As the price of gold rises to a record high, the speed and intensity with which Al Amoudi and the Woyanne regime are plundering Ethiopia’s gold deposits has increased in recent days. Sources close to the Ministry of Mining have informed ER’s Research Unit that over 80 per cent of the gold from Al Amoudi’s mining operations is exported out of Ethiopia without the knowledge of the Ethiopian Ministry of Mining. Al Amoudi’s private planes fly to Legedenbi, Shakiso and other mining areas he owns, loaded up with gold and fly straight to London and Jeddah with security provided by Woyanne’s special forces. It is difficult to know how much commission Meles and his crime family get from Al Amoudi’s operation, but it is estimated to be in the tens of millions. It is a government-sponsored contraband operation in a massive scale, according to one mining expert who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
Al Amoudi confers with Woyanne
security chief Mulugeta Alemseged
Al Amoudi bought the Legedenbi gold mining site in southern Ethiopia with a mere $172 million from Woyanne in 1997. By Al Amoudi’s own estimate, by 2020 the mining operation will net him over $1.6 billion. This is a fraction (less than 20 per cent) of the real profit Al Amoudi is expected to make. As stated above, over 80 per cent of the gold that is mined is unaccounted for by Woyanne’s own Ministry of Mining. Meanwhile, most of the native people in the region continue to live in abject poverty without adequate food, water, health care, or education.
What is more audaciously crooked in all this is the fact that Al Amoudi bought the gold mine with the money he borrowed from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) at a low interest rate. We are being told that Al Amoudi invests tens of millions of dollars of his own money in Ethiopia. This is far from the truth. Most or all of his companies and building in Ethiopia were bought or constructed with money borrowed from the NBE.
With the private press muzzled, and the opposition parties under constant attack by the Woyanne government, there is no one to expose all this fraud that is being perpetrated against the people of Ethiopia. This web site’s publisher himself has been charged by the Woyanne regime of treason, convicted by the kangaroo court and sentenced to life in prison for daring to criticize the regime and expose its crimes.
Reviewed by Fikre Tolossa
Zufan and the Flowers, by Haymanot Berhanu
Zufan And The Flowers, Haymanot Berhanu’s latest children’s story book has received a warm welcome so far among American readers. A number of libraries have responded to it positively. This unique book, which is the first of its kind in the world, is in four languages: Amharic, English, French and Spanish. When you open the book, what strikes you most besides the picture of Zufan, the heroine of the story, is the fact that you see four languages in four columns, two in the left and two in the right. Amharic comes into view first, proving that the author has given priority to the national language of Ethiopia, her country of origin. It raises the sense of pride of an Ethiopian to see the Geez letters side by side with the Latin ones appealing to international readers.
The beautiful, colorful pictures which illustrate the stories, in and of themselves, evoke nostalgia of Ethiopia. I, as an Ethiopian, am proud of Haymanot not only for having the potentials of entering the minds and houses of thousands of both Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian children alike world-wide, but also for displaying our alphabets and reflecting a piece of our life in different international languages.
Zufan is a true story of Haymanot’s younger sister who lived in Addis Abeba many years ago. In order to please her mother, little Zufan does something which her father has forbidden her to do and suffers the consequence. In the end she learns a lesson and the truth that her parents love her a lot despite her wrong-doings. The story is short; but precise with suspense and culmination, which teaches a moral lesson to children. It is original in substance. This handsome book with hard covers is 36 pages in length and costs US $. 17.95.
Haymanot Berhanu is not a first time author. She has demonstrated her talent to write with her first book entitled, A Man With Integrity, the life history of her late father. I read that book when it first saw the light of the day a few years ago and my heart was moved while I was getting to know the character of her memorable father. It was depicted with affection. It too, was rare because we didn’t often come across the life history of Ethiopian parents written by their own children.
Haymanot Berhanu has proven once again with her latest book, Zufan And The Flower, that she is capable of composing even children’s story which is not easy to write. I enjoyed reading it though I am not a child, because it spurred the child in me. I commend all to do the same and pass it on to children. They will not only enjoy reading it, but also learn a profound moral lesson.
To learn more about the author, view and order the book, go to: Zufan-stories.com
By Theodore Fikre
Ethiopians for Obama invites you to join joining the Barack-O-Van to Columbus Ohio this coming Friday, February 29th through Sunday, March 2nd. We will have a chance to contribute on the ground this weekend. As Obama says, we are the change we have been waiting for. This weekend, we will wait no more; we will work with our minds, with our feet, and with our voice to deliver a victory in Ohio.
