EDITOR’S NOTE: It is good to see Woyannes get their butt kicked in Somalia. Ethiopian Review would like to remind the world that the war in Somalia is between the Meles crime family and the Somali people since Ethiopia currently has no legitimate government.
NAIROBI (AFP) — Ethiopia Woyanne, whose forces toppled an Islamist regime in Mogadishu two years ago, on Tuesday blamed the failure to restore stability in Somalia on the transitional rulers it helped bring to power.
“Somalia’s problems are not security, but political,” said Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin at a meeting of governments in the region focused on Somalia.
Seyoum said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and his successive prime ministers had “not managed to create any institutions of governance to speak of” since they came to power in December 2006.
“The continuing feud within the leadership… had contributed to the paralysis of the TFG,” he added in reference to the transitional federal government.
The TFG, headed by the one-time warlord Yusuf, was formally established in 2004 but its remit never extended beyond the backwater of Baidoa until the Ethiopian Woyanne army invaded Somalia nearly two years ago.
The toppling of an Islamist group that had taken control of large parts of the country and started to impose a tough form of Sharia law brought Yusuf to power but did little to restore calm to a country that has been wracked by violence since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somalia’s transitional federal charter expires next year when a new constitution is to be drafted and elections held although there is widespread skepticism over whether polls can take place amid the rampant insecurity.
Despite pledges from some African governments, only Uganda has contributed significant numbers to a peacekeeping force which has failed to halt a campaign of guerrilla warfare being waged by an even more radical Islamist faction.
“In all honesty, the international community can hardly be proud of its record in Somalia,” Seyoum said.
“But this is no excuse for the kind of egregious lack of responsible behaviour that we continue to witness on the part of all those in positions of authority in Somalia.”
Yusuf was in open disagreement with Ali Mohamed Gedi, the TFG’s first prime minister who eventually had to resign exactly a year ago.
Gedi’s successor Nur Hassan Hussein has also had his differences with the president and survived a no-confidence vote last month.
On Sunday, a UN-sponsored peace process in Djibouti announced that a deal had been signed by the transitional government and the main Islamist-dominated political opposition group.
The agreement provides for a ceasefire and an Ethiopian Woyanne troop pullback to begin next month, with security responsibilities gradually handed over to Somali police until a UN peacekeeping force is deployed.
The main Islamist insurgent group, which now controls most of southern and central Somalia, rejected the announcement and vowed to continue its armed struggle.
The Shebab, the main insurgent group, accuse the conservative Christian Marxist tribal regime in Addis Ababa of being engaged in a crusade against Muslim Somalia and have refused to negotiate before a full withdrawal is completed. [Since when Woyannes become ‘conservative Christians?]
In recent weeks, Ethiopian Woyanne troops have been less visible on the streets of Mogadishu and Addis Ababa has been sending mixed signals on the future of its presence in the country.
Experts say Ethiopia Woyanne is mulling its exit strategy from the Somali quagmire and argue that a pullback has effectively already started.
“The Ethiopians Woyanne have definitely been planning some form of military pullback. We just don’t know exactly on what scale,” said one expert, who did not wish to be named to ensure his security when he travels to Somalia.
The expert believes the pullback announced on Sunday could entail a redeployment to a handful of locations in Somalia, with a handover of security duties in Mogadishu to the African peacekeeping force and Somali police.
“Of course no one could assume that, speaking now on behalf of my country, Ethiopia Woyanne will continue to keep its troops in Somalia,” Seyoum said in Nairobi.
Yet Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi, who is not attending the Nairobi summit, said earlier this month that he would not hesitate to send his army back in if the Islamists took power.
Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States if all goes well in the next few days. Many Ethiopian-Americans are exuberant about the changes he will bring to America. They also hope his election will end the Bush Administration’s support for tyranny in Ethiopia.
But will an Obama administration be different when it comes to democracy in Ethiopia? Will the new team reevaluate the Bush administration’s coddling of human rights abusers in the name of fighting terrorism?
As things stand now, an Obama administration may not be all that different unless supporters of democracy make their case early and forcefully.
