The following is a resolution passed on Aug 18, 2007, by Ethiopians of the Wolqait-Tegede region currently residing in Ohio. 

የወልቃይት-ጠገዴ ተወላጅ ኢትዮጵያውያን ተቃውሞና የአቋም መግለጫ

በ 8/18/2007 በትግራይ ሕዝብ ነፃ አውጭ ግንባር ተውካዮች (ትውልዳቸው ወልቃይት የሆኑ) የትግራይ ክልል የፀጥታ/ደህንነት ሃላፊ አቶ ፀጋይ አስማማውና የወልቃይት ጠገዴ ምክትል አስተዳዳሪ አቶ ፈረደ የሺወንድም “ልማት ለወልቃይት” በሚል ስም በተጠራው ስብሰባ ላይ በርካታ የወልቃይት ጠገዴ ተወላጆች ተገኝተዋል።

የስብሰባው ተሳታፊ በወቅቱ የቀረበለትን ተአማኒነት የሌለው የወያኔ የፕሮፕጋንዳ ሪፖርት ካዳመጠ በኋላ እጅጉን ከሃቅ የራቀ ሆኖ በማግኘቱ በተጠቅሱት አክባቢዎች ያለው ተጨባጭ ችግሮች ፊት ለፊት አጋልጧል። በማስከተልም የሚከተሉትን የውሳኔ ሀሳቦችን አስተላልፏል።

1. የትግራይ ነፃ አውጭ ግንባር (ሕወሓት) ያለወልቃይት ጠገዴና ሁመራ ተወላጆች ፍላጎት መሬቱ ወደ ትግራይ ክልል ማስገባቱ አጥብቆ በመቃወምና ይህ ቋንቋን ብቻ መሰረት ያደረገው የማካለል ስርዓት ለኢትዮጵያችን ጎጂ መሆኑን በማስገንዘብ የጎንደር ታሪካው መሬቶች (ወልቃይት፣ ጠገዴ፣ ሁመራና ጠለምት) ወደ ቀድሞው አስተዳደራቸው እንዲመለሱ በአፅንዖት ጠይቋል፤

2. ሕወሓት በወልቃይት ጠገዴ ተወላጅ ኢትዮጵያውያን ላይ ከሃያ አመታት በላይ ለፈፀመችውና በመፈፀም ላይ ያለችውን አሰቃቂ ግዲያዎችና እስራት በመቃውም ባልበቃቃ ምክንያት የታሰሩትን ኢትዮጵያውያን ወገኖቻችን በአስቸኳይ እንዲፈቱ አሳስቧል፤

3. ኢትዮጵያውያን የወልቃይት ጠገዴ ተወላጆች ሆን ብሎ ከለም መሬታቸው በማስለቀቅ በምትኩ በብዙ ሺህ የሚቆጠሩ የትግራይ ተወላጆች ብቻ አምጥቶ መሬቱን እንዲይዙ ማድረግ ከቅንነት የመነጨ ስላልሆነ ድርጊቱን በፅኑ አውግዟል፤

4. በሰበብ አስባቡ ያለ አግባብ ከአቅሙ በላይ ቅጣትና ግብር በነዚሁ ተወላጅ ኢትዮጵያውያን ላይ መጫኑና ከባድ የኢኮኖሚ ትፅዕኖ እንዲደርስበት መደረጉን በመቃወም ይህ አስከፊ ተግባር እንዲቆም ጠይቋል።

5. በነዚህ አካባቢዎች ተውላጅ ኢትዮጵያዊያን ላይ ከረጅም አመታት በፊት ጀምሮ በተለያዩ ኢ-ሰብዓዊ መንገዶች እየተደረገ ያለውን የስነ ልቦና ሰለባ በአስችኳይ እንዲቆም አሳስቧል፤

