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Ethiopian Review has been collecting suggestions on potential candidates for the next president of Ethiopia, if there is a free and fair election, and system is presidential, and not the current fake parliamentary. The response has been massive. Within the past 3 days we have received over 170 suggestions, out of which we have prepared a list of 15 candidates. Please vote above by clicking in the small box next to the name of the candidates you prefer. Vote for two candidates: President and Vice-President
As the numerous suggestions prove, Ethiopia is rich with able individuals who are well qualified to govern the country better than the current genocidal murderer in power. Meles Zenawi and gang are not governing the country. They are destroying Ethiopia piece by piece.
The candidates are from divers background — age, gender, ethnic, education, and profession wise. We would have liked to see more women in the list.
After you vote, please explain in the comment box below your reasons for the choice you made — campaign for your candidate.
Criminals such as Meles Zenawi and traitors such as Hailu Shawel have been disqualified from the list.
President Isaias Afwerki’s name came up several times. We could not include him in the list for the obvious reason. Let him confederate Ethiopia and Eritrea and he will be every one’s first choice. It’s within his power to do it.
A message to President Barack Obama
By Obang Metho
Dear President Obama: I am writing this to you on behalf of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), a grassroots social justice movement whose mission is to mobilize Ethiopians in the Diaspora and within Ethiopia to unite across ethnic, regional, political and religious lines to confront the current system of injustice, repression and human rights abuses being carried out by the dictatorial regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and to bring about a more open, free and reconciled society in Ethiopia.
Our foundational principles are “putting humanity before ethnicity,” or any other distinctions– valuing all humankind—and standing up for the universal values of freedom, justice and respect for the human rights of others for “no one will be free until all are free.”
The looming crisis in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa can no longer be ignored or addressed through “behind-closed-doors” quiet diplomacy. Such diplomacy has essentially covered up the evil actions of one of the most repressive and brutal regimes in Africa. Peace and stability in the Horn will be impossible while he is in power even while millions are spent in its pursuit.
Meles is an “African strongman” and deserves, at least, the same approach as Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The preferential treatment being given to this dictator, while condemning others for doing the same thing, is wrong. It will only further alienate the Ethiopian people and become a repeat of the mistakes of the past administrations.
The “dreams of our fathers” were for Africans to live in peace, harmony and with better opportunity; but unfortunately, American and Western foreign policies are now blocking Ethiopians from realizing these dreams by propping up this regime through huge amounts of financial and military aid as well as by protecting this regime’s “image” by not exposing their real nature. We do not expect your administration to do the work for us, but we do ask that free countries in the West stop being an obstacle to the democratic struggle of the people of Ethiopia.
Mr. President, you must choose between investing in the people or aligning with a so-called “US partner in our War on Terror” who is stirring up deep problems within Ethiopia. The damage being done by this regime within Ethiopia and the antagonism that most Ethiopians feel towards it and its supporters, may come back to undermine longer-term American national interests in the region.
Will your administration speak out loudly and clearly about the lack of democratic process in Ethiopia, about the pervasive politicization of justice and opportunity or about the gross violations of human rights that led to the referral of the case of Ethiopia to the International Criminal Court for investigation into multiple charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes? Will your administration call PM Meles Zenawi exactly what he is, a dictator who is terrorizing and repressing Ethiopia?
There is a short window of opportunity where such open support would make a dramatic difference to future relationships with the people of Ethiopia and that is now, within the next five months leading up to the Ethiopian National election. This is an opportunity to avert a possible crisis in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa by taking concrete steps to support the spread of freedom in the Horn of Africa, one of the most conflicted regions of the world. A free Ethiopia will make as much difference in bringing peace to this inter-related region as a brutal and conniving dictator has brought unrest to the region through fomenting division, conflict, violence and the radicalization of future terrorists.
Thus far, your administration’s policies, the same as during the Bush administration, have not shown support to this democratic movement of the Ethiopian people; nor has it helped to build democratic institutions like done in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia and other places where the US empowered and funded them in the past. Even funding decisions made by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC, which are influenced by the US State Department, along with other funders of democracy building, have either ignored Ethiopia or have given their funds to mostly Meles controlled look-alike organizations rather than to genuine democracy building non-governmental organizations and institutions who are truly committed to democratic principles. At the same time, many in the West have justified their alliance with a dictator as resulting from the lack of any other more viable alternative; however, Meles is determined to destroy any such alternatives and the West is unwilling to either condemn him for doing it or to invest in building up any such alternatives.