Why? Here are two reasons: 1) Ethiopia’s regime has found protectors in the American diplomatic, intelligence and military bureaucracy using tremendous financial resources at its disposal; and 2) at least two key Obama foreign policy advisors have historically been sympathetic to Ethiopia’s ruling group.
Obama’s top foreign policy advisor, Dr. Susan Rice, has a history of sympathy for the Zenawi regime. Rice was a member of the National Security Council and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair under President Clinton.
Another troublesome Africa advisor to the Obama team is Gail Smith. Smith is also another NSC staffer during the Clinton years. She has a long and mysterious history of involvement with Ethiopia’s ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).
When Ethiopia’s current leaders were guerilla fighters, Gail Smith entered the then-province of Tigre through the Sudan, joined the fighters and spent considerable time promoting their cause. While she was a leading cheerleader of the TPLF, her husband, Don Connell, held the Eritrean franchise, espousing the Eritrean cause.
The personal interests of former diplomats and intelligence officials who have thrown their lot with the ruling party have complicated the Bush administration’s policy in Ethiopia.
Using tremendous financial resources at its disposal, Ethiopia ruling elite has carefully cultivated personal alliances with US diplomats stationed in Addis, State and Defense Department officials as well as people in the intelligence community.
In addition to clandestine contacts, Ethiopia’s ruling group has paid official Washington lobbyists enormous amounts of money to promote its image. By and large, this has been a successful strategy as the regime has literally gotten away with murder and with crimes against humanity.
There is a disturbing pattern of American officials keeping quiet whenever Ethiopia’s rulers violated human rights. These same diplomats later enter into mutually beneficial financial and other relationships with the ruling party.
Take, for example, the case of former US Ambassador Irvin Hicks. As soon as his ambassadorship ended, Mr. Hicks took employment with Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi – a businessman closely allied with the ruling party. Mr. Hicks was known for his inability to speak up against human rights abuses in the early years of the Zenawi administration.
Another example is Tibor Nagy, a former US Ambassador to Ethiopia. Mr. Nagy has been among the ardent defenders of Ethiopia’s leaders. Nagy wrote a 2007 New York Times op-ed piece (co-authored with another pro-regime former US Ambassador Vicki Huddleston) calling for the defeat of a human rights bill — H.R. 2003: Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007.
Nagy leveraged his ambassadorship to Ethiopia to become Associate Provost at Texas Tech University. Upon returning to Texas, Nagy quickly established a sister university relationship between the ruling party’s Mekelle University and Texas Tech.
Ambassador Nagy was also instrumental in making exclusive arrangements for the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to exhibit the “Lucy” fossils. Lucy is the famous and very fragile 3.2 million-year-old skeleton that had never left Ethiopia before. Many experts, including those at the Smithsonian, considered the move reckless. But thanks to Nagy’s influence Lucy was whisked away from Ethiopia secretly in the darkness of night.
Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is yet another high-level official with close ties to the Zenawi regime. Frazer first became enamored with the Zenawi group when she worked as a staffer at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2004.
Those were the years during which the Zenawi regime fabricated “evidence” of terrorists hiding behind every East African bush. It was also during these years that the foundations were laid for the secret Bush-Zenawi alliance that is now known as the African Guantanamo.
A lobbying group called the National Summit for Africa sponsored a 2004 exclusive event at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington. Jendayi Frazer was the main attraction and the keynote speaker.
Frazer has spent a disproportionate amount of time defending the Zenawi government since becoming Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 2004.
Because the Bush Administration considered Zenawi a major regional operative in the so-called war on terror, Frazer justified various criminal activities by Ethiopia’s ruling group. Frazer had, for example, refused to speak up against the stealing of the 2005 elections and the subsequent massacre of civilians by Mr. Zenawi’s troops. She has also been among the architects and cheerleaders of the 2007 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.
Once the sun sets on the Bush Administration and following in the footsteps of previous American diplomats, one should not be surprised if Frazer parlays her relationship with Ethiopia’s rulers into a personally beneficial arrangement
Africa has been a low priority for various US administrations. African countries are held in low esteem by the American foreign policy establishment. Consequently, bureaucrats assigned to Africa are not necessarily America’s best and the brightest. An Africa assignment usually comes right before retirement, making the functionaries susceptible to compromising their integrity in exchange for a comfortable retirement.
