Eritrean authorities are reporting that yesterday morning, January 1st 2010, several soldiers under the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia launched attacks on Eritrean forces at Zalambesa.
The Woyanne forces were driven back after 10 of their soldiers were killed and two captured. They left behind six AK-47 automatic rifles, a machine gun and communication equipments, according to Eritrean Ministry of Information’s shabait.com.
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that two Eritrean rebel groups said on January 1st they have killed 25 Eritrean government soldiers and wounded at least 38 others in ambushes on two military camps.
Rebel spokesman Yasin Mohamed said the attacks by the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) and the Eritrean Salvation Front (ESF) rebels were in retaliation for the repression of the Afar minority and others by the government.
“The joint forces earlier today, made a surprise attack at the camp of 13 sub-division of the 2nd brigade at the vicinity of Kokobay, killed 13 and wounded 20 others,” Yasin said.
He said a separate attack killed 12 members of an intelligence unit and wounded 18 others in Kermeti area.
Three years ago around the same time, U.S. Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, against the strong advise other U.S. officials, had encouraged the Woyanne junta to invade Somalia, which resulted in the slaughtering of 20,000, and displacement of 2 million Somali civilians. Now, the new Obama Administration Ambassador, Dr Susan Rice, gave another Christmas gift of more bloodshed to the Horn of Africa by pushing through a sanction against Eritrea in the U.N., emboldening the Woyanne junta to engage in another military adventure.
Jendai Frazer is now a highly paid lobbyist for foreign regimes such as Woyanne that brutalize and terrorize their people.
The people of United States must be aware of the crimes being committed by these corrupt, incompetent ambassadors who are creating havoc around the world.
The two reported clashes yesterday and today at the Ethio-Eritrea border are direct results of the U.N. sanction against Eritrea, which was authored by Susan Rice, and submitted by her puppets in Uganda.
New Year 2010 Greetings to my Ethiopian Brothers and Sisters.
This message is also for my Eritrean brothers and sisters.
By Prof. Ephraim Isaac
Amharic (pdf)
Oromifa (pdf)
Tigrigna (pdf)
To my Fellow Ethiopians at home and abroad: Happy Ethiopian Christmas, and Temqat, and a Blessed and prosperous European New Year! I send this respectful and kind letter of appeal to you, my brothers and sisters: educated Ethiopian political, religious, educational, business, and intellectual leaders.
Ninety-nine percent of the Ethiopian people, Christians, Moslems, Jews, Traditionalists, Oromos, Amhara, Tigre, Gurage, Somali, Walayta, Hadya, Kaffa, Afar, Nuer, Anuak, and other beloved nationals, are deeply spiritual and ethical peoples. We also all have the same DNA – one family even if different language. Our people love and respect human beings.
Why can we, the about one-percent educated Ethiopians, not learn from them? Why are we stuck on the philosophical values of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Marx? Why not respect and uphold the teachings of peace and reconciliation of our own wise teachers like, Zar’a Ya’aqob, Kristos Samra, Abba Gedas, and others? When are we going to wake up and see that tens of millions of our babies are crying for milk, tens of millions of our old people are yearning to go to bed in peace and wake up in peace, and tens of millions of our young people are thirsting for knowledge and learning?
Ethiopia is lucky to have us, her about 1% western educated children. It is also very gratifying to see so many successful Ethiopians in education, technology, business, law, and other important professions. I am very proud of my fellow educated Ethiopians. I wish everyone more success and strength during this coming year.
Brothers and Sisters: In spite of our impressive achievements, it cannot be denied that some of us educated Ethiopians have also squandered our energy on philosophizing politics and promoting group hate.
I have witnessed Ethiopians who have given so much for their country. Yet, I have also witnessed for almost forty years varieties of inter-group hate-badmouthing and quarrel, fighting and killing. I have seen how a good deal of our energy has been wasted for over half a century on verbal or armed power struggle. But we have gotten nowhere!
As your older brother, almost fifty years ago I started preaching mutual love and respect, commitment to each other, and promoting education and development. Please forgive me if I must repeat it again. Everything in this life requires commitment and action – thinking far, making a firm decision to act, making every effort to realize our decisions, and acting in good faith.
Can we decide this year to forgo negativity and change our thought and actions to positive energy? Can we, with all our hearts and all our minds decide to stop inter-group conflicts and fighting? I appeal especially to our political and religious leaders to set the example of mutual respect and love to all our educated people. Can we stop bad-mouthing each other? Can we stop the killings? We have it in one of our traditional songs:
“How are you?’ ‘How do you do?’ can’t we greet each other?
One sometimes reconciles even with his father’s killer…”
For the sake of our poor, sick, and illiterate, I respectfully ask each and every Ethiopian, especially our political and religious leaders, to set an example of mutual respect and love. Yes, let us continue to buy guns and artilleries. Let us continue to shoot them at each other. But when we shoot, let milk pour out of our guns to feed the babies and grains out of our artilleries to feed the hungry. Yes, let us continue to open our mouths and write with our pens opposite each other. But let beautiful words of love and respect come out of our mouths and words of love out of out pens!
With love and respect,
Your older brother,
Ephraim Isaac
Ethiopian champion runner Haile Gebrselassie has won the Trier Corrida. The 36-year-old runner is now preparing for next month’s marathon in Dubai.
Two-time Ethiopian Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie has won the Trier Corrida in Germany. The 36-year-old runner finished the eight kilometer race with a time of 22 minutes and 22 seconds, beating out Kenyan runners Shadrack Lagat and Paul Kipkorir. German runner Arne Gabius of Tuebingen placed fourth with a time of 23 minutes and 19 seconds.
On the women’s side, Russian Jelena Sadoroschnaja won the five-kilometer race, finishing it in 15 minutes and 48 seconds.
Twenty-thousand spectators celebrated Gebrselassie’s win in Trier, as he warms up for next month’s marathon race in Dubai. Gebrselassie is an icon in Ethiopia, where he’s seen as a role model for how to escape the country’s extreme poverty.
“Running is a gift that has allowed me to leave poverty behind,” he said.
In Dubai, the Ethiopian hopes to beat his world best of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds, which he set in Berlin in September 2008.
(Source: Dw-world.de)
