EDITOR’S NOTE: What a cruel and heartless person the ambassador must be to suggest that Ethiopia’s economy is on the right track, while at this very moment millions of children are facing horrific famine? On the other hand, it is hard to criticize the ambassador, since our own ‘leaders’ in the ‘opposition camp’ have little to say.
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ADDIS ABABA — U.S Ambassador to Ethiopia said that the successive economic growth being registered in Ethiopia as well as the stable political system are of paramount importance for the peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.
Ambassador Donald Yamamoto told the pro Ethiopian government news service WIC recently that the presence of stable political, economic and social conditions in Ethiopia help the country play crucial role towards ensuring peace and order in the region as well as in the fight against terrorism.
The contribution of peacekeeping troops in various African nations is also a visible manifestation of the country’s commitment for the prevalence of peace in the continent, the Ambassador indicated.
The deployment of peacekeepers to the Sudan, Darfur and the assistance the country has been extending to the transitional government of Somalia show the significant role the country has been playing to restore peace in the region, Yamamoto further noted.
Ethiopia has recorded a high economic growth among the sub-Saharan countries and this also contributes for the prevalence of peace in the region.
The governments as well as the peoples of the two nations have long standing relations; he indicated adding that further enhancing the relations in various sectors could also benefit the region apart from the two parties.
Millions of Ethiopian children are facing severe starvation. Many are dying every day while the Meles vampire regime is spending millions of dollars per day to build prisons in Ethiopia, jam radio stations, occupy a neighboring country… The stupid so-called ‘opposition leaders’ inside the country are too busy with the assignment Woyanne gave them to even utter one word demanding immediate intervention to save the children. Meanwhile, massive quantities of food carried on hundreds of trucks continue to be shipped to the Tigray region where food is handed out to members and supporters of the ruling Tigray People Liberation Front (Woyanne). [Note: Woyanne doesn’t mean the people of Tigray. Majority of the people in Tigray are as much the victims of Woyanne as any other Ethiopian.] Those of you who seat comfortably at home and say to be patient in demanding change, or engage in an endless, idiotic analysis of the problems in Ethiopia, please watch this video and tell us that to be “patient.” To save the people of Ethiopia from such horror there is one solution — destroy Woyanne as soon as possible. The parents of those starving babies need to grab any weapon they can find, march to Arat Kilo and hung Meles, Azeb, Girma, Sebhat, Berkeket … upside down. Click here to watch the video.
Four thousand Ethiopian Jews who perished en route to Israel in the 1980s were honored Monday in a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, organized by the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.
President Shimon Peres addressed the huge crowd, emphasizing the difficulties Ethiopian immigrants had faced and the “dream of Jerusalem in their hearts.” The annual ceremony is held on Jerusalem Day to emphasize the community’s love for the capital.
After fleeing their homes and trekking through the deserts of Sudan, the survivors of the journey were flown to Israel.
“The story of their bravery, the courage in their hearts and their sacrifice, are engraved in the great chapters of glory of the gathering of exiles and the return to Zion,” Peres said.
“Tens of thousands moved to the command of their hearts and the vision, and rose up – families, groups, and bold individuals – and set their footsteps toward the state of Israel.”
Peres said that now, years after the large wave of Ethiopian immigration, Ethiopians could be found in all fields, including academia, professions, culture and art, as well as in command positions in the army.
Dozens of Ethiopian Jews who assisted Israel’s Mossad during Operation Moses, which brought thousands of Ethiopians to Israel via Sudan in 1984-85, are claiming that they have received little official recognition for the often dangerous work they did and that the state has all but forgotten about them, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
“I am very angry with the government,” Tsegaye Dawit, who was 16 years old in 1983 when he was recruited by the Mossad to help with the secret mission, told the Post Monday. “Without my help, Operation Moses might not have happened, and now they refuse to give me anything.”
Dawit said that his role was to meet Jewish families at Khartoum’s central bus station twice a day and escort them to a secret Israeli-run compound where they were fed, re-clothed and processed before the trip to Israel.
“I was young and they [the Mossad] took advantage of me,” said Dawit, who worked with the Israeli government for more than two years. “They did not pay me a salary, only some money to take the bus and buy food for those families that were arriving in Khartoum.”
Towards the end of his time helping the Mossad, Dawit said, he was arrested, thrown into jail and tortured by the Sudanese authorities, who were attempting to find out information about Israel’s secret operation.
