Ethiopia’s ruling Tigrai Liberation Front (TPLF) would like us to believe Eritrea is threatening Ethiopian sovereignty. In truth, the war is a grand strategy to divert attention from human rights abuses and to crush all democratic opposition in Ethiopia. Such as strategy will allow the TPLF to stay in power indefinitely.
The push for war also emanates from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s desire to destroy Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea and to replace him with a compliant Eritrean government. Under this scenario, Zenawi will emerge as the uncontested strongman and a regional power broker.
An impoverished Ethiopia cannot afford yet another war. If the last war is any indication, 100,000 or more could be killed and hundreds of thousands wounded. In financial terms, the war can easily cost anywhere from 10 to 12 billion birr.
We therefore call on all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia to speak up against this war before it is too late.
Why Ethiopians should not support Zenawi’s war
It is immoral. Ethiopia still cannot feed itself and every year the government goes begging for international handouts. It is therefore unconscionable for two of the poorest countries in the world to waste their human and financial resources to keep a minority elite in power.
There is no good reason for Ethiopia to invade Eritrea. One could endlessly debate who is worse — Meles Zenawi or Isaias Afewerki. But Zenawi had no qualms about pushing for Eritrea to break away from Ethiopia or sign away Badme after so much bloodshed. But now that his ego is being challenged, he wants to start a war.
Unproven charges. Zenawi claims Eritrea is undermining Ethiopian sovereignty. Once again, these are just allegations. He provides no proof. Unlike previous Ethiopian leaders, Zenawi was quick to strike a deal that made a nation of 70 million people landlocked. Why? It served his purpose of coming to power at the time.
Changing colors. Once in power, Zenawi began to double-cross his Eritrean mentor, Isaias Afewerki. The one-time rebel, Albanian-style Marxist Zenawi has turned into a regional snitch at the service of a big power quick to accuse the hands that fed him. Why? Because he smells a lot of money and the opportunity to stay in power.
Ethiopians need to think this war through
Political opposition. Pro-democracy forces in Ethiopia need to carefully think through issues surrounding this looming war and not fall into Zenawi’s trap of defending the motherland. They have to be clear that this is not Ethiopia’s war, but an optional war waged by a minority regime to confuse the issues and stay in power.
The Ethiopian military. The patriotic armed forces also need to think this war through. Young Ethiopians are being killed in the streets of Mogadishu to server Zenawi’s agenda. The lesson learnt from the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea is that 70,000 Ethiopians were sacrificed and hundreds of thousands wounded for no good reason.
Disfavored ethnic groups such as Oromos and Amharas were callously used for cleaning minefields. We all remember the bodies of young Ethiopian soldiers unceremoniously left on the battlefield to be devoured by vultures. As is customary with the TPLF, the dead and wounded were used and immediately forgotten – never to be mentioned again. Zenawi quickly agreed to hand over Badme – the flashpoint over which the war started.
Financial cost. Ethiopia wasted over 8 billion birr on the last Eritrean war. Imagine if that 8 billion was used to build dams that will irrigate Ethiopian farms. Imagine an Ethiopia that can feed itself, an Ethiopia that is not a beggar nation and a burden to the world.
Unfortunately, the TPLF’s knee jerk reaction to any crisis is to employ propaganda first and then follow that up with brute force. Such has been the pattern for the last sixteen years.
Why does Zenawi want to start a war?
He sold himself to the West as a budding, well-intentioned African democrat. The propaganda has turned out to be a lie. He has proven to be more autocratic than the Burmese junta or Robert Mugabe who is conveniently vilified by the Bush administration.
Zenawi’s democracy has no place for the separation of the judicial and executive branches. The twenty-month trial of pro-democracy opposition forces elevated the meaning of Kangaroo court to new heights.
Zenawi never gained the respect of the Ethiopian people. Whatever credibility he had came from foreigners. Now even foreigners have come to see the true colors of the Prime Minister. The TPLF capo really has no cloth.
It is under these circumstances that Zenawi is choosing to go to war. He is also afraid Eritrea will give sanctuary to opponents running away from persecution by the regime’s secret services.
Zenawi, the Ahmed Challabi of the Horn of Africa, is feeding the United States lies about Eritrea as he did about Somalia prior to the invasion. He wants to entangle the US in his squabbles and to underwrite his adventures. Emperor Yohannes would roll over in his graves if he new an Ethiopian leader had become a puppet mercenary of foreign powers.
