Why did the EPPF International Committee fall apart?
To answer this and other related questions, Ethiopian Review interviewed Nigat Radio host Demis Belete Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007.
Ato Demis had witnessed every thing from the beginning — how the EPPF Int’l Committee was formed, its relations with the EPPF leadership in the field, what went wrong, who is responsible for what, etc.
What necessitated the interview is that some individuals and groups knowingly or naively are bent on destroying any effort by patriotic Ethiopians to help the people of Ethiopia defend themselves against the Woyanne fascist regime by creating alliances with friendly forces such as the Government of Eritrea.
Ethiopia is currently alone without friends. Even the U.S. Administration — the beacon of democracy and freedom — is fighting tooth and nail to stop a legislation in the U.S. Congress that would make Woyanne accountable for its crimes against the people of Ethiopia.
In a strange twist of fate, the Government of Eritrea is the only force that is currently willing and capable of supporting the Ethiopian people’s struggle against the Woyanne regime. Let’s remember from history that the successive U.S. administrations were working against the South African people’s struggle against Apartheid, while Libya was one of the main financiers of Mandela’s African National Congress. The U.S. foreign policy makers are blinded by temporary political gains to the detriment of America’s own security and economic interests.
Eritreans, on the other hand, understand that Woyanne is a source of instability and suffering in the whole Horn of Africa region. It is to the interest of Eritreans that a peaceful party such as Kinijit comes to power. They have correctly reached the conclusion that they can solve disagreements with a genuinely elected Ethiopian government on a mutually beneficial basis. They have also witnessed that the people of Ethiopia look at Eritreans as brothers and sisters, and when Woyanne displaced hundreds of thousands of Eritreans in 1999 and 2000 in an act of ethnic cleansing, it was the people of Ethiopia who sheltered and saved many Eritreans.
Concerned by this realization on the part of Eritrean authorities and some Ethiopian opposition forces, Woyanne, with the support of its opportunist supporters, as well as naive politicians, has launched a massive propaganda effort to derail alliances between Ethiopian pro-democracy and unity forces and the Government of Eritrea.
To clearly understand this issues, it is important to look at what had transpired inside the EPPF. There is no better witness to the whole thing than Ato Demis Belete, a professional journalist and the host of Nigat Radio.
PRESS RELEASE
Action for Unity and Democracy
ተግባር ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ
Action for Unity and Democracy (AUD), a new political movement that was created after the merger of Ethiopian Democratic Action League (Tegbar) and Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) Youth League, is preparing to engage the people of Ethiopia on a discussion about knowing the real enemey and what it takes to defeat it… Continue Reading Here >>
This historical video shows Journalist Demis Belete visiting with EPPF fighters in the field last year. Since then EPPF went through a difficult leadership crisis. Now it is regrouping with a new leadership and ready to bloody Woyanne nose.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops must leave Somalia for the country’s ailing transitional institutions to garner any legitimacy and a political solution to emerge, leaders from Somalia’s top clan said Thursday.
The presence in Somalia of the US-backed Ethiopian Woyanne regime’s troops will continue fueling violence that has already killed thousands and displaced close to a million in recent months, Hawiye elders said.
On Thursday alone, 13 civilians were killed in Mogadishu, including 11 when two mortar shells smashed into a market area.
“The problem of Somalia can only be solved by Somalis, we have to meet with the TFG (transitional federal government), the group of Asmara (opposition) and find a solution the Somali way,” said Abdulaye Hassan, a Hawiye spokesman.
“That is possible only if the Ethiopians Woyannes leave,” he added.
The Hawiye clan is the largest in Somalia and is dominant in the capital Mogadishu, although some divisions exist amongst its numerous sub-clans.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops, with the United States’ blessing, came to the rescue of the transitional government’s embattled forces in late 2006 after an Islamist militia took control of large parts of the country.
The Islamists, accused by Washington of ties to Al-Qaeda, were swiftly defeated but have since reverted to guerrilla tactics, carrying out daily attacks in Mogadishu.
Hassan condemned what he said were systematic arrests of Hawiye clan members who speak out against the TFG.
“We are sleeping in a different house every night because the TFG is after us,” he said.
Sirraj Sheikh Hassan, another Hawiye representative, insisted his clan — frequently accused of supporting radical Islamic insurgents — was not seeking confrontation.
“We are not armed people but elders who are not happy with the Ethiopian presence. We are fighting them verbally,” he told AFP in Mogadishu.
“The main conflict is now between the group of Asmara and the TFG. It can only be solved if the Ethiopians leave. There is no other solution than negotiation,” he added.
The government and allied foreign mediators have so far not engaged in serious consultations with an opposition movement formed in Asmara in September.
The group, which calls itself the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, is led by key political figures from the country’s short-lived Islamist rule and is hosted by Eritrea, which faces growing international isolation.
The Hawiye say they feel alienated from the country’s centre of power. Although the new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, is one of theirs, the nation’s strongman remains more than ever President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
Yusuf is from the Darod clan, the country’s second-largest, and cracks have formed along clanic lines in the fragile government.
“The Ethiopians Woyannes have been invited by the legitimate government of Somalia, that is the TFG, to restore peace, law and order in Somalia. So no other authority can ask them to leave,” said Interior Minister Mohamed Mahmud Guled.
“The so-called Hawiye representatives don’t represent the Hawiye people and they are not in a position to stop the fighting because the Shebab (the Islamist movement’s armed wing) are not under their authority,” he added.
Addis Ababa has said it wants to pull out as soon as possible but argues that this cannot be done before a robust international peacekeeping force is deployed.
In the meantime, violence continues to make Mogadishu one of the most dangerous capitals in the world and aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.