6. በሃገረ ሱዳን የሚኖሩትን ኢትዮጵያውያን ወገኖቻችን ባለፈው (ጁላይ) ወር በእጅ አዙር በሱዳን መንግሥት እንዲታሰሩ መደረጉን አጋልጦ፤ ሕወሓት በስደት በሚገኙት ኢትዮጵያውያን ወገኖቻችን ላይ የምታደርገውን ጣልቃ ገብነት እንድታቆም ጠይቋል፤

7. በጎንደርና በትግራይ ሕዝብ መካከል የነበረውን የረጅም ዘመናት ትስስር ወያኔ ስልጣን ከያዘችበት ጊዜ ጀምሮ የወልቃይት ጠገዴ እንዲሁም የጠለምት መሬቶችን በመውሰድና በወልቃይት ጠገዴ ህዝብ ላይ ከፍተኛ በደል በመፈፀም በሁለቱ ህዝብ መካከል ስር የሰደደ ጥላቻ እንዲፈጠር መደረጉ እንዳሳስበው ገልጿል፤

8. በመጨረሻም በአያትና በቅድመ-አያቶች አጥንትና ደም ተከብሮ የኖረውን የኢትዮጵያ ዳር ድንበር እንዲከበርና ተቆርሶ ለሱዳን የተሰጡት መሬቶች እንዲመለሱ ለወደፊቱም እዲህ አይነቱ ተንኳሻና የኢትዮጵያን ሉዓላዊነት የሚስደፍሩ ተግባራት እንዳይሞከሩ አጥብቆ በማሳሰብ ስብሰባው ተገባዷል።

ድል ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ!
በኮለምበስ ኦሃዮ የወልቃይት ጠገዴ ተወላጅ ኢትዮጵያውያን
ኦገስት 18፣ 2007

[The story of our adventure through the eastern and northern sides of Africa overland in our Landrover in 2007.]

By Lorraine and Neville Karg

Monday, August 20, 2007
Gonder, Ethiopia

Sunday 19th August 2007 Belegese Pension, Gonder

Woke up very early with the sound of wailing priests and headed back to Gonder to prepare to leave for Sudan early tomorrow morning. We have to check Landy and stock up with groceries. In this town they charge firenje prices, which could be anything from double to 5X normal price. It makes me really angry that they think they can hook the foreigners. Trouble is they can and do. Not sure of the internet or cell phone availability in Sudan, so watch this space…

Saturday 18th August 2007 Dib Anbessa, Bar Hadar

After a chilly night we headed towards Gonder. Just as I was thinking that Ethiopians spend too much time in the churches or on the roads, and not enough time working, we visited an un-typical community which is setting a shining example to them all. It was founded by Zumra Nuru, the Awra Amba Association (Box 36, Wareta), in 1974 with 18 others. Their motto was, to help everyone, to learn and use their brains, and work hard. They are monotheistic, but their worshiping consists of helping each other in all ways. They use education to haul themselves out of poverty instead of religion and prayer. They have a neat school and library made only of local materials with the shelves, tables and benches made of cow dung and mud plastered over poles. The old-peoples home was a dormitory of cubby-holes. They had designed a stove out of cow dung and mud to prevent children falling on the fire in the middle of the floor. They make their living out of weaving, have 17,5Ha of land, and have just started a small dairy. It is so difficult to start with absolutely nothing and the cogs have just started to turn although they have been going 30years. They are a community of 100 families. We arrived at Bahir Dar next to Lake Tana which is the start of the Blue Nile, and booked into the above Hotel.