To their credit, Ethiopia’s leaders have understood this dynamic and taken full advantage of it. Influence buying has clearly paid off for the Ethiopian regime.
Compared to Ethiopia’s Zenawi, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe looks like a boy scout. Yet, American officials bent over backwards to play down Zenawi’s human rights abuses.
The United States used its power and influence to play a constructive role in several elections throughout the world. In Kenya, Pakistan Ukraine and Zimbabwe, the US put pressure on the incumbents to play fair, to make compromises and to respect the will of the people.
Ethiopia has been the exception. The government of Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia stole the 2005 elections and brazenly massacred civilians when people took to the streets to protest. Security forces “fatally shot, beat or strangled” 193 people in June and November of 2005. Forty of the dead were teenagers, including a girl and a boy aged
The Bush administration refused to condemn the killings or put pressure on Zenawi to desist from further violence. The administration was willing to overlook Zenawi’s crimes because, among other things, Ethiopian leaders were collaborating on secret projects that included the kidnapping of East Africans suspected of terrorism. The self-serving information about terrorists was frequently supplied by the Ethiopian regime.
Ethiopian leaders were emboldened by the support from the United States. Some 40,000 people were thrown into hastily constructed concentration camps. Many opposition supporters and leaders were killed or jailed.
US support for democracy in Ethiopia rarely went beyond lip service. Behind the scenes, it was even worse. The Bush administration used both overt and covert means to support Zenawi’s illegal rule and his dismantling of the opposition. Ethiopia’s opposition was practically decimated overnight. The press was muffled; human rights advocates were threatened and thrown in jail. Whatever flicker of democracy that existed leading up to the 2005 elections were quickly extinguished.
The Ethiopian government has entrenched itself in the American civil, military and intelligence bureaucracy. Even a change in administration will not easily dislodge long-established relationships disguised as US policy interests.
We are not suggesting that Obama’s advisors — Dr. Susan Rice or Gail Smith — have already been corrupted by Ethiopia’s lobbyists. But they have not admitted their past mistakes — the havoc and pain US support for an unpopular group has caused for 77 million Ethiopians.
There are suggestions even now that influential Obama advisors such as Dr. Rice are inclined to give “more time” to the thugs running this much-suffering nation. A continued support for Zenawi is frequently justified in terms of US interests.
Any more support for Ethiopia’s tormentors under any pretext is unconscionable and bodes ill for pro-democracy forces.
So-called foreign aid has been among the chief instruments in the oppression of Ethiopian people. Ethiopia’s regime presents a meek and honest face to foreign alms givers. (To Ethiopians, the Zenawi folks display an arrogant, disdainful and brutal face.) In return, the foreign enablers have generously rewarded the regime to the tune of $2 billion every year for the last 17 years.
Obligations of the Diaspora
Those of us in the Diaspora have an obligation and a new opportunity to come together and educate the international community about the duplicitous nature of Ethiopia’s leaders. We must:
• create an umbrella organization to expose the anti-democratic nature of the ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front;
• document the economic crimes;
• document regime atrocities and human rights abuses; and
• expose the regime by gathering facts and telling the truth to its enablers.
Now is the time to present our case to an Obama administration and to request that the Bush administration’s disastrous policies be immediately reviewed. Now is the time to ask that the United States disassociate itself from the oppressors of 77 million people.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Afro, an English language radio station in Ethiopia, is to start test transmissions on FM from the end of November with music and programs for 18 hours a day. The new station will beam on FM 105.3 and is established by Addis Alemayehu and his wife, Martha Wondimu, with capital of 3 million birr (US$306,000). Addis Alemayehu told Capital that, so far, his company has invested close to 1.8 million birr (US$184,000) and is finalizing assessments on the interest of its target audience.
Currently, there are five FM stations, all in Amharic. Desta Tesfaw, deputy-director general of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Agency told Capital that, the international community should have a station for information, news and entertainment while living and working in Addis. “Based on a recent study, we have seen the importance of station for this target audience.” said Desta.
In 1999, a proclamation to provide for the systematic management of broadcast services came into force. The Ethiopian Broadcasting Agency is established as an autonomous Federal Administrative Agency.