Conclusion
Neither Somalis nor Eritreans are the real enemies of the Ethiopian people. The number one enemy is the ruling minority Tigrai Liberation Front. And, as such, all efforts should go to liberating Ethiopia from this secretive and evil force.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
National Press Club to Host Media Briefing on Ethiopia and Human Rights with Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ)
Monday, October 22, 2007
10:00-11:00 a.m.
National Press Club (Lisagor Room)
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-NJ
House Foreign Relations Committee will discuss
Ethiopia and Human Rights
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa and Global Health Subcommittee, will be speaking about his efforts to advance human rights reform in Ethiopia as well as recent legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that aims to hold Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government accountable for their abuses and promote change in the country’s human rights practices.
Smith, the author of the “Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006” (H.R. 5860) which was introduced during the 109th Congress, will discuss that legislation and the efforts that led to House passage of a similar bill earlier this month.
Last year, an Independent Commission of Inquiry established by the Ethiopian Parliament reported that Ethiopian security forces fatally shot, beat or strangled 193 people protesting election fraud in 2005 — a number that far exceeds the Government’s official death toll.
The following is a statement posted by Ato Mesfin Mekonnen (Dr Taye’s agent) on the EEDN email list in response to Ethiopian Review’s expose of the egregious lies he told the Washington Post. Ato Mesfin insists that he and Hailu Shawel were in Congress on Tuesday, Oct. 3, when the U.S. House of Representatives voted on H.R. 2003. On the other hand, Ato Hailu told the Washington Post yesterday that he came to Washington DC on day earlier, Oct. 2, held a meeting with Congressman Smith and returned to Minnesota early Tuesday, Oct. 3 without going to Congress to witness the bill pass.
So who are we to believe here? Hailu Shawel? or Mesfin Mekonnen? As a matter of fact, both of them are lying.
I am going to comment on the article by Elias Kifle of October 5, 2007 published by the Ethiopian Review. There were several errors of fact that were presented as corrections to my previous writings. For example this piece stated that “the Sept. 21 issue of The Hill newspaper falsely reported that Kinijit delegates Gizachew Shiferraw and Brook Kebede do not support H.R. 2003, while Hailu Shawel does.”
Engineer Shawel has repeated over and over in public discourse his enthusiastic support for passage and enactment of H.R. 2003. Please check this out with Congressman Chris Smith’s office for confirmation. So, this first assertion about Engineer Shawel is obviously untrue and the “blatantly false report” is that of the ethiopianforum.com. H.R. 2003 has received bipartisan support from Chairman Donald Payne and all the Democrats and Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Africa and in turn from the Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee Congressman Tom Lantos and all the Democrats and Republicans on the full committee.
I cannot speak for the EPRP, as I am not a member of that organization. We should focus our writings and activities on achieving Senate support for H.R. 2003. Then the piece goes on to say, “Yesterday, another false report appeared. This time it was in the Washington Post which reported that Ato Hailu Shawel and Ato Mesfin Mekonnen were at the Congress when the vote H.R. 2003 took place.”
The piece went on to add, “The fact is that Ato Hailu was and still is in Minneapolis getting medical treatment. Ato Mesfin was also not there on Tuesday.”
This statement is absurd on the face of it! Attendance at Congressional sessions are hardly anonymous affairs and the presence of Ato Hailu Shawel and myself was noted by dozens of members, staffers, press, and other interested persons. To state the contrary in light of such obvious proof is to act the buffoon — (for what end? Serving what purpose? to whose benefit?).
So, it continues, “Asked to correct the report, Nora Boustany, the Washington Post correspondent who wrote the report, responded ‘they were both sitting in the gallery and I reached them by cell phone while the session was going on. You can probably find out by contacting the office of Rep. Smith. You can check this out independently.'”
Who asked the distinguished journalist Nora Boustany, the chief Diplomatic writer for the Washington Post to ‘correct’ the report? Her response was quite clear and even directly quoted in the piece in ethiopianreview.com.
This is the verbatim quote from Ms. Boustany as published on that site:
“they were both sitting in the gallery and I reached them by cell phone while the session was going on. You can probably find out by contacting the office of Rep. Smith. You can check this out independently.”
What part of “both sitting in the gallery, reched by cell phone contact(ing) the office of Rep. Smith” is even discussable?
The only correct use of the word “correct” is the usage by Ms. Boustany politely requesting of the Ethiopian Review to correct its false assertion regarding Engineer Shawel’s and my attendance at the Congressional vote!