Instead, we only see a passive approach by your administration and this is the reason we are sending this letter to you. We know you must represent American national interests, but is it not possible to establish a relationship based on mutual respect that does not exploit the freedom, assets or lives of the other? We care about the future of Ethiopian citizens just like you care about the national interests of Americans. Can there not be some kind of mutually beneficial partnerships?
If US support of this TPLF regime is about AFRICOM being built in Ethiopia, the people of Ethiopia need to know. If your administration does this behind the backs of the people and the people are suffering as a result, the foundation will be on sand. If your administration is supporting Meles to root out terrorists while we are victims of internal terrorism, you are in the wrong and such a policy will eventually backfire. You should instead engage the people in this struggle; for we also yearn for peace in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa. It is our home and it matters more to us than to anyone that terrorism be stopped.
How can you hope that the Ethiopian regime you are supporting can actually bring about peace to America and the West through someone like Meles? Is Somalia or the Ogaden in southeastern Ethiopia going to be more free of terrorists or will it end up becoming more radicalized because of the tactics used—the alleged killing of some 20,000 or more civilians, the widespread starvation and displacement of the people, the burning of homes and crops, the widespread rape of women, the killing of livestock and the poisoning of their wells?
How does this build a better future for any of us? Meles’ actions, were they to occur here in the United States, could even radicalize farmers in Bismarck, North Dakota, teachers in Chicago, business owners in Dallas, scientists in Nebraska and stay- at- home moms in Oregon.
Your foreign policies in Ethiopia do not reflect the values of most Americans who may end up experiencing more anti-west sentiment because of them; however, few know the real story about what is going on because the press has been mostly silent. Why? Will your administration make a change we can believe in?
The Horn is full of life and people who are extending their hands to you and your administration. Will you reach outward to clasp their hands in yours? If your administration really wants an alliance with partners who can work with you for the improvement of sustainable peace in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, it has to be with the people.
We are speaking as Ethiopian Americans, who desire the same kinds of values, democracy, freedom and rule of law in Ethiopia that many of us have sought by coming to America and other western countries. We want to find peace, safety and security like anyone else and want to be part of the solution of ending terrorism in Ethiopia and the Horn. Most of us want this through peaceful means; using the ballot rather than the bullet; however, our efforts are being sabotaged.
In May of 2005, over a million Ethiopians came out in Addis Ababa to rally for “this change they could believe in.” It was one of the most peaceful rallies in Africa; no one was killed and no windows were broken. When the election took place, 26 millions came out to vote, but the election was stolen by Meles. When the people protested for their God-given rights and universal principles of justice, Meles’ security forces shot and killed 193 unarmed protesters. Over 50,000 protesters were arrested and detained. Opposition leaders were later imprisoned. All of this hardly made the news in America and the previous administration failed to make any public statement condemning the government’s actions. The silence acted as an endorsement, legitimizing and strengthening the unelected prime minister and his TPLF party.
Right now, the first woman to lead a major Ethiopian political party and also one of the most popular opposition leaders in Ethiopia, Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, is a prisoner of conscience. Other opposition leaders are being intimidated and harassed and the media is totally closed to anyone but the government. No one expects this coming election to be free and fair; yet, if Ethiopians are faced with another five years of tyranny, the already simmering anger and tensions may erupt into widespread violence, destabilizing Ethiopia and possibly the entire Horn.
Will your administration or others in the West support a democratic movement in Ethiopia or not? Truthfully, we are not hopeful, as history shows that the strongest countries of this world have repeatedly abused Africa; where they have economically flourished by working through African dictators to secure African resources even if it means trampling on the rights or selling out on the lives and futures of Africans. Some, who believe in the God-given inherent worth of all people, including Africans, have stood against the slavery of the past, but how about new variations of the same?
These are the greatest moral issues of our time. If we use the highest ideals in our rhetoric; yet, in the realpolitik of action, we betray the weaker in our global society simply because we are economically and militarily more powerful and can get away with it, history will judge us. In respect to Ethiopia, this has happened before.