The itinerary for our trip is as follows:
First meeting point:
Date: February 29th 2008
Time: 12:00 PM EST
Location: Howard University, Thirkield Hall
2355 6th. Street NW
Washington, DC 20059
Second Meeting Point:
Time: 2:00 PM EST
Location: Sheetz Gas Station
1300 E Patrick St.
Frederick, MD
Third Meeting Point:
Time: 4:30 PM EST
Location: McDonalds
19 Commerce Dr,
Morgantown, WV
Destination: German Village Inn
920 S. High St.
Columbus OH 43206
Phone: 614-443-6506
The German Village Inn will be ground zero and the final stop for our Barack-O-Van. There are as of now 13 rooms reserved under Omegas at the German Village Inn. Since rooms in Columbus are in short supply, we encourage people to share as much as possible. Please call the German Village Inn (614-443-6506) and reserve a room under your name using the group Omegas as a reference. The rooms are going for $89.00 per night. Please call in advance to reserve the rooms, and again, make sure you make the reservation under “Omegas” so that you can get the discount group rate as well as ensuring hotel accommodation.
Some of you have stated that you have friends and family that have expressed interest in being part of this journey. Please reach out to those friends and family and encourage them to email [email protected] so that we can get as concrete of an idea of how many people will be attending.
Also, I encourage everyone that does not have a ride as of yet to email me and let me know. We are all embarking on this endeavor because we share an enthusiasm to change our nation for the better. As such, we are all friends who share a common bond; so this journey is not only a journey to volunteer, it is one where you will meet new friends along the way.
I will be following up in the coming days with updates and with additions to our Barack-O-Van listserv. If you have any questions or concerns along the way, do not hesistate to contact me. Please respond to me directly so that we can limit an influx of emails. ([email protected])
By Abdullahi Dahir Moge
One can hardly flatter me for avant-gardism when I reiterate what is basically repeatedly stated by so many others: that TPLF is the main evil that is devouring the soul of Somali nation, currently. I would, therefore, not go into the nitty-grittys of this assertion lest the appetite might sicken and so die as in Shakespeare’s the twelfth night. I will use the name Tigray People’s Liberation front (TPLF) in lieu of Ethiopia for ethical reasons. The majority of Ethiopian people are equally victimized by the current regime; and it would be a great injustice if they were to be collectively blamed for the wrong-doings of Meles and his retinue of Tigrayans in power.
In this piece, I will try to give an overview of few facts that are at times flicked through with flippancy. Or more accurately, perhaps not given due attention as discussions converge on the historical rivalry between Ethiopia and Somalia.
First, let me ask these questions? When has TPLF’s meddling of Somalia’s politics started? How have its objectives towards Somalia shifted from 1991 onwards? What factors precipitated the latest full scale invasion and occupation? Has it all been part of the ‘mercenary’ assignment of Meles’s regime as part of the so-called ‘war on terror’? Or had there been domestic Ethiopian political agendas that catapulted such an adventure? I will provide the answers very briefly; albeit partially.
It was right after the conclusion of the Carta conference in Djibouti in 1993 that the first signs of a blatant TPLF scheming in Somalia surfaced. In a move that was clearly intended to intimidate the budding government — which by and large reflected the wishes of the Somali people — the resort town of Sodere near Nazereth hosted a follow-up mini-conference of the most dreaded Somali warlords. TPLF’s reason for undermining the government of Abdiqasim Salat Hassen was ostensibly rooted to its apprehension of his ‘alleged’ clandestine relations to the defunct Al-Itihad Islamist group.
But in the eyes of many pundits and the Somali public, the real cause for this act of sabotage was TPLF’s fear of losing control over the ‘tiny’ neighbour; which it had managed like a private ‘fiefdom’ hitherto. TPLF military commanders in Ogaden had been sharing Somalia’s looted resources with warlords and had in turn been providing arms and ammunition to these ‘blood suckers’ to destabilise Somalia. The military has influenced the policy position of their masters in Addis Ababa; by providing faulty intelligence reports of the ‘threat’ from the east. The warlords might have also exploited Ethiopia’s usually jerky minority ‘rulers’, for the perpetuation of their reign of thuggery. By and large, it was a mutual co-operation; TPLF pulling the rug out from under ‘any government of not its making’ in Somalia; while the warlords wanted to ensure the flow of stolen riches to themselves and their cronies is not abated.