Not to end there with his double flip backwards – untruths, i.e. stating untruths, repeating the untruths, citing the Post for not having the facts, being corrected by the Post after publication. He dares to persist to demand that the Post correspondent
“correct” her truthful statement to further the goals of Ethiopian Review whatever they are.
He goes on to say, “This is the work of Ato Mesfin Mekonnen, an EPRP operative in Washington DC who is recruited by Taye to join the now defunct KIC (keysi).” Anyone who knows of my involvement over the years in the Ethiopian-American community knows that I am not now or ever have been a member of EPRP. KIC is far from
“defunct”; it is alive and well under the direction of Dr. Taye and placed at the service of Engineer Hailu Shawel.
He ends with a jaw dropping statement that can only be answered with: HUH??? That
“The misinformation can easily be discovered and disproved.”
Of course it can! I just did that!
Then he closes:
“misinform(ing) the American media the way he (Mesfin Mekonen) did acting as a representative of a major Ethiopian opposition party can have a negative impact on the whole Ethiopian community.”
I am almost at a loss for words as to how to describe the outrageous accusation here. It is as if Elias Kifle was really not in support of H.R. 2003, or democracy, human rights, and development in Ethiopia. Perhaps we should learn more about his position and motives. Just whom is he supporting — and — JUST WHO IS SUPPORTING HIM FINANCIALLY!
The estranged Kinijit chairman, Ato Hailu Shawel, has told the Washington Post reporter Nora Boustany that he was in Washington DC on Oct. 2 to and met with Congressman Chris Smith one day before the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2003.
Read the following email exchanges with Ms. Nora Boustany of the Washington Post:
How could a sick man sitting on a hospital bed in Minneapolis at the same time be in Congress up in the gallery watching the vote? Why don’t you call Mr Shawel himself and hear it from his own mouth? Why are you sticking to a false story?
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from Nora Boustany [email protected]
to Elias Kifle
date Oct 10, 2007 1:05 PM
subject Re: article on HR 2003
Dear Mr. Kifle, if Mr. Shawel was able to meet with Congressman Smith, was he too ill to go to the gallery? Why is this such an issue? What has become very clear now is that there is a big problem between Mr. Mekonnen and a another group of Ethiopian Americans and that you do not work together, for reasons I am sure are very legitimate. It would have been great if all of you had been eager to inform me of your progress as the vote was shaping up, rather than of your differences after the vote. If there will be such a fuss everytime we write about Ethiopia, we can easily focus on other problems in the world. Please move on and let me focus on my work. Thank you for your interest. Nora
Mr. Kifle, just to put your mind at rest, I will share the following with you. I called Mr. Hailyu Shawel’s wife in their hotel in Rochester, Minnesota and finally reached them after many attempts since your campaign began last week. She told me they were both in Washington last week for a couple of days and that her husband had made visits to the hill in a wheelchair. Mr. Shawel himself confirmed that he had met with Representative Chris Smith, as did Patrick Creamer on Smith’s staff, early last week. Mr. Shawel said though he wanted to attend the vote, he left a couple of hours before to make a doctor’s appointment that afternoon. Of Mefsin Mekonnen, he said: “He is our man,” confirming that his group was not defunct. Thank you for your interest. best regards.
Ms. Shawel is lying to you — I am sorry to say — to cover up for Mesfin Mekonnen who is in hot waters now because of this incident and another misinformation he may have provided to The Hill newspaper a few weeks ago. Mr Shawel met with Congressman Smith on Sept. 20 (see this report). The next day (on Friday) he went to Minneapolis for medical treatment. He was scheduled to return to DC on Sept. 29 to attend a public meeting. The doctors would not allow him to do so. The meeting was rescheduled for Oct. 6. Again, the doctors refused to let him travel to DC for the Oct. 6 meeting. The meeting is rescheduled again for Sunday, Oct. 14. Any time Hailu Shawel is in town for personal visit — let alone for an official meeting with a congressman — every body knows about it. Meeting with a congressman would have been a big news, particularly in an occasion like that. So Nora, I am happy that you have tried to get in touch with Hailu Shawel, and at least you got some response from his wife. But I think Mr Shawel and friends — now even family members — are compounding the problem by lying to a major media like the WP to cover up for their friend. As American journalists say, in politics it is not the mistake or the crime itself that get you in trouble, it is the cover up (I am rephrasing it). In this case what angered a lot of people is not that Mr Shawel did not come (because every one knows that he is getting medical treatment), or that Mesfin Mekonnen misinformed you, but what he and his friend did to cover up their mistake — i.e, attacking me and other individuals in the media as liars. More importantly, misinforming the Western media by a member of our community could be too costly to us. We are afraid that we would lose the little media coverage our cause is getting if those who are assigned to speak on our behalf engage in blatant lies. I accept your suggestion and I am moving on. But if you really want to get to the bottom of this matter, there are two ways: 1) insist on speaking with Hailu Shawel himself on the record (ask him if he was in Washington DC on Tuesday, Oct. 3); and/or 2) speak with Congressman Smith’s office on the record (which I did — I asked his staff if Mr Smith met with Mr Shawel any time on Tuesday, Oct. 3. They said NO). I am 100 per cent certain that you will find out the truth.
