In 1976, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne) that is currently ruling Ethiopia crafted its Greater Tigray Manifesto. The manifesto called for transforming the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray in to an independent country through expansionist policies. For Greater Tigray to become a reality, Meles Zenawi and his Woyanne comrades decided that they have to take control of the central government in Ethiopia and systematically dismantle the country. They also appropriated lands from neighboring regions of Gonder and Wollo (see the maps below).
As the map below shows, the Woyanne junta claimed 20 percent of Gonder’s territory and a large area of northern Wollo.
Wollo lost almost half of its land, as the map below shows:
The Greater Tigray agenda suffered a setback when Woyanne went to war with Eritrea in 1998. Woyanne had to scramble and get Ethiopians to support the war by trying to falsely present itself as an Ethiopian nationalist group.
The Woyanne’s war with Eritrea caused split inside the organization’s top leadership, and Meles purged about half of the central committee members, putting the final nail on the coffin of Greater Tigray manifesto.
Currently, TPLF under Meles Zenawi’s leadership is not a cause- or ideology-driven organization any more. It is a business mafia that happens to wield political and military power.
As it turns out, Greater Tigray manifesto is having the unintended consequence of diminishing Tigrean nationalism:
1. A growing number of Tigreans do not want to be associated with TPLF or Tigrean nationalism any more.
2. Other than Mekele, the capital city of Tigray, most parts of the region, including Meles Zenawi’s hometown, Adwa, are still dirt poor and have yet to receive the dividends for TPLF’s political power, despite the enormous wealth the Meles crime family has amassed.
3. Currently, there are over 100,000 non-Tigrean troops in Tigray (a region with a population of 6 million). As a result, about 1 in every 10 child currently born in Tigray doesn’t have a Tigrean father. Tigreans are also migrating toward south in massive numbers.
4. Woyanne’s investment over the past 20 years has not produced tangible results, other than a few shiny high rise buildings in Mekele. The reason is that the investment was politically-driven, hence poorly studied and planned. The end result of a government-controlled investment or command economy is always a colossal failure. The Soviet Union comes to mind.
In recent days, we are witnessing an encouraging development. The Tigrean elite, the last refuge of Tigrean nationalism, is coming around to finally disowning the Meles dictatorship, although not as fast as we would like it to happen.
A lesson that can be learned from the failure of Greater Tigray Manifesto is that it is in the best interest of all Ethiopian ethnic groups to submit their parochial interest to Ethiopian nationalism. Tigray, Oromo, Amhara, and all the other ethnic groups can flourish under a strong and united Ethiopia.
It is time for all Tigreans to wake up and join other Ethiopians in the fight to remove the Meles vampire regime.
One of Al Amoudi’s servants in the Diaspora, Ato Eyaya Arega, is imitating his boss by hiring a lawyer to harass Ethiopian Review. The lawyer, Steven Sarfatti of Washington DC, wrote a letter (read here) demanding that we remove the articles about Eyaya and his gang of thugs who have turned the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) into a tool for the Woyanne genocidal regime in Ethiopia.
The answer to Mr Sarfatti is that Ethiopian Review stands by the articles. In fact, there is more to come.
Ethiopia’s beggar despot who survives on Western handouts is provoking Egypt by throwing accusations that Mubarak’s government is supporting Ethiopian rebel groups, according to Reuters (see below). We are accustomed to seeing dictators pick fights with external “enemies” when ever they feel the heat from domestic troubles. It is thus not surprising that Meles is going after Egypt since he is currently facing growing public anger and simmering tension that could explode any time. Meles uses the Nile issue only as a political tool, not as a matter of Ethiopia’s national interest. It is to be remembered that when Meles came to power he went to Cairo and signed an accord (read here) with Mubarak that gives Egypt a veto power over any agreement on Nile. Regarding his chest beating, let’s not forget that it took only 3,000 Somali ragtag fighters to kick his 20,000 troops out of Somalia. If war erupts between Egypt and Woyanne, which is highly unlikely, Ethiopians will be neutral spectators. — Elias Kifle
Ethiopian PM warns Egypt off Nile war
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Egypt could not win a war with Ethiopia over the River Nile and is also supporting rebel groups in an attempt to destabilize the Horn of Africa nation, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in an interview.
Egypt, Ethiopia and seven other countries through which the river passes have been locked in more than a decade of contentious talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929.