After Operation Moses ended, Dawit chose to move to Canada instead of Israel in order to get an education.
“I managed to find constant work there and stayed,” said the now-41-year-old, who eventually made aliya in 2001 and despite arriving with a university degree in mathematics, currently works for minimum wage as a security guard in Netanya.
Dawit said his plan was to become a math teacher but that he does not have sufficient funds to pay for the two-year teacher training course and while he has turned to various organizations for financial assistance, because he is over 40, no one is willing to sponsor him.
“I have asked for help from the authorities but they tell me there is nothing they can do,” he said dejectedly, adding: “Because I made aliya from Canada, I do not get the full benefits of an Ethiopian immigrant.”
Dawit is only one of several dozen former Mossad helpers from Operation Moses who feel abandoned by the government, claims Tel Aviv-based lawyer Ari Syrquin, who has been providing some of them with pro-bono legal services in an attempt to raise awareness to their plight and gain for them some financial compensation.
“There was the Pressler Committee [headed by former army general Yigal Pressler], which was appointed by the government in 2000 to look into the matter,” explained Syrquin. “The committee did recognize their work and even awarded some of them – including Dawit – NIS 30,000 compensation.”
“However, the committee was supposed to follow up on the issue. It was meant to determine what other assistance these people needed but nothing was done and the committee has now been disbanded,” Pressler continued.
A spokeswoman for the Immigrant Absorption Ministry responded that more than 400 Ethiopians considered Prisoners of Zion – i.e. those who spent time in Sudanese or Ethiopian jails – were receiving financial aid from the ministry via the National Insurance Institute.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Only five questions were allowed, but that was enough for exiled members of Ethiopia’s Anuak minority to put Omot Obang Olom on the spot.
Omot went to the community meeting Saturday hosted by an Anuak organization in Minneapolis to urge emigrants to return home and help develop the Gambella region, where he heads the regional government.
But most of the 125 Anuak community members who turned out had a more pressing issue on their minds: the Dec. 13, 2003, massacre that Human Rights Watch says killed more than 400 of their kin. Omot was then in charge of security for the regional government, and many in Minnesota’s Anuak exile community believe he played a role in the attack.
“We are supposed to talk about peace before we talk about development,” said Ojoye Akane, a 31-year-old Anuak student who clutched an open notebook during his turn at the microphone. “You can’t talk about development before you talk about peace.”
Ojoye said that his sister’s 15-year-old son was shot and killed shortly before the massacre, and that the government has done nothing to help his sister. He and others listened intently as Omot responded to their questions and accusations, first in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language, and then in Anuak. Like most of the audience members, Omot is Anuak.
“We could not stop those killings,” Omot said, according to translator Magn Nyang, a 33-year-old Anuak who lives in Spring Lake Park and was openly skeptical of much of
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what Omot said.
Omot blamed the killings on weak regional leadership in Gambella at the time and said he tried to stop the bloodshed. He said allegations that he gave up names of Anuak to be targeted were an unfounded rumor.
Omot appealed to the Anuak diaspora to return to Gambella. He said conditions in southwestern Ethiopia region have improved.
Some Anuak community members boycotted the event because they say that Omot should be brought to justice, and that they did not expect an open dialogue at the meeting.
The Anuak Justice Council in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been pushing U.S. and Canadian authorities to arrest and try Omot for war crimes. He is expected to continue on to Canada next week. But advocates haven’t been able to confirm whether he’s traveling on a diplomatic visa that would grant him wide-ranging immunity.
State Department spokesman Bill Strassberger confirmed that Omot received a visa, but said that because visa records are confidential, he could not discuss the application. He also declined to discuss whether Omot had a role in the 2003 killings.
A message left Saturday for officials at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.
Human Rights Watch detailed a campaign of killings, rape, torture and displacement against the Anuak by government soldiers and members of other ethnic groups, beginning with attack in Gambella in southwestern Ethiopia. Thousands fled, some to southern Sudan.
FUJAIRAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Police in Fujairah are investigating the apparent suicide of a 21-year-old Ethiopian maid working for a family in Mirbeh.
The lifeless body of S.K.D. was found dangling from an air conditioner by a curtain string tied around her neck at her employers’ house on Sunday, according to a police source.
Her body was taken to Fujairah Hospital for a post-mortem examination and police are investigating possible motives behind the suicide.
According to the well-placed police source, early leads in the police investigation revealed that, prior to her death, the maid had mentioned that her son was involved in a traffic accident back in her home country.