“The insurgents are standing against the new colonisation of Somalia by Ethiopians. Once the Ethiopians pull out, there will be no more fighting,” said Nur Jamah Karshe, another Hawiye elder.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops must leave Somalia for the country’s ailing transitional institutions to garner any legitimacy and a political solution to emerge, leaders from Somalia’s top clan said Thursday.
The presence in Somalia of the US-backed Ethiopian Woyanne regime’s troops will continue fueling violence that has already killed thousands and displaced close to a million in recent months, Hawiye elders said.
On Thursday alone, 13 civilians were killed in Mogadishu, including 11 when two mortar shells smashed into a market area.
“The problem of Somalia can only be solved by Somalis, we have to meet with the TFG (transitional federal government), the group of Asmara (opposition) and find a solution the Somali way,” said Abdulaye Hassan, a Hawiye spokesman.
“That is possible only if the Ethiopians Woyannes leave,” he added.
The Hawiye clan is the largest in Somalia and is dominant in the capital Mogadishu, although some divisions exist amongst its numerous sub-clans.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops, with the United States’ blessing, came to the rescue of the transitional government’s embattled forces in late 2006 after an Islamist militia took control of large parts of the country.
The Islamists, accused by Washington of ties to Al-Qaeda, were swiftly defeated but have since reverted to guerrilla tactics, carrying out daily attacks in Mogadishu.
Hassan condemned what he said were systematic arrests of Hawiye clan members who speak out against the TFG.
“We are sleeping in a different house every night because the TFG is after us,” he said.
Sirraj Sheikh Hassan, another Hawiye representative, insisted his clan — frequently accused of supporting radical Islamic insurgents — was not seeking confrontation.
“We are not armed people but elders who are not happy with the Ethiopian presence. We are fighting them verbally,” he told AFP in Mogadishu.
“The main conflict is now between the group of Asmara and the TFG. It can only be solved if the Ethiopians leave. There is no other solution than negotiation,” he added.
The government and allied foreign mediators have so far not engaged in serious consultations with an opposition movement formed in Asmara in September.
The group, which calls itself the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, is led by key political figures from the country’s short-lived Islamist rule and is hosted by Eritrea, which faces growing international isolation.
The Hawiye say they feel alienated from the country’s centre of power. Although the new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, is one of theirs, the nation’s strongman remains more than ever President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
Yusuf is from the Darod clan, the country’s second-largest, and cracks have formed along clanic lines in the fragile government.
“The Ethiopians Woyannes have been invited by the legitimate government of Somalia, that is the TFG, to restore peace, law and order in Somalia. So no other authority can ask them to leave,” said Interior Minister Mohamed Mahmud Guled.
“The so-called Hawiye representatives don’t represent the Hawiye people and they are not in a position to stop the fighting because the Shebab (the Islamist movement’s armed wing) are not under their authority,” he added.
Addis Ababa has said it wants to pull out as soon as possible but argues that this cannot be done before a robust international peacekeeping force is deployed.
In the meantime, violence continues to make Mogadishu one of the most dangerous capitals in the world and aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.
“The insurgents are standing against the new colonisation of Somalia by Ethiopians. Once the Ethiopians pull out, there will be no more fighting,” said Nur Jamah Karshe, another Hawiye elder.
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Two Somali women were killed by crossfire in Mogadishu Friday, bringing the civilian death toll to 19 after two days of gun battles in the ravaged capital, a witness said.
Shelling in northern neighbourhoods continued early in the morning, only hours after the bodies of 17 civilians were hastily buried in improvised cemeteries on the edge of the war-battered city.
“Two women were selling mint and tried to cross a road” in the northern Arafat neighbourhood, said witness Muhubo Hersi. “They were caught in the crossfire and both died on the spot,” she said.
“There was a lot of shelling in our neighbourhood and three artillery shells landed on a house very close to mine,” Hersi went on. “Nobody was killed because nobody lived in this house, the people have fled.”
The Ethiopian information ministry said its troops, alongside Somali forces, have killed 75 insurgents, captured four others in the outskirts of Mogadishu on Thursday.
In a statement, whose claims could not be confirmed, it added that “a number of rebels managed to escape. Ethiopian casualties were minimal”.
The joint force captured five vehicles, including two trucks mounted with machine guns, and a third truck was destroyed.
Ethiopia also blamed the rebels for mortar attacks that killed 12 people in the capital’s Bakara market on Thursday, making it the bloodiest day in December.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the intense fighting that has plagued Mogadishu in recent months.
Although no accurate figures are available, thousands of people are believed to have died and more than 600,0000 have fled the city since February to find shelter with family elsewhere in Somalia or in camps for the displaced.
Six of the city’s 16 districts have been almost completely emptied but some civilians remained trapped in central Mogadishu, their movements impeded by hundreds of rogue checkpoints and with scarce access to food and sanitation.
With no political solution in sight, Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamist insurgents continue to battle it out in the streets of the seaside capital.
Aid groups have warned that one of the world’s worst food crises is unfolding in Mogadishu and its surroundings and complained of utter disregard for basic humanitarian principles on the part of all the belligerents.
Violence in the lawless country has defied numerous initiatives aimed at restoring peace and stability in the Horn of Africa nation since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Uganda has deployed 1,600 African Union peacekeepers to Somalia, but the contingent remains far short of the 8,000 troops pledged by the continental body and has failed to stem the bloodshed.
The AU’s new special representative to Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira, nevertheless announced Friday that the first battalion of Burundian soldiers would arrive by year’s end and more troops from Nigeria early next year.
Bwakira, who met new Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, told reporters at Mogadishu airport that he had urged the government to negotiate with the opposition.