Friday 17th August 2007 Simien Park Hotel, Debark

I’m getting really tired of stinky toilets and showers that don’t drain. Anyway, we finished our tour around Axum. We went to the quarry where they used to mine the stellae before transportation. There is a lion carved into the rock from 4AD. We then saw more tombs and a huge stella which had fallen down, but no archeologists are excavating at the moment, there must be an enormous amount to discover.
We headed west towards Debark along a more level area of plateaux which were relatively more fertile and the valleys flatter, but they were still cultivating to the top of the hills. Nev decided there was more than enough ground to feed the nation, but the ground they do have needs to be more productively utilized by more efficient farming methods and better fertilization.
Then… the road to Debark was the scariest yet!! We rose 2000m with hairpin bends piled on top of each other. This was Sani X10. I found myself closing my eyes and lying on Nev’s lap. At one place the road had been scooped out of the cliff. We couldn’t believe that anyone could have dared to make roads on cliff faces like this. The Italians should have stayed in Ethiopia more than the 6 years they did, and this country would have been far more developed. They had planted gum trees wherever there was a bit of soil on the side of the road and these are now huge 70-year old trees. Other places were sheer drops of 500m Nev said if he had been told to build a road there he would have run away and become a monk!! It had rained just before we got there and there were waterfalls cascading onto the road, and there were several rockfalls and landsides. It was really beautiful but I ended up with a tension headache!! The simian mountains nearby were mostly covered in clouds, but some of the finger-like peaks towered above the clouds. Really chilly. We reached Debark at 2800m

H.R. 2003 – The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007

78% For, 22% Against

This is the WashingtonWatch.com federal legislative update for the week of August 20, 2007.

With Congress in the middle of its August recess, hot debate is occurring among the Ethiopian-American community regarding U.S. policy toward their home country.

In the last week, more than 2,000 comments have been posted on WashingtonWatch.com regarding H.R 2003, The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, and a related bill, H.R. 2228, The Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2007.

People on both sides of these bills feel strongly about their views. So strongly, in fact, that some users defeated the modest security around the WashingtonWatch.com voting system in order to vote multiple times. A small number voted thousands of times, likely using an automated process.

Though the polls on WashingtonWatch.com are unscientific, one-person one-vote is the general rule. WashingtonWatch.com technical staff went to work strengthening the security of voting, and the site issued a statement explaining the problem and what was done to rectify it.

The flaw in voting security was unfortunate, but the urgency of the debate among this community is an invigorating example of democracy in action.

The sole mobile phone network in Ethiopia has suffered its second serious outage within two weeks reports the local Ethiopian Reporter newspaper. The first outage was largely caused by a nationwide power failure, however last Friday’s failure was due to a network expansion project being undertaken by ZTE going wrong.

“Such failure could happen again during the pilot test trials,” Abdurahim Ahmed, ETC’s Corporate Communications Division Manager told The Reporter over the phone late on Friday.

Sources told the newspaper though that the failure was caused by the shut-down of existing base stations without refarming the radio frequencies. “It is simply illogical to switch off existing frequencies without a replacement and run a pilot test for the expansion project,” added the sources. “The simple reason for the failure was that some of the Ericsson stations were switched off temporarily.”

ZTE is currently adding 1.2 million GSM lines to the network capacity to cope with demand and also a surge in usage expected for the upcoming celebration of the Ethiopian millennium. A WCDMA overlay is also planed for some parts of the network.

Source: Cellular News

Bahrain – AN Ethiopian maid hanged herself at her Bahraini sponsor’s house in Barbar at around 1pm yesterday.

The victim, who was in her 20s, was found hanging from a shower curtain rail by her sponsor, Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmed Bucheeri said yesterday.

“The sponsor suspected that something was wrong with the housemaid so he broke into the bathroom to find her hanging from the rail,” said Mr Bucheeri.

“She had hung herself using her scarf.”

Mr Bucheeri went down to the scene and examined the body, along with a medical examiner, who found no signs of foul play.

The sponsor tried to save her by cutting down the scarf but it was too late, said Mr Bucheeri.

“Apparently the housemaid suffered from emotional problems and wanted to go back to her country, but her family insisted she stay in Bahrain,” he said.

The sponsor said they had tried to get her medical help before.

“We took her to see a psychiatrist several times to help her get through her problems, but it was no use,” he said.

Investigations are continuing.

Another Ethiopian maid had committed suicide last Tuesday (Aug. 14) in United Arab Emirates.

Source: Gulf Daily News