Federal prosecutors in Tennessee have charged two self-described white supremacists with making threats against Sen. Barack Obama, alleging the men talked about wearing white top hats and tuxedos when they would try to kill the Democratic presidential nominee.
Daniel Cowart, 20, of Tennessee and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Arkansas, also were charged with possessing a sawed-off shotgun and conspiring to rob a gun dealer.The two met online about a month ago, authorities said, discussing the views of the “white power” movement.
This undated photo obtained from a MySpace
webpage shows Daniel Cowart, 20 of Bells, Tennessee
holding a weapon The two planned a massacre that
would have killed scores of African-Americans and
ended with an assassination attempt, according to an
affidavit filed in the case. No specific time or place
was outlined in the document for the attack.
According to the affidavit filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the two talked of attacking a predominantly African-American school and killing more than 100 students, including 14 who would have been beheaded.
Officials said they were taking the case seriously. No attorneys for the two could immediately be reached for comment.
Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who is traveling with the nominee, said the campaign had no comment on the alleged plot.
The men planned to shoot at Obama from a car while wearing the tuxedos, the court document said, and “they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt.” They were arrested last week in Tennessee after shooting out the window of a church and they remain in custody.
Both men are scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing, said Lawrence Laurenzi, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.
NEW YORK Here are the top 25 daily papers ranked for the six-month period ending September 2008 based on a Monday-through-Friday average, according to the new FAS-FAX from the Audit Bureau of Circulations released today. The percent change compares this period to the same period a year ago.
USA TODAY — 2,293,310 — 0.01%
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL — 2,011,999 — 0.01%
NEW YORK TIMES — 1,000,665 — (-3.58%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES — 739,147 — (-5.20%)
DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK — 632,595 — (-7.16%)
NEW YORK POST — 625,421 — (-6.25%)
THE WASHINGTON POST — 622,714 — (-1.94%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE — 516,032 — (-7.75%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE — 448,271 — (-11.66%)
NEWSDAY — 377,517 — (-2.58%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — 361,333 — (-5.51%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — 339,430 — (-7.07%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS — 338,933 — (-9.28%)
BOSTON GLOBE — 323,983 — (-10.18%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS — 322,360 — (-4.26%)
STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK, N.J. — 316,280 — (-10.40%)
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES — 313,176 — (-3.94%)
PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND — 305,529 — (-8.58%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER — 300,674 — (-11.06%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS — 298,243 — (-6.84%)
THE OREGONIAN — 283,321 — (-8.45%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION — 274,999 — (-13.62%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE — 269,819 — (-3.00%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES — 268,935 — (-6.88%)
THE SACRAMENTO BEE — 253,249 — (-4.22%)
PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Friday through Sunday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain, 50% to 45%, in the presidential preferences of likely voters using Gallup’s traditional model. He enjoys a more ample 10-point lead, 53% to 43%, using Gallup’s expanded model.
Today’s traditional likely voters result, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 24-26, is identical to that reported on Sunday. Obama’s five-point advantage falls at the midpoint of the lead he has held with this voter model over the past nine days, ranging from three to seven points.
Obama’s 10-point lead among expanded likely voters matches his largest leads on this basis. It also ties his standing among all registered voters, who now favor Obama over McCain, 52% to 42%. (To view the complete registered voter trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)
There are now eight days left before the election. History offers few examples of a trailing candidate mounting a successful comeback in the last week of the campaign. Gallup Poll presidential election trends since 1952 point to 1980 as the only case in which a candidate (Ronald Reagan) was behind in the Gallup Poll a week before the election, but went on to win the presidency. In 2000, Al Gore overcame a pre-election poll deficit in the final week to win the popular vote — but not the Electoral College.
Campaign and political events occurred in both the 1980 and 2000 races which, arguably, could explain the late breaking shifts. Without such a “you know it when you see it” issue or event emerging in the next few days, a McCain victory would be without precedent. — Lydia Saad
(Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.)
Federal prosecutors in Tennessee have charged two self-described white supremacists with making threats against Sen. Barack Obama, alleging the men talked about wearing white top hats and tuxedos when they would try to kill the Democratic presidential nominee.