Since then, for 17 years, it was a familiar story of playing one warlord against the other. Why has that been easy and unnoticed? Because prominent Somali social and political elites were suffering from a ‘fatigue’ of wars and thought the turmoil will recede with time. Most thought the ‘inconveniences’ caused by warlords was a passing cloud.
Thus, whatever its motive, TPLF’s meddling in the internal affairs of Somalia has started well before the advent of the popular Islamic courts who were the product of social anger against anarchy in Somalia. That is one point I set out to remind the readership.
It wasn’t because of the resurgence of Somali Islamist groups or fear of resultant cross-border security risks, which compelled Meles to launch the ultimate blitz. Contrary to many Somali’s lament, who decry Yusuf Indhacade’s vitriolic slogans and feeble bluffs, or the ‘immaturity’ of the courts leadership; TPLF’s military were in Baidoa well before the take over of Mogadishu by the Union of Islamic Courts. In fact, six months before the Courts’ victory over the warlords, an adviser to the then Somali PM, Ali Ghedi, who I met on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Gode, told me that the Ethiopian military will ‘take’ the TFG to Mogadishu. He admitted that he was there to facilitate that operation.
Undeniably, Meles Zenawi’s war on Somalia has much to do with domestic political expediency than perceived national security threat from rise of Islamists in Somalia. In 2005, Meles, intoxicated by the ill-advised praises of former British PM-Tony Blair, decided to experiment with ‘electoral democracy’. In his insomniac sleepwalk, he fathomed that it would yield a handsome pay off, if by ceding few seats in the nominal parliament; the accolade and the aid from donors could be maintained or increased. That calculation was to be doomed to a fatal fiasco; as results of the elections turned out to be an overwhelming rejection of TPLF’s ethnic based policies and ‘Albanian communists’ style one-party dictatorship. All satellite organisations of the EPRDF lost ground as the big guns were trounced by angry populace.
Meles, in a last ditch gasp to save his lot, appeared on the national TV the same night from Adwa, where he went to vote, and announced the election results — without even bothering to wait for the verdict of his hobbyhorse, the National Election Board of Ethiopia, which certainly would have published results endorsed by him anyway. That haste and the incredulity in his eyes betrayed a man who was taken by surprise; not by the people’s verdict but the ‘inefficiency’ of his cadres whom he counted on to deliver the ‘victory’ on a silver plate. He declared that his party had ‘won by landslide’; and that rallies and demonstrations were banned for one month.
Just for the record, the National Electoral Board is headed by one Ato Kamal Badri, from the highly privileged Harari minority ethnic group, who is a man of many functions: the chairman of the electoral board, the chief justice, and the chairman of the constitutional review committee in the house of Federation. Interestingly, any aggrieved party in Ethiopia’s elections are supposed to rest their case with these three institutions in hierarchal order. To put it in simple language, if you have a problem with Kamal’s decision when he is in a tie and coat, you try your luck when he is in gown!
Western donors felt slapped at the face after Meles ordered the shooting of 300 school children who protested the election theft by his party. Like a perennial river that burst its banks, the blood of innocent minors flooded the streets of Addis Ababa. Luckily for Meles, brute force saved the day for him. Terrified of the ramifications of this exposed ugly face of his, he was a man in desperate search for an escape route. Somalia once again came to his rescue; this time in the shape of a ‘marauding Taliban-style Jihadists’!
The coalescing forces of sanity, in the form of a religious group that rose above the clan fray in Somalia, came as a providential happening of immense importance to Meles. He seized that God-sent opportunity instantly, and sold it as an ominous augury of what is to befall the Horn of Africa; should the West continue to demand ‘petulantly’, the delivery of the ‘luxuries’ of ‘unaffordable’ democracy.
Sullying the heroic sacrifices of many Ethiopians who stood for democracy, the West myopically sanctified his atrocities and hurriedly jumped to bed with the dictator. He found a willing sponsor in President Bush and was a man back in business. So, the war profiteering got a new momentum. After all, what will he lose if few thousand more of the ‘jobless’ Ethiopian youth — ‘dangerous vagrants’ he calls them — die. As far as most are not from the ‘people tested with fire’ — the Tigre’s — who proved to be ‘gold’.