Regards,
Elias
——————————————————————————————–
from Nora Boustany [email protected]
to Elias Kifle
date Oct 11, 2007 1:50 PM
subject Re: article on HR 2003
Mr. Kifle, I did speak to him in person by telephone after having reached his wife. I talked to them separately. He met with Smith on October 2 and left the next morning, a couple of hours before the vote on October 3. This is exactly what he said. So thank you again for your interest. Nora
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Ato Hailu Shawel, you have disgraced yourself once again, this time by telling an egregious lie to a major U.S. newspaper. Why?
GENEVA – The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Thursday condemned the recent deportation by Sudan of at least 15 Ethiopian refugees.
The deportation took place on September 27, but UNHCR only learned of it this week. The refugees were handed over by Sudanese officials to Ethiopian authorities at the border crossing of Metema, about 500 kms south-east of Khartoum.
This refoulement is a breach of Sudan’s obligations as a contracting party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol and the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention. One of the key principles of all these conventions is the prohibition against refoulement, or forcibly returning individuals to their country of origin where they could face persecution.
UNHCR urges the government to abide by this important principle of international law, which is also an integral part of Sudan’s National Interim Constitution. UNHCR also urges authorities to abstain from any further deportations.
Preliminary information suggests that the 15 deportees are part of a group of over 30 Ethiopian refugees who were arrested by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service on July 2 and 3 in Khartoum and in Damazine, the capital of Blue Nile Province. The Sudanese government has not yet responded to repeated appeals by UNHCR to receive information on these refugees and to prevent their refoulement. UNHCR believes that up to 20 refugees in the remaining group are still in jail and fears that they could also face deportation.
After a separate and unrelated instance of refoulement to Ethiopia on August 7, the Sudanese government had assured UNHCR that it would not repeat such violations of international and national law. UNHCR was alarmed to discover that this commitment was not respected.
The refugee agency is asking Sudanese authorities to urgently provide details on the refoulement that took place on September 27, as well as information on the current whereabouts and well-being of the remaining Ethiopian refugees in detention.
GENEVA – The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Thursday condemned the recent deportation by Sudan of at least 15 Ethiopian refugees.
The deportation took place on September 27, but UNHCR only learned of it this week. The refugees were handed over by Sudanese officials to Ethiopian authorities at the border crossing of Metema, about 500 kms south-east of Khartoum.
This refoulement is a breach of Sudan’s obligations as a contracting party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol and the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention. One of the key principles of all these conventions is the prohibition against refoulement, or forcibly returning individuals to their country of origin where they could face persecution.
UNHCR urges the government to abide by this important principle of international law, which is also an integral part of Sudan’s National Interim Constitution. UNHCR also urges authorities to abstain from any further deportations.
Preliminary information suggests that the 15 deportees are part of a group of over 30 Ethiopian refugees who were arrested by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service on July 2 and 3 in Khartoum and in Damazine, the capital of Blue Nile Province. The Sudanese government has not yet responded to repeated appeals by UNHCR to receive information on these refugees and to prevent their refoulement. UNHCR believes that up to 20 refugees in the remaining group are still in jail and fears that they could also face deportation.
After a separate and unrelated instance of refoulement to Ethiopia on August 7, the Sudanese government had assured UNHCR that it would not repeat such violations of international and national law. UNHCR was alarmed to discover that this commitment was not respected.
The refugee agency is asking Sudanese authorities to urgently provide details on the refoulement that took place on September 27, as well as information on the current whereabouts and well-being of the remaining Ethiopian refugees in detention.