In 1935, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie appealed to the League of Nations to take mandated action against Mussolini’s Italy for military aggression carried out against Ethiopians in an obscure desert region of southeastern Ethiopia.
Ironically, both Ethiopia and Italy were members of the League, formed with the explicit mission of protecting its membership against such aggression; first with sanctions and then with military intervention; however, at the first challenge, the League caved in to its ideals, showing that the interests of the most powerful came first. [1]
Fearing they would antagonize the Italian dictator when they felt they needed his support against Hitler, they sacrificed Ethiopia; only making superficial and toothless attempts to stop Italy. Their betrayal of the League of Nation’s expressed ideals emboldened Hitler to advance against them.
While the international community lost their political will to intervene in Ethiopia, in a Times magazine article from July 22, 1935 [2], it was reported that many African-Americans joined in the fight against Mussolini; even boycotting Italian gin in the cities of America, connecting “…every shorty [nip] of gin bought from Italian saloon-keepers” with “bullets bought by Mussolini to slaughter our brothers in Africa!”As the League of Nations chose their own national interests over their commitment to collective security of each other, they lifted even the very weak sanctions from Italy.
In response to this betrayal, Emperor Haile Selassie spoke these words;
“I pray to Almighty God that he shall spare to the nations the terrible sufferings that have just been inflicted on my people…It is international morality that is at stake…should it happen that a strong government finds that it may with impunity destroy a small people, then the hour strikes for that weak people to appeal to the League to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment…I must still hold on until my tardy allies appear. If they never come, then I say prophetically and without bitterness: “the West will perish.”
Mr. President, the “fierce urgency of the now” is a moral crisis which will define the identity of who America is; not only in 2010, but in the future. Ethiopia is one of the arenas where this moral struggle is being played out. Will the US choose to follow the ideals upon which America and the West were founded or will America and the West desert its moral convictions, emboldening new terrorists as the entire world loses some of its strongest proponents for humankind? Weakened convictions make for weakened moral resolve and such resolve is the glue that holds in place a more secure global future.
The betrayal of Ethiopia in 1936 may not have seemed significant at the time, but it helped weaken the forces of good, forces that needed all their strength to face the onslaught of the coming years. Which side will your administration and others in the West choose—dictators or the people? What it at stake now may be more than we realize!
We look forward to your response and hope that we Ethiopians can build a true partnership based on mutual values, trust and respect.
Respectfully yours,
Obang Metho
Executive Director
Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia
PO Box 50561
Arlington, VA 22205
Phone: (202) 725-1616
Email: [email protected]
www.solidaritymovement.org
This Letter has been CC to:
Vice President, Mr. Joseph Biden
Secretary Hilary Clinton, Department of State
Secretary Robert Gates, Department of Defense
General James Jones, National Security Advisor
Senator John Kerry, Chairman on Foreign Relations
Senator Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member
House of Representatives, Donald Payne, Chairman on Africa
_______
[1] Information provided in the book, Why Europe Fights, by Walter Mills, 1940 (pages 124-152)
[2] Time magazine, International: Ethiopia’s Week, Monday, July 22, 1935
By Jawar Siraj Mohammed
Browse through any Ethiopian websites, and you will discover that almost every article or commentary says something about the Tigrean domination of the country. The cyber world is crammed with statistics, testimonies, conspiracy theories and condemnations. Some of the fervent cases brought forth include;
* How Tigray disproportionally benefits under this regime,
* How 95% of all important military and security posts have been occupied by ethnic Tigreans,
* Reports over the TPLF-owned giant conglomerate known by its acronym, EFFORT
* Accounts of how the Tigrean-only Agazi commando force has been used to commit heinous crimes,
* The meteoric rise of Tigrean elites into the club of world millionaires, and
* Denunciations of the unacceptable monopolization of the church and mosque leadership by rebels-turned-men-of-God.
Most of these allegations are true, while some are perhaps exaggerated. However, there is no doubt that they are indicative of the growing rift between Tigrean elites, who deny or defend their hegemonic and exclusive economic advantage, and their adversaries, who offer evidence after evidence to back up their complaints. I have been a keen observer of how the system actually functions under the shadow of the current regime. As I read arguments and analyses provided by different individuals and groups, I find a lack of revealing analysis of the true purpose behind the blatantly pro-Tigrean policies of the current regime. Therefore, in this article I will analyze the strategies, tactics and politics behind the transformation of the TPLF from a peasant revolutionary force into Africa’s richest oligarchy.