That same objective of playing the ‘indispensable ally’ of the West is the driving cause for his continued occupation of Somalia; under numerous pretexts. But, it is also true that his commanders have found intermediate roles for themselves in the form of amassing the ‘loot’. Somalia is now a de facto open-access country; where Garret Hardin’s the tragedy of the commons theory aptly applies to. A resource owned by nobody or by everybody is bound to be overexploited or utilised sub-optimally in the teachings of natural resource economics. The result is fast depletion and disappearance of that scare resource. In Somalia, the resource at loss is much more than copper, oil or other minerals. It is its people and nationhood that is under present danger of extinction.
Feeling that is not enough. TPLF has also launched a massive campaign of ethnic cleaning and genocide against Ogaden civilians. (See Human Right Watch Report 2007, and independent reports from foreign media; the latest being the reputed Christian Science Monitor). No regime in Ethiopia had afflicted such pain and wanton destruction on the Somali nation ever. Not even the infamous of Derg regime! Somali’s are only aghast by what wrongs they might have done to this ungrateful group. Perhaps they supported evil; and this is their deserved payback. But they have slowly grasped the magnitude of TPLF’s pathological hatred towards the Somali nation. That is the good thing.
Let us link this to the bigger contemporary geo-political and ideological picture. Meles’ Somalia adventure will end when the West’s Islamophobia subsides, or when they came up with a paradigmatic shift on how to face up to the ‘over-hyped’ threat from Islam. I hope the shift in thinking in their handling of Pakistan is not a fluke. Musharaf is hard pressed to allow breathing space for democracy to flourish. I hope the West will prescribe the same medicine to Meles. I hope they will recognize that courting dictators will only increase the anger and ‘radicalisation’ of the subjects. For it is the grand law of physics, that “to every action, there is always an opposite action of equal measure.” Of late, some sound voices among the Western tink-tanks are remarking that supporting democratisation — not stifling it — is more effective, less costly, and more sustainable in curbing ‘Islamic fanaticism’. I tend to agree with this point; but not on their wider analysis and recommendations on the West Vs Islam saga.
The West’s obsession with Islam didn’t start with 911. At its roots, it is about imposing one’s perceived ‘superior’ values on reluctant and equally proud societies. Having succeeded to force ‘Anglo-Saxon’ values and culture — coined as the acceptable norm of a globalized human — down the throats of various populations; the Islamic world is the ‘untameable’ delinquent child for the pioneers of Western civilization. A civilisation based on the tenets of liberal democracy, competition, individualism, and greed. For all its glitters, it lacks compassion, social responsibility, family cohesion, and spiritual guidance. Islam embodies all of these values; a reason why Muslims will not be subdued to forgo their happiness. Bush et al’s belief that with perseverance, Islamic ideology could be defeated; presumably because communism was vanquished in half-a-century, is flawed and its conclusions are based on wrong premise. Islam, unlike communism, is a religion and not an ideology.
Somali’s misery will end when that of the rest of the Muslim world ends. Somalia’s problem is also internal; but it is my considered judgement that the external interference is the most damaging and the decisive one. If we could demand our independence back now — with all our defects — we can come out of the ashes stronger. That is why the legitimate struggle of the true sons of the soil in Somalia needs our admiration and support.
On the threat from the colossus from the West, my people have a fable for which they have a penchant. It is about the tortoise that was informed of predators’ decision to prey on its exposed flesh. Feeling powerless, it comforted itself with the hope that the Almighty Allah will intervene. The tortoise said in resignation: “they may decide so, but was Allah there?” the subtext being the Almighty might have other plans for me. The fable has it that God covered it with the impregnable shell it has today as a shield.
The West and its attack dog TPLF might have carved out a meticulous plan of annihilation for the Somali nation, but Allah’s words are yet to come! And I am sure it will come soon. Allah might speak through our own action, not in miracles, and we need to believe in ourselves and unleash our fury on the occupation forces — the black colonizers. If his actions in Mogadisho are to go by, Meles has taken the advice of Sun Tze (If you have an upper hand over an opponent, you must crash them totally, you must have no mercy, you must give them nothing to negotiate, no hope, and no room to manoeuvre) literally. It is up to the Somali’s to stop him.