Under the original pact Egypt is entitled to 55.5 billion cubic meters a year, the lion’s share of the Nile’s total flow of around 84 billion cubic meters, despite the fact some 85 percent of the water originates in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed a new deal to share the waters in May, provoking Egypt to call it a “national security” issue.
Meles said he was not happy with the rhetoric coming from the Egyptians but dismissed the claims of some analysts that war could eventually erupt.
“I am not worried that the Egyptians will suddenly invade Ethiopia,” Meles told Reuters in an interview. “Nobody who has tried that has lived to tell the story. I don’t think the Egyptians will be any different and I think they know that.”
The five signatories of the new deal have given the other Nile Basin countries one year to join the pact before putting it into action. Sudan has backed Egypt while Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi have so far refused to sign.
“The Egyptians have yet to make up their minds as to whether they want to live in the 21st or the 19th century,” Meles told Reuters in an interview, referring to the fact the original treaty was negotiated by colonial administrators.
“So the process appears to be stuck.”
“FISH IN TROUBLED WATERS”
Stretching more than 6,600 km (4,100 miles) from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, the Nile is a vital water and energy source for the nine countries through which it flows.
Egypt, almost totally dependent on the Nile and threatened by climate change, is closely watching hydroelectric dam construction in the upstream countries.
Ethiopia has built five huge dams over the last decade and has begun construction on a new $1.4 billion hydropower facility — the biggest in Africa.
Meles accused Egypt of trying to destabilize his country by supporting several small rebel groups but said it was a tactic that would no longer work.
“If we address the issues around which the rebel groups are mobilized then we can neutralize them and therefore make it impossible for the Egyptians to fish in troubled waters because there won’t be any,” he said.
“Hopefully that should convince the Egyptians that, as direct conflict will not work, and as the indirect approach is not as effective as it used to be, the only sane option will be civil dialogue.”
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in July called for a scheduled November meeting of the nine countries to be attended by heads of state. Meles said that would not happen now.
The last meeting of all sides ended in stalemate and angry exchanges between water ministers at a news conference in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
“Ask the Egyptians to leave their culture and go and live in the desert because you need to take this water and to add it to other countries? No,” Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam told Reuters at that meeting.
The recent lawless action of Ethiopian Sports Federation North America’s (ESFNA) executive committee in reversing a decision by the board to invite Birtukan Mideksa as a guest of honor has drawn the attention of a number of Ethiopian groups and concerned Ethiopians who have started to take a closer look at the 25-year-old organization. Ethiopian Review, on its part, has launched an investigation into ESFNA’s activities. Our investigation so far has uncovered the following. (We have also contacted the FBI with a request for investigation. Click here to read.)
1. The ESFNA 9-member executive committee is simply in the service of billionaire businessman Ato Al Amoudi, not the Ethiopian community in North America. ESFNA’s top decision-making body, the 27-member board that represents the soccer teams in the U.S. and Canada, has been stripped of its authority by Al Amoudi’s top aid Abnet Gebremeskel through bribes to some of its members and intimidation by a gang of thugs led by Ayaya Arega, Sebsebe Assefa and Demis Lema (aka Arawit).
Al Amoudi (center) wearing a t-shirt with Woyanne logo; top aid Abnet Gebremeskel (left)
2. Those executive committee (EC) members who are {www:subservient} to Abnet are given wads of cash, free plane ticket to fly to Ethiopia and stay at Sheraton Hotel for free up to 2 months per year. Those who try to carry out their responsibilities as board members are physically threatened by Ayaya and his thugs. The chairman, Mekonnen Demisiew, is the Girma Woldegirogis of ESFNA. For example, when he chairs meetings, Ayaya or one of the thugs simply snatch away the microphone from him and order him what to say or not to say.
3. Attendance has been declining drastically at the ESFNA annual events during the past 5 years. July 2010 was the worst yet. That seems to be fine with Al Amoudi and his Woyanne junta as long as Ethiopians who oppose the ruling party do not control this potentially powerful organization that can bring together tens of thousands of people from all backgrounds.
Ayaya Arega
4. ESFNA is currently facing a lawsuit that was filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court by its former auditor Assfaw Teferi.
