frank with each other. Which is the lesser evil? Shabia or Woyanne? Both are brutal dictators, but who is currently tormenting Ethiopians? Both will not bring democracy to Ethiopia, but whose defeat will present an opportunity for change in Ethiopia?
If Woyanne wins against Shabia and all its opponents, for the people of Ethiopia it would mean more slavery at the hands of an emboldened Woyanne. If Shabia wins, it would mean no more Woyanne’s brutal rule. The best case scenario is for Shabia to break the backbone of Woyanne, which will force it to:
1) Immediately pull out of Somalia,
2) Pull its forces out of Ogaden, Oromia, and other regions of Ethiopia and rush them to Tigray to protect its base of power,
3) Seek reconciliation with Ethiopian opposition forces.
The most likely outcome
If Woyanne starts war with Shabia, this time it will lose for the following reasons:
1) Those troops who are not hardcore members of Woyanne will not fight the way they did in the 1998-2000 war. They will surrender or put down their weapons and run to Sudan. Even better, they could turn their guns against Woyanne officers.
2) Shabia will not engage Woyanne in a conventional battle of troops against troops, and thanks against thanks this time. What Shabia will do is let Woyanne come deep into the Eritrean territory, even all the way to Asmara. Then engage Woyanne’s over-stretched military in a protracted, guerrilla style warfare. With a well-coordinated propaganda campaign, most non-Tigrean soldiers could desert in massive numbers. Even Tigreans who are not hard core Woyannes would hesitate to fight. After all, what did Woyanne bring to the people of Tigray except more suffering, more war, more repression, and more poverty? Most of the developments in Tigray are benefiting only Woyanne members who are not more than 200,000 Tigreans. By all accounts, the 7 million Tigreans have not benefited from the Woyanne rule what so ever.
Most dictatorships have terrible ends. Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam, Chauchesku, Charles Taylor, to mention a few. With the way things are going on in Somalia, Woyanne’s end is already becoming messy, ugly and horrifying.
(AP) 50 people killed and 100 others wounded in heavy fighting between rebels and Ethiopian Woyanne troops backing Somalia’s shaky government.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops based at the former defense ministry in the south of the capital killed eight civilians early Friday when they fired tank shells into the main Bakara market, Khalif Haji Muse told The Associated Press, adding that two others died when Ethiopian Woyanne snipers fired at them. Other witnesses said six others died when shells crashed into their homes.
The bodies of 34 people, among them four women and six Ethiopians Woyannes, were found in the northern and southern parts of Mogadishu, where fighting was intense a day earlier, witnesses said.
Mogadishu has seen little peace since December, when Ethiopian Woyanne troops backing Somalia’s U.N.-backed government ousted an Islamic group called the council of Islamic Courts.
Presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mohamud said insurgents would be treated harshly.
The insurgents’ aim, Mohamud said, “is to depict the fighting as a war between Ethiopians Woyannes and Somali people. Far from it.”
“The fighting is between government troops and their Ethiopian Woyanne friends on one hand, and the peace-haters on the other hand and anyone who hurts Ethiopian Woyanne or Somali troops will be treated as a traitor,” he said.
The fighting Thursday afternoon began when Ethiopian Woyanne troops tried to retrieve the body of one of their soldiers who had been killed in earlier skirmishes in the south of the city. Hundreds of protesters — mainly women and children — chanting anti-Ethiopian Woyanne slogans dragged the body, which had been left behind by fleeing soldiers, through the city for about eight kilometers (5 miles), witnesses said.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops based at the former prisons guard building in the south fired several tank shells into the north of the city, hitting the livestock market, which is seen as a hotbed of supporters of insurgents battling the Somali government and their Ethiopian Woyanne allies, said local resident Abdiaziz Mohamed Guled.
The dragged soldier was one of two Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers and a Somali killed earlier Thursday in a heavy fighting that started when hundreds of Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers from two nearby military bases began patrols in the north eastern Hurwa neighborhood.
Doctors at Medina, Keysaney and Daynile hospitals said they have treated 100 civilians with gunshot wounds since Thursday.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the north and south of the capital on Friday and Somali government troops were patrolling some of the streets, residents said. But no substantial fighting was reported Friday morning.
On Wednesday, the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said the fighting had grown so bad that civilians who were shot or hit by shrapnel during the night frequently bled to death because the violence cut them off from the hospitals.
Those who murdered Shibre Desalegn and called her “hooligan” are being treated like the blood thirsty pigs they are in the streets of Mogadishu. It is good to see Woyanne pigs cry for a change as they made us cry for the past 17 years.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) — An enraged crowd dragged the body of a Ethiopian Woyanne soldier through the streets of Somalia’s capital Thursday after gun battles with Islamic insurgents killed 19 people, witnesses reported.
In a brutal echo of a 1993 battle involving Somali militias in which the bodies of U.S. troops were dragged through the streets, crowds Thursday shouted “God is great” as they pulled the bruised, bullet-riddled corpse through a dusty Mogadishu neighborhood.
The body was bound hand and foot with wire and wrapped in a sheet of plastic when insurgents pulled it out of a car and left it with the crowd in the northern Mogadishu neighborhood of Suqa Holaha, witnesses reported.
Nine Ethiopians Woyannes are reportedly part of the 19 dead.
Another battle broke out on the city’s south side Thursday morning between Ethiopian Woyanne troops and insurgents armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The fighting drove hundreds more people from their homes, on top of the tens of thousands aid agencies say have fled in recent weeks.
“Ethiopians Woyannes will launch violent attacks on us, for some of their comrades have been killed today,” said Rahma Nor Omar, an elderly woman in the capital. “They will be like wounded animals.”
Witnesses put the death toll from the day’s clashes at 19, including Ethiopian Woyanne troops, insurgents and civilians.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops arrived in Somalia in December 2006 to help a weak Somali government drive the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu and restore a U.N.-backed transitional government after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The Islamists responded by launching an insurgency against Somali government and Ethiopian Woyanne troops that has lasted nearly a year.