It is richly sardonic that the up until now not-so-patriotic TPLF Tigres are the loudest ‘defenders’ of ‘Ethiopia’s national interest’ with something akin to the zeal of a proselyte, and preach us on the history of Ethiopia not being ever colonized. Perhaps they wouldn’t feel the same pride in realizing that they were on the wrong side of ‘that history’ — as collaborators of foreign ‘invaders’ for most part. Much the same way the senile octogenarian Abdullahi Yusuf is now in Somalia. Invading another independent state, experiencing a lapse of nationhood, is the worst step to redeem their past misdeeds.
Lastly, I never got views on whether Ethiopians in general take pride in the fact that they were also the only black colonizers who took part in the scramble for Africa as early as 1884. But I know most of them condemn the atavistic replay of that history in the 21st century in Somalia. May God help them to get rid off this tribal tyranny! After all, it is they who live with it at the end of the day!
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
The following is from the Woyanne-controlled Ethiopian News Agency. There is a strong suspicion that Woyanne is behind the fake gold bars that were sold to the National Bank of Ethiopia. But this should not be a surprise. Meles and his Woyanne crime family steal every thing, including the people’s vote.
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Government Orders Gold Bullion at National Bank Inspected
(ENA) – The office of the prime minister this week issued an order for the inspection of all gold bars inside the vaults of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) following the continued discoveries of fake bullion gold bars at the bank, it was learnt by The Reporter.
The latest fraud unfolded was this week when a 36 kg of gold bar, deposited five years ago at the bank by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, when inspected this week, turned out to be gold-plated steel, according to sources.
Following the recent gold scam reports, the ministry requested NBE to check its gold deposit at the bank, which, when inspected, turned out to be a fake, sources said.
The prime minister’s office this week ordered the inspection of all gold bars at NBE to the House of Peoples’ Representatives Public Accounts and Budget and Finance Standing Committees, which will pass over the order to the bank. The bill ordering the inspection came at a time parliament is in recess and is expected to be ratified when parliament resumes its work after two weeks on 14 March, sources said.
The recent sporadic gold scandals started about two month ago when NBE discovered that some of the gold bullion at its reserve vaults was steel gilded with gold. The first scandal was followed by another a week ago, which involves fake gold bars for which the bank had paid some 60m birr [about 6m US dollar]. Some 36 kg gold bars which the federal police intercepted when being smuggled to Djibouti years ago and later deposited at NBE vaults was also last week discovered to be fake.
Most of the suspects involved in the series of gold scandals are under police custody awaiting trial.
The Knaresborough Post, Harrogate, UK — British optician John Broadberry is taking the support and specs of Harrogate residents with him when he embarks on a sight-saving project to Ethiopia this month.
The regional director at Specsavers Opticians in Beulah Street, is travelling to Gondar in Northern Ethiopia to provide eyecare where optical services are desperately lacking.
John, and a small team of volunteer optical professionals, will test the eyesight of around 2,000 Ethiopian people during the two-week visit, which has been organised by UK charity Vision Aid Overseas.
The gruelling expedition will see John and his fellow volunteers each test and fit up to 250 people a day with the glasses they need.
John said: “A large number of Ethiopians don’t have access to eye examinations or glasses and many people find they are unable to work as a result of being deprived of a basic sense that we often take for granted.
“Many of the people we treat will have travelled for days to reach us to have their eyes tested and having this medical attention is likely to improve their lives dramatically.”
Since launching in 1985 the charity has provided 600,000 eye tests and given 300,000 people the ability to see with a pair of spectacles. One aspect of Vision Aid Overseas’ work is to recycle unwanted spectacles in the UK and send them with teams of optical professionals to the developing world, who set up clinics, screen large numbers of patients and provide appropriate spectacles.
John is hoping Harrogate residents will support his trip by giving their unwanted specs to Vision Aid Overseas by dropping them into the store.
He is also asking locals to consider making a donation to ensure Vision Aid Overseas can reach as many patients as possible. For every pair of spectacles donated it costs at least £3 to get them to the patients who desperately need them.
Jeremy Jalie, Vision Aid Overseas deputy director, added: “Many enter our clinics blind. They are provided with spectacles and leave 20 minutes later able to see for about the cost of a sandwich. Vision Aid Overseas works towards a world in which everyone has access to eyecare and spectacles. Please support us and help us achieve this goal.”