5. ESFNA has not been audited by an independent auditor for over 20 years. A few years ago, when some ESFNA members led by the late Dr WM Akalou tried to clean up house, they had discovered that at least $40,000 was missing in one incident alone. The treasurer, who is part of the Ayaya gang, admitted that he took the money and was forced to resign. But soon after that, the stealing continued. It is not unusual for sacks of money to disappear following soccer matches and music concerts.
Arawit
6. Al Amoudi gave over $700,000 to the ESFNA so far, but it is not clear how the money was used.
7. Ayaya and Arawit have escaped from Ethiopia after allegedly orchestrating the savage beating and attempted murder of The Reporter editor-in-chief Amare Aregawi. They attempted to kill Amare after The Reporter begun publishing investigative reports about how Al Amoudi is manipulating the Ethiopian banking system. One of the suspects in the attempted murder is Arawit, who is employed by Abnet through Ayaya. Currently, Arawit is living inside a $3,000-per-month luxury apartment on Massachusetts Ave., Washington DC. All his living expenses are being paid for by Abnet, on top of hefty allowance.
8. While objecting to naming Birtukan Mideksa as a guest of honor, the Ayaya gang has forced ESFNA to name Al Amoudi as permanent honorary president of the ESFNA. As we all know, Al Amoudi is an active member and “election” campaigner of Woyanne.
9. For Al Amoudi’s Ayaya gang, ESFNA is a cash cow that they are milking at will. At one point, the Federation was generating up to $3 million in revenue at the one-week annual event. However, much of the one disappears without a trace. The players are forced to buy their own soccer gear (uniform, shoes, etc.) and some times they raise funds from their local community.
Al Amoudi aid and the real boss of ESFNA Abinet Gebremeskel who lives and acts like a mafia boss
10. It must be noted that most of the ESFNA members are innocent Ethiopians who are being victimized by a well-financed, mafia-like group under the supervision Al Amoudi’s aid Abnet Gebremeskel. Visible and active members of the gang are Ayaya Arega, Sebsebe Asefa, Endale Tufer, Arawit, and Fassil Abebe. Another member of the group, Solomon Tekle, is facing long prison term after being convicted of heroin trafficking. Their mission is to keep the ESFNA under the control of the ruling Woyanne junta, while stealing its funds with impunity.
Ethiopian Review’s investigation of ESFNA continues. We urge any one who has any credible information to contact us at [email protected] or call 202 656 5117. What we have uncovered so far is so outrageous that we are compelled to report our finding to the FBI. Click here to read.
Addis Dimts Radio has a discussion about ESFNA on its Sunday program. Listen here (forward to 1:04:01):
The 22-yea-old daughter of Ethiopia’s despot Meles Zenawi {www:puke}s from over-eating and drinking…
… while over 80,000 resident of the capital city, including children, survive by eating trash (see here) at the city dump. See more photos here about the over-fed and {www:over-indulgent} children of the ruling Woyanne junta. The photo above shows Semehal puking at the side of a road after a night of partying at an exclusive night club where children of the ruling tribal junta throw lavish parties several times per week. The little girl in the photo below looks for food to eat at the Addis Ababa city garbage dump.
The video below shows a shocking story about 80,000 Ethiopians who survive on trash at the Addis Ababa city dump in an area called Korah. Many of the people who scavenge through the trash are children and women. These people are living under such horrible poverty not because Ethiopia is a poor country. Some of the reason is that Ethiopia’s treasure is being squandered and looted by Meles Zenawi’s ruling party, that educated people who can help develop the country are forced into exile, and that the country is being ruled by a government of idiots.
This video below will make any decent human being sick. The billions of dollars donation collected from around the world by the Meles regime in the name of these people is being used to keep them under such hellish poverty. This is done with the full knowledge and active collaboration of the poverty-mongers at the World Bank and IMF, as well as Western governments who are financing the parasite regime, and training its killers to keep it in power (see here). Ethiopians are smart, hard working people. With the right government, they can make a decent living. Ethiopians do not expect the West to give them their freedom. We are simply asking the U.S. and E.U. to stop giving weapons and money to the brutal, parasite regime that is sucking the life blood of Ethiopia.
And below are some horrifying pictures of how tens of thousands of children live in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. These people live under such obscene poverty partly because the so-called “government” is busy buying thanks and fighter jets, and building concentration camps, instead of schools. The other reason is that the Ethiopian elite that has the capacity to do some thing about it simply chose to be indifferent.
