By Elias Kifle
I was invited to participate in a Horn of Africa panel discussion on Saturday, August 15, which was hosted by the Community of Eritreans in the San Francisco Bay Area. The discussion was held at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, California, in conjunction with the Eritrean Festival Western USA – 2009. The guest speakers included Prof. Ahmed Samatar of Somalia, Dr. Awet Weldemichael of Eritrea, and myself.
I was asked to be the first speaker of the event. My 10-minute presentation evolved around the need to get rid of the Woyanne tribal junta in Ethiopia for peace to prevail in the Horn of Africa region:
As long as Woyanne, the cause and instigator of all of the conflicts in the region, remains in power, there can be no stability in the region. Woyanne’s extremely greedy nature doesn’t allow a win-win situation in any thing it does. It is all-or-nothing, zero-sum game.
For the first time ever, representatives of Ethiopian organizations are attending Eritrean events in the Diaspora. Eritreans are doing likewise. Such interaction and dialogue between Eritreans and Ethiopians could help build a potent alliance for peace and prosperity in the region. Because of the growing alliance with Eritrea, Ethiopian forces are now on the offensive for the first time.
I proposed the creation of a Horn of Africa Alliance that will be capable ending the chaos in the region:
The emerging Ethiopia-Eritrea alliance need to grow and involve the people of Somali and Djibouti. Such a Horn of Africa alliance can play a key role in removing the Woyanne cancer from the region and help bring about peace and stability. It seems that the process of establishing such an alliance has already started from the bottom up…
There is only one independent government in the Horn of Africa that has the vision and leadership quality to help bring such an idea to fruition. I explained as follows:
For this process to be fruitful, it needs a strong backing from the Government of Eritrea. Currently, it is the only government in the region that has the vision and the desire to create economic and political integration among the peoples of the Horn of Africa. As we all know, the junta that is ruling Ethiopia is working to implement its 1976 Greater Tigray Republic Manifesto after dismembering Ethiopia into several small satellite states that are to be ruled from Mekele by the Woyanne masters through puppets. Most of the steps for Woyanne to implement its Greater Tigray manifesto have already been taken. The only reason Woyanne has stopped short of fully implementing its plan so far is because of the Eritrean government’s opposition to such a plan. The government in Djibouti is a fake government. It’s leaders are puppets for Woyanne and France. In Somalia, there is no functioning government. It is therefore necessary for the Government of Eritrea to provide leadership in bringing together the people of the Horn of Africa to work for their mutual benefit, instead of working against each other.
I also talked about what I think should follow the removal of Woyanne:
After removing the Woyanne junta, the next step needs to be to establish a commonwealth of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibout and Somalia and integrate their economies — with their citizens having full rights to live, work and conduct businesses in any place they choose. The economic integration needs to also include common currency backed up by gold, common tax policy, and common working language (English). If we are able to put these ideas to work, our countries and region will be on the path of peace and prosperity.
My observation is that the mostly Eritrean audience was receptive of the ideas I presented.
The following speaker was Dr Awet. His presentation touched many areas, and he forcefully defended Eritrea’s government against the accusation by the U.S. Department of State and the Woyanne junta that Eritrea is arming Al Qaeda-linked groups in Somalia.
The last speaker was Prof. Samatar, who focused on the need to build civil societies in order for peace and stability to prevail in the region. He blamed the chaos in Somalia on the death of civic culture.
During the question and answer session, I was asked how Eritreans can trust future Ethiopian governments. I explained that Ethiopians express the same concern. The solution is for the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea to develop the kind of relation that cannot easily be broken apart by politicians. I gave the relation between people of Canada and the U.S. as an example. It is unimaginable for Canada and the U.S. to go to war. Ethiopia and Eritrea can join in some kind of arrangement, be it confederation or commonwealth, which will further guarantee that the two people will never go to war.
Before the discussion concluded, I implored Eritreans and Somalis to distinguish between Ethiopia and Woyanne. I explained that the Woyanne junta does not represent Ethiopia. It is the Woyanne tribal junta that invaded Somalia and slaughtered its people. It is the Woyanne junta that is in a state of war with Eritrea. The people of Ethiopia have no problem with Somalia and Eritrea. They just want to live in peace and freedom. The audience seemed to agree.
(The writer, who is the editor-in-chief of Ethiopian Review, can be reached at [email protected])