First encounter with a Tigrean Nationalist
My initial encounter with a Tigrean nationalist took place sometime in the mid-„90s, at a time when the fight between TPLF and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) was at its peak. A discussion between an older neighbor and a TPLF soldier called Manjus caught my attention. Manjus was passionately talking about how he joined TPLF. His story begins about ten years earlier, when the young Tigrean and his sister were attending high school in a town far away from their village. One day, they returned home for a mid-semester vacation and found their village virtually burned to the ground. The two students came home to discover a completely demolished house, dead parents and whatever property the peasant family owned gone. In a tragic incident, the two siblings lost everything. They had no hope, no family or means of support that could help them go back to school. To make matters worse, they were told that the Derg cadres were hunting for them. As they tried to cope with the sudden shock, anger, and despair, they were met by TPLF recruiters who came with a promise of a means for revenge towards those who slaughtered their parents and also bring peace, justice and democracy to their oppressed Tigrean people. The helpless mourners and enraged youngsters could not resist the offer, so they joined the freedom fighters. A few years later, Manjus lost his sister to the war shortly before TPLF controlled Finfinne. Soon things turned upside down. When Meles replaced Mengistu, Manjus‟ turn came to chase another rebel group and burn down many other villages, including mine.
I was a young boy back then. But it still baffles me why someone who picked up arms against an oppressive regime because his village was burned would come to destroy mine or someone who joined freedom fighters to free his people would suppress my people. It remains a question for which I still seek an answer. During my high school years, I read the history of TPLF in newspapers and magazines, listened to the radio and watched television during the Yekatit 11th and Ginbot 20th celebrations, when TPLF leaders would talk for days about the cause for which they had waged a fierce struggle, the hardships they went through and the glory of defeating the “murderous” enemy. As a young Oromo nationalist with grievances against the dominant culture, I understood why they rebelled against oppressive system. But none of their explanations ever answered my question as to why those freedom fighters turned into ruthless oppressors within such a short period of time.
As I grew older, the list of my questions has also grown. The Tigrean people suffered economic alienation under Haile Selassie and were subjected to ruthless suppression and persecution under the Derg regime. It was their grievances that gave birth to TPLF, and Tigreans supported and sustained the front through years of bloody struggle for their freedom. Then, how could such freedom-loving people remain loyal to a party that oppresses, kills, loots and destroys the lives of other ethnic groups? There is no easy answer to this question but one might begin to understand it by assessing the historic and contemporary relationships between the people of Tigray and the TPLF. … Continue reading. Click here.
By Elias Kifle
After 10 years of obscurity, the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) is now emerging as a leading political force to be reckoned with in Ethiopia. To find out how much impact EPPF is making, one needs only watch the Woyanne-controlled ETV. In October, ETV, Bereket Simone’s mouthpiece, declared that EPPF has been destroyed after a recent military operation named “yager chata.” It showed EPPF fighters surrendering en mass. Now, just two months after making such a declaration, ETV is reporting about EPPF military campaign to attack electrical power lines and assassinate regime officials.
It’s not only Woyanne that is currently targeting EPPF. There is a concerted effort by a number of groups with different motives to sabotage and keep the organization weak.
Despite all the obstacles thrown in front of it, EPPF will continue to march forward in all fronts — military, political, and diplomatic, in collaboration with other Ethiopian organizations that are fighting for change in Ethiopia. In the diplomatic field, EPPF is making an effort to establish good working relationships with other countries through its chapters around the world. EPPF-Washington DC is working to make the U.S. Government aware of the organization’s aims and objectives by establishing contacts with Obama Administration officials and members of the U.S. Congress.
While the gallant EPPF fighters are making Woyanne sleepless in the home front, there are two important upcoming EPPF events this month in the Diaspora:
Public meetings in London, January 24 and
Washington DC, January 30.
For details about the London meeting click here.
The Washington DC meeting will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2010.
Place: Unification Church
Address: 1610 Columbia Road, Washington DC
Time: 3:00 PM
The EPPF Washington Metro Chapter will release more details about the January 30 meetings shortly.
